Check out these highly anticipated new releases featuring fiction and nonfiction titles. Click on the title to request a copy or get your name on the waitlist. Don’t forget to watch for more featured releases next month!
FICTION
The Book of Love by Kelly Link. In a small-town high school classroom in the middle of the night, the spirits of three dead students and one interloper have escaped death's realm by methods as mysterious as the cause of their deaths. They are confronted by two equally mysterious beings and a puzzle. Two of them will live, two of them will die, but as they're solving all the riddles, they may reunite with their families. The town has become ground zero for big magic, a place where good and evil, death and chaos, music, and especially love, wreak havoc as the teenagers attempt to unravel the mystery before it unravels them and all they love... Lovers of magical coming-of-age stories will find the protagonists' journeys compelling, while anyone who believes that love is the greatest magic of all will find the redemptive power of love (of all types) imbued in every single page.—Marlene Harris Copyright 2023 Library Journal.
The Fury by Alex Michaelides. "There were seven of us in all, trapped on the island. One of us was a murderer." So begins Michaelides's latest (after The Maidens), a tale of friendship and retribution, stardom and fame, and the wounded child that hides in everyone. Playwright Elliot Chase is the unreliable narrator spinning a fantastical tale of a group of people trapped on a private Greek island by the Fury, harsh windstorms that batter the island. Told over five acts, Elliot's narrative moves from Hollywood to London to the Greek island of Aura and provides a history of the major players in the island murder case, including himself. His main focus is his best friend, former movie star Lana Farrar, who invited the guests to her private isle.. Michaelides's use of Elliot as dubious storyteller is clever, keeping readers engrossed in peeling back the layers... The tension, unrequited feelings, lies and resentment, friendship and jealousy that permeate this suspenseful page-turner will keep readers guessing until the satisfying ending. —Marianne Fitzgerald. Copyright 2023 Library Journal.
Ricki Wilde's inability to fit in with her rich, insipid family has made her doubt her ability to connect with others. Disinterested in the family business, she has a chance encounter that spurs her to move to Harlem and pursue her passion for all things floral. Not long after her arrival, she meets Ezra Walker, a reclusive musician whose talent is his primary tether to a world that has caused him much pain. Ezra and Ricki's shared attraction is immediate, so his strong reluctance to get to know her is mystifying...Williams's (Seven Days in June) novel is both a love letter to Harlem and a recognition of its history that gentrification cannot erase.—Nicole Williams. Copyright 2023 Library Journal.
Big Meg: The Story of the Largest and Most Mysterious Predator That Ever Lived,
by Tim Flannery & Emma Flannery.
Paleontologist Tim Flannery teams up with his scientist daughter Emma for this… examination of the megalodon, an extinct shark species that lived from 20 to five million years ago. Admitting that the megalodon “remains largely a mystery,” with the only known remnants consisting of “fossilised teeth and a few vertebrae,” the authors gamely cover what scientists have speculated on the basis of this evidence. Because megalodon teeth are usually found “as isolated specimens,” it’s believed the megalodon, like most sharks, produced and lost teeth continuously, with each individual “capable of producing tens of thousands of teeth over its century-long life.”… The impressive science highlights how much researchers have been able to learn from a limited fossil record… This is worth diving into. Agent: David Forrer, InkWell Management. (Feb.) Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly.
, by Charles Duhigg. Pulitzer winner Duhigg contends… that “we can learn to connect in more meaningful ways if we can understand how conversations work.” According to Duhigg, so-called supercommunicators more easily build trust, persuade others, and form friendships because they’ve honed such skills… Drawing on social experiments, neurological studies, and examples of how CIA agents recruit informants and doctors review treatment options with patients, Duhigg provides wise advice for bonding with friends, fighting with partners, and bridging divides over such lightning-rod issues as gun control… In lucid prose, Duhigg breaks conversation down to its fundamentals, providing both an actionable guide and a revealing peek into the psychological needs and motivations that underpin human interaction. It’s a smart, revelatory look at the complex ways in which humans conflict and connect. (Feb.) Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly.
The Unit, my life fighting terrorists as one of America's most secret military operatives, by Adam Gamal. A memoir from a member of “the military’s most secret intelligence/special operations unit.” Gamal (a pseudonym) was born in Egypt to a family whose father, although struggling to make ends meet, put four children through college. As a child, the author grew up detesting the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian extremists who exerted great influence. As he was studying law, a professor explained that he would never practice what he was learning because there was no rule of law in Egypt. Brilliant but frustrated, Gamal moved to the U.S. in 1991 at age 20, with no job and speaking no English…In 1994, feeling he owed a debt to his chosen country, he joined the Army… Gamal breezed through training, during which he encountered both encouragement and racism. He volunteered for a force so secret that he can only refer to it as “the unit.”… Fiercely patriotic despite regularly encountering prejudice, the author does not hesitate to point out the catastrophic consequences of Americans’ ignorance of other cultures… The compelling story of an unlikely hero in the war on terror. Copyright Kirkus 2024 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
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