Maximum Shelf: A KILLER IN THE FAMILY (1/14/25)

This week’s Shelf Awareness Maximum Shelf pick is Amin Ahmad’s A KILLER IN THE FAMILY, an intoxicating drama set in the world of New York City’s elite that explores the underside of the American dream and asks, what happens when you marry into a family that keeps secrets? It’s time for Ali, a good-natured Mumbai party-boy, […]

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Maximum Shelf: CELESTIAL LIGHTS (12/4/25)

This week’s Shelf Awareness Maximum Shelf pick is Cecile Pin’s CELESTIAL LIGHTS, an unforgettable portrait of a complicated man and a breathtaking tale of memory, personal choices, and the relationships that define us. January 28, 1986: Soon after launch, the Challenger shuttle falls out of the sky and into the sea. At the same time, Oliver […]

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Maximum Shelf: WHEN TREES TESTIFY (11/19/25)

This week’s Shelf Awareness Maximum Shelf pick is Beronda L. Montgomery’s WHEN TREES TESTIFY, a stunning cultural and personal reclamation of Black history and Black botanical mastery that offers up lessons from the natural world shared through the stories of long-lived trees. The histories of trees in America are also the histories of Black Americans. […]

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Maximum Shelf: THE ACCIDENTAL FAVORITE (3/4/25)

This week’s Shelf Awareness Maximum Shelf pick is Fran Littlewood’s THE ACCIDENTAL FAVORITE, a wryly resonant and deeply moving family dramedy investigating the question so many of us have asked ourselves: do my parents have a favorite? Vivienne and Patrick Fisher have done an excellent job raising their three daughters, Alex, Nancy, and Eva. They’re […]

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Maximum Shelf: FINDING GRACE (1/22/25)

This week’s Shelf Awareness Maximum Shelf pick is Loretta Rothschild’s FINDING GRACE, a twisty, gripping novel that wraps around a deeply moving love story. Honor seems to have everything: she adores her bright and beautiful daughter, Chloe, and her charming, handsome husband, Tom, even if he works one hundred hours a week. Her bestselling children’s […]

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Maximum Shelf: THE WEDDING PEOPLE (4/9/24)

Last week’s Shelf Awareness Maximum Shelf pick was Alison Espach‘s THE WEDDING PEOPLE, a propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help us start anew. It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold […]

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Maximum Shelf: AMAZING GRACE ADAMS (6/9/23)

Today’s Shelf Awareness Maximum Shelf pick is Fran Littlewood‘s AMAZING GRACE ADAMS, a hilarious, heartwarming, and empowering story of a woman pushed to her breaking point after years of marriage, motherhood, and feeling invisible. Grace Adams gave birth, blinked, and now suddenly she is forty-five, perimenopausal and stalled—the unhappiest age you can be, according to […]

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Maximum Shelf: THE TALK (4/13/23)

Today’s Shelf Awareness Maximum Shelf pick is Darrin Bell’s THE TALK, a graphic memoir that takes a hard look at police brutality and racism within law enforcement, which forces Black parents to talk with their children at a very young age about a scary reality. Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother told […]

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Maximum Shelf: WHITE HORSE (7/28/22)

Yesterday’s Shelf Awareness Maximum Shelf pick was Erika T. Wurth’s WHITE HORSE, a gritty, vibrant debut about an Indigenous woman who must face her past when she discovers a bracelet haunted by her mother’s spirit. Heavy metal, ripped jeans, Stephen King novels, and the occasional beer at the White Horse have defined urban Indian Kari James’s life […]

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Maximum Shelf: FOUR TREASURES OF THE SKY (1/5/22)

Today’s Shelf Awareness Maximum Shelf pick is Jenny Tinghui Zhang’s FOUR TREASURES OF THE SKY, a propulsive and dazzling debut novel, set against the backdrop of the Chinese Exclusion Act, about a Chinese girl fighting to claim her place in the 1880s American West. Daiyu never wanted to be like the tragic heroine for whom […]

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