Twelve new short stories from the master of horror. Standouts for me: “Rattlesnakes,” a sequel to 1981’s Cujo, and “The Answer Man,” my personal favorite, which asks us to ponder the meaning of our own lives and ask ourselves how we will approach the inevitable end of it.
Beauty, horror, humor and humanity are all present in the pages from the true King of the genre.
~ Lori
What a dynamic book, it pulled me into Frankie’s life and her service in Viet Nam as an army nurse during this turbulent time in history of a nation divided by war and politics. I could not put it down Kristin Hannah is a master in writing.
-Betty, Store Volunteer
A #1 bestseller on The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times!
From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah’s The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.
But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.
The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.
Colored Television by Danzy Senna (Riverhead Books), picked by manager Emily
When her novel (dubbed the “mulatto War and Peace”) is rejected by her agent, Jane wonders if pivoting to television might finally give her the life she wants; time and energy to enjoy her family, a nice house in a good school district and an audience that will actually consume and appreciate her work.
Jane is used to life between worlds but will this new venture, and the deception she practices to get there, all finally be too much?
No book is ever about one thing, at least not the good ones, but rarely does a story perfectly mix together life’s big issues. Senna cleverly examines race, class, and cultural consumption while still producing a fun and compelling read.
~ Emily, store manager
About as steamy as any novel I’ve ever read, but also profounding eye-opening politically, having nothing to do with sex. More twists than plateful of fusilli.
-George, store co-founder
“A suspenseful story of two women forced to stay in a house in the Dutch countryside. This novel gives tremendous insight on how the Dutch handled the repercussions of the Holocaust, and how a generation lost affects those who survive.”
— Josie Williams, Invitation Bookshop, Gig Harbor, WA
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
“Remarkable…Compelling…Fine and taut…Indelible” —The New York Times • “Mesmerizing and shockingly good…I was utterly blown away.” —Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace • “A brilliant debut, as multifaceted as a gem.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) • “Moving, unnerving, and deeply sexy.” —Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with the Pearl Earring • “Fans of Patricia Highsmith and Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen will find much to admire here.”—Vulture
An exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961—a powerful exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.
A house is a precious thing…
It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season.
Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to infatuation—leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva—nor the house in which they live—are what they seem.
Mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, and infused with intrigue, atmosphere, and sex, The Safekeep is a brilliantly plotted and provocative debut novel you won’t soon forget.
I couldn’t put this book down – the perfect summer mystery read! It had me all the way until the last sentence!
The dynamic of the two alternating timelines are seamlessly woven together uncovering family secrets and lies that leave you wondering exactly how far this family is willing to go to keep things hidden – and who is helping them.
This book has an ending you won’t see coming, and leaves you with a smile on your face.
Simone St. James is back with an exciting new book! A young couple on their honeymoon (with plenty of secrets of their own) are caught up in the search for a serial killer on a lonely stretch of backwoods road. Scary good fun!
-Lori, Bookstore Staff
A young couple find themselves haunted by a string of gruesome murders committed along an old deserted road in this terrifying new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Cold Cases.
July 1995. April and Eddie have taken a wrong turn. They’re looking for the small resort town where they plan to spend their honeymoon. When they spot what appears to a lone hitchhiker along the deserted road, they stop to help. But not long after the hitchiker gets into their car, they see the blood seeping from her jacket and a truck barreling down Atticus Line after them.
When the hitchhiker dies at the local hospital, April and Eddie find themselves in the crosshairs of the Coldlake Falls police. Unexplained murders have been happening along Atticus Line for years and the cops finally have two witnesses who easily become their only suspects. As April and Eddie start to dig into the history of the town and that horrible stretch of road to clear their names, they soon learn that there is something supernatural at work, something that could not only tear the town and its dark secrets apart, but take April and Eddie down with it all.
When her mother dies Stella is left with a one way ticket and an unusual request “Go to Paris”…
Very similar to myself, Stella isn’t one to stray to far out of her comfort zone, but impulsively she honors her mother’s final request.
Here’s where the fun starts: through fashion, new friends, a mysterious painting and most importantly FOOD Stella begins to understand what it truly means to live YOUR life, take chances, and live your life to the fullest. (Hey, I quit my job and moved to Key West!)
