The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian

August 2026

I love when I don’t see the ending of a book coming. That’s exactly what happened when I read THE AMATEUR by Chris Bohjalian.

It is written in the voice of Mira Winston, who was once a young golf prodigy and is now a novelist. She is looking back at a horrendous incident that occurred when she was 18. She was hitting a golf ball into the practice net when the ball went through the net and killed Kenny Foster, a 17-year-old caddie who was reading a book while waiting to be called up for his next round.

Read more »

Jennifer Wizbowski, author of Poinsettia Girl: The Story of Agata della Pietà

Ten-year-old Agata’s world is shaken at the sudden death of her mother. Left only with her egregious father, a working musician in Venice, her ailing grandmother sends her to the Ospedale della Pietà, a well-known orphanage. Agata auditions for the conservatory-style music school where music is both salvation and spectacle. Hidden behind ornate metal grates, adorned with poinsettias in their hair, the singers are veiled in mystery, their ethereal music drawing noble audiences. Just as Agata reaches the height of her musical journey, a marriage proposal from someone outside the audience tempts her with the promise of a new life --- a return to the old neighborhood she’s longed for and a home she barely remembers. Is her purpose rooted in the music that shaped her, or in the love that might free her?

Read more »

Naima Coster, author of Take What You Can

Val and Milly fell in love with France at the same time they fell in love with each other and became immediate best friends. Then they bonded as the only Black students on a study-abroad trip. Now they are in their 30s, each married and with a baby girl on the way. When Milly suggests Val move to New York so they can raise their daughters together, it’s a resounding yes. Despite their excitement, the pair secretly wonders if their friendship has always worked best as a trio. On that first trip to France, these two motherless daughters were taken under the wing of an older woman named Helene. She showered them with money, love and attention and showed them the possibilities of an independent and abundant future. But now, without Helene and her guidance, who are Milly and Val?

Read more »

Kelly Anderson, author of The Wild Beneath

Annie MacLeod always knew she was different, growing up on a sailboat in the Pacific Northwest, navigating by stars and swimming with sea creatures alongside her parents and best friend, Evan. But when a tsunami shatters her world, Annie is stranded on land and forced to confront how eccentric she is. In the wreckage, she rescues a wordless man named Walker, who emits a hum only she can hear. His touch gives her visions of the ocean’s hidden world. Yet, even as she is pulled toward him, Evan remains on dry land, offering the stability she may have to leave behind. But then Walker vanishes, along with the answers she needs about who she really is. Six years later, Annie has left the sea and buried the past --- until Walker’s otherworldly sound returns, pulling her back toward the ocean and the life she abandoned.

Read more »

Laura Moriarty, author of Sunlight Finds You

It’s 1949, early in the Cold War, but St. Petersburg, Florida is warm, lush, and booming with newcomers seeking sunshine and opportunity. For 17-year-old Nora, St. Pete feels like paradise, especially after she meets and wins over Leonard, the shy, brilliant son of transplanted New Yorkers. Nora and Leonard are soon spending balmy days and evenings together, and in her adoring, encouraging company, he grows more confident. His sophisticated mother welcomes Nora into their lives, but his father distrusts her motives. When his suspicions are seemingly confirmed, Nora is forced to cut contact. In her longing and fear, she takes a chance that changes her life, exiling her from the family she loves and setting off a chain of secrets and betrayals that will follow her into adulthood.

Read more »

Paul Yoon, author of Etna

Set in a fictional country in the present day, this is a story told through the eyes of an ex-military dog, Etna. After surviving years of a devastating war, Etna decides one night to leave the men he has fought alongside for years and return home --- to the place where he was taken from when he was young, in the thin but persistent hope that if a home exists for him, it might be there. Thus begins an exhilarating odyssey told through the eyes of a dog as he traverses across ruined landscapes and fights to survive in a world that, even in peacetime, proves to be just as precarious. Along the way, he encounters other animals and humans who are attempting to figure out how to start again. What makes a life when there is no home to go back to? How do we begin to trust each other again after such profound loss?

Read more »