“History will not let us forget: it wears disguises, reintroduces itself to us, claims it is someone new and wonderful. But let us not forget.” – Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs
Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World’s Greatest Museum by Elaine Sciolino
nonfiction / memoir / art / history / travel.
The Louvre is the most famous museum in the world, attracting millions of visitors every year with its masterpieces. In Adventures in the Louvre, Elaine Sciolino immerses herself in this magical space and helps us fall in love with what was once a forbidding fortress.
Exploring galleries, basements, rooftops, and gardens, Sciolino demystifies the Louvre, introducing us to her favorite artworks, both legendary and overlooked, and to the people who are the museum’s lifeblood: the curators, the artisans producing frames and engravings, the builders overseeing restorations, the firefighters protecting the aging structure.
Blending investigative journalism, travelogue, history, and memoir, Sciolino walks her readers through the museum’s front gates and immerses them in its irresistible, engrossing world of beauty and culture. Adventures in the Louvre reveals the secrets of this grand monument of Paris and basks in its timeless, seductive power.
“An intimate visit with a generous, genial guide.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] charmingly effusive love letter sure to delight art history buffs.” – Publishers Weekly
“[A] book that feels like a personal, one-on-one tour through the Louvre… No previous knowledge of the Louvre is necessary for this read, and the history of the museum is thoroughly and enjoyably discussed.” – Elizabeth Chandler, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
A/S/L by Jeanne Thornton
fiction.
1998: Lilith, Sash, and Abraxa are teenagers, scattered across the country but joined by the Internet as they create Saga of the Sorceress, a video game that will change everything, if only for the three of them.
Eighteen years later, Saga of the Sorceress still exists only on the scattered drives of its creators. Lilith works as a loan underwriter at a rinky-dink bank in Manhattan, a trans woman in a very cis world. Sash is in Brooklyn, working as a part-time webcam dominatrix. Neither knows that the other is in New York, or that Abraxa is just across the Hudson River, sleeping on the floor of a friend’s Jersey City home after a disaster at sea. They have never met in person and have been out of touch for years, but none have forgotten the sorceress or her unfinished quest.
Weaving together the technologies of two decades, and a healthy dose of magic, A/S/L is a novel that queers our notions of nostalgia, friendship, and even the possibilities of fiction itself, confirming Jeanne Thornton as one of our best and most ambitious novelists.
“A dazzlingly creative and heartfelt novel.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] friendship saga rendered in glimmering prose, chatroom transcripts, and the occasional diagram. The result is a BIG book—expansive, ambitious, idea-driven, and full of delightful details. And as in Thornton’s previous novel, Summer Fun, characters jump off the page.” – Brittany Allen, Literary Hub
“…ambitious and playful… Readers will rally around this feel-good tale of trans friendship.” – Publishers Weekly
The Birth of the Anglo-Saxons: Three Kings and a History of Britain at the Dawn of the Viking Age by Max Adams
nonfiction / history.
The eighth century has for too long been a neglected era in British history: a shadow land between the death of Saint Bede and the triumphs of King Ælfred and the eventual unification of England.
But before the victories of King Ælfred against the Viking invaders, the kingdom of Mercia—spread across a broad swathe of central England—was the reigning power that exercised central political authority for the first time since the Roman Empire. This authority was used to construct trading networks and markets; to develop strong economic, cultural, and political links with the Continent; and to lay the foundations for a system of defense that would be invigorated and reinvented by Ælfred at the end of the ninth century.
Two kings, Æthelbald (716–757) and Offa (757–796), dominated the political landscape of the rising power of Mercia. During their reigns, monasteries became powerhouses of royal patronage, economic enterprise, and trade. Offa constructed his grandiose dyke along the borders of the warlike Welsh Kingdoms and, more subtly, spread his message of political superiority through coinage bearing his image. But Æthelbald and Offa between them built something with an even more substantial legacy—a geography of medieval England. And these two kings engineered a set of tensions between kingship, landholding, and the church that were to play out dramatically at the dawn of the Viking Age.
In this illuminating history of Early Medieval Britain, Max Adams reconnects the worlds of the three kings—Æthelbald, Offa, and Ælfred—in an absorbing study of the landscape, society, and politics of a fascinating century of change.
“Highlighting an elusive and understudied part of English history, this book will appeal to many, especially readers interested in medieval history. The importance of the Mercian contribution to the building of a medieval English state cannot be underestimated.” – Chad E. Statler, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Adams argues that the rules by which Early Medieval English kings exercised power ‘are the same rules by which politicians and corporations play today.’ That, however, is only one of the many important ties between then and now… [a] straightforward and engrossing narrative.” – Robert S. Davis, New York Journal of Books
Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance by Joe Dunthorne
nonfiction / memoir / history / science.
When Joe Dunthorne began researching his family history, he expected to write the account of their harrowing escape from Nazi Germany in 1935. What he found in his great-grandfather Siegfried’s voluminous, unpublished, partially translated memoir was a much darker, more complicated story.
Siegfried was an eccentric Jewish scientist living in a small town north of Berlin, where he began by developing a radioactive toothpaste before moving on to products with a more sinister military connection—first he made and tested gas-mask filters, and then he was invited to establish a chemical weapons laboratory. By 1933, he was the laboratory’s director, helping the Nazis to “improve” their poisons and prepare for large-scale production. “I confess to my descendants who will read these lines that I made a grave error,” he wrote. “I cannot shake off the great debt on my conscience.”
Armed only with his great-grandfather’s rambling, nearly two-thousand-page deathbed memoir and a handful of archival clues, Dunthorne traveled to Munich, Ammendorf, Berlin, Ankara, and Oranienburg—a place where hundreds of unexploded bombs remain hidden in the irradiated soil—to uncover the sprawling, unsettling legacy of Siegfried’s work. Seeking to understand one “jolly grandpa” with a patchy psychiatric history, Dunthorne confronts the uncomfortable questions that lie at the heart of every family: Can we ever understand our origins? Is every family story a work of fiction? And if the truth can be found, will we be able to live with it?
Children of Radium is a witty and wry, deeply humane and endlessly surprising meditation on individual and collective inheritance that considers the long half-life of trauma, the weight of guilt, and the ever-evasive nature of the truth.
“The best book I’ve read in the past year… Dunthorne brings distinction and finesse to every sentence… A masterpiece.” – Andrew O’Hagan, Financial Times
“A deeply personal and universally resonant memoir about inherited guilt. With a tightly woven historical backdrop, this is a sweeping narrative rich in wisdom.” – Isabelle McConville, B&N Reads
“…riveting… Dunthorne strikes a near-perfect balance of history and personal reflection, and his questions about Merzbacher’s moral dilemmas resonate. This is a must-read.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
fiction / fantasy / mystery / suspense.
In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, a Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—vanishing from a room within a heavily guarded tower, its door and windows locked from the inside.
To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial detective, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.
Ana soon discovers that they are investigating not a disappearance but a murder—and one of surpassing cunning, carried out by an opponent who can pass through warded doors like a ghost.
Worse still, the killer may be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud, where the Empire harvests fallen titans for the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.
Din has seen his superior solve impossible cases before. But as the death toll grows and their quarry predicts each of Ana’s moves with uncanny foresight, he fears that she has at last met an enemy she can’t defeat.
“…wonderfully clever and compulsively readable… Bennett skillfully integrates humor and magic into the complex puzzle plot and plays fair with planting clues for the reader.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“This Holmes and Watson–like investigative duo are compelling to follow, and the truly epic fantasy world where the series is set, with its falling empire, corrupt politics, and magic pharmacopeia engineered from monster blood, takes the familiarity of mystery and creates a truly fantastic fever-dream of a world and a story.” – Marlene Harris, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“The story unfolds with a meticulousness that mirrors the precision of a master craftsman, pulling readers into a realm where the inexplicable becomes tantalizingly real… The central mystery is a labyrinth of political intrigue and moral quandaries. Bennett’s capacity to craft a narrative that keeps readers guessing until the final pages speaks volumes about his storytelling finesse… A Drop of Corruption is a resounding success, a perfect blend of mystery, fantasy, and social commentary.” – Boe Kelley, SFF Insiders
Fearless by Lauren Roberts
fiction / fantasy / romance.
Paedyn Gray and Kai Azer return to the Kingdom of Ilya…
And Paedyn has a life-altering choice to make.
Whatever she decides will determine her fate—and the fate of those around her—forever.
In the ultimate battle of love and loyalty, who wins?
“Brimming with a slow burn love and adventure, the epic conclusion to The Powerless trilogy is finally here.” – Syameen Salehaldin, Harper’s Bazaar
Freakslaw by Jane Flett
fiction / horror / fantasy.
It is the summer of ‘97 and the repressed Scottish town of Pitlaw is itching for change.
Enter the Freakslaw—a travelling carnival of deviant queers and architects of mayhem. There’s Gloria, fortune teller and worm charmer; her daughter Nancy, a contortionist witch; big-hearted tightrope walker, Werewolf Louie; not to mention illusionists and conjoined twins, Cass and Henry, and tattooed human pincushion, the Pin Gal. Against Pitlaw’s miserably grey landscape, the carnival shines electric and bright, and it doesn’t take long for the town’s teenagers to be seduced by its neon charms and the possibility of escape.
But beneath it all, these newcomers are harboring a darker desire: revenge. Revenge for being cast out, never allowed to settle, punished for purely existing. And as tensions reach fever pitch between the stoic, unwelcoming locals and the dazzling intruders, a violence that has been bubbling for centuries is about to be unleashed…
Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love meets Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus in this sizzling debut by a writer as captivating as she is incisive, as wild as she is precise. Read this and try not to run away with the Freakslaw. Go on. We dare you.
“This book is everything… an ode to Tod Browning’s Freaks, Kathryn Dunn’s Geek Love, and Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes… Grotesque, creepy, and celebratory, Freakslaw is sure to be one biggest books of the year (and possibly, one of the defining novels of the century).” – Molly Odintz, CrimeReads
“…beautifully bizarre and emotionally real… The residents of Pitlaw are as fascinating as the Pin Gal or Werewolf Louie because Flett recognizes the beauty in all of her characters… Flett’s striking story is less about good versus evil and more about the predictable comfort of conformity versus the desire to be one’s true self.” – James Gardner, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“…transgressive stuff that lives around the edges of the mainstream, but it has plenty of dark comedy running through its veins… a picaresque, Day-Glo nightmare of a book, a modern slice of folk horror that shows heaps of promise for the future.” – Doug Johnstone, Big Issue
Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake
fiction / fantasy / science fiction.
Where there’s a will, there’s a war.
Thayer Wren, the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology, is dead. Any one of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne.
Or at least, so they like to think.
Meredith, textbook accomplished eldest daughter and the head of her own groundbreaking biotech company, has recently cured mental illness. You’re welcome! If only her father’s fortune wasn’t her last hope for keeping her journalist ex-boyfriend from exposing what she really is: a total fraud.
Arthur, second-youngest congressman in history, fights the good fight every day of his life. And yet, his wife might be leaving him, and he’s losing his re-election campaign. But his dead father’s approval in the form of a seat on the Wrenfare throne might just turn his sinking ship around.
Eilidh, once the world’s most famous ballerina, has spent the last five years as a run-of-the-mill marketing executive at her father’s company after a life-altering injury put an end to her prodigious career. She might be lacking in accolades compared to her siblings, but if her father left her everything, it would finally validate her worth—by confirming she’d been his favorite all along.
On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins—but which Wren will come out on top?
