“When a person is lucky enough to live inside a story, to live inside an imaginary world, the pains of this world disappear. For as long as the story goes on, reality no longer exists.” – Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies
6 Spices, 60 Dishes: Indian Recipes That Are Simple, Fresh, and Big on Taste by Ruta Kahate; photography by Ghazalle Badiozamani
nonfiction / cooking.
Using just six spices—cayenne, coriander, cumin, turmeric, mustard seed, and asafetida—chef Ruta Kahate presents 60 delicious recipes that are easy to prepare and deliver rich, complex flavor. These dishes—including tons of nourishing veggies, raitas, grains, and dals—are fresh, healthy, and versatile enough to mix and match, plus they feature Instant Pot variations for maximum ease.
Serve up a quick lunch of Mustard Shrimp alongside a cool lettuce and citrus salad. Short on time after a busy day? Instant Pot your supper with a comforting Coconut Beef Stew. Prep a double batch of Parsi-Style Rajma on Sunday and enjoy it throughout the week—the flavors only get better over time.
With stories from Ruta Kahate’s culinary life around the world, plus vibrant, colorful photography that reflects the lively recipes within, 6 Spices, 60 Dishes is a must-have for anyone who wants super-tasty, healthy meals that come together in a flash.
“[A] charming collection of traditional and contemporary dishes… This accessible collection will appeal to home cooks who want flavors that pack a punch.” – Publishers Weekly
“[A] practical, flavorful, and bright new book that will satisfy a variety of palates and levels of the home chef. A study in doing more with less, Kahate’s book delivers realistic weeknight recipes that will satisfy a wide audience; it’s a great introduction to Indian flavors.” – Library Journal
All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham ★
fiction / suspense / mystery.
One year ago, Isabelle Drake’s life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her—literally.
Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year.
Isabelle’s entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle’s past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason’s disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust… including herself. But she is determined to figure out the truth no matter where it leads.
“Stacy Willingham’s All the Dangerous Things is stellar suspense at its very best. More than a crime story (though it’s certainly that), the book is also contemplation of motherhood, sisterhood, womanhood… All the pieces are there, yet every time you think you’ve put them together, she rearranges them into something more salient and shocking… It may only be the first month of 2023, but this one will rightfully find itself on many a year-end, best-of list.” – Criminal Element
“True crime’s trending appeal and Willingham’s mastery of the domestic mystery promise popularity for this one… those who crave resolution will appreciate that Willingham tucks the story’s ends in tight.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] lyrical thriller… this involving, thought-provoking page-turner raises disturbing questions about the nature of the stories people tell themselves to make sense of the world. Willingham remains an author to watch.” – Publishers Weekly
“Willingham is so relentless in linking Isabelle’s sleeplessness to her deepening sense of waking nightmare that fans can expect some seriously sleepless nights themselves. ‘People love violence—from a distance,’ reflects the protagonist. This one’s for readers who can love it up close.” – Kirkus Reviews
Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity by Gloria Mark, PhD
nonfiction / psychology / self-help.
We spend an average of just 47 seconds on any screen before shifting our attention. It takes 25 minutes to bring our attention back to a task after an interruption. And we interrupt ourselves more than we’re interrupted by others.
In Attention Span, psychologist Gloria Mark reveals these and more surprising results from her decades of research into how technology affects our attention. She shows how much of what we think we know is wrong, including insights such as:
• Why multitasking hurts rather than helps productivity
• How social media and modern entertainment amplify our short attention spans
• What drains our mental resources and how to refuel them
• The four types of attention that we experience every day and how to recognize them
While the concept of “flow” has previously been considered the ideal state of focus, Dr. Mark offers a new framework to help explain how our brains function in the digital world: kinetic attention. This book reveals how we can take control, not only to find more success in our careers, but also to find health and wellness in our everyday lives.
