BookPage November 2023 by BookPage

NOV 2023

DISCOVER YOUR NEXT GREAT BOOK

BY THE ROOTS A chilling family tragedy is brought to light in The Reformatory, Reformatory the towering new novel from horror icon Tananarive Due.

E.J. KOH

R ENÉE WATSON

A sweeping debut novel from the memoirist and “Pachinko” screenwriter

A fond farewell to Ryan Hart, Gen Alpha’s Ramona Quimby

GIFT GUIDE INSIDE! pgs 4–9

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NOVEMBER 2023

features

reviews

gifts | crime. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

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

We’ve done the detecting for you—get these books for the mystery lovers on your list.

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

gifts | cats & dogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

young adult . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Look no further for the perfect pet-centric holiday gifts.

children’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

gifts | literary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 A quartet of inspired gifts for bibliophiles.

gifts | pop culture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

columns book clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Fun, fascinating books for the media mavens in your life.

feature | enemies to lovers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Tempers run high and passions run hot in these fiery romances.

behind the book | katee robert. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The author of the Dark Olympus series discusses why she is reviving the pirate romance.

q&a | e.j. koh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 E.J. Koh digs into the tensions between language, memory and history.

audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 romance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 sci-fi & fantasy. . . . . . . . . . . . 16 whodunit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 lifestyles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

cover story | tananarive due . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Tananarive Due’s masterful new novel honors the ghosts of her family’s painful past.

interview | renée watson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Renée Watson celebrates her hometown and leans into Black joy and achievement.

H O LI DAY GI FT G UI DE Suggestions for every reader on your list in 2023 . . . . . . . 4–9 Cover and pages 20–21 include art from Tananarive Due’s The Reformatory © 2023. Reproduced by permission of Saga.

PRESIDENT & FOUNDER Michael A. Zibart VICE PRESIDENT & ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Elizabeth Grace Herbert CONTROLLER Sharon Kozy MARKETING MANAGER Mary Claire Zibart

EDITORIAL POLICY

PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Trisha Ping

BRAND & PRODUCTION MANAGER Meagan Vanderhill

MANAGING EDITOR Savanna Walker

SUBSCRIPTIONS Katherine Klockenkemper

ASSOCIATE EDITORS Erica Ciccarone Phoebe Farrell-Sherman Yi Jiang

EDITORIAL INTERN Jessica Peng CONTRIBUTOR Roger Bishop

BookPage is a selection guide for new books. Our editors select for review the best books published in a variety of categories. BookPage is editorially independent; only books we highly recommend are featured. Stars (H ) indicate titles that are exceptionally executed in their genres or categories.

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F IC T ION

HOLIDAY G I F T GU I DE

Page-turning fiction to gift this holiday season

The Little Liar Mitch Albom

This powerful novel moves from a small village in Greece during the Holocaust to America, where the intertwined lives of three survivors are forever changed by the perils of deception and the grace of redemption.

From an atmospheric dual-timeline suspense novel to sweeping historical romances to an enchanting royal love story, give the readers in your life stories that will captivate them this Christmas.

$26.99 | Harper

$17.99–$18.99 | Bethany House, Revell

Fiction favorites for the holidays A heartbreaking but hopeful debut about forgiveness, a modern and feminist update on Rosemary’s Baby and a gothic Southern thriller top everyone’s wish lists this holiday season! $16.99–$27.99 | Sourcebooks Landmark

New from V. E. Schwab! Fall in love with the magical worlds of this #1 New York Times bestselling author, from The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue to the Shades of Magic series and The Fragile Threads of Power. $19.99–$55.97 | Tor Books

Shop these titles at bookpage.com/holiday

HO LI DAY G I F T GUIDE

NONF IC T ION

The Ins-N-Outs of In-N-Out Burger

Thoughtful gifts for everyone on your list

Read the official story of In-N-Out Burger—how three generations created a thriving, family-owned company, why its fans are so loyal and how it became a beloved cultural icon—as told by the company’s owner and president, Lynsi Snyder.

Disney Worldwide Publishing brings you unique books for everyone on your naughty or nice list! We’ve got great gifts for sports enthusiasts, favorite teachers, hungry foodies, Marvel and Disney fans—everyone!

Lynsi Snyder

$29.99 | Nelson Books

$19.99–$50 | Hyperion Avenue, Andscape, Disney Editions

Find your inspiration with these uplifting reads Bringing holiday cheer to a movie buff or a mom? Somebody who loves helicopters or the holiday season? These three new releases are sure to make the perfect gifts. $24.95–$29.95 | Dexterity, K-LOVE Books

Make the holidays magic Thrill the fans and readers on your list with the perfect book or gift! From pop-culture cookbooks to surprise-a-day advent calendars, Insight Editions has something for everyone. $27.99–$34.99 | Insight Editions

Shop these titles at bookpage.com/holiday

NONF IC T ION Give the gift of a great life story Read the can’t-miss memoirs of the season from two living legends. $32.99–$35 | Gallery Books

gifts | crime

Murder, she wrapped No clue what to get the mystery lovers on your list? Fear not—we’ve done the detecting for you.

Gardening Can Be Murder Horticultural expert Marta McDowell’s Gardening Can Be Murder (Timber Press, $29, 9781643261126) is as full of delights as an English cottage garden in summer. McDowell explores the connection between gardens and mysteries from all sorts of angles. In a chapter playfully entitled “Means : Dial M for Mulch,” she recounts examples of the deadly use of garden implements in crime fiction. McDowell also investigates authors such as Agatha Christie, who lovingly cared for the gardens of her country home, Greenway, and Rex Stout, “an indoor plant whiz.” The book is visually enhanced by Yolanda Fundora’s distinctive silhouette illustrations, and McDowell appends a reading list of plant-related mysteries. It’s not always possible to garden in winter, so dig into this book and enjoy!

H The League of

Lady Poisoners

Lisa Perrin’s The League of Lady Poisoners (Chronicle, $24.95, 9781797215884) is a highly entertaining and lavishly illustrated study of 25 female poisoners. Perrin organizes her profiles by the motives that led these women to perform their deadly deeds: money and greed, anger and revenge, and love and obsession.

Shop these titles at bookpage.com/holiday

While some names, such as Cleopatra, will be familiar to readers, Perrin’s welldocumented research has unearthed little known stories including that of the women of Nagyrév, a small village in Hungary, who in the early 1900s sought to poison their abusive husbands with arsenic. Despite its gruesome subject matter, The League of Lady Poisoners is a beautiful book. And who knows? Perhaps Perrin will turn her attention to fictional poisoners next.

Murderabilia Readers interested in the history of true crime will be fascinated by Harold Schechter’s clever new book, Murderabilia (Workman, $30, 9781523515295). The title refers to objects owned by killers or otherwise connected to their crimes. As he uncovers the history of 100 grisly artifacts (a bottle of mineral water that nurse Jane Toppan laced with poison and used to kill 31 people; a shovel used by serial killer H.H. Holmes), Schechter provides a fascinating examination of the often unexpected and surprising ways in which crime has seeped into social history and popular culture. Short chapters and copious illustrations make Murderabilia a great choice to leave on the night table to dip into before bed. Then again, given the subject matter, maybe not. —Deborah Hopkinson

NONF IC T ION

gifts | cats & dogs

For the love of dog (or cat) Look no further for the perfect pet-centric holiday gifts!

The Hidden Language of Cats Sarah Brown knows and loves felines: She has a doctorate in the social behavior of domestic cats, and the dedication page of her new book simply reads, “For the cats.” Those who said “Aww!” at that information will delight in Brown’s The Hidden Language of Cats: How They Have Us at Meow (Dutton, $28, 9780593186411). It’s a fascinating compendium of scientific information about our furry friends’ modes of communication interwoven with anecdotes from Brown’s 30 years of fieldwork (plus her own cats’ hijinks at home). “Just like people,” Brown notes, “cats have complex personalities.” Whimsical line drawings by Brown’s daughter Hettie add to the fun of this informative, accessible guide to what cats are telling us, whether through tail twitches, meows or exceedingly slow blinking.

Something for everyone from National Geographic Books

Give the gift of travel this holiday season!

Discover perfect and unique gifts— from cooking with Gordon Ramsay and traveling through space with Neil deGrasse Tyson to bucket-list biking and travel destinations, plus the secrets to longevity.

Celebrate Lonely Planet’s 50th anniversary to get the ultimate travel inspiration and plan your next adventure! $17.99–$35 | Lonely Planet

$32.50–$40 | National Geographic

For the Love of Dog In 2011, author Pilley Bianchi’s father Dr. John W. Pilley and their border collie Chaser went viral for their work together, particularly with regards to Chaser’s 1,022-word vocabulary and the revelation that “dogs are not only smarter than they have been given credit for, but capable of so much more.” Bianchi partnered with U.K.-based illustrator Calum Heath to honor her late father and their dog while showing readers how to tap into their own dogs’ special capabilities—for learning, for fun and for love—in her edifying and entertaining book, For the Love of Dog: The Ultimate Relationship Guide (Princeton Architectural Press, $18.95, 9781797223308). Heath’s illustrations frolic across the pages, adding humor and beauty to this eclectic, heartfelt tribute to the dogs we love. —Linda M. Castellitto Shop these titles at bookpage.com/holiday

K I DS & YOU NG A DU LT

HOLIDAY G I F T GU I DE

Murtagh

Betwixt

Christopher Paolini returns to the world of Eragon. Join Dragon Rider—and fan favorite—Murtagh and his dragon as they confront a perilous new enemy!

This international showcase of horror features stories from a range of creators from the U.S. and Japan, as well as a foreword and exclusive cover art by global phenomenon Junji Ito.

Christopher Paolini

These books will inspire the next generation of explorers! $12.99–$19.99 | Lonely Planet Kids

$29.99 | Knopf Books for Young Readers

Ryo Hanada et al.

$25 | Viz Originals

The rip-roaring first arc of Chainsaw Man! This box set contains the first 11 volumes of the global hit Chainsaw Man as well as an exclusive double-sided full-color poster. $99.99 | Shonen Jump

A saga worth devouring Get the complete Promised Neverland saga in one stunning box set! In addition to all 20 volumes of the suspense hit, the box set contains an exclusive booklet and a double-sided full-color poster. $179.99 | Shonen Jump

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HO LI DAY G I F T GUIDE

K IDS & YOU NG A DU LT

Dear Rebel, Rebel Girls

More than 100 extraordinary women share their advice in this gift-worthy celebration of sisterhood. Each heartfelt contribution offers readers insight, inspiration and advice on topics like overcoming obstacles, discovering your passion and dreaming big. $27.99 | DK

Encyclopedia of Everything A brand-new encyclopedia in DK’s bestselling Eyewitness series brings together the world’s greatest record breakers, most amazing animals, inspiring history-makers and cutting-edge technology to give you one utterly unputdownable book.

Spread joy this holiday season with Disney Books Ryan T. Higgins’ laugh-out-loud picture books are the perfect gift for preschoolers. Looking for middle grade books? Rick Riordan’s and Leah Johnson’s novels are the must-read stories of the year.

’Tis the season to be reading Discover the perfect bookish gift this holiday season with Astra Books for Young Readers! We have books for every kind of reader. $18.99–$19.99 | Astra Books for Young Readers, TOON, Hippo Park, Minerva

$18.99–19.99 | Disney Hyperion

$29.99 | DK

How the Grinch Lost Christmas! Alastair Heim

The Grinch is BACK and ready to prove to the residents of Who-ville that he’s grown to love Christmas in this heartwarming sequel written and illustrated in the style of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! $19.99 | Random House Books for Young Readers

Help kids build confidence and camaraderie Follow a class full of curious kids, a clever manatee and a guide on how to become confident and successful with these picture and middle grade books. $16.99–$18.99 | American Psychological Association

Shop these titles at bookpage.com/holiday

FESTIVE FUN FOR EVERYONE! WEIRD AND WONDERFUL

FACT-PACKED FUN LITTLE KIDS FIRST BIG BOOKS

28+

Titles – Collect them all!

ANCIENT, BUT AWESOME

COOL, FACT BASED FICTION EXPLORER ACADEMY

45+

Titles – Collect them all!

Titles

IZZY NEWTON AND THE S.M.A.R.T. SQUAD

ZEUS THE MIGHTY

Titles

gifts | literary

Inspired gifts for the literary minded Just in time for the season of giving, we’ve collected a quartet of treats for the bibliophiles on your list. The Book of (More) Delights

Bruno’s Cookbook

In The Book of (More) Delights (Algonquin, $28, 9781643753096), poet and essayist Ross Gay continues the practice of recording everyday pleasures that made his 2019 volume, The Book of Delights, an awardwinning bestseller. In Gay’s hands, the habit has become an exercise in ecstasy, a way to cultivate gratitude and develop a spirit of inquiry. Gay’s guidelines for compiling delights—“write them daily, write them quickly, and write them by hand”—has resulted in a collection of 81 essays that span a year. His newest enthusiasms (yellow jackets, Snoopy, paper menus) may seem simple at first glance, but they yield arresting complexities under his observant eye. Each piece in the book is a snapshot moment of relished experience that emphasizes discovery and revelation. Gay’s images are precise and poetic (garlic sprouts look like “little green periscopes”; a favorite spoon has “a slight impression—as though touched by an angel—on the handle”), and his reflections on aging, relationships and the passage of time are heartening. Informal yet inspired, off-the-cuff yet beautifully composed, his essays reveal the riches hidden in quotidian experience. The Book of (More) Delights provides abundant avenues to appreciate our world.

