Reading Group Choices’ goal is to join with publishers, bookstores, libraries, trade associations, and authors to develop resources to enhance the shared reading group experience. Reading Group Choices is distributed annually to bookstores, libraries, and directly to book groups. Titles included in the current and previous issues are posted on ReadingGroupChoices.com. Books presented here have been recommended by book group members, librarians, booksellers, literary agents, publicists, authors, and publishers. All submissions are then reviewed to ensure the discussibility of each title. Once a title is approved for inclusion, publishers are asked to underwrite production costs so that copies of Reading Group Choices can be distributed for a minimal charge. For additional copies, you can place an order through our online store, contact us, or contact your local library or bookstore. For more information, please visit our website at ReadingGroupChoices.com.

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"For most people, what is so painful about reading is that you read something and you don't have anybody to share it with. In part what the book club opens up is that people can read a book and then have someone else to talk about it with. Then they see that a book can lead to the pleasure of conversation, that the solitary act of reading can actually be a part of the path to communion and community"

—Bell Hooks

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the 30th anniversary edition of Reading Group Choices!

When we send out our annual survey, we look forward to finding out about your favorite books, but we also look forward to finding out what you enjoy most about being in your book group. Despite hectic schedules, the chance you’ll read a book you don’t completely love, and the general challenges that come with being part of a book group, you remain committed, and you continue to read and meet and discuss.

Over the years we have asked why you are a member of your book group and the answers are consistent across states, across countries, across ages:

• Stimulating conversation

• Friendships

• A sense of community

• Exposure to books you would not have read otherwise

The fact that recommending books can foster and encourage togetherness and an exposure to new ideas is not lost on us. We know that we are not only recommending a good book to read or providing discussion questions to help with conversations; we are also encouraging mornings, afternoons and evenings around the world where people sit down – and slow down – together for a few hours, and talk about books.

So, while we are pleased that we can offer three decades of recommendations to our readers, we are also beyond heartened that we can offer three decades of togetherness spurred by stories.

The 30th anniversary edition includes a range of titles thoughtfully chosen to inspire those discussions. Some books are available now and some will be available later in 2025 so you can plan ahead. Be sure to sign up for our eNewsletter, where you can find out about new monthly recommendations and giveaways as well as other resources for your groups. To order more copies of this edition or past editions, visit our store online at www.ReadingGroupChoices.com.

We look forward to continuing to support you in this next decade (our fourth chapter) as you continue to come together to read and discuss stories still being written.

Mary Morgan & the Reading Group Choices Team

AFTERLIGHT

Jaap Robben, David Doherty (Translator)

The young free-spirited florist Frieda grew up in a strictly Catholic environment in the 1960s. When she steps onto a frozen river on a late winter afternoon, little does she know that everything is about to change for her. On the ice she meets the married Otto. They experience a love that begins stormy and ends fatefully: Frieda becomes pregnant — a scandal in the world in which she moves. And so she must never be the mother of her secret child. For decades she kept her memories of this episode in her life to herself. But the grief for the lost child remains, despite the later marriage, despite the son she still has. At the age of eighty-one, Frieda is suddenly alone again. The silent sorrow returns with force. Only then does she dare to face her story — and to share it. With Afterlight, inspired by true events, Robben not only pulls back the veil on Frieda’s story, but also shines a light on the experiences of countless women between the 1950s and 1980s. The result is an impressive story about buried female trauma, caused by society, organized religion and the dominant social mores.

“With its tight sentences and a fast pace, Afterlight moves like detective fiction. It’s a poignant novel in which a single, pregnant woman is mistreated in her conservative society; she remains resilient and determined to honor her baby’s memory.” —Foreword Reviews

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jaap Robben is a Dutch poet, playwright, performer, and acclaimed children’s author. You Have Me to Love, his first novel for adults, won the 2014 Dutch Booksellers Award, the Dioraphte Prize, and the ANV Award for best Dutch debut. Summer Brother, his second novel, was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2021. Afterlight is his third novel published by World Editions.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. The publisher stated “Robben creates characters that touch his readers so deeply that they emerge a different person. When Frieda screams for her newborn baby in the hospital ward, I became her. Every mother, every human who has ever loved, will feel Frieda’s pain and never forget it.” Do you agree? Did you feel similarly?

2. We meet Frieda both as a young, naive girl and an old lady at the end of her life. How has Frieda’s character developed? Could you relate to Frieda? Which Frieda were you more drawn to?

3. How did you feel about the relationship between Frieda and her son Tobias?

4. Afterlight is inspired by the very real experience of many unwed Catholic mothers between the 1950s and the 1980s whose stillborn, unbaptized babies were taken away at birth and buried in secret. While set in the Netherlands, this experience was shared by many mothers around the world. Do you know of similar stories in your home country?

5. Jaap Robben says that the enormity of the grief and injustice inflicted on these mothers never left him. How do you think these mothers lived with such grief?

6. Frieda suffers the loss of her stillborn child in silence for decades. Many mothers with a similar fate chose to never speak about it. Do you understand the reasons behind the silence? Do you think that women today still often suffer in silence when it comes to topics such as pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, infertility, adoption, stillbirth? In which ways has the situation improved for women since the mid- to late nineties, in which ways has it stayed the same?

7. Jaap Robben writes about a mother’s grief, a very female experience, as a man. Do you think he captured it in the right way?

8. Does Frieda in her eighties remind you of your own (grand)parents, or elderly relatives, who have given you glimpses into their younger lives?

BEFORE I LET GO

Kennedy Ryan

Their love was supposed to last forever. But when life delivered blow after devastating blow, Yasmen and Josiah Wade found that love alone couldn’t solve or save everything.

It couldn’t save their marriage.

Yasmen wasn’t prepared for how her life fell apart, but she’s is finally starting to find joy again. She and Josiah have found a new rhythm, co-parenting their two kids and running a thriving business together. Yet like magnets, they’re always drawn back to each other.

Soon, one stolen kiss leads to another…and then more. It’s hot. It’s illicit. It’s all good—until old wounds reopen. Could they even be better, the second time around?

Award-winning and bestselling “powerhouse” author Kennedy Ryan is at her absolute best in this compelling, scorching novel about hope and healing, and what it truly means to love for a lifetime (USA Today).

“Yasmen and Josiah’s story is emotional, raw, real, grown-up... Kennedy Ryan has gifted us with yet another addictively delicious read.” — Tia Williams, New York Times bestselling author

“Kennedy Ryan pours her whole soul into everything she writes, and it makes for books that are heart-searing, sensual, and life affirming. We are lucky to be living in a world where she writes.” — Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Kennedy Ryan writes for women from all walks of life, empowering them and placing them firmly at the center of each story and in charge of their own destinies. Kennedy and her writings have been featured in NPR, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, Glamour, Cosmo, Ebony, TIME, and many others. The audio edition of her novel Reel received the prestigious Audie®Award, and her Skyland series is currently in development for television at Peacock. The co-founder of LIFT 4 Autism, an annual charitable book auction, Kennedy has a passion for raising Autism awareness. Dubbed “Queen of Hugs” by her readers, she is a wife to her “lifetime lover,” and mother to an extraordinary son.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. In the prologue, we see Josiah and Yasmen young and in love. Later in the book, we get a very different view of their marriage soon after Byrd and Henry have died. And then we see several years post-divorce. Compare and contrast their relationship dynamics in each stage. Who were they then versus who they are now?

2. Details of the two catastrophic losses and Yasmen’s subsequent depression unfold over the course of the first few chapters. What emotions did you feel as it became clearer what had happened and how Yasmen had responded?

3. What were your first impressions of Yasmen’s two closest friends, Soledad and Hendrix? How did they help with Yasmen’s recovery? How are the women alike, and in what ways are they different?

4. How did reading Josiah’s point of view affect your impression of him after the opening chapters of the book from Yasmen?

5. Therapy plays a huge role in the book, and there is a lot of discussion about grief and depression. In some circles, therapy is still stigmatized. How did therapy and perceptions about therapy impact the characters and story? Did it change your views in any way? What were some of the things the story asked you to consider about grief and depression?

6. Did you see any ways in which Yasmen and Deja’s relationship was reflected through Yasmen and Carole’s? How do mothers and daughters influence each other? And how about Aunt Byrd’s role? In what ways do people live on through others?

7. Were Josiah’s initial fear and skepticism when Yasmen asked him to come home justified? How did they make you feel?

8. Before I Let Go is a romance, but also leans into elements of women’s fiction and empowerment. What were some of the elements that highlighted the unique challenges women sometimes face and the various choices the women in this story make? Was there one woman’s journey you identified with most?

THE BERRY PICKERS

Amanda Peters

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize Winner

Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a mystery that will haunt the survivors, unravel a family, and remain unsolved for nearly fifty years

"A stunning debut about love, race, brutality, and the balm of forgiveness."—People, A Best New Book

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Amanda Peters is a writer of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry. Her novel The Berry Pickers is the Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Fiction, the 2023 Barnes & Noble Discovery Prize Winner, was shortlisted for the Barnes & Noble Book of the Year and shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Fiction Award from the Writers Trust of Canada. Amanda is a graduate of the MFA Program at IAIA in Santa Fe.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Amanda Peters has said that the opening line “The day Ruthie went missing, the blackflies seemed to be especially hungry” came to her, and the rest of the book followed. How did this line set the scene? What expectations did it give you for the story, and were those fulfilled?

2. When did you figure out the relationship between the two storylines, and how did it make you feel?

3. Have you ever discovered a family secret? How did it change your relationship with the people around you?

4. Did you prefer Joe’s voice, Norma’s, or the combination? Were there other characters you wished could give their point of view?

5. After Ruthie goes missing, what do you think keeps the remaining family members bound together? What do you think pulls them apart?

6. How does Ruthie’s disappearance echo tragedies and atrocities in the broader history of Indigenous peoples? Have you learned more since reading the book?

7. How does Norma’s feeling of being stuck between worlds come out in the story? In what ways might other characters feel a sense of duality or out of placeness?

8. Why do you think art-making becomes so important in the story? Are there other themes that jump out at you about making a meaningful life after loss?

9. In the end, why do you think Norma’s mother did the very drastic thing she did?

10. You might say this story is ultimately about forgiveness. Are you able to find all the major characters redeemable in some way, or are there any you cannot forgive?

11. If you were going to write a novel based on stories of family history your parents told you, as Amanda Peters has here, where would it be set and what might it be about?

COLEMAN HILL

Kim Coleman Foote

Longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction

Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

Shortlisted for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Debut Author

A Washington Post Noteworthy Book for September

A Good Morning America Spectacular Book of the Month

A Christian Science Monitor Good Summer Reading Pick

A The Root Books By Black Authors We Can’t Wait to Read

A The Millions Most Anticipated Book

A Tertulia Best Indie Publisher Book of 2023

A Debutiful Debut Books to Read in September

A Chicago Tribune Top Pick for Reading Season

A Boston Herald Top Pick for Fall 2023

Coleman Hill is the exhilarating story of two American families whose fates become intertwined in the wake of the Great Migration. Braiding fact and fiction, it is a remarkable, character-rich tour de force exploring the ties that bind three generations.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kim Coleman Foote was born and raised in New Jersey, where she started writing fiction at the age of seven(ish). A recent fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, she has received additional fellowships from the NEA, NYFA, Bread Loaf, Phillips Exeter Academy, Center for Fiction, and Fulbright, and residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, and Hedgebrook, among others. Her fiction and essays have appeared in The Best American Short Stories 2022, The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, the Missouri Review, The Literary Review, Kweli, and Obsidian. Coleman Hill is her first book.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. The author has called the book “a biomythography” —a word coined by the late great writer Audre Lorde —because it combines the author’s own family history with fiction. Why do you think the author chose to define her novel this way? What effect did it have on the reading experience?

2. Coleman Hill is written in the first, second, and third point of view at different points. How did the alternating point of views impact your connection to the characters? How did the author’s writing style contribute to your reading experience?

3. Which character did you sympathize with the most? Who did you have the most trouble with? Why?

4. In the book, different characters have different interpretations of pivotal events that have happened in the family. Why do you think this is done? What do you think it says about the way memory informs our understanding of ourselves and the world around us?

5. Which photograph or artifact in the book intrigued you the most and why?

6. The characters perceive their own and others’ skin color, hair, weight, and other physical attributes in both positive and negative ways. How are their beauty standards impacted by mainstream culture and Hollywood movies?

7. In the book, women are expected to marry young, boys and men are expected to hold back tears, and children are expected to be quiet around adults. How do these and other expectations shape the characters’ lives? Which of these expectations are still prevalent today?

8. Explore the theme of generational trauma. What behavioral patterns are passed down in the book? How do they affect the younger generations?

9. The novel’s epigraphs are from Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming and Elizabeth Strout’s My Name Is Lucy Barton. Talk about why the author might have chosen these two passages and how they relate to Coleman Hill.

EMILY FOREVER

Maria Navarro Skaranger / Martin Aitken (translator)

The instant New York Times bestseller!

In this novel about poverty, social inequality, and class contempt in Norway, nineteen-year-old supermarket worker Emily is single, pregnant, and struggling to make ends meet.

Her boyfriend Pablo has gone out “to take care of something” and hasn’t returned. Her mother, who raised Emily alone, moves into the little apartment to help. Meanwhile, Em’s neighbour, who may or may not be a clergyman, wonders if it’s normal to be so infatuated with someone you’ve never spoken to. Em’s boss at the supermarket might have feelings for her too, if only she’d notice. Emily Forever is a poignant, hard-hitting book about class and a deeply original exploration of how a girl like Emily is seen from the outside and judged by those around her. Empathetic and quizzical, Emily Forever is a novel of unyielding solidarity and smoldering social dissent, by a new star of Scandinavian literature.

"Emily Forever by Maria Navarro Skaranger, translated by Martin Aitken, is a beautiful and particular coming-of-age novel about a pregnant young woman who lives in a world of her own." — Jennifer Croft, 5 Must-Read Books by Women in Translation

"Emily Forever presents its young, pregnant, working-class protagonist through a kaleidoscope. The sharpness of the details describing Emily’s changing life are softly satirical—and her dulled responses leave her something of an enigma. A quietly rebellious novel that sees Emily through the lens of others, the 19-year-old expectant mother refuses to grasp for something to make meaning of her life, stubbornly defying societal expectations." —Electric Literature

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Maria Navarro Skaranger was born in 1994 in Oslo and made her debut in 2015 with Alle utlendinger har lukka gardiner(All Foreigners Keep Their Curtains Closed). Her acclaimed second novel, Bok om sorg (Book of Grief), was awarded the Oslo Prize and the EU Prize for Literature. Skaranger won the Missing Voice Prize 2022 for her latest novel, Emily Forever, her international breakthrough.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Emily’s character is described as lost, confused, and passive. What did you feel toward Emily? Did she frustrate you? Could you sympathize with her?

