NO TWO PERSONS d’Erica Bauermeister

A story-in-stories about a debut novel and the people whose lives it touches, by NYT bestselling author of The Scent Keeper Erica Bauermeister.

NO TWO PERSONS
by Erica Bauermeister
‎ St. Martin’s Press, May 2023
(via Writers House)

In NO TWO PERSONS, Erica Bauermeister imagines the life of a novel sprung from the heart of a young woman named Alice, who loses her beloved brother too young. The novel Alice writes in tribute to him finds its way to a wide-ranging cast of characters: a literary agent and her assistant, an angry artist, a freediver, a movie intimacy coordinator, a homeless teenager, an exiled actor, an infatuated bookseller, and the caretaker of a ghost town. Together, their luminous and interconnected stories reveal how books can change us in the most unexpected of ways, connecting us not only to our own truths, but to our shared humanity.

Erica Bauermeister is the New York Times bestselling author of House Lessons, The Scent Keeper, The School of Essential Ingredients, Joy for Beginners, and The Lost Art of Mixing. She is also the co-author of non-fiction works, 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader’s Guide and Let’s Hear It For the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. She has a PhD in literature from the University of Washington, and has taught there and at Antioch University.

THE DIG d’Anne Burt

In the vein of Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok, and The Dry by Jane Harper, THE DIG features propulsive writing and magnetic main characters who seek to solve the puzzle of their own past.

THE DIG
by Anne Burt
‎Counterpoint, Spring 2023
(via Writers House)

After Antonia (Toni) King trades small-town Minnesota and her adopted family for a high-powered legal career, her brother’s mysterious disappearance pulls her back home. Toni has a complicated relationship with the past: after being found as a child in the rubble of a bombed-out apartment in Sarajevo, she and her brother Paul were taken in by the Kings, a family of contractors in the small Midwestern town of Thebes, Minnesota.
As a child, Toni fantasized about what life would be like if she were born in Minnesota with blond hair and blue eyes, instead of as a dark haired Bosniak with a traumatic history. Now in her adult life, Toni has a newly minted law degree from Harvard and plans to put it to good use in the cause of justice in Washington, D.C. —far away from Thebes. But when she wins a plum job at an influential Twin Cities law firm with international clientele, she feels herself pulled back to the Midwest.
Her adoptive uncle, Christopher King, is furious that she’s moved back to Minnesota but rejected the opportunity he’s offered to work as counsel for the family construction business. And shortly after her arrival, Toni learns that idealistic Paul has disappeared after vocally protesting their uncle’s next development site—a Somali Community Center. As Toni must search for her brother, fend off her uncle’s demand to disavow him, and all the while try to please her demanding new boss, she uncovers a strange connection between her client and her uncle’s business, and with that begins to excavate decades of family secrets and lies. Toni must suddenly come to terms with the fact that her perceived foundation upon which her life was based was false.
Over the course of a single day, Toni navigates the serpentine bureaucracy of her small-town’s justice system, unearthing salacious characters from the past along with decades of secrets and lies, leading to explosive revelations about her adoptive family—and the sinister truth behind her biological mother’s death—that will alter the course of her life, and change her definition of home forever.
THE DIG is a shimmering, heart-wrenching portrait of a woman at odds with her history.

Anne Burt is the editor of My Father Married Your Mother: Dispatches from the Blended Family, and co-editor, with Christina Baker Kline, of About Face: Women Write About What They See When They Look in the Mirror. Anne is a consultant for organizations including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Aspen Institute, and a lecturer at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies. Anne’s essays and fiction have appeared in numerous publications and venues, including Salon, National Public Radio, and The Christian Science Monitor; she is a past winner of Meridian Literary Magazine’s Editors’ Prize in Fiction. Anne holds a B.A. in history from Yale University and an M.A. in creative writing from NYU. THE DIG is her first novel.

PANDORA d’Anita Abriel

Based on historical research and inspired by the lives of the women living in New York during the American Gilded Age, PANDORA is perfect for fans of the TV blockbusters The Gilded Age and Bridgerton.

