“We do know that no one gets wise enough to really understand the heart of another, though it is the task of our life to try.” – Louise Erdrich, The Bingo Palace
American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond by Jeremy Dauber
nonfiction / history / culture / books / film.
America is held captive by horror stories. They flicker on the screen of a darkened movie theater and are shared around the campfire. They blare out in tabloid true-crime headlines, and in the worried voices of local news anchors. They are consumed, virally, on the phones in our pockets. Like the victims in any slasher movie worth its salt, we can’t escape the thrall of scary stories.
In American Scary, noted cultural historian and Columbia professor Jeremy Dauber takes the reader to the startling origins of horror in the United States. Dauber draws a captivating through line that ties historical influences ranging from the Salem witch trials and enslaved-person narratives directly to the body of work we more closely associate with horror today: the weird tales of H. P. Lovecraft, the lingering fiction of Shirley Jackson, the disquieting films of Alfred Hitchcock, the up-all-night stories of Stephen King, and the gripping critiques of Jordan Peele.
With the dexterous weave of insight and style that have made him one of America’s leading historians of popular culture, Dauber makes the haunting case that horror reveals the true depths of the American mind.
“[A] meticulous chronicle of the American horror genre across mediums… an idiosyncratic and largely rewarding take on the genre.” – Publishers Weekly
Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir by Ina Garten ★
nonfiction / memoir.
Here, for the first time, Ina Garten presents an intimate, entertaining, and inspiring account of her remarkable journey. Ina’s gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail. In her unmistakable voice (no one tells a story like Ina), she brings her past and her process to life in a high-spirited and no-holds-barred memoir that chronicles decades of personal challenges, adventures (and misadventures) and unexpected career twists, all delivered with her signature combination of playfulness and purpose.
From a difficult childhood to meeting the love of her life, Jeffrey, and marrying him while still in college, from a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, D.C., to answering an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons, from the owner of one Barefoot Contessa shop to author of bestselling cookbooks and celebrated television host, Ina has blazed her own trail and, in the meantime, taught millions of people how to cook and entertain. Now, she invites them to come closer to experience her story in vivid detail and to share the important life lessons she learned along the way: do what you love because if you love it you’ll be really good at it, swing for the fences, and always Be Ready When the Luck Happens.
“Garten presents her story with warmth, honesty and heart.” – People
“An entertaining foray into this well-loved cooking host’s illustrious life.” – Kirkus Reviews
“In this memoir… she shows how much luck and labor it took to achieve the success that she clearly enjoys.” – Marisa Meltzer, New York Times
“…distills stories from her life into lessons for foodies and non-foodies, alike… packed with stories of Garten pushing for her vision.” – Mark Kennedy, AP
The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America by Aaron Robertson ★
nonfiction / history / philosophy.
How do the disillusioned, the forgotten, and the persecuted not merely hold on to life but expand its possibilities and preserve its beauty? What, in other words, does utopia look like in black?
These questions animate Aaron Robertson’s exploration of Black Americans’ efforts to remake the conditions of their lives. Writing in the tradition of Saidiya Hartman and Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robertson makes his way from his ancestral hometown of Promise Land, Tennessee, to Detroit—the city where he was born, and where one of the country’s most remarkable Black utopian experiments got its start. Founded by the brilliant preacher Albert Cleage Jr., the Shrine of the Black Madonna combined Afrocentric Christian practice with radical social projects to transform the self-conception of its members. Central to this endeavor was the Shrine’s chancel mural of a Black Virgin and child, the icon of a nationwide liberation movement that would come to be known as Black Christian Nationalism. The Shrine’s members opened bookstores and co-ops, created a self-defense force, and raised their children communally, eventually working to establish the country’s largest Black-owned farm, where attempts to create an earthly paradise for Black people continues today.
Alongside the Shrine’s story, Robertson reflects on a diverse array of Black utopian visions, from the Reconstruction era through the countercultural fervor of the 1960s and 1970s and into the present day. By doing so, Robertson showcases the enduring quest of collectives and individuals for a world beyond the constraints of systemic racism.
The Black Utopians offers a nuanced portrait of the struggle for spaces—both ideological and physical—where Black dignity, protection, and nourishment are paramount. This book is the story of a movement and of a world still in the making—one that points the way toward radical alternatives for the future.
