Jerusalem Beach

Iddo Gefen

In this stimulating debut, Gefen explores the mysteries of the human mind through realist and fantastical lenses. In “The Geriatric Platoon,” an Israeli grandfather is deployed to guard a remote settlement near the Jordanian border, much to the puzzlement of his practical son and rudderless, war-scarred grandson. The setup lends itself to some Catch 22-style absurdist humor—one soldier receives special nap dispensations—but the family relationships resonate emotionally as well. Another military-themed story, “Neptune,” offers a darker vision. Set at a remote outpost, it describes a mock trial over a stolen grilled cheese sandwich that devolves into a brutal display of violence and power. Gefen is also a neurocognitive researcher, and several chilling tales venture into the mysteries of cognition, dream worlds, and mental illness. In the dreamlike title story, a husband tries to help his Alzheimer’s-suffering wife relive a special memory. And in the powerful “Exit,” two parents helplessly watch as their young daughter, who suffers from a mysterious condition in which she believes her dreams last for years, becomes lost in the “infinity of her private future” and withdraws from the waking world. Other stories, like “101.3 FM,” about a radio that can tune into people’s inner thoughts, and “Girl Who Lived Near the Sun,” an interplanetary coming-of-age tale, transcend their conceits thanks to a sharp voice. This vigorous, inventive work will surely fire up readers’ neurons. (Publishers Weekly)

The Good Kings: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt and the Modern World

Kara Cooney

Written in the tradition of historians like Stacy Schiff and Amanda Foreman who find modern lessons in ancient history, this provocative narrative explores the lives of five remarkable pharaohs who ruled Egypt with absolute power, shining a new light on the country's 3,000-year empire and its meaning today.

In a new era when democracies around the world are threatened or crumbling, best-selling author Kara Cooney turns to five ancient Egyptian pharaohs--Khufu, Senwosret III, Akenhaten, Ramses II, and Taharqa--to understand why many so often give up power to the few, and what it can mean for our future.

As the first centralized political power on earth, the pharaohs and their process of divine kingship can tell us a lot about the world's politics, past and present. Every animal-headed god, every monumental temple, every pyramid, every tomb, offers extraordinary insight into a culture that combined deeply held religious beliefs with uniquely human schemes to justify a system in which one ruled over many.

From Khufu, the man who built the Great Pyramid at Giza as testament to his authoritarian reign, and Taharqa, the last true pharaoh who worked to make Egypt great again, we discover a clear lens into understanding how power was earned, controlled, and manipulated in ancient times. And in mining the past, Cooney uncovers the reason why societies have so willingly chosen a dictator over democracy, time and time again. (Amazon)

Dava Shastri's Last Day

Kirthana Ramisetti

When she’s diagnosed with brain cancer at 70 years old, one of the wealthiest women in the world, Dava Shastri, decides to end things on her own terms. The matriarch shocks her four adult children by leaking the news of her death while she is still very much alive in order to read what everyone has to say about her. But soon the secrets she buried long ago float up to the surface, and she’s forced to face the consequences. In her debut novel, Kirthana Ramisetti crafts a hilarious and heartfelt narrative about legacy, power and privacy, all through the journey of a lively character who has limited time to make things right with the people she loves most. (Time)

Lives of Weeds: Opportunism, Resistance, Folly

John Cardina

Lives of Weeds explores the tangled history of weeds and their relationship to humans. Through eight interwoven stories, John Cardina offers a fresh perspective on how these tenacious plants came about, why they are both inevitable and essential, and how their ecological success is ensured by determined efforts to eradicate them. Linking botany, history, ecology, and evolutionary biology to the social dimensions of humanity's ancient struggle with feral flora, Cardina shows how weeds have shaped―and are shaped by―the way we live in the natural world.

Weeds and attempts to control them drove nomads toward settled communities, encouraged social stratification, caused environmental disruptions, and have motivated the development of GMO crops. They have snared us in social inequality and economic instability, infested social norms of suburbia, caused rage in the American heartland, and played a part in perpetuating pesticide use worldwide. Lives of Weeds reveals how the technologies directed against weeds underlie ethical questions about agriculture and the environment, and leaves readers with a deeper understanding of how the weeds around us are entangled in our daily choices. (Amazon)

Heard It In A Love Song

Tracey Garvis Graves

Graves (The Girl He Used to Know) takes an in-depth look at the pain of divorce and the work it takes to build a new life.

