End of an Era

 

I don't want to make too much of it as it relates to everyone else, but today is officially the last day of my life as a retail manager.

I started in retail in 1991 as a Christmas hire in a music store, not knowing if I had a job after the holiday season.  In a shock to myself, I fairly quickly became the assistant manager and then, before I knew it, I had told my district manager that I wanted my own store.

There are dozens of little stories I could tell, and perhaps someday I will,  that have peppered the path til now.  But after nearly 32 years, and a few stops-and-starts, here I am.

For the last ten years I have managed a music store in Music City.  Today I will assist someone who is coming in to buy some of our store fixtures, and when I lock the door behind us, it will mark the true end of an era.  No longer will I have to greet people as they enter the store. No longer will I have to look for whichever item a person is also looking for.  No longer will I have to answer the phone with the name of the store. 

I have fooled people for 3 decades.  Most people I have worked with thought I liked people because of the way I talked to customers.  The truth is...I don't.  I look forward to speaking way fewer words every day.  I look forward to not having to hear about the music collection of every middle-aged white man.  I look forward to not having to find "that song, you know, the one they're playing on the radio all the time."  

Thirty years in retail of any sort has the potential to make you crazy.  I'd like to think it merely honed my skills as a smart ass:  

Customer:  "Hey, do you have Mariah Carey?"

Me:  "Why?  Is she missing?"

Truthfully, though, there are a few people along the way that I will miss, and it's going to be weird to not drive to the same place every day.  

But mostly, I'm tired and looking forward to a change.

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I will be retiring at the end of the year, which means I had to find some sort of paying gig until then.   Luckily, a customer of mine has been trying to hire me for years and he finally gets to.  I will be working a job about as far from retail as one could imagine.  I will be working for his remodeling company -- fixing decks, doing minor plumbing or electrical work, installing fences, and whatever else people have on their honey do lists that honey hasn't done.  

It's a strange job to take on at age 61, but I hope to use it to  lose a little weight and enjoy the fresh air.  I'll probably figure out what the bright orb in the sky is before long.

Goodbye retail, it's been nice.  

Today's Featured Book:

 Friday, April 28th, 2023

Red Team Blues: A Martin Hench Novel

by Cory Doctorow

Tor Books

Hardcover

Martin Hench is 67 years old, single, and successful in a career stretching back to the beginnings of Silicon Valley. He lives and roams California in a very comfortable fully-furnished touring bus, The Unsalted Hash, that he bought years ago from a fading rock star. He knows his way around good food and fine drink. He likes intelligent women, and they like him back often enough.

Martin is a—contain your excitement—self-employed forensic accountant, a veteran of the long guerilla war between people who want to hide money, and people who want to find it. He knows computer hardware and software alike, including the ins and outs of high-end databases and the kinds of spreadsheets that are designed to conceal rather than reveal. He’s as comfortable with social media as people a quarter his age, and he’s a world-level expert on the kind of international money-laundering and shell-company chicanery used by Fortune 500 companies, mid-divorce billionaires, and international drug gangs alike. He also knows the Valley like the back of his hand, all the secret histories of charismatic company founders and Sand Hill Road VCs. Because he was there at all the beginnings. He’s not famous, except to the people who matter. He’s made some pretty powerful people happy in his time, and he’s been paid pretty well. It’s been a good life.

Now he’s been roped into a job that’s more dangerous than anything he’s ever agreed to before—and it will take every ounce of his skill to get out alive.

Today's Featured Book:

Thursday, April 26th, 2023

The Forgotten War: A Matt Drake Novel

by Don Bentley

Berkley Books

Hardcover

As a team, Matt Drake and his partner, Frodo, have watched each other’s backs through some very dark days. But one thing they’ve never doubted was their commitment to each other…until now. 

Frodo has been accused of a war crime ten years after leaving Afghanistan. Matt is determined to prove his friend innocent, but what will he do when he finds that his closest friend has secrets he won't share?

Today's Featured Book:

Wednesday, April 26th, 2023

The Last Word

by Taylor Adams

William Morrow Books

Hardcover

Emma Carpenter lives in isolation with her golden retriever Laika, house-sitting an old beachfront home on the rainy Washington coast. Her only human contact is her enigmatic old neighbor, Deek, and (via text) the house’s owner, Jules.

