The Compound

 

The Compound

by Aisling Rawle

Random House, 2025. 292 pages. Fiction

Lily, a disillusioned young woman, competes in a high-stakes reality show on a desert compound where personal bonds, hidden desperation, and escalating challenges blur the lines between game strategy and survival amidst a crumbling outside world. 

For all of my fellow reality TV lovers and haters, this one is for you! Particularly the Love Island variety. The book starts out innocuously enough, but once it picks up, it is hard to put down. Recommended for readers who enjoy suspenseful, character-driven fiction and reality TV social commentary. 

If you like The Compound you might also like:

The Book of Luke
by Lovell Holder
Grand Central Publishing, 2025. 394 pages. Fiction

Following the car accident that ended his football career and left his body scarred, 22-year-old Luke Griffin joins the cast of Endeavor, a new competition-based reality show that pits the tabloids' darlings against one another in tasks of endurance and problem solving. Soon a series of betrayals leads to irreversible tragedy, changing the course of his and his felllow contestants' lives forever. Ten years later, Luke is now a father of two and the stay-at-home husband to America's only openly gay senator. When his husband's serial cheating is exposed, Luke impulsively joins the cast of Endeavor's latest season in a desperate bid to earn some fast cash. 

Patricia Wants to Cuddle
by Yumei Kitasei
Flatiron Books, 2025. 376 pages. Fiction

On this season of The Catch, a Bachelor-style show, contestants must compete for love...and their lives. 

RBL 

Homebound

Homebound
by Portia Elan
Scribner, 2026. 304 pages. Science Fiction

Lives are entangled across time by one unfinished story, saved to a floppy disk in the 1980s and destined to ripple across the centuries.

1983: Becks is nineteen, blasting her Walkman, and hiding from the fact that her beloved uncle, and the only person who understood her, is dead. Luckily, he left her a half-finished video game to complete—one last collaboration to find her way out of loneliness.

2078: Dr. Portman works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and robotics, wrestling with her responsibility to Earth's precarious future. But increasingly, it seems an exceptional project may transcend everything she believed to be possible.

2586: After decades of life on the sea, Yesiko knows a scavenger's work is rife with moral compromise. Yet when a long-lost piece of technology walks aboard her ship, she is set on a path toward a sacrifice even she may be unwilling to make.

Linking these women across the centuries is a chain reaction of love, longing, and creativity that reveals our deep interconnectedness.

I admittedly enjoy books that are a little melancholy but also a bit hopeful, with beautiful writing and thought-provoking questions. For me, Homebound definitely fits the bill. This book contains four storylines connected across time, intricately woven together. Each storyline has fully realized characters that I wanted to root for, so I wasn't more connected to one story over another. Since most of the storylines occur in the future, the main thread and feel of the story reminded me of lyrical dystopian travel stories (like some of the ones listed below). The addition of the past storyline and a somewhat mysterious fourth narrative is what ties the plots together into a cohesive whole. This story touches on themes of friendship, identity, found family, grief, climate change, artificial intelligence, and more. The result is a moving, unique story that will stay with me for a while.

If you like Homebound you might also like:

Station Eleven
by Emily St John Mandel
Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. 333 pages. Science Fiction

One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve as the story moves back and forth in time—from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains.

Saltcrop
by Yumei Kitasei
Flatiron Books, 2025. 376 pages. Science Fiction

In Earth's not too distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother. But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to find her.

Cloud Cuckoo Land
by Anthony Doerr
Scribner, 2021. 626 pages. Fiction

Follows four young dreamers and outcasts through time and space, from 1453 Constantinople to the future, as they discover resourcefulness and hope amidst peril.

 

 

