Skip to main content

March 15, 2025

At our last book group meeting when we were discussing what to read next, the conversation turned to selecting a classic. We talked about what we had read in high school and college, and the books we had missed out on reading that we feel we should have read --- and were surprised we have not. It was interesting to see what we remember and loved ---- and what we regretted not reading.

Sophie Stava, author of Count My Lies

Sloane Caraway is a liar. Harmless lies, mostly, to make her self-proclaimed sad little life a bit more interesting. So when Sloane sees a young girl in tears at a park one afternoon, she can’t help herself. She tells the girl’s (very attractive) dad that she’s a nurse and helps him pull a bee stinger from the girl’s foot. With this lie, and chance encounter, Sloane becomes the nanny for the wealthy and privileged Jay and Violet Lockhart. They’re the perfect New York couple, with a brownstone, a daughter in private school, and summers on Block Island. But maybe Sloane isn’t the only one lying, and all that’s picture-perfect harbors a much more dangerous truth.

Charlotte McConaghy, author of Wild Dark Shore

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore. As they nurse Rowan back to strength, it begins to feel like she might be just what they need. Rowan starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again. But she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes that Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late.

Elle Cosimano, author of Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave

Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime, Vero, have not always gotten along with Finlay’s elderly neighbor, Mrs. Haggerty, the community busybody and president of the neighborhood watch. But when a dead body is discovered in her backyard, Mrs. Haggerty needs their help. At first a suspect, Mrs. Haggerty is cleared by the police, but her house remains an active crime scene. She has nowhere to go…except Finlay’s house, right across the street. Finlay and Vero have no interest in getting involved in another murder case --- or sacrificing either of their bedrooms. But when the focus of the investigation widens to include Finlay’s ex-husband, Steven, Finlay and Vero are left with little choice but to get closer to Mrs. Haggerty and uncover her secrets…before the police start digging up theirs. But who will solve the mystery first?

Chris Bohjalian, author of The Jackal's Mistress

Virginia, 1864. Libby Steadman’s husband has been away for so long that she can barely conjure his voice in her dreams. While she longs for him in the night, fearing him dead in a Union prison camp, her days are spent running a gristmill with her teenage niece, a hired hand and his wife. It’s an uneasy life in the Shenandoah Valley, and Libby awakens every morning expecting to see her land a battlefield. And then she finds a gravely injured Union officer left for dead in a neighbor’s house. Captain Jonathan Weybridge of the Vermont Brigade is her enemy --- but he’s also a human being, and Libby must make a terrible decision: Does she leave him to die alone? Or does she risk treason and try to nurse him back to health? And if she succeeds, does she try to secretly bring him across Union lines, where she might negotiate a trade for news of her own husband?

Amy Griffin, author of The Tell: A Memoir

For decades, Amy Griffin ran. Through the dirt roads of Amarillo, Texas, where she grew up; to the campus of the University of Virginia, as a student athlete; on the streets of New York, where she built her adult life; through marriage, motherhood and a thriving career. To outsiders, it all looked, in many ways, perfect. But Amy was running from something --- a secret she was keeping not only from her family and friends, but unconsciously from herself. “You’re here, but you’re not here,” her daughter said to her one night. “Where are you, Mom?” So began Amy’s quest to solve a mystery trapped in the deep recesses of her own memory --- a journey that would take her into the burgeoning field of psychedelic therapy, to the limits of the judicial system, and, ultimately, home to the Texas panhandle, where her story began.

Clare Leslie Hall, author of Broken Country

Beth and her gentle, kind husband, Frank, are happily married, though their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager --- the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son, Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident. As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was and the woman she has become.

Editorial Content for Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us

Teaser

What is the difference between men and women? Jennifer Finney Boylan examines the divisions --- as well as the common ground --- between the genders and reflects on her own experiences, both difficult and joyful, as a transgender American.

Promo

What is the difference between men and women? Jennifer Finney Boylan examines the divisions --- as well as the common ground --- between the genders and reflects on her own experiences, both difficult and joyful, as a transgender American.