“A fresh perspective on Black history.” – Kirkus Reviews
“This fascinating and resonant history has been hidden far too long.” – Lesley Williams, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“…interesting and idiosyncratic… original and compelling… At the book’s strongest moments, we sense in the eccentricity of its design not a ramshackle structure but the quality that, according to Robertson, utopia ‘always describes’: ‘a perpetual opening.’” – John Jeremiah Sullivan, New York Times
“…ambitious and captivating… Robertson paints a vivid and beguiling picture of the indomitable human yearning for a safe and nurturing home. It’s a must-read.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister ★
fiction / horror / fantasy / suspense.
Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.” Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails—or refuses—to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.
Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.
At once a gothic eco-horror, a psychological drama, and a family saga, The Bog Wife is a propulsive read for fans of Shirley Jackson, Karen Russell, and Matt Bell that speaks to what is knowable and unknowable within a family history and how to know when it is time to move forward.
“A hauntingly compelling gothic…” – Caroline Leavitt, People
“Gothic horror at its absolute finest, this story is as mythical as it is malignant.” – Alana R. Quarles, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“…terrific… A decaying old house, generational family dramas, a wavering line between the real and the unreal… The Bog Wife is a spooky-season novel for folks who don’t (think they) like horror.” – Drew Broussard, Literary Hub
“This one blew me away! The whole human experience contained in an immersive tale about the five children of a strange family navigating their relationship to each other, the land, and their history. A spectacular accomplishment.” – Christie Olson Day, Indie Next
The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden
fiction / suspense / mystery / romance.
Sydney Shaw, like every single woman in New York, has terrible luck with dating. She’s seen it all: men who lie in their dating profile, men who stick her with the dinner bill, and worst of all, men who can’t shut up about their mothers. But finally, she hits the jackpot.
Her new boyfriend is utterly perfect. He’s charming, handsome, and works as a doctor at a local hospital. Sydney is swept off her feet.
Then the brutal murder of a young woman―the latest in a string of deaths across the coast―confounds police. The primary suspect? A mystery man who dates his victims before he kills them.
Sydney should feel safe. After all, she is dating the guy of her dreams. But she can’t shake her own suspicions that the perfect man may not be as perfect as he seems. Because someone is watching her every move, and if she doesn’t get to the truth, she’ll be the killer’s next victim…
A dark story about obsession and the things we’ll do for love, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden proves that crimes of passion are often the bloodiest…
“Bestseller McFadden’s jaw-dropping latest keeps the author’s trademark twists coming fast and furious… McFadden extends her hot streak with this canny exploration of love, death, and dating.” – Publishers Weekly
The Drowned by John Banville
fiction / mystery / historical fiction.
“He had seen drowned people. A sight not to be forgotten.”
1950s, rural Ireland. A loner comes across a mysteriously empty car in a field. Knowing he shouldn’t approach but unable to hold back, he soon finds himself embroiled in a troubling missing person case, as a husband claims his wife may have thrown herself into the sea.
Called in from Dublin to investigate is Detective Inspector Strafford, who soon turns to his old ally—the flawed but brilliant pathologist Quirke—a man he is linked to in increasingly complicated ways. But as the case unfolds, events from the past resurface that may have life-altering ramifications for all involved.
At once a searing mystery and a profound meditation on the hidden worlds we all inhabit, The Drowned is the next great Strafford and Quirke novel from a beloved writer at the top of his game.
“[This series] never gets old.” – Emily Temple, Literary Hub
“Excellent writing and a clever plot make this one stand out.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“…exceedingly moody, deeply analytical… Banville leaves readers primed for the next tale starring his profoundly conflicted investigators.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist
Exposure by Ramona Emerson
fiction / mystery / suspense.
In Gallup, New Mexico, where violent crime is five times the national average, a serial killer is operating unchecked, his targets indigent Native people whose murders are easily disguised as death by exposure on the frigid winter streets. He slips unnoticed through town, hidden in plain sight by his unassuming nature, while the voices in his head guide him toward a terrifying vision of glory. As the Gallup detectives struggle to put the pieces together, they consider calling in a controversial specialist to help.
Rita Todacheene, Albuquerque PD forensic photographer, is at a crisis point in her career. Her colleagues are watching her with suspicion after the recent revelation that she can see the ghosts of murder victims. Her unmanageable caseload is further complicated by the fact that half the department has blacklisted her for ratting out a corrupt fellow cop. And back home in Tohatchi on the Navajo reservation, Rita’s grandma is getting older. Maybe it’s time for her to leave policework behind entirely—if only the ghosts will let her…
“[A] compelling, interlocked portrait of two troubled souls.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Emerson introduced Rita Todacheene in her explosive debut, Shutter, and this is a bar-raising follow-up… Emerson’s storytelling shines with a multifaceted, ironic exploration of savior narratives and brutal truths. Here’s hoping Emerson writes more than a trilogy featuring Rita.” – Christine Tran, Booklist
“…riveting… Visceral prose elevates Emerson’s impressive blend of crime fiction and supernatural horror. This series deserves a long life.” – Publishers Weekly
The Great When by Alan Moore ★
fiction / fantasy / historical fiction / science fiction.
The year is 1949, the city London. Amidst the smog of the capital stumbles Dennis Knuckleyard, a hapless eighteen year-old employed by a second-hand bookshop. One day, on an errand to acquire books for sale, Dennis discovers a novel that simply does not exist. It is a fictitious book, a figment from another novel. Yet it is physically there in his hands. How?
Dennis has stumbled on a book from the Great When, a magical version of London beyond time and space, where reality blurs with fiction and concepts such as Crime and Poetry are incarnated as wondrous, terrible beings. But this other, magical London must remain a secret: if Dennis cannot find a way to return this book to where it belongs, he risks repercussions, such as his body being turned inside out (or worse).
So begins a journey delving deep into the city’s occult underbelly and tarrying with an eccentric cast of sorcerers, gangsters, and murderers – some from legend, some all too real, and all with plans of their own. Soon Dennis finds himself at the centre of an explosive series of events that may alter and endanger both Londons forever…
“The worldbuilding is extraordinary and the plot is utterly gripping. Readers are sure to be sucked in.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] grand read and an instant classic.” – Ong Sor Fern, The Straits Times
“…The Great When is a corker… Moore is entirely in charge here, confident and witty and pulling us along. The Great When is the first book in The Long London Quintet. If you read it, that fact will make you very happy indeed.” – Michael Giltz, Parade
“…expansive and ambitious… a love letter to art, literature and London that’s sure to capture readers’ imaginations… Characters are so vividly rendered that you can practically see them in full-color illustrations… Readers seeking big ideas and colorful splashes of language will love exploring The Great When—and look forward to future entries in the Long London series.” – Chris Pickens, BookPage
Heir by Sabaa Tahir
fiction / young adult / fantasy / romance.
Growing up in the Kegari slums, Aiz has seen her share of suffering. An old tragedy fuels her need for vengeance, but it is love of her people that propels her. Until one hotheaded mistake lands her in an inescapable prison, where the embers of her wrath ignite.
Banished from her people for an unforgivable crime, Sirsha is a down-on-her-luck tracker who uses magic to trace her marks. Destitute, she agrees to hunt down a killer who has murdered children across the Martial Empire. All she has to do is carry out the job and get paid. But when a chance encounter leads to an unexpected attraction, Sirsha learns her mission might cost her far more than she’s willing to give up.
Quil is the crown prince of the Empire and nephew of a venerated empress, but he’s loath to take the throne when his aunt steps down. As the son of a reviled emperor, he, better than anyone, understands that power corrupts. When a vicious new enemy threatens the survival of the Empire, Quil must ask himself if he can rise above his tragic lineage and be the heir his people need.
Beloved storyteller Sabaa Tahir interweaves the lives of three young people as they grapple with power, treachery, love, and the devastating consequences of unchecked greed, on a journey that may cost them their lives—and their hearts. Literally.
“Heir offers a welcome blend of mystique and weightiness—plus a dollop of romance—that will delight anyone seeking more complexity in young adult fantasy.” – BookPage, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] propulsive, action-packed duology launch… enrapturing… an expansive and brutal adventure ideal for longtime followers and newcomers alike.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Tahir’s new series demands your attention and never lets go… Tahir is an expert storyteller, and Heir is another feather in her cap. This is a book that will linger with readers long after the final pages—enjoy the ride.” – Amber Hayes, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
I Will Do Better: A Father’s Memoir of Heartbreak, Parenting, and Love by Charles Bock
nonfiction / memoir / parenting.
The novelist Charles Bock was a reluctant parent, tagging along for the ride of fatherhood, obsessed primarily with his dream of a writing career.
But when his daughter Lily was six months old, his wife, Diana, was diagnosed with a complex form of leukemia. Two and half years later, when all treatments and therapies had been exhausted, Bock found himself a widower—devastated, drowning in medical bills, and saddled with a daunting responsibility. He had to nurture Lily, and, somehow, maybe even heal himself.
I Will Do Better is Charles’s pull-no-punches account of what happened next. Playdates, music classes, temper tantrums, oh-so-cool babysitters, first days at school, family reunions, single-parent dating, and a citywide crippling natural disaster—were minefields especially treacherous for Charles and Lily because of their preexisting vulnerability: their grief.
Charles sought help from friends, family, and therapists, but this overgrown, middle-aged boy-man and his plucky child became, foremost, a duo—they found their way together.
“…bracingly honest… Single parents will find much to identify with in this warts-and-all account.” – Publishers Weekly
“A uniquely forthright and powerful addition to the literature of fatherhood.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Bock is exceptionally honest with his feelings, never afraid to expose sadness, anger, or painfully awkward moments, all of which make his story highly relatable to anyone who has ever grieved the loss of a loved one and particularly to anyone who has ever helped a child grieve the loss of a parent.” – Jane Harper, Booklist
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates ★
nonfiction / essays / history / politics.
Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set out to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell’s classic Politics and the English Language, but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories—our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking—expose and distort our realities.
In the first of the book’s three intertwining essays, Coates, on his first trip to Africa, finds himself in two places at once: in Dakar, a modern city in Senegal, and in a mythic kingdom in his mind. Then he takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he reports on his own book’s banning, but also explores the larger backlash to the nation’s recent reckoning with history and the deeply rooted American mythology so visible in that city—a capital of the Confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares. Finally, in the book’s longest section, Coates travels to Palestine, where he sees with devastating clarity how easily we are misled by nationalist narratives, and the tragedy that lies in the clash between the stories we tell and the reality of life on the ground.
Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.
“A revelatory meditation on shattering journeys.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“With his signature incisiveness, Coates interrogates the intersections of race, power, and identity while blending historical insight and personal reflection. Through three essays, Coates presents a global perspective that challenges the status quo and dares us to envision a more just future.” – Morgan Menzies, SheReads
“Coates presents three blazing essays on race, moral complicity, and a storyteller’s responsibility to the truth… Coates exhorts readers, including students, parents, educators, and journalists, to challenge conventional narratives that can be used to justify ethnic cleansing or camouflage racist policing. Brilliant and timely.” – Lesley Williams, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“[An] earnest and intimate exploration of locations of extreme injustice, and of the power of writing to render a more compassionate—and more honest—future… At once a rallying cry and a love letter to writing itself, the book is an urgent reminder that ‘politics is the art of the possible, but art creates the possible of politics.’” – Charley Burlock, Oprah Daily
The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich ★
fiction.
History is a flood. The mighty red…
In Argus, North Dakota, a collection of people revolve around a fraught wedding.
Gary Geist, a terrified young man set to inherit two farms, is desperate to marry Kismet Poe, an impulsive, lapsed Goth who can’t read her future but seems to resolve his.
Hugo, a gentle red-haired, home-schooled giant, is also in love with Kismet. He’s determined to steal her and is eager to be a home wrecker.
Kismet’s mother, Crystal, hauls sugar beets for Gary’s family, and on her nightly runs, tunes into the darkness of late-night radio, sees visions of guardian angels, and worries for the future, her daughter’s and her own.
Human time, deep time, Red River time, the half-life of herbicides and pesticides, and the elegance of time represented in fracking core samples from unimaginable depths, is set against the speed of climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and the sudden economic meltdown of 2008-2009. How much does a dress cost? A used car? A package of cinnamon rolls? Can you see the shape of your soul in the everchanging clouds? Your personal salvation in the giant expanse of sky? These are the questions the people of the Red River Valley of the North wrestle with every day.
The Mighty Red is a novel of tender humor, disturbance, and hallucinatory mourning. It is about on-the-job pains and immeasurable satisfactions, a turbulent landscape, and eating the native weeds growing in your backyard. It is about ordinary people who dream, grow up, fall in love, struggle, endure tragedy, carry bitter secrets; men and women both complicated and contradictory, flawed and decent, lonely and hopeful. It is about a starkly beautiful prairie community whose members must cope with devastating consequences as powerful forces upend them. As with every book this great modern master writes, The Mighty Red is about our tattered bond with the earth, and about love in all of its absurdity and splendor.
