Meg's Picks: April 2016, part 2

Part of my job, one of the parts that I love best, is to keep my ear to the ground when it comes to publishing industry scuttlebutt. Some of the most popular books in recent years have started as publishing house darlings, so I keep track in order to pass that information on to you, fellow readers. Interested to see what industry aficionados are in love with this spring? Read on!

Now and Again, by Charlotte Rogan. For Maggie Rayburn--wife, mother, and secretary at a munitions plant--life is pleasant, predictable, and, she assumes, secure. When she finds proof of a high-level cover-up on her boss's desk, she impulsively takes it, an act that turns her world, and her worldview, upside down. Propelled by a desire to do good--and also by a newfound taste for excitement--Maggie starts to see injustice everywhere. Soon her bottom drawer is filled with what she calls "evidence," her small town has turned against her, and she must decide how far she will go for the truth.

Before the Wind, by Jim Lynch. Joshua Johannssen has spent all of his life surrounded by sailboats. For Josh and his two siblings, their backyard was the Puget Sound and sailing their DNA. But both his sister and brother fled many years ago: Ruby to Africa and elsewhere to do good works on land, and Bernard to god-knows-where at sea, a fugitive and pirate. Suddenly thirty-one, Josh is pained and confused by whatever the hell went wrong with his volatile family. His parents are barely speaking, his mystified grandfather is drinking harder, and he himself—despite an endless and comic flurry of online dates—hasn’t even come close to finding a girlfriend. But when the Johannssens unexpectedly reunite for the most important race in these waters—all of them together on a classic vessel they made decades ago—they will be carried to destinies both individual and collective, and to a heart-shattering revelation.

Maestra, by L.S. Hilton. Touted as being this year's must-read for fans of books like Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, Maestra is the story of Judith Rashleigh, who is by day a put-upon assistant at a prestigious London art house, but by night she’s a hostess at one of the capital’s notorious champagne bars. Her work there, however, pales against her activities on nights off. She's learned, you see, that if you need to turn yourself into someone else, loneliness is a good place to start. And she’s been lonely a long time. Expect your friends and neighbors to be talking about this over the summer.