Jill Kargman identifies with the ’80s advertising jingle for Mounds and Almond Joy candy bars. Her little book of stories regales readers with a wicked and witty take on love, hate, kids, family, and work.
Available at amazon.com, $12.
Buddy Levy plunges readers into the death-defying, true-story adventures of 16th-century conquistador Francisco de Orellana’s violent, noble navigation of the mighty Amazon. We heard war drums and predator howls long after we turned the last page.
Available at amazon.com, $18.
We ran away from university with our hippie boyfriend to a house trailer near the ocean. Deb Olin Unferth was a little more ambitious. She and her college sweetie went to Nicaragua in search of jobs with the Sandinistas. Subtitled “The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War,” Revolution is a heartbreaking story of idealism and youthful search for meaning.
Available at amazon.com, $13.
Butterfly smugglers? Who knew? Journalist Jessica Speart chases down the butterfly world’s most elusive criminal, the notorious Yoshi Kojima, in her fantastic new book. It’s a journey with the twists and turns of a taut thriller — like The Orchid Thief, only with wings.
Available at amazon.com, $17.
Aloha, Sarah Vowell fans. The smarty-pants reporter gives us a history lesson on our 50th state in her new book set in 1898. It’s a whirlwind orgy of imperialism, examining how America annexed Hawaii, Christianized the island heathens, and overthrew the queen.
Available at amazon.com, $14.
We love down dog as much as the next girl but typically get bent out of shape over smug, look-how-I’ve-been-transformed yoga books. Claire Dederer’s isn’t like that at all. It’s a truly funny, sharply honest look at her life as a young mother, wife, and writer. Prepare to be surprised.
Available at amazon.com, $14.
Margaux Fragoso was only 7 years old when she swam up to a guy in his 50s and asked him to play with her. The mesmerizing memoir of the next fifteen years — spent with the pedophile who became her playmate, father, and lover — had us enraged, horrified, and unable to put it down.
Available at amazon.com, $15.
Author Karen Abbott’s meticulously researched, rollicking biography of vaudeville stripper Gypsy Rose Lee peels away the layers of Lee’s grim childhood spent on the road with her sister and their stage mother from hell. You think wire hangers are bad? You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Available at amazon.com, $16.
Shortly before his 30th birthday, Conor Grennan went to Nepal to volunteer at Little Princes Children’s Home. Once there, he found that the kids weren’t orphans but victims of child trafficking. So what does he do? He starts an organization to reunite the little ones with their families.
Available at amazon.com, $14.
It’s been 50 years since the publication of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and we still can’t get our fill of the quirky chef. This collection of 200-plus letters documents the friendship between Child and Avis DeVoto, her guide in the creation of her famous cookbook. We devoured her thoughts on food, politics, and sex.
Available at amazon.com, $15.
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