Our Favorite Read with Jenna Book Picks

From Amy Jo Burns, author of Mercury, Wait for Me is a soul-stirring novel about friendship, love, and the lasting power of music. Elle Harlow was a bright star of 1970s Nashville, captivating fans at the Grand Ole Opry before vanishing from the scene. Nearly twenty years later, 18-year-old Marijohn Shaw strums songs on a broken mandolin and yearns for a mother she never knew. But when an otherworldly event draws Elle’s enigmatic past back to the present, Marijohn must reckon with everything she thought she believed about herself and the music she holds dear. Evoking the shining lights of Nashville and lush hills of Appalachia, Wait for Me is “as wild, lyrical, and full of longing as the songs at its center” (Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife).

Set against the dust-choked backdrop of Depression-era Texas, The Four Winds by bestselling author Kristin Hannah follows Elsa, a wife and mother determined to keep her family together and alive. As her marriage begins to buckle under pressure and their farm suffers the continual onslaught of the dust storms, Elsa is faced with a painful decision — to stay and try to save their land, or to leave it behind to take her family west and hope they find a better future. Breathtaking in scope, The Four Winds is a harrowing story of resilience and an engrossing portrayal of one of the most trying periods in America’s history.

After their mother’s death, Byron and Benny are left with a perplexing inheritance: a black cake made from a longstanding family recipe, accompanied by a recorded voice message that recounts a shocking tale of a young girl’s escape from an island while under suspicion of murder. By the end of the recording, Byron and Benny are left with more questions than answers — and just what did their mother mean when she asked them to “share the black cake when the time is right”? A thrilling novel driven by rich characters and captivating family secrets spanning generations, Black Cake by Charmain Wilkerson is “crafted with delicate intention and textured with a blend of perspectives” (Vulture).

From Pulitzer Prize finalist Laila Lalami, The Dream Hotel is a propulsive dystopian novel set in a near-future world where the security state has advanced to frightening new levels. When Sara steps off a plane after a work conference, she’s swept up by Risk Assessment Administration agents. Their algorithm has determined that, based on data from her dreams, she’ll soon commit a violent crime against her husband. Consequently, she’ll need to be held under observation for 21 days. Sara is placed in the retention center with the other dreamers — all women — where any misstep against the strict and ever-shifting rules will extend your stay. Months go by, and Sara starts to suspect she might never leave. That is, until a mysterious new resident arrives and shatters the oppressive order of things. 

Science and faith. In Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom, Gifty, a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at Stanford University School of Medicine, is caught between the two eternal poles. Her brother, once a promising young athlete, died of a heroin overdose after an injury left him addicted to OxyContin. Her mother is severely depressed. Determined to understand the suffering that surrounds her, Gifty focuses her research on reward-seeking behavior and the neuroscience of depression and addiction. But she was raised in an evangelical church, and she grapples with the enticing promise of salvation without science. An extraordinary book about family, belief, and belonging, Transcendent Kingdom is “achingly lovely” (Vox).

A New York Times bestseller, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is a heartfelt and mysterious book about friendship, grief, and hope. In the wake of her husband’s death, Tova Sullivan — who already lost her son 30 years ago when he vanished on a boat in Puget Sound — needs to keep herself busy. So she starts working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, where she makes an unlikely friend in Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus. Marcellus is a wise and deductive creature, and once he unravels what happened the night of Tova’s son’s disappearance, he must find a way to share the truth with his human friend. 

Jordan and his college friends have a decades-old tradition of reuniting in Big Sur to throw one another living funerals — a reminder of just how much they have to live for, even when one of them is in the pits of adult life. It’s been five years since their last reunion, though, and this time, Jordan plans to share a secret with the friend group that just might upend their tradition in surprising ways. Heartfelt and humorous, Steven Rowley’s The Celebrants is a charming ode to lasting friendships and the never-ending experience of growing up.  

A Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Dutch House by acclaimed author Ann Patchett is a story of forgiveness, family bonds, and how we learn to define ourselves. Over the course of decades, the Conroy family escapes poverty after WWII, acquires a sprawling estate, and then repeatedly falls apart and comes back together. Danny’s father bought the family’s beloved Dutch House with the wealth he built through his real estate empire. But after being ousted from the home by their stepmother, siblings Danny and Maeve are once again impoverished, with only each other to rely on. Patchett’s historical saga is “sweeping, grand, and lavish — and all deeply moving” (New York Journal of Books). 

Cursed Daughters, from Oyinkan Braithwaite, author of My Sister, the Serial Killer, is “a bombshell of a book... Sharp, explosive, hilarious” (The New York Times). Much of Eniiyi’s identity was assigned to her at her first breath: She was born into a cursed family, and because of the timing of her arrival and an uncanny resemblance, she is believed to be the reincarnation of her late cousin. But when she falls in love, cursed or not, she’ll have to face her family’s history — traumas, secrets, heartbreaks, and all — if she’s going to forge her own path. 

A New York Times bestseller, Buckeye follows the intertwined lives of two couples in a small Ohio town. Elated by the news of the Allied victory in Europe, Cal Jenkins shares a passionate spark with his neighbor, Margaret Salt. Their moment of indiscretion will echo through their lives and those of their spouses, Becky and Felix, for years to come. In a story spanning decades, the Jenkins and Salt families find themselves bound by a single moment that evolves into something far more complex. At once a portrait of postwar America and a deeply emotional tale of forgiveness, loss, love, and growth, Buckeye is a “luminous and tender 20th-century saga of wounded souls and small-town secrets” (The Guardian).

Witty, wise, and uproariously entertaining, The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles is a modern classic. Told from multiple points of view and covering just ten days, the novel follows 18-year-old Emmett from Nebraska to New York City in the 1950s. After serving 15 months in a juvenile work farm for involuntary manslaughter, Emmett plans to collect his little brother, Billy, and head for California, where they can start over, far away from Emmett’s past and their parentless home. But everything changes when the warden drops off Emmett at home, and Emmett discovers that two of his friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car. So they put together a brand-new plan — and head east instead.