“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” – Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The Absinthe Forger: A True Story of Deception, Betrayal, and the World’s Most Dangerous Spirit by Evan Rail
nonfiction / history / true crime.
An astonishing true crime story about an eccentric grifter who blew up the lucrative black market for vintage bottles of the legendary drink of artistic renegades, absinthe…
Thought to be hallucinogenic and banned globally for a century, absinthe is once again legal and popular. Yet it is still associated with bohemian lifestyles, just as when it was the favorite drink of avant-gardists like Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh and Baudelaire. And today, when vintage, pre-ban bottles are discovered, they can sell for exorbitant prices to private collectors. But such discoveries are increasingly rare.
Which is why the absinthe demimonde of rich collectors was electrified when a mysterious bon vivant claimed to be in possession of a collection of precious, pre-ban bottles.
Is his secret tranche of 100-year-old bottles real? And just who is the shadowy person selling them? And what about rumors of another secret cache, hidden away in an Italian palazzo?
Journalist Evan Rail sets out to discover the truth about the enigmatic dealer and the secret stashes. Along the way, he drinks with absintheurs frantically chasing down the pre-bans, visits modern distillers who have seen their status rise from criminal bootleggers to sought-after celebrities, and relates the legendary history of absinthe, from its birth in Switzerland through its coming of age in France, and on to its modern revival.
“An entertaining survey of spirits culture past and present.” – Kirkus Reviews
“…engrossing… the bracing true story of a much-maligned spirit and the counterfeiter who turned its mythic status to his own ends.” – Eileen Gonzalez, Foreword Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Aficionados of pastis, ouzo, modern absinthe, and other such libations will learn a lot here about the ancestral archetype of contemporary anise-flavored drinks.” – Mark Knoblauch, Booklist
American Rapture by C.J. Leede ★
fiction / horror.
A virus is spreading across America, transforming the infected and making them feral with lust.
Sophie, a good Catholic girl, must traverse the hellscape of the midwest to try to find her family while the world around her burns. Along the way she discovers there are far worse fates than dying a virgin…
The end times are coming.
“Cheeky, obscene, and brilliant, CJ Leede’s American Rapture is a revelation.” – Molly Odintz, Crime Reads
“It is a pulse-pounding adventure story, certainly, but it is also an utterly brilliant story about deprogramming and the costs of emotional repression… the best plague novel since The Stand… it will make you shake, it will make you cry, it will make you cheer.” – Drew Broussard, Literary Hub
“The themes here — Christofascism, sexuality, shame, moral panics — are heady, the book is brutally violent, and, as with her previous novel, Maeve Fly, Leede doesn’t pull a single punch. It’s also touching, and funny, and sad — I sobbed straight through the last 50 pages.” – Emily C. Hughes, Vulture
“Leede masterfully eases readers into a taut horror plot in her standout sophomore outing, which works both as a nail-biting apocalyptic tale and as an empathetic look at the impact of being raised in a harshly restrictive environment… Leede does a fantastic job putting readers in the head of her wonderfully flawed and recognizably human lead. Add in plenty of page-turning suspense, and this proves hard to put down.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Big Jim and the White Boy by David F. Walker & Marcus Kwame Anderson
fiction / graphic novels / historical fiction.
Commonly regarded as one of the great American novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has captured the hearts and imaginations of readers since 1885. But since its publication, critics have rightfully condemned Mark Twain’s troubling portrayal of Black Americans as stereotypes and caricatures, with contemporary fans searching for a modern update to this iconic tale.
Big Jim and the White Boy is a radical retelling of this American classic, centering the experiences of Jim, an enslaved Black man in search of his kidnapped wife and children, along with his cheeky sidekick, Huckleberry Finn. Jim and Huck’s high-stakes adventures take them on an epic voyage across the antebellum South and Midwest, through Confederate war camps and runaway safe houses, into Old West standoffs, and on the road as covert Underground Railroad agents. Intertwined into the story of Jim and Huck are the stories of Jim’s descendants in the 1930s, 1980s, and 2020s, making this a multigenerational family epic as well as an adventure story. Big Jim and the White Boy takes readers on a journey through Jim and Huck’s past, present, and future, delving into their incredible friendship and years of adventures—a bond that transcends the gruesome racism of the Civil War era.
