“I always worried someone would notice me, and then when no one did, I felt lonely.” – Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep
Battle Mountain by C.J. Box
fiction / mystery / suspense / western.
The campaign of destruction that Axel Soledad and Dallas Cates wreaked on Nate Romanowski and Joe Pickett left both men in tatters, especially Nate, who lost almost everything. Wondering if the civilized life left him vulnerable to attack, Nate dropped off the grid with his falcons in tow to prepare for vengeance.
When Joe gets a call from the governor asking for help finding his son-in-law, who has gone missing in the Sierra Madre mountain range, he enlists the help of a local, a rookie game warden named Susan Kany.
As Nate and fellow falconer Geronimo Jones circle closer to their prey, Joe and Susan follow the nearly cold trail to Warm Springs. Little do Nate and Joe know that their separate journeys are about to converge… at Battle Mountain.
“The 25th installment of C.J. Box’s bestselling series is gritty, tense and sharp as a falcon’s talons.” – Isabelle McConville, B&N Reads
“That’s right, C.J. Box is back and better than ever… another breathtaking, white-knuckle thrill ride that further cements his reputation as one of the finest voices in fiction today… Buckle up because there’s no putting this one down, and once the battle breaks out, it’s a bloody, nail-biting sprint to the finish line.” – Ryan Steck, The Real Book Spy
“[A] gripping, suspenseful masterpiece in characterizations, intertwined plot lines, and explosive action… an explosive, highly atmospheric masterpiece of tautly woven plot lines, insane pacing, and relentless suspense.” – Sandra Hoover, Mystery & Suspense
Big Name Fan by Ruthie Know & Annie Mare
fiction / romance / mystery.
Bexley Simon and Sam Farmer aren’t detectives, but they play them on TV. Well, played, past tense. The iconic cult hit that was Craven’s Daughter ended five years ago, and their friendship died along with it. Fans were disappointed that the pair’s legendary chemistry went unfulfilled—and other fans were crushed that the actual spark between actresses Bex and Sam didn’t pay off, either. The network never intended for two women to get romantic, in life or onscreen, despite the fans. But the bigger tragedy was the loss of their dear friend, makeup artist Jen Arnot, whose accidental death cast a pall over the series’ last episodes.
Now the network has decided on a reunion special, and Bex and Sam are thrust together once more as hosts of a rewatch podcast that will feature favorite episodes. Their first guest—a megawatt star who played a murder victim early on—drops a bombshell. Among the millions of pixels of fanfic written about the show online, one truly prolific author, known in the fiction world as the show’s Big Name Fan, was an insider, almost certainly someone from the cast or crew.
As the podcast moves along—and the spark between Bex and Sam threatens to burn down the studio—the pair realize they’re faced with two actual mysteries: Who is their Big Name Fan? And was Jen’s death an accident, or did someone want her dead? Sifting through clues as they question cast and crew, the duo will need to separate fact from fiction as they make their personal partnership into an unmistakable canon…
“[A] pitch-perfect blend of mystery, romance and Hollywood drama… Real-life couple Knox and Mare juggle a lot in Big Name Fan—longstanding feuds, burgeoning romances and the plots of Craven’s Daughter and the fan fiction it inspired—and they balance it all beautifully, creating an enjoyable read for fans of mystery and romance alike.” – Jamie Orsini, BookPage
“[A] genre-blending novel that’s full of heart… Half cozy mystery, half romance, this read is entirely fun.” – Ahliah Bratzler, Library Journal
“…sweetly satisfying… Readers who love to overanalyze their favorite shows will feel especially seen. This low-heat love letter to the queer fanfic community is a gem.” – Publishers Weekly
The Charlie Method by Elle Kennedy
fiction / romance / comedy.
College senior Charlotte Kingston is living two lives―and she’s nailing both of them. By day, she’s the perfect sorority girl, a STEM student in biomedical engineering, and the adopted daughter of an overachiever family. At night, she’s Charlie: a risk-taking daredevil looking for fun who finds herself chatting on a dating app with two anonymous hotties.