Layla Hilding and Josh Summers first meet at back-to-school night, Layla as a welcoming music teacher and Josh as the father to nervous kindergartner Sasha. The two become friendly through conversations at morning drop-off, and their relationship deepens as they connect over their recent divorces. But both come with wounds that are still fresh: Layla’s messy split with Liam, a status-hungry salesman with a spending problem, has left her with trust issues, while Josh copes with co-parenting with his ex-wife, Kimberly.

Both Josh and Layla use their single lives as a fresh start: Layla rediscovers her love for performing and Josh searches for his own identity and desires separate from Kimberly. As their connection grows, they’ll have to put aside their hesitations for a second chance at love.

Extensive flashbacks to Layla’s doomed relationship with Liam and Josh’s civil but passionless marriage to Kimberly tend to distract, though, making it difficult to invest in the present relationship. Still, Graves has a sure hand with depicting the complexity of dating after divorce. This will please readers looking for a realistic spin on taking a second chance at love. (Publishers Weekly)

All About Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business

Mel Brooks

For anyone who loves American comedy, the long wait is over. Here are the never-before-told, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and remembrances from a master storyteller, filmmaker, and creator of all things funny.

All About Me! charts Mel Brooks’s meteoric rise from a Depression-era kid in Brooklyn to the recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Whether serving in the United States Army in World War II, or during his burgeoning career as a teenage comedian in the Catskills, Mel was always mining his experiences for material, always looking for the perfect joke. His iconic career began with Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, where he was part of the greatest writers’ room in history, which included Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, and Larry Gelbart. After co-creating both the mega-hit 2000 Year Old Man comedy albums and the classic television series Get Smart, Brooks’s stellar film career took off. He would go on to write, direct, and star in The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, and Spaceballs, as well as produce groundbreaking and eclectic films, including The Elephant Man, The Fly, and My Favorite Year. Brooks then went on to conquer Broadway with his record-breaking, Tony-winning musical, The Producers.

All About Me! offers fans insight into the inspiration behind the ideas for his outstanding collection of boundary-breaking work, and offers details about the many close friendships and collaborations Brooks had, including those with Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Gene Wilder, Madeleine Kahn, Alfred Hitchcock, and the great love of his life, Anne Bancroft.

Filled with tales of struggle, achievement, and camaraderie (and dozens of photographs), readers will gain a more personal and deeper understanding of the incredible body of work behind one of the most accomplished and beloved entertainers in history. (Amazon)

The President and the Frog

Carolina De Robertis

A former Latin American president reminisces on his remarkable life.

In Kirkus Prize finalist De Robertis’ new novel, the unnamed former president of a Latin American country is interviewed by a journalist. Inspired by the life of José Mujica, the former president of Uruguay, the novel’s 82-year-old protagonist—affectionately dubbed the “Poorest President in the World”—lives in a humble home with his wife and dogs and tends his infamous garden. As he sits down with the Norwegian interviewer, the former president finds himself drawn to her and wonders if he should share the deepest secret of his life, which he dubs “the story of the frog.” The narrative oscillates between the present-day interview (set shortly after the 2016 U.S. election) and memories of his past. A former guerrilla and revolutionary, he spent years of his life as a political prisoner in solitary confinement. Kept in a deep underground hole, the former president endured unspeakable torture and struggled to mentally persevere through the isolation. Unwilling to let the dictatorship win, he fought the urge to retreat from reality: “Every time temptation slunk toward him, he found himself rattled by and yet.” Just when he feels on the edge, a raucous frog appears in his cell begging to hear his memories (“I want stories. Want to eat your stories”). Reluctantly, the protagonist tells the frog about his past, including losing his father, learning to garden, falling in love, and organizing a revolution. In stunning, cleareyed prose, De Robertis writes beautifully about storytelling, justice, and hope amid brutality. In one particularly moving section, the protagonist tells the frog about the youth-led revolution born from a dream of justice. They wonder what their beloved country, on the verge of a dictatorship, could be if it was remade in a new image: “What if, what if, what if was the refrain of their great song.” In this slim novel, De Robertis sketches a portrait of a man who never stopped fighting for the betterment of himself, his country, and the world.

A timeless and timely exploration of power, revolution, and survival. (Kirkus Review)

Italian Street Food: Recipes from Italy's Bars and Hidden Laneways

Paola Bacchia

This is not just another Italian cookbook filled with pizza and pasta recipes.

Italian Street Food takes you behind the piazzas, down the back streets and into the tiny bars and cafes to bring you traditional, local recipes that are rarely seen outside of Italy. Delve inside to discover the secret dishes from Italy’s hidden laneways and learn about the little-known recipes of this world cuisine.

Learn how to make authentic polpettine, arancini, piadine, cannoli, and crostoli, and perfect your gelato-making skills with authentic Italian flavours such as lemon ricotta, peach and basil, and panettone flavour. With beautiful stories and photography throughout, Italian Street Food brings an old and much-loved cuisine into a whole new light. (Amazon)

Inseparable

Simone de Beauvoir

This previously unpublished novel by towering French existentialist intellectual and feminist icon Beauvoir, written in 1954, is based on her deeply formative relationship with a classmate.

"When I was nine, I was a very good girl." So begins the story of Sylvie Lepage's friendship with vivacious Andrée Gallard. They meet at school, vie for top honors, and become inseparable. Sylvie adores Andrée, the second of seven siblings in a family old, distinguished, and militantly Catholic. Her father chairs the League of Fathers of Large Families. As the girls grow older, the expectations and obligations heaped on Andrée become increasingly onerous, crushing her spirit and threatening her health. Sylvie loses her faith, whereas pious Andrée despairs of pleasing God and comes to fear her own capacity for passion. Bright, sensitive, musical, and artistic, Andrée struggles to be the dutiful daughter her family, church, and society demand. "Behind her, she had this past; around her, this large house, this enormous family: a prison, whose exits were carefully guarded." Sylvie, meeting her friend for coffee, thinks: "All around me, women wearing perfume ate cakes and talked about the cost of living. Since the day she was born, Andrée was destined to be like them: but she wasn’t." A lively introduction by Margaret Atwood gives the history of Beauvoir's friendship with Zaza Lacoin, the Andrée of the story, describing it as "a wellspring" for everything Beauvoir subsequently wrote. The book's dedication to Zaza asks: If I have tears in my eyes tonight, is it because you have died, or rather because I’m the one who is still alive? In a letter to Simone, included in the afterword, Zaza wrote: "There is nothing sweeter in the world than feeling there is someone who can completely understand you." The tragedy of Zaza's death at 21 haunted Beauvoir, yet when she showed the manuscript of this novel to Jean-Paul Sartre, he dismissed it as trivial. It is, after all, only about two young women. As Atwood says, "Mr. 'Hell is other people' Sartre was wrong." It is heartbreaking to think of the author, with her brilliant, incisive mind, absorbing Sartre's casual misogyny the way the tragic heroine of this book absorbs the narrow-minded values that destroy her.

A moving portrayal of intense female friendship, identity, and loss. (Kirkus Review)

All of the Marvels

Douglas Wolk

The first-ever full reckoning with Marvel Comics’ interconnected, half-million-page story, a revelatory guide to the “epic of epics”—and to the past sixty years of American culture—from a beloved authority on the subject who read all 27,000+ Marvel superhero comics and lived to tell the tale.

The superhero comic books that Marvel Comics has published since 1961 are, as Douglas Wolk notes, the longest continuous, self-contained work of fiction ever created: over half a million pages to date, and still growing. The Marvel story is a gigantic mountain smack in the middle of contemporary culture. Thousands of writers and artists have contributed to it. Everyone recognizes its protagonists: Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men. Eighteen of the hundred highest-grossing movies of all time are based on parts of it. Yet not even the people telling the story have read the whole thing—nobody’s supposed to. So, of course, that’s what Wolk did: he read all 27,000+ comics that make up the Marvel Universe thus far, from Alpha Flight to Omega the Unknown.

And then he made sense of it—seeing into the ever-expanding story, in its parts and as a whole, and seeing through it, as a prism through which to view the landscape of American culture. In Wolk’s hands, the mammoth Marvel narrative becomes a fun-house-mirror history of the past sixty years, from the atomic night terrors of the Cold War to the technocracy and political division of the present day—a boisterous, tragicomic, magnificently filigreed epic about power and ethics, set in a world transformed by wonders.

As a work of cultural exegesis, this is sneakily significant, even a landmark; it’s also ludicrously fun. Wolk sees fascinating patterns—the rise and fall of particular cultural aspirations, and of the storytelling modes that conveyed them. He observes the Marvel story’s progressive visions and its painful stereotypes, its patches of woeful hackwork and stretches of luminous creativity, and the way it all feeds into a potent cosmology that echoes our deepest hopes and fears. This is a huge treat for Marvel fans, but it’s also a revelation for readers who don’t know Doctor Strange from Doctor Doom. Here, truly, are all of the marvels. (Penguin Random House)

The Love Hypothesis

Ali Hazelwood

Hazelwood debuts with a charming, offbeat rom-com pairing a somewhat awkward doctoral candidate with a hotshot young professor. Olive Smith, a third-year PhD student in biology at Stanford University, doubts that happily ever after exists, while her bestie, Anh, is a hopeless romantic. But Olive briefly dated Anh’s current crush, Jeremy, and now Anh’s refusing to act on her feelings because of “girl code.” In an attempt to prove she’s over Jeremy and alleviate Anh’s guilt, Olive impulsively kisses famously irascible professor Adam Carlsen and convinces him to “fake-date” her. But as attraction and chemistry grow, their relationship becomes more than pretense. Things further evolve after Olive is harassed and belittled at a professional conference and Adam provides a supportive shoulder. But can their relationship hold up in the real world? With whip-smart and endearing characters, snappy prose, and a quirky take on a favorite trope, Hazelwood convincingly navigates the fraught shoals of academia. The delightful supporting characters, especially Adam’s colleague Holden Rodriquez and Olive’s friends Malcolm and Anh, add flavor—and readers will love seeing the villain of the story dispatched in appropriate fashion. This smart, sexy contemporary should delight a wide swath of romance lovers. (Publishers Weekly)

Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World

Wil Haygood

This unprecedented history of Black cinema examines 100 years of Black movies—from Gone with the Wind to Blaxploitation films to Black Panther—using the struggles and triumphs of the artists, and the films themselves, as a prism to explore Black culture, civil rights, and racism in America. From the acclaimed author of The Butler and Showdown.

Beginning in 1915 with D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation—which glorified the Ku Klux Klan and became Hollywood's first blockbuster—Wil Haygood gives us an incisive, fascinating, little-known history, spanning more than a century, of Black artists in the film business, on-screen and behind the scenes.

He makes clear the effects of changing social realities and events on the business of making movies and on what was represented on the screen: from Jim Crow and segregation to white flight and interracial relationships, from the assassination of Malcolm X, to the O. J. Simpson trial, to the Black Lives Matter movement. He considers the films themselves—including Imitation of Life, Gone with the Wind, Porgy and Bess, the Blaxploitation films of the seventies, Do The Right Thing, 12 Years a Slave, and Black Panther. And he brings to new light the careers and significance of a wide range of historic and contemporary figures: Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier, Berry Gordy, Alex Haley, Spike Lee, Billy Dee Willliams, Richard Pryor, Halle Berry, Ava DuVernay, and Jordan Peele, among many others.

An important, timely book, Colorization gives us both an unprecedented history of Black cinema and a groundbreaking perspective on racism in modern America. (Amazon)

Silent Winds, Dry Seas

Vinod Busjeet

Midway through Vinod Busjeet's debut novel Silent Winds, Dry Seas, the young protagonist describes an Urdu-Hindi word, "tamasha," as one that he has "often heard in Bombay movies, a word that has become part of the Kreol language on the island. A word whose meaning encompasses song and dance, fun and excitement, as well as commotion and drama." For a story told in a relatively gentle register, it certainly has all of this in good measure...Our first encounter with Vishnu is upon his return to Mauritius as a middle-aged American, when his father is taken seriously ill. His mother shares a family secret, which leads to Vishnu's recounting of his childhood and adolescence. This mature point of view enables him to connect all the island life anecdotes of family, friends, neighbors, locals, and politicians into a flowing story of his then-emerging adulthood. He examines the many invisible threads that simultaneously built him up and held him down during those earlier years with the wisdom gained in the decades since, revealing the comic in the tragic, and vice versa.

Vishnu's father, Shiv, was one of seven siblings from a family of modest means. His hard work helped him make it as a schoolteacher, while some of his friends went on to become lawyers and politicians. For Shiv, economic status wasn't simply money in the bank but about finding secure footing in his ever-shifting world.

Learning from the struggles of his ancestors, father, and uncles as the clan worked their way from indentured coolies to independent planters to educated white-collar workers, Vishnu understands how external forces can thwart him at every turn. As his awareness of himself, his desires, and his place in the world deepens, so does his resolve to thrive, not just survive. Finishing his graduate studies in the US — though uncertain whether he has what an international bank president calls "the profit motive" — Vishnu reconciles with how his Indo-Mauritian upbringing has given him both ballast and flotsam; it is up to him to choose what to carry forward.

Though this might sound like grim fare, Busjeet excels in vivid, tactile experiences and unforgettable Mauritian characters...Small flaws mar the narrative: On occasion, Busjeet slips into a formal or archaic language register. The opening arc with the secret family revelation doesn't develop into anything much. And some of the women, though not stereotypical, could have been given more dimensions. Nevertheless, as an intelligent, witty, and compassionate rendering of a full and rich world, it is a much-needed addition to the small body of contemporary Mauritian literature (see French-to-English translations from writers like Ananda Devi and Nathacha Appanah.)...

...There are books where writers play skilled games on the page. And there are books where writers bring their experiences, heart, and radical living to the page. This debut novel, from a writer in his 70s, is a luminous example of the latter. (NPR)

You're History: The Twelve Strangest Woman in Music

Leslie Chow

Raucous, sensual and sublime: how twelve pioneering female artists rewrote the rules of pop.

From Kate Bush to Nicki Minaj, from Janet Jackson to TLC and Taylor Swift, pop's greatest female pioneers are simply strange: smashing notions of taste and decorum, and replacing them with new ideals of pleasure.

Instead of rehashing biographies, Lesley Chow dives deep into the music of these groundbreaking performers, identifying the ecstatic moments in their songs and finding out what makes them unique.

You're History is a love letter to pop's most singular achievements, celebrating the innovations of women who are still critically underrated. It's a ride that includes tributes to Chaka Khan, Rihanna, Neneh Cherry, Sade, Shakespears Sister, Azealia Banks, and many more... (Amazon)

Carry the Dog

Stephanie Gangi

The daughter of a famous photographer confronts her mother's difficult legacy and the challenges of aging.

"The brink of sixty, it's rough terrain for anybody, time to take stock of your life even if you didn't have Miriam Marx as a mother," writes her daughter Bea, who's working on a memoir at a glacial pace. Miriam is a very dark version of a Sally Mann character—a photographer who made her reputation with nude pictures of her children that continued into puberty, pictures that sound disturbing enough to merit the charges of child pornography they engendered. Since Miri's suicide when Bea was a teenager, which came just months after the death of one of Bea's older twin brothers, her oeuvre has garnered more and more attention. Now both Hollywood and MoMA are knocking on Bea's door, and despite her understandable wish to let sleeping dogs lie, she needs the money. The Hollywood connection comes through Gary Going, Bea's ex-husband, a Lou Reed–style rock star now in his 70s. After making his fame with songs Bea wrote but was inadequately credited for, he remains her sole financial support and closest friend. Gangi, who thoroughly entertained readers with her debut novel, The Next (2016), spins a much darker story here. The greatest achievement of the book is the character of Bea. Having been focused on for her appearance since infancy, she is having a tough time with what she sees as the loss of her beauty and sex appeal. Yes, she is damaged, but her heart is big—she's practically adopted not only her neighbor's dog, but her father's adopted daughter from a second marriage; a standout section takes the two of them down to visit him in assisted living in Florida. The final act of the novel is overcrowded with terrible reveals as Bea finally opens her mother's archive and decides what to do about her past and her future.

A smart, sophisticated, lively read with the dysfunctional frosting laid on a little thick. (Kirkus Review)

One-Hour Comfort: Quick, Cozy, Modern Dishes for All Your Cravings

America's Test Kitchen

Find easy satisfaction in these globally inspired recipes for crispy, cheesy, meaty, carby, and sweet comfort foods

Whether your go-to comfort food is brothy-slurpy ramen, ultra-melty grilled cheese, Korean fried chicken, or something (anything!) chocolaty, you want to get to the eating part fast, right? This diverse collection of uncomplicated dishes shows you how, proving that comfort food doesn't need to take the better part of a day.

ATK fans and employees from all over the country weighed in on their favorite comfort foods, and this book is organized around their cravings:

• Hungry for carbs? There's a whole chapter of 'em, like Pad Thai with Shrimp and Eggs, Loaded Rustic Mashed Potatoes, and Arroz con Titote.

• Is it crunch you're after? Crispy Bits serves up quick takes on Chicken Karaage, Fried Green Tomato BLTs, and Crispy Rice Salad.

• Need some molten, melty cheese? Cheesy Goodness hits the spot with Chorizo and Poblano Enchiladas, Chopped Cheese Sandwiches, and Cheddar Scalloped Potatoes.

• Craving something sweet? Cap things off with Individual Peach Crisps, Brigadeiros, or Chocolate Cream Pie in a Jar.

Even traditionally slow-cooked comfort foods are within reach using ATK's creative, can-do methods. Hoisin-Glazed Meatloaf bakes faster in individual portion sizes. Baked Ziti with Spinach and Sausage is a one-pot dinner that starts on the stovetop and finishes under the broiler. Skillet Apple Pie uses store-bought dough and a top crust only.

Whether your favorite comfort foods hail from childhood or you've found them as an adult, they're about connection and lifting spirits. They have the power to make you believe there's nothing they can't fix. So gather your people around the table or curl up on the couch and get to your happy place, pronto. (Amazon)

The War For Gloria

Atticus Lish

Lish’s second novel, following “Preparation for the Next Life,” which won the 2015 PEN/Faulkner award, is heartbreaking in its portrait of a mother and son facing her mortal illness. The book’s protagonist, Corey, grows up all but fatherless in and around Boston and seeks ways to prove himself. Gloria, his mother, has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, and Corey tends to her. The details are intimate and harrowing and, to some degree, drive the core of the narrative. Lish writes equally well about fighting, construction, boat work, sexual longing, illness. The book is “in easy contact with dark areas of the psyche,” our critic Dwight Garner writes. It is “powerful, intelligent, brooding and most of all convincing; it earns its emotions.” (New York Times)

Rock Me on the Water: 1974: The Year Los Angles Transformed Movies, Music, Television and Politics

Ronald Brownstein

Los Angeles in 1974 exerted more influence over popular culture than any other city in America. Los Angeles that year, in fact, dominated popular culture more than it ever had before, or would again. Working in film, recording, and television studios around Sunset Boulevard, living in Brentwood and Beverly Hills or amid the flickering lights of the Hollywood Hills, a cluster of transformative talents produced an explosion in popular culture which reflected the demographic, social, and cultural realities of a changing America. At a time when Richard Nixon won two presidential elections with a message of backlash against the social changes unleashed by the sixties, popular culture was ahead of politics in predicting what America would become. The early 1970s in Los Angeles was the time and the place where conservatives definitively lost the battle to control popular culture.

Rock Me on the Water traces the confluence of movies, music, television, and politics in Los Angeles month by month through that transformative, magical year. Ronald Brownstein reveals how 1974 represented a confrontation between a massive younger generation intent on change, and a political order rooted in the status quo. Today, we are again witnessing a generational cultural divide. Brownstein shows how the voices resistant to change may win the political battle for a time, but they cannot hold back the future. (Amazon)

The Reading List

Sara Nisha Adams

British screenwriter William Nicholson once wrote, “We read to know we’re not alone,” and nowhere is that sentiment more palpable than in Sara Nisha Adams’ heartfelt new novel, The Reading List. In it, readers meet Mukesh, an older man living in the suburbs of London who is still grieving the loss of his wife, struggling under the micromanagement of his adult daughters, and constantly worrying about his granddaughter, Priya, who prefers burying herself in books over having a real social life.

In an attempt to connect with his granddaughter, Mukesh heads to his local library, where he meets Aleisha, a teenager who reluctantly works the front desk and is trying to keep her life together amidst the pressure of taking care of her mother. Though their initial meeting is less than friendly, all that soon changes through the power of reading when, one day, Aleisha discovers a list of books, written anonymously, that she has never heard of but decides to read. Knowing that Mukesh is struggling with his granddaughter, Aleisha starts suggesting books to Mukesh, and both suddenly find themselves immersed in a new world where fiction provides escape and comfort from their everyday grief.

The Reading List is a surprising delight of a novel... (Shondaland)

The Lost Boys of Montauk: The True Story of the Wind Blown, Four Men Who Vanished at Sea, and the Survivors they Left Behind

Amanda M. Fairbanks

In March of 1984, the commercial fishing boat Wind Blown left Montauk Harbor on what should have been a routine offshore voyage. Its captain, a married father of three young boys, was the boat’s owner and leader of the four-man crew, which included two locals and the blue-blooded son of a well-to-do summer family. After a week at sea, the weather suddenly turned, and the foursome collided with a nor’easter. They soon found themselves in the fight of their lives. Tragically, it was a fight they lost. Neither the boat nor the bodies of the men were ever recovered.

The fate of the Wind Blown—the second-worst nautical disaster suffered by a Montauk-based fishing vessel in over a hundred years—has become interwoven with the local folklore of the East End’s year-round population. Back then, on the easternmost tip of Long Island, before Wall Street and hedge fund money stormed into town, commercial fishing was the area’s economic lifeblood.

Amanda M. Fairbanks examines the profound shift of Montauk from a working-class village—“a drinking town with a fishing problem”—to a playground for the ultra-wealthy, seeking out the reasons that an event more than three decades old remains so startlingly vivid in people’s minds. She explores the ways in which deep, lasting grief can alter people’s memories. And she shines a light on the powerful and sometimes painful dynamics between fathers and sons, as well as the secrets that can haunt families from beyond the grave.

The story itself is a universal tale of family and brotherhood; it’s about what happens when the dreams and ambitions of affluent and working-class families collide. Captivating and powerful, The Lost Boys of Montauk explores one of the most important questions we face as humans: how do memories of the dead inform the lives of those left behind? (Amazon)

The Rehearsals

Annette Christie

After calling off their wedding, a young couple gets stuck in a time loop, reliving the day of their catastrophic rehearsal dinner.

Megan and Tom are a picture-perfect couple. With her job as senior visuals editor at GQ and his job as a lawyer at his family’s firm, they’re living the dream. And now, they’re getting married on the picturesque San Juan Island, bringing together their friends and family as they celebrate their love. But all that perfection is merely hiding the problems under the surface. Megan’s and Tom’s families have never gotten along, and Megan has always felt that Tom takes his family’s side over hers. Unbeknownst to Megan, Tom has just accepted a job (at his family’s behest) in Missouri, meaning that they’ll have to move away from New York City and her job. Meanwhile, Megan privately feels guilt over having slept with Tom’s best friend (who is also his best man) years ago. When all the buried secrets come out at their disastrous rehearsal dinner, Megan and Tom angrily call off their wedding…but then they wake up on the morning of their rehearsal dinner, again. Megan and Tom figure out that they’re stuck in a Groundhog Day–style time loop, doomed to repeat the horrific day with the one person they never want to see again. Christie doesn’t hold any punches in her adult debut, allowing her characters to act out in surprisingly bold ways. Megan’s and Tom’s betrayals are explored compassionately and honestly, making both of them feel like fully rounded people who are, if not always completely likable, at least understandable. As Megan and Tom relive the same day and get to know each other in an entirely new way, it’s unclear until the very end what will happen with their relationship, creating a level of suspense that will keep readers turning the pages.

A compelling story about the power of second chances and forgiveness that’s sure to spark conversation. ( Kirkus Review)

In Search of Van Gogh: Capturing the Life of the Artist Through Photographs and Paintings

Gloria Fossi

Follow in the footsteps of Vincent Van Gogh, from his birthplace in Zundert, Netherlands, to his last days in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, and explore the hidden inspirations behind the world-renowned artist’s most famous paintings in this beautiful art book and travelogue, illustrated with more than 250 black-and-white and full-color images throughout.

In 1990, two photographers and art enthusiasts, Danilo De Marco and Mario Dondero, set out to explore the details of Vincent Van Gogh’s life, retracing his journey across Europe by foot and by train. Armed with the love and knowledge of Van Gogh’s work, they traveled from the Netherlands to England, Belgium, and France to take in the sights as Van Gogh might have seen them a century earlier. They also turned to art historian Gloria Fossi to better understand, experience, and contextualize Van Gogh’s brilliant mind, drawing insights from his personal letters and other historical documents.

Van Gogh’s well-documented travels come alive in this gorgeous book which brings together the landscapes, architecture, portraits, and cultural references that inspired his art. The authors juxtapose vintage and contemporary photographs with Van Gogh’s renditions, demonstrating not only the passage of time, but Van Gogh’s unique artistic vision, brilliantly revealed brushstroke by brushstroke. From the Netherlands, where the artist was born, to his last days in France, no place he visited in his 37 years is left unexplored, and all have become timeless landmarks through his art.

In Search of Van Gogh brings into focus the places and objects that inspired and fueled Van Gogh’s artistic genius and offers fresh insights into his prolific work and process. In searching for the artist’s mind and soul, the authors create a pointillistic portrait of a human being whose life was remarkable, and whose story must be shared for generations to come.

Queen of None

Natania Barron

Starting with a clever explanation as to why King Arthur’s sister has been forgotten by history, Barron (Time & Temper) spins an entertaining new version of the Arthurian legend. Anna Pendragon was married off to the brutal King Lot when she was 12. Returning to Camelot as a widow 20 years later to bring Lot’s crown as a gift to Arthur, she hopes to rekindle her old love with Sir Bedevere and reconnect with her son, Sir Gawain. Instead, she discovers she is still a pawn of Arthur and the fearsome Merlin, who swiftly marry her off again in an effort to control both her and her new husband, Lancelot. With help from the women on the Avalon side of her family, Anna sets in motion a plan to seize her freedom—but the dark power required may destroy her. Anna, who loves and reviles Camelot in equal measure, offers a sympathetic new perspective on the familiar story. Though she only desires a life of love and peace, she’s forced to contend with her brother’s machinations and fight for her own autonomy. The result is a layered, engaging retelling sure to please fans of the Arthurian tales. (Publishers Weekly)

Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village

Maureen Johnson

Considering a trip to a quaint English village? You’ll think twice after learning about the countless murderous possibilities lurking behind the bucolic façades, thanks to this illustrated guide from #1 bestselling author Maureen Johnson and illustrator Jay Cooper—perfect for fans of cozy mysteries.

A weekend roaming narrow old lanes, touring the faded glories of a country manor, and quaffing pints in the pub. How charming. That is, unless you have the misfortune of finding yourself in an English Murder Village, where danger lurks around each picturesque cobblestone corner and every sip of tea may be your last. If you insist on your travels, do yourself a favor and bring a copy of this little book. It may just keep you alive.

Brought to life with dozens of Gorey-esque drawings by illustrator Jay Cooper and peppered with allusions to classic crime series and unmistakably British murder lore, Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village gives you the tools you need to avoid the same fate, should you find yourself in a suspiciously cozy English village (or simply dream of going). Good luck! And whatever you do, avoid the vicar.