ATL Staff Picks: July & August 2024

An open-water thriller about one man's battle for survival against the elements after his sailboat is destroyed at sea. Using only a sextant and nautical maps to chart his progress, he is forced to rely on ocean currents to carry him into a shipping lane in hopes of hailing a passing vessel. But with the sun unrelenting, sharks circling, and his meager supplies dwindling, the ever-resourceful sailor soon finds himself staring his mortality in the...

In an economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town, a complicated and compromised chief of police is forced to decide how far he's willing to go when the son of the woman he loves is accused of murder. A harrowing journey into the lives of a small town with big secrets, where people are driven by loyalty, love, and desperation, and bad choices come far too easy.

"For the hundreds of thousands of readers who bought Alice Waters's bestselling and now-classic book The Art of Simple Food, and for supporters of all ages of the sustainable food movement, here is a timely cookbook that centers on Alice's plant-forward way of cooking and puts forth her passion for seasonality and celebrating all vegetables. Alice Waters is the leader of the local, sustainable food movement. While The Art of Simple Food was steeped...

A leading expert on habit formation reveals practical strategies to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

"In 1942, an impulsive promise to her brother before he goes off to the European front puts Avis Montgomery in the unlikely position of head librarian in small-town Maine. Though she has never been much of a reader, when wartime needs threaten to close the library, she invents a book club to keep its doors open. The women she convinces to attend the first meeting couldn't be more different -- a wealthy spinster determined to aid the war effort, an...

"The explosive, hotly-anticipated debut novel from the New York Times-bestselling author of Friday Black, about two top women gladiators fighting for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own. Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising...

Meet Franny and her younger brother, Zooey, in two Salinger stories.

"Nora O'Malley's been a lot of girls. As the daughter of a con-artist who targets criminal men, she grew up as her mother's protégé. But when her mom fell for the mark instead of conning him, Nora pulled the ultimate con: escape. For five years Nora's been playing at normal. But she needs to dust off the skills she ditched because she has three problems: #1: Her ex walked in on her with her girlfriend. Even though they're all friends, Wes didn't...

"Every summer for the past ten years, six awe-struck bakers have descended on the grounds of Grafton, the Vermont estate that is not only the filming site for Bake Week but also the childhood home of the show's famous host, celebrated baker Betsy Martin. The author of numerous bestselling cookbooks and hailed as "America's Grandmother," Betsy Martin isn't as warm off-screen as on, though no one needs to know that but her. She has always demanded perfection,...

A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them a damaged, brainy troublemaker, and with the school's head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.