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| Title | Author | Publisher | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little Panic | Amanda Stern | Grand Central Publishing | Growing up in the 1970s and 80s in New York, Amanda experiences the magic and madness of life through the filter of unrelenting panic. Plagued with fear that her friends and family will be taken from her if she's not watching - that her mother will die, or forget she has children and just move away - Amanda treats every parting as her last. Shuttled between a barefoot bohemian life with her mother in Greenwich Village, and a sanitized, stricter world of affluence uptown with her father, Amanda has little she can depend on. And when Etan Patz disappears down the block from their MacDougal Street home, she can't help but believe that all her worst fears are about to come true. Tenderly delivered and expertly structured, Amanda Stern's memoir is a document of the transformation of New York City and a deep, personal, and comedic account of the trials and errors of seeing life through a very unusual lens.
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| Loneliness and Company | Charlee Dyroff | Bloomsbury Publishing | Lee's future is set-a top student and professor-favorite, she's destined to land a job at a prestigious Big Five corporation. So when, upon graduating, she's assigned to an unknown company in the dead city of New York instead, her life is completely upended. In this new role, Lee's task is to gather enough research to train an AI how to be a friend. She begins online and by studying the social circle of her clueless, outgoing roommate Veronika. But when the company reveals it's part of a classified government mission to solve loneliness-an emotion erased from society's lexicon decades ago-Lee's determination to prove herself kicks into overdrive, and she begins chasing bolder and more dangerous experiences to provide data for the AI. How far will Lee go to teach the algorithm? As the mysterious affliction spreads, Lee must decide what she's willing to give up for success and, along the way, learn what it means to be a true friend. 2024 Indie Next Pick | A 2024 Most Anticipated Book by Debutiful | A GoodReads “Discover New Voices” Pick | A Silicon Valley Reads Pick |
| Mama's Boy | Dustin Lance Black | Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group | Raised in a military, Mormon household outside San Antonio, Texas, Black always found inspiration in his plucky, determined mother. Having contracted polio as a small girl, she endured leg braces and iron lungs, and was repeatedly told that she could never have children or live a normal life. Defying expectations, she raised Black and his two brothers, built a career, escaped two abusive husbands, and eventually moved the family to a new life in Northern California. She remained Black's source of strength and his guiding light. He pays tribute in this moving account. |
| Mary | Nat Cassidy | Nightfire | Mary is a quiet, middle-aged woman doing her best to blend into the background. Invisible. Unremarkable. Unknown even to herself. But lately, things have been changing inside Mary. Along with the hot flashes and body aches, she can't look in a mirror without passing out, and the voices in her head have been urging her to do unspeakable things. Fired from her job in New York, she moves back to her hometown, hoping to reconnect with her past and inner self. Instead, visions of terrifying, mutilated specters overwhelm her with increasing regularity and she begins auto-writing strange thoughts and phrases. Mary discovers that these experiences are echoes of an infamous serial killer. Then the killings begin again. Mary's definitely going to find herself. Reader Advisory - "Nat Cassidy's highly commercial, debut horror novel Mary: An Awakening of Terror, blends Midsommar with elements of American Psycho and a pinch of I'll Be Gone in the Dark." -- from the publisher. Be aware that the book could trigger abject feelings and emotions. Best Horror of 2022―Esquire, Paste Magazine, CrimeRead | Harper's Bazaar 15 Best Books for Spooky Season | The Lineup Best Debut Horror Novels of 2022 | American Writers Museum―Staff Recommendation |
| Maybe You Should Talk to Someone | Lori Gottlieb | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | Every year, nearly 30 million Americans sit on a therapist’s couch—and some of these patients are therapists. In her remarkable new book, Lori Gottlieb tells us that despite her license and rigorous training, her most significant credential is that she’s a card-carrying member of the human race. “I know what it’s like to be a person,” she writes, as a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but. As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients' lives — a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can't stop hooking up with the wrong guys — she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell. |
| Mean Baby | Selma Blair | Alfred A Knopf | Over the course of this beautiful and, at times, devastating memoir, actress Selma Blair lays bare her addiction to alcohol, her devotion to her brilliant and complicated mother, and the moments she flirted with death. There is brutal violence, passionate love, true friendship, the gift of motherhood, and, finally, the surprising salvation of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. In a voice that is powerfully original, fiercely intelligent, and full of hard-won wisdom, Selma Blair's Mean Baby is a deeply human memoir. New York Times Best Seller |
| Medical Bondage | Deirdre Cooper Owens M.D. | University of Georgia Press | In Medical Bondage, Cooper Owens examines a wide range of scientific literature and less formal communications in which gynecologists created and disseminated medical fictions about their patients, such as their belief that black enslaved women could withstand pain better than white “ladies.” Even as they were advancing medicine, these doctors were legitimizing, for decades to come, groundless theories related to whiteness and blackness, men and women, and the inferiority of other races or nationalities. |
| Menopause | MK Czerwiec, editor | graphic mundi | Menopause: A Comic Treatment is an anthology of twenty-eight contributors. The collection presents various views of menopause according to life experiences, ages, gender, ethnicities, and health conditions. Winner of the 2021 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards for Best Anthology and Best Short Story | A Booklist 2020 Best Graphic Novel for Adults | A New York Times Best Graphic Novel of 2020 |
| Mom Dad Not Hear | Mickey Carolan | Third Culture Books | In Mom Dad Not Hear, Mickey Carolan exposes the joys and heartaches of living as a hearing person in a non-hearing home. With first-hand insights and raw candor, he shares an intimate look into his struggles as well as his successes revealing a world where communication is a daily challenge -- and where love transcends language barriers and silence speaks volumes. |
| Mother Lode | Gretchen Staebler | She Writes Press | Penetrating the fog of her mother’s advancing dementia, hypochondria, and blindness with humor, frustration, and compassion—and wine—the author slowly comes to accept and respect the mother she got, if not the one she wished for. In the process, she becomes a self-taught authority on aging, dementia, the healthcare system, and self-care. But how long will healing between mother and daughter take—and how long do they have? |
