Each week we spotlight one book from the month's IndieNext List (a collection of recommendations by indie booksellers across the country). Ask for a copy of the IndieNext newsletter at our front counter or click to browse them online

Everything Beautiful Began After

Paperback, Harper

Each week we like to showcase a few of the great books on our shelves. Here are just a few titles we think are special:

Fiction

The Submission

Amy Waldman

Hardcover, FSG

A jury gathers in Manhattan to select a memorial for the victims of a devastating terrorist attack.  Their fraught deliberations complete, the jurors open the envelope containing the anonymous winner's name-and discover he is an American Muslim.  Instantly they are cast into roiling debate about the claims of grief, the ambiguities of art, and the meaning of Islam.  Their conflicted response is only a preamble to the country's. The memorial's designer is an enigmatic, ambitious architect named Mohammad Khan.  His fiercest defender on the jury is its sole widow, the self-possessed and mediagenic Claire Burwell.  But when the news of his selection leaks to the press, she finds herself under pressure from outraged family members and in collision with hungry journalists, wary activists, opportunistic politicians, fellow jurors, and Khan himself-as unknowable as he is gifted.  In the fight for both advantage and their ideals, all will bring the emotional weight of their own histories to bear on the urgent question of how to remember, and understand, a national tragedy.

Read more. 

Only Time Will Tell 

Jeffrey Archer  

Hardcover, St Martin's Press

The epic tale of Harry Clifton's life begins in 1920, with the words "I was told that my father was killed in the war."  A dock worker in Bristol, Harry never knew his father, but he learns about life on the docks from his uncle, who expects Harry to join him at the shipyard once he's left school.  But then an unexpected gift wins him a scholarship to an exclusive boys' school, and his life will never be the same again.  As he enters into adulthood, Harry finally learns how his father really died, but the awful truth only leads him to question, was he even his father?  Is he the son of Arthur Clifton, a stevedore who spent his whole life on the docks, or the firstborn son of a scion of West Country society, whose family owns a shipping line? Read more. 

Luminarium 

Alex Shakar   

Hardcover, Soho Press

"Luminarium is dizzyingly smart and provocative, exploring as it does the state of the present, of technology, of what is real and what is ephemeral.  But the thing that separates Luminarium from other books that discuss avatars, virtual reality and the like is that Alex Shakar is committed throughout with trying, relentlessly, to flat-out explain the meaning of life.  This book is funny, and soulful, and very sad, but so intellectually invigorating that you'll want to read it twice." - Dave Eggers Read more. 

The Language of Flowers

Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Hardcover, Random House   

The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it's been more useful in communicating grief, mistrust, and solitude.  After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings.  Now eighteen and emancipated from the system, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own.  Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them.  But a mysterious vendor at the flower market has her questioning what's been missing in her life, and when she's forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it's worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness. Read more.

Nonfiction

Sex on Six Legs 

Marlene Zuk

Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Insects have inspired fear, fascination, and enlightenment for centuries.  They are capable of incredibly complex behavior, even with brains often the size of a poppy seed. How do they accomplish feats that look like human activity- personality, language, childcare-with completely different pathways from our own?  What is going on inside the mind of those ants that march like boot-camp graduates across your kitchen floor?  How does the lead ant know exactly where to take her colony, to that one bread crumb that your nightly sweep missed?  Can insects be taught new skills as easily as your new puppy? Read more. 

How to Love an American Man  

Kristin Gasbarre

Paperback, Harper   

Kristine Gasbarre made a New York career of dating driven, inaccessible men.  When she realizes her love life will never result in happiness if she continues on the same path, she makes a big decision-relocating to Italy to discover her roots and find out what defines her adoring grandpa.  But upon receiving the news of his sudden passing, she is lured away.  With nowhere left to go, Krissy returns to her small hometown for the first time in a decade to help care for her grandmother-a refined, private matriarch suffering from early dementia along with the loss of her husband.  In her reluctant agreement to share the nearly lost love stories and transformative lessons from her rich sixty-year marriage, Krissy's grandma becomes the one offering comfort as she coaches her granddaughter through the fear of loving.  Grandma's unapologetic femininity and secret giving spirit opens Krissy's eyes about relationships, teaching her the single most important requisite for loving a man: first a woman has to learn the power of her own inner beauty. Read more.  

Children's Books: 

Big Nate on a Roll 

Lincoln Peirce   

Hardcover, Harper  

Nate's a big deal in his scout troop, until Artur-aka Mr. Perfect-joins up.  Now Nate's stuck in second place.  And Artur means business.  Will Nate take the grand prize?  Or wipe out, big time?  Read more.