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Gideon the Ninth
by Tamsyn Muir
Raised in a hostile undead world where she would escape servitude and a zombie afterlife, a lesbian necromancer becomes a bodyguard to an emperor to secure her freedom in a solar system of swordplay and cutthroat politics. A first novel.
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The fifth season
by N. K. Jemisin
A first entry in a new trilogy by the award-winning author of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms finds the sole continent of the earth threatened by murder, betrayal, a super-volcano and overlords who use the planet's power as a weapon. Original. 25,000 first printing.
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A psalm for the wild-built
by Becky Chambers
Centuries after disappearing into the wilderness en masse, the sentient robots of Panga return to visit with a tea monk and answer their burning question,“What do people need?” in the first novel of a new series. 100,000 first printing.
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Stories of your life and others
by Ted Chiang
"Soon to be a major motion picture starring Amy Adams. Combining the precision and scientific curiosity of Kim Stanley Robinson with Lorrie Moore's cool, clear love of language and narrative intricacy, this award-winning collection offers readers the dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar. Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change--the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens--while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy. In the amazing and much-lauded title story, a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her knowledge of alien languages and non-linear memory recollection. A clever pastiche of news reports and interviews chronicles a college's initiative to "turn off" the human ability to recognize beauty in "Liking What You See: A Documentary." With sharp intelligence and humor, Chiang examines what it means to be alive in a world marked by uncertainty and constant change, and also by beauty and wonder"
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Borne
by Jeff VanderMeer
A young woman named Rachel survives as a scavenger in a ruined city half destroyed by drought and conflict. The city is dangerous, littered with discarded experiments from the Company - a biotech firm now derelict - and punished by the unpredictable predations of a giant bear. One day, Rachel finds Borne during a scavenging mission and takes him home. Borne as a salvage is little more than a green lump - plant or animal? - but exudes a strange charisma. Against her instincts, Rachel keeps Borne. She cannot help herself. Borne makes Rachel see beauty in the desolation around her. She begins to feel a protectiveness she can ill afford. But as Borne grows, he begins to threaten the balance of power in the city, laying bare to Rachel how precarious her existence has been, and how dependent on subterfuge and secrets. In the aftermath, nothing may ever be the same
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The library at Mount Char
by Scott Hawkins
After she and a dozen other children found them being raised by "Father," a cruel man with mysterious powers, Carolyn and her "siblings" begin to think he might be God; so when he dies, they square off against each other to determine who will inherit his library, which they believe holds the power to all Creation.
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The Underground Railroad : a novel
by Colson Whitehead
After Cora, a pre-Civil War Georgia slave, escapes with another slave, Caesar, they seek the help of the Underground Railroad as they flee from state to state and try to evade a slave catcher, Ridgeway, who is determined to return them to the South.
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Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore
by Robin Sloan
After a layoff during the Great Recession sidelines his tech career, Clay Jannon takes a job at the titular bookstore in San Francisco, and soon realizes that the establishment is a facade for a strange secret. Reprint.
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The round house
by Louise Erdrich
When his mother, a tribal enrollment specialist living on a reservation in North Dakota, slips into an abyss of depression after being brutally attacked, 14-year-old Joe Coutz sets out with his three friends to find the person that destroyed his family. Reprint. 100,000 first printing.
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The secret history
by Donna Tartt
Richard Papen, a relatively impoverished student at a New England college, falls in with an exclusive clique of rich, worldly Greek scholars and soon learns the dreadful secret that keeps them together. Reader's Guide included. Reprint. 50,000 first printing.
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Let's explore diabetes with owls
by David Sedaris
A new collection of essays by the humorist and best-selling author of Me Talk Pretty One Day traces his offbeat world travel experiences, which involved surreal encounters with everything from French dentistry and Australian kookaburra eating habits to Beijing squat toilets and a wilderness Costco in North Carolina. Reprint.
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The swerve : how the world became modern
by Stephen Greenblatt
A humanities professor describes the impact had by the translation of the last remaining manuscript of On the Nature of Things by Roman philosopher Lucretius, which fueled the Renaissance and inspired artists, great thinkers and scientists. Reprint. 60,000 first printing.
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Prodigal summer : a novel
by Barbara Kingsolver
Wildlife biologist Deanna is caught off guard by an intrusive young hunter, while bookish city wife Lusa finds herself facing a difficult identity choice, and elderly neighbors find attraction at the height of a long-standing feud. 500,000 first printing.
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Salt, fat, acid, heat : mastering the elements of good cooking
by Samin Nosrat
A master class in cooking distills decades of professional experience into four elements: salt, fat, acid, and heat, which when properly applied in the kitchen will produce delicious meals, and includes recipes to put the lessons into practice
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Decisive : how to make better choices in life and work
by Chip Heath
The best-selling authors of Made to Stick and Switch counsel readers on how to overcome natural biases and irrational thinking to make better decisions in work and life, drawing on extensive studies and research to outline specific strategies for enabling clear-headed thinking in a range of environments. 150,000 first printing.
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All systems red
by Martha Wells
A murderous android discovers itself in "All Systems Red", a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial intelligence. In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn't a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid -- a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot." Scornful of humans, all it reallywants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth
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SPQR : a history of ancient Rome
by Mary Beard
A prominent classicist explores ancient Rome and how its citizens adapted the notion of imperial rule, invented the concepts of citizenship and nation and made laws about those traditionally overlooked in history, including women, slaves and criminals. 5 maps
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