“The trouble with letting people see you at your worst isn’t that they’ll remember; it’s that you’ll remember.” – Sarah Manguso, 300 Arguments: Essays
Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum
nonfiction / politics / history.
We think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top. He controls the police. The police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents.
But in the 21st century, that bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned not by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran. Corrupt companies in one country do business with corrupt companies in another. The police in one country can arm and train the police in another, and propagandists share resources and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America.
International condemnation and economic sanctions cannot move the autocrats. Even popular opposition movements, from Venezuela to Hong Kong to Moscow, don’t stand a chance. The members of Autocracy, Inc., aren’t linked by a unifying ideology, like communism, but rather a common desire for power, wealth, and impunity. In this urgent treatise, which evokes George Kennan’s essay calling for “containment” of the Soviet Union, Anne Applebaum calls for the democracies to fundamentally reorient their policies to fight a new kind of threat.
“Central to any discussion of modern totalitarianism.” – Kirkus Reviews
“…eye-opening… a clear-sighted and unflinching look at the ideas, resentments, assumptions and practices of the regimes that are challenging liberal democracy.” – Michael Ignatieff, Literary Review
“Autocracy, Inc. is a valuable book for many reasons, but the focus on illicit wealth creation and on those in democracies who enable it is especially timely.” – Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Washington Post
The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves & China Miéville
fiction / fantasy / science fiction.
She said, We needed a tool. So I asked the gods.
There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he’s known simply as “B.”
And he wants to be able to die.
In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own.
In a collaboration that combines Miéville’s singular style and creativity with Reeves’s haunting and soul-stirring narrative, these two inimitable artists have created something utterly unique, sure to delight existing fans and to create scores of new ones.
“It’s stylistically daring, combining sf, fantasy, parascience, history, and action. It’s violent, propulsive, and introspective, ultimately offering a philosophical exploration of identity and the meaning of mortality, chaos, and entropy. The Book of Elsewhere gets under your skin and into your mind and revels in a pervasive sense of mystery… Whatever it is, it works.” – John Keogh, Booklist
“A philosophical, violent thriller about an immortal soldier pondering the nature of his existence, The Book of Elsewhere has an elegance that might surprise you for a pulp thriller…” – Joshua Rivera, Polygon
“I still can’t believe this book exists. Miéville and Reeves turn out to be a great match, and I for one will take new Miéville fiction however I can get it. Come for the action set-pieces and techno-thriller plotting but stay for the immortal pig(!) and the stirring digressions on ethics, morality, and humanity. It’s nothing like you could possibly expect, so don’t even bother: just dive in.” – Drew Broussard, Literary Hub
Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio ★
fiction.
When Catalina is admitted to Harvard, it feels like the fulfillment of destiny: a miracle child escapes death in Latin America, moves to Queens to be raised by her undocumented grandparents, and becomes one of the chosen. But nothing is simple for Catalina, least of all her own complicated, contradictory, ruthlessly probing mind. Now a senior, she faces graduation to a world that has no place for the undocumented; her sense of doom intensifies her curiosities and desires. She infiltrates the school’s elite subcultures—internships and literary journals, posh parties and secret societies—which she observes with the eye of an anthropologist and an interloper’s skepticism: she is both fascinated and repulsed. Craving a great romance, Catalina finds herself drawn to a fellow student, an actual budding anthropologist eager to teach her about the Latin American world she was born into but never knew, even as her life back in Queens begins to unravel. And every day, the clock ticks closer to the abyss of life after graduation. Can she save her family? Can she save herself? What does it mean to be saved?
Brash and daring, part campus novel, part hagiography, part pop song, Catalina is unlike any coming-of-age novel you’ve ever read—and Catalina, bright and tragic, circled by a nimbus of chaotic energy, driven by a wild heart, is a character you will never forget.
“Catalina is irreverent and often laugh-out-loud funny… [a] bravura bildungsroman.” – Sara Martínez, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] pointed, often funny, and unexpected coming-of-age story, perfect for fans of Mona Awad and Elif Batuman.” – Isabelle McConville, B&N Reads
“…scorching… Villavicencio expertly illuminates Catalina’s precarity and Nathaniel’s tokenizing of other cultures. The result is a moving coming-of-age novel that doubles as a no-holds-barred cultural critique.” – Publishers Weekly
“Catalina is such a delightful book — funny and quick-witted, but also thoughtful and heart-rending. I loved Catalina’s smart, singular voice. This is a perfect read for lovers of Lily King’s Writers & Lovers, or fans of Sally Rooney’s work.” – Shannon Guinn-Collins, Indie Next
Fall of Civilizations: Stories of Greatness and Decline by Paul Cooper
nonfiction / history.
Based on the podcast with over one hundred million downloads, Fall of Civilizations brilliantly explores how a range of ancient societies rose to power and sophistication, and how they tipped over into collapse.
Across the centuries, we journey from the great empires of Mesopotamia to those of Khmer and Vijayanagara in Asia and Songhai in West Africa; from Byzantium to the Maya, Inca and Aztecs of Central America; from Roman Britain to Rapa Nui. With meticulous research, breathtaking insight and dazzling, empathic storytelling, historian and novelist Paul Cooper evokes the majesty and jeopardy of these ancient civilizations, and asks what it might have felt like for a person alive at the time to witness the end of their world.
“The book offers vivid storytelling and startling accounts of the decline and fall of civilisations—from the ancient Sumerians onwards, taking in the Aztecs, the Khmer, and the Songhai.” – Five Books
“Cooper addresses a new public in new ways, through a mastery of anecdotage and accessible storytelling… [a] quirky, curiously compelling book.” – Max Hastings, The Times
“In exploring these ancient stories of decline and fall, Fall of Civilizations acts as both an escape from the modern world and an often troubling, occasionally reassuring mirror to it… one of the chief delights of Fall of Civilizations is the feeling of always learning new things, many of which undercut western prejudices about the world outside Europe and North America.” – Oscar Rickett, Middle East Eye
Liars by Sarah Manguso ★
fiction / suspense.
A nuclear family can destroy a woman artist. I’d always known that. But I’d never suspected how easily I’d fall into one anyway.
When Jane, an aspiring writer, meets filmmaker John Bridges, they both want the same things: to be in love, to live a successful, creative life, and to be happy. When they marry, Jane believes she has found everything she was looking for, including—a few years later—all the attendant joys and labors of motherhood. But it’s not long until Jane finds herself subsumed by John’s ambitions, whims, and ego; in short, she becomes a wife.
As Jane’s career flourishes, their marriage starts to falter. Throughout the upheavals of family life, Jane tries to hold it all together. That is, until John leaves her.
Liars is a tour de force of wit and rage, telling the blistering story of a marriage as it burns to the ground, and of a woman rising inexorably from its ashes.
“A bracing story of a woman on the verge.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“…Manguso expertly cultivates a claustrophobic, lonely, angry atmosphere… devastating and clarifying… Liars will leave a puncture wound.” – Kate Preziosi, The Rumpus
“Liars seethes with rage. Manguso is a masterful sentence writer and a brutally honest surveyor of the disadvantages women endure.” – Leigh Haber, Los Angeles Times
“The second novel from essayist and poet Manguso paints an excoriating portrait of a marriage… Manguso’s barbed sentences push the plot forward at a brisk pace. The author is at the top of her game.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia by Juliet Grames
fiction / mystery / historical fiction / suspense / romance.
Calabria, 1960. Francesca Loftfield, a twenty-seven-year-old, starry-eyed American, arrives in the isolated mountain village of Santa Chionia tasked with opening a nursery school. There is no road, no doctor, no running water or electricity. And thanks to a recent flood that swept away the post office, there’s no mail, either.
Most troubling, though, is the human skeleton that surfaced after the flood waters receded. Who is it? And why don’t the police come and investigate? When the local priest’s housekeeper begs Francesca to help determine if the remains are those of her long-missing son, Francesca begins to ask a lot of inconvenient questions. As an outsider, she might be the only person who can uncover the truth. Or she might be getting in over her head. As she attempts to juggle a nosy landlady, a suspiciously dashing shepherd, and a network of local families bound together by a code of silence, Francesca finds herself forced to choose between the charitable mission that brought her to Santa Chionia, and her future happiness, between truth and survival.
Set in the wild heart of Calabria, a land of sheer cliff faces, ancient tradition, dazzling sunlight—and one of the world’s most ruthless criminal syndicates—The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia is a suspenseful puzzle mystery, a captivating romance, and an affecting portrait of a young woman in search of a meaningful life.
“Grames structures this deeply compelling, well-crafted mystery in a Golden Age style reminiscent of classics by Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. Yet the literary heart of this brilliant novel, its probing meditations on class, power, and the inevitability of crime, is rendered with the same nuance and intensity as Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet.” – Olivia Kate Cerrone, Boston Globe
“Recommended for mystery and historical fiction readers who are interested in the cultural complexities and hardships of life off the map.” – Cate Triola, Library Journal
“Grames excels at rendering the experiences of living as a stranger in a close-knit community, where justice is meted out extrajudicially, and she manages to keep the reader guessing as to the truth about who was murdered and why. This is a superior literary mystery.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
The Modern Fairies by Clare Pollard
fiction / historical fiction.
Why don’t they tell you it is the beautiful princess who becomes the evil queen; that they are just the same person at different points in their story?
At a safe distance from the intrigues of courtly life at Louis XIV’s Versailles, an intellectual crowd of mostly women have been gathering in a Parisian home to share what hostess Marie D’Aulnoy herself has christened contes de fées: fairy tales. Recently ousted from court and still raw from the death of his beloved wife, Charles Perrault finds companionship and creative camaraderie at the salon, where he eagerly joins the storytellers. Their hostess is impressive, fiercely intelligent, but somehow unreadable. She is harboring secrets of her own: sold off as a child in marriage to a brutal baron, imprisonment, scandal. Despite the vicious Versailles gossip, Marie has mysteriously been allowed to return to polite society and establish her salon in the heart of Paris.
A devastating winter soon sweeps in, bringing with it all kinds of rumors and fears. A spate of poisonings at Versailles has led to several arrests, and no matter how high born the suspect, it seems no one is safe. Paranoia stokes the King’s insecurities, and there is a wolf among the salon’s members—someone more dangerous than any force they could conjure in their own tales, watching and waiting, reporting on the secret goings-on, and threatening to destroy them one by one.
Brilliant and bawdy, witty and wise, Modern Fairies is a dazzling novel of stories within stories, familiar tales spun with fresh and provocative meaning, perfect for fans of Jenny Offill, Deborah Levy, and Angela Carter.
“[A] delightfully raunchy romp… Pollard’s ribald prose is addictively amusing… This magnetic revisionist historical deserves a wide readership.” – Publishers Weekly
“Clare Pollard has done it again! I loved this book. I was enthralled by the cast of characters and the vivid descriptions of the Sun King’s court. What really stuck out to me was the historical context of the origins of ‘fairy tales’ and the weight that context (the drama and machinations of Louis XIV’s France) gives them. It will dazzle you then send you down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. Highly recommended!” – Chelsea Bauer, The Southern Bookseller Review
“With hints of the coming revolution just starting to cast a shadow over France, Pollard vividly and powerfully evokes the tumult, passion, and creativity of this bygone era, crafting a tale that’s both timeless and timely.” – Kristine Huntley, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Nicked by M.T. Anderson
fiction / historical fiction / fantasy / romance.
The year is 1087, and a pox is sweeping through the Italian city of Bari. When a lowly monk is visited by Saint Nicholas in his dreams, he interprets the vision as a call to serve the sick. But his superiors, and the power brokers they serve, have different plans for the tender-hearted Brother Nicephorus.
Enter Tyun, a charismatic treasure hunter renowned for “liberating” holy relics from their tombs. The seven-hundred-year-old bones of Saint Nicholas are rumored to weep a mysterious liquid that can heal the sick, Tyun says. For the humble price of a small fortune, he will steal the bones and deliver them to Bari, curing the plague and restoring glory to the fallen city. And Nicephorus, the “dreamer,” will be his guide.
What follows is a heist for the ages, as Nicephorus is swept away on strange tides, and alongside even stranger bedfellows, to commit sacrilegious theft. Based on real historical accounts, Nicked is a swashbuckling saga, a medieval novel noir, a meditation on the miraculous, and a monastic meet-cute, filled with wide-eyed wonder at the world that awaits beyond our own borders.
“An always entertaining and unexpectedly poignant adventure as rare and gleaming as a reliquary.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“…alongside the humor and tension, Anderson plumbs questions of what constitutes as faith, and the circularity of human history… The tale ends with a delectable twist and a tantalizing possibility of further relic hunts.” – Jennifer M. Brown, Shelf Awareness
“If there’s one thing about M.T. Anderson, it’s that he’s going to write a book with a plot that’s as delightful and captivating as it is downright strange. His adult debut Nicked is no exception… What follows is a heist that is complex and action packed enough to make even the likes of Steven Soderbergh jealous.” – Rachael Conrad, Polygon
The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton
fiction / romance / fantasy / historical fiction / comedy.
Beth Pickering is on the verge of finally capturing the rare deathwhistler bird when Professor Devon Lockley swoops in, stealing both her bird and her imagination like a villain. Albeit a handsome and charming villain, but that’s beside the point. As someone highly educated in the ruthless discipline of ornithology, Beth knows trouble when she sees it, and she is determined to keep her distance from Devon.
For his part, Devon has never been more smitten than when he first set eyes on Professor Beth Pickering. She’s so pretty, so polite, so capable of bringing down a fiery, deadly bird using only her wits. In other words, an angel. Devon understands he must not get close to her, however, since they’re professional rivals.
When a competition to become Birder of the Year by capturing an endangered caladrius bird is announced, Beth and Devon are forced to team up to have any chance of winning. Now keeping their distance becomes a question of one bed or two. But they must take the risk, because fowl play is afoot, and they can’t trust anyone else—for all may be fair in love and war, but this is ornithology.
“Holton’s newest romantic fantasy is an absolute delight, perfect for fans of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries and Holton’s previous Dangerous Damsels series. I could not stop smiling as I read it.” – Margaret Kingsbury, IGN
“This book is so riotously clever it almost defies description. It’s like an alchemy of romantic elements held in perfect harmony… Every sentence is positively vibrating with the kind of charm that will have you pressing your lips together with laughter. And yet amid all the outrageous and camp fun, Holton also succeeds in building a genuine love story – between two people who have kept the world at a distance for years but somehow find a home within each other.” – Kalyani Saxena, NPR
“[A] gloriously madcap intellectual adventure tinged with a hint of whimsical fantasy… The charming supporting cast provides a zany counterpoint to what is ultimately a sweet, wholesome love story. Readers will find it an irresistible confection.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Reap the Whirlwind: Violence, Race, Justice, and the Story of Sagon Penn by Peter Houlahan
nonfiction / true crime / history.
March 31, 1985. Two white patrol officers in search of a gang member followed a pickup truck carrying seven young Black men up a dirt driveway in the Encanto neighborhood of Southeastern San Diego. Minutes later, gunshots rang out, and the truck’s driver, Sagon Penn, fled the scene in an officer’s patrol car. The incident stunned the city. What followed would change it forever.
Penn was an idealist who believed in the power of Buddhist chants to bring about the oneness of humanity. The two police officers were rising stars in one of the most progressive police departments in the country, yet one that had suffered more officers killed in the line of duty than any other. While the facts of the case were never in dispute, what remained unresolved was what, if anything, could justify such a violent confrontation? For over two years, a determined prosecutor and a charismatic defense attorney engaged in a sensational courtroom drama that revolved around matters of mental health, racial biases, and the self-image of a once-sleepy beach town grappling with its transformation into a major metropolitan area. The Sagon Penn incident forever altered how San Diego would respond to incidents involving police and communities of color.
Based on court transcripts, personal interviews, and archival police reports, Reap the Whirlwind is a gripping true-crime narrative set against the evocative backdrop of Southern California.
“An assumption-shaking true-crime narrative that transports readers onto the street and into the courtroom.” – Kirkus Reviews
“…riveting… a propulsive legal thriller with deep insight into Southern California policing history.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“In meticulous yet utterly spellbinding detail, Houlahan lays out all aspects of the case… he makes clear the timeless peril of erroneous assumptions.” – Alan Moores, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family by Jesselyn Cook
nonfiction / politics / sociology.
“SHED MY DNA”: three excruciating words uttered by a QAnon-obsessed mother, once a highly respected lawyer, to her only son, once the closest person in her life. QAnon beliefs and adjacent conspiracy theories have had devastating political consequences as they’ve exploded in popularity. What’s often overlooked is the lasting havoc they wreak on our society at its most basic and intimate level—the family.
In The Quiet Damage, celebrated reporter Jesselyn Cook paints a harrowing portrait of the vulnerabilities that have left so many of us susceptible to outrageous falsehoods promising order, purpose, and control. Braided throughout are the stories of five American families: an elderly couple whose fifty-year romance takes a heartbreaking turn; millennial sisters of color who grew up in dire poverty—one to become a BLM activist, the other, a hardcore conspiracy theorist pulling her little boy down the rabbit hole with her; a Bay Area hippie-type and her business-executive fiancé, who must decide whether to stay with her as she turns into a stranger before his eyes; evangelical parents whose simple life in a sleepy suburb spirals into delusion-fueled chaos; and a rural mother-son duo who, after carrying each other through unspeakable tragedy, stop speaking at all as ludicrous untruths shatter a bond long thought unbreakable.
Charting the arc of each believer’s path from their first intersection with conspiracy theories to the depths of their cultish conviction, to—in some cases—their rejection of disinformation and the mending of fractured relationships, Cook offers a rare, intimate look into the psychology of how and why ordinary people come to believe the unbelievable. Profound, brilliantly researched, and beautifully written, The Quiet Damage lays bare how we have been taken hostage by grifters peddling lies built on false hope—and how we might release our loved ones, and ourselves, from their grasp.
“…as thoughtful ― and as heartbreaking ― a portrait of the conspiracy theory movement as I’ve ever read.” – Matt Shuham, HuffPost
“…assiduously researched and impeccably constructed… a vital piece to the vexing QAnon puzzle, chronicling the profound effects on those otherwise average people who have fallen into its grasp and the collateral damage done to those around them… sheds important light on the problem.” – Jonathan Russell Clark, Washington Post
“In The Quiet Damage, Cook paints haunting portraits of a diverse group of Americans struggling to pull loved ones back from the cultlike movement… It’s wrenching to read about QAnon’s damage to the lives of Cook’s subjects… Where the book shines is in creating empathy for a group of people frequently dismissed or misunderstood, and for their grieving and divided families.” – Roxanna Asgarian, New York Times
Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen by Jon M. Chu with Jeremy McCarter
nonfiction / memoir / film.
Long before he directed Wicked, In The Heights, or the groundbreaking film Crazy Rich Asians, Jon M. Chu was a movie-obsessed first-generation Chinese American, helping at his parents’ Chinese restaurant in Silicon Valley and forever facing the cultural identity crisis endemic to children of immigrants. Growing up on the cutting edge of twenty-first-century technology gave Chu the tools he needed to make his mark at USC film school, and to be discovered by Steven Spielberg, but he soon found himself struggling to understand who he was. In this book, for the first time, Chu turns the lens on his own life and work, telling the universal story of questioning what it means when your dreams collide with your circumstances, and showing how it’s possible to succeed even when the world changes beyond all recognition.
With striking candor and unrivaled insights, Chu offers a firsthand account of the collision of Silicon Valley and Hollywood—what it’s been like to watch his old world shatter and reshape his new one. Ultimately, Viewfinder is about reckoning with your own story, becoming your most creative self, and finding a path all your own.
“A thoughtful, candid, and affecting read for anyone with an interest in the impact of the tech industry on Hollywood and the Asian American experience. ” – Kristine Huntley, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“[Chu] is a reliable guide through many of the less-glamorous aspects of being a director. Entertaining insights from a unique film industry insider.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Chu and McCarter enliven the standard-issue celeb memoir beats with bits of wisdom aimed at aspiring filmmakers (‘Stock Your Pantry’; ‘Check the Projector’) and welcome humor. Film fans—especially those with hopes of working in the business—will enjoy this.” – Publishers Weekly
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