Displaying books 385-432 of 5568 in total

Mobility

2023

by Lydia Kiesling

Mobility is a propulsive novel about class, power, politics, and desire by the celebrated author of The Golden State. The year is 1998, the End of History. The Soviet Union is dissolved, the Cold War is over, and Bunny Glenn is an American teenager in Azerbaijan with her Foreign Service family.

Through Bunny's eyes we watch global interests flock to the former Soviet Union during the rush for Caspian oil and pipeline access, hear rumbles of the expansion of the American security state and the buildup to the War on Terror. We follow Bunny from adolescence to middle age--from Azerbaijan to America--as the entwined idols of capitalism and ambition lead her to a career in the oil industry, and eventually back to the scene of her youth, where familiar figures reappear in an era of political and climate breakdown.

Both geopolitical exploration and domestic coming-of-age novel, Mobility is a propulsive and challenging story about class, power, politics, and desire told through the life of one woman--her social milieu, her romances, her unarticulated wants. Mobility deftly explores American forms of complicity and inertia, moving between the local and the global, the personal and the political, and using fiction's power to illuminate the way a life is shaped by its context.

Tom Lake

2023

by Ann Patchett

In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again proves herself one of America's finest writers. "Patchett leads us to a truth that feels like life rather than literature." --The Guardian

It's spring and Lara's three grown daughters have returned to the family orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the one story they've always longed to hear – of the film star with whom she shared a stage, and a romance, years before.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart.

Waiting To Be Arrested At Night

Waiting to Be Arrested at Night is a harrowing tale of a family's escape from genocide and the account of one of the world's most urgent humanitarian crises. Tahir Hamut Izgil, a prominent poet and intellectual, bears witness to the Chinese government's brutal persecution of the Uyghur people—a predominantly Muslim minority group in western China. The crisis reached a new scale in 2017 with the establishment of an all-seeing high-tech surveillance state and the vanishing of over a million people into China's internment camps for Muslim minorities.

Having survived three years in a re-education through labor camp in the 1990s, Tahir could not have foreseen the radical measures the government would take two decades later. From interrogations to life imprisonment of friends for peaceful advocacy, and from police seizing Uyghurs' radios to installing jamming equipment, the signs of impending doom were clear. When Tahir's neighborhood park emptied due to mass arrests, he prepared for his inevitable capture, placing shoes and warm clothes by the door for the night the police would come.

However, his family chose to flee, seeking safety from the nightmarish reality. Waiting to Be Arrested at Night not only documents the political, social, and cultural destruction of Tahir's homeland but also serves as a call to the world to recognize the catastrophe. This book stands as a tribute to the silenced voices of Uyghur intellectuals, writers, and friends, with Tahir being among the few known to have escaped China since the mass internments began.

Witness

2023

by Jamel Brinkley

Witness by National Book Award finalist Jamel Brinkley is an elegant, insistent narrative of actions taken and not taken. It explores the profound question: What does it mean to really see the world around you—to bear witness? And what does it cost us, both to see and not to see?

In this collection of ten stories, each set in the changing landscapes of contemporary New York City, a range of characters—from children to grandmothers to ghosts—live through the responsibility of perceiving and the moral challenge of speaking up or taking action. Though they strive to connect with, stand up for, care for, and remember one another, they often fall short, and the structures they build around these ambitions and failures shape their futures as well as the legacies and prospects of their communities and their city.

Witness enacts its own testimony through portraits of families and friendships lost and found, the paradox of intimacy, the long shadow of grief, and the meaning of home. Here is a world where fortunes can be made and stolen in just a few generations, where strangers might sometimes show kindness while those we trust—doctors, employers, siblings—too often turn away, where joy comes in snatches: flowers on a windowsill, dancing in the street, glimpsing your purpose, change on the horizon.

With prose as upendingly beautiful as it is artfully, seamlessly crafted, Jamel Brinkley offers nothing less than the full scope of life and death and change in the great, unending drama of the city.

A Game of Lies

They say the camera never lies.

But on this show, you can't trust anything you see.

Stranded in the Welsh mountains, seven reality show contestants have no idea what they've signed up for.

Each of these strangers has a secret. If another player can guess the truth, they won't just be eliminated - they'll be exposed live on air. The stakes are higher than they'd ever imagined, and they're trapped.

The disappearance of a contestant wasn't supposed to be part of the drama. Detective Ffion Morgan has to put aside what she's watched on screen, and find out who these people really are - knowing she can't trust any of them.

And when a murderer strikes, Ffion knows every one of her suspects has an alibi . . . and a secret worth killing for.

Crook Manifesto

Crook Manifesto continues the Harlem saga by the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author Colson Whitehead. Set in a 1970s New York that is both seedy and glittering, the novel follows furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney as he navigates a city on the brink of bankruptcy.

It's 1971, and Carney is trying to keep his head down and his business afloat amidst rampant crime and a citywide nervous breakdown. His criminal past is behind him—or so he believes—until a quest for Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May entangles him with his old police contact Munson, a fixer with his own dangerous agenda.

By 1973, as the counter-culture ushers in a new generation and the old ways are being cast aside, Carney's partner in crime, Pepper, is caught up in the world of Blaxploitation films. It's a bizarre mix of Hollywood stars, comedians on the rise, and the usual underworld figures, all underestimating Pepper's cunning and resourcefulness.

In the lead-up to the Bicentennial celebrations of 1976, Harlem itself is ablaze, and Carney must reconcile his advertising ambitions with his wife Elizabeth's political aspirations as she campaigns for her friend, the ambitious Alexander Oakes. When tragedy strikes close to home, Carney and Pepper must confront the city's shady and violent forces to uncover the truth.

Crook Manifesto is not only a darkly humorous tale of a city under siege but also a profound exploration of family and survival. Colson Whitehead's vivid depiction of Harlem stands as a testament to one of history's most dynamic places and times.

The Country of the Blind

2023

by Andrew Leland

The Country of the Blind is an exploration of the transition from sightedness to blindness through the personal narrative of Andrew Leland. His journey begins in a state of uncertainty, as his condition, retinitis pigmentosa, gradually diminishes his vision. Leland's world becomes increasingly constricted, like looking through a narrow tube, with a complete loss of sight looming on the horizon.

Despite the challenges, Leland's memoir is not just about adjusting to life's alterations; it's a quest to understand the richness of blindness as a distinct culture. He navigates the shifting dynamics within his family and confronts his evolving identity. The Country of the Blind is more than a memoir; it's a historical and cultural odyssey that delves into the experiences, languages, politics, and traditions associated with blindness.

This book represents Leland's commitment to not only endure the changes in his life but to embrace them. With a mix of introspection, humor, and intellectual vigor, The Country of the Blind offers readers a glimpse into a world often unexamined, providing valuable insights from a perspective that is enlightening and profound.

Ordinary Human Failings

2023

by Megan Nolan

It's 1990 in London, and Tom Hargreaves has it all: a burgeoning career as a reporter, fierce ambition, and a brisk disregard for the 'peasants' - ordinary people, his readers, easy tabloid fodder. His star looks set to rise when he stumbles across a scoop: a dead child on a London estate, grieving parents loved across the neighbourhood, and the finger of suspicion pointing at one reclusive family of Irish immigrants and 'bad apples': the Greens.

At their heart sits Carmel: beautiful, other-worldly, broken, and once destined for a future beyond her circumstances until life - and love - got in her way. Crushed by failure and surrounded by disappointment, there's nowhere for her to go and no chance of escape. Now, with the police closing in on a suspect and the tabloids hunting their monster, she must confront the secrets and silences that have trapped her family for so many generations.

After The Funeral And Other Stories

2023

by Tessa Hadley

A masterful collection of stories that plumb the depths of everyday life to reveal the shifting tides and hidden undercurrents of ordinary relationships. Tessa Hadley has been praised as "one of the greatest stylists alive" by Ron Charles of the Washington Post. Her work draws comparisons to Alice Munro, with a keen eye for the travails, fantasies, and small joys of life.

The anthology, featuring twelve stories, explores the profound impact of seemingly small events. From Heloise's encounter with a connection to her father's tragic death, to two estranged sisters' awkward reunion, and Janie's mother's disrupted wedding plans, each narrative delves into the complexities of human relationships.

Throughout the collection, Hadley examines the tensions between responsibility and freedom, power and desire, and the clash between societal norms and personal aspirations. The stories are as psychologically astute as they are emotionally rich, highlighting Hadley's ability to bring to life both the superficial aspects of life and its deeper, often hidden layers.

This collection is a vital addition to Tessa Hadley's celebrated body of work and stands as a testament to her extraordinary skill in literary craft.

Leading Through Disruption

2023

by Andrew Liveris

Andrew Liveris offers a masterclass in collaborative, forward-looking leadership in Leading Through Disruption. This work provides a revolutionary leadership paradigm, essential for fostering resilience and agility in today's ever-evolving world.

Readers will learn how to:

  • Create impactful metrics that benefit all societal members.

  • Engage collaboratively with a broad spectrum of stakeholders to develop actionable policies.

  • Harmonize the pursuit of long-term sustainability with immediate profitability.

  • Invest in and advocate for the strengthening of local communities.

  • Select team members who are committed to advancing global betterment.

  • Adapt swiftly and decisively to navigate uncertainties.

With insights drawn from four decades of global leadership across business, government, academia, and civic society, Andrew Liveris' book stands as an invaluable resource for any aspiring leader.

The Splinter in the Sky

The Splinter in the Sky is a diverse, exciting debut space opera about a young tea expert named Enitan, who finds herself taken as a political prisoner and recruited to spy on government officials. This precarious role may empower her to win back her nation's independence, making it a compelling read for fans of N.K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor.

