Book reviews & excerpts from books about parenting, family and relationships

Baby in a Box

Stories

by Sarah Braunstein

Paperback: Jun 2026

Prescient and idiosyncratic stories about the cost and joys of caretaking from a "sharp-witted, ravishing" (New York Times) writer.

So Far Gone

A Novel

by Jess Walter

Hardcover: Jun 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins—and in the propulsive spirit of Charles Portis' True Grit—comes a hilarious, empathetic, and brilliantly provocative adventure through life in modern America, about a ...

Whistler

A Novel

by Ann Patchett

Hardcover: Jun 2026

The acclaimed, prize-winning #1 New York Times bestselling writer returns with a moving, luminous novel that reminds us of the sweetness and impermanence of life and the power of connection to defy time.

Returns and Exchanges

A Novel

by Kayla Rae Whitaker

Hardcover: May 2026

A sweeping novel of one Kentucky family's rise and fall throughout the 1980s—a tragicomic tour de force about love and marriage, parents and children, and the perils of mixing family with business, from the acclaimed author of The Animators.

Great Big Beautiful Life

by Emily Henry

Hardcover: Apr 2025 | Paperback: May 2026

Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping novel from Emily Henry.

This Is Your Mother

A Memoir

by Erika J. Simpson

Hardcover: May 2025 | Paperback: May 2026

From "a writer who's absolutely going places" (Roxane Gay), a remarkable, inventive debut memoir about a mother-daughter relationship across cycles of poverty, separation, and illness, exploring how we forge identity in the face of imminent loss.

The Foursome

A Novel

by Christina Baker Kline

Hardcover: May 2026

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline comes a boldly original reimagining of the astonishing true story of two sisters in nineteenth-century North Carolina — Kline's own distant relatives — who married world-...

The Hill

A Novel

by Harriet Clark

Hardcover: May 2026

After her mother is sentenced to life in a hilltop prison, Suzanna vows to return to the hill forever. An unexpectedly funny and deeply moving novel about the many ways we punish and return to each other.

The Things We Never Say

A Novel

by Elizabeth Strout

Hardcover: May 2026

Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout's new novel tells the story of a chance incident that sparks a powerful realization in a beloved teacher's life—a poignant meditation on loneliness, friendship,...

Flashlight

A Novel

by Susan Choi

Hardcover: Jun 2025 | Paperback: May 2026

A novel tracing a father's disappearance across time, nations, and memory, from the author of Trust Exercise.

The Names

A Novel

by Florence Knapp

Hardcover: May 2025 | Paperback: Apr 2026

The extraordinary novel that asks: Can a name change the course of a life?

When the Harvest Comes

A Novel

by Denne Michele Norris

Hardcover: Apr 2025 | Paperback: Apr 2026

In this heart-wrenching debut novel, a young Black gay man reckoning with the death of his father must confront his painful past—and his deepest desires around gender, love, and sex.