“One can follow the sun, of course, but I have always thought that it is best to know some winter, too, so that the summer, when it arrives, is the more gratefully received.” – Beatriz Williams, Along the Infinite Sea
As the Wicked Watch by Tamron Hall
Fiction / Mystery / Suspense.
When crime reporter Jordan Manning leaves her hometown in Texas to take a job at a television station in Chicago, she’s one step closer to her dream: a coveted anchor chair on a national network.
Jordan is smart and aggressive, with unabashed star-power, and often the only woman of color in the newsroom. Her signature? Arriving first on the scene—in impractical designer stilettos. Armed with a master’s degree in forensic science and impeccable instincts, Jordan has thus far been able to balance her dueling motivations: breaking every big story—and giving voice to the voiceless.
From her time reporting in Texas, she’s sure she has covered the vilest of human behaviors, but nothing has prepared her for Chicago. You see, Jordan is that rare breed of journalist who can navigate a crime scene as well as she can a newsroom—often noticing what others tend to miss. Again and again, she is called to cover the murders of black females, many of them sexually assaulted, most brutalized, and all of them quickly forgotten.
All until Masey James—the story that Jordan just can’t shake, try as she might. A fifteen-year-old girl whose body was found in an abandoned lot, Masey has come to represent for Jordan all of the frustration that her job—with its required distance—often forces her to repress. Putting the rest of her workload and her (fraying) personal life aside, Jordan does everything she can to give the story the coverage it desperately requires, and that a missing black child would so rarely get. Three young boys are eventually charged with Masey’s murder, but Jordan remains unconvinced.
There’s a serial killer on the loose, Jordan believes, and he’s hiding in plain sight.
Description from Goodreads.
“As the Wicked Watch is a very strong debut from an author with a voice that I’m very much looking forward to hearing more from.” – Mystery & Suspense
“…outstanding… Hall brings insight and nuance to such matters as journalism ethics, police treatment of murder cases involving Black women, and competition among journalists and their reliance on those behind the scenes. Readers will want to see a lot more of intelligent, ambitious, and assertive Jordan.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“A pulse-pounding story that also provides a fascinating and important look into the difficulties of reporting on and finding justice for Black victims. Emmy Award–winning Hall’s extensive background as a TV journalist, including reporting for NBC and anchoring for MSNBC, infuses a great deal of credibility and behind-the-scenes verve to her first crime novel.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
Print Book | eBook
Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life by Alan Cumming
Nonfiction / Memoir.
There is absolutely no logical reason why I am here. The life trajectory my nationality and class and circumstances portended for me was not even remotely close to the one I now navigate. But logic is a science and living is an art.
The release I felt in writing my first memoir, Not My Father’s Son, was matched only by how my speaking out empowered so many to engage with their own trauma. I was reminded of the power of my words and the absolute duty of authenticity.
But…
No one ever fully recovers from their past. There is no cure for it. You just learn to manage and prioritize it. I believe the second you feel you have triumphed or overcome something – an abuse, an injury to the body or the mind, an addiction, a character flaw, a habit, a person – you have merely decided to stop being vigilant and embraced denial as your modus operandi. And that is what this book is about, and for: to remind you not to buy in to the Hollywood ending.
Ironically maybe, much of Baggage chronicles my life in Hollywood and how, since I recovered from a nervous breakdown at 28, work has repeatedly whisked me away from personal calamities to sets and stages around the world. It is also about marriage(s): starting with the break-up of my first (to a woman) and ending with the ascension to my second (to a man) with many kissed toads in between! But in everything, each failed relationship or encounter with a legend (Liza! X Men! Gore Vidal! Kubrick! Spice Girls!), in every bad decision or moment of sensual joy I have endeavored to show what I have learned and how I’ve become who I am today: a happy, flawed, vulnerable, fearless middle-aged man, with a lot of baggage.
Description from Goodreads.
“Actor Cumming returns with a series of revealing and witty reflections on coming to terms with his demons rather than conquering them… Engaging and often funny, this surprisingly deep work beguiles with its sharp observations and earnest life lessons.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Thoughtful, candid revelations join with intimate confessions while Cumming’s witty repartee never falters. Regardless of his traumatic past, the memoir lifts the veil on a happier man who has ‘transcended and bloomed.’ With heartfelt anecdotes and an honest perspective, Cumming shares the struggles and joys of a fulfilling life while making peace with the baggage of a troubled past. Cathartic and revelatory, Cumming’s memoir will fascinate fans and those who relate to his internal struggle.” – Kirkus Reviews
Available Formats:
Print Book | Audiobook | eBook | eAudiobook
Better Off Dead by Lee Child & Andrew Child
Fiction / Suspense.
