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Book Brunch December 2025 |
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6:40 to Montreal
by Eva Jurczyk
Includes reading group guide and a conversation with the author.
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Lucky Seed
by Justinian Huang
A USA TODAY BESTSELLERLucky Seed is a family saga, a romance, a bodice ripper--a crotch ripper too--a diasporic Asian American family novel, and a thriller. A family story for a family like this could never have just one genre and Huang knows it and has fun with it. The result is thrilling to read, addictive, and full of heart and hijinks. Reader, I cackled. --Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical NovelSuccession meets Crazy Rich Asians in this chaotic, darkly funny romp about the lengths a wealthy family will take to ensure the birth of a male heir from the gay black sheep of their clan.The billionaire Sun Clan of Greater Los Angeles is your typical American family, with power-struggling aunties, emasculated uncles, scheming cousins, scandalous secrets and a fortune teller on retainer. But at the end of each combative day, the Suns are chained together with golden handcuffs, whether they like it or not.Yet strange storms are a-brewing. Their matriarch, Roses Sun, is grappling with an existential crisis: she must produce a male heir that bears the clan's surname. She fears that if her generation is the one in which their esteemed lineage ends, they will be punished as hungry ghosts in the afterlife--an ancient but very real Asian superstition.Faced with this terrifying fate, Roses summons her favorite nephew, Wayward. Believing him to possess the lucky seed, Roses presents Wayward with a mandatory suggestion: to father a baby boy who will inherit everything. When the other members of the Sun Clan catch wind of Roses's plot, all hells break loose. Wayward's family will now clash like never before in an epic war over the future of the Suns...if there is a future at all.Yet through the chaos, Wayward sees opportunity. What if he can leverage all the conflict into a solution for his problematic family? What if he can reunite the Sun Clan by healing them? And what if the tumultuous Suns can finally learn how to love each other for the first time?
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North Country
by Matt Bondurant
A taut literary thriller set along the northern border, North Country explores the monsters frozen in the depths of the human soul.North Chazy, New York, is the heart of the North Country, a frigid region nestled against the Canadian border, characterized by the beautiful landscapes of the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain--plus a steady stream of Quebecois drugs flowing south, spirited by snowmobile across the ice.Tom Kaiser, fresh off a dishonorable discharge from the Air Force, returns to North Chazy for his ailing father's final days. It's an uneasy homecoming--ever since his little sister was lost under the ice in mysterious circumstances when they were children, Kaiser has felt a terrible presence swimming in the deep.Needing work, Kaiser falls in with Donnie LeClair, a slumlord, loan shark, and aesthete whose private collection of landscapes would rival a modest museum's. Kaiser earns his keep roughing up unsavory locals who are late on their rent. But his true value is his aptitude for satellite telemetry, allowing him to find gaps in border surveillance, a useful skill for working with a Montreal kingpin who wants to move large quantities of ecstasy into the US.As Kaiser spirals through the underbelly of drugs and crime, he finds the roots of evil run deep in the North Country--as bleak, impenetrable, and foreboding as the frozen lake.
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Winter Stories
by Ingvild Rishøi
The internationally acclaimed and nationally bestselling author of Brightly Shining returns with a trio of tender, powerful stories of courage and overcoming adversityIngvild Rish i is one of Scandinavia's most revered literary voices, winner of the Dobloug Prize from the Swedish Academy, and her American debut Brightly Shining made her into a national bestseller and earned her a wide English-language readership. Now, in the highly acclaimed and award-winning Winter Stories, Rish i paints three vivid and evocative portraits of the lives of those existing on the fringes of society.A young mother in financial trouble tries to steal a pair of underwear in front of the watchful eyes of her young daughter. A man fresh out of prison struggles to reintegrate into a daunting society and become a better father to his son. Three siblings run away and seek refuge in a remote cabin untouched by time in a desperate bid to keep their family from being torn apart. In these powerful and emotionally charged tales, Rish i delves into the complexities of family, poverty, and forgiveness, exploring the human desire for a better life, the longing for change, and the difficult choices we must sometimes make to protect those we love.Winter Stories is a masterful triptych from a major international writer renowned for her ability to say a great deal in few words. It is a poignant reminder of the power of hope, loyalty, and unexpected kindness during dark times.