“…rigorous and well-written… Each day, you wake up with finite brainpower, and Mark is full of practical tips for how best to eke it out.” – The Telegraph
“Mark is most interesting when she puts down her stopwatch and puts on her psychologist’s hat… Mark seeks to undermine unhelpful myths about attentiveness in the office, notably that being productive means staying focused. Instead, she says, we need to respect the natural rhythms in our attention.” – The Times
“[In] Attention Span: Finding Focus for a Fulfilling Life, Mark brings together her findings for a lay audience, and the results are startling. It’s not as simple as flow good, screens bad. Most strikingly, it is not even the case that we should necessarily be striving to focus at all… In Attention Span she dismantles common misconceptions about our attention, among them that we should always be striving to focus when at work on our computers, and that the mindless scrolling we do on screens is counterproductive. The reality is more nuanced… Mark makes the case for a new, evidence-based approach to attention, one that works with our tech-riddled modern world and tendencies towards distraction, instead of trying to squeeze the genie back in the bottle.” – The Guardian
Bloodbath Nation by Paul Auster; photography by Spencer Ostrander
nonfiction / politics / history.
Paul Auster was a crack marksman as a kid, and like most American boys of his generation he grew up playing with toy six-shooters and mimicking the gun-slinging cowboys in B-Westerns. But he also knows how families can be wrecked by a single act of gun violence: His grandmother shot and killed his grandfather when his father was just six years old.
Now, at this time of intense national discord, no issue divides Americans more deeply than the debate about guns. There are currently more guns than people in the United States, and every day more than one hundred Americans are killed by guns and another two hundred are wounded. These numbers are so large, so catastrophic, so disproportionate to what goes on elsewhere, that one must ask why. Why is America so different–and why are we the most violent country in the Western world?
In this short, searing book, Auster traces centuries of America’s use and abuse of guns, through the colonial prehistory of the Republic, armed conflict against the native population, the forced enslavement of millions, and the mass shootings that dominate the current news cycle. He examines the embattled gun-control and anti-gun-control camps, frames gun violence as a public health issue, and investigates the details of one horrific incident- including the perpetrator’s unchecked purchase of the gun he used and the suffering of a bystander-turned-hero. Filled with haunting photographs by Spencer Ostrander that document the abandoned sites of more than thirty mass shootings, Bloodbath Nation is an unflinching work about guns in America that asks: What kind of society do we want to live in?
“Exceptional in its clarity and arresting in its sense of urgency… A harrowing, haunting reflection on the routine slaughter wrought by guns.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] powerful look at the causes and consequences of gun violence in America… For Auster, who casts doubt on the likelihood of judicial or legislative remedies, the end to the gun debate will only occur when ‘both sides want it, and in order for that to happen, we would first have to conduct an honest, gut-wrenching examination of who we are and who we want to be as a people going forward into the future.’ This trenchant account goes a long way toward making that possible.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Deft and dogged and entirely too contemplative to be a screed… Accounts of [Auster’s] personal experience with guns merge with sociological observations and a partial inventory of mass shootings in the U.S… Will the message of Bloodbath Nation reverberate outside the echo chamber of Auster’s fellow gun-control advocates? [Auster’s] generally measured tone makes it seem possible.” – Shelf Awareness
The Deluge by Stephen Markley
fiction / science fiction.
In the first decades of the 21st century, the world is convulsing, its governments mired in gridlock while a patient but unrelenting ecological crisis looms. America is in upheaval, battered by violent weather and extreme politics. In California in 2013, Tony Pietrus, a scientist studying deposits of undersea methane, receives a death threat. His fate will become bound to a stunning cast of characters—a broken drug addict, a star advertising strategist, a neurodivergent mathematician, a cunning eco-terrorist, an actor turned religious zealot, and a brazen young activist named Kate Morris, who, in the mountains of Wyoming, begins a project that will alter the course of the decades to come.
From the Gulf Coast to Los Angeles, the Midwest to Washington, DC, their intertwined odysseys unfold against a stark backdrop of accelerating chaos as they summon courage, galvanize a nation, fall to their own fear, and find wild hope in the face of staggering odds. As their stories hurtle toward a spectacular climax, each faces a reckoning: what will they sacrifice to salvage humanity’s last chance at a future? A singular achievement, The Deluge is a once-in-a-generation novel that meets the moment as few works of art ever have.
