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1969. Lena Rosen is an intelligent, observant teenager torn between spontaneity and self-consciousness. During her junior year, she becomes attuned to the pulse of her times in her first-period Current History class, where rebellion, social change, and musical innovation of the 1960s dominate discussion. When Lena becomes the associate editor of the school newspaper The Beacon, she is drawn into the swirling discourse surrounding the Vietnam War, civil rights, environmental disasters, and campus protests—while also grappling with her growing attraction to Jack Stone, the paper’s editor. As the year progresses and the antiwar movement gains momentum, the unrest builds at Waverley High. Lena wrestles with her own cultural and religious identity as a Jewish teen while she and her fellow students struggle to cope with racial discord, a bomb threat, and the emotional toll of a world that seems to be unraveling. When tragedy collapses the distance between headlines and Lena’s own life, she must decide what it means to stand for peace—and to hope for a better world. Set during one school year against the backdrop of an America on the brink of change, World News from Waverley High reveals the crossroads of personal growth and national unrest. Author: Linda Kass Publication Date: September 8, 2026 -
Jen Thompson rose to the heights of politics in her early thirties as a celebrated Republican strategist—a rarity for a young woman. For years, success and power were her only ambitions, despite the drumbeat of her inner voice warning that her life was wildly off course. It was only when a car accident nearly killed her on the campaign trail of a nationally watched Senate campaign that Jen finally decided to walk away. Her sudden alienation from the life she had always known set into motion cascading events that carried her across the world and deep into a reckoning with her own soul. A memoir in vignettes, Wild Pivot explores how blind loyalty develops and shapes a woman with the craving to fit in and feel celebrated. With a piercing ability to explore just how jarring change and evolution can be, Thompson moves with unflinching honesty and razor-sharp wit between snapshots of her life as she grapples with the demons of her past and commits herself to doing what is required to live a life of truth and freedom—no matter the cost. Author: Jen Thompson Publication Date: September 22, 2026 -
When Nicole LoBiondo set out to climb the Seven Summits—the highest mountain on every continent—she never imagined that her hardest climb would be the one waiting at home. As Nicole pushes through extreme expeditions—from Antarctica’s frozen plateau to the thin air of Everest—she returns home between climbs to care for her mother through a devastating illness. These parallel journeys reveal a story of grit, love, and the emotional cost of choosing strength when life demands everything at once. With clear-eyed honesty and vivid, cinematic detail, LoBiondo captures the reality of high-altitude mountaineering, the toll of long-term caregiving, and the universal struggle to survive what breaks us. Ultimately, she discovers that endurance is not just the ability to keep going up a mountain but also the courage to face loss, reshape identity, and rise again. A gripping blend of adventure story and intimate family memoir, Where the Air Grows Thin is a powerful story of adventure, caregiving, ALS, and the journey of a daughter fighting to hold on to her mother while learning how to let go. Author: Nicole LoBiondo Publication Date: October 13, 2026 -
In 2010, twenty-nine-year-old poet Ebony Walden quits her job to go to on an eight-month solo journey across fifteen countries and five continents. Propelled by a sense of purpose and adventure, she moves from teaching English and volunteering in places like Guatemala and India to conducting poetry workshops in Kenya, walking the ruins of Machu Picchu, and paragliding over the Swiss Alps.
Along the way, Ebony writes “Where I’m From” poems with the people she meets—intimate reflections that capture family, identity and culture, weaving their voices into her own unfolding journey. But each destination also challenges her in unexpected ways, forcing her to reckon with the hardships of growing up in New York in the ’80s and ’90s. Through breathtaking landscapes, unexpected setbacks, and profound encounters with strangers, Ebony begins to understand that travel is not just about seeing the world—it is about allowing the world to change you.
Part travel memoir, part coming-of-age story, Where I’m From invites readers to take their own journey beyond borders and come home to themselves.
Author: Ebony Walden Publication Date: September 8, 2026 -
Nestled in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, Beulah has always seemed steady—rooted in tradition, shaped by generations, and slow to change. But in 1986, the ground has shifted, and no one feels that more than fifteen-year-old Barrett Childress Owens. Between her parents’ unraveling marriage and a school full of kids she can’t connect with, she feels invisible in her own hometown. When Lacy Gunderson, the captivating new girl everyone is curious about, suddenly vanishes, the town’s calm surface fractures. Search parties comb the woods. A police investigation begins. Rumors multiply. Families close ranks. And Barrett begins to sense how much the adults around her choose not to say. As Beulah clings to its usual rituals—including the annual Miss Kudzu pageant, which has shaped local girlhood for decades—Barrett is forced to navigate a community where loss lingers in the air and secrets are carefully kept. Her journey through the uncertainty reshapes her understanding of friendships, family, and the complex place she calls home. A rich coming-of-age story with a pulse of mystery and a budding romance, What Happened in Beulah explores the fault lines of a small town and the courage it takes to face the truths people would rather bury. Author: Christy Scott Cashman Publication Date: October 20, 2026 -
Katie Trexler was at the top of her game—thriving in her high-profile job as a local television news anchor, raising healthy young twins, and a leading a nearly idyllic life with her husband in the suburbs of Denver. Then believing it was the right decision for her family—and unaware of the toll it would take on her well-being—she gave up her dream career. Years later, unsatisfied with where her path has led, Katie wonders, What do I tell my daughter about the choices I’ve made as a woman and mother? With raw honesty, What Do I Tell My Daughter? delves into the real and sometimes hidden costs of sacrificing parts of ourselves for the people we love—a reality Katie confronts first as a young mom and then again almost a decade later when her seemingly ideal life unexpectedly shatters. Punctuated by hard-earned lessons about inner strength, self-love, and equality in relationships, this unflinchingly candid memoir is for any woman, any person, who has ever lost themselves while caring for others—and who is determined to reclaim their voice, redefine success, and model courage and awareness for the next generation. Author: Katie Trexler Publication Date: October 6, 2026 -
At the age of ten, Rosanne Annoni had a vision of Christ calling her to become a nun—only to have her devout Catholic mother respond to this news with a slap across the face. Traversing the time between that childhood vision and a solitary winter in Pema Chodron’s cabin at Gampo Abbey, Unfolding the Heart weaves together raw personal storytelling, spiritual discovery, and psychological insight. Through the highs of spiritual clarity and the depths of trauma, she searches relentlessly for her true path—and finds it not in renunciation, but in presence. Spanning decades of grief, motherhood, cancer, and healing, this memoir explores the messy beauty of a life lived with courageous self-inquiry. Through the Diamond Approach, Buddhist practice, and deep personal relationships, Rosanne unearths wisdom from adversity and uncovers grace in the ordinary. For spiritual seekers, healing professionals, or anyone navigating loss, midlife change, or a desire for inner truth, Unfolding the Heart is a cathartic, hopeful story of letting go, leaning in, and discovering that spiritual path isn’t somewhere far away—it’s right here, within. Author: Rosanne Annoni Publication Date: September 29, 2026 -
In 1878, young Mame Sutton escapes her oppressive father through a quick marriage to the charming stage manager of a New York theatre, while her younger sister Lizzie makes the same escape by eloping with a young Jewish jeweler. Which sister has made the better choice? Life for Mame in a theatrical boarding house in 1878 offers new kinds of friendships and unexpected challenges. Through the tales of the theatre workers, she gets a backstage look at the Gilded Age of the Astors, Goulds, and Rockefellers, but she has no share in the freedom given to the ladies of the stage. Her husband’s view of a wife’s role is as narrow as her father’s idea of a daughter’s role was. How can Mame break free? For Lizzie, marriage into the Cohen family offers warmth and support, but also cultural differences and expectations which she finds hard to master. Her husband, though loving and tolerant of her mistakes, is financially dependent on his family. Lizzie longs for a life apart from the Cohen world. When disasters shake their worlds, can the sisters help each other onto new paths? Author: Allyson Johnson (cohort leader) Publication Date: November 10, 2026 -
When newly divorced fifty-year-old Grace Callahan spies a fixer-upper historic home for sale in Ojai, California, she decides to fly out from the Midwest to take a look. Grace immediately falls in love, with both the ramshackle old adobe and the little town. It’s just the change she’s been looking for—but once she moves in, she wonders if she’s bitten off more than she can chew. The house needs a lot of work, as do the orchards and the ranch animals. Luckily, support soon arrives: Emilio, a handsome contractor, helps restore the house; Juan and Carlos gently bring the orchards back to life; Rosa does housekeeping and becomes a friend; and Jane Anne offers to care for the animals, just as she did for the previous owner. When Emilio asks Grace on a date, she’s excited. But as much as she enjoys his company, the spark isn’t there—and between the steep learning curve at the ranch, her new job, and her friendship with Jane Anne, there isn’t much time for romance in her life anyway. But as her relationship with Jane Anne grows closer and deeper, Grace wonders if there might be room in her life for love after all. Author: Sara Elliott Publication Date: September 15, 2026 -
It is said that every memoir is an exorcism. With a Jewish psychoanalyst father who’d lost his entire family in the Holocaust and a non-Jewish, emotionally repressed mother, where did that leave author Sylvia Flescher? For years Sylvia struggled with writers’ block, worried that her own story paled in the shadow of her parents’ enormous losses. However, after a powerful ceremony in Jerusalem that honored her mother for her courage in hiding her father in Rome during the Nazi occupation, Sylvia began to write—and she finally found her voice. In The Reluctant Psychoanalyst, Sylvia describes how trauma can pass into the next generation. A devoted daughter, for decades she did not feel free to deviate from her father’s agenda for her. Failing to recognize his narcissism and toxic boundary-crossing for what it was, she complied with his demand that she join him in his mission to “save the world from another genocide” by spreading his version of the gospel of Freud. With this memoir, Sylvia fulfills her duty to memorialize her parents’ lives—and claims the right to tell her own story. Author: Sylvia Flescher, M.D. Publication Date: November 10, 2026 -
When Marcy learns her beloved forty-five-year-old son, Michael, has died, she refuses to believe it. He was her only child. Later, she blames herself because she didn’t recognize the signs of his illness. She has disturbing dreams about not saving him and spirals through the various stages of grief as she waits months for the coroner to render a cause. But the fifth and final stage of grief, Marcy rejects. In her mind, if she accepts Michael’s death, he won’t ever return. The Porcelain Heart chronicles her raw emotional journey the year following Michael’s death. Marcy endures all the firsts without him—the holidays, his birthday. She joins grief groups, remembers frightening and fun times together, questions whether she was a good mother, and tries to distract herself with travel. She creates a golf scholarship in his name and commissions a stone people and pet fountain to be built on the path where he used to hike. Her journey culminates when she takes his ashes to his favorite place, a lake in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and finally begins moving toward acceptance. Author: Marcy Kelly Publication Date: October 27, 2026 -
Three estranged sisters—Helen, Anna, and Penn Lockshire—are bound by the shimmering but fragile legacy of their family’s freshwater pearl farm in rural Tennessee. When the business that once made them famous faces collapse, the sisters are pulled back into each other’s lives and forced to reckon with old betrayals, unspoken resentments, and the complicated truth of their inheritance. Soon, what began as a fight for survival becomes a reckoning with the myths that shaped them and the secrets buried in the family’s past. From the discovery of a rare pearl in 1981 to the struggles of a failing farm in 2008, the Lockshire sisters must navigate love, loss, ambition, and forgiveness to decide whether their heritage is a blessing to preserve—or a burden to escape. Rich with emotional depth and anchored by the pearl’s enduring symbolism—a thing of beauty born from irritation—this sweeping story of family, identity, and resilience will captivate readers of Celeste Ng and Claire Lombardo. Author: Stacey Gordon Publication Date: November 3, 2026 -
What is the half-life of O’Toole family secrets? In 2013, Saige is stuck living with her Granny Rosamond in her beige wasteland of a hometown. Desperate for a diagnosis and cure for her mysterious ailments, she uncovers more than she bargained for—a hot rock that shouldn’t exist and a past Rosamond refuses to explain. That past takes place in the 1940s, when 50,000 people move to an eastern Washington town that doesn’t exist to build something they can’t name. Rosamond is one of them, eager to do her bit for the war effort—and find a husband. When she falls for a charming engineer, she envisions a perfect life. But as the hot war turns cold and her ever-expanding family becomes increasingly troubled, she discovers this nuclear town is no utopia, and she must decide whether to cling to the destructive facade of domestic bliss or face the truth that could save them all. When Rosamond’s past collides with Saige’s search for healing, half-buried secrets—from the most contaminated place in the Western Hemisphere to the wounds within their own family—can no longer be ignored. Can Saige discover the truth and heal herself without destroying her grandmother’s life? Author: Shannon St. Hilaire Publication Date: October 6, 2026 -
Stefan, once a Saxon warrior and now sheriff of Codswallow, has fought to reclaim his shire from the forces of his estranged wife. But peacetime brings its own reckoning, and Stefan finds himself unprepared for the challenges of parenthood. After a confrontation with his son exposes Stefan’s darkest emotional wounds, he impulsively rides off accompanied by Caelym, an enslaved Druid priest. Trading stories by campfire, the two men discover that they have both betrayed the same woman, Princess Aleswina. United by remorse, they take on the all-but-impossible odds of doing battle against the murderous king who holds her prisoner. In this fifth and final installment of The Druid Chronicles, Stefan and Caelym must set aside their differences and atone for their pasts as they fight for justice in an unjust world. Author: A. M. Linden Publication Date: December 15, 2026 -
What if an ancient ritual could transform the way you live today? In her beloved first book, Braided, Dr. Beth Ricanati shared how making sacred bread, challah, every Friday for over a decade transformed her life. Now, in The Braided Prescription, she shares insights from her subsequent challah workshops with groups all over America and even abroad, distilling what she’s learned into seven attainable and powerful practices for managing stress in our daily lives. Blending personal stories, scientific research, and timeless wisdom, Ricanati demonstrates how these seven practices can restore presence in a distracted world, strengthen bonds with family and community, and teach resilience through imperfection. With warmth and wisdom, she shows how the weekly ritual of making challah bread can help us mend what feels frayed, anchor what feels uncertain, and create space for what truly matters. For readers from every walk of life—including those who have never made dough or even seen yeast—The Braided Prescription is a powerful reminder that small acts, repeated with care, can lead to profound transformation. Author: Beth Ricanati, MD Publication Date: September 1, 2026 -
For years, Lisa Cheek has believed long-term commitment isn’t in her genes. Her romantic history has followed a familiar pattern: date a lot and widely, but never settle down. When anyone has wanted to marry her, she’s run away. So even she is surprised when, at forty-nine, she finally says “yes” to a proposal and commits fully to her boyfriend, Big Johnson. But when she finds out on their wedding day, after the vows, that they aren’t actually married, she hesitates. Should she take this as a sign to run while she still can? In The Big Day, Lisa Cheek invites us inside one unforgettable wedding day, with its attending hilarity, chaos, and unexpected turns. As everything begins to unravel she looks back on a lifetime of relationships—her own and those of her family and friends—searching for patterns, meanings and the truth about what makes love last. Witty, unflinching and deeply relatable, The Big Day is a memoir about late-in-life love, marriage, and the complicated question so many people face: When it really matters, do you stay or do you go? Author: Lisa Cheek Publication Date: September 22, 2026 -
Twenty-eight-year-old beauty Emerson Blue is the second most followed celebrity on social media. A self-proclaimed “living piece of art” who rose to fame as a reality star and then parlayed her celebrity into a megabucks career as an influencer, she seems to have everything. Forty-eight-year-old Grammy winner Renn Walker is a fallen country music star. Years ago, he was canceled following allegations of sexual misconduct, and he has lived in seclusion ever since. Once a beloved figure, he seems to have lost it all. When Emerson and Renn meet, sparks fly. Against all odds, a star obsessed with popularity and a recluse shunned by the world fall in love. Everyone in the public and media has an opinion and thinks they know Emerson and Renn. But in a world dominated by social media—a world that blurs the lines between what’s public and private, what’s real and what’s illusion—do we ever really know anyone? Author: Patricia Leavy Publication Date: September 22, 2026 -
In a fine Brooklyn brownstone in the mid–20th century, Ruth and her brothers are raised by their Eastern-European Jewish father, along with a spinster aunt and bachelor uncle. Her father, a widower and respected physician, is proud to have risen from Ellis Island newcomer to a prominent figure within his close-knit immigrant community. But family tensions mount: Ruth’s younger brother rebels against everything their father represents, while her older brother is killed in action in World War II. Not long after, the sudden deaths of her father, aunt, and uncle leave Ruth to inherit a legacy she cannot ignore. With half-remembered childhood moments, hidden documents, and clues appearing around every corner, she’s compelled to embark on a journey to piece together the truth about her mother’s life and death. Along the way, Ruth struggles to imagine her future as she works to hold her fracturing life together—including her relationship with her betrothed, Shimon—but discovers that her own sense of purpose and a sincere life partner can come from reckoning with what it truly means to love. Author: Sally F. Cutler Publication Date: December 15, 2026 -
The Red Barn, a pole dancing venue on the outskirts of Easton, Pennsylvania, is co-owned by Eddie and Victoria. Like the other dancers—GB, who is courageous and nonbinary; Marie, who struggles with depression; Violet, who is manifesting her dream; and Celeste, who grapples with religion and body image—Eddie and Victoria have been shaped by their mothers’ secrets and fears. These mothers suffered from domestic abuse, mental illness, and addiction, yet their only concern was to create a safe, stable home life for their children. Spanning the 1940s through the 1980s, these fourteen interconnected stories about these mothers and their children explore how intergenerational conflicts are confronted and resolved. Each story features the emotional and embodied journey of one character, and together they form a larger narrative about how individual identity and community intersect in the aftermath of trauma and betrayal. Ultimately, the Red Barn family realizes that risk-taking is not only possible but necessary, and that obstacles, no matter how heavy, don’t have to bury us. Struggle is part of life, but it doesn’t define us. What matters is trusting our own organic process of becoming who we truly are, at any age. Author: Susan L. Katz Publication Date: October 13, 2026 -
From the moment Teri Drobnick’s father is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she feels like he’s slipping away. As she grapples with an uncertain future and the steady erosion of his memory, Teri leans on Uncle Bob—her dad’s best friend of eighty years. As Teri navigates the emotional limbo of caring for a parent with dementia, she and Uncle Bob, united by mutual grief, form a deeper bond from the stories he shares of his lifelong friendship with her father. Beginning with their boyhood during World War II, Uncle Bob recounts first dates, college at UC Berkeley, marriages, building a business, raising children, surviving loss. In the present, Teri confronts the anger, loneliness, and role reversal that accompany memory decline—but through tales of the past, she finds a way to reconnect with her father. With a narrative braided between past and present, Our Long Goodbye is a poignant love letter from a daughter to her father that explores anticipatory grief, enduring friendship, and the profound power of shared memory. Author: Teri Roche Drobnick Publication Date: November 3, 2026 -
She married for love. He married for trust. Specifically, her trust fund—the one with the iron-clad “no divorce, no matter the circumstances” clause her mother insisted on. Sterling (not as good as gold) has always come second to her family’s wealth—but unlike her mother, she’ll do anything to protect her three children. For years, she’s kept up the perfect family illusion to shield them from their manipulative, gaslighting father. But now her husband is becoming more reckless, and her children more exposed. And when her daughter’s fiancé says he wants a marriage just like hers, Sterling knows her charade has gone too far. To free herself, she must outwit her husband and the legal ties meant to trap her—before it’s too late. Because in this family, there’s only one way out: One of them must die. Author: Zelly Ruskin Publication Date: October 20, 2026 -
Quinn has spent a lifetime unwinding from a childhood that was both magnificent and traumatizing. As a child actor, she was showered with attention and luxury even as she battled a mother who coveted her success—and eventually stole all her money. Now, Quinn lives a quiet, peaceful life that once seemed impossible for someone like her—suburban neighborhood, loving husband, beloved Labrador retriever, and prickly-yet-adoring cat. Until, one day, something else impossible happens: On a random Tuesday, Quinn’s feet slip off the floor, and she finds herself flying along the ceiling of her living room. Quinn’s neighbor, Georgia, is perhaps the only woman Quinn’s ever known who’s been a true friend and not a frenemy. Still excavating her life from the rubble of a brutal divorce, Georgia is in a deeply introspective place—and beginning to suspect something odd is happening with Quinn. As Quinn grapples with her newfound abilities, the cornerstones of her desperately fought-for life are increasingly threatened. Standing on the precipice of life-changing expansion and staring at a chasm of uncertainty, Quinn must decide if the leap across is worth the risk. Because only by jumping will she find out what’s on the other side. Author: Khristin Wierman Publication Date: November 17, 2026 -
Amber Mettle is a Chicago journalist with a rescue instinct—especially for animals. When she follows her restless husband to Los Angeles for a fresh start, she tries to keep an open mind. But before she can find her footing, she finds herself blindsided by betrayal—no job, no future, no sense of direction. And then, just as she's beginning to rebuild, tragedy strikes. A catastrophic wildfire reduces her home to rubble and claims her beloved pets, thrusting her into a relentless battle with insurance companies, mortgage lenders, and opportunistic grifters. But Amber's story doesn't end in ash. Following the fire, guided by haunting premonitions and signs from the animals she couldn't save, she channels her grief into action. Fueled by love, an unwavering sense of justice, and an eccentric cast of characters who bring unexpected humor to even the darkest moments, she fights to hold the people responsible accountable—and discovers that even in devastation, hope can take root. Author: Carri Karuhn Publication Date: November 10, 2026 -
After the sudden death of her brother, Corey retreats to a remote ranch in Sedona, Arizona, hoping the silence of the desert can drown out the noise of her grief. But the quiet only deepens her isolation—until a mysterious stray dog appears, pulling her back into the world and forcing her to face what she’s been running from. Set against the stunning red rock canyons, Nomad is a lyrical, emotionally charged debut about trauma, resilience, and the wild grit it takes to heal. As Corey grapples with loss and the ghosts of her past, she’s drawn into unexpected relationships that challenge her guarded heart and crack open the possibility of love. For readers of Prodigal Summer and A Town Called Solace, this is the story of one woman’s return to herself through the rhythms of nature, the ache of memory, and the quiet, untamed beauty of connection. It’s a tender, tough meditation on the raw path to healing—and the fierce, fragile hope that blooms in its wake. Author: Cynthia Johnstone Publication Date: November 17, 2026
