In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of October 15th and October 22nd that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to three contests for book groups on ReadingGroupGuides.com. Enter for your chance to win copies of CODE GIRLS: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy, THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER'S DAUGHTER by Hazel Gaynor, and WHEN THE MEN WERE GONE by Marjorie Herrera Lewis for your group. The deadline for your entries in each contest is Wednesday, November 7th at noon ET.
While you're visiting ReadingGroupGuides.com, please be sure to take our current poll. We want to know which of the books that appeared on our Top 15 list of "Most Popular Book Group Selections" for September you have read, or are planning to read, with your group. Click here to cast your votes.
We also are featuring our three latest New Release Spotlights: THE CLOCKMAKER'S DAUGHTER by Kate Morton (click here for the discussion guide), NOVEMBER ROAD by Lou Berney (click here for the review; don't miss Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary in the October 19th Bookreporter.com Weekly Update newsletter), and KICK-ASS KINDA GIRL: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Caregiving by Kathi Koll (click here for the guide).
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this.
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
This Week's Bonus News: Three Contests for
Book Groups on ReadingGroupGuides.com
"What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?": Win 12 Copies of CODE GIRLS by Liza Mundy for Your Group
Each month in our "What's Your Book Group Reading This Month" contest, we ask book groups to share the titles they are reading that month and rate them. From all entries, three winners will be selected, and each will win 12 copies of that month’s prize book for their group. Our current prize book is the paperback edition of CODE GIRLS by Liza Mundy, the award-winning national bestseller about the American women who secretly served as code breakers during World War II. Enter here by Wednesday, November 7th at noon ET.
Win 12 Copies of THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER'S DAUGHTER by Hazel Gaynor for Your Group
We are celebrating the release of THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER'S DAUGHTER by Hazel Gaynor --- a historical novel inspired by true events, and the extraordinary female lighthouse keepers of the past 200 years --- with a special contest that will give three groups the chance to win 12 copies of the book. Enter here by Wednesday, November 7th at noon ET.
Win 12 Copies of WHEN THE MEN WERE GONE by Marjorie Herrera Lewis for Your Group
Marjorie Herrera Lewis’ debut historical novel, WHEN THE MEN WERE GONE, tells the inspiring true story of high school teacher Tylene Wilson, a woman who surprises everyone as she breaks with tradition to become the first high school football coach in Texas. We are celebrating its release with a special contest that will give three groups the chance to win 12 copies of the book. Enter here by Wednesday, November 7th at noon ET.
Click here to visit ReadingGroupGuides.com.
On Sale the Week of October 15th in Hardcover
October 16th
ALMOST EVERYTHING: Notes on Hope by Anne Lamott (Personal Growth/Inspiration)
"I am stockpiling antibiotics for the Apocalypse, even as I await the blossoming of paperwhites on the windowsill in the kitchen," Anne Lamott admits at the beginning of ALMOST EVERYTHING. Despair and uncertainty surround us: in the news, in our families and in ourselves. But even when life is at its bleakest --- when we are "doomed, stunned, exhausted, and over-caffeinated" --- the seeds of rejuvenation are at hand. "All truth is paradox," Lamott writes, "and this turns out to be a reason for hope. If you arrive at a place in life that is miserable, it will change." That is the time when we must pledge not to give up but "to do what Wendell Berry wrote: 'Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts.'"
Riverhead Books | 9780525537441
AMERICAN DIALOGUE: The Founders and Us by Joseph J. Ellis (History)
The story of history is a ceaseless conversation between past and present, and in AMERICAN DIALOGUE Joseph J. Ellis focuses the conversation on the often-asked question "What would the Founding Fathers think?" He examines four of our most seminal historical figures through the prism of particular topics, using the perspective of the present to shed light on their views and, in turn, to make clear how their now centuries-old ideas illuminate the disturbing impasse of today's political conflicts. He discusses Jefferson and the issue of racism, Adams and the specter of economic inequality, Washington and American imperialism, Madison and the doctrine of original intent.
Knopf | 9780385353427
THE BIG FELLA: Babe Ruth and the World He Created by Jane Leavy (Sports/Biography)
After hitting his 60th home run in September 1927 --- a total that would not be exceeded until 1961, when Roger Maris did it with the aid of the extended modern season --- Babe Ruth embarked on the mother of all barnstorming tours, a three-week victory lap across America, accompanied by New York Yankees teammate Lou Gehrig. Business manager Christy Walsh called the tour a "Symphony of Swat." The Omaha World Herald called it "the biggest show since Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey, and seven other associated circuses offered their entire performance under one tent." Jane Leavy recreates that 21-day circus, and in so doing captures the romp and the pathos that defined Ruth’s life and times.
Harper | 9780062380227
THE BLUE KINGFISHER: A Kat Stone Novel by Erica Wright (Mystery)
On a desolate morning in Fort Washington Park, private investigator Kat Stone discovers the body of her building’s French expat maintenance man atop the Jeffrey’s Hook Lighthouse. The NYPD is quick to dismiss his death as suicide, another lost soul leaping from the bridge overhead. Kat is less than convinced, especially when she learns about his dangerous side hustle --- finding jobs for immigrant members of their community. Her investigation turns up unexpected connections to Manhattan’s tony art world, not to mention a host of dark superstitions. Will she find his killer before her past drags her under?
Polis Books | 9781947993266
THE CHRISTMAS STAR by Donna VanLiere (Fiction)
Thirty-two-year-old Amy Denison volunteers at Glory’s Place, an after school program where she meets seven-year-old Maddie, a precocious young girl who has spent her childhood in foster care. Unbeknownst to Amy, Maddie is a mini-matchmaker, with her eye on just the right man for Amy at Grandon Elementary School, where she is a student. Amy is hesitant --- she’s been hurt before, and she isn’t sure she’s ready to lose her heart again --- but an unexpected surprise makes her reconsider her lonely lifestyle. As Christmas nears, Maddie and the charming staff at Glory’s Place help Amy to see that romance can be more than heartache and broken promises.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250163905
THE COLLECTOR'S APPRENTICE by B. A. Shapiro (Historical Thriller)
Everyone in Belgium, including her own family, believes Paulien Mertens stole millions in a sophisticated con game perpetrated by her then-fiancé, George Everard. To protect herself from the law and the wrath of those who lost everything, she creates a new identity, a Frenchwoman named Vivienne Gregsby, and sets out to recover her father’s art collection and prove her innocence. When the eccentric and wealthy American art collector Edwin Bradley offers Vivienne the perfect job, she is soon caught up in the Parisian world of post-Impressionists and expatriates. Her life becomes even more complicated when George returns with unclear motives --- and then she is arrested for Bradley’s murder.