“…The Royal Tenenbaums crossed with Fleishman is in Trouble… Blake has some fun tricks up her sleeve, including a cool riff on magical powers and a narrative voice to die for. Absolutely her best book yet.” – Drew Broussard, Literary Hub
“…riveting… just the kind of deliciously toxic interpersonal miasma that Blake’s fans have come to expect.” – Publishers Weekly
“Blake’s command of morally gray characters and grim humor creates a dramatic, Succession-esque novel about a powerful, dysfunctional family.” – Kristi Chadwick, Library Journal
Heartwood by Amity Gaige
fiction / mystery / suspense.
In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.
At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental.
Heartwood is a “gem of a thousand facets—suspenseful, transporting, tender, and ultimately soul-mending,” (Megan Majumdar, New York Times bestselling author of A Burning) that tells the story of a lost hiker’s odyssey and is a moving rendering of each character’s interior journey. The mystery inspires larger questions about the many ways in which we get lost, and how we are found. At its core, Heartwood is a redemptive novel, written with both enormous literary ambition and love.
“A crackling adventure story, a meditation on the fraught human connection to nature, and a subtle examination of the rocky relationships between mothers and daughters that shape the lives of its three main characters, the novel tightens its grip as it moves toward uncovering its central mysteries.” – Margarate Quamme, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“A winning portrait of a woman, and community, in peril.” – Kirkus Reviews
I See You’ve Called in Dead by John Kenney
fiction / comedy.
Bud Stanley is an obituary writer who is afraid to live. Yes, his wife recently left him for a “far more interesting” man. Yes, he goes on a particularly awful blind date with a woman who brings her ex. And yes, he has too many glasses of Scotch one night and proceeds to pen and publish his own obituary. The newspaper wants to fire him. But now the company’s system has him listed as dead. And the company can’t fire a dead person. The ensuing fallout forces him to realize that life may be actually worth living.
As Bud awaits his fate at work, his life hangs in the balance. Given another shot by his boss and encouraged by his best friend, Tim, a worldly and wise former art dealer, Bud starts to attend the wakes and funerals of strangers to learn how to live.
Thurber Prize-winner and New York Times bestselling author John Kenney tells a funny, touching story about life and death, about the search for meaning, about finding and never letting go of the preciousness of life.
“A touching ode to the people who make life worth living.” – Kirkus Reviews
“[A] razor-sharp, darkly comedic, and emotionally piercing exploration of unexpected connections, romantic disappointments, and professional crises… I See You’ve Called in Dead is a witty and heartwarming reminder of the bottomless despair, limitless absurdity, and undeniable joy of the human experience.” – Stephanie Turza, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“…sensational… With equal measures of laughter and tears along the way, this character-driven novel probes the psyche of the contemporary male mind and takes readers in unexpected directions, all leading to a very satisfying conclusion.” – Todd Krueger, Library Reads
The Last American Road Trip: A Memoir by Sarah Kendzior
nonfiction / memoir / travel / politics / history.
It is one thing to study the fall of democracy, another to have it hit your homeland — and yet another to raise children as it happens. The Last American Road Trip is one family’s journey to the most beautiful, fascinating, and bizarre places in the US during one of its most tumultuous eras. As Kendzior works as a journalist chronicling political turmoil, she becomes determined that her young children see America before it’s too late. So Kendzior, her husband, and the kids hit the road — again and again.
Starting from Missouri, the family drives across America in every direction as cataclysmic events –- the rise of autocracy, political and technological chaos, and the pandemic –- reshape American life. They explore Route 66, national parks, historical sites, and Americana icons as Kendzior contemplates love for country in a broken heartland. Together, the family watches the landscape of the United States — physical, environmental, social, political — transform through the car window.
Part memoir, part political history, The Last American Road Trip is one mother’s promise to her children that their country will be there for them in the future –- even though at times she struggles to believe it herself.
