Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney

A gripping first-hand account of the January 6th, 2021 insurrection from inside the halls of Congress, from origins to aftermath, as Donald Trump and his enablers betrayed the American people and the Constitution—by the House Republican leader who dared to stand up to it.
 
In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the Constitution: they ignored the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and provoked a violent attack on our Capitol.   Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican officials to take a stand against these efforts, witnessed the attack first-hand, and then helped lead the Congressional Select Committee investigation into how it happened. In Oath and Honor, she tells the story of this perilous moment in our history, those who helped Trump spread the stolen election lie, those whose actions preserved our constitutional framework, and the risks we still face.

The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose

A new mess. A new mystery. It’s up to Molly the maid to uncover the truth, no matter how dirty, in this standalone novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid, a Good Morning America Book Club pick.

“Polished to perfection!”—Shari Lapena, author of Everyone Here Is Lying

“A page-turning delight from start to finish . . . Once I checked into the Regency Grand, I never wanted to leave.”—Jenny Jackson, author of Pineapple Street

A POPSUGAR AND CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Molly Gray is not like anyone else. With her flair for cleaning and proper etiquette, she has risen through the ranks of the glorious five-star Regency Grand Hotel to become the esteemed Head Maid. But just as her life reaches a pinnacle state of perfection, her world is turned upside down when J. D. Grimthorpe, the world-renowned mystery author, drops dead—very dead—on the hotel’s tearoom floor.

When Detective Stark, Molly’s old foe, investigates the author’s unexpected demise, it becomes clear that this death was murder most foul. Suspects abound, and everyone wants to know: Who killed J. D. Grimthorpe? Was it Lily, the new Maid-in-Training? Or was it Serena, the author’s secretary? Could Mr. Preston, the hotel’s beloved doorman, be hiding something? And is Molly really as innocent as she seems?

As the high-profile death threatens the hotel’s pristine reputation, Molly knows she alone holds the key to unlocking the killer’s identity. But that key is buried deep in her past, as long ago, she knew J. D. Grimthorpe. Molly begins to comb her memory for clues, revisiting her childhood and the mysterious Grimthorpe mansion where she and her dearly departed Gran once worked side by side. With the entire hotel under investigation, Molly must solve the mystery posthaste. Because if there’s one thing she knows for sure, it’s that secrets don’t stay buried forever.

Starkweather by Harry N. MacLean

The definitive story of Charles Starkweather, often considered to be the first mass killer in the modern age of America

On January 21, 1958, nineteen-year-old Charles Starkweather changed the course of crime in the United States when he murdered the parents and sister of his fourteen-year-old girlfriend (and possible accomplice), Caril Ann Fugate, in a house on the edge of Lincoln, Nebraska. They then drove to the nearby town of Bennet, where a farmer was robbed and killed. When Starkweather’s car broke down, the teenagers who stopped to help were murdered and jammed into a storm cellar. By the time the dust settled, ten innocent people were dead and the city of Lincoln was in a state of terror. Schools closed. Men with rifles perched on the roofs of their houses. The National Guard patrolled the street. If there is a cultural version of PTSD, the town suffered from it.

Starkweather and Fugate’s capture and arrest, and the resulting trials about the killing spree, received worldwide coverage. The event would serve as the inspiration for the movie Natural Born Killers and Springsteen’s iconic album Nebraska. Today, the story has dropped far from the national consciousness. With new material, new reporting, and new conclusions about the possible guilt or innocence of Fugate, the tale is ripe for an updated and definitive retelling. In Starkweather, bestselling author Harry N. MacLean tells the story of this shocking event and its lasting impact, a crime spree that struck deep into the heart of the heartland.

Alice Sadie Celine by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright

“Obsessed!” —Chloë Sevigny
“I am literally obsessed.” —Busy Philipps

A hypnotic, sexy, and incisive debut adult novel following one woman’s affair with her daughter’s best friend that tests the limits of love and ambition from #1 New York Times bestselling author of Red Riding Hood.

It’s opening night, but Alice’s performance in the local Bay Area production of The Winter’s Tale is far from glamorous. She doesn’t have dreams of stardom, but the basement theater in a wildfire-choked town isn’t exactly what she envisioned for her career back home in Los Angeles. To make matters worse, her best friend Sadie is not even coming.