“This book is, simply put, a modern classic. If you read it, you’ll never forget it. Prophetic, terrifying, uplifting.” – Stephen King
“This is a stunning achievement that may earn a place among dystopian and apocalyptic classics like 1984 and On the Beach. And perhaps most of all, it’s an unflinching and utterly compelling call to action to prevent an all-too-possible future.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] brilliant dystopian epic.. [Markley’s] nuanced characterizations of individuals with different approaches to the existential threat make the perils they encounter feel real as they navigate cover-ups and lies. It’s a disturbing tour de force.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Exes & O’s by Amy Lea
fiction / romance.
Romance-novel connoisseur Tara Chen has had her heart broken ten times by ten different men–all of whom dumped her because of her “stage-five clinger” tendencies. Nevertheless, Tara is determined to find The One. The only problem? Classic meet-cutes are dead thanks to modern dating apps. So Tara decides to revisit her exes in hopes of securing her very own trope-worthy second-chance romance.
Boston firefighter Trevor Metcalfe will be the first to rush into a burning building but the last to rush into a relationship. Love just isn’t his thing. When his new roommate Tara enlists him to help her reconnect with her exes, he reluctantly agrees. But Tara’s journey is leading him to discover his own new chapter.
The more time they spend together, the more Tara realizes Trevor seems to be the only one who appreciates her authentic, dramatic self. To claim their happily-ever-after, can Tara and Trevor read between the lines of their growing connection?
“It’s only the beginning of the new year, and already this one is on the top-ten list of rom-coms for the year.” – Red Carpet Crash
“…captivating… as sensitive and swoony as it is self-aware, playfully engaging popular romance tropes. This is a winner.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] hilarious, relatable exploration of life and love, filled to brimming with soft moments, small gestures, and a clear love of the romance genre itself—all of which adds up to a rewarding conclusion for any reader. A comically delightful romance about how the best love stories are found where you least expect them.” – Kirkus Reviews
A Few Days Full of Trouble: Revelations on the Journey to Justice for My Cousin and Best Friend, Emmett Till by Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr. & Christopher Benson
nonfiction / memoir / biography / history / true crime.
The last surviving witness to the lynching of Emmett Till tells his story, with moving recollections of Emmett as a boy, critical insights into the recent investigation, and powerful lessons for racial reckoning, both then and now.
In 1955, Emmett Till was lynched when he was fourteen years old. That remains an undisputed fact of the case that ignited a flame within the Civil Rights Movement that has yet to be extinguished. Yet the rest of the details surrounding the event remain distorted by time and too many tellings. What does justice mean in the resolution of a cold case spanning nearly seven decades? In A Few Days Full of Trouble, this question drives a new perspective on the story of Emmett Till, relayed by his cousin and best friend—the Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr., a survivor of the night of terror when young Emmett was taken from his family’s rural Mississippi Delta home in the dead of night.
In a hypnotic interplay between uncovered facts and vivid recall, Rev. Parker offers an emotional and suspenseful page-turner, set against a backdrop of reporting errors and manipulations, racial reckoning, and political pushback—and he does so accompanied by never-before-seen findings in the investigation, the soft resurrection of memory, and the battle-tested courage of faith. A Few Days Full of Trouble is a powerful work of truth-telling, a gift to readers looking to reconcile the weight of the past with a hope for the future.
“Parker’s writing is captivating… [he] seamlessly goes back and forth between sharing his own experience, and drawing it into larger social and historical context. Parker’s anguish, his terror, his hope, his forgiveness, comes through. He also unravels an enduring mystery about the white woman who may have admitted she lied about her account of that fateful night in sworn testimony. This is an eye-opening, necessary read about a dark chapter of America’s history—told in a way only somebody who was there could.” – Amazon
“Parker’s story, well rendered with the assistance of journalist Benson, is a deeply personal, painful reopening of wounds, revealing deep resentment and frustration with the White appropriation of the Till tragedy… a useful addition to our understanding of a vital case of racial hatred and violence in the U.S. Compelling evidence that the fight for racial justice is never truly over.” – Kirkus Reviews
Ghost Music by An Yu ★
fiction.
