“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” – John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
FICTION
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
What if the life you have always known is taken from you in an instant? What would you do to get it back?
Twins Jeanie and Julius have always been different from other people. At 51 years old, they still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation and poverty. Their rented cottage is simultaneously their armor against the world and their sanctuary. Inside its walls they make music, in its garden they grow (and sometimes kill) everything they need for sustenance.
But when Dot dies suddenly, threats to their livelihood start raining down. At risk of losing everything, Jeanie and her brother must fight to survive in an increasingly dangerous world as their mother’s secrets unfold, putting everything they thought they knew about their lives at stake.
This is a thrilling novel of resilience and hope, of love and survival, that explores with dazzling emotional power how the truths closest to us are often hardest to see.
Description from Goodreads.
“Revelatory… a powerful, beautiful novel.” – The Times
“Fuller is a master of building suspense… At once unsettling and hopeful, her book checks all the boxes of an engrossing mystery.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Fuller paints a devastatingly haunting picture of abject poverty, especially in her descriptions of the houses they dwell in, each of which becomes a character in its own right. This tale offers a remarkable peek into how the embrace of family can completely smother other aspects of life. Nevertheless, human ingenuity persists… It’s reassuring to think that reinvention is possible after all.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
Print Book | eBook
Where the Grass Is Green and the Girls Are Pretty by Lauren Weisberger
A seat at the anchor desk of the most-watched morning show. Recognized by millions across the country, thanks in part to her flawless blond highlights and Botox-smoothed skin. An adoring husband and a Princeton-bound daughter. Peyton is that woman. She has it all.
Until…
Skye, her sister, is a stay-at-home mom living in a glitzy suburb of New York. She has degrees from all the right schools and can helicopter-parent with the best of them. But Skye is different from the rest. She’s looking for something real and dreams of a life beyond the PTA and pickup.
Until…
Max, Peyton’s bright and quirky seventeen-year-old daughter, is poised to kiss her fancy private school goodbye and head off to pursue her dreams in film. She’s waited her entire life for this opportunity.
Until…
One little lie. That’s all it takes. For the illusions to crack. For resentments to surface. Suddenly the grass doesn’t look so green. And they’re left wondering: will they have what it takes to survive the truth?
Description from Goodreads.
“Weisberger never loses her trademark beach-read breeziness as she tackles weighty problems of familial trust with a pitch-perfect blend of humor and poignancy. [Her] newest scandal-oriented satire will appear on many summer TBR lists.” – Booklist
“Operation Varsity Blues meets The Morning Show meets Gossip Girl… This sharp, satirical, and witty page-turner will be a fixture across beaches all summer long.” – Off the Shelf
“With her signature satirical style, sharp wit, and clear-eyed insights, Lauren Weisberger has written a timely, entertaining novel about what it means to have—and lose—everything.” – Paperback Paris
Available Formats:
Print Book | Audiobook | eBook | eAudiobook
The Summer Job by Lizzy Dent
What if you could be someone else? Just for the summer…
Birdy has made a mistake. Everyone imagines running away from their life at some point. But Birdy has actually done it. And the life she’s run into is her best friend Heather’s. The only problem is, she hasn’t told Heather.
The summer job at the highland Scottish hotel that her world class wine-expert friend ditched turns out to be a lot more than Birdy bargained for. Can she survive a summer pretending to be her best friend? And can Birdy stop herself from falling for the first man she’s ever actually liked, but who thinks she’s someone else?
One good friend’s very bad decision is at the heart of this laugh-out-loud love story and unexpected tale of a woman finally finding herself in the strangest of places.
Description from Goodreads.
“Funny, romantic, hilariously chaotic and full to the brim with Scottish charm.” – Parade
“Dent hits a home run with her first novel… A sure bet for fans of Jenny Colgan.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Escapist fun… Fans of Emily Henry and Katie Fforde should add this to their summer-read list.” – Booklist
Available Formats:
Print Book | eBook | eAudiobook
The Break-Up Book Club by Wendy Wax
On paper, Jazmine, Judith, Erin and Sara have little in common – they’re very different people leading very different lives. And yet at book club meetings in an historic carriage house turned bookstore, they bond over a shared love of reading (and more than a little wine) as well as the growing realization that their lives are not turning out like they expected.
Former tennis star Jazmine is a top sports agent balancing a career and single motherhood. Judith is an empty nester questioning her marriage and the supporting role she chose. Erin’s high school sweetheart and fiancée develops a bad case of cold feet, and Sara’s husband takes a job out of town saddling Sara with a difficult mother-in-law who believes her son could have done better – not exactly the roommate most women dream of.
With the help of books, laughter, and the joy of ever evolving friendships, Jazmine, Judith, Erin and Sara find the courage to navigate new and surprising chapters of their lives as they seek their own versions of happily-ever-after.
Description from Goodreads.
“An ensemble novel intertwining the stories of several women experiencing the highs and lows of modern love, Wax’s latest novel was built for book clubs. Sure to delight romcom fiends and fans of Emily Giffin’s and Holly Chamberlin’s books, it champions inner strength and the power of a fresh perspective. Highlighting the challenges of different seasons of life, Wax charts the journeys of a trusted group of strangers-turned-friends.” – Booklist
Available Formats:
Print Book | eBook | eAudiobook
Among the Hedges by Sara Mesa
Soon, who is almost fourteen years old, has been skipping school and spending her days hidden among the hedges in a local park, listening to music and reading women’s magazines. One day, a fifty-year-old man stumbles upon her hiding place, and the two strike up a friendship. He tells her about birds and Nina Simone, buys her soda and chips, and spends almost every day talking with her.
Despite their age gap, there’s something childlike about Old Man that leads Soon to believe that he’s not like the other men she’s encountered, the “dangerous ones.” But he has a number of secrets in his past—all of which would be of grave concern to Soon’s parents or any other adult who witnessed one of their rendezvous. As these secrets rise to the surface, the clock is ticking, the weather is growing cold, and the school is untangling Soon’s set of lies, setting up a moment where something has to give.
With spare, direct prose, Sara Mesa imbues these two outcasts with a great deal of warmth, raising questions about society’s prejudices and assumptions, and creating a truly moving novel of an “inappropriate” relationship.
Description from Goodreads.
“The prose [is] simple and beautiful… details do not need to be laid out, because Mesa’s writing is tight enough to note the reader’s questions, but direct the story where it needs to go for her desired effect, which is a story about uncertainty in humanity.” – New City Lit
“…engrossing… The consequences of their encounters unfold in an ingenious final act set one year later, which is both unsettling and touching. This is difficult to put down.” – Publishers Weekly
“…warm, nuanced… a daring, sympathetic novel about a friendship between two people whom society would prefer to keep apart.” – Foreword Reviews
Available Formats:
Hoopla eBook
In the Event of Contact: Stories by Ethel Rohan
Winner of the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Prize, In the Event of Contact chronicles characters profoundly affected by physical connection, or its lack.
Among them, a scrappy teen vies to be the next Sherlock Holmes; an immigrant daughter must defend her decision to remain childless; a guilt-ridden woman is haunted by the disappearance of her childhood friend; a cantankerous crossing guard celebrates getting run over by a truck; an embattled priest with dementia determines to perform a heroic, redemptive act, if he can only remember how; and an aspirational, angst-ridden mother captains the skies.
Amid backgrounds of trespass and absence, the indelible characters of In the Event of Contact seek renewed belief in recovery, humanity, and the remains of wonder.
Description from Goodreads.
“A loving homage to humanity in all its complexity.” – The Millions
“The stories straddle the faultlines of the lives of their characters and as a collection quietly and subtly accumulate a potency that by the end leaves the reader breathless.” – Westmeath Independent
“Rohan’s plain prose helps to feature the emotional earthquakes these characters undergo while they’re navigating ordinary happenings, and her masterful use of Irish lilts and rhythms helps to reveal intricate emotional distances between those who left and those who stayed behind, even as it nestles the reader deep into her characters’ hearts and minds.” – Foreword Reviews
Available Formats:
Hoopla eBook
SUSPENSE
The Hunting Wives by May Cobb
Sophie O’Neill left behind an envy-inspiring career and the stressful, competitive life of big-city Chicago to settle down with her husband and young son in a small Texas town. It seems like the perfect life with a beautiful home in an idyllic rural community. But Sophie soon realizes that life is now too quiet, and she’s feeling bored and restless.
Then she meets Margot Banks, an alluring socialite who is part of an elite clique secretly known as the Hunting Wives. Sophie finds herself completely drawn to Margot and swept into her mysterious world of late-night target practice and dangerous partying. As Sophie’s curiosity gives way to full-blown obsession, she slips farther away from the safety of her family and deeper into this nest of vipers.
When the body of a teenage girl is discovered in the woods where the Hunting Wives meet, Sophie finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation and her life spiraling out of control.
Description from Goodreads.
“[A] sharply observed thriller.” – PopSugar
“Cobb writes a clever twisty plot in this alcohol-infused, sexually charged thriller. Gossipy, scandalous housewives behaving badly might make this the juiciest read of the season. For fans of Liane Moriarty.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] nail-biting thriller… Wild plot twists keep the pages turning up to the unexpected ending. This romp is a guilty pleasure.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
Print Book | eBook | eAudiobook
The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker
“So that was all it took,” I thought. “That was all it took for me to feel like I had all the power in the world. One morning, one moment, one yellow-haired boy. It wasn’t so much after all.”
Meet Chrissie…
Chrissie is eight and she has a secret: she has just killed a boy. The feeling made her belly fizz like soda pop. Her playmates are tearful and their mothers are terrified, keeping them locked indoors. But Chrissie rules the roost — she’s the best at wall-walking, she knows how to get free candy, and now she has a feeling of power that she never gets at home, where food is scarce and attention scarcer.
Twenty years later, adult Chrissie is living in hiding under a changed name. A single mother, all she wants is for her daughter to have the childhood she herself was denied. That’s why the threatening phone calls are so terrifying. People are looking for them, the past is catching up, and Chrissie fears losing the only thing in this world she cares about, her child.
Description from Goodreads.
“Too original to be missed.” – PopSugar
“A stunning debut… Suspenseful? You bet. Heart-rending? From beginning to end.” – Washington Post
“A spectacular fiction debut… The taut, meticulously observed narration, which alternates between Chrissie’s youthful and adult perspectives, mines the dangers that childhood trauma causes both its victims and those around them. Fans of Lisa Jewell and smart psychological suspense will eagerly await Tucker’s next.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
Print Book | eBook | eAudiobook
Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica
People don’t just disappear without a trace…
Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold.
Now, eleven years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find…
In this smart and chilling thriller, master of suspense and New York Times bestselling author Mary Kubica takes domestic secrets to a whole new level, showing that some people will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.
Description from Goodreads.
“[A] daringly plotted, emotionally eviscerating psychological thriller.” – Publishers Weekly
“Impossible-to-see-it-coming… [Kubica] takes readers to a whole new level of deceit and irony.” – Booklist
“[Local Woman Missing] will appeal to fans of Lisa Jackson and Gregg Olsen… The twists, turns, and an unpredictable ending make it irresistible.” – Library Journal
Available Formats:
Print Book | Large Print Book | Audiobook | eBook | eAudiobook | Hoopla eAudiobook
MYSTERY
The Vanishing Point by Elizabeth Brundage
Julian Ladd and Rye Adler cross paths as photography students in the exclusive Brodsky Workshop. When Rye needs a roommate, Julian moves in, and a quiet, compulsive envy takes root, assuring, at least in his own mind, that he will never achieve Rye’s certain success. Both men are fascinated with their beautiful and talented classmate, Magda, whose captivating images of her Polish neighborhood set her apart, and each will come to know her intimately – a woman neither can possess and only one can love.
Twenty years later, long after their paths diverge, Rye is at the top of his field, famous for his photographs of celebrities and far removed from the downtrodden and disenfranchised subjects who’d secured his reputation as the eye of his generation. When Magda reenters his life, asking for help only he can give, Rye finds himself in a broken landscape of street people and addicts, forcing him to reckon with the artist he once was, until his search for a missing boy becomes his own desperate fight to survive.
Months later, when Julian discovers Rye’s obituary, the paper makes it sound like a suicide. Despite himself, Julian attends the funeral, where there is no casket and no body. This sudden reentry into a world he thought he left behind forces Julian to question not only Rye’s death, but the very foundations of his life.
In this eerie and evocative novel, Elizabeth Brundage establishes herself as one of the premiere authors of literary fiction at work today.
Description from Goodreads.
“An ambitious, literary novel, The Vanishing Point is distinguished by its characterizations, its pervasive air of melancholy, and its beautiful style. Not surprisingly, there is a great deal of thought-provoking attention given to the meaning and aesthetics of photography, and, like great photography, the novel is ultimately a work of memorable art.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“In this dark-toned mystery, Brundage develops an engrossing story about a love triangle involving three photographers… The first half of the novel brilliantly dissects the competitive and erotic entanglements that mark the characters, and Brundage is particularly good at using photographic theory to describe how each sees the world.” – Publishers Weekly
“The interwoven lives of artists, failed and successful… Brundage’s characters are convincing… well-written and affecting.” – Kirkus Reviews
Available Formats:
Print Book
ROMANCE
The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren
Single mom Jess Davis is a data and statistics wizard, but no amount of number crunching can convince her to step back into the dating world. Raised by her grandparents–who now help raise her seven-year-old daughter, Juno–Jess has been left behind too often to feel comfortable letting anyone in. After all, her father’s never been around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn’t “father material” before Juno was even born. Jess holds her loved ones close, but working constantly to stay afloat is hard… and lonely.
But then Jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that’s predicted to change dating forever. Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers: This Jess understands. At least she thought she did, until her test shows an unheard-of 98% compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly’s founder, Dr. River Pena. This is one number she can’t wrap her head around, because she already knows Dr. Pena. The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate. But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get to know him and we’ll pay you. Jess–who is barely making ends meet–is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the “Diamond” pairing that could make GeneticAlly a mint in stock prices, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist–and the science behind a soulmate–than she thought.
Funny, warm, and full of heart, The Soulmate Equation proves that the delicate balance between fate and choice can never be calculated.
Description from Goodreads.
“Writing duo and reigning romance queens Christina Lauren are back with The Soulmate Equation, their most ambitious book to date.” – PopSugar
“Lauren, the author duo behind The Honey-Don’t List and countless other rom-coms, not only introduce a fascinating and unique premise, but flawlessly execute it with their trademark humor and charm… A sexy, science-filled, and surprising romance full of warmth and wit.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“With the laugh-out-loud voice that Lauren’s die-hard fans adore, this sweet, charming, and humorous book is a perfect match for readers looking for a low-stakes, high swoon-factor romance.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
Print Book | eBook
NONFICTION
Punch Me Up to the Gods: A Memoir by Brian Broome ★
Punch Me Up to the Gods introduces a powerful new talent in Brian Broome, whose early years growing up in Ohio as a dark-skinned Black boy harboring crushes on other boys propel forward this gorgeous, aching, and unforgettable debut. Brian’s recounting of his experiences—in all their cringe-worthy, hilarious, and heartbreaking glory—reveal a perpetual outsider awkwardly squirming to find his way in. Indiscriminate sex and escalating drug use help to soothe his hurt, young psyche, usually to uproarious and devastating effect. A no-nonsense mother and broken father play crucial roles in our misfit’s origin story. But it is Brian’s voice in the retelling that shows the true depth of vulnerability for young Black boys that is often quietly near to bursting at the seams.
Cleverly framed around Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool,” the iconic and loving ode to Black boyhood, Punch Me Up to the Gods is at once playful, poignant, and wholly original. Broome’s writing brims with swagger and sensitivity, bringing an exquisite and fresh voice to ongoing cultural conversations about Blackness in America.
Description from Goodreads.
“This hard-hitting, unflinching memoir recounts the horrors of addiction, racism, and homophobia—and how one man survived them all.” – Saturday Evening Post
“An electrifying read. Vulnerable and poetic but filled with a ferocious fire, it grabs you from the first page to the last. Perfect for fans of Sarah Broom, Kiese Laymon, and Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight.” – Chicago Review of Books
“An engrossing memoir about growing up Black and gay and finding a place in the world. Structured around Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem ‘We Real Cool,’ Broome’s thought-provoking, emotional journey unfolds through a clever use of parallel stories and juxtaposition… Beautifully written, this examination of what it means to be Black and gay in America is a must-read. A stellar debut memoir.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Bursting at the seams with raw power… Broome is a debut author, but you wouldn’t know it by his writing. He commands his story and readers’ attention in a way that will have them laughing, crying, and screaming along with him… Punch Me Up to the Gods is an exquisite and important memoir.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
eBook
Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice by Yusef Salaam
They didn’t know who they had.
