“Why can’t people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?” – David Baldacci, The Camel Club
The Fairbanks Four: Murder, Injustice, and the Birth of a Movement by Brian Patrick O’Donoghue
nonfiction / true crime / history.
October, 1997. Late one night in Fairbanks, Alaska, a passerby finds a teenager unconscious, collapsed on the edge of the road, beaten nearly beyond recognition. Two days later, he dies in the hospital. His name is John Gilbert Hartman and he’s just turned 15 years old. The police quickly arrest four suspects, all under the age of 21 and of Alaska Native and American Indian descent. Police lineup witnesses, trials follow, and all four men receive lengthy prison terms. Case closed.
But journalist Brian Patrick O’Donoghue can’t put the story out of his mind. When the opportunity arises to teach a class on investigative reporting, he finally digs into what happened to the “Fairbanks Four.” A relentless search for the truth ensues as O’Donoghue and his students uncover the lies, deceit, and prejudice that put four innocent young men in jail.
The Fairbanks Four is the gripping story of a brutal crime and its sprawling aftermath in the frigid Alaska landscape. It’s a story of collective action as one journalist, his students, and the Fairbanks indigenous community challenge the verdicts. It’s the story of a broken justice system, and the effort required to keep hope alive. This is the story of the Fairbanks Four.
“A powerful story of a wrong made right, or as right as it can be.” – C.C. Harrison, New York Journal of Books
“[An] evocative, novelistic recounting of the crime, its aftermath, and its impact on this small Alaskan community. With a seasoned journalist’s expertise, he not only recounts the facts of the case, but also paints portraits of the lives and personalities of the people impacted. He guides the reader unerringly through a complex tale where, like the best true-crime stories, the crime itself is only the beginning.” – Gary Day, Booklist
“[An] admirable testament to the power of local journalism and citizen justice efforts.” – Alice Cary, BookPage
Fish Tales by Nettie Jones
fiction.
Lewis Jones is a party girl for the ages. Confident and cavalier, she seeks freedom and a good time, leaving mayhem in her wake. Strutting between the bohemian demimonde of New York City and the affluent Black community of Detroit, she is supported in her adventures by her husband, Woody, and accompanied by her friend Kitty-Kat, a gay hustler with impeccable style and a knack for finding all the best spots. She guzzles champagne, snorts piles of cocaine, wakes up on silk sheets with a variety of lovers. And then she is upended by the handsome, erudite, often cruel Brook—a man who has his own bevy of admirers. Soon, Lewis and Brook are ensnared in a struggle for dominance that launches them into a shock of violence.
A bold exploration of the blurred line between love and control, pleasure and addiction, Fish Tales offers a glittering, devastating portrait of a woman’s pursuit of her own kind of freedom. It is a striking deluge of longing, anxiety, ego, identity, and love. As provocative as it is moving, as profane as it is artful, Nettie Jones’s Fish Tales illuminates the warring forces of power, desire, intimacy, and fear, and exposes the raw nerve of our yearning to be loved on our own terms.
“Nettie Jones’s voice is astonishing. It leaps off the page like a panther… Unlike anything I’ve ever read.” – Joumana Khatib, New York Times
“Nettie Jones’ long-out-of-print 1983 debut, Fish Tales, feels just as edgy as it did when it was first released more than 40 years ago.” – Shannon Carlin, Time
“[A] wild novel… we’ll all be better for it having been rediscovered.” – Emily Firetog, Literary Hub
Hellions: Stories by Julia Elliott
fiction / short stories / horror / fantasy.
From the acclaimed author of The Wilds comes an electric story collection that blends folklore, fairy tales, Southern Gothic, and horror, reveling in the collision of the familiar with the wildly surreal.
In a plague-stricken medieval convent, a nun works on a forbidden mystic manuscript, pining for Christ’s love. During a long, muggy July in rural South Carolina, an adolescent girl finds unexpected power as her family obsesses over the horror film The Exorcist. On the outskirts of a Southern college town, a young woman resists the tyranny of a shape-shifting older professor as she develops her own sorceress skills. And at a feminist art colony in the North Carolina mountains, a group of mothers contends with the supernatural talents their children have picked up from a pair of mysterious orphans who live in the woods.
With exuberance, ferocity, and astounding imagination, Julia Elliott’s Hellions jumps from the occult to the comic, from the horrific to the wondrous, presenting earthbound characters who long for the otherworldly.
“Hellions is a captivating collection that brings a blend of surreality and Southern gothic horror into every short story… Julia Elliott masterfully crafts these haunting tales, bringing both comedy and a dreadful sense of eeriness to every page.” – Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books
“Blurring the line between reality and fantasy, Hellions provides an unsettling look at what it means to be alienated in our technology-driven world.” – Shannon Carlin, Time
“…intoxicating… Elliott’s rich and magical landscape will pull readers in.” – Publishers Weekly
Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage
fiction / mystery / comedy.
Things are heating up, and not just because of Blanche’s hot flashes. Rose’s cousin is eloping to Miami, and Rose is playing host. If she can’t balance the groom’s family’s snobbery against the traditional St. Olaf wedding week guidelines, her hometown may never accept her cousin again!
Dorothy quickly realizes she needs a date with whom she can exchange wedding-related wisecracks. Turning to a newfangled VHS dating service, she believes she’s found the ideal conversationalist. Unfortunately, what looks good on TV can actually be a total jerk in real life. It seems she’ll just have to enjoy the company of Sophia, Blanche, and whomever Blanche has targeted for a hookup.
As the Girls all pitch in, Rose is thrilled that the tea-and-fish-themed kickoff event is perfect, not a herring out of place. That is until Dorothy’s date is found dead—face-planted in an otherwise scrumptious-looking cheesecake. With every guest a suspect (especially Dorothy) and a marriage on the line, the four besties must ID the real killer, get the should-be-happy couple down the aisle, and make sure nobody from St. Olaf gets lost in the wilds of Miami. It’s up to the Golden Girls to sleuth out a way for friendship and love to win the day!
“The Golden Girls—Dorothy, Blanche, Rose, and Sophia—live again in this sparkling cozy… Humor, plot twists, convincing portrayals of the Golden Girls, and the Miami setting add up to a satisfying cozy that will be relished by Golden Girls fans.” – Sue O’Brien, Booklist
“Golden Girls plus cozy mystery equals match made in heaven! This novel is nostalgic fun for fans of the TV show and might even draw some new fans in with the atmospheric 80s Miami vibes… Readers will be left hoping the series continues with more mysteries for the ladies to solve.” – Elizabeth Matyka, Library Reads
“Courage splendidly captures the voices and mannerisms of her much-loved characters, and wisely resists the impulse to modernize the show’s 1980s Miami setting. For Golden Girls fans, this is a nostalgic delight.” – Publishers Weekly
The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward by Melinda French Gates
nonfiction / memoir / self help.
“You don’t get to be my age without navigating all kinds of transitions. Some you embraced and some you never expected. Some you hoped for and some you fought as hard as you could.”
Transitions are moments in which we step out of our familiar surroundings and into a new landscape―a space that, for many people, is shadowed by confusion, fear, and indecision. The Next Day accompanies readers as they cross that space, offering guidance on how to make the most of the time between an ending and a new beginning and how to move forward into the next day when the ground beneath you is shifting.
In this book, Melinda will reflect, for the first time in print, on some of the most significant transitions in her own life, including becoming a parent, the death of a dear friend, and her departure from the Gates Foundation. The stories she tells illuminate universal lessons about loosening the bonds of perfectionism, helping friends navigate times of crisis, embracing uncertainty, and more.
Each one of us, no matter who we are or where we are in life, is headed toward transitions of our own. With her signature warmth and grace, Melinda candidly shares stories of times when she was in need of wisdom and shines a path through the open space stretching out before us all.
“Thoughtful and reflective…” – Christina Ianzito, AARP
“[An] illuminating, honest take on the moments between her peaks, and a reminder that while you can’t control what happens, you can choose how to navigate it.” – Town & Country
Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman ★
fiction / science fiction / fantasy.
When your parents die, you find out who they really were.
