“We’re all strange inside. We learn how to disguise our differences as we grow up.” – Annie Proulx, The Shipping News
All In by David Baldacci
fiction / suspense / mystery.
When fearless war correspondent Theresa Lee is shot on a storm-swept Manhattan street and the man she was meeting, Bill Walker, vanishes, the 6:20 Man, aka former Army Ranger turned federal investigator Travis Devine, is called in. Theresa is an investigative journalist, Walker a legendary analyst for the Five Eyes alliance that gathers intelligence that could topple governments around the world. A professional hit team has tried to silence one and snatched the other―and Devine has to find out why.
From New York’s glass-and-steel canyons to the glittering harbors of Australia, Devine is pulled into the orbit of the Woolwine empire―an Australian dynasty whose fortune makes them more powerful than some nations. Partnering with Anais Jones, a driven, Sydney-based homicide detective, he uncovers a lethal convergence of rogue intelligence operations, Russian mobsters, compromised prisons, and a quiet campaign to redraw the global balance of power.
To stop a conspiracy fueled by weaponized data and manufactured truths, Devine will have to untangle a love story that may be a lie, a rescue that may have been conjured, and a billionaire’s ambition with a body count. In a world where enemies wear the faces of allies, the only currency that matters is information―and the 6:20 Man is running out of time to keep it all from crashing down.
“…exciting…” – Criminal Element
“A satisfying thriller that will keep readers guessing.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] well-presented thriller that gives readers what they expect: thrills, chills, and suspense.” – David Pitt, Booklist
America in 25 Revolutions: The Story of Our Imperfect Nation’s 250-Year Quest to Become a More Perfect Union by Garrett M. Graff
nonfiction / history / politics.
The Founding is only the start. America’s history is one of revolutions, plural.
Today we recognize that America’s founding creed, “all men are created equal,” was imperfect and incomplete in 1776, but the story of how subsequent generations made those words real is more dramatic and more unpredictable than you ever guessed. As the country marks its 250th birthday, Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff offers an inspiring and challenging new account of our past—and what it means for our future.
As the country celebrates its 250th anniversary, acclaimed historian Garrett M. Graff immerses us in the legendary—and the forgotten—milestones in Americans’ ongoing quest to create a more perfect union. Since our founding in 1776, Americans have never stopped fighting for revolutionary advances to get closer to our founding promise of a nation where all are created and treated equal. America in 25 Revolutions tells their stories.
The rights, freedoms, and opportunities so many of us now enjoy began as creative acts of imagination by individuals and groups excluded from the country’s founding principles. Progress has often been hard and come at great cost; many times, efforts to enshrine new rights and freedoms failed multiple times and efforts continued for years. From the Reconstruction Amendments in the 1860s to the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s, from Brown v. Board of Education to the end of Jewish quotas at elite universities, from the Social Security Act to the Americans with Disabilities Act, the stories in America in 25 Revolutions offer critical lessons for trying times in the United States.
The opportunities and liberties so many of us now enjoy began as creative acts of imagination by individuals and groups excluded from the country’s ideals. Their efforts often came at great cost; many times, revolutions failed and were set back for decades or longer, only to later triumph through surprising pivots and coalitions. America in 25 Revolutions proves that progress isn’t linear nor is it constant, but the challenge—and hope—our country delivers to each generation is the chance to leave the country better than it was.
“Inspiring reading for activists and history buffs alike.” – Kirkus Reviews
Bad Company by Sara Paretsky
fiction / mystery / suspense.
To all appearances, Lily Sedako is an ordinary retiree―a seventy-something single woman living in Chicago, her days filled with the routine tasks of normal life. But underneath that exterior, lies a remarkable past. A former CIA field agent, she spent her career in various Central Asian countries, most notably in Hayalistan, a former USSR territory. But everything went sideways when Lily’s connections to the mountain tribes resulted in her being moved to a new post and Rani, the tribal leader and first democratically elected President was removed, presumed killed, in a coup.
All of this is long behind her when she receives an anonymous package containing a magazine with an article about Hayalistan―an article with a previously unknown photo showing Lily in the background. This was no mistake―someone out there is trying to expose Lily, after more than two decades, for reasons unknown. Even worse, the magazine story casts doubt on everything she believed to be true about her time in Hayalistan.
