Alaina Housley was just 18 years old and a freshman at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, in November 2018 when she was killed in a mass shooting at Borderline Bar and Grill, a popular country-western bar a few miles off-campus in Thousand Oaks. Housley writes of his and his family’s devastation after the incident, and …
Fitts, the author of several books about Japanese baseball, takes a close look at the inner workings of Nippon Professional Baseball through first-person accounts from players, front-office personnel, data analysts, business executives, and, engagingly, one of the urikos (“beer girls”) who lug hefty kegs through the stands: “When I poured a drink, I always smiled,” …
Nineteen-year-old Amara Kalogridas’ life isn’t perfect: Her mother died nine years ago, after which her father struggled with alcohol abuse, but her family has pulled through. Now, Amara, her brother, Greg, her best friend, Sophie, and her archaeologist father are working on a dig in Tunisia, where they’re hoping to learn more about the rise …
Among the many scars left by the Holocaust remain the gaping grounds and bulldozed squares where houses of Jewish worship once stood. More than sites of faith, these buildings were community centers, nodes for family and social life. And in their shape and size, the European synagogues were structures unique to a time and place. …
Ellie Belmont and Kathryn Kepler, together for five years, live a happy and fulfilling life in Edina, a suburb of Minneapolis. Despite their contentment, an email from Kathryn’s high school boyfriend prompts Ellie to face her fear that Kathryn might leave her for a man. The recently widowed Gary Gibson, a successful Florida real estate …
Enid, who’s nearly 70, is no stranger to grief, having lost her brother at a young age, but nothing prepares her for the death of her husband, Hugo.The two built a quiet life together, marked by pleasant morning coffees and strolls through the local grocery store. As they grew older, however, they came face-to-face with …
This fourth installment of a series finds Farrell’s main characters, part-time private investigator Eddie O’Connell and his Uncle Mike, once again caught up in horse racing, bookmaking, and the mob. Mike, a retired cop, is the owner of O’Connell’s Tavern in Chicago, where Eddie acts as bar manager. As the novel opens, Eddie’s girlfriend, Nicole …
This monograph of wet-on-wet watercolor paintings features dynamic urban scenes in which light operates without conventional logic: “Broad swaths of light sweep and swoop down and across and up and away,” lending skyscrapers, bridges, and monuments “a friendly but fierce and almost otherworldly energy.” The artist’s loose, gestural approach offers a refreshing departure from the …
After a meteor crashes near Vincennes, Indiana, a cockroach-like, gigantic kaiju crawls out and starts causing mayhem; the U.S. military dubs it the Palmetto Bug Monster. A second behemoth soon appears in Alaska—a massive creature akin to a gecko, which surfaces in a dormant volcano. It’s the latter kaiju—regrettably referred to by authorities as “He-Knew-Pat-Sajak,” …
Bridget Higgins is only 7 when she loses her mother and her stepfather in an explosive fire at an Arkansas law firm. Thirtysomething Claire Foster’s parents died in the same fire, which she survived, although her memory of the night is foggy, and her suspicious cop boyfriend is certain that she’s faking her amnesia to …
