It’s a new quarter and that means new fiction and nonfiction picks have been selected for you courtesy of Bestsellers Club! Four fiction picks are available for you to choose from: diverse debuts, graphic novel, historical fiction, and international fiction. Four nonfiction picks are available for you to choose from: biographies, cookbooks, social justice, and true crime. Our fiction and nonfiction picks are chosen quarterly and are available in regular print only. If you would like to update your selections or are a new patron who wants to receive picks from any of those four categories, sign up for Bestsellers Club through our website!
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Below you will find information provided by the publishers and authors on the titles we have selected from the following categories in fiction: diverse debuts, graphic novel, historical fiction, and international fiction and the following categories in nonfiction: biographies, cookbooks, social justice, and true crime.
Acronym definitions
BIPOC: Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
LGBTQ+: Lesbian, gay, transgender, queer, and more.
FICTION PICKS
Diverse Debuts:
Diverse Debuts: Debut fiction novel by a BIPOC author, LGBTQ+ author or an author from another marginalized community.
This Here is Love by Princess Joy L. Perry
Three people—two enslaved, one indentured—living beside each other, struggling against their circumstances, trying to bend destiny.
As the seventeenth century burns to a close in Tidewater, Virginia, America’s character is wrought in the fires of wealth, race, and freedom.
Young Bless, the only child left to her enslaved mother, stubbornly crafts the terms of her vital existence. She stands as the lone bulwark between her mother and irreparable despair, her mother’s only possibility of hope, as Bless reshapes the boundaries of love.
David is a helping child and a solace to his parents, and he gave a purpose to their trials. His survival hinges on his mother’s shrewd intellect and ferocious fight, but his sustenance is his freed Black father’s dream of emancipation for the entire family.
Jack Dane, a Scots-Irish boy, sails to Britain’s colonies when his father sells him into indentured servitude as an escape from poverty. There Jack learns from the rich the value of each person’s life.
A breathtaking, haunting, and epic saga, This Here Is Love intimately intertwines us with these beautifully drawn, unforgettable American characters. Bless, taken to serve the slaveowner’s daughter, must decide where she belongs: with the enslaved or above them. David, sold away from his people, retreats into himself even as he yearns to unite with others. Jack, acting impetuously, changes his fortune, but will doing so sacrifice his humanity?
All three come together on Jack’s land. As they face and challenge each other, they will relinquish and remake beliefs about family and freedom, even as they confront the limits of love. – W.W. Norton & Company
Graphic Novel:
Graphic Novel: Fiction novel for adults of any subgenre with diverse characters depicted by color illustrations, sketches, and photographs.
A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll
In E.M. Carroll’s haunting adult graphic novel horror story A Guest in the House, a young woman marries a kind dentist only to realize that there’s a dark mystery surrounding his former wife’s death.
After many lonely years, Abby’s just gotten married. She met her new husband—a recently widowed dentist—when he arrived in town with his young daughter, seeking a new start. Although it’s strange living in the shadow of her predecessor, Abby does her best to be a good wife and mother. But the more she learns about her new husband’s first wife, the more things don’t add up. And Abby starts to wonder . . . was Sheila’s death really by natural causes? As Abby sinks deeper into confusion, Sheila’s memory seems to become a force all its own, ensnaring Abby in a mystery that leaves her obsessed, fascinated, and desperately in love for the first time in her life.
E.M. Carroll’s masterful balance of black and white, surreal colors, rich textures, and dramatic lettering is assured to bring this story to life and give readers a chill up their spine as they read. – 23rd St.
Historical Fiction:
Historical Fiction: Historical fiction novel written by a BIPOC author, LGBTQ+ author or an author from another marginalized community, with main character(s) from a marginalized community.
The Great Mann by Kyra Davis Lurie
In 1945, Charlie Trammell steps off a cross-country train into the vibrant tapestry of Los Angeles. Lured by his cousin Marguerite’s invitation to the esteemed West Adams Heights, Charlie is immediately captivated by the Black opulence of L.A.’s newly rechristened “Sugar Hill.”
Settling in at a local actress’s energetic boarding house, Charlie discovers a different way of life—one brimming with opportunity—from a promising career at a Black-owned insurance firm, the absence of Jim Crow, to the potential of an unforgettable romance. But nothing dazzles quite like James “Reaper” Mann.
Reaper’s extravagant parties, attended by luminaries like Lena Horne and Hattie McDaniel, draw Charlie in, bringing the milieu of wealth and excess within his reach. But as Charlie’s unusual bond with Reaper deepens, so does the tension in the neighborhood as white neighbors, frustrated by their own dwindling fortunes, ignite a landmark court case that threatens the community’s well-being with promises of retribution.
Told from the unique perspective of a young man who has just returned from a grueling, segregated war, The Great Mann weaves a compelling narrative of wealth and class, illuminating the complexities of Black identity and education in post-war America. – Crown
International Fiction:
International Fiction: Fiction novel originally written in another language with main character(s) from marginalized communities.
Summerhouse by Yiğit Karaahmet ; translated by Nicholas Glastonbury
A gay couple’s 40-year relationship is imperiled by a new arrival to their sleepy island paradise: The Birdcage as done by Highsmith.
Fehmi and Şener have been together forty years—no small feat for any pair, but especially admirable for a gay couple in Turkey. Behind closed doors, their life on Büyükada, an idyllic island near Istanbul, is like a powder keg that needs only one spark to blow. That spark soon comes in the form of Deniz, the wildly handsome and troubled teenager next door, who immediately catches Fehmi’s eye.
This “harmless” crush immediately raises Şener’s hackles; although he doesn’t think Deniz would ever reciprocate Fehmi’s feelings, it’s not a risk he’s willing to take. But when one betrayal leads to another, Deniz hatches a plan, and the sultry summer takes a dark turn as the couple’s relationship is put to the test like never before. Will lust or love win the day? One thing’s for sure: not everyone will be getting out of this love triangle alive.
Dishy, suspenseful, and boiling over with black humor, Yiğit Karaahmet’s debut makes a fierce political statement about supporting “gay wrongs” while also introducing a shockingly lovable pair of antiheroes who could be Tom Ripley’s grandfathers. – Soho Crime
NONFICTION PICKS
Biography pick
Angelica: For Love and Country in a Time of Revolution by Molly Beer
A women-centric view of revolution through the life of Angelica Schuyler Church, Alexander Hamilton’s influential sister-in-law.
Few women of the American Revolution have come through 250 years of US history with such clarity and color as Angelica Schuyler Church. She was Alexander Hamilton’s “saucy” sister-in-law, and the heart of Thomas Jefferson’s “charming coterie” of artists and salonnières in Paris. Her transatlantic network of important friends spanned the political spectrum of her time and place, and her astute eye and brilliant letters kept them well informed.
A woman of great influence in a time of influential women (Catherine the Great and Marie-Antoinette were contemporaries), Angelica was at the red-hot center of American history at its birth: in Boston, when General Burgoyne surrendered to the revolutionaries; in Newport, receiving French troops under the command of her soon-to-be dear friend Marquis de Lafayette; in Yorktown, just after the decisive battle; in Paris and London, helping to determine the standing of the new nation on the world stage.
She was born as Engeltje, a Dutch-speaking, slave-owning colonial girl who witnessed the Stamp Act riots in the Royal British Province of New York. She came of age under English rule as Angelica, the eldest daughter of the most important family on the northern part of Hudson’s River, raised to be a domestic diplomat responsible for hosting indigenous chiefs and enemy British generals at dinner. She was Madame Church, wife of a privateer turned merchant banker, whose London house was a refuge for veterans of the American war fleeing the guillotine in France. Across nationalities, languages, and cultures, across the divides of war, grievance, and geography, Angelica wove a web of soft-power connections that spanned the War for Independence, the post-war years of tenuous peace, and the turbulent politics and rival ideologies that threatened to tear apart the nascent United States
In this enthralling and revealing woman’s-eye view of a revolutionary era, Molly Beer breathes vibrant new life into a period usually dominated by masculine themes and often dulled by familiarity. In telling Angelica’s story, she illuminates how American women have always plied influence and networks for political ends, including the making of a new nation. – W.W. Norton & Company
Cookbook pick
Simple Pleasures: Incredibly Craveable Recipes for Everyday Cooking by Jodi Moreno
Jodi Moreno captures life’s simple pleasures in her collection of super-easy-to-make, highly craveable comfort recipes. In addition to the standard chapters on breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, this playful book has sections devoted to pasta parties and long leisurely gatherings with friends—all with super adaptable recipes that feel both unexpected and approachable.
James Beard–nominated chef Jodi Moreno captures life’s simple pleasures in her collection of super-easy-to-make, highly craveable comfort recipes.
Sizzling bacon in the morning
A perfectly ripe avocado
Freshly baked bread out of the oven
Pomodoro simmering on the stove
…these are just a few of life’s simple pleasures.
A few things you will be sure to find: lots of butter, crème fraîche in desserts, juicy ripe tomatoes everywhere, mounds of parmesan cheese, blankets of sauces, layers of texture and flavor, and the perfect mix of indulgence + feel-good foods to nourish you inside and out.
In addition to the standard chapters on breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, this playful book has sections devoted to pasta parties and long leisurely gatherings with friends—all with super adaptable recipes that feel both unexpected and approachable. – Gibbs Smith
Social Justice pick
Body Problems: What Intersex Priest Sally Gross Teaches Us About Embodiment, Justice, and Belonging by M. Wolff
In Body Problems, M. Wolff offers groundbreaking insight into Sally Gross, a South African intersex priest and activist whose body was continuously policed and politicized. Gross’s role in founding Intersex South Africa and her involvement with the African National Congress are celebrated in the Apartheid Museum, but the complex dimensions of her life—from her Jewish heritage to her Christian priesthood and Buddhist practices—remain largely unexplored. Wolff illuminates these lesser-known aspects of Gross’s spirituality and theorizes her resistance to the regulation of intersexuality. The book urges readers to rethink bodies and belonging, particularly as they relate to formations of gender and religion. Wolff presents Gross’s life as a guide for discerning our commitments to social justice and responsible relations. Body Problems is a timely and expansive contribution to ongoing discourses on the medical, religious, and political construction of bodies. – Duke University Press
True Crime pick
The Sleep Room: A Sadistic Psychiatrist and the Women Who Survived Him by Jon Stock
A chilling true story of medical abuse, psychological manipulation, and the women who refused to be silenced.
In the heart of postwar London, Dr. William Sargant was a revered psychiatrist with a glittering résumé. He was also a regular lecturer in the United States, where he was a visiting professor at Duke University and had close connections with the CIA.
But behind the doors of Ward Five at the Royal Waterloo Hospital, he orchestrated one of the most disturbing chapters in modern psychiatric history.
Known as the Sleep Room, this ward became the site of relentless experimentation. Women—many young, vulnerable, and without consent—were subjected to months of chemically induced sleep, interrupted only for electroconvulsive therapy and forced feedings. Their identities blurred, their memories fractured, and their lives forever altered.
Now, decades later, the survivors are speaking out. In this gripping investigation, journalist and novelist Jon Stock uncovers the dark legacy of Sargant’s methods, the institutional complicity that enabled them, and the haunting question: Were these women victims of rogue science—or pawns in a broader, state-sanctioned agenda?
The Sleep Room is a powerful blend of investigative journalism and survivor testimony, exposing the twisted intersection of medicine, power, and secrecy. – Abrams Press
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Nora Dåsnes, a Norwegian author and illustrator, has written the Stonewall Book Award winning juvenile graphic novel Cross My Heart and Never Lie. This graphic novel, translated by Matt Bugguley, tells the story of Tuva, a new seventh grader, and her questions about becoming a teenager. Tuva has big goals for the year. She wants a trendy look, to build the best fort in the woods with her two best friends Linnea and Boa, and to do so many other things. When she starts seventh grade, Tuva quickly realizes that nothing is what she thought it would be.
Why this book matters:
