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.

Life has a way of changing your path–and Claire Karadec certainly didn’t plan on a fork in the road in her forties. From New York Times bestselling author Courtney Walsh comes a witty, warm, and uplifting novel about second chances, found family, and the courage it takes to become yourself–perfect for fans of Annabel Monaghan and Sarah Adams.

After a painfully public discovery shatters her marriage, along with her picture-perfect, country club life, Claire finds herself suddenly single and faced with a blank page for a future. On that page she writes a simple list that reads like equal parts dare and daydream–Move to a new city. Make a real friend. Get a job I love–and she vows to accomplish every single one.

Before she can talk herself out of it, she takes a step of faith, puts her old life in the rearview mirror, and leases an apartment in Chicago, the city that has always had her heart. This one step sends Claire on a journey of self-discovery, giving her the courage to conquer her fears, one checklist item at a time, and showing her that life can be a whole lot brighter than she imagined.

She rediscovers a love for baking, stumbles into new friendships, and even allows her daughter, Minnie, to create a dating profile and choose her dates for her. Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, is Miles, the charming, off-limits neighbor whose kindness makes it hard to remember why he’s off-limits at all.

Between late-night journaling, disastrous first dates, great big lessons and priceless small victories, Claire learns to quiet the voice telling her she wasn’t enough and listens to the one that asks the harder question . . .

What do I really want?

As old expectations loosen their grip, Claire discovers that belonging isn’t a place you’re invited to–it’s a life you build one brave choice at a time. And the sweetest things often show up when you finally get out of your own way.

Thanks to Jodie @ That Happy Reader for featuring this in her Weekend Post. Scheduled for release in June, it’s an audio review hopeful.

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A raw and unforgettable portrait of sex, friendship, and the perilous edge of liberation for two young women—set against the neon-lit porn world of 1980s Los Angeles, from the author ofAesthetica

Los Angeles, 1982. Jude is eighteen, newly out of reform school and hungry for more than her small-town past can offer. Searching for her best friend, Winnie, she instead falls under the spell of Laird, an older man with a motorcycle, a needle, and a taste for danger. What begins as escape soon unravels into motel rooms, stickups, and drug binges.

Then Jude finds Winnie, reinvented as Velvet at a Sunset Strip club. Together, the two girls imagine a bartending, dancing, writing the novels they dream of, building a home of their own. But the same world that promises glamour and freedom is poised to consume them, and survival demands that they navigate the men who offer love, power, and escape—always at a cost.

With Joan Didion’s eye for California’s allure and shadows, and told in a two-part structure reminiscent of Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies, Lovers XXX is a hypnotic novel of friendship and self-invention, of sexual identity beyond binaries, and of the costs of giving one’s body to the performance of sex. Above all, it is a love story like no other—between two ardent, vulnerable, and revelatory women.

Thanks to Krissy @ Books & Biceps for her fantastic review. It’s an audio review hopeful scheduled for release in June.

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A wondrous, deeply affecting portrait of the interlocking lives at an adult day care centre in Southern California, depicting an often overlooked community with extraordinary wit and grace.

Upward Bound is not a place anyone dreams of spending their days. The dreary adult daycare centre for Los Angeles’s disabled community is, for many of its clients and staff, a place of last resort. This includes Carlos, a young aide who lost his mother as a boy and now works there alongside his beloved sister Mariana; Jorge, the gentle nonspeaking giant whom Carlos seeks to befriend (and prevent from escaping); Tom, a beautiful young man with cerebral palsy, who pines for Ann, the summer lifeguard at the centre’s pool who feels out of her depth; then there’s Dave, Upward Bound’s director who came to LA to pursue an acting career but now channels his passion into staging an overly ambitious holiday show starring the centre’s irrepressible clients.

Framing these intertwined narratives – and connecting them in surprising, shattering ways – is the riveting and sometimes ironic testimony of Walter, a recent community college graduate who, after a family tragedy, must return to the company of his disabled peers.

In Upward Bound, Woody Brown has created an indelible, authentic, and profoundly moving group portrait of autism and other disabilities, all illuminated by his empathy, sly sense of humor, and enormous gifts as a novelist. With remarkable sophistication, insight, and creativity, Brown depicts a community too-often invisible in literature and society. Filled with characters you won’t soon forget, Upward Bound will inspire and touch you, teaching you as much about yourself as the tender, miraculous world behind the centre’s doors.

This is the April selection by the Read With Jenna book club. I decided to add the audiobook after reading so many glowing reviews by trusted Goodreads friends.

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From the New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creekcomes a triumphant tale of a librarian’s fight to bring literacy to the prisons of Kentucky and the underserved neighborhoods of downtown Louisville, revealing a story of fierce love, quiet strength, and the healing power of books.

When Cussy Lovett, a Packhorse Librarian famed for bringing books to the people of Appalachia, is unjustly incarcerated, she finds a new calling as a prison librarian, bringing hope to downtrodden women and voiceless city residents alike, finding a home even while separated from those she loves. A vivid portrait of mid-century Kentucky, from the hills and hollers of Appalachia to a vibrant city neighborhood on the cusp of urban renewal, The Mountains We Call Home explores the effects of criminalization and incarceration on the poor and powerless, while tracing the societal consequences of fractured family bonds.

Gritty, heartbreaking, yet infused with hope, The Mountains We Call Home is an authentic American tale and a powerful testament of strength, survival, and the magic of the written word.

This is the third book in the series and I have the audiobook on my library wishlist.

What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?