โProgress is made by the improvement of people, not the improvement of machines.โ – Adrian Tchaikovsky, Blood of the Mantis
Abby Offsides by Anna McCallie
fiction / romance / comedy.
Seeking a fresh start after leaving her cheating fiancรฉ, Abby McIntyre makes a series of spontaneous decisions: She quits her job. She books a one-way flight to the UK. She even gets bangs!
Newly arrived in Liverpool, she lands a job with the Mersey Football Club and meets Lachlan Ramsay, the recently recruited Scottish star midfielder. Both lonely in a new city, the pair bond quickly, and Abby finds it nearly impossible to deny their chemistryโdespite the nagging guilt she feels about Lachlanโs mysterious wife who didnโt relocate with her husband.
When Abbyโs housing falls through, Lachlan insists she move into his massive penthouse. As they spend almost every waking moment together, Abby wonders if itโs possible that the world-famous footballer could be falling for her, too. But with her job and his marriage dependent on them staying firmly in the friend zone, can Abby risk being caught offside?
Crackling with witty banter and palpable sexual tension, Abby Offsides is at once a smoldering, slow-burn romance and a nuanced exploration of one womanโs journey to reclaim her own dreams and desires after years of living life on autopilot.
“McCallie scores big in this witty friends-to-lovers debut novel… Fans of rom-coms and Ted Lasso will devour this storyโit is brimming with hilarious banter and lovable supporting characters.” – Patricia Smith, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“In a world often dominated by uncertainty and heavy headlines, author Anna McCallie is offering readers something refreshingly different: joy, romance, and a touch of soccer-fueled escapism… heartfelt and entertaining…” – Julie Carle, BG Independent News
Fires in the Night: The Earth Liberation Front, the FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-Sabotage by Matthew Wolfe
nonfiction / history / true crime.
In the early hours of October 28, 1996, a driver in rural Oregon spotted flames rising from a federal ranger station. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, but not before discovering a cryptic phrase spray-painted on a nearby wall: โEARTH LIBERATION FRONT.โ Over the next decade, the Earth Liberation Front would carry out the most audacious series of politically motivated arsons in American history. Their targetsโcar dealerships, slaughterhouses, lumber companies, a $20 million Vail ski resortโwere chosen to send a message: if the government wouldnโt halt the destruction of the natural world, they would. Despite causing no deaths, the ELF would soon be branded the foremost domestic terrorism threat in America and become the target of one of the FBIโs largest investigations.
Fires in the Night is the definitive story of the ELFโs rise and unraveling, stretching from the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest to the Seattle streets of 1999โs legendary WTO protests to the paranoid aftermath of September 11. For years, members of ELF, many of them close friends, led double lives, meticulously planning and staging their attacks, using secret book clubs, dead drops, and anonymous communiques, while trying to manage interpersonal friction and stay one step ahead of a relentless task force of police and federal agents. Drawing on years of original reporting and interviews, including with reclusive activists breaking their silence for the first time, as well as thousands of pages of unreleased investigative files, journalist Matthew Wolfe offers a thrilling, intimate account of a moment in American life when the actions of radical environmentalists challenged mainstream complacency. As the climate crisis continues to accelerate, Wolfe asks the most pressing question of our time: facing the end of the world as we know it, exactly what kind of resistance is justified?
“…fascinating… Wolfe captures the urgency that gave rise to the group and poses potent questions about the ethical boundaries of extremism. Readers will be rapt.” – Publishers Weekly
“The journalist Wolfe centers his in-depth study of American eco-terrorism on the Earth Liberation Front. But more than just an account of the F.B.I.โs clashes with that Pacific Northwest group, this is a larger story of the questions surrounding radical resistance, both during the late 1990s and today.” – New York Times
โGiven we live in the age of Standing Rock, Just Stop Oil, and How to Blow Up a Pipeline, itโs funny much the campaign of animal liberation and arson waged by the Earth Liberation Front in the 1990s and early 2000s has been overlooked… Matthew Wolfeโs comprehensive new book, a meticulously reported history of the ELF and its major actions, told with the cooperation of many of the main American cellโs core members, changes that… Gripping and fascinating.โ – Max Read, Read Max
Foundling Fathers by Meg Elison
fiction / science fiction / comedy.
The trouble starts when a curious young man finds a smartphone in his privy. The problem is, itโs supposed to be the year 1750.
The Antediluvian Societyโa shadowy cabal of right-wing billionairesโis fed up with a country they cannot fully control or understand. So they have done what any reasonable American patriots would do: Clone the Founding Fathers and raise them in secrecy. The plan, unbeknownst to the boys, is for them to restore America to its “original glory.”
Ben takes his technological discovery to his brothers, Thomas, John, and George. The boys have been raised on an isolated island plantation by Mary Libertas, a firm but kind woman, and Jeff Hancock, their de facto father. But the idyllic life is far too dull for young men. The boys have been chafing at the restrictions upon them (especially Tom, who has impregnated yet another of the servants). Hancock is complaining to the Society that it’s well past the time to tell the boys where they come from and what they must do.
Unfortunately for their keepers, the young men now have a phoneโฆ and many other notions.
Seamlessly combining science fiction and history with sharp, witty commentary, Meg Elison has once again shown why she is one of speculative fiction’s most exciting voices.
“[A] clever mash-up of American history and modern politics that will have readers both laughing and squirming.” – Publishers Weekly
“This book absolutely hooked me in about two pages… If you like a good bit of satire and would like to know how Benjamin Franklin discovering an iPhone might play out, then check out Foundling Fathers.” – Powder & Page
“[A] small but mighty work, a brilliant and absurd bit of speculative fiction that poses as many questions as answers… Like all good satire, some of these revelations are uncomfortable, some disturbing. But Elison’s sharp sense of humor keeps the novel from ever feeling heavy or pedantic; turns out imagining the Founding Fathers as teen boys imprisoned on a small island in [what] they believe is 1750 provides no shortage of laughs… a sharp and insightful work of satire that cracks the very foundations of the present political moment in ways that are as necessary as they are unsettling.” – Kerry McHugh, Shelf Awareness
Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky
fiction / fantasy / science fiction / mystery.
In the solar cities of the future, the humans relax in the sun and the animals work in the shadows. Genetically engineered Little Helpers, serving humanityโunseen, unheard.
Meet Skotch. Raccoon, PIโyours for a few buttons as long as the job isn’t too illegal, whatever that means.
A mouse has gone missing. Normally this wouldn’t raise any hackles, nor any alarms, but this mouse has something that everyone seems to want, though nobody appears particularly eager to say what that something is.
The fee is goodโperhaps too good. Certainly not something Skotch can easily turn down.
If only Skotch can work out where the mouse is hiding, what heโs hiding, and why his secrets are upsetting a lot of animals caught up in the Green City wars.
“[A] ton of fun… More often than not, youโre in for a treat when Adrian Tchaikovsky releases a new novel… [I] would definitely welcome a return trip to Green City…” – Will Swardstom, FanFiAddict
“…fascinating… the resolution is a shock… Readers searching for an adult Redwall, the animals-as-humans concept of Juneau Blackโs Shady Hollow, or the upside-down criminal enterprise of John Scalziโs Starter Villain will be thrilled to meet Skotch.” – Marlene Harris, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“If the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit were an even darker comedy, you might come close to this charmingly bizarre SF noir… These characters are real; the stakes are real. The story cleverly blends noir, the authorโs ongoing interest in how nonhumans might think, and another theme beloved of British writers, the turbulent personal lives of the ‘invisible’ servant class… Interstitial fiction at its most engaging and mind-bending.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
The Housewives Underground: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the JFK Assassination Our Most Enduring Mystery by Kaitlyn Tiffany
nonfiction / history / true crime.
In the winter of 1967, the official account of the Kennedy assassination was beginning to unravel. A scattered group of Americans had pointed to major problems with the report prepared by President Johnsonโs handpicked Warren Commission. Many of the most serious criticisms of the governmentโs work came from a source that surprised some: women who, within the community of critics, outnumbered the men two to one.
Politicians and reporters dismissed these women, referring to them as โscavengersโ and suggesting they were eccentrics with murder-mystery fixations or crushes on the deceased President Kennedy. But inโฏThe Housewives Underground,โฏKaitlyn Tiffany resurrects the story of Maggie Field, Shirley Martin, and Sylvia Meagher, whose collaboration and friendship reshaped both their own lives and our national memory. Field hosted screenings of the Zapruder film and raised money to pursue new leads. Martin traveled frequently to Dallas, enlisted her children to help interview witnesses, and irritated J. Edgar Hoover with her โantagonisticโ attitude toward the FBI.
And at the center of the story is Sylvia Meagherโa born-and-raised New Yorker who was devoted to the ballet and the Mets, cultivated fierce friendships and firm grudges, and dedicated twenty-five years to her conviction that the whole truth of JFKโs assassination had not been told.
Painstakingly researched and engrossing,โฏThe Housewives Underground takes readers back to the turbulent 1960s and 1970sโa time when Americansโ belief in their government was erodingโintroducing readers to the so-called housewives who asked the first, hardest questions about one of the most shocking events in American history.
โ…Tiffany is a sure-footed guide through the labyrinth of Dealey Plaza. Iโm never inspired; this book inspired me. It touched my soft spot for amateur sleuths, obsessive page-turning, and the outer limits of facticity.โ – Dan Piepenbring, Harperโs
“[A] superb history… Tiffany paints an intimate portrait of the womenโs growing camaraderie, shared frustration with male fellow skeptics, and eventual discord over New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrisonโs shambolic conspiracy trial. Itโs an extraordinary account of a relentless search for truth.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Atlantic staff writer Kaitlyn Tiffany immerses us in the textures of mid-century American life, treating her dogged subjects with empathy and nuance as they pile their kids into family sedans for investigative field trips to Dealey Plaza and host salons discussing the infamous Zapruder footage. Rich with atmosphere and detail, The Housewives Underground is both a riveting historical investigation and a fascinating portrait of how Americans learned to be skeptical of official narratives.” – Apple Books Review
In Deep Water: A True Story of Sharks, Survival, and Courage by Michael J. Tougias
nonfiction / adventure / nature.
October, 8, 2022.
Three friends are fishing for red snapper when their boat, tied to an oil rig, begins taking on water and sinks 15 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico. Suddenly, the three men find themselves in a struggle for their lives. Their vessel succumbs to the building seas so quickly that the fisherman are unable send out a radio Mayday call, and their cell phones have no reception. They only have time to don their life jackets and hold onto a cooler as they are swept further out to sea.
They vow to stay together no matter what and must make several life or death decisions. Suffering from hypothermia and severe stings from giant jelly fish, the men desperately try to stay afloat as they realize there are circling sharks below.
In Deep Water is an hour-by-hour account of a desperate and determined struggle for survival, as well as the Coast Guardโs all-out effort to find the missing men. This fast-paced story has a number of surprising turns in both the survival ordeal and the rescue efforts. Based on interviews with the three survivors and the crew of the Jayhawk helicopter who rescue them, In Deep Water is a white-knuckle tale of bravery and brotherhood and a battle against the ocean’s deadliest predators.
“An adrenaline-pumping, thoroughly readable tale.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Despite this being a tale of suspense and survival, it is more than just a harrowing story, as Tougias also weaves in information about survival tactics, shark behavior, and more, making it a solid option for those interested in survival how-to books.” – Caitlin Cundiff, Booklist
It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell โ
fiction / suspense / mystery.
Jane Trevally is walking her dogs on her country estate when a small white terrier appears, alone and with no sign of the teenaged girl heโd been staying with nearby. When the teenager is reported missing, Jane offers to return the dog to his registered owner, hours away in London. Arriving at a run-down house called Thornwood in the deepest backwaters of Hampstead, she is immediately on alertโbecause Jane has a dark history with this house.
The man who answers the door is not the man that Jane remembers from her past. He is cagey, and claims to know nothing about the missing teenage girl. Then, through the window of the house, Jane catches a glimpse of a haunted-looking woman.
Conjuring her memories from twenty-five years ago, Jane knows this unsettling house holds the keyโto the missing teenager, to her own traumatic story, and to the dark secrets of the past.
โKnown for her riveting tales, Lisa Jewellโs new novel, It Could Have Been Her, delivers all her signature thrills.โ – Carissa Mosness, Woman’s World
“A haunting, timeless exploration of the evil men doโand the imprint it leaves behind.” – Kirkus Reviews
“…chilling… With a shrewd command of the narrative, Jewell turns a chance encounter into a disturbing treatise on the pastโs ability to assert itself in ways both unwelcome and unlikely. The authorโs fans will relish this pitch-black spine-tingler.” – Publishers Weekly
“This is the authorโs most gothic thriller so far, a moody and atmospheric story thatโs full of unsettling surprises and characters who would very much like to keep their secrets to themselves. Jewell is one of the best writers of psychological thrillers, and this one spectacularly showcases her gifts for character design and plotting. We get the sense that the author was having an especially good time crafting this one, too, and very much enjoying the agonizing suspense sheโs putting us through. Magnificent.” – David Pitt, Booklist
Long Island Girls by Gabrielle Korn
fiction / romance.
It’s 2005, and Susan is barreling down the Long Island Expressway driving a car full of friends to an indie rock show. Eliza is a surprise addition in the backseatโunexpected, out of place, and impossible to ignore. Their connection is immediate, electric, and complicated from the start, shadowed by the kind of small-town rumors that have a way of sticking. As quickly as they come together, they part.
As Susan moves from Long Island to Brooklyn, from college to the insular world of indie labels, she begins to carve out a life in music, and the future she always dreamed of. Yet the scene that once felt like home reveals its limits, forcing her to confront who gets to belong, who gets to create, and what it costs to stay.
When Susan and Eliza reconnect years later, the pull between them hasnโt fadedโbut neither have the unresolved histories that first drove them apart. As past and present collide, Susan is caught between two worldsโwhere she’s from, and where she’s trying to go.
Moving between the raw intensity of youth and the clarity of hindsight, Long Island Girls captures the ache of growing up, the messiness and joy of queer identity, and the way music, memory, and desire shape who we become.
“[A] breathtaking and entirely relatable coming-of-age novelโฆ For lovers of music, romance, and perhaps some indie sleaze, this is a time capsule for first love.” – Ella Ceron, Harper’s Bazaar
“The story is tender without being sentimental, and mordant without trivializing Elizaโs teen trauma. Itโs a clear-eyed gaze into the messiness of youth.” – Publishers Weekly
“Perfectly depicting every era of the 2000s and what it was like to come of age on the internet, this tenderly angsty novel is a delightful ode to the queer millennial experience.” – Kat Korpi, Booklist
Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump by Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan
nonfiction / politics / biography / history / current events.
From the two reporters who have covered him more closely than perhaps anyone else over the past decade comes this definitive portrait of Donald Trump in the White House. Regime Change covers the first year of Trumpโs second presidencyโa term liberated from every constraint that defined his first. The generals who once told him โnoโ are gone, and the lawyers who remain have learned to pick their battles. His administration has flouted court orders and he has claimed powers that Congress once checked. What remains is a President willing to take enormous risks that have upended global markets and toppled heads of state; an imperial President operating almost entirely on instinct alone.
Based on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented reporting from deep within the administrationโs most closely guarded rooms, Regime Change takes the reader inside the Situation Room and into the secret Oval Office deliberations that have launched a new war in the Middle East and seen Trump seal the border, surge National Guard troops into cities, and send immigration agents into deadly clashes with protestors. Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan bring us behind the scenes of a presidency that has transformed the culture, turned the Justice Department into an agent of retribution against the Presidentโs enemies and the office itself into a brazen vehicle for profit. They reveal a second term propelled by a historical irony that Trump himself has come to understand: that the indictments, the convictions, the assassination attempts, and four years of exile made him not weaker but far more powerful, more vengeful, and more willing to gamble than any President in modern history.
This is the story of how Trump has used that power, who has tried to stop him, and why nearly all of them have failed. It is also the story of something American journalists are more accustomed to chronicling in distant capitals than in their own: a President who has fundamentally altered the nature of the office he holdsโand, with it, how the rest of the world understands American power. It is an account of Regime Change right here in Americaโa landmark real-time history of a modern presidency like no other.
“[A] vivid, rigorous, and unavoidably depressing chronicle of the first year of Trumpโs second term in the White House… Regime Change is exceptional. It transcends its genre… the book is packed with news that will stay news.” – David Remnick, The New Yorker
“[Full of] juicy revelations… Whether youโre a Trump supporter or detractor, the book is packed with facts that make clear that most or all of the major participants cooperated with [the authors].” – Howard Kurtz, Fox News
“…riveting and richly textured… Haberman and Swan have spent more than a decade covering Trumpโs political career and the events they portray are in themselves well known… What the authors add is the vivid detail that makes these events feel actual… Regime Change is that good old-fashioned creation: a chronicle. And chronicles have never been more necessary โ or more countercultural.” – Fintan O’Toole, New York Times
The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence-Before It’s Too Late by Cory Doctorow
nonfiction / technology.
In modern tech parlance, a centaur is a person who is able to use technology to be a better, more productive version of themself. A reverse centaur is a person who is forced by technology to work at an inhuman paceโa driver made to deliver all day long, nonstop; a warehouse worker made to work without food or bathroom breaks; a programmer made to crank out impossible amounts of code.
The Reverse Centaurโs Guide to Life After AI is not another anti-AI screed. Cory Doctorow uses AI in his work every day. As a creative person, he has no moral or dogmatic issue with AIโhe thinks the technology is useful, even exciting, and full of potential. And yet.
AI has arrived surrounded by unprecedented hype driven by a tech industry desperate to maintain its unprecedented valuation based on its own promises of endless financial growth. Despite the fact that almost all of AIโs real-world implementations have proved underwhelming, AI is projected to be worth more than $16 trillionโa number that only makes sense if AI replaces vast swathes of the wage-earning human workforce. To justify that level of โvalue,โ every story about AI must be presented as inevitable, world-changing disruption. Even the tales of the robot apocalypse are a calculated attempt to bolster the fearsome power of AI.
For Doctorow, it is imperative to see through that hype to the real story, to understand the technology not just for what it does, but for who it does it to and who it does it for. From that point of view, the story of AI is indeed dramatic and unprecedented, having generated an investment bubble so big that it endangers the entire world economy. In The Reverse Centaurโs Guide to Life After AIโas he so successfully did in EnshittificationโDoctorow recounts both how we found ourselves in this dire situation and how we can get through it, to a life โafterโ AI in which the tools work for us, not the other way around.
“An important guide to an urgent issue.” – Literary Hub
“Doctorow is famous for his skepticism of Silicon Valley, and, no surprises, he goes all guns blazing on its latest technological frontier.” – Simon Hunt, City AM
“A sharply worded, irreverent, and deadly serious call to see through the sleight-of-hand performance of AI promoters.” – Kirkus Reviews
Scandal of the Summer by Alexandra Vasti
fiction / romance / historical fiction.
Eccentric heiress Lady Ruby Ballimore has had enough of the Marriage Mart. After offending yet another Very Important Marquessโand imperiling her fatherโs diplomatic careerโRuby flees London for the holiday house of a glamorous (and better yet, absent) princess. Armed with a forged invitation and accompanied by her like-minded friends, Ruby arrives at the Cornwall estate expecting a summer of blissful freedom.
Instead, she discovers a derelict mansion and the most suspiciously charming man sheโs ever met.
Former privateer and current con artist Captain Malcolm Archer has dragged his ramshackle crew into a new life. Posing as staff at a princessโs abandoned estate provides the perfect cover for Archerโs smuggling scheme (not to mention free rent). Everythingโs going according to planโuntil an unorthodox London heiress crashes the party.
But when Archer and his crew attempt to frighten off their uninvited guests, Rubyโs unfazed by insect invasions and sham sea monsters. Harder to ignore? The scorching heat between the rakish pirate and the debutante who can see right through him. As sparks fly, deceptions run wildโbecause in this Great Cornish Fake Off, the only thing riskier than telling the truth is falling in love.
“Vastiโs wonderfully entertaining caper is full of heroism and romance.” – Amy Alessio, Booklist
“An entertaining summer Regency romance filled with yearning and antics.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Told in alternating viewpoints, this steamy and tender feminist Regency romance has plenty of enchanting characters and fun banter. Readers already ensconced in the Vasti-verse, and those new to Vastiโs work alike, will revel in her latest.” – Migdalia Jimenez, Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
The Sixth Nik by Daniel Kraus โ
fiction / horror / science fiction / mystery.
Deep into space, far past the triworld outposts, beyond range of the lethal trollbot internet, soars The Sickness: a ship woven from biomatter and capable of reacting to every need of its human crew. Sisilla, a nine-year-old cultist with a brain enhanced by arcane tech known as โniks,โ has boarded to investigate the enigma of Fรฉmโa plague-riddled planet that has abruptly gone rogue.
The mysterious crew includes a faceless assassin, a beautiful engineer jigsawed by plastic surgery, a peyote-addicted medic, andโmost lethal of allโa rugged, NonModded captain with a score to settle with Sisilla. Other dangers abound. A hacked robot begins to believe Sisilla is its daughter. The Sickness itself is mutating, possibly even pregnant. And the secret of Fรฉm is more horrific than anyone could have imagined. To survive, Sisilla will need to forsake her predetermined fate and embrace the unknown.
“This thrilling novel perfectly weaves together sci-fi and body horror to spine-tingling results. Itโs safe to say any new release from Kraus is a must-read, and The Sixth Nik is further proof.” – Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books
“Strange, intense, and impossible to look away from, this is sf at its most daring.” – Brittney Cray, Booklist
“Two things about a Daniel Kraus novel. You never know the genre of his next story, and itโs going to be one hell of a book… gripping… a beautiful blend of sci-fi and body horror, this story is just the hybrid of a book that youโd hope for when entering the mind of Kraus.” – Justin Soderberg, Capes & Tights
“Multifaceted science, characters, and encounters energize this immersive far-future adventure from Pulitzer Prize winner Kraus… [he] takes his time building an impressively intricate world, infusing his tale of human atrocities with both meticulous scientific fact and bold science fiction. The result is sharp, complex, and gripping.” – Publishers Weekly
When You Loved Me by Beatriz Williams
fiction / historical fiction / romance / mystery.
Local history insists that a legendary pirate buried his treasure somewhere beneath Windward, the decayed Cooper estate on Winthrop Island, but Lucy Cooper never trusted the fable that broke her family apart. When a widowed Lucy returns with her young daughter to grieve her estranged father, she discovers catastrophe: The property is mired in debt she canสผt repay, and Ben Ressler has unexpectedly turned up on her doorstep.
Thirteen summers ago, the teenaged Lucy never meant to fall in love with Ben, a Dartmouth football star vacationing nearby at the Peabody estate and the object of an all-consuming crush by Laura Peabody, Lucyโs best friend. Those few weeks were the best and worst of Lucyโs life, dooming her friendship with Laura. Now, after a fatal accident ended his dazzling NFL career, Ben has returned to live quietly in the Peabodysโ caretaker lodge. Heโs also the last person who saw Lucyโs father alive.
As Lucy reconstructs her fatherโs troubling final days, she uncovers his research on the frozen winter of 1717, when a desperately wounded pirate sought refuge on Winthrop Island with an enigmatic healer. To Lucy, this history points the way to a different kind of treasure: how to heal from the fractures of the past and earn a second chance at love. But just as Lucyโs long-buried emotions sear to the surface, a shocking turn of events reveals that someone else on the island will do whatever it takes to claim the fabled plunder.
A timeless story of love and atonement, When You Loved Me maps both a centuries-old treasure hunt and the intimate territory of the human heart, weaving together past and present as only Beatriz Williams can.
“…engrossing… Rich details set the stage in each of the timelines, with compelling characters and lots of plot strings that, in Williamsโ deft hands, all weave together in a supremely satisfying read.” – Susan Maguire, Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“An engaging tale that provides a fresh look at the importance of second chances.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Another solid character-driven novel from author Williams, who never disappoints her readers.” – Red Carpet Crash
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