MB 

Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes

Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes

By: Eleanor Houghton

Bloomsbury Visual Arts 2026. 355 pages. Nonfiction

Meet the real, thinking, feeling woman that was Charlotte Brontë, as told in this biography by the surviving witnesses to her life - the clothes that she once wore. These garments were present as she penned Jane Eyre , as she walked the cobbled streets of Haworth, and as she stood with her fiancé at the altar in the summer of 1854. Yet, until now, their testimonies had remained unheard. Renowned Brontë scholar and dress historian Eleanor Houghton's innovative, richly illustrated biography, Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes, finally gives voice to the gowns, bonnets, shawls, corsets, parasols and boots that make up the novelist's wardrobe. Secrets are revealed in their very fibres. Brontë's steel busked corset tells the story of corporate espionage and forbidden love, whilst her striped, silk dress shows how she coped with the new-found pressures of fame. When exposed to 21st century technology, a tiny sample of fabric from her 'Thackeray Dress' reveals important innovations of the Industrial Revolution going on around her and a black lace veil, worn after the deaths of her siblings, expresses how she dealt with repeated familial loss. These clothes, some of which still bear the imprint of her foot or the sweat from her pores, prove themselves to be far more than mere celebrity curios. When 'read' alongside letters, portraits, her novels and the recollections of those who knew her well, Charlotte emerges as a woman altogether braver, more vulnerable, less isolated, less provincial, more fashion conscious than anyone ever expected.

This is a fascinating, tangible history of the famed and mysterious Charlotte Brontë, throwing light on her brief and fascinating life. An added element to this account is Houghton's meticulously hand-drawn depictions of the dresses and clothing accessories - there are no photographs. This makes this book a unique biography, and the beautiful art compliments the era, and Charlotte Brontë and her sister's lives. As the author points out, photographs of the items are available, and if you're able to visit the Brontë Parsonage Museum, you can see them in person. Houghton's drawings bring beauty and a sense of intimacy in this unique and highly recommended biography, emphasizing that the domestic details - what we wear day to day - is part of our story too. 

If you like Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes, you might also like: 

The Brontë Cabinet

By Deborah Lutz

Norton & Company, 2015. 310 pages. Nonfiction.

Victorian literature scholar Deborah Lutz illuminates the complex and fascinating lives of the Brontës through the things they wore, stitched, wrote on, and inscribed. By unfolding the histories of the meaningful objects in their family home in Haworth, Lutz immerses readers in a nuanced re-creation of the sisters' daily lives while moving us chronologically forward through the major biographical events: the death of their mother and two sisters, the imaginary kingdoms of their childhood writing, their time as governesses, and their determined efforts to make a mark on the literary world. From the miniature books they made as children to the blackthorn walking sticks they carried on solitary hikes on the moors, each personal possession opens a window onto the sisters' world, their beloved fiction, and the Victorian era. A description of the brass collar worn by Emily's bull mastiff, Keeper, leads to a series of entertaining anecdotes about the influence of the family's dogs on their writing and about the relationship of Victorians to their pets in general. The sisters' portable writing desks prove to have played a crucial role in their writing lives: it was Charlotte's snooping in Emily's desk that led to the sisters' first publication in print, followed later by the publication of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Charlotte's letters provide insight into her relationships, both innocent and illicit, including her relationship with the older professor to whom she wrote passionately. And the bracelet Charlotte had made of Anne and Emily's intertwined hair bears witness to her profound grief after their deaths. Lutz captivatingly shows the Brontës anew by bringing us deep inside the physical world in which they lived and from which their writings took inspiration.

The Dress Diary

By Kate Strasdin

First Pegasus Books, 2023. 303 pages. Nonfiction

In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments - some her own, others donated by family and friends - she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of their lives. Her name was Mrs Anne Sykes. Nearly two hundred years later, the diary fell into the hands of Kate Strasdin, a fashion historian and museum curator. Using her expertise, Strasdin spent the next six years unravelling the secrets contained within the album's pages, and the lives of the people within. Her findings are remarkable. Piece by piece, she charts Anne's journey from the mills of Lancashire to the port of Singapore before tracing her return to England in later years. Fragments of cloth become windows into Victorian life: pirates in Borneo, the complicated etiquette of mourning, poisonous dyes, the British Empire in full swing, rioting over working conditions and the terrible human cost of Britain's cotton industry. This is life writing that celebrates ordinary people: not the grandees of traditional written histories, but the hidden figures, the participants in everyday life. Through the evidence of waistcoats, ball gowns and mourning outfits, Strasdin lays bare the whole of human experience in the most intimate of mediums: the clothes we choose to wear.

The Age of Homespun: objects and stories in the creation of an American myth

By Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Alfred A. Knopf, 2001. 501 pages. Nonfiction

They began their existence as everyday objects, but in the hands of award-winning historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, fourteen domestic items from preindustrial America-ranging from a linen tablecloth to an unfinished sock-relinquish their stories and offer profound insights into our history. In an age when even meals are rarely made from scratch, homespun easily acquires the glow of nostalgia. The objects Ulrich investigates unravel those simplified illusions, revealing important clues to the culture and people who made them. Ulrich uses an Indian basket to explore the uneasy coexistence of native and colonial Americans. A piece of silk embroidery reveals racial and class distinctions, and two old spinning wheels illuminate the connections between colonial cloth-making and war. Pulling these divergent threads together, Ulrich demonstrates how early Americans made, used, sold, and saved textiles in order to assert their identities, shape relationships, and create history.

MGB

The Land and Its People

The Land and Its People

By David Sedaris 

Little Brown & Company, 2026  272 pages. Nonfiction. 

David Sedaris reflects on what it means to be a foreigner, a brother, a lifelong friend. He tries on the role of caretaker after his boyfriend Hugh's hip-replacement surgery, and both succeeds and fails. He buys his sister a cape and discusses his brother with a jaded Duolingo bot. He walks dozens of miles with his friend Dawn and challenges her to eat a truck tire. Ever adding to his list of "Countries I Have Been To," he rides a horse named Tequila in Guatemala, buys a bespoke priest's cassock in Vatican City, and goes on safari in Kenya without taking a single photo. There is sadness here -- scrolling through his address book, he realizes how many dear friends are now deceased -- but also delight: he revels in authors' biographies, the malapropism that becomes a decades-long inside joke, and pair of well-made cotton underpants. He is bitten by a dog. A train passenger vomits in his face. A woman on the street late at night either sexually harasses him or doesn't. Look how hard it is to be alive! Throughout these essays, Sedaris shows how much there is to marvel at when you keep your head up and your eyes open, observing with warmth and curiosity this fascinating human species and the lands we inhabit. 

David Sedaris is a master of his craft, and it’s evident in this latest collection. With his signature self-deprecating humor and sharp observations on everyday life, he turns the commonplace into something genuinely delightful. This set of essays feels lighter and more playful than his previous two collections, making it feel like a return to his earlier style of Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim and Me Talk Pretty One Day. While this time around I read the book, I’d strongly recommend the audiobook. Sedaris narrates it himself, and his delivery adds an extra layer of humor, timing, and subtle thoughtfulness. 

 

If you like The Land and Its People you might also like: 

Ali’s Well That Ends Well 

By Ali Wentworth 

Harper, an imprint HarperCollins, 2022. 188 pages. Nonfiction 

 Like many, Ali Wentworth spent the pandemic seesawing between highs, lows, and baking an unnecessary amount of chocolate cake. Between binging every tv show in existence to conquering TikTok to becoming a (semi) empty-nester, Ali experienced her share of turmoil (including an early case of Covid), but she also grew a little, learned a lot, and found comfort in some unexpected people and places. In Ali's Well That Ends Well, Wentworth turns her gimlet eye to the year no one saw coming. With her signature irreverent style, she shares the most hysterical, absurd, and sometimes trying episodes that her family endured during the terrible global pandemic. Thoroughly relatable, absolutely charming, and filled with moments both hilarious and poignant, this terrific collection once again showcases the comedic genius of a beloved star. 

Pure Innocent Fun: Essays 

By Ira Madison 

Random House, 2025. 226 pages. Nonfiction 

 In this inviting and joyfully raucous collection of sixteen original essays, written with a rare combination of humor and sharpness, Ira Madison III combines memoir and cultural criticism to offer an updated pop-culture manifesto. As a teenager in the early 2000s, Madison's life changed when he read Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. Inspired by the revelation that discussions of pop culture could be rigorous, not only reserved for the likes of At the Movies or Buffy the Vampire Slayer message boards, Madison went on to make a career of dissecting pop culture from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Britney Spears. Here, he reveals his journey to becoming a prominent cultural critic and screenwriter, sharing stories about growing up as a Black, gay man in Milwaukee and unearthing the pop phenomena that shaped his youth and the lives of so many. In this enlightening, unforgettable trip through the '90s and the 2000s, Madison reflects on learning about gay sex from his mom's Lil' Kim CDs; the most devastating election of his adolescence (not George W. Bush winning re-election in 2004, but Jennifer Hudson losing American Idol); and never getting his driver's license in high school, making him just like Cher Horowitz in Clueless: "A virgin who can't drive." Revel in his examination of Black fatherhood through The Cosby Show and Family Matters, and discover how Jerry Springer impacted queer representation on-screen. In each essay, Madison unearths how pop culture shapes us, both for the better and for the worse. Alternately irreverent and emotionally resonant, Pure Innocent Fun will leave you laughing and inspired.

JK

Outsider Animals

Outsider Animals

by Marlene Zuk

Princeton University Press, 2026. 305 pages. Nonfiction

Outsider Animals challenges everything you thought you knew about the overlooked animals that live in proximity to humans, sharing the stories that each has to tell about adaptation and cohabitation on our planet. Marlene Zuk gives us a new appreciation for the animals we often shun, explaining why these unpopular creatures have something special to teach us not only about the ways we deal with other species but about our own place in nature and what it means for an animal to belong somewhere.

This delightful book is a perfect blend of informative and entertaining. Each chapter follows a different “outsider animal” as the author explains the merits of raccoons, coyotes, cockroaches, and more. Despite her wealth of knowledge as evolutionary biologist and behavioral ecologist, the author keeps the writing accessible and her humor and wit may endear you to even the most unlikely creatures. As a birder, I particularly enjoyed the chapters on gulls, cowbirds, and especially mynas, where the author includes a nuanced discussion on invasive species. I’d recommend Outsider Animals to animal and science lovers alike.

If you like Outsider Animals, you might also like:

Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains

by Bethany Brookshire

Ecco, 2022. 348 pages. Nonfiction

At the intersection of science, history and narrative journalism, this eye-opening study reveals why we deem certain animals "pests" and others not, and what this tells us about our own perceptions, beliefs and actions, as well as our place in the natural world.

Wild Chorus

by Brenda Peterson

Mountaineers Books, 2024. 238 pages. Nonfiction 

Award-winning author Brenda Peterson draws on her lifelong relationship with animals to explore the wisdom we humans can glean from them. Looking beyond the companionship we enjoy with domesticated animals, Peterson explores how wild animals can become our guides and fellow travelers, helping us navigate the stresses of daily life and a rapidly changing planet. From beluga whales to wolves, raccoons to bears, elk to herons, the stories in this collection offer insights into the intricacies of animals’ intuitive communication, compassionate attention, and peaceful adaptation.

The Return of the Oystercatcher

by Scott Weidensaul

W. W. Norton & Company, 2026. 356 pages. Nonfiction 

As populations fall and once-great migration multitudes wither away, the future of birds may seem grim. But surprisingly, from gnatcatchers and waterfowl to select groups of forest songbirds, some bird populations are soaring. Habitats and species that once neared extinction are now multiplying around the world because bird conservation is making things better. The Return of the Oystercatcher is the story of what's working in bird conservation--and what can work for the rest of the planet.

RP

The Ha-Ha

The Ha-Ha
By Jennifer Dawson
Scribner, 2026/ 1961.177 pages. Fiction

At a tea party at Oxford University in the 1950s, earnest undergraduates in floral dresses clink cups, discussing their studies, sports, and summer balls. But to one student, Josephine, they are grotesquely transformed: she is sitting among ominous armadillos. Then, the laughter comes. As she is engulfed in mirthless hysterics, her college has no choice but to send her away. Since her mother's death, Josephine's reality seems a badly painted canvas, viewed through the wrong end of a telescope. It is a relief to find a sense of belonging, for once, within the mental institution where she is confined. But, eventually, she must reintegrate with society. Through a transformative encounter with a fellow patient, a return to real life seems possible.

If you too love a book about a woman unraveling, this book is well-worth your time! Often compared to The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Dawson’s book predates it but never reached the same level of recognition. The Ha-Ha follows a young woman, Josephine, who is committed to a mental institution while in college. Influenced by the author's experience of also being committed in the 50's and working as a mental health professional later in life, this provides incredible insight into that era's attitudes of mental health.

The writing is intimate, surreal, philosophical, and dynamic as it shifts through her emotional states and thoughts. What I found to be so profound and relatable was the main character's experience in reckoning with the meaning of life and pressure to conform in society. She moves beyond what her late mother, the doctors, and classmates expects of her and discovers an expansive truth in the absurdity of existence. Moving through this discovery with the main character is bleak at times but ends with hope and possibility.  In her newfound freedom she says “I was born for something more than mere sanity" and “I was born for so much joy.”

