Adults

A unique illustrated exploration of our favorite oceanic beacons and their haunted histories.

There is something beautiful and wild in the impossible architecture of lighthouses. These precariously perched structures have been the homes and workplaces of keepers whose romantic guardianship has saved countless lives from cruel seas. While that way of life may have faded away, as the lights go out and the buildings crumble, we still have their stories.

This collection of more than thirty tales spans the heights and depths of human experience: the blind lighthouse keeper tending a light in the Arctic Circle, the intrepid young woman saving ships from wreck beginning at just age twelve, the desperate plight of a crew cut off for forty days with meager supplies, the lighthouse haunted by the clacking sound of a long-passed keeper''s ghostly typewriter.

Interweaving literary inspiration and elements from Jules Verne, Virginia Woolf, and Edgar Allan Poe and accompanied by beautiful illustrations, nautical charts, maps, architectural plans, and curious facts, these illuminating stories will transport the reader in a book as full of wonder as the far-flung lighthouses themselves.

QUIRKY STORIES AND A LITERARY APPROACH: Fascinating stories and anecdotes about each lighthouse include such features as notable inhabitants (Virginia Woolf), tantalizing on-site discoveries (Edgar Allen Poe''s unfinished writings), and weird twists, such as a never-before-seen species made extinct by a lighthouse keeper''s cat (Tibbles).

UNIQUELY ILLUSTRATED: The gorgeous pointillistic full-page illustrations, equally beautiful location maps, and detailed building diagrams make this a distinctive celebration of these fascinating structures and their places in the world.

AN ARMCHAIR TOUR OF LIGHTHOUSES AROUND THE WORLD: The thirty+ stunning lighthouses featured include:

• Adziogol Lighthouse: Rybalche, Kherson Oblast (Ukraine)
• Amédée Lighthouse: Amédée, Nouméa, New Caledonia (France)
• Bell Rock Lighthouse: Inchcape Rock, Arbroath, Scotland (UK)
• Buda Lighthouse: Buda Island, San Jaime de Enveija, Tarragona (Spain)
• Eddystone Lighthouse: Eddystone Rocks, Rame Head, Plymouth (UK)
• Evangelistas Lighthouse: Evangelistas Islets, Natales, Última Esperanza (Chile)
• Great Isaac Cay Lighthouse: Great Isaac Cay, Bimini Islands (Bahamas)
• Grip Lighthouse: Grip, Kristiansund, Nordmøre, Møre og Romsdal (Norway)
• Guardafui Lighthouse: Cape Guardafui, Bari, Puntland (Somalia)
• Klein Curaçao Lighthouse: Klein Curaçao, Curaçao (Netherlands)
• Lime Rock Lighthouse: Lime Rock, Newport, Rhode Island (USA)
• Maatsuyker Lighthouse: Maatsuyker Island, Tasmania (Australia)
• Robben Island Lighthouse: Robben Island, Cape Town (South Africa)
• Rocher aux Oiseaux Lighthouse: Rocher aux Oiseaux (Bird Rock), Madeleine Islands, Quebec (Canada)
• Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse: Rubjerg, Hjørring, Jutland (Denmark)
• San Juan de Salvamento Lighthouse: Isla de los Estados, Patagonia (Argentina)
• Smalls Lighthouse: Smalls Rocks, Marloes, Pembrokeshire, Wales (UK)
• Stephens Island Lighthouse: Takapourewa or Stephens Island, Marlborough (New Zealand)
• Svyatonossky Lighthouse: Svyatoy Nos, Múrmansk Oblast (Russia)
• Wenwei Zhou Lighthouse: Wenwei Zhou or Gap Rock, Wanshan Archipelago, Hong Kong (China)

Perfect for:

• Readers of quirky history
• Fans of nautical tales
• Coastal residents and visitors
• Armchair travelers
• Anyone who has ever dreamed of life as a lighthouse keeper
• Gift giving for Father''s Day, Mother''s Day, birthday, graduation, or housewarming

A breathless, riveting novel about a young woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder who rejects the stability and approval found in a traditionally “normal” life for a career in stand-up comedy.

Maddy Banks is just like any other stressed-out freshman at NYU. Between schoolwork, exams, navigating life in the city, and a recent breakup, it’s normal to be feeling overwhelmed. It doesn’t help that she’s always felt like the odd one out in her picture-perfect Connecticut family. But Maddy’s latest low is devastatingly low, and she goes on an antidepressant. She begins to feel good, dazzling in fact, and she soon spirals high into a wild and terrifying mania that culminates in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

As she struggles to find her way in this new reality, navigating the complex effects bipolar has on her identity, her relationships, and her life dreams, Maddy will have to figure out how to manage being both too much and not enough.

With her signature “deep empathy and insight” (Booklist), Harvard-trained neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author Lisa Genova has crafted another profoundly moving novel that makes complicated mental health issues accessible and human. More or Less Maddy is destined to become another classic like Still Alice.

A fresh batch of deliciously distinctive recipes from the Star Tribune's beloved annual cookie contest--with even more recipes, enticing photographs, and bakers' stories

Cold winters call for warm kitchens and cookie baking, especially around the holidays. The Ultimate Minnesota Cookie Book, a compendium of Minnesota's rich baking traditions and innovative recipes, stirs up winning treats from twenty years of the Star Tribune's popular holiday cookie contest.

Significantly expanding and updating its 2018 predecessor, The Great Minnesota Cookie Book, this collection features thirty-five new recipes, including Grasshoppers and Dark Chocolate Fig Rolls, Tiramisu Twists and Cardamom Cherry Buttons, Diablo Snowballs, Spumoni Squares, and Maple-Roasted Walnut Delights. This sweet-tooth treasure trove of cookie recipes will inspire bakers to discover how many ways flour, sugar, butter, and eggs (plus several unexpected ingredients) can be combined to create new favorites for the holidays--or any time of year.

The best of the best, these contest-winning cookies are accompanied by beautiful photographs and baking tips, insights, and essays. Indulge in these delightful, mouth-watering recipes while Minnesota's best bakers share stories of cherished holiday traditions, recall memorable cookie moments, and celebrate how baking brings us together.

In the tradition of The Alienist and Anatomy: A Love Story, a decadently macabre, dark and twisty gothic debut set in 19th century Scotland – when real-life serial killers Burke and Hare terrorized the streets of Edinburgh – as a young medical student is lured into the illicit underworld of body snatching.

Historical fiction, true crime, and dark academia intertwine in a harrowing tale of murder, greed, and the grisly origins of modern medicine for readers of Lydia Kang, ML Rio, Sarah Perry, and C.E. McGill.

"With wit as sharp as a scalpel, and a plot as dark and twisted as the Edinburgh alleys in which it is set, The Resurrectionist is a thrilling debut that will have readers turning pages deep into the night." —Hester Fox, author of The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

Library Reads Selection for December 2024 | Aardvark Book Club Pick for December 2024 | Paste Magazine Most Anticipated Historical Fiction Books of Fall 2024 | Buzz Book Selection for Spring/Summer 2025 | BookBub Best New Horror for January 2025 | The Strand January Mystery Pick of the Month | Criminal Element Most Anticipated Reads: December 2024 | The Escapist Best New Horror Books Coming in December 2024 | A/V Club Books You Should Read in December 2024 | BookRiot Most-Anticipated New Queer Books Out in December 2024

Edinburgh, Scotland, 1828. Naïve but determined James Willoughby has abandoned his posh, sheltered life at Oxford to pursue a lifelong dream of studying surgery in Edinburgh. A shining beacon of medical discovery in the age of New Enlightenment, the city’s university offers everything James desires—except the chance to work on a human cadaver. For that, he needs to join one of the private schools in Surgeon’s Square, at a cost he cannot afford. In desperation, he strikes a deal with Aneurin “Nye” MacKinnon, a dashing young dissectionist with an artist’s eye for anatomy and a reckless passion for knowledge. Nye promises to help him gain the surgical experience he craves—but it doesn’t take long for James to realize he’s made a devil’s bargain . . .

Nye is a body snatcher. And James has unwittingly become his accomplice. Intoxicated by Nye and his noble mission, James rapidly descends into the underground ranks of the Resurrectionists—the body snatchers infamous for stealing fresh corpses from churchyards to be used as anatomical specimens. Before he knows it, James is caught up in a life-or-death scheme as rival gangs of snatchers compete in a morbid race for power and prestige.

James and Nye soon find themselves in the crosshairs of a shady pair of unscrupulous opportunists known as Burke and Hare, who are dead set on cornering the market, no matter the cost. These unsavory characters will do anything to beat the competition for bodies. Even if it’s cold-blooded murder . . .

Exquisitely macabre and delightfully entertaining, The Resurrectionist combines fact and fiction in a rollicking tale of the risks and rewards of scientific pursuit, the passions of its boldest pioneers, and the anatomy of human desire.

