Psychological Science

Claire Huntley and her brother, Poe, were on a midnight hike in Montana when the woods went wild. A blinding, devouring light and a rumbling pulse that blasted them off their feet left both kids with little memory of what happened. Their father insisted it was a violent extraterrestrial abduction; his wild obsession would tear their family apart in the wake of the trauma. Fourteen years later, Claire, who’s battled anxiety attacks since that fateful hike, wants to heal her relationship with her brother, which has been damaged by his years of addiction.

Charles Shilling is a walking disaster. While having embraced that aspect of his personality some time ago, his friends and loved ones do their best to keep him on the straight and narrow – as much as anyone can. Unfortunately, he’s worse than ever after what happened with Kopeck and Florin. It seems like no one can talk sense into him now. Until a new form of tragedy strikes close to home, and stokes the beast that Kopeck woke…

Nicole Krauss’ Great House was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Man Walks Into a Room follows Samson Greene, who, during the removal of a brain tumor, loses his adult memories. Feeling lost as an outsider in his own life, Samson agrees to participate in a scientific experiment in which memories are grafted from one brain to another.

The year is 2032, and five-year-old Jacob is opening the biggest gift, beneath the Christmas tree, which is labeled for him: his very first semi-automatic rifle—and he couldn't be prouder. He smiles to his parents who sit close by. They don't smile back. Their minds are stuck on earlier events of what should have been a magical day: the moment they found out Jacob was set to be a brother.

After several years living abroad, the fictional protagonist of Galatea 2.2 - Richard Powers - returns to the US as Humanist-in-Residence at the enormous Center for the Study of Advanced Sciences. There he runs afoul of Philip Lentz, a cognitive neurologist intent upon modeling the human brain. Lentz involves Powers in an outlandish and irresistible project: to train a neural net on a canonical list of Great Books. Through repeated tutorials, the device grows gradually more worldly, until it demands to know its own name, sex, race, and reason for existing.

Synthetic woman Julia Walden was designed for one reason: to compete on The Proposal and claim the heart of bachelor Josh LaSala. Her casting is controversial, but Julia seems to get her fairy-tale ending when Josh gets down on one knee.

Since the publication of Le Bons’ book, The Crowd, little has been added to our knowledge of the mechanisms of crowd behavior. As a practical problem, the habit of crowd-making is daily becoming a more serious menace to civilization. Events are making it more and more clear that, pressing as are certain economic questions, the forces which threaten society are really psychological.

Step into a chilling future where warfare isn’t just fought with weapons—but with the mind. The Hour of Battle by Robert Sheckley delivers a gripping tale of suspense, set against the vast backdrop of deep space.

You open your eyes for what you know is not the first time and you remember nothing. You find out that a catastrophic event known as the Kollaps has destroyed life as we know it. Something crucial has been stolen - but under no circumstances can you know what or why. You’ve got to get it back or something bad is going to happen. And you’ve got to get it back fast, so they can freeze you again before your own time runs out. Paralyzed from the waist down, you’re being carried around on the backs of two men who don’t seem anything like you at all.

Not everyone can become a tyrant. It requires a particular confluence of events to gain absolute control over entire nations. First, you must be born with the potential to develop brutal personality traits. Second, your predisposition to antisocial behavior must be developed and strengthened during childhood. Finally, you must come of age when the political system of your country is unstable.

Et si en finir avec la vie n'était pas mourir mais changer d'époque? C'est ce que découvre Édith quand elle décide de mettre fin à ses jours mais qu'elle se réveille dans un lit d'hôpital en... 1905, plus de 150 ans avant sa naissance. À peine remise de son passage à l'acte qu'Alfred de Crancy, héritier d'un empire industriel, lui propose d'intégrer l'entreprise familiale à de hautes fonctions en échange de ses connaissances sur les innovations futures.

The universe has been explored - and humanity has all but given up on finding other intelligent life. Then an alien satellite orbiting a distant star sends out an unreadable signal. Is it the final programmed gasp of an ancient, long-dead race? Or the first greeting of an undiscovered life form?

Queenie is the aging matriarch of the Faraday family, and even death can’t break her hold over her 11-year-old granddaughter, Rowan. She’s buried with a locket that contains a lock of Rowan’s hair, and soon afterwards, Rowan is befriended by a mysterious, uncannily intelligent girl of her own age. Only her aunt Hermione suspects how sinister this is, but will retrieving the locket save her niece? By the time anyone sees what effect the ghostly influence on Rowan is having, it may be too late for her.

In a world on the verge of an unfathomable disaster, Noah and April sense something looming long before anyone else. Driven by an unshakable pull they can’t quite explain, they dedicate themselves to preparing a hidden bunker, pouring every ounce of love and determination into safeguarding the six foster children they’ve brought into their home. As the skies darken and the earth trembles with forewarning, they press on, guided by faith in a purpose larger than themselves. When the long-dreaded moment finally arrives, chaos reigns outside—but inside their hearts, a quiet strength holds fast.

Khristen is a teenager who, her mother believes, was marked by greatness as a baby when she died for a moment and then came back to life. After Khristen’s failing boarding school for gifted teens closes its doors, and she finds that her mother has disappeared, she ranges across the dead landscape and washes up at a “resort” on the shores of a mysterious, putrid lake the elderly residents there call “Big Girl.”

Bolstered by a newfound fortune, Sara Winthrop is finally able to escape the horrific nature of her past. She's moved her family 3000 miles, from the bustling city of Portland to the rolling Appalachians of southwest Virginia. Life is calm, the children are thriving, and she's protected inside her rural fortress. Or so she thinks. She soon discovers that the answers are never so easy. The illusion of security doesn't stand a chance against two dangerous enemies with money, motivation, and an unquenchable desire for revenge.

It is 1978, and John Lennon has escaped New York City to try to find the island off the west coast of Ireland he bought nine years prior. Leaving behind domesticity, his approaching 40s, his inability to create, and his memories of his parents, he sets off to find calm in the comfortable silence of isolation. But when he puts himself in the hands of a shape-shifting driver full of Irish charm and dark whimsy, what ensues can only be termed a magical mystery tour.

When a rogue vampire wreaks havoc through a small town in New Mexico, leaving dead bodies in his wake; the only exception being his final three victims, who have not yet succumbed to their injuries, he finds himself coming face to face with the oldest vampire still walking the mortal plane and is found wanting. Now, Aiden Gallagher faces a moral dilemma, save the three young women the rogue vampire has left for dead by turning them himself or allow them to die from their wounds. Choosing the only true option he has; Aiden creates his first progeny is centuries.

John Smith has a special gift that seems more like a curse: He can access other people's thoughts. He hears the songs stuck in their heads, their most private traumas and fears, the painful memories they can't let go. The CIA honed his skills until he was one of their most powerful operatives, but Smith fled the agency and now works as a private consultant, trying to keep the dark potential of his gift in check - and himself out of trouble.

Six months after she left, Dee is struggling to manage her rage toward the people who ordered the nuclear strike that destroyed Earth. She's trying to find those responsible, but she's not getting very far alone. A dedicated gamer, Dee is endeavoring to discover a mersive good enough to enable her to escape her trauma. When she is approached by a designer who asks her to play test his new game, she hopes it will be what she needs - but it isn't like any mersive she's played before.