Staff Picks: Get Excited for Big New Releases This Summer!

Fri, 07/05/2024 - 12:57pm by eapearce

It’s that time of the summer when lots of big new releases are coming out! Many of these titles have been long-anticipated by readers and you might want to get on the hold list to get your hands on a copy! One thing to note: some of these titles are getting published in a few short weeks, so AADL does not yet have copies—but you can still put your name on the list and once the books are published and shipped, we’ll get them into the hands of our patrons!

Long Island Compromise, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner | Request Now

This just-released title, by the author of Fleishman Is In Trouble, details the unusual saga of a Jewish family in New York over the past four decades. The book opens in 1983, when wealthy businessman Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway, tortured and held for ransom. Upon his return to his family a week later, they all begin the work of recovering from the trauma and moving on with their lives. Forty years later, when Carl’s mother dies and the family reunites to mourn her, it becomes clear that no matter how hard they might have tried to forget the past, no one really got over anything. Carl’s wife Ruth has spent every day since the kidnapping working to protect and heal her husband at her own emotional expense. Ruth and Carl’s three grown children are all a mess in their own ways, and Carl himself still lives in fear over what happened to him. Will Carl and his family ever be able to find closure? Though their enormous wealth is ultimately what saved Carl’s life, isn’t it also what put him in danger in the first place? Was it worth it? Readers will find themselves immersed in the Fletchers’ lives, eagerly turning the pages to see how everything turns out.

The Midnight Feast, by Lucy Foley | Request Now

Thriller fans love Lucy Foley for her twisty novels like The Guest List and The Paris Apartment. Now Foley is back with her newest thriller, The Midnight Feast. The setting is the grand opening of a new, exclusive resort in a picturesque English village. Francesa Meadows, who summered there as a child, has teamed up with her famous architect husband to build the chic retreat called simply The Manor. The locals are less than happy with the encroachment on their formerly peaceful, rural haven but despite their protests, The Manor opens just in time for summer. After a bacchanalian night of drinking, dancing and feasting, a body is discovered on the grounds, leaving everyone wondering if there is a murderer staying among the guests or if the locals have enacted revenge. Told by five different narrators with vastly different perspectives, this book packs a punch with repeated surprises and some truly creepy folk horror.

The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore | Request Now

Liz Moore, author of Long Bright River, gifts readers with a beautifully atmospheric mystery set in the Adirondack mountains in 1975. On an August morning, Barbara Van Laar is found missing from her bunk at summer camp, triggering a frantic search. While any child gone missing would be terrible, Barbara also happens to be the daughter of the wealthy owners of the camp and nearby estate and—in a horrible coincidence—her older brother also went missing sixteen years earlier and was never found. While the search for Barbara and over-arching mystery is certainly the root of the novel, Moore also threads stories of various characters’ lives into the book and brings readers into their hearts and minds and into the nuances of the close-knit community as a whole. This is one not to be missed.

The Bright Sword, by Lev Grossman | Request Now

Fantasy fans likely recognize the name Lev Grossman from his best-selling The Magicians series and perhaps from his other novels in the genre as well. In The Bright Sword, Grossman takes on the story of King Arthur, but of course puts his own unique spin on it. A gifted young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot shortly after the Battle of Camlann, hoping to earn himself a spot on the Round Table. To his horror, however, Camelot is empty, King Arthur is dead and the Round Table is no more. The six knights that remain are not the heroic legends like Lancelot and Galahad but instead a motley crew of survivors whose names you’ve likely never heard before. As power-hungry lords approach Camelot, eager to seize the land, Collum and the other knights must band together to see what they can save. Arthur’s death has shaken the kingdom in more ways than one—monsters and fairies, long kept dormant, are reawakening, fragile alliances that Arthur held together are breaking, and the animosity between pagans and Christians again rears its head. Described as “the first major Arthurian epic of the new millennium,” The Bright Sword is “full of duels and quests, battles and tournaments, magic swords and Fisher Kings.” Beyond all that, though, the book is also a deeply human portrait of flawed men and women who are doing their best to hold together the land and life they love. Even readers who might not typically consider themselves fantasy buffs might want to give this one a try!

You can always keep an eye on our "new books" list on aadl.org to see the latest additions to our collection!