-
With dark humor, this women’s fiction novel is about obsessive friendship, secrets, and a life-changing summer in the wild 1980s of New York City. In 1980s New York City, aspiring writers Tina and Spike bond in a complex, all-consuming friendship that will change their lives forever. Desperate to redefine herself after a failed marriage, twenty-nine-year-old Tina embarks on a thrill-seeking journey to feel alive again. When she meets thirty-five-year-old Spike, a beautiful, seductive, seemingly invulnerable woman, she becomes enthralled by the older woman’s stories of NYC power brokers, sex, wealthy men, and her past. Tina latches on to Spike as someone who can save her from mediocrity and show her how to be the kind of woman who can have power over men—both in romance and in life. Chasing adventure and the writing life, Tina and Spike rent a cabin together for the summer in the rural backwoods. There, they go on a wild, manic, darkly humorous journey involving dive bars, drugs, men, and all-night dancing, becoming increasingly psychologically entangled in each other’s lives along the way. But eventually Tina realizes just how dangerous Spike is, and is forced to act to save herself. Filled with New York wit and fast-paced dialogue, this is a story of loss, betrayal, survival, and blurring the line between attraction and peril. Author: Robin Merle Publication Date: October 28, 2025 -
For fans of The Good Wife and Suits, the true story of a passionately principled young female judge in the man’s world of the ’60s and ’70s who is forced to defend her judgeship against two male challengers in a grueling election—while pregnant with her second child. Janet Kintner could have ended up just another victim of the system. Abused as a child, sexually assaulted as a young woman, the odds were not in her favor—but instead of letting these experiences destroy her, she used them as fuel in pursuit of her dreams. By twenty-four, she was a newly minted lawyer determined to secure justice for everyone, regardless of their gender, race, religion, or income. In 1968, the District Attorney’s office told Kintner, “We will not hire a woman lawyer.” Men dominated the legal system. Undaunted, she established herself as a lawyer who represented low-income people and, eventually, as a high-profile prosecutor specializing in consumer fraud. San Diego lawyers elected her the third woman ever to the County Bar Association Board of Directors. In her private practice, she continued to help everyone she could, often pro bono. In 1976, when Kintner was thirty-one and pregnant, Governor Jerry Brown appointed her the third female judge in history in San Diego—a move that didn’t sit well with some men in her field. Two years later, two men challenged Kintner, a mother pregnant with her second baby, in the nastiest judicial election of the year. In the coming months, Kintner struggled to balance her time between her children, working full-time in a stressful job, and campaigning. She didn’t want to let other women, present and future, down. But was San Diego ready to elect a female judge? Author: Janet Kintner Publication Date: December 2, 2025 -
For fans of Chanel Cleeton’s Next Year in Havana, a real-life story of how a young woman’s five-day trip to Cuba, her mother’s birthplace, completely changed her view of herself as a second-generation American. When Barbara Caver was growing up in South Carolina, her Cuban roots were as mysterious as the embargoed island her mother had been born on but left in 1959. For Barbara, Cuba represented a heritage that she’d never understood and couldn’t fully embrace. When she moved from South Carolina to New York, the vibrant diversity of the city and new friendships with other Cuban Americans made her curious about her mother’s home country. Finally, in 2017, she traveled to Cuba. Immediately upon arriving in Havana, Barbara was struck by a sense of the familiar: tiles on a backsplash looked like tiles in her grandparents’ home, the airport smelled like a childhood memory, local dishes tasted like her grandmother’s cooking, and a morning stroll through Vedado delivered her to the front gate of her great-grandmother’s home—despite the fact that she didn’t have the address. She wasn’t just visiting a foreign country; she was being welcomed home. Part travel adventure, part ghost story, and part memoir, A Little Piece of Cuba: A Journey To Become Cubana-Americanais an imaginative and humorous personal journey through Barbara’s memories and experiences as she discovers that she is and has always been more Cuban than she thought. Author: Barbara Caver Publication Date: December 2, 2025 -
Raw and wickedly funny, this debut memoir details one woman’s recovery from her emotional eating disorder, while navigating divorce, discrimination, motherhood, and the madness that is Tinder dating. A riot of dark humor beginning with her dysfunctional childhood in outback Australia, Jane McGuinness details her recovery from an emotional eating disorder with dry wit, discovering that hers is something of a curious social experiment. Exploring themes of patriarchy and discrimination against the overweight, Jane walks away from her long-term marriage, returns to grad school while raising her three children in a foreign country, and transforms her health. Hiking the Camino de Santiago through Spain and adventures in Greece are regaled with self-deprecating fervor, while horrifying post-divorce Tinder dating will leave the reader amused and aghast in equal measure. This debut memoir is truly a transformative journey in every sense, as Jane discovered that it was never food that she hungered for after all. Author: Jane McGuinness Publication Date: October 14, 2025 -
Faced with the possibility of losing their three-day-old second child when she contracts meningitis, Norman and Rita Angelini experience all five stages of grief. Terrified for their daughter, they bargain, plead, and beg for a miracle—and they get one, but it isn’t what they expected: though KiKi survives, her illness results in severe brain damage, and she is ultimately diagnosed with cerebral palsy. In the aftermath of this diagnosis, denial and anger take over. Rita fights to keep her vision of who she thinks KiKi could be, and she channels her energy into searching for a procedure—some therapy—that would change KiKi’s outcome. In pursuit of a cure, the Angelini family treks across the United States and abroad—but somewhere along the way, acceptance of and joy in who KiKi is prevails over the idea of “fixing” her. A memoir of unending hope, faith lost and rediscovered, and unconditional love, An Unexpected Normal offers other parents of children born with a disability hope that joy is always within reach—even in the most challenging of circumstances. Author: Rita T. Angelini Publication Date: March 4, 2025 -
