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July 2016 Adult Top 10 Picks

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  1. Everything I Don't Remember
    by Jonas Hassen Khemiri
    9781501138027
    Atria Books
    Jul 12, 2016
    FICTION / Thrillers / Suspense
    Hardback
    Everything I Don't Remember
    by Jonas Hassen Khemiri
    9781501138027
    Atria Books
    Jul 12, 2016
    FICTION / Thrillers / Suspense
    Hardback
    A 2016 Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year, as Chosen by Joyce Carol Oates

    One of Sweden’s most celebrated young writers and activists spins an exhilarating, innovative, and gripping murder mystery reminiscent of the hit podcast Serial.

    A young man named Samuel dies in a horrible car crash. Was it an accident or was it suicide? To answer that question, an unnamed writer with an agenda of his own sets out to map Samuel’s last day alive. Through conversations with friends, relatives, and neighbors, a portrait of Samuel emerges: the loving grandchild, the reluctant bureaucrat, the loyal friend, the contrived poseur. The young man who did everything for his girlfriend Laide and shared everything with his best friend Vandad. Until he lost touch with them both.

    By piecing together an exhilarating narrative puzzle, we follow Samuel from the first day he encounters the towering Vandad to when they become roommates. We meet Panther, Samuel’s self-involved childhood friend whose move to Berlin indirectly cues the beginning of Samuel’s search for the meaning of love—which in turn leads Samuel to Laide. Soon, Samuel’s relationship with Laide leads to a chasm in his friendship with Vandad, and it isn’t long before the lines between loyalty and betrayal, protection, and peril get blurred irrevocably.

    Everything I Don’t Remember is a gripping tale about love and memory. But it is also a story about a writer who, by filling out the contours of Samuel’s story, is actually trying to grasp a truth about himself. In the end, what remains of all our fleeting memories? And what is hidden behind everything we don’t remember? Told with Khemiri’s characteristic stylistic ingenuity, this is an emotional roller coaster ride of a book that challenges us to see ourselves—and our relationships to the closest people in our lives—in new and sometimes shocking ways.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  2. Dark Matter
    by Blake Crouch
    9781101904220
    Ballantine Books
    Jul 26, 2016
    FICTION / Thrillers / Technological
    Hardback
    Dark Matter
    by Blake Crouch
    9781101904220
    Ballantine Books
    Jul 26, 2016
    FICTION / Thrillers / Technological
    Hardback
    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • COMING SOON TO APPLE TV+ • A “mind-blowing” (Entertainment Weekly) speculative thriller about an ordinary man who awakens in a world inexplicably different from the reality he thought he knew—from the author of Upgrade, Recursion, and the Wayward Pines trilogy

    “Are you happy with your life?”

    Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the kidnapper knocks him unconscious.

    Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

    Before a man he’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”

    In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college professor but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

    Is it this life or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how will Jason make it back to the family he loves?

    From the bestselling author Blake Crouch, Dark Matter is a mind-bending thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  3. Nine Women, One Dress
    by Jane L. Rosen
    9780385686716
    Doubleday Canada
    Jul 12, 2016
    FICTION / Romance / Romantic Comedy
    Hardback
    Nine Women, One Dress
    by Jane L. Rosen
    9780385686716
    Doubleday Canada
    Jul 12, 2016
    FICTION / Romance / Romantic Comedy
    Hardback
    A charming, hilarious, sweet-as-candy romp of a debut novel that brings together nine unrelated women, each touched by the same little black dress that weaves through their lives, bringing a little magic with it.


    Natalie is a Bloomingdale's sales girl mooning over her lawyer ex-boyfriend who's engaged to someone else after just two months. Felicia has been quietly in love with her happily married boss for twenty years; now that he's a lonely widower, she just needs the right situation to make him see her as more than the best executive assistant in midtown Manhattan. Andrea is a private detective specializing in gathering evidence on cheating husbands--a skill she unfortunately learned from her own life--and she can't figure out why her intuition tells her the guy she's tailing is one of the good ones when she hasn't trusted a man in years.
    For these three women, as well as half a dozen others in sparkling supporting roles--including a young model fresh from rural Georgia; a diva Hollywood star making her Broadway debut; and an over-achieving, unemployed Brown grad who starts faking a fabulous life on social media--everything is about to change, thanks to the dress of the season, the perfect little black number everyone wants to get their hands on. . . .
    View this title on BNC CataList
  4. We Are All Made of Stars
    by Rowan Coleman
    9780553394146
    Ballantine Books
    Jul 26, 2016
    FICTION / Women
    Hardback
    We Are All Made of Stars
    by Rowan Coleman
    9780553394146
    Ballantine Books
    Jul 26, 2016
    FICTION / Women
    Hardback
    “Fans of Jojo Moyes will love We Are All Made of Stars” (Good Housekeeping). “A beautiful web of a book” (Jodi Picoult), this life-affirming novel tells an unforgettable story about second chances, the power of words, and the resilience of the heart.

    A dedicated nurse, Stella finds comfort at the hospice where she works the late shift, especially since her husband returned from Afghanistan—cold, distant, and shattered by painful memories he refuses to share. The hospice at night is another world, where the dying receive closure by creating the letters that Stella helps them write. The pages are filled with love and humor, sometimes regret, and, occasionally, even instructions for a perplexed husband on how to run appliances. There’s one rule: The letters are mailed only after the patient has passed.

    Suddenly Stella is faced with a dilemma: A woman under her care, Grace, has written a confession to the son she abandoned many years before. The letter clearly needs to be read before Grace dies. But if Stella mails it now, she breaks the rule—and risks tampering not only with Grace’s wishes but also with fate.

    Navigating passion and grief, loyalty and loss, and a marriage threatened by silence and secrets, Stella discovers that letters hold a special power: granting solace, saving memories, nurturing relationships. As the words endure, love redeems.

    Praise for We Are All Made of Stars

    “A beautiful web of a book that reminds us of how we are all connected, and how to die—and live—without regrets. Is that a tear in my eye? No, that’s a tear in your eye.”—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Leaving Time and The Storyteller

    “We Are All Made of Stars will break your heart and put the pieces back together—fans of Jojo Moyes’s Me Before You, this one is right up your alley.”—Refinery29

    “Coleman uses several voices and perspectives to turn a potentially dark story into one filled with light. Fans of Jojo Moyes will love this beautifully written, deeply engaging novel that understands death and celebrates life.” —Booklist (starred review)

    “A powerful, emotional read.”—RT Reviews

    “Fans of Jojo Moyes will love We Are All Made of Stars.”—Good Housekeeping

    “Coleman has written a poignant story that examines the value of life, love, and forgiveness. . . . A tear-jerking but ultimately uplifting story.”—Kirkus Reviews
    View this title on BNC CataList
  5. The House at the Edge of Night
    by Catherine Banner
    9780385686280
    Doubleday Canada
    Jul 12, 2016
    FICTION / Historical / General
    Hardback
    The House at the Edge of Night
    by Catherine Banner
    9780385686280
    Doubleday Canada
    Jul 12, 2016
    FICTION / Historical / General
    Hardback
    A sweeping, propulsive family saga set on a romantic and beautiful Italian island, for fans of Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Beautiful Ruins.

    On the tiny, idyllic island of Castellamare, off the coast of Sicily, lies The House at the Edge of Night, an ancient bar run by the Esposito family. There, over the course of three generations--from the eve of World War One to the aftershocks of the 2008 financial crisis--the Esposito women will fight to hold their family together against the threats that break across their shores. As lush and magical as the island at its centre, The House at the Edge of Night is a story of love and secrets, endurance, loss and, ultimately, triumph.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  6. Fire
    by C.C. Humphreys Canada
    9780385679893
    Doubleday Canada
    Jul 12, 2016
    FICTION / Thrillers / Historical
    Paperback / softback
    Fire
    by C.C. Humphreys Canada
    9780385679893
    Doubleday Canada
    Jul 12, 2016
    FICTION / Thrillers / Historical
    Paperback / softback
    First came Plague, now comes Fire. The epic tale of the hunt for a serial killer threatening London's rich and poor during the Great Fire of London. Perfect for fans of C.J. Sansom and Conn Iggulden.