Will Larsen may seem like the breezy boy next door, but his congressman father is a constant thorn in his side. After a scandal hits another Division 1 hockey program, Will’s dad is determined to distance his son from it, hiring a journalist to prove how squeaky-clean Will and his team are. Which means the last thing Will wants is for anyone to find out he and his best friend Beckett Dunne―a laidback Aussie shielding secret heartache―sometimes share girls in the bedroom.
When Charlie finally meets them in person and realizes she’s been chatting with two gorgeous Briar U hockey players, things get steamy―fast. But all their messy secrets are piling up, and real life soon threatens to shatter the fantasy. With Charlie, Will, and Beckett all coming to terms with what they want and what others want for them, difficult decisions will need to be made.
Especially when lust starts to look a lot like love.
“[A] steamy read that’ll leave you breathless… playful and hilarious…” – Syameen Salehaldin, Harper’s Bazaar
“Elle Kennedy has been taking us back to school with her Campus Diaries series and we absolutely cannot get enough of it… Warning: This might be the hottest first date you’ve ever read.” – Tamara Fuentes, Cosmopolitan
Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 by Lisa Unger
fiction / suspense / mystery.
When the real game begins, who will make it to the count of 10?
Charismatic daredevil and extreme adventurer Maverick Dillan invites you to the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. But as the players gather on Falcao Island, the event quickly spirals into a chilling test of survival. A storm rages as a deadly threat stalks the contestants, turning the challenge into something far more sinister than the social media stunt it was intended to be.
Enter Adele, a single mother with a fierce determination to protect her children at all costs. When she begins the game, she unwittingly enters a twisted web of deception and intrigue. Can she maneuver through the treacherous storm and the relentless competition and get home to her family? In a ruthless battle for survival where the stakes are higher than ever, the blurry line between the virtual and the real proves that the only person we can trust is ourselves.
“The perils of the real and virtual worlds collide effectively in this relentlessly paced thriller.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] fast-paced, atmospheric, locked-room thriller… Readers of Lucy Foley and a Ruth Ware will surely enjoy this nail-biter.” – Jayme Oldham, Booklist
“…riveting… Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 offers a fast-paced psychological thriller that is much more advanced than a simple game of hide-and-seek.” – Amy Wilson, Novels Alive
Crush by Ada Calhoun ★
fiction / romance.
When a husband asks his wife to consider what might be missing from their marriage, what follows surprises them both—sex, heartbreak and heart rekindling, and a rediscovered sense of all that is possible.
She’s happy and settled and productive and content in her full life—a child, a career, an admirable marriage, deep friendships, happy parents, and a spouse she still loves. But when her husband urges her to address what the narrow labels of “husband” and “wife” force them to edit out of their lives, the very best kind of hell breaks loose.
Using the author’s personal experiences as a jumping-off point, Crush is about the danger and liberation of chasing desire, the havoc it can wreak, and most of all the clear sense of self one finds when the storm passes. Destined to become a classic novel of marriage, and tackling the big questions being asked about partnership in postpandemic relationships, Crush is a sharp, funny, seductive, and revelatory novel about holding on to everything it’s possible to love—friends, children, parents, passion, lovers, husbands, all of the world’s good books, and most of all one’s own deep sense of purpose.
“Anything Ada Calhoun wants to write is well worth reading.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Crush (such a charged word) interrogates all that we think we know about love and soul mates, commitment and conviction, while tracking the long struggle to fully become oneself and do right.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Calhoun makes the leap to fiction with a fizzy and powerful exploration of modern marriage—and the pitfalls and excitements of redefining marriage while you’re inside of it… It’s both more than a romance novel and absolutely a romance novel. It’s a delight.” – Drew Broussard, Literary Hub
“Expect something smart, heartfully funny, and surprising—and don’t expect to look at your spouse the same way again.” – Town & Country
The Dark Mirror by Samantha Shannon
fiction / fantasy.
Everything is about to change.
Paige Mahoney is outside the Republic of Scion for the first time in more than a decade-but she has no idea how she got to the free world. Half a year has been wiped from her memory.