For fans of Claire Messud and Téa Obreht, a debut novel that examines how the Holocaust shapes the life of one tough survivor and the toll it takes on her daughters and granddaughters. Can you call yourself a Survivor if you don’t know what you survived? Take Sarah Vogel. Auschwitz is her hometown, yet she has no memory of the place. Not the obscene conditions of her birth, the mother, or the changing cast of faceless women who kept her warm on winter nights. She’s only three when liberated, and with no one to tell her who she is or what she might become, Sarah has no choice but to invent herself. On her journey from Europe, land of the defeated, to America, land of the self-invented, she learns that holes in a person’s past are red flags and that little white lies go down easier than explanations. But eventually those lies will become the wall that hides her true self, the good and the bad, from those she loves. Becoming Sarah is the poignant, sometimes ruthless portrait of an American family—its matriarch, a tough old bird who should never have drawn breath but is bent on lasting forever—and the line of daughters and granddaughters who follow. Each generation standing on the shoulders of the last; each gaining more of the strength, will, and maybe even luck that will make them Survivors in their own right. Author: Diane Botnick Publication Date: October 28 -
For readers who loved Marley & Me, a poignant memoir about cats, dogs, and what it means to forge a friendship—in life and in death—with a person you can never meet. Betsy Pauly died five years before Jen Braaksma knew she had even lived. Betsy was an artist and writer hailing from Minnesota, Texas, Missouri, and Florida. Jen is an author and book coach from Ottawa, Canada. Yet, improbably, Betsy became Jen’s friend. When Betsy died, she left behind a heartbroken husband, a hole in the hearts of her family and friends, and a half-finished manuscript. To honor his wife, Chips wanted to publish her animal stories—Betsy was a dedicated animal welfare advocate who could never say no to a stray dog or cat (or dozens!). Turning manuscripts around is Jen’s job. But as she worked, she never expected to form a friendship with the woman on the page. How was that even possible? Readers might feel they “know” an author by their writing, but Jen’s experience went further. She got to see Betsy’s drafts and her process. She got to see Betsy’s mind. And in doing so, she got to know this extraordinary woman. This may be Jen’s journey, but it’s Betsy’s story. A story about dedication, passion, and the connection that comes from sharing your authentic self—even between two people who can never meet. Author: Jen Braaksma and Betsy Pauly Publication Date: December 9, 2025 -
For fans of André Aciman, Omer Friedlander, and Ayelet Tsabari, these twelve stories convey the power, magic, and pain of place—one iconic street in Jerusalem where immigrants young and old struggle to find themselves between the years 1967 and 1999. Leaving one country for another, even if it is an immigrant’s choice, is never easy. The stories in this collection—often emotional, sometimes funny—examine this truth as they render the experiences of twelve characters, most of whom immigrate to Jerusalem in the three decades following the 1967 Six-Day War. All of them come to create new lives in an old homeland. Some succeed, but for most the present and past collide, confounding and challenging attempts to create stability—like the Dutch Holocaust survivor struggling with her love of a Nazi, or the young American Reform Jew craving an observant Orthodox lifestyle. Each of the characters in these layered stories, from the pregnant Canadian woman who imagines giving birth to a savior to the American chiropractor who takes his kids to watch the Passover slaughter of a lamb, comes to find that after the initial excitement of falling in love with a new country, difficulties emerge. Being an immigrant is a perpetual mode; you are always aware of loss and difference. In addition to this shared experience, iconic Bethlehem Road, with its ethnic mosaic and vibrant urban setting, is the great connecting thread in these tales—giving readers a chance to peek beyond its stone fences and glimpse the people who live there. Author: Judy Lev Publication Date: October 21, 2025 -
For fans of Tessa Bailey and Hannah Grace, Cinematic Destinies is a feel-good, contemporary romance about a trio of adult children searching for love and beauty in the shadow of their parents’ legendary Hollywood fairy-tale romance. Legendary actor Finn Forrester and his wife philosopher Ella Sinclair Forrester met on the location shoot for Jean Mercier’s film Celebration. The world has been captivated by their fairy-tale romance since Finn famously proposed on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. As the couple now prepares to celebrate their thirtieth wedding anniversary, they wonder if their children will ever find love. Eldest daughter Betty is excelling in a medical residency program in New York City—and has convinced herself that distancing herself from emotions is the path to success. Youngest son Albert, a recent college graduate, is trying to find his footing in Boston as he struggles with his identity. Free-spirited Georgia, her mother’s spitting image and an actress following in her father’s footsteps, has been cast in Jean Mercier’s final film, mysteriously titled Beauty. When she arrives on set in Iceland and meets her costar, sparks fly. Is history repeating itself? How has growing up in the shadow of the world’s most iconic love story affected each of the Forrester children? In this highly anticipated conclusion to The Location Shoot and After the Red Carpet, we see how Finn, Ella, and their children fulfill their cinematic destinies. Author: Patricia Leavy Publication Date: September 2, 2025 -