Fans with an insatiable appetite for the mysteries of Martin Walker will savor Bruno’s Cookbook: Recipes and Traditions from a French Country Kitchen (Knopf, $40, 9780593321188). Bruno Courrèges, the clever, self-possessed hero of Walker’s popular series, serves as police chief for St. Denis, a rustic village in the Périgord region of southwestern France. Bruno is an exceptional detective and accomplished cook, and in each book in the series, the ritual of mealtime, whether it be a leisurely lunch or convivial dinner, proves to be an important component of his daily routine. Inspired by his gastronomic passion, Bruno’s Cookbook, which was co-authored by Walker and his wife, Julia Watson, has more than 90 recipes neatly categorized according to the suppliers of the ingredients, from the winemaker (le vigneron) to the fisherman (le pêcheur). The volume is packed with handsome photos, insights into the food culture of the Périgord and dishes to please every palate, including intriguing menu items like snails in garlic and butter, Bruno’s meatballs with garlic-roasted tomatoes and “A Most Indulgent Chocolate Cake.” (Of interest to the canine diner: a recipe for Balzac’s best dog biscuits.) Easy-to-follow cooking instructions and copious Brunorelated anecdotes make this a delicious gift for the well-read epicure.

Bartleby and Me In his gem of a memoir, Bartleby and Me: Reflections of an Old Scrivener (Mariner, $28.99, 9780358455479), Gay Talese takes stock of his working life as a journalist and author—a remarkable run of roughly seven decades. Now 91, Talese entered the business as a copy boy at the New York Times. Over the course of his career, he helped define contemporary nonfiction narrative through innovative magazine pieces and books like Honor Thy Father (1971), which featured the novelistic techniques of New Journalism. Bartleby and Me finds Talese focusing on his early years and inspirations, most notably his fascination with the “nobodies” of the world—figures reminiscent of Herman Melville’s reticent character Bartleby—who toil in obscurity and usually never make the news. These unassuming yet oddly intriguing individuals (to wit, “a seventy-eight-year-old grandfather’s clock of a man” named George Bannon, who rings the bell during boxing matches at Madison Square Garden) have long served as subject matter for his work. Talese also shares anecdotes related to writing and research and reconsiders classic works like his 1966 Esquire profile “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold.” For the most part, his backdrop is New York, and the volume reads as a tribute to the city as a place of endless evolution. Wistful, understated and urbane, Bartleby and Me is vintage Talese—the exemplary work of a gentleman journalist.

The Wonderful World of James Herriot Transporting readers to the green moors of Yorkshire, The Wonderful World of James Herriot: A Charming Collection of Classic Stories (St. Martin’s, $30, 9781250288912) provides a detailed portrait of the beloved veterinarian and author. Herriot, whose real name was James Alfred Wight, published his first book, If Only They Could Talk, in 1970. In that volume, he adopted the narrative approach that made his work so popular, writing from a first-person perspective that blended fact and fiction as he detailed his rounds as a country veterinarian, all in a voice that was poetic, affable and expert. His subsequent books, including All Creatures Great and Small, served as the basis for two PBS TV series of the same name. The Wonderful World of James Herriot is a sampler of stories from Herriot’s works with lively supplementary text by his children, Jim Wight and Rosie Page. Featuring chapters on Herriot’s career, family life and the Yorkshire region, it offers fresh perspectives on the man and his work. Herriot aficionados needn’t fret—Siegfried and Tristan Farnon put in plenty of appearances. Brimming with personal photos and enchanting illustrations, it’s a perfectly cozy collection from start to finish. —Julie Hale

book clubs

gifts | pop culture

A trio of books for pop-culture lovers These fun, fascinating books will make the media mavens in your life laugh, cry, nostalgically sigh—and immediately want to press “play.”

H You Are What You

Watch

Insider deputy editor Walt Hickey won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary. His wide-ranging, captivating You Are What You Watch : How Movies and TV Affect Everything (Workman, $30, 9781523515899) makes it easy to see why. Hickey fascinates as he demystifies pop culture, sharing the outcomes of his experiments and studies. Cheeky and informative visuals bolster Hickey’s propop-culture assertions and illuminate personal stories. His keen eye for detail and ability to see connections across genres enliven the narrative beyond theory and talking points, offering a bounty of enthusiasm for our favorite stories.

Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson’s Creek Anyone immediately transported to a riverside pier by the lyric “So open up your morning light” will love Thea Glassman’s Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson’s Creek: How Seven Teen Shows Transformed Television (Running Press, $28, 9780762480760). “Today’s teen shows are leading the charge when it comes to progressive, diverse, and creative storytelling,” Glassman writes, but they wouldn’t exist without the seven

predecessors she covers in her impressive debut. In a wealth of new interviews with creators, writers, actors, crew and more insiders, Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson’s Creek shares behind-thescenes details that show the unique choices and approaches that made each show iconic. After all, as writer and pop-culture maven Jennifer Keishin Armstrong writes in her introduction, “There is no drama like teenage drama, in life and in fiction.”

The History of Sketch Comedy The prolific and hilarious Keegan-Michael Key shares his passion and enthusiasm for sketch comedy in the aptly titled The History of Sketch Comedy: A Journey Through the Art and Craft of Humor (Chronicle, $29.95, 9781797216836), coauthored with his wife, film producer Elle Key. The book is a wonderful soupto-nuts compendium of everything sketch. The authors trace its origins from ancient Greece to today’s comedians, and take readers around the U.S. and abroad as they consider influential comedy schools. Key also revisits his Detroit upbringing, detailing his comedy education in college and on various stages. The History of Sketch Comedy is a highly informative and entertaining read that’s sure to inspire instant bingewatching and a groundswell of sketch-centric enthusiasm. —Linda M. Castellitto

by julie hale

’Tis the season— for drama In Lynn Steger Strong’s stirring Flight (Mariner, $18.99, 9780063135154), siblings Kate, Henry and Martin struggle to make it through the holidays after the death of their mother. Assembling at Henry’s home with their respective families for Christmas, they try to be cheerful while sorting out big issues like whether to keep their mother’s house. When the daughter of a friend disappears, the siblings offer support, and the crisis transforms each of them. Strong’s powerful novel features a range of discussion topics, including grief, inheritance and the bonds of family. Set on the border between Texas and Mexico, Everyone Knows You Go Home (Little A, $14.95, 9781542046367) by Natalia Sylvester chronicles the marriage of Isabel and Martin. Martin’s late father, Omar, deserted the family when Martin was a boy. But every fall, on the Day These novels full of of the Dead, Omar’s ghost visfamily squabbles and its Isabel and begs her to convince Martin and the rest of the secrets are perfect family to forgive him. As the book club picks for the novel unfolds, Isabel learns more about Omar and his past, festive months ahead. and her discoveries threaten her happiness. Themes like loyalty, memory and the Mexican American immigrant experience will spark spirited dialogue among readers. In Jean Meltzer’s The Matzah Ball (MIRA, $15.99, 9780778311584), Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt, successful writer of Christmas romances (an occupation she conceals from her Jewish family), is asked to pen a love story set during Hanukkah—an assignment that proves daunting. Rachel finds Hanukkah lackluster compared to Christmas, and she hits a wall while dealing with chronic fatigue syndrome. In need of motivation, she helps organize a Hanukkah celebration called the Matzah Ball, reconnecting with an old flame along the way. Meltzer mixes humor with romance to concoct a delightful holiday frolic. December takes an unexpected turn for the Birch clan in Francesca Hornak’s Seven Days of Us (Berkley, $16, 9780451488763). Emma and Andrew Birch look forward to spending Christmas at Weyfield Hall, their country house, but when their daughter Olivia, who’s a doctor, returns from Liberia where she was exposed to a dangerous virus, the family is forced to quarantine for a week. Despite rising tensions and the reveal of a huge family secret, the Birches become closer than ever during their Yuletide lockdown. Poignant yet festive, Hornak’s novel is a treat.

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

audio

H The Rachel Incident In Caroline O’Donoghue’s The Rachel Incident (Penguin Audio, 9.5 hours), university student Rachel is extremely busy juggling a precarious love pentagon involving her professor, her gay best friend James, her boss and her boyfriend. While hilarious mistakes are made, The Rachel Incident is not a farce; it’s a story about forgiveness. County Cork, Ireland, native Tara Flynn gives a brilliant performance as the older Rachel looking back on her tumultuous early 20s,reflecting not only Rachel’s raucous sense of humor but also her hard-earned insight and compassion. The result is an audiobook that is as wise as it is funny. —Deborah Mason

The Underworld Susan Casey has made a career of writing about the ocean and its creatures. In her latest, Casey profiles the people who are intent on improving our knowledge of the ocean’s deepest reaches via manned submersibles. Casey follows a wealthy entrepreneur intent on breaking records and the scientists whose research relies on the same high-tech equipment. The audiobook of The Underworld (Random House Audio, 12 hours) is accompanied by a PDF with photographs and other resources to aid listeners’ understanding. Casey’s motivation is personal, and hearing the author read her thrilling account of finally descending into the ocean’s depths herself provides additional emotional heft. —Norah Piehl

Family Lore Flor Marte, one of four Dominican American sisters who are gifted with special powers, can predict when someone will die. After a dream about losing her teeth, she decides to throw her own living wake. The fear that Flor will soon die stirs a need in each of her sisters—Pastora, Mathilde and Camila—as well as in her daughter Ona and her niece, Yadi, to confront the lies within their own lives. Sixta Morel voices the Marte sisters, while the book’s author, Elizabeth Acevedo, voices Ona, and Danyeli Rodriguez del Orbe voices Yadi. As Family Lore (HarperAudio, 10 hours) jumps between past and present, the interplay of Acevedo, Morel and Rodriguez del Orbe’s voices lends a magical quality to the Marte family’s tale. —Maya Fleischmann

PRESS PLAY AUDIOBOOKS ON THESE NEW

Available from

Macmillan Audio

READ BY BRITTANY PRESSLEY

READ BY THE AUTHOR

READ BY THÉRÈSE PLUMMER

READ BY WILL DAMRON

READ BY LAURA BENANTI

READ BY CINDY KAY

READ BY ANA OSORIO & AHMED HAMAD

READ BY RACHEL KENNEY & JESSE VILINSKY

Silver Nitrate Set in early 1990s Mexico City, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s latest, Silver Nitrate (Random House Audio, 13 hours), will appeal to film buffs and fans of horror fiction. Montserrat is a talented sound editor, but she has a hard time finding work in the male-dominated Mexican film industry. When her oldest friend moves in next door to a horror director, he and Montserrat embark on a dark and dangerous quest. Although at times narrator Gisela Chípe’s delivery is a little flat, she effectively imbues a variety of secondary characters—both comic and menacing—with individual personalities. —Norah Piehl

romance

by christie ridgway

H 10 Things That Never Happened Sam Becker enjoys almost everything about his job managing a bed-andbath store, except for his awful boss, Jonathan Forest. While confronting said boss, Sam hits his head and—well, the details don’t matter when the result is that he fakes amnesia to avoid being fired and moves in with Jonathan so that he can be looked after. The screwball setup of Alexis Hall’s 10 Things That Never Happened (Sourcebooks Casablanca, $16.99, 9781728245102) leads to a poignant love story, told through Sam’s amusing first-person voice. The close perspective puts the reader shoulder-to-shoulder with Sam, who is actually holding some important stuff back. Closed-off Jonathan is a typical workaholic, yet the attraction between the two housemates grows and becomes impossible to ignore despite the boss-employee taboo. The authentic emotion at the center of this romance will win readers’ hearts and make them care deeply about these characters and their hopeful happy ending.

The Predictable Heartbreaks of Imogen Finch Two childhood friends explore their connection in The Predictable Heartbreaks of Imogen Finch (Griffin, $18, 9781250836526) by Jacqueline Firkins. Artist Imogen has given up her dreams to care for her mother in their small town on the Oregon coast. But when Eliot Swift, the rich-boy crush she never got over, comes back to town, she’s forced to reexamine her choices. Eliot must look within too, facing feelings and failings he’s been running from for a decade. Firkins delicately peels back the layers of her main couple to expose their raw emotions. Imogen and Eliot are multifaceted, fascinating personalities, and readers will cross their fingers for a happy ending. Love scenes of smoking passion and warm tenderness give this romance an extra sparkle.

The Once and Future Fling Leigh Heasley’s imaginative and adventurous The Once and Future Fling (W by Wattpad Books, $18.99, 9781990778483) is set in a world in which time travel exists and dating people from different eras of history is a sought-after experience for the idle rich. Ada Blum, however, is anything but idle: She’s near-desperate to escape the ramifications of her high-profile relationship with state Sen. Samson St. Laurent by finding a match in another time. Regency-era bachelors aren’t catching her interest, so she takes a chance on 1920s New York City—and that’s where things turn thorny. Henry Levison, a violinist and maybe-criminal from the ’20s, catches hold of her heart, but Samson has also reentered the picture. Gangsters and more time-hops keep things entertaining while readers wonder how—and when—this heartfelt story will end.

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

feature | enemies to lovers

The fine line between love and hate Tempers run high and passions run hot in these fiery romances.

