AUGUST RECOMMENDED READS

The Summer of Love and Death (A Ford Family Mystery Book 3), Marcy McCreary

“Refreshingly smart, witty, and sophisticated . . .” —Natalie Symons author of Lies in Bone, on The Disappearance of Trudy Solomon

“Propulsive, addictive, with lush, visceral prose and richly-layered characters . . .” —May Cobb, author of My Summer Darlings, on The Murder of Madison Garcia

The summer of ’69: memorable for some, murder for others.

Detective Susan Ford and her new partner, Detective Jack Tomelli, are called to a crime scene at the local summer stock theater where they find the director of Murder on the Orient Express gruesomely murdered—naked, face caked in makeup, pillow at his feet, wrists and ankles bound by rope. When Susan describes the murder to her dad, retired detective Will Ford, he recognizes the MO of a 1969 serial killer . . . a case he worked fifty years ago.

Will remembers a lot of things about that summer—the Woodstock Festival, the Apollo 11 moon landing, the Miracle Mets—yet he is fuzzy on the details of the decades-old case. But when Susan and Jack discover the old case files, his memories start trickling back. And with each old and new clue, Susan, Jack, and Will must narrow down the pool of suspects before the killer strikes again.

For readers who enjoy mysteries by Richard Osman, Stacy Willingham, Charlie Donlea, Benjamin Stevenson, and Shari Lapena.

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STONE CREEK, Kate Brandes

Seventeen years ago, Tilly Stone (age 13) is left to fend for herself in rural Pennsylvania when her infamous eco-terrorist father disappears under mysterious circumstances. Ever since she’s tried to forget the dams they blew up together and forge a new life until her father’s return threatens to upend her small-town world and her friendship with the dogged FBI agent still pursuing him. Ultimately, as the past and present fuse and blow up with more than one kind of casualty, Tilly must choose between the father she loves and her home.

“Simmering with suspense and brimming with heart, this beautiful story of heartache and resilience will linger long after its final pages.”
—Kimi Cunningham Grant, USA TODAY bestselling author of These Silent Woods

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THE SECOND MRS. STROM, Kaira Rouda

I don’t want the perfect marriage. I want revenge…

If you had met me a year ago, you wouldn’t have noticed me. A beautiful woman, but a struggling nobody in a tiny apartment, invisible…

Meeting Paul changed that.

And now here I am in Paris, after a whirlwind courtship and a stunning beach proposal I smile at my handsome husband, my eyes shining in the candlelight, my huge diamond ring sparkling on the starched white tablecloth. Other women look at me in envy. They see a couple completely in love.

They’re wrong.

Despite this incredible luxury vacation, my husband and I can’t escape our problems. I can’t get over what he did with that woman just after our wedding, and my bright smile can’t hide the hardness in my heart.

I wonder if Paul knows the truth. That our first meeting, when we fell in love, wasn’t the coincidence he thinks it was. That what I want from him has nothing to do with his money.

And now that he’s wronged me, I’ll stop at nothing to get it…

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Heart. Soul. Pen.: Find Your Voice on the Page and In Your Life, Robin Finn

Harmoniously blending actionable advice and spiritual insight, a renowned writing mentor gives women the tools they need to discover their voice—and themselves—on the page.

Step into an extraordinary voyage of self-discovery with Robin Finn’s life-altering guide. Crafted with the female experience at its core, this transformative compendium unlocks the keys to individual expression within all of us.

Beginning with HEART, readers engage with an empowering space to reevaluate and dismiss self-limiting beliefs about personal worth. Transitioning seamlessly, SOUL offers a therapeutic haven fostering creativity, leading to PEN, a treasure trove imparting profound insights on showcasing work and appreciating personal value. Endorsed by accomplished authors, seasoned therapists, and esteemed physicians, Finn’s method is an essential companion for women yearning to reconnect with their voice and embrace their inherent worth. Novice or experienced writers alike will find a wellspring of inspiration, guidance, and empowerment. But even for those simply feeling voiceless, this book shines as a beacon, unveiling a path towards personal reawakening.

Inspired by the acclaimed program sharing its name, Heart. Soul. Pen. has already brought about a sea change in innumerable lives. Now, it extends an invitation to anyone on the transformative journey that is unlocking one’s true potential as a writer.

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SIDE EFFECTS ARE MINIMAL, Laura Essay

When ambitious attorney Claire Hewitt is asked to represent the Satoris, one of Philadelphia’s most prominent families, in a lawsuit over the death of their daughter, she is thrust into an opioid nightmare with deadly impact—and not for the first time. Claire’s guilt for not saving her sister, Molly, has not subsided in the twenty years since Molly’s almost certainly opioid-related death. Now, with this new assignment, her guilt comes full circle. Who was really at fault in Molly’s death? And who is at fault now?

What begins as a quest for truth becomes infinitely more complicated as Claire struggles to balance her desire for justice with the Satoris’ thirst for revenge. She knows she needs to expose the greed that transforms legal opioid production into illicit fabrications and the neglect that is the breaking point between physicians and their patients. But there are powerful people who will seemingly stop at nothing to prevent these truths from seeing the light of day, and she is sabotaged at every turn. Can she push past the obstacles in her way to build a winning case?

Based on true events, Side Effects Are Minimal is about a corrupt pharmaceutical industry, the guilt of physicians prescribing the opioids that kill, and the pain experienced by families who’ve lost loved ones to an epidemic that has brought the United States to its knees.

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SON OF A BASQUE, Deborah Driggs

After the sudden death of his father, young Mark Vergara, the oldest son of immigrant parents, was thrust into the role of principal breadwinner, working hard in the beet fields of Colorado to support his family. After joining the Army Air Corps and flying dozens of combat missions, he bore the physical and emotional scars of his time in the service, yet he was satisfied he had fulfilled his father’s final wish that he do right by his family. From World War II to the Vietnam War, this tale of a military man who was also a devoted family man is based on the author’s own experiences as a proud son of immigrant parents, a distinguished soldier, a loving husband and father, and a loyal friend.

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Ride On! Dame Sarah Storey’s Extraordinary Journey of Triumph: How to Unleash the Power within, Push Boundaries, and Champion Excellence, S.A. Sterling

From surmounting a career-ending injury to thriving in a male-dominated sport, ‘Ride On! Dame Sarah Storey’s Extraordinary Journey of Triumph’ offers a story that goes beyond athletic accomplishment—it’s a masterclass in resilience and personal growth.
Feel stuck in life, burdened by challenges and self-doubt?
This book is your roadmap to breaking free.
Reading ‘Ride On!’ you’ll gain:
• Self-Belief: Harness confidence as your driving force.
• Resilience: Equip yourself with tools to face life’s challenges head-on.
• Adaptability: Learn to pivot your way to success, just like Sarah.

S.A. Sterling captures the indomitable spirit of Dame Sarah Storey, making ‘Ride On!’ a must-read for sports aficionados and anyone inspired by human resilience.
Penned by S.A. Sterling, an author committed to narratives of triumph over adversity, ‘Ride On!’ isn’t just a biography—it’s a guide to unlocking your untapped potential.
As you turn the pages, you won’t just find a compelling story, but actionable insights to elevate you from the ordinary to the extraordinary.
Are you ready to complete your picture?

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Civilisation Française, Mary Fleming

When recent college graduate Lily Owens enrolls in the Civilisation Française course at the Sorbonne in 1982, she hopes to put a difficult childhood behind her and to find direction for her future. She moves into a mansion on the place des Vosges where her job is to help the housekeeper, Germaine, care for the elderly, half-blind Amenia Quinon, another ex-pat American. The three women live alone in this old house of silence and secrets, mostly revolving in their own worlds. When Lily extends an invitation to a friend, all of their lives are upended. Moving, sometimes humorous and always engrossing, Civilisation Française is a powerful story about facing our past, discovering a future, and the meaning of home.

“Anyone who has spent her junior year abroad (or not) will love this Balzacian tale of a dark old house in Paris … This book will either take you back or introduce you afresh to the wonders of French life.” -Diane Johnson, author of Le Divorce

“…taut and subtle….Within its intricate and nuanced portrait of Paris, the novel Civilisation Française explores compelling alliances and experiences.”

-Foreword Reviews

“…a haunting novel about the pull of time past and future, and the courage to live fully one’s life and death.”

-Laura Furman, author of The Mother Who Stayed

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PIECES OF BLUE, Liz Flaherty

Life comes in shades of blue…

Self-imposed loner, Maggie North, has worked for bestselling author Trilby Winterroad her entire adult life, starting as simply his assistant and ending up as his ghost writer. Through ups and downs–including a divorce from an abusive husband–he has been the one person on whom she could always rely. So when Trilby dies suddenly, Maggie finds herself adrift, not sure what she’ll do or where she belongs in the world any longer. And the confusion continues when she discovers he’s not only left her his beloved dachshund, Chloe, but a house she knew nothing about, on a lake she’s never heard of.
It only takes one visit for Maggie to fall in love with both the house and the small lakeside community. The longer she’s there, the safer she feels and the more her life begins to expand…as do her feelings toward her friend and Trilby’s attorney, Sam Eldridge.
But is she really safe? Or are the glistening pieces of her new life about to shatter as an old danger returns?

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Love’s Calculated Risk: Cozy Mystery , Kay A. Oliver

From Award-winning author, Kay A. Oliver – Love’s Calculated Risk

Katherine Caffey, known as Kat to her friends, is thrust into a perilous situation when her coworker Vince’s illegal actions attract the attention of a notorious crime syndicate boss. As the danger escalates, Kat’s professional and personal lives intertwine in a high stakes battle to save her client, millionaire Parker Madison, from being unjustly imprisoned due to Vince’s criminal dealings. Navigating a treacherous world of deception, betrayal, and survival, Kat must unravel a complex web of corruption. With her reputation, career, and their lives on the line, Kat faces the crime lord head-on. Can she outsmart the syndicate and protect those she cares about, or will they be ensnared by the sinister forces closing in on them?

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The Dragon from Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany, Pamela Toler

For fans of unheralded women’s stories, a captivating look at Sigrid Schultz—one of the earliest reporters to warn Americans of the rising threat of the Nazi regime

“No other American correspondent in Berlin knew so much of what was going on behind the scene as did Sigrid Schultz.” — William L. Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

We are facing an alarming upsurge in the spread of misinformation and attempts by powerful figures to discredit facts so they can seize control of narratives. These are threats American journalist Sigrid Schultz knew all too well. The Chicago Tribune‘s Berlin bureau chief and primary foreign correspondent for Central Europe from 1925 to January 1941, Schultz witnessed Hitler’s rise to power and was one of the first reporters—male or female—to warn American readers of the growing dangers of Nazism.

In The Dragon From Chicago, Pamela D. Toler draws on extensive archival research to unearth the largely forgotten story of Schultz’s years spent courageously reporting the news from Berlin, from the revolts of 1919 through the Nazi rise to power and Allied air raids over Berlin in 1941. At a time when women reporters rarely wrote front-page stories and her male colleagues saw a powerful unmarried woman as a “freak,” Schultz pulled back the curtain on how the Nazis misreported the news to their own people, and how they attempted to control the foreign press through bribery and threats.

Sharp and enlightening, Schultz’s story provides a powerful example for how we can reclaim truth in an era marked by the spread of disinformation and claims of “fake news.”

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Creating a Happy World: Cultivating Happiness through the Transcendental Meditation® Program, Patricia Anne Saunders

Since stress, worry, and sadness appear to be on the rise, Creating a Happy World examines two paths to combat these and create a happy world – the path of the individual, which can be transformed through achieving higher states of consciousness with the Transcendental Meditation program; and the path of society, which can be transformed through the impact of Transcendental Meditation on collective consciousness. By the time readers have finished reading, I hope they will feel more happiness in their own lives, a greater belief that life has a purpose, and increased optimism for the future of humanity.

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Spec Fic for Newbies Vol 2: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing More Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, Tiffani Angus, Val Nolan

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WE ARE FAMILY, Louise Walters

The fifth novel from the critically acclaimed author Louise Walters

Alison looked at Jennifer. How she envied the perfect make-up, the still-quite-fresh skin, the apparent lack of grey hairs, the slim figure unscarred by pregnancy and childbirth; the sophisticated, single existence.

Jennifer and Alison go back years, first meeting when teenagers at school. Their friendship has seen its ups, downs, highs, lows, triumphs, and disasters.

The friends are now in their late forties. Alison is happily married to the dull but dependable Malcolm, and they have a teenage son. Jennifer is divorced, well-off, and carefree, and determined to stay that way.

So she astonishes everyone when she announces she is pregnant. Shock turns to delight, and Alison is keen to support her oldest friend. But when she finds out who the father of the baby is, the friendship must face its biggest test.

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I’m History…but do I repeat myself?, Lee Knapp

I’m History…but do I repeat myself? New Social Studies at my old High School

“How quaint…or is this kind of lame?” thought artist Lee Knapp after she half-heartedly returned to teach history at her old public high school. Because her private history was in a state of upheaval, it seemed she had no choice.

In her entertaining memoir, I’m History…but do I repeat myself?, recently retired public school teacher Lee Knapp recounts the effects that the entirely new population on her old familiar campus had on her life. As a metaphor of America itself, her once nearly all-white alma mater—outside the former capital of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia, no less—now boasted being one of the most diverse in the state, a state that led the Massive Resistance movement in the fifties to prevent this very thing from ever happening.

With deftness and humor, Knapp explores how her return expanded, if not exploded, the foundations of an identity that she had been constructing since graduating in America’s bicentennial: her evangelicalism, her Southern heritage, her suburban community. Into this reexamination, Knapp engagingly weaves in moments from big history that, as Twain reminds us, may not repeat, but certainly rhyme with our current moment.

Throughout these four sections, Knapp also traces the unexpected trajectory of her personal history. Beginning life as a devout, idealistic newlywed twenty-something, she ended up as a disoriented, backslidden newly divorced fifty-something. Disoriented, that is, until Knapp’s personal life was also reconstructed on that campus by a totally unforeseen, second-chance romance with a widowed colleague.

I’m History ponders the struggle between hope and fear, tradition and change, narrow and open perspectives in our collective, as well as our personal, histories.

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HIDDEN ROOMS, Kate Michaelson

“An author to watch . . .” ―Booklist

“A standout debut!” ―Erin Flanagan, Edgar Award-winning author of Come with Me

When murder hits home.

Long distance runner Riley has been fighting various bewildering symptoms for months, from vertigo to fainting spells. Worse, her doctors can’t tell her what’s wrong, leaving her to wonder if it’s stress or something more threatening. But when her brother’s fiancée is killed―and he becomes the prime suspect―Riley must prove his innocence, despite the toll on her health.

As she reacquaints herself with the familiar houses and wild woods of her childhood, the secrets she uncovers take her on a trail to the real killer that leads right back to the very people she knows best and loves most.

For readers who enjoy Deer Season by Erin Flanagan, All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers, and A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham.

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Family Links: Ellie McLellan Genealogy Mystery – Book 6, Beth Farrar

Will Ellie unearth the town’s secrets and put a friend’s mind at ease? Or will the past prove too formidable to conquer?

In the quiet town of Percyville, secrets linger like shadows, waiting to be unearthed. As genealogist, Ellie McLellan, takes the helm of the Percyville Historical Society, she unwittingly embarks on a journey that will unravel one of the town’s deepest mysteries.

With her trusty group of senior genealogy enthusiasts by her side, Ellie’s adventures in uncovering the town’s past are just beginning.

But it’s not all dusty archives and forgotten tales.

As Ellie digs deeper, she uncovers a surprising secret about her own family’s history.

Join Ellie on this exciting journey as she unravels the mysteries of Percyville and discovers the hidden treasures of her own past. It’s a tale of friendship, adventure, and the power of uncovering the truth!

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THE SHUTDOWN LIST, Sharon Dukett

“Riveting and timely,… full of intriguing mysteries and characters who breathe with life and fire.”
— Gayle Lynds, New York Times bestselling author of The Assassins

People are disappearing. Anita may be next. But first, they have to find her.

Anita Forester witnesses her husband, Julian, being dragged away by police during a protest. A stranger warns her to flee. Still reeling from the loss of her adult son only two years earlier, Anita embarks on a perilous journey to find her husband, unaware of the crucial secret he has kept from her.

While piecing together the trail to her missing husband, Anita uncovers a conspiracy. She intercepts a hard drive containing priceless data sought by a powerful fossil fuel magnate with secrets of his own—secrets he would kill to protect.

Set against a backdrop of climate activism, The Shutdown List is filled with twists and turns, corruption and betrayal. Anita must fight to stay alive and find Julian before he disappears forever.

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THE PELICAN TIDE, Sharon J. Wishnow

After disaster strikes, a Louisiana family and their community need to prove to each other and the world that their bond is thicker than the oil threatening their shores in Sharon J. Wishnow’s stunning debut novel.

