New Releases – 3/18/2014

FICTION

Hyde by Daniel Levine

A reimagining of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the monster’s perspective, Hyde makes a hero of a villain. As a bonus, Stevenson’s original novel is included at the back.

Decoded by Mai Jia (translated by Olivia Milburn & Christopher Payne)

One of China’s bestselling novels, an unusual literary thriller that takes us deep into the world of code breaking. In his gripping debut novel, Mai Jia reveals the mysterious world of Unit 701, a top-secret Chinese intelligence agency whose sole purpose is counterespionage and code breaking. Both a riveting mystery and a metaphysical examination of the mind of an inspired genius, it is the first novel to be published in English by one of China’s greatest and most popular contemporary writers.

William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back by Ian Doescher

The saga that began with the interstellar best seller William Shakespeare’s Star Wars continues with this merry reimagining of George Lucas’s enduring classic The Empire Strikes Back.

Visible City by Tova Mirvis

For fans of Meg Wolitzer and Allegra Goodman, an intimate and provocative novel about three couples whose paths intersect in their New York City neighborhood, forcing them all to weigh the comfort of stability against the costs of change.

Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

Joe’s New Release Pick of the Day! The latest in the Discworld series. Steam is rising over Discworld, driven by Mister Simnel, the man with a flat cap and a sliding rule. He has produced a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all of the elements—earth, air, fire, and water—and it’s soon drawing astonished crowds.

You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Dismayed by the ways in which women delude themselves, Grace is also the author of a book You Should Have Known, in which she cautions women to really hear what men are trying to tell them. But weeks before the book is published a chasm opens in her own life: a violent death, a missing husband, and, in the place of a man Grace thought she knew, only an ongoing chain of terrible revelations.

Missing You by Harlan Coben

It’s a profile, like all the others on the online dating site. But as NYPD Detective Kat Donovan focuses on the accompanying picture, she feels her whole world explode, as emotions she’s ignored for decades come crashing down on her. Staring back at her is her ex-fiance Jeff, the man who shattered her heart–and who she hasn’t seen in 18 years. But when she reaches out to the man in the profile, her reawakened hope quickly darkens into suspicion and then terror as an unspeakable conspiracy comes to light.

The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger

The story of a high-profile, messy divorce, and the endearingly cynical young lawyer dragooned into handling it, told solely via personal correspondence, office memos, emails, articles, and legal paper. This playful reinvention of the epistolary form races along with humor and heartache, exploring the complicated family dynamic that results when marriage fails.

FICTION PAPERBACK

The Comedy is Finished by Donald E. Westlake

The final novel from the legendary Donald Westlake! The year is 1977, and America is finally getting over the nightmares of Watergate and Vietnam and the national hangover that was the 1960s. But not everyone is ready to let it go.

NON-FICTION

The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words 1000 BC – 1492 AD by Simon Schama

In this magnificently illustrated cultural history–the tie-in to the PBS and BBC series The Story of the Jews–Simon Schama details the story of the Jewish people, tracing their experience across three millennia, from their beginnings as an ancient tribal people to the opening of the new world in 1492.

YOUTH

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs. So she convinces her best friend to help her with a crazy bucket list that’s as much about revenge as it is about hope. But just when Alice’s scores are settled, she goes into remission, and now she must face the consequences of all she’s said and done.

The Last Wild by Piers Torday

Arian’s New Release Pick of the Day! “This is an amazing tale of adventure and compassion. Though this is a chapter book aimed at middle grade readers, it could easily be enjoyed by any age. A  great disease has ravaged the earth and wiped out the world’s animals, with the exception of a few ‘vermin.’ Reading these animals’ accounts of trying to survive in a world where most of their fellow species had already disappeared was even more devastating from an adult perspective. Knowing the very real threat that animals are already facing in the world made this book all the more poignant for me.”