Great book recommendations for the Cool Dad and Cool Mom this Summer
This summer, we've curated a diverse range of books that cater to the tastes of Cool Dads and Cool Moms. From heartwarming family stories to captivating solo adventures, our selection promises engaging reads for both quality family time and your personal enjoyment.
september new releases
Entitlement
by Rumaan Alam
A novel of money and morality from the New York Times bestselling author of Leave the World Behind
Brooke wants. She isn't in need, but there are things she wants. A sense of purpose, for instance. She wants to make a difference in the world, to impress her mother along the way, to spend time with friends and secure her independence. Her job assisting an octogenarian billionaire in his quest to give away a vast fortune could help her achieve many of these goals. It may inspire new desires as well: proximity to wealth turns out to be nothing less than transformative. What is money, really, but a kind of belief?
Taut, unsettling, and alive to the seductive distortions of money, Entitlement is a riveting tale for our new gilded age, a story that confidently considers questions about need and worth, race and privilege, philanthropy and generosity, passion and obsession. It is a provocative, propulsive novel about the American imagination.
Little Less Broken: How an Autism Diagnosis Finally Made Me Whole
by Marian Schembari
One woman's decades-long journey to a diagnosis of autism, and the barriers that keep too many neurodivergent people from knowing their true selves
Marian Schembari was thirty-four years old when she learned she was autistic. By then, she'd spent decades hiding her tics and shutting down in public, wondering why she couldn't just act like everyone else. Therapists told her she had Tourette's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, sensory processing disorder, social anxiety, and recurrent depression. They prescribed breathing techniques and gratitude journaling. Nothing helped.
It wasn't until years later that she finally learned the truth: she wasn't weird or deficient or moody or sensitive or broken. She was autistic.
Good Lookin' Cookin': A Year of Meals - A Lifetime of Family, Friends, and Food [A Cookbook]
by Dolly Parton - Rachel Parton George
You're invited to pull up a chair to a year of meals, friends, and fun with the Partons, as Dolly and her sister (and favorite cook) Rachel share beloved, crowd-pleasing recipes and family stories.
"Hey, good lookin'--what ya got cookin'?"
This is what Dolly Parton sings to her sister Rachel Parton George whenever she walks into her kitchen. It's what you do when a love for good music and good food runs in the family.
In Good Lookin' Cookin' Dolly and Rachel share tips for hosting events all year long, including twelve multi-course menus of cherished recipes for New Year's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and more. You'll learn how much butter or whipped cream goes into a "Dolly Dollop," what condiment is almost always on the table at Parton family meals, and what special dish Rachel makes at Dolly's request every year for her birthday. Recipes include American classics such as Country Ham and Biscuits, Barbecue Spare Ribs, Family Favorite Meatloaf, Slaw of Many Colors, Watermelon Fruit Salad, Mac and Cheese, and Strawberry Shortcake.
Mindful with Me: Connecting with Your Child Through Daily Mindfulness
by Sarah Dennehy - Natalie Garber Martin
55 mindfulness activities guide grown-ups and their little ones toward happiness, calm, and deeper focus.
"Mindful with Me is a perfect road map for parents and children to share a mindfulness practice that celebrates life's small moments and opportunities to connect." --Georgia Bomgardner, PhD, Nationally Certified School Psychologist
In Mindful with Me, practicing mindfulness with your child can take just minutes a day, and will help you both feel calmer, happier, and more focused. From alligator breathing to volcano jumps, from a sensory walk to a bedtime wind-down, enjoy discovering new ways to move, breathe, relax, and create with your child.
With over 55 age-appropriate mindfulness activities, and easy-to-follow instructions, parents and children will begin to connect more deeply, feel less stressed and anxious, and more easily cope with big emotions.
August New Releases
On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything
by Nate Silver
NAMED A MOST-ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024 BY FT, The Guardian, and The Sunday Times
In the bestselling The Signal and the Noise, Nate Silver showed how forecasting would define the age of Big Data. Now, in this timely and riveting new book, Silver investigates "the River," the community of like-minded people whose mastery of risk allows them to shape--and dominate--so much of modern life.