Algonquin Books | 9781616203580
THE CONSUMING FIRE by John Scalzi (Science Fiction)
The Interdependency, humanity’s interstellar empire, is on the verge of collapse. The extra-dimensional conduit that makes travel between the stars possible is disappearing, leaving entire systems and human civilizations stranded. Emperor Grayland II of the Interdependency is ready to take desperate measures to help ensure the survival of billions. But arrayed before her are those who believe the collapse of the Flow is a myth --- or at the very least an opportunity to an ascension to power. While Grayland prepares for disaster, others prepare for a civil war --- a war that will take place in the halls of power, the markets of business and the altars of worship as much as it will between spaceships and battlefields.
Tor Books | 9780765388971
THE CRAFTSMAN by Sharon Bolton (Thriller)
Florence Lovelady's career was made when she convicted coffin-maker Larry Grassbrook of a series of child murders 30 years ago in a small village in Lancashire. Like something out of a nightmare, the victims were buried alive. Florence was able to solve the mystery and get a confession out of Larry before more children were murdered, and he spent the rest of his life in prison. But now, decades later, he's dead, and events from the past start to repeat themselves. Is someone copying the original murders? Or did she get it wrong all those years ago? When her own son goes missing under similar circumstances, the case not only gets reopened...it gets personal.
Minotaur Books | 9781250300034
THE DARKNESS by Ragnar Jonasson (Mystery/Thriller)
The body of a young Russian woman washes up on an Icelandic shore. After a cursory investigation, the death is declared a suicide and the case is quietly closed. Over a year later, Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir of the Reykjavík police is forced into early retirement at 64. But before she leaves, she is given two weeks to solve a single cold case of her choice. She knows which one: the Russian woman whose hope for asylum ended on the dark, cold shore of an unfamiliar country. Soon Hulda discovers that another young woman vanished at the same time, and that no one is telling her the whole story. Even her colleagues in the police seem determined to put the brakes on her investigation.
Minotaur Books | 9781250171030
DECK THE HOUNDS: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
Andy Carpenter doesn’t usually stop to help others, but seeing a dog next to a homeless man inspires him to give the pair some money. Soon after, man and dog are attacked on the street. The dog defends its new owner, and the erstwhile attacker is bitten but escapes. The dog is quarantined, and the man, Don Carrigan, is heartbroken. In a matter of days, Don and his dog Zoey are living above Andy’s garage. It turns out that Don is wanted for a murder that happened two years ago. Don not only claims he’s innocent, but that he had no idea he was wanted for a crime he has no knowledge of in the first place. It’s up to Andy to exonerate his new friend, if he doesn’t get pulled into the quagmire first.
Minotaur Books | 9781250198488
DESPERATE MEASURES: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller/Adventure)
Upon returning to the states from a European jaunt, Stone Barrington makes the acquaintance of a stunning woman who seems like she could be an ideal candidate to meet some of his professional --- and personal --- needs. Before long, though, Stone is put to the task of protecting his new hire when New York City is rocked by a series of disturbing crimes, and it looks as if she might be the next target. In the city that never sleeps, there's always a plot being hatched, and the only recourse is constant vigilance and a bit of luck. But if those defensive systems fail, Stone will have to go head-to-head against some of the most dastardly scum he's ever faced.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735219229
EVERY BREATH by Nicholas Sparks (Romance)
Hope Anderson has been dating her boyfriend for six years. With no wedding plans in sight, and her father recently diagnosed with ALS, she decides to use a week at her family's cottage in Sunset Beach, North Carolina, to ready the house for sale and mull over some difficult decisions about her future. Tru Walls is summoned to Sunset Beach by a letter from a man claiming to be his father. He hopes to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding his mother's early life and recapture memories lost with her death. When the two strangers cross paths, their connection is as electric as it is unfathomable. But their feelings for each other will give way to choices that pit family duty against personal happiness in devastating ways.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538728529
HEAVY: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon (Memoir)
In HEAVY, Kiese Laymon writes about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. From his early experiences of sexual violence, to his suspension from college, to his trek to New York as a young college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing and ultimately gambling. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, Laymon asks himself, his mother, his nation and us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this country actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free.
Scribner | 9781501125652
IN THE HOUSE IN THE DARK OF THE WOODS by Laird Hunt (Historical Fiction/Horror)
In this horror story set in colonial New England, a law-abiding Puritan woman goes missing. Or perhaps she has fled or abandoned her family. Or perhaps she has been kidnapped, and set loose to wander in the dense woods of the north. Alone and possibly lost, she meets another woman in the forest. Then everything changes. On a journey that will take her through dark woods full of almost-human wolves, through a deep well wet with the screams of men, and on a living ship made of human bones, our heroine may find that the evil she flees has been inside her all along.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316411059
IN THE HURRICANE'S EYE: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown by Nathaniel Philbrick (History)
In the fall of 1780, after five frustrating years of war, George Washington had come to realize that the only way to defeat the British Empire was with the help of the French navy. But as he had learned after two years of trying, coordinating his army's movements with those of a fleet of warships based thousands of miles away was next to impossible. And then, on September 5, 1781, the impossible happened. Recognized today as one of the most important naval engagements in the history of the world, the Battle of the Chesapeake --- fought without a single American ship --- made the subsequent victory of the Americans at Yorktown a virtual inevitability.
Viking | 9780525426769
THE LIBRARY BOOK by Susan Orlean (Social History)
On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual false alarm. The fire was disastrous: It reached 2,000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 more. Investigators descended on the scene, but over 30 years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library --- and if so, who? Award-winning journalist Susan Orlean investigates this legendary fire to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives.