Griffon Keming’s second parents saved him from his abusive family. They taught him how to be trans, paid for his transition, and tried to love him as best they could. But Griffon’s new parents had troubles of their own – both were deeply scarred by the lives they lived before Griffon, the struggles they faced to become themselves, and the failed revolution that drove them from their homeland. When they died, they left an unfillable hole in his heart.
Griffon’s best clue to his parents’ lives is in his father’s journal, written from a jail cell while he awaited execution. Stained with blood, grief, and tears, these pages struggle to contain the love story of two artists on fire. With the journal in hand, Griffon hopes to pin down his relationship to these wonderful and strange people for whom time always seemed to be running out.
In Notes from a Regicide, a trans family saga set in a far-off, familiar future, Isaac Fellman goes beyond the concept of found family to examine how deeply we can be healed and hurt by those we choose to love.
“Notes from a Regicide is one of those rare novels that stick with you long after you’ve put it down. Mark it as an early contender for the best book you’ll read in 2025.” – Calvin Kasulke, Literary Hub
“Expansive and empathetic, this novel is a stunner.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Prescient, emotionally nuanced, and remarkably well told, this offers plenty to sink one’s teeth into.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] triumphant and blistering chronicle of found family, love, and resistance.” – Raychel Bennet, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt
fiction.
Set in a remote village in the north of England, Open, Heaven unfolds over the course of one year in which two teenage boys meet and transform each other’s lives.
James—a sheltered, shy sixteen-year-old—is alone in his newly discovered sexuality, full of an unruly desire but entirely inexperienced. As he is beginning to understand himself and his longings, he also realizes how his feelings threaten to separate him from his family and the rural community he has grown up in. He dreams of another life, fantasizing about what lies beyond the village’s leaf-ribboned boundaries, beyond his reach: autonomy, tenderness, sex. Then, in the autumn of 2002, he meets Luke, a slightly older boy, handsome, unkempt, who comes with a reputation for danger. Abandoned by his parents—his father imprisoned, and his mother having moved to France for another man—Luke has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on their farm just outside the village. James is immediately drawn to him “like the pull a fire makes on the air, dragging things into it and blazing them into its hot, white centre,” drawn to this boy who is beautiful and impulsive, charismatic, troubled. But underneath Luke’s bravado is a deep wound—a longing for the love of his father and for the stability of family life.
Open, Heaven is a novel about desire, yearning, and the terror of first love. With the striking economy and lyricism that animate his work as a poet, Hewitt has written a mesmerizing hymn to boyhood, sensuality, and love in all its forms. A truly exceptional debut.
“…superb… Anchored by a grounded sense of place and the universal theme of adolescent longing, Hewitt’s narrative strikes a resonant chord. It’s a stunner.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“A luminescent debut from one of the most brilliant young poets writing today. Open, Heaven is a gorgeous, heartbreaking queer coming-of-age novel on the unrelenting yearning and agony of first love. Hewitt’s writing is (unsurprisingly) poetic and emotive and perfect for fans of Douglas Stuart, Garth Greenwell and Tomasz Jedrowski.” – Foyles
“Hewitt’s success in Open, Heaven is in its questioning of our foundational impressions of love, and even further, our ability to truly offer it to one another… The closeness shared between James and Luke is heartwarming to read, feeling specific and universal at once. Hewitt’s language is lush and beaming… Open, Heaven is a soaring demonstration that ‘heaven’ is a place that we ourselves create, gilded over and rippling in our imaginations—and that it may be impossible to reach for just that reason.” – Henry Hicks IV, The Brooklyn Rail
The Perfect Divorce by Jeneva Rose
fiction / suspense / mystery.
It’s been eleven years since high-powered attorney Sarah Morgan defended her husband, Adam, against the charge of murdering his mistress. Sarah has long since moved on, starting a family with her new husband, Bob Miller, and changing careers. Her life is back to being exactly how she always wanted… or is it?
After discovering Bob engaged in a one-night stand, Sarah wastes no time filing for divorce. However, amid their ugly separation, new DNA evidence is uncovered in the case against Adam, forcing the police to reopen the investigation and putting Sarah right back in the spotlight. Everyone wants to know what really happened, most of all former deputy Marcus Hudson, who is hell-bent on finding the truth.
But when the woman Bob slept with is reported missing, he and Sarah start to fight dirty, and a high-stakes game of cat and mouse ensues. Filled with page-turning suspense and Jeneva Rose’s signature twists and turns, this book will have readers wondering, Can Bob and Sarah achieve the perfect divorce? Or will it be “till death do us part”?
“[A] classic cat-and-mouse thriller from an author at the top of her game.” – Isabelle McConville, B&N Reads
“…readers who enjoyed Sarah’s first outing will love the twists, machinations, and surprises of this scintillating sequel.” – Kristine Huntley, Booklist
“Rose has a lot of fun with her characters’ attempts to implicate each other in the book’s overlapping criminal investigations, and maintains wicked tension from the opening pages.” – Publishers Weekly
The Rebel Romanov: Julie of Saxe-Coburg, the Empress Russia Never Had by Helen Rappaport
nonfiction / biography / history.
In 1795, Catherine the Great of Russia was in search of a bride for her grandson Constantine, who stood third in line to her throne. In an eerie echo of her own story, Catherine selected an innocent young German princess, Julie of Saxe-Coburg, aunt of the future Queen Victoria. Though Julie had everything a young bride could wish for, she was alone in a court dominated by an aging empress and riven with rivalries, plotting, and gossip―not to mention her brute of a husband, who was tender one moment and violent the next. She longed to leave Russia and her disastrous marriage, but her family in Germany refused to allow her to do so.
Desperate for love, Julie allegedly sought consolation in the arms of others. Finally, Tsar Alexander granted her permission to leave in 1801, even though her husband was now heir to the throne. Rootless in Europe, Julie gave birth to two―possibly three―illegitimate children, all of whom she was forced to give up for adoption. Despite entreaties from Constantine to return and provide an heir, she refused, eventually finding love with her own married physician.
At a time when many royal brides meekly submitted to disastrous marriages, Julie proved to be a woman ahead of her time, sacrificing her reputation and a life of luxury in exchange for the freedom to live as she wished. The Rebel Romanov is the inspiring tale of a bold woman who, until now, has been ignored by history.
“Rappaport revivifies this often forgotten and unique personality.” – Mark Knoblauch, Booklist
“[A] captivating historical saga of a woman in revolt.” – Publishers Weekly
“The very definition of being ahead of her time, this is the story of a woman meant to be a bride, but who refused to settle into the traditional role asked of her. Fascinating history meets timeless themes in this inspiring character study.” – Isabelle McConville, B&N Reads
Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi
fiction / historical fiction / mystery.
When renowned painter Mira Novak arrives at Wadia hospital in Bombay after a miscarriage, she’s expected to make a quick recovery, and her nurse, Sona, is excited to learn more about the vivacious artist who shares her half-Indian identity. Sona, yearning for a larger life, finds herself carried away by Mira’s stories of her travels and exploits and is shocked by accounts of the many lovers the painter has left scattered throughout Europe. When Mira dies quite suddenly and mysteriously, Sona falls under suspicion, and her quiet life is upended.
The key to proving Sona’s innocence may lie in a cryptic note and four paintings Mira left in her care, sending the young woman on a mission to visit the painter’s former friends and lovers across a tumultuous Europe teetering toward war. On the precipice of discovering her own identity, Sona learns that the painter’s charming facade hid a far more complicated, troubled soul.
In her first stand-alone novel since her bestselling debut, The Henna Artist, Alka Joshi uses the life of painter Amrita Sher-Gil, the “Frida Kahlo of India,” as inspiration for the story’s beginning to explore how far we’ll travel to determine where we truly belong.
“[A] page-turner… Six Days in Bombay is about strong women and friendship, facing one’s fears, and accepting help and enjoying love when it presents itself.” – Miriam Bradman Abrahams, Jewish Book Council
“A timely novel of friendship, identity and mystery inspired by a real historical woman… explores the way women are viewed when they operate outside their accepted realm.” – Dr. Wendy Hooper-Meletes, Ed.D, Sasee
“Six Days in Bombay is a worldly and expansive novel. It will stretch your horizons and urge you to dream big. Sona’s empowered story to fight for the life she wants to lead is sure to leave you filled with a renewed sense of fervor and vitality.” – Gabrielle Viner, Book of the Month
Strangers in Time by David Baldacci
fiction / historical fiction / mystery / suspense.
Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters is up to no good, but for a very good reason. Without parents, peerage, or merit, he steals what he needs, living day-to-day until he’s old enough to enlist to fight the Germans. After barely surviving the Blitz, Charlie knows there’s no telling when a falling bomb might end his life.
Fifteen-year-old Molly Wakefield has just returned to a nearly unrecognizable London. One of millions of children to have been evacuated to the countryside Molly has been away from her home for nearly five years. Her return, however, is not the homecoming she’d hoped for as she’s confronted by a devastating reality: neither of her parents are there.
Without guardians and stability, Charlie and Molly find an unexpected ally and protector in Ignatius Oliver, and solace at his bookshop, The Book Keep. Mourning the recent loss of his wife, Ignatius forms a kinship with both children, and in each other they rediscover the spirit of family each has lost.
But Charlie’s escapades in the city have not gone unnoticed, and someone’s been following Molly since she returned to London. And Ignatius is harboring his own secrets, which could have terrible consequences for all of them.
As bombs continue to bear down on the city, Charlie, Molly, and Ignatius learn that while the perils of war rage on, their coming together and trusting one another may be the only way for them to survive.
“Hope, excitement, and tragedy will keep rapt readers reaching for their tissues.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“…Baldacci’s strong character work highlights the trio’s courage and tenacity, as do the wrenching depictions of London’s wartime devastation. It’s a touching tale of a found family.” – Publishers Weekly
Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata; translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
fiction / science fiction.
Sayaka Murata has proven herself to be one of the most exciting chroniclers of the strangeness of society, x-raying our contemporary world to bizarre and troubling effect. Her depictions of a happily unmarried retail worker in Convenience Store Woman and a young woman convinced she is an alien in Earthlings have endeared her to millions of readers worldwide. Vanishing World takes Murata’s universe to a bold new level, imagining an alternative Japan where attitudes to sex and procreation are wildly different to our own.
As a girl, Amane realizes with horror that her parents “copulated” in order to bring her into the world, rather than using artificial insemination, which became the norm in the mid-twentieth century. Amane strives to get away from what she considers an indoctrination in this strange “system” by her mother, but her infatuations with both anime characters and real people have a sexual force that is undeniable. As an adult in an appropriately sexless marriage—sex between married couples is now considered as taboo as incest—Amane and her husband Saku decide to go and live in a mysterious new town called Experiment City or Paradise-Eden, where all children are raised communally, and every person is considered a Mother to all children. Men are beginning to become pregnant using artificial wombs that sit outside of their bodies like balloons, and children are nameless, called only “Kodomo-chan.” Is this the new world that will purify Amane of her strangeness once and for all?
“Murata has a reputation for writing weird and quirky fiction, and in her newest, she uses that voice to question sexuality, desire and family.” – Andrew Lombong, NPR
“Murata’s unnerving fiction creates a disturbingly convincing surreality. Her groupthink future may well already be here.” – Terry Hong, Booklist
“Murata delivers an intimate and disturbing speculative tale in which social isolation and population control are taken to extremes… Murata’s blunt and bizarre humor is on full display, as is her incisive commentary on contemporary Japan. This nightmarish fable is impossible to shake.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Watch Me by Tahereh Mafi
fiction / young adult / science fiction / fantasy / romance.
James Anderson had a plan. Or half of one. He managed to do what his older brother, the famous Aaron Warner Anderson, never did: infiltrate Ark Island, the last refuge of The Reestablishment. No outsider has breached the stronghold of the authoritarian regime, but James is in. In a prison cell, sure, but as far as James is concerned, a win is a win.
