Whether your go-to coffee order is hot or iced, black or loaded with all sorts of sweet, a book can always make the experience complete. If you’re wondering what title to take along with you on your getaway to the corner coffee shop, Bookstr’s Three to Read lists have you covered. Keep reading for a roundup of our recommended books to enjoy between sips.
Trigger Warning: Some of the books in this list contain explicit references to mental health and miscarriage. Please read all trigger and content warnings before purchasing.
Follow Me to Africa by Penny Haw
For those seeking a story with everything from heartwarming female friendships to fierce creatures of the Tanzanian savannah, Follow Me to Africa has it all. Teenage Grace Clark and 70-year-old Mary Leakey make an unlikely team on the archeological dig where the novel is set, but the adventures and discoveries they share reveal connections and patterns across the lives of the two women. Based partially on the career of the real-life paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey, Haw recognizes that some of the most exciting and inspiring characters are the ones we meet every day.
Follow Me to Africa was first picked for Bookstr Three to Read 3 Amazing Books With Spectacular Older Characters!
Wild West Village: Not a Memoir (Unless I Win an Oscar, Die Remarkably, or Score a Country #1) by Lola Kirke
Lola Kirke’s personality bursts through the pages of her non-memoir as she narrates her disorderly upbringing in a series of essays. Before she was booking roles in blockbusters like Sinners and Gone Girl or releasing country albums, Kirke grew up under the parenting of two creatives who filled her childhood with eccentric characters and wild stories. In such a home in the middle of a city that never sleeps, finding her footing meant going a little bit country.
Wild West Village was first picked for Bookstr Three to Read Food, Humor, and Prose: Remarkably Sensational Jewish Nonfiction!
First Born by Lauren Christensen
Tender, heartbreaking, and inspiring reflections on loss and enduring love are at the core of author Lauren Christensen’s First Born. When met with the tragic news that her unborn child was dying in the womb, Christensen was forced to grapple with what it means to grieve a daughter she would never meet. Her prose exposes the powerful currents of maternal love and familial bonds that are unbroken even in the darkest of times.
First Born was first picked for Bookstr Three to Read Surviving Together: 3 Beautiful Memoirs Exploring Mental Health!
Gentle: Rest More, Stress Less, and Live the Life You Actually Want by Courtney Carver
Taking care of ourselves seems to have become just another thing we have to work endlessly at. Luckily, Courtney Carver has tips to find more compassion and a slower pace in self-improvement. Through advice on practices and mindsets, Carver pushes back against the tide of constant, tireless productivity, advocating instead for a life that honors rest as normal and necessary.
Gentle was first picked for Bookstr Three to Read Turning the Page on Stress: 3 Genuine Self-Help Books!
Good With Money: Reprogram Your Spending Habits and Take Control of Your Money by Emma Edwards
The way we spend and save our money is tangled up in all sorts of emotions, from the guilt of a splurge to the joy of a worthwhile purchase. While budgeting might seem like an all-about-the-numbers activity, these experiences make managing money more complex and difficult to navigate. Emma Edwards takes readers through the psychology behind the five Ws of common spending habits, helping readers understand and restructure their behaviors for a brighter financial future.
Good With Money was first picked for Bookstr Three to Read Empowering Your Wallet: Instructive Personal Finance Books for Beginners!
Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj
One might guess that the three families sharing the spotlight in Behind You Is the Sea have parallel stories, as each immigrated from Palestine to settle in the same area of Baltimore, Maryland. In telling the rich and complicated details of their lives, however, Susan Muaddi Darraj shatters this assumption, narrating a cast of characters with all manners of family dynamics, belief systems, and ways of life. Behind You Is the Sea explores and celebrates both what makes each household unique and where their culture, experience, and everyday lives overlap and connect.
Behind You Is the Sea was first picked for Bookstr Three to Read Fantastic Lit-Fic: Three Fascinating Novels by Arab American Authors!
I Hope You Remember by Josie Balka
In her debut book, Josie Balka’s poetry speaks to the depth of human emotion and experience, touching on relationships with romantic partners, families, and our own bodies and minds. After the popularity of Balka’s writing across TikTok, her words take a new form within the pages of a published collection of over 80 poems. I Hope You Remember strikes a delicate balance, with works both deeply personal and evocative of universal feelings and desires.
I Hope You Remember was first picked for Bookstr Three to Read Revolutionary Debut Poetry Collections That Will Transform Your Life!
Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings
Opal Devlin can’t seem to catch a break. When a chance lottery win makes her the sudden solution to the financial woes of everyone around her, she runs for the hills of an idyllic, declining flower farm in North Carolina. In escaping endless vying for her attention, however, Opal slingshots the other way, her presence suddenly unwanted (if not detested) by the woman who claims she is the rightful owner of the farm. Arguments abound as the two attempt to live in harmony, but their tension also sizzles and sparks, with a different kind of fervor flaring beneath the surface.
Late Bloomer was first picked for Bookstr Three to Read 3 Beautiful Romance Novels With Phenomenal Autism Representation!
In the Garden of Monsters by Crystal King
Past and present identities exist in a shroud of mystery in In the Garden of Monsters. King’s story follows Julia Lombardi, a young model who has lost all memory of where she came from or how she ended up living in Rome, Italy. When invited to the haunting Garden of Monsters, or Sacro Bosco, to sit for the acclaimed artist Salvador Dalí’s latest portrait of Persephone, Julia feels a tug of something familiar in meeting the garden’s host, Ignazio. With Dalí’s wild vision of the young woman as Persephone beginning to confuse her own sense of self, and the mysterious echoes of dark histories — both personal and ancient — swirling around her, the lines between reality and myth begin to blur.
In the Garden of Monsters was first picked for Bookstr Three to Read Fascinating Books That Reimagine Folktales From Around the World!
Just Another Story: A Graphic Migration Account by Ernesto Saade
When dreams of a new life in America led Elena, a woman from El Salvador, to embark on the treacherous journey north to the States, her 19-year-old son, Carlos, was compelled to join his mother. As Carlos and Elena migrated through Mexico and into the U.S., they were faced with countless dangers and worries, experiences that Carlos recounted for Ernesto Saade in a story that became the graphic work Just Another Story. The honest, powerful representations of their struggles and the grit and determination with which they met them make the book an important work in representing migrants in their individuality and strength.
Just Another Story was first picked for Bookstr Three to Read 3 Incredible Graphic Stories You Won’t Want to Miss!
With these titles to spark inspiration, expand your perspective, or teach valuable lessons, afternoon café reading sessions are sure to never be boring!
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Find these titles and the rest of our weekly recs on our Bookshop Bookstr’s Three to Read: Weekly Recommendations list!