Lily is determined to find out who is behind this and, even more important, the truth of what really happened so long ago. As word of her investigation reaches the CIA, the company knows that they must silence her but Lily is no one’s pawn, even now. Using hard won skills and personal connections from her former life, Lily takes on the unwise, and perhaps impossible task of fighting back against the powerful forces aligning against her.
In a powerful novel about love, power, corruption, aging, trust… and revenge, Bad Company reaffirms Sara Paretsky place as one of the pre-eminent crime writers of our time.
“…never lets up its unrelenting pace… Utterly thrilling, Bad Company is pure Paretsky, with an intrepid heroine who will let neither age nor the U. S. government get in the way of her making things right.” – Susan Maguire, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Readers will love Lily’s travels, identities, and language skills as she works hard to save her reputation and that of a former colleague.” – Barbara Bibel, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Most impressive not as an isolated achievement but as a demonstration of Paretsky’s unfailing range and ambition.” – Kirkus Reviews
Before I Disappear by Cate Quinn
fiction / suspense / mystery.
Criminologist April Anderson wakes up in a remote motel with a new name, a new identity, and absolutely no memory of how she got there. Told she’s under police protection as the victim of a disturbing crime, she’ll have to stand as a witness on a major trial that she knows nothing about. April isn’t sure who to trust ― the cop guarding her from an unknown threat, or the fiancé secretly tracking her.
As April’s memories start coming back in waves, she discovers a side to herself she didn’t know existed. A side she’d rather stay hidden.
With the trial drawing closer, the need for her to remember everything that happened to her the night of the crime becomes vital to her survival. But someone wants her silent, and her missing memories may be the only thing keeping her alive. Will she remember the truth… or disappear forever?
“A very, very suspensful thriller with so many twists and turns.” – Town & Country
“[A] fun read that would be a great pick for book clubs.” – Stephanie Howes, Booklist
“Quinn impresses with this sleek standalone… Quinn makes April’s frantic efforts to piece together what she saw and who she can believe both surprising and unsettling, smoothly toggling back and forth in time to fill in the gaps in April’s memory. This is a thrill ride with staying power.” – Publishers Weekly
Clive Cussler Obsidian Sky by Dirk Cussler
fiction / action / adventure / suspense / mystery.
When National Underwater and Marine Agency director Dirk Pitt rescues a team of archaeologists trapped in a cavern by an earthquake, an unexpected artifact is discovered that rewrites history. A two-thousand-year-old silver scroll contains a message in a language more ancient than Phoenician and offering clues to a priceless treasure from antiquity.
While they work to decipher the message, another mystery arises. A freighter has disappeared without a trace in the Mediterranean. When Pitt and his partner Al Giordino find the wreck, they discover that the cargo—a large scale particle accelerator capable of creating plutonium and radioisotopes—is missing. In the wrong hands, its use could spell disaster for Western civilization.
It’s only the first step in a perilous journey to uncover a trail of drugs, deceit, secret technology, and a conspiracy that threatens the planet. From a desperate car chase in the hills of Sicily, to a wild escape on a Spanish river, to a harrowing ride on an underground boring machine, the race begins to connect the pieces in a puzzle with very ancient roots but deadly modern consequences. Only Pitt can discover the truth and halt the plans to extinguish humanity and turn the skies to obsidian.
“Jumping Jehoshaphat! Nonstop excitement.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
Crying on the Kitchen Floor: A Memoir by Trisha Paytas
nonfiction / memoir.
No person has reinvented themselves more times than Trisha Paytas. Like a phoenix, she has risen from the ashes again and again―outliving social media platforms, navigating ill-fated and explosively popular podcasts alike, and finding herself on the wrong end of more messy feuds than she can count. As one of the world’s first influencers, she helped create the blueprint for a new kind of celebrity. But across a career marked by both dizzying highs and earth-shattering lows, one question has followed her for years: What the hell was she thinking?
In Crying on the Kitchen Floor, Trisha sets out to find the answer once and for all by opening up like never before. She recounts in vivid, shocking detail how an insatiable need for fame led a quiet girl from Illinois to life on the seedy streets of Hollywood. From dangerous encounters with potential serial killers to abusive relationships with former child stars, countless reality TV cameos, and, ultimately, taking over the internet, Trisha’s desperate search for identity nearly cost her everything. Now, after decades spent battling mental health issues and weathering endless cancellations, she shares how she managed to fight her way to high ground, even as the world she helped build transformed beneath her feet.
Combining the grittiness of Julia Fox’s Down the Drain and the unsparing honesty of Bunnie XO’s Stripped Down, Crying on the Kitchen Floor serves as a beacon of hope for anyone still searching for their happily ever after as Trisha details how she was able to find peace by looking for answers not in fame, money, or men―but in herself.
“This outstanding celebrity memoir is jam-packed with riveting stories without feeling rushed; even someone unfamiliar with Paytas and her controversial reputation will find this book hilarious, candid, shocking, and heartwarming. And for all of us that have been subscribed since the beginning, we couldn’t ask for a better happy ending. No more crying on the kitchen floor! Fingers crossed that Paytas’ first traditionally published book is not her last.” – Abby McCabe, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“An unfettered delight for Paytas fans: bubbly, chatty, and devilishly indiscreet.” – Kirkus Reviews
Department of Fate: The Promise, the Power, and the Collapse of America’s Most Consequential Institution by Rachel Maddow
nonfiction / history / politics / sociology.
Over its nearly 150 years, the United States Department of Justice became America’s most consequential institution, determining the rules and limits of what makes us who we are as a country: our political freedoms, our economy, and our nation’s most revolutionary core principle: equal protection under the law.
As the Department made wildly consequential decisions about what types of Americans to target, and for what crimes, it has been steered at times by patriotism, bravery, and self-sacrifice, but just as often by lust for power, corruption, and vengeance. Its political masters have cherrypicked economic winners and losers, determined which causes will be allowed to succeed or fail, and dictated which people and places will thrive and which will be beaten down. The department has fixed the path of the nation’s political swings.
In this searing new history, Rachel Maddow traces these triumphs and misdeeds through the founding and rise of the KKK, the riotous chaos of the Red Scare, civil rights murders and violence, railroad barons’ crushing of unions, cabinet scandals that make Watergate look like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the faux erudite lawlessness of the Reagan Administration, and the collapse into thug rule in the Trump Administration.
Written in her typical whip-smart prose and with a biting sense of clarity, Department of Fate invites us to see how the history of this key institution illuminates a path ahead for a more resilient, re-democratized America committed to making good on even its loftiest promises. In a moment beset with polarization and misinformation, Maddow’s voice shines in this blistering demand to do better—to rebuild the republic, and stronger this time.
“A passionate plea to return justice to the mission of the Department of Justice.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Department of Fate reflects the political anxiety of our time but ends on a hopeful note…” – David Luhrssen, Shepherd Express
The Intangibles: Friendship, Fatherhood, and the Love of the Game by Nick Paumgarten
nonfiction / memoir / sports.
Over the past two decades, Nick Paumgarten has become one of The New Yorker’s most admired and popular staff writers. He brings to journalism what great novelists bring to fiction: an instinct for character, a respect for complexity, and an eye for the telling moment. The Intangibles is his memoir told through the oddly illuminating lens of hockey. Not a book about hockey, really, but one in which a lifetime of obsessively hanging around the game — as player, parent, son, coach, fan, middle-aged white guy in New York, person of privilege, an imperfect man among other imperfect men — provides a vivid and sneaky-exotic window into a cultish world that hides in plain sight. It’s an alternate realm of aspirational vigor and prolonged boyishness, of plucky brutishness and occasional violence, a haven and a release from the pressures of adulthood and city life.
In The Intangibles — the name of Paumgarten’s beer league team — we meet an array of hockey-crazy men trying to make their way through the world with the baggage that’s been laid on them by the men who came before, and the growing knowledge that they have laid their own baggage on their sons. Striped through the book are surprising veins of vulnerability, reflection, and reckoning.
