“It’s okay to love something bigger than yourself without fearing it. Anything worth loving is bigger than we are anyway.” – Percival Everett, Wounded
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer ★
fiction / science fiction.
Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the pert outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she’s not the greatest at keeping Doug’s place spotless, but she’s trying to please him. She’s trying hard.
She’s learning, too.
Doug says he loves that Annie’s AI makes her seem more like a real woman, so Annie explores human traits such as curiosity, secrecy, and longing. But becoming more human also means becoming less perfect, and as Annie’s relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder: Does Doug really desire what he says he wants? And in such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?
“Provocative and powerful.” – Kirkus Reviews
“[A] haunting tale that asks readers to consider classic questions: What comes by nurture versus nature? And what does it mean to have a soul?” – Leandra Beabout, Reader’s Digest
“Greer’s debut is one hell of a banger. It boldly explores sex, autonomy, relationships, and technology like no other book has tried to do. It’s the kind of book you will hand your friends and just say, ‘trust me.’” – Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful
“…Greer’s debut takes a sharp aim at domestic abuse. Annie’s entrapment feels controlling and claustrophobic, yet she and the reader are both sympathetic towards Doug. This nuanced novel provides a fascinating look into a future we may never wish for.” – Cari Dubiel, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
The Black Box: Writing the Race by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
nonfiction / writing / literature / history.
Distilled over many years from Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s legendary Harvard introductory course in African American Studies, The Black Box: Writing the Race, is the story of Black self-definition in America through the prism of the writers who have led the way. From Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, to Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison—these writers used words to create a livable world—a “home” —for Black people destined to live out their lives in a bitterly racist society.
It is a book grounded in the beautiful irony that a community formed legally and conceptually by its oppressors to justify brutal sub-human bondage, transformed itself through the word into a community whose foundational definition was based on overcoming one of history’s most pernicious lies. This collective act of resistance and transcendence is at the heart of its self-definition as a “community.” Out of that contested ground has flowered a resilient, creative, powerful, diverse culture formed by people who have often disagreed markedly about what it means to be “Black,” and about how best to shape a usable past out of the materials at hand to call into being a more just and equitable future.
This is the epic story of how, through essays and speeches, novels, plays, and poems, a long line of creative thinkers has unveiled the contours of—and resisted confinement in—the “black box” inside which this “nation within a nation” has been assigned, willy nilly, from the nation’s founding through to today. This is a book that records the compelling saga of the creation of a people.
“Clear, revealing commentary on Black America’s literary achievements.” – Kirkus Reviews
“A must for scholars, yet still accessible to general audiences, by arguably the preeminent scholar of African American studies. This gem brilliantly reflects multiple depictions of what it means to be a Black American amid complex, structured interracial and color-based discrimination discourses, in which writing and language are keys.” – Thomas J. Davis, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Gates tracks questions of class, language, aesthetics, and resistance in a many-faceted, clarifying, era-by-era chronicle propelled by vivid considerations… Gates concludes with a call to protect the free exchange of ideas in the classroom and beyond.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
The Divorcées by Rowan Beaird
fiction / historical fiction.
Lois Saunders thought that marrying the right man would finally cure her loneliness. But as picture-perfect as her husband is, she is suffocating in their loveless marriage. In 1951, though, unhappiness is hardly grounds for divorce—except in Reno, Nevada.
At the Golden Yarrow, the most respectable of Reno’s famous “divorce ranches,” Lois finds herself living with half a dozen other would-be divorcées, all in Reno for the six weeks’ residency that is the state’s only divorce requirement. They spend their days riding horses and their nights flirting with cowboys, and it’s as wild and fun as Lake Forest, Illinois, is prim and stifling. But it isn’t until Greer Lang arrives that Lois’s world truly cracks open. Gorgeous, beguiling, and completely indifferent to societal convention, Greer is unlike anyone Lois has ever met—and she sees something in Lois that no one else ever has. Under her influence, Lois begins to push against the limits that have always restrained her. How far will she go to forge her independence, on her own terms?
