The Stepping Off Place

From debut author Cameron Kelly Rosenblum comes a stunning teen novel that tackles love, grief, and mental health as one girl must process her friend’s death and ultimately learn how to stand in her own light. Perfect for fans of All the Bright Places and We Were Liars. It’s the summer before senior year. Reid is in the thick of Scofield High’s in-crowd thanks to her best friend, Hattie, who has been her social oxygen since middle school. But summer is when Hattie goes to her family’s Maine island home. Instead of sitting inside for eight weeks, waiting for her to return, Reid and their friend, Sam, enter into a pact—to live it up, one party at a time. But days before Hattie is due home, Reid finds out the shocking news that Hattie has died by suicide. Driven by a desperate need to understand what went wrong, Reid searches for answers. In doing so, she uncovers painful secrets about the person she thought she knew better than herself. And the truth will force Reid to reexamine everything.

SCORCHED MEMORIES I want to write a happy poem, but I Can't compose that sound- That sound, like a desperate fire truck's Sirens piercing the atmosphere: An angry, screaming warison, Charging toward desolation but carrying hope. I can't compose a happy poem to speak Of the joy a woman obtains, in accepting a Righted wrong committed against her Or the way her melting heart feels When receiving the long awaited, Overdue apology, after bitterness has mollified it. On the heels of her first book, Far From Adequate Recompense, author K.M. Miller offers another collection of thought-provoking poems about unrequited love, the reality of growing old, and social injustice. A Stepping-Off Place: Healing Prose, is a haunting observation into Miller's beleaguered thoughts and a tribute to the healing power of the written word. Meaningful and clever, Miller's poems share both the process of mending her soul, and the wisdom she's gathered along the way.

Students at Lycroft Phelps are marked for success. As a straight-A student and girlfriend of the school's star rower, Charlotte believes in what the school has to offer. Meanwhile, scholarship student Max is struggling. Until he's asked to join the rowing team offering him popularity - but at what cost? Then there's Quinn, a sixth-generation legacy student, who should be able to lay claim to the school in a way others can't. Who instead must watch the boy who assaulted her continue to play at the top of the school's food chain. Only in the dead of night does Q realize the solution to her suffering: Colin Pearce must die. But Lycroft Phelps has more than one dark secret at its heart, and as the three students uncover just how far the school will go to keep those ugly truths hidden, there's a lot more than reputation at stake... A tense and timely thriller with a revenge plot that'll have you on the edge of your seat. Perfect for fans of Kathleen Glasgow, Chelsea Pitcher and Louise O'Neill. (TRIGGER WARNING: this book contains descriptions of sexual violence that some readers may find upsetting.)

Women throughout American history have repeatedly been accused of "stepping out of their places" as many have fought for more rewarding roles in the church and society. In this book, Susan Hill Lindley demonstrates that just as religion in the traditional sense has influenced the lives of American women through its institutions, values, and sanctions, so women themselves have had significant effect on the shape of American religion through the years.

In a small Southern town in 1944, two girls secretly help a seriously ill army deserter, a decision that changes their perceptions of right and wrong. Issues of moral ambiguity and accepting consequences for actions are thoughtfully considered in this deftly crafted story.

In this “seismically moving memoir” (The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice), one woman asks a seemingly impossible question in the aftermath of her mother’s suicide: How do you mourn a loved one as you repair the injuries they inflicted? “Laura Trujillo resurfaces from the dark ‘sub-basement’ of despair with assurances for us all: There is hope. There is healing. Always, there is love. This book will save lives.”—Connie Schultz, author of The Daughters of Erietown ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker Laura Trujillo had been close to her mother for most of her adult life, raising her four children within a few miles of their beloved grandmother’s Phoenix home. But just three months after moving her young family to Cincinnati for a new job, Laura receives shocking news: Her mother had taken her own life—by jumping off a ledge into the Grand Canyon, a place Laura knew her mother had always loved. Laura and her mother had shared a profound and special bond, yet each had also kept from the other the deepest truths about their lives. As an adult, Laura finally broke her silence about the sexual abuse she had suffered as a teenager at the hands of her stepfather—a secret Laura had buried to protect her mother. After her mother’s death, Laura embarks on an emotional odyssey, searching for clues that could explain the depression, intergenerational trauma, and shared heartbreaks in her family. When she returns to the Grand Canyon, it becomes an oasis that nurtures Laura’s search for redemption and peace. As Laura wrestles with her feelings, she forges a new path forward. Moving and intimate, powerfully told, Stepping Back from the Ledge is a remarkable exploration of the bond between a mother and daughter, and of the hope that can come from facing the truth.

Move over, Christmas Carol—here’s a new holiday ghost story! It's Christmas Eve, and Kaye’s family is on the way to her grandmother’s house in a swirling snowstorm. Suddenly the car hits a patch of ice. It slides across the road and skids into a snow-filled ditch! Through the car window, Kaye spots a light in the woods. Its glow leads her and her parents through the blizzard. They find a warm cabin and a kindly old woman named Elsa. And Kaye finds something else—a green ghost who needs her help! Newbery Honor–winning author Marion Dane Bauer spins a third spooky tale to complement her previous stories, The Blue Ghost and The Red Ghost.

New to the Random House list is author Bill Doyle with a tale of monsters, magic, and mayhem. After Keats and Henry lose their bikes, they need money—fast. So the help-wanted ad at the supermarket seems ideal for them. All they have to do is weed Hallway House's garden, find some lightbulbs in the attic, sweep the garage . . . and battle a shark-headed zombie. But no one told them about the giant bookworms in the library, the toe-biting carpet in the halls, and the kitchen sinkhole!