2. What would you say the dominating atmosphere of this novel is? Did you find it heartwarming, tragic, hopeless, all of the above? Why?

3. Did you find it to be bleak, even shocking? If so, what purpose do you think this could serve?

4. Do you feel like the novel was trying to effect a change in you? How so, and what kind of change?

5. Has reading Emily Forever made you look differently at people you have encountered in the street?

6. The narrator in the novel is omniscient and the narrative perspective changes frequently. Did this help you get a complete picture of Emily? Or did it keep you at a distance from her? Did you perhaps empathize more with the other characters?

7. Which of the supporting characters do you find most relatable or interesting? Who would you like to know more about?

8. Emily Forever deals with class, social inequality, and poverty in Norway. Did the portrayal of these topics feel specifically Norwegian to you? Or were you rather struck by their universality?

9. Lives like Emily’s are rarely portrayed in language and literature. Have you read books similar to Emily Forever, or did it feel like the first time you were granted access to this underrepresented experience?

10. How would you describe the relationship between Emily and her mother? Were there specific scenes in the book that defined their relationship for you?

11. What do you imagine Emily’s future to look like? Do you worry about her baby? Do you think Emily might be able to turn her life around, and does she need to? Do you see her mother’s and her own fate being repeated in her child and passed on for generations to come?

JELLYFISH HAVE NO EARS

Adèle Rosenfeld, Jeffrey Zuckerman (Translator)

A deeply moving debut novel about the flaws of language, the fear of silence, and the power of imagination.

Since she was little, Louise has been not quite hearing and not quite deaf—her life with this invisible disability has been one of in-betweenness. After an audiology test shows that almost all her hearing is gone, her doctor suggests getting a cochlear implant. The operation will be irreversible, making the decision all the more fraught. The technology would give Louise a new sense of hearing—but it would be at the expense of her natural hearing, which, for all its weakness, has shaped her unique relationship with the world, full of whispers and shadows.

Hearing, for Louise, is inseparable from reading other people’s lips. Through sight, she perceives words and strings them together like pearls to reconstruct a conversation. But when the string breaks, misunderstandings result and eccentric images fill her thoughts. As she weighs the prospect of surgery, fabulous characters begin to accompany her: a damaged soldier from the First World War, an irritable dog named Cirrus, and a whimsical botanist. This ethereal world, full of terror and beauty and off-kilter humor, keeps erupting into the equally chaotic reality of Louise’s life as she experiences a new relationship, suffers through her first job, and steadies herself with friends.

With Jellyfish Have No Ears, Adèle Rosenfeld shines an extraordinary light on the black hole of losing a sense and on the vibrancy that can arise to fill the void.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adèle Rosenfeld lives in Paris where she runs writing workshops. Jellyfish Have No Ears was a finalist for the 2023 Prix Goncourt for a first novel.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. How does Adèle Rosenfeld introduce the reader to Louise’s experience of the world? Which senses and details are evoked first?

2. On page 71, Louise hears mention of “treed camels,” “greedsome elks” and “creeked-up pelts.” How do these half-heard, echoing images affect Louise’s experience of the world? How do they shape the experience of reading Jellyfish Have No Ears?

3. With her partial hearing loss, Louise occupies a kind of in-between space between the hearing world and the Deaf community. What are your own experiences within or related to these communities? How did reading the novel interact with or change your understanding of what it means to be deaf or hearing?

4. Various structures for understanding the world (archives, Louise’s “sound herbarium,” even mathematical formulas) recur throughout the novel. Are certain examples of these structures more or less effective for Louise?

5. How are Louise’s relationships with surreal figures (the soldier, the dog, the botanist) important to the novel? Do you see these figures as being imagined or hallucinated or something else?

6. Along with the recurring presence of the soldier, what are the other threads that connect Louise’s life to World War I, and how are they significant?

7. On page 58 Louise states, “Only reading, only the ink-black words intact in my hands, could assuage the dread of disappearing.” What are some of the surprising ways language serves to anchor Louise and keep her connected to others?

8. Now that you’ve finished the novel, which descriptions of sense experiences stand out most in your mind? How did the novel change your own perception of hearing and your other senses?

9. On page 78, Louise states simply, “Sometimes, not being able to hear well made me hypermnesic,” a state of unusually heightened and precise memory or recall. Along with memory, are there other examples of heightened senses or modes of cognition? How does Jellyfish Have No Ears as a whole embody this kind of enhancement, rather than diminishment?

THE LIBERATORS

E. J. Koh

Winner of the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award

Daejeon, South Korea. 1980.

At twenty-four, Insuk falls in love with her college classmate, Sungho, and with her father’s blessing, they marry. But then, as the military dictatorship, martial law, and nationwide protests bring the country precariously to the edge, Insuk’s father disappears.

In the wake of his disappearance, Insuk flees to California with Sungho, their son Henry, and Sungho’s overbearing mother. Adrift in a new country, Insuk grieves the loss of her past and divided homeland, only to find herself drawn into an illicit affair that sets into motion dramatic events that will echo for generations to come.

Spanning two continents and four generations, E. J. Koh’s debut novel exquisitely captures two Korean families forever changed by fateful decisions made in love and war. Extraordinarily beautiful and deeply moving, The Liberators is an elegantly wrought family saga of memory, trauma, and empathy, and a stunning testament to the consequences and fortunes of inheritance.

"Spare, beautiful and richly layered, The Liberators is dazzling.” — Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

“A piercing, patient debut by one of our finest chroniclers of American han. You won’t know what hit you until the final, perfect image.” — Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: E. J. Koh is the author of The Magical Language of Others, which won a Washington State Book Award, Pacific Northwest Book Award, and Association for Asian American Studies Book Award, and was longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award. Koh is also the author of the poetry collection A Lesser Love, a Pleiades Press Editors Prize for Poetry winner. Koh’s work has appeared in AGNI, the Atlantic, Boston Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Poetry, Slate, World Literature Today, and elsewhere. Koh earned her MFA at Columbia University and her PhD at the University of Washington, and has received National Endowment for the Arts and MacDowell fellowships. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. “By an early age, I could read and write in six languages. I found a tool—an ink brush, a twig, or my stub finger—and used it to draw a character on parchment, dirt, or air.” How does language carry on through the rest of the novel—through different language but also through poetry and translation and imagery? What is the language of the characters and the language of the story?

2. “I classed rock, plant, animal, man, and God. I observed a patch of weeds and then myself in the mirror to see the differences between plant and man. Between them was a middle point, or animal. I asked what stood between man and God.” In what ways do hierarchies impact the relationship between ourselves and the world? In what ways do hierarchies oppress relationships between nations, within society and family?

3. “I realized the wall was never there to begin with. There was never a wall.” One of the themes of The Liberators is borders—real and imaginary. In what ways do the relationships between and within characters affected by borders? In what ways do borders come down, and in what ways do they persist?

4. “It’s a little like killing chickens.” What are the forces that bring Insuk and Huran together, what are the forces that drive them apart? What are the similarities and dissimilarities in their beliefs about motherhood or being a mother-in-law—and how are these women tyrannized from within and without?

5. The Liberators often brings up historical and intergenerational trauma and a legacy of colonialization—how are different countries connected by their pasts? Where do recurrent traumas appear in each subsequent generation? What events in global history come to mind for you?

6. Sungho differentiates personal memory and state memory through community grieving and public memorials. How does memory change over time, and in what ways can it be affected by personal and state memory? For the Gwangju Massacre, the Ukishima Maru, and the Sewol Ferry accident, what are the testimonies of the guards and the prisoners, the perpetrators and liberators?

LIKE THE APPEARANCE OF HORSES

Andrew Krivak

Indie Next List for Reading Groups

Rooted in the small, mountain town of Dardan, Pennsylvania, where patriarch Jozef Vinich settled after surviving World War I, Like the Appearance of Horses immerses us in the intimate lives of a family whose fierce bonds have been shaped by the great conflicts of the past century. In spare, breathtaking prose, Andrew Krivak delivers a deeply compassionate story about three generations who built a new life in America, fought in the Romani resistance during World War II, suffered in Vietnamese POW camps, watched their children deploy to Iraq, and did everything they could to heal the wounds of war after the fighting was over.

“[A] resplendent multigenerational family saga.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Subtle and nuanced." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Intensely readable." —Library Journal (starred review)

"Andrew Krivak charts a razor-fine line between war and peace, damnation and redemption, estrangement and love, and along the way gives us a gorgeously detailed portrait of an American family. Whether he’s writing about battle, the natural world, or the most private, searing matters of the heart, Krivak brings a rare mastery to the page, a synthesis of language and deep perception that delivers revelation after revelation. Like the Appearance of Horses is a major achievement." — Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Andrew Krivak is an award-winning novelist whose books include The Bear, an NEA Big Read and LibraryReads selection, as well as the freestanding novels of the Dardan Trilogy: The Sojourn, a National Book Award finalist and winner of both the Chautauqua Prize and Dayton Literary Peace Prize; The Signal Flame, a Chautauqua Prize finalist; and Like the Appearance of Horses, a Library Journal “Best Book of the Year.” He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, and Jaffrey, New Hampshire.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Like the Appearance of Horses is largely a story told in peacetime about the reverberating effects of war within a family. It takes place over decades but is related nonchronologically. How do the family’s stories crisscross over time to tell larger truths about war and homecoming, love and human connection?

2. The novel is as much about the women who stay at home as the men who go to war. How are the men’s experiences in war similar or different? What about their homecomings? What personal battles must the men and women fight during their separation, and—after the men return—how is the gulf of understanding between them bridged?

3. Duty and honor are constant themes threaded throughout the novel. Using the character genealogy from the back of the book as a reference, how do each of the men and women perceive their duties to family and country? Do any of them fail in their duty? Which of their actions would you describe as honorable or dishonorable?

4. How do each of the characters learn to cope with tragedy? And, as they grapple with illness, addiction, and grief, how do they each find fortitude?

5. Many of the characters have a deep connection with the Pennsylvania mountains and the land around it. How does their connection with nature help heal the wounds of war?

6. Did you understand why Samuel, who had been held prisoner in Vietnam, left Dardan? What did he find as he traveled across the American Southwest? What other journeys are integral to the story?

7. How do the generations within this family pass down lessons about the responsibilities and costs of war? Does the novel impart the message that there is hope for peace and healing?

8. Although this is a freestanding novel that contains its own complete narrative, it is also the culminating book in a trilogy. What does Krivak’s saga add to the modern canon of war literature? And do you believe the story of this family has now been fully told?

MEASURE OF DEVOTION

Nell Joslin

This richly conceived novel explores a mother’s direct experience in the American Civil War. In October 1863, Susannah Shelburne, 36, is living in South Carolina with her husband, Jacob. Their son Francis is a Confederate soldier, a choice which caused great familial conflict, as both parents oppose the Southern cause. When he is wounded near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Susannah sets out alone to bring him home.

She finds Francis delirious with trauma and pain. But soon mother and son are caught up in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and Francis becomes a prisoner of war. Amid hardship and unspeakable violence, Susannah stakes everything in the effort to return with him to South Carolina. Yet horrific news from home and intensifying friction between Susannah and her son bring her to a vortex of perilous and impossible choices

“Nell Joslin’s accomplished debut novel explores the loss and destruction of war; through her protagonist, Susannah, the reader witnesses the moral depths of what unites and holds people together as well as what tears them apart." — Jill McCorkle, New York Times best-selling author

"A female-centered Cold Mountain, Measure of Devotion chronicles a woman's excruciating journey to save her son…. Brilliantly conceived, exquisitely written.” — Elaine Neil Orr, author of Swimming Between Worlds

“This Civil War-era novel is a richly textured, heartfelt portrait of a mother on a mission. It will leave you with a greater understanding of the issues that divided our country, resulting in profound loss on both sides. Honest and affecting.” — Susan Rivers, author of The Second Mrs. Hockaday

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nell Joslin is a native of Raleigh, North Carolina. She has published short fiction in literary journals, as well as numerous feature stories and art reviews in Raleigh’s News & Observer. Measure of Devotion is her debut novel. She currently lives in Raleigh.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Jacob is an incredibly sympathetic character in the novel. Why do you think that Susannah regarded him as she did?

2. Why do you think that the author chose to give Susannah a mixed-race heritage?

3. We know little about Letty’s previous life. What sort of background do you envision that Letty had?

4. What role do you think that Francis’s wartime episode with the young mother and her cow played in his mental health?

5. What part did the landscape play in both the events of the story and the development of the characters?

6. What common experiences were behind the attraction between Susannah and Dr. Andreas?

7. Do you think that Dr. Andreas made a good decision when he revealed to Susannah what he knew about her experience at General Thomas’s headquarters?

8. Do you think that there was a viable way that Susannah could have extricated Francis besides the way that she attempted?

9. What part did Susannah’s journey through the American heartland (near the end of the novel) play in her ability (or not) to accept all that had happened to her.

10. What role does Letty play in Susannah’s attempt to claim personal power?

THE MINIATURIST'S ASSISTANT

Katherine Scott Crawford

When an art conservationist in historic Charleston unearths a familiar face in a 200-year-old miniature portrait and realizes she’s lived more than one life, she must fight to stay true to herself as she races to reconcile her complicated past, solve an art mystery, and save the people she loves across two different lifetimes. A romantic and brainy timeslip novel sure to appeal to fans of Diana Gabaldon and Deborah Harkness, The Miniaturist’s Assistant explores the mystery of time, how our choices ripple throughout history, and what it means to be a fully realized woman—in any century.

"From the moment museum conservator Gamble Vance recognizes a familiar face in a 200-year-old miniature portrait, I was swept away in this immersive time-slip story. Crawford deftly weaves this art historical mystery with intertwined love stories spanning generations. Readers will turn the pages to see where Gamble's complicated choices ultimately lead her." — Laura Morelli, author of The Last Masterpiece

"To read The Miniaturist’s Assistant is to be wooed by the intelligent and humorous voice of Gamble Vance. Gamble takes you on a journey through Charleston, South Carolina, passing in and out of the 21st and 19th centuries to reckon with a ghost, or is it a ghost? Crawford illustrates the worlds of time and place with a pen so clearly shaped like a paintbrush you will feel you have crawled inside the book, or is it an 1804 miniature?" — Amy Wallen, author of How to Write a Novel in 20 Pies: Sweet & Savory Secrets of the Writing Life

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Katherine Scott Crawford is the award-winning author of The Miniaturist’s Assistant and Keowee Valley. A former backpacking guide, newspaper columnist, and recovering academic, she’d rather be in the woods with her dog than anywhere else. An eleventh-generation Southerner, she lives with her family in the North Carolina mountains.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Would you travel into the dangerous past in order to potentially save a life?

2. Does Gamble make the right decision in leaving 1804 (and Daniel) and returning to 2004 (and Tolliver)? Why or why not?

3. What did you think about Gamble’s job as an art conservator? Do you feel you know more about art conservation and restoration as a result of this novel?

4. How do miniature portraits relate to the themes of the novel? What role do they play in the propulsion of the plot?

5. What are some of the many complicated choices Gamble has to make in the novel? How do you feel about her choices?

ONE BLOOD

Denene Millner

The MacDowell Fellowship and New York Times bestselling author, Denene Millner makes her solo fiction debut with this intimate yet sweeping novel that encompasses the poetic brilliance and power of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi and The Mothers by Brit Bennett—that chronicles the journey of three generations of women through motherhood, sisterhood, love, hope, dreams, and the secrets they dare to keep…even from themselves.

"In delicious, decadent prose, Denene Millner does what few authors can— compose a sprawling multigenerational tale that is necessary American reading. A masterpiece.” — Tara M. Stringfellow, national bestselling author of Memphis

"I was left thinking about these women and how their lives were eternally linked, long after I finished this amazing novel." — New York Times bestselling author Victoria Christopher Murray

"Denene Millner is a masterful weaver of words, characters, and worlds. One Blood is a beautiful, brilliant American epic that speaks to Black motherhood, female relationship, marriage, family, legacy, love and healing." — Tarana Burke, New York Times bestselling author of Unbound: My Story of Liberation

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Denene Millner is a six-time New York Timesbestselling author, Emmy Award-nominated TV show host and award-winning journalist who has written thirty-one books, among them Taraji P. Henson’s Around the Way Girl and the picture book Early Sunday Morning. Millner is also the editorial director of Denene Millner Books, an award-winning imprint that has published two Caldecott Honor books, a Newbery Honor Book, a Kirkus Prize for Children’s Literature winner, and a Southern Book Award winner. A MacDowell Fellow, Millner has written essays for the New York Times, Glamour and NPR, which hosted her critically-acclaimed podcast, Speakeasy with Denene. Millner is a graduate of Hofstra University. She lives in Atlanta with her two daughters and their goldendoodle, Franklin.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Maw Maw is a midwife and healer in the town of Rose—a needed commodity in a rural community where health resources are scarce. Why is she only tolerated by the people who need her help?

2. What is your initial impression of Bassey through the lens of Maw Maw, the church community, and through hearing Bassey’s own voice? What is your understanding of her ambitions, and what role did they play in her ultimate tragedy?

3. Grace loses her ability to see into the future and connect with the dead when her physical bond with Maw Maw is broken. Why do you think it went away? Why do you think she was able to get it back while in labor?

4. LoLo experienced significant hardships throughout her adolescence, including her father's abandonment, the stern brutality of The Mothers, and the physical and emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of her cousins. How does her upbringing affect her as a parent? Does she think she’s a good mother? Do you?

5. Though she is angry at her father for cheating on her mother, Rae does the same thing—runs to the arms of another man when her relationship issues with Roman become insurmountably difficult. Is there a difference between her affair and that of her father’s? Does Rae’s affair help or harm her?

6. In her most desperate moment, LoLo tried to die by suicide—laying down in the creek water in her back yard. Years later, Rae visited that same creek in a dream, and was instructed to walk across the water. What role does water play in One Blood, and what is its significance for LoLo, Rae, and Grace?

7. Maw Maw says that “being scared of blood is like being scared of yo’self.” What do you think she means by this? Can one come to know oneself outside of their own “blood”?

RABBIT HOLE

Kate Brody

Rabbit Hole is a page-turning debut mystery as addictive as a late-night Reddit binge about a grieving woman obsessed with solving her sister’s cold-case disappearance via the true crime fandom perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, My Favorite Murder, and Fleabag.

Ten years ago, Theodora “Teddy” Angstrom’s older sister, Angie, went missing. Her case remains unsolved. Now Teddy’s father, Mark, has killed himself. Unbeknownst to Mark’s family, he had been active in a Reddit community fixated on Angie, and Teddy can’t help but fall down the same rabbit hole.

Teddy’s investigation quickly gets her in hot water with her gun-nut boyfriend, her long-lost half brother, and her colleagues at the prestigious high school where she teaches English. Further complicating matters is Teddy’s growing obsession with Mickey, a charming amateur sleuth who is eerily keen on helping her solve the case.

Bewitched by Mickey, Teddy begins to lose her moral compass. As she struggles to reconcile new information with old memories, her erratic behavior reaches a fever pitch, but she won’t stop until she finds Angie— or destroys herself in the process.

“In this smart, chilling page-turner, a high school English teacher obsessed with her older sister's long-ago disappearance gets caught up in Reddit conspiracy theories.” —People Magazine

“A compelling study of grief, betrayal, the slippery nature of memory and our complicated relationship with other people’s tragedies.” —The Guardian

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kate Brody lives in Los Angeles, California. Her work has previously appeared in Lit Hub and The Literary Review, among other publications. She holds an MFA from NYU. Rabbit Hole is her debut

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. How unreliable is Teddy’s point of view? For instance, do you think that Mickey actually looks like Angie or is Teddy’s grief distorting her perspective?

2. What is at the core of Teddy’s attraction to Mickey?

3. How does Teddy’s gender affect her experience IRL vs. online? Does one affect the other? Can your online life bleed into reality?

4. What does Wolfie’s death represent for Teddy?

5. How do Clare and Teddy’s different backgrounds affect the way they grieve for Mark and Angie?

6. Do you think that Teddy will ever leave home? Is she capable of reinventing herself somewhere else?

7. Throughout the book, Teddy talks about not wanting children. When she goes back to Bill at the end, she imagines getting pregnant. What has changed? Why would she want that now?

8. How do Teddy’s experiences online affect her sanity? How do they square with your own experience of the internet?

9. The book is set in 2015. Have things changed online? How do stories like Angie’s get consumed for public entertainment? Can you think of any real life examples?

10. Angie was not popular in life. By all accounts, she was not particularly attractive, smart or warm. Why does such a large following crop up in light of her disappearance? How does her absence flatten her and make her easier to love?

RICKY AND OTHER LOVE STORIES

Whitney Collins

From Whitney Collins, the award-winning author of Big Bad, arrives a new collection of dark, derelict, and hilarious tales about love. Among the wacky, tacky, lovesick, and lovelorn characters are: Ilona, the misanthropic mother and unhappy fiancé who is increasingly transfixed by a rash of local shark attacks; Imogen, the sperm bank client who cultivates the love she madly desires inside herself; and Aurora Flood, the coma survivor on a mission to plant a sacred seed from the Olive Garden. Blending elements of southern gothic, speculative fiction, and horror, Ricky & Other Love Stories is political and personal, bitter and sweet: ultimately, a lot like love.

“Rippling with lusty eccentrics and village witches and any number of go-for-broke schemers, Ricky & Other Love Stories is the kind of wickedly funny book that, whenever you throw your head back in laughter, drops a fierce capsule of truth into the pink of your throat.” — Karen Tucker

“If you prefer your love stories shaken, stirred, or dashed upon the rocks,Ricky & Other Love Stories is for you.” — Jen Fawkes

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Whitney Collins is the author of Big Bad, which won the 2019 Mary McCarthy Prize, a 2022 Gold IPPY, and a 2021 Bronze INDIES. Whitney earned a Distinguished Story by The Best American Short Stories 2022. She also won a 2020 Pushcart Prize, a 2020 Pushcart Special Mention, the 2020 American Short(er) Fiction Prize, and the 2021 ProForma Contest. Her stories have appeared in American Short Fiction, AGNI, The Idaho Review, Gulf Coast, The Pinch, Grist, The Best Small Fictions 2022, Tiny Nightmares: Very Short Tales of Horror (Catapult), and Fractured Literary Anthology 3, among others. She received her MFA from the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing and lives in Kentucky with her sons.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Are these stories pro- or anti-love? Which one is the most romantic? The most cynical?

2. In the story "Yardstick," what do you think the boy will turn out like as an adult in a relationship?

3. Is "Meet the Joneses" a specifically 'American' story?

4. Do you think the marriage in the story "Red Flags" stands a chance?

5. In the surrealistic/horror story "The Owner," what do you think the ladybug represents?

6. In "The Exhibition," is the artist predatory or endearing?

7. Which woman comes across as stronger: Ursula in "Rocks 4 Sale" or Minerva in "I'm Your Venus"?

8. What are people really hoping for at the ham depot in "Ricky"? Is it a metaphor for life? Love?

9. What drives the boys apart in "Cray"?

10. If you could be a character in any of the stories, who would you choose to be?

THE SEED KEEPER

Diane Wilson

Minnesota Book Award Winner, Book Riot and Ms. Magazine Best Book of the Year

A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakota family’s struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most.

Rosalie Iron Wing grew up in the woods with her father until one morning he didn't return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to foster care—where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they’ve inherited.

Many years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. A widow and mother, she has spent the previous two decades on her white husband’s farm, finding solace in her garden. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past with a search for belonging. She learns what it means to be descended from women with souls of iron—women who have protected their families, traditions, and a precious cache of seeds through generations of hardship and loss.

Weaving together the voices of four indelible women, this is a story of reawakening, of remembering our original relationship to the seeds and, through them, to our ancestors.

"In chapters that shift among the perspectives of four Dakhóta women [. . .] Wilson tracks Rosalie’s attempts to understand her family and her roots, and considers how memory cultivates a sense of connection to the land." —The New Yorker

“A moving multi-generational story about the destruction of Native American families, communities and lands—but also about reconnection, hope and the natural world” —TODAY Show

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Diane Wilson (Dakota) is the author of The Seed Keeper, as well as a memoir, Spirit Car, and a nonfiction book, Beloved Child. She is the former executive director for the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance. She is a Mdewakanton descendent, enrolled on the Rosebud Reservation, and lives in Shafer, Minnesota.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Consider the way the various timelines and characters are tied together in the conclusion. How can you use these interwoven stories to reflect on intergenerational trauma and the role the past plays in the present and future, particularly in Indigenous communities?

2. This story was inspired by the true story of Dakhóta women hiding seeds in their skirts while being forcibly removed from their homelands, Diane notes that they are “the reason why we have Dakhóta corn today” (364). What does this suggest about the nature of sacrifice?

3. Rosalie and Ida’s friendship is a reminder that while we inherit a past legacy from those who come before us, we each get to choose the way we allow that legacy to influence our lives. What lessons on reconciliation, with others and with the earth, can be gleaned from this relationship?

4. The closing epigraph of this book is a prayer: “Love the seeds as you love your children, and the people will survive. Waékiye.” (361) Consider this prayer and Rosalie’s connection with her son. What might the significance of this parallel between Wakpa/Tommy and the seeds be? What do you think happens after the novel ends, and how might the seeds act as a bridge for him to find his way back to his own Dakhóta heritage?

5. The Seed Keeper grapples directly with themes of environmental degradation, specifically at the hands of corporate agriculture. This industry impacts the entire community in which Rosalie and her family are living. What elements of this conflict struck you? What impacts are industries like this one having on communities today?

6. Rosalie and Gaby are frequently portrayed as opposites (“the mouth and the ears”). Compare and contrast their approaches to activism and their relationships to identity/community. What does their friendship tell us about the different roles we can play in social movements? What do you think they learn from each other?

A SONG OVER MISKWAA RAPIDS

Linda Legarde Grover

When a rock is dislodged from its slope by mischievous ancestors, the past rises to meet the present, and Half-Dime Hill gives up a gruesome secret it has kept for half a century. Some people of Mozhay Point have theories about what happened; others know— and the discovery stirs memories long buried, reviving a terrible story yet to be told. Returning to the fictional Ojibwe reservation in northern Minnesota she has so deftly mapped in her award-winning books, Linda LeGarde Grover reveals traumas old and new as Margie Robineau, in the midst of a fight to keep her family’s long-held allotment land, uncovers events connected to a long-ago escape plan across the Canadian border.

As the past returns to haunt those involved, Margie prepares her statement for the tribal government, defending her family’s land from a casino development and sorting the truths of Half-Dime Hill from the facts that remain there. Throughout the narrative, a chorus of spirit women gather in lawn chairs with coffee and cookies to reminisce, reflect, and speculate, spinning the threads of family, myth, history, and humor—much as Grover spins another tale of Mozhay Point, weaving together an intimate and complex novel of a place and its people.

“A sprawling, poignant chronicle of struggle and survivance.” —Kirkus Reviews

“In this intimate and suspenseful novel, Grover explores the complex evolving relationship between a place and the people who inhabit it.” —Electric Literature

“Grover writes with intentionality and grace as she examines ancestry, autonomy, and survivance.” —Ms. Magazine

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Linda LeGarde Grover is the award-winning author of fiction, including The Dance Boots, The Road Back to Sweetgrass, and In the Night of Memory; nonfiction, including Onigamiising and Gichigami Hearts; and poetry, including The Sky Watched. She is professor emerita of American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth and a member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. The book begins and ends at early mornings, when robins wake and are joined by women from the spirit world. In what ways do you think that the worlds of living and non-living, of human and non-human beings, intersect?

2. The old women of the spirit world observe and comment upon the rock-throwing techniques of Artense LaForce and her mother-in-law, Therese Gallette. The rock, if aimed properly, will set in motion a series of events that links past and present: if the target is missed, what might happen at Mozhay Point, and why would this be a concern to the spirit women?

3. The ancestral lands of the Mozhay Point Ojibwe people have undergone some physical changes over the time since the reservation was established. In what ways did those changes affect the lives of people living on the lands?