Simon & Schuster | 9781476740188
THE LITTLE SHOP OF FOUND THINGS by Paula Brackston (Historical Fiction)
Xanthe and her mother, Flora, take over an antique shop in the historic town of Marlborough. Xanthe has always had an affinity with some of the antiques she finds. When she touches them, she can sense something of the past they come from and the stories they hold. It is while she’s examining a beautiful silver chatelainem that she’s transported back to the 17th century and discovers there is an injustice in its history. The spirit that inhabits her new home charges her with saving her daughter’s life, threatening to take Flora’s if she fails. While Xanthe fights to save the girl, she meets architect Samuel Appleby. He may be the person who can help her succeed. He may also be the reason she can’t bring herself to leave.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250072436
MELMOTH by Sarah Perry (Gothic Thriller)
It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts --- or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore. As such superstition has it, Melmoth travels through the ages, dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless, itinerant solitude. To Helen, it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy. But, unaware, as she wanders the cobblestone streets, Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears.
Custom House | 9780062856395
A MIND UNRAVELED: A Memoir by Kurt Eichenwald (Memoir)
As a college freshman, Kurt Eichenwald awoke one night on the floor of his dorm room, confused and in pain. In the aftermath of that critical moment, his once-carefree life would be consumed by confrontations with medical incompetence, discrimination that almost cost him his education and employment, physical abuse, and dark moments when he contemplated suicide. This is the story of one man’s battle to pursue his dreams despite an often incapacitating brain disorder. From his early experiences of fear and denial to his exasperating search for treatment, Eichenwald provides a deeply candid account of his years facing this misunderstood and often stigmatized condition.
Ballantine Books | 9780399593628
MY LOVE STORY by Tina Turner (Memoir)
From her early years in Nutbush, Tennessee, to her rise to fame alongside Ike Turner to her phenomenal success in the 1980s and beyond, Tina Turner candidly examines her personal history, from her darkest hours to her happiest moments and everything in between. MY LOVE STORY is an explosive and inspiring story of a woman who dared to break any barriers put in her way. Emphatically showcasing Tina’s signature blend of strength, energy, heart and soul, this is a gorgeously wrought memoir as enthralling and moving as any of her greatest hits.
Atria Books | 9781501198243
NANTUCKET COUNTERFEIT: A Henry Kennis Mystery by Steven Axelrod (Mystery)
Horst Refn, the widely disliked and resented Artistic Director of the Nantucket Theater Lab, has been found stuffed into the meat freezer in his basement. Most of the actors, all the technical crew, and quite a few of the Theater Lab Board members, whom Refn was scamming and blackmailing, are suspects in his murder. The island's police chief, Henry Kennis, has to pick his way through a social minefield as he searches for the killer. At the same time, his daughter's new boyfriend, football star Hector Cruz, has been accused of sexting her. Carrie knows the offending pictures didn't come from him, so Henry probes into the family secrets of Hector's father, a firebrand agitprop playwright, who happens to be a prime suspect in Refn's murder.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464210396
NAPOLEON: A Life by Adam Zamoyski (Biography)
Born into a poor family, Napoleon was, by 26, an army general. Seduced by an older woman, his marriage transformed him into a galvanizing military commander. The Pope crowned him as Emperor of the French when he was only 35. Within a few years, he became the effective master of Europe, his power unparalleled in modern history. His downfall was no less dramatic. The story of Napoleon has been written many times. In some versions, he is a military genius, in others a war-obsessed tyrant. Here, historian Adam Zamoyski cuts through the mythology and explains Napoleon against the background of the European Enlightenment, and what he himself was seeking to achieve.
Basic Books | 9780465055937
RUTH BADER GINSBURG: A Life by Jane Sherron De Hart (Biography)
In this large, comprehensive, revelatory biography of the 107th Supreme Court Justice, Jane De Hart explores the central experiences that crucially shaped Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passion for justice, her advocacy for gender equality, her meticulous jurisprudence: her desire to make We the People more united and our union more perfect. At the heart of her story and abiding beliefs is her Jewish background. Tikkun olam, the Hebrew injunction to “repair the world,” had profound meaning for a young girl who grew up during the Holocaust and World War II.
Knopf | 9781400040483
SHELL GAME: A V.I. Warshawski Novel by Sara Paretsky (Mystery)
Legendary sleuth V.I. Warshawski returns to the Windy City to save an old friend’s nephew from a murder arrest. The case involves a stolen artifact that could implicate a shadowy network of international criminals. As V.I. investigates, the detective soon finds herself tangling with the Russian mob, ISIS backers, and a shady network of stock scams and stolen art that stretches from Chicago to the East Indies and the Middle East. In SHELL GAME, nothing and no one are what they seem, except for the detective herself, who loses sleep, money and blood, but remains indomitable in her quest for justice.
William Morrow | 9780062435866
TRINITY by Louisa Hall (Historical Fiction)
J. Robert Oppenheimer was a brilliant scientist, a champion of liberal causes, and a complex and often contradictory character. He loyally protected his Communist friends, only to later betray them under questioning. He repeatedly lied about love affairs. And he defended the use of the atomic bomb he helped create, before ultimately lobbying against nuclear proliferation. Through narratives that cross time and space, a set of characters bears witness to the life of Oppenheimer. As these men and women fall into the orbit of a brilliant but mercurial mind at work, all consider his complicated legacy while also uncovering deep and often unsettling truths about their own lives.
Ecco | 9780062851963
UNSHELTERED by Barbara Kingsolver (Fiction)
How could two hardworking people do everything right in life, a woman asks, and end up destitute? Willa Knox and her husband followed all the rules as responsible parents and professionals, and have nothing to show for it but debts and an inherited brick house that is falling apart. When the family’s one success story, an Ivy-educated son, is uprooted by tragedy, he seems likely to join them. In another time, a troubled husband and public servant asks, How can a man tell the truth, and be reviled for it? Science teacher Thatcher Greenwood’s employer forbids him to speak of the exciting work just published by Charles Darwin. His friendships with a female scientist and a renegade newspaper editor threaten to draw him into a vendetta with the town’s powerful men.