One day, she reads a poorly written—but gruesome—horror novel by the author H. G. Kane, and posts a one-star review that drags her into an online argument with none other than the author himself. Soon after, disturbing incidents start to occur at night. To Emma, this can’t just be a coincidence. It was strange enough for this author to bicker with her online about a lousy review; could he be stalking her, too?

As Emma digs into Kane’s life and work, she learns he has published sixteen other novels, all similarly sadistic tales of stalking and murder. But who is he? How did he find her? And what else is he capable of?

Displaying his trademark command of rapid-fire pacing, unnerving atmosphere, and razor-sharp characterization, Taylor Adams once again delivers a diabolically disturbing—and deadly—game of cat and mouse.

 

Today's Featured Book:

 Tuesday, April 25th, 2023

You Shouldn't Have Come Here

by Jeneva Rose

Blackstone Publishing

Hardcover

You’ve opened up your house and your heart to a total stranger … What could possibly go wrong?

Grace Evans, an overworked New Yorker looking for a total escape from her busy life, books an Airbnb on a ranch in the middle of Wyoming. When she arrives at the idyllic getaway, she’s pleased to find that the owner is a handsome man by the name of Calvin Wells—and he’s eager to introduce her to his easygoing way of life. But there are things Grace discovers that she’s not too pleased about: A lack of cell phone service. A missing woman. And a feeling that something isn’t right with the ranch.

Despite her uneasiness, the two bond and start to fall for one another. However, as her departure date nears, things change for the worse. What began as a playful romance soon turns into a complicated web of lies. Grace grows wary of Calvin as his infatuation for her seems to have morphed to obsession. Calvin fears that Grace is hiding something from him—including her reason for staying at his ranch to begin with. Vacation flings typically end in heartbreak, but for Grace and Calvin, it’ll be far more destructive.

Today's Featured Book:

Monday, April 24th, 2023

Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told Ya

by Lucinda Williams

Crown Publishing

Hardcover

Lucinda Williams’s rise to fame was anything but easy. Raised in a working-class family in the Deep South, she moved from town to town each time her father—a poet, a textbook salesman, a professor, a lover of parties—got a new job, totaling twelve different places by the time she was eighteen. Her mother suffered from severe mental illness and was in and out of hospitals. And when Williams was about a year old, she had to have an emergency tracheotomy—an inauspicious start for a singing career. But she was also born a fighter, and she would develop a voice that has captivated millions.

In Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You, Williams takes readers through the events that shaped her music—from performing for family friends in her living room to singing at local high schools and colleges in Mexico City, to recording her first album with Folkway Records and headlining a sold-out show at Radio City Music Hall. She reveals the inspirations for her unforgettable lyrics, including the doomed love affairs with “poets on motorcycles” and the gothic southern landscapes of the many different towns of her youth, including Macon, Lake Charles, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans. Williams spent years working at health food stores and record stores during the day so she could play her music at night, and faced record companies who told her that her music was not “finished,” that it was “too country for rock and too rock for country.”  But her fighting spirit persevered, leading to a hard-won success that spans seventeen Grammy nominations and a legacy as one of the greatest and most influential songwriters of our time.

Raw, intimate, and honest, Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You is an evocative reflection on an extraordinary woman's life journey.

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Today's Featured Book:

Friday, April 21st, 2023

Who We Were

by B.M. Carroll

Serpent's Tail

Paperback

A KILLER TWENTY-YEAR REUNION. AND YOU'RE INVITED... 

Twenty years after they went their separate ways, friends and enemies are coming together for their school reunion. Katy, who is desperate to show that she's no longer the shy wallflower. Annabel, who ruled the school until a spectacular fall from grace. Zach, popular and cruel, but who says he's a changed man. And Robbie, always the victim, who never stood a chance. As the reunion nears, a terrible event that binds the group together will resurface. Because someone is still holding a grudge, and will stop at nothing to reveal their darkest secrets... 

A beautiful and haunting thriller, perfect for readers of Liane Moriarty, Lisa Jewell and C.L. Taylor.

Today's Featured Book:

Thursday, April 20th, 2023

Meet Me at Jimmy's Arcade: Nostalgia and Musings from an 80s Kid Who Accidentally Solved a Murder

by Grant Fieldgrove

Watch the Sky

Paperback

Bakersfield, California, 1990.

Local high school student Bebe-Lynn Sanders is missing. Each day that passes causes more and more worry for
the entire town. She was seen cutting through Quailwood Park on her way to rent a movie the morning she
vanished. Her last appearance was later that night outside the popular hangout, Jimmy's Arcade.

