The Best Grown-Up Reads of November 2019
by the Brightly Editors
November’s best new books for the grown-up crowd are a (seasonally appropriate) cornucopia of reads — featuring the one and only Prince’s posthumous memoir, Erin Morgenstern’s long-awaited sophomore novel, encouraging notes for new moms in the fourth trimester, and more.
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The Starless Sea
Available from:Erin Morgenstern — author of the global bestseller The Night Circus — returns with an epic, enchanting tale that kicks off when graduate student Zachary Ezra Rawlins discovers an obscure story from his own childhood in a mysterious book. His quest leads him to a magical underground world that revolves around stories. The embedded fairy tales and literary references will make any book-lover’s heart go aflutter (there’s even a wardrobe that leads somewhere new).
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The Beautiful Ones
Available from:The Beautiful Ones opens with the last conversation editor Dan Piepenbring had with Prince, the pop-star icon who died tragically in 2016. “I wanted to ask,” Prince says, “Do you believe in cellular memory?” The book that follows is every bit as evocative and unexpected: told in four parts, it unfolds through handwritten memories, scrapbook photos, lyric sheets, and the original iteration of what would become Purple Rain. USA Today calls it “not a read, but an experience.”
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The Confession Club
Available from:Are you ready to return to Mason, Missouri with Elizabeth Berg’s growing cast of endearing characters? We know we are! Berg’s latest centers around a group of women whose supper club turns into Confession Club after their stories quickly become intimate and vulnerable. The women become a stalwart source of support for each other, which is especially needed by newcomers Iris Winters and Maddy Harris.
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The Crown: The Official Companion, Volume 2
Available from:If you’ve already binge-watched the entirety of The Crown season 3 (no judgment here), console yourself with this incredible inside history of the scandals, struggles, and global events that shaped two decades of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. Compiled by the show’s historical consultant, Robert Lacey, this is a must-have edition for those of us who can’t get enough of the royal family.
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Spy
Danielle Steele’s newest follows the unconventional path of a young woman during WWII. Alexandra Wickham’s privileged life takes a turn when England goes to war, and she reports to London to volunteer as a nurse. But her language skills land her in the field of espionage, a secret she has to keep from her family — shocked by her new countenance — and the pilot she falls deeply in love with.
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The Fourth Trimester Cards
Available from:This beautiful deck of cards offers much-needed support for the often overwhelming and isolating fourth trimester. Practical and encouraging, new mothers can choose from brief breathing exercises, moments of inspiration, important pelvic floor information, and even simple, nourishing recipes. A perfect gift for reminding the new and soon-to-be moms in your life that they’re loved and supported.
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