Books like Save the Date — picked by fans

This enemies-to-lovers romance offers so much more than the trope would suggest.

Nora Stephens is a ruthless literary agent, and Charlie Lastra is a reserved editor. When they keep bumping into each other on vacation, the plot thickens. Is it possible for two people who have defined themselves the way they define genre books to rewrite their own stories?

As a romance fan, I thought the meta commentary on the romance genre made this book a standout. If you’re a romance fan who loves bookish characters like I do, you won’t be disappointed.

Friends to lovers is one of the tropes I enjoy when done right, and this book does it right.

Add in the fake dating and the story is elevated to a thoroughly fun time. I loved the tension and secret pining between the two leads almost as much as the dynamic between Nathan (the male lead) and his teammates as well as the teammates with Bree (the female lead).

The scene where the football team helps Nathan make a playbook for getting out of the friend zone was one of my absolute favorites. Everyone’s personality shined and I love when friend groups are loud, fun, and chaotic. 

This book. The love story and the scenes between the leads had me swooning.

Seriously, I loved every second of the tension between the main characters: Brooke and Calvin. Brooke’s brother is in jail for murdering his best friend, who was also Calvin’s older brother. And no one knows why he did it.

They live in a small Texas town and their families have, for obvious reasons, become enemies. Their love is forbidden, but they can’t stay away from each other, even when their families are so important to them.

At the same time, the shadow of Brooke’s brother murdering Calvin adds a complication to their budding romance. This book has love, family, and a mystery to unravel and I loved every second of it. 

I ate Kristen Callihan's book right up. It made me feel like I was biting into the most perfect dessert. It gave me a rush but also made me think about my own life, especially where I’m at with my acting career. I was drawn into our hero's secret passion for baking, which made his pastries feel like they weren’t just food; they were little love notes.

It inspired me to bake delicious desserts for my husband, to let him know I love him without saying a word. Each description of his creations made my mouth water and my heart melt a little. It reminded me how the simple act of sharing something you pour your heart into can become a beautiful language of affection. I only put the book down to pick up a dessert fork. I probably gained 5 pounds reading this one!

We tend to think of “creativity” as an individual attribute – some people have lots of it, some not much at all. But this book challenges that entire way of thinking.

Farrell’s fun and fascinating analysis of six case studies (the Impressionists, Sigmund Freud and his friends, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and the First Wave feminists, among others) shows the importance of friendships and group dynamics in fostering creativity in much the same way that any type of gang can foster other forms of deviance.

Farrell goes into specifics of the different roles – like “scapegoat” or “lightning rod” – within these collaborative circles and how they function in the group. We see why creative movements flourish in certain circumstances and flounder when circumstances change.

This book has become a classic in social psychology, and social dominance, as both a personality trait and a feature of societies, has become an indispensable factor in understanding individual, cultural, and political differences.

In this book social/political psychologists Jim Sidanius and Felicia Pratto draw on their own excellent research and scholarship to present their influential theory of social hierarchy and the psychological and societal mechanisms that support it.

This book is for anyone interested in our political differences, and in particular factors that contribute to social inequality.  

While I absolutely love the recent graphic novel series, I have to give some major props to the OG Baby-sitter’s Club. These books are the perfect length to devour on a lazy Sunday afternoon. With so many adventures to choose from as each member of the group gets to play narrator, it’s impossible to not feel like a fellow babysitter handing out club flyers or herding little kids into softball teams. You may even find yourself making your very own kid kit at home and filling up a box with puzzles and games to play with the neighbor’s cat. No? Just me, then?

Mancur Olson was one of the most influential social scientists of the 20th century. This slender (though at times dense) volume presents Olson’s thoughts on why shared interests are seldom enough to motivate people to join together in interest groups.

Beginning with the “rational economic man” assumption common in microeconomics, Olson demonstrates that people have powerful incentives not to support organizations that work to obtain collective goods they value.

Olson got a few things wrong, but his argument explains a lot of the political inaction and nonparticipation we see. If you have ever wondered, “Why don’t people join organizations that are working to help them?” or “Why do oppressed people not rise up against their oppressors?” this book is a good place to start.

Every time I start to get frustrated with what I view as political apathy, I go back to this book. I do this because the… show more.

Neoliberal political economy assumes either a strategic rational actor or an irrational actor who needs to be “nudged” to act rationally. This theory endorses a theory of individualist agency which holds that ultimately all agents must compete against each other. This system of thought emphasizes a lack of alternatives and recommends institutions that accept that actors are narrowly self-interested: people evolved to be machines that survive and propagate. Against this view of human agency, alternative theorists construct theories of action in which individuals can reason together, act in concert, and together be morally accountable. Schwenkenbecher effectively builds this alternative perspective affording possibilities of intentional cooperation and collective moral action.

Though we often think that positive change is inspired by charismatic leaders, NYT top gun journalist Tina Rosenberg takes us to a very different world, where real positive change is not driven by role models, but the peers. From iconic student-led revolution which has spread like wildfire from campuses to cities and villages in 90s Serbia, through removing the stigma from HIV positive people all the way to amazing process in which smoking has become “non cool” instead of “socially acceptable” this book explores the phenomena of “healing the community through peer pressure” especially among youngsters, and may serve as an amazing lighthouse to those seeking to mobilize-and get inspired by their own environment.