No one knows where she went. No one knows what happened.

Join mildly-idiotic kids Grant Fieldgrove and Roxy Roxburgh as they stumble, scheme, and steamroll their way
through Bakersfield in the late 80s and early 90s, desperately on the hunt for a Nintendo, fake earrings from
Miller's Outpost, tickets to see Vanilla Ice at the Civic Auditorium, and the ever-elusive holy grail - a porno mag!

And, of course, Bebe-Lynn.

Meet Me at Jimmy's Arcade is a hilarious and heartbreaking romp through a small California town way back
when, filled with nostalgic stories, humor, mystery, arcades, and malls. You won't want to miss it! So sit back, grab a Jolt Cola and a three-foot-long licorice rope, and enjoy the ride.

 

Today's Featured Book:

Wednesday, April 19th, 2023

Bulletproof Jack

Hunt for Jack Reacher Series #17

by Diane Capri

August Books

Paperback

Reacher sent a messenger. They stopped him with two bullets.

An unidentified man breaches all security and is executed by a skilled assassin on FBI Special Agent Kim Otto‘s doorstep. In his pockets she finds an advanced encrypted cell phone. Nothing else.

Kim arranges to extract the body and removes it to a private morgue for secret autopsy. None of the man’s biometrics match the databases. His identity remains concealed.

With nothing else to go on, questions multiply. Kim absolutely needs to know.

Who was this guy? Why was he trying to reach her? Who killed to stop him? What will they do next?

As the bodies pile up, Kim’s search leads her to Jack Reacher’s former lover in Lee Child’s Make Me. Michelle Chang knows Reacher well enough to be reliable, but Chang’s explanations are cryptic. When Kim presses harder for intel, Chang bolts.

The deadly investigation leads Kim from Detroit to Canada’s treacherous Niagara Falls region where expert killers and powerful government agents are not bulletproof—but Jack Reacher is.

 

Today's Featured Book:

 Tuesday, April 18th, 2023

Shadow of Death

by Heather Graham

Mira Books

Hardcover

When two hikers go missing within a series of daunting caves outside of Denver, Colorado, FDLE special agent Amy Larson and her partner, FBI special agent Hunter Forrest, have good reason to suspect foul play. The pair of hikers are only the latest to vanish after a rash of disappearances that’s left local law enforcement stumped. But in searching the dank caverns near the Arkansas River, the agents aren’t prepared for the horror they uncover: a muddy pit littered with corpses. Covered in bite marks. Made by human teeth.

When a tiny toy horse is found on the scene, Amy and Hunter recognize the calling card. They’ll have to move quickly before the already sizable body count grows. Their investigation soon draws them down the rabbit hole of a dangerous cult with a sinister mandate—one that involves human sacrifices. Anything to further their twisted cause. But when more people go missing, it becomes clear the cult’s reach extends beyond state lines, leading Amy and Hunter deep into the Florida Everglades to set a perilous trap, one that stands to risk everything they hold dear, including their lives.

Today's Featured Book:

Monday, April 17th, 2023

Sicker in the Head

by Judd Apatow

Random House Trade

Paperback

No one knows comedy like Judd Apatow. From interviewing the biggest comics of the day for his high school radio show to performing stand-up in L.A. dive bars with his roommate Adam Sandler, to writing and directing Knocked Up and producing Freaks and Geeks, Apatow has always lived, breathed, and dreamed comedy.

In this all-new collection of interviews, the follow-up to the New York Timesbestselling Sick in the Head, Apatow sits down with comedy legends such as David Letterman, Whoopi Goldberg, and Will Ferrell, as well as the writers and performers who are pushing comedy to the limits, and defining a new era of laughter: John Mulaney, Hannah Gadsby, Bowen Yang, Amber Ruffin, Pete Davidson, and others. In intimate and hilariously honest conversations, they discuss what got them into comedy, and what—despite personal and national traumas—keeps them going.

Together, they talk about staying up too late to watch late-night comedy, what kind of nerds they were high school, and the right amount of delusional self-confidence one needs to “make it” in the industry. Like eavesdropping on lifelong friends, these pages expose the existential questions that plague even the funniest and most talented among us: Why make people laugh while the world is in crisis? What ugly, uncomfortable truths about our society—and ourselves—can comedy reveal? Along the way, these comics reminisce about those who helped them on their journey—from early success through failure and rejection, and back again—even as they look ahead to the future of comedy and Hollywood in a hyper-connected, overstimulated world.

