City on Fire

Garth Risk Hallberg

Knopf Publishing Group

Big, juicy, and full-throated, City on Fire absorbs readers into an expertly crafted 1970s New York City and introduces them to character after lushly drawn character: the charismatic young woman with a hidden life, her asthmatic punk groupie friend, the wizened reporter, the obscenely rich and rebellious, the not-so-rebellious, and those who love them. Their lives create a rich tapestry, beginning with a murder on the brink of the New Year in 1977 and culminating later that year during the infamous blackout. With unequivocal skill, Garth Hallberg makes readers feel like they are holding the whole city in their hands. Breathe deep and enjoy the experience!

Twain's End

Lynn Cullen

Gallery Books

In March of 1909, Mark Twain cheerfully blessed the wedding of his private secretary, Isabel V. Lyon, and his business manager, Ralph Ashcroft. One month later, he fired both. He proceeded to write a ferocious 429-page rant about the pair, calling Isabel "a liar, a forger, a thief, a hypocrite, a drunkard, a sneak, a humbug, a traitor, a conspirator, a filthy-minded and salacious slut pining for seduction." Twain and his daughter, Clara Clemens, then slandered Isabel in the newspapers, erasing her nearly seven years of devoted service to their family. How did Lyon go from being the beloved secretary who ran Twain's life to a woman he was determined to destroy? In Twain's End, Lynn Cullen reimagines the tangled relationships between Twain, Lyon, and Ashcroft, as well as the little-known love triangle between Helen Keller, her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy, and Anne's husband, John Macy, which comes to light during their visit to Twain's Connecticut home in 1909. Add to the party a furious Clara Clemens, smarting from her own failed love affair, and carefully kept veneers shatter. Based on Isabel Lyon's extant diary, Twain's writings and letters, and events in Twain's boyhood that may have altered his ability to love, Twain's End explores this real-life tale of doomed love.

We That Are Left

Clare Clark

Houghton Mifflin

"Two sisters, born into privilege, are forced to make their way in a world turned upside down by war. One man transforms them both." 1910. Jessica and Phyllis Melville have grown up at Ellinghurst, a family estate fraught with secrets. A headstrong beauty, Jessica longs forLondon the glitter and glamour of debutante life while bookish Phyllis dreams in vain of attending university. Into their midst walks Oskar Grunewald, a frequent visitor fascinated by the house but alternately tormented and ignored by the Melville children. Oskar seeks refuge in Ellinghurst's enormous library. Meanwhile Theo, the adored Melville brother, eclipses everyone around him. The Great War arrives to devastate and reshape their world. In a country unrecognizable from the idylls of their youth, the Melville sisters struggle to forge new paths without the guidance of the old rules. But Oskar's life has become entwined with theirs once again, in ways both immediate and unimaginable-- that will change all of their futures.

See Me

Nicholas Sparks

Grand Central Publishing

Colin Hancock is giving his second chance his best shot. At 28, he's focused only on walking a straight line - getting his teaching degree, working out at the gym religiously, and avoiding all the places and people that proved so destructive in his earlier life. The last thing he's looking for is a serious relationship. But when Maria Sanchez crosses paths with him on a rainswept night in North Carolina, his plans are upended in a way that will rattle the foundations of his carefully structured life. As for Maria, the hardworking lawyer and daughter of Mexican immigrants, Colin will challenge every notion she's ever had about herself and her future, making her question what truly makes her happy. Before the couple has a chance to envision what a life together might look like, however, menacing reminders of events in Maria's past begin to surface. And as the threat of violence begins to shadow her every step, she and Colin will be tested in increasingly terrifying ways. Will demons from their past destroy the tentative bonds they have forged, or will their love protect them, even in the darkest hour?

Winter Stroll

Elin Hilderbrand

Little Brown and Company

Christmas on Nantucket finds Winter Street Inn owner Kelley Quinn and his family busily preparing for the holiday season. Though the year has brought tragedy, the Quinns have much to celebrate: Kelley has reunited with his first wife Margaret, Kevin and Isabelle have a new baby; and Ava is finally dating a nice guy. But when Kelley's estranged wife Mitzi shows up on the island, along with Kevin's devious ex-wife Norah and a dangerously irresistible old fling of Ava's, the Inn is suddenly overrun with romantic feuds, not to mention guests. With jealousy, passion, and eggnog consumption at an all-time high, it's going to take a whole lot more than a Christmas miracle to get the Quinns--and the Inn--through the holidays intact.

Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing

Jamie Holmes

Crown Publishing Group

Life today feels more overwhelming and chaotic than ever. Whether it's a confounding work problem or a faltering relationship or an unclear medical diagnosis, we face constant uncertainty. And we re continually bombarded with information, much of it contradictory. Managing ambiguity in our jobs, our relationships, and daily lives is quickly becoming an essential skill. Yet most of us don t know where to begin. As Jamie Holmes shows in Nonsense, being confused is unpleasant, so we tend to shutter our minds as we grasp for meaning and stability, especially in stressful circumstances. We re hard-wired to resolve contradictions quickly and extinguish anomalies. This can be useful, of course. When a tiger is chasing you, you can t be indecisive. But as Nonsense reveals, our need for closure has its own dangers. It makes us stick to our first answer, which is not always the best, and it makes us search for meaning in the wrong places. When we latch onto fast and easy truths, we lose a vital opportunity to learn something new, solve a hard problem, or see the world from another perspective. In other words, confusion that uncomfortable mental place has a hidden upside. We just need to know how to use it. This lively and original book points the way.

Thirteen Ways of Looking: Fiction

Colum McCann

Random House

In such acclaimed novels as Let the Great World Spin and TransAtlantic, National Book Award winning author Colum McCann has transfixed readers with his precision, tenderness, and authority. Now, in his first collection of short fiction in more than a decade, McCann charts the territory of chance, and the profound and intimate consequences of even our smallest moments. " As it was, it was like being set down in the best of poems, carried into a cold landscape, blindfolded, turned around, unblindfolded, forced, then, to invent new ways of seeing. " In the exuberant title novella, a retired judge reflects on his life's work, unaware as he goes about his daily routines that this particular morning will be his last. In Sh khol, a mother spending Christmas alone with her son confronts the unthinkable when he disappears while swimming off the coast near their home in Ireland. In Treaty, an elderly nun catches a snippet of a news report in which it is revealed that the man who once kidnapped and brutalized her is alive, masquerading as an agent of peace. And in What Time Is It Now, Where You Are? a writer constructs a story about a Marine in Afghanistan calling home on New Year's Eve. Deeply personal, subtly subversive, at times harrowing, and indeed funny, yet also full of comfort, Thirteen Ways of Looking is a striking achievement. With unsurpassed empathy for his characters and their inner lives, Colum McCann forges from their stories a profound tribute to our search for meaning and grace. The collection is a rumination on the power of storytelling in a world where language and memory can sometimes falter, but in the end do not fail us, and a contemplation of the healing power of literature.

The Old Man and the Cat: A Love Story

Nils Uddenberg

Thomas Dunne Books

The Old Man and The Cat is a story of how Nils Uddenberg, retired Professor of Psychology became a beloved cat-owner even though he had never wanted a pet of any kind. One winter morning the author discovered a cat whom he would later find was homeless sitting outside his bedroom window, staring at him with big yellow eyes. Slowly but surely the cat worked itself into his life. This award-winning writer who has a background in psychology could not stop himself from going deeper into the cat's inner life. Does she have a sense of humor? Is it possible to attach human feelings to her? And the trickiest question of all: Is our little cat actually interested in our attachment to her? With humor and self-awareness, Nils describes how his existence changed after the cat moved into his house. The feelings she stirs up are a surprise to him and he quickly finds himself falling in love with this speckled grey-brown little lady.

Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink

Elvis Costello

Blue Rider Press

Born Declan Patrick MacManus, Elvis Costello was raised in London and Liverpool, grandson of a trumpet player on the White Star Line and son of a jazz musician who became a successful radio dance-band vocalist. Costello went into the family business and before he was twenty-four took the popular music world by storm. Costello continues to add to one of the most intriguing and extensive songbooks of our day. His performances have taken him from strumming a cardboard guitar in his parents front room to fronting a rock and roll band on our television screens and performing in the world's greatest concert halls in a wild variety of company. Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink describes how Costello's career has endured for almost four decades through a combination of dumb luck and animal cunning, even managing the occasional absurd episode of pop stardom. This memoir, written entirely by Costello, offers his unique view of his unlikely and sometimes comical rise to international success, with diversions through the previously undocumented emotional foundations of some of his best-known songs and the hits of tomorrow. It features many stories and observations about his renowned cowriters and co-conspirators, though Costello also pauses along the way for considerations of the less appealing side of fame.