“…Louise Erdrich’s The Mighty Red might just be a new American classic.” – BookPage, STARRED REVIEW
“Erdrich is back with another brilliant, funny, profound story of people and place, earth and spirit.” – Marion Winik, Newsday
“[A] captivating tale… Erdrich excels at the slow simmer, and once again she delivers a deliciously seductive masterwork.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“The story of the land, from holistic family farms to the decimation of the ‘joinery of creation’ by industrial agriculture, shapes Erdrich’s finely woven tale of anguish and desire, crimes and healing. With irresistible characters, dramatic predicaments, crisp wit, gorgeously rendered settings, striking ecological facts, and a cosmic dimension, Erdrich’s latest tale of the plains reverberates with arresting revelations.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose
fiction / mystery.
Molly Gray has always loved the holidays. When Molly was a child, her gran went to great lengths to make the season merry and bright, full of cherished traditions. The first few Christmases without Gran were hard on Molly, but this year, her beloved boyfriend and fellow festive spirit, Juan Manuel, is intent on making the season Molly’s most joyful yet.
But when a Secret Santa gift exchange at the Regency Grand Hotel raises questions about who Molly can and cannot trust, she dives headfirst into solving her most consequential—and personal—mystery yet. Molly has a bad feeling about things, and she starts to wonder: has she yet again mistaken a frog for a prince?
A heartwarming, magical story about the true spirit of the season, The Mistletoe Mystery reminds us that love is the greatest mystery of all.
“Tailor-made for the cozy-mystery lover’s Christmas stocking.” – Kirkus Reviews
“This is sure to put readers in the holiday spirit.” – Publishers Weekly
Model Home by Rivers Solomon ★
fiction / horror.
The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The neighbors acted nice enough, but right away bad things, scary things—the strange and the unexplainable—began to happen in their house. Maybe it was some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-middle class. Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned.
As adults, the siblings could finally get away from the horrors of home, leaving their parents all alone in the house. But when news of their parents’ death arrives, Ezri is forced to return to Texas with their sisters, Eve and Emanuelle, to reckon with their family’s past and present, and to find out what happened while they were away. It was not a “natural” death for their parents… but was it supernatural?
Rivers Solomon turns the haunted-house story on its head, unearthing the dark legacies of segregation and racism in the suburban American South. Unbridled, raw, and daring, Model Home is the story of secret histories uncovered, and of a queer family battling for their right to live, grieve, and heal amid the terrors of contemporary American life.
“…exhilarating and unforgettable…” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] disquieting and disorienting rumination on heavy themes including racism, mental illness, gender dysphoria, and sexual abuse… will keep readers turning the pages… Solomon’s genre-defying achievement subverts and reclaims the tropes of the gothic haunted house to create something wholly original and unforgettable.” – Kaitlin Conner, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Rivers Solomon has their finger on the pulse of things, to be sure. I’m betting on this one to be Solomon’s breakout.” – Drew Broussard, Literary Hub
“To call Model Home a haunted house novel is like saying that It is about a clown. Yes, you would technically be correct, but you’d be missing the point. At its core, Rivers Solomon’s latest novel is a study of the interior landscape of someone trying to make sense of their life in the wake of extreme tragedy… a powerful and gut-wrenching addition to the haunted house pantheon.” – Laura Hubbard, BookPage
Nothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter
fiction / young adult / romance.
For a few beautiful months, Wes had his dream girl: strong-willed girl-next-door Liz. But right as the two were about to set off to UCLA to start their freshman year together, tragedy struck. Wes was left dealing with the fallout, which ultimately meant losing Liz in the process.
Flash forward months and months later and Wes and Liz find themselves in college, together. In a healthier place now, Wes knows he broke Liz’s heart when he ended things, but he is determined to make her fall back in love with him.
Wes knows Liz better than anyone, and he has a foolproof plan to win her back with the rom-com worthy big gestures she loves. Only… Liz will have none of it. Wes has to scheme like a rom-com hero to figure out how to see her. Even worse, Liz has a new friend… a guy friend.
Still, Wes won’t give up, adapting his clever plans and going hard to get Liz’s attention and win back her affection. But after his best efforts get him nowhere, Wes is left wondering if their relationship is really over for good.
