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"As Udonwa grows, her hidden family history changes her forever. Let me tell you a story. It's about a war. This war is not the type fought with guns and machetes. It is a family type. A silent war. The type fought in the heart. It began long before I was formed. Udonwa's family is at war -- a war of relationships, played out under the tyranny of a monster dad. Age twelve, Udonwa has a peculiar love for her father, Reverend Leonard Ilechukwu, who favours her but beats his wife and his other children. She sees his good side: after all, he pays the school fees, and tells her that she, named "the peaceful child," is the one most likely to become a doctor. When her newly married eldest sister suddenly takes her from their family compound in Iruama, Nigeria, to live with her in Awka, Udonwa experiences violence first-hand. Later, pieces of a sinister picture emerge that shake her life to the core. No longer the person she thought she was, Udonwa launches into a period of extreme change, and parts of her life spiral into chaos as she finds herself torn between her love for her father and an underlying need to free herself. This vivid family saga is engrossing, deeply unsettling, and finally uplifting."-- Provided by publisher.

Thirty years ago, musicians Emilia Oliveras and Paul Winstead were married in Puerto Rico. Forty-eight hours later, Paul vanished from their honeymoon cruise, leaving Emilia devastated--and the prime suspect in his disappearance. So, she ran for her life, leaving behind her love, her dreams, and her identity. Today "Emily Oliver" is a divorced music teacher and mother of two daughters who know nothing about her past: Gracie, a talented attorney who excels in the courtroom but grapples with personal relationships, and Meg, a gifted concert pianist who wrestles with her ambition and purpose. When a cryptic caller claims the unthinkable--that Paul is alive, Emily returns to Puerto Rico in search of the truth. What she doesn't know is that her daughters aren't far behind. Shocked to find their mother isn't the woman they thought she was, Gracie and Meg wonder how much of their lives have been a lie.

"After surviving a horrific railway accident, Viscount Langdon retreats to his private island to recover and conquer the nightmarish memories that continue to haunt him. The very last thing he wants-or expects-is for London's most infamous courtesan to wash up on his beach. Marlowe is known for her bold flirtations, but her most daring exploits involve flying in her hot air balloon. When a storm blows her off course, she discovers herself alone with the isle's only inhabitant. The gorgeous, seductive lord tempts her beyond reason, but giving into temptation would lead to her ruination because the all-consuming liaison would demand complete surrender. And she has secrets to protect. Langdon finds the captivating beauty near impossible to resist, but he can't risk her learning the true reason behind his isolation. However, a powerful tempest of desire is swirling wildly between them, urging them to give in to the perilous passion that could destroy them . . . or perhaps show them the way to love."-- Provided by publisher.

"Harper Fleming is done with being passed over. As a journalist for a Chicago newspaper, she's been refused a shot at the sportswriter position she longs for. And her on again/off again relationship is going nowhere. Leaving both behind, she heads to Nashville, Tennessee, where she plans to interview her widowed grandfather, Bernard Fleming, for a book about his father Kelton Fleming's time in the Negro Baseball Leagues. When Bernard reveals health issues within days of her arrival, Harper assumes responsibility for taking care of him. And when she mentions his father playing baseball in the Negro Leagues, Bernard gives her a trove of letters, journals, and clippings encompassing Kelton's career. But some stories are too personal to print without dishonoring the memory of her great-grandmother. Instead, with Bernard's approval, Harper begins weaving them into a novel, telling her great-grandfather's story through the eyes of the fictional Moses Gillian. Chapters flow effortlessly as Harper breathes life into each memory. Particularly intense are Kelton's recollections of the Green Book, an annual guidebook that helped African Americans navigate the segregated South. Negro League teams relied on it as they traveled between games, hurrying out of unwelcoming towns before sundown to avoid the Klan. As Harper delves into Kelton's past, a piece of her own resurfaces in the form of Cheney, the childhood friend of her brothers'. And as Harper honors her great-grandfather's life, she finds the inspiration to take her own in a bold new direction..." -- Provided by publisher.

