"In Elixir, in a wild river valley and amid the three mountains that define it, Kapka Kassabova seeks out the deep connection between people, plants, and place. The Mesta is one of the oldest rivers in Europe and the surrounding forests and mountains of the southern Balkans are an extraordinarily rich nexus for plant gatherers. Over several seasons, Kassabova spends time with the people of this magical region. She meets women and men who work in a...

A Frenchman flees his small mountain village to avoid service in World War I in a thoughtful, witty novel about the conflict of patriotism and conscience. Deep in the Cévennes Mountains of southern France, a man called Roux refuses to heed the call to duty at the outbreak of war in 1914. Instead, he flees and hides in the hills, returning only occasionally to the farm where he left his mother and sisters. The people of the valley condemn his desertion...

"A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley start-up, Cassie finds herself trapped in a corporate nightmare. Between the long hours, toxic bosses, and unethical projects, she also struggles to reconcile the glittering promise of a city where obscene wealth lives alongside abject poverty and suffering. Ivy League grads complain about the snack selection from a conference room with a view of unhoused people bathing in the bay. Start-up...

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas--until now. James Patterson shows the real Vegas in a dazzling journey through true stories of excess, drama, and hope. In What Really Happens in Vegas, full of surprises for both newcomers and Las Vegas regulars, James Patterson and Vanity Fair contributing editor Mark Seal transport readers from the thrill of adrenaline-fueled vice to the glitter of A-list celebrity and entertainment." --Goodreads.

"The most profound book yet from the visionary author of Milk Fed and The Pisces, a darkly funny novel about grief that becomes a desert survival story In Melissa Broder's astounding new novel, a woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California desert to escape a cloud of sorrow-both for her father in the ICU and a disabled husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides,...

"Leanne Friesen thought she knew a lot about bereavement. But it was only when her own sister died from cancer that she learned what grieving people need. In these pages, Friesen writes with vulnerability, wisdom, and even wit about stark and sacred lessons learned at deathbeds and funerals. When we lose someone, what we need most is grieving room"--

"Instead of presents this Christmas, a true crime podcaster is opening up a cold case... Madeline Martin has built a life for herself as the young owner of a thriving business, The Next Chapter Bookshop, despite her tragic childhood and now needing to care for her infirm father. When Harley Granger, a failed novelist turned true crime podcaster, drifts into her shop in the days before Christmas, he seems intent on digging up events that Madeline would...

"A writer and mom with decades of experience working in Silicon Valley, Jessica Carew Kraft grew fed up with her life filled with digital screens and deep anxieties about the future of humanity and nature. She quit her job and set out to learn about "rewilding" from people who reject the comforts and convenience of civilization to live in nature using Stone Age tools and skills. A suburbanite with a husband, kids, and a mortgage, she learned to turn...

"When it comes to understanding the dead, there is something unusual about the Hudson Valley; so many ghost stories have come out of this region. Some have become a part of our national lore such as Washington Irving's retelling of the legends about Rip Van Winkle and Sleepy Hollow. Most, however, have remained in the Valley where they have been retold from generation to generation. Ghosts in Residence is a collection of stories told by - and in many...

"Drawing on his deep knowledge and genuine appreciation of winemaking, Isle takes us on a tour of several hundred independently owned wineries around the world-everywhere from France's Burgundy to Oregon's Willamette Valley to the Itata Valley in the southern reaches of Chile-bringing the local vintners to life and describing the different wines they produce in vivid detail. Isle's enthusiasm for the grape growers and winemakers who are working sustainably...