PANDORA
by Anita Abriel
Lake Union, Spring 2023
(via Writers House)

In early 1920s New York, during the height of the Victorian Gilded Age, when fortunes were made and most young women dreamt of the most eligible bachelor, Pandora Carmichael dreams of becoming a fashion designer and achieving the independency forbidden to women of the time. Her main impediment is that she does not belong to the right family.
Pandora begins a journey of love and ambition that takes her from the rolling hills of Hyde Park, New York to 1920s Manhattan.

Anita Abriel was born in Sydney, Australia. She received a BA in English literature with a minor in creative writing from Bard College. She is the internationally bestselling author of The Light After the War and Lana’s War.

THE SEVEN CIRCLES de Chelsey Luger & Thosh Collins

In this revolutionary self-help guide, two beloved Native American wellness activists offer wisdom for achieving spiritual, physical, and emotional wellbeing rooted in Indigenous ancestral knowledge.

THE SEVEN CIRCLES:
Indigenous Teachings for Living Well
by Chelsey Luger & Thosh Collins
HarperOne, October 2022
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

When wellness teachers and husband-wife duo Chelsey Luger and Thosh Collins founded their Indigenous wellness initiative, Well for Culture, they extended an invitation to all to honor their whole self through Native wellness philosophies and practices. In reclaiming this ancient wisdom for health and wellbeing—drawing from traditions spanning multiple tribes—they developed a holistic model for modern living rooted in timeless teachings from their ancestors. Luger and Collins have introduced this universally adaptable template for living well to Ivy League universities and corporations like Nike, Adidas, and Google, and now make it available to everyone in this wise guide.
Their model comprises interconnected circles that keep all aspects of our lives in balance, functioning in harmony with one another. They are: Food, Movement, Sleep, Ceremony, Sacred Space, Land, Community.
In THE SEVEN CIRCLES, Luger and Collins share intimate stories from their life journeys growing up in tribal communities, from the Indigenous tradition of staying active and spiritually centered through running and dance, to the universal Indigenous emphasis on a light-filled, minimalist home to create sacred space.
With warmth and generosity—and 75 atmospheric photographs by Collins throughout—THE SEVEN CIRCLES teaches us how to connect with nature, with our community, and with ourselves, and to integrate ancient Indigenous philosophies of health and wellbeing into our own lives to find healing and balance.

Chelsey Luger and Thosh Collins are cofounders of the Indigenous wellness organization Well for Culture, for which they conduct workshops and keynote speaking engagements around the world with universities, non-profit organizations, and corporations such as Nike, Adidas, Google, and Equinox. Their work has been featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, BBC World News, Shape, Bon Appetit, Well + Good, and the Nike N7 campaign, among other outlets. They live in Arizona with their two daughters.

THESE SMALL-TOWN SINS de Ken Jaworowki

With pacing set at perfection and a series of unforgettable characters, THESE SMALL-TOWN SINS is a chilling and addictive commercial thriller.

THESE SMALL-TOWN SINS
by Ken Jaworowki
‎ Henry Holt, Summer 2023
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

When volunteer firefighter Nathan finds millions in cash inside a burning building, he begins to question every decision he has made in his life. Meanwhile local nurse Callie makes a dangerous choice to take a dying patient on an adventure before it’s too late. Just down the road, former heroin addict Andy, devastated by losing his wife and daughter, unexpectedly finds the perfect target for his wrath in a local predator.
Set in small-town Pennsylvania, this Rust Belt thriller will appeal to fans of Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone, Scott Smith’s A Simple Plan, and popular TV show Mare of Easttown.

Ken Jaworowski has been a Senior Staff Editor at The New York Times for 17 years, primarily covering the culture desk. He has also had a dozen short stories published in literary magazines, several of which were nominated for Pushcart Prizes. His plays have been produced in New York, London, France, Edinburgh, and elsewhere.