New Book Releases: July 2017

These exciting books are about to be released by Penguin Random House in June 2017:

INTERNATIONAL FICTION

Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips

Lincoln is a good boy. At the age of four, he is curious, clever and well behaved. He does as his mum says and knows what the rules are. ‘The rules are different today. The rules are that we hide and do not let the man with the gun find us.’

When an ordinary day at the zoo turns into a nightmare, Joan finds herself trapped with her beloved son. She must summon all her strength, find unexpected courage and protect Lincoln at all costs – even if it means crossing the line between right and wrong; between humanity and animal instinct. It’s a line none of us would ever normally dream of crossing. But sometimes the rules are different.

Best Laid Plans by Kathy Lette

TO DO LIST

1) Buy hummus 2) Pay Pilates teacher

2) Pay Pilates teacher

3) Find prostitute for son…

When it comes to sex, even the best laid plans come unstuck – in the stickiest way possible.

As a crossword-addicted English teacher, Lucy never expected to be arrested for kerb-crawling. But her autistic twenty-year-old son Merlin is desperate to lose his virginity, and a prostitute seems like the only option… only Lucy picks up an undercover policewoman instead.

Let off with a suspended sentence, Lucy resigns herself to the fact that her son will never have sex, let alone find love… until the morning she miraculously discovers Merlin in bed with a girl.

But is tough, tattooed Kayleigh just taking Merlin for a ride? If so, why? And what has brought Lucy’s snake of an ex-husband wriggling back into their lives?

As all her best laid plans for Merlin’s happiness chaotically unravel, will Lucy ever be able to cut her son’s psychological umbilical cord and start to live her own life? And will the funny, quirky and marvellously magical Merlin ever find real love?

With plenty of comic twists and emotional turns, Kathy Lette’s riotous yet heartrending novel tackles the taboo subject of sex for the ‘differently abled’ – and shows us that when it comes to sex, we all have special needs …

Black Market by James Patterson

A Wall Street crash like never before…

A shocking explosion at the Wall Street stock exchange injures hundreds of people and

brings devastation to one of the world’s major trading centres. A terrorist organisation

claims responsibility for planting the bomb, but their motive is unclear.

As federal agent Archer Carroll and trading enforcement director Caitlin Dillon investigate

the attack, all the intelligence points to one thing. The terrorists don’t simply want to bring chaos to America – they want to run the entire country.

Harriet Blue 02: Fifty Fifty by James Patterson

It’s not easy being a good detective – when your brother’s a serial killer.

Sam Blue stands accused of the brutal murders of three young students, their bodies dumped near the Georges River. Only one person believes he is innocent: his sister, Detective Harriet Blue. And she’s determined to prove it.

Except she’s now been banished to the outback town of Last Chance Valley (population 75), where a diary found on the roadside outlines a shocking plan – the massacre of the entire town. And the first death, shortly after Harry’s arrival, suggests the clock is already ticking.

Meanwhile, back in Sydney, a young woman holds the key to crack Sam’s case wide open.

If only she could escape the madman holding her hostage…

Two Nights by Kathy Reichs

Meet Sunday Night, a woman with physical and psychological scars, and a killer instinct…

Sunnie has spent years running from her past, burying secrets and building a life in which she needs no one and feels nothing. But a girl has gone missing, lost in the chaos of a bomb explosion, and the family needs Sunnie’s help.

Is the girl dead? Did someone take her? If she is out there, why doesn’t she want to be found?

It’s time for Sunnie to face her own demons – because they might just lead her to the truth about what really happened all those years ago.

With Kathy Reichs, the reader knows that they are in the hands of an expert. As a forensic anthropologist, 1 of only 82 forensic anthropologists ever certified by the American Board, Reichs’ real-life expertise has given her novels an authenticity that most other crime novelists would kill for. From teaching FBI agents how to detect and recover human remains, to separating and identifying commingled body parts in her lab, no one is better qualified to write about what it’s really like to catch the killer and solve the crime.

The Child by Fiona Barton

When a paragraph in an evening newspaper reveals a decades-old tragedy, most readers barely give it a glance. But for three strangers it’s impossible to ignore. For one woman, it’s a reminder of the worst thing that ever happened to her.

For another, it reveals the dangerous possibility that her darkest secret is about to be discovered.

And for the third, a journalist, it’s the first clue in a hunt to uncover the truth. The Child’s story will be told.

The Friend by Dorothy Koomson

What secrets would you kill to keep?

After her husband’s big promotion, Cece Solarin arrives in Brighton with their three children, ready to start afresh. But their new neighbourhood has a deadly secret.

Three weeks earlier, Yvonne, a very popular parent, was almost murdered in the grounds of the local school – the same school where Cece has unwittingly enrolled her children.

