Mercury

by Margot Livesey

[Harper, $26.99]

Linda says: Livesey has written an intriguing novel of family, emotion and our tendency to neglect what we should appreciate. This compelling story is of a couple who do not realize that their marriage is in crisis until it's almost too late. Livesey's incisive prose plumbs the layers of their lives and reveals emotions and behaviors that are ultimately relatable to all of us. [read more]

Small Great Things

by Jodi Picoult

[Ballantine Books, $28.99]

With incredible empathy, intelligence, and candor, Jodi Picoult tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassion and doesn't offer easy answers. Small Great Things is a remarkable achievement from a writer at the top of her game. [read more]

The Other Einstein

by Marie Benedict

[Sourcebooks, $25.99]

Mitza Maric has always been a little different from other girls. Most twenty-year-olds are wives by now, not studying physics at an elite Zurich university with only male students trying to outdo her clever calculations. But Mitza is smart enough to know that, for her, math is an easier path than marriage. And then fellow student Albert Einstein takes an interest in her, and the world turns sideways. Theirs becomes a partnership of the mind and of the heart, but there might not be room for more than one genius in a marriage.

The Whistler

by John Grisham

[Doubleday Books, $28.95; Oct. 25]

We expect our judges to ensure fair trials, to protect the rights of all litigants, to punish those who do wrong, and to oversee the orderly and efficient flow of justice.  But what happens when a judge bends the law or takes a bribe?

Lacy Stoltz is an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. After nine years with the Board, she knows that most problems are caused by incompetence, not corruption. But a corruption case eventually crosses her desk. A previously disbarred lawyer, now back in business with a new identity, claims to know of a Florida judge who has stolen more money than all other crooked judges combined... Lacy Stoltz immediately suspects that this one could be dangerous.
Dangerous is one thing. Deadly is something else.

The Next: A Novel of Love, Revenge and a Ghost Who Can't Let Go

by Stephanie Gangi

[St. Martin's Press, $26.99]

Is there a right way to die? If so, Joanna DeAngelis has it all wrong. She's consumed by betrayal, spending her numbered days obsessing over Ned McGowan, her much younger ex, and watching him thrive in the spotlight with someone new, while she wastes away. She's every woman scorned, fantasizing about revenge - except she's out of time. Joanna falls from her life, from the love of her daughters and devoted dog, into an otherworldly landscape, a bleak infinity she can't escape until she rises up and returns and sets it right.

The Girl from Venice

by Martin Cruz Smith

[Simon & Schuster, $27.00]

Venice, 1945. The war may be waning, but the city known as La Serenissima is still occupied, and the people of Italy fear the power of the Third Reich. One night, under a canopy of stars, a fisherman named Cenzo comes across a young woman's body floating in the lagoon, and soon discovers that she is still alive and in trouble. Born to a wealthy Jewish family, Giulia is on the run from the Wehrmacht SS. Cenzo chooses to protect Giulia rather than hand her over to the Nazis. This act of kindness leads them into the world of Partisans, random executions, the arts of forgery and high explosives, Mussolini's broken promises, the black market and gold, and, everywhere, the enigmatic maze of the Venice Lagoon.

The German Girl

by Armando Lucas Correa

[Atria Books, $26.99]

Before everything changed, young Hannah Rosenthal lived a charmed life. But now, in 1939, the streets of Berlin are draped with red, white, and black flags; her family's fine possessions are hauled away; and they are no longer welcome in the places that once felt like home.  Hope appears in the form of the SS St. Louis , a transatlantic liner offering Jews safe passage out of Germany. After a frantic search to obtain visas, the Rosenthals and the Martins depart on the luxurious ship bound for Havana. Life on board the St. Louis is like a surreal holiday for the refugees, with masquerade balls, exquisite meals, and polite, respectful service. But soon ominous rumors from Cuba undermine the passengers' fragile sense of safety. From one day to the next, impossible choices are offered, unthinkable sacrifices are made, and the ship that once was their salvation seems likely to become their doom. [read more]

Meet the author at the Hudson Library on Oct. 20! [register now]

The Boy Is Back

by Meg Cabot

[William Morrow, $15.99]

Reed Stewart thought he'd left all his small town troubles - including a broken heart - behind when he ditched tiny Bloomville, Indiana, ten years ago to become rich and famous on the professional golf circuit. Then one tiny post on the Internet causes all of those troubles to return, with a vengeance.
Becky Flowers has worked hard to build her successful senior relocation business, but she's worked even harder to forget Reed Stewart ever existed. She has absolutely no intention of seeing him when he returns, until his family hires her to save his parents.
Now Reed and Becky can't avoid one another, or the memories of that one fateful night. And soon everything they thought they knew about themselves (and each other) has been turned upside down.