New in August

(30 books)

A great crop of new books landing in August!
Mississippi Blue 42

Mississippi Blue 42

Eli Cranor

4.132025Thriller
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Special Agent Rae Johnson grew up on football fields alongside her father, a national-championship-winning coach. Which is exactly why she was chosen to investigate the illicit money flowing into the University of Central Mississippi's football program. But her case takes a dire turn when UCM's star quarterback is flung off a college bar's roof and lands on a bag full of money.Hoping to turn a routine fraud case into a career-defining bust, Rae ingratiates herself with the fans, coaches, players, and politicians who make up the university's complex social hierarchy. With rumors of corruption rustling through the kudzu vines, Rae soon realizes there's more to the game than what she'd learned as a child. And in order to win, she'll have to put all her father's lessons to the ultimate test.Endorsements"Eli Cranor is that rare writer who can make you gasp, cry and cheer often in the same paragraph." — S. A. Cosby"A gritty, authentic triumph, one howling to be turned into a film or TV series." — Financial Times"Atmospheric and tense thriller that has TV series written all over it." — The Sun"Southern noir at its finest, a cauldron of terrible choices and even more terrible outcomes." — New York Times"Cranor's characters bristle with desperation and frustrated masculinity, a volatile cauldron of emotion that brings tension to every page." — Steph Cha"Not to be missed." — Megan Abbott"A major work from a bright, young talent." — USA Today

My Sister and Other Lovers

My Sister and Other Lovers

Esther Freud

3.862025Literary Fiction
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For as long as Elise can remember, she’s been caught between love for her rootless mother and devotion to her fierce and exacting sister, Bea. From their peripatetic childhood to their restless teenage years—hitching through rural Ireland, the move to a communal house—she’s been forced to make a choice between these two very different ways of approaching life.But as the girls come of age and embark on their own experiments—in love, drugs, work, motherhood—Bea is at risk of drifting further and further away. Can their loyalty to each other transcend the damages of a past that feels almost too dangerous to examine?With scalpel-sharp insight, Esther Freud excavates the most intimate relationships of our lives, laying bare the fear and longing, the secrets and mistrust.My Sister and Other Lovers is an irresistible exploration of love, family, and freedom in all its forms.

The Martians

The Martians

David Baron

3.802025History
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The Times headline was no joke. In the early 1900s, many Americans actually believed that we had discovered intelligent life on Mars. The Martians—a truly bizarre tale reconstructed through newly discovered clippings, letters, and photographs by bestselling science writer David Baron—begins in the 1890s with Percival Lowell, a wealthy Harvard scion who was so certain of his Mars discovery that he (almost) convinced a generation of astronomers that grainy telescopic photographs of the red planet revealed meltwater and an intricate canal system, declaring “there can be no doubt that living beings inhabit our neighboring world” (New York Times). So frenzied was the reaction that international controversies arose. Tesla announced he had received Martian radio signals. Biologists debated whether Martians were winged or gilled. Martians headlined Broadway shows, and a new genre called science fiction arose. While Lowell’s claims were savagely debunked, his influence sparked a compulsive interest in Mars and life in outer space that continues to this day.Endorsements“There Is Life on the Planet Mars” — New York Times, December 9, 1906

The Magician of Tiger Castle

The Magician of Tiger Castle

Louis Sachar

3.542025Fantasy
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The beloved author of Holes presents his first adult novel, a modern fantasy classic of forbidden love, a crumbling kingdom, and the unexpected magic all around us.Long ago and far away (and somewhere south of France) lies the kingdom of Esquaveta. There, Princess Tullia is in nearly as much peril as her struggling kingdom. Esquaveta desperately needs to forge an alliance, and to that end, Tullia's father has arranged a marriage between her and an odious prince. However, one month before the "wedding of the century," Tullia falls in love with a lowly apprentice scribe.The king turns to Anatole, his much-maligned magician. Seventeen years earlier, when Anatole first came to the castle, he was regarded as something of a prodigy. But after a long series of failures—the latest being an attempt to transform sand into gold—he has become the object of contempt and ridicule. The only one who still believes in him is the princess.When the king orders Anatole to brew a potion that will ensure Tullia agrees to the wedding, Anatole is faced with an impossible choice. With one chance to save the marriage, the kingdom, and, of most importance to him, his reputation, will he betray the princess—or risk ruin?