This book is a true feast for the senses (especially your taste buds – did I mention the food???)
Transport yourself to Paris and LIVE!
~ Gina
MOSTLY DEAD THINGS by Kristen Arnett is a painfully accurate depiction of grief – and I can’t decide if it is made more or less moving, more or less profound, by how incredibly grisly it is. It is incredibly grisly, full of literal blood and guts, but despite being someone who leaves the room when the CSIs uncover the body on TV, this novel completely fascinated me.
It’s a story of misguided love, repressed artistic vision, grief of various kinds and all things taxidermy. Jessa-Lynn Morton is trying to keep her father’s taxidermy shop operating after his suicide, while contending with her mother’s alternate vision for the animals as art. Business matters are complicated by Jessa’s romantic misadventures, foremost of which is that she and her brother, Milo, share a love interest – his wife – who loved and left them both.
MOSTLY DEAD THINGS sometimes jumps fully into the absurd, but it is grounded by Arnett’s talent for concrete detail.
Late in the book the characters have a conversation about art:
“It’s a good thing when you can’t stop thinking about a piece,” she said. That’s when you know it’s done the work. When you can’t get it out of your head afterward.”
I can’t get this book out of my head – and I’m looking forward to hearing what you all make of peacocks, a bear rug and bondage gear.
CLICK HERE TO READ A Q&A WITH ARNETT IN OUR AUGUST 2024 NEWSLETTER
There’s nothing so interesting as reading a history of a profound event when you have an uncomfortable dread that you are living through a run-up to its successor, in this time when a modern “Demon of Unrest” is plaguing our nation.
Legendary story-teller Larson gives us a detailed account of the period from Lincoln’s election in November, 1860, to the fall of Ft. Sumter on April 13, 1861 and the beginning of the Civil War. We are with the protagonists, North and South, each step of the way as the opportunities for compromise slip away and war fever takes hold. The deadly bombardment of the Fort becomes not a military battle, but a grander version of the duels that still animated Southern manhood.
In this brilliant addition to Civil War literature, Larson is a master of the telling detail, the moment or quotation that makes us pause. Like this from the southern Senator and plantation owner James Henry Hammond, famed for claiming “Cotton is King.” Near the end of the war, he acknowledged:
We are here two races, white and black, now both equally American, holding each other in the closest embrace, and utterly unable to extricate ourselves from it, a problem so difficult, so complicated, and so momentous, never was placed in charge of any portion of mankind and on its solution rests our all.
Who among us now, one-hundred sixty-five years later, would say that we have found that solution.
“Once you start this dark family saga you won’t want to put it down. Rapp’s writing is mesmerizing. His characters are wonderfully complex and flawed, and his ability to set them in the perfect time and place is masterful. It’s really hard to express just how incredibly special this novel is in just a few sentences… Just trust me!”
-Emily, store staff
“I couldn’t agree more!”
-Judy, store co-founder
The Corrections meets We Need to Talk About Kevin in this harrowing multigenerational saga about a family harboring a serial killer in their midst in this “masterful novel” that “peers into the dark heart of America” (Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Independence Day)
As late summer 1951 descends on Elmira, New York, Myra Larkin, thirteen, the oldest child of a large Catholic family, meets a young man she believes to be Mickey Mantle. He chats her up at a local diner and gives her a ride home. The matter consumes her until later that night, when a triple homicide occurs just down the street, opening a specter of violence that will haunt the Larkins for half a century.
As the siblings leave home and fan across the country, each pursues a shard of the American dream. Myra serves as a prison nurse while raising her son, Ronan. Her middle sisters, Lexy and Fiona, find themselves on opposite sides of class and power. Alec, once an altar boy, is banished from the house and drifts into oblivion. As he becomes an increasingly alienated loner, his mother begins to receive postcards full of ominous portent. What they reveal, and what they require, will shatter a family and lead to devastating reckoning.
Through one family’s pursuit of the American dream, Wolf at the Table explores our consistent proximity to violence and its effects over time. Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Rapp writes with gorgeous acuity, cutting to the heart of each character as he reveals the devastating reality beneath the veneer of good society.