For fans of the new Matlock reboot, a legal thriller featuring an idealistic young lawyer who believes her bruised and abused client . . . even after discovering that client is keeping secrets that are beyond belief. Attorney Jessica Fischer is back, and this time she feels good about helping her client. Susan Wolan is the wife of a county commissioner and the victim of domestic violence. Jessica knows the abuse happened—she’s seen the handprints on Susan’s body. But she also suspects her client is holding something back from her. What is it—and can she help save Susan from her powerful and connected abuser without damaging her own career? As if all this weren’t enough, Jessica is simultaneously forced to deal with her estranged father, who has just come back into her life with secrets of his own. After a fall lands him in the emergency room, Jessica realizes that he and her paralegal, Diane—a person she depends on to keep her sane—might be falling for each other. She wonders if she’ll be able to stop herself from falling . . . apart. Author: Lori B. Duff Publication Date: October 7, 2025 -
For young women who are intrigued by the world around them and the science that explains it, a collection of stories by women scientists that shares what it’s like to pursue a passion for science—even when that path isn’t always straightforward. Have you ever wondered how an insect flies or why a curveball curves? What about why waves make bubbles when they break on the beach or how blood flows through your veins? If these wonders spark your curiosity, For All the Curious Girls is your invitation to explore the fascinating world of fluid dynamics. The girls in these stories are just like you—curious and eager to understand the science of the world around them. In these pages, women scientists bring to life the journeys of girls from different cultures and backgrounds as they uncover the secrets of fluid dynamics—and demonstrate how your own questions and passions have the potential to lead to a rewarding career. From the graceful swirl of smoke rising above a power plant to the way wind shapes the leaves on trees, fluid dynamics is everywhere, waiting to be noticed, explored, and understood. No matter what you dream of becoming, let these tales inspire you to follow your curiosity—it just might take you farther than you ever imagined. Author: The Stories of Women in Fluids (SOWIF) Publication date: November 11, 2025 -
For fans of Eat Pray Love and Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, a therapist’s tale of mid-life sexual awakening as she bravely explores relationships, sex, and pleasure—and learns that it’s never too late to desire and be desired. Is it ever too late to connect to the sexual part of yourself? At forty-eight years old, after her husband announced he had fallen in love with a man, Alisa Kriegel was determined to finally figure out this essential part of herself. As a psychologist, she had the tools to help others; now, it was time to help herself. Alisa’s bold and vulnerable story told with honesty and humor, shows us that it’s possible to have a sexual awakening—and to experience the thrill of feeling desired—at any age. Letting go of decades of shame and giving herself permission for pleasure was just the beginning of jumping into a series of adventures in online dating, sex, and romance. From sex clubs in New York City to a canoe trip in the Canadian wilderness, this memoir offers readers an insight-filled journey into one woman’s mid-life discoveries about sex, love, and relationships—and a behind-the-scenes, in-depth analysis of women’s sexuality. Author: Alisa Kriegel Publication Date: November 4, 2025 -
For fans of McCarthy’s Bar, a debut memoir about a woman’s humorous and poignant solo adventures of self-discovery on Ireland’s backroads following a painful divorce. When an introverted, divorced, middle-aged mother and school librarian from the Midwest decides to leave her comfort zone and travel alone to Ireland, her desire to fulfill her dream overcomes her fear as she immerses herself into what will become an adventure of courage and self-discovery. Motivated by her love of Irish music and Celtic spirituality, along with her desire to find healing from depression and divorce, Diane sets off for Ireland, a country she’s been obsessed with for years. Her romantic preconceptions of the Emerald Isle quickly clash with reality, however, and while there she faces many obstacles, including driving the narrow, ill-marked roads throughout the countryside she traverses. Nevertheless, this first sojourn leads to three more trips over the next six years, and she gradually learns to navigate Ireland’s back roads—not to mention her own personal and spiritual roads toward self-discovery and acceptance. This heartfelt and humorous account of Diane’s adventures—including hanging out with an Irish rock band, traveling remote roads in search of a hermit nun, and meeting her favorite Irish musician not once but twice—is sure to inspire readers to get outside their own comfort zones and take some rewarding risks of their own. Author: Diane Hartman Publishing Date: September 30, 2025 -
Fans of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild will root for Anne Abel as she intrepidly sets out alone for Australia at the age of sixty, seeking to capture some Bruce Springsteen energy and fight off her lifelong, debilitating depression. At the age of fifty-nine, Anne has never been to a concert. Then, she reluctantly goes to a Bruce Springsteen concert—a man she knows nothing about—to spend time with her son and daughter-in-law. For three-plus hours Bruce Springsteen’s energy, humanity, and enthusiasm lift her out of her lifelong depression and makes her feel alive. A year later, due to increasing classroom violence where she taught, Anne walks out the door thinking, I’m never coming back. But, getting into her car to go home, she realizes that because she suffers with severe recurrent depression, without the structure and focus of teaching she will be at risk for falling into a deep depression. She’s been inpatient twice at a psychiatric hospital, had three regimens of electroconvulsive shock therapy, and tried over twenty medications. Anne needs a new and different plan. Then she remembers: in four months Bruce Springsteen will be touring in Australia. So even though Anne hates to travel and be alone, she books the trip. Eight concerts, five cities, twenty-six days. She hopes that harnessing some of Bruce Springsteen’s energy will keep her out of the abyss. Anne doesn’t go on this trip to change. But much to her surprise, she returns home a different person. Author: Anne Abel Publication Date: September 23, 2025 -
For fans of Ruta Sepetys’s Salt to the Sea, this coming-of-age tale of one fourteen-year-old girl’s escape from early-seventeenth-century Portugal’s Inquisition, achieved with the help of a clandestine band of allies, will thrill and inspire. In early-seventeenth-century Portugal, Spain, France, and Germany, dangers are plentiful—especially for those of Jewish heritage. Non-Catholics have been expelled from Spain, and the Inquisition has now come to Portugal to impose its prohibitions. Fourteen-year-old Isabela, an obedient “New Christian” with a talent for needlework, believes she has nothing to fear from the Inquisition. But when a mysterious woman arrives with a message from Isabela’s traveling father, the girl must leave her home and embroider her way along the clandestine network of sanctuaries created to conduct Conversos, or secret Jews, to safety. A host of supporters and spirit guides, as well as one special young man, assist Isabela as she escapes the Inquisitors and makes her way across countries and cultures. Along the way, she learns of the danger and importance of her work and is shocked to discover her family’s true origins. In this enthralling coming-of-age tale of resistance, love, and danger, Isabela employs her talent and fierce determination to find her way despite the powerful forces that buffet her every step of the way. Author: Barbara Stark-Nemon Release Date: September 16, 2025 -
For readers inspired by Margaret Busby’s New Daughters of Africa, Juliet Cutler presents a stunning testament to a group of Maasai women who are claiming their voices and shaping a future of lasting change. In this inspiring collection of interviews and portraits, over twenty Maasai women share the ways education has transformed their lives by giving them the tools to overcome poverty and empowering them to make profound differences in their communities. Through their stories, the women featured in Lessons in Hope lay bare the overwhelming challenges many Maasai women and girls continue to face. For some, hunger hovers nearby, only one bad drought away. Many must raise children without running water or electricity. Most struggle to gain a basic education, see a doctor, or earn an income. And too many Maasai girls still endure female genital mutilation, early forced marriages, and other forms of violence. Yet these remarkable women have overcome the odds. As graduates of the first school for Maasai girls in East Africa, these thriving leaders now hold positions in education, health care, nonprofits, government, and business. Their stories reveal a cadre of Maasai women working toward positive change within their own culture and offering a compelling, optimistic vision for the future. Proceeds from the sale of this book support education for Maasai girls. Author: Juliet Cutler Publication Date: September 9, 2025 -
For fans of Ann Patchett and Louise Erdrich, a contemporary women’s fiction novel set in northern Wisconsin about one grief-stricken family’s journey toward redemption and forgiveness in a rural town divided by the past. After years away, Margaret Payne returns to her rural northern Wisconsin hometown on a work assignment, only to find it still haunted by the tragic accidental shooting of her younger brother, Bean. Amidst the lingering pain, Margaret uncovers plans for a development on Dell Landing, a hill home to generations of Indigenous people—including Mr. Kipp, the reclusive man responsible for Bean’s death. With her mother trapped in denial, her father consumed by anger, and a town bitterly divided, Margaret must confront both the past and the present, rising tensions. Facing Mr. Kipp will test everything she believes, but before it’s over, Margaret will discover the freeing power of unconditional forgiveness—even for her brother’s killer. A poignant, redemptive tale, Mercy Town reminds us how forgiveness, even in the deepest sorrow, heals wounds, binds us as human beings, and remains truly unconditional. Author: Nancy Chadwick Release Date: September 16, 2025 -
For fans of Educated and The Glass Castle, a former music industry insider’s journey of healing—from childhood trauma through spiritual practices and self-discovery to a place of peace—with some incredible celebrity encounters along the way. A transformative memoir chronicling Wendy Correa’s journey to heal from childhood traumas, including the death of her father, emotionally distant siblings, and a violent, alcoholic stepfather, My Pretty Baby is a story of not belonging and, ultimately, of the healing that comes from building a chosen family. After escaping her turbulent home life, Wendy’s path of self-discovery takes her through Buddhism, meditation, plant medicine, yoga, Native American spirituality, 12-Step programs, and psychotherapy. Along the way, she has extraordinary experiences: singing “Give Peace a Chance” on the Rose Bowl stage with rock ’n’ roll royalty, attending AA meetings with legendary musicians while working at A&M and Geffen Records, and meeting her musical hero, Joni Mitchell. Native American sweat lodge and vision quest ceremonies further strengthen her sobriety and mental well-being. Her life takes a new turn when she moves to Aspen and becomes a radio DJ and assistant to gonzo writer Hunter S. Thompson. There, she meets her future husband and begins to build the family she always longed for—but despite her newfound peace, she is repeatedly drawn back into her family’s dysfunction. It’s only after her mother’s death that Wendy uncovers a painful family secret that finally answers her lifelong question: What really happened to my family? Author: Wendy B. Correa Publication Date: November 4, 2025 -
For anyone who’s ever gone on terrible date, a vulnerable memoir that explores dating in midlife after divorce, with bad dates—from terrible one-night stands to promising matches who ultimately disappoint—anchoring the theme of every chapter. After two life-shaking events—losing her father and divorcing the man she’s spent half her life with, who happens to be an actor from a famous family—Rachel Lithgow leaves a thirty-year career to write full time and pursue a relationship with a calming, delightful man she recently met online. She thinks she has it all figured out . . . until he announces he’s joining a cult and moving to Phoenix with a blonde real estate agent. Through a year of terrible dates, peppered with a few great experiences and a lot of pinot noir, the author learns that patterns can be changed, that asking for help is sometimes necessary, and that there’s only one way to repair her brokenness: by facing her trauma and demons head-on. With a unique mix of humor, self-deprecation, and gritty vulnerability, this dark yet hopeful memoir tackles divorce, dating, single motherhood, PTSD, grief, loss, and starting over in midlife. From emotional rock bottom to a peaceful acceptance of the woman she truly is, Lithgow finds the humor in the blackness, redemption in the pathos, and fulfillment in the idea that “happily ever after” isn’t always a storybook ending—and doesn’t need to be. Author: Rachel J. Lithgow Publication Date: November 11, 2025 -
For fans of Suzanne Heywood’s Wavewalker and Cea Sunrise Person’s North of Normal comes Leslie Johansen Nack’s emotional follow-up memoir about her battle with addiction following a traumatic childhood—and her inspiring journey toward healing and happiness. In the mid-1970s, Leslie Nack’s family returned from sailing to French Polynesia and began the integration process into American life again, which included being tossed back and forth between an alcoholic, mentally ill mother and an abusive, overbearing father. To find love and acceptance, Leslie chases a myth that throws her into the path of nefarious older men, where she eventually falls into drug and alcohol addiction. Her father dies in his plane in the jungles of Mexico when Leslie is nineteen, but his abuse lingers in her psyche. She spirals, her only solace her next fix—until, somehow, she finds the grace, despite her abjectly dysfunctional family background, to believe in her worth. This newfound self-love changes everything for her, and finally she is able to find her way to sobriety and recovery. Raw and intense but ultimately hopeful, this sequel to the popular memoir Fourteen tells the rest of Nack’s turbulent—and incredible—story. Author: Leslie Johansen Nack Publication Date: October 14, 2025 -
For fans of No Matter Our Wreckage, this memoir explores the emotional impact of sexual abuse and how this debut author not only faces it but recovers from the trauma. Stephanie Maley’s life is beautiful. She has her husband of thirty years and two sons—all healthy and making their way in the world. Other than the unwelcome memories of the past that flash in her mind like blinding television ads, things couldn’t get much better. But when COVID-19 comes to the United States in 2020, Stephanie is seized by a deep panic, certain that she is going to die. Suddenly, her newfound fear of death triggers memories of the past she’s fought so long to repress: she was molested at a young age, groomed by two different men, and still feels the void left by her birth father and stepfather’s absence. In the face of a chaotic world wrought with both physical and mental illness, Stephanie must embark on a journey of healing. With the help of her therapist, her husband, and the solace she finds in writing, Stephanie discovers that she doesn’t have to be defined by the pain and abuse she’s suffered. No Longer That Girl is a touching memoir about a woman who bravely faces health issues, betrayal, and abandonment—and proves that no matter the obstacle, we too can overcome our trials and become more resilient souls. Author: Stephanie L. Maley Publication Date: November 4, 2025 -
For fans of Kristin Hannah and Jennifer Chiaverini, a novel about a Polish immigrant woman who fights against worker oppression in Depression-era Detroit despite opposition by many—even her own husband. In this gritty, cinematic story, hardworking Florence and her best friend, Basia, are enraged by the poor treatment, low wages, and unsafe working conditions they endure in the factory where they hand-roll cigars. Florence is as reserved and compliant as Basia is fiery and forthright. During a time when their choices were between bad and worse, this is an underdog story of a woman who must search for her voice in order to lead a labor movement against her husband’s violent efforts to silence her. Set in turbulent 1937 Detroit, this novel portrays the Eastern European immigrant struggle when difficult economic times, xenophobia, “Fordism,” secret societies, and Communist-led labor organizations buffeted the demographic. Will Florence and her husband resolve their conflicts both inside and outside the home? At what cost? Author: Janis M. Falk Release Date: September 9, 2025 -
Set at the turn of the 20th century, a mystical, tantalizing novel about a visionary’s journey toward her destiny. In 1888, Katherine Tingley, a medium and clairvoyant, continues to have a childhood vision of a white city on a sundown sea. While serving the poor at her Do-Good Mission on Manhattan’s East Side, she encounters William Q. Judge, a mesmerist and leader of the American Theosophical Society. He recognizes her potential, convinces her to become his student, and guides her on a spiritual path that could make her mystical dream become a reality. After Judge’s passing, Katherine assumes leadership of the Society and embarks on a world crusade to spread brotherhood, learn from ancient cultures, and search for a Himalayan Mahatma. In 1900, she moves the Theosophical headquarters to San Diego. Here, she sets out to establish Lomaland—a sacred space of learning, artistry, and divine harmony, built on a barren peninsula yet brimming with hidden potential. As people from around the world converge to share in her vision, they form a community united in purpose to spread enlightenment. However, betrayals, lies, and libels accumulate until a monumental court case ultimately decides her future and the fate of the white city on a sundown sea. Author: Jill G. Hall Publication Date: October 14, 2025 -
If you believe in the power of dreams and intentions, this inspirational coming-of-age memoir set in 1950s Australia where an immigrant girl swimmer turns challenges and disappointments into opportunities for success is for you. Henny was just a little girl when she experienced brutal violence and hunger in WWII Amsterdam, but she is now a teenage immigrant swimmer in 1950s Australia where she must learn to turn challenges into success. She is smart, she swims fast, and she has definite opinions about the kind of woman she intends to be. She hears the timeless Land speak and sees the Southern Cross as a beacon when she walks in the bush with her father. She enjoys swimming star fame and championship victories and turns to the pool in her search to belong, to face fears and dashed hopes, until at every turn she sees more clearly her unique path ahead. “Intentions are like prayers, if you pay attention they come back as destiny,” her mother has taught her. Is it intention or destiny that propels this young New Australian into her future long life? Author: Hendrika de Vries Publication Date: September 2, 2025 -
A debut historical fiction for fans of Kristin Hannah and John Steinbeck, Orphans of the Living follows the Stovall family’s early 20th-century quest for home and redemption as they confront racism, poverty, and inequality across the American South and West. In the shadow of the Great Depression and Jim Crow south of the 1930s, an impoverished white family escapes—with the help of Black sharecroppers—from a vengeful Mississippi plantation overseer intent on lynching them. Arriving in California to start a new life, Barney and Lula Stovall are haunted by the past, the children they’ve left behind, and the daughter they cannot love or protect. Orphans of the Living follows the peripatetic life of the Stovall family, woven from four parallel stories: Barney and Lula Stovall, and two of their nine children, Glen and Nora Mae. Their California sojourn—from their hardscrabble dairy farm, to the brig at the San Francisco Presidio, to the building of the Golden Gate Bridge—lead them on paths toward each other and forgiveness. But redemption doesn't come to them all. Author: Kathy Watson Publication Date: September 30, 2025 -
For aspiring scientists and science leaders alike, a powerful collection of stories from a diverse group of authors that details the ups and downs experienced by women in STEM—and offers insight into how to make the field more inclusive for all. Imagine walking into a lab or a lecture hall and realizing you’re the only woman there. For most women in the sciences, this is not a difficult thing to envision; rather, it’s a familiar reality. Here, fifteen writers representing a wide range of women in STEM, from early-career researchers to accomplished leaders, offer authentic, personal reflections on the obstacles they’ve faced in this traditionally male-dominated field. These powerful narratives address critical themes—imposter syndrome, balancing personal responsibilities with professional ambitions, and navigating systemic biases such as sexism and racism—and span continents and cultures, illustrating the diversity of experiences while highlighting shared threads of resilience, courage, and the power of mentorship. Through these stories, readers—not just women in STEM but all those committed to building more inclusive and equitable workplaces—will gain a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of women in science and the role we can all play in creating environments where everyone can thrive. Deeply personal yet universally relatable, Persevere, Survive & Thrive is a celebration of courage and persistence—and the power of sharing stories to inspire change. Author: The Stories of Women in Fluids (SOWIF) Publication Date: November 11, 2025 -
For fans of Geraldine Brooks’s Year of Wonders, a story set in 1400s Provence about a young, passionate doctor who falls in love with a mentally ill young woman—and soon finds himself immersed in a web of danger, deceit, and mystery. Roland, a young man from Barcelona who inherited a passion for healing others from his deceased mother, has rebelled against his family’s wishes and chosen to attend medical school in France. The university in Montpellier is the most prestigious medical school in all of Europe, and yet Roland is quickly disillusioned by his professors’ false teachings. Seeking more accurate knowledge of the body, he leaves Montpellier and apprentices himself to a surgeon in nearby Arles for the summer. Roland soon finds himself with two mentors in Arles—Hubert, a master surgeon, and Isaac, a Jewish doctor who advocates searching for remedies in ancient texts and testing them on patients—both of whose lessons he absorbs readily. But when he falls in love with Magali, a young woman suffering from a mental illness, he extends his quest for the truth about the body to include the truth about the mind. Readers who loved Rachel Kadish’s The Weight of Ink will be drawn to Roland’s story as he follows the woman he loves into her “labyrinth of the spirit”—one filled with wonder, mystery, betrayal, and love—and find themselves enthralled by this finely wrought depiction of the beauty and danger of life in early Renaissance Provence. Author: Anne Echols Publication Date: September 2, 2025 -
For anyone interested in the intersection of feminism and politics comes this inspiring, base-on-a-true-story tale of fighting back against sexism in the labor movement, set against the backdrop of Harvard in the 1990s. As soon as courses at Harvard begin, Ana, a White female, finds herself being stalked by Aaron, a Black male classmate. Word quickly gets out to the rest of the cohort—but not wanting to get anyone kicked out, Ana refuses to name names. With their program director insisting there’s nothing she can do to intervene if no one will name the perpetrator, the class becomes engulfed in a campaign to protect Ana that splits the group into two camps. Some of the men join the women to fight the harassment; some of the women join the harassers. In short order, the conflict becomes a fight for power that divides along race, sex, LGBTQ, and class lines—mirroring the heartbreaking history of the labor movement, and serving as a precursor to our current political landscape. A galvanizing behind-the-scenes look at the labor movement of the 1990s, Scabmuggers is ultimately a triumphant tale of women’s empowerment. Ana and her friends may be outnumbered—but they won’t go down without a fight. Author: Yvonne Martinez Publication Date: September 16, 2025 -
A debut memoir for fans of Love Warrior—a candid account of the emotional and psychological pain of infidelity and divorce; and the journey of a lifetime that one woman took to heal. Few things can shatter our hearts like expectations. Sarah expected to live happily ever after. She expected her husband to honor his vows. She expected his military helicopter to land safely. But when the unimaginable occurred and her world unraveled so magnificently, the undoing of her expectations left her on her knees, fighting for her life. When everything we “expect” crumbles like ash after a fire, how do we reconcile what was lost? One courageous step at a time. Sarah packed her car, then set out to hike and camp across the country. But pain, codependence, and trauma challenged her as she moved forward. From a sailboat to a yoga studio, a therapist’s couch to a shaman’s ceremony, from selling everything and moving into a van—on the ashes of her former expectations, Sarah rebuilt, from the inside out. She Journeys is a testament to the transformative power of healing. From darkness to light, from a marriage ended to a life reclaimed, we are reminded that it never matters how we begin. Only that we do. From wounds to wisdom, She is every woman who must find her way from heartbreak to homecoming. Author: Sarah May Publication Date: September 9, 2025 -
Perfect for anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes of the ballet world, a rousing memoir of a brash young ballerina from a dysfunctional family who achieves her greatest dream only to realize—as she begins to find success—that she’s gay. With a priest for a father and a magician for a mother, Emily Sayre Smith was always going to have an interesting life—for better and for worse. Here, she recounts what it was like coming of age in Texas and Arizona in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s in a decidedly dysfunctional family. To escape her turbulent family life, Emily throws herself into her ballet classes, where she can dance out the anxiety in her body and take refuge in fantasy worlds. Driven by the dream of being a ballerina, she earns scholarships and lead roles, studies in London for two years, and eventually lands back in Tucson, where she joins a fledgling ballet company and falls in love—with a woman and with marijuana. Join Emily as she survives her troubled family, hangs out with dance royalty, saves Martha Graham, meets the Queen of England, slings hash in a diner, discovers her sexuality, and tries to figure out how it’s all going fit together in her ballerina world in this story of a brave and sometimes bumbling girl charging her way through life. Author: Emily Sayre Smith Publication Date: October 7, 2025 -
For readers of I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, a candid and heart-wrenching memoir about child abuse, family secrets, and the healing that begins once the truth is revealed and the past is confronted. Andrea is four and a half the first time her father, David, gives her a bath. Although she is young, she knows there is something strange about the way he is touching her. When her mother, Marlene, walks in to check on them, she howls and crumples to the floor—and when she opens her eyes, she is blind. Marlene’s hysterical blindness lasts for weeks, but her willful blindness lasts decades. The abuse continues, and Andrea spends a childhood living with a secret she can’t tell and a shame she is too afraid to name. Despite it, she survives. She builds a life and tells herself she is fine. But at age thirty-three, an unwanted grope on a New York City subway triggers her past. Suddenly unable to remember how to forget, Andrea is forced to confront her past—and finally begin to heal. This brave debut offers honest insight into a survivor’s journey. Readers will feel Andrea’s pain, her fear, and her shame—yet they will also feel her hope. And like Andrea, they will come to understand an important truth: though healing is complicated, it is possible to find joy and even grace in the wake of the most profound betrayals. Author: Andrea Leeb -
Female body hatred and fear have been reinforced by religion and culture for centuries, but can be transformed with female agency driven by unearthing and living healthy narratives of female strength and sacredness that will change laws and lives. Hundreds of female eyes, locked in oil and clay, latch onto Jacquelyn’s body as she wanders the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Female images frozen in frames and on pedestals as virgins and victims adrift in a sea of male kings and conquerors. The fierce female gaze ignites a panic attack, and she swears she can hear their plea: Set us free. Two months later, a dream as insistent as the female eyes shakes her awake with a question: Where is my rogue? She searches New York sidewalks and Montana meadows. When she awakens, she knows her rogue is not outside but in. Jacquelyn knew rogue energy as a child but puberty stole her away. The eyes insist she get the energy back. How? By acknowledging her innate female agency, and replacing obsessions over external appearance with trust for her body, instincts, intuition and dream wisdom. Search, the eyes urge, for female rogue-models through time, and scour history for lies and blank spaces. Reject the biggest lie of all: sin wallpapers female bodies. Rogue is her passion and soul. “Be fierce,” rogue commands. “I am your body, soul, intellect and self.” Jacquelyn says yes. The eyes have it. Author: Jacquelyn L. Jackson Publication Date: November 11, 2025 -
For fans of Stephanie Foo’s What My Bones Know, a memoir of a middle-aged Japanese immigrant mother’s struggle to raise her teenage son and save her marriage when she finds herself triggered by memories of her own childhood trauma as he enters adolescence. At age twenty-two, Shigeko Ito immigrated to America to escape Japan’s rigid society and a neglectful childhood home that landed her in a mental hospital at seventeen. She thrived in her new, healthier environment and thought her traumatic past was all behind her. Until it wasn’t. Motherhood, she realized, was far more challenging than she could have ever imagined. But it was her son’s high school years that proved to be particularly daunting, and that was when her past reemerged—in the form of intense flashbacks to her childhood trauma and tumultuous teenage years. With the stream of daily stresses compounded by menopausal irritability, Shigeko often found herself regressing into a bunker-like mentality with childish coping mechanisms, a pattern that threatened to undo her most prized achievement: her happy family. In The Pond Beyond the Forest, Shigeko faces her past head-on, taking the reader along on her quest to uncover the root causes of her lifelong struggles—a journey that leads to deeper self-awareness, understanding, and acceptance, and ultimately saves her family and marriage. Author: Shigeko Ito Publication Date: October 7, 2025 -