Drinking in America: Our Secret History

Susan Cheever

Twelve

In Drinking In America, bestselling author Susan Cheever chronicles our national love affair with liquor, taking a long, thoughtful look at the way alcohol has changed our nation's history. This is the often-overlooked story of how alcohol has shaped American events and the American character from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Seen through the lens of alcoholism, American history takes on a vibrancy and a tragedy missing from many earlier accounts. From the drunkenness of the Pilgrims to Prohibition hijinks, drinking has always been a cherished American custom: a way to celebrate and a way to grieve and a way to take the edge off. At many pivotal points in our history-the illegal "Mayflower" landing at Cape Cod, the enslavement of African Americans, the McCarthy witch hunts, and the Kennedy assassination, to name only a few-alcohol has acted as a catalyst. Some nations drink more than we do, some drink less, but no other nation has been the drunkest in the world as America was in the 1830s only to outlaw drinking entirely a hundred years later. Both a lively history and an unflinching cultural investigation, Drinking In America unveils the volatile ambivalence within one nation's tumultuous affair with alcohol.

Felicity: Poems

Mary Oliver

Penguin Press

Mary Oliver, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, celebrates love in her new collection of poems. "If I have any secret stash of poems, anywhere, it might be about love, not anger," Mary Oliver once said in an interview. Finally, in her stunning new collection, Felicity, we can immerse ourselves in Oliver's love poems. Here, great happiness abounds. Our most delicate chronicler of physical landscape, Oliver has described her work as loving the world. With Felicity she examines what it means to love another person. She opens our eyes again to the territory within our own hearts; to the wild and to the quiet. In these poems, she describes with joy the strangeness and wonder of human connection.

Wake Up Happy: The Dream Big, Win Big Guide to Transforming Your Life

Michael Strahan

Atria / 37 Ink

From America's favorite football player turned morning talk show host--a man who makes just about everything look easy--a melange of stories and motivational advice to inspire the reader to turn up the heat and go from good to great in pursuit of their personal ambitions. Michael Strahan spent his childhood on a military base in Europe, where community meant everything, and life, though idyllic, was different. For one, when people referenced football they meant soccer. So when Michael's father suggested he work toward a college scholarship by playing football in Texas, where tens of thousands of people show up for a weekend game, the odds were long. Yet he did, indeed, land a scholarship and from there a draft into the NFL where he scaled the league's heights, broke records, and helped his team win the Super Bowl as a result of which he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. How? By developing "Strahan's Rules"--a mix of mental discipline, positive thinking, and a sense of play. He also used the Rules to forge a successful post pro-ball career as cohost with Kelly Ripa on "Live --"a position for which he was considered the longshot--and much more. In Wake Up Happy, Michael shares personal stories about how he gets and stays motivated and how readers can do the same in their quest to attain their life goals.

Humans of New York: Stories

Brandon Stanton

St. Martin's Press

In the summer of 2010, photographer Brandon Stanton began an ambitious project -to single-handedly create a photographic census of New York City. The photos he took and the accompanying interviews became the blog "Humans of New York." His audience steadily grew from a few hundred followers to, at present count, over fifteen million. In 2013, his book Humans of New York,  based on that blog, was published and immediately catapulted to the top of the NY Times Bestseller List where it has appeared for over forty-five weeks. Now, Brandon is back with the Humans of New York book that his loyal followers have been waiting for: Humans of New York: Stories. Ever since Brandon began interviewing people on the streets of New York, the dialogue he's had with them has increasingly become as in-depth, intriguing and moving as the photos themselves. Humans of New York: Stories presents a whole new group of people in stunning photographs, with a rich design and, most importantly, longer stories that delve deeper and surprise with greater candor.

Sarabeth's Good Morning Cookbook: Breakfast, Brunch, and Baking

Sarabeth Levine

Rizzoli International Publications

Legendary New York City baker and restaurateur Sarabeth Levine shares her most beloved breakfast and brunch recipes. The only thing better than brunch at one of Sarabeth's restaurants is brunch in her home. In this must-have collection of more than 130 classic morning recipes, Sarabeth delivers the comforting dishes she makes for family and friends, from fluffy scrambled eggs to warm sticky buns. Over thirty-five years ago, she launched her first restaurant's wildly popular weekend brunch. Today, morning lines still snake around the block at her New York City locations, as well as at her Florida and Japan outposts. Her fans will be thrilled to re-create the warmth and joy of brunch at Sarabeth's with recipes designed for home cooks. A comprehensive guide to morning meals, this beautifully photographed book covers the dishes everyone desires. Sarabeth's signature pancakes and muffins are quick enough for weekdays, while her quiches and coffee cakes are guaranteed to impress weekend guests. In addition to her sophisticated twists on the standards, Sarabeth surprises with such innovative breakfast treats as morning cookies. The foolproof recipes come with technique tips and make-ahead instructions to make entertaining effortless.