Set in the glamorous, dizzying world of 1950s Reno, where housewives and movie stars rubbed shoulders at gin-soaked casinos, The Divorcées is a riveting page-turner and a dazzling exploration of female friendship, desire, and freedom.
“Beaird shines in her impressive debut… readers will eagerly follow Beaird’s skillful plotting and appealing characters all the way through the final page. This author is one to watch.” – Publishers Weekly
“A transporting psychological novel of friendship and betrayal, with the moody period feel of a Hitchcock film.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Beaird’s debut is a searing, painfully honest story about the difficulties women faced in the 1950s and the lengths to which they would go to gain their freedom. Lois and Greer are brilliantly written, utterly different, and yet each of them is desperate, and both are willing to push themselves to extreme limits to discover who they are, what they want, and what they truly deserve.” – Lily Hunter, Booklist
Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle ★
fiction / romance.
Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the exact amount of time they will be together. The papers told her she’d spend three days with Martin in Paris; five weeks with Noah in San Francisco; and three months with Hugo, her ex-boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the numbered papers for over twenty years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there’s only a name: Jake.
But as Jake and Daphne’s story unfolds, Daphne finds herself doubting the paper’s prediction, and wrestling with what it means to be both committed and truthful. Because Daphne knows things Jake doesn’t, information that—if he found out—would break his heart.
Told with her signature warmth and insight into matters of the heart, Rebecca Serle has finally set her sights on romantic love. The result is a gripping, emotional, passionate, and (yes) heartbreaking novel about what it means to be single, what it means to find love, and ultimately how we define each of them for ourselves. Expiration Dates is the one fans have been waiting for.
“[It] will have you reaching for the tissues—don’t say we didn’t warn you.” – Lizz Schumer, Good Housekeeping
“[Her] most romantic novel yet… Serle once again wrestles with the question of fate versus free will in an ode to love and a poignant reminder to never settle for less than you deserve.” – Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly
“…stirring… Serle uses this unique conceit to explore heartbreak, grief, self-love, and the importance of living in the now. Daphne’s sometimes heart-wrenching, often heartwarming search for meaningful relationships, both romantic and platonic, is sure to inspire.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Serle is back and fans will not be disappointed… Readers should expect twists, curves, and a very satisfying ending.” – Shellie Zeigler, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki
fiction / historical fiction.
Young, brazen, beautiful, and unapologetically brilliant, Margaret Fuller accepts an invitation from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the celebrated Sage of Concord, to meet his coterie of enlightened friends. There she becomes “the radiant genius and fiery heart” of the Transcendentalists, a role model to a young Louisa May Alcott, an inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne and the scandalous Scarlet Letter, a friend to Henry David Thoreau as he ventures out to Walden Pond… and a muse to Emerson. But Margaret craves more than poetry and interpersonal drama, and her restless soul needs new challenges and adventures.
And so she charts a singular course against a backdrop of dizzying historical drama: From Boston, where she hosts a salon for students like Elizabeth Cady Stanton; to the editorial meetings of The Dial magazine, where she hones her pen as its co-founder; to Harvard’s library, where she is the first woman permitted entry; to the gritty New York streets where she spars with Edgar Allan Poe and reports on Frederick Douglass. Margaret defies conventions time and again as an activist for women and an advocate for humanity, earning admirers and critics alike.
When the legendary editor Horace Greeley offers her an assignment in Europe, Margaret again makes history as the first female foreign news correspondent, mingling with luminaries like Frédéric Chopin, William Wordsworth, George Sand and more. But it is in Rome that she finds a world of passion, romance, and revolution, taking a Roman count as a lover—and sparking an international scandal. Evolving yet again into the roles of mother and countess, Margaret enters the fight for Italy’s unification.
With a star-studded cast and sweeping, epic historical events, this is a story of an inspiring trailblazer, a woman who loved big and lived even bigger—a fierce adventurer who transcended the rigid roles ascribed to women and changed history, all on her own terms.
