July 2026: Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve by Alison Fragale

 Kevira is picking “Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve” by Alison Fragale, PhD for our July 2026 read. "It’s less than 300 pages, so should be a quick summer read. The women at my workplace have read it and seem to like it. I haven’t read it, but want to," she said.

ABOUT THE BOOK

 NATIONAL BESTSELLER - Behavioral scientist Alison Fragale offers powerful new insights and a practical playbook for women to advance in any workplace, full of tips, tricks, and strategies to help secure that elusive corner office.

Over decades of research, speaking engagements, and mentorship, psychologist and professor Alison Fragale encountered recurring questions from high powered and early career women alike: How do women thread the needle of kindness and competence in the workplace? How can women earn credit for their accomplishments, negotiate better, and navigate complex office politics without losing the goodwill of their peers?

Fragale investigated and determined that many women's workplace issues boil down to what psychologists call status: the perception of them by others. No amount of power-- no degree, title, or paycheck-- will raise a woman's workplace stature unless it also affects how others see her. Acknowledging this roadblock, Fragale pulls back the curtain on how we can change how others see us by developing our standing as a "likeable badass." By cultivating perceptions of warmth and assertiveness, women can achieve the kind of reputation that leads to a seat at the table and a fulfilling career path.

Likeable Badass is equal parts behavioral science and life hacks, weaving together rigorous research with actionable advice and impactful stories from a diverse array of women. This is a warm, heartening book written for women, their allies, and anyone who struggles to rise, and wants evidence-based, practical strategies for success, served with a side of inspiration and humor.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I empower women to get what they want, at work and in life.

My presentations are equal parts entertaining and educational. I speak and write about:

• Gaining status and power
• Mastering the art and science of negotiation
• Influencing without authority
• Navigating conversations about pay, promotion, and career advancement
• Leading from where you are
• Developing a powerhouse network
• Cultivating a strong, authentic personal brand

My speaking clients are high-performing organizations and industry groups who want to support their members’ growth and effectiveness by offering cutting-edge skills to live and work better. I customize each event based on the needs of the audience.

The Resume Stuff

• Professor at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina (since 2004)
• Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University Graduate School of Business
• B.A. from Dartmouth College in Math and Economics
• Former management consultant for McKinsey & Company
• My research and commentary has appeared in news outlets such as Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, and The Financial Times.

The Fun Stuff

• I live in Chicago with my husband and three children, who are all named after professional athletes.
• I love, in no particular order: cheap coffee, not-so-cheap wine, fabulous shoes, home organizing, sushi, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Peloton workouts, Hallmark movies, and The Golden Girls.
• My favorite celebrity moment was playing bingo with Al Michaels. Buy me a coffee or wine and I’ll tell you all about it!

June 2026: The Maid by Nita Prose

 Susan has selected The Maid by Nita Prose for our June 2026 book. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • “A heartwarming mystery with a lovable oddball at its center” (Real Simple), this cozy whodunit introduces a one-of-a-kind heroine who will steal your heart.
 
FINALIST FOR THE EDGAR® AWARD • “The reader comes to understand Molly’s worldview, and to sympathize with her longing to be accepted—a quest that gives The Maid real emotional heft.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)
 
“Think Clue. Think page-turner.”—Glamour

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Reader’s Digest
WINNER: The Anthony Award, The Fingerprint Award, The Barry Award

In development as a major motion picture

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The Guardian, Glamour, Elle, PopSugar, Newsweek, Mental Floss, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Nita Prose is the author of The Maid, which has sold over 1 million copies worldwide and was published in more than forty countries. A #1 New York Times bestseller and a Good Morning America Book Club pick, The Maid won the Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction, the Fingerprint Award for Debut Novel of the Year, the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, and the Barry Award for Best First Mystery. The Maid was also an Edgar Award finalist for Best Novel. Nita Prose lives in Toronto, Canada, in a house that is only moderately clean. 

May 2026: The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

 Cass has picked "The Berry Pickers" by Amanda Peters for our May 2026 book. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize Winner
Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a mystery that will haunt the survivors, unravel a family, and remain unsolved for nearly fifty years

"A stunning debut about love, race, brutality, and the balm of forgiveness." —People, A Best New Book

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.

"A harrowing tale of Indigenous family separation . . . [Peters] excels in writing characters for whom we can’t help rooting . . . With The Berry Pickers, Peters takes on the monumental task of giving witness to people who suffered through racist attempts of erasure like her Mi’kmaw ancestors." —The New York Times Book Review 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I am a woman, a daughter, a sister, an Auntie, a cat mom, a dog mom, a friend, a descendent of a revolutionary war sailor, of accused witches and Mi'kmaq ancestors. A Canadian, a traveler, a wine drinker, an admirer of stained glass, a listener of jazz and old country, a reader of books, and a teller of stories. 

Associate Professor in the Department of English and Theatre at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

 

Amanda Peters is a writer of Mi’kmaw and settler ancestry. Her work has appeared in the Antigonish Review, Grain Magazine, The Alaska Quarterly Review, the Dalhousie Review, and filling station magazine. She is the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award (IVA) for unpublished prose and a participant in the 2021 Writers Trust Rising Stars program. Amanda has a certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto and she is a graduate of the Master of Fine Arts program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe New Mexico. Amanda is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Theatre at Acadia University. She lives and writes in the Annapolis Valley Nova Scotia with her fur babies Holly and Pook.  

 

 

 

April 2026: Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self by Manoush Zomorodi

 Amy picked "Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self by Manoush Zomorodi for our April 2026 book. 

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

In 2015, Manoush Zomorodi, creator of WNYC’s popular podcast and radio show Note to Self, led tens of thousands of listeners through an experiment to help them unplug from their devices, get bored, jump-start their creativity, and change their lives. Bored and Brilliant builds on that experiment to show us how to rethink our gadget use to live better and smarter in this new digital ecosystem. Manoush explains the connection between boredom and original thinking, exploring how we can harness boredom’s hidden benefits to become our most productive and creative selves without totally abandoning our gadgets in the process. Grounding the book in the neuroscience and cognitive psychology of “mind wandering” what our brains do when we're doing nothing at all―Manoush includes practical steps you can take to ease the nonstop busyness and enhance your ability to dream, wonder, and gain clarity in your work and life. The outcome is mind-blowing. Unplug and read on. 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  

Manoush Zomorodi (muh-NOOSH Zoh-moe-road-ee) is an award-winning journalist, author, and host of NPR's “TED Radio Hour.” Her "Body Electric" project, a collaboration between NPR and Columbia University Medical Center involving over 20,000 participants, represents one of the largest public health studies of its kind. The data from that study, and a much larger story about what the digital age is doing to our bodies are in her groundbreaking book BODY ELECTRIC: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and New Science to Reclaim Your Well-Being (Flatiron; May 5, 2026). 

A 2025 Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center resident, she has established herself as a pioneering voice in examining technology's impact on our humanity. Her first book, BORED AND BRILLIANT (St.Martin’s Press; 2017) and TED talks about the attention economy (7m+ plays) and the physical effects of our tech use make her a go-to expert for understanding our screen-saturated age. She’s earned two Gracie Awards for “Best Radio Host” (2014, 2018), a Webby Award for “Best Podcast Host” (2020), and recognition as one of Fast Company's “100 Most Creative People in Business.” Under her leadership, “TED Radio Hour” won the 2023 Ambie Award for Best Knowledge, Science & Tech podcast, while her previous show “Note to Self” was named Best Tech Podcast of 2017 by the Academy of Podcasters. 

Sign up for her newsletter here.

 

Book break January to March 2026

 Given everything happening in the Twin Cities, we took a break from "regular" book club January to March and discussed current events.

December 2025: "Caraval" by Stephanie Garber

 For December 2025, Tesha has selected one of Josey's favorite books that she's been meaning to read, "Caraval" by Stephanie Garber.

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Welcome, welcome to CARAVAL, Stephanie Garber’s enchanting, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling fantasy debut about two sisters swept up in a mysterious competition filled with magic, heartbreak, and danger.

Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their powerful and cruel father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the far-away, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over.

But this year, Scarlett's long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to attend. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season's Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, and her sister disappears forever.

Continue the adventure in Legendary and Finale―out now!

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephanie Garber is the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the Caraval and Once Upon a Broken Heart series. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages. Alchemy of Secrets is her debut novel for adults and will be published around the world. 

November 2025: Actress of a Certain Age by Jeff Hiller

 Sheri selected "Actress of a Certain Age" written by Jeff Hiller. He was was actually her bff in college and was just nominated for an Emmy for his role in "Somebody, Somewhere."

ABOUT THE BOOK

A humorous collection of autobiographical essays from comedian and Somebody Somewhere actor Jeff Hiller, who shares his journey from growing up “profoundly gay” in 1980s Texas to his experiences as an inept social worker and how he clawed, scraped, and brawled to Hollywood’s lower middle-tier.

While struggling to find success as an actor and pay the bills, something accidentally happened to Jeff Hiller: he aged. And while it’s one thing to get older and rest on the laurels of success from the blood, sweat, and tears of your youth, it’s quite another to be old and have no laurels. At forty, stuck in a temp job making spreadsheets, the dream of becoming a star seemed out of reach. But after twenty-five years of guest roles on TV and performing improv in a grocery store basement, he finally struck gold with a breakout role on HBO’s Somebody Somewhere, playing Joel—the kind of best friend everyone wishes they had.

In his book, Jeff dives into the grit and grind of climbing the Hollywood ladder. It’s a raw and often hilarious tale of the struggles, triumphs, and humiliations that shaped him into the wonderfully imperfect person he is today. With a mix of awkward charm and heartfelt honesty, Jeff shares his journey: growing up very Lutheran in Texas, navigating bullying as a gay kid, working as a social worker for unhoused youth and HIV prevention, and the endless ups and downs of being a struggling actor. For every one of us who have a dream that we’re chasing—and chasing, and chasing—his is a funny, moving, and utterly relatable story.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Hiller is an actor and comedian based in New York City currently playing Joel opposite Bridget Everett on HBO’s  “Somebody Somewhere”. Other TV:  “30Rock” (fun fact: two episodes playing two different characters!), “Ugly Betty”, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”, “Broad City”, “Difficult People”, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”, “The McCarthy’s”, “Community”, and a lot of shows that no one remembers or saw. Jeff has played crime solving computer geniuses on both “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” and “Psych” (Maybe cause of the glasses?). Jeff was a regular on Ali Wentworth’s series Nightcap, played Antoine Donner in “The Real Hotwives…“, and Maggie’s new work friend on the third season of “Playing House“. At the movies, Jeff played a snooty waiter to Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne in “Adam”, a pissed off waiter to Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell in the Netflix comedy, Set It Up and aged into being a maitre’d opposite Chloe Grace Moretz and Isabelle Huppert in “Greta”. Jeff also played the Naked Ghost opposite Ricky Gervais in “Ghost Town” and while the character’s back story was never revealed, I got the vibe he was a waiter in his living life.

NY stage:  Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson, Silence! (the musical version of “Silence of the Lambs”), Bright Colors, Bold Patterns, Heartbreak House, Midsummer Nights Dream, Love’s Labours Lost, (NYSF) Lady, Be Good!, Disney’s Hercules and Public Works first NYC production of The Tempest. Regional credits include La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, Bucks County Playhouse and Goodspeed Opera House.

As a comedian, Jeff performed for 20 years at the UCB Theatre in both New York and Los Angeles, was a story slam host for The Moth, and has performed several solo shows at Joe’s Pub including “Grief Bacon”, “The Designing Women Monologues” and “Middle Aged Ingenue”.

Jeff is married to artist Neil Goldberg and is the parent to a beautiful, bouncing cat named Beverly and a sweet dog named YvonneDeCarlo (she doesn’t have an instagram page… yet?). Before moving to New York, Jeff was a social worker in Denver, Colorado working with homeless youth and HIV prevention. No, seriously.