“A worthy second-chance romance.” – Kirkus Reviews
One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery
fiction / romance / comedy.
Julie Parker’s kids are her greatest gift. Still, she’s not exactly heartbroken when they ask to skip a big Christmas. Her son, Nick, is taking a belated honeymoon with his bride, Blair, while her daughter, Dana, will purge every reminder of the guy who dumped her. Again. Julie feels practically giddy for one-on-one holiday time with Heath, the (much) younger man she’s secretly dating.
But her plans go from cozy to chaotic when Nick and Dana plead for Christmas at the family cabin in memory of their late father, Julie’s ex. She can’t refuse, even though she dreads their reactions to her new man when they realize she’s been hiding him for months.
As the guest list grows in surprising ways, from Blair’s estranged mom to Heath’s precocious children, Julie’s secret is one of many to be unwrapped. Over this delightfully complicated and very funny Christmas, she’ll discover that more really is merrier, and that a big, happy family can become bigger and happier, if they let go of old hurts and open their hearts to love.
“It’s refreshing to read about a slightly older heroine, and her relationship with Heath is both hot and supportive… Mallery does a great job capturing both the chaos and the joy of a family Christmas. Readers will be heartened.” – Publishers Weekly
“Mallery’s latest is light-hearted and full of charming characters and hilarious plot escalation. Readers will root for Julie as she comes to terms with the fact that she can’t do it all, and she doesn’t have to.” – Susan Maguire, Booklist
Q: A Voyage Around the Queen by Craig Brown
nonfiction / biography / history.
She was the most famous person on earth; she first appeared on the cover of Time magazine at the age of three. When she died, few people were old enough to recall a time when she was not alive.
Her likeness has been reproduced—in photographs, on stamps, on the notes and coins of thirty different currencies—more than any since Jesus. It is probable that, over the course of her ninety-six years, she was introduced to a greater number of different people than anyone else who has ever lived—likely well over half a million. Yet this most closely observed of all women rarely left any real impression on those she encountered beyond vague notions of her “radiance” and “sense of duty.” A high proportion of those she met can remember what they said to her, but not a word of what she said to them.
Up until now, the curious tactic employed by biographers of the Queen has been to ignore what is interesting and to concentrate on what is not. Craig Brown, the author of 150 Glimpses of the Beatles and Hello Goodbye Hello, rejects this formula, bringing his kaleidoscopic approach to the most famous—and most guarded— woman on earth, examining the Queen through a succession of interlocking prisms. With Q, this fantastically funny, marvelously insightful journalist gives us an unforgettable portrait of the omnipresent, elusive Queen Elizabeth II.
“[Brown] now takes on Queen Elizabeth herself with his trademark aggregation and wit.” – Emily Temple, Literary Hub
“A gently satiric reflection, even including dreams, of how the world went gaga for Queen Elizabeth.” – Kirkus Reviews
Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell ★
nonfiction / psychology / science / sociology / history.
Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand-new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light.
Why is Miami… Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena.
Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world’s most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell’s most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of the modern world. It’s time we took tipping points seriously.
“An astute and bracing appraisal of how cultures succeed or fail.” – Carol Haggas, Booklist
“Rigorously researched—but always with a witty flair—it’s a must-read for longtime Gladwell fans or readers simply curious about the quiet, surprising origin stories of the crises and questions that define contemporary life.” – Francesca Billington, Oprah Daily
“With curiosity and humor, he questions why Los Angeles is home to so many successful bank robbers, what the fate of the cheetah has to do with child rearing, and how a forgotten 1970s TV show changed the world. Simultaneously, he reexamines the positions he took nearly 25 years ago on topics ranging from crime to fashion to see if they stood the test of time.” – Shannon Carlin, Time
Season of the Swamp by Yuri Herrea; translated by Lisa Dillman
fiction / historical fiction.
New Orleans, 1853. A young exile named Benito Juárez disembarks at a fetid port city at the edge of a swamp. Years later, he will become the first indigenous head of state in the postcolonial Americas, but now he is as anonymous and invisible as any other migrant to the roiling and alluring city of New Orleans.
Accompanied by a small group of fellow exiles who plot their return and hoped-for victory over the Mexican dictatorship, Juárez immerses himself in the city, which absorbs him like a sponge. He and his compatriots work odd jobs, suffer through the heat of a southern summer, fall victim to the cons and confusions of a strange young nation, succumb to the hallucinations of yellow fever, and fall in love with the music and food all around them. But unavoidable, too, is the grotesque traffic in human beings they witness as they try to shape their future.
Though the historical archive is silent about the eighteen months Juárez spent in New Orleans, Yuri Herrera imagines how Juárez’s time there prepared him for what was to come. With the extraordinary linguistic play and love of popular forms that have characterized all of Herrera’s fiction, Season of the Swamp is a magnificent work of speculative history, a love letter to the city of New Orleans and its polyglot culture, and a cautionary statement that informs our understanding of the world we live in.
“A thoughtful portrait of one revolutionary’s remarkable resilience, far from home.” – Kirkus Reviews
“There isn’t a writer out there like Yuri Herrera… brilliant. An extraordinary, vivid, and ingenious novel. I couldn’t look away from the minute I started reading.” – Oscar Almonte Espinal, Indie Next
“[A] mesmerizing picaresque… As glorious and messy as the best New Orleans gumbo… Herrera vividly depicts the chaos of Mardi Gras, during which Benito is frightened and charmed in equal measure; the unsavory characters with whom he forms uneasy alliances; and his phantasmagorical dreams while fighting a bout of yellow fever. It’s a triumph.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz ★
fiction / mystery / suspense.
Anna Williams-Bonner has taken care of business. That is to say, she’s taken care of her husband, bestselling novelist Jacob Finch Bonner, and laid to rest those anonymous accusations of plagiarism that so tormented him. Now she is living the contented life of a literary widow, enjoying her husband’s royalty checks in perpetuity, but for the second time in her life, a work of fiction intercedes, and this time it’s her own debut novel, The Afterword. After all, how hard can it really be to write a universally lauded bestseller?
But when Anna publishes her book and indulges in her own literary acclaim, she begins to receive excerpts of a novel she never expected to see again, a novel that should no longer exist. That it does means something has gone very wrong, and someone out there knows far too much: about her late brother, her late husband, and just possibly… Anna, herself. What does this person want and what are they prepared to do? She has come too far, and worked too hard, to lose what she values most: the sole and uncontested right to her own story. And she is, by any standard, a master storyteller.
With her signature wit and sardonic humor, Jean Hanff Korelitz gives readers an antihero to root for while illuminating and satirizing the world of publishing in this deliciously fun and suspenseful read.
“Wicked entertainment.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Korelitz fans will eat up this satirical, bookish suspense.” – Kim Hubbard, People
“[A] powerhouse sequel to The Plot… [Korelitz] brilliantly ushers the action toward a shocking conclusion… another taut and compulsively readable spellbinder…” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“…Korelitz dispenses another dose of biting morsels that satirize contemporary literary life… Sequels are notoriously tricky. Even the characters in The Sequel acknowledge it. ‘They’re never as good as the first book, are they?’ Anna muses over lunch with her agent. Well, this one is.” – Clémence Michallon, New York Times
The Seventh Floor by David McCloskey
fiction / suspense.
A Russian arrives in Singapore with a secret to sell. When the Russian is killed and Sam Joseph, the CIA officer dispatched for the meet, goes missing, operational chief Artemis Procter is made a scapegoat for the disaster and run out of the service. Months later, Sam appears at Procter’s doorstep with an explosive secret: there is a Russian mole burrowed deep within the highest ranks of the CIA.
As Procter and Sam investigate, they arrive at a shortlist of suspects made up of both Procter’s closest friends and fiercest enemies. The hunt requires Procter to dredge up her checkered past in the service of the CIA, placing the pair in the sights of a savvy Russian spymaster who will protect Moscow’s mole in Langley at all costs. What happens when friendships forged by sweat and blood—from the Farm to Afghanistan and the executive “Seventh Floor” of CIA’s Langley headquarters—are put to the ultimate test? What can we truly know about the people we love the most?
Taking readers from Langley to Moscow to Paris and beyond, The Seventh Floor explores the nature of friendship in a faithless business, and what it means to love a place that does not love you back.
“[It] describes and illuminates the CIA culture in a way that could only be depicted by a true insider… takes the reader on a rollicking jaunt… McCloskey has written a highly entertaining and engrossing book that will surely satisfy the palate of those looking for a vicarious fictitious escape into the exciting and unpredictable world of espionage.” – Joseph Augustyn, The Cipher Brief
“Dark, gritty and teeming with authenticity, The Seventh Floor is a classic US vs. Russia espionage tale from the pen of David McCloskey that’s filled with deceit, betrayal and honor… violent, intense and heart wrenching, but highly engaging and absorbing. A novel that fans of old-school spy stories will devour.” – Steve Netter, The Best Thriller Books
A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang ★
fiction / fANTASY / historical fiction / romance.
Her beauty hides a deadly purpose.
Xishi’s beauty is seen as a blessing to the villagers of Yue—convinced that the best fate for a girl is to marry well and support her family. When Xishi draws the attention of the famous young military advisor, Fanli, he presents her with a rare opportunity: to use her beauty as a weapon. One that could topple the rival neighboring kingdom of Wu, improve the lives of her people, and avenge her sister’s murder. All she has to do is infiltrate the enemy palace as a spy, seduce their immoral king, and weaken them from within.
Trained by Fanli in everything from classical instruments to concealing emotion, Xishi hones her beauty into the perfect blade. But she knows Fanli can see through every deception she masters, the attraction between them burning away any falsehoods.
Once inside the enemy palace, Xishi finds herself under the hungry gaze of the king’s advisors while the king himself shows her great affection. Despite his gentleness, a brutality lurks and Xishi knows she can never let her guard down. But the higher Xishi climbs in the Wu court, the farther she and Fanli have to fall—and if she is unmasked as a traitor, she will bring both kingdoms down.
“As enchanting as it is heartbreaking… This book will take your breath away!” – Claire Deeds, Indie Next
“Lovely historical fantasy breathes new life into an old tale.” – Kirkus Reviews
“…Xishi’s narration brings personalized stakes to imperial court drama and shows the double-edged sword of beauty. Fans of plot-driven historical fantasy should take note.” – Publishers Weekly
“Liang’s historical debut is an exploration of womanhood, beauty, war and love against all odds. She weaves a tapestry of tragedy and hope into an existing lore, and with it questions who power should truly lie with, and what they would do to attain it wholly.” – Saberin C, Grimdark Magazine
The Third Realm by Karl Ove Knausgaard; translated by Martin Aitken ★
fiction / horror / mystery.
For several days, a strange and bright new star in the sky above Norway has sown an unyielding sense of foreboding, of agitation, and of fear. Tove, a painter on holiday with her family, has spiraled into a psychosis that stirs her into a flurry of unbridled creativity. Geir, a policeman who has been investigating a grisly triple murder, comes to a sinister revelation he must keep to himself. Nineteen-year-old Line falls in love with the lead singer of a metal band and is lured into a secret and frightening world.
But most bewildering, and disquieting, is the discovery made by Syvert, an undertaker: since the star has appeared, no one has died.
In The Third Realm, Karl Ove Knausgaard returns to the spellbinding world of The Morning Star and The Wolves of Eternity, as a cast of new and familiar characters continue to reckon with the meaning of this star. What is haunting them, and why?
As supernatural forces collide with the mundanities of everyday, and the threshold between life and death becomes diffuse, people are forced to live their lives as before while the world around them slowly changes in inexplicable ways. Piercing through human existence into the bestial and phantasmagorical, Knausgaard flings opens the gates to our most distressing neuroses and forces us to ask: What happens if the dark forces in the world are set free?
“Knausgaard’s achievement in this novel is to combine Scandinavian crime fiction with science fiction, while integrating discussions of religion, philosophy, neurobiology, and music. A highly readable and compelling work by a major and prolific novelist.” – Jacqueline Snider, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Readers who come to this book first will find an entertaining story about people sorting through spiritual, domestic, and emotional confusion. But those who’ve read the prior novels will get a deeper sense of just how fascinating, frustrating, and unknowable we can be to each other, and the consequences of that disconnection. Typically contemplative for Knausgaard, but unusually propulsive as well.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“…one of the most genuinely suspenseful, alluring books I’ve ever read. Novel by novel, Knausgaard is replenishing some feral charge to the world. This book made me afraid of the dark again.” – Brandon Taylor, Washington Post
“[A] clarifying continuation, packed with philosophy, terror, and the beauty of the mundane. There’s plenty here to keep fans of the previous installments hooked.” – Publishers Weekly
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