Bookmark the Blog: Featured Books


Learning to Live Together: A Good Neighborhood

Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

Meet the neighbors and bear witness to a tragedy in A Good Neighborhood, the provocative new novel from Therese Anne Fowler.

Welcome to Oak Knoll. Old brick homes, stately trees, residents who know one another. Like Valerie Alston-Holt and her son Xavier, a talented classical guitar player. Life hasn’t always been easy since the loss of her husband. But Valerie has persisted, guided by the presence of the historic oak in her backyard. And Xavier will be heading to San Francisco in the fall to study music.

But the arrival of Brad Whitman,

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Past Meets Present: The Witch of Eye

One of our recommended books is The Witch of Eye by Kathryn Nuernberger

Tales of witches give insight into modern-day struggles, empowerment, and how to navigate our lives in Kathryn Nuernberger’s collection of essays The Witch of Eye.

Denounced and interrogated, tortured and burned. Kathyrn Nuernberger recounts and investigates the stories of witches, women persecuted for being something other than what their world demanded. The essays accomplish what essays do best. They dive into these lives to see what the past can reveal about us and our world today. Or as the author says: “I wonder about … what in each of us is a little bit witch.”

Crones and Cunning Women

Known by many names,

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Migrations: Finding Home in a Changing World

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

The loss of home and environment is keenly present in Migrations, the debut novel for adults by Charlotte McConaghy.

This tale of a woman with a tortured past in pursuit of a disappearing species gives readers and book groups much to discuss about finding home in a changing world.

The Final Journey

Franny Stone, the protagonist of Migrations, feels drawn again and again to the sea. Eternally restless, she follows where her passions lead her, whether sneaking into university lectures given by her yet-to-be future husband,

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Coming of Age in America: Sigh, Gone

Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran is a coming of age memoir.

Phuc Tran’s memoir Sigh, Gone tells a coming-of-age story through the lens of books, music, and American culture.

During the fall of Saigon in 1975, Phuc Tran’s family evacuates and begins a journey that brings them to the small town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It’s here, in this unfamiliar country, that this coming-of-age memoir begins with a child’s question to his parents. What is his name? Not his Vietnamese name, but his English one? What follows is a vivid, humorous, and raw account of coming to the United States as an immigrant and the long journey of finding his place.

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Rowing North: Lessons on Aging for Women… and Everyone

Women Rowing North by Mary Pipher

Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing as We Age, tackles the common but little-discussed topic of aging for women. And has lessons for us all about how to live a good life.

Mary Pipher is the author of several New York Times bestsellers, including books that explore the lives of women and girls, and the unique challenges of youth and aging.

Reviving Ophelia, written while her daughter was a teenager, explored the lives of teenage girls and the stresses and anxieties they face. Originally published in 1994 to great acclaim,

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You Will Be Found: Dear Evan Hansen & Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

Dear Evan Hansen is one of our book group favorites for 2018

I wish that everything was different. I wish that I was a part of something. I wish that anything I said mattered, to anyone.

Evan Hansen dreads the new school year. He’ll be a senior, and his arm is strapped with a cast from when he fell from a tree over the summer. His father left for Colorado and lives with a new wife, while his mother works as a nurse and takes classes, and so is rarely around. Evan has social anxiety and takes Atavan to calm down. His therapist, Dr.

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