Lists and Suggestions

Grace Adams gave birth, blinked, and now suddenly she is forty-five, perimenopausal and stalled--the unhappiest age you can be, according to the Guardian. And today she finally has had enough. To the astonishment of everyone, Grace gets out of her car and simply walks away. Grace sets off across London, armed with a £200 cake, to win back her estranged teenage daughter on her sixteenth birthday. Because today is the day she'll remind her daughter that no matter how far we fall, we can always get back up again. Because Grace Adams used to be amazing. But everyone seems to have forgotten. Grace is about to remind them ... and, most important, remind herself.

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe's theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe. As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community--heaven and earth--that sustain us.

It's a long way from a Christmas tree farm in North Carolina to a certain street corner in Greenwich Village, but Kerry Tolliver agrees to make the trek and live in a tiny camper with her older brother out of family loyalty. Selling Christmas trees at the family's stand on the sidewalks of New York, Kerry is startled to find herself beginning to feel at home in this quirky little corner of the city and succumbing to the charms of Patrick and his adorable son Austin. When an elderly neighbor goes missing with the holidays approaching, Kerry discovers her new friends have become family... and maybe more.

Henry Winkler, launched into prominence by his role as 'The Fonz' in the beloved Happy Days, has transcended the role that made him who he is. Brilliant, funny and widely-regarded as the nicest man in Hollywood (though he would be the first to tell you that it's simply not the case, he's really just grateful to be here), Henry shares in this achingly vulnerable memoir the disheartening truth of his childhood, the difficulties of a life with severe dyslexia, the pressures of a role that takes on a life of its own and the path forward once your wildest dream seems behind you. Since the glorious era of Happy Days fame, Henry has endeared himself to a new generation with roles in such adored shows as Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, and Barry, where he's revealed himself as an actor with immense depth and pathos, a departure from the period of his life when he was so distinctly typecast as The Fonz, he could hardly find work.

For some people, enough will never be enough. . . .In this town, anyone is replaceable. . . . After a tragic chain of events led to the deaths of their spouses two years ago, DC philanthropist Sloane Chase and Senator Whit Montgomery are finally starting to move on. The horrifying ordeal drew them together, and now they're ready to settle down again-with each other. As Sloane returns to the world of White House dinners and political small talk, this time with her new husband, she's also preparing for an upcoming hip replacement--the latest reminder of the lupus she's managed since her twenties. With their hectic schedules, they decide that hiring a home health aide will give Sloane the support and independence she needs postsurgery. And they find the perfect fit in Athena Karras. Seemingly a godsend, Athena tends to Sloane and even helps her run her charitable foundation. But Sloane slowly begins to deteriorate--a complication, Athena explains, of Sloane's lupus. As weeks go by, Sloane becomes sicker, and her uncertainty quickly turns to paranoia as she begins to suspect the worst. Why is Athena asking her so many probing questions about her foundation--as well as about her past? And could Sloane be imagining the sultry looks between Athena and her new husband?

The author of The Things They Carried delivers his first new novel in two decades, a brilliant and rollicking odyssey, in which a bank robbery sparks "a satirical romp through a country plagued by deceit" (Kirkus, starred review). At 11:34 a.m. one Saturday in August 2019, Boyd Halverson strode into Community National Bank in Northern California. "How much is on hand, would you say?" he asked the teller. "I'll want it all." "You're robbing me?" He revealed a Temptation .38 Special. The teller, a diminutive redhead named Angie Bing, collected eighty-one thousand dollars. Boyd stuffed the cash into a paper grocery bag. "I'm sorry about this," he said, "but I'll have to ask you to take a ride with me." So begins the adventure of Boyd Halverson--star journalist turned notorious online disinformation troll turned JCPenney manager--and his irrepressible hostage, Angie Bing. Haunted by his past and weary of his present, Boyd has one goal before the authorities catch up with him: settle a score with the man who destroyed his life. By Monday the pair reach Mexico; by winter, they are in a lakefront mansion in Minnesota. On their trail are hitmen, jealous lovers, ex-cons, an heiress, a billionaire shipping tycoon, a three-tour veteran of Iraq, and the ghosts of Boyd's past. Everyone, it seems, except the police. In the tradition of Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain, America Fantastica delivers a biting, witty, and entertaining story about the causes and costs of outlandish fantasy, while also marking the triumphant return of an essential voice in American letters. And at the heart of the novel, amid a teeming cast of characters, readers will delight in the tug-of-war between two memorable and iconic human beings--the exuberant savior-of-souls Angie Bing and the penitent but compulsive liar Boyd Halverson. Just as Tim O'Brien's modern classic, The Things They Carried, so brilliantly reflected the unromantic truth of war, America Fantastica puts a mirror to a nation and a time that has become dangerously unmoored from truth and greedy for delusion.

Celebrated journalist Ola Olajide is set to marry the love of her life in one month's time. Young, beautigul, and successful, she and her fiancé, Michael, seem to have it all. Taht is, until one morning when they both wake up to the same message: "Oh my god, have yoou seen The List?" It began as a crowdsourced colleciton of names and somehow morphed into an anonymous account posting allegations on social media. Ola would usually be the first to support such a list--she'd retweet it, call for the men to be fired, write article after article. Except this time, Michael's name is on it. Compulsively readable, wildly entertaining, and filled with sharp social insight, The List is a searing portrait of these modern times and our morally complicated online culture.

London, April 1943. Emmy Lake is in charge of "Yours Cheerfully," the popular advice column in Woman's Friend magazine. Emmy is dedicated to helping readers face the increasing challenges brought about by over three years of war. But her world is turned upside down when Mrs. Cressida Porter becomes the new publisher of the magazine and wants to change everything the readers love. Worst of all, she announces that she is cutting the "Yours Cheerfully" column and her vision for the publication's future seems dire. With the stakes higher than ever, Emmy and her friends must find a way to save the magazine that they love.

Beatrice Steele lives a perfectly agreeable life with her mother, father, and two younger sisters--Louisa and Mary. But she is obsessed with the true crime cases she reads about. If anyone found out, she would be deemed a morbid creep and banished from respectable society forever. Eligible bachelor Edmund Croaksworth is set to attend the approaching ball, and the Steele family hopes that Louisa will steal his heart. When Croaksworth drops dead in the middle of a minuet, the evening descends into a frenzy of panic as it becomes clear they are trapped with a killer. Beatrice must rise above decorum and decency to pursue justice--before anyone else is murdered.

Secret walks and late-night phone calls. An undeniable chemistry. A tragedy that haunts them both. A powerful yet tender love story between two people who can't help but be pulled back to one another, time and again This is the story of Will and Rosie. The two are opposites in every way and yet they fall for each other as teenagers; nineties music, sideways glances, sunsets and bonfires and talking late into the night. It's palpable, inevitable: they're on the precipice of starting something wonderful. Until one day, tragedy strikes, and any possibility of being together seems to shatter. And yet, time and again, Rosie and Will find their way back to each other. Though the years pass, they cannot quite let go of what might have been. Talking at Night tells a story of sudden connections, missed opportunities, the many loves we have over a lifetime--and the one that keeps us coming back, again and again, for more.

Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words, in turn, find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice's novel. Each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives. Together, their stories reveal how books can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways--and how we are all more closely connected to one another than we might think.

As David Brooks observes, "There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen--to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood." And yet we humans don't do this well. All around us are people who feel invisible, unseen, misunderstood. In How to Know a Person, Brooks sets out to help us do better, posing questions that are essential for all of If you want to know a person, what kind of attention should you cast on them? What kind of conversations should you have? What parts of a person's story should you pay attention to? Driven by his trademark sense of curiosity and his determination to grow as a person, Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience and from the worlds of theater, philosophy, history, and education to present a welcoming, hopeful, integrated approach to human connection. How to Know a Person helps readers become more understanding and considerate toward others, and to find the joy that comes from being seen. Along the way it offers a possible remedy for a society that is riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception. The act of seeing another person, Brooks argues, is profoundly How can we look somebody in the eye and see something large in them, and in turn, see something larger in ourselves? How to Know a Person is for anyone searching for connection, and yearning to be understood.

Childhood sweethearts Nicole and Tom are a normal, loving couple--until a massive lottery win changes their lives overnight. Soon they've moved into a custom-built state-of-the-art Glass Barn on the stunning grounds of Lancaut Manor in Gloucestershire. They have fancy cars, expensive hobbies, and an exclusive lifestyle they never could have imagined. But this dream world quickly turns into a nightmare when Tom is found dead in the swimming pool. Nicole is devastated. Tom was her rock. And their beautiful barn --with all its smart features that never seem to work for her--is beginning to feel very lonely. But she's not entirely by herself out there in the country. There's a nice young couple who live in the Manor itself along with their middle-aged housekeeper who has the Coach House. And an old friend of Tom's from school has turned up to help her get through her grief. But big money can bring big problems and big threats. Was Tom's death a tragic accident, or was it something worse? And is her life in danger as well? Nicole's beginning to feel like a little fish in a big glass bowl. Surrounded by piranhas.

When Iris decides to move to New York to restart her life, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is--all the nostalgic movies set in New York she'd watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe gelato didn't quite do it justice. But Bobby, Iris's best friend, isn't about to let her hide away. He drags her to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, and as they walk through the food stalls, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye--could it be the same shop that's in an old photo of her mother's? Curious, Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, sole keeper of their family's gelato recipe, is in a coma, so they can't make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato and her gelato are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows their secret recipe when she's not sure why Gio's uncle gave it to her mother in the first place? Iris offers her services as a chef to help them re-create the flavor and finds herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio's uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life--and new love--she's been building all winter long.

What became of Mitch and Abby McDeere after they exposed the crimes of Memphis law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke and fled the country? It is now fifteen years later, and Mitch and Abby are living in Manhattan, where Mitch is a partner at the largest law firm in the world. When a mentor in Rome asks him for a favor that will take him far from home, Mitch finds himself at the center of a sinister plot that has worldwide implications and once again endangers his colleagues, friends, and family. Mitch has become a master at staying one step ahead of his adversaries, but this time there's nowhere to hide.

The intimate, multi-generational story of the Kennedy family as seen through their Hyannis Port compound on Cape Cod--the iconic place where they've celebrated, mourned, and forged the closest of bonds--based on more than a hundred in-depth interviews by a Rolling Stone editor whose pieces have appeared in such publications as Town & Country, Esquire, and Vanity Fair. Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, is synonymous with the Kennedy family. It is where, for a hundred years, America's most storied political family has come to celebrate, bond, play, and, also, grieve. It is also the setting of so many events we remember: JFK giving his presidential acceptance speech, Jackie speaking with a Life magazine reporter just days after her husband's assassination, Senator Edward Kennedy seeking refuge after the Chappaquiddick crash, Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger tying the knot--and even Conor Kennedy courting pop star Taylor Swift. Anyone who has lived in, worked at, or visited the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port has had a front-row view to history. Now, with extraordinary access to the Kennedy family--and featuring more than fifty rarely-seen images--journalist Kate Storey gives us a remarkably intimate and poignant look at the rhythms of an American dynasty. Drawing from more than a hundred conversations with family members, friends, neighbors, household and security staff, Storey delivers a rich and textured account of the Kennedys' lives in their summer refuge. From the 1920s, when Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy rented then bought a home known as The Malcolm Cottage, to today, when many Kennedys have purchased their own homes surrounding what's now called The Big House, this book delivers many surprising revelations across the decades, including what matriarch Rose considered the family's greatest tragedy, the rivalrous relationship between brothers Jack and Joe, details about Jackie's life at the compound, and previously unknown glimpses into JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette's loving and ill-fated relationship. Fascinating, engaging, and illuminating, White House by the Sea provides a sweeping history of an American dynasty that has left an indelible mark on our nation's politics and culture.

When Harper Shaw's life falls apart, she knows it's time for a change. She removes everything that doesn't spark joy--from her soul-sucking job to eating kale to making lists--and sets off for the last place she was happy, Lake Tahoe (who wouldn't feel good there, right?) to fulfill her dream of opening her own bakery. With her Sugar Pine Bakery in between a tavern, owned by sexy, grumpy Bodie Campbell, and a bookstore, run by her new BFF, she feels a peace she's never experienced since ... well, forever. Then she meets Ivy, a teenage runaway, who barrels into her heart. She sees a lot of herself in Ivy and takes her under her wing, but the teenager has secrets.

When Harlow Estrada is abruptly fired from her dream job and her boyfriend proves to be a jerk, her world turns upside down. She flees New York City to the one place she can always call home--the enchanted Hacienda Estrada. The Estrada family farm in Mexico houses an abundance of charmed flowers cultivated by Harlow's mother, sisters, aunt, and cousins. By harnessing the magic in these flowers, they can heal hearts, erase memories, interpret dreams--but not Harlow. Maybe it's not magic she's missing, but belief in herself. When she finally embraces her unique gifts and opens her heart to a handsome stranger, she discovers she's far more powerful than she imagined.

Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader's guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with spirits: of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take.

Catherine Sterling thinks she knows her mother. Ruth Sterling is quiet, hardworking, and lives for her daughter. All her life, it's been just the two of them against the world. But now, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, move from home, and begin a new career. And Ruth Sterling will do anything to prevent that from happening. Ruth Sterling thinks she knows her daughter. Catherine would never rebel, would never question anything about her mother's past or background. But when Ruth's desperate quest to keep her daughter by her side begins to reveal cracks in Ruth's carefully-constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception. No one can know Ruth's history. There is a reason why Ruth kept them moving every few years, and why she was ready--in a moment's notice--to be gone in the night. But danger is closing in. Is it coming from the outside, from Ruth's past? Is Ruth reaching a breaking point? Or is the danger coming from the darkness that may live in Catherine, herself? Propulsive, brilliant, layered, and provocative, Gone Tonight is a thriller that showcases Sarah Pekkanen at the top of her game.

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India's Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning--and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl--and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi--will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants. A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.

When Tara Connelly is released from prison after serving eighteen months on a drug charge, she knows rebuilding her life at thirty years old won't be easy. With no money and no prospects, she returns home to live with her siblings, who are both busy with their own problems. Her brother, a single dad, struggles with the ongoing effects of a brain injury he sustained years ago, and her sister's fragile facade of calm and order is cracking under the burden of big secrets. Life becomes even more complicated when the cop who put her in prison keeps showing up unannounced, leaving Tara to wonder what he wants from her now. While she works to build a new career and hold her family together, Tara finds a chance at love in a most unlikely place. But when the Connellys' secrets start to unravel and threaten her future, they all must face their worst fears and come clean, or risk losing each other forever.

A sweeping historical novel about Abraham Lincoln's ascendance from rumpled lawyer to U.S. president to the Great Emancipator through the eyes of a young asylum-seeker who arrives in Lincoln's home of Springfield from Madeira, Portugal. Showing intelligence beyond society's expectations, fourteen-year-old Ana Ferreira lands a job in the Lincoln household assisting Mary Lincoln with their boys and with the hostess duties borne by the wife of a rising political star. Ana bears witness to the evolution of Lincoln's views on equality and the Union and observes in full complexity the psyche and pain of his bold, polarizing wife, Mary. Along with her African American friend Cal, Ana encounters the presence of the underground railroad in town and experiences personally how slavery is tearing apart her adopted country. Culminating in an eyewitness account of the little-known Springfield race riot of 1908, The House of Lincoln takes readers on a journey through the historic changes that reshaped America and that continue to reverberate today.

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital. It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good. In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.

The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages? In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor.

In Death of a Christmas Mitten Knitter by Lee Hollis, food writer Hayley Powell discovers the dead body of a local knitter with a homemade mitten stuffed in her mouth. In Two Christmas Mittens by Lynn Cahoon, Mia Malone finds a dead body near one red mitten in the snow. Learning that an ancient curse is at play, Mia must find the missing mitten and solve the murder before someone she loves is the next victim. In Murderous Mittens by Maddie Day, after a lovely evening at the local wine bar, Cece Barton learns that the bar's proprietor, who sells mittens in her spare time, has been found dead. Can Cece unmask the merry murderer before this becomes a holiday from hell?

In New York City, you can disappear into the crowd. At least that's what Gloria Downing desperately hopes as she tries to reinvent herself after a devastating family scandal. She's ready for a total life makeover and a friend she can lean on--and into her path walks a young, idealistic woman named Estée. Their chance encounter will change Gloria's life forever. Estée dreams of success and becoming a household name like Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubinstein, and Revlon. Before Gloria knows it, she is swept up in her new friend's mission and while Estée rolls up her sleeves, Gloria begins to discover her own talents. After landing a job at Saks Fifth Avenue, New York's finest luxury department store, Gloria finds her voice, which proves instrumental in opening doors for Estée's insatiable ambitions. But in a world unaccustomed to women with power, they'll each have to pay the price that comes with daring to live life on their own terms and refusing to back down.