Reacher never backs down from a problem.
And he’s about to find a big one, on a deserted road in Arizona, where a car has crashed into the only tree for miles around.
Minutes later, Reacher is heading into town. To introduce himself to the shadowy crew who made it happen.
Their boss has a terrifying reputation and the stakes are high. Just to get in and meet him, Reacher is going to have to achieve the impossible.
To get answers will be even harder. There are people in this hostile, empty place who would rather die than reveal their secrets.
But then, if Reacher is coming after you, you might be better off dead.
Description from Goodreads.
“Superb… Smart writing, vivid action scenes, and dramatic twists mark this seamless effort. Even those for whom this is their first Reacher novel will be clamoring for more.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Jack Reacher is the man!… A solid story with lots of action keeps the reader engaged throughout.” – Red Carpet Crash
Available Formats:
Print Book | Audiobook | Playaway | eBook | eAudiobook
Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane by Paul Auster
Nonfiction / Biography / Literature.
With Burning Boy, celebrated novelist Paul Auster tells the extraordinary story of Stephen Crane, best known as the author of The Red Badge of Courage, who transformed American literature through an avalanche of original short stories, novellas, poems, journalism, and war reportage before his life was cut short by tuberculosis at age twenty-eight.
Auster’s probing account of this singular life tracks Crane as he rebounds from one perilous situation to the next: A controversial article written at twenty disrupts the course of the 1892 presidential campaign, a public battle with the New York police department over the false arrest of a prostitute effectively exiles him from the city, a star-crossed love affair with an unhappily married uptown girl tortures him, a common-law marriage to the proprietress of Jacksonville’s most elegant bawdyhouse endures, a shipwreck results in his near drowning, he withstands enemy fire to send dispatches from the Spanish-American War, and then he relocates to England, where Joseph Conrad becomes his closest friend and Henry James weeps over his tragic, early death.
In Burning Boy, Auster not only puts forth an immersive read about an unforgettable life but also, casting a dazzled eye on Crane’s astonishing originality and productivity, provides uniquely knowing insight into Crane’s creative processes to produce the rarest of reading experiences—the dramatic biography of a brilliant writer as only another literary master could tell it.
Description from Goodreads.
“A labor of love of a rare kind in contemporary letters… Auster is often sharp-eyed and revealing about the details of Crane’s writing.” – The New Yorker
“Incandescent… Auster writes with such enrapturing vibrancy, expertise, and empathy that his biography serves as an intensive course in attentive, inquisitive reading as well as a thrillingly insightful and resonant portrait of a young artist.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Beguiling… Auster’s sprawling narrative combines punchy writing and shrewd analysis with an exuberant passion for his subject. The result is a definitive biography of a great writer.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
Print Book
The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan
Fiction / Romance / Holiday.
When the department store she works in closes for good, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. She doesn’t want to move in with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered Edinburgh life.
Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want Carmen there either. Her sister has always been sarcastic and difficult. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs a retail assistant for his ailing bookshop, so welcoming Carmen might still have some benefits for everyone.
At Sofia’s behest, Carmen is thrown into the daily workings of old Mr. McCredie’s ancient bookshop on the streets of the old dark city. Can she use her design skills to revamp the store and bring it back to popularity in time to benefit from Christmas shopping traffic? Can she choose between bad boy literary rock star Blair and quiet Quaker student Oke? And will she heal the rift with the most important people of all: her family?
Description from Goodreads.
“It wouldn’t be Christmas without a new Jenny Colgan!” – Never Enough Novels
“Get ready to root for these charming characters as they bungle their way toward a merry Christmas.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] really well-written, character focused novel, with a main character you root for as you read the book.” – Red Carpet Crash
Available Formats:
Print Book | eBook
Cooking at Home: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Recipes (and Love My Microwave) by David Chang & Priya Krishna
Nonfiction / Food / Cooking.
The chef of Momofuku cooks at home… and that means breaking the rules that chefs, magazines, and everyone else tell you about, so you can get a great dinner done fast.
Being a chef can make you the worst kind of home cook. Either you’re too fussy when dinner just needs to be on the table or, as Momofuku chef Dave Chang will tell you about his early years in the industry, you just… never cook at home.
But now, with a family to feed, Dave faces the same challenges as any home cook: how to make something as delicious as possible, in the least amount of time possible, with as little mess as possible. It’s no time for meticulous searing or searching for the perfect medium rare.
This is his guide to the culinary dark arts of substituting, adapting, shortcutting, and sandbagging, like par-cooking chicken in the microwave before showing you seven ways to blast it with flavor in a four-minute stir-fry or a ten-minute stew, because he is as tired as you are of doing things the hard way.
Description from Goodreads.
“[Drives] home the point that in any kitchen nothing is sacred, everything is personal, and you don’t need to please anyone but yourself (and possibly the people you live with).” – Wall Street Journal
“There’s definitely a fair share of cookbooks on the market, but none like this one that actually encourages you to let loose in the kitchen and have fun with it.” – SheKnows
“For the home cook, it seems like the professional chef can take any ingredients and produce a full, delicious meal. In Cooking at Home, Chang and Krishna teach you how to do just that.” – Insider
Available Formats:
Print Book
The First Shots: The Epic Rivalries and Heroic Science Behind the Race to the Coronavirus Vaccine by Brendan Borrell
Nonfiction / Science / Current Events.
Heroic science. Chaotic politics. Billionaire entrepreneurs. Award-winning journalist Brendan Borrell brings the defining story of our times alive through compulsively readable, first-time reporting on the players leading the fight against a vicious virus. The First Shots, soon to be the subject of an HBO limited series with superstar director and producer Adam McKay (Succession, Vice, The Big Short), draws on exclusive, high-level access to weave together the intense vaccine-race conflicts among hard-driving, heroic scientists and the epic rivalries among Washington power players that shaped 18 months of fear, resolve, and triumph.
From infectious disease expert Michael Callahan, an American doctor secretly on the ground in Wuhan in January 2020 to gauge the terrifying ravages of Disease X; to Robert (Dr. Bob) Kadlec, one of Operation Warp Speed’s architects, whose audacious plans for the American people run straight into the buzz saw of the Trump White House factions; to Stéphane Bancel of upstart Moderna Therapeutics going toe-to-toe with pharma behemoth Pfizer, The First Shots lays bare, in a way we have not seen, the full stunning story behind the medical science “moon shot” of our lifetimes.
Description from Goodreads.
“A powerful behind-the-scenes look at Operation Warp Speed… a page-turning introduction to a key part of the pandemic.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“A vivid portrait of the combination of drudgery, greed, legerdemain, and brilliance that made the vaccines a reality in record time… a meticulous, thrilling account.” – Kirkus Reviews
Available Formats:
Print Book
The Genome Defense: Inside the Epic Legal Battle to Determine Who Owns Your DNA by Jorge L. Contreras
Nonfiction / Current Events / Law / Science.
When attorney Chris Hansen learned that the U.S. government was issuing patents for human genes to biotech companies, his first thought was, How can a corporation own what makes us who we are? Then he discovered that women were being charged exorbitant fees to test for hereditary breast and ovarian cancers, tests they desperately needed—all because Myriad Genetics had patented the famous BRCA genes. So he sued them.
Jorge L. Contreras, one of the nation’s foremost authorities on human genetics law, has devoted years to investigating the groundbreaking civil rights case known as AMP v. Myriad. In The Genome Defense Contreras gives us the view from inside as Hansen and his team of ACLU lawyers, along with a committed group of activists, scientists, and physicians, take their one-in-a-million case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Contreras interviewed more than a hundred key players involved in all aspects of the case—from judges and policy makers to ethicists and genetic counselors, as well as cancer survivors and those whose lives would be impacted by the decision—expertly weaving together their stories into a fascinating narrative of this pivotal moment in history.
The Genome Defense is a powerful and compelling story about how society must balance scientific discovery with corporate profits and the rights of all people.
Description from Goodreads.
“Eye-opening… Contreras brings the large cast of case participants to life with vivid prose, and the exciting final spectacle before the Supreme Court is heart-pumping… a thorough page-turner.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“A superb lesson on patents in general and the grotesque American patent system in particular… Contreras assembles a large cast of lawyers, judges, activists, scientists, and patients and engagingly describes four years of tortuous legal action… Fascinating.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
Print Book | eBook | Hoopla eBook
Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest
Fiction / Mystery.
