[Manabi]

This month's Amazon First Reads selections are out, they are:

Lies That Bind Us by Andrew Hart [Genre: Suspense]

From a prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author comes a chilling novel of deception under the sun…

Jan needs this. She’s flying to Crete to reunite with friends she met there five years ago and relive an idyllic vacation. Basking in the warmth of the sun, the azure sea, and the aura of antiquity, she can once again pretend—for a little while—that she belongs. Her ex-boyfriend Marcus will be among them, but even he doesn’t know the secrets she keeps hidden behind a veil of lies. None of them really know her, and that’s only part of the problem.

Then again, how well does she know them?

When Jan awakens in utter darkness, chained to a wall, a manacle around her wrist, her echoing screams only give her a sense of how small her cell is. As she desperately tries to reconstruct what happened and determine who is holding her prisoner, dread covers despair like a hand clamped over her mouth. Because, like the Minotaur in the labyrinth in Greek myth, her captor will be coming back for her, and all the lies will catch up to her…

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

There aren’t many things in life that sound more relaxing to me than a weeklong Grecian getaway with good food, good wine, and good friends. What doesn’t sound relaxing to me? Waking up in a dark room, chained to a wall, with no memory how you got there during said vacation, which is exactly the predicament the protagonist, Jan, finds herself in in Andrew Hart’s cautionary thriller, which can be best described as Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train meets Emma Straub’s The Vacationers.

Lies That Bind Us is a riveting novel of suspense that deftly weaves together the rich culture and atmosphere of the Greek islands and their mythology, the fog of mystery surrounding Jan’s captivity, and the lies that led her there. Hart’s depictions are so immersive, I felt like I was there myself, experiencing first the warmth of the coastal sunshine on my skin and the taste of salt on my lips, and later the haze of confusion surrounding a trip gone very, very wrong.

This is one of those rare page-turners that you’ll find you can’t and don’t want to put down. I read it in one sitting, and even now, long after I’ve turned the last page, I still find myself thinking about the big consequences that “little white lies” can have. — Alicia Clancy, Editor

A Marriage in Dog Years by Nancy Balbirer [Genre: Memoir]

When Nancy Balbirer learns her beloved eleven-year-old beagle has kidney failure, she’s devastated. She and her husband had gotten Ira as a puppy—a wedding gift to each other, and their first foray into “parenthood.” Now, her dog is terminal, her marriage is on life support, and Nancy is desperate to save them both (whether they want it or not). In a single year, she loses her two best friends, but Nancy’s life is about to take yet another unexpected turn.

With humor and heart, Nancy Balbirer shares her story of relationships, loss, and canine friendship in this illuminating memoir about the lengths people will go to keep love alive…and the power of finally letting go.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

At the beginning of this memoir, Nancy Balbirer’s eleven-year-old dog, Ira, is diagnosed with a terminal illness and given just days to live. Nancy’s marriage to her husband is also eleven years old—the puppy had been their wedding gift to each other, their first brush with parenthood. As it happens, Ira will go on to live twelve more months, but just as unexpectedly, those will also be the last months of the marriage; Nancy is about to lose her two best friends.

I thought I’d be weeping throughout the entire memoir, and yes, I did shed some tears, but more than anything I felt a connection to Nancy—she’s funny, grounded, and reflective. And I loved how the memoir explored the lengths to which we’ll go to keep love alive, and the power that surrender has to make us stronger, better people.

A Marriage in Dog Years isn’t just a book for dog lovers—you don’t have to be a dog owner to realize the devastation Nancy felt when she was told her pet was dying. And you don’t have to be married to understand how she must have felt when she realized her husband was seeing another woman. This is a book for people who are curious about why some couples stay together and why others don’t. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking story and I’m thrilled to share it with you. — Carmen Johnson, Editor

The Speed of Sound by Eric Bernt [Genre: Thriller]

In this propulsive thriller, one of the most ingenious young men in the world has also become the most dangerous…or has he?

Harmony House is more than a “special place for special people.” It’s a think tank where high-functioning autistic savants harness their unique abilities for the benefit of society. Resident Eddie Parks’s contribution is nothing less than extraordinary: an “echo box” that can re-create never-recorded sounds using acoustic archeology.

All Eddie wants is to hear his late mother’s voice. But what he’s created is inadvertently posing a threat to national security.

To Harmony House’s shadowy government backers and radical extremists, the echo box is the ultimate intelligence asset—an end to the very concept of secrecy. Now for Eddie and the compassionate Dr. Skylar Drummond, the true nature of the institution is becoming chillingly clear.

As ruthless competing enemies close in on Eddie and his miraculous machine, Skylar risks all to take him on the run. Because once that prize is won, Eddie Parks will no longer be considered a “special person” but a dangerous redundancy. An inconvenient echo that must be silenced.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

Eddie Parks just wants to hear his mother sing. But Eddie never met his mother; she died before he was born. Since he can’t rely on his memory to fill in the notes, he relies on his intellect to create an “echo box”—a machine that can replay the sounds that have been captured in the paint and in the walls themselves.

I can relate to Eddie. When my grandmother died, I wanted a piece of the wall from her living room. I was sure that I could touch it and revisit those holidays and meals shared. I wanted to keep the memories alive.

Unlike me, Eddie is surely a genius. He is not a scientist; rather, he’s a resident in a government-funded institution that works with high-functioning autistic people. And the government—and others—are watching Eddie and his echo box very closely. If he succeeds, no conversation would ever be truly private. Espionage would be as easy as opening a door and clicking a button.

To the institution and its founders, Eddie is a product. But Dr. Skylar Drummond sees Eddie for the complicated, beautiful person that he is. She understands loss and memory…and that she needs to get Eddie and his echo box as far from these people as she can.

Eric Bernt’s debut novel is a taut techno-thriller about an invention that could change the way we communicate. But the beauty of The Speed of Sound is at its heart—that simple desire we all share to hear our lost loved ones again, no matter the cost. — Jessica Tribble, Editor

Never Stop Walking by Christina Rickardsson (Author), Tara F. Chace (Translator) [Genre: Nonfiction]

An extraordinary memoir of one woman’s fight to find her true self between the life into which she was born and the one she was given.

Christiana Mara Coelho was born into extreme poverty in Brazil. After spending the first seven years of her life with her loving mother in the forest caves outside São Paulo and then on the city streets, where they begged for food, she and her younger brother were suddenly put up for adoption. When one door closed on the only life Christiana had ever known and on the woman who protected her with all her heart, a new one opened.

As Christina Rickardsson, she’s raised by caring adoptive parents in Sweden, far from the despairing favelas of her childhood. Accomplished and outwardly “normal,” Christina is also filled with rage over what she’s lost and having to adapt to a new reality while struggling with the traumas of her youth. When her world falls apart again as an adult, Christina returns to Brazil to finally confront her past and unlock the truth of what really happened to Christiana Mara Coelho.

A memoir of two selves, Never Stop Walking is the moving story of the profound love between families and one woman’s journey from grief and loss to survival and self-discovery.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

How many of us could survive life on the streets at eight years old? What if those streets were filled with armed adults who thought nothing of rounding you up to kill you? This was real life for Christina Rickardsson in and around São Paolo, Brazil, until a local agency took the questionable step of separating Christina (age eight) and her brother (less than two) from their mother and adopting them out to a family in Sweden, half a world away. If stories like those of Cheryl Strayed or Augusten Burroughs grabbed your emotions, you’ll likely respond to Christina’s in the same way I did, with empathy and wonder at the strength of her spirit.

The story of how she acclimated and grew to love her adoptive family, the Rickardssons, and the totally foreign language and culture is gripping. An extraordinary aspect of Christina’s story is that it doesn’t end with her personal search—she’s channeled her energy into her foundation, a nonprofit that aims to address the conditions of poverty and social inequity at the root of her own experience to save other children from similar deprivation.

From the moment Christina’s story entered my life, it’s been my constant companion, unshakable. Her courage, compassion, and capacity for forgiveness are nothing short of inspirational. Her guilt and resentment over having been taken from her mother and native country battle with the gratitude for the advantages and security her new country and family afforded her. Christina could easily have turned her trauma into hostility toward her new family, toward the world, or toward herself. Instead she tackled the agonizing unearthing of her adoption records and made the brave and painful journey back to her native country in her thirties, in the hope of reuniting with her mother. — Elizabeth DeNoma, Editor

Matchmaking for Beginners by Maddie Dawson [Genre: Contemporary Fiction]

Marnie MacGraw wants an ordinary life—a husband, kids, and a minivan in the suburbs. Now that she’s marrying the man of her dreams, she’s sure this is the life she’ll get. Then Marnie meets Blix Holliday, her fiancé’s irascible matchmaking great-aunt who’s dying, and everything changes—just as Blix told her it would.

When her marriage ends after two miserable weeks, Marnie is understandably shocked. She’s even more astonished to find that she’s inherited Blix’s Brooklyn brownstone along with all of Blix’s unfinished “projects”: the heartbroken, oddball friends and neighbors running from happiness. Marnie doesn’t believe she’s anything special, but Blix somehow knew she was the perfect person to follow in her matchmaker footsteps.

And Blix was also right about some things Marnie must learn the hard way: love is hard to recognize, and the ones who push love away often are the ones who need it most.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

As a perpetually skeptical person self-diagnosed with early-onset grumpiness, I found a cure in Matchmaking for Beginners for what was ailing me. This book’s sparkling wit and charm had me from page one. Author Maddie Dawson has a gift for conjuring up entirely original characters and plunking them down in unusual circumstances. Here we have a naive, jilted bride from the Florida suburbs, a cynical recluse hiding from life, a bunch of Brooklyn misfits, plus a stray dog named Bedford. Each find love and a place to call home—all thanks to an ornery octogenarian named Blix.

When Maddie and I first started talking about the book, it had nothing to do with any of the above. It was a completely different premise. But in the course of writing, Maddie came under the spell of Blix and couldn’t turn away. Blix has that effect on people. She’s incorrigible and irresistible.

No matter how much I tried to shake Blix’s magic, I couldn’t. She enchanted me and ultimately made me question my curmudgeonly ways. Life’s much too short to be hollering at the neighbor kids to get off my lawn, right? Thank you, Maddie, and thank you, Blix—glass now half-full! — Jodi Warshaw, Editor

True: A Novel by Karl Taro Greenfeld [Genre: Literary Fiction]

Karl Taro Greenfeld, acclaimed author of Triburbia and Boy Alone, offers a literary coming-of-age novel that deftly and unflinchingly imagines a world where an angry teenage girl discovers the nature of the bigger game of life and what it really means to be a team player, a sister, a daughter, and a born survivor.

True has a singular path: to be the greatest soccer player of her generation. But to realize her dream, she’ll need to make the Under-17 National Team, then the Residency Program, and the ultimate: the US Women’s National Team. Otherwise she can say goodbye to the Women’s World Cup. And True will do whatever it takes to be the top girl on the field.

True has to stay focused because her family is crumbling. With the loss of her mother, True is forced to take care of her autistic younger sister while her grieving father wastes his time gambling. And high school isn’t much better. While True’s teammates are getting taller and growing up, she’s hardening around the edges, at a loss for what it means to be a typical teen girl. But when she’s in the game, the anxieties of family and fitting in just fade away. True—with her soft feet and deft first touch—can knock anyone off the ball. And more importantly, she can throw an elbow harder than anybody else. On the pitch, she’s a soccer player first, a sister second. On the pitch, she’s free.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

True is angry. She’s angry that her mother died giving birth to True’s autistic sister. She’s angry her grieving father spends his days gambling. She’s angry that even though she is in high school, she has to pay the bills, clean the house, and take care of her sister. And despite being the best girl vying for a spot on the US national soccer team and a chance to compete in the 1999 World Cup alongside Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain, True is angry that she is the only girl being singled out for her anger issues.

When I first read True by Karl Taro Greenfeld, I was taken aback by how brilliantly complicated and nuanced these characters are. True, the novel and the antihero, is biting, poetic, and painful. The whole time, I flipped each page, asking myself whether True will make the national team or if her anger will get the better of her. Will True find the freedom she craves, or will she be dragged down by her outsized responsibilities at home? Will she be able to protect her sister from a world desperate to take advantage—or will she destroy herself trying?

True is heart-stopping and unwavering in its depictions of a young warrior who pushes the boundaries of what it means to be a daughter, sister, and teammate. I am so excited to bring forth this breath of refreshing air to the coming-of-age canon, and I hope you will enjoy it too. — Vivian Lee, Editor

Something New: Amazon Original Stories

Amazon has added a new feature called Amazon Original Stories. These are short stories available to read for free to not only Kindle Unlimited subscribers, but all Amazon Prime members.