Nothing beats curling up with a good book on a wintry day! Let our reader's advisory experts help you with your next pick (or two). These newly published and on-order items are featured in our Winter of Reading Book Buzz.
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Margaret Ryan never really meant to start a book club . . . or a feminist revolution in her buttoned-up suburb.

Charlie and Vivian parted ways after just four years of marriage. Too many problems, too many struggles. When Charlie returns to Wisconsin forty years later, he's not sure what he'll find. He is sure of one thing-he must try to reconnect with Vivian to pick up the broken pieces of their past. But forty years is a long time. It's forty years of other relationships, forty years of building new lives, and forty years of long-held regrets, mistakes, and painful secrets. This is a literary valentine that promises to become a love-story for the ages.

After nearly losing the election to a geriatric donkey, newly installed Mayor Delizia Miccuci can’t help but feel like the sun has finally set on the rural Italian village of Lazzarini Boscarino. Tourists only stop by to ask for directions, Nonna Amara’s cherished ristorante is long shuttered, and the town hall is disgustingly overrun with glis glis poo—even Postman Duccio has been disgraced. All that’s left is Bar Celebrità, a rustic establishment where weary locals gather to quibble over decades-long disputes, submit their poor stomachs to bartender Giuseppina’s volcanic espresso, and wonder what will become of the place where together they’ve spent their entire lives. Little do the villagers know that local truffle hunter Giovanni Scarpazza has just happened upon something that could change everything. A truffle—un tartufo, that is—sits beneath the soil with the power to either be the greatest gift or the foulest curse the village has ever seen.

When Noah's aging parents stop returning his calls, he travels to their Virginia home and finds it in shambles. They have been violently possessed via the media they watch-and much of the country is succumbing, too. With his nephew-also unaffected-Noah tries to return home to safety.

Darkly funny and provocative, this edge-of-your-seat thrill ride follows two unlikely fugitives—an SAT tutor who finds her rich employers brutally murdered and the bound woman she frees from their mansion—an irresistible debut novel perfect for fans of The Guest and My Sister, the Serial Killer.

A first-rate ghostwriter and successful mystery author needs to make a buck--even if that means setting foot on a cruise ship, something she vowed she'd never do. To top it off, the 'Get Lit Cruise' is being organized by Payton Garrett, a very popular, bestselling author--and the ghostwriter's long-time frenemy from back in their MFA days. Over the years, Payton has reinvented herself. She gained a wife while ditching her journalist husband--who is also on board. And she's acquired a rabid following who eagerly snapped up the invitations sent to a select few of her newsletter subscribers. The guests, all female, will receive personalized instruction from experts in five different writing genres, while basking in Payton's reflected glow. Between mentoring guests, flirting with Payton's ex, and taking bets on how long before someone performs a reenactment of Titanic's 'I'm flying!' scene, there's plenty to keep a ghostwriter occupied. But there's one activity nobody expected: solving a murder.

This is a story about a fight between neighbors when the folks next-door are on the Forbes 400 list and you're the guy fixing an irrigation ditch in a vest mended with duct-tape. Big Timber, Montana is one of the windiest towns in one of the windiest states in the country. Mountain gap winds howl down from the Crazies like a coyote, rattling windows in their frames and nudging semi-trucks sideways on Interstate 90. Most locals learn to live with the wind. Rick Jarrett sought his fortune in it. His decision to erect Crazy Mountain Wind would spark fifteen years of legal tussles, pitting him against a Texas oil magnate, a flashy Vegas criminal defense attorney, the heir to the largest privately held company in America, and a former cop committed to conserving and preserving this last best place on earth.

I Am Nobody’s Slave tells the story of one Black family's pursuit of the American Dream through the impacts of systemic racism and racial violence. This book examines how trauma from enslavement and Jim Crow shaped their outlook on thriving in America, influenced each generation, and how they succeeded despite these challenges.

London, 19th century. Harriet Hunt has a special relationship with the garden outside her house. A year after the mysterious disappearance of her father, a cruel man who left her buried in his debts, the garden is her only solace. But a woman alone is vulnerable and as debt collectors and law enforcement swoops in, ready to take advantage of her dire situation, Harriet has no choice but to marry for her own protection. Soon, she finds herself attached to a man worse than her father. Determined to find the truth behind her father's disappearance and finally free herself from the controlling men in her life, Harriet discovers that her garden is more than just a sanctuary: it contains a strange magic that responds to her emotions in ways she can't explain. And as she struggles to take back her power, it becomes clear there are dark things tangled in her garden's roots.

The story of a young Haitian woman in California who becomes involved with the Black Panthers and discovers that being part of the revolution may not always mean equal justice for women.

A fun and fascinating social history of the famed Katharine Gibbs School, which from the 1910s to the 1960s, trained women for executive secretary positions but surreptitiously was instilling the self-confidence and strategic know-how necessary for them to claim equality, power, and authority in the wider world.

The women of this beguiling, darkly fabulist, new story collection grapple with the question "What do we owe our family and friends in times of wild uncertainty?" as they strive to be good mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, wives, and companions in a world that is constantly shifting around them.

Inspired by true events, a thrilling Depression-era novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books about a woman’s quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library—a converted mining train that brought books to isolated rural towns in Montana.

Dorothy Valentine is close to getting her PhD in wildlife biology when she's attacked by a lion. On the bright side, she's saved! On the not-so-bright side, it's because they're abducted by aliens. In her scramble to escape, Dory and the lion commandeer an escape pod and crash-land on an alien planet that has...dinosaurs? Dory and her new lion bestie, Toto, are saved in the nick of time by a mysterious and sexy alien, Sol. On their new adventure, they team up with the equally hot, equally dangerous Lok, who may or may not be a war criminal. Whether it be trauma, fate, or intrigue, Dory can't resist the attraction that's developing in their trio.

In this debut mystery, DCI Lilian Wyles, the first woman detective chief inspector in the CID, is determined to find a killer with the help of the four queens of crime, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham, perfect for fans of Elly Griffiths and Claudia Gray.

Taking over her parents’ estate-sale business is not the life’s work that Emma Lewis bargained for. Yes, she grew up helping them empty people’s nests, but nothing prepared her for her biggest and stickiest “get”--the grand, beautiful house of ill repute masquerading as a decidedly beddable B and B. Should Emma turn down potential clients in need of decluttering just because they are shady, escort-y, and proud of it?
No. A girl must make a living.

Americans are caught up in bulk. We guiltily watch Amazon boxes pile up on the porch, wade through endless reviews to find the perfect product, and crave the comforting indulgence of a chain restaurant. In American Bulk, Emily Mester intertwines cultural critique and personal history to explore how the things we buy, eat, amass, and discard become an intimate part of our lives.

In 1919, as civil and social unrest grips the country, there is a little corner of America, a place called Harlem where something special is stirring. Here, the New Negro is rising and Black pride is evident everywhere...in music, theatre, fashion and the arts. And there on stage in the center of this renaissance is Jessie Redmon Fauset, the new literary editor of the preeminent Negro magazine The Crisis. W.E.B. Du Bois, the founder and editor of The Crisis, has charged her with discovering young writers whose words will change the world. .

The Chester Square Cookery School in the heart of London offers students a refined setting in which to master the fine art of choux pastry and hone their hollandaise. True, the ornate mansion doesn't quite sparkle the way it used to--a feeling chef Paul Delamare is familiar with these days. Worn out and newly broke, he'd be tempted to turn down the request to fill in as teacher for a week-long residential course, if anyone other than Christian Wagner were asking. The students are a motley crew, most of whom seem more interested in ogling the surroundings (including handsome Christian) than learning the best ways to temper chocolate. Yet despite his misgivings, Paul starts to enjoy imparting his extensive knowledge to the recruits--until someone turns up dead, murdered with a cleaver Paul used earlier that day to prep a pair of squabs. Did one of his students take the lesson on knife techniques too much to heart, or was this the result of a long-simmering grudge?

Margot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember. They spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. People who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she picks apart their bodies and toasts them off with some vegetable oil. But Mama's want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a beautiful, white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, Margot must face the possibility that her life is changing for good.

A beautiful reclamation of a pioneering South Asian actress captures her glittering, complicated life and lasting impact on Hollywood.

