New Arrivals: The Best Book Releases This Week (Feb 13)

An explosive, passionate love affair reignites when Sarah runs into her college boyfriend, Warren. Awakened by an emotional aliveness she hasn’t felt in decades, Sarah hesitates to reclaim a chance at love after a painful divorce and her life as it is now, built around work and her kids. Warren, by contrast, wants to leave his marriage. Both confront the moral responsibilities of their love for their families and each other.

In this hotly anticipated debut by Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, three missing teens, who disappeared almost a year ago, suddenly appear in a high school classroom. They’ve long been presumed dead, and . . . they actually are. Striking a magical deal, the trio can return to the living if they complete a set of otherworldly tasks, but they can’t tell anyone where they’ve been. From the author that Carmen Maria Machado calls “our greatest living fabulist,” this is one you won’t forget.

A Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Literary Hub, Ghosh’s part-history, part-travelogue, part-memoir formed as he began research for his monumental novel cycle, The Ibis Trilogy. Smoke and Ashes unravels the impact of the opium trade on global history and his own family. This climax of a yearlong project moves between horticultural history, the narrative of capitalism, and the long-lasting scars of colonialism links personal, political, historical, and colonial in unexpected and fascinating ways.

Former presidents have a strange place in American life. Alexander Hamilton worried that previous ones might “wander among people like ghosts.” And he was kind of right. New York Times bestselling author Jared Cohen explores what happens after the most powerful job in the world through the lives of seven presidents. Examining untold stories of the former elected officials, Cohen considers how they handled normal human problems and questions about legacy and mortality.

A sexy, energetic memoir in verse, Brontez Purnel—the bard of the underlined and overlooked—turns his gaze inward after his cult hit, 100 Boyfriends. Finding levity within crisis, exploring mining his trauma for TV writing, considering generational curses, and more, Purnell muses with musical, boundary-pushing levity, poetry, and clarity. “The most high-risk homosexual behavior I engage in,” writes Purnell, “is simply existing.”

When a courtesan’s body is found frozen, her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by turning into beautiful humans. Bao, a detective, is hired to uncover the courtesan’s identity. Meanwhile, a successful family can’t escape the curse that afflicts them: every eldest son dies before their 24th birthday. An unforgettable, dazzling novel of spirits and the spirited, Choo explores the world of mortals and spirits, humans and beasts, and the dazzling in-between.

Middle-class Rosie Macalister spent years working to fit in with her wealthy friends on Yale’s equestrian team. When she returns from a year abroad with newfound confidence, her high is dampened by a mysterious intruder named Annelise. Enigmatic and talented with a tarot deck, Annelise tantalizes the group. However, when money goes missing among the friends, tensions rise to devastating consequences. Library Journal calls this book “sophisticated with just the right dose of sinister.”

Calvin Trillin has reported pieces across America for The New Yorker, covered the Southern civil rights movement for Time, and written comic verse in The Nation. But one of his favorite subjects over the decades has been his very own profession: The American press. Trillin creates a portrait of journalism and the people in its folds with empathy, humor, and grace. He explores a legendary crime reporter in Miami, and erudite film critic in Dallas, the gossip columns of Russia, and more.

2020 will go down in history as one of the most consequential years in history. Acclaimed sociologist and best-selling author Klinenberg explores this year through seven vivid profiles of ordinary New Yorkers: an elementary school principal, a bar manager, a subway custodian, and a local political aide. Their experiences illuminate how humanity reckoned with 2020 and how we’ll face future challenges, all written with empathy in this deeply moving account.

For this powerful book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Finkel, Finkel spent fourteen years inside the world of Brent Cummings, an Iraq war veteran struggling to confront the fear, anger, and confusion sweeping the country he loves. Raised to believe in a vision of America that values fairness, honesty, and respect for others, he tries to hold on to his values and his hope for America’s future.