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For fans of the series Finding Your Roots, a compelling memoir about how land connects us all—and how, if we are to mend our relations to each other and the earth, we must first reckon with our past, no matter how distant, shameful, or tragic. When Jill Swenson returns to her mother’s hometown after her funeral, she finds a new Seven Clans Casino under construction in Warroad, Minnesota, on Lake of the Woods. There, she learns, Red Lake Nation has recently dispossessed descendants of Ojibway spiritual leader Kakaygeesick from their land—land where the family has lived for the last two centuries—and has also denied them tribal membership. In searching for answers, Jill meets the great-grandson of Kakaygeesick. Over weeks, months, and years, a friendship forms between them, and Jill gradually discovers what allotments, blood quantum, and the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs have to do with her, the great-granddaughter of immigrants who homesteaded on reservation land. Estranged from her father, still mourning the suicide of her husband and the loss of their farm in upstate New York, and now grieving her mother’s death, Jill has spent decades trying to put the past behind her—but discovers the only path forward is to reckon with history. Clear-eyed and yet deeply personal, The Land of Everlasting Sky is a compelling exploration of the history we inherit and our relationships to land and each other. Author: Jill D. Swenson Publication Date: June 2, 2026 -
Perfect for fans of The Glass Castle and Educated, this raw, powerful memoir recounts one woman’s journey—from gritty 1970s Brooklyn to testosterone-fueled 1980s–1990s Wall Street and beyond—to reclaim truth, identity, and self-worth after trauma. A powerful memoir of trauma, resilience, and female empowerment, House of Pretend tells the story of a girl who, raised in the shadow of her father’s death by an emotionally abusive, narcissistic mother, learns early to perform, to please, and to pretend—and spends the rest of her life struggling to unlearn those behaviors. Determined to escape the silence and neglect of her childhood, Joanne claws her way into the male-dominated world of Wall Street as a young woman—only to find that success means nothing without self-worth. When her boss offers her a million dollars to have his child, she is forced to reckon with everything she’s buried: the deep ache of abandonment, years of chasing love in all the wrong places, and the belief that she’s undeserving of more. What follows is not a transformation into someone new but rather a fierce unmasking—a reclamation of the voice, worth, and identity she has had within her all along. Offering a gripping blend of raw emotion and biting clarity, House of Pretend is about what happens when a woman stops waiting to be saved and instead saves herself—with grit, honesty, and just the right amount of badassery. Author: Joanne Redding Publication Date: May 19, 2026 -
Blending the sensual candor of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild with the emotional honesty of Nora McInerny’s It’s Okay to Laugh, this bold memoir is a tale of love, grief, midlife reinvention, and the unapologetic reclaiming of desire after devastating loss. When Amy Gabrielle’s husband died from cancer, her carefully constructed life crumbled. After three years of caregiving, the fifty-four-year-old widow found herself raising her neurodivergent son alone—and experiencing an unexpected sensual reawakening that both challenged and invigorated her. Widow in the City chronicles Amy’s raw, unfiltered journey through grief and desire following her husband’s death. From exploring dating apps and casual encounters to rediscovering her sensuality through lingerie and creative self-expression, she challenges cultural taboos about midlife female desire while fighting to rebuild her identity. As she grapples with the duality of loss—mourning her husband while embracing her newfound freedom—she discovers that grief and pleasure can coexist in surprising ways. Candid, provocative, and ultimately empowering, this memoir illuminates the messy reality of reclaiming joy after devastating loss. Amy’s transformation from a grieving widow to a woman fully embracing her authentic self offers a roadmap for anyone seeking to reinvent their life when the future they planned suddenly vanishes. Her story reminds us that even in our darkest moments, the path to healing may lead to unexpected places—and that it’s never too late to rediscover who we truly are. Author: Amy Gabrielle Publication Date: May 5, 2026 -
For fans of Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died, a memoir for daughters who recognize that to truly understand themselves and the patterns of their lives, they must first understand their mothers and the forces that shaped these women. When Margaret Whitford’s mother was dying, she told those present that her daughter “had her history.” This was true; Margaret had conducted interviews with her mother during the last decade of her life. But this didn’t end their estrangement, and Margaret chose not to return to her mother’s side during her final days. In this memoir, Margaret confronts this decision by unearthing in her mother’s traumatic history the roots of the emotional distance between them. She explores how a history marked by the devastation of World War II in Europe, a violent childhood home, and sexual assault accumulated into complex PTSD that shaped her mother and the way she parented Margaret as her firstborn and as a daughter—and, in turn, how Margaret carried her mother’s trauma forward in her sense of self, in her relationships to others, and in the ways she navigated her world. Indeed, Margaret not only had her mother’s history—she embodied it. Ultimately, The History We Carry confronts the legacy of intergenerational trauma with wisdom and compassion, revealing how familial history shapes each of us but need not be wholly determinative of whom we become and how we choose to live. Author: Margaret Whitford Publication Date: June 2, 2026 -
For readers of Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, a debut memoir about a woman born into a conservative family who spends decades grappling with self-acceptance and her parents’ conditional love—until she finally learns how to love herself. Born with a cleft lip into an upper-middle-class, conservative family obsessed with image and success, Jill Vanneman was subjected early to a “perfection campaign” aimed at erasing flaws. Told with unflinching honesty, moments of wit, and emotional depth, this coming-of-age story unfolds against the backdrop of 1980s America—a time and place where being a lesbian could cost you your job, your family, and your sense of self. As she grows into adolescence, college, and early adulthood, Jill begins to question not only her place in her family but also her sexual identity. Her journey leads her through turbulent relationships, professional achievements shadowed by internalized shame, and a heartbreaking attempt to reconcile with disapproving parents. Gradually, through therapy, spiritual exploration, and painful introspection, Jill learns that healing doesn’t come from perfection but from embracing the flawed, fierce truth of who she is. A raw, deeply personal memoir of family expectations, social shame, and a relentless drive for perfection, The Perfection Campaign is a compelling testament to resilience, identity, and the high cost—and ultimate liberation—of living authentically. Author: Jill Vanneman Publication Date: June 9, 2026 -
After heartbreak in Pennsylvania, a forty-five-year-old widow journeys to Sudan’s war zone, where a chaotic maternity ward teaches her a new kind of strength—and becomes her path to healing. When Sheila’s husband died, grief didn’t just visit—it swallowed her whole. She didn’t want casseroles or kind words. She wanted out. Broken and carrying a battered rucksack, she joined a humanitarian mission in war-torn South Sudan, where gunfire drove her under delivery-room tables and days blurred as she triaged mothers and children ravaged by tropical disease. But even the pulse of the frantic mission could not strip away her sorrow until she heard the ululation of the Sudanese women: a fierce, haunting cry, to celebrate life, to exorcise sorrow, and to rip the past from the body to make space for the now. Waiting for the Kick: A Midwife’s Grief and Rebirth in Africa recounts Sheila Kimble Haas’s journey from a home thick with loss in America to the edge of the world, where she delivers babies in mud-walled clinics, navigates tribal customs and civil unrest, and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with women whose strength redefined survival. This powerful memoir of loss, reckoning, and unexpected transformation is both a tribute to the unbreakable spirit of women and the story of a midwife who discovered that healing begins not in comfort, but in surrender. Author: Sheila Kimble-Haas Publication Date: June 16, 2026 -
Fans of Under the Tuscan Sun and House Lessons will love Gutted, a witty, big-hearted tale of trading city lights for leaky pipes—and discovering that sometimes the best renovations happen on the inside. What if the only way to rebuild your life is to begin by tearing down the walls? When a successful designer, entrepreneur, and lifelong city dweller hesitantly agrees to follow her husband’s dream of country living, she doesn’t expect to be undone by a sagging Victorian farmhouse and the relentless wind howling through uninsulated walls. But as holes are patched and rooms slowly take shape, something surprising happens: space opens up. Not just in their crumbling home, but in her heart. Told with humor, vulnerability, and the insight of a woman rebuilding more than just a house, From There to Here: How an Old House Remodeled Me is a love story—not only between a wife and her husband but also between a woman shaped by fast-paced living and a slower, quieter way of life. With each creaky floorboard and stripped layer of old wallpaper, Maida Korte discovers unexpected beauty, remembers buried dreams, and finds strength in the women who came before her. For anyone who has ever wondered what lies beyond the edge of timelines and control, this is a warm, wise, and deeply human invitation to slow down, dig deep, and make peace with change—one shingle at a time. Author: Maida Korte Publication Date: June 23, 2026 -
A heartwarming dual-perspective memoir for fans of The Ride of Her Life and Horse Crazy, The Brat and the Bullfighter explores how a misunderstood Lusitano stallion and an uprooted Army brat find healing, belonging, and each other. Some horses don’t just change your life, they save it. Arty’s blood runs hot. White hot. A white Lusitano stallion with bullfighting in his bones, he was born on a prestigious Brazilian farm and sold through an elite auction to a private ranch in California. There, human misunderstanding dims his brilliance. Rider after rider mistakes his sensitivity for defiance, eroding his confidence and trust. As an Army brat, Erin relates. She grew up always moving—the perpetual new kid, never quite belonging, rarely feeling understood. Her love for horses was her only constant. So, when Arty’s owner recognizes he needs something different and offers to sell him to her, she can’t refuse. What follows isn’t a fairytale. Erin questions everything: her choices, her ability, whether she’s helping or hurting him. But when unexpected loss shatters her, Arty steps forward to light a path through darkness. Told from both human and horse perspectives, The Brat and the Bullfighter is a dual coming-of-age memoir about trust, love, and the bond that forms between two souls who, in finding each other, finally find home. Author: Erin O’Malley Publication Date: July 28, 2026 -
For fans of The Many Lives of Mama Love and the many women struggling with addiction while raising families, a candid recovery memoir chronicling one suburban New Jersey mother’s journey from secret vodka binges to sobriety. Liz Jannuzzi’s life is unraveling: a failing marriage, three young children to care for, and a vodka bottle hidden behind the coffee maker. Her alcoholism, a family legacy that has already claimed her brother’s life, threatens to destroy everything she loves. When a shocking confession about an affair forces Liz to admit to her drinking problem, she reluctantly attends her first AA meeting. There, surrounded by women who understand her struggles, she’s given a lifeline: “You never have to feel this way again.” She commits to getting sober—and through the Twelve Steps, she confronts the wreckage of her past while rebuilding her marriage and reclaiming her role as a mother. With unflinching honesty and unexpected humor—never once shying away from the messiness of recovery (the awkward amends, the persistent cravings, the haunting grief that alcohol once numbed)—Liz takes readers through her journey from hiding empty bottles to celebrating milestones of sobriety. In doing so, she illuminates the complex challenges of motherhood and marriage and offers hope to anyone struggling with alcoholism. Raw and heartfelt, Sober Mom is a powerful testament to resilience and the possibility of transformation, one day at a time. Author: Elizabeth Jannuzzi Publication Date: July 21, 2026 -
For fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, an epistolary memoir about two young women’s friendship across continents and decades—an enduring connection kept alive by the simple act of written correspondence. When Ruth’s family migrates from Brazil to North America in 1964, she and her best friend, Elana, are forced to separate. They decide to keep in touch via written correspondence—an exchange that ultimately persists for twenty years. From São Paulo, Elana writes candidly with warmth, dedication, and support, easing Ruth’s assimilation to first Canada, then the United States. Lonely and uprooted, Ruth derives solace from the friendship and the correspondence. As both girls mature and embark on a life in different countries and cultures, their bonds transcend their differences. They remain friends for life. Fifty years after parting, Ruth and Elana re-read aloud the letters that they exchanged as young women. The experience of hearing their words written in letters and sent like a bridge across the continent and half a lifetime is a revelation that stuns the friends: the antecedent voice spoken in the concrete voice of the present. Author: Ruth Zelig Publication Date: July 28, 2026 -
For fans of Aldous Huxley and Timothy Leary, a woman’s personal journey unfolds in a historically documented and scientifically elucidated memoir of lifelong struggle to overcome CPTSD with the help of psychedelics. In 2009 following a breast cancer diagnosis, Rex found herself spiraling into a depression that led her to a groundbreaking clinical trial at Johns Hopkins University in 2012, where she was given two doses of psilocybin. As she reflects on her tumultuous childhood marked by violent abuse from psychiatrist parents, Rex uncovers the psychological influences that shaped her life and therapeutic search. Her journey intersects with a dark history of psychological experimentation, including the work of Harvard’s Dr. Henry A. Murray—her mother’s mentor—whose controversial research influenced modern psychology and led to the psychopathology of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. Despite years of failed conventional treatments, Rex sought alternative paths, discovering transformative healing through ayahuasca, MDMA, and 5-MeO-DMT. Seeing What Is There navigates the complexities of the psychedelic therapy movement, questioning its ethical pitfalls and motivations. Ultimately, Rex demonstrates that true healing requires more than just pharmaceuticals—it demands economic security, community, and social support, offering a powerful meditation on trauma, survival, and the potential for transformation. Author: Erica Rex Publication Date: January 13, 2026 -
From an author with a psychology background, a candid memoir about the interior of her own psychotic episode and its origins in guilt, lost purpose, conflict between mothering and career, and the ambiguity in her relationship with her therapist. After the culture shock of moving from a small Wisconsin town to the tumult of Los Angeles in 1967, Linda’s family disintegrates: her parents decide to divorce, and she and her younger brother, Brian, suddenly must fend for themselves. While she finds a foothold in academic pursuits, Brian spirals downward into schizophrenia and, finally, commits an irrevocable act. Plagued with guilt, Linda loses her sense of purpose, abandons a promising career in psychology, and finds herself in a life she never envisioned—poor, alcoholic, an accidental parent in an unhappy marriage, feeling invisible and alone. When Linda sees a psychologist, Sam, he helps her recover what she has lost: her sense of self. Feeling truly seen, she falls in love with him and suspects her feelings might be reciprocated. This ambiguity, mingled with other overwhelming stresses, triggers her descent into a psychotic episode—one that echoes her dreams, Brian’s experience, and Sam’s own phobia. Will Linda follow in her brother’s footsteps, or is this the wake-up call she needed to correct her course? Author: Linda Bass Publication Date: January 20, 2026 -
A fresh take on the loss memoir, Piece by Piece follows a middle-aged mother forced to reconcile the theft of precious keepsakes with the memories and people the items represent. If things are “just things,” why does it hurt so deeply when we lose them? When a home burglary strips Kim Danielson of heirlooms and other special keepsakes, she loses more than the items themselves. She is also robbed of tangible connections to her history, and physical reminders of loved ones who have died—igniting grief both old and new. Feeling the weight of disappointment for future generations who cannot inherit a piece of her family’s legacy, Kim creates a new and lasting heirloom, one that can never be stolen. Perfect for anyone who has ever lost anything of meaningful value, this book provides solace and a new perspective on material possessions. A practical template for preserving a legacy with or without artifacts, Piece by Piece offers a unique take on loss through the lens of stolen objects and invites readers to tell the stories of their lives by telling the stories of their things. Author: Kim Danielson Publication Date: January 27, 2026 -
For fans of Eat, Pray, Love and Without Reservations, a captivating memoir of one woman’s bold leap into reinvention—trading academia for adventure, storytelling, and self-discovery in the heart of London. What happens when a burnt-out professor trades academia for a fresh start in the city of her dreams—only to find reinvention far tougher than she imagined? At sixty-five, Rebecca Knuth walks away from the security and status of academia, determined to reimagine herself in London. She craves more—more creativity, more stories, more life. Immersing herself in the city’s literary and cultural world, she enrolls in a creative nonfiction masters program, trains as a guide, joins the prestigious London Library, and reclaims her voice as a writer. London becomes her muse, a place of transformation where shedding her old identity is inseparable from rebuilding herself as a woman. But change is never simple. Her mother’s health declines. Rebecca lands in intensive care. She’s harassed on the Underground. Exhaustion takes hold. Doubt creeps in—about her ambition, her motivation, even her sense of belonging. Where exactly is home? A memoir of reinvention, resilience, and self-discovery, London Sojourn speaks to retirees, creatives, and seekers longing to step beyond certainty into something new. Author: Rebecca Knuth Publication Date: January 27, 2026 -
This intimate, poignant, and compelling memoir tells the story of a woman—a “reluctant examiner” of death—navigating grief while caring for her dying brother and aging parents, inviting the reader into a journey of hope, growth, and resilience. Deborah Cummins is “a stranger to death”—until, in 2007, she learns that her brother, Joe, is dying. In the months that follow, as Joe’s health declines, Deborah confronts hidden truths in an attempt to make sense of her brother’s death while he’s still alive—truths that, in retrospect, where perhaps not so hidden after all. But before she’s able to fully grasp her brother’s worsening condition, Deborah is confronted with another family crisis: between complications following a recent surgery and her heartbreak over her son’s condition, Deborah’s mother’s health is waning as well. After the death of her brother at only forty-five years old, her mother’s death shortly follows, and Deborah must navigate grief compounded. Spanning the country from a small town in Maine to the sprawling metropolises of Chicago and Phoenix, Threshold skillfully and poignantly examines familial relationships between child, parent, and siblings, providing evocative portraits of each. Author: Deborah Cummins Publication Date: February 3, 2026 -
A soul-searching LGBTQ memoir about one woman’s attempt to plan her way to happily ever after—only to realize that healing, self-discovery, and love happen in their own time. Days after Corey’s breakup, a photo of her ex wrapped in the arms of another woman goes viral on Facebook. Confronted with this gleeful boast about “happily ever after,” Corey, a forty-something lesbian, decides that she can’t live in a state of perpetual loneliness, plagued with the burden of her own failure in finding happiness and love. Armed with her meticulously crafted checklist, Corey embarks on a mission to heal, move on, and find “the one.” But no matter how many items she checks off her list or how faithfully she follows the sage wisdom of psychics, her breakup coach, and the legendary rapper Eminem, her hope in finding her one true love begins to fade away—until she’s suddenly torn between two. Now, with her heart unexpectedly on the line, Corey must find out what she really wants—and where her true happiness lies. Author: Corey Seemiller Publication Date: February 10, 2026 -
For fans of Heather Lanier and Claire Bidwell Smith, Raising Rhia is a deeply moving memoir, written with vulnerability and grace, that explores the complexities of anticipatory grief while celebrating the unexpected joys found in everyday moments. The powerful story of a mother fighting for her daughter in a world unprepared for her needs. Born with multiple disabilities—including vision impairment, cerebellar ataxia, hearing loss, and mitochondrial disease—Rhia’s life unfolds in a maze of medical uncertainty and bureaucratic roadblocks. In this memoir, Terena Scott lays bare the relentless battles, raw grief, and fierce love that define her journey, refusing to let the system—or fate—dictate her daughter’s future. Told in six poignant sections—Dreams, Fear, Hope, Loss, Grief, and Love—Raising Rhia captures the complexities of parenting a child with disabilities, balancing everyday joys with the weight of anticipatory grief. At its heart, it is a story of resilience, connection, and seeing a child for who she is, rather than what she has. Both a deeply personal narrative and a reflection on the broader realities of raising a child with disabilities in the United States, Scott’s candid and compassionate account offers insight, solidarity, and hope for parents and caregivers facing similar challenges—and anyone seeking joy inside the burden of grief. Author: Terena Scott Publication Date: February 17, 2026 -
For fans of Daniella Mestyanek Young’s Uncultured and Tara Westover’s Educated, one woman’s gripping firsthand account of falling into—and eventually escaping—a female guru–led cult as she seeks her own personal awakening. Growing up under the sway of a Brooklyn housewife turned guru, Priya Hutner is drawn into a world shaped by bizarre rituals, spiritual promises, and oppressive beliefs. What begins as a quest for enlightenment unravels into a stifling reality as the boundaries between spiritual devotion and control blur—and as Priya becomes an integral part of the ashram community, sharing the guru’s teachings, she becomes further entangled in a web of spiritual control and manipulation. In this deeply personal memoir, Priya shares her struggle to break free from her guru and the cult-like grip to which she falls prey. Priya’s traumatic escape from the community marks a profound turning point as she regains personal power, rediscovers herself, and achieves true liberation in the process. A spiritual adventure story and a cautionary tale, Chasing Nirvana is a story of love, heartbreak, and redemption that offers a powerful reflection on the perils of blind faith and the beauty of reclaiming one’s life on one’s own terms. Priya’s story is a testament to the human spirit’s capacity for resilience, self-discovery, and freedom from the bondage of belief. Author: Priya Hutner Publication Date: March 3, 2026 -
For readers who wish Eat, Pray, Love had a cynical streak comes this propulsive, wildly original memoir about a journalist’s quest to conquer depression and addiction, set against the backdrop of international adventures and modern communal living. Through the eyes of others, Carly Schwartz seems to have everything going for her: top editor at the world’s biggest news site, fancy college degree, a seemingly endless parade of friends and parties. But she’s been struggling with crippling, suicidal depression since she was a teenager, and by her late twenties she has learned to cope with a steady diet of drugs, alcohol, and unavailable men. Then she meets a charismatic guy who invites her to move to the mysterious “sustainable town” he’s building in the Panamanian jungle. As Carly chases her appetite for adventure down to the equator, she ends up consumed by a darkness she can no longer hide from. And when she finally conjures the courage to confront her demons, she finds help where she least expects it. Equal parts hilarious and heart-wrenching, I’ll Try Anything Twice is a vivid and vulnerable portrayal of the search for belonging, the definition of success, and the risks we’re willing to take in order to learn how to love ourselves. Author: Carly Schwartz Publication Date: March 10, 2026 -
For fans of Gloria Anzaldúa and all those who know what it is to grow up straddling more than one culture, a lyrical, timely exploration of what it’s like to live in the “in between”—and why it should matter to everyone. We are all shaped by the cultures that surround us—their expectations, ideals, and norms. But what happens when those cultures collide? When your mother embodies one world and your father another? In this profoundly personal follow-up to Portrait of a Feminist, Marianna Marlowe explores the intersections of race, class, and gender as they are molded by family, religion, and migration. Born to a Peruvian mother and an American father, Marlowe’s early life spanned continents—from the Philippines to Ecuador, Brazil to the United States—leaving her with a sense of belonging everywhere and nowhere at once. Through a series of thematically linked essays, she reflects on the complexities of identity, the fluidity of culture, and the enduring search for home. Now raising two sons with her Syrian Muslim husband, Marlowe continues to navigate the ever-shifting landscapes of culture, language, and faith. Inspired by scholar Gloria Anzaldúa’s concept of the borderlands, Portrait of a Mestiza is both a meditation on life lived in the “in-between” spaces and a call to dismantle the binaries that divide us. Thought-provoking and deeply relevant, this collection urges us to embrace hybridity, challenge inherited limitations, and create for ourselves more ethical and expansive lives. Author: Marianna Marlowe Publication Date: March 24, 2026 -
For fans of Joan Didion and anyone fascinated by true crime, a daughter’s raw and unflinching account of California’s infamous murder trial of her mother, Lucille Miller—and the decades of emotional wreckage it left in its wake. On October 7, 1964, Debra Miller’s life turns upside down when her mother is arrested for the murder of her father. At only fourteen years old, Debra becomes a ward of the court, grappling with the unfathomable trauma of watching her mother’s trial and conviction—a devastation that is only amplified when her family’s tragedy is splashed across headlines nationwide and featured in Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Desperate to escape the notoriety of her family and utterly ill equipped to face the world, Debra spends her young adulthood sinking into mental illness, toxic relationships, and substance abuse. Meanwhile, her unrepentant mother, Lucille, uses Debra to supply contraband in prison. When Lucille is released, twentysomething Debra, seeking the love and support she so desperately desires, moves in with her—only to find herself constantly manipulated and dragged into her mother’s illegal activities. Torn between love and survival, Debra spends years trying to escape her mother’s vortex even as she battles her own demons. Ultimately, it’s only when Lucille passes away that Debra finally frees herself from her grip—and realizes she needs to change her life. In this raw and poignant memoir, Debra Miller bares the scars of an adolescence and adulthood shaped by the impact of a destructive mother and demonstrates that healing is always possible—even in the face of a past that just won’t let go. Author: Debra Miller Publication Date: March 24, 2026 -
A must-read for the millions who suffer from chronic illness, Soul-Happy is an inspiring and poetic account of navigating away from shame and life-threatening disease and into redemption and grace through a commitment to hard truths and unconditional love. Nette Nilsson has big dreams and is in the midst of pursuing them—starting by leaving Denmark to attend university in Toronto, Canada—when she falls for a beguiling but volatile American. Their romance moves fast, and in what seems like no time she finds herself living a privileged but deeply unhappy life in New York with her now-husband, Cal. After suffering for too long, she finally begins to find her way onto a better path—only to be abruptly faced with a life-threatening physical condition. To survive and to heal, Nette must confront dark family lies and her hidden traumas and find her own power again. In an era of increasing awareness regarding how many strong, intelligent women ignore their gut and lose themselves—and the lives they dream of having—when they become entangled with toxic men, Soul-Happy illuminates the underlying reasons for one promising young woman’s downhill slide after she falls for “the wrong kind of love,” and follows her harrowing battle to put herself back together again. Author: Anette Nilsson Publication Date: March 24, 2026 -
In this lyrical and artfully woven memoir, a short road trip to California’s Central Coast becomes an epic journey through family history, loss, and connection. When three generations of women—a Gen X narrator, her seventy-seven-year-old mother, and her twenty-two-year-old Gen Z daughter—set out for a quick trip to California's Central Coast, what begins as a road trip soon transforms into something far richer: a modern-day Odyssey. Over the course of three days, the three women brave a severe winter storm, encounter ravenous ostriches, walk through an enchanted light exhibit, binge-watch White Lotus, hunt for coffee with plant-based milk, bicker, reconcile, and share stories. Troika braids the narrative of a three-day road trip with the longer strands of migration, memory, and motherhood, creating a layered meditation on distance traveled—geographic, generational, and emotional. The result is a kaleidoscopic journey that traverses the landscapes of identity and family history and stretches from the horrors of the second world war and an escape from Soviet Russia to adolescence and motherhood in the suburbs of Silicon Valley. As the narrative swerves from heartbreak to hilarity, from Homeric detours and Russian proverbs to internet memes, it weaves together an intimate, poignant, and darkly funny meditation on how we get from where we were to where we are—and what we carry with us along the way. Author: Irena Smith Publication Date: April 7, 2026 -
Fans of Bill Bryson will love this intimate and humorous memoir surrounding a group of expats as they entertain each other with their stories at a bar in a Costa Rican village. Willa and her wife travel to Costa Rica to visit family—but what they discover is far more than they expected . In a sleepy fishing village on the Pacific coast, they meet a vibrant, curious group of expats who have come looking for paradise—or at least cheap beer. At the Pato Loco, a local bar where stories flow as freely as the drinks, they meet Mama, the blind seventy-two-year-old co-owner of the place; her partner Mary, Willa’s sister, a bartender and installation artist; Richie, the aging hippie whose words are few but weighty; and a whole cast of unforgettable characters who will answer questions like:- What is it really like to live in another country?
- How important is it to learn the local language?
- How does a tight-knit community face the pressure of development?
- Can you survive dengue—and would you want to?
- Oh, and how do you perform CPR on a fish?
