Real Simple – September 2019

The Short List

FIVE BOOKS THAT WON’T DISAPPOINT

By Elizabeth Sile

Travel memoir

Disillusioned by the

culture of one-up-

manship in the D.C.

suburb where they’re

raising their two

daughters, Dan Kois

and his wife set off to

experience different

ways of life and par-

enting in New Zealand,

the Netherlands, Costa

Rica, and small-town

Kansas. How to Be a

Family is a hilarious

and honest book

about family and

how wherever you

(and your kids) go,

there you (and their

screens) are.

Hidden history

When Italian dictator

Benito Mussolini’s

army invades Ethiopia

in 1935, Emperor Haile

Selassie and his men

struggle to curtail their

advance. Meanwhile,

women like Hirut, an

officer’s maid, want to

do more than tend to

wounded men. As the

national fight seems

lost, Hirut hatches a

plan. Maaza Mengiste’s

ambitious and illumi-

nating novel, The

Shadow King, is about

the impact of war on

women and the ques-

tion of who gets to

write history.

Poetic portrait

In her beautifully writ-

ten Red at the Bone,

Jacqueline Woodson

traces the story of two

black families who

are linked when their

teenage children have

a baby. The novel

opens as the pair’s

daughter, Melody,

is readying for her

coming-of-age cere-

mony and moves back

in time, switching

characters, exploring

how decisions ripple

through generations.

A slim novel with

tremendous emo-

tional power.

Family saga

Ann Patchett exam-

ines sibling relation-

ships in her latest

novel, The Dutch

House. After their

father buys a lavish

estate, Danny and

Maeve find their lives

upturned—and their

bond solidified—when

their mother, appalled

by the purchase, runs

off. Later, their new

stepmother exiles

them. Patchett’s rich

story follows Danny’s

and Maeve’s paths,

showing how the

past has a hold on

their present.

Great for

book club

A century in the fu-

ture, the earth has

flooded. As some

people settle colonies

and others—including

pirates—take to the

sea, Myra and her

daughter survive on

their fishing boat.

When Myra is tipped

off to the location of

her other daughter,

they embark on a

dangerous journey.

Kassandra Montag’s

After the Flood is

an intense, gripping

debut about mother-

hood and grief.

For more book

recommendations,

visit realsimple.com/

newbooks.

PROP STYLING BY HEATHER GREENE FOR HELLO ARTISTS

18 REAL SIMPLE SEPTEMBER 2019 Photograph by Ted + Chelsea Cavanaugh