It’s taken Chef Josie Babineaux six months to reconcile the debts left from her husband Brian’s gambling along with her broken heart. But now with a promising tourist season heating up and a travel magazine declaring her the spice queen of the bayou, she may be able to save her family’s historic Cajun restaurant. Repairing her relationship with her daughter, Minnow, while hiding the true reason she left her husband is a bigger issue.

Just as the first tourists arrive, an explosion on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico shatters their fragile plans. With her island community at the epicenter of the oil spill, everything is endangered, including the restaurant’s beloved mascot―a brown pelican dear to the family’s heart.

Josie realizes her family needs more than financial recovery. Only reconciling her past and revealing the truth can clean up the guilt and hurt pooling under the surface. And maybe, with enough honesty, this family can find renewal.

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NIGHT OF THE HAWK: POEMS, Lauren Martin

When I have wandered
long enough
what am I still beholden to?

Ifá. Nature. Illness. Love. Loss. Misogyny. Aging. Africa. Our wounded planet. In this sweeping yet intensely personal collection, Lauren Martin tells the untold stories of the marginalized, the abused, the ill, the disabled—the different. Inspired by her life’s experiences, including the isolation she has suffered as a result both of living with chronic illness and having devoted herself to a religion outside the mainstream, these poems explore with raw vulnerability and unflinching honesty what it is to live apart—even as one yearns for connection.

But Night of the Hawk is no lament; it is powerful, reverential, sometimes humorous, often defiant—“Oh heat me and fill me / I rise above lines”—and full of wisdom. Visceral and stirring, the poems in this collection touch on vastly disparate subjects but are ultimately unified in a singular quest: to inspire those who read them toward kindness, compassion, and questioning.

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SEE SADIE JANE RUN, Kelly Elizabeth Huston

Whoever said you can’t go home again didn’t know Sadie Jane Klein.

When mechanically-minded Sadie Klein, Ph.D., finds herself poufy dress-deep in a well-meaning scheme gone awry, she escapes from a riverboat casino with the help of Dutch Holland, an old teenage crush she hasn’t seen in fifteen years. Sadie runs to her childhood home intent on settling down in coastal Georgia’s Canaan Cove, where her Jewish grandparents raised the brainy nerd girl and her queer brother—outsiders on the outskirts of town. More than a decade later, that seaside hamlet has seen some changes, but everyone thinks they know everyone’s business, and the rumor mill still spins fast.

Sadie’s high stakes shenanigans on open waters include an accomplice, Tristan Pembroke, the heir apparent of the major energy conglomerate that is also Sadie’s employer. Playboy Tristan is a trust fund kid looking for an even bigger payday, while Sadie wants full rights to an invention patent pending so that she can do some good. They learn too late that big business won’t suffer the trickeries of a little geotechnical engineer, no matter how brilliant she is, and the mysterious Dutch may be more involved than their accidental run-in makes it appear.

With a present told from Sadie’s point of view and glimpses of their heartbreaking past seen through teenage Dutch’s eyes, a love story of yanked-apart teens that never truly let go unfolds. Old secrets and outright lies come to light while corporate espionage puts lives at risk, all with a backdrop of sticky summer nights and peach moonshine in a quirky ocean-side town full of bighearted characters. Sadie can’t outrun her past mistakes, and forgiveness is a steep hill to climb, but after living all over the world, home might be right back where it all began.

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TABITHA, GET UP, Lee Upton

Tabitha is a lonely fifty-year-old biographer who, in order to restore her self-respect and pay her rent, attempts to write two biographies simultaneously: one about an actor so famous his face is on the side of buses, and the other about a popular writer of children’s books recently outed as an author of erotic fiction.

Is Tabitha ready to deal with interviewing an actor so handsome and charismatic she thinks he should be bottled and sprayed on belligerent people as a form of crowd control? Can she form a genuine friendship with a cult novelist who pressures her to compromise her values? While facing these and other challenges, Tabitha is bedeviled by memories of her long-ago divorce and the terrible wedding when, accidently bumped on a balcony, she shot off into the shrubbery.

Is it true, she wonders, that there’s probably a dead body beneath the floating rot of any marriage? When surrounded by pretentious beautiful people does it help to imagine their intestines are full of worms? Are champagne bubbles the devil’s air pockets? Is it ever too late to change your life—from the bottom up?

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing