October 2026 list by Donalee Jacobs |
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Actually, Nevermind
by Taylor Tomlinson
Comedian Taylor Tomlinson explores all the things she's changed her mind about, from the serious to the absurd, in her hilarious, heartfelt, and brilliant debut. As she approaches thirty-four -- the same age her mother, Angela, was at her death -- Tomlinson grapples with fear and ambition, identity and doubt, and all the ways her mind has changed since the day her mom died. In these sharply observed, uproariously funny, and moving original essays, Tomlinson leads readers through a tour of her brain and her shifting opinions about everything.
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American Caesar
by Bradley B. Onishi
From Silicon Valley boardrooms to rural pulpits, from Catholic monasteries to Beltway think tanks and Project 2025, a convergence is underway. Reactionary Catholics dream of a new Christendom. Protestant pastors invoke divine right over democratic rule. Tech billionaires, led by the likes of Peter Thiel, argue that freedom and democracy are incompatible. Their solution? A singular ruler to bring order out of what they see as liberal chaos. A former insider turned academic expert, Onishi brings unmatched depth to this investigation. As the 2024 election fades into history and a new political order takes shape, American Caesar is not just a warning. It's a map of how we got here, and a call to act before the Republic as we know it becomes just another chapter in a forgotten history book.
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The American Way of Killing
by Malcolm Gladwell
The United States has far more homicides than any of its peers around the world. Why? In this groundbreaking book, Malcolm Gladwell explores the American peculiarity -- how the world's wealthiest country came to suffer from a problem typically only seen in the world's poorest countries. Drawing on original interviews, archival and social science research, and his trademark insight, Gladwell approaches the American paradox through a series of stories. In a sweeping narrative, Gladwell travels from a shooting range in North Carolina, to the South Side of Chicago, to an old plantation house in Alabama, painting a picture of a country that does not understand its most pressing social problem, and as result, does not understand how to fix it.
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The Art of Fighting
by Priya Parker
A paradigm-shattering exploration of how we fight and how we build healthy conflict, from the bestselling author of The Art of Gathering. We say we want community. Successful teams. High-performing colleagues and workplaces. Dynamic friend groups. Yet many of us don't understand the crucial element we need to forge long-lasting communities in our lives: healthy conflict. In The Art of Fighting, Priya Parker draws on her far-reaching experience as a conflict facilitator, her own detailed research, and real-world examples to lay out the ways that people can identify disputes, determine how to address them, and what to do if they are insurmountable.
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Babe: Elaboratio: A Tribute to My Mother
by Jr. Connick, Harry
In Babe: Elaboratio, Harry Connick, Jr. pays a heartfelt tribute to his mother, Anita-Francis Livingston Connick, lovingly known as Babe. Featuring personal photography and excerpts from Connick's accompanying score, this book provides not only insight into the creative process but also an unvarnished experience of the infinite love of a son.
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The Bookshop Woman
by Nanako Hanada
This international bestseller is the true story of Nanako Hanada, a passionate book lover who manages the Village Vanguard, an iconically eccentric bookstore in Tokyo. But after the breakdown of her marriage she finds herself rather isolated, until Nanako joins Perfect Strangers. Perfect Strangers is where people meet for thirty-minute bursts to connect. She sets up her profile promising to recommend people the book that will change their life. In the ensuing year, Nanako meets hundreds of people who believe in the power of a great book. Soon she discovers that she can connect with just about anyone, and bustling Tokyo begins to feel like a welcoming--if a bit quirky--small town.
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Brady
by Lars Anderson
Based on years of in-depth reporting and sources from every corner of his life, Brady is the definitive biography of the life, career, and retirement of one of football's most legendary figures, Tom Brady. From more than 350 original interviews with people who know the quarterback on and off the field, journalist Lars Anderson paints a detailed psychological portrait of Tom Brady, a self-described loner whose life is defined by discipline, resilience, a fascination with preparation, an intolerance for wasted time, and a relentless pursuit of the extraordinary. What he finds is a man riddled with contradiction, defined by both a prolific career of unmatched success on the field and the agonizing cost of greatness in his personal life.
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The Case for Quitting
by Lindsay Crouse
We live in a society that champions perseverance, sweat, and tenacity no matter the cost. But what if our relentlessness results in failure, sunken costs, and poor health, rather than success, happiness, and vitality? An endurance athlete and 15-year veteran of the New York Times, Crouse explores stories from across our lives to argue that when perseverance turns against us, quitting isn't just a way out. Often, it's the first step to something better. For anyone at a crossroads in their personal or professional lives, The Case for Quitting is a groundbreaking guide that ruptures our core beliefs. Career seekers, athletes, entrepreneurs, and anyone exploring new opportunities or feeling stuck in unproductive routines will appreciate its insights on the courage and strategy involved in quitting.
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The Cauldron
by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Renowned historian Simon Sebag Montefiore wades into the ideological battles and geopolitical tensions of the Middle East with a comprehensive and nuanced chronicle that situates the region in the context of its last one hundred and twenty-five years. Few understand the real history of the Middle East; fewer still understand its variety and cosmopolitanism, its complexity and interconnectedness. The Cauldron is a fresh and unique survey of the region in all its diversity. This is the essential story of how the Middle East of 1900 led to the Middle East of today--and tomorrow.
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Come Closer
by Galit Atlas
What is the secret of emotional intimacy? How can understanding our childhood experiences give us the insights we need to be close to others in a truly satisfying, longer-lasting, and more meaningful way? In remarkably compelling and dramatic stories of both therapist and patient, Galit Atlas illustrates how the child within us drives our love lives, forming patterns we repeat without awareness. Each narrative will have you on the edge of your seat, living the mystery alongside Atlas and her patients, uncovering roots, drawing parallels, and reaching insights and revelations, just as they do.
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Feed Them Well
by Jennifer Anderson
From Jennifer Anderson -- registered dietitian and founder of Kids Eat in Color, trusted by over two million parents -- comes the evidence-based guide to feeding children from baby's first foods through the teen years. Every parent wants to feed their kids well -- but between picky eating, battles with sugar, confusing nutrition headlines, and the fear of saying the wrong thing about food or bodies, it's hard to feel confident about any of it. Now, in Feed Them Well, Anderson gives you the exact words, scripts, and tools you need to navigate it all. This isn't another recipe book. This is the book that teaches you how to think about feeding your kids, so every decision feels less like a guess and more like a plan.
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Fictional Selves
by Kyle MacLachlan
In this highly anticipated memoir, the beloved actor and star of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Sex and the City, Fallout, and more shares his utterly original account of his offbeat journey in Hollywood, his battles with fear and fame, and the projects that shaped him -- and created a cult icon.
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The Forever Paycheck
by Jean Chatzky
The new roadmap to financial longevity, from longtime TODAY show financial editor and New York Times bestselling author, Jean Chatzky. You've been saving for retirement for decades. But what happens when you get to the end of your earning years? How do you take the money you've amassed and not only make it last as long as you do, but do it in a way that brings you the most fulfillment and the least amount of stress? The solution is right here. It's a paycheck that lasts for the rest of your life: a Forever Paycheck. With the power of a Forever Paycheck comes a simple, revelatory truth: you can spend more, and do more, than you think you can.
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Freedom Under Grace
by Robert Prevost
Before becoming Pope Leo XIV, Robert Francis Prevost had never published a book. But shortly after his election to the papacy, Leo chose these previously unpublished texts to become his first published collection of writings: Freedom Under Grace. This wide-ranging book captures the heart of his spirituality, forged by the conviction that man is not defined by what he possesses or what he knows, but rather by what he loves. Drawing on the rich tradition of Saint Augustine, Prevost advances an inspiring vision rooted in community and solidarity, commitment to social justice for the poor and marginalized, and the confidence that the gospel of Jesus Christ is what the world most desperately needs to face today's challenges.
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Go and Do Likewise
by Andy Beshear
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear shares what his own faith has meant to him, how it has informed his family and his public life in this book that takes its title from the story of the Good Samaritan. In the parable, Jesus describes how the Good Samaritan stopped to help a stranger who had been beaten and left for dead and then calls on his followers to do likewise and care for everyone. Organized around the teachings of Jesus, Go and Do Likewise transcends politics to remind Americans of the values grounded in service and acceptance. It is a hopeful book by one of America's brightest political lights.
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Go with the Flow
by Katrina B. Mitchell
Breastfeeding advice is everywhere -- and much of it is confusing, contradictory, and based on outdated ideas. The result? Endless rules, rabbit holes, and exhausted parents feeling like they're failing. Dr. Katrina Mitchell believes we deserve better. Go With the Flow brings to lactation a much-needed understanding of how the breasts actually work, and replaces myths with clear medical facts. Dr. Mitchell outlines practical, evidence-based guidance parents can trust, explaining the science behind questions she's asked every day. With compassion, clarity, and common sense, Go With the Flow helps parents shift the focus from breastfeeding success to breastfeeding sanity--prioritizing postpartum mental health above all else.
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Gouged
by Lindsay Owens
Everywhere you turn, Americans are getting ripped off. Surveillance pricing, algorithmic price fixing, and other high-tech forms of price gouging are the latest frontiers in corporate profiteering -- and they're gutting the American economy and your wallet. In Gouged, economic expert and veteran consumer advocate Lindsay Owens takes us inside the corporate boardrooms where pricing decisions are made, uncovering the tricks, traps, and grifts corporations use to jack up the price you pay at checkout. Throughout Owens arms us with the essential knowledge we need to first recognize, and then sidestep, the traps that corporations try to conceal from us.
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How Bright the Path Grows
by Marcia Chatelain
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Franchise comes the little-known story of the pioneering Black women artists and activists who were seen, but barely heard, at the 1963 March on Washington.
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In the Realm of the Last Man
by Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama is well-known for his landmark, bestselling works of political philosophy and history. Here, for the first time, he charts his political and intellectual evolution across five transformative decades. We follow him from the circle of students around the conservative intellectual Allan Bloom at Cornell, into the halls of power in Washington and at the RAND Corporation, and into private conversations with world leaders from Muammar Qaddhafi to China's powerful elite. Fukuyama touches on his family's story, including his relatives' internment during World War II. More than a conventional memoir, In the Realm of the Last Man is personal history as political history -- the story of a life that illuminates the troubled fate of democracy and liberalism over the last fifty years.
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Making Peace with What I Can't Control
by Lysa TerKeurst
Bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst offers a life-giving alternative to the exhausting madness of trying to change people who don't want to be changed, prevent outcomes we fear, and manage things outside of our control. Together, we'll learn that it's not too late to take the weight of the world off our shoulders and hand over to God what was always supposed to be His to carry.
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Operation Sparrow
by Jason Bell
Colonel Duke jumped into Hitler's Europe to lead Operation Sparrow, a three-man OSS mission authorized by the president. Duke was forty-eight, twice the age of most paratroopers. He had played pro football for the New York Giants, flown fighter planes, and made his fortune in advertising before World War II made him a spy behind enemy lines. Within days, the three Sparrows were captured in Hungary. It wasn't a failure. It was the plan. Under brutal Gestapo interrogation, Duke and his men set out to convince the Third Reich that the D-Day invasion would strike the Balkans, far from France. Of the tens of millions who fought in the war, the Sparrows were the only ones whose mission required capture by the Nazis.
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Pay Attention
by David Pakman
With a provocative follow up to his bestselling The Echo Machine, David Pakman offers a dire warning on the cultural and technological forces that are melting our brains and transforming the pursuit of truth into an almost impossible, even quaint activity. Drawing on his experience in the digital trenches, Pakman illustrates how and why political news and commentary has become more fragmented, extreme, and divisive in a self-fulfilling, self-feeding media environment. How the user has become the product, and why we no longer even need human creators to mine this product. The future is already here -- and with AI creep, it's only accelerating. Pay Attention is a perfectly timed book that will show us how the machine works, and what we must do lest we become part of it.
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A Rainy Night in Georgia
by J. Tom Morgan
In December 2000, Derwin Brown, the newly elected sheriff of DeKalb County, Georgia, was ambushed and murdered in his own driveway just days before taking office. He had run on reform, defeating the powerful incumbent in a bitter runoff. The case fell to J. Tom Morgan, the county's elected District Attorney. Working alongside local, state, and federal law enforcement, Morgan pursued the case through months of dead ends, mounting pressure, and intense public scrutiny. It became a national media sensation, combining political intrigue with revelations of government corruption and murder-for-hire plots. Then the case became personal: Morgan learned that his own name was next on the killer's hit list.
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Said the Dead
by Doireann Ní Ghríofa
In Cork, Ireland, a derelict Victorian mental hospital is being converted into modern apartments. One passerby has always flinched as she nears the place. In another time, she might have found herself held within those walls. She notices a sign, the first of many. Guided by an irresistible impulse, she follows them. Will this investigation, this journey, this haunting, take her too far into the past or will it bring her to a new understanding of what she might yet make of the future? A work of intense attention and tenderness, Doireann Ní Ghríofa's Said the Dead breaks boundaries between past and present, the imagined and real, history and fiction, to make something new and lasting. An investigation into the dangers of knowing our selves and the past, it is an experience like no other -- a ghost story and a reclamation.
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The Steps
by Sylvester Stallone
A gritty, inspiring, heart-wrenching memoir by the Academy Award-winning legend and icon Sylvester Stallone, about his unlikely path to stardom and the creation of the greatest underdog story ever told.
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Story Telling
by Isabel Allende
In this deeply personal and insightful book, Isabel Allende delves into her creative process, reflecting on nearly half a century of writing that has captivated millions of readers worldwide. For Allende, writing is more than a craft. It is an addiction, a means of preserving memory, and a way to make sense of life. She offers readers an intimate glimpse into her creative world, where stories take shape through intuition, discipline, and deep connection to the human experience. It is also a glimpse into the life of a writer who views literature as a portal to understanding the chaos of life. Story Telling is not a prescriptive guide to writing. Rather, it is a conversation. In it, Allende shares her triumphs, her mistakes, and the lessons learned through the challenges and joys of writing.
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Supremacy
by Nikolas Bowie
From two acclaimed legal scholars, a new history of the Supreme Court that overturns our most basic assumptions about its role in our democracy, showing how it seized the power it now wields.
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True North
by Paul Theroux
With True North, his twelfth travel book, Paul Theroux turns his eye to Canada. What begins as the completion of a North American road trip trilogy becomes something more personal. Theroux traces his ancestral connection to Quebec, where his forebear Antoine Theroux arrived in the 17th century. He meets his Quebcois friends and relations, then travels more widely through Canada. Along the way, he speaks with farmers, refugees, writers like John Irving and Michael Ondaatje, and Indigenous leaders such as Tanya Talaga, listening as Canadians reckon with identity, belonging, and patriotism. With the empathy of a companion and the sharpness of a cultural critic, Theroux delivers a timely, vivid travel narrative that reveals Canada as never before -- diverse, unsettled, and alive with stories.
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Ungrateful Immigrant Daughter
by Katya Suvorova
In this darkly funny and irreverent memoir, the daughter of a mail-order bride unpacks her undocumented childhood in America. Growing up in Houston, Texas, Katya Suvorova learned that keeping her family together meant dodging the police, enduring her mother's many husbands, and babysitting her younger sister instead of finishing the third grade. Ungrateful Immigrant Daughter explores difficult questions and stories across Katya's childhood through to an adulthood estranged from the woman who sacrificed everything for her. Her sharp, dry wit engages readers in a deeply relatable take on the experience of being a child of immigrants and unraveling a landscape of family secrets and lies, sharing her unique story of being the undocumented daughter of a mail-order bride.
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The Vanishing Family
by Robert Kolker
In the idyllic American town of Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, there lived a family with nine siblings. This family, we learn, has a genetic mutation that causes dementia, but with an especially cruel twist. As early as their forties, formerly loving parents and hard-driving executives become people their families hardly know. Alongside their story, Kolker weaves in the dramatic scientific fight against dementia; after decades of blind alleys, this this family's rare form of FTD (frontotemporal dementia) might lead to a breakthrough in the prevention and treatment of all dementia. Moving, intimate, unexpectedly hopeful and redemptive, The Vanishing Family is an enthralling narrative about one family's fate, and a medical detective story that speaks to all of us who fear losing ourselves at the end.
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