Meet Leda Foley: devoted friend, struggling travel agent, and inconsistent psychic. When Leda, sole proprietor of Foley’s Flights of Fancy, impulsively re-books Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt’s flight, her life changes in ways she couldn’t have predicted.
After watching his original plane blow up from the safety of the airport, Grady realizes that Leda’s special abilities could help him with a cold case he just can’t crack.
Despite her scattershot premonitions, she agrees for a secret reason: her fiancé’s murder remains unsolved. Leda’s psychic abilities couldn’t help the case several years before, but she’s been honing her skills and drawing a crowd at her favorite bar’s open-mic nights, where she performs Klairvoyant Karaoke—singing whatever song comes to mind when she holds people’s personal effects. Now joined by a rag-tag group of bar patrons and pals alike, Leda and Grady set out to catch a killer—and learn how the two cases that haunt them have more in common than they ever suspected.
Description from Goodreads.
“[A] frothy blend of paranormal cozy and off-the-books police procedural… Readers will hope this is the start of a series.” – Publishers Weekly
“Cherie Priest’s work never fails to delight. Grave Reservations is chock full of fun characters, action and sparky, spunky humor. Leda Foley and Niki Nelson are terrific creations who hopefully will appear again soon.” – Authorlink
“Grave Reservations has everything I love in a quirky mystery—a psychic travel agent, a cold case she’s helping to crack for the Seattle PD, and, of course, a body count. Sprinkle in a ragtag supporting cast and some karaoke, and you’ve got a fun detective romp with a supernatural twist, coming out just in time for Halloween!” – Off the Shelf
Available Formats:
Print Book | eBook
Mango, Mambo, and Murder by Raquel V. Reyes
Fiction / Mystery.
Food anthropologist Miriam Quinones-Smith’s move from New York to Coral Shores, Miami, is traumatic enough without having to deal with her son’s toddler tantrums and her husband’s midlife crisis. Her best friend, Alma, adds some spice back into Miriam’s life when she offers her a job as an on-air cooking expert on a Spanish-language morning TV show. But when the newly minted star attends a Women’s Club luncheon, a socialite sitting at her table suddenly falls face-first into the chicken salad, never to nibble again.
When a second woman dies soon after, suspicions coalesce around a controversial Cuban herbalist, Dr. Fuentes–especially after the morning show’s host collapses while interviewing him. But then, Detective Pullman learns that the socialite’s death resulted from a drug overdose–and an anonymous tip fingers Alma as the pusher.
Pullman persuades Miriam to ply her culinary know-how and her understanding of Coral Shores’s Caribbean culture to help find the killer and clear Alma’s name. While her hubby dallies with his ex-girlfriend, Juliet, Miriam quizzes her neighbors for answers and researches all manner of herbs.
As the ingredients to the deadly scheme begin blending together, Miriam is on the verge of learning how and why the women died. But her snooping may turn out to be a recipe for her own murder.
Description from Goodreads.
“Mystery fans will instantly be pulled into this one.” – Reader’s Digest
“Mango, Mambo, and Murder has everything you look for in a cozy mystery but also feels like a breath of fresh air… Dig into this inviting, suspenseful feast for the senses.” – BookPage, STARRED REVIEW
“Raquel V. Reyes’s series debut, Mango, Mambo, and Murder, furthers my belief that the cozy mystery has become one of the most diverse, and most vibrant, in contemporary crime fiction.” – New York Times
Available Formats:
Hoopla eBook | Hoopla eAudiobook
Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge
Fiction / Mystery / Historical Fiction.
Tucked away among Devon’s rolling green hills, Mallowan Hall combines the best of English tradition with the modern conveniences of 1930. Housekeeper Phyllida Bright, as efficient as she is personable, manages the large household with an iron fist in her very elegant glove. In one respect, however, Mallowan Hall stands far apart from other picturesque country houses…
The manor is home to archaeologist Max Mallowan and his famous wife, Agatha Christie. Phyllida is both loyal to and protective of the crime writer, who is as much friend as employer. An aficionado of detective fiction, Phyllida has yet to find a gentleman in real life half as fascinating as Mrs. Agatha’s Belgian hero, Hercule Poirot. But though accustomed to murder and its methods as frequent topics of conversation, Phyllida is unprepared for the sight of a very real, very dead body on the library floor…
A former Army nurse, Phyllida reacts with practical common sense–and a great deal of curiosity. It soon becomes clear that the victim arrived at Mallowan Hall under false pretenses during a weekend party. Now, Phyllida not only has a houseful of demanding guests on her hands–along with a distracted, anxious staff–but hordes of reporters camping outside. When another dead body is discovered–this time, one of her housemaids–Phyllida decides to follow in M. Poirot’s footsteps to determine which of the Mallowans’ guests is the killer. With help from the village’s handsome physician, Dr. Bhatt, Mr. Dobble, the butler, along with other household staff, Phyllida assembles the clues. Yet, she is all too aware that the killer must still be close at hand and poised to strike again. And only Phyllida’s wits will prevent her own story from coming to an abrupt end…
Description from Goodreads.
“[A] solid series launch… readers will want to see more of the clever Phyllida.” – Publishers Weekly
“…entertaining and an excellent beginning for a new series.” – Mystery & Suspense
Available Formats:
Print Book | Hoopla eBook | Hoopla eAudiobook
The Secret of Snow by Viola Shipman
Fiction / Romance / Holiday.
Sonny Dunes, a SoCal meteorologist who knows only sunshine and seventy-two-degree days, is being replaced by an AI meteorologist, which the youthful station manager reasons “will never age, gain weight or renegotiate its contract.” The only station willing to give the fifty-year-old another shot is one in a famously nontropical place—her northern Michigan hometown.
Unearthing her carefully laid California roots, Sonny returns home and reacclimates to the painfully long, dark winters dominated by a Michigan phenomenon known as lake-effect snow. But beyond the complete physical shock to her system, she’s also forced to confront her past: her new boss, a former journalism classmate and mortal frenemy; more keenly, the death of a younger sister who loved the snow; and the mother who caused Sonny to leave.
To distract herself from the unwelcome memories, Sonny decides to throw herself headfirst into all things winter to woo viewers and reclaim her success. From sledding and ice fishing to skiing and winter festivals, the merrymaking culminates with the town’s famed Winter Ice Sculpture Contest. Running the events is a widowed father and chamber of commerce director, whose genuine love of Michigan, winter and Sonny just might thaw her heart and restart her life in a way she never could have predicted.
Description from Goodreads.
“A beautifully written story about second chances. Fans of women’s fiction won’t be able to put this down.” – Publishers Weekly
“A heart-warming, well-written book… One of the best books so far of the fall.” – Red Carpet Crash
Available Formats:
Print Book | eBook | Hoopla eAudiobook
The Wicked Widow by Beatriz Williams
Fiction / Historical Fiction / Mystery / Suspense.
June 1925. Audacious Appalachian flapper Geneva “Gin” Kelly prepares to trade her high-flying ways for respectable marriage to Oliver Anson Marshall, a steadfast Prohibition agent who happens to hail from one of New York’s most distinguished families. But just as wedding bells chime, the head of the notorious East Coast rum-running racket–and Anson’s mortal enemy–turns up murdered at a society funeral, and their short-lived honeymoon bliss goes up in a spectacular blaze that sends Anson back undercover… and into the jaws of a trap from which not even Gin can rescue him. As violence explodes around her, Gin must summon all her considerable moxie to trace the tentacles of this sinister organization back to their shocking source, and face down a legendary American family at a rigged game it has no intention of losing.
June 1998. When Ella Dommerich’s ninetysomething society queen aunt Julie ropes her into digging up dirt on Senator (and Presidential candidate) Franklin Hardcastle in order to settle old family scores, she couldn’t be less enthusiastic. Pregnant Ella’s recently ditched her unfaithful husband and settled into cozy–if complicated–domesticity with her almost-too-good-to-be-true musician boyfriend, Hector. But then the Hardcastle secrets lead to a web of shady dealings Ella’s uncovered in her job as a financial analyst, and the bodies start to tumble out of the venerable woodwork. With the help of her ex-husband and her mysterious connection to a certain redheaded flapper, Ella digs up more than mere dirt… only to discover herself standing alone between a legendarily ruthless family and the prize it’s sought for generations.
What ugly secrets lurk in the opulent enclaves–and bank accounts–of America’s richest families? And can two determined women from two different generations thwart the murderous legacy of the demon liquor?
Description from Goodreads.
“Snappy dialogue, a page-turning plot, and two compelling heroines make this an absorbing read…” – BookBub
“…engrossing… Williams’s fast-paced story line features engaging dialogue and thematic connections between Ella and Geneva. Series fans will eat this up.” – Publishers Weekly
“…just the thing to curl up with on a chilly autumn night.” – Seattle Times