ATL Staff Picks: September & October 2023

Feeling unfulfilled in the face of an imminent legal partnership and a broken engagement, Manhattan lawyer Clementine Evans learns of a long-buried family secret that leads her to the inner circles of World War I British society and the red hills of Kenya.

Don't miss the latest gripping, high-stakes thriller from Wattpad sensation Natasha Preston, author of the runaway hit The Cellar. Of course, the dress was white. This is what I'm supposed to die in, I thought. Not many people knew what their last outfit would be. I pulled it over my head. It fit me perfectly. It had long, loose fitting sleeves, a modest neckline, and waves of material on the skirt. I hated it. There were no shoes, and I was afraid...

The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under -- maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche...

Presents a food memoir, cookbook, and tribute to the author's mother, sharing classic family recipes--many of them pre-dating the Civil War--and preparation secrets for such traditional fare as short ribs, biscuits, and perfect mashed potatoes. Bragg presents a food memoir, cookbook, and tribute to his mother. Margaret Bragg does not own a single cookbook, measures ingredients by "dabs" and judges "done" by look and smell. Her son shares classic...

"Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and...

"In downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Chef Lou Johnson works tirelessly to build her beloved yet struggling restaurant, Luella's, into a success. She cheerfully balances business, friends, and fiance...until fate intervenes. She's just baked her fiance a rich, delectable coconut cake, but when she drops by his apartment with the birthday surprise, she discovers him in the buff--with an intern. Sardonic British transplant Al writes pseudonymous, scathing...

This program is read by the author. A bestselling author and rabbi's profoundly affecting exploration of the meaning and purpose of the soul, inspired by the famous correspondence between Albert Einstein and a grieving rabbi. A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings as something separate from the rest-a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness..."...

"When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath. Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the...

England, 1580. A young Latin tutor-- penniless, bullied by a violent father-- falls in love with an eccentric young woman who walks her family's estate with a falcon on her shoulder and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer. Agnes understands plants and potions better than she does people, but settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford. She becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast force in the...

Memorial Day, 1938: New York socialite Lily Dane has just returned with her family to the idyllic oceanfront community of Seaview. But an unwelcome specter from Lily's past also appears: her former best friend and her former fiance, now recently married.