With compelling artwork and riveting storytelling, David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson push the boundaries of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in this incredible graphic novel, exploring the triumphs and tribulations of Jim and his family, and finally giving his due as a hero of American literature.
“[A] vital reconsideration of an American classic.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“…one of the most profound, ambitious and emotionally hard-hitting graphic novels ever attempted.” – Rob Salkowitz, Forbes
“Walker and Anderson craft a thought-provoking, profoundly moving adventure story. Not to be missed.” – Tom Batten, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
Bull Moon Rising by Ruby Dixon ★
fiction / fantasy / romance.
As a Holder’s daughter, Aspeth Honori knows the importance of magical artifacts… which is why it’s a disaster that her father has gambled all theirs away. Now that her family is in danger of losing their hold—and their heads—if anyone finds out the truth, Aspeth decides to do something about it. She’ll join the Royal Artifactual Guild and the adventurers who explore ancient underground ruins to retrieve the coveted arcane items.
It’s a great plan—with one big problem. The guild won’t let her train because she’s a woman. Aspeth needs a chaperone of some kind. The best way to get around this problem? Marry someone who will let her become an apprentice. Who better than a surly guild member who requires a favor of his own? He’s a minotaur (it’s fine) who is her teacher (also fine)… and he’s about to go into rut (which is where it gets tricky). He also has no idea she’s a noble (oops), and he’ll want nothing to do with her if he discovers her real identity.
Now Aspeth just has to pass the guild tests, thwart a fortune hunter, and save her hold—oh, and survive a rut with her monstrous, horned husband, whom she might be falling in love with.
It’s time to dig deep. Literally.
“[A] fun and juicy romantasy.” – Cindy White, AV Club
“[An] instant-classic… Dixon weaves a fun tale of intrigue, conspiracy, warring families, a plucky heroine, and a found family that will warm the heart of readers… Fans of The Mummy, Dungeons & Dragons, and good old-fashioned spicy romance will adore this latest true-love monster tale from Dixon.” – Lindsey Allen, Booklist
“This steamy paranormal fantasy romance is filled with found family and sweet characters.” – Mindie Marsh, Shelf Awareness
“The worldbuilding is well done and the love story convincing. Dixon should win a whole new set of readers with this.” – Publishers Weekly
Dogs and Monsters: Stories by Mark Haddon
fiction / short stories / fantasy.
Greek myths have fascinated people for millenia, seeing in them lessons about fate and hubris and the contingency of existence. Mark Haddon digs into the heart of these ancient fables and sees them anew. The dawn goddess Eos asks Zeus to give her lover Tithonus eternal life, but forgets to ask for eternal youth. In “The Quiet Limit of the World” Haddon imagines Tithonus’ life as he slowly ages over thousands of years, turning the cautionary tale of tempting the gods into a spellbinding meditation on witnessing death from the outside, and ultimately, how carnal love evolves into something richer and more poignant with time. In “The Mother’s Story,” Haddon takes the myth of the minotaur in his labyrinth, in which the beast is the spawn of the monstrous lust of the king’s wife Pasiphae, and turns it into a wrenching parable of maternal love for a damaged child, and the more real monstrosities of patriarchy. In “D.O.G.Z.” the story of Actaeon, who was turned into a stag after glimpsing the naked goddess Diana and torn to pieces by his hunting dogs, becomes a visceral metaphor about the continuum of human and animal behavior.