Fonseca

Fonseca

Jessica Francis Kane

3.662025Historical Fiction
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Winter 1952. Penelope Fitzgerald’s husband is a struggling alcoholic, their literary journal is on the brink, and she is pregnant with their third child. Out of the blue she receives a letter from two spinster sisters named Delaney, distant relations with a silver mine, who dangle the possibility of an inheritance.Jessica Francis Kane’s brilliantly imagined Fonseca fictionalizes Penelope’s real and momentous trip to northern Mexico in pursuit of this legacy, a creative and practical lifeline. She leaves her two-year-old, Tina, with relatives and sails for New York with her six-year-old, Valpy, in tow. From there, mother and son take a bus all the way to . . . Fonseca.But when they arrive, nothing goes to plan. There are others vying for the Delaney money, and for three months, from Day of the Dead to Candlemas, Penelope must navigate a quixotic household and guide her impressionable son. More and more people arrive: an ambitious American couple, various local entrepreneurs and artists (including Edward Hopper and his wife, Jo), and finally a handsome stranger who claims he is a Delaney.With heart, humor, and a deep understanding of her subject that has characterized the range of her work throughout her career, Kane has written much more than a simple fictionalization; Fonseca is an enthralling world of its own as well as a stunning portrayal of a season in Fitzgerald’s life.The story acclaimed English author Penelope Fitzgerald never wrote: her real-life journey to Mexico with her son in search of a much-needed inheritance, by Jessica Francis Kane.Endorsements“could have been written by Jane Austen’s great great-great-granddaughter” — Oprah Daily

Moderation

Moderation

Elaine Castillo

3.492025Romance
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Girlie Delmundo is the greatest content moderator in the world, and despite the setbacks of financial crises, climate catastrophe, and a global pandemic, she’s going places: she’s getting a promotion. Now thanks to her parent company Paragon’s purchase of Fairground—the world’s preeminent virtual reality content provider—she’s on the way to becoming an elite VR moderator, playing in the big leagues and, if her enthusiastic bosses are to be believed, moderating the next stage of human interaction.Despite the isolation that virtual reality requires from colleagues, friends, and family, the unbelievable perks of her new job mean she can solve a lot of her family's problems with money and mobility. She doesn't have to think about the childhood home they lost back in the Bay Area, or history at all—she can just pay any debts that come due. But when she meets William Cheung, Playground’s wry, reticent co-founder (now Chief Product Officer) and slowly unearths some of his secrets, and finds herself somehow falling in love, she’ll learn that history might be impossible to moderate and the future utterly impossible to control.A bold and inventive novel about real romance in the virtual workplace—bringing Castillo's trademark wit and sharp cultural criticism to an irresistible story about the possible future of love.

Dominion

Dominion

Addie E. Citchens

3.802025Family
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Reverend Sabre Winfrey, shepherd of the Seven Seals Baptist Church, believes in God, his own privilege, and enterprise. Besides the barbershop and radio station he owns, he has an iron hand on every aspect of Dominion, Mississippi, society. He and his wife, Priscilla, have five boys; the youngest, Emanuel, is called Wonderboy—no one sings prettier, runs as fast, or turns as many heads. After a surprising encounter with a stranger, Wonderboy finds himself confronted by questions he’d never imagined, and his response will send shock waves through the entire community. Told from the point of view of the women who love these two men, Dominion illustrates how we enable the everyday violence and casual sins of the patriarchy.The sins of a favorite son rock a small Mississippi town in this taut Southern family drama.