Harper | 9780062684561
VIETNAM: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 by Max Hastings (History)
Vietnam became the Western world’s most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, then a vastly greater one for the United States in 1975. Max Hastings has spent the past three years interviewing scores of participants on both sides, as well as researching a multitude of American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs. He portrays the set pieces of Dienbienphu, the 1968 Tet offensive, the air blitz of North Vietnam, and also much less familiar miniatures such as the bloodbath at Daido, where a US Marine battalion was almost wiped out, together with extraordinary recollections of Ho Chi Minh’s warriors. Here are the vivid realities of strife amid jungle and paddies that killed two million people.
Harper | 9780062405661
A WELL-BEHAVED WOMAN: A Novel of the Vanderbilts by Therese Anne Fowler (Historical Fiction)
Alva Smith, her southern family destitute after the Civil War, married into one of America’s great Gilded Age dynasties: the newly wealthy but socially shunned Vanderbilts. Ignored by New York’s old-money circles and determined to win respect, she designed and built nine mansions, hosted grand balls and arranged for her daughter to marry a duke. But Alva also defied convention for women of her time, asserting power within her marriage and becoming a leader in the women's suffrage movement.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250095473
THE WINTERS by Lisa Gabriele (Thriller)
After a whirlwind romance, a young woman returns to the opulent, secluded Long Island mansion of her new fiancé Max Winter, a wealthy politician and recent widower. The house is steeped in the memory of Max’s beautiful first wife Rebekah, who haunts the young woman’s imagination and feeds her uncertainties, while his very alive teenage daughter Dani makes her life a living hell. She soon realizes there is no clear place for her in this twisted little family. As the soon-to-be second Mrs. Winter grows more in love with Max, and more afraid of Dani, she is drawn deeper into the family’s dark secrets --- the kind of secrets that could kill her, too.
Viking | 9780525559702
On Sale the Week of October 15th in Paperback
October 15th
MENTAL STATE by M. Todd Henderson (Political Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
When conservative law professor Alex Johnson is found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at his house in Chicago, everyone thinks it is suicide. Everyone except his brother, Royce, an FBI agent. Without jurisdiction or leads, Agent Johnson leaves his cases and family to find out who killed his brother. There are many suspects: the ex-wife, an ambitious doctor with expensive tastes and reasons to hate her ex; academic rivals on a faculty divided along political lines; an African-American student who failed the professor’s course. As Agent Johnson peels back layers of mystery in his rogue investigation, the brother he never really knew emerges. Ultimately, he must face the question of how far he is willing to go to catch Alex's killer.
Down & Out Books | 9781948235334
October 16th
THE ALLIES STRIKE BACK, 1941-1943: The War in the West, Volume 2 by James Holland (History)
By June 1941, Germany’s war machine looked unstoppable. The Nazi blitzkrieg had taken Poland, France and the Netherlands with shocking speed. The Luftwaffe had bombed London, while German U-boats wrought havoc on Allied shipping on the Atlantic. And yet, as James Holland shows in THE ALLIES STRIKE BACK, cracks were already appearing in Germany’s apparent invincibility. When the Americans entered the war in the west, Hitler was bogged down with a savage war of attrition as he attempted to invade the Soviet Union. The Allies soon stormed to victory in North Africa and escalated the bombing of Germany, fatefully turning the tides of the war and threatening the morale of the Third Reich.
Grove Press | 9780802128577
ASYMMETRY by Lisa Halliday (Fiction)
Told in three distinct sections, ASYMMETRY explores the imbalances that spark and sustain many of our most dramatic human relations: inequities in age, power, talent, wealth, fame, geography and justice. The first section, “Folly,” tells the story of Alice, a young American editor, and her relationship with the famous and much older writer Ezra Blazer. By contrast, “Madness” is narrated by Amar, an Iraqi-American man who, on his way to visit his brother in Kurdistan, is detained by immigration officers and spends the last weekend of 2008 in a holding room in Heathrow. These two seemingly disparate stories gain resonance as their perspectives interact and overlap, with yet new implications for their relationship revealed in an unexpected coda.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501166785
BIRDCAGE WALK by Helen Dunmore (Historical Thriller)
It is 1792, and Europe is seized by political turmoil and violence. Lizzie Fawkes has grown up in Radical circles where each step of the French Revolution is followed with eager idealism. But she has recently married John Diner Tredevant, a property developer who is heavily invested in Bristol’s housing boom, and he has everything to lose from social upheaval and the prospect of war. Soon his plans for a magnificent terrace built above the 200-foot drop of the Gorge come under threat. Tormented and striving Diner believes that Lizzie’s independent, questioning spirit must be coerced and subdued.
Grove Press | 9780802128584
BOBBY KENNEDY: A Raging Spirit by Chris Matthews (Biography)
Overlooked by his father and overshadowed by his war-hero brother, Bobby Kennedy was the perpetual underdog. When he had the chance to become a naval officer like Jack, Bobby turned it down, choosing instead to join the Navy as a common sailor. It was a life-changing experience that led him to connect with voters from all walks of life. They were the people who turned out for him in his 1968 campaign. RFK would prove himself to be the rarest of politicians --- both a pragmatist who knew how to get the job done and an unwavering idealist who could inspire millions. Drawing on extensive research and interviews, Chris Matthews pulls back the curtain on the public and private worlds of Robert Francis Kennedy.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501111877
THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST: A Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen (Historical Mystery)
Semi-retired private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is suffering from depression after a miscarriage following her adventure in San Francisco during the earthquake of 1906. She and her husband, Daniel, are invited for Christmas at a mansion on the Hudson, and they gratefully accept. Not long after they arrive, however, they learn that the host couple's young daughter wandered out into the snow 10 years ago and was never seen again. Molly can identify with the mother's pain at never knowing what happened to her child, but she slowly begins to suspect that the occupants of the house know more than they are letting on. Then, on Christmas Eve, there is a knock at the door and a young girl stands there. "I'm Charlotte," she says. "I've come home."
Minotaur Books | 9781250190673
HACKS: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House by Donna Brazile (Politics)
In the fallout of the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee --- and as chaos threatened to consume the party's convention --- Democrats turned to a familiar figure to right the ship: Donna Brazile. What Brazile found at the DNC was unlike anything she had experienced before --- and much worse than is commonly known. The party was beset by infighting, scandal and hubris, while reeling from a brazen and wholly unprecedented attempt by a foreign power to influence the presidential election. Plus, its candidate, Hillary Clinton, faced an opponent who broke every rule in the political playbook. Packed with never-before-reported revelations about what went down in 2016, HACKS is equal parts campaign thriller, memoir and roadmap for the future.
