Author Allegra Goodman won abundant fans with her historical fiction novel, “Isola,” lauded by many when it was published last year. Goodman succeeds again, her talent for storytelling on display in “This Is Not About Us,” a new novel on many must-read-lists for 2026. The narrative opens with three Jewish sisters—Helen, 80, Sylvia, 78, and their sister Jeanne, 74, who’s in hospice. As they stand watch over their dying sister, Helen and Sylvia have conflicting emotions. They

Readers of Mary Kubica’s novel “It’s Not Her” will be hard-pressed to avoid being shocked at the twist and turns happening in Kubica’s newest book.          Two families related to each other vacation at a run-down resort several hours north of Chicago. Elliot, father to Cass and husband of Courtney, vacationed there years ago and he remembers it as being lovely and comfortable. Now, it is not.  Elliot and family are in a small, musty cabin. The playground equipment is rusty,

February calls for warm coats and wooly hats. Outside icicles hang in stately rows and fields glow silver in landscapes lit by the sun. Inside it’s toasty warm, perfect for a pastime that pleases, finding solace in story, in meeting engaging characters who come to life on pages we turn to our heart’s content. Clover’s “Slam Dunk Picks” are books diverse in subject matter. Page on with a charmer that features fun in the snow, a Brothers Grimm fairytale reimagined and a dynamit

"Fearless and Free" is a memoir from a black, talented, rule-breaking girl born in 1906 in St. Louis, Mo. It is a compilation of conversations French journalist Marcel Sauvage had over the course of 20 years with American expatriate entertainer Josephine Baker. Born into poverty, Baker made her debut in Philadelphia at age 16. She moved to New York at 17, where she found a better-paying job on Broadway dancing in the Black musical "Shuffle Along." Baker left the US for the P

A heartbreaking scenario plays out with alarming speed and life-changing repercussions in the unputdownable, “Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage,” by Belle Burden. It's the story of a 20-year marriage that goes bad, no explanation offered, no hint of discontent in the air. James (a fictitious name) and Belle Burden seemed to have a perfect marriage. The trouble erupted suddenly when James and Belle left their New York City home in 2020 to live on Marthas Vineyard in a vacation

Edge of your seat thriller, “The First Time I Saw Him,” by Laura Dave, is a sequel to her bestseller, “The Last Thing He Told Me,” published in 2021. In her first book, Dave introduces the reader to the Michaels Family. Bailey is a typical 16-year-old, unhappy with her new stepmom, Hannah. Her father, Owen, seems like any other dad in Sausalito; that is until he disappears leaving behind a duffle bag of money and a cryptic note for Hannah to “protect her.” The FBI comes kno

American author George Saunders, after earning a degree in Geophysical Engineering, worked a series of technical jobs until he entered the M.F.A. program at Syracuse University. In1997 he was appointed to the Syracuse faculty, where he has taught until the present day. Saunders’s first novel, 2017’s “Lincoln in the Bardo,” was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction. The novel is set in the Bardo, a Buddhist concept of the status of the soul between death and reincarnation. Sa

“The Seven Daughters of Dupree,” by Nikesha Elise Williams, is a multigenerational story that focuses on the lives of generations of women who share the Dupree name.  As layers of their family history are slowly revealed readers learn that their pasts were full of pain, love and sacrifice. The historical revelations of the story begin in 1995 when 14-year-old Tati begins uncovering the identity of her father, even though her mother Nadia has ignored all of Tati’s previous re

I have rarely read a novel about the exploration of uncharted territory  (in this case Tibet) that so vividly describes the hardships of mapping “a blank space” in the world. At the same time, the descriptions of the absolute beauty and wonders of the country, home of the Himalayas and Mount Everest, made me feel that I was accompanying the explorers on a very trying journey.         In 1869, two explorers set out to map cities and rivers that run through Tibet. They do not k

January marks a day set aside to honor handwriting—the 23 rd  to be exact. It seems a fitting time to suggest “The Correspondent,” a heartfelt novel in letters by Virginia Evans. This lovely story will make readers fall in in love with Sybil Van Antwerp, the narrator, a character of a woman, both bristly and soft, but altogether proper, plucky and intelligent. Each day Sybil puts great thought into the letters she writes, often drafting an original and spiffing it up before

