Tuesday, May 7, 2024

iTunes Store: Top 25 Books in Fiction & Literature 2024-05-07

Melanie Maure - Sisters of Belfast artwork Sisters of Belfast
A Novel
Melanie Maure
Genre: Historical Fiction
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: February 27, 2024
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Seller: Harper Collins Canada Limited

In the spirit of Heather Morris, Kate Quinn, and Pam Jenoff, an enthralling and deeply moving story that begins during World War II, about orphaned twin sisters in Ireland whose lives diverge for decades, until fate—and faith—reunite them in the twilight of their lives. Orphaned during the Second World War, Aelish and Isabel McGuire—known as the twins of Belfast—are given over to the austere care of the Sisters of Bethlehem. Though they are each all the other has, the girls are propelled in opposite directions as they grow up. Rebellious Isabel turns her back on the church and Ireland, traveling to Newfoundland where she pursues a perilous yet independent life. Devout Aelish chooses to remain in Northern Ireland and takes the veil, burying painful truths beneath years of silence. For decades the two are separated, each unaware of the other’s life. But after years of isolation Aelish is unexpectedly summoned to Newfoundland, where she and her estranged sister begin to bridge the chasm between them. Reunion brings to light the painful secrets and seismic deceptions that have kept these sisters apart, leaving the McGuire twins to begin reconstructing their understanding about themselves as women and as family–what they know of love, hope, and above all, forgiveness. A story of faith—in religion, in the world, and in one another—Sisters of Belfast is a heartbreaking, tragic, and deeply moving novel about survival and the enduring power of sisterhood.



Ernest Hemingway - Across the River and Into the Trees artwork Across the River and Into the Trees
Ernest Hemingway
Genre: Fiction & Literature
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: July 25, 2002
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC

An ailing American colonel and an Italian countess find a revitalizing love amid despair in post-World War II Venice in this classic novel. Set in Venice at the close of World War II, Across the River and into the Trees is the bittersweet story of a middle-aged American colonel, scarred by war and in failing health, who finds love with a young Italian countess at the very moment when his life is coming a physical hardship to him. It is a love so overpowering and spontaneous that it revitalizes the man’s spirit and encourages him to dream of a future, even though he knows that there can be no hope for long. Spanning a matter of hours, Across the River and into the Trees is tender and moving, yet tragic in the inexorable shadow of what must come. Now a major motion picture starring Liev Schreiber!



Bill Schutt & J Finch - The Darwin Strain artwork The Darwin Strain
Bill Schutt & J Finch
Genre: Action & Adventure
Price: $0.99
Publish Date: August 06, 2019
Publisher: HarperCollins
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC

From the authors of The Himalayan Codex : “Fantastical adventure grounded in real history and authentic science . . . [a] page-turner.” —James Morrow, Nebula Award-winning author of The Philosopher’s Apprentice Though the fighting has stopped and Hitler is vanquished, a dangerous new war between America and the Soviet Union has begun. Invaluable in defeating the Nazis, accidental cryptozoologist R.J. MacCready and Yanni Thorne, an indigenous Brazilian and expert in animal behavior, are working for the Pentagon once again. Sent to a mysterious island in a remote corner of the Mediterranean, they’re investigating rumors of a volcanic spring with “miraculous” healing properties that the locals say is guarded by sea monsters from ancient legends. The islanders believe that, like Fatima, the spring is a gift from God. To the Greek Orthodox Church, it is a sign of a deadly evil foretold in apocalyptic texts. Alongside French and Chinese researchers—men who share their strange, bloodstained past—Mac and Yanni discover that the spring’s undersea plumes release an exotic microbe that can transform life with astonishing speed. To find the source of the volcanic spring, Mac and Yanni must find a way to neutralize “the Dragons of Revelation”—a fearsome aquatic species also known as Kraken—which are preventing the scientists from exploring deep beneath the sea’s surface. Mutating at a stunning pace, the Kraken have evolved into a chillingly high alien intelligence. As the race to possess the microbe heats up, tensions between geopolitics, religion, and ordinary scientists confronted with the unknown escalate into chaos. Mac and Yanni know all too well that one wrong choice can easily set in motion a biological chain reaction that will reach across the decades to enhance—or destroy—everything that lives. . . . “Excellent . . . Schutt and Finch are worthy successors of Michael Crichton.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)



Arthur Conan Doyle - The Return of Sherlock Holmes artwork The Return of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Classics
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: April 22, 2014
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC

Thirteen tales of crime and intrigue, including the remarkable story of Sherlock Holmes’s return from the dead It has been three years since Sherlock Holmes, locked in a fierce struggle with his arch-nemesis, Professor Moriarty, disappeared over the edge of the Reichenbach Falls. The world has mourned his loss greatly, no one more so than his good friend and partner in the arts of detection, Dr. Watson. Imagine Watson’s shock, then, when an elderly book collector he bumps into on the street turns out to be none other than the master sleuth himself. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Sherlock Holmes did not die in Switzerland—he vanquished his greatest foe and set a trap for every other would-be mastermind foolish enough to attempt to match wits with the world’s greatest detective.   From the astonishing revelation in the opening paragraphs of “The Adventure of the Empty House” to the motiveless murder at the heart of “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez” to the kidnapping that sets in motion the plot of “The Adventure of the Priory School,” these thirteen classic stories are among the most entertaining and endlessly clever entries in the canon of Sherlock Holmes.   This ebook features a new introduction by Otto Penzler and has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.



Baely - Bidding on Her Boss artwork Bidding on Her Boss
Baely
Genre: Fiction & Literature
Price: $0.99
Publish Date: September 01, 2015
Publisher: Harlequin
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC

From a USA Today– bestselling author, when an employee wins a date with her boss, she discovers she wants much more than a business relationship with him. Florist Faith Crawford has a brilliant plan—win her company’s CEO at a bachelor auction and use their “date” to show him her designs. But her plan backfires when the focus of their meeting shifts from flowers to a floor-tilting kiss. For Dylan Hawke, it’s time for damage control. Promoting the talented Faith is a no-brainer, but fraternizing with her is strictly forbidden. Dylan must remain professional—the fate of his business rests in the balance. Too bad Dylan won’t rest until he gets another kiss . . .



Kristin Hannah - The Women artwork The Women
A Novel
Kristin Hannah
Genre: Fiction & Literature
Price: $16.99
Publish Date: February 06, 2024
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Seller: Macmillan

A #1 bestseller on The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times! From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's T he Women —at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided. Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost. But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam. The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.



Sofia Lundberg - The Red Address Book artwork The Red Address Book
A Novel
Sofia Lundberg
Genre: Fiction & Literature
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: January 08, 2019
Publisher: HarperCollins
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC

The global fiction sensation—published in thirty-two countries. “A warm and tender story about life, memories, and the power of love and friendship.” —Katarina Bivald,  New York Times –bestselling author Meet Doris, a ninety-six-year-old woman living alone in her Stockholm apartment. She has few visitors, but her weekly Skype calls with Jenny—her American grandniece, and her only relative—give her great joy and remind her of her own youth. When Doris was a girl, she was given an address book by her father, and ever since she has carefully documented everyone she met and loved throughout the years. Looking through the little book now, Doris sees the many crossed-out names of people long gone and is struck by the urge to put pen to paper. In writing down the stories of her colorful past—working as a maid in Sweden, modelling in Paris during the ’30s, fleeing to Manhattan at the dawn of the Second World War—can she help Jenny, haunted by a difficult childhood, unlock the secrets of their family and finally look to the future? And whatever became of Allan, the love of Doris’s life? A charming novel that prompts reflection on the stories we all should carry to the next generation, and the surprises in life that can await even the oldest among us,  The Red Address Book  introduces Sofia Lundberg as a wise—and irresistible—storyteller. “Written with love, told with joy. Very easy to enjoy.” —Fredrik Backman, #1 New York Times –bestselling author of  A Man Called Ove



Diane Byington - Louise and Vincent artwork Louise and Vincent
Diane Byington
Genre: Historical Fiction
Price: $13.99
Publish Date: August 15, 2023
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Seller: Draft2Digital, LLC

French innkeeper Louise Ravoux is struggling to keep her inn afloat while raising her two daughters and avoiding her abusive husband. One afternoon, a scruffy redheaded painter walks in, wanting to rent a room. Vincent van Gogh reminds her of her first love, and he has the most arresting eyes of anyone she's ever seen. Though attracted to Vincent, Louise still bears the scars her husband gave her the only time she flirted with a man during their marriage. Still, something about Vincent makes her feel alive, and when she sees him painting outside, she stops to admire his work. Louise gathers her courage and asks Vincent to give her painting lessons, and he agrees. She soon realizes that art and this man are calling her to change her life. Because of her husband's temper and propensity for violence, Louise walks a dangerous path, but she's determined to do whatever it takes to find a meaningful life and experience love. Both a love story and a chronicle of a woman's awakening, Louise and Vincent richly portrays the last months of one of the most iconic artists in history.



Danielle Steel - Only the Brave artwork Only the Brave
A Novel
Danielle Steel
Genre: Historical Fiction
Price: $16.99
Publish Date: April 30, 2024
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel comes a powerful, sweeping historical novel about a courageous woman in World War II Germany. Sophia Alexander, the beautiful daughter of a famous surgeon in Berlin, has had to grow up faster than most young women. When her mother falls ill, Sophia must take charge of her younger sister, Theresa, and look after her father and the household, while also volunteering at his hospital after school. Meanwhile, Hitler’s rise to power and the violence in her very own town have Sophia concerned, but only her mother is willing to share her fears openly. After tragedy strikes and her mother dies, Sophia becomes increasingly involved in the resistance, attending meetings of dissidents and helping however she can. Circumstances become increasingly dangerous and personal when Sophia assists her sister’s daring escape from Germany, as Theresa flees with her young husband and his family. Her father also begins to resist the regime, secretly healing those hiding from persecution, only to have his hospital burned to the ground. When he is arrested and sent to a concentration camp, Sophia is truly on her own, but more determined than ever to help. While working as a nurse with the convent nuns, the Sisters of Mercy, Sophia continues her harrowing efforts to transport Jewish children to safety and finds herself under surveillance. As the political tensions rise and the brutal oppression continues, Sophia is undeterred, risking it all, even her own freedom, as she rises to the challenge of helping those in need—no matter the cost. In Only the Brave , Danielle Steel vividly captures the devastating effects of war alongside beautiful moments of compassion and courage.



Susan Wiggs - Family Tree artwork Family Tree
A Novel
Susan Wiggs
Genre: Fiction & Literature
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: August 09, 2016
Publisher: William Morrow
Seller: Harper Collins Canada Limited

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a powerful, emotionally complex story of love, loss, the pain of the past—and the promise of the future. Sometimes the greatest dream starts with the smallest element. A single cell, joining with another. And then dividing. And just like that, the world changes. Annie Harlow knows how lucky she is. The producer of a popular television cooking show, she loves her handsome husband and the beautiful Los Angeles home they share. And now, she’s pregnant with their first child. But in an instant, her life is shattered. And when Annie awakes from a yearlong coma, she discovers that time isn’t the only thing she’s lost. Grieving and wounded, Annie retreats to her old family home in Switchback, Vermont, a maple farm generations old. There, surrounded by her free-spirited brother, their divorced mother, and four young nieces and nephews, Annie slowly emerges into a world she left behind years ago: the town where she grew up, the people she knew before, the high-school boyfriend turned judge. And with the discovery of a cookbook her grandmother wrote in the distant past, Annie unearths an age-old mystery that might prove the salvation of the family farm. Family Tree is the story of one woman’s triumph over betrayal, and how she eventually comes to terms with her past. It is the story of joys unrealized and opportunities regained. Complex, clear-eyed and big-hearted, funny, sad, and wise, it is a novel to cherish and to remember. 



Sue Brown - His Protector artwork His Protector
Sue Brown
Genre: LGBTQIA+ Fiction
Price: $0.99
Publish Date: June 20, 2023
Publisher: Sue Brown
Seller: Draft2Digital, LLC

What kind of courage does it take to travel two thousand miles just to say hello to a man who doesn’t know you exist? At thirty years old and never been kissed, Walker is about to find out. After a rocky start to his life in the agency, newly trained operative Walker takes the biggest chance of his life before his first mission. He returns to J.T.’s Bar to bare his virgin soul to a handsome former operative he’s only seen once. Since Mark left the agency, he’s spent years nursing an unrequited crush on a former co-worker. He’s left with the realization he’s facing middle-age alone. Except here’s this shy, huge man from the agency waiting to talk to him in J.T.’s Bar. The last thing they need to hear is someone is killing Mark’s former team. Against his wishes, the agency insists Mark goes into hiding and Walker is assigned the task of getting him to a safe house. Can a rookie operative like Walker protect Mark long enough to get him to safety—and eventually into his arms? If you like action and adventure gay romance with shy hot guys and loving that can heal all broken hearts, you’ll love His Protector. Sue Brown's tense action series where risk and romance are played for high stakes. Passion and danger are always close to home in J.T’s Bar, where alpha men get a second chance at love.



Barbara Linn Probst - The Color of Ice artwork The Color of Ice
A Novel
Barbara Linn Probst
Genre: Fiction & Literature
Price: $0.99
Publish Date: October 18, 2022
Publisher: She Writes Press
Seller: Ingram DV LLC

“Exquisite” (Lisa Barr, New York Times best-selling author of Woman on Fire ) and “utterly engrossing” (Katherine Gray, cohost of the Netflix series Blown Away ), The Color of Ice will wrap you in its spell, all the way to its unforgettable ending.  Set among the glaciers and thermal lagoons of Iceland, and framed by the magical art of glassblowing, The Color of Ic e is the breathtaking story of a woman's awakening to passion, beauty, and the redemptive power of unconditional love.  The stunning new novel by the author of award-winning novels Queen of the Owls and The Sound Between the Notes . . . Cathryn McAllister, a freelance photographer, travels to Iceland for a photo shoot with an enigmatic artist who wants to capture the country’s iconic blue icebergs in glass. Her plan is to head out, when the job is done, on a carefully curated “best of Iceland” solo vacation. Widowed young, Cathryn has raised two children while achieving professional success. If the price of that efficiency has been the dimming of her fire—well, she hasn’t let herself think about it. Until now. Bit by bit, Cathryn abandons her itinerary to remain with Mack, the glassblower, who awakens a hunger for all the things she’s told herself she doesn’t need anymore. Passion. Vulnerability. Risk. Cathryn finds herself torn between the life—and self—she’s come to know and the new world Mack offers. Commitments await her back in America. But if she walks away, she’ll lose this chance to feel deeply again. Just when her path seems clear, she’s faced with a shocking discovery—and a devastating choice that shows her what love really is.



Yagisawa, Satoshi & Eric Ozawa - Days at the Morisaki Bookshop artwork Days at the Morisaki Bookshop
A Novel
Yagisawa, Satoshi & Eric Ozawa
Genre: Fiction & Literature
Price: $2.99
Publish Date: July 04, 2023
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Seller: Harper Collins Canada Limited

The wise and charming international bestseller and hit Japanese movie—about a young woman who loses everything but finds herself—a tale of new beginnings, romantic and family relationships, and the comfort that can be found in books.  Twenty-five-year-old Takako has enjoyed a relatively easy existence—until the day her boyfriend Hideaki, the man she expected to wed, casually announces he’s been cheating on her and is marrying the other woman. Suddenly, Takako’s life is in freefall. She loses her job, her friends, and her acquaintances, and spirals into a deep depression. In the depths of her despair, she receives a call from her distant uncle Satoru. An unusual man who has always pursued something of an unconventional life, especially after his wife Momoko left him out of the blue five years earlier, Satoru runs a second-hand bookshop in Jimbocho, Tokyo’s famous book district. Takako once looked down upon Satoru’s life. Now, she reluctantly accepts his offer of the tiny room above the bookshop rent-free in exchange for helping out at the store. The move is temporary, until she can get back on her feet. But in the months that follow, Takako surprises herself when she develops a passion for Japanese literature, becomes a regular at a local coffee shop where she makes new friends, and eventually meets a young editor from a nearby publishing house who’s going through his own messy breakup. But just as she begins to find joy again, Hideaki reappears, forcing Takako to rely once again on her uncle, whose own life has begun to unravel. Together, these seeming opposites work to understand each other and themselves as they continue to share the wisdom they’ve gained in the bookshop. Translated By Eric Ozawa



Matt Haig - The Midnight Library artwork The Midnight Library
A Novel
Matt Haig
Genre: Fiction & Literature
Price: $13.99
Publish Date: September 29, 2020
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Seller: Harper Collins Canada Limited

Between life and death there is a library.  When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change. The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger. Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?



Merrillee Whren - A Baby to Call Ours artwork A Baby to Call Ours
Merrillee Whren
Genre: Religious Fiction
Price: $0.99
Publish Date: July 25, 2018
Publisher: Merrillee Whren
Seller: Draft2Digital, LLC

When Jimmy Cunningham has a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity with his uncle's company, Jimmy hopes to prove to everyone in his small hometown that he can be a success despite his bad-boy past. But will his uncle's unreasonable request that Jimmy find a wife and settle down send his career dreams up in smoke? Kelsey Reynolds wishes she could turn back time a few weeks and change the course of her life, but she can't undo the mess she's made. Jimmy offers her a solution, but is marrying a man she barely knows—even one as good looking and kindhearted as Jimmy—any better than facing her family with the truth? How can a marriage built on a pretense survive?



James Clavell - Shōgun, Part One (The Asian Saga) artwork Shōgun, Part One (The Asian Saga)
James Clavell
Genre: Historical Fiction
Price: $13.99
Publish Date: December 12, 2023
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Seller: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

By the #1 New York Times bestselling author and unparalleled master of historical fiction, James Clavell’s Shogun  is soon to be a major FX/Hulu TV series! Shogun , the classic epic novel of feudal Japan that captured the heart of a culture and the imagination of the world, is now available for the first time in serial format. Part One contains the first half of the complete novel.  After Englishman John Blackthorne is lost at sea, he awakens in a place few Europeans know of and even fewer have seen—Nippon. Thrust into the closed society that is seventeenth-century Japan, a land where the line between life and death is razor-thin, Blackthorne must negotiate not only a foreign people, with unknown customs and language, but also his own definitions of morality, truth, and freedom. As internal political strife and a clash of cultures lead to seemingly inevitable conflict, Blackthorne’s loyalty and strength of character are tested by both passion and loss, and he is torn between two worlds that will each be forever changed.  Powerful and engrossing, capturing both the rich pageantry and stark realities of life in feudal Japan,  Shogun  is a critically acclaimed powerhouse of a book. Heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat action melds seamlessly with intricate historical detail and raw human emotion. Endlessly compelling, this sweeping saga captivated the world to become not only one of the best-selling novels of all time but one of the highest-rated television miniseries, as well as inspiring a nationwide surge of interest in the culture of Japan. Shakespearean in both scope and depth,  Shogun  is, as the  New York Times  put it, ‘'not only something you read—you live it.’‘    Also available:  Shogun: Part Two



WW Mortensen - Eight artwork Eight
WW Mortensen
Genre: Horror
Price: $0.99
Publish Date: December 13, 2016
Publisher: WW Mortensen
Seller: Draft2Digital, LLC

TERROR HAS A NEW SPECIES Deep in the Amazon lies the solution to the global energy crisis—a mysterious source of power that will end our dependency on oil. It's not the only discovery. When entomologist Rebecca Riley receives a series of strange photographs from expedition leader and former partner, Ed Reardon, she finds herself heading to Brazil to join the team of scientists assembling there. She hasn't seen Ed for more than a year, and their relationship didn't end well. His revelation, however, is impossible to ignore. What she uncovers is beyond imagination: strange statues in the jungle… a ruined city built by the refugees of a lost Pacific continent… and a terrifying new species. She knows this is no ordinary animal. When the team is attacked, the mission becomes a desperate race for survival, and Rebecca must confront a crippling childhood phobia she'd thought long dead and buried. An ancient enemy has awakened, one whose very existence has implications for all of humankind… and the planet itself.



Alix Rickloff - The Girls in Navy Blue artwork The Girls in Navy Blue
A Novel
Alix Rickloff
Genre: Historical Fiction
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: November 01, 2022
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Seller: Harper Collins Canada Limited

A gripping and compelling dual timeline novel about three women who joined the Navy during WWI to become yeomanettes and the impact their choices have on one of their descendants in 1968. "The Girls in Navy Blue had me smiling from first page to last! When the US Navy admits women to the ranks during World War I, three intrepid yeomanettes answer the call: Blanche the dashing suffragette, Marjory the German immigrant, and Vivian the preacher's daughter on the run from the police. Friendship, duty, and the struggle of making their way in a man's world will bind the three together, and their secrets will resound through the next fifty years--until Blanche's great-niece, reeling from losses and desperate for home, will pick up the pieces. Alix Rickloff pens a lovely coming-of-age tale: brave women making waves in a war-torn world." - Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author 1918 - America is at war with Germany, and, for the first time in history, the US Navy has allowed women to join up alongside the men. Ten thousand of them rush to do their part. German-American Marjory Kunwald enlists in the Navy to prove her patriotism. Suffragette Blanche Lawrence to prove that women are the equal of men. And shy preacher’s daughter Viv Weston in a desperate attempt to hide from the police.  Even as the US military pours into France and the war heats up, the three yeomanettes find friendship and sisterhood within the Navy. But all their plans for the future are thrown into chaos when Viv’s dark past finally catches up with her. 1968 - Newly divorced and reeling from a personal tragedy, Peggy Whitby unexpectedly inherits her estranged great-aunt Blanche’s beach cottage outside Norfolk Virginia. But her fragile peace is rattled when she begins to receive mysterious postcards dated from 1918 when Blanche served as a Navy yeomanette.  Curious to learn more about her mysterious aunt and uncover the truth behind the cryptic messages, Peggy is drawn deeper into the lives of the three young Navy girls. But her digging uncovers more than she bargains for, and, as past and present collide, Peggy must decide if finding out about her aunt is worth the risk of losing herself.



Rachel Khong - Real Americans artwork Real Americans
A novel
Rachel Khong
Genre: Fiction & Literature
Price: $16.99
Publish Date: April 30, 2024
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

READ WITH JENNA’S MAY BOOK CLUB PICK • A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin : How far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures?  "Mesmerizing"—Brit Bennett • "A page turner.”—Ha Jin • “Gorgeous, heartfelt, soaring, philosophical and deft"—Andrew Sean Greer • "Traverses time with verve and feeling."—Raven Leilani Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster, and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love. In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers. In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home. Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made? And if we are made, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?



Nora Sakavic - The Sunshine Court artwork The Sunshine Court
Nora Sakavic
Genre: Fiction & Literature
Price: $0.99
Publish Date: April 12, 2024
Publisher: Nora Sakavic
Seller: Draft2Digital, LLC

My name is Jean Moreau. My place is at Evermore. I belong to the Moriyamas. It is a truth Jean has built his life around, a reminder this is the best he can hope for and all he deserves. But when he is stolen from Edgar Allan University and sold to a more dangerous master, Jean is forced to contend with a life outside of the Nest for the first time in five years. The Foxes call his transfer to California a fresh start; Jean knows it is little more than a golden cage. Captain Jeremy Knox is facing his final year with the USC Trojans and fifth straight year falling short of the championships trophy he desperately craves. Taking in the nation's best defenseman is a no-brainer, even if that man is a Raven. But Jean is no monster, just a man with no hope or desire for a future, and when Evermore's collapse starts dragging Jean's hideous secrets to light, Jeremy is forced to contend with the cost of victory.



John Steinbeck - The Short Novels of John Steinbeck artwork The Short Novels of John Steinbeck
(Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
John Steinbeck
Genre: Literary Fiction
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: July 08, 2009
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House Canada

A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of Steinbeck's brilliant short novels Collected here for the first time in a deluxe paperback volume are six of John Steinbeck's most widely read and beloved novels. From the tale of commitment, loneliness and hope in Of Mice and Men, to the tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of society in Cannery Row, to The Pearl's examination of the fallacy of the American dream, Steinbeck stories of realism, that were imbued with energy and resilience. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.



