Summer Book Releases for Cool Moms & Dads 2026

Best Books for Parents: Summer 2026 New Releases

Balance the wonderful chaos of family life with some well-deserved literary downtime by exploring the best books for cool moms and dads that are launching this summer. Covering everything from hilariously relatable parenting memoirs and domestic dramas to quick-witted fiction as well as health and wellness, our hand-selected picks offer something to enjoy at home in your (limited) free time or share with parents in your friend circle. Rest assured that our in-house editors and book lovers vet each title thoroughly to ensure that your next read is worth your while.

August Book Releases

The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge

by Beatrice Chestnut

Discover the 27 paths to transformation in Beatrice Chestnut's definitive guide to the Enneagram

Beatrice Chestnut's The Complete Enneagram has become a modern classic for anyone seeking to understand themselves and others. In this renewed edition, Chestnut offers her signature depth and clarity as she explores all nine Enneagram types and their 27 subtypes, revealing how our core patterns shape behavior, relationships and growth.

Featuring a new introduction by the author, this edition invites readers into Chestnut's latest thinking after more than a decade of teaching and global Enneagram work. She offers new context, fresh insight and guidance for using the Enneagram as a tool for awareness and transformation in today's world.

Comprehensive, compassionate and endlessly illuminating, The Complete Enneagram remains the definitive guide to unlocking the patterns that keep us stuck and the paths that set us free.

The Complete High-Protein Cookbook: Hit Your Protein Goals, Boost Fiber, Love Every Bite

by America's Test Kitchen

Nourish your body and fuel your day with deliciously satisfying high-protein recipes packed with fiber and essential nutrients

200+ dietician-backed recipes, with meal-prep tips and meal plans

Savor fabulous food while hitting your protein goals. These 200+ meals and snacks show just how delicious everyday food can be while maximizing protein and increasing fiber, too. No matter your reason for eating high protein, this book has what you need. Short ingredient lists, streamlined prep, make-ahead tips, ways to customize meals for everyone at the table, meal plans, plus easy ways to turbo-boost protein ensure that this food fits seamlessly into your routine with minimal work and maximum flavor.

• Pack-and-go breakfasts and lunches: Custardy Denver Egg Bites; cozy Baked Apple-Pecan Oatmeal Bites; zesty Quinoa Taco Salad; and superfresh Seared Tuna Poke Salad.
• Customizable ingredients and bowls: Make mix-and-match components ahead for supersimple meals on demand or to assemble Pomegranate Salmon and Bulgur Bowl, Halal Cart Chicken and Rice Bowl, or Peanut-Sesame Tofu Bowl.
• Fast, delicious dinners: Air-Fryer Spiced Chicken Kebabs with Vegetable-Bulgur Pilaf; One-Pan Sirloin Steak Tips with Charro Beans; and Picadillo-Style Turkey Chili in 45 minutes or less.
• No-need-to-resist snacks and treats: Crispy Parmesan Chicken Nuggets and Spicy BBQ Chickpeas satisfy savory cravings. For a sweet treat, go for Cottage Cheesecake or Lemon-Chia Mug Cake.
• Whole-food focus: Add great flavor with protein boosters like cottage cheese for the fluffiest pancakes, yogurt for supercreamy chicken salad, whole-wheat flour in tender muffins, and nuts and seeds in flavorful crusts for fish or chicken. You don't need protein powders to make these recipes (though we show you how to best use them).
• Flexible tips to meet high-protein goals: Pointers for making and storing meals, meal components and snacks ensure that healthy options are always on hand. Boost It tips with each recipe tell you how to supercharge protein content.

Eat with Afia: A Celebration of Plant-Based Ghanaian Cooking

by Afia Amoako

A rich collection of plant-based Ghanaian recipes and some of West Africa's singularly iconic dishes, from the beloved creator of Eat with Afia

Afia Amoako grew up in a kitchen that was never quiet, never empty and never boring. Food, she understood from a young age, was the essence of her family's Ghanaian culture. It was represented in the red palm oil that colored their stews; it was pounded into the plantain and cassava-based fufu they ate with soups; and it shone through in the indigenous spices that flavored kebabs and so much more. 

When her family immigrated to North America and Afia found herself drawn to a plant-based lifestyle, she worried that her connection to her home country would be lost. But happily, as she immersed herself more in West Africa's culinary traditions, seeking to learn about and replicate the recipes she grew up on, food offered that connection to Ghana. In Eat with Afia, Afia assembles a warm and ever-comforting blend of recipes that pay homage to Ghanaian cuisine from a plant-based perspective.

Including stories of Ghanaian foodways, culture and family traditions, Eat with Afia is an irresistible invitation to explore with Afia as she cooks her way through Ghanaian classics and her favorite dishes. From quick bites like Kebab Mushrooms and Roasted Plantains to hearty meals like Groundnut Soup and Garden Egg Stew, and of course, Afia's recipe for Jollof Rice, this is a collection of recipes to delight all of your senses. Bursting with vibrant photography, Eat with Afia is a heartfelt plant-based journey into an exciting cuisine.

Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals about Food, Diet, Health, and Eating Well

by Daniel E Lieberman

A brilliant, no-nonsense look at two questions we never evolved to ask but now must consider several times a day: what should we eat and why?

Daniel E. Lieberman, bestselling author of The Story of the Human Body and Exercised and founding chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, cuts through all the confusing and contradictory advice on diet and wellness to ar­gue that there can be no simple, definitive answer. Drawing from evolutionary biol­ogy, physiology, anthropology, anatomy, medical science and history, Lieberman examines, with brio and wit, the history and health effects of food from before the invention of cooking up to today's industrially produced diets.

He shows how we evolved to eat almost anything, and by evalu­ating and trying many of these diets (raw food, Paleo, Mediterranean, Blue Zone, intermittent fasting, Atkins, DASH), he helps you understand why none is flawless though some are better than others.

Lieberman explores the costs and benefits of cheap, energy-rich, tempting, and often unhealthy, ultra-processed foods; the tangled roots of weight gain; how diet influences obesity, heart disease and cancer; and the claims of benefits offered by high- and low-fat diets, meal replacements, inter­mittent fasting, carnivorism, vegetarianism and veganism, while also showing how over centu­ries most cultures evolved ingenious ways to grow and cook healthy, delicious food.

This fascinating and entertaining sci­ence-based book on nutrition, digestion and health will teach you how to be well fed instead of fed up with dietary hucksterism.

From Italy with Amore: Seasonal Italian Recipes for Those You Love

by Jessi Pasini - Alessio Pasini

Dai, amore! Savor the flavors of Italy in this love letter to seasonal cooking from Jessi and Alessio Pasini.

You may think you know what a real Italian meal looks like, but would it pass Alessio's approval? Join the Pasinis on a culinary adventure as they guide you toward the best ingredients and recipes for the perfect Italian dining experience.

Jessi and Alessio bring their endearing intersection of cultures into your kitchen with their debut cookbook. You'll learn:

• How to identify the most authentic Italian ingredients, sauces, products and more in American grocery stores
• The best Italian cooking tricks (never break the pasta)
• How to taste for the best olive oil
• How to prepare the most delicious Italian foods, from appetizers to mains, homemade pasta, pizzas, desserts and more

Along the way, you'll be charmed by Jessi and Alessio's funny, tender tales of travel, family, cultural clashes and the many meals that shape their life together. Filled with approachable recipes for family-friendly Italian cuisine and a deep reverence for the beauty of the most authentic ingredients, this cookbook is a love letter to Italian food and the people you gather around the table. Buon appetito!

House Hushing: The Simple Method to Declutter and Decorate for a More Peaceful Home

by Myquillyn Smith

YOUR HOME CAN BE BOTH SIMPLE AND SOULFUL

If you've ever found yourself in an endless loop of decorating and decluttering, you're not alone.

We've been told that a peaceful home means a nearly empty home. But peace isn't found in emptiness; it's found in intention.

Myquillyn Smith, the original voice behind House Hushing, will help you create a simple, storied home full of personality, without being overly full of stuff.

In House Hushing you'll learn to:

• Declutter backwards: a mercifully simple, revolutionary new way to make decisions about what should stay and what should go
• Decorate quietly: make small, thoughtful shifts that major on impact
• Style soulfully: personalize your space with pieces that matter
• Live seasonally: recognize rhythms that help you create a home that supports your ever-changing life

House Hushing isn't about having less for the sake of less; it's about creating clarity, comfort and beauty that lasts, so your home can finally feel like a place to rest, gather and belong.

It's time to finally hush your house.

"A smart how-to on bringing personality into one's home without clutter. ... Filled with practical advice and hard-earned wisdom, this will help readers make their home a tranquil place without sacrificing style." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking: Make It Fast

by Caroline Chambers

Following the breakout success of the New York Times bestselling What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking, Substack star Caroline Chambers returns with a new cookbook offering 100 more recipes for busy people who love good food--and these can be made even faster! 

Caroline Chambers famously doesn't feel like cooking--and she's built a whole brand on that premise. Her superpowers are eliminating unnecessary steps; minimizing dirty dishes; and making dinnertime as simple, stress-free and fun as possible. While plenty of obstacles stand between you and a delicious meal, being short on time is probably the biggest one.

This exciting follow-up cookbook is once again organized into three time-based chapters. You'll find recipes for 100 dinners, all of which are complete meals and can be made with no more than 30 minutes hands-on time in the kitchen, and yes, that includes chopping, marinating and all other prep! Delicious meals include:

• Flank Steak with Elote Salsa
• Fish and Veggie Curry
• Rotisserie-ish Chicken with Schmaltzy Lemon Dressing
• Smoky Black Beans
• Fried Rice

Every quick and easy recipe features Caro's signature swaps, riffs, tips and shortcuts to empower you to make these recipes work for you, not the other way around! You'll also find special treasures throughout the book, including anchor recipes you can spin into five different dishes so you can DIY your favorites.

Plus, helpful back-of-book indexes allow you to search by both ingredient -- useful when, say, you've got ground meat in the freezer -- and occasion or mood--like when you cannot be bothered to chop a single thing. Even on the nights when you think there's no way, no how, What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking: Make It Fast will help you get a full, flavorful meal on the table in basically no time.

July Book Releases

Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity & Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI

by MD Suskind

From New York Times bestselling author Dana Suskind, a timely, urgent guide to parenting in the age of artificial intelligence and protecting what matters most in childhood

"A stunning book about how to protect our children--and our humanity--in the age of AI." -- Adam Grant

"Hope is not lost. It's right here. If there is a young person in your life, Human Raised is for you." -- Angela Duckworth

As AI enters nurseries, playrooms and classrooms, parents are being sold a "smart" childhood at every turn. This book is a guide to protecting the most important label of all: human raised.

In her groundbreaking book Thirty Million Words, Dr. Suskind revealed the extraordinary power of parent talk and interaction in building children's brains. Now, with the advent of artificial intelligence, the stakes of that nurturing interaction have become even clearer. New AI applications demonstrate what technology can replicate--but they also illuminate what it cannot: the capacity of human interaction to build not just children's skills but their very capacity for human connection.

Human Raised reveals the possibilities and perils of using AI and related technologies for child-rearing. From monitors that decode cries, to smart cribs that soothe babies to sleep, to interactive chatbots designed to engage an inquisitive toddler, the parenting landscape is shifting fast--and Dr. Suskind helps parents navigate this uncharted territory with clarity and confidence.

Readers will learn four guiding principles for raising children alongside AI:

• Human connection is irreplaceable
• Own your imperfections
• Protect the early years
• Enhance--don't replace--connection

The book also offers a concrete evaluation framework to help parents (and anyone shaping children's environments) assess individual technologies, along with evidence-based guidance for fostering the skills children will need to thrive in an AI-driven future. Critical thinking, empathy, creativity and resilience form what Suskind calls the Human Edge--capabilities no algorithm can replicate and no artificial teacher can cultivate.

Drawing from neuroscience, evolutionary biology and the lived experience of countless families, Human Raised prepares parents to act as essential guardians to the gateway between AI and their children's developing minds--keeping human connection, in all its beautiful imperfection, at the center of childhood.

Dad, Love, Me: A Memoir

by Matthew Quick

Written in the form of a letter to his ailing father, this debut memoir from the bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook explores the complicated burden of caring for an abusive parent who is dying--here is Matthew Quick's most personal and potent work to date.

"This book will gut you and then, somehow, put you back together." -- Scott Galloway - "Dad, Love, Me is a masterpiece … It will change people's lives." -- Lori Gottlieb - "A gut punch of a memoir ... What a gift this book is." -- Catherine Newman - "For all its heavy subject matter, the book has a remarkably light touch and sense of grace." -- Kirkus Reviews

On the surface, Matthew Quick seemed to have it all, a loving wife, a thriving career as a novelist and a beautiful home. He'd traveled all over the world advocating for mental health awareness, standing before crowds as a success story. But secretly, he was depressed and some days, he didn't want to live.

Years earlier, when he first told his father he wanted to be a novelist, the response was immediate and brutal: "Idiot!" That voice -- angry and belittling -- would echo through Quick's mind for years. He channeled his pain into his debut novel, The Silver Linings Playbook, crafting a complex father-son dynamic drawn straight from his own life. The book became a New York Times bestseller and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. Still, the approval Quick longed for never came. His father remained cold and withholding. The deeper the rift between them grew, the deeper Quick sank into anxiety and addiction.

In this book, Quick takes readers deep into his psyche, as he wrestles with both his own mental health and his father's cognitive decline. A health scare finally forces Quick to get sober, but then, overcome by creative paralysis, writer's block threatens to end his career. The blank page is unbearable. As his desperation for healing peaks, Quick turns to a Jungian analyst he nicknames "Zeus." In the safety of analysis, as Quick's repressed pain and shame surface, he finally cracks. Just as he is putting himself back together, his father is diagnosed with dementia.

Suddenly, the clock is ticking. If there is ever going to be reconciliation, it has to happen now. Quick and his wife pack up their lives in coastal North Carolina, drive eight hours and move into a house just around the corner from Quick's parents, on an island right outside of Beaufort, South Carolina. There, as his father slips further and further away, Quick races to make a healing connection.

Dad, Love, Me is Quick's raw, vulnerable and deeply moving account of what it means to forgive a parent who never really knew how to love you. It's about wounds that never fully heal and the power of showing up anyway. This beautifully brave and life-affirming memoir is a must read for anyone who has been starved of love but wants to keep loving anyway.

Scavenging Beauty: A Memoir in Walks

by Angelica Glass

In this beguiling memoir of discovery and transformation, a woman walks every street in Santa Cruz County, California, and finds unexpected healing

Angelica Glass spent decades as a social worker helping families struggling with poverty, addiction, abuse and neglect. Needing relief from work-related stress, she turned to walking as an outlet. What began as a way to incorporate more exercise into her busy life transformed into something extraordinary: a years-long odyssey in which Glass drew upon physical exercise, a close observation of the natural world, and long periods of introspection to reconcile with her own past.

Between moments of awe as she explored her community and documented what she saw with her camera, she grappled with the turmoil of her early years in a complicated, challenging family, the aging process, long-held insecurities, and grief.

Whether wandering through residential neighborhoods, over redwood-strewn mountain passes, or along the seashore, Glass found solace and developed a growing sense of peace. By looking to the natural world to suture old wounds -- by scavenging beauty on her terms -- she came to understand what it means to feel whole. 

I'm a Lot: Surviving Myself and All the People I've Been

by Alison Leiby

In this witty, absurd, and surprisingly moving memoir-in-essays, comedian Alison Leiby unpacks the multitudes women are told to be -- and the joy of refusing to pick just one.

"Alison Leiby is the Jewish millennial David Sedaris. Reading this book was like having a glass of wine with your funniest, smartest, and coolest friend." -- Bess Kalb, author of Nobody Will Tell You This But Me

Have you ever frozen when someone asks, "So, tell me about yourself?" If so, take a page from I'm a Lot. Alison Leiby proudly embraces the identities we're often encouraged to hide: Housewives stan. Discount shopaholic. Former jock. Happily single. Childless by choice and proud cat mom. Through these different roles and identities, Leiby reveals her hard-earned wisdom about what it's like to be a woman who does it all (except for the things that make her say "uh, no thank you").

When she was 19 years old, a complication from back surgery left Leiby on her deathbed. After a surprising recovery, you might assume Leiby was ready to seize life by the you-know-whats. But instead of letting this one miraculous experience define her, Leiby's brush with death made her realize there is nothing more beautiful in this life than just getting to be yourself. And while women are still expected to conform to many patriarchal labels, Leiby ignores the pressure to be palatable and instead champions all the joyful, weird, and complicated selves she brings to the world.

