Did one of the book covers on our homepage catch your eye? They are all new titles being released in October 2020, and all are well-reviewed and anticipated. Read below for a description of each, and click the linked title if you'd like to request a copy or get your name on the wait list. And don't forget to watch for more featured releases next month!
Featured Fiction Titles for October:
Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy
Newlyweds Sam and Annie are head over heels, and excited to say good-bye to NYC and start a life together in Sam's hometown. Or, it turns out, a life where Annie spends most of her time alone while her therapist husband works in his office, tending to the egos of his (mostly female) clientele. Little does Sam know that through a vent in his ceiling, every word of his sessions can be heard from the room upstairs. The pharmacist's wife, contemplating a divorce. The painter whose boyfriend doesn’t satisfy her in bed. Who could resist listening? Everything is fine until the French girl in the mini Cooper shows up, and Sam decides to go to work and not come home, throwing a wrench into Sam and Annie's happily ever after.
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
From this New York Times bestselling author comes the first book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy, inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas and woven into a tale of prophecies, intrigue, and magic. When the earth and sky converge under the black sun in the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, an event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world. Meanwhile, a ship launches bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters as easily as it can warp a man's mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.
The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
It's 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world's greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Travelling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is determined to prove his friend innocent.
But no sooner are they out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. A twice-dead leper stalks the decks. Strange symbols appear on the sails. Livestock is slaughtered. And then three passengers are marked for death, including Samuel.
With Pipps imprisoned, only Arent can solve a mystery that connects every passenger.
Featured Nonfiction Titles for October:
The Dead are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne
Payne, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become over a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X.
The result is this historic biography that conjures a never-before-seen world of its protagonist, a work whose title is inspired by a phrase Malcolm X used when he saw his Hartford followers stir with purpose to overcome the obstacles of racism. Setting Malcolm’s life not only within the Nation of Islam but against the larger backdrop of American history, the book traces the life of one of the twentieth century’s most politically relevant figures.
Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck by William Souder
This first full-length biography of the Nobel Laureate to appear in a quarter century explores Steinbeck's apprenticeship as a writer struggling through the Great Depression, and his rise to greatness with masterpieces such as The Red Pony, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath. His most poignant and evocative writing emerged in his sympathy for the Okies fleeing the dust storms of the Midwest, the migrant workers toiling in California's fields, and the laborers on Cannery Row. A man by turns quick-tempered, contrary, compassionate, and brilliant, Steinbeck took aim at the corrosiveness of power, the perils of income inequality, and the growing urgency of ecological collapse.
Humans by Brandon Stanton
Brandon Stanton created Humans of New York in 2010. What began as a photographic census of life in New York City, soon evolved into a storytelling phenomenon. A global audience of millions began following HONY daily. Over the next several years, Stanton broadened his lens to include people from across the world.
Traveling to more than forty countries, he conducted interviews across continents, borders, and language barriers. Told with candor and intimacy, Humans will resonate with readers across the globe―providing a portrait of our shared experience.