The unlikely star of Edison is Prem Kumar, the hapless youngest son of a titan of New Delhi industry. Obsessed with Hindi movies--what the world calls Bollywood--he is uninterested in joining the family business or marrying the spear-wielding heiress chosen by his father. He runs away to chase his filmmaking dreams in America, but his plans are immediately derailed. Instead, he finds himself crashing on a mattress and working at an Exxon gas station in the Indian immigrant community of Edison, New Jersey. Though life is not going according to script, Prem finds a happy rhythm in this bewildering setting. When the beautiful and ambitious Leena Engineer bursts onto the scene, she and her grocery store-owning father upend Prem's short-term plan to do as little as possible, launching him on an epic adventure to make something of himself. Supported by an unruly cast of roommates, aunties, murderous yet orderly mobsters, and film stars at once glamorous and ludicrous, Prem test-drives the role of hero, and along the way, he witnesses around him the transformation of an ordinary suburb into a bustling "Little India."

"When Marilyn Kleinman is caught making out with the rabbi's son in front of the whole congregation, her parents ship her off to her great-aunt Ada for the summer. If anyone can save their daughter's reputation, it's Philadelphia's strict premier matchmaker. Either that or Marilyn can kiss college goodbye. To Marilyn's surprise, Ada's not the humorless septuagenarian her mother described. Not with that platinum-blonde hair, Hermés scarf, and Cadillac convertible. She's sharp, straight-talking, takes her job very seriously, and abides by her own rules...mostly. As the summer unfolds, Ada and Marilyn head for the Jersey shore, where Marilyn helps Ada scope out eligible matches--for anyone but Marilyn, that is. Because if there's one thing Marilyn's learned from Ada, it's that she doesn't have to settle. With the school year quickly approaching and her father threatening to disinherit her, Marilyn must make her choice for her future: return to the comfortable life she knows or embrace a risky, unknown path on her own"-- Provided by publisher.

After discovering the twin sister she killed eight years ago is still alive, Selina Colvert once again is forced to run. The only person she can trust is Efren Brenna, the wounded veteran turned bodyguard tasked with protecting the injured ex-cop. Nothing will stop Efren from helping Selina bring down the Mafia kingpin who's gunning for her. But can they stay one step ahead of the woman who won't rest until she spills her sister's blood? -- Provided by publisher.

From the outside, Renee Goh's life looks perfect. She's thirty and beautiful, runs a glamorous--and profitable--women's clothing company in London, and is dating a hot Taiwanese pop star. But Renee is lonely. Estranged from her family in Singapore, she practically lives at the office, and now she's just been dumped by her supposed boyfriend. Who she never saw anyway, so why is she ruining her Instagram-ready makeup by crying? Before she can curl up on the couch with a pint of Ben & Jerry's, Renee's father calls. He's retiring, and, thanks to the screw-ups of her wastrel brothers, he is considering her as the next CEO of the family business: Chahaya Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Southeast Asia. That stamp of her father's approval would mean everything to Renee, but can she cooperate with the brothers who drove her out of Singapore? But fate isn't done with her. That same night, Renee bumps into her first love, Yap Ket Siong, who broke her heart during university. They spend a wonderful night together, but Ket Siong is pursuing a dangerous vengeance for his family. In the light of day is there any hope for the two of them? -- Provided by publisher.

Earth is a paradox - a fertile world three-quarters covered with water, yet in danger of running dry. Overuse and pollution have drained most of its fresh water, and scientist Francesca Carval's brilliant formula for desalination has vanished with her plane over South America. But when Kurt Austin and his NUMA team come across a pod of dead whales, their investigation takes them to the Venezuelan jungle where a cadre is bent on controlling the world's supply of fresh water.

"Seven days are all it takes for Rune Sarasin's life to completely derail. It starts with a routine heist: lifting a pouch of rubies from the Bangkok hotel room of wealthy smuggler Charles Lemaire. Rune nearly gets caught when Lemaire's goons give chase, but she manages to escape with her boyfriend Kit. Then Kit delivers some terrifying news: his teenage sister Madee has gone missing. They track her cell phone to the dangerous Khlong Toei slum, but the trail ends there. The night gets even worse when Rune realizes she lost the pouch of gems somewhere in the slum while searching for Madee."-- Provided by publisher.

"Cold and brooding, Julian Greycourt, the heir to the Windemere dukedom, has always known that his uncle the duke was responsible for his mother's death. Now he's determined to exact revenge against his uncle--if he can find the proof. But Julian hides a secret so explosive it will destroy him if it's ever revealed, and the duke is watching. The last thing he needs is a distractingly sensual woman whose very presence threatens to destroy his plans. Sunny and cheerful, Lady Elspeth de Moray doesn't know why her brother and Julian fell out all those years ago, but she can't let the autocratic man get in the way of her mission: to retrieve an ancient family text that she believes is in one of the Windemere libraries. Locating the tome, however, proves trickier than she anticipated, and at each turn, she's thrown together with the maddingly mysterious Julian. And the temptation to give in to her family's greatest enemy grows stronger with each intriguing encounter."--Back cover.

