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Books people are talking about. |
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Book Club: Audacious (Roxane Gay)
A personal meditation on, examination of, and tribute to Black single motherhood, unapologetically told through poignant essays and candid interviews by a celebrated cultural critic Jamilah Lemieux is one of the most important feminist writers of the twenty-first century.--Brittney Cooper With her signature candid, humorous, and sometimes biting takes, Jamilah Lemieux suffers no fools while also courageously revealing the scars of her own parenting journey and search for self-acceptance in a world that hates baby mamas. With a particular verve and relatability--honed in her many years among Black Twitter's most prominent voices--Lemieux centers the complex reality of Black single motherhood: uncertainty and fierceness alike. Black. Single. Mother. combines riveting personal essays, infused with whip-smart cultural and historical analysis, with twenty-one intimate first-person testimonies from a spectrum of Black single mothers. A long-overdue offering in celebration of the American matriarch most often maligned, Black. Single. Mother. sets out to inspire a new cultural and community dialogue about this powerful figure as one profoundly deserving of love, support, and respect. |
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The Fountain by Casey ScieszkaBook Club: Good HousekeepingCasey Scieszka's debut novel is absolutely delicious, like Tuck Everlasting for grown-ups. The premise is so good--an immortal woman's search for the fountain of youth--that the writing, crisp and funny, feels like an extra treat. An excellent debut.--Emma Straub, bestselling author of This Time TomorrowA small-town mystery with a dash of historical fiction and romance, this book is perfect for readers of V. E. Schwab's The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. --BooklistA propulsive and deeply moving novel about eternity and mortality that asks what it would mean to live forever.Vera Van Valkenburgh hasn't been home in one hundred and eighty-eight years. But now Vera, forever twenty-six and able to heal from any wound, has returned to the Catskills. Whatever made her family immortal happened here, and if she can uncover it, maybe she can reverse it. After nearly two centuries--an endless sequence of unnoticed, meaningless lives and a soul-shaking incident in the desert--she longs to be released.Posing as a newly arrived forest ranger, she quickly blends into the upstate community and learns of something curious and disturbing. A mysterious, well-funded company is snapping up local property, no matter how high the asking price. But when her brother, a fellow immortal shows up, accompanied by a woman whose face is incredibly familiar to Vera, the purpose for her return gets clouded and Vera is in a race against time to find out what has caused her condition before someone else does.Blending the spectacular with the everyday in a tale filled with humor and warmth, The Fountain explores what gives life meaning and how our understandings of our histories shape--and cage--us.
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Book Club: Good Morning America
A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1855--where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel. A bold and biting satire, Yesteryear...will have you cackling and gasping right to the final page.--Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid series My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive. Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the heir to a political dynasty? What Natalie's followers--all 8 million of them--don't know won't hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They're sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn't simply living the good life, she's living the ideal--and just so happens to be building an empire from it. Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn't hers. Her home, her husband, her children--they're all familiar, but something's off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she's expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a ruthless reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible. A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood. |
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Upward Bound: A Read with Jenna Pick by Woody BrownBook club: Read With JennaUpward Bound is not a place anyone dreams of spending their days. The dreary adult daycare center for Los Angeles's disabled community is, for many of its clients and staff, a place of last resort. This includes Carlos, a young aide who lost his mother as a boy and now works there alongside his beloved sister Delia; Jorge, the gentle nonverbal giant whom Carlos seeks to befriend (and prevent from escaping); Tom, a beautiful young man with cerebral palsy, who pines for Ann, the summer lifeguard at the center's pool who feels out of her depth; then there's Mike, Upward Bound's director who came to L.A. to pursue an acting career but now channels his passion into staging an impressive holiday show starring the center's sorely underestimated clients. Framing these interlocking narratives - and connecting them in surprising, shattering ways - is the riveting and sometimes ironic testimony of Walter, a recent community college graduate who, after a family tragedy, must return to the company of his disabled peers-- Provided by publisher.
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Book Club: Natalie Portman
Originally published in French in 1956 by âEditions Gallimard--Copyright page. |
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Go Gentle by Maria SempleBook Club: Oprah's Book ClubMaria Semple is a treasure. --Los Angeles Times The New York Times bestselling author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette returns to form in her most exuberant and life-affirming novel yet with the story of one woman's cheerful determination to live a life of the mind only to have the heart force its way in. Adora Hazzard has it all figured out. A Stoic philosopher and divorcée, she lives a contented life on New York City's Upper West Side. Having discovered that the secret to happiness is to desire only what you have, she's applied this insight to blissful effect: relishing her teenage daughter, the freedom of being solo, and her job as a moral tutor for the twin boys of an old-money family. She's even assembled a coven--like-minded women who live on the same floor in the legendary Ansonia--and is making active efforts to grow its membership. Adora's carefully curated life is humming along brilliantly until a chance meeting with a handsome stranger. Soon, her ordered world is upended by black-market art deals, secret rendezvous, and international intrigue . . . and her past--which she has worked so hard to bury--lands like a bomb in her present. Inflamed by unquenchable desire, Adora finds herself a woman wanting more: and she'll risk everything to get it. Adora Hazzard's journey of self-discovery will grip you from the start. Romantic, hilarious, intelligent, and bursting with the stuff of life, Go Gentle is a thrilling story of one woman's mid-life transformation, cementing Maria Semple in the pantheon of our most exciting and important contemporary writers.
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Into the Blue: A Love Story by Emma BrodieBook Club: Reese WitherspoonAn epic, decades-spanning love story that blazes through the worlds of acting and comedy and charts a connection unlike any other. INTOXICATING.--TAYLOR JENKINS REID, author of Atmosphere SMART AND ROMANTIC.--GABRIELLE ZEVIN, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and TomorrowDEEPLY MOVING.--KEVIN WILSON, author of Nothing to See Here This stunning hardcover features beautiful graphic endpapers and a deluxe, embossed jacket Thetruth isthere's no such thing as a normal life.There's justthetime you get and how you spend it. In the summer of 2000, AJ Graves dreams of writing for Saturday Night Live; instead, she's stuck working in a video rental store, with slim odds of escaping her small Massachusetts town. Then in walks Noah Drew, the enigmatic and intense scion of the Drew acting dynasty, and her life changes forever. Despite wildly different upbringings, the two forge a deep, cosmic bond, first as friends, then as acting partners--until one day, Noah disappears without a word. Seven years later, in New York City, AJ is shocked to find herself cast in the same intergalactic TV production as Noah, by then a well-known Hollywood heartthrob. As their on-screen characters grow closer every day, the lines between reality and acting begin to blur. Unable to stay away from each other, AJ and Noah are forced to confront the truth of what happened years ago--and the devastating secret that will send their lives careening apart, even as fate continues to draw them together. Blending unforgettable characters, explosive chemistry and yearning, and profound emotion, Into the Blue is a journey unlike any other--one that asks: What does it mean to diverge from the script to forge your own story?
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Arsenio: A Memoir by Arsenio HallABC: The View (Apr 2026);ABC: Good Morning America (Mar 2026);CBS: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (Mar 2026)
Arsenio Hall, America's beloved late-night TV host, reveals the ups and downs of his remarkable career as a trailblazing pioneer with this vivid, outrageous (The New York Times) behind-the-scenes, star-studded, no-holds-barred memoir of celebrity, race, and show business. Arsenio Hall holds a uniquely prominent place in American culture--celebrated late-night host and comedic actor, famed for starring roles in the cultural touchstones Coming to America and Harlem Nights. Now, he pulls back the curtain and takes us to a different time in Hollywood. Iconic scenes include: starting out as a young magician in Cleveland; hosting his first talk show in the basement of his apartment building when he was in elementary school; cutting his teeth at the world-famous Comedy Store in Hollywood, learning about comedy and life from legendary comedian Richard Pryor; forming lifelong bonds with legendary icons Muhammad Ali, Luther Vandross, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Eddie Murphy; tasting superstar success with Coming to America, the film that preceded The Arsenio Hall Show; conducting unforgettable, groundbreaking interviews with Magic Johnson, Bill Clinton, Tupac Shakur, Maya Angelou, Madonna, and Minister Louis Farrakhan; rescuing a family from a home-fire with Jay Leno; sharing hot sauces and blackjack with Patti LaBelle; and chilling with Prince. And then, he made the difficult decision to walk away. This bracingly candid memoir offers a new appreciation for this raw talent and gifted storyteller, who nightly, for six years, hosted what felt like a televised party that changed the landscape of late-night television and brought Black culture into living rooms across America. With this book, he does it one more time.
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Starside by Alex AsterSyndication: Drew Barrymore (Apr 2026);ABC: Good Morning America (Mar 2026)
AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From Alex Aster, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Lightlark series, comes her first adult romantasy. Enter the world of Starside, where swords wield magic and power is not inherited...but claimed.Hundreds of years ago, a brutal war split a land in two. Starside is the realm of magic and immortals--the descendants of the gods, living in a power-rich paradise. Stormside is where mortals fight for scraps of that magic.Every fifty years, the gates between them open, and fifty challengers are allowed to journey across Starside on a deadly quest to access a pool of magic that can heal, grant wealth, or extend life. Everyone has their reasons for entering, but Aris has only one: vengeance. As a child, a goddess set fire to her village, killing her family. Aris isn't after the gods' magic--she's going to kill them.First, she must survive the Culling, the king's deadly competition to choose his fifty challengers. An orphaned blacksmith's apprentice, Aris doesn't have the superior weapons of the heirs from the Great Houses. But the greatest swords--ones that contain power--are not inherited or bought, they are claimed, by both sides. And when Aris claims a great sword, it makes her not just a real competitor--but a target.Getting past the gates is only the beginning. Starside is deadlier than it seems. If the ancient creatures, magic-wielding beasts, and bloodthirsty immortals weren't dangerous enough, a new peril has even immortals fearing what rises from the ground at night. With a blade most would kill to claim, Aris can't trust anyone. Especially not Harlan Raker, the merciless and mysterious king's guard who betrayed her years ago--and who may now be the key to her survival.But Aris is hiding a secret tied to her family's death. And when it's revealed, not even the gods will be able to stop what's coming...
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An unvarnished and immersive dive into the world of conspiracy theories, propaganda, and disinformation from a former Infowars insider caught in the orbit of Alex Jones's madness. At twenty-four-years old, Josh Owens dropped out of film school when a job offer arrived from the very world that had already begun to warp his sense of reality. After years of being pulled in by Alex Jones's magnetic persona and anti-establishment defiance, he'd become entangled in a universe built on suspicion, spectacle, and carefully manufactured lies. When the call came, he packed up his life and moved halfway across the country, setting off on a journey that would unravel everything he thought he believed. The Madness of Believing follows Josh's experience working at Infowars, where he became one of Jones's most trusted employees. He began traveling across the world creating news stories, staging chaos, and spreading outright lies to Infowars's ever-growing audience. As he rose through the ranks, his skepticism grew, and Josh underwent a personal transformation just as Infowars too changed from a fringe community to a mainstream disinformation machine. Josh's story is one playing out across America: that of impressionable young people pulled into a dangerous world where reality and fiction are blurred, and extremist beliefs gain steam. The Madness of Believing is a reckoning with this climate, one that provides riveting insight into these supposedly radical, truth-driven organizations while exposing their dangerous rhetoric and lies.
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American Fantasy by Emma StraubNPR: All Things Considered (Apr 2026);NBC: Today Show (Apr 2026)
American Fantasy has everything we need right now: '90s nostalgia, humor, and it is a great escape. --Jenna Bush Hager on NBC Today Show I can hardly remember the last time I read anything that brought me such pure joy. --Ann Patchett American Fantasy is such a fun, delicious, big-hearted book. --Taylor Jenkins Reid Comedy and redemption on the high seas...breezy, tenderhearted.--New York Times From New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow, an irresistible story about what happens when your teenage fantasy comes true after you're already an adult. When the American Fantasy cruise ship sets sail for a four-day themed voyage, aboard are all five members of a famous, nineties-era boy band and three thousand screaming women who have worshipped them since childhood. Feeling slightly out of place amid this crowd is Annie, here on a lark to appease her sister. Yet when the lights come up and the idols of her youth begin to sing, something is unlocked. Call it memory. Call it nostalgia. Call it the chemical reaction of hormones, hope, and sexual reawakening. Between the slushy alcoholic drinks, the familiar music, and the throngs of middle-aged women acting like lovesick teenagers, Annie finally reconnects to a long-submerged part of herself. By the time she meets one of the band members--not just a celebrity but someone in need of a friend--she has accessed a new sense of possibility. In a smart and incisive book packed with laugh-out-loud reflections on fame, aging, and marriage, Emma Straub delivers a richly textured story that shows us real passion is never truly lost, that what we love makes us who we are, and that deep meaning can sometimes be found in a sea of screaming fans.
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(Hulu, April 7) Based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name, this dystopian drama series is set years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale. Agnes (played by One Battle After Another‘s Chase Infiniti) and Daisy (Lucy Halliday) are two teens attending Aunt Lydia’s elite preparatory school for future wives. Anne Dowd reprises her role as Aunt Lydia Clements, whom she played for all six seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale. The first season will consist of ten episodes, with the first three releasing on the 8th. |
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(Peacock, April 9) This sci-fi comedy series is based on the short story of the same name by Manuel Gonzales. Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfayden star as Lindy and Les Littlejohn, a married couple whose relationship struggles and power dynamics are further complicated when Lindy accidentally shrinks down to six inches. The series was created by Jennifer Ames and Steve Turner for Peacock. Greg Mottola (Superbad, Adventureland) directs. |
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(Apple TV+, April 15) Apple TV+’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles is one of the most-talked-about adaptations of the year. Based on the 2024 novel by Rufi Thorpe, this series stars Elle Fanning as Margo Millet. After having an affair with her professor, she gets pregnant and has to turn to Only Fans to support herself. The series also stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman, Nicole Kidman, and Greg Kinnear. |
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This New York Times bestseller is the inspiration for the highly anticipated sequel to The Devil Wears Prada film, and Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway are back to reprise their iconic roles! After leaving the cutthroat fashion world, Andy is living the life of her dreams — until a secret letter threatens everything she’s built… |
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