So begins Yusef Salaam telling his story. No one’s life is the sum of the worst things that happened to them, and during Yusef Salaam’s seven years of wrongful incarceration as one of the Central Park Five, he grew from child to man, and gained a spiritual perspective on life. Yusef learned that we’re all “born on purpose, with a purpose.” Despite having confronted the racist heart of America while being “run over by the spiked wheels of injustice,” Yusef channeled his energy and pain into something positive, not just for himself but for other marginalized people and communities.
Better, Not Bitter is the first time that one of the now Exonerated Five is telling his individual story, in his own words. Yusef writes his narrative: growing up Black in central Harlem in the ’80s, being raised by a strong, fierce mother and grandmother, his years of incarceration, his reentry, and exoneration. Yusef connects these stories to lessons and principles he learned that gave him the power to survive through the worst of life’s experiences. He inspires readers to accept their own path, to understand their own sense of purpose. With his intimate personal insights, Yusef unpacks the systems built and designed for profit and the oppression of Black and Brown people. He inspires readers to channel their fury into action, and through the spiritual, to turn that anger and trauma into a constructive force that lives alongside accountability and mobilizes change.
This memoir is an inspiring story that grew out of one of the gravest miscarriages of justice, one that not only speaks to a moment in time or the rage-filled present, but reflects a 400-year history of a nation’s inability to be held accountable for its sins. Yusef Salaam’s message is vital for our times, a motivating resource for enacting change. Better, Not Bitter has the power to soothe, inspire and transform. It is a galvanizing call to action.
Description from Goodreads.
“An uplifting and hopeful book.” – Booklist
“Warm, generous, and inspirational: a book for everyone.” – Kirkus Reviews
“An important memoir and call to action that sheds light on the personal injustices of mass incarceration.” – Library Journal
Available Formats:
Print Book | Audiobook | eBook | eAudiobook
Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, & Cass R. Sunstein
Imagine that two doctors in the same city give different diagnoses to identical patients — or that two judges in the same courthouse give different sentences to people who have committed the same crime. Suppose that different food inspectors give different ratings to indistinguishable restaurants — or that when a company is handling customer complaints, the resolution depends on who happens to be handling the particular complaint. Now imagine that the same doctor, the same judge, the same inspector, or the same company official makes different decisions, depending on whether it is morning or afternoon, or Monday rather than Wednesday. These are examples of noise: variability in judgments that should be identical.
In Noise, Daniel Kahneman, Cass R. Sunstein, and Olivier Sibony show how noise contributes significantly to errors in all fields, including medicine, law, economic forecasting, police behavior, food safety, bail, security checks at airports, strategy, and personnel selection. And although noise can be found wherever people make judgments and decisions, individuals and organizations alike are commonly oblivious to the role of chance in their judgments and in their actions.
Drawing on the latest findings in psychology and behavioral economics, and the same kind of diligent, insightful research that made Thinking, Fast and Slow and Nudge groundbreaking New York Times bestsellers, Noise explains how and why humans are so susceptible to noise in judgment — and what we can do about it.
Description from Goodreads.
“…outstanding…” – The Times
“…fascinating… The result is dense and complex, but those who stay the course will be rewarded with an intricate examination of decision-making and sound judgment.” – Publishers Weekly
“Abundant food for thought for professionals of all types as well as students of decision science and behavioral economics.” – Kirkus Reviews
Available Formats:
Print Book
The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion by Aminatta Forna
Aminatta Forna is one of our most important literary voices, and her novels have won the Windham Campbell Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book. In this elegantly rendered and wide-ranging collection of new and previously published essays, Forna writes intimately about displacement, trauma and memory, love, and how we coexist and encroach on the non-human world.
Movement is a constant here. In the title piece, “The Window Seat,” she reveals the unexpected enchantments of commercial air travel. In “Obama and the Renaissance Generation,” she documents how, despite the narrative of Obama’s exceptionalism, his father, like her own, was one of a generation of gifted young Africans who came to the United Kingdom and the United States for education and were expected to build their home countries anew after colonialism. In “The Last Vet,” time spent shadowing Dr. Jalloh, the only veterinarian in Sierra Leone, as he works with the street dogs of Freetown, becomes a meditation on what a society’s treatment of animals tells us about its principles. In “Crossroads,” she examines race in America from an African perspective, and in “Power Walking” she describes what it means to walk in the world in a Black woman’s body and in “The Watch” she explores the raptures of sleep and sleeplessness the world over.
Deeply meditative and written with a wry humor, The Window Seat confirms that Forna is a vital voice in international letters.
Description from Goodreads.
“[Forna’s] at her best when coaxing hard-won wisdom out of everyday details… Forna glides smoothly among memoir, travel writing, history, and literary studies. The prose is intimate and conversational… but the feeling of chatting over coffee belies the attention she gives to each sentence… A grand sweep of peoples and cultures united by a longing for what home really means.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Novelist Forna (Happiness) explores notions of place, identity, and movement in this bracing collection… Forna is a razor sharp prose stylist… and her attention to detail moves the collection forward… Full of careful observations, Forna’s meditations hit the mark.” – Publishers Weekly
“…exhilarating… perceptive and informative… Forna delves into a dynamic tapestry of resonant topics: the various elements that she explores in her fiction — migration, war and its aftermath, familial love, friendship, curiosity, resilience — are equally present in her nonfiction.” – Boston Globe
Available Formats:
Hoopla eBook
Freedom by Sebastian Junger
Throughout history, humans have been driven by the quest for two cherished ideals: community and freedom. The two don’t coexist easily. We value individuality and self-reliance, yet are utterly dependent on community for our most basic needs. In this intricately crafted and thought-provoking book, Sebastian Junger examines the tension that lies at the heart of what it means to be human.
For much of a year, Junger and three friends—a conflict photographer and two Afghan War vets—walked the railroad lines of the East Coast. It was an experiment in personal autonomy, but also in interdependence. Dodging railroad cops, sleeping under bridges, cooking over fires, and drinking from creeks and rivers, the four men forged a unique reliance on one another.
In Freedom, Junger weaves his account of this journey together with primatology and boxing strategy, the history of labor strikes and Apache raiders, the role of women in resistance movements, and the brutal reality of life on the Pennsylvania frontier. Written in exquisite, razor-sharp prose, the result is a powerful examination of the primary desire that defines us.
Description from Goodreads.
“…fascinating… I could go on and on, but instead I will simply urge you to take the captivating journey of reading Freedom for yourself.” – Amazon Book Review
“The setting is conducive to ruminations on the concept of freedom, and, with muscular prose and vivid, poetic descriptions, Junger both conjures the trek and ponders the nomadic lifestyle, Genghis Khan, Daniel Boone, fugitive slaves, the Seminole Indians, boxers, and the Gini coefficient.” – Booklist
Available Formats:
Print Book | Audiobook | eBook | eAudiobook
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green
The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, bestselling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale—from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar.
Funny, complex, and rich with detail, the reviews chart the contradictions of contemporary humanity. As a species, we are both far too powerful and not nearly powerful enough, a paradox that came into sharp focus as we faced a global pandemic that both separated us and bound us together.
John Green’s gift for storytelling shines throughout this masterful collection. The Anthropocene Reviewed is a open-hearted exploration of the paths we forge and an unironic celebration of falling in love with the world.
Description from Goodreads.
“…celebrates the large and small joys of human culture in quirky, observational essays.” – New York Times
“A bright mind’s musings make even the small things in life wondrous… the perfect book to read over lunch or to keep on your nightstand, whenever you need a reminder of what it is to feel small and human, in the best possible way.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Available Formats:
Print Book | Audiobook | eBook | eAudiobook
Tastes Like War: A Memoir by Grace M. Cho
Grace M. Cho grew up as the daughter of a white American merchant marine and the Korean bar hostess he met abroad. They were one of few immigrants in a xenophobic small town during the Cold War, where identity was politicized by everyday details—language, cultural references, memories, and food. When Grace was fifteen, her dynamic mother experienced the onset of schizophrenia, a condition that would continue and evolve for the rest of her life.
Part food memoir, part sociological investigation, Tastes Like War is a hybrid text about a daughter’s search through intimate and global history for the roots of her mother’s schizophrenia. In her mother’s final years, Grace learned to cook dishes from her parent’s childhood in order to invite the past into the present, and to hold space for her mother’s multiple voices at the table. And through careful listening over these shared meals, Grace discovered not only the things that broke the brilliant, complicated woman who raised her—but also the things that kept her alive.
Description from Goodreads.
“An exquisite commemoration and a potent reclamation.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“A wrenching, powerful account of the long-term effects of the immigrant experience.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Cho’s intelligence and thoughtfulness shine [throughout], as well as her emotional honesty as she puts her memories on the page. This is an extraordinary memoir.” – A Bookish Type