A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK

The best Paula Hawkins yet - by a tense and haunting mile. - Lee Child

An atmospheric, stylish puzzle box of a thriller... truly exceptional. - Liz Moore, New York Times bestselling author of The God of the Woods

A masterful exploration of the nature of obsession...I loved it. - Angie Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls and Miracle Creek

The propulsive and powerful new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train

Welcome to Eris: an island with only one house, one inhabitant, one way out. Unreachable from the Scottish mainland for twelve hours each day.

Once home to Vanessa: A famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared twenty years ago.

Now home to Grace: A solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation.

But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling.

And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge....

A masterful novel that is as page-turning as it is unsettling, The Blue Hour recalls the sophisticated suspense of Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith and cements Hawkins's place among the very best of our most nuanced and stylish storytellers.

Atmospheric and marvelously twisty. - Danya Kukafka, author of Notes on an Execution

Reminiscent of du Maurier: art, islands, missing spouses ... Hard to put down. - Mick Herron

A masterpiece! Gorgeous and chilling. - Shari Lapena

Knives Out and Clue meet Agatha Christie and The Thursday Murder Club in this utterly original (Jane Harper), not to be missed (Karin Slaughter), fiendishly clever blend of classic and modern murder mystery.

A witty twist on classic whodunits... Stevenson not only 'plays fair, ' he plays the mystery game very, very well. -- Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post

Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.

I'm Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I'd killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it's a little more complicated than that.

Have I killed someone? Yes. I have.

Who was it?

Let's get started.

EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE

My brother

My stepsister

My wife

My father

My mother

My sister-in-law

My uncle

My stepfather

My aunt

Me

A collection of the year's best short stories, selected by celebrated bestselling author Lauren Groff, author of Matrix and The Vaster Wilds, and series editor Heidi Pitlor.

There have never been as many exquisitely built stories in existence than there are now, proclaims guest editor Lauren Groff in her introduction. This abundance led to a volume of robust stories with the nerve to push against narrative expectations. The Best American Short Stories 2024 boasts a collection of twenty stories that buzz with their own strange logic. A man becomes a tourist in his own hometown. An unemployed jeweler sails in an antique slave ship. A therapist decides to call an ex-patient years after their last session. Daring and resonant, the stories in this volume invite in Groff a feeling that both the author and I were simultaneously discovering something together.

The Best American Short Stories 2024 includes JAMEL BRINKLEY - ALEXANDRA CHANG - LAURIE COLWIN - MOLLY DEKTAR - TAISIA KITAISKAIA - DANIEL MASON - JIM SHEPARD - AZAREEN VAN DER VLIET OLOOMI - PAUL YOON - and others

The perfect pick to really light a fire under my book club, and yours....A reminder that goodness, and books, can still win in this world. --New York Times Book Review

A beautiful, big-hearted treasure of a novel. --Lily King

National Bestseller * From the award-winning author of The One-in-a-Million Boy comes a heartfelt, uplifting novel about a chance encounter at a bookstore, exploring redemption, unlikely friendships, and the life-changing power of sharing stories.

Our Reasons meet us in the morning and whisper to us at night. Mine is an innocent, unsuspecting, eternally sixty-one-year-old woman named Lorraine Daigle...

Violet Powell, a twenty-two-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving twenty-two months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher.

Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest.

Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn't yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed.

When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland--Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman--their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.

How to Read a Book is an unsparingly honest and profoundly hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing second chances, and the power of books to change our lives. With the heart, wit, grace, and depth of understanding that has characterized her work, Monica Wood illuminates the decisions that define a life and the kindnesses that make life worth living.

A deeply humane and touching novel; highly recommended for book clubs and fans of Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures. -- Booklist

Sauron has returned. . . watch The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 on Prime Video.

The journey through Middle-earth begins here with J.R.R. Tolkien's classic prelude to his Lord of the Rings trilogy.

A glorious account of a magnificent adventure, filled with suspense and seasoned with a quiet humor that is irresistible... All those, young or old, who love a fine adventurous tale, beautifully told, will take The Hobbit to their hearts.--The New York Times Book Review

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. So begins one of the most beloved and delightful tales in the English language--Tolkien's prelude to The Lord of the Rings. Set in the imaginary world of Middle-earth, at once a classic myth and a modern fairy tale, The Hobbit is one of literature's most enduring and well-loved novels.

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.

SEASON 2 OF THE ACCLAIMED SILO SERIES -- BASED ON BOOK 1, WOOL -- NOW ON APPLE TV+

In this second volume in the New York Times best-selling Silo series, Hugh Howey describes the catastrophic events that led to the creation of the silo-- and the beginning of the end

In 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech (CAN) outlined the hardware and software platforms that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct repairs, and even self-propagate. The technology has an almost limitless capacity for good--but in the wrong hands, it could have an equally boundless capacity for evil.

In the same year, the CBS network re-aired a program about the effects of propranolol on sufferers of extreme trauma. A simple pill, it had been discovered, could wipe out the memory of any traumatic event.

At almost the same moment in humanity's broad history, mankind discovered the means for bringing about its utter downfall, and the ability to forget it ever happened. With this godlike power at their fingertips, can humanity be trusted to create a new--and better--world? Or is it doomed to bring about its own destruction?

THE STORY CONTINUES IN:

DUST

A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling.

The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O'Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three.

Taught everywhere--from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing--it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Benjamin Stevenson returns with a Christmas addition to his bestselling, deviously good fun (Nita Prose), Ernest Cunningham mysteries. Unwrap all the Christmas staples: presents, family, an impossible murder or two, and a deadly advent calendar of clues. If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club kissed under the mistletoe.

My name's Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life ones. I'd hoped, this Christmas, that any self-respecting murderer would kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong.

So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection.

THE MAGICIAN

THE ASSISTANT

THE EXECUTIVE

THE HYPNOTIST

THE IDENTICAL TWIN

THE COUNSELLOR

THE TECH

My clues are even more abstract: A suspect covered in blood, without a memory of how it got there. A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you know, it's Christmas.

If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it.

After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn't it?

SEASON 2 OF THE ACCLAIMED SILO SERIES -- BASED ON BOOK 1, WOOL -- NOW ON APPLE TV+

The final book secures the status of the Wool trilogy as a modern masterpiece.--Sunday Express

Wool introduced the world of the silo. Shift told the story of its creation. Dust will describe its downfall. In order for a new world to begin, the old one must fall

Juliette, now mayor of Silo 18, doesn't trust Silo 1, especially its leader, Donald. But in the world of the Silos, there is no black and white--everything is shades of gray. Donald may not be the monster Juliette thinks he is, and may in fact be key to humanity's continued survival. But can they work together long enough to succeed?

In Dust, the final book in the New York Times best-selling Silo trilogy, the choices that Juliette and Donald make could lead to salvation . . . or to the death of everyone on the planet.

The success of Howey's Wool trilogy was no fluke. This is a superior sci-fi thriller, both slick and gritty.--Financial Times

Already a major international bestseller, Zeinab Badawi's sweeping and much-needed survey of African history traces the continent's extraordinary legacy from prehistory to the present from the African perspective.

Equal parts gripping and galvanizing. . . . Researched across more than 30 countries, it brings the dazzling civilizations of pre-colonial Africa vividly to life. A book that feels both long-overdue--and wholly worth the wait. --British Vogue

Everyone is originally from Africa, and this book is therefore for everyone.

For too long, Africa's history has been dominated by western narratives of slavery and colonialism, or simply ignored. Now, Zeinab Badawi sets the record straight.

In this fascinating book, Badawi guides us through Africa's spectacular history--from the very origins of our species, through ancient civilizations and medieval empires with remarkable queens and kings, to the miseries of conquest and the elation of independence. Visiting more than thirty African countries to interview countless historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and local storytellers, she unearths buried histories from across the continent and gives Africa its rightful place in our global story.

The result is a gripping new account of Africa: an epic, sweeping history of the oldest inhabited continent on the planet, told through the voices of Africans themselves.

David Enrich, the New York Times Business Investigations Editor and the #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers, produces his most consequential and far-reaching investigation yet: an in-depth exposé of the broad campaign--orchestrated by elite Americans--to overturn sixty years of Supreme Court precedent, weaponize our speech laws, and silence dissent.

It was a quiet way to announce a revolution: In an obscure 2019 case that the Supreme Court refused to even hear, Justice Clarence Thomas raised the prospect of overturning the legendary New York Times v. Sullivan decision. Though hardly a household name, Sullivan is one of the most consequential free speech decisions, ever. Fundamental to the creation of the modern media as we know it, it has enabled journalists and writers all over the country--from top national publications to revered local newspapers to independent bloggers--to pursue the truth aggressively and hold the wealthy, powerful, and corrupt to account.

Thomas's words were a warning--the public awakening of an idea that had been fomenting on the conservative fringe for years. Now it was going mainstream. From the Florida statehouse to small town New Hampshire to Donald Trump himself, this movement today consists of some of the world's richest and most powerful people and companies, who believe they should be above scrutiny and want to silence or delegitimize voices that challenge their supremacy. Indeed, many of the same businessmen, politicians, lawyers, and activists are already weaponizing the legal system to intimidate and punish journalists and others who dare criticize them.

In this masterwork of investigative reporting, David Enrich, New York Times Business Investigations Editor, traces the roots and reach of this new threat to our modern democracy. Laying bare the stakes of losing our most sacrosanct rights, Murder the Truth is a story about power--the way it's used by those who have it, and the lengths they will go to avoid it being questioned.

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first volume in J.R.R. Tolkien's epic adventure tale, The Lord of the Rings.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit. In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.

A unique, wholly realized other world, evoked from deep in the well of Time, massively detailed, absorbingly entertaining, profound in meaning.--The New York Times

From the bestselling author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, a fiendishly fun locked room (train) murder mystery in the spirt of Murder on the Orient Express. With Ernest Cunningham, Stevenson has brought a modern-day Poirot to the mystery scene(Michelle Carpenter).

When the Australian Mystery Writers' Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn't pan out.

The program is a who's who of crime writing royalty:

the debut writer (me!)

the forensic science writer

the blockbuster writer

the legal thriller writer

the literary writer

the psychological suspense writer

But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.

Of course, we should also know how to commit one.

How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?

The #1 New York Times Bestseller

The Silmarillion is the core of J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative writing, a work whose origins stretch back to a time long before The Hobbit. This mythopoetic masterpiece is a must-read for fans of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Prime Video.

The story of the creation of the world and of the First Age, this is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back and in whose events some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part. The three Silmarils were jewels created by Fëanor, most gifted of the Elves. Within them was imprisoned the Light of the Two Trees of Valinor before the Trees themselves were destroyed by Morgoth, the first Dark Lord. Thereafter, the unsullied Light of Valinor lived on only in the Silmarils, but they were seized by Morgoth and set in his crown, which was guarded in the impenetrable fortress of Angband in the north of Middle-earth.

The Silmarillion is the history of the rebellion of Fëanor and his kindred against the gods, their exile from Valinor and return to Middle-earth, and their war, hopeless despite all their heroism, against the great Enemy.

Majestic! ... Readers of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings will find in The Silmarillion a cosmology to call their own, medieval romances, fierce fairy tales, and fiercer wars that ring with heraldic fury... It overwhelms the reader.--Time

A collection of the year's best essays, selected by Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Wesley Morris and series editor Kim Dana Kupperman.

Imparting some piece of yourself--any part--is arduous and warrants some kind of commendation, writes guest editor Wesley Morris in his introduction. Both personal and personable, the essayists in this volume use their own vulnerability to guide readers on excursions that unfold on uncomfortable edges. From contemplating the nuances of memory to exploring the complexities of family, romance, gender identity, illness, and death, Morris's selection of essays presents a roundup of the thinkers who masterfully grapple with the issues of our time.

The Best American Essays 2024 includes TEJU COLE - MICHAEL W. CLUNE - YIYUN LI - JAMES McAULEY - RÉMY NGAMIJE - JENNIFER SENIOR - SALLIE TISDALE - JERALD WALKER - JENISHA WATTS and others

50th anniversary edition - With a new foreword by Matthew B. Crawford, author of Shop Class as Soulcraft

The bestselling masterpiece about one man's search for meaning on a motorcycle trip through the American West-- an enduring examination of how we live and how to live better

One of the most important and influential books of the past half century, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is Robert M. Pirsig's classic exploration of human experience and endeavor. Pirsig's narrative of a father and son on a summer motorcycle trip becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life's fundamental questions. A true modern classic, it remains at once touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward.

