“I learned to write by listening to people talk. I still feel that the best of my writing comes from having heard rather than having read.” – Gayl Jones
Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home by Chris La Tray
nonfiction / memoir / history.
“I’m committed to uncovering the culture of my people. I’m committed to learning as much of the language as I can. I’ve always loved this land, and I’ve always loved Indian people. The more I dig into it, the more I interact with my Indian relatives, the more it blooms in my heart. The more it blooms in my spirit.”
Growing up in Montana, Chris La Tray always identified as Indian. Despite the fact that his father fiercely denied any connection, he found Indigenous people alluring, often recalling his grandmother’s consistent mention of their Chippewa heritage.
When La Tray attended his grandfather’s funeral as a young man, he finally found himself surrounded by relatives who obviously were Indigenous. “Who were they?” he wondered, and “Why was I never allowed to know them?” Combining diligent research and compelling conversations with authors, activists, elders, and historians, La Tray embarks on a journey into his family’s past, discovering along the way a larger story of the complicated history of Indigenous communities—as well as the devastating effects of colonialism that continue to ripple through surviving generations. And as he comes to embrace his full identity, he eventually seeks enrollment with the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, joining their 158-year-long struggle for federal recognition.
Both personal and historical, Becoming Little Shell is a testament to the power of storytelling, to family and legacy, and to finding home. Infused with candor, heart, wisdom, and an abiding love for a place and a people, Chris La Tray’s remarkable journey is both revelatory and redemptive.
“A brilliant contribution to the canon of Native American literature.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Smart, emotional, and bracingly honest, La Tray is a powerful storyteller who should have significant appeal.” – Colleen Mondor, Booklist
“…gripping… La Tray constructs an engrossing history of the Little Shell Tribe… La Tray’s crystalline prose and palpable passion for spreading Indigenous history bolster his account. Readers will be fascinated.” – Publishers Weekly
Bluff: Poems by Danez Smith
nonfiction / poetry.
Written after two years of artistic silence, during which the world came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Minneapolis became the epicenter of protest following the murder of George Floyd, Bluff is Danez Smith’s powerful reckoning with their role and responsibility as a poet and with their hometown of the Twin Cities. This is a book of awakening out of violence, guilt, shame, and critical pessimism to wonder and imagine how we can strive toward a new existence in a world that seems to be dissolving into desolate futures.
Smith brings a startling urgency to these poems, their questions demanding a new language, a deep self-scrutiny, and virtuosic textual shapes. A series of ars poetica gives way to “anti poetica” and “ars america” to implicate poetry’s collusions with unchecked capitalism. A photographic collage accrues across a sequence to make clear the consequences of America’s acceptance of mass shootings. A brilliant long poem―part map, part annotation, part visual argument―offers the history of Saint Paul’s vibrant Rondo neighborhood before and after officials decided to run an interstate directly through it.
Bluff is a kind of manifesto about artistic resilience, even when time and will can seem fleeting, when the places we most love―those given and made―are burning. In this soaring collection, Smith turns to honesty, hope, rage, and imagination to envision futures that seem possible.
“I am going on record―Bluff is the best collection of the year, and the best collection Danez Smith has ever written. These are poems you are going to want to share with everyone you know, and everyone you don’t.” – Ronnie K. Stephens, The Poetry Question
“Smith’s searing fourth collection offers a powerful self-indictment of art and the artist in an age of social and political collapse… a necessary and challenging jolt to the system.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Smith’s collection is a powerful exploration of what it means to live in a world that feels like it is collapsing, amid global warming, racism, gentrification, and gun violence. Not to be missed; sure to be one of the best collections of the year.” – Sarah Michaelis, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult ★
fiction.
Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.
In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.
Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on… no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten.
“[An] inspiring work of feminist literature…” – Lauren Puckett-Pope, Elle
“A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Some readers will undoubtedly quibble with Picoult’s conclusions about the Bard, but they’ll just as assuredly find themselves thoroughly engaged with the struggles of Emilia, Melina, and Andre as writers with the deck stacked against them in this timely and affecting tale.” – Kristine Huntley, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“A fascinating story of a woman who may have written many of the works attributed to Shakespeare. While this book is fiction, Picoult digs deep into the research that’s been done to present an interesting and intriguing tale of what might have been.” – Camille Kovach, Indie Next
Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo by Adam Cesare
fiction / young adult / horror.
Quinn has just survived yet another bloody run-in with the murderous clown Frendo, but somehow still she knows this won’t be the last. Tired of being hunted and seeing innocent people hurt, Quinn believes the only way to beat the horror is to take justice into her own hands–and stop the Frendo followers herself. Little does she know that this path will take her across cornfields and state lines, to where she will have to face the most dangerous and bloody menace yet: True believers.
It’s an all-new tale in this terrifying trio series about the villains inside us all, from the master of slashers and suspense, award–winning author Adam Cesare.
“…Clown in a Cornfield 3 is finally here to cap off the trilogy with a bang.” – Matthew Jackson, Paste
“The atmospheric writing and frenetic pacing make for an unputdownable read, and the final girl trope is perfectly executed… Gruesome, ghastly, and satisfying.” – Kirkus Reviews
Sacrificial Animals by Kailee Pedersen
fiction / horror.
The last thing Nick Morrow expected to receive was an invitation from his father to return home. When he left rural Nebraska behind, he believed he was leaving everything there, including his abusive father, Carlyle, and the farm that loomed so large in memory, forever.
But neither Nick nor his brother Joshua, disowned for marrying Emilia, a woman of Asian descent, can ignore such summons from their father, who hopes for a deathbed reconciliation. Predictably, Joshua and Carlyle quickly warm to each other while Nick and Emilia are left to their own devices. Nick puts the time to good use and his flirtation with Emilia quickly blooms into romance. Though not long after the affair turns intimate, Nick begins to suspect that Emilia’s interest in him may have sinister, and possibly even ancient, motivations.
Punctuated by scenes from Nick’s adolescent years, when memories of a queer awakening and a shadowy presence stalking the farm altered the trajectory of his life forever, Sacrificial Animals explores the violent legacy of inherited trauma and the total collapse of a family in its wake.
“Readers will follow Nick as the foreboding details build, knowing full well that the tightly coiled tension will eventually explode; when it does, they will be left gasping in awe.” – Becky Spratford, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“…lyrical and unsettling… Pedersen’s prose is both poetic and raw. The novel has the cadence of a classical tragedy while being addictively propulsive… Sacrificial Animals is extraordinary for its illumination of unexpected empathy, and it suggests that the catharsis of vindication is never simple… a breathtaking upending of the American family saga.” – Alice Martin, Shelf Awareness
“Pedersen provides a brilliant and unforgiving commentary on toxic masculinity and racism, the fatal flaw that results in the dissolution of a midwestern family. What begins as a man’s chilling recollections evolves into a sinister lesson on trauma and violent retribution.” – Verónica N. Rodríguez, Booklist
The Slow Road North: How I Found Peace in an Improbable Country by Rosie Schaap
nonfiction / memoir.
Rosie Schaap had a solid career as a journalist and a life that looked to others like nonstop fun: all drinking and dining and traveling to beautiful places—and getting paid to write about it. But under the surface she was reeling from the loss of her husband and her mother—who died just one year apart. Caring for them had claimed much of her daily life in her late thirties. Mourning them would take longer.
It wasn’t until a reporting trip took her to the Northern Irish countryside that Rosie found a partner to heal with: Glenarm, a quiet, seaside village in County Antrim. That first visit made such an impression she returned to make a life. This unlikely place—in a small, tough country mainly associated with sectarian strife—gave her a measure of peace that had seemed impossible elsewhere.
Weaving personal narrative and social history, The Slow Road North is a moving and wise look at how a community can offer the key to healing. It’s a portrait of a complicated place at a pivotal time—through Brexit, a historic school integration, and a pandemic—and a love letter to a village and a culture.
“[A] magnificent love letter to a region that brought her back to life… a winning memoir about loss and life.” – Priscilla Kipp, BookPage, STARRED REVIEW
“[An] affecting memoir… Schaap marries a reporter’s curiosity with a humorist’s eye for detail, matching bits of regional history with hilarious anecdotes about her husband and mother… a nuanced and poignant account of what comes after grief.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Throughout, Schaap’s prose is characterized by well-crafted, even sublime sentences, erudite literary references and sharp, dark humor… exceptional when Schaap shows us what brings joy to her life after so many years of grief. You’ll find a fortifying dose of grace in these pages.” – Ann Neumann, New York Times
Spirit Crossing by William Kent Krueger
fiction / mystery / suspense.
The disappearance of a local politician’s teenaged daughter is major news in Minnesota. As a huge manhunt is launched to find her, Cork O’Connor’s grandson stumbles across the shallow grave of a young Ojibwe woman—but nobody seems that interested. Nobody, that is, except Cork and the newly formed Iron Lake Ojibwe Tribal Police. As Cork and the tribal officers dig into the circumstances of this mysterious and grim discovery, they uncover a connection to the missing teenager. And soon, it’s clear that Cork’s grandson is in danger of being the killer’s next victim.
“…chilling… Krueger maintains an eerie tone throughout, folding subtle supernatural elements into one of his most puzzling mysteries to date. This long-running series still has plenty of gas in the tank.” – Publishers Weekly
“[A] multifaceted book that addresses Big Oil, Native trauma and addiction, social inequities, and the unbreakable bonds of a family… Krueger introduces an eclectic host of characters, lays out an immersive setting, and fleshes out a heartfelt mystery that will stay with readers long after the final page.” – Wayne Catan, Minnesota Monthly
“Poignant, spiritual and riveting, Spirit Crossing is an emotional story of love, loss, standing up for what you believe in and giving a voice to marginalized communities… yet another masterclass in storytelling by William Kent Krueger… Spirit Crossing is also one hell of an engrossing story. It’s got mystery, death, politics, legal maneuverings, visions, spiritual guidance, and blueberries.” – Steve Netter, The Best Thriller Books
Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde by Alexis Pauline Gumbs ★
nonfiction / biography / poetry.
We remember Audre Lorde as an iconic writer, a quotable teacher whose words and face grace T-shirts, nonprofit annual reports, and campus diversity-center walls. But even those who are inspired by Lorde’s teachings on “the creative power of difference” may be missing something fundamental about her life and work, and what they can mean for us today.
Lorde’s understanding of survival was not simply about getting through to the other side of oppression or being resilient in the face of cancer. It was about the total stakes of what it means to be in relationship with a planet in transformation. Possibly the focus on Lorde’s quotable essays, to the neglect of her complex poems, has led us to ignore her deep engagement with the natural world, the planetary dynamics of geology, meteorology, and biology. For her, ecological images are not simply metaphors but rather literal guides to how to be of earth on earth, and how to survive—to live the ethics that a Black feminist lesbian warrior poetics demands.
In Survival Is a Promise, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the first researcher to explore the full depths of Lorde’s manuscript archives, illuminates the eternal life of Lorde. Her life and work become more than a sound bite; they become a cosmic force, teaching us the grand contingency of life together on earth.
“A defiant woman sensitively and incisively portrayed.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“…sublime… an inventive and thorough look into Lorde’s work and life… This is an elegant portrait of a revered and beloved icon and an essential addition for library collections.” – Allison Escoto, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Gumbs, one of our great poets, has delivered not only a masterful biography of Audre Lorde but a revolution in what a biography can be… Structurally playful, deeply researched, vibrantly felt, it’s a masterwork all around.” – Drew Broussard, Literary Hub
“[A] scintillating tour de force… as distinctive as its subject… Forgoing the strictures and linearity of traditional biography, Gumbs enlivens her narrative with unconventional flourishes that in lesser hands might feel like a gimmick but here come across as revelation… Gumbs is a master stylist with a knack for writing sentences at once direct and expansive (‘The scale of the life of the poet is the scale of the universe’). This is a feast for the intellect—and the soul.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak ★
fiction / historical fiction.
In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives.
In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a leading publisher, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, and one book in particular catches his interest: Nineveh and Its Remains.
In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl, is diagnosed with a rare disorder that will soon cause her to go deaf. Before that happens, her grandmother is determined to baptize her in a sacred Iraqi temple. But with the rising presence of ISIS and the destruction of the family’s ancestral lands along the Tigris, Narin is running out of time.
In 2018 London, the newly divorced Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames to escape her husband. Orphaned and raised by her wealthy uncle, Zaleekah had made the decision to take her own life in one month, until a curious book about her homeland changes everything.
A dazzling feat of storytelling, There Are Rivers in the Sky entwines these outsiders with a single drop of water, a drop which remanifests across the centuries. Both a source of life and harbinger of death, rivers—the Tigris and the Thames—transcend history, transcend fate: “Water remembers. It is humans who forget.”
“…gloriously expansive and intellectually rich… this waterborne tale, crossing cultures, centuries and continents, is a magnificent achievement.” – Michael Arditti, The Spectator
“[A] multi-layered marvel… I turned the pages hungrily, carried by Shafak’s energetic prose and confident that it was heading towards a coherent and rewarding ending. As ever, Shafak did not disappoint.” – Max Liu, i
“In this captivating and provocative saga, Shafak presents a beautifully braided plot, entrancing settings, and soulful characters while dramatizing the complex power of stories, the wonders of water, and the terrible paradoxes of humankind.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Drawing on historical events, Shafak vividly narrates the theft of artifacts, war, colonialism, environmental crises, and genocide. From her extensive research, she raises critical questions about one’s connection to and responsibility for the past in this highly readable and engrossing novel.” – Jacqueline Snider, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
This Is Why We Lied by Karin Slaughter
fiction / suspense / mystery.
One toxic family.
Eight suspicious guests.
Everyone is guilty.
But who is a killer?
For GBI investigator Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton, McAlpine Lodge seems like the ideal getaway to celebrate their honeymoon. Set on a gorgeous, off-the-grid mountaintop property, it’s the perfect place to unplug and reconnect. Until a bone-chilling scream cuts through the night.
A murderer in their midst…
Mercy McAlpine, the manager of the Lodge, is dead. With a vicious storm raging and the one access road to the property washed out, the murderer must be someone on the mountain. But as Will and Sara investigate the McAlpine family and the other guests, they realize that everyone here is lying… Lying about their past. Lying to their family. Lying to themselves.
Who killed Mercy McAlpine?
It soon becomes clear that normal rules don’t apply at McAlpine Lodge, and Will and Sara are going to have to watch their step at every turn. Trapped on the resort, they must untangle a decades-old web of secrets to discover what happened to Mercy. And with the killer poised to strike again, the trip of a lifetime becomes a race against the clock…
“It’s funny, shocking, moving and filled with the sort of believable, grounded but still surprising twists that make Slaughter a master of the genre. Cozy? Hardly. Great fun, with great depth.” – Michael Giltz, Parade
“One character nails it: This is ‘an Agatha Christie locked-room mystery with a VC Andrews twist.’” – Kirkus Reviews
“The sheer number of motives should stretch credulity, but Slaughter’s skillfully nuanced portrayal of the investigation, exposing abuse, manipulation, and desperate greed, creates a disturbingly realistic page-turner. This bar-raiser for the classic locked-room mystery is in good company with Sarah Pearse’s The Sanitorium, Adrian McKinty’s The Island, and One by One, by Ruth Ware.” – Christine Tran, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
The Unicorn Woman by Gayl Jones
fiction / historical fiction.
Set in the early 1950s, this latest novel from Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Gayl Jones follows the witty but perplexing army veteran Buddy Ray Guy as he embodies the fate of Black soldiers who return, not in glory, but into their Jim Crow communities.
A cook and tractor repairman, Buddy was known as Budweiser to his army pals because he’s a wise guy. But underneath that surface, he is a true self-educated intellectual and a classic seeker: looking for religion, looking for meaning, looking for love.
As he moves around the south, from his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, primarily, to his second home of Memphis, Tennessee, he recalls his love affairs in post-war France and encounters with a variety of colorful characters and mythical prototypes: circus barkers, topiary trimmers, landladies who provide shelter and plenty of advice for their all-Black clientele, proto feminists, and bigots. The lead among these characters is, of course, The Unicorn Woman, who exists, but mostly lives in Bud’s private mythology.
Jones offers a rich, intriguing exploration of Black (and Indigenous) people in a time and place of frustration, disappointment, and spiritual hope.
“Jones is skilled at balancing the observational with the intimate, and in Buddy we are given a fully realized character who epitomizes the frustrations, heartbreak, and humor of a generation of Black Americans.” – Allison Escoto, Booklist
“A surprising, welcome gift from one of America’s finest and least predictable writers… digressive, reflective, witty, and wise… [a] warm, savory evocation of the elegiac, the fantastic, and the historic. Even when she dials down the intensity, Jones is capable of quiet astonishment.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto
fiction / suspense / mystery / comedy.
Influencer Meredith Lee didn’t teach Aspen Palmer how to blossom on social media just to be ditched as soon as Aspen became big. So can anyone really blame Mer for doing a little stalking? Nothing serious, more like Stalking Lite. Then, Mer gets lucky; she finds one of Aspen’s kids’ iPads and swipes it. Now, she has access to everything: the family calendar and Aspen’s social media accounts. Would anyone else be able to resist tweaking things a little here and there, showing up in Aspen’s place for meetings with potential sponsors? Mer’s only taking back what she deserves—what should have been hers.
Meanwhile, Aspen doesn’t understand why her perfectly filtered life is falling apart. Sponsors are dropping her, fellow influencers are ghosting her, and even her own husband seems to find her repulsive. If she doesn’t find out who’s behind everything, she might just lose it all. What everyone seems to forget is that Aspen didn’t become one of TikTok’s biggest momfluencers by being naive. When Meredith suddenly goes missing, Aspen’s world is upended and mysterious threats begin to arrive—but she won’t let anything get in the way of her perfect life again.
“A juicy, electric thriller about a pair of warring momfluencers—just imagine the drama—You Will Never Be Me is the kind of read-in-one-sitting story tailor-made for a summer weekend… Hilariously wicked, this is a book social media addicts will relish.” – Lauren Puckett-Pope, Elle
“Sutanto has written another page-turner… [she] expertly traps willing readers into an over-the-top chaotic vacuum with surprisingly satiating results.” – Terry Hong, Booklist
“Sutanto has devilish fun with her premise, lacquering the story’s well-executed twists with a satirical sheen that pokes wicked fun at internet celebrity. The result is a near-perfect beach read.” – Publishers Weekly
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