In fourteen personal essays full of deadpan jokes, tender moments of candid introspection, and insightful social commentary, Leiby encourages us to ditch the manufactured Instagram persona and embrace the fact that sometimes the puzzle pieces don't always fit to create a perfect picture, but that doesn't mean we are incomplete.

Think Less, Sleep More: From Panic & Perfectionism to Stress-Free Sleep

by Stephanie Romiszewski

A smart and sometimes counterintuitive (who cares when you go to bed?) guide that will solve readers' sleep anxiety once and for all! 

If there's anything worse that not getting sleep, it's lying awake with a scare-face staring at the ceiling worrying about it. Here's Romiszewski's--a sleep physiologist and founder of the UK's Sleepyhead Clinics -- promise: "This book is your guide to liberating yourself from the endless cycle of sleep anxiety and obsession. By the end, you'll have regained control - not through perfection, but by letting go of the need to constantly manage your sleep. Sleep will start working for you, not as something to fear or fix, but as your natural ally. And best of all, it will no longer dominate your thoughts."

THINK LESS, SLEEP MORE is a sensible take on sleep with some counterintuitive twists to current accepted dogma, such as that we all need more sleep and that segmented sleep -- aka waking up in the middle of the night -- is a killer. It's a health and wellness sigh-of-relief book: there are some readjustments to make, both mental and physical, but a key takeaway is that whatever you're doing now is probably better than you think.

Among other counterintuitive insights, Romiszewski reveals:

• The importance of a consistent wake-time rather than a rigid bedtime
• How to trust your body's natural sleep drive and rhythms
• That 'bad' nights neither ruin the next day, nor, necessarily, your health, and that variability is normal
• That sleep isn't fragile; it's adaptable, resilient, and smarter than any hack you could throw at it
• The myth of 8 hours
• The power of light

For an audience who found Matthew Walker's Why We Sleep a bit daunting, Romiszewski's is the sensible, seasoned, calming voice you want to think of a 3 a.m.

Why We Fight: A Transformative Road Map to Healing Conflict in Any Relationship

by Kim Polinder

A revolutionary guide to discovering your core wound, examining how it manifests in your life, and navigating conflict in all relationships, from the popular associate therapist and coach @kp_counseling.

Anyone in a long-term relationship knows that fighting is inevitable. Our goal should be fighting well, fighting clean--which is both shockingly hard to do and the basis of a successful partnership. In Why We Fight, relationship coach, couples' therapist, and former Fortune 500 tech engineer Kim Polinder offers a unique and practical process for couples to address the recurring conflicts in their relationships--by helping them understand why they fight in the first place.

If you're sick of feeling out of control as the same old fights keep bubbling up, Why We Fight provides a path to understanding why we experience repetitive arguments and contention in our intimate relationships, and how to change that before it's too late. With Kim's guidance, you will discover your core wound, analyze how that plays out in your life, and follow a series of questions and practices to reframe and implement new behaviors, resulting in an improved relationship with yourself and your loved one.

Before Kim gained her degrees in spiritual psychology and clinical mental health and became a therapist, she spent many years as an IT engineer for a Fortune 500 company. This training taught her to approach problems by seeking the root cause of issues. In these pages, you will learn to:

• identify your core wound(s), which might sound something like 'My feelings don't matter, ' 'I don't belong," or 'My feelings are overwhelming'
• understand your attachment style and how it might be holding you back
• apply basic communication exercises
• undo the 'bad math' of relationships that you absorbed in childhood
• express yourself effectively, not defensively
• figure out the best troubleshooting approach for when conflict emerges, as it inevitably will

Kim's simple, proprietary flowchart system (Step 1: Do I Feel Understood? Step 2: Find a Solution) with straightforward prompts has been a gamechanger for her clients and hundreds of thousands of followers, helping them navigate conflict, regulate their emotions, communication more effectively, and make informed decisions during tough arguments.

All My Dead Cats and Other Losses: Practicing Good Grief in a Culture That Fears Mourning

by S. E. Smith

Have you suffered a loss? How was your life changed by the grief you experienced? Did you feel like your grief was properly acknowledged? Mourning is a personal experience and shouldn't be judged. There are no do-overs in death, but there are do-betters.

All My Dead Cats is not a book about pet loss. You will meet award-winning journalist and debut author s.e. smith's cats and read small slices of their stories. Their vignettes serve as an opening to scary conversations about loss, so grief can feel less intimidating and more relatable.

This is a book about grief and mourning as collective activities best undertaken in community. S.e. interviews dozens of experts--from death doulas to funeral home directors to therapists and psychologists--and discusses the different stages of grief. The shared perspectives help us understand that grief is not fixable but it can be livable. They teach us that if we have the courage, which begins with honest conversations about how we navigate grief, then we can learn how to do better.

After reading you'll better understand:

Grief is not over once the body is neatly disposed of, the rubble of the house has been taken away in dumpsters, the final fit on the prosthesis is done, the law is passed and withstands legal challenges, or when the permanent peace is brokered. It is an ongoing shift in our relationship to the world, and one that deserves attention and care as well as time and space to be amongst fellow mourners, to whom we do not need to justify or explain, because they understand where we are.

Readers will feel seen rather than being chastised for how they grieve and better understand how to process mourning--and how to help others. All My Dead Cats provides an entry point, by beginning the conversation about a beloved pet, so readers can think about the larger stakes of death and live a more fulfilled life.

June Book Releases for Moms & Dads

But You Look Fine: Trapped in the Hell Between Sick and Well and How to Break Free

by Amy Kurtz

Health coach, patient advocate and wellness advisor, Amy Kurtz, breaks the silence about the crucial, painful, pervasive, and yet all too common phase of healing from chronic illness that has long gone overlooked ... until now. 

According to the Center for Disease Control, 194 million Americans (76.4% of the population) have at least one chronic illness, and half of them are women. While many of these individuals finally have a diagnosis, and are no longer "sick", they're still not "well." They've gone through the treatments, taken the medications, and yet still find themselves suffering.

So, what do you do after you've discovered the root of your condition, and you're still not healed? How do you move past the trauma of being diagnosed (which often takes years for many patients), as well as the trauma of now living with this condition. More importantly, what is this limbo between sick and well that so many patients find themselves in?

The answer is Medical Trauma Brain, a phrase Health coach and patient advocate Amy Kurtz coined after years of research into her own challenges with misdiagnosed Lyme disease. Medical Trauma Brain is the trauma that hangs on pervasively even after the patient is "cured" keeping them stuck in the hell between sick and well. It's the most overlooked but crucial part of healing, and in But You Look Fine, Amy shares the exact plan she used to move through this integral part of recovery so others can finally break free from their own bridge between sick and well.

"Amy Kurtz exposes a common occurrence that until now has gone unnamed and undiscussed by doctors and patients alike. Not only does she reveal this roadblock to wellness, but she also offers solutions, ones that we can all apply to our lives whether chronically ill, newly diagnosed, or labeled 'cured.' This is a paradigm shifting book and a must-read." – Mark Hyman, MD

Even the Darkest Night: A Father's Journey of Hope and Healing from Paternal Depression

by MD Choukalas

Offering hope and illumination, the bone-raw story of a father's failure to bond with his infant twin daughters, and his journey through paternal depression, an often undiagnosed condition that affects millions of new fathers.

After a traumatic birth nearly claimed his wife's life, anesthesiologist and intensive care physician Christopher Choukalas should have felt grateful. His twin daughters were healthy, his wife had survived and they had started a family. But instead of joy, Choukalas found himself spiraling -- spending long evenings in the garage, unable to face the chaos and emotional strain inside his home. Caught between caring for his wife, deciphering the needs of his newborns and confronting painful childhood memories, his world began to unravel.

Despite clear signs, including racing thoughts, anxiety, sleeplessness, panic attacks and emotional distance from his children, Choukalas failed to recognize he was suffering from a serious condition. Like many men, he internalized his pain, hoping it was just the "baby blues" and would fade with time.

His turning point came when his wife, exhausted with his behavior and "checked-outness," urged him to seek help. Even though he's a doctor, he had missed the fact that he ticked off every symptom of paternal depression. Through intensive therapy, medication, and the support of a fathers' group, Choukalas began to understand his need for control and the lingering hurt from his own father's absence. Slowly, he rebuilt his connection with his wife and children and found healing.

Even the Darkest Night, Choukalas's powerful memoir, sheds light on the hidden struggles of fatherhood. With raw honesty and emotional insight, it challenges the silence and stigma surrounding men's mental health, especially in the early years of parenting. A much-needed voice and new understanding for fathers navigating love, identity, and healing in the shadows of expectation.

Fully Baked: A Messy Memoir

by Rosebud Baker

An astonishingly candid and funny memoir that will make you laugh and cry while it steals your heart, from a renowned stand-up comedian and veteran SNL writer who is "an expert in making light of life's most devastating moments" (Rolling Stone).

Rosebud Baker grew up as a loudmouth who preferred to be honest than polite, which is another way of saying she was unemployable. She spent her 20s trying to make it as an actor in New York like every other privileged millennial transplant cosplaying Rent, while gigging as a barista and as "the world's angriest yoga instructor." She was blackout drunk most of the time, struggling with alcoholism. She even tried to steal a bodega cat.

Eventually, she harnessed the qualities she once saw as defects -- her dark humor and insistence on saying the awkward thing out loud -- into a comedy career. She got sober. And she went from dating NYC's most emotionally unavailable artists to falling in love, getting married and becoming a new mom.

Fully Baked is Rosebud's riotously funny and emotionally resonant memoir. Inspired by her pregnancy and early motherhood, it's also her quest to discover who she really is and how she wants to raise her daughter. Every chapter is smart, self-deprecating and laugh-out-loud funny, and no subject is off limits, from her famous yet unknowable grandfather, White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III, to her youngest sister's sudden death. You'll speed through the pages to discover what happens next. Then, you'll look back on a remarkable book that felt like an intimate conversation with a friend who made you feel better by confessing all the ways they screwed up.

Leave the Lights on: How Joyful Decisions Can Save Our Species

by Elizabeth Dunn - Jiaying Zhao

"Who knew that saving the world could be so much fun?"--Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness

What if the most effective ways to fight climate change made you happy? Psychologist Elizabeth Dunn and climate behavior scientist Jiaying Zhao challenge everything we think we know about sustainable living. While most climate advice demands self-denial -- eat less, travel less, want less -- this groundbreaking book offers a counterintuitive truth: you can make your life better while saving our species at the same time. The authors reveal how tweaking everyday decisions around food, travel, housing, and shopping can nudge us toward a tipping point of mass action, without tipping us into burnout.

You will discover that:

• Joy is a powerful climate strategy. When you enjoy the changes you're making, you're more likely to stick with them--and spread them.
• You don't have to go vegan or give up flying. Smart substitutions (chicken over beef, carry-on over checked bags) make a real dent in emissions with less personal friction.
• Small talk matters. Normalizing climate conversations with friends and family helps shift social norms and catalyzes cultural change.
• Give yourself permission to leave the lights on. Focus on higher-impact actions instead of smaller interventions.

Leave the Lights On is a bold invitation to reimagine climate action not as a burden, but as an opportunity to build a brighter future -- without guilt, without gloom and without giving up the things that make life worth living. With warmth, clarity and a refreshingly optimistic voice, Zhao and Dunn reframe what it means to "do your part." Because sustainability doesn't lie in doing everything, it lies in doing something, joyfully.

No Dumb Questions: And All of Our Dumbest Answers

by Jason Kelce - Travis Kelce

Brothers, Super Bowl Champions, and now, published authors. That's right, authors. Look, we're as surprised as you.

New Heights hosts Jason and Travis Kelce attempt to tackle some of life's dumbest questions from the 92%ers. Join us on this discov­ery of knowledge as we cover topics like sports, relationships, parenting, gorilla fights, and many more quandaries that man has pondered since he first gazed upon the stars.

• FOOTBALL: Why don't players squirt their own water?
• CUISINE: Do you pour the cereal first or the milk?
• SCIENCE: If you could make one of your body parts detachable, which would you choose?

When you think philosophy, you'll probably think of names like Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle. But none of those men have won a single Super Bowl, so what do they know? No Dumb Questions is a collection of Jason and Travis's wisest, funniest, and most electric debates that could only come from the collected wisdom of a combined twenty-seven seasons in the NFL.

Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn from Animal Sex

by Perrin Roosevelt Ireland

In delightful watercolor comics of pregnant seahorse dads, spider oral sex, and the four-headed echidna penis, Perrin Roosevelt Ireland takes us on a wild biodiversity ride through queerness, infidelity, consent, divorce, sex change, and even sexual cannibalism in the animal world. Poking the Squid illustrates the splendid diversity of nature's eroticism. For too long, science has prudishly obscured the wildly creative kinkiness of animal sexual behavior. But Poking the Squid celebrates how assumptions about sex are shifting.

Ireland interviews researchers probing the leading edge of animal reproductive biology and, with the help of her cats Ursula and Pudge, brings readers along as she learns the latest discoveries that implode traditional notions of sex roles, relationships, and just who is mounting whom. These researchers are making dolphin vaginal popsicles, retrieving sperm packets from male squid mouths, and documenting dolphin orgies. From the externalized clitoris of the spotted hyena to mating-by-fusion in anglerfish, Poking the Squid draws on decades of feminist and queer theory to show that sexual diversity is biodiversity, and boisterous boinking is only natural.

Ireland reminds us that we humans, from habitat destruction to climate change, impact all of animal life, including their private lives. Yet Earth's sexual ecosystem is filled with joy, resilience, and vitality--a balm to climate grief and a reason to protect all forms of nature's pleasure. And by illuminating and celebrating animal diversity, Poking the Squid invites us to embrace our own.

Grill: Easy Grilling, Big Flavor

by Jamie Oliver

TRANSFORM YOUR GRILLING WITH JAMIE OLIVER'S 90 EASY, FLAVOR-PACKED RECIPES--PERFECT FOR OUTDOOR COOKING.

Discover how to grill, smoke and sizzle your way to crowd-pleasing meals with Jamie's ultimate guide to grilling.

In this sizzling cookbook, Jamie shares 90 brilliant recipes that show just how exciting, creative and delicious grilling can be. Whether you're cooking on charcoal, gas or over an open flame, Jamie's got you covered, from marinades and rubs to mastering heat, smoke and timing.

Get ready for smoky flavors, bold ingredients and good times with recipes that turn every meal into a feast to remember, whatever the weather, including:

• Romesco Cauliflower
• Herby Eggplant and Zingy Feta Flatbreads
• Grilled Black Pepper Peaches
• Arrabbiata Chicken Drumsticks
• Lemon Steamed Fish and Charred Greens
• Paprika Pulled Pork
• Lamb Moussaka Burgers
• Grilled Green Grain Salad

… and plenty more mouth-watering grilled dishes, sides and sauces to keep your grill game strong all year round.

Packed with Jamie's best tips for marinating, grilling and cooking outdoors, this is the ultimate companion for anyone who loves good food, good company and cooking in the open air. You'll be bossing that grill like a pro in no time. Big flavor, smoky vibes and Jamie Oliver at his best -- this is the grilling cookbook you'll use again and again.

Cocked and Boozy: An Intoxicating History of the American Revolution

by Brooke Barbier

America's founding generation drank a staggering amount of alcohol by today's standards.

It influenced their politics, built and sustained their relationships, and drove the economy. Booze was not a small part of colonial society, nor covertly consumed in private spaces -- it was integral to American life.

Historians have been reluctant to discuss the influence of alcohol on the founding of the United States, but it is necessary if we want to gain a full picture of the movement -- it's time to reveal the drunken side of the American Revolution.

In Cocked and Boozy (two of Benjamin Franklin's 200 terms for drunkenness), public historian Brooke Barbier examines the role that alcohol played in spurring, binding and winning the American Revolution and how it shaped the nascent United States. Every chapter concludes with an 18th century cocktail recipe made for modern tastes, so readers can participate in their own historic tippling.

The intoxicating story begins in 1763 after the end of the French and Indian War and spans until 1800, with the presidential election of Thomas Jefferson. During these nearly four decades, Americans witnessed unprecedented disorder and prodigious growth, and through it all--powering it, in fact--was alcohol. Put simply, drink helped transform British subjects into Americans.

Related: For more reading ideas, check out our book recommendation for The Hobbyist or explore other new releases in our Spring Reading Guide for Cool Moms/Dads.