Profoundly important. . . . Full of insights into our most perplexing contemporary dilemmas. --New York Times

The first official The Office holiday storybook-a new classic for fans of all ages!

Spend The Night Before Christmas at Dunder Mifflin in this hilarious and timeless illustrated retelling of the beloved poem, featuring a visit from Michael Scott as Santa and narrated by Kevin Malone (author Brian Baumgartner).

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through Dunder Mifflin, not an accountant was stirring...

It's Christmas Eve at Scranton's finest paper company, and Michael Scott is nowhere to be found. As the office dozes off after their raucous holiday party, two mysterious visitors sneak in: a Santa peddling holiday cheer and that's what she said jokes, and his beet-loving, dutiful, right-hand elf. Armed with absurd gifts for the staff, tacky decorations for the office, and absolutely nothing good for Toby, the two prepare to give Dunder Mifflin a holiday they'll never forget.

A hilarious twist on a Christmas classic, The Night Before Christmas at Dunder Mifflin is a rollicking, festive, and heartwarming jaunt through everyone's favorite office, the perfect holiday treat for any fan of the show.

Imagine if by the time you died, you did everything you were told to. You worked hard, saved your money, and looked forward to financial freedom when you retired.

The only thing you wasted along the way was . . . your life.

Die with Zero presents a startling new and provocative philosophy as well as practical guide on how to get the most out of your money--and out of your life. It's intended for those who place lifelong memorable experiences far ahead of simply making and accumulating money for one's so-called golden years.

In short, Bill Perkins wants to rescue you from over-saving and under-living. Regardless of your age, Die with Zero will teach you Perkins's plan for optimizing your life, stage by stage, so you're fully engaged and enjoying what you've worked and saved for.

You'll discover how to maximize your lifetime memorable moments with time-bucketing, how to convert your earnings into priceless memories by following your net worth curve, and how to navigate decisions about whether to invest in, or delay, a meaningful adventure with your fulfillment curve and personal interest rate.

Using his own life experiences as well as the inspiring stories and cautionary tales of others--and drawing on eye-opening insights about time, money, and happiness from psychological science and behavioral finance--Perkins makes a timely, convincing, and contrarian case for living large.

READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY

NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

A vibrant coming-of-age story. -- Charmaine Wilkerson

I was completely immersed. -- Nita Prose

From the acclaimed author of Wahala, a stunning reimagining of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park: Split between England and Nigeria, two extraordinary cousins are set on vastly different paths as they come to terms with their shared family history--a masterful exploration of race, identity, and love.

Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. She loves her art teacher mother, her professor father, and even her annoying little brother (most of the time). But when tragedy strikes, she's sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother's stories. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather grey. Worse still, her mother's family are cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin Liv.

Free-spirited Liv has always wanted to break free of her joyless family. She becomes fiercely protective of her little cousin, and her warmth and kindness give Funke a place to heal. The two girls grow into adulthood the closest of friends.

But the choices their mothers made haunt Funke and Liv and when a second tragedy occurs their friendship is torn apart. Against the long shadow of their shared family history, each woman will struggle to chart a path forward, separated by country, misunderstanding, and ambition.

Moving between Somerset and Lagos over the course of two decades, This Motherless Land is a sweeping examination of identity, culture, race, and love that asks how we find belonging and whether a family's generational wrongs can be righted.

Award-winning environmentalist, author, and journalist Bill McKibben selects twenty science and nature essays that represent the best examples of the form published in the previous year.

This was the most anomalous year (so far) in human history, guest editor Bill McKibben writes, the year in which the relationship between people and planet showed its most dramatic signs yet of unraveling. The selections in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2024 reveal a trying year for our planet--from the Lahaina wildfire tragedy to the lush Amazon jungle slowly turning to savanna--while also celebrating the earth's beautiful and mysterious ways--from the largest beaver dam on earth to the heroic innovation to prevent birds from crashing into Chicago's expanse of glass buildings. These essays offer solace in trying times, showing a way for a better future. They are, as McKibben says, a reminder that this world is still a lovely and deep place, well worth the fighting for.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2024 includes IAN FRAZIER - AMANDA GEFTER - DOUGLAS FOX - SARAH KAPLAN - BEN GOLDFARB - RAYMOND ZHONG - ALEX CUADROS - AND OTHERS