With his trademark insight, curiosity, and irrepressible sense of humor, Apatow explores the nature of creativity, professional ambition, and vulnerability in an ever-evolving cultural landscape, and how our favorite comics are able to keep us laughing along the way.

Click here to read an excerpt from Sicker in the Head.  Once on the page scroll down and click "Read an excerpt 

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New Books This Week:

 Saturday, April 15th, 2023

The Underground

by Ty Pape

Barnes & Noble Press

Paperback

In a not-so-distant future apocalyptic world, everything known has been thrown into a whirlwind of despair. Life as Josh Kimbo knows it is lived in a deep underground bunker built by the government nearly a century prior. Ten years of living in a secure bunker have driven Josh and those around him to their brink. Josh is forced to decide whether to escape from an authoritarian leader's firm grip or risk breathing the "toxic" air above ground. Josh not only faces the people whose purpose is to put him down but his biggest enemy continues to be himself. Throughout his journey, Josh not only battles outside forces, he battles against his own inner demons to discover who he is. Love, fear, pain, comfort, action, and tragedy drive Josh's story past anything that he thought was possible for himself. Physically and mentally.

New Books This Week:

 Friday, April 14th, 2023

Real Easy

by Marie Rutkoski

Henry Holt

Trade Paperback

It’s 1999 and Samantha has danced for years at the Lovely Lady strip club. She’s not used to mixing work and friendship—after all, between her jealous boyfriend and his young daughter, she has enough on her plate. But the newest dancer is so clueless that Samantha feels compelled to help her learn the hustle and drama of the club: how to sweet-talk the boss, fit in with the other women, and make good money. One night, when the new girl needs a ride home, Samantha agrees to drive: a simple decision that turns deadly. 

Georgia, another dancer drawn into the ensuing murder and missing person investigation, gathers information for Holly, a grieving detective determined to solve the case. Georgia just wants to help, but her involvement makes her a target. As Holly and Georgia round up their suspects, the story’s point of view shifts between dancers, detectives, children, club patrons—and the killer. 

Drawing on her experience as a former dancer, Marie Rutkoski immerses us in the captivating world of the club, which comes alive with complicated people trying their best to protect themselves and those they love. Character-driven and masterfully plotted, Real Easy gets to the heart of the timeless question: How do women live their lives knowing that men can hurt them?

New Books This Week:

 Thursday, April 13th, 2023

Let's Not Do That Again

by Grant Ginder

Henry Holt

Trade Paperback

Nancy Harrison is running for Senate, and she’s going to win, goddamnit. Not that that’s her slogan, although it could be. She’s said all the right things. Passed all the right legislation. Chapped her lips kissing babies. There’s just one problem: her grown children.

Greta and Nick Harrison are adrift. Nick is floundering in his attempts to write a musical about the life of Joan Didion (called Hello to All That!). And then there’s his little sister Greta. Smart, pretty, and completely unmotivated, allowing her life to pass her by like the shoppers at the Apple store where she works.

One morning the world wakes up not to Nancy making headlines, but her daughter, Greta. She’s in Paris. With extremist protestors. Throwing a bottle of champagne through a beloved bistro’s front window. In order to save her campaign, not to mention her daughter, Nancy and Nick must find Greta before it’s too late.

Smart, funny, and surprisingly tender, Let's Not Do That Again shows that family, like politics, can hurt like a mother.

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New Books This Week:

 Wednesday, April 12th, 2023

Girl, Forgotten

by Karin Slaughter

William Morrow

Trade Paperback

A small town hides a big secret…

Who killed Emily Vaughn?

A girl with a secret…

Longbill Beach, 1982. Emily Vaughn gets ready for the prom. For an athlete, who is smart, pretty and well-liked, this night should be the highlight of her high school career. But Emily has a secret. And by the end of the evening, that secret will be silenced forever. 

An unsolved murder…

Forty years later, Emily’s murder remains a mystery. Her tight-knit group of friends closed ranks; her respected, wealthy family retreated inwards; the small town moved on from her grisly attack. But all that’s about to change.

One final chance to uncover a killer…

US Marshal Andrea Oliver arrives in Longbill Beach on her first assignment: to protect a judge receiving death threats. But, in reality, Andrea is there to find justice for Emily. The killer is still out there—and Andrea must discover the truth before she gets silenced, too…

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New Books This Week:

 Tuesday, April 11th, 2023

The Trackers

by Charles Frazier

Ecco Books

Hardcover

Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he’s landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office.

A wealthy art lover named John Long and his wife Eve have agreed to host Val at their sprawling ranch. Rumors and intrigue surround the couple: Eve left behind an itinerant life riding the rails and singing in a western swing band. Long holds shady political aspirations, but was once a WWI sniper—and his right hand is a mysterious elder cowboy, a vestige of the violent old west. Val quickly finds himself entranced by their lives.

One day, Eve flees home with a valuable painting in tow, and Long recruits Val to hit the road with a mission of tracking her down. Journeying from ramshackle Hoovervilles to San Francisco nightclubs to the swamps of Florida, Val's search for Eve narrows, and he soon turns up secrets that could spark formidable changes for all of them.

In The Trackers, singular American writer Charles Frazier conjures up the lives of everyday people during an extraordinary period of history that bears uncanny resemblance to our own. With the keen perceptions of humanity and transcendent storytelling that have made him beloved for decades, Frazier has created a powerful and timeless new classic.

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New Books This Week:

Monday, April 10th, 2023

Dark Angel

A Letty Davenport Novel

by John Sanford

G.P. Putnam's Sons

Hardcover

Letty Davenport’s days working a desk job at are behind her. Her previous actions at a gunfight in Texas—and her incredible skills with firearms—draw the attention of several branches of the US government, and make her a perfect fit for even more dangerous work. The Department of Homeland Security and the NSA have tasked her with infiltrating a hacker group, known only as Ordinary People, that is intent on wreaking havoc. Letty and her reluctant partner from the NSA pose as free-spirited programmers for hire and embark on a cross country road trip to the group’s California headquarters.

While the two work to make inroads with Ordinary People and uncover their plans, they begin to suspect that the hackers are not their only enemy. Someone within their own circle may have betrayed them, and has ulterior motives that place their mission —and their lives — in grave danger.

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New Books This Week:

 Sunday, April 9th, 2023

The Privatization of Everything

by Donald Cohen and Allen Mikaelian

The New Press

Paperback

A sweeping exposé of the ways in which private interests strip public goods of their power and diminish democracy, the hardcover edition of The Privatization of Everything elicited a wide spectrum of praise: Kirkus Reviews hailed it as “a strong, economics-based argument for restoring the boundaries between public goods and private gains,” Literary Hub featured the book on a Best Nonfiction list, calling it “a far-reaching, comprehensible, and necessary book,” and Publishers Weeklydubbed it a “persuasive takedown of the idea that the private sector knows best.”

From Diane Ravitch (“an important new book about the dangers of privatization”) to Heather McGhee (“a well-researched call to action”), the rave reviews mirror the expansive nature of the book itself, covering the impact of privatization on every aspect of our lives, from water and trash collection to the justice system and the military. Cohen and Mikaelian also demonstrate how citizens can—and are—wresting back what is ours: A Montana city took back its water infrastructure after finding that they could do it better and cheaper. Colorado towns fought back well-funded campaigns to preserve telecom monopolies and hamstring public broadband. A motivated lawyer fought all the way to the Supreme Court after the state of Georgia erected privatized paywalls around its legal code.

“Enlightening and sobering” (Rosanne Cash), The Privatization of Everything connects the dots across a wide range of issues and offers what Cash calls “a progressive voice with a firm eye on justice [that] can carefully parse out complex issues for those of us who take pride in citizenship.”

New Books This Week:

 Thursday, April 6th, 2023

Romantic Comedy (Reese's Book Club)

by Curtis Sittenfeld

Random House

Hardcover

Sally Milz is a sketch writer for The Night Owls, a late-night live comedy show that airs every Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life.

But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actress who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called the Danny Horst Rule, poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman.

Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder if there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy—it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her . . . right?

With her keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page, Curtis Sittenfeld explores the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love, while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age.

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New Books This Week:

Wednesday, April 5th, 2023

Once a Thief

by Christopher Reich

Mulholland Books

Trade Paperback

Simon Riske sits in sun-dappled Napa Valley, toasting the record hundred-million-dollar sale of a rare 1963 Ferrari which he restored himself. The buyer, a sophisticated French woman, Sylvie Bettencourt, has purchased the car for an unnamed client whose anonymity she will guard at all costs. Riske enjoys her company and the flowing champagne until Sylvie’s formidable Russian bodyguard storms in, claiming the vehicle is a fake. Riske is given an ultimatum. Prove the car is the real thing…or else.
 
Meanwhile, in Lugano, Switzerland, Carl Bildt, banker to the rich and nefarious, is killed by a powerful car bomb, moments before he can deliver evidence to the authorities and disappear into witness protection. His beautiful and headstrong daughter, Anna, rushes to Switzerland to investigate her father’s violent death.
 
As Simon Riske strives to prove the Ferraris’ authenticity and look deeper into Sylvie’s past–and the identity of her client—he crosses paths with Anna Bildt and discovers they have an enemy in common.  From the bustling streets of London to a secret outpost high in the French Alps, from the freeports of Corsica to the glittering beaches of the Costa Smeralda, the Emerald Coast, of Sardinia, Riske and Anna find themselves players in a deadly game, where billions of dollars change hands and knowledge is paid for with your life.
 
Told with Reich’s signature stylish prose, clever plotting, and pulse-pounding action sequences, Once a Thief, is sure to appeal to longtime fans of the series and newcomers alike. Riske may be a bit older, showing a little wear and tear, but his desire to get the job done at any cost is stronger than ever.

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New Books This Week:

Tuesday, April 4th, 2023

Take Your Breath Away

by Linwood Barclay

William Morrow

Trade Paperback

One weekend, while Andrew Mason was on a fishing trip, his wife, Brie, vanished without a trace. Most everyone assumed Andy had got away with murder—it’s always the husband, isn’t it?—but the police could never build a strong case against him. For a while, Andy hit rock bottom—he drank too much to numb the pain, was abandoned by all his friends save one, nearly lost his business, and became a pariah in the place he once called home.

Now, six years later, Andy has finally put his life back together. He sold the house he once shared with Brie and moved away. To tell the truth, he wasn’t sad to hear that the old place was razed and a new house built on the site. He’s settled down with a new partner, Jayne, and life is good.

But Andy’s peaceful world is about to shatter. One day, a woman shows up at his old address, screaming, “Where’s my house? What’s happened to my house?” And then, just as suddenly as she appeared, the woman—who bears a striking resemblance to Brie—is gone. The police are notified and old questions—and dark suspicions—resurface. 

Could Brie really be alive after all these years? If so, where has she been? It soon becomes clear that Andy’s future and the lives of those closest to him depend on discovering what the hell is going on. The trick will be whether he can stay alive long enough to unearth the answers. 

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New Books This Week:

 Monday, April 3rd, 2023

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Portrait of a Thief

by Grace D. Li

Tiny Reparations Books

Paperback

History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now. 

Will Chen plans to steal them back.

A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents’ American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago. 

His crew is every heist archetype one can imag­ine—or at least, the closest he can get. A con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering major who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they’ve cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down. 

Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they’ve dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted at­tempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.

Equal parts beautiful, thoughtful, and thrilling, Portrait of a Thief is a cultural heist and an examination of Chinese American identity, as well as a necessary critique of the lingering effects of colonialism. 

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New Books This Week:

Sunday, April 2nd, 2023

Bad Actors

by Mick Herron

Soho Crime

Paperback

In London’s MI5 headquarters a scandal is brewing that could disgrace the entire intelligence community. The Downing Street superforecaster—a specialist who advises the Prime Minister’s office on how policy is likely to be received by the electorate—has disappeared without a trace. Claude Whelan, who was once head of MI5, has been tasked with tracking her down. 
 
But the trail leads him straight back to Regent’s Park itself, with First Desk Diana Taverner as chief suspect. Has Taverner overplayed her hand at last? Meanwhile, her Russian counterpart, Moscow intelligence’s First Desk, has cheekily showed up in London and shaken off his escort. Are the two unfortunate events connected?

Over at Slough House, where Jackson Lamb presides over some of MI5’s most embittered demoted agents, the slow horses are doing what they do best, and adding a little bit of chaos to an already unstable situation . . . 

There are bad actors everywhere, and they usually get their comeuppance before the credits roll. But politics is a dirty business, and in a world where lying, cheating and backstabbing are the norm, sometimes the good guys can find themselves outgunned.

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