Other stories play with contemporary mythic tropes – genetic engineering, trying to escape the future, the viciousness of adolescent ostracism – to showcase how modern humans are subject to the same capriciousness that obsessed the Greeks. Haddon’s tales cover a vast range, from the mythic to the domestic, from ancient Greece to the present day, from stories about love to stories about cruelty, from battlefields to bed and breakfasts, from dogs in space to doors between worlds, all of them bound together by a profound sympathy and an understanding of how human beings act and think and feel when pushed to the very edge. Throughout, Haddon’s supple prose showcases his astonishing powers of observation, of both the physical world and the workings of the psyche. His vision is clear-eyed, but always resolutely empathetic.
“…run, don’t walk, to pick up this new collection from Haddon… With a combination of compassion and authority, the author shows that his command of short fiction continues to keep pace with his novels…” – Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times
“[A] potent collection of stories about human foibles and desires… [Haddon] pulls off grand lyricism from the perspectives of superhumans and immortals… This is divine.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“…brilliant… Haddon’s writing [is] always rock solid and frequently luminous… Each of these stories opens a door upon an unexpected landscape, a dangerous situation, a character who may be simultaneously ‘monster, and miracle’. All are complex, surprising, evocative and richly entertaining.” – Nina Allan, The Guardian
Don’t Be a Stranger by Susan Minot ★
fiction / romance.
Ivy Cooper is 52 years old when Ansel Fleming first walks into her life. Twenty years her junior, a musician newly released from prison on a minor drug charge, Ansel’s beguiling good looks and quiet intensity instantly seduce her. Despite the gulf between their ages and experience the physical chemistry between them is overpowering, and over the heady weeks and months that follow Ivy finds her life bifurcated by his presence: On the surface she is a responsible mother, managing the demands of friends, an ex-husband, home; but emotionally, psychologically, sexually, she is consumed by desire and increasingly alive only in the stolen moments-out-of-time, with Ansel in her bed.
Don’t Be a Stranger is a gripping, sensual, and provocative work from one of the most remarkable voices in contemporary fiction.
“A story of obsession, lust and life, perfect for fans of All Fours by Miranda July.” – Isabelle McConville, B&N Reads
“A virtuoso of psychologically intricate fiction, Minot exquisitely explores desire and denial, intimacy and illusion in a ravishing, haunting, and insightful tale of sexual ecstasy and emotional torment, integrity and creativity, self and motherhood.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Rather than a book you ‘can’t put down,’ it’s one you might pause from precisely to prolong its mild suspense and poetic pleasures… Minot’s strength has always been to stay with her female protagonists’ pain: poking around in the shadows, dignifying their experience… female libido is hot, hot, hot in serious fiction, and Minot continues to maintain one of the bluest flames.” – Alexandra Jacobs, New York Times
“Minot is an elegant writer, her sentences and paragraphs stylishly cropped, her dialogue quotation mark–free, her epigraphs chosen from classic sources: Rilke, Emerson, Lao Tzu, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, Rumi. In pellucid prose she captures each of the emotional states Ivy cycles through on the roller coaster of erotic fascination, delusion, bliss, mania, devastation—while also buffeted by the emotions and responsibilities of motherhood and of a career as a writer.” – Kirkus Reviews
Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions by John Grisham & Jim McCloskey
nonfiction / history / true crime.
John Grisham is known worldwide for his bestselling novels, but it’s his real-life passion for justice that led to his work with Jim McCloskey of Centurion Ministries, the first organization dedicated to exonerating innocent people who have been wrongly convicted. Together they offer an inside look at the many injustices in our criminal justice system.
A fundamental principle of our legal system is a presumption of innocence, but once someone has been found guilty, there is very little room to prove doubt. These ten true stories shed light on Americans who were innocent but found guilty and forced to sacrifice friends, families, and decades of their lives to prison while the guilty parties remained free. In each of the stories, John Grisham and Jim McCloskey recount the dramatic hard-fought battles for exoneration. They take a close look at what leads to wrongful convictions in the first place and the racism, misconduct, flawed testimony, and corruption in the court system that can make them so hard to reverse.
Impeccably researched and told with page-turning suspense as only John Grisham can deliver, Framed is the story of winning freedom when the battle already seems lost and the deck is stacked against you.