Her journey back to the revolution soon takes her to Venice, where the Domino Programme has uncovered evidence of a secret Scion plan. Before Paige can return to London, she must help the network unravel the sinister Operation Ventriloquist, which threatens to bring Europe to its knees in weeks.
And it soon becomes clear that the one person who could recover her memories-Arcturus Mesarthim-might also hold the key to thwarting Scion, allowing the revolution to strike an unprecedented blow…
“Shannon really outdid herself with this gripping cinematic fantasy thriller.” – Nils Shukla, The Fantasy Hive
“In complex scenes of healing, strategizing, death-defying action, delicate negotiations, and passionate love, Shannon’s powers remain at full impact in this brilliantly realized, keenly relevant freedom-fighter saga.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist
“The stakes are high, the pace is rapid, and Shannon’s gift for evocative prose makes the shadowy streets of Venice come alive… Series fans will be thrilled.” – Publishers Weekly
Death Takes Me by Cristina Rivera Garza; translated by Robin Myers & Sarah Booker ★
fiction / mystery / suspense.
A city is always a cemetery.
A professor named Cristina Rivera Garza stumbles upon the corpse of a mutilated man in a dark alley and reports it to the police. When shown a crime scene photo, she finds a stark warning written in tiny print with coral nail polish on the brick wall beside the body: “Beware of me, my love / beware of the silent woman in the desert.”
The professor becomes the first informant on the case, which is led by a detective newly obsessed with poetry and trailed by a long list of failures. But what has the professor really seen? As the bodies of more castrated men are found alongside lines of verse, the detective tries to decipher the meaning of the poems to put a stop to the violence spreading throughout the city.
Originally written in Spanish, where the word “victim” is always feminine, Death Takes Me is a thrilling masterpiece of literary fiction that flips the traditional crime narrative of gendered violence on its head. As sharp as the cuts on the bodies of the victims, it unfolds with the charged logic of a dream, moving from the police station to the professor’s classroom and through the slippery worlds of Latin American poetry and art in an imaginative exploration of the unstable terrains of desire and sexuality.
“[An] unforgettable literary puzzle… brilliantly melds the grit and pacing of a police procedural with literary theory… Life and literature become one in this singular achievement. ” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Rivera Garza’s nonlinear novel of violence and literature, written in elegiac, incandescent prose, reverses the horror of the victims of femicide along the U.S.-Mexico border with taunting murders of men in the city, a pointed turnabout.” – Sara Martínez, Booklist
“Cristina Rivera Garza’s writing rewires your brain, summoning the ghosts of vivid emotions you’d forgotten you could even feel. Every new translation of Rivera Garza is a literary event on the scale of Roberto Bolaño and Clarice Lispector’s posthumous English publications, and her new meta-thriller, Death Takes Me, is no exception.” – Adam Morgan, Esquire
“A kaleidoscopic novel that challenges readers to put together the pieces fractured on the page, in Death Takes Me every fracture serves a purpose–the crime that underpins the plot holding up a cracked funhouse mirror to the real world… This book will reward those willing to work for it.” – Mari G., Politics and Prose
Dust and Light: On the Art of Fact in Fiction by Andrea Barrett
nonfiction / essays / writing.
Hailed as a “genius-enchantress” (Karen Russell) and winner of the MacArthur Fellowship, the celebrated novelist Andrea Barrett has for decades reached backward to find inspiration from the past and written acclaimed and prizewinning works of historical fiction. In Dust and Light, the first work of nonfiction of her extraordinary career, Barrett draws from that deep well of experience to explore the mysteries, methods, and delights of the form.
Inspiration found in the past, she argues, can illuminate fiction, just as dust scatters light and makes the unseen visible. Barrett writes of lessons gleaned from the classic work of some of her guiding lights (Willa Cather, Henry James, Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf), as well as the work of such contemporary masters as Hilary Mantel, Toni Morrison, Colm Tóibín, and Jesmyn Ward. She reveals how she created some of her own beloved works, taking readers on a fascinating journey into some of the largest questions in the genre: How does a writer find meaningful subject matter beyond the confines of their life? How are scraps of history found, used, misused, manipulated, and transformed into a fully formed narrative? And what are the perils as well as the potential of this process?
Building on pieces originally published in leading literary magazines and featured in The Best American Essays, Dust and Light is an elegant exploration of the hazy borderlands of fiction sewn from the materials of history. Filled with profound insights, it will be a delight for any devoted fiction readers, and of great use to aspiring writers too.
“Barrett’s reflections on her process provide glimpses of a master at work, and she supports her observations with sharp analysis of how other authors tackle historical fiction. It’s a bracing inquiry into the purpose of fiction and its relationship with truth.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“With candid accounts of false starts and revision marathons, Barrett’s felicitous chronicle will intrigue and enlighten passionate readers and writers.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist
“Seeking to better understand the process by which fiction can buttress the gaps left by historical fact, Barrett has written the new go-to guide for lovers and writers both of stories anchored in the past.” – Jonny Diamond, Literary Hub
Fagin the Thief by Allison Epstein
fiction / historical fiction.
Long before Oliver Twist stumbled onto the scene, Jacob Fagin was scratching out a life for himself in the dark alleys of nineteenth-century London. Born in the Jewish enclave of Stepney shortly after his father was executed as a thief, Jacob’s whole world is his open-minded mother, Leah. But Jacob’s prospects are forever altered when a light-fingered pickpocket takes Jacob under his wing and teaches him a trade that pays far better than the neighborhood boys could possibly dream.
Striking out on his own, Jacob familiarizes himself with London’s highest value neighborhoods while forging his own path in the shadows. But everything changes when he adopts an aspiring teenage thief named Bill Sikes, whose mercurial temper poses a danger to himself and anyone foolish enough to cross him. Along the way, Jacob’s found family expands to include his closest friend, Nancy, and his greatest protégé, the Artful Dodger. But as Bill’s ambition soars and a major robbery goes awry, Jacob is forced to decide what he really stands for—and what a life is worth.
Colorfully written and wickedly funny, Allison Epstein breathes fresh life into the teeming streets of Dickensian London–reclaiming one of Victorian literature’s most notorious villains in an unforgettable new adventure.
“Allison Epstein’s vivid historical fiction retelling of Oliver Twist gives the villainous Fagin the thrilling, heartwrenching origin story the character has long deserved, and shines some necessary light on the dark corners that the original Charles Dickens’ tale was all too content to ignore.” – Lacy Baugher Milas, Paste
“…magnificent… Epstein’s Fagin, rarely admirable but surprisingly sympathetic, is an unforgettable creation, and her vibrant secondary characters and depictions of Victorian London add to the novel’s power. Dickens’s fans and critics alike will love this. ” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“In creating an origin story for the legendary thief, Epstein deftly addresses Oliver Twist’s longstanding ‘Fagin problem,’ not by sanitizing or disowning him, as other adaptations have done, but by lending him a humanity that Dickens’s caricature did not. It’s a lively, finely drawn reimagining and a deeply reverent corrective of a literary monument.” – Michael Pucci, Library Journal
Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister
fiction / suspense / mystery.
It is June 21st, the longest day of the year, and new mother Camilla’s life is about to change forever. After months of maternity leave, she will drop her infant daughter off at daycare for the first time and return to her job as a literary agent. Finally. But, when she wakes, her husband Luke isn’t there, and in his place is a cryptic note.
Then it starts. Breaking news: there’s a hostage situation developing in London. The police arrive, and tell her Luke is involved. But he isn’t a hostage. Her husband – doting father, eternal optimist – is the gunman.
What she does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind that morning says…
Famous Last Words is the story of a crime, a marriage, and more secrets than Camilla ever could have imagined. This novel cements Gillian McAllister’s reputation as “the best at putting her characters in impossible situations and making her readers not only contemplate but feel what it would be like to find themselves in those situations.” (Emily Henry)
“…the gut-wrenching plight of McAllister’s three-dimensional heroine will keep readers flipping pages.” – Publishers Weekly
“McAllister uses her standard smooth and emotional style to make sure all the puzzle pieces click together for a satisfying ending.” – Cari Dubiel, Library Reads
“McAllister’s latest brilliantly constructed novel is a perfectly calibrated mix of the thoughtful characterization that book clubbers will adore and the twist-filled plotting that armchair suspense junkies crave… A first-rate, fiendishly clever suspense novel that fans of Lisa Jewell, Megan Miranda, and Laura Lippman will eat up with a spoon.” – John Charles, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton
fiction / science fiction / fantasy.
Dalton Greaves is a hero. He’s one of humankind’s first representatives to Unity, a pan-species confederation working to bring all sentient life into a single benevolent brotherhood.
That’s what they told him, anyway. The only actual members of Unity that he’s ever met are Boreau, a giant snail who seems more interested in plunder than spreading love and harmony, and Boreau’s human sidekick, Neera, who Dalton strongly suspects roped him into this gig so that she wouldn’t become the next one of Boreau’s crew to get eaten by locals while prospecting.
Funny thing, though—turns out there actually is a benevolent confederation out there, working for the good of all life. They call themselves the Assembly, and they really don’t like Unity. More to the point, they really, really don’t like Unity’s new human minions.
When an encounter between Boreau’s scout ship and an Assembly cruiser over a newly discovered world ends badly for both parties, Dalton finds himself marooned, caught between a stickman, one of the Assembly’s nightmarish shock troops, the planet’s natives, who aren’t winning any congeniality prizes themselves, and Neera, who might actually be the most dangerous of the three. To survive, he’ll need to navigate palace intrigue, alien morality, and a proposal that he literally cannot refuse, all while making sure Neera doesn’t come to the conclusion that he’s worth more to her dead than alive.
Part first contact story, part dark comedy, and part bizarre love triangle, The Fourth Consort asks an important question: how far would you go to survive? And more importantly, how many drinks would you need to go there?
“Speculative fiction is a lens for us to reflect upon ourselves in interesting ways, and this is ultimately a delightful examination of what it means to be human.” – John Keogh, Booklist
“[A] deep surprise of a story… [a] complex and heartbreaking tale.” – Marlene Harris, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Humor, interspecies diplomacy, and unexpected alliances enliven this zippy sci-fi romp from Ashton… Ashton strikes an impressive balance of humor, action, and thought-provoking sci-fi concepts. It’s a lot of fun watching his eccentric characters navigate sticky situations.” – Publishers Weekly
I’ll Have What She’s Having by Chelsea Handler
nonfiction / memoir / essays / comedy.
There’s a woman I want to become, Chelsea Handler thought as a child. She’ll be strong and confident. She’ll light up a room and spread that light to make others feel better. She’ll make a living being herself. She’ll be a survivor.
At ten years old, Chelsea opened a lemonade stand and realized she’d make more money if the drinks were spiked. So she added vodka to her recipe and used her earnings to upgrade herself to first-class on a family vacation—leaving her parents and siblings in coach. She moved to Los Angeles and got fired from her temp job when she admitted she didn’t know how to transfer calls. She’s played pickleball with the scions of an American dynasty. She’s sexted a governor. She shared psychedelics with strangers in Spain. When she accidentally ended up at dinner with Woody Allen, she was not going to leave the table without asking him a very personal pointed question. She went on national television and talked about having threesomes. She’s never been one to hold back.
But this life of adventure and absurdity is only part of her story. Chelsea knows what it is to truly show up for her family—canine and human, biological and chosen. She’s discovered how to spend time with herself, how to meditate, how to be open to love, and how to end a relationship with dignity. She is a sister to the many women who rely on her.
Surprisingly vulnerable and always outrageous, Chelsea Handler captures the antic-filled, exhilarating, and joyful life she’s built—a life that makes the rest of us think, I’ll have what she’s having.
“From stand-up to bestselling books to her activism and more, there’s no one quite like Chelsea Handler. In her newest collection of essays, the comedy mogul goes from hilarious to heartwarming and back again with stories from her over-the-top life.” – Isabelle McConville, B&N Reads
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad ★
nonfiction / politics / history / memoir.
On October 25, 2023, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.” This tweet has been viewed more than 10 million times.
As an immigrant who came to the West, El Akkad believed that it promised freedom. A place of justice for all. But in the past twenty years, reporting on the War on Terror, Ferguson, climate change, Black Lives Matter protests, and more, and watching the unmitigated slaughter in Gaza, El Akkad has come to the conclusion that much of what the West promises is a lie. That there will always be entire groups of human beings it has never intended to treat as fully human—not just Arabs or Muslims or immigrants, but whoever falls outside the boundaries of privilege. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is a chronicle of that painful realization, a moral grappling with what it means, as a citizen of the U.S., as a father, to carve out some sense of possibility in a time of carnage.
This is El Akkad’s nonfiction debut, his most raw and vulnerable work to date, a heartsick breakup letter with the West. It is a brilliant articulation of the same breakup we are watching all over the United States, in family rooms, on college campuses, on city streets; the consequences of this rupture are just beginning. This book is for all the people who want something better than what the West has served up. This is the book for our time.
“Terrifying, shameful, and necessary testimony.” – Lesley Williams, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] bracing memoir and manifesto… With precision and passion, [El Akkad] compels readers to close the emotional distance between ‘us’ and ‘them’ and to consider the immense suffering of civilians with renewed urgency.” – New York Times
“…brilliant… This book is a reckoning. The lie that the West is founded upon—from the beginning—blooms in blood on the pages. This book is a love story in the face of genocide—a love born between the very peoples we have always colonized and killed as if they are the raw material of building nations. What a furious, perfect heart it took to stare into the abyss we call being human and emerge with a revolution song.” – Lidia Yuknavitch, The Millions
“A furious, intimate, profound articulation of the soul ache so many of us have been feeling… I have honestly never recommended a work of nonfiction as strongly as I do this one. There is no doubt in my mind that it will become one of the essential texts of this unfathomably dark time. A painful but essential indictment of a broken world.” – Dan Sheehan, Literary Hub
Scout Camp: Sex, Death, and Secret Societies Inside the Boy Scouts of America by James Renner
nonfiction / true crime / memoir.
In the summer of 1995, at the largest Boy Scout camp in Ohio, a night of sexual violence ended with one counselor dead and another hospitalized. The death was ruled “accidental.” It wouldn’t be the last death associated with Seven Ranges Reservation.
James Renner, too, was a counselor at Seven Ranges that year. He was always sure there must be more to the story of Mike Klingler’s death, because Renner also knew firsthand that the 900-acre camp was not the safe getaway it was portrayed to be. On Friday nights the boys were ushered into the woods for a frightening ceremony in which they learned the rules for becoming good young men—and, above all, that keeping secrets was a Scout’s duty. No matter how dark the secrets were.
Determined to face his demons, Renner embarks on a journey back to that tumultuous summer and exposes a clandestine society that left indelible scars on the Scouts and the staff who were there. For Renner, it meant opening up about his twisted upbringing, his issues with trust and sexuality, and a lifetime of self-medication. The result is a deeply personal, no-holds-barred, and vitally important true crime memoir.
“…riveting… Renner treats the serious subject matter with sensitivity, but his wry humor prevents the book from becoming too grim. The lack of books on the Boy Scouts largest summer camp makes this deeply personal, captivating, and accessible title an essential addition to true crime collections.” – Mia Wilson, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“[Renner’s] research turns up no easy answers, but his blend of dogged reporting and first-person recollection of the uncomfortably sexualized rituals he experienced as a young scout lends the proceedings a fierce immediacy. It’s a chilling study of unchecked power.” – Publishers Weekly
“…this searing and unblinking look at several aspects of Renner’s life experience is both shocking and unsettling… It’s not for the squeamish, and is sometimes very painful to read, but it is an important topic and can only be covered well (IMO) by someone who truly knows the facts firsthand.” – Littoral Librarian
Show Don’t Tell: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld ★
fiction / short stories.
In her second story collection, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long held beliefs are overturned.
In “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,” a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In “A for Alone,” a married artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten,” Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school.
Hilarious, thought-provoking, and full of tenderness for her characters, Sittenfeld’s stories peel back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.
