Elizabeth Berg’s ‘Confession Club,’ ‘Anonymous’ on Donald Trump and 3 other hot new books

Elizabeth Berg. | Random House

Looking for something good to read? Here are five of the hottest new book releases:

‘The Confession Club’ by Elizabeth Berg

(Random House, fiction, $26)

What it’s about: The latest book from the west suburban author has friends’ monthly gatherings over food and wine take a turn when one of the women reveals something shockingly intimate, and the rest suddenly are sharing their darkest misdeeds and deepest insecurities.

The buzz: Publishers Weekly calls this a “feel-good testament to taking risks, falling in love and reinvention.”

Click here for an excerpt from “The Confession Club” by Elizabeth Berg.

‘A Warning’ by Anonymous

(Twelve, nonfiction, $29.95)

What it’s about: The much-awaited book by the anonymous White House official whose September 2018 New York Times op-ed revealed a “resistance” inside the Trump administration.

The buzz: The book paints a dire picture of the Trump presidency but “does not cut through the noise,” the Washington Post writes. “It just creates more of it.”

“A Warning” by an anonymous, though now famous, Trump White House official.

‘Oppo’ by Tom Rosenstiel

(Ecco, fiction, $27.99)

What it’s about: Tom Rosenstie’s third political thriller featuring has Washington investigators Peter Rena and Randi Brooks doing opposition research for a centrist Republican senator who gets an anonymous threat to ruin her just after she’s been approached by Republican and Democratic presidential candidates to be their vice president.

The buzz: “Rena and Brooks are as amiable as ever,” Kirkus Reviews writes. “And the threats posed by unrestrained political money are clearly described, but the ride could be more compelling.”

Click here for an excerpt from “Oppo” by Tom Rosenstiel.

‘A Minute to Midnight’ by David Baldacci

(Grand Central Publishing, fiction, $29)

What it’s about: The second page-turning thriller in David Baldacci’s Atlee Pine series finds the FBI agent investigating the long-ago kidnapping of her twin sister when a potential serial killer strikes her hometown.

The buzz: The Real Book Spy called the first novel in this series, “Long Road to Mercy,” “another top-notch thriller from one of today’s most popular storytellers.”

‘Kosher Capones: A History of Chicago’s Jewish Gangsters’ by Joe Kraus

(Northern Illinois University Press, nonfiction, $26.95)

What it’s about: Tales from a century of Jewish organized crime figures in Chicago that includes the likes of Benjamin “Zukie the Bookie” Zuckerman and Lenny Patrick.

The buzz: “The level of drama is frequently low, and Kraus doesn’t look deeply into their Judaism, Chicago Jewish culture or other Jews’ reactions to their dealings,” says Publishers Weekly, which calls this an “underwhelming history.”

Click here for an excerpt from “Kosher Capones: A History of Chicago’s Jewish Gangsters” by Joe Kraus.