“I will come back as a little breeze. You will feel me on your face, and you will know that I am still listening. So you can still talk to me.” – Elizabeth Berg, Talk Before Sleep
Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age by Ibram X. Kendi ★
nonfiction / history / politics / philosophy / sociology.
Recall the words chanted in Charlottesville, Virginia: “You will not replace us!” Recall the string of mass shooters across the globe—in Oslo, Christchurch, Buffalo, El Paso, and Pittsburgh—who claimed their crimes were a defense against “White genocide.” Recall business and media figures cultivating anxiety and furor over demographic change. These incidents only scratch the surface: Popular and ruling politicians in every region of the world have expressed some version of great replacement theory, eroding democratic norms in the name of preventing demographic change.
The term was coined in 2011 by a French novelist who argued that Black and Brown immigrants were “invading” Europe, brought by shadowy elites to “replace” the White population. From there, politicians and theorists in the United States and elsewhere repackaged it as a story of “globalists” welcoming “migrant criminals” and promoting diversity to take away the jobs, cultures, electoral power, and very lives of White people. Over time, great replacement theory has expanded those under threat to include citizens, men, Jews, Christians, heterosexuals, and ethnic majorities in countries as distinct as Russia, El Salvador, Brazil, Italy, and India, all targeted with the message that they are facing an existential attack that only a strongman can prevent.
In Chain of Ideas, internationally bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi offers an unsettling but indispensable global history of how great replacement theory brought humanity into this authoritarian age—and how we can free ourselves from it.
“As anti-immigrant sentiment soars around the world, Ibram X. Kendi, the National Book Award-winning historian of racism, charts the rise of the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory.” – Foreign Policy, MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS 2026
“…brilliant and eye-opening… convincingly argues that the success of all authoritarians lies in their ability to redirect the legitimate grievances of the exploited away from their class interests and toward paranoid fantasy… a rousing call for solidarity across lines of class and race in order to fight fascism.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“[Kendi] has a gift for tracing how historical ideas metastasize into present, real-world damage… Kendi reveals the mechanics behind the myth, and why confronting it is now a democratic necessity.” – Charley Burlock, Oprah Daily
“While much of what Kendi observes has been said before, his gift for connecting the dots and pointing out common tactics and talking points in disparate places is eye-opening and sobering.” – Lesley Williams, Booklist
Everyone in This Bank Is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson
fiction / mystery / suspense.
I’ve spent the last few years solving murders. But a bank heist is a new one, even for me. I’ve never been a hostage before.
The doors are chained shut. No one in or out. Which means that when someone in the bank is murdered, everyone is a suspect.
THE BANK ROBBER
THE MANAGER
THE SECURITY GUARD
THE KID
THE FILM PRODUCER
THE PRIEST
THE RECEPTIONIST
THE PATIENT
THE CAREGIVER
ME
Turns out, more than one person planned to rob the bank today. You can steal more from a bank than just money.
Who is stealing what? Are they willing to kill for it? And can I solve the crime before the police kick down the door and rescue us?
“Nobody from Agatha Christie to Anthony Horowitz beats Stevenson for cleverness. Resign yourself to being stumped, and enjoy.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Stevenson’s hot streak continues with the fabulous fourth case for Ernest Cunningham… As always, Stevenson plays scrupulously fair with readers, offering all the evidence needed to solve his devilishly intricate puzzle from the jump. Still, even the most seasoned mystery fans will struggle to beat him to the final reveal. This series continues to impress.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“…funny and clever… a smart nod to the golden age of mysteries–the ‘fair-play’ mysteries where the clues are front and center for the reader… This is a novel where every detail serves a purpose, every character has a hidden agenda, and the reader has all the tools they need to solve this mystery provided they can keep up with Stevenson’s crazy pacing and myriad of red herrings amongst clues.” – Sarah Reida, Crime Spree Magazine
The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds by James H. McCommons
nonfiction / history / nature / birds / science.
From the time the country was founded, early Americans assumed that the land’s natural resources were infinite, including its birds, which were zealously hunted for food, game, and fashion. With the rapid extinction of the passenger pigeon―a bird once so numerous that its flocks darkened the sky in flight―many realized actions needed to be taken if other birds were to be saved. What followed was both a spiritual awakening and a great crusade to save birds and their habitat. The campaign took place on many battlefields: society teas in Boston, hunt clubs on the East Coast, the mangroves in the Everglades, and in the editorial pages of newspapers and periodicals. From many corners of the country the bird protection movement was born and brought together a remarkable coalition of people and organizations to save America’s birds.
The Feather Wars is an entertaining and expansive work of American history, an incredible story about how disparate characters―progressive politicians, free-thinking society belles, nature writers and artists, bird-loving U.S. presidents, gunmakers, business titans, and brave game wardens―came together to save hundreds of species of birds. Heroes, martyrs, villains, and conflicted do-gooders―the early bird conservation movement had them all. Together they transformed how Americans thought and cared about birds, forever altering the American landscape.
“A definitive history of bird conservation in America.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“A well-researched and compelling example of nature writing.” – Maren Ostergard, Booklist
“…dazzling… McCommons adorns his narrative with colorful characters that bring fascinating depth to the historical period, such as boys whose childhoods were spent subsistence hunting. The result is an immersive saga of a shift in both public conscience and everyday practice.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Heiress of Nowhere by Stacey Lee
fiction / young adult / historical fiction / mystery.
1918. Orcas Island, Washington.
Lucy Nowhere has spent her eighteen years working on the vast estate of the eccentric shipbuilder who took her in after she washed ashore in a green canoe as a baby. But she has long wished for a life off the island, and in a matter of days, she is set to leave for college—and, for the first time, choose her own future.
Then she finds her employer’s severed head on the beach. Rumors swirl that a mischievous spirit and its minions, the sea wolves, have struck again. Lucy doesn’t believe in myths. She knows that a human—a human murderer—killed him. And when she is unexpectedly named heiress to the estate, she understands the next target is her.
Her closest friend, the estate’s vigilant young guard, begs her to escape while she can. But Lucy knows the only way she can discover who she is, and free the island of its curse, is to find the real killer—before she becomes the next victim.
“The lushness and atmosphere of Nowhere is palpable… Set in 1918 with excellent world building, this exceptional novel would be at home among both historical fiction or magic realism, with no need to pick a side.” – Jessica Durham, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Against a beautifully described natural setting, Lee creates a dark, haunting, suspense-filled atmosphere with a touch of the supernatural. Combining science and myth, this is an exciting story with a multiethnic cast that explores identity, friendship, trust, and caring for nature.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Descriptive prose and sensorial imagery bring the intersectionally diverse people and beguiling setting of this gothic whodunit to vivid life. Realistically rendered characters navigate fast-paced events with a dash of romance, culminating in a captivating adventure that perceptively ruminates on themes of colonization, gender discrimination, and environmental collapse.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Hooked by Asako Yuzuki; translated by Polly Barton ★
fiction / suspense.
Eriko’s life looks perfect—from her prestigious job at a Japanese trading firm to her spotless apartment and devoted parents. Her newest project, to reintroduce the controversial Nile Perch into the Japanese market, is as ambitious as she is. But beneath her flawless surface lies a consuming loneliness. Eriko has never been able to hold on to a real friend.
Enter Shoko: a popular lifestyle blogger whose work Eriko follows obsessively. Shoko lives a life of controlled chaos—messy apartment, take-out dinners, a kind, easy-going husband. She writes about daily contentment, though her fractured relationship with her father gnaws at the edges of her happiness.
When Eriko orchestrates a “chance” meeting with Shoko, the two women strike up an unlikely connection. For a fleeting moment, Eriko believes she’s finally found what she’s always longed for. But as her fascination turns to fixation and Shoko’s carefully balanced life begins to dissolve, both women are pushed to breaking points neither of them saw coming.
Deftly translated by Polly Barton, Hooked is a taut, provocative novel about modern womanhood, the hunger for connection, and the quiet, ordinary ways our lives can spiral out of control. With razor-sharp insight and disarming empathy, Asako Yuzuki explores how far we’ll go to be seen and what happens when the ones who see us don’t like what they find.
“[A] tightly wound piece of work… [it] packs a hell of a punch under Yuzuki’s guidance.” – Sophie Lee, Cultured
“[A] propulsive tale of desperate friendship, obsessive fixation and fish…” – Colin Dwyer, NPR
“[A] nail-biting stalker saga… What Yuzuki does masterfully is play a double bluff. By telling the story through both Eriko and Shoko’s eyes, she lulls her reader into thinking all the cards have been laid out. But she holds one close to her chest until the very end… a feverishly good time.” – Eloise Budimlich, The Nightly
In the Shadow of the Great House: A History of the Plantation in America by Daniel Rood
nonfiction / history.
Over the last few decades, and especially in the last ten years, our understanding of slavery has been transformed by the work of many talented scholars. We have learned a great deal about the actions of enslavers, the struggles and victories of the enslaved, and how the afterlives of American slavery persist into the present. Yet Dan Rood’s In the Shadow of the Great House is one of the first contemporary books to focus on the primary engine of slavery, race, and capitalism in this country: the plantation.
