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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 -
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 -
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 -
Living in the Long Shadow is a poignant memoir told in dual timelines: the formative years of Suzanne’s childhood and the two weeks following her mother’s suicide when Suzanne is eighteen. With honesty and grace, Suzanne traces what it means to grow up in the shadow of mental illness—navigating her need for guidance and belonging, the fear of inheriting her mother’s illness, and the journey of loving a mother unable to live with or without her medication. Ten years after her mother’s passing, an extraordinary sign affirms the enduring presence of her love—and Suzanne’s grief begins to make room for acceptance. This is a story of resilience: the difficult choices that lead toward healing, the friendships and family bonds that sustain us, and the way love can reach us even after death. Author: Suzanne Sherman (nonfiction subgroup leader) Publication Date: September 29, 2026 -
Southern suburban housewife Lia and her husband Evan have long dreamed of becoming parents—but when a pregnancy test shows positive, Lia questions whether she wants the child and keeps her pregnancy a secret. As she’s holding new life inside, she intentionally surrounds herself with death by blackmailing her way into a job at a forensic anthropology center endearingly called The Body Farm. At The Farm, monsters emerge from within Lia—the desire to kill—and she begins daydreaming about murder. Because fantasizing never hurt anyone. Or so she thinks. Then a body donation to The Farm turns out to be someone she’s imagined killing, and reality and fantasy begin to blur. As people around her begin to die, Lia loses trust in her loved ones and herself . . . and ultimately must put her monsters to bed. Author: Suzanne Junered (cohort leader) Publication Date: September 1, 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 -
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 -
In a world shaped by gods, kings, and ancient grudges, Ariadne finds herself at the heart of a legacy soaked in both glory and grief. As the daughter of Pasiphae, a powerful sorceress, and King Minos of Crete, she has grown up within palace walls, shadowed by the secrets of the Labyrinth and the terrible fate of the Minotaur. When her beloved brother Androgeus is lost to Athenian treachery, tensions between two great powers threaten to erupt into war. Ariadne is expected to uphold her father’s thirst for vengeance, but her heart begins to pull her in a different direction. Through encounters with goddesses, and as a result of her own awakening resolve, she dares to imagine a world where the past does not dictate the future. This is not the story of a girl betrayed and abandoned. This is the story of a young woman who dares to act—who reaches for hope in a world ruled by fear. Through love, loss, and courageous defiance, Ariadne learns to turn the Labyrinth’s twisted path into a way forward. Epic yet intimate, mythic yet urgently modern, this Greek tale reimagines the power of one voice to challenge a fate written in stone. Author: Sophia Kouidou-Giles Publication Date: November 10, 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 -
When Sarina Jain lost her father, she turned grief into fuel for a lifelong mission: to celebrate her Indian heritage and help others live longer, healthier lives. Born and raised in the United States, Sarina carved a unique path as the first woman to bring Indian dance fitness—Masala Bhangra—to the global stage. In All You Need Is Balle Balle she shares, with honesty and humor, how along the way she transformed heartbreak into purpose, broke barriers as an Indian American woman entrepreneur, and inspired people of all ages and backgrounds to connect through culture and movement. From navigating family loss to building a worldwide community, Sarina’s story reminds us that showing up is half the battle, letting go is the secret, and dancing—even in the hardest moments—can be healing. An inspiring memoir of resilience, wellness, and cultural identity, All You Need Is Balle Balle is a heartfelt invitation to live with energy, embrace your roots, and keep moving—no matter what life brings. Author: Sarina Jain Publication Date: October 13, 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 -
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 -
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 -
Eager to leave her life as a foster child behind, Robin Rosenbluth travels to a remote village in northern Kenya called Songa in 1973. As a white college student, she arrives in a desert-like environment to teach elementary school to Samburu and Rendille children. While befriending the residents, she learns to live in a mud hut, survive without modern conveniences, skin a cow, and kill a chicken for dinner. Robin weaves stories about the challenges she faced growing up—her mother’s early death, her father’s abandonment, and her years in foster care—with her account of her time in Songa. As the only Jewish resident in a village influenced by Christian missionaries, she strives to fit in: adapting to the intense heat, endless insects, and close encounters with wild animals. Over time, she develops close friendships with a local teacher and a woman who becomes her surrogate mother, participates in local customs, and makes a place for herself in Songa. Offering vivid insight into why a love-starved nineteen-year-old from New York City would choose to relocate to the other side of the world, Living with Strangers is a poignant chronicle of one young woman’s search for a place to belong. Author: Robin Rosenbluth Publication Date: October 27, 2026 -
