Joan is ok! Her family and friends think she should make more effort to be connected in the world, BUT she is content as she is. Witty, insightful you too will root for Joan and her own place in the world. – Anna (Volunteer)
This sci-fi reimagining of the Greek tragedy Antigone is a great read! Profoundly moving, at times heartbreaking but hopeful in the end. I didn’t want it to end and was left wondering what next?! – Gina (Staff)
“I love Katherine May’s new book, Enchantment.…It’s a beautiful offering of light, truth and charm in these strange, dark times.” – New York Times bestselling author Anne Lamott
“Katherine May gave so many of us language and vision for the long communal ‘wintering’ of the last years. Welcome this beautiful meditation for the time we’ve now entered. I cannot imagine a more gracious companion. This book is a gift.” – New York Times bestselling author Krista Tippett
“Gentle inspiration for those who feel exhausted or helpless… May shows how paying deliberate attention to what’s around us can surprise us with insights and reveal new connections that deepen our appreciation for the world.” – Washington Post
From the New York Times–bestselling author of Wintering, an invitation to rediscover the feelings of awe and wonder available to us all
Many of us feel trapped in a grind of constant change: rolling news cycles, the chatter of social media, our families split along partisan lines. We feel fearful and tired, on edge in our bodies, not quite knowing what has us perpetually depleted. For Katherine May, this low hum of fatigue and anxiety made her wonder what she was missing. Could there be a different way to relate to the world, one that would allow her to feel more rested and at ease, even as seismic changes unfold on the planet? Might there be a way for all of us to move through life with curiosity and tenderness, sensitized to the subtle magic all around?
In Enchantment, May invites the reader to come with her on a journey to reawaken our innate sense of wonder and awe. With humor, candor, and warmth, she shares stories of her own struggles with work, family, and the aftereffects of pandemic, particularly feelings of overwhelm as the world rushes to reopen. Craving a different way to live, May begins to explore the restorative properties of the natural world, moving through the elements of earth, water, fire, and air and identifying the quiet traces of magic that can be found only when we look for them. Through deliberate attention and ritual, she unearths the potency and nourishment that come from quiet reconnection with our immediate environment. Blending lyricism and storytelling, sensitivity and empathy, Enchantment invites each of us to open the door to human experience in all its sensual complexity, and to find the beauty waiting for us there.
Award-winning author Kelly Barnhill brings her singular talents to The Crane Husband, a raw, powerful story of love, sacrifice, and family.
“If I had to nominate a worthy successor to Angela Carter, I would nominate Kelly Barnhill. “—Laura Ruby
A Most Anticipated in 2023 Pick for BuzzFeed | The Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Mothers fly away like migrating birds. This is why farmers have daughters.”
A fifteen-year-old teenager is the backbone of her small Midwestern family, budgeting the household finances and raising her younger brother while her mom, a talented artist, weaves beautiful tapestries. For six years, it’s been just the three of them—her mom has brought home guests at times, but none have ever stayed.
Yet when her mom brings home a six-foot tall crane with a menacing air, the girl is powerless to prevent her mom letting the intruder into her heart, and her children’s lives. Utterly enchanted and numb to his sharp edges, her mom abandons the world around her to weave the masterpiece the crane demands.
In this stunning contemporary retelling of “The Crane Wife” by the Newbery Medal-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon, one fiercely pragmatic teen forced to grow up faster than was fair will do whatever it takes to protect her family—and change the story.
The remarkable story of the intrepid French archaeologist who led the international effort to save ancient Egyptian temples from the floodwaters of the Aswan Dam, by the New York Times bestselling author of Madame Fourcade’s Secret War
In the 1960s, the world’s attention was focused on a nail-biting race against time: Fifty countries contributed nearly a billion dollars to save a dozen ancient Egyptian temples, built during the height of the pharaohs’ rule, from drowning in the floodwaters of the massive new Aswan High Dam. But the extensive press coverage at the time overlooked the gutsy French archaeologist who made it all happen. Without the intervention of Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, the temples would now be at the bottom of a vast reservoir. It was an unimaginably large and complex project that required the fragile sandstone temples to be dismantled, stone by stone, and rebuilt on higher ground.
A willful real-life version of Indiana Jones, Desroches-Noblecourt refused to be cowed by anyone or anything. During World War II she joined the French Resistance and was held by the Nazis; in her fight to save the temples she challenged two of the postwar world’s most daunting leaders, Egypt’s President Nasser and France’s President de Gaulle. As she told a reporter, “You don’t get anywhere without a fight, you know.”
Yet Desroches-Noblecourt was not the only woman who played an essential role in the historic endeavor. The other was Jacqueline Kennedy, who persuaded her husband to call on Congress to help fund the rescue effort. After years of Western plunder of Egypt’s ancient monuments, Desroches-Noblecourt did the opposite. She helped preserve a crucial part of Egypt’s cultural heritage, and made sure it remained in its homeland.
Set amid Colorado’s wild beauty, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story of a resilient young woman whose life is changed forever by one chance encounter. A tragic and uplifting novel of love and loss, family and survival–and hope–for readers of Great Circle, The Four Winds, and Where the Crawdads Sing
“Shelley Read’s lyrical voice is a force of nature…. Completely unforgettable.” –Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry
“A splendid American Gothic tale of a young woman broken by circumstances who must find a way to forgive before she can love.”–Adriana Trigiani, author of The Good Left Undone
Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family’s peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado–the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land and determined to live as he chooses.
Victoria encounters Wil by chance on a street corner, a meeting that profoundly alters both of their young lives, unknowingly igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known. She flees into the surrounding mountains where she struggles to survive in the wilderness with no clear notion of what her future will bring. As the seasons change, she also charts the changes in herself, finding in the beautiful but harsh landscape the meaning and strength to move forward and rebuild all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River threatens to submerge her homeland–its ranches, farms, and the beloved peach orchard that has been in her family for generations.
Inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola in the 1960s, Go as a River is a story of deeply held love in the face of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage, resilience, friendship, and, finally, home–where least expected. This stunning debut explores what it means to lead your life as if it were a river–gathering and flowing, finding a way forward even when a river is dammed.
Congratulations to Dr. Doug Mader and Lucy Burdette for winning 2022 Florida Book Awards.
Lucy Burdette won the Bronze in the popular fiction category for A Dish to Die For (Crooked Lane Books), #12 in her popular Key West Food Critic mystery series.
Dr. Doug Mader won the Bronze in general nonfiction for The Vet at Noah’s Ark (Apollo Publishers).
Find the full list here.
It’s 1980, and Lillian Waters is hitting the road for the very last time.
Jaded from her years in the music business, perpetually hungover, and diagnosed with career-ending vocal problems, Lillian cobbles together a nationwide farewell tour featuring some old hands from her early days playing honky-tonk bars in Washington State and Nashville, plus a few new ones. She yearns to feel the rush of making live music one more time and bask in the glow of a packed house before she makes the last, and most important, stop on the tour: the farm she left behind at age ten and the sister she is finally ready to confront about an agonizing betrayal in their childhood.
As the novel crisscrosses eras, moving between Lillian’s youth—the Depression, the Second World War, the rise of Nashville—and her middle-aged life in 1980, we see her striving to build a career in the male-dominated world of country music, including the hard choices she makes as she tries to redefine music, love, aging, and womanhood on her own terms.
Allison enjoyed both the book and audiobook versions of this novel. She writes, “Stephanie Clifford fills out the singular story of one woman’s hard rise to country music stardom with the history of country music and the evolution of American culture. Water Lil is a character you won’t soon forget.”
“This well researched novel is also a love letter to country music and the west. If you’ve spent time with either, this novel will be hell bent on tugging at your heartstrings.”
Allison’s playlist for the book includes Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (the song “Bo Weavil Blues” is central to the novel).
Read about the most influential newspaper columnist you’ve never heard of in Listen, World!: How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America’s Most-Read Woman by Julia Scheeres & Allison Gilbert. We had a great event with Allison Gilbert in November. Check out the replay.
Girly Drinks: A World History of Women & Alcohol by Mallory O’Meara was one of Bookseller Riona Jean’s favorite books of 2021. She highly recommends the audiobook.
She writes, “I love beer, books, and history. O’Meara presents a fantastic and inclusive history of women and alcohol, covering such topics as the scientific process, brewing as a means to financial independence, and drinking habits reflecting change in society.”
Social Media Manager Robin has knit or crocheted anything in years, but Crochet Iconic Women by Carla Mitrani has her considering digging out her yarn stash.
You may already know her work as a cartoonist from Hark! A Vagrant. Katie Beaton’s Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is the story of the world she encountered while looking to pay off her student loans – the harsh reality of life in the oil sands, where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet is never discussed.
Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, this urgent book, A Woman’s Life Is a Human Life from historian Felicia Kornbluh reveals two movement victories in New York that forever changed the politics of reproductive rights nationally. Before there was a “Jane Roe,” the most important champions of reproductive rights were ordinary people working in their local communities.
Featuring a new package and an additional 60 pages of material, this revised edition of The Art of Feminism covers an even more impressive range of artworks, artists, movements, and perspectives. Since the debut of the original volume in 2018, The Art of Feminism has offered readers an in-depth examination of its subject that is still unparalleled in scope. The comprehensive survey traces the ways in which feminists—from the suffragettes and World War II–era workers through twentieth-century icons like Judy Chicago and Carrie Mae Weems to the contemporary cutting-edge figures Zanele Muholi and Andrea Bowers—have employed visual arts in transmitting their messages. With more than 350 images of art, illustration, photography, and graphic design, this stunning volume showcases the vibrancy of the feminist aesthetic over two centuries.
Middle-grade novel, A Seed in the Sun by Aida Salazar: A farm-working girl with big dreams meets activist Dolores Huerta and joins the 1965 protest for workers’ rights in this tender-hearted novel in verse, perfect for fans of Rita Williams-Garcia and Pam Muñoz Ryan.
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: In this personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from the much-admired TEDx talk of the same name—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century. Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman now—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.
Find these books and many more in store. We’re always happy to help you find what you’re looking for, just ask!
“A twisty, immersive whodunit perfect for fans of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.” —People
“Enthralling.” —Wall Street Journal“[An] irresistible literary page-turner.” —The Boston Globe
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by TIME, NPR, USA Today, Elle, Newsweek, Salon, Bustle, AARP, The Millions, Good Housekeeping, and more
The riveting new novel — “part true-crime page-turner, part campus coming-of-age” (San Francisco Chronicle) — from the author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist The Great Believers
A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past—the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia’s death and the conviction of the school’s athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers—needs—to let sleeping dogs lie.
But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn’t as much of an outsider at Granby as she’d thought—if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.
In I Have Some Questions for You, award-winning author Rebecca Makkai has crafted her most irresistible novel yet: a stirring investigation into collective memory and a deeply felt examination of one woman’s reckoning with her past, with a transfixing mystery at its heart. Timely, hypnotic, and populated with a cast of unforgettable characters, I Have Some Questions for You is at once a compulsive page-turner and a literary triumph.
