Parenting & Relationships bestsellers

Crying in H Mart

“I was struck by just how much I loved this book for how it walks through grief not as a way to leave it behind, but as a way to remember its exact shape. I’m grateful for its funny, self-deprecating, and wise observations, and for its difficult beauty.”

Steve Haruch, Parnassus Books

Fry bread is food. It is warm and delicious, piled high on a plate. Fry bread is time. It brings families together for meals and new memories. Fry bread is nation. It is shared by many, from coast to coast and beyond. Fry bread is us. It is a celebration of old and new, traditional and modern, similarity and difference. Told in lively and... Read more »

If you enjoyed On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, then you’ll love You Could Make This Place Beautiful.

“Poet Maggie Smith narrates her memoir of gorgeous prose about her heartbreaking divorce. Maggie Smith is a lovely writer and explores the purpose of memoir as she mines her formerly married and currently divorcing selves. I've seen this referred to as a middle-aged coming-of-age and I think that's an apt description. You Could Make This Place Beautiful is about life, grief, motherhood, and family, and how you pull it together (during a pandemic, no less) for yourself and your kids as you try to make sense of your life partner suddenly walking out the door. ”

Julie, Honest Dog Books

In the Dream House

“Welcome to the Dream House in this daring new kind of memoir that defies boundaries and boldly discards the conventions of genre. Inside, Carmen Maria Machado bares her soul in all of its pain and beauty, offering an intimate and profoundly vulnerable look at her own life, love, and sexuality. Machado has a gift for exposing the raw nerves and small miracles lurking beneath the surface of our daily lives. Her words move with a strange kind of urgency, surreal and yet true, like late-night phone calls when the rest of the world is asleep. I didn’t feel like I was reading a book so much as observing a person’s innermost thoughts. In the Dream House is a unique and extraordinary book.”

Jason Foose, Changing Hands

In this breakthrough book, clinical psychologist Lindsay Gibson exposes the destructive nature of parents who are emotionally immature or unavailable. You will see how these parents create a sense of neglect, and discover ways to heal from the pain and confusion caused by your childhood. By freeing yourself from your parents' emotional... Read more »

Happy-Go-Lucky

“Happy-Go-Lucky is another bang up group of essays of Sedaris' hilarious life, including family and partner stories deliciously presented. His Oberlin Commencement Speech, alone, is worth the book price! An upper for anyone down or ailing!”

Roxanne, Bookstore1Sarasota

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An Instant Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Indie Bestseller“This book is for any parent who has ever struggled under the substantial weight of caregiving—which is to say, all of us. Good Inside is not only a wise and practical guide to raising resilient, emotionally healthy kids, it’s also a supportive... Read more »

An urgently needed guide to help parents understand their teenagers’ intense and often fraught emotional lives—and how to support them through this critical developmental stage—from the New York Times bestselling author of Untangled and Under Pressure

In teenagers, powerful emotions come with the territory. And with so many of today’s teens... Read more »

Dinners with Ruth

“Delightfully narrated by the author, these descriptions of lifelong friendships among famous groundbreaking career women are a treat and a balm.”

Renee, The Bookstore of Glen Ellyn

"A groundbreaking book that redefines what it means to be in a relationship."
--John Gray, PhD., bestselling author of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

We already rely on science to tell us what to eat, when to exercise, and how long to sleep. Why not use science to help us improve our relationships? In this revolutionary book, psychiatrist... Read more »

Instant New York Times bestseller

Is understanding the science of attachment the key to building lasting friendships and finding “your people” in an ever-more-fragmented world?

How do we make and keep friends in an era of distraction, burnout, and chaos, especially in a society that often prizes romantic love at the expense of other... Read more »

Attachment theory has entered the mainstream, but most discussions focus on how we can cultivate secure monogamous relationships. What if, like many people, you're striving for secure, happy attachments with more than one partner? Polyamorous psychotherapist Jessica Fern breaks new ground by extending attachment theory into the realm of... Read more »

The Best of Me

“As if there is anything greater than a new David Sedaris, it's listening to David Sedaris read the new David Sedaris. This self-edited collection of essays from his prolific 25-year career is exactly what we need to boost the morale of 2020 and remind ourselves what a crazy world we've always lived in when viewed through Sedaris's keen observational eye and told with his unique & irreverent voice. The Best of Me is perfect for both long-time fans or those reading Sedaris for the first time and the audio read by the author means no nuance is left behind.”

Jessica, Literally Speaking

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The oldest cultures in the world have mastered the art of raising happy, well-adjusted children. What can we learn from them?

“Hunt, Gather, Parent is full of smart ideas that I immediately wanted to force on my own kids.” —Pamela Druckerman, The New York Times Book Review

When Dr. Michaeleen Doucleff becomes a mother,... Read more »

Ace

“This book is an eye-opening collection of personal testimonies, research, and history about asexuality, and to a lesser extent, aromanticism. Whether you are new to learning about asexuality or are asexual yourself, by the end of the book you will have a richer and multifaceted understanding of ace identity and experience.”

Miriasha, Phoenix Books

Calypso

“If there is a "King of Audiobooks", it has to be David Sedaris. The absolute best way to enjoy the writing of Sedaris is to hear him perform it. Not only is his voice rather odd, immediately putting you in a mood to giggle, but he is such an effortless performer it's impossible not to get caught up in his world. And what a world! In his latest, and indisputably most accomplished, work to date, he takes us on his journey through midlife: the betrayals of the body, the loss, the wear and tear on long relationships. I found myself shedding tears for his heartbreaking regrets and laughing so hard I had to pull my car over at his observances of the absurdities of everyday life.”

Kelly, Fountain Bookstore

A close friendship is one of the most influential and important relationships a human life can contain. Anyone will tell you that! But for all the rosy sentiments surrounding friendship, most people don’t talk much about what it really takes to stay close for the long haul.

Now two friends, Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, tell the story of their... Read more »

A revolutionary new approach to ADD/ADHD featuring cutting-edge research and strategies to help readers thrive, by the bestselling authors of the seminal books Driven to Distraction and Delivered from Distraction

“An inspired road map for living with a distractible brain . . . If you or your child suffer from ADHD, this book should be on your... Read more »

This program is read by the author.

In this illuminating narrative on the daily onslaught of body shame that kids face from peers, school, diet culture, and parents themselves, journalist Virginia Sole-Smith offers a compelling, reported look at how families can change the conversation around weight, health, and self-worth.

By the time they reach... Read more »

From the author of Expecting Better and The Family Firm, an economist's guide to the early years of parenting.

“Both refreshing and useful. With so many parenting theories driving us all a bit batty, this is the type of book that we need to help calm things down.” —LA Times

“The book is jampacked with information, but it’s also a delightful read... Read more »

An intimate, funny, and poignant travel memoir following New York Times bestselling author and actor Andrew McCarthy as he walks the Camino de Santiago with his son Sam.
 
When Andrew McCarthy's eldest son began to take his first steps into adulthood, McCarthy found himself wishing time would slow down. Looking to create a more meaningful... Read more »

The lifestyle creator, advice expert, and host of the It’s Me, Tinx podcast shares her hilarious and (sometimes brutally) honest wisdom on how to shift your approach to life, step into your confidence, and enjoy the journey.

It’s time to get laser focused on what makes us feel happy and fulfilled. Lifestyle creator, advice expert, and podcast... Read more »

All You Can Ever Know

“Nicole Chung’s memoir is a moving account of a young woman’s gradually evolving understanding of family and of herself as she uncovers the truth about the circumstances behind her adoption. Refusing the false dichotomy of adoption as inherently positive or negative, she reminds us that adoption is a fact and that it’s always complicated. This is an extraordinary account, told with candor and empathy. Though the transracial adoption of Asian Americans into white families and communities is common, few books have been written from the perspective of the adoptee. Chung has much to teach us, and readers approaching this book with a heart as open as hers will find much to nourish them here.”

Karen Maeda Allman , The Elliott Bay Book Company

Three suburban girls meet at a boarding school for troubled teens.
Eight years later, they were dead.

Bustle editor Samantha Leach and her childhood best friend, Elissa, met as infants in the suburbs of Providence, Rhode Island, where they attended nursery, elementary school, and temple together. As seventh graders, they would steal drinks from... Read more »

If you are a woman with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), you've probably known—all your life—that you're different. As girls, we learn which behaviors, thinking, learning, and working styles are preferred, which are accepted and tolerated, and which are frowned upon. These preferences are communicated in innumerable ways—from... Read more »

Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman reveal the full story behind their epic romance--presented in a series of intimate conversations between the couple.

The year: 2000. The setting: Los Angeles. A gorgeous virtuoso of an actress agreed to star in a random play, and a basement-dwelling scenic carpenter said he would assay a supporting role in the... Read more »

For decades, Rachel Louise Snyder has been a fierce advocate reporting on the darkest social issues that impact women's lives. This is her own story.

Snyder was eight years old when her mother died, and her distraught father thrust the family into an evangelical, cult-like existence halfway across the country. Furiously rebellious, she was... Read more »

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A “profound and beautiful” (Marilynne Robinson) account of joy and sorrow from one of the great writers of our time, The New Yorker’s Kathryn Schulz, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“I will stake my reputation on you being blown away by Lost & Found.”—Anne Lamott, author of Dusk, Night, Dawn... Read more »

It’s time to change the way we see toddlers. Using the pedagogical principles developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, Simone Davies shows how to turn life with a “terrible two” into a mutually rich and rewarding time of curiosity, learning, respect, and discovery. With hundreds of practical ideas for every aspect of living with a toddler, you’ll... Read more »

To make up or break up? Whether you’re just getting serious or have a long-term commitment, no other question causes so much heartache and self-doubt. Many other books tell you how to fix your relationship. This groundbreaking bestseller is the first one to help you choose whether you should try—or you need to go. Psychotherapist Mira... Read more »

This program is read by the author.

Operating Instructions meets Glennon Doyle in this new book by famed NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly that is destined to become a classic—about the year before her son goes to college—and the joys, losses and surprises that happen along the way.

The time for do-overs is over.

Ever since she became a parent, Mary... Read more »

The Good Life

“The book tackles almost every type of relationship in expressing data from their longitudinal study as well as linking it to today’s challenges of social media overdose and disconnectedness. If you think your life could use some spring cleaning, The Good Life is just the book for you.”

Roxanne, Bookstore1Sarasota

A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK 

"A hands-on, real talk guide for navigating the hot-button issues that so many families struggle with."--Reese Witherspoon

Tired, stressed, and in need of more help from your partner? Imagine running your household (and life!) in a new way...

It started with the Sh*t I Do List. Tired of being the "shefault" parent... Read more »

This program is read by the author.

For readers of Fair Play by Eve Rodsky and Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski comes a scathing, deeply-researched foray into the invisible, uncompensated work women perform every day.

We’re tired.

A stranger insists you “smile more,” even as you navigate a high-stress environment or grating commute. A... Read more »

The causes of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder range from severe neglect to monstrous abuse. Many survivors grew up in houses that were not homes—in families that were as loveless as orphanages and sometimes as dangerous.

If you felt unwanted, unliked, rejected, hated, and/or despised for a lengthy portion of your childhood, trauma may be... Read more »

"Ashley C. Ford brings listeners into her life in this outstanding coming-of-age story...Listeners will cheer as Ford attends college and weep as she visits her father in prison, and when he is finally released." -- AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner

This program is read by the author, and includes a bonus conversation between the author... Read more »

What to Expect When You're Expecting meets Freakonomics: an award-winning economist disproves standard recommendations about pregnancy to empower women while they're expecting. From the author of Cribsheet, a data-driven decision making guide to the early years of parenting

Pregnancy—unquestionably one of the most pro­found, meaningful... Read more »

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From Ali Wong, star of the Netflix original series Beef, a “refreshing, hilarious, and honest account of making a career in a male-dominated field, dating, being a mom, growing up, and so much more” (Bustle) through heartfelt and wickedly funny letters to her daughters

Ali Wong is one of Time’s 100 Most Influential... Read more »

New York Times bestseller!