For three years, Song Yan has filled the emptiness of her Beijing apartment with the tentative notes of her young piano students. She gave up on her own career as a concert pianist many years ago, but her husband Bowen, an executive at a car company, has long rebuffed her pleas to have a child. He resists even when his mother arrives from the southwestern Chinese region of Yunnan and begins her own campaign for a grandchild. As tension in the household rises, it becomes harder for Song Yan to keep her usual placid demeanor, especially since she is troubled by dreams of a doorless room she can’t escape, populated only by a strange orange mushroom.
When a parcel of mushrooms native to her mother-in-law’s province is delivered seemingly by mistake, Song Yan sees an opportunity to bond with her, and as the packages continue to arrive every week, the women stir-fry and grill the mushrooms, adding them to soups and noodles. When a letter arrives in the mail from the sender of the mushrooms, Song Yan’s world begins to tilt further into the surreal. Summoned to an uncanny, seemingly ageless house hidden in a hutong that sits in the middle of the congested city, she finds Bai Yu, a once world-famous pianist who disappeared ten years ago.
A gorgeous and atmospheric novel of art and expression, grief and survival, memory and self-discovery, Ghost Music animates contemporary Beijing through the eyes of a lonely yet hopeful young woman and gives vivid color and texture to the promise of new beginnings.
“Beautiful prose and claustrophobic imagery… intensely evokes its protagonist’s alienation.” – New Statesman
“Ethereal… Beautifully metaphoric and insightful… Yu’s lyrical language and atmospheric descriptions bring out the contrast between Song Yan’s oppressive, superficial reality and the hypnotic world where she converses with fungi. Fans of literary novels with a supernatural edge, such as Jamie Ford’s The Many Daughters of Afong Moy, take note.”- BookPage
“Yu mesmerizes with this surreal story of music and mushrooms… As Song Yan relentlessly surges toward independence and away from solitude and loneliness, Yu’s blistering narrative reaches a plaintive end. Readers will be enthralled.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“…spellbinding and atmospheric… With its quiet, dreamy bending of reality and its precise depiction of many different strains of alienation, Ghost Music is an evocative exploration of what it means to live fully — and the potential consequences of failing to do so… Yu conjures a visceral in-betweenness where the worlds of matter and spirit meet in a shared, suspended space.” – New York Times
Hard to Break by Michael Ledwidge
fiction / suspense.
As Mike Gannon’s son Declan sets out to leave the nest, Gannon decides that a going-away trip is in high order, a bucket-list grizzly bear hunt up into the wilds of Alaska. But there are other hunters there. And they’re not looking for grizzly.
Soon Mike finds himself alone and captured on a corporate plane heading southbound for an incredibly lethal encounter that is about to blow his mind before it tries to blow him away. Mike’s enemies are in the driver’s seat until they realize they overlooked one simple thing.
Some men are easy to handle, but there are other men who are harder to break…
“You don’t mess with Michael Gannon, you just don’t… A well-written novel, with the usual snark that Michael is filled with, and an action-packed story you will invest in. Fans of Orphan X, The Gray Man, [and] Bourne, will eat this one up.” – Red Carpet Crash
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo ★
fiction / fantasy / suspense / mystery / horror.
Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory―even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.
Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls.
Thick with history and packed with Bardugo’s signature twists, Hell Bent brings to life an intricate world full of magic, violence, and all too real monsters.
“Bardugo is a fantastic storyteller who knows how to keep the reader both guessing and completely transfixed… cinematic, surprising, and unputdownable.” – Amazon
“Vivid, intelligent, and funny at just the right moments, but best of all are the complex characters.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Thrilling… fascinating supporting players… The taut plot, often grisly magic, lavish scene-setting, and wry humor combine to make this just as un-put-downable as the first installment. Readers will be wowed.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Bardugo doesn’t flinch from the dark sides of magic and human nature… This portrait of a survivor’s dogged determination to accomplish her goal will appeal to readers of dark academia, urban fantasy, and horror.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica ★
fiction / suspense / mystery.
Two couples, two close friends, one missing husband…
Jake Hayes is missing. This much is certain. At first, his wife, Nina, thinks he is blowing off steam at a friend’s house after their heated fight the night before. But then a day goes by. Two days. Five. And Jake is still nowhere to be found.
Lily Scott, Nina’s friend and coworker, thinks she may have been the last to see Jake before he went missing. After Lily confesses everything to her husband, Christian, the two decide that nobody can find out what happened leading up to Jake’s disappearance, especially not Nina. But Nina is out there looking for her husband, and she won’t stop until the truth is discovered.
“Kubica is a master of unnerving domestic thrillers. Fans will devour [Just the Nicest Couple] in one sitting.” – Booklist
“In Just the Nicest Couple, Kubica has created a powerful story about the strengths and frailties of human relationships, and the lengths families will go to help each other. The suspense starts at the first page and doesn’t let up until the shocking twist at the end.” – Authorlink
The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill by Brad Meltzer & John Mensch
nonfiction / history.
In 1943, as the war against Nazi Germany raged abroad, President Franklin Roosevelt had a critical goal: a face-to-face sit-down with his allies Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill. This first-ever meeting of the Big Three in Tehran, Iran, would decide some of the most crucial strategic details of the war. Yet when the Nazis found out about the meeting, their own secret plan took shape—an assassination plot that would’ve changed history.
A true story filled with daring rescues, body doubles, and political intrigue, The Nazi Conspiracy details FDR’s pivotal meeting in Tehran and the deadly Nazi plot against the heads of state of the three major Allied powers who attended it.
With all the hallmarks of a Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch page-turner, The Nazi Conspiracy explores the great political minds of the twentieth century, investigating the pivotal years of the war in gripping detail. This meeting of the Big Three changed the course of World War II. Here’s the inside story of how it almost led to a world-shattering disaster.
“…thrilling… A fascinating and potentially controversial book.” – Booklist
“[An] action-packed account of the German plan to assassinate the leaders of the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union in Tehran in 1943… Meltzer and Mensch acknowledge doubts about the plot’s actual existence yet convincingly argue that it was real, and provide necessary historical context while setting a brisk, thriller-like pace. WWII buffs will be enthralled.” – Publishers Weekly
“This is a strange—and strangely entertaining—book… A colorful trek through a labyrinth of twists and turns that could have changed history.” – Kirkus Reviews
Phaedra by Laura Shepperson
fiction / fantasy / historical fiction.
Phaedra has been cast to the side all her life: daughter of an adulteress, sister of a monster, and now unwilling bride to the much-older, power-hungry Theseus. Young, naïve, and idealistic, she has accepted her lot in life, resigned to existing under the sinister weight of Theseus’s control and the constant watchful eye of her handsome stepson Hippolytus.
When supposedly pious Hippolytus assaults her, Phaedra’s world is darkened in the face of untouchable, prideful power. In the face of injustice, Phaedra refuses to remain quiet any longer: such an awful truth demands to be brought to light. When Phaedra publicly accuses Hippolytus of rape, she sparks an overdue reckoning.
The men of Athens gather to determine the truth. Meanwhile, the women of the city, who have no vote, are gathering in the shadows. The women know truth is a slippery thing in the hands of men. There are two sides to every story, and theirs has gone unheard. Until now.
Timely, unflinching, and transportive, Laura Shepperson’s Phaedra carves open long-accepted wounds to give voice to one of the most maligned figures of mythology and offers a stunning story of how truth bends under the weight of patriarchy but can be broken open by the force of one woman’s bravery.
“Shepperson shines in her debut, a plausible revisionist take on Greek mythology that gives voice and agency to Phaedra, a Cretan princess… Shepperson’s infusion of psychological depth into mythical archetypes will remind many of Robert Graves’s Hercules, My Shipmate. This inspired feminist retelling will captivate readers.” – Publishers Weekly
“With a pointed examination of the plight of women in ancient Greece, this powerful and compulsively readable tale should appeal to fans of Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne and Madeline Miller’s Circe.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
The Rom-Com Agenda by Jayne Denker
fiction / romance.
STEP 1: Find yourself
Leah Keegan is used to being alone, especially after taking care of her sick foster mother for the past year. But now there’s nothing keeping her in the sweet town of Willow Cove. It’s time to move on. Again.
STEP 2: Win back the one who got away
Eli Masterson thought he and Victoria were meant to be together until she decided to jet off to Rome for a year. Eli is determined to win her back. But how?
STEP 3: Become a romantic hero
Changing Eli’s physical appearance is easy, but to turn Eli into the sophisticated-yet-vulnerable ideal man, his girl pals force him to watch classic rom-coms. And take notes.
STEP 4: Fall in love?
Inadvertently drawn into the makeover scheme, Leah ends up being Eli’s guide through the wild world of meet-cutes and grand gestures. Even though she believes Eli doesn’t need to change a thing about himself. Even though she just might be falling for Eli… and Eli falling for her.
“Denker spins rom-com gold in this vibrant, genre-savvy tale… a funny and poignant ride, enhanced by sparkling prose and a stellar lineup of supporting characters, headlined by Jenna and her young daughters, Olivia and Zoe. Readers are sure to fall in love with the endearing protagonists of this squeaky clean charmer.” – Publishers Weekly
“[A] sweet and slow-burn love story, showcasing in-depth knowledge of romantic comedies and featuring a supporting cast worthy of their own novels…” – Library Journal
“Jayne Denker’s The Rom-Com Agenda is an adorable friends-to-lovers romance that celebrates the life lessons rom-coms provide.” – BookPage
Spare by Prince Harry ★
nonfiction / memoir.
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 Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling – and how their lives would play out from that point on.
For Harry, this is that story at last.
With its raw, unflinching honesty, Spare is a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.
Prince Harry wishes to support British charities with donations from his proceeds from Spare. The Duke of Sussex has donated $1,500,000 to Sentebale, an organisation he founded with Prince Seeiso in their mothers’ legacies, which supports vulnerable children and young people in Lesotho and Botswana affected by HIV/AIDS. Prince Harry will also donate to the non-profit organisation WellChild in the amount of £300,000. WellChild, which he has been Royal patron of for fifteen years, makes it possible for children and young people with complex health needs to be cared for at home instead of hospital, wherever possible.
“Harry is not going to spare anyone… goes further — much further — than anything we have seen so far.” – The Times
“His wife might be the natural on camera, but the Duke of Sussex hits his stride on paper in this breathtakingly frank book… This book doesn’t so much lift the curtain on private royal life than rip it off and shake out its contents… But it’s also richly detailed and at times beautifully written; if Harry is going to set fire to his family, he has at least done it with some style.” – The Independent
“The memoir is arguably the most insightful royal book in a generation… In the hands of ghostwriter JR Moehringer, acclaimed for guiding Andre Agassi’s memoir Open, Harry’s story is told sensitively and at times movingly.” – Financial Times
The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley ★
fiction / comedy.
In the wake of her parents’ death, Aretha, a habitually single Black lawyer, has had only one obsession in life—success—until she falls for Aaron, a coffee entrepreneur. Moving into his Brooklyn brownstone to live along with his Hurricane Sandy-traumatized, illegal-gun-stockpiling, optimized-soy-protein-eating, bunker-building roommates, Aretha finds that her dreams of making partner are slipping away, replaced by an underground world, one of selling guns and training for a doomsday that’s maybe just around the corner.
For readers of Victor LaValle’s The Changeling, Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, and Zakiya Harris’s The Other Black Girl, The Survivalists is a darkly humorous novel from a smart and relevant new literary voice that’s packed with tension, curiosity and wit, and unafraid to ask the questions most relevant to a new generation of Americans: Does it make sense to climb the corporate ladder? What exactly are the politics of gun ownership? And in a world where it’s nearly impossible for young people to earn enough money to afford stable housing, what does it take in order to survive?