After the dust settles from the failed war of conquest between the Holy Vaalbaran Empire and the Ominirish Republic, Enitan's simple life as a scribe and tea enthusiast is upended. Despite the last Emperor's surrender, the aftermath is deeply personal when her lover is assassinated, and her sibling is abducted by Imperial soldiers. Determined to seek vengeance and rescue her sibling, Enitan abandons her dreams of a peaceful life to navigate the treacherous political landscape of the Vaalbaran capital. Through her journey, she discovers the lengths she is willing to go to not only exact vengeance but also to secure the freedom of her homeland.

When Crack Was King: A People's History Of A Misunderstood Era

When Crack Was King offers an account of the crack cocaine era and a community's resilience, told through a cast of characters whose lives illuminate the rise and fall of the epidemic. Journalist Donovan X. Ramsey provides an exacting analysis beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan's war on drugs.

The book follows four individuals: Elgin Swift, who represents American industry and ambition and is the son of a crack-addicted father; Lennie Woodley, a former crack addict and sex worker; Kurt Schmoke, the longtime mayor of Baltimore and an advocate of decriminalization; and Shawn McCray, community activist and a founding member of Newark's most legendary group of drug traffickers.

With riveting research and the voices of survivors, this book is a crucial reevaluation of the era and a powerful argument for providing historically violated communities with the resources they deserve.

The Librarianist

2023

by Patrick deWitt

From bestselling and award-winning author Patrick deWitt comes the story of Bob Comet, a man who has lived his life through and for literature, unaware that his own experience is a poignant and affecting narrative in itself.


Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books and small comforts in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk, he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he's known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed.


Behind Bob Comet's straight-man facade is the story of an unhappy child's runaway adventure during the last days of the Second World War, of true love won and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in the librarian's vocation, and of the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses. Bob's experiences are imbued with melancholy but also a bright, sustained comedy; he has a talent for locating bizarre and outsize players to welcome onto the stage of his life.


With his inimitable verve, skewed humor, and compassion for the outcast, Patrick deWitt has written a wide-ranging and ambitious document of the introvert's condition. The Librarianist celebrates the extraordinary in the so-called ordinary life, and depicts beautifully the turbulence that sometimes exists beneath a surface of serenity.

A Thread Of Violence

2023

by Mark O'Connell

From the award-winning author comes a gripping account of one of the most scandalous chapters in modern Irish history, at once a propulsive work of true crime and an act of literary subversion.

Malcolm Macarthur was a well-known Dublin socialite and heir.  Suave and urbane, he passed his days mingling with artists and aristocrats, reading philosophy, living a life of the mind. But by 1982, his inheritance had dwindled to almost nothing, a desperate threat to his lifestyle. Macarthur hastily conceived a He would commit bank robbery, of the kind that had become frightfully common in Dublin at the time. But his plan spun swiftly out of control, and he needlessly killed two innocent people. The ensuing manhunt, arrest, and conviction amounted to one of the most infamous political scandals in modern Irish history, contributing to the eventual collapse of a government.

Author Mark O'Connell spent countless hours in conversation with Macarthur—interviews that veered from confession to evasion. Through their tense exchanges and O’Connell’s independent reporting, a pair of narratives a riveting account of Macarthur's crimes and a study of the hazy line between truth and invention. We come to see not only the enormity of the murders but the damage that’s inflicted when a life is rendered into story.

Banyan Moon

2023

by Thao Thai

Banyan Moon is a sweeping, evocative debut novel following three generations of Vietnamese American women reeling from the death of their matriarch, revealing the family's inherited burdens and buried secrets.

When Ann Tran gets the call that her beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away, her life is already at a crossroads. Ann has built a seemingly perfect life. She lives in a beautiful lake house and has a charming professor boyfriend, but it all crumbles away with one positive pregnancy test. With both her relationship and carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Hu'o'ng. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter must face the simmering questions of their past, while trying to rebuild their relationship without the one person who's always held them together.

Running parallel to this is Minh's story, as she goes from a lovestruck teenager living in the shadow of the Vietnam War to a determined young mother immigrating to America in search of a better life. And when Ann makes a shocking discovery in the Banyan House's attic, long-buried secrets come to light as it becomes clear how decisions Minh made in her youth affected the rest of her life and her family.

Spanning decades and continents, from 1960s Vietnam to the wild swamplands of the Florida coast, Banyan Moon is a stunning and deeply moving story of mothers and daughters, the things we inherit, and the lives we choose to make out of that inheritance.

Our Wives Under the Sea

2023

by Julia Armfield

Miri thinks she has got her wife back when Leah finally returns after a deep-sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home.


To have the woman she loves back should mean a return to normal life, but Miri can feel Leah slipping from her grasp. Memories of what they had before – the jokes they shared, the films they watched, all the small things that made Leah hers – only remind Miri of what she stands to lose. Living in the same space but suddenly separate, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had might be gone.


