March 2023 BookPage by BookPage

MAR 2023

DISCOVER YOUR NEXT GREAT BOOK

We’re celebrating Memoir March with a potpourri of personal narratives, including Once Upon a Tome by Oliver Darkshire.

Spring’s

Best

Memoirs

ALSO INSIDE: Stunning new books from Jenny Odell, Cathleen Schine, Samantha Shannon, C.J. Box, Elizabeth Wein and more!

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MARCH 2023

features feature | writers to watch. . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Six authors to keep on your radar

feature | bestseller watch. . . . . . . . . . 21 New books from familiar favorites

feature | travel romances . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Destination: happily ever after

behind the book | ashley schumacher. . 28 The YA author is not here to apologize

behind the book | margot douaihy. . . 8 Creating a female PI—who’s also a nun

Explore Europe and the Wine Trails of the World with Lonely Planet

feature | picture books . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Girls who grew up to change the world

feature | thrillers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 All hail the modern femme fatale

feature | christian fiction. . . . . . . . . . . 11 Inspiring women find their strength

interview | shannon chakraborty. . . 12

feature | meet the author. . . . . . . . . . 31 Meet Qing Zhuang, the author-illustrator of Rainbow Shopping Wine Trails 2 9781838696016 US $25.00

reviews

The acclaimed author charts a new course

fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

cover story | oliver darkshire. . . . . . . 14

nonfiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

From antiquarian bookseller to author

feature | memoir march . . . . . . . . . . . 15 A spring memoir medley

feature | women’s history month. . . 16 Three biographies of groundbreakers

interview | jenny odell. . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Unpacking our obsession with efficiency

feature | self-help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Help and hope for struggles with family

interview | cathleen schine . . . . . . . . 20 An odd couple in quarantine

young adult. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 children’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

columns

Experience Provence & the Cote d’Azur 9781838696115 US $24.99

audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 romance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 whodunit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Experience Tuscany 9781838696122 US $24.99

book clubs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 lifestyles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

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feature | writers to watch

6 authors to keep on your radar Leta McCollough Seletzky

Sarah Cypher

Counterpoint | April 4

Alejandro Varela Author of The People Who Report More Stress Astra House | April 4

In the famous photograph of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., one man is kneeling down beside King on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, trying to staunch the blood from the fatal head wound. This kneeling man, Leta McCollough Seletzky’s father, was a member of the activist group the Invaders, but he was also an undercover Memphis police officer reporting on the activities of this group. Seletzky is a former litigator turned essayist and a National Endowment for the Arts 2022 Creative Writing Fellow, and in The Kneeling Man: My Father’s Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., she reveals the story of her father, who went on to work at the CIA, and reflects upon the full weight of these revelations.

Last year, Alejandro Varela published his first novel, The Town of Babylon, and it became a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. Varela is following up his hot-out-of-the-gate success with an overlapping story collection centering on the intersecting lives of a group of mostly queer and Latinx New York City residents. The stories explore many of the same themes as Varela’s novel— systemic racism, gentrification and economic injustice—and since his graduate studies were in public health, he brings deep insight to these topics and balances them with crisp humor and a lot of heart.

Emily Tesh Author of Some Desperate Glory Tordotcom | April 11

Emily Tesh won acclaim and a devoted readership with her Greenhollow duology of novellas, the first of which, Silver in the Wood, won a World Fantasy Award. The Greenhollow duology was a romantic take on age-old English folklore, but for her first novel, Tesh switches gears to science fiction and heads into darker moral territory. Set in a future where Earth has been destroyed by aliens, Some Desperate Glory follows Kyr, a young girl growing up in an isolated, militaristic community, where she is being trained to avenge the planet. She soon discovers that the rest of the universe is far more complex than she imagined and that she has a lot further to go to become the hero she wants to be.

Author of The Skin and Its Girl

Author of The Kneeling Man

Ballantine | April 25 After two decades as a freelance book editor, Sarah Cypher is making her fiction debut with a novel that draws from her own Lebanese American family’s history, which can be traced back to the incredible Kanaan Olive Soap factory in Nablus, Palestine. On the day of the factory’s (actual) destruction, a Palestinian American girl named Betty is born with bright blue skin in The Skin and Its Girl; as an adult, Betty begins to read the journals kept by the family matriarch, which reveal her aunt’s choice to hide her sexuality during the family’s immigration to the U.S., a discovery that helps Betty follow her own heart.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Author of Chain-Gang All-Stars Pantheon | May 2 It’s pretty incredible when a short story collection becomes an instant New York Times bestseller, and doubly so when it’s a debut, as in the case of Nana Kwame AdjeiBrenyah’s devastating and nightmarish Friday Black (2018). With his highly anticipated first novel, Adjei-Brenyah continues in the realm of brutal, dystopian surrealism with one of the most audacious premises of the year: Reality television meets America’s for-profit prison system in this story of two female gladiators, Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker, who fight for their freedom from a private prison reality entertainment system. © ANDREW MAX LEVY

These up-and-coming authors are going places, and readers will be hot on their heels.

Jamie Loftus Author of Raw Dog Forge | May 23

Jamie Loftus is best known as a comedian, TV writer and podcaster, including co-hosting “The Bechdel Cast” with screenwriter Caitlin Durante on the HowStuffWorks network. Loftus’ debut book, Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs, is part memoir and part social critique that recounts her cross-country road trip in the summer of 2021 to investigate that backyard barbecue staple, the illustrious hot dog. Along the way, Loftus delves into all the ways hot dogs embody issues of class and culture in the United States, illuminating the complex history of this quintessential American food with her signature mix of intellect and unhinged humor. All publication dates are subject to change.

audio

H The Light We Carry Michelle Obama will be the first to admit she is as fallible as anybody else, but she does have a lot of this life stuff figured out. The thoughtful way in which she presents her myriad experiences is what makes her second book, The Light We Carry (Random House Audio, 10 hours), such a gift. Listening to this audiobook, narrated by the author, feels like a fulfillment of the classic “dream dinner guest” scenario. Obama is honest, forthcoming and wise, but also as familiar as a friend. —Anna Zeitlin

Get Lost in A Story

The Philosophy of Modern Song In The Philosophy of Modern Song (Simon & Schuster Audio, 6.5 hours), celebrated singer-songwriter Bob Dylan provides rich, detailed commentary on 66 of his songs. The audiobook is performed by Dylan, along with an all-star cast: Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Oscar Isaac, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno, Sissy Spacek, Alfre Woodard, Jeffrey Wright and Renée Zellweger. Each performer adds a unique resonance to the narrative. —Maya Fleischmann

READ BY MHAIRI MORRISON & TIM CAMPBELL

READ BY NELL BARLOW, AYSHA KALA, & HELEN KEELEY

READ BY SASKIA MAARLEVELD

READ BY A FULL CAST

READ BY FRED BERMAN

READ BY VIKAS ADAM & GABRA ZACKMAN

READ BY SCOTT BRICK

READ BY ELL POTTER

Playing Under the Piano Hugh Bonneville is perhaps most famous for his roles as the Earl of Grantham on “Downton Abbey” and Paddington Bear’s hapless friend Henry Brown. He lends a spectrum of voices and tones to the stories in his memoir, Playing Under the Piano (Random House Audio, 10 hours), infusing them with warmth, tenderness or grand amusement. —Maya Fleischmann

H The Villa Rachel Hawkins’ gothic novel The Villa (Macmillan Audio, 8 hours) has a wonderfully complicated narrative: Inspired by everything from Fleetwood Mac and Mary Shelley to the Manson murders, it includes not only two separate narratives with two sets of characters but also a novel-within-a-novel, podcast episodes and more. The talented narrators—Shiromi Arserio, Julia Whelan and Kimberly M. Wetherell— prove more than up to the task of guiding listeners through the emotional atmosphere that Hawkins has so superbly created. —Norah Piehl

Surrender In this collection of 40 essays, each titled after one of Bono’s songs and introduced by an audio clip, the singer-songwriter and humanitarian activist provides a sumptuous selection of stories that are filled with enlightening details about the people and experiences that inspired him. Surrender (Random House Audio, 20.5 hours) is a candid, moving expression of how music can touch your life and make you realize what’s important. —Maya Fleischmann

Macmillan Audio 5

romance

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by christie ridgway

H Liar City Allie Therin’s instantly intriguing Liar City (Carina Adores, $18.99, 9781335621948) is set in an alternate Seattle where some people are empaths, able to read others’ emotions just by touching them. The story begins when empath Reece receives a mysterious phone call telling him that his detective sister, Jamey, needs his help. When Reece arrives at Jamey’s latest murder investigation, Reece also encounters the caller: empath hunter Evan Grayson, also known as the Dead Man. Enigmatic and relentless, Evan is on a mission to stop the killings, which may have something to do with the imminent passage of an anti-empath law. Reece is an appealing viewpoint character, and chapters from Jamey’s perspective are equally engaging. Evan and Reece’s chemistry crackles throughout Liar City’s nonstop action, but be warned that they do not exchange even one intimate touch. However, as this fantastic paranormal is the first installment in Therin’s Sugar & Vice series, hopes abound for the future.

The Portrait of a Duchess

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An estranged couple reunite in The Portrait of a Duchess (Avon, $9.99, 9780062935632) by Scarlett Peckham. When she was young, Cornelia Ludgate secretly married horse breeder Rafe Goodwood, which freed her from the strictures of high society and allowed her to pursue painting. Twenty years later, Cornelia is an established artist and an activist for women’s rights. But when her long-estranged husband unexpectedly inherits a dukedom, he proposes that they go public with their marriage. Doing so would provide Cordelia with extra income to devote to her cause and would grant Rafe instant notoriety, which he intends to parlay into governmental reform. Though the iconoclastic pair deny their feelings, their attraction sizzles and they enjoy a mutual understanding when it comes to their desire to take lovers of all genders, both together and apart. Scorching love scenes make this white-hot read a standout.

Cold-Blooded Liar Karen Rose begins an exciting new romantic suspense series with Cold-Blooded Liar (Berkley, $28, 9780593548868). An anonymous tip leads San Diego detective Kit McKittrick to a body wearing a pair of pink handcuffs, echoing a murder spree 15 years earlier. The tipper turns out to be do-gooder psychologist Dr. Sam Reeves, whom Kit instantly likes yet must consider a suspect all the same. But as more deaths occur and the murderer hits closer to home, she must turn to Sam to help her nab the killer. The crimes are brutal, but Rose balances the story with a heroic team, lovable dogs and Kit’s warmhearted foster parents. It’s a gripping and satisfying tale, even if Kit has yet to kiss the good doctor by story’s end—which readers will surely be rooting for in the next installment.

Christie Ridgway is a lifelong romance reader and a published romance novelist of over 60 books.

feature | travel romances

Destination: happily ever after A gorgeous hike along the coast and a dreamy Irish road trip provide perfect settings for romance.

Off the Map In Trish Doller’s Off the Map (Griffin, $16.99, 9781250809490), two lost souls find each other during a road trip across Ireland. Carla Black is a bit of a rolling stone, traveling the world in her old Jeep Wrangler. Her next adventure is a drive through the Irish countryside to attend her best friend’s wedding. The groom’s best friend, Eamon Sullivan, has been tasked with meeting up with Carla in Dublin and helping her navigate to the venue. The attraction is immediate when the pair meet at a local pub, and they end the night by hooking up. It’s refreshing to see two characters recognize their connection, satisfy their curiosity and handle the morning after like adults, especially since they’ll be stuck in a car together for a few days. The trip is only supposed to take a few hours, but Carla’s penchant for exploration and Eamon’s desire to start taking more risks in life have the two of them taking all manner of beautiful, disastrous and hilarious detours in the Irish countryside. With its lush pine woods and mischievous herds of sheep, Off the Map could have been commissioned by Ireland’s board of tourism. Romantic and whimsical, Off the Map will leave readers craving adventure and perhaps even tempt them into booking a trip to the Emerald Isle. —Amanda Diehl

H Something Wild &

Wonderful

In Anita Kelly’s Something Wild & Wonderful (Forever, $16.99, 9781538754887), Alexei Lebedev is hoping that hiking the 2,500-mile Pacific Crest Trail will help him move past the emotional blow of his parents disowning him after he came out as gay. He needs to figure out what comes next, but he never expected something as amazing as Ben Caravalho. Where Alexei is a meticulous planner, Ben is spontaneous. Where Alexei is shy and socially awkward, Ben is out going, making friends around every corner. Alexei struggles to believe that Ben could want not only him but also something long term with him. But that same openheartedness that so appeals to Alexei causes problems for Ben, who always falls too fast and gives too much of himself. Something Wild & Wonderful is a journey of self-discovery for both men, and it’s also a physical journey through a wide range of landscapes, all of which Kelly depicts in gorgeous, moving prose. But most of all, it’s a journey to true love, one where affection, desire, admiration, appreciation and respect radiate from every page. Alexei and Ben don’t just enjoy each other—they are actively good for each other. Something Wild & Wonderful is so sweet and satisfying that you’ll want to read it again and again, just to experience the various journeys within its pages. —Elizabeth Mazer

From the New York Times bestselling author of

THINGS WE NEVER GOT OVER

Slow-burn romance where the heroes are

BROODY,

the heroines are

SASSY,

and everyone’s got a

SECRET.

OUR LADY OF MYSTERY

behind the book | margot douaihy

Debut author Margot Douaihy reveals how she created Sister Holiday, a queer, tattooed, crime-solving nun. Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn’s eponymous new imprint gets off to a roaring start with acclaimed poet and editor Margot Douaihy’s debut mystery, Scorched Grace. Set in New Orleans, Scorched Grace follows Sister Holiday, a former punk rocker who investigates an arson spree that threatens her community. The endlessly fascinating character represents everything Douaihy loves about hard-boiled mysteries—and how they can move forward into a more complex and diverse future. ••• Mysteries are my enduring passions—and vital instruments of expression. As a closeted queer woman growing up in the scrappy city of Scranton, Pennsylvania, I made myself small. Searching for headstrong characters in books and on TV felt much safer than getting to know myself. I tore through detective stories and I watched every PBS “Mystery!” program. Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and Sherlock Holmes were my Visit BookPage.com to read our North Stars—their certainty and ratiocination starred review of Scorched Grace. soothed me. Jessica Fletcher introduced me to the American cozy mystery and the fine art of meddling! But Raymond Chandler’s private provisional vow of celibacy as a novice nun in investigator Philip Marlowe was my favorite ficher New Orleans convent. But she still considers tional sleuth. herself to be “extremely gay.” Sister Holiday is Chandler’s devil-may-care brio and unsendevout and unapologetically punk and queer. timental yet poetic barbs were my playground. The more diversity we can bring to genre, the The voice-driven experience and gritty tone better. As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie observed, of his hard-boiled mysteries seduced me. My there is real danger in the illusion of a “sinfavorite PI characters bent the law when needed, gle story.” collapsing the binary of criminality and justice. In her trenchant Crime Reads essay “The I hated Marlowe’s misogyny and dangerous Unspoken Criminality of the Female PI,” historstereotyping, but I was inspired by the opporical mystery author Emily J. Edwards observes tunities for subtextual engagement. This thehow canonical femmes of early PI stories “were matic richness married with the pulse-pounding fatales or Fridays, honeytraps or helpers. Rarely thrill of a murder mystery was too delicious to the sleuth in charge.” In my contribution to the genre, I wanted to join other feminist PI writers ignore. I turned my lifelong interests in mysteries, queer theory and nuanced female characterby giving Sister Holiday both decision-making ization into a creative praxis. The result is Sister agency and magnetism, with high camp and Holiday, the unexpected sleuth and sardonic dark humor adding contours. She leverages her H Scorched Grace narrator of Scorched Grace. alterity and viewpoint to make surprising synGillian Flynn Books, $27.95, 9781638930242 In a reversal of the wiseguy archetype, my theses, connect disparate clues and take unconhard-nosed, hard-boiled sleuth is a 33-year-old ventional approaches. Mystery tatted-up nun who, as she tries to smoke out an A transgressive character needs transgresarsonist, interrogates herself and her own imbricated identities. Sister sive interiority and exteriority. I used the cadence of prayers and song lyrics to blur clues, observations and memories in Sister Holiday’s narHoliday is a budding detective who will one day take permanent vows with the Sisters of the Sublime Blood. If ration. This let me seed red herrings and that seems like a wild dialectic, it should. “Searching for headstrong characters (re)direct the reader’s attention, fundaGenre is a stable yet fluid space that mental elements of sleight of hand. With in books and on TV felt much safer invites the new into the familiar. Holiday’s gold tooth and concealed tatIn The Long Goodbye, PI Marlowe toos, I tried to present the protagonist than getting to know myself.” describes himself as “a lone wolf, unmaras a mysterious text herself, a code to be ried, getting middle-aged, and not rich. . . . I like liquor and women and deciphered. My goal was to write a character that surprises herself and chess and a few other things.” Sister Holiday is also a lone wolf, of a kind; the reader, keeping everyone guessing until the very end. —Margot Douaihy an out queer woman when she lived in Brooklyn, she has since taken a

feature | thrillers

All hail the femme fatale Two clever, unpredictable novels showcase the eternal allure of an iconic archetype. The femme fatale is beautiful, desirable and, above all, a survivor. While she was often villainized for that last trait in her film noir heyday, these modern takes on the figure celebrate the ferocious resilience at her core.

H Stone Cold Fox The wily narrator and antiheroine of Rachel Koller Croft’s Stone Cold Fox (Berkley, $27, 9780593547502) introduces herself as Bea—but that wasn’t the name she was born with. As a child, Bea changed her name as she moved from place to place with her mother, who taught little Bea the ways to ensnare both the right men and the money and privilege that come with them. Bea’s mother may be out of the picture now, but Bea still seeks to not only one-up her in every way possible but also gain enough social and financial capital that she’ll never have to be under her thumb ever again. Thanks to faked credentials, Bea is a high-powered advertising executive who recently became engaged to a former client, the dull but comes-from-old-money Collin Case. It’s a union Bea knows will set her up for life. But when Collin’s loyal best friend, Gale Wallace-Leicester, and his flirtatious old pal Dave Bradford arrive on the scene, Bea fears that her web of lies and greedy motivations will come to light. Alternating between Bea’s precarious present and her checkered past as the young and vulnerable tag-along to a truly wicked woman, screenwriter Koller Croft’s stellar debut novel is a meticulously crafted thriller that poses a tantalizing question to the reader: Are Bea’s actions truly horrendous? Or, if you look at them a certain way, are they actually aspirational?

What actually happened that night, and if Tom didn't kill himself and Odilie, who did? Vera is a fascinating contemporary femme fatale who will stop at nothing to claw her way back to the top, even if it means faking a friendship with Page, Odilie’s naive younger sister who may have secret ambitions of her own, and deep diving into Tom’s sordid life, which is full of grisly secrets that only vast quantities of money can protect. Collins’ second novel (after her riveting 2021 debut, Nanny Dearest) rotates among the perspectives of Vera, Tom and Odilie, a trifecta of complicated personalities desperate to make it in the cutthroat city that never sleeps. The result is a twisted tale of people who will use everything they’ve got to get what they want. —Lauren Emily Whalen

H A Small Affair Vera, the unapologetically ambitious, results-driven narrator of Flora Collins’ A Small Affair (MIRA, $17.99, 9780778386933), has a similarly aspirational lifestyle. She has a lucrative position at an up-and-coming fashion label, an enviable Instagram feed full of striking photos and unique style, a fun and supportive roommate/best friend and, most recently, an exciting older lover named Tom, a tech guru who's separated from his wife and boasts a mouthwatering Brooklyn brownstone and wild prowess in bed. But after Vera breaks off the relationship, Tom’s body is found alongside that of his pregnant wife, Odilie, whom he was very much not separated from. Vera's rejection of Tom, identified in a note found at the scene, is considered to be the cause of the murder-suicide. The story goes viral, and she loses it all. Tormented by the press and paparazzi, swiftly unemployed and the most hated woman in New York City, Vera has no choice but to slink off to the upstate abode of her controlling hippie mother. One depression-filled year later, Vera seeks to clear her reputation and regain her position as a Manhattan scene queen. Could the late Odilie’s Instagram be the key to solving the mystery of her and Tom’s deaths?

“A powerful, thought-provoking “A powerful, thought-provoking “A powerful, thought-provoking portrayal of a FASCINATING and portrayal of a FASCINATING and portrayal of a FASCINATING and COMPLICATED woman. II loved it.” COMPLICATED woman. loved it.” COMPLICATED woman. I loved it.” —JENNIFER SAINT, —JENNIFER SAINT,

bestselling author of Elektra and Ariadne —JENNIFER SAINT, bestselling author of Elektra and Ariadne bestselling author of Elektra and Ariadne

whodunit

by bruce tierney

The Maltese Iguana

H Storm Watch

Buckle up for another wild ride with Florida ne’er-do-well Serge A. Storms and his stoner sidekick, Coleman, in their 26th adventure, The Maltese Iguana (William Morrow, $30, 9780063240629) by Tim Dorsey. The title, a nod to Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, refers not to a precious statue but instead to its modern- day Florida counterpart—an iguana-shaped bong. The basic premise of the book is that Serge Storms, now fully vaccinated after a long COVID-19 lockdown, decides a celebration is in order, upon which mayhem ensues, both figuratively and literally. Meanwhile, a CIA operation goes off the rails in Honduras, and after barely escaping with his life, the agency’s local contact makes his way to Florida, putting both him and the agents the CIA sends after him directly in Hurricane Serge’s path. There are murders, explosions, drugs, mercenaries, Florida history and folklore, wild parties, an exotic dancer, an appearance by Captain Kangaroo, a boxing rabbit and enough pingpong balls to fill the trunk of an old Ford LTD. Imagine one of those newspaper articles in which the headline begins with “Florida man” and then imagine the article extending to 336 pages. That will give you a pretty good idea of what to expect in The Maltese Iguana.

C.J. Box’s Joe Pickett mysteries have been excellent since the Wyoming game warden’s very first case, 2001’s Open Season. But Box’s latest novel, Storm Watch (Putnam, $29, 9780593331309), is perhaps the most intricately plotted and fully realized of the bunch so far. Joe is on the trail of a wounded elk as an immense winter storm closes in, but he soon stumbles across something totally unexpected: the semi-decapitated body of man in a mysterious shed far off the beaten track. Joe finds the man’s car nearby, which contains an ID identifying him as a professor at the University of Wyoming, but soon after must beat a hasty retreat in hopes of outrunning the snow. When Joe returns to the scene after the storm, the body has disappeared. What initially seems to be a lack of interest on the part of the local sheriff soon morphs into a full-blown, high-level warning that Joe keep his nose out of matters that don’t concern him. (As if that could ever happen.) Conspiracies abound, reaching up to the highest levels of state government and involving über-wealthy absentee ranchers, bitcoin miners and underground militias. There is a lot going on in Storm Watch, but Box keeps all the balls in the air, culminating in an ending sequence that’s pure gold and extremely satisfying on multiple levels.

Murder at Haven’s Rock Canadian author Kelley Armstrong is perhaps best known for her Rockton mysteries, a series of seven books set in the titular village, which is hidden in Canada’s Yukon wilderness and serves as a refuge for those who cannot be effectively protected by the authorities. The Rockton series’ protagonist, detective Casey Duncan, is breaking ground on a similar endeavor with her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton. Their new village, Haven’s Rock, will differ from Rockton in only one major way: Casey and Eric plan to handpick the residents in hopes of eliminating some of the shortcomings of the Rockton project. But things do not get off to a good start. Murder at Haven’s Rock (Minotaur, $27.99, 9781250865410), the title of the new book, says it all. It starts when a couple of construction crew members break the cardinal rule—Do Not Venture Out Into The Forest—and never return. Casey and Eric launch a search for the workers but instead find the body of an unknown woman who has been stabbed to death. Just like Armstrong’s Rockton series, Murder at Haven’s Rock is an intriguing mystery populated by well-drawn characters. It’s accessible as a standalone read, but I wouldn’t be surprised if readers new to Armstrong immediately seek out her previous books after finishing this superb series starter.

H The Cliff’s Edge The mother-and-son writing team known in the publishing world as Charles Todd (the mother of which, Caroline Todd, died in 2021) boasts two hit series, each set in the years immediately following World War I. The first features Inspector Ian Rutledge, and Todd began the second in 2009, a spinoff series centered on Bess Crawford, a former combat nurse. As the 13th installment, The Cliff’s Edge (William Morrow, $30, 9780063039940), opens, Bess accepts a temporary nursing position to care for a wealthy woman after a surgery. While she is on duty, a tragic accident takes place nearby: Two men, Gordon Neville and Frederick Caldwell, fall from a rocky outcropping, with Frederick dying from his injuries. But things take an ominous turn when it is revealed that the two men shared a contentious past and that Frederick’s injuries seem inconsistent with his fall. Bess is tasked with caring for Gordon, who has a dislocated shoulder and a badly broken arm, and she finds herself drawn into the mystery of what actually transpired at the cliff’s edge. Both men’s grieving and angry family members complicate the situation, as does a local cop bent on pinning a murder on Gordon. Todd's writing is perfectly evocative of the period, making for an exceptionally pleasurable ride to the ultimate reveal.

Bruce Tierney lives outside Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he bicycles through the rice paddies daily and reviews the best in mystery and suspense every month.

feature | christian fiction

NOTHING TO FEAR In inspiring historical novels from Stephanie Landsem, Jocelyn Green and Jennifer Deibel, early 20th-century women find their strength. To continue in the face of doubt and despair, three women draw on their Christian faith in these immersive historical novels.

Code Name Edelweiss Stephanie Landsem’s transfixing Code Name Edelweiss (Tyndale House, $26.99, 9781496460660) is peppered with rich descriptions of Los Angeles in 1933. Amid widespread unemployment and poverty, few people in LA are fully aware of the growing threat of Nazism following the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany. Like many, Liesl Weiss is preoccupied with her own troubles; she has just lost her job but must take care of her children, brother and mother. Jewish lawyer Leon Lewis is concerned about the growing threat of the Nazis and believes they plan to infiltrate the Hollywood film industry. To stop them, he is enlisting spies for a dangerous mission. Liesl finds Leon’s fears absurd, but she needs the cash, so she signs on as a spy. The more information she uncovers, the more alarmed she becomes, and she soon realizes she cannot remain neutral and must choose a side. From its suspenseful start to its exciting ending, Code Name Edelweiss commands attention. Landsem sustains tension throughout as Leon’s team works to outpace the Nazis. Liesl, along with the elusive Agent Thirteen, spies on members of the German American community, hoping to find clues and deter the Nazis’ plans. The central characters all have fascinating backstories, though Liesl is crafted particularly well. She is sensible and dependable, and her lovely friendships add depth to the story. The novel is also enlivened by a subtle yet vital strand of romance.

The Metropolitan Affair Award-winning and bestselling author Jocelyn Green kicks off her new series with a captivating, multilayered mystery in The Metropolitan Affair (Bethany House, $16.99, 9780764239632), set in New York City at the height of American Egyptomania. In 1925, Americans’ demand for forged Egyptian art reaches a fever pitch after the discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb and the Egyptian government’s subsequent efforts to block the exportations of antiquities. Detective Joe Caravello believes that investigating the forgeries will lead him to criminals responsible for other crimes, so he enlists the help of his longtime friend Dr. Lauren Westlake, the

assistant curator of Egyptology for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lauren’s previously absent father has recently returned to her life, and she struggles to connect with him. Even though he offers her a chance to join him on an expedition to Egypt, the past cannot be undone. She wonders, though, whether there is still a chance for their relationship in the future. The Metropolitan Affair offers a full sense of its main characters, their inner struggles and processes of personal growth. Lauren and Joe are dynamic and realistic, and secondary characters are also well defined. The mystery is gripping, with exciting clues and shocking revelations, and the plot maintains a great balance between the investigation and Joe and Lauren’s relationship. This is an uplifting story of faith with many intriguing twists and ever-raising stakes, all leading to an unexpected conclusion.

The Maid of Ballymacool Jennifer Deibel (A Dance in Donegal, The Lady of Galway Manor) has done it again with The Maid of Ballymacool (Revell, $16.99, 9780800741747), a hopeful historical romance novel about unrelenting faith and new beginnings with just a pinch of mystery, set in Donegal, Ireland, in the 1930s. For as long as Brianna Kelly can remember, Ballymacool House and Boarding School for Girls has been her home. She has labored there since she was a child, though she’s never been able to meet Mistress Magee’s unending demands. But Brianna believes that there is more for her beyond the tight confines of the boarding house. The plot takes an interesting turn when a young man named Michael Wray arrives to keep an eye on his cousin, another Ballymacool boarder. A friendship develops between Michael and Brianna, and he becomes her much-needed ally against the vicious Mistress Magee. But despite their connection, a future together is untenable, since Brianna knows Michael will soon return to his high-society life. When Brianna finds a piece of silver in the nearby woods, a suspenseful mystery ensues, building to a rewarding ending as long-held secrets come to light and Brianna gets a bright new start. With rich language and historical detail, Deibel brilliantly emphasizes the story’s central themes of love, faith and redemption as her characters surmount formidable challenges. Although heartbreaking at times, The Maid of Ballymacool is inspiring and encouraging, and Brianna’s journey is one of hope and strength. —Edith Kanyagia

New horizons await Shannon Chakraborty, the author of the bestselling Daevabad trilogy, returns with a rip-roaring, high seas adventure. Anyone embarking on a boat-based Amina will never again have to worry about providing for her family. And, vacation should not expect to encounter most enticingly, it’s a chance for Amina to achieve one last impossible vicShannon Chakraborty on the lido deck. It’s tory, which could boost her legacy from well known and slightly infamous not that she to unquestionably legendary. has anything against Amina’s powerful combination of fierce maternal instinct and undeshuffleboard, per se; it’s more of a self- niable ambition was top of mind for pres er vational Chakraborty as she embarked on her instinct. “The new literary adventure, which began idea of open ocean mere months after she concluded her terrifies me,” the beloved Daevabad trilogy with 2020’s bestselling fantasy The Empire of Gold. author explained in a When Chakraborty began writing The call from her home in City of Brass, the first book in the trilNew Jersey. “I joke with ogy, “I never actually imagined I would be a published author,” she says. “I had my family that I will never slight hopes, but I was [writing] mostly go on a cruise. I love the water, but I have enough fear to keep my sanity.” She was caring for and respect for it that I never her newborn daughter and working want to be out of sight of land.” full time while her husband contended Fortunately for her fans—all with a demanding medical residency. around the world, as her work has “I wrote as enjoyment so I could play in the historical worlds I loved,” she been published in more than a dozen languages—Chakraborty’s imagination says, having always wanted to pursue is not so landlocked. In The Adventures a graduate degree in medieval history. of Amina al-Sirafi, her inventive and And then, she says with a laugh, “when exhilarating start to a new historical fanthe books went to auction, I was like, tasy trilogy, the author enters full pirate okay, I guess I do this now!” mode. Her titular protagonist is a seaAlthough she was an established and acclaimed author by the time soned 12th-century sea captain who’s the COVID-19 pandemic began, lured out of self-imposed retirement by an offer she can neither resist nor refuse. Chakraborty was consumed by uncerAmina left home at age 16 and was tainty when virtual schooling took over at sea for 15 years, becoming one of the her home life. “I think we can kind of formost notorious pirates in the Indian get the doom of that first six months of Ocean. But after her daughter, Marjana, the pandemic,” she says. “I just assumed was born, Amina left her criminal activI was never going to have time to write ities behind, choosing instead to hunagain. And it almost felt selfish; my husker down in her family’s mountainous band was treating COVID patients and H The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi home in southern Arabia, surrounded my daughter was having an incredibly Harper Voyager, $32, 9780062963505 by jungle that protects them from prydifficult time.” ing eyes but close enough to the coast But then, she says, “I pushed into that, Historical Fantasy to hear the sea. because I wanted to write about parentStaying in one place for 10 years has stirred up a discomfiting swirl hood and motherhood and talk about the points where you can love your of emotions in Amina. The time with her daughter is precious, as is the children, they are the center of your world . . . but you can still want more. knowledge that staying away from the ocean has kept them safe. But And it’s not selfish to want that.” Amina also misses the freedom of doing whatever The thought of other mothers experiencing she desired, surrounded by her crew, a loyal and the same feelings led to the creation of Amina, a “. . . you can love your talented found family that understood and revwoman who deeply loves her daughter but is also children . . . but you can eled in the thrill of never knowing where they’d proud of her decades of experience as a ship’s capend up next. tain and the accompanying wide range of skills still want more.” Thus, Amina is particularly primed to accept an she’s developed, from prevailing in hand-to-hand unexpected offer from Salima, the über-wealthy mother of Amina’s former combat to diffusing crew quarrels to navigating stormy seas. “I wanted crewman Asif. Asif’s daughter has been kidnapped, and if Amina can figto write a story for us,” Chakraborty says of her fellow mothers, “and talk ure out who captured her and bring her home, the reward money means about how that [struggle] is something that has always happened.”

interview | shannon chakraborty

Visit BookPage.com to read our starred review of The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi.

Chakraborty also drew on her abiding affinity for the ancient past. “My love of history has always come before my love of fantasy,” she says. “I was one of those strange kids reading up on the Titanic at 9 years old.” That zeal for research has helped Chakraborty immerse herself and her readers in fabulous and fantastical new worlds. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi’s Indian Ocean setting is rife with danger and intrigue, peopled with memorable characters, crackling magic and supernatural creatures. “I always found the idea of these littoral oceanic societies fascinating,” Chakraborty says. “We look for land-based empires and trade routes, and we don’t really look at the ways that oceans and seas connect people. . . . You see a lot of shared cultures and storytelling, and you find very similar stories in India that you then find in Yemen and in East Africa.” One of those common elements, per her extensive research, was a pervasive belief in the supernatural. “Magic was just considered real,” she says. “It was accepted by a majority of the population.” Chakraborty knows that this concept “could be difficult for modern readers to understand, but if you’re going to write about the past you’ve got to write about where people were coming from.” Chakraborty is constantly thinking about the disparity between historical reality and the false impressions people draw from what is taught in school or gleaned from popular culture. “Not everybody is privileged to go to college and take undergraduate and graduate courses on history, so a lot of what we understand of the past is very much determined by fictional presentations of it,” she says. “And when we have discussions of the medieval world in particular, especially in the West, we often have

this very grim, dark idea that Europe was [completely] white, we talk about the Dark Ages when everything was miserable for women . . . but you have to peel back and say, well, where did those ideas come from? What work are we highlighting?” The author provides suggestions for further reading on her website, hoping to stimulate such questions in pursuit of a more critical discourse. “By being able to show my receipts and my historical work,” Chakraborty says, “I’m [encouraging] my readers to look at the past a little differently.” Another shift in perspective that Chakraborty is passionate about is her certainty that fantasy has room for exciting, inspiring stories about women who are no longer in their 20s. She says, “ Adventure doesn’t stop when you’re 22 years old, and so much fantasy is focused on this extremely narrow age range. . . . But you still don’t know what you’re doing at 40 or 50, you still make mistakes, you’re still trying to have fun and take care of your family.” “I also feel like life experiences do matter and time does matter,” Chakraborty adds. “It would be completely unfathomable to me that Amina’s crew would be able to work on this mystery if they hadn’t been at sea and sailing and learning and thieving and poisoning and researching for the past 20 or 30 years. You need those talents, and they take time.” Having a middle-aged woman as a protagonist also allowed Chakraborty to explore complex themes of faith and growth. “I wanted to write a story about a character who deals with struggle and hardship in a way that comes back to her faith,” she says. “Amina is a devout Muslim, but she’s also someone who is very open about the ways she has failed, particularly in her early life. She’s a pirate, she’s a criminal, she was a thief and murderer, and she’s still coming back to religion and to God in ways that I felt we don’t have a lot of stories about—people who fail and then find their faith later in life.” “As someone who is religious myself,” she adds, “it speaks to an idea of mercy and compassion about God and about faith that I don’t think we see enough or talk about enough.” Readers curious about how this new series will diverge from Chakraborty’s previous books will be interested to know that “whereas the Daevabad trilogy was told from the point of view of magical creatures, this book is very much from the point of view of the humans who have to deal with them.” She also says that “there are lots of Easter eggs, and a character from Daevabad does show up.” After all, Chakraborty says with the sort of enthusiasm that any bibliophile will recognize, “ All of history is a story. It’s how we understand the world, how we understand the past, how we put facts together, how we describe anything. Everything is story. . . . I think it’s probably one of the most profoundly human things we engage in.” —Linda M. Castellitto

cover story | oliver darkshire

From antiquarian bookseller to author Oliver Darkshire’s memoir about working at a 262-year-old bookstore has a surprisingly modern origin story.

I never intended to write a book. I was, in fact, against it for a number of reasons. Firstly, I was an apprentice rare book dealer, and I had no wish to add “author” to my list of impoverished career choices. It rather felt like adding insult to preexisting injury. Secondly, I’d become accustomed to the strange ways of the shop and had developed a form of Stockholm syndrome in which the daily parade of peculiarities and cryptids seemed almost normal to me. I’d deluded myself into considering my life somewhat prosaic, even as I yelled at a 70-year-old man to get down from the top shelf at once and he threw (mercifully poorly aimed) almanacs in my general direction. Lastly, and most importantly, if you get involved in the world of rare bookselling, you very quickly dive below the pristine, genteel surface into the dark underbelly. In the shadows of the collecting world, the habit cheerily referred to as “bibliomania” thrives Visit BookPage.com to read our starred in the damp and dark. Once one is lost to the urge of review of Once Upon a Tome. buying and collecting books, there really is no way back up the slippery slope to the daylight. It starts with a wander into the store asking for the person who “does the tweets,” and my quiet life was over. Pandora’s box simple purchase of something nostalgic, and it ends was open, and it could not be closed again. when your body is found centuries later submerged in a I don’t know if anyone in our musty old bookstore tomblike ocean of first editions and literary ephemera. I often liken being in the business of antiquarian books really knew what to make of our ever-increasing interto running a casino or dealing in illicit substances: You net popularity. The notion of a “meme” was soundly may sell to customers all you like, but you never sample ridiculed as inconsequential until I made a passing the merchandise. My conscience could handle being reference to my love of a tuna sandwich online, which involved in hawking books, as I could still muster some took on a life of its own in the minds of our followers shred of denial as to the extent of my participation in and eventually culminated in people sending us cans organized crime, but the act of writing a book seemed of tuna in the mail. My colleagues held the internet like a step too far. in the same esteem as a bucket of vipers: a situationally useful catalyst for change, if one is in particularly It was the Twitter account that started this whole mess, vanity being the sin that leads to all such downdire circumstances, but not something to be handled H Once Upon a Tome falls. As a bookstore, Henry Sotheran Ltd on Sackville irresponsibly. As our following grew larger and more Norton, $27.95, 9781324092070 Street in London has kept a low profile since the late prominent, I found myself telling more and more 20th century. It’s been through phases of popularity of our tales and traditions to the wider public, who Memoir and desolation since 1761 when it was founded, but it devoured them insatiably. A suspicious gourd? Tell was enjoying a few decades of peace and quiet when I ruined everything. us more, Oliver. A secret cellar in a forgotten basement? Give us pictures. One day, as I brushed dust off a case to try and get a peek inside (I was Thinking myself very clever, and with the confidence of the young, I decided hunting for a copy of “The Iliad,” which it eventually turned out had been I might “help” by taking on some of the social media. I also thought it might be nice to have a place to vent about the odd things that happened sold years earlier), the phone trilled in the self-satisfied way it always does at the shop—though I did have to move a stuffed owl out of the way so I when it interrupts you in the middle of something important. Sighing, I had enough room on my desk to plug in a mobile phone among the picked up the wretched device to see that I had a message from stacks of reference books my colleagues assured me were someone claiming to be a literary agent. He thought vitally necessary, and which I never found reason to open. Sotherans would make a great topic for a book. Now, I It didn’t take long before a few stories that I leaked onto wasn’t born yesterday, so I accused him of being a fraud the internet—such as a thread about a singular and ill-fated visit and went back to my book hunting, satisfied with a job well from a Health and Safety inspector—threw the account into the public done. Alas, he proved quite persistent. More messages appeared. Would gaze, and it accelerated into the kind of popularity (or perhaps notoriety) an I be interested in lunch? This was the fatal blow, as I can be lured almost anywhere with the promise of a tuna sandwich. antiquarian bookseller dreads. Very soon my life was a frenzy of managing “likes,” which didn’t seem to mean anyone liked anything, “retweets,” which Two years later, here I sit with a copy of Once Upon a Tome: The sounded like a hate crime, and direct messages, which were very confusing Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller in hand. The stuffed owl looks at because Sotherans was still in the process of adjusting to the phenomenon me reproachfully. I cover it with a tablecloth. —Oliver Darkshire of email (a dark art to be sure, but business is business). People would

feature | memoir march

A SP RIN G MEMOI R MEDLEY There’s something for every reader among these stirring true stories.

H We Should Not Be Friends

In Will Schwalbe’s memoir We Should Not Be Friends (Knopf, $29, 9780525654933), the wry writer of booksabout-books (The End of Your Life Book Club and Books for Living) turns his attention to an unexpected friendship that originated in a secret society at Yale. Early in the memoir, Schwalbe differentiates between nerds and jocks, positioning himself (theater kid, gay, literature major) in the former category and Chris Maxey (wrestler, scuba diver, avid motorcyclist) in the latter. When the two met, they repelled each other like misaligned magnets; something about Maxey’s boisterous masculinity put Schwalbe on edge. But they began to listen to each other, and an unlikely trust began to form. From there, We Should Not Be Friends veers from this nostalgic origin story into the rushing sweep of adulthood. Health concerns, financial concerns, marital concerns, dreams realized and abandoned: All of it unfolds here, controlled through Schwalbe’s careful narration as he effectively shows how a fragile alliance in college yielded years of rewards. If you are someone who appreciates the people in your life, especially those whose presence seems serendipitous, this book will feel at once fresh and familiar. —Kelly Blewett

H A Stone Is Most Precious Where It Belongs

Journalists estimate that between 1 and 3 million Uyghur people are currently being held in detention camps by the Chinese government. That we in the U.S. know about this is largely due to the courageous reporting of Uyghur American journalists such as Gulchehra Hoja. In her stunning memoir, A Stone Is Most Precious Where It Belongs (Hachette, $29, 9780306828843), Hoja recounts her childhood and education in East Turkestan, as well as her love for her family, language and culture, precious things that she has had to leave behind. Located in the northwestern corner of mainland China, East Turkestan is the homeland of the primarily Muslim Uyghur, whose culture is rich with ancestral traditions in music and dance. Hoja trained as a dancer before hosting the first

Uyghur language children’s TV show, gradually becoming aware of the increased censorship of the Chinese government. A trip to Europe in 2001, and a first glimpse of an uncensored internet, led Hoja to immigrate to the United States. Family and friendship are as much a part of Hoja’s story as the larger national and political context, reminding readers that every missing Uyghur is a person with a story of their own. —Catherine Hollis

Forager Journalist Michelle Dowd was raised in California’s Angeles National Forest as part of an ultrareligious cult known as the Field, which was begun by her grandfather. She grew up fearing the apocalypse might arrive at any moment, and “outsiders” were never to be trusted. As Dowd writes in Forager (Algonquin, $28, 9781643751856), her father forced his children to embrace discomfort, limited their food, weighed them after meals and sent them hiking in the snow in tennis shoes. Dowd learned to endure her father’s frequent “rage and random violence” but never stopped yearning for the love and approval of her mother, who was often absent. The one thing Dowd’s mother did provide was an exceptional naturalist’s education, which serves as the book’s framework. Since the apocalypse was believed to be imminent, Dowd was expertly trained in survival skills. Each chapter begins with an illustration and short discussion of a plant that might provide sustenance, such as chokeberry, yucca or Jeffrey pine. Although Forager chronicles a horrific upbringing, Dowd’s narration is ultimately hopeful, always appreciative of our intimate, fragile dependence on our planet. —Alice Cary

Bang Bang Crash Novelist Nic Brown’s peripatetic memoir, Bang Bang Crash (Counterpoint, $16.95, 9781640094406), examines his past life as a drummer and the ways it haunts and informs his current life as a writer. By the time Brown was in high school, he was playing in bands around the Greensboro, North Carolina, area. Although he was accepted at Princeton and Columbia, he deferred enrollment

to keep gigging with his band, Athenaeum. They landed a record deal when Brown was 19 and even had a hit song, fulfilling all he’d ever wanted—but by the end of the 1990s, he was losing his enthusiasm for music. One day, Brown picked up his acceptance letter from Columbia again and discovered he was still enrolled. So he dropped his sticks, picked up his pen and left behind rock to start writing fiction. Even after all these changes, those old percussive impulses remain deep in Brown’s soul. “Rhythms and songs and patterns are dancing constantly through my mind,” he writes, “twirling in and around the beat of the windshield wipers, the thud of my footsteps, the click of my grocery cart as I wheel it away.” Bang Bang Crash offers a stylish portrait of a life in search of a deeper rhythm. —Henry L. Carrigan Jr.

The Urgent Life In 1982, marketing executive Bozoma Saint John’s father was taken into political detention in Ghana, and she didn’t know when she would see him or their home country again. From that point on, the young Saint John was familiar with loss. Later, when Saint John’s husband, Peter, received a terminal cancer diagnosis in 2013, her perspective on loss changed. The couple had been separated and in the process of divorcing, but with limited time left together, they knew they wanted to live in the here and now. “We had to make haste, whether that meant moving back in together after being separated for years, booking a trip to our favorite getaway, or eating lasagna before it had time to cool,” she writes. As Saint John vividly recounts the couple’s waning time together, she also reflects on their past. Their first meeting was acrimonious, but Peter quickly won over Saint John by reading her favorite book, Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, and taking her to dinner to discuss the novel. The couple fell fast after that, but the differences in their life experiences and upbringings—hers Ghanaian American, his Italian American— became difficult to sort through. The Urgent Life (Viking, $29, 9780593300176) is an unflinching examination of Saint John’s decision to live urgently, which grew out of the realization that time spent with the people she loves isn’t guaranteed. —Carla Jean Whitley

feature | women’s history month

Movers and shakers Three biographies of notable American women illuminate their groundbreaking influence on literature, science and politics. The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley In 1767, Phillis Wheatley arrived in Boston via a slave ship at the age of 7. In the years leading up to the start of the American Revolution in 1775, she became famous across New England and in London for her poetry. For all her talent and influence on the issues of her day, such as abolition, emancipation and revolution, the details of Wheatley’s life are still unknown to many. Award-winning historian David Waldstreicher sets out to change that with his in-depth, engrossing biography, The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley (FSG, $30, 9780809098248). At a time when enslaved—and free—Black people were regarded by many colonists as barely literate “barbarians” and possible threats to Massachusetts’ rebellion against England, Wheatley earned her fame with words. Recognizing her unique ability, Wheatley’s wealthy, white enslavers gave her the time and privacy to write. Her poems, such as “On Being Brought From Africa to America,” were metered, not free verse, and spoke to the intellectual and impassioned Christian beliefs of her times. Wheatley’s elegies for the dead were distributed as broadsides at funerals, and her poems— which managed to praise British soldiers as well as American patriots and abolitionists— were published in newspapers on both sides of the churning political divide. Waldstreicher includes the text of many of Wheatley’s poems, explaining them well for those less familiar with the classical forms she used. In 1773, Wheatley achieved her emancipation with the help of her many patrons in Boston and England after the publication of her first book. Waldstreicher documents the long, tortuous journeys toward independence for both the poet and the American colonies in The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley. Along the way, the likes of Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Abigail Adams cross Wheatley’s path, and events like the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre feature prominently. This account of Wheatley’s life adds much to the tumultuous Revolutionary chapter of America’s political and racial history. —Priscilla Kipp

The Exceptions In 1999, author Kate Zernike, then a reporter for The Boston Globe, broke an enormous story: The Massachusetts Institute of Tech nology had admitted to a long- standing pattern of discrimination against women on its faculty. Zernike, now a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times, tells the full inspiring story in The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science (Scribner, $30, 9781982131838). Zernike begins by focusing on molecular biologist Nancy Hopkins’ life and career path. In the spring of 1963, Hopkins, a Radcliffe junior, became so enthralled by a Harvard lecture on DNA by Nobel Prize winner James Watson that she sought work in his molecular biology lab. But like other women then and now, Hopkins faced difficult choices as she weighed the demands of science against marriage and potential motherhood. Eventually Hopkins earned her Ph.D. from Harvard in 1971, and by 1973, she had accepted a position at MIT’s Center for Cancer Research. By the 1990s, Hopkins realized that “a woman’s work would never be valued as highly as a man’s.” This revelation led her to reach out to female colleagues, resulting in a letter by 16 women at MIT compiling evidence of discrimination, including unequal access to research resources and pay. The women spent the next four years doing fact-finding as a commit tee, and by March of 1999, they had compiled a report of what they’d uncovered. When Zernike’s article appeared on the front page of the Globe, the story took off. Hopkins arrived on campus the next day to camera crews, and she received emails from women across the world. Zernike closes her narrative with updates on Hopkins’ continued successful career, short bios of the 16 women who signed the original letter and an examination of the progress for women in academia—and the work still to be done. These women’s efforts—and the subsequent impact this revelation had for women across academia—make for a gripping, page-turning read. —Deborah Hopkinson

Untold Power Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, the controversial first lady of 28th president Woodrow Wilson, had some impressive predecessors. There was Abigail Adams, famed women’s rights advocate, and Dolley Madison, who rescued the nation’s treasured artwork from a burning White House. Edith was also followed by trailblazers, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, whose looming legacies have sometimes left Edith in history’s shadow. With Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson (Viking, $30, 9780593489994), historian Rebecca Boggs Roberts gives Edith her due, demonstrating that, as the first unelected woman to govern the country, Edith has no match. Like several other first ladies, Edith had little formal education. She came from a Virginia family who had been dispossessed after the Civil War and grew up in a crowded apartment above a general store, which she eventually left for Washington, D.C., where a tall, striking beauty like herself could better shine. When she married Norman Galt, a jewelry business owner, she became his helpmate; when he died, she became a working widow. Woodrow lost his first wife, Ellen, soon after taking office in 1913. When he was introduced to Edith, he promptly fell in love. During those early years of her marriage, Edith knew her place—and how to get around it. When women were not allowed at important White House meetings, she hid in drapes to watch. When a stroke left Woodrow incapacitated shortly into his second term, Edith quietly took over, deciding which pieces of news wouldn’t be too stressful for him and how to keep everyone, especially his political enemies and the press, from seeing the truth of the president’s condition. Untold Power brims with details, from the colors of the signature orchids Edith wore to the troubled corners of Woodrow’s mind after his stroke. This well-told history, based on sources that are often at odds with Edith’s own memoir, also begs the question: How could so much in the White House have gone unseen and unknown for so long? And, chillingly, could it happen again? —Priscilla Kipp

book clubs

by julie hale

Historical heroines Tomiko Brown-Nagin pays tribute to a history maker in Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality (Vintage, $19, 9780525436102). Born in Connecticut in 1921, Constance Baker Motley studied law at Columbia University and went on to serve as a federal judge, becoming the first Black woman to do so. She was instrumental in ending Jim Crow and in arguing Brown vs. Board of Education. BrownNagin’s richly detailed narrative chronicles Motley’s working-class background and her rise in law and politics. Book clubs will enjoy digging into complex topics such as gender, social justice and the nature of power. The Woman They Could Not Silence: The Shocking Story of a Woman Who Dared to Fight Back (Sourcebooks, $16.99, 9781728242576) by Kate Moore is a fascinating look at the life of Elizabeth Packard, who was wrongfully sent to Perfect for Women’s an Illinois insane asylum by her husband in 1860. History Month, these During her confinement inspiring nonfiction books in the asylum, where living conditions were appallhonor overlooked female ing, Packard found other women who had been trailblazers. unfairly institutionalized. Determined to stand up for herself and her sister inmates, Packard advocated for their rights against all odds. Packard is an extraordinary figure, and Moore brings her to vivid life in this haunting book. Dorothy Wickenden’s The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights (Scribner, $18.99, 9781476760742) focuses on a trio of formidable women from the 19th century—Harriet Tubman, Frances A. Seward and Martha Coffin Wright—each of whom worked to further the causes of freedom and equality at a critical time in America. Wickenden documents the lives of these groundbreaking women, showing how their c o nt rov e r s i a l work impacted their personal re l at i o n s h i p s and social standing. Themes of loyalty, family and feminism will inspire rewarding dialogue among readers. In The Correspondents: Six Women Writers on the Front Lines of World War II (Vintage, $19, 9780593471159), Judith Mackrell spotlights a roster of unforgettable journalists who forged their own paths as war reporters despite red tape, gender-based prejudice and the hardships of international conflict. Mackrell tells the personal stories of Martha Gellhorn, Clare Hollingworth, Lee Miller, Sigrid Schultz, Helen Kirkpatrick and Virginia Cowles while exploring their remarkable contributions to history. Thoroughly researched and briskly written, Mackrell’s salute to a group of intrepid writers captures the spirit of an era.

A BookPage reviewer since 2003, Julie Hale recommends the best paperback books to spark discussion in your reading group.

lifestyles

by susannah felts

H The Creative Vegetable Gardener Kelly Smith Trimble’s The Creative Vegetable Gardener (Storey, $19.99, 9781635865035 isn’t concerned so much with crop yields or pest control as it is with the sheer pleasure and wellness that gardening can bring. She encourages readers to garden for the mindfulness and surprise of it and counsels them to not get hung up on how many tomatoes they produce. Accessible for beginners but poised to shake up the thinking of the most seasoned dirt-gardener, Trimble’s new book covers lots of ground.

Colors of Film Color: We can’t not see it, and yet we’re frequently unaware of the power of its strategic use, even as we feel the effects. But you’ll never take color for granted again after perusing Charles Bramesco’s Colors of Film (Frances Lincoln, $26, 9780711279384), which explores the palettes used in 50 iconic films through four eras of cinema. A garish Pepto pink steals the show in Jamie Babbit’s queer cult classic But I’m a Cheerleader, while the soft pink of cherry blossoms characterizes Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. This book provides a fascinating object lesson in how visual information wields power.

But Have You Read the Book? For a more literary spin on the movies, there’s But Have You Read the Book? (Running Press, $20, 9780762480975), a compendium of 52 stories taken from print to screen. You won’t be surprised to discover titles such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Blade Runner here, but did you know Jaws was first a book? Goodfellas? The Social Network? Author Kristin Lopez succinctly parses differences between the versions of each story, pointing out actor credits and box office facts for the movies and themes explored in the books. So is But Have You Read the Book? for film buffs or book nerds? I say both.

Sugar High In Sugar High: 50 Recipes for Cannabis Desserts (Simon Element, $22.99, 9781982185640), Chris Sayegh first delivers a primer on cannabis before moving on to how to calculate dosage. Beware: There are equations involved! But if that doesn’t deter you, proceed directly to oil and butter infusions and tinctures, and then on to the sweet stuff, such as dulce de leche coconut blondies and tiramisu. Really, is there any better way to get your CBD or THC than through a luscious chocolate custard?

Susannah Felts is a Nashville-based writer and co-founder of The Porch, a literary arts organization. She enjoys anything paper- or plant-related.

interview | jenny odell

Jenny Odell is right on time The bestselling author of How to Do Nothing returns with a brilliant, hopeful critique of our obsession with efficiency. Artist and critic Jenny Odell’s How to Do The natural world is of central importance Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy was a to Odell’s work, and her careful study of nature New York Times bestseller and a critical favorite. feels refreshing. For example, birds played a The 2019 book considered the ways we spend key role in How to Do Nothing, and they remain our attention in a world full of technologies vying important in Saving Time. “I don’t think birds for (and profiting from) that attention. Now entered my work until I was writing the original Odell returns with Saving Time: Discovering a How to Do Nothing talk,” she says, referencing a keynote address she gave at an art and techLife Beyond the Clock, a provocative examination of efficiency culture that encourages readers nology festival in 2017, which later appeared in to rethink their relationships with time. the book. “It was unexpected; I was doing a lot of that thinking in the [Morcom] Rose Garden, Odell was inspired to write the book after hearing from readers who enjoyed How to Do which has a lot of birds, and I started to see parNothing but struggled to incorporate their new allels between the natural world and things that thinking into their busy lives. “That feedback happen with attention and information.” That municipal rose garden in Oakland is an became generative,” she says during a call to her home in Oakland, California. “I started to example Odell gives of a noncommercial leithink, if it’s true that we don’t have enough time, sure space, a “third space” where people can how did we get here? And gather outside of work and why? Why do we think of home, preferably withtime as scarce? What is out spending money. It’s the difference between, where Odell spends much for example, someone of her time, and in Saving who feels like they don’t Time, she complicates her have any time and somefeelings toward the park and its troubled history. one who really doesn’t have any time?” “I still find it utopian, even Saving Time began though when it was built, with two inspirations it would have been a de that came together in facto white space because a surprising way. First, of redlining,” she says. Rick Prelinger of the “But the current-day rose Prelinger Library, a prigarden gives me hope for vately funded public what places like this could research library in San be.” Places where people Francisco, told Odell can spend time, gathering that she needed to read or sitting in quiet observaE.P. Thompson’s 1967 tion, without working or work, “Time, Workbuying something. Places Discipline, and Industrial where people can be. Capitalism.” “It’s an early I read Saving Time at H Saving Time the end of 2022, just as building block for thinkRandom House, $28.99, 9780593242704 ing about the relationpeople were posting their ship of time to capitalambitions for 2023. I share Social Science ism,” she says, and how this with Odell, mentionthe Industrial Revolution required workers to ing how clarifying it was to read about Frederick be more disciplined with their time in order to Winslow Taylor, a 19th-century “efficiency bro” maximize profits. The second inspiration was (as she calls the modern generation of productivity influencers) who advocated for carefully Odell’s burgeoning interest in geology, which also shows up in the book’s cover art. “I spend breaking down actions into small, trackable a lot of time in the mountains, and that’s obvicomponents, at the same time I was feeling ously a very different way of thinking about tempted to write an extensive list of resolutions. time,” she says. Mountains offer a way of zoom“It’s seductive,” Odell says when I ask her about why we love seeing Taylorist statistics ing out on modern life by contemplating layers like the number of steps tracked by a Fitbit. of earth forming, colliding and eroding over millions of years. “Saving Time is about these two (Taylor himself counted his steps and timed his ways of looking at time.” own activities.) “For a user who wants to have a

Visit BookPage.com to read our starred review of Saving Time.

sense of control in their life, it’s really seductive. It offers self-understanding. You’ll be able to see yourself at a glance and make changes accordingly.” But this data also leads us to try and make each moment as productive as possible. So then, what do we do? “The only way to counter this desire is to ask why you’re doing something and if you want to be doing it,” is Odell’s advice. This requires a level of mindfulness that most of us struggle to attain. But Saving Time is not a screed, and Odell has no interest in scolding her readers, nor depressing them with grim truths about modern capitalism. Instead she offers hope. “I walk around a lot with a pair of binoculars and a jeweler’s loupe,” she says. “Sometimes when I’m hanging out with a friend, I’ll give them the loupe. At first they say, ‘Okay, why do you have this?’ And then they’ll look at something, and every single time they say, ‘I had no idea it looked like this. It’s incredible.’ And then they want to look at everything with the loupe.” “Unfortunately for a lot of adults, the last time they remember that feeling of discovery was childhood,” Odell continues. “That’s what motivates my work. I want the end of Saving Time to be the beginning. After you read it, you have to go back outside and look at everything with a new lens, and now everything looks different. And hopefully it looks different because the reader has a new relationship to reality, and the world feels filled with curiosity rather than dread.” I can attest to the sense of discovery offered by Saving Time. In Odell’s work, observation, both inward and outward, is sacred. Here, she proves that there are new ways to think about time and productivity, that we don’t have to always feel like time is hopelessly scarce. Saving Time presents a new vision, both through a jeweler’s loupe and a pair of binoculars, of what a better world could look like. —Celia Mattison

feature | self-help

Family matters

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Two nonfiction books offer help and hope to everyone working to untangle themselves from family drama. The Origins of You

Drama Free

Behaviors and beliefs are often perpetuated throughout families, when what we learned as children continues to show up in our families and relationships as adults. Sometimes these behaviors stem from childhood wounds that have led to negative repeating patterns. In The Origins of You (Putnam, $29, 9780593539910), therapist and relationship expert Vienna Pharaon explains how to tap into the origin stories of these wounds in a productive way. Although naming the wounds we received during our upbringings can be a difficult and painful process, Pharaon writes that it is the “first step toward your healing.” The book is divided into four parts: our roots, our wounds and their origins, changing your relationship behaviors, and your reclamation. There’s an emphasis throughout on “origin healing work,” which is “an integration of family systems work and psychodynamic theory.” By digging into her backlog of over 20,000 hours of work as a therapist and her Instagram community of over 600,000 followers, Pharaon puts feelings such as unworthiness and an inability to trust in context—along with these feelings’ subsequent destructive behaviors, such as being self- critical, not living authentically and avoiding honest communication. However, no client confidentiality is breached. Clients’ identities are disguised, and sometimes several clients are combined to emphasize a point. Pharaon also uses her own story as an example, referring back to her personal journey. These reality checks help the reader understand that they are not alone in their pain and show how addressing these origin wounds can be healing and transformative. Thoughtful self-help exercises with suggestions on how to best read, process and digest this information are woven throughout The Origins of You, and Pharaon feels like a cheerleader and confidant as she offers honest, straightforward advice. “What if . . . digging into your origin story,” she asks, “could yield the relief and the exact answers you’ve been looking for all along?” —Becky Libourel Diamond

Licensed therapist and author Nedra Glover Tawwab offers readers practical guidance on breaking the cycle of family dysfunction in Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships (TarcherPerigee, $28, 9780593539279). In the introduction, Tawwab writes, “How people engage in the family is usually how they engage in the world.” This might be a relief for the lucky few who grew up in perfect families, but for most of us, unlearning the cycle of family dysfunction takes hard work and a little help. Drama Free offers just that: clear, easy-to-understand direction for identifying and breaking dysfunctional family patterns. The book is divided into three sections titled “Unlearning Dysfunction,” “Healing” and “Growing”—three important milestones on the road from chaotic family relationships to healthy ones. Each chapter begins with a quote or a real-life example from Tawwab’s therapy practice. Then it moves on to a brief analysis of the dynamics at play in the opening story and ends with a series of self-reflective questions. Chapters cover a wide range of topics including enmeshment, codependency, thriving versus surviving, managing relationships with people who won’t change and troubleshooting relationships with parents. Tawwab’s longtime career as a therapist, her thriving Instagram community (@nedratawwab) and her New York Times bestselling debut, Set Boundaries, Find Peace, have made her a leading voice on relationships and boundaries. Drama Free builds on this work by concentrating specifically on family relationships, supporting readers as they take responsibility for their own actions and move toward greater authenticity. Whether you’re struggling to process trauma, addiction or neglect in your childhood or just looking for increased transparency in your family relationships, Drama Free offers clinical insight in the warm, accessible tone for which Tawwab is known. —Sarah Carter

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interview | cathleen schine

AN ODD COUPLE IN QUARANTINE In her 12th novel, Cathleen Schine chronicles a grandmother and grandson facing lockdown together. Hilarity ensues, as well as revelations. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cathleen Schine sat Eventually, however, Julian finds himself intrigued and even translounging in her glorious, sweet-smelling Los Angeles garden, feeling misformed by Mamie’s marvelous tales of Vienna and old Hollywood. Their time together reads like a love letter to not only Los Angeles but also the erably stuck. She knew she wanted to write about Jewish German exiles in Hollywood during World War II but feared that a strictly historical novel relationship between grandparent and grandchild—a theme further might become “a pit of phony insertions of detail,” a quagmire-ridden echoed in Mamie’s tender relationship with her own grandfather. Schine initially became intrigued by these Hollywood exiles (many of quest for historical accuracy. Make no mistake, Schine’s novels are always fine-tuned, fascinating whom called themselves émigrés, she explains, “as if they weren’t ‘regular’ and funny. She’s been compared to immigrants like the Russian Jews”) Nora Ephron and Jane Austen. Her after reading a biography about combooks include Alice in Bed, about a poser and socialite Alma Mahler, and suburban teenager with a mysteanother about actor, screenwriter and activist Salka Viertel. Schine rious disease (inspired by Schine’s even named Mamie after Viertel; own strange illness as a young both women share the given name woman), and more recently, The “Salomea.” Viertel appears in the Grammarians, about identical twin girls obsessed with language and novel, along with many other wellbattling for custody of their family known figures, including writers Aldous Huxley and Thomas Mann; dictionary. Thankfully, revelation struck composer Arnold Schoenberg, who and opened the creative floodgates teaches Mamie to play tennis; and actor Greta Garbo, who is a major Schine needed to pen her latest novel, Kϋnstlers in Paradise. Speaking by character. phone, she recalls, “I was sitting there “I just became obsessed with these with my notebook closed and the cap people,” Schine admits. “I read a on my pen, staring at all this beautimillion memoirs of the period. And ful jasmine, unable to go anywhere by a million, I mean a million.” She or do anything. And I thought, ‘This wondered what it would be like to is a kind of exile, too, because I’m sitbe a high-cultured person who sudting here in all this beauty, and all my denly found themselves in LA in friends are back in New York, locked 1939, a time when the city was culin, terrified.’ ” Her friends’ parents turally barren in comparison to, say, were dying, and Schine’s own mother, Vienna. “They came over here and had to exist in this beautiful place in her 90s, was also housebound, sick while their world was being comand, as it turns out, nearing the end of her life. “At that moment,” the author pletely destroyed, and that whole says, “New York was a horrible, ternotion really captured my imaginarifying nightmare, and here I was in tion,” Schine says. Although Kϋnstlers in Paradise is this beautiful garden, basically in paradise.” far from autobiographical (Schine says The result of Schine’s magical her own immigrant ancestors were far moment is a multigenerational famless “exalted” than these characters), she notes that “almost all of my older ily drama about exile, guilt, aging, storytelling and love, all told with a women characters are modeled to hefty helping of humor. Ninety-threesome extent on my mother, and also H Kϋnstlers in Paradise year-old Mamie Kϋnstler has lived in my grandmother,” both of whom had Holt, $27.99, 9781250805904 Venice Beach, California, since emigreat senses of humor. Like Schine’s grating as a girl from Vienna, Austria, mother did, Mamie dyes her hair “a Family Drama in 1939 with her parents and grand much brighter red than nature could father. After Mamie fractures her have provided,” although Schine notes wrist, her grandson Julian, a wannabe screenwriter who can no longer that Mamie is still “really very much her own person.” In contrast to Mamie’s swift development, Schine says, “It took a long afford his rent in New York City, arrives to help out. time for Julian . . . to become a real character, not just a name that I kept Then COVID-19 strikes, and Julian is less than thrilled to find himself putting in so that Mamie could say something. . . . I wanted him to be in quarantined with his grandmother, her housekeeper and a Saint Bernard named Prince Jan. Julian might not love it, but readers absolutely will. some ways innocent and in some ways entitled. He hasn’t really done Imagine, for instance: “Julian and his grandmother were stretched out anything with his life yet, but on the other hand, he isn’t a complete narcissistic dumbbell. He’s just a kid. Getting that right was very difficult.” in two chaise longues, side by side like an old couple by a Miami pool.”

feature | bestseller watch “I read a million memoirs of the period. And by a million, I mean a million.”

Like Julian, Schine was just getting to know Los Angeles during the pandemic—even though she’s lived there for over 10 years. COVID-19 put a stop to Schine’s monthly visits to New York City to see her mother, giving her more time in LA “to walk around and get accustomed to the neighborhood and the way the light changes and the seasons, which exist, but they’re so different,” she says. “I was a real New York snob.” She had lived in New York for decades, raising her two sons there with New Yorker film critic David Denby. After their divorce, she moved to California with her wife, filmmaker Janet Meyers. “I realized that the part of New York that I had come to love the most was Central Park,” she says, “and I thought, ‘If New York for you is Central Park, then you could live in Los Angeles.’ I just got to the point where I wanted a quiet, peaceful place to live.” Another trait that Schine shares with Julian is the fact that her own career emerged, shall we say, slowly. She enrolled at Sarah Lawrence College, hoping to become a poet. “I’d never been to a place like that, where everyone was dressed in such a fabulous, interesting way and was so smart and charismatic. And I thought, ‘I am not letting these people read my poems. Are you kidding?’ ” She quickly transferred to Barnard College, changed her major to medieval studies and then went to graduate school at the University of Chicago, only to become “a failed medievalist.” Next, she landed a job at The Village Voice with help from her mother’s best friend, who later encouraged Schine to transform one of her articles into a novel. During this time, Schine felt like “a depressed lump,” living with her mother and sleeping on top of her bed so that when her mother walked in, “I could just sit up and the bed was made.” She eventually began writing a novel secretly, “pretending like I was making a shoe,” which allowed her to avoid the “baggage that it had to be the great American novel.” Looking back, Schine recognizes that her success was “a combination of great luck, connections and, I have to think, some talent. When that happens, and the luck is there, it’s amazing.” In contrast to writers who begin with outlines, Schine experiences her own writing process like “being en plein air in a city, strolling through your book, observing things as you go.” She tends to structure a novel after most of it has been written; in the case of Kϋnstlers in Paradise, because it is full of Mamie’s stories, it ended up being “about stories and what they mean, and where they fit into your own life—and into the lives of the people you tell them to. And how stories change, and also change people.” Schine has previously said that she doesn’t want to write her own life story, but today she says, “You know what? I think I want to, actually.” However, as she begins to discuss the genre, she quickly backtracks. “It’s funny. I want to write a memoir, but I don’t really want it to be very personal,” she says. “Somehow writing about myself seems so self-indulgent without the protection of a novel to make it more interesting and, in some ways, more real for other people. On the other hand, I love reading memoirs. Go figure.” —Alice Cary Visit BookPage.com to read our starred review of Künstlers in Paradise.

MAJOR RELEASES FOR MARCH Discover new books from six big names.

March 7 The London Séance Society By Sarah Penner

Park Row, $30, 9780778387114 In her follow-up to her bestselling 2021 debut, The Lost Apothecary, Penner returns to London for a Victorian-era mystery.

All That Is Mine I Carry With Me By William Landay

Bantam, $28.99, 9780345531841 Ten years after Defending Jacob became an instant New York Times bestseller, the former lawyer is finally publishing another novel, this one about a mother’s disappearance.

March 14 Paris

By Paris Hilton

Dey Street, $30, 9780063224629 The bejeweled hotel heiress and pop culture phenomenon, who took being famous for being famous to new heights, will release her first memoir.

March 28 Community Board By Tara Conklin

Mariner, $30, 9780062959379 From the bestselling author of The Last Romantics comes a novel of isolation, human connection and internet message boards.

Hang the Moon By Jeannette Walls

Scribner, $28, 9781501117299 The author of the beloved memoir The Glass Castle sets her next novel in Prohibition-era Virginia, where young, ambitious Sallie Kincaid is determined to make a name for herself.

Loyalty

By Lisa Scottoline

Putnam, $28, 9780525539803 Megabestselling thriller author Scottoline transports readers to 19th-century Sicily for a story set during the rise of the Mafia. All publication dates are subject to change.

reviews | fiction

H A Day of Fallen Night By Samantha Shannon

Fantasy Somewhere beneath the surface of the world, an ancient evil sleeps. The Nameless One, a wyrm so powerful that it once threatened the very fabric of life, is bound beneath the Earth’s crust, in its molten interior. Some think that its defeat came at the hands of a knight named Galian. Those who follow Galian’s teachings believe that his heirs, a line of uncannily identical queens, are all that stand between the world and destruction. Others attest that Cleolind, the queen whom Galian sought to marry, defeated the beast. While the old danger sleeps, the Earth has become restless, with volcanoes spewing new terrors in the form of beasts and wyrms. If the world is to survive, its people must learn how to subdue these powerful beasts. For Dumai, the crown princess of Seiiki who has been raised in a remote temple, that will mean learning how to call down the gods to save her people. For Glorian, princess and heir to Sir Galian’s

Birnam Wood By Eleanor Catton

Literary Fiction In Act 1 of Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth questions his plan to commit regicide against King Duncan, saying, “I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself / And falls on th’other.” Vaulting ambition and the willful blindness that can accompany it form the tragedy of Birnam Wood (FSG, $28, 9780374110338), Eleanor Catton’s second novel after her 2013 Booker Prize-winning debut, The Luminaries. The Birnam Wood of the title refers not to the Scottish town of the play but to an activist collective in New Zealand whose members harvest crops planted “without permission on public or unattended lands.” The group’s founder, Mira Bunting, has an idealistic goal of radical social change that shows “how arbitrary and absurdly prejudicial the entire concept of land ownership” is. But there’s a problem: The collective has trouble breaking even. A possible solution arrives in the form of a natural disaster, when

legacy, that will mean sacrificing her childhood for the greater good. And for Tunuva and the rest of the women of the Priory of the Orange Tree, a religious order that Cleolind founded, that will mean fighting in a battle they’ve trained for but hoped would never come. And for all involved, it will require uncommon courage and a will to triumph. A Day of Fallen Night ( B l o o m sb u r y , $35, 9781635577921) is Samantha Shannon’s return to the world of The Priory of the Orange Tree and a prequel to that novel. It is a massive undertaking, clocking in at nearly 900 pages, but with its careful plotting and brilliantly developed cast of characters, it is worth every paragraph. Shannon covers both grand high fantasy themes and more down-toearth ones, touching on everything from court intrigue and the terrifying frenzy of battle to tender domestic moments. The novel overflows with characters whose wins you’ll cheer for and whose failures you’ll

mourn. Shannon examines the relationship between mother and child, including the grief that comes with the loss of a child, the hope that a new generation brings and the frustration of trying to live up to your forerunners' expectations. Her female characters are fierce, but they’re also vulnerable, clever and lonely. At times, her poetic prose overwhelms the senses with sumptuous detail and explosive energy. In other moments, she paints complex emotions with goosebump-inducing empathy. You don’t need to have read The Priory of the Orange Tree to enjoy A Day of Fallen Night. But know that the pull of the priory is strong: Whichever book you start with, you’ll likely want to have the next one close at hand. —Laura Hubbard

a landslide causes the closure of the Korowai Pass and cuts off the small fictional town of Thorndike. Not far from the site of the landslide is a farm owned by the soon-to-be-knighted Owen Darvish. Paradoxically, Owen’s pest control service has partnered with American tech corporation Autonomo on a conservation project to rescue endemic species from extinction. Mira’s plan: buy the farm for Birnam Wood. In both of her novels, Catton has shown that she’s an expert at building tension from an intricate plot. One of the complicating factors in Birnam Wood is Autonomo co-founder Robert Lemoine, “a serial entrepreneur, a venture capitalist, and, apparently, a billionaire.” He wants to build a bunker on the farm and store precious cargo that would make him, “by several orders of magnitude, the richest person who had ever lived.” When he catches Mira on the property, he suggests they join forces, but in true Shakespearean fashion, Robert’s intent may not be what he claims. Catton brilliantly weaves other characters and plot elements into the mix, among them Tony Gallo, a former collective member and would-be journalist who is keen to expose Robert for who he is. Tony is too broadly drawn, and Catton sometimes over-explains the plot, but Birnam Wood is still a powerful portrait of the uncomfortable relationship between capitalism and idealism, and the compromises and trade-offs one might accept in pursuit of a goal.

As some of Catton’s characters learn, vaulting ambition can be admirable, but if one o’erleaps and falls, the landing is anything but smooth. —Michael Magras

Visit BookPage.com to read a Behind the Book essay by Samantha Shannon.

H Monstrilio

By Gerardo Sámano Córdova

Literary Fiction There is no word in the English language for someone who has lost their child. We have orphan for children who have lost their parents and widow or widower for a person who has lost a spouse, but we dare not give a name to the tragedy of losing a child. However, in his debut novel, Monstrilio (Zando, $27, 9781638930365), Gerardo Sámano Córdova attempts to describe this nameless grief, not by giving it a name but by showing how resisting it can destroy us. The novel begins with Magos, a grieving mother who cuts out a piece of lung from the body of her deceased 11-year-old son, Santiago. When Magos returns to her childhood home in Mexico City, she discovers that the piece of lung can be fed, and she slowly nurtures it into

reviews | fiction something new. When this creature becomes the titular Monstrilio and begins to resemble her dead son, Magos and her husband, Joseph, try their best to care for it. However, Monstrilio’s innate, destructive impulses jeopardize their son's second chance at life, and the characters are forced further down the path of grief toward something like acceptance. Sámano Córdova’s writing is piercing and intimate. Whether describing Monstrilio’s first, vicious moments of life or the subtle, strained romance between Magos and her childhood friend Lena, Sámano Córdova keeps readers breathless. By splitting the book into four parts, narrated by Magos, Lena, Joseph, and Monstrilio himself, Córdova allows us to see the different sides of this tragic story; combined, they are more than the sum of their parts. Some of the novel’s best moments are the flashbacks, when Magos, Joseph and Santiago share loving moments together, seek a method of healing for the boy and reckon with the fragility of life. When we see the monster that Santiago’s lung becomes, complex and grotesque and pitiful as it is, it troubles these tender moments, showing how grief often fixates on pain, trapping us in an interminable cycle. Sámano Córdova doesn’t attempt to break the cycle; rather, his novel seeks to embody it, making this nameless, eternal pain something we can speak to and hold. —Eric Ponce

H Now You See Us By Balli Kaur Jaswal

Popular Fiction Well-crafted characters add to the heartfelt drama in Now You See Us (William Morrow, $30, 9780063161603), Balli Kaur Jaswal’s alluring literary mystery that’s a gem for fans of Nita Prose’s The Maid and the novels of Alexander McCall Smith. Reserved Corazon (Cora), headstrong Donita and altruistic Angel are Filipina domestic workers and friends living in Singapore. They support one another through their group text message thread, where they share stories of their treatment by their affluent employers, from Cora’s discomfort around her employer’s attempts at camaraderie, to Donita’s frustration with the controlling Mrs. Fann, who punishes her determined young maid at every opportunity. One night, when Donita is sneaking home from a rendezvous with her boyfriend, she sees her friend, Flordeliza, getting into a taxi. The next day, Flordeliza is accused of murdering her employer. Donita enlists the help of Cora and

Angel to prove Flordeliza’s innocence, though getting close to the crime risks unleashing secrets that would destroy them all. Jaswal's scathing indictment of the exploitation of immigrant labor unfolds against a tantalizing backdrop, revealing the rich culture of Singapore while shedding light on systems of oppression and entitlement. She explores the class disparities between the maids and their gossiping employers, as well as the race- and ethnicity-based social structures among the domestic workers; for example, a maid from the Philippines will receive a higher wage than one from Myanmar. While the sleuthing maids make for an engaging plot, the nuances of Jaswal’s characters and their relationships are even more complex and intriguing. In simple yet evocative ways, she peels back the layers of each woman, revealing how their choices are restricted by their past predicaments and current circumstances. —Maya Fleischmann

H I Have Some Questions

for You

By Rebecca Makkai

Literary Fiction In Rebecca Makkai’s engrossing novel I Have Some Questions for You (Viking, $28, 9780593490143), a successful podcaster and film critic takes a job at a New Hampshire boarding school where, 23 years ago, a white female student named Thalia Keith was murdered. The school’s athletic trainer, a Black man named Omar Evans, was convicted of the crime. Bodie Kane sees the invitation to teach a course on podcasting at the Granby School as an opportunity to give back to her alma mater. It’s also a chance to investigate the murder of Thalia, who was Bodie’s classmate; with her interest in true crime, Bodie has had lots of time to think about how poorly the case was initially handled. Bodie suggests to her class that revisiting the case would make a good podcast, and two of the students begin what evolves into a groundbreaking inquiry. Meanwhile, a major #MeToo scandal involving Bodie’s ex-husband, a well-known visual artist, threatens her reputation, veracity and livelihood. Back at Granby and surrounded by the familiar landscape, classrooms and even some of the old faculty, Bodie is overwhelmed by memories of her trauma-filled childhood and wonders how those experiences might have shaped her high school years. The more time she spends at the

school, the more she questions the motives of her classmates, her professors and even herself. Makkai places the fictional murder of Thalia Keith and imprisonment of Omar Evans in the wider context of violence against women and institutional racism. If the book has any faults, it’s that we never hear from Omar himself, and his experiences only come to Bodie second-hand. But I Have Some Questions for You is Bodie’s story, a well-plotted indictment of systemic racism and misogyny craftily disguised as a thriller and beautifully constructed to make its points. —Lauren Bufferd

Confidence

By Rafael Frumkin

Literary Fiction No doubt you’ve read a good number of books in which you know the protagonist is in trouble, even though they sort of don’t. They may be with the wrong person, or in the wrong place, or working for the wrong people in the wrong business. Rafael Frumkin’s second novel, Confidence (Simon & Schuster, $27.99, 9781982189730), is not only one of those books but also features all of the above. When the novel opens, Ezra Green is in prison for being a flimflam man, but he’s still peddling the same snake oil as he was on the outside. The only difference is that now he’s doing it for cigarettes and ramen noodles as opposed to millions, nay, billions of dollars. Ezra, the son of working-class parents, is larcenous from an early age. Small in stature, with terrible eyesight, teenage Ezra is sent (on scholarship) to a boot camp usually attended by rich bad boys. There he meets smooth-talking and completely amoral Orson Ortman—the train wreck you want to warn Ezra against, the miscreant who makes all the red flags start waving. It may be a bit on the nose, but Ezra’s blind spots aren’t limited to his vision. Once out of the camp, the boys quickly learn how to separate rich and gullible people, especially women, from their money. They start small and end up concocting the mother of all scams: NuLife, a fake spiritual healing company that’s facilitated by the Bliss-Mini, a machine with bright lights that you clamp on your head. How it works is anyone’s guess, but it makes Ezra and Orson multimillionaires in their 20s and transforms Orson into a cult leader. All the while, Ezra pines for him with pitiable desperation. Author of The Comedown, Frumkin is superb at dissecting all manner of malfeasance and corruption. Ezra doesn’t blink when he has

reviews | fiction his assistants cook the books, default on loans, defraud customers and shareholders and slime those who threaten to out the company as a boondoggle. Even a military coup in South America doesn’t bother Ezra, as long as the bucks keep coming in and Orson is happy. In a world where well-heeled heels are arrested for cryptocurrency scams, squillionaires gleefully trash their own vanity projects and masters of the universe disgrace themselves over and over, Confidence’s arrival is beyond timely. —Arlene McKanic

The Queen of Dirt Island By Donal Ryan

Family Drama Donal Ryan may not be as well known outside of Ireland as some of his contemporaries, but his sixth novel, The Queen of Dirt Island (Viking, $27, 9780593652930), adds to an impressive body of work that should garner him wider recognition. This story of four generations of Irish women sharing their home in modern-day County Tipperary has a gentle heart and a spine of steel, its appeal enhanced by Ryan’s understated yet evocative prose. Only a few days after her birth, Saoirse Aylward loses her father in a car crash, leaving her mother, Eileen, with the task of raising the girl. Eileen is assisted by her opinionated mother-in-law, Mary, who moves into the family home from the nearby farm managed by her two surviving sons, one of whom is arrested for storing guns and explosives for the Irish Republican Army. Ryan elides most of Saoirse’s childhood until, prior to her 18th birthday, a drunken encounter with a singer in a local rock band produces a daughter, Pearl. Then Saoirse’s “stupid accidental life” is upended again by the return of the town’s prodigal son, Joshua Elmwood, with his girlfriend, Honey Bartlett. After Honey departs for a filmmaking project, romance blossoms between Saoirse and Josh. It’s an unlikely and rocky pairing, but one that moves Saoirse farther down the path of maturity. This isn’t the story’s only fraught relationship, as Eileen and her brother also war over the humble piece of land that provides the novel’s title. Whether Ryan is exploring the shifting dynamics of the Aylward women’s often intense interactions or following the contours of Saoirse and Josh’s tempestuous love affair, he does so with sensitivity and grace. In an unusual technique, each of the book’s chapters comprises two pages, some of them functioning almost

as self-contained short stories, others seamlessly moving the plot forward. Ryan is adept at fashioning arresting images to enliven his storytelling, among them Eileen’s “utterances flung around like fistfuls of confetti.” There are moments of emotional and physical violence, along with tender and deeply felt encounters. The novel’s predominant tone is pastoral, consistent with the beautiful Irish landscape Ryan evokes with subtle brushstrokes, and capable of leaving an imprint on the reader’s mind and heart. —Harvey Freedenberg

H A Country You Can Leave By Asale Angel-Ajani

Family Drama “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” wrote Henry David Thoreau in Walden. If you’re looking for quiet desperation in modern-day America, you’d be hard-pressed for a better place to find it than the “dubiously named” Oasis Mobile Estates in Riverside County, California, the setting of Asale Angel-Ajani’s debut novel, A Country You Can Leave (MCD, $27, 9780374604059). Russian-born single mom Yevgenia Borislava and her Afro-Cuban daughter, Lara, have alighted on this repository of broken dreams, the latest in a string of temporary addresses the two have occupied for all of Lara’s life. At 16, Lara finds herself on the awkward cusp of adulthood, a situation that’s difficult enough without her strained relationship with Yevgenia and her yearning for a long-absent father whom she knows only through her mother’s possibly unreliable stories. Lara’s economic situation is brought into high relief due to a zoning mistake that lands her in a high school intended for the nearby gated community. At school, Lara surrounds herself with a small, diverse group that includes a gay Black aspiring poet named Charles and a compulsive white shoplifter named Julie, both of whom find Yevgenia more fascinating—or at least less embarrassing—than Lara does. For most of the novel, readers are treated to the passive-aggressive back-and-forth between a mother and daughter who haven’t learned a healthy way to express their devotion to one another, until a violent altercation with an outsider becomes the crucible in which their relationship will either be forged or splinter irrevocably. Angel-Ajani’s unflinching portrait of this hypernuclear family is captivating and complex, with a richly drawn supporting cast and occasional arch humor that leavens the intensely

emotional backdrop. A Country You Can Leave gives voice to a group of star-crossed characters struggling to transcend Thoreau’s trap. —Thane Tierney

The Farewell Tour By Stephanie Clifford

Historical Fiction Stephanie Clifford’s second novel, The Fare well To u r (Harper, $29.99, 9780063251137), is both a dual-timeline redemption story and an epic journey through a half- century of country music. At 57, country music star Lillian Waters—or Water Lil, as she’s known to her fans—is drinking too much and feeling her age, and she’s unable to write any new songs. In short, Lillian’s washed up. When a doctor gives her more bad news— her voice is deteriorating due to polyps—she decides to hit the road one last time for a farewell summer tour. Lillian’s manager, Stanley, puts together a ragtag band of backup musicians and books some county fairs, but the tour gets off to a comically bad start. To try to salvage it, Lillian calls on her old friend Charlie Hagerty, a session musician and songwriter, and he agrees to join. The Farewell Tour alternates between the summer of 1980 (the novel’s present) and a retrospective sweep of Lillian’s life as told by the woman herself, beginning with her Depressionera childhood on a subsistence farm. Like reallife midcentury country legends Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, Lillian overcomes a hardscrabble background and abusive early years, though she’s the daughter of Swedish immigrant farmers in Washington rather than from Appalachia or the Deep South. Obsessed with the country music that she first hears as a girl, Lillian sets out to beat the long odds, learning to play the guitar, writing her own songs and performing on radio stations. Over and over, she faces sexism and misogyny in her quest to make it big. But at the center of this epic story is a quiet mystery, a childhood episode that Lillian can’t quite let herself remember. Full of marvelous period details about World War II-era Tacoma, Washington, and its proto- country music scene, as well as glitzy 1970s Nashville, Tennessee, The Farewell Tour covers a huge amount of ground, with a correspondingly large number of supporting characters. Like a country ballad, this is a bittersweet testament to the healing power of old love, long friendships and heartfelt songs. —Sarah McCraw Crow

reviews | nonfiction

H Still Life With Bones By Alexa Hagerty

True Crime Dr. Alexa Hagerty, an associate fellow at the University of Cambridge and an anthropologist with a Ph.D. from Stanford, can read bones. In Still Life With Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains (Crown, $28, 9780593443132), Hagerty explores the close connection between bones and words. Like words, bones can be articulated (arranged into a coherent form, such as a skeleton) and become articulate (capable of clear expression). Using sight, touch, smell and even sound, Hagerty can interpret the stories that bones conceal. For example, she can tell by touch if a bone’s fracture took place before, during or after its owner’s death. She can piece together the shattered remnants of a little girl’s skull to reveal the bullet hole in the middle of

What’s Eating Us By Cole Kazdin

Health In What’s Eating Us (St. Martin’s Essentials, $27.99, 9781250282842), author and television journalist Cole Kazdin explains in unflinching detail just how damaging dieting can be to our mental and physical health. Although What’s Eating Us centers on Kazdin herself—a journalist determined to reach recovery for her eating dis order—this isn’t just one woman’s story. Neither is it just a fact-based report aimed at finding answers. It’s both of these things: personal and illuminating, subjective yet relatable. Citing medical research alongside real-life testimonies, this book will resonate with anyone who’s ever been critical of their reflection in a mirror. From body positivity to neutrality to liberation, Kazdin explores different ways to redefine our relationships with our bodies. For most people, this journey begins when we challenge our understanding of weight and health, which are topics mired in misinformation. Separating weight and health, Kazdin explains, becomes even more difficult when you factor in the ways that diet companies misleadingly brand themselves as holistic health and wellness programs.

her forehead. She can even determine how a person’s occupation shaped their bones. A dairy worker might have compression fractures in their neck from leaning their face against a cow’s flank. A grooved incisor might once have held a tailor’s pins. Still Life With Bones is in part a memoir of how Hagerty gained this extraordinary expertise, recounting the physically and emotionally draining work of meticulously searching for bones and identifying the dead and how they died. It sounds bleak, but there is also pleasure in these pages: the camaraderie of co-workers, the friendly competition among fellow students and the joy when a skeleton is reunited with the community who believed they would never see their beloved again.

However, Still Life With Bones is more than just a memoir. Woven throughout these memories and lyrical reflections on bones, anthropology and storytelling are the actual horrors that some particular bones reveal. Hagerty did her fieldwork in the mass graves of Guatemala and Argentina; her subjects are the victims of genocidal wars committed by dictators against these countries’ citizens. Her colleagues are forensic anthropologists committed to reclaiming the dead and returning them to their grieving families at great personal risk and cost. Every beautifully written page of this extraordinary book affirms the individuality of each victim, and honors the living who serve them and their survivors. —Deborah Mason

But perhaps the real feat of Kazdin’s book is its ability to propel the reader into thinking about their body in a way that feels connected to society—to gender, race and economic class— which makes the individual burden feel a little less heavy. The ways in which the scientific and medical communities have failed individuals when it comes to dietary health, Kazdin argues, is often rooted in systemic structures around racism, sexism and prejudice against larger bodies. With empathy and understanding, Kazdin offers the reader everything they need to better understand this difficult topic. There are the daunting, disheartening facts; the levity of shared incredulity; and finally, the neutrality needed to see the number on the scale as just that: a number. —Rachel Hoge

that were crucial to fighting the Depression and bringing victory in World War II. Author Derek Leebaert tells their stories in Unlikely Heroes (St. Martin’s, $35, 9781250274694). These four people came to Washington with fully formed policy ideas. Frances Perkins, the new secretary of labor, was the first woman to be named to a presidential cabinet. She had worked with FDR when he was the governor of New York, so they had already discussed her plans, including doing away with child labor, before she joined his staff in Washington. Harold Ickes was the secretary of the interior, and he had plans for protecting America’s mountains and forests. Henry Wallace, secretary of agriculture, believed he could achieve parity between farmers’ and industrial workers’ wages. Harry Hopkins’ extensive professional connections gave him an ability to get things done as the secretary of commerce. Much later, as World War II was nearing its end, these four continued to be the only top officials who were putting sensible plans for the postwar world into motion. Perkins turned out to be a particularly effective administrator, making many decisions that were “dynamizing a generation,” Leebaert writes. With a combination of “private persuasion and public advocacy,” she helped open entire work sectors to women and urged women to step into jobs that were vacant while men were away at war. Meanwhile, her child services staff worked with the Army and Navy to provide services for spouses and children of enlisted men, and she broke down barriers against employing women over 45.

Unlikely Heroes By Derek Leebaert

American History Four individuals served at the top of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration from the spring of 1933 until his death in April 1945. They were originally outsiders but became invaluable leaders behind New Deal programs

reviews | nonfiction This well-researched, absorbing narrative reveals what it was like during the FDR administration from four unique perspectives. —Roger Bishop

Real Self-Care

H Enchantment By Katherine May

By Pooja Lakshmin

Self-Help Yo g a classes, cleanses, wellness retreats: We’ve all heard these and other remedies marketed as “self-care” for life in an exhausting and distressing world. But debut author Pooja Lakshmin wants readers to know that, while these types of self-care may make us feel temporarily better, they are part of an ineffectual system that keeps people (especially women and minorities) feeling inadequate and overwhelmed. The psychiatrist and New York Times contributor wants to help readers find ways to more authentically enjoy their everyday lives instead of relying on crystals and bubble baths to cope, and she uses anecdotes about her patients to illustrate what this might look like. For example, there’s Shelby, who shifted from viewing breastfeeding as imperative to something that just didn’t work out (and that’s OK!), and Clara, who started her own business after realizing teaching was no longer sustainable. How did they get there? Via Lakshmin’s four principles for real self-care: setting boundaries without guilt, practicing self-compassion, exploring your real self and asserting power. Helpful tools, exercises, scripts and a “Real Self-Care Compass” smooth the way to the gratifying final stage, which is “facing, straight-on, the toxicity and trauma that our culture brings to women.” Daunting? Sure. Doable? The author believes so, and she contends that the hard, ongoing work is worth it. After all, she is writing as a fellow traveler alongside her readers. “I ended up falling for Big Wellness in the worst way,” she writes. “I joined a cult!” While her time with the cult, which practiced “orgasmic meditation,” did offer some benefits, she eventually left the group feeling deeply depressed and disillusioned. Over time, Lakshmin realized that “real self-care is not a noun, it’s a verb—an on going internal process that guides us toward profound emotional wellness and reimagines how we interact with others.” In her heartfelt and empathetic Real Self-Care (Penguin Life, $28, 9780593489727), she shares how she moved beyond shame and regret to a happier, more true-to-herself life, something she believes readers can do, too. Lakshmin’s first

step: reclaiming the term self-care by imbuing it with self-knowledge, sustainability and joy. —Linda M. Castellitto

Body, Mind & Spirit “When I want to describe how I feel right now, the word I reach for the most is discombobulated,” Katherine May writes in Enchantment (Riverhead, $26, 9780593329993), going on to chart the losses, burnout and anxieties of the COVID-19 pandemic, and of this era. In the opening essay, May describes feeling like she had lost some fundamental part of being alive, some elemental human feeling— like she had become disconnected from meaning. Without this missing piece, “the world feels like tap water left overnight, flat and chemical, devoid of life,” she writes. She began to wonder if she could find a solution in enchantment, which she defines as “small wonder magnified through meaning, fascination caught in the web of fable and memory.” So she set out to find and record such moments, beginning with the places where she found beauty as a child, such as the farmland outside her grandparents’ English village. Enchantment’s essays are arranged into four sections—Earth, Water, Fire and Air—detailing May’s investigations into each realm. For example, a visit to an ancient healing well goes in the Water section, and May doesn’t gloss over her feelings of awkwardness and inadequacy at this hidden well. “It has the air of a place that has waited patiently for a long time for someone to come along and worship, and now it has me standing awkwardly before it, at a loss," she writes. "It crackles with magic, but I have no template for how to behave around it, no tradition or culture that prepared me for this.” May details the small disappointments and larger surprises she encountered on her journey, and her sentences, plain yet gorgeous, cast a spell. Enchantment mixes nature writing and bits of history, theology and literature with memoir—scenes from May’s childhood, her failures at meditation, ordinary marital discontents—to form a restful collection with similar pleasures as her previous collection, Wintering. Though May’s search for enchantment seems perhaps better suited to the English landscape than to our American suburban sprawl, Enchantment offers a lovely, meditative way to begin another tumultuous year. —Sarah McCraw Crow

Africatown By Nick Tabor

American History When word of emancipation reached them, the last men and women kidnapped in West Africa and sold to American enslavers just wanted to go home. They’d only been in the Mobile, Alabama, area about five years; they belonged in Yorubaland. So they saved their tiny wages and offered $1,000 to the captain of the Clotilda, the ship that had illegally brought them to the U.S. in 1860, to take them back. He refused. Stuck in Alabama, they made the best of it. They paired off, bought land, built a church and founded the communities on Mobile’s north side known as “Africatown.” It’s still there, and its residents are still fighting for justice. Nick Tabor’s absorbing Africatown (St. Martin’s, $29.99, 9781250766540) tells the story of these “shipmates” and their neighborhood up to the present day. The timing of its publication is auspicious, just a few years after the wreckage of the Clotilda was identified off the coast of Alabama in 2018. Zora Neale Hurston’s book Barracoon, based on interviews in the 1920s with shipmate Cudjo Lewis, was finally published that same year. Africatown was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, an action that was long overdue. If you are looking for a single community that epitomizes the Black experience in the American South, Africatown is a contender. It thrived as industry brought decent jobs, locally owned businesses prospered, and churches and an excellent school provided centers for civic life. But the factories polluted the air and water, then shut down. The residents were targets of white supremacist violence and voter suppression. Highway projects destroyed homes and commerce. Tabor tells this history seamlessly through key individuals such as Lewis; Henry Williams, a welder who became an early activist; and Joe Womack and Anderson Flen, contemporary native sons who work to protect Africatown from continued environmental racism and to redevelop it as a heritage tourism center. Progress has been halting. The Mobile city government is happy to install laudatory plaques but reluctant to spend the money for real preservation. But the spiritual and biological descendants of that first Africatown generation, dragged from their homes and enslaved by racist white criminals, push on. —Anne Bartlett

reviews | young adult

She Is a Haunting By Trang Thanh Tran

Horror Seventeen-year-old Jade Nguyen has never forgiven her father for leaving his family in the U.S. and returning to Vietnam. Until this summer, Jade had never visited her parents’ home country, and she isn’t looking forward to the trip. But Ba has made her a deal: If she’ll spend the summer with him in the French colonial villa he’s rehabbing, he’ll give her the money she desperately needs to pay for college in the fall. So she and her younger sister make their way to Da Lat and to Nhà Hoa (“Flower House”), nestled in a forest of pines. Trapped in a place that isn’t home with little in the way of companionship, Jade grudgingly works on the future bed-and-breakfast’s website. But Nhà Hoa soon reveals itself to be more than just a house: It is where Jade’s ancestors worked and toiled for French soldiers, a site of violence done in the name of duty. Jade wakes every night paralyzed and drenched in sweat as figures move on the edge of her vision. Ba

Stateless

By Elizabeth Wein

Historical Fiction Twelve teenage pilots, each representing a different European country. One route through seven major European cities. And one race organizer who hopes to demonstrate how youth sport can promote international cooperation and peace. Except it’s late August 1937, and Europe is already teetering on the brink of war. Stella North is the only female competitor in the fictional Circuit of Nations Olympics of the Air (inspired by the real-life Women’s Air Derby of 1929). At the airfield before the race begins, Stella dodges prying questions from the press and omnipresent photographers as she manages her nerves. But once she’s soaring over the English Channel, she witnesses something she wasn’t supposed to see, and when the contestants reassemble at their destination in Belgium, only 11 pilots can be found. The 12th has disappeared. Stateless (Little, Brown, $18.99, 9780316591249) is sure to satisfy fans of Code Name Verity and its related works, as Elizabeth

works himself to the bone fixing pockmarked walls and rat-infested pipes, but the core of the house remains fetid with rot. Something is eating its way through Nhà Hoa and into the minds of its inhabitants, and it refuses to remain in the shadows for much longer. Trang Thanh Tran’s debut novel, She Is a Haunting (Bloomsbur y, $18.99, 9781547610815), is a welcome addition to the quickly growing canon of culturally diverse, queer horror. Jade’s story is clearly influenced by Shirley Jackson’s iconic gothic novel The Haunting of Hill House, in which self-inflicted psychic damage is as tangible as any physical threat. Like Jackson, Tran mirrors Jade’s claustrophobic paranoia through setting and atmosphere. Just as Jackson’s protagonist suffers from her surreal and isolating surroundings at Hill House, so too is Jade afflicted by the oppressive humidity and unfamiliarity of Vietnam.

Jade is haunted both by actual ghosts and the specters of colonialism, which take the form of not-so- subtly racist American expats and the crumbling French villas that dot the countryside around Nhà Hoa. She is plagued by visions of insects and decay, and she dreams of memories that are not her own, all while attempting to keep a lid on the resentment she feels toward Ba— and herself. Jade’s first-person narration is sometimes bogged down as she prevaricates about her feelings, which leaves some of the horror elements to fall a bit flat. Nevertheless, She Is a Haunting successfully combines the alluring aesthetic of gothic ghost stories with the complexity of contemporary immigration narratives. The result is an atmospheric horror novel that teens with a penchant for the grotesque will delight in unfolding, bit by rotting bit. —Mariel Fechik

Wein once again showcases her talent for writing feminist historical mysteries. Interpersonal dramas among the racing pilots smartly mirror the international conflicts that surround them, and the air race offers an ideal venue for Wein to incorporate the details of early aviation that have become one of her calling cards. The solution to the central mystery unfolds amid missing items, unlikely lookalikes, unexpected telegrams and suspected sabotage; careful readers may catch clues that Stella misses. Grab your goggles and fasten your flight harness: Stateless is a wild ride from takeoff to landing. —Jill Ratzan

high school and strikes a deal to earn the credit by using her podcast to tell the story of that week in June. Lydia needs access to the unsavory parts of Henley, so she recruits Bristal Jamison to co-host. The Jamisons have a reputation for criminality, but Bristal is determined to become the first Jamison to graduate high school. When Lydia and Bristal’s inquiry reveals that a teenage girl also went missing during the long stretch of bad days, their investigation shakes loose a killer. A Long Stretch of Bad Days (Katherine Tegen, $19.99, 9780063230361) reads like a clever buddy-cop mystery, but the buddy cops are a pair of determined teen girls with something to prove. Lydia and Bristal make an excellent team, with Bristal bringing necessary comic relief to Lydia’s seriousness. Author Mindy McGinnis skillfully explores the societal expectations young women face in small-town America. As Lydia exposes Henley’s underbelly, she is often reminded not to ruffle any feathers or portray anyone too negatively. Henley’s hermetic hold means generations upon generations live within its boundaries and hide its secrets, perpetuating a cycle of protecting one’s own at the expense of outsiders. Despite the serious subjects at its core, A Long Stretch of Bad Days uses humor and poignant emotion to build a well-crafted murder mystery that is hard to put down and even harder to forget. —Kimberly Giarratano

A Long Stretch of Bad Days By Mindy McGinnis

Mystery In June 1994, the small town of Henley, Ohio, was devastated by a tornado, a flash flood and its first and only murder—still unsolved—in the span of a week now known as “the long stretch of bad days.” Thirtyish years later, aspiring journalist Lydia Chass learns that she is one credit shy of graduating

behind the book | ashley schumacher

The YA author explains why she hopes her new novel will be an oasis for readers “struggling to see the beauty and validity of their own bodies.” Maddie Hathaway grew up on the Renaissance faire circuit, and after her mom’s death from cancer, Maddie has been looking forward to returning to Stormsworth, her mom’s favorite faire. But Stormsworth’s new owners are making big changes, and their son, Arthur, thinks Maddie should play the role of the faire’s princess, though Maddie is certain she won’t be a good fit for the part—or its costume. The Renaissance of Gwen Hathaway is a whimsical but grounded portrait of grieving, healing and falling in love against a truly magical backdrop. ••• I’m asked why I write YA during almost every panel, Q&A or interaction with readers. The nice answer is that I love writing coming-of-age stories. There’s something so poetic and timeless about teetering on the point of decision, of having your whole life change. I don’t think that feeling of potential energy as you stand at the top of a slope, looking downward and wondering if you will soar or land in a crumpled Visit BookPage.com to read our review of heap or both, ever really goes away. For me, attemptThe Renaissance of Gwen Hathaway. ing to lasso that feeling and pin it to the page is a thrill and a challenge I’ll never tire of. That’s the nice answer. The truer answer is far offer obtuse platitudes. You’ll grow out of it, they’d less pretty. say, or it’s just baby fat, or—the most witless of all— oh, honey, you’re not fat! I write for teenagers because somewhere in my Spoiler alert: I did not, in fact, grow out of it. But I nearly 31-year-old muscles and sinew and suspidid grow into it. My own skin. My life. My body. ciously achy knees I’m still 16, my back against the I learned that a lot of social conditioning went into wall of a funeral home chapel as I’m told over and how I felt growing up, that a lot of nameless, faceless over again that I’ll bounce back, that I’ll heal because I’m young. Like grief cares about age. Wall Street gods stood to benefit if they could keep me I’m still angry about that moment. If I think about in the shame cycle of buying products to turn myself it too deeply, my chest feels like a cauldron, bubbling into the ideal that they put on billboards and magaand swirling as I stir in over a decade of hindsight, a zines. I gave Maddie a dose of that too, in the form of dash of lessons learned and a heaping spoonful of faire posters with clip-art images of thin princesses indignation, well aged. I suppose writing YA novels and muscular knights. I felt compelled to give Arthur the same insecurities, but reversed, so while Maddie is my way of reaching my hand back to myself and anyone else who was ever disqualified from the ultrawishes that she could take up less space, Arthur, who is The Renaissance of Gwen Hathaway marathon of grief under penalty of youth. insecure about being so thin, wishes to take up more. Wednesday, $20, 9781250840240 So it’s no surprise that my third novel fits neatly When I was growing up, I never felt more underinto the Ashley Schumacher Literary Canon of stood or seen than I did in the pages of books. Not just Young Adult Teenage Disgruntlement Concerning Grief. Over because I was a voracious reader but because, when I was reading, I could be anybody—or, more specifically, anybody could the course of the book, my main character, Maddie “Gwen” Hathaway, be me. Any vaguely described character could look like me, and I would mourns the death of her mother and the departure of her best friend from the Renaissance faire circuit (and therefore from Maddie’s superimpose my own body onto theirs, rounding out thighs and chests immediate vicinity), as well as the complete redesign of the faire that and stomachs until I was the one running through enchanted forests or falling in love or saving the village from a dragon. Maddie’s mother loved most—a place where Maddie hoped to find closure My dedication for this book reads, in part, “To anyone who hasn’t felt but instead finds compounded grief. I should also mention that Maddie is fat. Like me. Like so many of my at home in their skin: I hope this story helps you lay out a rug, place a family members, of my friends, of my world. This is important. frame, hang up your coat, and stay awhile. Ad astra per aspera.” Through adversity to the stars. I’ve tackled different kinds of grief in my writing. Mostly I’ve explored the I don’t grieve my body anymore, but I think I will forever carry the grief grief of losing people, because that’s the one that aches the sharpest for me, but like Maddie tells her love interest, Arthur, on the night they meet, “I don’t that I once did. Maddie is lots of things. She’s brave, observant, a great think grief has to mean death. I think there are lots of different types of grief.” friend, someone who tries to tame the world and make it kinder for herself I used to grieve my body. Not in the acute way that a death is grieved, and for others. She is also fat. No superimposition or apologies necessary. but in the way of the dull ache I’d feel when I couldn’t find my size in the My hope for Maddie and Arthur’s story is that it can be an oasis for those who are still struggling to see the beauty and validity of their own bodies, trendy brand-name stores everyone wore in high school, or when the drillthose who have not made it to their stars—yet. team teacher chastised me for eating more pizza at lunch. Sometimes it —Ashley Schumacher seemed like the world was not built for me. Well-meaning adults would

feature | picture books

She could and she did In these picture book biographies, three girls grow up to change the world.

H Jovita Wore Pants Author Aida Salazar tells the story of Jovita Valdovinos, a revolutionary figure to whom the author is distantly related and who is sometimes described as “Mexico’s Joan of Arc,” in Jovita Wore Pants (Scholastic, $19.99, 9781338283419). Molly Mendoza’s dazzling art enhances this thrilling biography, which transports readers to early 20th-century Mexico as Valdovinos transforms from an adventurous girl to a daring, clever leader. The book opens as a young Valdovinos, wearing a dress, gazes out the window and dreams of joining her brothers’ fun. Soon, she begins to do just this, sneaking out and tucking her skirts into her bloomers. Salazar’s exquisite prose shows how these clandestine escapades enriched Valdovinos: “Jovita discovered the way the leaves rustle when rain is coming, where healing plants grow, the shape of every cave, and what might lurk inside.” Valdovinos uses these lessons as she follows in her father’s and brothers’ footsteps and joins the Catholic Cristero forces in their rebellion against the secular Federales. After Federales kill her father and brothers, Valdovinos cuts her hair, calls herself “Juan” and continues the crusade her family members gave their lives for. Mendoza’s illustrations are a whirlwind of color and energy. Her curved, fluid lines create a sense of action and excitement, and she brilliantly uses color to convey mood, from the turquoise, yellow and orange scenes of Valdovinos’ carefree childhood to the brooding purples, blues and dark reds of the tumultuous revolution. A five-page essay, accompanied by photos, adds information about Valdovinos’ long life after her peaceful surrender to the Mexican government. With frank mentions of the realities of war, Jovita Wore Pants is best suited for elementary-age readers who will appreciate this stirring biography of a woman who “turned her country’s cultural patriarchy on its head.” —Alice Cary

H Little Rosetta and the Talking Guitar Author-illustrator Charnelle Pinkney Barlow’s Little Rosetta and the Talking Guitar: The Musical Story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Woman Who Invented Rock and Roll (Doubleday, $18.99, 9780593571064) is a beautifully written and impressively illustrated book that’s as jubilant as Tharpe’s music and will surely inspire readers to seek out her joyful recordings. The book focuses on Tharpe’s childhood, when the woman who would one day be called the Godmother of Rock ’n’ Roll was a girl with a passion and talent for telling stories through music. Tharpe’s first guitar was a gift from her mother, and she found musical inspiration all over her hometown of Cotton Plant, Arkansas. Pinkney Barlow’s literary prowess is on full display as her prose sings out with wonderful rhythm and imagery. As Tharpe becomes a skilled guitar player, “her fingers [hop] around like corn in a kettle,” and when Tharpe plays in church for the first time, her music is “like summer rain washing the dust off a new day.” It’s difficult to convey the intricate charm of Pinkney Barlow’s cut-paper artwork. Textured and patterned papers create movement and depth,

while musical notations and sheet music are incorporated throughout. Perhaps most impressive is the book’s sense of place: Readers will truly feel as though they’ve visited Cotton Plant and met many of its denizens, from Pastor Murray, “mender of souls and mender of guitars,” whose shirt is made from blue-lined notebook paper, to Miss Mable, who compliments Tharpe’s “fast finger pickin’ ” as she hangs laundry. Little Rosetta and the Talking Guitar is a worthy tribute not only to Tharpe’s proud, triumphant sound but also to Pinkney Barlow’s grandfather, the late Caldecott Medalist Jerry Pinkney, to whom the book is dedicated. In her author’s note, Pinkney Barlow discusses the barriers Tharpe faced as a female guitarist in a male-dominated industry, as a gospel musician who played in secular venues and as a Black musician in a segregated country. The note also discusses Tharpe’s legacy and long-overdue induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. To turn on a radio today is to hear Tharpe’s influence. Little Rosetta and the Talking Guitar honors a woman whose sound lives on in our musical DNA. —Jill Lorenzini

A Tulip in Winter Canadian author Kathy Stinson and illustrator Lauren Soloy’s A Tulip in Winter (Greystone, $18.95, 9781771649513) is a vibrant biography of folk artist Maud Lewis from two creators who are familiar with the Nova Scotian landscape that Lewis called home. Although Lewis had a happy childhood, she was also “teased . . . for how she looked, her crooked walk, and how small she was.” Lewis’ hands grew stiff from a condition her doctors could not explain, revealed in the book’s back matter to be severe rheumatoid arthritis. The condition prevented her from playing the piano, so her mother gave her a paintbrush and launched Lewis’ life in art. A Tulip in Winter touches on the many challenges in Lewis’ life: She struggled to find employment, and after her parents’ deaths, she moved in with her aunt, who discouraged her niece’s art. Eventually, Lewis moved to a small house owned by a fish peddler named Everett and filled the house with color, painting floral and other natural motifs on the stairs, walls, tea canisters, dustpans and more. A final spread acknowledges the fame Lewis achieved after her death: “So small was her house that it is now nestled inside the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.” Stinson emphasizes that the foundation of Lewis’ distinctive art was her ability to notice things, even when she was unable to leave her home. Her admiration and respect for Lewis permeate every page, while Soloy’s thicklined, brightly colored illustrations capture the essence of Lewis’ joyous art. Many spreads are overlaid in white-lined drawings of the things Lewis observed in nature, including flowers, birds, trees, ocean waves and more. The book’s seamless blend of text and art provides a superb introduction to the work of a woman who found “beauty in the everyday.” —Julie Danielson Visit BookPage.com for more Women’s History Month recommendations.

reviews | children’s

H You Are Here Edited by Ellen Oh

Middle Grade If you’ve done any amount of air travel, you know that airports are perfect places for people- watching. And if you’ve ever encountered a flight delay, you’ve seen firsthand how overcrowded terminals combined with the frustration of changed or canceled plans can become a recipe for a uniquely stressful environment. That mixture makes a busy Chicago airport the perfect setting for You Are Here: Connecting Flights (Allida, $18.99, 9780063239081), a collection of linked short stories written by a dozen of the most acclaimed Asian American writers for children and young adults and featuring Asian American characters discovering their strengths and voices. You Are Here opens with Christina Soontornvat’s contribution, which follows a boy named Paul as he prepares to pass through airport security with his parents, little sister and grandmother for a flight to Thailand.

The Moth Keeper By K. O’Neill

Middle Grade Anya is about to become a Moth Keeper, a nocturnal guardian tasked with protecting the Moon-Moths. Every year, the luminous moths pollinate the Night-Flower tree, which Anya’s desert village relies on to thrive. At first, Anya is convinced that caring for the moths will keep her “warm inside even on long, cold nights,” but the temptation of daylight chips away at her resolve. When the solitude and darkness become too much, Anya makes a decision with consequences that ripple across the desert and history itself. In The Moth Keeper (Random House Graphic, $13.99, 9780593182260), Eisner Award-winning graphic novelist K. O’Neill portrays how isolation can break even the strongest will but a supportive community can mend all rifts. O’Neill (The Tea Dragon Society, Aquicorn Cove) has established themself as a phenomenal graphic novel creator for middle grade audiences. In their signature style, O’Neill’s soft, gentle artwork invites readers into a fantasy world dominated by every shade of blue and yellow. They play sparingly with graphics

He learns that his grandmother has a secret in her carry-on bag, which begins a chain reaction that reverberates throughout several other stories. The collection takes place on the weekend before Independence Day, so many characters are heading off on summer adventures, such as Mike Chen’s Lee, a talented Chinese American guitarist who’s en route to visit his uncle, and Susan Tan’s Ari, who’s navigating the recent divorce between her Jewish mother and her Chinese father. Others are preparing to discover their heritage through visits to their family’s countries of origin, though Meredith Ireland’s Mindy isn’t as eager to visit her Korean birthplace as her white adoptive dads seem to be. Many characters experience racism and must find ways to counter stereotypes, including some that are internalized. Characters’ paths

cross just like they would at a real airport, and careful readers will enjoy discovering how the stories intertwine in clever and revealing ways. You Are Here was edited by We Need Diverse Books co-founder Ellen Oh, and it’s the first release from Allida, a new imprint at HarperCollins Children’s Books led by author Linda Sue Park and editor Anne Hoppe; both Oh and Park also contribute stories to the volume. In the book’s back matter, biographies of each author indicate who wrote which story and what contributors like Grace Lin, Minh Lê and Erin Entrada Kelly have in common with their characters. You Are Here vividly illustrates the talents of a diverse group of creators as well as the rich and varied range of Asian American experiences and identities. —Norah Piehl

conventions to great effect. By eliminating the gutter when folktales are being told, for instance, they convey the larger-than-life significance of the stories to the village’s culture. Similarly, double-page spreads of the vast, rolling desert landscape capture “the smallness one feels standing amid such scenery,” as O’Neill explains in an afterword. The Moth Keeper is a charming story that will delight O’Neill’s fans and new readers alike, drawing them in like Moon-Moths to a lantern. —Emily Koch

where he teaches Lawrence to play competitive chess. “Chess is a game for thinkers,” Mr. Dennis explains, and through the game, Lawrence learns lessons that apply to both chess and life. He also connects with other kids at the rec center, including brilliant Twyla, who captures his heart, and combative Deuce, who turns out to share something important in common with Lawrence. In Not an Easy Win (Random House, $16.99, 9780593175217), author Chrystal D. Giles turns chess into a drama-filled endeavor that reaches its peak when Lawrence competes in a junior chess tournament. These scenes are filled with all the tension and thrill of a high-stakes athletic final, and even readers with little or no knowledge of chess will be lured in. Lawrence makes an appealing narrator, and his honesty will win readers over. Giles explains in an author’s note that, like Lawrence, she grew up in “a multigenerational home . . . with a parent who was absent and often incarcerated,” which led to “moments of embarrassment and shame.” As Lawrence thinks back to how he felt when he first moved to his new home, he recalls wishing that his family could be “a normal family. I’d already figured out normal wasn’t real. Still, that didn’t stop anyone from wanting it.” With understanding and authenticity, Giles captures Lawrence’s feelings of confusion, displacement, anger, sadness and, eventually, hope. Not an Easy Win is a meaningful, moving read, especially for those who feel misunderstood or out of place. —Alice Cary

Not an Easy Win By Chrystal D. Giles

Middle Grade Lawrence has had “a double dose of hard lately.” His dad left his mom and has been in and out of prison ever since, and Lawrence, his mom and his little sister have recently moved to “the middle of Nowhere, North Carolina,” to live with Lawrence’s no-nonsense grandmother. When Lawrence is expelled from his new, mostly white school for fighting, Granny is quick to quash his plan to stay home and watch TV. Then Mr. Dennis, who lives nearby, invites Lawrence to join him at the local rec center,

feature | meet the author

meet QING ZHUANG

H Rainbow Shopping By Qing Zhuang

ing Zhuang was born in Fuzhou City, China, and moved with her family to Brooklyn, New York, when she was 7 years old. Zhuang has been passionate about art her whole life, winning a citywide writing and illustration contest when she was in the sixth grade. Zhuang studied illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art and earned a master’s in art education from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. In 2020, Zhuang illustrated Kelly Carey’s How Long Is Forever? Rainbow Shopping is Zhuang’s first picture book as both author and illustrator. An elementary school art teacher, Zhuang lives with her family in Queens.

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In her first picture book as author and illustrator, Qing Zhuang invites readers on a colorful, immersive shopping trip in New York City’s Chinatown neighborhood. As Rainbow Shopping (Holiday House, $18.99, 9780823449774) opens, a young girl is feeling as gloomy as the gray, rainy weather outside her window. She has nestled herself under a blanket on her bed, a tin of crayons by her side as she draws in a notebook. The girl’s family recently emigrated from China, and her parents and grandmother always seem to be working, as busy as the city itself. But her mom has a plan for today, one that involves both comfort and connection. Mom’s remedy is a journey to Chinatown to buy ingredients for a family dinner. When the pair arrive at the market, Zhuang’s palette brightens visibly as mother and daughter shop and enjoy their time together. As Mom selects fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices, she shares wisdom and tenderness with her daughter. “Bamboo plants are flexible and strong, surviving the toughest storms,” she says as she shops for produce. The girl’s responses are often feisty, as when she tries to convince her mom to let her buy an armful of candy. (“Mom says I only get to keep one bag,” the girl reveals. “I think she must have eaten too many bitter melons in her life.”) When the two return home, Dad makes a delicious meal for the family and reveals the secrets of his “kitchen kung fu,” such as cutting bitter melon thinly to reduce its bitterness. Everyone gathers around the table after a long week, sharing not only the food but also the girl’s drawings and stories of their family’s past. As the rain continues to pour and the girl slips into sleep, she dreams of walking with her family “in rainbow rain.” Zhuang’s artwork is as warm and inviting as her story. Her watercolor, crayon and colored pencil illustrations burst with detail, allowing for new discoveries with each read. A wordless spread of the subway ride home reveals a small dog strapped to its owner’s chest, a brown paper bag labeled “Trader Moe’s” and a commuter in lime-green Crocs. Sweet, fun and spunky, Rainbow Shopping is a beautiful, touching portrait of a family’s love for one another. —Brittany Sky

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