The Break-In

The Break-In

Katherine Faulkner

3.772025Thriller
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After killing an intruder in self-defense, a wealthy London mother must unravel a terrifying mystery filled with twists and turns.Alice, a professional mother of one, is hosting a playdate with friends at her upscale London home when a disturbed man breaks in. With her child in the next room, Alice panics and kills him—an act later ruled to have been in self-defense.Everyone tries to encourage Alice to move on with her life—but with strange comments appearing online, a mysterious phone call telling her all is not as it seems, and her husband, nanny, and friends behaving strangely, Alice finds herself drawn to the mystery of who her intruder really was. As she digs deeper, she discovers a trail of dark secrets that spiral closer to home than she ever could have imagined.Endorsements“deliciously twisted thriller” — People

Songs for Other People's Weddings

Songs for Other People's Weddings

David Levithan

3.242025Romance
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J is an accidental wedding singer. Unlike most wedding singers, he writes an original song for every couple—his way of finding out about the small, strange things that brought them together and the hopeful, vulnerable feelings they’re experiencing.J’s own love life is in a state of flux. His girlfriend is off to New York for work, and as her life grows bigger and busier without him in it, he finds it harder to stick to a happy tune. He doesn’t know whether to encourage the soon-to-be-wed couples or warn them. When complications hit and love is tested, is there any way to sing through all the noise?Combining David Levithan’s deeply observant storytelling and Jens Lekman’s inventive and touching original songs, Songs for Other People’s Weddings is a tender, honest novel that tracks love through all its chord changes, never forgetting that the best songs contain the bitter and the sweet, the despair of losing it all and the euphoria of being found.From David Levithan and Jens Lekman comes a charming, tender novel about an unlucky-in-love wedding singer trying to find the right words to save his relationship.

People Like Us

People Like Us

Jason Mott

3.742025Race
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People Like Us is Jason Mott’s electric new novel. It is not a memoir, yet it has deeply personal connections to Jason’s life. And while rooted in reality, it explodes with dreamlike experiences that pull a reader in and don’t let go, from the ability to time travel to sightings of sea monsters and peacocks, and feelings of love and memory so real they hurt.In People Like Us, two Black writers are trying to find peace and belonging in a world that is riven by gun violence. One is on a global book tour after a big prize win; the other is set to give a speech at a school that has suffered a shooting. As their two storylines merge, truths and antics abound in equal measure: characters drink booze out of an award trophy; menaces lurk in the shadows; tiny French cars putter around the countryside; handguns seem to hover in the air; and dreams endure against all odds.People Like Us is wickedly funny and achingly sad all at once. It is an utter triumph bursting with larger-than-life characters who deliver a very real take on our world. This book features characters experiencing deep loss and longing; it is also buoyed by riotous humor and by characters who share the deepest love. It is the newest creation of a writer whose work amazes, delivering something utterly new yet instantly recognizable as a Jason Mott novel.Finishing the novel will leave you absolutely breathless and, at the same time, utterly filled with joy for life, changed forever by characters who are people like us.

The Old Man by the Sea

The Old Man by the Sea

Domenico Starnone

3.262025Audiobook
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Domenico Starnone’s The Old Man by the Sea is a slim masterpiece of a novel about an 82-year-old Neapolitan man, Nicola, who has spent his entire life telling stories and who has become very, very good at it. In words, with his pen, in the notebook he carries with him everywhere, he records life’s minutiae, its ephemera, those vibrating essences and almost imperceptible atoms of existence that most of us barely notice but that constitute the very stuff of life. Recording the universe in each grain of sand has become second nature to Nicola; it’s a kind of shopworn magic trick. But of course, there is always something that escapes. Something unnamable that resists, remaining on the margins, slithering away, hardly seen, a movement intuited rather than identified. And this fact, for Nicola, is a source of deep anxiety and a growing sense of failure.Now, ensconced in a house on the dunes south of Rome, Nicola spends his mornings writing, watching the waves, and observing Lu, a twenty-year-old store clerk whose graceful canoeing stirs faint echoes of his mother—a glamorous, headstrong woman who defied convention with her beauty and creativity. As Nicola reflects on the women who shaped him and the passions he has never outgrown, he finds himself drawn into the quiet intrigues of the small seaside town and its inhabitants. The novel culminates with him embarking on an improbable and ill-advised kayak adventure of his own with Lu’s young son, as Starnone brings this virtuoso and unforgettable novel about eros and melancholy, memory and reinvention, age and imagination to an unexpected conclusion.

