“To be rendered powerless does not destroy your humanity. Your resilience is your humanity. The only people who lose their humanity are those who believe they have the right to render another human being powerless. They are the weak. To yield and not break, that is incredible strength.” –
Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation by Maud Newton ★
Nonfiction / Memoir / History.
Maud Newton’s ancestors have vexed and fascinated her since she was a girl. Her mother’s father, who came of age in Texas during the Great Depression, was said to have married thirteen times and been shot by one of his wives. Her mother’s grandfather killed a man with a hay hook and died in a mental institution. Mental illness and religious fanaticism percolated through Maud’s maternal lines, to an ancestor accused of being a witch in Puritan-era Massachusetts. Maud’s father, an aerospace engineer turned lawyer, was a book-smart man who extolled the virtues of slavery and obsessed over the “purity” of his family bloodline, which he traced back to the Revolutionary War. He tried in vain to control Maud’s mother, a whirlwind of charisma and passion given to feverish projects: thirty rescue cats, and a church in the family’s living room where she performed exorcisms.
Their divorce, when it came, was a relief. Still, the meeting of her parents’ lines in Maud inspired an anxiety that she could not shake; a fear that she would replicate their damage. She saw similar anxieties in the lives of friends, in the works of writers and artists she admired. As obsessive in her own way as her parents, Maud researched her genealogy—her grandfather’s marriages, the accused witch, her ancestors’ roles in slavery and genocide–and sought family secrets through her DNA. But sunk in census archives and cousin matches, she yearned for deeper truths. Her journey took her into the realms of genetics, epigenetics, and the debates over intergenerational trauma. She mulled modernity’s dismissal of ancestors along with psychoanalytic and spiritual traditions that center them.
Searching, moving, and inspiring, Ancestor Trouble is one writer’s attempt to use genealogy–a once-niche hobby that has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry—to expose the secrets and contradictions of her own ancestors, and to argue for the transformational possibilities that reckoning with our ancestors has for all of us.
Description from Goodreads.
“Ancestor Trouble does what all truly great memoirs do: It takes an intensely personal and at times idiosyncratic story and uses it to frame larger, more complex questions about how identity is formed.” – The New Republic
“With the rigor of a historian and the voice of a mystery writer, Newton pulls the reader into a philosophical exploration of trauma and heritage… A magisterial memoir.” – The Observer
“Riveting… Masterfully blending memoir and cultural criticism, Newton explores the cultural, scientific, and spiritual dimensions of ancestry, arguing for the transformational power of grappling with our inheritances.” – Esquire
“Exhaustively researched, engagingly presented, and glowing with intelligence and honesty.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
Conversations with People Who Hate Me: 12 Things I Learned from Talking to Internet Strangers by Dylan Marron
Nonfiction / Memoir / Comedy / Sociology.
Dylan Marron’s work has racked up millions of views and worldwide support. From his acclaimed Every Single Word video series highlighting the lack of diversity in Hollywood to his web series Sitting in Bathrooms with Trans People, Marron has explored some of today’s biggest social issues–yet according to some strangers on the internet, Marron is a “moron,” a “beta male,” and a “talentless hack.” Rather than running from this online vitriol, Marron began a social experiment in which he invited his detractors to chat with him on the phone—and those conversations revealed surprising and fascinating insights.
Now, Marron retraces his journey through a project that connects adversarial strangers in a time of unprecedented division. After years of production and dozens of phone calls, he shares what he’s learned about having difficult conversations and how having them can help close the ever-growing distance between us. Charmingly candid and refreshingly hopeful, Conversations with People Who Hate Me will serve as both a guide to anyone partaking in difficult conversations and a permission slip for those who dare to believe that connection is possible.
Description from Goodreads.
“[An] enlightening debut… In a time rife with divisiveness, this opens up an intriguing dialogue about finding ways to connect.” – Publishers Weekly
“Marron persuasively argues that the internet is a major source of polarization and that talking personally, and listening fully—without trying to score points or to convince someone to change their mind—goes a long way toward breaking down barriers. The book will delight his fans and draw new listeners to the podcast.” – Kirkus Reviews
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
Fiction / Historical Fiction / Suspense.
In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kiev (now known as Kyiv), wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son–but Hitler’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper–a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour.
Still reeling from war wounds and devastated by loss, Mila finds herself isolated and lonely in the glittering world of Washington, DC–until an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a silent fellow sniper offer the possibility of happiness. But when an old enemy from Mila’s past joins forces with a deadly new foe lurking in the shadows, Lady Death finds herself battling her own demons and enemy bullets in the deadliest duel of her life.
Based on a true story, The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel of heroism born of desperation, of a mother who became a soldier, of a woman who found her place in the world and changed the course of history forever.
Description from Goodreads.
“…riveting… Quinn’s imagination and thorough research turn this account of an extraordinarily talented woman into a highly cinematic action novel that honors all women in the military. Its tension is palpable as Quinn depicts the horrific loss of life on the Russian front and the nerve-racking confrontations that pit Pavlichenko against Germany’s best marksmen.” – Washington Post
“…exciting… Quinn humanizes Mila by showing how she and Kostia use humor—along with a healthy amount of vodka—to cope with their risk-taking, and she convinces with her description of Eleanor’s political savvy and influence on the president. Historical fiction fans will be riveted.” – Publishers Weekly
“The relationships build an emotionally engaging foundation as tension builds on battlefields and danger tracks Mila in Washington. Quinn specializes in centering strong women; each of her books exceeds expectations set by the previous title. Readers looking for a new and unique viewpoint of World War II with a mystery to solve and a light touch of romance will dive deep into this story.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
Digital Communion: Marshall McLuhan’s Spiritual Vision for a Virtual Age by Nick Ripatrazone
Nonfiction / Religion / History / Technology.
Marshall McLuhan was the greatest prophet of the digital age. In the 1960s, McLuhan, a Canadian literary theorist reared on Elizabethan satire and the labyrinthine novels of James Joyce, turned his attention toward the budding and befuddling electronic age. Like most prophets, McLuhan became one through a fascination with God. Prophets divine their wisdom from a source, and Digital Communion shows that McLuhan’s was his own Catholic faith. In other words, the greatest prophet of the digital age was an ardent Christian. A reconsideration of his vision can change the way we view the online world.
A Catholic convert, McLuhan foretold a digital age full of blessings and sins: a world where information was a phone call or keystroke away, but where our new global village could also bring out the worst in us. For him, mass media was a form of Mass. McLuhan thought that while the print world was visual, the electric world–especially television–was a medium of touch. It enveloped us. For McLuhan, God was everywhere, including in the electric light.
Digital Communion considers the religious history of mass communication, from the Gutenberg Bible to James Joyce’s literary forerunners of hypertextual language to McLuhan’s vision of the electronic world as a place of potential spiritual exchange, in order to reveal how we can cultivate a more spiritual vision of the internet–a vision we need now more than ever.
Description from Goodreads.
“In our own era of communion administered through Zoom and mindfulness apps that incorporate Zen onto your smartphone, Ripatrazone makes a brilliant argument as to what McLuhan has to say about the benefits and perils of digital faith.” – The Millions
Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto ★
Fiction / Romance / Mystery.
Meddy Chan has been to countless weddings, but she never imagined how her own would turn out. Now the day has arrived, and she can’t wait to marry her college sweetheart, Nathan. Instead of having Ma and the aunts cater to her wedding, Meddy wants them to enjoy the day as guests. As a compromise, they find the perfect wedding vendors: a Chinese-Indonesian family-run company just like theirs. Meddy is hesitant at first, but she hits it off right away with the wedding photographer, Staphanie, who reminds Meddy of herself, down to the unfortunately misspelled name.
Meddy realizes that is where their similarities end, however, when she overhears Staphanie talking about taking out a target. Horrified, Meddy can’t believe Staphanie and her family aren’t just like her own, they are The Family–actual mafia, and they’re using Meddy’s wedding as a chance to conduct shady business. Her aunties and mother won’t let Meddy’s wedding ceremony become a murder scene–over their dead bodies–and will do whatever it takes to save her special day, even if it means taking on the mafia.
Description from Goodreads.
“Sutanto deftly blends preposterous humor (British slang, mafia posers) with enduring devotion to prove ‘there is no right or wrongway to ‘being Asian.’” – Booklist
“Charming, chaotic, and sometimes ridiculous, this tale will appeal to anyone who both adores and is embarrassed by their family, which is just about everyone.” – Publishers Weekly
“Sutanto pushes you to the edge of your seat with this suspenseful rom-com that infuses humor and heritage.” – USA Today
“There’s a kind of magic to Sutanto’s writing… She tackles complicated issues of culture and family ties while also creating convoluted plotlines that’ll make you squeal with laughter.” – Wellesley News
Half Baked Harvest Every Day by Tieghan Gerard
Nonfiction / cookbook.
Balanced. Bold. Beautiful.
The millions of fans of the Half Baked Harvest blog and bestselling books have fallen in love with Tieghan Gerard’s recipes for their wholesome decadence, non-fussy approach, and smart twists on comforting favorites. Written and photographed in the stunning mountains of Colorado, inspired by her big, unique family, and focused on what you’ll want to eat day-in-day-out, Half Baked Harvest Every Day delivers all-new recipes that will feed your body and soul.
For Tieghan, feel-good-food isn’t about restrictive eating. It’s about enjoying real food with lots of flavor and the satisfaction of sharing it with those you love. Finding balance is about giving your body and your cravings what they need… whether that’s a light, vegetable-packed dish, or a big ole’ plate of something comforting.
In this collection, there are plenty of plant-forward dishes like Chipotle Cheddar Corn Chowder and Spinach and Pesto-Stuffed Butternut Squash. Tieghan also shares flavor-packed family favorites like Pizza Pasta with Crispy Pepperoni Breadcrumbs, Crispy Carnitas Taquitos, and Spicy Pretzel Chicken Fingers. And to keep a smile on everyone’s face, you’ll find luscious desserts like Chocolate Olive Oil Cake and a Candied Lemon Tart, made with a focus on wholesome, less refined ingredients.
Whether it’s breakfast, lunch, snack time, dinner, or dessert… this book has tried and true recipes that will make you feel good about sharing them at your table.
Description from Goodreads.
“Food blogger Gerard ably delivers on her promise ‘to make food that is delicious, usually healthy… and always satisfying’ in this excellent collection.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Rather than recommending restrictive recipes, she aims to help her readers find a balance between flavor and feeling good.” – Time
The Long Weekend by Gilly Macmillan
Fiction / Suspense / Mystery.
Three couples. Two bodies. One secret.
Dark Fell Barn is a “perfectly isolated” retreat, or so says its website when Jayne books a reservation for her friends. A quiet place, far removed from the rest of the world, is exactly what they need.
The women arrive for a girls’ night ahead of their husbands. There’s ex-Army Jayne, hardened and serious, but also damaged. Ruth, the driven doctor and new mother who is battling demons of her own. Young Emily, just wed and insecure, the newest addition of this tight-knit band. Missing this year is Edie, who was the glue holding them together until her husband died suddenly.
But what they hoped would be a relaxing break soon turns to horror. Upon arrival at Dark Fell Barn, the women find a devastating note claiming one of their husbands will be murdered. There are no phones, no cell service to check on their men. Friendships fracture as the situation spins wildly out of control. Betrayal can come in many forms.
This group has kept each other’s secrets for far too long.
Description from Goodreads.
“Macmillan writes with verve and emotional acuity… the final meal is rich and satisfying.” – New York Times
“[A] well-crafted thriller… Macmillan effectively shifts perspectives in this twisty, complicated puzzle. Readers will enjoy putting together all the pieces.” – Publishers Weekly
“The plot is unbearably tense, the feeling of remoteness and despair creeping off the pages, and just when you think you have it all sussed out, Gilly Macmillan throws the story another giant curveball for you to figure out. Absorbing and unpredictable, The Long Weekend is fantastic entertainment.” – Buzz
The Resting Place by Camilla Sten, translated by Alexandra Fleming
Fiction / Suspense / Horror / Mystery.
