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Berlin before and after

"A biography of the city that uses the approximately 100-year period of 1929-2029 to frame and examine Berlin's history as well as its great reckoning with its own horrific heritage." -- Provided by publisher

We Will See You Bleed

"It's late summer 1984, and Babs Dionne's hometown of Waterville, Maine is on the verge of collapse. A strike at the paper mill has dragged on for a year, pitting neighbor against neighbor, leaving everyone broke and exhausted. As head of the union local, Babs has presided over Little Canada's decline. She's sworn off violence since killing a man when she was a teenager, and has stuck to this vow even as it's become clear that only violence can save their community. When Babs' best friend Rita returns home after five years away, she is shocked by the state of things. And as the strike comes to a head, Rita notices something else: the men may be broken, but the women are furious, ready to do whatever necessary to take back Little Canada. They just need Babs to be the fearless woman who emerged from the woods fifteen years ago, drenched in blood. They need Babs to face what she already knows: that the only way to fix things is to assume control. Completely. Mercilessly. Poignant, unflinching, and brimming with sharp humor, We Will See You Bleed is a triumphant second installment in this electrifying crime thriller series by award-winning author Ron Currie." -- Book jacket flap

Voices From the Kitchen

"Contains 27 personal histories of immigrant restaurant workers in New York City whose stories of persistence, hope, and endurance show how vital they are to our country."-- Provided by publisher

Unsayable

"Try using language to slit the skin of mortality to see what's on the other side. At the age of three, Michael Cunningham began obsessively collecting the names of things: oak, Chevrolet, finch, tulip, Tupperware.... Each word rendered the world ever so slightly more understandable, more describable, kicking off a lifelong love affair with language -- one that would, eventually, maybe inevitably, lead him to become a writer. In Unsayable , Cunningham's memories spill forth, and with them, reflections on the craft of writing. He is fifteen, in a swiming pool at night with his best friend, trying to decipher the other boy's mysterious, contemplative silences. He is a new college graduate, setting off for nowhere in a Dodge Dart, hoping to pull meaning (and a novel) from the expanse of America. He is on Cape Cod, regaling an elderly couple with invented tales of youthful escapades. He is in an art gallery, unwittingly having the first in a lifetime of conversations with the man he would marry. A thread ties each beautifully wrought moment to the next: what is unspoken, what won't yield to language, what is embellished beyond recognition, what is still left to say. Luminous, perceptive, and powerful, Unsayable is an ode to literature, a meditation on craft, and an intimate account of a life spent trying to put into words that which resists depcition. This, it turns out, is the lifeblood of the fiction writer: the impossibility of capturing the human experience, and the relentless desire to try." -- Front book flap

The Tailor

"Detective Sergeant George Cross is nothing if not precise. When a man is found dead in the first-class toilet of a train--with his throat cut, a plastic bag over his head--the grisly scene shocks his fellow officers. Cross registers every details, but it's not the blood that interests him. It's the victim's exquisite suit. The dead man is a tailor by the name of Billy Titcomb, trusted by clients around the world for his meticulousness and discretion. Who would want a tailor dead? With his new partner, DC Alice Mackenzie, Cross starts pulling at the threads. There's a widow grieving in peculiar ways. A dead scientist whose suicide doesn't add up. And two South Korean tourists with embassy connections who keep showing up in places they shouldn't. The deeper Cross digs, the less this looks like a simple murder, and the more it looks like a professional operation. DS Cross has the highest conviction rate in the force. But in the world of spies and state secrets, the rules are different--and for the first time, the people trying to stop him may be on his own side. Can Cross stitch it all together before this case unravels him?" -- From book jacket flap

