"Heat: Adventures in the World's Fiery Places"

New from Little, Brown & Company: Heat: Adventures in the World's Fiery Places by Bill Streever.

About the book, from the publisher:

An adventurous ride through the most blisteringly hot regions of science, history, and culture.

Melting glaciers, warming oceans, droughts-it's clear that today's world is getting hotter. But while we know the agony of a sunburn or the comfort of our winter heaters, do we really understand heat?

A bestselling scientist and nature writer who goes to any extreme to uncover the answers, Bill Streever sets off to find out what heat really means. Let him be your guide and you'll firewalk across hot coals and sweat it out in Death Valley, experience intense fever and fire, learn about the invention of matches and the chemistry of cooking, drink crude oil, and explore thermonuclear weapons and the hottest moment of all time-the big bang.

Written in Streever's signature spare and refreshing prose, HEAT is an adventurous personal narrative that leaves readers with a new vision of an everyday experience-how heat works, its history, and its relationship to daily life.

Learn more about the book and author at Bill Streever's website.

The Page 99 Test: Cold.

"The Book of Why"

New from Little, Brown & Company: The Book of Why: A Novel by Nicholas Montemarano.

About the book, from the publisher:

A deeply moving story about a self-help author confronting life's ultimate question: can love survive anything? Even death?

A novel about an unforgettable love, THE BOOK OF WHY asks big questions: Is there meaning in signs? Do coincidences matter? Does love ever really have to die?

The answers to these questions are within you-at least that's what writer Eric Newborn said in his mega-bestselling books and speeches. But the loss of his wife has left Eric with a failed belief system. In the wake of that trauma, Eric has become a recluse in his home on Martha's Vineyard.

A fan who tracks Eric down brings him back to memories of his wife, leading him closer to her than he'd dreamed he could ever get again. With a breathtaking twist at its end, THE BOOK OF WHY is a perfect, unforgettable love story in the tradition of Nicholas Sparks and Julie Orringer.

Visit Nicholas Montemarano's website, Facebook page, and Twiiter perch.

"The Boy"

New from Little, Brown & Company: The Boy: A Novel by Lara Santoro.

About the book, from the publisher:

Once a free spirit who refused to be tied down, Anna is a forty-something single mother trying to put her life together after a bitter divorce. She crosses paths with a twenty-year-old neighbor who could not be more wrong for her---and her life suddenly has a new focus.

She is drawn to his youth, his easy grace, and his freedom from the constraints that rule her existence. Though she resists temptation in every way she can, Anna is soon engaged in a reckless and obsessive affair. The consequences are life changing.

Provocative, headlong, and utterly compelling, THE BOY is the story of a woman on the edge, torn between love and lust, desire and duty. Lara Santoro writes in fierce, unflinching prose about the dark side of passion, motherhood, and a woman's unthinkable rebellion.

Visit Lara Santoro's website.

"The Aviator's Wife"

New from Delacorte Press: The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the spirit of Loving Frank and The Paris Wife, acclaimed novelist Melanie Benjamin pulls back the curtain on the marriage of one of America’s most extraordinary couples: Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

For much of her life, Anne Morrow, the shy daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has stood in the shadows of those around her, including her millionaire father and vibrant older sister, who often steals the spotlight. Then Anne, a college senior with hidden literary aspirations, travels to Mexico City to spend Christmas with her family. There she meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh off his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Enthralled by Charles’s assurance and fame, Anne is certain the celebrated aviator has scarcely noticed her. But she is wrong.

Charles sees in Anne a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, and her world will be changed forever. The two marry in a headline-making wedding. Hounded by adoring crowds and hunted by an insatiable press, Charles shields himself and his new bride from prying eyes, leaving Anne to feel her life falling back into the shadows. In the years that follow, despite her own major achievements—she becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States—Anne is viewed merely as the aviator’s wife. The fairy-tale life she once longed for will bring heartbreak and hardships, ultimately pushing her to reconcile her need for love and her desire for independence, and to embrace, at last, life’s infinite possibilities for change and happiness.

Drawing on the rich history of the twentieth century—from the late twenties to the mid-sixties—and featuring cameos from such notable characters as Joseph Kennedy and Amelia Earhart, The Aviator’s Wife is a vividly imagined novel of a complicated marriage—revealing both its dizzying highs and its devastating lows. With stunning power and grace, Melanie Benjamin provides new insight into what made this remarkable relationship endure.

Learn more about the book and author at Melanie Benjamin's website.

The Page 69 Test: Alice I Have Been.

The Page 69 Test: The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb.

My Book, The Movie: The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb.

Writers Read: Melanie Benjamin (August 2011).

"Then You Were Gone"

New from Simon Pulse: Then You Were Gone by Lauren Strasnick.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the tradition of 13 Reasons Why, a suspenseful and heart-wrenching novel from the author of Nothing Like You and Her and Me and You.

Two years ago, Adrienne’s best friend walked out of her life. One week ago, she left Adrienne a desperate, muffled voicemail. Adrienne never called back.

Now Dakota is missing. She left behind a string of broken hearts, a flurry of rumors, and a suicide note.

Adrienne can’t stop obsessing over what might have happened if she’d answered Dakota’s call. And she’s increasingly convinced that Dakota must still be alive.

Maybe finding and saving Dakota is the only way Adrienne can save herself.

Or maybe it’s too late for them both.

Visit Lauren Strasnick's website.

Writers Read: Lauren Strasnick (November 2009).

"Little Wolves"

New from Soho Press: Little Wolves by Thomas Maltman.

About the book, from the publisher:

A tragic act of violence echoes through a small Minnesota town

Set on the Minnesota prairie in the late 1980s during a drought season that’s pushing family farms to the brink, Little Wolves features the intertwining stories of a father searching for answers after his son commits a heinous murder, and a pastor’s wife (and washed-out scholar of early Anglo-Saxon literature) who has returned to the town for mysterious reasons of her own. A penetrating look at small-town America from the award-winning author of The Night Birds, Little Wolves weaves together elements of folklore and Norse mythology while being driven by a powerful murder mystery; a page-turning literary triumph.

Visit Thomas Maltman's website.

"Hikikomori and the Rental Sister"

New from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill: Hikikomori and the Rental Sister by Jeff Backhaus.

About the book, from the publisher:

Thomas Tessler has cloistered himself in his bedroom and shut out the world for the past three years. His wife, Silke, lives right in the next room, but Thomas no longer shares his life with her, leaving his hideout only occasionally, in the wee hours of the night, to pick up food at the grocery store around the corner from their Manhattan apartment. Unable to cope with a devastating loss, Thomas has become isolated and withdrawn. He is hikikomori.

Desperate for one last chance to salvage their life together, Silke hires Megumi, a young Japanese immigrant attuned to the hikikomori phenomenon, to lure Thomas back into the world. Fleeing from her own shattering experience, Megumi has buried her pain in a fast life spent in nightclubs with nameless men. Now she will try to help Thomas and Silke as a “rental sister,” as they are known in Japan. At first Thomas remains steadfast and sequestered, but as he grows to trust Megumi, a deepening and sensual relationship unfolds.

Hikikomori and the Rental Sister is a taut novel that packs a big philosophical punch. In this revelatory and provocative debut, Jeff Backhaus asks, What are the risks of intimacy? Can another woman ever lead a husband back to his wife? And what must we surrender for love? Hikikomori and the Rental Sister pierces the emotional walls of grief and delves into the power of human connection to break through to the world waiting outside.

Visit Jeff Backhaus's website.

"Thread on Arrival"

New from Obsidian: Thread on Arrival (Embroidery Mystery Series #5) by Amanda Lee.

About the book, from the publisher:

Embroidery shop owner Marcy Singer gets hung up on a tapestry that may lead to sunken treasure and be the motive for murder....

When Marcy’s friend Reggie, Tallulah Falls’ local librarian, asks her to teach an embroidery class as therapy for domestic abuse victims, she gladly agrees. One of the women wants to flee from her abusive husband but is afraid to leave her elderly father-in-law behind. And she thinks Marcy can help.

The elderly gentleman shows Marcy a tapestry his grandmother made, which he believes reveals the location of pirate treasure off the Oregon coast. He’ll move to a shelter—provided Marcy takes the tapestry to keep it safe. But when the police arrive the next day to escort him out, they find the old man murdered and the house ransacked. Does someone want that treasured tapestry desperately enough to kill for it?

Visit Gayle Trent's website.

"The Start of Everything"

New from Delacorte Press: The Start of Everything: A Novel by Emily Winslow.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this stunning psychological thriller for readers of Tana French, Kate Atkinson, and Donna Tartt, Emily Winslow has crafted a literary prism told through the eyes of her many intricately drawn characters. Masterly and mesmerizing, The Start of Everything will captivate until the very last page.

“If you don’t want to see me again, say so. But it’s not right to say nothing. It’s not right to go silent. You know what to do.”

Cambridge, England: Outside the city, the badly decomposed body of a teenage girl has washed up in the flooded fens. Detective Inspector Chloe Frohmann and her partner, Morris Keene, must work quickly to identify the victim before the press takes off with the salacious story.

Across the hallowed paths and storied squares of Cambridge University, the detectives follow scant clues toward the identity of the dead girl. Eventually, their search leads them to Deeping House, an imposing country manor where, over the course of one Christmas holiday, three families, two nannies, and one young writer were snowed in together. Chloe Frohmann begins to unravel a tangled web of passions and secrets, of long-buried crimes and freshly committed horrors. But in order to reveal the truth—about misaddressed letters, a devastating affair, and a murdered teenager—she may have to betray her partner.

learn about the book and author at Emily Winslow's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Whole World.

"Knife Sworn"

New from Night Shade Books: Knife Sworn by Mazarkis Williams.

About the book, from the publisher:

Mazarkis William's debut novel, The Emperor's Knife, was praised for its exotic settings, gripping intrigue, and vivid, full-blooded characters. Now Williams returns to the sumptuous palaces and treacherous back alleys of the Cerani Empire, where intrigue, passion, and dangerous magic threaten the very soul of a newly-crowned emperor.

After spending most of his life in captivity and solitude, Sarmin now sits upon the Petal Throne of Cerana. But his reign is an uneasy one. Ambitious generals and restless soldiers want war at any cost. An insidious foreign religion stirs fear among the people and the court. And the emperor's own heart is torn between two very different women: Mesema, a Windreader princess of the northern plains, and Grada, a lowborn untouchable with whom Sarmin shares a unique bond. A natural-born mage, Sarmin also carries within him a throng of bodiless spirits whose conflicting memories and desires force him to wage a private battle for his sanity.

In times past, a royal assassin known as the Emperor's Knife served as the keen edge of justice, defending the throne from any and all menaces, but the last Knife has perished and his successor has yet to be named. For his own safety, and that of the empire, Sarmin must choose his own loyal death-dealer ... .but upon whom can be he bestow the bloody burden of the Knife-Sworn?

Visit Mazarkis Williams's blog.