You Are Ready For Takeoff by Susan Orlean

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Suspense

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Marriage isn’t something one enters into lightly. It’s a lifelong commitment to the love of your life. A commitment to stay together for better or worse...but what if worse means your husband finds his next wife?

Kate Nelson thought she had the perfect life—a loving husband, John, and a booming business they built together. But lies and suspicions are poisoning their once happy home, and now her husband has made her the cliché she never saw coming—a woman abandoned for a younger wife, Tish. But Tish is so much worse than Kate could have ever anticipated. Tish has plans of her own...sinister plans that threaten more than just Kate’s livelihood.

USA Today bestselling author Kaira Rouda is someone I’ve loved for a long time. Her novels depict a side of marriage that will make you think twice before saying “I do.” Watching the battle between Tish and Kate both chilled and captivated me. With The Next Wife, Rouda is at the top of her game.

— Megha Parekh, Editor

(546)

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As an editor, I’m often asked to quickly summarize my authors’ books, to boil a premise down to only a sentence or two. But with Gian Sardar’s Take What You Can Carry, no matter how practiced I am, it’s simply an impossible task. This stunningly beautiful, exquisitely human story is far too layered to possibly capture its essence in that way.

This powerful novel is inspired by Sardar’s father’s childhood and by a family trip to Kurdistan that took place in 1979. Though fictionalized, the author pulled from true events to tell an important story that, despite being set in the past, resonates strongly today. It’s the story of an aspiring photojournalist, in a time when women had very few opportunities, who wants only to be taken seriously but doesn’t understand the price at which that recognition will come. And it’s a story of love tested. At times heartbreaking and at other times inspiring and uplifting, this novel is sure to elicit all of the feels. There may be moments of tears and sorrow, but there is also overwhelming hope and a powerful sense of connection.

At its heart, Take What You Can Carry is a love story. Romantic love, yes, but also self-love, familial love, love of a culture, of a country, of a people. Love of nature and beauty and art and compassion. Love of life and of love itself. So if you need a little more love in your life, I highly recommend you join Gian Sardar on this journey of discovery. It may not be an easy one, but it is most certainly worthwhile.

— Alicia Clancy, Editor

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I Thought You Said This Would Work is the perfect escape. This delightful novel is about a cross-country road trip, after all, and who couldn’t use a change of scenery? But it’s author Ann Garvin’s writing—hilarious and heartwarming, as fun as it is insightful—that makes this book so transporting. Ann creates such memorable characters, you’ll feel like you’re there alongside Samantha Arias and Holly Dunfee as they experience the many adventures (and misadventures) of the open road. Buckle up for a story that will have you laughing through your tears.

Samantha and Holly aren’t exactly the road-trip type. They can barely stand each other. But when their dear friend Katie is hospitalized with cancer, they put aside their grievances and agree to find Katie’s beloved Great Pyrenees, Peanut, and bring him home. Their love for Katie runs deep—they’d do anything to help her.

Samantha and Holly once shared that same kind of bond, and the fraying of their friendship still stings years later. Being cooped up together in a VW camper isn’t likely to improve matters. Or will it? Friendships are a lot like road trips. They have their ups and downs. We’re bound to take a few wrong turns at some point, but ultimately we get to where we need to be—and we’re all the better for having endured the journey.

— Chris Werner, Editor

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It’s an all too familiar feeling. You’re browsing social media, guiltily reviewing the profile of someone from your past. Are they married? Do they have kids? How does their life stack up to yours? You feel a wash of nostalgia, a moment of longing.

But author Minka Kent knows that social media is a carefully curated representation. It’s not real. And sometimes, it can be dangerous.

Grace McMullen was sad that she’d broken Sutton Whitlock’s heart all those years ago. She was hoping that social media would show he had moved on, and maybe give her a glimpse into a better life. Instead, it showed that he’d built a life with Grace at its center—moving back to her hometown, marrying a woman who looked like her, and even naming his child after her.

But Grace isn’t the only one who is doing some digital sleuthing...

As Grace takes her observations from the screen to reality—literally visiting Sutton’s home—I couldn’t help but question what I would do if faced with the same information. Would I close the browser page and shake my head? Would I be filled with guilt?

What about you? Would you want to know more? Would you drive by as Grace does? Would you want to know the woman who took your place?

The Watcher Girl is a timely thriller sure to keep you hooked until the last page.

— Jessica Tribble Wells, Editor

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Have you ever had a secret? Not a small, delicious secret—like an unrequited crush on a friend—but a life-altering behemoth of a secret. Maggie Flynn has one of those...and she’s spent the past forty years running away from it, unable to talk about it with anyone. But as her fortieth high school reunion approaches and she finds herself looking forward to revisiting her hometown and reconnecting with her former classmates, she will also have to face the truth of that secret head-on—along with its consequences.

I don’t have an extraordinary secret (at least not one I’m willing to share in this letter), but I do have an obsession with novels that interweave multigenerational dramatic storylines with heart-tugging emotional satisfaction, and bestselling author Mariah Stewart has crafted a family drama like no other.

So whether you have a small secret or a life-altering secret of your very own, I urge you to talk to your friends about An Invincible Summer—because some secrets are just meant to be shared.

— Maria Gomez, Editor

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Geling Yan is one of China’s literary superstars, an award-winning novelist and screenwriter who has worked with Ang Lee and Joan Chen. But I didn’t know that when I dove into The Secret Talker for the first time. Instead, I was gripped by the way that the book blurs the lines of genres that I thought I knew so well. Domestic suspense meets literary fiction in this tense and psychological story of a woman at a crossroads in her life.

On the outside, Hongmei and Glen seem like they have an idyllic life. She is the perfect Chinese wife and he is the perfect American husband. But, of course, no one is perfect. At home their marriage is falling apart; the two barely talk and mainly communicate through Post-its left on their fridge. So when Hongmei receives a titillating email from a secret admirer who knows far too much about her past, what starts out as harmless flirting with an internet stranger turns into a dangerous emotional affair. But be warned: this book is much more nuanced than the typical domestic suspense; it examines how repressed desire and simmering silence can upend even the most loving marriage, all while tackling issues of political repression and upturning the submissive “Asian wife” trope.

After tearing through the pages, it made complete sense to me why Geling is so famed in both the book and screen worlds of the Far East. Her pages are visual, giving readers a virtual window into a marriage, a culture, and a history, all while keeping us riveted by the burning question: Who is Hongmei’s secret talker?

— Tara Parsons, Editor

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Love should conquer all. But can love alone bridge every hurdle, every gap in experience?

Rebekah Crane’s Only the Pretty Lies, based on a true story, made me consider the ways strong attachments can complicate truths. The novel is told through the perspective of high school senior Amoris Westmore, who lives with her family in a quirky but charming small town. She’s pleasantly surprised when her longtime family friend Jamison moves in next door. Amoris hardly thought about their differences in skin color; Jamison was simply her brilliant, bookish, super cute friend who happened to be Black. And she happened to be white.

When Jamison begins attending her school, becoming one of the few Black students, he points out a racist school mural to Amoris. Although she’d seen the mural before, it had never made much of an impression on her. When Amoris and Jamison begin dating, Amoris is faced with new realities and realizes that her community is anything but idyllic. She begins to question whether her love for Jamison is strong enough to carry her through their different experiences.

The novel is an urgent story about young love, race, and ultimately, hope for a more honest conversation and positive change. I found myself rooting for the young couple and admired their unvarnished truths.

— Carmen Johnson, Editor

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How do you talk to someone whose outlook you can’t begin to understand? Hudson and Tallulah’s tale reminds us that even the tiniest bit of common ground can make a difference.

Inspired by a story their daughter wrote, a rivalry between their dog and a neighbor’s cat, and tension between people with opposing viewpoints, this Geisel Award–winning team created a picture book in which debates over the deliciousness of garbage or the delightfulness of mud build to a seemingly insurmountable divide. But this duo’s anger gives way to an idea that’s far better: that beyond what separates us could be one small thing that helps us relate. And who knows—one day, it might even lead to friendship.

— Kelsey Skea, Editor

You Are Ready For Takeoff by Susan Orlean | Amazon Original Stories

Historical Fiction

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Not even war can shatter the innocence of childhood. Young Ilse and her friend Arno are powerless when World War II uproots their families. But by sticking together and through the sharing of mystical stories, they somehow find the courage to flee their homes to seek safety in an unknown destination.

With husbands and sons off to war and few ideas of what to do next, their mothers lead the children on the journey of their lifetimes, cobbling together makeshift communities along the road and in the rubble. Each must create a family so strong no struggle can tear it apart. Spinning ancient tales of heartbroken queens whose tears crystallize into the valuable amber they now trade for food not only passes the time but brings the sparkle of magic into even the grimmest circumstances. These small acts of love show that the bonds that connect us are grander and more powerful than the movements of history: love weaves the fabric of our experience just as much as war or politics. Together with these beautifully drawn characters, readers may find they, too, are twinkling brightly against even the darkest night—our worst moments the fuel for another tomorrow.

I won’t spoil the story of how love protects the children not only from bombs but also from trauma—suffice to say, hope wins. I invite you to get lost in another spellbinding, beautiful family saga from Sofía Segovia, every book club’s favorite guest and author of The Murmur of Bees.

— Gabriella Page-Fort, Editor

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