    Fires don't start by themselves. They need someone to light them. What are friends for?
    As the Great Plague of London loosens its grip at last, Charles II's court moves back to the city, the theatres reopen and a new year arrives.
    1666. It cannot be more terrible than the previous year, surely?
    But it can. For many will strive to make it so; to finally rid London of the curse that brought the plague upon it. A wholesale cleansing is required if society is to be born again.
    What's more it seems that a serial killer who stalked hand in hand with the Plague might not be dead after all. Together with actress Sarah Chalker, highwayman William Coke and thief-taker Pitman come together as one, determined to stop the brutal murder of London's rich and poor once and for all.
    But another threat is on the way. It hasn't rained in five months. London is a tinderbox—politically, sexually and religiously. The Great Fire of London is about to ignite. And the final confrontation between Coke, Pitman and Sarah Chalker and their murderous adversary will be decided against a background of apocalypse.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  7. Siracusa
    by Delia Ephron
    9780399165214
    Blue Rider Press
    Jul 12, 2016
    FICTION / Women
    Hardback
    Siracusa
    by Delia Ephron
    9780399165214
    Blue Rider Press
    Jul 12, 2016
    FICTION / Women
    Hardback
    A New York Times Bestseller
    One of People Magazine's Top 10 Books of 2016
    Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2016 (Fiction)

    A Washington Post Bestseller • A Los Angeles Times Bestseller •     A USA Today Bestseller • One of Vulture’s 100 Greatest Beach Books Ever • A People Magazine Summer Reading Pick • One of Elle, InStyle, and Marie Claire’s Best of July

    “Delia Ephron’s Siracusa is a stunning portrait of two marriages coming unraveled during the stress of travel abroad. Insightful and engaging. A must-read!”
    —Sue Grafton, author of X

    “Siracusa is an Italian aria, a Greek tragedy and a modern American master­piece written by Delia Ephron at the height of her powers. This is a story of two complicated marriages, one vulnerable child, and a trip to Italy that changes each of their lives forever. Secrets, lies, love raging, love dying, and the shame of unrealized potential are exposed in detail under the Sicilian sun. And, like the Moro blood oranges that grow there with abandon, the taste is both sour and sweet at once, but the bitterness that remains is not only haunting but unforgettable.”
    —Adriana Trigiani, author of The Shoemaker’s Wife

    “Siracusa is an unusually crackling, tricky journey into the distant land of other people’s marriages: their secrets, paradoxes, weaknesses, and plea­sures. Delia Ephron writes like a warm-blooded Patricia Highsmith, her sto­ry’s treachery matched by a deep and easy feel for the various human, imperfect ways that people find themselves bound together, and sometimes painstakingly unbind themselves. An absorbing, tense, and original novel.”
    —Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings


    An electrifying novel about marriage and deceit from bestselling author Delia Ephron that follows two couples on vacation in Siracusa, a town on the coast of Sicily, where the secrets they have hidden from one another are exposed and relationships are unraveled.

    New Yorkers Michael, a famous writer, and Lizzie, a journalist, travel to Italy with their friends from Maine—Finn; his wife, Taylor; and their daughter, Snow. “From the beginning,” says Taylor, “it was a conspiracy for Lizzie and Finn to be together.” Told Rashomon-style in alternating points of view, the characters expose and stumble upon lies and infidelities past and present. Snow, ten years old and precociously drawn into a far more adult drama, becomes the catalyst for catastrophe as the novel explores collusion and betrayal in marriage.

    With her inimitable psychological astute­ness and uncanny understanding of the human heart, Ephron delivers a powerful meditation on marriage, friendship, and the meaning of travel. Set on the sun-drenched coast of the Ionian Sea, Siracusa unfolds with the pacing of a psychological thriller and delivers an unexpected final act that none will see coming.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  8. The Wolf Road
    by Beth Lewis
    9781101906125
    Crown
    Jul 05, 2016
    FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
    Hardback
    The Wolf Road
    by Beth Lewis
    9781101906125
    Crown
    Jul 05, 2016
    FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological
    Hardback
    Elka barely remembers a time before she knew Trapper.

    She was just seven years old, wandering lost and hungry in the wilderness, when the solitary hunter took her in. In the years since then, he’s taught her how to survive in this desolate land where civilization has been destroyed and men are at the mercy of the elements and each other.

    But the man Elka thought she knew has been harboring a terrible secret. He’s a killer. A monster. And now that Elka knows the truth, she may be his next victim.

    Armed with nothing but her knife and the hard lessons Trapper’s drilled into her, Elka flees into the frozen north in search of her real parents. But judging by the trail of blood dogging her footsteps, she hasn’t left Trapper behind—and he won’t be letting his little girl go without a fight. If she’s going to survive, Elka will have to turn and confront not just him, but the truth about the dark road she’s been set on.

    The Wolf Road is an intimate cat-and-mouse tale of revenge and redemption, played out against a vast, unforgiving landscape—told by an indomitable young heroine fighting to escape her past and rejoin humanity.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  9. I Am No One
    by Patrick Flanery
    9781101905852
    Tim Duggan Books
    Jul 05, 2016
    FICTION / Literary
    Hardback
    I Am No One
    by Patrick Flanery
    9781101905852
    Tim Duggan Books
    Jul 05, 2016
    FICTION / Literary
    Hardback

    A tense, mesmerizing novel about memory, privacy, fear, and what happens when our past catches up with us.

    After a decade living in England, Jeremy O'Keefe returns to New York, where he has been hired as a professor of German history at New York University. Though comfortable in his new life, and happy to be near his daughter once again, Jeremy continues to feel the quiet pangs of loneliness. Walking through the city at night, it's as though he could disappear and no one would even notice.

    But soon, Jeremy's life begins taking strange turns: boxes containing records of his online activity are delivered to his apartment, a young man seems to be following him, and his elderly mother receives anonymous phone calls slandering her son. Why, he wonders, would anyone want to watch him so closely, and, even more upsetting, why would they alert him to the fact that he was being watched?

    As Jeremy takes stock of the entanglements that marked his years abroad, he wonders if he has unwittingly committed a crime so serious as to make him an enemy of the state. Moving towards a shattering reassessment of what it means to be free in a time of ever more intrusive surveillance, Jeremy is forced to ask himself whether he is "no one," as he believes, or a traitor not just to his country but to everyone around him.

    — Included in NPR's Best of 2016 Book Concierge

    View this title on BNC CataList
  10. Trying to Float
    by Nicolaia Rips
    9781501132988
    Scribner
    Jul 12, 2016
    BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs
    Hardback
    Trying to Float
    by Nicolaia Rips
    9781501132988
    Scribner
    Jul 12, 2016
    BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs
    Hardback
    “Hysterically droll, touching, elegant, and wise—a coming-of-age story from someone who possibly came of age before her parents” (Patricia Marx, New Yorker writer and bestselling author), Trying to Float is a seventeen-year-old’s darkly funny, big-hearted memoir about growing up in New York City’s legendary Chelsea Hotel.

    New York’s Chelsea Hotel may no longer be home to its most famous denizens—Andy Warhol, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, to name a few—but the eccentric spirit of the Chelsea is alive and well. Meet the family Rips: father Michael, a lawyer turned writer with a penchant for fine tailoring; mother Sheila, a former model and renowned artist who matches her welding outfits with couture; and daughter Nicolaia, a precocious high school junior at work on a record of her peculiar seventeen years.

    Nicolaia is a perpetual outsider who has struggled to find her place in public schools populated by cliquish girls and loudmouthed boys. But at the Chelsea, Nicolaia need not look far to find her tribe. There’s her neighbor Stormé, a tall woman who keeps a pink handgun strapped to her ankle; her babysitter, Jade, who may or may not have a second career as an escort; her friend Artie, former proprietor of New York’s most famous nightclubs. The kids at school might never understand her, but as Nicolaia endeavors to fit in she begins to understand that the Chelsea’s motley crew could hold the key to surviving the perils of a Manhattan childhood.

    Not since Holden Caulfield has there been such a fabulously compelling teen guide to New York City: Nicolaia Rips’s debut is a disarming, humble, heartfelt, and wise tale of coming-of-age amid the contradictions, complexities, and shifting identities of life in New York City. A bohemian Eloise for our times, Trying to Float is a triumphant parable for the power of embracing difference in all its forms.
    View this title on BNC CataList

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