The medical term is prosopagnosia. The average person calls it face blindness—the inability to recognize a familiar person’s face, even the faces of those closest to you.
When Eleanor walked in on the scene of her capriciously cruel grandmother, Vivianne’s, murder, she came face to face with the killer—a maddening expression that means nothing to someone like her. With each passing day, her anxiety mounts. The dark feelings of having brushed by a killer, yet not know who could do this—or if they’d be back—overtakes both her dreams and her waking moments, thwarting her perception of reality.
Then a lawyer calls. Vivianne has left her a house—a looming estate tucked away in the Swedish woods. The place her grandfather died, suddenly. A place that has housed a dark past for over fifty years.
Eleanor. Her steadfast boyfriend, Sebastian. Her reckless aunt, Veronika. The lawyer. All will go to this house of secrets, looking for answers. But as they get closer to bringing the truth to light, they’ll wish they had never come to disturb what rests there.
A heart-thumping, relentless thriller that will shake you to your core, The Resting Place is an unforgettable novel of horror and suspense.
Description from Goodreads.
“Come for the mounting horror and scares, but stay for a devastating examination of the nature of family secrets.” – New York Times
“Very hard to put down… delivers maximum dread with remarkable restraint, and as the situation goes from bad to worse to terrifying, readers will revel in the chills.” – Booklist
“[An] engrossing, character-rich psychological thriller… The powerful conclusion is satisfying for both Eleanor and the reader. Sten is on a roll.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Salad Freak: Recipes to Feed a Healthy Obsession by Jess Damuck
Nonfiction / Cookbook.
Offering more than 100 inspired recipes, recipe developer and food stylist Jess Damuck shares her passion for making truly delicious salads. Salad Freak encourages readers to discover and embrace their own salad obsessions. With the right recipes, you will want to eat salad for every meal and never get bored. By playfully combining color, texture, shape, and, of course, flavor, Damuck demonstrates how a little extra effort in the kitchen can be meditative, delicious, and fun. The recipes—such as her Citrus Breakfast Salad; Tea-Smoked Chicken and Bitter Greens Salad; Caesar Salad Pizza Salad; and Roasted Grapes, Ricotta, Croutons, and Endive Salad—are meant to be hearty enough for a meal all year round but versatile enough to be incorporated into a larger menu. For Damuck, the perfect salad balances each bite, with something tart enough to twinge your cheeks, something sweet to balance out the bitter, and something with a little salty crunch to finish. Salad Freak is not just about eating to feel good; it’s about confidently combining flavors to create fresh, bright, and satisfying meals that you will want to make again and again.
Description from Goodreads.
“With over a decade of cooking for Martha Stewart under her belt, recipe developer Damuck debuts with a vibrant collection that proves ‘how easy it can be to make a really mind-blowing and exceptionally beautiful salad’… If Alison Roman is the queen of stews, Damuck easily reigns in the kingdom of salads.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“[An] entire cookbook of delicious and unique salads… full of beautiful photographs of delicious-looking dishes… This is a cookbook I didn’t know I needed until I started cooking from it.” – Beth Fish Reads
Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation by Hannah Gadsby
Nonfiction / Memoir / Comedy.
“There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.” – Hannah Gadsby, Nanette
Hannah Gadsby’s unique standup special Nanette was a viral success that left audiences captivated by her blistering honesty and her ability to create both tension and laughter in a single moment. Gadsby’s worldwide fame might have led some to believe she was an overnight sensation, but like everything else about her, the path from open mic to the global stage was hard fought and anything but linear.
