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Why We Read

Shannon Reed

*NATIONAL BESTSELLER*
*A Good Housekeeping Reads pick*

A hilarious and incisive exploration of the joys of reading from a "beloved and wonderful writer" (George Saunders), teacher, bibliophile, and Thurber Prize Semifinalist

We read to escape, to learn, to find love, to feel seen. We read to encounter new worlds, to discover new recipes, to find connection across difference, or simply to pass a rainy afternoon. No matter the reason, books have the power to keep us safe, to challenge us, and perhaps most importantly, to make us more fully human.

Shannon Reed, a longtime teacher, lifelong reader, and New Yorker contributor, gets it. With one simple goal in mind, she makes the case that we should read for pleasure above all else. In this whip-smart, laugh-out-loud-funny collection, Reed shares surprising stories from her life as a reader and the poignant ways in which books have impacted her students. From the varied novels she cherishes (Gone Girl, Their Eyes Were Watching God) to the ones she didn't (Tess of the d'Urbervilles), Reed takes us on a rollicking tour through the comforting world of literature, celebrating the books we love, the readers who love them, and the ways in which literature can transform us for the better.

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Infectious Generosity

Chris Anderson

The bestselling author, media pioneer, and curator of TED explores one of humankind’s defining but overlooked impulses, and how we can super-charge its potential to build a hopeful future—“an essential read to kick off the new year” (Forbes, “16 Must Have Books and Podcasts for Leaders in 2024”)

“I flew through these pages with an increasing sense of joy. I hope that millions read this book.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

Let’s face it: Recent years have been tough on optimists. Hopes that the Internet might bring people together have been crushed by the ills of social media. Is there a way back?

As head of TED, Chris Anderson has had a ringside view of the world’s boldest thinkers sharing their most uplifting ideas. Inspired by them, he believes that it’s within our grasp to turn outrage back into optimism. It all comes down to reimagining one of the most fundamental human virtues: generosity. What if generosity could become infectious generosity? Consider 

• how a London barber began offering haircuts to people experiencing homelessness—and catalyzed a movement
• how two anonymous donors gave $10,000 each to two hundred strangers and discovered that most recipients wanted to “pay it forward” with their own generous acts
• how TED itself transformed from a niche annual summit into a global beacon of ideas by giving away talks online, allowing millions access to free learning

In telling these inspiring stories, Anderson has given us “the first page-turner ever written about human generosity” (Elizabeth Dunn). More important, he offers a playbook for how to embark on our own generous acts—whether gifts of money, time, talent, connection, or kindness—and to prime them, thanks to the Internet, to have self-replicating, even world-changing, impact.

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Beginning Seed Saving for the Home Gardener

James Ulager

How home gardeners with limited time and garden space can reclaim the joy and independence of seed saving

Beginning Seed Saving for the Home Gardener explores how seed saving is not only easier than we think, but that it is essential for vibrant, independent, and bountiful gardens.

Many home gardeners refuse to eat a grocery store tomato, but routinely obtain seeds commercially, sometimes from thousands of miles away. And while seed saving can appear mysterious and intimidating, even home gardeners with limited time and space can experience the joy and independence it brings, freeing them from industry and the annual commercial seed order.

Coverage includes:

 

  • Why seed saving belongs in the home garden
  • Principles of vegetative and sexual reproduction
  • Easy inbreeding plants, including legumes, lettuce, tomatoes, and peppers
  • Plants with a few more challenges, including squash, spinach, onions, and parsley
  • Brief discussion of more difficult crops, including corn, carrots, and cabbage.

Written by a home seed saver for the home seed saver, Beginning Seed Saving for the Home Gardener is a comprehensive guide for those who want to reclaim our seed heritage, highlighting the importance of saving seeds for you, your neighbors, and most importantly, subsequent generations.

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Seed Saving

Caleb J. Warnock

Stop wasting money on store-bought seeds and create a garden you can truly call your own. With easy-to-follow instructions for lettuce, beans, corn, onions, and much more, you'll soon be creating your very own heirloom plants that will keep your garden growing strong and your family eating well. Learn how to save only the best from all your vegetables and create a wealth of seeds your family can use for years to come.

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Seed to Seed

Suzanne Ashworth

Seed to Seed is a complete seed-saving guide that describes specific techniques for saving the seeds of 160 different vegetables. This book contains detailed information about each vegetable, including its botanical classification, flower structure and means of pollination, required population size, isolation distance, techniques for caging or hand-pollination, and also the proper methods for harvesting, drying, cleaning, and storing the seeds.

Seed to Seed is widely acknowledged as the best guide available for home gardeners to learn effective ways to produce and store seeds on a small scale. The author has grown seed crops of every vegetable featured in the book, and has thoroughly researched and tested all of the techniques she recommends for the home garden.

This newly updated and greatly expanded Second Edition includes additional information about how to start each vegetable from seed, which has turned the book into a complete growing guide. Local knowledge about seed starting techniques for each vegetable has been shared by expert gardeners from seven regions of the United States-Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast/Gulf Coast, Midwest, Southwest, Central West Coast, and Northwest.

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One in a Millennial

Kate Kennedy

From pop culture podcaster and a voice of a generation, Kate Kennedy, a celebration of the millennial zeitgeist

One In a Millennial is an exploration of pop culture, nostalgia, the millennial zeitgeist, and the life lessons learned (for better and for worse) from coming of age as a member of a much-maligned generation.

Kate is a pop culture commentator and host of the popular millennial-focused podcast Be There in Five. Part-funny, part-serious, Kate navigates the complicated nature of celebrating and criticizing the culture that shaped her as a woman, while arguing that great depths can come from surface-level interests.

With her trademark style and vulnerability, One In a Millennial is sharp, hilarious, and heartwarming all at once. She tackles AOL Instant Messenger, purity culture, American Girl Dolls, going out tops, Spice Girl feminism, her feelings about millennial motherhood, and more. Kate’s laugh-out-loud asides and keen observations will have you nodding your head and maybe even tearing up.

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When I Was Your Age

Kenan Thompson

When I Was Your Age is a hilarious, heartwarming and surprising ode to growing up, getting older and wiser, and luck, life, and learning from the school of hard knocks, from SNL's longest-serving actor, Kenan Thompson

Kenan Thompson is Saturday Night Live's longest-ever-serving cast member and a star of such pioneering sketches as "Black Jeopardy" and is hugely beloved thanks to a tidal wave of nostalgic fans who grew up on early 2000s classics All That, Good Burger, and Kenan & Kel on Nickelodeon.

He's also a dad (to two girls) in his mid-40s living in suburbia, and whose universal, relatable, family-friendly humor has created unbelievable appeal and engagement from fans from middle America to coastal elites. Becoming a dad sucked the cool right out of him -- and he's OK with that!

When I Was Your Age is packed with hilarious yet poignant essays that are aimed to offer any reader valuable advice on parenting, focusing on positivity, and having fun in life. Kids, new parents, fellow fathers, budding comics, and aunties who want to pinch his cheeks, can all learn from his biggest mistakes and most triumphant victories. There's something for everybody here!

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Romney

McKay Coppins

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! A remarkably illuminating biography of one of America’s most fascinating political figures—including news-making revelations from Mitt Romney himself about dissension within today’s Republican Party—written with his full cooperation by an award-winning writer at The Atlantic.

Few figures in American politics have seen more and said less than Mitt Romney. An outspoken dissident in Donald Trump’s GOP, he has made headlines in recent years for standing alone against the forces he believes are poisoning the party he once led. Romney was the first senator in history to vote to remove from office a president of his own party. When that president’s supporters went on to storm the US Capitol, Romney delivered a thundering speech from the Senate floor accusing his fellow Republicans of stoking insurrection. Despite these moments of public courage, Romney has shared very little about what he’s witnessed behind the scenes over his three decades in politics—in GOP cloakrooms and caucus lunches, in his private meetings with Donald Trump and his family, in his dealings with John McCain, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell, Joe Manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema. Now, exclusively for this biography, Romney has provided a window to his most private thoughts.

Based on dozens of interviews with Romney, his family, and his inner circle as well as hundreds of pages of his personal journals and private emails, this in-depth portrait by award-winning journalist McKay Coppins shows a public servant authentically wrestling with the choices he has made over his career. In lively, revelatory detail, the book traces Romney’s early life and rise through the ranks of a fast-transforming Republican Party and exposes how a trail of seemingly small compromises by political leaders has led to a crisis in democracy. Ultimately, Romney: A Reckoning is a redemptive story about a flawed politician who summoned his moral courage just as fear and divisiveness were overtaking American life.