Hachette Books | 9780316478502
LULLABY ROAD by James Anderson (Mystery/Thriller)
Local truck driver Ben Jones, still in mourning over a heartbreaking loss, is just trying to get through another season of treacherous roads and sudden snowfall without an accident. But then he finds a mute Hispanic child who has been abandoned at a seedy truck stop along his route, far from civilization and bearing a note that simply reads “Please Ben. Watch my son. His name is Juan.” And then at the bottom, a few more hastily scribbled words: “Bad Trouble. Tell no one.” Despite deep misgivings, and without any hint of who this child is or the grave danger he’s facing, Ben takes the child with him in his truck and sets out into an environment that is as dangerous as it is beautiful and silent. From that moment forward, nothing will ever be the same.
Broadway Books | 9781101906552
THE MITFORD MURDERS by Jessica Fellowes (Historical Mystery)
It's 1920, and Louisa Cannon dreams of escaping her life of poverty in London. Louisa's salvation is a position within the Mitford household at Asthall Manor, in the Oxfordshire countryside. There she will become nursemaid, chaperone and confidante to the Mitford sisters, especially 16-year-old Nancy, an acerbic, bright young woman in love with stories. But then a nurse --- Florence Nightingale Shore, goddaughter of her famous namesake --- is killed on a train in broad daylight, and Louisa and Nancy find themselves entangled in the crimes of a murderer who will do anything to hide their secret.
Minotaur Books | 9781250170798
ONE DAY IN DECEMBER by Josie Silver (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn't exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there's a moment of pure magic...and then her bus drives away. Certain they're fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn't find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they "reunite" at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It's Jack, the man from the bus. What follows for Laurie, Sarah and Jack is 10 years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken and destinies reconsidered.
Broadway Books | 9780525574682
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND MISTLETOE by Melissa de la Cruz (Fiction)
The beautiful and successful Darcy Fitzwilliam dates hedge funders and basketball stars. She has never fallen in love, never has time for anyone else’s drama, and never goes home for Christmas if she can help it. But when her mother falls ill, she comes home to Pemberley, Ohio, to spend the season with her family. Her parents throw their annual Christmas bash, where she meets Luke Bennet, the smart, sardonic slacker son of their neighbor. When Darcy and Luke fall into bed after too many eggnogs, Darcy thinks it’s just another one-night stand. But why can’t she stop thinking of Luke? Can she fall in love, or will her pride and his prejudice against big-city girls stand in their way?
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250189462
THE RELIVE BOX AND OTHER STORIES by T.C. Boyle (Fiction/Short Stories)
In THE RELIVE BOX, T.C. Boyle's sharp wit and rich imagination combine with a penetrating social consciousness to produce raucous, poignant and expansive short stories defined by an inimitable voice. From the collection's title story, featuring a Halcom X1520 Relive Box that allows users to experience anew almost any moment from their past, to "The Five-Pound Burrito," the tale of a man aiming to build the biggest burrito in town, the 12 stories in this collection speak to the humor, the pathos and the struggle that is part of being human while relishing the whimsy of wordplay and the power of a story well told.
Ecco | 9780062673459
A SECRET SISTERHOOD: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney (Biography)
Male literary friendships are the stuff of legend, but what about the friendships of women writers? A SECRET SISTERHOOD brings to light a wealth of surprising female collaborations: the friendship between Jane Austen and one of the family servants, amateur playwright Anne Sharp; the daring feminist author Mary Taylor, who shaped the work of Charlotte Brontë; the transatlantic friendship of the seemingly aloof George Eliot and the ebullient Harriet Beecher Stowe; and Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield, most often portrayed as bitter foes, but who, in fact, enjoyed a complex friendship. They were sometimes scandalous and volatile, sometimes supportive and inspiring, but always --- until now --- tantalizingly consigned to the shadows.
Mariner Books | 9781328532381
SEVEN DAYS OF US by Francesca Hornak (Fiction)
It’s Christmas, and for the first time in years the entire Birch family will be under one roof. Even Emma and Andrew’s elder daughter will be joining them at Weyfield Hall, their aging country estate. Having just returned from treating an epidemic abroad, Olivia, a doctor, has been told she must stay in quarantine for a week…and so too should her family. For the next seven days, the Birches are locked down, cut off from the rest of humanity and forced into each other’s orbits. In close proximity, not much can stay hidden for long, and as revelations and long-held tensions come to light, nothing is more shocking than the unexpected guest who’s about to arrive.
Berkley | 9780451488763
SMILE by Roddy Doyle (Fiction)
While at Donnelly’s for his usual pint, Victor Forde is approached by a man in shorts and a pink shirt. He seems to know Victor’s name and to remember him from secondary school. His name is Fitzpatrick. Victor dislikes him on sight, and also dislikes the memories that Fitzpatrick stirs up of five years being taught by the Christian Brothers. He prompts other memories --- of Rachel, his beautiful wife who became a celebrity, and of Victor’s own small claim to fame, as the man who would say the unsayable on the radio. But it’s the memories of school, and of one particular brother, that Victor cannot control and that eventually threaten to destroy his sanity.
Penguin Books | 9780735224469
TOWNIES: And Other Stories of Southern Mischief by Eryk Pruitt (Crime Fiction/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
TOWNIES collects, for the first time, Eryk Pruitt's short fiction in a single volume. The title story, "Townies," details what really happened one night, after hours, in a once-popular East Texas sports bar, and the sinister revenge that would soon follow. "Let's Be Awful" tells the story of a cocktail waitress who decides that, after a horrid round of revenge porn, her days of playing the victim have past. In "A Lot Prettier (When You Smile)," we are introduced to a woman who can wrap any man around her finger and decides to put that powerful skill to use one last time.
Polis Books | 9781947993358
YOU WERE ALWAYS MINE by Nicole Baart (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Jessica Chamberlain’s phone rings one quiet morning, her world is shattered. As she tries to pick up the pieces and make sense of what went wrong, Jess begins to realize that a tragic death is just the beginning. Soon she is caught in a web of lies and half-truths --- and is horrified to learn that everything leads back to her seven-year-old adopted son, Gabriel. Years ago, Gabe’s birth mother requested a closed adoption and Jessica was more than happy to comply. But when her house is broken into and she discovers a clue that suggests her estranged husband was in close contact with Gabe’s biological mother, she vows to uncover the truth at any cost.
