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Best Sellers

Hardcover Fiction

Week of September 26, 2021

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1
NEW
BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU
Sally Rooney
Cover of BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU

BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU

by Sally Rooney · Farrar, Straus & Giroux

1 wks at #1 · 1 on list

Download the first chapter of a new novel by Sally Rooney, the bestselling author of Normal People and Conversations with Friends. Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?

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BILLY SUMMERS
Stephen King
Cover of BILLY SUMMERS

BILLY SUMMERS

by Stephen King · Scribner

6 wks on list

Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong? How about everything. This spectacular can’t-put-it-down novel is part war story, part love letter to small town America and the people who live there, and it features one of the most compelling and surprising duos in King fiction, who set out to avenge the crimes of an extraordinarily evil man. It’s about love, luck, fate, and a complex hero with one last shot at redemption. You won’t put this story down, and you won’t forget Billy.

5
NEW
MATRIX
Lauren Groff
Cover of MATRIX

MATRIX

by Lauren Groff · Riverhead

1 wks on list

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE 2022 JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2021 Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, NPR, The Financial Times, Good Housekeeping, Esquire, Vulture, Marie Claire, Vox, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today and more! “A relentless exhibition of Groff’s freakish talent. In just over 250 pages, she gives us a character study to rival Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell .” – USA Today “An electric reimagining . . . feminist, sensual . . . unforgettable.” – O, The Oprah Magazine “Thrilling and heartbreaking.” –Time Magazine “[A] page-by-page pleasure as we soar with her.” –New York Times One of our best American writers, and author of the highly anticipated THE VASTER WILDS, Lauren Groff returns with this exhilarating and groundbreaking novel Cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, deemed too coarse and rough-hewn for marriage or courtly life, seventeen-year-old Marie de France is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey, its nuns on the brink of starvation and beset by disease. At first taken aback by the severity of her new life, Marie finds focus and love in collective life with her singular and mercurial sisters. In this crucible, Marie steadily supplants her desire for family, for her homeland, for the passions of her youth with something new to her: devotion to her sisters, and a conviction in her own divine visions. Marie, born the last in a long line of women warriors and crusaders, is determined to chart a bold new course for the women she now leads and protects. But in a world that is shifting and corroding in frightening ways, one that can never reconcile itself with her existence, will the sheer force of Marie’s vision be bulwark enough? Equally alive to the sacred and the profane, Matrix gathers currents of violence, sensuality, and religious ecstasy in a mesmerizing portrait of consuming passion, aberrant faith, and a woman that history moves both through and around. Lauren Groff’s new novel, her first since Fates and Furies, is a defiant and timely exploration of the raw power of female creativity in a corrupted world.

6
NEW
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
Alice Feeney
Cover of ROCK PAPER SCISSORS

ROCK PAPER SCISSORS

by Alice Feeney · Flatiron

1 wks on list

Get a sneak peek of the first three chapters of Rock Paper Scissors by New York Times bestselling author Alice Feeney. Rock Paper Scissors is an exciting domestic thriller from the queen of the killer twist, about a couple who thinks they know each other well, but realize on a ten year anniversary trip things might not be all that they seem...

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THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME
Laura Dave
Cover of THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME

THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME

by Laura Dave · Simon & Schuster

19 wks on list

* OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD * * THE NO.1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * * THE RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK * * THE REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK * _______________________________________ * NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES ON APPLE TV+ STARRING JENNIFER GARNER * 'The ultimate page turner' - REESE WITHERSPOON 'Powerful, intense and beautifully observed' - T.M. LOGAN 'A brilliant thriller' - JANE CASEY IT WAS THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME: PROTECT HER Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his new wife, Hannah: protect her. Hannah knows exactly who Owen needs her to protect - his teenage daughter, Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. And who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother. As her desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, his boss is arrested for fraud and the police start questioning her, Hannah realises that her husband isn't who he said he was. And that Bailey might hold the key to discovering Owen's true identity, and why he disappeared. Together they set out to discover the truth. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen's past, they soon realise that their lives will never be the same again... Now a major Apple TV+ series starring Jennifer Garner and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, discover the book that everyone is talking about...

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THE MADNESS OF CROWDS
Louise Penny
Cover of THE MADNESS OF CROWDS

THE MADNESS OF CROWDS

by Louise Penny · Minotaur

3 wks on list

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller AARP The Magazine – Recommended Summer Reading CNN – A Most Anticipated Book of August Bustle – A Most Anticipated Book of August Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns to Three Pines in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's latest spellbinding novel You’re a coward. Time and again, as the New Year approaches, that charge is leveled against Armand Gamache. It starts innocently enough. While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request. He’s asked to provide security for what promises to be a non-event. A visiting Professor of Statistics will be giving a lecture at the nearby university. While he is perplexed as to why the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec would be assigned this task, it sounds easy enough. That is until Gamache starts looking into Professor Abigail Robinson and discovers an agenda so repulsive he begs the university to cancel the lecture. They refuse, citing academic freedom, and accuse Gamache of censorship and intellectual cowardice. Before long, Professor Robinson’s views start seeping into conversations. Spreading and infecting. So that truth and fact, reality and delusion are so confused it’s near impossible to tell them apart. Discussions become debates, debates become arguments, which turn into fights. As sides are declared, a madness takes hold. Abigail Robinson promises that, if they follow her, ça va bien aller. All will be well. But not, Gamache and his team know, for everyone. When a murder is committed it falls to Armand Gamache, his second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and their team to investigate the crime as well as this extraordinary popular delusion. And the madness of crowds.

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THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY
Matt Haig
Cover of THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY

THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY

by Matt Haig · Viking Press

41 wks on list

Between life and death there is a library. When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change. The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger. Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?

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THE NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED
Lisa Jewell
Cover of THE NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED

THE NIGHT SHE DISAPPEARED

by Lisa Jewell · Atria

1 wks on list

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone and The Family Upstairs comes another riveting work of “gloriously twisted” (Marie Claire) psychological suspense. On a beautiful summer night in a charming English suburb, a young woman and her boyfriend disappear after partying at the massive country estate of a new college friend. One year later, a writer moves into a cottage on the edge of the woods that border the same estate. Known locally as the Dark Place, the dense forest is the writer’s favorite area for long walks and it’s on one such walk that she stumbles upon a mysterious note that simply reads, “DIG HERE.” Could this be a clue towards what has happened to the missing young couple? And what exactly is buried in this haunted ground? With her signature “rich, dark, and intricately twisted” (Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author) prose, Lisa Jewell has crafted a dazzling work of suspense that will keep on the edge of your seat until the final page.

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THE NOISE
James Patterson and J.D. Barker
Cover of THE NOISE

THE NOISE

by James Patterson and J.D. Barker · Little, Brown

4 wks on list

'A really entertaining thriller [that] like Michael Crichton . . . keeps ratcheting up the suspense' Booklist ____________________________ Two sisters have always stood together. Now, they're the only ones left. In the shadow of Mount Hood in the US Pacific Northwest, sixteen-year-old Tennant is checking rabbit traps with her eight-year-old sister Sophie. The girls are suddenly overcome by a strange vibration rising out of the forest, building in intensity until it sounds like a deafening crescendo of screams. From out of nowhere, their father sweeps them up and drops them through a trapdoor into a storm cellar. But the noise only gets worse . . . ________________________________ Praise for James Patterson 'The master storyteller of our times' Hillary Rodham Clinton 'Nobody does it better' Jeffery Deaver 'One of the greatest storytellers of all time' Patricia Cornwell 'A writer with an unusual skill at thriller plotting' Mark Lawson, Guardian 'James Patterson is The Boss. End of.' Ian Rankin

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THE PAPER PALACE
Miranda Cowley Heller
Cover of THE PAPER PALACE

THE PAPER PALACE

by Miranda Cowley Heller · Riverhead

10 wks on list

2 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2022 One life changing decision: your husband or your one true love? ---------------- On a perfect August morning, Elle Bishop heads out for a swim in the pond below 'The Paper Palace' - her family's holiday home in Cape Cod. As she dives beneath the water she relives the passionate encounter she had the night before, against the side of the house that knows all her darkest secrets, while her husband and mother chatted to their guests inside... So begins a story that unfolds over twenty-four hours and fifty years, as Elle's shocking betrayal leads her to a life-changing decision. A PAGE-TURNING SUMMER READ FOR FANS OF WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING AND LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE ---------------- Readers have been gripped by THE PAPER PALACE: ***** 'I devoured this book in a couple of days' ***** 'I fell in love with the characters' ***** 'A heart-rending love story filled with so many complications' Sunday Times Bestseller, September 2022

