THOUGHTS ON THIS 'n THAT

  We've all experienced heartbreak, perhaps the death of a child or spouse, maybe a divorce. If not, well, lucky you! Until now heartbreak has been defined by grief, loneliness, no sleep, anxiety, depression, loss of cognitive skills and death. When Florence Williams' husband leaves her at fifty, she wants to uncover the scientific reason why she's feeling so much physical pain. She investigates in her book, HEARTBREAK: A Personal and Scientific Journey (WWNorton&Co.). In the past people experiencing heartbreak have been told to love yourself, don't form attachments too quickly and move on, but that's not Williams' findings. She calls heartbreak one of the "hidden mines of human existence." Williams goes on a long journey to scientifically find how her body's genes experience life before, during and after heartbreak, particularly after. She finds 3 - 4 years after her divorce, she experiences emotional and physical health. The "cure"...

  Hold on to your seat. Bestselling author, Kaira Rouda has published a new thriller, SOMEBODY'S HOME (Thomas&Mercer). Be prepared to keep reading straight through the very last page. Julia Jones has what most every woman would want. She's married, living in a palace, has more money than she can spend, but she's had enough of her verbally abusive controlling husband. Julia buys a house across the tracks and moves in with her teenage daughter, Jess to what she hopes is peaceful and tranquil. Unfortunately, the previous owners left something behind that turns their lives into a nightmare. Kaira once again has us biting our nails and flipping pages. Her characters are complex and the plot hooks you. In SOMEBODY'S HOME, she once again digs beneath the surface of "perfect" lives to reveal the truth. Readers are made aware of what people will do to protect their home and the people who live inside.  Kaira Sturdivant Rouda is an accomplished business leader, entr...

  First of all. Do we all agree that this cover is gorgeous? Thank you designer, Christopher Lin. One of our favorite historical fiction novelists, Fiona Davis has a new novel that takes place at another historic New York City building, The Frick. Her novel THE MAGNOLIA PALACE (Dutton) is filled with romance, secrets, murder and betrayal in one of Manhattan's most significant landmarks, The Frick Mansion. It originally was the home of industrialist, Henry Clay Frick and his family during the Gilded Age. Once again Davis uses dual timelines, one present day and then back to early 1900s when the Frick's lived. Lillian Carter, best known as Angelica, the model for over one-hundred sculptures in the city loses her mother and then is wanted for questioning in a murder. She escapes, roams around the city, when by chance she is in front of the Frick Mansion, which has a sculpture of her and is whisked into the mansion. Unknown to her, the business magnet's mercurial daughter is se...

  From one of today’s most brilliant and beloved novelists, a dazzling, epic family saga, THE MAGICIAN (Scribner)  set across a half-century spanning  World War I, the rise of Hitler, World War II, and the Cold War. Colm Tóibín’s new novel opens in a provincial German city at the turn of the twentieth century, where the boy, Thomas Mann, grows up with a conservative father, bound by propriety, and a Brazilian mother, alluring and unpredictable. Young Mann hides his artistic aspirations from his father and his homosexual desires from everyone. He is infatuated with one of the richest, most cultured Jewish families in Munich, and marries the daughter Katia. They have six children. On a holiday in Italy, he longs for a boy he sees on a beach and writes the story  Death in Venice . He is the most successful novelist of his time, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, a public man whose private life remains secret. He is expected to lead the condemnation of Hitler, whom...

  In Robyn Lucas' novel PAPER DOLL LINA (LakeUnionPublishing), one rip is all it takes to expose the devastating truth behind a seemingly perfect life. Lina Henry is a wife and mother who likens herself to a pretty paper doll. She lives in a beautiful home in the Atlanta suburbs. Her husband, David, is a well-to-do investment banker. She’s raised two wonderful teenagers. To the outside world, the Henry family is perfect. What no one knows is that Lina’s paper doll life is being torn apart in a controlling and abusive marriage. When Lina develops an unexpected friendship with another man, and reconnects with her former best friend, she begins navigating a way out of the emotional minefield that is her home. But as David senses his loss of control, he becomes more dangerous, and Lina must do everything in her power to protect herself and her children. In order to take back the happiness she deserves, Lina must first rediscover the strength and the fearlessness of her three-dimensiona...

  On page one, author, Isabella Steel's political thriller, REVENGE IS NOT ENOUGH (BlackRaptorBooks) takes off like a bullet. It's fast, focused, dangerous and ripped from the headlines. After an opening which will make you angry about the sad state of affairs in our government, Alex Conway plots murderous revenge on members of the House of Representatives and Senate. No one seems to see any connection between the murders until they start climbing into the hundreds. Soon an elite group of FBI agents and some very determined journalists are on the trail of the killer.  Motivated by revenge and grief, Alex sets out to eliminate each politician who destroyed his life. With unlimited funds, a fatal cancer diagnosis and people who believe in his cause, Alex is determined to clean the swamp leaving only honest politicians in office.  Readers will struggle with reconciling who is the bad guy and who is doing what needs to be done. I loved reading this novel. It was brilliant the...

  New York Times  bestselling author Allison Brennan’s latest suspense novel, THE SORORITY MURDER is about a college senior’s podcast that delves into an unsolved campus murder of a popular sorority girl, with individual callers exploring facts previously thought to be true in her new novel, THE SORORITY MURDERS (MIRA).. Lucas Vega is obsessed with the death of Candace Swain, who left a sorority party one night and never came back. Her body was found after two weeks, but the case has grown cold. Three years later while interning at the Medical Examiner’s, Lucas discovers new information, but the police are not interested. Lucas knows he has several credible pieces of the puzzle. He just isn’t sure how they fit together. So he creates a podcast to revisit Candace’s last hours. Then he encourages listeners to crowdsource what they remember and invites guest lecturer Regan Merritt, a former US marshal, to come on and sha...