“[An] equally diligent yet emotionally nuanced memoir.” – Julia Maxwell, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] perceptive guide through a nation falling apart.” – BookPage
“A graceful—and righteously angry—travelogue through a troubled land.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
The Library of Lost Dollhouses by Elise Hooper
fiction / historical fiction / mystery.
Tildy Barrows, Head Curator of a beautiful archival library in San Francisco, is meticulously dedicated to the century’s worth of inventory housed in her beloved Beaux Art building. She loves the calm and order in the shelves of books and walls of art. But Tildy’s life takes an unexpected turn when she, first, learns the library is on the verge of bankruptcy and, second, discovers two exquisite never-before-seen dollhouses.
After finding clues hidden within these remarkable miniatures, Tildy sets out to decipher the secret history of the dollhouses, aiming to salvage her cherished library in the process. Her journey introduces her to a world of ambitious and gifted women in Belle Époque Paris, a group of scarred World War I veterans in the English countryside, and Walt Disney’s bustling Burbank studio in the 1950s. As Tildy unravels the mystery, she finds not only inspiring, hidden history, but also a future for herself—and an astonishing familial revelation.
Spanning the course of a century, The Library of Lost Dollhouses is a warm, bright, and captivating story of secrets and love that embraces the importance of illuminating overlooked women.
“Fans of Kate Morton, Sarah Blake, and Fiona Davis will appreciate the novel’s lush, atmospheric settings, interwoven narratives, and exploration of historical details. Hooper’s heartwarming story explores the connections between memory and legacy as it shines a light on the often unseen and unappreciated labor of women in the arts.” – Stephanie Turza, Booklist
“…beautifully blends large truths about the ways in which talented, influential women have often been overlooked and undervalued with a fictional tale of love, loss, relationship and real life… A wonderful read that pulls you in and immerses you in a story of history that could have been.” – Lara Ferguson, The Gloss
Run Away With Me by Brian Selznick
fiction / young adult / romance.
“I’m going to call you Danny. What are you going to name me?”
“Angelo.”
Danny is spending his sixteenth summer in Rome. As his mother spends the day at work in a mysterious museum, he wanders the ancient sites and streets. Soon after his arrival, he encounters a shadow… who becomes a voice… who becomes a boy his age. Angelo.
Soon Danny and Angelo are spending as much time as they can together, piecing together stories of the city while only gradually letting their own histories be shared. Attraction leads to affection, and affection leads to both an intimate closeness and a profound fear of what happens next. Danny has never really had a home, or known the love of another boy. Angelo seems to have more experience… but he also has secrets just out of Danny’s reach.
Run Away With Me is a stunning creation, weaving words and illustration to tell the story of a transformative love over the course of one Roman summer.
“Intricate and wondrous.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Selznick meticulously weaves in cultural elements of the city, ancient and recent history, and mystery with his characteristic finesse, pulling together a tale not just of young love but of old romances, the power of a good story, and the lasting impact of what we leave behind. ” – Kelly Ferreira, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez ★
fiction / romance.
There’s no such thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes—all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediate yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong… unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake.
But after one incredible and seemingly endless date, Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be. Only no amount of distance or time is enough to forget what’s between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.
“Abby writes love stories with the kind of depth and nuance that rings true, and though her stories are layered with pain, they always deliver relief.” – Tahereh Mafi, People
“A big-hearted story about family, memory, love and heartbreak, Abby Jimenez’s latest can’t be missed.” – Isabelle McConville, B&N Reads
“…heartwarming… The author expertly weaves a beautiful budding romance with real-life struggles… Jimenez knows just how to tug on the heartstrings.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Jimenez’s latest soul-satisfying love story spotlights two memorably messy yet all-too relatable protagonists, a couple of totally adorable four-legged characters, and writing imbued with a deliciously wicked sense of humor. Gracefully folded into all this is an insightful and sympathetic take on the challenges and rewards of caring for a loved one with dementia.” – John Charles, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
The Sirens by Emilia Hart
fiction / fantasy / historical fiction / mystery.
2019: Lucy awakens from a dream to find her hands around her ex-lover’s throat. Horrified, she flees to her older sister’s house on the Australian coast, hoping she can help explain the strangely vivid nightmare that preceded the attack—but Jess is nowhere to be found.
As Lucy awaits her return, the rumors surrounding Jess’s strange small town start to emerge. Numerous men have gone missing at sea, spread over decades. A tiny baby was found hidden in a cave. And sailors tell of hearing women’s voices on the waves. Desperate for answers, Lucy finds and begins to read her sister’s adolescent diary.
1999: Jess is a lonely sixteen-year-old in a rural town in the middle of the continent. Diagnosed with a rare allergy to water, she has always felt different, until her young, charming art teacher takes an interest in her drawings, seeing a power and maturity in them—and in her—that no one else has.
1800: Twin sisters Mary and Eliza have been torn from their loving father in Ireland and forced onto a convict ship bound for Australia. For their entire lives, they’ve feared the ocean, as their mother tragically drowned when they were just girls. Yet as the boat bears them further and further from all they know, they begin to notice changes in their bodies that they can’t explain, and they feel the sea beginning to call to them…
A breathtaking tale of female resilience and the bonds of sisterhood across time and space, The Sirens captures the power of dreams, and the mystery and magic of the sea.
“Hart’s second novel weaves a lyrical story, intricately blending family dynamics with the magic of folklore.” – Joy Gunn, Library Journal
“Hart skillfully entwines mystical aspects into what could be construed as part-fairytale, but for me, its multiple timeframes and historical settings are firmly grounded… entrancing… the author should be extremely proud.” – Fiona Alison, Historical Novel Society
“…lushly written… haunting and atmospheric… Read The Sirens if you’d like a surreal, feminist family drama focused on sisterhood, truth, trauma and healing.” – Melody Bowles, The British Fantasy Society
Swept Away by Beth O’Leary
fiction / romance / suspense.
What if you were lost at sea… with your one-night stand?
Zeke and Lexi thought it would just be a night of fun. They had no intentions of seeing each other again. Zeke is only in town for the weekend to buy back his late father’s houseboat. Lexi has no time for dating when she needs to help take care of her best friend’s daughter.
Going back home with a stranger seems like a perfect escape from their problems. But a miscommunication in the dark, foggy night means no one tied the houseboat to the dock. The next morning, Zeke and Lexi realize all they can see is miles and miles of water.
With just a few provisions on the idle boat, Zeke and Lexi must figure out how to get back home. But aside from their survival, they’re facing another challenge. Because when you’re stuck together for days on end, it gives you a lot of time to get to know someone—and to fall in love with them.
“[A] delightfully entertaining rom-com with witty writing and complex characters.” – Tracy Babiasz, Booklist
“…O’Leary deftly threads the needle, giving the story real stakes while keeping a happily-ever-after on the horizon. Romance readers looking for deep emotions and relationship fiction aficionados who want a little heat with their stories will enjoy this unique tale.” – Jenny Kobiela-Mondor, Library Journal
“This book is so much more than I expected… turn[s] a high-concept premise into an incredibly realistic portrayal of human survival and an exploration of the bonds we forge, whether or not we mean to, with those we trust… emotional, and tense, and beautiful.” – Emily, The Literarian
The Usual Desire to Kill by Camilla Barnes
fiction / comedy.
Miranda’s parents live in a dilapidated house in rural France that they share with two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer full of food dating back to 1983.
Miranda’s father is a retired professor of philosophy who never loses an argument. Miranda’s mother likes to bring conversation back to “the War,” although she was born after it ended. Married for fifty years, they are uncommonly set in their ways. Miranda plays the role of translator when she visits, communicating the desires or complaints of one parent to the other and then venting her frustration to her sister and her daughter. At the end of a visit, she reports “the usual desire to kill.”
