Eric Jerome Dickey: Tempted By Trouble
8/17
Barnes &Noble, Buckhead 7pm
New York Times Bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey returns with a flaming-hot-stand-alone set in the world of conmen and thieves.

We can plan all we want, but sometimes fate has a different agenda. Dmytryk was a respectable man...once. But when a crippling recession annihilates the auto industry, Dmytryk and his wife, Cora suddenly find themselves without jobs. And after two years of trying to live honestly, they begin to realize that honesty just doesn't pay the bills.
Afraid of losing her home and her marriage, Cora compromises her faith and makes some choices that she isn't proud of. And when a ruthless crime boss gives them an opportunity to buy back their old lives, Cora urges Dmytryk to man up. All he has to do is join a crime ring and rob some banks: two minutes, in and out, nobody gets hurt.
Torn between desperation and moral integrity, Dmytryk gives in, but no sooner than he doesCora abandons him, taking with her his dreams for a better life and disappearing without a trace.
Now, determined more than ever to get his life back, Dmytryk is one bank job away from having the money to leave the crime ring and find Cora. But when the job goes wrong he realizes yet again that destiny has another plan for him. Forced into seclusion with one of his partners - Dmytryk wonders if he'll ever find his way back to his old life. And in the end, will he even want to?

Suzanne Ruff: The Reluctant Donor
8/22
Borders, Buckhead 4pm
The only sibling with healthy kidneys, Suzanne is ambivalent about donating a kidney to a sister she's not even sure she likes--but she makes the offer. Eight family members, including her mother, have died from the disease. Now her sisters have PKD and each need kidney transplants. The Reluctant Donor exposes Suzanne's doubts, raw fear, and strong Irish Catholic family history.

Her terror at the prospect of surgery is offset by her wonder at the small miracles that surround her. Inspired by her faith and the courage of those who came before her, Suzanne Ruff navigates uncertainty with humor and honesty.

Ruff believes that being a living donor is an intensely personal choice. She is delighted that her old kidney now happily resides in her sister's body. In the case of a sudden or unexpected death and during a family's worst nightmare, she believes being an organ donor is one of the noblest things we can do. Suzanne continues to work for a cure for PKD and spread the word about the miracle of organ donation. She and her husband Bill live in Minnesota.

Josh Russell: My Bright Midnight
8/23
Decatur Library, 7:15pm
Josh Russell, the bestselling author of Yellow Jack, will be at the Center for the Book with his exciting second novel, My Bright Midnight. It’s a wonderfully engrossing story about a German immigrant named Walter Schmidt, haunted by his past and trying to find a place for himself in the decadent, steamy city of New Orleans.

Walter Schmidt's life isn't simple: His wife Nadine wants to live next door to her dead first husband's mother, the Mississippi River is three blocks down the street and rising dangerously, FDR is dead, and the war seems like it will never end---but for the most part, things are going Walter's way. Then one bright April morning in 1945, Walter comes home early from work to find Nadine in bed with his best friend, Sammy.
Shocked into silence, when she then calls him a "kraut," Walter becomes even more confused. True, he's a German immigrant, but he's lived in New Orleans for almost twenty years, and an hour before, he thought he was a happy American---baseball fan, reader of pulp novels, lover of gangster movies. Suddenly Walter wonders if Nadine's right, if he's more German than American, more enemy than friend. When Sammy later offers him $1,000 as an apology for sleeping with his wife, Walter accepts, desperately hoping to hurt his friend, but instead setting in motion a series of events more dangerous than betrayal and petty revenge.
Pulitzer Prize-winner Natasha Trethewey calls the novel ”a compelling invocation of the way people build, from the ntruth of their lives, something they can live with, the endless possibilities of beginnings.” Russell teaches creative writing at Georgia State University in Atlanta.