“Her perfectly contained stories are a joy for their realistically and mundanely fractured characters, moral ambiguities, movingly related moments, and the message that even the smallest tale offers lessons to uncover.” – Annie Bostrom, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] hugely entertaining and formidably intelligent tour through the psyche of mostly middle-aged mothers (and a few fathers), moderately content and successful and still yearning for more. Sittenfeld’s prose has astonishing ease, and her fleet, brisk dialogue sparkles with humor and mischief, taking agile inspiration from the here and now… sheer delight.” – Taylor Antrim, Vogue
“Discover why Curtis Sittenfeld is just as beloved for her short fiction as her longform in this dazzling collection that introduces us to brand-new characters — and reunites us with an old friend. A sharp collection of musings on middle-age, life, love and regret, Show Don’t Tell is a funny and intimate exploration of domestic discontent.” – Isabelle McConville, B&N Reads
“In one sparkling comedy of manners after another, the author documents with a clear and affectionate eye how tiny prejudices and blind spots lead her protagonists astray. These stories entertain and unsettle in equal measure.” – Publishers Weekly
Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce
fiction / horror / mystery / suspense.
Newly-minted child psychologist Mina has little experience. In a field where the first people called are experts, she’s been unable to get her feet wet. Instead she aimlessly spends her days stuck in the stifling heat wave sweeping across Britain, and anxiously contemplating her upcoming marriage to careful, precise researcher Oscar. The only reprieve from her small, close world is attending the local bereavement group to mourn her brother’s death from years ago. That is, until she meets journalist Sam Hunter at the grief group one day. And he has a proposition for her.
Alice Webber is a thirteen year old girl who claims she’s being haunted by a witch. Living with her family in their crowded home in the remote village of Banathel, Alice’s symptoms are increasingly disturbing, and money is tight. Taking this job will give Mina some experience; Sam will get the scoop of a lifetime; and Alice will get better, Mina is sure of it.
But instead of improving, Alice’s behavior becomes increasingly inexplicable and intense. The town of Banathel has a deep history of superstition and witchcraft. They believe there is evil in the world. They believe there are ways of… dealing with it. And they don’t expect outsiders to understand.
As Mina races to uncover the truth behind Alice’s condition, the dark cracks of Banathel begin to show. Mina is desperate to understand how deep their sinister traditions go–and how her own past may be the biggest threat of all.
“In this tense page-turner, Pearce weaves together folklore and horror to create a haunting suspense novel that readers will not soon forget.” – Lucinda Ward, Library Journal
“[A] rewarding folk thriller… What begins as a supernatural thriller gradually develops into a thoughtful meditation on grief and groupthink, with enough pathos and drama to keep the pages turning. It’s a winner.” – Publishers Weekly
“Pearce provides visceral descriptions of people and places and smells and sounds to create a world where no one can trust their senses. Readers will be left questioning which is more disturbing, the rot within or the evil of other people.” – Ashley Rayner, Booklist
The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker
fiction / mystery / suspense / science fiction.
A year after her child is born, Jane suffers a series of strange episodes: amnesia, premonitions, hallucinations, and an inexplicable sense of dread. Three days after her first visit to a psychiatrist, Jane suddenly goes missing. A day later she is found unconscious in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, in the midst of what seems to be an episode of dissociative fugue; when she comes to, she has no memory of what has happened to her.
Are Jane’s strange experiences the result of being overwhelmed by motherhood, or are they manifestations of a long-buried trauma from her past? Why is she having visions of a young man who died twenty years ago and who warns her of a disaster ahead? Jane’s symptoms lead her psychiatrist ever deeper into the farthest reaches of her mind and cause him to question everything he thinks he knows about so-called reality—including events in his own life.
Karen Thompson Walker’s profound and beautifully written novel is both a speculative mystery about memory, identity, and fate and a mesmerizing literary puzzle about the bonds of love—between mother and child, between a man and a woman, and among those we’ve lost but who may still be among us.
“Thompson Walker’s masterful prose propels the reader through this haunting and sublime story. Highly recommended.” – Cari Dubiel, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“…mesmerizing… an alluring vision of how personal history and memory intertwine. This one is tough to shake.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“A novel that begins quietly becomes an exhilarating and riveting must-read and then read-again.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
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