Alexandra Fuller

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Pennsylvania

A Memoir of My Son

From the award-winning New York Times-bestsellingauthor of Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller, comes acareer defining memoir about grieving the sudden loss of hertwenty-one-year-old child "Fair to say,I was in a ribald state the summer before my fiftieth birthday." And so beginsAlexandra Fuller's open, vivid new memoir, Fi. It's midsummer in Wyoming andAlexandra is barely hanging on. Grieving her father and pining for her homecountry of Zimbabwe, reeling from a midlife breakup, freshly sober and piecingher way uncertainly through a volatile new relationship with a younger woman,Alexandra vows to get herself back on even keel. Andthen--suddenly and incomprehensibly--her son Fi, at twenty-one years old, dies inhis sleep. No strangerto loss--young siblings, a parent, a home country-- Alexandra is nonethelessleveled. At the same time, she is painfully aware that she cannot succumb andabandon her two surviving daughters as her mother before her had done. From asheep wagon deep in the mountains of Wyoming to a grief sanctuary in New Mexicoto a silent meditation retreat in Alberta, Canada, Alexandra journeys up anddown the spine of the Rocky Mountains in an attempt to find how to grieveherself whole. There is no answer, and there are countless answers--in poetry,in rituals and routines, in nature and in the indigenous wisdom she absorbed asa child in Zimbabwe. By turns disarming, devastating and unexpectedly,blessedly funny, Alexandra recounts the wild medicine of painstakingly grievinga child in a culture that has no instructions for it.

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Cameron Russell

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

A Memoir

A bold and innovative memoir that explores who holds the power in an image-obsessed culture, from the model and activist who helped organize the movement to bring equity to fashion. “Fiercely intellectual, deeply vulnerable, and unapologetically honest.”—Imani Perry, National Book Award–winning author of South to America “By elevating me for something I have no control over, the industry and economy signal to all women: there is almost nothing you can do or create that is as valuable as how you look.” Scouted by a modeling agent when she was just sixteen years old, Cameron Russell first approached her job with some reservations: She was a serious student with her sights set on college, not the runway. But modeling was a job that seemed to offer young women like herself unprecedented access to wealth, fame, and influence. Besides, as she was often reminded, “there are a million girls in line” who would eagerly replace her. In her fierce and innovative memoir, Russell chronicles how she learned to navigate the dizzying space between physical appearance and interiority and making money in an often-exploitative system. Being “agreeable,” she found, led to more success: more bookings and more opportunities to work with the world’s top photographers and biggest brands. But as her prominence grew, Russell found that achievement under these conditions was deeply isolating and ultimately unsatisfying. Instead of freedom, she was often required to perform the role of compliant femme fatale, so she began organizing with her peers, helping to coordinate movements for labor rights, climate and racial justice, and bringing MeToo to the fashion industry. Intimate and illuminating, How to Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone is a nuanced, deeply felt memoir about beauty, complicity, and the fight for a better world.

How to Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone

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Kimberly King Parsons

A Novel

A young mother, in denial after the death of her sister, navigates the dizzying landscapes of desire, guilt, and grief in this darkly comic, highly anticipated debut novel from Kimberly King Parsons, author of the story collection, Black Light (longlisted for the National Book Award). The trip was supposed to be fun. When Kit’s best friend gets dumped by his boyfriend, he begs her to ditch her family responsibilities for an idyllic weekend in the Montana mountains. They’ll soak in hot springs, then sneak a vape into a dive bar and drink too much, like old times. Instead, their getaway only reminds Kit of everything she’s lost lately: her wildness, her independence, and—most heartbreaking of all—her sister, Julie, who died a few years ago. When she returns to the Dallas suburbs, Kit tries to settle into her routine—long afternoons spent caring for her irrepressible daughter, going on therapist-advised dates with her concerned husband, and reluctantly taking her mother’s phone calls. But in the secret recesses of Kit’s mind, she’s reminiscing about the band she used to be in—and how they’d go out to the desert after shows and drop acid. She’s imagining an impossible threesome with her kid’s pretty gymnastics teacher and the cool playground mom. Keyed into everything that might distract from her surfacing pain, Kit spirals. As her already thin boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, she begins to wonder: Is Julie really gone? Neon bright in its insight, both devastating and laugh-out-loud funny, We Were the Universe is an ambitious, inventive novel from a revelatory new voice in American fiction—a fearless exploration of sisterhood, motherhood, friendship, marriage, psychedelics, and the many strange, transcendent shapes love can take.

We Were the Universe

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Elizabeth McKenzie

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

* A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * “A vibrant novel that combines slapstickcomedy with poignancy.” —The New Yorker Penny Rush has problems. Her marriage is over; she’s quit her job. Her mother and stepfather went missing in the Australian outback five years ago; her mentally unbalanced father provokes her; her grandmother Dr. Pincer keeps experiments in the refrigerator and something worse in the woodshed. But Penny is a virtuoso at what’s possible when all else fails. Elizabeth McKenzie, the National Book Award–nominated author of The Portable Veblen, follows Penny on her quest for a fresh start. There will be a road trip in the Dog of the North, an old van with gingham curtains, a piñata, and stiff brakes. There will be injury and peril. There will be a dog named Kweecoats and two brothers who may share a toupee. There will be questions: Why is a detective investigating her grandmother. What is “the Scintillator”? And can Penny recognize a good thing when it finally comes her way? This slyly humorous, thoroughly winsome novel finds the purpose in life’s curveballs, insisting that even when we are painfully warped by those we love most, we can be brought closer to our truest selves.

The Dog of the North

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Meg Wolitzer

The Female Persuasion

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Jessica George

"An utterly charming and deeply moving portrait of the joys--and the guilt--of trying to find your own way in life." --Celeste Ng, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"Meeting Maame feels like falling in love for the first time: warm, awkward, joyous, a little bit heartbreaking and, most of all, unforgettable." --Xochitl Gonzalez, New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming

Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi but in my case, it means woman.

It's fair to say that Maddie's life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson's. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting.

When her mum returns from her latest trip to Ghana, Maddie leaps at the chance to get out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she's ready to experience some important "firsts": She finds a flat share, says yes to after-work drinks, pushes for more recognition in her career, and throws herself into the bewildering world of internet dating. But it's not long before tragedy strikes, forcing Maddie to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils--and rewards--of putting her heart on the line.

Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Jessica George's Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures--and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong.

Maame

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Kamila Shamsie

“A profound novel about friendship. I loved it to pieces.” —Madeline Miller “A shining tour de force about a long friendship’s respects, disrespects, loyalties and moralities.” —Ali Smith From the acclaimed author of Home Fire, the moving and surprising story of a lifelong friendship and the forces that bring it to the breaking point Zahra and Maryam have been best friends since childhood in Karachi, even though—or maybe because—they are unlike in nearly every way. Yet they never speak of the differences in their backgrounds or their values, not even after the fateful night when a moment of adolescent impulse upends their plans for the future. Three decades later, Zahra and Maryam have grown into powerful women who have each cut a distinctive path through London. But when two troubling figures from their past resurface, they must finally confront their bedrock differences—and find out whether their friendship can survive. Thought-provoking, compassionate, and full of unexpected turns, Best of Friends offers a riveting take on an age-old question: Does principle or loyalty make for the better friend?

Best of Friends

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Etaf Rum

The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of A Woman Is No Man returns with a striking exploration of the expectations of Palestinian-American women, the meaning of a fulfilling life, and the ways our unresolved pasts affect our presents. Raised in a conservative and emotionally volatile Palestinian family in Brooklyn, Yara thought she would finally feel free when she married a charming entrepreneur who took her to the suburbs. She's gotten to follow her dreams, completing an undergraduate degree in Art and landing a good job at the local college. As a traditional wife, she also raises their two school-aged daughters, takes care of the house, and has dinner ready when her husband gets home. With her family balanced with her professional ambitions, Yara knows that her life is infinitely more rewarding than her own mother's. So why doesn't it feel like enough? After her dream of chaperoning a student trip to Europe evaporates and she responds to a colleague's racist provocation, Yara is put on probation at work and must attend mandatory counseling to keep her position. Her mother blames a family curse for the trouble she's facing, and while Yara doesn't really believe in old superstitions, she still finds herself growing increasingly uneasy with her mother's warning and the possibility of falling victim to the same mistakes. Shaken to the core by these indictments of her life, Yara finds her carefully constructed world beginning to implode. To save herself, Yara must reckon with the reality that the difficulties of the childhood she thought she left behind have very real--and damaging--implications not just on her own future but that of her daughters.

Evil Eye

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Kayla Murphy

Kayla Murphy

@wanderreadings

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Alexandra Fuller

Fi

Cameron Russell

How to Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone

Kimberly King Parsons

We Were the Universe

Elizabeth McKenzie

The Dog of the North

Meg Wolitzer

The Female Persuasion

Jessica George

Maame

Kamila Shamsie

Best of Friends

Etaf Rum

Evil Eye

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Alexandra Fuller

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How to Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone

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Jessica George

Maame

Kamila Shamsie

Best of Friends

Etaf Rum

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