New Releases: May 17th, 2016
NEW RELEASES IN HARDCOVER
THE AFTER PARTY by Anton DiSclafani
Joan Fortier is the epitome of Texas glamour and the center of the 1950s Houston social scene. Every man who sees her seems to want her; every woman just wants to be her. The money may flow as freely as the oil, but the freedom and power all belong to the men. What happens when a woman of indecorous appetites and desires like Joan wants more? What does it do to her best friend? Devoted to Joan since childhood, Cece Buchanan is either her chaperone or her partner in crime, depending on whom you ask. But as Joan’s radical behavior escalates, Cece’s perspective shifts --- forcing one provocative choice to appear the only one there is. Historical Fiction
A COUNTRY ROAD, A TREE by Jo Baker
Paris, 1939. The pavement rumbles with the footfall of Nazi soldiers marching along the Champs-Élysées. A young, unknown writer --- Samuel Beckett --- recently arrived from Ireland to make his mark, smokes one last cigarette with his lover before the city they know is torn apart. Soon he will put them both in mortal danger by joining the Resistance. Through it all, we are witness to the workings of a uniquely brilliant mind struggling to create a language that will express this shattered world. Here is a remarkable story of survival and determination, and a portrait of the extremes of human experience alchemized into one man’s timeless art. Historical Fiction
THE FIREMAN by Joe Hill
A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it’s Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies --- before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected, and blazes erupt everywhere. A mysterious and compelling stranger straddles the abyss between insanity and death. Known as The Fireman, he strolls the ruins of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who has learned to control the fire within himself, using it as a shield to protect the hunted…and as a weapon to avenge the wronged. Horror / Supernatural Thriller
NEW RELEASES IN PAPERBACK
DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY by Bill Clegg
On the eve of her daughter’s wedding, June Reid’s life is completely devastated when a shocking disaster takes the lives of her daughter, her daughter’s fiancé, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend, Luke --- her entire family, all gone in a moment. And June is the only survivor. Alone and directionless, June drives across the country, away from her small Connecticut town. In her wake, a community emerges, weaving a beautiful and surprising web of connections through shared heartbreak. Fiction
THE GODDESS POSE: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West by Michelle Goldberg
When Indra Devi was born in Russia in 1899, yoga was virtually unknown outside of India. By the time of her death, in 2002, it was being practiced around the world. Here, Michelle Goldberg tells the globetrotting story of the incredible woman who helped usher in a craze that continues unabated to this day. A sweeping picture of the 20th century that travels from the cabarets of Berlin to the Mysore Palace to Golden Age Hollywood and beyond, THE GODDESS POSE brings the Devi’s little known but extraordinary adventures vividly to life. Biography
THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR: Untold Tales from Yorktown to Fallujah by Kenneth C. Davis
Multi-million-copy bestselling historian Kenneth C. Davis sets his sights on war stories in THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR. He brings to life six emblematic battles, revealing untold tales that span our nation's history, from the Revolutionary War to Iraq. Along the way, he illuminates why we go to war, who fights, the grunt's-eye view of combat, and how these conflicts reshaped our military and national identity. History
HOW TO START A FIRE by Lisa Lutz
When college roommates Anna and Kate find Georgiana Leoni passed out on a lawn, they wheel her to their dorm in a shopping cart. Twenty years later, they gather around a campfire at a New England mansion. What came between --- the wild adventures, unspoken jealousies and one night that changed everything --- is the witty, poignant story of our strongest friendships, the people who know us better than we know ourselves. Anna is the de facto leader, as fearless as she is reckless. Quirky Kate is the loyal sidekick, until she’s pushed too far. And stunning George is always desired but just as frequently dumped. Fiction
JOAN OF ARC: A History by Helen Castor
Helen Castor tells afresh the gripping story of the peasant girl from Domremy who hears voices from God, leads the French army to victory, is burned at the stake for heresy, and eventually becomes a saint. But unlike the traditional narrative, a story already shaped by the knowledge of what Joan would become and told in hindsight, Castor’s book takes us back to 15th-century France and tells the story forwards. Instead of an icon, she gives us a living, breathing woman confronting the challenges of faith and doubt. Biography
NUMERO ZERO written by Umberto Eco, translated by Richard Dixon
A newspaper committed to blackmail and mud slinging. A paranoid editor reconstructing 50 years of history against the backdrop of a plot involving the cadaver of Mussolini's double. The murder of Pope John Paul I, the CIA, and events that seem outlandish until the BBC proves them true. A fragile love story between two born losers, a failed ghostwriter, and a vulnerable girl, who specializes in celebrity gossip yet cries over the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh. And then a dead body that suddenly appears in a back alley in Milan. Set in 1922, NUMERO ZERO foreshadows the mysteries and follies of the following 20 years. Fiction
SEVENEVES by Neal Stephenson
A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere. But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature threaten the intrepid pioneers until only a handful of survivors remain. Five thousand years later, their progeny embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown…to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth. Science Fiction
Peeking into the archives...today in:
2015: The Judgement of Paris by Ross King
2014: 1356 by Bernard Cornwell
2013: Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol by Gyles Brandreth
2012: Fashionista Piranha on vacation until May 24th
2011: Bending the Boyne by J. S. Dunn
2010: Giveaway #13: Asian Pacific American Lot