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Raw Dog

Jamie Loftus

A NEW YORK TIMES AND INDIE BESTSELLER!

Part travelogue, part culinary history, all capitalist critique—comedian Jamie Loftus's debut, Raw Dog, will take you on a cross-country road trip in the summer of 2021, and reveal what the creation, culture, and class influence of hot dogs says about America now.


Featured in: NPR Weekend Edition • Bon Appétit • Oprah Daily • Glamour • NY Mag • Splendid Table The Wall Street Journal • Eater • Betches • USA Today • Boston Globe • Eater • Slate • The Next Big Idea Club • Buzzfeed and more

“Wise and funny” —ANDY RICHTER • “Revealing, funny, sad, horny, and insatiably curious” —SARAH MARSHALL • “A wild ride” —ROBERT EVANS • “Deeply incisive and hilariously honest” —JACK O’BRIEN • “Gonzo yet vulnerable” —GABE DUNN • “Hot dog Moby-Dick —BRANSON REESE • “One of the freshest and most insightful new comedic voices of this decade.” —LINDSAY ELLIS

Hot dogs. Poor people created them. Rich people found a way to charge fifteen dollars for them. They’re high culture, they’re low culture, they’re sports food, they’re kids' food, they’re hangover food, and they’re deeply American, despite having no basis whatsoever in America's Indigenous traditions. You can love them, you can hate them, but you can’t avoid the great American hot dog.

Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs is part investigation into the cultural and culinary significance of hot dogs and part travelog documenting a cross-country road trip researching them as they’re served today. From avocado and spice in the West to ass-shattering chili in the East to an entire salad on a slice of meat in Chicago, Loftus, her pets, and her ex eat their way across the country during the strange summer of 2021. It’s a brief window into the year between waves of a plague that the American government has the resources to temper, but not the interest.

So grab a dog, lay out your picnic blanket, and dig into the delicious and inevitable product of centuries of violence, poverty, and ambition, now rolling around at your local 7-Eleven.

The hardcover edition of Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs includes gorgeous endpapers, an illustrated case, as well as illustrations by the author throughout.

"Raw Dog will leave you nourished." —BuzzFeed

"You will certainly never read a funnier book about taking a hot dog-themed road trip across America." —Glamour

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The Woman in Me

Britney Spears

“In Britney Spears’s memoir, she’s stronger than ever.” —The New York Times

The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.

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Beatrix Farrand

Judith B. Tankard

The only monograph to chronicle the life and work of one of the most important figures in American landscape architecture.

Beatrix Farrand, the only female founder of the American Society of Landscape Architects, is one of the most important landscape architects of the early twentieth century. Today the scope of her work and her influence on the profession are widely acknowledged, and her gardens are being studied, restored, and opened to the public. A long-awaited updated edition of the 2009 definitive monograph, Beatrix Farrand: Garden Artist, Landscape Architect chronicles the life and work of one of the most important figures in American landscape architecture. 

Born into a prominent New York family (she was Edith Wharton’s niece), Farrand designed lavish gardens for the leaders of society, including the Harknesses, the Rockefellers, and the Blisses. Ultimately, her portfolio extended to college and university campuses, including Princeton, Yale, and the University of Chicago, and public gardens, the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and the Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden among them. Her best-known design is the landscape at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., originally a private residence with extensive grounds and now a research center for Harvard University surrounded by a naturalistic park restored and maintained by the National Park Service. Deeply influenced by the English garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, Farrand was known for broad expanses of lawn with deep swaths of borders planted in a subtle palette of foliage and flowers. In her public work, she adapted this design strategy to create paths and plantings that define the character of the space and the hecirculation through it.

Heavily illustrated with archival images and photographs of her gardens at their peak—many taken especially for this book, Beatrix Farrand: Garden Artist, Landscape Architect also displays beautiful watercolor wash renderings of her designs, now preserved at College of Environmental Design of the University of California at Berkeley. The new edition includes updated images that reflect the current state of gardens including the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden, the International House Courtyard at the University of Chicago, Garland Farm (Farrand’s last home and garden, which has recently been restored), Dumbarton Oaks, Dumbarton Oaks Park (which was not included in the first edition), among others.

The book concludes with a comprehensive list of Farrand’s commissions and the gardens open to the public, providing direction for further study and exploration. It also features a new preface outlining the milestones in research since the first edition's publication, updated details about ownership and renovations of many properties, and a revised bibliography including articles and books published over the past ten years.

Published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Farrand's birth and written by landscape historian and preservation consultant Judith B. Tankard, Beatrix Farrand: Garden Artist, Landscape Architect takes readers on a tour of Farrand’s finest works, celebrating her influence on succeeding generations of women landscape architects.

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Planting for Pollinators

Heather Angel

Planting for Pollinators is an easy-to-use gardening guide to help you encourage different types of insect pollinators into your garden.

Insect pollinators not only bring joy to our gardens, they also provide an essential service for our planet. Without bees, flies, hoverflies, butterflies, moths and beetles, some of our favourite foods, flowers and plants would cease to exist.

Whether you have a large garden, an urban balcony or just a window box, planting to encourage pollinators is a fantastic and surprisingly easy first step in creating a wildlife-friendly space. Planting for Pollinators features a wide range of plants, with guidance on the best ways to nurture lawns and verges, pollinator predation and tips on watching and photographing wildlife. Beautifully illustrated throughout with images from award-winning wildlife photographer Heather Angel, this essential guide will show you how plants communicate with insects, and why it's so important to protect our pollinators.

Organised by season and featuring more than 100 plant species – including bulbs, annuals, perennials, shrubs and climbers – this practical guide will help you to discover the short- and long-term benefits of having a variety of pollinators visit your garden.

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How to Keep Your Plants Alive

Cider Mill Press

If you’re horticulturally challenged, then this book’s for you. Learn to be the best plant parent you can be with How to Keep Your Plants Alive, featuring over 50 houseplants that are exceptionally hard to kill.

We’ve all been there: your beloved plant is looking a little too droopy, but are you supposed to water it or have you overwatered it? Or maybe you meant to take care of it, but life got away from you and suddenly it’s been a week without any plant nurturement. When your houseplants continue to suffer no matter how much TLC you show them, it’s time to up your game with this beginner’s guide to plant parenting. With houseplant profiles detailing individual plant needs and vital tips, you’ll have all the knowledge you need to successfully care for your greenery. If you’d like to strike “Plant Assassin” from your résumé, then read on.

Inside you’ll find:
- 50+ low-maintenance houseplants with care and keeping instructions
- Tips for selecting the best houseplants for your home
- Warning signs for spotting a dying plant, plus the best rescue plans
- Beautiful illustrations of succulents, air plants, cacti, and more

Don’t have a green thumb? No problem. With How to Keep Your Plants Alive, your indoor plants will be flourishing in no time at all, no matter what you throw at them.

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Easy Money

Ben McKenzie

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER



"A smart, savvy road map through the mayhem of the cryptocurrency madness."

--RON CHERNOW, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Alexander Hamilton

From "one of the crypto industry's unlikely but most prominent critics" (Washington Post), an entertaining and well-researched account of the rise and fall of cryptocurrency.



At the height of the pandemic, TV star Ben McKenzie was the perfect mark for cryptocurrency: a dad stuck at home with some cash in his pocket, worried about his family, armed with only the vague notion that people were making heaps of money on something he--despite a degree in economics--didn't entirely understand. Lured in by grandiose, utopian promises, and sure, a little bit of FOMO, McKenzie dove deep into blockchain, Bitcoin, and the various other coins and exchanges on which they are traded. But after scratching the surface, he had to ask, "Am I crazy, or is this all a total scam?"



In Easy Money, McKenzie enlists the help of journalist Jacob Silverman for an investigative adventure into crypto and its remarkable crash. Weaving together stories of average traders and victims, colorful crypto "visionaries," Hollywood's biggest true believers, anti-crypto whistleblowers, and government operatives, Easy Money is an on-the-ground look at a perfect storm of irresponsibility and criminal fraud. Based on original reporting across the country and abroad, including interviews with Sam Bankman-Fried, Tether cofounder Brock Pierce, Celsius's Alex Mashinsky, and more, this is the book on cryptocurrency you've been waiting for.

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The Breakaway

Jennifer Weiner

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner comes a warmhearted and empowering new novel about love, family, friendship, secrets, and a life-changing journey.

