Every couple of months, we do a book roundup of books sent by authors around the country (and in some cases world). We peruse these books and choose the top 8-10 books to feature on WE Magazine for Women.
Here is our June roundup of books worth reading:
The Extraordinary Ordinary by Natalie Rodriguez
Three college students learn how to cope with their mental health when one of them experiences panic attacks.
Years after being attacked in high school, a young photography student named Erica moves across the country from New York to Southern California (CA) in search of a fresh start. At the same time, she also strives to finish a photography project from high school to reach a sense of closure.
In California, Erica meets and befriends two individuals, Bianca, and Alex, who have a painful history of their own. Erica soon realizes that she is not alone in her struggles with anxiety and depression. She learns that the road to recovery is possible for anyone, regardless of their past.
While adjusting to her new life, her past and old coping mechanisms also heighten, especially with her parents’ different views on life and their future.
Get your copy on Amazon
*A Week of Warm Weather by Lee Bukowski
In this gripping, authentic exploration of how addiction can shatter a family, one woman with the appearance of a perfect life must realize how much she is willing to lose in order to find herself.
Tessa seems like she has it all: a loving husband with a good career, a house in the suburbs, a beautiful daughter, and a supportive family. But her husband’s choices begin resurrecting her childhood trauma, forcing Tessa to decide if she should keep his secrets or out them. As her husband manipulates her, Tessa doesn’t know if what he’s doing is really reckless, or if she should let it go for the sake of their family, as her husband has told her. Then the lies she’s been telling everyone to maintain the appearance of a perfect life start to bubble up – especially after CeCe, a woman new to the area, reveals a secret of her own… And it’s so explosive that everything feels upended.
Get your copy at Amazon
*Not in Vain – a Promise Kept by Melissa Mullamphy
Not in Vain, A Promise Kept is a memoir/self-help that takes the reader through my Mom’s journey fighting ovarian cancer in a complex and dangerous healthcare system. It is organized monthly from her initial diagnosis to her passing away. It is not an easy read, and some early reviews revealed: “ it is what many who have been there having felt but never put into words.” My goal in writing this book is to keep the promise that I made to my mom … to share her story so others don’t go through what she and my family went through. It digs deep into her facing her mortality and fears and the many roles my family played during the process. There are a few periods of hope and many periods of rage and hopelessness. . Each chapter ends with what I learned and what I suggest the reader does (tips) to advocate for their loved ones.
Learn more and get your copy on Amazon
Silence in the Sound by Dianne C. Brailey
Finding inspiration where she least expects it, one woman’s life is about to change forever.Life has not been kind to Georgette. Growing up with an alcoholic father and an enabling mother, she clings to the loving memory of a childhood trip to Martha’s Vineyard to help see her through the bad times; and now, as an adult, she returns to the island to start her life over. Soon she becomes the private nurse for a prize-winning novelist. As the two become friends, he opens her mind to new possibilities.But everything changes when she encounters the mysterious Dock. Georgette isn’t quite sure about him but finds him irresistible. She quickly loses herself in her relationship despite the inherent dangers that come with him. Torn between her own future or spiraling into a life she tried so hard to leave behind, Georgette must make her most important decision ever.Sometimes escaping the past isn’t as easy as it appears.The Silence in Sound is the provocative debut novel by Dianne C. Braley detailing the devastating effects of growing up with addiction.
Learn more and get your copy on Amazon (available August 23)
East of Troost by Ellen Barker
Under the guise of a starting-over story, this novel deals with subtle racism today, overt racism in the past, and soul-searching about what to do about it in everyday living.
East of Troost’s fictional narrator has moved back to her childhood home in a neighborhood that is now mostly Black and vastly changed by an expressway that displaced hundreds of families. It is the area located east of Troost Avenue, an invisible barrier created in the early 1900s to keep the west side of Kansas City white, “safely” cordoned off from the Black families on the east side.
When the narrator moves back to her old neighborhood in pursuit of a sense of home, she deals with crime, home repair, and skepticism—what is this middle-aged white woman doing here, living alone? Supported by a wise neighbor, a stalwart dog, and the local hardware store, we see her navigate her adult world while we get glimpses of author Ellen Barker’s real life there as a teenager in the sixties, when white families were fleeing and Black families moving in—and sometimes back out when met with hatred and violence. A regional story with universal themes, East of Troost goes to the basics of human behavior: compassion and cruelty, fear and courage, comedy and drama.
Learn more and get your copy on Amazon
Ivy Lodge – a Memoir of Translation and Discovery by Linda Murphy Marshall
IVY LODGE is an unforgettable memoir that explores patriarchal households, family dynamics, and writing your own story despite your past.
After both her parents die, Linda Murphy Marshall, a multi-linguist and professional translator, returns to her midwestern childhood home, Ivy Lodge, to sort through a lifetime of belongings with her siblings. Room by room, she uses her skills as a longtime professional translator to discover new meanings in her former home, and Linda leaves Ivy Lodge with a new realization of who she is and how she fits into her world.
Learn more and get your copy on Amazon
Finding Grace by Maren Cooper
Charles Booker is thrilled to start married life in Two Harbors, Minnesota, with his ambitious ornithologist bride, Caroline—but he sabotages his own happiness when, blinded by his desire for a family, he tricks Caroline into a pregnancy she doesn’t want.
Caroline, bold and unapologetic, follows her own nature and holds Charles to his promise to parent their daughter without her help—an arrangement that allows her to travel the world and follow her birds, wherever they may take her. This uneasy truce results in near tragedy for their daughter, Grace, who comes of age in a household full of toxic resentment on the one side and suffocating love on the other, and increasingly struggles with her mental health as she grows older.
Learn more and get your copy on Amazon
Andrea Hoffman Goes All In by Diane Cohen Schneider
Andrea Hoffman is an overeducated, underemployed, and unmotivated recent college graduate—until an unexpected robbery blasts her out of her funk and into a job in the finance world of early-1980s Chicago. At first, it seems like a bad fit. But the world of finance has its own weird charm, and she grows increasingly fascinated by the strange language of trading, the complexity of the stock market, and her colleagues, who navigate it all with a ruthless confidence. Even though she has two strikes against her—Jewish and female—Andrea’s quick wit and strong work ethic propel her into an actual sales job and her career takes off. But this is the Wall Street of the eighties, and along with making a lot more money, Andrea adopts a new, fast life of cocktails, cocaine, and casual sex. Drunk on her achievements, she gradually realizes that at some point, she’s going to have to decide what success really means to her.
Learn more and get your copy on Amazon (Available August 30)
A sky of Infinite Blue by Kyomi O’Connor
From an early age, Kyomi’s life was filled with emotional difficulties—an adulterous father, an overreliant mother, and a dismissive extended family. In an effort to escape the darkness of her existence in Japan, Kyomi moved to the States in February 1990 to start a new life as a researcher working at NIH in Bethesda, MD. Soon, she fell in love with her husband-to-be: Patrick, a warm, charismatic British cancer researcher whose unconditional love and support helped her begin to heal the traumas of her past. Eventually, their journey together led them to change their careers and move to San Diego, CA, where they dedicated themselves to a Buddhism practice that changed both their lives—aiding them in their spiritual growth and in realizing their desire to help others.
Available on Amazon (September 6th)
The Spiritual Guide to Tectonic Events – a Personal Account of Dealing with Life’s Upheavals
In this definitive and offbeat autobiographical account of fears, losses, unwanted life expanding events and ultimate growth. M.A. Turner self-proclaimed goofball, guides the reader through just being alive in this dimension and how if we pay more attention to the inner workings of ourselves and the outer functions of information around us, can lead to better, richer, fuller and more enjoyable living. Take a cold hard look at yourself Change or Accept yourself Break forth unapologetically into that person you feel you are truly inside. Or Do nothing and stay as you are and try again in your next incarnation of existence. It’s All Good…
Learn more and Get your copy on Amazon
Love Letters from Jaye – 50 Years of Breaking Barriers Together by Richard Cheu
During their courtship Janey wrote 167 letters to her future husband, Richard Cheu, while they were separated at different schools. In her letters she talked about her dreams for her career, the tedium and excitement of lab work, reconciling the young couple’s values with their parents’ expectations, and preparations for their elaborate wedding in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Love Letters from Janey is a compilation of the letters and a reflection on Chinese American life in the 20th century.
Learn more and get your copy on Amazon
*Must Read Well by Ellen Pall
Must Read Well draws readers into the story revealed in Anne’s journals—the dramatic and ultimately tragic saga of her secret love affair with a world-renowned pianist. Coiled around this long-ago tale is the very present one of Liz’s quest to outwit her employer. As she becomes increasingly desperate and devious in her efforts to get her hands on the treasure trove of journals, Liz begins to wonder if her frail, elderly, half-blind landlady might be on to her game. Is Liz just paranoid? Why is Anne so mistrustful? What do these two women really want from each other? Novelist Ellen Pall crafts a riveting story around two strong and intriguing women: 20-something Elizabeth Miller, an ambitious scholar, and 89-year-old Anne Weil, a once trailblazing, now largely forgotten and ailing writer. Both Liz and Anne have troubled pasts, hidden agendas, and impressive talents for duplicity.
Learn more and get your copy on Amazon
Journey Through Fire and Ice – Shattered Dreams Above the arctic Circle by Deanne Burch
At the tender age of 23, a naïve but very much in love Deanne Burch did what all good wives were expected to do in the 1960s: she put the needs of her husband first. She accompanied Tiger to a remote, Inuit (Inupiaq) village in Kivalina, Alaska, where Tiger was conducting research for his Ph.D. To say that the environment and living conditions were harsh would be a considerable understatement.
In Journey Through Fire and Ice: Shattered Dreams Above the Arctic Circle, Deanne pours her memories onto paper, immortalizing in vivid detail their experiences on the barrier island 83 miles above the Arctic Circle, including the ways in which the Inupiaq people supported the Burches throughout both exhilarating triumphs and agonizing tragedies.
Learn more and get your copy on Amazon
Dark Obsession by Marie Sutro (Kate Barns)
Flawed but formidable San Francisco Police Detective Kate Barnes is forced to confront an unimaginable evil in Dark Obsessions — the highly anticipated follow-up to Marie Sutro‘s bestselling and award-winning debut, Dark Associations.
Reeling from the trauma of her last case, San Francisco Police Detective Kate Barnes ventures outside Seattle into the rugged reaches of the Olympic Peninsula, hoping to heal the present by resolving the past. When the ravaged corpse of an unidentified teen is discovered, her search for personal peace takes a back seat to the quest for justice.
Learn more and get your copy on Amazon
Tomboy by Shelley Blanton-Stroud
It’s 1939. On the brink of World War II, Jane Benjamin wants to have it all. By day she hustles as a scruffy, tomboy cub reporter. By night she secretly struggles to raise her toddler sister, Elsie, and protect her from their mother. But Jane’s got a plan: she’ll become the San Francisco Prospect’s first gossip columnist and make enough money to care for Elsie.
Jane finagles her way to the women’s championship at Wimbledon, starring her hometown’s tennis phenom and cover girl Tommie O’Rourke. She plans to write her first column there. But then she witnesses Edith “Coach” Carlson, Tommie’s closest companion, drop dead in the stands of apparent heart attack, and her plan is thrown off track.
While sailing home on the RMS Queen Mary, Jane veers between competing instincts: Should she write a social bombshell column, personally damaging her new friend Tommie’s persona and career? Or should she work to uncover the truth of Coach’s death, which she now knows was a murder, and its connection to a larger conspiracy involving US participation in the coming war?
Learn more and get your copy on Amazon
Mimi, Memaw, Yaya, Gaga, Nana, Granny, Big Mama and Me and Christmas with Mimi, Memaw, Yaya, Gaga, Nana, Granny, Big Mama and Me by Iselyn Hamilton-Austin
The books are a multicultural series that celebrates the love between grandmothers and their grandchildren. They show acceptance of love in all cultures.
The soon-to-be-released book celebrates the love of families who adopt a child that are of a different nationality.
The books have been on the market since October and November 2021. They teach kids about accepting people of other races and cultures. The books teach that although people come from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds, we still share the same language: LOVE
Learn more and get your copies here http://iselynhamiltonaustin.com/