2025

August 2025

My Other Heart By Emma Nanami Strenner Women's Fiction: A missing child, two girls in search of their true identities–a stunning novel of mothers, daughters and best friends. In June 1998, Mimi Truang is on her way home to Vietnam when her toddler ... daughter vanishes in the Philadelphia airport.Seventeen years later, two best friends in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, discuss their summer plans before college. Kit, with the support of her white adoptive parents, will travel to Tokyo to explore her Japanese roots. This dizzying adventure offers her a taste of first love and a new understanding of what it means to belong. Sabrina had hoped to take a similar trip to China, but money is tight. Her disappointment subsides, however, when she meets a bold, uncompromising new mentor who prompts Sabrina to ask questions she's avoided all her life. Meanwhile, Mimi purchases a plane ticket to Philadelphia. She finally has a lead in her search for her daughter. When Mimi, Kit, and Sabrina come face to face, they will confront the people they truly are, in this tremendously moving novel that is propelled to its astonishing climax in a way you will never forget. From the publisher Penguin Random House/Pamela Dorman Books | Aug 05, 2025 | 416 pages | ISBN:9780593831014 | Women's Fiction Praise "A mesmerizing novel filled with different types of love and secrets from the past." -Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee "[My Other Heart] captures the intense love between mothers and daughters and highlights the resilience of young women forging their own identities in a world full of expectations. A beautifully written and thought-provoking novel that is a must-read for those interested in contemporary fiction about cultural exploration and personal growth." -Library Journal read more

July 2025

Happy Wife By Meredith Lavender & Kendall Shores Women's Fiction: A young woman must find her missing husband and prove her innocence in this twisty, unputdownable novel set in an ultrawealthy Florida community where looks can kill. ... Nora Davies doesn't exactly fit in to Winter Park, Florida, where old-guard Floridians mix with the tax-fleeing coastal elite. Twenty-eight and barely making ends meet working at a country club, Nora feels like she's going nowhere fast. Enter Will Somerset: a prominent forty-six-year-old lawyer, father to a teenage daughter, and recently divorced. The two set Winter Park's social scene agog when they fall in love and marry after a whirlwind Cinderella-style courtship. But Winter Park is fully upended when Will disappears the morning after a birthday bash Nora throws for him. Going back and forth between Nora and Will's romance and the search in the wake of Will's mysterious disappearance, Nora must answer the question from all angles: Where. Is. Will? Combining breathless suspense, glittering and juicy social dynamics, and an unforgettable cast of characters, Happy Wife is a clever and subversive novel that explores marriage, wealth, and the secrets that lurk behind closed doors. From the publisher Penguin Random House/Bantam | Jun 24, 2025 | 320 pages | ISBN:9780593974377 | Women's Fiction Praise "Happy Wife is one of those delicious, fun summer books that you'll open on the beach and never put down."-Jenna Bush Hager, Read With Jenna "In a world of the uber-rich, a web of deceit, envy, and betrayal leads to one woman fighting for the truth-and her life-in this gripping tale of suspense and intrigue. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough."-Liv Constantine, New York Times bestselling author of The Next Mrs. Parrish read more

June 2025

A Family Matter By Claire Lynch Literary Fiction: In this dazzling debut novel, a hidden and nearly forgotten magic-of Reforging pencils, bringing the memories they contain back to life-holds the power to transform a young woman's relationship with her ... A young wife following her heart. A husband with the law on his side. Their daughter, caught in the middle. Forty years later, a family secret changes everything in this "quietly heart-scorching" (Barbara Kingsolver) debut novel. 1982. Dawn is a young mother, still adjusting to life with her husband, when Hazel lights up her world like a torch in the dark. Theirs is the kind of connection that's impossible to resist, and suddenly life is more complicated, and more joyful, than Dawn ever expected. But she has responsibilities and commitments. She has a daughter. 2022. Heron has just received news from his doctor that turns everything upside down. He's an older man, stuck in the habits of a quiet existence. Telling Maggie, his only child-the person around whom his life has revolved-seems impossible. Heron can't tell her about his diagnosis, just as he can't reveal all the other secrets he's been keeping from her for so many years. A Family Matter is an "intricately layered and infinitely nuanced" (Oprah Daily) exploration of love and loss, intimacy and injustice, custody and care, and whether it is possible to heal from the wounds of the past in the changed world of today. From the publisher Simon & Schuster/Scribner | June 3, 2025 | 240 pages | ISBN: 99781668078891 | Literary Fiction + LGBTQ Praise A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY - "Burns like a sparkler, quick and mesmerizing." -The New York Times "A searching story of family, love, and loss...raises thoughtful and heartbreaking questions about what really is in a child's best interest. An affecting exploration of the shelf life of love." -Kirkus "This quietly heart-scorching novel took me one day to read, and I'll be thinking about it forever. If you think these are dark times for civil rights and non-traditional families, the book's understated brilliance is to remind you that light-years of progress have happened in our lifetimes. And why we can't go back." -Barbara Kingsolver read more

May 2025

The Names By Florence Knopp Literary Fiction: The extraordinary novel that asks: Can a name change the course of a life? In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth.... what she'd like to call the child, Cora hesitates... Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of Cora's and her young son's lives, shaped by her choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities of autonomy and healing. With exceptional sensitivity and depth, Knapp draws us into the story of one family, told through a prism of what-ifs, causing us to consider the "one ... precious life" we are given. The book's brilliantly imaginative structure, propulsive storytelling, and emotional, gut-wrenching power are certain to make The Names a modern classic. From the publisher Penguin Random House/Pamela Dorman Books | May 06, 2025 | 336 pages | ISBN 9780593833902 | Literary Fiction Praise READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY | AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! "Dazzling... The Names is startlingly joyful... Knapp tirelessly and beautifully replicates not just loss and grief but endless rebirth and delight." -The Washington Post "Elegant... this is a wholly original work." -People Magazine "Book of the Week" "A magnificent novel, thrumming with life in all its pain and precariousness, yet suffused with the glorious possibilities of love and redemption." -Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Horse read more

April 2025

Heartwood By Amity Gaige Literary Fiction: In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. ... Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping. At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie's disappearance may not be accidental. Heartwood is a "gem of a thousand facets-suspenseful, transporting, tender, and ultimately soul-mending," (Megan Majumdar, New York Times bestselling author of A Burning) that tells the story of a lost hiker's odyssey and is a moving rendering of each character's interior journey. The mystery inspires larger questions about the many ways in which we get lost, and how we are found. At its core, Heartwood is an "unputdownable" (Real Simple) and redemptive novel, written with both enormous literary ambition and love. Excerpt From the publisher Simon & Schuster | April 1, 2025 | 320 Pages | ISBN 9781668063606 | Literary Fiction Praise "A literary thriller of the highest order" (Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Couple), Heartwood takes you on a gripping journey as a search and rescue team race against time after an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine. "[T]he best thriller of 2025 ... A knock-out of a book, perfect for fans of Liz Moore's God of the Woods." -THE BOSTON GLOBE "A novelistic cousin to Strayed's best-selling 2012 memoir of tackling the Pacific Crest Trail after her mother's death, it's the story of three woodsy women each lost in her own wilderness, and the gnarled roots between mothers and daughters." -NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW read more

March 2025

The Dream Hotel By Laila Lalami Literary Fiction: Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data "...from her dreams, the RAA's algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days. The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom. Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are. Penguin Random House/Pantheon | Mar 04, 2025 | 336 pages | ISBN 9780593317600 | Literary Fiction Praise NATIONAL BESTSELLER - READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY - From Laila Lalami-the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist and a "maestra of literary fiction" (NPR)-comes a riveting and utterly original novel about one woman's fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance. Longlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction A Best Book of the Spring from ELLE A Best Book of the Year So Far from The Economist and IGN One of the New York Post's 30 Must-Read New Thrillers A Most Anticipated Book of 2025 from Goodreads, People, TIME Magazine, TODAY, The Washington Post, New York Times Book Review Podcast, Esquire, Men's Health, Marie Claire, The National, New Scientist, Literary Hub, Business Recorder, Deseret News, Kirkus, Screen Rant, The OC Register, Electric Literature, ALTA, The A.V. Club, Language Arts, and The Crimson White read more

February 2025

This Is a Love Story By Jessica Soffer Literary Fiction: An intimate and lyrical celebration of great love, great art, and the sacrifices we make for both. For fifty years, Abe and Jane have been coming to Central Park, as starry-eyed young lovers, ... as frustrated and exhausted parents, as artists watching their careers take flight. They came alone when they needed to get away from each other, and together when they had something important to discuss. The Park has been their witness for half a century of love. Until now. Jane is dying, and Abe is recounting their life together as a way of keeping them going: the parts they knew-their courtship and early marriage, their blossoming creative lives-and the parts they didn't always want to know-the determined young student of Abe's looking for a love story of her own, and their son, Max, who believes his mother chose art over parenthood, and who has avoided love and intimacy at all costs. Told in various points of view, even in conversation with Central Park, these voices weave in and out to paint a portrait as complicated and essential as love itself. An homage to New York City, to romance, and even to loss, This Is a Love Story tenderly and suspensefully captures deep truths about life and marriage in radiant prose. It is about love that endures despite what life throws at us, or perhaps even because of it. From the publisher Penguin Random House/Dutton | Feb 04, 2025 | 304 pages | ISBN:9780593851265 | Literary Fiction Praise AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY "This may be the most epic love story I've ever, ever read."-Jenna Bush Hager on TODAY "Get ready to have your emotions rocked by this moving family saga about a couple's enduring love and the son who feels left out of their story." -TODAY.com read more

January 2025

The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus By Emma Knight Women's Fiction: A witty, atmospheric, and brilliantly told novel that offers compelling portraits of womanhood, motherhood and female friendship, along with the irresistible intrigue ... surrounding an extraordinary British family. Arriving at the University of Edinburgh for her first term, Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she'll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father's-now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox-lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lord Lennox's centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents' secret, just as she's falling in love for the first time .. As Pen experiences the sharp shock of adulthood, she comes to rely on herself for the first time in her life. A rich and rewarding novel of campus life, of sexual awakening, and ultimately, of the many ways women can become mothers in this world, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus asks to what extent we need to look back in order to move forward. From the publisher Penguin Random House/Pamela Dorman Books | Jan 07, 2025 | 384 pages | ISBN13: 9780593830451 | Women's Fiction Praise REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK! "This story swept me away with its big dreams, love, and unexpected twists." -Reese Witherspoon read more

2024

December 2024

Devotions By Mary Oliver Poems: Throughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver has touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all ... living things. Identified as "far and away, this country's best selling poet" by Dwight Garner, she now returns with a stunning and definitive collection of her writing from the last fifty years. Carefully curated, these 200 plus poems feature Oliver's work from her very first book of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems, published in 1963 at the age of 28, through her most recent collection, Felicity, published in 2015. This timeless volume, arranged by Oliver herself, showcases the beloved poet at her edifying best. Within these pages, she provides us with an extraordinary and invaluable collection of her passionate, perceptive, and much-treasured observations of the natural world. From the publisher Penguin Random House/Penguin Press| Oct 10, 2017 | 480 pages | ISBN:9780399563249 | Poems Praise "No matter where one starts reading, Devotions offers much to love, from Oliver's exuberant dog poems to selections from the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Primitive, and Dream Work, one of her exceptional collections. Perhaps more important, the luminous writing provides respite from our crazy world and demonstrates how mindfulness can define and transform a life, moment by moment, poem by poem." -The Washington Post "It's as if the poet herself has sidled beside the reader and pointed us to the poems she considers most worthy of deep consideration." -Chicago Tribune read more

November 2024

This Motherless Land By Nikki May Women's Fiction: From the acclaimed author of Wahala, a stunning reimagining of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park: Split between England and Nigeria, two extraordinary cousins are set on vastly different paths as they ... come to terms with their shared family history-a masterful exploration of race, identity, and love. Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. She loves her art teacher mother, her professor father, and even her annoying little brother (most of the time). But when tragedy strikes, she's sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother's stories. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather grey. Worse still, her mother's family are cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin Liv. Free-spirited Liv has always wanted to break free of her joyless family. She becomes fiercely protective of her little cousin, and her warmth and kindness give Funke a place to heal. The two girls grow into adulthood the closest of friends. But the choices their mothers made haunt Funke and Liv and when a second tragedy occurs their friendship is torn apart. Against the long shadow of their shared family history, each woman will struggle to chart a path forward, separated by country, misunderstanding, and ambition. Moving between Somerset and Lagos over the course of two decades, This Motherless Land is a sweeping examination of identity, culture, race, and love that asks how we find belonging and whether a family's generational wrongs can be righted. From the publisher Harper Collins/Mariner Books | Oct 29, 2024 | 352 pages | ISBN 978-0063084292 | Women's Fiction Praise Shortlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY - NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "A vibrant coming-of-age story." - Charmaine Wilkerson "I was completely immersed." - Nita Prose "An unforgettable memoir about fighting for your home and your heart." -Reese Witherspoon read more

October 2024

The Mighty Red By Louise Erdrich Literary Fiction: In this stunning novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning author Louise Erdrich tells a story of love, natural forces, spiritual yearnings, and the tragic impact of uncontrollable circumstances ... on ordinary people's lives. In the Red River Valley of North Dakota, several lives revolve around a wedding fraught with desire, jealousy, and uncertainty. Gary Geist, a terrified young man set to inherit two farms, is desperate to marry Kismet Poe, an impulsive, lapsed goth who can't read her own future but will settle for fulfilling his. Her best friend, Hugo, a gentle, red-haired, homeschooled giant, also loves Kismet and is determined to steal her away and build a life together. Kismet's mother, Crystal, drives a truck for Gary's family, and on her nightly runs, tunes in to the darkness of late-night radio, experiences visions of guardian angels, and worries about what's to come, for her daughter and herself. The Mighty Red is Louise Erdrich at her consummate best. A novel of tender humor, disquietude, yearning, community, and family, it is about ordinary people who dream, grow up, fall in love, struggle, endure tragedy, carry bitter secrets; men and women both complicated and contradictory, flawed and decent, lonely and hopeful. Human time, deep time, Red River time, and geological time are explored alongside the impact of crises in our own time-climate change, the depletion of natural resources, the economic meltdown of 2008. It is a story about our tattered bond with the earth, and about love in all of its absurdity and splendor. From the publisher Harper Collins/Harper | Oct 1, 2024 | 384 pages | ISBN13: 9780063277052 | Literary Fiction Praise "A poignant novel of place... Sweetness blends indissolubly with tragedy." - Wall Street Journal "[A] deft, almost winsome novel,,, Erdrich's writing feels both effortless and wise... In this tender and capacious story, love and tragedy mingle along the river and into the world." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "A captivating tale of love and everyday life amid environmental upheaval and the 2008 financial crisis... Erdrich excels at the slow simmer, and once again she delivers a deliciously seductive masterwork." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) read more

September 2024

Blue Sisters By Coco Mellors Women's Fiction: The three Blue sisters are exceptional-and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife ... in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left the family reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in. But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize that the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not have been from one another but from themselves. Imbued with Coco Mellors's signature combination of humor and heart, Blue Sisters is a story of what it takes to keep living after loss-and, ultimately, to fall in love with life again. From the publsher Penguin Random House/Ballantine Books | ISBN: 9780593723784 | May 20, 2025 | 368 pages | Women's Fiction Praise NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY - Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this "deeply nuanced and compelling" (Vogue) novel, from the acclaimed author of Cleopatra and Frankenstein. "A beautiful portrait of grief and the world-shaping bond sisters share."-Real Simple A VOGUE AND HARPER'S BAZAAR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR read more

August 2024

The Wedding People By Alison Espach Women's Fiction: A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.It's a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone ... arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn't here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she's dreamed of coming for years-she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she's here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan-which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can't stop confiding in each other. In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach's The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined-and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us. From the publisher Macmillan/Henry Holt and Co. | Jul 30, 2024 | 384 pages | ISBN:9781250899576 | Women's Fiction Praise The runaway New York Times bestseller A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick, New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, and a #1 Indie Next Pick Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, Time, Chicago Tribune Biblioracle, HuffPost, US Magazine, Elle, Real Simple, and Glamour read more

July 2024

All The Colors of The Dark By Chris Whitaker Literary Fiction: 1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the smalltown of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing. ... When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges-Patch, a local boy, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake. Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another. A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each, Chris Whitaker has written a novel about what lurks in the shadows of obsession and the blinding light of hope From the publisher Penguin Randon House/Crown | Jul 01, 2025 | 608 pages | ISBN: 9780593798898 | Literary Fiction Praise NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD - From the author of We Begin at the End comes a soaring thriller and an epic love story that "hits like a sledgehammer ... an absolutely must-read novel" (Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl). Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today The Boston Globe's #1 Thriller/Mystery of 2024 So Far A Best Book of the Year: Washington Post, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews "Kept me frantically turning the pages and somehow made me cry at the end ... Brava!"-Kristin Hannah, author of The Women "Melds tense suspense with a powerful exploration of devotion, obsession, and love."-People (Best New Books) read more

June 2024

Swift River By Essie Chambers Women's Fiction: It's the summer of 1987 in Swift River, and Diamond Newberry is learning how to drive. Ever since her Pop disappeared seven years ago, she and her mother hitchhike everywhere they go. But that's not the only reason ... Diamond stands out: she's teased relentlessly about her weight, and since Pop's been gone, she is the only Black person in all of Swift River. This summer, Ma is determined to declare Pop legally dead so they can collect his life insurance money, get their house back from the bank, and finally move on. But when Diamond receives a letter from a relative she's never met, key elements of Pop's life are uncovered, and she is introduced to two generations of African American Newberry women, whose lives span the 20th century and reveal a much larger picture of prejudice and abandonment, of love and devotion. As pieces of their shared past become clearer, Diamond gains a sense of her place in the world and in her family. But how will what she's learned of the past change her future? A "sparkling" (The Washington Post), "poetic, and propulsive" (NPR) debut of first friendships, family secrets, and finding the courage to let go, Swift River heralds the arrival of a major new literary talent. From the publisher Simon & Schuster | May 6, 2025 | 304 pages | ISBN:9781668027929 | Women's Fiction Praise A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK | A National Bestseller | Winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award | Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize | One of The Washington Post's Best Books of 2024 | An NPR Best Book of 2024 | An Elle Best Book of 2024 | A Boston Globe Best Book of 2024 | An NAACP Image Award Nominee "A book we all need to revive our souls" (Nicole Dennis-Benn): A "powerful novel...[that] broke my heart, and then offered me hope" (Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful) about a complicated bond between mothers and daughters, the disappearance of a father, and the long-hidden history of a declining New England mill town. read more

May 2024

Real Americans By Rachel Khong Women's Fiction: Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not ... easygoing and effortlessly Rattractive, a native East Coaster, and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao's Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love. In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers. In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance-a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home. Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made? And if we are made, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome? From the publisher Penguin Random House/Knopf | Apr 30, 2024 | 416 pages | ISBN: 9780593537251 | Women's Fiction Praise NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - READ WITH JENNA'S MAY BOOK CLUB PICK - From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures? "Mesmerizing"-Brit Bennett - "A page turner."-Ha Jin - "Gorgeous, heartfelt, soaring, philosophical and deft"-Andrew Sean Greer - "Traverses time with verve and feeling."-Raven Leilani A BEST BOOK OF 2024: Vogue, NPR, Oprah Daily, Garden & Gun, Woman's World, Kirkus, The Independent, and Women | News, Politics, Lifestyle, and Expert Opinions read more

Apr 2024

The Husbands By Holly Gramazio Women's Fiction: In this "rich, complex family saga" (USA Today) full of long-buried family secrets, Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, blithely ignorant of all that awaits them. By 2016, ... When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There's only one problem-she's not married. She's never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they've been together for years. As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can't remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you've taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living? From the publisher Penguin Random House/Doubleday| Apr 02, 2024 | 352 pages | ISBN:9780385550611 | Women's Fiction Praise INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - READ WITH JENNA'S APRIL BOOK CLUB PICK - NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2024 BY THE WASHINGTON POST, NPR, PEOPLE, PARADE, AND BOOKRIOT The Husbands delights in asking: how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options? ("A bottomless champagne flute of a novel -The Washington Post) read more

March 2024

The House on Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros Literary Fiction: The House on Mango Street is one of the most cherished novels of the last fifty years. Readers from all walks of life have fallen for the voice of Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago and inventing for herself ... who and what she will become. "In English my name means hope," she says. "In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting." Told in a series of vignettes-sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous-Cisneros's masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery and one of the greatest neighborhood novels of all time. Like Sinclair Lewis's Main Street or Toni Morrison's Sula, it makes a world through people and their voices, and it does so in language that is poetic and direct. This gorgeous coming-of-age novel is a celebration of the power of telling one's story and of being proud of where you're from. From the publisher Penguin Random House/Knopf | Apr 26, 1994 | 160 pages | ISBN:9780679433354 | Literary Fiction Praise A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A coming-of-age classic about a young girl growing up in Chicago - Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world-from the winner of the 2025 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle. "Cisneros draws on her rich [Latino] heritage...and seduces with precise, spare prose, creat[ing] unforgettable characters we want to lift off the page. She is not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one." -The New York Times Book Review read more

March 2024

The Great Divide By Cristina Henriquez Literary Fiction: A TODAY Show Read With Jenna Book Club Pick! A powerful novel about the construction of the Panama Canal, casting light on the unsung people who lived, loved, and labored there It is said that the ... canal will be the greatest feat of engineering in history. But first, it must be built. For Francisco, a local fisherman who resents the foreign powers clamoring for a slice of his country, nothing is more upsetting than the decision of his son, Omar, to work as a digger in the excavation zone. But for Omar, whose upbringing was quiet and lonely, this job offers a chance to finally find connection. Ada Bunting is a bold sixteen-year-old from Barbados who arrives in Panama as a stowaway alongside thousands of other West Indians seeking work. Alone and with no resources, she is determined to find a job that will earn enough money for her ailing sister's surgery. When she sees a young man-Omar-who has collapsed after a grueling shift, she is the only one who rushes to his aid. John Oswald has dedicated his life to scientific research and has journeyed to Panama in single-minded pursuit of one goal: eliminating malaria. But now, his wife, Marian, has fallen ill herself, and when he witnesses Ada's bravery and compassion, he hires her on the spot as a caregiver. This fateful decision sets in motion a sweeping tale of ambition, loyalty, and sacrifice. Searing and empathetic, The Great Divide explores the intersecting lives of activists, fishmongers, laborers, journalists, neighbors, doctors, and soothsayers-those rarely acknowledged by history even as they carved out its course. From the publisher Harper Collins/Ecco | Mar 5, 2024 | 336 pages | ISBN: 9780063291324 | Literary Fiction Praise Named a Most Anticipated Book By: Washington Post - Book Riot - Electric Literature - LitHub - ELLE - The Millions - Goodreads - Reader's Digest "Henríquez's pitch-perfect novel has the feel of a classic." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A compassionate and insightful historical epic." - LitHub "The Great Divide is a sweeping epic that dissects the physical and emotional toll of economic progress."- Time read more

February 2024

Good Material By Dolly Alderton Women's Fiction: "Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy. And he can't work out why she stopped. ... Now he is. . . Without a home... Waiting for his stand-up career to take off... Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown ... up while he wasn't looking Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story... In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation. From the publisher Peenguin Random House/Knopf |Jan 30, 2024 | 336 pages | ISBN: 9780593801307 | Women's Fiction Praise NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR - A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK - From the best-selling author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love: a story of heartbreak and friendship and how to survive both "Like Nora Ephron, with a British twist... .Delivers the most delightful aspects of classic romantic comedy-snappy dialogue, realistic relationship dynamics, humorous meet-cutes and misunderstandings-and leaves behind the cliched gender roles and traditional marriage plot." -The New York Times read more

January 2024

The Waters By Bonnie Jo Campbell Women's Fiction: A master of rural noir returns with a fierce, mesmerizing novel about exceptional women and the soul of a small town. On an island in the Great Massasauga Swamp-an area known as "The Waters" to the residents of nearby ... Whiteheart, Michigan-herbalist and eccentric Hermine "Herself" Zook has healed the local women of their ailments for generations. As stubborn as her tonics are powerful, Herself inspires reverence and fear in the people of Whiteheart, and even in her own three estranged daughters. The youngest―the beautiful, inscrutable, and lazy Rose Thorn-has left her own daughter, eleven-year-old Dorothy "Donkey" Zook, to grow up wild. Donkey spends her days searching for truths in the lush landscape and in her math books, waiting for her wayward mother and longing for a father, unaware that family secrets, passionate love, and violent men will flood through the swamp and upend her idyllic childhood. Rage simmers below the surface of this divided community, and those on both sides of the divide have closed their doors against the enemy. The only bridge across the waters is Rose Thorn. With a "ruthless and precise eye for the details of the physical world" (Jane Smiley, New York Times Book Review), Bonnie Jo Campbell presents an elegant antidote to the dark side of masculinity, celebrating the resilience of nature and the brutality and sweetness of rural life. W. W. Norton & Company | 400 Pages |Jan 9, 2024 | ISBN:978-0393248432 | Women's Fiction Praise A TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Selection - One of Oprah Daily's Most Anticipated Books of 2024 - One of the Chicago Review of Books's 12 Must-Read Books of January 2024 - Featured in Roxane Gay's newsletter The Audacity - One of the Christian Science Monitor's Best Books of January "If you loved Where the Crawdads Sing, you're going to love, and I'm saying love, our first read of 2024." ―Jenna Bush Hager, TODAY Show read more

2023

December 2023

We Must Not Think of Ourselves By Lauren Grodstein Women's Fiction: From a New York Times bestselling author Lauren Grodstein, a story inspired by a little-known piece of history in the lives of Jewish occupants of the Warsaw Ghetto in World War II. Called a "masterpiece", and as seen on ... The Today Show with Jenna pick (Madeline Miller). On a November day in 1940, Adam Paskow becomes a prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto, where the Jews of the city are cut off from their former lives and held captive by Nazi guards to await an uncertain fate. Weeks later, he is approached by a mysterious figure with a surprising request: Would he join a secret group of archivists working to preserve the truth of what is happening inside these walls? Adam agrees and begins taking testimonies from his students, friends, and neighbors. One of the people Adam interviews is his flatmate Sala Wiskoff, who is stoic, determined, and funny-and married with two children. Over the months of their confinement, in the presence of her family, they fall in love. But when Adam discovers a possible escape from the Ghetto, he is faced with an unbearable choice: whom can he save, and at what cost ? Inspired by the testimony-gathering project with the code name Oneg Shabbat, and told with immediacy and heart, We Must Not Think of Ourselves is a piercing story of love, determination, and sacrifice. From a New York Times bestselling author Lauren Grodstein, a story inspired by a little-known piece of history in the lives of Jewish occupants of the Warsaw Ghetto in World War II. Called a "masterpiece", and as seen on The Today Show with Jenna pick (Madeline Miller). From the publisher Hachette Book Group/Algonquin Books | Nov 28, 2023 | 304 pages | ISNB:9781643755298 | Women's Fiction Praise Named a Best Book of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews (Best Fiction Books of the Year & Best Historical Fiction of 2023) "Accomplished...This is a tender, heartbreaking novel that grapples with timeless questions. Is collaboration forgivable? Can sparks of human kindness, however tiny, fend off hopelessness in the face of evil?" Kim Hubbard, New York Times Book Review read more

November 2023

The Sun Sets in Singapore By Kehinde Fadipe Women's Fiction: A Today Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick. Basking in Singapore's nonstop sunshine, Dara, Amaka, and Lillian are living the glamorous expat dream-until a mysterious (not to mention handsome) new arrival ... infiltrates their tight-knit community and ruins everything: "Wanderlust-inducing" (Lola Akinmade Åkerström, international bestselling author). The Lion City has gone by many names and is famous for many things-its decadent street food, its world-class shopping, its lush gardens that burst with tropical blooms. But paradise is always hiding a snake. For Dara, a workaholic lawyer from the UK, Singapore is opportunity. Every day, brokering deals for her firm's wealthy clientele, she gets closer to her ultimate goal: making partner. For Amaka, a sharp-tongued banker from Nigeria, Singapore is extravagance. Gucci, Prada, Hermès-she loves nothing more than to luxuriate in the major department stores that call her name on Orchard Road. And for Lillian, a former pianist turned "trailing spouse" from the U.S., Singapore is reinvention. In a stunning apartment with 360° views, the island seems to glitter as far as the eye can see. But complications are looming in the form of an enigmatic stranger, whose presence exposes cracks in Singapore's beguiling façade. Dara's ambitions mean she has no life outside the firm, and her insecurities are threatening to derail the promotion she's spent the last six years striving for. Amaka is desperate to escape the chaos she left behind at home and hiding a spiraling shopping addiction that's endangering her very sense of self. And while Lillian's life may be the envy of outsiders, a new obsession is imperiling everything-and everyone-around her. In The Sun Sets in Singapore, Kehinde Fadipe captures the richness of this metropolis through the eyes of three tenacious women, who are about to learn that unfinished history can follow you anywhere, no matter how far you run from home. From the publisher Hachette Book Group/Grand Central | Oct 31, 2023 | 336 pages | ISBN:9781538741511 | Women's Fiction Praise "Charming, sweet, funny, and emotional ... The opportunity to experience something completely new makes The Sun Sets in Singapore worth picking up and discussing at your own book club."-Associated Press "A gripping portrayal of the highs and lows of living and working in a foreign country within a small community. [Fadipe] creates complex characters whose motives continually keep the reader in suspense, while also addressing wider issues of workplace dynamics, misogyny, and the discrimination Nigerians face around the world. A perfect recommendation for fans of Nikki May's Wahala (2022) and Lola Akinmade Âkerström's In Every Mirror She's Black (2021)."-Booklist read more

