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Editorial Content for The Vanishing Family: Love, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia

Teaser

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD comes the heart-wrenching journey of a family facing an unthinkable destiny, whose flawed genetic code might hold the long-sought key to a cure for dementia.

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From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD comes the heart-wrenching journey of a family facing an unthinkable destiny, whose flawed genetic code might hold the long-sought key to a cure for dementia.

About the Book

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD comes the heart-wrenching journey of a family facing an unthinkable destiny, whose flawed genetic code might hold the long-sought key to a cure for dementia.

In the idyllic American town of Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, there lived a family with nine siblings, the youngest a girl named Barb. As the older children headed off to college and started their lives, only Barb was home to see their beautiful, still-young mother fall under a gothic spell, changing into someone she didn’t recognize: withdrawn, neglectful, uncaring.

Thus begins THE VANISHING FAMILY, journalist Robert Kolker’s superb follow-up to HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD (“Deeply compassionate and chilling,” wrote The Washington Post). This family, we learn, has a genetic mutation that causes dementia, but with an especially cruel twist. As early as their 40s, formerly loving parents and hard-driving executives will lose their jobs, have affairs, take up drinking --- shed all inhibitions and sense of responsibility --- and become people their families hardly know. Their former personalities seem to vanish --- and there is a 50-50 chance that it will happen to their children, too.

THE VANISHING FAMILY unfolds like a heartbreaking thriller as the siblings begin to realize that what happened to their mother is happening to them: first one, then two, three, four and more begin to change. Sue, in search of a calling, finds her place in caring for the others. Barb sets out to find a cure. Alongside their story, Kolker weaves in the dramatic scientific fight against dementia. After decades of blind alleys, this family’s rare form of FTD (frontotemporal dementia) might lead to a breakthrough in the prevention and treatment of all dementia --- including the scourge of Alzheimer’s disease.

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.

Editorial Content for The Weight of Angels

Teaser

In imagining the life that Oscar Wilde never had, John Boyne has written one of the great what-if stories of modern literature, giving the iconic Anglo-Irish poet and playwright a fresh new voice and the opportunity to take an entirely different path.

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In imagining the life that Oscar Wilde never had, John Boyne has written one of the great what-if stories of modern literature, giving the iconic Anglo-Irish poet and playwright a fresh new voice and the opportunity to take an entirely different path.

About the Book

Can one rash decision prove the difference between a life well lived and a life destroyed?

When the Marquess of Queensberry left his calling card at the Albemarle Club in February 1895, it bore only his name and five words: “For Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite.” The most celebrated playwright of his day famously sued for libel, which led to his arrest, criminal prosecution and ultimately prison. From then on, his gilded existence spiraled into public disgrace, humiliation and an early death.

But what if he had simply ignored the insult? What direction might his life have taken? This is the premise of John Boyne’s extraordinary novel, THE WEIGHT OF ANGELS. Rather than dying in penury in Paris at age 46, what if Wilde had lived to bear witness to the momentous events and cataclysmic changes of the first part of the 20th century, and even influence some of them? What if the second half of his life was as dramatic, tumultuous and exhilarating as the first?

In imagining the life that Oscar Wilde never had, John Boyne has written one of the great what-if stories of modern literature, giving the iconic Anglo-Irish poet and playwright a fresh new voice and the opportunity to take an entirely different path.

Editorial Content for The Witches of Cambridge

Teaser

This brand-new series from the bestselling author of PRACTICAL MAGIC follows two brilliant young women in 1950s Cambridge, Massachusetts, as they become immersed in a mysterious secret group of witches at Radcliffe known as the Lilith Society.

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This brand-new series from the bestselling author of PRACTICAL MAGIC follows two brilliant young women in 1950s Cambridge, Massachusetts, as they become immersed in a mysterious secret group of witches at Radcliffe known as the Lilith Society.

About the Book

The brand-new series from the bestselling author of PRACTICAL MAGIC, following two brilliant young women in 1950s Cambridge, Massachusetts, as they become immersed in a mysterious secret group of witches at Radcliffe known as the Lilith Society.

Once upon a time, women were drowned in the river, and the only witnesses were the crows in the trees. The Puritans blamed Eve for the sins of the world. That was when we began to meet in the name of Lilith, Adam’s first wife --- banished for refusing to do as she was told.

We Fly Together…

By the 1950s, Cambridge, Massachusetts feels far removed from the legendary witch trials that marked its early days as a colony. Ava, a bright young woman from a small town in Maine, arrives for her first year at Radcliffe College. There, she meets Lauren, her opposite in every way --- the wild and brazen daughter of a wealthy and well-established Cambridge family. But the two have more in common than they think. Both are recruited by the Lilith Society, a secret organization of witches at Radcliffe dating back to colonial times. As they learn more about their legacy, Ava and Lauren form a close bond that is put to the test as they learn to navigate their new power, friendship and love.

While Radcliffe seems like a safe haven, the shadow of McCarthyism looms large, an ever-present threat to the flourishing creative and intellectual life in Cambridge. And as girls from the Lilith Society begin to go missing, Ava and Lauren realize the witch trials of the past may not be as deeply buried as they once believed.

Author Talk: Carol Davis, author of Restoration

Sep 30, 2026

RESTORATION is an evocative work of fiction about an American architect who travels to rural England to restore a centuries-old barn --- and finds herself rebuilding the fractured story of her own family. In this interview, Carol Davis talks about her inspiration for her debut novel and the research she conducted for it; how her attitude towards complex relationships, as well as her understanding of grief and love, evolved throughout the writing process; and what she hopes readers will take away from the book.

Come Closer: Childhood Wounds, Adult Love, and the Secrets of Emotional Intimacy by Dr. 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? 

WYBGR September 2026

September 19, 2026

I think that I have used this headline in the past to describe September. Where I live, we always went back to school in September. I know that the schedule varies around the country (I think July is the only month where everyone is off from school), but for me September has always taken on a tone of returning to schedules. For many, that means back to their book group.

Hank Phillippi Ryan, author of Mother Daughter Sister Stranger

The sole survivors of the fiery plane crash that killed their parents, Eliza Ramsey and her sister, Bea, share an unbreakable bond. But now, on the 11th anniversary of the tragedy, Bea fails to retrieve her preteen daughter from a sleepover at Eliza’s. Eliza knows her sister would never leave her precious Piper behind, and she fears the worst. But did Bea plan her own disappearance? The Ramseys’ lives have already crashed and burned once. Now, Eliza discovers she's the only one who can protect her niece from the horrifying legacy of her family’s sinister history. Together, the two must prevent their lives from going up in flames once again.

Amanda Peters, author of The Birthing Tree

Born under the shadow of a birthing tree sacred to generations of Mi’kmaq women, Aliet Paul grows up outside a small Nova Scotia town with her fierce, loving grandmother, Kiju. Her mother died bringing her into the world under that very tree. Her father remains a mystery no one will name. As Aliet comes of age, she navigates love, loss and a personal tragedy that veers her from the path her grandmother wanted for her. She becomes a nurse trained in modern medicine, yet she carries Kiju’s teachings close. Years later, when the call comes that Kiju has died, Aliet returns home to a crumbling house. As she digs to uncover who her family really is, each revelation pulls her deeper into a web of long-guarded silences, dangerous loyalties and generational wounds that refuse to stay buried.

Chloe Benjamin, author of Under Story

At the edge of the world, biologist Laurel Salter is hiding from everything she’s ever known. For 10 hours a day, six days per week, she works as a dishwasher at McMurdo Station, an isolated research base in Antarctica. She tells no one that before she arrived, she was a renowned young scientist with a promising career and a family. But even in this remote outpost, Laurel can’t escape her past. When a strange light appears across the ice --- and draws a group of physicists to McMurdo --- her former husband, Eli, won't be far behind. Laurel is captivated by the Arc: its surreal glow; the way it seems almost alive. And though Eli is reluctant to test her wildest theory, Laurel is convinced that the Arc leads down a rabbit hole and into a world they can barely imagine.