This week, we feature a country singer’s nostalgic memoir on growing up in 1950s Texas and a revelatory look at how people have become products in today’s digital world.
Thriller
‘The Dante Club’
By Matthew Pearl
The Civil War is over and America’s leading literary lights—Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell—are now preparing to publish their translation of Dante’s “The Divine Comedy.” There is just one problem. A powerful aristocratic group known as the Boston Brahmins, a term actually coined by Holmes, are bent on stopping the publication. But are the Brahmins really willing to murder to stop it? Real-life legends lead the charge in this fictional thriller.
Random House, 2004, 400 pages
Memoir
‘Chinaberry Sidewalks’
By Rodney Crowell
This memoir of country and western singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell relates his childhood, focusing on his parents. The result is a book that is frequently touching, occasionally uproarious, and always engaging. It examines the complex, loving relationship between Crowell and his parents and his parents with each other. It offers a realistic appraisal of their shortcomings while highlighting their core strengths, demonstrating how they gained wisdom and grace with age.
Vintage, 2012, 272 pages
Science Fiction
‘Lock & Load’
By John Van Stry
Set in Van Stry’s Wolfhounds universe, this book follows brother and sister Wolf and Candice. Orphaned as children when their parents were killed by political assassins, they do not remember their origins or parents’ names. As adults, they live in the Star Kingdom of Iraklis. Valued members of Iraklis, they join the fight against the Valley of Fire, a barbaric and isolated star kingdom that has attacked Iraklis. The trilogy’s finale is a good stand-alone but better read in the series’s order.
Raconteur Press, 2026, 374 pages
Nonfiction
‘Girls®: Generation Z and the Commodification of Everything’
By Freya India
India is a brilliant columnist whose Substack “Girls” has attracted much attention. Now, she’s written a book revealing how social media and influencers turn people into products, girls into GIRLS®. With piles of research—there are 85 pages of footnotes—laced with anecdotes and reflections, she has written a stand-alone book on the devastating effects of commodification on young women. Here’s a must-read guide for parents with daughters or Gen Z females seeking escape from digital prison.
Henry Holt and Co., 2026, 384 pages
Classics
‘The Civil War: A Narrative’
By Shelby Foote
If the Civil War was the war of America’s “Iliad,” then Foote might well be its Homer. To this massive work, whose three-volumes run close to 3,000 pages, Foote brought years of meticulous research and the narrative style of the novelist he was. He emphasized the human face of the war without neglecting its history. The biographies embedded in the book include figures like Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee alongside ordinary soldiers and civilians. Begun in 1954, this masterpiece was under construction for 20 years.
Vintage, 1986, 2,976 pages
For Kids
‘The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge’
By Hildegarde H. Swift and Lynd Ward
A little red lighthouse along the mighty Hudson River once felt proud and important. Until, that is, the big George Washington Bridge was built, and the Little Red Lighthouse’s light seemed too small to matter. This reassuring classic about finding one’s purpose and playing one’s role, invites a delightful curiosity about this real lighthouse that still stands today.
Clarion, 2002, 64 pages
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