What Happens on Vacation Margaret has just won an allexpense-paid trip to Zanzibar—but she has to share it with the officemate she detests, Jagger. He’s everything she can’t stand, coasting through life even as Margaret struggles with the one-two punch of her divorce and the death of her father. Jo Watson’s What Happens on Vacation (W by Wattpad Books, $18.99, 9781990778919) is a bit too sharp in spots : Margaret’s assumptions can be rather judgmental and harsh, especially since Jagger never retaliates. But Watson portrays Margaret’s struggles so honestly that it’s easy to understand why Margaret builds walls around herself. Jagger is genuinely charming as he works to bring those walls down, and readers will root for Margaret to open the door to love. —Elizabeth Mazer

H Never Wager With a Wallflower Galahad “Gal” Sinclair has finally saved enough to open a luxurious gambling hall. While admiring his new acquisition, he bumps into Venus “Vee” Merriwell and discovers that the aloof Vee, his cousin’s wife’s sister, volunteers at the orphanage next door. Gal tries to smooth over their adversarial relationship, but Vee won’t hear of it, as she believes his property rightfully belongs to the orphanage. Virginia Heath

efficiently conveys both characters’ backstories: Vee’s through diary entries that explain her romantic disappointments; and Gal’s through Heath’s judicious third-person narration and Vee’s investigations into his past. Heath’s stylish voice nimbly portrays Vee and Gal’s stormy and flirtatious courtship. Blending charm, heartache and humor, Never Wager With a Wallflower (Griffin, $17.99, 9781250787804) is a glorious indulgence for lovers of Regency romance. —Maya Fleischmann

Next-Door Nemesis In Alexa Martin’s Next-Door Nemesis (Berkley, $17, 9780593337257), Collins Carter moves back to her childhood home in the wake of a professional meltdown and bad breakup. After she runs into Nathaniel Adams, her former best friend who is now the vice president of the local HOA, Collins decides to dethrone him at the organization’s next election. It’s fun to see Collins chip away at Nate’s levelheaded facade, and it’s just as fun to see him lose his cool. Martin uses the HOA battle to reveal the deeper emotions both characters are trying to navigate. It doesn’t take long for the cracks in their antagonism to appear, and for the reader to realize that Collins and Nate not only love each other, but are equally capable of giving each other a second chance. —Dolly R. Sickles

Bring her that horizon

behind the book | katee robert

Katee Robert is reviving the pirate romance. She’s written love stories starring monsters and Greek gods, but with Hunt on Dark Waters, Katee Robert has written the high seas fantasy adventure of her dreams. ••• There’s something about pirates that remains timeless. We gravitate toward the idea of a reckless captain standing at the helm, the salty sea breeze whipping their stylish coat, the horizon an endless blue of possibility. The world feels big in a way that it really doesn’t anymore. Historical—and fantasy—pirates exist out of time and space, and the only rules they follow are the ones they make up. Obviously, reality was a bit less glamorous and more rife with scurvy and poop decks, but the mythos of pirates Visit BookPage.com to read continues to attract and seduce. It cerour starred review of Hunt on Dark Waters. tainly does with me, at least. It’s hard to say when my fascination with pirates began, but I suspect it Really, though, it all boils down to was the moment I boarded the Pirates the fact that I’ve been chasing the high of the Caribbean ride in Disneyland of Pirates of the Caribbean, both the when I was very young. The “briny” ride and the movies, since my formaair wrapped around me and I sat with tive years. I saw the first movie in thewide eyes through scene after scene of aters five times. I was addicted to the glamorized and entertaining glimpses way my heart beat faster as the music of what a pirate’s life might be like. I swelled and the sheer possibilities that was hooked. unfolded when Jack Sparrow grinned Fast-forward some 30-odd years, and said, “Bring me that horizon.” through my deep obsessions with pirate nonfiction books, the Pirates of “The only rules [pirates] the Caribbean movie franchise and the follow are the ones TV show “Black Sails,” to name just a few influences. When it came time for they make up.” me to circle back to my first love, fantasy novels, it was also an opportunity I wanted to recreate that feeling while to mix two of my favorite things into one writing—and hopefully for the reader grand adventure. while reading. That moment of lookI will admit that pirates seemed to be ing out at the horizon and having no idea what it might hold. The thrill of a bit of a long shot. While pirates have been a staple in genre fiction since a fight against a monster on the deck H Hunt on Dark Waters the beginning of time, they’ve kind of of your ship. The magic and mystery Berkley, $18, 9780593639085 that comes when things and people fallen out of popularity in recent years. Fantasy Romance There’s probably some really interestaren’t quite what they seem, but you’re ing reasons why, but I love them and seduced despite yourself. I’ve been on the hunt for spicy pirate romances for ages. They exist, to be And, because it’s fantasy, everyone is freshly bathed and there’s sure! But there’s never enough to feed my voracious reading. One book indoor plumbing! —Katee Robert is never enough!

sci-fi & fantasy

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by chris pickens

H These Burning Stars Bethany Jacobs’ These Burning Stars (Orbit, $19.99, 9780316463324) warps readers across the galaxy on a devilishly fun thrill ride. Jun Ironway has just nabbed a data drive containing evidence of planetary genocide. Hunting her are Esek and Chono, two of the Kindom’s finest clerics, members of a religious order that serve as law enforcement. And a wanderer known only as Six has a stake in the data drive as well. Who is Six and whose side are they on? And can Jun find a way to expose the truth? These Burning Stars is plotted like a chess match, confident and surprising as Jacobs moves each piece thoughtfully across her board. All four main characters are extremely fun to follow, and this reviewer will be thinking about them long after closing the book. Esek in particular stands out: a brilliant, haughty, rule-bending and gregarious sociopath who is as unpredictable as she is determined.

Knock Knock, Open Wide

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Neil Sharpson’s Knock Knock, Open Wide (Tor Nightfire, $29.99, 9781250785428) is a dizzying blend of Celtic folklore, gruesome terror and family drama. The story begins when a young Irish woman named Etain Larkin discovers the corpse of a man in the middle of the road. Twenty years later, Etain’s daughter, Ashling, is traumatized by her mother’s alcoholism and paranoia. Ashling has started a relationship with her schoolmate Betty, but she can’t let her fully in until she finds answers to explain her family’s terrible past. Knock Knock, Open Wide shifts from funny and touching to outright terrifying in the blink of an eye, keeping the reader in a suspended state of unease. Ashling and Betty’s tender relationship grounds the book when it needs it most, offering a gentle counterpoint to the eerie goings-on.

H He Who Drowned the World Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became The Sun topped best books lists in 2021, and ParkerChan’s sequel, He Who Drowned the World (Tor, $28.99, 9781250621825), matches and at times exceeds its predecessor. Zhu Chongba, now called the Radiant King, knows she and her people are not safe as long as the Mongolian khan and his armies still threaten from the north. Meanwhile, the traitorous General Ouyang also seeks vengeance against the khan. Can Zhu and Ouyang, two mortal enemies, realize their shared ambitions and work together for a common victory? He Who Drowned the World is a beautiful, brutal ride that never lets up. The sharpness of each character’s ambitions, the depth of their emotion and the sheer beauty of the writing will grab hold of readers from the very first page. The fearless ParkerChan pulls no punches, repeatedly pushing characters to their limits and beyond.

Chris Pickens is a Nashville-based fantasy and sci-fi superfan who loves channeling his enthusiasm into reviews of the best new books the genre has to offer.

whodunit

by bruce tierney Viviana Valentine and the Ticking Clock

Glasgow, Scotland. The 1930s were a time of unrest in the industrial port city. The privations of the Great War gave way to boomtown prosperity, but the gap between 1951, arriving in just a couple of hours, holds a lot of the aristocrats and the working poor is as great as ever promise for New York City private investigators Tommy and the nights are ruled by cutthroat street gangs. Fortuna and Viviana Valentine. Business is going well, Detective Inspector Jimmy Dreghorn, onetime banand they are on the cusp of getting married. But as tamweight boxer and World War I soldier, has since advanced through the ranks of the Glasgow police. the clock ticks toward midnight, they stumble upon a murder in progress in a dark Manhattan alley. Viviana Despite being Catholic in a largely Protestant organistays with the victim and attempts first aid while zation and despite having to practically stand on tiptoe Tommy pursues the assailant. Both of their efforts are to meet the minimum height requirement, Jimmy is a for naught, other than serving as the jumping-off point scrappy sort of guy, and not disposed toward taking any for Viviana Valentine and the Ticking Clock (Crooked guff from anyone, regardless of their size. He is pulled off Lane, $30.99, 9781639105229), book three in Emily J. a particularly sickening murder of a young boy to invesEdwards’ critically acclaimed series. This investigation tigate the death of Charles Geddes, a ne’er-do-well high will be on Tommy and Viviana’s own dime, as they have society hanger-on with whose family Dreghorn shares some not entirely pleasant hisno client to bill for their work on the murder of the still-unidentory. For readers who are fans Three fantastic historical tified man. That said, they have of thrilling, well-choreographed mysteries—and a chilling violence, there is plenty to be a couple of other cases, each baffling in its own right, which found here. Nothing egregious small-town murder. will pay the electric bills and the by any means, but consider yourselves warned. It’s no surprise that Edge of the secretary for the time being. The book is set in New York at a time when the electric shaver was new to the Grave won the 2021 Bloody Scotland Debut Prize for market, and the Polaroid camera was just beginning to Crime Novel of the Year: The writing is first-rate and it be recognized as a powerful tool for investigators. Both is perhaps the best debut novel I have read this year. devices actually play a small role in the story, evidencing The catchall term for mystery novels set in Scotland is the painstaking research that complements Edwards’ “Tartan Noir,” by the way. (I imagine it was first used period-perfect dialogue and snappy humor. in conjunction with the novels of Ian Rankin and Val McDermid, and then just kind of stuck.) And one thing you can be positively sure about in Tartan Noir is that Murder in Williamstown somebody’s gonna get kilt. Sorry. (Not sorry.) Murder in Williamstown (Poisoned Pen, $34.99, 9781728279336) is Kerry Greenwood’s 22nd(!) installWhen I’m Dead ment in her long-running series featuring freethinking Australian aristocrat Phryne Fisher. (I have done the Black Harbor, Wisconsin, gets pretty chilly by late legwork of looking up the pronunciation of Phryne; it October, but the chill brought on by the nighttime muris “Fry-nee,” rhymes with shiny. You’re welcome.) Her der of a popular teen overshadows almost anything the latest case has an atmospheric milieu, a well-realized weather can deliver. Medical examiner Rowan Winthorp cast of characters and a rollicking plot, to boot. Phryne knows the girl who was killed; Madison Caldwell was is something of a libertine, both in terms of her daytime a friend of Rowan’s daughter, Chloe, since primary investigative adventures and her amorous nighttime school. One shudder-inducing detail? Madison’s teeth have been broken out of her jaw and scattered around adventures. This time out, she is innocently swept up into the burgeoning opium trade taking place in her her body. Rowan was at her daughter’s high school home of Melbourne, Australia. While visiting her sweetplay when she got the call, and had to leave halfway heart du jour, Phryne discovers the body of a Chinese through. Chloe, angry over the abandonment, lashed man who was possibly aligned with a criminal element, out with “You’ll love me more when I’m dead,” a stateand, a short time later, another murder occurs right in ment echoed in the title of Hannah Morrissey’s third front of her eyes. The Chinese community in Melbourne Black Harbor mystery, When I’m Dead (Minotaur, $28, is reluctant to involve the police, fearing anti-Asian prej9781250872340). The investigation turns up several surudice, and the police, for their part, are pretty much prises early on: First off, it appears that Madison was okay with that. So it falls to Phryne to sort through the not as well liked as some of the parents believed, but players and to dispense justice as she sees fit, which I instead was one of the school’s mean girls. Also, there must say she does in a more fair and balanced manner was no love lost between her and Chloe, come to find than any court of law I could imagine. out. And now, in the wake of her friend’s murder, Chloe has gone missing. Is she another victim? Or something altogether more insidious going on? Of all the books this Edge of the Grave month, this one, plot-driven to the max, is the supreme Robbie Morrison’s debut novel, Edge of the Grave page turner; When I’m Dead is nigh-on impossible (Bantam, $18, 9780593723319), unfolds in 1932 to put down.

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.

lifestyles

by susannah felts

Meals to warm the soul Five cookbooks to satisfy beginner chefs, history buffs, comfort-seekers and more.

H Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky “Think about this: The Italians didn’t have the tomato until after 1492,” writes chef and food historian Lois Ellen Frank. “The Irish didn’t have the potato.” Let that sink in, then get a copy of Frank’s Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky: Modern Plant-Based Recipes Using Native American Ingredients (Hachette Go, $30, 9780306827297). Written with Walter Whitewater, the book celebrates the “magic eight” indigenous plants of the Americas—corn, beans, squash, chiles, tomatoes, potatoes, vanilla and cacao. The recipes are accessible, budget-friendly and entirely plant-based, such as the three sisters tamale with green chile, black beans, chocolate and chipotle; baked acorn squash with maple and pecans; and green chile enchilada lasagna. In sum, this is a fantastic introduction and tribute to Native American Southwestern cuisine.

design reminds me of how recipes are presented on the internet: full-color, with tags and photo tutorials throughout. But many dishes feel elevated, far from basic, even when they fall under “easy,” such as watermelon chaat, jammy egg tacos and a quinoa crunch salad. I suspect a lot of newlyweds will be adding this one to their kitchen shelves.

Every Season Is Soup Season

I simply adore soup. Especially in cold weather, I could eat soup daily. I know I’m not alone. Soup lovers, let us take up our ladles and spoons and hunks of good bread: Shelly Westerhausen Worcel’s Every Season Is Soup Season: 85+ Souper-Adaptable Recipes to Batch, Share, Reinvent, and Enjoy (Chronicle, $32.50, 9781797220307) sets us up for year-round slurping. Four seasons of soups, stews, ramen, gazpacho and more are Gennaro’s Cucina joined by a mouthwatering assortment of garnishes— frizzled shallots, honeyed feta with black and white Gennaro’s Cucina: Hearty Money-Saving Meals From sesame seeds and tarragon-orange oil among them. an Italian Kitchen (Interlink, Then there are the sides: $35, 9781623717551) by salads, focaccia, cornbread. “We have missed out on so Gennaro Contaldo focuses This winter I’m determined many perspectives. How do on cucina povera, the trato try Worcel’s pumpkin and bean soup with brown ditional cooking of rural we learn about people who left white Italy, where seasonality and butter sage, and her sweet a “waste not want not” lifepotato and leek peanut stew. nothing behind?” style deliciously intersect. If Best of all, the soups can be you love to buy loaves of artisan bread but often find repurposed into other dishes, such as a spicy noodle them stale before you can eat them up, grab this book. stir-fry made from the aforementioned stew. Numerous recipes incorporate past-its-prime bread— you’re probably familiar with panzanella, but here we’re A History of the World in 10 introduced to ribollita, a Tuscan bean and bread soup; Dinners cooked bread with rocket and pancetta; and many more dishes that make me want to go out and buy a loaf just to let it sit until I’m ready to cook. But meat and fish are In 2014, food historians Victoria Flexner and Jay Reifel cooked up an NYC supper club called Edible History, a hardly overlooked here, nor is pasta (after all, what is it perfect pairing of fine dining and intellectual stimulabut a bit of water and flour?) and sweets such as mini ricotta doughnuts and Sardinian sweet ravioli. tion. Now they’ve spun the concept into A History of the World in 10 Dinners: 2,000 Years, 100 Recipes (Rizzoli, $55, 9780847873456), which includes recipes for such Start Here dishes as Trimalchio’s pig (a roasted suckling pig with sausages) from ancient Rome, and glazed whore’s farts Sohla El-Waylly’s Start Here: Instructions for Becoming (meringues) from Versailles. “This book will present a Better Cook (Knopf, $45, 9780593320464) aims to be a even the experienced cook with a shocking variety of comprehensive, entry-level guide to cooking. It is mamunfamiliar ingredients,” Reifel writes. “We have missed moth, much like the Joy of Cooking my mom gave me out on so many perspectives,” writes Flexner. “How do when I moved into my first apartment. There’s a strong we learn about people who left nothing behind?” Their emphasis on technique—searing, poaching, browning, book is one intriguing answer, and I savor the thought of reading it to my teenage daughter as she makes her all the ways to prepare eggs, pastry 101—and clear indiway through AP World History. cation of expertise required for any given recipe. The

Susannah Felts is a Nashvlle-based writer and co-founder of The Porch, a literary arts organization. She writes a weekly Substack called FIELD TRIP.

q&a | e.j. koh © ADAM K. GLASER

ACROSS BORDERS AND GENERATIONS In her debut novel, The Liberators, E.J. Koh digs into the tensions between language, memory and history as she follows one family from the military dictatorship of 1980s South Korea to the conflicts of their Korean American community in 2000s California. The Liberators explores themes of intergeneramoments in the novel that stand out for you? tional trauma, reconciliation and forgiveness, After reading my novel, my advisor Shawn both at an individual level and at a national Wong at the University of Washington gave me one. These are topics you also delved into in such a compliment by asking where he could your memoir, The Magical have mulnaengmyeon. Food Language of Others. How “What I longed for crosses boundaries and bordo you view the two books ders—real and imaginary. through words was in relation to one another? A moment I love is when Thank you for bringing human connection.” Insuk, upon meeting her daughter-in-law, feeds her to light the connection constantly. Insuk changes in such a between The Liberators and The Magical Language of Others. There is a spider’s web way that her heart takes on the shape hanging between the books that one can pass of a spoon. through without ever breaking the line. Just as the memoir makes the novel possible, the novel In addition to the personal stoseems to offer new perspectives to the memrylines, historical events act as oir—to deepen the conversation of human catalysts and propel the narrative. history, a lineage of atrocity and reparation. What kind of research did you do to plot the book? In The Liberators, Robert says, “Sometimes your past smiles at you. Other times your past The first lines of the novel came out of my points a gun at you.” doctoral research in trauma across Korean American literature, history and film. At the One interesting feature of The Liberators same time, I was completing my memoir and is that it is told through myriad perspecthe script for “Pachinko.” In the translator’s tives over the course of note to South Korean poet nearly 40 years. What Kim Hyesoon’s collection, ma de you ch o o s e a Autobiography of Death, Don Mee Choi defines multi-narrator approach? Elizabeth Rosner writes in autobiography as “an autoSurvivor Café: The Legacy of testimony and autocereTrauma and the Labyrinth mony that reenacts trauma of Memory, “We are all and narrates our historical responsible to continue death—how we have died and how we remain livunraveling and at the same time underscoring this ing within the structure of tenacious human lineage of death.” I asked how, beyond destruction and restoration.” research and writing, we Nona Fernández’s novel The recognize the dead, and how Twilight Zone is another the dead recognize us. This is the place from which the book that collects the membook began to take shape. ories of perpetrators and victims, of prisoners and liberators. Through different You have translated other perspectives across culture, poets’ poems from Korean geography and generations, into English, but so far, H The Liberators your own works have only I hope to continue investiTin House, $27.95 gating our collected memory been published in English. 9781959030157 as a braid of our humanity. How does your translation work inform your Family Saga Food plays an importwriting process? ant part in The Liberators. One dish in The Liberators will be my first work to be particular, mulnaengmyeon (cold nootranslated from English to Korean, and I won’t dles in chilled broth) is at the center of a be translating it myself. Alongside readers, I moving passage. Are there any other food will experience the sentences take on another Illustration from The Liberators © 2023 by E.J. Koh. Designed by Beth Steidle. Reproduced by permission of Tin House.

shape and sound. Translation bridges histories between languages, nations and cultures. Translators like Don Mee Choi, Anton Hur and Sora Kim-Russell use translation to create pathways toward unsettled truths about imperialism and colonialism and militarism. In a way, my work as a writer wouldn’t be possible without me first understanding my work as a translator. Readers might be surprised to discover that in the last year you have set a goal of writing 1000 love letters to strangers. Tell us how this project came about and what it means to you. In 2016, I was heartbroken over my work and decided to give up writing. But I put out a call online: I would write 1000 love letters. The next day I found [I had received] requests from all over the world. For me, what I longed for through words was human connection. By some magic, I was able to complete a poetry book and memoir, and now I’m so grateful to share this novel. With a PhD completed, a new novel out and 400 love letters to go, what will you do next? It feels impossible to show the full extent of my gratitude to the teachers and colleagues who have helped me along the way. A part of that gratitude I hope to show by helping others who may feel the weight of loss and need the reminder that, no matter what, you must not give up hope, because the sun shines on every wreckage and every place on earth, on everyone and on you. —Stephenie Harrison Visit BookPage.com to read our starred review of The Liberators.

cover story | tananarive due

AMERICAN HORROR STORY Tananarive Due’s masterful new novel honors the ghosts of her family’s painful past.

distinctly urban and Latin American flavor, “this small Panhandle town orn of a real-world nightmare, Tananarive Due’s The Reformatory was a whole new world.” is a beautiful and bracing novel that melds historical fiction with speculative elements. Like “The whole experience was many masterpieces, it is grounded so immersive,” Due says. “It was in a fearsome experience. In late really almost as if history was trapped at that site.” While in 2012, still reeling from the death of her mother, Due received an Marianna, Due attended a meetunexpected call from the Florida ing of Dozier survivors. A man recounted “a beating so severe attorney general’s office. They that the poor child couldn’t told the acclaimed horror author, see his parents on visiting day screenwriter and scholar that her mother’s uncle, Robert Stephens, because his clothes had actually had likely been buried on the been whipped into the skin of grounds of the state’s now infahis back.” mous Dozier School for Boys, a What Due witnessed in the swampy Florida heat transreform school that became a site of grotesque abuse. Researchers formed a strange obligation into and state officials were looking a visceral and deeply felt misfor family members to approve sion, and cemented her desire exhumation at the site in order to to write about the boys at Dozier. document what happened. She “couldn’t imagine what it As Due vividly remembers, “All would be like to be a child at this hell house.” this came as a shock.” Here was a close relative that she hadn’t Finding the right genre and even known about, and her family narrative for a subject this brutal, had already seen its share of viothough, was a challenge. Though lent trauma. In fact, she reflects, the former journalist had written “When I first got the call, I thought a memoir with her mother, Civil it was in reference to another [boy] Rights advocate Patricia Stephens on my grandmother’s side who Due (Freedom in the Family: A was actually put to death as a juveMother-Daughter Memoir of the nile. And that was a family story Fight for Civil Rights), excellent we had heard about, but I had no memoirs had already been pubidea about Robert Stephens.” lished by survivors, and Due felt Getting to the root of what haptoo removed from the events to pened to Stephens would require take a nonfiction angle on the subject. Ultimately, what Due excavating a painful history and really wanted to do was give risking reviving intergenerational Robert a better story than he trauma, but it was also a way to had experienced in his short honor her mother. Due knew life. To do that, she needed to she had to see it through. Within months of that call, Due traveled write a novel. to the town of Marianna in the Due cares deeply about the social history she’s bringing to Florida Panhandle to witness the The Reformatory life, and sought to make dark moment when her great-uncle’s Saga, $28.99, 9781982188344 remains were brought to light. realities accessible to readers. But Upon arrival, one of the shershe is also cognizant of the danHorror iffs on site pointed her down the gers of that quest and was loath road and told her to “follow the mudhole. I was like, what mudhole?” to create anything that could be exploitative. This, Due is clear, is one For Due, who was born in Tallahassee and was raised in Miami, with its of the greatest hurdles with this kind of material: “When we’re writing

about difficult times in history, the line between trauma porn and honoring the past can be very thin.” That said, ignoring the violence that took place in real life was not an option. “I felt I had no choice but to have my protagonist experience at least a taste of what those survivors had talked about.” Getting it all right felt urgent to Due, but also posed a perilously high degree of difficulty, the literary equivalent of performing a triple axle. In a testament to her skill, The Reformatory deftly delivers on all of its author’s aims.

cover story | tananarive due

“It was really almost as if history was trapped at that site.” Though it springs from the same grim institutional history as Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Nickel Boys, Due’s supernatural period thriller is riveting and highly original. Set in the 1950s, the novel centers a fictionalized version of Robert Stephens, a 12-year-old African American boy living in Florida whose life is changed when he tries to rescue his sister, Gloria, from being harassed by a wealthy white teenager. Thanks to the attacker’s powerful father, Robert is quickly arrested, convicted and sentenced to six months at the Dozier-esque Gracetown School for Boys. His stint at the cruel institution, euphemistically known as “the Reformatory,” comes 30 years after a fire that killed 25 boys, many of whom were buried on the grounds along with the bodies of other inmates. The ghosts of these dead boys haunt the school and Robert becomes their emissary, communicating with them and acting as an intermediary between the corrupt warden and the spirits seeking both revenge and release. This spectral element unlocked something crucial for Due: “The ghosts can represent the violence without me having to basically write a book that is just about beating after beating after beating, murder after murder after murder.” That blending of genres, history and the fantastical, struck an important balance, enabling her to tell hard truths without inflicting maximum trauma on herself or her readers. Weaving history and the speculative is one of Due’s talents as a writer, but that particular mixture also has an established literary tradition as seen in works by other Black authors, such as Beloved by Toni Morrison. The rich history of how the African American experience has found expression in horror is a story Due has long worked to tell, both as executive producer on Horror Noire, a documentary on the history of Black horror, and through her groundbreaking college courses on the Black horror aesthetic. While the creative path that emerged felt like a fit to the veteran horror writer, it was still rocky. Threading the needle between truth and exploitation required skill and more time than she had ever devoted to a project. Before The Reformatory, the longest Due had spent on a single work was two years. This one took seven. For part of that time, Due was immersed in and, she admits, “hiding behind” the research process. In 2018, she published a short story also titled “The Reformatory” in the Boston Review that tackled the most difficult scene from her work in progress. Then came COVID-19 and a jolting sense of her own mortality. “It was COVID that really kicked me in the pants and made me realize on a deep visceral level that I could

Visit BookPage.com to read our starred review of The Reformatory.

die without finishing the book,” Due says. The memory of that time is still vivid. “This was before the vaccine. This was when we didn’t know what was going on. So it was during that time that I put myself on a very strict page quota and I kept a chart up on my wall.” The placement was meaningful. “There was a day I didn’t write, and all those zeros were right in my face. That was the kind of discipline it took to finally finish the book. It was a real push.” That life-altering visit to Marianna was a perfect matching of subject, artist and moment: The result is a genre-crossing masterwork. Ten years after it was begun, The Reformatory has come to fruition. —Carole V. Bell

reviews | fiction

H Let Us Descend By Jesmyn Ward

Historical Fiction To read Jesmyn Ward is to be carried by her epic, transformative language to the dark heart of the American South and, once there, to be surprised by the stark beauty of the region’s people. Let Us Descend (Scribner, $28, 9781982104498), the Mississippi author’s fourth novel, brings Ward’s intimate knowledge of place to the pre-Civil War South, where her captivating narrator, teenage girl Annis, is enslaved. A two-time National Book Award winner (2011’s Salvage the Bones and 2017’s Sing, Unburied, Sing), Ward writes in the traditions of William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, but this story is unmistakably her own. The journey begins at a North Carolina rice plantation owned by the enslaver who fathered Annis through rape. In a shady clearing in the woods, Annis’ mother teaches her to fight, yet their relationship is one of intense tenderness. When the enslaver sells Annis’ mother, our heroine is left grief-wracked. Before long, she too is sold downriver on a harrowing march to the slave markets of New Orleans. In North Carolina,

