Quick Reads to Smash Your Reading Challenge!

NEW YORK TIMES bestseller*People magazine Fall Must Read pick * 2022 BuzzFeed Fall Reading pick

A visceral and deeply personal memoir by the star of the Amazon Prime series Catastrophe, about love, loss, and fatherhood.

In 2016, Rob Delaney’s one-year-old son, Henry, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The family had moved from Los Angeles to London...

How can we live with integrity and pleasure in this world of police brutality and racism? An Asian American activist is challenged by his mother to face this question in this powerful—and funny—debut novel of generational change, a mother’s secret, and an activist’s coming-of-age

Twenty-one-year-old Reed is fed up. Angry about the killing of a...

C. L. Polk turns their considerable powers to a fantastical noir with Even Though I Knew the End. A magical detective dives into the affairs of Chicago’s divine monsters to secure a future with the love of her life. This sapphic period piece will dazzle anyone looking for mystery, intrigue, romance, magic, or all of the above. An exiled auspex... Read more »

Japan's internationally celebrated master storyteller returns with five stories of women on their way to healing that vividly portrays the blissful moments and the sorrows that surround us in everyday life

First published in Japan in 2003, Dead-End Memories collects the stories of five women who, following sudden and painful events, quietly... Read more »

Small Things Like These

“A small moving book about generosity, history, family and religion. Perfect for the holiday season when gratitude is on our minds. Bill Furlong didn’t come from much, but he had a benefactor. As he learns what is really happening in the “laundry” where young women end up, his memories of kindness move him to action. A quiet read that shows the power of a moral compass.”

Andrea, Bookstore1Sarasota

The Last White Man

“I loved this book! Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West stands up as one of my favorites, even years later. His newest delivers just as brilliantly. Themes of race and bigotry, couched in almost fable-like storytelling, feel timely, yet enduring.”

Rebekah Rine, Watermark Books

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

“Just as wonderful and as tender as A Psalm for the Wild-Built. A sweet and earthy cup of tea to warm the soul. New and old characters to giggle with, cry with, and just flat out fall in love with. A book that I will return to again and again.”

Allie Bisset, Third Street Books

The second full length poetry collection from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of What Kind of Woman.

Kate Baer shot into the literary stratosphere with the publication of her debut poetry collection, What Kind of Woman, which became an instant #1 New York Times bestseller.

Kate’s second full-length book of traditional poetry, And Yet,...

The long-awaited first short story-collection by the author of the cult sensation Convenience Store Woman, tales of weird love, heartfelt friendships, and the unsettling nature of human existence

With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stories ever to be translated into English. In Japan,...

How to Keep House While Drowning

“I absolutely loved the book and wanted to immediately listen to it again! I was also thrilled to be reading a book written by a Licensed Professional Counselor about cleaning of all things! This book's primary focus is mental health, and this is the lens in which cleaning is viewed from. Davis addresses trauma and how it can impact the completion of certain tasks in the home, introduces self-care kits and placing them around the house, and dedicates a portion of her book on caring for Black hair. What I think is most important about this book is its emphasis on disconnecting cleaning, morality, and identity. You are not a bad parent or person if your home is messy. Throughout the book, Davis offers and encourages self-compassionate reframing of thoughts about cleaning. She prompts the reader to reflect on where these thoughts and feelings about cleaning and its assumed connection to self-worth and competency come from. Whether you are struggling with anxiety, fatigue, depression, ADHD, or lack of support, or wish to have a healthier relationship with cleaning and yourself, I would highly recommend this book.”

R. Aimee, The Bluestocking Bookshop

Sanaaq is an intimate story of an Inuit family negotiating the changes brought into their community by the coming of the qallunaat, the white people, in the mid-nineteenth century. Composed in 48 episodes, it recounts the daily life of Sanaaq, a strong and outspoken young widow, her daughter Qumaq, and their small semi-nomadic community in...

Love & Saffron

“Such a sweet gentle tale of pen pals, born of a love of food and a great recipe. I was so enthralled and touched by the simplicity and beauty of the every-day-life displayed within the pages of this book. Keep a box of tissues handy. I was listening to the audio version while walking laps at the YMCA and CERTAINLY turned heads when I suddenly burst into tears!”

Kathy, The Well-Read Moose

The Lonesome Bodybuilder

“Yukiko Motoya takes the mundane and brilliantly spikes it with the fantastical, the aberrant, and the all-out unexpected. These stories tilt the axis of reality by degrees, deftly inverting scenes of both solitude and cohabitation, pitting the personal against the domestic. Amid increasingly splashy motifs, The Lonesome Bodybuilder asks how we define ourselves through our relationships to others and whether our true identities can ever be known. Buoyant, charming, and layered with intent, this collection deserves a bevy of admirers.”

Justin Walls, Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing

What Moves the Dead

“This was one of the best retellings of The Fall of The House of Usher I’ve ever read. Between the representation and the absolutely witty humor and excellently horrifying descriptions. This was an absolute joy to read. Also, half way through the book I learn that Avi Roque narrates the audiobook and I will listen to anything he narrates, because he’s: Just. That. Good. He added the right vibe and feel that this book begs to have. Now, no one talk to me about mushrooms for the next week or so, I’m temporarily horrified by them.”

Armilene, Rediscovered Books

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR · Marie Claire

“A taut and compelling depiction of loneliness and obsession.” --Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train

“[It] will keep you firmly in its grip.” --Oyinkan Braithwaite, bestselling author of My Sister, the Serial Killer

“The love child of Eugene Ionesco and Patricia... Read more »

A Mirror Mended is the next installment in USA Today bestselling author Alix E. Harrow's Fractured Fables series!

Zinnia Gray, professional fairy-tale fixer and lapsed Sleeping Beauty is over rescuing snoring princesses. Once you’ve rescued a dozen damsels and burned fifty spindles, once you’ve gotten drunk with twenty good fairies and made out...

This blistering, fearless, and unforgettable literary novel finds a woman with everything on the line and a life-or-death decision waiting for her—perfect for fans of Claudia Rankine and Jenny Offill.

Come of age in the credit crunch. Be civil in a hostile environment. Go to college, get an education, start a career. Do all the right things. Buy...

Featuring David Sedaris's unique blend of hilarity and heart, this new collection of keen-eyed animal-themed tales is an utter delight. Though the characters may not be human, the situations in these stories bear an uncanny resemblance to the insanity of everyday life.

In "The Toad, the Turtle, and the Duck," three strangers commiserate about... Read more »

Intimacies

“A masterful exploration of all the ways we can know and be known. One of my favorites of 2021!”

Samantha, A Great Good Place for Books

All Systems Red is the first tense science fiction adventure novella in Martha Wells' series The Murderbot Diaries. For fans of Westworld and Ex Machina. All Systems Red by Martha Wells begins The Murderbot Diaries, a new science fiction action and adventure series that tackles questions of the ethics of sentient robotics. It appeals to fans of... Read more »