Phinea Button was abandoned at a South Carolina orphanage by parents who had already produced twelve girls. Fin grows up to be quite a tomboy, more interested in playing with her only friend, Peter, and getting into fights than in becoming a proper lady. The sisters in charge of the orphanage, despairing of her behavior, place Fin in the kitchen to assist Bartimaeus, the aging cook. Bartimaeus takes Fin under his wing, but when his dark past catches up to him, Fin's life is thrown into turmoil once more. And it's not just Fin's life; the entire colony is in a state of unrest, chafing under British rule on the eve of the American Revolution. Fin has a series of encounters with British soldiers before she makes a rash decision that has her fleeing from the orphanage, and finding work on a sailing ship. But while Fin loves the ocean and its accompanying sense of freedom, she's still dogged by her past and her new-found reputation& and the accompanying danger that will come to threaten everything she holds dear.

From the backwaters of Georgia to the taverns of Philadelphia, Fin Button is the talk of the colonies. The British say she's a priate. The Americans call her a mutineer. The crew of the Rattlesnake call her the most unlikely thing of all: captain.

A police detective hunts for a pattern in a puzzling murder spree in this mystery by “a master” (Time). A blind violinist taking a smoke break. A cosmetics sales rep cooking an omelet in her own kitchen. A college professor trudging home from class. A priest contemplating retirement in the rectory garden. An old woman walking her dog. These are the seemingly random targets, all shot twice in the face. But most serial killers don’t use guns. Most serial killers don’t strike five times in two weeks. And most serial killers’ victims have something more in common than just being over fifty years of age. Now it falls to Det. Steve Carella and his colleagues in the 87th Precinct to find a connection that will crack this case—before another body is found. As Entertainment Weekly said about this long-running, much-loved police procedural series: “Imagine your favorite Law & Order cast solving fresh mysteries into infinity, with no reruns, and you have some sense of McBain’s grand, ongoing accomplishment.”

Avi Steinberg is stumped. After defecting from yeshiva to attend Harvard, he has nothing but a senior thesis on Bugs Bunny to show for himself. While his friends and classmates advance in the world, Steinberg remains stuck at a crossroads, his “romantic” existence as a freelance obituary writer no longer cutting it. Seeking direction (and dental insurance) Steinberg takes a job running the library counter at a Boston prison. He is quickly drawn into the community of outcasts that forms among his bookshelves—an assortment of quirky regulars, including con men, pimps, minor prophets, even ghosts—all searching for the perfect book and a connection to the outside world. Steinberg recounts their daily dramas with heartbreak and humor in this one-of-a-kind memoir—a piercing exploration of prison culture and an entertaining tale of one young man’s earnest attempt to find his place in the world.

Appalachian fiddle music, based on the musical traditions of the people who settled in the mountainous regions of the southeastern United States, is widely-known and played throughout North America and parts of Europe because of its complex rhythms, its catchy melodies, and its often-ancient-sounding stylistic qualities. The authors explore the lives and music of 43 of the classic Appalachian fiddlers who were active during the first half of the 20th century. Some of them were recorded commercially in the 1920s, such as Gid Tanner, Fiddlin’ John Carson, and Charlie Bowman. Some were recorded by folklorists from the Library of Congress, such as William Stepp, Emmett Lundy, and Marion Reece. Others were recorded informally by family members and visitors, such as John Salyer, Emma Lee Dickerson, and Manco Sneed. All of them played throughout most of their lives and influenced the growth and stylistic elements of fiddle music in their regions. Each fiddler has been given a chapter with a biography, several tune transcriptions, and tune histories. To show the richness of the music, the authors make a special effort to show the musical elements in detail, but also acknowledge that nothing can take the place of listening. Many of the classic recordings used in this book can be found on the web, allowing you to hear and read the music together.

From Donald Ray Pollock, author of the highly acclaimed The Devil All the Time and Knockemstiff, comes a dark, gritty, electrifying (and, disturbingly, weirdly funny) new novel that will solidify his place among the best contemporary American authors. It is 1917, in that sliver of border land that divides Georgia from Alabama. Dispossessed farmer Pearl Jewett ekes out a hardscrabble existence with his three young sons: Cane (the eldest; handsome; intelligent); Cob (short; heavy set; a bit slow); and Chimney (the youngest; thin; ill-tempered). Several hundred miles away in southern Ohio, a farmer by the name of Ellsworth Fiddler lives with his son, Eddie, and his wife, Eula. After Ellsworth is swindled out of his family's entire fortune, his life is put on a surprising, unforgettable, and violent trajectory that will directly lead him to cross paths with the Jewetts. No good can come of it. Or can it? In the gothic tradition of Flannery O'Connor and Cormac McCarthy with a healthy dose of cinematic violence reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah, Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers, the Jewetts and the Fiddlers will find their lives colliding in increasingly dark and horrific ways, placing Donald Ray Pollock firmly in the company of the genre's literary masters.