If it is on every list, it is probably here. Spring’s buzziest titles from major authors are ready to dominate book club chats. Award contenders and celebrity picks stand out. These books are highly shareable and widely discussed. Stay ahead of the curve this season with our hand-picked recommendations.
Top Bestsellers and Celebrity Books May 2026:
The Midnight Train
by Matt Haig
When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop?
No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there.
The chance to re-live the moments that meant most.
To see what kind of person you really were.
For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On his honeymoon in Venice.
Before he gave it all away.
He wishes he could go back and live differently. But to do so risks everything …
A magical, time-travelling love story, from the world of The Midnight Library.
Our Perfect Storm
by Carley Fortune
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, TODAY, WOMAN'S WORLD, TOWN & COUNTRY, BRITT & CO., AND MORE!
Best friends have one week in paradise to fix their friendship or fall apart in this heart-stopping, utterly romantic new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After and One Golden Summer.
Frankie and George have been best friends since they were eight years old. Both passionate, impulsive, and headstrong--they've always clashed … and come back together. Until now. It's the eve of Frankie's wedding weekend, and she doesn't know where they stand or even if George will show up as her best man.
Then, at the start of the festivities, in walks George. For one glorious evening, surrounded by her loved ones, Frankie's life is finally perfect. But it all comes crashing down when her fiancé dumps her the next morning, leaving only a note as an explanation.
Crushed and confused, Frankie returns to her family's home to wallow. But George has a different idea and a plan for healing Frankie's broken heart. He wants her to go on her honeymoon. With him. For one week, to the lush rainforests and misty beaches of Tofino.
Frankie agrees, seeing the trip for what it really is: one last chance to repair their friendship. Even if it means unearthing secrets and long buried feelings neither knows how to handle. Even if it means falling apart for good.
The Things We Never Say
by Elizabeth Strout
Pulitzer Prize-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout's new novel tells the story of a chance incident that sparks a powerful realization in a beloved teacher's life -- a poignant meditation on loneliness, friendship, parenthood and the importance of truth in a capsizing world
Artie Dam is living a double life. He spends his days teaching history to eleventh graders, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He goes to holiday parties with his wife of three decades, makes small talk with neighbors, and, on weekends, takes his sailboat out on the beautiful Massachusetts Bay. He is, by all appearances, present and alive. But inside, Artie is plagued by feelings of isolation. He looks out at a world gone mad--at himself and the people around him -- and turns a question over and over in his mind: How is it that we know so little about one another, even those closest to us?
And then, one day, Artie learns that life has been keeping a secret from him, one that threatens to upend his entire world. Once he learns it, he is forced to chart a new course, to reconsider the relationships he holds most dear--and to make peace with the mysteries at the heart of our existence.
Elizabeth Strout, as we have come to expect, delivers a moving exploration of the human condition--one that brims with compassion for each and every one of her indelible characters. With exquisite prose and profound insight, The Things We Never Say takes one man's fears and loneliness and makes them universal. And in the same breath, captures the abiding love that sustains and holds us all.
And So It Is...: A Memoir of Acceptance and Hope
by Jamie Lynn Sigler
The star of the legendary HBO series The Sopranos and podcast co-host with Christina Applegate, Jamie Lynn Sigler opens up about the vicissitudes of life, from early stardom to heartache and love, motherhood, and illness, offering readers an unflinchingly vulnerable exploration of the experiences that have transformed her life.
Jamie Lynn Sigler is both the girl-next-door and a superstar. Tapped at the young age of sixteen to star as Meadow Soprano, daughter of mob boss Tony Soprano, by the time the series ended in 2007, Jamie, then twenty-five, suffered from an eating disorder, kept private her diagnosis of MS, and entered a disastrous early marriage--all under the scrutiny of a less-than-kind public eye. Over the next years, Jamie would remarry, become a mother, launch a hugely popular podcast and, most recently, nearly lose her beloved son to a mysterious illness.
Amidst the stardust showered and all the slings and arrows that life has thrown, Sigler emerges with grace and a generosity of spirit that she is ready to share. In this moving and fiercely honest memoir, she reflects on her life and her years on The Sopranos. But this is no tale of woe; Jamie guides us through her darkest moments and comes out the other side emboldened and not embittered.
A natural storyteller, she shares memories of her time portraying Meadow Soprano and beyond, including her often painful journey of self-discovery. In this unflinching account, Jamie holds nothing back; her resilience, candor, and her heart-bursting capacity for love shine through on every page.
And So It Is... offers the best of memoir from a cherished voice that invites us to share the most challenging and equally blessed moments of life's journey. A triumphant story from one of America's favorite stars.
Killin' Time: My Life and Music
by Clint Black
The long-awaited memoir from country music legend, Clint Black -- a raw, intimate, and unflinching story that traces his rise from struggling songwriter to chart-topping superstar and enduring music legend.
Over 21 million records sold. Twenty-two number one career singles. 31 top ten singles. Nearly two dozen gold and platinum awards. Countless CMA and ACM awards. A Grammy Award. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. When it comes to modern music, few artists have had a bigger or more lasting impact than Clint Black. Since bursting onto the country music scene in 1989 with Killin' Time--the triple-platinum debut that delivered five consecutive number one singles--Black has built a genre-defining career spanning nearly four decades. Having written the soundtrack of a generation, Clint now puts pen to paper to write, for the first time, the story of the man behind the music.
In his long-awaited memoir, Black shares the unfiltered, extraordinary account of his journey from a kid with a dream on the outskirts of Houston to a country music legend. From his near-death experiences as a young boy, to his decision to drop out of high school to pursue music, to countless years struggling as an unknown young artist, playing at any nightclub or hotel bar that would have him, Black's path to success had more twists than the Texas two-step.
Once fame hit and the stakes got higher, Black didn't let the pressure of big crowds, big money, or big labels steer him off course. By writing from the heart and sticking to his guns, he built a legacy on his own terms. These values proved to be Black's north star navigating superstardom, including a difficult lawsuit against his ex-manager, Bill Ham; subsequently founding his own record label; recording with heroes such as Jimmy Buffett, Merle Haggard, and Eric Idle; his whirlwind romance and everlasting marriage with actress Lisa Hartman Black; and most recently, a critical issue with a cervical spine injury, which threatened the very thing that made him a star: his voice.
With vivid, deeply personal stories -- all told with Black's signature charm -- he recounts how his steadfast dedication to his beliefs and his passion for music led him to success after success, and through storm after storm. For longtime fans and newcomers alike, Killin' Time is a revelatory and rare glimpse of the iconic life and career of a once in a generation talent.
Killin' Time includes a 16-page color photo insert.
Sonny Boy: A Memoir
by Al Pacino
The Instant New York Times Bestseller - One of People Magazine's Top 10 Books of the Year
"The rare celebrity memoir that's also a literary read. As funny as it is reflective, it shares stories behind Pacino's hardscrabble upbringing, classic films and journey to icon status." -- People Magazine
From one of the most iconic actors in the history of film, an astonishingly revelatory account of a creative life in full
To the wider world, Al Pacino exploded onto the scene like a supernova. He landed his first leading role, in The Panic in Needle Park, in 1971, and by 1975, he had starred in four movies--The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon--that were not just successes but landmarks in the history of film. Those performances became legendary and changed his life forever. Not since Marlon Brando and James Dean in the late 1950s had an actor landed in the culture with such force.
But Pacino was in his mid-thirties by then, and had already lived several lives. A fixture of avant-garde theater in New York, he had led a bohemian existence, working odd jobs to support his craft. He was raised by a fiercely loving but mentally unwell mother and her parents after his father left them when he was young, but in a real sense he was raised by the streets of the South Bronx, and by the troop of buccaneering young friends he ran with, whose spirits never left him. After a teacher recognized his acting promise and pushed him toward New York's fabled High School of Performing Arts, the die was cast. In good times and bad, in poverty and in wealth and in poverty again, through pain and joy, acting was his lifeline, its community his tribe.
Sonny Boy is the memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide. All the great roles, the essential collaborations, and the important relationships are given their full due, as is the vexed marriage between creativity and commerce at the highest levels. The book's golden thread, however, is the spirit of love and purpose. Love can fail you, and you can be defeated in your ambitions--the same lights that shine bright can also dim. But Al Pacino was lucky enough to fall deeply in love with a craft before he had the foggiest idea of any of its earthly rewards, and he never fell out of love. That has made all the difference.
True Crime: A Memoir
by Patricia Cornwell
#1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell finally tells the story that rivals all of the works that precede it: her own.
"Let's start, and end, with this: Patricia Cornwell's autobiography, TRUE CRIME, could be the best book she's ever written. And I've read them all!" --James Patterson
Patricia Cornwell is best known for her international bestselling thriller series about forensic pathologist Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Every story comes from somewhere, and Scarpetta's began when Patricia Cornwell embedded herself in a morgue.
In this achingly honest memoir, Cornwell excavates her own life, detailing her traumatic childhood being raised by neglectful parents, her father abandoning the young family on Christmas day, her mother being institutionalized twice, an abusive foster family, and developing a parental relationship with evangelist Billy Graham's wife Ruth.
Cornwell depicts a harrowing hospitalization and near-death car accident. She unflinchingly shares overcoming obstacles that later gave her the ambition to become an award-winning police reporter. From there it was research in a medical examiner's office that would turn into a full-time job. She would become a forensic expert and worldwide publishing phenomenon.
Cornwell leaves no stone unturned in this deeply candid account of her life, offering inspiring insight into what made her into the international sensation she is today.
April Books:
Small Town Girls: A Writer's Memoir
by Jayne Anne Phillips
OPRAH'S #1 MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 - A luminous memoir in essays from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, who reflects on her origins and the mysteries of memory.
"Small Town Girls is a brilliant, wide-ranging book, nostalgic and tough-minded at the same time. Like Willa Cather and Stephen Crane, Jayne Anne Phillips writes prose that reads like plainspoken poetry, full of startling and vivid images that bring a vanished world back to life before our eyes." --Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers
"The painful thing about adolescence is that everything seems absolute, and the painful thing about adulthood is that nothing does."
Jayne Anne Phillips grew up in the small town of Buckhannon, West Virginia. The distinctly American landscape of Appalachia--dense with forests and small churches, rich in history and misunderstandings--has been the great setting for her fiction, even as she and her boundless imagination have traveled to other times and places. In these pieces, and in her singular first-person voice, at once intimate and wide-ranging, Phillips brings us into her childhood and family, most movingly her mother. She re-creates the place she calls home, its foundational truths and the densely woven ties between the women of the town. She traces her journeys across the country and her discovery of writing and reading as tools for both survival and revelation, offering insights into the fellow writers and touchstones that moved and influenced her. From the local beauty salon to the legendary Hatfield-McCoy feud, from Jean Shrimpton and Barbara Stanwyck to Stephen Crane and Breece D'J Pancake, Phillips ponders her relationship with inspiration, spirituality, culture, and the troubled annals of the last American centuries.
Tender, inviting, sparkling with wisdom and open-heartedness, Small Town Girls is part coming-of-age story, part social history, Jayne Anne Phillips's most personal, most accessible book yet--a love letter to the place and the people who have shaped her perceptions and her writing.
Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I've Cried about: A Memoir
by Isabel Klee
From the social media superstar behind @SimonSits, Isabel Klee--known for her heartwarming tales of dog rescue--comes an utterly winning memoir about a twentysomething woman's search for true love in New York City and the dogs who helped her find it.
A Jersey girl by birth, Isabel Klee had always wanted to live in New York City. At age 20, she got her chance, ditching her college upstate and moving into a grungy basement apartment in Manhattan. Dog-obsessed since childhood, her first post-grad job was becoming an assistant to a dog photographer, and something clicked into place: a career focused on helping dogs was the new dream.
Isabel quickly found a passion for rehabilitating rescue dogs and helping them get adopted. At the same time, she was caught up in a whirlwind of friendships, parties, fickle boyfriends and grand romances, which she recounts in honest, tender, and sometimes devastating chapters about the search for love and belonging.
Isabel's first true love, though, was Simon, a fluffy puppy who'd been saved from the meat trade. As the highs and lows of her twenties hit Isabel in wave after wave, it was Simon who kept her grounded. Together, Isabel and Simon created a community of dog-lovers and a tight-knit group of friends pursuing their dreams.
In this honest and moving memoir, Isabel weaves together the stories of her foster dogs--and the challenges she helped them overcome--with tales of complicated relationships, hard decisions, and great loves in New York City, all leading to a happy ending not only for the rescue pups, but for Isabel herself.
The Ending Writes Itself
by Evelyn Clarke
A PROPULSIVE DEBUT MYSTERY FROM EVELYN CLARKE, THE BRILLIANT AND DIABOLICAL CREATION OF CAT CLARKE AND V.E. SCHWAB
Six authors.
One private island.
Seventy-two hours to write the ending that will change their lives.
Named one of the Most Anticipated Mysteries of 2026 by GoodReads, Marie Claire, and Page Six.
"In the running for the best mystery of 2026. With a trove of tropes that mystery lovers will love, it will remind you, in the best way, of Agatha Christie."--Stephen King
Arthur Fletch, one of the world's bestselling novelists, is a reclusive genius known for his iconic protagonists and fiendish twists. When six struggling authors are invited to spend a weekend on his private Scottish island, they arrive to discover a shocking secret: Arthur Fletch is dead . . . and his last book is unfinished.
Desperate to publish the novel, Fletch's agent and editor have summoned these writers in the hope that one of them will imagine a worthy ending for this final book. To sweeten the deal, they are offering an irresistible prize: in addition to ghost-writing the last chapter--for a mind-boggling sum--they will also help the lucky writer successfully re-launch their own career, guaranteeing future bestsellers. The catch: the writers have just seventy-two hours to finish Fletch's magnum opus.
It's the perfect plot. All it needs is a killer ending.
The Keeper
by Tana French
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Oprah Daily, Today, BookPage, Goodreads, and more
From the iconic crime writer who "inspires cultic devotion in readers" (The New Yorker) and has been called "incandescent" by Stephen King, comes the third and final book in the million-copy-bestselling Cal Hooper trilogy.
On a cold night in the remote Irish village of Ardnakelty, a girl goes missing. Sweet, loving Rachel Holohan was about to be engaged to the son of the local big shot. Instead, she's dead in the river.
In a close-knit small town, a death like this isn't simple. It comes wrapped in generations-old grudges and power struggles, and it splits the townland in two. Retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper has friends here now, and he owes them loyalty, but his fiancée Lena wants nothing to do with Ardnakelty's tangles. As the feud becomes more vicious, their settled peace starts to crack apart. And when they uncover a scheme that casts a new light on Rachel's death and threatens the whole village, they find themselves in the firing line.
"One of the greatest crime novelists writing today" (Vox) crafts a masterwork of atmospheric suspense that brings the story of one of her most beloved characters to a spellbinding conclusion.
American Fantasy
by Emma Straub
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, PEOPLE, AND TIME, HARPER'S BAZAAR AND OPRAH DAILY
"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
"You will feel so understood by this novel." -Rainbow Rowell
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, newly divorced, turning fifty with an empty nest, and 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, marriage, and middle age, 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.
Mad Mabel
by Sally Hepworth
From New York Times bestselling author Sally Hepworth comes a twisty tale of justice, redemption, and one irrepressible woman who's not done breaking the rules just yet.
Meet Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick: eighty-one years old, gloriously grumpy, fiercely independent, and never without a hot cup of tea--or a cutting remark. She minds her own business in her quiet Melbourne suburb, until a neighbor turns up dead and the whispers start flying.
Because Elsie hasn't always been Elsie. Once upon a headline, she was Mad Mabel Waller--Australia's youngest convicted murderer. But was she really mad, or just misunderstood? Either way, she's kept her secret buried for decades.
Enter seven-year-old Persephone, a relentless little chatterbox who has just moved in across the road (armed with stickers, questions, and no sense of personal boundaries); Joan, who appears to have it in for Elsie; and a healthy dose of public interest--the cops are sniffing around, and the media is circling like seagulls at a picnic.
So Mabel does what she's always done best--she takes matters into her own hands.
Is she a cantankerous old lady with a shady past? A cold-blooded killer with arthritis? Or just someone who's finally ready to tell her side of the story?
Sharp, surprising, and wickedly funny, this is the unforgettable story of a woman who's spent a lifetime being underestimated--and is about to prove everyone wrong. Again.
March Books:
The Voice in My Head Is God
by 2 Chainz 2 Chainz - Derrick Harriell
In his most personal work yet, Grammy Award-winning rapper 2 Chainz shares the spiritual journey behind his success, offering a raw, reflective, and deeply motivational meditation on the inner voice that's guided him his whole life: God.
Before he was 2 Chainz, he was Tauheed Epps--an only child growing up in College Park, Georgia, raised by a single mother while his father served time in prison. Though he excelled in school and earned a basketball scholarship, the streets were never far behind, and by fifteen, he had been arrested and was hustling to survive. He faced doubt and self-destruction, but even then, something told him there had to be more.
In THE VOICE IN MY HEAD IS GOD, 2 Chainz tells the story of how he walked away from the trap and found his purpose: not by fame or fear, but by faith. With his unmistakable voice and unflinching honesty, he reflects on the hardest moments of his life and the quiet revelations that shaped him. From the spiritual alarms he couldn't ignore to the mentors who showed up at the right time, he explores how his music and verses poured out when he finally listened to the voice that had been there all along.
From hanging with Lil Wayne to getting early help from Ludacris, 2 Chainz brings us into the defining moments of his life and career while delivering a powerful message about discipline, divine timing, and self-belief. Along the way, he offers more than a memoir. He shares a way of thinking, of trusting yourself, and of listening to the voice that never steers you wrong.
Lyrical, grounded, and fiercely motivational THE VOICE IN MY HEAD IS GOD is part blueprint and all heart.
Star Shipped
by Cat Sebastian
Cat Sebastian's long-awaited foray into contemporary romance! A witty, emotional, and deliciously slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance between two costars on a popular sci-fi television series.
Simon and Charlie, actors on a long-running sci-fi show, can't stand one another. Charlie is impetuous, outgoing, and basically feral, and Simon thinks he should have stayed in reality television where he belongs. They've spent the better part of a decade quarreling over the spotlight and pretty much everything else, and everybody in the industry knows it. Now that Simon's contract is finally done, he can move to New York, start fresh with work he actually likes, and get away from Charlie.
Simon's only problem is that people might assume he's been pushed off the show due to being impossible to work with. And he is kind of difficult to work with. He doesn't get along with people--unlike Charlie, who somehow tricked everyone on the show into adoring him despite some outrageously bad on-set behavior during the show's first season. Simon would rather never have to see Charlie again, but reluctantly agrees to stage a very public friendship during the short time before he moves. When Charlie has to leave town to deal with a family emergency, this means Simon comes along. Their road trip brings Simon to places he would never have willingly chosen to visit--and he finds he's actually not having a terrible time.
The more he gets to know Charlie, the more Simon suspects he's underestimated his former coworker. Simon also realizes that after seven years, Charlie might know him better than anyone ever has. Even stranger, Charlie seems to be starting to actually like him, despite knowing him so well. Still, Simon is about to move three thousand miles away, so whatever's starting between him and Charlie can't really amount to anything... right?
Tropes:
Enemies to Lovers
Opposites Attract
Forced Proximity
Slow Burn
Better Than a Duke
by Suzanne Enoch
It takes more than Cupid to arrange a marriage in this sparkling Regency romcom from New York Times best-selling author Suzanne Enoch, where The Parent Trap crashes into Bridgerton as two precocious children decide to play matchmaker for their unsuspecting single parents.
Beckett Raines, the Marquis of Hentrose, needs a wife, and he's resigned to participating in the Season to search for a suitable mother for his young daughter Rebecca. Beckett is determined to wed for practicality rather than love--and he thinks he's found the perfect, proper woman for the job.
Instead, he's stunned when his new next door neighbor Iris Silbern bursts into his London home in pursuit of her mischievous son Edmund. Her ferocity, sharp wit, and humor charm him, but she is by no means proper. Meanwhile, Iris' relations are trying to set up a match with a wealthy, elderly duke--an answer to her financial troubles, if not her resistant heart.
Rebecca and Edmund have no interest in practical plans, not when the perfect father and mother are right in front of them. With only one Season to summon Cupid, they scheme to bring their parents together. But will Beckett realize how perfect a messy life can be? And will Iris open her heart to a man who may not be a duke, but something even better?
Lady Tremaine
by Rachel Hochhauser
"A bold and beautifully written examination of a mother's love told through the eyes of Cinderella's 'wicked' stepmother." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) - "Destined to be one of the biggest books of the year." --Glennon Doyle, #1 bestselling author of Untamed - "Splendid." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) - "Breathtakingly beautiful." --Emilia Hart, bestselling author of Weyward
Twice-widowed, Lady Etheldreda Verity Isolde Tremaine Bramley is solely responsible for her two children, a priggish stepdaughter, a razor-taloned peregrine falcon, and a crumbling manor. Fierce and determined, Ethel clings to the respectability her deceased husband's title affords her, hoping it will secure her daughters' future through marriage.
When a royal ball offers the chance to change everything, Ethel risks her pride in pursuit of an invitation for all three of her daughters--only to see her hopes fulfilled by the wrong one. As an engagement to the future king unfolds, Ethel discovers a sordid secret hidden in the depths of the royal family, forcing her to choose between the security she craves and the wellbeing of the stepdaughter who has rebuffed her at every turn.
As if Bridgerton met Circe, and exhilarating to its core, Lady Tremaine reimagines the myth of the evil stepmother at the heart of the world's most famous fairy tale. It is a battle cry for a mother's love for her daughters, and a celebration of women everywhere who make their own fortunes.
Once and Again
by Rebecca Serle
New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Serle, the author behind "heartbreaking, redemptive, and authentic" (Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author) modern classic In Five Years, returns with an unforgettable tale of a family of women with an astonishing gift: the ability to redo one moment in their lives.
The women of the Novak family were each born with a gift: they can, just once, turn back time.
Lauren has known since she was fifteen that her mother Marcella saved Lauren's father from a deadly car accident. Dave is alive and happy, and out on the Malibu waves. But ever since, Marcella, her power spent, has lived in fear of what she won't be able to reverse. Her own mother, Sylvia, is her polar opposite: a free-spirited iconoclast with a glamorous past she only hints at. Lauren has spent her life between these two role models--and waiting for her own catastrophe to strike.
Then one summer, Lauren's husband takes a job in New York and she moves back to Broad Beach Road, back into her childhood home on the shores of Malibu. Lauren looks forward to surfing with her dad again and perhaps repairing an unspoken fracture in her relationship with her mother. What she doesn't expect is for the boy next to door to return home as well: Stone, Lauren's first love, who broke her heart nearly a decade before.
As Lauren falls into familiar patterns, with her family and, more dangerously, Stone, she finds herself thinking about all the choices, large and small, that have brought her to this moment. And wondering, finally, if one of them should be undone.
Delusions: Of Grandeur, of Romance, of Progress
by Cazzie David
In this sharp and darkly funny new essay collection from the New York Times bestselling author, Cazzie David explores the irony and existential crises of leaving youth behind.
With her thirtieth birthday fast approaching, Cazzie reflects on the delusions that laid waste to her twenties and reckons with their consequences now that the specter of a new decade is looming. Touching on everything from the pressure to find the "right" partner, dealing with the relentless grip of social media, and navigating body dysmorphic spirals, Delusions cuts through the noise, offering personal anecdotes, sharp cultural criticism, and witty, honest contemplations on the chaos of contemporary adulthood. Cazzie brings her trademark voice--blunt, self-aware, and blisteringly funny--to essays that are as vulnerable as they are biting.
An attempt to mature in the span of one year
The Supreme Gift: Love Is the Greatest Thing in the World
by Paulo Coelho - Margaret Jull Costa
Love is humankind's supreme gift. Paulo Coelho, the internationally bestselling author of The Alchemist, teaches us how to embrace it.
"I thought that I had already thought about everything you could think about Love when Henry Drummond's sermon fell into my hands. My life changed a lot from the moment I read the words in this book and tried to put his teaching into practice."--Paulo Coelho
What is love? In the 19th century, the young missionary Henry Drummond defined love as the culmination of nine elements:
He laid this out in his sermon, "The Greatest Thing in the World," which has become a classic and is, without doubt, one of the most beautiful texts ever written on love. Reflecting on this sermon and its subject, St. Paul's Letter to the Corinthians, the admired spiritual teacher Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist, a fable of following your dream and one of Oprah's "Best Self-Help Books of a Generation," brings us on his own journey of deepening his practice of Love.
Contrary to what we are used to hearing, the greatest treasure in the spiritual life is not faith, but love. No matter what your religious beliefs are, this feeling is, without doubt, the most rewarding way to live. In The Supreme Gift, Paulo Coelho adapts Henry Drummond's text, offering a real and powerful message that will help us incorporate love into our daily life and experience all its transformational power in our lives.
Freely adapted from the text by Henry Drummond
Related: If you enjoy bestsellers, you may also enjoy light-hearted novels featured in our list of book recommendations for Beach Readers.