“Failure is an instruction manual written in scar tissue.” – Chuck Wendig
American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15 by Cameron McWhirter & Zusha Elinson ★
nonfiction / history / politics / business.
In the 1950s, an obsessive firearms designer named Eugene Stoner invented the AR-15 rifle in a California garage. High-minded and patriotic, Stoner sought to devise a lightweight, easy-to-use weapon that could replace the M1s touted by soldiers in World War II. What he did create was a lethal handheld icon of the American century.
In American Gun, the veteran Wall Street Journal reporters Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson track the AR-15 from inception to ubiquity. How did the same gun represent the essence of freedom to millions of Americans and the essence of evil to millions more? To answer this question, McWhirter and Elinson follow Stoner—the American Kalashnikov—as he struggled mightily to win support for his invention, which under the name M16 would become standard equipment in Vietnam. Shunned by gun owners at first, the rifle’s popularity would take off thanks to a renegade band of small-time gun makers. And in the 2000s, it would become the weapon of choice for mass shooters, prompting widespread calls for proscription even as the gun industry embraced it as a financial savior. Writing with fairness and compassion, McWhirter and Elinson explore America’s gun culture, revealing the deep appeal of the AR-15, the awful havoc it wreaks, and the politics of reducing its toll. The result is a moral history of contemporary America’s love affair with technology, freedom, and weaponry.
“An important book on a sadly topical subject…” – New York Times
“[A] superb history of an innovative weapon… This is a meticulously researched and impressively informed book; despite careful explanations of technical details, the narrative moves along briskly and engagingly… readers gain an unsettling and timely understanding of how ‘a device created to protect America [is] wounding it.’ A riveting exploration of the cost of the nation’s fascination with an iconic weapon.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“The authors weave Stoner’s story alongside a propulsive, often wrenching tale of politicking and ever-escalating rhetoric.” – Mark Athitakis, Los Angeles Times
“[A] captivating tale of unintended consequences… deeply researched… a fascinating genealogy of a weapon that has become the flash point of the contemporary gun control debate.” – Publishers Weekly
And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott
fiction / horror / mystery / suspense.
On the surface, Alice is exactly where she thinks she should be: She’s just given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Dawn; her charming husband, Steve—a white academic whose area of study is conveniently her own Mohawk culture—is nothing but supportive; and they’ve moved into a new home in a posh Toronto neighborhood. But Alice could not feel like more of an impostor. She isn’t connecting with her daughter, a struggle made even more difficult by the recent loss of her own mother, and every waking moment is spent hiding her despair from Steve and their ever-watchful neighbors, among whom she’s the sole Indigenous resident. Even when she does have a minute to herself, her perpetual self-doubt hinders the one vestige of her old life she has left: her goal of writing a modern retelling of the Haudenosaunee creation story.
Then, as if all that wasn’t enough, strange things start to happen. She finds herself losing bits of time and hearing voices she can’t explain, all while her neighbors’ passive-aggressive behavior begins to morph into something far more threatening. Though Steve assures her this is all in her head, Alice cannot fight the feeling that something is very, very wrong, and that in her creation story lies the key to her and Dawn’s survival… She just has to finish it before it’s too late.
Told in Alice’s raw and darkly funny voice, And Then She Fell is an urgent and unflinching exploration of inherited trauma, womanhood, denial, and false allyship, which speeds to an unpredictable—and surreal—climax.
“Creepy, thoughtful, and immersive!” – Molly Odintz, CrimeReads
“An incredibly moving novel about a young Indigenous mother who is struggling to connect with her newborn daughter. Elliott deftly explores new motherhood and mental health throughout her surreal plot and beautiful prose. A stunner through and through.” – Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful
“…Alicia Elliott explores Native identity, tradition, womanhood, motherhood and mental health in compelling, mysterious and magical storytelling. Expertly moving from humor to horror and back again, Elliott navigates heavy themes in thoughtful and original prose.” – Karla J. Strand, Ms.
The Armor of Light by Ken Follett
fiction / historical fiction.
The Spinning Jenny was invented in 1770, and with that, a new era of manufacturing and industry changed lives everywhere within a generation. A world filled with unrest wrestles for control over this new world order: A mother’s husband is killed in a work accident due to negligence; a young woman fights to fund her school for impoverished children; a well-intentioned young man unexpectedly inherits a failing business; one man ruthlessly protects his wealth no matter the cost, all the while war cries are heard from France, as Napoleon sets forth a violent master plan to become emperor of the world. As institutions are challenged and toppled in unprecedented fashion, ripples of change ricochet through our characters’ lives as they are left to reckon with the future and a world they must rebuild from the ashes of war.
Over thirty years ago, Ken Follett published his most popular novel, The Pillars of the Earth. Now, with this electrifying addition to the Kingsbridge series we are plunged into the battlefield between compassion and greed, love and hate, progress and tradition. It is through each character that we are given a new perspective to the seismic shifts that shook the world in nineteenth-century Europe.
“This epic canvas holds a mélange of relationships which all work out exactly as they should while Follett brings Kingsbridge up to the Regency era.” – Bethany Latham, Booklist
“…another vibrant survey of British history from the perspective of ordinary people… Follett is equally adept at portraying the horrors of war and his characters’ quiet moments of despair. The result is an impressive and immersive epic.” – Publishers Weekly
“Sal and her son are central to the story. They are admirable characters without any obvious faults, but the rest of the cast has many: hanging judges, greedy businessmen, thieves, adulterers, murderers, and a bishop’s aide who harbors unseemly ambition. They are all well developed and believable, and readers will love to hate some of them. A treat for fans of historical fiction.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights by Dylan C. Penningroth
nonfiction / history.
The familiar story of civil rights goes like this: once, America’s legal system shut Black people out and refused to recognize their rights, their basic human dignity, or even their very lives. When lynch mobs gathered, police and judges often closed their eyes, if they didn’t join in. For Black people, law was a hostile, fearsome power to be avoided whenever possible. Then, starting in the 1940s, a few brave lawyers ventured south, bent on changing the law. Soon, ordinary African Americans, awakened by Supreme Court victories and galvanized by racial justice activists, launched the civil rights movement.
In Before the Movement, acclaimed historian Dylan C. Penningroth brilliantly revises the conventional story. Drawing on long-forgotten sources found in the basements of county courthouses across the nation, Penningroth reveals that African Americans, far from being ignorant about law until the middle of the twentieth century, have thought about, talked about, and used it going as far back as even the era of slavery. They dealt constantly with the laws of property, contract, inheritance, marriage and divorce, of associations (like churches and businesses and activist groups), and more. By exercising these “rights of everyday use,” Penningroth demonstrates, they made Black rights seem unremarkable. And in innumerable subtle ways, they helped shape the law itself—the laws all of us live under today.
Penningroth’s narrative, which stretches from the last decades of slavery to the 1970s, partly traces the history of his own family. Challenging accepted understandings of Black history framed by relations with white people, he puts Black people at the center of the story—their loves and anger and loneliness, their efforts to stay afloat, their mistakes and embarrassments, their fights, their ideas, their hopes and disappointments, in all their messy humanness. Before the Movement is an account of Black legal lives that looks beyond the Constitution and the criminal justice system to recover a rich, broader vision of Black life—a vision allied with, yet distinct from, “the freedom struggle.”
“Dylan C. Penningroth’s pre-history of the Civil Rights Movement, which examines Black traditions of private law and ‘the rights of everyday use,’ is the kind of work we need more of.” – Jonny Diamond, Literary Hub
“A closely argued addition to our understanding of the origins of the Civil Rights Movement.” – Kirkus Reviews
“…meticulous… draws on hundreds of archived county court records and other sources… Penningroth adroitly explains complex legal concepts in accessible prose, turning case histories into vibrant narratives. This revelatory account of Black self-determination opens up a neglected aspect of African American history.” – Publishers Weekly
Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig
fiction / horror / suspense.
It’s autumn in the town of Harrow, but something besides the season is changing there.
Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard, seven most unusual trees. And from those trees grows a new sort of apple: strange, beautiful, with skin so red it’s nearly black.
Take a bite of one of these apples, and you will desire only to devour another. And another. You will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But then your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing—and become darker.
This is what happens when the townsfolk discover the secret of the orchard. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples… and what’s the harm, if it is making them all happier, more confident, more powerful?
Even if something else is buried in the orchard besides the seeds of these extraordinary trees: a bloody history whose roots reach back to the very origins of the town.
But now the leaves are falling. The days grow darker. It’s harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown.
“After taking one bite of this scary book, readers will want more.” – David Pitt, Booklist
“Both complex and compelling, a nightmare-inducing parable about our own wickedness.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Bestseller Wendig wows with this wildly unsettling horror tale set in Bucks County, PA… Wendig is brilliant at slowly raising the plot’s emotional temperature and making his characters, caught in a creeping nightmare, feel both real and empathetic. This masterful outing should continue to earn Wendig comparisons to Stephen King.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson
nonfiction / politics / history.
In the midst of the impeachment crisis of 2019, Heather Cox Richardson launched a daily Facebook essay providing the historical background of the daily torrent of news. It soon turned into a newsletter and its readership ballooned to more than 2 million dedicated readers who rely on her plainspoken and informed take on the present and past in America.
In Democracy Awakening, Richardson crafts a compelling and original narrative, explaining how, over the decades, a small group of wealthy people have made war on American ideals. By weaponizing language and promoting false history they have led us into authoritarianism — creating a disaffected population and then promising to recreate an imagined past where those people could feel important again. She argues that taking our country back starts by remembering the elements of the nation’s true history that marginalized Americans have always upheld. Their dedication to the principles on which this nation was founded has enabled us to renew and expand our commitment to democracy in the past. Richardson sees this history as a roadmap for the nation’s future.
