About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
Michael Frank
Rave Booklist Over the course of six years, she and the author built an unlikely friendship as Stella shared her most beloved and horrific memories, from her idyllic childhood with her grandmothers to her adolescent friendships and adventures on the island to her most traumatic experiences of deportation and surviving the war...Accompanied by illustrations from Maira Kalman, Frank writes Stella’s harrowing journey with care, and the result is this beautifully crafted true story of friendship, love, survival, and redemption.
Emma Seckel
Positive Booklist Seckel offers a haunting love story full of mystery and beauty.
Sopan Deb
Positive Booklist Full of regret, mistakes, love, redemption, and second chances, New York Times reporter Deb’s first novel is a painfully beautiful story that gives hope to all who have lost a loved one and wished for a second act of their own.
Meg Waite Clayton
Positive Booklist Based on the true story of American heiress Mary Jayne Gold, who used her connections and fortune to help refugees during WWII, this gripping historical love story from Clayton brings readers into the courageous lives of those struggling just to stay alive and those risking everything to help.
A. J. Pearce
Positive Booklist Pearce captures the spirit and hopefulness of those left at home during war, and readers will delight in this second chance to ride along with Emmy.
Emily Oster
Positive Booklist With Oster’s help, rather than fear this next stage of parenting, readers can embrace (and even enjoy) the challenge.
Geraldine Schwarz
Rave Booklist Schwarz does not shy from Germany’s crimes nor the acts of her own family ... A timely must-read, this brutally honest memoir is also a smart historical analysis and a relevant warning for the future.
Jennie Fields
Positive Booklist From minor characters to her protagonist, Fields creates authentic female characters teetering on the verge of the women’s movement, struggling to claim their place in the world. Inspired by history, Fields’ fifth novel is a love story filled with passion, betrayal, mystery, and liberation.
Jason B Rosenthal
Positive Booklist Rosenthal’s gut-wrenching, honest, and uplifting memoir offers reassurance and connection to readers experiencing their own losses.
Madeline Levine
Rave Booklist ... addresses this challenge with thoughtful, relevant guidance ...With thorough research backing her up, Levine delivers advice with intelligence and compassion, but also with realistic expectations of what it’s like to parent as well as grow up in today’s world. Best of all, she masterfully balances this realism with positivity. Another invaluable resource from Levine.
Elizabeth Berg
Positive Booklist Berg is a natural storyteller, and here she creates a genuine group of women, old friends and new, for readers to cozy up to. Even minor characters come to life with sincerity and charm. The Confession Club shows that family doesn’t have to be defined in the traditional sense, home isn’t always where we expect it to be, and the love of friends is all we really need.
Andrew David MacDonald
Positive Booklist MacDonald’s first novel is a truly original story filled with love, tragedy, heartache, and triumph, and his heroine is sure to inspire readers to be legendary themselves.
Barbara Natterson-Horowitz
Positive Booklist Thanks to the authors’ research, teenagers can rest assured that they have a temporary membership in a planet-wide tribe of adolescents.\' An incredibly fascinating read, Wildhood illuminates what humans can learn from the animal world and how all species are more connected to one another than they may appear.
Rhys Thomas
Positive Booklist Thomas creates a charming world filled with real friendships, quirky characters, painful grief, and uplifting humor. This entertaining, romantic superhero story shows how love can heal the wounds left by heartbreak and lead the way back to redemption and happiness.
Sasha Sagan
Rave Booklist From birthdays to funerals to the changing of the seasons to lunar cycles, [Sagan] thoughtfully explores how to blend science and spirituality. An eye-opening book for those who might question traditional religious celebrations but feel connected to the community, rituals, and comforts they provide, this is a refreshing, intelligent examination of faith, religion, and the many wonders of science worthy of celebration.
T. Greenwood
Positive Booklist Greenwood’s...heart-wrenching, emotional roller coaster of a read also seamlessly captures the transformation of women’s roles in the early 1970s. A heartfelt tale of true friendship, a mother’s unstoppable love, and the immeasurable fortitude of women.
Litt Woon Long trans. by Barbara J. Haveland
Positive Booklist ... Long effortlessly weaves her innermost thoughts and anguish into her path to becoming a certified mushroom expert ... Although it is not intended as a field guide to mushrooming, her story may inspire readers to begin. It is, however, a heartfelt and honest account of overcoming loss that will give hope to readers in a simple, yet profound way. In her beautifully written first book, Long shares a way to feel anew by setting foot on a different path, discovering a spark of joy, and finding meaning again. Readers who appreciate the journeys through grief found in memoirs like Cheryl Strayed’s Wild (2012) or Shannon Leone Fowler’s Traveling with Ghosts (2017) should pick this up.
Jessica Handler
Positive Booklist Finally seeing the world outside her small town, Lulu feels caught between returning home to protect her younger brother and spreading her own wings. With depth and emotion, The Magnetic Girl will captivate readers, too.
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
Positive Booklist Elucidating her characters’ emotions and struggles, Owuor takes readers to the core of each one and shows that even in the face of heartache and betrayal, there is always a path to redemption.
Jennifer Traig
Rave Booklist [Traig] leaves no stone unturned, examining practices across time, cultures—and even species. With a dry wit, and brutal honesty about her own parenting experience, Traig weaves personal anecdotes throughout this thoroughly researched, incredibly interesting read; she effortlessly balances edification with humor. And in a genre inundated with advice, a parenting book that isn’t trying to dole out the latest recommendations is completely refreshing. Much like parenting itself, Act Natural will teach readers something new in one moment and make them laugh out loud the next.
Tara Conklin
Positive Booklist Beautifully written ... Despite spanning almost a century, The Last Romantics never feels rushed. Conklin places readers in the center of the Skinner family, moving back and forth in time and allowing waves of emotion to slowly uncurl. Perfectly paced, affecting fiction.
Beatriz Williams
Rave Booklist \"Williams, Willig, and White work together again to create a riveting historical mystery. This time they follow three women who are linked by the tragic sinking of the RMS Lusitania. \
Joanna Cannon
Positive Booklist Cannon effortlessly captures the home’s slow routines, along with the ways that staff and residents coexist but often know little about each other. This status quo continues at Cherry Tree until a new resident stirs up decades-old secrets. As Florence’s thoughts roam, it is at times unclear what is real and what may be a figment of her failing mind. This heartfelt tale of friendship and aging explores letting go of the past in order to live fully in the present.
Anne Youngson
Positive Booklist Told through a series of letters, Youngson’s debut follows Tina and Anders’ journey of discovering something that was missing from their lives, thoughtfully revealing their emotions of the present and reflections on the past. The book’s slower pace and attention to detail match the patient process of letter writing, too. Through each new letter, the story moves forward with ease, feelings of isolation begin to dissipate, and room for hope grows.
AJ Pearce
Positive Booklist Set against a backdrop of war-torn London, this is a charming and heartfelt novel. Pearce brings to life a tale of true friendship, and how love will outlast even the most challenging times.
Jess Kidd
Rave Booklist Kidd’s (Himself, 2017) compelling second novel weaves love, betrayal, and forgiveness with humor, mystery, and a bit of magic. This absorbing mix of paranormal tragedy and heartfelt triumph will appeal to a broad swath of readers.