Emily St. John Mandel - Sea of Tranquility artwork Sea of Tranquility
A Novel
Emily St. John Mandel
Genre: Literary Fiction
Price: $11.99
Publish Date: April 05, 2022
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Seller: Harper Collins Canada Limited

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL BESTSELLER “One of [Mandel’s] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet.” —The New York Times  “Mandel’s sensational sixth novel offers immense pleasures of puzzle box plotting and high-flying imagination. . . . Masterfully plotted and deeply moving, this visionary novel folds back on itself like a hall of mirrors to explore just what connects us to one another, and how many extraordinary contingencies bring us to each ordinary day of our lives.” —Esquire   From the acclaimed, bestselling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel, a “bold and exciting” (The Economist) and “transcendent” (Wall Street Journal) novel filled with “puncturing emotional truths” (Glamour)   In this captivating tale of imagination and ambition, a seemingly disparate array of people come into contact with a time traveller who must resist the pull to change the past and the future. The cast includes a British exile on the west coast of Canada in the early 1900s; the author of a bestselling novel about a fictional pandemic who embarks on a galaxy-spanning book tour during the outbreak of an actual pandemic; a resident of a moon colony almost 300 years in the future; and a lonely girl who films an old-growth forest and experiences a disruption in the recording. Blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, Emily St. John Mandel’s dazzling story follows these engrossing characters across space and time as their lives ultimately intersect. Sea of Tranquility is a breathtaking and wondrous examination of the ties that bind us together, by a master storyteller. 



Amanda Peters - The Berry Pickers artwork The Berry Pickers
A Novel
Amanda Peters
Genre: Fiction & Literature
Price: $13.99
Publish Date: April 04, 2023
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Seller: Harper Collins Canada Limited

NATIONAL BESTSELLER WINNER 2023 BARNES & NOBLE DISCOVER PRIZE WINNER of the ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL for EXCELLENCE in FICTION FINALIST for the Atwood-Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize FINALIST Best First Novel, Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence FINALIST Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction FINALIST Margaret and John Savage First Book Award, Fiction FINALIST Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award FINALIST OLA Forest of Reading Evergreen Award A four-year-old girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that remains unsolved for nearly fifty years  July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, is seen sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of a field before mysteriously vanishing. Her six-year-old brother, Joe, who was the last person to see Ruthie, is devastated by his sister’s disappearance, and her loss ripples through his life for years to come. In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as an only child in an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, while her mother is overprotective of Norma, who is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem to be too real to be her imagination. As she grows older, Norma senses there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she pursues her family’s secret for decades. A stunning debut novel, The Berry Pickers is a riveting story about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.



Barbara Kingsolver - Demon Copperhead artwork Demon Copperhead
A Pulitzer Prize Winner
Barbara Kingsolver
Genre: Fiction & Literature
Price: $16.99
Publish Date: October 18, 2022
Publisher: Harper
Seller: Harper Collins Canada Limited

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION A New York Times "Ten Best Books of the Year" • An Oprah’s Book Club Selection • An Instant New York Times Bestseller • An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller • A #1 Washington Post Bestseller  "Demon is a voice for the ages—akin to Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield—only even more resilient.” —Beth Macy, author of Dopesick "May be the best novel of [the year]. . . . Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this is the story of an irrepressible boy nobody wants, but readers will love.” (Ron Charles, Washington Post) From the acclaimed author of The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees, a brilliant novel that enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero’s unforgettable journey to maturity Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities. Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.



Heather Morris - The Tattooist of Auschwitz artwork The Tattooist of Auschwitz
A Novel
Heather Morris
Genre: Historical Fiction
Price: $13.99
Publish Date: September 04, 2018
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Seller: Harper Collins Canada Limited

 #1 New York Times Bestseller and #1 International Bestseller Soon to be a Peacock Original Series This beautiful, illuminating tale of hope and courage is based on interviews that were conducted with Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov—an unforgettable love story in the midst of atrocity. “The Tattooist of Auschwitz is an extraordinary document, a story about the extremes of human behavior existing side by side: calculated brutality alongside impulsive and selfless acts of love. I find it hard to imagine anyone who would not be drawn in, confronted and moved. I would recommend it unreservedly to anyone, whether they’d read a hundred Holocaust stories or none.”—Graeme Simsion, internationally-bestselling author of The Rosie Project In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners. Imprisoned for over two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive. One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her. A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov's experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.