Richardson’s talent is to wrangle our giant, meandering, and confusing news feed into a coherent story that singles out what we should pay attention to, what the precedents are, and what possible paths lie ahead. In her trademark calm prose, she is realistic and optimistic about the future of democracy. Her command of history allows her to pivot effortlessly from the Founders to the abolitionists to Reconstruction to Goldwater to Mitch McConnell, highlighting the political legacies of the New Deal, the lingering fears of socialism, the death of the liberal consensus and birth of “movement conservatism.”
Many books tell us what has happened over the last five years. Democracy Awakening explains how we got to this perilous point, what our history really tells us about ourselves, and what the future of democracy can be.
“[An] engaging and highly accessible history…” – Maura Jane Farrelly, Boston Globe
“Respected historian and author of How the South Won the Civil War, Heather Cox Richardson delivers an eloquent, compulsively readable, fresh history of American democracy and its struggles. Passionate, powerful and full of genuine aha moments, Democracy Awakening will forever change how you read the daily news.” – Barnes & Noble
“A fresh historical interpretation of American democracy and its many challenges… [she uses] an unusual but effective structure, allowing Richardson to do what she does best: show her readers how history and the present are in constant conversation. Reminding us that ‘how it comes out rests… in our own hands,’ Richardson empowers us for the chapters yet to come.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab
fiction / fantasy.
Once, there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power, and connected by a single city: London. Until the magic grew too fast, and forced the worlds to seal the doors between them in a desperate gamble to protect their own. The few magicians who could still open the doors grew more rare as time passed and now, only three Antari are known in recent memory―Kell Maresh of Red London, Delilah Bard of Grey London, and Holland Vosijk, of White London.
But barely a glimpse of them have been seen in the last seven years―and a new Antari named Kosika has appeared in White London, taking the throne in Holland’s absence. The young queen is willing to feed her city with blood, including her own―but her growing religious fervor has the potential to drown them instead.
And back in Red London, King Rhy Maresh is threatened by a rising rebellion, one determined to correct the balance of power by razing the throne entirely.
Amidst this tapestry of old friends and new enemies, a girl with an unusual magical ability comes into possession of a device that could change the fate of all four worlds.
Her name is Tes, and she’s the only one who can bring them together―or unravel it all.
“Schwab cleverly builds on her existing worlds, introducing new threats and expanding the magic system. The new characters captivate and the plot twists shock… fans will devour this exciting return.” – Publishers Weekly
“Schwab’s pacing is confident, assured, and the book weaves a masterful spell on the reader. A delicious treat for fans of the Shades of Magic series and a lush, suspenseful fantasy in its own right.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Schwab is an experienced fantasy author capable of bringing the reader right into the world built in her novels. She writes with a sense of authority and mischief, letting her characters drive the action through intense plot to extremely satisfying conclusions… The Fragile Threads of Power will entrance and delight fantasy readers everywhere.” – Lily Hunter, Booklist
Germany 1923: Hyperinflation, Hitler’s Putsch, and Democracy in Crisis by Volker Ullrich; translated by Jefferson Chase
nonfiction / history.
As the great Austrian writer Stefan Zweig confided in his autobiography, written in exile, “I have a pretty thorough knowledge of history, but never, to my recollection, has it produced such madness in such gigantic proportions.” He was referring to the situation in Germany in 1923. It was a “year of lunacy,” defined by hyperinflation, a political system on the verge of collapse, and separatist movements that threatened Germany’s territorial integrity. Most significantly, Adolf Hitler launched his infamous Beer Hall Putsch in Munich—a failed coup that nonetheless drew international attention and demonstrated the Nazis’ ruthless determination to seize power.
In Germany 1923, award-winning historian Volker Ullrich draws on letters, memoirs, newspaper articles, and other sources from the time to present a captivating new history of those explosive twelve months. The crisis began when the French invaded the Ruhr Valley in January to force Germany to pay the reparations it owed under the Treaty of Versailles, which had ended the Great War. For years, German leaders had embraced inflationary policies to finance the costs of defeat, and, as Ullrich demonstrates, the invasion utterly destroyed the value of the German mark. Before the war, the exchange rate was 4.2 marks to the dollar. By November 20, 1923, a dollar was worth an incomprehensible 4.2 trillion marks, and a loaf of bread cost 200 billion. Facing the abyss, many ordinary Germans called for a national messiah. Among the figures to vie for that role was Hitler, a thirty-four-year-old veteran who possessed a uniquely malevolent personal magnetism. Although the Nazi coup in November was put down and Hitler arrested, the putsch showed just how tenuous the first German democracy, the Weimar Republic, was at its core.
As Ullrich’s panoramic narrative reveals, other Germans responded to the successive crises by launching a cultural revolution: 1923 witnessed the emergence of a multitude of new movements, from Dada to Bauhaus, and of such iconoclasts as Bertolt Brecht, George Grosz, and Franz Kafka. Yet most observers were amazed that the Weimar Republic was able to survive, and the more astute realized that the feral undercurrents unleashed could lead to much worse. Publishing a century after that fateful year, Germany 1923 is a riveting chronicle of one of the most challenging times any modern democracy has faced, one with haunting parallels to our own political moment.
“An exemplary book of history with no lack of uncomfortable lessons for today.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] comprehensive chronicle of a tumultuous year in German history… this captivating account sheds much light on a complex and consequential era. WWII history buffs should take note.” – Publishers Weekly
“It might… sound like a backhanded compliment to call Germany 1923 ‘accessible’ and ‘a great book for beginners.’ But it really is those things. In fact, it might not just be a great book for beginners, it might be the best book for them. Even those unfamiliar with the key parties and players of Weimar Germany will be able to effortlessly follow Ullrich’s narrative. And Ullrich makes plain why one should want to learn about this period. If the conditions between then and now aren’t the same, the mood in many ways is… While structurally Germany 1923 might make Germany’s impossible situation feel more comprehensible than it actually felt, the book does a brilliant job outlining just how impossible the situation was… n excellent, easy-to-read survey of an important time period…” – Mark Dunbar, The Hedgehog Review
The Iliad by Homer; translated by Emily Wilson ★
fiction / poetry / mythology / fantasy / historical fiction.
When Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey appeared in 2017—revealing the ancient poem in a contemporary idiom that was “fresh, unpretentious and lean” (Madeline Miller, Washington Post)—critics lauded it as “a revelation” (Susan Chira, New York Times) and “a cultural landmark” (Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian) that would forever change how Homer is read in English. Now Wilson has returned with an equally revelatory translation of Homer’s other great epic—the most revered war poem of all time.
The Iliad roars with the clamor of arms, the bellowing boasts of victors, the fury and grief of loss, and the anguished cries of dying men. It sings, too, of the sublime magnitude of the world—the fierce beauty of nature and the gods’ grand schemes beyond the ken of mortals. In Wilson’s hands, this thrilling, magical, and often horrifying tale now gallops at a pace befitting its legendary battle scenes, in crisp but resonant language that evokes the poem’s deep pathos and reveals palpably real, even “complicated,” characters—both human and divine.
The culmination of a decade of intense engagement with antiquity’s most surpassingly beautiful and emotionally complex poetry, Wilson’s Iliad now gives us a complete Homer for our generation.
“…propulsive… Wilson’s translation of Homeric Greek is always buoyant and expressive.” – Natalie Haynes, New York Times
“Wilson has forged a poetic style in English that captures the essence of Homeric Greek… No other translation communicates the oral nature of the poem so brilliantly… Wilson’s Iliad is a genuine page-turner, and it is all too easy to gallop through it as one would a beach read… Readable, relevant and from the heart, this is the Iliad we have all been waiting for, whether we knew it or not.” – Naoíse Mac Sweeney, Washington Post
“A bloody tale of ancient war and grief comes to vibrant life in modern-day English… Wilson has again presented a Homer that sings, in sprightly iambic pentameter and pellucid language that avoids ponderosities like, well, ponderosities and pellucid… A masterful, highly readable rendering of the Greek classic.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“A traditional epic poem taken in pieces is no poem at all. What binds together Wilson’s different acts of translatorial flair into a meaningful whole is her feeling comprehension—as both scholar and reader—of The Iliad as a poem of life and death, a quality that courses through every line of her translation… This is a translation to read and keep reading.” – Emily Greenwood, The Yale Review
Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang ★
fiction.
A smog has spread. Food crops are rapidly disappearing. A chef escapes her dying career in a dreary city to take a job at a decadent mountaintop colony seemingly free of the world’s troubles.
There, the sky is clear again. Rare ingredients abound. Her enigmatic employer and his visionary daughter have built a lush new life for the global elite, one that reawakens the chef to the pleasures of taste, touch, and her own body.
In this atmosphere of hidden wonders and cool, seductive violence, the chef’s boundaries undergo a thrilling erosion. Soon she is pushed to the center of a startling attempt to reshape the world far beyond the plate.
Sensuous and surprising, joyous and bitingly sharp, told in language as alluring as it is original, Land of Milk and Honey lays provocatively bare the ethics of seeking pleasure in a dying world. It is a daringly imaginative exploration of desire and deception, privilege and faith, and the roles we play to survive. Most of all, it is a love letter to food, to wild delight, and to the transformative power of a woman embracing her own appetite.
“The most breathtakingly beautiful dystopian novel since Station Eleven.” – Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times
“C Pam Zhang’s lush but precise descriptions and inventive premise create a thought-provoking fusion of the sensory and the speculative.” – Dana Dunham, Scientific American
“Reading this felt like the literary equivalent of a really good black forest gateau – rich, seductive, uncompromising… It’s hypnotically smart on the contours of power, appetite, greed, craving, and purity in all its forms.” – Joanna Lee, Harper’s Bazaar
“Sensuous and sharp in its critique, Land of Milk and Honey delivers a powerful rebuke of how far the privileged will go to retain a level of comfort amid climate catastrophe… A knotty read from start to finish, C Pam Zhang’s latest is sure to stay with you for a long time.” – Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books
Lidia’s From Our Family to Yours: More Than 100 Recipes Made with Love for All Occasions by Lidia Mattichio Bastianich & Tanya Bastianich Manuali
nonfiction / food / cooking.
Nothing brings a family together like food. And no one knows food like Lidia Bastianich. In this inviting, deeply personal new cookbook, she shares the dishes she cooks for those she loves the most. This is the first book Lidia has written since the death of her mother, Nonna, who was beloved not just by Lidia’s family but by millions of cookbook and TV fans. With all the family stories and passed-down recipes, in many ways, this book can be seen as a tribute to Nonna.
This sincere, comforting cookbook features:
- Traditional recipes that graced Lidia’s table as a young girl: Crespelle with Herb Pesto, Prosciutto and Onion Frittata, Rigatoni with Sausage and Cabbage, and Penne with Sausage.
- New creations she makes for her family: Sweet Potato Chickpea Gnocchi with Gorgonzola, Cheesy Baked Chicken Wings, Mushrooms and Ricotta Vegetable Polpette, and Mimosa Cake.
Bringing together more than a 100 delicious, flavorful, and easy-to-make Italian recipes, From Our Family’s Table to Yours is a celebration of the dishes Lidia’s family turns to over and over—and yours will, too. This book is the next-best thing to a seat at Lidia’s table!
“More than 100 recipes, created in concert with daughter Tanya, provide the sort of magical cuisine Bastianich is known for…” – Barbara Jacobs, Booklist
“[Some] cookbooks are more than just a collection of ingredients and methods; they are woven with memories, stories, and love. Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali encapsulate this essence in Lidia’s From Our Family Table to Yours. It’s a tribute to family traditions, offering a delightful glimpse into meals that have graced their family table for generations. Lidia’s work stands out, feeling like a cherished heirloom, inviting you to become a part of their family with every dish you recreate.” – Dani Zoeller, Tasting Table
“Each entry feels intimate and heartfelt, and while Bastianich has always been appreciated for her relaxed approach to food, this latest collection brings her sincerity, accessibility, and culinary talent to a new level. Home cooks won’t be able to resist.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
The Museum of Failures by Thrity Umrigar
fiction.
When Remy Wadia left India for the United States, he carried his resentment of his cold and inscrutable mother with him and has kept his distance from her. Years later, he returns to Bombay, planning to adopt a baby from a young pregnant girl—and to see his elderly mother again before it is too late. She is in the hospital, has stopped talking, and seems to have given up on life.
Struck with guilt for not realizing just how ill she had become, Remy devotes himself to helping her recover and return home. But one day in her apartment he comes upon an old photograph that demands explanation. As shocking family secrets surface, Remy finds himself reevaluating his entire childhood and his relationship to his parents, just as he is on the cusp of becoming a parent himself. Can Remy learn to forgive others for their human frailties, or is he too wedded to his sorrow and anger over his parents’ long-ago decisions?
Surprising, devastating, and ultimately a story of redemption and healing still possible between a mother and son, The Museum of Failures is a tour de force from one of our most elegant storytellers about the mixed bag of love and regret. It is also, above all, a much-needed reminder that forgiveness comes from empathy for others.
“A beautifully written, heartwarming, and welcoming glimpse into the Parsi community and the complications of family.” – Jessica Trotter, Library Reads
“The story of the Wadia family is a sensitive exploration of love in its different forms—romantic, maternal, filial, platonic—and forgiveness. Umrigar’s fluid prose and well-wrought characters capture the milieu of the Parsi community past and present. Paired with the emotionally demanding story line, this is a compelling read.” – Shoba Viswanathan, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“An expert storyteller, Thirty Umrigar knows how to weave a tale of family secrets, relationships, tradition and acceptance. Layered and captivating, The Museum of Failures is just that story, in which a mother and son struggle to connect, understand and forgive.” – Karla J. Strand, Ms.
My Work by Olga Ravn; translated by Sophia Hersi Smith & Jennifer Russell
fiction.
Anna is utterly lost. Still in shock after the birth of her son, she moves to snowbound Stockholm with her newborn and boyfriend, where a chasm soon opens between the couple. Lonely and isolated, Anna reads too many internet articles and shops for clothes she cannot afford. To avoid sinking deeper into her depression, she must read and write herself back into her proper place in the world.
My Work is a fervent, intimate, and compulsive examination of the relationship between motherhood, writing, and everyday life. In a mesmerizing, propulsive blend of prose, poetry, journal entries, and letters, Olga Ravn probes the pain, postpartum depression, housework, shopping, mundanity, and anxiety of motherhood, all the while celebrating the unbounded that comes from the love in a parent and child relationship—and rediscovering oneself through art.
“This brilliant and unflinching work deserves to be a classic.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“A stunning book that speaks aloud thoughts the reader believed had been theirs alone in long nursery hours of the night.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“The strength of this book is the way that it dramatises a gap between explanation and lived experience… My Work turns Anna’s ‘deep uncertainty as to whether she was doing the right thing’ into an aesthetic of contrast and contradiction.” – Caleb Klaces, The Guardian
People Collide by Isle McElroy ★
fiction.
When Eli leaves the cramped Bulgarian apartment he shares with Elizabeth, his more organized and successful wife, he discovers that he now inhabits her body. Not only have he and his wife traded bodies but Elizabeth, living as Eli, has disappeared without a trace. What follows is Eli’s search across Europe to America for his missing wife—and a roving, no-holds-barred exploration of gender and embodied experience.
As Eli comes closer to finding Elizabeth—while learning to exist in her body—he begins to wonder what effect this metamorphosis will have on their relationship and how long he can maintain the illusion of living as someone he isn’t. Will their new marriage wither completely in each other’s bodies? Or is this transformation the very thing Eli and Elizabeth need for their marriage to thrive?
A rich, rewarding exploration of ambition and sacrifice, desire and loss, People Collide is a portrait of shared lives that shines a refreshing light on everything we thought we knew about love, sexuality, and the truth of who we are.
“A creative, well-written exploration of marriage, gender, and desire.” – Kirkus Reviews
“…engrossing… an impressive twist on the familiar trope of marital ennui.” – Publishers Weekly
“People Collide is sly, clever, funny, provocative, and compelling. It offers a world and a story to get lost in.” – Julia Kastner, Shelf Awareness
“Compelling, hilarious, and thought-provoking, this is a fascinating Freaky Friday-like thought-experiment that questions the performance and expectations of gender roles, the body-mind puzzle, how class can define a person’s perspective, and the definition of identity.” – Alexander Moran, Booklist
The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
fiction / mystery / suspense.
Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside.
The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organization that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths.
In order to try to rescue Will, Strike’s business partner, Robin Ellacott, decides to infiltrate the cult, and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito among its members. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her…
Utterly page-turning, The Running Grave moves Strike’s and Robin’s story forward in this epic, unforgettable seventh installment of the series.
“The new Robert Galbraith novel, the seventh in the Cormoran Strike series, is enthralling. It is very long, the kind of book you are happy to lose yourself in.” – Allan Massie, The Scotsman
“[A] tale of how the human desire for approval, validation and a sense of purpose can sometimes lead us astray… The Running Grave is testimony to Rowling/Galbraith’s skill as a storyteller. And, as the nights draw in, it’s a pleasure to curl up with two characters who have all the pleasant familiarity of old friends.” – Laura Wilson, The Guardian
“One of the most impressive things about The Running Grave, besides its meticulous plotting, is its account of how individuals can be persuaded to accept outlandish beliefs… Although her detective novels are full of menace and hard to put down, they are turning into a deep investigation into human nature.” – Joan Smith, The Times
Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor
fiction / young adult / fantasy / science fiction.
Niger, West Africa, 2074
It is an era of tainted technology and mysterious mysticism. A great change has happened all over the planet, and the laws of physics aren’t what they used to be.
Within all this, I introduce you to Ejii Ugabe, a child of the worst type of politician. Back when she was nine years old, she was there as her father met his end. Don’t waste your tears on him: this girl’s father would throw anyone under a bus to gain power. He was a cruel, cruel man, but even so, Ejii did not rejoice at his departure from the world. Children are still learning that some people don’t deserve their love.
Now 15 years old and manifesting the abilities given to her by the strange Earth, Ejii decides to go after the killer of her father. Is it for revenge or something else? You will have to find out by reading this book.
I am the Desert Magician, and this is a novel I have conjured for you, so I’m certainly not going to just tell you here.
“[An] unputdownable Africanfuturist epic… a mind-blowing expedition into a not too distant future world.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Crafted around complex themes of identity, morality, and empowerment, this bildungsroman, originally published in 2008, will appeal to young adult and adult readers alike with its highly original and imaginative Africanfuturism elements.” – Melinda Liu, Booklist
“[A] gorgeous new edition of an early Okorafor novel that had sadly gone out print… Keeping great novels in print takes a village, and I rejoice every time a publisher brings another book back into circulation, but especially this one.” – Molly Odintz, Literary Hub
Thicker Than Water: A Memoir by Kerry Washington
nonfiction / memoir / film / television.
While on a drive in Los Angeles, on a seemingly average afternoon, Kerry Washington received a text message that would send her on a life-changing journey of self-discovery. In an instant, her very identity was torn apart, with everything she thought she knew about herself thrown into question.
In Thicker than Water, Washington gives readers an intimate view into both her public and private worlds—as a mother, daughter, wife, artist, advocate, and trailblazer. Chronicling her upbringing and life’s journey thus far, she reveals how she faced a series of challenges and setbacks, effectively hid childhood traumas, met extraordinary mentors, managed to grow her career, and crossed the threshold into stardom and political advocacy, ultimately discovering her truest self and, with it, a deeper sense of belonging.
Throughout this profoundly moving and beautifully written memoir, Washington attempts to answer the questions so many have struggled with: Who am I? What is my truest and most authentic self? How do I find a deeper sense of connection and belonging? With grace and honesty, she inspires readers to search for—and find—themselves.
“Washington is an amazing storyteller. Her prose is elegant and descriptive. This book pulls you in and, in the end, makes you feel stronger. It’s deeply personal and victorious, as a good memoir should be.” – Archuleta Chisolm, Black Girl Nerds
“At the heart of Thicker Than Water is the story of a daughter who loved and felt loved by her parents but yearned for genuine connection inside a facade… the story of an artist leaning into the emotional truths of the characters she built, because she never fully trusted her own… Washington illuminates a very narrow and specific slice of her life — avoiding the sensational in favor of the sincere — and the result is very affecting.” – Sabrina Ford, Washington Post
This Is Salvaged: Stories by Vuahini Vara ★
fiction.
Stories of uncanny originality from a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Pushing intimacy to its limits in prose of unearthly beauty, Vauhini Vara explores the nature of being a child, parent, friend, sibling, neighbor, or lover, and the relationships between self and others.
A young girl reads the encyclopedia to her elderly neighbor, who is descending into dementia. A pair of teenagers seek intimacy as phone-sex operators. A competitive sibling tries to rise above the drunken mess of her own life to become a loving aunt. One sister consumes the ashes of another. And, in the title story, an experimental artist takes on his most ambitious project constructing a life-size ark according to the Bible’s specifications. In a world defined by estrangement, where is communion to be found? The characters in This Is Salvaged, unmoored in turbulence, are searching fervently for meaning, through one another.
“…impressive… Once again Vara demonstrates her unbound fearlessness; she does not shy away from the rawness of everyday life. But in teasing apart the knots that complicate our lives, she exhibits a remarkable empathy for humanity, especially for so-called ordinary people.” – Poornima Apte, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] striking collection… Vara invigorates with emotional insights, whimsy, and a precision with language. It’s a remarkable achievement.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“A poignant collection of stories that glimpse the salvation of human connection in the midst of modern alienation.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“This collection feels so alive. It’s not just the memorable characters set spinning toward questionable ventures, it’s the sense of play and fun that pervades each story, each line. In never taking any moment too seriously, Vara accomplishes the serious work of truth-telling that actually feels true.” – Kristen Iskandrian, The Southern Bookseller Review
The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism by Adam Nagourney
nonfiction / history / journalism / business.
For over a century, The New York Times has been an iconic institution in American journalism, one whose history is intertwined with the events that it chronicles—a newspaper read by millions of people every day to stay informed about events that have taken place across the globe.
In The Times, Adam Nagourney, who’s worked at The New York Times since 1996, examines four decades of the newspaper’s history, from the final years of Arthur “Punch” Sulzberger’s reign as publisher to the election of Donald Trump in November 2016. Nagourney recounts the paper’s triumphs—the coverage of September 11, the explosion of the U.S. Challenger, the scandal of a New York governor snared in a prostitution case—as well as failures that threatened the paper’s standing and reputation, including the discredited coverage of the war in Iraq, the resignation of Judith Miller, the plagiarism scandal of Jayson Blair, and the high-profile ouster of two of its executive editors.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents and letters contained in the newspaper’s archives and the private papers of editors and reporters, The Times is an inside look at the essential years that shaped the newspaper. Nagourney paints a vivid picture of a divided newsroom, fraught with tension as it struggled to move into the digital age, while confronting its scandals, shortcomings, and swelling criticism from conservatives and many of its own readers alike. Along the way we meet the memorable personalities—including Abe Rosenthal, Max Frankel, Howell Raines, Joe Lelyveld, Bill Keller, Jill Abramson, Dean Baquet, Punch Sulzberger and Arthur Sulzberger Jr.—who shaped the paper as we know it today. We see the battles between the newsroom and the business operations side, the fight between old and new media, the tension between journalists who tried to hold on to the traditional model of a print newspaper and a new generation of reporters who are eager to embrace the new digital world.
Immersive, meticulously researched, and filled with powerful stories of the rise and fall of the men and women who ran the most important newspaper in the nation, The Times is a definitive account of the most pivotal years in New York Times history.
“An exemplary work of journalism about journalism, of surpassing interest to any serious consumer of the news.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Drawing on extensive research and original interviews, Nagourney provides astute insight into leadership under crisis as well as a window onto recent decades of polarizing politics. The result is both a valuable case study of an industry in flux and a unique angle on American history.” – Publishers Weekly
“Nagourney, a veteran Times reporter, picks up more or less where Gay Talese’s landmark 1969 book, The Kingdom and the Power, left off. His account delivers a carefully reported, evenhanded account of this newspaper across four decades, encompassing its missteps as well as successes, and revealing the myriad internal tensions the company confronted as it made the transition to the digital age.” – New York Times
Traitors Gate by Jeffrey Archer
fiction / mystery / suspense.
24 hours to stop the crime of the century. The race against time is about to begin…
THE TOWER OF LONDON…
Impenetrable. Well protected. Secure. Home to the most valuable jewels on earth. But once a year, when the Queen attends the State Opening of Parliament, the Metropolitan Police must execute the most secret operation in their armory as they transport the Crown Jewels across London.
SCOTLAND YARD…
For decades, the elite squad at Scotland Yard have been in charge of the operation. And for decades, it’s run like clockwork.
THE HEIST…
But this year, everything is about to change. Because a master criminal has set his sights on pulling off the most outrageous theft in history—and with a man on the inside, the odds are in his favor.
Unless the team can stop him before it’s too late…
“Archer continues to impress with his latest William Warwick book… a great character-driven thriller that was fun from start to finish.” – The Unseen Library
“This is Archer’s second series after the Clifton Chronicles, and it’s really very good. By following Warwick as he climbs the professional ladder, Archer situates his lead in a new role in each book, investigating different kinds of crimes. There is no formula here, no ‘been there, done that’ repetition. Archer fans will be lining up for this one.” – David Pitt, Booklist
“Archer’s riveting page-turner follows a minute-by-minute timetable of the heist, along with a frantic countdown as Warwick and other Scotland Yard officers backtrack to find the missing jewels before Faulkner’s theft is revealed to the newspapers.” – Lesa Holstine, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
The Unsettled by Ayana Mathis ★
fiction / historical fiction.
From the moment Ava Carson and her ten-year-old son, Toussaint, arrive at the Glenn Avenue family shelter in Philadelphia 1985, Ava is already plotting a way out. She is repulsed by the shelter’s squalid conditions: their cockroach-infested room, the barely edible food, and the shifty night security guard. She is determined to rescue her son from the perils and indignities of that place, and to save herself from the complicated past that led them there.
Ava has been estranged from her own mother, Dutchess, since she left her Alabama home as a young woman barely out of her teens. Despite their estrangement and the thousand miles between them, mother and daughter are deeply entwined, but Ava can’t forgive her sharp-tounged, larger than life mother whose intractability and bouts of debilitating despair brought young Ava to the outer reaches of neglect and hunger.
Ava wants to love her son differently, better. But when Toussaint’s father, Cass, reappears, she is swept off course by his charisma, and the intoxicating power of his radical vision to destroy systems of racial injustice and bring about a bold new way of communal living.
Meanwhile, in Alabama, Dutchess struggles to keep Bonaparte, once a beacon of Black freedom and self-determination, in the hands of its last five Black residents—families whose lives have been rooted in this stretch of land for generations—and away from rapidly encroaching white developers. She fights against the erasure of Bonaparte’s venerable history and the loss of the land itself, which she has so arduously preserved as Ava’s inheritance.
As Ava becomes more enmeshed with Cass, Toussaint senses the danger simmering all around him—his well-intentioned but erratic mother; the intense, volatile figure of his father who drives his fledgling Philadelphia community toward ever increasing violence and instability. He begins to dream of Dutchess and Bonaparte, his home and birthright, if only he can find his way there.
“An affecting and carefully drawn story of a family on the brink.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Mathis ratchets up the tension all the way to a stunning reveal, which reunites the family members for a reckoning with the truth. Readers won’t want to miss Mathis’s accomplished return.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“[In] heartfelt, pellucid language that sparkles even as it cuts to the bone, readers enter Ava’s troubled mind, feel the roach-infested stickiness of the shelter, and follow Ava as she rejoins Cass… Another triumph for Mathis.” – Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Together, the melding of history and fiction in Mathis’s moving prose reveals a fundamental truth: Black folks want to lead a life of self-determination, free from white supremacist oppression. We’ve been searching, fighting for this self-determination since Europeans forced our African ancestors across the wide water. As The Unsettled shows, for Black writers, our history remains ready, eager to shout or whisper onto the page.” – Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, New York Times
The Wind Blows in Sleeping Grass by Katie Powner
fiction / christian fiction.
After years of drifting, fifty-year-old Pete Ryman has settled down with his potbellied pig, Pearl, in the small Montana town of Sleeping Grass–a place he never expected to see again. It’s not the life he dreamed of, but there aren’t many prospects for a high-school dropout like him.
Elderly widow Wilma Jacobsen carries a burden of guilt over her part in events that led to Pete leaving Sleeping Grass decades ago. Now that he’s back, she’s been praying for the chance to make things right, but she never expected God’s answer to leave her flat on her face–literally–and up to her ears in meddling.
When the younger sister Pete was separated from as a child shows up in Sleeping Grass with her eleven-year-old son, Pete is forced to face a past he buried long ago, and Wilma discovers her long-awaited chance at redemption may come at a higher cost than she’s willing to pay.
“Powner’s real-life experience as a seasoned foster mother shines through in this tale of finding treasure in the people and things that others have cast aside. The secondary characters are funny, flawed, and so unusual that readers will be clamoring for more.” – Christine Barth, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Powner’s well-drawn characters will charm readers from page one, and the meditations on the power of faith, forgiveness, and hope form a strong emotional undercurrent that lends the narrative depth and momentum. This tender story and its unassuming hero enchant.” – Publishers Weekly
-
-
-
-
-