Thirty-three-year-old Abby Stern has made it to a happy place. True, she still has gig jobs instead of a career, and the apartment where she’s lived since college still looks like she’s just moved in. But she’s got good friends, her bike, and her bicycling club in Philadelphia. She’s at peace with her plus-size body—at least, most of the time—and she’s on track to marry Mark Medoff, her childhood summer sweetheart, a man she met at the weight-loss camp that her perpetually dieting mother forced her to attend. Fifteen years after her final summer at Camp Golden Hills, when Abby reconnects with a half-his-size Mark, it feels like the happy ending she’s always wanted.

Yet Abby can’t escape the feeling that some­thing isn’t right...or the memories of one thrilling night she spent with a man named Sebastian two years previously. When Abby gets a last-minute invi­tation to lead a cycling trip from NYC to Niagara Falls, she’s happy to have time away from Mark, a chance to reflect and make up her mind.

But things get complicated fast. First, Abby spots a familiar face in the group—Sebastian, the one-night stand she thought she’d never see again. Sebastian is a serial dater who lives a hundred miles away. In spite of their undeniable chemistry, Abby is determined to keep her distance. Then there’s a surprise last-minute addition to the trip: her mother, Eileen, the woman Abby blames for a lifetime of body shaming and insecurities she’s still trying to undo.

Over two weeks and more than seven hundred miles, strangers become friends, hidden truths come to light, a teenage girl with a secret unites the riders in unexpected ways...and Abby is forced to reconsider everything she believes about herself, her mother, and the nature of love.

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The Beach at Summerly

Beatriz Williams

"There are few more skilled practitioners of the craft of summer fiction than Beatriz Williams." -- The New York Times Book Review

 

 

A ravishing summer read from New York Times bestseller Beatriz Williams, sweeping readers back to a mid-century New England rich with secrets and Cold War intrigue.

June 1946. As the residents of Winthrop Island prepare for the first summer season after the sacrifice of war, a glamorous new figure moves into the guest cottage at Summerly, the idyllic seaside estate of the wealthy Peabody family. To Emilia Winthrop, daughter of Summerly's year-round caretaker and a descendant of the island's settlers, Olive Rainsford opens a window into a world of shining possibility. While Emilia spent the war years caring for her incapacitated mother, Olive traveled the world, married fascinating men, and involved herself in political causes. She's also the beloved aunt of the two surviving Peabody sons, Amory and Shep, with whom Emilia has a tangled romantic history.

As the summer wears on, Emilia develops a deep rapport with Olive, who urges her to leave the island for a life of adventure, while romance blossoms with the sturdy and honorable Shep. But the heady promise of Peabody patronage is blown apart by the arrival of Sumner Fox, an FBI agent who demands Emilia's help to capture a Soviet agent who's transmitting vital intelligence on the West's atomic weapon program from somewhere inside the Summerly estate.

April 1954. Eight years later, Summerly is boarded up and Emilia has rebuilt her shattered life as a professor at Wellesley College, when shocking news arrives from Washington--the traitor she helped convict is about to be swapped for an American spy imprisoned in the Soviet Union, but with a mysterious condition only Emilia can fulfill. A reluctant Emilia is summoned to CIA headquarters, where she's forced to confront the harrowing consequences of her actions that fateful summer, and a choice that could destroy the Peabody family--and Emilia's chance for redemption--all over again.

"Grand and gripping...shot through with suspense, romance, and glorious, beach-laden locales. I could not put it down."--Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling author of The Mitford Affair

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Better Living Through Birding

Christian Cooper

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Central Park birder Christian Cooper takes us beyond the viral video that shocked a nation and into a world of avian adventures, global excursions, and the unexpected lessons you can learn from a life spent looking up.

"Wondrous . . . captivating.”—Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of An Immense World

Christian Cooper is a self-described “Blerd” (Black nerd), an avid comics fan and expert birder who devotes every spring to gazing upon the migratory birds that stop to rest in Central Park, just a subway ride away from where he lives in New York City. While in the park one morning in May 2020, Cooper was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years old when what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-old racial tensions. Cooper’s viral video of the incident would send shock waves through the nation.

In Better Living Through Birding, Cooper tells the story of his extraordinary life leading up to the now-infamous incident in Central Park and shows how a life spent looking up at the birds prepared him, in the most uncanny of ways, to be a gay, Black man in America today. From sharpened senses that work just as well at a protest as in a park to what a bird like the Common Grackle can teach us about self-acceptance, Better Living Through Birding exults in the pleasures of a life lived in pursuit of the natural world and invites you to discover them yourself.

Equal parts memoir, travelogue, and primer on the art of birding, this is Cooper’s story of learning to claim and defend space for himself and others like him, from his days at Marvel Comics introducing the first gay storylines to vivid and life-changing birding expeditions through Africa, Australia, the Americas, and the Himalayas. Better Living Through Birding recounts Cooper’s journey through the wonderful world of birds and what they can teach us about life, if only we would look and listen.

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Yellowface

R. F. Kuang

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences... Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn't write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American--in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author R. F. Kuang.

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena's a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena's death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena's just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena's novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song--complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn't this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That's what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can't get away from Athena's shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June's (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang's novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

 

 

 

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Uncle of the Year

Andrew Rannells

From the star of The Book of Mormon and Girls, candid, hilarious essays on anxiety, ambition, and the uncertain path to adulthood that ask: How will we know when we get there?
 
“With the unsparing eye of David Sedaris and the social wisdom of Nora Ephron, Andrew Rannells tackles the most foundational questions of growing up.”—Lena Dunham

In Uncle of the Year, Andrew Rannells wonders: If he, now in his forties, has everything he’s supposed to need to be an adult—a career, property, a well-tailored suit—why does he still feel like an anxious twenty-year-old climbing his way toward solid ground? Is it because he hasn’t won a Tony, or found a husband, or had a child? And what if he doesn’t want those things? (A husband and a child, that is. He wants a Tony.)
 
In deeply personal essays drawn from his life as well as his career on Broadway and in Hollywood, Rannells argues that we all pretend—for friends, partners, parents, and others—that we are constantly succeeding in the process known as “adulting.” But if this acting is leaving us unfulfilled, then we need new markers of time, new milestones, new expectations of what adulthood is and can be.
 
Along the way, Rannells navigates dating, aging, mental health, bad jobs, and much more. In his essay “Uncle of the Year,” he explores the role that children play in his life, as a man who never thought having kids was necessary or even possible—until his siblings have kids and he falls in love with a man with two of his own. In “Always Sit Next to Mark Ruffalo,” he reveals the thrills and absurdities of the awards circuit, and the desire to be recognized for one’s work. And in “Horses, Not Zebras,” he shares the piece of wisdom that helped him finally come to terms with his anxiety and perfectionism.
 
Filled with honest insights and a sharp wit, Uncle of the Year challenges us to take a long look at who we’re pretending to be, who we know we are, and who we want to become.

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This Bird Has Flown

Susanna Hoffs

A delightfully funny and steamy debut novel about music, fate, redemption, and love from beloved songwriter and Bangles co-founder Susanna Hoffs that is "part British romcom, part Jane Eyre, and one hundred percent enjoyable" (Tom Perrotta).

"A total knockout . . . The smart, ferocious rock-star redemption romance you didn't know you needed." --New York Times Book Review

Jane Start is thirty-three, broke, and recently single. Ten years prior, she had a hit song--written by world-famous superstar Jonesy--but Jane hasn't had a breakout since. Now she's living out of four garbage bags at her parents' house, reduced to performing to Karaoke tracks in Las Vegas. Rock bottom.

But when her longtime manager Pippa sends Jane to London to regroup, she's seated next to an intriguing stranger on the flight--the other Tom Hardy, an elegantly handsome Oxford professor of literature. Jane is instantly smitten by Tom, and soon, truly inspired. But it's not Jane's past alone that haunts her second chance at stardom, and at love. Is Tom all that he seems? And can Jane emerge from the shadow of Jonesy's earlier hit, and into the light of her own?

In turns deeply sexy, riotously funny, and utterly joyful, This Bird Has Flown explores love, passion, and the ghosts of our past, and offers a glimpse inside the music business that could only come from beloved songwriter Susanna Hoffs.