4. Margie Robineau, as a descendant of both the Washington and LaForce families, is making effort to maintain the Sweetgrass allotment lands as they have been. What are her reasons? Have you seen, or been part of, similar efforts in land issues? In what ways might Margie’s reasons and yours have similarities or differences?

5. Several of the relationships between characters can be thought of as triangular in shape: Michael, Theresa, and Margie; Dale Ann, Jack, and Eugene, for example. In what ways do you think that these relationships contributed to the development of the story?

6. Margie, Dale Ann, Theresa, and other Mozhay Pointers of their generation were recipients of community respect and consideration; at the same time, as elders they had particular obligations and duties. What obligations and duties did you find notable in the novel? Have you seen similar honors and expectations in other communities?

7. The histories and tangibles of land—for example, Mozhay Point in its entirety, the LaForce/Sweetgrass allotment, the Miskwaa River and the state park, and Half-Dime Hill—can be considered entities in themselves in this story. What are some of the ways in which the natural world interacts with living characters and with the characters in the spirit world?

SUCH A BAD INFLUENCE

Olivia Muenter

Hazel Davis is drifting: she’s stalled in her career, living in a city she hates, and less successful than her younger sister, @evelyn, a mega-popular lifestyle influencer. Evie came of age online, having gone viral at five-years-old for a heart-tugging daddy-daughter dance. Ten years older and spotlight-averse, Hazel managed to dodge the family YouTube channel—so although she can barely afford her apartment, at least she made her own way.

Evie is eighteen now, with a multimillion-dollar career and unlimited opportunities, but Hazel is still protective of her little sister and skeptical of the way everyone seems to want a piece of her: Evie’s followers, her YouTuber boyfriend and influencer frenemies, and their opportunistic mother. So when Evie disappears one day—during an unsettling live stream that cuts out midsentence—Hazel is horrified to have her worst instincts proven right.

As theories about Evie’s disappearance tear through the internet, inspiring hashtags, Reddit threads, podcast episodes, and scorn, Hazel throws herself into the darkest parts of her sister’s world to untangle the threads of truth. After all, Hazel knows Evie better than anyone else . . . doesn’t she?

A USA Today Best Seller

A Good Morning America Sizzling Summer Reads Roundup Pick

"A fascinating exploration of the dangers of social media . . . smart and timely." — Carola Lovering, author of Tell Me Lies and Bye, Baby

“Timely, riveting. . . . This story is as addictive as scrolling Instagram, and marks the launch of a talented new writer.” — Ashley Winstead, author of Midnight Is the Darkest Hour

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Olivia Muenter is a writer and co-host of Bad on Paper, a weekly podcast about books, life, and everything in between. Previously a Senior Fashion & Beauty Editor at Bustle.com, Olivia's work has appeared in Refinery 29, HuffPost, Glamour.com, Philadelphia Magazine, Byrdie, Apartment Therapy, and more. This is her first novel.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Such a Bad Influence explores the world of influencer and internet culture. What kinds of influencers do you follow, if any, and why?

2. Evie is widely beloved for being “real” online, but Hazel is surprised by some of the behind-the-scenes details she learns about how her sister curates her image. To what extent do you expect influencers to be transparent about their lives?

3. Though they’re sisters, Hazel and Evie live very different lives; Hazel is a millennial with student loan debt pursuing a more traditional career path, and Evie has grown up making money online as a Gen Z influencer. How do these experiences influence how they each see the world?

4. How is the viral daddy-daughter-dance video a turning point for the Davis family? Did you understand Erin’s decision to capitalize on it?

5. The book also discusses child stardom and the “sharenting” phenomenon. What is your perspective on influencers who include their children in their business? What about parents simply sharing aspects of their children’s lives on social media?

6. In your opinion, what kinds of legal and financial protection should be in place for children of influencers and kids who work as influencers themselves? How is this world similar and different from child actors working in TV and movies?

7. Our cultural obsession with true crime is integral to the plot of the book. Why do you think Evie’s case attracted so much attention and speculation?

8. How did the use of Reddit threads, podcast transcripts, and newsletters inform the story?

9. Would you consider Hazel to be a good sister to Evie? How did your perception of each of them and their relationship evolve throughout the story?

10. Hazel, Evie, and Erin Davis are all disillusioned by their careers in different ways, and each make choices to regain control over their futures. Whose choices do you understand most? Least?

11. How did you interpret the final scene? What do you imagine comes next for Evie and Hazel?

THERE BUT FOR GRACE

Anne Whitney Pierce

There but for Grace, a novel described by Margot Livesey as “a lovely, witty deeply absorbing novel,” chronicles one woman’s mission to challenge the stereotypes about “older” women. She does so with grace, wit, and a no-holds-barred feistiness that will engage readers of all ages. Fifty-three-year-old Grace Winthrop Hobbes is newly divorced with two college-age kids, an eccentric octogenarian mother, a stalled novel-in-progress, and a sex drive that is coming out of hibernation with a vengeance. Refusing to go gently into the dark night of abstinence and retreat, and tired of sexual double standards, Grace makes a vow to seize life’s bull by the horns. Her adventures begin with Fuzz, who likes to take notes after sex; with Dylan, a soulful computer genius in search of an “era”; Otis, a one-armed jogger raising a seven-year-old daughter with OCD; and a banker in Vermont who offers a new twist. However, Grace’s year of re-liberation doesnt go quite as planned. As her empty house slowly fills with quirky, unexpected “guests,” she gains new insights into friendship, intimacy, happiness, and the notion of home. There but for Grace is a funny, earnest look at the modern “family,” nuclear and extended — sometimes way overextended.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: With a quick wit and an open heart and mind, award-winning author Anne Whitney Pierce entertains while asking probing questions about gender identity, ageism, and the double standards applied to men and women in the dance between the sexes. Anne Whitney Pierce is the recipient of the Willa Cather Fiction Prize, the Nelson Algren Award, and a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award. The New York Times Book Review wrote of her work, “Demonstrating a keen ear for unpretentious voices, Pierce spins richly-populated yarns of divorce, abandonment, birth and love.”

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Grace came of age in the Sixties during an age of “free love” and the sexual liberation. What differences does she find, nearly half a century later, between the dating scene/genre stereotypes then and now?

2. They say some trends and attitudes skip a generation. How do Grace’s views on sex, dating and marriage differ from those of her children?

3. One night at the bar, Grace asks women to identify their first “feminist moments.” Their answers vary widely and might surprise you. Discuss some of your first feminist moments and why they were significant in your lives.

THE TREE DOCTOR

Marie Mutsuki Mockett

A startling, erotic novel about struggling for life when joy is shadowed by despair and disease.

When the unnamed narrator of Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s stirring second novel returns to Carmel, California, to care for her mother, she finds herself stranded at the outset of the disease. With her husband and children back in Hong Kong, and her Japanese mother steadily declining in a care facility two hours away, she becomes preoccupied with her mother’s garden—convinced it contains a kind of visual puzzle—and the dormant cherry tree within it.

Caught between tending to an unwell parent and the weight of obligation to her distant daughters and husband, she becomes isolated and unmoored. She soon starts a torrid affair with an arborist who is equally fascinated by her mother’s garden, and together they embark on reviving it. Increasingly engrossed by the garden, and by the awakening of her own body, she comes to see her mother's illness as part of a natural order in which things are perpetually living and dying, consuming and being consumed. All the while, she struggles to teach (remotely) Lady Murasaki’s eleventh-century novel, The Tale of Genji, which turns out to resonate eerily with the conditions of contemporary society in the grip of a pandemic.

The Tree Doctor is a powerful, beautifully written novel full of bodily pleasure, intense observation of nature, and a profound reckoning with the passage of time both within ourselves and in the world we inhabit.

"Mesmerizing . . . . The Tree Doctor explores one woman’s sexuality at a time of life rarely written about, during a time in history that we are only now beginning to process. A beautiful and evocative, necessary book." —Marcy Dermansky

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Marie Mutsuki Mockett is the author of a previous novel, Picking Bones from Ash, and two books of nonfiction, American Harvest, which won the Nebraska Book Award, and Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye, which was a finalist for the PEN Open Book Award.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. From the first pages of The Tree Doctor, the COVID-19 pandemic is a vivid presence. Why does the narrator refer to it as “the disease” without mentioning COVID specifically? What do you think she is trying to achieve with her depiction of that moment?

2. How does the disease affect her characters’ sense of time, place, and interpersonal connection? What is the importance of setting and landscape in the novel? Why are Carmel, and Northern California, significant?

3. What role does The Tale of Genji play in the book? Discuss the protagonist’s attitude toward the novel, as well as her students’ attitudes. Why does the author feel that it is newly relevant now? What does the protagonist conclude about the relation between beauty and death?

4. Some novelists are more explicit writing about sex than others. What is distinctive for you about Mockett’s depiction of sex, and why is being so graphic significant? An author focusing on a passionate love affair might choose to avoid both heavier topics (such as death) and less glamorous realities (such as urinary tract infections). How does this fuller picture inform the narrative?

5. The protagonist seems to be returning to her marriage at the end of the novel. Has the affair changed her? Does she regret it? Was it a real romance in the end or was it something else?

6. Discuss the book’s maternal figures. How does the protagonist’s relationship with her mother change over time? How is her relationship to her own daughters informed by her relationship to her ill mother? How does she view the relationship between motherhood and writing? Are there other figures who could be seen as “maternal” in the novel?

7. Two questions emerge on page 164: “What happened with trees that could not bloom? Did they feel this pressure, too?” Why does Mockett’s narrator want to compare trees and people here? What does nature teach the protagonist about people?

8. The narrator talks about a “volunteer” in the garden—a plant or tree that was not planted but that rather seeded itself. What significance does this concept have in The Tree Doctor?

9. How do the protagonist’s feelings about her mother’s neglected garden change by the end of the novel?

WEYWARD

Emilia Hart

I am a Weyward, and wild inside.

2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great-aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she suspects that her great-aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. When Altha was a girl, her mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence of witchcraft is laid out against Altha, she knows it will take all her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives—and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an astonishing debut, and an enthralling novel of female resilience.

"Weyward is a spellbinding story about what may transpire when the natural world collides with a legacy of witchcraft." — Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author

"A triumphant debut” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Emilia Hart is the author of Weyward and The Sirens. She grew up in Australia and studied English Literature at university before training as a lawyer. She now lives in London.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Consider the evolution of the name “Weyward” and the way women in this novel receive it. Why and how do the Weyward women grow to accept and proudly own this name? Why do you think more recent versions of Macbeth have replaced “Weyward” with “Weird”?

2. How does the knowledge of other Weyward women help Altha, Violet, and Kate heal when they need to? What role does nature play in healing these three Weyward women?

3. Consider the ways that witchcraft shapes all three narrative threads. Who does society deem to be a witch, and what are the factors that fuel that kind of accusation?

4. We learn that Kate “reread books she’d loved as a child” for the comfort of their familiarity (22). How did the themes from various works of Shakespeare, The Secret Garden, and Grimms’ Fairy Talesmake an impression on both Kate and Violet? Do you have a book that you’ve returned to over the years, and what about it makes you keep coming back? Can a familiar text also be read in new ways?

5. Why do you think Simon, Rupert, Frederick, and John Milburn feel the need to establish dominance over the women in their lives? How do Graham, Henry, and Adam Bainbridge differ from these men?

6. Compare and contrast how Kate, Violet, and Grace feel about their pregnancies, which were a product of toxic relationships. Do you think Kate’s decision to keep her baby was affected by what she learned about the earlier Weyward women?

7. This novel follows the lives of three different women in three different time periods. How did the movement between these perspectives affect your reading experience? In what other ways were these women linked, aside from their familial ties?

8. Did you connect with one character more than the others? If so, why? What do the parallels in their stories say about the female experience and/or the degree to which society’s treatment of women has evolved?

THE WOMAN IN THE SABLE COAT

Elizabeth Brooks

From the acclaimed author of The Orphan of Salt Winds, The Whispering House, and The House in the Orchard comes a passionate and fateful story of love, betrayal, and the rewards— and costs—of following your heart.

At the height of the Second World War in England, twenty-two year old Nina Woodrow joins the British Royal Air Force and rebels against her careful upbringing by embarking on an illicit affair with an officer. She risks losing everything for Guy Nicholson: her comfortable home, her childhood friends, and, especially, the love of her father, an enigmatic widower.

Meanwhile, in the sleepy village where Nina grew up, where the upheavals of war seem far away and divorce remains taboo, Kate Nicholson struggles to cope with her new role as the wronged wife. She finds an unlikely confidant in Nina’s father, Henry, and as they grow closer Kate finds that she’s embroiled in something much murkier, and more menacing, than a straightforward friendship.

Sweeping and impassioned, with pitch-perfect period detail, Elizabeth Brooks’ The Woman in the Sable Coat tells the story of two families fatally entangled in one another’s deepest, darkest secrets.

“Brooks is particularly adept at evoking [a] tumultuous emotional atmosphere.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Exceptionally vivid. . . . a story of betrayal and unlikely friendships filled with reflective tidbits of wisdom, the novel blends WWII fiction with idyllic romance drama and a touch of macabre thriller. . . . like an updated and more approachable Jane Austen.” —The Associated Press

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Elizabeth Brooks is the author of The Orphan of Salt Winds, The Whispering House, and The House in the Orchard. She grew up in Chester, England, graduated from Cambridge University, and resides on the Isle of Man with her husband and two children.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. How did the prologue set the stage for your experience reading this novel?

2. How do you think the backdrop of the Second World War motivates the actions of the main characters?

3. There are many strong settings in the novelLondon, small english villages, an RAF airbase, and backcountry Canada. Did you have a favorite setting?

4. What did you think of the choice to alternate chapters and change POV? How did this influence the way the story was revealed?

5. Purple hyacinths populate the novel—what do you think they symbolize? Did their meaning evolve as you read?

6. The sable coat from the title is encountered by both women. What does it reveal about each character?

7. Over the course of the story, which character surprised you most? In what ways did your perception of the character change?

8. Letters appear throughout the manuscript—why do you think the author chose to include this form of writing?

9. What role do secrets play in this story? In your own life, what's the biggest secret you've ever uncovered?

10. Why do you think Kate’s story is told in the first person, while Nina’s is told in the third person?

11. The book leaves Nina and Kate in June 1947. How do you picture their futures?

ALL IN HER HEAD: THE TRUTH AND LIES EARLY MEDICINE TAUGHT US ABOUT WOMEN'S BODIES AND WHY IT MATTERS TODAY

Elizabeth Comen, M.D.

A surprising, groundbreaking, and fiercely entertaining medical history that is both a collective narrative of women’s bodies and a call to action for a new conversation around women’s health.

For as long as medicine has been a practice, women's bodies have been treated like objects to be practiced on: examined and ignored, idealized and sexualized, shamed, subjugated, mutilated, and dismissed. The history of women’s healthcare is a story in which women themselves have too often been voiceless—a narrative instead written from the perspective of men who styled themselves as authorities on the female of the species, yet uninformed by women’s own voices, thoughts, fears, pain and experiences. The result is a cultural and societal legacy that continues to shape the (mis) treatment and care of women.

“Wow! This book will upend everything you thought you knew about your body while empowering you to make better decisions moving forward. Through storytelling, extensive research, and easy recommendations, Dr. Elizabeth Comen has given us all a priceless road map to reclaim our agency.” — Eve Rodsky, author of Fair Play

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Elizabeth Comen, MD, has dedicated her medical career to saving the lives of women. An award-winning, internationally sought-after clinician and physician-scientist, Dr. Comen works as a medical oncologist with a specialty in breast cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and is an assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. She earned her BA in the history of science from Harvard College and her MD from Harvard Medical School, then completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and her fellowship in oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She lives in New York City with her family.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. How can women advocate for their health within the healthcare system?

2. How has the field of medicine responded to gender disparities in medical research and treatment outcomes for women?

3. What challenges do female physicians face within the medical profession, and how do these challenges affect patient care?

4. What cultural beliefs or societal norms have influenced the medical treatment of women throughout history?

5. How have historical practices in treating female patients evolved over the years?

6. How does the lack of diversity and representation in medical education impact the treatment of women's health issues?

7. How did societal attitudes towards the concept of beauty and femininity influence the medical treatment of women's health issues?

8. In All in Her Head, how were women scapegoated for contagion in both medical and larger societal settings?

CONVERSATIONS WITH BIRDS

Priyanka Kumar

A Firecracker Award Finalist and Apple “Best Book of the Month”

“Birds are my almanac. They tune me into the seasons, and into myself.” So begins this lively collection of essays by acclaimed filmmaker and novelist Priyanka Kumar. Growing up at the feet of the Himalayas in northern India, Kumar took for granted her immersion in a lush natural world. After moving to North America as a teenager, she found herself increasingly distanced from more than human life and discouraged by the civilization she saw contributing to its destruction. It was only in her twenties, living in Los Angeles and working on films, that she began to rediscover her place in the landscape—and in the cosmos—by way of watching birds.

At a time when climate change, habitat loss, and the reckless use of pesticides are causing widespread extinction of species, Kumar’s reflections on these messengers from our distant past and harbingers of our future offer luminous evidence of her suggestion that “seeds of transformation lie dormant in all of our hearts. Sometimes it just takes the right bird to awaken us.”

“In this collection of elegant and evocative essays, a novelist reflects on the beauty and significance of birds, those animals that ‘become a portal to a more vivid, enchanted world.’” — New York Times

“Priyanka Kumar’s prose and personal stories could help people around the world rewild their hearts and souls’” —Psychology Today

“An eloquent depiction of how birding engenders a deep love of our ecosystems and a more profound understanding of ourselves.” —Kirkus, starred review

“Novelist Kumar takes stock of the beauty she’s found in birds, from northern India to the American West.” —Publishers Weekly

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Priyanka Kumar is a filmmaker and author. Her essays and criticism appear in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Huffington Post, and High Country News.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Throughout the book, Kumar maps her ecological consciousness and braids storytelling from the places she’s lived into the ways that birds carry meaning. Do you have special “place memories” tied to wildlife?

2. Kumar embarks on her first formal bird walk and her outlook on the natural world soon undergoes a “seismic shift”. (21) Reflect on the changes she felt afterwards and the hurdles she faced trying to bridge the gap between herself and the birds. Have you experienced a similar “seismic shift” in your life?

3. In an emotional moment, Kumar writes, “A feeling of connectedness [. . .] love is all we have.” (72) Discuss the communities Kumar encounters, both natural and human.

4. “Neither the land nor the birds yield their stories all at once. You have to come back again and again, and somehow at the right time to be able to put together a picture of the lives of birds.” (92) Reflect on this outlook of persistence and patience toward the natural world in the context of the book and your own life.

5. Kumar’s attention to birds leads to gratitude and grace toward each species. Which bird were you the most moved by? Which bird changed your pre-existing notions?

6. When in the presence of a Bald Eagle, Kumar is starstruck and grateful for the aliveness she feels: “If more souls wandering by a river were to glimpse this extraordinary bird, they might see that the bird is not a symbol of American aggression; it is a sentient being who goes on flying against relentless odds.” (211) Discuss this juxtaposition.

7. Birding is one of the most popular hobbies in America, with more books on birds published every year. What makes Conversations with Birds stand apart?

8. The author’s migration of life brought her from the Himalayas of Northern India, to Canada, California, and finally New Mexico. Discuss your own migration and who kept you company along the way.

THE DRAGON FROM CHICAGO: THE UNTOLD STORY OF AN AMERICAN REPORTER IN NAZI GERMANY

Pamela D. Toler

For fans of unheralded women’s stories, a captivating look at Sigrid Schultz—one of the earliest reporters to warn Americans of the rising threat of the Nazi regime.

In The Dragon From Chicago, Pamela D. Toler draws on extensive archival research to unearth the largely forgotten story of Schultz’s years spent courageously reporting the news from Berlin, from the revolts of 1919 through the Nazi rise to power and Allied air raids over Berlin in 1941. At a time when women reporters rarely wrote front-page stories and her male colleagues saw a powerful unmarried woman as a “freak,” Schultz pulled back the curtain on how the Nazis misreported the news to their own people, and how they attempted to control the foreign press through bribery and threats.

Sharp and enlightening, Schultz's story provides a powerful example for how we can reclaim truth in an era marked by the spread of disinformation and claims of “fake news.”

“No other American correspondent in Berlin knew so much of what was going on behind the scene as did Sigrid Schultz” —William L. Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Pamela D. Toler, PhD, translates history for a popular audience, going beyond the familiar boundaries of American history to tell stories from other parts of the world as well as history from the other side of the battlefield, the gender line, or the color bar. Her work has appeared in American Scholar, Aramco World, MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, Ms., and Time.com. She is the author of ten books of popular history for adults and children, including Heroines of Mercy Street: The Real Nurses of the Civil War (a nonfiction companion to the PBS historical drama Mercy Street), Through the Minefields, and Women Warriors: An Unexpected History.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. “Schultz was an American—more specifically, an American from Chicago—by birth, self-definition, and loyalty, but she was raised in France and Germany and educated in European schools” (xi). How did Schultz’s multinational identity and upbringing serve her journalism?

2. Schultz made a name for herself in journalism during a time when women were often denied a comprehensive education, much less the opportunity to pursue a career. How did societal attitudes towards women impact Schultz’s journalism? What actions did she take to overcome sexist prejudices and limitations?

3. When Schultz spoke out against concentration camps, General Hermann Göring fired back “Schultz, I’ve always suspected it: you’ll never learn to show the proper respect for state authorities” (xiii). How did knowing when and how to disrespect authority prove a valuable action in both Schultz’s career and the wartime she covered? Have you ever intentionally challenged authority? If so, to what results?

4. What economic and sociopolitical factors in Germany during the period described seemed to enable the rise of fascism and the Nazi party? Can you identify any parallels in other historical or contemporary situations?

5. When Schultz was struggling to “get an interview or find an unusual angle on a story,” she often took “a backdoor approach,” (50) finding a creative way to tackle the issue. What are some examples from the book where Schultz employs her characteristic cleverness and persistence? Have you ever taken a similar “backdoor approach” to problem-solving?

6. While reporting on the rise of Hitler’s regime, Schultz persisted with covering Nazism despite facing severe censorship, formal threats of expulsion from the German Foreign Office, and death threats from von Papen supporters and Hitler himself (104). How do these experiences display journalism’s political power? Is protecting a free press important?

7. Consider Schultz’s reporting on the 1936 Berlin Olympics. How did her coverage of these games expose Nazi Germany’s propaganda tactics and the regime’s underlying militaristic ambitions?

THE LAST SUPPER CLUB: A WAITER'S REQUIEM

Matthew Batt

The Last Supper Club is the story of how Matthew Batt, a forty-something professor on sabbatical, found himself returning to a job waiting tables. And loving it. Conveying the challenge and the satisfaction of meeting the demands of a frenzied kitchen and an equally expectant crowd, The Last Supper Club reveals the ups and downs of a waiter’s workday and offers an insightful perspective on what makes a job good, bad, or great.

Told with sharp humor, humility, and a keen sense of what matters, The Last Supper Club is an ode to life in a high-pressure restaurant, the relationships that get you to the night’s close, and finding yourself through—or perhaps because of—the chaos of it all.

“Matthew Batt describes restaurant work with such ferocious, sweat-inducing clarity that I feel like I’m right back there, in the weeds. Like any great dish, The Last Supper Club has so many layers and flavors: it’s a waiter’s memoir, it’s a vital history of a remarkable restaurant, it’s an incisive meditation on the nature of work, and it’s a heartfelt story of someone who went searching for a paycheck but found something else entirely—family, and purpose, and joy." —Nathan Hill, author of The Nix and Wellness

“Deliciously funny, vividly peopled, wise, and big-hearted, The Last Supper Club is a book you will devour in one sitting and wish you could go back for seconds. If Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential and Stephanie Danler’s Sweetbitter had a love child, it would be this superb book!" —Adrienne Brodeur, author of Wild Game

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Matthew Batt is author of the memoir Sugarhouse. His fiction and nonfiction have been featured in the New York Times, Outside Magazine, the Huffington Post, Tin House, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing and English at the University of St. Thomas and lives in St. Paul with his family.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. How many different ways does the phrase “the last supper club” work?

2. In which ways can restaurants make us feel more at home than when we’re at home?

3. Batt writes a lot about his early food memories. What early food memories of your own come to mind?

4. Batt writes about a dinner he shared with his mother at a restaurant called “Heaven City” as one of his most transformative. What is your favorite meal?

5. What is the hardest job you ever loved?

6. Batt suggests that working in restaurants should be required like military service is in some countries. What do you think?

7. Batt writes about how working in restaurants is “to know trauma.” What do you think he meant by that, and how does it translate to your line of work?

8. Why do you think fine dining is dying in America?

9. Batt compares working in higher education unfavorably with working in restaurants. To what extent do you think it’s fair to compare the two?

10. One subtext of the book is whether going to college and pursuing post-graduate degrees is worth it when, in Batt’s experience, they end up paying about the same as working at a nice restaurant that doesn’t even require a high school degree. What’s crazier: not going to college and working wherever the jobs are à la our current “gig economy,” finding a trade, or incurring—as many undergraduates do—over a hundred thousand dollars in debt for their bachelor’s degrees (never mind grad school) to hopefully work within their field of study?

MAD WIFE: A MEMOIR

Kate Hamilton

In this electrifying literary memoir, Kate Hamilton deftly traces her complicated journey from loving wife to gaslit victim to furious feminist with an urgent goal: to expose how women are pressured to uphold the institutions of marriage and family, no matter the cost.

In the tradition of Know My Name and The Argonauts, Hamilton braids her own story with cultural criticism to argue that we must face the misogyny lurking in the shadows of marriage in the 21st century. She examines the beliefs and conditioning that held her in an increasingly destructive marriage and unflinchingly documents what she did to keep her family together—therapy, unwanted sex with her husband, swinging, affairs, an abortion—without always knowing what she freely chose. And she considers the damage that was done, to herself and others, until she could acknowledge that to save herself and her sons, she had to destroy her marriage.

Emotionally intense and timely, Mad Wife interrogates how marriage and the institutions that support it provide the perfect ecosystem for abuse of women and children, endangering their lives and denying them autonomy—all in the service of men’s desires.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kate Hamilton is a Professor of English at a university where she teaches literature, literary theory, and women’s writing. She has published numerous books and dozens of academic articles and chapters on a wide array of authors, and she has given talks and keynote speeches about literature, pedagogy, and sexual violence at conferences and workshops throughout the U.S. and in Europe. Her first trade publication, Mad Wife uses these decades of work on literature and sexual violence to clarify her own dark past and illuminate clearer paths forward for other women.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. How did submitting to unwanted sex in marriage affect Kate and her marriage over time? Why did she submit?

2. Does it matter what we call this kind of unwanted sex? What other kinds of abusive behavior in relationships do we normalize and ignore?

3. What else contributed to the death of Kate and Rick’s happy marriage? Why did it take her so long to leave? What role did couples counseling play?

4. How do Kate’s ideas about affairs and swinging change between her experience and her writing, and why?

5. Which sexual encounters did Kate truly desire? Why could she not always tell whether she wanted sex she was having?

6. What are some of the “other ethical matters” (108) that Kate and others ignored to preserve their marriages? How might we short-circuit this cycle of damage?

7. What does Kate’s account of the custody battle demonstrate about the values and biases of our family court system? How might we center children’s well-being in and outside court?

8. Where do you see evidence of trauma in Mad Wife? Does the process of writing help Kate repair her memory and understanding?

9. What kinds of experiences make Kate feel empowered when she’s being disempowered? How is power connected to desire in confusing ways for women?

10. Why couldn’t such an educated woman see what was happening to her? What did Kate need to encounter outside academia to see things clearly, and why?

11. When do you sympathize with Kate or judge her? Do your feelings change as you read? What does Kate add to the conversation about desire, consent, marriage, and monogamy?

12. What does Kate mean when she declares herself a “monster”?

13. What roles do literature and teaching play in Kate’s understanding of her traumatic past? Do you think books can cause social change?

14. Do you think unwanted sex in marriage is a common problem in the US or world? If so, why, and why does it go unacknowledged?

MATTIE, MILO, AND ME: A MEMOIR

Anne Abel

Anne grew up in an abusive home, leading to severe depression and a determination to do better as a mother. One of her sons wants a dog from the time he is a baby; Anne very much does not. For years she appeases him with creatures who live in cages and tanks, but on his tenth birthday she can no longer say no—and she proceeds to fall in love with their new four-legged family member, Mattie. Then Mattie dies a sudden and tragic death, and Anne feels herself begin to sink back into depression.

Trying to cope, she immediately adopts Milo—a dog who, unbeknownst to her, has already been returned to the rescue by several families due to his aggressive behavior. But even after she realizes Milo is dangerous, she's committed to trying to give him a chance at a good life.

Anne's journey takes the reader from dog school into the deep woods as she perseveres with Milo's lifelong rehabilitation and her unwavering efforts to be a good mother to her sons. Working with Milo strengthens Anne and expands her ability to love. Ten years later, when Milo dies, Anne faces another choice: close the door to that part of her heart, or risk loving another dog after two tragic losses?

“Her deeply personal memoir...explores the importance of loving another being...and how that experience paves the way for us to truly understand and appreciate ourselves..” —Matt Sutherland, Foreword executive editor

“Abel debuts with a heart-warming memoir spotlighting the intense bond between dogs and their owners. . . . Animal lovers will relish the central role that Abel’s pets play in her wellbeing throughout the narrative.” —BookLife

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Anne Abel is the author of Mattie, Milo, and Me (She Writes Press, April 23, 2024). Her story about unwittingly rescuing an aggressive dog, Milo, won a Moth StorySLAM in New York City. She has won two additional Moth StorySLAMs in Chicago. She Writes Press will publish Anne's second memoir, High Hopes: Bruce Springsteen and Me, on Sept. 23, 2025. For more, visit anneabelauthor.com.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Anne instinctively chose to keep Milo even though he was everything anyone wouldn’t want in a dog. Why do you think Anne felt so strongly about keeping Milo?

2. Considering Anne’s decision to keep Milo—what would you have done? Is there a point where you would have given up or taken a different path?

3. What do you think about Anne’s need to replace Mattie immediately to offset falling into a depression? Do you think she acted too hastily? Do you think it was okay that she got another dog so quickly even though her children said they were not ready for a new dog?

4. What do you think about how people rallied to support Anne and Milo? One example is in the beginning, when Anne was struggling with Milo, and Jane and Mary stepped in to help. A second example is when Anne needed surgery part way through dog school and they stepped in, again. Have you experienced something similar in your own life?

5. What do you think about how Anne’s mother treated Anne and Anne’s children? What makes a mother cold and aggressive?

6. Comment on the phrase, “Love is not a pie.” Is this metaphor always true, sometimes true or never true? What are some examples that support your position on this?

7. Were you surprised by Anne’s decision to take not just one but two rescue dogs after Milo’s death? Please explain why or why not.

8. The theme of empathy is an important part of this memoir. Can you identify key points where empathy changes the course of the story? Or where the absence of empathy also has an impact?

9. What are the main take-away lessons from this memoir that will stay with you?

NEARLY DEPARTED: ADVENTURES IN LOSS, CANCER, AND OTHER INCONVENIENCES

Gila Pfeffer

A heartbreakingly hilarious memoir of losing both parents to cancer and making daring choices to avoid the same early demise.

By the time she was thirty, Gila Pfeffer was the oldest living member of her family. A blood test confirmed she carried the BRCA1 gene—which put her at high risk of developing breast cancer herself. Determined to break the cycle of early death in her family, Gila decides to undergo an elective double mastectomy.

This memoir follows her path as she becomes a reluctant expert on how to sit shiva, finds love, and becomes a mother, before her life is derailed yet again. Her preventative mastectomy reveals cancer already growing in one breast.

After enduring eight rounds of chemo and an oophorectomy, she takes her last-ever dip in the mikvah waters as a bald, menopausal, thirty-five-year-old mother of four. With chutzpah honed over years of repeatedly surviving the worst, she saves her own life.

“This is the perfect book for anyone seeking levity in the face of devastation. Gila’s life is a master class on perspective and how to handle some of life’s darkest moments with fortitude and, most importantly, humor.” —Iliza Shlesinger, award-winning comedian, actor, writer, producer, and author

“Few authors can move you to tears with their words—Gila is one of them. Reading this book, I felt like she was my best friend telling me her story.” —Sarah Cooper, comedian and author of Foolish

“Pfeffer seamlessly blends tears and laughter in her vibrant debut memoir. ... The results are as funny as they are heartfelt and inspiring.” —Publishers Weekly

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gila Pfeffer is an essayist and humorist. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Today.com, and Oprah Daily. Gila’s monthly “Feel It on the First” campaign uses humor to remind women to prioritize their breast health. She splits her time between NYC and London.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Gila lost both of her parents to cancer, making her the oldest living member of her family by the time she was thirty. How do you think this affected her motivations throughout her memoir?

2. Gila’s mother was resistant to getting a mastectomy when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. By contrast, Gila underwent a double mastectomy as a preventative measure. How does this illustrate Gila’s mission to “outsmart her genetic destiny”?

3. Gila includes nonnarrative elements—the presurgical intake form (127) and the customer satisfaction survey (249)—as part of her story. Did you enjoy these sections? How did they change your perspective on Gila’s story?

4. Throughout the book, Gila maintains her sense of humor, even in her darkest moments. Has humor helped you deal with tough moments in your own life?

5. Publishers Weekly has praised Gila for “seamlessly blending tears and laughter” in her memoir. What effect does the juxtaposition of humor and sadness have on the reading experience? Were there moments that made you laugh out loud or cry?

6. Gila’s Jewish faith is an important part of her life. What role do you think faith played in Gila’s breast cancer journey?

7. Gila was raising four children while undergoing treatment for breast cancer. How does she balance her health issues, both physical and mental, with parenting her children?

8. Much of the book revolves around Gila’s family—her parents, children, sisters, and husband. Discuss how Gila’s upbringing impacts how she raises her own children, and how her relationships with her sisters change after her parents’ deaths.

9. One of the main themes of Nearly Departed is learning about family medical history in order to overcome health issues. How does Gila advocate for preventative medicine throughout the book?

10. At the end of the book, Gila shares that her sisters were inspired by her experience to get tested for the BRCA1 gene. Were there particular moments when you felt inspired by Gila’s story?

UNFIT PARENT: A DISABLED MOTHER CHALLENGES AN INACCESSIBLE WORLD

Jessica Slice

Navigating the joys, stigma, and discrimination of disabled parenting—and how the solutions offered by disability culture can transform the way we all raise our kids.

In Unfit Parent, Slice debunks the exclusionary myths that deem disabled people “unfit” to care for their children, instead showing how disabled parents and disability culture provide valuable lessons for rejecting societal rules that encourage perfectionism and lead to isolation.

Combining her personal experiences with interviews, research-backed evidence, and disability studies, Slice shares insight into what the landscape is like for disabled parents—one that is scattered with unpredictable obstacles and inaccessible barriers. In overcoming these challenges, she describes how disabled parents are oftentimes more prepared to adapt to the demanding nature of parenthood, including the uncertainty of losing control over bodily autonomy.

Uplifting and powerful, Unfit Parent illuminates how disabled bodies and minds give us the hopeful perspectives and solutions we need for transforming a societal system that has left parents exhausted, stuck, and alone.

“This is such a glorious, revelatory book..” —Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of An Immense World

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jessica Slice is a disabled mother, author, and essayist whose work has appeared in The New York Times’s Modern Love column, in Alice Wong’s bestselling Disability Visibility, The Washington Post, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan, among others. She is co-author, with Caroline Cupp, of Dateable: Swiping Right, Hooking Up, and Settling Down While Chronically Ill and Disabled and This is How We Play: A Celebration of Disability and Adaptation. Follow her online at jessicaslice.com.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. In her Introduction, Jessica Slice writes that she will tell the truth about what it means to be a disabled parent. Before you read Unfit Parent, what are some beliefs you held about disabled parents? Has the book changed your mind?

2. Slice calls her book an exploration of exploration of “disability gain,” a term coined by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson in reference to the benefits of being disabled. What are some of the benefits that could help all parents?

3. In chapter 1, Slice says, “Disabled parents are everywhere—we make up at least 10 percent of parents—and we have been waiting to be included in mainstream conversations.” Why do you think this is?

4. In chapter 3, Slice shares the story of Jourdan F. who is not disabled and her difficult journey to become a parent. As she explains, “pregnancy is the first time they regularly interact with the medical system and experience the true fragility and unpredictability of their bodies.” What are some of the lessons non-disabled people might learn through Slice’s journey with her disability?

5. Many of the disabled parents in the book had a much smoother transition into parenthood than non-disabled parents. Why is this so?

6. What are some of the gifts disability culture brought to Slice’s life?

7. In the home, disabled parents are able to use their ingenuity and creativity to build home environments that support their needs and keep their kids safe. But, outside of the home, disabled parents face many challenges. What are some of the challenges disabled parents face outside of the home?

8. In chapter 7, Slice shares the story of Michael Hickson and his wife, Melissa. How did the story of his death affect you? Did it change the way you judge a person’s quality of life and who has the right to make decisions about it?

9. In chapter 8, Slice writes about the child welfare system and its bias against disabled parents. Were you surprised to learn of the disproportionate number of disabled parents who get the children taken away? Why?

10. Would you recommend this book to parents in your life—disabled and non-disabled? Why or why not?

YEAR OF PLENTY: A FAMILY'S SEASON OF GRIEF

B.J. Hollars

In November 2020, B.J. Hollars answered a call from his father-in-law while teaching. “When will you be home?” Steve asked. “I have news.” So began the Hollars family’s year of plenty—a cancer diagnosis on top of the ongoing COVID pandemic, then feelings of falling short as parents, partners, and people. While Hollars traces his family’s daily devastations alongside his father-in-law’s decline, he recounts the small mercies along the way: birthdays, campfires, fishing trips, kayaking, and fireflies. As he, his wife, Meredith, and their three young children grapple with how best to say goodbye to the person they love, they are forced to reassess their own lives. How can we make the most of our time, they wonder, when time feels so short?

Written in vignettes and accompanied by photographs and family interviews, Year of Plenty provides a poignant and unflinching account of how death separates us not only from the people we love but from places and memories too. Hollars explores how death’s all-consuming weight has the potential to fracture—rather than strengthen—even those relationships we think we know the best. Ultimately, he cracks wide personal moments from his own life and allows the world to peer in.

“The most beautiful series of intimate and honest vignettes of regular life that I have ever read.” —Fort Wayne Magazine

“Fascinating, informative, candid, insightful, deeply personal and ultimately inspiring…” —Midwest Book Review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: B.J. Hollars is the author of several books, most recently Wisconsin for Kennedy: The Primary That Launched a President and Changed The Course of History, Year of Plenty: A Family's Season of Grief. He’s the recipient of the Truman Capote Prize for Literary Nonfiction, the Anne B. and James B. McMillan Prize, the Council of Wisconsin Writers' Blei-Derleth Award, the Society of Midland Authors Award, and received a 2022 silver medal from the Midwest Book Awards.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. In Year of Plenty, author B.J. Hollars explores his struggle to understand his role in supporting his wife and their family amid the loss of his father-in-law. How does one’s positioning in relationship to the lost loved one impact one’s behavior? Can we ever understand the experiences of others through experiences we haven’t faced ourselves?

2. The epigraph for Year of Plenty comes from poet Amy Fleury, who writes, “What would we make of a life both blighted and blessed? / There was trouble all around and everywhere little mercies.” Have you observed this sentiment in your own life? How does the richness of life’s vast experiences leave space for both the “blight” and the “blessing”? How does one work alongside the other?

3. Much of Year of Plenty explores the intersection between the natural world and our interiors. In what ways might nature provide a deeper understanding or entry point into our emotional lives? How does the continuity of the natural world speak to our survival?

4. Beyond the narrative, Year of Plenty also showcases family photographs and transcripts of interviews with the author’s wife and children. How do these features impact you as a reader?

5. While much of the book is organized around chronological vignettes, Hollars also integrates the occasional brief flashbacks to provide scenic details of his relationship with his wife. These scenes take on many forms—a first meeting at a summer camp, a trip to New Mexico, and coping with the death of a family dog, to name a few. Did you notice any changes in their relationship over time? What do you think prompts an evolution in long-term relationships? What role might grief play?

6. Year of Plenty explores the theme of continuity. Not exactly the notion that “life goes on” but the realization that “life goes on differently.” Considering your losses, how has your life gone on differently?

7. Often, grief strikes when we least expect it. Can you think of a moment when grief unexpectedly took hold of you? Has your grief evolved?

CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE

Tomi Adeyemi

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller

TIME Top 100 Fantasy Books of All Time

Goodreads Choice Award Winner

The first book in the groundbreaking Legacy of Orïsha series that became a worldwide phenomenon. Now available in a deluxe paperback edition with gorgeous spray-painted and stenciled edges, Tomi Adeyemi’s West African-inspired fantasy novel conjures a stunning world of magic and danger, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Sabaa Tahir.

“A phenomenon." —Entertainment Weekly

“A fast-paced, excellently crafted hero’s journey." —NPR

“Storms the boundaries of imagination." —The New York Times

“Propulsive pacing and richly imagined world." —Vox

“A masterpiece." —Refinery29

“Impossible to put down." —USA Today

“A miraculous achievement." —The Guardian

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Named one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, Tomi Adeyemi is a Hugo- and Nebula Award–winning Nigerian American writer and storyteller based in New York, New York. After graduating from Harvard University with an honors degree in English literature, she studied West African mythology, religion, and culture in Salvador, Brazil. Her first novel, Children of Blood and Bone, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Its highly anticipated sequel, Children of Virtue and Vengeance, also debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Tomi’s Legacy of Orïsha trilogy is being developed into a feature film. Tomi can be found teaching creative writing online. In 2020, she was named one of Forbes’s 30 Under 30 in Media, and her website was named one of the 101 Best Websites for writers by Writer’s Digest.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Zélie and her friends travel throughout Orïsha to collect three magical items: the scroll, the bone dagger, and the sun stone. How do the main characters evolve as they collect each item? What internal and external obstacles must the characters overcome along the way?

2. Compare these three characters: Zélie is a fighter, forced to defend herself and her people from the king’s oppression. Inan is a prince, determined to prove his worthiness as a ruler. Amari is a rogue princess, rebelling against her father’s corruption. How do their goals bring them together or put them in conflict?

3. Zélie and Inan meet each other in the dreamscape on several occasions. Which interaction did you feel most affected each character’s journey of self-discovery?

4. Analyze the following passage: “You have your duty and your heart. To choose one means the other must suffer.” How is this statement reflective of each of the main characters’ journeys? What role does duty and heart play in their decisions at the conclusion of the first book?

5. How does the Kingdom of Orïsha compare with other fantasy worlds in YA fiction?

6. Discuss each of the Maji Clans’ powers in relation to the gods. What similarities do you see among the characters that belong to the same clan?

7. Describe the class structure in Children of Blood and Bone. What role does magic play in the society’s separation of power? How do the class structures within this regime compare to modern-day governments?

8. Throughout the novel, Zelie talks about the price the characters have to pay because of their differences. Give an example of one of these situations, what price the character had to pay, and how it affects everyone. (For example: consider the relationship between Amari and her maid Binta and what price they both had to pay for being friends.)

9. Parent-and-child relationships play a heavy role in this novel, such as Zelie and her mother or Inan and his father. How are the characters’ morals and motivations influenced by their parents and their legacies?

10. Why do you think the author chose this title? What is she trying to convey?

DUNGEON RUNNERS: LEVEL 1: HERO TRIAL

Kieran Larwood & Joe Todd-Stanton

A new action-packed series for fans of fantasy and RPG games!

CALLING ALL DUNGEON RUNNERS — There’s space for a new team of heroes. This is your chance to enter the leagues and fight your way to the top!

Kit has dreamed of being a Dungeon Runner all his life, although being a gnorf (part gnome, part dwarf) means he’s much smaller than the other competitors.

But when a space opens up for a new team in the Dungeon Running League, Kit doesn’t want to miss this chance to try out! With his new friends Sandy and Thorn, they’re ready to take on anything—mazes, puzzles, monsters, treasure, and most of all adventure!

Are you ready for the games to begin? Welcome to the Dungeon!

“Friendship and gamesmanship form the core of this heartwarming underdog adventure." —Kirkus Reviews

"For collections needing Role-Playing Games (RPG) and funny sci-fi/fantasy series such as Max Brallier’s The Last Kids on Earth, Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet, and Tui T. Sutherland’s Wings of Fire, this is a must-add to the list." — School Library Journal

ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Kieran Larwood’s books have won several awards, including the Blue Peter Best Story and the Prix Sorcières. He is inspired by a life-long love of fantasy stories, which all began when —as a young boy —he picked up a copy of The Hobbit and saw the map inside.

Joe Todd-Stanton was taught to draw by his mother, who is also an illustrator. He studied at UWE Bristol, receiving a first-class degree in Illustration. His work has been highly praised and his book The Secret of Black Rock was longlisted for The CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2018 and won a 2018 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Kit, Thorn, and Sandy are an unlikely Dungeon Running trio. What qualities do they each possess that make them a good team?

2. Triple Trouble comes in to the competition as an underdog. How do you think others' expectations help or hurt them? Are there ways in which their underdog status both helps and hurts?

3. What are the key differences between how Kit and Breg approach the sport of Dungeon Running? What effect do these differences have on the trial's outcome?

4. At the start of the trial, Noctis says that the maze is meant to test "your skill, your wit, your bravery, and your luck." What role does luck play in the trial? Can you think of a moment when Triple Trouble's run is affected by luck or chance?

5. In the lead-up to the trial, Breg’s bullying of Kit seems to intensify. How does Kit react to Breg’s meanness? What is the best way to handle bullies like Breg in real life?

6. When putting together a Dungeon Running team, Kit debates which is better: putting together a team based on shared values and camaraderie, or a team composed of the most skilled individuals. Left with little choice, Kit ends up doing the former. If you were building your own Dungeon Running team, which would you prioritize?

7. How do the characters react when fear crops up in the dungeon? How do their reactions correspond to their overall success or failure in the competition?

8. Kit’s grandpa, Klot, is a former Dungeon Runner, and tries to tell Kit not to enter the trial. But Kit doesn’t hear him and believes his grandpa supports his aspirations to follow in his footsteps. If Kit had heard what Klot said, do you think he would have changed his mind about competing himself? Why or why not?

DUST

Dusti Bowling

A girl who struggles to breathe befriends a boy who seems shrouded in dust, in this unmissable tour de force from bestselling and award-winning author Dusti Bowling.

After Avalyn nearly died from an asthma attack, her parents moved her to the clear, dry air of Clear Canyon City, Arizona. And for the last ten years, she’s been able to breathe. That is, until Adam showed up.

Quiet and unkempt, Adam is an instant target for the bullies who have plagued Avalyn and her friends. As Avalyn gets to know him, she begins to suspect that the sudden, strange increase in dust storms around town are somehow connected to his emotions. She thinks his problems may be even worse at home, especially when massive black walls of dust start rolling in after the school day. Will she find a way to stand up for her new friend? Her life may just depend on it.

Dusti Bowling delivers a page-turning, powerful, and poignant novel of friendship, courage, and healing, perfect for readers of Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Lynda Mullaly Hunt, and Erin Entrada Kelly.

“This book will save lives.” —Beth Vrabel, author of The Newspaper Club series

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dusti Bowling is the bestselling and award-winning author of Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, The Canyon's Edge, and Across the Desert, among other books for young readers. Dusti holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology and lives in Arizona with her husband, three daughters, a dozen tarantulas, a gopher snake named Burrito, a king snake name Death Noodle, and a cockatiel named Gandalf the Grey.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Avalyn calls the bullies at her school the Meanie Butt Band. How can giving something a name empower you?

2. Why does Avalyn want to be a spelling bee champion?

3. Avalyn admits to Adam (and herself) that she doesn’t have a lot in common with her bestfriends, Dillon and Nan, beyond one very important thing: “We just really like each other” (43). How can mutual like and respect be a foundation for friendship even without shared interests?

4. Avalyn’s school has a zero-tolerance policy for bullying, yet bullying still happens. How? Have you witnessed bullying at your school? What can kids actually do about it?

5. Why does Dillon want to go to the school dance? Why doesn’t Avalyn or Nan?

6. Even though Adam is a new friend, Avalyn can sense that something’s wrong, and she finds the courage to tell him so (186). How is voicing her concern an act of courage?

7. Why do you think Avalyn struggles to speak up when Bryden, Caleb, Valerie, and Emma bully and assault her and her friends? When Dillon angrily tells Avalyn, “You didn’t say anything,” she thinks to herself, “My silence said everything” (232). What does she mean?

8. What does Avalyn believe is causing the dust?

9. What does Avalyn discover about Adam? Talk with a grown-up about how that revelation makes you feel.

10. Avalyn’s dad tells her, “If you know someone is being hurt, then no matter what your friend wants— even if you think they won’t want to be friends with you anymore— no matter what may happen . . . you have to tell” (266). How is he right?

11. How was Caleb showing up at Nan’s pool party an act of courage? How was Avalyn’s welcoming of him one, too?

12. Avalyn says that her superpower would be spelling. Do you think she has other powers? What would your superpower be?

13. Avalyn’s parents tell her that what she does with her breath can change the world (Prologue). How does she end up using her breath to create change? What would you like to do with your breaths?

KINDRED

Octavia E. Butler

This brand new package for young adults includes a redesigned interior for better readability, specially commissioned cover art by Carlos Fama and spot gloss on cover elements.

“I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm.”

Dana, a 1970s Black woman, is celebrating her 26th birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.

This young-adult edition includes a new foreword by Tomi Adeyemi, New York Times bestseller and Hugo and Nebula award-winning author of fantasy titles Children of Blood and Bone and Children of Virtue and Vengeance. Adeyemi was also named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people and was named one of Forbes’s 30 Under 30 in Media.

“In Kindred, Octavia Butler creates a road for the impossible and a balm for the unbearable. It is everything the literature of science fiction can be." — Walter Mosley

“Butler’s characters are so vivid and the racist milieu in which they struggle to survive so realistically depicted that one cannot finish Kindred without feeling changed. It is a shattering work of art with much to say about love, hate, slavery, and racial dilemmas, then and now." —Sam Frank, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) is the New York Times best-selling author of many novels, including Dawn, Wild Seed, and Parable of the Sower. She was the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, a PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award, 2 Nebula Awards, and 3 Hugo Awards, among others.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Both Kevin and Dana know that they can’t change history. They say: “We’re in the middle of history. We surely can’t change it”; and “It’s over. . . . There’s nothing you can do to change any of it now.” What, then, is the purpose of Dana’s travels back to the antebellum South? Why must you, the reader, experience this journey with Dana?

2. “I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery.” Dana says this to Kevin when they have returned to the present and are discussing their experiences in the antebellum South. Do we also in the twenty-first century still have conditioned responses to slavery?

3. Compare Dana’s “professional” life in the present (i.e., her temporary work) with her life as a slave.

4. When Dana and Kevin return from the past together, she thinks: “I felt as though I were losing my place here in my own time. Rufus’s time was a sharper, stronger reality.” Why would the twentieth century seem less vivid to Dana than the nineteenth century?

5. Dana loses her left arm as she emerges—for the last time in the novel—from the past. Why is this significant?

6. Kevin is stranded in the past for five years, while Dana is there for less than one year. Why did Butler feel Kevin needed to stay in the past so much longer than Dana? How have their experiences affected their relationship to each other and to the world around them?

7. After returning from his years in the nineteenth century, Kevin had attained “a slight accent.” Is this alteration symbolic of greater changes to come? How do you imagine Kevin and Dana’s relationship will progress following their reentry into life in 1976?

8. A common trend in the time travels of science fiction assumes that one should not tamper with the past, lest you disrupt the present. Butler obviously ignores this theory and her characters continue to invade each other’s lives. How does this influence the movement of the narrative? How does it convolute the idea of cause and effect?

9. Dana states: “It was that destructive single-minded love of his. He loved me. Not the way he loved Alice, thank God. He didn’t seem to want to sleep with me. But he wanted me around—someone to talk to, someone who would listen to him and care about what he said . . . ” How does the relationship between Dana and Rufus develop? How does it change? What are the different levels of love portrayed in Kindred?

LOUDER THAN HUNGER

John Schu

A New York Times Bestseller

Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food.

Jake has read about kids like him in books—the weird one, the outsider— and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake punish himself before he truly disappears? A fictionalized account of the author’s experiences living in residential treatment facilities as a teen with an eating disorder, this book is a triumph of raw honesty. With a deeply personal afterword for context, this verse novel is a powerful model for muffling the destructive voices inside, managing and articulating pain, and embracing self-acceptance, support, and love.

“This heart-wrenching verse novel—inspired by the author’s experiences . . . is an unflinching depiction of resistance and disordered eating recovery.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Schu is the author of the acclaimed picture books This Is a School and This Is a Story. He was named a for his dynamic interactions with students and his passionate adoption of new technologies as a means of connecting authors, illustrators, books, and readers. Children’s librarian for Bookelicious, a Library Journal “Mover and Shaker,” part-time lecturer at Rutgers University, and former Ambassador of School Libraries for Scholastic Book Fairs, Mr. Schu—as he is affectionately known—continues to travel the world to share his love of books. He lives in Naperville, Illinois. You can find him at www.JohnSchu.com and on social media @MrSchuReads.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Early in his narrative, Jake tries to figure out “who I am” Why is he confused? What has changed in his life since elementary school? Why doesn’t he have friends his age? What factors have driven him to listen to the Voice and to stop eating enough?

2. The Voice’s first words in the story are about Jake’s growling stomach. Why does the Voice feel like a friend to Jake? When does it feel like he’s stronger than the Voice? Relate the Voice to Jake’s experience with bullies and other hostile peers. Discuss how the text design reflects the Voice’s messages.

3. Discuss Jake’s relationship with his grandmother, why it’s important to him, and how it’s changed since he started avoiding food.

4. Trust is a big issue for Jake. Why does the Voice tell him not to trust Ruth, Nurse Bruce, and Dr. Parker? Discuss Jake’s description of entering group therapy. Who does he come to trust, and what causes the change?

5. Why do the counselors at Whispering Pines think it’s important for Jake to make friends his own age? How does Kella become a friend? What do they share? What do they learn from each other? Talk about her letter -- In what way does her visit to Jake at Whispering Pines show how much he has changed?

6. Discuss the author’s note at the end of the book. Does knowing that he went through a similar experience influence how you see the story? How do you think personal knowledge of Jake’s problems has had an impact on the author’s writing? Discuss the novel’s dedication: “For thirteen-year-old me, who needed a book like this one.”

LOVE IN WINTER WONDERLAND

Abiola Bello

The Sun Is Also a Star meets

You’ve Got Mail in this YA Christmas love story set in a London Black-owned bookshop.

Charming, handsome Trey Anderson balances the pressures of school popularity with a job at his family’s beloved local bookshop, Wonderland.

Quirky, creative Ariel Spencer needs tuition for the prestigious art program of her dreams, and an opening at Wonderland is the answer. When Trey and Ariel learn that Wonderland is on the brink of being shut down by a neighborhood gentrifier, they team up to stop the doors from closing before the Christmas Eve deadline—and embark on a hate-to-love journey that will change them forever.

"Brimming with heart-swelling chemistry and witty bookworm banter . . . A charming young adult book that will give you all the warm fuzzies" —Reader's Digest

"A Black romance set in a Black-owned bookstore at Christmas time—yes please!" —Joya Goffney, author of Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Abiola Bello is a British-Nigerian author from London, England. She is the bestselling, award-winning author of the children's series Emily Knight I Am and contributed to The Very Merry Murder Club anthology. Love in Winter Wonderland is her debut YA. Abiola has won London's BIG Read 2019, was a finalist for the People's Book Prize Best Children's Book and was nominated for the Yoto Carnegie Award.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Which character could you relate to the most, Trey or Ariel?

2. How do you think generational wealth played a role in Blair and Trey’s relationship? How is it different for the other characters, including Santi and Boogs?

3. Who had the best Christmas playlist, Trey or Ariel? Which song in the playlist best represents its corresponding chapter? Why?

4. How would you describe the female friendships in Ariel’s group? And in Blair’s group?

5. How would you describe the male friendships in Trey’s group?

6. Do you agree with Ariel’s take on intimacy? Is it scarier to do something in front of one person rather than a crowd?

7. What is your take on Trey’s view of the Black Lives Matter movement? Do you think that the support for Wonderland will be short lived, like his parents feared?

8. How did the characters work to build community in the book? What challenges did they face? Have you seen similar efforts in real life?

9. Who would you cast for a film adaption?

10. What was your favorite part of the book? What strong emotions surfaced for you while reading?

11. Do you think Blair’s actions towards Ariel are justified?

MYRTLE, MEANS, AND OPPORTUNITY

Elizabeth C. Bunce

In the fifth book of the Edgar

Award-winning series, Myrtle Hardcastle uncovers a string of murders during a treasure hunt on a haunted Scottish estate.

When her governess inherits an estate on a Scottish island, amateur detective Myrtle Hardcastle couldn't be more excited. Unfortunately, the ancestral castle is both run-down and haunted. Ghostly moans echo in the walls, and there are rumors of a cursed treasure lost on the island—an ancient silver brooch that may have cost the former lord his life. But who had the motive, means, and opportunity to kill him? And could this Scottish trip mean the end of Myrtle's plans to get her father and governess together?

Then Myrtle's investigation stirs a villain out of hiding. The estate’s boat is stolen, so there’s no escape from the island. Myrtle is forced to play a deadly game, hunting for the brooch with a thief breathing down her neck—someone who will stop at nothing to get the treasure, even if it means murder.

"A book young readers will love and adults may well sneak out of backpacks and off of nightstands for their own enjoyment." —BookPage, starred review, Premeditated Myrtle

"[This book] will delight young Sherlock Holmes aficionados." —School Library Journal, How to Get Away with Myrtle

"Enthusiastically, chaotically delightful." —Kirkus Reviews, In Myrtle Peril

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Elizabeth C. Bunce grew up on a steady diet of Sherlock Holmes, Trixie Belden, and Quincy, M.E., and always played the lead prosecutor in mock trial. She has never had a governess, and no one has ever accused her of being irrepressible, but a teacher did once call her “argumentative”—which was entirely untrue, and she can prove it. She lives in Kansas City, with her husband and their cats. You can find her

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. The title of the novel is a play on the phrase “motive, means, and opportunity” but also refers to the change in Miss Judson’s fortunes. What new means and opportunities does she have? Were those opportunities different for a woman of color in 1894 than they would be today?

2. Each chapter in Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity opens with an “epigraph,” or a quote from a fictional book about estate management. What did you think of these epigraphs and why do you think the author chose to use this technique in her series?

3. Many of the chapter titles in Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity are taken from Scottish clan mottos. These mottos are often derived from significant events in clan history, so families will remember the heroic deeds of their ancestors and feel united by a shared sense of purpose. If you had a personal motto you wanted your descendants to remember, what would it be?

4. In chapter 5 Myrtle learns Uncle Augustus had been studying the paranormal phenomena plaguing Rockfforde Hall. Do you believe in ghosts? Why or why not? What do you think the author meant by the scene when Myrtle sees a face in the window of Rockfforde Hall?

5. A number of characters are involved in the scheme to defraud Augustus MacJudd and murder Hector Macewan. Who do you think is the most responsible? In your opinion, has everyone involved been brought to justice?

6. Why do you think Uncle Augustus left Rockfforde Hall to Miss Judson? Would you have made the same decision?

7. Miss Judson has always been a strong advocate for women’s independence, encouraging Myrtle in her ambitions. Do you think that the choices Miss Judson makes in Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity fit her character? In what ways? What do you think of her final decision in the story?

STATELESS

Elizabeth Wein

From the #1 bestselling author of Code Name Verity, comes a tour de force historical thriller that will leave you breathless.

Twelve competitors. One prize. Many reasons to kill.

When Stella North is chosen to represent Britain in Europe’s first air race for young people, she knows all too well how high the stakes are. As the only participating female pilot, it’ll be a constant challenge to prove she’s a worthy competitor. But promoting peace in Europe, the goal of the race, feels empty to Stella when civil war is raging in Spain and the Nazis are gaining power—and when, right from the start, someone resorts to cutthroat sabotage to get ahead of the competition.

The world is looking for inspiration in what’s meant to be a friendly sporting event. But each of the racers is hiding a turbulent and violent past, and any one of them might be capable of murder—including Stella herself.

Agatha Christie meets Karen McManus in this thrilling mystery, packed with adventure, intrigue, love, and betrayal, from bestselling and award-winning author Elizabeth Wein.

"An exhilarating trans-continental thrill ride." —Kate Quinn, author of The Alice Network

"A riveting, thought-provoking page-turner" —Sharon Cameron, author of The Light in Hidden Places

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Elizabeth Wein is the holder of a private pilot’s license and the owner of about a thousand maps. She is best known for her historical fiction about young women flying in World War II, including the New York Times bestselling Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire. Elizabeth is also the author of Cobalt Squadron, a middle grade novel set in the Star Wars universe and connected to the 2017 release The Last Jedi. Elizabeth lives in Scotland and holds both British and American citizenship. She invites you to visit her online at http://www.elizabethwein.com.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. When she flies over the trenches, Stella realizes that “[her] generation will have to fight the next war” if tensions in Europe become violent (102). How did knowing that WWII was historically imminent affect your reading of the story and how you related to the characters?

2. Despite suspected sabotage, Lady Frith claims, “To stop now would be a betrayal of all young women who want to fly” (192). In what ways is Stella forced to be a representative for her gender? How does being the only female contestant affect her? Do you think Lady Frith adequately supports her?

3. Throughout the book the press and reporters are depicted as a dangerous hindrance and also a useful tool. What do you think the role of the press should be in international politics and diplomacy? Do you think they have a primarily negative or positive effect in the story?

4. The book begins with the mystery of who killed one of the pilots, but that mystery is solved in the middle of the book. How does that plot decision affect the suspense and tension felt by the reader and characters for the rest of the story? How are secrets and knowledge used both as weapons and as gifts throughout the book?

5. After the other contestants pitch in to help Tony escape in Germany, Stella realizes that she “underestimated all of them” (246). Why do you think she underestimated them? How does her view of them change over the course of the book?

6. As Stella is flying Sebastian away from Germany, she decides, “Our choices mattered” (328). How does personal agency conflict with national loyalty for Sebastian and the other characters in this book? How do they address that conflict, and do you agree with their choices?

7. The goal of the race is to promote peace in Europe and encourage international cooperation. In what ways was this premise flawed? Are there any ways in which it succeeded? Do you think sports can be an effective tool for peace?

8. In the author’s note, Elizabeth Wein remarks that, “This isn’t a book about refugees; it’s a book about belonging… to no place and every place” (381). What do you think she means? How do you see this reflected in the book?

THIRTY TALKS WEIRD LOVE

Alessandra Narváez Varela

Now available in Spanish!

A 13-year-old girl growing up in Mexico is visited by her 30-year-old future self in this powerful YA novel in verse about handling depression.

Out of nowhere, a lady comes up to Anamaria and says she’s her, from the future. But Anamaria’s thirteen, she knows better than to talk to a stranger. Girls need to be careful, especially in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico—it’s the 90’s and fear is overtaking her beloved city as cases of kidnapped girls and women become alarmingly common. This thirty-year-old “future” lady doesn’t seem to be dangerous but she won’t stop bothering her, switching between cheesy Hallmark advice about being kind to yourself, and some mysterious talk about saving a girl.

Anamaria definitely doesn’t need any saving. She works hard at her strict, grade-obsessed middle school—so hard that she hardly gets any sleep; so hard that when she does sleep she dreams about dying—but she just wants to do the best she can so she can grow up to be successful. Maybe Thirty’s right, maybe she’s not supposed to be so exhausted with her life, but how can she ask for help when her city is mourning the much bigger tragedy of its stolen girls?

“Fans of The House on Mango Street or The House of the Spirits will be riveted.” —Booklist, starred review

“This is a moving story. . . . A must for every library given its timely themes, international setting, and authentic protagonist voice.” —School Library Journal, starred review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alessandra Narváez Varela was born and raised in Ciudad Juárez, México. She earned a B.S. in Biology and a Bilingual M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso, where she now teaches. Thirty Talks Weird Love is her debut novel. She lives in El Paso, Texas. Visit her website at alessandranarvaezvarela.com.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. In Alessandra Narváez Varela’s dedication she writes, “poetry doesn’t give back life, poetry is not justice, but she remembers and doesn’t let us forget.” How is poetry an act of remembering? Why is memory important in this story?

2. Why do you think Alessandra Narváez Varela’s decided to write this novel in verse? Why not use prose? Do you agree with her decision? Why or why not?

3. How does Anamaria deal with the pressures of school?

4. How does being bilingual impact Anamaria’s poetry?

5. What is femicide? How does it play a role in the story?

6. What does being a girl in Ciudad Juárez mean for Anamaria?

7. Why is the honor roll so important in this story? What does it signify for the different characters? What does it mean to Anamaria?

8. Why does poetry become so lifechanging for Anamaria?

9. Why does Anamaria find it hard to sleep? What kind of reoccurring dreams does she have?

10. What are some of the shared characteristics of the girls who go missing?

11. How does Anamaria come to love herself?

12. How do Anamaria’s experiences throughout the story change her?

13. What evidence in the book demonstrates Anamaria is struggling with depression and thoughts of suicide?

14. Why is Anamaria scared to ask for help?

15. What is the role of family and friendship in helping Anamaria become who she is by the end of the book?

16. The story is told from Anamaria’s perspective. How would the story have been different if it were told from Margarita’s perspective? Thirty’s perspective? Pipina’s perspective? How does the perspective of the narration affect how you experience the story?

17. How did you feel about the way Thirty Talks Weird Love ended? Were you satisfied with the ending? Why or why not?

WINGS TO SOAR

Tina Athaide

A historically relevant middle-grade novel-in-verse about a girl's resiliency when faced with hatred towards refugees.

It's 1972 and Viva’s Indian family has been expelled from Uganda and sent to a resettlement camp in England, but not all of them made the trip. Her father is supposed to meet them in London, but he never shows up. As they wait for him, Viva, her mother, and her sister get settled in camp and try to make the best of their life there.

Just when she is beginning to feel at home with new friends, Viva and her family move out of the camp and to a part of London where they are not welcome. While grappling with the hate for brown-skinned people in their new community, Viva is determined to find her missing father so they can finish their move to Canada. When it turns out he has been sponsored to move to the United States, they have to save enough money to join him.

“These rich, vivacious lines combine an insistence on self with undaunted hope. A supreme heart-changer.” —Rita Williams-Garcia, Newbery Honor, National Book Award, Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, and Coretta Scott King Award Winner

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tina Athaide is an educator and children’s book author who writes stories to capture the texture and richness of a wide scope of cultural experiences, recent or distant, with the hope to open readers’ hearts. Her debut middle grade novel, Orange For The Sunsets was awarded the Geoffrey Bilson Award by the Canadian Children's Book Council, and her picture book, Meena’s Mindful Moment, is a nominee in the Forest of Reading. Tina was born in Uganda and emigrated to London and then Canada. Nowadays, you can find Tina in Southern California where she lives with her family.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

1. Wings to Soar is a novel in verse. Why does the author choose to write this story in poems instead of prose?

2. This book starts with a quote from the poem “Dreams” by Langston Hughes. How is it relevant to Viva’s story?

3. Why does Viva hate being called a refugee?

4. Viva is a big fan of Diana Ross and the Supremes. How does music help her get through hard times?

5. Why does Officer Graham opens up to Viva about his life in “Leroy’s Story”? How is his experience of race and racism different from Viva’s? How is it similar? Consider the setting (US vs. the UK), their specific backgrounds (biracial white and Black vs. Asian Ugandan), gender, age, etc.

FAVORITE DISCUSSIBLE BOOKS OF 2023

We asked thousands of book groups to tell us what books they read and discussed during 2023 that they enjoyed most. The top titles were:

Please visit ReadingGroupChoices.com between January 1 and April 1, 2025 to enter our 2024 Favorite Books Contest by telling us about your favorite books of 2024. You will be entered for a chance to win bookstore gift certificates to use toward your meetings plus books for each person in your group, compliments of our publishing partners.

READING GROUP CHOICES’ ADVISORY BOARD

Donna Paz Kaufman founded Reading Group Choices in 1994 to connect publishers, booksellers, libraries, and readers with great books for group discussion. Today, Paz & Associates owns Story & Song Bookstore Bistro and continues to assist people around the globe open, manage, and sell their independent bookstores in ~e Bookstore Training Group. To learn more about Paz & Associates, visit PazBookBiz.com.

John Mutter is editor-in-chief of Shelf Awareness, the daily e-mail news letter focusing on books, media about books, retailing and related issues to help booksellers, librarians and others do their jobs more effectively. Before he and his business partner, Jenn Risko, founded the company in May 2005, he was executive editor of bookselling at Publishers Weekly. He has covered book industry issues for 25 years and written for a variety of publications, including ~e Bookseller in the U.K.; Australian Bookseller & Publisher; Boersenblatt, the German book trade magazine; and College Store Magazine in the U.S. For more information about Shelf Awareness, go to its website, shelf-awareness.com.

Kathy Schultenover has been a bookseller for 30 years. She started the reading groups at Nashville’s Davis Kidd Booksellers in 1993, and facilitated a Classics Club, a Woman’s Book Club, and the DK Book Club for contemporary fiction and nonfiction. She also started a Book Club Registry for local clubs. Until the store closed in 2010, she produced annual Book Club Workshops on a variety of topics of interest to community reading groups. In 2011 she joined the new Parnassus Books and has continued her role as Book Clubs Manager, leading in-store groups, holding workshops and speaking to groups throughout Nashville.

Charlie Mead owned and managed Reading Group Choices from 2005 until 2014. He sold the business to Mary Morgan in April 2014. Charlie’s business partner and wife, Barbara Drummond Mead, co-owned and managed the business until her passing in 2011. From 1972 to 1999, Charlie served at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Compaq Computer Corporation, both now part of Hewlett Packard, most recently as vice president of communication accounts worldwide. In 1999, Charlie became vice president of Sales of Interpath Communications Corporation, an Internet infrastructure company, until the company’s sale in 2000. From 2000 to 2005, Charlie owned and managed Connxsys LLC, a communications consulting firm.

Scott Onak served as the Communications Coordinator for Reading Group Choices from 2017-2021. He is a writer and educator who has taught creative writing at the University of Idaho, University of Chicago, and Story Studio Chicago, among other schools. His fiction has been published in journals including Ninth Letter, Mid-American Review, Necessary Fiction, and Midwest Gothic, and he has received writing residencies from Vermont Studio Center and the Ragdale Foundation. He currently lives and teaches English in France.