Hazel Hayes

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Texas

A Novel

One of E! News' 13 Books to Read This September | One of Bookish's Debuts to Read in the Second Half of 2021 | One of Medium's Best Releases Out Today “Hazel Hayes writes with such honesty and casual confidence and flowing dialogue, you feel you are overhearing it rather than reading it. The writing sparkles with wit and a poignant emotional reality. I love it.”—Matt Haig, bestselling author of The Midnight Library “A smart, touching, time-bending romance. Funny and affecting.”—David Nicholls, bestselling author of One Day and Sweet Sorrow For anyone who has loved and lost, and lived to tell the tale, this gorgeously written debut is a love story told in reverse, a modern novel with the heart of a classic: truthful, tragic, and ultimately full of hope. Out of Love begins at the end. A couple call it quits after nearly five years, and while holding a box of her ex-boyfriend’s belongings, the young woman wonders: How could they have spent so long together? When did they fall out of love? Were there good times before the bad? These are the questions we obsess over when a relationship ends, even when obsessing can do no good. But instead of moving forward through the emotional fallout of a break-up, Out of Love moves backward in time, weaving together an already unraveled tapestry, from tragic ending to magical first kiss. Each chapter jumps further into the past, mining their history for the days and details that might help us understand love; how it happens and why it sometimes falls apart. Readers of Normal People; Goodbye, Vitamin; and One Day will adore this bittersweet romance, a sparkling debut that you won’t want to miss.

Out of Love

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Claire Dederer

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

A Fan's Dilemma

A passionate, provocative, blisteringly smart interrogation of how we make and experience art in the age of #MeToo, and of the link between genius and monstrosity. * From the author of the New York Times best seller Poser and the acclaimed memoir Love and Trouble

"Thrillingly sharp, appropriately doubtful, and more fun than you would believe, given the pressing seriousness of the subject matter." --Nick Hornby, best-selling author of High Fidelity

In this unflinching, deeply personal book that expands on her instantly viral Paris Review essay, "What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?" Claire Dederer asks: Can we love the work of Hemingway, Polanski, Naipaul, Miles Davis, or Picasso? Should we love it? Does genius deserve special dispensation? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss?

She explores the audience's relationship with artists from Woody Allen to Michael Jackson, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster in order to create something great. And if an artist is also a mother, does one identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art.

Monsters

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Ellery Lloyd

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

A razor-sharp, wickedly smart suspense debut about an ambitious influencer mom whose soaring success threatens her marriage, her morals, and her family's safety. Followed by Millions, Watched by One To her adoring fans, Emmy Jackson, aka @the_mamabare, is the honest "Instamum" who always tells it like it is. To her skeptical husband, a washed-up novelist who knows just how creative Emmy can be with the truth, she is a breadwinning powerhouse chillingly brilliant at monetizing the intimate details of their family life. To one of Emmy's dangerously obsessive followers, she's the woman that has everything--but deserves none of it. As Emmy's marriage begins to crack under the strain of her growing success and her moral compass veers wildly off course, the more vulnerable she becomes to a very real danger circling ever closer to her family. In this deeply addictive tale of psychological suspense, Ellery Lloyd raises important questions about technology, social media celebrity, and the way we live today. Probing the dark side of influencer culture and the perils of parenting online, People Like Her explores our desperate need to be seen and the lengths we'll go to be liked by strangers. It asks what--and who--we sacrifice when make our private lives public, and ultimately lose control of who we let in. . . . --Samantha Downing, USA Today bestselling author of My Lovely Wife and He Started It

People Like Her

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Ali Smith

Autumn

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Sian Gilbert

For fans of Lucy Foley and Liane Moriarty, She Started It is a hot, twisty summer debut thriller about a group of young women whose Caribbean bachelorette party takes a sinister turn. It's Lord of the Flies meets And Then There Were None...but with Instagram and too much prosecco. The party of a lifetime is nothing like what they expected... Annabel, Esther, Tanya, and Chloe are best friends--or were, as children. Despite drifting apart in adulthood, shared secrets have kept them bonded for better or worse, even as their childhood dreams haven't quite turned out as they'd hoped. Then one day they receive a wholly unexpected--but not entirely unwelcome--invitation from another old friend. Poppy Greer has invited them all to her extravagant bachelorette party: a first-class plane ticket to three days of white sand, cocktails, and relaxation on a luxe private island in the Bahamas. None of them has spoken to Poppy in years. But Poppy's Instagram pics shows that the girl they used to consider the weakest link in their group has definitely made good--and made money. Curiosity gets the better of them. Besides, who can turn down a posh all-expenses-paid vacation on a Caribbean island? The first-class flight and the island's accommodations are just as opulent as expected...even if the scenic island proves more remote than they'd anticipated. Quite remote, in fact, with no cell service, and no other guests. The women quickly discover they've underestimated Poppy, and each other. As their darkest secrets are revealed, the tropical adventure morphs into a terrifying nightmare. Endlessly twisty, sharply observant, and deliciously catty, She Started It is sure to shock readers until the very end.

She Started It

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Claire Daverley

"I absolutely adored Talking at Night... A gorgeous story of first love, loss, and the people who stick to your ribs, it should be on everyone's must-read list. Beautiful, poignant, and heart-wrenching in the best way possible." ―Carley Fortune, New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After

Secret walks and late-night phone calls. An undeniable chemistry. A tragedy that haunts them both. A powerful yet tender love story between two people who can't help but be pulled back to each other.

This is the story of Will and Rosie. The two are opposites in every way and yet they fall for each other as teenagers; nineties music, sideways glances, sunsets and bonfires and talking late into the night. It's palpable, inevitable: they're on the precipice of starting something wonderful. Until one day, tragedy strikes, and any possibility of being together seems to shatter.

But time and again, Rosie and Will find their way back to each other. Though the years pass, they cannot quite let go of what might have been.

Talking at Night tells a story of sudden connections, missed opportunities, the many loves we have over a lifetime--and the one that keeps us coming back, again and again, for more.

Talking at Night

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Richard Powers

The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. Robin is a warm, kind boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He's also about to be expelled from third grade for smashing his friend in the face. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental neurofeedback treatment to bolster Robin's emotional control, one that involves training the boy on the recorded patterns of his mother's brain...

With its soaring descriptions of the natural world, its tantalizing vision of life beyond, and its account of a father and son's ferocious love, Bewilderment marks Richard Powers's most intimate and moving novel. At its heart lies the question: How can we tell our children the truth about this beautiful, imperiled planet?

Bewilderment

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Kelley Skovron

From Kelley Skovron comes a ghostly mystery that explores the little-known history of Nazi indoctrination camps in the United States.

It started off small. Just a dripping outside my window.

When Morgan witnesses some eerie happenings in her family's new house, at first she shrugs them off. But as the unsettling dripping noises--and the sounds of someone crying--become more frequent, she starts to get nervous. Then a neighbor asks Morgan a blood-chilling question: What's it like to live in a haunted house?

It seems Morgan's new home is notorious in the town of Port Jefferson, all because of Joseph Klaus, a boy who drowned in the 1930s after vanishing from his summer camp. Morgan begins learning all she can about the Klaus boy and uncovers the little-known history of the German American Bund, a Fascist organization that indoctrinated children and forced them into labor. Klaus wasn't just escaping from any old summer camp--he was fleeing American Nazis.

As Morgan discovers the heartbreaking history of her new town, she'll have to do everything she can to protect her family from the spirits it left behind. Because the ghost of Joseph Klaus is still trying to get home--even if he drowns the people living there.

The GHOST of DROWNED MEADOW

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Naomi Wood

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

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Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

A warm, incisive new novel about the enduring bonds of marriage and friendship from Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, author of the instant New York Times bestseller The Nest Flora Mancini has been happily married for more than twenty years. But everything she thought she knew about herself, her marriage, and her relationship with her best friend, Margot, is upended when she stumbles upon an envelope containing her husband's wedding ring--the one he claimed he lost one summer when their daughter, Ruby, was five. Flora and Julian struggled for years, scraping together just enough acting work to raise Ruby in Manhattan and keep Julian's small theater company--Good Company--afloat. A move to Los Angeles brought their first real career successes, a chance to breathe easier, and a reunion with Margot, now a bona fide television star. But has their new life been built on lies? What happened that summer all those years ago? And what happens now? With Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's signature tenderness, humor, and insight, Good Company tells a bighearted story of the lifelong relationships that both wound and heal us.

Good Company

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Nikki Shannon Smith

One storm. One winter. One girl's fight for survival. A contemporary My Side of the Mountain, Stranded is the story of a wilderness-hungry Black girl from Manhattan whose journey in the Adirondack mountains becomes a nail-biting story of courage, independence, and survival. Eleven-year-old Ava Adams is looking for something different. The tall Manhattan buildings around her feel like walls closing in. And what if she doesn't fit in with her city-loving friends or busybody family who think Black folks "don't do nature?" But in a twist of fate, Ava is shocked to learn that her parents are actually allowing her to stay with her Aunt Raven in the Adirondacks for the summer. In her Auntie's simple cabin, living off the land with nature's beauty filling her senses, the woods feel more like home than Manhattan. As Summer comes to a close and Aunt Raven has to leave for the winter, the dream has to come to an end. Or does it? When Aunt Raven leaves, Ava expects her parents' truck to arrive any moment. But as the hours go by, the reality sinks in. They're not coming. That night, one storm will change everything. When lightning strikes a nearby tree just before it lands on the cabin, the roof and the water tank of Aunt Raven's cabin are instantly destroyed. With no cell reception and no neighbors for miles, Ava begins to realize what she's up against: A frozen garden, a diminishing supply of food, an abandoned neighboring farm, and mountains blanketed with snow and ice mean Ava is on her own--literally. And her newly developed survival skills might not be enough. It's the ultimate test, but this isn't just about proving something to her parents. It's about proving it to herself.

Stranded

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Coco Mellors

For readers of Modern Lovers and Conversations with Friends, an addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage. Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank's life is full of all the excesses Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a Green Card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could've predicted. Each compulsively readable chapter explores the lives of Cleo, Frank, and an unforgettable cast of their closest friends and family as they grow up and grow older. Whether it's Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender queerness in the wake of Cleo's marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates to support herself after being cut off, or Cleo and Frank themselves as they discover the trials of marriage and mental illness, each character is as absorbing, and painfully relatable, as the last. As hilarious as it is heartbreaking, entertaining as it is deeply moving, Cleopatra and Frankenstein marks the entry of a brilliant and bold new talent.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein

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Thao Votang

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Told with deadpan humor and brutal honesty, this debut novel follows Vietnamese-American Linh Ly’s unraveling as she reckons with the traumas of both her past and present, perfect for fans of Joan is Okay and Luster. When 27-year-old Linh Ly’s recently-divorced mother begins dating a coworker, Linh is determined to make sure he is worthy of her mother. She’s seen the kind of men her mother ends up with—she grew up watching her unreliable and volatile alcoholic father as her mother worked two jobs to make ends meet. Linh is certain that her mother can’t do this on her own, but what begins as genuine worry quickly turns obsessive. Following her mother and spying on her dates becomes part of Linh’s routine, especially after a university shooting at Linh’s work that leaves her feeling adrift—at least her mom’s dating life gives her something to focus on. Linh doesn’t exactly have a life of her own (dating or otherwise) and figures the best course of action is action—not how she handled the shooting: curl up in a ball and wait it out. Linh is slowly forced to reconcile the image of her mother from her childhood with the woman she’s getting to know as an adult. Growing up Vietnamese in the middle of Texas with a broken household taught Linh a certain guarded way of living—one she never quite left behind. Moving, insightful, and caustically funny all at once, Like Moonlight depicts a quarter-life crisis in deeply relatable prose.

Linh Ly Is Doing Just Fine

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Miranda July

The New York Times bestselling author returns with an irreverently sexy, tender, hilarious and surprising novel about a woman upending her life "A giddy, bold, mind-blowing tour de force by one of our most important literary writers."—George Saunders, Booker-Prize winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo "Profound and bawdy and deeply human, a brilliant work of art from a completely blown open and fearless mind."—Emma Cline, New York Times bestselling author of The Guest A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey. Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.

All Fours

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Lauren Weisberger

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK * From the bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada and When Life Gives You Lululemons comes a highly entertaining, sharply observed novel about sisters, their perfect lives . . . and their perfect lies.

"Goes down like an ice-cold guilty pleasure on a hot beach-reading day."--USA Today

A seat at the anchor desk of the most-watched morning show. Recognized by millions across the country, thanks in part to her flawless blond highlights and Botox-smoothed skin. An adoring husband and a Princeton-bound daughter. Peyton is that woman. She has it all.

Until . . .

Skye, her sister, is a stay-at-home mom living in a glitzy suburb of New York. She has degrees from all the right schools and can helicopter-parent with the best of them. But Skye is different from the rest. She's looking for something real and dreams of a life beyond the PTA and pickup.

Until . . .

Max, Peyton's bright and quirky seventeen-year-old daughter, is poised to kiss her fancy private school goodbye and head off to pursue her dreams in film. She's waited her entire life for this opportunity.

Until . . .

One little lie. That's all it takes. For the illusions to crack. For resentments to surface. Suddenly the grass doesn't look so green. And they're left wondering: will they have what it takes to survive the truth?

Where the Grass Is Green and the Girls Are Pretty

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Danielle Svetcov

For fans of Rebecca Stead and Joan Bauer comes a scrappy, poignant, uplifting debut about family, friendship, and the importance of learning both how to offer help and how to accept it.

"A big-hearted novel with characters I wish were my friends in real life." --Gennifer Choldenko, author of the Al Capone at Alcatraz series

Jeanne Ann is smart, stubborn, living in an orange van, and determined to find a permanent address before the start of seventh grade. Cal is awkward, sensitive, living in a humongous house across the street, and determined to save her. Jeanne Ann wants Cal's help just about as much as she wants to live in a van.

As the two form a tentative friendship that grows deeper over alternating chapters, they're buoyed by a cast of complex, oddball characters, who let them down, lift them up, and leave you cheering. Debut novelist Danielle Svetcov shines a light on a big problem without a ready answer, pulling it off with the perfect balance of humor, heartbreak, and hope.

"Insightful [and] touching...Not to be missed." --Karen Cushman, author of The Midwife's Apprentice
"For readers of Dan Gemeinhart [and] Katherine Applegate." --The Children's Book Review
"You won't be able to put it down. Trust." --ScaryMommy.com
"Relatable and beautifully told." --Commonsense Media
"Pertinent....Honest...Uplifting...Fresh." --PW
"Utterly of this moment." --Jack Cheng, author of See You in the Cosmos
"Absorbing and warmhearted." --Annie Barrows, author of the Ivy & Bean series
"Realistically hopeful...Recommended." --SLC
"Sharp...Perceptive." --BCCB
"Unforgettable." --Brightly

Parked

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The Only One Left 

Rebecca Woolf

A Memoir of Death and Desire

"Beautifully written, complex, provocative, painful, genuine...an unforgettable memoir."--ROXANE GAY

"Wonderfully lyrical and uncomfortably honest in a way that is so rare, yet so needed."--JENNY LAWSON

"Disturbing and profound, this intimate book also reveals the sometimes-labyrinthine nature of the bonds that unite people in love...A provocative and memorable work."--Kirkus Reviews

After years of struggling in a tumultuous marriage, writer Rebecca Woolf was finally ready to leave her husband. Two weeks after telling him she wanted a divorce, he was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. Four months later, at the age of forty-four, he died.

In All of This, Woolf chronicles the months before her husband's death--and her rebirth after he was gone. With rigorous honesty and incredible awareness, she reflects on the end of her marriage: how her husband's illness finally gave her the space to make peace with his humanity and her own.

Stunning, compelling, and brilliantly nuanced, All of This is one woman's story of embracing the complexities of grief without shame--as a mother, a widow, and a sexual being--and emerging on the other side of a relationship with gratitude and relief.

All of This

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Baek Sehee

Anton Hur

Conversations with My Psychiatrist

The sequel to the bestselling South Korean therapy memoir, translated by International Booker Prize-shortlisted Anton Hur.When Baek Sehee started recording her sessions with her psychiatrist, her hope was to create a reference for herself. She never imagined she would reach so many people, especially young people, with her reflections. I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki became a runaway bestseller in South Korea, Indonesia, and the U.S., and reached a community of readers who appreciated depression and anxiety being discussed with such intimacy.Baek's struggle with dysthymia continues in I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki. And healing is a difficult process; the inner conflict she experiences in treatment becomes more complex, more challenging. With this second book, Baek Sehee reaches out to hold the hands of all those for whom grappling with everyday despair is part of a lifelong project, part of the journey.

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

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The Work Wife (ARC) 

Bird and Book

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