Our Wives Under The Sea is the debut novel from the critically acclaimed author of Salt Slow. It’s a story of falling in love, loss, grief, and what life there is in the deep, deep sea.

The Art Thief

2023

by Michael Finkel

One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century: the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser.

In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, bestselling author Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, instead, he kept all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them.

For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals across Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who served as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion.

In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Breitwieser never stole for money. He displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed with remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a number of audacious thefts. However, these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down.

This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.

The Road to Roswell

2023

by Connie Willis

A delightful novel about alien invasions, conspiracies, and the incredibly silly things people are willing to believe—some of which may actually be true—from the Nebula and Hugo award-winning author of Blackout and All Clear.

When level-headed Francie arrives in Roswell, New Mexico, for her college roommate’s UFO-themed wedding—complete with a true-believer bridegroom—she can’t help but roll her eyes at all the wide-eyed talk of aliens, which obviously don’t exist. Imagine her surprise, then, when she is abducted by one.

Odder still, her abductor is far from what the popular media have led her to expect, with a body like a tumbleweed and a mass of lightning-fast tentacles. Nor is Francie the only victim of the alien’s abduction spree. Before long, he has acquired a charming con man named Wade, a sweet little old lady with a casino addiction, a retiree with a huge RV and a love for old Westerns, and a UFO-chasing nutjob who is thoroughly convinced the alien intends to probe them and/or take over the planet.

But the more Francie gets to know the alien, the more convinced she becomes that he’s not an invader. That he’s in trouble and she has to help him. Only she doesn’t know how—or even what the trouble is.

Part alien-abduction adventure, part road trip saga, part romantic comedy, The Road to Roswell is packed full of Men in Black, Elvis impersonators, tourist traps, rattlesnakes, chemtrails, and Close Encounters of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth kind. Can Francie, stuck in a neon green bridesmaid’s dress, save the world—and still make it back for the wedding?

Midnight

2023

by Amy McCulloch

When she's gifted a once-in-a-lifetime Antarctic cruise, Olivia has never been anywhere so spectacular.

Huge cliffs of ice loom up to the sky. The sun never sets over the sparkling sea. And there's a killer on board...

Unable to sleep in the endless eerie daylight, Olivia has no idea who she can trust. And if she can't figure it out soon, she won't make it back alive...

The Rachel Incident

The Rachel Incident, brilliantly funny novel about friends, lovers, Ireland in chaos, and a young woman desperately trying to manage all three.

Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.

When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards. But Fred has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous, well-connected, bourgeois wife. Aching with unrequited love, shot through with delicious, sparkling humor, The Rachel Incident is a triumph.

I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home

2023

by Lorrie Moore

From “one of the most acute and lasting writers of her generation” (The New York Times)—a ghost story set in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries, an elegiac consideration of grief, devotion (filial and romantic), and the vanishing and persistence of all things—seen and unseen.

“Who else but Lorrie Moore could make, in razor-sharp irresistible prose, a ghost story about death buoyant with life?” —PEOPLE

“Is it an allegory? Is it real? It doesn’t matter...[It’s] a novel with big questions, no answers, and it’s absolutely brilliant.” —Lit Hub

“[A] triumph of tone and, ultimately, of the imagination.” —The Guardian

Lorrie Moore’s first novel since A Gate at the Stairs—a daring, meditative exploration of love and death, passion and grief, and what it means to be haunted by the past, both by history and the human heart.

A teacher visiting his dying brother in the Bronx. A mysterious journal from the nineteenth century stolen from a boarding house. A therapy clown and an assassin, both presumed dead, but perhaps not dead at all...

With her distinctive, irresistible wordplay and singular wry humor and wisdom, Lorrie Moore has given us a magic box of longing and surprise as she writes about love and rebirth and the pull towards life. Bold, meditative, theatrical, this new novel is an inventive, poetic portrait of lovers and siblings as it questions the stories we have been told which may or may not be true. I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home takes us through a trap door, into a windswept, imagined journey to the tragic-comic landscape that is, unmistakably, the world of Lorrie Moore.

The Bullet That Missed

2023

by Richard Osman

The Bullet That Missed is the latest installment in the thrilling series by Richard Osman. While the description is not provided, readers can expect the same wit and intrigue that have become synonymous with Osman's work. This book promises to deliver another compelling mystery filled with unexpected twists and a touch of humor, set against the backdrop of English society.

Turncoat

2023

by Tīhema Baker

Daniel is a young, idealistic Human determined to make a difference for his people. He lives in a distant future in which Earth has been colonised by aliens. His mission: infiltrate the Alien government called the Hierarch and push for it to honour the infamous Covenant of Wellington, the founding agreement between the Hierarch and Humans.

Turncoat explores the trauma of Maori public servants and the deeply conflicted role they are expected to fill within the machinery of government. From casual racism to co-governance, Treaty settlements to tino rangatiratanga, Turncoat is a timely critique of the Aotearoa zeitgeist, holding a mirror up to Pakeha New Zealanders and asking: What if it happened to you?

