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Thao Thai, author of Banyan Moon

When Ann Tran gets the call that her fiercely beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away, her life is already at a crossroads. In the years since she’s last seen Minh, Ann has built a seemingly perfect life, but it all crumbles with one positive pregnancy test. Now she returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Huơng. Huơng is simultaneously mourning her mother and resenting her for having the relationship with Ann that she never did. Then Ann and Huơng learn that Minh has left them both the Banyan House, the crumbling old manor that was Ann’s childhood home. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter must face the simmering questions of their past and their uncertain futures, while trying to rebuild their relationship without the one person who’s always held them together.

Editorial Content for Cassandra in Reverse

Teaser

This morning, Cassie's boyfriend dumped her. By lunchtime, she has been fired from her PR job for not being a "People Person." Then her local café runs out of her favorite muffins. But now, something unexpected has happened: Cassie discovers that she has the ability to travel back in time and change the past.

Promo

This morning, Cassie's boyfriend dumped her. By lunchtime, she has been fired from her PR job for not being a "People Person." Then her local café runs out of her favorite muffins. But now, something unexpected has happened: Cassie discovers that she has the ability to travel back in time and change the past.

About the Book

If you had the power to change the past, where would you start?

Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit. She likes what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, her boyfriend, Will) and strongly dislikes what she doesn't (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order…until now.

  • She's just been dumped.
  • She's just been fired.
  • Her local café has run out of banana muffins.

Then, something truly unexpected happens: Cassie discovers she can go back and change the past. One small rewind at a time, Cassie attempts to fix the life she accidentally obliterated, but soon she'll discover she's trying to fix all the wrong things.

Editorial Content for The Celebrants

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The bestselling and beloved author of THE GUNCLE has written A Big Chill for our times, celebrating decades-long friendships and promises --- especially to ourselves.

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The bestselling and beloved author of THE GUNCLE has written A Big Chill for our times, celebrating decades-long friendships and promises --- especially to ourselves.

About the Book

A Big Chill for our times, celebrating decades-long friendships and promises --- especially to ourselves --- by the bestselling and beloved author of THE GUNCLE. 

It’s been a minute --- or five years --- since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and 28 years since their graduation when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living --- that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves.

But this reunion is different. They’re not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.

A deeply honest tribute to the growing pains of selfhood and the people who keep us going, coupled with Steven Rowley’s signature humor and heart, THE CELEBRANTS is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living.

Editorial Content for Crow Mary

Book

Teaser

The New York Times bestselling author of the book club classics THE KITCHEN HOUSE and GLORY OVER EVERYTHING returns with a sweeping saga inspired by the true story of Crow Mary --- an indigenous woman torn between two worlds in 19th-century North America.

Promo

The New York Times bestselling author of the book club classics THE KITCHEN HOUSE and GLORY OVER EVERYTHING returns with a sweeping saga inspired by the true story of Crow Mary --- an indigenous woman torn between two worlds in 19th-century North America.

About the Book

The New York Times bestselling author of the “touching” (The Boston Globe) book club classics THE KITCHEN HOUSE and the “emotionally rewarding” (Booklist) GLORY OVER EVERYTHING returns with a sweeping saga inspired by the true story of Crow Mary --- an indigenous woman torn between two worlds in 19th-century North America.

In 1872, 16-year-old Goes First, a Crow Native woman, marries Abe Farwell, a white fur trader. He gives her the name Mary, and they set off on the long trip to his trading post in the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan, Canada. Along the way, she finds a fast friend in a Métis named Jeannie; makes a lifelong enemy in a wolfer named Stiller; and, despite learning a dark secret of Farwell’s past, falls in love with her husband.

The winter trading season passes peacefully. Then, on the eve of their return to Montana, a group of drunken whiskey traders slaughters 40 Nakota --- despite Farwell’s efforts to stop them. Mary, hiding from the hail of bullets, sees the murderers, including Stiller, take five Nakota women back to their fort. She begs Farwell to save them, and when he refuses, Mary takes two guns, creeps into the fort and saves the women from certain death. Thus, she sets off a whirlwind of colliding cultures that brings out the worst and best in the cast of unforgettable characters and pushes the love between Farwell and Crow Mary to the breaking point.

From an author with a “stirring and uplifting” (David R. Gillham, New York Times bestselling author) voice, CROW MARY sweeps across decades and the landscape of the upper West and Canada, showcasing the beauty of the natural world, while at the same time probing the intimacies of a marriage and one woman’s heart.

Editorial Content for Fellowship Point

Teaser

FELLOWSHIP POINT is the masterful story of a lifelong friendship between two very different women with shared histories and buried secrets, tested in the twilight of their lives, set across the arc of the 20th century.

Promo

FELLOWSHIP POINT is the masterful story of a lifelong friendship between two very different women with shared histories and buried secrets, tested in the twilight of their lives, set across the arc of the 20th century.

About the Book

The masterful story of a lifelong friendship between two very different women with shared histories and buried secrets, tested in the twilight of their lives, set across the arc of the 20th century.

Celebrated children’s book author Agnes Lee is determined to secure her legacy --- to complete what she knows will be the final volume of her pseudonymously written Franklin Square novels, and even more consuming, to permanently protect the peninsula of majestic coast in Maine known as Fellowship Point. To donate the land to a trust, Agnes must convince shareholders to dissolve a generations-old partnership. And one of those shareholders is her best friend, Polly.

Polly Wister has led a different kind of life than Agnes: that of a well-off married woman with children, defined by her devotion to her husband and philosophy professor with an inflated sense of stature. She exalts in creating beauty and harmony in her home, in her friendships and in her family. Polly soon finds her loyalties torn between the wishes of her best friend and the wishes of her three sons. But what is it that Polly wants herself?

Agnes’ designs are further muddied when an enterprising young book editor named Maud Silver sets out to convince Agnes to write her memoirs. Agnes’ resistance cannot prevent long-buried memories and secrets from coming to light with far-reaching repercussions for all.

FELLOWSHIP POINT reads like a classic 19th-century novel in its beautifully woven, multilayered narrative, but it is entirely contemporary in the themes it explores --- a deep and empathic interest in women’s lives, the class differences that divide us, the struggle to protect the natural world, and, above all, a reckoning with intimacy, history and posterity. It is a masterwork from Alice Elliott Dark.

Editorial Content for Lady Tan's Circle of Women

Teaser

Perfect for fans of SNOWFLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN and THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN, this latest historical novel from New York Times bestselling author Lisa See is inspired by the true story of a female physician from 15th-century China.

Promo

Perfect for fans of SNOWFLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN and THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN, this latest historical novel from New York Times bestselling author Lisa See is inspired by the true story of a female physician from 15th-century China.

About the Book

The latest historical novel from New York Times bestselling author Lisa See, inspired by the true story of a woman physician from 15th-century China --- perfect for fans of See’s classic SNOWFLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN and THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN.

According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian --- born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations and loneliness --- is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations --- looking, listening, touching and asking --- something a man can never do with a female patient.

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose --- despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it --- and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife --- embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? LADY TAN'S CIRCLE OF WOMEN is a captivating story of women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.

Editorial Content for The Paris Daughter

Teaser

From the bestselling author of THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES comes a gripping historical novel about two mothers who must make unthinkable choices in the face of the Nazi occupation.

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From the bestselling author of THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES comes a gripping historical novel about two mothers who must make unthinkable choices in the face of the Nazi occupation.

About the Book

From the bestselling author of the “heart-stopping tale of survival and heroism” (People) THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES comes a gripping historical novel about two mothers who must make unthinkable choices in the face of the Nazi occupation.

Paris, 1939: Young mothers Elise and Juliette become fast friends the day they meet in the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. Though there is a shadow of war creeping across Europe, neither woman suspects that their lives are about to irrevocably change.

When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she entrusts Juliette with the most precious thing in her life --- her young daughter, playmate to Juliette’s own little girl. But nowhere is safe in war, not even a quiet little bookshop like Juliette’s Librairie des Rêves, and, when a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette’s world is destroyed along with it.

More than a year later, with the war finally ending, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend’s bookstore reduced to rubble --- and Juliette nowhere to be found. What happened to her daughter in those last, terrible moments? Juliette has seemingly vanished without a trace, taking all the answers with her. Elise’s desperate search leads her to New York --- and to Juliette --- one final, fateful time.

An “exquisite and gut-wrenching novel” (Lisa Barr, New York Times bestselling author) you won’t soon forget, THE PARIS DAUGHTER is also a sweeping celebration of resilience, motherhood and love.

Editorial Content for The Spectacular

Teaser

From the New York Times bestselling author of THE MAGNOLIA PALACE comes a thrilling story about love, sacrifice and the pursuit of dreams, set amidst the glamour and glitz of Radio City Music Hall in its mid-century heyday.

Promo

From the New York Times bestselling author of THE MAGNOLIA PALACE comes a thrilling story about love, sacrifice and the pursuit of dreams, set amidst the glamour and glitz of Radio City Music Hall in its mid-century heyday.

About the Book

From the New York Times bestselling author of THE MAGNOLIA PALACE: A thrilling story about love, sacrifice and the pursuit of dreams, set amidst the glamour and glitz of Radio City Music Hall in its mid-century heyday.

New York City, 1956: Nineteen-year-old Marion Brooks knows she should be happy. Her high school sweetheart is about to propose and sweep her off to the life everyone has always expected they’d have together: a quiet house in the suburbs, Marion staying home to raise their future children. But instead, Marion finds herself feeling trapped. So when she comes across an opportunity to audition for the famous Radio City Rockettes --- the glamorous precision-dancing troupe --- she jumps at the chance to exchange her predictable future for the dazzling life of a performer.
 
Meanwhile, the city is reeling from a string of bombings orchestrated by a person the press has nicknamed the “Big Apple Bomber,” who has been terrorizing the citizens of New York for 16 years by planting bombs in popular, crowded spaces. With the public in an uproar over the lack of any real leads after a years-long manhunt, the police turn in desperation to Peter Griggs, a young doctor at a local mental hospital who espouses a radical new technique: psychological profiling.

As both Marion and Peter find themselves unexpectedly pulled in to the police search for the bomber, Marion realizes that as much as she’s been training herself to blend in --- performing in perfect unison with all the other identical Rockettes --- if she hopes to catch the bomber, she’ll need to stand out and take a terrifying risk. In doing so, she may be forced to sacrifice everything she’s worked for, as well as the people she loves the most.

Editorial Content for The Whispers

Teaser

From the author of THE PUSH comes a page-turner about four suburban families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens --- and what is lost when good people make unconscionable choices.

Promo

From the author of THE PUSH comes a page-turner about four suburban families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens --- and what is lost when good people make unconscionable choices.

About the Book

From the author of THE PUSH, a page-turner about four suburban families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens --- and what is lost when good people make unconscionable choices.

The Loverlys sit by the hospital bed of their young son who is in a coma after falling from his bedroom window in the middle of the night; his mother, Whitney, will not speak to anyone. Back home, their friends and neighbors are left in shock, each confronting their own role in the events that led up to what happened that terrible night: the warm, altruistic Parks, who are the Loverlys' best friends; the young, ambitious Goldsmiths, who are struggling to start a family of their own; and the quiet, elderly Portuguese couple who care for their adult son with a developmental disability, and who pass the long days on the front porch, watching their neighbors go about their busy lives.

The story spins out over the course of one week, in the alternating voices of the women in each family as they are forced to face the secrets within the walls of their own homes, and the uncomfortable truths that connect them all to one another. Set against the heartwrenching drama of what will happen to Xavier, who hangs between death and life, or a life changed forever, THE WHISPERS is a novel about what happens when we put our needs ahead of our children's. Exploring the quiet sacrifices of motherhood, the intuitions that we silence, the complexities of our closest friendships and the danger of envy, this is a novel about the reverberations of life's most difficult decisions.

June 17, 2023

Earlier this month, my book group finally headed out on a long-awaited road trip together. Two others were to join us until “life got in the way.” With me at the wheel, and at certain points all of us studying Waze directions (“Um, Carol, I think we passed the exit to the Saw Mill.” And “Carol, we passed it again.”), we headed to Bethlehem, Connecticut, to see Martha Hall Kelly speak about her work and to tour the Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden.