February 1, 2020: Volume LXXXVIII, No 3

Featuring 404 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children's and YA books

KIRKUS VOL. LXXXVIII, NO.

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FEBRUARY

2020

REVIEWS

Douglas Stuart

How good luck—and great talent—produced his extraordinary debut, Shuggie Bain p. 14 Also in the issue: Emily Nemens, Sam Wasson, Tonya Bolden, Fred Aceves

from the editor’s desk:

Literary valentines B Y T O M

President & Publisher M A RC W I N K E L M A N

B EER

John

Paraskevas

Tom Beer

Chairman H E R B E RT S I M O N

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Sorry, but is there any holiday worse than Valentine’s Day? The saccharine cards, the ridiculous bouquets, the overabundance of candy? (OK, maybe the candy isn’t so bad.) If you’re coupled, there’s all that pressure to manufacture a romantic evening. If you’re single, well…you probably don’t feel like leaving the house.

But as I’ve watched the streaming series Modern Love in recent weeks—it’s based on the long-running series of essays about relationships in the New York Times, also collected in book form—I was reminded that love stories, when well told, offer unique windows on to human behavior and psychology. Of course, there’s the whole genre of romance fiction, and Kirkus romance correspondent Jennifer Prokop has already made a host of 2020 recommendations on our website.

As for me, here are some of my favorite literary novels, all published in recent years, that depict love in all its complicated glory:

Normal People by Sally Rooney (2019): Rooney’s second novel is the story of Marianne and Connell, two young people whom she follows from their adolescence in provincial western Ireland to university in Dublin. Their powerful connection— tested by personal growth and social circumstances—is scarily familiar and quietly heartbreaking. Kirkus’ reviewer praised the book for its “bravura intelligence, wit, and delicacy.”

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Children’s Editor VICKY SMITH vsmith@kirkus.com Young Adult Editor L AU R A S I M E O N lsimeon@kirkus.com

Associate Manager of Indie K AT E R I N A P A P P A S kpappas@kirkus.com Editorial Assistant JOHANNA ZWIRNER jzwirner@kirkus.com Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor G R E G O RY M c N A M E E Copy Editor BETSY JUDKINS Designer ALEX HEAD Director of Kirkus Editorial L AU R E N B A I L E Y lbailey@kirkus.com Production Editor C AT H E R I N E B R E S N E R cbresner@kirkus.com Website and Software Developer P E RC Y P E R E Z pperez@kirkus.com Advertising Director M O N I Q U E S T E N S RU D mstensrud@kirkus.com

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from the editor’s desk

Fiction Editor L AU R I E M U C H N I C K lmuchnick@kirkus.com

Indie Editor M Y R A F O R S B E RG mforsberg@kirkus.com

Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013): Many readers remember Adichie’s third novel for its whip-smart social commentary, delivered through the vehicle of one character’s blog about being an African among African Americans.

But even more powerful, for me, was the sweet and sad love story between Ifemulu and Obinze, natives of Lagos, Nigeria, who can’t find their way back to one another after landing in the United States and England, respectively. Kirkus deemed the novel “elegantly written” and “emotionally believable.”

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Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkus.com

Senior Indie Editor D AV I D R A P P drapp@kirkus.com

The Golden Age by Joan London (2016): This lovely novel from Australia depicts the tender relationship between teenagers Frank and Elsa, both residents at a children’s polio hospital outside Perth in the 1950s. Frank, who also discovers poetry while at the clinic, is a Jewish refugee from Hungary, and the novel evokes the powerful feeling both young people experience of being uprooted from life. Kirkus’ reviewer called it “cleareyed, generoushearted, never sentimental.”

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Vice President of Marketing SARAH KALINA skalina@kirkus.com

Vice President of Kirkus Indie KAREN SCHECHNER kschechner@kirkus.com

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (2017): I will never forget the love story of Nadia and Saeed, conducted under cover of night in an unnamed Middle Eastern City ruled by fundamentalists, in the grip of a civil war. Saeed sneaks into Nadia’s building disguised in a burka; together they smoke pot and listen to forbidden records.

Then they take a chance and seek asylum from their homeland—with devastating consequences. Kirkus called it “one of the most bittersweet love stories in modern memory and a book to savor even while despairing of its truths.”

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Editor -in- Chief TOM BEER tbeer@kirkus.com

Editor at Large MEGA N LABRISE mlabrise@kirkus.com

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor (2017): This wildly inventive novel tackles issues of gender, sexuality, and intimacy by making its protagonist a shape-shifting grad student in Iowa City in the mid-1990s. As Paul, they cruise hungrily and have lots of sex with gay men, but after transforming into Polly, they attend the Michigan Womyn’s Festival and fall hard for Diane, a vegan lesbian. Our reviewer called it a “magical, sexual, and hopeful debut novel about transcending boundaries of gender to pursue emotional connection.”

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contents fiction

The Kirkus Star is awarded to books of remarkable merit, as determined by the impartial editors of Kirkus.

INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS............................................................ 4 REVIEWS................................................................................................ 4 EDITOR’S NOTE..................................................................................... 6 ON THE COVER: DOUGLAS STUART................................................ 14 INTERVIEW: EMILY NEMENS............................................................ 24 MYSTERY.............................................................................................. 43 SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY.......................................................... 50 ROMANCE............................................................................................ 54

nonfiction

INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS.......................................................... 59 REVIEWS.............................................................................................. 59 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................... 60 INTERVIEW: SAM WASSON..............................................................74 INTERVIEW: P. CARL.......................................................................... 80

children’s

INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS.........................................................107 REVIEWS.............................................................................................107 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 108 INTERVIEW: HANNAH SALYER......................................................124 INTERVIEW: TONYA BOLDEN.........................................................128 EASTER & PASSOVER PICTURE BOOKS......................................... 153

young adult

INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS........................................................ 158 REVIEWS............................................................................................ 158 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 160 INTERVIEW: JULEAH DEL ROSARIO.............................................164 INTERVIEW: FRED ACEVES............................................................ 168

Sayantani DasGupta triumphantly concludes the adventures of Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond with a thoughtful, passionate, and funny trilogy closer. Read the review on p. 120.

indie

INDEX TO STARRED REVIEWS........................................................ 176 REVIEWS............................................................................................ 176 EDITOR’S NOTE................................................................................. 178 INTERVIEW: JUDITH MOFFETT...................................................... 184

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SEEN & HEARD..................................................................................198 APPRECIATIONS: THOMAS PYNCHON’S VINELAND.................. 199

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fiction AFTERLIFE

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Alvarez, Julia Algonquin (272 pp.) $25.95 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-64375-025-5

AFTERLIFE by Julia Alvarez................................................................ 4 GODSHOT by Chelsea Bieker.................................................................7 STARLING DAYS by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan..................................10

One of the best chroniclers of sisterhood returns with a funny, moving novel of loss and love.

This is the first novel in 15 years from Alvarez (How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, 1991, etc.), and she builds on one of her strengths, depicting the complex relationships among sisters. Her main character is Antonia Vega, who, as the story begins, is stunned with grief. A year before, she and her husband, Sam, were driving separately to a restaurant dinner near their Vermont home to celebrate her retirement when he suffered a fatal aneurysm.

Bereft of a beloved spouse and done with a rewarding career as a college professor and novelist, she’s adrift and “has withdrawn from every narrative, including the ones she makes up for sale.” Then need comes knocking in the form of an undocumented Mexican worker at her neighbor’s dairy farm. Antonia emigrated long ago from the Dominican Republic, and young Mario seeks her help (and translation skills) in reuniting with his fiancee, Estela, who is also undocumented and stranded in Colorado. Antonia is hesitant. Sam, a doctor who was widely beloved for his volunteer work and empathy, would have done all he could, she knows: “He was the bold one. She, the reluctant activist….” In the meantime, Antonia sets off to celebrate her 66th birthday with her three sisters. The two younger ones, Tilly and Mona, are as contentious and loving as ever, Tilly a font of oddly apropos malapropisms such as “That bitch was like a wolf in cheap clothing!” But all of them are worried about their oldest sister, Izzy, a retired therapist who recently has been behaving erratically. When her phone goes dead and she fails to arrive for the party, the other sisters swing into action. Izzy’s fate will take surprising turns, as will the relationship between Mario and Estela, as Antonia tries to figure out what she can do for all of them and for herself. Alvarez writes with knowing warmth about how well sisters know how to push on each other’s bruises and how powerfully they can lift each other up.

In this bighearted novel, family bonds heal a woman’s grief.

JOURNEY OF THE PHARAOHS by Clive Cussler & Graham Brown..................................................................................... 13 THE FACELESS OLD WOMAN WHO SECRETLY LIVES IN YOUR HOME by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor.............................................. 17 THE OTHER NAME by Jon Fosse; trans. by Damion Searls................. 17 NORTHERNMOST by Peter Geye.........................................................18 A SHADOW INTELLIGENCE by Oliver Harris..................................21 THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES

by Grady Hendrix.................................................................................21 ST. IVO by Joanna Hershon..................................................................21 THE UNSEEN by Roy Jacobsen; trans. by Don Bartlett & Don Shaw.............................................................................................27 SIMON THE FIDDLER by Paulette Jiles.............................................. 28 WHEN I HIT YOU by Meena Kandasamy............................................30 ABOVE US THE MILKY WAY by Fowzia Karimi...............................30 MARROW AND BONE by Walter Kempowski; trans. by Charlotte Collins.................................................................... 31 CODE NAME HÉLÈNE by Ariel Lawhon............................................32 HAMMER TO FALL by John Lawton...................................................32 THE LOVE STORY OF MISSY CARMICHAEL by Beth Morrey.......... 35 CROOKED RIVER by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child.................... 37 THE PRETTIEST STAR by A. Carter Sickels.......................................39 MAN OF MY TIME by Dalia Sofer...................................................... 40 THE KNOCKOUT QUEEN by Rufi Thorpe......................................... 40 HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD by C Pam Zhang...............43 THE POET KING by Ilana C. Myer...................................................... 53 THE HAPPY EVER AFTER PLAYLIST by Abby Jimenez.................... 55

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A STRANGE COUNTRY

foe, whose goal is domination through mass annihilation, but it requires Alejandro and Jesús to decamp to the elves’ world of mists. French author Barbery’s sequel to The Life of Elves (2016) is broken into three parts: “Alliances,” which encompasses Jesús’ and Alejandro’s origin stories; “Genesis,” which provides Petrus’ history; and “Ruin,” which details their joint campaign.

Barbery’s fondness for her characters—the bravely bumbling Petrus, in particular—suffuses the first two sections, lending them a fairy-tale air enhanced by the omniscient third-person narration. Shared bottles of wine and pots of tea facilitate philosophical conversation; at its best, “this is the story of a few souls who, in war, knew the peace of encounter.” Regrettably, come the book’s climax, Barbery abandons nearly all pretense of plot in favor of opaque imagery and florid prose.

What starts as an elegiac meditation on fellowship devolves into an incoherent fever dream.

Barbery, Muriel Trans. by Anderson, Alison Europa Editions (336 pp.) $18.00 paper | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-60945-585-9

Elves and humans unite to try to save their respective realms.

It’s 1938, and Europe has been at war for six years. Gen. Alejandro de Yepes and Maj. Jesús Rocamora are holed up inside Alejandro’s Extremadura castillo when three strange men appear inside the grand hall. One of them—a portly, affable redhead named Petrus—leads the other two to the wine cellar, where they proceed to get drunk. When Alejandro and Jesús follow, seeking answers, Petrus explains that he and his companions, Marcus and Paulus, are elves and that a fellow elf named Aelius is responsible for the conflicts plaguing both of their peoples. Petrus and company have a plan to defeat their mutual

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publishing’s shoulder season “a riveting, potentially redemptive story of modern American suburbia that reads almost like an ancient Greek tragedy.”

When I’m editing reviews, I often spend a lot of time with the novel under consideration, though of course I don’t have time to read the whole thing.

One of the books I’ve been most looking forward to getting back to is Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (Grove, Feb. 11), about an alcoholic woman raising three children (Shuggie is the youngest) in Glasgow in the 1980s. Our reviewer compares it to Trainspotting, and it also reminded me of a Roddy Doyle novel in the way it evokes a late-20th-century working-class childhood.

Our starred review says “You will never forget Shuggie Bain.

Scene by scene, this book is a masterpiece.” (Read an interview with Stuart on page 14.)

Jenny Offill fans, of which I am one, have been waiting six years for her follow-up to Dept. of Speculation, and it’s finally here. In Weather (Knopf, Feb. 11), we’re invited into the lively mind of a university librarian.

Our starred review says “The tension between mundane daily concerns and looming apocalypse, the ‘weather’ of our days both real and metaphorical, is perfectly captured in Offill’s brief, elegant paragraphs, filled with insight and humor. Offill is good company for the end of the world.” Sounds like perfect reading for the shortest month of the year. —L.M.

Welcome to February, an in-between month for publishing: It isn’t the fall season or the holiday season, and it’s not quite spring, either, and beach season is still way in the distance. (I haven’t even gotten galleys of this summer’s Elin Hilderbrand yet.) There are lots of great books coming out—I’ll get to those in a minute—but why not take some time during this short month of short days to read a long classic?

My husband is reading War and Peace—I recommend the Everyman’s Library edition, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, because it comes in three handy volumes— and I’m in the middle of E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, reading along with my son’s high school English class. Every day’s mail brings more books I can’t wait to read, but sometimes it helps to take a step back and remind myself that great books don’t have an expiration date.

When I’m ready to turn to February books, I’m planning to read The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa (Avon, Feb. 4), a romance about a Latina wedding planner who falls in love with her former fiance’s brother. If you’re a romance reader, you’ll have been following along as the Romance Writers of America imploded recently—the situation is changing so quickly it’s almost impossible to write about—and even if you’re not, I recommend checking out some of the stellar romances being written by writers of color, who have been at the forefront of the fight for a more inclusive RWA. Our starred review of Sosa’s book says “the plot is classic ‘enemies to lovers’ and is executed perfectly….A captivating love story about two people who bring out the best in each other both professionally and personally.”

After that you might try Therese Anne Fowler’s A Good Neighborhood (St. Martin’s, Feb. 4): “When the Whitmans, a nouveau riche white family, move into a sprawling, newly built house next door to Valerie AlstonHolt, a black professor of forestry and ecology, and her musically gifted, biracial 18-year-old son, Xavier, in a modest, diverse North Carolina neighborhood of cozy ranch houses on wooded lots, it is clear from the outset things will not end well.” Our starred review calls it 6

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Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor.

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GODSHOT

during the day and can’t seem to stay out of trouble with Pastor Vern. When Lacey’s mother is banished from the congregation and leaves town, Lacey must go live with her eccentric grandmother Cherry, an exuberant follower of the Gifts of the Spirit church. After Lacey is finally given a horrific assignment of her own, she is determined to find out where her mother has gone and what she knew about Pastor Vern’s unsavory plans for the town of Peaches. Bieker has written a debut that joins Emma Cline’s The Girls and R.O. Kwon’s The Incendiaries in exploring the uneasy intersection of repressive religious belief and burgeoning sexuality, but Bieker’s exploration of the way that poverty and environmental ravishment also add to the subjugation of the female body adds more rich layers to this narrative. It’s a lot to juggle, but Lacey May is such a strong narrator, at once deeply insightful and painfully naïve, that readers will eagerly want to follow all the threads to the breathless conclusion.

A dark, deft first novel about the trauma and resilience of both people and the land they inhabit.

Bieker, Chelsea Catapult (336 pp.) $26.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-948226-48-6 A young teen ensnared in a cult becomes obsessed with finding her exiled mother.

Peaches is a small town near Fresno, in California’s Central Valley. Once the raisin capital of the world, now Peaches is drought-ridden, with empty canals and residents in perpetual thirst. Large numbers of townspeople have turned to Pastor Vern, a Christ-like figure who promises that, if his congregants follow him and complete their “assignments,” the rains will fall on Peaches again. (In the meantime, the churchgoers get baptized in cola.) Fourteen-year-old Lacey May, who lives with her alcoholic mother, doesn’t know what her mother’s assignment is; she only knows that she disappears somewhere unknown

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THE HELIOS DISASTER

takes her to turns out not to be speaking in tongues but Greek.

Regardless of Anna’s provenance, her life is shot through with a profound sense of longing for her father and a host of failed strategies to connect with him. Church only deepens her sense of distance. The letters he writes her reveal frustratingly little.

And channeling her inner Athena feels like a false front. (“I must become stronger. So strong that I won’t be the one who is alone, rather those who avoid me will.”) The somber, flat tone of the narrative (ably maintained by translator Willson-Broyles) gives the reader plenty of room to interpret Anna as mad or misunderstood, and Boström Knausgård’s imagery is piercing (“My scream was like a storm. Like pouring rain. My scream was like a spear. Like a way out”). As she becomes increasingly desperate to escape the institutions that constrict her (churches, schools, hospitals) and reconcile with her father, the latter pages of the narrative become mordant, a touch repetitively. But it’s a moving trip to an emotional bottom.

A flinty, lyrical, and storm-clouded study of loss.

Boström Knausgård, Linda Trans. by Willson-Broyles, Rachel World Editions (192 pp.) $15.99 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-64286-068-9 The myth of Athena inspires a deeply melancholy portrait of a fractured family in the debut novel by Boström Knausgård (Welcome to America, 2019).

“I am born of a father. I split his head,” says Anna, the novel’s young narrator, as if she’d sprung from the head of Zeus. It’s a metaphor, of course: The split head of the girl’s father evokes the schizophrenia that will send him to an institution and her to a foster home. Yet Boström Knausgård brings the metaphor intriguingly close to reality. Though we’re in the author’s native Sweden, Anna has an inherent connection to Greek roots: She obsesses over a map of the Mediterranean, and her prophetic babbling at the church her foster family

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The daughter of a grifter plans to fund her mother’s cancer treatment with a revenge con. pretty things

PRETTY THINGS

on books and one where he reviews haircuts. It’s through this work that he interviews a somewhat reclusive novelist named Emily Nardini, with whom he quickly becomes smitten. Complicating things is the presence of Emily’s public-intellectual boyfriend, Andrew Lancaster, and the likelihood that Paul’s feelings for Emily are unrequited. That’s not the only area in which Paul’s life is complicated: There’s also the matter of his sister, Amy, who has been absent from his life since they had an argument following the death of their mother. Paul and Amy hail from a working-class community on the northwest coast of England, and the tension between urban and rural areas that came to the foreground in the Brexit vote is a very real presence in his life. Paul’s occasionally acerbic narration makes for a memorable narrative voice, and Brown (My Biggest Lie, 2014) pulls off the tricky feat of creating a protagonist who teeters on the border of misanthropic and self-loathing without making him unbearable. Along the way, Brown ponders questions of class and art, creating a memorable supporting cast whose beliefs often come into conflict, leading to numerous barbed exchanges. Looming over much of the novel are Paul and

Brown, Janelle Random House (496 pp.) $28.00 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-0-525-47912-3

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The daughter of a grifter plans to fund her mother’s cancer treatment with a revenge con.

Rich people suck, don’t they? Nina Ross found this out in her adolescence, when her romance with Benny Liebling was broken up by his status-obsessed, old-money father, who found them screwing in the guest cottage of the family’s Lake Tahoe estate. Back then, Nina had a future—but she’s since followed her con-artist mother into the family business with the help of a handsome blue-eyed Irish confederate named Lachlan. “Here’s my rule,” Nina tells him. “Only people who have too much, and only people who deserve it.” Of course, he agrees. “We take only what we need.” With her art history background, Nina is usually able to target a few expensive antiques they can lift without the rich dopes even noticing they’re gone.

But now that Nina’s mother is hovering at death’s door without health insurance, she’s going after the $1 million in cash Benny mentioned was in his father’s safe all those years ago.

So back to Lake Tahoe it is. The older Lieblings are dead, and Benny’s in the bin, so it’s his sister Vanessa Liebling who is the target of the complicated caper. Vanessa is a terribly annoying character—“I couldn’t tell you how I went from a few dozen Instagram followers to a half-million. One day, you’re uploading photos of your dog wearing sunglasses; and the next you’re begin flown to Coachella on a private jet with four other social media It Girls…”—but, in fact, you’ll hate everyone in this book. That is surely Brown’s (Watch Me Disappear, 2017, etc.) intention as she’s the one making them natter on this way. She also makes them vomit much more than is normal, whether it’s because they’re poisoning each other or because they’re just so horrified by each other’s behavior. Definitely stay to see how it all turns out.

Why you double-crossing little double crossers! Fiendishly clever.

THEFT

Brown, Luke And Other Stories (320 pp.) $17.95 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-911508-58-8 An emotionally complex story of grief, desire, and Brexit.

When this comedy of manners opens, it’s early 2016. Narrator Paul lives in London, where he shares an apartment with several friends. He works part-time in a bookstore and has a semisteady gig writing two columns for a pop-culture magazine called White Jesus: one |

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Amy’s efforts to sell their late mother’s house, which connects them to a place about which they feel conflicted emotions.

With bleak humor and sharp details, Brown memorably connects the personal and the political.

six months ago, and while Mina’s academic career is floundering, he has a decent job working with his dad. What’s more, they have a nice-enough Manhattan apartment and plenty of friends.

Why, then, did Mina gulp a handful of pills on their wedding night? And why, barely six months later, did police remove her from a ledge on the George Washington Bridge? As Oscar grapples with his wife’s ostensible death wish, he is offered a chance to work in London for a few months. Thinking that a change of scene will benefit Mina, the pair upend their lives, sublet their NYC apartment, and move. Not surprisingly, their troubles follow them across the Atlantic, and when Oscar is summoned back to the U.S. for an emergency business meeting, he is forced to leave Mina alone; although a phone app is supposed to track her movements, it doesn’t. What follows is a gripping, tender, and unsettling look at mental illness. Mina’s impulsiveness and obsessive behaviors, seemingly illogical, are sympathetically drawn. So, too, is Oscar’s desire to run head-on into more stable surroundings, far from depressive disorders and suicidal ideation. Poetic and understated, this nuanced work by Buchanan (Harmless Like You, 2017) also addresses adult-child relationships, the legacy of family trauma, and the challenge of offering unconditional love.

Complex and resonant.

STARLING DAYS

Buchanan, Rowan Hisayo Overlook (304 pp.) $26.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-4197-4359-7 Depression, like other psychiatric conditions, is often treated as a personal failure, a refusal to pull oneself together and do what’s needed.

Oscar is at his wit’s end. Although he and Mina have been together for 10 years, the deterioration of his wife’s mental health has left him baffled. On the surface everything is fine: They finally married

SIN EATER

Campisi, Megan Atria (304 pp.) $27.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-9821-2410-6 A teenage girl defies the society that would make her an outcast in Campisi’s semihistorical, semidystopian debut novel.

When 14-year-old May is caught stealing, the punishment dictated by the court is a grim mercy indeed: Instead of being hanged, she will instead become a sin eater, expected to move silently through the world, neither speaking nor being spoken to, and performing funeral rites that will allow the dead to leave behind their earthly sins as they move into the afterlife. Sin eaters hear a dying person’s last confession and then consume food in honor of the dead; each food symbolizes a particular sin, from disobedience to lust to betrayal. As they consume the food, sin eaters take each sin onto their own souls. When May attends the Eating for one of the queen’s ladies, she is disturbed to see a deer’s heart included in the spread, for animal hearts symbolize murder—and the deer’s heart, the murder of a child. May’s mentor refuses to consume the deer’s heart, as it wasn’t part of the original recitation of sins, and she is taken away and tortured to death. May becomes determined to get to the bottom of the mystery—what sin is in danger of being exposed, and who would kill to protect this secret? While the tradition of the sin eater is based on historical fact and the setting is clearly supposed to be inspired

by Elizabethan England, Campisi deliberately creates an alternate world where Queen Bethany, daughter of King Harold 10

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A compelling story about a woman in a deeply patriarchal society. kim jiyoung, born 1982

KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982

II and the disgraced Alys Bollings, has taken the throne after the death of her half sister, Queen Maris, in the midst of a religious civil war. While her decision to build this world, a thinly veiled version of true English history, is a curious one, it does add an element of fantasy to the novel that’s very much reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale. In this way, it transcends its historical roots to give us a modern heroine.

Richly imaginative and strikingly contemporary.

Cho Nam-Joo Trans. by Chang, Jamie Norton (176 pp.) $20.00 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-63149-670-7

A 33-year-old woman in Seoul slowly breaks under the burden of misogyny she’s been facing all her life.

Kim Jiyoung’s life is typical of a woman in South Korea. Born the second of three siblings, with an older sister and younger brother, her experiences with patriarchy begin early. At home, her brother gets preferential treatment and less responsibility. At school, she’s told that boys who bully her just like her. Though her mother encourages and supports her in myriad ways, including making sure she goes to university and follows her heart, Jiyoung grows to realize that in every aspect of life and work, women are dehumanized, devalued, and objectified. The book’s

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THE EYELID

strength lies in how succinctly Cho captures the relentless buildup of sexism and gender discrimination over the course of one woman’s life. With clinical detachment, the book covers Jiyoung’s childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, first job, and, finally, marriage and motherhood. The pressure of the patriarchy is so incessant that she starts to dissociate, transforming into other women she’s known, like her mother and her college friend. The central critique of patriarchy is clearly—and necessarily—tied in to that of capitalism. Jiyoung wonders, as she catalogs the ways in which the world is built to accommodate “maximum output with minimum input...who’ll be the last one standing in a world with these priorities, and will they be happy?”

To be clear, there’s nothing revolutionary here—it’s basically feminism 101 but in novel form, complete with occasional footnotes. There is not a single move to recognize anything outside of a binary gender. But the story perfectly captures misogynies large and small that will be recognizable to many.

A compelling story about a woman in a deeply patriarchal society.

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Chrostowska, S.D. Coach House Books (144 pp.) $16.95 paper | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-55245-408-4 In a dystopian near future where sleep is outlawed, an unemployed Everyman meets a revolutionary dedicated to the subversive power of dreams.

Chrostowska (Permission, 2013, etc.) is a fiercely intellectual writer, but in this hallucinatory portrait of a world robbed of dreams, she’s content to let her surrealistic journey play out freely. Our narrator subsists in an alternative version of Paris, one where dreams have been outlawed in the name of productivity and citizens are forced to take a potent drug called Potium to keep them in a permanent state somewhere between slumber and the waking world. His fortunes are altered drastically when he meets Chevauchet, a roving ambassador from the perplexing Free

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This is fast-paced, nonstop fun. Cussler fans will gobble it up. journey of the pharaohs

Republic of Onirica, a city-state virtually unknown to the mainstream population. In the diplomat’s worldview, daydreaming is a directly subversive action that gives people a notion of freedom, no matter how tenuous or fleeting. To open the narrator’s eyes, Chevauchet takes him “dream-hopping” through the dreams of others, exploring love, dread, power, and nightmares among other themes. It’s all part of the ambassador’s unified theory of utopia, a speculative philosophy that imagines that revolutionary dreaming can lead to true emancipation. Yes, it’s a hallucinatory story, steeped in existentialist philosophy and delivered in poetic, classical language. The novel can read like a work in translation, with the avant-garde aesthetics and interesting idiosyncrasies found in European novels laden with existentialist themes and absurdist imagery. Ultimately, the student becomes the teacher as Chevauchet fades and the narrator becomes a “Merchant of Sleep,” treating refugees and lost souls to the obvious form of resistance against the waking world: “With this our bargain was concluded; my dreamers got their sleep, and I their dreams.”

A slight but quick-witted and thoughtful philosophical parable that falls somewhere between Camus and Gaiman’s Sandman universe.

“We’re going to steal the greatest deposit of Egyptian treasure the world has ever known,” brags the evil mastermind. But he’ll have to climb over the series hero’s dead body first, which—no plot spoiler here—ain’t gonna happen.

This is fast-paced, nonstop fun. Cussler fans will gobble it up.

HANNAH’S WAR

Eliasberg, Jan Back Bay/Little, Brown (320 pp.) $16.99 paper | Mar. 3, 2020 978-0-316-53744-5 A Jewish nuclear physicist is accused of spying while working on the nuclear bomb in Los Alamos.

During the waning months of World War II, the Americans and Germans are in a race to develop nuclear weapons;

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JOURNEY OF THE PHARAOHS

Cussler, Clive & Brown, Graham Putnam (432 pp.) $29.00 | Mar. 10, 2020 978-0-593-08308-6

Rumors of lost Egyptian treasure spark high adventure in this 17th in the NUMA series featuring oceanographer Kurt Austin and his crew (Sea of Greed, 2018, etc.).

Over 3,000 years ago, grave robbers sail away with loot from a pharaoh’s tomb. In 1927, Jake Melbourne and his plane disappear in his attempt at a trans-Atlantic flight. In the present day, arms merchants known as the Bloodstone Group have taken to stealing antiquities. They are looking for a “treasure both vast and glorious” that hieroglyphics say was shipped down the Nile and out of Egypt, perhaps even west across the Atlantic. (Holy scurvy! That must’ve been a lot of hard rowing!) The criminals are known to MI5 as “very dangerous people” and “merchants selling death.” Perfectly willing to kill everyone in their way, they are aided by mechanical crows and Fydor and Xandra, nasty sibling assassins jointly called the Toymaker. Such are the foes faced by Austin and his team from the National Underwater and Marine Agency. Of course, Austin has no interest in profit; he will gladly leave the ancient riches wherever they are. Action arrives early and often, and the failed pre-Lindbergh flight fits in neatly. Cussler and Brown concoct a nifty plot with disparate, sometimes over-the-top twists that will make even hardcore adventure fans say “Wow!” Expect claustrophobic gunfights, aerial combat, a life-threatening flood, messages from the dead, coffins of gold—and a vintage classic car, because why not? |

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C OV E R S T O RY

Douglas Stuart THE STORY BEHIND HIS DEBUT NOVEL, SHUGGIE BAIN, IS EVERY BIT AS MIRACULOUS AS THE BOOK ITSELF

By Marion Winik Clive Smith

If the plot is so close to the truth, why not write a memoir? “I didn’t want to only inhabit the main character,” Stuart explains. “I wanted to show, within the house and across the city, the stories of many different people. I wanted you to feel like you’re in the room with the characters rather than me telling you what happened in the room.”

At more than 400 pages, Shuggie Bain proceeds slowly, which Stuart says was necessary not only to create the immersive effect but to track the disintegration of a woman and a family. “Alcoholism doesn’t have the bang, the explosion or implosion, of drug addiction,” he points out. “It’s a slow, corrosive disease.”

When we leave him at the end of the book, Shuggie is completely on his own in a rented bedsit—as was his creator at that point in life. But not long after that, Stuart’s luck changed.

“I knew that I was queer,” he says, “and the violence from being different in that way was really intense. At 16, I felt I wouldn’t survive in the underclass. Though I wasn’t sure what school was supposed to do for me, and I had huge gaps in my education, I knew I had to finish high school.”

His instinct was right. Stuart’s teachers saw a creative kid with no parents who was trying desperately to catch up, without support of any kind, and reached out to help him succeed. But when he told them he wanted to go on to study literature and writing, they took account of his precarious situation and nixed the idea. He should learn a trade—perhaps textiles. “I didn’t even know what textiles were,” he says.

But as it turned out, the advice was inspired. Scotland’s robust textile industry is dominated by women; Stuart was the only boy in his year at school. “After coming from such a masculine environment, to be surrounded only by women was such a nourishing thing,” he explains. “Such a safe space for a very confused young man.” He also felt nurtured by his govern-

Douglas Stuart’s debut novel, Shuggie Bain (Grove Press, Feb. 11), is a profoundly affecting tragedy about the love between an alcoholic mother and her young son, followed from infancy to his early teens. Shuggie’s difficulties are compounded by his innately girlish manner, his father’s abandonment, and what is essentially the collapse of the social order in the city around him.

Like Shuggie, Stuart, now 43, was born in the Glasgow of the 1970s, once the Second City of the Empire but by then beset by floundering industries and festering sectarianism, its populace shoved into poorly built housing projects and crushed by poverty, disease, and alcoholism.

Also like Shuggie, the author doesn’t “have many memories of my mother sober.”

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a novel,’ I said, and of course, she flinched. She said, ‘Sure, I’ll look at it for you, but you won’t hear from me for six months.’ ” Pohlman called him three hours later. “I’m on Page 120,” she said. “You have a book.”

She advised him to pick five favorite novels and reach out to their agents. Anna Stein, who represented Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, quickly emailed that she was interested but warned him that she was a slow reader. “Don’t go with anyone else. Wait for me!” He did, and on the same day he signed with Grove Atlantic, he and his boyfriend of 22 years were married in a ceremony at New York City Hall.

Because Stuart wrote a second novel during breaks between spates of Shuggie, he is already polishing a coming-of-age story set in the Scottish Highlands. We can hope to see that one soon, and he’s at work on a third, which has recently revealed itself to be set in the Hebrides. This was supposed to be his New York fashion novel, which is now kicked to No. 4.

His mother would be very proud of him.

ment’s policy of free education. “Working five nights a week and all weekend just to pay my rent, I would never have made it otherwise. If I’d been an American kid, I wouldn’t be here.”

By the time he finished his degree, Stuart had begun to yearn for something bigger than designing fabric in a factory. He applied to the Royal College of Art in London and, three years later, earned a master’s degree in menswear design. “On the day we graduated,” he recalls, “we had a catwalk show. The head of menswear for Calvin Klein was in the audience, and he came up and offered me a job in New York.”

That stroke of luck came two decades ago: From Calvin Klein, he moved to Ralph Lauren and then to The Gap/Banana Republic, where he remained for 15 years. Though he loved his work, some part of him was creatively unfulfilled. Reflecting on his experiences, thinking about the man he was becoming, he felt haunted by characters from his past. In 2008, he sat down to write.

For three years, he had no desire to show anyone what he was doing. Then one day, he gave the pages to his boyfriend, Michael Cary, a modern art curator he’d met during a semester abroad in the States in 1996. They were long-distance for four years before he moved to New York.

Michael got a double shock, Stuart confesses. Not just because he loved the writing, but because “I’d never really told him about my past. This was how he found out, from the book.”

He continued to work on the manuscript, picking it up, putting it down, writing swathes of it in the Hong Kong airport where he was often marooned while traveling.

Whether in New York or Hong Kong, his head was always in Glasgow, writing what he considers a love letter to the city and to his mother. “It’s the Glaswegian approach,” he explains. “You tell it warts and all, or you don’t tell it.” Among the challenges was re-creating the poetry of the local dialect in the dialogue—Shuggie is “a wean who is no right”—a key element of the book’s spell.

“I needed 10 years with this novel,” he says. “For one thing, as I became a man, as I got close to 40, I began to understand certain things about my mother—her sense of the flatness of life, that things haven’t turned out the way you wanted them to, the lifting your head and thinking, ‘Is this all there is?’ ” For Stuart it wasn’t, not at all. Because at a Christmas mixer in his apartment building in 2017, he was introduced to a woman named Tina Pohlman, now a literary agent, at the time an editor. “’Hi, I’ve written |

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Marion Winik is the author of The Big Book of the Dead and a regular reviewer for Kirkus, the Washington Post, and other publications. Shuggie Bain received a starred review in the Nov. 1, 2019, issue.

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whoever wins, wins the world. Many refugee European scientists are working for the U.S. nuclear effort, headed by American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. Among these refugees is Dr. Hannah Weiss, loosely based on Dr. Lise Meitner, the unsung physicist who discovered nuclear fission. Maj. Jack Delaney has come to Los Alamos to interrogate Hannah, suspected of being a Nazi mole. His suspicions are founded on a telegram she may have attempted to send overseas and a packet of postcards gleaned from a search of her room. Flashbacks to 1938 Berlin are interspersed throughout. Hannah, a brilliant scientist, is relegated to a basement lab of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and treated as a “Jewish slave.” Her work on atom splitting is so valuable to the Reich, however, that what remains of her family—her Uncle Joshua and niece Sabine—have so far escaped the worst impacts of Nazi persecution. Her colleague Stefan, whose playboy charm Hannah tries to resist, takes credit for her work. But Stefan will eventually help Sabine, and then Hannah, escape Germany, and love overcomes her distrust. But should it?

Screenwriter and TV director Eliasberg’s first novel effectively evokes the atmosphere; descriptions of setting are never merely

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ornamental. However, her characters lack interiority. Jack never quite transcends the stereotype of the hard-boiled detective with inner wounds to match his external ones: A bullet he took during the liberation of Paris is still lodged near his spine. Hannah is the beautiful ice queen who conceals a molten core of passion. Far from delivering the intended frisson of growing attraction, Jack and Hannah’s verbal sparring is too often verbose and didactic. The characters are so one-dimensional that readers won’t particularly care which side they’re on.

A flawed novel which could, with the right cast to lend emotional depth, make very good TV.

THE FAMILIAR DARK

Engel, Amy Dutton (256 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-5247-4595-0

A bleak drama of rural America that offers grim lessons but minimal hope.

In a small-town park, Izzy and Junie, two 12-year-old girls, meet a grisly end.

Junie’s fading consciousness sheds no light on the murderer’s identity. This is Engel’s second adult novel (after The Roanoke Girls, 2017) to unfold in a meth-ridden, dying town. The setting is somewhere in Missouri, but this could be any American town, in any area left behind by the concentration of wealth and the exodus of youth. In towns like the aptly christened Barren Springs, many young people never make it out, and Junie’s single mother, Eve Taggert, is one of these. The deck is stacked against Eve and her brother, Cal, from birth—in a trailer in a remote “holler” to a drug-addicted mother who starves them, abuses them, but manages to instill in them fierce family loyalty and an implacable eye-for-an-eye mentality. Now in their 30s, Cal and Eve have succeeded up to a point: Each has a small apartment in town; Cal is a cop, and Eve works as a waitress. Thanks to Eve’s efforts, Junie had a modicum of a normal life and a best friend, Izzy, daughter of Zach and Jenny, who by Barren Springs standards are middle class. Through a fog of grief, Eve vows to find the killer and begins tracking the short list of suspects. These include her violent ex-boyfriend, Jimmy Ray, and his methcooking sidekick, strip club bartender Matt. An unforeshadowed revelation about Zach halfway through adds nothing to the suspense—instead, we are brought up short, wondering how a first-person narrator like Eve, blunt, plainspoken, and obsessed with the truth, could conceal this glaring fact from herself for half the book. In fact, her unerring instincts will lead to a completely unexpected conclusion. These pages are replete with lessons about the choices women have in such environments—that is to say, none, except to toughen up or give up.

Readers craving some nod at redemption may have to be satisfied with rough justice.

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A funny, terrifying, and unpredictable slice of Night Vale’s macabre history. the faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home

THE FACELESS OLD WOMAN WHO SECRETLY LIVES IN YOUR HOME

THE OTHER NAME

Fosse, Jon Trans. by Searls, Damion Transit Books (336 pp.) $17.95 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-945492-40-2

Fink, Joseph & Cranor, Jeffrey Harper Perennial/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $21.99 | Mar. 24, 2020 978-0-06-288900-3

The first two sections of Norwegian novelist Fosse’s (Morning and Evening, 2015, etc.) 1,250-page “septology” on life in a disaffecting world.

Fosse is often mentioned as a leading contender for the Nobel Prize in literature. The present book has a fittingly Joycean sweep, opening in medias res with “And,” that establishes him as a contender. Asle is a painter who lives in the small coastal village of Dylgja. He is widowed and lonely, and painting doesn’t bring him much pleasure: “I think, it’s time to put it away, I don’t want to stand here at the easel any more, I don’t want to look at it any more, I think and I think today’s Monday and I think I have to put this picture away with the other ones I’m

One of Welcome to Night Vale’s most enigmatic and terrifying characters reveals

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how she came to be.

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home is one of the outlandish podcast’s most popular characters, partially due to writer/actress Mara Wilson’s evocative portrayal. In Night Vale, the character is a specter of sorts, visible only in glimpses, who takes great fun in toying with the town’s citizenry, living in all their homes simultaneously. Here, Fink and Cranor (It Devours!, 2017, etc.) diverge from the style of their previous books to craft a chilling ghost story. The book alternates between two timelines. The first concerns the life, death, and afterlife of the unnamed narrator, born in the Mediterranean in 1792 to an idyllic childhood with her beloved father. When her father is murdered by a covert criminal ring called The Order of the Labyrinth, she swears revenge and is recruited into a life of crime by her Uncle Edmond, a ruthless outlaw. What follows is a decadeslong, globe-spanning saga of adventure, betrayal, love, and fate as she becomes the swashbuckling captain of her own pirate ship, with a crew that includes a master of disguise, a bloodthirsty neophyte, a rakish comrade, and a giantess, among others. Robberies, schemes, battles, treachery, and a vicious conspiracy to destroy a rival ensue. In the storyline set in the present, the old woman adopts Craig, a struggling copywriter, as her pet project. While she does leave him the occasional dismembered animal to keep him in line, she also pays off his debts and steers him toward his wife-to-be, Amaranta, and a heavenly life to come—perhaps. How these stories converge and how the narrator becomes immortal are merciless in their ingenuity and immensely satisfying. As the Old Woman tells Craig, “There’s a thin line separating humor and horror, and this was that line.”

A funny, terrifying, and unpredictable slice of Night Vale’s macabre history.

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working on but am not done with.…” So Asle thinks, one onrushing thought spilling into and fueling another one, in a narrative that is almost unbroken except for occasional bits of dialogue. “When I paint it’s always as if I’m trying to paint away the pictures stuck inside me,” Asle reveals. But which Asle? There’s another one of him up the coast in the small city of Bjørgvin, where a gallery exhibits the work of the first Asle. The second is a true doppelgänger save that his life choices were different: He took the roads that the first Asle did not only to wind up in much the same place. Shivering, seemingly moribund, the second Asle is an object of pity and concern for the first, who steals glimpses of him from time to time.

Along the way, Fosse, who shifts between first- and third-person narration, meditates on religion (especially Catholicism, a minority religion in Norway), art, the nature of life, and other weighty topics: “to tell the truth there’s not much that makes me happy any more,” the first Asle reveals, and we believe him. It’s a challenging read but an uncommonly rich one. Transit Books will publish the final two volumes of the book in 2021 and 2022.

A literary experiment that invites comparison to the modernists of a century ago, poetic and charged with meaning.

Gaines, Susan M. Torrey House Press (342 pp.) $18.95 paper | Mar. 10, 2020 978-1-948814-16-4 A son explores his family’s complicated past and the natural beauty and history of Uruguay, their homeland.

Gabriel doesn’t understand why, after more than 30 years in California, his mother wants to move back to her native Uruguay. Her father died and left her a ranch, or estancia, that she wants to turn into an organic farm, and she wants Gabriel to come with her. Gabriel doesn’t want to disrupt his routine. He has a boring job that pays well, and he likes to go bird-watching.

Accompanying his mother to Uruguay is supposed to be temporary. He’ll be there long enough to help her get the estancia on its feet. However, he soon finds himself drawn in by the family members he doesn’t know, the beauty of the land, and a local biologist named Alejandra, who’s looking for undiscovered microbes near the family’s land. The longer Gabriel stays in Uruguay the more he’s drawn into the family’s squabbles over what to do with the land—follow his uncle’s plans to build a large rice plantation and sell into European markets or help his mother achieve her dream of growing organic produce for the local communities? The possible discovery of a new bird species on the family land brings Gabriel and Alejandra closer together and lays the groundwork for their burgeoning relationship. Gaines’ novel is deeply researched, and the reader will walk away with an understanding of not only Uruguay’s repressive regimes and the people killed by the government, but also biomes, bird preservation, rice cultivation, agricultural markets in South America, and more. The author loves Uruguay and desperately wants the reader to feel her same affection for the history, flora, fauna, politics, culture, and the people. Ultimately, her quest to make the reader care for Uruguay gets in the way of the storytelling.

A noble attempt to unpack Uruguay’s complexities and one family’s navigation of politics, American meddling, and each other.

NORTHERNMOST

Geye, Peter Knopf (352 pp.) $26.95 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-525-65575-6

A writer explores her family’s humble Norwegian roots.

In 1897, Norwegian fisherman Odd Einar Eide sets sail hundreds of miles above the Arctic Circle on a seal hunt.

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ship. Given up for dead by his wife, Inger, Odd Einar returns home in the midst of his own funeral, forcing the impoverished couple to face the challenge of restoring their already fragile relationship. That task is complicated by the lingering ache from the absence of their daughter, Thea, departed two years earlier for America and silent since that time. Odd Einar’s tale is framed by the story of his descendant Greta Nansen, a freelance journalist living in present-day Minneapolis, who embarks on the project of reclaiming her family’s history as her own marriage of 20 years implodes. Alternating between the “rocky shore of hardened, desperate people living in poverty and gloom” in 19th-century rural Norway and Greta’s life, where, despite her material comfort, loneliness is “the only feeling she had anymore,” Geye (Wintering, 2016, etc.) artfully spans 120 years of the Eide family’s story. With equal skill, he portrays Odd Einar’s dramatic confrontation with implacable nature while exploring the tension between terror and resignation that haunts the involuntary adventurer’s every step in that crisis. The choice to pair this pulsating adventure story with the subdued domestic drama of Greta’s failed marriage and her

discovery of the possibility of new love with musician Stig Hjalmarson when she impulsively travels to her ancestral home in the remote village of Hammerfest is not without risk. But Geye maintains an elegant counterpoint between the two narratives so that the novel is equally satisfying whether it’s situated in the past or present.

One man’s terrifying story of survival in an Arctic wasteland reverberates profoundly in the life of his distant descendant.

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doctors. The historical underpinnings of Giddings’ premise are obvious. Lena follows in the footsteps of black men whose syphilis went untreated even though they were promised health care for joining the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, and her experience echoes that of the enslaved women James Marion Sims brutalized while testing new gynecological techniques. It might seem that, unlike them, Lena has a choice, but does she? The position she finds herself in after her grandmother’s death is a reminder that hundreds of years of structural racism have made it difficult for black families to accumulate and pass on wealth.

But this novel isn’t just about Lena’s physical ordeal. The emotional and mental strain of being black in an environment seemingly designed to punish blackness—and the necessity to pretend that everything is fine—are devastating, too. At the novel’s beginning, Lena is in the habit of noting when a person she’s describing is white, a powerful rejoinder to the widespread tendency to consider whiteness the default American identity.

Toward the end, she has to consciously remind herself that she is still human. In terms of style and storytelling, Giddings doesn’t always succeed, but there’s no denying the potency of her message.

This is a thought-provoking debut, and Giddings is a young writer to watch.

Giddings, Megan Amistad/HarperCollins (288 pp.) $26.99 | Mar. 24, 2020 978-0-06-291319-7 A first-time novelist offers medical horror with a political edge.

Lena Johnson’s grandmother has just died, leaving behind a staggering amount of debt. Lena’s mother is debilitated by an illness—or collection of illnesses— no one can diagnose or cure. When Lena is offered a position that pays an incredible sum of money and full health-insurance coverage for her mom, she feels that she has no choice but to leave college and become a research subject in a secret government project. Her participation requires her to lie to family and friends about what she’s doing, and she signs a nondisclosure agreement that discourages her from ever revealing the torture she and other people of color will endure at the hands of white

THIS LOVELY CITY

Hare, Louise Anansi Press (392 pp.) $17.95 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-4870-0705-8 In Hare’s engrossing debut, a young Jamaican man’s promising new life in post–World War II London threatens to unravel after he becomes a suspect in the death of a mixed-race infant.

The lovely city that Lawrie Matthews expected when he arrived in 1948 onboard the Empire Windrush, along with several hundred other Caribbean immigrants responding to Britain’s call for labor, turned out to be a war-ravaged metropolis “still too poor to clean itself up.” But after two years, he is starting to feel at home despite the cold, gloomy atmosphere and humiliating racial slights. Renting a tiny room in Brixton, postman Lawrie moonlights as a jazz musician in Soho clubs, supplementing his income with black-market deliveries—rationing is still in effect—for his landlady’s son. He also loves the girl next door, 18-year-old Evie Coleridge, the biracial daughter of the embittered white Agnes and an unknown black father. Life is good until the March morning when Lawrie discovers the body of a black child in a pond in Clapham Common. While the police quickly dismiss the other witness, a white woman walking her dog, Lawrie is harshly interrogated by the openly racist DS Rathbone. “Between you and me, I don’t give two shits....Too many of you around here already, but the law is the law.” He’s determined to find the culprit, and whether it’s Lawrie or someone else in the growing West Indian community makes 20

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This graceful story offers insights into family, friendship, and finding a way to move on after a loss. st. ivo

THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES

no difference to him. Toggling between 1948 and 1950, Hare’s absorbing narrative builds a compelling portrait of immigrants struggling to belong to a country that needs but doesn’t really want them. Lawrie and Evie are so moving in their tender love for each other that readers will root for them to overcome the many heart-wrenching plot twists.

A must-read for fans of Zadie Smith and Call the Midwife.

Hendrix, Grady Quirk Books (400 pp.) $21.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-68369-143-3

Harris, Oliver Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (368 pp.) $25.00 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-358-20665-1 When his lover and fellow spy Joanna Lake disappears in Kazakhstan, free-floating operative Elliot Kane slips away from his MI6 bosses to go after her, unaware of new dangers in the post-

Soviet republic.

Kane hasn’t seen Joanna in six months when he receives a coded warning from her. She had been working on psy-ops in an ultrasecret intelligence division in England but was eased out for troubling reasons. She was last seen in the Kazakhstan city of Astana, where she was said to be active as a human rights journalist under the name Vanessa McDonald. A man of many aliases, Kane slips into several of them in the process of collecting information from intelligence sources and corporate and government connections. At the core of the story is the coldblooded campaign for control of Kazakhstan’s vast quantity of natural oil. Another battle is being fought between Kazakh nationalists and citizens under the sway of a sophisticated Russian disinformation campaign. Harris, acclaimed for detective thrillers including The Hollow Man (2011) and The House of Fame (2016), makes a masterful entry into spy fiction. This may be the deepest a contemporary spy novel has penetrated the cold new world of dark web intelligence and cellphone surveillance and the intellectual as well as pragmatic life of a spook “who existed because of the things the government wasn’t allowed to do.” At the same time, the frozen landscape asserts itself in a profound way, never more than when Kane is speeding across the salt flats on his way to the worst possible dead end. There’s a lot to absorb in this book of many names and associations, but the reader’s commitment is amply rewarded.

An absorbing, superbly written novel likely to stand as one of the best spy novels of the year.

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Things are about to get bloody for a group of Charleston housewives.

In 1988, the scariest thing in former nurse Patricia Campbell’s life is showing up to book club, since she hasn’t read the book. It’s hard to get any reading done between raising two kids, Blue and Korey, picking up after her husband, Carter, a psychiatrist, and taking care of her live-in mother-in-law, Miss Mary, who seems to have dementia. It doesn’t help that the books chosen by the Literary Guild of Mt. Pleasant are just plain boring. But when fellow book-club member Kitty gives Patricia a gloriously trashy true-crime novel, Patricia is instantly hooked, and soon she’s attending a very different kind of book club with Kitty and her friends Grace, Slick, and Maryellen. She has a full plate at home, but Patricia values her new friendships and still longs for a bit of excitement. When James Harris moves in down the street, the women are intrigued. Who is this handsome night owl, and why does Miss Mary insist that she knows him? A series of horrific events stretches Patricia’s nerves and her Southern civility to the breaking point. (A skin-crawling scene involving a horde of rats is a standout.) She just knows James is up to no good, but getting anyone to believe her is a Sisyphean feat. After all, she’s just a housewife. Hendrix juxtaposes the hypnotic mundanity of suburbia (which has a few dark underpinnings of its own) against an insidious evil that has taken root in Patricia’s insular neighborhood. It’s gratifying to see her grow from someone who apologizes for apologizing to a fiercely brave woman determined to do the right thing—hopefully with the help of her friends. Hendrix (We Sold Our Souls, 2018, etc.) cleverly sprinkles in nods to well-established vampire lore, and the fact that he’s a master at conjuring heady 1990s nostalgia is just the icing on what is his best book yet.

Fans of smart horror will sink their teeth into this one.

A SHADOW INTELLIGENCE

ST. IVO

Hershon, Joanna Farrar, Straus and Giroux (224 pp.) $25.00 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-374-26814-5 A woman whose life has been knocked off balance by her daughter’s absence struggles to regain her equilibrium.

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the dregs of a successful career as a filmmaker, an agent waiting to support her next project. However, as Hershon’s novel unspools over the course of a long weekend, in which Sarah and her husband, Matthew, are violently mugged in Prospect Park and then travel upstate to reconnect with old friends—a couple named Kiki and Arman—we learn that Sarah’s life is far from perfect. Sarah and Matthew’s troubled 24-year-old daughter, Leda, has vanished from their lives; the stress caused by her yearslong absence has nearly cost Sarah her marriage (she and Matthew have reconciled after a two-year separation) and her career (she can’t write about Leda, yet neither can she write about anything else). Kiki and Arman, too, have their problems as well as a new baby daughter who stirs memories—both pleasant and painful—for Sarah. In clear, compassionate prose, Hershon (A Dual Inheritance, 2013, etc.) conjures characters readers may initially assume they know and then gently and gradually subverts those assumptions, revealing the emotions and difficulties with which these nuanced characters are grappling.

Ultimately the author offers notes of hope—that the secrets and sadnesses, disappointments and distress that can damage

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relationships, derail pursuits, and erode lives when they are held inside and in isolation can resolve when shared; that sometimes finding a way back to one another is the best way to find a way forward.

This graceful story offers insights into family, friendship, and finding a way to move on after a loss.

ROUGH JUSTICE

Hilton, Matt Severn House (240 pp.) $28.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-7278-8978-2 In their sixth adventure, Portland private eyes Tess Grey and Nicolas “Po” Villere (False Move, 2019, etc.) head to upstate Maine to investigate a rumor about the recent crash of a small aircraft and find that the woods are alive with killers.

Field biologists Jonathan Laird and Elsa Carmichael, who heard the Cessna 172 Skyhawk come down half a mile from their camp in Aroostook County, agree that both the pilot and co-pilot were killed, but Grant McNeill, the undergrad student assisting them, let something slip about a female survivor, and Emma Clancy, who works with the Portland DA’s Office, has dispatched Tess and Po to see if there’s any truth to that story.

And of course there is. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Alicia Coleman, who’d succeeded in infiltrating an international narcotics smuggling crew, has walked away from an accident that should have killed her and has rescued a bag full of evidence as well. As Tess and Po, joined by their unlikely friend Jerome “Pinky” Leclerc, a Cajun dealer of illegal arms who did time in Louisiana before he saw the light, search for the biologists so that they can ask them the obvious question and then judge whether they’re lying, the rumor that Alicia is still alive has attracted the attention of the very criminals she was intent in bringing down, and they’ve dispatched a team of five assassins headed by dead-eyed Virginia Locke, another DEA agent who’s left the straight and narrow for real. Hilton, not one to shy away from violent complications, sets yet another hired murderer and his amateurish cousin on the trail of Pinky just to keep things interesting. After a shootout halfway through the story reduces the numbers on both sides, Locke calls for reinforcements, and half a dozen nameless new killers show up to take down the good guys just as they’re limping toward Brayton Lake, where the assassins have taken the entire town hostage.

Guess what happens next.

Crack! Pow! Ouch! Repeat as needed.

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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES

Emily Nemens

IN HER SPARE TIME, THE EDITOR OF THE PARIS REVIEW WROTE THE CACTUS LEAGUE, A BASEBALL NOVEL ABOUT A LOT MORE THAN JUST AMERICA’S PASTIME

By Mark Athitakis James Emmerman

In time, Nemens began to consider the universe of people beyond the field—the scouts, owners, hardcore fans, and others populating the stands. The idea that baseball serves as a microcosm of the American experience informs Nemens’ debut novel, The Cactus League (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Feb. 4), a linkedstory tale constructed of snapshots of characters in Scottsdale, the Phoenix suburb where the mythical Los Angeles Lions are preparing for opening day.

At the center of the novel is Jason Goodyear, a star veteran who’s extravagantly paid but suspiciously low on funds. Numerous people orbit around him: his agent, his ex-wife, the woman who tries to seduce him, the team owner, the veteran pitcher in denial about his physical decline, the ill-paid stadium organist, and the impoverished family that squats in a coach’s home. “No team ever stays on top of the standings,” one character intones, and every character is desperate to maintain their position.

“I think every tagline for the novel will say that this is a baseball novel, but I think it’s a novel about class,” Nemens says. “What does celebrity impose on everyone else that the celebrity touches—whether it’s consumers buying magazines at the grocery store or people that cleaned that person’s house or other economically vulnerable people? That’s heightened and accentuated in the baseball economy in a way that’s unfortunate, but it felt like a compelling thing to examine.”

Nemens’ work on the novel experienced a highprofile interruption in 2018 when she was hired away from the Southern Review to edit the Paris Review.

Completing a manuscript and settling into a highprofile job meant a lot more working weekends, she

The early ’90s were a great time for Emily Nemens to grow up a Seattle Mariners fan. Though the team missed the World Series, Ken Griffey Jr. and Randy Johnson were thrilling superstars on a consistently winning club. Less thrilling: damp Seattle in the offseason. So Nemens’ father began planning family trips to spring training in Arizona, where vets shook off rust and prospects strove to prove themselves.

“March is a dark and wet and cold time in Seattle, and to go to Arizona was a really exciting thing, even if the baseball was kind of sloppy,” she says.

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three baseball books that inspired the cactus league

says. But Nemens adds that the experience was to the novel’s benefit.

“I’ve always had a cadence in my work where I work on other people’s writing, then press pause and transition back to my own,” she says. “That can be frustrating, but that can also be a gift. Identifying strengths and correcting for weaknesses in a whole manner of literary situations gives me a new set of skills and a new eye every time I go back to my manuscript. That’s how I make lemonade out of having a busy job.”

The editing process involved a lot of winnowing.

The finished novel focuses on a small group of characters across—of course—nine chapters. But during the eight years she was working on The Cactus League, Nemens imagined a platoon of spring training denizens. “At one point, I had not just a 25-man roster, but a 40-person roster,” she says. Among the darlings killed were “a really wonderful owner of a nightclub called the Desert Oasis and his twin boys. I hope they’re resting comfortably somewhere.”

Don DeLillo, Pafko at the Wall: The prologue to DeLillo’s century-hoovering 1997 novel, Underworld, follows intersecting lives at the moment of Bobby Thompson’s “shot heard ’round the world” in 1951. It was published as a stand-alone novella in 2001.

“I’ve always had an understanding of sports as a unifying cultural moment, and pieces of literature like Pafko at the Wall embody that, where everyone’s coming together and there’s all these different narratives gathering around a game,” Nemens says.

Mark Athitakis is the author of The New Midwest and a regular contributor to Kirkus. The Cactus League was reviewed in the Dec. 1, 2019, issue.

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David James Duncan, The Brothers K: Duncan’s 1992 family saga interweaves baseball with religion and the social ferment of the Vietnam era. “There’s baseball in it, but it’s really more about one family as a microcosm during times of conflict,” she says. “It’s a baseball book that’s not about baseball, in a way that was a helpful guide for me.”

Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding: Harbach’s 2011 debut, centering on a star player at a small Midwestern university, harks back to the days when baseball novels like The Natural and Shoeless Joe spoke to American culture at large. “It’s such a retro thing to write about baseball,” she says. “The sport is suffering a minor obsolescence, for better or worse, and baseball narrative is a very 20th-century thing on a certain level. I was interested and excited to see how Chad Harbach revived the form, and I wanted to try something similar—to take this subgenre that maybe has seen its prime and revive it.”—M.A.

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YOU DESERVE EACH OTHER

dentist who nevertheless cowers in the shadow of his mother’s expectations, responds by buying a house in the woods. He is convinced the move will save their relationship, but Naomi is dubious. At this point it’s clear that the novel would be greatly improved by a dual narrative—Naomi is so utterly convinced of Nicholas’ hatred and lack of interest (despite all evidence to the contrary), and responds so cruelly based on her convictions, that it’s difficult to understand why Nicholas would want to marry her at all. Although self-centered Naomi eventually comes to the realization that she has been ignoring the realities of her relationship, it’s a revelation that arrives far too late—all the romance in this overlong rom-com is relegated to the last few pages. There are glimmers of important discussions about mental illnesses like anxiety and depersonalization, but they never go past surface level, a lost opportunity to elevate the text.

A page-turning premise that gets overshadowed by its unlikable heroine.

Hogle, Sarah Putnam (368 pp.) $16.00 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-593-08542-4

Naomi Westfield and her perfect fiance, Nicholas Rose, are just a few short months away from walking down the aisle. But there’s one big flaw in their seemingly idyllic relationship: She hates him.

Naomi is an underachiever who works at a local junk store that’s on its last legs. She isn’t close to her family, her only friends are her ragtag bunch of co-workers, and she is so run down by her fiance’s overbearing mother that she has all but checked out of her own life. But when she discovers that Nicholas is just as tired of her as she is of him, Naomi decides to wage a war in the form of petty pranks, mind games, and general sabotage to get Nicholas to call off the wedding. Nicholas, the upstanding

MISS AUSTEN

Hornby, Gill Flatiron Books (288 pp.) $26.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-250-25220-3 Sister of the more famous Jane, Cassandra Austen emerges as a figure in her own right, a woman who, although disappointed in love, finds fulfillment in her devotion to her sister, both in her lifetime and beyond.

“Poor, beautiful Miss Austen, condemned to eke out a sad life with nothing to do but care for others and control the temperament of her difficult sister” is the comical opinion of Jane Austen herself on her sister, Cassy, at least according to Hornby (All Together Now, 2015, etc.), whose animation of the close relationship between the siblings is the driving force of her new novel. Denied marriage and children after the death of her fiance, Cassandra becomes a model of duty and selfsacrifice, watching over her family generally and Jane in particular as keeper of the flame and guardian of her reputation.

This role will include destroying any evidence detrimental to Jane’s future status, such as letters revealing a fragile, depressive side to her character. It’s on this mission that Cassy, in 1840, decades after her sister’s death, visits the Kintbury vicarage to sift through a stash of Jane’s correspondence. As Cassy reviews these letters, so the story flashes back to earlier episodes—of sisterly delight; of anxiety about the future when the Austens must leave their home after Mr. Austen’s retirement; of trips to Bath and the English coast; of meetings with potential suitors. All this offers Hornby the opportunity to observe the marriage market, women’s lot, and men’s dominion—though with a heavier satirical hand than Jane Austen’s—and also to suggest that members of Austen’s own circle might have inspired some of her characters. Cassy herself never quite convinces and the business of the book can seem scattered, but the evocation of the sisters’ closeness is solid.

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A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant. the unseen

SWIMMING IN THE DARK

A nicely judged fictional resurrection joins the tribute library accumulating around a literary icon.

Jedrowski, Tomasz Morrow/HarperCollins (208 pp.) $26.99 | Apr. 28, 2020 978-0-06-289000-9

THE UNSEEN

Jacobsen, Roy Trans. by Bartlett, Don & Shaw, Don Biblioasis (272 pp.) $15.95 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-77196-319-0

A young gay man enters into a clandestine affair in the repressive political climate of communist Poland in the early 1980s.

From his new home in the Polish community of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Ludwik addresses this narrative to Janusz, the handsome university student he met at an agricultural “work education” camp outside Warsaw in the summer of 1980. His first sighting of Janusz is a pure coup de foudre, described in typically swoony terms: “A flash of heat traveled from my stomach to my cheeks, my thoughts jumbled like a ball of string….It was as if your presence already overpowered me, like a prophecy I was unable to read.” Their summer romance, initiated during a hiking trip to

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Norwegian novelist Jacobsen folds a quietly powerful coming-of-age story into a rendition of daily life on one of Norway’s rural islands a hundred years ago in a novel that was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.