This wry, propulsive story about a singularly eccentric family and the sibling rivalry, generational divides, and long-buried secrets that shape them, is a glorious debut novel from a seasoned playwright with immense empathy and a flair for dialogue.
“…Barnes combines humor with pathos in her heart-wrenching debut… an unforgettable story about the limits of judging others.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Our favorite book families tend to be delightfully dysfunctional, and there’s no one quite like this one… a quirky and heartfelt novel that reminds readers our parents had lives before us.” – Isabelle McConville, B&N Reads
“Barnes’ empathetic prose is simple and gentle, and each point of view brings a new, sometimes painful perspective to the table, but only the reader knows the full story. With this intimate novel, Barnes explores long marriage, sibling rivalry, truths behind shifting memories, and family secrets as well as examining the decisions people make in life, the long-term effects of those decisions, and how well one truly knows the people they love.” – Lily Hunter, Booklist
Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto
fiction / mystery / comedy.
Ever since a man was found dead in Vera’s teahouse, life has been good. For Vera that is. She’s surrounded by loved ones, her shop is bustling, and best of all, her son, Tilly, has a girlfriend! All thanks to Vera, because Tilly’s girlfriend is none other than Officer Selena Gray. The very same Officer Gray that she had harassed while investigating the teahouse murder. Still, Vera wishes more dead bodies would pop up in her shop, but one mustn’t be ungrateful, even if one is slightly… bored.
Then Vera comes across a distressed young woman who is obviously in need of her kindly guidance. The young woman is looking for a missing friend. Fortunately, while cat-sitting at Tilly and Selena’s, Vera finds a treasure trove: Selena’s briefcase. Inside is a file about the death of an enigmatic influencer—who also happens to be the friend that the young woman was looking for.
Online, Xander had it all: a parade of private jets, fabulous parties with socialites, and a burgeoning career as a social media influencer. The only problem is, after his body is fished out of Mission Bay, the police can’t seem to actually identify him. Who is Xander Lin? Nobody knows. Every contact is a dead end. Everybody claims not to know him, not even his parents.
Vera is determined to solve Xander’s murder. After all, doing so would surely be a big favor to Selena, and there is nothing she wouldn’t do for her future daughter-in-law.
“This easy read is fun, witty, and Vera collecting ‘strays’ like lost cats is just the best!” – Allison Speakmon, Speaking of…
“…laugh-out-loud… Packed with humor, heart and suspense, Sutanto proves once again that no crime — or nosy auntie — is too big to handle.” – Jordan Snowden, Seattle Times
“A warmhearted valentine to the families built by the heroine—and an exposé of the costs of false families everywhere.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory
fiction / science fiction / fantasy.
JP and Dulin have been the best of friends for decades. When JP finds out his cancer has aggressively returned, Dulin decides it’s the perfect time for one last adventure: a week-long bus tour of North America’s Impossibles, the physics-defying glitches and geographic miracles that started cropping up seven years earlier—right after the Announcement that revealed our world to be merely a digital simulacrum. The outing, courtesy of Canterbury Trails Tours, promises the trip of a (not completely real) lifetime in a (not completely deluxe) coach.
Their fellow passengers are 21st-century pilgrims, each of them on the tour for their own reasons. There’s a nun hunting for an absent God, a pregnant influencer determined to make her child too famous to be deleted, a crew of horny octogenarians living each day like it’s their last, and a professor on the run from leather-clad sociopaths who take The Matrix as scripture. Each stop on this trip is stranger than the last—a Tunnel outside of time, a zero gravity Geyser, the compound of motivational-speaking avatar—with everyone barreling toward the tour’s iconic final stop Ghost City, where unbeknownst to our travelers the answer to who is running the simulation may await.
When We Were Real is a tour-de-force and exploration of what really matters, even in an artificial world.
“[A] five-star adventure by an author at the peak of his craft.” – Don Vicha, Booklist
“It’s a testament to Gregory’s skill at character development that the people in this novel, and not the bizarre phenomena they’re observing, are the most fascinating part. This is a marvel. Big-hearted, generous, and beautifully written.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] tour de force that will likely satisfy both readers familiar with Gregory’s signature inventiveness and anyone fascinated by the sort of post-Dickian reality-testing that he handles here with unusual sophistication and – more important, perhaps – with a cast of characters whose fates seem worth investing in.” – Gary K. Wolfe, Locus
Where Shadows Meet by Patrice Caldwell
fiction / young adult / fantasy / romance.
You have no idea what I’ve done for love. Just as you have no idea what you may one day do.
Once long ago, a girl named Favre sacrificed her wings for love. Thana, the young goddess she so willingly gave them up for, sacrificed that same love for power. But everything has a cost.
Favre never got over the loss of her wings. And Thana’s choices led to a life of eternal night, and later, their destruction. Favre has bided her time ever since, waiting for the chance to resurrect the girl she loves who turned her into the creature she hates.
Now, a thousand years later, Leyla, the crown princess of a vampire nation, must travel to Nekros, the island of the dead, when her best friend is captured during an attack on her nation’s capital. But nothing is as it seems. The closer she gets to her goal, the more her body seems to work against her, and the more she risks awakening an ancient evil and destroying everything she holds dear.
Set in the aftermath of a war between vampires, humans, and the gods that created them, Patrice Caldwell’s devastatingly romantic fantasy debut, Where Shadows Meet, centers the heart-wrenching pain of loss and the struggle of self-discovery to ask: do we choose our fates, or do our fates choose us?
“…superbly balances romantic tension with complex world building while staying within the bounds of YA literature, making it a welcome and much-needed addition.” – Austin Ferraro, Booklist
“A thrilling and inventive take on familiar vampire lore, enhanced by the plight of star-crossed lovers.” – Kirkus Reviews
“…Caldwell deftly demonstrates the intoxicating—and sometimes toxic—nature of the characters’ mutual devotion. It’s an enticing addition to the dark sapphic fantasy canon that’s filled with inventive ideas.” – Publishers Weekly
Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler
fiction / science fiction / suspense.
In the authoritarian Federation, there is a plot to assassinate and replace the President, a man who has downloaded his mind to a succession of new bodies to maintain his grip on power. Meanwhile, on the fringes of a Western Europe that has renounced human governance in favor of ostensibly more efficient, objective, and peaceful AI Prime Ministers, an experimental artificial mind is malfunctioning, threatening to set off a chain of events that may spell the end of the Western world.
As the Federation and the West both start to crumble, Lilia, the brilliant scientist whose invention may be central to bringing down the seemingly immortal President, goes on the run, trying to break out from a near-impenetrable web of Federation surveillance. Her fate is bound up with a worldwide group of others fighting against the global status quo: Palmer, the man Lilia left behind in London, desperate to solve the mystery of her disappearance; Zoya, a veteran activist imprisoned in the taiga, whose book has inspired a revolutionary movement; Nikolai, the President’s personal physician, who has been forced into more and more harrowing decisions as he navigates the Federation’s palace politics; and Nurlan, the hapless parliamentary staffer whose attempt to save his Republic goes terribly awry. And then there is Krotov, head of the Federation’s security services, whose plots, agents, and assassins are everywhere.
Following the success of his debut novel, The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler launches readers into a thrilling near-future world of geopolitical espionage. A cybernetic novel of political intrigue, Where the Axe is Buried combines the story of a near-impossible revolutionary operation with a blistering indictment of the many forms of authoritarianism that suffocate human freedom.
“A richly detailed evocation of a grim future that is, sadly, absolutely believable.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Thought-provoking in the extreme, Nayler’s sci-fi cyberthriller will trap fans of technothrillers in its web.” – Marlene Harris, Library Journal
“…astonishingly good… one of the best constructed novels I’ve read for a while.” – B. Morris Allen, Metaphorosis Reviews
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