Pragmatic, serious Sadie and flighty, creative Alice have been best friends since high school—really one another’s only friends—but now that they are through with college (which they attended together) and living on opposite ends of California, Alice would at least expect her friend’s support. Sadie, determined not to cancel her plans with her boyfriend, ends up enlisting the help of her mother, Celine.

A professor of women’s and gender studies at UC Berkeley, Celine’s landmark treatise on sex and identity made her notorious, but she’s struggling to write her new book in a post-second-wave feminist world. So, when Sadie begs her to attend Alice’s play, she relents, if only to escape writer’s block. But in a turn of perplexing events, Celine becomes entranced by Alice’s performance and realizes that her daughter’s once lanky, slightly annoying best friend is now an irresistible young woman.

Set over the course of decades—from Alice and Sadie’s early friendship days and Celine’s decision to leave her husband to the radical movements of 1990s Berkeley and navigating contemporary Hollywood—Alice and Celine’s affair will test the limits of their love for Sadie and their own beliefs of power, agency, and feminism. Witty and relatable, sexy and surprising, Sarah Blakley-Cartwright’s debut adult novel is a mesmerizing portrait of the inner lives of three very different women.

Listen: On Music, Sound and Us by Michael Faber

“I’m not here to change your mind about Dusty Springfield or Shostakovich or Tupac Shakur or synthpop. I’m here to change your mind about your mind.” There are countless books on music with much analysis given to musicians, bands, eras and/or genres. But rarely does a book delve into what’s going on inside us when we listen. Michel Faber explores two big questions: how do we listen to music and why do we listen to music? To answer these questions, he considers a range of factors, which includes age, illness, the notion of “cool,” commerce, the dichotomy between “good” and “bad” taste and much more. From the award-winning author of The Crimson Petal and the White and Under the Skin, this idiosyncratic and philosophical book reflects Michel Faber’s lifelong obsession with music of all kinds. Listen will change your relationship with the heard world.

Goodbye Riona

We said goodbye to Bookseller Riona recently, but she’s not going far. She’s joining the team at the Key West Library and planning to start a Masters in Library and Information Science through distance learning at the University of South Florida. For old time’s sake, we asked Riona a few questions and she offered up a few book recommendations.

Q: What will you take away about your time at the bookstore?

A: I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Books & Books, and have especially enjoyed branching out into other genres. I have read fantasy and literary fiction, but have branched out into science, history, and romance. The bookstore’s lifeblood is its booksellers and volunteers, who always have a great recommendation and kind word ready! I will take away the vibrant passion everyone has for connecting readers to the right book at the right moment.

Q: What are you looking forward to at the library?

A: At the library, I’m looking forward to continuing to connect readers to new books and authors. I am also excited to help the community engage with all the resources and programs accessible through the library, such as clubs and online options, such as Libby for ebooks and audiobooks.

Q: What was your favorite book of 2023 or what are you reading now?

A: This is a tough one! I have devoured a slew of great books this year. I just finished listening to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty and am about to finish Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. Both are audiobooks through Libro.FM with dynamic narrators and fantastic stories. I’m eagerly awaiting Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff, the sequel to Empire of the Vampire (which was incredibly engrossing). I am also on the Fourth Wing and Iron Flame bandwagon; such fast-paced and fun books! I have a lot of friends expecting new babies this year, and have loved gifting Jory John’s Nothing’s Wrong! picture book. It’s a blast to read and the illustrations are whimsical!

Our Favorite Books of 2023

Wellness by Nathan Hill tops store co-founder Judy Blume’s list this year. She wrote, “Wellness is compelling and quirky and yes, funny, because this is Nathan Hill writing, but it sometimes broke my heart.  It goes deep but never tries too hard, never shouts look at me!” Read her full review.

She also recommends, Absolution by National Book Award winner Alice McDermott.

Bookseller Leslie loved Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. She writes, “This book was a surprise because I almost didn’t pick it up since it was ‘about gaming’ a topic that I’m not all together interested in. To me, it’s not really about gaming, but people, and relationships. I was so invested in the characters, and really cared about all of them.”

Store manager Emily loved Go As a River by Shelley Read, a debut novel inspired by the destruction of a town in the 1960s.

S. A. Cosby has another hit in All the Sinners Bleed, which was Lori’s featured staff pick in October, which she calls “a wild, wild ride!”

You know we’re giving you the good stuff with our featured staff picks. This month’s pick The MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut, also tops co-found George Cooper’s year-end list. “Don’t be fooled by the title, or its listing as fiction. This is a brilliant biography of the greatest genius of the 20th century, John von Neumann, inventor of Game Theory and the modern digital computer,” George writes.