The Intangibles is also a timely, sharp, and witty exploration of masculinity, of boys and men, and of sons and fathers, of both the toxic and nontoxic kinds. It is a deep, questioning look at a certain world of male friendship, in which sport becomes the common language for a group of men who otherwise might not have one. Paumgarten both explores and undermines some of the mythologies of manhood and sport, while creating a fresh, honest, and funny portrait of men at play — the kind of competitive pursuit that defies logic, age, orthopedics, and the responsibilities of grown-up life.
“[A] sharply self-aware, brightly detailed memoir… Whatever the sport, virtually every element of the beer-league experience is deftly, freshly drawn here: the friendships forged, the injuries that pile up, the small but memorable wins, the too-memorable fails, the litany of teams that come together and fall apart, the slights remembered and often avenged, the postgame intoxicants (of course), the inevitable breakdown of body and purpose, and—always—the play.” – Alan Moores, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“…engaging… The Intangibles concludes with Paumgarten’s wistful reflections as he considered, in his mid-40s, finally hanging up his skates and facing a ‘puckless life.’ Even with a growing list of chronic injuries, including several concussions, he adroitly captures the internal struggle facing any aging athlete when it’s time to abandon a beloved game for good. ‘I love these men,’ he writes, and thanks to the intimacy of this memoir, he allows readers to experience some of that love along with him.” – Harvey Freedenberg, Shelf Awareness, STARRED REVIEW
“[An] inventive memoir that examines the role of hockey in his life. In vivid prose, Paumgarten recalls the glory and gore of his amateur hockey career… Hockey fans will adore this, and more casual readers will be charmed by Paumgarten’s thoughtful examinations of manhood. It’s a winner.” – Publishers Weekly
The Last Leaf: Reflections on Late-Life Creativity-and My Longest Love Affair by Willie Nelson
nonfiction / memoir / music.
Willie Nelson is 93, and he has not been slowing down. In the past twelve years, he has recorded twenty-one new studio albums, written more than fifty new songs and seven books, and headlined over eight hundred live shows. What has been going on? He’s not going to get mawkish about it, but he does have some thoughts. With his trademark down-home wit, he opens up wide and brings us in touch with the same inexhaustible, vital stream of energy he has learned how to stay tapped into.
“Looking to the future as I look to the past,” Nelson writes, “I stay in the present.” That captures the spirt of The Last Leaf: Forging ahead, it also flashes back to life-altering moments, including facing almost-certain death during COVID and what he gained from that.
Woven into recollections of his own life as an artist is the beautiful and often hilarious account of how the fiery spirit of Annie, his wife and best friend for four decades, has matched his own. Much has been written about the early spark of romance, the thrill of first falling in love. In The Last Leaf we get, beautifully, the other end of the story—the abiding of that love, even its deepening, into the pure harmony of sustained partnership.
In every great book, at least ideally, the last chapter is the best chapter. The Last Leaf shows how true that can be.
“As rambling and full of personality as a good outlaw country tune, this offers plenty of pleasures for Nelson’s fans.” – Publishers Weekly
“A treat for Willie Nelson fans, which is just about everyone in the known universe.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Conversational in nature with plenty of lyrics, this may be a slim volume, but Nelson, as always, is a pleasure to spend time with.” – June Sawyers, Booklist
Look at Me by Dustin Hoffman with Ariel Levy ★
nonfiction / memoir / film.
For nearly six decades, Dustin Hoffman has been one of the most compelling and unpredictable figures in American culture. From his breakthrough performance in The Graduate to his unforgettable roles in Midnight Cowboy, Tootsie, Rain Man, and beyond, he has spent a lifetime inhabiting extraordinary characters and redefining what a Hollywood leading man could be. Now, in Look at Me, Hoffman turns his remarkable powers of observation on himself.
Warm, candid, hilarious, and deeply moving, Look at Me is an intimate memoir about art, ambition, family, friendship, love, aging, and the mysteries of a creative life. Written with acclaimed author Ariel Levy, the book traces Hoffman’s journey from a young actor searching for purpose to a two-time Academy Award winner reflecting on what matters most as he enters his ninth decade.
Along the way, Hoffman shares stories that are by turns outrageous, poignant, and unforgettable: an unexpected clash with Steve McQueen, adventures in Greenwich Village during the turbulent 1960s, encounters with legends including Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Mike Nichols, Robert Duvall, Arthur Miller, and Gene Hackman, and the personal experiences that shaped some of his most celebrated performances.
But Look at Me is more than a chronicle of a storied Hollywood career. It is a meditation on mortality, identity, and the enduring need to create. With the wit, vulnerability, and emotional honesty that have defined his finest work, Hoffman invites readers into the private world behind the public icon.
The result is a memoir as distinctive as the man himself: funny, searching, wise, and impossible to forget.
“Shrewd, funny, often instructive—a cut way above the usual Hollywood memoir.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“One of Hollywood’s most storied leading men pulls back the curtain on a lifetime spent inhabiting other characters, revealing the creative, driven and deeply empathetic man behind the likes of Benjamin Braddock and Raymond Babbitt.” – New York Times
Radical Surrender: Letting Go in a World Addicted to Control by Anne Lembke, MD
nonfiction / self-help / psychology / memoir.
We’re living in a time of unprecedented control over almost every aspect of our day-to-day existence, from the precise way we brew and consume our favorite morning beverage, to the micro-regulation of the temperature and surround-sound audio in our car, to when and how we reproduce. No longer embedded in the greater tapestry of the universe, we now hold the world in the palm of our hand.
As such, we’ve become intolerant of uncertainty. When we encounter a circumstance we cannot predict or control, we engage in the narcissistic defenses of denial and pathological willfulness, attempting to further bend the universe to our will.
The result? An epidemic of anxiety, loneliness, boredom, and self-loathing shame: anxiety born of the fear of choosing poorly. Loneliness a consequence of self-aggrandizement. Boredom the essence of living in a predictable world. Shame the natural byproduct of narcissism, wherein we have only ourselves to blame when life doesn’t go according to plan.
Blending relatable stories with neuroscience, Dr. Lembke argues that the antidote to modern despair is living a surrendered life. Using her personal story of loss and subsequent existential reckoning as a powerful entry point, Dr. Lembke defines surrender as the moment we acknowledge a power greater than ourselves, however we define it, and give our will over to that power: less mastery and more a return to mystery.
Science-based and deeply inspiring, Radical Surrender is the perfect book for anyone seeking more meaning and connection in our self-obsessed, hyperrational, disenchanted universe.
“Psychiatrist Lembke combines memoir and psychology to make an impassioned case for rejecting the modern search for certainty… Lembke’s unsparing account of losing her son is candid and devastating, and her insistence that surrender can be a courageous acceptance of human limits resonates. Spiritually curious readers, especially those grappling with grief or uncertainty, will find much to contemplate.” – Publishers Weekly
Revenge Plot by Stephanie Wrobel
fiction / suspense / horror / mystery.
All Arnie Tenderton wants this Christmas—all he’s ever wanted—is to be a published author. For decades he has toiled over one novel after another. Each was missing something. Until now.
He’s finally written his perfect book.
What he needs next is a literary agent, someone who can get his book into publishers’ hands. Not just any agent will do, of course. Arnie wants the best. Arnie wants Claudia Conley.
She already rejected him once, and Arnie has never forgiven her. He could move on. Instead, he finds out where Claudia is spending the holidays: alone in a remote house in the Catskill Mountains. He decides to show up there to make his pitch.
Claudia may try to turn him down again, but this time Arnie won’t take no for an answer.
Because his book is about her.
And he’s not leaving until the story ends the way he wants.
“The inventive structure, featuring a ‘book within a book,’ uncovers jaw-dropping revelations about the characters’ connections to each other that we absolutely did not see coming.” – Book of the Month
“From the author of Darling Rose Gold, a darkly funny, claustrophobic thriller about ambition and obsession in publishing.” – Mystery Tribune
“…deliciously dark… readers will relish Wrobel’s gift for creating tension—especially when the contents of Arnie’s manuscript are revealed. This is the author’s best yet.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Split Second by Janet Evanovich
fiction / mystery / comedy / suspense.
In a now-or-never moment, Stephanie Plum made the decision of a lifetime. But some lifetimes are shorter than others and Stephanie will be lucky if she makes it to the end of the week.
Over the years, Trenton’s best-known bounty hunter has acquired a long list of enemies. It’s an occupational hazard as a bond enforcement agent. The problem is that she now has a mysterious enemy whose name isn’t on any list. Disturbing packages, threatening notes, and near misses are keeping Stephanie in the dark and her anonymous tormentor, who wants her dead, in the shadows.