The Sunflower Boys

The Sunflower Boys

Sam Wachman

4.572025Young Adult
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In many ways, twelve-year-old Artem’s life in Chernihiv, Ukraine, is normal. He spends his days helping on his grandfather’s sunflower farm, drawing in his sketchbook—a treasured gift from his father, who works in America—and swimming in the river with his little brother, Yuri. In secret, Artem has begun wrestling with romantic feelings for his best friend, Viktor. In a country where love between two boys is unthinkable, Artem has begun to worry that growing up, his life will never be normal.Then, on a February night, Artem and Yuri are woken by explosions—the beginning of a war that will tear their life in two. The invading Russians destroy their home, killing their mother and grandfather, and leaving young Artem and Yuri to fend for themselves. Fleeing in hopes of somehow reuniting with their father, the brothers traverse the country their ancestors once fought and died for, with nothing but their backpacks and each other. Surrounded by death and destruction, Artem is certain of one thing—that whatever may come, he must keep himself and his brother alive.A poignant coming-of-age story with the sensitivity and haunting power of What Belongs to You and Swimming in the Dark, about a young boy wrestling with his sexuality as war breaks out in modern Ukraine. A harrowing and gorgeous tale of love, identity, lost innocence, and survival set in a time of devastating war, The Sunflower Boys is a powerful, heartrending exploration of young queer love, the Ukrainian spirit, and a family’s struggle to survive.

Tonight in Jungleland

Tonight in Jungleland

Peter Ames Carlin

4.082025History
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A fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the making of Bruce Springsteen’s ground-breaking album, Born to Run — one of the most iconic records in rock history — Tonight in Jungleland combines lush music writing with unprecedented inside access to Springsteen, his bandmates, and the full story behind every song… and coincides with the album’s 50th anniversary in August 2025.From the opening piano notes of “Thunder Road,” to the final outro of “Jungleland” — with American anthems like “Born to Run” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” in between — Bruce Springsteen’s seminal album, Born to Run, established Springsteen as a creative force in rock and roll. With his back against the wall, he wrote what has been hailed as a perfect album, a defining moment, and a roadmap for what would become a legendary career.Peter Ames Carlin, whose bestselling biography, Bruce, gave him rare access to Springsteen’s inner circle, now returns with the full story of the making of this epic album. Carlin reveals a treasure trove of untold stories, detailing the writing and recording of every song, as well as the intense and at times tortuous process that mimicked the fault lines in Springsteen’s psyche and career, even as it revealed the depth of his vision.A must-read for any music fan, Tonight in Jungleland takes us inside a hallowed creative process and lets us experience history.

The Black Family Who Built America

The Black Family Who Built America

Cheryl McKissack Daniel

0.002025Biography
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The riveting story of the McKissack family—the founders of the leading Black design and construction firm in the United States, from its beginnings in the mid-1800s to its thriving status today—in a moving celebration of resilience and innovation.Captured in his native West Africa and enslaved on American shores by a North Carolina plantation owner, Moses McKissack I began to build his way to emancipation right from the start. Becoming an enslaved craftsman, he picked up the trade his family would become famous for in the earliest years of the 19th century, passing his learnings down to his children and seeing them off to freedom after the Civil War.The family would settle in Tennessee, getting its bearings in the building trades despite rampant discrimination, establishing a foothold that now sees its latest generations working at the absolute peak of its industry.The family’s fingerprints have been left all across the United States, spanning from Reconstruction to contemporary times, through projects like the Morris Memorial Building, Capers C.M.E. Church, John F. Kennedy International Airport, and Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.Here, Cheryl McKissack Daniel, CEO and president of McKissack & McKissack, reveals the full fascinating story of her family. So much more than an exploration of architectural achievements, The Black Family Who Built America is also a compelling illustration of how history rhymes and reverberates, and a celebration of the human spirit’s ability to overcome adversity and drive change. From Moses’s humble beginnings to Cheryl’s current role as a trailblazer and champion of diversity, the family’s journey underscores the importance of perseverance, innovation, and strategic vision in shaping a legacy that continues to inspire and impact the construction industry.

Here Comes the Sun

Here Comes the Sun

Bill McKibben

4.672025Science
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Our climate, and our democracy, are melting down. But Bill McKibben, one of the first to sound the alarm about the climate crisis, insists the moment is also full of possibility. Energy from the sun and wind is suddenly the cheapest power on the planet and growing faster than any energy source in history—if we can keep accelerating the pace, we have a chance.Here Comes the Sun tells the story of the sudden spike in power from the sun and wind and the desperate fight of the fossil fuel industry and their politicians to hold this new power at bay. From the everyday citizens who installed solar panels equal to a third of Pakistan’s electric grid in a year to the world’s sixth-largest economy—California—nearly halving its use of natural gas in the last two years, Bill McKibben traces the arrival of plentiful, inexpensive solar energy. He shows how solar power is more than just a path out of the climate crisis; it is a chance to reorder the world on saner, more humane grounds. You can’t hoard solar energy or hold it in reserves—it’s available to all.There’s no guarantee we can make this change in time, but there is hope—in McKibben’s eyes, our best hope for a new world that looks up to the sun, every day, as the star that fuels our world.From the acclaimed environmentalist, a call to harness the power of the sun and rewrite our scientific, economic, and political future.

Trumpets of Death

Trumpets of Death

Simon Bournel-Bosson

3.102025Graphic Novels
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One rainy night, Antoine is dropped off at his grandparents' remote house in the middle of the woods. He's stuck between a doting grandmother and a grandfather who is openly hostile to his presence, and time crawls by while he waits to hear from his parents. When Antoine ventures out with his grandfather to forage for mushrooms, intergenerational conflict and mysterious forces of nature culminate in a fearsome hunt through the forest that will resolve their differences once and for all.

The L.O.V.E. Club

The L.O.V.E. Club

Lio Min

3.752025Fantasy
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Three years ago, Elle (the “E” in the self-proclaimed L.O.V.E. Club) disappeared from Calendula, an affluent Chinese American suburb in inland California. Soon afterward, Liberty and Vera (“L” and “V”) moved away, leaving O alone with her grief, abandonment, and confusion… until Liberty and Vera return for their senior year of high school.Though the L.O.V.E. Club’s three remaining members once bonded as outcasts and gamers, they can’t pick up the pieces of their friendship. But the girls are drawn back to their old clubhouse, where they discover, loaded for them to play, a new game created by none other than the missing Elle.One click, and Liberty, Vera, and O are ported into Morning Glory, an ever-evolving botanical fantasy coded with their lived experiences, complicated history, and repressed insecurities. Unbeknownst to the others, O can’t remember the events surrounding Elle’s disappearance―but within the game, Elle has sent O a cryptic hint about Morning Glory’s real nature.While Liberty and Vera defeat increasingly sinister bosses, O grapples with the secret knowledge that her deepest wish, to reunite with Elle, might just come true. But as the girls progress through Morning Glory, O begins to wonder how well she actually knew any of her former best friends and if she’s ready to confront the hard truths―and dangerous revelations―about Elle in her returning memories.An immersive novel following three estranged high schoolers who are pulled into a video game to pursue the disappearance of their friend

The Freedom Seeker

The Freedom Seeker

Ruchira Gupta

4.462025Middle Grade
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In one girl’s relentless search for home and safety, The Freedom Seeker takes readers on a daring journey of displacement and immigration. Illuminated by the kindness of strangers across continents and the strength of the human spirit, renowned activist and award-winning documentarian Ruchira Gupta has written a powerful tale of resilience, hope, and the enduring strength of familial love.Twelve-year-old Simi Singh's life in Northern India is filled with love, family traditions, and ordinary worries about hockey competitions, school exams, and avoiding the snide remarks of her class nemesis. But when a single rock carrying a note crashes through their window during their Eid celebration, Simi’s life shatters.Her Sikh father and Muslim mother’s interfaith marriage is becoming a target of violent vigilantes. Faced with rising threats, they must make an impossible choice: stay and risk their lives, or flee their homeland. Simi’s father is the first of them to make the journey to the U.S., but when their petition to be reunited in America is denied, Simi and her mother are left with no choice but to attempt a perilous crossing through the Arizona desert with the help of a smuggler.Throughout her nail-biting journey toward safety and belonging, Simi will face unthinkable danger — and when Simi and her mother are separated during the crossing, each led to believe the other is dead, she refuses to accept this fate. Alone in an unfamiliar and unforgiving land, she must summon all her courage and resourcefulness to survive, find her mother, and reunite her shattered family.Endorsements"At once maddening and heartbreaking, The Freedom Seeker shows young readers there is also hope..." — Alan Gratz, New York Times bestselling author of Refugee

A Place for Us

A Place for Us

James Ransome

4.602025Picture Books
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When a little boy's mom picks him up from school, his day seems a lot like any other kid's. He and his mom go out for some fast food and then head to the library. But when they stay there till closing time, and then go to the park, we learn more. Through the lens of Ransome's evocative illustrations we see that they ate out because they don't have a kitchen to cook in. They went to the library because they don't have a quiet space to do homework. And at night, they settle in to sleep on a bench in a city park because they don't have a home. The next morning, they are awakened by the rising sun, Mom's bag is full of clean clothes, and there's a fountain for washing up—and finally they are ready for the walk to school. His classmates may or may not know about his living situation, but what shines throughout the story is the deep love he and his mom have for each other.A poignant wordless picture book about a homeless boy and his momEndorsementsChildren's Literature Legacy Award winner — James Ransome.

CeeCee

CeeCee

Shana Keller

4.442025Historical Fiction
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CeeCee is a young enslaved girl growing up alongside the two spoiled daughters she must work for on a plantation in Maryland. She takes care of them, catering to their every whim and suffering their casual cruelty. She learns to read by listening to their lessons and stories with the threat of punishment if caught.CeeCee receives help from the caring cook, Binty, and hope comes in the form of a different kind of escape. CeeCee chances everything for the possibility of a new life.A Cinderella retelling with a young enslaved girl in the title role. While many are familiar with the traditional Cinderella story, this retelling is sure to empower and uplift a new generation of young readers.EndorsementsLaura Freeman — Coretta Scott King Honor and NAACP Image Award winner.

The Invisible Parade

The Invisible Parade

Leigh Bardugo

3.902025Fantasy
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Everyone in the neighborhood was getting ready for the party.Everyone knew somebody on the guest list. . . .This was the day the dead returned.There's a party tonight, but Cala doesn't want to go. While her family prepares for the celebration, Cala grieves her grandfather and tries to pretend she's not afraid.But when she is separated from her family at the cemetery, Cala encounters four mysterious riders who will show her she is actually quite brave after all.Brimming with magic and humor, The Invisible Parade is the first picture-book collaboration between John Picacio and Leigh Bardugo.Set on the night of Día de Muertos, Cala's story is one of love, loss, and the courage that can be found in unexpected places.It's time to join the party! Adventure awaits readers of all ages on Día de Muertos in this stunningly original and lushly illustrated tour de force about family, love, and overcoming grief.Endorsements#1 bestselling author — Leigh BardugoWorld Fantasy Award and Hugo Award–winning artist — John Picacio

Songs for Ghosts

Songs for Ghosts

Clara Kumagai

3.922025Fantasy
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Seventeen-year-old Adam has just broken up with his boyfriend Evan and is not looking forward to the excruciating awkwardness at school for the rest of the term or a whole summer stuck at home with his dad, stepmom, and baby brother, Benji.But then Adam discovers a diary in some boxes in the attic and is quickly enthralled by its poignant story. It was written by a young woman living in Nagasaki in 1911. Adam is enraptured by her life and loves, becoming totally absorbed in her story. And then he starts to be haunted by her ghostly presence...A young adult coming-of-age novel full of longing, love, and ghosts from the past, inspired by both Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Japanese history. Equal parts globe-trotting love drama, chilling ghost story and exploration of Japanese history, Songs for Ghosts's poetic prose and memorable characters will leave readers breathless.

The Library of Unruly Treasures

The Library of Unruly Treasures

Jeanne Birdsall

3.932025Fantasy
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Gwen MacKinnon's parents are dreadful. Truly, deeply, almost impressively dreadful. So Gwen's not upset at all when she's foisted onto her never-before-seen Uncle Matthew for two weeks. Especially when it turns out he has a very opinionated dog named Pumpkin.Things take a turn for the weird when Gwen makes a discovery in the local library. A discovery that involves tiny creatures with wings. And no, they're not birds. They're called Ladhukan. But why can only Gwen and the youngest children, gathered for storytime, see them?The Ladhukan insist that Gwen is destined to help them find a new home. But how can a girl as unwanted, uncourageous, and generally unheroic as Gwen possibly come to the rescue? Pumpkin has a few ideas…The Borrowers meets Matilda in this funny, winning story of a girl who finds herself an unlikely hero when she stumbles upon a big secret about little creatures.EndorsementsFrom the National Book Award–winning author of the Penderwicks series.

The New Geography of Innovation

The New Geography of Innovation

Mehran Gul

4.002026Business
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The US is the source of just about all the technologies that define modern personal computers, operating systems, smartphones, e-commerce, web browsers, email, search engines, social networks, electric cars, and more. Most of the tech companies that created and monetized these technologies are also in the US. In this book, Mehran Gul, the winner of the Financial Times/McKinsey Bracken Bower Prize, asks: is that changing?Less than a decade ago, the sentiment towards Chinese tech companies was often dismissive and complacent. Now the alarm bells are ringing. But as the commentariat pontificates on how the US–China tech battle will play out, an equally interesting question is: are there more Chinas out there?Samsung, a South Korean conglomerate, competes with Apple to be the world’s largest manufacturer of smartphones. Arm, founded in the UK, develops chip designs that are used in more than 90% of all mobile devices. Spotify, based in Sweden, is the most popular music streaming service in the world.That’s not all. The world’s most important semiconductor company, TSMC, is in Taiwan. The other most important company in the semiconductor industry, ASML, is in the Netherlands. Some of the world’s best-known games like Minecraft, Candy Crush, and Angry Birds came from gaming studios in the Nordics. Nearly all the major electric battery manufacturers, like CATL, LG, and SK On, are in Asia.This is a story about technology and the places where it finds its way into the world. Silicon Valley has for half a century been unrivalled in spinning out technologies and fast-growing, high-value, billion-dollar-plus tech companies—the Apples, Facebooks, Googles of the world—that made it the center for the most rapid creation of wealth in human history. Its secrets are spreading to more places.The geography of innovation is shifting. The world has a lot more high-value tech companies than ever before, growing a lot faster than ever before, in a lot more places than ever before. This is a book about these places.A groundbreaking exploration of the shifting landscape of technological innovation and how it has transformed into a global phenomenon, challenging the traditional dominance of Silicon Valley.

Dogs

Dogs

C. Mallon

3.732025Literary Fiction
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A singular, devastating debut novel, Dogs traces the fallout of one catastrophic night in the lives of five high school wrestlers, asking what can survive in the blast radius of latent trauma and violence.As night falls on the city of Carbon, Hal and his friends are cruising the backroads in their terrible car. From the wrestling gym to the gas station, from his mom’s kitchen to the mall parking lot, Hal bears quiet witness to the beauty and the horror he perceives in the slow, lonely world of his hometown.Withdrawn and reticent, Hal is haunted by the specter of violence. Safety and comfort are hard won in Carbon, a town dogged by stories of desperation and brutality, and his own home is a dark vault of troubled and unspoken memory. Hal’s greatest peace is found in the company of his dearest friend, Cody John, whose true compassion offers him a window to a better life.Over the course of a single night, a catastrophic chain of events is set into motion. Its devastating conclusion will explode the fragile balance that once kept the boys together. Unflinching, resolute and beautifully rendered, Dogs is a stunning exploration of trauma, real love, and the limit of our ability to reach one another.

My Year of Fear and Freedom

My Year of Fear and Freedom

Marita van der Vyver

0.002025
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When Covid-19 pulled the rug out from under Marita van der Vyver and her Frenchman, they were forced to sell their old, large house in the French countryside. They decided to get rid of most of their earthly possessions and travel far across the world. In this journey, which spans three continents, van der Vyver explores a lifetime of memories as one of Afrikaans's greatest writers. Sometimes you have to lose a lot, and also be willing to lose yourself, before you can truly gain freedom.

