Clayton Burroughs is a small-town Georgia sheriff, a new father, and, improbably, the heir apparent of Bull Mountain's most notorious criminal family.

As he tries to juggle fatherhood, his job and his recovery from being shot in the confrontation that killed his two criminally-inclined brothers last year, he's doing all he can just to survive. Yet after years of carefully toeing the line between his life in law enforcement and his family, he finally has to make a choice.

When a rival organization makes a first foray into Burroughs territory, leaving a trail of bodies and a whiff of fear in its wake, Clayton is pulled back into the life he so desperately wants to leave behind. Revenge is a powerful force, and the vacuum left by his brothers' deaths has left them all vulnerable. With his wife and child in danger, and the way of life in Bull Mountain under siege for everyone, Clayton will need to find a way to bury the bloody legacy of his past once and for all.

Before becoming a writer, Brian Panowich was a firefighter in Augusta. He won the 2016 International Thriller Writers Award for the best first novel and the Pat Conroy Award for the best crime novel for his first work, Bull Mountain.

Reserve Like Lions in hardcover, mp3 audiobook, or downloadable ebook today.

The remarkable life of history's first foreign-born samurai, and his astonishing journey from Northeast Africa to the heights of Japanese society.

When Yasuke arrived in Japan in the late 1500s, he had already traveled much of the known world. Kidnapped as a child, he had ended up a servant and bodyguard to the head of the Jesuits in Asia, with whom he traversed India and China learning multiple languages as he went. His arrival in Kyoto, however, literally caused a riot. Most Japanese people had never seen an African man before, and many of them saw him as the embodiment of the black-skinned (in local tradition) Buddha. Among those who were drawn to his presence was Lord Nobunaga, head of the most powerful clan in Japan, who made Yasuke a samurai in his court. Soon, he was learning the traditions of Japan's martial arts and ascending the upper echelons of Japanese society.

In the four hundred years since, Yasuke has been known in Japan largely as a legendary, perhaps mythical figure. Now African Samurai presents the never-before-told biography of this unique figure of the sixteenth century, one whose travels between countries, cultures and classes offers a new perspective on race in world history and a vivid portrait of life in medieval Japan.

Click here to reserve African Samurai in hardcover or use this link to set up your favorite tablet or other device for the downloadable ebook or mp3 audiobook version.

For the last twenty years, Melinda Gates has been on a mission to find solutions for people with the most urgent needs, wherever they live. Throughout this journey, one thing has become increasingly clear to her: If you want to lift a society up, you need to stop keeping women down.

In this moving and compelling book, Melinda shares lessons she's learned from the inspiring people she's met during her work and travels around the world. As she writes in the introduction, "That is why I had to write this book--to share the stories of people who have given focus and urgency to my life. I want all of us to see ways we can lift women up where we live."

Melinda's unforgettable narrative is backed by startling data as she presents the issues that most need our attention--from child marriage to lack of access to contraceptives to gender inequity in the workplace. And, for the first time, she writes about her personal life and the road to equality in her own marriage.

Fulton County Library patrons can be first in line to reserve this book by clicking here for hardcover, or honor the Gates family contributions to digital access by downloading a copy through Overdrive Libby.

From the outside looking in, Lauren Delaney has a life to envy--a successful career, a solid marriage to a prominent surgeon and two beautiful daughters who are off to good colleges. But on her twenty-fourth wedding anniversary Lauren makes a decision that will change everything.

 Lauren won't pretend things are perfect anymore. She defies the controlling husband who has privately mistreated her throughout their marriage and files for divorce. And as she starts her new life she meets a kindred spirit--a man who is also struggling with the decision to end his unhappy marriage.

But Lauren's husband wants his "perfect" life back, and his actions are shocking. Facing an uncertain future, Lauren discovers an inner strength she didn't know she had as she fights for the love and happiness she deserves.

Fans of romance may enjoy not only this new title from Robin Carr, but Fulton County Library's many offerings of her popular previous works, including Any Day Now, What We Find, or Wildest Dreams.

The View From Alameda Island can be reserved in hardcover or ebook format.

Should teachers be armed or should the Second Amendment be repealed? Is abortion murder or an ethically sound choice for women? Should migrant babies be caged or should ICE be abolished? Should billionaires exist while children go hungry? 

These are some of the bitter ideological disputes that have turned social media into a political battlefield. In Digital Civil War, Peter Daou, a veteran digital-media adviser to presidential candidates, investigates the underlying value systems and moral arguments of the warring parties, arguing that democracy itself is under assault by an emboldened and empowered Far Right. 

Daou shows how the digital civil war is waged with words and images that are designed to inflict psychological harm, to injure through verbal violence, to wreak havoc with rhetoric. And he explains that the relentless toxicity of social media – often treated as an aberration – is a feature, not a bug, of digital warfare.

Click here to reserve your copy in hardcover or ebook today.

For Stella Fortuna, death has always been a part of life. Stella's childhood is full of strange, life-threatening incidents--moments where ordinary situations like cooking eggplant or feeding the pigs inexplicably take lethal turns. Even Stella's own mother is convinced that her daughter is cursed or haunted.

In her rugged Italian village, Stella is considered an oddity--beautiful and smart, insolent and cold. Stella uses her peculiar toughness to protect her slower, plainer baby sister Tina from life's harshest realities. But she also provokes the ire of her father Antonio: a man who demands subservience from women and whose greatest gift to his family is his absence.

When the Fortunas emigrate to America on the cusp of World War II, Stella and Tina must come of age side-by-side in a hostile new world with strict expectations for each of them. Soon Stella learns that her survival is worthless without the one thing her family will deny her at any cost: her independence.

The New Book Newsletter is pleased to offer a special treat to the winner! While book isn't available for sale or as a library book until May, you can win a print galley (a paperback used to promote the book before official release) of this title AND a bonus recipe promotional tie-in containing a book club discussion guide.

Just email us within 24 hours of the New Books Newsletter with "Stella Fortuna" in the subject line. Send all entries to Collection.Development@fultoncountyga.gov, and we'll pick a winner at random from messages received between 8:30am Monday, 4/22/19 and 8:30am Tuesday, 4/23/19.

The winner will be notified via email and must be able to pick the book up at an AFPLS branch within one month. Just in case you aren't chosen, why not click here to reserve a copy with Fulton County Libraries? We'll be pleased to offer this title to all our readers on its release date.