2009: News: Digital Piracy Affects Books, Too
THE AFTER PARTY by Anton DiSclafani
Joan Fortier is the epitome of Texas glamour and the center of the 1950s Houston social scene. Every man who sees her seems to want her; every woman just wants to be her. The money may flow as freely as the oil, but the freedom and power all belong to the men. What happens when a woman of indecorous appetites and desires like Joan wants more? What does it do to her best friend? Devoted to Joan since childhood, Cece Buchanan is either her chaperone or her partner in crime, depending on whom you ask. But as Joan’s radical behavior escalates, Cece’s perspective shifts --- forcing one provocative choice to appear the only one there is. Historical Fiction
A COUNTRY ROAD, A TREE by Jo Baker
Paris, 1939. The pavement rumbles with the footfall of Nazi soldiers marching along the Champs-Élysées. A young, unknown writer --- Samuel Beckett --- recently arrived from Ireland to make his mark, smokes one last cigarette with his lover before the city they know is torn apart. Soon he will put them both in mortal danger by joining the Resistance. Through it all, we are witness to the workings of a uniquely brilliant mind struggling to create a language that will express this shattered world. Here is a remarkable story of survival and determination, and a portrait of the extremes of human experience alchemized into one man’s timeless art. Historical Fiction
THE FIREMAN by Joe Hill
A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it’s Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies --- before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected, and blazes erupt everywhere. A mysterious and compelling stranger straddles the abyss between insanity and death. Known as The Fireman, he strolls the ruins of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who has learned to control the fire within himself, using it as a shield to protect the hunted…and as a weapon to avenge the wronged. Horror / Supernatural Thriller
NEW RELEASES IN PAPERBACK
DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY by Bill Clegg
On the eve of her daughter’s wedding, June Reid’s life is completely devastated when a shocking disaster takes the lives of her daughter, her daughter’s fiancé, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend, Luke --- her entire family, all gone in a moment. And June is the only survivor. Alone and directionless, June drives across the country, away from her small Connecticut town. In her wake, a community emerges, weaving a beautiful and surprising web of connections through shared heartbreak. Fiction
THE GODDESS POSE: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West by Michelle Goldberg
When Indra Devi was born in Russia in 1899, yoga was virtually unknown outside of India. By the time of her death, in 2002, it was being practiced around the world. Here, Michelle Goldberg tells the globetrotting story of the incredible woman who helped usher in a craze that continues unabated to this day. A sweeping picture of the 20th century that travels from the cabarets of Berlin to the Mysore Palace to Golden Age Hollywood and beyond, THE GODDESS POSE brings the Devi’s little known but extraordinary adventures vividly to life. Biography
THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR: Untold Tales from Yorktown to Fallujah by Kenneth C. Davis
Multi-million-copy bestselling historian Kenneth C. Davis sets his sights on war stories in THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR. He brings to life six emblematic battles, revealing untold tales that span our nation's history, from the Revolutionary War to Iraq. Along the way, he illuminates why we go to war, who fights, the grunt's-eye view of combat, and how these conflicts reshaped our military and national identity. History
HOW TO START A FIRE by Lisa Lutz
When college roommates Anna and Kate find Georgiana Leoni passed out on a lawn, they wheel her to their dorm in a shopping cart. Twenty years later, they gather around a campfire at a New England mansion. What came between --- the wild adventures, unspoken jealousies and one night that changed everything --- is the witty, poignant story of our strongest friendships, the people who know us better than we know ourselves. Anna is the de facto leader, as fearless as she is reckless. Quirky Kate is the loyal sidekick, until she’s pushed too far. And stunning George is always desired but just as frequently dumped. Fiction
JOAN OF ARC: A History by Helen Castor
Helen Castor tells afresh the gripping story of the peasant girl from Domremy who hears voices from God, leads the French army to victory, is burned at the stake for heresy, and eventually becomes a saint. But unlike the traditional narrative, a story already shaped by the knowledge of what Joan would become and told in hindsight, Castor’s book takes us back to 15th-century France and tells the story forwards. Instead of an icon, she gives us a living, breathing woman confronting the challenges of faith and doubt. Biography
NUMERO ZERO written by Umberto Eco, translated by Richard Dixon
A newspaper committed to blackmail and mud slinging. A paranoid editor reconstructing 50 years of history against the backdrop of a plot involving the cadaver of Mussolini's double. The murder of Pope John Paul I, the CIA, and events that seem outlandish until the BBC proves them true. A fragile love story between two born losers, a failed ghostwriter, and a vulnerable girl, who specializes in celebrity gossip yet cries over the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh. And then a dead body that suddenly appears in a back alley in Milan. Set in 1922, NUMERO ZERO foreshadows the mysteries and follies of the following 20 years. Fiction
SEVENEVES by Neal Stephenson
A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere. But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature threaten the intrepid pioneers until only a handful of survivors remain. Five thousand years later, their progeny embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown…to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth. Science Fiction
Peeking into the archives...today in:
2015: The Judgement of Paris by Ross King
2014: 1356 by Bernard Cornwell
2013: Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol by Gyles Brandreth
2012: Fashionista Piranha on vacation until May 24th
2011: Bending the Boyne by J. S. Dunn
2010: Giveaway #13: Asian Pacific American Lot
2009: News: Digital Piracy Affects Books, Too