H The Glutton

By A.K. Blakemore

Historical Fiction There is a particular, fascinating branch of historical fiction devoted to probing the inner depths of individuals so legendary and strange that they border on myths. Such tales can take on all the verisimilitude and tactile detail of more straightforward historical fiction, while also saying something new about the time period depicted and the strange, myriad ways to be human. A.K. Blakemore proves that she is exactly the kind of great storyteller required to pull that off in this tale about one of Revolutionary France’s most puzzling and frightening figures. The Glutton (Scribner, $28, 9781668030622) is the story of Tarare, a young man who became a legend across France in the late 18th century for his seemingly bottomless appetite. Long a fixation for those interested in medical oddities, Tarare’s life is both dark folklore and a documented case of a man who could, and would,

she eavesdropped on her white half-sisters’ lessons about Dante’s Divine Comedy. Now, Annis recognizes her own descent through the circles of hell. Let Us Descend is infused with the supernatural. Spirits approach Annis on her journey, offering protection and oblivion. Astute and intuitive, Annis steels herself against temptation, grounding herself in memories of her mother. The theme of mothering extends to the care Annis offers to and receives from the girls and women around her, which allows the characters to maintain their dignity and assert their humanity. These interactions are a balm not only to Annis but also to the reader. Ward constantly reminds us that oppressed people retain “soft parts” that the evils of slavery can never truly touch.

eat just about anything. Using contemporary medical accounts of Tarare’s life and condition as a guide, Blakemore picks up this odd man’s story and attempts to chart his journey to gluttony from his impoverished childhood to his days as a street performer to, finally, his death in a hospital bed, overseen by nuns who were both horrified and fascinated by his plight. Right away, Blakemore walks a fine, brilliant narrative line, establishing Tarare’s infamy in his lifetime, then moving forward with a story that’s simultaneously sympathetic to the character and unflinching in its depiction of how far he’s willing to go in an attempt to sate himself. Though he comes into the world as a sweet, curious boy, he will eventually devour refuse, rotting flesh and even living flesh. What forces transform Tarare, and what do they say about the society into which he was born? Blakemore examines these questions while drawing readers deep into the entertaining, propulsive story at the book’s core. The great gift of this novel is that Blakemore somehow never loses sight of the warm, thrumming humanity that is Tarare. He’s a man, he’s a monster, he’s a frightened boy and he’s a living myth. All of these aspects live through Blakemore’s lyrical, sweeping prose, making The Glutton a stunning, mesmeric novel of uncommon power. —Matthew Jackson

Though Annis seldom speaks and her dialogue often consists of single, short sentences, her thoughts sing with Ward’s signature lyricism. Ward’s choices of first-person point of view and present tense anchor us in Annis’ imagination. The narrator pictures her mother’s eyes “shriveled to pale raisins”; the ropes that bind her are “abrasive as a cat’s tongue on my open wrists”; a dying man is “a tunneling worm, shifting the earth above him.” These vivid observations and poetic interpretations express her resistance against bondage, her abiding understanding of beauty and her will to survive. We sometimes forget that the descent in Dante’s Divine Comedy is a journey toward God. Ward’s portrayal of slavery is the profound manifestation of that possibility. —Erica Ciccarone

A Grandmother Begins the Story By Michelle Porter

Family Saga Métis author Michelle Porter weaves an intricate story out of sparse, interlocking poetic fragments in her fiction debut. Her expertise as a poet and writer of nonfiction is on full display in this genre-blending book, which is deeply rooted in Métis storytelling, matrilineal knowledge and spirituality. The story follows several generations of Métis women as they face turning points in their lives. Geneviéve (Gee), in her 80s, has checked herself into rehab for drinking. Gee’s 20-something great-granddaughter, Carter, adopted by a white family, meets her grandmother Lucie for the first time when she requests Carter’s assistance in her decision to die by suicide. Carter’s estranged birth mother, Allie, attempts reconciliation, often through texts. Meanwhile, Gee’s sister Velma has recently died and is trying to make peace with her life from the spirit realm.

reviews | fiction The novel also charts the life of a young bison, Dee, whose herd’s ancestral territory is now crisscrossed with fences that force the bison to adjust to human constraints. Dee’s chapters are some of the most poignant in the book—she longs for freedom and adventure even as she learns that her survival is bound up with that of her herd. Chapters from the perspectives of bison grandmothers, Gee’s dogs and the grassland itself add to a rich mix of human and nonhuman voices. In contrast to Carter’s wry and resigned narration, Dee’s voice bursts with unconstrained joy and heartache. Gee is constantly cracking jokes, her sister in the spirit world speaks with a melancholy longing, and the texts from Carter’s mother are clipped and full of simmering regret and pain. A Grandmother Begins the Story (Algonquin, $28, 9781643755182) is a beautiful meditation on the interconnectedness of spirit, land and family. It’s about what gets passed down from mothers to daughters, and what doesn’t. It’s about the stories that persist through generations—sometimes hidden, but always present—and what happens when those stories break open into new shapes. —Laura Sackton

The House of Doors By Tan Twan Eng

Historical Fiction Tan Twan Eng’s third novel, which was longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize, is set in the early 1920s, when the British writer William Somerset Maugham and his secretary (and lover) Gerald Haxton visit Penang, Malaysia, as the guests of Lesley and Robert Hamlyn. Part of Penang’s European elite, Lesley and Robert live a comfortable, privileged life although their marriage is no longer as intimate as it once was and Lesley suspects Robert of having an affair. Over the course of his visit, Lesley shares her concerns with “Willie” and mentions that she was once close to the revolutionary leader Sun Yat Sen, who fundraised in Penang. Lesley was also a friend of Ethel Proudlock, whose murder trial in Kuala Lumpur sent shock waves through the British expat population. These details provided the seeds for several of Maugham’s future works, most notably “The Letter,” a story from his 1926 collection The Casuarina Tree. The House of Doors (Bloomsbury, $28.99, 9781639731930) alternates between Lesley’s and Willie’s perspectives as Lesley unburdens herself to Willie, disclosing her fears of her husband’s infidelity and her involvement in Sun’s movement. Willie draws inspiration for his stories

from Lesley and other locals, while hoping to dig himself out of a financial hole and worrying that Gerald will leave him now that money is scarce. Tan’s choice to tell the story from the view of the colonizing class highlights his characters’ limitations and blind spots. Many of the characters are living double lives; Willie hides his homosexuality, and Lesley too keeps an intimate relationship secret. Perhaps this is why, for a novel about desire and revolutionary politics, the tone of The House of Doors is surprisingly cool: The moral complexities of a colonial society are hidden behind a veneer of restraint and manners. Tan’s eye for detail and understated storytelling bring a subtle edge to this thoughtful, atypical historical novel that searches for the emotional truth behind the facts. —Lauren Bufferd

Baumgartner By Paul Auster

Literary Fiction Ten years after his wife’s death, an elderly man reflects on the life he has lived and his designs for the future in this inspiring and sensitive portrayal of the complexities of getting older. Philosophy professor Seymour (Sy) Baumgartner has much to ponder at 71. Each accident or encounter in his life sparks not only the remembrance of things and people past, but sometimes new visions and goals, such as moving forward in love, possibly with his UPS delivery person and secret crush, Molly, or finally publishing his late wife Anna’s collection of writing. Author Paul Auster quickly establishes themes of aging, isolation, connection and the power of memories. As Baumgartner (Atlantic Monthly, $27, 9780802161444) opens, Sy is on his way downstairs to find a book when he remembers that he promised to call his sister, but both tasks are diverted by a forgotten pot of water on the stove. Hurriedly removing it, Sy burns his hand, and he’s barely taken care of the burn when a man from the electric company calls to say that he will be late for an appointment Sy doesn’t even recall making. Between Sy’s surprise at kindness from a stranger, his sense of detachment from his body, his imaginary conversations with his beloved Anna, and his recollections of his parents’ lives and their own senses of inefficacy, Auster creates a bittersweet emotional landscape combining sadness and insecurity with joy and inspiration. Auster’s narrative and observations are lucid, pithy and moving, and even some of his clichés

ring true: “To live is to feel pain,” Sy declares, “and to live in fear of pain is to refuse to live.” Nuanced, compassionate and simply eloquent, Baumgartner is a stirring portrait of a man trying to adapt to his aging body and mind. —Maya Fleischmann

H The Future

By Naomi Alderman

Dystopian Fiction In 2016, Naomi Alderman’s novel The Power, a radical vision of what could happen if women became the physically dominant sex, offered transformative ideas about gender and supremacy. Now, Alderman offers readers a plausible world-to-come in The Future (Simon & Schuster, $28.99, 9781668025680), a daring, sexy, thrilling novel that may be the most wryly funny book about the end of civilization you’ll ever read. As a teenager, Martha Einkorn left her father’s back-to-nature cult on the Northwest coast to become the personal assistant to a powerful social media entrepreneur. Lai Zhen survived the destruction of Hong Kong and a year in a refugee camp to become a survivalist influencer. When these two women meet, the attraction is immediate, but their romance is put on hold as news reports stream in of an impending apocalypse. The Future is awash with tech billionaires, preppers and an anxious, easily swayed population. It follows executives Lenk Sketlish, founder of the social network Fantail; Zimri Nommik, who runs the largest online retailer, Anvil; and Ellen Bywater, who heads Medlar, a leading PC company. These powerful techies have spared no expense to create private safe havens and are ready to leave the rest of the world to destruction. The billionaires’ plan is thwarted by a band of rebels led by Martha and Zhen, including Ellen’s nonbinary child Badger Bywater and Zimri’s soon-to-be ex-wife, Selah Nommik, who also happens to be a genius coder. With their combined expertise and shared conviction of bettering our world rather than manipulating it for their own ends, this group may just save civilization. That Alderman keeps the plot moving forward despite constant shifts in perspective and time is a testament to her creative skills as a writer and a game developer. The novel never slides into parody, despite the rather clever parallels to some real-life billionaires and tech leaders. Clearly, Alderman cares deeply about our future and believes we already have the skills to coursecorrect. By the end of the novel, you might too. —Lauren Bufferd

reviews | fiction Straw Dogs of the Universe By Ye Chun

Historical Fiction Ye Chun’s ambitious first novel, Straw Dogs of the Universe (Catapult, $27, 9781646220625) presents a concise dramatization of the history of early Chinese immigration to the American West. Many of us know the outlines of this era, which began with the importation of Chinese labor for the construction of the transcontinental railroad and ended with the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, the first law to restrict immigration to the U.S. based on race or ethnicity. Using a relatively small number of characters, Chun personalizes both the fear and despair that pervaded the lives of so many of these immigrants, and the fortitude, hope and love that they cultivated anyway. The central quest of the novel is for Sixiang to find her father, Guifeng, whom she has never met. Sixiang is 10 years old when her village in Guangdong, China, is destroyed by a flood and subsequent famine. She holds faith in her ability to survive even after her mother trades her for food and money to a trafficker who transports her to “Gold Mountain,” a Chinese name for the western U.S. in the period during and after the California Gold Rush. Too young for prostitution, she is sold as a house servant, then taken in by missionaries. After escaping the mission and sheltering with a man who knew her father while working on the railroad, Sixiang begins the journey that takes her into the Sierra Nevada near Truckee, California. In alternate chapters, we learn about the life of Sixiang’s father, Guifeng. Tantalized by his own father’s dream of Gold Mountain, he leaves home and contracts with a railroad building team. On his first and only day in San Francisco, he sees a woman from his village he had loved from afar as a boy, Feiyan, who has been enslaved as a prostitute. Although he is sent the following day to a work site in the Sierra, he continues to obsess over Feiyan, eventually returning to help her escape and later starting a second family with her. But his new life falters when he becomes addicted to opium. At each juncture of her story, Chun examines both large-scale injustices—Chinese people murdered and their white killers released—and smaller humiliations—a temporary employer finds Sixiang’s name too hard to say and instead calls her “Cindy.” The novel culminates with the expulsion of Chinese immigrants from Truckee, once the second largest Chinatown in the U.S.

It is a time of shock and terror, but for this novel’s protagonists, also a time of adaptation and endurance. —Alden Mudge

H Tremor

By Teju Cole

Literary Fiction Most people eventually think about permanence—how one could live on after inevitable death. Some are drawn to photography for what has been, until recently, incontrovertible proof of what once existed. But attempts to secure a permanent place in history are often complicated by changes in technology, the prejudices of others, or, in the case of art, the purloining of treasured works. Conflicts like these animate Teju Cole’s dazzling novel of ideas Tremor (Random House, $28, 9780812997118), his first novel since 2011’s Open City. Fans of Cole’s work know he is a photographer as well as a writer. His moving, introspective 2017 book of images, Blind Spot, features photos from his worldwide travels. Cole draws from those experiences in Tremor, in which Tunde, the protagonist who, like Cole, is a Harvard professor raised in Nigeria, perpetually examines the tensions of life as a Black man in a white-dominated country where he is never seen as belonging anywhere. Tremor is split into eight exploratory chapters in which Cole addresses injustices both personal and global. During a talk Tunde gives at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, which forms the fifth chapter, he describes the circumstances under which many of their paintings and plaques came into their possession, from the Nazis’ cultural genocide to Britain’s 18-day massacre in Benin in 1897 that led to the expropriation of 4,000 artworks. He ends with “a plea to take restitution seriously, a plea to reimagine the future of the museum.” In a brilliant extended sequence in the sixth chapter, Cole includes the first-person perspectives of numerous people Tunde interviews during a trip to Nigeria to depict the complexities and struggles of life in that country. Other sections address colonialism and the reluctance of many in the United States to “change their essential faith in American superiority.” Hanging over these discussions is the specter of impending death. A Harvard colleague is diagnosed with colon cancer, and Tunde fears, even in his 40s, signs of his own inevitable decline. A lesser writer would have turned this into a depressing jeremiad, but Cole makes it a thrilling and important work. During Tunde’s Nigeria

visit, one interviewee says, “We have to know how to forget the past in order to make progress into the future.” As Tunde does in his talk, Tremor issues a plea to reimagine the future for the betterment of humanity. —Michael Magras

A Nearby Country Called Love By Salar Abdoh

Literary Fiction What is a man? And, still more important, what is love? These are the questions posed by Salar Abdoh’s latest novel, A Nearby Country Called Love (Viking, $28, 9780593653906). Manhood and the search for love bedevil Abdoh’s dispirited protagonist, Issa. Deported from the United States after years working a deadening hotel job, Issa has returned to his childhood neighborhood in Tehran, Iran. He never knew his mother, and his artistic gay brother died young of AIDS, followed quickly by his macho father. Though Issa loved them, he struggled to understand his brother, and his father’s determination to make real men out of both of them was damaging. Even after his father’s passing, a culture of crushing patriarchy overshadows Issa’s life: The novel opens with Issa and his friend Nasser ineffectively attempting to avenge a woman who found her husband so intolerable that she burned herself to death. Into this violent, hypermasculine society, Abdoh introduces characters who quietly insist on being themselves, allowing Issa to see different, less rigid ways of being. They include Mehran, the gay man who becomes tough guy Nasser’s improbable lover; Mehran’s roommate Ramin, a trans man; and Babacar, a Senegalese man who’s always late for prayers but wants to become a Shia cleric. There’s also Issa’s formidable Turkish stepmother (who has a man’s name) and her equally formidable daughter, a doctor whose estranged husband torments her until he learns not to. Then, there’s Hayat, the young woman whose poetry Issa fell so in love with that he sojourned to Lebanon to meet her, not even knowing her real name. When Issa and Hayat finally meet, she’s . . . not what he imagined. More trouble ensues. But Issa, a supremely loving, compassionate and accepting spirit (his very name means Jesus) fails to understand that he is already surrounded by the love he seeks. In Abdoh’s sad, hilarious, big-hearted book, the nearby country called love is the very place where Issa stands. —Arlene McKanic

reviews | nonfiction

H The Dictionary People By Sarah Ogilvie

History While there have always been avid crossword puzzle devotees among us, one recent trend that seems destined to continue is the growing popularity of word games. Whether it’s Wordle, Spelling Bee or Blossom, families and friends are finding daily enjoyment (and, yes, frustration) in learning new words. That’s the exact audience that will be delighted to discover The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary (Knopf, $30, 9780593536407), Sarah Ogilvie’s captivating, enchanting history. The story of how Ogilvie—a linguist, writer and lexicographer—found her way to this project is almost as fascinating as the history itself. She begins, “It was in a hidden corner of the Oxford University Press basement, where

H Flight of the WASP By Michael Gross

Cultural History There are WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants), the demographic that dominated American culture well into the 20th century, and there are WASPs, the subset of the demographic that the late political columnist Joseph W. Alsop labeled the “WASP Ascendancy.” These were the Americans who, Michael Gross writes in his delightfully provocative new book, formed “a hereditary oligarchic upper class” for most of our history. This ruling class, Gross admits, was not a monolith. But despite internal disputes, it ran the government and economy and defined the culture of the American experiment for 350 years. Now WASP power is in eclipse. That’s not a completely bad thing, Gross says, because in addition to founding the Republic and enshrining lofty ideals, WASPs enslaved some, excluded others, fattened their wallets and jealously guarded their privileges. He writes that the presidency of Donald Trump “represented the clan’s nadir—a repudiation of the tattered remains of WASP virtue.” Still, Gross wonders if today, “a selfish, narcissistic, tribal, atomized

the Dictionary’s archive is stored, that I opened a dusty box and came across a small black book tied with cream ribbon.” It was an address book, the names penned in the hand of James Murray, the longest-serving editor of the Oxford English Dictionary from 1879 until his death in 1915. Murray, a father of 11, moved to Oxford in 1884 to work on the dictionary. For years he used a dank iron shed, nicknamed the Scriptorium, as an office. Murray and his assistants sometimes wrapped their legs in newspapers to stay warm. Ogilvie compares the monumental task of compiling the dictionary to a modern crowdsourcing project. The editor issued a global call for contributions, reaching out through newspapers, journals, clubs and schools. The result, Ogilvie tells us, “was massive,” requiring the installation of

nation might still look to WASPs for a restorative example of America’s civic conscience.” This is the argument of Flight of the WASP: The Rise, Fall, and Future of America’s Original Ruling Class (Atlantic Monthly, $30, 9780802161864). The theory—though absorbing and debatable—isn’t the star of the show. The book’s real delight lies in its brisk biographies of the people who illustrate the ascent and descent of WASP hegemony. Gross begins with the Pilgrim leader William Bradford, who helped establish the New England theocracy that eventually gave rise to the ideals and practices of American self-government. A marvelous chapter spotlights the too-little appreciated Gouverneur Morris, often called “Penman of the Constitution.” Gross also describes less savory figures like John Randolph of Virginia, a virulent advocate for slavery who infamously caned an opponent on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Henry Fairfield Osborn, an esteemed paleontologist and longtime head of the American Museum of Natural History—and, alas, co-founder of the wildly racist American Eugenics Society. Gross’ previous works uncover the secrets of the world’s elite. Here, his choices of biographical subjects are unexpected, even idiosyncratic. They will convince many readers of his overall argument, or send them on to further reading. Well-researched and well-written, Gross’ portrait gallery will, if nothing else, illuminate the odd corners of the lives of our nation’s elite and American history itself. —Alden Mudge

a special mailbox outside of Murray’s home. More than 3,000 contributors, primarily volunteers, mailed slips to the editor providing examples of how certain words were used, giving particular attention to rare, new or peculiar words. Ogilvie fondly refers to these volunteers as “the Dictionary People,” and set out to discover more about them. Her research uncovered “not one but three murderers,” along with suffragists, vicars, inventors, novelists, a collector of pornography and Karl Marx’s daughter. Through their devotion and love of language, the unsung heroes of the Oxford English Dictionary have helped us understand our world better. Ogilvie’s passion for the Dictionary People is palpable and contagious, making this book a sheer delight. —Deborah Hopkinson

Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant By Curtis Chin

Memoir The titular eatery in Curtis Chin’s charming and contemplative debut memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant (Little, Brown, $30, 9780316507653), is Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine, which Chin’s great-grandfather opened in 1940. Until its closure in 2000, the restaurant was a beloved fixture of Detroit’s former Chinatown. Even as the city’s fortunes shifted and changed, Chung’s persevered as a place to get delicious food, play a rousing game of mahjong and mingle with people from all walks of life. With a straightforward writing style and appealingly conversational tone, Chin leads readers through the early years of his life, beginning with “Appetizers and Soups” and ending with “The Fortune Cookie.” After all, he writes, “The important lessons that guided me through my childhood came served like a big Chinese banquet . . . a chorus of sweet and sour, salty and savory, sugary and spicy flavors that counseled me toward a well-led, and well-fed, life.”

reviews | nonfiction Achieving that well-fed life was initially challenging, thanks to Chin’s feeling that he didn’t fit in anywhere: at home as the middle child of six; at the restaurant, where he felt overlooked amid the high-energy hustle-bustle; and at school, where he contended with racism. And for many years, he was hesitant to come out, noting, “No one in my family ever said anything anti-gay . . . but no one said anything positive about being gay either.” Readers will root for the author as he moves along his journey of self-acceptance, which was, he notes with dryly humorous empathy for his former self, not without missteps: His eighth grade New Year’s resolution was “not to be gay,” and in high school, he “became the Asian Alex P. Keaton” to show that he was “as apple pie as anyone.” Ultimately, Chin finds a community of kindred spirits who help him assert his identity as a liberal gay man, discover his writerly talents and gain new perspective about his parents and the family business. His memoir is an engrossing chronicle of a city, a restaurant, a family and a boy’s path from anxious uncertainty to hard-won confidence. —Linda M. Castellitto

H The Life and Times of

Hannah Crafts

By Gregg Hecimovich

History The written narratives of enslaved people offer a window into circumstances that are, to most of us, unimaginable. These vital documents immortalize the names of their authors. But one woman wrote anonymously, perhaps trusting history to keep her secret until it was safe for her identity to be revealed. In The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman’s Narrative (Ecco, $40, 9780062334732), Gregg Hecimovich sets out to find the woman who wrote The Bondwoman’s Narrative, an unpublished manuscript bought at auction by renowned scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in 2001. Hecimovich relies on the scholarship of Gates and others to celebrate the life and work of the first Black female novelist, Hannah Bond—more than a century after her death. Scholars have suggested other candidates to fit the bondwoman’s identity—women who walked similar paths from slavery to freedom in the antebellum South. Yet Hecimovich successfully braids together the fictitious details of the novel’s protagonist with Bond’s autobiography,

leaving little doubt about the truth. Thanks to his deep research, the titular bondwoman comes vividly to life. As a “domestic servant,” Bond was at the mercy of her enslavers, who sexually abused her and cruelly severed her family ties. Bond lost her mother and her child, but she held onto her hunger to learn and become literate. Bond escaped around 1857, likely with the help of the Underground Railroad and its many agents— and she made it safely to a New York Quaker farmer whose name, Craft, she honored by adopting as her own. Hannah Crafts dared to celebrate her freedom by exposing her enslavers with the use of their real names in her book, but she did not seek publication. Instead, she created a new narrative, and embraced freedom for the rest of her long life. —Priscilla Kipp

HI Must Be Dreaming By Roz Chast

Memoir New Yorker contributor Roz Chast is among America’s favorite cartoonists, especially since publishing her acclaimed 2016 memoir about her parents’ decline and death, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? As she notes in I Must Be Dreaming (Bloomsbury, $27.99, 9781620403228), her dream consciousness is “sometimes irritatingly similar” to her waking consciousness. Cartooning, she says, “sometimes feels dreamish”—a comment paired with a scene of herself at her drawing board, “staring slack-jawed at a blank piece of paper,” trying to come up with an idea. Chast dedicates the book to the “Dream District of our brains, that weird and uncolonized area where anything can happen, from the sublime to the mundane to the ridiculous to the off-the-charts bats.” I Must Be Dreaming is, of course, personal, but lighthearted and selfdeprecating in Chast’s trademark, inimitable style. She illustrates and describes numerous dreams, such as being shirtless on a bus (“No one cares”); living with a sharp-toothed, homicidal baby (“A SWAT team had to be called in”); and her mother somehow owning O.J. Simpson’s famous glove (“That glove belongs in a SAFETY DEPOSIT BOX!”). Chast is a genius at mining her life for bits she can exaggerate into comedic gold, expertly portraying relatable emotions to her reader. She begins by noting recurring dreams and themes (tooth issues, being pregnant and old) and uses chapters to categorize them

(celebrity dreams, nightmares, body horror). She summarizes her own beliefs about dream science into one of her signature pie charts, noting, “To me, a book without a pie chart is hardly a book at all.” I Must Be Dreaming takes Chast’s legion of fans on yet another uproarious, touching and zany ride. If only Chast could illustrate and explain everything, the world would be a much happier, funnier place. —Alice Cary

Einstein in Time and Space By Samuel Graydon

Biography Albert Einstein is the best known scientist of the 20th century. As Samuel Graydon explains in his insightful Einstein in Time and Space: A Life in 99 Particles (Scribner, $30, 9781982185107), “Einstein’s fame can get in the way of an objective assessment of his life . . . so it’s easy to fail to see what an astounding life Einstein did actually live.” Describing his book as “a mosaic biography,” Graydon reveals Einstein’s complex personal life and intense public life within the context of his time. Graydon writes that “Einstein’s finest work was all produced before he was famous, and for much of his early life he was a reasonably obscure figure. It took him nine years to secure an assistant professorship, and even then he wasn’t first choice for the job.” Both because of differences in opinion about scientific approaches and antiSemitic prejudice against him, Einstein did not receive the Nobel Prize until 1922, and not for his famous work on the general theory of relativity, but for his discovery of the modern understanding of light as a particle. Einstein was a nonconformist, indifferent to the opinions of others about him and awards he received. A lifelong pacifist, he was passionate about opposing social injustice and taking moral responsibility for events in the world. But he was also realistic. As Hitler gained power in Germany, Einstein understood the necessity of opposing him with military force. Einstein’s social activism led to accusations that he was a communist, frequently taking on the tone of “gossipy slander.” The FBI kept tabs on him for 20 years, and his file runs to 1,400 pages. Despite these rumors, Einstein lent his name to various causes that worked for a fairer and more peaceful world. Graydon’s discussion of Einstein’s work is approachable for those of us who have limited scientific literacy. This engaging account of a legendary figure should be of interest to many. —Roger Bishop

reviews | young adult

H The Space Between Here & Now By Sarah Suk

Fantasy Sensory Time Warp Syndrome (STWS) has plagued Aimee Roh since she was a young girl. This enigmatic condition makes her physically travel back in time to moments from her past that are connected to certain smells. Her episodes are typically short and sporadic, but they have increased in frequency lately. Then, one lasts an unprecedented nine hours and raises new questions concerning her estranged mom, who left when Aimee was 6. Defying her distant dad, who won’t give her answers, Aimee makes her way from Vancouver to South Korea—where her parents met—to investigate. Aimee’s first-person narration is augmented with journal entries, forum threads and text messages scattered throughout The Space Between Here & Now (Quill Tree, $19.99, 9780063255135). These honest, firsthand

What the River Knows By Isabel Ibañez

Fantasy All Inez Olivera wants is to be with her parents in Egypt, where they work as archaeologists with her Tío Ricardo for half of every year, but they have expressly forbidden her from coming along. From her family’s manor in Argentina, Inez waits hopefully for her parents to finally send an invitation to join their latest expedition. Instead, in August 1884, a courier arrives with the news that her parents disappeared in the desert without a trace and are now presumed dead. Having just turned 19 and inherited both her family’s fortune and Tío Ricardo as a guardian, Inez immediately books passage to Egypt to find out what happened to her parents, who would have known better than to venture alone into the desert without adequate preparations. She carries with her the enigmatic last gift she received from her father: a gold ring bearing ancient magic. Inez is frustrated when Tío Ricardo’s young English assistant, Whit Hayes, meets her at the

glimpses of Aimee’s life allow the novel’s portrayal of interpersonal disconnection and heartbreak to shine. Instead of centering the magic of the syndrome, author Sarah Suk (Made in Korea) anchors the uncanny concept of STWS in the harsh reality of living with an incurable chronic condition. Aimee feels isolated and abnormal because of her STWS. Her curiosity and impulsiveness drive her desire to find out more about her condition and connect with other people with STWS via online forums and in-person meetups. “I don’t want to live afraid of everything,” she says. On the other hand, her Appa insists STWS is just a “phase,” clinging to the fact that a doctor once reassured him that many people “grow out of it.” Appa withdraws from Aimee’s cries for help and rarely reveals

his own emotions as he struggles with the complexities of being a young single father trying to protect his child from a difficult condition. As they grapple with realistic issues and personal flaws, both characters eventually grow in ways that feel true to life. Readers will cheer for them all the way through their journey towards reconciliation and the realization that curing STWS is not the only path to happiness. The Space Between Here & Now is an intriguing mix of fantasy and realism that lures readers in with the promise of magic and keeps them engaged with emotionally resonant themes. If you’re looking for a fun, mature coming-of-age story rooted in nuanced emotions and relationships, this book is for you. —Tami Orendain

dock with orders from Ricardo to put her on the steamship heading right back to Argentina. Refusing to leave without answers, Inez evades Whit and decides to begin her own investigation. Tío Ricardo is hiding something, and the answers can only be found along one path: down the glittering Nile, into the desert.

British bombing of Alexandria. During an early encounter with an antiquities officer for the Egyptian Museum, Inez thinks, “What grated against my skin was this man’s . . . supercilious tone through which he viewed Egypt. A country whose raw materials and resources were his for the taking.” Ibañez offers a nuanced look at the complex dichotomies of archaeology and the handling of antiquities: academic conservation and curation vs. theft and appropriation of cultural legacy. These thoughtful explorations are balanced with fun. Fans of the enemies-to-lovers trope will relish Inez and Whit’s banter and growing flirtation, while readers who spent their childhoods poring over kids’ encyclopedias about ancient Egypt will find themselves captivated by the vibrant setting. Though the novel’s lengthy exposition is generously sprinkled with compelling depictions of magic and late 19th-century Cairo, readers may find themselves losing steam through the first section. That said, once Inez and crew begin their journey down the Nile, the plot is captivating and full of intrigue, making great use of a clear influence: Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. What the River Knows is dense and may take some time to build investment, but for fans of atmospheric historical mysteries tinged with magic, Inez’s tale will be well worth the time. —Mariel Fechik

“Ibañez offers a nuanced look at the complex dichotomies of archaeology and the handling of antiquities.” In the vein of her other historical fantasies—which include Woven in Moonlight and Together We Burn—author Isabel Ibañez delivers yet another lush, layered adventure. Her fourth young adult novel, What the River Knows (Wednesday, $20, 9781250803375), plays with the magic of ancient Egypt while delivering a multilayered commentary on colonialism. Inez hails from a country that historically suffered under Spanish rule. In Egypt, she is repeatedly angered by the reminders of British imperialism surrounding her, such as the ubiquitous rubble that remains from the 1882

interview | renée watson

A gutsy girl in Portland

Renée Watson celebrates her hometown and leans into Black joy and achievement through her feisty heroine, Ryan Hart. When Renée Watson read her first Ramona Quimby book as a child, Piecing Me Together, which received a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott she was startled by where Beverly Cleary’s beloved heroine lived: Klickitat King Award). Street was just around the corner from Watson’s aunt’s home in Portland, Watson remembers that she loved reading about Ramona because Oregon. “I was so in awe that a char“she is not perfect and has flaws and acter in a book could live in my city can throw tantrums and feel all of her emotions. At the time, that just and in a neighborhood that I was very familiar with,” Watson remembers. “It felt so freeing because there weren’t was empowering. I didn’t know how to a lot of girl characters who could be as bold, feisty and human.” She articulate that as a child except to say, loosely based Ryan’s personality on ‘I know where she lives.’ ” From that moment on, whenever Watson visited that of her goddaughter, who is now her aunt, it became a running joke to 15—and also named Ryan Hart. “In say, “Ramona is your neighbor.” every book I write, the main charNow, as an adult writing for acter’s name is intentional,” Watson young people, Watson divides her notes. “I was just thinking of Ryan as time between Portland and New being a more traditional male name York. Ways to Build Dreams is the and was going to build off of it. But fourth and likely final installment then, as I looked into what her name in her middle grade series about means, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, it Ryan Hart, a lively, inquisitive Black is just so perfect.’ ” Ryan means “little king” in Gaelic, and that connotation girl who lives in Portland, just like Ramona Quimby. “I see the power in has become an anchor for every book. representation,” Watson says, speak“I wanted to make sure that I’m coning from her Harlem home. “We say stantly bringing the reader back to this that a lot when it comes to race, but I notion of living up to your name or to also think where people live and the what your loved ones wish for you,” names of places and the histories of Watson explains. places matter too.” While the character named Ryan is “The Ryan Hart series is in many an active kid who rides her bike and ways a love letter to Portland,” Watson gets in water balloon fights, Watson continues. “Portland is the perfect notes: “I was not that girl. If we were going to the park, I would be the one balance of city and nature, and I really who would bring my book with me or wanted to highlight that. I’ve done a my journal, and I would sit under the lot of work critiquing Portland and talking about some of its challenging, tree and write poems or read while my harmful issues, but there’s also so friends were playing. I was a quiet and much to love.” For instance, in Ways very creative child—very introspecto Build Dreams, Ryan and her famtive.” Still, Ryan’s family dynamics and adventures, while fictional, are ily take a day trip driving along the Columbia River, with stops at Latourell inspired by Watson’s own childhood. Falls and Vista House at Crown Point. During middle school, Watson Ways to Build Dreams was bused to a white school on the Ryan also attends Vernon Elementary, Bloomsbury, $17.99, 9781547610181 the school Watson attended in real other side of town, an experience she life. “I was trying to model the series described in a moving 1995 essay, Middle Grade “Black Like Me.” One day, her sevafter [Beverly Cleary] in that same way of actually naming real places in the city so that young people in enth grade science teacher chastised the class for failing a test on which Portland could have an anchor and really see their city represented.” (She Watson got an A, saying, “And this is why I am so disappointed in all of also features her hometown in several books for older readers, such as you. You let Renée Watson come all the way over here from northeast

Portland and get a better grade than you in science!” When Watson later pondered that painful moment, she wondered, “What if she had allowed space in her narrative for black children from northeast Portland to be capable of meeting high expectations, of achieving academic success? What if she really saw me?” Watson answers that question in many ways with the Ryan Hart books, filling them with moments of Black joy and achievement. Ways to Build Dreams begins with Ryan and her classmates working on a group history project about Beatrice Morrow Cannady, a community activist and educator, and the owner of Oregon’s largest Black newspaper—a story Watson had been wanting to explore for some time.

“I’m constantly trying to show young people in my books, ‘Hey, I see you and I know what you are capable of.’” While Watson enjoyed reading about Ramona Quimby, she saw more of a reflection of herself in the poetry of Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni and Gwendolyn Brooks: “Those poets raised me.” She adds that Sandra Cisneros’ novel The House on Mango Street (which is about a Latina girl growing up in Chicago) gave her “permission to write about home in the way that home was for me—a Black neighborhood, Black music, the food, all of that.” She adds, “I’m constantly trying to show young people in my books, ‘Hey, I see you and I know what you are capable of.’ ” Watson’s goal is to provide “a nuanced telling of the Black community.” With Ryan Hart, she “leans into the joy more so than the pain.” “So I do have these cultural moments, but they’re very much tied into these slices of the everydayness of being a Black girl in a city like Portland. . . . Because really, that was my childhood. Yes, there were hardships, but mostly there were family dinners and cookouts and neighbors looking out for me and teachers who loved me. We didn’t have a whole lot of money, but we had a whole lot of love.” Some of Watson’s favorite scenes occur when Ryan’s grandmother washes and fixes her hair. “In Black culture, it really is a big deal because there’s so much conversation around our hair,” she says. “I wanted to highlight different hairstyles throughout the series, and normalize her getting her hair done and the way in which we do it. Those times I remember as a child were so sacred because you’re spending a lot of time with that person. You have conversations that you might not have [when facing each other]. [These scenes] became such an anchor in each book, where that’s

really a breakthrough moment for Ryan. Usually, she’s telling Grandma about something that’s happening that’s not so great, and Grandma gives her some wisdom.” Watson has always known that the series would end with Ryan graduating from fifth grade, which she does in Ways to Build Dreams. Still, she can’t help being a little sad to have finished the final installment. Might we see Ryan again, perhaps in books focused on her siblings, Ray or Rose? “Oh, I’ve never thought about that,” Watson says. “That’s a very good thing to think about.” —Alice Cary

review | ways to build dreams Renée Watson’s Ryan Hart series demonstrates timeless, universal appeal while examining the worries of all sizes that loom large in its protagonist’s life. It proves Watson—recipient of both a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Award—to be a more-than-worthy successor to Beverly Cleary, creator of the beloved character Ramona Quimby. Ryan is a spirited Black girl in Portland, Oregon, trying to find her place in the world. Her parents and grandmother have always told her and her older brother, “You were put on this earth to do something.” In her fourth adventure, Ways to Build Dreams (Bloomsbury, $17.99, 9781547610181), a fifth-grade assignment on identifying dreams leads Ryan to worry, “Everyone has a big dream except me.”

Watson makes it easy for fans and newcomers alike to plunge into the story of Ryan and her family. Although the novel’s 20 short chapters move briskly along from January to the end of the school year, Watson expertly weaves many plot strands together and balances action with quiet moments of reflection. At school, Ryan completes a group history project about Beatrice Morrow Cannady, editor of Oregon’s largest Black newspaper, and frets about whether her own goals of being a chef and a good big sister to her baby sister, Rose, are too simple. As Ryan also spends time with her best friends, KiKi—who may go to a different middle school next year—and Amanda, the girls all realize they are growing up. In a spring outing to a tulip farm,

they grapple with whether they are too old to get their faces painted. Change is in the air throughout these pages, and Grandma tells Ryan she is “just thinking of all you’re becoming and what lies ahead for you.” The cast of supportive adults—Ryan’s parents, Grandma and Ryan’s excellent teacher— provide reassurance about dreams big and small. Similarly, Ryan, Rose and their older brother Ray’s sibling relationship is ultimately one of love and encouragement, even if it also includes friendly rivalry and teasing. Elementary school readers will not only be entertained but also readily identify with the sometimes overwhelming sense of change that Ryan faces. —Alice Cary

reviews | children’s

Down the Hole By Scott Slater Illustrated by Adam Ming

Picture Book Two master strategists go head to head— or nose to nose—in Down the Hole (Clarion, $19.99, 9780358683346), a wickedly funny picture book written by Scott Slater and illustrated by Adam Ming. As he’s done many times before, Fox positions himself at the edge of the meadow, above a hole in the ground, ready to make his move: “There were bunnies in that hole. Not as many as there used to be, of course, but there were still a few left. He was certain of that.” Pretending to look for help, Fox calls underground, and his yells are received with what seems at first like a friendly response. Rabbit is willing to help out poor old Fox, but he just needs a bit more information first. While Fox connives to lure Rabbit up to the surface, Rabbit puts his own plan into motion and masterfully

Lawrence & Sophia

By Doreen Cronin Illustrated by Brian Cronin

Picture Book Lawrence, a human with a fuzzy hat and wide eyes, prefers to remain in his own house and yard rather than facing the unfamiliar world beyond the fence. Likewise, Sophia, a frazzled bird, keeps to the trees, far above any perils below. A chance meeting leads to an instant friendship between the two that slowly pushes their self-imposed boundaries. Despite its more subdued tone, Lawrence & Sophia (Rocky Pond, $18.99, 9780593618301) maintains the wry humor of author Doreen Cronin’s popular Diary of a Worm and Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type. Well-chosen and frequently repeated words make the story a good choice for beginning readers while echoing Sophia and Lawrence’s black-and-white mindset. Their anxious characterizations of the world as “dangerous” or “loud” may resonate with young children and bring opportunities to discuss how our perceptions can differ from reality. The soft colors of Brian Cronin’s illustrations enhance the text’s warm atmosphere. His depictions of the characters’ expressions add layers

uses stalling tactics to get Fox exactly where he wants him. Clever dialogue, mounting suspense and humor combine to create a picture book that’s sure to leave young listeners on the edge of their seat. Careful observers will eventually be able to deduce Fox’s fate from a two-page spread that might prompt knowing squeals during what’s sure to be a raucous read-aloud. Adam Ming’s richly hued illustrations, digitally rendered but with hand-painted textures,

effectively impart the animal adversaries with winningly human facial expressions: raised eyebrows, worried grimaces and even a smirk or two. The action takes place above and below the earth’s surface—sometimes both at the same time—and rapidly changes in scale. A plethora of little details, especially concerning Rabbit and his accomplices, help maintain visual interest in one rabbit hole readers won’t mind falling down over and over again. —Norah Piehl

of sophistication and humor. Both bird and boy are frightened of shadowy figures that are drawn to be easily recognizable (a garter snake, the neighbor and his dog) by readers—making Lawrence & Sophia a safe story for bedtime. There is always room on the shelf for new stories about friendship and facing your fears. Lawrence & Sophia is a sweet, attractive and heartfelt addition. —Jill Lorenzini

In Colón’s artwork, the baby cannot be contained, and the food flies everywhere. Laughter or alarm appears on all the faces at the table, depending on who is next in the baby’s path. While it could benefit from more regularity with the “pass the baby” refrain, Pass the Baby possesses lovely verses and will be excellent for any child who loves to take time enjoying a book’s illustrations. The strong duo of Reich and Colón bring this diverse, riotous family meal to life and will have readers asking for seconds, please. —Lisa Bubert

Pass the Baby

By Susanna Reich Illustrated by Raúl Colón

Picture Book Pull up a chair at this joyful and very chaotic family dinner. Multiple generations are here for a meal filled with their favorite foods: enchiladas, ravioli, meatballs and guacamole. But everyone’s favorite part? Passing the baby! Passed around the table like a favorite dish, the baby is the rambunctious heart of Pass the Baby (Neal Porter, $18.99, 9780823450855). Young readers will love to join in on this picture book’s refrain, “Baby, baby, pass the baby!” While author Susanna Reich’s bouncing rhymes capture the ebullient joy of a large family meal, illustrator Raúl Colón performs the heavy lifting of bringing the story to life.

Star Stuff

By Rand Burkert Illustrated by Chris Raschka

Picture Book G i ova n n i a n d his trusty donkey, Lorenzo, have a very important job as Specialists of Sky Repair. Each night, they load “star stuff” in packs on Lorenzo’s back and set off into the night sky, “over the Moon and out past Mars,” looking for holes that need to be filled. When they find a dark spot, Lorenzo brays while Giovanni spreads the star stuff into the dark. The star stuff sticks, then grows and glows until it becomes a star!

reviews | children’s But as this lovable duo goes on their way, Lorenzo’s leg is caught in a nebula. Giovanni pulls and tugs, but Lorenzo doesn’t budge. Some unexpected allies answer Giovanni’s calls for help: Orion the Hunter, Cancer the Crab and Taurus the Bull. With their assistance, Giovanni and Lorenzo might just make it home in time to watch the “best star ever made”—the sun—rise. Writer and folk singer Rand Burkert (Mouse and Lion) and two-time Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka (The Hello, Goodbye Window; A Ball for Daisy) give life to this whimsical fable. The lyrical text evokes movement through Burkert’s meter and imagery, and the forms of rhyme vary throughout, making them unpredictable and exciting. Raschka’s playful illustrations pair perfectly with the text and bring a dreamlike quality to the story. His vibrant watercolors capture Lorenzo the donkey’s sweet personality and the cast’s fierce determination to free him from the nebula. Raschka brings the constellations to life with shades of blue and adds pops of yellow to show they are, in fact, made of the same star stuff the Specialists of Sky Repair are carrying. A fun read-aloud for any setting, Star Stuff (Michael di Capua, $19.99, 9780062858177) is sure to delight readers of all ages. While an interest in astronomy is not necessary to enjoy this picture book, Star Stuff can provide young readers with a lovely introduction to space, or it can simply serve as a lively tale of teamwork and determination. —Callie Ann Starkey

H Jawbreaker

By Christina Wyman

Middle Grade As Christina Wyman’s heartfelt and often heartbreakingly realistic Jawbreaker (FS G, $17.99, 9780374389697) opens, Maximillia (Max) Plink receives distressing news from her orthodontist : Max’s braces aren’t enough to prevent possible future double jaw surgery. It’s time to start wearing headgear known as “the jawbreaker” for 16 hours a day, giving seventh grader Max yet another thing to make her feel like an outsider. Despite this unwelcome fashion statement, Max perseveres. She’s used to trying to stay positive, because she’s already relentlessly bullied at school. The most enthusiastic participant in this cruelty is her own younger sister, Alex. Their parents routinely downplay Max’s concerns. Worried about finances, they’re having loud arguments more frequently than usual.

Thankfully, Max finds respite with her best friend Shrynn and as a writer for her school newspaper. When she learns of a journalism competition sponsored by their local Brooklyn news station, it sounds like the path to a happier future. But there’s a catch: A video essay is required for entry. “The thought of my face, my mouth, my teeth living online until the end of time makes me want to cry,” Max thinks. Wyman demonstrates an impressive ability to conjure up both the pain and delight of middle school with immediacy and empathy. An impassioned author’s note reveals that Wyman’s own background inspired this sometimes harrowing, but ultimately hopeful, story. “Sometimes finding joy takes a lot of work,” she notes. Reading Jawbreaker is an excellent and highly gratifying start. —Linda M. Castellitto

The Sky Over Rebecca By Matthew Fox

Middle Grade On a gloomy winter afternoon, a quiet and lonely 11-yearold named Kara Lukas notices a snow angel by the lake near the Stockholm apartment she shares with her busy mom. Something about it strikes her as strange: There are no footprints anywhere nearby. As she snaps a picture with her phone, Kara has the eerie sense someone is watching her. So begins Stockholmbased Matthew Fox’s evocative debut middle grade novel, The Sky Over Rebecca (Union Square, $16.99, 9781454951896), which won the 2019 Bath Children’s Novel Award as an unpublished manuscript. Kara’s investigations of her strange discovery lead her to find a girl named Rebecca and Rebecca’s younger brother, Samuel, who is unable to walk. The cold, hungry siblings are camping alone on the lake’s island, and Kara comes to realize the siblings are from a different time: 1944. They are Jewish refugees on the run from the Nazis, hoping to be rescued by a British plane that Rebecca believes will land on the frozen lake. As the dangers to Rebecca and Samuel in their own time intensify and her friendship with Rebecca builds, Kara musters up courage and decides to do all she can to save them—even if it means taking dangerous risks out on the ice. Fox’s spare yet lyrical prose is well-suited to The Sky Over Rebecca’s haunting, austere setting and atmosphere. The novel’s stylistic restraint and vividly drawn characters will

intrigue young readers and help them easily follow narrative shifts between the horrifying, wartorn past and the less deadly but still frightening present. The Sky Over Rebecca does not shy away from somber subjects, including death. Fox introduces the terror of persecution in an accessible manner for young readers who may be reading about the Holocaust for the first time. A poignant final twist leads to a resonant conclusion in this memorable first novel. —Deborah Hopkinson

H Nowhere Special By Matt Wallace

Middle Grade “A thin and scrawny thing,” Elpidia has been repeatedly attacked by her female cousins in a family feud that extends to the family’s youngest members. She lives with her Abuela in a trailer and helps out at Abuela’s cantina while dreaming of someday owning a food truck and escaping the barren Southern California desert. Her parents burned down their home and are in prison for drug-related convictions. Her classmate Stan—the only white kid in their sixth-grade class—is dealing with bullying as well, and is unable to protect himself against his father’s drunken rages. Stan’s mother and Elpidia’s grandmother independently decide to take their charges into the deep desert to learn self-defense from Charlie Ramos, a legendary local figure known as “El Escorpión” who teaches a style of Filipino fighting. Nowhere Special (Katherine Tegen, $18.99, 9780063254008) will engross readers from start to finish as its memorable characters struggle to escape a destructive cycle of violence. Before turning to writing, author Matt Wallace was a professional wrestler and instructor in unarmed combat and self-defense. He notes in a content advisory that the book addresses “heavy issues with very personal meanings to me.” Wallace excels at depicting realistic family scenarios, complex moral dilemmas, and good-hearted, but flawed, adults. Nowhere Special offers moments of hope and redemption amidst poverty and great tragedy. Although there are no tidy resolutions, Stan and Elpidia grow empowered and discover the salvation that close friendships can provide. Despite the seemingly insurmountable difficulty of their family and social situations, these protagonists’ dreams feel possible by the end of the book. —Alice Cary

Your Next Great Read

NOVEMBER 2023 #1

PICK

Bookshops & Bonedust By Travis Baldree

(Tor Books, 9781250886101, $17.99, Paperback, Nov. 7, Fantasy)

“This prequel to Legends & Lattes celebrates the magic of bookselling as Viv recovers from injury and recuperates a faltering little bookshop. Complete with in-universe bodice rippers, quiet romance, and more delicious baked goods!” —Miriasha Borsykowsky, Phoenix Books, Essex Junction, VT

The House of Doors: A Novel By Tan Twan Eng

(Bloomsbury Publishing, 9781639731930, $28.99, Oct. 17, Historical Fiction)

“A lovely historical novel set in a 1920s British colony in Penang. Somerset Maugham appears as a house guest who spins his friends’ lives into a tale for his book. There’s forbidden love, unhappy marriage —now I want to read Maugham’s work!” —Susan Taylor, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, NY

The Future: A Novel By Naomi Alderman

(Simon & Schuster, 9781668025680, $28.99, Nov. 7, Fiction)

“Gripping speculative fiction/CliFi. Naomi Alderman has a knack for crafting a future with enough detail to make it feel breathtakingly possible, but not overdrawn. When I finished, I wanted more time with these people and in this world.” —Liz Whitelam, Whitelam Books, Reading, MA

Let Us Descend: A Novel By Jesmyn Ward

(Scribner, 9781982104498, $28, Oct. 24, Fiction)

“Jesmyn Ward is one of the most important writers of our time. This may be her best to date. Heartbreaking and gorgeous, Annis carries us through her story of loss and brutal enslavement — a story of strength, love, enduring, and finding a way.” —Jeanne Costello, Maria’s Bookshop, Durango, CO

Day: A Novel

By Michael Cunningham (Random House, 9780399591341, $28, Nov. 14, Fiction)

“This story takes place on the same day, but during three consecutive years. A family — father, mother, mother’s brother, and two children — is breaking apart. Their nuanced, subtle interior lives are remarkably portrayed. This one is a gem.” —Jude Sales, Readers’ Books, Sonoma, CA

Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date By Ashley Herring Blake

(Berkley, 9780593550571, $18, Paperback, Oct. 24, Romance)

“A funny, hot queer romance that tackles real issues! Iris Kelly is happy without a relationship. So why won’t her friends and family stop trying to change her? When she meets adorably awkward Stevie Scott, fake dating leads to real feelings.” —Carol Schneck Varner, Schuler Books, Okemos, MI

The Madstone: A Novel

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year By Margaret Renkl

(Spiegel & Grau, 9781954118461, $32, Oct. 24, Memoir)

“Oh what a lovely world to live in — every night I looked forward to sinking in. Set up like a devotional following the seasons, Renkl brings hope to our chances to make a difference as climate news only gets worse. Gift yourself this treasure.” —Gee Gee Rosell, Buxton Village Books, Buxton, NC

System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries #8) By Martha Wells

(Tordotcom, 9781250826978, $21.99, Nov. 14, Science Fiction)

“I’m a bit of a Murderbot purist — All Systems Red made me reevaluate who I am, and that’s a tough act to follow. Here comes System Collapse hitting my trauma and making me Feel. Rude. Martha Wells taps in to the hardest parts of learning to be a person.” —Meg Wasmer, Copper Dog Books, Beverly, MA

By Elizabeth Crook

(Little, Brown and Company, 9780316564342, $29, Nov. 7, Fiction)

“A literary Western about a young mother, her son, and the man charged with getting them across Texas while fleeing vengeful outlaws. Beautifully written with great characters, this is sure to please fans of Paulette Jiles or Larry McMurtry.” —Cody Morrison, Square Books, Oxford, MS

The Berry Pickers: A Novel By Amanda Peters

(Catapult, 9781646221950, $27, Oct. 31, Fiction)

“A wonderful debut about a missing Indigenous child and the parallel lives of two families — from the loss that echoes through the lives of the berry pickers, to a rancid secret that erodes the other family. A tender, compelling novel.” —Keith Vient, Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC