A smattering of the day’s new releases. Just some Lowry, Riordan, crazy cool Ware. You know, no big whoop, unless you’re into things like awesome books. As usual, book blurbs are provided by the books’ publishers.
HARDCOVER FICTION
Son by Lois Lowry
Told in three separate story lines, Lois Lowry’s Son combines elements from the first three novels in her Giver Quartet—The Giver (1994 Newbery Medal winner), Gathering Blue, and Messenger—into a breathtaking, thought-provoking narrative that wrestles with ideas of human freedom.
***Lois Lowry will speak about & sign Son here at BookPeople on Monday, October 15 at 6pm. Tickets are now available for the signing line!
Building Stories by Chris Ware
Everything you need to read the new graphic novel Building Stories: 14 distinctively discrete Books, Booklets, Magazines, Newspapers, and Pamphlets. With the increasing electronic incorporeality of existence, sometimes it’s reassuring—perhaps even necessary—to have something to hold on to. Thus within this colorful keepsake box the purchaser will find a fully-apportioned variety of reading material ready to address virtually any imaginable artistic or poetic taste, from the corrosive sarcasm of youth to the sickening earnestness of maturity—while discovering a protagonist wondering if she’ll ever move from the rented close quarters of lonely young adulthood to the mortgaged expanse of love and marriage.
Phantom by Jo Nesbo
Following from Jo Nesbo’s electrifying international best-sellers The Snowman and The Leopard, comes Phantom. When Harry left Oslo again for Hong Kong–fleeing the traumas of life as a cop–he thought he was there for good. But then the unthinkable happened. The son of the woman he loved, lost, and still loves is arrested for murder: Oleg, the boy Harry helped raise but couldn’t help deserting when he fled. Harry has come back to prove that Oleg is not a killer. Barred from rejoining the police force, he sets out on a solitary, increasingly dangerous investigation that takes him deep into the world of the most virulent drug to ever hit the streets of Oslo and into the maze of his own past.
A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins
With a lightness of touch that belies pitch-perfect emotional control, Scott Hutchins takes us on an odyssey of love, grief, and reconciliation that shows us how, once we let go of the idea that we’re trapped by our own sad histories—our childhoods, our bad decisions, our miscommunications with those we love—we have the chance to truly be free.
In Sunlight and in Shadow by Mark Helprin
An epic love story set in post-war New York by the bestselling author of Winter’s Tale. Mark Helprin is the acclaimed author of Winter’s Tale, A Soldier of the Great War, Freddy and Fredericka, The Pacific, Ellis Island, Memoir from Antproof Case, and numerous other works. His novels are read around the world, translated into over 20 languages.
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Book Store by Robin Sloan
A gleeful and exhilarating tale of global conspiracy, complex code-breaking, high-tech data visualization, young love, rollicking adventure, and the secret to eternal life—mostly set in a hole-in-the-wall San Francisco bookstore. With irresistible brio and dazzling intelligence, Robin Sloan has crafted a literary adventure story for the twenty-first century, evoking both the fairy-tale charm of Haruki Murakami and the enthusiastic novel-of-ideas wizardry of Neal Stephenson or a young Umberto Eco, but with a unique and feisty sensibility that’s rare to the world of literary fiction.
Toby’s Room by Pat Barker
Pat Barker confirms her place in the pantheon of Britain’s finest novelists with a masterful novel that portrays the staggering human cost of the Great War. Admirers of the Regeneration trilogy and fans of Downton Abbey alike will be enthralled. The incomparable Booker Prize winner once again demonstrates her ability to eloquently convey simple, moving truths. The enormity of the war’s impact—not only on soldiers at the front but on the loved ones they leave behind—is poignantly expressed in her unflinching and elegant prose.
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HARDCOVER NONFICTION
America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t
by Stephen Colbert
In the history of mankind there has never been a greater country than America. But as perfect as America is in every single way, America is broken! And we can’t exchange it because we’re 236 years past the 30-day return window. Luckily, America Again will singlebookedly pull this country back from the brink. It features everything from chapters, to page numbers, to fonts. Covering subject’s ranging from healthcare (“I shudder to think where we’d be without the wide variety of prescription drugs to treat our maladies, such as think-shuddering”) to the economy (“Life is giving us lemons, and we’re shipping them to the Chinese to make our lemon-flavored leadonade”), Stephen gives America the dose of truth it needs to get back on track.
Does This Church Make Me Look Fat by Rhoda Janzen
What does it mean to give church a try when you haven’t really tried since you were twelve? At the end of her bestselling memoir Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, Rhoda Janzen had reconnected with her family and her roots, though her future felt uncertain. But when she starts dating a churchgoer, this skeptic begins a surprising journey to faith and love.
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
“What are you reading?” That’s the question Will Schwalbe asks his mother, Mary Anne, as they sit in the waiting room of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. This is the inspiring true story of a son and his mother, who start a “book club” that brings them together as her life comes to a close. Over the next two years, Will and Mary Anne carry on conversations that are both wide-ranging and deeply personal, prompted by an eclectic array of books and a shared passion for reading.They hare their hopes and concerns with each other—and rediscover their lives—through their favorite books.
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PAPERBACK FICTION
The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories by Don DeLillo
A finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Story Prize, the first ever collection of “dazzlingly told” (The New York Times) short stories—now available as a trade paperback. Nuns, astronauts, athletes, terrorists, and travelers, the characters in The Angel Esmeralda propel themselves into the world and define it. These nine stories describe an extraordinary journey of one great writer whose prescience about world events and ear for American language changed the literary landscape.
Damned by Chuck Palahniuk
“Are you there, Satan? It’s me, Madison,” declares the whip-tongued thirteen-year-old narrator of Damned, Chuck Palahniuk’s subversive new work of fiction. Madison dies of a marijuana overdose—and the next thing she knows, she’s in Hell. This is the afterlife as only Chuck Palahniuk could imagine it: a twisted inferno where The English Patient plays on endless repeat, roaming demons devour sinners limb by limb, and the damned interrupt your dinner from their sweltering call center to hard-sell you Hell. He makes eternal torment, well, simply divine.
That Is All by John Hodgman
Bestselling author Hodgman completes his vision with That Is All, the last book in a trilogy of Complete World Knowledge. Like its predecessors, this book compiles incredibly handy made-up facts into brief articles, overlong lists, and beguiling narratives on new and familiar themes.
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PAPERBACK NONFICTION
Secret Sex Lives by Suzy Spencer
Suzy Spencer set out to investigate sex in America—to go beyond the talk and find out what people are really doing in their private (or not so private) lives. What she discovered online, at sex clubs, and elsewhere was truly eye-opening. Secret Sex Lives is an intimate account of a journalist who is seduced by her subject; a woman who sets out to look behind closed doors but ends up on a personal, revealing journey to find herself…
***Suzy Spencer will speak about & sign Secret Sex Lives here at BookPeople on Thursday, October 4 at 7pm.
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NEW FOR YOUNG READERS
Summer and Bird by Katherine Catmull
When their parents disappear in the middle of the night, young sisters Summer and Bird set off on a quest to find them. A cryptic picture message from their mother leads them to a familiar gate in the woods, but comfortable sights quickly give way to a new world entirely–Down–one inhabited by talking birds and the evil Puppeteer queen. Summer and Bird are quickly separated, and their divided hearts lead them each in a very different direction in the quest to find their parents, vanquish the Puppeteer, lead the birds back to their Green Home, and discover the identity of the true bird queen.
***Katherine Catmull will speak about & sign Summer and Bird here at BookPeople on Tuesday, October 9 at 7pm.
Lost Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
Annabeth is terrified. Just when she’s about to be reunited with Percy—after six months of being apart, thanks to Hera—it looks like Camp Jupiter is preparing for war. Narrated by four different demigods, The Mark of Athena is an unforgettable journey across land and sea to Rome, where important discoveries, surprising sacrifices, and unspeakable horrors await. Climb aboard the Argo II, if you dare. . . .
***Signed copies now available! Click here for information about our 10/8 event with Rick Riordan.
BookPeople 
Another great new release that I am looking forward to is “Killing Kennedy”