"In this sexy, page-turning treat, Susanna Hoffs writes as engagingly as she sings." --Helen Fielding, author of the bestselling sensation Bridget Jones's Diary

"A little bit romance, a little bit rock-and-roll--this isn't just a book, it's a love song."―Christina Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of The Unhoneymooners

"Satisfied the part of me that loves a hot rock-and-roll romance as well as the part that loves a tender love story . . . such a fun read." --Jasmine Guillory, New York Times bestselling author of Drunk on Love

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Sweet Enough: A Dessert Cookbook

Alison Roman

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A simple, stylish cookbook full of desserts that come together faster than you can eat them—from the author of Dining In and Nothing Fancy.

“Filled with no-fuss recipes perfect for quick and easy baking projects . . . blissfully effortless.”—People
 
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED COOKBOOKS OF 2023: People, HuffPost, Delish, Tasting Table
 
Casual, effortless, chic: These are not words you’d use to describe most desserts. But before Alison Roman made recipes so perfect that they go by one name—The Cookie, The Pasta, The Lemon Cake—she was a restaurant pastry chef who spent most of her time learning to make things the hard way. She studied flavor, technique, and precision, then distilled her knowledge to pare it all down to create dessert recipes that feel special and approachable, impressive and doable. In Sweet Enough, Alison has written the book for people who think they don’t have the time or skill to pull off dessert. Here, the desserts you want to make right away, you can make right away. 

Alison shows you how to make simple yet sublime sweets with her trademark casualness, like how to make jam in the oven, then turn that jam into a dessert—swirled into ice cream or folded into easy one-bowl cake batter. (Opening a jar of jam is more than fine, too.) She waxes poetic on the virtues of frozen fruit and teaches you the best way to throw your own Sundae Party. There are effortless cakes that take just minutes to get into a pan. And there are new, instant classics with a signature Alison twist, like Salted Lemon Pie, Raspberries and Sour Cream, Toasted Rice Pudding, or a Caramelized Maple Tart. Requiring little more than your own two hands and a few mixing bowls, the recipes are geared towards those without fancy equipment or specialty ingredients.

Whether you’re a dedicated baker or, better yet, someone who doesn’t think they are a baker, Sweet Enough lets you finish any dinner, any party, or any car ride to a dinner party with a little something wonderful and sweet.

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Birdgirl

Mya-Rose Craig

Birder, environmentalist and activist Mya-Rose Craig is an international force. In her moving memoir, Birdgirl, she chronicles her mother’s struggle with mental illness, and shares her passion for social justice and fierce dedication to preserving our planet.

Meet Mya-Rose – otherwise known as “Birdgirl.” In her words: “Birdwatching has never felt like a hobby, or a pastime I can pick up and put down, but a thread running through the pattern of my life, so tightly woven in that there’s no way of pulling it free and leaving the rest of my life intact.”

Birdgirl follows Mya-Rose and her family as they travel the world in search of rare birds and astonishing landscapes. But a shadow moves with them, too—her mother's deepening mental health crisis. In the face of this struggle, the Craigs turn to nature again and again for comfort and meaning.

Each bird they see brings a moment of joy and reflection, instilling in Mya-Rose a deep love of the natural world. But Mya-Rose has also seen first-hand the reckless destruction we are inflicting on our fragile planet, as well as the pervasive racism infecting every corner of the world, leading her to campaign for Black, Indigenous, people of color.

Joining the fight of today's young environmental activists, Mya-Rose shares her experiences to advocate for the simple, profound gift of nature, and for making it accessible to all, calling her readers to rediscover the power of our natural world.
Birder, activist, daughter: this is her story.

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Dinner with the President

Alex Prud'homme

A wonderfully entertaining, often surprising history of presidential taste, from the grim meals eaten by Washington and his starving troops at Valley Forge to Trump’s fast-food burgers and Biden’s ice cream—what they ate, why they ate it, and what it tells us about the state of the nation—from the coauthor of Julia Child’s best-selling memoir My Life in France

The American presidents have been hosts to some of the most significant moments in our history over meals at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And during such occasions, our commanders-in-chief have understood the value of breaking bread with both friends and foes—Thomas Jefferson’s nation-building receptions in the new capital Washington, D.C.; Ulysses S. Grant’s state dinner for the king of Hawaii; Booker T. Washington’s groundbreaking supper with Teddy Roosevelt; Richard Nixon’s practiced use of chopsticks to pry open China; Jimmy Carter’s détente between Israel and Egypt at Camp David.

Here, Alex Prud’homme invites readers into the White House kitchen to reveal the sometimes curious tastes of twenty-six of America’s most influential presidents, how their meals were prepared and by whom, and the ways in which their food policies affected people around the world. As each president grew into his distinguished role, his personal tastes evolved White House menus over time—from simple eggs and black coffee for Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and celebratory turtle soup after, to squirrel stew for Dwight Eisenhower, jelly beans and enchiladas for Ronald Reagan, and arugula for Barack Obama. What our leaders say about food touches on everything from our nation’s shifting diet and local politics to global trade, science, religion, war, class, gender, race, and so much more.

Prud’homme also pulls back the curtain on overlooked figures like George Washington’s enslaved chef, Hercules Posey, whose meals burnished the president’s reputation before the cook narrowly escaped to freedom, or pioneering First Ladies, such as Dolley Madison and Jackie Kennedy, who used food and entertaining to build political and social relationships. As he weaves these stories together, Prud’homme reveals that food is not just fuel when it is served to the most powerful people in the world. It is a tool of communication, a lever of power and persuasion, a form of entertainment, and a symbol of the nation.

Included are ten authentic recipes for favorite presidential dishes, such as:

 

  • Martha Washington’s Preserved Cherries
  • Abraham Lincoln’s Gingerbread Men
  • William H. Taft’s Billy Bi Mussel Soup
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Reverse Martini
  • Lady Bird Johnson’s Pedernales River Chili

 

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Think Like A Decorator

Leslie Banker

A reassuring, idea-filled guide to decorating by interior designer Leslie Banker, enriched by advice and contributions from other prominent decorators.

Interior designer Leslie Banker grew up learning the trade by her decorator mother’s side. The most important thing her mother taught her was that thinking like a decorator means focusing on developing the story of the space and its inhabitants. That story is what gives a place style, depth, character, and its own unique look, as well as—most importantly—makes the people who live there happy. Think Like a Decorator shows readers how to do just that.

Banker teaches readers how to drill down and articulate what appeals to them. She explains how to drop anchors for the project, whether it’s a favorite paint color or an inherited family piece, and what is essential to living comfortably in a home (hint: enough chairs at the dinner table). Banker also covers how to identify what is not working currently (the pile of backpacks that grows at the end of each day in that neglected corner) and how to solve the inevitable issues that will arise (the paint color that turned garish on the wall).

Witty and entertaining, with Q and As from noted designers including Alexa Hampton, Tom Scheerer, Amanda Nisbet, Katie Ridder, and Christopher Spitzmiller, Think Like a Decorator is, ultimately, about how to live happily and well at home.

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3 Days to Live

James Patterson

The people closest to you can be your most dangerous enemies in this heart-pounding collection of 3 brand-new thrillers from the master of suspense.

3 Days to Live: A CIA-agent bride is on her European honeymoon when she and her husband are poisoned--leaving her seventy-two hours to take revenge (with Duane Swierczynski).



Women and Children First: When a deal goes bad on a tech executive in Washington, DC, he turns an order to kill his family into a chance to relive his military glory days (with Bill Schweigart).



The Housekeepers: A Los Angeles doctor trusts her two housekeepers, but when she's murdered in a botched attempt to steal drugs, the pair of grifters vie to control their former employer's estate--facing off against the Russian mob (with Julie Margaret Hogben).

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Someone Else's Shoes

Jojo Moyes

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

“Very few authors have the power to make you laugh on one page and cry on the next. Moyes is one of them.” —The New York Times

A story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances, this is the new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and The Giver of Stars

Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else’s shoes?


Nisha Cantor lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope--she doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in.

That’s because Sam Kemp – in the bleakest point of her life – has accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag--she’s struggling to keep herself and her family afloat. When she tries on Nisha’s six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, the resulting jolt of confidence that makes her realize something must change—and that thing is herself.

Full of Jojo Moyes’ signature humor, brilliant storytelling, and warmth, Someone Else’s Shoes is a story about how just one little thing can suddenly change everything.

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The Climate Book

Greta Thunberg

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

We still have time to change the world. From climate activist Greta Thunberg, comes the essential handbook for making it happen.


You might think it's an impossible task: secure a safe future for life on Earth, at a scale and speed never seen, against all the odds. There is hope - but only if we listen to the science before it's too late.

In The Climate Book, Greta Thunberg has gathered the wisdom of over one hundred experts - geophysicists, oceanographers and meteorologists; engineers, economists and mathematicians; historians, philosophers and indigenous leaders - to equip us all with the knowledge we need to combat climate disaster. Throughout, illuminating and often shocking grayscale charts, graphs, diagrams, photographs, and illustrations underscore their research and their arguments. Alongside them, she shares her own stories of demonstrating and uncovering greenwashing around the world, revealing how much we have been kept in the dark. This is one of our biggest challenges, she shows, but also our greatest source of hope. Once we are given the full picture, how can we not act? And if a schoolchild's strike could ignite a global protest, what could we do collectively if we tried?

We are alive at the most decisive time in the history of humanity. Together, we can do the seemingly impossible. But it has to be us, and it has to be now.

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Unnatural History

Jonathan Kellerman

The most enduring detectives in American crime fiction are back in this electrifying thriller of art and brutality from the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense.

Los Angeles is a city of stark contrast, the palaces of the affluent coexisting uneasily with the hellholes of the mad and the needy. That shadow world and the violence it breeds draw brilliant psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis into an unsettling case of altruism gone wrong.

On a superficially lovely morning, a woman shows up for work with her usual enthusiasm. She’s the newly hired personal assistant to a handsome, wealthy photographer and is ready to greet her boss with coffee and good cheer. Instead, she finds him slumped in bed, shot to death.

The victim had recently received rave media attention for his latest project: images of homeless people in their personal “dream” situations, elaborately costumed and enacting unfulfilled fantasies. There are some, however, who view the whole thing as nothing more than crass exploitation, citing token payments and the victim’s avoidance of any long-term relationships with his subjects.

Has disgruntlement blossomed into homicidal rage? Or do the roots of violence reach down to the victim’s family—a clan, sired by an elusive billionaire, that is bizarre in its own right?

Then new murders arise, and Alex and Milo begin peeling back layer after layer of intrigue and complexity, culminating in one of the deadliest threats they’ve ever faced.

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Spare

Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on.

For Harry, this is that story at last.

Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight.

At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love. 

Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . .

For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

 

 

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Partners in Crime

Alisha Rai

Indian Matchmaking meets Date Night in this fun, romantic adventure by Alisha Rai -- "One of the very brightest romance writers working right now." (Entertainment Weekly)

Mira Patel's got a solid accounting career, good friends, and a whole lot of distance between her and her dysfunctional family. All that's missing is a stable romantic relationship. Armed with a spreadsheet and professional help, she sets out to find her partner in only legal activities, but much to her matchmaker's dismay, no one is quite right.

Including Naveen Desai, the very first match she unceremoniously rejected.

Lately Naveen's been too focused on keeping his sick grandfather's law firm afloat to think about love, and he's stunned when Mira walks back into his life to settle her aunt's affairs. He's determined to keep things professional...though it's impossible not to be intrigued by all of the secrets piling up around Mira.

If getting back together with an ex is a bad idea, getting kidnapped with one is even worse.

Suddenly, Naveen and Mira find themselves in a mad dash through Las Vegas to escape jewel thieves, evade crime bosses, and follow the clues to untangle the mess her family left behind. As her past comes back to haunt her, Mira despairs of ever finding someone who might understand her...but maybe, over the course of one wild night, she'll find that he's right by her side.

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How to Write Like a Writer

Thomas C. Foster

The New York Times bestselling author of the beloved classic How to Read Literature Like a Professor teaches you how to write everything from a report for your community association to a meaningful memoir in this masterful and engaging guide.

Combing anecdotes and hard-won lessons from decades of teaching and writing--and invoking everyone from Hemingway to your third-grade teacher--retired professor Thomas C. Foster guides you through the basics of writing. With How to Write Like a Writer you'll learn how to organize your thoughts, construct first drafts, and (not incidentally) keep you in your chair so that inspiration can come to visit.

With warmth and wit, Foster shows you how to get into (and over) your best self, how to find your voice, and how to know when, if ever, a piece of work is done.

Packed with enlightening anecdotes, highlighted with lists and bullet points, this invaluable guide reveals how writers work their magic, and reminds us that we all--for better or worse, whether we mean to or not--are known by what we put on paper or screen, both our thoughts and our words.

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The Christmas Spirit

Debbie Macomber

Two lifelong friends decide to trade places the week before Christmas and end up finding love along the way in this delightful novel from the queen of holiday stories, #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber.

Peter Armstrong and Hank Colfax are best friends, but their lives couldn’t be more different. Peter, the local pastor who is dedicated to his community, spending time visiting the flock, attending meetings, and, with the holiday season approaching, preparing for the Christmas service and live nativity. As a bartender, Hank serves a much different customer base at his family-owned tavern, including a handful of lonely regulars and the local biker gang. 

When Peter scoffs that Hank has it easy compared to him, the two decide to switch jobs until Christmas Eve. To their surprise, the responsibilities of a bartender and a pastor are similar, but taking on the other’s work is more difficult than either Peter or Hank expected. As the two begin to see each other in a new light—and each discovers a new love to cherish—their lives are forever changed.

In The Christmas Spirit, Debbie Macomber celebrates the true meaning of the holidays and the inclusive community spirit that binds us all.

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The Truth About Crypto

Ric Edelman

A SABEW BEST IN BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS FINALIST

A straightforward, practical guide to the newest frontier in investment strategy—crypto—from #1 New York Times bestselling author and personal finance expert Ric Edelman.


Blockchain and bitcoin are here to stay—and as the Bank of England stated, this new technology could “transform the global financial system.” No wonder PWC says blockchain technology will add $2 trillion to the world’s $80 trillion economy by 2030. Indeed, blockchain technology and the digital assets it makes possible are revolutionary, the most profound innovation for commerce since the invention of the internet.

And yet, the average investor—and the investment advisors who manage two-thirds of all their money—aren’t aware of all this, or of the incredible investment opportunities now available. Fortunately, Ric Edelman, one of the most influential experts in the financial field, shows investors how they can engage and thrive in today’s new investment marketplace.

Featuring the prophetic insights you’d expect from one of most acclaimed financial advisors, The Truth About Crypto is fun to read and easy to understand—and most importantly gives readers the sound, practical advice we all need to succeed with this new asset class. Best of all, Edelman shows how blockchain works, the difference between digital currency and digital assets, and a comprehensive look at every aspect of the field. This book is a must-read guide if you want to achieve investment success today.

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Van Life For Dummies

Sebastian Santabarbara

Give in to the lure of the untethered life as a van lifer

Thousands of people around the world live nomadic lifestyles from the comfort of their vans or campers, free from the worries of having a permanent residence. If this growing alternative lifestyle appeals to you, Van Life For Dummies is your go-to guide for becoming a van lifer. You'll learn to customize your vehicle, adapt to life on the road, and find the peace and adventure you're seeking. This book makes the transition easy, helping you decide what parts of rooted life you need to take with you and what to leave behind.

  • Follow the call of the open road and get started living in your van or camper
  • Choose and customize a vehicle that meets your needs
  • Get answers to the very important question: "where do I use the bathroom?”
  • Build or carry on a career while travelling

Why enjoy life only on your vacation days? Take to the road and enjoy a simplified way of living. Van Life For Dummies demystifies the process and initiates you into the vibrant community of van lifers. Your adventure awaits!

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The Fall Girl

Marcia Clark

Lives and lies are inextricably linked by a high-profile murder trial in The Fall Girl, the latest exhilarating legal thriller from bestselling author Marcia Clark.

 

When Charlie Blair left Chicago behind--and her old life as Lauren Claybourne--for a gig in the Santa Cruz DA's office, things were supposed to be easier. Or at least nothing that a couple of Xanax and a tumbler of vodka couldn't handle. The plan had been working, until the murder of a local bail bondsman Shelly Hansen.

 

Enter: hot-shot prosecutor Erika Lorman, she of the stellar record and unfailing touch with juries, a veritable legend in her own right. Fresh off the prosecution of celebrity chef Blake Steers, the newest resident of California's penitentiary system and perhaps its most high profile, she's thrust back into action alongside her new co-chair from the windy city and ready to do anything to put criminals behind bars.

 

But as the fevered search for answers intensifies and the hunt for a killer continues, secrets from the past threaten to undo not just the case--but Erika and Charlie, too. Expertly plotted and relentlessly paced, The Fall Girl will keep readers guessing until the very end.

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The Polish Girl

Malka Adler

In the eye of the war
That tore the world apart
A mother wants a son
A daughter needs a mother

Winter 1939: Danusha and her family are forced to flee their home when the Nazis invade Poland. Danusha's mother, Anna, changes her name and secures a position as a housekeeper in a German doctor's mansion in Kraków where Gestapo meetings are hosted in the kitchen...

Her secret is their salvation, but what Danusha remembers most is the solitude, with only her baby brother and the girl in the mirror for company.

All Anna ever wanted was a firstborn son. All Danusha ever wanted was a mother who would love her like a firstborn son. Instead she got one who could look a Nazi straight in the eye but not into the eyes of her own daughter.

It is only years later, when their neighbours gather in the living room to hear Anna's stories, that Danusha finally realises her mother was never a cold unknowable sea but a storm-wracked sky - sometimes bright, sometimes dark, and always watching over her.

The Polish Girl is a heartbreaking and unforgettable historical novel by the author of international bestseller The Brothers of Auschwitz - perfect for fans of Antonio Iturbe and Edith Eger.

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The Book Haters' Book Club

Gretchen Anthony

All it takes is the right book to turn a Book Hater into a Book Lover...

That was Elliott's belief and the reason why he started The Book Haters' Book Club--a newsletter of reading recommendations for the self-proclaimed "nonreader." As the beloved co-owner of Over the Rainbow Bookshop, Elliott's passion and gift was recommending books to customers. Now, after his sudden death, his grief-ridden business partner, Irma, has agreed to sell Over the Rainbow to a developer who will turn the cozy bookshop into high-rise condos.

But others won't give up the bookshop without a fight. When Irma breaks the news to her daughters, Bree and Laney, and Elliott's romantic partner, Thom, they are aghast. Over the Rainbow has been Bree and Laney's sanctuary since childhood, and Thom would do anything to preserve Elliott's legacy. Together, Thom, Bree and Laney conspire to save the bookshop, even if it takes some snooping, gossip and minor sabotage.

Filled with humor, family hijinks and actual reading recommendations, The Book Haters' Book Club is the ideal feel-good read. It's a celebration of found family and a love letter to everyday heroes--those booksellers and librarians dedicated to putting the right books in the right hands every day.

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Diana, William, and Harry

James Patterson

Instant New York Times Bestseller!

"She was the best mother in the world," said Princes William and Harry at Diana's 10-year memorial. "Entertaining and persuasive," (Publishers Weekly) this is the first big book about the private Diana, the mother of two princes.

"Royal fans will devour this well-paced biography that gives new insight into the House of Windsor. You'll tear through it by sundown and walk away thinking about the Princess of Wales and her two sons with new perspective ." -Men's Journal

From the moments William and Harry are born into the House of Windsor, they become their young mother's whole world.

I've got two very healthy, strong boys. I realize how incredibly lucky I am, Diana reminds herself every morning. But even the Princess of Wales questions, Am I a good mother?

Diana's faced with a seemingly impossible challenge: one son destined to be King of England and another determined to find his own way. She teaches them to honor royal tradition, even while daring to break it.

"Sometimes I'd like a time machine..." Diana says as William and Harry grow up, never imagining they'd have less than a lifetime together. Even after she's gone, her sons follow their mother's lead--and her heart. As the years pass and William and Harry grow into adulthood and form families of their own, they carry on Diana's name, her likeness, and her incomparable spirit.

"James Patterson applies his writerly skills to real-life history with novelistic style" (People) in this deeply personal and revealing biography of the world's most storied family, from the world's #1 bestselling author.

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Haven

Emma Donoghue

Three men vow to leave the world behind them. They set out in a small boat for an island their leader has seen in a dream, with only faith to guide them. What they find is the extraordinary island now known as Skellig Michael. Haven has Emma Donoghue's trademark world-building and psychological intensity--but this story is like nothing she has ever written before.

In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar and priest called Artt has a dream telling him to leave the sinful world behind. Taking two monks--young Trian and old Cormac--he rows down the river Shannon in search of an isolated spot on which to found a monastery. Drifting out into the Atlantic, the three men find an impossibly steep, bare island inhabited by tens of thousands of birds, and claim it for God. In such a place, what will survival mean?

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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Gabrielle Zevin

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - A JIMMY FALLON BOOK CLUB PICK - In this exhilarating novel by the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry two friends--often in love, but never lovers--come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

Utterly brilliant. In this sweeping, gorgeously written novel, Gabrielle Zevin charts the beauty, tenacity, and fragility of human love and creativity. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is one of the best books I've ever read. --John Green

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.

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The Bodyguard

Katherine Center

Katherine Center's The Bodyguard is “My perfect 10 of a book. As funny and sweet as all the very best nineties rom-coms, but with Center’s signature heart-tugging depth. I wish I could erase it from my mind just to read it again for the first time. A shot of pure joy.”—Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers

She’s got his back.
Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with a wine bottle opener. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a dinner napkin. But the truth is, she’s an Executive Protection Agent (aka "bodyguard"), and she just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker.

He’s got her heart.
Jack Stapleton’s a household name—captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, famous for, among other things, rising out of the waves in all manner of clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity. But a few years back, in the wake of a family tragedy, he dropped from the public eye and went off the grid.

They’ve got a secret.
When Jack’s mom gets sick, he comes home to the family’s Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn’t want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah—against her will and her better judgment—finds herself pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend as a cover. Even though her ex, like a jerk, says no one will believe it.

What could possibly go wrong???
Hannah hardly believes it, herself. But the more time she spends with Jack, the more real it all starts to seem. And there lies the heartbreak. Because it’s easy for Hannah to protect Jack. But protecting her own, long-neglected heart? That’s the hardest thing she’s ever done.

“Great rollicking fun! Prepare to laugh and swoon and grin your pants off.”—Helen Hoang, New York Times bestselling author of The Heart Principle

"Absolutely, unequivocally delightful!"—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wish You Were Here

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The Truth about Ben and June

Alex Kiester

"This powerful novel takes an honest, unflinching look at the challenges of modern parenthood from both sides of a marriage." - Tracey Lange, New York Times bestselling author of We Are the Brennans



A heartfelt debut that explores the complexity of a modern-day marriage when a new mother vanishes one morning and her husband must retrace events of their recent past to bring her home.



Love isn't something that happens to you; it's something you must choose every day.



From the moment Ben and June met in a hospital waiting room on New Year's Eve, their love has seemed fated. Looking back at all the tiny, unlikely decisions that brought them together, it was easy to believe their relationship was special. But now, after several years of marriage, June is struggling as a new mom. At times, she wonders about the life she didn't choose--what might have been if she hadn't given up the lead role in a famous ballet to start a family. Feeling like a bad mom and more alone than ever, she writes to her deceased mother, hoping for a sign of what she should do next.



One morning, Ben wakes to the sound of his baby and quickly realizes that June is gone, along with her suitcase. As Ben attempts to piece together June's disappearance, her new friends mention things he knows nothing about--a mysterious petition, June's falling-out with another mom, her strange fixation on a Greek myth. The more Ben uncovers about June, the more he realizes how little he actually knows her. And now the only way to bring June home is to understand why she left.



Told through alternating perspectives of husband and wife, The Truth About Ben and June is a witty and wise page-turner about life's many crossroads and a heartfelt reminder that we create our own destiny.

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Aura of Night

Heather Graham

True evil never dies. It only waits in the dark.

All book editor Megan Law wants is to bury the memory of her brutal kidnapping and move on with her life. So when her publisher asks her to spin her hellish experience into the next bestseller, Megan agrees only because it might help keep other women safe. Then a mysterious, gruesome package arrives in the mail--a reminder that the nightmare isn't over just yet.

FBI investigator Ragnar Johnson is running out of time. He knows in his gut there's more to the recent Embracer killings, and he needs Megan's help. Even with their rocky past behind them, working together now isn't going to be easy. But when things take a deadly turn, Megan and Ragnar discover a deep connection that they'll have to use, because something is trying to tear them apart...forever.