The Possession of Alba Díaz

The Possession of Alba Díaz

Isabel Cañas

3.872025Horror
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In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family’s isolated mine for refuge. But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bear their teeth: Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions. She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. Something angry. Something wrong.Elías, haunted by a troubled past, came to the New World to make his fortune and escape his family’s legacy of greed. Alba, as his cousin’s betrothed, is none of his business. Which is of course why he can’t help but notice her every time she enters a room or the growing tension between them… and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon’s thirst for blood grows stronger.When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn’t trust…EndorsementsFrom bestselling author Isabel Cañas.

How Bad Things Can Get

How Bad Things Can Get

Darcy Coates

3.742025Horror
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It was supposed to be the party of the century: miles of idyllic white sand beaches, lush jungle foliage...and a dark legend nobody dreamed might be all too true.When an online influencer and several hundred of his most loyal fans land on Prosperity Island, the plan is simple: five days of elaborate games, drinking, and suntanned fun.A week in paradise should have been a welcome respite. The only survivor of an infamous cult, Ruth wants nothing more than to keep her head down and not draw attention. She's spent decades outrunning her blood-soaked childhood, and her identity is a closely held secret.But then the true history of the island is revealed…along with its sinister connection to Ruth's past. As guests go missing and games turn deadly, Ruth and the rest of the attendees are forced to question whether they've really been invited to paradise...or whether something much darker―and far bloodier―is waiting for them just beyond the bonfire's light.

Departure 37

Departure 37

Scott Carson

3.832025Horror
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On a clear October day, the American skies empty after hundreds of pilots refuse to fly, triggering a complete ground stop as authorities seek to explain an act of baffling coordination that the pilots insist was anything but planned. The pilots received disturbing, middle-of-the-night calls from their mothers, and each mother had a simple and urgent do not fly today.There are a few concerning elements to the calls. None of the mothers remember making them—and some of the mothers are dead.While the nation’s military chiefs and artificial intelligence experts mobilize in search of answers, a sixteen-year-old girl named Charlie on the coast of Maine watches a strange, silvery balloon drift across the water and toward her home—a place she loathes. Her father’s dream of opening a craft brewery on an old airfield has been a disaster, and all she wants is an escape back to Brooklyn.She’s about to get much more than that.Her new home is ground zero for a story that begins at a remote naval base in Indiana during the winter of 1962, when a physicist named Martin Hazelton discovered something extraordinary—and deadly. All Hazelton wanted was time to seek an explanation, but pressure from both American and Russian actors forced him into a perilous race.Moving between the two characters and timelines, Scott Carson deftly weaves Cold War espionage with contemporary terror.Horror meets coming-of-age in this thrilling novel in which forgotten Cold War mysteries make a terrifying reappearance.Endorsements“a master.” — Stephen King“a fan for life.” — Joe Hill

Tall Water

Tall Water

S.J. Sindu

4.042025Young Adult
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Ever since she turned sixteen, Nimmi has wanted to see her mother. Though she has a loving but overprotective father and a budding relationship, she yearns to travel to Sri Lanka to confront the mother who refused to leave the island during a war, not even for Nimmi’s sake. Her father is going back for the first time as a reporter on assignment, but he refuses to take her, deeming Sri Lanka too dangerous.But then Nimmi's mother appears to her in a dream, asking her to come find her, and Nimmi knows she must go. Her father is livid when he sees her at baggage claim, but by then it’s too late, and he reluctantly agrees to help Nimmi make contact with her mother. In Sri Lanka, Nimmi tags along with her father and his guide, past checkpoints and armed soldiers and increasing hints of the war that rages there.However, the day after Christmas, disaster strikes and a tsunami ravages the island. Stranded amid the devastation and destruction, can Nimmi reunite with her mother? Through her journey, Nimmi might just learn that the person she most needed to find was herself.A coming-of-age teen graphic novel that follows one girl’s journey to Sri Lanka to reconnect with her long-lost mother during the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.