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Week of May 11, 2020

Paperback releases for the week of May 11th include James Patterson's CRISS CROSS, in which a mysterious serial killer known as "M" launches a deranged "investigation," forcing Alex Cross and his partner, John Sampson, to unearth long-forgotten secrets to survive --- or risk getting buried themselves; THE TURN OF THE KEY, a thrilling novel from Ruth Ware that explores the dark side of technology; SOMEONE WE KNOW by Shari Lapena, a domestic work of suspense that has two intriguing taglines: Maybe you don't know your neighbors as well as you thought you did and You never really know what people are capable of; THE FRIENDS WE KEEP, a heartwarming novel from Jane Green that traces a long friendship among three individuals who grow apart and then surprisingly find one another again; and DAD'S MAYBE BOOK, in which Tim O’Brien shares wisdom from a life in letters, lessons learned in wartime, and the challenges, humor and rewards of raising two sons.

Week of May 4, 2020

Paperback releases for the week of May 4th include THE GUEST BOOK, in which Sarah Blake deftly examines the life and legacy of one unforgettable family as they navigate the evolving social and political landscape from Crockett’s Island, their family retreat off the coast of Maine; ASK AGAIN, YES by Mary Beth Keane, a gorgeous and generous portrait of the daily intimacies of marriage and the power of forgiveness, as two families try to stay afloat amid a resounding tragedy; Karen Abbott's THE GHOSTS OF EDEN PARK, the epic true crime story of the most successful bootlegger in American history and the murder that shocked the nation; SAVE ME THE PLUMS, trailblazing food writer and beloved restaurant critic Ruth Reichl's memoir about her groundbreaking tenure as editor in chief of Gourmet; and THE PIONEERS, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough's chronicle of the settling of the Northwest Territory by dauntless pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that would come to define our country.

A Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that released in paperback earlier this year, Marjan Kamali’s novel, THE STATIONERY SHOP, is a powerful love story set against the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran. Marjan has wonderful childhood memories of her mother reading to her and her sister. It was a nightly ritual that allowed the two girls to better understand the English language, which they didn’t know quite as well as their mother did. At the age of six, Marjan received her first library card, a privilege that made her feel like an adult and connected to the people who had borrowed the same books before her. Eventually reading turned into a solitary act for Marjan, but she will always treasure the gift that her mother gave her --- magic and belonging through books.

George Herbert

None knows the weight of another's burden.

Attribution

George Herbert

Frankie Valli

Becoming successful is a relentless pursuit. It's good that it's that way: When it does come, you learn to know how to appreciate it, and know how lucky you are to be doing something that you love so much.

Attribution

Frankie Valli

Leroy Brownlow

There are times when silence has the loudest voice.

Attribution

Leroy Brownlow

May 1, 2020

We have many remotes, and I rarely pay attention to which ones access the various devices to watch television, DVDs and streaming services, and to adjust the sound system. It took a pandemic, but I finally have mastered all of the remotes pictured above, and I can switch around watching with the best of them. Cory gave us a solo remote for Christmas that was never installed. But desperate times for streaming encouraged the learning curve, and I guess I flattened the remote curve.

Editorial Content for Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Vendetta Ride from Hell

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Stuart Shiffman

For a 30-second gun battle, the shootout in Tombstone, Arizona --- known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral --- has achieved a life of its own. A Google search of the term “O.K. Corral” yields more than 20,000 hits, including movies, books ranging from sycophantic to scholarly, and historical articles discussing the event. The shootout that killed three men and wounded three others is perhaps the greatest example of the words spoken by a reporter in the classic John Ford-directed film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: "This is the West, sir. Read More

Teaser

On October 26, 1881, nine men clashed in what would be known as the most famous shootout in American frontier history. Thirty bullets were exchanged in 30 seconds, killing three men and wounding three others. Cattle rustlers had been terrorizing the back country of Mexico and selling the livestock they stole to corrupt ranchers. The Mexican government built forts along the border to try to thwart American outlaws. That October, tensions boiled over with Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury, and Billy Claiborne confronting the Tombstone marshal, Virgil Earp, and the suddenly deputized Wyatt and Morgan Earp and shotgun-toting Doc Holliday. Tom Clavin peers behind decades of legend surrounding the story of Tombstone to reveal the true story of the drama and violence that made it famous.

Promo

On October 26, 1881, nine men clashed in what would be known as the most famous shootout in American frontier history. Thirty bullets were exchanged in 30 seconds, killing three men and wounding three others. Cattle rustlers had been terrorizing the back country of Mexico and selling the livestock they stole to corrupt ranchers. The Mexican government built forts along the border to try to thwart American outlaws. That October, tensions boiled over with Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury, and Billy Claiborne confronting the Tombstone marshal, Virgil Earp, and the suddenly deputized Wyatt and Morgan Earp and shotgun-toting Doc Holliday. Tom Clavin peers behind decades of legend surrounding the story of Tombstone to reveal the true story of the drama and violence that made it famous.

About the Book

The true story of the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, and the famous Battle at the OK Corral, by the New York Times bestselling author of DODGE CITY and WILD BILL.

On the afternoon of October 26, 1881, nine men clashed in what would be known as the most famous shootout in American frontier history. Thirty bullets were exchanged in 30 seconds, killing three men and wounding three others.

The fight sprang forth from a tense, hot summer. Cattle rustlers had been terrorizing the back country of Mexico and selling the livestock they stole to corrupt ranchers. The Mexican government built forts along the border to try to thwart American outlaws, while Arizona citizens became increasingly agitated. Rustlers, who became known as the cowboys, began to kill each other as well as innocent citizens. That October, tensions boiled over with Ike and Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury, and Billy Claiborne confronting the Tombstone marshal, Virgil Earp, and the suddenly deputized Wyatt and Morgan Earp and shotgun-toting Doc Holliday.

Bestselling author Tom Clavin peers behind decades of legend surrounding the story of Tombstone to reveal the true story of the drama and violence that made it famous. TOMBSTONE also digs deep into the vendetta ride that followed the tragic gunfight, when Wyatt and Warren Earp and Holliday went vigilante to track down the likes of Johnny Ringo, Curly Bill Brocius and other cowboys who had cowardly gunned down his brothers. That "vendetta ride" would make the myth of Wyatt Earp complete and punctuate the struggle for power in the American frontier's last boom town.

Audiobook available, read by Johnny Heller

Editorial Content for Warhol

Book

Reviewer (text)

Barbara Bamberger Scott

Art critic and biographer Blake Gopnik has constructed a portrait of the late Andy Warhol that has left no fact unturned. This lengthy, lively tale is designed to enchant both Warhol fans and those new to his unusual take on visual artistry and life in general.
  Read More

Teaser

To this day, mention the name “Andy Warhol” to almost anyone, and you’ll hear about his famous images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. But though Pop Art became synonymous with Warhol’s name, his life and work are infinitely more complex and multi-faceted than that. In WARHOL, esteemed art critic Blake Gopnik takes on Andy Warhol in all his depth and dimensions. “The meanings of his art depend on the way he lived and who he was,” as Gopnik writes. “That’s why the details of his biography matter more than for almost any cultural figure,” from his working-class Pittsburgh upbringing as the child of immigrants to his early career in commercial art to his total immersion in the “performance” of being an artist, accompanied by global fame and stardom --- and his attempted assassination. 

Promo

To this day, mention the name “Andy Warhol” to almost anyone, and you’ll hear about his famous images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. But though Pop Art became synonymous with Warhol’s name, his life and work are infinitely more complex and multi-faceted than that. In WARHOL, esteemed art critic Blake Gopnik takes on Andy Warhol in all his depth and dimensions. “The meanings of his art depend on the way he lived and who he was,” as Gopnik writes. “That’s why the details of his biography matter more than for almost any cultural figure,” from his working-class Pittsburgh upbringing as the child of immigrants to his early career in commercial art to his total immersion in the “performance” of being an artist, accompanied by global fame and stardom --- and his attempted assassination. 

About the Book

The definitive biography of a fascinating and paradoxical figure, one of the most influential artists of his --- or any --- age  

To this day, mention the name “Andy Warhol” to almost anyone and you’ll hear about his famous images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. But though Pop Art became synonymous with Warhol’s name and dominated the public’s image of him, his life and work are infinitely more complex and multi-faceted than that.

In WARHOL, esteemed art critic Blake Gopnik takes on Andy Warhol in all his depth and dimensions. “The meanings of his art depend on the way he lived and who he was,” as Gopnik writes. “That’s why the details of his biography matter more than for almost any cultural figure,” from his working-class Pittsburgh upbringing as the child of immigrants to his early career in commercial art to his total immersion in the “performance” of being an artist, accompanied by global fame and stardom --- and his attempted assassination.  

The extent and range of Warhol’s success, and his deliberate attempts to thwart his biographers, means that it hasn’t been easy to put together an accurate or complete image of him. But in this biography, unprecedented in its scope and detail as well as in its access to Warhol’s archives, Gopnik brings to life a figure who continues to fascinate because of his contradictions --- he was known as sweet and caring to his loved ones but also a coldhearted manipulator; a deep-thinking avant-gardist but also a true lover of schlock and kitsch; a faithful churchgoer but also an eager sinner, skeptic and cynic.

Wide-ranging and immersive, WARHOL gives us the most robust and intricate picture to date of a man and an artist who consistently defied easy categorization and whose life and work continue to profoundly affect our culture and society today.

Audiobook available, read by Graham Halstead

Editorial Content for Little Secrets

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

How do you follow up your previous book winning the International Thriller Writers' Best Novel of the Year award? Well, Jennifer Hillier has written a story that may be even better than 2018’s JAR OF HEARTS. Her latest effort, LITTLE SECRETS, begins with a tragic event and then keeps snowballing right through to the unexpected conclusion. Read More

Teaser

Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They are admired in their community and are a loving family --- until their world falls apart the day their son Sebastian is taken. A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding Sebastian, she learns that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman. This discovery sparks Marin back to life. She's lost her son; she's not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix. Permanently.

Promo

Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They are admired in their community and are a loving family --- until their world falls apart the day their son Sebastian is taken. A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding Sebastian, she learns that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman. This discovery sparks Marin back to life. She's lost her son; she's not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix. Permanently.

About the Book

Overwhelmed by tragedy, a woman desperately tries to save her marriage in award-winning author Jennifer Hillier's LITTLE SECRETS, a riveting novel of psychological suspense.

All it takes to unravel a life is one little secret...

Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They're admired in their community and are a loving family --- until their world falls apart the day their son Sebastian is taken.

A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding Sebastian, she learns that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman. This discovery sparks Marin back to life. She's lost her son; she's not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix.

Permanently.

Audiobook available, read by Kirsten Potter