From renowned mental health expert and speaker Dr. Gabor Maté, Scattered Minds explodes the myth of attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) as genetically based—and offers real hope and advice for children and adults who live with the condition.

In this breakthrough guide to understanding, treating, and healing Attention... Read more »

A thoughtful, down-to-earth, contemporary guide to help partners identify and address relationship-killing behavior patterns in their own lives.Good people can be bad at relationships. One night during his divorce, after one too many vodkas and a call with a phone-in-therapist who told him to “journal his feelings,” Matthew Fray started a blog.... Read more »

Just as Masters and Johnson were pioneers in the study of human sexuality, so Dr. John Gottman has revolutionized the study of marriage. As a professor of psychology at the University of Washington and the founder and director of the Seattle Marital and Family Institute, he has studied the habits of married couples in unprecedented detail over... Read more »

A Columbia University physician inspires us to rethink death and offers insights on how we can learn to embrace the art of dying well in this wise, clear-eyed book that is as compelling and soulful as Being Mortal, When Breath Becomes Air, and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.

As a specialist in both medical ethics and the treatment of older patients, Dr.... Read more »

“Don’t Call Me Home is about madness and love. Alexandra tells the best stories about her extraordinary childhood as she travels the world with her mother Viva.  Wit and wisdom wrapped and bound with love.” --Debbie Harry

“Alexandra Auder’s Don’t Call Me Home is thrumming with life, in all its absurdity, vividness, and gunk. I literally laughed... Read more »

A remarkable poetry collection from Clint Smith, the #1 New York Times bestselling and National Book Critics Circle award-winning author of How the Word Is Passed.

Clint Smith’s vibrant and compelling new collection traverses the vast emotional terrain of fatherhood, and explores how becoming a parent has recalibrated his sense of the world.... Read more »

How momfluencer culture impacts women psychologically as consumers, as performers of their stories, and as mothers

On Instagram, the private work of mothering is turned into a public performance, generating billions of dollars. The message is simple: we’re all just a couple of clicks away from a better, more beautiful experience of... Read more »

"A wise and fresh approach to mindful parenting.”—Tara Brach, author of Radical AcceptanceA kinder, more compassionate world starts with kind and compassionate kids. In Raising Good Humans, you’ll find powerful and practical strategies to break free from “reactive parenting” habits and raise kind, cooperative, and confident kids.Whether you’re... Read more »

A troubling account of heterosexual desire in the era of #MeToo

Heterosexuality is in crisis. Reports of sexual harassment, misconduct, and rape saturate the news in the era of #MeToo. Straight men and women spend thousands of dollars every day on relationship coaches, seduction boot camps, and couple’s therapy in a search for happiness.

In... Read more »

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The book that every parent, caregiver, and teacher needs to raise the next generation of antiracist thinkers, from the author of How to Be an Antiracist and recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Grant.

“Kendi’s latest . . . combines his personal experience as a parent with his scholarly expertise in showing how racism... Read more »

Winner of the Autism Society of America’s Dr. Temple Grandin Award for the Outstanding Literary Work in Autism

A groundbreaking book on autism, by one of the world’s leading experts, who portrays autism as a unique way of being human—this is “required reading....Breathtakingly simple and profoundly positive” (Chicago Tribune).

Autism therapy... Read more »

“If you want to know why Harriet Lerner is one of my great heroes, Why Won’t You Apologize? is the answer. This book is a game changer.” —Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Rising Strong

“Harriet Lerner is one hell of a wise woman. She draws you in with deft and engaging prose, and then changes your life with her... Read more »