El lado B de las emociones

2023

by Eduardo Calixto

¿Qué nos produce turbación, desprecio o asco? ¿Por qué a veces el llanto nos desborda y nos deja exhaustos? ¿Qué nos lleva a culpar a los demás de lo que no somos capaces de resolver? ¿En qué momento nos convertimos en seres furibundos si perdemos el control?

En este libro sabremos por qué cedemos y en qué circunstancias a los deseos sexuales más intensos; cómo se proyectan en nuestro presente los traumas de la infancia; qué indica reír sin control si pasamos por una tragedia, un dolor físico severo o una gran tristeza; cuáles son las señales de una soledad profunda o un miedo sin límites que pueden derivar en una enfermedad crónica.

El lado B de las emociones es una obra provocadora porque nos confronta con lucidez y contundencia sobre aspectos que tememos, negamos o sencillamente odiamos. Eduardo Calixto llega hasta lo más hondo para hablarnos de nuestro enojo, el resentimiento, la vergüenza, el resultado: un libro con explicaciones impactantes sobre nuestras conductas más siniestras, la verdad sobre los actos perversos y, más que nada, las claves para conocer nuestros abismos, enfrentarlos y llenarlos de luz.

How to Stay Married

How to Stay Married is a shockingly candid, hilarious, voyeuristic, and inspiring account of one man's personal journey through hell and back when his wife's infidelity threatens their marriage. Written by Harrison Scott Key, winner of the 2016 Thurber Prize for American Humor, this memoir dives into the complexities of love and the challenges of maintaining a marriage.

Loot

2023

by Tania James

Loot is a spellbinding historical novel set in the eighteenth century, weaving together a hero's quest, a love story, and the coming of age of a young artist with an exuberant heist adventure. This narrative traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across two continents and fifty years, making for an irresistibly inventive storytelling experience from the imaginative mind of Tania James, who is at the height of her powers.

At the tender age of seventeen, Abbas's talents as a woodcarver catch the eye of Tipu Sultan, leading him to the palace to construct a grand tiger automaton for Tipu's sons, a commemoration of their return from British captivity. The journey of Abbas—and the wooden tiger he contributes to—reflects the tumultuous shifts of nations and empires devastated by conflict across India and Europe.

In the company of the renowned French clockmaker Lucien du Leze, Abbas refines his craft, picks up French, and encounters Jehanne, a French expatriate's daughter. Once Du Leze is allowed to journey back to Rouen, he takes Abbas under his wing as an apprentice. However, Abbas's European endeavor is met with the harsh reality that Tipu's palace has been pillaged by British troops, and the tiger automaton has vanished. To establish his worth, Abbas is compelled to reclaim the tiger from an English estate where it stands amongst a trove of looted treasures.

Love, Theoretically

2023

by Ali Hazelwood

The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she's an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.

Honestly, it's a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and arrogant older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor's career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And he's the same Jack Smith who rules over the physics department at MIT, standing right between Elsie and her dream job.

Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but… those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she's with him? Will falling into an experimentalist's orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?

Much Ado about Nada

2023

by Uzma Jalaluddin

A sparkling second-chance romance inspired by Jane Austen's Persuasion...

Nada Syed is stuck. On the cusp of thirty, she's still living at home with her brothers and parents in the Golden Crescent neighbourhood of Toronto, resolutely ignoring her mother's unsubtle pleas to get married already. While Nada has a good job as an engineer, it's a far cry from realizing her start-up dreams for her tech baby, Ask Apa, the app that launched with a whimper instead of a bang because of a double-crossing business partner. Nothing in her life has turned out the way it was supposed to, and Nada feels like a failure. Something needs to change, but the past is holding on too tightly to let her move forward.

Nada's best friend Haleema is determined to pry her from her shell...and what better place than at the giant annual Muslim conference held downtown, where Nada can finally meet Haleema's fiancé, Zayn. And did Haleema mention Zayn's brother Baz will be there?

What Haleema doesn't know is that Nada and Baz have a past—some of it good, some of it bad and all of it secret. At the conference, that past all comes hurtling at Nada, bringing new complications and a moment of reckoning. Can Nada truly say goodbye to once was or should she hold tight to her dreams and find their new beginnings?

Smart Sex

2023

by Emily Morse

From the host of the #1 podcast Sex with Emily, Emily Morse, comes a revolutionary new book that reframes our relationship to pleasure and teaches us how to have the best sex of our lives. Dr. Emily Morse has been dubbed "the Dr. Ruth of a new generation" (New York Times) and has helped millions of people navigate the world of sex and relationships. In Smart Sex, she condenses all she's learned as a doctor of human sexuality and offers a groundbreaking framework that will change the way you think about sex and pleasure.