Atria Books | 9781501133626
On Sale the Week of October 22nd in Hardcover
October 23rd
A CLOUD IN THE SHAPE OF A GIRL by Jean Thompson (Fiction)
Evelyn set aside her career to marry, late, and motherhood never became her. Her daughter Laura felt this acutely and wants desperately to marry, but she soon discovers her husband Gabe to be a man who expects too much of everyone in his life, especially his musician son. Grace has moved out from Laura and Gabe’s house, but can’t seem to live up to her potential --- whatever that might be. In A CLOUD IN THE SHAPE OF A GIRL, we see these women and their trials, small and large: social slights and heartbreaks, marital disappointments and infidelities, familial dysfunction, mortality.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501194368
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS AND ART AND ARCANA: A Visual History by Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson and Sam Witwer (Art/Gaming)
From one of the most iconic game brands in the world, this official DUNGEONS & DRAGONS illustrated history provides an unprecedented look at the visual evolution of the brand, showing its continued influence on the worlds of pop culture and fantasy. Inside the book, you’ll find more than 700 pieces of artwork --- from each edition of the core role-playing books, supplements and adventures; as well as Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance novels; decades of Dragon and Dungeon magazines; and classic advertisements and merchandise; plus never-before-seen sketches, large-format canvases, rare photographs, one-of-a-kind drafts and more from the now-famous designers and artists associated with "Dungeons & Dragons."
Ten Speed Press | 9780399580949
AN EMPIRE FOR RAVENS: A John the Lord Chamberlain Mystery by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer (Historical Mystery)
Emperor Justinian's former Lord Chamberlain, John, gets a letter from his longtime comrade, Felix. For years a Captain of the Excubitors at the court in Constantinople, Felix has achieved his ambition to become a General when Justinian sends him to serve under General Diogenes in fighting for Rome against the besieging Goths. John's covert entrance into Rome is ambushed, driving him deep into ancient catacombs before he exits into the heart of the city. Arrested and brought before Diogenes, John learns that Felix is missing. Then a young woman servant, also missing, is found dead. John has many mysteries to solve before Diogenes' courier to Justinian can return and prompt John's immediate execution.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464211102
THE FOX by Frederick Forsyth (Thriller)
Adrian Weston, former chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service, is awoken in the middle of the night by a phone call from the Prime Minister. The Pentagon, the NSA and the CIA have been hacked simultaneously, their seemingly impenetrable firewalls breached by an unknown enemy known only as "The Fox." Even more surprisingly, the culprit is revealed to be a young British teenager, Luke Jennings. Extradition to the U.S. seems likely --- until Weston has another idea: If Luke can do this to us, what can he do to our enemies? After conferring with both the American President and the Prime Minister, Weston is determined to use "The Fox" and his talents to the advantage of the two nations. But doing so places the boy on a geopolitical minefield.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525538424
GO TO MY GRAVE by Catriona McPherson (Gothic Mystery/Thriller)
Donna Weaver has put everything she has into restoring The Breakers, an old bed and breakfast on a remote stretch of beach in Galloway. Donna's guests, a contentious group of estranged cousins, soon realize that they’ve been here before, years ago. Decades have passed, but that night still haunts them: a 16th birthday party that started with peach schnapps and ended with a girl walking into the sea. Each of them had made a vow of silence: “lock it in a box, stitch my lips, and go to my grave.” But now someone has broken the pact. Amid the home-baked scones and lavish rooms, someone is playing games, locking boxes, stitching lips. And before the weekend is over, at least one of them will go to their grave.
Minotaur Books | 9781250070005
HOUSE OF GOLD by Natasha Solomons (Historical Fiction)
Vienna, 1911. Greta Goldbaum has always dreamed of being free to choose her own life's path, but the Goldbaum family, one of the wealthiest in the world, has different expectations. So Greta moves to England to wed Albert, a distant cousin. Defiant and lonely, she longs for connection and a place to call her own. When Albert's mother gives Greta a garden, things start to change. But just as she begins to taste an unexpected happiness, war is looming, and even the influential Goldbaums can't alter its course. For the first time in 200 years, the family will find themselves on opposing sides, and Greta will have to choose: the family she's created, or the one she was forced to leave behind.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735212978
THE LINE: A Sueño and Bascom Investigation Set in South Korea by Martin Limon (Historical Mystery)
A battered corpse is found a few feet north of the line dividing North and South Korea. When 8th Army CID Agents George Sueño and Ernie Bascom pull the body to the South Korean side on orders from their superiors, they have no idea of the international conflict their small action will spark. Before war breaks out, they must discover who killed Corporal Noh Jong-bei, a young Korean soldier working with the US Army. The murderer could be from either side of the DMZ. But without cooperation between the governments involved, how can two US military agents interrogate North Korean witnesses? What George and Ernie discover gets them pulled off the case, but fearing they’ve put the wrong man behind bars, they disobey orders in an attempt to discover the truth.
Soho Crime | 9781616959661
LISTEN TO THE MARRIAGE by John Jay Osborn (Fiction)
Gretchen and Steve have been married for a long time. Living in San Francisco, recently separated, with two children and demanding jobs, they’ve started going to a marriage counselor. Unfolding over the course of 10 months and taking place entirely in the marriage counselor’s office, John Jay Osborn’s LISTEN TO THE MARRIAGE is the story of a fractured couple in a moment of crisis, and of the person who tries to get them to see each other again.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374192020
LITTLE by Edward Carey (Historical Fiction)
In 1761, a tiny, odd-looking girl named Marie is born in a village in Switzerland. After the death of her parents, she is apprenticed to an eccentric wax sculptor and whisked off to the seamy streets of Paris, where they meet a domineering widow and her quiet, pale son. Together, they convert an abandoned monkey house into an exhibition hall for wax heads, and the spectacle becomes a sensation. As word of her artistic talent spreads, Marie is called to Versailles, where she tutors a princess and saves Marie Antoinette in childbirth. But outside the palace walls, Paris is roiling: The revolutionary mob is demanding heads, and…at the wax museum, heads are what they do.
Riverhead Books | 9780525534327
MARILLA OF GREEN GABLES by Sarah McCoy (Historical Fiction)
Marilla Cuthbert is 13 years old when her beloved mother dies in childbirth, and she suddenly must bear the responsibilities of a farm wife. Her one connection to the wider world is Aunt Elizabeth "Izzy" Johnson, her mother’s sister, who managed to escape to the bustling city of St. Catharines. Aunt Izzy’s talent as a seamstress has allowed her to build a thriving business and make her own way in the world. Emboldened by her aunt, Marilla dares to venture beyond the safety of Green Gables and discovers new friends and new opportunities. However, she soon finds herself caught up in the dangerous work of politics, and abolition --- jeopardizing all she cherishes, including her bond with her dearest John Blythe.
William Morrow | 9780062697714
PULSE by Michael Harvey (Thriller)
In a small apartment in Boston, 16-year-old Daniel Fitzsimmons is listening to his landlord describe a seemingly insane theory about invisible pulses of light and energy that can be harnessed by the human mind. He longs to laugh with his brother Harry about it, but Harry doesn’t know he’s there. None of that matters, though, because the next night Harry, a Harvard football star, is murdered in an alley. Detectives “Bark” Jones and Tommy Dillon are assigned to the case. The veteran partners thought they’d seen it all, but they are stunned when Daniel wanders into the crime scene. Even stranger, Daniel claims to have known the details of his brother’s murder before it ever happened.
Ecco | 9780062443038
THE RECKONING by John Grisham (Historical Thriller/Mystery)
Pete Banning was Clanton, Mississippi’s favorite son --- a decorated World War II hero, the patriarch of a prominent family, a farmer, father, neighbor and faithful member of the Methodist church. Then, one cool October morning, he rose early, drove into town, walked into the church, and calmly shot and killed his pastor and friend, the Reverend Dexter Bell. As if the murder wasn’t shocking enough, it was even more baffling that Pete's only statement about it --- to the sheriff, to his lawyers, to the judge, to the jury and to his family --- was: "I have nothing to say." He was not afraid of death and was willing to take his motive to the grave.
Doubleday | 9780385544153
RED MOON by Kim Stanley Robinson (Science Fiction/Space Opera)
It is 30 years from now, and we have colonized the moon. American Fred Fredericks is making his first trip, his purpose to install a communications system for China's Lunar Science Foundation. But hours after his arrival, he witnesses a murder and is forced into hiding. It is also the first visit for celebrity travel reporter Ta Shu. He has contacts and influence, but he too will find that the moon can be a perilous place for any traveler. Finally, there is Chan Qi. She is the daughter of the Minister of Finance, and without doubt a person of interest to those in power. She is on the moon for reasons of her own, but when she attempts to return to China, in secret, the events that unfold will change everything.
Orbit | 9780316262378
THE THREE BETHS by Jeff Abbott (Psychological Thriller)
My mom would never leave me. This has been Mariah Dunning's motto. So when she glimpses her mother --- who's been missing for the past year --- on the other side of a food court, Mariah's conviction becomes stronger than ever. Or is she losing her mind? When Beth Dunning disappeared without a trace, suspicion for her murder immediately fell upon Mariah's father. Until Mariah stumbles upon two other recent disappearances from Lakehaven. And all three women had the same name: Beth. Mariah would give anything to find out what happened to her mother and clear her father's name. But the truth may be more devastating than she could have imagined.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538728697
VENDETTA by Iris Johansen (Thriller)
With his dying breath, Carl Venable, head of the CIA task force on terrorism and Jude Brandon’s final link to terrorist ringleader Max Huber, gives Brandon a mandate: keep his daughter, Rachel, safe at any cost. But Rachel Venable has a shocking, twisted past of her own, one that comes rushing back after her medical clinic in Guyana is attacked by Huber --- the same man who murdered her father and kept her imprisoned for months. Brandon and Catherine Ling, Rachel’s longtime ally and fierce protector, are determined to keep Rachel out of danger, but she knows that it’s impossible to stay hidden when Max Huber wants you dead.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250075871
On Sale the Week of October 22nd in Paperback
October 22nd
RECORD SCRATCH by J.J. Hensley (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
The sister of a murdered musician expects Trevor Galloway not only to solve her brother's homicide, but to recover a vinyl record she believes could ruin his reputation. Galloway knows he should walk away, but when the client closes the meeting by putting a gun under her chin and pulling the trigger, his sense of obligation drags him down a path he may not be ready to travel. As Galloway pieces together the final days of rock and roll legend Jimmy Spartan, he struggles to sort through his own issues. The stoic demeanor that earned Galloway the nickname The Tin Man is tested as he reunites with an old flame, becomes entangled in a Secret Service investigation, and does battle with old enemies.
Down & Out Books | 9781948235358
October 23rd
CRIMES OF THE FATHER by Thomas Keneally (Historical Fiction)
Sent away from his native Australia to Canada due to his radical preaching against the Vietnam War, apartheid and other hot-button issues, Father Frank Docherty made for himself a satisfying career as a psychologist and monk. When he returns to Australia to lecture on the future of celibacy and the Catholic Church, he is unwittingly pulled into the lives of two people, both of whom claim to have been sexually abused by a prominent monsignor. As a member of the commission investigating sex abuse within the Church, and as a man of character and conscience, Docherty decides he must confront each party involved. What follows will shake him to the core and call into question many of his own choices.
Washington Square Press | 9781501128493
THE FIRST DAY by Phil Harrison (Fiction)
Outside an east Belfast mission hall, pastor and family man Samuel Orr meets Anna, a young Beckett scholar. They embark on an intense, passionate affair, their connection both intellectual and erotic. When Anna falls pregnant, the affair is revealed. The repercussions are slow to emerge but inescapable, and the fallout, when it finally comes, is shocking. Over 30 years later, their son Sam is in New York, living a steady, guarded life, his childhood and family safely abandoned. But when the past once more crashes into his life, he is forced to confront the fears he has kept close all these years.