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The Heir Apparent: Reese's Book Club Pick
by Rebecca Armitage
It's New Year's Day in Tasmania and the life Lexi Villiers has carefully built is working out nicely: she's in the second year of her medical residency, she lives on a beautiful farm with her two best friends Finn and Jack--and she's about to finally become more-than-friendly with Jack--when a helicopter abruptly lands. Out steps her grandmother's right-hand-man, with the tragic news that her father and older brother have been killed in a skiing accident. Lexi's grandmother happens to be the Queen of England, and in addition to the shock and grief, Lexi must now accept the reality that she is suddenly next in line for the throne--a role she has publicly disavowed--
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I, Medusa
by Ayana Gray
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From New York Times bestselling author Ayana Gray comes a captivating villain origin story (People Book of the Week), reimagining one of the most iconic monsters in Greek mythology as a provocative and powerful young heroine. The first edition hardcover features stunning sprayed edges, a premium dust jacket with foil, and a gorgeous custom-stamped case--while supplies last Ayana Gray brings her fresh, dynamic storytelling to one of the most monstered, maligned, and misunderstood women of Greek myth, imagining all the girls that Medusa was and could have been.--Jennifer Saint, bestselling author of Ariadne AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Meddy has spent her whole life as a footnote in someone else's story. Out of place next to her beautiful, immortal sisters and her parents--both gods, albeit minor ones--she dreams of leaving her family's island for a life of adventure. So when she catches the eye of the goddess Athena, who invites her to train as an esteemed priestess in her temple, Meddy leaps at the chance to see the world beyond her home. In the colorful market streets of Athens and the clandestine chambers of the temple, Meddy flourishes in her role as Athena's favored acolyte, getting her first tastes of purpose and power. But when she is noticed by another Olympian, Poseidon, the course of Meddy's promising future is suddenly and irrevocably altered. When her locs are transformed into snakes as punishment for a crime she did not commit, Medusa must embrace a new identity--not as a victim, but as a vigilante--and with it, the chance to write her own story as mortal, martyr, and myth. Exploding with rage, heartbreak, and love, I, Medusa portrays a young woman caught in the crosscurrents between her heart's deepest desires and the cruel, careless games the Olympian gods play.
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The Bone Thief
by Vanessa Lillie
In the hours before dawn at a local summer camp, Bureau of Indian Affairs archaeologist Syd Walker receives an alarming call: newly discovered skeletal remains have been stolen. Not only have bones gone missing, but a Native teen girl has disappeared near the camp, and law enforcement dismisses her family's fears. As Syd investigates both crimes, she's drawn into a world of privileged campers and their wealthy parents--most of them members of the Founders Society, an exclusive club whose members trace their lineage to the first colonists and claim ancestral rights to the land, despite fierce objections from the local tribal community--
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Grace & Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon
by Matthew Norman
The new year had barely begun when Grace White and Henry Adler both lost their spouses. Now, nearly a year later, the first holiday season since their Great and Terrible Sadnesses approaches. Although their mothers scheme to matchmake the two surviving spouses, it's clear that neither is ready to date again. Yet no one understands what they are going through better than each other, and a delicate friendship is born. When Henry sees an ad for a Christmas movie marathon-once an annual tradition for him and his wife-Grace offers to watch some films with him, despite her aversion to a few of his picks. Her two young kids, Ian and Bella, also join in whenever possible-bedtimes permitting, of course. With each movie, Grace and Henry's shared grief eases as they start to see a life beyond the sadness. But as they draw closer, other romantic possibilities leave them uncertain about their future together. Is their bond merely the result of loneliness and shared circumstances, or have they found something that's worth taking a shot at ... again?--Provided by publisher.
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Bog Queen
by Anna North
NATIONAL BESTSELLER NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AND ESQUIRE In the gorgeous new novel by the New York Times bestselling author of Outlawed, a strangely well-preserved Iron Age body turns up in an English bog, and the American forensic anthropologist on the case is thrust into an absorbing, complex mystery (People magazine).
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The Everlasting
by Alix E. Harrow
Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion's greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children's books and recruiting posters--but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten. Centuries later, Owen Mallory--failed soldier, struggling scholar--falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives--and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs. But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una's legend--if they want to tell a different story--they'll have to rewrite history itself--
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The Life Impossible
by Matt Haig
The New York Times Bestseller An odyssey of action and awe. --The New York Times A wry and tender love-letter to the best of being human. --Benedict Cumberbatch The remarkable next novel from Matt Haig, the author of #1 New York Times bestseller The Midnight Library, with more than nine million copies sold worldwide What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don't understand yet... When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan. Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend's life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past. Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.
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Robert B. Parker's Showdown
by Mike Lupica
Spenser may have uncovered an explosive secret that threatens the career of a controversial figure, in this latest installment of Robert B. Parker's beloved series. Vic Hale isn't anyone's idea of a father figure. He is one of the biggest - and loudest -- podcasters in the nation and got there by spewing overheated rhetoric that's reviled by some but loved by even more. His particular brand of entertainment is so successful, he's about to sign the biggest contract in the history of online broadcasting. Vic's riding high...until he gets a visit from Spenser, who specializes in bringing guys like Hale back down to Earth. Spenser is there on behalf of Daniel Lopez, a young man who believes Hale may be his father. It's a potentially explosive revelation for a man in the podcaster's position and it might even be enough to blow up his massive new deal. That could explain the bodies that start popping up - bodies connected in one way or another with the mystery surrounding Daniel's birth. There are a lot of questions remaining, and Spenser's going to have to find the answers before someone shuts Hale or Daniel up for good.
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The View from Lake Como
by Adriana Trigiani
Jess Capodimonte Baratta is not living the life of her dreams. Not even close. In blue-collar Lake Como, New Jersey, family comes first. Recently divorced from Bobby Bilancia, 'the perfect husband, ' Jess moves into her parents' basement to hide and heal. Jess is the overlooked daughter, who dutifully takes care of her parents, cooks Sunday dinner, and puts herself last. Despite her role as the family handmaiden, Jess is also a talented draftswoman in the marble business run by her dapper Uncle Louie, who believes she can do anything (once she invests in a better wardrobe). When the Capodimonte and Baratta families endure an unexpected loss, the shock unearths long-buried secrets that will force Jess to question her loyalty to those she trusted. Fueled by her lost dreams, Jess takes fate into her own hands and escapes to her ancestral home: Carrara, Italy--
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Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story
by Julie K. Brown
The New York Times BestsellerA gripping journalistic procedural... Spotlight meets Erin Brockovich. --Michelle Goldberg, The New York TimesJulie K. Brown's important book offers not just a definitive account of the Epstein case, but a compelling window into her own experiences as a dogged reporter at a regional newspaper, facing off against powerful interests set against her reporting. --Ronan Farrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Catch and KillDauntless journalist Julie K. Brown recounts her uncompromising and risky investigation of Jeffrey Epstein's underage sex trafficking operation, and the explosive reporting for the Miami Herald that finally brought him to justice while exposing the powerful people and broken system that protected him.For many years, billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's penchant for teenage girls was an open secret in the high society of Palm Beach, Florida and Upper East Side, Manhattan. Charged in 2008 with soliciting prostitution from minors, Epstein was treated with unheard of leniency, dictating the terms of his non-prosecution. The media virtually ignored the failures of the criminal justice system, and Epstein's friends and business partners brushed the allegations aside. But when in 2017 the U.S Attorney who approved Epstein's plea deal, Alexander Acosta, was chosen by President Trump as Labor Secretary, reporter Julie K. Brown was compelled to ask questions.Despite her editor's skepticism that she could add a new dimension to a known story, Brown determined that her goal would be to track down the victims themselves. Poring over thousands of redacted court documents, traveling across the country and chasing down information in difficulty and sometimes dangerous circumstances, Brown tracked down dozens of Epstein's victims, now young women struggling to reclaim their lives after the trauma and shame they had endured.Brown's resulting three-part series in the Miami Herald was one of the most explosive news stories of the decade, revealing how Epstein ran a global sex trafficking pyramid scheme with impunity for years, targeting vulnerable teens, often from fractured homes and then turning them into recruiters. The outrage led to Epstein's arrest, the disappearance and eventual arrest of his closest accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and the resignation of Acosta. The financier's mysterious suicide in a New York City jail cell prompted wild speculation about the secrets he took to the grave-and whether his death was intentional or the result of foul play.Tracking Epstein's evolution from a college dropout to one of the most successful financiers in the country--whose associates included Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, and Bill Clinton--Perversion of Justice builds on Brown's original award-winning series, showing the power of truth, the value of local reportage and the tenacity of one woman in the face of the deep-seated corruption of powerful men.
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Spectacular Things: Reese's Book Club: A Novel
by Beck Dorey-Stein
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK - Two sisters examine what they owe each other and what they are willing to sacrifice to make their dreams come true in this epic story (Reese Witherspoon) from New York Times bestselling author Beck Dorey-Stein. What would you give up for the person you love most? What would you expect in return? Mia and Cricket have always been close. The gifted daughters of a young single mother, the Lowe girls are well-known in the small Maine town they call home. Each sister has a role to fill: The responsible and academically minded Mia assumes the position of caregiver far too young, while Cricket, a bouncing ball of energy and talent, seems born for soccer stardom. But the cost of achieving athletic greatness comes at a steep price. As Mia and Cricket grow up, they must grapple with the legacy of their mother's secret past while navigating their own precarious future. Can Mia allow herself to fall in love at the risk of repeating a terrible history? Will Cricket's relentless chase of a lifelong goal drive her sister away? When does loyalty become self-sabotage? A sharply observed and tender portrait of sisters, love, and ambition, Spectacular Things is a sweeping story about the impossible choices we're forced to make in pursuit of our dreams.
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The Favorites
by Layne Fargo
To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession. NATIONAL BESTSELLER - An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice Part Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones & The Six, this novel is as brilliantly choreographed as a gold medal performance and will keep you guessing until its last page.--Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: MARIE CLAIRE, BOOK RIOT, SHE READS, CRIMEREADS She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family's support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating--and each other--to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship. Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end. As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the real story through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can't stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she's telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.
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The Correspondent
by Virginia Evans
Sybil is seventy-three years old, in the winter of her life. Sybil has always made sense of the world through writing letters and through this epistolary novel we see how she comes to terms with her past and present and learns forgiveness--
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He's to Die for
by Erin Dunn
Sweet and sexy and satisfying enough to make me almost forget there were actual lives at stake. - Alicia Thompson, USA Today bestselling author of Love in the Time of Serial Killers Brooklyn 99 meets The Charm Offensive in this sparkling romantic murder mystery: it's murder cute in the first degree when a detective finds himself falling for the lead suspect in a career-making case. At 29, Detective Rav Trivedi is the youngest member of the NYPD's homicide squad, and his future looks bright. He may be a bit of an outsider in the department-an ivy-league educated gay Brit with a weakness for designer suits-but his meteoric rise and solve rate prove he belongs. So when his CO assigns him lead on the high-profile murder of a record executive, Rav is ready for action. He won't be distracted by TV crews, tabloids, or what's trending on social media, nor by the ridiculously hot rock star with a clear motive and no alibi. This is it, his shot, and he is not going to screw it up-certainly not by falling in love with his number one suspect...--
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Inside the O'Briens
by Lisa Genova
A New York Times bestseller ? A Library Journal and St. Louis Post-Dispatch Best Book of the Year ? A GoodReads Top Ten Fiction Book of the Year ? A People Magazine Great Read From New York Times bestselling author and neuroscientist Lisa Genova comes a heartbreaking...very human novel (Matthew Thomas, author of We Are Not Ourselves) that does for Huntington's disease what her debut novel Still Alice did for Alzheimer's. Joe O'Brien is a forty-three-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their twenties, and respected officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family's lives forever: Huntington's disease. Huntington's is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure, and each of Joe's four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father's disease. While watching her potential future in her father's escalating symptoms, twenty-one-year-old daughter Katie struggles with the questions this test imposes on her young adult life. As Joe's symptoms worsen and he's eventually stripped of his badge and more, Joe struggles to maintain hope and a sense of purpose, while Katie and her siblings must find the courage to either live a life at risk or learn their fate. Praised for writing that explores the resilience of the human spirit (San Francisco Chronicle), Lisa Genova has once again delivered a novel as powerful and unforgettable as the human insights at its core.
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The Book of Lost Friends
by Lisa Wingate
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the bestselling author of Before We Were Yours comes a dramatic historical novel of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital connection to her students' lives. An absorbing historical . . . enthralling.--Library Journal Bestselling author Lisa Wingate brings to life startling stories from actual Lost Friends advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as newly freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold away. Louisiana, 1875: In the tumultuous era of Reconstruction, three young women set off as unwilling companions on a perilous quest: Hannie, a freed slave; Lavinia, the pampered heir to a now destitute plantation; and Juneau Jane, Lavinia's Creole half sister. Each carries private wounds and powerful secrets as they head for Texas, following roads rife with vigilantes and soldiers still fighting a war lost a decade before. For Lavinia and Juneau Jane, the journey is one of stolen inheritance and financial desperation, but for Hannie, torn from her mother and siblings before slavery's end, the pilgrimage west reignites an agonizing question: Could her long-lost family still be out there? Beyond the swamps lie the limitless frontiers of Texas and, improbably, hope. Louisiana, 1987: For first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, a subsidized job at a poor rural school seems like the ticket to canceling her hefty student debt--until she lands in a tiny, out-of-step Mississippi River town. Augustine, Louisiana, is suspicious of new ideas and new people, and Benny can scarcely comprehend the lives of her poverty-stricken students. But amid the gnarled live oaks and run-down plantation homes lie the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey, and a hidden book that could change everything.
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The Lies They Told
by Ellen Marie Wiseman
In rural 1930s Virginia, a young immigrant mother fights for her dignity and those she loves against America's rising eugenics movement - when widespread support for policies of prejudice drove imprisonment and forced sterilizations based on class, race, disability, education, and country of origin - in this tragic and uplifting novel of social injustice, survival, and hope...--Provided by publisher.
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