In this essential book you'll uncover:

  • A new sexual intelligence that will allow you to connect deeply with your body, your desires, and the psychological and physical blocks that are keeping you from experiencing the pleasure that is your birthright.
  • Communication hacks to talk to your partner about topics ranging from oral sex to open relationships and everything in between.
  • The truth about orgasms and how to start having more plentiful, powerful, and satisfying orgasms.
  • Everything you need to know to be a good lover, from collaboration to technique. (Hint: it's not what you think.)

And so much more. Drawing from science, research, and lived experience, and written in a voice that's entertaining and inclusive, Smart Sex will help you radically improve your sex life, your confidence, and your relationships, including your relationship with yourself.

What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds

What an Owl Knows is a captivating exploration into the world of owls, penned by the acclaimed author Jennifer Ackerman. This book delves into the rich biology and natural history of these enigmatic birds, unraveling the complex nature of their lives.

For thousands of years, owls have intrigued humans, symbolizing wisdom and mystery. Despite their long-standing presence in human culture, detailed scientific understanding of owls has only recently emerged. Ackerman sheds light on these discoveries, revealing the sophisticated behaviors and capabilities of owls, from their unique communication methods to their impressive hunting skills.

Throughout the book, Ackerman shares her own field observations and the latest research, offering insights into how owls communicate, hunt, court, and migrate. Her narrative is enriched with personal anecdotes and scientific findings, making What an Owl Knows a spellbinding read for anyone fascinated by the natural world.

This book is a must-read for those interested in the science of owls, providing an awe-inspiring journey through the lives of one of the world's most elusive bird species.

All The Sinners Bleed

2023

by S.A. Cosby

A Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.

Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. Those festering secrets are now out in the open and ready to tear the town apart.

As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus projects confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.

Powerful and unforgettable, All the Sinners Bleed confirms S. A. Cosby as “one of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction”.

Fire Weather: A True Story From A Hotter World

2023

by John Vaillant

Fire Weather: A True Story From A Hotter World is an urgent work for our times, as it delves into the apocalyptic consequences of climate change through the lens of a massive wildfire. The book takes readers on a riveting journey, exploring the past, present, and future of the relationship between humanity and fire's fierce energy.

In May 2016, the city of Fort McMurray, Alberta—Canada's oil industry hub—experienced a wildfire of colossal proportions. Known as the wildfire equivalent of Hurricane Katrina, this disaster turned neighborhoods into infernos and forced 88,000 people to evacuate in a single afternoon. John Vaillant presents this event not as an isolated occurrence, but a stark preview of what we must brace for in a world growing hotter and more flammable.

For hundreds of millennia, fire has played a pivotal role in human evolution, shaping culture, civilization, and perhaps even our brains. It has been essential for cooking food, defending and heating our homes, and powering the economy. Yet, this volatile element has always posed a threat to elude our control. Today, with the intensification of climate change, we are witnessing fire's destructive power on an unprecedented scale.

Vaillant masterfully weaves together the intertwined histories of North America's oil industry and the emergence of climate science, examining the alarming destruction caused by modern forest fires, and offering a window into lives irrevocably altered by these disasters.

Fire Weather: A True Story From A Hotter World is not just a narrative of a natural disaster; it is a compelling account of an ever-evolving challenge, a testament to human resilience and ingenuity, and a crucial call to action in our new century of fire, which is only just beginning.

Kairos

2023

by Jenny Erpenbeck

Kairos, by Jenny Erpenbeck, is a novel of great emotional depth and historical resonance. Set against the backdrop of the collapsing German Democratic Republic (GDR), this intricate love story weaves together the lives of two individuals caught in the midst of transformative times.

Nineteen-year-old Katharina encounters a married writer in his fifties, Hans, by chance in East Berlin at the end of the 1980s. The narrative follows their passionate, yet challenging, long-running affair through the decline and eventual dissolution of the GDR in 1989, and into the era that follows.

With her distinctive style and broad narrative sweep, Erpenbeck charts the journey of these two lovers. Katharina matures and grapples with a romance that is far from ideal, paralleling the disintegration of an entire world along with its ideology.

Erpenbeck is celebrated for her ability to capture the nuances of human relationships amidst the dramatic shifts of history, and Kairos is no exception. It is a powerful exploration of love, identity, and the indelible impact of political change on personal lives.

Lady Tan's Circle of Women

2023

by Lisa See

The latest historical novel from New York Times bestselling author Lisa See, inspired by the true story of a woman physician from 15th-century China—perfect for fans of See's classic Snowflower and the Secret Fan and The Island of Sea Women.

According to Confucius, "an educated woman is a worthless woman," but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women's illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other's joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? Lady Tan's Circle of Women is a captivating story of women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.

Pageboy: A Memoir

2023

by Elliot Page

Pageboy: A Memoir is a candid and transformative journey of Academy Award-nominated actor Elliot Page. From the brink of self-discovery in a queer bar before the world premiere of Juno, through the whirlwind of Hollywood's expectations, to the pressures of performing that nearly suffocated him, Elliot Page's memoir is a tale of defiance, strength, and joy.

