REQUIRED READING
Heather, the Totality Matthew Weiner (f iction, Little, Brown)
The creator of “Mad Men” makes his first foray into the publishing world with a slim, beautifully eerie novel about a lovely Manhattan teen, the lustful, ominous leers of a worker outside her building and the girl’s father, who observes the looksks and, be-becoming increasingly threatened by them, finally decides to act.
In the Midst of Winter Isabel Allende (f iction, Atria Books)
A minor traffic accident brings two people together at a point in their lives where they had given up on love. A novel from the bestselling author of “The House of Spirits,” the narrative moves from 1970s Chile and Brazil to present-day Guatemala and Brooklyn.
The Rooster Bar John Grisham (f iction, Doubleday)
Mark, Todd and Zola are third-year law students who realize they’ve been fooled by their subpar, forprofit law school, where graduates rack up huge amounts of debt while rarely passing the bar exam. When the students discover their law school is owned by a hedge-fund manager who also conveniently happens to own a bank specializing in student loans, they band together to expose the bank and the entire law-school scam.
A Selfie as Big as the Ritz Lara Williams (f iction, Flatiron Books)
Winning this week’s award for best title, “A Selfie as Big as the Ritz” is a bold short-story collection that finds women navigating everything: love, work, life in general from their early 20s to middle age. In the title story, Paris and all its charms can’t save a relationship from imploding.
Even If It Kills Her Kate White (Harper)
The fabulous former editor-inchief of Cosmopolitan is back with the seventh installment of the Bailey Weggins mystery series. Sixteen years ago, Bailey had a college friend whose family was murdered; a man was accused and jailed for the crime. The friend, Jillian, left collegege abruptly and lost touch with Bailey. But new DNA evidence has cleared him, and Jillian shows up at one of Bailey’s book events to seek her help in tracking down the real killer — at great danger to them both.
Start Without Me Joshua Max Feldman (f iction, William Morrow)
Two strangers meet and bond together in an airport restaurant on Thanksgiving morning, both of them heading home to family scenes that are dysfunctional in different ways. Recovering alcoholic Adam has the feeling he’ll never be anything but a loser to his extended family, while married flight attendant Marissa just had a one-night stand and is now pregnant.