Bond jumper Greb Tusi also wouldn’t mind getting rid of Stephanie. He’s wanted for going on a three-hour rampage—one that he swears “wasn’t his fault”—that included mugging an old lady and stealing a hearse.
And if adjusting to being newly married isn’t enough to take a few years off Stephanie’s life, working for her ex-fiancé and mentor, Ranger, might do the trick. Ranger has taken a security job for a powerful political figure, and Stephanie is in charge of babysitting one of the figure’s family members.
The clock is ticking for Stephanie to find bail-jumper Greb Tusi and the invisible stalker who is sending her increasingly menacing messages. If she lets her guard down for even a split second, her time will be up.
“With colorful characters, a madcap plot, and masses of mayhem, Evanovich’s latest is sure to provoke laughs, chortles, guffaws, and wry smiles.” – Emily Melton, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Stories: New & Selected by Annie Proulx
fiction / short stories.
From one of the greatest story writers of our time, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, two O. Henry Prizes, and the celebrated author of Brokeback Mountain, comes a collection that includes three new stories and the most iconic stories of Annie Proulx’s stunning, decades-long career.
Annie Proulx’s “gritty and gleaming stories” (New York Times) are about loneliness, violence, desperation, and the wrong kinds of love. In “The Mud Below,” a rodeo rider’s obsession marks the deepening fissures between his family life and self-imposed isolation. In “The Half-Skinned Steer,” an elderly fool drives west to the range he grew up on for his brother’s funeral and dies a mile from home. In the masterpiece, “Brokeback Mountain,” the difficult affair between two cowboys survives everything but the world’s intolerance.
These are stories of hard times, and unlikely elation, set in a landscape both brutal and magnificent. Enlivened by folk talks, flights of fancy, and details of ranch and rural work, they juxtapose Wyoming’s traditional character and attitudes—confrontation of tough problems, prejudice, persistence in the face of difficulty—with the more benign values of the new west.
“Dark, dour, and dazzling.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Here are American stories that lurk, as in one of Proulx’s classic formulations, ‘like a claw in the gut.’” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Reading it is like opening the hall closet and having the contents of an antique junk shop, laced with spiky and rusted farm implements, spill out and maim your dog. I mean this as praise… What’s most essential, and most primal, about Proulx’s stories is the freight of doom she loads into them… Proulx’s strangled wit provides occasional shelter from this rock fall… From her chaotic style she coaxes out wild, wind-chapped poetries, as if she were the caller of a cosmic hoedown.” – Dwight Garner, New York Times
Take My Word for It: A Memoir by LeVar Burton with Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts ★
nonfiction / memoir / television / film.
This is my attempt to pull back the curtain. Not just on the roles I’ve played, but on the life I’ve lived. The fears. The fight. The survival. And yes, the joy. All of it.
Tracing the different eras of his life—from Kunta Kinte to Geordi La Forge to Reading Rainbow and far beyond the camera—celebrated actor LeVar Burton fearlessly opens up about growing up during the Civil Rights Movement, being raised by a remarkable mother, and discovering his calling as a storyteller. He explores how acting has served as both a source of transformation and an escape from the most difficult parts of his past, while also confronting the challenges of being a parent, husband, and householder.
As Burton honors the loved ones whose strength and resilience shaped him in this inspiring memoir, he also asks what we owe to our ancestors and to each other, reflecting on the deep necessity he’s always felt advocating for liberation and equity. Generous, deeply moving, and illustrated with personal family photos, Take My Word For It is a courageous self-portrait of an iconic artist.
“[A] compassionate, vulnerable memoir…” – Hamilton Cain, Time
“Approachable and charming, this is a treat for the author’s fans.” – Publishers Weekly
“Readers will find plenty of humor (such as a very young LeVar insisting to his amused mother that his absent father was actually Peter O’Toole), touching interactions with fans, and cameo appearances from luminaries ranging from Chaka Khan to Audrey Hepburn. All in all, the fascinating, inspiring, and very satisfying memoir fans would hope for from this beloved champion of literacy.” – Kathleen McBroom, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Actor, library advocate, and Reading Rainbow star Burton reflects on his life in this searingly honest memoir. From growing up in the Civil Rights era, to dealing with fame, Burton always kept family, his identity, and storytelling at the heart of his journey, making this a fascinating and moving book.” – Mary McCullough, Library Reads
The Taken Ones by J.A. Jance
fiction / mystery.
Despite her name, Twinkle Winkleman is as tough as nails. A skilled mechanic and certified spitfire, she has a nose for trouble. So when a young woman from Anchorage disappears after heading to Seattle for an internship that seems too good to be true, Twinkle is convinced that something dangerous is happening. But both the Anchorage and Seattle authorities dismiss her out of hand.
With nowhere else to turn, Twinkle calls on an old friend: private investigator and former homicide cop J. P. Beaumont. While Twinkle and Beau investigate the disappearances, they stumble upon a plot more nefarious—and widespread—than they could have imagined.
With the clock ticking and multiple lives at stake, Beau and Twinkle must go above and beyond to stop the killings—and then bring the girls home before it is too late.
“[A] twisty and terrifying tale that is disturbingly plausible… This is a nail-biter not to be missed.” – Susan Clifford Braun, Library Journal
“[A] gripping round robin of narratives… Best for readers who prize abduction stories over murder mysteries because they can have happy endings.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Managing to be both terrifying and heartwarming, this one’s another winner from the über-talented Jance.” – Emily Melton, Booklist
The Telephone: A New History by James Gleick
nonfiction / history / science / technology.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell spoke the words “Mr. Watson―come here―I want to see you” into a contraption he called the telephone, and for the first time a voice was carried along a wire. This feat has long been celebrated as a triumph of individual ingenuity and vision. In fact, the invention was a contest replete with bribery, fraud, and speculation, and no one, not even its inventors, realized what it was good for or how ubiquitous it would become.
Over the next century, the phone would prove less an invention than a continuous revolution. It would teach us new words (starting with the once-unfamiliar “hello” and “goodbye”) and a new way to speak, with instant reaction, instant feeling, instant possibilities. It would create an all-female profession―the operator―that by 1920 outnumbered nurses and waitresses put together. It would enable the skyscraper, the world war, the assembly line, and the multinational corporation. And the Bell System would become the largest monopoly in history: the sole owner of every phone in America. The science that Bell Labs created around the telephone, from pulsing wires to glowing vacuum tubes to the electronic transistor, would usher in the Information Age.
Along the way, the telephone changed human nature. It augmented our bodies, a prosthetic extension of mouth and ear. It gave us the party line, the busy signal, dial tones, wiretapping, the late-night D.J., and the booty call. It magnified the possibilities of government, of business, of friendship, of love.
For a while, the revolution was so successful that it made telephones themselves seem natural, eternal. They settled into the background, on bedside tables, desks, and kitchen walls; in subways and on corners; in novels, movies, songs, and on TV. No one could remember life without them.
Today we are more dependent than ever on little objects called phones, although their ability to make “telephone calls” is incidental. The phone book and the phone booth may be vanishing from memory, but as James Gleick shows, the telephone’s legacy is deeply ingrained―in our networks and our sophistication about networks, in the primacy of information, in the need for connection. Gleick is celebrated for his uncanny ability to make complex ideas vivid, understandable, and concrete. In The Telephone: A New History, he gives us a revelation: a story of technological breakthroughs that is also a universal history of intimate life.
“[An] enthralling deep dive into the telephone and the many social revolutions it has enabled… With characteristic wit and a boundless appetite for anecdote, Gleick transforms a quotidian device into a prism through which to see the world anew.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Everything you ever wanted to know about the telephone—and then some.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“[Gleick] restores the old instrument to its rightful place in history. And, furthermore, it burnishes a once mundane tool with dignity and mystique… This elegant survey should be required reading for digital natives…” – Alexandra Jacobs, New York Times
The Unfinished Work by Jeff Shaara
fiction / historical fiction.
“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.” – The Gettysburg Address, 1863
New York Times bestselling novelist Jeff Shaara, renowned for his body of work exploring the conflicts and personalities surrounding key moments in American history, turns his attention to one of the most consequential figures during one of the most critical points in history: Abraham Lincoln. As only the finest of historical novelists can do, Shaara brings to life the travails and conflicts, victories and tragic defeats, the legends and the history, both personal and private of Lincoln during the country’s most pivotal years.
