Features

Winter Reading 2026

Our Winter Reading contests have returned for an 11th year! On select days in January and February, we are hosting a series of 24-hour contests spotlighting a book releasing this winter and giving five lucky readers the chance to win it.

We also are sending a special newsletter to announce the day's title, which you can sign up for here.

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Belle Burden, author of Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage

In March 2020, Belle Burden was safe and secure with her family at their house on Martha’s Vineyard, navigating the early days of the pandemic together --- building fires in the late afternoons, drinking whiskey sours, making roast chicken. Then, with no warning or explanation, her husband of 20 years announced that he was leaving her. Overnight, her caring, steady partner became a man she hardly recognized. He exited his life with her like an actor shrugging off a costume. In STRANGERS, Burden revisits her marriage, searching for clues that her husband was not who she always thought he was. As she examines her relationship through a new lens, she reckons with her own family history and the lessons she intuited about how a woman is expected to behave in the face of betrayal.

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Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden

January 2026

I had the pleasure of meeting Belle Burden at a publisher event in November. After she told us her story, which is detailed in STRANGERS, I immediately requested a prerelease audio download. I love listening to memoirs on audio. After finishing it, I would share the book’s opening with friends, and they all said that it sounded like a really good novel. Then I would tell them that it’s a memoir.

So what did they react to?

In the first week of the pandemic, while Belle and her family were staying at their home on Martha’s Vineyard, life was going as well as it could be during those uncertain times. There were lovely fires in the fireplace, with wood that was carefully selected by Belle’s husband, and cocktails in the afternoon. Yes, there still was fear of COVID, but they felt safe where they were.

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