After forwarding an inappropriate email to the whole company, Katherine gets fired, moves back to her hometown in disgrace, and starts her life over. This short and easy read has a familiar arc: girl in a mess, girl sees the light, girl finds happiness, yet its themes of sisterhood, forgiveness, and redemption make it worth your while. More info →

Opening line: "My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist." In her third novel, Jones writes about the link between two African-American half sisters, one legitimate and one secret, only one of whom knows the other exists. That is, until the secret of their father's second marriage starts to force its way into the open. Rather than writing back-and-forth between two perspectives, the reader encounters almost all of one sister's point of view in the first half, followed by the other's. The result is an absorbing coming-of-age narrative wrapped in a complicated family novel. I already loved this book, but when we discussed it with author Tayari Jones in the MMD Book Club, my appreciation and enjoyment skyrocketed, as so often happens. I love to peel back all the layers of a good book. More info →

Miller’s Odyssey retelling focuses on the witch Circe, who is known for having turned men into pigs. Here we see how and why she got to that point. Circe grows up as the daughter of Helios, the god of the Sun and a Titan. She doesn’t fit in with her family but over time, she discovers she does have magical powers all her own. Banished to a deserted island by Zeus, she comes into her own as she meets both friend and foe. This is an inventive take on a familiar story that allowed me to see it in a new, fresh way. I loved this on audiobook as narrated by Perdita Weeks. Whispersync narration available. (Content warnings apply.) More info →

Alan Brennert tells this story through the eyes of Rachel, a young girl when she’s diagnosed with leprosy and taken from her family home to the leper settlement on Moloka’i. All the hallmarks of a coming-of-age story, set against the well-researched backdrop of exile. More info →

An apeirogon is a polygon with an infinite number of sides, an apt metaphor for this non-linear tale of the real life friendship between Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, and Rami Elhanan, an Israeli. They form a bond through their shared grief and empathy after their daughters are killed in separate incidents. More than that, they want their grief to lead toward peace and lasting change. A timely heartbreaking yet ultimately hopeful read. More info →

Writer, actor, and humorist Stephen Fry has a knack for making Greek mythology compulsively readable; the whole Greek Myths series is on sale. These reimagined myths feel like bedtime stories for grownups; it's easy to get lost in the tales of valiant heroes and dastardly villains, which feel by turns fresh and familiar. More info →

Barbara Kingsolver is back with a retelling of David Copperfield; no familiarity with the original required but if you have read it, you’ll appreciate her updates. Damon Fields, known as Demon Copperhead for his red hair, grows up impoverished in the southern Appalachian mountains in Virginia. We first meet him at age 11 and then follow along as his mother becomes addicted to opioids, he goes through the foster care system, and later wrestles with substance abuse himself. Just as David Copperfieldwas an impassioned work of social activism, this examines the ravages in southwestern Virginia and how the people Demon loves and identifies with are oppressed by those who have power. It’s a big book and it’s worth every page. More info →

Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club members read this as a flight pick with Unlikely Animals. From the publisher: "Down a narrow alley in the small coastal town of Mallow Island, South Carolina, lies a stunning cobblestone building comprised of five apartments. It's called The Dellawisp and it's named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy. When Zoey Hennessey comes to claim her deceased mother's apartment at The Dellawisp, she meets her quirky, enigmatic neighbors including a girl on the run, a grieving chef whose comfort food does not comfort him, two estranged middle-aged sisters, and three ghosts. Each with their own story. Each with their own longings. Each whose ending isn't yet written. When one of her new neighbors dies under odd circumstances the night Zoey arrives, she's thrust into the mystery of The Dellawisp, which involves missing pages from a legendary writer whose work might be hidden there. She soon discovers that many unfinished stories permeate the place, and the people around her are in as much need of healing from wrongs of the past as she is. To find their way they have to learn how to trust each other, confront their deepest fears, and let go of what haunts them." More info →

When Hollywood legend Kitty Karr Tate dies at age 81 in 2017, there’s one question the whole world wants answered: why did the iconic white actress leave her billion-dollar fortune to the Black daughters of her co-star in a sitcom that first aired nearly fifty years ago? To find out, debut novelist Paul takes us back to 1930s Winston-Salem where we meet a young Black girl whose mother is determined to give her a better life than the one she herself had. Traversing the Jim Crow south and 1950s Hollywood, Smith introduces us to a fascinating cast of characters, portraying the emerging ties between two show business families and the unlikely road that brought them together, while examining questions of gender, race, privilege, and family. More info →

I read this back in April out of pure voyeuristic curiosity and it was a really good book. This is a big personal story, but more literary in nature. From the publisher: "In Awake, Jen shares for the first time what happened when she found herself completely lost at sea-and how she made it to shore. In candid, sur­prisingly funny vignettes spanning forty years of girlhood, marriage, and parenting, Jen lays bare the disorienting upheaval of midlife-the implosion of a marriage, the unraveling of religious and cultural systems, and the grief that accompanies change you didn't ask for. And, drawing on all resources-from without and within-Jen dares to question the systems beneath the whole house of cards, and to reckon with the myths, half-truths, and lies that brought her to this point. More than one woman's story, Awake is a critical analysis of the story given to all of us: the story of gender limitations, religious subservience, body shame, self-erasure. With refreshing candor, Jen explores a midlife renaissance-grieving what's lost, cherishing possibility, and entering the second half of life wide awake." More info →