Author Thomas Keneally ( Schindler's List) has had a decorated career fictionalizing historical material with a documentarian's eye; his latest novel may be his most personal.

Protagonist Shelby Apple is a documentary filmmaker whose work has taken him to Vietnam, the Arctic and to the bottom of the ocean, but it is his investigation into the world of an Aboriginal man who lived in Pleistocene Australia, some 42,000 years ago, that most occupies his thoughts. The alternating chapters chart the life of the intriguing Learned Man, called Shade, as a counterpoint to Apple's life trajectory. The interwoven narratives share themes of family, storytelling, duty, mortality, and legacy.

One can't help but note, too, the similarities between Apple and the author himself. Apple learns, as did Keneally, that he has esophageal cancer and both men had a brother die from cancer. Most importantly, both are storytellers seemingly reflecting on their life's work, crying how bright their frail deeds might have danced . A poignant reminder that the rave at the close of day is one that echoes across the millennia.

Reserve a copy of one of 2019's most anticipated works with Fulton County Libraries in hardcover, ebook, or downloadable mp3 audiobook.

The dazzling narrator of The Wicked City is back with another Jazz Age tale of rumrunners, double crosses, and true love, spanning the Eastern seaboard from Florida to Long Island to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1924. Ginger Kelly wakes up in tranquil Cocoa Beach, Florida, having fled south to safety in the company of disgraced Prohibition agent Oliver Anson Marshall and her newly-orphaned young sister, Patsy. But paradise is short-lived. Marshall is reinstated to the agency with suspicious haste and put to work patrolling for rumrunners on the high seas, from which he promptly disappears.

1998. Ella Dommerich has finally settled into her new life in Greenwich Village, inside the same apartment where a certain redheaded flapper lived long ago...and continues to make her presence known. Having quit her ethically problematic job at an accounting firm, cut ties with her unfaithful ex-husband, and begun an epic love affair with Hector, her musician neighbor, Ella's eager to piece together the history of the mysterious Gin Kelly, whose only physical trace is a series of rare vintage photograph cards for which she modeled before she disappeared.

Two women, two generations, two urgent quests. But as Ginger and Ella track down their separate quarries with increasing desperation, the mysteries consuming them take on unsettling echoes of each other, and both women will require all their strength and ingenuity to outwit a conspiracy spanning decades.

Join the legions of Beatriz Williams fans by reserving The Wicked Redhead in hardcover, mp3 audiobook, or ebook format.

The When Michael Symon found out he had rheumatoid arthritis and external lupus, he suspected that what he ate--or didn't eat--could make a profound difference in how he felt. So he committed to a food reset on The Chew--no red meat, white flour, sugar, dairy, or alcohol. He recorded his results using social media to share his experience with his hundreds of thousands of fans--and what happened next was incredible--after a few days, he felt amazing. Michael discovered that dairy, sugar, and processed flours are his triggers, and that by avoiding them, his inflammation essentially vanished.

Viewers of The Chew connected with Symon's journey and asked him to share his recipes, so Fix it with Food is now on our shelves! From Ginger and Chile-Roast Chicken to a dairy-free Mac and Cheese, Spaghetti Squash with Arugula Pesto to an Apple and Cherry Oat Crisp, Michael came up with more than 125 incredible recipes to satisfy his cravings without aggravating his body. The recipes in Fix It with Food provide guidance to both identifying food triggers and creating a meal plan that works around whatever ingredient causes your discomfort.

Click here to reserve this work in hardcover, or download the ebook to your favorite device and use the screenshot function to capture new recipes to try. Interested in more cookbooks? Visit your local library branch to spread out several different books to compare recipes, or use our Get Cooking collection online to find a recipe that suits your tastes and needs best.

The twelfth installment of Bernard Cornwell's bestselling series chronicling the epic saga of the making of England, and the basis for the hit Netflix series The Last Kingdom.

It is a time of political turmoil once more as the fading King Edward begins to lose control over his successors and their supporters. There are two potential heirs--possibly more--and doubt over whether the once separate states of Wessex and Mercia will hold together . Despite attempts at pulling him into the political fray, Uhtred of Bebbanburg cares solely about his beloved Northumbria and its continuing independence from southern control.

But an oath is a strong, almost sacred commitment and such a promise had been exchanged between Uhtred and Aethelstan, his onetime companion in arms and now a potential king. Uhtred was tempted to ignore the demands of the oath and stay in his northern fastness, leaving the quarrelling Anglo-Saxons to sort out their own issues. But an attack on him by a leading supporter of one of the candidates and an unexpected appeal for help from another, drives Uhtred with a small band of warriors south, into the battle for kingship--and England's fate.

Reserve a copy of Sword of Kings in hardcover, ebook, or mp3 audiobook, or start the series with The Last Kingdom. Fulton County Libraries has all the volumes of this excellent historical fiction series.

Winter blizzards bring a flurry of cases to solve in this riveting new foxhunting mystery featuring "Sister" Jane Arnold and her incorrigible hounds from New York Times bestselling author Rita Mae Brown.

Frigid February air has settled into the bones of the Blue Ridge Mountains, making for a slow foxhunting season, though "Sister" Jane Arnold's enthusiasm is not so easily deterred. With the winter chill come tweed coats, blazing fireplaces--and perhaps another to share the warmth with, as the bold hunting scarlets worn by the men in Sister Jane's hunting club make the hearts of women flutter--until someone's stops entirely.

Steeped in the deep traditions of Virginia horse country and featuring a colorful cast of characters both two- and four-legged, Scarlet Fever is another spirited mystery from Rita Mae Brown. Click here to reserve a copy in hardcover or ebook. When this story is made available to libraries for purchase in audiobook format, we'll be happy to add it to our collection. 

For seven months of the year, the remote island of Lark is fogbound, cut off completely from the mainland.

Three strangers arrive before the mists fall: Ben Hailey, a charismatic teacher looking to make his mark, teenager Viola Kendrick, and her mother, both seeking a place to hide from unspeakable tragedy.

As the winter fog sets in, the presence of the newcomers looms large in this tight-knit community. They watch as their women fall under the teacher's spell. And they watch as their daughters draw the mysterious Viola into their circle. The girls begin to meet furtively at night, dancing further and further away from the religious traditions that have held Lark together for generations.

But when a body is found one morning at the girls' meeting place, high up among the sacred stones of Lark, faith turns instantly to suspicion and fear. For the island is weighted with its own dark secrets, and now it is time for them to come into the light.

You can win a print galley (a paperback used to promote the book before official release) of this title by emailing us within 24 hours of the New Books Newsletter email. Just put "Impossible" in the subject line of your email to Collection.Development@fultoncountyga.gov. We'll pick a winner at random from messages received between 8:30am Monday, 11/25/19 and 8:30am Tuesday, 11/26/19.

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?