Barbara Claypole White

ADHD is Awesome: A Guide to (Mostly) Thriving with ADHD by Penn and Kim Holderness is, in fact, awesome. The audiobook is a riot! I downloaded it for research and had no idea it would be so entertaining. Yes, it’s informative and eye-opening, but it’s also hilarious, wildly creative, and fascinating in unexpected ways. I…

My 2025 Valentine Day’s read was Pick-Up by Nora Dahlia, a super smart rom-com with laugh-out-loud dialogue. It was recommended by my local indie bookstore, so I knew it was going to be good, but it exceeded expectations. Sasha is a video producer and struggling single mom of two. Her ex-husband, a filmmaker who was…

After finishing a Terry Pratchett puzzle this Christmas—thank you, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill—I decided to download a Terry Pratchett audiobook. I chose THUD and loved every second. (This book is the last in the City Watch series but reads as a standalone.) The genius of Terry Pratchett aside, the narrator is outstanding. I have…

Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a hilarious novel about the power of storytelling, the magic of making art, and how one memorable young woman adapts to a life that feels like doing origami with soggy paper. Twenty-year-old Margot is forced to drop out of community college after becoming pregnant. The father, her married English professor,…

As we kick off OCD Awareness Week, I’d like to highlight a title that will publish in November. Michael Alcée, a clinical psychologist diagnosed with OCD, writes, “OCD will give you perfection, but it will take your soul.” In The Upside of OCD, he digs into that statement to present new, integrated ways of treating…

THE WEDDING PEOPLE, a story bursting with humor and heart, will definitely be in my top five audiobooks of 2024. The narrator, Helen Laser, creates a wonderful repertoire of voices and brings Phoebe to life within seconds. Phoebe arrives at the Cornwall Inn in Newport, Rhode Island, wearing a dramatic green dress that is not…

This novel has all the feels, people! Colton Gentry is a sweet, talented guy who blows up his life not once but twice. And yet he finds the strength to regroup and earn his third act. I loved every minute of his journey as we follow him through three different timelines: in senior year of…

THE SWAN’S NEST is a compelling read, a literary love story that hooked me from the first paragraph. It might also be one of my favorite novels of 2024. The writing is gorgeous, the characters are rich, and every detail reverberates with the hypocrisy and stifling morality of the Victorian era. A powerful subplot about…

Since May was Mental Health Awareness Month and June is Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, I want to recommend two novels that tackle mental illness with honesty and hope. JUST FOR THE SUMMER was my first Abbey Jimenez novel, and it won’t be my last. The story opens with a hysterical Reddit post from a…

FAMILY FAMILY is the perfect book club pick. Funny and wise, it raises thought-provoking questions about what makes a family. Across multiple timelines, readers join India Allwood on her journey from spirited teen dreaming of a life on the stage, to studying hard as an undergrad, landing a role on Broadway, snagging an agent, and…