[Manabi]

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

Don't Make a Sound by T. R. Ragan [Genre: Thriller]

Her own past could be a reporter’s biggest story in this twisting thriller about murder and family secrets by the New York Times bestselling author T.R. Ragan.

Plagued by traumatic childhood memories, crime reporter Sawyer Brooks still struggles to gain control of her rage, her paranoia, and her life. Now, after finally getting promoted at work, she is forced to return home and face her past.

River Rock is where she’d been abandoned by her two older sisters to suffer alone, and in silence, the unspeakable abuses of her family. It’s also where Sawyer’s best friend disappeared and two teenage girls were murdered. Three cold cases dead and buried with the rest of the town’s secrets.

When another girl is slain in a familiar grisly fashion, Sawyer is determined to put an end to the crimes. Pulled back into the horrors of her family history, Sawyer must reconcile with her estranged sisters, who both have shattering memories of their own. As Sawyer’s investigation leads to River Rock’s darkest corners, what will prove more dangerous—what she knows of the past or what she has yet to discover?

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

Strong women, riveting suspense, and belated justice. These are the hallmarks of a T.R. Ragan thriller. She has written more than a dozen books from the point of view of gutsy women, and now she introduces us to Sawyer Brooks, an ambitious investigative reporter in Sacramento, California.

When Sawyer discovers what looks like a copycat murder in her small hometown, she immediately sees her chance for a major byline—and justice. The original crime changed Sawyer’s life—and her family—forever. This investigation will be the ultimate do-over, but it also means she must return to River Rock, a town she thought (hoped!) she would never see again. But Sawyer will stop at nothing to find the murderer. Her pursuit is a thrill ride from page one and doesn’t let up until she’s uncovered dark family secrets and cold, cold justice has been served.

And the thrills don’t stop here. We won’t have to wait long to see what Sawyer digs up next, with the second book in the series, Out of Her Mind, coming in November! - Liz Pearsons, Editor

If You Must Know by Jamie Beck [Genre: Contemporary Fiction]

Life turns upside down for two sisters in Wall Street Journal bestselling author Jamie Beck’s emotional novel about how secrets and differences can break—or bind—a family.

Sisters Amanda Foster and Erin Turner have little in common except the childhood bedroom they once shared and the certainty each feels that her way of life is best. Amanda follows the rules—at the school where she works; in her community; and as a picture-perfect daughter, wife, and mother-to-be. Erin follows her heart—in love and otherwise—living a bohemian lifestyle on a shoestring budget and honoring her late father’s memory with a passion for music and her fledgling bath-products business.

The sisters are content leading separate but happy lives in their hometown of Potomac Point until everything is upended by lies that force them to confront unsettling truths about their family, themselves, and each other. For sisters as different as these two, building trust doesn’t come easily—especially with one secret still between them—but it may be the only way to save their family.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

Few authors capture family dynamics like Jamie Beck, and as she illuminates in her latest book, just because we’re bound by blood doesn’t mean those relationships come easy.

Sisters Amanda Foster and Erin Turner couldn’t be more different. Amanda lives life by the rules, while Erin lives life on a whim; she follows her heart instead of any sort of playbook. Their opposing philosophies have always put them at odds, creating a fracture in the family that’s been impossible to overcome. But when Amanda’s perfectly orchestrated world falls apart, she has no choice but to turn to Erin if she wants to put the pieces back together.

Family is sometimes messy and often frustrating. But this heartfelt, emotionally charged story shows it’s the imperfections that allow us to learn from one another—and more about ourselves—if we’re willing to embrace them. - Chris Werner, Editor

Legacy of Lies (Bocephus Haynes Book 1) by Robert Bailey [Genre: Legal Thriller]

A small-town attorney takes on prejudice and corruption in this powerful legal thriller.

Small-town lawyer Bocephus Haynes comes home late one night to find District Attorney General Helen Lewis waiting for him. Her ex-husband has just been killed. She’s about to be arrested for his murder. And she wants Bo to represent her.

There’s a lot working against them. Just before his death, Helen’s ex-husband threatened to reveal a dark secret from her past. Bo has been in a tailspin since his wife’s death. What’s more, his whole life has been defined by a crime committed against his family, and he continues to face prejudice as the only African American litigator in Pulaski, Tennessee.

Bo’s back is against the wall, and Helen resigns herself to a dismal fate—but a stunning discovery throws everything into chaos. There’s a chance for justice, but to achieve it, the cost might be too much for Bo to bear.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

Bo Haynes has lost everything. His life has been one of perseverance, hardship, and pain, but since his wife’s tragic death a year earlier, Bo’s life has fallen apart. He’s coming off his second suspension from the practice of law, losing custody of his children due to erratic behavior, not to mention he’s still trying to come to grips with a past defined by racism against him and his family.

After the custody dispute, Bo arrives home drunk to find his old professional foe, Helen Lewis, the district attorney general, waiting for him with a desperate plea. She’s been accused of killing her ex-husband and needs his help. Realizing that Helen’s murder trial is a chance to resurrect his career and life, Bo decides to take the case.

I’m so excited for readers to get their hands on this new legal thriller series from Robert Bailey. Returning readers of his McMurtrie and Drake series and new readers alike will be thrilled to see fan favorite Bo get his own story and witness his continued fight for justice. - Megha Parekh, Editor

Sorry I Missed You by Suzy Krause [Genre: Book Club Fiction]

A poignant and heartwarming novel about friendship, ghosting, and searching for answers to life’s mysteries.

When Mackenzie, Sunna, and Maude move into a converted rental house, they are strangers with only one thing in common—important people in their lives have “ghosted” them. Mackenzie’s sister, Sunna’s best friend, and Maude’s fiancé—all gone with no explanation.

So when a mangled, near-indecipherable letter arrives in their shared mailbox—hinting at long-awaited answers—each tenant assumes it’s for her. The mismatched trio decides to stake out the coffee shop named in the letter—the only clue they have—and in the process, a bizarre kinship forms. But the more they learn about each other, the more questions (and suspicions) they begin to have. All the while, creepy sounds and strange happenings around the property suggest that the ghosts from their pasts might not be all that’s haunting them…

Will any of the housemates find the closure they are looking for? Or are some doors meant to remain closed?

Quirky, humorous, and utterly original, Sorry I Missed You is the perfect read for anyone who has ever felt haunted by their past (or by anything else).

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

Have you ever been ghosted—had someone disappear from your life without an explanation? Maybe it was a friend who slowly started drifting away over time, an ex, or a onetime date who ended the relationship without giving a reason? Well, I certainly have (and you know who you are). Regardless of who they were to you, one thing remains the same—closure can be difficult to come by when you don’t know why you were abandoned in the first place.

In Sorry I Missed You, this is exactly the situation that brings three housemates together who have absolutely nothing else in common—Sunna, Maude, and Mackenzie. Each woman has been ghosted by someone important to her, so when an unaddressed letter shows up at their rental building promising answers, each woman hopes desperately it’s for her. At the same time, weird things are happening around the rental house—almost enough to make them wonder if their pasts are the only things that are haunting them. Thus begins this quirky, hilarious, and endearing journey of unlikely friendship and the quest for closure.

In this charming novel, Suzy Krause has created a cast of characters that readers can’t help but fall in love with, a storyline that is completely fresh and original, and a heartwarming message that will resonate near and far—perfect for fans of A Man Called Ove. Sorry I Missed You may not give you the answers you’ve been waiting on from your own ghosts, but it will leave you with something even better—hope. - Alicia Clancy, Editor

Your Blue Is Not My Blue by Aspen Matis [Genre: Memoir]

From Aspen Matis, author of the acclaimed true story Girl in the Woods, comes a bold and atmospheric memoir of a woman who—in searching for her vanished husband—discovers deeper purpose.

Aspen’s and Justin’s paths serendipitously aligned on the Pacific Crest Trail when both were walking from Mexico to Canada, separately and alone—both using thru-hiking in hopes of escaping their pasts. Both sought to redefine themselves beneath the stars. By the time they made it to the snowy Cascade Range of British Columbia—the trail’s end—Aspen and Justin were in love.

Embarking on a new pilgrimage the next summer, they returned to those same mossy mountains where they’d met, and they married. They built a world together, three years of a happy marriage. Until a cold November morning, when, after kissing Aspen goodbye, Justin left to attend the funeral of a close friend.

He never came back. As days became weeks, her husband’s inexplicable absence left Aspen unmoored. Shock, grief, fear, and anger battled for control—but nothing prepared her for the disarming truth. A revelation that would lead Aspen to reassess not only her own life but that of the disappeared as well.

The result is a brave and inspiring memoir of secrets kept and unearthed, of a vanishing that became a gift: a woman’s empowering reclamation of unmitigated purpose in the surreal wake of mystifying loss.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

Aspen Matis is one of those voices that intrigues, inspires, and can heal. While at its heart Your Blue Is Not My Blue is a memoir of self-discovery, resilience, and ultimately gratitude, it’s also a story about grief and loss and trauma and forgiveness. Her tale of inexplicable loss that became a transcendent reawakening completely broke me open and surfaced vulnerabilities I thought I had locked away with my childhood journals.

After a sexual assault, Aspen took to the Pacific Crest Trail, where she met fellow thru-hiker Justin. Three years later, she’s freshly married and on a deadline to complete her first book, Girl in The Woods, about the assault, her subsequent adventures, and the whirlwind relationship with Justin that followed. But when her new husband mysteriously disappears, she’s met with a new story—and to write it, she is compelled to investigate her husband’s history as well as confront her own complicated past.

Thoughtful and revealing, this follow-up memoir walks you through the streets of New York City and the forests of California with Aspen as she skips, stumbles, and spirals toward resolution.

Brave and honest, this poetic young writer doesn’t minimize the seemingly small things that happen to us as young women, which can color our view of the world as adults. Heartbreak can trigger deep existential thoughts, which can drive us toward either emptiness or wholeness. I am both grateful and deeply encouraged that Aspen’s story goes the way of the latter. - Erin Calligan Mooney, Editor

Golden Poppies by Layla Ibrahim [Genre: Historical Fiction]

From the bestselling author of Yellow Crocus and Mustard Seed comes the empowering novel of two generations of American women connected by the past and fighting for a brighter future.

It’s 1894. Jordan Wallace and Sadie Wagner appear to have little in common. Jordan, a middle-aged black teacher, lives in segregated Chicago. Two thousand miles away, Sadie, the white wife of an ambitious German businessman, lives in more tolerant Oakland, California. But years ago, their families intertwined on a plantation in Virginia. There, Jordan’s and Sadie’s mothers developed a bond stronger than blood, despite the fact that one was enslaved and the other was the privileged daughter of the plantation’s owner.

With Jordan’s mother on her deathbed, Sadie leaves her disapproving husband to make the arduous train journey with her mother to Chicago. But the reunion between two families is soon fraught with personal and political challenges.

As the harsh realities of racial divides and the injustices of the Gilded Age conspire to hold them back, the women find they need each other more than ever. Their courage, their loyalty, and the ties that bind their families will be tested. Amid the tumult of a quickly changing nation, their destiny depends on what they’re willing to risk for liberation.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

I love a story of hope—and Golden Poppies delivers. The book starts with a train trip to reunite two women—Mattie and Lisbeth—whose lives intertwined years before on a Virginia plantation. While enslaved, Mattie is forced by her overseers to leave behind her son to nurse and care for Lisbeth, the master’s daughter. Over time the two grow as close as mother and daughter, if not closer. Decades later, Lisbeth is determined to see Mattie before she dies and embarks on the arduous journey with her daughter, Sadie.

In 1894 a train trip from Oakland to Chicago took four days. Can you imagine traveling that long, not knowing if your beloved friend would still be alive when you arrived? The Pullman Strike complicates Lisbeth and Sadie’s return and shines a harsh light not just on the poor treatment of the porters but also on the blatant discrimination that the railways perpetuated. We see firsthand that not enough has changed nearly thirty years after the Civil War ended. Mattie’s family is deeply affected by the strike. Will progress be obstructed time and again?

But neither family gives up hope. Yes, they despair of things ever really changing. They still live in a world where women don’t have the right to vote, where many have to hide their ethnicity in order to secure employment, and where child labor is widely accepted. But each in their own way believes that if we fiercely fight for our beliefs, with every new generation we can and will become a better society. And that fervent hope has stayed with me long after finishing the book and continues to buoy me when I’m feeling the weight of the world. - Jodi Warshaw, Editor

The Refuge by Sandra le Guen (Author), Stéphane Nicolet (Illustrator), Daniel Hahn (Translator) [Genre: Children's Picture Book]

A story about finding refuge in a new friendship and a new home.

“There’s a new girl at school. She never stops looking up at the sky! She likes the stars and comets.”

Jeannette tells her mom about her new classmate, who also loves astronomy but seems sad. She realizes it’s not easy to move to a new place. So the next day, at recess, Jeannette asks Iliana to play.

At first, it’s a little hard to communicate because Iliana is learning a new language. The girls have to use their hands and their drawings. But they keep trying, and, soon, Iliana tells Jeannette about her difficult journey as a refugee who had to leave her country. Then their families meet, and Iliana’s parents share their story too. The girls’ friendship blooms, as limitless as the sky and their imaginations.

Originally published in France and brought to life with wonderfully expressive artwork, this is a book about sharing stories and finding refuge in friendship, family, and a new home.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

It’s hard to address a topic as complex as refugees in a picture book for young kids, but I love how this story tackles it through the lens of a child empathizing with a new friend. Jeannette and Iliana are two girls from two very different countries, but Jeannette immediately recognizes what they have in common: a love of the stars and the sky. And through the encouragement of her mother, Jeannette reaches out to Iliana. Iliana’s story shakes Jeannette’s world, and she’s compelled to share it with her family.

When I first saw this book, I was immediately captivated by the imagery—it drips with emotion and sensitivity and imagination and truly brings to life Iliana’s journey for the reader. This is a beautiful story that highlights the power of friendship and how sharing stories connects us. It’s also an important reminder that, as Iliana says, the sky has no borders, and it belongs to everybody. - Marilyn Brigham, Editor

A Man by Keiichiro Hirano (Author), Eli K.P. William (Translator) [Genre: Literary Fiction]

A man follows another man’s trail of lies in a compelling psychological story about the search for identity, by Japan’s award-winning literary sensation Keiichiro Hirano in his first novel to be translated into English.

Akira Kido is a divorce attorney whose own marriage is in danger of being destroyed by emotional disconnect. With a midlife crisis looming, Kido’s life is upended by the reemergence of a former client, Rié Takemoto. She wants Kido to investigate a dead man—her recently deceased husband, Daisuké. Upon his death she discovered that he’d been living a lie. His name, his past, his entire identity belonged to someone else, a total stranger. The investigation draws Kido into two intriguing mysteries: finding out who Rié’s husband really was and discovering more about the man he pretended to be. Soon, with each new revelation, Kido will come to share the obsession with—and the lure of—erasing one life to create a new one.

In A Man, winner of Japan’s prestigious Yomiuri Prize for Literature, Keiichiro Hirano explores the search for identity, the ambiguity of memory, the legacies with which we live and die, and the reconciliation of who you hoped to be with who you’ve actually become.

Editor Notes:

Spoiler:

In Japan, Keiichiro Hirano is not only a well-known literary writer, but he’s also something of a celebrity philosopher, due in part to a TED talk he did on self-love but also because of the deeply psychological themes he explores in his novels.

In A Man, Keiichiro grapples with the life reckoning that occurs in middle age. It’s a kind of psychological detective story about a lawyer’s obsessive investigation into the true identity of a dead man. The lawyer realizes that the dead man switched identities before becoming a happily married family man, beloved by his wife, children, and community—none of whom knew who he really was—and he becomes determined to provide the man’s widow with insight about who her husband was and why he chose to lie about his past. He’s driven by the idea that the dead man’s wife won’t be able to mourn him and move on until this strange mystery is solved.

The book explores the fantasy of taking on a blank identity without the weight of a legacy or heritage from family, ethnicity, or past scandal in a quest for the ultimate individuality. And it poses the question of whether, ultimately, any of these things that are outside of our control but can define us actually reflect anything about who we really are.

Some of the pertinent preoccupations that run through the story—such as the trauma of the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011 and the discrimination of Japanese with Korean ancestry—are specific to Japan, but we can all relate to the universal experience of reflecting on the person we have become and how it differs from the person we always thought we would be. Keiichiro’s detailed, meditative analysis of the psychology of his characters in their interactions with each other reads almost like parable, and helps make A Man one of the most interesting and compellingly original books I’ve come across in some time. I’m delighted to share it with English-language readers. - Liza Darnton, Editor