Florence Sadler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland: Esther and Joseph Adler find their apartment bursting at the seams with one daughter home from college, the other on bed rest, and an immigrant from Nazi Germany. When tragedy strikes during one of Florence’s practice swims, Esther makes the decision to keep the truth about Florence’s death from Fannie-at least until the baby is born. She pulls the rest of the family into an elaborate web of secret keeping and lies, forcing to the surface long-buried tensions that show us just how quickly the act of protecting those we love can turn into betrayal.
Outsider by Linda Castillo: “Chief of Police Kate Burkholder’s past comes back to haunt her when she receives a call from Amish widower Adam Lengacher. While enjoying a sleigh ride with his children, he discovered a car stuck in a snowdrift and an unconscious woman inside. Kate arrives at his farm and is shocked to discover the driver is a woman she hasn’t seen in ten years: fellow cop Gina Colorosa. The reunion takes an ominous turn when Kate learns Gina is wanted for killing an undercover officer.
Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby: Beauregard “Bug” Montage is a man with many different titles: husband, father, friend, honest car mechanic. However, Bug used to be known from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida as the best Wheel Man on the East Coast. After a series of financial calamities, Bug feels he has no choice but to take one final job as the getaway driver for a daring diamond heist that could solve all his money troubles and allow him to go straight once and for all.
Fast Girls by Elise Hooper: This novel explores the real life history of female athletes, members of the first integrated women’s Olympic team, and their journeys to the 1936 summer games in Berlin, Nazi Germany. It is a chronicle of three athletes who defied society’s expectations of what women could achieve.
Into Darkness by Terry Goodkind: The story of a world confronted by an apocalyptic nightmare. Continues Richard and Kahlan’s lives after the Sword of Truth series in novella form.
A Private Cathedral by James Lee Burke: When Detective Dave Robicheaux stops off at an amusement park to watch a teenaged Elvis-like rock-and-roller from his hometown of New Iberia named Johnny Shondell, he inadvertently stumbles into a real life Romeo and Juliet love story playing out in the in the New Iberia criminal underworld. A Private Cathedral is both vintage Burke and one of his most inventive works –mixing romance, violence, mythology and science fiction to produce a thrilling story about the all-consuming power of love.
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green: The Carls disappeared the same way they appeared, in an instant. While the robots were on Earth, they caused confusion and destruction with only their presence. Part of their maelstrom was the sudden viral fame and untimely death of April May. Now mysterious books seem to predict the future and control the actions of their readers – all of which seems to suggest that April could be very much alive. In the midst of the search for the truth and the search for April is a growing force, something that wants to capture our consciousness and even control our reality.
When These Mountains Burn by David Joy: When his addict son gets in deep with his dealer, it takes everything Raymond Mathis has to bail him out of trouble one last time. Frustrated by the slow pace and limitations of the law, Raymond decides to take matters into his own hands. For months, the DEA has been chasing the drug supply in the mountains to no avail, when a lead–just one word–sets one agent on a path to crack the case wide. As chance brings together these men from different sides of a relentless epidemic, each may come to find that his opportunity for redemption lies with the other.
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell: Soho, London, 1967. Folk-rock-psychedelic quartet Utopia Avenue is formed. Over two years and two albums, Utopia Avenue navigates the dark end of the Sixties: its parties, drugs and egos, political change and personal tragedy; and the trials of life as a working band in London, the provinces, European capitals and, finally, the Promised Land of America. What is art? What is fame? What is music? How can the whole be more than the sum of its parts? Can idealism change the world? How does your youth shape your life? This is the story of Utopia Avenue. Not everyone lives to the end.