Set in early medieval Britain and perfect for Lord of the Rings fans, this fourth installment of The Druid Chronicles tells the story of a Saxon sheriff who’s on the hunt for fugitive Druids—unaware that he is being pursued as well. Obedient to the dictates of their chief priestess, a small band of goddess-worshipping Britons leave the shelter offered them by a loyal innkeeper for a desolate mountain valley believed to be the site of their cult’s ancestral home. Rebuilding stone walls reduced to rubble over centuries of abandonment would have taken years for a legion of skilled masons; the five Druid priests and priestesses have only one skilled laborer with them and only a matter of months before winter sets in. Time is equally pressing for a pair of Christian Saxon lovers, neither of whom is motivated by any higher cause than their compelling need to finish what they’ve traveled from the capital city of Atheldom to the remote shire of Codswallow to do: kill the woman’s husband before he finds out that she is pregnant. Although the two situations are unrelated by anything other than their proximity to one another, the moment when Caelym, high priest of the shrine of the Great Mother Goddess, will be caught in the crossfire between Stefan, sheriff of Codswallow, and the forces his estranged wife has gathered against him, is rapidly approaching. Author: A.M. Linden Publication Date: November 5, 2025 -
For readers who found comfort in Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, a 9/11 widow’s memoir of rediscovering joy and finding love again after the violent loss of her husband. One sunny Tuesday morning, Maryellen Donovan’s beloved husband, Steve Cherry, lost his life in the 9/11 attacks—rocking her to her core, and changing her family forever. Maryellen’s life and love with Steve was all she could have hoped for; in the wake of his death, she was inconsolable. But ultimately, she had no choice but to be strong for her two young sons—and even when deep in the grip of hopeless despair, she found solace in her deep faith and belief that, with the support of friends and family, she would eventually find love and happiness once again. Her route to her happy ending proved long and winding and full of obstacles—cancer, family conflict, even more loss—but she always found a way forward, no matter the setbacks she encountered. An inspirational story that will provide hope to anyone who’s experienced unfathomable loss and loneliness, The Road to Yesterday is a testament to the idea that there is always a path to love and joy—if only you’re determined enough to keep yourself open to it. Author: Maryellen Donovan Publication Date: September 9, 2025 -
For fans of Christina Baker Kline and Fiona Davis, a coming-of-age story about a young woman discovering love, loss, and the power of her own creativity in World War II San Francisco. San Francisco in 1944 is a bustling place, a revolving door of soldiers and sailors passing through on their way to the war in the Pacific. Twenty-year-old Irene Cleary, however, is not going anywhere. Although she’d love to travel, the seamstress shop she inherited from her mentor keeps her firmly rooted in the only city she’s ever known. She pours her energy into dressmaking and volunteers for the war effort by dancing with servicemen at the USO. But Irene’s life is transformed when she designs a gown for Cynthia Burke, the socialite whose new marriage to Max, a handsome Chicago businessman, is the talk of the Nob Hill elite. As Irene is drawn into the Burkes’ glamorous, troubled orbit, and as she becomes absorbed in making costumes for the first American performance of a ballet called The Nutcracker, she finds herself on the threshold of exhilarating, perilous new worlds . . . and the most surprising discoveries of all will be the ones about herself. Set in a vibrant city during a turbulent time, The World at Home is a coming-of-age story about creativity, loss, and the many lessons we learn from love. Author: Ginny Kubitz Moyer Publication Date: December 9, 2025 -
A dazzling literary romance about a young socialite and a smooth-talking pilot who take a chance on each other against the extreme odds orchestrated by their peers and mother nature. In 1950s New England, being a marriageable young lady means following a certain set of rules. Nineteen-year-old Sabina knows them all too well, thanks to her imposing aunt Poppy, who has already decided how Sabina will spend the season at their summer home in Edgartown, where she’ll go to college in the fall, and the type of young man she’ll eventually marry. But Sabina has other ideas. And the island, it seems, does too. Sabina is about to meet the Vineyard’s most notorious bachelor: charter pilot Colin Hatch. With a cloudy history, a questionable income, and a reputation for charming every available girl at the yacht club, Colin isn’t exactly the traditional match her aunt had in mind. When Sabina takes a chance on him anyway, a complex love triangle emerges, setting Sabina’s summer on an entirely different path—not just for this vacation season, but maybe for the rest of her life. A coming-of-age story woven into a small coastal town’s various dramas, Ways of Virtue is Dirty Dancing meets Jane Austen—complete with a beautiful seaside setting, a high-society wedding in the making, a host of scheming, jealous neighbors, and a once-in-a-lifetime hurricane that’s barreling toward them all. Author:Liz O’Neill Publication Date: September 30, 2025 -
For readers in search of emotional and spiritual healing, a courageous, gripping memoir of one woman’s journey of gradually healing her traumatized memory through poetry, swimming, and the intuited guidance of a spiritual presence named Voice. Words Make a Way through Fire is an intimate, courageous memoir of a woman shattered by witnessing her eldest brother’s horrific suicide when she was a teenager. The book traces her creative journey of recovery and healing with poetry as a constant companion. The primary means of Cyra Dumitru’s healing process, from age sixteen through adulthood, is writing poetry and journaling. During this decades-long journey, Cyra experiences a transcendent, loving presence called Voice who guides her and helps her imagine wholeness. She finds community with others through the sharing of poems. She studies poetry as craft and as medicine—becoming a published poet with multiple books, an award-winning college instructor of poetry writing, and a certified practitioner of poetic medicine who creates spaces where others can heal through poetry. In Words Make a Way through Fire, Cyra explores the specific medicinal properties of poetry—giving order to interior anxiety, trusting the wisdom within—and invites her brother David to speak through her as he reflects upon his final hours. In doing so, poem by poem, she shifts gradually from being traumatized and feeling haunted to feeling empowered and spiritually expansive. Author: Cyra Sweet Dumitru Publication Date: September 2, 2025
