On Sale today! “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry” by Rachel Joyce

This is a poignant tale of an older retired Englishman who embarks on a 600 mile walk across England after receiving a letter from Queenie Hennessy, a long ago co-worker, telling him she is dying. His marriage has become lifeless, his wife carps on him regarding how he butters his toast every morning. So after writing Queenie a letter, he goes out to post it and simply keeps walking, in the belief that as long as he does, Queenie will hang on till he gets there. Beautifully written, this novel prompts the reader to examine their own life and the choices we make. Staff Pick, 20% off!

What’s New!

We adore Shel Silverstein’s new book Every Thing On It.  Each poem and drawing is as delightful as the last.  It is one of those books you carry around for a while because you know it will be there to give you a smile.  Great to share with all ages in the family and a great excuse to turn off the television and read.

“Although I cannot see your face

 As you flip these poems awhile,

 Somewhere from some far-off place

 I hear you laughing—and I smile.”

 ”This posthumous collection of Silverstein’s poems and illustrations is not only
familiar in design, but chockfull of the whimsical humor, eccentric characters,
childhood fantasies, and iconoclastic glee that his many fans adore. Like the
boy who orders a hot dog “with everything on it” (.”..it came with a parrot, / A
bee in a bonnet, / A wristwatch, a wrench, and a rake”), there are plenty of
surprises in store for readers.”  Publisher’s Weekly

What a wonderful treat for the whole family!

Here’s a few more new books that are getting lots of buzz in the store.  Our amazing staff is always willing to give you their opinions about their latest reads…so just ask!

Magical and Intriguing!

Mysterious Children’s Series

An entirely absorbing read!

Funny, Heartbreaking and Thrilling!

Gripping, revelatory and brilliantly reported.

A Collection of America’s Favorite Flavors

Lyrical Memoir of a journalist and his trusty canine companion.

A compelling record!

Chockfull of the whimsical humor!

New to Our Shelves, June 14

Some exciting new titles have just arrived!

“Carte Blanche 007″, Jefferey Deaver’s latest continuing the James Bond legacy-great idea for Father’s Day!
Another great Father’s Day choice might be:            

Also new to the shelves:

“Maine” by J. Courtney Sullivan :

We are very excited to be hosting J. Courtney Sullivan here at the store on August 11!

“I have never stayed at this cottage in Maine, or any cottage in Maine, but no matter: I now feel I know what it’s like being in a family that comes to the same place summer after summer, unpacking their familiar longings, slights, shorthand conversation, and ways of being together. J. Courtney Sullivan’s Maine is evocative, funny, close-quartered, and highly appealing.” –Meg Wolitzer, author of The Uncoupling

Two now in paperback that are favorites of Karen’s:

                                                                                 AND     

           The literary sensation “Anthropology of an American Girl” is an extraordinarily candid novel about the experience of growing up female in America. Despite multiple perspectives and multifaceted experiences, the commonalities that all girls and women share will hit home with readers of all ages.

                                                                                            Bestselling novelist Octavia Frost has just completed her latest book, a revolutionary novel in which she has rewritten the last chapters of all her previous books and removed clues about her personal life concealed within, especially the horrific tragedy that once befell her family.
But on her way to deliver the manuscript to her editor, Octavia learns that her estranged son, Milo, a famous musician, has been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend. Did she drive her son to violence? Did Milo murder anyone at all? And what exactly happened all those years ago? As the novel builds to a stunning reveal, Octavia must consider how this story will come to a close.

Also, as always, we’ve refreshed some of our “Staff Picks” on the front table, memoirs, great fiction now in paperback, and some terrific beach reads!

Don’t forget to check out our author event schedule!

New to the Shelves for May

It’s been a busy May, so we’ve been a bit behind on our “New to the Shelves” list! Here are some good ones that came out this month!

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough ($37.50) The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring–and until now, untold–story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work. Nearly all of these Americans, whatever their troubles learning French, their spells of homesickness, and their suffering in the raw cold winters by the Seine, spent many of the happiest days and nights of their lives in Paris. McCullough tells this sweeping, fascinating story with power and intimacy, bringing us into the lives of remarkable men and women who, in Saint-Gaudens’s phrase, longed “to soar into the blue.” The Greater Journey is itself a masterpiece.

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson ($26.00; our price: $20.80) The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. Written by the bestselling author of Devil in the White City, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity.

Tabloid City by Pete Hamill ($26.99; our price: $21.59) In a stately West Village townhouse, a wealthy socialite and her secretary are murdered. In the 24 hours that follow, a flurry of activity circles around their shocking deaths: The head of one of the city’s last tabloids stops the presses. A cop investigates the killing. A reporter chases the story. A disgraced hedge fund manager flees the country. An Iraq War vet seeks revenge. And an angry young extremist plots a major catastrophe.

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones ($19.95; our price: $15.96) Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoon’s two families: the public one and the secret one. When the daughters from each family meet and form a friendship, only one of them knows they are sisters. It is a relationship destined to explode when secrets are revealed and illusions shattered. As Jones explores the backstories of her rich yet flawed characters the father, the two mothers, the grandmother, and the uncle she also reveals the joy, as well as the destruction, they brought to one another ‘s lives.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt ($24.99; our price: $19.99) With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick DeWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters-losers, cheaters, and ne’er-do-wells from all stripes of life-and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.

New to Paperback

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away by Christine Watson ($15.95) Set in rural Nigeria, Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away is the witty and beautifully written story of one family’s attempt to survive a new life they could never have imagined, struggling to find a deeper sense of identity along the way.

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall ($15.95) Golden Richards, husband to four wives, father to twenty-eight children, is having the mother of all midlife crises. His construction business is failing, his family has grown into an overpopulated mini-dukedom beset with insurrection and rivalry, and he is done in with grief: due to the accidental death of a daughter and the stillbirth of a son, he has come to doubt the capacity of his own heart.  Beautifully written, keenly observed, and ultimately redemptive, The Lonely Polygamist is an unforgettable story of an American family with its inevitable dysfunctionality, heartbreak, and comedy pushed to its outer limits.

The Stormchasers by Jenna Blum ($15.00) As a teenager, Karena Jorge had always taken care of her twin brother, Charles. Obsessed with severe weather, Charles, who suffers from bipolar disorder, begins chasing storms. Refusing to take his medication, Charles soon involves them both in a terrifying tornado chase–with deadly consequences. Now, two decades later, Karena must find her long-estranged brother before he reveals the dark secret from their past or hurts himself or someone else.

The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas ($14.99) Demas delivers a tale of love, betrayal, and literature: the story of six members of an elite writing circle who share much more than their works-in-progress.

New to Titcomb’s Bookshop – Week of April 11th

Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts ($27.95; our price: $22.36) Number-one New York Times-bestselling author Nora Roberts–America’s favorite writer (The New Yorker)–delves into the world of elite firefighters who thrive on danger and adrenaline–men and women who wouldn’t know how to live life if it wasn’t on the edge.

 

 

 

The Pale King by David Foster Wallace ($27.99; our price: $22.39) The Pale King remained unfinished at the time of Wallace’s death, but it is a deeply intriguing and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with questions of life’s meaning and of the ultimate value of work and family.

 

 

 

Illusion of Murder by Carol McCleary ($24.99; our price: $19.99) staff pick by Karen! The intrepid Nellie Bly, the world’s most famous reporter, sets sail around the world on a dazzling adventure and becomes embroiled in international intrigue with the fate of nations at stake.

 

 

 

Save Me by Lisa Scottoline ($27.99; our price: $22.39) When an explosion rips through the nearly empty cafeteria of a Reesburgh (Pa.) Elementary School, lunch mother Rose McKenna leads two girls to safety before racing to rescue her own daughter, Melly. But Rose soon learns that she may face both civil and criminal charges for her heroics because one of the girls she saved was seriously injured in the resulting fire that killed three school staff members.

 

 

 

A Reason to Believe: Lessons from and Improbable Life by Deval Patrick ($21.99) The first black governor of Massachusetts offers readers intimate, heartfelt, and hopeful lessons drawn from his own experiences as to how to live a life and help build a country and community of which one can be proud.

 

 

 

This Life Is In Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone by Melissa Coleman ($25.99) A luminous, evocative memoir that explores the hope and struggle behind one family’s search for a self-sufficient life, from a writer of power and beauty reminiscent of Tobias Wolff, Jeannette Walls, and Dave Eggers.

 

 

 

The Best Advice I Ever Got by Katie Couric ($26.00) In this inspirational collection, CBS News anchor Couric calls upon leaders and visionaries in the fields of politics, entertainment, sports, philanthropy, the arts, and business–all of whom share heartfelt, humorous, and useful insights about success and fulfillment. Includes contributions by Madeleine Albright, Bill Clinton, Chelsea Handler, Malcolm Gladwell, Steve Martin, and Michael Bloomberg.

 

 

 

Shootout by Mike Lupica ($6.99) – now in paperback! What happens when a star player ends up on the worst team? He either learns to lose or he stops playing the game he loves. These are the choices facing Jake, who has gone from champion to last place, testing his sportsmanship every time his soccer team gets waxed.

 

 

 

Big Nate: Boredom Buster- Super Scribbles, Cool Comix, and Lots of Laughs by Lincoln Peirce ($10.99) The star of the New York Times bestseller Big Nate returns with all-new adventures. Illustrations.

 

 

 

 

Shine by Lauren Myracle ($16.95) When her best guy friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, 16-year-old Cat sets out to discover who in her small Southern town did it. Richly atmospheric, this daring mystery examines the strength of will it takes to go against everyone in the name of justice.

New to Titcomb’s – Week of April 4th

Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman ($24.00; our price: $19.20) – staff pick by Karen! In 2005, celebrated novelist Goldman married a beautiful young writer named Aura Estrada in a romantic Mexican hacienda. The month before their second anniversary, Aura broke her neck while body surfing. Francisco, blamed for Aura’s death by her family and blaming himself, wanted to die, too. Instead, he wrote “Say Her Name,” a novel chronicling his great love and unspeakable loss.

 

Swim Back to Me by Ann Packer ($24.95; our price: $19.96) - staff pick by Karen! From the bestselling author of Songs Without Words and The Dive from Clausen’s Pier comes her strongest work yet–a collection of burnished, impossible-to-put down narratives framed by two stunning, linked novellas.

 

 

 

Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin ($24.95; our price: $19.96) A million-plus-copy bestseller in South Korea and poised to become an international sensation, Please Look After Mom is the stunning, deeply moving story of a family’s search for their mother, and of the desires, heartaches, and secrets they discover she harbored within.

 

 

 

Once Upon a Time, There Was You by Elizabeth Berg ($26.00; our price: $20.80) A beautiful story about the power of love and family, this new novel by the beloved, bestselling author of The Last Time I Saw You follows the journey of a couple who meet again after their divorce.

 

 

 

 

The Love of My Youth by Mary Gordon ($25.95; our price: $20.76) Beloved author Gorden pens a beautifully choreographed novel about first lovers meeting again after more than 30 years, walking the streets of Rome and reimmersing themselves in their lost past.

 

 

 

 

A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS by Jennet Conant ($28.00) Bestselling author Jenny Conant presents a stunning account of Paul and JuliaChild’s early lives as OSS agents in the Far East.

 

 

 

 

The Help by Kathryn Stockett ($16.00)- now in paperback! In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women–black and white, mothers and daughters–view one another.

 

 

 

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay ($14.99)- now in paperback! When Nina Revskaya puts her remarkable jewelry collection up for auction, the former Bolshoi Ballet star finds herself overwhelmed by memories of her homeland, and of the events, both glorious and heartbreaking, that changed her life half a century earlier. It was in Russia that she discovered the magic of dance and fell in love, and where, faced with Stalinist aggression, a terrible discovery incited a deadly act of betrayal–and an ingenious escape to the West.

 

 

 

Ape House by Sara Gruen ($15.00)- now in paperback! From the author of the bestselling Water for Elephants comes the story of a family of bonobo apes violently kidnapped from their laboratory by animal liberation activists and placed on a reality TV show.

 

 

 

 

A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff ($15.00) – now in paperback! Digging for finds in attics and wardrobes, Phoebe knows that when she buys a piece of vintage clothing, she’s not just buying fabric and thread–she’s buying a piece of someone’s past. But one particular article of clothing will soon unexpectedly change her life.

 

 

 

Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell ($15.00) – now in paperback! Struggling artist Claude Monet’s life was irrevocably changed when he met the beautiful and mysterious Camille Doucieux. Through years of painting, misunderstanding, and love, they carve out a life together, but can Camille ever escape her past?

New to Titcomb’s – Week of March 28th

The Troubled Man by Henning Mankell ($26.95; our price: $21.56) On a winter day in 2008, Hakan von Enke, a retired high-ranking naval officer, vanishes during his daily walk in a forest near Stockholm. The investigation into his disappearance falls under the jurisdiction of the Stockholm police. It has nothing to do with Wallander–officially. But von Enke is his daughter’s future father-in-law. And so, with his inimitable disregard for normal procedure, Wallander is soon interfering in matters that are not his responsibility, making promises he won’t keep, telling lies when it suits him–and getting results. But the results hint at elaborate Cold War espionage activities that seem inextricably confounding, even to Wallander, who, in any case, is troubled in more personal ways as well. Negligent of his health, he’s become convinced that, having turned sixty, he is on the threshold of senility. Desperate to live up to the hope that a new granddaughter represents, he is continually haunted by his past. And looking toward the future with profound uncertainty, he will have no choice but to come face-to-face with his most intractable adversary: himself.

Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation by Andrea Wulf ($30.00) For the founding fathers, gardening, agriculture, and botany were elemental passions, as deeply ingrained in their characters as their belief in liberty for the nation they were creating. Andrea Wulf reveals for the first time this aspect of the revolutionary generation. She describes how, even as British ships gathered off Staten Island, George Washington wrote his estate manager about the garden at Mount Vernon; how a tour of English gardens renewed Thomas Jefferson’s and John Adams’s faith in their fledgling nation; how a trip to the great botanist John Bartram’s garden helped the delegates of the Constitutional Congress break their deadlock; and why James Madison is the forgotten father of American environmentalism. These and other stories reveal a guiding but previously overlooked ideology of the American Revolution.

The Land of Painted Caves by Jean Auel ($30.00; our price: $24.00) The highly anticipated sixth book of Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children(R) series, The Land of Painted Caves, is the culmination fans have been waiting for. Continuing the story of Ayla and Jondalar, Auel combines her brilliant narrative skills and appealing characters with a remarkable re-creation of the way life was lived more than 25,000 years ago. The Land of Painted Caves is an exquisite achievement by one of the world’s most beloved authors.

The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted by Bridget Asher (paperback original: $15.00) Brokenhearted and still mourning the loss of her husband, Heidi travels with Abbott, her obsessive-compulsive seven-year-old son, and Charlotte, her jaded sixteen-year-old niece, to the small village of Puyloubier in the south of France, where a crumbling stone house may be responsible for mending hearts since before World War II. There, Charlotte confesses a shocking secret, and Heidi learns the truth about her mother’s “lost summer” when Heidi was a child. As three generations collide with one another, with the neighbor who seems to know all of their family skeletons, and with an enigmatic Frenchman, Heidi, Charlotte, and Abbot journey through love, loss, and healing amid the vineyards, warm winds and delicious food of Provence. Can the magic of the house heal Heidi’s heart, too?

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall (now in paperback – $15.95) An epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? Isolated by Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America’s best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougall’s incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.

My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira (now in paperback – $15.00) Mary Sutter is a brilliant young midwife who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Eager to run away from recent heartbreak, Mary travels to Washington, D.C., to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of two surgeons, who both fall unwittingly in love with her, and resisting her mother’s pleas to return home to help with the difficult birth of her twin sister’s baby, Mary pursues her medical career against all odds. Rich with historical detail-including cameo appearances by Abraham Lincoln and Dorothea Dix, among others- My Name Is Mary Sutter is certain to be recognized as one of the great novels about the Civil War.

New to Titcomb’s – Week of March 21st

Night Road by Kristin Hannah ($27.99; our price: $22.39)

For eighteen years, Jude Farraday has put her children’s needs above her own, and it shows–her twins, Mia and Zach–are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill moves into their small, close knit community, no one is more welcoming than Jude. Lexi, a former foster child with a dark past, quickly becomes Mia’s best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable.

Jude does everything to keep her kids on track for college and out of harm’s way. It has always been easy– until senior year of high school. Suddenly she is at a loss. Nothing feels safe anymore; every time her kids leave the house, she worries about them.

On a hot summer’s night her worst fears come true. One decision will change the course of their lives. In the blink of an eye, the Farraday family will be torn apart and Lexi will lose everything. In the years that follow, each must face the consequences of that single night and find a way to forget…or the courage to forgive.

Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell ($25.95)

From the bestselling author of The Wordy Shipmates,  an examination of Hawaii, the place where Manifest Destiny got a sunburn.

Many think of 1776 as the defining year of American history, when we became a nation devoted to the pursuit of happiness through self- government. In Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowell argues that 1898 might be a year just as defining, when, in an orgy of imperialism, the United States annexed Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and invaded first Cuba, then the Philippines, becoming an international superpower practically overnight.

