Library Blog
Get YETI to Read: Join the Bay County Library System's 2025 Winter Reading Program!
As the winter chill sets in, there's no better time to cozy up with a good book. The Bay County Library System is thrilled to announce the return of its annual Winter Reading Program, "Return of the YETI," kicking off on January 6, 2025. This engaging program encourages readers of all ages to dive i...
Read MoreLooking for new audiobooks? Here's Hoopla!
Do you Hoopla? If not, it's the perfect time to start! Late last year, all of our digital audiobooks made the move from Libby to Hoopla. Now, in addition to your 10 monthly instant borrows, Bay County resident cardholders have access to Flex audiobook titles. In addition to the ...
Read MoreRomantasy Reads
The popularity of titles like Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses are leaving readers on a hunt searching for more read-alikes. But if you search other fantasy titles, you may not find the relationships you loved in these titles, but if you search romance titles you may not have the fantasti...
Read MoreUpcoming Events
Lunar New Year Celebration - Wirt
You are invited to our branches for a special program about Lunar New Year, presented by students from Dow High School’s Dear Asian Youth club. Learn about Lunar New Year traditions and make a paper lantern to take home!
Disclaimer(s)
Registration is required. Please register in person, by phone, or online.
Estate Planning with Garske_Hewitt
Bring your knitting and crochet projects and join us while we work on our projects. Other handwork is welcomed.
Family Storytime - Wirt
Family Storytime
Stories, rhymes, music, and movement to encourage everyone in the family to share their love of reading.
Best for children ages 6 and under with a participating caregiver.
Registration for all BCLS Winter storytimes begins on Friday, December 6, 2024.
Disclaimer(s)
The library makes every effort to ensure our programs can be enjoyed by all. If you have any concerns about accessibility or need to request specific accommodations, please contact the library.
This program is designed for children and accompanying adults. Please plan to attend and be engaged with your child for this program. Drop offs will not be permitted.
Registration is required. Please register in person, by phone, or online.
Baby Storytime
Nurture a love of books in your baby! Enjoy songs, rhymes, and stories, followed by a chance for play!
Best for children under the age of 2 with a participating caregiver.
Registration for all BCLS Winter storytimes begins on Friday, December 6, 2024.
Disclaimer(s)
The library makes every effort to ensure our programs can be enjoyed by all. If you have any concerns about accessibility or need to request specific accommodations, please contact the library.
This program is designed for children and accompanying adults. Please plan to attend and be engaged with your child for this program. Drop offs will not be permitted.
Registration is required. Please register in person, by phone, or online.
Baby Storytime - Wirt
Baby Storytime
Nurture a love of books in your baby! Enjoy songs, rhymes, and stories, followed by a chance for play!
Best for children under the age of 2 with a participating caregiver.
Registration for all BCLS Winter storytimes begins on Friday, December 6, 2024.
Disclaimer(s)
The library makes every effort to ensure our programs can be enjoyed by all. If you have any concerns about accessibility or need to request specific accommodations, please contact the library.
This program is designed for children and accompanying adults. Please plan to attend and be engaged with your child for this program. Drop offs will not be permitted.
Registration is required. Please register in person, by phone, or online.
Preschool Storytime - Auburn
Preschool Storytime
Join us with your preschooler for stories, rhymes, music, movement, and early literacy fun!
Best for ages 2-5 with a participating caregiver.
Registration for all BCLS Winter storytimes begins on Friday, December 6, 2024.
Disclaimer(s)
The library makes every effort to ensure our programs can be enjoyed by all. If you have any concerns about accessibility or need to request specific accommodations, please contact the library.
This program is designed for children and accompanying adults. Please plan to attend and be engaged with your child for this program. Drop offs will not be permitted.
Registration is required. Please register in person, by phone, or online.
Let Bluey Hack Your Snacks!-MSU Extension
Oh, biscuits! Join Ms. Ronda from MSU Extension in making Bluey-themed treats based off the popular television show!
Disclaimer(s)
Please alert staff to any food allergies.
Registration is required. Please register in person, by phone, or online.
This could get messy! Please wear old clothes.
Staff Picks
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Definitely Better Now
A touching and deeply funny debut about starting over sober only to discover life's biggest messes are still waiting right where you left them.
The very last person anyone should worry about is Emma. Yes, hi, she's an alcoholic. But she's officially been sober for one entire year. That's twelve months of better health. Fifty-two whole weeks of focusing on nothing but her nine-to-five office job, group meetings, and avoiding the kind of bad decisions that previously left her awash in shame and regret. It's also been 365 days of not dating. And with her new dating profile, Emma, 26, of New York is ready to put herself back out there.
Except--was dating always this complicated? And did Emma's mother really have to choose now to move in with her new boyfriend? Being assigned to plan her office's holiday party feels like icing on the suddenly very overwhelming cake until her estranged father reappears with devastating news. Icing, meet cherry on top. But then there's Ben, the charming IT guy who, despite Emma's awkwardness and shortcomings, seems to maybe actually get her? Sobriety is turning out to be far from the flawless future Emma had once envisioned for herself, but as she allows herself to open up to Ben and confront difficult past relationships, she's beginning to realize that taking things one day at a time might just be the perfectly imperfect path she's meant to be on.
Bittersweet and darkly hilarious, Ava Robinson's debut novel about navigating sobriety and complicated family dynamics is witty, heartbreaking, and profoundly relatable.
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All the Colors of the Dark
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of We Begin at the End comes a soaring thriller and an epic love story that “hits like a sledgehammer . . . an absolutely must-read novel” (Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl).
Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today
The Boston Globe’s #1 Thriller/Mystery of 2024 So Far
A Washington Post and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
“Kept me frantically turning the pages and somehow made me cry at the end . . . Brava!”—Kristin Hannah, author of The Women
“Melds tense suspense with a powerful exploration of devotion, obsession, and love.”—People (Best New Books)
1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the smalltown of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing.
When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake.
Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another.
A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each, Chris Whitaker has written a novel about what lurks in the shadows of obsession and the blinding light of hope. -
Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books
"Kirsten Miller has that rare ability to take a serious subject and make it very, very funny. I enjoyed this novel and you will too."--James Patterson
The provocative and hilarious summer read that will have book lovers cheering and everyone talking! Kirsten Miller, author of The Change, brings us a bracing, wildly entertaining satire about a small Southern town, a pitched battle over banned books, and a little lending library that changes everything.
Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books--none of which she's actually read. To replace the "pornographic" books she's challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she's sure the town's readers need.
What Lula doesn't know is that a local troublemaker has stolen her wholesome books, removed their dust jackets, and restocked Lula's library with banned books: literary classics, gay romances, Black history, witchy spell books, Judy Blume novels, and more. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean's library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula Dean's enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town's disgraced mayor.
That's when all the townspeople who've been borrowing from Lula's library begin to reveal themselves. That's when the showdown that's been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town...and change it forever.
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The Woks of Life: Recipes to Know and Love from a Chinese American Family
JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE • NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER • IACP AWARD FINALIST • PUBLISHERS WEEKLY STARRED REVIEW • “The Woks of Life did something miraculous: It reconnected me to my love of Chinese food and showed me how simple it is to make my favorite dishes myself.”—KEVIN KWAN, author of Crazy Rich Asians
The family behind the acclaimed blog The Woks of Life shares 100 of their favorite home-cooked and restaurant-style Chinese recipes in ”a very special book” (J. Kenji López-Alt, author of The Food Lab and The Wok)
ONE OF THE TEN BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: San Francisco Chronicle, Simply Recipes
ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Food & Wine, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine, Delish, Epicurious
This is the story of a family as told through food. Judy, the mom, speaks to traditional Chinese dishes and cultural backstory. Bill, the dad, worked in his family’s Chinese restaurants and will walk you through how to make a glorious Cantonese Roast Duck. Daughters Sarah and Kaitlin have your vegetable-forward and one-dish recipes covered—put them all together and you have the first cookbook from the funny and poignant family behind the popular blog The Woks of Life.
In addition to recipes for Mini Char Siu Bao, Spicy Beef Biang Biang Noodles, Cantonese Pork Belly Fried Rice, and Salt-and-Pepper Fried Oyster Mushrooms, there are also helpful tips and tricks throughout, including an elaborate rundown of the Chinese pantry, explanations of essential tools (including the all-important wok), and insight on game-changing Chinese cooking secrets like how to “velvet” meat to make it extra tender and juicy.
Whether you’re new to Chinese cooking or if your pantry is always stocked with bean paste and chili oil, you’ll find lots of inspiration and trustworthy recipes that will become a part of your family story, too. -
Now is Not the Time to Panic
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Named a Best Book of the Year by: Time * Kirkus Reviews * USA Today * Entertainment Weekly * Garden & Gun * Vox * Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Most Anticipated Book of Fall from: Associated Press * Atlanta Journal-Constitution * BookPage * Book Riot * The Boston Globe * Entertainment Weekly * Esquire * Garden & Gun * LitHub * St. Louis Post-Dispatch * Sunset Magazine * Time * Town & Country * The Millions * USA Today * Vogue * Vulture * The Week
An exuberant, bighearted novel about two teenage misfits who spectacularly collide one fateful summer, and the art they make that changes their lives forever
Sixteen-year-old Frankie Budge--aspiring writer, indifferent student, offbeat loner--is determined to make it through yet another summer in Coalfield, Tennessee, when she meets Zeke, a talented artist who has just moved into his grandmother's house and who is as awkward as Frankie is. Romantic and creative sparks begin to fly, and when the two jointly make an unsigned poster, shot through with an enigmatic phrase, it becomes unforgettable to anyone who sees it. The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us.
