Summer means vacations and long, lazy weekends—occasions when you always need a good book. We recommend these great August titles, and you can nominate your favorites for the August 2014 LibraryReads List (due July 1)!

THE LONG WAY HOME by Louise Penny
In the new book in the New York Times bestselling Chief Inspector Gamache series, the former Chief Inspector of Homicide is happily retired in Three Pines, but must help his friend Clara Morrow find her estranged husband, Peter. (While you’re waiting for Penny’s latest blockbuster, join the great Gamache re-read now and relive those favorite Three Pines moments!)

Available on NetGalley via super secret special request! To be pre-approved for an e-galley, please email library@macmillanusa.com with the subject “Long Way Home.”

THE KILLS by Richard House
This epic four-books-in-one thriller longlisted for the Man Booker prize begins with a man on the run and ends with a burned body, moving across continents, characters, and genres. “Part Olen Steinhauer spy thriller and part Roberto Bolaño art novel, with a huge cast of characters, many Middle Eastern settings, and a puzzle of a time-shifting plot, THE KILLS is a work of intense artistic conviction and demands a serious commitment from its readers. They’ll be rewarded, even if the center of this dazzlingly large picture is elusive.” — Booklist, starred review

  Download a copy from Edelweiss

A COLDER WAR by Charles Cumming
A brilliant novel of MI6 and modern espionage by the New York Times bestselling author of A FOREIGN COUNTRY and THE TRINITY SIX. “Cumming has established himself, along with Olen Steinhauer, as one of the best of today's old-school espionage novelists…. Superb espionage fiction in the grand tradition.”
— Booklist, starred review

  Download a copy from Edelweiss

SMALL BLESSINGS by Martha Woodroof
Readers who loved MAJOR PETTIGREW’S LAST STAND will adore this inspiring debut of a small-town college professor, a remarkable new woman at the bookshop, and the ten-year old son he never knew he had.  “What could have become a sappy tale in less capable hands is a warm, caring, and thoroughly entertaining debut that reads remarkably well. NPR pro Woodroof is no novice writer, and her first novel will have readers eager for more.” — Library Journal, starred review

  Download a copy from Edelweiss

LOCK IN by John Scalzi
In Hugo Award-winning author Scalzi’s latest sci-fi novel, a virus known as “Haden's syndrome” has swept the globe, creating the largest medical crisis in history with nearly 5 million people “locked in”—fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. In this new world, rookie FBI agent Chris Shane and veteran agent Leslie Vann must investigate a Haden-related murder that may have much larger implications in this new society. 

  Download a copy from Edelweiss

THE FROZEN DEAD by Bernard Minier
A suspenseful and “compelling” (Booklist, starred & boxed review) murder mystery set in a high-security asylum for the criminally insane and the snowy mountains of the French Pyrénées. “French author Minier’s assured debut adroitly combines a genuinely creepy series of crimes, a literally chilling atmosphere, and a dogged detective.  Minier’s execution equals his considerable cleverness.”
— Publishers Weekly, starred review  

Available on NetGalley. To be pre-approved for an e-galley, please email library@macmillanusa.com with the subject “Frozen Dead.”

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