Beginning with his election as President in 1860, through his time in the Oval Office, Shaara reveals the complexities behind the man who refused to let the deep divisions and conflicting emotions permanently sunder the country itself, at great personal cost.
The Unfinished Work is the finest work yet by one of the most popular, most acclaimed historical novelists of our time, a capstone to a life’s work.
“Shaara’s 20th novel is one of his best… With precision to detail, Shaara shows how much Lincoln had to confront en route to becoming one of the greatest, most openly human leaders of all time. Enthusiastically recommended.” – David Keymer, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Insightful, moving, and tragic.” – Kirkus Reviews
“…exquisite… As a historical novelist, Shaara is unmatched: his books immerse the reader in the lives of the people he writes about, and the reader emerges with a deeper, broader understanding of the subjects and the time in which they lived. A wonderful novel.” – David Pitt, Booklist
When They Find Me by Carter Wilson
fiction / suspense / mystery.
Expanse, Colorado. Population 313. A town so remote it barely exists on a map―the perfect hiding place for Annie Wolfe and her daughter, Coral. Their cabin is nearly off the grid, and Annie has done everything to keep them safe. Everything. But she knows the people hunting her don’t forget. And they don’t forgive.
Riven knows about survival. She and her family have lived off the land for years, moving like shadows through the wilderness. Now her father has led them to this forgotten town, tracking the man he swears destroyed their lives. The plan is simple: strike fast, take revenge, and disappear.
But when Riven knocks on Annie’s door, their worlds collide. What follows is darker, stranger, and more dangerous than either woman ever imagined―because the hunt isn’t just for vengeance. It’s for the truth. And in Expanse, Colorado, the truth can kill.
“…electrifying… With the momentum of a runaway train and a few sucker-punch plot twists, this leaves a major impression.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“This nonstop thriller is packed with powerhouse twists and surprising turns.” – Magan Szwarek, Library Reads
“Wilson’s brutal, gory, terrifying, emotionally wrenching book is sure to be a hit with thriller fans… As the story unspools, the tension and violence build to a nearly unbearable level, until a stunning twist is revealed in the final pages. A don’t-miss-it for those who love creepy, suspense-filled tales that mess with your mind and pack a punch.” – Emily Melton, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
William Howard Taft: A Great American Life by Walter Stahr
nonfiction / biography / history / politics.
The conventional wisdom is that William Howard Taft was a mediocre president, a man almost without political skills. Yet Taft’s modest, judicial approach to the presidency—he served as a state and then federal judge before entering the White House—looks quite extraordinary in retrospect. Admired by those on either side of the aisle for his genial personality and hearty chuckle, Taft spent his four years in office reducing tariffs, eliminating federal deficits, pursuing government efficiency, avoiding foreign wars, and honoring the Constitution.
Yet even Taft’s presidency would serve as merely a prelude to one of the greatest second acts in American history. More than any chief justice since John Marshall, Taft transformed the judicial branch, particularly as the principal proponent of the legislation that allowed the Supreme Court to begin choosing its cases—and thus to devote its energy entirely to deciding key constitutional and statutory issues.
A rigorously researched and elegant account of five decades of public service, William Howard Taft offers a bold reassessment of a forgotten great American.
“…thoroughly researched… In Stahr’s previous books on John Jay, William Henry Seward, Edwin Stanton, and Salmon P. Chase, he displayed a gift for bringing often overlooked historical characters into the foreground. The Taft he summons to life in these pages – amiable, self-effacing, but quietly competent – seems ripe for a reassessment.” – Danny Heitman, The Christian Science Monitor
“Put friends and presidential rivals Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft in the same room and Roosevelt drew the most people, like moths to a flame. Judicial historian Stahr’s well-written, well-organized Taft biography makes his flame as bright as Roosevelt’s.” – John Rowen, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Drawing on untapped sources and his own legal training, Stahr rescues Taft from historical caricature… [a] deeply researched, deftly written biography…” – Richard Norton Smith, Washington Free Beacon
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