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MALIBU RISING
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Cover of MALIBU RISING

MALIBU RISING

by Taylor Jenkins Reid · Ballantine

15 wks on list

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today • From the author of Carrie Soto Is Back, Daisy Jones & The Six, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo . . . “Irresistible . . . High drama at the beach, starring four sexy, surfing siblings and their deadbeat, famous-crooner dad.”—People ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Time, Marie Claire, PopSugar, Parade, Teen Vogue, Self, She Reads Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, the family drama that ensues will change their lives forever. Malibu: August 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer Mick Riva. The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time for him to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth. Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there. And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone. By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come rising to the surface. Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them . . . and what they will leave behind.

14
NEW
L.A. WEATHER
María Amparo Escandón
Cover of L.A. WEATHER

L.A. WEATHER

by María Amparo Escandón · Flatiron

1 wks on list

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK • 2022 INTERNATIONAL LATINO BOOK AWARD WINNER FOR FICTION FORECAST: Storm clouds are on the horizon in L.A. Weather, a fun, fast-paced novel of a Mexican American family from the author of the #1 Los Angeles Times bestseller Esperanza’s Box of Saints. “There’s a 100% chance you’ll be paging through this book to uncover the secrets and deception that could potentially burn everything down!”—Reese Witherspoon “This is by far one of the most endearing L.A. novels in recent memory.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A lively and ambitious family novel."—New York Times Book Review Oscar, the weather-obsessed patriarch of the Alvarado family, desperately wants a little rain. L.A. is parched, dry as a bone, and he’s harboring a costly secret that distracts him from everything else. His wife, Keila, desperate for a life with a little more intimacy and a little less Weather Channel, feels she has no choice but to end their marriage. Their three daughters—Claudia, a television chef with a hard-hearted attitude; Olivia, a successful architect who suffers from gentrification guilt; and Patricia, a social media wizard who has an uncanny knack for connecting with audiences but not with her lovers—are left questioning everything they know. Each will have to take a critical look at her own relationships and make some tough decisions along the way. With quick wit and humor, María Amparo Escandón follows the Alvarado family as they wrestle with impending evacuations, secrets, deception, and betrayal, and their toughest decision yet: whether to stick together or burn it all down.

15
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THE HERON'S CRY
Ann Cleeves
Cover of THE HERON'S CRY

THE HERON'S CRY

by Ann Cleeves · Minotaur

'Matthew Venn is a keeper...stunning' David Baldacci The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling series featuring Detective Matthew Venn, from author and creator of the Vera and Shetland series, Ann Cleeves - soon to be a major TV series. North Devon is enjoying a rare hot summer with tourists flocking to its coastline. Detective Matthew Venn is called out to a rural crime scene at the home of a group of artists. What he finds is an elaborately staged murder - Dr Nigel Yeo has been fatally stabbed. His daughter Eve is a glassblower, and the murder weapon is a shard of one of her broken vases. Dr Yeo seems an unlikely murder victim. He's a good man, a public servant, beloved by his daughter. Matthew is unnerved though to find that she is a close friend of Jonathan, his husband. Then another body is found - killed in a similar way. Matthew finds himself treading carefully through the lies that fester at the heart of his community and a case that is dangerously close to home . . . The Heron's Cry is the second novel in Ann Cleeves' Two Rivers following her Sunday Times bestseller, The Long Call. Praise for The Long Call: 'As a huge fan of both the Shetland and Vera series of books, I had high expectations for Cleeves' latest. Matthew Venn is a keeper. A stunning debut for Cleeves' latest crimefighter' David Baldacci 'Had me hooked ? a promising beginning to another fine chapter in the Ann Cleeves story' The Times 'A triumph that cements Cleeves' status as one of Britain's best crime writers' Daily Express 'Clever, compassionate and atmospheric... I am already a Matthew Venn fan' Elly Griffiths 'Cleeves combines a flair for evoking sense of place with a thoughtful, complex plot' Mail on Sunday 'A traditional mystery of the best sort' Guardian

Historical bestseller data sourced from the New York Times Book Review, archived by Hawes Publications.