Christmas is filled with beloved and long-kept traditions, but sometimes, there's nothing better than creating brand-new ones. That's why Francesca and her high school friends Amy, Rachael, and Nina are traveling to Italy to spend the holidays with Frankie's boyfriend, Giovanni, and his family. Giovanni and his brother, Marco, run a small Italian restaurant in Manhattan, where cherished family recipes delight tourists and locals alike. But there's one recipe that eludes the brothers. Their mama refuses to divulge the special ingredient in her coveted panettone, claiming it is "Santa's secret." While Frankie joins Giovanni and Marco in the kitchen, hoping to uncover the mystery of Mrs. Lombardi's mouthwatering panettone, Amy, Nina, and Rachael are on their own quests. Amy wants to see the statue of David in Florence, Nina needs career inspiration, and Rachael longs to meet some eligible Italian men. Can one trip provide the answers everyone seeks? With a stunning Italian backdrop and a sprinkling of holiday magic in the mix, there may be all kinds of sweet surprises in store... --

A set of nine linked stories presenting a fictional look into the life of Klaus Barbie, the so-called Butcher of Lyon, beginning as a young boy, spanning his time in the Gestapo and in Lyon, France, and ending with Barbie as an old man, now confronted with his crimes

"Short stories that use inanimate objects and how humans relate to them to examine grief, environmental disaster, and other themes of contemporary life"--

"A woman stands up on a plane, and predicts when everyone will die. Everyone laughs it off until it starts to come true"--

"Making his English language debut, the iconoclastic, two-time Academy award-winning writer and director reveals his singular mind as never before in this collection of twelve remarkable stories spanning memoir, comedy, autofiction, parody, pastiche, and gothic fiction. With this debut collection, film legend Pedro Almodovar delivers a tantalizing glimpse into his world, formed by twelve stories carefully selected from his personal writings dating from the late '60s to the present. Almodovar writes: "I've been asked to write my autobiography more than once, and I've always refused.... I've never kept a diary, and whenever I've tried, I've never made it to page two; in a sense, then, this book represents something of a paradox. It might be best described as a fragmentary autobiography, incomplete and a little enigmatic." Each entry reflects Almodovar's most intimate obsessions, as well as his evolution as an artist. In the title story, "The Last Dream," Almodovar reflects on the death of his mother. Other entries in the collection include a love story between Jesus and Barabbas, a story of retribution that formed the basis for the film Bad Education, a manic adventure about a film director searching for painkillers on a bank holiday weekend, and a gothic tale centered around a repentant vampire. Translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne."--from Amazon.com

"Two weeks before Christmas and all through Manhattan, shop windows are decorated in red and green satin. I'm standing alone in front of the famous Vivant department store, when a charming man named Aiden asks my opinion of the décor"--

Something bad happened last night. I've woken up with the hangover from hell, a stranger in my bed, and I've gone viral for the worst reasons. But I can't remember a thing... My best friend Posey is dead. The police think it was a tragic accident. I know she was murdered. There's only one thing stopping me from dying of shame. I need to find a killer

"An elegantly told, powerful new novel about an individual engulfed in the medical system in contemporary America, from the critically acclaimed author Garth Greenwell"--

"[C]ontains twenty prizewinning stories chosen from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year. Guest editor Amor Towles has curated an exhilarating assemblage of stories by an international array of talented writers. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Towles, fascinating observations from the winning writers on what inspired their work, and an extensive and useful directory of magazines and literary websites that publish short fiction"--Page 4 of cover

Six CIA officers. Dear friends and cherished enemies. For a quarter century they have stolen other people's secrets. Now they must steal each other's. A Russian arrives in Singapore with a secret to sell. When the Russian is killed and Sam Joseph, the CIA officer dispatched for the meet, goes missing, operational chief Artemis Procter is made a scapegoat for the disaster and run out of the service. Months later, Sam appears at Procter's doorstep with an explosive secret: there is a Russian mole burrowed deep within the highest ranks of the CIA. As Procter and Sam investigate, they arrive at a shortlist of suspects made up of both Procter's closest friends and fiercest enemies. The hunt requires Procter to dredge up her checkered past in the service of the CIA, placing the pair in the sights of a savvy Russian spymaster who will protect Moscow's mole in Langley at all costs. What happens when friendships forged by sweat and blood--from the Farm to Afghanistan and the executive "Seventh Floor" of CIA's Langley headquarters--are put to the ultimate test? What can we truly know about the people we love the most?

"To be free, we must learn to fly. Tere Sanchez has always known who she was: a professor, a wife, a mother, and a friend. But when her husband dies unexpectedly, she finds herself completely broken. Taking a leave from the university, Tere hopes that she can mourn her husband and get back on her feet, but instead, she spends a year consumed by grief. Until the day she levitates. Suddenly, Tere's life is thrown into disarray, and the repeated incidents of levitation not only make her question her sanity, but also put her in danger. She decides she will do anything to stop them. So when she's reminded that her family is related to the renowned levitating mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila, she leaves the refuge of her home and travels to Spain, hoping to find answers. But Saints can be elusive, and not all answers are easily found. Tere will soon have to decide whether to remain shrouded in her grief, or open her heart to a world where we need no wings to fly... From the award-winning author of The Storyteller's Death comes a riveting, multicultural story about what it means to love, heal, and take flight"--

"A large-hearted reimagining of beloved all-American legends, this epic debut novel brings men of myth Paul Bunyan and John Henry alive like never before, teaming up for an adventure quest with deeper interrogations of race, class, and industrialization. When we first meet Paul Bunyan--legendary larger-than-life lumberjack and classic figure from American mythology--he is still just a man, and one down on his luck. With a load of family debts on his broad back, Bunyan is eking out a miserable miner's life in the bleak hamlet of Lump Town, a perpetually grey walled city controlled by famed industrialist El Boffo (author of the bestselling book, Awaken the Capitalist Within!). When Bunyan's beloved wife Lucette falls gravely ill with a disease caused by the mysterious mineral Lump, he sets off on a quest to save her, aided only by a mythical creature known as the Chilali, who commands that Bunyan follow the Twisty Path to meet his destiny. That path leads to The Windy City--and to John Henry. Like Bunyan, Henry is not yet the "steel-driving" hammer man who raced the steam drill and won. Instead, we find him on the run from the chain gang in which he was falsely imprisoned. In order to escape to freedom with his genius wife Polly and brilliant young son, Henry and Bunyan are going to have to work together. As an unlikely team, these massive mythic men must solve riddles, forge weapons, plumb labyrinths, brawl with behemoths, and do battle with the bombastic El Boffo, on a journey that will not only make them into the men they are meant to be, but reshape the landscape of their country forever. A richly imaginative reinvention of myth, "Bunyan and Henry" is both an old-fashioned American yarn and a clever modern fable that wrestles with reconciling both the wild idealism and dark underbelly of the American dream"--

A dark and epic feminist retelling that boldly reclaims the myth of the most formidable and feared witch in Ancient Greece Medea longs for a different life. Since childhood, she has been separated from her sister, shunned by her mother, and persecuted and tormented by her brother and father. All because of a unique and dangerous talent - witchcraft. But when a dashing young hero, Jason, arrives to claim the famed Golden Fleece that her father protects, Medea sees her opportunity to escape. Her offer to help Jason overcome the trials set by her father sets in motion a journey that will test every ounce of her strength, magic and loyalty; a journey that will see her battle monsters, dethrone kings and fall in love. When faced with the ultimate betrayal, Medea is driven to an act of desperation so brutal it rips apart the lives of everyone involved..

Follow the continuing struggles and triumphs of Abby, Frances and Felicia, Hobbs and Minnie as they work to rebuild their lives as America continues to struggle with post-Civil War realities

"Evie Lang's life is in shambles. On the heels of losing her beloved aunt, she's unceremoniously fired from her poetry professorship by her secret boyfriend. Lacking income and inspiration, she's stuck in Ohio with no idea how to move forward--until hope arrives in a surprising letter. Auntie Hao left Evie her San Francisco row house, a place full of Evie's happiest memories. The catch? To inherit, she must go on a prearranged matchmaking tour in Viet Nam. The last thing Evie wants is to spend time with a group of strangers looking for love. But she can't resist the chance to finally visit her family's native home. A world away, Adam Quyen has a chip on his shoulder. He's working around the clock as CMO for his sister's elite matchmaking business, a job complicated by her insistence that he knows nothing about love. He's desperate to prove himself, so when she challenges him to join the inaugural tour, he reluctantly agrees. Adam thinks Evie is chaotic. Evie thinks Adam is uptight. But from the bustling streets of Ho Chi Minh City to the soaring waterfalls in Da Lat, they keep getting thrown together, their animosity charged with attraction...and they discover that true love may be out there, if they are willing to take a leap." --