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen (now in paperback! $15.00)

Mary Beth Latham has built her life around her family, around caring for her three teenage children and preserving the rituals of their daily life. When one of her sons becomes depressed, Mary Beth focuses on him, only to be blindsided by a shocking act of violence. What happens afterward is a testament to the power of a woman’s love and determination, and to the invisible lines of hope and healing that connect one human being to another. Ultimately, as rendered in Anna Quindlen’s mesmerizing prose, Every Last One is a novel about facing every last one of the things we fear the most, about finding ways to navigate a road we never intended to travel.

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Eagan (now in paperback! $14.95)

One of the Best Books of the Year: Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Daily Beast, The Miami Herald, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Newsday, NPR’s On Point, O, the Oprah Magazine, People, Publishers Weekly, Salon, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Slate, Time, The Washington Post, and Village Voice
Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.

The Four Ms. Bradwells by Meg Waite Clayton ($25.00; our price: $20.00)

Meg Waite Clayton’s national bestseller “The Wednesday Sisters” was a word-of-mouth sensation and book club favorite. Now the beloved author is back with a page-turning novel that explores the secrets we keep, even from those closest to us, and celebrates the enduring power of friendship.

Mia, Laney, Betts, and Ginger, best friends since law school, have reunited for a long weekend as Betts awaits Senate confirmation of her appointment to the Supreme Court. Nicknamed “the Ms. Bradwells” during their first class at the University of Michigan Law School in 1979–when only three women had ever served full Senate terms and none had been appointed to the Court–the four have supported one another through life’s challenges: marriages and divorces, births and deaths, career setbacks and triumphs large and small. Betts was, and still is, the Funny One. Ginger, the Rebel. Laney, the Good Girl. And Mia, the Savant.

But when the Senate hearings uncover a deeply buried skeleton in the friends’ collective closet, the Ms. Bradwells retreat to a summer house on the Chesapeake Bay, where they find themselves reliving a much darker period in their past–one that stirs up secrets they’ve kept for, and from, one another, and could change their lives forever.

A Lesson In Secrets: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear ($25.99; our price: $20.79)

Maisie Dobbs’ first assignment for the British Secret Service takes her undercover to Cambridge as a professor–and leads to the investigation of a web of activities being conducted by the emerging Nazi Party.

As the storm clouds of World War II gather on the horizon, this pivotal chapter in the life of Maisie Dobbs foreshadows new challenges and powerful enemies facing the psychologist and investigator–and will engage new readers and loyal fans of this “outstanding” series (Marilyn Stasio, “New York Times Book Review”).

Live Wire by Harlan Coben ($27.95; our price: $22.36)

When former tennis star Suzze T and her rock star husband, Lex, encounter an anonymous Facebook post questioning the paternity of their unborn child, Lex runs off, and Suzze – at eight months pregnant – asks Myron to save her marriage, and perhaps her husband’s life. But when he finds Lex, he also finds someone he wasn’t looking for: his sister-in-law, Kitty, who along with Myron’s brother abandoned the Bolitar family long ago.

As Myron races to locate his missing brother while their father clings to life, he must face the lies that led to the estrangement – including the ones told by Myron himself. If we thought we knew Myron Bolitar, Coben now proves we didn’t. An electric, stay-up-all night thriller that unfolds at a breakneck pace, Live Wire proves that Harlan Coben still has the ability to shock us anew.

Jersualem, Jersualem: How the Ancient City Ignited Our  Modern World by James Carroll ($28.00)

James Carroll’s urgent, masterly Jerusalem, Jerusalem uncovers the ways in which the ancient city became, unlike any other in the world–reaching deep into our contemporary lives–an incendiary fantasy of a city.

In Carroll’s provocative reading of the deep past, the Bible’s brutality responded to the violence that threatened Jerusalem from the start. Centuries later, the mounting European fixation on a heavenly Jerusalem sparked both anti-Semitism and racist colonial contempt. The holy wars of the Knights Templar burned apocalyptic mayhem into the Western mind. Carroll’s brilliant and original leap is to show how, as Christopher Columbus carried his own Jerusalemcentric worldview to the West, America too was powerfully shaped by the dream of the City on a Hill–from Governor Winthrop to Abraham Lincoln to Woodrow Wilson to Ronald Reagan. The nuclear brinksmanship of the 1973 Yom Kippur War helps prove his point: religion and violence fuel each other, with Jerusalem the ground zero of the heat.