Old flames reignite in Sunrise Cove in this charming enemies-to-lovers, second-chance, small-town, forced-proximity love story about family, friendships, and true love from New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis.

When Olive Porter's off-the-grid parents go missing, she reluctantly seeks out Noah Turner, her ex and the only person she both trusts implicitly and not at all.

As a special investigative agent for the National Park Service, Noah's used to living under intense pressure. Or he was until he got injured on the job. Now unhappily recuperating at home while being smothered by his loving but nosy family, he'd love nothing more than a good distraction.

So when Olive shows up looking like a million bucks, he has to do a gut and heart check. Because nope, no matter what, he can't fall for her again, the woman who once blew up his entire life and never looked back. How ironic then that his own personal hell (Olive) is also his ticket out of town. The question is, will the risk be worth the reward?

From a Robert Frost poem on her debut album to the myth of Cassandra on The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift’s lyrics are filled with literary connections.

Make sure you're catching them all with this expert guide to the novels, poems, and plays that influence her songwriting.

Let a literature professor and a musical theater artist guide you through the Taylor Swift canon—from Shakespeare to the Brontë sisters to Daphne du Maurier!

• Learn what "New Romantics" has to do with the old Romantics
• Get to know the Gothic monsters haunting Midnights
• Spot Taylor's many Great Gatsby references
• Discover what Taylor Swift and Emily Dickinson have in common
• And find your new favorite tortured poet!

Packed with fun facts, entertaining analysis, and literary-themed playlists that fans will love, Taylor Swift by the Book will turn anyone from a Taylor Swift lover into a Taylor Swift scholar.

With full-color illustrations highlighting the literary eras of Dr. Swift (yes, she has an honorary PhD), it’s a perfect gift for the Swiftie in your life.

REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK!
“This story swept me away with its big dreams, love, and unexpected twists.” —Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club January ’25 Pick)

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo meets First Lie Wins in this electric, voice-driven debut novel about an elusive bestselling author who decides to finally confess her true identity after years of hiding from her past. 

Cate Kay knows how to craft a story. As the creator of a bestselling book trilogy that struck box office gold as a film series, she’s one of the most successful authors of her generation. The thing is, Cate Kay doesn’t really exist. She’s never attended author events or granted any interviews. Her real identity had been a closely guarded secret, until now.

As a young adult, she and her best friend Amanda dreamed of escaping their difficult homes and moving to California to become movie stars. But the day before their grand adventure, a tragedy shattered their dreams and Cate has been on the run ever since, taking on different names and charting a new future. But after a shocking revelation, Cate understands that returning home is the only way she’ll be a whole person again.

“Insanely readable with a brilliant setting and characters that jump off the page. I absolutely loved The Inheritance!” —Lisa Jewell

Most family reunions end in tears. This one will end in murder.

Meet the Agarwals, who have gathered on a private, luxury island off the west coast of Scotland for a much-anticipated family reunion.

Raj, the patriarch and a business tycoon, is about to announce to his wife and three children the succession plan for his multimillon-dollar Delhi-based company. Shalini, the fragile matriarch, is ready to have her husband to herself after years of sacrifice to the family business. Myra, the golden child, owner of the island and host of the reunion, is, unbeknownst to her family, on the brink of bankruptcy. Aseem, the son and supposed heir, is torn between his love for his wife and his duty to family. Aisha, the youngest, a party girl whose antics are legendary, can’t pass up an opportunity to wreak havoc. And then there’s Zoe, Aseem’s wife, the outsider whose #InstaPerfect life is built on a foundation of lies.

They’ve all got secrets they would die to protect. Who will survive this high-stakes reunion, and who will become a victim of their own greed? One thing is certain: this family gathering will shatter more than just their illusions of unity.

*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*
*A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF 2024*
*NAMED ONE OF PEOPLE’S BEST CELEBRITY MEMOIRS OF 2024*

A deliciously witty and inspiring memoir by One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz about her decade in a cult and her quest to break free. 

In the early 2000s, after years of hard work and determination to breakthrough as an actor, Bethany Joy Lenz was finally cast as one of the leads on the hit drama One Tree Hill. Her career was about to take off, but her personal life was slowly beginning to unravel. What none of the show’s millions of fans knew, hidden even from her costars, was her secret double life in a cult. 