Already anxious about making friends when the parents seem so cliquey, Cece is now also worried about her children’s safety. By chance she meets Maxie, Anaya and Hazel, three very different school mothers who make her feel welcome and reassure her about her new life.

That is until Cece discovers the police believe one of her new friends tried to kill Yvonne. Reluctant to spy on her friends but determined to discover the truth, Cece must uncover the potential murderer before they strike again…

From the bestselling author of That Girl from Nowhere and When I Was Invisible comes a thrilling new novel that will have you questioning the line between right and wrong.

The Last Son’s Secret by Rafel Nadal Farreras

In the hot, dusty square of a small village in Puglia, there are two memorials: one to those killed in the First World War, and one to those lost in the Second World War. On the first, every single member of the Palmisano family is listed, and on the second all the names are members of the Covertini family. In total, 44 men, all dead.

In this sweeping and heart-breaking tale of the fate of a tiny hilltop village, Vitantonio and Giovanna are born moments apart just as the First World War ends, and just as their two fathers are killed on the front. But growing up among the olive groves of southern Italy, war seems far away – until clouds begin to gather on the horizon as the Second World War looms…

A huge international bestseller, this sweeping and heart-breaking tale of the fate of a tiny hilltop village in Italy during the two World Wars will stay with you forever.

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

Frank has a gift for finding his customers the music they need to hear. When he meets Ilsa Brauchmann, a mysterious and beautiful woman with no ear for music, and engaged to another man, he falls in love. She is way above him, she will never be his, but he will take her on a journey through music.

Twelve years later Ilsa returns to find Frank. The shop has gone; no one knows where he is; perhaps he’s dead. All that remains is a series of clues, each one related to music. Ilsa resolves to follow them and bring Frank back to life with music, just as he once did for her.

The Woman in the Wood by Lesley Pearse

Fifteen-year-old Maisy Mitcham and her twin brother Duncan lose their mother to an insane asylum one night in 1960. The twins are sent to their grandmother’s country house, Nightingales. Cold and distant, she leaves them to their own devices, to explore and to grow. That is until the day Duncan doesn’t come home from the woods. With their grandmother seeming to have little interest in her grandson’s disappearance, and the police soon giving up hope, it is left to Maisy to discover the truth. And she will start with Grace Deville. A woman who lives alone in the wood, about whom rumours abound… 

 

INTERNATIONAL NON-FICTION

Faster, Higher, Farther by Jack Ewing

A shocking exposé of Volkswagen’s fraud by the New York Times reporter who covered the scandal.

When news of Volkswagen’s clean diesel fraud first broke in September 2015, it sent shockwaves around the world. Overnight, the company long associated with quality, reliability and trust became a universal symbol of greed and deception. Consumers were outraged, investors panicked, the company embarrassed and facing bankruptcy.

As lawsuits and criminal investigations piled up, by early 2017 VW had settled with regulators and car-owners for $20 billion, with additional fines and claims still looming.

In Faster, Higher, Farther, Jack Ewing rips the lid off the scandal. He describes VW’s rise from “the people’s car” during the Nazi era to one of Germany’s most prestigious and important global brands, touted for being “green”. He paints vivid portraits of Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piëch and chief executive Martin Winterkorn, arguing that their unremitting ambition drove employees, working feverishly in pursuit of impossible sales targets, to illegal methods.

With unprecedented access to key players and a ringside seat during the course of the legal proceedings, Faster, Higher, Farther reveals how the succeed-at-all-costs culture prevalent in modern boardrooms led to one of corporate history’s farthest-reaching cases of fraud – with potentially devastating consequences.

As the future of one of the world’s biggest companies remains uncertain, this is the extraordinary story of Volkswagen’s downfall.

No Is Not Enough by Naomi Klein

Remember when it all seemed to be getting better? Before Trump happened? Naomi Klein, internationally acclaimed journalist, activist and bestselling author, shows us how we got to this surreal and dangerous place, how to stop it getting a lot worse, and how, if we keep our heads, we can make things better. No Is Not Enough reveals, among other things, how Trump’s election was not a peaceful transition, but a corporate takeover, one using deliberate shock tactics to generate wave after wave of crises and force through radical policies that will destroy people, the environment, the economy and national security. This book is the toolkit for shock resistance, showing all of us how we can break Trump’s spell and win the world we need. Don’t let them get away with it.

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index by Julie Israel

It’s hard to keep close a person everyone keeps telling you is gone.

It’s been sixty-five days since the accident that ripped Juniper’s world apart. Life without her kind, beautiful, vibrant big sister Camilla is a colder, darker place.

Until she discovers the letter. The letter Camie wrote, but never got to send. It’s mysteriously addressed to ‘You’ and dated July 4th – the day of the accident. Desperate to learn the identity of Camie’s secret love, Juniper starts to investigate.