Hellhound on His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in American History by Hampton Sides (now in paperback! $15.95)

From the acclaimed bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder, a taut, intense narrative about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the largest manhunt in American history.

With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Galt and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the crushing moment at the Lorraine Motel when the drifter catches up with his prey. Against the backdrop of the resulting nationwide riots and the pathos of King’s funeral, Sides gives us a riveting cross-cut narrative of the assassin’s flight and the sixty-five-day search that led investigators to Canada, Portugal, and England—a massive manhunt ironically led by Hoover’s FBI.

New to Titcomb’s – Week of March 14th

Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy ($26.95; our price: $21.56)

Maeve Binchy is back with a tale of joy, heartbreak and hope, about a motherless girl collectively raised by a close-knit Dublin community.

When Noel learns that his terminally ill former flame is pregnant with his child, he agrees to take guardianship of the baby girl once she’s born. But as a single father battling demons of his own, Noel can’t do it alone.

Fortunately, he has a competent, caring network of friends, family and neighbors: Lisa, his unlucky-in-love classmate, who moves in with him to help him care for little Frankie around the clock; his American cousin, Emily, always there with a pep talk; the newly retired Dr. Hat, with more time on his hands than he knows what to do with; Dr. Declan and Fiona and their baby son, Frankie’s first friend; and many eager babysitters, including old friends Signora and Aidan and Frankie’s doting grandparents, Josie and Charles.

But not everyone is pleased with the unconventional arrangement, especially a nosy social worker, Moira, who is convinced that Frankie would be better off in a foster home. Now it’s up to Noel to persuade her that everyone in town has something special to offer when it comes to minding Frankie.

So Much Pretty by Cara Hoffman ($25.00; our price: $20.00)

When she disappeared from her rural hometown, Wendy White was a sweet, family-oriented girl, a late bloomer who’d recently moved out on her own, with her first real boyfriend and a job waiting tables at the local tavern. It happens all the time–a woman goes missing, a family mourns, and the case remains unsolved. Stacy Flynn is a reporter looking for her big break. She moved east from Cleveland, a city known for its violent crime, but that’s the last thing she expected to cover in Haeden. This small, upstate New York town counts a dairy farm as its main employer and is home to families who’ve set down roots and never left–people who don’t take kindly to outsiders. Flynn is researching the environmental impact of the dairy, and the way money flows outward like the chemical runoff, eventually poisoning those who live at the edges of its reach.

Five months after she disappeared, Wendy’s body is found in a ditch just off one of Haeden’s main roads. Suddenly, Flynn has a big story, but no one wants to talk to her. No one seems to think that Wendy’s killer could still be among them. A drifter, they say. Someone “not from here.”

Fifteen-year-old Alice Piper is an imaginative student with a genius IQ and strong ideals. The precocious, confident girl has stood out in Haeden since the day her eccentric hippie parents moved there from New York City, seeking a better life for their only child. When Alice reads Flynn’s passionate article in the Haeden “Free Press “about violence against women–about the staggering number of women who are killed each day by people they know–she begins to connect the dots of Wendy’s disappearance and death, leading her to make a choice: join the rest in turning a blind eye, or risk getting involved. As Flynn and Alice separately observe the locals’ failure to acknowledge a murderer in their midst, Alice’s fate is forever entwined with Wendy’s when a second crime rocks the town to its core.

Stylishly written, closely observed, and bracingly unexpected, So Much Pretty leads the reader into the treacherous psychology of denial, where the details of an event are already known, deeply and intuitively felt, but not yet admitted to, reconciled or revealed.

Beyonders by Brandon Mull ($19.99)

Jason Walker falls through a tunnel at the zoo and ends up in a new, utterly foreign world, a world with no heroes and no hope. Jason finds himself faced with the prospect of becoming the hero he never imagined he could be.

  

  

Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (now in paperback – $15.00)

A brilliant novel that captures the dusty, dark, and beautiful world of small-time horse racing, where trainers, jockeys, grooms and grifters vie for what little luck is offered at a run-down West Virginia track .

Tommy Hansel has a plan: run four horses, all better than they look on paper, at long odds at Indian Mound Downs, then grab the purse — or cash a bet — and run before anyone’s the wiser. At his side is Maggie Koderer, who finds herself powerfully drawn to the gorgeous, used up animals of the cheap track. She also lands in the cross-hairs of leading trainer Joe Dale Bigg. But as news of Tommy’s plan spreads, from veteran groom Medicine Ed, to loan shark Two-Tie, to Kidstuff the blacksmith, it’s Maggie, not Tommy or the handlers of legendary stakes horse Lord of Misrule, who will find what’s valuable in a world where everything has a price.

Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life by Frances Mayes (now in paperback – $15.00)

In this sequel to her New York Times bestsellers Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany, Mayes lyrically chronicles her continuing, two decades-longlove affair with Tuscany’s people, art, cuisine, and lifestyle.

This Week’s New Releases – March 7th

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht ($25.00; our price: $20.00) staff pick by Shuchi!

Weaving a brilliant latticework of family legend, loss, and love, , the youngest of The New Yorker’s twenty best American fiction writers under forty, has spun a timeless novel that will establish her as one of the most vibrant, original authors of her generation.

In a Balkan country mending from years of conflict, Natalia, a young doctor, arrives on a mission of mercy at an orphanage by the sea. By the time she and her lifelong friend Zóra begin to inoculate the children there, she feels age-old superstitions and secrets gathering everywhere around her. Secrets her outwardly cheerful hosts have chosen not to tell her. Secrets involving the strange family digging for something in the surrounding vineyards. Secrets hidden in the landscape itself.

But Natalia is also confronting a private, hurtful mystery of her own: the inexplicable circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. After telling her grandmother that he was on his way to meet Natalia, he instead set off for a ramshackle settlement none of their family had ever heard of and died there alone. A famed physician, her grandfather must have known that he was too ill to travel. Why he left home becomes a riddle Natalia is compelled to unravel.
 
The Informationist: A Thriller by Taylor Stevens ($23.00; our price: $18.40)

Vanessa “Michael” Munroe deals in information—expensive information—working for corporations, heads of state, private clients, and anyone else who can pay for her unique brand of expertise. Born to missionary parents in lawless central Africa, Munroe took up with an infamous gunrunner and his mercenary crew when she was just fourteen. As his protégé, she earned the respect of the jungle’s most dangerous men, cultivating her own reputation for years until something sent her running. After almost a decade building a new life and lucrative career from her home base in Dallas, she’s never looked back.

Until now.
 
A Texas oil billionaire has hired her to find his daughter who vanished in Africa four years ago. It’s not her usual line of work, but she can’t resist the challenge. Pulled deep into the mystery of the missing girl, Munroe finds herself back in the lands of her childhood, betrayed, cut off from civilization, and left for dead. If she has any hope of escaping the jungle and the demons that drive her, she must come face-to-face with the past that she’s tried for so long to forget.
 
Gripping, ingenious, and impeccably paced, The Informationist marks the arrival or a thrilling new talent.

The Wise Man’s Fear (Kingkiller Chronicles #2) by Patrick Rothfuss ($29.95; our price: $23.96)

“My name is Kvothe. I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. You may have heard of me… ” So begins the tale of a hero told from his own point of view—a story unequalled in fantasy literature. .

 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot – now in paperback ($16.00) staff pick by Karen!

Acclaimed author Skloot brilliantly weaves together the story of Henrietta Lacks–a woman whose cells have been unwittingly used for scientific research since the 1950s–with the birth of bioethics, and the dark history of experimentation on African Americans.

 

 

The Thousand Autumns of  Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell – now in paperback ($15.00)

One of TIME magazine’s most influential novelists in the world presents a bold and epic novel about a rarely visited point in history–18th-century Japan–in a work as exquisitely rendered as it is irresistibly readable.

 

 

Solar by Ian McEwan – now in paperback ($15.00)

Can a man who has made a mess of his life clean up the messes of humanity? A complex novel that brilliantly traces the arc of one man’s ambitions and deceptions, Solar is a startling, witty new work from the author of Atonement.

 

 

The Man From Beijing by Henning Mankell - now in paperback ($15.00)

The acclaimed author of the Kurt Wallander mysteries gives readers an electrifying thriller that takes off into a sweeping international drama. In the Swedish hamlet of Hesjovallen, 19 people have been massacred–and the only clue is a red ribbon found at the scene.

 

 

The Information Officer by Mark Mills – now in paperback ($15.00)

Filled with remarkably poignant and atmospheric details of life under siege, and indelible characters who live and breathe, The Information Officer is a taut, transporting thriller–an enthralling novel told with exceptional skill and style.