What starts off a little slow, quickly picks up the pace after chapter one in a perfectly easy summer read. The Royal Coconut Beach Lunch Club by Diane Bergner follows protagonist Julia Wild through her transition from lawyer to fundraiser for a prestigious performing arts center in the heart of Royal Coconut Beach. Taking obvious inspiration from Palm Beach, Florida, […]

What starts out as a love story between two 60-something divorcées takes an interesting turn to science fiction in What Love Feels Like: The Dawn of Human 2.0, a novel that will likely tug on your heart strings. It certainly tugged on mine.  Luke, a writer, and Dawn, a high school counselor, met on Match.com and started chatting with one another online. […]

Jeffrey S. Stephens’ latest novel, Crimes and Passion, is a suburban whodunit that keeps you guessing ’till the very end. Stephens spins an intricate web of lies and lust, expertly crafting a suspect cast of characters and rapid moving plot that creates a unique atmosphere of suspense. When Elizabeth Knoebel is found dead in Darien, Connecticut, an affluent town in […]

Sandy Rosenthal is a New Orleans citizen investigator turned published author whose debut book Words Whispered in Water exposes the truth behind the flooding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. This firsthand, well-researched account is a three-pronged story that reads as one part memoir, one part investigative journalism, and one part novel. From the beginning warnings of evacuation, all the […]

Better than craft cocktails are witchcraft cocktails, the basis of author Julia Halina Hadas’s new book. WitchCraft Cocktails: 70 Seasonal Drinks Infused with Magic & Ritual is a comprehensive guide for anyone looking for a well-crafted cocktail to make at home. Whether or not you’re into witchcraft, energies or herbal remedies, this unique book serves as a guide to those with […]

Chef Risa Magid Boyer’s debut cookbook encourages diners to adopt her approach to hospitality in the comfort of your own home. Her Montclair restaurant, Vanillamore, takes a three pronged approach to inviting people to her table: she focuses on the sweet, the savory, and the social elements of a meal. The cookbook is composed to reflect those tenets, not only […]

This true account of the history of organ transplantation in the South is as shocking as it is detailed. Journalist Chip Jones’ thorough research is expertly woven among a scintillating narrative, sparking the readers’ interest from the very first page. While the nation struggles to properly address the Black Lives Matter movement, this book could not be more timely in […]

Eating healthy doesn’t always mean counting calories. Yet, unfortunately, this has been the harmful narrative for decades in our society. This narrative has made me shy away from any cookbook that designates its recipes as “healthy.” But after taking a look at Everyday Healthy Cookbook, I’ve opened my mind to the nuances of healthy eating.  With vibrant photographs and over […]

There are a dozen types of memoirs, but one of my absolute favorites is a memoir about food. They guide you through the writer’s past in the most unique way using cuisine. Nothing is more dynamic, complex or enthralling than food — where it comes from and how it can impact your life. FoodSutra: A Memoir of the Foods of […]

A book on plant neurobiology might not be on the top of your reading list, but that’s not reason enough to not pick up a copy of Stefano Mancuso’s The Incredible Journey of Plants. Mancuso, who is one of the world’s leading authorities in plant neurobiology, somehow manages to make this book fascinating, whether or not you’re into botany or […]