About the Book

What is the difference between men and women? Jennifer Finney Boylan, the bestselling author of SHE'S NOT THERE and co-author of MAD HONEY with Jodi Picoult, examines the divisions --- as well as the common ground --- between the genders and reflects on her own experiences, both difficult and joyful, as a transgender American.

SHE'S NOT THERE was the first bestselling work written by a transgender American. Since its publication 20 years ago, Jennifer Finney Boylan has become the go-to person for insight into the impact of gender on our lives --- from the food we eat to the dreams we dream, both for ourselves and for our children. But CLEAVAGE is more than a deep dive into gender identity; it’s also a look at the difference between coming out as trans in 2000 --- when many people reacted to Boylan’s transition with love --- and the present era of blowback and fear.

How does gender affect our sense of self? Our body image? The passage of time? The friends we lose --- and keep? Boylan considers her womanhood, reflects on the boys and men who shaped her, and reconceives of herself as a writer, activist, parent and spouse. With heart-wrenching honesty, she illustrates the feeling of liminality that followed her to adulthood, but demonstrates the redemptive power of love through it all.

With Boylan’s trademark humor and poignancy, CLEAVAGE is a sharp, witty and captivating look at the triumphs and losses of a life lived in two genders. It provides hope for a future in which we all have the freedom to live joyfully as men, as women and in the space between us.

Editorial Content for Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

Teaser

An extreme game of hide-and-seek turns deadly in this riveting thriller from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger.

Promo

An extreme game of hide-and-seek turns deadly in this riveting thriller from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger.

About the Book

An extreme game of hide-and-seek turns deadly in this riveting new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger.

When the real game begins, who will make it to the count of 10?

Charismatic daredevil and extreme adventurer Maverick Dillan invites you to the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. But as the players gather on Falcao Island, the event quickly spirals into a chilling test of survival. A storm rages as a deadly threat stalks the contestants, turning the challenge into something far more sinister than the social media stunt it was intended to be.

Enter Adele, a single mother with a fierce determination to protect her children at all costs. When she begins the game, she unwittingly enters a twisted web of deception and intrigue. Can she maneuver through the treacherous storm and the relentless competition and get home to her family? In a ruthless battle for survival where the stakes are higher than ever, the blurry line between the virtual and the real proves that the only person we can trust is ourselves.

Editorial Content for Dream State

Teaser

Spanning 50 years and set against the backdrop of a rapidly warming Montana, DREAM STATE explores what it means to live with the mistakes of the past --- both our own and the ones we’ve inherited.

Promo

Spanning 50 years and set against the backdrop of a rapidly warming Montana, DREAM STATE explores what it means to live with the mistakes of the past --- both our own and the ones we’ve inherited.

About the Book

Cece is in love. She has arrived early at her future in-laws’ lake house in Salish, Montana, to finish planning her wedding to Charlie, a young doctor with a brilliant life ahead of him. Charlie has asked Garrett, his best friend from college, to officiate the ceremony, though Cece can’t imagine anyone more ill-suited for the task --- an airport baggage handler haunted by a tragedy from his and Charlie’s shared past.

But as Cece spends time with Garrett, his gruff mask slips, and she grows increasingly uncertain about her future. And why does Garrett, after meeting Cece, begin to feel, well, human again? As a contagious stomach flu threatens to scuttle the wedding, and Charlie and Garrett’s friendship is put to the ultimate test, Cece must decide between the life she’s dreamed of and a life she’s never imagined.

The events of that summer have long-lasting repercussions, not only on the three friends caught in its shadow but also on their children, who struggle to escape their parents’ story. Spanning 50 years and set against the backdrop of a rapidly warming Montana, DREAM STATE explores what it means to live with the mistakes of the past --- both our own and the ones we’ve inherited.

Written with humor, precision and enormous heart, both a love letter and an elegy to the American West, DREAM STATE is a thrillingly ambitious ode to the power of friendship, the weird weather of marriage, and the beauty of impermanence.