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The Lost House: A Novel

Melissa Larsen

In Melissa Larsen's The Lost House comes the mesmerizing story of a young woman with a haunting past who returns to her ancestral home in Iceland to investigate a gruesome murder in her family. Forty years ago, a young woman and her infant daughter were found buried in the cold Icelandic snow, lying together as peacefully as though sleeping. Except the mother's throat had been slashed and the infant drowned. The case was never solved. There were no arrests, no conviction. Just a suspicion turned into a certainty: the husband did it. When he took his son and fled halfway across the world to California, it was proof enough of his guilt. Now, nearly half a century later and a year after his death, his granddaughter, Agnes, is ready to clear her grandfather's name once and for all. Still recovering from his death and a devastating injury, Agnes wants nothing more than an excuse to escape the shambles of her once-stable life--which is why she so readily accepts true crime expert Nora Carver's invitation to be interviewed for her popular podcast. Agnes packs a bag and hops on a last-minute flight to the remote town of Bifröst, Iceland, where Nora is staying, where Agnes's father grew up, and where, supposedly, her grandfather slaughtered his wife and infant daughter. Is it merely coincidence that a local girl goes missing the very same weekend Agnes arrives? Suddenly, Agnes and Nora's investigation is turned upside down, and everyone in the small Icelandic town is once again a suspect. Seeking to unearth old and new truths alike, Agnes finds herself drawn into a web of secrets that threaten the redemption she is hell-bent on delivering, and even her life--discovering how far a person will go to protect their family, their safety, and their secrets. Set against an unforgiving Icelandic winter landscape, The Lost House is a chilling and razor-sharp thriller packed with jaw-dropping twists that will leave you breathless.

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In the Family Way: A Novel

Laney Katz Becker

A novel in the vein of Lessons in Chemistry and Big Little Lies, about the friendship between a group of suburban housewives and a teenage unwed mother as they navigate their pregnancies-both wanted and unwanted-in a time when abortion is illegal and before the women's movement has taken flight. Think of a time-maybe not so long ago!-when women's rights were in question. 1965, "middle America": Abortion is illegal, divorce is shameful, and women can't even get their own bank accounts or sign their own leases. In this novel, a group of women grapple with the issues of the day-and with their own complicated feelings about being wives, mothers-and people. The story centers around a group of women who open up their suburban households to girls from the local home for unwed mothers, teenagers who have gotten themselves "in the family way"-some so naïve they don't even really understand how-and are sent to local families to help out with housework and to be, a little bit, mothered themselves. It's a six-month deal-once their due dates approach, these girls go to the hospital to give birth, they give up their babies, and they have agreed never to contact their "host families" again. Obviously, this gets complicated when real people are involved, and the people here are real and complicated: a woman who desperately wants, and keeps losing, babies, the wife of a nice Jewish doctor who is so squeamish and prudish she barely knows more than the pregnant fifteen-year-old who comes to live with her, and her sister, who's married to the proverbial nice Jewish lawyer who, she discovers in the worst way, is very very much the opposite of the man of her dreams. Part Big Little Lies and part Little Fires Everywhere, this debut novel from beloved literary agent Laney Katz Becker is all heart (plus history!). It is one of the rare novels that both chronicles the lives of women who came of age in the 1960s AND has something to teach (in the most un-teachy way) the women who've come after them.

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Don't Let Him In: A Novel

Lisa Jewell

Nick Radcliffe is a man of substance and good taste. He has a smile that could melt the coldest heart and a knack for putting others at ease. He's just what Nina Swann needed in her life after her husband's unexpected death. But to Nina's adult daughter, Ash, Nick seems too slick, too polished, too good to be true. Without telling her mother, Ash begins digging into Nick's past. What she finds is more than unsettling. Martha is a florist living in a neighboring town with her infant daughter and her devoted husband Alistair. But lately, Alistair has been traveling more and more frequently for work, disappearing for days at a time. When Martha questions him about his frequent absences, he always has a legitimate explanation, but Martha can't share the feeling that something isn't right. Nina, Martha, and Ash are on a collision course with a shocking truth that is far darker than anyone could have imagined.

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The Game Is Afoot

Elise Bryant

A clever and hilarious new mystery about a mother who thinks she has to do it all-even solve a murder-from the author of It's Elementary. After rage quitting her job, Mavis finally has time to get all the rest she's been putting off. Or she should have the time. Hypothetically. Except she's taken on a new role: Supermom. Her hours are filled with chauffeuring her daughter, Pearl, around to her extracurricular activities, somehow ending up class mom, and...investigating another mystery? When Coach Cole, the director of the kids' soccer program, drops dead on a sunny Saturday morning, no one suspects foul play. However, the police soon discover something suspicious left on the field, making it clear that someone had it in for the coach. But who? Sure, parents got mad when he made their precious star athletes sit on the bench, but not that mad. Mavis is determined to find out, even if it takes her into the dark, dangerous underbelly of gentle parents and MLM girlbosses. Plus, it's an easy distraction from everything else going on. Like the panic attacks she keeps brushing off. Or the fact that she's unemployed and totally lost as to what her purpose and path in life should be. And then there's her ex-husband who's back in town and doing everything she's ever wanted, just as she's beginning a new relationship. Mavis knows a murder investigation probably isn't the self-care she needs right now. But how exactly are you supposed to take care of yourself when you don't even know who you are anymore?

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Soulgazer

Maggie Rapier

With their freedom on the line, a young woman and a rakish pirate take their fate into their own hands as they attempt to find a lost mythical isle with the power to save their entire world. Saoirse yearns to be powerless. Cursed from childhood with a volatile magic, she's managed to imprison it within, living under constant terror that one day it will break free. And it does, changing everything. Horrified at her loss of control, Saoirse's parents offer her hand to the cold and ruthless Stone King. Knowing she'll never survive such a cruel man, Saoirse realizes there is only one path forward...she must break her curse. On the eve of her wedding, Saoirse seeks out the legendary Wolf of the Wild-Faolan, a feral, silver-tongued pirate. He swears to help rid her of the deadly magic, if she'll use it to locate a lost mythical isle first. Crafted by the slaughtered gods, it's the only land that could absorb her power. But Saoirse knows better than to trust a pirate's word. With the wrath of her disgraced father and scorned betrothed chasing them, Saoirse adds one last condition to protect herself: if Faolan wants her on his ship, he'll have to marry her first.

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Vera, or Faith: A Novel

Gary Shteyngart

The Bradford-Shmulkin family is falling apart. A very modern blend of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASP, they love one another deeply but the pressures of life in an unstable America are fraying their bonds. There's Daddy, a struggling, cash-thirsty editor whose Russian heritage gives him a surprising new currency in the upside-down world of twenty-first-century geopolitics; his wife, Anne Mom, a progressive, underfunded blue blood from Boston who's barely holding the household together; their son, Dylan, whose blond hair and Mayflower lineage provide him pride of place in the newly forming American political order; and, above all, the young Vera, half-Jewish, half-Korean, and wholly original. Observant, sensitive, and always writing down new vocabulary words, Vera wants only three things in life: to make a friend at school; Daddy and Anne Mom to stay together; and to meet her birth mother, Mom Mom, who will at last tell Vera the secret of who she really is and how to ensure love's survival in this great, mad, imploding world.

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El Dorado Drive

Megan Abbott

When Harper moves in with her sister Pam, she's surprised to find Pam doing so well financially after her messy divorce. After all, Pam's ex-husband wiped their bank accounts, even stole from their kids. But Pam managed to find her way back. Thanks to the Wheel. Twice a month, the women of the Wheel meet. New members bring cash to the party that is pooled together and then gifted to one lucky member. It's all about giving back. Lifting each other up. As women should. As they must. But when Harper is invited, with the promise of an end to her financial burdens, the sisters inadvertently unleash a darkness lurking within the group. If they're not careful, it might just get them killed.

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Atmosphere: A Love Story

Taylor Jenkins Reid

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA's space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space. Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston's Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane. As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe. Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

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The House on Buzzards Bay: A Novel

Dwyer Murphy

When a group of old college friends reunites for a summer vacation at a beach house in coastal Massachusetts, a sudden disappearance and the arrival of a seductive stranger threaten to unearth the darkest secrets of their relationships. As they hurtle into midlife, Jim and his closest college friends get together to rekindle the bonds of their friendship in his family's beautiful, generations-old vacation home along Buzzards Bay, the demands of work and family having caused them to drift apart over recent years. But what begins as a quiet and restorative seaside escape takes a darker turn when Bruce, an aloof but successful writer, disappears from the house without a trace, sending the group into an uneasy tension. Meanwhile, a series of mysterious break-ins besets the town, which is the site of an old Spiritualist campground turned idyllic fishing village. After a series of uncanny disturbances at the house, Jim can't help but feel that someone-or something-is watching them from the other side of the marsh. And with the arrival of a strange, seductive guest at their home, the group begins to question the very nature of their experiences-along with their already precarious ties with one other. In The House on Buzzards Bay, Dwyer Murphy returns with a chilling, atmospheric page-turner that explores the bonds of friendship, the growing accumulation of life's responsibilities, and whether our youthful dreams can endure the complexities of adulthood.

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The Art of Vanishing: A Novel

Morgan Pager

Jean's life is the same day in and day out. Frozen in time by his painter father, the legendary Henri Matisse, Jean observes the ebb and flow of museum guests as they take in the works of his father and other masters like Renoir, Picasso, and Modigliani. But his world takes a mesmerizing turn when Claire, a new museum employee, enters his life. Night after night, Claire moves through the gallery where Jean's painting hangs, mopping the floors, talking softly to herself to stem her loneliness, and gazing admiringly at the masterpieces above. The alluring man in the corner of the Matisse--is he watching her? Why does she feel a deepening pull to him, like he can see her truest self, her most profound secrets? Did he just move? In an extraordinary twist of fate, Claire discovers she can step through the frame of Jean's painting and into a bygone era, a lush, verdant snapshot of family life in France in the throes of the First World War. She and Jean begin a seemingly impossible affair, falling in love against the backdrop of the gallery's other paintings come to life--glittering parties, exhilarating horse races, and windswept beach bluffs--which they can move through together and where Claire is seemingly the only outside visitor, alone in possession of this gift. But as their happiness is threatened by challenges both inside and outside the museum, Claire and Jean find themselves in a fight to preserve the love they've hardly dared to dream of. Will their extraordinary connection defy the confines of reality, or will the forces conspiring against them shatter their carefully curated happiness?

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The View From Lake Como: A Novel

Adriana Trigiani

Jess Capodimonte Baratta’s life is off course. Recently divorced and living in her parents’ basement in blue-collar New Jersey, she’s stuck caring for everyone but herself—until a family tragedy and buried secrets push her to make a bold move.

With a one-way ticket to Carrara, Italy, Jess rediscovers her talent as a draftswoman, finds love with a goldsmith named Angelo, and begins to reshape her life—this time, on her own terms. Set against the backdrop of Tuscany’s marble mountains and Milan’s art scene, this heartfelt, funny novel is a story of reinvention, creativity, and carving out a life that truly matters.

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The Sandersons Fail Manhattan: A Novel

Scott Johnston

William Sanderson is very rich, but you can always be richer. He’s up for a huge promotion at investment giant Bedrock Capital, but there’s one crucial hurdle he must clear first―assuming he can keep the HR department at bay. He’s also looking for any string to pull to get his maddeningly indifferent daughter Ginny into Yale. Ellie, his wife, is a newcomer to New York who only wants to fit in, while Daughter #2, the shy Zoey, is happy just to make a new friend, even in the form of the unusual new girl who calls herself a goblin.

Things turn upside down when the girls’ exclusive school admits its first trans student, only to have her mysteriously disappear. As a frenzied search begins, the entire city frets about her fate. Somehow caught in the crosshairs are the Sandersons, a family desperately trying to navigate all the new cultural rules―and failing miserably.

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The Enchanted Greenhouse (The Spellshop, 2)

Sarah Beth Durst

New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst invites you to her new standalone novel nestled on a far-away island brimming with singing flowers, honey cakes, and honeyed love. The hardcover edition features beautiful sprayed edges. Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium. This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She's starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes-at least until she's ready to sail home. But Terlu can't return home and doesn't want to-the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing-causing the death of everything within them-Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again. This time, though, she isn't alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island-and have a fresh chance at happiness and love. Funny, kind, and forgiving, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a story about giving second chances-to others and to yourself.

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The Woman in Suite 11: A Novel

Ruth Ware

Journalist Lo Blacklock travels to a luxury Swiss hotel hoping to revive her career, but when a mysterious woman draws her into a dangerous chase across Europe, she must weigh ambition against survival in a world of wealth and shifting alliances.

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Daikon: A Novel

Samuel Hawley

A sweeping and suspenseful novel of love and war, set in Japan during the final days of World War II, with a shocking historical premise: three atomic bombs were actually delivered to the Pacific-not two-and when one of them falls into the hands of the Japanese, the fate of a couple that has been separated from one another becomes entangled with the fate of this strange new device.

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Finding Grace: A Novel

Loretta Rothschild

A twisty, gripping novel that wraps around a deeply moving love story, from an electric new voice in upmarket women's fiction. SHE THOUGHT IT WAS FATE. I KNEW IT WASN'T.... Honor seems to have everything: she adores her bright and beautiful daughter, Chloe, and her charming, handsome husband, Tom, even if he works one hundred hours a week. Yet Honor's longing for another baby threatens to eclipse all of it--until a shocking event changes their lives forever. Years later, Tom makes a decision that ripples through their families' lives in ways he could never have foreseen. As the consequences of that fateful choice unfold, two women's paths become irrevocably intertwined. But when old love clashes with new, who will be left standing? And what happens when your secrets come back to haunt you? Blending a page-turning moral dilemma with satisfying emotional poignancy, Finding Grace is a sweeping love story that explores the price of a new beginning, how the ghosts of our past shape our future, and whether redemption can be found in the wreckage of what we've lost.

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Murder Takes a Vacation: A Novel

Laura Lippman

Highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman returns with an irresistible mystery featuring Muriel Blossom, a former private investigator and middle-aged widow whose vacation on a Parisian river cruise turns into a deadly international mystery...that only she can solve.

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History Lessons

Zoe B. Wallbrook

As a newly minted junior professor, Daphne Ouverture spends her days giving lectures on French colonialism, writing her first academic book, and going on atrocious dates. Her small world suits her just fine. Until Sam Taylor dies. The rising star of Harrison University's anthropology department was never one of Daphne's favorites, despite his popularity. But that doesn't prevent Sam's killer from believing Daphne has something that belonged to Sam--something the killer will stop at nothing to get. Between grading papers and navigating her disastrous love life, Daphne embarks on an investigation to find out what connects her to Sam's murder. With the help of an alluring former-detective-turned-bookseller, she unravels a deadly cover-up on campus.

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Edge of Honor: A Thriller

Brad Thor

After six months abroad, America's top spy returns to a new administration, a new set of global priorities, and a power struggle--the likes of which the United States has never experienced. Drawn into a web of deceit and deadly politics, Scot Harvath is thrust into ahigh-stakes conspiracy that could change the course of history. A cabal of shadowy elites is maneuvering for control and if they succeed, they will bring the country to its knees. When trust is fleeting and survival means making impossible decisions, Harvath finds himself at the precipice. The actions he takes will shape the future of America--and might cost him everything he holds dear. With enemies at every turn, one wrong move could push the nation over the edge.

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So Far Gone: A Novel

Jess Walter

A few weeks after the 2016 election, at Thanksgiving with his daughter’s family, Rhys Kinnick snapped. After an escalating fight about politics, he hauled off and punched his conspiracy theorist son-in-law. Horrified by what he'd done, by the state of the country and by his own spiraling mental health, Rhys chucked his smartphone out a car window and fled for a cabin in the woods, off the grid and with no one around—except a pack of hungry raccoons. 

Now, seven years later, Kinnick’s old life is about to land right back on his crumbling doorstep. Can this failed husband and father, a man with no phone, no computer, and a car that barely runs, reemerge into a broken world to track down his missing daughter and save his sweet, precocious grandchildren from the members of a dangerous militia?

With the help of his caustic ex-girlfriend, a bipolar retired detective, and his only friend (who happens to be furious with him), Kinnick heads off on a madcap journey through cultural lunacy and the rubble of a life he thought he’d left behind. 

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Return to Sender: A Longmire Mystery

Craig Johnson

Walt Longmire is back after the escapades of First Frost, and encounters one of his most baffling cases. The Sheriff of Absaroka confronts a cabal of devious outlaws who are hell bent on getting what they want, even though they have to bend and break the law. Walt is stretched to his physical limits to try to stop them, and has to answer the question of just how far he will go to stop these outlaws. Fans of the series will love seeing Walt put into this almost impossible situation, and new fans will fall for the venerable Sheriff as he tries to uphold the law and his own values in this high-stakes mystery from the master of the Western crime novel.

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Hotel Ukraine: The Final Arkady Renko Novel

Martin Cruz Smith

As Russia's invasion of Ukraine rages on a legendary Moscow investigator battles worsening Parkinson's while uncovering a diplomat's murder tied to a paramilitary group and a deadly conspiracy that puts both him and his journalist partner in grave danger.

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Badlands

Lincoln Child

In the New Mexico badlands, the skeleton of a woman is found-and the case is assigned to FBI Agent Corrie Swanson. The victim walked into the desert, shedding clothes as she went, and died in agony of heatstroke and thirst. Two rare artifacts are found clutched in her bony hands-lightning stones used by the ancient Chaco people to summon the gods. Is it suicide or... sacrifice? Agent Swanson brings in archaeologist Nora Kelly to investigate. When a second body is found-exactly like the other-the two realize the case runs deeper than they imagined. As Corrie and Nora pursue their investigation into remote canyons, haunted ruins, and long-lost rituals, they find themselves confronting a dark power that, disturbed from its long slumber, threatens to exact an unspeakable price.

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Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America

Sam Tanenhaus

At age 25 in 1951, with the publication of God and Man at Yale, a scathing attack on his alma mater, William F. Buckley, Jr. instantly seized the public stage-and commanded it for the next half century, leading a new generation of activists and ideologues to the heights of political power while he himself attained unique fame and public influence. Ten years before his death in 2008, Buckley chose prize-winning biographer Sam Tanenhaus to tell the full story of his life and times, granting him extensive interviews, entrée to his intimate circle, and unrestricted access to his most private papers. Thus began a deep investigation into the vast and often hidden universe of Bill Buckley and the conservative revolution. Buckley vividly captures its subject in all his facets and phases-founding editor of National Review, best-selling novelist and memoirist, jet-setting clubman and socialite, downhill skier and sailboat racer, wisecracking candidate for mayor of New York, flamboyant antagonist of James Baldwin and Gore Vidal, mentor and idol to hundreds who today populate the worlds of politics and media. Tanenhaus also reveals the private and at times secret life of Bill Buckley: his backstage collaborations with Senator Joseph McCarthy and Watergate felon Howard Hunt; thorny relationships with Presidents Nixon and Reagan; flirtations with financial ruin and legal censure-and, late in life, Buckley's lonely struggle to hold together a movement coming apart over AIDS, the culture wars, and the invasion of Iraq. Majestic in its sweep, lushly detailed, rich in ideas and argument, packed with news and revelations, Buckley is the definitive account of an American giant and the revolution he led.

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We Might Just Make It After All: My Best Friendship with Kate Spade

Elyce Arons

A moving portrait of friendship by Elyce Arons as she reflects on her long relationship with Kate Spade, whom she met in college andwith whom she cofounded t he multi-billion-dollar fashion company as they came of age in 1990s New York. When Elyce Arons first met Katy Brosnahan in a University of Kansas dorm room, she had no idea that this polo shirt-wearing Missouri girl would not only become her best friend but also change the course of her life. Back then, Katy and Elyce were preoccupied with frat parties and The Mary Tyler Moore Show; within a decade, they'd be scraping by in New York City, working day jobs to spend nights building a new line of handbags that would one day revolutionize the accessories industry. We Might Just Make It After All brings us on the rollercoaster of adventures (and misadventures) that the best friends embarked on, from transferring colleges on a whim, to falling in and out of love with suitors, cramming into roach-infested Hell's Kitchen apartments, and eventually designing the chic, simple bag that would launch the pair to global fame. Through it all, Katy and Elyce's friendship remained unshakeable. This powerful friendship lasted nearly forty years, until Katy's tragic suicide in 2018. We Might Just Make It After All celebrates her legacy as a cultural icon and loyal friend. Set against the glitzy and gritty backdrop of downtown New York at the turn of the century, We Might Just Make It After All lovingly and candidly explores the power of a friendship as close as sisterhood, the challenges facing women entrepreneurs in the 1990s, and the timeless elegance of a generation-defining brand.

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The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon

Laurie Gwen Shapiro

The riveting and cinematic story of a partnership that would change the world forever In 1928, a young social worker and hobby pilot named Amelia Earhart arrived in the office of George Putnam, heir to the Putnam & Sons throne and hitmaker, on the hunt for the right woman for a secret flying mission across the Atlantic. A partnership--professional and soon otherwise--was born. The Aviator and the Showman unveils the untold story of Amelia's decade-long marriage to George Putnam, offering an intimate exploration of their relationship and the pivotal role it played in her enduring legacy. Despite her outwardly modest and humble image, Amelia was fiercely driven and impossibly brave, a lifelong feminist and trailblazer in her personal and professional life. Putnam, the so-called "PT Barnum of publishing" was a bookselling visionary-but often pushed his authors to extreme lengths in the name of publicity, and no one bore that weight more than Amelia. Their ahead-of-its time partnership supported her grand ambitions--but also pressed her into more and more treacherous stunts to promote her books, influencing a certain recklessness up to and including her final flight. Earhart is a captivating figure to many, but the truth about her life is often overshadowed by myth and legend. In this cinematic new account, Laurie Gwen Shapiro emphasizes Earhart's human side, her struggles, and her authentic aspirations, the truths behind her brave pursuits and the compromises she made to fit into societal expectations. With a trove of new sources including undiscovered audio interviews from those closest to Amelia, Amelia and George presents her as a multifaceted woman--complete with flaws, desires, and competitive drive. It is a gripping and passionate tale of adventure, colorful characters, hubris, and a complex and a vivid portrait of a marriage that shaped the trajectory of an iconic life.

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A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck

Sophie Elmhirst

The electrifying true story of a young couple shipwrecked at sea: a mind-blowing tale of obsession, survival, and partnership stretched to its limits. Maurice and Maralyn make an odd couple. He's a loner, awkward and obsessive; she's charismatic and ambitious. But they share a horror of wasting their lives. And they dream - as we all dream - of running away from it all. What if they quit their jobs, sold their house, bought a boat, and sailed away? Most of us begin and end with the daydream. But Maurice began to study nautical navigation. Maralyn made detailed lists of provisions. And in June 1972, they set sail. For nearly a year all went well, until deep in the Pacific, a breaching whale knocked a hole in their boat and it sank beneath the waves. What ensues is a jaw-dropping fight to survive on the wild ocean, with little hope of rescue. Alone together for months in a tiny rubber raft, starving and exhausted, Maurice and Maralyn have to find not only ways to stay alive but ways to get along, as their inner demons emerge and their marriage is put to the greatest of tests. Although they could run away from the world, they can't run away from themselves. Taut, propulsive, and dazzling, A MARRIAGE AT SEA pairs adrenaline-fueled high seas adventure with a gutting love story that asks why we love difficult people, and who we become under the most extreme conditions imaginable.

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The Man Who Would Be King: Mohammed bin Salman and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia

Karen Elliott House

Karen House has gained unprecedented insights into Saudi Arabia and its controversial leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman through her more than forty years of experience covering the Arab kingdom.House reveals a leader who like Peter the Great is a reformer determined to modernize his kingdom but also an autocrat who jails political opponents and rival princes to assure his grip on power. Drawingon extensive interviews with the Crown Prince, his royal relatives,and his inner ring of advisors, [this book] explains in full what shaped the man who is reshaping Saudi Arabia. Drawing on fresh, headline-making reporting, House balances both sides of this complex ruler. We are introduced to MBS the visionary, who has ushered in reforms for women to participate more equitably, encouraged tourism to theKingdom, and placed long term bets on green energy and trillion dollar mega-projects like The Line, a hundred-mile-long enclosed futuristic city in the desert that will be run by AI. And we meet MBS the Machiavellian prince, widely accused of having Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi murdered, and of sports washing the kingdom's reputation by investing billions in teams globally, from Premiere League soccer to the LIV (liv) golf tour to the World Cup, which the Kingdom will host in 2034.

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The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers' Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda

Nathalia Holt

The Himalayas--a snowcapped mountain range that hides treacherous glacier crossings, raiders poised to attack unsuspecting travelers, and air so thin that even seasoned explorers die of oxygen deprivation. Yet among the dangers lies one of the most beautiful and fragile ecosystems in the world. During the 1920s, dozens of expeditions scoured the Chinese and Tibetan wilderness in search of the panda bear, a beast that many believed did not exist. When the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt sought the bear in 1928, they had little hope of success. Together with a team of scientists and naturalists, they accomplished what a decade of explorers could not, ultimately introducing the panda to the West. In the process, they documented a vanishing world and set off a new era of conservation biology. Along the way, the Roosevelt expedition faced an incredible series of hardships as they disappeared in a blizzard, were attacked by robbers, overcome by sickness and disease, and lost their food supply in the mountains. The explorers would emerge transformed, although not everyone would survive. Beast in the Clouds brings alive these extraordinary events in a potent nonfiction thriller featuring the indomitable Roosevelt family. From the soaring beauty of the Tibetan plateau to the somber depths of human struggle, Nathalia Holt brings her signature 'immersive, evocative' (Bookreporter) voice to this astonishing tale of adventure, harrowing defeat, and dazzling success.

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Mostly French: Recipes from a Kitchen in Provence (A Cookbook)

Makenna Held

Mostly French is a stunningly beautiful cookbook developed and photographed at La Pitchoune, Julia Child’s home in Provence. Inspired by the olive trees and hills of lavender, thyme, and wild asparagus, author and cooking instructor Makenna Held shares 150 recipes that pay homage to the serenity of Southern France. Through dishes such as Roasted Chicken with Lemon and Sumac, Caprese with Peaches and Strawberries, and Lavender Salted Caramels, among dozens of others that lean into France and ease, she channels the best of French cooking: simple ingredients, technique, and balanced flavors.

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Tequila Wars: José Cuervo and the Bloody Struggle for the Spirit of Mexico

Ted Genoways

A revelatory history of the vast tequila empire born from the fires of the Mexican Revolution. At the dawn of the twentieth century, José Cuervo inherited his family's humble distillery, La Rojeña, in the Tequila Valley. Within a decade, he had transformed it into a complex national enterprise that would become Mexico's leading producer of tequila. Cuervo grew his kingdom of agave by acquiring thousands of acres of estates throughout the valley; he brought electricity and a railroad line to Tequila, so he could reach drinkers across the country. But when the Mexican Revolution erupted, a charge of treason and a death threat against him by Pancho Villa forced Cuervo to flee. His disappearance turned him into an obscure, shadowy historical figure--despite having one of the most famous names in Mexican history.

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Speak, Memorably: The Art of Captivating an Audience

Bill McGowan

The business world has adopted the wrong definition of successful communication. For many years, being “on message” was considered the prime directive. The overwhelming majority of professionals today exist in a rigidly narrow range of bland rhetoric, throwing around industry buzzwords and empty jargon to create the impression of business savvy. But when everyone sounds messaged (and the same), no one stands out. And now, with more ways than ever to get your message across, it’s never been harder to communicate clearly and have your message stick.

Bill McGowan has devoted more than twenty years to helping people find their distinctive voice. From CEOs to White House staffers to television personalities, he has coached thousands of speakers to make their narrative more memorable and distinctive by breaking free from the challenges preventing them from selling their ideas with conviction, motivating their teams during challenging times, or clearly articulating a company’s mission.

Speak, Memorably offers concrete strategies and tools to help anyone, in any stage of their career, cut through the numbing sameness of cliches and boring business rhetoric and find their authentic voice. Inspiring and entertaining, it is a masterclass in interpersonal communication and an inspiring call to action for professionals to break free from forgettable “brand” speak and instead craft thoughtful and memorable messages.

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The How Not to Age Cookbook: 100+ Recipes for Getting Healthier and Living Longer

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

New from Michael Greger M.D., FACLM, whose books have sold more than one million copies worldwide, comes a fully-illustrated cookbook filled with recipes to make you healthier as you age. In his instant New York Times bestseller, How Not To Age, Dr. Michael Greger revealed that diet can regulate every one of the most promising strategies for combating the effects of aging. His Anti-Aging Eight streamlined evidence-based research into simple, accessible steps for ensuring physical and mental longevity. Now, in How Not To Age Cookbook, decades of scientific research are put to use in over a hundred recipes that will leave readers feeling nourished for years to come. Each of these simple, nutrition-packed dishes uses ingredients that have been proven to promote a healthy lifespan and inspiration from the places around the world where people traditionally live the longest. Grounded in the latest nutrition science, How Not to Age Cookbook is chock-full of delicious meals, snacks, and beverages that will keep the body both nourished and youthful.

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The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

John Seabrook

Having left this material for his writer son, my father must have wanted the story told, even if he couldn't bear to tell it himself." So begins the story of a forgotten American dynasty, a farming family from the bean fields of southern New Jersey who became as wealthy and powerful as aristocrats -- only to implode in a storm of lies. The patriarch, C. F. Seabrook, was hailed as the "Henry Ford of Agriculture." His son Jack, a keen businessman, was poised to take over what Life called "the biggest vegetable factory on earth." But the carefully cultivated facade -- glamorous outings by horse-drawn carriage, hidden wine cellars, and movie star girlfriends -- hid dark secrets that led to the implosion of the family business. At the heart of the narrative is a multi-generational succession battle. It's a tale of family secrets and Swiss bank accounts, of half-truths, of hatred and passion -- and lots and lots of liquor. The Seabrooks' colorful legal and moral failings took place amid the trappings of extraordinary privilege. But the story of where that money came from is not so pretty. They say behind every great fortune there is a great crime. At Seabrook Farms, the troubling American histories of race, immigration, and exploitation arise like weeds from the soil. Great Migration Black laborers struck against the company for better wages in the 1930s, and Japanese Americans helped found a "global village" on the farm after World War II. Revealing both C. F. and Jack Seabrook's corruption, The Spinach King undermines the "great man" theory of industrial progress. It also shows how American farms evolved from Jeffersonian smallholdings to gigantic agribusinesses, and what such enormous firms do to the families whose fate is bound up in the land. A compulsively readable story of class and privilege, betrayal and revenge -- three decades in the making -- The Spinach King explores the author's complicated family legacy and the dark corners of the American Dream.

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Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television

Todd S Purdum

An illuminating biography of Desi Arnaz, the visionary, trailblazing Cuban American who revolutionized television and brought laughter to millions as Lucille Ball's beloved husband on I Love Lucy, leaving a remarkable legacy that continues to influence American culture today. Desi Arnaz is a name that resonates with fans of classic television, but few understand the depth of his contributions to the entertainment industry. In Desi Arnaz, Todd S. Purdum offers a captivating biography that dives into the groundbreaking Latino artist andbusinessman known to millions as Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy. Beyond his iconic role, Arnaz was a pioneering entrepreneur who fundamentally transformed the television landscape. His journey from Cuban aristocracy to world-class entertainer is remarkable. After losingeverything during the 1933 Cuban revolution, Arnaz reinvented himself in pre-World War II Miami, tapping into the rising demand for Latin music. By twenty, he had formed his own band and sparked the conga dance craze in America. Behind the scenes, he revolutionized television production by filming I Love Lucy before a live studio audience with synchronized cameras, a model that remains a sitcom gold standard today. Despite being underestimated due to his accent and origins, Arnaz's legacy is monumental. Purdum's biography, enriched withunpublished materials and interviews, reveals the man behind the legend and highlights his enduring contributions to pop culture and television.

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The Lost Orchid: A Story of Victorian Plunder and Obsession

Sarah Bilston

Sarah Bilston follows the colorful characters and fateful dramas of orchid mania, the nineteenth-century craze among European and North American collectors vying to own the world's most coveted flowers. Focusing on the hunt for the so-called lost orchid, Bilston reveals the enormous human and environmental cost of a colonial obsession.

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The Birth of the Anglo-Saxons: Three Kings and a History of Britain at the Dawn of the Viking Age

Max Adams

For too long, the eighth century has been a neglected era in British history: a shadow land between the death of Saint Bede and the triumphs of King Ælfred and the eventual unification of England. Butbefore the victories of King Ælfred against the Viking invaders, the kingdom of Mercia--spread across a broad swathe of central England--was the reigning power that exercised central political authority for the first time since the Roman Empire. This authority was used to construct trading networks and markets; to develop strong economic, cultural, and political links with the Continent; and to lay the foundations for a system of defense that would be invigorated and reinvented by Ælfred at the end of the ninth century. ... In this ... history of early medieval Britain, Max Adams reconnects the worlds ofthe three kings--Æthelbald, Offa, and Ælfred--in [a] ... study of the landscape, society, and politics of a fascinating century of change.

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Healthy Happy ADHD: Transform How You Move, Eat, and Feel, and Create Your Own Path to Well-Being

Lisa Dee

ADHD makes it hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle, but an unhealthy lifestyle can make ADHD more difficult to live with. Health and fitness coach Lisa Dee experienced this firsthand when symptoms of her undiagnosed ADHD began wreaking havoc on her physical and mental health. Executive dysfunction left her in a constant state of overwhelm. She turned to unhealthy foods to cope with her exhaustion and seek stimulation, leading to unwanted weight gain. After finally receiving an ADHD diagnosis at age thirty-one, Lisa realized she needed to consider the unique ways her ADHD brain and body operated if she wanted to feel her best. In Healthy Happy ADHD, she shares the mindset shifts, systems, and habits that transformed her life and form her foundation for healthy living as a woman with ADHD. Drawing from her lived experience, she shows you how to revamp your routines, build new habits, and bring ease to your busy brain by learning to: Ditch the restrictive rules, shame-based ideas, and neurotypical expectations about what exercise, healthy eating, and rest "should" look like; Eat well with "ADHD Easy Meals," get curious about how food affects your energy and mood, and avoid the decision paralysis that comes with meal planning and grocery shopping; Prepare for the impacts of hormonal fluctuations on your ADHD symptoms and recognize the link between ADHD, PMS, and PMDD; Reconnect with yourself and practice self-compassion through introspective exercises that encourage self-reflection and mindfulness. Featuring creative wellness hacks and empowering practices presented in easy-to-digest chapters with an ADHD-friendly design, Healthy Happy ADHD offers a life-changing blueprint for becoming your most vibrant self, both inside and out.

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The Good Mother Myth: Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to Be a Good Mom

Nancy Reddy

Timely and thought-provoking, Nancy Reddy unpacks and debunks the bad ideas that have for too long defined what it means to be a "good" mom. When Nancy Reddy had her first child, she found herself suddenly confronted with the ideal of a perfect mother-a woman who was constantly available, endlessly patient, and immediately invested in her child to the exclusion of all else. Reddy had been raised by a single working mother, considered herself a feminist, and was well on her way to a PhD. Why did doing motherhood "right" feel so wrong? For answers, Reddy turned to the mid-20th century social scientists and psychologists whose work still forms the basis of so much of what we believe about parenting. It seems ludicrous to imagine modern moms taking advice from midcentury researchers. Yet, their bad ideas about so-called "good" motherhood have seeped so pervasively into our cultural norms. In The Good Mother Myth, Reddy debunks the flawed lab studies, sloppy research, and straightforward misogyny of researchers from Harry Harlow, who claimed to have discovered love by observing monkeys in his lab, to the famous Dr. Spock, whose bestselling parenting guide included just one (1!) illustration of a father interacting with his child. This timely and thought-provoking book will make you laugh, cry, and want to scream (sometimes all at once). Blending history of science, cultural criticism, and memoir, The Good Mother Myth pulls back the curtain on the flawed social science behind our contemporary understanding of what makes a good mom.

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Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West

Josh Hammer

In Israel and Civilization, acclaimed journalist, legal expert, and pundit Josh Hammer makes a righteous case that the key to the prosperity of the West is the flourishing of the Jewish people and the Jewish State of Israel. Hammer's uplifting offense is our best defense against the enemies of the Jewish people's right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. And as Hammer makes clear, manifesting the promise of Israel requires action by the United States and its allies. There can be no overstating the impact of the trauma of October 7, 2023, on the Jewish people. Yet the anti-Israel reactions the world over have been equally devastating. Rallies of hundreds of thousands explicitly or implicitly promoting Hamas violence; demonstrations of Ivy League professors celebrating the pogrom as awesome and exhilarating; so-called human rights organizations that refuse to unequivocally condemn the use of rape as a weapon of war; and a hydra of multiculturalism, postmodern relativism, and tolerance--it all threatens the physical and metaphysical survival of the West and our essential Jewish heritage. Preserving the best of what's been thought and said throughout history and ensuring that there will be centuries more requires a West that is proud of its Jewish heritage. In other words, the continued existence of the Jewish people is inextricably tied to the endurance of Western civilization. Israel is the center of the battle, and Israel and Civilization explains why and how the Jewish state must win.

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The Hiroshima Men: The Quest to Build the Atomic Bomb, and the Fateful Decision to Use It

Iain MacGregor

At 8:15 a.m. on August 6th, 1945, the Japanese port city of Hiroshima was struck by the world's first atomic bomb. Built in the US by the top-secret Manhattan Project and delivered by a B-29 Superfortress, a revolutionary long-range bomber, the weapon destroyed large swaths of the city, instantly killing tens of thousands. The world would never be the same again. The Hiroshima Men's unique narrative recounts the decade-long journey towards this first atomic attack. It charts the race for nuclear technology before and during the Second World War, as the allies fought the axis powers in Europe, North Africa, China, and across the vastness of the Pacific, and is seen through the experiences of several key characters: General Leslie Groves, leader of the Manhattan Project alongside Robert Oppenheimer; pioneering Army Air Force bomber pilot Colonel Paul Tibbetts II; the mayor of Hiroshima, Senkichi Awaya, who would die alongside over eighty-thousand of his fellow citizens; and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist John Hersey, who travelled to post-war Japan to expose the devastation the bomb had inflicted upon the city, and in a historic New Yorker article, described in unflinching detail the dangers posed by its deadly after-effect, radiation poisoning. This thrilling account takes the reader from the corridors of power in the White House and the Pentagon to the test sites of New Mexico; from the air war above Germany to the Potsdam Conference of Truman, Churchill, and Stalin to the savage reconquest of the Pacific to the deadly firebombing air raids across the Japanese islands. The Hiroshima Men also includes Japanese perspectives-a vital aspect often missing from Western narratives-to complete MacGregor's nuanced, deeply human account of the bombing's meaning and aftermath.

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Dying to Meet You

Sarina Bowen

Rowan Gallagher is a devoted single mother and a talented architect with a high-profile commission restoring an historic mansion for the most powerful family in Maine. But inside, she's a mess. She knows that stalking her ex's avatar all over Portland on her phone isn't the healthiest way to heal from their breakup. But she's out of ice cream and she's sick of romcoms. Watching his every move is both fascinating and infuriating. He's dining out while she's wallowing on the couch. The last straw comes when he parks in their favorite spot on the waterfront. In a weak moment, she leashes the dog and sets off to see who else is in his car. Instead of catching her ex in a kiss, Rowan becomes the first witness to his murder--and the primary suspect. But Rowan isn't the only one keeping secrets. As she digs for the truth, she discovers the dead man was stalking her too, gathering intimate details about her job and her past. Struggling to clear her name, Rowan finds herself spiraling into the shadowy plot that killed him. Will she be the next to die?

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Make Me Famous: An Intoxicating Psychological Thriller of Fame, Fortune, and Betrayal in the World of Pop Culture

Maud Ventura

Daisy Jones and the Six meets Patricia Highsmith in this addictive, intense novel about the brutal and ferocious road to glory, from the award-winning author of My Husband. Ever since she was a child, Cléo Louvent has had only one obsession: becoming a famous singer. To everyone's surprise but her own, she has overcome every obstacle and become a global superstar with millions of dollars, countless awards, and several villas to her name. But as any celebrity will tell you, getting to the top is one thing; staying there is another. Now thirty-two years old, Cléo is taking her first real vacation in years, on a remote island with no one else in sight. With the neverending spin cycle of her life finally on pause and no paparazzi peeking out from behind the coconut palms, she can work on her fourth album in peace. Except that with so much time to think, she can't help but ruminate on her past-- and how, just six months earlier, things started to go very wrong.

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Sins of Survivors: A Carter Brothers Novel (Blair Underwood Presents, 1)

Blair Underwood

In 1908 Alabama, precocious young Benjamin Carter brings deadly consequences down upon his father's head when he dares to use a white drinking fountain instead of the 'colored' one. With his fierce and protective older brother Jasper, Ben escapes Alabama, joining the Great Migration to Black Bottom, Detroit's flourishing Black neighborhood. There, the brothers rise from the ashes to become kingpins of this new community, owning businesses, playing politics, and diving into Detroit's violent criminal underbelly. Through their wit and grit, Ben and Jasper establish the Carter dynasty, securing a prosperous future for their families. But heavy are the heads that wear the crowns. Seeing their children come of age--young men and women fueled by ambitions of their own--the brothers clash over which direction to steer the Carter empire.

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Notes from a Regicide

Isaac Fellman

Notes from a Regicide is a heartbreaking story of trans self-discovery with a rich relatability and a science-fictional twist from award-winning author Isaac Fellman. When your parents die, you find out who they really were. Griffon Keming's second parents saved him from his abusive family. They taught him how to be trans, paid for his transition, and tried to love him as best they could. But Griffon's new parents had troubles of their own - both were deeply scarred by the lives they lived before Griffon, the struggles they faced to become themselves, and the failed revolution that drove them from their homeland. When they died, they left an unfillable hole in his heart. Griffon's best clue to his parents' lives is in his father's journal, written from a jail cell while he awaited execution. Stained with blood, grief, and tears, these pages struggle to contain the love story of two artists on fire. With the journal in hand, Griffon hopes to pin down his relationship to these wonderful and strange people for whom time always seemed to be running out. In Notes from a Regicide, a trans family saga set in a far-off, familiar future, Isaac Fellman goes beyond the concept of found family to examine how deeply we can be healed and hurt by those we choose to love.

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A Palace Near the Wind: Natural Engines

Ai Jiang

Sometimes called Wind Walkers for their ability to command the wind, unlike their human rulers, the Feng people have bark faces, carved limbs, arms of braided branches, and hair of needle threads. Bound by duty and tradition, Liu Lufeng, the eldest princess of the Feng royalty, is the next bride to the human king. The negotiation of bridewealth is the only way to stop the expansion of the humans so that the Feng can keep their lands, people, and culture intact. As the eldest, Lufeng should be the next in line to lead the people of Feng, and in the past, that made her sisters disposable. Thankful that her youngest sister, Chuiliu, is too young for a sacrificial marriage, she steps in with plans to kill the king to finally stop the marriages. But when she starts to uncover the truth about her peoples' origins and realizes Chuiliu will never be safe from the humans, she must learn to let go of duty and tradition, choose her allies carefully, and risk the unknown in order to free her family and shape her own fate.

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The Expat Affair: A Murder Mystery with a Strong Female Protagonist in Amsterdam's Diamond Industry

Kimberly Belle

An American expat's startling discovery plunges her into the deadly world of Amsterdam's diamond industry. Rayna Dumont came to Amsterdam for a fresh start. She's never been the type for a one-night stand, but this move is all about adventure, and Xander is handsome and successful and more than willing to go along for the ride. Until the morning after, when Rayna finds him dead, millions of dollars' worth of diamonds missing from his safe. Willow Prins is captivated by the news. Her husband is Xander's former boss and heir to a diamond house, and the scandal strains their already-rocky marriage. As the house comes under scrutiny, Willow wonders how much of the blame she can place on Rayna. Soon, the two women are dragged into the dark underbelly of the diamond market, where they'll have to uncover the truth to survive. Who killed Xander? Where are the missing diamonds? And who can you trust in a city thousands of miles from home?

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What Kind of Paradise: A Novel

Janelle Brown

Growing up in an isolated cabin in Montana in the mid-1990s, Jane knows only the world that she and her father live in: the woodstove that heats their home, the vegetable garden where they try to eke out a subsistence, the books of nineteenth-century philosophy that her father gives her to read in lieu of going to school. Her father is elusive about their pasts, giving Jane little beyond the facts that they once lived in the Bay Area and that her mother died in a car accident, the crash propelling him to move Jane off the grid to raise her in a Waldenesque utopia. As Jane becomes a teenager she starts pushing against the boundaries of her restricted world. She begs to accompany her father on his occasional trips away from the cabin. But when Jane realizes that her devotion to her father has made her an accomplice to a horrific crime, she flees Montana to the only place she knows to look for answers about her mysterious past, and her mother’s death: San Francisco. It is a city in the midst of a seismic change, where her quest to understand herself will force her to reckon with both the possibilities and the perils of the fledgling internet, and where she will come to question everything she values. In this sweeping, suspenseful novel from bestselling author Janelle Brown, we see a young woman on a quest to understand how we come to know ourselves. It is a bold and unforgettable story about parents and children; nature and technology; innocence and knowledge; the losses of our past and our dreams for the future.

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25 Alive: A Women's Murder Club Thriller

James Patterson

SFPD homicide detective Lindsay Boxer knows her way around a crime scene. But nothing can prepare her for the shock of recognition: the victim is Warren Jacobi, Lindsay’s onetime partner who rose to chief of police. A top investigator until the end, Jacobi managed to leave Lindsay a clue. Following a trail of evidence along the west coast, the Women’s Murder Club pledges to avenge Jacobi’s death before the killer can take another one of their own.

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The Death Mask (Eve Duncan, 31)

Iris Johansen

World-renowned forensic sculptor Eve Duncan's skills frequently make her a target. And in this epic adventure, they make her the first choice to create an Egyptian death mask for a nefarious potential client. But Eve cannot be bought, not for all the riches in a gold mine. Her would-be employer soon realizes that he must threaten the lives of those she holds dear to procure Eve's services and force her to travel to Africa to mold the priceless mask. Eve knows that her husband, Joe Quinn, is out there somewhere, searching tirelessly for a way to help. Joe has back-up from Alex Dominic, a mercenary for hire, but nothing will make it easier to set his emotions aside in order to navigate the impenetrable jungle and mastermind a breathtaking escape. Against an unpredictable enemy, Eve and Joe must each focus on their own unique abilities to get out alive. The future of their love and their family depends upon it.

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This Is Not a Game: A Novel

Kelly Mullen

Golden Girls meets Only Murders in the Building MURDER MARTINIS A GRANDMOTHER-GRANDDAUGHTER SLEUTHING DUO DACHSHUNDS (x2) A GLAMOROUS ISLAND MANOR Widow Mimi lives on idyllic Mackinac Island, where cars are not allowed and a Gibson martini with three onions at the witching hour is compulsory. Her estranged granddaughter, Addie, is getting over the heartbreak of not only being dumped by her fiancé, Brian, but also being cut out of the deal for the brilliantly successful video game Murderscape they invented together (with Addie doing most of the heavy lifting). When Mimi gets an invitation from local socialite Jane Ireland—a seventysomething narcissist who’s having a salacious affair with her son-in-law—to a charity auction, she invites Addie. But Mimi doesn’t tell her that a blackmail threat from Jane looms over the party’s invitation. Once they arrive, a big storm rolls in, trapping everyone in the mansion. And then, Jane is murdered. Soon Mimi and Addie’s strained relationship is put to the test when they must team up to narrow down the suspects. When another body turns up, the sleuthing pair realize someone else is playing a deadly game, and they might not survive the night.

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The Love Haters: A Novel

Katherine Center

Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past―now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West. The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim―but pretends that she can. Plus, Cole and Hutch are brothers. And they don’t get along. Next stop: paradise! But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good-looking man she has ever seen . . . but maybe a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two. Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue―along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.

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Hazel Says No: A Novel

Jessica Berger Gross

When Hazel Blum's father gets a tenured job at a prestigious college, she and her family relocate from the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn to a middle-of-nowhere college town in Maine. With her mother, Claire, a clothing designer, and her father, Gus, an American Studies professor, Hazel and her eleven-year-old brother, Wolf, spend the summer at the town pool, where they acclimate to their new lives and connect with the town's sprawling community. That is, until a dramatic fallout on the very first day of her senior year tips the fickle balance of idyllic Riverburg and impacts everyone in her family.

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The Manor of Dreams

Christina Li

Mexican Gothic meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in Christina Li's haunting novel about the secrets that lie in wait in the crumbling mansion of a former Hollywood starlet, and the intertwined fates of the two Chinese American families fighting to inherit it. They say what you don't know can't hurt you. But silence can be deadly. Vivian Yin is dead. The first Chinese actress to win an Oscar, the trailblazing ingénue rose to fame in the eighties, only to disappear from the spotlight at the height of her career and live out the rest of her life as a recluse. Now her remaining family members are gathered for the reading of her will and her daughters expect to inherit their childhood home: Vivian's sprawling, Southern California garden estate. But due to a last-minute change to the will, the house is passed on to another family instead--one that has suddenly returned after decades of estrangement. In hopes of staking their claim, both families move into the mansion. Amidst the grief and paranoia of this unhappy reunion, Vivian's daughters race to piece together what happened in the last weeks of their mother's life, only to realize they are being haunted by something much more sinister and vengeful than their regrets. After so many years of silence, will the families finally confront the painful truth about the last fateful summer they spent in the house, or will they cling to their secrets until it's too late? Told in dual timelines, spanning three generations, and brimming with forbidden romance, betrayal, ambition and sacrifice, The Manor of Dreams is a thrilling family gothic that examines the true cost of the American dream--and what happens when the roots we set down in this country turn to rot.

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Shadows of Tehran: Forged in Conflict: From Iranian Rebel to American Soldier

Nick Berg

Raised in Tehran but torn between two worlds, Ricardo's young life is thrown into chaos when his American father abandons the family just as the Islamic Revolution of 1979 breaks out. As fundamental human rights are washed away in a tide of religious, anti-Western fanaticism, Ricardo's mother remarries, introducing a stepfather with a dark secret. At only 14 years old, Ricardo vows to take back what was stolen under the oppressive, authoritarian rule. He quickly becomes a rebel leader, earning himself renown as the Shadow Rider of Tehran. When his name is leaked and an execution order issued, he must flee the only country he has called home. But the fight is not over. Blessed with an indomitable will and unbreakable spirit, Ricardo becomes a US Special Forces soldier, and in a surprising turn of events, lands right back where he started.

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American Housewife: A Novel

Anita Abriel

New York City, 1950. Dreams come true for radio personality Maggie Lane when she gets her big break in the exciting new world of television. The Maggie Lane Baking Show is on the air. All she has to do is act like the ideal housewife, create sumptuous desserts, charm the show's sponsors, and sign a morality clause to ensure that her girl-next-door image remains untarnished. Off camera, cracks are showing in her marriage, an old lover makes an unexpected return, and there are secrets from the past that could ruin everything Maggie has worked for. With every dream on the line, Maggie wonders if she can still have it all when the truth about what it really means to be an American housewife comes to light.

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A Promise to Arlette: A Novel

Serena Burdick

With the scope of a saga and the heart of a thriller, this is an evocative historical novel following a married couple whose idyllic 1950s suburban life is threatened by the promises they made during World War II. Sidney and Ida Whipple are living the suburban 1950s American dream, complete with two children and a white picket fence, which didn't seem possible when they first met at the height of WWII in France. Reveling in the present, they can almost convince themselves that their past is behind them. But when their neighbors show off a newly purchased Man Ray photograph, Ida comes face-to-face with the person she loved and lost in the war: Arlette. Only Ida knows the truth about the photograph, and why it can't possibly be authentic. In an attempt to right past wrongs, she travels to California vowing to confront Man Ray. Sidney wakes to find his wife is missing, the photograph in question stolen, and all the secrets they've tried to bury come rushing back. With his daughters in tow, he travels after Ida, hoping to forge a new path together. Instead, their sojourn leads to a shocking discovery that could pull their family apart in this sweeping, unforgettable story about love and friendship, trust and betrayal, and how promises made, broken, and ultimately renewed, can determine our fate.

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The Lost Masterpiece: A Novel

B. A. Shapiro

In a gripping novel full of plot twists, B. A. Shapiro embeds usin a circle of famous painters in late-nineteenth-century Paris, centering on the anguished Impressionist artist Berthe Morisot--the one woman in their midst who never got her due--and the story of Morisot's great-great-great-great granddaughter, Tamara Rubin, who has inherited âEdouard Manet's Party on the Seine, a painting that completely upends her life. When Tamara inherits Party, she discovers a long-hidden family history replete with unanswered questions: How had it been stolen by the Nazis? How had the painting managed to survive three disasters that destroyed every other artwork around it? And most of all, why had she never known about her ancestor, Berthe Morisot? As the painting begins to metamorphose into darker and more terrifying versions of itself, Tamara's ordinary life is thrown into turmoil. What wounds and resentments plagued Morisot, and to what lengths will her spirit go for revenge?

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Don't Open Your Eyes: A Novel

Liv Constantine

In this twisted psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling co-author of the Reese's Book Club Pick The Last Mrs. Parrish, a woman is tormented by nightmarish visions of her future - and then they start to come true.

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Written on the Dark

Guy Gavriel Kay

Both sweeping and intimate, a majestic novel of love and war that brilliantly evokes the drama and turbulence of medieval France. Thierry Villar is a well-known--even notorious-- tavern poet, familiar with the rogues and shadows of that world, but not at all with courts and power. He is an unlikely person, despite his quickness, to be caught up in the deadly contests of ambitious royals, assassins, and invading armies. But he is indeed drawn into all these things on a savagely cold night in his beloved city of Orane. And so Thierry must use all the intelligence and charm he can muster as political struggles merge with a decades-long war to bring his country to the brink of destruction. As he does, he meets his poetic equal in an aristocratic woman and is drawn to more than one unsettling person with a connection to the world beyond this one. He also crosses paths with an extraordinary young woman driven by voices within to try to heal the ailing king--and help his forces in war. A wide and varied set of people from all walks of life take their places in the rich tapestry of this story. A new masterwork from the internationally bestselling author of All the Seas of the World, A Brightness Long Ago, and Tigana, Written on the Dark is an elegant tour de force about power and ambition playing out amid the intense human need for art and beauty, and memories to be left behind.

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King of Ashes: A Novel

S. A. Cosby

Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby returns with King of Ashes, a Godfather-inspired Southern crime epic and dazzling family drama. When eldest son Roman Carruthers is summoned home after his father's car accident, he finds his younger brother, Dante, in debt to dangerous criminals and his sister, Neveah, exhausted from holding the family-and the family business-together. Neveah and their father, who run the Carruthers Crematorium in the run-down central Virginia town of Jefferson Run, see death up close every day. But mortality draws even closer when it becomes clear that the crash that landed their father in a coma was no accident and Dante's recklessness has placed them all in real danger. Roman, a financial whiz with a head for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, has some money to help buy his brother out of trouble. But in his work with wannabe tough guys, he's forgotten that there are real gangsters out there. As his bargaining chips go up in smoke, Roman realizes that he has only one thing left to offer to save his brother: himself, and his own particular set of skills. Roman begins his work for the criminals while Neveah tries to uncover the long-ago mystery of what happened to their mother, who disappeared when they were teenagers. But Roman is far less of a pushover than the gangsters realize. He is willing to do anything to save his family. Anything. Because everything burns.

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Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

V. E. Schwab

From V. E. Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: a new genre-defying novel about immortality and hunger. Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532. London, 1827. Boston, 2019. Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots. One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild. And all of them grow teeth.

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Fox: A Novel

Joyce Carol Oates

Who is Francis Fox? A charming English teacher new to the idyllic Langhorne Academy, Fox beguiles many of his students, their parents, and his colleagues at the elite boarding school, while leaving others wondering where he came from and why his biography is so enigmatic. When two brothers discover Fox's car half-submerged in a pond in a local nature preserve and parts of an unidentified body strewn about the nearby woods, the entire community, including Detective Horace Zwender and his deputy, begins to ask disturbing questions about Francis Fox and who he might really be. A hypnotic, galloping tale of crime and complicity, revenge and restitution, victim vs. predator, Joyce Carol Oates's Fox illuminates the darkest corners of the human psyche while asking profound moral questions about justice and the response evil demands. A character as magnetically diabolical as Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley and Vladimir Nabokov's Humbert Humbert, Francis Fox enchants and manipulates nearly everyone around him, until at last he meets someone he can't outfox. Written in Oates's trademark intimate, sweeping style, and interweaving multiple points of view, Fox is a triumph of craftsmanship and artistry, a novel as profound as it is propulsive, as moving as it is full of mystery.

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Harriet Tubman: Military Scout and Tenacious Visionary: From Her Roots in Ghana to Her Legacy on the Eastern Shore

Jean Marie Wiesen

A comprehensive overview of Tubman's life and work, co-authored by one of her descendants, Rita Daniels. For all Harriet Tubman's accomplishments and the myriad books written about her, many gaps, errors, and misconceptions of her legendary life persist. As recognitionand tributes to Tubman's remarkable contributions to American history and civil liberty continues to grow, the time is right for a new biography with the involvement of her family, who have been the caretakers and stewards of her legacy for generations.

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Poisoning the Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America

Sharon Udasin

This is the shocking true-life story of how PFAS, a set of toxic chemicals most people have never heard of, poisoned the entire country. Based on original, shoe-leather reporting in four highly contaminated towns and damning documents from the polluters' own files, Poisoning the Well traces an ugly history of corporate greed and devastation of human lives. We learn that PFAS, the 'forever chemicals' found in everyday products, from cooking pans to mascara, are coursing through the veins of 97% of Americans.

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We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine

Alissa Wilkinson

In this riveting cultural biography, New York Times film critic Alissa Wilkinson examines Joan Didion's influence through the lens of American mythmaking. As a young girl, Didion was infatuated with John Wayne and his on-screen bravado, and was fascinated by her California pioneer ancestry and the infamous Donner Party. The mythos that preoccupied her early years continued to influence her work as a magazine writer and film critic in New York, offering glimmers of the many stories Didion told herself that would come to unravel over the course of her career. But out west, show business beckoned.

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Home of the Happy: A Murder on the Cajun Prairie

Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

On January 16, 1983, Aubrey LaHaye's body was found floating in the Bayou Nezpique. His kidnapping ten days before sparked "the biggest manhunt in the history of Evangeline Parish." But his descendants would hear the story as lore, in whispers of the dreadful day the FBI landed a helicopter in the family's rice field and set out on horseback to search for the seventy-year-old banker. Decades later, Aubrey's great-granddaughter Jordan LaHaye Fontenot asked her father, the parish urologist, to tell the full story. He revealed that to this day, every few months, one of his patients will bring up his grandfather's murder, and the man accused of killing him, John Brady Balfa, who remains at Angola Prison serving a life sentence. They'll say, in so many words: "Dr. Marcel, I really don't think that Balfa boy killed your granddaddy." For readers of Maggie Nelson's THE RED PARTS and Emma Copley Eisenberg's THE THIRD RAINBOW GIRL, HOME OF THE HAPPY unravels the layers of suffering borne of this brutal crime-and investigates the mysteries that linger beneath generations of silence. Is it possible that an innocent man languishes in prison, still, wrongly convicted of murdering the author's great-grandfather?

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The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future

Keach Hagey

From an acclaimed Wall Street Journal reporter comes the first biography of the enigmatic leader of the AI revolution, charting his ascent within the tech world as well as his ambitions for this powerful new technology. On November 30, 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a chatbot that captivated the world with its uncanny ability to hold humanlike conversations. Not even a year later, on November 17, 2023, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, was summarily fired on a video call by the company's board. The firing made headlines around the globe: OpenAI is the leader in the race to build AGI--artificial general intelligence, or AI that can think like a human being--and Altman is the most prominent figure in the field. Yet it was mere days before Altman was back running the company he had co-founded, with most of the directors who voted to fire him themselves removed from the board. The episode was a demonstration of how quickly the industry is moving, and of Altman's power to bend reality to his will. In The Optimist, the Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey presents the most detailed account yet of Altman's rise, from his precocious childhood in St. Louis to his first, failed startup experience; his time as legendary entrepreneur Paul Graham's protégé and successor as head of Y Combinator, the start-up accelerator where Altman became the premier power broker in Silicon Valley; the founding of OpenAI and his recruitment of a small yet superior team; and his struggle to keep his company at the cutting edge while fending off determined rivals, including Elon Musk, a former friend and now Altman's bitter opponent. Hagey conducted more than 250 interviews, with Altman's family, friends, teachers, mentors, co-founders, colleagues, investors, and portfolio companies, in addition to spending hours with Altman himself. The person who emerges in her portrait is a brilliant dealmaker with a love of risk, who believes in technological progress with an almost religious conviction--yet who sometimes moves too fast for the people around him. With both the promise and peril of AI increasing by the day, Hagey delivers a nuanced, balanced, revelatory account of the individual who is leading us into what he himself has called "the intelligence age." Altman is a figure out of Isaac Asimov or Neal Stephenson. Or he is the author himself: if it feels as though we have all collectively stepped into a science fiction short story, it is Altman who is writing it.

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Yet Here I Am: Lessons from a Black Man’s Search for Home

Jonathan Capehart

MSNBC anchor Jonathan Capehart is one of the most recognizable faces in cable news. But long before that success, Capehart spent his boyhood growing up without his father, shuttling back and forth between New Jersey and rural Severn, North Carolina, contemplating the complexities of race and identity as they shifted around him. It was never easy bridging two worlds; whether being told he was too smart or not smart enough, too black or not black enough, Capehart struggled to find his place. Then, an internship at The Today Show altered the course of his life, bringing him one step closer to his dream. From there, Capehart embarks on a journey of self-discovery. Yet Here I Am takes us along that journey, from his years at Carleton College, where he learns to embrace his identity as a gay, black man surrounded by a likeminded community; to his decision to come out to his family, risking rejection; and finally to his move to New York City, where time and again he stumbles and picks himself up as he blazes a path to become the familiar face in news we know today. Honest and endearing, Yet Here I Am is an inspirational memoir of identity, opportunity, and of finding one's voice and purpose along the way.

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Better Man

Robbie Williams

Better Man is based on the true story of the meteoric rise, dramatic fall, and remarkable resurgence of British pop superstar Robbie Williams, one of the greatest entertainers of all time. Under the visionary direction of Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman), the film is uniquely told from Robbie's perspective, capturing his signature wit and indomitable spirit. It follows Robbie's journey from childhood, to being the youngest member of chart-topping boyband Take That, through to his unparalleled achievements as a record-breaking solo artist all the while confronting the challenges that stratospheric fame and success can bring.

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Women of War: The Italian Assassins, Spies, and Couriers Who Fought the Nazis

Suzanne Cope

From underground soldiers to intrepid spies, Women of War unearths the hidden history of the brave women who risked their lives to overthrow the Nazi occupation and liberate Italy. Using primary sources and brand new scholarship, historian Suzanne Cope illuminates the roles played by women while Italians struggled under dual foes: Nazi invaders and Italian fascist loyalists. Cope's research and storytelling introduces four brave and resourceful women who risked everything to overthrow the Nazi occupation and pry their future from the fascist grasp. We meet Carla Capponi in Rome, where she made bombs in an underground bunker then ferried them to their deadly destination wearing lipstick and a trenchcoat; and Bianca Guidetti Serra who rode her bicycle up switchbacks in the Alps, dodging bullets while delivering bags of clandestine newspapers and munitions to the anti-fascist armies hidden in the mountains. In Florence, the young future author of Italy's new constitution, Teresa Mattei, carried secret messages and hid bombs; while Anita Malavasi led troops across the Apennine Mountains. Women of War brings their experiences as underground resistance fighters, partisan combatants, spies, and saboteurs to life. Essential and original, Women of War offers not only a reexamination of the elision of women from vital WWII history but also a valuable perspective on the ongoing fight for gender equality and social justice. After all, these were the women who launched a feminist movement as they fought for the future of their country, and what that could mean for its women, all while under Nazi and fascist fire.

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Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life

Dan Nadel

The first biography of Robert Crumb--one of the most profound and influential artists of the 20th century--whose iconic, radically frank and meticulously rendered cartoons and comics inspired generations of readers and cartoonists, from Art Spiegelman to Alison Bechdel.

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Our Dear Friends in Moscow: The Inside Story of a Broken Generation

Irina Borogan

Our Dear Friends in Moscow tells the story of a group of young Russians, part of an idealistic generation who came of age in Moscow at the end of the twentieth century, just as the communist era imploded and a future full of potential, and uncertainty, stood in front of them. At home, civil war stalked the Russian border in Chechnya, and terrorism came to Moscow. More discreetly, the new Russian government began to pull back from reconciliation with the United States and the West; by the time of Vladimir Putin's second term as president, the country had embraced a kind of ethno-nationalism and was heading for war at home and abroad. The group is torn apart by the shift in Russia. Some flee; others become sinister agents of the ever more aggressive state. The center cannot hold.

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Gettysburg: The Tide Turns: An Oral History

Bruce Chadwick

The definitive oral history of the battle that turned the tide of the Civil War that combines vivid first-hand accounts with rich historical narrative. In late June of 1863, one month after his victory over Union forces at Chancellorsville, Virginia, General Robert E. Lee, head of the Army of Northern Virginia, invaded the North. He would cross the Potomac River and head towards Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with the goal of seizing the trains which would then take his army into Philadelphia and perhaps even New York City. He hoped that these victories would force U.S. President Abraham Lincoln to surrender. As he pushed north, Lee was operating without his cavalry leader, J.E.B. Stuart, whom he had allowed to go on a useless scouting mission. At the same time, the Union army, now led by little known commander George Meade was tracking Lee and his men. Both sides clashed at Gettysburg, a tiny Pennsylvania farm village on July 1 in what would be a three-day battle that would change the course of the war. The battle would reveal the mettle of the unheralded Meade and would also call into question General Lee’s reputation as a legendary commander when he unleashed the ill planned and ill prepared Pickett’s Charge. The battle proved costly to both sides. Some 50,000 men were killed across the battlefield and the defeated Lee’s army would never again invade the North. After so much bloodshed, President Lincoln's history-making and eloquent Gettysburg Address came to embody the essence of the war. The address, not even three minutes long, is considered the finest speech ever delivered buy an American President and has been memorized by generations ever since. Using letters, diaries, journals, newspaper articles, and other written sources, Bruce Chadwick has crafted another masterful oral history. Skillfully combining traditional historic narrative with the in-the-moment ethos of an oral history, Gettysburg: The Tide Turns brings this iconic battle to fresh and vivid life.

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50 Vegetarian Recipes from 50 Years at Claire’s Corner Copia

Claire Criscuolo

50 Vegetarian Recipes from 50 Years of Claire's Corner Copia by Claire Criscuolo marks a culinary milestone, celebrating five decades of nourishing a community with vibrant, plant-based cuisine. This anniversary cookbook invites you into the heart of Claire's Corner Copia, the beloved vegetarian restaurant. Divided into five mouthwatering chapters, this collection features some of Claire's most popular recipes, each one a testament to her passion for healthy, delicious food. Alongside these timeless recipes, Claire shares intimate anecdotes from the restaurant's rich history, offering a glimpse into the journey of a culinary icon. The cookbook also includes new recipes inspired by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an emphasis on healing, healthful ingredients, and refreshing mocktails and smoothies designed to support recovery. Lavishly illustrated with full-color photographs of the dishes and the restaurant itself, this book is not just a celebration of Claire's Corner Copia's legacy but a treasure trove of vegetarian recipes that have stood the test of time.

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Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America

Sam Tanenhaus

At age 25 in 1951, with the publication of God and Man at Yale, a scathing attack on his alma mater, William F. Buckley, Jr. instantly seized the public stage-and commanded it for the next half century, leading a new generation of activists and ideologues to the heights of political power while he himself attained unique fame and public influence. Ten years before his death in 2008, Buckley chose prize-winning biographer Sam Tanenhaus to tell the full story of his life and times, granting him extensive interviews, entrée to his intimate circle, and unrestricted access to his most private papers. Thus began a deep investigation into the vast and often hidden universe of Bill Buckley and the conservative revolution. Buckley vividly captures its subject in all his facets and phases-founding editor of National Review, best-selling novelist and memoirist, jet-setting clubman and socialite, downhill skier and sailboat racer, wisecracking candidate for mayor of New York, flamboyant antagonist of James Baldwin and Gore Vidal, mentor and idol to hundreds who today populate the worlds of politics and media. Tanenhaus also reveals the private and at times secret life of Bill Buckley: his backstage collaborations with Senator Joseph McCarthy and Watergate felon Howard Hunt; thorny relationships with Presidents Nixon and Reagan; flirtations with financial ruin and legal censure-and, late in life, Buckley's lonely struggle to hold together a movement coming apart over AIDS, the culture wars, and the invasion of Iraq. Majestic in its sweep, lushly detailed, rich in ideas and argument, packed with news and revelations, Buckley is the definitive account of an American giant and the revolution he led.

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The Fourth Girl: A Novel

Wendy Corsi Staub

On prom night, Caroline Winterfield walked away from the ruins of an abandoned mansion called Haven Cliff and into the woods...never to be seen again. Only her three best friends know what really happened. But a secret is a secret, and a promise is a promise--even when it shatters lifelong friendships. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of that night, Midge, Kelly, and Talia reunite at Haven Cliff, now a gleaming architectural jewel. But they aren't alone. Someone is watching. Someone who knows what really happened to Caroline--and to the man who now lies dead a stone's throw from where she was last seen. Police detective Midge knows she's dealing with a murder the moment she sees the item clutched in his lifeless hand. Only three other people in the world would grasp its significance. That means Kelly and Talia are either involved or in danger, because Caroline is long gone...or is she?

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The Proof of My Innocence

Jonathan Coe

Post-university life doesn't suit Phyl. Time passes slowly living back home with her parents, working a zero-hour contract serving Japanese food to holidaymakers at Heathrow's Terminal 5. As for her budding plans of becoming a writer, those are going nowhere. That is, until family friend Chris comes to stay. He's been on the path to uncover a sinister think-tank, founded at Cambridge University in the 1980s, that's been scheming to push the British government in a more extreme direction. One that's finally poised to put their plans into action. But speaking truth to power can be dangerous - and power will stop at nothing to stay on top. As Britain finds itself under the leadership of a new Prime Minister whose tenure will only last for seven weeks, Chris pursues his story to a conference being held deep in the Cotswolds, where events take a sinister turn and a murder enquiry is soon in progress. But will the solution to the mystery lie in contemporary politics, or in a literary enigma that is almost forty years old?

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The Red House

Mark Haddon

Award-winning novelist Mary Morris weaves together an unsolved family mystery, a poignant coming-of-age story, and a little-known corner of World War II history in this lyrical novel of family, loss and, ultimately, love. Thirty years ago, Laura’s mother, Viola, went missing. She left behind her purse, her keys and her mysterious paintings of a red house. Viola was never found, and her family never recovered. Laura, an artist herself, held on to the paintings. On the back of each work, her mother scrawled in Italian, “I will not be here forever.” The family never understood what Viola meant.  Decades later, at a crossroads in her marriage and her life, Laura returns to Italy, where her parents met after World War II.  Laura spent the earliest years of her childhood there before the family moved to New Jersey and settled into an American dream that eventually became a nightmare. Viola, who claimed to be an orphan, staunchly refused to speak of her life before marriage.  In Italy, Laura finds herself on a strange scavenger hunt to solve the puzzle of her mother’s lost years. She is certain that the paintings of the red house hold the answer to her mother’s past and her search takes her from her hometown of Brindisi, deep into Puglia where she encounters a man who knew her mother and who illuminates little-known secrets of Italy’s Second World War.   Blending elements of true crime with settings that evoke Elena Ferrante, Laura follows her mother’s trajectory as she ventures north to Naples, Turin and finally home. Along the way, she confronts the dark truth of her mother's story and at last makes sense of her own.

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The Woman in the Wallpaper: A Novel

Lora Jones

The lives of three women dramatically collide during the French Revolution: Sofi, a wallpaper factory worker; her sister Lara, a lady's maid; and a young aristocrat, Hortense. At the factory, the sisters notice something eerie about the intricately illustrated wallpaper: the same mysterious woman appears again and again. But what does it portend? After the death of their beloved father, sisters Sofi and Lara are forced to leave their family home in Marseilles and move to a small village on the outskirts of Paris, where they have been offered work at a factory renowned for its intricately illustrated wallpaper known as Toile de Jouy. But when Sofi and Lara arrive at the factory, owned by a wealthy businessman named Wilhelm Oberst, they notice something unsettling about the wallpaper's pattern. At the heart of its seemingly idyllic vignettes, the same woman appears again and again: Madame Justine, Oberst's former wife-who, they discover, met an untimely and mysterious death years before, and who bears more than a passing resemblance to Lara. At the factory, Lara attracts the attention of the factory owner's son, Josef. But there is something uncannily familiar about their interactions, and Lara soon realizes that her life is mirroring the scenes illustrated on the wallpaper that lines her bedchamber. As the strange occurrences surrounding the wallpaper become ever more unnerving, Lara is gripped by paranoia. Is history is repeating itself and, if so, will she share the same tragic fate as the woman in the wallpaper?

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