“Our relationship wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but it was real. It was misunderstandings and growth and forgiveness and acceptance and, of course, the beauty that comes along with all that. We were so much more than a montage of upbeat music and endless smiles.” – Chuck Tingle, Camp Damascus
All This & More by Peng Shepherd ★
fiction / science fiction / fantasy.
Meek, play-it-safe Marsh has just turned forty-five, and her life is in shambles. Her career is stagnant, her marriage has imploded, and her teenage daughter grows more distant by the day. Marsh is convinced she’s missed her chance at everything—romance, professional fulfillment, and adventure—and is desperate for a do-over.
She can’t believe her luck when she’s selected to be the star of the global sensation All This and More, a show that uses quantum technology to allow contestants the chance to revise their pasts and change their present lives. It’s Marsh’s only shot to seize her dreams, and she’s determined to get it right this time.
But even as she rises to become a famous lawyer, gets back together with her high school sweetheart, and travels the world, she begins to worry that All This and More’s promises might be too good to be true. Because while the technology is amazing, something seems a bit off…
Can Marsh really make her life everything she wants it to be? And is it worth it?
Perfect for fans of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library and Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, bestselling author Peng Shepherd’s All This and More is an utterly original, startlingly poignant novel that puts the reader in the driver’s seat.
“If you were the type of kid who loved the choose-your-own-adventure books, Peng Shepherd’s newest, All This and More, has to be on the top of your summer reading list… A powerful, thought-provoking story about the choices we wish we made.” – Town & Country
“Shepherd outdoes herself with her third novel… This is such a wonderful tale: it has a fascinating cast of characters, a can’t-miss idea, and a story that is absolutely spellbinding. It’s one of those novels that, just when you think you’ve got a handle on where it’s going, something forces you to rethink everything you think you knew. Shepherd’s latest deserves to be a smash hit.” – David Pitt, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Readers who relish novels of self-discovery and those who like plotting their own course through a story will enjoy this unusual book by the always-inventive Shepherd.” – Joanna M. Burkhardt, Library Journal
“…gives you so much more than you could expect or imagine. It’s equal parts a choose-your-own adventure story, a sci-fi thriller, a speculative romp that makes you ponder the complexity of choice itself, a unique take on a love triangle, and an in-depth character study of a woman whose life has passed her by. I don’t know how Peng Shepherd has pulled it off!… a spell-binding masterpiece. It amazed me by pulling off a kind of literary magic that I’ve never experienced before.” – Frasier Armitage, FanFiAddict
The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Savaş ★
fiction.
Asya and Manu are looking at apartments, envisioning their future in a foreign city. What should their life here look like? What rituals will structure their days? Whom can they consider family?
As the young couple dreams about the possibilities of each new listing, Asya, a documentarian, gathers footage from the neighborhood like an anthropologist observing local customs. “Forget about daily life,” chides her grandmother on the phone. “We named you for a whole continent and you’re filming a park.”
Back in their home countries parents age, grandparents get sick, nieces and nephews grow up-all just slightly out of reach. But Asya and Manu’s new world is growing, too, they hope. As they open the horizons of their lives, what and whom will they hold onto, and what will they need to release?
Unfolding over a series of apartment viewings, late-night conversations, last rounds of drinks and lazy breakfasts, The Anthropologists is a soulful examination of homebuilding and modern love, written with Ayşegül Savaş’ distinctive elegance, warmth, and humor.
“Perfectly perceptive.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“…exceptional… a masterpiece.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Savaş delicately balances humor with pathos, supplying the droll details that make these ordinary lives shimmer as Asya and Manu gradually but inexorably change over the course of time.” – Margaret Quamme, Booklist
“[A] novel that moves subtly, intuitively, less concerned about plot points and more in line with the rhythm of everyday life, where meaning emerges in glimpses as opposed to being announced… an excellent book on how to ‘make do’ as you simultaneously feel alienated by an overarching culture while creating the spaces within it where you can belong.” – Sadaf Ferdowski, New City
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
fiction / historical fiction / mystery.
Washington, DC, 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss, whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; policeman’s daughter Nora, who finds herself entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Beatrice, whose career has come to an end along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare.
Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears the house apart, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: who is the true enemy in their midst?
Capturing the paranoia of the McCarthy era and evoking the changing roles for women in postwar America, The Briar Club is an intimate and thrilling novel of secrets and loyalty put to the test.
“Quinn’s latest continues to uphold her reputation for grasping the complexities, nuances, and dynamism of the past. Really, this book is perfect.” – Literary Hub
“[A] stellar historical mystery… elegantly explores issues of race, class, and gender, and brings the paranoid atmosphere of McCarthy-era Washington to vivid life. For Quinn’s fans, this is a must.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Quinn excels at presenting a moment in each woman’s full life as it abuts history (the Korean conflict, JFK proposing to Jackie) while she is dealing with romance, money woes, gender roles, and the sting of recent events. Soon it becomes clear that Grace has a secret, and when the reveal finally comes, it leads to a stunning climax. Compulsively readable, The Briar Club will find eager readers in those who love woman-led historical fiction with rich, appealing characters.” – Susan Maguire, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle ★
fiction / horror.
Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell.
But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, “for the algorithm,” in the upcoming season finale.
Misha refuses, but he soon realizes that he’s just put a target on his back. And what’s worse, monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him and his friends through the hills above Los Angeles.
Haunted by his past, Misha must risk his entire future—before the horrors from the silver screen find a way to bury him for good.
“[A] highly entertaining, fast-paced ride, filled with thought-provoking satire, original monsters, and some of the most realistic characters they will encounter on any page, all to prove that love is real and horror itself is, at its core, a celebration of life.” – Becky Spratford, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Unsettling, perfectly paced, and nothing short of brilliant, Bury Your Gays highlights the monsters that spawn when AI and corporate greed go hand in hand. You will flinch, you will feel, and you will understand Tingle’s mantra — Love Is Real.” – Andrew King, Indie Next
“Terror comes as much from being forced into a stereotype as from being killed by a cinematic villain. Captivating and creative, Tingle continues breathing new life into old tropes with a gory examination of art and the lives that fuel it.” – Katherine Sleyko, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Tingle cements his place in horror with this gory romp, which doubles as a love letter to every queer kid who wished for TV characters like themselves and a sharply pointed warning about the state of entertainment and the rise of AI… Tingle’s vivid, visceral storytelling combines with prescient insight into the corporate dynamics that rule mainstream media. The result is smart, subtle, and a bloody good time.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Carrie Carolyn Coco: My Friend, Her Murder, and an Obsession with the Unthinkable by Sarah Gerard
nonfiction / memoir / true crime / biography.
On the night of September 28, 2016, twenty-five-year-old Carolyn Bush was brutally stabbed to death in her New York City apartment by her roommate Render Stetson-Shanahan, leaving friends and family of both reeling. In life, Carolyn was a gregarious, smart-mouthed aspiring poet, who had seemingly gotten along well with Render, a reserved art handler. Where had it gone so terribly wrong?
This is the question that has plagued acclaimed author Sarah Gerard and driven her obsessive pursuit to understand this horrific tragedy. In Sarah’s exploration of Carolyn’s life and death, she spent thousands of hours interviewing Carolyn’s and Render’s friends and family, poring over court documents and news media, reading obscure writings and internet posts, and attending Carolyn’s memorials and Render’s trial.
What emerged from Sarah’s relentless instinct to follow a story and its characters to their darkest ends is a book that is at once a striking homage to Carolyn’s life, a chilling excavation of a brutal crime, and a captivating whydunit with a shocking conclusion.
“[A] poignant portrait of a life cut short and a forceful examination of the cultural forces that shaped Bush’s murder… a devastating deep dive into a confounding crime.” – Publishers Weekly
“…succeeds most of all as a testament to the innumerable relationships, both profound and banal, that make every life meaningful.” – Zeja Z. Copes, Booklist
“Sarah Gerard’s skills in both creative writing and private investigation are on full display in this disturbing account of her friend Carolyn Bush’s murder by a roommate, and the many iniquities that enabled the crime. She also examines a wider culture of male privilege and entitlement at her alma mater of Bard College, the same school attended by both Carolyn and her killer, drawing a convincing through-line between the university’s abysmal record on sexual assault and mental health treatment and the shocking crime at the heart of her book. Gerard also connects the case into a wider discussion of privilege and power in the New York literary scene, and shows the devastating impact of Carolyn’s loss on an entire community.” – Molly Odintz, CrimeReads
The Coin by Yasmin Zaher ★
fiction.