“A powerful and infuriating must-read about ineptitude and injustice in America’s legal system.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“The authors relate stories that utterly boggle the mind… [readers] will be shocked and outraged, which is precisely the response the authors were looking for.” – David Pitt, Booklist
“[A] searing reminder of the mistakes, both deliberate and inadvertent, that lead to wrongful imprisonment in our country’s deeply flawed penal system… [an] infuriating, necessary book… These stories are sad and shameful. Their blend of public service and call to action — and their draw as true-life pulp fiction — will inform, infuriate and, one can only hope, inspire.” – Carlo Wolff, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens
fiction / romance / comedy / mystery / horror.
It’s been months since horror author Penelope Skinner threw a book at Neil Storm. But he was so infuriating, with his sparkling green eyes and his bestselling horror novels that claimed to break Native stereotypes. And now she’s a publishing pariah and hasn’t been able to write a word since. So when her friend invites her on a too-good-to-be-true writers retreat in a supposedly haunted Scottish castle, she seizes the opportunity. Of course, some things really are too good to be true.
Neil wants nothing less than to be trapped in a castle with the frustratingly adorable woman who threw a book at him. She drew blood! Worse still, she unleashed a serious case of self-doubt! Neil is terrified to write another bestselling “book without a soul,” as Pen called it. All Neil wants is to find inspiration, while completely avoiding her.
But as the retreat begins, Pen and Neil are stunned to find themselves trapped in a real-life ghost story. Even more horrifying, they’re stuck together and a truly shocking (extremely hot) almost-kiss has left them rethinking their feelings, and… maybe they shouldn’t have been enemies at all? But if they can’t stop the ghosts pursuing them, they may never have the chance to find out.
Full of spooky chills and even more sexy thrills, If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens is the funny, fast-paced romp romance readers have been waiting for!
“This forced-proximity, enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy has plenty of chills and thrills. Readers will stay up late, with all the lights on, to finish Wilkens’s satisfying debut.” – Heather Miller Cover, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“…moves at breakneck speed, careening between moments of laugh-out-loud humor and chilling encounters with the ghost of a young woman… readers who like their romances both spooky and meta will want to give it a chance.” – Publishers Weekly
Libby Lost and Found by Stephanie Booth
fiction.
Meet Libby Weeks, author of the mega-best-selling fantasy series, The Falling Children—written as “F.T. Goldhero” to maintain her privacy. When the last manuscript is already months overdue to her publisher and rabid fans around the world are growing impatient, Libby is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Already suffering from crippling anxiety, Libby’s symptoms quickly accelerate. After she forgets her dog at the park one day—then almost discloses her identity to the journalist who finds him—Libby has to admit it: she needs help finishing the last book.
Desperately, she turns to eleven-year-old superfan Peanut Bixton, who knows the books even better than she does but harbors her own dark secrets. Tensions mount as Libby’s dementia deepens—until both Peanut and Libby swirl into an inevitable but bone-shocking conclusion.
“[Booth] creates a compelling archive of celebrity authorship and its significance in modern society… this quirky novel illuminates the worthwhile leaps of faith taken to imagine how to better care for one another.” – Lillian Liao, Booklist
Long Time Gone by Hannah Martian
fiction / mystery / suspense / romance.
In the small town of Wonderland, Wyoming, the truth is whatever the Coldwater family says it is. When their prodigal daughter, Jessica, was murdered forty years ago, their truth was that Holly Prine killed her–regardless of Holly’s innocence.
But the Coldwaters aren’t the only reason private investigator Quinn Cuthridge hasn’t set foot in the town in nearly a decade. After her aunt sent her away when she was a teen, Quinn swore she’d never return. When she gets an unexpected call from her aunt’s ranch hand, Hunter, Quinn learns that her aunt has gone missing. Reluctantly, she returns to Wyoming to investigate and soon realizes that her aunt was getting dangerously close to long-buried Wonderland secrets, including who really murdered Jessica Coldwater.