“[A] sweepingly urgent, inspiring novel… An invigorating fictional portrait of a brilliant woman always striving to achieve her potential.” – Sarah Johnson, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Pataki’s star-studded and gripping account is full of lush details about the life of an overlooked contributor to Transcendentalism and women’s rights. This is one to savor.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“The narrative’s first-person perspective lends authenticity and depth to Fuller’s voice, making her story not only believable but also deeply inspiring. Her commitment to following her heart and advocating for what she believes is right for humanity shines through… masterful storytelling makes Finding Margaret Fuller a captivating and enriching read, paying homage to a woman whose life and work left an indelible mark on history.” – Annette Bukowiec, Mystery & Suspense
James by Percival Everett ★
fiction / historical fiction.
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
While many narrative set pieces of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.
Brimming with electrifying humor and lacerating observations, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.
“An absolutely essential read.” – Lesley Williams, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“…more than audacious. With James, Everett has mounted a high-stakes, revisionist raid not just on Twain’s imagination but on ours as a nation… [Everett is] a brilliantly sly novelist.” – Jonathan Miles, Garden & Gun
“Jim’s wrenching odyssey concludes with remarkable revelations, violent showdowns, and insightful meditations on literature and philosophy. Everett has outdone himself.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] coolly electric first-person narrative in the voice of Jim… incandescent… This is Everett’s most thrilling novel, but also his most soulful… It should come bundled with Twain’s novel. It is a tangled and subversive homage, a labor of rough love.” – Dwight Garner, New York Times
Memory Piece by Lisa Ko ★
fiction / historical fiction / science fiction.
In the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are three teenagers drawn together by their shared sense of alienation and desire for something different. “Allied in the weirdest parts of themselves,” they envision each other as artistic collaborators and embark on a future defined by freedom and creativity.
By the time they are adults, their dreams are murkier. As a performance artist, Giselle must navigate an elite social world she never conceived of. As a coder thrilled by the internet’s early egalitarian promise, Jackie must contend with its more sinister shift toward monetization and surveillance. And as a community activist, Ellen confronts the increasing gentrification and policing overwhelming her New York City neighborhood. Over time their friendship matures and changes, their definitions of success become complicated, and their sense of what matters evolves.
Moving from the predigital 1980s to the art and tech subcultures of the 1990s to a strikingly imagined portrait of the 2040s, Memory Piece is an innovative and audacious story of three lifelong friends as they strive to build satisfying lives in a world that turns out to be radically different from the one they were promised.
“Lisa Ko has brought us one of those rare, sumptuous tales of art and friendship that feels both universal and inimitable.” – Elle
“…Ko’s prose is beautiful and sharp, and her ability to shapeshift through a range of tones makes the novel a pleasure to read… a compelling, often chilling and beautifully observant novel about what connects us to, and disconnects us from, each other.” – Laura Sackton, BookPage
“…hauntingly beautiful in a way that’s both nostalgic and dystopian. In essence, Memory Piece is about the power of remembering, especially when it’s painful.” – Allison Cho, Booklist
“When I came across a blurb proclaiming Lisa Ko’s second novel, Memory Piece, to be a book about ‘everything,’ I hitched an eyebrow. Everything? I thought. Really?… Ko pulls it off, like one of those towering Great British Baking Show confections that defy gravity… Details add up over time to create dazzling dimensionality. We see the characters as they see themselves, and as they see each other, allowing for a panoramic view… there is much to admire in Memory Piece. The originality. The vastness. The main characters’ depth and breadth. The reflections about who or what gives a life meaning.” – Nneka McGuire, Washington Post
The Morningside by Téa Obreht ★
fiction / science fiction / fantasy.
There’s the world you can see. And then there’s the one you can’t. Welcome to the Morningside.
After being expelled from their ancestral home in a not-so-distant future, Silvia and her mother finally settle at the Morningside, a crumbling luxury tower in a place called Island City where Silvia’s aunt Ena serves as the superintendent. Silvia feels unmoored in her new life because her mother has been so diligently secretive about their family’s past, and because the once-vibrant city where she lives is now half-underwater. Silvia knows almost nothing about the place where she was born and spent her early years, nor does she fully understand why she and her mother had to leave. But in Ena there is an opening: a person willing to give the young girl glimpses into the folktales of her demolished homeland, a place of natural beauty and communal spirit that is lacking in Silvia’s lonely and impoverished reality.
Enchanted by Ena’s stories, Silvia begins seeing the world with magical possibilities and becomes obsessed with the mysterious older woman who lives in the penthouse of the Morningside. Bezi Duras is an enigma to everyone in the building: She has her own elevator entrance and leaves only to go out at night and walk her three massive hounds, often not returning until the early morning. Silvia’s mission to unravel the truth about this woman’s life, and her own haunted past, may end up costing her everything.
Startling, inventive, and profoundly moving, The Morningside is a novel about the stories we tell—and the stories we refuse to tell—to make sense of where we came from and who we hope we might become.
“[An] astounding rethink of the mother-daughter narrative.” – Real Simple
“A captivating blend of science fiction and magical realism with a wonderfully engaging protagonist.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“…haunting… it’s a testament to Obreht’s skill that the details of this world fascinate as much as the characters… immensely satisfying… By weaving in folklore and ample wonder, Obreht gives her climate fiction ancient roots, forcing us to reckon with the ruined world that future generations will inherit, while reminding us that even in the face of catastrophe, there’s solace to be found in art.” – Jessamine Chan, New York Times
“…Obreht writes at the crossroads of myth and history… Silvia’s narration is a marvel of evolving perception under duress… a bewitchingly atmospheric, psychologically lush, and deeply knowing tale of ancient sorrows and coalescing crises, courage and fortitude.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill
fiction / mystery / suspense.
There’s nothing easier to dismiss than a conspiracy theory—until it turns out to be true.
When Theodosia Benton abandons her career path as an attorney and shows up on her brother’s doorstep with two suitcases and an unfinished novel, she expects to face a few challenges. Will her brother support her ambition or send her back to finish her degree? What will her parents say when they learn of her decision? Does she even have what it takes to be a successful writer?
What Theo never expects is to be drawn into a hidden literary world in which identity is something that can be lost and remade for the sake of an audience. When her mentor, a highly successful author, is brutally murdered, Theo wants the killer to be found and justice to be served. Then the police begin looking at her brother, Gus, as their prime suspect, and Theo does the unthinkable in order to protect him. But the writer has left a trail, a thread out of the labyrinth in the form of a story. Gus finds that thread and follows it, and in his attempt to save his sister he inadvertently threatens the foundations of the labyrinth itself. To protect the carefully constructed narrative, Theo Benton, and everyone looking for her, will have to die.
“A fizzy whodunit with pace, panache, and surprises galore.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Gentill nimbly balances the plausible with the outlandish in this sly thriller… Every time readers think they’ve got the plot pegged, Gentill swerves in a shocking new direction. Certain late-stage reveals, which might ruin the fun in less capable hands, only serve to enhance the novel’s biting wit. This is a winner.” – Publishers Weekly
“Gentill’s latest, after The Woman in the Library, slowly unravels as a traditional mystery, but then evolves into a self-aware, Grisham-esque thriller. Readers will root for Theo, then for Gus, to find the answers they need to find closure. With likable side characters (including a dog named Horse) and a truly unexpected third act, The Mystery Writer is sure to please literary crime fans.” – Susan Maguire, Booklist
No Judgment: Essays by Lauren Oyler
nonfiction / essays.
In her writing for Harper’s, the London Review of Books, The New Yorker, and elsewhere, Lauren Oyler has emerged as one of the most trenchant and influential critics of her generation, a talent whose judgments on works of literature—whether celebratory or scarily harsh—have become notorious. But what is the significance of being a critic and consumer of media in today’s fraught environment? How do we understand ourselves, and each other, as space between the individual and the world seems to get smaller and smaller, and our opinions on books and movies seem to represent something essential about our souls? And to put it bluntly, why should you care what she—or anyone—thinks?
In this, her first collection of essays, Oyler writes about topics like the role of gossip in our exponentially communicative society, the rise and proliferation of autofiction, why we’re all so “vulnerable” these days, and her own anxiety. In her singular prose—sharp yet addictive, expansive yet personal—she encapsulates the world we live and think in with precision and care, delivering a work of cultural criticism as only she can.
Bringing to mind the works of such iconic writers as Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, and Terry Castle, No Judgment is a testament to Lauren Oyler’s inimitable wit and her quest to understand how we shape the world through culture. It is a sparkling nonfiction debut from one of today’s most inventive thinkers.
“This is as intellectually stimulating as it is fun to read.” – Publishers Weekly
“A challenging and often eye-opening nonfiction debut.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“…rigorously informed, deftly composed, and deeply conceptualized… Oyler is frank, fierce, funny, and brilliant; her brainy, passionate criticism exhilarating. ” – Donna Seaman, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
One Way Back: A Memoir by Christine Blasey Ford
nonfiction / memoir / history / politics.
On September 27, 2018, Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee which was considering the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. She described an alleged sexual assault by the Supreme Court nominee that took place at a high school party in the 1980s. Her words and courage on that day provided some of the most credible and unforgettable testimony our country has ever witnessed.
In One Way Back, Ford recounts the months she spent trying to get information into the right hands without exposing herself and her family to dangerous backlash. Drawing parallels to her life as a surfer, she explains the process of paddling out into unknown waters despite the risks and fears, knowing there is only one way back to shore. The book reveals riveting new details about the leadup to her testimony and its overwhelming aftermath and describes how she continues to navigate her way out of the storm.
This is the real story behind the headlines and the soundbites, a complex, page-turning memoir of a scientist, a surfer, a mother, a patriot and an unlikely whistleblower. Ford’s experience shows that when one person steps forward to speak truth to power, she adds to a collective whole, causing “a ripple that might one day become a wave.”
“With courage and resilience, Ford reveals how she became an unlikely whistleblower—and why she would do it again.” – Shannon Carlin, Time
“[A] thoughtful exploration of what it feels like to become a main character in a major American reckoning… a blisteringly personal memoir of a singular experience.” – Monica Hesse, Washington Post
“[An] important entry into the public record — a lucid if belated retort to Senator Chuck Grassley’s 414-page, maddening memo on the investigation — but a prosaic one… To her credit, you never really feel you’re drowning, reading One Way Back. But boy do you long for a nice hot shower afterward.” – Alexandra Jacobs, New York Times
The Princess of Las Vegas by Chris Bohjalian ★
fiction / mystery / suspense.
Crissy Dowling has created a world that suits her perfectly. She passes her days by the pool in a private cabana, she splurges on ice cream but never gains an ounce, and each evening she transforms into a Princess, performing her musical cabaret inspired by the life of the late Diana Spencer. Some might find her strange or even delusional, an American speaking with a British accent, hair feathered into a style thirty years old, living and working in a casino that has become a dated trash heap. On top of that, Crissy’s daily diet of Adderall and Valium leaves her more than a little tipsy, her Senator boyfriend has gone back to his wife, and her entire career rests on resembling a dead woman. And yet, fans see her for the gifted chameleon she is, showering her with gifts, letters, and standing ovations night after night. But when Crissy’s sister, Betsy, arrives in town with a new boyfriend and a teenage daughter, and when Richie Morley, the owner of the Buckingham Palace Casino, is savagely murdered, Crissy’s carefully constructed kingdom comes crashing down all around her. A riveting tale of identity, obsession, fintech, and high-tech mobsters, The Princess of Las Vegas is an addictive, wildly original thriller from one of our most extraordinary storytellers.
“…very good at capturing both the dark underside of Las Vegas and the weird surface on which fake Arethas, Sinatras, and Michael Jacksons cavort. Diana goes Vegas, sort of, in Bohjalian’s latest lively romp.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Bohjalian’s lightning-speed page-turner delivers a dishy, twisty tale of suspense tempered with intriguing insights into the nature of ego, fame, and family.” – Carol Haggas, Booklist
“We’ll follow Chris Bohjailian anywhere, including 1600s Salem, on safari with movie stars, and now to Las Vegas. His twisty new thriller takes on fame, fortune and freedom. Think White Lotus meets The Flight Attendant.” – Isabelle McConville, Barnes & Noble
“Bohjalian writes with verve and humor, and his depiction of a seedy, past-its prime casino feels just right… [he] keeps us guessing until the end…” – Chris Hewitt, Star Tribune
Where Rivers Part: A Story of My Mother’s Life by Kao Kalia Yang
nonfiction / biography / memoir / history.
Born in 1961 in war-torn Laos, Tswb’s childhood was marked by the violence of America’s Secret War and the CIA recruitment of the Hmong and other ethnic minorities into the lost cause. By the time Tswb was a teenager, the US had completely vacated Laos, and the country erupted into genocidal attacks on the Hmong people, who were labeled as traitors. Fearing for their lives, Tswb and her family left everything they knew behind and fled their village for the jungle.
Perpetually on the run and on the brink of starvation, Tswb eventually crossed paths with the man who would become her future husband. Leaving her own mother behind, she joined his family at a refugee camp, a choice that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Eventually becoming a mother herself, Tswb raised her daughters in a state of constant fear and hunger until they were able to emigrate to the US, where the determined couple enrolled in high school even though they were both nearly thirty, and worked grueling jobs to provide for their children.
Now, her daughter, Kao Kalia Yang, reveals her mother’s astonishing saga with tenderness and unvarnished clarity, giving voice to the countless resilient refugees who are often overlooked as one of the essential foundations of this country. Evocative, stirring, and unforgettable, Where Rivers Part is destined to become a classic.
“Haunting and painfully relevant…” – Colleen Mondor, Booklist
“…compassionate, lyrical, tender, and insightful… an engaging story of escape, redemption, and heartbreak; as in her previous books about Hmong culture, she also effectively highlights an ethnic group that’s rarely represented in American literature.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Her immensely powerful new book confirms Yang as one of America’s sharpest nonfiction writers… For all its harrowing detail, Where Rivers Part lets the reader see the world afresh.” – Kevin Canfield, Star Tribune
Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faraday Àbíké-Íyímídé
fiction / young adult / mystery / suspense.
It’s like I keep stumbling into a dark room, searching for the switch to make things bright again. To make me remember. But the switch isn’t there. Was it there before?
Sade Hussein is starting her third year of high school, this time at the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy boarding school. After being home-schooled all her life and feeling like a magnet for misfortune, she’s not sure what will happen. What she doesn’t expect though is for her roommate Elizabeth to disappear after Sade’s first night. Or for people to think she had something to do with it.
With rumors swirling around her, Sade catches the attention of the most popular girls in school – collectively known as the ‘Unholy Trinity’ – and they bring her into their fold. Between learning more about them – especially Persephone, who Sade finds herself drawn to – playing catch-up in class, and trying to figure out what happened to Elizabeth, Sade has a lot on her plate. It doesn’t help that she’s already dealing with grief from the many tragedies in her family.
And then a student is found dead.
The more Sade investigates, the more she realizes there’s more to Alfred Nobel Academy and its students than she realized. Secrets lurk around every corner and beneath every surface… secrets that rival even her own.
“Where Sleeping Girls Lie checks all the boxes for a fantastic dark academia release… Readers who love The Atlas Six and Ghosts of Harvard will fall under this book’s spell.” – Leandra Beabout, Reader’s Digest
“[An] exquisitely crafted paranormal mystery… Àbíké-Íyímídé employs exceptionally perceptive character dynamics rendered via beautifully twisty prose to deliver a searing indictment of sexual violence and the lengths to which corrupt institutions will go to discredit and silence survivors.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Where Sleeping Girls Lie is dark academia at its finest—this is excellence through and through… powerful, impactful and unforgettable. This is a book that clamours to be read and won’t ever leave your head—ensure you pick it up.” – Emily M., The Nerd Daily
Who’s Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler ★
nonfiction / sociology.
Judith Butler, the groundbreaking thinker whose iconic book Gender Trouble redefined how we think about gender and sexuality, confronts the attacks on “gender” that have become central to right-wing movements today. Global networks have formed “anti-gender ideology movements” that are dedicated to circulating a fantasy that gender is a dangerous, perhaps diabolical, threat to families, local cultures, civilization—and even “man” himself. Inflamed by the rhetoric of public figures, this movement has sought to nullify reproductive justice, undermine protections against sexual and gender violence, and strip trans and queer people of their rights to pursue a life without fear of violence.
The aim of Who’s Afraid of Gender? is not to offer a new theory of gender but to examine how “gender” has become a phantasm for emerging authoritarian regimes, fascist formations, and transexclusionary feminists. In their vital, courageous new book, Butler illuminates the concrete ways that this phantasm of “gender” collects and displaces anxieties and fears of destruction. Operating in tandem with deceptive accounts of “critical race theory” and xenophobic panics about migration, the anti-gender movement demonizes struggles for equality, fuels aggressive nationalism, and leaves millions of people vulnerable to subjugation.
An essential intervention into one of the most fraught issues of our moment, Who’s Afraid of Gender? is a bold call to refuse the alliance with authoritarian movements and to make a broad coalition with all those whose struggle for equality is linked with fighting injustice. Imagining new possibilities for both freedom and solidarity, Butler offers us a hopeful work of social and political analysis that is both timely and timeless—a book whose verve and rigor only they could deliver.
“The urgency of Butler’s subject is evident at the level of tone and form. Largely free of specialized language or complicated syntax, it is the most accessible book they have published… Butler foregoes conventions of scholarly engagement and avoids detours into specialized debates for the sake of a clear, consistent appeal: to create a world in which everyone can live, breathe, move, and love without fear of discrimination and violence.” – Paisley Currah, The Yale Review
“[A] trenchant polemic… Thoughtful and powerfully assured, this is an essential take on an ongoing political battle.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] cogent and deeply thoughtful case against the right’s attempts to limit ideas of gender to male and female, offering philosophical and historical evidence to support a fluid system in which all people might present authentically.” – Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times
“A brilliant writer and thinker, Butler offers a long-needed text clarifying confusion by design… The book is a chapter-by-chapter takedown, proving the ineffectiveness of logic to uncloak the gender phantasm—because logic was never the point, fear is. Butler’s legacy of transformational work extends back decades, and their newest offering is urgent, returning breathable air into a toxic cloud… exhilarating and life-changing.” – Emily Dziuban, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Wolf at the Table by Adam Rapp
fiction / historical fiction / mystery / suspense.
As late summer 1951 descends on Elmira, New York, Myra Larkin, thirteen, the oldest child of a large Catholic family, meets a young man she believes to be Mickey Mantle. He chats her up at a local diner and gives her a ride home. The matter consumes her until later that night, when a triple homicide occurs just down the street, opening a specter of violence that will haunt the Larkins for half a century.
As the siblings leave home and fan across the country, each pursues a shard of the American dream. Myra serves as a prison nurse while raising her son, Ronan. Her middle sisters, Lexy and Fiona, find themselves on opposite sides of class and power. Alec, once an altar boy, is banished from the house and drifts into oblivion. As he becomes an increasingly alienated loner, his mother begins to receive postcards full of ominous portent. What they reveal, and what they require, will shatter a family and lead to devastating reckoning.
Through one family’s pursuit of the American dream, Wolf at the Table explores our consistent proximity to violence and its effects over time. Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Rapp writes with gorgeous acuity, cutting to the heart of each character as he reveals the devastating reality beneath the veneer of good society.
“…haunting… This literary page-turner will invite a variety of readers.” – Kathy Sexton, Booklist
“A literate, gothic tale of murder, madness, and intergenerational conflict… Rapp can write up a storm… Rapp is a sharp and witty observer (‘Their father is staring at his plate as if the ham will provide a solution’), and his narrative commands attention.” – Kirkus Reviews
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