“A swift and sharp debut… There’s no shortage of thrills and survivalist hijinks here, but it’s really Aretha’s magnetic charm and droll outlook that keep you hooked.” – Philadelphia Inquirer
“Learn her name, because Cauley is one of the funniest writers at work today, period.” – Los Angeles Times
“[A] lethally witty debut… One might expect a novel about gun-toting, conspiracy-minded loners to lampoon its key players, but the book succeeds because Cauley appears as curious and empathetic toward the survivalists as she is toward her protagonist… Cauley, a former writer for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, displays an enviably versatile sense of humor. The novel is most fun when her wit bolsters the narrative’s sociopolitical underpinnings, as when she describes a ‘house full of mysterious, unexplainable rich-people’ paraphernalia, ‘like gazebos.’ Funny because they’re true, such jabs give the book its verve but also its depth. ” – New York Times
“Cauley’s book is as comedic as is it caffeinated… The Survivalists has notes of darkness and a well-balanced acidity that shouldn’t come as a surprise to readers of Cauley’s opinion pieces for GQ, The Atlantic, and The New York Times, among others… often laugh-out-loud funny… the author is wonderfully attuned to matters of Blackness and the ways a current generation lives, enjoys, and—yes—suffers.” – Boston Globe
A Tale of Two Princes by Eric Geron
fiction / young adult / romance.
Edward Dinnissen, Crown Prince of Canada, loves getting the royal treatment at his exclusive Manhattan private school and living in a fancy mansion on Park Avenue. But despite living a royal life of luxury, Edward is unsure how to tell his parents, his expectant country, and his adoring fans that he’s gay.
Billy Boone couldn’t be happier: he loves small-town life and his family’s Montana ranch, and his boyfriend is the cutest guy at Little Timber High. But this out-and-proud cowboy is finally admitting to himself that he feels destined for more…
When Edward and Billy meet by chance in New York City and discover that they are long-lost twins, their lives are forever changed. Will the twin princes—“twinces”— be able to take on high school, coming out, and coronations together? Or will this royal reunion quickly become a royal disaster?
“A quintessentially feel-good novel so richly plotted that it is hard to put down—and the empathetic, beautifully developed characters are to die for. Long may they reign.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“The twins’ dynamic relationship unfurls swiftly, and their unique alternating perspectives, paired with the narrative’s solidly crafted emotional landscape, offer monarchical fanatics a hijinks-filled royal escape.” – Publishers Weekly
“A fun, twisty, and culturally relevant novel, with some good lol moments, and a solid story to entertain you.” – Red Carpet Crash
You Must Remember This by Kat Rosenfield
fiction / mystery / suspense.
On Christmas Eve, eighty-five-year-old Miriam Gardiner walks onto the vast frozen river behind her home. As a younger woman, she used to steal out on winter nights to meet her lover, walking straight across the ice to their secret meeting place. She knows the way—but not the year. Miriam, her mind clouded by dementia, doesn’t hear the snap of thin ice until it’s too late.
Was it an accident? Suicide? Or worse: did someone urge the old woman onto the frozen river on purpose?
There are plenty of suspects; Miriam’s fractured and complicated family has gathered in their Bar Harbor mansion to celebrate what they already thought would likely be the matriarch’s last Christmas. The guests include Delphine, Miriam’s granddaughter, a frightened and insecure young woman who adored her grandmother, and Miriam’s live-in nurse, Adam, a handsome man from a working-class background, whom Delphine has been secretly dating. Then there’s Miriam’s children: Nicole, who hated being thrust into the role of caretaker; Diana, whose deadbeat husband has long been a family joke; and Richard, who always said they’d all be better off if Mother would just hurry up and die. But it’s Delphine who comes in for the greatest scrutiny when they learn the shocking news that Miriam’s will cut off her children and left the entire estate to Delphine only.
As her relatives obsess over getting the will thrown out, Delphine begins to notice inconsistencies in their stories and is emboldened to start investigating… until the trail seems to lead her onto thin ice as well.
“A solid novel to start the new year with.” – Red Carpet Crash
“Rosenfield provides plenty of twists and turns to keep readers guessing in this atmospheric mystery where all the characters had motive and means to commit murder, especially for the millions of dollars that Mimi’s estate is worth. Fans of Agatha Christie will love the red herrings and large cast of interesting characters.” – Library Journal
“[A] satisfying gothic thriller… A subtle shiver of menace runs throughout the narrative, told in part from the point of view of Miriam at significant points in her life. This thoughtful look at the nature of memories will resonate with many readers.” – Publishers Weekly