The Best 19 Books to Read This August
A memoir that serves up the troubled family history behind an iconic American dessert; crime fiction force Laura Lippman's roundup of her favorite new thrillers; 10 titles to pick up now, including two comedies set in Russia; and more.
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Give Me Your Hand
By Megan Abbott
352 pages;
Little, Brown and Company
The spark for Abbott's ingenious novel was a 1996 Texas Monthly article ("Poisoning
Daddy") about high school student Marie
Robards, who stunned her best friend by
confiding this secret: She killed her own father
by lacing his takeout food with barium acetate
she'd stolen from chemistry lab. Abbott's storyline hews closely to the original, except here the friend stays
mum until years later, when the two, now professional
scientists, vie for the same coveted research post—a study
exploring mood swings and female rage.
— Laura Lippman
Published 07/27/2018