Elliot's story delves into the intimate aspects of sex, love, trauma, and the challenges of navigating a life in the spotlight. As he grapples with his identity and the societal pressures to conform to a binary, Elliot's narrative is both an ode to self-realization and a powerful exploration of what it means to break free from the expectations of others. Pageboy reveals the behind-the-scenes details of a life lived in the public eye and the personal interrogations that lead to a celebration of true self.

Same Time Next Summer

The ultimate summer nostalgia read, about an engaged woman who comes face to face with her first love who she hasn't seen in fourteen years, but who she spent every summer with from age five to seventeen when he broke her heart, calling into question everything she thought she knew about their love story, and herself.

Beach Rules: Do take long walks on the sand. Do put an umbrella in every cocktail. Do NOT run into your first love.

Sam’s life is on track. She has the perfect doctor fiancé, Jack (his strict routines are a good thing, really), a great job in Manhattan (unless they fire her), and is about to tour a wedding venue near her family’s Long Island beach house. Everything should go to plan, yet the minute she arrives, Sam senses something is off. Wyatt is here. Her Wyatt. But there’s no reason for a thirty-year-old engaged woman to feel panicked around the guy who broke her heart when she was seventeen. Right?

The Talk

2023

by Darrin Bell

Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother told him he couldn't have a realistic water gun. She said she feared for his safety, that police tend to think of little Black boys as older and less innocent than they really are.

Through evocative illustrations and sharp humor, Bell examines how The Talk shaped intimate and public moments from childhood to adulthood. While coming of age in Los Angeles—and finding a voice through cartooning—Bell becomes painfully aware of being regarded as dangerous by white teachers, neighbors, and police officers and thus of his mortality. Drawing attention to the brutal murders of African Americans and showcasing revealing insights and cartoons along the way, he brings us up to the moment of reckoning when people took to the streets protesting the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. And now Bell must decide whether he and his own six-year-old son are ready to have The Talk.

Translation State

2023

by Ann Leckie

Translation State is a powerful new novel by one of the masters of modern science fiction, Ann Leckie. It's a sweeping space adventure and a brilliant exploration of belonging and identity.

When Enae's grandmaman passes away, Enae inherits an unexpected diplomatic assignment to track down a fugitive missing for over 200 years. Although it seems to be an empty assignment meant to keep his occupied, Enae, who has never had a true purpose, is determined to succeed.

Reet, an adopted mechanic with a secret yearning to understand his identity, is approached by a political group claiming he has ties to a genetically mysterious, long-deceased family. Eager for answers, Reet is drawn into a deeper mystery.

Qven, a Presgr translator, has always known their path—learn human ways and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presgr and the human worlds. However, when Qven desires something different, a rebellion against their predetermined life begins.

As a Conclave of various species approaches and with a critical treaty at stake, the paths of Enae, Reet, and Qven collide, triggering a chain of events with far-reaching consequences across galaxies.

Unfortunately Yours

2023

by Tessa Bailey

Unfortunately Yours, a novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey, is a hilarious rom-com set in the picturesque Napa Valley.

Natalie, after losing her job and fiancé, returns home to recover and plan her next move. With a trust fund that requires her to be married for access, she finds herself proposing a marriage of convenience to August, a man whose presence stirs both irritation and attraction within her.

August is determined to honor his late best friend's legacy but is struggling as no bank will approve the loan he needs. When Natalie offers a solution in the form of a quickie marriage, he's tempted by the prospect despite their mutual antagonism.

What was supposed to be a simple arrangement becomes complicated by their unfortunate, unbearable, and undeniable attraction to each other.

The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World

Bestselling journalist Antony Loewenstein uncovers the widespread commercialisation and brutal deployment globally of Israel’s occupation-enforcing technologies.

For more than 50 years, the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has given the Israeli state invaluable experience in controlling an ‘enemy’ population, the Palestinians. It’s here that they have perfected the architecture of control, using the occupied Palestinian territories as a testing ground for weaponry and surveillance technology that they then export around the world.

The Palestine Laboratory shows in depth and for the first time how Israel has become a leader in developing spying technology and defence hardware that fuels some of the globe’s most brutal conflicts — from the Pegasus software that hacked Jeff Bezos’s and Jamal Khashoggi’s phones, and the weapons sold to the Myanmar army that has murdered thousands of Rohingyas, to the drones being used by the European Union to monitor refugees in the Mediterranean who are left to drown.

In a global investigation that uncovers secret documents, based on revealing interviews and on-the-ground reporting, Antony Loewenstein shows how, as ethno-nationalism grows in the 21st century, Israel has built the ultimate tools for despots and democracies.

Yellowface

2023

by R.F. Kuang

Yellowface has been described as 'A riot' by PANDORA SYKES, 'Razor-sharp' by TIME, 'A wild ride' by STYLIST, 'Darkly comic' by GQ, and 'Satirical and humorous' by COSMOPOLITAN. It introduces us to Athena Liu, a literary darling, and June Hayward, literally nobody.