The posters begin appearing everywhere, and people wonder who is behind them and start to panic. Satanists, kidnappers--the rumors won't stop, and soon the mystery has dangerous repercussions that spread far beyond the town.
Twenty years later, Frances Eleanor Budge gets a call that threatens to upend her carefully built life: a journalist named Mazzy Brower is writing a story about the Coalfield Panic of 1996. Might Frances know something about that?
A bold coming-of-age story, written with Kevin Wilson's trademark wit and blazing prose, Now Is Not the Time to Panic is a nuanced exploration of young love, identity, and the power of art. It's also about the secrets that haunt us--and, ultimately, what the truth will set free.
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Pony Confidential
An NPR "Book of the Day"
In this one-of-a-kind mystery with heart and humor, a hilariously grumpy pony must save the only human he’s ever loved after discovering she stands accused of a murder he knows she didn’t commit.
Pony has been passed from owner to owner for longer than he can remember. Fed up, he busts out and goes on a cross-country mission to reunite with Penny, the little girl who he was separated from and hasn’t seen in years.
Penny, now an adult, is living an ordinary life when she gets a knock on her door and finds herself in handcuffs, accused of murder and whisked back to the place she grew up. Her only comfort when the past comes back to haunt her is the memory of her precious, rebellious pony.
Hearing of Penny’s fate, Pony knows that Penny is no murderer. So, as smart and devious as he is cute, the pony must use his hard-won knowledge of human weakness and cruelty to try to clear Penny’s name and find the real killer.
This acutely observant, feel-good mystery reveals the humanity of animals and beastliness of humans in a rollicking escapade of epic proportions. -
Assistant to the Villain
THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Once Upon a Time meets The Office in Hannah Maehrer’s laugh-out-loud viral TikTok series turned novel, about the sunshine assistant to an Evil Villain...and their unexpected romance.
ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem and terror, and other Dark Things In General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.
With ailing family to support, Evie Sage's employment status isn't just important, it's vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer—naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie.
But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat...and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain—and his entire nefarious empire—out.
Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work...and ensure he makes them pay.
After all, a good job is hard to find.
The Assistant and the Villain series is best enjoyed in order.
Reading Order:
Book #1 Assistant to the Villain
Book #2 Apprentice to the Villain -
Keep It in the Family
In this thrilling novel from bestselling author John Marrs, a young couple’s house hides terrible secrets—and not all of them are confined to the past.
Mia and Finn are busy turning a derelict house into their dream home when Mia unexpectedly falls pregnant. But just when they think the house is ready, Mia discovers a shocking message scored into a skirting board: I WILL SAVE THEM FROM THE ATTIC. Following the clue up into the eaves, the couple make a gruesome discovery: their home was once a real-life murder house, with the evidence still concealed within the four walls.
In the wake of their traumatic discovery, the baby arrives and Mia can’t shake her fixation with the monstrous crimes that happened right above them. Tormented by the terrible things she saw, she is desperate to dig into the past to find answers.
Secrecy shrouds the mystery of the attic, but when shards of a dark truth start to emerge, Mia realises the danger is terrifyingly present. She is prepared to do anything to protect her family—but will the previous tenants stop her from discovering their secret?
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The Dead Romantics
A New York Times Notable Book of 2022!
The New York Times Bestseller and Good Morning America Book Club Pick!
"I LOVED this book! ...Funny, breathtaking, hopeful, and dreamy.”—Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis
A disillusioned millennial ghostwriter who, quite literally, has some ghosts of her own, has to find her way back home in this sparkling adult debut from national bestselling author Ashley Poston.
Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead.
When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won't give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father.
For ten years, she's run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it.
Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is.
Romance is most certainly dead . . . but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories.
"One of the Summer's Hottest Reads"—Entertainment Weekly -
Blindsighted
Gillian Flynn says, "Karin Slaughter is simply one of the best thriller writers working today."
A small Georgia town erupts in panic when a young college professor is found brutally mutilated in the local diner. But it's only when town pediatrician and coroner Sara Linton does the autopsy that the full extent of the killer's twisted work becomes clear.
Sara's ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, leads the investigation—a trail of terror that grows increasingly macabre when another local woman is found crucified a few days later. But he's got more than a sadistic serial killer on his hands, for the county's sole female detective, Lena Adams—the first victim's sister—want to serve her own justice.
But it is Sara who holds the key to finding the killer. A secret from her past could unmask the brilliantly malevolent psychopath .. or mean her death.
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Home Is Where the Bodies Are
From New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage and You Shouldn't Have Come Here comes a chilling family thriller about the (sometimes literal) skeletons in the closet.
After their mother passes, three estranged siblings reunite to sort out her estate. Beth, the oldest, never left home. She stayed with her mom, caring for her until the very end. Nicole, the middle child, has been kept at arm's length due to her ongoing battle with a serious drug addiction. Michael, the youngest, lives out of state and hasn't been back to their small Wisconsin town since their father ran out on them seven years before.
While going through their parents' belongings, the siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories. However, the nostalgia is cut short when one of the VHS tapes reveals a night back in 1999 that none of them have any recollection of. On screen, their father appears covered in blood. What follows is a dead body and a pact between their parents to get rid of it, before the video abruptly ends.
Beth, Nicole, and Michael must now decide whether to leave the past in the past or uncover the dark secret their mother took to her grave.
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The Librarian Spy
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER--for fans of All the Light We Cannot See and The Tattooist of Auschwitz!
"Readers will be on the edge of their seats.... A brilliant tale of resistance, courage and ultimately hope." -Kelly Rimmer, New York Times bestselling author of The Warsaw Orphan
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Bookshop in London comes a moving new novel inspired by the true history of America's library spies of World War II.
Ava thought her job as a librarian at the Library of Congress would mean a quiet, routine existence. But an unexpected offer from the US military has brought her to Lisbon with a new mission: posing as a librarian while working undercover as a spy gathering intelligence.
Meanwhile, in occupied France, Elaine has begun an apprenticeship at a printing press run by members of the Resistance. It's a job usually reserved for men, but in the war, those rules have been forgotten. Yet she knows that the Nazis are searching for the press and its printer in order to silence them.
As the battle in Europe rages, Ava and Elaine find themselves connecting through coded messages and discovering hope in the face of war.
"Uplifting, inspiring and suspenseful, this is one to savor!" -Natasha Lester, New York Times bestselling author of The Riviera House
"Madeline Martin is a fantastic author. The Librarian Spy is a stunning tour de force of historical fiction." -Karen Robards, author of The Black Swan of Paris
Don't miss Madeline Martin's next heartwarming historical novel, The Booklover's Library!
Also by Madeline Martin:
- The Last Bookshop in London
- The Keeper of Hidden Books
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Part of Your World
A refreshingly modern fairy tale and instant New York Times bestseller that Love Hypothesis author Ali Hazelwood hails as "an uplifting, feel-good, romantic read."
After a wild bet, gourmet grilled-cheese sandwich, and cuddle with a baby goat, Alexis Montgomery has had her world turned upside down. The cause: Daniel Grant, a ridiculously hot carpenter who's ten years younger than her and as casual as they come--the complete opposite of sophisticated city-girl Alexis. And yet their chemistry is undeniable.
While her ultra-wealthy parents want her to carry on the family legacy of world-renowned surgeons, Alexis doesn't need glory or fame. She's fine with being a "mere" ER doctor. And every minute she spends with Daniel and the tight-knit town where he lives, she's discovering just what's really important. Yet letting their relationship become anything more than a short-term fling would mean turning her back on her family and giving up the opportunity to help thousands of people.
Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible, and yet she can't just give up the joy she's found with him either. With so many differences between them, how can Alexis possibly choose between her world and his?
"Abby Jimenez's words are like fairy dust... they sprinkled humor and warmth all over my life. Pick up Part of Your World if you're looking for an uplifting, feel-good, romantic read--and for a beautiful reminder that we should always try to live the life that makes us the happiest." --Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis- Book of the Month Club Best Book of the Year finalist
- Goodreads Choice Awards finalist
- BookPage Magazine Best Books of the Year
- Booklist Best Romances of the Year
- SheReads Romance Book of the Year Award nomination
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We Used to Live Here
Get Out meets Parasite in this eerily haunting debut and Reddit hit—soon to be a Netflix original movie starring Blake Lively—about two homeowners whose lives are turned upside down when the house’s previous residents unexpectedly visit.
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.
As soon as the strangers enter their home, uncanny and inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things? -
Funny Story
AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
Named a Most Anticipated book of 2024 by TIME ∙ The New York Times ∙ Goodreads ∙ Entertainment Weekly ∙ Today ∙ Paste ∙ SheReads ∙ BookPage ∙ Woman's World ∙ The Nerd Daily and more!
A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.
Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.
Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?
But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?
New Arrivals
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The Three Lives of Cate Kay
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo meets First Lie Wins in this electric, voice-driven debut novel about an elusive bestselling author who decides to finally confess her true identity after years of hiding from her past.
Cate Kay knows how to craft a story. As the creator of a bestselling book trilogy that struck box office gold as a film series, she’s one of the most successful authors of her generation. The thing is, Cate Kay doesn’t really exist. She’s never attended author events or granted any interviews. Her real identity had been a closely guarded secret, until now.
As a young adult, she and her best friend Amanda dreamed of escaping their difficult homes and moving to California to become movie stars. But the day before their grand adventure, a tragedy shattered their dreams and Cate has been on the run ever since, taking on different names and charting a new future. But after a shocking revelation, Cate understands that returning home is the only way she’ll be a whole person again. -
Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging As a Woman
From generational icon Brooke Shields comes an intimate and empowering exploration of aging that flips the script on the idea of what it means for a woman to grow older
Brooke Shields has spent a lifetime in the public eye. Growing up as a child actor and model, her every feature was scrutinized, her every decision judged. Today Brooke faces a different kind of scrutiny: that of being a “woman of a certain age.”
And yet, for Brooke, the passage of time has brought freedom. At fifty-nine, she feels more comfortable in her skin, more empowered and confident than she did decades ago in those famous Calvin Kleins. Now, in Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old, she’s changing the narrative about women and aging.
This is an era, insists Brooke, when women are reclaiming agency and power, not receding into the shadows. These are the years when we get to decide how we want to live—when we get to write our own stories.
With remarkable candor, Brooke bares all, painting a vibrant and optimistic picture of being a woman in the prime of her life, while dismantling the myths that have, for too long, dimmed that perception. Sharing her own life experiences with humor and humility, and weaving together research and reporting, Brooke takes aim at the systemic factors that contribute to age-related bias.
By turns inspiring, moving, and galvanizing, Brooke’s honesty and vulnerability will resonate with women everywhere, and spark a new conversation about the power and promise of midlife. -
A Sea of Unspoken Things
In this captivating atmospheric novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Unmaking of June Farrow, a woman investigates her twin brother’s mysterious death while confronting the ghosts of her own haunted past.
James and Johnny Golden were once inseparable. For as long as she can remember, James shared an almost supernatural connection with her twin brother, Johnny, that went beyond intuition—she could feel what he was feeling. So, when Johnny is killed in a tragic accident, James knows before her phone even rings that her brother is gone and that she’s alone—truly alone—for the first time in her life.
When James arrives in the secluded town of Six Rivers, California, to settle her brother’s affairs, she’s forced to revisit the ominous events of their shared past and finally face Micah, the only other person who knows their secrets—and the only man she has ever loved.
But as James delves deeper into Johnny’s world, she realizes that their unique connection hasn’t completely vanished. The more she immerses herself in his life, the more questions she has about the brother she thought she knew. Johnny was hiding something, and he’s not the only one. The deeper she digs, the more she is compelled to unravel the truth behind the days leading up to Johnny’s death. Ultimately, James must decide which truths should come to light, and which are better left buried forever. -
The Sinners All Bow: Two Authors, One Murder, and the Real Hester Prynne
One of Amazon’s Best History Books of January
Acclaimed journalist, podcaster, and true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson tells the true story of the scandalous murder investigation that became the inspiration for both Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and the first true-crime book published in America.
On a cold winter day in 1832, Sarah Maria Cornell was found dead in a quiet farmyard in a small New England town. When her troubled past and a secret correspondence with charismatic Methodist minister Reverend Ephraim Avery was uncovered, more questions emerged. Was Sarah’s death a suicide...or something much darker? Determined to uncover the real story, Victorian writer Catharine Read Arnold Williams threw herself into the investigation as the trial was unfolding and wrote what many claim to be the first American true-crime narrative, Fall River. The murder divided the country and inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter—but the reverend was not convicted, and questions linger to this day about what really led to Sarah Cornell’s death. Until now.
In The Sinners All Bow, acclaimed true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson travels back in time to nineteenth-century small-town America, emboldened to finish the work Williams started nearly two centuries before. Using modern investigative advancements—including “forensic knot analysis” and criminal profiling (which was invented fifty-five years later with Jack the Ripper)—Dawson fills in the gaps of Williams’s research to find the truth and bring justice to an unsettling mystery that speaks to our past as well as our present, anchored by three women who subverted the script they were given. -
The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus
READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY
“Undeniably delicious.” —The New York Times
“A spellbinding debut about friendship, motherhood, first love, and the choices that bind us. . . I couldn't put it down!” —Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Summer Will Be Different
A witty, atmospheric, and brilliantly told novel that offers compelling portraits of womanhood, motherhood and female friendship, along with the irresistible intrigue surrounding an extraordinary British family
Arriving at the University of Edinburgh for her first term, Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she’ll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father’s—now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox—lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lord Lennox’s centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents’ secret, just as she’s falling in love for the first time . . .
As Pen experiences the sharp shock of adulthood, she comes to rely on herself for the first time in her life. A rich and rewarding novel of campus life, of sexual awakening, and ultimately, of the many ways women can become mothers in this world, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus asks to what extent we need to look back in order to move forward. -
Hope: The Autobiography
Pope Francis originally intended this exceptional book to appear only after his death, but the needs of our times and the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope have moved him to make this precious legacy available now.
Hope is the first autobiography in history ever to be published by a Pope. Written over six years, this complete autobiography starts in the early years of the twentieth century, with Pope Francis’s Italian roots and his ancestors’ courageous migration to Latin America, continuing through his childhood, the enthusiasms and preoccupations of his youth, his vocation, adult life, and the whole of his papacy up to the present day.
In recounting his memories with intimate narrative force (not forgetting his own personal passions), Pope Francis deals unsparingly with some of the crucial moments of his papacy and writes candidly, fearlessly, and prophetically about some of the most important and controversial questions of our present times: war and peace (including the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East), migration, environmental crisis, social policy, the position of women, sexuality, technological developments, the future of the Church and of religion in general.
Hope includes a wealth of revelations, anecdotes, and illuminating thoughts. It is a thrilling and very human memoir, moving and sometimes funny, which represents the “story of a life” and, at the same time, a touching moral and spiritual testament that will fascinate readers throughout the world and will be Pope Francis’s legacy of hope for future generations.
The book is enhanced by remarkable photographs, including private and unpublished material made personally available by Pope Francis himself. -
You'll Never Believe Me: A Life of Lies, Second Tries, and Things I Should Only Tell My Therapist
The compelling, edgy, compassionate, laugh-out-loud memoir from Kari Ferrell, formerly known as the "Hipster Grifter"
Before Anna Delvey, before the Tinder Swindler, there was Kari Ferrell. Adopted at a young age by a Mormon family in Utah, Kari struggled with questions of self-worth and identity as one of the few Asian Americans in her insulated community, leading her to run with the “bad crowd” in an effort to fit in. Soon, stealing from superstores turned into picking up men (and picking their pockets), and before she knew it, Kari had graduated from petty theft to Utah’s most wanted list. Though Kari was able to escape the Southwest, she couldn’t outrun her new moniker: the Hipster Grifter.
New York City’s indie sleaze scene had found its newest celebrity—just as Kari found herself in a heap of trouble. Jail time, riots, bad checks, and an explosion of internet infamy and fetishization put her name in the spotlight. Beyond the gossip and Gawker posts, there’s a side to Kari the media never saw—until now.
By turns rollicking and irreverent, warm and compassionate, You’ll Never Believe Me tells Kari’s story for the first time. A heartfelt narrative of redemption and reconciliation as Kari eventually dedicates her life to activism, social justice, and setting the record straight, this memoir introduces a fresh, hilarious new voice to the literary stage and offers readers a nostalgic, uplifting, and at times unbelievable book that grapples with truth, why we lie, and what it means when our pasts don’t paint the whole picture. -
The Stolen Queen
From New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis, an utterly addictive new novel that will transport you from New York City’s most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back.
Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. That is until an unbearable tragedy strikes.
New York City, 1978: Nineteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the “party of the year.”
Meanwhile, Charlotte is now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art. She’s consumed by her research on Hathorkare—a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant.
The night of the gala: One of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing, and there are signs Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening. Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, and a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she’d never return: Egypt. But if they have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past—which may mean leading them both directly into danger. -
The Business Trip
"A stunning and accomplished debut, with hugely relatable characters and an addictive storyline that kept me turning the pages well into the night. Bravo!" --BA Paris, New York Times bestselling author
"Wow, The Business Trip was nonstop twists and turns. I loved the unusual way that the story was told, and I kept reading all day long because I couldn't wait to see how it ended!" -- Freida McFadden, New York Times bestselling author
THE BUSINESS TRIP is the gripping, page-turning debut from author Jessie Garcia.
Stephanie and Jasmine have nothing and everything in common. The two women don’t know each other but are on the same plane. Stephanie is on a business trip and Jasmine is fleeing an abusive relationship. After a few days, they text their friends the same exact messages about the same man—the messages becoming stranger and more erratic.
And then the two women vanish. The texts go silent, the red flags go up, and the panic sets in. When Stephanie and Jasmine are each declared missing and in danger, it begs the questions: Who is Trent McCarthy? What did he do to these women— or what did they do to him?
Twist upon twist, layer upon layer, where nothing is as it seems, The Business Trip takes you on a descent into the depths of a mastermind manipulator. But who is playing who? -
Tidy Up Your Life: Rethinking How to Organize, Declutter, and Make Space for What Matters Most
Bring order to your home and focus to your busy life with Tidy Dad’s guiding principles and practical routines for organizing, cleaning, and prioritizing—both emotionally and physically.
A father of three with a stressful job, Tyler Moore felt his life resembled an overstuffed closet: disorganized and overly busy behind tidy, closed doors. When it all became too much—for his family's 750-square-foot apartment and his mental health—he set out to unpack the physical and emotional mess around him.
Chronicling his progress as “Tidy Dad” on Instagram, Moore learned that tidying is about so much more than the aesthetics and decluttering of a physical space. When he stepped back, reflected, and named what was "just enough," he was able to devise systems and hacks that brought order to his whole life. Drawing on Moore's experience with the everyday highs and lows of parenting, home management, and work-life balance, and filled with his signature warmth and wit, Tidy Up Your Life includes:
- Tidy Dad’s process for tackling overwhelming tasks—how to identify what really matters both emotionally and physically to you and the people who share your space.
- How to arrive at your own definition of "just enough" as well as thought experiments for appreciating what you already have.
- The goal is not "always tidy" but "easily tidied" and other principles for lifting some of the mental and physical burdens we feel when managing our homes.
- Tips for making a “one-area-a-weekday” cleaning schedule and other simple routines that compliment household rhythms and reduce the mental load you may be carrying.
A vital book for overwhelmed parents as well as overworked, stressed-out professionals, Tidy Up Your Life will help you live a more joyful, tidied-up life. -
Buy What You Love Without Going Broke: Transform Your Spending and Get More of What Money Can't Buy
A relatable personal finance guide that gives a fresh take on how to control your impulse spending so you can stick to a budget and pay off debt, without the guilt and shame of traditional financial advice--from the hosts of the beloved Frugal Friends podcast.
There's a lot of noise out there about how to spend (and not spend) your hard-earned money. But what if you made financial decisions based on what you value--instead of what others are telling you to value?
This is the empowering approach Jen Smith and Jill Sirianni, hosts of the Frugal Friends podcast, want you to take to improve your spending habits. They believe you can value anything (yes, anything!), whether that's a daily latte, fancy dinners out, or vacations. But, despite what social media is saying, you don't value everything.
The Frugal Friends' wisdom comes from personal experience: Jen paid off $78,000 of debt in two years without a six-figure income, while Jill has a background in social work and downsized to an RV to pay off student loans. Together, their advice is both relatable and actionable.
In their debut book, they share a plan for sifting through what's not important to find the things you truly love spending money on. You'll learn how to
- Analyze your current spending and identify what you value
- Prioritize your values when you can't afford everything
- Identify the root causes of your impulse spending
- Make your habit changes stick long-term
From credit card and student loan debt to the rising costs of childcare and homes; it has never been more important to get control of your spending. Jen and Jill show you how to do it in a way that's healthy, not shameful, while exploring topics like overconsumption, self-worth, and the insidious history behind our consumption-obsessed culture.
If you want to reach your goals and feel good about your finances, Buy What You Love Without Going Broke offers a holistic approach to reshape the way you think about spending money.
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All the Water in the World
In the tradition of Station Eleven, a literary thriller set partly on the roof of New York’s Museum of Natural History in a flooded future.
"Gripping...tense, delightful and rich with resonance." —Scientific American
"Captivating...The setting, the detailed emotive descriptions, and nail-biting adventure are incandescent." —Library Journal (starred)
All the Water in the World is told in the voice of a girl gifted with a deep feeling for water. In the years after the glaciers melt, Nonie, her older sister and her parents and their researcher friends have stayed behind in an almost deserted New York City, creating a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The rule: Take from the exhibits only in dire need. They hunt and grow their food in Central Park as they work to save the collections of human history and science. When a superstorm breaches the city’s flood walls, Nonie and her family must escape north on the Hudson. They carry with them a book that holds their records of the lost collections. Racing on the swollen river towards what may be safety, they encounter communities that have adapted in very different and sometimes frightening ways to the new reality. But they are determined to find a way to make a new world that honors all they've saved.
Inspired by the stories of the curators in Iraq and Leningrad who worked to protect their collections from war, All the Water in the World is both a meditation on what we save from collapse and an adventure story—with danger, storms, and a fight for survival. In the spirit of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Parable of the Sower, this wild journey offers the hope that what matters most – love and work, community and knowledge – will survive. -
Beg, Borrow, or Steal
Two feuding second-grade teachers (and neighbors) find themselves teaming up in this new rivals-to-lovers romance set in Rome, Kentucky—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rule Book and Practice Makes Perfect.
“Sarah Adams writes books with heart and soul. They speak to the people finding their way and being unapologetically themselves in the process. I love her style.”—Hannah Grace, author of Icebreaker
Emily Walker hates having her carefully crafted world disrupted by anyone, most of all her legendary nemesis, Jack Bennett. He’s the opposite of the wonderful heroes she dreams up in her double life as a romance writer, which is why Emily was perfectly happy when Jack left Rome, Kentucky, mid-school year with his fiancée. The last thing Emily saw coming was Jack’s return at the start of the summer after calling off the wedding and ending his relationship, but he’s here to stay—as her colleague and her neighbor.
Jack is glad to be back, eager to renovate his house and work on the next mystery novel under his bestselling pen name. But when he realizes he’s now neighbors with the one woman who has always pushed his buttons, he discovers something he’s even more excited about—thwarting Emily and her petty plans to sabotage his return.
With their chemistry-fueled animosity at an all-time high, Emily accidentally sends an email to their school’s principal that could reveal her secret literary side hustle. She needs to steal back her manuscript, and Jack—she hates to admit—is just the man to help her. Surprisingly, he agrees. Will their unlikely alliance put an end to their rivalry? Or could it lead to a steamy plot twist they never saw coming?
Look for all of Sarah Adams’s When in Rome books:
WHEN IN ROME • PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT • BEG, BORROW, OR STEAL (Coming Soon!) -
How to Be Enough: Self-Acceptance for Self-Critics and Perfectionists
Are you your own toughest critic? Learn to be good to yourself with this clear and compassionate guide.
Do you set demanding standards for yourself? If so, a lot likely goes well in your life: You might earn compliments, admiration, or accomplishments. Your high standards and hard work pay off.
But privately, you may feel like you’re falling behind, faking it, or different from everybody else. Your eagle-eyed inner quality control inspector highlights every mistake. You try hard to avoid criticism, but criticize yourself. Trying to get it right is your guiding light, but it has lit the way to a place of dissatisfaction, loneliness, or disconnection. In short, you may look like you’re hitting it out of the park, but you feel like you’re striking out.
This is perfectionism. And for everyone who struggles with it, it’s a misnomer: perfectionism isn’t about striving to be perfect. It’s about never feeling good enough.
Dr. Ellen Hendriksen—clinical psychologist, anxiety specialist, and author of How to Be Yourself—is on the same journey as you. In How to Be Enough, Hendriksen charts a flexible, forgiving, and freeing path, all without giving up the excellence your high standards and hard work have gotten you. She delivers seven shifts—including from self-criticism to kindness, control to authenticity, procrastination to productivity, comparison to contentment—to find self-acceptance, rewrite the Inner Rulebook, and most of all, cultivate the authentic human connections we’re all craving.
With compassion and humor, Hendriksen lays out a clear, effective, and empowering guide. To enjoy rather than improve, be real rather than impressive, and be good to yourself when you’re wired to be hard on yourself. -
Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose
From bestselling author Martha Beck, a new path to overcoming anxiety by awakening the creativity within
We live in an epidemic of anxiety. Most of us assume that the key to overcoming it is to think our way out. And for a while it works. But there is always something that sends us back into the anxious spiral we’ve been trying to climb out of.
In Beyond Anxiety, Dr. Martha Beck explains why anxiety is skyrocketing around you, and likely within you. She also tells you how to not only reduce your anxiety but use it to propel you into a life filled with peace, meaning, and joy.
Using a combination of the latest neuroscience as well as her background in sociology and coaching, Beck explains how our brains tend to get stuck in an “anxiety spiral,” a feedback system that can increase anxiety indefinitely. To climb out, we must engage different parts of our nervous system—the parts involved in creativity. Beck provides instructions for engaging the “creativity spiral,” in a process that not only shuts down anxiety but leads to innovative problem solving, a sense of meaning and purpose, and joyful, intimate connection with others—and with the world.
The opposite of anxiety, it turns out, is a wonderful new way of life—one that can calm and inspire us as individuals and help us become a source of healing for everything around us.