Saturdays at the Café

Saturdays at the Café is a weekly feature hosted here to talk about and discuss the books I’ve discovered during the past week, added to my shelf and am excited about reading. They may be new/scheduled releases I’ve seen on NetGalley, at the library, or from publishers or they may be older titles my friends have reviewed and shared on Goodreads or blogs.

From #1 bestselling author Sophie Kinsella, an unforgettable story—by turns heartbreaking and life-affirming—of a renowned novelist facing a devastating diagnosis and learning to live and love anew.

“The bravest book you’ll read all year.”—Jodi Picoult

“What Does It Feel Like? is fiction, but it is my most autobiographical work to date. Eve’s story is my story.”—Sophie Kinsella

Eve is a successful novelist who wakes up one day in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. Her husband, never far from her side, explains that she has had an operation to remove the large, malignant tumor growing in her brain.

As Eve learns to walk, talk, and write again—and as she wrestles with her diagnosis, and how and when to explain it to her beloved children—she begins to recall what’s most important to her: long walks with her husband’s hand clasped firmly around her own, family game nights, and always buying that dress when she sees it.

Recounted in brief anecdotes, each one is an attempt to answer the type of impossible questions recognizable to anyone navigating the labyrinth of grief. This short, extraordinary novel is a celebration of life, shot through with warmth and humor—it will both break your heart and put it back together again.

Thanks to Carla @ Carla Loves to Read for featuring this in her Stacking the Shelves post. It’s a library audiobook hopeful scheduled for release in October.

What happens when a husband’s dying wish is for his wife to find a new love… before he’s even gone?

Ben and Harper started off their marriage with a cancer diagnosis, but they eventually celebrated as Ben went into remission. Now they know what matters. Now they won’t waste a second. But the cancer comes back, and this time, the doctors insist there’s no viable treatment option. As they are ticking things off Ben’s bucket list–sail a boat, ride an elephant, become a cashier, take the stage, jump out of a plane–Ben is forced to truly face his own mortality. He comes up with his final He wants to find Harper a new husband before he dies.

Harper is resistant to this wacky plan. If she can’t have Ben, then she doesn’t want anyone. Finally, he lets it drop, but not before a journalist gets wind about His Crazy Idea. Before they know it, reporters are knocking down their door to write up such a romantic gesture of a husband’s dying wish for his beloved wife.

When the New York Times sends a journalist to their house to do a feature, Harper opens the door to find the one man who got away. Or, rather, the man she spent one perfect week with a decade ago and never saw Leo Hale.

Suddenly, Harper is faced with old, unresolved feelings for Leo and her ultimate what-if. What would have happened if Harper had ended up with Leo? Is the grass really greener, or is she standing right where she should be, even as she inevitably faces the pain of losing the one she loves?

I’ve enjoyed several books by the author so when the audiobook showed up on NetGalley, I quickly requested and was approved.

After the “insanely readable” (Stephen King) and “perfectly told” (Malcolm Gladwell) New York Times bestseller The Plot comes Jean Hanff Korelitz’s equally captivating new novel: The Sequel.

Anna Williams-Bonner has taken care of business—that is to say, she’s taken care of her husband, bestselling novelist Jacob Finch Bonner, and laid to rest those anonymous accusations of plagiarism that so tormented him. Now she is living the contented life of a literary widow, enjoying her husband’s royalty checks in perpetuity, but for the second time in her life, a work of fiction intercedes, and this time it’s her own debut novel, The Afterword. After all, how hard can it really be to write a universally lauded bestseller?

But when Anna publishes her book and indulges in her own literary acclaim, she begins to receive excerpts of a novel she never expected to see again, a novel that should no longer exist. Something has gone wrong, and someone out there knows far too much: about her late brother, her late husband, and just possibly… about Anna herself. What does this person want, and what are they prepared to do? She has come too far, and worked too hard, to lose what she values most: the sole and uncontested right to her own story—and she is, by any standard, a master storyteller.

I really enjoyed The Plot and am excited about this “sequel,” especially because of that twisty ending in the first book. I learned of it from the publisher’s newsletter. It’s scheduled for release next month and is a library audiobook hopeful.

The true story of a trailblazing detective’s search for a beautiful college coed who vanished without a trace.

In 1981, detective Kay Schucker was the lead investigator in the high-profile missing persons case of Old Dominion University student Janice Starr. The beautiful coed disappeared without a trace from ODU’s Norfolk, Virginia campus. Among the only leads was Janice’s diary, which included detailed journal entries about her daily activities. As Kay studied the diary—going several years back—she learned that Janice, a US Army veteran, had faced the same challenges in the military that Kay did in law enforcement. They were both women trying to succeed in a man’s world. Feeling a kinship toward Janice, Kay became consumed with unraveling the mystery of Janice’s disappearance and possible death.

As the investigation unfolded, Kay began to suspect that Janice had an affair with her ROTC professor at ODU, Army captain Dwight Beddingfield—a well-respected family man married with three kids. Kay was warned by superiors to tread lightly in her investigation of Beddingfield and cautioned not to dig too deeply. But she soon uncovered a life insurance scheme and discovered that Janice had been assigned a series of dangerous tasks by Captain Beddingfield. Did these circumstances play a role in Janice’s demise? Was the highly regarded Beddingfield actually a killer? If so, what did he do with Janice’s remains?

Offered for audio review, I quickly accepted as this true crime case happened near my hometown.

An aimless young woman starts writing to an accused serial killer while he awaits trial and then, once he’s acquitted, decides to move in with him and take the investigation into her own hands in this dark and irresistibly compelling debut thriller.

Recently ghosted and sick of watching her friends fade into the suburbs, thirty-something Hannah finds community in a true-crime forum that’s on a mission to solve the murders of four women in Atlanta. After William, a handsome lawyer, is arrested for the killings, Hannah begins writing him letters. It’s the perfect outlet for her pent-up frustration and rage. The exercise empowers her, and even feels healthy at first.

Until William writes back.

Hannah’s interest in the case goes from curiosity to obsession, leaving space for nothing else as her life implodes around her. After she loses her job, she heads to Georgia to attend the trial and befriends other true-crime junkies like herself. When a fifth woman is discovered murdered, the jury has no choice but to find William not guilty, and Hannah is the first person he calls upon his release. The two of them quickly fall into a routine of domestic bliss.

Well, as blissful as one can feel while secretly investigating their partner for serial murder…

As much as I tried to ignore this one, it became impossible after so many positive reviews from Goodreads and Instagram friends. When the audiobook showed up at my library, I joined the short library queue.

What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?