Book Releases: October 10th

Tomorrow is a big day in the publishing world as there are quite a few highly anticipated novels being released.  Just in case you didn’t have any plans on Tuesday, here is a selection of books you can pick up and read.  I’m probably not getting any sleep tonight (heeeeeyyyy, midnight releases, how you doin’?), so I invite all of my friends (and even my enemies) to join me with a new book.  I’ve curated a list of twelve new-releases based on my own interests, but hopefully you’ll find something to check out!

Death in St. Petersburg (Lady Emily Mysteries #12) by Tasha Alexander 

Genre: mystery, historical

Release Date: October 10

I’m a total sucker for historical fiction, especially historical mysteries.  Give me a smart, sophisticated lady with gobs of money, heaps of intuition, and an over-developed sense of curiosity and I’ll be your best friend.  This is the twelth installment of the Lady Emily series, and if you h

After the final curtain of Swan Lake, an animated crowd exits the Mariinsky theatre brimming with excitement from the night’s performance. But outside the scene is somber. A ballerina’s body lies face down in the snow, blood splattered like rose petals over the costume of the Swan Queen. The crowd is silenced by a single cry— “Nemetseva is dead!”

Amongst the theatergoers is Lady Emily, accompanying her dashing husband Colin in Russia on assignment from the Crown. But it soon becomes clear that Colin isn’t the only one with work to do. When the dead ballerina’s aristocratic lover comes begging for justice, Emily must apply her own set of skills to discover the rising star’s murderer. Her investigation takes her on a dance across the stage of Tsarist Russia, from the opulence of the Winter Palace, to the modest flats of ex-ballerinas and the locked attics of political radicals. A mysterious dancer in white follows closely behind, making waves through St. Petersburg with her surprise performances and trail of red scarves. Is it the sweet Katenka, Nemetseva’s childhood friend and favorite rival? The ghost of the murdered étoile herself? Or, something even more sinister?

Fans of the Lady Emily series can order it here

Death in St. Petersburg: A Lady Emily Mystery (Lady Emily Mysteries)

Hide and Seek (book 6 in A Helen Grace Thriller series)  by M.J. Arlidge 

Genre: thriller, mystery, contemporary

Release Date: October 10

I haven’t read any of the Helen Grace Thriller series and after reading about this book, I am asking myself why the heck not.  How often do you read thrillers where good investigators are falsely accused and in prison?  Don’t answer that.  Just read this.

Prison is no place for a detective

Helen Grace was one of the country’s best police investigators.

Now she’s behind bars with the killers she caught.

 

Framed for murder

She knows there is only way out:

stay alive until her trial and somehow prove her innocence.

Locked up with a killer

But when a mutilated body is found in the cell next door,

Helen fears her days are numbered.

A murderer is on the loose.

And she must find them.

Before she’s next . . .

Order it here: Hide and Seek (A Helen Grace Thriller)

The Stone in the Skull (The Lotus Kingdoms, book 1)  by Elizabeth Bear 

Genre: Fantasy

Release date: October 10

A new fantasy series by Elizabeth Bear is coming out.  I love a good epic fantasy and this one looks great: automatons, wars, sorcerers.  Swoon.

Hugo Award–winning author Elizabeth Bear returns to her critically acclaimed epic fantasy world of the Eternal Sky with a brand new trilogy.

The Stone in the Skull, the first volume in her new trilogy, takes readers over the dangerous mountain passes of the Steles of the Sky and south into the Lotus Kingdoms.

The Gage is a brass automaton created by a wizard of Messaline around the core of a human being. His wizard is long dead, and he works as a mercenary. He is carrying a message from a the most powerful sorcerer of Messaline to the Rajni of the Lotus Kingdom. With him is The Dead Man, a bitter survivor of the body guard of the deposed Uthman Caliphate, protecting the message and the Gage. They are friends, of a peculiar sort.

They are walking into a dynastic war between the rulers of the shattered bits of a once great Empire.

Order your magical copy here: The Stone in the Skull: The Lotus Kingdoms, Book One
 

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Rise of the Empress #1) by Julie C. Dao 

Genre: YA, fantasy

Release date: October 10

This book is buzzing!  Personally, any YA legend or folklore re-tellings are a must read.  I’m even more interested if the tales are not the usual ones (Stop with the reimagined Disney tales already!).

An East Asian fantasy reimagining of The Evil Queen legend about one peasant girl’s quest to become Empress–and the darkness she must unleash to achieve her destiny.

Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be Empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her. Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng’s majestic future. But is the price of the throne too high?

Because in order to achieve greatness, she must spurn the young man who loves her and exploit the callous magic that runs through her veins–sorcery fueled by eating the hearts of the recently killed. For the god who has sent her on this journey will not be satisfied until his power is absolute.

Order it here: Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Rise of the Empress)

The Book of Swords By Gardner Dozois, George R. R. Martin, Robin Hobb, Scott Lynch and Garth Nix 

Genre: short story, epic fantasy

Release date: October 10

Talk about some big names in fantasy.  The compilations are usually pretty hit or miss with me, but there’s always a few stories in there that I love.

New epic fantasy in the grand tradition—including a never-before-published Song of Ice and Fire story by George R. R. Martin!

Fantasy fiction has produced some of the most unforgettable heroes ever conjured onto the page: Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné, Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Classic characters like these made sword and sorcery a storytelling sensation, a cornerstone of fantasy fiction—and an inspiration for a new generation of writers, spinning their own outsize tales of magic and swashbuckling adventure.

Now, in The Book of Swords, acclaimed editor and bestselling author Gardner Dozois presents an all-new anthology of original epic tales by a stellar cast of award-winning modern masters—many of them set in their authors’ best-loved worlds. Join today’s finest tellers of fantastic tales, including George R. R. Martin, K. J. Parker, Robin Hobb, Scott Lynch, Ken Liu, C. J. Cherryh, Daniel Abraham, Lavie Tidhar, Ellen Kushner, and more on action-packed journeys into the outer realms of dark enchantment and intrepid derring-do, featuring a stunning assortment of fearless swordsmen and warrior women who face down danger and death at every turn with courage, cunning, and cold steel.

You know you want this book just to whet your Song of Fire and Ice appetite.  Order it here: The Book of Swords

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green 

Genre: YA, contemporary 

Release Date: October 10

It’s John Green.  I don’t think you really need a description of the novel since he’s either an auto-buy or auto-shun, but just in case you’ve been hiding under a rock and haven’t heard of this YA superstar, here’s the much anticipated novel:

Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.

In his long-awaited return, John Green, the acclaimed, award-winning author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, shares Aza’s story with shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship.

Buy your copy of Turtles (actual turtles are not included) here: Turtles All the Way Down

Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman 

Genre: fiction, magical realism, fantasy 

Release Date: October 10

Alice Hoffman is the Queen of magical realism.  This story is the much-anticipated prequel to Practical Magic.  I know I’m ready to read it.  If nothing else, I want an excuse to watch the movie again with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in all their 90’s glory.

For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.

Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.

From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Back in New York City each begins a risky journey as they try to escape the family curse.

The Owens children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy.

Order your copy here: The Rules of Magic: A Novel

This Darkness Mine by Mindy McGinnis 

Genre: YA, contemporary, mystery. thriller

Release date: October 10

Mindy McGinnis writes some pretty poignant YA fiction and doesn’t shy away from topics.  I have a review of another one of her books, “The Female of the Species” coming soon.

Sasha Stone knows her place—first-chair clarinet, top of her class, and at the side of her oxford-wearing boyfriend. She’s worked her entire life to ensure that her path to Oberlin Conservatory as a star musician is perfectly paved.

But suddenly there’s a fork in the road, in the shape of Isaac Harver. Her body shifts toward him when he walks by, her skin misses his touch even though she’s never known it, and she relishes the smell of him—smoke, beer, and trouble—all the things she’s avoided to get where she is. Even worse, every time he’s near Sasha, her heart stops, literally. Why does he know her so well—too well—and she doesn’t know him at all?

Sasha discovers that her by-the-book life began by ending another’s: the twin sister she absorbed in the womb. But that doesn’t explain the gaps of missing time in her practice schedule or the memories she has of things she certainly never did with Isaac. As Sasha loses her much-cherished control, her life—and heart—become more entangled with Isaac. Armed with the knowledge that her heart might not be hers alone, Sasha must decide what she’s willing to do—and who she’s willing to hurt—to take it back.

Edgar Award–winning author Mindy McGinnis delivers a dark and gripping psychological thriller about a girl at war with herself, and what it really means to be good or bad.

Order your copy here: This Darkness Mine

Code Girls by Liza Mundy 

Genre: nonfiction, history

Release date: October 10

I know I’ve read about a million books on WWII (fiction and non-fiction), and most of those books mentioned the heroic jobs of American women: factories, nursing, etc.  Almost none, however, mentioned female code breakers, let alone teams of female code breakers.  I’m betting in a few month this is going to be on several agents’ manuscript wish lists from their writers.

Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.

Order your copy of kickass lady code-breakers here: Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II

Three Floors Up by Eshkol Nevo (Author), Sondra Silverston (Translator) 

Genre: fiction

Release date: October 10

I will admit.  I know almost nothing about the every day living in Tel Aviv.  The only information I really know comes from the news.   Three Floors Up burst onto my radar recently and now I am considering abandoning my other TBR books in favor of this one.

Set in an upper-middle-class Tel Aviv apartment building, this best-selling and warmly acclaimed Israeli novel examines the interconnected lives of its residents, whose turmoils, secrets, unreliable confessions, and problematic decisions reveal a society in the midst of an identity crisis.

On the first floor, Arnon, a tormented retired officer who fought in the First Intifada, confesses to an army friend with a troubled military past how his obsession about his young daughter’s safety led him to lose control and put his marriage in peril. Above Arnon lives Hani, known as “the widow,” whose husband travels the world for his lucrative job while she stays at home with their two children, increasingly isolated and unstable. When her brother-in-law suddenly appears at their door begging her to hide him from loan sharks and the police, she agrees in spite of the risk to her family, if only to bring some emotional excitement into her life. On the top floor lives a former judge, Devora. Eager to start a new life in her retirement, Devora joins a social movement, desperately tries to reconnect with her estranged son, and falls in love with a man who isn’t what he seems.

A brilliant novelist, Eshkol Nevo vividly depicts how the grinding effects of social and political ills play out in the psyche of his flawed yet compelling characters, in often unexpected and explosive ways.

 
Order your copy here: Three Floors Up

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater 

Genre: YA, fantasy

Release Date: October 10

Another HUGE YA release happening tomorrow.  Fantasy, magic, the American west, all with Stiefvater’s signature GORGEOUS prose?  Okay.  I’m getting a coffee.  Or two.

Here is a thing everyone wants:
A miracle.

Here is a thing everyone fears:
What it takes to get one.

Any visitor to Bicho Raro, Colorado is likely to find a landscape of dark saints, forbidden love, scientific dreams, miracle-mad owls, estranged affections, one or two orphans, and a sky full of watchful desert stars.

At the heart of this place you will find the Soria family, who all have the ability to perform unusual miracles. And at the heart of this family are three cousins longing to change its future: Beatriz, the girl without feelings, who wants only to be free to examine her thoughts; Daniel, the Saint of Bicho Raro, who performs miracles for everyone but himself; and Joaquin, who spends his nights running a renegade radio station under the name Diablo Diablo.

They are all looking for a miracle. But the miracles of Bicho Raro are never quite what you expect.

Order your copy here: All the Crooked Saints

Lady Killers by Tori Telfer 

Genre: nonfiction, true crime

Release date: October 10

Apparently I’m not the only one totally enthralled with other women.  Instead of applauding the great accomplishments of women in the past, Lady Killers exposes ruthless and cunning female serial criminals.

Inspired by author Tori Telfer’s Jezebel column “Lady Killers,” this thrilling and entertaining compendium investigates female serial killers and their crimes through the ages.

When you think of serial killers throughout history, the names that come to mind are ones like Jack the Ripper, John Wayne Gacy, and Ted Bundy. But what about Tillie Klimek, Moulay Hassan, Kate Bender? The narrative we’re comfortable with is the one where women are the victims of violent crime, not the perpetrators. In fact, serial killers are thought to be so universally, overwhelmingly male that in 1998, FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood infamously declared in a homicide conference, “There are no female serial killers.”

Lady Killers, based on the popular online series that appeared on Jezebel and The Hairpin, disputes that claim and offers fourteen gruesome examples as evidence. Though largely forgotten by history, female serial killers such as Erzsébet Báthory, Nannie Doss, Mary Ann Cotton, and Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova rival their male counterparts in cunning, cruelty, and appetite for destruction.

Each chapter explores the crimes and history of a different subject and then proceeds to unpack her legacy and her portrayal in the media, as well as the stereotypes and sexist clichés that inevitably surround her. The first book to examine female serial killers through a feminist lens with a witty and dryly humorous tone, Lady Killers dismisses easy explanations (she was hormonal, she did it for love, a man made her do it) and tired tropes (she was a femme fatale, a black widow, a witch), delving into the complex reality of female aggression and predation. Featuring 14 illustrations from Dame Darcy, Lady Killers is a bloodcurdling, insightful, and irresistible journey into the heart of darkness.

Buy your horrifying and fascinating copy here: Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History

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