These professional risk-takers--poker players and hedge fund managers, crypto true believers and blue-chip art collectors--can teach us much about navigating the uncertainty of the twenty-first century. By immersing himself in the worlds of Doyle Brunson, Peter Thiel, Sam Bankman-Fried, Sam Altman, and many others, Silver offers insight into a range of issues that affect us all, from the frontiers of finance to the future of AI.
Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy
by Tia Levings
"Today it hit me when he hit me, blood shaking in my brain. Maybe there wasn't a savior coming. Maybe it was up to me to save me."
Recruited into the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement as a young wife, Tia Levings learned that being a good Christian meant following a list of additional life principles--a series of secret, special rules to obey. Being a godly and submissive wife in Christian Patriarchy included strict discipline, isolation, and an alternative lifestyle that appeared wholesome to outsiders. Women were to be silent, “keepers of the home.”
Needles Out: Boho Embroidery: Mixed Media Techniques
by Nichole Vogelsinger
Needles Out is the third title in artist and author Nichole Vogelsinger's bestselling embroidery series, and the first to feature mixed-media techniques.
With more than 100 illustrations and 50 photographs, this highly illustrated hardcover book will reestablish the techniques discussed in Nichole's previous books and lay a foundation for four new ones: beading/embellishing, stumpwork, fabric painting, and needle felting. Each technique will have three projects, so readers can continue to deepen their embroidery skills.
Math Mind: The Simple Path to Loving Math
by Shalinee Sharma
Bust the math myths that are holding you and your kids back and learn the importance of numeracy with this one-of-a-kind resource for parents, educators, and policymakers
Shalinee Sharma is one of the world's top experts on math learning, but when she was in school, she sat in the back row, unsure if she could ever master the subject. Many of us buy into the idea that some people are innately good at math and others just won't ever succeed at it--but it's not true, and numeracy is as important as literacy when it comes to opening doors in life.
Sharma shows how complex problem solving and puzzle solving, abstract and logical thinking, developing fluency with numbers, and cultivating persistence in math are crucial skills for success that can be taught to everyone and how math, far from being a dry, dull exercise, shares common ground with art and creativity. She also debunks the myths that prevent us from learning and enjoying math, with chapters dedicated to the three roadblocks that discourage adults and kids from learning.
Plays Well with Others
by Sophie Brickman
In the vein of Where'd You Go, Bernadette and Fleishman Is in Trouble, a wickedly funny and incisive debut novel following a mother trapped in the rat race of NYC parenting as her life unravels.
"Heavenly hilarity for readers."--Good Housekeeping
It takes a village...just not this one.
Annie Lewin is at the end of her rope. She's a mother of three young children, her workaholic husband is never around, and the vicious competition for spots in New York City's kindergartens is heating up. A New York Times journalist-turned-parenting-advice-columnist for an internet start-up, Annie can't help but judge the insanity of it all--even as she finds herself going to impossible lengths to secure the best spot for her own son.
Season of Perfect Happiness
by Maribeth Fischer
A Season of Perfect Happiness fundamentally questions what makes a "good" mother, with a propulsive and heartrending portrayal of one woman's efforts to find her voice.
Ten years after an unspeakable tragedy caused Claire to flee her hometown in Delaware, she finally feels content. She has a quiet, tidy life in Wisconsin, a place she picked at random for its shape on a map. Her careful existence centers on a simple plan: keep her social circle small and keep the past a secret.
JULY New Releases
Completely Different Game: My Leadership Playbook
by Emma Hayes - Michael Calvin
From the head coach of the United States Women's National Team and legendary coach of Chelsea FC comes a book of hard-won lessons for leading a team to success on and off the field
Few places will test your leadership skills more than the global soccer stage. For more than twenty years, Emma Hayes has led her teams to championship after championship, coaching her players through personal and professional setbacks, and becoming a powerful advocate for women in sports.
Available for the first time in print, A Completely Different Game shares Hayes's inspirational, innately human approach to fulfilling the potential of those around her. Beginning with her upbringing in Camden and ending with her move to the US National Team, Hayes takes us through the events that shaped her and the critical leadership lessons she learned along the way.
Same Bright Stars
by Ethan Joella
From the author of the Read with Jenna Bonus Pick A Little Hope, an uplifting and emotionally resonant novel set in a Delaware beach town about a local restaurant owner at a turning point.
Three generations of Schmidts have run their family's beachfront restaurant and Jack has been at the helm since the death of his father. Jack puts the demands of the restaurant above all else, with a string of failed relationships, no hobbies, and no days off as proof of his commitment to the place. He can't remember the last time he sat on the beach, or even enjoyed a moment to himself.
Meanwhile, the DelDine group has been gradually snapping up beloved eateries along this stretch of coast and are pursuing Jack with a very generous offer to take Schmidt's off his hands.
Liars
by Sarah Manguso
A searing novel about being a wife, a mother, and an artist, and how marriage makes liars of us all--from the author of Very Cold People and 300 Arguments
"Painful and brilliant--I loved it."--Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot and Either/Or
A nuclear family can destroy a woman artist. I'd always known that. But I'd never suspected how easily I'd fall into one anyway.
When Jane, an aspiring writer, meets filmmaker John Bridges, they both want the same things: to be in love, to live a successful, creative life, and to be happy. When they marry, Jane believes she has found everything she was looking for, including--a few years later--all the attendant joys and labors of motherhood. But it's not long until Jane finds herself subsumed by John's ambitions, whims, and ego; in short, she becomes a wife.
Desperation Reef
by T Jefferson Parker
In this high-stakes thriller by three-time Edgar Award winner and New York Times bestselling author T. Jefferson Parker, ("A marvel...hits the high-water mark for crime fiction every time out." --Gregg Hurwitz), a big wave surfer and her sons compete in the same contest that killed her husband many years before.
Jen Stonebreaker hasn't entered into a big-wave surfing competition since witnessing her husband's tragic death twenty-five years ago at the Monsters of the Mavericks. Now, Jen is ready to tackle those same Monsters with her twin sons Casey and Brock, who have become competitive surfers in a perilous sport.
When he's not riding waves, modeling for surfing magazines, or posting viral content for his many fans, Casey Stonebreaker spends his days helping with the family restaurant -- catching fish in the morning and bartending at night.
Plantifully Simple: 100 Plant-Based Recipes and Meal Plans for Health and Weight-Loss (a Cookbook)
by Kiki Nelson
Reclaim your health with Kiki Nelson's all-new super simple plant-based recipes and a 28-day meal plan that will kickstart new habits and enable you to maintain your health and weight loss.
Whether you want to prevent diabetes and stroke, sleep better, heal PCOS, resolve any number of health concerns associated with weight, are trying to shed those last ten pounds, or you are simply in a maintenance stage, Plantifully Simple is for you.
Kiki Nelson, who lost seventy pounds on a plant-based diet and eliminated her risk for diabetes and stroke, shares the recipes, meal plans, plate-building, and mindset she adopted to reclaim her health--and keep off the weight. Here, she offers 100 all-new recipes that are as delicious as they are satisfying: they depend on luscious fruits and vegetables as well as comforting and satisfying carbs so you will never be bored or hungry--or feel restricted. Kiki knows that to lose weight you need a plan, and here she offers two foolproof plans. Both can deliver results, and offer freedom and peace of mind when it comes to making food choices.
Danish Secret to Happy Kids: How the Viking Way of Raising Children Makes Them Happier, Healthier, and More Independent
by Helen Russell
What do Vikings know about raising children? Turns out, quite a bit.
After a decade of living in Denmark, and raising her three kids there, Helen Russell noticed that Nordic kids (or mini-Vikings) are different from children raised in other parts of the world. They eat differently. They learn differently. They play, dress, and even sleep differently. They run, jump, climb, fall and get up again, out in nature, for hours a day. It's cold and wet and uncomfortable--often. But they cope. Even though the weather's terrible and it's dark October through March. And then they grow up to be some of the happiest adults on the planet. So her question was: how?