I grew up in a family that avoided expressing any emotion. A happy house was one where anger and frustration were unheard of. Even laughter was suspect. Books allowed me to experience joy and sorrow. Books allowed me to express my feelings, even though it was behind my closed bedroom door, clutching a handful of sodden tissues, exhausted from the novelty of letting my emotions out. These books are not the books of my childhood. Instead, they are the books of the grown-up me who no longer has to hide behind her bedroom door. I think you will love them just as much as I do.
I adore books with emotionally flawed characters because they represent all of us.
They represent me. A tragedy in my own life led me to My Name is Anton. The growth of Anton, learning to live with his own heartbreak, deflecting his mother’s harsh parenting and his father’s apathy, was rewarding to me.
The ending was particularly gratifying, honest, yet heartbreaking, just like life.
New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde returns with a hopeful novel of sacrifice, two lost souls, and enduring love.
It's 1965, and life has taken a turn for eighteen-year-old Anton Addison-Rice. Nearly a year after his brother died in a tragic accident, Anton is still wounded-physically and emotionally. Alone for the holidays, he catches a glimpse of his neighbor Edith across the street one evening and realizes that she's in danger.
Anton is determined to help Edith leave her abusive marriage. Frightened and fifteen years Anton's senior, Edith is slow to trust. But when she needs a safe…
This book is set in Shaker Heights, a neighborhood so relevant it becomes a character in the story. Plant these actors and this plot in a community where perfection isn’t the rule, and the book flounders.
The characters in this book are no different than the people in my own neighborhood, until the author let me see what they were really like. Little Fires Everywhere is filled with secrets and beliefs that turn out to be drastically wrong—just the kind of book I celebrate.
"Witty, wise, and tender. It's a marvel." -Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train and A Slow Fire Burning
"To say I love this book is an understatement. It's a deep psychological mystery about the power of motherhood, the intensity of teenage love, and the danger of perfection. It moved me to tears." -Reese Witherspoon
From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Our Missing Hearts comes a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their…
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
This is a story about adoption. But not the story of the poor child no one wants. Instead, it is the story of the joy of growing up knowing that the child is blessed to have been chosen by their adoptive family.
Laurie Frankel’s main character, India Altwood, wants people to know that family is complicated. Love is complicated. And maybe people shouldn’t be too quick to judge.
This book is an excellent example of why I love this author. She is brave and honest, tackling stories that need to be told.
India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actress. Armed with a stack of index cards (which, torn into pieces, also function as make-shift confetti) and a hell of a lot of talent, she goes from awkward 16-year-old to Broadway ingenue to tv star.
But while promoting her most recent project, a film about adoption, India does what you should never do - she tells a journalist the truth: it's a bad movie. Like so many movies about adoption, it tells only one story, a tragic one. But India's an adoptive mum herself and knows there's so much more to…
I regret not having tissues ready, because there were many places in this book where I needed them. And that is the kind of book I love to read.
The Choices We Make is a story of friendship that started in childhood and continues into adulthood. One of the women is a mother, the other prays for the experience of holding her own sweet child in her arms. But once she understands that that dream will never materialize, her friend provides a baby through surrogacy.
The story could have ended there, and I would have been satisfied, even though I’m not a fan of happily-ever-afters. Instead, the story continued, and I got a different, perfect ending.
The Choices We Make was inspired by my younger cousins, it's letting them know to love the skin that they were born in. It's also about getting to know someone for the heart that's on the inside. It's not about looking at the color of their skin that is on the outside. It's about knowing what color is and really seeing it. But choosing to be friends with someone because of their character and not judging them because of their skin color, not letting that be the first thing you see. Don't let the skin color of the person stop…
Aury and Scott travel to the Finger Lakes in New York’s wine country to get to the bottom of the mysterious happenings at the Songscape Winery. Disturbed furniture and curious noises are one thing, but when a customer winds up dead, it’s time to dig into the details and see…
I adore books with a slow burn rather than one that races through the pages so quickly that I barely have time to draw breath.
I also adore character-driven stories. Mary Beth Keane creates characters that are so real I can hear the hitch in their voices when their nerves are stretched thin.
Ask Again, Yes has lingered in my heart since the day I turned the last page. I love books that bring me joy, make me laugh out loud, but also leave me thinking about family and forgiveness.
The triumphant New York Times Bestseller *The Tonight Show Summer Reads Pick*
Named one of the Best Books of the Year by People, Vogue, Parade, NPR, and Elle
"A gem of a book." —Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
How much can a family forgive?
Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, rookie NYPD cops, are neighbors in the suburbs. What happens behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne, sets the stage for the explosive events to come.
In Mary Beth Keane's extraordinary novel, a lifelong…
Jake Treton is a lucky man. He works for a prestigious Vermont law firm, is on the fast track to becoming a senior partner, and is married to the love of his life, Sophia. Their fifteen-year-old daughter, Emily, is outspoken, irreverent, and determined to become a lawyer, just like her father.
When Sophia becomes a surrogate mother, Jake’s past comes back to haunt him. Nightmares soon rule his nights while anger consumes his days. Suddenly, he is the man he never thought he would be. One split-second decision shatters two families. And the truth refuses to stay buried. A Fine Layer of Dust is a gripping, emotional story about a family torn apart by one decision—and the long road to forgiveness.
A grumpy-sunshine, slow-burn, sweet-and-steamy romance set in wild and beautiful small-town Colorado. Lane Gravers is a wanderer, adventurer, yoga instructor, and social butterfly when she meets reserved, quiet, pensive Logan Hickory, a loner inventor with a painful past.
Dive into this small-town, steamy romance between two opposites who find love…
A witchy paranormal cozy mystery told through the eyes of a fiercely clever (and undeniably fabulous) feline familiar.
I’m Juno. Snow-white fur, sharp-witted, and currently stuck working magical animal control in the enchanted town of Crimson Cove. My witch, Zandra Crypt, and I only came here to find her missing…
