T.S. Eliot said that April is the cruelest month. But he didn’t exactly specify that — when it comes to a bountiful time for new and upcoming book releases — the third week in April is the cruelest week of the cruelest month. Nevertheless, let us go then, you and I…

FICTION:

The Children of Hurin by J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (Editor), Alan Lee (Illustrator)

Begun in 1918, The Children of Hurin — the first complete J.R.R. Tolkien work since the publication of The Silmarillion in 1977 — was one of three “Great Tales” the author worked on throughout his life, though he never realized his objective in seeing it published. Now reconstructed by Christopher Tolkien, painstakingly editing together the complete work from his father's many drafts, this complete, standalone narrative brings together the various pieces — some previously published — that make up the important background for the creation of Middle-earth of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Christopher Tolkein has also created a detailed new map for this book, which will also include a jacket and color paintings by Alan Lee, illustrator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Centenary Edition and Academy Award-winning designer of the film trilogy.

Deception by Randy C. Alcorn

Laced: A Regan Reilly Mystery by Carol Higgins Clark

The Woods by Harlan Coben

Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson

The Blue Zone by Andrew Gross

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith

NONFICTION:

The Alleys and Back Buildings of Galveston: An Architectural and Social History by Ellen Beasley

Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right: How One Side Lost Its Mind and the Other Lost Its Nerve by Bernard Goldberg

Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell

Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England by Lynne Olson

Soul in the Brain: The Cerebral Basis of Language, Art, and Belief by Michael R. Trimble