It’s been ten years since the notorious duo Juliette Ferrars and Aaron Warner Anderson led a worldwide rebellion and established the New Republic of the West. But The Reestablishment is ready to make a devastating move, and they have the perfect assassin for the job.
Rosabelle Wolff had a plan. She always has a plan. On Ark Island, where constant surveillance is packaged as security, even emotions must be experienced with caution. Her every movement is monitored—and when she’s given an order to kill, she never hesitates.
Brimming with pulse-pounding action and torturous romance, Watch Me is an explosive journey through a dystopian landscape where enemies-to-lovers has never felt more impossible. Step into a beloved and breathtaking world that demands an answer to a desperate question—
Who are we when no one is watching?
“Packed with action, romance and angst, this enemies-to-lovers dystopian read will leave you feeling nostalgic and excited. ” –Syameen Salehaldin, Harper’s Bazaar
When the Harvest Comes by Denne Michele Norris
fiction.
“I got tired of running away from what I should’ve been running toward.”
The venerated Reverend Doctor John Freeman did not raise his son, Davis, to be touched by any man, let alone a white man. He did not raise his son to whisper that man’s name with tenderness.
But on the eve of his wedding, all Davis can think about is how beautiful he wants to look when he meets his beloved Everett at the altar. Never mind that his mother, who died decades before, and his father, whose anger drove Davis to flee their home in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, for a freer life in New York City, won’t be there to walk him down the aisle. All Davis needs to be happy in this life is Everett, his new family, and his burgeoning career as an acclaimed violist.
When Davis learns during the wedding reception that his father has been in a terrible car accident, years of childhood trauma and unspoken emotion resurface. Davis must revisit everything that went wrong between them, risking his fledgling marriage along the way.
In resplendent prose, Denne Michele Norris’s When the Harvest Comes reveals the pain of inheritance and the heroic power of love, reminding us that, in the end, we are more than the men who came before us.
“The editor-in-chief of Electric Literature makes her full-length fiction debut with a spectacular drama… a complicated reckoning with masculinity, family dysfunction, and the hopes we have for making better futures. Delightfully, Norris is as brilliant a novelist as she is an editor.” – Drew Broussard, Literary Hub
“[A] gorgeous debut… Norris excels at plumbing her characters’ emotional depths as Davis and Everett observe each other from an increasing distance, and the melancholic narrative builds to a satisfying crescendo. This is worth savoring.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Norris’s ability to create interlocking portraits of flawed but somehow still lovable characters is one of her masterful offerings… When The Harvest Comes invites us to see the most painful truths of ourselves and our pasts, hold them up to the sun, and let the light pass through.” – Kelsey L. Smoot, The Rumpus
Wild and Wrangled by Lyla Sage
fiction / romance / western.
Camille Ashwood had always loved a plan. Her latest was her best yet. She was going to get married so she could secure her daughter’s future, get her overbearing parents off her back, and finally start building her own life in small-town Meadowlark, Wyoming. Easy, right?
But when her groom doesn’t show up to the wedding, Cam’s life is turned upside down—she doesn’t even have a place to live. That is until she finds out the house she’s loved since high school is available to rent. There’s only one problem: the neighbor.
Dusty Tucker has spent nearly all of his adult life running. Running from what, though? More like who: Cam Ashwood. But ever since he returned home last year, the girl who was his first, well, everything has become a woman seemingly determined to keep him at arm’s length. And he was okay with that—at least, that’s what he kept telling himself. She was getting married, after all. But now she’s single and living next door. Dusty wants to show her that they can be friends, and that he can stay put.
Despite her best attempts to stay far away from Dusty Tucker, Cam realizes that being close to him is like slipping into her favorite jeans. Easy. Comfortable. That is until past wounds start to open and feelings—both old and new—wreak havoc. Nearly ten years after they first met, Dusty and Cam begin to wonder if their first love can also be their last. And this time, will it be forever?
“If you love smalltown second chance romances, then I highly recommend picking up a copy of Wild and Wrangled!” – Andrea Reid, The Nerd Daily
“[It will] leave you crying, laughing and full.” – Syameen Salehaldin, Harper’s Bazaar
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