“I putter. I nurse old grudges. I fold origami while nursing old grudges. I think about the past. I wonder if there’s any grudges I should start.” – Roz Chast
America Fantastica by Tim O’Brien ★
fiction.
At 11:34 a.m. one Saturday in August 2019, Boyd Halverson strode into Community National Bank in Northern California.
“How much is on hand, would you say?” he asked the teller. “I’ll want it all.”
“You’re robbing me?”
He revealed a Temptation .38 Special.
The teller, a diminutive redhead named Angie Bing, collected eighty-one thousand dollars.
Boyd stuffed the cash into a paper grocery bag.
“I’m sorry about this,” he said, “but I’ll have to ask you to take a ride with me.”
So begins the adventure of Boyd Halverson—star journalist turned notorious online disinformation troll turned JCPenney manager—and his irrepressible hostage, Angie Bing. Haunted by his past and weary of his present, Boyd has one goal before the authorities catch up with him: settle a score with the man who destroyed his life. By Monday the pair reach Mexico; by winter, they are in a lakefront mansion in Minnesota. On their trail are hitmen, jealous lovers, ex-cons, an heiress, a billionaire shipping tycoon, a three-tour veteran of Iraq, and the ghosts of Boyd’s past. Everyone, it seems, except the police.
In the tradition of Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain, America Fantastica delivers a biting, witty, and entertaining story about the causes and costs of outlandish fantasy, while also marking the triumphant return of an essential voice in American letters. And at the heart of the novel, amid a teeming cast of characters, readers will delight in the tug-of-war between two memorable and iconic human beings—the exuberant savior-of-souls Angie Bing and the penitent but compulsive liar Boyd Halverson. Just as Tim O’Brien’s modern classic, The Things They Carried, so brilliantly reflected the unromantic truth of war, America Fantastica puts a mirror to a nation and a time that has become dangerously unmoored from truth and greedy for delusion.
“[A] timely odyssey… O’Brien paints a new, unflinching portrait of Americana that reads like a road map to our modern age.” – Entertainment Weekly
“O’Brien’s first novel in two decades was well worth the wait… In the age of ‘mythomania,’ O’Brien takes aim at the lies that power this country, and how and why they sustain us. America Fantastica peers straight into the dark heart of the American psyche, and it’s unafraid of the comedy and tragedy staring back.” – Esquire
“Hunter S. Thompson meets Sacha Baron Cohen in this amusing and alarming road trip to the center of America’s mendacious heart… O’Brien keeps everything afloat on a cloud of pure gonzo bliss. If this is indeed the author’s valedictory novel, he’s bowing out with a star-spangled bang.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“[It’s] one of those books where you can sense the author enjoying himself and it’s fun to be along for the ride. A broadly engaging and entertaining work.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
Christmas Presents by Lisa Unger
fiction / mystery / suspense.
Madeline Martin has built a life for herself as the young owner of a thriving business, The Next Chapter Bookshop, despite her tragic childhood and now needing to care for her infirm father. When Harley Granger, a failed novelist turned true crime podcaster, drifts into her shop in the days before Christmas, he seems intent on digging up events that Madeline would much rather forget. She’s the only surviving victim of Evan Handy, the man who was convicted of murdering her best friend Steph, and is suspected in the disappearance of two sisters, also good friends of Madeline’s, who have been missing for nearly a decade. It’s an investigation that has obsessed her father Sheriff James Martin right up until his stroke took his faculties.
Harley Granger has a gift for seeing things that others miss. He wasn’t much of a novelist, but his work as a true crime author and podcaster has earned him fame and wealth—and some serious criticism for his various unethical practices. Still, visiting Little Valley to be closer to his dying father has caused him to look into a case that many people think is closed—and some want reopened. And he has a lot of questions about the night Stephanie Cramer was killed, Ainsley and Sam Wallace disappeared, and Madeline Martin was left for dead, bleeding out on a riverbank.
Since Evan Handy went to jail, three other young women have gone missing, most recently a young college dropout named Lolly. Five young women missing in the same area in a decade. Are they connected? Was Evan Handy innocent after all? Or was there someone else there that night? Someone who is still satisfying his dark appetites?
