On Sale This Week
Our Igloo feature On Sale This Week previews a selection of Penguin Random House fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young readers books being published each week. The choices are a mix of titles by both bestselling and emerging authors. We hope this serves as a useful reference for hot new reads hitting shelves everywhere.
FICTION
THE NIX by Nathan Hill (Knopf)
A Nix can take many forms. In Norwegian folklore, it is a spirit who sometimes appears as a white horse that steals children away. It’s 2011, and Samuel Andresen-Anderson—college professor, stalled writer—has a Nix of his own: his mother, Faye. He hasn’t seen her in decades, not since she abandoned the family when he was a boy. In Nathan Hill’s remarkable first novel, a Nix is anything you love that one day disappears, taking with it a piece of your heart. From the suburban Midwest to New York City to the 1968 riots that rocked Chicago and beyond, THE NIXexplores—with sharp humor and a fierce tenderness—the resilience of love and home, even in times of radical change.
THE DARKEST SECRET by Alex Marwood (Penguin Books Original)
When a child goes missing at an opulent house party, it makes international news. But what really happens behind closed doors? Twelve years ago, Mila Jackson’s three-year-old half-sister Coco disappeared during their father’s fiftieth birthday party. Her identical twin Ruby was left behind as the only witness. The girls’ father, Sean, was wealthy and influential, as were the friends gathered at their seaside vacation home for the weekend’s debauchery. The case ignited a media frenzy and forever changed the lives of everyone involved.
RUSHING WATERS by Danielle Steel (Delacorte Press)
Danielle Steel fearlessly tackles a catastrophe and its aftermath with characters who are joined together by accident, then share their vulnerabilities, regrets, losses, and hopes. Hurricane Ophelia is bearing down on New York City. And in a matter of hours, six people, along with their families, friends, and millions of other New Yorkers living around them, will be caught up in the horrific flooding it unleashes. Keenly observed and brilliantly told, this is an unforgettable story that proves that while life can change in an instant, even the darkest storm can bring forth courage, resilience, unexpected joy, and new life.
THE ENGLISH TEACHER by Yiftach R. Atir (Penguin Books Original)
After attending her father’s funeral, former Mossad agent Rachel Goldschmitt empties her bank account and disappears. But when she makes a cryptic phone call to her former handler, Ehud, the Mossad sends him to track her down. Finding no leads, he must retrace her career as a spy to figure out why she abandoned Mossad before she can do any damage to Israel. But he soon discovers that after living under cover for so long, an agent’s assumed identity and her real one can blur, catching loyalty, love, and truth between them. In the midst of a high-risk, high-stakes investigation, Ehud begins to question whether he ever knew his agent at all.
NONFICTION
VICTUALS by Ronni Lundy (Clarkson Potter)
VICTUALS explores the diverse and complex food scene of the Mountain South through recipes, stories, traditions, and innovations. Each chapter explores a specific defining food or tradition of the region–such as salt, beans, corn (and corn liquor). The essays introduce readers to their rich histories and the farmers, curers, hunters, and chefs who define the region’s contemporary landscape. Sitting at a diverse intersection of cuisines, Appalachia offers a wide range of ingredients and products that can be transformed using traditional methods and contemporary applications.
THE BRIDGE TO BRILLIANCE: How One Principal in a Tough Community Is Inspiring the World by Nadia Lopez with Rebecca Paley (Viking)
When thirteen-year-old Vidal Chastanet told photographer Brandon Stanton that his principal ,“Ms. Lopez,” was the person who most influenced his life, it was the pebble that started a whirlwind for Nadia Lopez and her small, new public school in one of Brooklyn’s most wretched communities. The posting on Stanton’s wildly popular site Humans of New York (HONY) went mega-viral. Lopez found herself in the national spotlight and headed for a meeting with Obama, as well as the beneficiary of a million-dollar IndieGoGo campaign for the school. Here is her first-person account of what it took to get to that moment.
