Life & Beauty Weekly: Life & Love

By Shana Aborn for Life & Beauty Weekly

Warmer weather means more time to relax in the sun with a good book — and there are some fantastic must-read books about to hit the stores (or your tablet). Here are some of the most eagerly anticipated new releases of the spring/summer season — just in time to plan your spring or summer getaway reading!

Fiction

The One and Only, by Emily Giffin: If you loved her novels about love and marriage, be prepared to be blown away by this tale of a woman from a small college-football town whose life is turned upside down by a tragedy.

Your Perfect Life, by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke: These two childhood friends joined forces to write a book about — what else? — two childhood friends. But this story has a Freaky Friday twist: BFFs Casey and Rachel wake up after a college reunion to discover that they’ve switched bodies!

Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, by Diana Gabaldon: The latest in Gabaldon’s

Outlander time-traveling series follows the saga of the Fraser family as their destinies cross between Revolutionary War-era Pennsylvania and twentieth-century Scotland. Family secrets and a kidnapped son add to the intrigue.

Mr. Mercedes, by Stephen King: The King of thrillers is at it again with a story that rings all too true in these troubled times: A loner who committed mass murder years earlier threatens to strike again, leading a cop to come out of retirement and hunt the killer down before it’s too late.

More must-read books: The Hurricane Sisters by Dorothea Benton Frank, The Arsonist by Sue Miller, The Transcriptionist, by Amy Rowland, and Cold Cold Heart, by Tami Hoag.

Nonfiction

My Drunk Kitchen: A Guide to Eating, Drinking, and Going with Your Gut, by Hannah Hart. What began as a goofy joke for a friend — making a fake cooking video while drinking wine — turned Hart into an overnight celeb. Now she offers her cooking tips, favorite recipes and, of course, the right cocktails for every dish.

New Life, No Instructions, by Gail Caldwell: Need a dose of inspiration? You’ll find it in Caldwell’s memoir of grief and hope. After a series of losses — her mother, her best friend, her dog and her mobility — she underwent a surgery that brought back not only her ability to walk, but also to believe in herself and in her future.

Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest, by Jen Doll: Just in time for wedding season! Doll recalls a lifetime’s worth of invitations, buffets and cocktail dresses as she sums up the whole bridal experience and what it says about relationships today.

Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage, by Molly Wizenberg: Think of it as a Food Network reality show in hardcover. Newlywed Wizenberg supported her husband’s dream of owning a pizzeria — never realizing how the work and stress of running a restaurant would affect their relationship.

More must-read books:

Listen to the Squawking Chicken

, by Elaine Lui, Everybody’s Got Something

, by Robin
Roberts, and a new memoir by Hillary

Shana Aborn
is the managing editor of
Life & Beauty Weekly
. Formerly the deputy editor of
MAMM and a senior editor at
Ladies’ Home Journal, she has also written for BettyConfidential.com
, Parents, Family Circle, Woman’s Day and other publications.