As Christmas approaches and a blizzard bears down, Madeline and her childhood friend Badger return to a past they both hoped was dead—to find the missing Lolly and to answer questions that have haunted them both, discovering that the truth is more terrible and much closer to home than they think.
Coupling a picturesque, cozy setting with a deeply unsettling suspenseful plot, Christmas Presents is a chilling seasonal novella that can be enjoyed all year long.
“The latest psychological suspense by the author of Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six emphasizes survivor’s guilt and the inability to move on in this compelling story.” – Lesa Holstine, Library Journal
A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber
fiction / young adult / fantasy / romance.
Two villains, one girl, and a deadly battle for happily ever after.
Evangeline Fox ventured to the Magnificent North in search of her happy ending, and it seems as if she has it. She’s married to a handsome prince and lives in a legendary castle. But Evangeline has no idea of the devastating price she’s paid for this fairytale. She doesn’t know what she has lost, and her husband is determined to make sure she never finds out… but first he must kill Jacks, the Prince of Hearts.
“All those burning questions are finally answered in the dramatic conclusion to the massive Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy. The curse of the Prince of Hearts can hide no longer!” – Barnes & Noble
“[The] series [is] perfect for new fantasy readers who are looking for fantastical elements that are easy to grasp and strong characters.” – Emma Robinson, Cornell Daily Sun
Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World by Mary Beard ★
nonfiction / history / biography.
In her international bestseller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome, from its slightly shabby Iron Age origins to its reign as the undisputed hegemon of the Mediterranean. Now, drawing on more than thirty years of teaching and writing about Roman history, Beard turns to the emperors who ruled the Roman Empire, beginning with Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) and taking us through the nearly three centuries—and some thirty emperors—that separate him from the boy-king Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE).
Yet Emperor of Rome is not your typical chronological account of Roman rulers, one emperor after another: the mad Caligula, the monster Nero, the philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Instead, Beard asks different, often larger and more probing questions: What power did emperors actually have? Was the Roman palace really so bloodstained? What kind of jokes did Augustus tell? And for that matter, what really happened, for example, between the emperor Hadrian and his beloved Antinous? Effortlessly combining the epic with the quotidian, Beard tracks the emperor down at home, at the races, on his travels, even on his way to heaven.
Along the way, Beard explores Roman fictions of imperial power, overturning many of the assumptions that we hold as gospel, not the least of them the perception that emperors one and all were orchestrators of extreme brutality and cruelty. Here Beard introduces us to the emperor’s wives and lovers, rivals and slaves, court jesters and soldiers, and the ordinary people who pressed begging letters into his hand—whose chamber pot disputes were adjudicated by Augustus, and whose budgets were approved by Vespasian, himself the son of a tax collector.
With its finely nuanced portrayal of sex, class, and politics, Emperor of Rome goes directly to the heart of Roman fantasies (and our own) about what it was to be Roman at its richest, most luxurious, most extreme, most powerful, and most deadly, offering an account of Roman history as it has never been presented before.
“…captivating… This immersive account is a treat for history buffs.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Mary Beard is an institution in the Roman History space, and here we have her bringing a fresh perspective to the power of the office of Roman Emperor. Asking questions that go beyond chronology, this is a unique read in a crowded space, as Beard always is.” – Barnes & Noble
“Bookshelves groan under the weight of accounts of Roman emperors, but when Beard decides to add another, readers should perk up… Beard is deft in her exploration of imperial bureaucracy, showing how it dealt with an avalanche of paperwork from distant officials, cities, military leaders, and individuals in an era with no postal service. Emperors’ deaths, natural or otherwise, led to fascinating consequences.” – Kirkus Reviews
Everything Is Not Enough by Lola Akinmade Åkerström
fiction.
Can a career woman truly have it all?
Powerful marketing executive Kemi Adeyemi has finally found the man she needs, but Tobias Wikström thinks she’s the most selfish woman he has ever met for asking him to give up his life in Sweden and move to the US for her own comfort. Will Kemi be forced to stay if she wants to keep him while chipping away at her hard-earned career? As things begin to sour and challenge her relationship with Tobias, someone else moves back into the picture.
Can having it all be a gilded cage?