"Tightly woven... Delivers a cunning mystery." --Caffeinated Reviewer on Seeing Darkness

Krewe of Hunters

Book 1: Phantom Evil
Book 2: Heart of Evil
Book 3: Sacred Evil
Book 4: The Evil Inside
Book 5: The Unseen
Book 6: The Unholy
Book 7: The Unspoken
Book 8: The Uninvited
Book 9: THE NIGHT IS WATCHING
Book 10: The Night Is Alive
Book 11: THE NIGHT IS FOREVER
Book 12: The Cursed
Book 13: The Hexed
Book 14: The Betrayed
Book 15: The Silenced
Book 16: The Forgotten
Book 17: The Hidden
Book 18: Haunted Destiny
Book 19: Deadly Fate
Book 20: Darkest Journey
Book 21: Dying Breath
Book 22: Dark Rites
Book 23: Wicked Deeds
Book 24: Fade to Black
Book 25: Pale as Death
Book 26: Echoes of Evil
Book 27: The Summoning
Book 28: The Seekers
Book 29: The Stalking
Book 30: Seeing Darkness
Book 31: Deadly Touch
Book 32: Dreaming Death
Book 33: The Unforgiven
Book 34: The Forbidden
Book 35: The Unknown
Book 36: Sound of Darkness
Book 37: Aura of Night
Book 38: Voice of Fear

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Summer Island

Shelley Noble

New York Times bestselling author Shelley Noble pens a heartwarming story of a mother-daughter road trip to the beach and to self-discovery.

When reporter Phoebe Adams loses her job and her fiancé on the same day, it never occurs to her that she'll also have to support her mother, Ruth, through her divorce from Phoebe's father after thirty-five years of marriage. They both need a safe haven, and Phoebe knows just the place--Summer Island where Grandma Alice still rules the roost from the big New England beach house Phoebe and Ruth once called home.

But "home" has changed. There's a trendy new look downtown. Large beach houses are replacing the old; the Harken house next door is in disrepair.

Phoebe's plan for a peaceful retreat is quickly hijacked when globe-trotting Great Aunt Vera makes an unannounced pit stop. With Vera around, no one can stay morose for long, not even Lars, the grumpy widower next door, or his son Ty, formerly geeky middle child all grown up into a handsome and enigmatic man. Soon they're all enjoying things they used to do and discovering new ones. Each adventure opens a part of themselves they've neglected for too long and brings them closer together.

But when an accident threatens to destroy the tenuous tie between them, Phoebe realizes how fragile life can be, and that she has some serious choices to make about her own life. It will take the support of her newly awakened family and the magic of Summer Island for Phoebe to embrace the challenge of an unexpected future and to trust her own heart.

In Summer Island, Shelley Noble once again creates a thought-provoking and life-affirming beach read that will stay with you long after the last tan of summer fades.

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Summer on the Island

Brenda Novak

"Welcome spring with the newest treat from Brenda Novak. This is the book her fans, old and new, have been waiting for. A big, tantalizing read!"--Susan Elizabeth Phillips, New York Times bestselling author



A summer of healing, friendship, love...and a secret that could change everything.



After the death of her US senator father, Marlow Madsen travels to the small island off the coast of Florida where she spent summers growing up to help her mother settle the family estate. For Marlow, the trip is a chance to reconnect after too long apart. It's also the perfect escape to help her feel grounded again--one she's happy to share with friends Aida and Claire, who are hoping to hit reset on their lives, too.



A leisurely beachfront summer promises the trio of women the opportunity to take deep healing breaths and explore new paths. But when her father's will reveals an earth-shattering secret that tarnishes his impeccable reputation and everything she thought she knew about her family, Marlow finds herself questioning her entire childhood--and aspects of her future. Fortunately, her friends, and the most unlikely love interest she could imagine, prove that happiness can be found no matter what--as long as the right people are by your side.
 

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Horse

Geraldine Brooks

“Brooks’ chronological and cross-disciplinary leaps are thrilling.” —The New York Times Book Review

Horse isn’t just an animal story—it’s a moving narrative about race and art.” —TIME

A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history


Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack. 
 
New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.
 
Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse—one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.
 
Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.

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The House on Firefly Beach

Jenny Hale

Fans of Susan Mallery and Mary Alice Monroe will fall in love with this gorgeous, heartwarming summer escape from the USA Today bestselling author of The Summer House.



For Sydney Flynn, Starlight Cottage is her sanctuary. And now, her treasured family home at Firefly Beach is the perfect place for her fresh start. That is, until she spies Nate Henderson. As teenagers, Sydney and Nate promised each other forever. But Sydney has never forgotten how her childhood sweetheart ended their relationship with no explanation. She's spent the last decade piecing herself back together and trying to figure out exactly what went wrong.



But the Nate Henderson she once knew, the down-to-earth son of a fisherman, always in beach T-shirts and flip-flops, is well and truly gone. In his place is a successful songwriter, with swanky designer suits, who has no business in the small town she calls home. Nate says he wants to make amends with Sydney, yet how can she find it in her heart to forgive him?



When a new development threatens her beloved Starlight Cottage, Sydney needs all the help she can get--even Nate's. Can they overcome their past to save Firefly Beach and the house that holds so many memories for them? Or will the town they adore, and the love they had for each other, be lost forever?

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The Messy Lives of Book People

Phaedra Patrick

In the winning new novel from the beloved author of The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, the house cleaner of a famous reclusive author must carry out her employer's life-changing last wish...

Have you ever wished you were someone else?

Mother of two Liv Green barely scrapes by as a maid to make ends meet, often finding escape in a good book while daydreaming of becoming a writer herself. So she can't believe her luck when she lands a job housekeeping for her personal hero, megabestselling author Essie Starling, a mysterious and intimidating recluse. The last thing Liv expected was to be the only person Essie talks to, which leads to a tenuous friendship.

But when Essie dies suddenly, a devastated Liv is astonished to learn of her last wish: for Liv to complete Essie's final novel. But to do so Liv will have to step into Essie's shoes, and as Liv begins to write, she uncovers secrets from the past that reveal a surprising connection between the two women--one that will change Liv's own story forever...

Look for Phaedra Patrick's previous charming bestsellers!

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone
The Library of Lost and Found
The Secrets of Love Story Bridge

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Companion Piece

Ali Smith

 

Award-winning author Ali Smith again lights a way for us through the nightmarish now with a provocative novel grounded both in the contemporary era and in the uncannily familiar era of the Black Plague. Companion Piece stands apart from her astonishing Seasonal Quartet, which remains discrete unto itself. But like Smith's groundbreaking series, this new novel boldly captures the spirit of the times.

"A woman receives an unexpected call from a former classmate asking for help deciphering a puzzling interaction, and from there, Smith spins out a broader story about loneliness, refuge and freedom. --The New York Times Book Review

Lyrical and timely . . . Smith's novel will push readers to consider what it means to let people into your life, even when you don't want to."
--TIME


A story is never an answer. A story is always a question.

 

Here we are in extraordinary times.
Is this history?

What happens when we cease to trust governments, the media, each other?
What have we lost?
What stays with us?
What does it take to unlock our future?

"Every hello, like every voice, holds its story ready, waiting."

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Summer Island

Shelley Noble

New York Times bestselling author Shelley Noble pens a heartwarming story of a mother-daughter road trip to the beach and to self-discovery.

When reporter Phoebe Adams loses her job and her fiancé on the same day, it never occurs to her that she'll also have to support her mother, Ruth, through her divorce from Phoebe's father after thirty-five years of marriage. They both need a safe haven, and Phoebe knows just the place--Summer Island where Grandma Alice still rules the roost from the big New England beach house Phoebe and Ruth once called home.

But "home" has changed. There's a trendy new look downtown. Large beach houses are replacing the old; the Harken house next door is in disrepair.

Phoebe's plan for a peaceful retreat is quickly hijacked when globe-trotting Great Aunt Vera makes an unannounced pit stop. With Vera around, no one can stay morose for long, not even Lars, the grumpy widower next door, or his son Ty, formerly geeky middle child all grown up into a handsome and enigmatic man. Soon they're all enjoying things they used to do and discovering new ones. Each adventure opens a part of themselves they've neglected for too long and brings them closer together.

But when an accident threatens to destroy the tenuous tie between them, Phoebe realizes how fragile life can be, and that she has some serious choices to make about her own life. It will take the support of her newly awakened family and the magic of Summer Island for Phoebe to embrace the challenge of an unexpected future and to trust her own heart.

In Summer Island, Shelley Noble once again creates a thought-provoking and life-affirming beach read that will stay with you long after the last tan of summer fades.

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In Love

Amy Bloom

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A powerful memoir of a love that leads two people to find a courageous way to part—and a woman’s struggle to go forward in the face of loss—that “enriches the reader’s life with urgency and gratitude” (The Washington Post)

“A pleasure to read . . . Rarely has a memoir about death been so full of life. . . . Bloom has a talent for mixing the prosaic and profound, the slapstick and the serious.”—USA Today


ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Oprah Daily, BookPage


Amy Bloom began to notice changes in her husband, Brian: He retired early from a new job he loved; he withdrew from close friendships; he talked mostly about the past. Suddenly, it seemed there was a glass wall between them, and their long walks and talks stopped. Their world was altered forever when an MRI confirmed what they could no longer ignore: Brian had Alzheimer’s disease.

Forced to confront the truth of the diagnosis and its impact on the future he had envisioned, Brian was determined to die on his feet, not live on his knees. Supporting each other in their last journey together, Brian and Amy made the unimaginably difficult and painful decision to go to Dignitas, an organization based in Switzerland that empowers a person to end their own life with dignity and peace.

In this heartbreaking and surprising memoir, Bloom sheds light on a part of life we so often shy away from discussing—its ending. Written in Bloom’s captivating, insightful voice and with her trademark wit and candor, In Love is an unforgettable portrait of a beautiful marriage, and a boundary-defying love.

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You Have a Friend in 10a

Maggie Shipstead

 

From the Booker Prize nominee and New York Times best-selling author of Great Circle, a piercing, irresistible first collection of short stories exquisite in their craft and audacious in their range

 

A love triangle plays out over decades on a Montana dude ranch. A hurdler and a gymnast spend a single night together in the Olympic village. Mistakes and mysteries weave an intangible web around an old man's deathbed in Paris, connecting disparate destinies. On the slopes of an unfinished ski resort, a young woman searches for her vanished lover. A couple's Romanian honeymoon goes ominously awry, and, in the mesmerizing title story, a former child actress breaks with her life in a Hollywood cult.

In these and other stories, knockout after knockout, Maggie Shipstead delivers another "extraordinary" (New York Times) work of fiction and seals her reputation as a writer of "breathtaking range and skill" (Kirkus Reviews). Rich in imagination and dazzling in its shapeshifting style, You Have a Friend in 10A excavates the complexities of love, sex, and life in ways unsparing and hilarious, sharp-eyed and tender.

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To Boldly Grow

Tamar Haspel

A love-letter to the unexpected delights (and occasional despair) of so-called “first-hand food”—meals we grow, forage, fish, or even hunt from the world around us. To Boldly Grow is “part memoir, part how-to guide and wholly delightful” (Washington Post).

Journalist and self-proclaimed “crappy gardener” Tamar Haspel is on a mission: to show us that raising or gathering our own food is not as hard as it’s often made out to be. When she and her husband move from Manhattan to two acres on Cape Cod, they decide to adopt a more active approach to their diet: raising chickens, growing tomatoes, even foraging for mushrooms and hunting their own meat. They have more ambition than practical know-how, but that’s not about to stop them from trying…even if sometimes their reach exceeds their (often muddy) grasp.

With “first-hand food” as her guiding principle, Haspel embarks on a grand experiment to stop relying on experts to teach her the ropes (after all, they can make anything grow), and start using her own ingenuity and creativity. Some of her experiments are a rousing success (refining her own sea salt). Others are a spectacular failure (the turkey plucker engineered from an old washing machine). Filled with practical tips and hard-won wisdom, To Boldly Grow allows us to journey alongside Haspel as she goes from cluelessness to competence, learning to scrounge dinner from the landscape around her and discovering that a direct connection to what we eat can utterly change the way we think about our food--and ourselves.

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Burning Questions

Margaret Atwood

"From literary icon Margaret Atwood comes a ... collection of nonfiction--funny, erudite, intimate, impassioned, and always startlingly prescient--which grapples with such wide-ranging topics as: Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories? How do we get rid of the immense amount of plastic that's littering our seas and lands? How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating? Is science fiction now writing us? So what if beauty is only skin deep? What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism?"--

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Four Aunties and a Wedding

Jesse Q. Sutanto

 

The aunties are back, fiercer than ever and ready to handle any catastrophe--even the mafia--in this delightful and hilarious sequel by Jesse Q. Sutanto, author of Dial A for Aunties.
Meddy Chan has been to countless weddings, but she never imagined how her own would turn out. Now the day has arrived, and she can't wait to marry her college sweetheart, Nathan. Instead of having Ma and the aunts cater to her wedding, Meddy wants them to enjoy the day as guests. As a compromise, they find the perfect wedding vendors: a Chinese-Indonesian family-run company just like theirs. Meddy is hesitant at first, but she hits it off right away with the wedding photographer, Staphanie, who reminds Meddy of herself, down to the unfortunately misspelled name.

Meddy realizes that is where their similarities end, however, when she overhears Staphanie talking about taking out a target. Horrified, Meddy can't believe Staphanie and her family aren't just like her own, they are The Family--actual mafia, and they're using Meddy's wedding as a chance to conduct shady business. Her aunties and mother won't let Meddy's wedding ceremony become a murder scene--over their dead bodies--and will do whatever it takes to save her special day, even if it means taking on the mafia.

 

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Booth

Karen Joy Fowler

From the Man Booker finalist and bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves comes an epic and intimate novel about the family behind one of the most infamous figures in American history: John Wilkes Booth.

In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear ten children over the course of the next sixteen years. Junius Booth—breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one—is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war.

As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country’s leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.

Booth is a startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vivid exploration of the ties that make, and break, a family.

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The Horsewoman

James Patterson

Emotions rule us all--and turn two women's lives into a ride they can barely control in this "hugely entertaining, riveting page-turner." --#1 bestselling author Louise Penny



Maggie Atwood and Becky McCabe, mother and daughter, both champion riders, vowed to never, ever, go up against one another.



Until the tense, harrowing competitions leading to the Paris Olympics.



Mother and daughter share a dream: to be the best horsewoman in the world.



Coronado is Maggie's horse. An absolutely top-tier Belgian warmblood.

Sky is Becky's horse. A small, speedy Dutch warmblood.



Only James Patterson could bring you such breakneck speed, hair-raising thrills and spills.



Only hall of fame sportswriter Mike Lupica could make it all so real.

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Something to Hide

Elizabeth George

An Instant New York Times Bestseller!

Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers and Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley are back in the next Lynley novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George.


When a police detective is taken off life support after falling into a coma, only an autopsy reveals the murderous act that precipitated her death. She'd been working on a special task force within North London's Nigerian community, and Acting Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley is assigned to the case, which has far-reaching cultural associations that have nothing to do with life as he knows it. In his pursuit of a killer determined to remain hidden, he's assisted by Detective Sergeants Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata. They must sort through the lies and the secret lives of people whose superficial cooperation masks the damage they do to one another.

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The Hag

Marc Eliot

The definitive biography of country legend Merle Haggard by the New York Times bestselling biographer of Clint Eastwood, Cary Grant, The Eagles, and more.

Merle Haggard was one of the most important country music musicians who ever lived. His astonishing musical career stretched across the second half of the 20th Century and into the first two decades of the next, during which he released an extraordinary 63 albums, 38 that made it on to Billboard's Country Top Ten, 13 that went to #1, and 37 #1 hit singles. With his ample songbook, unique singing voice and brilliant phrasing that illuminated his uncompromising commitment to individual freedom, cut with the monkey of personal despair on his back and a chip the size of Monument Valley on his shoulder, Merle's music and his extraordinary charisma helped change the look, the sound, and the fury of American music.

The Hag tells, without compromise, the extraordinary life of Merle Haggard, augmented by deep secondary research, sharp detail and ample anecdotal material that biographer Marc Eliot is known for, and enriched and deepened by over 100 new and far-ranging interviews. It explores the uniquely American life of an angry rebellious boy from the wrong side of the tracks bound for a life of crime and a permanent home in a penitentiary, who found redemption through the music of "the common man."

Merle Haggard's story is a great American saga of a man who lifted himself out of poverty, oppression, loss and wanderlust, to catapult himself into the pantheon of American artists admired around the world. Eliot has interviewed more than 100 people who knew Haggard, worked with him, were influenced by him, loved him or hated him. The book celebrates the accomplishments and explore the singer's infamous dark side: the self-created turmoil that expressed itself through drugs, women, booze, and betrayal. The Hag offers a richly anecdotal narrative that will elevate the life and work of Merle Haggard to where both properly belong, in the pantheon of American music and letters.

The Hag is the definitive account of this unique American original, and will speak to readers of country music and rock biographies alike.

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