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Lisa See, author of Lady Tan's Circle of Women

According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine. Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom. But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife --- embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

Editorial Content for Beware the Woman

Teaser

By the "master of thinly veiled secrets often kept by women who rage underneath their delicate exteriors" (Kirkus Reviews), BEWARE THE WOMAN is Megan Abbott at the height of her game.

Promo

By the "master of thinly veiled secrets often kept by women who rage underneath their delicate exteriors" (Kirkus Reviews), BEWARE THE WOMAN is Megan Abbott at the height of her game.

About the Book

By the "master of thinly veiled secrets often kept by women who rage underneath their delicate exteriors" (Kirkus Reviews), BEWARE THE WOMAN is Megan Abbott at the height of her game.

Honey, I just want you to have everything you ever wanted. That’s what Jacy’s mom always told her. And Jacy felt like she finally did. Newly married and with a baby on the way, Jacy and her new husband, Jed, embark on their first road trip together to visit his father, Dr. Ash, in Michigan’s far-flung Upper Peninsula. The moment they arrive at the cottage snug within the lush woods, Jacy feels bathed in love by the warm and hospitable Dr. Ash, if less so by his house manager, the enigmatic Mrs. Brandt.

But their Edenic first days take a turn when Jacy has a health scare. Swiftly, vacation activities are scrapped, and all eyes are on Jacy’s condition. Suddenly, whispers about Jed’s long-dead mother and complicated family history seem to eerily impinge upon the present, and Jacy begins to feel trapped in the cottage, her every move surveilled, her body under the looking glass. But are her fears founded? Or is it paranoia, or cabin fever, or --- as is suggested to her --- a stubborn refusal to take necessary precautions? The dense woods surrounding the cottage are full of dangers, but are the greater ones inside?

Editorial Content for No Two Persons

Teaser

One book. Nine readers. Ten changed lives. New York Times bestselling author Erica Bauermeister’s NO TWO PERSONS is “a gloriously original celebration of fiction, and the ways it deepens our lives.” (Nina de Gramont, author of THE CHRISTIE AFFAIR)

Promo

One book. Nine readers. Ten changed lives. New York Times bestselling author Erica Bauermeister’s NO TWO PERSONS is “a gloriously original celebration of fiction, and the ways it deepens our lives.” (Nina de Gramont, author of THE CHRISTIE AFFAIR)

About the Book

One book. Nine readers. Ten changed lives. New York Times bestselling author Erica Bauermeister’s NO TWO PERSONS is “a gloriously original celebration of fiction, and the ways it deepens our lives.” (Nina de Gramont, New York Times bestselling author of THE CHRISTIE AFFAIR)

Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words, in turn, find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice’s novel; each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives.

Together, their stories reveal how books can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways --- and how we are all more closely connected to one another than we might think.

Editorial Content for Pieces of Blue

Teaser

From New York Times bestselling author Holly Goldberg Sloan comes a compelling and heartfelt novel for fans of Maria Semple and Emma Straub about a family trying to restore a ramshackle beachside motel --- and their own lives.

Promo

From New York Times bestselling author Holly Goldberg Sloan comes a compelling and heartfelt novel for fans of Maria Semple and Emma Straub about a family trying to restore a ramshackle beachside motel --- and their own lives.

About the Book

From New York Times bestselling author Holly Goldberg Sloan, a compelling and heartfelt novel for fans of Maria Semple and Emma Straub about a family trying to restore a ramshackle beachside motel --- and their own lives.

What good was thinking the future only held cloudy skies? Wasn’t the reality that pieces of blue were always there, waiting to break through?

When Paul Hill drowns in a surfing accident, his broken-hearted wife, Lindsey, and their three children are left in huge financial trouble. Once Paul’s life insurance finally comes through, Lindsey impulsively uses the money to buy a charmingly ramshackle motel in Hawaii, hoping for a fresh start. Teenage Olivia quickly develops a crush on a handsome but monosyllabic skateboarder. Twelve-year-old Carlos reinvents himself as a popular kid named Carl. And Sena, the youngest, will do whatever it takes to protect her beloved motel chickens.

But while the kids adjust, Lindsey is flailing, trying to pretend she knows how to bring a motel --- and herself --- back to life. Then a handsome stranger rolls into the motel parking lot, and she’s surprised to feel a long-dormant part of herself stirring. She accepts his offer to help, unaware that he may have secrets of his own. And all the while, out in the Pacific, the trade winds are fiercely blowing.

Funny and tender, full of twists and turns, and heart, PIECES OF BLUE is a portrait of an irresistible family learning to start over.

Editorial Content for Trust

Book

Teaser

At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, TRUST engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.

Promo

At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, TRUST engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.

About the Book

Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth --- all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.

Hernan Diaz’s TRUST elegantly puts these competing narratives into conversation with one another --- and in tension with the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction. The result is a novel that spans over a century and becomes more exhilarating with each new revelation.

At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, TRUST engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.

Editorial Content for Yellowface

Book

Teaser

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences. Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American.

Promo

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences. Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American.

About the Book

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences. Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American --- in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of BABEL.

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena is a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls? June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song --- complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, YELLOWFACE grapples with questions of diversity, racism and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp and eminently readable.

Win 12 Copies of FELLOWSHIP POINT by Alice Elliott Dark for Your Group

Each month, we ask book groups to share the titles they are reading that month and rate them. From all entries, three winners will be selected, and each will win 12 copies of that month’s prize book for their group. Note: To be eligible to win, let us know the title of the book that YOUR book group is CURRENTLY reading, NOT the title we are giving away.

Our latest prize book is FELLOWSHIP POINT, a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that is now available in paperback. Set across the arc of the 20th century, Alice Elliott Dark's novel is the masterful story of a lifelong friendship between two very different women with shared histories, divisive loyalties, hidden sorrows and 80 years of summers on a pristine point of land on the coast of Maine.To enter, please fill out the form below by Wednesday, July 12th at noon ET.

May 31, 2023

I do not think I am alone in asking, "Wait, how did it get to be May 31st already?" I have been hearing it from people all day. The weather here has been spectacular --- what we call California weather. Last weekend, I finally just sat outside and read; it's been weeks since I've had the time to do that. I missed book group last week for the second time, which is not like me.

Onward to share what's been going on to keep me busy...

Laura Dave Event Art

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