The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust by Edith Hahn Beer

Edith Hahn was a young woman studying law in Vienna when she was forced to give up her education, her home, and her life when she was banished to the Jewish ghetto and forced to wear a yellow star. Knowing she was being hunted, in a serious act of defiance, Edith ripped the yellow star from her clothing and spent every night looking for a safe place to sleep. Fearful Edith turned to a Christian friend, Edith used her friend's identity and fled to Munich. In  Munich, she met Werner Vetter, a Nazi Party member who wound up falling in love with her. Despite protestation and the confession of her Jewish identity, Werner married Edith and kept her identity a secret.

In her memoir, The Nazi Officer's Wife, Edith Hahn Beer recalls her life of fear in the face of Nazism. A tale of courage and bravery, this is a complex, troubling, and triumphant story.

The Pact by Jodi Picoult

Chris Harte has known Emily Gold since the day she was born, and from that time on, they were inseparable, forever linking the Harte and the Gold families as more than just neighbors. Sharing dinners, family parties, and holidays together the Hartes and Golds were a significant portion of one another's lives. When Chris and Emily began to date, it had always been assumed that they were meant to wind up together as soulmates. Aside from having a love like no other, Emily and Chris had everything going for them. Chris was an excellent student and Emily a gifted painter, both applying for colleges.

So imagine the surprise of the Harte and Gold families when they receive late-night calls from the hospital stating that Emily is dead at age 17 from a single gunshot wound to the head, most likely coming from a gun Chris took from his father's gun safe. When there's still another bullet in the chamber of the gun and Chris tells police that it was intended for a suicide pact, Chris Harte suddenly becomes the primary suspect.

Jodi Picoult's The Pact is full of intrigue, suspense, and legal drama that will keep you turning the page.

Badger Boneyards: The Eternal Rest of the Story by Dennis McCann

From Bayfield to Madison, Door County to Milwaukee, and everywhere in between, former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel author Dennis McCann's Badger Boneyards: The Eternal Rest of the Story tells the tales behind some of the most fascinating cemeteries and gravestones in the dairy state. While McCann gives attention to many of famous Wisconsinites like the Milwaukee beer barons and former governor "Fighting Bob" La Follette, perhaps the most interesting tidbits of information are of the lesser known individuals who have made Wisconsin their final resting place. From Wisconsin's first public school teacher to "the boy who would not tell a lie" and paid the ultimate price to the woman whose headstone names her murderer, Badger Boneyards is filled with often humorous, sometimes sober, historical anecdotes about this those who are at eternal rest in this great state.

The Mother's Promise by Sally Hepworth

Alice Stanhope and her daughter Zoe have only ever had one another to rely on. Poor Zoe struggles with crippling social anxiety and is reliant upon her mother, who fiercely protects her. With no family left and Zoe's father out of the picture, they're all the other needs. That's until Alice is diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer.

Like any mother desperate to make sure her child is well cared for, Alice turns to the only two women she knows. Though they're practically strangers, Alice turns to Kate, her oncology nurse and Sonja, the social worker on her case, to help make sure that Zoe is cared for after Alice is gone. As these four strong female characters come together, they are forced to face their deepest fears--those of abandonment, physical and emotional abuse, estrangement, and infertility. 

Filled with the perfect combination of love, humor, and sadness, Sally Hepworth's The Mother's Promise is an unforgettable novel illustrating the immeasurable amount of love a mother has for her child.