New Releases – June 16, 2015

Samantha
McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior
class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied
makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has
Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and
worries that she can’t turn off.

Second-guessing every move,
thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn’t help that
her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong
outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she’d be truly
crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So
when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a
refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with
Sam’s weekly visits to her psychiatrist.

Caroline introduces Sam
to Poet’s Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who
have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them
immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse,
and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins
to feel more “normal” than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . .
. until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds
dear.

Authorities quickly identify
and arrest Merritt. But the case takes a sinister twist when threats are
made by an anonymous third party if authorities don’t release Merritt
immediately. Forced from his home and his bank accounts drained, Fisk
confronts Chay Maryland, a reporter who has been covering Merritt’s
case. Fisk wants the journalist’s help to get close to the leaker—to
find out what Merritt really wants and who else is involved.

The
investigation is nearly derailed when a serial sniper begins shooting
people on the street who seem to have no connection to Merritt’s case.
The killer’s aim is eerily accurate—and Fisk believes the shooter might
be using a drone rigged with unusual sighting capabilities. Then the
sniper contacts the New York Times and promises to kill one person every
day, “for the greater good of the citizens of America.

With the
clock ticking and millions of lives at stake, Fisk and Chay must find
the mastermind before he can wreak havoc on a city paralyzed by fear.

Carolyn’s
not so different from the other human beings around her. She’s sure of
it. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a
phone. She even remembers what clothes are for.

After all, she was a normal American herself, once.

That
was a long time ago, of course–before the time she calls “adoption
day,” when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised
by a man they learned to call Father.

Father could do strange
things. He could call light from darkness. Sometimes he raised the dead.
And when he was disobeyed, the consequences were terrible.

In
the years since Father took her in, Carolyn hasn’t gotten out much.
Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to
Father’s ancient Pelapi customs. They’ve studied the books in his
library and learned some of the secrets behind his equally ancient
power.

Sometimes, they’ve wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God.

Now,
Father is missing. And if God truly is dead, the only thing that
matters is who will inherit his library–and with it, power over all of
creation.

As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her.

But
Carolyn can win. She’s sure of it. What she doesn’t realize is that her
victory may come at an unacceptable price–because in becoming a God,
she’s forgotten a great deal about being human.

Elsa is seven years old
and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy,
standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus-crazy.
She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge
in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land of Almost-Awake and the
Kingdom of Miamas where everybody is different and nobody needs to be
normal.

When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series
of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest
adventure begins. Her grandmother’s letters lead her to an apartment
building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and totally ordinary old
crones, but also to the truth about fairytales and kingdoms and a
grandmother like no other.

‘My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You
She’s Sorry’ is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as
Fredrik Backman’s internationally bestselling debut novel, ‘A Man Called
Ove’. It is a story about life and death and an ode to one of the most
important human rights: the right to be different.