We first glimpse Marie Commeford as a child: a girl in thick glasses, observing her pre-Depression world from a Brooklyn stoop. An innocuous encounter with a young neighbor named Pegeen establishes the bittersweet refrain of this sometimes darkly humorous novel. Pegeen calls herself an "amadan," a fool. In Marie's precise retelling of her history, everything is connected: her first heartbreak leads to her career as a funeral director's "consoling...

"A young girl hunts for answers about a string of disappearances, all while being haunted herself in this heart-pounding thriller with a mythological twist, from debut author Nick Medina. Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation's casino... and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step--an ancient tribal myth come to life, one that's intent on...

"Before Jodie Rattler became a star, she was a girl growing up in St. Louis. One day in 1955, when she was just six years old, her Uncle Drew took her to the racetrack, where she got lucky - and that roll of two-dollar bills she won has never since left her side. Jodie thrived in the warmth of her extended family, and then - through a combination of hard work and serendipity - started a singing career, which catapulted her from St. Louis to New York...