The Coin’s narrator is a wealthy Palestinian woman with impeccable style and meticulous hygiene. And yet the ideal self, the ideal life, remains just out of reach: her inheritance is inaccessible, her homeland exists only in her memory, and her attempt to thrive in America seems doomed from the start.
In New York, she strives to put down roots. She teaches at a school for underprivileged boys, where her eccentric methods cross boundaries. She befriends a homeless swindler, and the two participate in an intercontinental scheme reselling Birkin bags.
But America is stifling her—her willfulness, her sexuality, her principles. In an attempt to regain control, she becomes preoccupied with purity, cleanliness, and self-image, all while drawing her students into her obsessions. In an unforgettable denouement, her childhood memories converge with her material and existential statelessness, and the narrator unravels spectacularly.
In enthralling, sensory prose, The Coin explores nature and civilization, beauty and justice, class and belonging—all while resisting easy moralizing. Provocative, wry, and inviting, The Coin marks the arrival of a major new literary voice.
“…hypnotic… a tour de force.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“A lusciously written and completely captivating debut. This is one of those books that was recommended to me by so many different people from writers to booksellers for months. Once I finally got my hands on it, it wasn’t a question of whether or not it was good. It was a question of how brilliant it was. I devoured this. It will easily be a book of the year and talked about for years to come.” – Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful
“The Coin, the Palestinian journalist Zaher’s debut—which is, yes, about a woman unraveling in New York City—feels arrestingly new… Her narration is spiky and honest, her choices gleefully, consciously bad. The pleasure she takes in making those decisions and then recounting them is what makes The Coin both unusual and compelling. Our protagonist denies herself nothing she wants, and she denies her audience no detail. The combination renders the book tough to put down.” – Lily Meyer, The Atlantic
“Capitalism, materialism, love, lust, friendship, purity, the natural world, cleanliness, place, and self-image are all explored in this thunderous, lightning-speed, fast-reading tale. Zaher, a Jerusalem-born Palestinian, writes with passion and holds nothing back in her buzzy, strong debut.” – Lisa Rohrbaugh, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee; translated by Sandy Joosun Lee
fiction / fantasy.
In a mysterious town hidden in our collective subconscious there’s a department store that sells dreams. Day and night, visitors both human and animal shuffle in to purchase their latest adventure. Each floor specializes in a specific type of dream: childhood memories, food dreams, ice skating, dreams of stardom. Flying dreams are almost always sold out. Some seek dreams of loved ones who have died.
For Penny, an enthusiastic new hire, working at Dallergut is the opportunity of a lifetime. As she uncovers the workings of this whimsical world, she bonds with a cast of unforgettable characters, including Dallergut, the flamboyant and wise owner, Babynap Rockabye, a famous dream designer, Maxim, a nightmare producer, and the many customers who dream to heal, dream to grow, and dream to flourish.
“This book is a healing, mysterious escape.” – Rachel Watkins, Indie Next
“This is an excellent choice for a gentle book club read.” – Matthew Galloway, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Lee’s million-copy Korean best-seller is about to charm stateside readers… With clever worldbuilding populated by engagingly quirky characters, Lee’s whimsical debut offers an irresistible antidote to reality’s distresses.” – Terry Hong, Booklist
The Game Changer by Lana Ferguson
fiction / romance.
When a very public breakup becomes a PR nightmare for Ian Chase’s team, he hopes to focus on his game, but that suddenly seems less likely than a hat trick. With his career and the team’s image in jeopardy, Ian is surprised to find a solution through none other than Delilah Baker, his best friend and teammate’s little sister… who isn’t so little anymore.
Delilah Baker is known as “the darling of baking” on her local cable show, and being in the public eye is her bread and butter. But with her numbers dwindling and her producers turning up the heat, Delilah offers up the half-baked idea to collaborate with her brother’s team to entice the hockey fans of Boston to tune in to her show. Delilah thinks it will be a piece of cake—until the team sends Ian Chase, her brother’s best friend and the object of a decade-long crush that she’s never quite gotten over.
Delilah’s and Ian’s teams think it’s a true win-win situation—gaining higher numbers for Delilah’s show and casting Ian in a more positive light. And viewers are eating them up like a cupcake, sparking the idea to play up their relationship for the goal of good press. With more than just their careers on thin ice, the line between what’s real and what’s for show begins to blur, but one thing’s for certain: This PR stunt will either be a total game changer—or leave them both totally pucked.
“…very spicy, very fun, very swoony, and so much fun to read.” – Phoebe Wright, Read & Wright
“[An] enjoyable and easy read that would be a great addition to steamy romance readers’ summer TBR lists!” – Andrea Reid, The Nerd Daily
The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry ★
fiction / historical fiction / western.
October 1891. A hard winter approaches across the Rocky Mountains. The city of Butte, Montana is rich on copper mines and rampant with vice and debauchery among a hard-living crowd of immigrant Irish workers. Here we find Tom Rourke, a young poet and ballad-maker of the town, but also a doper, a drinker, and a fearsome degenerate. Just as he feels his life is heading nowhere fast, Polly Gillespie arrives in town as the new bride of the extremely devout mine captain Long Anthony Harrington. A thunderbolt love affair takes spark between Tom and Polly and they strike out west on a stolen horse, moving through the badlands of Montana and Idaho, and briefly an idyll of wild romance perfects itself. But a posse of deranged Cornish gunmen are soon in hot pursuit and closing in fast. With everything to lose and the safety and anonymity of San Francisco still a distant speck on their horizon, the choices they make will haunt them for the rest of their lives.
In this love story for the ages—lyrical, profane and propulsive—Kevin Barry has once again demonstrated himself to be a master stylist, an unrivalled humorist, and a true poet of the human heart.
“A sterling work of historical fiction and a picaresque love story that is brutal, hilarious, and fabulously entertaining.” – Alexander Moran, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] genre-blending novel with romance and adventure to spare… Barry writes like a charm; every sentence sparkles.” – Barbara Love, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“[All] that should be required for you to saddle up and ride hard toward your nearest bookstore on July 9 is this: Kevin Barry does Deadwood… Barry never disappoints, but this one is a pure pleasure. A thrilling, tumescent, poetically vulgar, big-hearted romp of a novel… utterly electrifying…” – Dan Sheehan, Literary Hub
“[A] dazzling tale of lovers on the run in Montana… Barry has written us a love story that never seems false or cheap, and an adventure where the violence is never gloating or desensitised. It’s a wedding of Cormac McCarthy with Flann O’Brien; a western but also the most Irish of novels; a tragedy written as farce… inspiring joy with every incident, every concept, every sentence.” – Sandra Newman, The Guardian
Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner ★
fiction / historical fiction / comedy.
“Were we gangsters? No. But did we know how to start a fire?”
In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse, and the family moves on with their lives, resuming their prized places in the saga of the American dream, comforted in the realization that though their money may have been what endangered them, it is also what assured them their safety.
But now, nearly forty years later, it’s clear that perhaps nobody ever got over anything, after all. Carl has spent the ensuing years secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping, while his wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband’s emotional health. Their three grown children aren’t doing much better: Nathan’s chronic fear won’t allow him to advance at his law firm; Beamer, a Hollywood screenwriter, will consume anything—substance, foodstuff, women—in order to numb his own perpetual terror; and Jenny has spent her life so bent on proving that she’s not a product of her family’s pathology that she has come to define it. As they hover at the delicate precipice of a different kind of survival, they learn that the family fortune has dwindled to just about nothing, and they must face desperate questions about how much their wealth has played a part in both their lives’ successes and failures.
Long Island Compromise spans the entirety of one family’s history, winding through decades and generations, all the way to the outrageous present, and confronting the mainstays of American Jewish life: tradition, the pursuit of success, the terror of history, fear of the future, old wives’ tales, evil eyes, ambition, achievement, boredom, dybbuks, inheritance, pyramid schemes, right-wing capitalists, beta-blockers, psychics, and the mostly unspoken love and shared experience that unite a family forever.
“[The] well-timed twists, neat callbacks and tidy scenes are a mitzvah for this satisfying, touching novel.” – Sloane Crosley, New York Times
“A great American Jewish novel whose brew of hilarity, heartbreak, and smarts recalls the best of Philip Roth. A triumph.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“The wizard Weisenheimer behind Fleishman Is in Trouble is back with a big, juicy, wickedly funny social satire… As weird as this may sound—Brodesser-Akner has written probably the funniest book ever about generational family trauma.” – Marion Winik, Oprah Daily
“…incisive and witty… Brodesser-Akner’s latest combines the smarts of Sarah Silverman’s stand-up, the polymath verisimilitude of Tom Wolfe’s novels, and the Jewish soul of Sholem Aleichem’s stories. This is a comedic feast.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Madoff: The Final Word by Richard Behar
nonfiction / true crime / biography.
Some $68 billion evaporated during Bernie Madoff’s epic confidence game. Two people were driven to suicide in the wake of the Ponzi Scheme’s exposure. Others went to prison. But there has never been a satisfying accounting for how Bernie got away with so much, for so long. Until now.
Richard Behar’s relationship with Madoff began in 2011 with a simple email request from the inmate. By the time Madoff died in 2021, he had sent Behar more than 300 emails and dozens of handwritten letters, participated in some fifty phone conversations, and sat for three in-person jailhouse interviews—a level of access provided to no other reporter. Behar also established relationships with hundreds of regulators, prosecutors, FBI agents, investors, Wall Street experts, ex-employees of Madoff’s, family members, school classmates, and others.
The result is the final word on the criminal behind history’s most enduring fraud—and on those who believed him, covered for him, or locked him up. Behar illuminates not only the fraud’s origins—decades earlier than Madoff claimed in his confession—but also the complicity of investors, Wall Street insiders, family members, and some of the largest banks in the US and Europe.
Shocking, infuriating, riveting (and at times absurdly funny), Madoff shows us how Bernie ensnared thousands of investors. As Behar’s dogged reporting over the last fifteen years makes clear, however, there aren’t many innocents left standing by the end of this tale. Just about everyone involved is guilty, at a minimum, of humanity’s most consistent weakness: greed.
“A penetrating account of the web of lies that won the late con man Bernie Madoff his billions.” – Kirkus Reviews
“…fast-paced and engaging… The thrill of having a backstage view, watching the twists and turns that come from unraveling the actions of a pathological liar, will hold the attention of a broad audience.” – Val Edwards, Booklist
“Behar’s entertaining account shows how easily a sociopathic liar will be enabled by a greedy system.” – Publishers Weekly
My Glorious Defeats: Hacktivist, Narcissist, Anonymous: A Memoir by Barrett Brown
nonfiction / memoir / politics / technology.
After a series of escapades both online and off that brought him in and out of 4chan forums, the halls of power, heroin addiction, and federal prison, Barrett Brown is a free man. He was arrested for his part in an attempt to catalog, interpret, and disseminate top-secret documents exposed in a security lapse by the intelligence contractor Stratfor in 2011. An influential journalist who is also active in the hacktivist collective Anonymous, Brown recounts exploits from a life shaped by an often self-destructive drive to speak truth to power. With inimitable wit and style, palpable anger and conviction, he exposes the incompetence and injustices that plague media and politics, reflects on the successes and failures of the transparency movement, and shows the way forward in harnessing digital communication tools for collective action.
But My Glorious Defeats is more than just the tale of the clever and hilarious Brown; it’s also a rigorously researched dissection of our decaying institutions and of human nature itself. As Brown makes clear, institutions are made of people—people with personal ambitions and personal vices—and it is people, just like him, just like us, who hold power. As optimistic as it is heartbreaking, My Glorious Defeats is an entertaining and illuminating manual for insurgency in the information age.
“A lively prison memoir from the cyber age.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“…often-brilliant… Brown’s captivating prose mixes comic grandiloquence with Hunter S. Thompsonesque debauchery.” – Publishers Weekly
Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi
fiction / fantasy.
“You must be as sharp as a stilettotore’s dagger and as subtle as a fish beneath the waters. This is what it is to be Navolese, this is what it is to be di Regulai.”
In Navola, a bustling city-state dominated by a handful of influential families, business is power, and power is everything. For generations, the di Regulai family—merchant bankers with a vast empire—has nurtured tendrils that stretch to the farthest reaches of the known world. And though they claim not to be political, their staggering wealth has bought cities and toppled kingdoms. Soon, Davico di Regulai will be expected to take the reins of power from his father and demonstrate his mastery of the games of Navolese diplomacy: knowing who to trust and who to doubt, and how to read what lies hidden behind a smile. But in Navola, strange and ancient undercurrents lurk behind the gilt and grandeur—like the fossilized dragon eye in the family’s possession, a potent symbol of their raw power and a talisman that seems to be summoning Davico to act.
As tensions rise and the events unfold, Davico will be tested to his limits. His fate depends on the eldritch dragon relic and on what lies buried in the heart of his adopted sister, Celia di Balcosi, whose own family was destroyed by Navola’s twisted politics. With echoes of Renaissance Italy, The Godfather, and Game of Thrones, Navola is a stunning feat of world-building and a mesmerizing depiction of drive and will.
“Lots of epic fantasies get compared to Game of Thrones these days. But this sweeping literary tale of the young heir of an influential banking family who faces rebellion as he ascends to power in a world inspired by 15th-century Florence might actually deserve it.” – Lacy Baugher Milas, Paste
“Politics, passion, poison, blood, and betrayal are melded into a masterful fantasy epic of nonstop action that is just begging for a sequel. ” – Lucy Lockley, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Bacigalupi dazzles in this addictive account of the rivalries between powerful families in a brilliantly rendered fantastical world… Admirers of Game of Thrones and Dorothy Dunnett’s House of Niccolò series will be riveted.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
The Next Best Fling by Gabriella Gamez
fiction / romance.
Librarian Marcela Ortiz has been secretly in love with her best friend for years—and when he gets engaged, she knows it’s long past time to move on. But before she gets the chance, she has a bigger problem to contend with in the form of Theo Young, ex-NFL player and older brother of the man she’s in love with. When she discovers Theo’s plans to confess his feelings for his brother’s fiancée at their engagement party, Marcela is quick to stop him—despite how tempting it is to let him run away with the bride-to-be. She manages to convince Theo to sleep off his drunken almost-mistake at her place and when they arrive at a family brunch the next day together, everyone wrongly assumes they hooked up.
Since Theo needs a cover for his feelings for the bride and Marcela needs a distraction from her unrequited feelings for the groom, they decide to roll with the lie. Until one late night at a bar, they take it a step further and discover a layer of attraction neither realized existed. Soon, they find themselves exploring the simmering chemistry between them, whether in library aisles or Marcela’s bed. There are no boundaries for the rebound relationship they form—just a host of complicated feelings, messy familial dynamics, and uncovered secrets that threaten to tear them apart before they can even admit to themselves that their rebound is working. Maybe a little too well.
“Gamez debuts with a contemporary rom-com, featuring hot chemistry and emotional depth.” – Heather Miller Cover, Library Journal
“In her delightfully engaging debut, Gamez deftly manipulates the crackling sexual chemistry between her two relatably messy protagonists into a splendidly sexy romance that not only champions body positivity but also delivers a love letter to the joys of reading and books.” – John Charles, Booklist
“Gamez puts a saucy twist on the fake-dating trope in her fun and flirty debut… swoony… Readers will enjoy the ride.” – Publishers Weekly
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
fiction / fantasy / romance / mystery.
Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Th
ankfully, as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she hasn’t had to.
She and her assistant, Caz, a magically sentient spider plant, have spent the last eleven years sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite. But when a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz save as many books as they can carry and flee to a faraway island Kiela was sure she’d never return to: her childhood home. Kiela hopes to lay low in the overgrown and rundown cottage her late parents left her and figure out a way to survive without drawing the attention of either the empire or the revolutionaries. Much to her dismay, in addition to a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor, she finds the town neglected and in a state of disrepair.
The empire, for all its magic and power, has been neglecting for years the people who depend on magical intervention to maintain healthy livestock and crops. Not only that, but the very magic that should be helping them has been creating destructive storms that have taken a toll on the island. Due to her past role at the library, Kiela feels partially responsible for this, and now she’s determined to find a way to make things right: by opening the island’s first-ever secret spellshop.
Her plan comes with risks—the consequence of sharing magic with commoners is death. And as Kiela comes to make a place for herself among the kind and quirky townspeople of her former home, she realizes that in order to make a life for herself, she must learn to break down the walls she has built up so high.
“This sweet cottagecore novel is pure delight.” – Jennifer Winberry, Library Reads
“[A] delightful, easily digestible palate cleanser with a story that feels like a whimsical, warm hug.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Durst celebrates the power of community in this whimsical cottagecore romantasy… utterly delightful.” – Publishers Weekly
State of Paradise by Laura van den Berg ★
fiction / science fiction / mystery / horror.
It’s another summer in a small Florida town. After an illness that vanishes as mysteriously as it arrived, everything appears to be getting back to normal: soul-crushing heat, torrential downpours, sinkholes swallowing the earth, ominous cats, a world-bending virtual reality device being handed out by a company called ELECTRA, and an increasing number of posters dotting the streets with the faces of missing citizens. Living in her mother’s home, a ghostwriter for a famous thriller author tracks the eerie changes. On top of everything else, she’s contending with family secrets, spotty memories of her troubled youth, a burgeoning cult in the living room, and the alarming expansion of her own belly button.
Then, during a violent rainstorm, her sister goes missing. She returns a few days later, sprawled on their mother’s lawn and speaking of another dimension. Now the ghostwriter must investigate not only what happened to her sister and the other missing people but also the uncanny connections between ELECTRA, the famous author she works for, and reality itself.
A sticky, rain-soaked reckoning with the elusive nature of selfhood and storytelling, Laura van den Berg’s State of Paradise is an intricate and page-turning whirlwind. With inimitable control and thrilling style, van den Berg reaches deep into the void and returns with a story far stranger than either reality or fiction.
“An unputdownable novel of a world spinning rapidly out of control.” – David Keymer, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Few people do weird as well as Laura van den Berg, and her latest really brings it… Flirting with metafiction, and just slightly off-kilter from reality, State of Paradise is a hurricane of a book.” – Arianna Rebollini, Bustle
“Of her now seven books of fiction, this one is arguably her funniest, most playful, most innovative, and possibly my favorite… The book becomes not only an evocation of that year when so many of us stopped our lives, but also of dreams personal and universal, of pilgrimages, apocalypses, traumas, and tales.” – Deb Olin Unferth, BOMB
“Readers who aren’t sure how a science fiction plot will meld with writing that sometimes reads almost like memoir needn’t worry. This is van den Berg, whose Lynchian sensibility and cool yet impassioned eye are somehow the perfect choice to examine what might be America’s most eccentric state and the ways that ‘we are called back to the things we most want to flee.’ If speculative autofiction wasn’t a thing, it is now; van den Berg is a pioneer.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
The Summer Pact by Emily Giffin
fiction / romance.
Four freshmen arrive at college from completely different worlds: Lainey, a California party girl with a flair for drama; Tyson, a brilliant scholar and aspiring lawyer from Washington, D.C.; Summer, an ambitious, recruited athlete from the Midwest; and Hannah, a mild-mannered southerner who is content to quietly round out the circle of big personalities. Soon after arriving on campus, they strike up a conversation in their shared dorm, and the seeds of friendship are planted.
As their college years fly by, their bond intensifies and the four become inseparable. But as graduation nears, their lives are forever changed after a desperate act leads to tragic consequences. Stunned and heartbroken, they make a pact, promising to always be there for one another, no matter how separated they may become by circumstances or distance.
Ten years later, Hannah is anticipating what should be one of the happiest moments of her life when everything is suddenly turned upside down. Calling on her closest friends, it soon becomes clear that they are all facing their own crossroads. True to their promise, they agree to take a time out from lives headed in wrong directions and embark on a shared journey of self-discovery, forgiveness, and acceptance.
In this tender portrayal of grief, love, and hope, Emily Giffin asks: When things fall apart, who will be at our sides, helping us pick up the pieces?
“This thirtysomething coming-into-one’s-own tale feels true to life, messy in all the best ways, and hopeful. A triumph.” – Kristine Huntley, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“The time-honored post-breakup trip—’Eat, Shop, Party’—has life-changing results you needn’t believe to enjoy.” – Kirkus Reviews
“The Summer Pact delivers a perfect summer read showcasing the powerful nature of coming-of-age friendships.” – Amy Wilson, Novels Alive
This Great Hemisphere by Mateo Askaripour ★
fiction / science fiction / mystery / fantasy.
Despite the odds, Sweetmint, a young invisible woman, has done everything right her entire life—school, university, and now a highly sought-after apprenticeship with the Northwestern Hemisphere’s premier inventor, a non-invisible man belonging to the Dominant Population who is as eccentric as he is enigmatic. But the world she has fought so hard to build after the disappearance of her older brother comes crashing down when authorities claim that not only is he well and alive, he’s also the main suspect in the murder of the Chief Executive of the Northwestern Hemisphere.
A manhunt ensues, and Sweetmint, armed with courage, intellect, and unwavering love for her brother, sets off on a mission to find him before it’s too late. With five days until the hemisphere’s big election, Sweetmint must dodge a relentless law officer who’s determined to maintain order and an ambitious politician with sights set on becoming the next Chief Executive by any means necessary.
With the captivating worldbuilding of N. K. Jemisin’s novels and blazing defiance of Naomi Alderman’s work, This Great Hemisphere is a novel that brilliantly illustrates the degree to which reality can be shaped by non-truths and vicious manipulations, while shining a light on our ability to surprise ourselves when we stop giving in to the narratives others have written for us.
“…lavishly imaginative… With remarkable world-building, Askaripour takes readers on a vast and winding adventure through a future split by hemispheres, visibility, and power.” – Lauren Puckett-Pope, Elle
“…this energetic, speculative deconstruction of colonialism feels like watching an expert put together a 1000-piece jigsaw.” – Publishers Weekly
“Part political thriller, part sci-fi, This Great Hemisphere revels in dystopian details with plausible roots… [it] explores the allure of power and the lengths people go to gain and retain it, but it’s also a story about rebellion, resilience and the strength to shape your own future.” – Lauren Bufferd, BookPage
“[An] ambitious, engaging novel… Askaripour is a skilled worldbuilder, imbuing this imagined society with fascinating detail and (often sadly) relatable divisions and issues. The page-turning prose and standout characters will appeal to a wide range of readers. Part sf adventure, part mystery, part social satire, this is a vividly imagined and captivating story.” – Allison Escoto, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay: (tips, tales, travels) by Gary Janetti
nonfiction / memoir / travel / comedy.
Gary Janetti has gained a devoted following, with a huge audience on social media, and two bestselling collections of essays under his belt. His new collection will prompt laughter but also delighted recognition as Janetti tackles the absurdity and glory of travel.
In We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay, he shares stories of his varied trips around the world. Tag along as he enjoys an unexpectedly transformative stay at a rigorous Italian spa where he and his husband go from deep grumpiness to exaltation. Take a ride on the Orient Express to Venice and discover a surprising side of London, including a hilarious dinner with actress Maggie Smith. And pull up a deck chair to watch the entertainment as Gary embarks on a family cruise on the Queen Mary 2.
Interspersed with recollections of his trips are personal meditations on dining alone as well as journeys to such diverse destinations as Mykonos, Australia, a Noma pop-up, and other glamorous spots. Gary is unabashedly frank about his very exacting travel needs and delivers practical advice on all aspects of the traveler’s life, from very precise packing instructions, suggestions on how to get upgrades, and restaurant and hotel recommendations in his favorite cities.
Aspirational, charmingly acerbic, and as diverting as the best vacation can be, delivering both laughs and moments of sharp recognition, Gary’s funny collection is the perfect getaway companion, for both seasoned nomads and curious armchair travelers.
“Going somewhere? Don’t forget to take this book with you.” – Adam Rathe, Town & Country
“[A] delightful and sharp-witted tour through a lifetime’s worth of travel exploits and misadventures… Readers are bound to catch the travel bug.” – Publishers Weekly
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