There’s something for everyone.
Normally, this is the place where we give you a preview of all the books, movies, TV shows, and podcasts that we’re looking forward to in the week ahead. But this week, we’re doing something a little different: We’re focusing on just the reading list. These titles run the gamut from thought-provoking to thrilling, from memoir to journalistic deep dive to beach read.
With these top-notch options to look forward to, the week will fly on by. Just try to see how many you can make it through before the weekend hits!
What to watch, read, and listen to this week
Chasing Hope by Nicholas D. Kristof (May 14)
Nicholas Kristof is a New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who spent much of his career traveling across the world to bear witness to, and shed light on, atrocities happening overseas. His memoir at times reads like a high-paced action movie and contains both vulnerability and humor. Take it from Katie: “This book should be required reading for anyone interested in journalism, or for those who need to be reminded that, in the right hands, it can be a truly noble profession.”
They Came for the Schools by Mike Hixenbaugh (May 14)
By now, many of us have heard about ultra-conservative groups like Moms for Liberty and their coordinated efforts to take over school boards to ban books, whitewash curriculum, and limit protections for BIPOC and LGBTQ students. Peabody award-winning journalist Mike Hixenbaugh reports at the forefront of the culture war in Southlake, Texas, one of the breeding grounds of this right-wing movement to change schools. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wesley Lowery says, “With penetrating reporting, research, and crisp writing, Mike Hixenbaugh delivers a must-read dispatch from the front lines of a war over not just the complexities of our past, but the future of our multiracial democracy.”
The Last House by Jessica Shattuck (May 14)
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Women in the Castle comes a sweeping historical centered on the aftermath of WWII and the Civil Rights movement. People Magazine called it “a masterful epic” and the New York Times called it “moving.”
The Last Time She Saw Him by Kate White (May 14)
Kiki Reed is nervous to attend her friend’s party in Connecticut — her ex-fiancé Jamie, whom she dumped, is going to be there. All goes well, but at the end of the party, they hear a gunshot — Jamie’s shot himself in his car. The police quickly rule it a suicide, but Kiki knows that’s not what happened, so she starts an investigation of her own. Kate White is the former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and the New York Times bestselling author of Between Two Strangers, as well as eight other standalone psychological thrillers.
Very Bad Company by Emma Rosenblum (May 14)
This fun, thrilling page-turner takes place at a swanky corporate retreat gone wrong. Trendy tech start-up Aurora is hosting its annual employee getaway in Miami, when an executive disappears the first night. It couldn’t happen at a worse time: The company’s in talks of a sale, and knowledge of the disappearance could cost everyone millions. So the employees have to continue with the retreat as if nothing’s amiss.