When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song. With a blend of dark humour, as evidence threatens June's stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves, leading to deadly consequences. What happens next is entirely everyone else's fault.

Swamp Story

2023

by Dave Barry

Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times bestselling author—and actual Florida Man—Dave Barry returns with a hilariously funny caper full of oddballs and more twists and turns than a snake slithering away from a gator.

Jesse Braddock is trapped in a tiny cabin deep in the Everglades with her infant daughter and her ex-boyfriend, a wannabe reality TV star who turned out to be a lot prettier on the outside than on the inside. Broke and desperate for a way out, Jesse stumbles across a long-lost treasure, which could solve all her problems—if she can figure out how to keep it. The problem is some very bad men are also looking for the treasure, and they know Jesse has it.

Meanwhile, Ken Bortle of Bortle Brothers Bait and Beer has hatched a scheme to lure tourists to his failing store by making viral videos of the “Everglades Melon Monster.” The Monster is, in fact, an unemployed alcoholic newspaperman named Phil wearing a Dora the Explorer costume head. Incredibly, this plan actually works, inspiring a horde of TikTokers to swarm into the swamp in search of the Monster at the same time villains are on the hunt for Jesse’s treasure. Amid this mayhem, a presidential hopeful arrives in the Everglades to start his campaign. Needless to say, it does not go as planned. In fact, nothing in this story goes as planned. This is, after all, Florida.

The Late Americans

2023

by Brandon Taylor

The Late Americans is a deeply involving new novel by Brandon Taylor, the Booker Prize finalist and acclaimed author of Real Life and Filthy Animals. Set in the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, the novel follows a loose circle of lovers and friends through a volatile year of self-discovery. Among them are Seamus, a young poet; Ivan, a dancer turned aspiring banker; Fatima, whose independence and work ethic complicate her relationships; and Noah, who experiences sex as something that comes to him unexpectedly.

The characters are surrounded by a diverse cast, including artists, landlords, meatpacking workers, and mathematicians who populate the cafes, classrooms, and kitchens of the city. Their interactions sometimes lead to violent and electrifying consequences. As each individual prepares for an uncertain future, they gather at a cabin to bid farewell to their former lives—a moment of reckoning that changes them forever.

The Late Americans is a novel about friendship, chosen family, love, sex, ambition, and the precarious nature of contemporary life. It poses fresh questions and offers a rich, involving narrative that cements Brandon Taylor's position as a perceptive chronicler of our times.

The Will of the Many

2023

by James Islington

At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE. The Catenan Republic—the Hierarchy—may rule the world now, but they do not know everything. I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilized society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus—what they call Will—to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do. I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart. And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family. To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy's ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me. And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.

King

2023

by Jonathan Eig

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.—and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. This revelatory new portrait offers an intimate view of the preacher and activist who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself.

Eig casts fresh light on the King family's origins as well as MLK's complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. He reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death.

Following MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father—as well as the nation's most mourned martyr.

In this landmark biography, Eig presents an MLK who was a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history's greatest movements. His demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime. The book also includes 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.

Quietly Hostile: Essays

2023

by Samantha Irby

Samantha Irby invites us to share in the gory particulars of her real life, all that festers behind the glitter and glam.

The success of Irby's career has taken her to new heights. She fields calls with job offers from Hollywood and walks the red carpet with the iconic ladies of Sex and the City. Finally, she has made it. But, behind all that new-found glam, Irby is just trying to keep her life together as she always had.

Her teeth are poisoning her from inside her mouth, and her diarrhea is back. She gets turned away from a restaurant for wearing ugly clothes, she goes to therapy and tries out Lexapro, gets healed with Reiki, explores the power of crystals, and becomes addicted to QVC. Making light of herself as she takes us on an outrageously funny tour of all the details that make up a true portrait of her life, Irby is once again the relatable, uproarious tonic we all need.

The Guest

2023

by Emma Cline

The Guest by Emma Cline is a captivating novel that explores the complexities of identity, belonging, and the thin line between being a welcome and an unwelcome guest. Set against the backdrop of the East End of Long Island as summer draws to a close, we meet Alex, a young woman who finds herself no longer welcome in the opulent world she's been navigating.

After a faux pas at a dinner party, the older man she's been staying with sends her packing with a ride to the train station and a one-way ticket back to the city. With little to her name and her phone damaged by water, Alex's ability to read and manipulate the desires of those around her becomes her survival tool. She chooses to stay on the island, becoming a spectral presence weaving through the elite enclaves of wealth and privilege.

Driven by desperation and a fluid moral compass, Alex spends the days leading up to Labor Day moving from one temporary refuge to another, leaving a trail of chaos in her wake. The Guest is a sharply drawn, propulsive narrative that holds the reader spellbound, a testament to Emma Cline's prowess as a storyteller.

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