An only child who often had to fend for herself and always wanted a place to belong, Lenz found the safe haven she’d been searching for in a Bible study group with other Hollywood creatives. However, the group soon morphed into something more sinister—a slowly woven web of manipulation, abuse, and fear under the guise of a church covenant called The Big House Family. Piece by piece, Lenz began to give away her autonomy, ultimately relocating to the Family’s Pacific Northwest compound, overseen by a domineering minister who would convince Lenz to marry one of his sons and steadily drained millions of her TV income without her knowledge. Family “minders” assigned to her on set, “Maoist struggle session”–inspired meetings in the basement of a filthy house, and regular counseling with “Leadership” were just part of the tactics used to keep her loyal. 

Only when she became a mother did Lenz find the courage to leave and spare her child from a similar fate. After nearly a decade (and with the unlikely help of a One Tree Hill superfan), she finally managed to escape the family’s grip and begin to heal from the deep trauma that forever altered her relationship with God and her understanding of faith. 

Written with powerful honesty and dark humor, Dinner for Vampires is an inspiring story about the importance of identity and understanding what you believe.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets, and then embarks on a magical quest when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop, in this dreamlike fantasy novel.

FEATURES A UNIQUE ORIGAMI JACKET that folds into a boat, joining the characters in an enchanting way. The jacket artwork is also printed directly onto the hardcover case underneath.

“Race through a lush world of pure wonder and romance—kites made of wishes that become stars, origami that holds time in its folds, and a night market in the clouds—in this lovely, cozy fantasy reminiscent of Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea.”—Booklist (starred review)

On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only the chosen ones—those who are lost—will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.

Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike its other customers, for he offers help instead of seeking it.

Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice—by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and a night market in the clouds.

But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own—and risk making a choice that she will never be able to take back.

“Highly recommended . . . Readers who have been swept up in the cozy charm of Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee will fall hard for the mix of magical realism, fantasy mystery, and star-crossed romance.”—Library Journal (starred review)

For readers of Ann Patchett and Celeste Ng, Penitence is a poignant exploration of love and forgiveness. It’s a suspenseful, addictive page-turner filled with literary insight that compels readers to consider whether the worst thing we’ve ever done is all that defines us.

When a shocking murder occurs in the home of Angie and David Sheehan, their lives are shattered. Desperate to defend their family, they turn to small-town lawyer Martine Dumont for help, but Martine isn’t just legal counsel—she’s also the mother of Angie’s first love, Julian, a now-successful New York City criminal defense attorney. As Julian and Angie confront their shared past and long-buried guilt from a tragic accident years ago, they must navigate their own culpability and the unresolved feelings between them.

Spanning decades, from the ski slopes of rural Colorado to the streets of pre-9/11 New York City and back again, Kristin Koval’s debut novel Penitence is an examination of the complexities of familial loyalty, the journey of redemption, and the profound experience of true forgiveness.

For fans of Cheryl Strayed's Wild and Jesmyn Ward's Men We Reaped, this searing memoir by a National Geographic explorer recounts one woman's epic journey to trace the global slave trade across the Atlantic Ocean--and find her place in the world.

"Tara Roberts is a pioneer and an inspiration. Her work does not so much 'unearth' the past as pull it respectfully out of the depths of the sea. I am deeply moved by this book, and by her journey."--Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love

When Tara Roberts first caught sight of a photograph at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History depicting the scuba and underwater archaeology group Diving With a Purpose, it called out to her. Here were Black women and men strapping on masks, fins, and tanks to explore Atlantic Ocean waters along the coastlines of Africa, North America, and Central America, seeking the wrecks of slave ships long lost in time. Inspired, Roberts joined them--and started on a path of discovery more challenging and personal than she could ever have imagined.

In this lush and lyrical memoir, she tells a story of exploration and reckoning that takes her from her home in Washington, D.C., to an exotic array of locales: Thailand and Sri Lanka, Mozambique, South Africa, Senegal, Benin, Costa Rica, and St. Croix. The journey connects her with other divers, scholars, and archaeologists, offering a unique way of understanding the 12.5 million souls carried away from their African homeland to enslavement on other continents. But for Roberts, the journey is also intensely personal. Inspired by the descendants of those who lost their lives during the Middle Passage, she decides to plumb her own family history and life as a Black woman to help make sense of her own identity.

Complex and unflinchingly authentic, this deeply moving narrative heralds an important new voice in literature that will open minds and hearts everywhere.

A Seattle Times Bestseller

One of The Washington Post’s 10 Noteworthy Books for January
One of The Los Angeles Times’ 10 Books to Add to Your Reading List in January
One of The Seattle Times’ 24 Books to Look Out for in 2025
One of Kirkus' Best 20 Books to Read in January

The extraordinary new novel by Jonathan Evison, about a married couple in their golden years, from when they met across big ups, deep downs, and survive-it-all, opposites-attract love

Abe Winter and Ruth Warneke were never meant to be together—at least if you ask Ruth. Yet their catastrophic blind date in college evolved into a seventy-year marriage and a life on a farm on Bainbridge Island with their hens and beloved Labrador, Megs. Through the years, the Winters have fallen in and out of lockstep, and from their haunting losses and guarded secrets, a dependable partnership has been forged.

But when Ruth’s loose tooth turns out to be something much more malicious, the beautiful, reliable life they’ve created together comes to a crisis. As Ruth struggles with her crumbling independence, Abe must learn how to take care of her while their three living children question his ability to look after his wife. And once again, the couple has to reconfigure how to be there for each other.

In this bighearted and profound portrait of a marriage, Jonathan Evison explores seventy years of big moments in subtle ways, elegantly braiding the Winters’ turbulent history with their present-day battles, showing us how the oddly paired college kids became parents, fell apart and back together, and grew into the Abe and Ruth of today. Endlessly heartwarming and moving, The Heart of Winter is a reminder that true love lives in small, everyday moments.

First glimpsed riding on the back of a boy's motorcycle, fourteen-year-old Czeslawa comes to life in this mesmerizing novel by Lily Tuck, who imagines her upbringing in a small Polish village before her world imploded in late 1942. Stripped of her modest belongings, shorn, and tattooed number 26947 on arriving at Auschwitz, Czeslawa is then photographed. Three months later, she is dead.

How did this happen to an ordinary Polish citizen? This is the question that Tuck grapples with in this haunting novel, which frames Czeslawa's story within the epic tragedy of six million Poles who perished during the German occupation. A decade prior to writing The Rest Is Memory, Tuck read an obituary of the photographer Wilhelm Brasse, who took more than 40,000 pictures of the Auschwitz prisoners. Included were three of Czeslawa Kwoka, a Catholic girl from rural southeastern Poland. Tuck cut out the photos and kept them, determined to learn more about Czeslawa, but she was only able to glean the barest facts: the village she came from, the transport she was on, that she was accompanied by her mother and her neighbors, her tattoo number, and the date of her death. From this scant evidence, Tuck's novel becomes a remarkable kaleidoscopic feat of imagination, something only our greatest novelists can do.

"Beautifully written, all the while instilling a sense of horror" (Susanna Moore), Tuck's language swirls about, yet not a word is out of place. The subtly rotating images tumble out at us, accelerating as we learn about Czeslawa's tragic stay in Auschwitz, the lives of real people such as the barbaric Commandant Rudolf Höss; his unconscionable wife, Hedwig; the psychiatrist and child rescuer Janusz Korczak; and the mordant Polish short story writer Tadeusz Borowski. Although we are certain of Czeslawa's fate, we have no choice but to keep turning the pages, thoroughly mesmerized by Tuck's near otherworldly prose.

In Lily Tuck's hands, The Rest Is Memory becomes an unforgettable work of historical reclamation that rescues an innocent life, one previously only recalled by a stark triptych of photographs.

An intimate and freewheeling portrait of John Madden through the NFL legend's own words

John Madden is synonymous with football. He was the television face and voice of the nation's most popular sport, the namesake of its best-selling sports video game, and the man with the highest career winning percentage of any NFL coach.

​Despite his international fame, there was a side of Madden known only to those who listened to morning radio broadcasts in the San Francisco Bay Area. That's where Madden grew up, lived, and died. It's where for decades he found joy in a daily chat with his hometown radio station: a chance to unwind, tell stories, and impart his own brand of wit and wisdom.

In Mornings With Madden, Stan Bunger--the man most often on the other side of the mic--illuminates this larger-than-life figure, drawing upon memories of more than fifteen years of daily broadcasts, backed up by thousands of recordings of those conversations. Readers who adored Madden's football acumen and quirky personality on NFL broadcasts will get to know the father, husband, bad golfer, dog owner, lover of roadside diners, and philosopher whose personality dominated our radio chats.

Featuring moving reflections alongside Madden's own words, this is a treasure trove of wry observations, self-deprecating humor, clear-eyed thinking about sports and society, and the "Maddenisms" that endeared the legendary coach to millions.