ALL UNDER HEAVEN by Carolyn Phillips (Ten Speed Press)
Vaulting from ancient taverns near the Yangtze River to banquet halls in modern Taipei, ALL UNDER HEAVEN is the first cookbook in English to examine all 35 cuisines of China. Drawing on centuries’ worth of culinary texts, as well as her own years working, eating, and cooking in Taiwan, Carolyn Phillips has written a spirited, symphonic love letter to the flavors and textures of Chinese cuisine. With hundreds of recipes–from simple Fried Green Onion Noodles to Lotus-Wrapped Spicy Rice Crumb Pork–written with clear, step-by-step instructions, ALL UNDER HEAVEN serves as both a handbook for the novice and a source of inspiration for the veteran chef.
NATURALLY, DELICIOUS: 100 Recipes for Healthy Eats That Make You Happy by Danny Seo (Pam Krauss Books)
In his wildly popular new magazine, Naturally, Danny Seo, editor-in-chief Danny Seo presents a modern and stylish take on green living, and in his first cookbook, he extends that fresh approach into the kitchen. NATURALLY, DELICIOUS will show home cooks that preparing healthy, delicious food on a daily basis doesn’t have to feel like an expensive, time-consuming chore.
HEAD BALL COACH by Steve Spurrier (Blue Rider Press)
College football’s most colorful, endearing, and successful pioneer, Steve Spurrier, shares his story of a life in football — from growing up in Tennessee to winning the Heisman Trophy to playing and coaching in the pros to leading the Florida Gators to six SEC Championships and a National Championship to elevating the South Carolina program to new heights — and coaching like nobody else. He’s been called brash, cocky, arrogant, pompous, egotistical, and hilarious, but, mostly, he’s known as the Head Ball Coach, a self-ordained term introduced to the lexicon of football by none other than the man, himself, Steve Spurrier.
YOUNG READERS
A TORCH AGAINST THE NIGHT by Sabaa Tahir (Razorbill)
A TORCH AGAINST THE NIGHT is the astonishing sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller, AN EMBER IN THE ASHES. Elias and Laia are running for their lives. Following the events of the Fourth Trial, an army led by Masks hunts the two fugitives as they escape the city of Serra and journey across the vast lands of the Martial Empire. Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—and save her brother, whose knowledge of Serric steel is the key to the Scholars’ future. And Elias is determined to stay by Laia’s side…even if it means giving up his own chance at freedom.
GIRL IN PIECES by Kathleen Glasgow (Delacorte Press)
Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people do in a lifetime. But she’s learned how to forget. The broken glass washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you. A deeply moving portrait of a girl in a world that owes her nothing, and has taken so much, and the journey she undergoes to put herself back together. Kathleen Glasgow’s debut is heartbreakingly real and unflinchingly honest. It’s a story you won’t be able to look away from.
BETWEEN WORLDS by Skip Brittenham (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers)
The town of Eden Grove has a legend: In the center of a pine forest there is an aspen grove, and in the center of the aspen grove is an ancient, magnificent tree. Mayberry and Marshall have heard the stories about the Wishing Tree, but they know nothing like that could really exist near their dreary town. Misunderstood and restless, the teenagers wish for a lot of things, including being on another planet altogether. Somewhere with magic and adventure—someplace where they can be heroes. And then the unlikeliest thing happens: On a hike through the forest, they find the Wishing Tree. The pair make their wish, fall asleep and wake up on Nith, a world that is exactly what they asked for.
FURTHERMORE by Tahereh Mafi (Dutton Books for Young Readers)
There are only three things that matter to twelve-year-old Alice Alexis Queensmeadow: Mother, who wouldn’t miss her; magic and color, which seem to elude her; and Father, who always loved her. The day Father disappears from Ferenwood he takes nothing but a ruler with him. But it’s been almost three years since then, and Alice is determined to find him. She loves her father even more than she loves adventure, and she’s about to embark on one to find the other. On her quest to find Father, Alice must first find herself—and hold fast to the magic of love in the face of loss.