The plantation was invented on the small Atlantic island of São Tomé in the 1500s, and the island also became the site, soon enough, of the first slave revolt. The brutal technology was then perfected in Barbados, where planters worked tens of thousands of African captives to their deaths in sugar factories. But it was in the United States, Rood shows, that the plantation found its most powerful manifestations. In Virginia, Carolina, and then the Deep South, successive plantation revolutions transformed slavery into a much more rigid and oppressive institution. While prejudice certainly preceded the plantation, incomparably wealthy planters now insisted on a rightless, eternally available, “increasing” source of labor, and in the process reinvented human bondage and stamped it onto a single race.
In a narrative that sweeps across four hundred years of American history, Rood reveals that the plantation did not die after the Civil War. It metastasized. From the advent of sharecropping in the late nineteenth century to the rise of cotton in mid-twentieth century California to today’s chicken processing plants―which sit on the same land once occupied by plantations and are staffed largely by migrant workers―the plantation has cast a long shadow over American life.
Even as he describes how the always-evolving plantation spread across much of the landscape, devouring people and nature in equal measure, Rood documents the “dark retreats” carved out of plantation life by the enslaved. It was the enslaved―those caught up in the plantation’s treadmill, those who were thrown violently into the gears of its machinery―who offered the most clear-eyed understanding of how it worked, and what these behemoths told us, and still tell us, about our country.
“An important and revelatory work that brings economic history to life with narrative and nuance.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
Life: A Love Story by Elizabeth Berg
fiction.
As ninety-two-year-old Florence “Flo” Greene nears the end of her life, she writes a letter to Ruthie, the woman who grew up next door to her, describing the items Flo is leaving Ruthie in her will. But as it goes on, telling surprising stories about those “little” things Flo will leave behind (What could possibly be the worth of a rubber band kept in a matchbox tied up in red ribbon?), an unforgettable portrait of the life she has lived emerges.
The letter starts off as an autobiography in things, but it turns out to do much more than that: ultimately, it will transform Flo and those around her. In the time she has left, Flo decides to take herself up on tiny dares. She encourages Ruthie to reconsider her impending divorce by sharing a startling, long-buried secret about her own perfect-seeming marriage. Flo has never had a pedicure before now, and as long as she’s going to a beauty parlor, she arranges to have a blue streak put in her hair, too. And as these adventures lead her to make new friends, Flo helps them, too, find the fulfillment that living a full life has led her to understand.
Full of Elizabeth Berg’s characteristic mix of warmth, humor, and poignancy, Life: A Love Story is a reminder that whatever your circumstances, as long as you’re alive, you can keep on investing in life. The joy will inevitably follow.
“…an unforgettable portrait…” – Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books
“Readers will be charmed by this heartening tale.” – Publishers Weekly
“Life resonates with relatable characters, consequential little things, and the power of forgiveness. Fans of Anne Tyler and Sue Monk Kidd will appreciate Flo’s evocative story… this is the author at her heartwarming best.” – Karen Clements, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Love Song by Elle Kennedy
fiction / romance.
After a brutal breakup, college junior Blake Logan escapes to her family’s lake house in Tahoe, determined to shut out the world. Her plan is simple: no men, no drama. Until Wyatt Graham shows up. Four years older and far too good at getting under her skin, Wyatt is the living embodiment of a “bad idea,” and the guy who shattered her pride when she confessed her crush at sixteen.
With his music career stalled, Wyatt has come to Tahoe for inspiration. The last thing he expects is to find it with Blake. He’s spent years keeping his distance, convinced he’s all wrong for her, but she’s no longer the innocent girl he once knew. She’s confident, captivating, and impossible to ignore. And the slow-burning tension between them? It’s catching fire fast.
They both know this can’t last, but one reckless kiss turns into another, and soon they’re tangled in something that feels dangerously like more. Just as they finally give in to the pull, tragedy tears them apart, leaving their hearts in pieces.
But forgetting that one, nearly perfect summer? Not a chance. And when fate brings them together again, Blake and Wyatt must decide if this is a second chance… or the final verse.
“…the sizzling chemistry makes for very appealing characters.” – Amy Alessio, Booklist
“…steamy… Off Campus fans seeking more spicy stories set in the same universe will be well pleased.” – Publishers Weekly
“Love Song had all of the crazy antics, life-long friendships, seriously steamy romance, and relatable characters I enjoyed in Elle Kennedy’s OG Briar books. If you’re looking for something that will have you completely swept up in the storyline, look no further.” – Harlequin Junkie, RECOMMENDED
One Plate at a Time: Recipes for Finding Freedom with Food by Demi Lovato
nonfiction / food / cooking.
Demi Lovato’s cooking journey started when she was almost thirty. After years of navigating a challenging relationship with food, she found that learning to cook―discovering how to truly nourish herself in mind, body, and spirit―was a revelation. It was in the kitchen, experimenting with flavors, connecting with loved ones, and channeling her creativity in a new way―that she truly began to appreciate and celebrate the joy of food.
Now, in One Plate at a Time, Demi welcomes everyone into the kitchen with a collection of more than eighty recipes, all created to emphasize enjoyment over perfection. You won’t find overwhelming ingredient lists or tricky techniques, but instead a collection of simple yet memorable favorites anyone can make. Demi shares her “top five” favorite foolproof recipes in a range of categories, creating “capsule collections” for everything from breakfast to dinner, comfort foods to fast food-inspired favorites, soups to salads, and even go-to sweet treats.
Filled with beautiful food photography as well as snapshots that give fans a peek into Demi’s home life, personal anecdotes, pantry tips, and cooking hacks, this is a cookbook for Demi Lovato fans, for people who struggle to enjoy food without guilt, and for anyone looking for a gentler, more grounded approach to cooking. One Plate at a Time is Demi’s set list for a delicious new way of thinking about food and how it fits into our lives.
“Let Demi Lovato reignite your pleasure for cooking and eating, One Plate at a Time, with her inspiring new cookbook.” – B&N Reads
“…inspiring… a powerful testament to the transformative impact that cooking can have when approached from a conscious and loving perspective.” – Lulismar Estevez, mui Kitchen
Salt Lakes: An Unnatural History by Caroline Tracey
nonfiction / science / nature / history / memoir / travel.
More than a hundred salt lakes dot Earth’s surface, most of them hidden away in remote desert valleys. But today nearly all of them are at risk of drying up. Their death is a harbinger of rising sea levels, life-threatening dust storms, and environmental collapse.
Writer and geographer Caroline Tracey didn’t know this when she began crossing paths with salt lakes during her early twenties. From the Great Salt Lake to the Aral Sea, across the American West and around the world, the unusual beauty of these shimmering, uncanny bodies of water captured her imagination. In Salt Lakes, Tracey travels across four continents to seek out and describe these extraordinary vanishing lakes and the people dedicated to saving them. She takes readers along on her adventures by train in Kazakhstan and on an inflatable raft in California, on her encounter with Mormon environmentalists in Utah and an Australian Aboriginal painter seeking to capture her country for her children. In evocative prose, she traces shorebirds’ seasonal migration and the history of water law.
As Tracey chronicles the decline of the lakes, she also experiences dramatic changes in her own life and conception of self. Running parallel to Tracey’s environmental journey is an intimate, human one: her story of finding queer love and building a home in a world fast being remade by ecological crises. By the end of Salt Lakes, she shows us how seeing the environment through a queer lens could help save our water system.
An exquisite blend of travel writing, memoir, and reportage, Salt Lakes is an inspiring call to fight for all that is fragile in our lives.
“A perceptive writer’s urgent call to prioritize the abundance and diversity of life.” – Kirkus Reviews
Still Talking: Stories by Lore Segal
fiction / short stories.
Lore Segal is a master of the short story, and this collection shows her in peak form. Profound, dark, and often hilarious, Segal portrays her characters foibles, eccentricities and passions with great compassion and exactness, as they grapple with life, aging, and each other.
Readers of Ladies Lunch will recognize the educated, urbane nonagenarian women who have been friends for a lifetime, as they tackle aging’s affronts with wit, grace and resourcefulness.
“…Segal evokes the power of real friendship, which can stay strong even as bodies weaken… Moving and sometimes hilarious, it reminds one to stay curious.” – James Carey-Douglas, The Daily Mail
“The late Segal wrote about unlikely and enduring friendship with dignity, care, and wit… If you’re the type to pine after future, better seasons of And Just Like That…, I’d place this top of pile.” – Brittany K. Allen, Literary Hub
“This posthumous novella of interconnected stories and vignettes is enriched by Lore Segal’s inspiring wit and wisdom, her compassionate gaze, and her unquenchable curiosity about life. It’s a book that entreats us to keep talking, regardless of differences and the trials of ageing – a book that we’ll still be talking about many years from now.” – Sort of Books
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