From Booklist: "Approaching her mid-forties, novelist Shapiro finds her life dominated by a seemingly unending list of to-do's and a constant feeling of anxiety over which she has no control. Much of her unease comes from the effort to make sense of certain events in her past—including her father's death and a frightening health condition that affected her infant son—along with struggling to understand the turmoil that defined her relationship with her mother. While her childhood had been infused with religious tradition, Shapiro doesn't consider herself a believer or a nonbeliever. Yet, she is pulled to understand and deepen her own personal sense of faith as a means to calm the deep-rooted uncertainty and chaos of everyday life. In doing so, she seeks out a variety of different experiences and practices, such as yoga and silent meditation retreats, along with visits to the local synagogue and her Orthodox Jewish relatives. Shapiro's journey is a deeply reflective one, and her struggles are as complex as they are insightful, philosophical, and universally human." Add Audible narration for $12.49.

Easily one of the best books I've read this year, and I don't expect that to change. I wouldn't have "gotten" this at 22 but adored it in my 30s. Time, memory, marriage—things many of us relate to, or can at least imagine—but Shapiro writes about them with such freshness the concepts seem brand new. My favorite line of exploration: the nature of mistakes, near-misses, and time: "The stumbles and falls; the lapses in judgment; the near misses; the could-haves. I’ve become convinced that our lives are shaped less by the mistakes we make than when we make them." If I were to judge my books by how many passages require book darts, this one wins everything. Publication date: April 11.

This is Shapiro's story about how at age 54, she discovered a life-changing, identity-threatening secret about her family, and how Shapiro chooses to move forward. At the moment of discovery, Shapiro has no idea what to do. "I couldn't imagine what might come next,” she writes. “It turns out that it is possible to live an entire life — even an examined life, to the degree that I had relentlessly examined mine — and still not know the truth of oneself." If you have any inclination to pick this up, I recommend you avoid the spoiler-laden reviews (that specify what that family secret is) and dive right in. Inheritance reads like a twisty mystery, full of false starts and dead ends, but with a lot of help, some from unlikely places, she solves her case in the end.

This is Dani Shapiro's eleventh book but her first novel after a fifteen-year gap, about a single tragic event that changes the lives of one family forever, and those of the family next door as well. Despite being character-driven the story has a super plotty opener: on a summer night in 1985, three teenagers go out drinking, one of them gets behind the wheel anyway, and there’s a terrible accident. Someone dies, someone else lies about it—and the consequences will be felt for generations. This moving story spans fifty years as it slowly examines the many secrets held between two families with an unexpected connection, and reflects on aging, grief, love and redemption, and what it means to be a family.