Kids are back to school so now is the time to dive in to a new book! My community book club read James Frey’s new book, Next to Heaven and had a lively discussion about his characters and writing style, how people are influenced by money, and yes… swingers! It got juicy! Our next book is James by Percival Everett, the reimagining of The Adventures of Huck Finn told by Jim. I listened to some of it and will be going back to read the physical book this month.
A new book this September listed below, One of Them by Kitty Zeldis will be added to my TBR list next, and I am anxiously awaiting my pre-ordered copy of Stacy Waldman Bass’s memoir, Lightkeeper. Stacy is an incredible writer and this book is sure to be heartfelt and meaningful.
Lightkeeper by Stacy Waldman Bass (memoir)
A luminous story of loss and resilience, Lightkeeper captures acclaimed photographer Stacy Bass’s personal journey through grief—and the art of keeping her parents’ legacy alive through memory and photography.
In 1995, when a tragic seaplane accident on Block Island claimed her father’s life, Bass’s world shattered. She began to write as a way to process her excruciating grief, while gathering the pieces of his life through collected photographs. Some twenty-five years later, her mother was diagnosed with, and ultimately died from, pancreatic cancer after a one-year battle against that harrowing disease. During her mother’s illness, Bass created a living tribute of images and words that built a community of support around her mother when she needed it most.
By collecting and sharing photographs of her parents, Michael and Jessica Waldman, Bass recognized how photographs serve not merely as records but as powerful portals into memory—gateways to the stories that exist just outside the frame. Filled with stunning prose and vibrant photography, this evocative memoir reveals how Bass became the “lightkeeper” of her family’s legacy, preserving their stories for future generations. For anyone who has loved deeply and lost tragically, Lightkeeper offers both solace and inspiration—reminding us that the light of those who have been lost always endures.
Marrow by Samantha Browning Shea (horror)
A searing take on femininity and power by the esteemed literary agent Samantha Browning Shea, Marrow transports readers to a small island off the coast of Maine, where a fertility coven has done the given childless women the chance to become mothers.
The day Oona was kicked out of her mother’s coven at eighteen, she gave up on her dreams of harnessing the witchcraft she’d imagined was her birthright. Years later, she’s carved out an ordinary life with her husband, though she is filled with a longing she can barely name. If she can only carry a pregnancy to term, become a mother, then—according to island lore—she will come into her magic.
But after multiple pregnancies end in miscarriages, Oona begins to feel desperate. Without the money to seek medical treatment, she decides she must return to the rugged, windswept island where she was raised—and to her dark, enigmatic mother whose coven claims to be able to harness witchcraft to help women struggling to conceive.
Due to her acrimonious departure, Oona will have to return under the cover of anonymity. But there are dark forces at work on the island, and as her time there grows more harrowing, the truth threatens to come to light. How far will Oona go to access the power she knows her mother still commands?
What Happened to Lucy Vale by Lauren Oliver (mystery)
Twin mysteries, years apart, connect two mothers and their daughters in a gripping novel of psychological suspense by New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver.
Who in their right mind would move into the Faraday House, with its grim history and a generation spent rotting and untended? Rachel Vale and her daughter, Lucy.
They’ve arrived unexpectedly, yet with peculiar purpose, to Woodward, Indiana, to rent the most infamous house in town. Here, sixteen years ago, Nina Faraday vanished without a trace and her mother was found hanging from an apple tree in the front yard. It was the stuff of ghoulish fascination and dark imaginings. Old rumors are stirred up all over again by an online community of teenagers now fixated on Lucy, the new girl in school…especially when Lucy’s shattering romance with the swim team star becomes another small-town obsession.
This time the kids in Woodward will be What happened to Lucy Vale?
Parallel mysteries soon converge—about two teenage girls, nearly two decades apart, both consumed by the stories and suspicions of others. Only a mother can bring the truth to devastating light.
The Phoebe Variations by Jane Hamilton (fiction)
The acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World returns with a stunning coming-of-age novel about girls, mothers, and finding one’s way in the world.
Seventeen-year-old Phoebe was never interested in her birth family. But on the cusp of her high school graduation, her adoptive mother, Greta, insists on a visit to meet her biological parents and siblings. The encounter is a jolt, a revelation that derails Phoebe.
With the help of her best friend Luna, Phoebe runs away—as far as their friend Patrick O’Connor’s chaotic home, where she hopes to go unnoticed among his thirteen siblings. But when Phoebe asks Patrick to chop off her hip-length hair, she’s suddenly transformed. Patrick’s older brothers can’t help but notice the striking, Peter Pan–like stranger who has suddenly appeared in their midst.
What starts as an adolescent rebellion soon spirals into a whirlwind of self-discovery and unexpected connections. As she grapples with her shifting identity and strained relationships, Phoebe must navigate the tumultuous road out of girlhood and chart a new and unknown course.
Restoring Our Sanity Online by Mark Weinstein
“This is a must-read for anyone concerned with where we are today and looking for a better path forward.”
―Steve Wozniak, Co-founder, Apple Inc.
Big Tech is driving us, our kids, and society mad. In the nick of time, Restoring Our Sanity Online presents the bold, revolutionary framework for an epic reboot. What would social media look like if it nourished our critical thinking, mental health, privacy, civil discourse, and democracy? Is that even possible?
Restoring Our Sanity Online is the entertaining, informative, and frequently jaw-dropping social reset by Mark Weinstein, contemporary tech leader, privacy expert, and one of the visionary inventors of social networking.
This book is for all of us. Casual and heavy users of social media, parents, teachers, students, techies, entrepreneurs, investors, and elected officials. Restoring Our Sanity Online is the catapult to an exciting, enriching, and authentic future. Readers will embark on a captivating journey leading to an inspiring and actionable reinvention.
Restoring Our Sanity Online includes thought-provoking insights including:
-Empowering You―Social Media User, Content Creator
-In The Crosshairs: Privacy And Anonymity
-Saving Our Kids From The Abyss
-Surprise! Social Media Can Be Good For Your Mental Health
-Is AI The High-Tech Tattletale In Your Social Experience?
-Lifting the Veil On Bots and Trolls
-Facts, Opinions, Lies―Who Decides?
-Web3 Is Here―What The Heck Is It?
-Is There a Better Way?
Maria La Divina by Jerome Charyn
An intimate portrait of the world’s most iconic opera singer
Maria Callas, called La Divina, is widely recognized as the greatest diva who ever lived. Jerome Charyn’s Callas springs to life as the headstrong, mercurial, and charismatic artist who captivated generations of fans, thrilling audiences with her brilliant performances and defiant personality.
Callas, an outsider from an impoverished background, was shunned by the Italian opera houses, but through sheer force of will and the power and range of her voice, she broke through the invisible wall to sing at La Scala and headline at the Metropolitan Opera, forging an unforgettable career. Adored by celebrities and statesmen, the notable and notorious alike, her every movement was shadowed by both music critics and gossip columnists—until, having lost her voice, she died alone in an opulent, mausoleum-like Paris apartment.
In Charyn’s inimitable style, Maria La Divina humanizes the celebrated diva, revealing the mythical artist as a woman who survived hunger, war, and loneliness to reach the heights of acclaim.
The Room of Lost Steps by Simon Tolkien
An American boy with impossible dreams is thrust into the cauldron of the Spanish Civil War in an arresting and thrilling historical coming-of-age epic by the author of The Palace at the End of the Sea.
Barcelona 1936. Theo helps the Anarchist workers defeat the army that is trying to overthrow the democratically elected government, and he is reunited with his true love, Maria. But all too soon, his joy turns to terror as the Anarchists turn on him, led by a rival for Maria’s affection.
Lucky to escape with his life, Theo returns to England to study at Oxford. But his heart is in Spain, now torn apart by a bloody civil war, and he is quick to abandon his new life when his old schoolmate Esmond offers him the chance to fight the Fascists. He is unprepared for the nightmare of war that crushes his spirit and his hope until, back in Barcelona, Theo is confronted with a final terrible choice that will define his life forever.
As Theo’s tumultuous coming-of-age journey reaches its end, can his dream to change the world—so far from home—still hold true?
One of Them by Kitty Zeldis (Historical Fiction)
The beloved author of Not Our Kind and The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights returns with a story of secrets, friendship, and betrayal about two young women at Vassar in the years after World War II, a powerful and moving tale of prejudice and pride that echoes the cultural and social issues of today.
Anne Bishop seems like a typical Vassar freshman—one of a popular group of privileged WASP friends. None of the girls in her circle has any idea that she’s Jewish, or that her real name is or that her real first name is Miriam Pretending to be a Gentile has made life easier—as Ava, she no longer suffers the snubs, snide remarks, and daily restrictions Jews face. She enjoys her college life of teas, late-night conversations, and mixers. She turns a blind eye to the casual anti-Semitism that flourishes among her friends and classmates—after all, it’s no longer directed at her.
But her secret life is threatened when she becomes fascinated by a girl not in her crowd. Delia Goldhush is sophisticated, stylish, brilliant, and unashamedly Jewish—and seems not to care that she’s an outcast among the other students. Knowing that her growing closeness with Delia would be social suicide if it were discovered, Ava keeps their friendship quiet. Delia seems to understand—until a cruelty on Ava’s part drives them apart and sends them scattering to other corners of the world, alone and together.
“An astounding achievement.” —Megha Majumdar * “Her best book yet.” —Paul Yoon
Set in midcentury America, At Last explores a rich family saga centered on two fierce and competitive matriarchs whose intertwined lives reflect the complexities of family, tradition, and personal ambition. “Whole lives course down the decades, and every minute is conveyed with Silver’s signature combination of toughness and grace,” (Laird Hunt).
Helene Simonauer and Evelyn Turner are two formidable women whose paths cross when their children marry. Both women are sharp, cunning, and unwavering in their conflicting beliefs about marriage, responsibility, and family and, most pressingly, their efforts to vie for the love of their shared granddaughter.
At Last paints a vivid portrait of the American Midwest, capturing the essence of a time and place where societal norms and personal aspirations often clashed. Marisa Silver’s narrative weaves together the lives of Helene and Evelyn, from their vastly different childhoods through the pivotal events that define them. Both intimate and expansive, and capturing the complexities of ambition and love with humor and insight, At Last is a testament to what happens when an unintended, even unwanted relationship turns out to be a central one that defines a life.
Slashed Beauties by A. Rushby (historical fiction/horror)
A gothic feminist body horror in two timelines revolving around three Anatomical Venuses—ultrarealistic wax figures of women—that come to life at night to murder men who have wronged them
Seoul, present day. Antiques dealer Alys’s task is nearly complete. She has at last secured Elizabeth, the third and final Anatomical Venus. Crafted in eighteenth-century London and modeled after real-life sex workers to entice male medical students, these eerie wax figures, known as slashed beauties, carry unsavory lore. Legend has it that the figures are bewitched, and come to life at night to murder men who have wronged them. Now Alys embarks for England, where she knows what she must sever her cursed connection to the Venuses once and for all.
London, 1763. Abandoned and penniless in Covent Garden, wide-eyed Eleanor and another young woman, Emily, are taken under the wing of beautiful and beguiling Elizabeth, one of the city’s most highly desired courtesans among the rich and powerful. But as Eleanor is seduced deeper into a web of money, materialism, and men, it seems that Elizabeth may not be the savior she appears to be.
As the timelines begin to intersect, it becomes clear that the women’s stories are linked in deeper, darker ways than it initially seems. And that the only method for Alys to end the witchcraft that binds her legacy is to gather all three models in one place and destroy them.
However, these haunted, murderous dolls might not be ready to burn.
A Rather Peculiar Poisoning by Chrystal Schleyer (mystery/historical fiction)
An engagement celebration at a turn-of-the-century manor takes a deadly turn, and everyone becomes a suspect.
Twin brothers Easton and Weston are both in love with their childhood best friend Eloise. But headstrong Eloise prefers the younger brother, Wes, which is why she is heartbroken when, quite unexpectedly, Wes proposes to an heiress, and Eloise finds herself engaged to Easton—the twin she cannot stand.
Then, during a week of feasting and hunting to celebrate the engagements, Wes is poisoned. Murmurs of nightshade slip through the manor, and everyone seems to have a motive.
Was it Della Drewitt—the heiress reluctant to marry Wes? Or did Easton decide killing his brother was the only way to secure Eloise’s affections? Or was it the housemaid Violet, Wes’ previous lover?
As guests turn into suspects, attempts to kill Wes become more relentless than the storms churning the estate—who wants him dead, and why?
SJP is being honored at the Westport Library….
To celebrate Sarah Jessica Parker and her literary contributions and support of libraries, she is receiving the Booked for the Evening Honor at the Westport Library in Westport CT! Some of her past book recommendations are linked below!
