Brené Brown's work will change your life, no exaggeration. More info →

This thriller, described as Rear Window meets Get Out starts with a bang and never lets up; her familiar voice is put to good use in this shocking tale of history, lies, and gentrification. Sydney’s Brooklyn neighborhood is turning over fast, with longtime older tenants moving out and upstart young couples moving in. But when she accidentally discovers a sinister connection, these moves suddenly begin to look threatening. Add in a tortured past, present family challenges, a budding romance with a hot new neighbor (and heads up, f-bombs galore), and you’ve got a thrilling read. More info →

This award-winning cookbook has everything: history, heritage, culture, and food. Stunning photos accompany stories and recipes that showcase the depth of African American cuisine. I want to read it like a novel, and then cook the sweet potato biscuits and seafood gumbo. More info →

Mary Laura Philpott shared this title in What Should I Read Next episode 195—Wanted: Book enthusiast at large, saying she kept waiting for the big twist, but there was no twist. In spite of—or maybe because of—the memoir’s seemingly simple premise of a mother parenting her child when she wasn’t quite ready, Philpott saw her own life in a completely new way after reading it. With humor and candid honesty, O’Connell shares the details of her unplanned pregnancy, entry to the brand new world of parenting, and questioning of nearly everything about her identity. Nothing happens, but EVERYTHING happens, as she experiences the highs and lows of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. There is no universal story of motherhood, but by sharing the oft-untold (and not at all picture-worthy) bits, O’Connell shows how to have more compassion and gentleness for yourself or the mothers in your life. More info →

For obvious reasons, this book made an amazing pairing with The Personal Librarian. I actually read Belle Greene first shortly after Tina Kover's English translation was published in September of 2023. It was fascinating to read these two biographical accounts of the same woman nearly back-to-back. The books are markedly different in tone and structure, for one: Belle Greene is longer, more literary-leaning, and more tragic than its American-authored counterpart. Even more so, the authors made disparate decisions about how to fill in the historical blanks of Belle's life, particularly regarding Belle's personal and workplace relationships. Don't miss the authors' notes on either book! They give illuminating insight into the research and writing process, and the authors' respective experiences of "discovering" the heretofore untold story of Belle Greene. More info →

This was a word-of-mouth pick for me: I've noticed our MMD Book Clubbers saying good things about Brooks's grief memoir in our forums since it came out last winter. Brooks had been married to fellow writer and journalist Tony Horwitz for thirty-five years when he collapsed and died in 2019 while on book tour far from home. He was just sixty years old. She was stunned—and then quickly swept into a barrage of pressing to-dos, everything from finding new health insurance for herself and her sons to finishing her manuscript-in-progress (that would be the 2022 novel Horse) so she had money to pay the bills. Three years after his death, she traveled to tiny Flinders Island, off the coast of her native Australia, to finally give herself time and space to grieve. This book is the result of that experience. I listened to Brooks narrate her own audio and that format served the story well; it doesn't feel quite right to say I "enjoyed" a grief memoir but this book was gentle, lovely, and moving. I'm so glad I read it. Whispersync narration available. More info →

The whole series featuring the Nashville Homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson is on sale. From the publisher: "The Southern Strangler is slaughtering his way through the Southeast, leaving a gruesome memento at each crime scene—the prior victim's severed hand. Taylor finds herself in a joint investigation with her lover, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, as they pursue the vicious murderer." More info →

From the publisher: "Mireille Duval Jameson is living a fairy tale. The strong-willed youngest daughter of one of Haiti’s richest sons, she has an adoring husband, a precocious infant son, by all appearances a perfect life. The fairy tale ends one day when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men, in front of her father’s Port au Prince estate. Held captive by a man who calls himself The Commander, Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As it becomes clear her father intends to resist the kidnappers, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who resents everything she represents." More info →

Readers who couldn't get enough C. S. Lewis as a kid are often urged to move on to his Space Trilogy as they get older. Once again, he sets his fantasies against the backdrop of classical mythology and biblical imagery; his characters encounter extraordinary creatures, fight epic battles, and come face to face with deep wisdom. The first book in the series tells the story of Dr. Ransom, a Cambridge professor who discovers after he's abducted that he's been taken from the "silent planet" of Earth. J. R. R. Tolkien inspired Lewis to write this story, and the character of Dr. Ransom is largely based on him. More info →

Both The Space Between Us, and the follow up, The Secrets Between, us are on sale. From the publisher: "Thrity Umrigar is as adept and compelling in The Space Between Us—vividly capturing the social struggles of modern India in a luminous, addictively readable novel of honor, tradition, class, gender, and family. A portrayal of two women discovering an emotional rapport as they struggle against the confines of a rigid caste system, Umrigar's captivating novel echoes the timeless intensity of Zora Neale Hursto’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible—a quintessential triumph of modern literary fiction." More info →