As Hunter and Quinn dig into what lies in the Wyoming backcountry, attraction flares between the two women, complicating their investigation–and Quinn’s steadfast refusal to have any ties to Wonderland. With someone threatening Quinn and her own dark past echoing in the present, Quinn must struggle against her hometown and herself to find the truth in this rich queer mystery.
“Suspense and romance build in a story about the shattering pressures of hiding the truth.” – Kirkus Reviews
Polostan by Neal Stephenson
fiction / historical fiction.
The first installment in Neal Stephenson’s Bomb Light cycle, Polostan follows the early life of the enigmatic Dawn Rae Bjornberg. Born in the American West to a clan of cowboy anarchists, Dawn is raised in Leningrad after the Russian Revolution by her Russian father, a party line Leninist who re-christens her Aurora. She spends her early years in Russia but then grows up as a teenager in Montana, before being drawn into gunrunning and revolution in the streets of Washington, D.C., during the depths of the Great Depression. When a surprising revelation about her past puts her in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities, Dawn returns to Russia, where she is groomed as a spy by the organization that later becomes the KGB.
Set against the turbulent decades of the early twentieth century, Polostan is an inventive, richly detailed, and deeply entertaining historical epic, and the start of a captivating new series from Neal Stephenson.
“A deeply immersive historical epic.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Neal Stephenson’s thrilling and slow-burn historical thriller Polostan presents the 1930s as a calamitous carnival ride building inexorably toward Hiroshima.” – Chris Barsanti, Pop Matters
“…tremendously entertaining… Stephenson is a truly gifted writer, with a writing style unlike any other, and an imagination that can be startling in its originality and complexity. It would be foolish to speculate whether this is one of his best novels, since everything he writes is different from everything else, but one thing is sure: once you turn Polostan’s first page, you won’t look up from the book until you’ve turned its last. A glorious achievement from a unique and compelling writer.” – David Pitt, Booklist
Sonny Boy: A Memoir by Al Pacino ★
nonfiction / memoir / film.
To the wider world, Al Pacino exploded onto the scene like a supernova. He landed his first leading role, in The Panic in Needle Park, in 1971, and by 1975, he had starred in four movies—The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon—that were not just successes but landmarks in the history of film. Those performances became legendary and changed his life forever. Not since Marlon Brando and James Dean in the late 1950s had an actor landed in the culture with such force.
But Pacino was in his midthirties by then, and had already lived several lives. A fixture of avant-garde theater in New York, he had led a bohemian existence, working odd jobs to support his craft. He was raised by a fiercely loving but mentally unwell mother and her parents after his father left them when he was young, but in a real sense he was raised by the streets of the South Bronx, and by the troop of buccaneering young friends he ran with, whose spirits never left him. After a teacher recognized his acting promise and pushed him toward New York’s fabled High School of Performing Arts, the die was cast. In good times and bad, in poverty and in wealth and in poverty again, through pain and joy, acting was his lifeline, its community his tribe.
Sonny Boy is the memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide. All the great roles, the essential collaborations, and the important relationships are given their full due, as is the vexed marriage between creativity and commerce at the highest levels. The book’s golden thread, however, is the spirit of love and purpose. Love can fail you, and you can be defeated in your ambitions—the same lights that shine bright can also dim. But Al Pacino was lucky enough to fall deeply in love with a craft before he had the foggiest idea of any of its earthly rewards, and he never fell out of love. That has made all the difference.
“The book tracks his rise from humble beginnings to Oscar-winning icon and has enough drama to fill several Hollywood screenplays… [full] of many deeply personal anecdotes…” – Eric Andersson, People
The Treasure Hunters Club by Tom Ryan
fiction / mystery / suspense.
WELCOME TO MAPLE BAY, NOVA SCOTIA
For nearly a century, people have ventured to the idyllic seaside town of Maple Bay in search of a legendary lost pirate treasure, but locals know there’s more than just gold buried in the sand. As the paths of three strangers converge in Maple Bay, the truth is about to be blown wide open. But not before the bodies start to pile up.
Peter Barnett is rapidly approaching 40 with little to show for it when a mysterious letter invites him to Maple Bay and the mansion his estranged family has called home for generations.
Seventeen-year-old Dandy Feltzen is isolated and adrift following the death of her beloved grandfather, until his final request and a tantalizing clue sets her on a mission to solve the mystery he spent his entire life chasing.
Cass Jones has given up on her dream of being a successful author when an unexpected opportunity lands in her lap: a housesitting gig in remote Maple Bay, where she stumbles on the perfect subject matter for her breakout book—and the handsome sailor who might be just the person to help her research it.
Peter, Dandy and Cass have never met, but they’re on a collision course with each other and the mystery that has defined Maple Bay for two centuries, and none of them are prepared for the shocking truths that may or may not still be buried there.
“An edge-of-your seat, page-turning delight.” – Kirkus Reviews
“[A] labyrinthine tale of lies, greed, murder, and retribution. The mind-boggling, nail-biting twists will keep readers guessing, with a finale that’s as shocking as it is satisfying.” – Emily Melton, Booklist
“…ambitious and atmospheric… with an immersive setting and a truly surprising final twist. This Goonies-esque caper delivers the goods.” – Publishers Weekly
The Waiting by Michael Connelly
fiction / mystery / suspense.
Renée Ballard and the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet twenty years ago. The arrested man is only twenty-four, so the genetic link must be familial: His father was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the city of angels. But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles.
Meanwhile, Ballard’s badge, gun, and ID are stolen—a theft she can’t report without giving her enemies in the department ammunition to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her mission draws her into unexpected danger. With no choice but to go outside the department for help, she knocks on the door of Harry Bosch.
At the same time, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit: Bosch’s daughter Maddie, now a patrol officer. But Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city’s library of lost souls—a case that may be the most iconic in the city’s history. Complex, satisfying, and full of dexterous twists, The Waiting demonstrates once more that “you can’t do better than Michael Connelly” (Forbes).
“…unputdownable… Connelly brilliantly renders the ins and outs of these investigations, all while adding layers to Ballard’s backstory and delivering white-hot suspense guaranteed to please his fans. This ranks with Connelly’s best.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Connelly’s name on the cover guarantees a great read; his latest is no exception. The story follows the cases methodically and realistically, and the characters continue to grow.” – Jeff Ayers, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“…riveting… Connelly understands characters and knows how to give his readers what they want… he still knows how to twist, turn, and bring the thrills unlike anyone else. Prepare yourself for a late-night reading session because The Waiting is Michael Connelly at his very best, proving once again why he is the undisputed master of the modern crime novel.” – Ryan Steck, The Real Book Spy
War by Bob Woodward
nonfiction / politics / history.
War is an intimate and sweeping account of one of the most tumultuous periods in presidential politics and American history.
We see President Joe Biden and his top advisers in tense conversations with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. We also see Donald Trump, conducting a shadow presidency and seeking to regain political power.
With unrivaled, inside-the-room reporting, Woodward shows President Biden’s approach to managing the war in Ukraine, the most significant land war in Europe since World War II, and his tortured path to contain the bloody Middle East conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.
Woodward reveals the extraordinary complexity and consequence of wartime back-channel diplomacy and decision-making to deter the use of nuclear weapons and a rapid slide into World War III.
The raw cage-fight of politics accelerates as Americans prepare to vote in 2024, starting between President Biden and Trump, and ending with the unexpected elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president.
War provides an unvarnished examination of the vice president as she tries to embrace the Biden legacy and policies while beginning to chart a path of her own as a presidential candidate.
Woodward’s reporting once again sets the standard for journalism at its most authoritative and illuminating.