"At sixteen, Rosa meets Jamie by chance. She lives in middle-class South Brooklyn; he comes from the super-rich of upper Manhattan. She's observant, cautious, eager to seem normal; he's curious, bold, full of mysteries. She keeps a keen intelligence under wraps; his eccentric brilliance is all but impossible to repress. While Rosa welcomes Jamie into her family's embrace, he avoids going home; with little in common, these two questers are drawn together in a deep friendship. As Rosa goes off to an elite college and falls in and out of love, Jamie drops out of school and joins the Occupy Wall Street movement. Rosa, so often trapped by self-doubt, is both awed and repelled by the strength of Jamie's convictions. Carried forcefully along by Sestanovich's highly observant, butterfly-pinning prose, these two characters, pulled into separate spheres, circle the same questions: how to define their values and find their purpose, how to create a sense of self while discovering what they owe to society and to the cause of justice. The geometry of their platonic love leads us on a surprising journey of intimacy across time--exposing the alchemy of connection, of the relationships that can define who we are and can even change us, and the possible futures we might not have imagined for ourselves."-- Provided by publisher.

"When Dr. Van Vierlans receives an invitation from Mrs. Elizabeth Van der Horst to give a talk on Coosaw Shell Rings at her island mansion off the coast of South Carolina, he doesn't think twice. The honorarium inspires hopes of further generous donations from the Van der Horst estate. He also relishes the opportunity to revisit his studies of the Gullah language, a creole spoken in South Carolina and Georgia's Sea Islands. However, the lavish house he arrives at is strangely out of time. No other historians appear, nor does any kind of setup for a talk. He passes the time until dinner chatting in Gullah with Mrs. Van der Horst's servants and wondering about the motive behind his invitation. At dinner, prodigious amounts of whiskey begin to flow, assuaging his fears. This proves unfortunate, because the motive is more sinister than anything he came prepared to imagine"-- Provided by publisher.

Single mom Sophia Brand isn't made of ice -- resisting Caleb's devilishly sexy grin is hard, especially when it's so often directed her way. It's just that she's been burned by handsome smiles before. Now, she's focused on setting a good example for her daughter, and that means not getting sidetracked by Caleb's dazzling charisma. But as they work together on the campaign, Caleb and Sophia begin to let their guard down. Can he prove that beneath his playboy persona, Calebis a leading man worthy of a starring role in Sophia's heart?

"Bullet Train's hapless underworld operative and his handler are back. In Bullet Train, underworld operative Ladybug was tasked by his handler Maria with retrieving a suitcase from a high-speed train in Japan. The job did not go according to plan, to the delight of millions of readers and movie fans around the world. Will the unluckiest assassin in the world will find things easier this time around? All he has to do is deliver a painting to a hotel guest, a portrait made by his daughter. Easy enough, except when Ladybug makes the delivery, he realizes that the guest is clearly not the guy in the painting. Then he attacks Ladybug, they fight, and the guest ends up dead. How can such simple jobs always go wrong?"-- Provided by publisher.

"A collection of intersecting stories about Indigenous love and loneliness from a Giller-longlisted author and one of contemporary literature's most boundless minds. Across the prairies and Canada's west coast, on reservations and university campuses, at literary festivals and existential crossroads, the characters in Coexistence are searching for connection. They're learning to live with and understand one another, to see beauty and terror side by side, and to accept that the past, present, and future can inhabit a single moment. An aging mother confides in her son about an intimate friendship from her distant girlhood. A middling poet is haunted by the cliché his life has become. A chorus of anonymous gay men dispense unvarnished truths about their sex lives. A man freshly released from prison finds that life on the outside has sinister strictures of its own. A PhD student dog-sits for his parents at what was once a lodging for nuns operating a residential school--a house where the spectre of Catholicism comes to feel eerily literal. Bearing the compression, crystalline sentences, and emotional potency that have characterized his earlier books, Coexistence is a testament to Belcourt's mastery of and playfulness in any literary form. A vital addition to an already rich catalogue, this is a must-read collection and the work of an author at the height of his powers."-- Provided by publisher.

"The story of a young Haitian woman in California who becomes involved with the Black Panthers and discovers that being part of the revolution may not always mean equal justice for women"-- Provided by publisher.

"It's the early 1990s, and in the Irish village of Crossmore, fifteen-year-old Lucy feels out of place. Despite her fierce friendships, she's always felt this way, and the conventional path of marriage and motherhood doesn't appeal to her at all. Not even with handsome and doting Martin, her closest childhood friend. Lucy begins to make sense of herself during a long hot summer, when a spark with her school friend Susannah escalates to an all-consuming infatuation, and, very quickly, to a desperate and devastating love. Fearful of rejection from her small and conservative community, Lucy begins living a double life, hiding the most honest parts of herself in stolen moments with Susannah. But with the end of school and the opportunity to leave Crossmore looming, Lucy must choose between two places, two people and two futures, each as terrifying as the other. Only one will offer her real happiness."--Back cover.

"A brilliant queer dystopian novel from the author of Yours for the Taking, following a cast of characters on the margins of a strange and exclusive new society. The year is 2041, and it's a dangerous time to be a woman driving across the United States alone. Deadly storms and uncontrollable wildfires are pummeling the country while political tensions are rising. But Kelly's on the road anyway; she desperately needs to get back to her daughter, who she left seven years ago for a cause that she's no longer sure she believes in. Almost 40 years later, another mother, Ava, and her daughter Brook are on the run as well, from the climate change relief program known as The Inside Project, where they've spent the past 22 years being treated as lab rats. When they encounter a woman from Ava's past on the side of the highway, the three continue on in a journey that will take them into the depths of what remains of humanity out in the wilderness. At the same time, way up North, weather conditions continue to worsen and a settlement departs in search of greener pastures, leaving behind only two members, drawn together by a circumstance and a mystery they are destined to unravel together. Set in the world of Gabrielle Korn's Yours for the Taking, The Shutouts tells the captivating story of those who have been shut out from Inside, their fight to survive, and an interconnectedness larger than all of them"-- Provided by publisher.

In this haunting novel about the end of the frontier dream, a man tries to reinvent himself in one of America's last wild territories, while his neighbor begins a crime spree that will tremble the nation. In the summer of 1976, Duane Oshun finds himself stranded in a remote Montana town beset by a series of strange and menacing events. He takes a job as a logger and builds a cabin on an isolated road near a reclusive neighbor--a hermit named Ted Kaczynski. The two men are captivated by the valley's endangered old-growth forest, but Kaczynski's violent grievances against modern society soon threaten the lives of all those around him. As Kaczynski's bombs crescendo to the book's devastating conclusion, Old King wrestles with the birth of the modern environmental movement, the accelerating dominion of technology in American life, and a new kind of violence that lives next door. Told in four parts sweeping across two decades, Old King establishes Maxim Loskutoff as one of the most thrilling and inventive authors of the American west, a writer "endowed with fearless audacity, stunning grace, and gutsy heart" (Nickolas Butler).

As conceptual artist Sabine prepares for a critical photo exhibition, she spirals into her own neuroses, seeking validation from her rational husband, TikTok followers, and a mysterious stalker, while her eccentric alter egos and the ghost of Carolee Schneemann offer cryptic guidance.

"When Yojin moves with her husband and daughter into the Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments, she's ready for a fresh start. Located on the outskirts of Seoul, the experimental community is a government initiative designed to boost the national birth rate. Like her neighbors, Yojin has agreed to have at least two more children over the next ten years. Yet, from the day she arrives, Yojin feels uneasy about the community spirit thrust upon her. Her concerns grow as communal child care begins and the other parents show their true colors. Apartment Women traces the lives of four women in the apartments, all with different aspirations and beliefs. Will they find a way to live peacefully? Or are the cultural expectations around parenthood stacked against them from the start? A trenchant social novel from an award-winning author, Apartment Women incisively illuminates the unspoken imbalance of women's parenting labor, challenging the age-old assumption that "it takes a village" to raise a child"-- Provided by publisher.

"It's 1964 and Eliza Kratke is mostly content. Married thirty years, she is long settled in Bayard, Texas, with two grown children, anice house, a little dog, and a routine. But her husband has a secret, and Eliza has not been brave enough to demand to know what it is. So when her husband dies suddenly, the ground doesn't just shift under Eliza's feet--it falls away entirely, revealing that she has known nothing true about her life. How should she come to terms with all that has been a lie?"-- Provided by publisher.

The sixteen stories in Old Dogs and Other Stories are mostly told through the lens of the recurring main character, Buddy, who is seen at different stages of his life, from boyhood to old age. Buddy wrestles with issues of masculinity in a changing world-insecurities, relationships (especially with the women in his life), his role as a father (and son), and as a man constantly coming of age. The stories are contemporary and topics wide-ranging, touching on: Buddy's struggle to accept and identify with Judaism, family life with all its shifts and conflicts, sexuality, death, dogs, surfing, therapy, the mundanity of everyday life, escape, drugs and addiction, and starting over-and over. Buddy is flawed and knows it. He wants to be kind and loving, but often fails. Despite the occasional grimness and grittiness, the stories are often lightened with humor and wit. Buddy is able to laugh at himself and at the absurd situations he finds himself in. And, in the end, he always finds hope.

"When Zoe Ann Weiss moves to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming a writer, her whole future is wide open. But then Zach, the bartender and aspiring actor she's falling for, ghosts her. Her debut novel, a thriller, fails. And she has writer's block worse than ever before. Now, three years later, Zach is famous and Zoe is...not. She's facing her thirtieth birthday, a dead-end job at a flower shop, and a demanding agent, terrified she'll never get her life back on track. But when she goes to make a flower delivery and Zach is at the address, it's like no time has passed at all. They start casually dating in secret, her writer's block disappears, and Zoe begins to wonder: Zach inspired her first novel, so why can't he inspire her second? But then the inevitable happens and photos are leaked, landing Zoe in the press. Her first novel goes viral, and now everyone seems to know her name. Except the problem with everyone knowing your name is that everyone knows your name--including the mysterious stalker obsessed with Zach. A stalker who begins reenacting violent events from Zoe's book, step by step, against her...-- Amazon.com.

"Can they break the spell? It's 1851 in old York. Lizzy Grimm struggles to save her late father's charmingly creepy yet floundering antique shop, Grimm Curiosities. Then, during a particularly snowy December in this most haunted city in England, things turn...curiouser. Lizzy meets Antony Carlisle, whose sister suffers from the same perplexing affliction as Lizzy's mother--both stricken silent and unresponsive after speaking with ghosts. Working closely together to fathom what power has transformed their loved ones and why, Lizzy and Antony discover an important clue: her father's treasured set of rare books on ancient folktales, enchantments, and yuletide myths. Books that a persistent collector is awfully keen to purchase. Books Lizzy can't bear to sell. Every bewitching passage and illustration opens a doorway to something ancient and dangerously inviting. Keys to a mystery Lizzy and Antony are compelled to solve--even if doing so means unleashing one of this bright holiday's darkest myths--Page [4] of cover.

"In a gripping tale of sisterhood, survival, and resistance ... a young woman in Nazi-occupied Holland joins a unique taskforce within the Dutch Resistance, wielding her youthful innocence and beauty to lure Nazis to their death. May 1940: In the months since the war in Europe began, nineteen-year-old Aafke Cruyssen and her family have tried to carry on as normal--running their modest grocery store in Eindhoven, hoping that Germany will leave Holland alone as it did during the Great War. But this time, Holland will not be spared. The invasion comes, swift and merciless, and Dutch forces are easily overpowered. In Eindhoven, a valuable transport and trade hub, Nazi soldiers swagger through the streets. Aafke's one glimpse of humanity comes from a young German corporal who intervenes when a gang of looters tries to rob her family's shop."--Amazon.com.

In the small college town of Troy, Alabama, amidst the backdrop of 1967, Katia Daniels lives a life steeped in responsibility. At the Pike County Group Home for Negro Boys, she pours her heart into nurturing the young lives under her care, harboring a longing for children of her own. Katia's romantic entanglement with an older man brings comfort but also stirs questions about the path she's chosen. The weight of her family's history bears down on her; a twin brother is missing in action in the heart of the Vietnam War. Having lost her father to cancer, Katia took up the mantle of caretaker, ensuring her mother and brothers were looked after. Her sense of duty extends to the boys at the group home, creating a web of obligations that stretches her emotional bandwidth thin. Amidst a power struggle at work with the board, Katia finds solace in the pages of romance novels and the soothing melodies of Nina Simone. When Seth Taylor, a familiar face from her high school days, reenters Katia's life, he brings with him a breeze of nostalgia and a reminder of a time when her dreams felt less tethered. As their friendship rekindles, Katia grapples with the idea of making choices for herself, even as the realization that she can no longer have children weighs heavily on her.

"Special Agent Alex Martel is thrown back into a deadly world of deception when a series of attacks threaten to incite World War III in this action-packed thriller. While sailing across the Mediterranean, the megayacht Aurora is rocked with explosions, taken under siege by unknown assailants. On board are some of Europe's wealthiest and most powerful political players, including the secretary general of Interpol, a high-ranking Finnish diplomat, and Special Agent Alex Martel-whose lethal sniper skills kick in to bring them safely to shore. Someone is waging a ruthless campaign of attacks against Finland, one of NATO's newest members, in an attempt to throw the Alliance into turmoil. Teaming back up with CIA agent Caleb, Alex is thrust into the middle of the fray, pursuing the villains from the waters off of Monaco to the Baltic Sea and home to American soil. As the US is pulled deeper into the conflict, a global catastrophe seems inevitable. But who is really responsible for these escalating attacks on Finland? The Russians, or someone much closer to home? As new allies surface and old enemies reappear, Alex has no way of knowing who to trust-and she might only have one last shot to keep the world from going to war"-- Provided by publisher.

"A deliciously vengeful and sinister suspense novel, about two older women whose friendship cracks after one son murders the other"-- Provided by publisher.

"From New Yorker and Paris Review contributor and Wallace Stegner Fellow Zach Williams comes a staggering debut story collection that confronts parenthood, mortality, and life's broken promises. Parents awaken in a home in the woods, again and again, to find themselves aging as their toddler remains unchanged. An employee is menaced by a conspiracy-minded security guard and accused of sending a sinister viral email. An aging tour guide leads a troublesome group to the site of a UFO, witnessing the slow social deterioration as the rules of decorum go out the window. In each of Williams' ten stories, time is as fallible as the characters, and reality is witnessed through the gauzy folds of a dream--or a nightmare. Bucolic scenes devolve into harrowing exercises in abandonment; the quotidian nature of office life raises serious questions of existential fortitude. Williams is keenly aware of the insidiousness lurking in the shadows of the everyday, ably spiking it with humor. He depicts the divided self of the parent, the distances necessary to protect our children, and the fallout of our deepest relationships. Williams sees the perversity in the mundane and dares readers to recognize the impact--and beauty--of time's relentless movement. With exquisite prose and a lacerating wit, Beautiful Days holds a mirror to the many absurdities of being human and refuses to let us look away"-- Provided by publisher.

"A woman has an unexpected outburst at a corporate therapy session for working mothers. A couple find some long-overdue time to rekindle their relationship and make an ill-advised home movie. A pregnant film director plots revenge on the actress who betrayed her. An ex-wife deliberately causes conflict at her ex-husband's wedding. ...[This short story collection] illuminates the lives of malicious, subversive, and untamed women. Exploring failed sisterhood, dubious parenting, and the dark side of modern love, this powerful and funny collection exposes how society wants women to behave, and shows whathappens when they refuse"-- Provided by publisher.

In this magical tale of self-discovery from New York Times bestselling author Carrie Vaughn, a young widow taps into the power that will change the world -- if the man's world she lives in doesn't destroy her and her newfound friends first.

"Alex Segura, LA Times Book Prize-winning author of Secret Identity, returns with a clever and escapist mystery set in the world of comic books. In the present day, a comics legend is given the chance to revive a beloved but forgotten character. But at what price? Annie Bustamante is a cultural force like none other: an acclaimed filmmaker, an author, a comic book artist known for one of the all time best superhero comics in recent memory. But she's never been able to tackle her longtime favorite superhero, the Lethal Lynx. Only known to the most die-hard comics fans and long out of print, the rights were never available-until now. But Annie is skeptical of who is making the offer: Bert Carlyle's father started Triumph Comics, and has long claimed ownership of the Lynx. When she starts getting anonymous messages urging her not to trust anyone, Annie's inner alarms go off. Even worse? Carlyle wants to pair her with a disgraced filmmaker for a desperate media play. Annie, who has been called a genius, a sell-out, a visionary, a hack, and everything else under the sun, is sick of the money grab. For the first time since she started reading a tattered copy of The Legendary Lynx #1 as a kid, she feels a pure, creative spark. The chance to tell a story her way. She's not about to let that go. Even if it means uncovering the dark truth about the character she loves. Sharply written, deftly plotted, and with a palpable affection for all kinds of storytelling, Alter Ego is a one-of-a-kind reading experience"-- Provided by publisher.

Local girls' soccer coach Sven-Gunnar Erlandsson is practically a saint in the community, known for his good works and volunteering. So when his body is found in Stockholm's beautiful Her̃rng forest, shot at close range in the back of the neck while walking home from a late-night poker game, the police struggle to find a motive. Nothing has been taken from his pockets except his cell phone, and the only other clues left behind are a cryptic handwritten note and a handful of playing cards. The Hammarby murder squad takes the case, splitting up the leads between their eclectic mix of officers. Led by Detective Chief Inspector Conny S̲jberb, the team also includes a veteran inspector who balances his career with caring for his disabled daughter, a widow who has returned to police work after several decades spent as a homemaker and pursuing a law degree, a new transplant who recently achieved minor celebrity status as an Idol contestant, and a young police assistant struggling with trauma she can't share with her colleagues. Each member of the team pursues a different lead and, as they interview Erlandsson's friends and family, they discover a disturbing web of secrets, including a possible link to the cases of two missing girls. Could Erlandsson have been less of a saint than everyone thinks?

"From the award-winning author of Our Wives Under the Sea, a speculative reimagining of King Lear, centering three sisters navigating queer love and loss in a drowning world. It's been raining for a long time now, so long that the land has reshaped itself and arcane rituals and religions are creeping back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their father dies. An architect as cruel as he was revered, his death offers an opportunity for the sisters to come together in a new way. In the grand glass house they grew up in, their father's most famous creation, the sisters sort through the secrets and memories he left behind, until their fragile bond is shattered by a revelation in his will. More estranged than ever, the sisters' lives spin out of control: Irene's relationship is straining at the seams; Isla's ex-wife keeps calling; and cynical Agnes is falling in love for the first time. But something even more sinister might be unfolding, something related to their mother's long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always seemed unusually interested in the sisters' lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperiled world"-- Provided by publisher.

A classic of alienation and horror, "The Birds" was immortalised by Hitchcock in his celebrated film. The five other chilling stories in this collection echo a sense of dislocation and mock man's sense of dominance over the natural world.

This is the story of Daniel Dell Blake, a gay man navigating his way through a tumultuous twentieth-century America. His rites of passage, including embracing his identity, garnering self-respect, and living with irrepressible creativity, will resonate for readers confronting today's culture wars. Daniel's struggles against societal norms, infused with wit, celebrate human resilience while offering historical insight, punctuated throughout by quotes from Walt Whitman, whose life and writings serve as a touchstone-to the narrator and to the reader-a testament to how truth and pride, and even humble efforts in the midst of monumental events become (in Whitman's words) "the journey-work of the stars." -- Provided by publisher.

"Evie Hudson should be grieving her dead husband, but since the car crash that claimed his life and landed her in the hospital, she can't remember him at all. The only person who can help her piece her past together is her high-school best friend Drew Kennedy. When snippets of her memory start falling into place, Evie wonders exactly how she ended up in a life that couldn't be further from the one she dreamed of. This time around, she's seeing all the things she missed, and the life she gets to choose . . . again"-- Page [4] of cover.

"The new book censor hasn't slept soundly in weeks. By day he combs through manuscripts at a government office, looking for anything that would make a book unfit to publish--allusions to queerness, unapproved religions, any mention of life before the Revolution. By night the characters of literary classics crowd his dreams, and pilfered novels pile up in the house he shares with his wife and daughter. As the siren song of forbidden reading continues to beckon, he descends into a netherworld of resistance fighters, undercover booksellers, and outlaw librarians trying to save their history and culture."--Amazon.

"A once famous ballerina faces a final choice-to return to the world of Russian dance that nearly broke her, or to walk away forever-in this incandescent novel of redemption and love"-- Provided by publisher.

"Takumi, grieving the tragic loss of his family, is drawn into a real-estate swindle masterminded by fabled land scammer Harrison Yamanaka. The target is an unprecedented $70-million property. During his pursuit, Detective Tatsu, upright as ever but nearing retirement, discovers Harrison's strange connection to Takumi's past. As the high-stakes fraud unfolds, the convergence of motives leads to a shocking outcome in this intense game of deception versus truth" -- Provided by publisher.

Father Goose: Dispirited by war, when Trapper Morgan accepts a job hauling five little rich girls to Dallas, all he cares about is the money. He doesn't expect they'll awaken his spirit--or that their intriguing nursemaid, Carolina, will awaken his heart. And when danger strikes as Christmas Eve nears, he definitely doesn't expect Carolina and the girls to risk their lives--for him ...

"This stirring and brutal bildungsroman tells the story of young Luke Crosswhite, who after years apart from his criminal family returns to their flock deep in the California desert. Luke's father is serving time for a brutal murder that Luke himself witnessed; now, his uncle vies for power and rival biker gangs encroach on the family's various criminal enterprises. A sensitive boy grown hard man, Luke navigates the vicious pressures of "home," and the loyalties to his old friend, Cassie, who has hatched a scheme with her boyfriend Pretty Baby to escape the control of the gang, the Combine. Hanging over these desperate, lonesome parties is the gang's motto, tattooed indelibly across the heart: Blood is Love."-- Provided by publisher.

If Lark and Mikki didn't have each other, they'd have nothing in this miserable town. So the best friends stick together, working night shift at the highway travel stop, going nowhere fast. Until a stranger drops in, heading for Florida, and Mikki impulsively leaves with him, never to be seen again. Eight years later, Lark is finally getting her life back together for the sake of her young daughter and Mikki's lovably prickly grandma, who can no longer care for herself. People have almost stopped blaming Lark for Mikki's disappearance, and she's engaged to the nicest guy on highway patrol. But when the stranger who drove off with Mikki reappears looking for her, nobody knows what to believe. As the search reignites, Lark fights to find out whether Mikki is really missing or doesn't want to be found. But piecing together the chain of events set into motion that fateful night could threaten everything--and everyone--Lark has left. -- Provided by publisher.

Determined to fight society's body shaming, three friends, Liv, Reese and Faith join forces to launch FatGirlsDance, an online sensation challenging norms with weekly choreographed performances, risking their friendship and futures in pursuit of empowerment and acclaim.

In 1958, Manchester United was flying high: the best-known soccer team in the world and reigning English champions, the team was led by a bright young group of star players nicknamed the "Busby Babes" after their charismatic manager Matt Busby. But on a snowy afternoon that February, a plane carrying the team back from a European Cup match crashed on takeoff in Munich, killing 23 people--including eight Manchester United players and three team officials. The accident destroyed the team, traumatized fans all over the world, and devastated the tight-knit community in Manchester. In this hypnotic and deeply moving novel, renowned novelist David Peace reimagines the crash and its aftermath, dramatizing the deep scars it left on British society. Moving between the fictionalized voices of survivors, including players, their family members, and Busby himself, Munichs powerfully interprets the struggles of a team, a city, and a nation to recover and rise again.

"Beautifully told with humor and tenderness, a Norwegian Christmas tale of sisterhood, financial hardship, and far-off dreams, acclaimed by reviewers and beloved by readers across Europe, where it has been a bestseller. Christmas is just around the corner, and Ronja and Melissa's dreamer of a father is out of work again. When ten-year-old Ronja hears about a job selling Christmas trees near where the family lives in central Oslo, she thinks it might be the stroke of luck they all need. Soon, the fridge fills with food, and their father returns home with money in his pocket and a smile on his face. But the local pub has an irresistible pull on Ronja and Melissa's father, and before long he disappears into the night under the pretense of buying Christmas gifts. Melissa decides to take his place at the Christmas tree stand, working before and after school, and brings along her sister Ronja, who charms the middle-class customers with her simple sweetness. On rare breaks in the dark of Norwegian December they dream of a brighter place of kindness and plenty, but both girls understand that their family structure is a precarious one. Skillfully told, evoking the delight, misunderstandings, and innocence of a child's voice, Brightly Shining is small in stature but with an outsize impact on the reader, and has all the markings of a magical modern classic"-- Provided by publisher.

"The millennium is drawing to a close. Pratt, a young Floridian who's just finished a prison sentence he both did and didn't deserve, is looking to start a new life. But will he be able to shake his shady past? Brimming with tension, action, wry dialogue, and unexpected pathos, Penalties of June is John Brandon's sixth book published by McSweeney's. With his distinct feel for the underbelly of his home state of Florida, Brandon takes readers into the forbidding corners of the Tampa Bay area--unsavory motels, secondhand shops, no-frills diners, and dubious used-car lots. Pratt navigates crime bosses and drug dealers on a perilous mission, his steed a trusty (if creaky) Chrysler LeBaron. Faced with an impossible choice, and the prospect of finally finding love after years behind bars, Pratt risks it all for a chance at making things right."-- Amazon.com.