Looking into divorce in Sweden isn’t what former model-turned-flight attendant Brittany-Rae von Lundin anticipated. Only jointly owned assets are split evenly between couples. Brittany gave up her career and came with nothing into Jonny’s kingdom. Having had a child with him, her greatest fear for Maya includes being cut off from the resources she’s become accustomed to. With a man obsessed with a ghost, trying to get away isn’t going to be easy. And the deeper she digs into his past, the darker the secrets she unravels.
Can you run from your past to have it all?
After fleeing her home through a client to seek a new life in Sweden, Yasmiin finds love in the arms of Yagiz Çelik while carving out her own small corner. But as someone from her past forces Yasmiin to become a caretaker before she’s ready, she now must confront and move beyond her teenage history, while following her dreams of becoming a makeup artist.
Everything Is Not Enough follows the loosely intertwined and messy lives of Kemi, Brittany, and Yasmiin as they interrogate themes of place, prejudice, and patriarchy in Europe, proving—yet again—that Lola Akinmade Åkerström is the next great voice of nuanced contemporary women’s fiction.
“Åkerström carefully examines the loneliness of frequently feeling like an outsider and how this can draw the most disparate of people together.” – Enobong Tommelleo, Booklist
“Åkerström, a Nigerian American author based in Sweden, successfully rounds out the stories of three complicated women as they make mistakes and strive for their own places in the world.” – Becky Meloan, Washington Post
“…Åkerström deftly continues an engrossing storyline that exposes the harsh realities of Swedish society… For readers interested in immigrant experiences like those in Imbolo Mbue’s Behold the Dreamers.” – Joy Gunn, Library Journal
Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night by Sophie Hannah
fiction / mystery / historical fiction.
It’s December 19, 1931. Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool are looking forward to a much-needed, restful Christmas holiday, when they are called upon to investigate the murder of a man in a Norfolk hospital ward. Cynthia Catchpool, Edward’s mother, insists that Poirot stay with her in a crumbling mansion by the coast, so that they can all be together for the festive period while he solves the case.
As Poirot digs into the mystery, he discovers that the murdered man was a retired post office master, and by all accounts very well-liked. The local constabulary’s investigation failed to uncover how someone could have entered a hospital room and killed him under the noses of the staff. Cynthia’s friend Arnold is soon to be admitted to that same hospital, and his wife is convinced he will be the killer’s next victim, though she refuses to explain why.
With no obvious motive or suspect, Poirot has less than a week to solve the crime and prevent more murders, if he is to escape from this nightmare scenario and get home in time for Christmas. Meanwhile, someone else—someone utterly ruthless—also has ideas about what ought to happen to Hercule Poirot…
“A fiendishly inventive serving of humble pie, or Christmas pudding, for puzzle-solvers who think they’re clever.” – Kirkus Reviews
“This is another fantastic novel in the series by author Sophie Hannah. I would like to think that Agatha Christie would be so proud of these books.” – Red Carpet Crash
“Hannah’s stellar fifth whodunit featuring Agatha Christie’s iconic sleuth extends her reign as a master of mystery pastiche… Hannah does a superior job of presenting Poirot’s quirky brilliance without overdoing it, and in making Catchpool a fully fleshed sidekick with psychological depth. Golden age mystery fans will be hungry for more.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things by Adam Grant
nonfiction / self-help / psychology.
We live in a world that’s obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distance we ourselves can travel. We underestimate the range of skills that we can learn and how good we can become. We can all improve at improving. And when opportunity doesn’t knock, there are ways to build a door.
Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid storytelling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space. He shows that progress depends less on how hard you work than how well you learn. Growth is not about the genius you possess—it’s about the character you develop. Grant explores how to build the character skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked.
Many writers have chronicled the habits of superstars who accomplish great things. This book reveals how anyone can rise to achieve greater things. The true measure of your potential is not the height of the peak you’ve reached, but how far you’ve climbed to get there.
“Writing with authority and clarity, Grant examines how talents can be discovered, developed, and turned into achievement.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Readers interested in motivational leadership, personal growth, and career development will find an enriching perspective on unlocking and engaging their hidden skills, character, and potential to achieve success.” – Raymond Pun, Booklist
“Grant takes the reader on a whistle-stop tour of the factors that lead to success… Policymakers and executives ought to play close attention to the final section of the book: how to build structures that create opportunity for all.” – Arjun Neil Alim, Financial Times
If You Would Have Told Me: A Memoir by John Stamos
nonfiction / memoir / television.