Sunrise

"In 2024, Nina's small-engine plane crashes into a lake in the Wyoming mountains. Her boyfriend Ben, who was flying it, is nowhere to be found. Lost and freezing on the shore, Nina is armed with only a few old protein bars, a phone with no service, and a vague hope of rescue. It is up to her to survive in the vast wilderness. But then she stumbles upon Sunrise--a town of the Old West that is strangely well maintained, but seemingly abandoned. A place that holds the missing link to a ghost story one hundred years in the making. In 2003, local golden boy Coll is putting the finishing touches on the town's annual historical reenactment. But when an upstart would-be author comes to him with questions about one of Sunrise's most beloved figures, it threatens to upend everything he thought he knew about the city--and himself. In 1902, town founder, gunslinger, and legendary pulp hero Anton Vargas returns to Sunrise and quickly takes charge of a group searching for a missing boy. But who really is Vargas? What does he know about the boy's disappearance? And why has he returned after such a long absence? These three strangers are separated by time and circumstance. But Sunrise's many secrets are like gunpowder: quiet, contained, until they encounter a spark. Magisterial and suspenseful, Téa Obreht's novel challenges the myths we think we know: of heroes and villains, of the people and places to which we lay claim, and, most of all, of our own lives." -- Provided by publisher

Solstice

"Boston, 1969. Eve, a dancer whose feelings are expressed through the body and movement, senses an inexplicable distance growing between herself and her husband, Gabe, a journalist and father of her two children. Feeling lost and alone, she begins an affair; Gabe detects it immediately and begins one himself. Yet somehow they find their way back to each other, and when Eve gives birth to a daughter, their marriage becomes vital again. Years later, when Gabe returns from a reporting trip to the Middle East and Berlin, Eve again perceives something is wrong in her marriage. He has always had a darkness she could not fathom--deep psychological scars from his childhood, when Gabe escaped Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport. Amsterdam, 1991. Newly separated from Gabe, Eve has accepted a fellowship to choreograph a dance inspired by the story of Adam and Eve. When a colleague introduces her to a new translation of the ancient text, Eve begins to redefine the way she thinks about women, men, and relationships--and, perhaps, to see another path back to her marriage." -- Provided by publisher

The Perilous Fight

On September 1, 2016, Colin Kaepernick took a knee during "The Star-Spangled Banner," but the world never fully understood the whole story. Not the "why" or the cost of his courage. That story begins in Turlock, California, where Kaepernick, a Black kid adopted into a white family, navigated constant resistance to His Blackness and sense of self. Sports became his refuge and his proving ground, where his talent could not be questioned. The extraordinary result? A quarterback whose arm and instincts would carry him to the Super Bowl and into history books. But with success came an education he hadn't anticipated. In the fraught world of sports politics, he saw the hidden powerhouses pulling the strings. Steeled with the readings of Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Huey P. Newton, and Angela Davis, he saw in the NFL, in Turlock, in the repeated, unpunished police killings of Black and Brown Americans, an undeniable truth revealed: this was not someone else's fight. It was his. It is ours. When Kaepernick knelt, the NFL blackballed him. But in the ten years since, the questions his protest raised have not gone away. In The Perilous Fight, Kaepernick delivers his story with the same unflinching conviction that defined his most-watched moment, a single act of protest that changed American sports and culture forever. And ultimately, it is a story about the future we are all still fighting to build.

The Novel Detective

A Cuban-born mystery writer returns to Havana at the request of her childhood friend to investigate the suspected suicides of a teacher and student at their former high school. The investigation connects the events of 1980 with the writer's present-day return to Cuba and her memories of adolescence.

Liars in Paradise

"With five days to clear her partner's name after a horrific crime, private detective Ginny Dugan infiltrates a cultish secret society on Long Island's Gold Coast in this champagne-soaked followup to Glitter in the Dark." -- Publisher marketing

Let the Murderer Say Amen

"As prosperity and great cultural changes sweep across 1920s Jazz Age America, Nola Ann Jackson learns more about developing her natural psychic talents from her aunt--talents that prove crucial when she investigates murder in her Black community--in this thrilling historical mystery written by a real-life psychic medium and jazz pianist." -- Provided by publisher

The Intrigue

"Handsome con artist Ulises has long charmed lonely women via letters to steal their money, but money is hard to come by in 1940s Mexico. Ulises knows his looks won't last forever, and he's desperate to get his hands on a real fortune. He thinks he's found it when he captivates his newest correspondent, Perla, the owner of a small-town boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But when he meets her, he finds something he didn't expect. The woman has a niece, Inés, who is as observant as she is desperate to escape her aunt's household. When Inés discovers Ulises' true intentions, she wants in on the scheme. They'll convince her aunt that Ulises is a great catch, Perla will marry him, and her money will vanish. Easy, fast and clean. But Perla is not the desperate, silly spinster Ulises imagines. She harbors secrets. And although Ulises does not believe in true romance, Inés is more alluring than he bargained on. Suddenly, a simple plan may become perilously complicated. Venture into the streets of a small town where the patina of convention and good manners conceals a cauldron of avarice and lust."-- Provided by publisher

Dèy

"'Is home the place where we are born? Or is it the place where we die?' These questions haunt Magnolia, a successful Haitian American real estate agent in Miami. When she hears gunfire while at a shopping mall, she takes shelter in a nearby restaurant, cowering with fellow shoppers and diners. Once she's safely home, Magnolia keeps this traumatic event from everyone. But given her life back, she begins to see everything clearly: her extraordinary bond with her daughter, Zoë; her nearly broken relationship with Zoë's father; the challenges of her mentally troubled mother, whose unraveling patterns Magnolia worries she's spiraling toward herself; and her father's affair with a woman who has borne him a child. While struggling through the labyrinth of her past, Magnolia must also come to terms with the losses sustained that life-altering day, and nearly every day by her parents and sibling in Haiti. Can love or family protect us from harm? Does optimism or fear win out in one's heart? Which side will prevail for Magnolia? Pulled between these questions, each of which involves a high-stakes choice--Miami or Haiti, single or married, mortal or ghost, before or after--Magnolia is a narrator who is 'yon pati koukouy, part firefly' flitting and shimmering between different worlds. Taking as its title a Haitian Kreyòl word for mourning, Dèy is a profoundly warm and moving novel about the importance not only of sharing grief but also of inseverable family ties."-- Book jacket flap

The Beauty of the Days Gone by

"Inspired by real events, an epic Western novel about a legendary cattle rancher and a family torn apart by the violent struggle between Texans, Comanche, and Kiowa in the aftermath of the Civil War. 1866. On a sun-drenched stretch of West Texas prairie, the Terry brothers are playing idly near their family ranch when a Kiowa war party descends without warning. Their father, former Texas Ranger RL Terry, returns to a scene of devastation: his home in flames, his wife mortally wounded, and his two sons carried off into captivity. With the help of his close friend, the trailblazing cattle rancher Charles Goodnight, Terry spends years scouring the frontier in a desperate search for his boys-while his eldest son, his hopes of rescue fading, adapts to a new way of life under the tutelage of the legendary Comanche chief Quanah Parker. The narrative moves between the brutal post-Civil War frontier and the 1920s, where a ninety-year-old Goodnight, nearing the end of his life, reflects on his role in shaping the West-his days blazing the Goodnight-Loving trail and helping settle the land once known as Comancheria during the calamitous clash of cultures that defined the American West. Inspired by contemporary journals, testimony, and historical records, The Beauty of the Days Gone By is a cinematic, vivid, and impeccably rendered Western novel in the tradition of Lonesome Dove and Blood Meridian." -- Provided by publisher

The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State

"Much in history is headlong but few grand transformations have been more precipitate or more heedless than the rise of ... the Artificial State,' writes Jill Lepore in this passionate account of how rule by machine has ravaged the world. Inspired by Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism, which argued in 1951 that the machinery of modern life was reshaping the very fundamentals of human existence, Lepore, profoundly disturbed by the technology revolution and by the soulless inundation of artificial intelligence, unfurls a new history for our own twenty-first century. Building on an essay in The New Yorker in 2024, Lepore's clarion call traces our increasing dependence on and strangulation by data. Political campaigns, awash in an avalanche of fake bots, have been reduced to attention-mining algorithms, while multinational media corporations dictate public discourse, and the era of the liberal nation-state seems to be coming to a rapid end, replaced by billionaire technocrats reliant on autocracy and the tools of AI. With Orwellian overtones, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State demonstrates how technology has corroded global democracy, leading to the destruction of both human community and capacity for self-government, creating a new form of AI government, a digital citizen's assembly, where AI will recommend the course of action to humans in place of human-run legislatures. Especially sobering with this proliferation of 'dizzying, ever-changing schemes, prophesies, and predictions' is that the Artificial State has come at the expense of the natural world, leading to catastrophic loss of wildlife habitat and biodiversity. Deliberately alarming, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, despite its abundance of dire facts, is not a funeral dirge; rather, it's an inspiring wake-up call, written in Lepore's typically elegiac prose, which demonstrates that nothing about the Artificial State was inevitable, for it is a 'government without consent, even government without humans.' It can, Lepore asserts, be dismantled. Other heinous systems, like feudalism, fascism, and slavery, have also been dismantled, but disassembly requires identifying the parts, tracing the sources. It requires telling a new history. This is the purpose of The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State." -- From dust jacket

All That Is Left of Life

"The Ansaldo family's contented life is built on routine, with days spent running their beloved delicatessen and summers at their modest house by the sea. But when sixteen-year-old Betta sets off for a beach party and never returns, they are left only with grief - and questions. The town whispers, the police are lost, and as the family fractures under the weight of their loss, no one suspects the burden Miriam carries. She has answers, but vows to tell no one, even those who loved Betta most. Seeking to bury her heavy secret, Miriam drifts into the orbit of Leo, a young drug dealer, and gains an unlikely set of friends. But when Leo starts to pull loose the threads of Betta's fate, will his search for the truth offer Miriam a way forward or risk unravelling everything?" -- Provided by publisher

Separation of Powers

"In this essential and immensely timely book, Separation of Powers, Cass Sunstein explains why the separation of powers is necessary for both freedom and self-government. He shows that freedom from fear is a central goal of the separation of powers. He also explains why the executive branch is the most dangerous branch, why the idea of presidential immunity is a terrible one, and why an independent judiciary is crucial. Drawing on this extensive experience in the White House, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security, the author also argues that the separation of powers is, in fact, six separations of powers : 1. The legislature may not exercise the executive power -- 2. The legislature may not exercise the judicial power -- 3. The executive may not exercise the legislative power -- 4. The executive may not exercise the judicial power -- 5. The judiciary may not exercise the legislative power -- 6. The judiciary may not exercise the executive power. Each of these is essential to liberty under law" -- from the publisher

The Winding Trail to Newton's
Principia Mathematica

"An intellectual biography of the seventeenth-century masterwork that set down the laws of motion and universal gravitation and ushered in modern physics Long regarded as one of the most important works in the history of science, Isaac Newtons Principia laid the mathematical foundations of classical mechanics, planetary motion, and the laws of gravity. Jed Buchwald and Mordechai Feingold trace the long, wandering path by which these groundbreaking ideas took shapebeginning with the brilliant insights of a newly minted Cambridge BA and culminating in the publication of Newtons magnum opus in 1687. Drawing on fresh perspectives from Newtons manuscripts and related documents, Buchwald and Feingold situate him firmly within the vibrant scientific milieu of mid-seventeenth-century Cambridge. They explore the interactions with mentors and other contemporaries, emphasizing Newtons distinctive approach to linking motion with the emerging, new mathematics of the era. What develops is a portrait of a restless young scholar, prone to diving deep into a subject only to lose interest, until a letter, a conversation, or a visit would rekindle his interest. For nearly two decades prior to Edmond Halleys pivotal visit in 1684, Newton engaged only sporadically with celestial mechanics. In a narrative of fits and starts, Buchwald and Feingold show how, inspired or assisted by figures such as Isaac Barrow, Robert Hooke, John Flamsteed, and Halley, Newton gradually refined his ideas into what would become one of the most revolutionary books ever written." -- Book jacket

The Time Tax

Annie Lowrey's The Time Tax examines the burdensome paperwork, bureaucracy, and administrative hurdles Americans face when accessing government benefits and everyday services. It traces the historical roots of administrative burdens, including their use as tools of discrimination, and shows how they perpetuate poverty and erode trust in government. Lowrey argues that these burdens are unnecessary and advocates simplifying public administration to give citizens back their time.

Skin Contact

"A newly open marriage brings discovery, excitement, and upheaval to a young couple, and to the friends and lovers in their orbit. Thirty years old and reeling from her mother's recent death, Frances feels as if she's lost her sense of purpose, her joy; her husband, Ben, will do anything to help her. So when she suggests that they open their marriage, he's willing -- and maybe even a little intrigued. They invite a young woman into their bedroom, create a joint dating profile, and go on dates with other exploring couples, with mixed but often exciting results. Over the next five years, they explore their sexualities, navigating through jealousy, betrayal, desire, and obsession -- and the friends and lovers in their circle find themselves asking new questions about their own lives and relationships. When Ben finds himself falling in love with another woman, just as Frances realizes she's ready to settle down and have a baby, they're forced to confront the consequences of their experiment." -- Provided by publisher

The Shampoo Effect

"An ambitious young woman insinuates herself into a tight-knit social set, shaking up friendships and marriages in a small seaside town. A frothy novel of love, money, sex, and friendship, from the New York Times bestselling author of Pineapple Street ("Laugh-out-loud-good." -Harper's Bazaar) When Caroline Lash arrives in Greenhead, Massachusetts, she falls head-over-heels for Van Whittaker, a fleece-wearing, litter-collecting, kayak enthusiast with long, floppy hair and the personality of a Border Collie. Born and raised in this picturesque coastal village, Van runs with the same crowd he did as a kid: His ex-girlfriend, Bailey, a beautiful girl who attracts men like moths to a flame; Augusta, old money, horsey, and snobbish; and Fran, surrounded by brothers and sons, too fed up with boys to ever consider marrying one. Together, the group runs wild through the marshes, beaches, and bars of Greenhead, drinking on houseboats, spending long afternoons sunbathing with their children, and playing games the way they always have. But when Bailey discovers that she is pregnant with Van's baby, the delicate balance of the group's friendship is thrown off. Soon Caroline is cast out of the circle and what she does next-in a potent mix of fury and heartbreak-exposes long-held secrets and works the entire town of Greenhead into a lather. Dazzlingly funny, sexy, and as juicy as it is astute, The Shampoo Effect is a story of late-night parties, early mornings with small children, the dawn of midlife, and a group of old friends finally growing up despite all their best efforts to the contrary." -- Provided by publisher

Killer Vibes

Peter Key, a private investigator in Austin, Texas, inherits a deteriorating house from an uncle he barely knew. While dealing with the financial obligations associated with the property, he discovers a bag of cash and begins to question the circumstances surrounding his uncle's death. His investigation leads him into a criminal case involving deception and danger. Set in Austin, the novel combines mystery, suspense, and humor while introducing Peter Key as the central recurring investigator.

The Jackal

A black-bereted, gun-slinging avatar of one of the most turbulent eras in global politics, Carlos the Jackal burst onto the world stage in 1975 as the first true celebrity terrorist and the TV-ready face of a violent Palestinian resistance movement that was then just beginning to gain traction. In a bloody career that would ultimately span three decades, Carlos innovated a new kind of spectacular terrorism, one that embraced hijackings, hostage crises, airport bombings, and international assassinations. And he personally masterminded one of the era's most shocking crimes: the kidnapping for ransom of an entire conference of world oil ministers in Vienna. The polar opposite of most modern terrorists, Carlos prized large paychecks over ideology and styled himself as a swashbuckling lady's man who, despite his charm, murdered his victims with callous disregard, often with his own hand. Today, even from behind bars, Carlos can see his influence continue to reverberate. Through newly declassified archives, secret police files, long-repressed eyewitness accounts, and a rare interview with the Jackal himself, acclaimed journalist Joby Warrick reveals Carlos' far-reaching legacy as a pioneer of borderless terrorist attacks designed for television.

The Blue Flame

"The neon 'Strange Investigations' sign may be flickering in disrepair outside his office, and the stride in his step may be a bit slower than it used to be, but private investigator Derek Strange is still accepting new cases. When a flashy drug lawyer hires him to prove an alibi for an accused murderer, Strange swallows his distaste for the client and focuses on the young man in jail whose story isn't adding up. In his hunt for answers, he stands his ground against some of Washington, DC's most dangerous criminals, and a police department that doesn't entirely welcome his involvement. As violence escalates and claims another victim, the raised stakes force Strange to question his own moves. Are the instincts he's relied on all his life still good enough to keep him alive? The Blue Flame is signature Pelecanos: tough, smart, rich with details of a time and place--and at its core, exposing the good and bad that exist side by side in so-called heroes and villains alike."-- Dust jacket flap