REQUIRED READING
Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life . . . and Maybe The World by Adm. William H. McRaven (Grand Central Publishing)
When it comes to life advice, we’re thinking the former Commander of all US Special Operations Forces might know a thing or two. Based on the graduation speech he gave at the University of Texas at Austin, McRaven offers everyday wisdom with chapters like “Start Your Day with a Task Completed” (hence, the bed-making) and “Life’s Not Fair — Drive On!”
A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell (Harper)
When Emily asks Stephanie to pick up her son after school one day, Stephanie is only too happy to help out: It’s what mom friends do, right? But Emily never shows up and after a terrible few days of searching, she’s declared dead. As Stephanie becomes more and more involved with trying to sort through the secrets Emily left behind, she starts to realize she never really knew the woman she called her best friend.
Twenty-Two: Letters to a Young Woman Searching for Meaning by Allison Trowbridge (Thomas Nelson)
Author Trowbridge remembers entering her 20s and desperately wishing she had a mentor to help her figure things out. In this book of letters addressed to a fictional college student named Ashley, Trowbridge becomes that mentor, offering up loving, thoughtful advice on a number of topics.
Mississippi Blood by Greg Iles (William Morrow)
This is the much-awaited conclusion to the Natchez Burning trilogy, seven years in the making. The book finds Penn Cage with his family and his world collapsing around him, as his father, once a pillar of the community, is about to go on trial for the murder of a former lover. Despite Penn’s experience as a prosecutor, his father has frozen him out of the preparation for the trial.
Notes on a Banana: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression by David Leite (Dey Street Books)
A memoir from the founder of the James Beard-award winning website Leite’s Culinaria, “Notes on a Banana” details the writer and cookbook author’s 1960s upbringing in a food-loving Portuguese family in Fall River, Mass. Leite writes about food, family, sexual identity, love and his battle with manic depression. Mozart’s Starling by Lyanda Lynn Haupt (Little, Brown) Who knew that Mozart’s muse was a small bird? In 1784, Mozart met a sassy starling in a Viennese shop; delighted, he brought the bird home as a pet. The bird lived with Mozart for three years and acted as his tiny companion, distraction and inspiration. Author Haupt rescued a baby starling of her own and was captivated by the same qualities the composer enjoyed more than two centuries prior.