Rachel Singer is a responsible high school senior—one of the last people you’d expect to get pregnant. But when she does at nineteen, she makes the bold choice to keep the baby. With determination and creativity, she launches a business of her own that gives her the means to support herself and her daughter, Lila. Rachel is reluctant to tell Lila’s biological father about their daughter’s existence. Cameron Fielding is a gifted but troubled twenty-five-year-old musician, haunted by the tragic death of his younger sister, consumed by addiction, and in no shape to be a parent. As he spirals through grief, anger, and self-destruction and struggles to find redemption, it’s hard to believe he will ever become the man Rachel and Lila deserve. Spanning the years from Lila’s birth to her freshman year of college, I’ll Take Maybe traces the lives of Rachel and Cameron—their loves, losses, growth, and failures—and the complicated connection between them that never clarifies or fully fades. Heartfelt and honest, this is a story about second chances, enduring love, and the strength of friendship and family in the face of life’s unexpected challenges. Author: Risa Elliott Publication Date: December 8, 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 -
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 -
When a crow swoops down on a smoky August afternoon and starts speaking with her, mythology professor Catherine Moss assumes someone is playing a joke. Stuck in the anger stage of grief ever since the disappearance of her daughter, Sierra, Catherine does not tolerate tricksters easily. But she does suffer from face blindness, which renders her unable to recognize even familiar people. Crows excel in facial recognition. Soon this crow—whom Catherine dubs Veronica—is serving as her support animal, perching on her shoulder to whisper the names of students and colleagues in her ear. She also introduces Catherine to her other human friend, an unhoused young artist named Mari. Together, the two lead Catherine to confront her deepest fear: not that Sierra is dead, but that her daughter may one day return radically changed and emotionally damaged. Set amid the yellowed skies and swirling ash of a California city during fire season, Catherine Over Water addresses the near-unbearable task of dwelling in limbo. Author: Nancy Schoellkopf Publication Date: September 15, 2026 -
When Nancy’s young paratrooper son returns home from Iraq, he brings a dusty bag of disposable cameras in his duffel. No one knows that a few months later, he will die alongside his combat buddy. Consumed by this shattering loss, Nancy begins a quest to understand what caused her son’s death. This riveting tale unveils powerful premonitions, stark truths, and dark secrets about the pull and presence of war in one family. Nancy’s firsthand account takes the blinders off, sharing the ravages of past wars—in Iraq, Vietnam, Burma, France, and beyond—and the poison their shadowy presence has spread through generations of her family. Rooted in America’s heartland, Nancy struggles to find answers about what happened to her son, even as she plumbs the anguish and complex mystery of how to choose life after unfathomable loss. The hope and wisdom embedded in this story—of one soldier, one mother, one family—moves beyond the obvious to the hidden devastation and legacy burden of war. In bringing light to war’s enduring aftermath, this stark yet ultimately uplifting memoir presents a surprising alchemy of healing, and offers a clarion call to wage peace. Author: Nancy B. Ronquillo Publication Date: October 20, 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 -
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 -
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 -
After her acclaimed debut, psychotherapist and poet Lauren Martin returns with a luminous second collection written from a life changed by spinal cord injury. From the quiet of recovery, she turns to ritual, prayer, and language. Rooted in the West African tradition of Ifá, and honoring the Òrìsà who walk with her, these poems move through love and loss, illness and the body, isolation and faith, and the daily politics of being overlooked. With a voice both melodic and raw, Martin shifts between verse, haiku, and prose poems. She writes toward nature, toward God’s presence in all forms, and toward the fierce tenderness that survives transformation. Forgotten Lands is poetry as prayer and protest—an offering what endures when everything else shifts. Author: Lauren Martin Publication Date: December 8, 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 -
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 -
What would you let go of to be free—to live a life that feels truly yours? When loss and burnout upend her life, Kathleen Branigan launches a quest for truth . . . and ends up with an existential crisis. She questions her Catholic faith, devours self-help books, goes skydiving, earns a master's in religious studies, and ventures into the Amazon for five back-to-back nights of ayahuasca. Into the Flow is a funny, soul-baring memoir for anyone seeking answers to life's Big Questions, healing from heartbreak, or craving deeper purpose when the old maps stop working. Through encounters with spiritual teachers and therapists, plus a few wild adventures, Kathleen discovers what she's looking for isn't found in miracle cures or endless self-improvement, but in trusting herself again. If you're navigating fear, uncertainty, awakening, or reinvention, Into the Flow offers laughter, honesty, and a reminder: freedom emerges when you stop the search and start creating a life that's your own. Author: Kathleen Branigan Publication Date: October 20, 2026 -
When her husband is diagnosed with glioblastoma, Karen Paul becomes a full-time caregiver overnight. Their marriage, the landscape of which had always shown fractures, is instantly and radically transformed. Years after the long vigil of illness and his death, Karen faces the uneasy recalibration that follows and a new identity she never asked for: widow.
Told in three parts, Cartography of Loss chronicles the very particular and personal—from hospital corridors and hospice visits to tattoos and the strange circumstance of falling in love again. Along the journey, readers bear witness through stages of early widowhood, life’s continuance in spite of unbearable grief, and the echoes of losses compounded over a lifetime.
Exploring how a widow must learn to map out her life in new ways after devastating loss, Paul’s is more than a grief memoir, it’s a clear-eyed, often funny exploration of how loss rearranges a life—and proof that even after the unimaginable, there is a way forward, one essay at a time.
Author: Karen Paul Publication Date: December 1, 2026 -
Born to Holocaust survivors and trained in the black-and-white world of law, veteran gang prosecutor Karen McKinney believed in justice, punishment, and moral certainty—so when she was asked to oppose the parole of a man she sent away for life twenty years earlier, she expected to confirm his ongoing danger. Instead, she was confronted with something she had never encountered: true transformation. Misjudged chronicles McKinney’s radical rethinking of justice through her evolving friendship with Joseph Herrera—a man she once believed to be irredeemable. Woven with personal reckonings, family trauma, and courtroom tension, this powerful memoir of healing and self-discovery reveals how the silent burdens of inherited trauma, family shame, and generational judgment shaped McKinney’s worldview—and how, through great effort, she began to break free and learned that the stories that shape us don’t have to define us. For anyone who has ever felt stuck, spiritually hungry, or disconnected from their true self, Misjudged is a compelling and hope-filled exploration of what it means to understand another person’s capacity for change and how to drop our fear-forged narratives in order to find true connection and humanity in this polarized world. Author: Karen McKinney Publication Date: December 15, 2026 -
The moment Jennifer Gay Summers’s adopted daughter, Lee, took her first steps, joy filled the house—and the chase began. Jennifer was swept into a whirlwind of motherhood with a bold, curious child wired without brakes. Drawing strength and wisdom from her years of teaching at-risk high school students, Jennifer became Lee’s fiercest advocate. An ADHD diagnosis was just the beginning. Sensory and learning disabilities, along with anxiety and depression, followed, creating a mountain of neurodivergent challenges. With Lee stuck in a school system ill equipped to handle children with mental health struggles, Jennifer was forced to come to grips with losing every last traditional parenting expectation—and in doing so found a deeper meaning to her life, turning hardship into joy. More than a memoir, Chasing Lee encourages parents of neurodivergent children to shift perspectives and find valuable survival tools using compassionate guidance and hard-won hope. Jennifer’s inspirational story shines a light on the humanity that connects us, no matter the disabilities or labels—and is a testament to the power of unconditional love and the freedom found in letting go. Author: Jennifer Gay Summers Publication Date: October 27, 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 -
How do you stay upright in a world that won’t stop shaking? When her youngest son, Lew, begins experiencing relentless seizures, the life Jen Murphy Parker thought she knew—and the ordinary chaos of raising four children—disappears overnight. What follows is a crash course in pediatric neurology: ambulance rides, ICU nights, medication trials, and the slow, brutal math of risk. With lyrical precision and humor, Parker captures the story of endurance and recalibration, of marriage and motherhood under pressure, and of the strange intimacy that grows inside long-term caregiving. Yet as Jen learns to live alongside uncertainty, she also finds a quiet thread of resilience: moments of joy, wonder, and real happiness. For parents, caregivers, and readers of narrative nonfiction, Fault Line Boy is an unflinching, luminous memoir about loving a child with rare pediatric epilepsy—and learning how to keep choosing a life, even when nothing feels steady. Author: Jen Murphy Parker Publication Date: November 17, 2026 -
Mona is living the dream . . . until, at thirty-eight, her busy stay-at-home-mom life is upended. Her grandmother moves into assisted living, her teenager, Grace, doesn’t need her anymore, her charity work kicks her to the curb, and none of her friends are showing up for her. Suddenly, Mona has no purpose—unless you count stress-eating. But she seems to be the only one struggling. Shy Grace—ignoring her mother’s dreams for her to join the “it kids” in drama club—is off finding her voice (and a new band) at Bubby’s retirement home and making friends. Even Bubby’s too busy fending off resident mean girls and finding romance to pay Mona much mind. Then, on top of it all, Mona’s twenty-year high school reunion goes viral for all the wrong reasons, leaving her convinced she’s wasted her life. But when tragedy strikes, she is forced to face the truth: The only person who can make you feel small is you—and sometimes you have to lose everything you thought defined you to find what truly matters. Heartfelt, funny, and refreshingly honest, Drama Drama Drama is a celebration of second acts, self-worth, and learning to skip the drama and live your own life. Author: Gerilyn Bass Greenberg Publication Date: October 20, 2026 -
Georgine had built a life of careful control. As a wife, mother, and college professor, she minimized risk and played by the rules. Her attorney husband was successful, her four grown daughters were thriving, and her students knew that hard work and deadlines mattered. Having survived a turbulent adolescence marked by poverty and substance abuse, she believed in the safety of well-ordered environments. Then the pandemic upended everything. When classrooms and offices closed, Georgine and her husband Mark relocated to Puerto Rico, where she discovered a flourishing—and often outrageous—cryptocurrency community. As she navigated the mysteries of crypto trading and uncovered the political complexities woven into the fabric of the beautiful Caribbean island she now called home, Georgine embarked on a journey that would shatter her orderly existence—and force her to revisit the dangerous youth that had shaped her complicated relationship with home, risk, and money. A memoir about facing past mistakes and embracing second chances, Crypto Island reminds us that personal growth never stops, and that living authentically often demands both resilience and reinvention. Author: Georgine Hodgkinson Publication Date: September 22, 2026 -
Eve Sprunt, a shy young woman with big ambitions, dreams of a life that includes both scientific work and a family. In 1969, she enters MIT, where women are still a small minority on campus and skepticism follows her every step. As she advances academically, Eve confronts professors who underestimate her—and others who cross professional boundaries. One mentor, however, urges her toward a PhD at Stanford, where she becomes the first woman to earn a doctorate in geophysics. Nine months after defending her thesis, Eve gives birth to her first child—then interviews for jobs with her baby in tow. Six oil companies make offers. When she begins work in Dallas, her carefully laid plans unravel, forcing her to reinvent herself as a petroleum engineer. Over a thirty-five-year career in the oil and gas industry, Eve repeatedly adapts to workplace bias, shifting markets, and high-stakes corporate culture, transforming setbacks into new opportunities for growth, global adventures, and leadership. In Defending My Work, Eve shares her remarkable journey as a woman navigating—and succeeding in—a male-dominated field, offering practical guidance, encouragement, and hard-won insight for readers of all ages. Author: Eve Sprunt Publication Date: November 10, 2026 -
A clear-eyed and necessary account of how violence insinuates itself into characters living liminal lives in the purgatorial world of Ontario, Illinois, Learning to Hit My Mother is a collection of connected stories that all possess a unity of place—and characters so compellingly human that they promise, with an almost unflappable certainty, to possess the reader. Pit, a girl at the onset, is savaged by her mother, who goes at her with her hands, heart, and even a baseball bat because her husband—Pit’s father—has had her. This demented triangulation forms Pit. Throughout her life she is drawn to misfits—like her friend Bean, who ultimately steps in front of a train. From these inauspicious beginnings ensues a whole delectable slew of stories; stories full of meaty, fragmented souls—Lou, Edgar, Twink, Leesa, and Pit’s son, Sam; stories whose quiet intensity will capture fans of Sherwood Anderson and Clarice Lispector. Championed by language that is jarringly precise, Learning to Hit My Mother soars in its visceral portrait of the monstrous as located in what might be called the sublimity of the ordinary. Haunting, unputdownable, and gripping, each story galvanizes with thought- provoking prose that hits each and every cell. Author: Elizabeth Kirschner Publication Date: October 20, 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 -
In 1950s Turkey, against the backdrop of the social and political unrest that will culminate in Turkey’s 1960 military coup d'état, a dutiful daughter is torn between family expectations and her dream of becoming a modern Turkish woman. One night, seventeen-year-old Ayten sneaks away to Istanbul for a night of dancing with her best friend. When her father discovers her rebellion, he forces her into an arranged religious marriage to a distant relative who bullied her as a child. Initially, Ayten resigns herself to her fate—but after her husband sexually assaults her on their wedding night, she flees him and her family for haven in Istanbul. Living with friends and working as a seamstress at her friend’s boutique, Ayten tries to rebuild her life. Then she meets Earl, an American airman, and they begin to fall in love—but as their connection deepens, secrets and her past threaten to upend all she’s built. Torn between her family and a future with Earl, Ayten must decide what she’s willing to sacrifice for freedom and forbidden love. Author: Denise Derya Brandt (fiction subgroup leader) Publication Date: September 29, 2026 -
When her elderly mother shoots her abusive husband—Deborah’s father—in their Arkansas home, Deborah is thrust into a storm of media frenzy, grief, and caregiving. As she fights for justice, supports her paralyzed wife, and battles personal demons, Deborah begins to unravel a deeper legacy of generational trauma—and realizes the need to rescue herself. Told with gripping honesty, Grace Through Fire follows Deborah’s odyssey through murder trials, chronic illness, financial collapse, and spiritual reckoning. From the chaos of the rural South to the stillness of yoga studios and the healing waters of Lake Powell and Crater Lake, Deborah rediscovers her strength, sobriety, and purpose. This is a narrative of transformation and fierce resilience—a memoir for anyone who has ever questioned their worth, carried the pain of their family, or longed for a fresh start. At the heart of it all is a bold love story, a leap of faith, and one woman’s courageous choice to create a life of freedom, service, and light on the California coast. Author: Deborah Samuel Publication Date: October 6, 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 -
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 -
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 -
Baltimore, 1986. Julia and Matt are newlyweds, in love and eager to begin graduate school. Julia longs to leave behind haunting memories of her mother’s devastating decline in Maryland, but she unexpectedly learns the truth her father has hidden: Her mother died of a fatal genetic illness. Julia now faces a 50 percent chance of inheriting the same fate, and every child she longs to have will carry the same risk. When an unplanned pregnancy rocks their careful plans, Julia and Matt face agonizing uncertainty and impossible choices. Desires and convictions pull them toward starkly different paths, each possibly leading to misery. As the couple struggles to protect the fragile, fierce love that first bound them together, they face the cost of secrets and the ache of betrayal—but they also discover the hope of forgiveness. Author: Carol Efron, MD Publication Date: October 27, 2026 -
At fourteen, Caren Rabbino loses her leg to childhood cancer. The surgery saves her life—but it also fractures her relationship to her body, her family, and the world that suddenly reads as “other.” In the years that follow, she navigates phantom limb pain and relentless pressure to “fix” herself, even as she tries to pass as normal to protect status, safety, and social mobility. She searches for belonging through work, art, and travel, while grappling with sexuality, objectification, and the particular loneliness of being visibly different. Only after years of avoidance does she step into community—teaching yoga to an amputee group and discovering a grounded, hard-won form of embodied knowledge that cuts through shame and self-protection. Asymmetries is a candid story of survival and self-definition, asking what it means to inhabit a changed body—and to be seen, on purpose. Author: Caren Rabbino Publication Date: November 17, 2026 -
Growing up on a remote island with her mother, twelve-year-old Skye is endlessly curious about the natural world—tracking tides, seabirds, starfish—and dreams of becoming a marine biologist. But more than anything, she longs to reunite with the father she’s never met and finally feel her family is complete. When her summer takes an unexpectedly turn and she and her mother travel across the country to care for her ailing grandparents, Skye realizes that opportunity may be closer than she ever imagined. She has spent years collecting clues from her mother’s reluctant disclosures, and she is nearly certain her father still lives in her mom’s hometown. Wide-open Wyoming is nothing like Skye’s seaside home in Maine: Instead of fishing dinghies and flip-flops, she finds horses, cowboy boots, and dusty rodeo arenas. As she navigates this unfamiliar world, Skye befriends nine-year-old Tuck Foster, who eagerly helps her investigate a list of possible father candidates that fit Skye’s clues. Along the way, she cheers on bull riding, mucks stalls, shoos chickens, and learns to saddle and ride horses. She also grows close her kind-hearted grandmother and curmudgeonly grandfather, who teach her lessons about family, home, grit, and resilience. In her final days out West—and on the verge of uncovering the truth—Skye discovers what completes a family isn’t a specific place, size, or way of life. It’s love. Author: Brooke Carnwath Publication Date: September 1, 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 -
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 -
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 -
In this thriller, star investigative reporter Samantha Fuller joins a feisty Cape Cod fisherwoman to foil a wind farm developer’s evil plot to poison precious ocean scallop beds—and finds herself facing off against right-wing climate deniers. In Provincetown, MA, feisty scallop fisherwoman Isabella Ferreira goes up against a sleazy wind farm developer, Olaf Svensson, who wants to install wind turbines in the ocean right off the coast of Cape Cod. At a nearby scallop hatchery, marine biologists Leif and Astrid Borgen are already using the new gene editing technique CRISPR to insert a growth hormone gene into scallop embryos to make them bigger and thus more profitable—all of which is legal. But unbeknownst to the hatchery owner, Svensson is also paying the pair to insert another gene—one that causes PSP, paralytic shellfish poisoning. If this works, no one will ever eat scallops from this site again, thus freeing it up for Svensson’s turbines. Enter Pulitzer Prize–winning Boston Times reporter Samantha Fuller. Together with Isabella, she slowly uncovers Svensson’s deadly plot—but not before hundreds of people die. Along the way, love blossoms, tragedies occur, and the subtleties of the pro- and anti-wind power groups are exposed. Author: Judy Foreman Publication Date: August 11, 2026 -
For fans of Jodi Picoult and Bonnie Garmus, an illuminating novel about a mother struggling to raise a healthy neurodivergent child with a husband worn down by depression. When Julie Crawford’s whirlwind four-year-old is kicked out of preschool, suspected of having ADHD—likely genetic—her husband moans from his recliner that “even my genes are failures.” At work, Julie is a high school math teacher who requires her students to solve complex problems. But faced with an unsafe daycare home and no other daycare openings, a husband who hates the idea of labeling their son as a “problem,” and a supervisor who’s angry at the amount of time she’s taking off school, she’s at a loss for how to come up with a solution to this particular dilemma. Julie’s struggle to help her son ultimately demands a number of mindset shifts: a willingness to become a student and ask for help, a humble acceptance of her errors, a burgeoning strength to reckon with a dominant father and retreating husband—and the self-confidence to trust her instincts when it comes to deciding on the best next steps for her son. Author: Lorelei Brush Publication Date: August 11, 2026 -
Perfect for fans of Mona Awad and Maria Semple, this gripping, offbeat journey through modern-day Los Angeles is a genre-blending, darkly humorous exploration of suburban life, conspiracy theories, and spiritual awakening. A page-turning psychological trip for anyone who’s ever wondered if all their crazy ideas . . . might actually be right. Joan is a middle-aged punk rocker turned housewife who’s seen too many TikToks to trust the official narrative. The moon landing? Faked. Weather? Controlled. Food? Poisoned. Her suspicions ignite when a strange new neighbor—possibly a dead astronaut with ties to secret ops—arrives on her block. As Joan spirals deeper into the rabbit hole, she begins to question everything: her marriage, her sanity, and her soul’s purpose. Armed with a mystical book and a fading voice that once shook LA punk clubs, she sets out on a spiritual journey through canyon trails, desert portals, and shadow realms to expose the truth—and reclaim her power. Author: Alexandra Fleder Publication Date: August 11, 2026 -
For fans of My Dark Vanessa and The Secret History, a gripping campus thriller about a determined young professor who challenges a corrupt academic system, confronts a predator in power, and refuses to stay silent—even when her quest turns deadly. A brilliant young professor. A powerful advisor with everything to lose. A university campus hiding deadly secrets. It’s 1998, and Dr. Lacey Redd is on the verge of tenure—and under the thumb of her department chair, the arrogant and celebrated Dr. Geoffrey Hart. When Lacey begins to suspect Hart of falsifying his research, she quietly teams up with a tech-savvy colleague to uncover the truth. But before they can break the case, her partner turns up dead in the campus library. As Lacey digs deeper, she uncovers something even darker: Hart has been preying on female graduate students for years. When he attacks her at a department party, Lacey fights back—leaving him injured and exposed. A new department head steps in, and with Hart out of the picture, it seems justice has finally been served. But someone on campus is still watching. And they’ve decided Lacey knows too much. Author: Cheryl Miller Dellasega Publication Date: August 4, 2026 -
Dan Millman’s Way of the Peaceful Warrior meets Dave Eggers’s The Circle in this exhilarating tale, which marries visionary and political fiction together into a nail-biting, high-stakes thriller. Cybersecurity whiz Jedd finds himself held captive, strapped to the ground in a dark tunnel, without food or water. June’s campaign website has been hacked and she is viciously attacked by protesters. Darah flashes back to the terror of life under the dictatorship in the States, when her mother was deported. Just when this group of friends thought they had defeated their enemies, they’re faced with not one but multiple immediate threats. Rumors and accusations are flying, and the future of the democratic nation of California is at stake. Can they figure out who is telling the truth and who is lying before it’s too late? A taut combination of political, techno-thriller, and metaphysical fiction that’s scaffolded on three realities—the ancient wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, our current post-truth world, and the near future—this sequel to The Die is a fast-paced story about friendship, courage, and how to restore and revitalize truth. Author: Jude Berman Publication Date: August 4, 2026 -
For fans of Pachinko and Half of a Yellow Sun, an intimate debut novel about immigration, marriage, and vengeance politics told through the eyes of four Bengali teenagers in two vastly different time periods. In 1970s Sylhet, eleven-year-old Sumaya is the daughter of a wealthy Bengali aristocrat who lives unaware of the Liberation War against West Pakistan and the cost of independence she will soon pay. In the same city, fifteen-year-old Murshed lives without hope for the future, knowing that his father’s religious and political stance has painted his family as razakar—traitors—a death sentence if West Pakistan loses the war. Then, one day, their paths cross and a single encounter upends both their lives forever. Forty years later, Sumaya’s third daughter, Hinna, and Murshed’s eldest son, Burhaan, lock eyes at a family gathering. The two, reunited flames, live vastly different lives: Hinna has grown up in America, far from the chaos of the war but stuck in an endless cycle of tradition. Burhaan has lived his entire life in Sylhet, attempting to start over despite the never-ending vengeance against razakar families. But drawn to each other as they are, they soon find out that plans for Hinna’s future are already in motion. Connected by the far reaches of tyranny and tradition, these families discover what’s found and lost—dreaming of a Bangladesh free from dictatorship and holding the silent hope of paradise. Author: Samiha Hoque Publication Date: August 4, 2026 -
For fans of Connie Willis, Lucy Lyons, and Janet Evanovich, a debut cozy mystery with a speculative bent, set in Ann Arbor, that’s replete with wormholes, incorrigible pets, and delightfully quirky characters. When Allie Caldwell gets a rambling middle-of-the-night call from her very excited aunt Mel, she initially curbs her concern; her aunt has always been a bit eccentric, after all. But when Mel disappears before telling anyone what has her so worked up, Allie drops everything –even her better judgement—to fly to Ann Arbor and find her. In the ensuing days, Allie inexplicably ignores her gut instincts (and some weird dream-based warnings from angry flying squirrels) and accepts help in the search from her aunt’s handsome, enigmatic neighbor George Bennet. In order to discern how virtual reality goggles, innovative migraine research, hidden treasure, attack drones, and a neighborhood trellis are all connected to the case, they’ll need to survive bungled bids of help from Allie’s well-meaning brother, hidden agendas from multiple neighbors, constant interruptions from Mel’s itinerant Chihuahua and his exuberant pit bull puppy pal—and even some attempts on their lives. Author: D. E. Carr Publication Date: July 28, 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 -
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 Roisín O’Donnell’s Nesting, an intense, suspenseful story of a young mother’s fight to save herself after the man she thought was her white knight turns out to be just as dangerous as the man he helped her escape. After twenty-one-year-old Emily Miller flees her ex-husband, Lee, with the exterminator she hired to kill hornets in her backyard, she finally feels safe. Jake Clayton offers Emily and her daughter a beautiful place to live where neither Lee nor her mother, who wants custody of Jenna, can find them. Unlike Lee, Jake has a steady job, doesn’t drink (she’s never met a man who doesn’t), and doesn’t hit. And he doesn’t think Emily is too much—too mouthy (Lee), too large (her mother), too extra. Isolated in a cabin in the Santa Cruz mountains with only a three-year-old for company, Emily distracts herself from the liquor cabinet and from worrying that Lee will track her down by planning a surprise for Jake: a reunion with the sisters he hasn’t seen since foster care. But the deeper she digs into Jake’s past, the less he seems like the man she trusts—and when she learns Lee has disappeared, she suspects Jake could have done . . . something. But that’s ridiculous, right? Sure, Jake is bossy about where she goes and who she sees. Sure, he has a temper. But murder? That’s just her being dramatic—like Lee and her mother always say she is. Right? Author: Catherine Marshall-Smith Publication Date: July 21, 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 -
A haunting, emotionally charged novel about the burden of being a woman, the grip of childhood trauma, and a mother’s fight to reclaim her life before losing her daughter—and herself—forever. When Delia lands a coveted spot with a prestigious New York ballet company, she steps into a world of beauty, betrayal, and brutal ambition—while her mother, Victoria, is left behind to confront the wreckage of her own unrealized dreams and long-buried trauma. A cryptic prophecy shadows their lives and as Delia’s path toward womanhood is marred by injury and manipulation, Victoria embarks on a tender, midlife metamorphosis—rekindling her own desire and learning, too late, that letting go is not the same as giving up. Told with lyrical grace and unflinching honesty, this haunting, feminist portrait of art, sacrifice, and rebirth reminds us: life dances on, a tragic ballet. Author: Janette DeFelice Publication Date: July 14, 2026 -
For fans of Little Fires Everywhere, a novel that explores the ambiguities of motherhood and salvation through the anguished relationship between a troubled, undocumented Mexican teenager and the grieving, upper-middle-class mother who takes her in. After the drug overdose of her teenage son, Helen, a privileged white woman, takes in Mia, a troubled and undocumented Mexican teenager. Although they initially fill each other’s voids, Helen’s lofty expectations of Mia eventually test that bond and Mia, tortured by guilt and starved for affection, runs off with Diego, an MS13 gang leader. While Helen, bereft over losing another child, tries to reconstruct her life, Mia’s life with Diego spirals into a nightmare: Just after she has his baby, he goes to jail for multiple murders. As each woman moves forward through her own challenges, Helen confronts her deep-seated prejudices, while Mia battles her own demons in search of self-identity and meaning in her life. A haunting and suspenseful cautionary tale, Borrowed Child is about what happens when a well-meaning inclination toward “salvation” goes awry. Author: Marguerite Welch Publication Date: July 14, 2026 -
For fans of novels featuring strong, smart female protagonists, the first in a series about the novice female American spies in North Africa and the Mediterranean that changed the tide of World War II. In 1942, during the height of World War II, Wild Bill Donovan, the director of the United States’ first spy agency, believes women are the key to winning the intelligence battle with the Nazis. To that end, he partners fledgling agent Kit Thomas with British MI6 agent Mark Williams and sends them to one of the most perilous places in the world—Massawa, Eritrea—to investigate the theft of millions of military payroll dollars. In Massawa, Kit and Mark discover a conspiracy by Nazi sympathizers, known as the Vichy, to shut down the only Allied naval base on the Red Sea—which is an essential resource in stopping the Nazi invasion of North Africa. As they work to reveal the conspirators, Kit and Mark engage in a dangerous and tempestuous dance of trust versus mistrust. Author: Pam Webber Publication Date: June 23, 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, Gutted: 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 -
Deeply researched and perfect for fans of Jayne Anne Phillips’s Night Watch, this action-packed coming-of-age tale, set in post–Civil War Appalachia, is part suspenseful mystery, part incisive examination of this nation’s history of racial violence. Dora Minor, a quirky and fiercely courageous girl, grows up in a remote Virginia mountain community in a family of outliers, thanks to their Quaker beliefs that all people are born equal. After her mother’s death, her indomitable, pipe-smoking grandmother Alma—a revolutionary in her own right—becomes her primary caregiver and protector. With a fierce moral compass, Alma helps shape Dora’s worldview and guides her to question the status quo. When Dora’s father partners with formerly enslaved Ginny Dudley to open a school for Black children in a place where none would otherwise exist, it sparks a violent backlash. After her father’s death and then a lynching, Dora, with Alma at her side, are forced to look at their community in a new light. Alongside Ginny’s husband Randolph and her closest friend Watcher James, a preacher guided by Nature spirits, Dora confronts hard truths about her neighbors, her father’s death, and, finally, the mysteries of her mother’s life—all of which ultimately leads to healing. A post–Civil War novel that opens just as Reconstruction is falling apart, What the Trees Remember depicts a time of extreme social unrest and the birth of the Jim Crow era as experienced by strong women constrained by the limitations of the time they live in. Through the devastating loss of loved ones, the destruction of the comfortable life they’ve known, and Nature’s wrath, Dora and Alma strive to rise above their trials by drawing strength from the natural world and never losing faith in themselves. Author: Abigail Cutter Publication Date: June 16, 2026 -
Perfect for fans of State of Wonder, this lushly written debut novel offers up one dead body, two amateur sleuths separated by decades, a vividly depicted Caribbean setting, and years of long-buried family secrets. In 1942 Puerto Rico, the death of a middle-aged American woman in the heart of El Yunque Rainforest arouses little attention from anyone—except for the sixteen-year-old boy who finds her. Bright and introverted, Eduardo Colón initially shrinks from the publicity stirred up by his find. He has enough problems with his adoptive parents urging him to leave his sheltered life in Puerto Rico and study in the States. But when he learns the dead woman, Laura Morrison, was once his mother’s schoolmate, curiosity overcomes qualms and he searches island-wide for answers. What he discovers draws him into dangerous wartime intrigues and a tangle of disturbing personal connections. Decades later, Pamela Palmer sits on a balcony overlooking Lake Coeur d’Alene in northern Idaho, reminiscing about her years of teaching in Puerto Rico and the discovery of a grand-aunt who died there under mysterious circumstances. Playing amateur detective among her other roles of mother, divorcee, and island transplant, she eventually stumbles onto what really happened to Laura Morrison. Reaching across different times, places, and cultures, Eduardo and Pamela find answers about the enigmatic woman—answers that change their lives. Author: Kathryn L. Robinson Publication Date: June 16, 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 -
A powerful firsthand look into the lives of grandparents and other relatives stepping in to raise children—and the people and policies that help them thrive. Today in the US, more than 2.4 million children whose parents are unable to care for them live in grandfamilies, where they are raised by grandparents or other loved ones. Until recently, their experiences have been all but invisible. These relative caregivers do time in waiting rooms and court hearings, put themselves at financial risk, and sacrifice their own health, all with the dream of making a better life for the kids they love. In Grandfamilies, Donna M. Butts, former longtime executive director of Generations United, sheds light on the ongoing fight for the recognition and resources these families deserve. Through heartfelt personal accounts, grandfamily members of all ages and backgrounds share their experiences, giving voice to the millions across this nation who have come together in the spirit of hope and resilience to imagine a better future for their loved ones. All book sale proceeds will go to Generations United to support their work with grandfamilies. Author: Donna M. Butts Publication Date: June 9, 2026 -
Inspired by true events, this novel tells the tale of young Alice Molland, who must grapple with accusations of witchcraft and the persecution of women with mysterious gifts in turbulent seventeenth-century England. In the tumultuous era of seventeenth-century Exeter, England, ten-year-old Alice Molland is forced to attend the brutal execution of her mentor in the healing arts, Goody Luscombe, who has been condemned to death for witchcraft. In the years that follow, with her use of herbs such as mugwort, slippery elm, and comfrey, Alice becomes well known as a magical healer. But such gifts come accompanied by danger in the misogynistic age she lives in, and it’s only a matter of time before a prominent Exeter merchant raises suspicion that she is a witch. When a love spell leads to an unexpected pregnancy, Alice becomes a target and must flee for her life. Author: Judy Molland Publication Date: June 9, 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 -
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 -
Seventeen-year-old Lexa Donovan’s timid, plus-size life goes sideways when the spirit of Marilyn Monroe takes up residence in her body in this laugh-out-loud funny paranormal YA tale perfect for fans of Lisa Schroeder and Ashley Poston. High school senior Lexa Donovan longs to be more than a bit player in her own drab life—and when she’s chosen to be part of her school’s spring production of Bus Stop, she thinks her wish has come true. But her thrill turns to panic when she’s tapped to play the leading role, sexy showgirl Cherie. One thing tall, plus-size Lexa knows for sure is that she is the exact opposite of the most famous Cherie ever: sex-goddess Marilyn Monroe. Lexa wants out before she makes a fool of herself in front of everyone. But then something entirely unexpected happens: The spirit of Marilyn Monroe appears—ready and willing to be Lexa’s personal acting coach—and talks her out of quitting. Soon, Lexa’s life becomes a screwball comedy, with her bouncing between Marilyn’s acting “help,” her crush on her gorgeous co-star Brian, and her unexpected attraction to the mysterious Jeremy Leith. Comedy shifts to drama, though, as Lexa’s fear of humiliation—fueled by Brian’s jealous girlfriend—morphs into full-on stage fright. A fright that grows dangerously intense when Marilyn starts having decidedly un-spiritish feelings that have nothing to do with Lexa or the play. Before the curtain rises on opening night, Lexa and Marilyn will have to learn to trust their own hearts and act on what each truly needs to move on—in life and in death. Author: Mima Tipper Publication Date: June 2, 2026 -
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 -
For fans of L. M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle, a contemporary retelling of the beloved romance that follows a sheltered young woman’s quest for love in New York City—and her search for a rare and elusive bird in the deep Arkansas forest. What if the life you were meant to live was waiting just outside your door? New York City, 2013. Emma Jablonski’s life is as dry as the day-old bread at her family’s bakery. Living with her parents and grandmother, she clings to the only escape she knows: a recurring dream that feels more real than her waking world. But when Emma’s eyes are open, she’s reminded of what’s out of reach—Jake, the enigmatic boy-next-door. After a life-changing diagnosis forces her to face her fears, Emma decides it’s time to truly live—before it’s too late. With Jake and his vibrant friend Vee, she dives into a whirlwind of experiences: a fake engagement, dazzling parties, and an obsession with the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird that may not even exist. But as her daring adventure is coming to an end, Emma begins to embrace a future she never thought possible. Dreams and reality aren’t supposed to mix . . . are they? A modern retelling of L.M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle, this gentle story of love, resilience, and the beauty of the unknown reminds us to seek joy in the most unexpected places. Author: Andrea Ezerins Publication Date: May 26, 2026