But then she loses something herself. A card from her daily ritual, The Happiness Index: little notecards on which she rates the day. The Index has been holding Juniper together since Camie’s death – but without this card, there’s a hole. And this particular card contains Juniper’s own secret: a memory she can’t let anyone else find out.

An unforgettable story of love, loss, mistakes and memories.

One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

On Thursday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the geek, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the bad boy, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the jock, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app. Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Thursday, he died. But on Friday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they just the scapegoats for a killer who’s still on the loose? Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

SOUTH AFRICAN FICTION

Hierdie Huis by Kleinboer (Afrikaans)

Kleinboer woon steeds in rowwe Yeoville naby Johannesburg se middestad. Hy is verknog aan sy erf, maar is ’n speldjie wat telkens na ander magnete aangetrek word. Sommige lesers het dalk gehoop hy het al ophou rondloop. Maar nee, hy is steeds verslaaf aan die versoekings wat bordele bied. Sy rondlopery strek nou wyer en hy gaan loer selfs wat bo in Afrika aangaan. Sy Zoeloe-vrou worstel teen ander magnete, hoofsaaklik die sjebiens binne stap- of strompelafstand van die huis. Deur dit als woel Kleinboer se obsessie met die Lotto, waaruit hy getalle én woorde maak. Hierdie huis voltooi die drieluik wat Kleinboer met sy bekroonde Kontrei en Werfsonde begin het op fassinerende en ontroerende wyse.

Softness of the Lime by Maxine Case

1782: In the bustling settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, traders, politicians, farmers and fortune-seekers compete for goods, land and power. It is here that Geert Baardwijk, a wealthy Dutch heir, finds himself drawn to Lena, a young slave he has inherited from his father.

Bartered and sold into slavery as a child, Lena pines for the Madagascan highlands from within the cloistered confines of her master’s townhouse. When Geert marries a woman from the upper strata of Cape society to preserve his wealth and status, he is forced to confront his own responsibilities and failings, as well as the true meaning of love and fatherhood.

Spanning more than eighty years, Softness of the Lime tells of traditions old and emerging, at a time in the Cape when competition for ownership of everything – including people – was at its peak. Drawing on the history of her own ancestors, Maxine Case mesmerises with this compelling story of passion and integrity, love and betrayal.

SOUTH AFRICAN NON-FICTION

Africa’s Billionaires by Chris Bishop

A masterclass in becoming a wealth-generating entrepreneur! Do you have what it takes to become a billionaire?

Written by the founder of Forbes Africa, this is a masterclass on how the brightest and most successful entrepreneurs across Africa made their fortunes, as well as a timely look at how the work of entrepreneurs can influence lives in Africa and create the jobs that governments can no longer provide.

Chris Bishop gets up close and personal with the biggest names in business on the continent: Aliko Dangote, Patrice Motsepe, Nicky Oppenheimer, Christo Wiese, Wendy Appelbaum and Stephen Saad, among others. These are the stories of how they not only survived, but thrived, in the fast and furious world of African business: Narendra Raval, the penniless priest who became a steel baron; Tim Tebeila, the barefoot apple-seller who turned into a mining millionaire; Herman Mashaba, the ‘knocksman’ who went from running dice games and dealing drugs to running a city; Pascal Dozie, the economics student who studied with Mick Jagger…

This is a rich tapestry of stories about the super-wealthy and the qualities that make them so spectacularly successful, in arguably the most challenging economic arena in the world.

Mandela’s Last Years by Vejay Ramlakan

As a political icon who was greatly admired across the world, Nelson Mandela was always the subject of public interest. Once he retired from public life, that interest intensified, resulting in the proliferation of false claims and rumours in the media and other sources about his health, his medical treatment, and, in particular, about events during the months leading up to his death.

This book sets the record straight about Mandela’s last years through the personal account of the head of his medical team, the military doctor who witnessed first-hand what the former president was experiencing. It covers the history of Mandela’s health in his youth, during his imprisonment, while he was president, and in his years of retirement. It documents the complex medical decisions; disputes between family members and staff; military, political, financial and security demands; constant scrutiny from the press; and the wishes of Mandela himself, all of which contributed to what he and those closest to him would experience in his final days.

Above all, this is a story about a man who showed immense courage, not only when he fought for the freedom of millions of people, but until the very end of his life.

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Plenty of new international fiction being released this July and some good non-fiction books being released internationally and locally. Africa’s Billionaires looks like a book I’d love to read. Just a few weeks ago I was tweeting about how there haven’t been enough African success stories being told. Jack Ewing’s book about the VW scandal also sounds quite interesting. I’m sure it’ll give you in-depth stories about what led to the scandal and the after-effects thereof.

What books are you excited to read from the July releases?? Let me know in the comments below 🙂