From Shelf Awareness May 8, 2026 Reading with… Laurie Frankel Laurie Frankel is the author of six novels, including Enormous Wings (Holt, May 5, 2026), a fresh, funny, timely story of bodily autonomy, women’s rights, elder rights, reproductive rights, family, love, grandmas, paparazzi, sex, profane priests, and hamsters. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Washington …
Laurie Frankel has a way of treating serious issues in a warm and loving way, and of bringing understanding to contentious topics. Maybe this book can open a few yes to the horrors of the Texas (and unfortunately other states’) laws. –Karen Emmerling, Beach Books, Seaside, OR I was instantly drawn to 77-year-old Pepper Mills; …
A gripping multi-generational story that delves into messy relationships, motherhood struggles, inherited trauma, dreams for the future, AND the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. –Rachel, Brick & Mortar Books, Redmond, WA Explore fiction from Pacific Northwest authors (and novels that expand your horizons in many ways) at Brick & Mortar Books and other independent bookstores.
The atmosphere of the Bog Wife is damp, oppressive, and ever present in the drama surrounding family history, tradition, and obligation with a specter of the supernatural haunting the periphery. The layers of metaphor stack upon each other like the sphagnum moss that layers the bog to become a rich peat. —Obadiah, Sherwood Bookstore, Sherwood, …
You will be wholly moved as you journey along with Leigh, gaining an intimate understanding of her soul and appreciation for those around her who help her see the truth and beauty in herself. The focus isn’t her trauma; yes, her trauma informs her life in indelible ways, and still, she grows greatly just like …
It was a @mariasemple weekend for her old Seattle friends: watching her on stage @townhall_seattle trading zingers with @whoiskenjennings on Saturday night and hosting a book-signing visit at the store and doing some visiting with friends on Sunday. Her new novel, Go Gentle, is a heartful hoot, the kind of book for which the adjective “madcap” was invented—we’ve been trading our …
Damned to repeatedly outlive all man and creature she’s ever loved, and having fallen out with certain family, Vera comes back home to root out the source of the fountain of youth and undo its curse on her. Her search is complicated by a secretive corporation buying up every parcel in the vicinity and then …
Book club alert!!! This book, about a wholesome family show that takes place in the 1960s, is a dream book club selection! It’s charming, engaging, and would give ladies sooooooo much to talk about!!! It’s about social expectations and restrictions, and the strain of judgment from others and ourselves. Very good! ~ Annette An enjoyable …
Cornejo Villavicencio talks to day laborers, a man seeking sanctuary, as well as some of the Ground Zero cleanup crew made up mostly of immigrants about their declining health after helping a country that doesn’t want to help them. She ties the informative with the personal without being dry or sentimental. (Read this then read …
A beautiful debut novel about power, consent, and love. This story, based on Welsh folklore, centers Rory and his childhood friend Daye, a girl created from flora and incantations. At the end of each season, Daye must be rewoven to keep her from falling apart forever. As the two friends grow older, their relationship becomes …
