New Releases: April 26th, 2016
NEW RELEASES IN HARDCOVER
CITY OF SECRETS by Stewart O'Nan
In 1945, with no homes to return to, Jewish refugees by the tens of thousands set out for Palestine. Those who made it were hunted as illegals by the British mandatory authorities there and relied on the underground to shelter them. Taking fake names, they blended with the population, joining the wildly different factions fighting for the independence of Israel. CITY OF SECRETS follows one survivor, Brand, as he tries to regain himself after losing everyone he's ever loved. Historical Thriller
FATHER'S DAY by Simon Van Booy
At the age of six, a little girl named Harvey learns that her parents have died in a car accident. As she struggles to understand, a kindly social worker named Wanda introduces her to her only living relative: her uncle Jason, a disabled felon with a violent past and a criminal record. Despite his limitations --- and his resistance --- Wanda follows a hunch and cajoles Jason into becoming her legal guardian, convinced that each may be the other’s last chance. Fiction
HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a 17th-century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened, or the consequences will be too terrible to bear. The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated by being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into dark, medieval practices of the distant past. Fantasy / Horror
THE STATESMAN AND THE STORYTELLER: John Hay, Mark Twain, and the Rise of American Imperialism by Mark Zwonitzer
John Hay, famous as Lincoln’s private secretary and later as secretary of state under presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, and Samuel Langhorne Clemens, famous for being “Mark Twain,” grew up 50 miles apart in the same rural antebellum stew of race and class and want. This shared history helped draw them together when they first met as up-and-coming young men in the late 1860s, and their mutual admiration never waned in spite of sharp differences in personality, worldview and public conduct. In THE STATESMAN AND THE STORYTELLER, the last decade of their lives plays out against the tumultuous events of the day. Biography / History
NEW RELEASES IN PAPERBACK
AURORA by Kim Stanley Robinson
A major novel from one of science fiction's most powerful voices, AURORA tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system. Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers. Science Fiction
BARBARIAN DAYS: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
Raised in California and Hawaii, William Finnegan started surfing as a child. He has chased waves all over the world, wandering for years through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia and Africa. A bookish boy, and then an excessively adventurous young man, he went on to become a distinguished writer and war reporter. BARBARIAN DAYS takes us deep into unfamiliar worlds and immerses us in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships annealed in challenging waves. Memoir
HITMAN ANDERS AND THE MEANING OF IT ALL by Jonas Jonasson
In a former brothel turned low-rent hotel, the lives of three unusual strangers --- a former female priest, recently fired from her church; the ruined grandson of an ex-millionaire working as a receptionist; and Killer-Anders, a murderer newly released from prison --- accidently collide with darkly hilarious results. HITMAN ANDERS AND THE MEANING OF IT ALL is a story of idealism and fanaticism, gangsters and entrepreneurs, sensationalism and spirituality, that explores the values that matter in contemporary life. Fiction
HOLD STILL: A Memoir with Photographs by Sally Mann
In HOLD STILL, a unique interplay of narrative and image, Sally Mann's preoccupation with family, race, mortality and the storied landscape of the American South are revealed as almost genetically predetermined, written into her DNA by the family history that precedes her. In lyrical prose and startlingly revealing photographs, she crafts a totally original form of personal history that has the page-turning drama of a great novel but is firmly rooted in the fertile soil of her own life. Memoir / Photography
THE LAST BOOKANEER by Matthew Pearl
Pen Davenport is the most infamous bookaneer in Europe. A master of disguise, he makes his living stalking harbors, coffeehouses and print shops for the latest manuscript to steal. For a hundred years, loose copyright laws and a hungry reading public created a unique opportunity: books could be published without an author’s permission. Yet on the eve of the 20th century, the bookaneers are on the verge of extinction, as a new international treaty is signed to grind this literary underground to a sharp halt. THE LAST BOOKANEER tells the astonishing story of these literary thieves’ epic final heist. Historical Fiction
LUSITANIA: Triumph, Tragedy, and the End of the Edwardian Age by Greg King and Penny Wilson
A hundred years after her sinking, Lusitania remains an evocative ship of mystery. Was she carrying munitions that exploded? Did Winston Churchill engineer a conspiracy that doomed the liner? Lost amid these tangled skeins is the romantic, vibrant and finally heartrending tale of the passengers who sailed aboard her. Authors Greg King and Penny Wilson resurrect this lost, glittering world to show the golden age of travel and illuminate the most prominent ofLusitania’s passengers. History
THE WATER MUSEUM: Stories by Luis Alberto Urrea
Examining the borders between one nation and another, between one person and another, Luis Alberto Urrea reveals his mastery of the short form. Suffused with wanderlust, compassion, and no small amount of rock and roll, this collection includes the Edgar Award-winning "Amapola" and his now-classic "Bid Farewell to Her Many Horses," which had the honor of being chosen for NPR's "Selected Shorts" not once but twice. Short Stories
Peeking into the archives...today in:
2015:
2014: Free Food For Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
2013: Amazon Robots Fail
2012: Fashionista Piranha on hiatus until May 24th
2011: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
2010: White Cat (Curse Workers #1) by Holly Black
2009: Discussion Question: Ruining Your Books
CITY OF SECRETS by Stewart O'Nan
In 1945, with no homes to return to, Jewish refugees by the tens of thousands set out for Palestine. Those who made it were hunted as illegals by the British mandatory authorities there and relied on the underground to shelter them. Taking fake names, they blended with the population, joining the wildly different factions fighting for the independence of Israel. CITY OF SECRETS follows one survivor, Brand, as he tries to regain himself after losing everyone he's ever loved. Historical Thriller
FATHER'S DAY by Simon Van Booy
At the age of six, a little girl named Harvey learns that her parents have died in a car accident. As she struggles to understand, a kindly social worker named Wanda introduces her to her only living relative: her uncle Jason, a disabled felon with a violent past and a criminal record. Despite his limitations --- and his resistance --- Wanda follows a hunch and cajoles Jason into becoming her legal guardian, convinced that each may be the other’s last chance. Fiction
HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a 17th-century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened, or the consequences will be too terrible to bear. The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated by being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into dark, medieval practices of the distant past. Fantasy / Horror
THE STATESMAN AND THE STORYTELLER: John Hay, Mark Twain, and the Rise of American Imperialism by Mark Zwonitzer
John Hay, famous as Lincoln’s private secretary and later as secretary of state under presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, and Samuel Langhorne Clemens, famous for being “Mark Twain,” grew up 50 miles apart in the same rural antebellum stew of race and class and want. This shared history helped draw them together when they first met as up-and-coming young men in the late 1860s, and their mutual admiration never waned in spite of sharp differences in personality, worldview and public conduct. In THE STATESMAN AND THE STORYTELLER, the last decade of their lives plays out against the tumultuous events of the day. Biography / History
NEW RELEASES IN PAPERBACK
AURORA by Kim Stanley Robinson
A major novel from one of science fiction's most powerful voices, AURORA tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system. Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers. Science Fiction
BARBARIAN DAYS: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
Raised in California and Hawaii, William Finnegan started surfing as a child. He has chased waves all over the world, wandering for years through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia and Africa. A bookish boy, and then an excessively adventurous young man, he went on to become a distinguished writer and war reporter. BARBARIAN DAYS takes us deep into unfamiliar worlds and immerses us in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships annealed in challenging waves. Memoir
HITMAN ANDERS AND THE MEANING OF IT ALL by Jonas Jonasson
In a former brothel turned low-rent hotel, the lives of three unusual strangers --- a former female priest, recently fired from her church; the ruined grandson of an ex-millionaire working as a receptionist; and Killer-Anders, a murderer newly released from prison --- accidently collide with darkly hilarious results. HITMAN ANDERS AND THE MEANING OF IT ALL is a story of idealism and fanaticism, gangsters and entrepreneurs, sensationalism and spirituality, that explores the values that matter in contemporary life. Fiction
HOLD STILL: A Memoir with Photographs by Sally Mann
In HOLD STILL, a unique interplay of narrative and image, Sally Mann's preoccupation with family, race, mortality and the storied landscape of the American South are revealed as almost genetically predetermined, written into her DNA by the family history that precedes her. In lyrical prose and startlingly revealing photographs, she crafts a totally original form of personal history that has the page-turning drama of a great novel but is firmly rooted in the fertile soil of her own life. Memoir / Photography
THE LAST BOOKANEER by Matthew Pearl
Pen Davenport is the most infamous bookaneer in Europe. A master of disguise, he makes his living stalking harbors, coffeehouses and print shops for the latest manuscript to steal. For a hundred years, loose copyright laws and a hungry reading public created a unique opportunity: books could be published without an author’s permission. Yet on the eve of the 20th century, the bookaneers are on the verge of extinction, as a new international treaty is signed to grind this literary underground to a sharp halt. THE LAST BOOKANEER tells the astonishing story of these literary thieves’ epic final heist. Historical Fiction
LUSITANIA: Triumph, Tragedy, and the End of the Edwardian Age by Greg King and Penny Wilson
A hundred years after her sinking, Lusitania remains an evocative ship of mystery. Was she carrying munitions that exploded? Did Winston Churchill engineer a conspiracy that doomed the liner? Lost amid these tangled skeins is the romantic, vibrant and finally heartrending tale of the passengers who sailed aboard her. Authors Greg King and Penny Wilson resurrect this lost, glittering world to show the golden age of travel and illuminate the most prominent ofLusitania’s passengers. History
THE WATER MUSEUM: Stories by Luis Alberto Urrea
Examining the borders between one nation and another, between one person and another, Luis Alberto Urrea reveals his mastery of the short form. Suffused with wanderlust, compassion, and no small amount of rock and roll, this collection includes the Edgar Award-winning "Amapola" and his now-classic "Bid Farewell to Her Many Horses," which had the honor of being chosen for NPR's "Selected Shorts" not once but twice. Short Stories
Peeking into the archives...today in:
2015:
2014: Free Food For Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
2013: Amazon Robots Fail
2012: Fashionista Piranha on hiatus until May 24th
2011: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
2010: White Cat (Curse Workers #1) by Holly Black
2009: Discussion Question: Ruining Your Books