Social Media Manager Robin writes of Camille Dungy’s Soil, “This is a smart, beautiful, wide-ranging book that will draw you in and change how you look at the world around you.”

Of Time and Turtles by Sy Montgomery, and illustrated by Matt Patterson is Bookseller Gina’s favorite book of the year. “Did you know that turtles lived with the dinosaurs?” asks Gina. “Ever watched Jurassic Park? The sound of a Velociraptors “bark” in the movie is actually the sound of giant tortoises mating! With another amazing tale of rescue, release (sometimes) & the humans behind the scenes, Sy Montgomery will captivate your heart, mind, and make you think about driving safer with this great book.”

And, she adds, “the pictures are astounding!”

Bookseller Camila loved Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

Bookseller Sara brings two books to your attention:

Lighter by Yung Pueblo. She writes, “I was on a self development path when I came across the author Yung Pueblo and this book was everything I was looking for. Lighter is a book that will bring you towards a deeper understanding of yourself.”

And Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. “This was a book that I couldn’t put down. It was witty, empowering and demonstrated Elizabeth’s determination to challenge societal norms of being a woman in the 1960s in her unconventional way. As a chemist, she navigated her new career path as a host in a television show by staying true to herself – cooking using scientific reasoning with trial and error to make the perfect dishes for dinner at six.”

Share with us on social media what your favorite books of the year were, and stay tuned for more excellent reading in 2024.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

The special hardcover collector’s edition of Casey McQuiston’s beloved New York Times bestselling novel, featuring illustrated endpapers, bonus content, pink stained edges and more!

For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.

But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.

Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a magical, sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time.

Sailing the Graveyard Sea by Richard Snow

A riveting account of the only mutiny in the history of the United States Navy—a little-known event that cost three innocent young men their lives—part murder mystery, part courtroom drama, and as propulsive and dramatic as the bestselling novels of Patrick O’Brian.

On December 16, 1842, the US brig-of-war Somers dropped anchor in Brooklyn Harbor at the end of a cruise intended to teach a group of adolescents the rudiments of naval life. But this seemingly harmless exercise ended in catastrophe. Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie came ashore saying he had narrowly prevented a mutiny that would have left him and his officers dead. Some of the thwarted mutineers were being held under guard, but three had been hanged: Boatswain’s Mate Samuel Cromwell, Seaman Elisha Small, and Acting Midshipman Philip Spencer, whose father was the secretary of war, John Spencer.

Eighteen-year-old Philip Spencer, according to Mackenzie, had been the ringleader who encouraged the crew to seize the ship and become pirates, raping and pillaging their way across the old Spanish Main. And while the young man might have been a rebel fascinated by pirates, it soon became clear the order that condemned the three men had no legal basis. And worse, that perhaps a mutiny had never really occurred, and that the ship might instead have been seized by a creeping hysteria that ended in the sacrifice of three innocents.

Months of accusations and counteraccusations were followed by a highly public court martial which put Mackenzie on trial for his life, and a storm of anti-Navy sentiment drew the attention of the leading writers of the day (Washington Irving thought Mackenzie a hero; James Fenimore Cooper damned him with a ferocity that still stings). But some good did come out of it: public disgust with Mackenzie’s training cruise gave birth to Annapolis, the place that within a century, would produce the greatest navy the world had ever known.

Vividly told and filled with tense action based on court martial transcripts, Snow’s masterly account of this all-but-forgotten episode is naval history at its finest.

The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell

This is book number 1 in the Detective Inspector Caius Beauchamp series.

You know how they live. This is how they die…

A STUNNING DEBUT FROM YOUR NEXT FAVORITE MYSTERY WRITER • Rupert’s 30th birthday party is a black-tie dinner at the Kentish Town McDonald’s—catered with cocaine and expensive champagne. The morning after, his girlfriend Clemmie is found murdered on Hampstead Heath, a single stiletto heel jutting from under a bush.

“A perfectly modern whodunnit.” —Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author of I Will Find You

Who killed Clemmie? Was it the blithe, sociopathic boyfriend? His impossibly wealthy godmother? The gallery owner with whom Clemmie was having an affair? Or was it the result of something else entirely?

All the party-goers have alibis. Naturally. This investigation is going to be about aristocrats and Classics degrees, Instagram influencers and whose father knows who.