If you would have told a young John Stamos flipping burgers at his dad’s fast-food joint that one day he’d be a household name and that, at the height of his success, he’d be living alone, divorced, with no kids, high on a cocktail of forgetting, he might’ve asked, “You want fries with that?”
John burst onto the scene in General Hospital, propelling him into the teen idol stratosphere, a place that’s often a point of no return. But Stamos beat the odds and over the past four decades has proved himself to be one of his generation’s most successful and beloved actors. Whether showing off his comedic chops on Full House or his dramatic skills on ER, pushing the boundaries on Broadway or living out his youthful dreams as an honorary Beach Boy, John has surprised everyone, most of all himself.
A universal story about friendship, love, loss, and the courage to embrace love once more, John Stamos’s memoir is filled with some of the most memorable names in Hollywood, both old and new. Funny, deeply poignant, and brutally honest, If You Would Have Told Me is a portrait of a boy who went from believing in Disney magic to a man who learns that we have to create our own magical moments in life.
“A self-deprecating, honest, and often humorous performing arts memoir that fans will enjoy.” – Rosellen “Rosy” Brewer, Library Journal
“…charming… Readers will be enchanted.” – Publishers Weekly
“The author intersperses the narrative with handwritten notes his mother left for him, and the effect is a portrait of a charming and charmed actor who has received plenty of love—and who has plenty of love to give… A heartfelt, sincere memoir filled with useful wisdom.” – Kirkus Reviews
I Must Be Dreaming by Roz Chast
nonfiction / graphic novel / comedy / memoir / psychology.
Ancient Greeks, modern seers, Freud, Jung, neurologists, poets, artists, shamans-humanity has never ceased trying to decipher one of the strangest unexplained phenomena we all experience: dreaming. Now, in her new book, Roz Chast illustrates her own dream world, a place that is sometimes creepy but always hilarious, accompanied by an illustrated tour through “Dream-Theory Land” guided by insights from poets, philosophers, and psychoanalysts alike. Illuminating, surprising, funny, and often profound, I Must Be Dreaming explores Roz Chast’s newest subject of fascination-and promises to make it yours, too.
“Truly fascinating, frequently hilarious, and not to be missed.” – Tom Batten, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Amid the comic relief, there is profound vulnerability and anxiety playing out in weird and wild scenarios… I Must Be Dreaming is your ticket to the dreamland of a genius. Go willingly.” – Debbra Palmer, New York Journal of Books
“…delightful… Chast perfectly captures the weird joy of dreaming—an act that is both universal and deeply personal.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Julia by Sandra Newman ★
fiction / science fiction.
Julia Worthing is a mechanic, working in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. It’s 1984, and Britain (now called Airstrip One) has long been absorbed into the larger trans-Atlantic nation of Oceania. Oceania has been at war for as long as anyone can remember, and is ruled by an ultra-totalitarian Party, whose leader is a quasi-mythical figure called Big Brother. In short, everything about this world is as it is in Orwell’s 1984.
All her life, Julia has known only Oceania, and, until she meets Winston Smith, she has never imagined anything else. She is an ideal citizen: cheerfully cynical, always ready with a bribe, piously repeating every political slogan while believing in nothing. She routinely breaks the rules, but also collaborates with the regime when necessary. Everyone likes Julia.
Then one day she finds herself walking toward Winston Smith in a corridor and impulsively slips him a note, setting in motion the devastating, unforgettable events of the classic story. Julia takes us on a surprising journey through Orwell’s now-iconic dystopia, with twists that reveal unexpected sides not only to Julia, but to other familiar figures in the 1984 universe. This unique perspective lays bare our own world in haunting and provocative ways, just as the original did almost seventy-five years ago.