October 2023

How to Say Babylon By Safiya Sinclair Memoir: With echoes of Educated and The Glass Castle, How to Say Babylon is a "lushly observed and keenly reflective chronicle" (The Washington Post), brilliantly recounting the author's struggle to break free of her rigid ... religious upbringing and navigate the world on her own terms. Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair's father, a volatile reggae musician and a militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, was obsessed with the ever-present threat of the corrupting evils of the Western world outside their home, and worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure. For him, a woman's highest virtue was her obedience. Safiya's extraordinary mother, though loyal to her father, gave her the one gift she knew would take Safiya beyond the stretch of beach and mountains in Jamaica their family called home: a world of books, knowledge, and education she conjured almost out of thin air. When she introduced Safiya to poetry, Safiya's voice awakened. As she watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under relentless domesticity, Safiya's rebellion against her father's rules set her on an inevitable collision course with him. Her education became the sharp tool to hone her own poetic voice and carve her path to liberation. Rich in emotion and page-turning drama, How to Say Babylon is "a melodious wave of memories" of a woman finding her own power (NPR). From the publisher Simon & Schuster/Tor 37 Ink | Oct 3, 2023 | 352 pages | ISBN:9781982132347 | Memoir Praise "Sinclair recounts her harrowing upbringing in Jamaica in this bruising memoir... In dazzling prose ... she examines the traumas of her childhood against the backdrop of her new life as a poet in Babylon... Readers will be drawn to Sinclair's strength and swept away by her tale of triumph over oppression. This is a tour de force."-Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Sinclair's gorgeous prose is rife with glimmering details, and the narrative's ending lands as both inevitable and surprising. More than catharsis; this is memoir as liberation."-Kirkus Reviews?(starred review) "Sinclair's rich, harrowing memoir, "How to Say Babylon," is a story about home and its fragmentation."-LA Times read more

September 2023

Amazing Grace Adams By Fran Littlewood Women's Fiction: Nothing brings a family together like a murder next door....Think: Gilmore Girls, but with murder. High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud of:her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, ... and the L.A. Bernadette, Eleanor Oliphant, Rosie, Ove . . . meet Amazing Grace Adams, the funny, touching, unforgettable story of an invisible everywoman pushed to the brink―who finally pushes back. 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's really losing it. Stuck in traffic, 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. Her husband thought so. Her daughter thought so. Even Grace thought so. But everyone seems to have forgotten. Grace is about to remind them . . . and, most important, remind herself. From the publisher Macmmillan/Henry Holt and Co. | Sept 5, 2023 | 272 pages | ISBN:9781250857019 | Women's Fiction Praise A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick - An Instant New York Times Bestseller - An IndieNext Pick for September 2023 "I dare you not to fall wildly in love with Grace...It's a book about love, about grace, about even when we fall from those we love we can always find our way home...You will laugh on the first page and you will keep laughing until you're crying on the last page." -Jenna Bush Hager, The Today Show's #ReadwithJenna "Grace Adams is also the latest in a series of brilliant, beautiful and privileged protagonists (Amy Dunne, Bernadette Fox, Barbie) undone by the challenges of modern womanhood." -The New York Times Book Review read more

August 2023

Summer Sisters By Judy Blume Women's Fiction: In the summer of 1977, Victoria Leonard's world changes forever when Caitlin Somers chooses her as a friend. Dazzling, reckless Caitlin welcomes Vix into the heart of her sprawling, eccentric family, ... opening doors to a world of unimaginable privilege, sweeping her away to vacations on Martha's Vineyard, an enchanting place where the two friends become "summer sisters." Now, years later, Vix is working in New York City. Caitlin is getting married on the Vineyard. And the early magic of their long, complicated friendship has faded. But Caitlin begs Vix to come to her wedding, to be her maid of honor. And Vix knows that she will go-because she wants to understand what happened during that last shattering summer. And, after all these years, she needs to know why her best friend-her summer sister-still has the power to break her heart. From the publisher Penguin Random House/Bantam | May 27, 2003 | 432 pages | ISBN: 9780385337663 | Women's Fiction Praise #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY - "Summer Sisters is a book to return to again and again."-Colleen Hoover "As warm as a summer breeze blowing through your hair, as nostalgic as James Taylor singing 'How Sweet It Is.' You remember. So does Judy Blume. How sweet it was."-Chicago Tribune read more

July 2023

Banyan Moon By Thao Thai Literary Fiction: A sweeping, evocative debut novel following three generations of Vietnamese American women reeling from the death of their matriarch, revealing the family's inherited burdens, buried secrets, and unlikely love stories. ... When Ann Tran gets the call that her fiercely beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away, her life is already at a crossroads. In the years since she's last seen Minh, Ann has built a seemingly perfect life-a beautiful lake house, a charming professor boyfriend, and invites to elegant parties that bubble over with champagne and good taste-but it all crumbles with one positive pregnancy test. With both her relationship and carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Huơng. Back in Florida, Huơng is simultaneously mourning her mother and resenting her for having the relationship with Ann that she never did. Then Ann and Huơng learn that Minh has left them both the Banyan House, the crumbling old manor that was Ann's childhood home, in all its strange, Gothic glory. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter must face the simmering questions of their past and their uncertain futures, while trying to rebuild their relationship without the one person who's always held them together. Running parallel to this is Minh's story, as she goes from a lovestruck teenager living in the shadow of the Vietnam War to a determined young mother immigrating to America in search of a better life for her children. And when Ann makes a shocking discovery in the Banyan House's attic, long-buried secrets come to light as it becomes clear how decisions Minh made in her youth affected the rest of her life-and beyond. Spanning decades and continents, from 1960s Vietnam to the wild swamplands of the Florida coast, Banyan Moon is a stunning and deeply moving story of mothers and daughters, the things we inherit, and the lives we choose to make out of that inheritance. From the publisher Harper Collins/Mariner Books | May 16, 2023 | 336 pages | ISBN: 978-0063267107 | Literary Fiction Praise A TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick "Radiant. ... An intimate account of one family's planting of roots in American soil and the sacrifices great and small that each member makes along the way." - Washington Post A sweeping, evocative debut novel following three generations of Vietnamese American women reeling from the death of their matriarch, revealing the family's inherited burdens, buried secrets, and unlikely love stories. read more

June 2023

The Celebrants By Steven Rowley Literary Fiction: A Big Chill for our times, celebrating decades-long friendships and promises-especially to ourselves-by the bestselling and beloved author of The Guncle. It's been a minute-or five years-since Jordan Vargas ... last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation from Berkeley when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they've reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living "funerals," celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living-that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves. But this reunion is different. They're not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact. A deeply honest tribute to the growing pains of selfhood and the people who keep us going, coupled with Steven Rowley's signature humor and heart, The Celebrants is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living. From the publisher Penguin Random House/G.P. Putnam's Sons | May 30, 2023 | 320 pages | ISBN 978-0593540428 | Literary Fiction Praise New York Times Bestseller A TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick A Good Housekeeping Book Club Pick An Indie Next Pick A LibraryReads Hall of Fame Pick One of The New York Times Book Review Summer Books 2023 read more

May 2023

Chain-Gang All-Stars By Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Dystopian Fiction: She felt their eyes, all those executioners....Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of the Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly ... popular, highly controversial profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators, and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom. In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death matches before packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, Thurwar considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games. But CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo, and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences. Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors, to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means from a "new and necessary American voice" (Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review). From the publisher Penguin Random House/Pantheon | May 2, 2025| 384 pages | ISBN:978-0593317334 | Dystopian Fiction/Literary Fiction Praise A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR - FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION - A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK - NATIONAL BESTSELLER - Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own in this explosive, hotly-anticipated debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Friday Black - LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE "This book is so good. Brutal subject matter, beautiful writing. This one is from the heart." -Stephen King A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Elle, Esquire, Chicago Tribune, Lit Hub, Kirkus Reviews "Like Orwell's 1984 and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Adjei-Brenyah's book presents a dystopian vision so...illuminating that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are and what we're capable of doing." -The Washington Post read more

April 2023

Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling Dystopian Fiction: In a near-future northern settlement, the fates of a young woman, a professor, and a mysterious collective of researchers collide in this mesmerizing and transportive debut that "delivers its big ideas ... with suspense, endlessly surprising twists, and abundant heart" (Jessamine Chan, New York Times bestselling author). In remote northern Canada, a team led by a visionary American architect is breaking ground on a building project called Camp Zero, intended to be the beginning of a new way of life. A clever and determined young woman code-named Rose is offered a chance to join the Blooms, a group hired to entertain the men in camp-but her real mission is to secretly monitor the mercurial architect in charge. In return, she'll receive a home for her climate-displaced Korean immigrant mother and herself. Rose quickly secures the trust of her target, only to discover that everyone has a hidden agenda, and nothing is as it seems. Through skillfully braided perspectives, including those of a young professor longing to escape his wealthy family and an all-woman military research unit struggling for survival at a climate station, the fate of Camp Zero's inhabitants reaches a stunning crescendo. Atmospheric, fiercely original, and utterly gripping, Camp Zero is an electrifying page-turner and a masterful exploration of who and what will survive in a warming world, and how falling in love and building community can be the most daring acts of all. From the publisher Simon Schuster/Atria Books | April 4, 2023 | 304 pages | ISBN:978-1668007563 | Dystopian Fiction Praise INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick Libby Book Award Winner for Best Diverse Author "A smart setup ... The book has a soul that generates momentum. It's committed to the bonds of family, the ones we are born into and the ones we choose, as a way forward in an increasingly chaotic world. A love letter to what communities of women can accomplish when they work in concert." -Kirkus Reviews (Critic's Pick) read more

March 2023

Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown Fantasy: A warm and wry family drama with a magical twist about four generations of Black women, a family love curse, and the secrets they keep for and from each other over one very complicated year ... Generations of Montrose women-Augusta, Victoria, Willow-have always lived together in their quaint California bungalow. They keep to themselves, never venture far from home, and their collection of tinctures and spells is an unspoken bond between them. But when young Nickie Montrose brings home a boy for the first time, their quiet lives are thrown into disarray. For the family has withheld a crucial secret from Nickie all these years: any person a Montrose woman falls in love with will die. Their surprise guest forces each woman to reckon with her own past choices and mistakes. And as new truths about the curse emerge, they're set on a collision course dating back to 1950s New Orleans's French Quarter-where a hidden story in a mysterious book may just hold the answers they seek in life and in love... From the publisher Harper Collins/Graydon House | Feb 28, 2023 | 448 pages | ISBN: 9781525899911 | Fantasy Praise A Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Seen on the Today Show "If you like Practical Magic... you will love Black Candle Women." -Jenna Bush Hager Named a Best Book of the Month by: Shondaland, MS. Magazine, TODAY.com, Reader's Digest, Katie Couric Media, AARP Sisters, Goodreads, BookRiot read more

February 2023

Maame by Jessica George Women's Fiction: It's fair to say that Maddie's life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing),Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, ... who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson's. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting. So when her mum returns from her latest trip, Maddie seizes the chance to move out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she's ready to experience some important "firsts": She finds a flat share, says yes to after-work drinks, pushes for more recognition in her career, and throws herself into the bewildering world of internet dating. But when tragedy strikes, Maddie is forced to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils-and rewards-of putting her heart on the line. Smart, funny, and affecting, Jessica George's Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures―and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong. "Meeting Maame feels like falling in love for the first time: warm, awkward, joyous, a little bit heartbreaking and, most of all, unforgettable." -Xochitl Gonzalez, New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming From the publisher Macmillan/St. Martin's Griffin | Jan 31, 2023 | 320 pages | ISBN:9781250853738 | Women's Fiction Praise AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! - A Today Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick - A February 2023 Indie Next Pick "Sparkling." -The New York Times "An utterly charming and deeply moving portrait of the joys―and the guilt―of trying to find your own way in life." -Celeste Ng, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Our Missing Hearts "Lively, funny, poignant ... Prepare to fall in love with Maddie. I did!" -Bonnie Garmus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry read more

January 2023

Sam by Allegra Goodman Woman's Fiction: "There is a girl, and her name is Sam." So begins Allegra Goodman's moving and wise new novel. Sam is seven years old and living in Beverly, Massachusetts. She adores her father, though he isn't around ... much. Her mother struggles to make ends meet, and never fails to remind Sam that if she studies hard and acts responsibly, adulthood will be easier-more secure and comfortable. But comfort and security are of little interest to Sam. She doesn't fit in at school, where the other girls have the right shade of blue jeans and don't question the rules. She doesn't care about jeans or rules. All she wants to climb. Hanging from the highest limbs of the tallest trees, scaling the side of a building, Sam feels free. As a teenager, Sam begins to doubt herself. She yearns to be noticed, even as she wants to disappear. When her climbing coach takes an interest in her, his attention is more complicated than she anticipated. She resents her father's erratic behavior, but she grieves after he's gone. And she resists her mother's attempts to plan for her future, even as that future draws closer. The simplicity of this tender, emotionally honest novel is what makes it so powerful. Sam by Allegra Goodman will break your heart, but will also leave you full of hope. From the publisher Penguin Random House/ The Dial Press| Jan 3, 2023 | 336 pages | ISBN:978-0593186718 | Woman's Fiction Praise READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY - "I've been an Allegra Goodman fan for years, but Sam is hands down my new favorite. I loved this powerful and endearing portrait of a girl who must summon deep within herself the grit and wisdom to grow up."-Lily King, New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE - What happens to a girl's sense of joy and belonging-to her belief in herself-as she becomes a woman? This unforgettable portrait of coming-of-age offers subtle yet powerful reflections on class, parenthood, addiction, lust, and the irrepressible power of dreams. A VOGUE AND REAL SIMPLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR read more

2022

December 2022

The Secret History By Donna Tartt Literary Fiction: The author of award-winning Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de' Medici as she ... One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years. Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality. From the publisher Penguin Random House/Knopf | Sep 05, 1992 | 576 pages | ISBN:9780679410324 | Literary Fiction Praise ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME - INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - A contemporary literary classic and "an accomplished psychological thriller ... absolutely chilling" (Village Voice), from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Goldfinch. "A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment . . . Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled." -The New York Times read more

November 2022

The Cloisters By Katy Hays Psychological Thriller: In this "sinister, jaw-dropping" (Sarah Penner, author of The Lost Apothecary) debut novel from the author of Saltwater, a circle of researchers uncovers a mysterious deck of tarot cards and shocking secrets ... in New York's famed Met Cloisters. When Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, she expects to spend her summer working as a curatorial associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she finds herself assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its medieval art collection and its group of enigmatic researchers studying the history of divination. Desperate to escape her painful past, Ann is happy to indulge the researchers' more outlandish theories about the history of fortune telling. But what begins as academic curiosity quickly turns into obsession when Ann discovers a hidden 15th-century deck of tarot cards that might hold the key to predicting the future. When the dangerous game of power, seduction, and ambition at The Cloisters turns deadly, Ann becomes locked in a race for answers as the line between the arcane and the modern blurs. "A tour de force by an important new voice" (Rachel Kapelke-Dale, author of The Ballerinas), The Cloisters is a haunting and magical blend of genres that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Excerpt From the publisher Simon & Schuster/Atria Books | Nov 01, 2022 | 320 pages | ISBN 9781668004401 | Psychological Thriller (dark academia) Praise "Sultry and sinister ... Hays's debut teems with sexual tension, the secrets of divination, and scholarly obsessiveness. With a jaw-dropping twist at the end, The Cloisters serves as a warning to us all: we may think we know what life has in store, but fate and fortune tend to turn their own tricks." -Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Apothecary "A moody and suspenseful story ... Readers will be fascinated by the evocative setting as well as the behind-the-scenes glimpses into museum curatorship and the cutthroat games of academia ... An accomplished debut." -Publishers Weekly read more

October 2022

The Whalebone Theatre By Joanna Quinn Literary Fiction: One blustery night in 1928, a whale washes up on the shores of the English Channel. By law, it belongs to the King, but twelve-year-old orphan Cristabel Seagrave has other plans. She and the rest of the household ... -her sister, Flossie; her brother, Digby, long-awaited heir to Chilcombe manor; Maudie Kitcat, kitchen maid; Taras, visiting artist-build a theatre from the beast's skeletal rib cage. Within the Whalebone Theatre, Cristabel can escape her feckless stepparents and brisk governesses, and her imagination comes to life. As Cristabel grows into a headstrong young woman, World War II rears its head. She and Digby become British secret agents on separate missions in Nazi-occupied France-a more dangerous kind of playacting, it turns out, and one that threatens to tear the family apart. From the publsher Penguin Random House/Knopf | Oct 4, 2022 | 576 pages | ISBN: 978-0593321706 | Literary Fiction Praise NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK - A transporting, irresistible debut novel that takes its heroine, Cristabel Seagrave, from a theatre made of whalebones to covert operations during World War II-a story of love, family, bravery, lost innocence, and self-transformation. "Absolute aces...Quinn's imagination and adventuresome spirit are a pleasure to behold." -The New York Times read more

September 2022

Solito By Javier Zamora Memoir: Trip. My parents started using that word about a year ago-"one day, you'll take a trip to be with us. Like an adventure." Javier Zamora's adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through ... Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone amid a group of strangers and a "coyote" hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks. At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents' arms, snuggling in bed between them, and living under the same roof again. He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family. A memoir as gripping as it is moving, Solito provides an immediate and intimate account not only of a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but also of the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier Zamora's story, but it's also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home. From the publisher Penguin Random House/Hogarth | Sep 06, 2022 | 400 pages | ISBN13: 9780593498064 | Memoir Praise New York Times Bestseller - Read With Jenna Book Club Pick as seen on Today - Winner of the Los Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiography - Winner of the American Library Association Alex Award - A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Vulture, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews read more

August 2022

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy By Jamie Ford Historical Fiction: Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living. As Washington's former poet laureate, that's how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her art. ... But when her five-year-old daughter exhibits similar behavior and begins remembering things from the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt her. Fearing that her child is predestined to endure the same debilitating depression that has marked her own life, Dorothy seeks radical help. Through an experimental treatment designed to mitigate inherited trauma, Dorothy intimately connects with past generations of women in her family: Faye Moy, a nurse in China serving with the Flying Tigers; Zoe Moy, a student in England at a famous school with no rules; Lai King Moy, a girl quarantined in San Francisco during a plague epidemic; Greta Moy, a tech executive with a unique dating app; and Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in America. As painful recollections affect her present life, Dorothy discovers that trauma isn't the only thing she's inherited. A stranger is searching for her in each time period. A stranger who's loved her through all of her genetic memories. Dorothy endeavors to break the cycle of pain and abandonment, to finally find peace for her daughter, and gain the love that has long been waiting, knowing she may pay the ultimate price. From the publisher Simon & Schuster/Atria Books | Aug 2, 2022 | 384 pages | ISBN:978-1982158217 | Historical Fiction Praise INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! "One of the most beautiful books of motherhood and what we pass on to those that come after us." -Jenna Bush Hager, Today The New York Times bestselling author of the "mesmerizing and evocative" (Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants) Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet returns with a powerful exploration of the love that binds one family across the generations. read more

July 2022

The Measure By Nikki Erlick Fantasy: A luminous, spirit-lifting blockbuster that asks: would you choose to find out the length of your life? Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice. It seems like any other day. You wake up, drink a cup of coffee, and head out. ... But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. The contents of this mysterious box tells you the exact number of years you will live. From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise? As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they'll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge? The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn't have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything. Enchanting and deeply uplifting, The Measure is an ambitious, invigorating story about family, friendship, hope, and destiny that encourages us to live life to the fullest. From the publisher Harper Collins/Wiliam Morrow | Jun 28, 2022 | 368 pages | ISBN: 9780063204201 | Fantasy (Magical Realism) Praise INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! "A story of love and hope as interweaving characters display: how all moments, big and small, can measure a life. If you want joy, love, romance, and hope-read with us." -Jenna Bush Hager read more

June 2022

These Impossible Things By Salma El-Wardany Women's Fiction: Whatever happened to the way we were? It's always been Malak, Kees, and Jenna against the world. Since childhood, under the watchful eyes of their family and community, these three best ... friends have had to navigate love, sex, faith, and womanhood alongside the expectations of being good Muslim women. But they've always done it together. Malak wants the dream: for her partner, community, and faith to coexist happily, and she'll even break her own heart to get it. Kees is in love with Harry, a white Catholic man who her parents can never know about. Jenna is always the life of the party, even though she's plagued by an unshakable loneliness. But when their college years come to a close, one night changes everything. As their lives take different paths, in the wake of heartbreaks, marriages, new careers and new beginnings, Malak, Kees, and Jenna need each other more than ever. Can they forgive and find a way back to each other in time? These Impossible Things is a moving paean to youth and female friendship-and to all the joy and messiness love holds. From the publisher Grand central Publishing | Jun 7, 2022 | 416 pages | ISBN-13: 9781538709320 | Women's Fiction Praise Three best friends navigate love, sex, faith-and the one night that changes it all-in this novel that reveals "searing and poignant truths about the female experience" (Ashley Audrain, NYT bestselling author of The Push) "A fun, witty, sharply observant work.... El-Wardany captures perfectly the uncertainty of life in one's mid-20s.... readers will be thinking about Malak, Kees, and Jenna long after they close the book."―Library Journal (starred review) "Sparkling, incisive debut... While frothy and chatty, with witty dialogue and plenty of weddings and other gatherings that spark interactions among the characters, the book doesn't shy away from more serious issues... This novel is blessed by a light touch and evenhanded treatment of its two generations of characters."―Kirkus read more

May 2022

Remarkably Bright Creatures By Shelby Van Pelt Literary Fiction: For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus After Tova ... Sullivan's husband died, 7she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors-until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova. Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late. Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible. From the publisher Harper Collins/Ecco | May 03, 2022 | ISBN 9780063204157 | 368 pages | Literary Fiction Praise AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Soon to be a Netflix Film A Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! NAMED A BEST BOOK OF SUMMER by: Chicago Tribune - The View - Southern Living - USA Today "Remarkably Bright Creatures [is] an ultimately feel-good but deceptively sensitive debut ... Memorable and tender." - Washington Post read more

Apr 2022

Memphis By Tara M. Stringfellow Historical Fiction: Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father's explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother's ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has ... altered the course of the family's trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan's grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass-only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected. As she grows up, Joan finds relief in her artwork, painting portraits of the community in Memphis. One of her subjects is their enigmatic neighbor Miss Dawn, who claims to know something about curses, and whose stories about the past help Joan see how her passion, imagination, and relentless hope are, in fact, the continuation of a long matrilineal tradition. Joan begins to understand that her mother, her mother's mother, and the mothers before them persevered, made impossible choices, and put their dreams on hold so that her life would not have to be defined by loss and anger-that the sole instrument she needs for healing is her paintbrush. Unfolding over seventy years through a chorus of unforgettable voices that move back and forth in time, Memphis paints an indelible portrait of inheritance, celebrating the full complexity of what we pass down, in a family and as a country: brutality and justice, faith and forgiveness, sacrifice and love. From the publisher Penguin Random House/The Dial Press | Apr 05, 2022 | 272 pages | ISBN:9780593230480 | Historical Fiction Praise NATIONAL BESTSELLER - READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY - A spellbinding debut novel tracing three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter's discovery that she has the power to change her family's legacy. "A rhapsodic hymn to Black women."-The New York Times Book Review "I fell in love with this family, from Joan's fierce heart to her grandmother Hazel's determined resilience. Tara Stringfellow will be an author to watch for years to come."-Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author of Red at the Bone LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Boston Globe, NPR, BuzzFeed, Glamour, PopSugar read more

March 2022

Groundskeeping By Lee Cole Literary Fiction: An indelible love story about two very different people navigating the entanglements of class and identity and coming of age in an America coming apart at the seams. In the run-up to the 2016 election, Owen Callahan, ... an aspiring writer, moves back to Kentucky to live with his Trump-supporting uncle and grandfather. Eager to clean up his act after wasting time and potential in his early twenties, he takes a job as a groundskeeper at a small local college, in exchange for which he is permitted to take a writing course. Here he meets Alma Hazdic, a writer in residence who seems to have everything that Owen lacks-a prestigious position, an Ivy League education, success as a writer. They begin a secret relationship, and as they grow closer, Alma-who comes from a liberal family of Bosnian immigrants-struggles to understand Owen's fraught relationship with family and home. Exquisitely written; expertly crafted; dazzling in its precision, restraint, and depth of feeling, Groundskeeping is a novel of haunting power and grace from a prodigiously gifted young writer. From the publisher Penguin Random House/Vintage | Feb 14, 2023 | 336 pages | ISBN-13: 9780593314784 | Literary Fiction Praise A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK "Cole's novel is more than a love story or a coming-of-age tale. Written with superb attention to detail and subtle emotional complexities, the book also offers a lovingly nuanced look at America—its longtime residents and recent immigrants; its ramshackle rural beauty, urban revival, and suburban safety; and its generous opportunities for reinvention. In the end, it is a love letter to home . . . Perceptive and endearing, this novel signals the arrival of a talented new voice in fiction." -Kirkus Reviews [starred review] "Cole's nimble debut combines elements of Southern fiction, the campus novel, and youthful romance . . . This is the strongest story about young writers in love since Andrew Martin's Early Work." —Publishers Weekly read more

February 2022

Black Cake By Charmaine Wilkerson Women's Fiction: "We can't choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become? In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett's death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, ... made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves. Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor's true history, and fulfill her final request to "share the black cake when the time is right"? Will their mother's revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever? Charmaine Wilkerson's debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch. From the publisher Penguin Random House/Ballantine Books | Feb 1, 2022 | 400 pages | ISBN: 9780593358337 | Women's Fiction Praise NOW A HULU STREAMING SERIES - NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY - Two estranged siblings delve into their mother's hidden past—and how it all connects to her traditional Caribbean black cake-in this immersive family saga, "a character-driven, multigenerational story that's meant to be savored" (Time). "Wilkerson transports you across the decades and around the globe accompanied by complex, wonderfully drawn characters."-Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones & The Six, and Malibu Rising ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, NPR, BuzzFeed, Glamour, PopSugar, Book Riot, She Readst as true-to-life as Christie's own tales." -The Washington Post read more

January 2022

The School for Good Mothers By Jessamine Chan Dystopian Fiction: Frida Liu, a hardworking Chinese American mother, is pushed to the edge. She doesn't live up to the expectations set by her immigrant parents or her wellness-obsessed husband. Only with Harriet... -cherubic and beloved—does she find a measure of fulfillment...until she has a very bad day. In this close-to-future dystopia, the state targets mothers like Frida: mothers who check their phones, let their children walk home alone, or make one parenting error. Because of one mistake, Frida is sent to a government-run institution—a Big Brother–style reform school for "good mothers," where every move is monitored, and even her love is judged. For custody to be returned, she must prove that a flawed mother can be redeemed and learn to be "good." Filled with dark wit and emotional urgency, The School for Good Mothers is an intense, captivating novel that scrutinizes upper-middle-class parenting, systemic surveillance of women, and the violence exacted by both the state and one another. It offers a transgressive exploration of motherhood, resilience, guilt, and the force of love. Using spare, compelling prose, Jessamine Chan crafts an unforgettable, modern classic that resonates with readers of The Handmaid's Tale and 1984, while centering a richly drawn woman navigating class, race, and motherhood under the gaze of an unyielding system. From the publisher Simon Schuster/37 Ink | 336 Pages | Jan 4, 2022 | ISBN:978-1982156121 | Dystopian Fiction Praise Longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence | Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize | Selected as One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of the Year! In this New?York?Times bestseller and Today show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick, one lapse in judgment lands a young mother in a dystopian government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance, in this "surreal" (People), "remarkable" (Vogue), and "infuriatingly timely" (The New York Times Book Review) debut literary fiction novel. read more

More Reading Suggestions

If you have a passion for reading and, like most, have no time to find the right book, browse Trending & Popular Books. They are all page-turners, and they all let you escape from reality.

The Storm We Made By Vanessa Chan Book Summary: In this "espionage-laden family epic" (Vanity Fair), an ordinary housewife becomes an unlikely spy-and her dark secrets will test even the most unbreakable ties. Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara's family ... More

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney Book Summary: Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life. Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her....More

Listen For The Lie by Amy Tintera What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn't matter? After Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy's blood, everyone thinks...More Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent This "haunting and poignant tale, one that won't be easy to forget any time soon" (Mystery and Suspense Magazine), follows an enigmatic woman confronting her unknown past-from internationally bestselling author Liz Nugent.Reclusive Sally Diamond is thrust into the media spotlight....More

Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis From New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis, an utterly addictive new novel that will transport you from New York City's most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back. Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot...More

The Book Of Doors By Gareth Brown A debut novel full of magic, adventure, and romance, The Book of Doors opens up a thrilling world of contemporary fantasy for readers of The Midnight Library, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, The Night Circus, and any modern story ...More

Visit Our Blog

You May Also Like