If you like The Ha-Ha you might also like:

Convenience Store Woman

by Saka Murata 

Grove Press, 2019. 163 pages. Fiction

Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction―many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual―and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

by Ottessa Moshfegh

Penguin Books, 2018. 288 pages. Fiction

It's early 2000 on New York City's Upper East Side, and the alienation of Moshfegh's unnamed young protagonist from others is nearly complete when she initiates her yearlong siesta, during which time she experiences limited personal interactions. Her parents have died; her relationships with her bulimic best friend Reva, an ex-boyfriend, and her drug-pushing psychiatrist are unwholesome. As her pill-popping intensifies, so does her isolation and determination to leave behind the world's travails.

MT

This Story Might Save Your Life

This Story Might Save Your Life
by Tiffany Crum
Pine & Cedar, 2026. 357 pages. Fiction

Benny Abbott and Joy Moore host one of the most beloved podcasts in the world. Each week, they delight listeners with a different "against-all-odds" survival story, gleefully finding the weird, life-affirming humor in near-death experiences. Since their first episode on Joy's experience with severe narcolepsy, they've been the best friends everyone wants to befriend - and thanks to the meticulous management of Joy's husband Xander, they've built a lucrative empire. But their next survival story may be their own. When Benny arrives at Joy and Xander's one morning to record, he finds shattered glass and an empty house. The one clue shedding light on the couple's disappearance is the incomplete, previously-unseen first draft of Joy's memoir. Benny is desperate to find them, even when the police soon zero in on him as their prime suspect. But as the hours tick by, the odds seem increasingly stacked against Joy and Xander being found alive.

Just like the podcast Benny and Joy host (which I really want to listen to!), this book is a great exploration of tense themes with high stakes with a little sprinkling of humor and romance. While the search for Joy and Xander drives the plot, the history of Joy, Xander, and Benny's relationship is also slowly revealed through additions of Joy's unpublished memoir, which adds a little humanity and heart to the story. I appreciated the addition of moments of lightness to balance the suspenseful ones. And since this is a book about a podcast, this book also examines how fame changes the trajectory of both the search and the dynamics of Joy, Xander, and Benny's relationship. This is a great read for those who like their mysteries and thrillers to include some great character-driven moments as well. I also highly recommend the audiobook!

If you like This Story Might Save Your Life you might also like:

Listen for the Lie
by Amy Tintera
Celadon Books, 2024. 336 pages. Fiction

After the death of her best friend, Lucy seeks for a new start by moving to L.A. But when her grandmother convinces her to return to her small Texas town, Lucy learns that she's the subject of a new podcast, and the podcast host is also in town looking for clues. Working together, Lucy becomes determined to solve her best friend's murder, even though she's afraid she's the one who did it.

The Ghostwriter
by Julie Clark
Sourcebooks Landmark, 2025. 342 pages. Fiction

June, 1975. The Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their own home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who killed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets. Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she's offered a job to ghostwrite her father's last book--his memoir disclosing what really happened.

The Girls Trip
by Ally Condie
Grand Central Publishing, 2026. 320 pages. Fiction

Hope, Ash, and Caro met at an online book club. Over the past two years, they've been there for each other in every way-except in person. When each of their lives reach a crossroads, they decide to meet in real life at the gorgeous Sonnet Resort at Eden National Park. Hope, an actress, has become entirely too famous and needs to get away from it all. Ash, a successful online entrepreneur, isn't sure what has happened to her marriage. Caro, a doctor, has lost a patient and doesn't know if she wants to carry on or start all over. And none of them are telling each other the full story.

MB 

The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley

The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley

By Courtney Walsh 

Thomas Nelson, 2023. 368 pages. Fiction 

Isadora Bentley follows the rules. Isadora Bentley likes things just so. Isadora Bentley believes that happiness is something that flat-out doesn't exist in her life--and never will. As a university researcher, Isadora keeps to herself as much as possible. She avoids the students she's supposed to befriend and mentor. She stays away from her neighbors and lives her own quiet, organized life in her own quiet, organized apartment. And she will never get involved in a romantic relationship again--especially with another academic. It will be just Isadora and her research. Forever. 

But on her thirtieth birthday, Isadora does something completely out of character. The young woman who never does anything "on a whim" makes an impulse purchase of a magazine featuring a silly article detailing "Thirty-One Ways to Be Happy"--which includes everything from smiling at strangers to exercising for endorphins to giving in to your chocolate cravings. Isadora decides to create her own secret research project--proving the writer of the ridiculous piece wrong. As Isadora gets deeper into her research--and meets a handsome professor along the way--she's stunned to discover that maybe, just maybe, she's proving herself wrong. Perhaps there's actually something to this happiness concept, and possibly there's something to be said for loosening up and letting life take you somewhere . . . happy. 

The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley was a delightful read! Isadora is definitely neurodivergent, so the beginning is cringe-worthy as you watch her avoid human interactions but when she starts working on the checklist things start picking up. I love all the friendships that gravitate to her as she tries to get out of her shell and finds herself. The “happiness list” is fun to contemplate and I wanted to try some of those things myself. It’s a fun light read with a cute low-spice romance included! 

If you like The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley, you might also like:

The Collected Regrets of Clover 

by Mikki Brammer 

St. Martin's Press, 2023. 314 pages. Fiction 

 From the day she watched her kindergarten teacher drop dead during a dramatic telling of Peter Rabbit, Clover Brooks has felt a stronger connection with the dying than she has with the living. After the beloved grandfather who raised her dies alone while she is traveling, Clover becomes a death doula in New York City, dedicating her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process. Clover spends so much time with the dying that she has no life of her own, until the final wishes of a feisty old woman send Clover on a trip across the country to uncover a forgotten love story––and perhaps, her own happy ending. As she finds herself struggling to navigate the uncharted roads of romance and friendship, Clover is forced to examine what she really wants, and whether she’ll have the courage to go after it.

Agatha Arch is Afraid of Everything

by Kristin Bair

Alcove Press, 2020. 352 pages, Fiction

Agatha Arch’s life shatters when she discovers her husband in their backyard shed, in flagrante delicto, giving the local dog walker some heavy petting. Suddenly, Agatha finds herself face to face with everything that frightens her . . . and that’s a loooooong list. Agatha keeps those she loves close. Everyone else, she keeps as far away as possible. So she’s a mystery to nearly everyone in her New England town. Defying her abundant assortment of anxieties, Agatha dons her “spy pants” and sets out to spy on her husband and the dog walker. Along the way, she finds another intriguing target to follow: a mysterious young woman who’s panhandling on the busiest street in town. It’s all a bit much for timorous Agatha. But with the help of her Bear Grylls bobblehead, a trio of goats, and a dog named Balderdash, Agatha may just find the courage to build a better life.

The Helpline

by Katherine Collette 

Atria Books, 2020. 320 pages. Fiction 

Germaine Johnson doesn’t need friends. She has her work and her Sudoku puzzles. Until, that is, an incident at her insurance company leaves her jobless—and it turns out that there are very few openings these days for senior mathematicians with zero people skills. Desperate, Germaine manages to secure a position at City Hall answering calls on the Senior Citizens Helpline. But it turns out that the mayor has something else in mind for Germaine: a secret project involving the troublemakers at the senior citizens center and their feud with the neighboring golf club—which happens to be run by the dashing yet disgraced national Sudoku champion, Don Thomas. Don and the mayor want the senior center closed down and at first, Germaine is dedicated to helping them out—it makes sense mathematically, after all. But when Germaine actually gets to know the group of elderly rebels at the senior center, they open her eyes to a life outside of boxes and numbers and for the first time ever, Germaine realizes she may have miscalculated.

Finding My Way

Finding My Way: A Memoir

by Malala Yousafzai

Atria Books, 2025. 305 pages. Memoir

Thrust onto the public stage at fifteen years old after the Taliban’s brutal attack on her life, Malala Yousafzai quickly became an international icon known for bravery and resilience. But away from the cameras and crowds, she spent years struggling to find her place in an unfamiliar world. Now, for the first time ever, Malala takes us beyond the headlines in Finding My Way—a vulnerable, surprising memoir that buzzes with authenticity, sharp humor, and tenderness.

As iconic as Malala's first memoir is, I think I love this one even more. As a reader, you need not be a Nobel Prize recipient to find this story deeply resonant. Malala chronicles her early adult years including her time attending Oxford, falling in love, visiting her home country of Pakistan, and more, as she deals with the repercussions of her unwanted fame and the continued effects of being shot by the Taliban. Her account of her personal hardships is just as moving as her continued activism— both of which intensify when she learns of the Taliban regaining control of Afghanistan. I enjoy themes of reckoning with tradition and expectation and Malala treads these waters with grace even when others deny her the same respect. The warmth with which she recalls the support of her female friends and her husband is especially poignant. Finding My Way is perfect for those hoping for a read filled with vulnerability, wit, humility, and strength.

If you like Finding My Way, you might also like:

Sonita: My Fight Against Tyranny and My Escape to Freedom

by Sonita Alizadeh

Harper One, 2025. 269 pages. Memoir

Sonita Alizada was almost sold twice. Her price tag was $9,000. The money her family received would pay for her brother’s wife. She was expected to form a family, sleep with a man she never met, and then repeat the terrible cycle with her own children. But Sonita wanted more. The Afghan rap artist and activist shares the story of how she fled Afghanistan to pursue her dreams and evolved into a woman who is changing the world. She shares incredible highs, like winning the song writing contest that gave her the opportunity of a lifetime, and unimaginable lows, like when the cruel Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, and how some of her family escaped, and how some were left behind.

Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones: A Memoir

by Priyanka Mattoo

Alfred A. Knopf, 2024. 292 pages. Memoir

Priyanka Mattoo was born into a wooden house in the Himalayas, as were most of her ancestors. In 1989, however, mounting violence in the region forced Mattoo’s community to flee. Mattoo never moved back to her beloved Kashmir—because it no longer existed. She and her family just kept packing and unpacking and moving on. In forty years, Mattoo accumulated thirty-two different addresses, and she chronicles her nomadic existence with wit, wisdom, and an inimitable eye for light within the darkest moments. And we are with her as she settles into her unlikely new home­land, Los Angeles, where she sets off on what is perhaps her most meaningful journey: that of becoming a writer.

Saving Five: A Memoir of Hope

by Amanda Nguyen

AUWA Books, 2025. 288 pages. Memoir

A revelatory and powerful memoir by the Nobel Peace Prize finalist Amanda Nguyen, detailing her tumultuous childhood and groundbreaking activism in the aftermath of her rape at Harvard.

RP

Reclaiming Quiet: cultivating a life of holy attention

Reclaiming Quiet: cultivating a life of holy attention 
By Sarah Clarkson
Baker Books, 2024. 188 pages. Nonfiction 

Recapture wonder and learn to live by the healing shapes and rhythms of stillness In a restless and distracted world, the cultivation of quiet often feels abstract and impossible. But quiet is, and always has been, essential to spiritual life, the only way we can turn from the frenzy toward the peace for which we were created. Reclaiming Quiet is an invitation to discover the profound, daily joy of resisting patterns of anxiety and hurry and cultivating a life of holy attention instead. With practical strategies to address our use of screens or fear of silence and compassionate ideas to nourish stillness, listening, and rest, this book explores: what it means to become a person who listens each day for God's voice before all others; how to reclaim wonder in prayer; how to cultivate an interior life.  Quiet is not for specialists or the ultra-disciplined. It's not limited to those who have great swathes of time. Quiet is our inner native land, the place to which we turn to find God already waiting, calling us beloved, and drawing us homeward into a life of holy and joyous attention.

From the first page of this short yet powerful book, I was deeply moved. I wanted to read it all at once, absorb what it was saying, but also I wanted to linger over it, ponder the questions that Clarkson has at the end of each chapter, linger over the beautiful prayers she has written. Though her life sounds romantic - living in a Victorian house in Oxford, England, Clarkson doesn't shy away from sharing her struggles throughout her life with mental health, and the ways in which she struggles from day to day. Her suggestions are humble and beautiful, she never comes across as a privileged or condescending. Her descriptions of experiences, landscapes and decisions she's faced were relatable and touching to me. I would recommend this to anyone who is grappling with the distractions of modern life and technology and is seeking both to become more grounded, and to deepen their understanding of God, whichever branch of Christianity you might belong to. 

 

If you like Reclaiming Quiet, you might also like: 

Seeking Slow: reclaim moments of calm in your day

By Melanie Barnes

Rock Point, 2019. 128 pages. Nonfiction

Seeking Slow provides you with the tools you need to slow down and reconnect with the harmonious rhythm of daily life, the gentle pace of nature, and, most importantly, yourself.

The Power of Silence

By Robert Cardinal Sarah

Ignatius Press, 2017. 249 pages. Nonfiction

 

In a time when technology penetrates our lives in so many ways and materialism exerts such a powerful influence over us, Cardinal Robert Sarah presents a bold book about the strength of silence. The modern world generates so much noise, he says, that seeking moments of silence has become both harder and more necessary than ever before. Silence is the indispensable doorway to the divine, explains the cardinal in this profound conversation with Nicolas Diat. Within the hushed and hallowed walls of the La Grande Chartreux, the famous Carthusian monastery in the French Alps, Cardinal Sarah addresses the following questions: Can those who do not know silence ever attain truth, beauty, or love? Do not wisdom, artistic vision, and devotion spring from silence, where the voice of God is heard in the depths of the human heart? After the international success of God or Nothing, Cardinal Sarah seeks to restore to silence its place of honor and importance. "Silence is more important than any other human work," he says, "for it expresses God. The true revolution comes from silence; it leads us toward God and others so as to place ourselves humbly and generously at their service."

MGB

Between Friends and Lovers

Between Friends and Lovers
by Shirlene Obuobi
Avon, 2024. 357 pages. Romance.

As influencer Dr. Jojo, Josephine Boateng is a champion of self-love and overall health. In real life, Josephine is hung up on her best friend, and she struggles with depression. When Josephine meets debut author Malcolm Waters at a party, she takes the chance figure out what she really wants. But in a world where the lines between private and public are as blurred as those between friendship and love, can Josephine and Malcolm risk it all for something real?

In the hands of a different author, this book would have mostly been about a love triangle with a fake dating element (two tropes I usually love). Obuobi avoids leaning into these tropes, however, and in the process she hits on more truth about life and love. I appreciated that while this is a romance novel, falling in love doesn’t fix any character’s problems. Instead, it gives them someone to lean on when life gets hard. Malcolm and Josephine encourage each other to reach further than they would have on their own. This has been one of my favorite recent romance reads!

If you like Between Friends and Lovers you might also like:

Curvy Girl Summer
by Danielle Allen
Bramble, 2024. 360 pages. Romance

After a one-night stand with her clingy ex, Aaliyah James has an epiphany: this ain't it. She knows what she wants, and she's ready to move past casual hookups, flings, and situationships. But for her family, the clock is ticking—after all, she's almost thirty. And when they imply that her personality (and her body) might be too big to land a man, she lets them know they've gone too far—and her (nonexistent) man loves her curves, thank you very much. Now, she has seven weeks to find the perfect boyfriend to rub in their faces at the birthday celebration she's been planning.

The Wedding Date
by Jasmine Guillory
Jove, 2018. 310 pages. Romance

On the eve of his ex's wedding, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend. From the best man's toast to the bouquet toss, Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible. But before they know it, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she's the mayor's chief of staff. Too bad they can't stop thinking about the other. They're just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century. 

Yours Truly
by Abby Jimenez
Forever, 2023. 398 pages. Romance

After a horrible first meeting, Dr. Briana Ortiz is not impressed with Dr. Jacob Maddox. But just when all systems are set to hate, Jacob completely flips the game by sending Briana a letter. And it's a really good letter. Worse, he might be this fantastically funny and subversively likeable guy who's just terrible at first impressions.

MB 

The Correspondent

The Correspondent

By Virginia Evans

Crown, 2025. 285 pages. Fiction 

At 73, retired lawyer and devoted letter writer Sybil Van Antwerp navigates her daily life and reflects on her past, but when unexpected letters open old wounds, she must confront a painful chapter that reshapes her understanding of herself and her world.

This is a fantastic and engrossing read for relationship fiction lovers. It is equally yoked between snarky commentary and heartbreaking realizations. And if you are an audio-book listener this has an exceptional cast. Highly recommended. 

If you liked The Correspondent, you might also like: 

No Two Persons

By Erica Bauermeister 

St. Martin's Press, 2023. 314 pages. Fiction

When a devastating event breaks her heart open, aspiring writer Alice creates a stunning debut novel in which her words find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness to a widower rent by grief, who, due to her book, find new paths forward.

Remarkably Bright Creatures

By Shelby Van Pelt 

Ecco, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 2022. 360 pages. Fiction

A luminous debut novel about a widow's unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium--and the truths she finally uncovers about her son's disappearance 30 years ago. 

RBL