NEW BOOKS

Perfect Little Children Sophie Hannah William Morrow

All Beth has to do is drive her son to his soccer game, watch him play, and return home. Just because she knows her ex-best friend lives near the field, that doesn’t mean she has to drive past her house and try to catch a glimpse of her.

Why would Beth do that and risk dredging up painful memories? She hasn’t seen Flora for 12 years. She doesn’t want to see her ever again. But she can’t resist. She parks outside of Newnham House, watches from across the road as Flora arrives and calls to her children Thomas and Emily to get out of the car.

Except . . . There’s something terribly wrong. Flora looks the same, only older. Twelve years ago, Thomas and Emily were five and three years old. Today, they look precisely as they did then. They are Thomas and Emily without a doubt, but they haven’t changed at all. They are no taller, no older. Why haven’t they grown? How is it possible that they haven’t grown up?

The Coyotes of Carthage: A Novel Steven Wright Ecco

A blistering and thrilling debut—a biting exploration of American politics, about a political operative running a dark money campaign for his corporate clients

Dre Ross has one more shot. Despite being a successful political consultant, his tactics have put him on thin ice with his boss. She exiles him to the backwoods of South Carolina with $250,000 of dark money to introduce a ballot initiative on behalf of a mining company. The goal: to manipulate the locals into voting to sell their pristine public land to the highest bidder.

Under Dre’s cynical direction, a land grab is disguised as a fight for faith and liberty. As lines are crossed, Dre’s cutthroat campaign threatens the soul of Carthage County and the last remnants of his own humanity.

“With this splendid debut, Steven Wright announces his arrival as a major new voice in the world of political thrillers. I enjoyed it immensely.” —John Grisham The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz Erik Larson Crown

On Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally—and willing to fight to the end.

Erik Larson shows how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it’s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London.

The Impossible First: Crossing Antarctica Alone Colin O’Brady Scribner

Prior to December 2018, no individual had ever crossed the landmass of Antarctica alone, yet Colin O’Brady was determined to do just that, though ten years earlier, there was doubt he’d ever walk again. Enduring sub-zero temperatures and pulling a sled that weighed 375 pounds—in complete isolation, through a succession of whiteouts, storms, and near disasters—he persevered. Alone with his thoughts for nearly two months—gripped by fear and doubt—he reflected on his past, seeking courage and inspiration in the relationships and experiences that had shaped his life.

Honest, deeply moving, filled with moments of vulnerability—and set against the backdrop of some of the most extreme environments on earth, from Mt. Everest to Antarctica—The Impossible First reveals how anyone can overcome immense obstacles, and discover what matters most. Breaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism Christian Picciolini Hachette Books

From a onetime whitesupremacist leader now working to disengage people from extremist movements, Breaking Hate is a “riveting” (James Clapper), “groundbreaking” (Malcolm Nance) exploration of how to heal a nation reeling from hate and violence.

Told with startling honesty and intimacy, this is the inside story of how extremists lure the unwitting to their causes, and a guide for winning them and our civil democracy back. The author unravels this sobering narrative from the frontlines, where he has worked for two decades as a peace advocate and “hate breaker.” He draws from the firsthand experiences, revealing how violent movements target the vulnerable, and how the right interventions can save lives.

Picciolini lays bare the ways in which “fake news,” social media propaganda, and coded language has polarized and radicalized an entire generation.

The Photo Ark: One Man's Quest to Document the World's Animals Joel Sartore National Geographic Limited edition

Sartore is committed to documenting every animal in captivity— with a focus on the growing number of endangered species and those facing extinction—by circling the globe, visiting zoos and wildlife rescue centers to create studio portraits of 12,000 species. Paired with the eloquent prose of wildlife writer Douglas Chadwick, and a foreword by Harrison Ford, Sartore's portraits are riveting: from tiny to mammoth, from the Florida grasshopper sparrow to the greater one-horned rhinoceros. With the accelerating pace of climate change and its devastating effect on wildlife habitat, he presents a more urgent argument for saving all the species of our planet.