The early 2000s conjures images of inflatable furniture, flip phones, and low-rise jeans. It was a new millennium and the future looked bright, promising prosperity for all. The internet had arrived, and technology was shiny and fun. For many, it felt like the end of history: no more wars, racism, or sexism. But then history kept happening. Twenty-five years after the ball dropped on December 31st, 1999, we are still living in the shadows of the Y2K Era. In Y2K, one of our most brilliant young critics Colette Shade offers a darkly funny meditation on everything from the pop culture to the political economy of the period. By close reading Y2K artifacts like the Hummer H2, Smash Mouth's "All Star," body glitter, AOL chatrooms, Total Request Live, and early internet porn, Shade produces an affectionate yet searing critique of a decade that started with a boom and ended with a crash.

The daughter of a Taiwanese father and white mother, Vi Liu has never quite fit into her Midwestern college town. Aimless after getting dumped by her boyfriend and dropping out of college, Vi works at the front desk of a hotel where she greets guests, refills cucumber water samovars, and tries to evade her bubbly blond coworker, Rachel. Little does Vi know her life is about to be permanently transformed when she agrees to a night out with Rachel. In the alley outside the bar, Vi discovers a strange blob--a small living creature with beady black eyes. In a moment of concern and drunken desperation, she takes it home. But the blob is no ordinary pet. Becoming increasingly sentient, it begins to grow, shift shape, and obey Vi's commands. As the entity continues to change, Vi is struck with a daring idea: she'll mold the creature into her ideal partner.

Thirteen-year-old Mary Agnes Coyne, forced from her home in rural Ireland in 1886 after being accused of incest, endures a treacherous voyage across the Atlantic alone to an unknown life in America. From the tenements of New York to the rough alleys of Chicago, Mary Agnes suffers the bitter taste of prejudice for the crime of being poor and Irish. After moving west to Colorado, Mary Agnes again faces hardships and grapples with heritage, religion, and matters of the heart. Will she ever find a home to call her own? Where?

A whimsical and healing novel about a trans man in New York who-almost 30, laid off, broke-moves back to his small Illinois hometown, walks into the bookstore he worked at in high school. . . and slips through time to come face-to-face with his pre-transition, teenage self.

In his quest to disentangle myth from facts, Marco Visscher asks: How dangerous is radiation? What should you do after a nuclear accident? Have nuclear weapons really made the world less safe? And why do some still reject the evidence showing the atom can provide unlimited clean energy, free countries of their dependence on fossil fuels and combat climate change? This is an informed look at what we might do with nuclear power - and what nuclear power is doing to us.

Edie is done with crime. Eight years in prison changes a person. Particularly when you're only there because your partner, your best friend, your all-but-sister, sold you down the river. Even getting Edie out on early parole doesn't earn Angel any forgiveness. That's why Edie knows they'll turn down Angel's offer of a job. One last, big score. A chance to take down the man who put them away: Joyce Atlas. But Edie's lost too much time with their family. A heavily pregnant sister, a seriously ill niece, and a nephew who wasn't born before they went to prison. There's not a question. Edie's going straight. Or trying to - but Atlas has had them blacklisted from every employer on the station. Edie really doesn't want to work with Angel. It's far too complicated, they're far too angry, and Angel is bringing up a lot of confusing feelings. But they don't have any other choice . . . And if they pull it off, the 1.25 billion payout might just soothe some old wounds.

A wickedly funny and audacious debut novel following an academic who flees from heartbreak and lands in Iraq with a one-of-a-kind job offer—only to be forced to do the work of confronting herself.

Part myth retelling, part character study, this debut poetry collection reimagines the mythic beauty from Homer's "Iliad" as a disgruntled housewife in 1990s Tennessee. Zoccola explores Helen's isolation and rebellion as her expansive personality clashes with the social rigidity of a small town: she marries the wrong man, gives birth to a child she is not ready to parent, and begins an affair that throws her life into chaos, but she never surrenders ownership of her story or her choices.
From visionary storyteller David Rubín (Cosmic Detective, The Hero), El Fuego is a psychological, philosophical, and geographical odyssey through the last remaining days of planet Earth. It is the story of one particular inhabitant, who must decide how much more of himself to give to the greater good before truly finding peace within.