Ten Steps to Nanette traces her growth as a queer person from Tasmania—where homosexuality was illegal until 1997—to her ever-evolving relationship with comedy, to her struggle with late-in-life diagnoses of autism and ADHD, and finally to the backbone of Nanette—the renouncement of self-deprecation, the rejection of misogyny, and the moral significance of truth-telling.
Harrowing and hilarious, Ten Steps to Nanette continues Gadsby’s tradition of confounding expectations and norms, properly introducing us to one of the most explosive, formative voices of our time.
Description from Goodreads.
“Similar to her groundbreaking comedy specials Douglas and Nanette, Gadsby’s memoir reads like a conversation with a longtime friend… A can’t-miss memoir that will make readers laugh, cry, and everything in between.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“In this stunning debut, Emmy Award–winning comedian Gadsby guides readers on a tour of her life that’s every bit as intimate, gutting, and untidy as the performance referenced in the title… This stirring tale of resilience laughs in the face of the ‘inspiration porn’ industry.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Consistently self-effacing and contemplative, Gadsby acknowledges that her unique brand of deadpan observational comedy isn’t for everyone, especially since it often skewers ‘the two most overly sensitive demographics the world has ever known: straight white cis men and self-righteous comedians’… A witty and provocatively written life story.” – Kirkus Reviews
What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline
Fiction / Mystery / Suspense.
Your family has been attacked, never again to be the same.
Now you have to choose between law… and justice.
Jason Bennett is a suburban dad who owns a court-reporting business, but one night, his life takes a horrific turn. He is driving his family home after his daughter’s lacrosse game when a pickup truck begins tailgating them, on a dark stretch of road. Suddenly two men jump from the pickup and pull guns on Jason, demanding the car. A horrific flash of violence changes his life forever.
Later that awful night, Jason and his family receive a visit from the FBI. The agents tell them that the carjackers were members of a dangerous drug-trafficking organization – and now Jason and his family are in their crosshairs. The agents advise the Bennetts to enter the witness protection program right away, and they have no choice but to agree. But WITSEC was designed to protect criminal informants, not law-abiding families. Taken from all they know, trapped in an unfamiliar life, the Bennetts begin to fall apart at the seams. Then Jason learns a shocking truth and realizes that he has to take matters into his own hands.
Description from Goodreads.
“Just might be the best book Scottoline has ever written, a masterpiece of misdirection, where nothing is as it seems, and a scorching character study of a man at the end of his rope who’s not about to go down without a fight.” – Providence Journal
“Explosive new complications in the most relentless of all her mysteries. A high-octane thriller whose hero is tossed into one impossible situation after another. Best started early in the morning.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“This heart-wrenching novel… morphs into a high-speed, action-packed thriller… Fans will get their money’s worth.” – Publishers Weekly
Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May
Fiction / Fantasy / Historical Fiction.
On Crow Island, people whisper, real magic lurks just below the surface.
Neither real magic nor faux magic interests Annie Mason. Not after it stole her future. She’s only on the island to settle her late father’s estate and, hopefully, reconnect with her long-absent best friend, Beatrice, who fled their dreary lives for a more glamorous one.
Yet Crow Island is brimming with temptation, and the biggest one may be her enigmatic new neighbor.
Mysterious and alluring, Emmeline Delacroix is a figure shadowed by rumors of witchcraft. And when Annie witnesses a confrontation between Bea and Emmeline at one of the island’s extravagant parties, she is drawn into a glittering, haunted world. A world where the boundaries of wickedness are tested, and the cost of illicit magic might be death.
Description from Goodreads.
“[B]eautiful… May’s atmospheric prose conjures the world down to its last detail.” – Publishers Weekly
“A sapphic historical fantasy novel that drips with dark curses and alluring witchcraft. It delivers all the gothic, witchy vibes you could hope for.” – CultureFly
“[T]his compelling queer gothic gas-lamp tale of witchcraft, wealth, and war is filled with brooding atmosphere, sensual details, and a sense of creeping dread… [A] tale of secrets, lies, and mistakenly raising the dead, will keep readers guessing and turning pages to the very end. Highly recommended for lovers of dark, witchy fantasy.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW