Salt Houses is a 2017 novel by Palestinian-American author Hala Alyan. A multi-generational saga that begins in 1963 and concludes in 2014, the narrative traces the family’s experiences during key events of 20th- and 21st-century Palestinian history. The novel is polyvocal; multiple family members act as narrators. Although the novel provides an in-depth character study of the way that war, displacement, and diaspora impact each family member, it is also a portrait of the Palestinian... Read Salt Houses Summary

Published in 2025, Saltwater is a literary thriller by Katy Hays, author of the New York Times bestselling novel The Cloisters (2022). Like her debut, which is in development as a television series, Saltwater blends suspense with a richly detailed, atmospheric setting. The novel follows the wealthy Lingate family on their annual trip to Capri, an island that holds the dark secret of playwright Sarah Lingate’s mysterious death 30 years prior. Sarah’s husband, Richard Lingate... Read Saltwater Summary

Same as It Ever Was (2024) is a novel by Claire Lombardo that traces the life of a woman named Julia Ames from childhood through marriage and motherhood in contemporary Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. Through shifting timelines, the novel explores Julia’s internal conflicts as she faces changes in her life and seeks to reconcile her personal identity with motherhood and marriage. Author Claire Lombardo is from the Chicago suburb of Oak Park. Her previous... Read Same As It Ever Was Summary

Same Kind of Different as Me (2006) is a memoir written by Denver Moore and Ron Hall, with the assistance of Lynn Vincent. Employing a first-person point of view that switches between Moore and Hall in its chapters, the book tells the radically-different life stories of the two men—Moore spent most of his adult years being homeless or in prison, while Hall was a high-end art dealer—and how they were brought together thanks to Hall’s... Read Same Kind Of Different As Me Summary

Same Sun Here, co-written by Silas House and Neela Vaswani, details a year in the lives of two young people: an Indian immigrant living in New York City, and a small-town boy from Kentucky. Written as a series of letters between the two main characters, this middle grade novel is narrated by each author writing from the perspective of a separate character. Published in 2011, the book received the Nautilus Book Award, the E.B. White... Read Same Sun Here Summary

Annabel Monaghan’s contemporary romance novel Same Time Next Summer was originally published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 2023. As Monaghan’s sophomore novel, it’s preceded by her 2022 publication Nora Goes Off Script and followed by her subsequent 2024 publication Summer Romance. Same Time Next Summer combines romance genre tropes with Monaghan’s characteristic emotional insight to tell the story of Sam Holloway and Wyatt Trope’s protracted romance. Sam and Wyatt spend every summer together on... Read Same Time Next Summer Summary

Originally published in 1998, Wendelin Van Draanen’s Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief is the first book in a middle grade mystery series that introduces Sammy Keyes, a sharp-witted, curious, and mischievous 13-year-old detective. Sammy’s life takes an unexpected turn when, using her binoculars, she witnesses a burglary in progress at the hotel across the street from her grandmother’s apartment. Determined to uncover the thief’s identity, she finds herself navigating a web of danger, clues... Read Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief Summary

Sanctuary (2020) is a dystopian young adult novel by Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher. Set in the United States in 2032, Sanctuary follows the journey of a teenage girl, Vali, who is an undocumented immigrant. After her father is deported and murdered and her mother is arrested, Vali must grow up quickly and shepherd her younger brother Ernie to the sanctuary state of California, which has seceded from the US and welcomes undocumented immigrants and... Read Sanctuary Summary

Sandwich (2024) is American author Catherine Newman’s second novel. It follows the novel We All Want Impossible Things (2022) as well as the memoirs Catastrophic Happiness (2016) and Waiting for Birdy (2005). Additionally, Newman is the author of the middle grade novel One Mixed-Up Night (2017) and the best-selling “how-to” books for young readers How to Be a Person (2020) and What Can I Say? (2022). Sandwich chronicles a yearly, weeklong vacation to Cape Cod... Read Sandwich Summary

Published in 2021 by Catapult, Sankofa is the second novel by Nigerian author Chibundu Onuzo. Sankofa tells the story of Anna Bain, the daughter of a white English woman and a Black West African man. In her 40s, Anna feels adrift after the recent loss of her mother and the dissolution of her marriage. After discovering that her father is the disgraced former prime minister of Bamana, Anna journeys to Bamana to confront him and... Read Sankofa Summary

American children’s writer Patricia MacLachlan published her first novel, Sarah, Plain and Tall, in 1985. The novel won the Newberry Medal in 1986, the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and the Golden Kite Award. MacLachlan loosely based the story off a woman her mother knew who moved from Maine to the prairie to become a wife and mother. Using this premise, the novel explores themes of The Beauty of New Beginnings, A Child’s Desire... Read Sarah, Plain and Tall Summary

Saturday is a novel by Ian McEwan, first published in 2005 by Jonathan Cape. Ian McEwan is an acclaimed British author who has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize numerous times, winning the award for Amsterdam in 1998. In Saturday, McEwan delves into the inner life of a single individual, Henry Perowne, a successful neurosurgeon living in London. The novel takes place over the course of a single day, February 15, 2003, against the... Read Saturday Summary

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club (2023) is the third novel by American author J. Ryan Stradal, following Kitchens of the Great Midwest (2016) and The Lager Queen of Minnesota (2019). Stradal has also published numerous short stories. His works, which focus on food and family in the Midwest, have been praised for their realistic, imperfect characters and their clear love for Minnesota, Strada’s home state. This guide references the 2023 Viking e-book edition.Content... Read Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club Summary

Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir is the fifth memoir by best-selling American food writer Ruth Reichl, formerly a restaurant critic at the New York Times and food editor at the Los Angeles Times. The memoir details her years as editor-in-chief of the magazine Gourmet, from its peak as one of the tentpoles of the Condé Nast publishing empire to its shocking closure in 2009. Major themes in the memoir include Changes in American... Read Save Me the Plums Summary

Saving 6 (2023) is a new adult romance novel by Chloe Walsh. It is the third book in the Boys of Tommen series, which explores the lives of a group of teenagers in the fictional town of Ballylaggin, Ireland. The novel centers around Joey Lynch, whose sister Shannon is the protagonist from Walsh’s two previous novels, Binding 13 (2018) and Keeping 13 (2018). It follows Joey’s six years of secondary school as he meets and... Read Saving 6 Summary

Saving Shiloh is the third entry in Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s Shiloh quartet. The story continues to follow young Marty Preston in his West Virginia hometown as he grapples with complex feelings about his neighbor Judd Travers, a man with a troubling past involving violence, addiction, and mistreatment of dogs. As Marty observes signs of change in Judd, the narrative delves into themes of redemption, trust, and moral judgment, challenging both the characters and the readers... Read Saving Shiloh Summary

Saving Winslow, Sharon Creech’s 2018 middle grade novel, details 10-year-old Louie’s quest to nurse a newborn donkey to health. In the process, Louie matures, learning how to handle adversity and discovering the importance of letting go. His experiences fuel the themes of The Benefits of Caregiving, The Power of Positivity, and The Impact of Absent Loved Ones. A narrative about growing up, Saving Winslow was named an Indie Next List Pick, an ALA Notable Children’s... Read Saving Winslow Summary

Savvy, by Ingrid Law, is a fantasy-adventure novel for middle-grade readers about a girl from a psychic family who discovers her mental superpower and tries to master it quickly to use it to save her comatose father. First published in 2008, Savvy was a New York Times bestseller; it won a Newbery Honor and has appeared on more than 30 best book lists. The novel has two sequels, Scumble and Switch. Law’s books have been... Read Savvy Summary

Meagan Brandy’s sports romance novel Say You Swear was originally self-published by Brandy in 2021. The novel is set in contemporary Southern California and written from the first-person point of view. While the protagonist, Arianna Johnson, primarily narrates the novel, some chapters include narrative sequences written from Chase Harper’s and Noah Riley’s first-person points of view. After Arianna and her twin brother, Mason, graduate from high school, they take a trip to their beach house... Read Say You Swear Summary

Scarlet Morning (2025) is an illustrated middle-grade fantasy novel by ND Stevenson, author of the Nimona (2015) graphic novel. Featuring Stevenson’s illustration work, Scarlet Morning centers on two children, Wilmur and Viola, who live on the island, Caveat, which was isolated following a cataclysmic event called the Great Blow, caused by the infamous pirate, Scarlet Morning. Wilmur and Viola believe that their parents left them on Caveat in the wake of the Great Blow and... Read Scarlet Morning Summary