“Woodward isn’t interested in partisanship or ideology. His subject is high statecraft, the exercise of power at its loftiest reaches, which mostly involves heads of government and their lieutenants talking — and frequently swearing — on the telephone… harrowing, riveting stuff, even if you know how it will play out.” – A.O. Scott, New York Times
“…shocking… resurrects unsettling questions about Trump’s relationship to Putin and the largely unresolved mystery of the former president’s business and financial ties to Russia… also supplies some harrowing new details on Biden’s ‘missiles of October’ moment in 2022.” – Michael Hirsh, Foreign Policy
“…includes candid assessments by Biden of his own missteps… illuminates the frantic, and often failed, effort by Biden’s team to prevent escalation of fighting in the Middle East…” – Isaac Stanley-Becker, Washington Post
What I Ate in One Year (and Related Thoughts) by Stanley Tucci ★
nonfiction / memoir / food.
“Sharing food is one of the purest human acts.”
Food has always been an integral part of Stanley Tucci’s life: from stracciatella soup served in the shadow of the Pantheon, to marinara sauce cooked between scene rehearsals and costume fittings, to home-made pizza eaten with his children before bedtime.
Now, in What I Ate in One Year Tucci records twelve months of eating—in restaurants, kitchens, film sets, press junkets, at home and abroad, with friends, with family, with strangers, and occasionally just by himself.
Ranging from the mouth-wateringly memorable to the comfortingly domestic and to the infuriatingly inedible, the meals memorialised in this diary are a prism for him to reflect on the ways his life, and his family, are constantly evolving. Through food he marks—and mourns—the passing of time, the loss of loved ones, and steels himself for what is to come.
Whether it’s duck a l’orange eaten with fellow actors and cooked by singing Carmelite nuns, steaks barbequed at a gathering with friends, or meatballs made by his mother and son and shared at the table with three generations of his family, these meals give shape and add emotional richness to his days.
What I Ate in One Year is a funny, poignant, heartfelt, and deeply satisfying serving of memories and meals and an irresistible celebration of the profound role that food plays in all our lives.
“Delicious and mouth-watering.” – Isabelle McConville, B&N Reads
“A charming and sometimes touching glimpse into the life of an actor and gourmand.” – Kirkus Reviews
“A delicious serving of Tucci’s special blend of tasteful prose and sparkling wit that his fans and general foodies will savor.” – Carolyn M. Mulac, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“A few lucky people get to hang out with actor and author Stanley Tucci in real life, but the rest of us can have the next best thing by joining him in the pages of this engaging chronicle of what he ate, cooked, and thought throughout the year 2023… delivered with a self-deprecating tone and a wicked sense of humor… Ideal for readers from all walks of life who want to elevate everyday experiences by taking lessons from a master.” – Jane Harper, Booklist
Women’s Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery ★
fiction / historical fiction / comedy.
The Beidermeier might be several rungs lower on the ladder than the real-life Barbizon, but its residents manage to occupy one another nonetheless. There’s Katherine, the first-floor manager, lightly cynical and more than lightly suggestible. There’s Lucianne, a workshy party girl caught between the love of comfort and an instinctive bridling at convention, Kitty the sponger, Ruth the failed hairdresser, and Pauline the typesetter. And there’s Stephen, the daytime elevator operator and part-time Cooper Union student.
The residents give up breakfast, juggle competing jobs at rival presses, abandon their children, get laid off from the telephone company, attempt to retrain as stenographers, all with the shared awareness that their days as an institution are numbered, and they’d better make the most of it while it lasts.
As trenchant as the novels of Dawn Powell and Rona Jaffe and as immersive as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Lessons in Chemistry, Women’s Hotel is a modern classic—and it is very, very funny.
“I cannot imagine a more perfect use of an afternoon than reading this book.” – Helen Rosner, The New Yorker
“[A] stay at the Biedermeier is pure pleasure.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Women’s Hotel is a prime example of mastery of a craft; readers will want to devour it in a single sitting.” – Lily Hunter, Booklist
“[An] appealingly offbeat debut… Lavery colorfully captures the hotel in the last glimmers of its heyday and brings the misfit residents to life… readers will find much to savor.” – Publishers Weekly
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