Mariner Books | 9781328505767
FRIDAY BLACK: Stories by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Fiction/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
By placing ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah reveals the violence, injustice and painful absurdities that black men and women contend with every day in this country. These stories tackle urgent instances of racism and cultural unrest, and explore the many ways we fight for humanity in an unforgiving world. In “The Finkelstein Five,” Adjei-Brenyah gives us an unforgettable reckoning of the brutal prejudice of our justice system. In “Zimmer Land,” we see a far-too-easy-to-believe imagining of racism as sport. And “Friday Black” and “How to Sell a Jacket as Told by Ice King” show the horrors of consumerism and the toll it takes on us all.
Mariner Books | 9781328911247
FRIENDS DIVIDED: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by Gordon S. Wood (Biography)
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds, or been more different in temperament. They worked closely in the crucible of revolution, crafting the Declaration of Independence and leading, with Franklin, the diplomatic effort that brought France into the fight. But ultimately, their profound differences would lead to a fundamental crisis, in their friendship and in the nation writ large, as they became the figureheads of two entirely new forces, the first American political parties. It was a bitter breach, lasting through the presidential administrations of both men, and beyond. But late in life, something remarkable happened: these two men were nudged into reconciliation.
Penguin Books | 9780735224735
HANK AND JIM: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart by Scott Eyman (Biography/Entertainment)
Henry Fonda and James Stewart were two of the biggest stars in Hollywood for 40 years. They got along famously, with a shared interest in elaborate practical jokes and model airplanes, among other things. Fonda was a liberal Democrat, Stewart a conservative Republican, but after one memorable blow-up over politics, they agreed never to discuss that subject again. For HANK AND JIM, biographer and film historian Scott Eyman spoke with Fonda’s widow and children as well as three of Stewart’s children, plus actors and directors who had worked with the men --- in addition to doing extensive archival research to get the full details of their time together.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501102189
HIDDENSEE: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker by Gregory Maguire (Historical Fantasy)
Having brought his legions of devoted readers to Oz in WICKED and to Wonderland in AFTER ALICE, Gregory Maguire now takes us to the realms of the Brothers Grimm and E. T. A. Hoffmann --- the enchanted Black Forest of Bavaria and the salons of Munich. HIDDENSEE imagines the backstory of the Nutcracker, revealing how this entrancing creature came to be carved and how he guided an ailing girl named Klara through a dreamy paradise on a Christmas Eve. At the heart of Hoffmann's mysterious tale hovers Godfather Drosselmeier --- the ominous, canny, one-eyed toy maker made immortal by Petipa and Tchaikovsky's fairy tale ballet --- who presents the once and future Nutcracker to Klara, his goddaughter.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062684370
THE MIDNIGHT WITNESS by Sara Blaedel (Thriller)
Paperback Original
A young woman is found strangled in a park, and a male journalist has been killed in the backyard of the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. Detective Louise Rick is put on the case of the young girl, but very soon becomes entangled in solving the other homicide too when it turns out that her best friend, journalist Camilla Lind, knew the murdered man. Louise tries to keep her friend from getting too involved, but Camilla has never been one to miss out on an interesting story. And this time, Camilla may have gone too far.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538759790
PROMISE NOT TO TELL by Jayne Ann Krentz (Romantic Suspense)
Seattle gallery owner Virginia Troy has spent years battling the demons that stem from her childhood time in a cult and the night a fire burned through the compound, killing her mother. And now one of her artists has taken her own life, but not before sending Virginia a last picture: a painting that makes Virginia doubt everything about the so-called suicide --- and her own past. Like Virginia, private investigator Cabot Sutter was one of the children in the cult who survived that fire...and only he can help her now. Thrown into an inferno of desire and deception, Virginia and Cabot draw ever closer to the mystery of their shared memories --- and the shocking fate of the one man who still wields the power to destroy everything they hold dear.
Berkley | 9780399585289
SISTERS FIRST: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life by Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush (Memoir)
Born into a political dynasty, Jenna and Barbara Bush grew up in the public eye. As small children, they watched their grandfather become president; just 12 years later, they stood by their father's side when he took the same oath. They spent their college years watched over by Secret Service agents and became fodder for the tabloids, with teenage mistakes making national headlines. But the tabloids didn't tell the whole story. In SISTERS FIRST, Jenna and Barbara take readers on a revealing, thoughtful and deeply personal tour behind the scenes of their lives, as they share stories about their family, their unexpected adventures, their loves and losses, and the sisterly bond that means everything to them.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538711422
STILL ME by Jojo Moyes (Romance)
Louisa Clark arrives in New York ready to start a new life, confident that she can embrace this new adventure and keep her relationship with Ambulance Sam alive across several thousand miles. She steps into the world of the superrich, working for Leonard Gopnik and his much younger second wife, Agnes. Lou is determined to get the most out of the experience and throws herself into her new job and New York life. As she begins to mix in New York high society, Lou meets Joshua Ryan, a man who brings with him a whisper of her past. Before long, Lou finds herself torn between Fifth Avenue where she works and the treasure-filled vintage clothing store where she actually feels at home.
Penguin Books | 9780399562464
STRANGERS IN BUDAPEST by Jessica Keener (Psychological Thriller)
Eight months after their move from Boston to Budapest, Annie and Will’s efforts to assimilate are thrown into turmoil when they receive a message from friends in the US asking that they check up on an elderly man, a fiercely independent Jewish American WWII veteran who helped free Hungarian Jews from a Nazi prison camp. They soon learn that the man, Edward Weiss, has come to Hungary to exact revenge on someone he is convinced seduced, married and then murdered his daughter. What Annie does not anticipate is that in helping Edward she will become enmeshed in a dark and deadly conflict that will end in tragedy and a stunning loss of innocence.
Algonquin Books | 9781616208646
WINTER SOLSTICE by Elin Hilderbrand (Fiction)
It's been too long since the entire Quinn family has been able to celebrate the holidays under the same roof, but that's about to change. With Bart back safe and sound from Afghanistan, the Quinns are preparing for a holiday more joyous than any they've experienced in years. And Bart's safe return isn't the family's only good news. Kevin is enjoying married life with Isabelle; Patrick is getting back on his feet after paying his debt to society; Ava thinks she's finally found the love of her life; and Kelley is thrilled to see his family reunited at last. But it just wouldn't be a Quinn family gathering if things went smoothly.
Back Bay Books | 9780316435468
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