“Julia is a welcome reminder of just how vital Orwell’s text still is—and how much fun can be had in its unexplored corners.” – Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
“Newman does much more than update 1984, she makes it seem essential reading again.” – The Times
“[A] brilliant novel… This is not a rewriting of 1984; it’s a faithful, respectful retelling of a familiar story from a fresh new angle. Wonderful.” – David Pitt, Booklist
“Julia’s narrative voice is refreshingly fearless as she navigates her way around the Party’s nefarious thought policing, and a wicked plot twist spins the original narrative on its ear. Newman adds a fresh coat of menacing gray to Orwell’s gloomy world.” – Publishers Weekly
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward ★
fiction / historical fiction.
“‘Let us descend,’ the poet now began, ‘and enter this blind world.’” – Inferno, Dante Alighieri
Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.
Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with spirits: of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Ward leads readers through the descent, this, her fourth novel, is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.
From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this miracle of a novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land—the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’s most magnificent novel yet, a masterwork for the ages.
“This is a luminous masterwork from one of our best living writers, and it’s not to be missed.” – Lizz Schumer, Good Housekeeping
“…shatteringly beautiful… In yet another masterwork, pain and sweetness alike haunt Annis. But she keeps walking.” – CJ Lotz, Garden & Gun
“[Ward’s] most masterful work yet… Pitting ancestral wisdom and human connection against the arbitrary brutality of slavery, this book will have readers torn between wanting to savor the richness of every sentence and needing to know, immediately, what happens next.” – Charley Burlock, Oprah Daily
“…wrenching and beautifully told… Readers won’t be able to turn away.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing by Hilary Mantel
nonfiction / memoir / writing.
THE FINAL BOOK FROM ONE OF OUR GREATEST WRITERS.
In addition to her celebrated career as a novelist, Hilary Mantel contributed for years to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she found it. “Ink is a generative fluid,” she explains. “If you don’t mean your words to breed consequences, don’t write at all.” A Memoir of My Former Self collects the finest of this writing over four decades.
Her subjects are wide-ranging, sharply observed, and beautifully rendered. She discusses nationalism and her own sense of belonging; our dream life popping into our conscious life; the mythic legacy of Princess Diana; the many themes that feed into her novels—revolutionary France, psychics, Tudor England; and other novelists, from Jane Austen to V.S. Naipaul. She writes about her father and the man who replaced him; she writes fiercely and heartbreakingly about the battles with her health that she endured as a young woman, and the stifling years she found herself living in Saudi Arabia. Here, too, is her legendary essay “Royal Bodies,” on our endless fascination with the current royal family.
From her unusual childhood to her all-consuming interest in Thomas Cromwell that grew into the Wolf Hall trilogy, A Memoir of My Former Self reveals the shape of Hilary Mantel’s life in her own luminous words, through “messages from people I used to be.” Filled with her singular wit and wisdom, it is essential reading from one of our greatest writers.
“…dazzling… Mantel’s idiosyncratic and magisterial voice comes through on every page, carrying readers across an astonishing array of subject matter with ease. This is a treasure.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Shrewd, humane, and deeply engaging pieces.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Warm, human, unfailingly engaging, this lovely collection should appeal widely. As usual, she writes like a dream.” – David Keymer, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
Romney: A Reckoning by McKay Coppins
nonfiction / biography / politics / history.
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.
“Romney: A Reckoning is in many ways a straightforward biography, but it has the intimacy of a small subgenre of political confessions…” – Thomas Mallon, New York Times
“[A] scoop-rich biography… The story of his career is an especially clear window onto the forces that over the last decade have transformed the GOP, once a business-friendly bastion of conservatism, into a cauldron of anger, fear-mongering and demagoguery that has no place for Republicans like Romney.” – Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times
Sonic Life: A Memoir by Thurston Moore ★
nonfiction / memoir / music.
Thurston Moore moved to Manhattan’s East Village in 1978 with a yearning for music. He wanted to be immersed in downtown New York’s sights and sounds—the feral energy of its nightclubs, the angular roar of its bands, the magnetic personalities within its orbit. But more than anything, he wanted to make music—to create indelible sounds that would move, provoke, and inspire.
His dream came to life in 1981 with the formation of Sonic Youth, a band Moore cofounded with Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo. Sonic Youth became a fixture in New York’s burgeoning No Wave scene—an avant-garde collision of art and sound, poetry and punk. The band would evolve from critical darlings to commercial heavyweights, headlining festivals around the globe while helping introduce listeners to such artists as Nirvana, Hole, and Pavement, and playing alongside such icons as Neil Young and Iggy Pop. Through it all, Moore maintained an unwavering love of music: the new, the unheralded, the challenging, the irresistible.
In the spirit of Just Kids, Sonic Life offers a window into the trajectory of a celebrated artist and a tribute to an era of explosive creativity. It presents a firsthand account of New York in a defining cultural moment, a history of alternative rock as it was birthed and came to dominate airwaves, and a love letter to music, whatever the form. This is a story for anyone who has ever felt touched by sound—who knows the way the right song at the right moment can change the course of a life.
“…the best kind of music memoir, an act of cultural excavation…” – Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune
“A love letter to to the New York underground music and art scenes of the 1970s and 80s… Moore’s prose suggests he could have had an alternative career as one of the few great music journalists to have become a household name.” – The Wire
“Fascinating… Moore conjures the grit and atmosphere of 1980s New York with ease.” – Town & Country
“A self-aware, charmingly rough-and-tumble tale of the rock ’n’ roll life.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
Tupac Shakur: The Authorized Biography by Staci Robinson
nonfiction / biography / music / history.
Artist, poet, actor, revolutionary, legend.
Tupac Shakur is one of the greatest and most controversial artists of all time. More than a quarter of a century after his tragic death in 1996 at the age of just twenty-five, he continues to be one of the most misunderstood, complicated, and influential figures in modern history. Drawing on exclusive access to Tupac’s private notebooks, letters, and uncensored conversations with those who loved and knew him best, this estate-authorized biography paints the fullest and most intimate picture to date of the young man who became a legend for generations to come.
In Tupac Shakur, author and screenwriter Staci Robinson—who knew Tupac from their shared circle of high school friends in Marin City, California, and who was entrusted by his mother, Afeni Shakur, to share his story—unravels the myths and unpacks the complexities that have shadowed Tupac’s existence. Decades in the making, this book pulls back the curtain to reveal a powerful story of a life defined by politics and art—a man driven by equal parts brilliance and impulsiveness, steeped in the rich intellectual tradition of Black empowerment, and unafraid to utter raw truths about race in America.
It is a story of a mother and son bound together by a love for each other and for their people, and the relationship that endured through their darkest times. It is a political story that begins in the whirlwind of the 1960s civil rights movement and unfolds through a young artist’s awakening to rage and purpose in the ’90s era of Rodney King. It is a story of dizzying success and its devastating consequences. And, of course, it is the story of Tupac’s music, his timeless, undying message as it continues to touch and inspire us today.
“…riveting… Enriched by invaluable excerpts from the rapper’s notebooks and sketch pads, this will have hip-hop devotees enthralled.” – Publishers Weekly
“…Tupac’s outsized personality, his love of literature (he scribbled poetry throughout his trial and read Shakespere and Sun Yat-sen in jail), and dedication to Black liberation shine throughout this passionate portrait of a profoundly influential artist. ” – Lesley Williams, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears ★
nonfiction / memoir / music / television.
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.
“Sharing often-brutal truths, Spears details her incredible journey from teen superstar to one of the bestselling female artists of all time, her ‘soul-crushing’ conservatorship experience and her past relationships.” – Elizabeth Leonard, People
“To read… The Woman in Me is to be saddened time and time again by the ways Spears has felt hurt, blindsided even, by the opportunism of others… The harrowing details of Spears’s conservatorship — her father’s near-total control of her finances and daily life, the ever-present surveillance to which Spears was subjected — are well-known by now. But the details revealed in The Woman in Me disturb even more deeply as Spears illustrates the adolescent-surrounded-by-sinister-adults dynamic.” – Ashley Fetters Maloy, Washington Post
“[It] has the cadences and stagecraft of a country song: striving, plucky, littered with almost operatic betrayals and misfortune. It’s also a tale of qualified triumph, albeit with its own star-crossed postscript… It’s nearly impossible to come out of it without empathy for and real outrage on behalf of Spears, whose admitted bitterness over the dire circumstances of the last decade-plus of her life — she no longer speaks to her family, and says she has no immediate plans to return to recording — is tempered by an enduring, insistent optimism.” – Leah Greenblatt, New York Times
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