Young men are not doing well. In 2022, among 10 to 24-year-olds, males accounted for 78% of suicides. In 2023, male high school graduates were 8% less likely to enroll in college. The labor-force participation rate has dropped by 10% among young men ages 20 to 24 over the last 30 years.   “The data around boys and men is overwhelming,” writes author Scott Galloway, a popular podcaster and university professor. Drawing on social and economic trends and his 61 years of life exp

Obsessive parental love taken to the next level runs rampant in “Homeschooled,” an addictive memoir that while disturbing also inspires. Stefan Merrill Block has written a testament to the resiliency of children, to their ability to survive abuse in in a page turner that focuses on a mother overly attached to her youngest son. The opening incident highlights what’s to come for young Stefan as he fantasizes about injuring himself just enough in a fall to get his mother to sta

In May 1884 the Mignonette, a 52-two-foot yacht, set sail from England to be delivered to its new owner in Australia. Many thought the Mignonette was too frail a vessel to withstand the seas it would encounter in its 122-day voyage to Sydney. Nevertheless, the ship was manned by a captain with extensive seafaring experience, two mates with similar backgrounds, and a 17-year-old cabin boy. Several weeks into the journey the ship encountered heavy seas in the south Atlantic, s

Hooray! A brand new year! Let’s welcome 2026 with some stellar Picks. Clover’s suggestions for January are light-hearted and fun, stories to tickle readers’ funny bones. Moving forward, let’s set the mood-meter to pure joy, stay resolute about adding a smile-a-day to our calendars. Everyone knows “laughter is the best medicine,” and Clover is happy to prescribe a trio of “Smile-a-While Reads” that are sure to please. Page On! Enjoy! The Community Literacy Foundation, in partn

Public education is at the forefront in almost every community in the United States. Teaching is key to shaping values and lives. Because of the power of education, schools have become a battleground over what gets taught. Angry citizens confront school boards with critical questions: who gets instructed, how, by whom, and who decides the curriculum? Efforts to suppress freedom of speech and knowledge about race, gender, and sexuality have become so politicized and heated tha

In the summer of 1994 Christine Kuehn, working at a Maryland radio station, received a letter from a Hollywood screenwriter. He was writing a screenplay based on a World War II incident that might have involved Otto, her grandfather. The writer hoped to make contact with Eberhardt, her father, Otto’s son, to uncover facts about the matter. Thus began a 30-year quest that led Kuehn deeper and deeper into unknown territory in her family’s history. Her father had always been qu

"The Zorg" is a historical horror story, the wrenching, little-known story of an 18th-century incident on an Atlantic slave ship that led to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and eventually the United States. "The Zorg" (a Dutch word meaning "care") was a merchant vessel flying the Dutch flag that the British captured. Purchased by a privateer, it set sail from the Gold Coast of Africa in 1781 with a rough and tumble crew of 17 men who carelessly stocked it with

Susan Orlean has been a staff writer for The   New Yorker  magazine since 1992. She is the author of the best-selling novels “The Orchard Thief “(1998), “Rin Tin Tin: the Life and the Legend” (2011), and “The Library Book” (2018). Orlean has written for television and for Vogue , Rolling Stone , and Esquire magazines.                “Joyride” is a memoir of Orlean’s writing career. At age 70, she is still writing and retains the same curiosity about the unusual or elusive su

Anthony Hopkins’ memoir, “We Did OK, Kid,” proves the 87-year-old native born Welshman is not just an accomplished wonder of the stage and screen, but also is an accomplished writer. His book is thoughtful and heartfelt as it delves into the pain he suffered as a friendless boy who never fit in, and as an actor dodging potholes that threatened to upend him on his career path. As a child Hopkins wasn’t into sports, didn’t do well in school and had no friends. He did enjoy pla

Indian-born British/American author Salman Rushdie’s extensive literary output is best known for his 1988 Novel “The Satanic Verses,” whose depiction of the prophet Mohammed was deemed blasphemous by some Islamic authorities and led to a call for his assassination by the supreme ruler of Iran. For years Rushdie lived in seclusion under an assumed name. In 2022, after his return to the public, Rushdie was attacked during a presentation, costing him the use of his right eye an