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Publishing This Week
Hello

I suggest you make yourself a cup of your favorite beverage before settling into this issue of Publishing This Week as it includes 30 new and notable books, which is close to half of all books we have on our radar for February, including new novels from M.J. Rose, Jane Harper, Kristin Hannah and Chang-rae Lee; five short story collections and six works of nonfiction. If you're a member, you can see all upcoming titles in our coming soon section)

Enjoy!

Davina Morgan-Witts, Editor

PS: Public librarians: We're currently offering webinars on two different topics: Find out more and register

This Week's New and Notable Books
There are too many books published each week for you to read about them all, let alone read them all. So we do the legwork for you, scouring the publishers' catalogs and the pre-publication reviews to pick out what we believe to be among the best and most interesting. For more about our process, click the two right hand links below.
The Last Tiara
by M.J. Rose

On sale Feb 2 from Blue Box Press
Genre: Historical Fiction. 437 pages
Members' Rating: 4.1/5
 
From New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller M.J. Rose comes a provocative and moving story of a young female architect in post-World War II Manhattan, who stumbles upon a hidden treasure and begins a journey to discovering her mother's life during the fall of the Romanovs.

The Survivors: A Novel
by Jane Harper

On sale Feb 2 from Flatiron Books
Genre: Mysteries. 384 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
 
Coming home dredges up deeply buried secrets in The Survivors, a thrilling mystery by New York Times bestselling author Jane Harper.

Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob
by Russell Shorto

On sale Feb 2 from W.W. Norton & Company
Genre: Biography/Memoir. 272 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
Family secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the history of the mob in small-town America.

The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation
by Anna Malaika Tubbs

Debut Author
On sale Feb 2 from Flatiron Books
Genre: History. 272 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
Members' Rating: 3.8/5
 
In her groundbreaking and essential debut The Three Mothers, scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs celebrates Black motherhood by telling the story of the three women who raised and shaped some of America's most pivotal heroes: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin.

The Ardent Swarm
by Yamen Manai

Debut Author
On sale Feb 1 from AmazonCrossing
Genre: Novels. 204 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
 
From an award-winning Tunisian author comes a stirring allegory about a country in the aftermath of revolution and the power of a single quest.

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City of a Thousand Gates
by Rebecca Sacks

Debut Author
On sale Feb 2 from Harper
Genre: Novels. 400 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
 
A novel of great humanity, compassion, and astonishing immediacy, this inventive and unique debut captures the emotional reality of contemporary life in the West Bank and the irreconcilable Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a collage of narrative voices and different viewpoints centered on a particular set of events.

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Fake Accounts
by Lauren Oyler

Debut Author
On sale Feb 2 from Catapult
Genre: Novels. 272 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
A woman in a post-election tailspin discovers that her boyfriend is an anonymous online conspiracy theorist in this provocative and subversive debut novel that examines social media, sex, feminism, and fiction, the connection they've all promised, and the lies they help us tell.

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Girls with Bright Futures
by Tracy Dobmeier, Wendy Katzman

Debut Author
On sale Feb 2 from Sourcebooks Landmark
Genre: Novels. 400 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
The perfect book club read with a suspenseful bite - when it comes to their daughters' future, three women are about to discover if there are any lines not worth crossing...

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Good Neighbors
by Sarah Langan

On sale Feb 2 from Atria Books
Genre: Novels. 304 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
 
Celeste Ng's enthralling dissection of suburbia meets Shirley Jackson's creeping dread in this propulsive literary noir, when a sudden tragedy exposes the depths of deception and damage in a Long Island suburb - pitting neighbor against neighbor and putting one family in terrible danger.

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My Year Abroad
by Chang-rae Lee

On sale Feb 2 from Riverhead Books
Genre: Novels. 496 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
From the award-winning author of Native Speaker and On Such a Full Sea, an exuberant, provocative story about a young American life transformed by an unusual Asian adventure – and about the human capacities for pleasure, pain, and connection.

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The Bad Muslim Discount
by Syed M. Masood

Debut Author
On sale Feb 2 from Doubleday
Genre: Novels. 368 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
Following two families from Pakistan and Iraq in the 1990s to San Francisco in 2016, The Bad Muslim Discount is an inclusive, comic novel about Muslim immigrants finding their way in modern America.

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The Kindest Lie
by Nancy Johnson

Debut Author
On sale Feb 2 from William Morrow
Genre: Novels. 336 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
 
A masterful, eye-opening novel about the profound racial injustices and class inequalities roiling society in America.

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The Removed
by Brandon Hobson

On sale Feb 2 from Ecco
Genre: Novels. 288 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
Steeped in Cherokee myths and history, a novel about a fractured family reckoning with the tragic death of their son long ago - from National Book Award finalist Brandon Hobson.

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The Four Winds
by Kristin Hannah

On sale Feb 2 from St. Martin's Press
Genre: Historical Fiction. 464 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
From Kristin Hannah, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone, comes an epic novel of love and heroism and hope, set against the backdrop of one of America's most defining eras - the Great Depression.

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The Paris Library
by Janet Skeslien Charles

On sale Feb 2 from Atria Books
Genre: Historical Fiction. 368 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
 
Based on the true World War II story of the heroic librarians at the American Library in Paris, this is an unforgettable story of romance, friendship, family, and the power of literature to bring us together, perfect for fans of The Lilac Girls and The Paris Wife.

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Land of Big Numbers
by Te-Ping Chen

Debut Author
On sale Feb 2 from Mariner Books
Genre: Short Stories. 256 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
 
Gripping and compassionate, Land of Big Numbers traces the journeys of the diverse and legion Chinese people, their history, their government, and how all of that has tumbled - messily, violently, but still beautifully - into the present.

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Milk Blood Heat
by Dantiel W. Moniz

Debut Author
On sale Feb 2 from Grove Press
Genre: Short Stories. 208 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
A livewire debut from Dantiel W. Moniz, one of the most exciting discoveries in today's literary landscape, Milk Blood Heat depicts the sultry lives of Floridians in intergenerational tales that contemplate human connection, race, womanhood, inheritance, and the elemental darkness in us all.

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Prayer for the Living
by Ben Okri

On sale Feb 2 from Akashic Books
Genre: Short Stories. 216 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
Topical and timely, Booker Prize–winning author Ben Okri's new collection of short stories blurs parallel realities and walks the line between darkness and magic.

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The Low Desert: Gangster Stories
by Tod Goldberg

On sale Feb 2 from Counterpoint Press
Genre: Short Stories. 304 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
Raymond Carver meets Elmore Leonard in this extraordinary collection of contemporary crime writing set in the critically acclaimed Gangsterland universe, a series called "gloriously original" by the New York Times Book Review.

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Wild Swims
by Dorthe Nors

On sale Feb 2 from Graywolf Press
Genre: Short Stories. 128 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
 
A dazzling return to the short story by a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize.

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Best Laid Plans: A Nora Best Mystery #1
by Gwen Florio

On sale Feb 2 from Severn House
Genre: Mysteries. 256 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
In the first of a new mystery series, we meet Nora Best as she flees her old life, cheating husband and all, and takes to the road with an Airstream trailer.

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Exit
by Belinda Bauer

On sale Feb 2 from Atlantic Monthly Press
Genre: Thrillers. 336 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
 
Belinda Bauer is "Britain's most original crime writer" (Crime Scene), one of the few authors in the genre to be longlisted for the Man Booker prize. Now she returns with a heart-pounding, heartbreaking, and often hilarious new crime novel in which it's never too late for life to go fatally wrong.

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Girl A: A Novel
by Abigail Dean

Debut Author
On sale Feb 2 from Viking
Genre: Thrillers. 352 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
She thought she had escaped her past. But there are some things you can't outrun.

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The Project
by Courtney Summers

On sale Feb 2 from Wednesday Books
Genre: Thrillers (Young Adult). 352 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
From Courtney Summers, the New York Times bestselling author of the 2019 Edgar Award Winner and breakout hit, Sadie, comes a sensational follow-up -- another pulls-no-punches thriller about an aspiring young journalist determined to save her sister from a cult.

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A History of What Comes Next: Take Them to the Stars #1
by Sylvain Neuvel

On sale Feb 2 from Tor.com
Genre: Sci-Fi. 304 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
 
Showing that truth is stranger than fiction, Sylvain Neuvel weaves a sci-fi thriller reminiscent of Blake Crouch and Andy Weir, blending a fast moving, darkly satirical look at 1940s rocketry with an exploration of the amorality of progress and the nature of violence in A History of What Comes Next.

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Floating in a Most Peculiar Way
by Louis Chude-Sokei

On sale Feb 2 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Genre: Memoir. 240 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
 
The astonishing journey of a bright, utterly displaced boy, from the short-lived African nation of Biafra, to Jamaica, to the harshest streets of Los Angeles - a searing memoir that adds fascinating depth to the coming-to-America story

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The Ratline: The Exalted Life and Mysterious Death of a Nazi Fugitive
by Philippe Sands

On sale Feb 2 from Knopf
Genre: Biography. 448 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
 
From the author of the internationally acclaimed, award-winning East West Street: A tale of Nazi lives, mass murder, love, cold war espionage, a mysterious death in the Vatican--and "the Ratline," the Nazi escape route to Peron's Argentina.

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Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration
by Reuben Jonathan Miller

Debut Author
On sale Feb 2 from Little Brown & Company
Genre: Current Affairs. 352 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
"A beautifully written, stunning, and deeply painful reckoning with our nation's carceral system" (Heather Ann Thompson) that will forever change how we look at life after prison.

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Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods
by Amelia Pang

Debut Author
On sale Feb 2 from Algonquin Books
Genre: Current Affairs. 288 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
 
In 2012, an Oregon mother named Julie Keith opened up a package of Halloween decorations. The cheap foam headstones had been $5 at Kmart, too good a deal to pass up. But when she opened the box, something fell out that she wasn't expecting: an SOS letter, handwritten in broken English by the prisoner who'd made and packaged the items.

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Two Truths and a Lie: A Murder, a Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice
by Ellen McGarrahan

Debut Author
On sale Feb 2 from Random House
Genre: True Crime. 368 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
 
In this powerful memoir, a journalist turned private investigator revisits the case that has haunted her for decades, asking profound questions about grief, complicity, and justice.

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