Ingrid Barrøy, her father, Hans, mother, Maria, grandfather Martin, and slightly addled aunt Barbro are the owners and sole inhabitants of Barrøy Island, one of numerous small family-owned islands in an area of Norway barely touched by the outside world. The novel follows Ingrid from age 3 through a carefree early childhood of endless small chores, simple pleasures, and unquestioned familial love into her more ambivalent adolescence attending school off the island and becoming aware of the outside world, then finally into young womanhood when she must make difficult choices. Readers will share Ingrid’s adoration of her father, whose sense of responsibility conflicts with his romantic nature. He adores Maria, despite what he calls her “la-di-da” ways, and is devoted to Ingrid. Twice he finds work on the mainland for his sister, Barbro, but, afraid she’ll be unhappy, he brings her home both times. Rooted to the land where he farms and tied to the sea where he fishes, Hans struggles to maintain his family’s hardscrabble existence on an island where every repair is a struggle against the elements. But his efforts are Sisyphean. Life as a Barrøy on Barrøy remains precarious.

Changes do occur in men’s and women’s roles, reflected in part by who gets a literal chair to sit on at meals, while world crises— a war, Sweden’s financial troubles—have unexpected impact.

Yet the drama here occurs in small increments, season by season, following nature’s rhythm through deaths and births, moments of joy and deep sorrow. The translator’s decision to use roughly translated phrases in conversation—i.e., “Tha’s goen’ nohvar” for “You’re going nowhere”)—slows the reading down at first but ends up drawing readers more deeply into the world of Barrøy and its prickly, intensely alive inhabitants.

A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.

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the lake district, is an idyll that cannot last; the gray realities of Warsaw life—food and medicine shortages, tight party control over university advancement, an emerging protest movement subject to crackdown—will come between the lovers. While Ludwik imagines leaving the country to escape its oppressions (James Baldwin’s novel of gay expatriate life in Paris, Giovanni’s Room, is a touchstone), Janusz dates Hania, the daughter of an apparatchik, in order to enjoy special privileges. “Everyone is leading someone on,” Janusz explains. “So what’s wrong with taking things into your own hands and not letting yourself go under?” Their conflict comes to a head during a debauched weekend at the country estate of Hania’s family, leading Ludwik toward his eventual fate. Debut novelist Jedrowski, born to Polish parents in Germany and now living in France, writes confidently in English—though his prose can turn overripe and his characters feel undernourished.

A broody tale of gay love and life behind the Iron Curtain.

menacing moments, but clever plotting has laid the groundwork for a happy ending with just enough hints of potential troubles ahead to remain true to Jiles’ loving but cleareyed portrait of Texas’ vibrant, violent frontier culture.

Vividly evocative and steeped in American folkways: more great work from a master storyteller.

THE KING OF NOTHING MUCH A Novella Johnson, Jesse Edward Paul Dry Books (121 pp.) $12.95 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-58988-144-0

A stay-at-home father considers his past and future, influenced by events during one weekend at the family cabin.

Subtitled A Novella, this latest work from Johnson (Yearbook, 2017) offers a brief comic portrait of one version of middle-class 21st-century manhood that’s built around a more serious, emotionally intense core. The house-spouse in question is Weldon Tines, whose inner monologue fills the book’s pages, not only charting developments, but also delivering jokes, musings, and the mantras of his life. “I am over halfway done” is one of them, marking Weldon’s acknowledgement of a kind of midlife crisis. Was his wife, Deb, right to marry him? Is he a good-enough parent to daughter Presley and twins Danny and Reese? (Reese, who likes to wander, is the subject of another mantra: “I am here to protect you.”) What is his purpose now that the children are in decreasing need of him? The story opens at a boy’s birthday party, where Weldon, horsing around with the youngsters, accidentally injures Perry Glazier, the indulged son of a wealthy father named Pike. Instead of suing, Pike extorts a price from Weldon: He must take Perry along on a family weekend trip to the Tines’ lakeside cabin. The short vacation offers insights, revelations, and confessions by several characters alongside a continuous stream of provocation by difficult-to-please Perry, culminating in an act of disobedience, a heroic response, and more physical damage. Weldon emerges from it all more open to the idea of change and readier to accept that parenting means accommodating the trajectory of his children, “streaming away.” A late, surprise encounter with Pike delivers a closing note of moral superiority to add to the self-satisfaction and general quirkiness.

A funny, tender, but indulgent study in modern masculinity.

SIMON THE FIDDLER

Jiles, Paulette Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $27.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-06-296674-2 Jiles follows up National Book Award finalist News of the World (2016, etc.) with another atmospheric adventure in post– Civil War Texas.

During his few reluctant months in the Confederate Army, Simon Boudlin’s main concerns are staying alive and protecting his precious fiddle so that after the war he can make enough money to buy some land and settle down with the right woman. He sees her after his unit surrenders, at a dinner for the officers: Doris Dillon is an Irish indentured servant to Yankee Col. Webb, and by the time Simon learns her name he already knows that Webb is an arrogant SOB who mistreats the help and is nasty to musicians. That’s the last Simon sees of Doris for more than a year, as he forms a band with fellow veterans (three of the novel’s many deft characterizations) and they play their way across Texas, technically under military rule but mostly in a state of near anarchy; the musicians’ gigs, brilliantly captured in Jiles’ quiet but resonant prose, are as likely to end in a brawl as with applause. Simon and his mates bunk down in stolen boats and shelled-out buildings that make visible the cost of war, but magnificent descriptions of their travels make palpable the varied beauty of the landscape, from East Texas pines to the banks of the Nueces River, where Simon plays at a wild Tejano wedding and finally has enough money to buy his dreamed-of land.

He’s been in touch with Doris via letters supposedly from his Irish-American drummer, Patrick, who helpfully invents some shared relatives, and is making his way toward San Antonio to rescue his beloved, who’s finding it increasingly difficult to evade Webb’s determined advances. The pace picks up and tension rises after Simon reaches San Antonio; there are some 28

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WHEN I HIT YOU Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife

through her emotional journey, from confident college student then published writer to battered wife. She details the unhappy affair that led her to take refuge in her husband’s arms and then step by step reveals how he managed to isolate her from friends and family, taking control of a joint email account, managing all social activities. Most damning of all, the woman shows how everyone from the woman’s parents to her friends and her doctors either looked the other way or urged her to give her husband another chance. This is a story that could take place in any culture at any time period. What makes this novel unique is the feisty voice of the narrator and the rich details of her intellectual interests and her husband’s leftist politics in contemporary India. Kandasamy (The Gypsy Goddess, 2014, etc.) divides her time between Chennai and London, and the novel was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Jhalak Prize and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.

So long as society does not listen to women, this novel shows, no woman will truly be safe.

Kandasamy, Meena Europa Editions (224 pp.) $17.00 paper | Mar. 17, 2020 978-1-60945-599-6

A novel about contemporary Indian intellectuals highlights an age-old problem.

The unnamed protagonist escaped from her abusive husband five years ago when this powerful novel opens, so the suspense is not whether she’ll survive but whether she’ll be allowed to tell her own story. The woman’s mother has been telling the story to relatives, neighbors, and circles of friends, focusing on the physical signs of her daughter’s abuse and escape—her thinning hair, her cracked heels. But the survivor has decided to tell the story herself, which then becomes the novel at hand. Kandasamy’s brilliant and at times brutally funny narrator leads the reader

ABOVE US THE MILKY WAY

Karimi, Fowzia Illus. by the author Deep Vellum (440 pp.) $28.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-64605-002-4 A semiautobiographical debut by author/illustrator Karimi offers the illuminated fragments of one family’s memories as they emigrate from Afghanistan

to the United States.

“In the beginning,” Karimi states in the early pages of this saturated, elliptical novel, “the taking and the killing was not particular, not honed. They took those who did not look right, who walked askew, who spoke the wrong words in the wrong place to the wrong individual….Later, they had names, they had addresses.” It is 1980, and the Soviet army has invaded Afghanistan, ushering in an era of paranoia, reprisal, state-sponsored torture, and bloodshed. A man has been denounced by a colleague, or perhaps total stranger, forced to recite a list of “fellow collaborators” on live television. The patriarch of the family at the center of this book’s spiral constellation of memories, fables, illustrations, and evidence is on the list. Facing almost certain detention, and probable death, the father, mother, and five daughters flee the country, knowing they will likely never see either their homeland or their beloved extended family again.

In America, the five sisters form a new life—one demarcated by before and after—as their father and mother find new work, new friendships, new lives, and new ways of defining themselves both as victims and survivors. Meanwhile, the gruesome harvest of war continues, shivering along the connecting cords of cultural and personal memory to touch every part of the sisters’ world. Structured as an illuminated alphabet, Karimi’s startling debut pieces together a pastiche of memory, folklore, and multilayered sense impressions with photographs from Karimi’s 30

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Probing a part of WWII that few Americans know, Kempowski reveals how the damage goes on long after the guns fall silent. marrow and bone

DEVOTED

childhood and illustrations of her own making. The result is a sharply etched treatise on the objects of memory—encouraging a perhaps unavoidable comparison to Proust—which sets itself the monumental task of exploring the atrocity of war both as the bombs strike and as they reverberate down through the generations. Because, as Karimi concludes, a “war in one place is like a wound in all,” and what else but the letters of an alphabet, or perhaps sisters, could, “give positive form to the formless” by being “forever in two places at once: bound to their fixed positions—for who could reorder the sequence of an alphabet?—and leaving their posts to form this…word.”

A novel powerful in both its beauty and its uncompromising horror whose themes are as sadly timely as they are eternal.

Koontz, Dean Thomas & Mercer (380 pp.) $28.99 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-1542019507

MARROW AND BONE

Kempowski, Walter Trans. by Collins, Charlotte New York Review Books (224 pp.) $16.95 paper | Mar. 24, 2020 978-1-68137-435-2 A West German writer takes an assignment in Poland that exposes layers of lingering war trauma.

It’s 1988. Journalist Jonathan Fabrizius is living in Hamburg, in an apartment that survived World War II, but his relationship with his girlfriend, Ulla, is crumbling. While she works on an art exhibition about cruelty, he prepares for an assignment to help a luxury carmaker chart a promotional tour through Poland. That’s where, in the war’s waning days, his father was killed in combat and his mother “breathed her last” giving birth to him. “As far as suffering was concerned, this guaranteed him an unparalleled advantage over his friends,” he thinks. He has a pretty easy life, but his outlook is morbid, his humor so biting it’s usually more shocking than funny. Then, just as a reader is settling in for a long, coldhearted meditation on irony, the road trip across Poland begins, and a novel of broad historical and emotional significance unfolds. Kempowski (who died in 2007 but whose All for Nothing was released in English in 2018) captures the zeitgeist of pre-unification Germany in sharp, darkly engaging prose. One traveler marvels “that all the Poles were so friendly. To us Germans! After what we did to them. A third of the population exterminated and all the towns and cities destroyed!” and in the next breath is complaining about the hotel’s scrambled eggs and sweet rolls. First published in German in 1992, this is a time capsule that feels contemporary as it looks for answers to big questions about war and suffering.

Probing a part of WWII that few Americans know, Kempowski reveals how the damage goes on long after the guns fall silent.

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When he and his widowed mother are threatened by a freakish killer, a brilliant 11-year-old boy on the autism spectrum teams with an orphaned dog with human intelligence to fight off evil.

The boy, Woody, hasn’t spoken a word in his life but has created a sophisticated virtual world to escape to and can hack the most complex dark web networks.

He’s determined to avenge his researcher father, who died in a suspicious helicopter crash. The dog, Kipp, orphaned by the death of his aged, loving caretaker, is part of an underground canine network boasting many other similarly advanced, genetically engineered dogs. (These dogs, who call themselves the Mysterium, are capable of such miracles as retrieving books from the library and reading them at night.) Out of the blue, a man who once worked with Woody’s father and briefly dated Megan, Woody’s mother, propositions and then threatens her.

“I am becoming the king of beasts,” he boasts, after having bitten a young woman to death. There is certainly no lack of raw action in the book, Koontz’s first following five novels featuring investigator Jane Hawk. It just takes a certain kind of reader to... swallow the plot. Depending on one’s susceptibility to hearttugging boy-and-dog tales, the novel will either be dismissed as a work of cloying commercial calculation or enjoyed as a crafty blend of genres.

The worst fear raised by this odd creature feature is that it will spawn a sequel.

THE WOMAN OF A THOUSAND NAMES

Lapierre, Alexandra Trans. by Zuckerman, Jeffrey Atria (640 pp.) $30.00 | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-5011-9791-8 The glamorous and fraught life of a Russian aristocrat who survives war, revolution, and several difficult relationships.

This massive novel, based on the life of a real woman, represents a huge amount of research by Lapierre (Between Love and Honor, 2012, etc.), as recorded in her substantial bibliography. Maria Ignatievna Benckendorff nee Zakrevskaya, known as Moura, is precociously intellectual, a young doyenne of imperial Russian society. When she marries her first husband, Ivan “Djon” Benckendorff, a Russian Estonian nobleman, she follows him to Berlin, where she becomes the belle of the czar’s diplomatic corps. Then, after the Great War and the Bolshevik Revolution, the glittering world Moura knew lies in ruins. She manages to survive by her prodigious wits, |

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her fluency in several languages, and her appeal to men. Scrabbling in Saint Petersberg, Moura is separated from her children, who are consigned to what’s left of Djon’s Estonian estate after his assassination. Among her conquests are Robert Lockhart, a British agent implicated in a plot against Lenin; Maxim Gorky, the writer who narrowly escaped several purges; and H.G. Wells.

The novel has all the earmarks of an exhaustive biography, with quotations from original sources—correspondence, diaries, and press clippings—often taking over the narration. The real Moura kept much close to the vest, including the details of an ordeal in a Bolshevik prison. Lapierre respects Moura’s privacy by not imagining the experience—but shouldn’t fiction free an author from such scruples? Likewise, on the “hypothetical” question of whether Moura was a Soviet spy, a British spy, or both, Lapierre lets the truth interfere with a good story—fictional Moura never acknowledges, not even to herself, that she’s an informant. Nevertheless, as history brought to life through the eyes of one woman whose fortunes took her through two wars and tumultuous regime changes, this account is engrossing, especially as to the particulars of existence in a paranoid, postrevolutionary state with a bureaucratic machine as deadly as it is dysfunctional.

Although too long and overly slavish to the record, this multifaceted portrait rescues its heroine from undeserved obscurity.

the hunky Marseille-based industrialist Henri Fiocca, whose dashing courtship involves French 75 cocktails, unexpected appearances, and a drawn-out seduction. As always when going into battle, even the ones with guns and grenades, Nancy says “I wear my favorite armor…red lipstick.” Both strands offer plenty of fireworks and heroism as they converge to explain all. The author begs forgiveness in an informative afterword for all the drinking and swearing. Hey! No apologies necessary!

A compulsively readable account of a little-known yet extraordinary historical figure—Lawhon’s best book to date.

HAMMER TO FALL

Lawton, John Atlantic Monthly (400 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 10, 2020 978-0-8021-4812-4 The adventures of Joe Wilderness across Cold War Europe.

From Berlin, surviving on airlift support, to Finland, England, and, ultimately, Prague in the spring of 1968, MI6 spy Joe Holderness, aka Wilderness, gets into and out of a number of compelling spots of trouble in this installment of his story (The Unfortunate Englishman, 2016, etc.).

At first, and only for a short while, Wilderness and a loose gang of smugglers sell coffee and later peanut butter across the sectors of divided Berlin. Frank, the irritating American, Swift Eddie the driver, the Russians Yuri and Kostya, and Nell Burkhardt, Wilderness’ lover, are all complete and compelling creations, and each member of the group reappears in more grown-up political costume later. Except for small digressions, the action jumps to 1966 Finland, where Kostya and Wilderness establish a nice black-market enterprise and Wilderness exposes an ugly plot involving clandestine cobalt and dirty bombs. Unfortunately, the end user of the cobalt is not the USSR, as Wilderness had assumed, but the U.K., and though his efforts result in the abandonment of an ill-advised weapons program, Wilderness is not everywhere in good odor, hence his assignment to Prague, where all the old conspirators come together in surprising and satisfying ways. But a cursory plot summary does the novel little justice. By turns witty, erudite, and exciting and supporting a host of interesting characters, imaginary and historical (for example Willy Brandt, Miloš Forman, and Václav Havel), the story admirably captures the spirit of post–World War II espionage. With the possible exception of “Wilderness,” a notunreasonable distortion of “Holderness” which might seem less disruptive to British ears than American ones, there’s not one sour note.

A terrific thriller: fun, satisfying, and humane.

CODE NAME HÉLÈNE

Lawhon, Ariel Doubleday (464 pp.) $27.95 | Mar. 31, 2020 978-0-38-554468-9

A historical novel explores the intersection of love and war in the life of Australian-born World War II heroine Nancy Grace Augusta Wake.

Lawhon’s (I Was Anastasia, 2018, etc.) carefully researched, lively historical novels tend to be founded on a strategic chronological gambit, whether it’s the suspenseful countdown to the landing of the Hindenberg or the tale of a Romanov princess told backward and forward at once. In her fourth novel, she splits the story of the amazing Nancy Wake, woman of many aliases, into two interwoven strands, both told in first-person present. One begins on Feb. 29th, 1944, when Wake, code-named Hélène by the British Special Operations Executive, parachutes into Vichy-controlled France to aid the troops of the Resistance, working with comrades “Hubert” and “Denden”—two of many vividly drawn supporting characters. “I wake just before dawn with a full bladder and the uncomfortable realization that I am surrounded on all sides by two hundred sex-starved Frenchmen,” she says. The second strand starts eight years earlier in Paris, where Wake is launching a career as a freelance journalist, covering early stories of the Nazi rise and learning to drink with the hardcore journos, her purse-pooch Picon in her lap. Though she claims the dog “will be the great love of [her] life,” she is about to meet 32

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Bursts with quirky spirit and gleeful comic energy. the roxy letters

BUBBLEGUM

The past isn’t even past—but the one postmodern fictionalist Levin imagines is stranger than most.

Levin turns in a big, futuristic shaggy dog tale, except that the dog isn’t so shaggy. In fact, it’s a rather tidy, lovable little critter called a Curio, or “cure,” a sort of emotional support animal that lends itself to all kinds of bad treatment. In Levin’s future—or past, that is, since most of the action ranges between the early 1980s and the early 2010s—the technological advances we’ve become used to are absent: There are no iPhones, no internet, no Facebook. You’d think that such lacunae would make people feel happy, but instead strange forms of life have been concocted, with inanimate objects capable of feeling and voicing discontent and pain as well as acquiring some of the traits the humans around them possess. Levin’s hero in this overlong but amusing story is an alienated memoirist with the science-fictional name of Belt Magnet. But then, everyone in this story has an unusual moniker: Lotta Hogg, Jonboat Pellmore-Jason, Blackie Buxman, and so forth. His cure has the name Blank, “short for Kablankey, the name I’d given it, at my mother’s suggestion, for the sound of its sneeze.” By the end of the story, even though Blank is a mass-produced laboratory thing, the reader will care for him/it just as much as Belt does— and will certainly be shocked by the horrible things some of the characters do to the inanimate and lab-born things among them.

Says a guy named Triple-J, brightly, “Let’s use those Band-Aids to Band-Aid a cure to the slide at the playground, throw some rocks at it from a distance, and see if something revolutionary develops—some new kind of Curio interaction that doesn’t end in overload, and that we never would have expected to enjoy.” If Levin’s point is that humans are rotten no matter what tools you put in their hands, he proves it again and again.

A pleasingly dystopian exercise in building a world without social media—and without social graces, for that matter.

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been at this job, slinging the same old drinks, same old bar talk, “not doing shit,” really, for decades. She’s spent many a late night honing that skill, but now, at 45 years of age, she’s realizing she should’ve probably been sharpening others—like learning how to use a cellphone or, better yet, the internet. An erstwhile darling of the late-1990s underground party scene in San Francisco, Edie made bucking conformity her thing, so much so that when all her friends moved away and got jobs after the dot-com boom, she stubbornly stayed put in her sketchy Mission warehouse apartment. When her mother dies, Edie’s left to put her Silicon Valley ranch house on the market. As someone with an aversion to “adulting,” things don’t go over well for Lisick’s sulky protagonist. Tedious as it is to read about Edie’s self-inflicted struggles, Lisick’s languid prose has a magnetic pull to it (not dissimilar to the experience of watching a Noah Baumbach film). It’s pleasurable to tag along on Lisick’s winding tour through the Bay Area, even if the guide is kind of a drag. Oscillating between booze and boredom, Edie salts her wounds while bemoaning the “selfaffirming inspirational platitude graffiti” that’s become rampant in her hometown. Ironically, though, Edie’s been avoiding clichés for so long that she’s inevitably become one. She does eventually learn how to navigate the web, but her self-awareness has a long way to go. Lisick’s stringent humor is what makes this tale worth reading, but the scant growth her character makes toward the book’s end just doesn’t feel warranted.

Where the sun always shines, dark shadows will follow.

Levin, Adam Doubleday (784 pp.) $28.95 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-385-54496-2

THE ROXY LETTERS

Lowry, Mary Pauline Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $26.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-9821-2143-3 A series of mostly undelivered letters from a vegan Whole Foods deli maid and Goddess worshiper to her slacker ex-boyfriend.

“Dear Everett, Perhaps I’ve invited you to move into my spare bedroom against my better judgment.” Judgment is not the long suit of Poxy Roxy—so dubbed by her evil supervisor, Dirty Steve, during a bout with chickenpox. Feeling adrift, she turns to columnist Dear Sugar for advice. “The best thing you can possibly do with your life is tackle the motherfucking shit out of it,” says Sugar, and to Roxy, this means organizing a campaign to take down the Lululemon store that is moving into the space once occupied by her beloved Waterloo Video—because Lululemon is not a funky local business. Meanwhile, she’s right across the street at the behemoth Whole Foods flagship store, which erased the character of this supposedly historic intersection when it opened in 1980. Well, it used to be a funky local business, before Roxy was born. Only animal rights is a stronger motivator for Roxy than confused anti-corporate nostalgia. “Thank Goddess that Spider House is still going strong, despite the fact that Starbucks stores have spread through the city faster than an STD in a retirement home.” A clitoral masturbation cult,

EDIE ON THE GREEN SCREEN

Lisick, Beth 7.13 Books (244 pp.) $19.99 paper | Mar. 26, 2020 978-1-7333672-0-2

In Lisick’s (Yokohama Threeway: And Other Small Shames, 2013, etc.) debut novel, a former indie it girl comes to terms with the reality that she is no longer, in fact, it.

Her name is Edie. Or is it? The regulars at the bar think they know her, though they don’t. Edie’s |

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AND THEIR CHILDREN AFTER THEM

romantic liaisons with a skateboarder and a drummer, a feud with her meth-head neighbors, the near death of her weiner dog due to choking on the crotch of her pleather underpants—the predicaments never stop for our millennial heroine. Lowry is the heir apparent to Sarah Bird, whose comic novels Alamo House and The Boyfriend School perfectly captured the Austin of the 1980s. Roxy would love them. We will always remember this as the book that taught us the word “kyriarchy.” Look it up.

Bursts with quirky spirit and gleeful comic energy.

Mathieu, Nicolas Trans. by Rodarmor, William Other Press (432 pp.) $17.99 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-89274-677-1

Winner of the Prix Goncourt in France, Mathieu’s first novel to be translated into English follows three teenagers and their families through four summers in an economically depressed valley far removed from Paris.

It’s 1992, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is the song of the moment, and 14-year-old Anthony Casati is obsessed with the thought of topless girls. He and his cousin steal a canoe and paddle to the fabled nude beach across the local lake. His chance encounter there has far-reaching consequences for him, a wealthy girl named Stéphanie Chaussoy, and an immigrant boy named Hacine Bouali.

Told in four sections, each unfolding over another summer, the novel details the torpor and hopelessness of a deindustrialized valley where children deal hashish and shoot their BB guns at the rusting carcasses of blast furnaces. Mathieu captures the vulnerability and awkwardness of adolescence with painful acuity as the teenagers struggle to find their ways in the world. But his interest extends further, to their families and the place itself; characters and setting are inextricable, as the book’s best writing reveals.

“In midafternoon, a diffuse numbness took hold of the projects....

The towers themselves seemed ready to collapse, swaying in the waves of heat. Every so often, the howl of a tricked-out motorbike would slash through the silence....The boys felt sluggish and hateful.” In the bar that Anthony’s alcoholic father frequents: “People drank in silence until 5 o’clock, and more energetically afterward. Depending on their temperament, they then got sick, funny, or mean.” The conflict between Anthony and Hacine has its roots in the valley’s poverty and racism. In one of several vicious attacks, a punch “carried ancient pains and frustrations.

It was a fist heavy with misery and missed chances, a ton of misspent living.” Mathieu’s sympathy for his characters is cleareyed and generous, and the final section—showing the entire valley caught up in World Cup soccer fever as the French team competes for a place in the finals—is surprisingly moving.

A gritty, expansive coming-of-age novel filled with sex and violence that manages to be tender, even wryly hopeful.

A REASONABLE DOUBT

Margolin, Phillip Minotaur (304 pp.) $27.99 | Mar. 10, 2020 978-1-250-11754-0

A magician’s greatest illusion becomes even more dramatic when he’s killed onstage in front of 3,000 witnesses.

Lord Robert Chesterfield (don’t look too closely at that presumably self-conferred title) has finally perfected his ultimate magic trick: the Chamber of Death, which involves his escape from a bolted sarcophagus filled with scorpions, snakes, and him.

Since Chesterfield’s only public rehearsal for the illusion ended with his vanishing from both the sarcophagus and the face of the Earth for three years, expectations are running high, and the tickets for his performance at the Babylon Casino all seem to have been reserved for everyone the performer has ever crossed. His estranged second wife, Claire Madison, is there, along with her lover, rival magician David Turner, whose professional life took a nose dive when Chesterfield told the world the secret behind Turner’s own trademark illusion. Joe Samuels, one of Chesterfield’s many creditors, is on hand, and although Augustine Montenegro, a harder-edged creditor, couldn’t make it, he’s sent two of his enforcers. Iris Hitchens, who’s never stopped believing that Chesterfield killed her mother, Lily Dowd, the grocery heiress who was his first wife, is watching in rapt attention. So are detectives Tamara Robinson and Lou Fletcher, who’ve come to arrest the magician for theft. There’s hardly room in the crowd for young attorney Robin Lockwood (The Perfect Alibi, 2019, etc.), whose firm defended Chesterfield years ago against the charge of poisoning Sophie Randall, the secretary to Westmont Country Club manager Samuel Moser, who’d accused Chesterfield of cheating at cards and coming on to Sophie and others—and yes, Moser’s in the audience too. It’s clear from the opening pages that the Chamber of Death will be Chesterfield’s last performance; the pages that follow are devoted to filling in the layers upon layers of dubious backstory and multiplying the suspects even further before the guilty party is plucked from thin air.

Lots of tricks up Margolin’s sleeve. Just don’t expect the denouement to bring down the house.

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THE AGE OF WITCHES

Morgan, Louisa Orbit (448 pp.) $28.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-316-41950-5

Three witches attempt to magically alter their futures at the end of the 19th century in this historical fantasy novel.

The third entry in Morgan’s (The Witch’s Kind, 2019, etc.) thematically |

Pain, grief, and hurt are all part of life in this moving portrayal of the many forms love can take. the love story of missy carmichael

connected series of witch novels centers on two descendants of real-life Salem witch Bridget Byshop who wage magical war over the fate of a headstrong teenager. Living in New York City in 1890, distant cousins Harriet and Frances trace their ancestry back to Bridget’s two daughters. Frances’ ancestor inherited Bridget’s “maleficia,” a book of black magic, which would-be socialite Frances intends to use to force her stepdaughter, Annis, into a loveless union with a British marquess to secure her own place in New York society. Harriet has devoted her life and craft to helping women in need, so when she overhears Frances’ plans for Annis—who is also Harriet’s great-niece and one of Bridget’s descendants—she follows them to England. Women’s inability to control their own destinies is clearly a theme here, but the novel’s heavy-handed treatment makes this message more burdensome than enlightening. When she realizes that a forced marriage is set to shatter her dream of breeding her own line of racehorses, Annis melodramatically laments that she is “for sale, like a filly at the horse market.” Morgan’s failure to differentiate between voices—conversations between Annis and Frances are nearly indistinguishable from those between the marquess and his mother in both subject matter and vocabulary—makes it difficult for the reader to connect with the characters’ plights, even at the novel’s climax, as does a jarring opening that quickly alternates between point-of-view characters and pauses several times for lengthy backstory. For all of Frances’ dealings in darkness, an unnecessary attempted rape scene caused by black magic provides the story’s only true moment of suspense.

An underwhelming novel that often gets too heavyhanded with its theme.

brusque neighbor Angela—journalist, friend of Sylvie, and single mother to Otis. And so Missy finds herself tending to a vivacious dog of indeterminate breed, Bob, that she neither wanted nor feels capable of taking care of. Debut author Morrey has deftly created a series of love stories, interwoven together and told in snippets through time: Missy’s undying devotion to Leo, despite his—and her—many flaws; her devotion to her children, which she often isn’t able to verbalize; and her growing niche in the community that Bob—her Bobby, her unexpected companion and confidant—introduces her to during their daily walks.

There are no saccharine moments to mar this tale.

Pain, grief, and hurt are all part of life in this moving portrayal of the many forms love can take.

THE LAST SUMMER OF ADA BLOOM

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Murray, Martine Tin House (312 pp.) $15.95 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-947793-61-3

A family begins to come apart at the seams over the course of a summer in a small Australian town in the early 1980s.

Young Ada Bloom, a dreamy child prone to “looking deeply into things and making up mysteries,” finds her world turned upside down when she stumbles upon her father, Mike, in flagrante delicto with family friend Susie Layton. But Mike’s secret, which Ada shares with her beloved older sister, Tilly, only widens the cracks in the foundation of the Bloom family. Self-absorbed matriarch Martha favors cricket-star son Ben at the expense of Tilly and struggles to be a loving mother to her children while concealing her own dark secret. Tilly, desperate to escape her mother, dreams of Melbourne and her dreamy crush, Raff Cavallo. In her first novel for adults, Murray (Marsh and Me, 2019) paints a vivid picture of the complications of family life and particularly of childhood. While Murray’s adult characters can feel static, her younger protagonists, Tilly and Ada in particular, are immediately gripping. Murray deftly illustrates Tilly’s internal contradictions; at once a rebellious teenager and a young girl frightened of the future, she is startled by her own declaration that she hopes to leave her small hometown. Her spontaneous announcement feels “like a reach for the self she wanted to be, the self that had tottered forward.” Ada’s disillusionment with her father is similarly balanced by a stubborn belief in the world’s beauty and her own force of will; Mike despairs at his cynicism in the face of Ada’s “own raw little love.” Regrettably, the plot loses steam instead of building to a satisfying climax.

Nevertheless, there is much here to admire.

An empathetic family story that works best when illuminating the inner lives of its young female protagonists.

THE LOVE STORY OF MISSY CARMICHAEL

Morrey, Beth Putnam (352 pp.) $26.00 | Feb. 4, 2020 978-0-525-54244-5

An isolated, prickly septuagenarian in London who has lost her husband works to overcome her fears that she is a burden to those around her.

Millicent Carmichael—Missy—married the man she loved, Leo, in 1959. But after a half-century of living, loving, and growing older in a huge house in Stoke Newington, London, he is gone, and she is bereft. Her son and grandson, both of whom she dotes on, live more than 9,000 miles away in Australia, and she is recently estranged from her daughter, who lives nearby in Cambridge. Missy is a difficult person with sharp edges—she knows this, her Leo knew this— and she is at loose ends, having lived in a community for all this time without getting to know anyone because she held so tightly to her family she made no time for anyone else. But now, the loneliness is crushing her. A few life-changing moments happen in quick succession: She faints in the park and meets neighbor Sylvie, who kindly sits with her for a bit; her home is robbed while she feigns sleep; and she agrees to do a favor for |

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BEHELD

He give you a black eye? True love in your tail....He put you in hospital for a week? Love will stay the course. He take the knife and stab your leg? Until death do us part.” Years later, Betty invites her colleague Mr. Chetan to live with her and Solo, her adolescent son, as a platonic lodger. As the three of them get to know each other, they create a stable and loving household.

After Mr. Chetan shares his deepest secret with Betty, she decides to confess her own—only to realize Solo has overheard the devastating details. The moment upends their family and changes their lives forever. To put space between himself and his mother, Solo embarks on a trip to New York to stay with his paternal uncle. Back in Trinidad, Betty tries to fix the relationship with her son while also finding herself as an individual.

Eventually, Mr. Chetan moves out and attempts to live his truth, which puts him in great danger. As the years pass, the three of them grapple with the literal and figurative distance between them. Broken into three parts, the novel oscillates among the three characters’ points of view. Writing in vibrant Trinidadian dialect, Persaud renders her characters with great empathy and care. If the novel’s structure feels a bit uneven (with the second section dragging a bit), the ending gives readers some muchneeded relief.

A harrowing domestic drama full of heart.

Nesbit, TaraShea Bloomsbury (288 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 17, 2020 978-1-63557-322-0 Ten years after founding the first Pilgrim settlement, the colonists are forced to address the strife that roils beneath their utopian dreams.

It’s an August morning in the Plymouth colony, the year 1630. It’s been 10 years since a group arrived on the Mayflower to start life afresh, and today is a day of great anticipation: A fresh wave of people is expected to arrive. Alice Bradford, wife of the colony’s governor, William, is especially anxious. On this new ship will be her stepson, the child left behind by William and his first wife, Dorothy, when they undertook the perilous Mayflower journey.

Alice remains haunted by Dorothy’s death, which occurred under mysterious circumstances, and feels guilt for having usurped her childhood companion for the powerful role of William Bradford’s wife. But the day is full of anticipation in other ways, too. Nesbit (The Wives of Los Alamos, 2014) uses alternating narrators, chiefly Alice Bradford and Eleanor Billington, the wife of a disgruntled, disillusioned colonist, to show the tension and unrest building among those in charge of the fledgling settlement and those who are chafing against the powerful.

A murder will be committed by the time this August day has come to a close, and by the time it does, the settlers will question whether or not they are truly “fashioned in God’s favor,” as they once believed. Although the pacing here can be off-putting (the buildup to the promised disaster is long; the climax, too short) and the sensitively rendered but still peripheral role that the Wampanoag Tribe plays could have used more development, Nesbit’s novel has all the juicy sex, lies, and violence of a prestige Netflix drama and shines surprising light on the earliest years of America, massive warts and all.

A dramatic look at the Pilgrims as seen through women’s eyes.

THE UNSUITABLE

Pohlig, Molly Henry Holt (288 pp.) $27.00 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-250-24628-8

A young Victorian woman avoids marriage at all costs—while being haunted by her dead mother.

“You killed me, remember that.”

Pohlig’s debut novel opens with a conversation between Iseult Wince and her mother, who died giving birth to her. The midwife had to pull her out, leaving Iseult with a neck scar—which is where she believes her mother’s ghost lives. At 28 years old, she is nearing spinsterhood, and Mr. Wince, her father, desperately wants to marry her off. The idea of marriage terrifies Iseult; she sabotages nearly every setup and keeps a little black book called “The Unsuitables,” where she details her failed suitors. Mr. Wince is ruthlessly cruel to his daughter. His emotional abuse is unending to the point that even Iseult hopes he will hit her: “She wished he would, so their mutual hatred could at least be tangible instead of just another ghost in the house.” Luckily, she has Mrs. Pennington, her housekeeper and surrogate mother, who provides some of the kindness and emotional nurturing Iseult has been deprived of. Eventually, Mr. Wince finds a willing admirer in Jacob—a kind fellow outcast with a unique condition: His skin is silver. The forced engagement and impending wedding sends Iseult into further free fall. Her mother’s voice gets stronger and more cruel. Whether it’s with sewing scissors or pins, Iseult’s way of coping with her mother’s voice is self-harm and mutilation. Unfortunately, the novel is bloody

LOVE AFTER LOVE

Persaud, Ingrid One World/Random House (336 pp.) $26.00 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-593-15756-5 A found family attempts to mend their individual and shared wounds.

This novel by Trinidadian author Persaud (If I Never Went Home, 2013), winner of the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, explores self-harm, sexuality, trauma, loneliness, and the idea of home. In the opening chapter, Betty, a young mother, is being physically abused by her husband. After his abrupt death pages later, she says: “That man only gave love you could feel. He cuff you down? Honeymoon.

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Great storytelling, a quirky hero, and a quirkier plot make this a winner for adventure fans. crooked river

LINE OF SIGHT

and graphic in a way that sometimes feels gratuitous. Though there are moments of humor and levity, they are rare. Once such moment is when Iseult wonders what may be expected of her after marriage: “She had received the usual sex education of a moderately privileged Victorian woman—that is to say, none.”

Despite a pitch-perfect final scene, the strange, grotesque novel has too much narrative fluff.

Bloody and bizarre.

Queally, James Polis Books (320 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 10, 2020 978-1-947993-89-1

CROOKED RIVER

Preston, Douglas & Child, Lincoln Grand Central Publishing (368 pp.) $29.00 | Feb. 4, 2020 978-1-5387-4725-4 FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast finds evil afoot in his latest actionfilled adventure (Verses for the Dead, 2018, etc.).

Imagine Florida beachcombers’ shock when they discover a shoe with a severed foot inside. Soon they see dozens more feet, all in identical shoes, bobbing toward the beach. Police and FBI ultimately count more than a hundred of them washing up on Sanibel and Captiva islands’ tranquil shores.

Pendergast teams up with the junior Special Agent Armstrong Coldmoon to investigate this strange phenomenon. Oceanographers use a supercomputer to analyze Gulf currents and attempt to determine where the feet entered the ocean. Were they dumped off a ship or an island? Does each one represent a homicide? Analysts examine chemical residues and pollen, even the angle of each foot’s amputation, but the puzzle defies all explanation. Attention focuses on Cuba, where “something terrible was happening” in front of a coastal prison, and on China, the apparent source of the shoes. The clever plot is “a most baffling case indeed” for the brilliant Pendergast, but it’s the type of problem he thrives on. He’s hardly a stereotypical FBI agent, given for example his lemon-colored silk suit, his Panama hat, and his legendary insistence on working alone—until now.

Pendergast rarely blinks—perhaps, someone surmises, he’s part reptile. But equally odd is Constance Greene, his “extraordinarily beautiful,” smart, and sarcastic young “ward” who has “eyes that had seen everything and, as a result, were surprised by nothing.” Coldmoon is more down to earth: part Lakota, part Italian, and “every inch a Fed.” Add in murderous drug dealers, an intrepid newspaper reporter, coyotes crossing the U.S.– Mexico border, and a pissed-off wannabe graphic novelist, and you have a thoroughly entertaining cast of characters. There is plenty of suspense, and the action gets bloody.

Great storytelling, a quirky hero, and a quirkier plot make this a winner for adventure fans.

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An investigation into the death of a drug dealer uncovers an ugly police conspiracy.

Private Investigator Russell Avery generally makes his living as a “handyman” for the Newark police, fixing a variety of complaints and misunderstandings. When social activist Keyonna Jackson asks him to look into the shooting death of Kevin Mathis, a teenage street-level dealer, he is reluctant because, well, drug dealers get shot. But Avery learns Mathis had a cellphone with a video of the police shooting of his friend Luis Becerra, raising the possibility that Mathis was killed by police seeking to suppress the recording, and though justice for Mathis might involve investigating the hands that feed him, Avery decides to take the case. After the video is made public and becomes the cause of enduring Black Lives Matter demonstrations, Avery is pulled in several directions: Police officials tell him he is following false leads and threaten his PI license; his ex-girlfriend Dina, who is a reporter, wants to run a story that may be incomplete; Keyonna sees the shootings as symptoms of social injustice, regardless of the facts; and Avery’s own loyalties and friendships within the police department are strained. Overall, the various factions neatly represent public voices in the broader discussion of crime and responsibility, and to that degree the novel is formulaic. If the minor characters lack authenticity and their dialogue all sounds similar, Avery’s first-person voice is strong and distinct, and his moral quandaries are real and immediate.

A creditable debut thriller, if a little too neat.

THE LAST ODYSSEY

Rollins, James Morrow/HarperCollins (464 pp.) $28.99 | Mar. 24, 2020 978-0-06-289291-1 Inferno with rocket launchers and astrolabes: Rollins (Crucible, 2019, etc.) takes his readers to hell.

You’re making a mistake if you approach a Rollins novel without suspending every ounce of disbelief that you hold. Otherwise, who would swallow a hook baited with the premise that, by way of the ancient Homeric epics, modern jihadists are on the verge of leveraging the supernatural powers of the underworld, following the footsteps of a shadowy cabal, which, as Pope Leo X tells Leonardo da Vinci—yes, that Leonardo da Vinci—once upon a time “found the entrance to Hell”?

It’s up to the good guys of Sigma Force, the secret and highly lethal special-ops division of the Defense Advanced Research |

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A mother and her child-prodigy daughter struggle to survive the Holocaust by telling stories and remembering the power of music.

Projects Agency, to save the world from such malign possibilities. As always, Cmdr. Gray Pierce and company perform superhuman feats in the service of truth, justice, and the American way, with some sympathetic and highly capable civilian in tow.

In this case, it’s a scholar named Elena Cargill, who, apart from holding “dual PhDs in paleoanthropology and archaeology,” is also the daughter of the chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, making her an attractive target indeed. As we meet her, Elena is working through an archaeological puzzle: How did the Arabian super-dhow that she’s discovered under hundreds of feet of Greenlandic ice get there? It might just have something to do with a clockwork mechanism that steers interested parties toward the flaming depths of Tartarus and its resident demons, titans, metal mastiffs, and their ilk. You’d think it no place to visit, but it’d be handy to have such tools in one’s kit if one were bent on world conquest. So it is that Elena and the DARPAnauts go up against a nefarious band of terrorists, one a James Bond–worthy giant and the other, this being equalopportunity evil, a smart and ever so ill-tempered woman who “savor[s] the kill to come” and wreaks an awful lot of damage, as supervillains will. Mayhem ensues.

Improbable and sometimes silly, but Rollins spins an entertaining thriller out of a long string of what-ifs.

TRUST ME

Santos, Richard Z. Arte Público (312 pp.) $17.95 paper | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-55885-904-3 Charles O’Connell, a disgraced political consultant on the cusp of a busted marriage, and Gabriel Luna, a laborer at the end of his rope, invest their last hopes in a controversial airport project being built on purchased Indian land in

New Mexico.

Construction has stalled after a bulldozer digs up a skeleton and a previously unheard-from Apache tribe claims the land is sacred ground where Geronimo is buried. The unscrupulous developer, who secretly plans on adding a casino to the project, has hired Charles as a PR man to assuage his opponents.

Charles, slow to realize he is being used, must decide if the money he stands to make is worth the ethical breaches he must commit. Gabe, who has been told he has bone cancer by a posthippie shaman who dispenses medical mushrooms, is desperate to reconnect with his teenage son, having been abandoned by his own mother when he was a boy. While waiting for his job driving a dump truck on the airport site to resume, he deals marijuana to pay his ex-wife what he owes her while promising he will reform. Boasting a nicely understated comedic tone, Santos’ first novel deftly draws the reader into the machinations of its plot. Though the paths of the woebegone protagonists never cross, denying the novel some rich possibilities, the book boasts other rewarding mismatches. In its depictions of backroom dealing, it reflects the author’s early experience as a political campaign worker.

A compulsively readable debut by a Texas writer who knows his New Mexico.

THE YELLOW BIRD SINGS

Rosner, Jennifer Flatiron Books (304 pp.) $25.99 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-250-17977-7

Rosner’s debut novel is a World War II story with a Room-like twist, one that also deftly examines the ways in which art and imagination can sustain us.

Five-year-old Shira is a prodigy. She hears entire musical passages in her head, which “take shape and pulse through her, quiet at first, then building in intensity and growing louder.” But making sounds is something Shira is not permitted to do. She and her mother, Róża, are Jews who are hiding in a barn in German-occupied Poland. Soldiers have shot Róża’s husband and dragged her parents away, and after a narrow escape, mother and daughter cower in a hayloft day and night, relying on the farmer and his wife to keep them safe from neighbors and passing patrols. The wife sneaks Shira outside for fresh air; the husband visits Róża late at night in the hayloft to exact his price. To keep Shira occupied and quiet the rest of the time, Róża spins tales of a little girl and a yellow bird in an enchanted but silent garden menaced by giants; only the bird is allowed to sing. But when Róża is offered a chance to hide Shira in an orphanage, she must weigh her daughter’s safety against her desire to keep the girl close.

Rosner builds the tension as the novel progresses, wisely moving the action out of the barn before the premise grows tired or repetitive. This is a Holocaust novel, but it’s also an effective work of suspense, and Rosner’s understanding of how art plays a role in our lives, even at the worst of times, is impressive.

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THE DOMINANT ANIMAL

Scanlan, Kathryn MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (160 pp.) $15.00 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-374-53829-3

Microstories offer glances of the unsettling power dynamics at the heart of every relationship.

In “The First Whiffs of Spring,” the opening story of this experimental collection, the narrator, riding a public bus on her way to a gettogether, spots a sign featuring a cartoon cow, lipsticked and bonneted. The image echoes in the human performances of |

In Japan, a daughter explores the crime of passion that took her mother’s life. what’s left of me is yours

her day: She recalls it at the celebration she attends where she herself is dressed up, in the overdecorated house, and in the helpless baby, “the cause of our celebration,” with “its swollen face, its unseeing eyes.” (If the rest of Scanlan’s stories are anything to go by, that baby is lucky it can’t see much yet.) As a good first story should be, this one is emblematic of Scanlan’s (Aug 9—Fog, 2019) book as a whole: a quick glimpse of a weird world, with the readers as passengers just catching a startling tableau only to find it vanished when we turn to see it closer, leaving us to ponder what it might mean. This lightning-fast vision means that Scanlan jettisons traditional story elements in favor of tone and image, which are almost always disquieting. In “Mother’s Teeth,” a daughter spends the day with her cancer-riddled mother and reflects on their bitter relationship.

In the title story, the narrator’s observations of the man next door and his dogs prompt her recollection of her own ill-fated stint as a dog owner. In “Vagrants,” an impoverished couple drives through wealthy neighborhoods; indeed, many of Scanlan’s stories focus on couples floating through often grotesque circumstances, as in “Please,” in which a woman is tormented by her husband’s constipation.

Readers with a high tolerance for ambiguity will find much to admire in these fleeting pieces.

details of Japanese landscape and food but perhaps not adding enough new information to maintain the level of interest set by the sensational details in the first pages.

An unusual and stylish story of love and murder—less a mystery than a study of emotions and cultural mores.

THE PRETTIEST STAR

Sickels, Carter Hub City Press (288 pp.) $26.00 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-938235-62-7

WHAT’S LEFT OF ME IS YOURS

Scott, Stephanie Doubleday (352 pp.) $26.95 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-0-385-54470-2

In Japan, a daughter explores the crime of passion that took her mother’s life.

Sumiko was just 7 when her mother died and her father moved away; she was raised by her grandfather, who has always maintained that her mother was killed in a car accident.

Twenty years later, she answers a phone call meant for him from a prison administrator with information about inmate Kaitarō Nakamura; when the caller realizes whom she is speaking with, she hangs up. With just this detail, Sumiko begins an obsessive quest. She turns up an article headlined “WAKARESASEYA AGENT GOES TOO FAR?” from which she learns that Kaitarō Nakamura was an agent in the “marriage breakup” industry. He was hired by her father to seduce her mother in order to provide grounds for divorce. Nakamura claims that he and her mother had fallen in love and were about to start a new life together.

When Sumiko visits Nakamura’s defense attorney, the woman hands over all her files and videotaped interviews with her client.

Weaving through the story of Sumiko’s search and her recollections of her childhood is the story of her mother and her lover, from the moment he pretended to meet her accidentally at the market and moving inexorably to the murder scene. Scott is a Singaporean British writer born and raised in Southeast Asia; her debut is inspired by a 2010 case in Tokyo and based on years of research. The book proceeds slowly, lingering on enjoyable |

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A young man dying of AIDS returns to his Ohio hometown, where people think homosexuality is a sin and the disease is divine punishment.

Brian left Chester when he was 18, seeking freedom to be who he was in New York City. Now, in 1986, he’s 24, his partner and virtually all of their friends are dead, and he’s moving into the disease’s late stages. “He turned his back on his family to live a life of sin and he’s sick because of it,” thinks his mother, Sharon; nonetheless she says yes when Brian asks if he can come home after years of estrangement. His father, Travis, insists they must keep Brian’s illness and sexuality a secret; he makes Sharon set aside tableware and bedclothes exclusively for their son and wash them separately wearing gloves. Sickels (The Evening Hour, 2012) doesn’t gloss over the shame Brian’s family feels nor the astonishing cruelty of their friends and neighbors when word gets out. Brian’s ejection from the local swimming pool is the first in a series of increasingly ugly incidents: vicious phone calls, hate mail to the local newspapers, graffiti on the family garage, a gunshot through the windshield of his father’s car. Grandmother Lettie is Brian’s only open defender, refusing to speak to friends who ostracize him and boycotting the diner that denied him service. Younger sister Jess, taunted at school, wishes he’d never come home and tells him so. This unvarnished portrait of what people are capable of when gripped by ignorance and fear is relieved slightly by a few cracks in the facade of the town’s intolerance, some moments of kindness or at least faint regret as Brian’s health worsens over the summer and fall. Sharon and Travis both eventually acknowledge they have failed their son; she makes some amends while he can only grieve. Sickels’ characters are painfully flawed and wholly, believably human in their failings. This unflinching honesty, conveyed in finely crafted prose, makes for a memorable and unsettling novel.

Powerfully affecting and disturbing.

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Brilliantly off-kilter and vibrating with life. the knockout queen

MAN OF MY TIME

between the tricks he is pulling and the magic act that is the ostensible subject of his novel. Or is it? As Swift writes of a magician and the assistant to whom he is betrothed, “The act had become a fluid phenomenon, yet full of a thrilling tension.

You never knew what might happen next. This in itself became part of the attraction.” And so it is with this slight but charming novel, which opens with two men and a woman, introducing a triangle. The woman is Evie (“first of women”), and the names of the two men keep shifting, as the novel suggests that identities tend to do. One is Jack, the emcee of the show, a song-anddance man in charge of the pacing of the production. The other is magician Ronnie, who becomes “the Great Pablo” at Jack’s behest. Though the novel seems to introduce Jack as the protagonist, it is Ronnie’s backstory that dominates. Where Jack and Evie had both been pushed toward the stage by showbiz mothers, “Ronnie Deane was a different kettle of fish and as Evie, but only with some persistence, would find out, had had a different introduction to the world of entertainment, and a different kind of mother.” Two of them, in fact, or maybe two different childhoods, as he had been sent to safety during the World War II bombings by an impoverished mother to a more privileged home in the countryside. There, Ronnie became a different boy, with a different destiny, one that would lead him first to Jack and then, at Jack’s behest, to Evie. The bare bones of the plot don’t have much more flesh on them, but the hocus pocus of identity and destiny, how we become who we are and make the choices we do, offers plenty of surprise as well as revelation.

A novel that agrees with Shakespeare that all the world’s a stage.

Sofer, Dalia Farrar, Straus and Giroux (384 pp.) $27.00 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-374-11006-2 Iran’s brutal and tragic years of upheaval are evoked through a one-time revolutionary’s rueful reflections.

Hamid Mozaffarian has arrived in New York City at a cold and lonely phase of his life. Having served almost three decades interrogating those considered enemies of the Iranian government, he is now helping his country’s minister for foreign affairs deal with “a tiff ” between their navy and the Americans in the Persian Gulf.

Hamid’s diplomatic mission enables him to reestablish contact with his mother and brother, from whom he’d been estranged since they exiled themselves to America after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He agrees to their request to carry, in a mint candy tin, the ashes of his father, who’d died two weeks earlier, so they can be scattered back in Iran. In the meantime, while in New York, Hamid struggles to come to grips with choices he’s made that have also left him alienated from his wife and daughter back home. A sensitive, artistic boy fascinated by the vulnerability of glass objects, Hamid grew up bewildered by his scholarly father’s distant, sometimes severe behavior toward him.

Young Hamid was likewise bemused by his father’s shift from opposing the shah to working for him. His father explained: “Slowly, slowly I became the system.” Ironically, the same became true for Hamid, as he reached his young manhood as an idealistic revolutionary seeking the shah’s overthrow. Soon he proved himself dedicated to the Ayatollah Khomeini’s republic by carrying out an appalling act of betrayal against his father, and over the succeeding decades he became deeply entrenched in his country’s draconian system of dispensing justice. One is often tempted while reading this novel to think of Hamid as little more than an introspective species of monster. But Sofer (The Septembers of Shiraz, 2007) brings compassion, insight, and acerbic humor to her depiction of a man at once too intelligent to altogether ignore the consequences of his behavior yet helpless to withstand the turbulent momentum of history.

A perceptive, humane inquiry into Iran’s history and soul.

THE KNOCKOUT QUEEN

Thorpe, Rufi Knopf (288 pp.) $26.95 | Apr. 28, 2020 978-0-525-65678-4

Thorpe (Dear Fang, With Love, 2016) takes a familiar plotline—a pair of teen misfits form an unlikely but life-altering friendship—and turns it into an arrestingly original, darkly comic meditation on moral ambiguity.

After his mother goes to prison for stabbing his violent father with a fruit knife, Michael moves in with his aunt in the idyllic Southern California suburb of North Shore, and it is there he meets Bunny Lampert. “She was the princess of North Shore,” he recalls, from the vantage of adulthood, “and somehow, almost against my will, I became her friend.” Bunny is a somewhat unlikely princess: a tall, tall volleyball star with a dead mother, an affably sleazy father, and the overdeveloped abs of a Ninja Turtle. Michael, meanwhile, is a gay, long-haired, septum-pierced high achiever with a secret relationship with a much older man and an after-school job at Rite Aid. What they have in common, besides geographic proximity, traumatic childhoods, and a general lack of adult supervision, is a failure

HERE WE ARE

Swift, Graham Knopf (208 pp.) $22.95 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-0-525-65805-4 A sleight-of-hand novel about a seaside British revue in the late 1950s, before everything changed.

Master novelist Swift (Last Orders, 1996, etc.) invites readers to see parallels 40

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SENSELESS WOMEN

to fit into the prescribed roles of gender identity: “as often as I was failing to pass as a straight boy…Bunny was failing to pass as a girl.” This is not only because she is big—6-feet-3-inches and 200 pounds by senior year—but also happy and confident, a “combination of qualities,” Michael notes, people found “displeasing in a young woman.” And it is exactly these qualities that will do Bunny in, in a single moment of violence that feels both shocking and predestined, forever changing both their lives. But there are no victims here and no heroes, either. In Thorpe’s Technicolor world, everyone is an innocent and everyone is culpable and no one is absolved, and the result is a novel both nauseatingly brutal and radically kind.

Brilliantly off-kilter and vibrating with life.

Wallman, Sarah Harris Univ. of Massachusetts (208 pp.) $19.95 paper | Feb. 17, 2020 978-1-62534-518-9

THE ANCESTOR

Trussoni, Danielle Morrow/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $27.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-06-291275-6 Scientific speculation seeps into the world of the eerie in Trussoni’s (The For­ tress, 2016, etc.) lush thriller.

Alberta Monte, known to all as Bert, is mourning a miscarriage and has recently separated from her husband when she receives a letter at her Hudson Valley home informing her that she has been identified as the last living descendant of the House of Montebianco. Despite a “creeping sense of danger slithering up my spine,” Bert allows the estate’s lawyer to sweep her off by private jet first to a luxury hotel in Turin and then by helicopter to Montebianco Castle in the remote, snowbound Italian Alps. Finding herself without cellphone or internet access, and observing that the helicopter pilot doesn’t return for her at the promised time, Bert begins to suspect that her inheritance has its minuses as well as its pluses. Life inside the castle, which comes complete with eccentric caretakers, vicious guard dogs, and a madwoman in the attic, is hard enough. Outside the castle live blue-eyed, white-haired, big-footed monsters with whom, she comes to understand, she shares a surprising kinship. As she discovers her links with those inside the castle and outside it, her sense of danger grows. Trussoni plays here with the contemporary obsession with using DNA to uncover the past and employs some far-fetched scientific theories to explain the nature and existence of the humanoids that Bert gradually realizes are somehow connected to the complicated bloodline of the mysterious Montebiancos. Few, however, are likely to read the novel for its insights into genetics and biology. At its heart, this is an opulently romantic horror tale, with a plucky, if not always sensible, heroine who discovers she is part of a family whose dark secrets have been sheltered from the world at large.

Passion trumps reason in this gothic extravaganza.

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Being a woman is no walk in the park in this debut collection of intricately plotted, sometimes fabulist stories.

Women suffer, Wallman suggests, whether because they’re concerned mothers, jealous lovers, or dieting wives.

Sometimes men are the source of this pain, but often women are to blame. In “The Dead Girls Show,” dead women (like the Hanged Girl and Arabella, the anorexic) put on a ghastly show where men can come and ogle their emaciated bodies and broken necks. But it’s the no-nonsense strippers who see the dead girls as a threat and beat them up. Competition among women is also at the heart of “Senseless Women.” A nurse named Miriam becomes obsessed with a patient who speaks incessantly even though she has lost her mind. As their histories merge, it becomes clear that Miriam’s fallen prey to jealousy and drifted from her family. Plot twists and aha moments drive many of these pieces, sometimes successfully, as in “The Malanesian,” which moves between the story of a runaway teenager and that of an affluent couple and their foreign maid until the two narratives come together with a satisfying pop. In “Only Children,” however, a plot swerve cheapens an otherwise shrewd exploration of stepparenting. Indeed, when Wallman hews closer to realism, she shows off her considerable talent for expressing things dangerously thorny and fiercely true. In “Junk Food,” which is about nothing more and nothing less than a mother spending the night with her ailing newborn, the protagonist reckons, “She did not wish she was in Italy. She did not unwish the baby. She was caught in the suffering of wanting to wish these things, wanting even to remember them clearly, and running up against a blockage of pain knitted from love and hormones.”

Imaginative work that shows how much women deserve better plots.

IN OUR OTHER LIVES

Wheeler, Theodore Little A (292 pp.) $24.95 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-5420-1651-3

The third book from Wheeler (Kings of Broken Things, 2017, etc.) has the form of a post–9/11 thriller, but it’s really a psychological novel: What are the mysteries that surveillance can’t lay bare, that sleuthing can’t solve or pin down?

It’s 2008. Tyler Ahls, a former ROTC cadet and Christian missionary from Wisconsin who disappeared months earlier on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, appears in a terrorist propaganda video, startling his sister, Elisabeth Holland, an |

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Omaha nurse. Elisabeth is no stranger to tragedy; three years earlier, her husband abruptly drove away from their Chicago apartment, disappearing without a trace; soon after, their infant son died suddenly. Now, after the propaganda video, FBI Special Agent Frank Schwaller—who, thanks to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant and a resulting mass of surveillance data, knows much, much more than Elisabeth does about both brother and husband—comes to Omaha to see if he can unravel the knot of connections between and among these three. The novel’s strength is in its portrait of the stoic, tough, but uncynical Elisabeth. Her coping mechanism through all the trials of her life—overbearing and hyperreligious evangelical Christian parents, a private-college experience curtailed by an injury that took away her athletic scholarship, runaway husband, the shocking death of her child—has been to move briskly along and then shelter in place, not delving too deeply into her own motives or anyone else’s. It’s not that she’s incurious; it’s that she knows that investigating the whereabouts or motives of those who’ve left her will avail her nothing. That attitude makes her a subject of fascination for Schwaller. Other elements of the book don’t quite coalesce, and sometimes details, especially those about federal law enforcement and surveillance, don’t quite ring true, but Elisabeth fascinates.

A compelling portrait wrapped inside a less compelling international plot.

Her most trusted ally, showman P.T. Barnum, helps her develop confidence and public speaking skills but also seems intent on drawing her into a dangerous flirtation. Clad in a bloomer work costume designed and executed by Wash, whose sewing prowess far exceeds her own, Emily gradually overcomes gender prejudice and wins over her bitterest opponents, although her people-pleasing is itself gender-stereotypical. The writing meticulously evokes the sights, sounds, and smells of 1870s New York—if, at times, Wood seems to embrace the Barbara Taylor Bradford school of décor-forward description. Dialogue is inconsistent, ranging from glib to stilted.

Wood spares no detail in showing us what led up to that first stroll across the great bridge—by a woman.

THE COYOTES OF CARTHAGE

Wright, Steven Ecco/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $26.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-06-295166-3

This dark comedy about dark money confirms one’s worst suspicions about the political process while constantly confounding one’s presumptions about human behavior.

Once an up-and-coming operative for a prestigious K Street political consulting firm, Andre “Dre” Ross now finds himself on thin ice for having gone overboard on a gubernatorial campaign. His boss offers him what seems to be one last chance for advancement: the opportunity to supervise a ballot initiative that would enable a metals conglomerate to mine gold from a thousand-acre Appalachian rainforest in Carthage County, South Carolina, that local officials refuse to sell. Making the county’s predominantly white and mostly conservative electorate willing to part with such fertile land shouldn’t require much more than ramping up antigovernment, don’t-tread-on-me emotions. But because Dre is African American and has a criminal record in his youthful past, he may be the least likely public face to put before presumptive voters. So he assembles a team co-led by a strapping 20-something Irish American assistant named Brendan and a lead spokesman named Tyler Lee, who owns a bar called the Gray Wolf and flies both the American and Confederate flags.

An even bigger asset to the campaign turns out to be Tyler’s pregnant, God-fearing wife, Chalene, whose fragile, self-effacing demeanor belies her natural magnetism as a public speaker.

Pulling strings on this movement takes an emotional toll on Dre, who is capable of orchestrating all manner of dirty tricks to fulfill his client’s mandate. Yet he is pummeled by so much self-loathing that he alienates everybody on his team with the possible exception of Chalene, the least cynical person in the novel. “Aren’t elections about getting people to like you?” she asks Dre at one point. “That’s a common misconception,” he replies. “Elections are about getting voters to hate others.”

That this debut novel is written by an attorney whose specialties include criminal justice and election law adds doleful,

THE ENGINEER’S WIFE

Wood, Tracey Enerson Sourcebooks Landmark (352 pp.) $26.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-4926-9813-5 When the chief engineer falls ill, his wife steps up to direct the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Wood’s debut novel fictionalizes the story of Emily and Washington Roebling, the real couple who took on the immense Brooklyn Bridge construction project. Emily’s involvement was not intentional. For a respectable lady in 1870, it was frowned upon to leave the house without a chaperone, much less manage an all-male crew of foulmouthed laborers. However, Emily is determined to resist domestic constraints, especially since, due to complications attending the birth of son Johnny, the Roebling family will remain small. She intends to join the suffragist movement, but a series of tragedies besetting the bridge project interferes. Her father-in-law dies of tetanus following a worksite crash, necessitating that Wash take over as chief engineer.

One of the main virtues here is Wood’s grasp of the logistics of construction without today’s heavy equipment. Underwater caissons had to be seated on the bedrock at both ends of the bridge to anchor the towers. The caisson-sinking process, involving significant pressure issues and the need to provide oxygen to men working underwater, causes many cases of “caisson disease,” i.e., the bends. Wash himself is afflicted, and during his extended recovery, Emily must act as his intermediary with a fractious group of workers, investors, and corrupt politicians.

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A vital contribution to America’s conversation about itself. how much of these hills is gold

m ys t e r y

acerbic authenticity to his scenario. Yet there is also alertness to the possibility of redemption and change even in the most polarizing of situations.

Politics can be cruel and heartbreaking—and even more complicated than it seems.

DEATH OF A BEAN COUNTER

Balzo, Sandra Severn House (208 pp.) $28.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-7278-8946-1

HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD

Zhang, C Pam Riverhead (288 pp.) $26.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-525-53720-5

A first-time novelist explores timely questions about home and belonging in a story set during the gold rush in a reimagined American West.

Even now, when most of what used to be the Wild West has begun to look like everywhere else—a few big cities spread out among sprawling suburbs full of chain restaurants and strip malls, connected by interstate highways and digital networks—a mythic version of this part of the country endures alongside the reality. That there is a place where anyone can strike it rich or, failing that, at least live free is one of the stories Americans love to tell ourselves. Zhang plays with this duality in her brutally lyrical debut. Lucy and Sam’s family left China for North America with the idea that their father, Ba, would become a prospector. The gold rush is over before they get there, though; he ends up mining coal instead. Sam’s daydreams of being a cowboy exist alongside the naked racism his family endures, but the romantic wish to be an outlaw comes true when Lucy and Sam are forced to flee their small mining village after their father’s death, taking his corpse with them because they lack the means to give it the burial that will let his ghost rest. As they travel through desiccated landscapes littered with the bones of tigers and buffalo, Lucy and Sam meet archetypes we think we know from Westerns, but they are stripped of romance. The journey of these two children—and the backstories of their parents—force us to confront just how white the history we’ve been taught is. Aside from fictions—some fanciful inventions, some hateful lies—about Native Americans, we don’t hear much about the experiences of people of color and immigrants in shaping the West. Zhang asks readers to acknowledge a legacy we have been taught to ignore by creating a new and spellbinding mythology of her own.

Aesthetically arresting and a vital contribution to America’s conversation about itself.

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Maggy Thorsen (Murder à la Mocha, 2019, etc.) must save her barista from a murder charge.

Free spirit Amy Caprese is very much her own woman. It surprised her boss, Maggy, and Maggy’s business partner, Sarah Kingston, to see Amy date staid attorney Kip Fargo, and it surprises them again to hear that Amy turned down a proposal from the much older financial adviser. But it’s Amy’s turn to be shocked when Maggy’s fiance, Sheriff Jake Pavlik, comes into Uncommon Grounds to tell the three women that Kip’s been found shot to death in his bed. It’s a long, strange journey from there, with Maggy walking a fine line between breaking faith with Pavlik by sharing too much information about the investigation with Amy and letting her employee down by allowing her to be railroaded into a possible murder charge—a charge that doesn’t even make that much sense since Amy had no reason to want to kill Kip; it’s the murdered Kip who was angry with Amy. But the absence of other suspects makes the police bear down on the one person they know quarreled with Kip right before his death. And Amy’s sudden reunion with her old flame Jacque Oui looks sketchy, although again, not really a motive for murder. As Maggy pokes more deeply into the Fargo household, which includes Kip’s grown children, Jason and Jayden, frog-obsessed gardener Rafael, and Mrs. Gilroy, a housekeeper straight out of Daphne du Maurier, she has more reason to believe that Kip is not the solid financial citizen he seemed to be.

Not an espresso or a caramel latte—just a regular American cuppa Joe.

DEATH AND THE CHEVALIER

Blake, Robin Severn House (288 pp.) $28.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-7278-8920-1

A coroner finds himself in hot water when the forces of Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the throne, invade England in 1745.

The populace in the Preston area, where coroner Titus Cragg lives, is split between Jacobite supporters of the Bonnie Prince and Hanoverians who support the German George, but both are fearful of being caught up in a war. A constable calls |

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Cragg and his friend Dr. Luke Fidelis (Rough Music, 2019, etc.) to a rural area where a naked headless body has been discovered.

Soon enough, they find a head, but it doesn’t go with the body.

After discovering a second head and body, Fidelis deduces that the men were Highlanders, perhaps advance scouts. It’s a ticklish case in which the law is murky and their only clue a bit of a tartan. The dead men may have been visiting Barrowclough Hall, home to a father and son with violently opposed political views. After the younger Barrowclough and his servant, Abel Grant, deny any knowledge of the incident, the jury reaches a verdict of death by an unknown hand. The discovery by one of Cragg’s law clients of a purse filled with gold coins involves Cragg in a dangerous situation when the client is killed and his housekeeper accuses the Scots. Then the arrival of the rebel army forces Cragg to house some of the leaders, including the Marquis d’Éguilles, whom Cragg catches trying to rape his wife, Elizabeth. Cragg’s problems grow as he’s arrested for killing the headless Highlanders, escapes with Fidelis’ help, and becomes embroiled with a famous highwayman who claims that the purse full of gold coins is his. It will take all of Cragg’s skills and a bit of luck to uncover the links among all these mysteries and save himself and his family from disaster.

Blake effortlessly combines a complex puzzle with some fascinating, little-known historical facts.

him from a killer who regards Nate’s arrest as an unwelcome complication. That’s quite a tall order for someone who can’t shoot straight, who keeps wrecking his state-issued vehicles, and whose appalling mother-in-law, Missy Vankeuren Hand, has returned from her latest European jaunt to suck up all the oxygen in Twelve Sleep County to hustle some illegal drugs for her cancer-stricken sixth husband. But fans of this outstanding series will know better than to place their money against Joe. One protest from an outraged innocent says it all: “This is America. This is Wyoming.”

MURDER AT THE TAFFY SHOP

Day, Maddie Kensington (304 pp.) $7.99 paper | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-4967-1508-1

A bike shop owner and her book club pals keep solving mysteries in ways that somehow don’t endear them to the police (Murder on Cape Cod, 2018, etc.).

Mackenzie Almeida, the proprietor of Mac’s Bikes in the touristy Cape Cod town of Westham, is dating Tim Brunelle, the caring and handsome owner of an artisanal bakery, who wants to get married and start a family. That’s not something independent neat freak Mac is ready to do. She enjoys living in her tiny house with Belle, her talkative parrot, for company. When Mac and her best friend, Gin, come across the dead body of wealthy Beverly Ruchart outside Gin’s taffy shop, Mac’s romantic problems get put on the back burner, especially since Gin is a suspect. She and her date, Eli Tubin, the widower of Beverly’s daughter, had attended a party at Beverly’s home only the night before. Beverly seems to have died from a heart attack, but an autopsy finds that she was poisoned with antifreeze, some of which has been planted in Gin’s garage. Of course Mac and her cohorts at the book club can’t resist a little sleuthing. They uncover several other plausible suspects: Beverly’s ne’er-do-well grandson, Ron, his Russian girlfriend, and his long-absent father, who has a police record. Although Beverly could be generous, she had a sharp tongue that made her plenty of enemies. Her interest in genealogy and reuniting longlost parents and children endeared her to Wesley Farnham, for whom she found a son, but not so much to Farnham’s daughter, who misses being an only child. Although Mac turns her findings over to the police, she still attracts the killer’s notice and ends up owing her life to Belle.

The romantic doings of the likable characters are more interesting than the mediocre mystery.

LONG RANGE

Box, C.J. Putnam (368 pp.) $28.00 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-0-525-53823-3 Once again, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett gets mixed up in a killing whose principal suspect is his old friend Nate Romanowski, whose attempts to live off the grid keep breaking down in a series of felony charges.

If Judge Hewitt hadn’t bent over to pick up a spoon that had fallen from his dinner table, the sniper set up nearly a mile from his house in the gated community of the Eagle Mountain Club would have ended his life. As it was, the victim was Sue Hewitt, leaving the judge alive and free to rail and threaten anyone he suspected of the shooting. Incoming Twelve Sleep County Sheriff Brendan Kapelow’s interest in using the case to promote his political ambitions and the judge’s inability to see further than his nose make them the perfect targets for a frame-up of Nate, who just wants to be left alone in the middle of nowhere to train his falcons and help his bride, Liv Brannon, raise their baby, Kestrel. Nor are the sniper, the sheriff, and the judge Nate’s only enemies. Orlando Panfile has been sent to Wyoming by the Sinaloan drug cartel to avenge the deaths of the four assassins whose careers Nate and Joe ended last time out (Wolf Pack, 2019).

So it’s up to Joe, with some timely data from his librarian wife, Marybeth, to hire a lawyer for Nate, make sure he doesn’t bust out of jail before his trial, identify the real sniper, who continues to take an active role in the proceedings, and somehow protect 44

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DEATH OF AN AMERICAN BEAUTY

Fredericks, Mariah Minotaur (288 pp.) $26.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-250-21088-3

A lady’s maid searches for a vicious killer.

Much as she enjoys working for New York socialite Louise Tyler, whose easygoing nature allows a certain degree of amity between employer and employee, Jane Prescott (Death of a New American, 2019, etc.) is looking forward to her week off. She wants to enjoy some of the cultural delights Gilded Age New York has to offer—particularly the new, reputedly scandalous exhibition of cubist art at the Armory. She’s even happy to be spending time with her only living relative, her sometimesdistant and prickly uncle, the Rev. Tewin Prescott, at the refuge he runs for former prostitutes. But her holiday is interrupted by two crises of unequal proportions, although pressed with equal urgency. Mrs. Tyler calls Jane in a panic because the American Beauty pageant sponsored by Rutherford’s department store, the palace of consumption owned by George Rutherford, husband to Louise’s good friend and fellow socialite Dolly, is imperiled by the abrupt departure of its seamstress. And the police suspect Jane’s uncle of involvement in the murder of Sadie Ellis, a resident of the refuge. Buoyed by Fredericks’ deft plotting and lucid prose, Jane handles each crisis with aplomb. The author’s brisk timing even leaves room for a budding romance between Jane and a pianist with an eye for the ladies, a more complicated relationship with a married journalist, some hijinks at the Acme Café, a dance hall owned by local gangster Chick Tricker, and a serious look at race relations in early-20th-century America.

A welcome addition to the lady’s-maid-cozy corner.

y o u n g a d u lt

Sir Percy Feltham, who topped himself over a family financial scandal back in 1917, leaving her to rescue her own fortunes by marrying Sir James Nunn. And it suits Tony’s old school friend Jeremy Freyne, who’s just learned that Hilary, the woman he loves, has become engaged to Arthur Dennis, of the Foreign Office.

While Tony looks for signs of the Spider, Jeremy will tag along, elbow this interloper Dennis aside, and sweep Hilary off her feet once more. Other interested parties turn out to have plans of their own. Sir James and Lady Eleanor want to throw a party for Hilary’s 21st birthday, when she’s due to come into the 10,000 pounds her father salvaged from the general wreck of his estate.

Sir Ralph Feltham, Hilary’s cousin, seems intent on blackmailing everyone he meets. Arthur Dennis rather winningly suggests killing Ralph. And when Ralph fails to turn up at Hilary’s party, it’s for the best reason in the world. The result is a country-house whodunit on steroids, with hyperextended expository paragraphs, gossip on tap 24/7, endless blather, and a meticulously detailed explanation at the end. As a bonus, readers can enjoy a pair of short stories from 1939 that show how much sharper the author’s voice became in the interval.

The fey main event couldn’t be more different from Gilbert’s tales of scalawag solicitor Arthur Crook. Retro fans rejoice.

THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT

Hill, Susan Overlook (304 pp.) $27.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-4197-4358-0

Serial robbers turn to murder when a cop just returned from leave keeps their early strikes under wraps in the English town of Lafferton.

Recovered as much as he can from the loss of his arm, Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler has achieved enough proficiency with his prosthetic arm to feel ready for his next case. A robbery seems so carefully planned that Simon is sure the burglars will strike again as long as they think no one’s on to them, so he orders his officers to keep the case quiet. Besides, getting his team to alert the neighbors of potential danger might take up valuable resources, and Simon’s supervisor and brother-in-law, Kieron Bright, has emphasized the need to economize whenever possible. An especially timely infusion to the department’s budget comes in the form of a new van donated by Declan McDermid and his wife, Cindy. At the reception to celebrate the gift and honor the donors, Simon watches as his sister, Cat Deerbon, who’s a doctor, chats up Cindy as a possible friend and new patient of the private medical practice Cat’s working for. But when Cat goes to visit Cindy the next day, she finds the house robbed, Declan hurt, and Cindy killed. Simon struggles to balance his professional insights with his newfound health concerns. He keeps having dizziness and heart events that medical professionals persist in diagnosing as anxiety, though he’s certain that a cup of coffee will cure all his ills. Cat is meanwhile

DEATH IN FANCY DRESS

Gilbert, Anthony Poisoned Pen (272 pp.) $14.99 paper | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-4642-1225-3

Did your New Year’s Eve leave you feeling underwhelmed? Tuck into this reprint from 1933 whose centerpiece is a country-house party complete with everything from costumes to a corpse.

The pseudonymous Gilbert—real name Lucy Beatrice Malleson (1899-1973)—spins a web whose center, according to Edward Philpotts of the Home Office, is the Spider, a well-placed blackmailer he suspects is behind a recent rash of upper-class suicides. So he’s eager to have solicitor Tony Keith root around in his relatives’ home, Feltham Abbey, where Philpotts thinks Tony’s cousin Hilary Feltham is the latest blackmailing victim. That suits Tony, who’s received a frantic summons to Feltham by Lady Eleanor Nunn, the widow of Hilary’s father, |

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A DEATHLY SILENCE

absorbed by pregnant Carrie Pegwell, a new patient convinced there’s something wrong with her unborn baby despite medical evidence that prompts Cat to guarantee a healthy birth and child. As Simon and Cat each wrap up their stories, they compare notes about how hindsight would have been helpful, then shrug it off in a way that might have readers wondering what it’s all been for.

Death, death, death, and more death. Kind of a bummer, really.

Isaac, Jane Legend Press (288 pp.) $15.95 paper | Mar. 1, 2020 978-1-78955-071-9

DCI Helen Lavery, back together with Hamptonshire’s Homicide and Major Incidents Squad after a job-related injury sidelined her for eight weeks, is welcomed back in the worst possible way: by the torture/murder of a fellow

DEATH OF A BLUEBERRY TART

officer.

Everybody loved DC Sinead O’Donnell, from her husband and colleague, training officer Blane O’Donnell, and their two young children to the locals she kept in line with a firm but gentle hand. So who handcuffed her to a pipe in an abandoned building, burned her arms, chopped off her fingers, and cut her throat? And why, to turn to a question that’s less consequential but equally vexing, did she make no attempt to fix or report the flat tire on her car on the morning of her murder? The dog walker who reported finding the dead body and seeing two live schoolboys fleeing the scene can tell Helen nothing, and the two boys, when she finally tracks them down, have precious little to add. Yvette Edwards, the neighbor Helen took it upon herself to interview, is shortly drowned in her bath, though it looked like a suicide, and the very real possibility that her murder might be connected to a similar killing more than 20 years ago of office clerk Evelyn Ferguson by Gordon Turner is seriously undermined by Turner’s fatal overdose. Is it possible that Sinead’s death was the work of crime lord Chilli Franks, whom Helen’s tangled with before to both of their costs? Or is the killer someone closer to home, as the leaking of privileged information from the investigation to the public uncomfortably suggests? Isaac goes to such lengths to conceal the culprit’s identity that most readers will be caught off guard, though some may cry foul.

A sturdy English procedural with modest but mostly unfulfilled aspirations to be something more.

Hollis, Lee Kensington (320 pp.) $7.99 paper | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-4967-2493-9

Two groups of besties a generation apart vie for the honor of being Bar Harbor’s top sleuths.

Divorced mother of two Hayley Powell has recently married Bruce Linney after years of a contentious relationship dating back to high school. Both work for the Island Times, she as a food columnist and he as a crime reporter. Six days before they’re to leave on their honeymoon cruise, their dream is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Hayley’s mother, Sheila, following a breakup with her longtime boyfriend. Dismayed by the sudden addition to their tiny house even though Sheila volunteers to petsit while they’re away, Hayley is upset by Sheila’s criticism of her clothes and her cleaning and cooking skills. Hayley’s best friends, Liddy and Mona (Death of a Wedding Cake Baker, 2019, etc.), are the daughters of Sheila’s high school buddies Jane and Celeste, who are appalled when they attend a barbecue where their old school enemy Caskie Lemon-Hogg shows up with a homemade blueberry pie.

Caskie’s hobbies are blueberry picking, making and selling delicious treats, and flirting with other women’s husbands and boyfriends. So Hayley’s brainstorm for an impromptu class reunion for her mom’s friends ends in a nasty confrontation. Caskie takes out a restraining order against her former classmates, and Sheila moves to an inn after a fight with Hayley and badmouths Caskie all over town. When she finds Caskie dead in the room next to hers, Sheila’s naturally a suspect. Both sets of friends are determined to find the real killer even after Caskie’s closest friend, Regina Knoxville, verbally abuses them at the funeral.

There are enough other suspects to put the inexperienced sleuths in danger of attracting attention from a determined killer.

A humorous tale filled with recipes for blueberry lovers, high school angst, and a few tricks up its mysterious sleeve.

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YOUR TURN, MR. MOTO Marquand, John P. Penzler Publishers (288 pp.) $15.95 paper | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-61316-157-9

A reprint of the novel that launched the Japanese agent Mr. Moto, originally published under the title No Hero in 1935.

The earlier title is not only more epigrammatic, but more precise, since the book’s narrator and protagonist, Kenneth C. Lee, the flier who served during the Great War and then became a stunt pilot, is certainly not a hero. When the tobacco company funding his experimental trans-Pacific flight from Japan to the U.S. suddenly changes its mind, Casey, stranded in |

As the fate of the American Revolution hangs in the balance, a dangerous intercontinental mission is launched. the king’s beast

Tokyo, drunkenly curses the company and his nation in front of an audience of barflies, rips his passport in half in front of Cmdr.

James Driscoll of Naval Intelligence, and suddenly finds himself alone. While he’s at his most vulnerable, he’s taken under the wings of the mysterious Mr. Moto, the questionable scion of Japanese nobility, and Sonya Karaloff, a Russian spy. The two of them press him into a shadowy scheme that quickly endangers his life when he finds a corpse in the stateroom that’s been booked for him on a ship bound for China and then realizes that well-connected Shanghai merchant Wu Lai-fu is certain that Casey knows something he absolutely doesn’t know: the location and contents of a secret message vitally important to the world’s naval forces. Lawrence Block’s chatty introduction aptly observes that Marquand developed Mr. Moto as a replacement for Charlie Chan after the death of Chan’s creator, Earl Derr Biggers, but doesn’t go on to note that the shadowy Mr. Moto, who plays only a supporting role here, couldn’t be more different from the cheerfully domesticated Chan, or the cloak-and-dagger intrigue that surrounds him from the world of Chan’s placid Honolulu.

Elementary, badly dated international intrigue starring an impossibly naïve hero who needs all the help he can get.

investigation moves haltingly forward, Meyer keeps cutting away to follow Daniel Darret, a soldier of fortune self-exiled to Bordeaux, who’s targeted first by some young toughs seeking revenge for his rescue of painter Élodie Lecompte, then by his old comrades in arms who want him to volunteer for a mission that will stretch his loyalties to their limit, require of him heroic self-sacrifice, and entangle him in the death of Johnson Johnson in a shattering climax.

A double-barreled tale that’s sprawling, shape-shifting, and, in the end, deeply satisfying.

THE KING’S BEAST

Pattison, Eliot Counterpoint (432 pp.) $17.95 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-64009-318-8

THE LAST HUNT

Meyer, Deon Atlantic Monthly (384 pp.) $27.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-8021-5692-1 A man who fell, or jumped, or was pushed, off a fast-moving car of “the most luxurious train in the world” poses a knotty problem for Capt. Benny Griessel and Capt. Vaughn Cupido of the South African Police Service—a problem that keeps getting worse the more closely they look into it.

Since leaving the SAPS himself, Johnson Johnson has worked as a private bodyguard. He did an exemplary job protecting Dutch tourist Thilini Scherpenzeel, his client aboard the exclusive Rovos Rail train bound for Pretoria, but did much less well by himself. Eight days after vanishing from the train, he’s found with his head crushed along a deserted stretch in the Great Karoo. What disturbs Griessel and Cupido (The Woman in the Blue Cloak, 2019, etc.) even more than the absence of obvious clues, the looming jurisdictional squabbles, and the obtuseness of DS Aubrey Verwey, the Beaufort West cop who informs them of the body, is the unmistakable signs of a coverup. Both Griessel and Cupido are sensitive to “the statecapture mess,” the rampant signs that particular government officials and institutions have been corrupted by criminal conspiracies, and they’re both happy that although their boss, Col. Mbali Kaleni, may have her issues, neither she nor their unit has been captured. But it becomes increasingly clear that other agencies determined to dismiss Johnson’s death as an unfortunate accident are motivated by more sinister forces. As the |

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As the fate of the American Revolution hangs in the balance, a dangerous intercontinental mission is launched.

By 1769, Scottish exile Duncan McCallum (Blood of the Oak, 2018, etc.) has become an increasingly important player in the Colonial struggle for liberty. He’s gone to the wilderness of Kentucky at the behest of Benjamin Franklin, who sent him a letter asking him to dig up some valuable relics and bring them to him in London. How can Duncan refuse?

When Duncan’s friend Ezra dies in the midst of the excavation, it can’t immediately be determined whether his death was an accidental drowning or a murder. Daniel Boone, who’s among the company, insists that Ezra was attacked, a foreshadowing of the danger (and the historical cameos) Duncan will encounter on his mission. Duncan’s friend Chief Catchoka reports that several members of his family have also been killed. Duncan encounters many obstacles on his odyssey to the eastern coast, but a bright light is cast by his brief reunion with his beloved, Sarah Ramsey. Patriot Charles Thomson at first agrees to help with Duncan’s passage to London but loses his resolve when evidence emerges of a much larger conspiracy against Duncan’s mission. In fact, everyone who helps him seems to become the target of ruthless killers. On the eve of his departure, Duncan awakens to find one of his closest allies and confidants dead beside him. The imprisonment of his best friend, Conawago, at Bedlam asylum in London enrages Duncan and spurs him to complete his mission as Franklin himself takes center stage in assisting his new friend.

Pattison’s sixth Revolutionary mystery has a strong period feel and abundant historical detail.

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THE SECRETS THEY LEFT BEHIND

local hairdresser Mario Garcia is thrilled at the chance to work similar magic on her blonde locks. He even talks his good friend Angela Richman (Ice Blonde, 2018, etc.) into coming to the show and traveling with the star’s entourage. Although she marvels at Jessica’s stunning face and figure, Angela is horrified by her act, which includes merciless mockery of three homeless women. And riding with Jessica’s roadies puts Angela right in the limo when the star goes into respiratory distress and dies.

Now Angela’s in a bind. As death investigator for Chouteau County, it’s her job to take charge of the body and perform the tests required by the medical examiner. But she’s also a witness to a death that’s looking more suspicious by the minute. Worst of all, the police zero in on her pal Mario as the prime suspect.

Angela’s outraged. Mario, who thinks the world of Jessica, has no motive at all. Jessica’s makeup artist, Will; her understudy, Tawnee Simms; and her assistant, Stu Milano, all hate her. And the three women she’s humiliated aren’t her biggest fans either.

Despite a whopping big clue, Angela takes her sweet time solving the case, rescuing her friend Mario by a hair.

Needless complications are likely to try the reader’s patience.

Redmond, Lissa Marie Crooked Lane (304 pp.) $26.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-64385-299-7

A Buffalo cop who’s gone undercover for the FBI finds herself in a world of hurt.

Shea O’Connor is 23 but looks 18.

That’s why the FBI used her to pose as a high school student to catch a serial killer, a case that left her scarred both physically and emotionally. The case is still under a gag order and Shea is back on boring patrol duty when FBI Agent Bill Walters asks her to work another case for him. Three freshmen college friends all went missing the same night in the little town of Kelly’s Falls, New York. Against her better judgment, Shea accepts and is set up as Shea Anderson, a transfer to Harris Community College whose parents were killed in a car accident and whose uncle is the town police chief, Roy Bishop. Since her fake uncle is youngish, unmarried, and unhappy she’s interfering in his case, she’s put up in a boardinghouse. Emma Lansing and Olivia Stansfield, two of the missing girls, came from a nice area; the wilder Skyler Santana lived in a trailer park with her alcoholic mother while her drug-dealing boyfriend, Joe Styles, worked on a GED at Harris. Shea immediately becomes friends with the missing girls’ buds, Kayla, Jenna, and Maddie. She fends off passes from Joe while recognizing his bad-boy appeal to young girls. Shea has no trouble fitting in and easily gains her new friends’ confidence. But she still suspects that they’re hiding information that could be the key to breaking the case. Even worse, she and Nick Stansfield, the brother who refuses to go back to RIT until Olivia’s found, fall for each other, and she hates herself for deceiving him. Redmond (A Means to an End, 2019, etc.) shows tensions mounting as Shea struggles for answers along with a town united in its resolve to find the missing girls.

A page-turner whose puzzling mystery and psychological drama are rooted in plausible descriptions of teenage angst.

THE PANDA OF DEATH

Webb, Betty Poisoned Pen (288 pp.) $15.99 paper | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-4926-9914-9

A DNA test has disquieting and dangerous consequences.

With the popularity of DNA testing, many a family has found itself with members they never knew existed. So it’s a shock but not a total surprise for California zookeeper Theodora “Teddy” Bentley-Rejas (The Otter of Death, 2018, etc.), already the stepmother of two, to discover that her husband, Joe, has another son. Her mother-in-law, mystery writer Colleen Rejas, has been hiding Dylan Ellis, Teddy’s newfound stepson, in her cottage while waiting to disclose the relationship that was revealed when they both took a DNA test. After Teddy’s snobbish mother shipped her off to boarding school, Joe, her high school squeeze, had a drunken onenight stand with Lauren, whose parents kicked her out when she wanted to keep her baby. Joe married someone else, had two children, was widowed, and then married Teddy. Unfortunately, Dylan’s suddenly become a suspect in the murder of Cliff Flaherty, a writer for local TV puppet show Tippy-Toe & Tinker, who was found floating in the harbor next to Teddy’s boat.

Even though he’s the sheriff, Joe has to recuse himself from the case because Dylan’s his son. But that doesn’t stop Teddy and Colleen from investigating. Since Poonya, the zoo’s red panda, one of her charges, has recently been written into the TV program’s script, Teddy’s gotten to know all the puppeteers, most of whom had good reason to hate Flaherty. When Dylan is arrested, Teddy redoubles her efforts. Her access to Colleen’s search engine, PlatoSchmato, allows her to dig up dirt on the

A STAR IS DEAD

Viets, Elaine Severn House (224 pp.) $28.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-7278-9016-0 A plethora of suspects emerges when a fading star flames out.

Jessica Gray is a diva to the core.

More than 50 years ago, she ruled Hollywood, dancing naked in Eternally Groovy and partying till the wee hours at Whiskey a GoGo. Now in her 70s, she still captivates audiences, her age carefully concealed by makeup artist Will London. When her one-woman tour takes her to Chouteau County, Missouri, 48

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In 1396, a famous tracker of men and objects leaves London for the wilds of Cornwall in search of a fabulous treasure. sword of shadows

SWORD OF SHADOWS

crew and cast but not in time to prevent a second murder that leaves her in danger.

Jealousy, crafty zoo critters, and unintended consequences wrapped in an often humorous mystery full of quirky characters.

Westerson, Jeri Severn House (224 pp.) $28.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-7278-8921-8

Wells, William Permanent Press (214 pp.) $29.95 | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-57962-588-7

His third case pulls former Chicago cop Jack Starkey, mostly retired to Fort Myers, out of the Sunshine State back to his old stomping grounds and far beyond.

The people who knew old Henry Wilberforce back in Chicago didn’t think of him as a groceryfirm billionaire but as a generous, lovable oddball who shopped at supermarkets for strangers and still talked to his dog years after he’d died. But someone must have had it in for Henry, because he was murdered as he slept in his winter home in Naples. Naturally, Naples police chief Tom Sullivan reaches out to Jack (The Dollar-a-Year Detective, 2018, etc.) for help.

Even though Henry’s left all his money to his charitable trust, the prime suspects are Nelson “Scooter” Lowry, his trust-fund nephew in Santa Monica; his socialite nieces, June Dumont and Libby Leverton; and their well-connected husbands, Washington attorney Alan Dumont and Boston developer Stewart Leverton. So after taking his affectionate leave of Fort Myers realtor Marisa Fernandez de Lopez and stopping off in the Windy City just long enough to eye the snow, refresh his appetite for the local sandwiches, and get the non-heirs’ addresses, Jack flies to LA, D.C., and Boston on the improbable grounds that he’ll learn something important from the looks in the relatives’ eyes when he tells them that the uncle they haven’t seen in years is not only dead, but murdered. Spoiler alert: He doesn’t.

So he starts all over again, not by casting a wider net, but by making another round of trips to the relatives, who welcome him about as eagerly as you’d welcome most uninvited and unexpected guests. Jack finds their behavior so suspicious that he zeroes in on one of them, baits a trap with a young police officer hungry for promotion, and watches in satisfaction as the trap springs shut. Finis.

It’s hard to imagine a more routine case. Only Jack’s sometimes-amusing, often rambling narration makes it worthwhile.

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In 1396, a famous tracker of men and objects leaves London for the wilds of Cornwall in search of a fabulous treasure.

Crispin Guest and his apprentice, Jack Tucker (Traitor’s Codex, 2019, etc.), meet by chance with Carantok Teague, a Cornishman who offers them a large sum to help him track down the mythical Excalibur. Although neither is convinced the sword exists, they leave immediately on the long trip to Treknow, the closest village to Tintagel. Since Crispin, a disgraced but honorable former knight, refuses to participate in illegal treasure hunting, it’s fortunate that Teague has an old letter from King Edward III allowing him to search for treasure. A group of traveling players they encounter includes Kat Pyke, a former lover, burglar, and swindler who’s bested Crispin in the past. Crispin also meets the scholarly Marzhin Gwyls, a caretaker at Tintagel Castle, a crumpled ruin guarded by a few men at arms and a constable. On their first visit, Teague moves the heavy stone over the hole where he stores some of his treasures only to find the body of a man at arms. The castle constable asks Crispin to find Roger Bennet’s killer. The castle is barely guarded, and Bennet had a reputation as a womanizer who had earned the enmity of many a maiden. While Crispin investigates the murder, Jack helps Teague search for the sword, and Kat, always interested in items of value, seduces Crispin, who should know better. Among the suspects are the villagers, Bennet’s fellows at Tintagel, and hostile pagans living nearby.

Teague, it turns out, does indeed have a nose for treasure, and the search looks to be successful if they’re not all killed off by the mysterious person who’s killed another man at arms and left Kat to take the blame.

History, mythology, and mystery mix in a rollicking adventure that offers a fresh perspective on the famous Arthurian legend.

THE NOW-AND-THEN DETECTIVE

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CRUSH THE KING

science fiction and fantasy

Estep, Jennifer Harper Voyager (432 pp.) $17.99 paper | Mar. 17, 2020 978-0-06-279769-8 Estep concludes her Crown of Shards trilogy (Protect the Prince, 2019, etc.) with a young warrior queen’s long-delayed vengeance.

When the murder of Bellona’s royal family set Evie on the path to claim the throne herself, she swore to kill the man responsible: evil King Maximus, of neighboring Morta. Now, after forming some alliances, she’s ready for the task, as well as ready to keep fending off yet more attempts on her life. As in the previous books, the task of fighting magical assassins is made easier by Evie’s unbeatable secret power of simply being immune to magic. Evie and her friends, the members of her former gladiator troupe, travel to the Regalia, a tournament of skill, with plans to use the festivities to confront and defeat Maximus—a villain so over-the-top in his sadism and arrogance that he’s hard to take seriously. It’s hard to take any of the threats Evie faces seriously either: Whether it’s hordes of assassins, a magical tidal wave, or the supposed unmatched arcane power of Maximus himself, Evie’s trump card—her magical immunity—continues to save the day. It’s sadly predictable, as is the plot itself; the finale is telegraphed early on, and a supposed twist at the end is nonsensical. The supporting cast suffers, too: Lucas Sullivan, Evie’s lover who drove much of Book 2, does nothing here but gaze at Evie with alternating lust or worry; Paloma, Evie’s bodyguard, gets a potentially interesting subplot...that is resolved completely off-page. The endless descriptions of parties, dresses, attractive people—and the constant narrative claims that our heroine is supposedly good at intrigue—just add to the sense that we’ve been here before.

A disappointing conclusion to a series that certainly wants to be epic and edgy but only manages to settle into its own ruts.

THE BOOK OF KOLI

Carey, M.R. Orbit/Little, Brown (416 pp.) $16.99 paper | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-316-47753-6 The first volume in Carey’s Rampart trilogy is set centuries into a future shaped by war and climate change, where the scant remains of humankind are threatened by genetically modified trees and plants.

Teenager Koli Woodsmith lives in Mythen Rood, a village of about 200 people in a place called Ingland, which has other names such as “Briton and Albion and Yewkay.” He was raised to cultivate, and kill, the wood from the dangerous trees beyond Mythen Rood’s protective walls. Mythen Rood is governed by the Ramparts (made up entirely of members of one family—what a coincidence), who protect the village with ancient, solar-powered tech. After the Waiting, a time in which each child, upon turning 15, must decide their future, Koli takes the Rampart test: He must “awaken” a piece of old tech. After he inevitably fails, he steals a music player which houses a charming “manic pixie dream girl” AI named Monono, who reveals a universe of knowledge. Of course, a little bit of knowledge can threaten entire societies or, in Koli’s case, a village held in thrall to a family with unfettered access to powerful weapons. Koli attempts to use the device to become a Rampart, he becomes their greatest threat, and he’s exiled to the world beyond Mythen Rood. Luckily, the pragmatic Koli has his wits, Monono, and an ally in Ursala, a traveling doctor who strives to usher in a healthy new generation of babies before humanity dies out for good.

Koli will need all the help he can get, especially when he’s captured by a fearsome group ruled by a mad messianic figure who claims to have psychic abilities. Narrator Koli’s inquisitive mind and kind heart make him the perfect guide to Carey’s (Someone Like Me, 2018, etc.) immersive, impeccably rendered world, and his speech and way of life are different enough to imagine the weight of what was lost but still achingly familiar, and as always, Carey leavens his often bleak scenarios with empathy and hope.

Readers will be thrilled to know the next two books will be published in short order.

A captivating start to what promises to be an epic postapocalyptic fable.

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QUEEN OF THE UNWANTED

Glass, Jenna Del Rey (592 pp.) $28.00 | Mar. 17, 2020 978-0-525-61837-9

In this sequel to The Women’s War (2019), Glass continues to explore the question of what happens when women wield power.

When last we left our two heroines, Alys and Ellin, both were exploring their power as sovereign rulers, and their journeys continue in this volume. Alys is going to have to overcome a terrible loss if she’s going to lead the citizens of Women’s Well, a newly founded colony in which men and women are equal. And Ellin must fight |

VAGABONDS

Hao Jingfang Trans. by Liu, Ken Saga/Simon & Schuster (640 pp.) $27.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-5344-2208-7 Social science fiction: a debut novel from the Chinese author who won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novelette with Folding Beijing.

The year is 2201. Just over a hundred years ago, the Martian colonies fought and won a war of independence against Earth, and since then, the two planets have diverged sociologically. In Hao’s incisive and all-too-plausible extrapolation, Earth embodies the triumph of Western laissez faire capitalism driven by the internet’s savagely competitive social media. Mars, technologically much more advanced and apparently utopian—and here the author treads more cautiously—persuasively represents what benevolent Chinese communo-capitalism might possibly evolve into. Consequently, mutual suspicion and resentment bordering on outright hostility dominate the Earth-Mars relationship. To counter this trend, five years ago a group of Martian students were sent to Earth. Now they have returned to Mars accompanied by a |

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cultural delegation of prominent Terrans. One student, Luoying, enjoyed her time on Earth without fully grasping the ruthlessly materialistic nature of Terran society. To her now, Mars appears dull, its society rigidly stratified. As an average student, she suspects that she wasn’t really qualified to make the trip.

Could her grandfather Hans Sloan, currently the consul of Mars, have pulled strings to include her? How did her parents really die, and how was her grandfather involved? Hao’s intricate political commentary addresses Luoying’s emotional progress through dissatisfaction and disillusionment toward enlightenment. Sophisticated all this might be, but it remains commentary rather than criticism; one could wish for the author to occasionally pick up a scalpel and dissect. Often immersive, the story accretes grain by grain, like sedimentary rock formation, rather than as an orthodox narrative, and it sometimes seems nearly as slow. On a more intimate level, readers hear the thoughts inside people’s heads and feel their emotions but don’t come away with Martian dust under their fingernails.

A thoughtful debut with ample scope for reader engagement.

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to keep her crown in a country not quite ready for a woman to reign supreme. Both women are adjusting to a new reality in their world. After centuries in which men ruled both state and religion, a spell cast by Alys’ mother, Brynna, has made it possible for women to decide whether or not they conceive and carry children. Not only does this present a grave challenge to patriarchy, but it also reveals that women’s magic might well be as strong as that of men. The writing here is a bit more assured than it was in the first installment of this three-part series. A surfeit of scene-setting detail often slowed the narrative in that book; this one moves at a slightly faster clip. But one aspect of fantasy—present from The Lord of the Rings to the Earthsea trilogy and beyond—that’s missing here is a sense of existential drama. Glass spends a lot of time on court intrigue and international alliances and trade agreements and interpersonal relationships—all of which seem to go on much as they always have.

The fact that women are in control of their reproductive destinies and the discovery that women’s magic is more powerful than anyone imagined feel like they should be world-changing, but…they just kind of aren’t. Of course, there are readers who might argue that traditional sword-and-sorcery epics often fail when it comes to character development and emotional richness, especially with female characters; such readers might appreciate Glass’ more intimate, character-driven approach to fantasy. People who enjoyed the first installment in this series should enjoy the second, and people who wanted to like it but got discouraged by the slow pace might want to give Glass another chance.

An assured second volume in this feminism-inflected saga.

SWORD OF FIRE

Kerr, Katharine DAW/Berkley (384 pp.) $27.00 | Feb. 18, 2020 978-0-7564-1367-5 The first in a new Celtic-flavored fantasy trilogy, set a few centuries after a previous 15-book series concerning tangled fates, reincarnation, wars, and the relationships among humans, elves, dwarves, dragons, and other beings.

The land of Deverry once again faces the threat of civil war.

Restive gwerbrets (Deverry’s equivalent to dukes) chafe against the rule of the Marked Prince Gwardon, who serves as regent for his ailing father, the High King. Meanwhile, the common people, aided by the bards and progressive scholars, cry out against the corrupt Deverry legal system, currently dominated by hereditary judges who tend to favor the noble and the wealthy over the principles of justice. Scholar Alyssa vairc Sirra goes on a mission to retrieve an ancient text that would provide historical precedent for elected judges, pursued by killers hired by the gwerbrets and the priests of Bel, who profit by the existing legal system. Protecting (and, naturally, developing feelings for) her along the way is Cavan, a disgraced nobleman–turned–silver dagger, a kind of mercenary soldier. But once they’ve returned with the book, they discover that their troubles are only just beginning. The book serves as a pointed rebuke to other highfantasy series that posit that the same feudal society has existed for unchanging centuries; Deverry is evolving in a plausible and intriguing way, with its university system, controversy regarding and prejudice against increased possibilities for women, and a struggle for rights for the common people. People who haven’t read the previous 15 books (concluding with The Silver Mage in 2009) will probably be able to jump in here and enjoy the science fiction & fantasy

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THE QUEEN OF RAIDERS

experience, but they will definitely miss various nuances, references, and cameos from several long-lived characters and their descendants that devoted fans will just love, especially those linked to Rhodry Maelwaedd, a main protagonist from the original series. The first, century-spanning series also included many incarnations of the same set of characters, and it seems likely that several of them have reincarnated appearances here as well.

Covers all the bases: a welcome return to a long-beloved world that also takes the story in a fresh direction.

Kozloff, Sarah Tor (512 pp.) $16.99 paper | Feb. 18, 2020 978-1-250-16856-6

Cerúlia must grow up and learn to fight for her destiny in Kozloff ’s (A Queen in Hiding, 2020) second Nine Realms novel.

Her mother, the Queen of Weirandale, is dead, and Cerúlia isn’t a child any more. She’s left her adoptive peasant family in order to escape evil Lord Matwyck’s clutches and eventually escapes Weirandale altogether. Using her ability to talk to animals and several bird-related aliases, Cerúlia manages to trek her way over the mountains and into the nation of Oromondo. Cerúlia knows that the Oros killed her mother, and she wants to avenge her death. She’s heard of a group of raiders who work to disrupt the Oros as they invade and pillage neighboring nations. When Cerúlia finally manages to find them and convince them to let her join up, she discovers not only new friends, but a newfound sense of purpose. But is any of that enough to win back her throne or even save herself from the Oro army? Interspersed with Cerúlia’s plotline are various threads centering on the Oro army and people, Lord Matwyck’s kindhearted son, and the raiders themselves. This is the second of a four-part series, and, as such, it falls into the expected pitfalls. The self-contained plot works, but it inevitably feels more like a buildup to further books in the series than its own story. It rises above filler, though, and Kozloff is clearly laying the groundwork for something good, particularly with the very last chapter.

Perfectly fine despite second-book syndrome.

OTAKU

Kluwe, Chris Tor (352 pp.) $26.99 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-250-20393-9 In this cyberpunk fiction debut, a massively popular online game has realworld consequences.

Ashley Akachi is a mixed-race woman who’s known as “Ashura the Terrible” to millions of fans of Infinite Game, which is watched around the world. In a near-future Florida that’s half drowned by rising sea levels, she sits inside a haptic chamber that converts her movements into gameplay in the ultraviolent competition. Former NFL player Kluwe (Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies, 2013) describes the game’s mechanics at length, at times giving the book the feel of watching someone else play a video game. (The game’s racist and misogynist online message boards also feature prominently.) Eventually, Ash uncovers a vast conspiracy involving not only Infinite Game, but also her love interest, Hamlin, who’s hiding a secret of his own. Unfortunately, there’s not enough space in this brief review to examine everything that’s obnoxious or distasteful in this novel, from its opening bullet-point infodump, lazily passed off as worldbuilding, to its eye-rolling last line. One may wonder if any women were involved in this book’s publication in any meaningful way.

Only a male author could believe a woman thinks about “dicks” this often; when facing gender inequality, Ash huffs, “Must be nice to have a dick”; before castrating a would-be rapist, she scoffs, “You thought your dick made you a man? You’ll never be a man again.” Characters’ attacks on Ash are all viciously genderspecific; in addition to being threatened with rape throughout, she’s repeatedly called “slut,” “whore,” and “cunt.” Meanwhile, Ash herself reads like an unintentional parody of an empowered woman; she leers suggestively at a woman’s behind and then laments her small bust size, at length, before deciding “boobs are overrated.” At the book’s climax, Ash thinks that she’s “so tired of shitty men and their shitty dreams.” After reading this, readers will surely feel the same.

Irredeemable in any world, real or virtual.

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A BROKEN QUEEN

Kozloff, Sarah Tor (448 pp.) $16.99 paper | Mar. 24, 2020 978-1-250-16866-5 Cerúlia recovers from her wounds and decides it’s finally time to take back her throne in Kozloff ’s (The Queen of Raiders, 2020, etc.) penultimate Nine Realms novel.

Badly burned and laid up in a Healing Center, Cerúlia is losing faith in herself. She misses the various friends she’s made along her journey, misses her home, and resents her limitations as she heals from injuries sustained in the previous novel. In the past, her magical “Talent” for talking to animals has helped her make friends with local creatures, but she’s worried that something has happened to her ability and fears using it. As she slowly recuperates and learns from the fellow residents in the healing center, Cerúlia comes to understand that she must face her responsibility to her people and find a way to become the Queen of Weirandale. To that end, she |

A fitting end to a gorgeous experiment in art, worldbuilding, and character, growing in strength from book to book. the poet king

returns home to her nation’s capital, Cascada, only to discover that her long-lost foster sister, Percia, is about to marry the kindly son of the maniacal and power-hungry Regent Matwyck, the very person keeping Cerúlia from her throne. Reunited with her beloved foster family, Cerúlia decides it is time to stop hiding under aliases and disguises. But with no army to support her, how is she supposed to save herself from Matwyck’s clutches? And now that she’s seen more of the world and understands the lives of regular people, does she even believe in the idea of monarchy at all? Kozloff finally brings the action back to Weirandale in a compelling setup to the last novel in her series.

Like Book 2, this one struggles a bit with standing on its own, but Kozloff uses these pages to make Cerúlia a more complex and compelling character. Threads following other characters from other nations are easy to follow and add dimension to the world, but as of now they still feel a bit too detached from the main plotline.

Imperfect, but well constructed and engrossing nonetheless.

The common thread of Myer’s previous two books—don’t bargain with dangerous extradimensional magical beings—expresses itself in new and surprising ways in this conclusion to a trilogy melding music, enchantment, and

dark ambition.

Having employed such bargains to take over the Poets’ Academy and foment civil war in the distant land of Kahishi (Fire Dance, 2017, etc.), Archmaster Elissan Diar now uses his power to take the throne of Eivar. But his magics have opened a portal for the White Queen, an icy, bloody being who has her own ideas about what Diar is entitled to. Peace and stability in both Kahishi and Eivar depend on former Court Poet Lin Amaristoth; Syme Oleir, a young man possessed and driven insane by an Ifreet; and two previously ignored and despised Academy students: Julien Imara, a shy young woman unexpectedly gifted with prophetic magic, and Dorn Arrin, whose unwilling part in a sacrificial ritual could mean his doom. And somewhere in the mix there is Etherell Lyr, a beautiful man of uncertain loyalties and Dorn’s decidedly unrequited love, whose tortured past as a sexual abuse victim has left him mercurial, vengeful, and sociopathic. These fully drawn characters negotiate complicated choices in a world that intriguingly intermingles Middle Eastern and Celtic folklore as well as a fantasy equivalent of the Jewish Diaspora. Myer delicately threads a steady path through a complex, ever shifting plot while maintaining a consistent throughline of theme that condemns the heedless and selfish choices of the powerful and pointedly underscores the folly of ignoring the quiet, seemingly insignificant people whose |

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HEARTS OF OAK

Robson, Eddie Tor (272 pp.) $14.99 paper | Mar. 17, 2020 978-1-250-26053-6 Town planning has never seemed so... sinister.

Iona is the city’s leading architect.

She has a comfortable life: She teaches, she likes her work, and her house, at the planning department’s insistence, is so much bigger than she needs that she rarely visits its upper stories. But when a young woman named Alyssa appears in her office asking for one-on-one instruction, Iona finds herself moved to tears by the woman’s hat, which is made of something she thinks is called felt—a “dream-word.”

This strange intrusion of dreams into her reality, of “things that didn’t exist but that somehow meant a lot to her anyway,” will send her on a quest to uncover the truth about her perfectly pleasant but not-quite-right life. Meanwhile, up in his tower, the king wonders if he ought to have gone to the funerals for the victims of a building-site collapse. But his cat, Clarence, says there’s no need for that sort of thing, and Clarence is probably right. Still, the king feels—lonely. Both Iona and the king have a vague, nagging sense that something is a bit off about this city, that something is missing in their busy, purposeful lives.

But what Iona eventually discovers is much, much stranger than either of them could have imagined. The deep sense of puzzling oddness in the beginning of this book is totally captivating. The surface-level mildness and niceness of this world underscore the sense of mystery and offer plenty of opportunities for comedy. Once the reason for all the oddness is revealed, the story does lose some of its drive. But Robson (Tomorrow Never Knows, 2015) manages to rekindle the suspense for its final push.

Strange, charming, unpredictable, and full of unusual images, this is an off-the-wall delight.

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THE POET KING

Myer, Ilana C. Tor (320 pp.) $28.99 | Mar. 24, 2020 978-0-7653-7834-7

unexplored depths and considerable strengths might be poised to strike against those very same people at the top.

A fitting end to a gorgeous experiment in art, worldbuilding, and character, growing in strength from book to book.

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NOW, THEN, AND EVERYWHEN

spectacle even attracts the very curious Sunshine Valley Widows Club, who soon adopt the mission to get the two unluckyin-love people together. Lola gave up her dreams and lucrative career in New York City to move to her husband Randy’s small hometown of Sunshine, Colorado. It’s only after his death that she discovers he was quite the philanderer. Meanwhile, Drew’s wife had no problem leaving him and their daughter high and dry. It’s understandable why both Lola and Drew would feel jaded and cynical at the prospect of dating, especially since the small-town atmosphere lends itself to plenty of gossip. Lola’s discoveries about her husband, though, are just the tip of the iceberg, and it’s Drew to whom she turns to find out more about Randy’s double life. Despite the heaviness of a spouse’s death and the bitterness that may come with such intense heartbreaks suffered by both main characters, there’s warm and pleasant goofiness to the town of Sunshine and the gentle romance between Drew and Lola. The Sunshine Valley Widows Club probably deserves most of the credit. They steal every scene and have perfect timing with comedic relief or a meaningful word. The biggest hurdles for readers’ patience will be Lola’s constant doubting of her own agency, even when it means admitting she made bad decisions, and how the slowburn romance truly stretches the definition and nearly puts this into cozy women’s fiction territory.

An average romance that makes up for it with a lively, comedic cast.

Walker, Rysa 47North (528 pp.) $14.95 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-61218-919-2 It’s a race against—and through— time to keep history from going wrong.

For Tyson Reyes and his friends, time travel is just another day at the office.

He’s a historian in 2304 working on his first big research trip, to the segregated South in 1963. But he has no idea that the project his friend Richard is proposing, a study of the KKK’s protests against the Beatles, is about to get him embroiled in a massive time shift that could erase most of history as he knows it. Meanwhile, 168 years in Tyson’s past and 170 years in the Beatles’ future, Madison Grace has just discovered a device that allows her to travel through time—and a book from the future that claims that she’s about to invent time travel. When the time shift hits, Madi assumes she’s caused it by blundering about in the past. But who are the five extra time travelers Tyson spots in 1963 just before history goes haywire? And how can Madi and Tyson fix history if they don’t even know what game they’re playing or who the players are?

There’s more than enough time-travel paradoxes in this story to give you a headache, but the captivating mystery plot—who set history wrong, and why?—moves along briskly enough that these conundrums just feel like part of the entertainment. And the 1960s setting, with the fates of the Beatles and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. riding in the balance, sets the stakes appealingly high. Fans of Walker’s (Courier to the Stars, 2019, etc.) CHRONOS Files series will enjoy seeing the pieces of that mythology falling into place here, but new readers can easily jump in to this origin story with no prior knowledge.

An enjoyable, mind-bending time-travel adventure.

BEARS BEHAVING BADLY

Davidson, Mary Janice Sourcebooks Casablanca (416 pp.) $7.99 paper | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-4926-9701-5 Bear shifters battle their attraction and awkward flirtations while trying to stop a criminal focused on terrorizing young shifters.

Annette Garsea is one of the hardest and most dedicated caseworkers at the Interspecies Placement Agency of Minnesota, a foster care system for shifter species. It’s her job to find homes and resources for at-risk shifter youth and children. At times, her work brings her within close proximity of private investigator David Auberon. Both are bear shifters with an obvious connection, but Annette thinks she’s too busy for a relationship, and David can’t seem to say more than five words to Annette before getting tongue-tied. It takes a shifter baby in grave danger to give the two bears the nudge they need to graduate from strictly business to something way more than friends.

Davidson’s (Deja New, 2017, etc.) trademark goofiness, overthe-top action scenes, and fierce heroines are all accounted for along with a memorable cast of characters, though her books can be an acquired taste for readers who prefer their shifters growly and full of angst. David is a sweetheart with a longstanding crush on Annette; in his mind, she’s way out of his league. He’s also supportive and completely comfortable letting

r om a n c e CAN’T HURRY LOVE

Curtis, Melinda Forever (512 pp.) $7.99 paper | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-5387-3341-7 A widow burned by love gets tangled up with a small-town sheriff in this contemporary romance series starter.

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Two years after the tragic death of her fiance, an artist begins to heal thanks to a rock star and his dog. the happy ever after playlist

FROM ALASKA WITH LOVE

Annette shine as the fearsome mama bear. The pair are wonderfully matched, whether they’re watching each other’s backs in the midst of danger or being two utter cornballs once they let their feelings show. There’s some of the cadence of old Hollywood banter in how they speak and what they say—except they can both shift into huge bears. Despite more serious themes like homelessness, kidnapping, and violence, it’s very much a Marvel movie–type paranormal romance with all the action and none of the detailed, gruesome bloodshed.

A comic-book thrill ride with the added appeal of bear shifters falling in love.

James, Ally Jove/Penguin (304 pp.) $7.99 paper | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-9848-0695-6

SEDUCE ME WITH SAPPHIRES

Feather, Jane Zebra/Kensington (304 pp.) $7.99 paper | Jan. 28, 2020 978-1-4201-4362-1

Two thespians strut and fret and argue throughout their hour upon the stage together.

The Honorable Miss Fenella Grantley knows she should be grateful for her life of ease and privilege, but everything feels unrelentingly gloomy to her.

Except, that is, when she sneaks out to Bloomsbury for her acting classes. Those classes get even more interesting when playwright Edward Tremayne, by-blow of the Earl of Pendleton, comes to class with a draft of his newest work, Sapphire. She takes an immediate dislike to Edward and his “arrogance and contempt,” so he takes her for hot chocolate to apologize for his rudeness. And despite the fact that the two can’t go more than a few sentences at a time without bickering, they soon become intimate, and a few days later, they’ve not only slept together, but Fenella is also concocting elaborate excuses to spend the night at his lodgings. Both are prickly and prone to misunderstandings, but they are continually drawn back to each other and have to decide whether their chemistry can or should survive the tumult of these continuous conflicts. Unfortunately, it will be hard for many readers to look forward to this happy ending. From their first meeting, Edward seems unnecessarily unkind to Fenella, and although this is supposedly because of his nerves and attraction to her, modern sensibilities may find him creepy and overbearing rather than charming. Additionally, his obsession with Sapphire and insistence that Fenella perform her role in exactly the way he’s imagined it is an unfortunately timeless example of a male artist who puts his ego before all others—not exactly the swoon-inspiring stuff of a romance hero. For her part, Fenella is pleasingly independent, which makes her attraction to Edward all the more confusing. The book, second in a series but able to stand alone, may appeal to Feather’s longtime fans but is unlikely to work for readers who aren’t already inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt.

An Edwardian theater love story that tests the boundaries of just how unlikable a romance hero can be.

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A downtrodden nanny sends off a quick note of appreciation to a soldier; when it lands on a major’s desk, it sparks an unexpected romance, but things get complicated once he’s back on U.S. soil.

Sara Ryan needs a change. She loves her niece, Kaylee, but being the girl’s nanny for the past three years has made it too easy for her brother and sister-in-law to duck their parenting responsibilities while taking advantage of her time and kindness. Sara’s widowed mother depends on her, too, and now that Sara has spent years taking care of her family, they’ve become dependent and entitled while continually chipping away at her self-esteem.

Then, when she hears a radio story about sending letters to troops serving abroad, Maj. Gabriel Randall comes into her life.

He responds to her letter with an email, which leads to texts, FaceTime, and a full-blown emotional affair—and finally an airline ticket to Alaska for Sara to spend time with Gabriel at the end of his deployment. But Sara has confided to no one but a cousin about the correspondence, and as the day she’s supposed to leave for Alaska grows closer, she continues to keep her silence, creating confusion and turmoil when events force her to face her choices head-on. James (a new pen name for established author Sydney Landon) takes on a kind of mashup of “Cinderella” and soldier pen-pal fantasy, in a sweet, touching way.

It is frustrating how reactive Sara is until the very end—even understanding that that’s supposed to be her growth arc—and how everyone else solves her problems, but the ultimate meshing of two lonely souls through a seemingly fated letter makes for a tender, satisfying love story overall.

An entertaining, affecting romance.

THE HAPPY EVER AFTER PLAYLIST

Jimenez, Abby Forever (400 pp.) $15.99 paper | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-5387-1564-2 Two years after the tragic death of her fiance, an artist begins to heal thanks to a rock star and his dog.

Sloan Monroe is on her way to the grave of her late fiance, who was killed by a drunk driver, when she nearly hits a dog who dashed into the road. When she stops to check on him, he jumps into her car through the sunroof, and when she doesn’t hear from his owner after calling the number on his collar, she decides to keep him. Jason Larsen, the dog’s owner, is backpacking off the grid in Australia, and when he finally gets Sloan’s voicemails |

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nearly two weeks later, he calls her and is astonished to discover that she’s had Tucker, his dog, for so long; his quasi-girlfriend was supposed to be watching Tucker but it turns out she had basically abandoned him. Since he’s still in Australia for a few weeks, Jason arranges for Sloan to keep Tucker, and through it all they text and talk and plant the seeds for a friendship, if not more. Sloan is slow and wary, even before she discovers that Jason is a musician on the cusp of star status. Still, she’s charmed by his patience and talent, and when he returns to LA, she quickly falls in love with him, his dog, and his family. Just as they’re admitting to deep feelings, he’s embarking on a long musical tour and wants her with him. It’s a grind, which she isn’t expecting, and the relationship is at odds with his label’s publicity plans, which are complicated. Plus, it keeps Sloan from pursuing her art, which she wants to explore again. Following her exceptional debut (The Friend Zone, 2019), author Jimenez has written Sloan’s story with elegant, compassionate success, showcasing a romance that navigates deep grief and healing while exploring the unexpected stressors placed on a celebrity relationship. Fans of The Friend Zone will be happy to see Kristen and Josh as Sloan’s main support system and will be touched

by Jimenez’s note in the acknowledgements about her inspiration for the book.

A perfect blend of smart, heart-wrenching, and fun.

ends the MacKilligan sisters trilogy with a flourish, blending humor, action, and romance in her own inimitable and fabulous fashion, and she reminds us that family can be blood or choice and that different races (Max is half Chinese; Charlie is African American; Zé is Latino) and species can get along when they decide to, aided at times by baked goods. A sprawling cast of shifters combined with an intricate, complex plot can occasionally be confusing, but everything comes together in the end, and the characters, worldbuilding, and storytelling are vivid, inventive, and completely entertaining.

A wild, brilliant ride.

TEMPORARY WIFE TEMPTATION

Lee, Jayci Harlequin Desire (224 pp.) $5.25 paper | Feb. 4, 2020 978-1-335-20894-1 An executive needs a wife to gain his grandmother’s blessing to become CEO of the family business.

Garrett Song is one step away from achieving his lifelong dream of heading his family’s Los Angeles fashion empire. Shocked at his grandmother’s announcement that she’s chosen a Korean heiress for him to marry and that he must marry her if he wants to be promoted, Garrett lies and tells her that he’s already engaged.

Garrett has given his entire life to the company, but he refuses to let his family dictate whom he’ll marry, even if the marriage would allow the Songs to enter into the jae-bul, the wealthy, entitled echelon of Korean society. Enter Natalie Sobol, an upand-coming HR professional in his firm. Natalie is attempting to gain custody of her 6-month-old niece after her sister and brother-in-law died in a car accident. When Garrett asks Natalie to agree to a fake marriage to thwart his grandmother’s plan, Natalie realizes the appearance of being happily married might sway the court to rule in her favor. Lee’s debut novel succeeds as a category romance (belonging to the branded lines of shorter Harlequin romances published every month), as the book is jammed with popular romance tropes such as familial duty, fake engagement, and corporate espionage. Natalie and Garrett are likable characters who want to achieve their goals on their own terms, and when they team up as husband and wife, they discover they make each other stronger both professionally and personally. It’s especially poignant that Natalie, who is mostly unfamiliar with her own Korean heritage, mends the discord between Garrett and his old-fashioned grandmother. Some of the plot twists seem contrived or underdeveloped, and Natalie’s urgency to adopt her niece doesn’t feel convincing since the baby spends most of the time off-page with the grandparents who also want custody. Nevertheless, it’s a quick, enjoyable read.

A competent debut from an up-and-coming author.

BADGER TO THE BONE

Laurenston, Shelly Kensington (400 pp.) $15.95 paper | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-4967-1440-4

The final segment of the Honey Badger Chronicles pairs middle sister Max MacKilligan with an oblivious jaguar shifter who attempts to save her and winds up finding himself.

When an attempted kidnapping of honey badger shifter Max goes south, ZeZé Vargas, one of the kidnappers who’s a shifter though he doesn’t know it, tries to protect her and is injured. After Max takes ZeZé home to New York and he heals, she’s prepared to turn him loose, but her older sister, Charlie, demands she take some responsibility and help Zé navigate his new reality. “You brought him here, Max. You told him the truth. Now you need to deal with the repercussions of those actions.” Zé soon learns how unique the MacKilligan half sisters are. Fiercely loyal and superlethal when they choose to be, they mostly want to be left in peace. However, thanks to their idiot father and Max’s criminal mother, who’s recently escaped from prison, everyone wants something from them—information, money, or skills, for instance—pitting them against mercenaries, hostile family members, and even law enforcement. In the midst of the chaos, Zé begins to make sense of the sisters’ odd relationships with each other and the vast, unexpected network of friends and allies around them, and for the first time, he feels at home in his own skin and right where he’s supposed to be, with Max by his side. Laurenston 56

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A runaway bride meets a runaway lord. lord holt takes a bride

LORD HOLT TAKES A BRIDE

COWBOY FIREFIGHTER HEAT

Lorret, Vivienne Avon/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $7.99 paper | Mar. 31, 2020 978-0-06-297659-8

Redford, Kim Sourcebooks Casablanca (352 pp.) $7.99 paper | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-4926-9502-8

Returning to the Texas town where she and her sister bought a historic music hall, a singer learns she now co-owns the venue with her old flame.

Coming off a cruise-ship gig, Fern Bryant is ready to settle back into the small Texas town where she and her sister moved after they bought a historic dance hall from a cousin.

She’s excited to raise the profile of the hall by bringing in bigger acts as well as local talent. However, when she gets back, she discovers Craig Thorne in her cabin. Craig is the area rancher, volunteer firefighter, and musician who captured her heart when she moved to town, though things fell apart when she ducked her feelings and took the cruise job. Turns out her sister sold her share in the dance hall to Craig without telling Fern, so now they’re partners. At first determined to keep Craig at arm’s length, she’s back in his arms soon enough and refinds her footing in the community, which is chock full of interesting characters, including two town matriarchs who convince Fern and Craig to co-chair the annual Wild West Days festival. As things look up for Fern and Craig, an obsessive fan of Fern’s emerges to threaten their happiness. The latest title in Redford’s Smokin’ Hot Cowboys series revisits Wildcat Bluff County and its quirky community; fans will especially enjoy Fernando the Wonder Bull’s heroic efforts. While Fern and Craig’s reconciliation is sizzling, the conflict sputters out pretty early, replaced by the shadowy villain’s menacing actions. At times, some of the characters’ responses feel unrealistic (for example, Fern never confronts her sister for selling her share of the dance hall to Craig without saying anything), but it’s generally an entertaining, sexy read. Cowboy romance fans will find a lot to love, including the buildup to the next book.

A lively contemporary romance with touches of suspense.

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A runaway bride meets a runaway lord.

Winnifred Humphries can’t bring herself to marry the awful man her father has selected for her, so she leaves him at the altar and climbs into a carriage with a man she believes to be her friend Jane’s cousin. But, as Winn discovers too late, he’s not Jane’s cousin; he’s actually Lord Asher Holt, whom her friends accidentally kidnapped and robbed in the name of research the week before. Asher just wants his money back so he can finally get away from his greedy father, but the situation spirals, and both of them need to leave London as quickly as possible. Though they expect to be parted after just a few days, when they reach Winn’s aunt’s house, the intimacy of their travel ignites a fierce chemistry, and it’s strong enough that they are easily able to pose as a married couple. After they finally admit that they don’t want to be parted, a series of misunderstandings and maliciousness on Asher’s father’s part threaten to part them permanently—unless Asher can get one more chance to talk to Winn.

The first book in Lorret’s The Mating Habits of Scoundrels trilogy is convoluted at times, but readers will be pleased to see that Asher is less of a scoundrel than he initially appears. Given that Winn and her friends are ostensibly writing a book about scoundrels—hence the accidental kidnapping—this is unfortunate for their purposes, but that’s a fairly minor subplot anyway.

A more charming subplot, a possible second-chance romance between Winn’s parents, adds a pleasing depth to the story, reminiscent of Eloisa James. Readers will also be grateful for the constant rain showers of England, which create several steamy opportunities for Winn and Asher to get out of their clothing to dry off and get close to stay warm. Though there aren’t many surprises in the story, Lorret (The Rogue To Ruin, 2019, etc.) does execute a historical romance well, and readers will look forward to learning more about Winn’s friends Jane and Ellie in future installments.

A solid Regency romance and promising start to a new series.

YOU HAD ME AT WOLF

Spear, Terry Sourcebooks Casablanca (384 pp.) $7.99 paper | Feb. 25, 2020 978-1-4926-9775-6

Two wolf shifters must catch a criminal in the midst of hazardous winter weather: Action, adventure, and romance kick off a new series by Spear (Falling for the Cougar, 2019, etc.).

Private Investigator Nicole Grayson has an edge that some of her colleagues don’t. She’s a gray wolf shifter, and her heightened sense of smell makes for excellent tracking abilities. When |

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her latest assignment, investigating a fraudulent life insurance claim, leads her to an isolated ski lodge inhabited by a group of shifter brothers, Nicole realizes that this particular mission is different. Blake Wolff has finally found peace and quiet, as he and his brothers have turned their land into a sanctuary for wolf shifters like themselves. When Nicole turns up at the lodge, sniffing around and looking for answers, Blake volunteers to help. The sooner she wraps up her investigation, the sooner Blake can return to maintaining the calm community the Wolff siblings have built. The suspense never fully delivers despite the setup of dangerous situations and the characters’ ability to shift into wolves. Of course, the bad guys get caught and the good guys prevail, but the stakes never seem terribly high. With corny, on-the-nose details such as having Wolff and Grayson as surnames for gray wolf shifters, it’s hard to tell if Spear is in on the joke or if some things sounded better in theory than reality.

The brightest spot here, as in most of Spears’ books, is her dedication to writing strong heroines with interesting professions, and Nicole fits perfectly into that box. She’s capable, competent, and a force to be reckoned with in a difficult situation.

Blake is happy to let her take the lead without any egos getting in the way, which is something all readers will appreciate.

Like a popcorn action flick: fun but lacking in substance.

one-upmanship, but readers might lose patience as James’ and Violet’s immature antics drag on. It’s difficult to root for characters so committed to nursing their feelings of resentment, animosity, and persecution.

Most likely to appeal to readers looking to see just how far the “enemies to lovers” trope can be stretched before it snaps.

A COWBOY TO REMEMBER

Weatherspoon, Rebekah Dafina/Kensington (320 pp.) $7.99 paper | Feb. 25, 2020 978-1-4967-2540-0

First in the Cowboys of California series, about brothers who run a luxury dude ranch.

Celebrity chef Evie Buchanan was raised on the Pleasant family’s luxury dude ranch in Charming, California, by her grandmother, a renowned horse trainer, after her parents were killed in a car accident. In the decade since her grandmother died, Evie has been working her way up the culinary ladder in New York City. She has found success co-hosting a television show, but she has never met a man quite like the cowboy who broke her heart. Zach Pleasant, gorgeous, charming, and laser focused on work, is now co-owner of Big Rock Ranch with his brother, Jesse. When Evie sustains a traumatic brain injury at an industry party and loses her memory, she needs a quiet place, away from Manhattan, to recover.

The Pleasant family takes her in, and Evie slowly begins to regain some of her cooking skills and memories. She’s attracted to Zach, but trying to come to terms with how he hurt her in the past without remembering it proves a challenge. Evie is a heroine to root for—resilient, brave, honest, funny, and humble.

Her struggles, not only to recover, but to reinvent herself, are movingly portrayed: “I want to feel loved, like really loved. I want to feel that I have something that is mine for as long as I can hold on to it.” The romance competes with a very large cast of characters in both New York and California, and a suspense subplot fizzles out, but Zach is a good man and a fitting match.

An amnesia plot done right and a fantastic heroine mark a strong series debut.

TO HAVE AND TO HOAX

Waters, Martha Atria (368 pp.) $17.00 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-9821-3611-6

A married couple’s long years of feuding come to an end in this romance debut.

In her first season, Lady Violet Grey was caught unchaperoned on a balcony with Lord James Audley. Although they only engaged in mild flirting and friendly banter, he immediately offers to marry her rather than see her ruined. The timeline jumps forward five years to a couple in great distress. Even though they were celebrated as a great love match, a year into the marriage they had a bitter fight that neither could forgive or forget. The chilly, uncomfortable silence lasts for four years, only breaking when Violet receives a note informing her that James was knocked unconscious after falling from his horse. She realizes she still loves him and rushes to his bedside, but he’s fully recovered by the time she arrives.

Furious and convinced he played her for a fool, she decides to fake an illness of her own to show him how it feels. Their friends and family encourage them to talk to each other rather than plot and plan, but they are too afraid to trust each other after all the years of discord. Waters is a gifted writer. She deploys sharp, incisive prose to describe each character’s inner world, showing how each is a product of their upbringing and class.

James resents being the neglected second son while Violet chafes at the bounds of feminine propriety. It’s clear the novel is attempting to create a comedic War of the Roses–style game of 58

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nonfiction JOHN ADAMS UNDER FIRE The Founding Father’s Fight for Justice in the Boston Massacre Murder Trial

These titles earned the Kirkus Star: FINAL DRAFT by David Carr.............................................................67

Abrams, Dan & Fisher, David Hanover Square Press (320 pp.) $28.99 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-335-01592-1

THE HOT HAND by Ben Cohen........................................................... 68 CHOICE WORDS by Annie Finch........................................................76 THE INEVITABILITY OF TRAGEDY by Barry Gewen........................78 THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE by Erik Larson............................... 86

CALDER by Jed Perl..............................................................................91 BECOMING WILD by Carl Safina.......................................................97 SIGH, GONE by Phuc Tran................................................................102 HEAVEN by Emerson Whitney......................................................... 104 AFROPESSIMISM by Frank B. Wilderson III................................. 104 DISUNITED NATIONS by Peter Zeihan............................................105 BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE by Julian E. Zelizer.......................106 BECOMING WILD How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace

Safina, Carl Henry Holt (384 pp.) $29.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-250-17333-1

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THE ADDRESS BOOK by Deirdre Mask............................................ 88

The first shots in the American Revolution occurred during the Boston Massacre, and this history describes the trial that followed, certainly “the most important case in American colonial history.”

On March 5, 1770, British soldiers, harassed by a mob throwing snowballs and rocks, fired into the crowd, killing five and injuring six. Abrams, the chief legal affairs correspondent for ABC News, and prolific author Fisher (co-authors: Lincoln’s Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency, 2018) write that the 34-year-old Adams, a successful lawyer who was sympathetic to the protestors, agreed to defend the officer and eight soldiers accused of murder. He would later write, “Counsel ought to be the very last thing an accused person should want in a free country….” This was a moderately courageous act that did his growing law practice no good. To his dying day, Adams grumbled that opponents used the trial to impugn his patriotism. This may have been true, but since then, historians have given him high marks. There were two trials. In the first, the defense had little trouble convincing the jury that Thomas Preston, the officer in charge, did not order his men to fire. In the second, Adams and colleagues strived to show that the soldiers feared for their lives, thus giving them the right to kill in self-defense. They largely succeeded. The jury exonerated six and convicted two of the lesser charge of manslaughter. The letter “m” was burned onto their thumbs as punishment. A transcript exists of the soldiers’ trial, which is perhaps too much of a good thing, as the authors quote liberally from it. Despite variations, readers will encounter perhaps 100 pages of witnesses’ descriptions of the same event followed by several lawyers’ careful reviews of those that support the case.

Many readers will feel the urge to skim these parts, but on the whole, the narrative is engaging.

An expert, extremely detailed account of John Adams’ finest hour.

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literary february Leah Overstreet

Since most Kirkus readers are book nerds, I thought it would be appropriate to recommend five books about literature and writers to get you through the dark days of February.

Martha Ackmann, These Fevered Days (Norton, Feb. 25): Widely considered one of America’s most significant poets, Emily Dickinson is also something of a shadow, what our reviewer calls a “shy wraith, dressed in white, refusing to allow publication of her poems—nearly 2,000, discovered after her death.” Ackmann, a Guggenheim fellow who taught a Dickinson seminar for two decades (in the poet’s Amherst, Massachusetts, house), takes a novel approach to this enigmatic artist, presenting 10 moments from Dickinson’s life that demonstrate her character and the mechanics of her creativity. It’s a refreshingly unique treatment of a much-discussed literary subject, characterized by “radiant prose, palpable descriptions, and deep empathy for the poet’s sensibility.”

Julian Barnes, The Man in the Red Coat (Knopf, Feb. 18): Though the primary subject of the award-winning novelist’s latest book of nonfiction is Samuel Pozzi, a 19th-century French doctor considered the “father of gynecology,” Barnes’ palette expands to encompass many other aspects of the fascinating belle epoque, including delightful cultural and social details and a cast of characters that includes not only the doctor (whom some accused of sex addiction) and some of his patients, but also Oscar Wilde, Proust, Henry James, and Sarah Bernhardt. As our reviewer notes in a starred review, “finely honed biographical intuition and a novelist’s sensibility make for a stylish, engrossing narrative.” One would expect nothing less from the Booker Prize winner, and he delivers yet again.

Craig Fehrman, Author in Chief (Avid Reader Press, Feb. 11): From the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant through Barack Obama’s Dreams of My Father, many presidents have demonstrated literary talent and ambitions. (I will ignore the current occupant of the White House, whose execrable “business” and political books are worth far less than the paper they’re printed on.) Digging into this little-covered niche 60

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of presidential history, Fehrman emerges with a trove of material that will appeal to any book lover. “Overall,” writes our reviewer, “the author covers a great deal of ground that even major biographers have skipped over in favor of “sexier” storylines, yet to the book lover, these stories will be unquestionably enticing. Even the footnotes, appendix, and sources offer bookish gems.”

Vivian Gornick, Unfinished Business (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Feb. 4): For more than five decades, Gornick has been a consistently illuminating presence in the literary world, from her days at the Village Voice in the 1970s through her tenure teaching writing at the New School.

Indeed, our reviewer notes, “literature knows few champions as ardent and insightful—or as uncompromising—as Gornick.” Fresh off the publication of her well-received memoir, The Odd Woman and the City, Gornick offers this collection of essays focused on the virtues of rereading and the fresh insight that can be gleaned from revisiting a favorite work of literature. “For those willing to relinquish treasured but outmoded interpretations,” writes our reviewer, “rereading over a span of decades can be a journey, sometimes unsettling, toward richer meanings of books that are touchstones of one’s life.”

Jenn Shapland, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers (Tin House, Feb. 4): In this elegant work of literary and biographical excavation, Shapland brings to light numerous elements of McCullers’ life, especially her sexuality. Shapland embarked on her journey while she was an intern at the University of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center, where she discovered some love letters to the author from Swiss writer and photographer Annemarie Schwarzenbach.

The discovery came at a turning point in Shapland’s own life; inspired by McCullers, she writes, “within a year, I would be more or less comfortably calling myself a lesbian for the first time.” In this impressive debut, Shapland delivers “a sensitive chronicle of a biographer’s search for truth.” —E.L. Eric Liebetrau is the managing editor and nonfiction editor. |

VOICES FROM THE APE HOUSE

Armstrong, Beth Trillium/Ohio State Univ. Press (312 pp.) $19.95 paper | Mar. 10, 2020 978-0-8142-5571-1

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A gorilla keeper’s memoir about her years (1982-1996) at the Columbus Zoo. Armstrong began her career when zoos were on the cusp of rethinking their mission and their responsibilities regarding the animals in their care. It was a roiling time in the zoo community, with new ideas challenging traditional practices. Early on, the author found her niche in the zoo’s ape house, where even the simple chores gave her pleasure as they brought her close to the gorillas. In a comfortable, conversational writing style, she composes short, crisp stories about her encounters with the great apes. She eschews the chart, table, and figure approach of behavioral research, instead relying on a purely anecdotal telling of her real-life experiences with the gorillas. One of her first lessons was that keepers serve as the first advocates for the gorillas in captivity. Armstrong chronicles the processes of introducing hay for nesting and providing playthings for entertainment and structures to climb on and swing from. Today, when many zoos have created entire habitats for their apes, these elemental changes may seem negligible, but they were the first steps in fashioning suitable environments in which the apes could thrive rather than just survive. Armstrong was in the forefront of exchanging experiences with other zoos around the world, developing a network of relationships that spread advances made in gorilla husbandry and zoo management. The zoo’s philosophy became “Do the right thing for the right reasons,” guided by insights from the ape house: “Never ever presume anything; the gorillas will tell you through obvious and not so obvious ways what they want, what they need. Never bring your presumption to the fore as that will predictably get someone hurt, either a gorilla or a keeper.” Though the author’s discussions of zoo management are mostly engaging, the most heart-touching material is found in the profiles of the gorillas.

A pleasing gathering of distinct personalities and unique stories from the ape house. (35 photos; 2 tables)

doesn’t include any of his own work in this wide-ranging volume.

In the introduction, he makes patent his anti-Trump attitude, calling the president a “sleaze, narcissist, chronic dissembler, unscrupulous tycoon, [and] tax cheat.” The book is arranged thematically, and each section comprises pieces organized chronologically. Most of the contributors, drawn from a variety of disciplines and eras, are familiar: William F. Buckley Jr., Walter Lippmann, Whittaker Chambers, Reinhold Niebuhr, Zora Neale Hurston, John Crowe Ransom, Wendell Berry, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, Joan Didion, Antonin Scalia, Milton Friedman, and Shelby Steele. The unspoken theme of many pieces is that conservatism once had a scholarly, articulate, even elitist foundation, but anyone who peruses today’s news knows that this has evanesced. Also present throughout the book are themes that have long occupied conservative thought: American power and war, anti-communism, religion in public life, isolationism versus intervention, regional rights, and free markets. In an essay from 1947, James Burnham argues that while race is a significant issue in America, it is not nearly as bad as it would be under a totalitarian regime. Unfortunately, many

AMERICAN CONSERVATISM Reclaiming an Intellectual Tradition Ed. by Bacevich, Andrew J. Library of America (500 pp.) $29.95 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-59853-656-0

A collection of essays and speeches— mostly from the 20th century—that argue tacitly that today’s conservatism needs an intellectual reboot.

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A pleasure for thoughtful fans of Old West history, revisionist without being iconoclastic. ride the devil’s herd

of the Southern writers ignore slavery and Jim Crow in their discussions of liberty. Also troubling: A number of writers urge the reining in of what they see as hurried social changes, a position that seems to suggest a desire to maintain the status quo. Bacevich acknowledges that most of his contributors are white males, but he doesn’t want to “falsify history” by including minority voices that were not prominent thinkers during their eras.

Eloquent if tendentious historical snapshots of the conservative tradition in American thought.

BE MY GUEST Reflections on Food, Community, and the Meaning of Generosity

Basil, Priya Knopf (144 pp.) $20.00 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-0-525-65785-9

The roles food and hospitality play in a woman’s personal life and in the

broader world.

“Who are we becoming? Who do we want to be?” asks Basil, the Berlin-based co-founder of Authors for Peace. “Can the answer lie in a sausage? Perhaps only insofar as one never exactly knows—or wants to!—all the contents within the casing. Identity, too, is a mince of sorts.” In these short and sometimes meandering musings, in which the author enlists the wisdom of Plato, Kant, Hannah Arendt, Peter Singer, and other thinkers, Basil explores what it means to be a woman, an immigrant, a host, and a guest through the backdrop of food, specifically the Indian food that reflects her Sikh background.

Although born in London to Indian parents, Basil has also lived in Kenya, Britain, and Germany, giving her exposure to unique experiences that have shaped her ways of thinking about what it means to belong. Physical and emotional sustenance via food are the main themes that move through Basil’s ruminations about integration, hospitality, the necessity of the European Union, altruism, and her insecurities about her relationships with others and with food itself. She shares her obsession with her mother’s kadhi, a curry made with graham flour and yogurt, describes a langar (a free meal at a Sikh temple, regardless of the guest’s religion or ethnicity), and chronicles her difficulties in maintaining a healthy weight. Pungent details help bring readers into the moment—e.g., Basil’s observations of the variety of bare feet she encountered at the langar. The tone is conversational, but the author also touches on deep subjects such as racism, food waste, and how food can be healing, seductive, or even used as a weapon. Although a quick read, the book offers plenty of room for contemplation.

Careful considerations of the wide world of food and “the life-play of hospitality.”

RED SEA SPIES The True Story of Mossad’s Fake Holiday Resort Berg, Raffi Icon Books (320 pp.) $27.95 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-78578-600-6

The secret history of how Israel spirited thousands of Ethiopian Jews out of their war-torn country well before it became known in the world press.

Despite the vague and misleading title of this well-crafted investigative report, Berg, the Middle East editor of the BBC News website, tells an amazing story of the dogged behind-the-scenes workings of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, from the late 1970s to the ’90s.

Largely ignored until Menachem Begin, a refugee of Nazi persecution, became prime minister of Israel in 1977, the Ethiopian Jews were a devout minority community whom some considered the descendants of the lost Tribe of Dan. They regarded Jerusalem as their spiritual home and followed the tenets of Judaism, such as circumcision, keeping kosher, and observing the Sabbath—although they still believed the Holy Land was occupied by the Romans. When their security was threatened by the outbreak of wars with Ethiopia’s insurgent neighbors, the Jews became a political pawn between Ethiopia and Israel—the latter spurred by the determined Begin administration to get the lost Jews safely to Israel, by land, air, or sea, from 1979 onward. Led by Mossad and a team that included Ethiopian Jew Ferede Aklum, the Jews, often traded for arms, were spirited through the Arous Village “resort” in Sudan, which the Israelis essentially bought and reconfigured as a ruse for their efforts in the early 1980s. The careful duplicity with which the Mossad agents acted is a marvel to read, and Berg meticulously re-creates the detail and dialogue.

Eventually, the U.S. became involved when the refugee crisis worsened in the mid-1980s. From the first secret airlift until 1991, writes the author, who includes helpful maps and a list of the significant characters, 28,695 Ethiopian Jews were transported to Israel, “about 80 percent of their entire community.”

Berg’s account of the operation—remarkable due to its duration, execution, and success—reads like a spy novel.

(16-page b/w photo insert; maps)

RIDE THE DEVIL’S HERD Wyatt Earp’s Epic Battle Against the West’s Biggest Outlaw Gang Boessenecker, John Hanover Square Press (352 pp.) $29.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-335-01585-3

A ripsnortin’ ramble across the bloodstained Arizona desert with Wyatt Earp and company.

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Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the like may be best known for the famous shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, but, as trial lawyer and popular historian Boessenecker ably shows, that was but one episode in a drama with many moving parts.

Some of it traces back to points east, where ruffians known as “Cowboys”—not at all an admiring term in those days, “synonymous with desperado, bandit, and cutthroat”—robbed and murdered with abandon. The presiding genius of one band was an Irish New Englander who joined the Army and found frontier New Mexico a congenial place to conduct his nefarious business, including cattle rustling, horse thievery, and other affronts to public order. The story of Billy the Kid figures in this history, as does that of Earp paterfamilias Nicholas, hard-drinking, opinionated, and sometimes in trouble with the law. Indeed, at points in this narrative, readers may need a score card to keep track of which side of the law Wyatt and company were on at any given time. By the time they went to war with a Cowboy named Curly Bill Brocius, they were vigilantes who themselves would be in trouble with the authorities, Wyatt having gunned down a quarry on the streets of Tucson without much regard

for the niceties of a fair warning. Throughout, Boessenecker displays a fine eye for period detail: He notes that much Old West violence had a political dimension that makes our time look tranquil by comparison. It was made all the nastier by the “entertainment vacuum” that existed on a frontier without much to do except drink and brawl. Charges that the Earps took part in dark-side activities such as gambling “were inflammatory but true,” writes the author, good reason to stay a step ahead of the law and get out of Tombstone after the shooting stopped.

A pleasure for thoughtful fans of Old West history, revisionist without being iconoclastic. (b/w illustrations)

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An evenhanded, accessible, and pertinent work of Asian history and current affairs. three tigers, one mountain

FROM HERE TO THERE The Art and Science of Finding and Losing Our Way Bond, Michael Belknap/Harvard Univ. (272 pp.) $29.95 | May 12, 2020 978-0-674-24457-3

A scientifically rich look at how humans manage to get around in the world.

The ability of the human species to construct and file away mental maps of the world, writes former New Scientist senior editor Bond, allowed our highly social kind to find its way out of Africa, spread all over the world, and establish and maintain contacts and trade with faraway populations in a comparatively short amount of time. Those whose business it is to know many ways of getting around—taxi drivers, say, famously those negotiating the fabulously illogical plan of London—have more “gray matter” and better developed hypothalamuses than those who stay at home. On that note, adds the author, we are creating whole generations of geographically stunted children by not giving them room to roam and opportunities to get lost. “Free play,” he writes, “makes us less likely to suffer from spatial anxiety and more proficient in wayfinding,” and one of the crueler aspects of dementia disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease is their way of robbing victims of their sense of where they are in the world. Bond consults psychologists, neuroscientists, geographers, and other specialists in building his narrative of our kind’s devotion to “learning about the space around us and how we fit into it.” M.R. O’Connor’s standout 2019 book Wayfinding covers much of the same ground, but Bond offers a solid contribution that complements rather than competes with its predecessor. Of particular interest is Bond’s look at gender differentiation in how people perceive the world. Men, he writes, are likelier to use cardinal directions and distances in describing a route; conversely, “ask a woman and you’re more likely to get a rich description of the things you’ll pass along the way.”

Just the book for students of the human mind as well as geography and travel buffs. (26 illustrations)

THREE TIGERS, ONE MOUNTAIN A Journey Through the Bitter History and Current Conflicts of China, Korea, and Japan Booth, Michael St. Martin’s (336 pp.) $28.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-250-11406-8

A British journalist’s tenacious, onthe-ground reporting of the continued “sibling rivalry” among the three major East Asian economies, who “ought to be the firmest of allies.”

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Booth, long fascinated by the region, intriguingly compares the long-simmering resentment among China, Korea, and Japan to an ongoing family feud. Looking at the arrival of Matthew Galbraith Perry’s ships in Tokyo in 1853, the author writes, “China had been the Middle Kingdom, font of all knowledge, technology, and civilization; Korea was the primary tributary land, the middle sibling, and Japan the vaguely barbaric little brother, but the trauma of the [ships’] arrival lit the fuse for a quasi-revolution in Japan,” which ultimately led “to a catastrophic attempt to build an empire based on the Western model.” Via a systematic journey through these countries (first Japan, then China, then Korea), the author, employing a jocular, tongue-in-cheek, nondidactic tone, underscores how the bad blood—both popular feeling and political leaning—customarily emanates from Japan’s strong-arm tactics and perceived lack of reckoning toward the other two brothers. As Booth points out, the hundreds of thousands of Koreans living in Japan after World War II, descendants of Japan’s shameful annexation of Korea between 1910 and 1945, “faced heavy discrimination in the postwar employment market,” and they still endure stiff biases regarding citizenship and identity. In addition to land disputes, the unresolved wounds of the Chinese and Korean “comfort women”—enslaved by the Japanese military during WWII—continue to rankle relations. Chronicling his visits to museums and shrines in all three countries, the author gives an excellent sense of how each views itself in relation to the others—through what they teach (or fail to teach) to their own people. Booth’s simple yet ingenious thesis encapsulates so much of what is still going wrong there, with an ancient rivalry not likely to be resolved soon.

An evenhanded, accessible, and pertinent work of Asian history and current affairs. (3 maps)

GOOD BOY My Life in Seven Dogs

Boylan, Jennifer Finney Celadon Books (288 pp.) $26.99 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-1-250-26187-8

A memoir told through the lens of seven canine companions.

Often, it’s difficult to remember all the details of our lives and the people we once were. “But I remember the dogs,” writes New York Times columnist and LGBTQ activist Boylan, who is on the PEN America board of trustees and serves as the inaugural Anna Quindlen writer in residence at Barnard College. In her latest, the author ties each of the seven chapters to a phase of her life and a dog she has loved. The narrative is somewhat chronological, but the dog stories and timelines also skip around a lot, which occasionally becomes disorienting. As in her previous books, Boylan’s wry wit, wicked sense of humor, and unique way of turning phrases shine through, and her candor is powerfully therapeutic. Particularly stunning is the section in which she describes her initial reactions when a close |

family member also came out as trans. However, this book is not a Boylan primer. Readers who have not encountered She’s Not There (2003), her memoir about her transition from male to female, may long for more detail in this book; the author sometimes skims over major life events she has written about elsewhere. But this is about the dogs, and the canine theme emerged from a Times opinion column, in which she wrote about her dog Indigo, that went viral in 2017. Boylan’s stories about each dog—from Playboy to Sausage to Matt the Mutt to Ranger (whose frequent interactions with porcupines “never ended well”)—range from sidesplitting to downright profound, and the author makes a convincing argument for the inherent need for all creatures to be who they truly are. Though the connections between the dogs and Boylan’s life aren’t always obvious, these tales will entertain, endear, and—fair warning—possibly induce a sudden urge to drive to the local animal shelter.

Intimate and insightful glimpses into Boylan’s life and the dogs that have helped her learn more about love.

THE FUTURE OF CHANGE How Technology Shapes Social Revolutions

Brescia, Raymond H. Cornell Univ. (240 pp.) $28.95 | Apr. 15, 2020 978-1-5017-4811-0

According to this precise academic study, advances in communication drive progressive social movements.

“Changes in the ability to communicate seem to create an environment in which social movements can emerge, embrace the new technology, and use it to advance the change they wish to see in the world.” So writes Brescia (Law and Technology/Albany Law School; How Cities Will Save the World: Urban Innovation in the Face of Population Flows, Climate Change and Economic Inequality, 2016) early on, emphasizing that successful movements accomplish three things. First, they harness the latest means of communications

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With useful maps and stories within stories, this is an ingenious look at an often misunderstood country. great state

to further their goals. The postal service and the steam-powered printing press, which reduced newspaper printing costs from 6 cents to 1 during the 1830s, allowed the abolitionist movement to flood the nation with its literature. In the 1950s and ’60s, TV spread support of the civil rights movement, delivering vivid scenes of violence to a white America largely neutral at the beginning. Second, movements form “translocal, grassroots networks” connected to larger, often nationwide organizations. Local bonds facilitate the coordination of action at the local, state, and national levels to promote social change. Brescia describes the passage of the GI Bill of 1944, the result of a massive nationwide campaign. Third, they unite members through positive, inclusive, optimistic “messages” that stress common interests. The author works hard, with some success, to find a silver lining in the explosive communications revolution that began with computer-generated mailing lists in the 1960s and continues with the pervasive internet, mobile devices, and social media, which both unite and isolate individuals and vastly increase the exchange of information, not all of it accurate. Most readers will agree that Brescia is

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on to something, but he lays out his ideas in dense prose more acceptable to a scholarly audience.

An insightful but prolix analysis of how social movements take advantage of media technology.

GREAT STATE China and the World

Brook, Timothy Harper/HarperCollins (464 pp.) $32.50 | Mar. 17, 2020 978-0-06-295098-7 A Canadian scholar of Chinese history offers a fresh look at China’s engagement with the outside world over centuries in the form of 13 illustrative stories.

In this academic yet mostly accessible work, Brook makes two significant revisionist arguments about China and its history. First, he moves up China’s sense of being a unified state from the third century B.C.E., when it developed “dispersed kingdoms,” to the 13th century, when its occupation by the Mongol armies imbued it with a sense of military domination exercised through conquest. This was the self-important “Mongol Great State,” and every ruler since then has declared his regime to be a “Great State,” according to Brook. Second, the author argues that, contrary to the myth of Chinese isolation from the world, the nation was very much aware of the “10,000 countries” that lay outside it, as the author relays through fascinating stories of contact. These involve a wide variety of protagonists that may be unfamiliar to many readers, including the “Persian Blue Princess” whom Khubilai Khan recruited for the Mongol throne; Korean emissaries who blew off course and landed in China; the Italian Jesuit missionaries who spread Renaissance ideas; and the droves of European traders descending on ports such as Canton. Indeed, Brook reminds us, China has frequently endured waves of conquest and occupation by “foreign” armies, from the marauding Mongol hordes led by Khan, who established the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), to the subsequent rise of the Ming Dynasty until 1644, when the Manchus swept through and established the Qing Great State, which collapsed in 1911. Brook then takes us all the way up to the early 21st century, noting how “China’s relationship with the world will continue to change.” The author also turns up intriguing new DNA evidence that the plague had likely emerged from Central Asia and devastated Chinese cities far earlier than it arrived in Europe.

With useful maps and stories within stories, this is an ingenious look at an often misunderstood country. (16-page color insert; 6 maps)

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PHILOSOPHER OF THE HEART The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard

FINAL DRAFT The Collected Work of David Carr

Carlisle, Clare Farrar, Straus and Giroux (368 pp.) $28.00 | May 5, 2020 978-0-374-23118-7

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A collection of key pieces of the renowned journalist, who died unexpectedly at 58 in 2015.

Arranged more or less chronologically, these pieces commence in the 1980s, when Carr (The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life, His Own, 2008), a Minnesota native, was a freelancer in his home state.

Gradually, we move through his other gigs: Family Times (a monthly local in the Twin Cities), Twin Cities Reader, Washing­ ton City Paper, Atlantic Monthly, New York Magazine, and the New York Times, where he died in the newsroom. The earlier

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The 19th-century thinker who inspired existentialists grounded his philosophy in individual experience.

Carlisle, a London-based professor of philosophy and theology, offers an empathetic, well-grounded biography of the Danish philosopher, prolific author, and “spiritual seeker” Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). His overarching question, posed by Socrates and later taken up by 20th-century existentialists, was: “How can I be a human being in the world?”

Human nature, Kierkegaard argued, “is not a fixed, timeless essence, nor a biological necessity, but a creative task for each individual life.” His conviction about personal evolution made him suspicious of marriage, the “duties, customs, expectations” required of a husband that might constrain him and impede his ability to express his spiritual life. In addition, he feared being completely open with another person. Once engaged to be married, he ended the relationship rather than reveal to his betrothed the “melancholy, the eternal night brooding,” and the “desires and excesses” that caused him great anxiety. The renouncement haunted him for the rest of his life, as did his relationship with his father, a “forbidding, complex” man whose religious ideas became antithetical to those of his son.

The Lutheran Church failed to offer Kierkegaard a sacred refuge. “Does he find any more truth there,” he asked himself, “than in the theatre, or the lecture hall, or the marketplace—or have churches become the least truthful places in Christendom?” For Kierkegaard, the story of Abraham’s journey up and down Mount Moriah became emblematic of “the religious movements—the deep longing for God, the anxious struggle to understand his vocation, the search for an authentic spiritual path—that shaped his own inner life.” Rather than create a conventional chronological narrative, Carlisle moves back and forth in time to underscore how “past and future are vibrant inside us” as she judiciously mines Kierkegaard’s works and considerable scholarship to elucidate the philosopher’s life, mind, and struggles.

A perceptive portrait of an enigmatic thinker. (45 b/w illustrations)

Carr, David Ed. by Carr, Jill Rooney Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (400 pp.) $28.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-358-20668-2

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Sports fans and science geeks alike will enjoy these travels in the world where numbers, luck, and superstardom meet. the hot hand

pieces include some very personal ones about his substance abuse and struggles with cancer, but there are also investigative pieces about other assorted topics, including hungover airline pilots and a gay political candidate. Throughout are a number of celebrity profiles: Tom Arnold, Sally Quinn, Neil Young, Bill Cosby, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert Downey Jr. (In the Cosby piece, Carr chides himself for not pursuing the rape allegations about the now-incarcerated comedian.)

The author also provides coverage of Bill Clinton’s impeachment, 9/11, and the journalism profession (plagiarism, Fox News, the toxic effects of Ann Coulter). Related to all of this is an 11-page copy of a journalism syllabus for a course he taught at Boston University. Sometimes the pieces are thematically arranged. Near the end are two separated by 12 years; both deal with the view as drivers approach New York City (the author was commuting from New Jersey at the time). Throughout the book, Carr displays profound care about his craft, flashes of humor, and, when necessary, genuine fangs: See his 2015 piece about a neighbor’s cat, and witness the gleam of his verbal scalpel that vivisects Coulter.

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Carr’s wife, Jill, served as the editor for the book, and TaNehisi Coates, who worked for Carr at Washington City Paper, provides the foreword.

A revelatory collection reminding us of what journalism used to be—and what it ought to be.

THE HOT HAND The Mystery and Science of Streaks

Cohen, Ben Custom House/Morrow (352 pp.) $28.99 | Mar. 10, 2020 978-0-06-282072-3

Wall Street Journal sports reporter Cohen looks into the odd “science of streaks.”

Is there a “hot hand,” the term basketball players use to describe that magical, endorphin-inducing moment when you can’t miss a shot and “achieve some elevated state of ability in which you feel briefly superhuman”?

It’s one of the finest of psychological states, and if most of us don’t land in it regularly, there are people like Steph Curry to study, as the author does. By the numbers, Curry shouldn’t be the superstar shooter that he is—even though he’s 6-feet-3 he’s still smaller than most of the players he goes up against, a key datum point. What changed him was a summer spent teaching himself to shoot all over again: lifting the ball over his head and releasing it as he was jumping up, essentially making himself as tall as the defenders who would otherwise block his shots. That summer involved thousands of shots, and in the end, it made Curry “the best shooter the sport of basketball had ever seen.”

This case study provides a springboard for Cohen to look at such things as the construction of data sets. One of the cardinal sins involving data is to make conclusions with numbers that are too small to support them—whence the “law of small numbers,” proposed by the Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who themselves have written an improbably brilliant hot streak of scholarly papers. Cohen examines the use of those data sets to crunch all sorts of perhaps unlikely problems: Is a supposed lost masterpiece by Vincent van Gogh the real deal? Did Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat, really die of a heart attack, as the Soviets proclaimed, or did he die in the gulag? Cohen returns, always, to the game of basketball, but he pauses along the way to provide fascinating looks at coin tosses, investments, farm yields, and other real-world instances of how probability plays out in the world.

Sports fans and science geeks alike will enjoy these travels in the world where numbers, luck, and superstardom meet.

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AUSTEN YEARS A Memoir in Five Novels

FROM HERE TO EQUALITY Reparations for Black Americans in the TwentyFirst Century

Cohen, Rachel Farrar, Straus and Giroux (304 pp.) $28.00 | May 12, 2020 978-0-374-10703-1

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A strong and unusually comprehensive case for making economic reparations to African Americans for the injustices of slavery as well as legal segregation (Jim Crow) and “ongoing discrimination and stigmatization.”

In this thoughtful scholarly assessment of a controversial issue, economist Darity and folklorist Mullen provide overwhelming evidence of “the pernicious impact of white supremacy” and propose a detailed program of monetary reparations, to be paid by Congress, to perhaps 40 million black descendants of slavery. “For black reparations to become a reality,” they

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How Jane Austen’s novels can guide readers through joy and grief.

“Criticism and memoir have always been near neighbors,” writes essayist and biographer Cohen (Creative Writing/Univ. of Chicago; Bernard Berenson: A Life in the Picture Trade, 2013, etc.); “the gift of a pronounced personal point of view leads to deeper readings, and to new ones.” In a thoughtful meditation on the interweaving of literature and life, Cohen recounts her reading during years when her life altered dramatically: Her father died, she married, and her two children were born. Those profound experiences made her vibrantly alert to Austen’s themes: “families and friendships and changing history, how we go back over what we have lived, and whether we can hand it on.” Although Austen never married or had children, she “did not forget that her books would be read in rooms where babies had just been born, and where parents had breathed their last.”

Rooms, and the objects within them, reverberated with memories and life. Cohen brings to her analysis a thorough familiarity not only with Austen’s unforgettable characters, but also with her critics and biographers, including the “restrained but insightful” memoir written by Austen’s nephew. These works help her to contextualize the novels, which she analyzes with astute sensitivity. Austen’s characters, in fact, emerge more vividly than many individuals from Cohen’s own life. Except for her father, a kind, imaginative man “full of wit” and generosity, others remain shadowy: her mother, a theater director and teacher; Cohen’s husband—their convoluted 15-year courtship, a friend remarked, seemed “very Jane Austen”; her sister, son, and daughter. Cohen’s father was a professor whose research focused on organizations “and the ways people work and play together.” The author remembers him laughing “with delight and with surprise,” and she portrays the family’s home as “a place of tenderness”—though it was not without mysteries (her father’s sudden decision to give all their books away, for example) that, along with treasured memories, came to shape her reading.

A nuanced portrait of a writer and reader.

Darity Jr., William A. & Mullen, A. Kirsten Univ. of North Carolina (416 pp.) $28.00 | Apr. 20, 2020 978-1-4696-5497-3

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A spirited history of urban unrest that laid the groundwork and inspiration for future activists and reformers. set the night on fire

write early on, “a dramatic change in who serves as the nation’s elected officials must take place, both in Congress and in the White House.” By chronicling racial injustices since the nation’s founding, the authors hope to “rejuvenate” discussions of the need for action to reverse “gross inequalities between blacks and whites.” Slavery’s “hothouse effect,” they write, created “vast national wealth.” It spurred shipbuilding and other industries, created the need to feed and clothe millions of enslaved blacks, and provided laborers to work plantations and help build railways and subsidize universities. After slavery, blacks continued to experience job discrimination, attenuated wealth, confinement to unsafe and undesirable neighborhoods, inferior schooling, dangerous encounters with the police and criminal justice system, and a social disdain for the value of their lives. “A variety of metrics indicate that, even after the end of Jim Crow, black lives are routinely assigned a worth approximately 30 percent that of white lives,” write the authors,” who also detail the negative impacts on black lives of federal highway construction, urban renewal, and gentrification. They consider arguments for and against reparations and examine complex possible methods of financing and making reparations (from lump sums to payments over time) that might, at the outside, cost trillions of dollars. Though academic in tone and approach, and therefore unlikely to reach a large audience of general readers, the authors are convincing in their arguments.

Essential to any debate over the need for and way to achieve meaningful large-scale reparations.

SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE L.A. in the Sixties

Davis, Mike & Wiener, Jon Verso (800 pp.) $34.95 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-78478-022-7

A vivid portrait of Los Angeles during a turbulent decade.

MacArthur fellow Davis (Old Gods, New Enigmas: Marx’s Lost Theory, 2018, etc.) and Start Making Sense podcast host Wiener (Emeritus, History/Univ. of California, Irvine; How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey Across America, 2012, etc.) experienced firsthand the political, cultural, and social upheavals that roiled LA in the 1960s. Davis was the Los Angeles regional organizer for Students for a Democratic Society and a member of the Southern California branch of the Communist Party. Wiener, who had participated in antiwar and civil rights activism from the time he was in high school, arrived in LA in 1969, quickly becoming a reporter for Liberation News Service, which provided to underground and college papers around the country reports about strikes, antiwar protests, and incendiary events such as the efforts of the California regents to fire philosophy professor Angela Davis.

In addition to their own recollections, the authors mine abundant archival sources and interviews to create a richly detailed portrait of a city that seethed with rebellious energy. Much of 70

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that energy came from civil rights activists, with LA serving as “a major laboratory for the Black Power experiment.” Building on “the template of Black nationalism,” Mexican Americans redefined themselves as Chicanas/os, fashioning their own ideology and identity, as did Asian Americans, who lobbied for ethnic studies programs and, at UCLA, published a monthly newspaper that publicized the Asian American movement.

Feminist groups—liberal, radical, and socialist—burgeoned, as well. Because the Los Angeles Times “was firmly and loudly right-wing,” the LA Free Press emerged as the nation’s first and most influential underground paper, disseminating news about racial unrest (such as the Watts uprising of 1965), gay rights (such as the founding, in 1966, of a group calling itself Personal Rights in Defense and Education, or PRIDE), and the repressive actions of the police department, mayor, and the state’s governor, Ronald Reagan.

A spirited history of urban unrest that laid the groundwork and inspiration for future activists and reformers.

UN-AMERICAN A Soldier’s Reckoning of Our Longest War Edstrom, Erik Bloomsbury (288 pp.) $28.00 | May 19, 2020 978-1-63557-374-9

An Afghanistan veteran assails war and the military.

In his debut book, Edstrom makes it abundantly clear that he hates war, especially America’s “two illegal wars of aggression” in Afghanistan and Iraq and the “sensationalized” war on terror. The author also has little positive to relate about West Point, military training, military spending, the military’s refusal to let people in uniform opt out of wars they oppose on moral grounds, and the governments that lead us into these wars. Throughout, Edstrom is unrelenting in his criticism. “The U.S. military, as it is currently used,” he writes, “is not a wholesome institution: it escalates violence around the world, and inculcates a pro-nationalism, pro-militarism dogma that is hard to shake.” Edstrom certainly has the credentials to speak his mind on this topic: He is a graduate of West Point and the U.S. Army Rangers School, was selected for the U.S. Special Forces, received a Bronze Star, and served as an infantry platoon leader in the toughest parts of Afghanistan. His story, part memoir and part manifesto, runs from his late high school days through West Point and the war in Afghanistan to 2019. He opens by asking his readers to consider three visions: their own death in war, how they would feel if another nation invaded the U.S. to protect us from an unpopular president, and what the world would be like if there had been no war. Then he divides the book into three parts, each part examining one of the visions. Edstrom does not shy away from recounting the gruesome conditions and challenges he faced during his deployment, including watching his friends being blown apart by roadside bombs. While he does express |

some hope, he believes peace will happen only if all Americans demand an end to war.

An insider’s you-are-there look at modern war. Veterans will love it or hate it, but there will be few in between. (b/w images)

HAD I KNOWN Collected Essays

Ehrenreich, Barbara Twelve (384 pp.) $28.00 | Mar. 24, 2020 978-1-4555-4367-0 A compilation of the polemics and journalism of Ehrenreich, showcasing her stylistic evolution and social prescience.

The author is well known for her barbed magazine pieces and bestselling books (most notably, Nickel and Dimed), but she earned her chops

as a freelancer. In the introduction, she reflects on this, noting how the literary economy that allowed her to establish her career has become atomized and unstable: “Though I didn’t see it at first, the world of journalism as I had known it was beginning to crumble around me….I saw my own fees at one major news outlet drop to one-third of their value between 2004 and 2009.” In a sense, Ehrenreich’s work has always been mournful, mostly for the traditions of social justice and collective organizing so ruthlessly attacked since the Ronald Reagan administration. The author stayed prolific even after her hardcover success, and this collection is sprawling, packed into sections such as “Haves and Have-Nots,” “Bourgeois Blunders,” and “God, Science, and Joy.” The chapter titles are often provocative (“Going to Extremes: CEOs vs. Slaves,” “S&M as Public Policy,” “The Unbearable Being of Whiteness”), and her significant research is conveyed in a wry, taut polemical style. Prominent topics include the brutalization of poor people (“if poverty tends to criminalize people, it is also true that criminalization inexorably impoverishes them”), the absurdities of the mental health system, and pervasive misunderstandings about gender and power (on Abu Ghraib: “I never believed that women were

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innately gentler and less aggressive than men”). While some earlier work may seem dated—e.g., essays on the grating 1980s yuppie ethos—others chillingly foresaw the devastation of labor and the middle class, the privatization of social services, and the increased cruelty of law enforcement toward the vulnerable. Memorably, Ehrenreich reflects on her own working-class roots as the “source of much of my radicalism, feminism, and, by the standards of the eighties, all-around bad attitude.”

With such relevance to fractured late-capitalist America, Ehrenreich’s work warrants renewed attention.

WANDERING DIXIE Dispatches From the Lost Jewish South Eisenfeld, Sue Mad Creek/Ohio State Univ. Press (292 pp.) $19.95 paper | Apr. 2, 2020 978-0-8142-5581-0

A nonobservant Jewish woman chronicles her journey to investigate the interwoven histories of the South’s Jews and

African Americans.

In a series of brief excursions, Eisenfeld, a communications consultant who teaches science writing in the Johns Hopkins University MA in Science Writing program, recounts her travels from Virginia to Mississippi in search of the South’s lost Jewish communities. The further she traveled, the more she was convinced that the histories of Southern Jews and African Americans were inextricable. The trip forced her to reevaluate stereotypes about Jews and the South as well as her own “unexamined belief that I was a non-racist, open-minded, ‘color blind’ person with progressive views about acceptance, cultural sensitivity, and everything else that’s politically correct, or as I like to see it: respectful.” Eisenfeld visited the few remaining descendants of once-thriving Jewish communities and traversed cemeteries and converted synagogues.

She toured former Jewish-owned slave plantations and schools built by Sears, Roebuck, and Company president Julius Rosenwald, “a Jewish Yankee who came down South to do good.” As the author notes, the complex role that Jews have played in Southern race relations has inspired conflicted emotions. Some owned slaves and fought for the Confederacy, some died in defense of civil rights, and many were simply bystanders more concerned with their own peace and prosperity than with taking a political stance. The bystander’s legacy is the one with which Eisenfeld was surprised to find herself identified as a Northerner. As a result, she made a private commitment to increase her anti-racist political activities. Written in friendly, accessible, occasionally clunky prose—the author is a fan of extended compound adjectives such as “could-be-in-any-Jewish-home”—the book is geared toward an audience of readers much like Eisenfeld before she took her journey: curious, open-minded, and ready for an introductory plunge into more profound racial consciousness.

A digestible introduction to a specific piece of the history of the South’s racial politics.

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GIRL DECODED A Scientist’s Quest To Reclaim Our Humanity

by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology el Kaliouby, Rana with Colman, Carol Currency/Doubleday (352 pp.) $28.00 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-1-9848-2476-9

An innovative scientist’s memoir explores her quest to humanize technology.

El Kaliouby, who grew up in Egypt and Kuwait in a conservative family, is the co-founder and CEO of Affectiva, an “AI startup spun off from the MIT Media Lab.” Tracing her journey from academic to global industry leader, the author describes her creation of a new realm of computer science, one that integrates artificial intelligence with emotional intelligence (EI). The author, “a child of the computer age,” charts an impressive research path from her doctoral studies at Cambridge University to postdoctoral work at MIT to the private sector. El Kaliouby, a self-described nice Egyptian girl, candidly shares her successes and challenges alongside passionate insights about gender and culture. She also unpacks how drive and determination can stretch imagination, documenting how she helped to design and build facial detection elements to enhance the mechanics of AI with emotion. Based on existing digital connectivity, the author sees AI–EI integration as an inevitability rather than an option. However, she doesn’t make a case so much as explain how the ghost may fit in the machine.

The narrative is a fairly one-sided, optimistic view that may not convince critics or digital minimalists, but it should also help inspire like-minded thinkers to continue to innovate.

Citing numerous potential benefits that include responding to declining empathy rates and prospective medical applications, el Kaliouby outlines her company’s emphasis on upholding high ethical standards and protecting privacy. The author misses a few opportunities for deep reflection on nuanced concerns such as technology addiction, potential conflicts between corporate interests and public trust, and the implications of expecting machines to respond rather than just compute. Though somewhat unbalanced, the book effectively conveys her goal of improving people’s lives through technology that is sensitive to human sentiment.

A decent encapsulation of the early stages of a possible visionary path forward with AI.

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Feinstein writes with warmth and enthusiasm of a beloved sport in a book that will grab any fan. the back roads to march

THE BACK ROADS TO MARCH The Unsung, Unheralded, and Unknown Heroes of a College Basketball Season Feinstein, John Doubleday (416 pp.) $28.95 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-0-385-54448-1

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A rousing account of the 2018-2019 college basketball season, a time of surprises and rising stars.

Longtime Washington Post sportswriter Feinstein, author of such sports classics as A Season on the Brink and A Good Walk Spoiled, comes by his indefatigable love of basketball honestly: In the late 1960s, his father took him to NIT championship games at Madison Square Garden, seated a few yards from the boards. “There were no Spike Lee seats in those days,” he writes, gamely, “so this was about as good as it got.” The author is a sympathetic observer, fan, reporter, and scholar all at once, and he delivers reams of information about how the game has evolved in the decades since his childhood. Today, he notes, there are more than 350 teams in Division 1 college basketball, with the first game of the season involving more action than any one person could ever hope to comprehend, all on the path to “March madness.” The best parts of this book focus on the people who are involved in shaping the young players, such as the fellow who “gave up an $800,000-a-year job as a lawyer and CEO to become an assistant basketball coach for $32,000 a year—and couldn’t be happier.” Among Feinstein’s other subjects—notwithstanding such giants as Mike Krzyzewski, Tom Izzo, and Jim Calhoun—are coaches from historically black institutions, schools that are well represented throughout the season at every level of play; an episode involving a game between Howard and Harvard reveals coaching worthy of a championship NBA team.

The narrative closes steadily in on victory by a school that had never enjoyed a national championship (Virginia) and the defeat of Feinstein’s alma mater: “I watched the Duke kids—and they were kids—heads down, tears of shock in their eyes, after the final buzzer on the last day of March and felt badly for them.

But, being honest, not that badly.”

Feinstein writes with warmth and enthusiasm of a beloved sport in a book that will grab any fan. (16 pages of color photos)

Figueres, a baby boomer, is a daughter of a three-time president of Costa Rica, a country that has one of the best environmental records of any in the world; Rivett-Carnac is a Gen Xer who descends from a head of the British East India Company.

The difference in age and circumstance is enough for them to write, “we were born in two different geological periods.” They are united, both organizationally and intellectually, in a quest to overcome the worst of climate change—one that might be futile given that the rates of greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. The authors challenge each individual to do what governments and corporations cannot or will not do. One plank might be paraphrased by the old labor motto “Don’t mourn, organize,” save that the authors do save room for mourning: “There is no chance of stopping the runaway warming of our planet, and no doubt we are slowly but surely heading toward human extinction.” The psychological dislocation caused by this realization could be enough to send people into basements for the rest of their lives, but the authors propose a series of concrete actions and tenets: “Let go of the old world,” they counsel, and acknowledge that some of the old ways of the

THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE Surviving the Climate Crisis

Figueres, Christiana & Rivett-Carnac, Tom Knopf (240 pp.) $23.00 | Feb. 25, 2020 978-0-525-65835-1 A practically minded manifesto for personal action in the face of climate change from the leaders of the negotiations at the 2015 Paris Agreement. |

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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES

Sam Wasson

IN THE BIG GOODBYE, THE AUTHOR CHRONICLES THE MAKING OF ROMAN POLANSKI’S DOWNBEAT 1974 MASTERPIECE, CHINATOWN

By Lawrence Levi Gary Copeland

ron Tate, in 1969; Robert Evans, the film’s rakish producer, who hired Polanski; Jack Nicholson, in the lead role as detective Jake Gittes; and Nicholson’s old friend Robert Towne, whose original screenplay won an Oscar and is widely considered one of the best ever written. Wasson answered some questions about the book.

It’s long been known that Polanski heavily revised Towne’s script and invented Chinatown’s shocking ending, but you reveal that Towne, throughout his career, had an uncredited writing partner—one neither Polanski nor Evans knew about.

Yes. Edward Taylor. Towne referred to him once in print as far as I could find: “since college my Jiminy Cricket, Mycroft Holmes, and Edmund Wilson.” But he was much more than that. I discovered a whole cache of Edward Taylor’s notes in his hand, including scene synopses and long swaths of dialogue and extensive notes and several outlines that suggest an influence beyond Jiminy Cricket—more of a Geppetto, maybe.

Sam Wasson’s cultural histories—among them Fosse, his expansive 2013 biography of filmmaker and choreographer Bob Fosse—delve into the lives and processes of talented, complicated artists. In his latest book, The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood (Flatiron Books, Feb. 4), Wasson examines the creation of Roman Polanski’s 1974 masterpiece of downbeat American cinema, focusing on the four luminaries at the creation’s core: Polanski, the director, working in Los Angeles for the first time since the murder of his wife, actress Sha74

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Did your feelings about Towne change after your research? What about your impressions of Polanski, Evans, and Nicholson?

My respect and admiration for those three deepened. For Towne, it lessened. Bob Evans’ love of his movies, and his unceasing efforts to bring quality to the screen, is often obscured by his glamorous playboy image. I was delighted to see that he is a producer to his heart and more producer than playboy.

And Polanski?

I’ve seen his work over the course of my life and I’ve been an admirer, but to go back and watch everything again— he’s our greatest living director. |

In November, a French photographer became the sixth woman to publicly accuse Polanski of raping or sexually abusing her decades ago. His latest movie, which recently opened in France, has been met with both protests and award nominations. Greatest living filmmaker, rapist—how do we grapple with these seemingly antithetical characterizations?

Both are true. To deny one would be inaccurate.

What about Nicholson?

I was very moved by the person Jack is. We think of Jack as the joker or the cad, and he’s all of that, too, but there’s this other thing, this integrity. A real thinker.

Lawrence Levi is a senior editor with the New York Times Licensing Group and a co-author of The Film Snob*s Dictionary. The Big Goodbye was reviewed in the Dec. 1, 2019, issue.

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You quote Towne as saying he learned to write by watching Nicholson act. How do you interpret that?

I’m pretty sure he meant something like: People in life don’t say what they mean. They say around. They say underneath. And I think Towne saw in improvisations that an actor brings an underneath. As Miles Davis said, they “play what isn’t there.” And Jack, in those improvisations in Jeff Corey’s class where he and Towne met, played what isn’t there.

The book’s title bids farewell to the era of Hollywood filmmaking that produced movies like Chinatown, The Godfather, and Taxi Driver. What else is The Big Goodbye saying goodbye to?

The America before Vietnam. That Los Angeles, that Hollywood, that America, and the innocence we all lose once we encounter our own psychological Chinatowns.

Once we hit the wall of “Forget it, Jake,” we can never go back—and that’s, on the emotional level, the biggest goodbye.

You also say about Nicholson, “The ensemble’s regenerative feed was his first priority.”

Yes. The collaboration. Making movies is about being together. A film crew is a community. We’re talking about hundreds of people you work very closely with—and in a very deep way, if you’re doing it right. That’s what I think Jack loves and something that, if you look back in his biography, he always did.

You write admiringly of lesser-known Chinatown crew members, like art director Richard Sylbert.

These are artists for whom there is no accident, and the glory of Chinatown is unthinkable without their influence—that’s the case with any masterpiece. There’s a story that Sylbert had personally selected every book on George and Martha’s bookshelf in [Mike Nichols’ film] Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which shows a level of obsessive dedication that is absolutely required for art and is not customary in Hollywood today, because obsession is expensive.

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Eloquent contributions to the literature on a deeply contested issue. choice words

past can never be recaptured again, even as nostalgia proves an enemy that “can distract us from the urgent work ahead.” Just so, they urge, “Defend the truth.” When populist and nationalist leaders seek out scapegoats, be prepared to fight back with science to replace the pseudoscience. The authors close with a timetable for personal actions that contribute to a “regenerative world,” from abjuring the consumerist politics of old right now to cutting your emissions in half by 2030.

At once depressing and inspiring: We may be doomed, but this book urges us to at least try to do something about our demise.

CHOICE WORDS Writers on Abortion

Ed. by Finch, Annie Haymarket (420 pp.) $28.95 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-64259-148-4

A powerful collection of poems, fiction, and essays on the reality of abortion.

“Every abortion is a story,” writes Caitlin McDonnell in her moving essay, “The Abortion I Didn’t Want,” one of nearly 150 pieces by a diversity of women (and a few men) that address what Katha Pollitt calls the “bloody realism and emotional and social complexity” of ending a pregnancy. Finch (Measure for Measure: An Anthology of Poetic Meters, 2015, etc.) has drawn together writers across time (from the 16th century to the present), place, race, ethnicity, gender, age, and culture who offer stark, often wrenching revelations. She organizes the book into five sections: “Mind,” focusing on making the decision to abort; “Body,” on the physical experience; “Heart,” on the depth of emotions; “Will,” on the relationship of abortion to personal and political power; and “Spirit,” on the connection of abortion to a woman’s spiritual framework.

For many contributors, the experience of abortion reverberated forever after. Writes Desiree Cooper, “we were pregnant with memory for the rest of our lives.” Among the more well-known contributors are Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, Amy Tan, Audre Lorde, Leslie Marmon Silko, Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Sexton, and Gloria Steinem, who admits feeling no regret about her decision. Having an abortion, she writes, “was the first time I had taken responsibility for my own life.” The empowerment she felt, however, was not shared by many others, who faced contempt, blame, and shame. Argentine writer Mariana Enriquez portrays the anguish and fear of teenage girls who live “in a country where abortion is illegal” and where they take place in “ghost houses, anonymous houses.” Novelist Soniah Kamal gathers stories from three Pakistani women who had abortions in 1990 in a country where premarital sex remains a crime punishable by five years in prison. Particularly heartbreaking pieces recount the decision to abort a severely malformed fetus—one, a baby with no brain, whose parents, wracked with grief, were forced to travel from Belfast, where abortion is a crime, to Liverpool.

Eloquent contributions to the literature on a deeply contested issue.

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TALES OF TWO PLANETS Stories of Climate Change and Inequality in a Divided World

Ed. by Freeman, John Penguin (320 pp.) $18.00 paper | Apr. 21, 2020 978-0-14-313392-6

The founder of Freeman’s and executive editor of Literary Hub gathers poems, essays, and short stories about global warming and inequality penned by writers from around the world.

Climate change is the most urgent crisis now facing humanity. But as Freeman (Dictionary of the Undoing, 2019, etc.) notes in his introduction, “large numbers of the world’s most powerful residents cannot grasp what it means.” Assembling the creative work of respected writers from both the developed and developing world, Freeman offers a sobering meditation on the future challenges that everyone will face. In her bleakly stark poem “Tracking the Rain,” Margaret Atwood reflects on how extreme drought is making itself felt in rich countries like her native Canada and how predictive technologies have been rendered useless by the randomness associated with climate change. In “Machandiz,” Edwidge Danticat takes up the theme of planetary overheating. With the devastating clarity that has become her literary hallmark, she observes the struggle of people from her native Haiti to survive political and economic problems now compounded by the brutal onslaughts of nature.

“The Well,” a short story by Indonesian novelist Eka Kurniawan, tells the tragic story of how drought and floods destroyed possibilities for union between a boy and a girl from a tiny Indonesian village. Had nature been “kinder,” none of the losses that make their love impossible would have occurred. South Korean writer Krys Lee offers a thought-provoking fictional take on the consequences of living in a damaged environment. Citizens of an unnamed Asian city live with the ever present knowledge that the poisoned air they breathe through purifying masks and indoor filters may one day kill them. Fierce and provocative, this diverse collection shows that climate change is not just a problem for developing nations. One day, it will become a matter of life and death for rich and poor alike. Other contributors include Lauren Groff (U.S.), Aminatta Forna (Sierra Leone), and Sjón (Iceland).

A powerful and timely collection on a topic that cannot be ignored.

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AMAZON WOMAN Facing Fears, Chasing Dreams, and My Quest To Kayak the Largest River From Source to Sea

Gaechter, Darcy Pegasus (304 pp.) $27.95 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-64313-314-0

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Gardner, James Atlantic Monthly (416 pp.) $30.00 | May 5, 2020 978-0-8021-4877-3

The evolution of the Louvre reflects the political, intellectual, and aesthetic history of France.

“Before the Louvre was a museum,” writes art and literary critic Gardner (Buenos Aires: The Biography of a City, 2015, etc.), “it was a palace, and before that a fortress, and before that a plot of earth, much like any other.”

Drawing on scholarly sources that include the recently published three-volume Histoire du Louvre, the author offers a vivid chronicle of strife, wars, rivalries, and aspirations culminating in the present grand architectural complex, comprising nearly 400,000 objects, “a vast, indiscriminate cocktail of princely collections purchased or purloined over the course of centuries.”

Gardner focuses on several of France’s rulers whose embrace of the arts shaped the future of the museum—e.g., Francois I, who brought the Italian Renaissance across the Alps as a patron and collector of works by Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, and Leonardo, whom he lured from Italy. When Leonardo arrived in 1516, he had in his trunks three paintings, including the Mona Lisa, which has become the Louvre’s most coveted attraction.

In addition to collecting art, Francois took up the challenge of modernizing the royal residence, beginning “the 350-year process that would result in the Louvre as we know it today.”

The 17th-century monarch Louis XIII, though not particularly interested in art or architecture, assigned the renowned architect Jacques Lemercier to enact significant changes. As far as the art collection itself, Louis XIV, with “an unappeasable appetite for masterpieces,” filled the Louvre with priceless treasures as well as quadrupling its size. But when Louis decided to move the court to Versailles in 1682, the Louvre fell into disrepair.

After the American Revolution, repayment of the Colonies’ debt to France funded considerable repair and reconstruction.

A small portion of the palace opened as a public museum—the Musée Central des Arts—only in 1793, in the midst of the Reign of Terror. Gardner cites Napoleon III, who ruled France from 1848 to 1870, as decisive in transforming the Louvre into its modern iteration.

A richly detailed journey through a palimpsest of the past. (b/w illustrations)

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A well-paced tale of outdoor adventure.

“We are all, I suppose, confined to specific destinies and mine seems to be chasing rivers.” So writes Gaechter, who decided to mark her 35th birthday—making her ancient, by competitive kayaking standards—by traveling the length of the Amazon River from source to outlet. Why do such a thing? Because it’s there, of course, and no woman had been known to do it before, and there’s no time like the present. Still, in the company of her longtime partner and a like-minded Brit, she tackled the project, emerging 148 days later after crossing South America from the Andes to the Atlantic. The physical challenges were extraordinary, although, the author notes, “keeping a cool head is the most important skill in kayaking, though by far the most difficult to master.” There were plenty of opportunities to exercise that skill, for on top of the churning whitewater rapids and odd critters were the more dangerous denizens of the rainforest, including illegal loggers, Shining Path guerrillas whose “primary operations…now happen in remote jungle areas and involve the lucrative drug trade,” and soldiers of fortune who could be quick with the trigger finger. Then there were the more quotidian culture clashes, for, as Gaechter patiently notes, “time is a point of contention between North Americans and Peruvians,” making an important rendezvous all the more difficult to schedule. Was it worth dying in that jungle war zone in order to exercise her coveted freedom, she asks? The answer was no—but then again, as she writes, “I’d invested a lot of time and suffering already,” reason enough to press on to the next canyon, rapid, anaconda, sulk, argument, and bad feeling (“I didn’t want the person I loved acting like an asshole and lunatic, and that’s what I often felt Don was doing”) while vanquishing inner doubts. The author includes a glossary of kayak terms.

Daring readers will be inspired to overcome similar challenges—and armchair travelers won’t be disappointed.

(16 pages of color photos)

THE LOUVRE The Many Lives of the World’s Most Famous Museum

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Gewen has used the distance from events to refine his research into an elegant, elucidating study of comparative statecraft. the inevitability of tragedy

THE CLUB KING My Rise, Reign, and Fall in New York Nightlife

Gatien, Peter Little A (280 pp.) $24.95 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-1-5420-1531-8

A memoir from a giant of the 1970s through 1990s New York City club scene.

Pilloried in the press and portrayed

by U.S. prosecutors as a diabolical drug lord, Gatien argues that he was just a hardworking entrepreneur from the backwoods of Canada who happened to fall prey to an unscrupulous big-city careerist named Rudolph Giuliani. At one time in the 1990s, Gatien—the poor kid from Cornwall, Ontario, who began his career by selling blue jeans—owned and operated four of the hottest dance clubs in NYC history: Club USA, Palladium, the Tunnel, and Limelight. The author paints a picture of a simple guy with big dreams who was always vulnerable to outside speculation and conjecture. Before delving into the sordid goings-on that led to his eventual downfall—illicit drug use and grisly club deaths—Gatien employs crisp, vivid prose to recount a warm tale of a local boy making good on the other side of the border. Readers will learn that the impetus behind his success in the nightclub business originated with the heartwarming holiday gatherings that the author lovingly recounts from his disadvantaged childhood. According to Gatien, he is guilty of both being an inattentive father who often confused material support for affection and, at one point, becoming a drug abuser. However, he insists that he never operated the “drug supermarkets” he was accused of running. “A ridiculous concept,” he writes after recounting a police raid on the Limelight. “Especially when the raid had actually turned up only a paltry amount of weed. But police, prosecutors, and the media fastened upon the term, as though Limelight operated some sort of illicit Duane Reade….A Big Lie was born and took on a life of its own. ‘Drug supermarket’ became a convenient catchphrase, a two-word package tied up in a neat bow and used to sway public opinion.” Sixteen years after his deportation back to Canada, Gatien tells his side of the story.

An arresting and provocative narrative.

HITLER’S TRUE BELIEVERS How Ordinary People Became Nazis

Gellately, Robert Oxford Univ. (448 pp.) $34.95 | Jun. 1, 2020 978-0-19-068990-2

It’s tempting to draw parallels between the Hitler era and the present age of ascendant nationalism, and Gellately (History/Florida State Univ.; The Oxford Illustrated History of the Third Reich, 2018, etc.) offers reasons to do so.

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Which Germans turned out to be Nazis between 1920 and 1945? By the author’s account, just about all of them, eventually, despite protestations of ignorance by many postwar Germans. In fact, as he writes, 57% of Germans answered yes when asked in 1948, “Do you consider National Socialism to be a good idea that was poorly implemented?” Hitler, Gellately reminds us, assumed power with the narrowest of margins, supported by people already in power whose aim was to rid Germany of democracy. He also notes that in the January 1933 election, “no less than 71.6 percent of the vote went to parties with ‘socialist’ or ‘communist’ in their titles,” making it incumbent on the Nazis to deliver on the “socialist” in the party name while remaining right-wing in orientation. They did so by offering a big tent for “the broadest possible constituency,” building on three tenets: nationalism, anti-Semitism, and socialism of a particularly German variety that was of and for “racially fit” citizens. Protestants responded favorably, Catholics less so; rural people favored the Nazis, city people the left. Although Hitler talked a good game about abolishing the stock market and reining in business, in the end, he capitulated to the capitalists, mostly abandoning the socialist premise. “No single factor,” writes Gellately, “can account for why ordinary people began opting for the National Socialist Party, though any who did at the very least knew in broad terms what it stood for.” The author ventures that economic insecurity and fear of the other were powerful motives—and that Hitler drew heavily on them in transforming a civil society into a dictatorship with astonishing speed.

A thoughtful, timely study of how Nazism moved from the political fringe to the heart of German life.

THE INEVITABILITY OF TRAGEDY Henry Kissinger and His World

Gewen, Barry Norton (448 pp.) $30.00 | Apr. 28, 2020 978-1-324-00405-9

Masterly work on the making of Henry Kissinger—and what American foreign policy can learn from his dark experience and pessimistic outlook.

In this deeply thoughtful, meticulously researched work, longtime New York Times Book Review editor Gewen looks at both Kissinger’s life experiences—e.g., his teen years as a Jew in Bavaria living under Nazi persecution—and his assimilation of the academic work of fellow German Jewish intellectuals Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, and Hans Morgenthau as he steered American statecraft in the 1970s. While Kissinger is considered by some as criminal, even evil, for his advocating for the overthrow of Salvador Allende, the democratically elected leader of Chile, and other dispassionate realpolitik decisions as secretary of state under Richard Nixon, Gewen takes a more philosophical approach to his subject, delving into the reasons behind |

HOLLYWOOD DOUBLE AGENT The True Tale of Boris Morros, Film Producer Turned Cold War Spy

Gill, Jonathan Abrams (336 pp.) $27.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-4197-4009-1

A Hollywood mover and shaker takes center stage in a brisk tale of spies and counterspies.

Russian-born Boris Morros (1891-1963) arrived in the U.S. in 1922, determined to hone his musical background into a career in his adopted home. By the 1930s, despite the exigencies of the Great Depression, he rose to become the musical director of Paramount Studios, socializing with movie moguls—most of whom, like him, were Jewish émigrés—and Hollywood royalty. Gill (American History and Culture; Univ. of Amsterdam; Harlem: The Four Hundred Year History From Dutch Village to Capital of Black America, 2011) creates a well-rounded portrait of a man who was an unlikely spy and, later, an FBI counterspy. Morros, writes the author, “was ideologically uncommitted, constitutionally discreet, addicted to fame and money, and oblivious to the distinction between truth and fiction,” traits that enabled him to survive purges, betrayals, and precarious Soviet politics. In midcentury, Gill discovered, the U.S. was “thoroughly penetrated by foreign spies.” Although America had a handful of agents in the Soviet Union, Soviet spies “infiltrated virtually every federal agency,” including the White House; in addition, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow “contained 120 hidden Soviet microphones.” Morros was tasked with providing cover jobs for Soviet agents, in Hollywood or with business associates |

elsewhere. Although he later portrayed himself as a frightened victim, in fact he bargained with his handlers to seek protection for family members still in the Soviet Union. Finally, when he realized that many relatives had been killed by the secret police, Morros resolved to get revenge. In July 1947, he called the FBI. During a week of questioning, he revealed his life story to the agency that had been on his trail since the mid1930s. Hoping to avoid execution as a traitor, Morros found, to his relief, that the agency instead invited him to switch sides.

“When do I start?” he answered. In a narrative that reads like an espionage thriller, Gill follows his subject’s peripatetic travels and interactions with malevolent, powerful—and sometimes bumbling—characters.

A lively biography of an opportunist, traitor, and patriot.

EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL A Memoir With Recipes

Grant, Phyllis Farrar, Straus and Giroux (256 pp.) $25.00 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-0-374-15014-3

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Kissinger’s coolheaded “assessment of power” and refusal to be swayed by “high moral principles like self-determination or national sovereignty.” Because he was hounded by the Nazis during his youth, Kissinger recognized the “realities of power” and, through his own father’s “powerlessness,” began to believe that “weakness…was synonymous with death” (as he wrote near the end of World War II). Kissinger was deeply influenced by the work of Strauss and Arendt, who “opposed tyranny but nursed a deep suspicion of democracy and majoritarian processes,” and became a colleague to Morgenthau, who eschewed traditional moralistic certainties for an approach based more on “incrementalism and perfectionism,” “stability rather than justice,” and “the less bad rather than the unqualified good.”

In this well-measured, beautifully written book, Gewen thoroughly considers each facet of Kissinger’s evolution and how his choice of “less bad” became his modus operandi—e.g., the “Christmas bombing” of North Vietnam at the end of 1972, forcing Hanoi to the negotiating table—ultimately tarnishing his elusive, urbane legacy.

Gewen has used the distance from events to refine his research into an elegant, elucidating study of comparative statecraft. (8 pages of illustrations)

A chef and food writer debuts with a lean memoir that revisits seminal moments from her past through tightly composed vignettes.

Beginning with her arrival in New York City from the West Coast as a young dance student at Juilliard, we follow Grant’s struggles with demanding instructors and insecurities about her weight as well as attempts to establish her identity in the city. Parallel moments reflect on her mother’s and grandmother’s lives. Under their influence, Grant acquired an appreciation for cooking and good food, which inspired her shift from dancing to becoming a self-trained professional chef. She cooked her way through notable cookbooks such as Julia Child’s The Way To Cook and volunteered at a French bakery, eventually landing in the kitchens of top-notch restaurants in the city. Grant is particularly adept at packing a lot of emotion and detail into a few brief lines, as in her summary of her early apprenticeship: “Six months in and I have experienced the obscenely long hours and witnessed the fire hazards, rampant drug use, and misogynistic everything. I have also learned that I am allergic to flour when it’s in the air, which is constant in the pastry room. I sneeze a lot.

I still want this more than ever.” Following 9/11, the newly married author moved back to the West Coast. In rapid succession, we follow her through two difficult pregnancies and excruciating childbirths as well as post-partum depression. However, by the end, we’ve gleaned little about the important individuals in her life. Her husband, actor/director Matt Ross, is referenced only as “M,” present throughout but peripheral to her story.

In the last section, Grant offers a selection of favorite recipes, weaving in personal memories and confident advice and further confirming her talent as a food writer. Ultimately, her memoir, composed of brief paragraphs and chapters within ample white space, serves to showcase her writing style and inventive skills kirkus.com

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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES

P. Carl

THE AUTHOR OF BECOMING A MAN WRITES ABOUT THE CHALLENGES— AND REWARDS—OF TRANSITIONING AFTER THE AGE OF 50.

By Bethany Schneider Asia Kepka

P. Carl began his transition in his early 50s. His memoir, Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition (Simon & Schuster, Jan. 28), is as much a portrait of the female facade, the name and body he inhabited for decades, as it is a portrait of the man he was and is. And, because the last 50 years have seen such massive change around the politics and experience of gender and sexuality in the United States, it is also the portrait of an era. Back when he presented as a butch lesbian, however false that was, Carl could never hide. Now he is a straight white man, and everyone sees him that way. He therefore has the capacity to fade into the fabric of an increasingly sexist, white-supremacist mainstream. Indeed, he must now choose every day whether to step aside from his new, and extreme, privilege. The book is honest, bracingly intelligent, plain80

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ly written, often painful, never glib—a terrific and mature addition to the canon of transition memoirs.

Carl, who lives in Boston and is a distinguished artist-in-residence at Emerson College, lost friends—and almost lost his wife—even as he gained a fierce, happy completion in his masculinity. “A friend called,” Carl explains. “There’s a lot in the book about my enjoyment of masculinity. I was worried she’d hate it. She said, ‘This is like a feminist manifesto.’ That’s the best compliment I’ve gotten. I wanted to explain what it was to be totally estranged from being a woman and to be living it simultaneously.”

He continues, “Before my transition I led parallel lives. I was feeling one thing and thinking another thing.

The intellectual project—gender theory, radical politics— was everything. My head could absolutely outrun my body. The big arc of the book is learning that bodies have much more power and velocity than the mind. I’ve always been all head, and what I’ve learned is that as much as the head is very useful, the body wins most of the arguments.”

But if he is now complete within his body, the world around him vibrates differently, especially in this political moment. “I’ve always felt and acted like a man, so I don’t feel different in that way. But behaviors look different from the outside. What a woman does and a man does are understood differently, and you can’t know what that’s like until you’re in the other body. You can’t know that when you walk to the park, a woman is looking at you like you might assault her. I recognize that look on a woman’s face. I was going through the early stages of transition right when the Bret Kavanaugh horror was going down. In the wake of that, in the wake of so much that has recently happened, how do I deal with my own reality of being a white man, of wanting to find more complexity in masculinity?” |

Bethany Schneider is an associate professor of English at Bryn Mawr College. Becoming a Man was reviewed in the Oct. 15, 2019, issue.

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in the kitchen. While she fearlessly lays bare many of her personal experiences, the end result feels somewhat insubstantial.

A promising yet excessively sparse publishing debut.

A-LIST ANGELS How a Band of Actors, Artists, and Athletes Hacked Silicon Valley

Greenburg, Zack O’Malley Little, Brown (288 pp.) $28.00 | Mar. 10, 2020 978-0-316-48508-1

The Forbes senior editor of media and entertainment takes a look at modern show business–based entrepreneurship.

Hollywood has always had its business–minded celebrities: Think of Fess Parker, who bought up vast swaths of Southern California real estate, or Roy Rogers, who built a restaurant chain in his name. The new breed, writes Greenburg, is likelier to invest in intangibles and speculative tech-based ventures.

One to whom he pays particular attention is Ashton Kutcher, who built a considerable fortune playing film characters such as, fittingly enough, Steve Jobs and starring in one of the most popular series on TV, earning him the highest salary in the business. With a partner, Kutcher founded an investment fund worth $30 million in 2010 that soon grew to more than $250 million. The author credits him with doing his own homework and following an investment philosophy: “look for companies solving a real problem…and consider unglamorous sectors.” It’s a philosophy that other celebrities, from Shaquille O’Neal to Jennifer Lopez and a small army of hip-hop stars, have taken to following. Examples include investment in a Los Angeles– based “company that makes companies,” software that rounds up purchases and invests the change in index funds, and a “Fitbit for cows” that tracks a bovine critter’s reproductive health and other issues. Having celebrity spokespeople and investors helps, but the companies Greenburg profiles are absolutely on track in solving real problems, even if they are sometimes real problems that most of us don’t have—e.g., how to snag a seat on a charter jet in the same way an earthbound traveler summons a rideshare driver. Though at heart his book is an extended magazine article, there’s plenty of interest here, especially when the author looks at inventive philanthropy such as Matt Damon’s Water.org, which brings plumbing to poor communities but also works “to create venture funds that generate low singledigit returns by giving cheap microloans.”

Solid business writing that will interest budding moguls. (8-page 4-color insert)

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At the heart of Becoming a Man is Carl’s marriage, which has survived the transition—but only just. He is fearlessly honest about that difficulty. “Not one word of the letter at the center of the memoir, the one I wrote to my wife at the most painful moment, has changed. It’s about the only thing I did not revise….She carries that letter with her everywhere. I was naïve—of course a lesbian wouldn’t have wanted to be married to a man. It’s so obvious, yet I think I thought that after 20 years together, she knew as much as I that I was not a woman. The decision I made to choose me and this journey and to risk everything was a choice between life or death. I attempted suicide several times. It would have ended that way. Otherwise I would never have done anything to risk our marriage. The letter is really an exploration of what love can actually mean. Can love itself be enough? How important is sexual identity and gender in a situation like that?”

Not long after his transition, Carl’s wife was diagnosed with cancer. “The relationship was stripped bare between my transition and her cancer. The way I survived to 50 was by inhabiting other people’s stories, and making theater, and reading books, and seeing movies, and every part of my life was about finding other ways to find myself because I was not in the mirror or my own photos. Now that’s different. She’s in every line of that book about me, she’s in every line of that journey. I feel… gratitude. We both survived.”

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A witty trip through a unique life in the theater. this is not my memoir

THIS IS NOT MY MEMOIR

Gregory, André & London, Todd Farrar, Straus and Giroux (224 pp.) $26.00 | May 5, 2020 978-0-374-29854-8 Reminiscences by one of the pioneers of American avant-garde theater.

Few artists’ lives have been as colorful as that of Gregory. Born in Paris in 1934 to Russian Jewish parents, he lived a privileged life of “private clubs, private schools, debutante balls” once the family left wartime Europe for New York. They spent summers in a California house Thomas Mann rented to them, where they socialized with celebrities like Errol Flynn, with whom his mother had an affair. He discovered a passion for acting when he attended a New York private school “established to train repressed, polite, withdrawn little WASPs.” Much of this book, co-written by London (An Ideal Theater: Founding Visions for a New American Art, 2013, etc.), is a series of vignettes, some more entertaining than others, about Gregory’s artistic and spiritual journey: stage manager jobs at regional theaters, lessons at Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio, pilgrimages to ashrams in India, and outrageous flourishes in the plays he directed, such as a production of Max Frisch’s Firebugs that featured an actual fire engine onstage and scenes from Hiroshima projected onto a trampoline—a gig that got him fired. The narrative is filled with anecdotes about such luminaries as fellow director Jerzy Grotowski, who had a profound influence on Gregory’s work, and Gregory Peck, who “slugged” him during an argument during the filming of Tartuffe. The highlight for many readers will likely be details of his long collaboration—“forty-five years and only one fight”—with Wallace Shawn and the making of their art-house hit My Dinner With André. These sections chronicle the duo’s struggles to make the picture, from Gregory’s memorizing hundreds of pages of dialogue for “the longest speaking role in the history of film” to his wearing long johns during the shoot because they couldn’t afford to heat the hotel where the restaurant scenes were staged.

A witty trip through a unique life in the theater. (two 8-page photo inserts)

KID QUIXOTES A Group of Students, Their Teacher, and the One-Room School Where Everything Is Possible Haff, Stephen HarperOne (304 pp.) $27.99 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-0-06-293406-2

The story of an after-school program that helps immigrant children adjust to their new American life.

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What does reading and translating Don Quixote, published in the early 17th century, have to do with modern-day life for immigrant children in Bushwick, Brooklyn? Quite a lot, according to Haff, a theater director and former high school English teacher, who set up Still Waters in a Storm for children of undocumented immigrants. As he writes, the author chose Cervantes’ work because “that book is everything human—it is funny and tragic and beautiful and disgusting and smart and stupid—and because it was written in Spanish, the native language of my students and their families.” By reading the quirky tale of a man who never gave up his dreams, Haff ’s students have found new meaning in their own lives despite the constant fear of deportation amid the current toxic landscape surrounding immigration, an atmosphere inflamed by the current presidential administration. Not only did the students read the book and translate it out loud; they also adapted it into a series of musicals that they wrote. They became Kid Quixotes, acting out their own versions of the story, which they performed in multiple venues.

Haff also includes his own story of being an educator suffering from bipolar depression and how this project has positively impacted his life as well. This is a decidedly upbeat book full of compassion and an attentiveness to language, and Haff imparts pertinent lessons regarding truth, hope, thoughtfulness, awareness, friendships, and what it means to be genuine. The narrative also carries the weight of what each child must endure as an immigrant, including racism, distrust, and fear, and shows how they have worked to overcome these obstacles via songs, acting, drawings, and imaginative retellings of their lives.

A kindhearted, engaging story of helping modern immigrant children via a 400-year-old classic text.

THE YEAR 1000 When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began

Hansen, Valerie Scribner (320 pp.) $30.00 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-5011-9410-8

If any reader still believes that the year 1000 marked the Dark Ages, this insightful history will set them right.

Though Hansen (Chinese and World History/Yale Univ.; The Silk Road: A New History With Documents, 2016, etc.) pays some attention to the politics, religion, and culture of the era, she focuses on commerce, making a convincing case that this date “marked the start of globalization…when trade routes took shape all around the world that allowed goods, technologies, religions, and people to leave home and go somewhere new.” For commerce to circle the globe, traders had to reach the New World, which happened around 1000, although no one knew it at the time. As befits that era’s greatest explorers, Hansen begins with the Norse, who, after centuries of raiding around Europe and the Mediterranean, sailed to Iceland, then Greenland, then North America, where later chroniclers and |

recent archaeological evidence (plus the usual fakes) indicated their arrival around 1000 and some trading but no permanent settlement. Less known but far more significant, the Norse also battled their way east. Known by the locals as “Rus,” by 1000, they had reached the Caspian Sea, adopted Christianity, and laid the foundation of Russia. Despite the nearly complete absence of writing, when Columbus reached America in 1492 and Islamic slave traders penetrated Africa well before 1000, they found complex cultures with well-established trade routes.

Hansen then moves on to the flourishing, prosperous, technically advanced Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia, ending with superpower China, the center of a massive trading system stretching from the Indies to Arabia and Africa. The author covers a vast amount of territory in a concise, readable manner, making for a welcome contribution to the popular literature on early global trade and geopolitics.

A thoroughly satisfying history of a distant era and people. (maps and illustrations)

Holland, Eva The Experiment (256 pp.) $24.95 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-61519-600-5

Her mother’s unexpected death inspires a Yukon Territory–based adventurer and travel journalist to face her fears.

In a harmonious blend of memoir and science reporting, Outside correspondent Holland describes her attempts to “learn to master my fear,” embarking on a three-year project of research and treatment following the devastating death of her mother. Her mother had been an orphan, shaken by the death of her own mother, which left the author anticipating her mother’s death more fearfully than anything else. When Holland’s fears were realized, she fell apart, unable to work or deal with people and falling into free-floating anxiety and the occasional panic attack. Other fears came to the fore of her consciousness—e.g., a fear of heights from a childhood escalator mishap (though she later learned that her father had suffered from something similar and that such fears might be genetic in origin) and lingering PTSD from a series of car crashes. The book is most compelling at its most personal, as the author makes her story seem both specific and universal: “An irony: fear is an experience that unites us, even as, in the moment, it makes us feel very much alone.” Holland faced her challenges through both exposure therapy and pharmaceutical applications, and she traces the theories of fear and how to treat it, including Freudian therapy, lobotomy, electroshock treatment, and other more modern approaches. Throughout the narrative, the author develops herself as a protagonist whose fears are serious enough to benefit from treatment but whose condition should strike a responsive chord in many readers. Her goal is not to eliminate fear, which serves as a tool for |

“PROMISE ME YOU’LL SHOOT YOURSELF” The Mass Suicide of Ordinary Germans in 1945 Huber, Florian Trans. by Taylor, Imogen Little, Brown Spark (304 pp.) $29.00 | Mar. 10, 2020 978-0-316-53430-7

A sobering study of the collapse of the Third Reich and the wave of suicides that accompanied its fall.

Hitler famously shot himself rather than fall into the hands of the Red Army, and many of his closest associates—e.g., Joseph Goebbels and his entire family—followed suit. So, too, writes German historian and documentary filmmaker Huber, did countless “ordinary” Germans, whether out of simple despair or certainty that the crimes of the Nazi regime would be laid at their door. The wave of suicide began earlier than 1945; the author quotes a schoolteacher who wrote after the German defeat at Stalingrad in 1943, “the first and last cause of my despair is the hopelessness of victory.” Still, beginning in the spring of 1945, as Huber grimly documents, “large quantities of cyanide and prussic acid were circulating in Germany, in response to an explosion in demand.” The Nazi regime began to suppress the statistics related to suicide lest they prompt even more destruction. Drawing on existing records, Huber reckons that in Berlin alone, the suicide rate was five times higher than “normal” in April 1945, when the city fell. The victorious Allies were surprised to find among civilian survivors a kind of orderliness and calm—though, as the author notes, many soldiers who had lived through combat were more inclined to withdraw into themselves, none quite “ready for reality.” The subtitle of the book is a touch too narrow. The author not only covers suicides, but also those who defiantly refused either to kill themselves or to acknowledge any wrongdoing, such as a Nazi official who disputed the right of a German court to judge her actions in wartime, seeing them “as henchmen of the occupying powers, accusing her not of any crime, but of fighting for a political ideal.” Such repudiation joined with a widespread sense of victimhood that “freed the Germans from the need to examine their own consciences.”

An illuminating examination of a little-known aspect of World War II. (9 b/w photos)

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NERVE Adventures in the Science of Fear

self-preservation, but to put it into perspective. By the end, she writes, “I am much less afraid of fear itself.”

Science and psychology inform the engaging memoir of an author on a self-help mission.

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A concise and personal yet universally applicable examination of a problem that affects everyone on planet Earth. the story of more

WOW, NO THANK YOU. Essays

Irby, Samantha Vintage (336 pp.) $15.95 paper | Mar. 31, 2020 978-0-525-56348-8

More humorous life reflections from a seasoned raconteur.

In this third volume of essays (this one “dedicated to Wellbutrin”), outspoken blogger and essayist Irby offers opinions and reactions to many of life’s more uncomfortable and inconvenient episodes. Among countless other topics, the author discusses her confusion about health bloggers’ obsessions with “adaptogens and other beneficial herbs,” her “hostile, elusive, disrespectful” menstrual cycle, and her body. “I have been stuck with a smelly, actively decaying body that I never asked for,” she writes, “and am constantly on the receiving end of confusing, overwhelming messages for how to properly care for and feed it.” A linear timeline chronicling Irby’s attempt at partying while “staring middle age right in its sensible orthopedic inserts” is particularly hilarious and relatable for readers of a certain age.

Even when the author describes pitching show concepts to Netflix or battling Crohn’s disease, her one-liners and comic timing remain intact. A lot of the best anecdotal material springs forth from the more embarrassing and cringeworthy moments of the author’s life. She envies those who can go out on the town and not become hindered with bathroom issues or people who effortlessly manage a household. Regarding children, she writes, “I jump away from children the way most people jump away from a hot stove—though she doesn’t “dislike them.” Some of the material in this latest collection has been covered in her previous two books, but Irby’s devotees won’t mind because her personal hyperawareness, brazen attitude, and raunchy sense of humor are in fine form, even when the writing is haphazard and frenetic.

Ultimately, though, the author manages to shake things up and keep most of her observances fresh and funny, and she also incorporates more details of life with her wife.

There’s lots to chuckle at here, as Irby remains a winning, personality-driven, self-deprecating essayist.

THE STORY OF MORE How We Got to Climate Change and Where To Go From Here

Jahren, Hope Vintage (224 pp.) $15.00 paper | Mar. 3, 2020 978-0-525-56338-9

Following a critically and popular debut, the lab girl turns teacher in a course on climate change.

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(Geosciences/Univ. of Oslo) uses it to show how issues that are clearly important to her are crucial to all of humanity and the survival of the world as we know it. She doesn’t use scare tactics or shrill warnings; unfortunately, “we kind of stopped listening. By now we’re quite practiced at not listening to things scientists say over and over again.” The author cites warnings about the dangers of fossil fuels dating to the 1950s and the linking of fossil fuels and the threat of global warming “as early as 1856.” Few listened then, and now the crisis is urgent. In matter-of-fact detail and conversational prose, Jahren interweaves biographical information about her Midwestern girlhood and takes readers on a journey with her to her current home in Oslo, where she moved in 2016 “because I am worried about the future of science in America.”

She methodically takes us through discussions of food, especially regarding changes in production and consumption, and energy and the planet as a whole, emphasizing one central point: “What was only a faint drumbeat as I began to research this book now rings in my head like a mantra: Use Less and Share More.” Over and over, the author shows how the world divides between those who consume and waste more and those who live on much less. She explores not only food scarcity, but also lack of electricity and sanitary water conditions. She clearly shows how the amount of waste created by the privileged could provide plenty for those less privileged. “The earth is sick,” she writes, “and we suspect that it’s something bad,” and a cure begins with individual action but will require significant shifts in values and practices.

A concise and personal yet universally applicable examination of a problem that affects everyone on planet Earth.

BETSEY. A Memoir

Johnson, Betsey & Vitulano, Mark Viking (288 pp.) $28.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-525-56141-5 An iconic fashion designer tells the story of how she left behind a Rockwellian New England youth to become an eccentric fashion superstar.

Johnson grew up in a picture-perfect Connecticut family during the 1940s and ’50s. The second of three children, she learned early on to rely on her “bubbly, oddball personality to make my way in the world.” Her first dream was to become a dancer with the Rockettes in New York City, but by the time she was in college, she gravitated toward art.

An admirer of Mademoiselle layouts, she entered the magazine’s fashion guest editing contest and won; a senior editor then hired her in the art department. To make ends meet, Johnson began making simple, striking clothes that quickly became popular among other women, including actress Kim Novak. She then began designing clothes full-time for Paraphernalia, a clothing boutique that became home to other 1960s avant-garde fashion designers such as Daniel Hechter and Paco Rabanne. Her unique creations caught the eyes of celebrities like Julie Christie and the Velvet Underground, a band for whom she became the |

chief clothing designer. After marrying and then divorcing guitarist John Cale, she opened a “designer collective” clothing store with Paraphernalia colleagues and also did freelance work, which eventually won her the Coty Fashion Critics’ Award in 1971. Not long afterward, she became a single mother and embraced an edgier aesthetic, which included clothing lines done in Lycra, a fabric then used only for athletic wear. By the 1980s, Johnson was the owner of a successful chain of stores, until her company was bought out by designer Steve Madden in 2010. This candid book by a pioneering female entrepreneur and American original, illustrated with photos and quirky doodles, also offers details about motherhood, marriages to drug addicts and control freaks, and the obstacles one faces when battling breast cancer.

Entertaining reading for fashionistas and Johnson fans alike. (b/w photos)

Kendzior, Sarah Flatiron Books (288 pp.) $27.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-250-21071-5

A scathing indictment of Donald Trump and the “wider movement of white supremacists and international kleptocrats seeking to dismantle Western democracy.”

In a follow-up to The View From Flyover Country (2018), St. Louis–based Globe and Mail op-ed columnist Kendzior elaborates on her argument that a decadeslong “erosion of American institutions and social trust” paved the way for the present “autocracy, wrapped in a tabloid veneer.” Although she reiterates points made by David Cay Johnston and others, Kendzior offers fresh views based on her experiences living in the declining economy of the Midwest and on observations as an academic researcher studying dictatorships in the former Soviet Union.

In St. Louis, she watched the growth of increasingly harsh social and economic conditions from 2008 onward, foreshadowing national decline; in Uzbekistan, she witnessed the rise of dictator Islam Karimov, who sought to “make Uzbekistan great again,” called independent media “the enemy of the people,” persecuted marginalized groups, and abused executive power to enhance his personal wealth. Given those perspectives, the author has been tireless in sounding her dark alarm over the Trump presidency, in both her writing and public appearances.

She explores White House nepotism, including the rise of the “rich, connected and unqualified”; Trump’s “stripping America down for parts and selling those parts to the highest bidder”; and his close relationship to political operative Roy Cohn, who, since the early 1970s, taught Trump to “counterattack, lie, threaten, sue, and never back down.” For decades, Trump “relied on oligarchs and mobsters from the former USSR for support” after being blacklisted by Wall Street following his 1990s bankruptcies. Kendzior also blames the “timid and plodding” |

FIGURE IT OUT Essays

Koestenbaum, Wayne Soft Skull Press (288 pp.) $16.95 paper | May 5, 2020 978-1-59376-595-8 Writer, musician, and cultural critic Koestenbaum (English, French, and Comparative Literature/CUNY Graduate Center; Camp Marmalade, 2018, etc.) offers up another batch of personal essays published in a variety of venues.

These forays into the author’s extravagant imagination, published in Bookforum, the Believer, Tin House, and elsewhere, cover both new and familiar territory: art, film, autobiography, sex, celebrity (“I’m a lifelong student of star culture”), French author Hervé Guibert, and Picasso’s lines (“perfect, impossible”). In “No More Tasks,” Koestenbaum writes that the “writer’s obligation in the age of X is to play with words and keep playing with them.” In the rambling “Beauty Parlor at Hotel Dada,” a long sequence of largely unconnected thoughts, the author hints at his methodology: “Individual sentences may be choppy and sometimes repetitive, but through accumulation, the whole acquires a strange momentum and inevitability—even amid the deadness.” Koestenbaum also chronicles “My Brief Apprenticeship with John Barth,” an enjoyable, admiring assessment of how Barth the teacher influenced and inspired Koestenbaum’s writing. “Composed in ‘crots,’ a rare term I learned from Barth,” this essay and others “leap from crot to crot, at liberty; connections arise through juxtaposition, not through direct statement or overt linkage.” The author offers sly ruminations on punctuation and style with sidebar examples from a wide array of artists and writers. For example, Marguerite Duras’ sentences “tear themselves apart before they can achieve assembly.” In “Riding the Escalator With Eve,” he implores, “please everyone start reading Tendencies,” by queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. The author argues that Adrienne Rich “should have won a Nobel.” She had “an ear for the music that politics makes in the body.” This kind of prose could be overly chaotic in the hands of a lesser writer, but Koestenbaum has a knack for mostly keeping things together with sincerity, surprises, and wit.

A little Koestenbaum goes a long way—best taken in small bites.

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HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America

Mueller investigation as well as the mainstream news media, “an industry for elites” reluctant to upset social peers.

A passionate call for immediate action against the “transnational crime syndicate” that has supplanted the U.S. government.

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A captivating history of Churchill’s heroic year, with more than the usual emphasis on his intimates. the splendid and the vile

HOW TO MAKE LOVE TO A DESPOT An Alternative Foreign Policy for the Twenty-First Century

THE GAMING MIND A New Psychology of Videogames and the Power of Play

Krasner, Steve D. Liveright/Norton (320 pp.) $28.95 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-63149-659-2

The American project to spread democracy is a failure—and so it’s time for some realpolitik instead.

Krasner (International Relations/Stanford Univ.; Power, the State, and Sovereignty: Essays on International Relations, 2009, etc.) offers the rather dispiriting observation that popular selfgovernance is not part of the natural order and that because “despotism is much more likely than consolidated democracy,” it makes good sense to adjust foreign policy goals to recognize that we’re likely to be dealing with tyrants wherever we turn.

Certainly, this has been the case with the current presidential administration, which would seem to have despotic tendencies itself. Elites hold power, and they will do what they can to maintain it, which means that injecting power-sharing values into any discussion of political reforms in exchange for foreign aid is likely to be a nonstarter. Krasner serves up numerous examples from Afghanistan, a failed state into which America has poured buckets of blood and dollars. Attempted institutional reforms, such as tying aid to educating women to become voting, equal citizens, have largely been rejected. Just so, Krasner notes, civil rights standards that give equality to LGBTQ citizens are also likely to be rejected by many societies around the world. Our demand for “good governance,” which would establish such things as inalienable rights, is too often overlooked or subverted, which means that we need to lower our expectations to what the author calls “good enough governance.” This is better than poor governance, he argues, which is responsible for numerous ills that affect the developed world—e.g., setting in motion armies of refugees and migrants and increasing the chances that “some new communicable disease will not be detected at an early stage.” Krasner often resorts to professional jargon (“pathdependent,” “open access order,” “clientelism,” “prebendalism,” and the like), and his argument is both accessible and open to criticism since it goes against—or used to, anyway—the American grain to cozy up to monsters.

Much food for thought for policymakers, if with a disagreeably Machiavellian tang.

Kriss, Alexander The Experiment (288 pp.) $15.95 paper | Apr. 1, 2020 978-1-61519-681-4

Psychotherapist Kriss debuts with an unusual case for the benefits of playing video games.

“Games,” writes the author, “are here and growing; they are a way for us to learn more about who we are or make contact with parts of ourselves we didn’t know existed.” A gamer from the age of 5 and now the go-to guy for colleagues who don’t know how to help “gamer kids,” the New York–based author draws on personal and patient experiences to explore the “nuance and complexity” of video games. “Not all games are violent, or sexualized,” writes Kriss, nor is there scientific agreement about whether they are addictive, as societal stigma would have it. For many of his patients, games are a way to explore parts of themselves they “feel harder to access in the physical world.” One client, an aspiring model assaulted by a photographer, turned herself into an ugly, unappealing man in the post-apocalyptic game “Fallout 4”; another, a 21-year-old man living a chaotic family life, relished the “knowable” world of “Mass Effect.” Others found “new ways to connect, self-reflect, and feel known,” even entering pathways to future growth. Such patients discover a “sense of safety” in games, a protected space where they can “explore unconscious fears and desires.” The author’s own experiences playing “Silent Hill 2,” a game of psychological horror, helped him, at age 14, deal with a friend’s death. He discusses conflicting research findings on games addiction. He prefers to call the latter “compulsive play,” in which the individual is not “beholden to an ‘addictive’ game but is in fact in control of and responsible for herself and her behavior and is therefore free to change.” He stresses that “we are all entitled to play. We need to play in order to fully discover and live as ourselves.”

A thoughtful contribution to an ongoing debate that would have benefited from a more thorough look at harmful effects.

THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz Larson, Erik Crown (608 pp.) $32.00 | Feb. 25, 2020 978-0-385-34871-3

The bestselling author deals with one of the most satisfying good-vs.-evil battles in history, the year (May 1940 to May 1941) during which Churchill and Britain held off Hitler.

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NATURAL How Faith in Nature’s Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science

Levinovitz, Alan Beacon (256 pp.) $28.95 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-8070-1087-7

A religious scholar warns against nature worship in all its forms in this examination of the belief that natural products are always superior and that natural laws correctly dictate human behavior.

Levinovitz, who teaches religious studies at James Madison University, believes that “nature” and “natural” have mistakenly become synonyms for “God” and “holy.” Accordingly, consumers today often think that whatever is promoted as natural automatically has positive values for one’s health and for the environment. But nature’s goodness should not be taken on faith. “Unlearning the orthodoxies of nature worship,” writes the author, “will be liberating—and not just from the guilt of |

feeding our children the occasional non-organic snack. It will allow us to seek complicated truths instead of being tied to mythic binaries.” Levinovitz tackles an array of subjects—e.g., natural childbirth, artificial flavorings, the close-to-nature lifestyle of early humans, natural healing, women in sports, and social Darwinism—and usually offers helpful examples to provide context. He quotes pointedly, but when advancing his own arguments, he doesn’t mince words. Levinovitz assails Deepak Chopra for his involvement with Wellness Real Estate, whose multimillion-dollar condos promise to align the buyer with nature’s intended rhythms; Gwyneth Paltrow for her expensive lifestyle brand, Goop; and Whole Foods Market for its “uniting claims about material quality and ethical quality under the rubric of what’s natural.” Indeed, shopping at Whole Foods transforms into “consecrated consumption, in which the ritual of shopping becomes a kind of spiritualized retail therapy dedicated to nature.” The author also examines myths about violations of so-called natural law, among them homosexuality and interracial sex, which have been regarded as having deleterious effects on society and hence have been legislated against; and the Catholic Church’s controversial stances regarding birth control and reproduction. In Levinovitz’s view, the core problem is the confirmed certainty about the goodness of nature when in fact, “our relationship to nature is paradoxical and uncertain.”

A useful stepping-off point for a relevant topic that will require further study and debate.

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Bookshelves groan with histories of Britain’s finest hour, but Larson (Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, 2015, etc.) employs a mildly unique strategy, combining an intense, almost day-to-day account of Churchill’s actions with those of his family, two of his officials (Frederick Lindemann, who was Churchill’s prime science adviser, and Lord Beaverbrook, minister of air production), and staff, including private secretary Jock Colville and bodyguard Walter Thompson. Since no one doubted they lived in extraordinary times and almost everyone kept journals and wrote letters, the author takes full advantage of an avalanche of material, much of which will be unfamiliar to readers. Churchill remains the central figure; his charisma, public persona, table talk, quirks, and sybaritic lifestyle retain their fascination. Authors have not ignored his indispensable wife, Clementine (Sonia Purnell’s 2015 biography is particularly illuminating), but even history buffs will welcome Larson’s attention to their four children, especially Mary, a perky adolescent and his favorite. He makes no attempt to rehabilitate Winston’s only son, Randolph, a heavy-drinking spendthrift whose longsuffering wife, Pamela, finally consoled herself with a long affair with American representative Averell Harriman, which was no secret to the family and was entirely approved. Britain’s isolation ended when Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, but Larson ends on May 10. The Blitz was in full swing, with a particularly destructive raid on London, but that day also saw Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s second in command, fly to England and engage in a wacky attempt (planned since the previous autumn) to negotiate peace. Nothing came of Hess’ action, but that day may also have marked the peak of the Blitz, which soon diminished as Germany concentrated its forces against the Soviet Union.

A captivating history of Churchill’s heroic year, with more than the usual emphasis on his intimates.

THERE I AM The Journey From Hopelessness to Healing: A Memoir Lindsey, Ruthie Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $26.00 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-1-9821-0791-8

A speaker and podcast host chronicles her excruciating battles with chronic pain—and the inability of doctors to properly address it.

In the first few chapters of her debut, Unspoken host Lindsey explores her childhood and adolescence as part of a loving Christian family in Louisiana. Though largely undramatic, her experiences are interesting enough to keep the pages turning.

She stood apart from her peers in several ways: her stature (at 13, she was “six feet tall and barely a hundred pounds”), determination to remain celibate until marriage, abstinence from alcohol and drugs, and massive popularity at school, where her father was a well-loved principal. The chief attraction of the opening chapters derives from the author’s pleasing sentences, evocative of carefree youth. During her senior year in high school, she was in a serious car accident. Though her passenger and the person driving the other vehicle emerged mostly unscathed, Lindsey suffered a crushed spleen as well as a broken neck and ribs that punctured her lungs. At the hospital, doctors estimated a 5% chance of survival and 1% chance of walking again. But the kirkus.com

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A standout book of sociological history and current affairs. the address book

author overcame the odds after spinal surgery. Less than a year later, she graduated on time and left home for college. However, both the physical and psychological pain were relentless—and amply described by Lindsey, which sometimes makes for difficult reading. After years of pain management suggested by physicians, pharmacists, dear friends, and always compassionate family members, the author finally learned the primary medical reason for the unrelenting pain. But the apparent corrective barely helped. For the remainder of the memoir, consistently readable and inspirational, Lindsey keeps readers in suspense about whether she will be able to fully enjoy her life. At the end, the author addresses readers directly and asks them to focus on healing what is broken in their own lives.

Illness memoirs from noncelebrities often get lost in the stacks. This one deserves greater attention.

A STRANGER AMONG SAINTS Stephen Hopkins, the Man Who Survived Jamestown and Saved Plymouth

Mack, Jonathan Chicago Review Press (272 pp.) $30.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-64160-090-3

How a little-known member of the Plymouth settlement made a significant impact on its success.

Attorney Mack, a member of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, makes his book debut with an absorbing, perceptive biography of Stephen Hopkins (1581-1644), who made two voyages from England to the New World. As the author argues convincingly, he proved to be “a key figure in the Pilgrims’ struggles and triumphs.” Hopkins sailed first to Jamestown in 1609, remaining there for a few years. In 1620, he joined the passengers of the Mayflower: the Saints, bound by religious covenant, and the dissident Strangers, Hopkins among them. Because he left no diary or journal, Hopkins has been neglected by historians, overshadowed by his contemporaries Myles Standish and William Bradford. But Mack makes judicious use of evidence to create a nuanced portrait of a complex man—independent, intelligent, “stubborn when he felt wronged”—who took an influential role, bringing to decisions wisdom gleaned from his earlier experiences. Those experiences were dire: Shipwrecked off the coast of Bermuda in 1609, Hopkins became mired in scandal, accused of mutiny, and sentenced to death. He escaped to Jamestown, where he found himself “on the doorstep of hell”: The town was in ruins, the population decimated by starvation, and relationships with Native peoples were tense. The author creates a visceral sense of the hardship of settlement and of trans-Atlantic crossing, when ships were at the mercy of doldrums or tempests. “The wooden ship groaned and creaked,” he writes, and in the dark living area, “the smells of 150 unwashed people and rotting food intensified.”

Many died during the voyage. The survivors, their food stores perilously diminished, landed on cold, inhospitable terrain, and 88

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attack by Indigenous tribes seemed probable. Because he had advocated for diplomacy with Natives in Jamestown—where he had met Pocahontas—Hopkins, “a cool thinker,” pressed for conciliation and peace. His success in developing rapport and forging bonds between Pilgrims and Natives opened “the door to the prospect of prosperity that came with peace.”

Deftly crafted history illuminates the nation’s earliest days. (15 b/w illustrations)

THE ADDRESS BOOK What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

Mask, Deirdre St. Martin’s (336 pp.) $26.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-250-13476-9

An impressive book-length answer to a question few of us consider: “Why do street addresses matter?”

In her first book, Mask, a North Carolina–born, Londonbased lawyer-turned-writer who has taught at Harvard and the London School of Economics—combines deep research with skillfully written, memorable anecdotes to illuminate the vast influence of street addresses as well as the negative consequences of not having a fixed address. Many readers probably assume that a street address exists primarily to receive mail from the postal office, FedEx, UPS, and other carriers. Throughout this eye-opening book, the author clearly demonstrates that package deliveries constitute a minuscule part of the significance of addresses—not only today, but throughout human history. Venturing as far back as ancient times, Mask explores how the Romans navigated their cities and towns. She describes the many challenges of naming streets in modern-day Kolkata (Calcutta), India, where countless mazes of squalid alleys lack formal addresses. “The lack of addresses,” writes the author, “was depriving those living in the slums a chance to get out of them. Without an address, it’s nearly impossible to get a bank account”—and the obstacles compound from there. Mask also delves into the controversies in South Africa regarding addresses, issues exacerbated by apartheid and its aftermath. In the U.S., one can track racist undertones via streets named for Confederate icons such as Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The author offers insightful commentary regarding the fact that U.S. roadways named for Martin Luther King Jr. are usually found in poverty-stricken urban areas, and she addresses the many problems associated with homelessness.

She also explores the dark period of Nazi Germany when street names identified where concentrations of Jews lived, making it easier for them to be rounded up and sent to the death camps. In a chapter prominently featuring Donald Trump, Mask explains the monetary and prestige values of specific addresses in New York City. Other stops on the author’s tour include Haiti, London, Vienna, Korea, Japan, Iran, and Berlin.

A standout book of sociological history and current affairs. (20 b/w illustrations and maps) |

TREES IN TROUBLE Wildfires, Infestations, and Climate Change Hit the West

BORROWING LIFE How Scientists, Surgeons, and a War Hero Made the First Successful Organ Transplant a Reality

Mathews, Daniel Illus. by Strieby, Matt Counterpoint (256 pp.) $26.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-64009-135-1

A walk in the woods with an environmental journalist and natural-history writer reveals that the forested world is

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Admiring biographies of a scientist, two surgeons, and several patients whose lives came together in a 1954 kidney transplant, the first that succeeded, heralding a medical revolution that continues to this day.

Award-winning novelist Mickle (The Occupation of Eliza Goode, 2013, etc.) turns her attention to nonfiction while making generous use of her storytelling skills. Her heroes are Peter Medawar (1915-1987), a British scientist considered the father of transplantation, who discovered the phenomenon of acquired immunological tolerance—conditions under which the body would not reject a foreign tissue; and Francis Moore (1913-2001), the youngest chairman of surgery in Harvard’s history, who aggressively supported many breakthrough techniques, including those of Joseph Murray (1919-2012), who performed the first successful transplant, a kidney, between identical twins, in 1954. More significantly, Murray did the same with an unrelated donor in 1962. In her enthusiastic narrative, Mickle pays close attention to patients, especially Charles Woods, who suffered catastrophic burns in a World War II plane crash and underwent years of surgery, many by Dr. Murray, to restore his face and hands. During his later experiments, Murray remembered that foreign skin transplants lasted much longer on the debilitated Woods. Readers will enjoy the author’s lucid account of the history of transplants and the difficulties faced by the pioneers, and she also offers generous accounts of their courtships, marriages, and offspring. At the end of the book, Mickle, whose husband trained under Moore and Murray, includes a chronology and instructions on becoming a kidney donor. “Over a decade,” writes the author, her subjects “pioneered the giving and taking of organs that one of the surgeons called ‘spare-parts surgery,’ or borrowing life, which in no way belittled the ultimate gift of retrieving life for one so close to losing it.”

An irresistible if often gruesome account of a great medical struggle that featured a happy ending.

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in grave danger.

As Oregon-based naturalist Mathews (Natural History of the Pacific Northwest Mountains, 2017, etc.) writes, there are 113 species of pine tree, the most abundant and various of any conifer genus. All are in trouble to one extent or another because of climate change, from saplings to “living pine trees older than the Egyptian pyramids.” The author roams the world and the scientific literature to examine the many threats that pines face and their previous adaptations. The logic of the lodgepole, for instance, is impressive: Its cone carries a resin that melts at 113 degrees Fahrenheit, protecting the seeds inside the cone from fire. “The fire kills the pines but melts their cone-sealing resin,” he writes; “the cone scales open over several days or weeks, shedding seeds upon a wide-open seedbed.” Massive fires being an increasingly common phenomenon, particularly in the West, this adaptation is highly useful. On that note, Mathews observes, many forest scientists believe that there’s a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy in the fire regime—i.e., the kinds of dense forests we cultivate demand huge fires. American logging trucks seem somehow incomplete without their loads of giant trees, after all, whereas European foresters favor smaller trees that wouldn’t make for ship masts or I-beams but that do just fine to make studs. In many places, the destruction of fire pales next to that of pine borer beetles, both a harbinger and an effect of climate change. It’s difficult to control both, though, as Mathews writes; the cost of protecting homes in forests by doing such things as burying power lines is often so high that people have little motivation apart from self-preservation to do that necessary work. And, asks the author, “if self-preservation isn’t a motivation, what would be?” His book sounds a timely warning to pay more heed to the health of the woodlands.

Thoughtful environmental reportage suggesting that the fate of trees is the fate of all life.

Mickle, Shelley Fraser Imagine Publishing (304 pp.) $24.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-62354-539-0

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A quirky wonder of a book. why fish don’t exist

WHY FISH DON’T EXIST A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Miller, Lulu Illus. by Samworth, Kate Simon & Schuster (224 pp.) $23.00 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-5011-6027-1

A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.

Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (18511931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.

A quirky wonder of a book. (b/w illustrations)

THE BETTER HALF An Argument for the Genetic Superiority of Women Moalem, Sharon Farrar, Straus and Giroux (288 pp.) $27.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-250-17478-9

A male physician and scientist argues that “women are simply stronger than men at every stage of life.”

Moalem (The DNA Restart: Unlock Your Personal Genetic Code To Eat for Your Genes, Lose Weight, and Reverse Aging, 2016, etc.) attributes female superiority largely to the two X chromosomes that determine female sex in humans, as opposed to the single X and much smaller Y chromosome that determines maleness. The two X’s vary—one inherited from the father and one from the mother—so they enrich the genetic library women can draw upon. The conventional wisdom is that one of a woman’s X’s is silenced in each of her cells and that this happens randomly, so that, say in the kidney, one cell may have the mother’s X silenced and be next to a cell that has the father’s X silenced. This means that even if there is a bad gene on one of the X’s, the other X will be present in sufficient numbers to compensate. Now, however, that conventional wisdom may need amending. There is evidence that some genes on the silenced X chromosome are functional, adding extra genetic power to females. Further, as Moalem accessibly explains, female cells can cooperate. For example, one female cell can generate an enzyme sorely needed by another female cell whose X has a mutation in the necessary gene. All this genetic endowment also leads to a more potent immune system, which is one of the reasons women generally outlive men; they are better survivors of infection and disease across the life span.

There is a downside, however: Having a finely tuned immune system also leads to higher prevalence of autoimmune diseases in women. Ischemic stroke and Alzheimer’s are also more common in women, for unknown reasons.

Moalem’s sharp text serves as a challenge to explore the vast unknown territory of chromosomal differences in men and women.

AMERICAN HARVEST God, Country, and Farming in the Heartland

Mockett, Marie Mutsuki Graywolf (416 pp.) $28.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-64445-017-8

Literate travels in the forgotten American hinterlands.

Mockett (Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye, 2015, etc.) is a child of “the coasts: seventeen years in California, four years of college in New York City, more years of ping-ponging between 90

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CALDER The Conquest of Space: The Later Years: 1940-1976 Perl, Jed Knopf (688 pp.) $60.00 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-451-49411-5

The monumental conclusion to a two-part biography of Alexander Calder (1898-1976), one of the most important figures in 20th-century sculpture.

In this masterfully researched work, art historian Perl, a New York Review of Books contributor who served as the art critic for the New Republic for 20 years, has constructed an impressive monument that should raise the standards for future art biographies. The author celebrates his subject while effortlessly educating his audience; his text is at once erudite and accessible and achieves an exquisite balance between historical and theoretical readings. While the previous volume chronicled the genesis of Calder’s formal concepts, this one explores the life of an established artist as Calder was contemplating the permanence of his objects and his legacy. His career was catapulted by a series of outdoor commissions, as “people were beginning |

to recognize the power of his work to animate contemporary architectural spaces.” As Perl writes, “if in the 1930s Calder was conquering time as he made sculptures move, in the 1960s he was conquering space as he created abstract sculptures of a size and an impact seldom seen before.” Delicate mobiles evolved into “a new kind of urban landmark,” massive artworks that pulsed with “muscular energy.” Between Calder’s home in Roxbury, Connecticut, and his studio in rural France, Perl traces a steady sequence of major exhibitions and projects, from Calder’s MoMA debut in 1943 to his Whitney retrospective in 1976, which was on view the year he died of a heart attack. A rhapsodic historian, Perl presents each sculpture as a masterpiece, but he doesn’t shy away from criticism. He acknowledges that some considered Calder’s work “too easy” or “chic throwaways,” and he details the artist’s occasionally awkward commercial collaborations. Cumulatively, these episodes form a complete picture of an exceptional artist and all the significant developments of his oeuvre. Perl finds a vivacity between the artist and his many creations. “No longer were the figures in a painting or a sculpture what really mattered,” he writes. “Now what mattered was the life of the work of art itself.”

A towering achievement. (377 photos in color and b/w)

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the East and West Coasts,” the kind of person likely to think of the territory in between as flyover country. Yet, with a Japanese mother and High Plains father, she knows that ground well, having spent summers on a family farm that spilled over from Nebraska into Colorado. The author returned to explore the work of itinerant contract or “custom” harvesters whose “routes across state lines were established by men, who handed down their itineraries to their sons, and harvesting became a family business.” Traveling with one such family across the center of the country, Mockett analyzes the divides between rural and urban, religious and apathetic or atheistic, conservative and liberal. Even in her own family, she writes, those differences were profound, but what is a bicoastal, educated person to make of someone who believes “that man was around at the time of the dinosaur”? Refreshingly, the author finds that conversation is just the thing; with it, some stereotypes shade away or at least become more complicated, as with that young fundamentalist who also maintained that if someone is pro-life, “they would help children, not just abandon them.” On the other hand, some farmers and harvesters spend their off time at the Omniplex, a sprawling science museum in Oklahoma City, and some hold education and the “uncharted world” in our minds in esteem while others hold the Bible to be the sole truth. What some city sophisticates dismiss as monoculture, many country people praise as progress. Throughout, Mockett’s portrait is nuanced, revealing those overlooked people in counties likely to have voted for the sitting president to be worth paying attention to.

A revealing, richly textured portrait of the lives of those who put food on our tables. (b/w photos)

YOGI A Life

Pessah, Jon Little, Brown (576 pp.) $30.00 | Mar. 24, 2020 978-0-316-31099-4

A vigorous biography of the New York Yankees legend.

Lorenzo Pietro Berra (1925-2015), first nicknamed “Lawdie,” wasn’t supposed to be a baseball star. His father, an Italian immigrant to St. Louis, discouraged his ambitions, saying that it wasn’t seemly for a man to make a living playing a boy’s game. Branch Rickey shook his head at the young man’s prospects. He was goofy looking and odd, speaking a “mangled English [that was] the product of his Italian-language household and his uneasy relationship with school.” Yet, as Pessah, a founding editor of ESPN the Magazine, writes, Lawdie shook them off. Soon given the new nickname of “Yogi” for his habit of sitting cross-legged while waiting to bat or take the field, he started racking up admirable statistics—and a solid sense of how the business of baseball worked, which served him well. He was especially well served by a mistrust of management early on, for Yogi would fare ill at the hands of executives like George Steinbrenner in his later career as a coach and manager. The narrative often takes a play-by-play flavor (“Bodie doesn’t disappoint. He brings in Yankee Phil Rizzuto to play shortstop and Red Sox star Dom DiMaggio—Joe D’s younger brother—to man center field”) that suits the story just fine. Yogi emerges as a man who was more thoughtful than many give him credit for, even if he may have often played the rube—when told he was at an impasse in negotiating a contract, he replied, “What the hell kirkus.com

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An inspirational and refreshing book for anyone seeking to get out of their cycle of hatred and anger. breaking hate

UN-TRUMPING AMERICA A Plan To Make America a Democracy Again

is an impasse?” Of course, as any baseball fan knows, he was no slouch on the field, known far and wide for hammering pitches into the parking lot and giving teammate Mickey Mantle a run for his money as a slugger.

A welcome life of the Yankees icon and worthwhile reading for any baseball buff.

THE HEART Frida Kahlo in Paris

Petitjean, Marc Trans. by Hunter, Adriana Other Press (176 pp.) $25.00 | Apr. 28, 2020 978-1-59051-990-5

A breezy bit of art history about a 1939 affair between the author’s father and Frida Kahlo in Paris.

Combining both research and conjecture, photographer and documentary filmmaker Petitjean attempts to retrace the circumstances of this underdocumented romance. Frida visited Paris in 1939; she left an adulterous Diego Rivera back in Mexico and found herself on an emotional threshold before her European debut in André Breton’s exhibition of Mexican art. While Breton and other surrealists fetishized her foreignness, Michel Petitjean, the author’s father and local gallerist, saw beyond that surface impression. Michel and Frida had a short affair, during which she gave him a small painting called The Heart, which was a fitting token for the man who, for once, saw all of her. The painting, writes the author is “a concentration of the key characteristics in [her] art and her biography: intimacy, identity, physical and psychological suffering, references to Mexican culture, and references to art history.” While the story is transportive and dreamy, the author’s awkward sequencing of facts and loose creative license muddle the scholarly authority. For example, Petitjean doesn’t explain until near the end of the narrative that his father studied Mexican civilizations at the Museum of Ethnography. Stylistically, he often embellishes: He remarks on the subtle implications of Breton’s “tone of voice” and, elsewhere, imagines mental pictures in his father’s mind. He also writes that, one morning during a pain spell, Frida “contemplates each of her organs in turn.” Petitjean is undeterred by a lack of concrete sources: “I do not have any information to know for sure…but by crosschecking the whereabouts, circumstances, and personalities of the protagonists I will attempt to reconstruct the scene.”

While prefacing another tangent, he writes, “I imagine, but I may be wrong.” While his heart’s in the right place, the author’s penchant for stylized prose often overwhelms the book’s more academic qualities.

A lightly investigative biography about a painting’s provenance and its hidden romantic history.

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Pfeiffer, Dan Twelve (304 pp.) $28.00 | Feb. 18, 2020 978-1-5387-3355-4

Democrats must get it together if they hope to win in 2020 and reverse what the author sees as the anti-democratic current dominating American politics.

In a natural follow-up to his bestselling Yes We (Still) Can (2018), Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama and co-host of Pod Save America, combines an unrelenting assault on Donald Trump and the GOP with outlines of a plan for Democrats to win elections and reverse the current course of the country. He begins with an analysis of how the GOP has accomplished what it has—virtually all of which he despises and derides. Among his principal villains are Fox News, the Koch brothers, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan, whom he ridicules in a final section titled “Bonus Content: A Paul Ryan Rant for the People in the Back.” Pfeiffer aligns the GOP with racism and with cynical appeals to white voters; he condemns gerrymandering, voter purges, and the Citizens United decision; he declares that the GOP puts winning and party above country.

To remedy all this, the author offers dozens of pages of suggestions for Democrats—e.g., change the media strategy (go more for social media), diminish the role of big money in campaigns, expand voter registration and turnout, make major changes in the Senate (eliminate the filibuster), and reform the design of the Supreme Court. He ends each of the later chapters with suggestions for “What You Can Do To Help.” Of course, the author realizes that none of these reforms can occur without big Democratic victories in the House, Senate, and White House. Throughout, Pfeiffer pulls no punches. He blasts Fox News for “pure partisan propaganda,” labels Brett Kavanaugh “a moral travesty,” and calls the National Rifle Association “one of the most evil and effective forces in politics.”

An admonitory and heavily—unsurprisingly—partisan book that offers gleams of hope to those feeling hopeless.

BREAKING HATE Confronting the New Culture of Extremism

Picciolini, Christian Hachette (272 pp.) $28.00 | Feb. 25, 2020 978-0-316-52293-9

A former white supremacist leader examines the sinister nature of organized hate-fueled violence.

“The delicate fibers of America’s fabric have been ripped to shreds by extremism,” writes Picciolini, who recounted his personal transformation in White American |

LIFE CHANGING How Humans Are Altering Life on Earth

Pilcher, Helen Bloomsbury Sigma (384 pp.) $28.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-4729-5671-2

An exploration of humans’ role as “curators of the planet that we have come to dominate.”

Transforming plants and animals for our own benefit began in prehistoric times, according to this expert, often unsettling account of this transformation’s progress, which accelerated after World War II and will soon reach warp speed with advances that continue to build on those from the past decade. Science writer Pilcher, whose previous book was about de-extinction, writes that it began with the dog, domesticated tens of thousands of years ago. This was accomplished by simple Darwinian natural selection: The most amiable wolves prospered by associating with humans, produced far more offspring than their unfriendly peers, and they now vastly outnumber them. Similarly, by selecting only desirable qualities, our ancestors converted other flora and fauna to more productive crops and domestic animals. |

After scientists learned the secrets of DNA in the mid-20th century, genetic modification worked its wonders so well that today, there is enough food to feed the world—a goal widely considered impossible 50 years ago. Readers who forget the downside to ordering the Earth for our convenience will squirm as Pilcher chronicles how the world’s jungles are being cleared to grow food mostly intended to feed livestock, which make up 60% of the planet’s large land animals. Humans come next at 36%. Wildlife brings up the rear, at 4% and dwindling. Chickens are by far the most common bird. We eat more than 65 billion (!) each year, and their massive bone remains will lead future paleontologists to believe that chickens were the 21st-century’s dominant life form. Concluding on an upbeat but only mildly uplifting note, Pilcher recounts successful efforts to restore barren countryside to genuine wilderness and the rescue of the cute, flightless New Zealand kakapo from extinction.

An impressive rendering of the disturbing history of human tinkering with nature.

PHARMA Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America

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Youth (2017). His road to reform informs his latest book, which is partly autobiographical yet also drawn from the profiles of people who have fallen prey to the same net of hate and radical racism that had ensnared him as a teenager. In 1987, Picciolini, who felt lost as a young teenager, immersed himself in the neoNazi white supremacy movement and helped found two white supremacist punk bands. He openly confesses that once he met and engaged with the actual objects of his hate and rage, he couldn’t justify or reconcile that hate any longer and denounced the movement. This lesson is just one of several approaches the author believes are proven deterrents against indoctrination with radical extremist groups. The author explores the ways violence integrates itself into personal histories of bigotry or intolerance and calls out racists by exposing their “protective armor” of agony, shame, fear, and insecurity, beneath which lies a “fractured human.” Delving deeper, Picciolini chronicles the evolution of several former extremists he has counselled—e.g., Kassandra, a former white nationalist kidnapped and radicalized by her virtual “online Nazi boyfriend,” a case that became one of the most challenging the author ever faced. He also tells the stories of Daniel, a child born into poverty and emotional abuse, and several post-combat, trauma-addled military veterans who fell “into the insidious arms of hate.” As an outspoken advocate who has denounced racism and resolved to “repair the harm I once caused,” Picciolini sets an instructive example for those questioning their own extremism. As he notes, “this book is my testament to how important empathy, compassion, and self-reflection are.”

An inspirational and refreshing book for anyone seeking to get out of their cycle of hatred and anger.

Posner, Gerald Avid Reader Press (848 pp.) $35.00 | Mar. 10, 2020 978-1-5011-5189-7

Of nightmare germs, sleazy dealings, and the big money that fuels the (legal) drug trade.

Investigative journalist Posner writes that big pharma “resides at the intersection of public health and free enterprise,” sometimes capable of lifesaving acts but often an agent of unbridled greed. The industry emerged in the 19th century with the need to care for wounded soldiers and new strains of epidemic diseases such as yellow fever and cholera. In the early days, firms had a lock on certain broadly applied medicaments—morphine, in the case of Pfizer. A century later, when physician Arthur Sackler came onboard, Pfizer had just a handful of salespeople; Sackler forged an army of thousands of them, fanning out to sell drugs he had developed, such as Valium, to a waiting audience. In time, Sackler came under federal scrutiny, a bête noire of crusading Sen. Estes Kefauver, who “was bothered by an industry where only a few firms dominated sales and had unfettered discretion to set prices.” Moving on to the family-owned Purdue Pharma, Sackler and kin refined techniques of secrecy and underreporting. As Posner notes, it was a firing offense for a salesperson to make notes on visits to doctors in writing, and what went on behind closed doors were all sorts of spoken inducements and rewards for prescribing and overprescribing the firm’s products, including OxyContin. Even in Kefauver’s time, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry was making many multiples more profit than other sectors of the economy, charging far more to American consumers and insurers than to those in other parts of the world. This was true of the AIDS– battling AZT, “the highest priced drug on the planet.” This kirkus.com

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Impassioned testimony of a fight for health. the lady ’s handbook for her mysterious illness

ISLAND STORIES An Unconventional History of Britain

remains true today, even as Purdue, heavily fined for its role in an epidemic of opioid-overdose deaths, tiptoes into bankruptcy, one ploy in the “complex corporate chess game in which Arthur Sackler excelled.”

A shocking, rousing condemnation of an industry clearly in need of better policing.

THE LADY’S HANDBOOK FOR HER MYSTERIOUS ILLNESS A Memoir Ramey, Sarah Doubleday (432 pp.) $27.95 | Mar. 17, 2020 978-0-385-53407-9

A memoir that explores the idea that women with chronic illnesses need to rally for appropriate medical care.

Making her book debut, Ramey, a writer and musician (known as Wolf Larsen), recounts, with captivating zest, a sorry tale of suffering from a cluster of symptoms that defied diagnosis. “I thought I was the strangest medical case on the East Coast,” she writes, only to discover many others like herself. She was “a woman with a mysterious illness,” a WOMI, chronically exhausted, aching, “likely in possession of at least one autoimmune disease,” and likely to go from physician to physician in search of understanding. The daughter of physicians, Ramey began her quest for help believing unquestioningly in “Magical Pillthink,” the notion “that if something is wrong, there is always a quick fix.” She visited countless specialists and was treated with a host of medications that sometimes temporarily relieved symptoms, but more often not. She experienced “extremely bad—and often explicitly abusive—medical care,” including botched surgeries. The author began to research her condition on her own, making some startling discoveries: the rise of autoimmune diseases in the last 30 years; the significance of the intestinal microbiome to digestive health and fatigue, aching, and “brain fog”; the role of antigens in producing an overactive immune response; physical and emotional traumas that can trigger WOMI symptoms; and microglia, tiny immune cells that protect the brain and nervous system that can become inflamed in response to a variety of stressors. Repeatedly prescribed antidepressants from frustrated doctors, Ramey indicts the medical establishment for its “contempt for women, and for the feminine,” and recommends the new approach of functional medicine, which holds that “diet, lifestyle, and attitude are the cornerstones of health” and incorporates “testing, treating, and stabilizing” the four systems involved in “modern chronic illnesses:” the gut, liver, immune system, and endocrine system. Finally, her condition improved through common-sense changes: “Sleep, movement, a nontoxic environment, and a well-nourished psyche,” Ramey concludes, are the basic needs for recovery.

Impassioned testimony of a fight for health.

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Reynolds, David Basic (304 pp.) $30.00 | Mar. 24, 2020 978-1-5416-4692-6

A British historian takes a long view of events that are now rattling the Isles.

“The British…seem like a people who have done things the same way for centuries and can be relied on for stability and common sense,” writes Reynolds (International History/Christ’s Coll., Cambridge; The Long Shadow: The Legacies of the Great War in the Twentieth Century, 2015, etc.), which explains why Brexit has seemed so inexplicable to so many people. In many ways, however, it is of a piece with previous episodes that stretch back at least 1,000 years, not simply in tensions between the U.K. and European alliances, but also in Britain’s relationships with the principalities of old. The isolation that logically results from living on an island was reinforced when Britain had to go it alone after the fall of France in 1940 until forging alliances with the U.S. and the Soviet Union, which Reynolds provocatively writes, “such was the extent of Germany’s early success in 1940 that the Führer had, in effect, called the superpowers into existence to redress the balance of the Old World.” The U.K. was not among these superpowers, leading to a sense of “declinism” that became a powerful counterargument to Britain’s previous championing of what the author deems an “ideology of freedom [that] was real at the time and has exerted a lasting influence.” With declinism, marked by episodes such as Margaret Thatcher’s being outplayed by continental colleagues such as François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, has come another spate of that going-it-alone resignation. Reynolds peppers an always interesting text with side notes on things such as the relative lack of much of a dent, in terms of DNA, of the Norman conquest on the British Isles. He also offers some nice snark about some of the current players on the historical stage, among them Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, who “seemed even less qualified for his job than May was for hers.”

A witty and revealing look at long-term patterns in British history.

HOW THE SOUTH WON THE CIVIL WAR Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America

Richardson, Heather Cox Oxford Univ. (256 pp.) $27.95 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-0-19-090090-8

A thought-provoking study of the centuries-spanning battle between oligarchy and equality in America. |

ACTIVE MEASURES The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare Rid, Thomas Farrar, Straus and Giroux (528 pp.) $30.00 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-0-374-28726-9

A Johns Hopkins professor of strategic studies delves into the murky history—and current pervasiveness—of

disinformation.

Rid, whose previous book, Rise of the Machines, focused on cybernetics, opens in 2016, as the Russians were employing disinformation to influence the American presidential election, and then moves back in time to offer a well-packed history beginning in the 1920s. “This modern era of disinformation,” he writes, “began in the early 1920s, and the art and science of what the CIA once called ‘political warfare’ grew and changed in four big waves, each a generation apart.” The first wave occurred as the widespread access to radio offered an effective new |

technology for enemy governments hoping to influence listeners to revolt against their own governments. The second wave occurred during the Cold War, with the CIA as the main culprit. The third wave encompassed the 1970s, with a massively funded Soviet bureaucracy as the main culprit. The fourth wave has extended into the present, with labyrinthine government spy bureaucracies losing ground to renegade computer hackers operating 24/7. While the digital era in general and the internet in particular have altered the tactics of government spy agencies, the author demonstrates in massive detail how such destabilization has flowed in multiple directions for the past century. The U.S. government, mostly through the CIA, has mounted countless campaigns to harm so-called communist nations, especially during the post–World War II era. On the communist side, Rid emphasizes the relentless disinformation campaigns emanating from the Soviet Union/Russia as well as from East Germany before its reunification with West Germany. The chronological narrative will demand significant effort from lay readers—not due to lack of clarity by the author, whose style is engaging, but because every extended case study requires separating partial truths told by the spy agency from the vast untruths that are necessarily part of the mix. For readers interested in current politics, Rid offers expert opinion that Russia is actively working to erode the foundation of U.S. democracy.

A dense but highly relevant and useful study, especially as we approach the 2020 election. (76 b/w illustrations)

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In 1860, writes Richardson (History/Boston Coll.; To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party, 2014, etc.), the Republican Party took pains in its platform to remind audiences of the Declaration of Independence and its assertion that “all men are created equal.” All men were not equal, of course, to say nothing of women, who would not gain the right to vote for another three generations. Still, the Republicans opposed a slave system that they regarded as despotic while Southern true believers held that a small elite formed a proper polity all their own, slave owners who “would resolve the American paradox by shearing off the portion of it that endorsed equality.” It was this radical rejection of a founding premise, however imperfectly applied, that distinguished Republicans and Southern Democrats. By Richardson’s account, it is this radical rejection that, the party roles having reversed polarity a century later, distinguishes Republicans from Democrats, the former of whom now possess “the language they need to undermine our democracy, and to replace it with an oligarchy.” Furthermore, they believed that “their new system made their nation different from the Old World, which was split between a corrupt aristocracy and the lazy poor.” In their view, a corrupt aristocracy was fine as long as it did not have to share spoils or power; of course, the common trope among Republicans these days is that if you’re poor, it’s because you choose to be. Nixon’s “Southern strategy” did much to propel neo-Confederate values into the modern Republican Party. Later, Newt Gingrich enshrined them, fortifying class inequality by placing “tax cuts at the center of Republican policy” and reducing political interference by changing lawmaking so that lobbyists—not representatives—wrote regulations and laws that “were designed to put the American government at the service of democracy.”

A powerful case for viewing the unfinished Civil War as a Confederate victory after all. (b/w illustrations)

THE GOLDEN FLEA A Story of Obsession and Collecting Rips, Michael Norton (240 pp.) $26.95 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-1-324-00407-3

Manhattan denizen Rips shares his passion for the Chelsea Flea Market, which used to be “one of the largest flea markets in America.”

At its zenith, the market thrived on the west side of Manhattan, mostly on Saturdays and Sundays, with buyers and sellers coming and going from abandoned parking garages, open-air lots, old office buildings, and sidewalk stands. In his third book, Rips, who lives in the Chelsea Hotel and serves as the executive director of the Art Students League of New York, focuses his compact yet detailed narrative of oddball possessions and quirky humans on a parking garage that offered merchandise from dozens of vendors. Their customers included native New Yorkers seeking bargains, tourists wandering by, “pickers” searching for underpriced treasures that could be resold for profit, and buyers who could be considered hoarders. In addition to chronicling the goings-on of the many eccentric characters that frequented the market, the author also writes about his daughter and their trips together to the flea. She seemed to enjoy herself, and many of the vendors enjoyed entertaining her.

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A vivid history of passionate protest. mayday 1971

people he met during his forays in this unique environment, but few of his portraits feel more substantial than sketches. While he is to be commended for diligently listening to them spin their background stories—many of them likely embellished— Rips rarely verified the facts of these sagas, preferring to hear without judgment. Because the author identifies the characters only by first names and nicknames, readers may need to take the findings with a grain of salt. There’s a sometimes-pleasing surreal quality to this journey that fits the idiosyncratic landscape—in which sellers hawked everything from “paintings, lithographs and photographs” to “canes, vintage clothes, costume jewelry, tools, Asian scrolls, screens, and jade, sports memorabilia, and African art,” not to mention “stacks of crumbling newspapers and magazines”—but one wonders if Rips could have dug even deeper to produce a fuller picture of this world of lost and forgotten treasures.

An intriguing but slight sociological snapshot.

MAYDAY 1971 A White House at War, a Revolt in the Streets, and the Untold History of America’s Biggest Mass Arrest Roberts, Lawrence Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (464 pp.) $28.00 | Apr. 28, 2020 978-1-328-76672-4

A participant in a crucial anti-war demonstration recalls the tension and

peril of the moment.

In May 1971, investigative editor Roberts, then a 19-year-old college student, joined in a huge protest against the Vietnam War that resulted in the arrest of more than 12,000 people, the author included. Making his book debut, Roberts offers a perceptive, thoroughly researched accounting of the intense, often divisive movement that led to an event marking 10 years from the time John F. Kennedy sent “a few hundred soldiers and advisers to South Vietnam.” By the time of the protest, more than 2 million Americans had served, and 275,000 still were deployed.

Lyndon Johnson expanded the war, costing him the presidency, and Richard Nixon inherited the conflict, advised by his hawkish national security chief, Henry Kissinger. Protests, begun in 1965 with a teach-in at the University of Michigan, had grown year by year. By spring 1971, several organizations worked to strategize for “ambitious antiwar demonstrations”: the People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice, the Mayday Tribe, the National Peace Action Coalition, and Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The Nixon White House, the FBI, and Washington, D.C., police also needed to strategize, confronted with a conglomeration of “1930s-style radicals, back-to-the-land hippies, campus intellectuals, would-be revolutionaries, middle-class liberals, black-power evangelists,” and young radicals known as Yippies.

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on government and private archives, news articles, and many interviews with participants, Roberts creates a tense, brisk narrative covering 10 weeks that began in March with a bomb explosion in the U.S. Capitol and ended with lawyers’ efforts to free the thousands arrested. He offers sharply drawn portraits of key White House personnel and of many protestors, including Yippies Stew Albert and his girlfriend, Judy Gumbo; activists Rennie Davis and David Dellinger; and John Kerry, a prominent member of VVAW. A vivid history of passionate protest. (8-page b/w insert; map)

EMPIRES OF THE SKY Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men’s Epic Duel To Rule the World Rose, Alexander Random House (608 pp.) $30.00 | Apr. 28, 2020 978-0-8129-8997-7

A history of the obsessive pioneers of flight.

Bestselling historian Rose (Men of War: The American Soldier in Combat at Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, and Iwo Jima, 2015) emphasizes that when the Wright brothers made the first heavier-than-air flight in 1903, airships had been carrying passengers since the Montgolfier brothers first launched their balloon in 1783. Until well into the 1930s, many entrepreneurs believed that dirigibles—spacious, quiet, capable of flying long distances—were the wave of the future compared with cramped, noisy, accident-prone propeller-driven craft. After a brief account of a successful 1936 flight of the Hindenburg, “the ultimate transoceanic cruiser” that would be destroyed in a spectacular crash just a year later, Rose rewinds the clock to 1863, when German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917) first flew in a balloon and was inspired. After retirement, he devoted himself to building powered airships, immense craft lifted by flammable hydrogen (helium, much safer, was wildly expensive). He created the world’s first commercial airline in 1909. The difficulty of control in bad weather and the danger of hydrogen proved to be insoluble problems.

Airships suffered a dismal safety record, although Zeppelin’s passenger airline, under his successor, led a charmed life until the Hindenburg disaster. Rose’s intriguing second subject does not appear until the author reaches the 1920s, when Juan Trippe (1889-1981) joined other businessmen investing in the first airlines. As the author shows, the competition in the U.S. was already cutthroat, but few airlines existed south of the border, and he began acquiring exclusive rights to fly to the Caribbean and later South America. Flush with profits—from airmail contracts; passengers came later—he persuaded Boeing to develop a flying boat capable of crossing the ocean. The resulting “clippers” became the epitome of glamorous air travel during the 1930s. By 1940, when the book ends, Trippe’s Pan American World Airways was the world’s largest international carrier, and |

STRANGE SITUATION A Mother’s Journey Into the Science of Attachment

the Zeppelin was history. Technical and business details dominate the narrative, but the primary story is often riveting.

An overlong but still worthy aviation history.

BECOMING WILD How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace

Safina, Carl Henry Holt (384 pp.) $29.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-250-17333-1

An examination of the psychological attachment between parent and child from both personal and more detached points of view.

In her first book, Saltman, a Zen practitioner, writes about how she was prompted to look into the research surrounding attachment due to her own ambivalence about life with her young daughter, Azalea. Concerned that her experience with a chilly mother whom the author felt didn’t adequately nurture her would prevent her from bonding with the baby, the author began to investigate what she could do to strengthen the mother-daughter bond and be a “warmer, more present, and more loving mom than mine had been.” Saltman’s search led her to the psychological study of attachment theory, including the experiment that gives the book its name. In the clinical research procedure called “Strange Situation,” a mother and baby are brought into a room; the mother leaves and is replaced by a stranger, and then the mother returns.

The baby’s reaction to the mother’s return is used to gauge the attachment style between the two. Saltman grew so fascinated with this tool that she learned how to administer it herself and underwent its adult equivalent, discovering that in fact she was less damaged than she had assumed she was. As she pored over the scientific literature, she became intrigued by the biography of Mary Ainsworth, considered by many to be the mother of attachment theory. Throughout the narrative, the author weaves Ainsworth’s story into her own. As Saltman analyzed her personal history with the help of professionals, she began to understand her early life differently and to forgive and find a greater appreciation for her mother. While some might be concerned that the author accepts the tenets of attachment theory uncritically, she conveys them clearly, and her personal account is both honest and complex.

A thoughtful engagement with a topic that affects all parents.

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Humans possess culture, but so do animals according to this compelling account of three nonhuman societies: sperm whales, scarlet macaws, and chimpanzees.

Nature writer, activist, TV host, and founder of the Safina Center, the author notes that animals learn from their elders how to fit in, communicate, search for food, and identify friends and strangers. This is culture, and it’s not inherited. “An individual receives genes only from its parents,” writes the author, “but can receive culture from anyone and everyone in the social group…and because culture improves survival, culture can lead where genes must follow and adapt.” During the 1950s, Navy personnel listening for Russian submarines were astonished to hear elaborate, beautiful songs that turned out to come from whales. As a result of the bestselling recording, “whales went from being ingredients of margarine in the 1960s to spiritual icons of the 1970s emerging environmental movement.” Safina’s lovely account of his travels with researchers studying sperm whales reveals a majestic, closely knit community. Turning to scarlet macaws, every one of which knows its friends and avoids macaws that don’t belong, the author wonders what happens to a social organism after a few thousand generations. In traditional evolution, new species appear when isolation (due to a river, mountain range, etc.) allows the changes of Darwinian natural selection to spread throughout one group but not others. Don’t animal cultures produce a similar reproductive isolation? In fact, cultural selection, although controversial, may act as another engine of evolution. Our closest relatives, chimpanzees, share 98% of our genes as well as many cultural traits, especially a fractious social system in which macho males compete for leadership with more violence than seems reasonable.

Most books on natural history include pleas for preservation of the wild, and Safina’s is no exception. Sadly, none of his subjects are thriving, and few readers will doubt that these magnificent creatures need urgent attention.

Enthralling accounts of three animals that lead complex social lives and deserve to continue living. (16-page photo insert)

Saltman, Bethany Ballantine (384 pp.) $27.00 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-0-399-18144-3

REPROGRAMMING THE AMERICAN DREAM From Rural America to Silicon Valley—Making AI Serve Us All

Scott, Kevin with Shaw, Greg Harper Business (304 pp.) $29.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-06-287987-5

The chief technology officer at Microsoft joins a long line of experts describing how artificial intelligence and automation will make our lives better, provided we avoid the pitfalls. |

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Part survivor’s tale and part exposé of intimate violence, the book offers a candid, often frightening exploration of the diabolically schizophrenic ways that the patriarchy conspires to disempower women. assume nothing

Scott opens with a general assessment of the AI landscape: “There are two prevailing stories about AI: “for low- and middle-skill workers, we hear a grim tale of steadily increasing job destruction; for knowledge workers and the professional class, we hear an idyllic tale of enhanced productivity and convenience.” After an autobiographical section—poor but brilliant country boy leaves his beloved Virginia, succeeds dramatically in Silicon Valley, and vows to give back—the author discusses how he and others are trying to do just that. The brutal fact is that San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Southern California lead America in job creation, and the runners-up are all urban, as well.

Rural America is entering its second generation of depression, with businesses closing, unemployment rising, and the usual ills of crime, drug abuse, and infrastructure that’s crumbling or, in the case of broadband, inadequate. Scott clearly describes efforts to bring in high-tech jobs that fail because locals lack the education to qualify. He excels in describing the problem and makes a convincing case that AI, a rare “platform technology” with positive feedback loops that “get better faster over time,” will continue to change our lives. Though the author’s heart is in the right place, his solutions, reasonable and presented with enthusiasm, break little new ground. Scott has no doubt that returning prosperity to America’s heartland requires improving its quality of life by improving infrastructure, failing schools, and deficient health care and housing. That would seem to require government action, but, except for generous tax breaks, Scott focuses on entrepreneurship and local action, illustrating with stories of individuals and organizations who have taken matters into their own hands and succeeded.

Another thoughtful technocrat worries about AI and concludes that things will work out.

COFFEELAND One Man’s Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug

Sedgewick, Augustine Penguin Press (448 pp.) $30.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-59420-615-3

A broad-ranging, often surprising study of the economics and political ecology of coffee.

Drawing alongside such studies as Stanley Mintz’s Sweetness and Power and Tom Standage’s A History of the World in Six Glasses, Sedgewick, a professor of history and American studies, debuts with an examination of the intersection of people from different parts of the world in forging an extractive colonial economy.

One was a Brazilian immigrant to El Salvador who arrived in the mid-1800s and set to work nudging the agricultural economy away from indigo and toward coffee. That deal was sealed with the arrival, decades later, of another immigrant, this one from England. James Hill, writes the author, oversaw the conversion of that agricultural economy to the monocultural production of coffee, with coffee plantations that eventually took up a huge 98

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percentage of the country’s arable land. All of this was done in concert with American markets, with the timing just right for the arrival of immigrants to the U.S. who came from coffeedrinking Mediterranean societies. It also appealed to a change of tastes that, in its day, had children both drinking and growing the stuff, with Danish immigrant Jacob Riis observing in New York “men and boys of all ages crowded around one-cent coffee stalls on the street.” Sedgewick casts a wide net in his capably written book, observing, for instance, that liberals in newly independent El Salvador had once made advances to the U.S. to be incorporated as a state. Moreover, he links the rise of the coffee monoculture to the development of an enriched ruling class in that country but also an immiseration of the peasantry: “The transformation of the volcanic highlands into a coffee monoculture transformed the diet of El Salvador’s working people into a flat, featureless landscape of tortillas and beans.”

Meanwhile, workers in the U.S. became so dependent on coffee, and so powerful in times of labor shortage, that the coffee break was enshrined in the nation’s culture and remains so today.

An intriguing account that darkens the depths of that daily cup of joe.

ASSUME NOTHING A Memoir of Intimate Violence Selvaratnam, Tanya Henry Holt (272 pp.) $27.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-250-21424-9

A writer and award-winning filmmaker’s account of how she fell into—and later escaped—an abusive relationship with the charismatic former attorney general of New York state.

When Selvaratnam met rising Democratic political star Eric Schneiderman in 2016, the attraction was immediate, and the texts and emails they exchanged in the weeks that followed became the prelude to a fairy-tale romance. At first, the author thought she had found a man whose transformational feminist values not only aligned with hers, but who seemed committed to defending the nation against what he knew would be Donald Trump’s inevitable “attacks on civil liberties and vulnerable communities.” However, the closer she became to Schneiderman, whose circle of acquaintances included Harvey Weinstein, the more he revealed his misogyny. An alcoholic who also combined Ambien and lorazepam, Schneiderman tried to control Selvaratnam and make himself the center of her life. His abuse also included nonconsensual, sexually sadistic behaviors such as spitting, slapping, choking, and calling her his “brown girl” slave. Terrified that “he and his people [would] try to crush me” if she spoke out, the author quietly confided in friends and her therapist. A domestic violence expert finally helped Selvaratnam, who struggled against crippling anxiety and memories of her father’s violence toward her mother, make a safe plan to leave. In the process, the author learned that the United States |

was “the tenth most dangerous place in the world for women” and discovered that many of Schneiderman’s associates knew about—and dismissed—his brutality. Selvaratnam then made the decision to go public with her story in the New Yorker, finding strength in the global chorus of voices that emerged as part of the #MeToo movement. Part survivor’s tale and part exposé of intimate violence, the book offers a candid, often frightening exploration of the diabolically schizophrenic ways that the patriarchy conspires to disempower women.

A courageous and compelling example of an author writing her “way out of the darkness.”

WENDY CARLOS A Biography

Sewell, Amanda Oxford Univ. (272 pp.) $34.95 | Apr. 2, 2020 978-0-19-005346-8

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Smith, Laurence C. Little, Brown Spark (368 pp.) $29.00 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-0-316-41200-1

An exploration of the role of rivers in sustaining humankind.

Rivers, writes environmental scientist Smith, are in the eye of the beholder. Their value is often not evident to us except in the biggest of pictures, which is why the current generations of humans continue to dam them, fill them with pollutants and plastic bottles, and otherwise mistreat them. “Only by taking the long view is their deeply foundational importance to human civilization revealed,” writes the author. This book takes that long view while also pointing to a few encouraging trends (and some discouraging ones as well). On the positive side is the increasing tendency of city governments to undertake projects of riverfront renewal, making parks and refuges where docks and warehouses used to stand—a good thing given, as Smith points out, that sometime in 2008, the majority of the human population shifted, for the first time, from the countryside to the city. Still, notes the author, rivers remain underappreciated, shaping us in ways that are not always easy to discern. For example, they help form cultural and ethnic borders that in turn define nations, and they provide avenues of conquest, exploration, and migration: “Rivers, and physical geography more generally, contribute to the size and shapes of nations and thus the geospatial pattern of economic and military power around the world.” When rivers play out, as in the case of ancient Uruk and the urban civilizations of the pre-European American Southwest, then cultures collapse, something to think about given the increasingly evident effects of worldwide climate change on the world’s rivers—some of which will dry up, others of which will flood as weather patterns change. Smith examines historical precedents along the Nile, Yangtze, and other rivers to project how these drivers of history, “supercharged fuel lines” of planetary energy, will affect the future.

A valuable, well-observed work of history and geography. (8-page color insert; 22 b/w illustrations)

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A pioneering musical artist belatedly receives her first biography.

In 1968, the release of Switched-On Bach blew the doors open for the acceptance of synthesizers in music. That album was created by Wendy Carlos (b. 1939), who was born Walter Carlos before transitioning to Wendy. Though she wouldn’t undergo “gender confirmation surgery” until 1972 and wouldn’t go public with her gender identity until the end of that decade, the artist the public knew as Walter was deeply closeted and “nowhere to be found” as the album became a critical and commercial success. Sewell, music director of Interlochen Public Radio, focuses more on Carlos’ music than on her personal life, as Carlos would clearly wish, though she didn’t participate in this book or consent to an interview. Nonetheless, the author demonstrates that she was as important to the success of the Moog synthesizer as the Moog was for her, that she was a pioneering artist in ambient music as well, and that she dismissed being pigeonholed for her synthesized Bach. Sewell shows that she is a difficult woman who has fallen out with friends and collaborators, filed suit against those who attempt to stream or sell her music—currently unavailable except through back channels and secondary sources—and accused the “New York musical mafia” of killing her career by ignoring her. Her unexpected initial success, writes the author, was “both a dream come true and an absolute nightmare come to life,” and she continued to shrink from public view just as public interest hit its peak.

Subsequently, it became increasingly challenging to promote an artist who wouldn’t perform or appear in public, resisted being photographed, and wanted absolute control over everything, from her rare interviews to the way her music was sold. Sewell, who does solid excavation work, includes a discography and videography as well as a glossary of “terms and concepts related to gender identity.”

A balanced biography that gives credit where it is due. (b/w photos)

RIVERS OF POWER How a Natural Force Raised Kingdoms, Destroyed Civilizations, and Shapes Our World

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A spirited, entertaining collection of stories and traditions that bear emulating in other regions of the country. foxfire story

FOXFIRE STORY Oral Tradition in Southern Appalachia

Ed. by Smith, T.J. Anchor (336 pp.) $19.95 paper | Apr. 28, 2020 978-0-525-43631-7

A book of Southern folklore and yarn-spinning from the long-running Foxfire franchise.

The Foxfire organization, as executive director and president Smith notes, now dates back more than half a century. It was the brainchild of a teacher who put his English class to work collecting stories from their home in “extreme northeast Georgia,” their mandate being to “talk to people about life and survival in the Southern Appalachian mountains.” The current volume ably extends that tradition, taking readers to the heart of the place while anthologizing pieces that stretch across centuries. The opening tale, for instance, recalls a bank robbery of 1936 in the county seat of Clayton: “Just one man, and he had a gun on her, and when he called for the money she screamed and run out at the back of the bank like a bullet—just went a-flyin’.” It took the sheriff, who tells the tale, a while to bust up the ring, for there was more than one bad guy involved, and he was nice enough not to put the leader, with the resonant name of Zade Sprinkle, in leg irons as he drove him off to jail. Smith serves up yarns aplenty, from tall tales to etiological myths and collections of folk beliefs (“If you drop a dishrag, someone is going to come visit you that is dirtier than you are”). Readers will learn that the local way of saying insomnia is “big eye,” that something “catty-whompus” is lopsided, that working people wear clodhoppers while someone in an office wears a “choke-rag,” or necktie. A special pleasure is a set of ghost stories, for the densely wooded mountains make a fittingly spooky background, and a howling “panther,” or mountain lion, naturally just has to be a shape-shifting woman. “I’ve never seen a big cat back in the mountains,” the storyteller allows, “but one time when I was digging up some Christmas trees…a cat came down and walked around my truck in the snow.”

A spirited, entertaining collection of stories and traditions that bear emulating in other regions of the country.

FASCISTS AMONG US Online Hate and the Christchurch Massacre

Sparrow, Jeff Scribe (160 pp.) $15.00 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-950354-09-2

An Australian editor and journalist argues that we need more information, rather than information blackouts, in response to fascist terrorism.

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After a gunman massacred more than 50 worshippers at a mosque and Muslim community center in Christchurch, New Zealand, government officials and media combined to deprive the perpetrator of whatever notoriety and dark glory he had sought. They refused to reveal his name or quote from the 73-page manifesto he wrote to justify his mass murdering. Later, the Columbia Journalism Review would analyze the media coverage and agree that the “ ‘best practice’ for the media included not publishing the shooter’s name, the title or contents of his manifesto, the name of the forum on which he posted his document, or any specific memes he deployed.” Guardian columnist Sparrow (No Way But This: In Search of Paul Robeson, 2018, etc.) maintains that all of this was widely shared among the fascist fringes from which the killer arose and that the context could be crucial for the general public as we attempt to prevent repeated occurrences. Instead of further marginalizing the killer as a lone-wolf psychopath, the context provided here places him within a fascist lineage, suggesting that his writings are both coherent and consistent with an evil ideology. Furthermore, the widespread pervasiveness of Islamophobia has made the unthinkable somehow acceptable in the same way that antiSemitism led to the Holocaust. “The alleged perpetrator of the Christchurch massacre might have entered…by himself but, politically, he was never alone,” writes the author. He shows how and where fellow fascists form shadowy internet communities to foment violence against immigrants and minorities and spur dialogue on the “Optics War,” “ecofascism,” and “accelerationism,” terms that are much more common among this fringe than they are within the general public.

Sparrow convincingly argues that the more we understand about the last terrorist, the better we can prevent the next one.

THE FIRSTS The Inside Story of the Women Reshaping Congress

Steinhauer, Jennifer Algonquin (272 pp.) $27.95 | Mar. 10, 2020 978-1-61620-999-5

The 2018 electoral cycle was a good one for women—well, at least some women, as New York Times reporter Steinhauer shows.

In the wake of the “blue wave” anti-Trump backlash of 2018, the largest number of women ever elected to Congress took the oath of office. Some of them have since become household names—e.g., Rashida Tlaib, a daughter of Palestinian immigrants who set off shock waves when she pledged about Trump that she was going to “impeach the motherfucker,” forcing an issue that the Democratic leadership had been trying to keep under wraps. The class of 2018 found 106 women in the House and 25 in the Senate, and of the 35 newcomers that year, all but one was a Democrat. As for the Republican women, Steinhauer writes, “their numbers in the House fell from twenty-three to

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BLACK WIDOW A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books With Words Like “Journey” in the Title Streeter, Leslie Gray Little, Brown (272 pp.) $27.00 | Mar. 10, 2020 978-0-316-49071-9

A memoir about how the author coped with her husband’s sudden death.

In her seriocomic debut, Palm Beach Post entertainment columnist Streeter pays tribute to her husband, Scott, by sharing detailed stories about their life together and her many struggles dealing with his death. Because Scott was white and Jewish and the author is black and Baptist, religion, racism, integration, and acceptance are significant topics throughout the narrative. For the first few months after his death, Streeter was overcome by grief as she had to pick Scott’s coffin (a “lovely, Jewish-law-compliant pine box”), choose the appropriate spot to bury him and which dress to wear to the funeral, and, most importantly, figure out how to tell their son, almost2-year-old Brooks, whose adoption was nearly complete, that “Daddy’s not actually working late.” The author also shares her insecurities about weight and overeating, the intense exercise program she endured to get back in shape after binging, how she drank to avoid the pain, and the necessity of relying on her mother, who had also recently lost her husband. Although Streeter’s humor occasionally feels forced, her grief, lucidly portrayed, is tangible, and it’s clear writing about her difficult experiences proved cathartic to her and to those who know her |

and Scott and their relationship. The most moving part of the book, divided into chapters such as “Grief Cake,” “Healing: It’s Like Putting Eyeliner on a Baby,” and “You’re Gonna Make it After All,” concerns the author’s continued hopes and fears regarding the final adoption of their son, a narrative thread that culminates in a heartwarming verdict by the judge. Her resilience in the face of devastating loss is commendable, and while the book isn’t a top-shelf memoir about grief, Streeter’s candid exploration will resonate with those who have dealt with similar circumstances.

A love-filled eulogy to a beloved husband and the special times the couple shared before he died.

HOW TO FEED A DICTATOR Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Enver Hoxha, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot Through the Eyes of Their Cooks

Szablowski, Witold Trans. by Lloyd-Jones, Antonia Penguin (288 pp.) $17.00 paper | Apr. 28, 2020 978-0-14-312975-2

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thirteen, the biggest percentage drop ever and the lowest number overall in a generation.” There are numerous reasons for that fall, she ventures, including both revulsion among women for the sitting president and the lack of an effort among Republicans to recruit women to their cause. Instead, the Capitol now includes women such as Kyrsten Sinema, who immediately tested the Senate’s dress code by wearing a sleeveless outfit instead of the usual business suit. That example seems trivial compared to the weightier intentions of the incoming class, who, by Steinhauer’s reckoning, were fueled by Trump to run for Congress just as other Americans rushed to enlist in the service following 9/11, “as part of a larger national emergency response.” The analogy won’t please the likes of Joni Ernst and Martha McSally, but the larger point is that women hitherto excluded from the system—Arab Americans from Michigan, Native Americans from Kansas and New Mexico, African Americans and Latinas and members of other underserved populations—are now actively involved and pressing for accelerated reforms, to say nothing of the chance to influence the entrenched leadership.

A fine lesson in civics and political journalism and must reading for anyone contemplating working in electoral politics.

A Polish journalist’s account of his conversations with the personal chefs of five notorious dictators.

Szablowski (Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny, 2016, etc.) became fascinated by the relationship between dictators and their cooks after watching a film featuring Yugoslavian dictator Tito’s personal chef. In a project that took several years to complete, the author traveled the world to interview the people who had cooked for Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Enver Hoxha, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot. Alternating between third-person reports of Szablowski’s interviews and first-person accounts from interviewees, the author shares intimate historical insights into the meaning of life under dictatorship. Szablowski begins with—and periodically revisits—a section called “Snack,” which deals with Young Moeun’s memories of a youth spent cooking for Pol Pot, whom she remembered chiefly for his good looks and gentleness. The next section, “Breakfast,” recounts conversations with Hussein’s cook, Abu Ali, who recalled his employer’s generosity and fondness for “bastirma” (dried beef). “Lunch” presents the story of Amin’s cook, Otonde Odera, who made “nutritious pilafs [and] baked fish” while also managing to survive the political intrigue that nearly cost him his life. “Dinner” focuses on Hoxha’s cook, Mr. K., who had to “cope with deficit items, unavailable in [Stalinist] Albania” while cooking meals to soothe his “agitated” boss. “Supper” deals with two of Castro’s chefs. One, Erasmo, thrived under the dictator and became a prosperous restaurateur while the other, Flores, lost his mind and ended up living in poverty. The final section, “Dessert,” continues Moeun’s complimentary musings on Pol Pot, which she intersperses with recollections of life as a member of the Cambodian Communist Party. Two strengths of Szablowski’s book are its originality and topicality in a world

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A highly witty and topical read—an impressive debut. sigh, gone

WHY WE SWIM

increasingly governed by political strongmen. However, the complex, fractured structure creates an uneven narrative that is sometimes difficult to follow.

A flawed but intriguing project.

SIGH, GONE A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight To Fit In Tran, Phuc Flatiron Books (320 pp.) $27.99 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-1-250-19471-8

A high school Latin teacher and tattoo artist’s memoir about immigrating to small-town America from Vietnam and learning to fit in through reading, skateboarding, and punk rock.

Tran and his parents fled Saigon as war refugees in 1975, and they eventually settled in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. There, they became the lone Asians in a town that “offered all the rainbows of Caucasia.” Local children taunted Tran throughout childhood while neighbors and co-workers saw his parents as amusing curiosities or “symbols of a painful and confusing war…of the people who had shot at them and killed their friends, brothers, and sons.” As he neared adolescence, Tran decided that he could solve his problems by trying to “be less Asian.” First, he developed “social Teflon” by earning top grades in all his classes, deciding that he “would take nerd props over no props at all.”

He further learned to deemphasize his otherness by joining the skateboarding subculture as a young teen and adopting a punk persona. Even though he was a good student, however, the author sometimes came up short of parental expectations for perfection, with excruciatingly painful results. During his junior year of high school, he stumbled across a guide to classic literary texts touted as “the foundation for being ‘all-American.’ ” Eager to assimilate, Tran immersed himself in works like The Metamorphosis and The Importance of Being Earnest. He became more self-reflective and developed an unexpected passion for books, which he highlights by naming each chapter after a favorite work of literature (Madame Bovary, Pygmalion, etc.). At the suggestion of a history teacher, Tran read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which heightened his awareness of white racism toward Asians and of the racism he saw in his own father toward blacks. Funny, poignant, and unsparing, Tran’s sharp, sensitive, punk-inflected memoir presents one immigrant’s quest for selfacceptance through the lens of American and European literary classics.

A highly witty and topical read—an impressive debut.

Tsui, Bonnie Algonquin (288 pp.) $26.95 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-61620-786-1 A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.

For Bay Area writer Tsui (Ameri­ can Chinatown: A People’s History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average.

For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).

An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.

NOBODY’S CHILD A Tragedy, a Trial, and a History of the Insanity Defense

Vinocour, Susan Nordin Norton (336 pp.) $28.95 | Mar. 24, 2020 978-0-393-65192-8

insanity defense.

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A mentally ill grandmother’s desperate plight exposes a deep gulf between science and the law when it comes to the

HOME BAKED My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco

Volz, Alia Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (432 pp.) $27.00 | Apr. 20, 2020 978-0-358-00609-1

The unheralded story of San Francisco’s trailblazing “Brownie Lady” plays out across more than 20 tumultuous years of the city’s often tragic history.

Volz’s mother, Meridy, and father, Doug, may have been complicated people, attempting to build a family during chaotic times in the Bay Area, but they were especially well suited to create and dispense delicious baked goodies heavily laced with palliative marijuana. By simple virtue of her birth, the author became an “accomplice” in Sticky Fingers Brownies, the family business that at one time was cranking out more than 10,000 brownies per month. The experience of accompanying Meridy on perilous brownie runs throughout the city in the 1970s and ’80s, when growing a single marijuana plant was a felony offense in California, made Volz an eyewitness to an unprecedented revolution in American culture that continues to reverberate |

today. The author combines a journalist’s eye for detail with a storyteller’s sense of humanity to chronicle all the incredible highs and lows, both public and private. The dissolution of her parents’ relationship dovetails with San Francisco’s more public trauma, including the Jonestown Massacre, the assassination of Harvey Milk, and the outbreak of AIDS. “Faced with bureaucratic rigidity, people with AIDS broke the law to selfmedicate with cannabis,” writes Volz. “Dealers became healers.”

Sticky Fingers may have started off as a goofy piece of psychedelia wrapped up in tight, little squares, but the business soon became indispensable in providing necessary relief for stricken young men who were inexplicably wasting away from a littleunderstood disease while still only in their 20s and 30s. The author’s firsthand depiction of AIDS and its devastating initial impact on San Francisco’s residents rings with epic tragedy.

Thankfully, there are plenty of triumphs in the Sticky Fingers saga as well, and Volz herself embodies just one of them.

A sometimes-sad yet stirring love letter to San Francisco filled with profundity and pride. (18 photos; b/w chapteropener images)

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For two days after her 3-year-old grandson died, Dorothy Dunn (a pseudonym) slept with the boy’s corpse, moving it on and off a heating grate hoping to maintain a lifelike body temperature. That and other unfathomable actions factored into the insanity defense Dunn’s public defender built after a prosecutor charged the “compliant and meek,” impoverished, black mother of five with second-degree murder. Debut author Vinocour—a clinical and forensic psychologist who had earlier practiced law and later served as an expert witness in Dunn’s trial before a largely white jury—evaluated the defendant and found her to be mentally ill. The author reconstructs the case in a chilling book that interpolates into Dunn’s tragic story a history of the insanity defense and famous related events, including the attempted assassinations of James Garfield and Ronald Reagan and the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School. Insanity defense laws vary by state, but Vinocour argues persuasively that the law overall lags far behind scientific research on mental illness. A widely used legal test of insanity is whether someone knows “right” from “wrong,” but mental illness is too complex for that standard, which implies falsely that “an intelligent or educated person can never be, legally, insane.” Though the author has changed many “identifying details,” making it uncertain that the events unfolded, as she writes, in Rochester, New York, and other pertinent facts, the story is unquestionably a page-turner, and revealing the ending would be a spoiler. It’s fair to say, however, that in this case, nobody wins—except perhaps for a prosecutor later elected judge after unironically billing himself as a defender of “the highest standards of the criminal justice system.”

A satisfying courtroom drama that hits the sweet spot between good storytelling and sharp legal analysis.

FOR JOSHUA An Ojibwe Father Teaches His Son

Wagamese, Richard Milkweed (240 pp.) $24.00 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-57131-389-8

An Ojibwa author fulfills his obligation by passing down his life’s wisdom to his son.

Before his death in 2017, Wagamese (Starlight, 2018, etc.) had earned renown in his native Canada for his memoirs and novels. He had also completed this book for his son, then 6 years old. As he explains to the son who barely knew him, “drinking is why we are separated. That’s the plain and simple truth of it. I was a drunk and never faced the truth about myself—that I was a drunk. Booze owned me.” The author then proceeds to revisit a childhood of foster homes and adoption, of feeling like he never fit in or belonged, and of running away to find comfort in transient street life and a community of sorts among others who lived a life of petty crime to subsidize their various addictions. He writes about his search for identity in Ojibwa traditions and what he later considered the misguided “influence of militant Native groups like the American Indian Movement.” “I became racist in my thinking,” he writes, “and it was easy to blame the white man and society for my ordeals. In fact, it made more sense than anything I’d thought of or heard before.” Much of the narrative follows Wagamese’s three days in the wilderness, with only a blanket, at the behest of a recovering alcoholic who thought Ojibwa teachings could help his friend in recovery. Only after he finished was the author told that this had been his “Vision Quest.” The author mixes reflections on the course of his life with dreams he had during those three nights along with Native legends and traditions, illuminating

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An essential contribution to any discussion of race and likely to be a standard text in cultural studies for years to come. afropessimism

the significance of the pipe and the drum. “As Ojibway men, we are taught that it is the father’s responsibility to introduce our children to the world,” he writes to his son, and this posthumous publication is part of the legacy he passes along.

A sturdy book of traditional wisdom and prescriptions for recovery.

CODING DEMOCRACY How Hackers Are Disrupting Power, Surveillance, and Authoritarianism

Webb, Maureen MIT Press (400 pp.) $29.95 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-262-04355-7

Facebook and Amazon may be in the business of selling us to the highest bidder, but not without good guys fighting to keep the internet free and safe.

Webb, a Vancouver-based labor attorney and activist, once hoped that democratic constitutions around the world would roll back the wave of governmental and corporate intrusions on privacy. Unfortunately, “when you take stock of the pervasive illegality states and corporations are engaged in with their uses of digital tech, it is manifest that the law is collapsing.” Leave it, then, to the white-hat hackers of the world to deliver us from technological evil. The author traces the hacker ethic to MIT programmers in the late 1950s who stole mainframe time when the authorities weren’t looking, then to the Bay Area libertarians who would launch the computing revolution. Valuably, Webb ranges far beyond that American-centric story—even as, she notes, most internet traffic passes through and most of the internet’s backbone resides in the U.S.—to examine the long history of hacking in Europe, courtesy especially of the Berlinborn Chaos Computer Club and a tech culture “aligned more with the advent of personal computing than with the development of early mainframe computing.” The CCC gave rise to other hacking movements, such as the Spanish ensemble of coders who linked the financial collapse of 2008 as it played out in their country with misdoings on the parts of bankers and government officials, and the Five Star Movement in Italy, with its hearty mistrust of the status quo. While making allowances for black-hatters such as Julian Assange, Webb asserts that the goal of hackers and “hacktivists” is profoundly on the side of ordinary people. “The goal they share,” she writes, “is to distribute power to the people, to put the people’s hands on matters as local, national, and global citizens.” And the overarching task, she concludes, is no less daunting—namely, to “build a new condition of freedom.”

Coders seeking to do good in the world will find much inspiration here.

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HEAVEN

Whitney, Emerson McSweeney’s (200 pp.) $24.00 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-944211-76-9 A searing, deeply personal story about the author’s emotional journey of self-discovery.

“This is the question of my body and my story about it: is it just mine?” So writes Whitney (Creative Writing/Goddard Coll.; Ghost Box, 2014) early on in the narrative, which is fragmented, elliptical, and consistently provocative. The author tells their story in three parts, each beautifully poised and composed of brief paragraphs, some only one short sentence.

Piecemeal, like snapshots, Whitney slowly reveals an early life of uncertainty, pain, and suffering: “I grew up knowing fear as an inheritance of femininity.” The story washes back and forth in time as the author reflects on their sexuality and family: Mom and Hank, two brothers, Tye and Gunnar; and Grammy.

Along the way, Whitney interjects bits of literature and psychology, wisdom gleaned from a variety of sources, including Freud, Lacan, Allen Ginsberg, Johanna Hedva, Robert J. Stoller, Luce Irigaray, and Eli Clare. Mom is the key to this story. “As a kid,” writes Whitney, “I was a flame in the corner lighting up all of Mom’s mistakes.” Chronicling their mother’s drinking, being physically abused, splitting with her husband, and moving around as she tried to raise her family, Whitney does a fine job uncovering their complex relationship. “This book,” they write, “isn’t about individuation or even coming of age… it’s about ways to find a response, to respond to her.” About Grammy, the author writes, “I love this woman for throwing me into deep water….My heritage is her hopefulness and the complexity of a body that looks, in parts, like hers.” The author recounts adolescent years filled with questions, fears, drinking, drugs, cutting, boys, girls, and homelessness—as well as a bad reaction to testosterone. Upon meeting other trans kids, writes Whitney, “I was the happiest around them I’d ever been.” In 2011, the author underwent breast removal surgery: “I’ve edited my body, mixed my skin around with some money.”

An incisive, nuanced inquiry into gender and body.

AFROPESSIMISM

Wilderson III, Frank B. Liveright/Norton (352 pp.) $29.95 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-63149-614-1 A compelling, profoundly unsettling blend of memoir and manifesto that proposes that—by design—matters will never improve for African Americans.

To be black, writes Wilderson III, who chairs the African American Studies program at the University of California, Irvine, is not just

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INGREDIENTS The Strange Chemistry of What We Put in Us and on Us Zaidan, George Dutton (352 pp.) $27.00 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-5247-4427-4

Answers to questions about what is in the stuff we eat, drink, inhale, smear on our bodies, or immerse ourselves in.

Zaidan, an MIT–trained chemist and former TV co-host (CNBC’s Make Me a Millionaire Inven­ tor) who is currently an executive producer at the American Chemical Society, talks directly to readers in earthy, conversational, sometimes overly cute language that will appeal to some readers and turn others off. Following each chapter’s catchy title—e.g., “What’s That Public Pool Smell Made Of?”—is an explanatory sentence clearly designed to pique readers’ interest.

For example, in the chapter titled “Processed Food Is Bad for You, Right?” the author begins, “this chapter is about ingredient labels, diabetes, uninhabited islands, porn, and homemade Cheetos.” Or consider “Plants Are Trying To Kill You,” which opens with, “this chapter is about carbon dioxide, pooping, |

plumbing, the Energizer Bunny, grenades, condoms, poisonous potatoes, and NASA ice cream.” Readers who accept Zaidan’s chosen mode of communication will be motivated to continue and will learn about a variety of relevant issues, including the promotion of products, the misinformation contained in headlines about food and health, flaws in scientific testing, and how to interpret statistics. Throughout, the author sprinkles blackand-white drawings illustrating chemical reactions, some verbal equations, and his own interpretations of research findings and flaws. For those looking for advice, the last chapter contains a few ordinary tips: Don’t worry about sensationalized health and food news stories, don’t smoke, be physically active, and stick to a healthy diet. In the appendix, Zaidan’s tone changes, as he describes a study undertaken at San Francisco General Medical Center in which coronary care patients were split into two groups: The members of one group were prayed for by bornagain Christians while the other group received no prayers. Here, the author provides a restrained, thoughtful, and eye-opening analysis of the findings and their possible interpretations.

There is good information to be found in this book; just look past Zaidan’s heavy-handed efforts to be accessibly amusing.

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likely to descend from slaves, but to be forever condemned to the existential condition of a slave. As he writes, “slavery did not end in 1865. It is a relational dynamic…[that] can continue to exist once the settler has left or ceded governmental power.”

No other ethnic group—not Native Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, or Hispanic Americans—in the U.S. suffers the same institutional violence, and, Wilderson suggests, all others are more structurally aligned with the white oppressor than with the oppressed African American in a system that hinges on violence. Blending affecting memoir that touches on such matters as mental illness, alienation, exile, and a transcendent maternal love with brittle condemnation of a condition of unfreedom and relentless othering, the author delivers a difficult but necessary argument. It is difficult because it demands that readers of any ethnicity confront hard truths and also because it is densely written, with thickets of postmodern tropes to work through (“blackness is a locus of abjection to be instrumentalized on a whim…a disfigured and disfiguring phobic phenomenon”). The book is deeply pessimistic indeed, as Wilderson rejects any possibility of racial reconciliation in these two-steps-backward times. Perhaps the greatest value of the book is in its posing of questions that may seem rhetorical but in fact probe at interethnic conflicts that are hundreds, even thousands of years old. Wilderson advances a growing body of theory that must be reckoned with and that “has secured a mandate from Black people at their best; which is to say, a mandate to speak the analysis and rage that most Black people are free only to whisper.”

An essential contribution to any discussion of race and likely to be a standard text in cultural studies for years to come.

DISUNITED NATIONS The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World Zeihan, Peter Harper Business (464 pp.) $35.00 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-0-06-291368-5

Geopolitical strategist Zeihan (The Absent Superpower: The Shale Revolution and a World Without America, 2017, etc.) delivers his latest unsettling prognostication.

The author begins after World War II, when the U.S. reigned supreme. Ramping up anti-communism efforts, the U.S. led an alliance of nations that were either like-minded or happy to go along in exchange for protection and aid. Protection took the form of a nuclear standoff, which produced a remarkably war-free era, and for the first time in history, the Navy freed sea lanes for unfettered worldwide trade. The result was an explosion of prosperity that continued until recently. In his earlier book, The Accidental Superpower (2014), Zeihan concluded that “2020 would look a lot like 1950, albeit without the whole fearof-nuclear-war-thing.” He has changed his mind. No alliance lasts without a common threat, he admits, and this disappeared with the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the time, George H.W. Bush (the last president the author admired) launched a national conversation on what might come next. “So of course the Americans voted him out of office….Bill Clinton found foreign policy boring and did his best to avoid it,” writes Zeihan. No Bush successor has provided “the necessary guidance to American military, intelligence, and diplomatic staff as to what America’s goals actually are.” Consequently, nations are

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A masterfully written political road map for anyone wondering how we got to where we are, a bad place indeed. burning down the house

beginning to look after their own interests. As a result, writes the author, the U.S. will turn inward, and post-Brexit Britain will shrink to a U.S. client state. Russia’s demographic collapse is well under way. Zeihan’s more controversial projections will keep readers squirming, usually with pleasure, at his expert, often cynical insights. France, self-contained and with a far more “expeditionary-themed military,” will dominate a declining Germany. Absent U.S. love of its oil, Saudi Arabia (essentially a gangster state) will duke it out with Iran unless an expansive Turkey becomes the dominant local power. Hypertechnology will return Japan to preeminence in Asia when China’s unsustainable bubble economy collapses.

Another masterful, often counterintuitive, relentlessly entertaining geopolitical thrill ride. (43 maps and charts; first printing of 25,000)

the boundaries of what was permissible in the arena of congressional warfare.” In the bargain, writes Zelizer in this sharp, lucid portrait, he drew people even more radical than he into the party; in the end, they overthrew him, too.

A masterfully written political road map for anyone wondering how we got to where we are, a bad place indeed.

BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party

Zelizer, Julian E. Penguin Press (368 pp.) $30.00 | Apr. 28, 2020 978-1-59420-665-8

Politics is war without blood, said Mao, but Newt Gingrich emerges as red in tooth and fang in this thoughtful study of his politics in action.

According to Zelizer’s (History and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.; The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society, 2015, etc.) account, Gingrich had acquired a thirst for political power by high school, announcing to a teacher that he intended to move to Georgia “to create a Republican Party.” That there was already such a party didn’t matter: He wasn’t in charge of it, and that was his first aim, certain as ever of the correctness of his views and the wrongness of his opponents. It took a few failed runs, but Gingrich rose steadily through the ranks of the Republican Party in Congress, undercutting his allies while waging ugly, unforgiving battles against his enemies. Gingrich, writes Zelizer, learned valuable lessons in leadership style and strategy alike from Richard Nixon, whom he credits with having gone after the overlooked blue-collar (and traditionally Democratic) vote shunned by the liberal/moderate wing of the GOP; he also changed the terms of the argument from “establishment versus outsider, not liberal versus conservative.” There are few admiring moments in the book since Gingrich is not an admirable man, but the author does give him points for chutzpah. After all, Gingrich based his empire-building campaigns in Congress on a war against corruption even as he was as guilty of it as anyone. Still, building much of his power on a concerted action to remove Speaker of the House Jim Wright from his post, he “made his biggest impact on the GOP by defining what partisanship should look like and by expanding 106

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children’s YUSRA SWIMS

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Abery, Julie Illus. by Deng, Sally Creative Editions/Creative Company (32 pp.) $19.99 | Feb. 25, 2020 978-1-56846-329-2

UNDER THE GREAT PLUM TREE by Sufiya Ahmed; illus. by Reza Dalvand........................................................................110 THE WATER BEARS by Kim Baker...................................................110 A IS FOR ANOTHER RABBIT by Hannah Batsel............................. 111 THIS LITTLE PUP by Laura J. Bryant...............................................114 CAT DOG DOG by Nelly Buchet; illus. by Andrea Zuill...................114 THE BOREAL FOREST by L.E. Carmichael; illus. by Josée Bisaillon........................................................................116 THE CHAOS CURSE by Sayantani DasGupta; illus. by Vivienne To............................................................................120 LETTERS FROM BEAR by Gauthier David; illus. by Marie Caudry; trans. by Sarah Ardizzone...................................................................120 THE WORLD OF WHALES by Darcy Dobell; illus. by Becky Thorns......................................................................... 121 HOW TO TIE A SHOE & OTHER BIG ADVENTURES illus. by Skip Hill................................................................................ 127 THE CAT MAN OF ALEPPO by Irene Latham & Karim Shamsi-Basha; illus. by Yuko Shimizu...................................134 THE HIPS ON THE DRAG QUEEN GO SWISH, SWISH, SWISH

by Lil Miss Hot Mess; illus. by Olga de Dios.....................................134 MY MASTODON by Barbara Lowell; illus. by Antonio Marinoni..... 135 ON THE HORIZON by Lois Lowry; illus. by Kenard Pak................. 135 MY MINDFUL WALK WITH GRANDMA by Sheri Mabry; illus. by Wazza Pink............................................................................ 135 DARING DARLEEN, QUEEN OF THE SCREEN by Anne Nesbet......139 WINGED WONDERS by Meeg Pincus; illus. by Yasmin Imamura.....143

SILVERWORLD

NERP! by Sarah Lynne Reul.............................................................. 144

Abu-Jaber, Diana Crown (304 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 PLB | Mar. 17, 2020 978-0-553-50967-0 978-0-553-50968-7 PLB

CASTLE OF BOOKS by Alessandro Sanna....................................... 146 SEAGULLS SOAR by April Pulley Sayre; illus. by Kasia Bogdaska......147 THE LIST OF THINGS THAT WILL NOT CHANGE

by Rebecca Stead..................................................................................148 I AM JAX, PROTECTOR OF THE RANCH by Catherine Stier; illus. by Francesca Rosa...................................................................... 149 OUTSIDE IN by Deborah Underwood; illus. by Cindy Derby..........150 ECHO MOUNTAIN by Lauren Wolk..................................................152 THE PASSOVER MOUSE by Joy Nelkin Wieder; illus. by Shahar Kober.........................................................................154 |

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SORRY (REALLY SORRY) by Joanna Cotler; illus. by Harry Bliss....119

Yusra, a young Syrian woman, travels at the age of 17 with her older sister to escape the war in her country.

Having trained since childhood, Yusra dreams of swimming at the Olympics. The sisters, now refugees, pay smugglers and end up on a small inflatable loaded with people and headed to Greece. Shortly after the boat takes off from the Turkish shore, the engine fails. However, Yusra and her sister jump into the water and help guide it to safety despite the rough sea. They arrive on the shore tired and cold. Strangers stare at them with accusing looks, but there is also “sudden kindness” when a child gives Yusra shoes. They walk for miles on rough terrain, then take buses and trains until reaching safety in Germany. There, Yusra starts training to swim again, eventually achieving her dream.

In clipped quatrains—no line exceeds four syllables—the story relates Yusra Mardini’s journey from Syria in 2015, culminating in her participation in the 2016 Olympics as part of a team of refugees. Abery’s choice of spare, rhythmic verse gives the narrative a gripping and dramatic feel while Deng’s illustrations convey the struggles of war and displacement. Yusra is portrayed throughout as a strong and resilient young woman, determined and full of courage. A note from the author provides additional information about Yusra’s journey, including her becoming a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency.

A true and inspiring story of a refugee hero. (Informa­ tional picture book. 6-10)

A girl struggling with change finds herself swept into a fantasy “world next door” heavily informed by her Lebaneseimmigrant grandmother’s stories.

Samara Washington lives in Coconut Shores, Florida, with her mother, Alia; brother, Tony; and kirkus.com

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finding inspiration in struggle Leah Overstreet

Those of us who work with children and with children’s books are certain that what we do changes lives, but it’s always nice to hear confirmation. In a recent interview with Sam Sanders on NPR’s It’s Been a Minute, award-winning performer and producer John Legend talked about the roots of his passion for social justice, evident in both his professional and personal lives. “I’ve always thought of myself as a very political person, even as a child,” he reminisced. “When I would go to the library, I would choose to read about Dr. King. I would choose to read about the struggle. I would choose to read about people who fought for justice.” This statement, interesting to many listeners, made me acutely happy, as it must have done for the countless authors, illustrators, publishers, and librarians—also educators and booksellers—who work to ensure that those kids like Legend get the books they need.

John Legend But it also got me wondering: Legend is 41; what would he have found in the stacks as he looked for inspiration some 30 to 35 years ago?

An 11-year-old Legend would have found Virginia Hamilton’s African American folktale collection The Peo­ple Could Fly, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon (Knopf, 1985), and her innovative fiction/nonfiction account of the life of Anthony Burns (Knopf, 1988), who escaped slavery and then was recaptured under the Fugitive Slave Law. Mildred D. Taylor’s Newbery-winning Roll of Thun­der, Hear My Cry (Dial, 1976) would already have achieved classic status by 1990, when The Road to Memphis (Dial) continued its story into 1941—and if young Legend loved that series, as an adult, he might be excited to learn about its newly published, long-awaited conclusion, All the Days Past, All the Days To Come (Dial, Jan. 7). Walter Dean Myers was a year away from publishing his landmark history of the African American experience, Now Is Your Time!

(HarperCollins, 1991).

But unless Legend’s local library went out of its way to collect small-press picture books that specifically delved into African American history, before he reached the middle grades he probably wouldn’t have found very many new books to choose from that would scratch his itch to learn about the struggle. There were folktales, Valery Hache - AFP via Getty Images

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such as Ashley Bryan’s retelling of the West Indian tale The Cat’s Purr (Atheneum, 1985), and historical stories, such as Patricia McKissack and Jerry Pinkney’s Miran­dy and Brother Wind (Knopf, 1988), but picture books on African American history were thin on the ground. Had Legend’s mother wanted to introduce some into her homeschooling curriculum, she would have been hard-pressed to find them easily.

Oh, how times have changed. In this year’s Black History Month roundup, the John Legends of the future will learn about the Queen of Soul in A Voice Named Aretha, by Katheryn Russell-Brown and illustrated by Laura Freeman (Bloomsbury, Jan. 7), and pioneering gospel songwriter Charles Albert Tindley in By and By, by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated

by Bryan Collier (Atheneum, Jan. 14). They’ll ride on the Overground Railroad, by Lesa Cline-Ransome and illustrated by James E. Ransome (Holiday House, Jan. 7), and fly with the Freedom Bird, by Jerdine Nolen and also illustrated by Ransome (Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster, Jan. 14). In two stories that encapsulate the importance of literacy to independence and empowerment, they’ll meet Cheryl Wills and Sue Cornelison’s Emma (Lightswitch Learning, Feb. 1), a woman denied literacy by enslavement who successfully won her deceased husband’s Union Army pension from a reluctant U.S. government, and Mary Walker, who learned to read at 116, in Rita Lorraine Hubbard and Oge Mora’s The Oldest Student (Schwartz & Wade/Random, Jan. 7). (For more, see our list of 8 Stellar Picture Books for Black History Month 2020.)

So maybe not all the kids who read these books will grow up to become EGOT winners. But they’ll have learned critical pieces of our country’s history and have seen the resilience and determination of the African American people in overcoming everything that this country has thrown in their way. Here’s hoping today’s readers can take these and turn them into their own kind of brilliance.—V.S. Vicky Smith is the children’s editor. |

Very silly and very smart, this distinctive find is worth checking out. pierre & paul avalanche!

PIERRE & PAUL AVALANCHE!

Adderson, Caroline Illus. by Carter, Alice Owlkids Books (32 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 15, 2020 978-1-77147-327-9

Two friends take a break from exploring to have a big snack in this story told in a mixture of English and French.

“Paul and Pierre are great explorers. Ils sont aussi des amis. Friends and explorers.” Instead of presenting a bilingual story with line-by-line translation, this book alternates entire sentences in each language for a unique structure that keeps readers on their toes. When Paul gets hungry, they leave their (imagined) Himalayan trek to see what’s in Pierre’s kitchen, where they begin stacking all sorts of ingredients into a tall sandwich: “Ham, cheese, mayonnaise. Du beurre, de la laitue, un concombre.” Between the illustrations and the English clues, English-speaking readers are bound to pick up a few words and phrases in French, but only the very curious will be up for the multiple readings that will truly bear fruit in that regard. Paul, a pale boy with red hair and freckles, speaks English, while Pierre and his mother, both black, speak French—but all characters understand one another. The childlike illustrations combine the boys’ imaginations with their real world: The sandwich becomes a mountain, which finally topples in the titular avalanche, becoming Paul’s least favorite meal (salad!). While the correspondence between pictured items and their words is not always perfectly obvious, the goal here prioritizes fun over explicit instruction.

Very silly and very smart, this distinctive find is worth checking out. (Picture book. 4-9) |

BOUNDLESS SKY

Addison, Amanda Illus. by Adreani, Manuela Lantana (40 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-911373-67-4 A bird and a young girl travel across the world, meeting at the common end of their journeys.

On a crisp autumn morning in the north of England, Alfie, a young white boy, greets a bird in his garden. She flies away and begins her journey across fields, seas, and mountains. In the desert, when the bird is exhausted, she comes to an oasis where a brown-skinned girl named Leila, dressed in a headscarf and flowing dress, offers her some water. The bird then continues her journey above the jungle and across a river, until finally she crosses the plains and grasslands to the place that she will stay during the cold European winter. At the end of the season—which, in southern Africa, is summer—the bird retraces her journey back to England. But when she stops at the desert oasis, as she always does, she finds Leila’s house abandoned, and Leila is nowhere to be found. The bird calls for Leila, but the girl doesn’t answer, and the bird flies on. At the end of the bird’s journey, she returns to Alfie only to find that he has a new neighbor: Leila, the bird’s missing friend. Addison’s poetic text renders the bird’s journey fascinating and awe-inspiring. However, Leila’s parallel migration story lacks the same detail and care as the bird’s: Other than a hint in the illustration in the form of a picture of dark bodies huddled in a boat on a stormy sea, readers are given no sense of what Leila has been through or where she has gone. The result is a tenuous association that makes the book’s ending fall flat.

This attempt at a parallel-migration narrative doesn’t quite cohere. (Picture book. 3-6)

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maternal grandmother, whom they call Teta. Her American-born father passed away when she was young. Although it’s been about a year since they moved from Ithaca, New York, she has not made “real friend-friends” like the ones she left behind. Worse, Teta’s changed, speaking gibberish to everyone except Sami, when they are alone. Alia is thinking about moving Teta to a nursing home, something Sami energetically opposes. Teta’s told Sami stories about the magic in their family—stories about another world with magical sprites called Ifrit and air and light beings called Flickers. Convinced that Teta is under a spell, Sami finds her grandmother’s charm book and uses it, entering Silverworld, a parallel world that, like Teta, is in terrible danger. Sami must decide whether she will confront the force that threatens Silverworld or go back home. In the tradition of epic fantasy, Sami will be tested and face her greatest fears. In her first novel for children, Abu-Jaber (Life Without a Recipe, 2016, etc.) includes pieces of Beirut that were part of Alia’s and Teta’s lives in Lebanon—meals they prepared together like kibbee, bamia, and tabbouleh; the adthan, or call to prayer—evoking a powerful image of that place while acknowledging Sami’s bicultural American experience.

An exciting fantasy with familiar elements—magical creatures, high stakes, and courage—rich with Lebanese texture. (Fantasy. 8-12)

WAY PAST MAD

Adelman, Hallee Illus. by de la Prada, Sandra Whitman (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 1, 2020 978-0-8075-8685-3 Anger at a sibling gets taken out on a friend.

Protagonist Keya fumes when younger brother Nate gives Keya’s cereal to the dog and cuts holes in Keya’s favorite hat. Keya stomps outside. Hooper, Keya’s friend, offers a cheerful greeting, but Keya darts away. A fantasy race ensues, briefly cathartic, but Keya’s temper explodes after a knee-scraping tumble. Keya bursts out, “I don’t like you, Hooper.” It’s not true, of course, and they make up after a sweetly responsible apology. Aside from twice waxing poetic (“The kind of mad that starts / and swells / and spreads like a rash”), Adelman’s prose is dull and declarative (“Then we joked and laughed. I was so happy”). Keya and her family present white and Hooper, black.

Keya’s glorious, lively black curls are de la Prada’s best visual.

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Ahmed and Dalvand develop a cast of quirky, fascinating characters using simple language, innovative text placement, and lavish, intricately detailed illustrations. under the great plum tree

Many illustrations are too uniformly saturated, with the composition offering no clear place to focus. A “gold medal like sunshine” that Keya wins in the imagined race is barely visible.

In a critical misstep for a book for fostering emotional literacy, narrator Keya says Hooper looks “way past mad”—echoing an earlier description of Keya—while the illustrations clearly show him as hurt, not angry. Choose Tameka Fryer Brown and Shane Evans’ My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood (2013) or Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz’s classic Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (1972) instead.

In a crowded subgenre, this offering is unnecessary.

(Picture book. 4-8)

UNDER THE GREAT PLUM TREE

Ahmed, Sufiya Illus. by Dalvand, Reza Tiny Owl (32 pp.) $17.95 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-910328-46-0

A kindhearted monkey and an elderly crocodile forge an unlikely bond.

Miss Bandari is a monkey who’s known for her bighearted kindness. One day, while sitting in a plum tree, she meets Mr. Magarmach, an elderly crocodile whose aging body makes it impossible for him to hunt. Hearing him groan with hunger, Miss Bandari throws Mr. Magarmach a sweet plum. Thus begins a friendship between the aged reptile and the sweet simian, who enjoys hearing her new friend’s tales of adventure and bravery. One day, hoping to repay Miss Bandari’s generosity, Mr. Magarmach invites her to lunch. Luckily, on the way, they run into Dame Hati the elephant, who warns Miss Bandari that King Crocodile lives in Mr. Magarmach’s swamp and surely wants to have Miss Bandari for his own lunch! Thanks to Dame Hati’s intervention, Miss Bandari invents a quick lie that saves her life but breaks her heart: After this betrayal, she doesn’t know if she’ll ever trust Mr. Magarmach again. In this innovative reimagining of a classic narrative from the Indian folktale collection known as the Panchatantra, Ahmed and Dalvand develop a cast of quirky, fascinating characters using simple language, innovative text placement, and lavish, intricately detailed illustrations. The exact plot uses the original folktale as a jumping-off point rather than a template, and the twists and turns, both visual and literary, will keep readers old and young engaged.

An originally designed, gorgeously illustrated new vision of an old tale. (Picture book. 3-6)

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WHAT GREW IN LARRY’S GARDEN

Alary, Laura Illus. by Reich, Kass Kids Can (32 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-5253-0108-7

Young Grace, the titular Larry’s neighbor, learns that a garden is more than the sum of its produce.

Larry, white-haired, bearded, and bespectacled, grows rainbow chard, zebra-striped tomatoes, and purple potatoes in his garden, where Grace helps plant, prune, hoe, and harvest. When problems arise—bugs in the carrots, for instance—Larry’s philosophy is summed up in what he says first: “We can figure this out.” He and Grace (both appear white) plant marigolds to discourage bugs and build wire cages to protect tomatoes from squirrels. Alary’s unfussy narrative and Reich’s cheery, bright art create a welcoming and friendly feel for the neighborhood and the garden. “We’re not just growing vegetables,” Larry tells Grace. The tomato seedlings that he and Grace start over the winter have sprouted from seeds they gathered. Larry, a teacher, takes the tomato seedlings to school, where each is nurtured by a student, then given with a note of explanation to a neighbor the student selects. An author’s note explains that the story was inspired by a real-life teacher who created this project as a way to build community. In the story, when Grace and Larry encounter a problem caused by a neighbor’s fence, it is Grace who takes what she has learned from gardening with Larry and helps to create a positive solution.

A warmhearted lesson in community and creative thinking, delivered simply. (Picture book. 4-8)

THE WATER BEARS

Baker, Kim Wendy Lamb/Random (272 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 PLB | Apr. 21, 2020 978-1-9848-5220-5 978-1-9848-5221-2 PLB Healing comes from unexpected places in this new middle-grade read.

It’s hard to stand out in an offbeat island community known for monster sightings and an eccentric artists colony, but a year after he was mauled by a bear, Newton “Newt” Gomez feels like an outsider on his island home. As friends and family try to support him in the best ways they know how, Newt just wants to escape the island and the nightmares he endures every night. Plans to transfer to middle school on the mainland, where nobody knows the story behind his scarred leg and limp, are met with disapproval, but Newt feels certain that leaving the island will give him a much-needed fresh start. His plans are complicated, however, when he befriends a mysterious newcomer and becomes embroiled in an intriguing mystery involving a taco truck and beach flotsam that might grant wishes. |

Further complexity is added to Newt’s story by the fact that his is the only Mexican American family living in his island town, a fact that adds to his feelings of difference and fuels his desire to leave. Other characters are assumed white. Rich character building, tender relationships, and a vibrant setting tingling with magical possibility combine for a satisfying tale.

Both a whimsy-soaked journey of self-discovery and a successful exploration of the tough reality of recovering from trauma. (Fiction. 9-13)

PAOLO, EMPEROR OF ROME

Barnett, Mac Illus. by Keane, Claire Abrams (48 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-4197-4109-8

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A canine escapee gets his own Roman holiday.

Paolo, a dachshund, would rather explore the streets of Rome than lie around inside his hair-salon home. Every time he dares to make an escape out the door, his owner, Signora Pianostrada, blocks her “Lazy Paolo” with her foot.

But one day, Signora Pianostrada starts putting curlers in a client’s hair before remembering to close the door, and off Paolo goes.

The pup’s newfound freedom takes him all over Rome—for, as he says, unlike the statues he sees, “I am made of muscles, and can go wherever I please.” He stares down cats in a field full of ruins.

He becomes leader of a pack of dogs. He even tries his hand at heroics. Above all else, he conquers the city, proving that he’s more imperial than lazy. Barnett’s theatrical narrator works in tandem with the hilariously pompous pooch to carry this rib-tickling romp with infectious bravado. Keane’s illustrations feature thick black outlines and an earthy, Mediterranean color palette applied with the look of oil pastels. The beautifully textured architecture and action sequences harken back to classic picture-book artists like Ludwig Bemelmans, Dr. Seuss, and H.A. Rey. A pair of wordless spreads even gives the pup a wild rumpus. Though it’s mostly an animal story, the human characters are racially diverse. Endpapers depict a small map of Rome with Italian labels.

Molto bene! (Picture book. 4-8)

protagonist—presumably the co-creator of the book—points out that “rabbit” begins with “R.” “Yes, but “a rabbit” starts with A,” says the narrator, before moving on to “B is for bunny,” which, as the owl points out, is just another name for rabbit. Despite the owl’s mounting frustration, the narrator genially narrates several rabbits into existence on almost every single page, rendered with such variety that readers will find their proliferation endlessly amusing. The letter D, for instance, introduces readers to “delightful, dynamic, daredevil RABBITS!” (a herd of biker rabbits), and although the narrator says “E is for Elephant” (which momentarily satisfies the owl), the image depicts several rabbits poorly disguised as an elephant. Much to the owl’s chagrin and, ultimately, exhaustion, the narrator grows more and more creative in their presentation of their favorite animal as the picture book proceeds down a rabbit hole of…well, rabbits! Batsel’s debut picture book for readers already familiar with the English alphabet is funny and highly entertaining. The whimsical narrative and the colorful images make this an excellent elementary-age read-aloud.

Creative, comedic, and carrot-loads of fun. (Picture book.

4-8)

A IS FOR ANOTHER RABBIT

Batsel, Hannah Illus. by the author Carolrhoda (32 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-5415-2950-2

An obsessed narrator creates an alphabet book overrun with rabbits, much to the chagrin of an owl who wants to create a “proper, respectable” alphabet book.

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CAMP AVERAGE Double Foul

Battle, Craig Owlkids Books (272 pp.) $16.95 | Apr. 15, 2020 978-1-77147-309-5 A year after Camp Average’s surprise baseball-tournament win, Mack—outraged at hypercompetitive camp director Winston’s wily manipulations—leads another rebellion; the battlefield this time is basketball.

To boost competitive sports, the camp’s now coed, drawing talented athletes in search of opportunities unavailable at local girls’ camps. Frustrated that his makeover hasn’t netted significant wins, Winston announces he’s entered the camp in a prestigious basketball tournament, and the boys’ and girls’ teams will play each other to determine which enters the tournament. Mack likes basketball but resists joining the team until his preferred activities are mysteriously banned. Given proof of foul play (and responding to a request), Mack decides to sabotage Winston’s efforts, recruiting helpers to undermine both basketball teams’ series performances. Planting a rumor that a college scout is watching proves wildly successful: Players abandon teamwork to focus on showcasing their individual prowess. Performance suffers, both teams are dispirited, and after Mack’s role is revealed, he’s shunned. It’s bad when Mack’s plans don’t work, Miles tells him, but “somehow even worse” when they do. Watching the events unfurl in this sequel is rewarding and entertaining. While Winston’s villainy can seem cartoonish, the girls—like the boys—are amiably convincing. Names and descriptions for both imply racial and cultural diversity; Mack seems to be default white. Intergender relations among these middle schoolers are strictly platonic. A final twist forecasts further adventures.

A funny, satisfying exploration of the thematically rich territory between winning and losing. (Fiction. 8-13)

THE INNER CHILD

Blackshaw, Henry Illus. by the author Cicada Books (36 pp.) $10.95 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-908714-68-8 An earnest message for (mostly) young readers: Adults may look grown up, but they don’t leave the children they were behind.

In block-lettered lines fitted in around the cartoon figures that populate his pages, Blackshaw casts typical adult behavior in a juvenile light with help from four grown-ups, three white people in street clothes and a black man in tight-fitting workout clothes. Superimposed within each full-color character is an interior black-and-white mini-me that mirrors every gesture and mood. When grown-ups “want a new toy,” the author 112

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explains, “they call it a gadget or say that it is something they really need.” Evidence of inner children abounds: “Nasty adults” have nasty kids inside (a secondary character whose interior child has a loaded diaper represents these unpleasant people); people in love speaking baby talk (“I wub you!” “I wub you too”); and sometimes grown-ups just have to cut loose and dance or play in some other way. He goes on to warn young readers that there will still be things that scare, annoy, or anger them when they’re older too. The author’s closing claim that inner children should be encouraged because they “make being an adult…SO MUCH FUN!” won’t lighten the gloom much for children who were actually hoping that adulthood would be better, or at least different. On the other hand, children, or anyone, puzzled by the strange things grown-ups do may appreciate the insight.

Sketchy and reductive but probably, alas, fairly valid.

(Picture book. 6-8)

WHERE’S MY TURTLE?

Bottner, Barbara Illus. by Hughes, Brooke Boynton Random House (40 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 PLB | Apr. 28, 2020 978-1-5247-1805-3 978-1-5247-1806-0 PLB Poor Archer can’t find his pet turtle!

Endpapers show toys, books, and other odds and ends, hinting at the protagonist’s disorganized ways. A title-page illustration then depicts these same items strewn on the floor like a path that leads to an open terrarium. The titular turtle is seen in the act of crawling out of the tank, which may leave readers wondering why there’s no lid. A child appears on the dedication page, looking for something, and the turtle isn’t visible. The text begins on the next spread with the statement that “Archer lost things,” so apparently having his pet turtle, Kevin, go missing isn’t an uncommon occurrence in his life. Luckily, his patient, tidy mom is there to encourage him and help him find his beloved pet. As he searches indoors and out for Kevin, Archer follows his mother’s sage advice that there’s “a place for everything, and everything in its place.” He finds various and sundry lost items, then tries to think like Kevin in order to create an inviting space for the turtle to return to. Hughes’ illustrations change perspective and shift from full-room vistas to spot illustrations to support visual interest and entice readers with an I-spy sort of experience as they join Archer in his search for Kevin. Both Archer and his mom have light beige skin and brown hair.

Here’s a book that will find its way into readers’ hearts.

(Picture book. 3-6)

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Pace, rhythm, and layout work together to clearly depict poignant moments of isolation, tension, and togetherness. cat dog dog

THE WOLF OF CAPE FEN

Brandt, Juliana Sourcebooks Young Readers (304 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-7282-0961-6 Eliza Serling embarks on a transformative quest when a strange wolf attacks her younger sister.

Eliza, nearly 12, lives on Cape Fen with Pa and Winnie, her sister. After her mother’s mysterious disappearance four years ago, Eliza stopped dreaming about a future away from Cape Fen and tries to be a sister and mother to Winnie. Baron Dire, descendent of the first Dire Witch, who arrived on Cape Fen in 1811, controls the island, imprisoning its inhabitants for the magic their dreams provide. When the baron’s Wolf companion unexpectedly lunges at Winnie, Eliza’s stunned: Dire and his Wolf cannot hurt someone unless they have bargained with him, and neither Eliza nor Winnie has ever bargained.

Determined to protect Winnie, Eliza searches for clues explaining the Wolf ’s attack. Did Pa bargain with Dire? Did Aunt Zilpha? Could her missing mother have bargained with Dire to escape Cape Fen? With the Wolf lurking, Eliza discovers surprising things about her origins and her family and eventually realizes she, too, must bargain with Dire if she hopes to save Winnie and herself. Unfolding gradually as Eliza relentlessly pieces the past together, this intriguing mystery culminates in a startling, literally transforming climax. Black-and-white chapter heads echo the dream theme.

Laced with dreams, this perplexing fantasy rewards persistent readers. (map) (Fantasy. 8-12)

THIS LITTLE PUP

Bryant, Laura J. Illus. by the author Whitman (32 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-0-8075-7865-0

An innovative counting book presents a spunky, gray puppy following a blue ball as it bounces past all sorts of animals on a family farm.

The story begins with a wordless view of all the inhabitants of the farm, a traditional mix of animals and a human mother, father, and child, who all present white. The child holds a huge, blue ball, ready to toss it for the waiting puppy. The bouncing ball and the leaping puppy then lead readers through the brief, patterned text, bounding past two cows, three frogs, four pigs, and on in sequential fashion up to 10 chicks. Each group of animals appears on the following spread, linked by the text and interacting with the next set in some humorous way: “One blue ball… / bounced past two brown cows. Two brown cows… / spied three green frogs.” The whole gang of animals and people end up in the barnyard, where the ball is at last caught by the persistent pup. A satisfying concluding page shows the puppy 114

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holding the ball out to the child for another toss. Charming illustrations are filled with expressive animals in motion, with black, segmented motion lines indicating the bouncing action of the blue ball. A large trim size and double-page-spread format make this a fine choice for reading aloud to a group, but the opportunity to count up all those adorable animals will reward perusal by lapsitters as well.

This little pup knows how to stand up and be counted.

(Picture book. 3-6)

CAT DOG DOG The Story of a Blended Family

Buchet, Nelly Illus. by Zuill, Andrea Schwartz & Wade/Random (40 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 PLB | Apr. 28, 2020 978-1-9848-4899-4 978-1-9848-4900-7 PLB

A couple moves in together. But can their pets handle the big change?

A scruffy white dog lives alone with her human father. She loves her toys, her royal dog bed, and lying at her dad’s feet at night. Elsewhere, a large houndlike dog and an orange tabby live together with their mother. The dog loves playing. The cat doesn’t seem to love anything—except, perhaps, sleeping in the dog’s bed. A moving van unites the two families under one roof, forcing the new pet stepsiblings to get to know one another.

Faces are swatted. Clothing is eaten. Things just aren’t as comfy as they used to be. Gradually, the pets start to warm up to one another—that is, until the family adds yet another member to the mix. Buchet’s debut picture book primarily uses the two titular nouns—cat and dog—in various patterns (“Dog Cat” or “Dog Cat Dog”). The minimalist text relies on Zuill’s expressive, funny cartoon illustrations to fill in necessary context. The words and pictures harmonize as pace, rhythm, and layout work together to clearly depict poignant moments of isolation, tension, and togetherness. New words added into the rhythm, such as “Frog” when the animals stare down an amphibian, create laugh-outloud silliness. The humans, one white-presenting and the other brown-skinned, diversify this beautiful, blended family.

A clever, winning read-aloud for modern families. (Pic­ ture book. 4-8)

MY SISTER IS SLEEPING

Busheri, Devora Illus. by Kichka, Michel Trans. by Atik, Shira Kar-Ben (24 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-5415-4244-0

A young girl anticipates all the fun she will have when baby sister wakes up from her nap. |

There will be giggles and cuddles, a chance to feed the baby, and a walk with her in the stroller. This baby is endlessly fascinating, with feathery eyelashes, fists that open like fans, and strawberry lips. The protagonist is patient and reminds herself again and again, “Soon she will wake up.” As narrator she describes all these attributes and plans in simple, brief sentences as if she is speaking directly to her readers. Originally written in Hebrew and translated into English, the tale is made all the richer by the smooth, contextually clear incorporation of Hebrew words into the narration. “She smells clean like milk, halav.” Kichka’s softly hued illustrations add a great deal of clever and amusing details, depicting big sister in different rooms of a comfortable home, drawing bright pictures with colored pencils and paint to while away the time. She draws at and under the kitchen table, on the floor close by baby’s crib with stuffed animals seemingly watching her progress, on a porch, and in the backyard. But this big girl can wait no longer and falls asleep, carried off by Ima for her own nap. All members of the family present white.

A lovely, sweet treat for big siblings everywhere. (Picture book. 3-8)

KING & KAYLA AND THE CASE OF THE UNHAPPY NEIGHBOR

Butler, Dori Hillestad Illus. by Meyers, Nancy Peachtree (48 pp.) $14.99 | Mar. 1, 2020 978-1-68263-055-6

King and Kayla’s newest adventure involves digging into…mistaken identity!

Many young readers have begun to grasp the unfortunate truth that sometimes you can show up in the wrong place at the wrong time, like Jillian’s puppy, Thor, and be blamed for something you didn’t do.

It seems Thor likes to dig and wrecked Mr. Gary’s yard when he got loose, but Thor tells King he did no such thing. When King puts the clues together with Kayla, they realize that Thor would not have eaten all the fruits and vegetables consumed and is not big enough to knock over a trash can. King decides to investigate with all the animals in the nieghborhood while, together,

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RAD!

Bustard, Anne Illus. by Wiseman, Daniel Abrams (32 pp.) $16.99 | May 5, 2020 978-1-4197-4101-2 With moral support and practice, anything is possible!

“Skate! says Esther. / Stoked? says Chester. / Totally! say Hester and Sylvester. / Never, says Lester.” At the Beachside Skate Park, four cats are excited to use their skateboards, but one gray kitty is not. It seems Lester thinks skateboarding is “scary.” The other kitties gently cajole Lester to give it a try and practice.

They pop a helmet on their reluctant companion’s head and say, “Please”—but when Lester says, “no” again, they roll into the park and have a “RAD!” time while Lester peers over the wall at them. When Lester concedes, “Maybe,” the others enthusiastically respond with “awesome,” “gnarly,” and “cool!” Lester doesn’t succeed the first time, but the four skateboarding veterans encourage the wobbly cat, and they all celebrate when Lester finally prevails. Everyone has a great time. Then Lester sees some surfers and suggests they try that tomorrow—but: “No, no, no, no way! say Esther, Chester, Hester, and Sylvester.” Bustard’s story is told entirely in her characters’ one-word exclamations and dialogue tags, using type style rather than quotation marks to denote their speech. It’s easy to follow, as Wiseman’s cartoons supply an unmistakable visual narrative. Cartoon kitties of various colors in helmets and streetwear skate in a park decorated in bright graffiti. Young listeners will identify with Lester’s fears and will soon be able to read the story on their own; as Chester says: “Righteous!”

Bright in mood, message, and hue, this is a winner. (Pic­ ture book. 3- 7)

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Kayla and Jillian create case details. It’s a whodunit mystery that dogs, cats, and owners come together to solve. Meyers invests all her characters with lots of personality, particularly shrewd King and eager Thor; crabby Mr. Gary looks like a terrible pill.

(He and Jillian present white; Kayla presents black.) Beginning readers will like the spacious typeset and thought bubbles that clue readers in to King’s thinking. This is a great story to help emerging readers strengthen their comprehension skills, and caregivers can easily discuss what young readers already know and what they are discovering along the way to piece together a final conclusion—that, happily, will clear Thor’s name.

Entertaining reading for the newest generation of detectives. (Early reader. 6-9)

WHAT IF BUNNY’S NOT A BULLY?

Button, Lana Illus. by Battuz, Christine Kids Can (32 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-5253-0055-4

A pointed invitation to consider the notion that people deserve second chances.

Led by an elephant who could stand in for the sizable and undisguised agenda as well as a child in Battuz’s cast of clothed young animals, everyone on the playground ostracizes the flopeared supposed offender: “There’s Bunny! There’s the bully! / She looks extra mean today. / Stick together, everyone. / Make sure she stays away.” A little kitten is curious about how bullies happen (“Did she pass a bully test / at a Be a Bully School?”) or what Bunny actually did to earn her reputation. Receiving no answers, Kitty frets about coming down with “The Bullies,” like a contagious disease that would result in being similarly shunned for life. Kitty’s fears make other animals protest that they’d never do that to one of their own because it would be mean—which causes the penny to drop (in a pregnant wordless spread) and opens the door for a general apology from Bunny that leads to a reconciliation. “ ‘I think friends can / make mistakes… / every now and then.’ / ‘Want to see what happens… / if we all just try again?’ ” As Bunny never looks or acts the bully, she’s the one who comes off as the victim here…a reversal that real-life victims may find implausible.

Flimsy and message driven. (Picture book. 6-9)

WHAT IF SOLDIERS FOUGHT WITH PILLOWS? True Stories of Imagination and Courage Camlot, Heather Illus. by Bloch, Serge Owlkids Books (40 pp.) $18.95 | Mar. 15, 2020 978-1-77147-362-0

Fifteen quirky, thoughtful what-if statements trace the history of lesser-known social activists and organizations.

Taking inspiration from J.K. Rowling—“We do not need magic to change the world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better”— Camlot ponders the power of imagination. Some people were not only able to envision a better world, they put their thoughts into action. Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector in World War II, carried a Bible instead of a weapon into battle. It’s not quite the pillows of the titular question, but it does paint the picture of a peaceful way to fight. “What if battlegrounds were soccer fields and spectators cheered for every team?” Les Éléphants of Ivory Coast brought their warring nation together when they qualified for the World Cup. “What if everybody showed up to a political party with their dancing shoes on?” A young Palestinian who dared to dance in spite of strict militant restrictions now shares his story to promote peace. Bloch’s cartoons extend the theme, depicting, for instance, the power of music to effect change with a picture of airlifted refugees clinging to a musical staff dangling from a helicopter. The uncluttered design—display type for the leading question, Bloch’s fanciful sketches, and one page of text per topic—make this an accessible, bite-sized look at powerful change.

Inspiring and hopeful. (glossary, endnotes, sources) (Nonfiction. 8-12)

THE BOREAL FOREST A Year in the World’s Largest Land Biome Carmichael, L.E. Illus. by Bisaillon, Josée Kids Can (48 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-5253-0044-8

Carmichael offers explanations and illuminations about the planet’s largest land biome while Bisaillon supplies collage-style art in muted tones.

Poetic language in large print, set against the backdrop of a snowy woodland scene, begins a book with thoughtful text, art, and layout: “Glaciers melt, soil breathes, seeds fly on a warming breeze. Trees creep ever, ever north.” Every double-page spread reveals germane science and geography or presents an appealing landscape showing an aspect of seasonal changes in the boreal forest. A winter-scarf motif acts as a unifying design element, 116

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Churnin tells the story in a spare and lively text beautifully complemented by double-page spreads highlighting Baumert’s gorgeous panoramic illustrations. for spacious skies

serving as background to the names of countries whose flora and fauna are highlighted on various pages. Fascinating facts emerge from two sources: the lyrical language that describes a day for animals in a particular place and season and sidebars with pure scientific facts. The chosen facts are current, and the text carefully notes when scientists are still testing hypotheses about such ideas as how birds seem to use an organ called the Vitali to sense pressure changes before storms. Gentle humor is interspersed throughout. Climate change is frequently mentioned, both in terms of its effect on the boreal forest and on the ways in which this biome slows down global warming, and Indigenous peoples’ roles as participants in the boreal forest’s ecosystems are not ignored. The accessible text proves its point that the boreal forest is both vast and vital.

Excellent for the natural history and science shelves. (glossary, resources, index) (Informational picture book. 8-12)

LITTLE MONSTER TRUCKS GO!

What starts as a standard auto race evolves (quite literally) into a cooperative lesson.

Primed and pumped to conquer, five “scrappy little monster trucks” (resembling a cat, wedge of Swiss cheese, knight, shark, and unicorn) race one another along a twisty, turny obstacle course. Fortunately, every problem they encounter has a solution, as the trucks use their special features to escape muck and leap over gaps. But what’s this? A humongous boulder stumps the intrepid racers such that none can beat it separately. Then, in a singularly Voltron-esque move, the trucks shift their parts and combine to form a single “Monster Bot” capable of stomping the stony impediment to bits. The result? A five-way tie, naturally. Unexciting art gets the job done, not impressing with style so much as with mild ingenuity. As these are little trucks, it seems fitting that it’s the book’s little touches (such as the cheese truck’s grater mode or the cat truck’s extendable claws) that are the most droll. Alas, what it lacks in looks it does not quite make up for in writing. Perfunctory rhymes occasionally give way to soft ones (“A MONSTER leap with mid-air flips / The gap’s TOO BIG! They’ll DROP LIKE BRICKS!”). Adult readers may twitch, but the young and vehicularly obsessed probably won’t mind.

Monster mehs. (Picture book. 3-6)

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Charles, Rie Red Deer Press (96 pp.) $12.95 paper | Mar. 1, 2020 978-0-88995-582-0

When a new development threatens a beloved field, a young girl finds herself acting as a community organizer.

Nine-year-old Meerin Hoy gets a rude awakening when she spots new signs on Carson’s Field across the street.

One is a “for sale” sign, and her father explains that the other is a zoning notice declaring the field to be developed for new construction. Meerin worries what this means. “So we won’t be able to play here?…And Mr. Bothwell won’t be able to take Tamara and Melissa fishing in the creek?” Incensed, Meerin notices comments can be made to the town clerk. The straightforward text narrates as Meerin writes a petition and collects a significant number of signatures from the community. After a discouraging initial interaction with the mayor, Meerin’s activism grows. Prompted by supportive adults, she writes a letter to the editor in the paper, speaks at a town meeting, and arranges a meeting with the mayor. The narrative is repetitious at times, and there are slight hiccups in the pacing. While the story provides a good model of community organizing, it resolves without the messiness of real life. Some readers may also puzzle over Meerin’s case of chicken pox, no longer a childhood inevitability in many regions. Meerin is described as having black hair and is depicted with light skin on the cover; names suggest a diverse neighborhood.

An approachable if uneven fictional introduction to activism. (Fiction. 7-10)

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Cenko, Doug Illus. by the author blue manatee press (32 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-936669-83-7

JUST A KID

FOR SPACIOUS SKIES Katharine Lee Bates and the Inspiration for “America the Beautiful”

Churnin, Nancy Illus. by Baumert, Olga Whitman (32 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-0-8075-2530-2 Series: She Made History

The story behind one of America’s iconic songs.

Katharine Lee Bates grew up in Falmouth, Massachusetts, during the Civil War, so she knew about living in a divided country and experienced the unfairness of being a girl: “The boys she knew grew up to be fishermen or studied to become doctors or lawyers or businessmen. Girls learned to mend and cook.”

But she went to Wellesley College, helped to start a settlement house for immigrants, spoke out for world peace and women’s suffrage, and became a college professor. On a train trip across the country in 1893, she marveled at Niagara Falls, the World’s Fair in Chicago, and the endless fields of wheat in Kansas, but kirkus.com

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While there’s plenty of slapstick, the physical comedy is surrounded by wordplay, a good balance of sophisticated and silly. what we found in the corn maze and how it saved a dragon

I AM THE TREE OF LIFE My Jewish Yoga Book

she also was aware of the plights of workers in mines, fields, and factories during the economic depression. When she saw grand vistas from the summit of Pikes Peak, she was inspired to write the first lines of a poem expressing her vision of a united nation, a land shared by all. Nowadays, most people singing “America the Beautiful” (melody by composer Samuel A. Ward) have no idea of the political and social context behind the poem Bates wrote. Churnin tells that story in a spare and lively text beautifully complemented by double-page spreads highlighting Baumert’s gorgeous panoramic illustrations. Almost all characters are white. The text of a revised version of the poem concludes the volume.

A handsome volume befitting its subject. (author’s note, timeline, sources, acknowledgments) (Picture book/biography.

4-8)

Copeland, Mychal Illus. by Ceolin, André Apples & Honey Press (32 pp.) $17.95 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-1-68115-552-4

This Jewish yoga guide is filled with animals.

If children had to list their favorite Biblical characters, they might not mention “the snake that slithered in front of Pharaoh” or “the giant fish that swallowed Jonah” or “a thirsty camel that drank from Rebekah’s water pitcher,” but all of those animals are featured in this picture book—possibly because they match up perfectly with yoga positions. Children may find the snake appealing, because it ate up all the other snakes in the palace, but many would rather be Rebekah—who offered water to needy travelers—than the camel she fed. Each page of the book showcases a character or object from the Bible—like Noah’s Ark or David fighting Goliath—along with an illustrated lesson in yoga. The poses are acted out in the pictures by two vacant-eyed children—a black boy and a white girl—with small, blank smiles on their faces.

(The skin tones of the Biblical figures range from pale khaki to pale amber.) If the choice of subjects is slightly haphazard, some of the figures are genuinely inspiring, like Sarah and Abraham, whose tent (downward dog) sheltered wanderers in the barren desert. A book that combines yoga instruction with the Bible is probably aimed at a niche audience, but even that audience may feel a little befuddled.

This guide works better as a bestiary than as a picture book. (Informational picture book. 5-8)

WHAT WE FOUND IN THE CORN MAZE AND HOW IT SAVED A DRAGON

Clark, Henry Little, Brown (352 pp.) $16.99 | May 5, 2020 978-0-316-49231-7

Magic works? Can it save Cal’s family’s farm?

Twelve-year-old Cal and his best friend, Drew, are momentarily distracted from Cal’s family’s problems—caused in no small part by Cal when he accidentally started a fire in the harvester—when they learn that classmate Modesty can practice magic. She’s found a binder of magic spells, but they work only for a minute and only at certain times of the day, and most of the spells are 800-word tongue twisters that can’t be said in under one minute. In puzzling this out, they end up discovering that in a parallel world called Congroo, magic is imperiled because its dragons are dying. With the help of Preface Arrowshot, a young, green-skinned Congruent librarian, the kids discover that the local entrepreneur who’s got his eyes on Cal’s family’s farm may be at the root of the problem. Stopping him could save Congroo and the dragons, and it also might save the farm. Unrelated to the similarly titled What We Found in the Sofa and How It Saved the World (2013), this is a good choice for fans of The Phantom Tollbooth and The Westing Game and Chris Grabenstein’s Mr. Lemoncello books. While there’s plenty of slapstick, the physical comedy is surrounded by wordplay, a good balance of sophisticated and silly. Subtle jabs at climate change deniers and unqualified wannabe world leaders add layers to Clark’s newest.

Cal presents white; Drew and Modesty both have brown skin.

A smart kid’s goofball adventure. (Fantasy. 8-14)

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IT’S IMPOSSIBLE!

Corderoy, Tracey Illus. by Neal, Tony Tiger Tales (32 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-68010-191-1

Nothing’s impossible unless you say it is.

Dog runs a laundry business in the city, and he longs to see the ocean. Then he finds a box of new detergent called Ocean Magic, not only promising “seaside freshness with every wash!” but also, apparently, bearing a passenger. After Dog uses the detergent, what should emerge from the washing machine but a dizzy crab? Crab must return home—but how? Bicycling and mailing aren’t options. Consulting a map, Dog realizes “it’s impossible” to drive to the ocean, but Crab coaxes him into making the trip together. Even though he keeps repeating “it’s impossible,” Dog sets out with Crab. They explore varied terrain, visit natural wonders, take selfies, and meet other travelers overcoming personal impossible challenges. Finally arriving at their destination, Dog’s in ocean heaven. Dejectedly

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acknowledging staying is not, well, possible, Dog backtracks when he realizes remaining in seaside paradise is “only impossible if I SAY it is.” The satisfying conclusion shows Dog and Crab operating a bustling beach cafe. This lighthearted but single-purpose tale posits that goals one thinks are impossible may not be. This is a good message for youngsters, and Crab’s gusto might encourage kids to work to make their dreams real.

The colorful, lively illustrations lend humor and feature plenty of details for children to savor. Endpapers depict colorful, smiling fish.

It’s not at all impossible for readers to enjoy this perky story. (Picture book. 4- 7)

SORRY (REALLY SORRY)

Cotler, Joanna Illus. by Bliss, Harry Philomel (32 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-984-81247-6

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Crumpton, Nick Illus. by Snowden-Fine, Lily Thames & Hudson (48 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 17, 2020 978-0-500-65223-7

Bits and bites about our canine co-dependents, from lore to behavior,

breeds, and care.

Loosely following a Q&A format, zoologist Crumpton scatters blocks of pithy comments about why dogs do what they do on broadly thematic spreads amid winsome painted portraits by Snowden-Fine of diverse official breeds, mostly drawn to scale, at work or play. Along with explaining what the titular sniffing as well as tail-wagging and yelps (“a canine version of texting”) communicate, the author introduces famous dogs from Cerberus and Rin Tin Tin to internet celebrity Boo the Pomeranian, tucks in perfunctory notes on proper diet and care, and mentions dozens of breeds. Most of these are depicted nearby, though sometimes in distant or indistinct views. Readers with vision issues will also struggle with passages of narrative that are printed on dark green or other low-contrast backdrops. Sometimes Crumpton rambles, as when he follows up “Why does dog poop smell so bad?” with three feces-related factoids (including the importance of scooping) before answering, kind of. Andy Hirsch’s entry in the graphic Science Comics series, Dogs: From Predator to Protector (2017), digs deeper into the topic, but this once-over has plenty to chew on. Occasional human figures in the art display a range of skin color and style of dress.

Not particularly systematic, but young dog lovers will wolf it down. (glossary, index of breeds) (Informational picture book. 7-9)

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A chain reaction of spiteful words and actions ricochets across a farmyard until an act of kindness turns things around.

It all starts with Cow. Cross because she’s hoof deep in mud, the usually placid Holstein flicks mud onto Duck. Cranky because of Cow’s actions and unwillingness to apologize, Duck insults her friend Frog and proffers only an insincere apology.

Frog criticizes Bird and refuses to feel remorse. Bird chases Goat from a space they normally share, then Goat butts Pig. Tenderhearted Pig, in turn, cries her eyes out. When Dog comes along to find out what’s the matter, Pig passes on the pique, but Dog refuses to bite. He patiently waits through Pig’s emotional storm, then reminds her of their long-standing friendship.

Dog’s compassion prompts a sincere apology, which then boomerangs back through the other animals. The entertaining text moves briskly, filled with interactions that will be amusingly familiar to both readers and listeners. Although they possess the power of speech, the animals are portrayed relatively realistically in Bliss’ expressive ink-and-watercolor cartoons. The farm setting includes enough detail to ground the story without distraction from the action while the simply drawn faces, particularly the animals’ eyes, convey an impressive range of emotions. An exploration of the repercussions of a bad mood could have turned into a pedantic moral tale, but Cotler and Bliss’ light touch and humorous approach offer insight without judgment.

Clever, funny, and true—really. (Picture book. 4-8)

WHY DO DOGS SNIFF BUTTS? Curious Questions About Your Favorite Pets

HUNGER WINTER A WWII Novel

Currie, Rob Tyndale House (272 pp.) $14.99 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-4964-4034-1

Set in the Netherlands, 1944, this wartime drama opens with a “Bam! Bam! Bam!” on a farmhouse door.

Thirteen-year-old Dirk, alone with his little sister, Anna, is afraid it is the Gestapo. It is almost as bad: A neighbor tells him the Gestapo has picked up his older sister, Els, and will come for Dirk next.

Dirk takes Anna and flees, knowing the Gestapo may imprison them or worse in their effort to smoke out Papa, a leader in the Dutch Resistance. Chapter-ending cliffhangers punctuate the children’s treacherous journey, which readers can trace on a frontmatter map. Even after arriving safely at Tante Cora’s home, the children must go out to obtain desperately needed

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food and are captured and imprisoned in a munitions factory.

Their ordeals are interspersed with chapters focusing on Els’ suffering at the hands of the Gestapo. Dirk’s quick-thinking inventiveness and indulgence of Anna’s chirpy exhortations to pray keep the tale grounded in the children’s perspectives, and a light hand with gruesome details marks this for a middle-grade audience. Although the aid the children receive from a deserter from the German army feels like a contrivance—he knew their father in school—the episode illustrates that the neighboring countries had not always been enemies. The family’s reunion is an example of resilience despite the upheaval of war. Dirk and his family are white Christians; the Jewish experience is ancillary to the plot.

A gritty but hopeful wartime thriller. (maps, historical note, author Q&A, discussion questions, timeline) (Histori­ cal fiction. 8-12)

A FOREST IN THE CITY

Curtis, Andrea Illus. by Pratt, Pierre Groundwood (40 pp.) $19.95 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-1-77306-142-9

Trees are beneficial for city dwellers’ health and survival.

Curtis inundates readers with seemingly every possible fact about trees in urban areas. Many Indigenous peoples made their homes in forests; later, settlers cleared trees to make homes and roads and buildings. Trees were relegated to the outskirts of towns and cities or to the private gardens of the rich. Industrialization caused urban populations to explode, and trees were further crowded out. Parks were established in some cities so their inhabitants could enjoy a bit of fresh air and space. More details are introduced: the ravages of Dutch elm disease, the structure of a tree and the urban forest, the impacts of insects and other pests, and current methods of planting and maintaining city trees. The many health and economic benefits trees provide for urban populations are heavily stressed. Also in the mix are exhortations advocating for urban forests in the face of climate change and pollution. The information is fascinating, but the lengthy, densely set, and comprehensive text is overwhelming. The language and vocabulary are of a very high level and read as a lecture or convention speech.

Pratt’s bright green trees stand out in the cityscapes, but the people are cartoony, and there is a madcap, hasty quality to many of the scenes, belying the seriousness of the subject.

Fodder for future arborists but probably not casual tree lovers. (glossary, sources) (Informational picture book. 9-14)

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THE CHAOS CURSE

DasGupta, Sayantani Illus. by To, Vivienne Scholastic (400 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-338-35589-5 Series: Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond, 3 In the third installment of DasGupta’s bestselling series, 12-year-old demon slayer Kiranmala and her friends must stop her father, the Serpent King, from collapsing the parallel dimensions of the multiverse into one in a nefarious plot to destroy its diversity.

Having saved Prince Neelkamal from her father at the end of Game of Stars (2019), Kiran must now save Prince Lalkamal, Neel’s brother, trapped in a New Jersey tree. But as Kiran traverses the multiverse, things get strange(r): When her autorickshaw collides with a pumpkin, the old woman who tumbles out turns from the woman from a well-loved folktale into the story’s ferocious tiger. The “story-smushing thing” keeps happening, and when a wormhole lands Kiran back in New Jersey, she returns to parents who are “colonized beyond repair”—they keep referring to her as “Karen” and rejecting her bicultural Bengali American identity. In line with its predecessors, this adventure is characteristically action-packed and funny: DasGupta riddles the text with in-jokes and puns, and her verbal gymnastics are wink-winks to readers who are fluent in Bengali or Hindi and/or familiar with South Asian culture. But this book is also the most ambitious of the trilogy. Not only does it draw inspiration from Bengali folklore, South Asian and American pop culture, and metaphysics, it also reinforces seamlessly and with righteousness the series’ central themes: that stories are powerful, and that many stories are necessary to imagine a just future.

An eminently satisfying closer to a thoughtful, complex, and very funny adventure series. (Fantasy. 10-14)

LETTERS FROM BEAR

David, Gauthier Illus. by Caudry, Marie Trans. by Ardizzone, Sarah Eerdmans (56 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 24, 2020 978-0-8028-5536-7

When migratory Bird wings off for the winter, devoted Bear undertakes a long and perilous journey to follow.

In a series of letters entrusted to the wind, Bear records each stage of the trek. It begins with a venture into scary, dark woods, then goes on to record: Bear’s rescue from a fisherman’s net by a mermaid, the ursine’s narrow escape from a battle between two mounted armies, a desert crossing, an odd but pleasant respite at a squirrel’s 100th birthday party, and other |

This handsome and generous pictorial introduction to cetaceans demonstrates both the variety and the value of this group. the world of whales

experiences. These culminate in an ocean crossing and landfall at last on a tropical island—where Bear discovers that Bird has already flown off northward. Caudry’s illustrations actually preceded and inspired the storyline. In them she depicts an animistic landscape in which cliff faces in one scene are actually faces, ocean waves become whales at second glance, and creatures met along the way are often extravagantly costumed or sport chimerical features. For all its simple phrasing, the epistolary narrative is infused with longing (“I’m so excited at the idea of being near you. / It fills me with courage. / Your Bear isn’t very far away now!”). By leaving both the relationship and the genders of the two principals unspecified, the narrative allows for a broad range of readings. Occasional human figures among the largely animal cast are uniformly light skinned.

Readers will find this journey poignant, strange, atmospheric, and, ultimately, joyful. (Picture book. 6-8)

SAMUEL DREW HASN’T A CLUE

The mystery box that young Samuel pulls behind him draws a growing queue of curious creatures in its wake. What’s inside?

The blond, doll-like white urchin in floppy pants and a ribboned cap might not have a clue, but there are visual hints in every picture—as Dawnay rather unfairly waits until near the end to announce. Meanwhile, though, a speculative flock of pigeons, a fox, and other animals fall in behind Samuel, and the suspense heightens thanks to a deft and rhythmic narrative: “A pigeon spies it from a tree, / ‘Hey, what’s in there? Do let me see!’ / The paper package bumps and shakes, / The pigeon cries, ‘Could it be…cakes…?’ ” Samuel trundles the carton past a row of shops, into a park, and finally up to his birthday picnic. There, ta-da!—its contents are revealed at last to be the wooden toy pooch he had unflappably wheeled through a previous appearance in A Possum’s Tail (2014). Barrow’s informally drawn illustrations add considerable charm and subtext to the trek, as Samuel passes mixed-race and same-sex couples at cafe tables, a news vendor in a turban, and shopkeepers and pedestrians of diverse skin color…all clad in antique, mid-20th-century styles.

Young audiences will be drawn along, eager to chime in with their own guesses. (Picture book. 3-6)

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de Miguel, Berta & Diebolt, Kent Illus. by Lorente, Virginia Tilbury House (60 pp.) $19.95 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-88448-812-5

If you build it, they will marvel.

In 1881, architect Rafael Guastavino Moreno emigrated from Spain to New York City with his 8-year-old son, Rafael Guastavino Expósito. In time Guastavino Moreno patented an innovative construction system he had also brought with him: Vaulted and domed roofs and ceilings built with tiles were strong and fireproof. Eventually, illustration work led to the father’s first major project: designing the ceilings for the Boston Public Library. More tiled vaulted ceilings followed, including in NYC’s first subway station. When the elder Guastavino died in 1908, his son succeeded him, designing famed NYC spaces including the Bronx Zoo’s domed elephant house, the main hall at Ellis Island, and many others. This charming homage is a resounding tribute to immigrants’ contributions. The text is narrated by the younger Rafael in a proud, awestruck voice that makes both characters and their work come alive. A pictorial guide to the important architectural terms readers will encounter prefaces the book. Many of the lively, colorful, appealing illustrations prominently display tiled arches and depict father and son with tan skin; other persons are shown with diverse skin tones. Most verso pages feature a timeline; a map with NYC routes along which one can still see “Guastavino tiles” is included. Brief biographies of the duo are appended.

A firm foundation for building interest in architecture and a solid STEM resource. (Informational picture book/biogra­ phy. 7-10)

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Dawnay, Gabby Illus. by Barrow, Alex Tate/Abrams (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-84976-642-5

IMMIGRANT ARCHITECT Rafael Guastavino and the American Dream

THE WORLD OF WHALES Get To Know the Giants of the Ocean

Dobell, Darcy Illus. by Thorns, Becky Little Gestalten (72 pp.) $24.95 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-3-89955-830-2

Fascinating facts about whales, dolphins, and porpoises, presented from an underwater perspective.

This handsome and generous pictorial introduction to cetaceans demonstrates both the variety and the value of this group of ocean dwellers in an engaging way. What’s striking is the amount of information conveyed. An illustrated table of contents, organized into three sections—baleen whales, toothed whales, and the world of whales—is followed by two spreads describing the evolution of these aquatic mammals from a four-legged “cat-sized plant-eater.” The thoughtful design kirkus.com

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The authors elegantly interweave issues of racism, financial insecurity, and mental illness into a familiar middle school narrative. a place at the table

intersperses spreads about whale life among spreads about individual species: fin, humpback, bowhead, blue, gray, minke, and right whales; Cuvier’s beaked, beluga, and sperm whales; orcas, porpoises, dolphins, and narwhals. Short paragraphs, many with descriptive titles, are set against relevant, realistic illustrations. The backgrounds of these pages are all shades of blue.

Most depictions of specific species include a measuring stick in 3-foot segments (metric equivalents are provided), a tiny silhouette of a scuba diver to compare relative size, and car and bus icons (explained in the glossary) to indicate their weight. The blue whale segment folds out, reflecting its tremendous size.

Most spreads include an inviting “Did you know?” fact, noted with a sea star. Finally, the author offers some facts about the ocean in general, some ways that whales are threatened, and how humans can help.

A pleasing and informative package with surprising depth. (glossary) (Nonfiction. 8-12)

SOLAR STORY How One Community Lives Alongside the World’s Biggest Solar Plant

Drummond, Allan Illus. by the author Farrar, Straus and Giroux (40 pp.) $18.99 | Mar. 17, 2020 978-0-374-30899-5

Having examined aspects of sustainable living in Pedal Power (2017) and earlier titles, Drummond now turns to the world’s largest solar power plant.

Every day, Nadia, Jasmine, and their classmates walk under the Moroccan sun to their school on the edge of the Sahara. A class field trip to the Noor power plant gives the kids the opportunity to think about both global sustainability and “what…the solar plant [is] doing for us, right here, in our village.” Loose lines and cheery watercolors are equally deft at describing energetic, ebullient kids and the vast power plant, “the size of 3,500 soccer fields.” Jasmine, who wears a yellow hijab, narrates, her clear, convincing voice evincing curiosity and enthusiasm, while speech balloons allow her classmates to interject: “Look!

There’s Naima’s mom,” one says, spotting a classmate’s mother in the power-plant control room. Jasmine notes that the plant has brought benefits to her community, but in fits and starts: Construction workers now put skills to use as entrepreneurs, but the school doesn’t have internet yet. Sidebars provide further information on the region, the plant, and sustainability, ably complementing the text. In his author’s note, Drummond confesses that his “surprise” at learning that the world’s biggest power plant is not “in a highly developed country” is “evidence of my own cultural shortsightedness,” but he’s rallied to produce a surprisingly complex yet accessible exploration.

A valuable look at sustainability and development. (bibliography) (Picture book. 5-10)

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I GOT YOU A PRESENT!

Erskine-Kellie, Mike & McLennan, Susan Illus. by Atkinson, Cale Kids Can (32 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-5253-0009-7 The perfect birthday present is not easy for this duck to find, but it is certainly a good one.

A cheerful group of animal friends adorned with party hats and led by an exuberant duck are all ready to celebrate a birthday. The cake is sliced, the balloons are in place, and the presents are piled up. Only duck does not have one in hand. As told by the duck, it was to be the very best, “the greatest present ever.” This is, unfortunately, not an easy assignment. Knitting socks is too difficult, carrying a really big ice cream cone is too awkward, composing music too challenging, and performing magical tricks too daunting—the whole package disappeared. Children can’t drive race cars, the dinosaurs are gone, and the Martians needed the rocket ship to get back home. Though endlessly inventive, this duck keeps coming up empty. Then the duck finally finds inspiration with a gift that should bring a smile to book lovers everywhere. Hopefully, the message will resonate with toy-, doll-, and gadget-focused gift givers and receivers. The colorfully busy and page-filling illustrations were created in Photoshop with “cake icing and gorilla vanilla ice cream.”

Little listeners may need to be persuaded, but adults can be pleased with the solution. (Picture book. 4- 7)

A PLACE AT THE TABLE

Faruqi, Saadia & Shovan, Laura Clarion (320 pp.) $16.99 | May 12, 2020 978-0-358-11668-4

An after-school South Asian cooking class sparks an unlikely friendship.

Pakistani American sixth grader Sara is sick of cooking. It’s bad enough that the demands of her mother’s catering business fill Sara’s free time. But when her mother starts teaching a South Asian cuisine class at Poplar Springs Middle School, the school Sara transfers to from her beloved Islamic school, Iqra Academy, she’s forced not only to watch her mother cook, but also to watch her new, xenophobic classmates balk at Sara’s favorite spices. Elizabeth, on the other hand, loves cooking—perhaps because her English-immigrant mother, who suffers from depression, and her American-born father, who is always traveling, never seem to find the time to make proper meals. When Elizabeth is paired with Sara, the two of them form a friendship—until Elizabeth’s best friend’s racism threatens to separate them just when they need each other most. Writing in alternating voices, the authors elegantly interweave issues of racism, financial insecurity, and mental |

illness into a familiar middle school narrative of identity formation. Sara’s character is particularly well drawn: Her affectionate family, her insistence on Elizabeth’s responsibility to stand up to her white, racist friends, and her love of her culture and religion are refreshingly authentic. Elizabeth’s mostly secular Jewish family life will also ring familiar to many readers. At times, however, the narration verges on preachy, and the dialogue feels more mature than the average sixth grade banter.

This tale of a diverse friendship tackles hard topics.

(Fiction. 10-14)

FOLLOW THAT CAR

Feather, Lucy Illus. by Lomp, Stephan HMH Books (32 pp.) $12.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-358-21220-1

of streets in time?

Gorilla drives fast through the busy marketplaces, construction sites, farmland, mountains, and more, but Mouse and his motorcycle are persistent. Bright, busy, Richard Scarry–like compositions create mazes of roads, cars, and critters that lead from page to page as readers are given clues—abetted by strategically placed arrows—as to how Mouse can catch up to Gorilla.

Multiple members of a cartoon menagerie reappear throughout but not on every page, making for a fun scavenger hunt as bigeared Mouse chases the fedora-clad Gorilla, whose light beige face, broad chin, and lack of neck are evocative of characters from Family Guy and American Dad. The white arrows are sometimes necessary, as in a very complicated market scene, but at other times they don’t make much sense. In one river scene, for instance, they plot the path on planks of wood laid between boats; here the path is obvious, but readers may be more concerned at the notion of motoring over boaters than delighted.

Just why is Mouse in pursuit of Gorilla? That’s benign, but a visual subplot involving a different gorilla seen lurking with a bag of cash on many spreads before being cuffed by turtle cops disappointingly plays into negative stereotypes surrounding black people, apes, and criminality.

There are roadblocks aplenty, but this still could please hardcore seek-and-find fans. (Picture book. 5-8)

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In this series opener, Mara and her little brother, Jesse, pay a visit to the strange novelty shop Frightville, where the fifth grader decides to purchase an antique doll for her dollhouse.

In the doll’s dress pocket, Mara discovers a tiny letter addressed to a mysterious Charlotte, the name Mara decides to give her. But after Mara forgets to recite a ghost-prevention spell that the storekeeper urged her to pronounce before putting the doll to bed, strange things begin to happen. During a sleepover, Mara’s best friend tells her about dolls people used to have made in the likenesses of deceased loved ones. Things get worse when Mara wakes up and finds herself trapped in the dollhouse and Charlotte outside, now human-sized and alive.

Can Mara find her way out of this dilemma? This early-middlegrade horror tale sacrifices detail to plot and pacing. Setting is given short shrift, for instance, and readers learn only halfway through that Mara has brown skin, depriving readers of color of a potential mirror character for much of the story. Nevertheless, the mystery draws readers along, ending on a truly chilling note.

The series’ second installment, Curse of the Wish Eater, publishes simultaneously but does not continue Mara’s story, instead focusing on Max and his purchase at Frightville.

If readers didn’t think old dolls were creepy before this, they surely will after. (Horror. 7-10) (Curse of the Wish Eater: 978-1-338-36011-0)

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Mouse needs to catch Gorilla! Can readers help to get him through the maze

DON’T LET THE DOLL IN

Ford, Mike Scholastic (128 pp.) $5.99 paper | Apr. 21, 2020 978-1-338-36009-7 Series: Frightville, 1

CAT AND DOG’S ALPHABET

Fox, Diane & Fox, Christyan Illus. by the authors Whitman (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 1, 2020 978-0-8075-1096-4

When Dog spots the letters of the alphabet floating overhead and is not sure what they might be, Cat interrupts a bath to explain what the letters are for and how they are used.

With a certain sardonic wit, knowledgeable Cat demonstrates to the less-informed Dog how letters are rearranged to make words. Cat begins to poke the letters with a stick, and after they come crashing down, some on Dog’s head (“Ouch!

You did that on purpose”), Dog begins to sweep them away.

“These things are dangerous.” Cat quickly interrupts to show how they can begin to put the letters together. “Let’s try spelling our names.” This results in a cheeky, literal “our names,” which prompts Dog to attempt a version with “dat and cog.”

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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES

Hannah Salyer

THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR USES HER DEBUT PICTURE BOOK, PACKS, TO DEMONSTRATE THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF ALL ANIMAL LIFE

By Megan Labrise Rafaella Castagnola

Hannah Salyer’s “uplifting, lively,” and majestically illustrated debut, Packs: Strength in Numbers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Jan. 28), examines the form and function of nearly two dozen single-species animal groups, from a cloud of bats to a pod of dolphins. Highlighting often unexpected attributes of each community, the Pratteducated author/illustrator celebrates their individuality while acknowledging their interdependence with one another and humankind.

Salyer spoke with Kirkus from her studio in Brooklyn, New York. The following interview has been lightly edited and condensed.

First of all, are there any vocabulary words more fun than nouns of assembly? You’ve got a “mob” of mongooses, a “flamboyance” of flamingos, an “implausibility” of wildebeest, etc.

I know, they’re wonderful. I’m blanking on the title but there’s a book completely dedicated to the group names of species. There are so many interesting and unexpected ones! I still have many questions about who came up with them, and why, but incorporating them was a fun aspect of the book.

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So why does Packs get the title?

The story came about from a one-off piece I’d done my senior year of art school, a really tight composition of wolves running with each other, [their bodies] kind of weaving in and out….“Pack” is a common term when referring to wolves, and [my agent] Kirsten [Hall] suggested it. As I wrote the book and produced the rest of the art, it felt more and more fitting….We felt like we had to add the subtitle “Strength in Numbers” because “Packs” on its own can feel vague and can also be confused with “Pax,” P-A-X. So, “Packs: Strength in Numbers” felt like a good description of what you’d find when you opened the book—a very simple, clear way to introduce the concept of animals [of the same species] working together.

How did you conceive of the rest of the illustrations?

I watched a ton of wildlife footage because I wanted to convey the power and beauty of groups and felt like motion was a really big part of that. So I focused heavily on how these groups move together or how they exist together in a space. Granted, these pieces aren’t hyperrealistic—they’ve got some imagination, they’ve got some play on colors—but I wanted to present these tight, overflowing compositions that just make you feel like, Wow! This group is so vibrant and powerful and impactful, no matter what the group was doing or how it functions.

Some of the distinguishing group characteristics you highlight in Packs are pretty surprising. For example, the quality you feature in a pride of lions is nurturance. The quality you feature in a school of fish is their dogged pursuit of their prey. The fish are the hunters.

Yes, that was very intentional. The fish I chose is the goldsaddle goatfish. They’re these vicious hunters in the reef.

You wouldn’t normally associate a group of fish with vi-

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ciousness—it just sounds so wild—but I read a NatGeo article about them and one of the marine biologists described them as a “pack of lions.” So I thought, all right, these are going to be the creatures who do the hunting here. I wanted to flip the script, to subvert those typical associations. Creatures can always surprise you. Humans can surprise you, and other species can surprise you, too.

Editor at large Megan Labrise hosts Kirkus’ weekly podcast, Fully Booked. Packs received a starred review in the Sept. 15, 2019, issue.

REWRITTEN

Gilboy, Tara Jolly Fish Press (192 pp.) $11.99 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-63163-433-8 Series: Unwritten, 2 A fictional character in the real world hasn’t escaped her origins.

Rewriting the end of her own story in Unwritten (2018) was supposed to make everything better for 12-year-old Gracie.

But the real world is no picnic: The former residents of fictional Bondoff are hungry and cranky, living in cramped quarters with their author, Gertrude. Gracie’s friend Walter’s parents hold Gracie’s past as an author-controlled villain against her. Walter’s folks aren’t alone in thinking Gracie might be wicked, as Cassandra, the evil stepmother from Bondoff, thinks she can reclaim Gracie’s love.

In Cassandra’s clutches, without even the privacy of her thoughts to call her own, all Gracie can do is escape into a different story, one of Gertrude’s half-finished, abandoned manuscripts. Gracie and Walter are trapped in a feminist gothic horror—“It was supposed to be a metaphor,” Gertrude had explained—but not much emerges from this clash of tropes. Gracie and Walter, like all of Gertrude’s other (apparently all white) characters, were written as Gertrude worked out her personal psychodramas, and all of them are based on aspects of the writer and her family. Though that framing should allow for compelling character building, the result is disappointingly simplistic and flat.

Magical metafiction doesn’t live up to its premise. (Fan­ tasy. 9-11)

RAIN BOY

Glynn, Dylan Illus. by the author Chronicle (40 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-1-4521-7280-4 Glynn introduces Rain Boy and Sun Kidd—and then presents children’s contrasting reactions to their essences.

The young people are glum or angry when Rain Boy, depicted as a puffy, blue cloud, drips on their outdoor play. Sun, |

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Why was it important to you to emphasize these species’ interdependence?

Many of these species are being threatened; they’re endangered. Unfortunately, that’s part of our reality right now, that’s part of the time that we’re in. There’s a term that I think is becoming more popular, the Anthropocene, which refers to this epoch of a deeply ingrained human effect on every part of the world and every type of species on the planet.

As a children’s book writer and illustrator, especially, I feel it’s my duty to acknowledge what’s going on in our environment. Kids are growing up and, in different ways, witnessing these effects, whether it’s via shows and news, whether it’s in their own backyards. It was really important to me to end Packs with a note acknowledging climate change and habitat loss.

We’re also living in a time where people like to draw lines in the sand and put up walls, and that’s not what this book is about at all. I wanted to make that clear. The more we find out about our Earth, the more it becomes evident how interdependent we are in every way.

and happy or rainy and sad.” (The arrangement of these block letters on a double-page spread may require a moment or two to parse.) Dog complains, weeping and pounding the floor: “BUT IT’S ALL SO COMPLICATED!” Yet Cat, armed with a stack of books, asserts the best thing to be done with letters is to make lots of words. Black-and-white cartoon art against a very stark white backdrop extends this duo’s banter. Splashes of color add emphasis, such as Cat’s large stack of colorfully covered books.

A clever, humorous approach to the world of letters, words, and literacy. (Picture book. 4-6)

Another charming entry in a delightful natural-science series. plants

a glowing girl of color, is welcomed happily, however. The tension between the two climaxes during her birthday, when Rain Boy’s presence floods the basement, threatening the cake and presents. The guests encircle the cloud, crying: “Rain, Rain, go away!” Sun escapes to her room. Glynn’s watercolor, cut-paper, pastel, and colored-pencil caricatures and tableaux channel both a delightfully childlike aesthetic and emotionally charged expressionism. Sun’s bed is draped in golden curtains in the upper corner of a space defined by the strong diagonals of a wrought-iron balcony and foreshortened ladder. A black, starry sky frames the yellow/orange interior, which is dominated by a Calder-esque mobile. After Rain Boy storms off, the downpour continues until the children start appreciating both one another and puddles. This coaxes the celestial protagonists outside, where a rainbow appears: “So next time you’re feeling down and your world is dark and gray…just look up.” As convenient and lovely as this spread is, the message does not quite apply to Rain Boy, nor is it completely transferable to an ostracized reader, thus sapping the book of some of its logic and power.

Captivating visuals will prompt conversations about the feelings and choices of victim, friend, and community.

(Picture book. 3-6)

THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK

Hayes, Kjersten Illus. by Jose, Gladys Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (32 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-1-4926-7846-5

Elephants can do lots of stuff; they never forget, for instance.

But play hide-and-seek? Not so much.

Face it: Whenever elephants play this game with child friends, guess who inevitably gets found first? These giants’ girth and height, not to mention trunks, account for their consistent failure to hide successfully. Now the Elephant Hobby and Sport League comes to the rescue with The Elephants’ Guide to Hideand-Seek, which features crafty ploys to help level playing fields.

Wise pachyderms would do well to bring their vaunted memories to bear on its pages. Sample tips: hiding in a large bathtub with shower curtains and standing behind a humongous pile of unsorted laundry (the kind found in a typical kid’s bedroom).

Some don’ts? Cramming into too-small spaces, like doghouses, or pretending to be a lump in a bed. If nothing works, the guide also advises that elephants just be “it”—or simply accept the fun of being found. After all, “you love those kids!” This cute but slight tale mines humor from its snarky narration, voiced in the cheesy tone of a TV commercial. Cheery, energetic, expressive cartoons depict kids with varied skin tones and hairstyles playing in the park with their blue, bespectacled elephant pal as the latter demonstrates various tips outlined in the guide.

Lively fun. Readers may pick up some pointers for their own games of hide-and-seek. (Picture book. 4- 7)

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ARLO, MRS. OGG, AND THE DINOSAUR ZOO

Hemming, Alice Illus. by Durst, Kathryn Maverick Publishing (144 pp.) $15.99 PLB | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-84886-468-9 Series: Class X, 1

The students of class 4X have a reputation for being rowdy and unteachable— hence their nickname, class X—but maybe their newest sub has just the grit they need.

When 4X drives yet another teacher away with their antics, Mrs. Ogg is sent in to teach this difficult class. Mrs. Ogg isn’t like other teachers 4X has met—her guttural, monosyllabic way of communicating and her fur and bone outfits make the parents and students wonder where she came from. With the end-of-the-year party on the line, the 4X crew have just one more chance to prove that they can stay out of trouble, during a field trip to the zoo. It’s quickly revealed that this is not a typical zoo visit, however, when the class encounters prehistoric creatures! Class statistics, dinosaur facts, and cute illustrations are sprinkled into the text in the form of excerpts from Arlo’s meticulously kept notebook. There are no sources cited for the dinosaur trivia in the book, which may leave readers wondering about the information and where they can learn more. The students and other characters are described and drawn with a wide range of skin tones, from light pink to dark brown, and they also include a student who is learning English and a student who is largely nonverbal. Protagonist Arlo is white and has a stutter.

Troublingly, the two black students in the book are described in stereotypical ways.

A typical tough-class story is enlivened with dinosaurs but marred by stereotypes and missing information. (author interview) (Fantasy. 7-10)

PLANTS

Hickman, Pamela Illus. by Gavin, Carolyn Kids Can (32 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-77138-819-1 Series: Nature All Around The Nature All Around team offers facts about plants: specifically, flowering plants in Canada and the United States.

The text follows the conversational pattern established in earlier series outings and includes quirky, original metaphors, such as “A seed is like a tiny picnic basket full of food that the plant uses when it starts to grow.” The art complements it by avoiding gimmicks and using stylized, but usually appropriately detailed, watercolors to show the science. For example, there’s no cartoonish picnic basket here; instead, watercolor diagrams differentiate the sprouting of a monocot wheat versus a dicot |

bean seed. The layout offers plenty of variety without overstimulating browsing, but economical captioning demands that readers glean most of the book’s informational content from the text. Some readers may wish for slightly more detail in the illustrations on a spread about identifying plant components by type. The page that gives step-by-step directions for growing microgreens, however, is a perfect example of excellent collaboration among writer, illustrator, and designer, from its italicized definition at the start to a colorful plate of raw veggies scattered with sprouts at the end. The pollination page is likewise a terrific addition to early sex education.

Another charming entry in a delightful natural-science series. (glossary, index) (Informational picture book. 7-10)

HOW TO TIE A SHOE & OTHER BIG ADVENTURES

A how-to book that isn’t.

This whimsical, poetic instruction manual for how to tie a shoe mentions eating spaghetti, finding birds’ nests, combing hair, and staring at patterns in a rug, assuming children (probably) can figure out how to tie their own shoes. Sketchy, black-and-white pen-and-ink illustrations portray children from many different backgrounds doing everyday activities like playing outside in a sprinkler, greeting buddies, and hugging good friends after summer break. Hill illustrates a black girl peeking out from inside a tent on her first camping trip and a girl hugging a boy (both are white) in a wheelchair—normalizing portrayals that still rarely appear in picture books. Stylized, hand-drawn text blurs the boundaries between words and pictures and emphasizes that words can morph into art and vice versa—or that words are art, and art evokes language. Perspectives vary in each scene: Some children look directly out at the audience; sometimes readers gaze into a scene past the child character’s back; sometimes readers see only a child’s hands or legs. Emotions vary too, including joy, contemplation, and sadness, offering a range of vicarious experiences for readers.

Ultimately, this book uses learning to tie a shoe as a metaphor for personal growth and experiential learning—with the beauty and challenges that accompany both.

A quirky picture book that respects the intelligence of children. (Picture book. 7-11)

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Hoffman, Mary Illus. by Asquith, Ros Frances Lincoln (40 pp.) $19.99 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-0-7112-4154-1

The creators of The Great Big Body Book (2016) pay tribute to the organ “in charge of every single thing our bodies can do.” (Though look what’s telling

them that.)

That’s just the first of several simplistic or downright wrong claims in an otherwise perceptive and lighthearted overview that covers the brain’s growth and general structure, its role in perception as well as cognition and communication, emotions, learning and memory (including amnesia and Alzheimer’s), developmental differences, sleep, and dreams—all in nontechnical language. Along with throwing out tantalizing statements like the brain “changes again a lot during the teenage years” without elaboration and that dreaming may help in “getting rid of things we don’t need,” Hoffman misses opportunities to, for instance, mention more than the traditional five senses. She also muddles her own more accurate account of how the nervous system works with a line about how neurons “head back to your brain” with sensory messages, and, in what comes off as a weak attempt to reassure readers anxious about being replaced by robots, abruptly switches tracks to close with dismissive views about the current state of artificial intelligence. Asquith mixes a satisfyingly inclusive crowd of expressive human figures in active poses with bright cartoon diagrams and anatomical views…but she includes a long-debunked “map” of where taste buds are located on the tongue that doesn’t include “umami” in the labeling.

Bright and lively—but saddled with misses both near and wide. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 6-8)

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Illus. by Hill, Skip Penny Candy (40 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 10, 2020 978-0-9996584-8-2 Series: Penny Candy

THE GREAT BIG BRAIN BOOK

DIRT CHEAP

Hoffmann, Mark Illus. by the author Knopf (32 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 PLB | Apr. 21, 2020 978-1-5247-1994-4 978-1-5247-1995-1 PLB A kid entrepreneur sells dirt to finance a snazzy new soccer ball.

An interactive narrator introduces and talks with Birdie, a youngster peering at a newspaper through oversized yellow spectacles. When the narrator asks what Birdie is looking at, the kid flips the paper around to show an ad for the XR1000 Super Extreme Soccer Ball. Short the $24.95 needed to purchase the “beautiful” ball, Birdie takes the narrator’s recommendation that a yard sale may garner the necessary funds. The yard sale turns out to be a bad business model (low market demand) so Birdie brainstorms something else: a literal yard sale. Birdie kirkus.com

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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES

Tonya Bolden

HER NEW BOOK, STRONG VOICES, INTRODUCES YOUNG READERS TO 15 GREAT SPEECHES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY

By Kate Tuttle Hayden R. Celestin

Strong Voices is a picture book, yet many of the speeches are pretty complex for children—some might seem to require an adult understanding. How do you see the book being used?

I think it’s perfect for family reading and also in the classroom.

One of the things I believe in is that books for young readers need to challenge them. Books for young readers need to kindle curiosity. I want to send kids to the dictionary; I want to send kids to parents and librarians and teachers with questions. The other thing in terms of using it, it’s such a jumping-off point for deeper learning about so many subjects, from the Revolutionary War, civil rights movement, women’s rights movement, space exploration.

Were any of the speeches more difficult for you to provide the introductions for? Did you struggle with any of them?

I struggled with all of them. I always have a lot more to say, and my wise editor has to cut them down. I think probably Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address had me most worried.

Because it’s so iconic?

Yes! I thought, oh my goodness, how do I do this justice? But then I just settled in and did the research.

When an editor at HarperCollins asked Tonya Bolden

What do you hope that kids get from this book?

(Facing Frederick, Pathfinders) to write introductions for a book of great American speeches, the veteran children’s nonfiction au-

I think the late Cokie Roberts said it best [in the book’s foreword],

thor asked what texts were going to be included. “When I saw the

“You can hear the sounds of our timeless struggle to fulfill the prom-

lineup, I was all in,” Bolden says. “The diversity—of length, of peo-

ise of America, to form a more perfect union.” I also think the book

ple—it was just a nice blend, a good balance.” Strong Voices: Fifteen

provides comfort at this time of so much chaos and uncertainty, so

American Speeches Worth Knowing (Harper/HarperCollins, Jan. 21)

much hyperpartisanship, so much confusion, so much cynicism. I

includes political speeches from Patrick Henry and Fannie Lou

hope that it will give our young people hope, as it calls them to

Hamer; Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King’s “I

action to deal with things that still trouble and plague our nation.

Have a Dream” speech; Lou Gehrig’s farewell to the sport he loved and Hillary Clinton’s proclamation that women’s rights are human rights. They’re all accompanied by Eric Velasquez’s striking illustrations. Bolden spoke with Kirkus about the book by phone.

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It sounds like you really enjoyed working on this project.

Did it bring up personal feelings as you read and wrote about these speeches?

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You know, it did. Because it’s this sweep of history. Some of the speeches are challenging, but they’re also so moving. I love them all, each for a different reason. But another standout for me is Teddy Roosevelt’s speech about the man in the arena. I mean, here’s this privileged man celebrating everyday people. And talking about, you know, the ones who roll up their sleeves and try to right wrongs or the people who simply do their jobs to the best of their ability—for him to elevate everyday people is just so fantastic. I think in different ways each of the 15 speeches in Strong Voices sort of grounds us and reminds our young people about what’s important.

You’ve been writing for children for a long time. What do you think about the kids of today? Are they the same as children in earlier generations?

I came of age during the ’60s, so there was civil rights, Black Power, Vietnam, women’s liberation. We get through. And I want young people to know we will get through this time. People

starts selling dirt from the yard for 25 bucks a sack. Still no customers. When Birdie marks down the price to 25 cents—and starts advertising “dirt cheap cheap dirt”—the coins finally roll in. Birdie uses the hard-earned money to buy the soccer ball.

But what use is the ball if there is no longer a lawn to play soccer on? Hoffmann cleverly intertwines early math skills with messages of working toward goals and problem-solving. Readers will learn alongside Birdie different ways to add up change.

Birdie’s approachable, can-do attitude plays well off the narrator-knows-best tone to create some genuine comedy. The gently absurd illustrations offer a lush suburban landscape, expressive scenes, and racially diverse neighbors; Birdie has pale skin and black pigtails.

Worth it, dirt and all. (Picture book. 4-8)

THE CASE OF THE MISSING AUNTIE

thought we wouldn’t make it through the Civil War or through Watergate. But we human beings have this amazing ability to I think they are very hungry for answers; they are hungry for us adults to do better, in terms of the world. We are besotted with entertainment. It’s a challenge for them to focus. It’s almost like being distracted has become the norm. I think a book like Strong Voices calls you to focus. Sit with the book, visit with it, dig deep, think deep, and ask questions.

Kate Tuttle, a former president of the National Book Critics Circle, writes about books and authors for the Boston Globe. Strong Voices received a starred review in the Oct. 15, 2019, issue.

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The Mighty Muskrats, four mysterysolving cousins from Windy Lake First Nation in Canada, find themselves in the big city searching for a relative who went missing decades ago.

Tech-savvy Chickadee and her cousins—muscled Atim, bookworm Samuel, and guitar-strumming Otter—travel to the city for a week of fun at the Exhibition Fair. When Chickadee tells them about Great-Auntie Charlotte, Grandpa’s little sister who was “scooped” to a residential school before being adopted out by the government, the group decides to make finding her their next mission. But the lure of the fair, an opportunity to see a favorite rock star in concert, and a chance encounter with an old friend from the rez split the team’s priorities, taking them in different directions and threatening the case. Unless they regroup, they may never cut through the red tape and uncover what happened to Charlotte. Though the harsh realities of Canada’s historical treatment of First Nations are central to the plot, the complexities of the subject matter are age-appropriate and easily digestible. Fans of Hutchinson’s (Misipawistik Cree) first entry in his Mighty Muskrats Mystery Series, The Case of Windy Lake (2019), will eagerly join the crew once again, and all the twists and turns one expects from a good mystery will quickly hook new readers.

A compelling “urban bush” adventure that offers light and reconciliation to dark truths. (Mystery. 9-12)

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Hutchinson, Michael Second Story Press (168 pp.) $10.95 paper | Mar. 17, 2020 978-1-77-260117-6 Series: Mighty Muskrat Mystery, 2

carry on.

An amuse-bouche look at a zookeeper’s day. what do you do if you work at the zoo?

WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU WORK AT THE ZOO?

Jenkins, Steve & Page, Robin Illus. by Jenkins, Steve HMH Books (40 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 28, 2020 978-0-544-38759-1

A menagerie of facts about the many jobs to do at the zoo.

Jenkins and Page present readers with an amuse-bouche look at a zookeeper’s day in this informational picture book.

The premise greatly simplifies the many roles of a zoo’s staff under the rubric “zookeeper” and follows several humans (depicted mostly as disembodied hands in a variety of skin tones) as they perform unusual tasks for birds, mammals, and reptiles. Each fact alone is fodder for a picture book. In short, second-person paragraphs, readers learn that joeys that must be raised without their mothers are carried in cloth pouches that emulate those of a kangaroo; that aardvark ears are sensitive to the sun and may require the application of sunscreen; and that hyenas enjoy frozen bloodsicles on hot days. The backmatter includes a brief timeline of zoo history, locations of and facts about notable zoos, pros and cons of keeping animals captive, and an additional paragraph of information about each animal discussed. Jenkins’ collage illustrations will be familiar to fans, and the balance of image to white space is visually well suited for classroom or group readers. The facts are intriguing enough to prompt new animal enthusiasms among young readers, so educators and caregivers should be prepared to use this book as a springboard for further exploration.

Delightful fare for animal lovers. (Informational picture book. 6-10)

“can really be put to good use.” A frustrated Izzy’s impatience with a friend almost foils her chance at the prize, but all’s well that ends well. There’s much to like: Brown-skinned inventor girl Izzy is an appealing character, it’s great to see a nurturing brown-skinned male caregiver, the idea of an “Invention Convention” is fun, and a sustainable-energy invention is laudable.

However, these elements don’t make up for rhymes that often feel forced and a lackluster story.

A disappointing follow-up. (Picture book. 3-6)

IZZY GIZMO AND THE INVENTION CONVENTION

Jones, Pip Illus. by Ogilvie, Sara Peachtree (32 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 1, 2020 978-1-68263-164-5 Series: Izzy Gizmo

Inventor Izzy Gizmo is back in this sequel to her eponymous debut (2017).

While busily inventing one day, Izzy receives an invitation from the Genius Guild to their annual convention. Though Izzy’s “inventions…don’t always work,” Grandpa (apparently her sole caregiver) encourages her to go. The next day they undertake a long journey “over fields, hills, and waves” and “mile after mile” to isolated Technoff Isle. There, Izzy finds she must compete against four other kids to create the most impressive machine. The colorful, detail-rich illustrations chronicle how poor Izzy is thwarted at every turn by Abi von Lavish, a Veruca Salt–esque character who takes all the supplies for herself.

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FOREVERLAND

Kear, Nicole C. Imprint (256 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-1-250-21983-1 When growing up becomes too overwhelming, escape to a place where troubles don’t exist….

Or where you can pretend they don’t.

Margaret has run away to Foreverland, an amusement park in full summer splendor. She plans to hide out after closing, gorging on junk food and evading park security. Complicating this brilliant scheme is the tanned, black-haired, Spanish-speaking “Mystery Boy” she keeps seeing and who appears totally at home in the park. But what’s his story? For a severely anxious girl with an affinity for acrostic poetry, this is an extreme rebellion. It goes to show how intense the changes have recently been in Margaret’s life, particularly an ominous red suitcase by the front door: Her parents are on the brink of divorce. Kear depicts this already-sensitive white preteen in a light that validates all her feelings; similarly, the emotional struggles of the Puerto Rican boy, Jaime, are sympathetically rendered. Margaret’s observational distance from others, a product of her need to go unnoticed as well as her personal inclinations, means readers spend a lot of time in her head. The stable but widely varied landscape of the amusement park banishes any danger of dullness. Foreverland “isn’t a theme park like Disneyland or whatever,” but it nevertheless has several Disney-esque features, like the word “magic” splashed everywhere. The carnival atmosphere, however, evokes more of a Coney Island feel appropriate to the location just outside of New York City. Kear includes gently placed Peter Pan references for those familiar with the tale.

This alternatingly touching and suspenseful adventure captures some real-life magic. (Fiction. 9-12)

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AMERICAN AS PANEER PIE

Kelkar, Supriya Aladdin (320 pp.) $17.99 | May 12, 2020 978-1-5344-3938-2

BEAST Face-to-Face With the Florida Bigfoot

Key, Watt Farrar, Straus and Giroux (224 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-374-31369-2 Thirteen-year-old Adam feels compelled to uncover the mystery of his parents’ disappearance, even if it means facing a monster.

An accident on a forested Florida road late at night leaves Adam in the hospital and his parents missing. Adam saw what his father swerved to avoid but can’t believe it: a massive, manlike beast. He tells the police, which leads to a newspaper article, but the official search for his parents is fruitless. Still, Adam can’t stop thinking about both accident and beast. Taken in by |

LIKE THE MOON LOVES THE SKY

Khan, Hena Illus. by Khan, Saffa Chronicle (40 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 10, 2020 978-1-4521-8019-9

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After years of keeping silent in the face of hate, Indian American Lekha Divekar finds her voice.

For all her 11 years, Lekha’s strategy for surviving her mostly white Detroit suburb has been to keep quiet and avoid standing out. Not that it’s done her much good; when her racist classmates aren’t harassing her, they pepper her with questions about her family’s heritage. When a new Indian-immigrant family moves in across the street, Lekha assumes that their daughter, Avantika, will be ill-equipped to cope with the town’s xenophobia. But Lekha couldn’t have been more wrong: Unlike Lekha, Avantika isn’t afraid to stick up for herself. The more Lekha gets to know Avantika, the more she admires her confidence—and the more determined Lekha becomes to find her own voice. Kelkar masterfully develops Lekha’s voice, infusing the protagonist with the perfect balance of curiosity, wit, and insight. Furthermore, she roots the novel in the present by juxtaposing Lekha’s school troubles with local hate crimes and a local congressional election dominated by a far-right candidate.

Unfortunately, Lekha does most of her character development in the last third of the book, making the first two-thirds feel more like an increasingly monotonous catalog of complaints than a plot arc. Furthermore, at times, the author’s view can be Hindu-centric, as when she refers to Marathi New Year as an Indian, rather than Hindu, holiday. Overall, though, the book addresses important issues of racism, colorism, and xenophobia through a well-drawn narrator whose political evolution is fascinating to watch.

Tackles important issues with nuance—but pacing lags.

(Fiction. 10-14)

his uncle, Adam’s suspended from his new school on his first day for fighting about the newspaper article. He finds reports online of other sightings, one fairly close by, and hikes overnight to learn more from the man who spied it. The man’s intensity scares Adam off, but Adam’s a hunter and comfortable in the outdoors, so he equips himself and heads into the wilderness to find answers. After a harrowing trek and near starvation, Adam discovers the terrifying truth behind the legends. Readers will identify with Everykid Adam, who finds he can’t trust what he’s always been told about the world. Walking a fine line between the fantastic and the realistic, Key creates a scary, page-turning adventure spun from his own experience (set forth in an author’s note). Characters are assumed white.

This compelling cryptid fantasy has its big feet planted firmly in realistic survival fiction. (Fantasy. 8-14)

Punctuating the narrative with repetitions of “inshallah,” a mother lists the hopes she has for her child in this celebration of unconditional love.

Simple and lyrical verse expresses a parent’s wish of safety, love, happiness, and so much more for her child. “Inshallah you are kind to those most in need. / Inshallah you seek knowledge, reflect, and read.” Saffa Khan’s illustrations complement Hena Khan’s text, bringing to it a sense of movement, change, and liveliness as she ages the child from babe in arms to preschooler.

The clear and short sentences deliver a straightforward message of parental love. Using a vibrant, bright, bold palette dominated by orange, blue, and yellow, the illustrations capture this family’s feelings, including such details as Arabic words in the background and an older figure wearing hijab to demonstrate that this is a Muslim family. Family members all have black hair, the brown of their skin varying slightly individual by individual. An author’s note before the title page explains the meaning of the phrase “inshallah,” noting that it is spoken by Muslims worldwide and expresses a “common theme found in other languages and cultures.” This is a lovely addition to the growing collection of diverse books focusing on a family’s unconditional love and addresses the dearth of children’s books inspired by the Quran.

This beautiful, sweet, heartfelt message of love and hope for a child will resonate with many. (Picture book. 3- 7)

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PLASTIC Past, Present, and Future

Kim, Eun-ju Illus. by Lee, Ji Won Trans. by Comfort, Joungmin Lee Scribble (36 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-950354-06-1

This Korean import explores a prevalent material in our daily lives.

Author Kim and illustrator Lee offer scenes to help kids digest the complex story of plastics. Plentiful illustrations describe production flows or act as seek-and-find challenges with examples of plastic objects around the home. For younger or emergent readers, many objects in the home scene are labeled to help build vocabulary or reinforce sight words. While the text explores some of the reasons plastic has become so enmeshed in our world, it does not fully confront the power of multinational oil companies or the international components of plastics recycling that evolve with each news cycle. However, refreshingly, plastics recycling is not presented as a catchall solution for single-use plastics. Readers are encouraged to reduce single-use plastic consumption, to learn about innovative solutions from scientists and activists, and to acknowledge that eliminating plastics use is unlikely. Illustrations of people throughout show varied skin tones consistent with the bold style used by the illustrator. The narrative format of the text, with three to five short paragraphs per page, and absence of table of contents, index, or cited backmatter make this more of a jumping-off point than a reference text. Open-ended questions throughout create natural breaks for discussion.

This valiant attempt to storify and simplify a complex topic for elementary-aged children mostly succeeds. (Infor­ mational picture book. 7-10)

BAT AND SLOTH HANG AROUND

Kimmelman, Leslie Illus. by Braun, Seb Whitman (32 pp.) $12.99 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-0-8075-0585-4 Series: Bat and Sloth

A fruit bat and a two-toed sloth slowly make friends in this opening volume in an early reader series.

As the sun sets, readers meet Bat, who is sleeping upside down in a rainforest. When he awakens, he’s unpleasantly surprised to find another animal in his tree: “This is my branch!”

The newcomer is in favor of sharing, though, and Sloth introduces himself—slowly, of course. Sloth sees the two as similar, but Bat points out all their differences. In the next chapter, the two enjoy fruit together before unsuccessfully playing some games. Tag clearly is not a game in Sloth’s wheelhouse, and when 132

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Bat hides, Sloth falls asleep before he can count to 10 and begin seeking. In Chapter 3, each of the new friends saves the other from calamity and is a hero. The final chapter features an accident, some reluctant apologizing, and forgiveness. The Level 2 reader uses brief chapters, short sentences, easy words, and a bit of repetition to strengthen beginning readers’ skills. Braun’s illustrations focus on the branch the new friends share, a soft blue sky and deep green in the trees highlighting the fact that the animals are nocturnal. The book’s weak spot is character development. In both the pictures and the text Sloth seems adorable and sweet while Bat comes off as a rather brash friend.

Readers may not want to spend more time with him.

A rough start to both a friendship and a series. (Early reader. 4- 7)

WORSE AND WORSE ON NOAH’S ARK

Kimmelman, Leslie Illus. by Mineker, Vivian Apples & Honey Press (32 pp.) $17.95 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-1-68115-554-8

Life on the ark wasn’t always a lark.

Noah follows God’s commandment to build a really big ark with the help of his wife and his sons. In a bit of linguistic license, Mrs. Noah turns to Yiddish to complain, as do the sons. What with the constant rain, things just get “WORSE and WORSE and WORSE.” The animals arrive, and the ark gets crowded, dirty, and throwing-up smelly. Yes, it keeps getting worse. Then the critters begin to argue among themselves and eye one another hungrily. The smells increase, and the Noah family wonders one more time, “Could things get any worse?” They do when the ark springs a leak, but Noah has a solution: cooperation.

Tranquility and a good-neighbor policy result. The flood ends, and the Noah family and the animals all happily disembark. In her notes, the author states that she has told her tale following the Judaic tradition of midrash, stories that elucidate Biblical text. She also hopes that readers of her book will learn to live in “harmony,” with “empathy,” and “peacefully.” Mineker’s illustrations against a white background provide amusing views of the animals; readers will chuckle at details such as the blissfully sleeping sloths and sneezing squirrels. The humans are depicted with white and brown faces.

The story of Noah and the Ark provides a lesson in living together in peace. (Picture book. 4-6)

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Readers enter a space where homosexuality and bisexuality are thoughtfully discussed and traditional ideas of masculinity are explored and challenged. second dad summer

A LITTLE BIT BRAVE

Kinnear, Nicola Illus. by the author Orchard/Scholastic (32 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-338-56327-6 A bunny overcomes his fear of the outside world and sets off on his first

SECOND DAD SUMMER

Klas, Benjamin Illus. by Arroyo, Fian Red Chair Press (224 pp.) $16.99 | May 1, 2020 978-1-947159-242

A young man learns about Pride, tolerance, and acceptance in this heartwarming debut.

Iowan Jeremiah usually enjoys spending summers with his father, Al, a construction worker who lives in Minneapolis. Except now those summers include Al’s new boyfriend, Michael, a man with highlighted hair who drinks organic teas, rides around on a unicorn-themed bicycle, and comes across as way too gay for Jeremiah’s taste. As the summer progresses, Jeremiah’s friendships with Sage, a girl who lives close by with her moms, and Mr. Keeler, an older, gay next-door neighbor who shares his love of gardening, help him rethink his view of Michael and his beliefs about masculinity. Klas’ novel is a timely salute to the evolving picture of a traditional American family. The author’s mastery of this subject matter is evident in the smallest details of the world he creates, from the |

PARK HERE

Lakin, Patricia Illus. by Tarrant, Daniel Whitman (32 pp.) $12.99 | Mar. 1, 2020 978-0-8075-6366-3 Carl the car and a passel of automobile friends look forward to some fun in an outdoor park until they are misdirected up the ramp of a parking structure by a sign that reads “PARK HERE.” Carl ascends the ramp and becomes confused as to why there are no birds, trees, or grass—not to mention friends.

When Carl reaches the top level, there are the other cars, all equally upset. This supposed Level 1 early reader has a rhyming narrative and short sentences but very little vocabulary repetition to facilitate learning, introducing new words on each page of text. The storyline itself is intriguing enough; although the initial wordplay may be immediately appreciated by adults, kids may miss the double meaning. Cartoon art of boxy cars in bold colors with large googly eyes for headlights above large smiles or frowns develops the characters. Carl and friends eventually descend the long ramp and arrive at the park they know and love, complete with speed bumps along their racetrack. Young readers might think the parking garage looks like an awful lot of fun and that the mix-up didn’t need any fixing, but kids who love cars as characters should be happy to take this for a spin.

A wayward trip righted, though beginning readers may need some assistance to figure it out. (Early reader. 6-8)

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adventure.

Bunny friends Logan and Luna couldn’t be more different. Logan is a “stay-at-home-bunny.” Luna is daring and has “new adventures every day.” Luna invites Logan to join in her adventures, but he is too scared. One day, fed up with Logan’s timorousness, Luna stomps off in frustration. Logan feels awful and realizes he must make up with her immediately to save their friendship. There’s only one problem—she’s “OUTSIDE!” Reluctantly, he packs a higgledy-piggledy assemblage of items and heads out the door. The outside world is scary, but thankfully Logan meets some helpful forest friends. As Logan searches for Luna, he discovers whole new worlds and creatures: underwater, among the trees, and deep inside a dark cave. He kind of likes it. When he stops to rest, he hears a cry of distress. Luna is in trouble! Logan must summon all his courage to save her, rising magnificently to the occasion using a surprising secret weapon. Kinnear illustrates Logan’s romp through the autumnal woods and beyond with a touch of whimsy. The rich, vibrant palette—swirling waters in cool shades of blue and glowing woodlands drenched in warm, earthy hues—paired with a lighthearted text makes for a charming story.

A sweet addition to the “you’re braver than you think” shelf. (Picture book. 4-8)

urban smells of a big city and the spirit of a Pride festival to Jeremiah’s angst over Michael’s use of nicknames reserved for his parents. Arroyo’s black-and-white cartoon illustrations give further texture to the story. Through Klas’ eminently likable young protagonist, readers enter a space where homosexuality and bisexuality are thoughtfully discussed and traditional ideas of masculinity are explored and challenged. The cast is default white, but the diversity within the LGBTQ community is thoughtfully presented, including in the persons of Sage and her mother Lisa, who are Hmong (Sage was conceived via artificial insemination).

Touching and unforgettable. (Fiction. 9-13)

LOST CITIES

Laroche, Giles Illus. by the author HMH Books (40 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-328-75364-9 Profiles of ancient cities from around the world, intricately illustrated, highlight their mysteries.

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The often-dramatic images offer a glimpse of the city prior to the conflict and a window on the real people who experience war. the cat man of aleppo

described, each profile hitting on “Location,” “Who lived here,” “Why was it lost,” “How was it found,” and “What’s mysterious.”

Cities such as Babylon (in present-day Iraq), Angkor Wat (in Cambodia), and Rapa Nui (now called Easter Island) are represented in impressive detail thanks to Laroche’s signature paper-relief art.

Backmatter includes a timeline, placing each city in chronological order of its construction, as well as an overview of Laroche’s artistic process. Young readers who are fascinated by historical mysteries may find this an interesting jumping-off point for deeper exploration of the featured settlements; none of the profiles are extensive enough to satisfy research-project requirements or the curiosity of true history nerds. Readers will encounter language that normalizes colonization: For example, much of the information listed under Laroche’s “How was it found?” sections describe European “explorers” and archaeologists who “rediscovered” or “visited” settlements built by the Indigenous peoples of the various continents.

Additionally, the profile on Angkor Wat sets a peculiarly exocitizing scene: “If you had lived in this city…you would have encountered bizarre creatures, such as monkey-like wild macaques, flying wingless snakes, as well as people perched on elephants or dressed in colored silk sarongs.”

Stunning visuals paired with some disappointing content. (Nonfiction. 5-10)

GROW KIND

Lasser, Jon & Foster-Lasser, Sage Illus. by Lyles, Christopher Magination/American Psychological Association (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-4338-3050-1 An uplifting book about how to show kindness through abundant giving.

Kiko wakes up in the morning eager to discover what delicious food the garden has to offer, beginning the narrative by asking readers who helps them wake up. This immediately invites readers into the story on a personal level. Kiko and older sister Annie begin giving away their harvest, and throughout all of Kiko’s sharing, readers will find diversity among those in Kiko’s life. Through the inclusion of children of color, a samesex brown-skinned neighbor couple, a hungry white woman who appears homeless, an elderly white woman with a disability, and a white man who struggles with sadness and anger, readers will be exposed to a variety of accurately represented people.

Kiko and Annie present Asian and their parents, white, suggesting interracial adoption. Kiko’s gentle adventures encourage children to think of others’ needs and feelings. Kiko ends this story of giving generously by asking readers to think about how they might “grow kind.” Lyles’ colorful, collagelike illustrations are as inviting and charming as Kiko’s narration. The final pages include a “Note to Parents and Other Caregivers” section that provides education and guidance regarding encouraging empathy in young children and how to use this book to do so.

This positive, diverse book about kindness can be used in a variety of teaching and learning spaces. (Picture book. 3-6) 134

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THE CAT MAN OF ALEPPO

Latham, Irene & Shamsi-Basha, Karim Illus. by Shimizu, Yuko Putnam (40 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-9848-1378-7 When the war comes to Syria, many flee, but Alaa stays in his beloved city, Aleppo, where he continues to work as an ambulance driver and helps the wounded to safety.

Day after day, he misses his family and friends who have left, wondering where they are and how they are doing. His neighborhood empties—except for cats! However, these cats are affected by the conflict too; they’re left behind with shelters destroyed and food and water stringently limited. Alaa, who has a big heart, starts taking care of them using the little money he has. The love between man and cats multiplies, and many people from around the world step up to help. Soon, the cats of Aleppo get a pleasant shelter set in a courtyard. However, Alaa does not stop there and goes on to help other animals and more people, spreading joy, love, and hope. Based on a true story, this picture book is distinctive for its engaging narrative and impeccable illustrations. It is also enriched with notes from Alaa himself (the real one) as well as the authors and illustrator.

The often-dramatic images offer a glimpse of the city prior to the conflict and a window on the real people who experience war and try to survive and help others around them.

A beautifully told and illustrated story that offers a unique perspective on both war and humanity. (Picture book.

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THE HIPS ON THE DRAG QUEEN GO SWISH, SWISH, SWISH

Lil Miss Hot Mess Illus. by de Dios, Olga Running Press (40 pp.) $17.99 | May 5, 2020 978-0-7624-6765-5

This book’s gonna werk, werk, werk all through Pride Month and beyond.

Drag persona Lil Miss Hot Mess rewrites “The Wheels on the Bus” to create a fun, movement-filled, family-friendly celebration of drag. The text opens with the titular verse to establish the familiar song’s formulaic pattern: “The hips on the drag queen go SWISH, SWISH, SWISH… / ALL THROUGH THE TOWN!” Along the way, more and more drag queens join in the celebration. The unnamed queens proudly display a range of skin tones, sizes, and body modifications to create a diverse cast of realistic characters that could easily be spotted at a Pride event or on RuPaul’s Drag Race. The palette of both costumes and backgrounds is appropriately psychedelic, and there are |

plenty of jewels going “BLING, BLING, BLING.” Don’t tell the queens, but the flow is the book’s real star, because it encourages natural kinetic participation that will have groups of young readers giggling and miming along with the story. Libraries and bookshops hosting drag-queen storytimes will find this a popular choice, and those celebrating LGBTQ heritage will also find this a useful book for the pre-K crowd. Curious children unfamiliar with a drag queen may require a brief explanation, but the spectacle stands up just fine on its own platforms.

Fun, fun, fun all through the town! (Picture book. 4-6)

MY MASTODON

Lowell, Barbara Illus. by Marinoni, Antonio Creative Editions/Creative Company (32 pp.) $19.99 | Feb. 25, 2020 978-1-56846-327-8

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In spare verse, Lowry reflects on moments in her childhood, including the bombings of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima.

When she was a child, Lowry played at Waikiki Beach with her grandmother while her father filmed.

In the old home movie, the USS Arizona appears through the mist on the horizon. Looking back at her childhood in Hawaii and then Japan, Lowry reflects on the bombings that began and ended a war and how they affected and connected everyone involved. In Part 1, she shares the lives and actions of sailors at Pearl Harbor. Part 2 is stories of civilians in Hiroshima affected by the bombing. Part 3 presents her own experience as an American in Japan shortly after the war ended. The poems bring the haunting human scale of war to the forefront, like the Christmas cards a sailor sent days before he died or the 4-yearold who was buried with his red tricycle after Hiroshima. All the personal stories—of sailors, civilians, and Lowry herself—are grounding. There is heartbreak and hope, reminding readers to reflect on the past to create a more peaceful future. Lowry uses a variety of poetry styles, identifying some, such as triolet and haiku. Pak’s graphite illustrations are like still shots of history, adding to the emotion and somber feeling. He includes some sailors of color among the mostly white U.S. forces; Lowry is white.

A beautiful, powerful reflection on a tragic history. (author’s note, bibliography) (Memoir/poetry. 10-14)

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Crisis looms when young Sybilla Peale learns that big brother Rembrandt is taking a beloved fossil for a tour of England.

Sybilla is accustomed to living among the wildlife exhibits (“They are very well behaved. They’re stuffed”) that fill the natural history museum set up in their home by Rembrandt and their father, Charles Willson Peale. She is understandably infuriated at the news that the “magnificent!” fossil skeleton beneath which she holds her doll tea parties will be leaving. Her rebellion melts away, though, when Rembrandt actually bows to her wishes. “Even if he is bossy, he is my brother,” she reflects, and rather than force him to leave the mastodon behind she lets the bones themselves decide. Marinoni illustrates this fictional episode in the life of the multitalented Peales with painterly views of a small, blonde spark plug confidently at home amid her all-white clan, exactly rendered early-American art and furnishings…not to mention all sorts of birds, insects, fossils, and other specimens. The scale of the mastodon skeleton relative to Sybilla is jaw-dropping, emphasized in image after image. Occasional outbreaks of elegantly set italics add an appropriately antique flavor to Sybilla’s narrative, and the author adds a pair of well-chosen period illustrations to an admiring explanatory afterword.

Accomplished illustrations further elevate this engaging introduction to America’s first family of science. (Pic­ ture book. 7-9)

ON THE HORIZON

Lowry, Lois Illus. by Pak, Kenard HMH Books (80 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-358-12940-0

MY MINDFUL WALK WITH GRANDMA

Mabry, Sheri Illus. by Pink, Wazza Whitman (32 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-0-8075-7072-2

A young girl is so excited to share a surprise with her grandmother that she begins their hike together in a distracted rush.

Spending time with Grandma is clearly a joy for the young child. The girl enthusiastically hurries along through the woods, hoping to catch a glimpse of the loons on the lake, but Grandma takes the time to notice the sights and sounds of the forest. She gently reminds her granddaughter that “if we keep looking for there, we will miss what is right here.” The child accepts this invitation to pause. She closes her eyes, stills her body, connects with her breath, and then is able to notice the tiny treasures the forest has to share, like the rustle of leaves and the colorful pop of spring flowers. The quality of this title’s narrative sets it apart kirkus.com

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in the growing mindfulness-for-children genre. The depiction of a special intergenerational relationship is the clear priority of the story. Rather than using the narrative to instruct readers in mindfulness (this is saved for the backmatter), mindfulness practice is authentically embedded into the interaction between the two characters. The illustrations, awash in green and somewhat nostalgic in styling, complement the narrative and successfully transport readers to a lush forest brimming with life. Both narrator and Grandma present white.

Clearly demonstrates the sense of connectedness—to nature, others, and self—that mindfulness practice can bring. (Picture book. 4-8)

TOO STICKY! Sensory Issues With Autism

Malia, Jen Illus. by Lew-Vriethoff, Joanne Whitman (32 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-0-8075-8026-4

A young girl with autism and sensory issues dreads slime day at school.

Holly’s science class is making slime, but she’s not excited one bit. In fact, Holly is rather anxious at the thought of making slime, because it’s made with sticky glue, and just syrup is enough to make her squirm in distress. Holly’s sensory issues are depicted via her dislike of sticky things, loud noises that hurt her ears, and her discomfort with making eye contact.

Readers quickly grasp how Holly experiences the world differently compared to neurotypical children through Holly’s use of coping methods such as breathing exercises and using a stress ball in class. Throughout the story, Holly’s family, teacher, and classmates are shown to be understanding and helpful. They demonstrate their support and care by making small accommodations, such as speaking up or apologizing for making a loud noise. Indeed, the #ownvoices author’s debut picture book showcases the world as it should be, one in which people are aware of Holly’s autism and sensory issues and act accordingly.

This story is a great conversation starter to help children understand that not everyone experiences the world the same. LewVriethoff ’s lively illustrations capture the emotions of the story, complementing Malia’s simple storytelling. Holly is depicted with fair skin and light brown hair while other characters are illustrated with various skin tones and hair colors.

Charming, inclusive, and grounded in real-life experiences. (author’s note, slime recipe) (Picture book. 6-8)

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DIABETES DOESN’T STOP MADDIE!

Marsh, Sarah Glenn Illus. by Di Gravio, Maria Luisa Whitman (32 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-0-8075-4703-8 Follow along on Maddie’s first day back at school after a diagnosis of Type

1 diabetes.

Maddie is understandably nervous; she’s had a lot to learn and process. The very first page explains Type 1 diabetes: “Her body stopped making insulin, which turns sugar in food into energy.” And on the next spread, readers see Maddie using her insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor and explaining them (in fairly adult language) to her younger brother. Packing for school is a bit complicated, what with the extra snacks and juice and backups for her monitor. Being prepared for her classmates’ questions is another matter. Her friend Brianna’s sister has diabetes, so she can answer many of the kids’ questions, much to Maddie’s relief. And Luis, whose grandfather has the disease, stands up for her when she needs a juice in art class and prompts her to cover up her CGM at a soccer game to avoid more questions. Di Gravio’s illustrations capture emotions clearly, from Maddie’s uncertainty and Brianna’s matter-of-fact support to the curiosity, jealousy, and tendency to think the worst displayed by some of Maddie’s diverse classmates. Maddie and her family are light skinned, Brianna has dark skin, and Luis is Latinx. Marsh’s note describes her own connection to diabetes and her wish that no one should feel as though they are dealing with it alone.

Both reassuring for those with diabetes and educational for those around them. (Picture book. 4-8)

HAVE YOU EVER ZEEN A ZIZ?

Marshall, Linda Elovitz Illus. by Reed, Kyle Whitman (32 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-0-8075-3173-0

What in the world is a ziz?

It is an extraordinary, amazing bird.

She has a wingspan that can block the sky, but she’s gentle and sweet, with kindness for all, playing with children and guarding farmers’ crops. Oh yes, she also sings from morning to night, when she’s alone or at play with friends or in her nest on high. The songs can be happy or sad, but they are always loud. When she takes “a little shluffy,” incorporating a Yiddish word for a child’s nap, the singing ends, only to be replaced by even louder snores. Marshall tells this very slight tale in lilting, vaguely Seussian singsong rhymes that fly across the pages along with the mysterious ziz. In a note Marshall cites biblical Jewish writings naming this bird that inspired her to bring it to life. Reed’s brightly hued illustrations interpret |

As befitting the creator of the beloved Narnia books, this illustrated biography maintains the sense of a story unfolding. through the wardrobe

Marshall’s vision of the ziz and are designed with unfettered imagination and verve. When the bird stands on her yellow feet on land, her orange crown and yellow beak reach through the clouds. Her huge orange wings are in perfect proportion to her very long neck and flexible body. The work begs to be read aloud—or, better yet, together—and the large print with a smattering of italics provides cues for fun-filled interpretations.

Sweet and delightful and totally charming. (Picture book.

3-9)

THROUGH THE WARDROBE How C.S. Lewis Created Narnia

Maslo, Lina Illus. by the author Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (48 pp.) $17.99 | May 5, 2020 978-0-06-279856-5

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From sunup until bedtime, Ivy imitates the birds she loves.

She wakes to the “tweets and cheeps” of her canary and spends the day being a bird: pecking at her breakfast, warbling, drinking “sweet nectar” from a play tea set, posing like a flamingo statue, lunching on berries, smelling flowers, collecting “shiny bits and pieces” like a bower bird, splashing in the tub, and finally hooting like an owl when it’s time to “settle in her nest.”

Each page turn reveals a different activity. Racklyeft digitally combines watercolor images with printed textures to create colorful illustrations showing the imaginative redhead and her family: mum, bearded dad, and twin baby sibs. Ivy changes her costume to fit her activities and her mood—at one point sporting heart-shaped dark glasses. This Australian import features birds of that country as well as those that are more widespread; the 12 shown on the cover are described in the backmatter.

Most can be found in the pages of the text, and there are even more. North American children may also recognize the cockatoo and the domestic chicken who join in her birdsong, though the kookaburra may be more obscure. Happily, the activity of pretending to be a bird is universal. Who hasn’t tried flapping their wings as Ivy does, as she waves a rainbow cloak and chases five bright rosellas?

This simply written celebration of the natural world may prompt kids to “trill and chirp” as well. (Picture book. 3- 7)

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The story of C.S. Lewis and how Narnia came to be.

From a young age, books and imagination were enormously important to young Clive Staples Lewis—or Jack, as he preferred to be called—and here, the warm, folkloric text and colorful, detailed ink-and-acrylic pictures invite readers and listeners to consider how, through dark moments, he created his own stories as a bright refuge. Lewis had a close relationship with his brother, developed a love of religion, and found happiness with an American wife, but he also withstood the early death of his mother, isolation and bullying in boarding school, and the horrors of World War I in part through his creativity and storytelling. As befitting the creator of the beloved Narnia books, this illustrated biography maintains the sense of a story unfolding, leading up to the moments when the iconic stories came to be while simultaneously explaining Lewis’ background, experiences, and some of his likely inspirations. Though Lewis dealt with much difficulty, the emphasis is on how he coped and, throughout his life, read, imagined, dreamed, pondered, and created. The endnotes provide a plethora of facts and additional information, nicely organized for potential research; these will likely elicit additional questions about his life and may lead readers to explore further.

This engaging and affectionate re-creation of Lewis’ life highlights resilience, creativity, and inspiration. (Pic­ ture book/biography. 6-10)

IVY BIRD

McCartney, Tania Illus. by Racklyeft, Jess Blue Dot Kids Press (32 pp.) $17.95 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-7331212-1-7

FUN FUN FUN WORLD

Mercado, Yehudi Illus. by the author Oni Press (176 pp.) $12.99 paper | Apr. 21, 2020 978-1-62010-732-4

A human boy and an extraterrestrial team up in this zany theme-park adventure.

“Boy weirdo” Javi loves scary rides and amusement-park games. It’s perfect, then, that his dad is a “theme parkitect” who’s been working to reopen the shuttered Fun Fun Fun World. When real live ET’s crash-land at Fun Fun Fun World, Javi sees this as an unprecedented opportunity to harness their technology. For his part, Minky, Devastorm 5’s captain, is full of bravado, eager to conquer Earth for the Gonzol Imperium. With the theme park’s slogan, “it’s not a dream if you believe it,” as their motto, the unlikely allies team up to turn their dreams into reality. The twisty plot brings together plenty of churros, deception, sabotage, feral cats, augmented reality, jokes, and lessons learned. The ET’s are primarily turquoise; both ET’s and humans with feminine kirkus.com

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The luscious, intricately detailed illustrations are rendered in an unearthly palette of blacks, blues, and golds. how the stars came to be

pronouns are endowed with noticeable eyelashes. Brownskinned Javi and his father are Latinx while theme-park visitors have a diversity of skin tones, and some present as queer. Mercado’s art is dynamic, full of energy and bright colors that burst off the page. With some suspension of disbelief required (would Javi’s dad really leave Javi alone at the park for a week?), this is a great choice for fans of James Burks’ Bird & Squirrel and J. Torres and Sean Dove’s BroBots.

A silly and surprisingly heartwarming alien invasion.

(Graphic science fiction. 7-10)

THE NEXT PRESIDENT The Unexpected Beginnings and Unwritten Future of America’s Presidents Messner, Kate Illus. by Rex, Adam Chronicle (48 pp.) $18.99 | Mar. 24, 2020 978-1-4521-7488-4

What did presidents do before being elected? Tour a gallery of presidential portraits and find out!

There is always just one president at a time, but the presidents to come—maybe 10 or more—will be out there somewhere. When John F. Kennedy was elected as the 35th president in 1961, the next 10 presidents were alive. What were they doing? Lyndon Baines Johnson was Kennedy’s vice president.

Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer. George H.W. Bush was president of an oil exploration company. Donald Trump was attending a military academy, “where his father had hoped he would learn some discipline.” In his painterly art, Rex depicts a diverse group of people touring a gallery of presidential portraits. The tourists are multiracial and multiethnic, young and old. There’s a woman wearing a hijab pushing a stroller and a woman using a wheelchair. But the faces on the wall are all of white men until No. 44, President Barack Obama. There is no portrait of President Trump, but there is one of Hillary Clinton, “a woman nominated by a major party for the highest office of the land”—which, though true, is misleading in this context. Follow her gaze to an empty frame, No. 46, where the next portrait of a future president will be included. What are future presidents doing right now? The extensive backmatter is accessible and informative, and it includes reading suggestions for young readers.

Clear, engaging, and fun (and just a little iconoclastic). (presidential birthplaces, presidential requirements, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 8-12)

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MY BROTHER THE DUCK

Miller, Pat Zietlow Illus. by Wiseman, Daniel Chronicle (40 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-1-4521-4283-8

Quirky new-baby storytime fun to quack readers up.

Protagonist Stella Wells, “fledgling scientist,” has a new baby brother. She also has the distinctly peculiar notion that he may be a duckling. In a matter-of-fact narration, Stella notes that her suspicions began when her mother was pregnant and her father joked “You’re waddling. We must be having a duck.”

When the baby comes home, illustrations clearly depict him as a human infant (white-appearing like Stella and her parents), but inquisitive, observant Stella takes notes that support her hypothesis about his potential duck nature: He is “scrawny” and “yellow” (wrapped in a yellow receiving blanket), and he has a “flat, broad nose” (which Wiseman represents as a large pacifier). Then Mom announces the baby’s name: Drake. This is just one instance where Miller’s wordplay ratchets up the humor of this offbeak, er, offbeat new-baby book. Wiseman’s accompanying cartoon art is reminiscent of Zachariah OHora’s style, and it capitalizes on the text’s silly premise as Stella investigates her brother’s status with the help of her friend Carla Martinez (who, like many others at Stella’s school, is depicted as a kid of color).

Just ducky. (Picture book. 4- 7)

HOW THE STARS CAME TO BE

Mistry, Poonam Illus. by the author Tate/Abrams (32 pp.) $17.95 | Mar. 27, 2020 978-1-84976-663-0

An anxious fisherman’s daughter and a mischievous monkey fill the sky with stars.

At the beginning of time, only the sun and the moon light the world. The fisherman’s daughter loves the light, not only because of the way it feels on her skin, but also because it safely guides her father home every night. On nights when the moon is absent, though, the fisherman’s daughter weeps until her father returns. Noticing the girl’s distress, the sun throws the girl a ray of light, which shatters into millions of tiny, glimmering pieces that the sun calls stars. Delighted, she starts making careful patterns in the sky, but eventually, she grows tired and overwhelmed. She lets down her guard just long enough for a mischievous monkey to steal her sack of stars—and to create the universe we know today. The luscious, intricately detailed illustrations are rendered in an unearthly palette of blacks, blues, and golds, perfect for the mood and content of the story. The protagonist is a feisty and resourceful girl of color.

Unfortunately, the design and the prose are not equal to the pictures. While the story is clever and imaginative, the prose |

can be clumsy, particularly when it slips into passive voice. The indigo type is small, making it difficult to distinguish from the black background and detracting from the attractiveness of the artwork.

The illustrations of this imaginative modern myth compensate for its flaws. (Picture book. 3-5)

I DREAM OF A JOURNEY

Miyakoshi, Akiko Illus. by the author Trans. by Hirano, Cathy Kids Can (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-5253-0478-1

The owner of the Solitude Hotel dreams of being the traveler in this Japa-

TYPEWRITER

Nayberg, Yevgenia Illus. by the author Creative Editions/Creative Company (32 pp.) $19.99 | Feb. 25, 2020 978-1-56846-344-5 Though accustomed to making stories with others, an “old Russian typewriter” now spins a tale of its own.

This quirky tale begins with the typewriter, painted lovingly in exquisite detail, presenting itself and its 33 Cyrillic letters, with which it makes “beautiful sounds.” At the outset, the |

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nese import.

The squat, furry, animal standing behind the registration desk assisting a rabbit guest is hard to identify. When the protagonist also appears among an assortment of other characters—all are anthropomorphic creatures—it is also sometimes difficult to determine which one is the hotelier, although the first-person narration compels one to try. While the establishment is cozy and full of mutual storytelling, the innkeeper yearns for adventure too. The hotel scenes are in black and white, but as the narrator drifts off to sleep, the softly textured lithographs appear in color. In the dream, a bicycle, plane, and car transport the protagonist to a sunny beach, a picnic with former customers, and an encounter with a rainbow. The innkeeper awakens to the original palette only to study colorful postcards from guests in the evening. Close observers will recognize some of the images. Still awake, the protagonist imagines setting off on a journey, although this time it is rendered in black and white—optimists and pessimists will draw different conclusions from this decision. While some children may relate to these longings, this title feels more adult in perspective than Miyakoshi’s previous stories, which, while equally evocative and dreamlike, are grounded in matters more closely connected to childhood: parties, storms, bedtime.

Visually arresting but melancholy. (Picture book. 5- 7)

typewriter belongs to a Russian writer, and the two create stories together. Everything changes, however, when the writer decides to start a new life in America. Being able to bring only “the most necessary things,” he chooses the typewriter, for “how else can [he] write in America?” The new land brings new challenges, and the typewriter soon finds itself neglected, abandoned for newer technologies. Worse yet, in typical Russian-novel fashion, it begins to rain. But a new day brings an inquisitive little girl to the typewriter; although she doesn’t know Russian, she cajoles her father into bringing it home. The typewriter, overjoyed, shows her its keys, convinced that “we will make beautiful sounds together.” Simple language, the detached yet tender narrative voice, and wonderfully stylized, almost jazzlike illustrations in muted colors give this story its charm. Human figures throughout are diverse, and the father-and-daughter pair who rescue the typewriter present black. Readers familiar with Russian and the Cyrillic alphabet may enjoy trying to decipher the printed scraps of the writer’s work scattered throughout.

A gentle, unusual take on the immigration story. (author’s note) (Picture book. 6-10)

DARING DARLEEN, QUEEN OF THE SCREEN

Nesbet, Anne Candlewick (368 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-5362-0619-7

Child actor Darleen’s reality begins to resemble her weekly silent-film adventures.

The once-beloved young “Darling Darleen” is now, in 1914, grown up at 12 and rebranded as “Daring Darleen,” starring in weekly adventurous serial silent films.

Despite an absent mother, Darleen’s life has become routine at Matchless, her family’s struggling film studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the early hub of American filmmaking. When her family learns of the upcoming debut of the Strand Theatre in Manhattan, they contrive a fake kidnapping of Darleen on opening night to draw publicity to her film series. When the stunt turns into not only a real kidnapping, but the abduction of Victorine Berryman, “the Poor Little Rich Girl herself, orphaned scion of the Berryman railroad empire,” real adventures begin. In fittingly episodic chapters packed with smart dialogue, plucky characters, and dastardly villains, the girls must continuously save themselves from kidnappers out to steal Victorine’s fortune at any cost. As Darleen continues to uphold her acting duties throughout the shenanigans, readers learn early tricks of the trade, with an appearance by groundbreaking filmmaker Alice Guy Blaché adding to the fun; the apparently all-white cast underscores the deep roots of #OscarsSoWhite. True to Darleen’s work, the story leaves an open ending for a sequel.

The concluding author’s note offers even more facts about the silent-film age.

Just like Darleen—a spunky blend of darling and daring. (Historical fiction. 8-12)

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REMEMBERING ETHAN

Newman, Lesléa Illus. by Bishop, Tracy Magination/American Psychological Association (40 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-4338-3113-3 A family begins healing following a devastating loss.

Sarah lovingly remembers big brother Ethan, who has died.

Mommy and Daddy won’t talk or reminisce about him; neither wants to hear his name. Small acts offer solace: saying Ethan’s name aloud, writing his name, drawing his picture. When Sarah hangs the drawing on the refrigerator, Mommy and Daddy, distraught, leave the room. When Sarah angrily shouts that no one else seems to miss or remember Ethan, Mommy and Daddy must finally confront their pain. In doing so, they rehang the drawing in a more prominent location and gently explain that it’s grief that’s made them seem unfeeling. Poring over a family album allows everyone to openly share happy memories. The upbeat ending of this well-written, reassuring tale feels a tad rushed, and there’s no sense of how much time has elapsed since Ethan’s death. However, the author gets two important plot points just right. The circumstances surrounding Ethan’s death aren’t mentioned, suggesting the family (all depicted with pale skin and dark hair) is heartbroken simply because Ethan has died; as in real life, one cause is no less wrenching than another.

Furthermore, the child has real agency; Sarah effects change in the family dynamic that leads to cathartic healing. The delicate illustrations are expressive and effective. Useful psychologist’s tips in the backmatter guide adults in helping children discuss the death of a family member.

Gentle, comforting bibliotherapy. (Picture book. 4-8)

HATTIE

Nilsson, Frida Illus. by Wirsén, Stina Trans. by Marshall, Julia Gecko Press (160 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-776572-70-0 A young mischief-maker manages to get herself out of mishaps.

Six-year-old Hattie lives with her loving parents in a red house in Sweden. Their town is “far out in the middle of nowhere.” Hattie loves that she’s started school. She rides on the bus, does well, and makes friends. Each brief chapter in this gently comical novel describes various escapades Hattie gets up to, often alone, sometimes with her best pal. Readers will be intrigued by Hattie’s adventures and will note that each one offers a glimpse into her conscience and lively, persevering personality. Not coincidentally, the incidents advance Hattie’s character development, though she remains a child her age.

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imagination, enjoys testing her limits, and doesn’t usually foresee or understand the consequences of impulsivity. Still, when events don’t conclude the way she’d hoped or planned, Hattie gets sad, angry, or annoyed with herself, learning lessons probably no grown-ups could teach better. Readers will note Hattie’s rarely scolded; however, adults are often oblivious to her activities, and she does chide herself. This fast-paced, amusing charmer, with clipped sentences that promote quick reading, is a Swedish import via New Zealand and offers interesting insight into some Nordic customs. Loose black-line illustrations add humor and suggest that all characters are white. An interview with the author appears in the backmatter.

Readers will appreciate getting to know Hattie. (Fiction.

7-10)

MOMMY, CAN YOU STOP THE RAIN?

Novick, Rona Milch Illus. by Kubaszewska, Anna Apples & Honey Press (32 pp.) $17.95 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-1-68115-555-5

Distraction, reassurance, and lots of love from attentive parents help a young child feel comfortable and safe during a

thunderstorm.

Patient parents answer each simple, innocent question the child poses honestly and with a plausible response for creating a consoling solution. Though Mommy “cannot stop the rain,” eating sprinkled cookies while wrapped in a warm, dry towel should make the child feel better. Though Daddy cannot “shush the thunder,” marching around the table drumming a soup pot with a spoon should mask the scary noise. And while they cannot “turn off the lightning,” “quiet the wind,” or “send away the storm,” they can all be close and stay cozy and warm until the sun shines again. Illustrations washed with purple and lavender depict a dark, gloomy, stormy day and include details that indicate this white family is Jewish. There is a tzedakah box on the table to collect money for charity, Hebrew alphabet letters on the refrigerator and on the building blocks, and a Shabbat candle scene in a child’s drawing on the wall. The text also uses the Yiddish “Zayde” and “Bubbe” when referencing grandparents.

Beyond the visually Judaic atmosphere, the realistic strategies demonstrated can be applied to every young family dealing with a frightened child during a loud, turbulent weather episode.

This calming, credible approach to diverting children from the anxiety of volatile storms is a winner. (Picture book.

3-6)

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DEWDROP

O’Neill, Katie Illus. by the author Oni Press (40 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-62010-689-1

NEVERTELL

Orton, Katharine Illus. by Cai, Rovina Walker US/Candlewick (336 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-5362-0712-5 Born in a gulag, 12-year-old Lina has known only deprivation, pain, and cold, but a daring escape proves that the outside world holds more mystery than she could have ever imagined.

Everyone inside the wire knows that the chances of surviving an escape are minimal. But when plucky Lina is drawn into a madcap breakout scheme, she agrees to help; her best friend, Bogdan, determined to protect Lina, follows. Both children are desperate to reconnect with lost family and forge new lives outside. Their escape is thwarted at every turn, however, by mythic elements from forbidden tales that turn out to be frighteningly real: hidden powers, ghost hounds, and a preternaturally omnipresent sorceress possessing both a fanatical vendetta and a heart-wrenching secret. Orton weaves a somewhat far-fetched tale, seemingly drawing more on fantasy of her own devising |

ESCAPE GOAT

Patchett, Ann Illus. by Preiss Glasser, Robin Harper/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-06-288339-1

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The axolotl-cheerleader picture book you didn’t know you were waiting for.

Dewdrop is an anthropomorphic axolotl whose friends are preparing for an underwater “sports festival.” Only Mia, “a weightlifting turtle,” seems involved in any sportsmanship, though, preparing rigorously for a “pebble-throwing contest.”

Newman, a newt, is writing “a song to cheer everyone on,” and three minnows are “in charge of food.” As for Dewdrop, the pink, frilled amphibian is “working hard on a cheerleading routine.” While the routine may be intended for contenders in the sports festival, Dewdrop ends up cheering on the other characters as they engage in their own preparations. Dewdrop’s encouraging presence helps them fend off worries and selfdoubts. The text in this graphic-novel picture book is delivered via speech balloons, and the cheery comics-style illustrations with their big-eyed characters will capture readers’ attention; Dewdrop is adorable (almost) to the point of twee. Though anthropomorphic, these characters go largely unclothed save Mia’s flower-bedecked sweatband. The underwater setting is mostly cued by gently waving lake plants, though the postures of the minnows as they cook (in impossible cauldrons, but no matter) do give a sense of buoyancy. Although axolotls occur only in Mexico, characterizations are generically normative, with no sense of ethnic distinctiveness.

Playful, friendly, goodhearted fun. (Picture book. 4- 7)

than on Russia’s own rich folklore. As a result, the two salient aspects of the story—the Stalinist-era purges and prison camps and the magic—never fully cohere, and small gaps in believability tarnish what could have been a fascinating story. Although the story is rife with interesting personalities, Orton does little to flesh them out, and the limited third-person narration does little to advance the development of characters other than Lina.

The story is largely redeemed, however, by some truly beautiful images and relationships; the warm friendship between Bogdan and Lina is a particular delight. Lina is literally Caucasian; Bogdan is Tuvan. Cai’s scratchy, flowing chapter heads enhance the fantastical atmosphere.

A subtle, haunting debut. (Historical fantasy. 9-12)

The members of the Farmer family keep blaming their problems on their goat.

When the goat escapes from his pen, he gets into mischief—but is it he who tramples Mrs. Farmer’s petunias? Did the goat eat Andrew’s homework? Did he really knock over the paint can? Eat all the cupcakes for Archer’s birthday party? And how about the gum on Mr. Farmer’s seat? Mr. Farmer correctly observes that “Goats don’t chew gum.” Andrew retorts: “Escape Goat does.” It takes honest Nicolette to finally get to the truth.

She has to shout: “You’re punishing the goat for things he didn’t do.” The other family members don’t want to admit their own foibles, but in a slapstick scene Andrew throws a ball that hits the water pitcher carried by Mrs. Farmer; the water spills onto Uncle Nathan, who’s carrying a basket of muffins; the muffins are hurled at Mr. Farmer who drops a huge salad. In the midst of this great ado, Nicolette sensibly points out the goat grazing nearby and says: “The goat didn’t do anything.” The story itself lacks real substance and the wordplay on “scapegoat” will almost certainly elude young readers, but they will get the visual jokes, made evident in Glasser’s exuberant ink-and-watercolor cartoons. The humans (white-presenting save Archer, who has beige skin), the animals, and the farm itself are delightfully represented.

Humorous, engaging illustrations support a slight but amusing tale. (Picture book. 4- 7)

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The gallery of photos gives readers seats at a powwow. powwow

ROCK MAMMOTH

Payette, Eveline Illus. by Perreault, Guillaume Trans. by Simon, Karen Orca (48 pp.) $12.95 paper | Apr. 21, 2020 978-1-4598-2426-3 Louis’ class report on his favorite pet surprises everyone.

Enthusiastically launching his presentation on Mammuthus rockus, the rock mammoth, Louis provides background on prehistoric mammoths, digressing to the Icelandic researcher Voïvoden Mamouten, who discovered the species. Telling his classmates rock mammoths disappeared mysteriously, he goes into a lengthy definition of what constitutes a mystery and a hypothesis, frustrating his teacher, who urges him to get back to his report. Louis then reviews various hypotheses on why rock mammoths disappeared, culminating with his own that they simply went into hiding. Explaining he’s read every library book on mammoths and including a selected bibliography, Louis describes in detail his scientific expedition in search of a rock mammoth. Recess comes and goes, with the class amazed and teacher incredulous. When Louis finally announces his discovery, the teacher demands proof. Does Louis have a real rock mammoth or just a great imagination?

While the amusing text offers scientific data about mammoths as well as a playful introduction to the scientific method, Mam­ muthus rockus appears to be a phantom species. Using the format of a school notebook containing Louis’ hilarious marginal notes and diagrams reinforces the classroom venue and enhances the comic visual presentation of unflappable Louis and his very cool rock mammoth.

Whimsical, imaginative, and highly entertaining. (Fic­ tion. 7-10)

A PIGLET CALLED TRUFFLE

Peters, Helen Illus. by Snowdon, Ellie Walker US/Candlewick (160 pp.) $14.99 | $6.99 paper | Mar. 17, 2020 978-1-5362-1024-8 978-1-5362-1459-8 paper Series: Jasmine Green, 1 Plucky Jasmine Green will do anything to save a helpless animal.

Jasmine is the daughter of a veterinarian mother and farmer father. Jasmine loves the animals on Oak Tree Farm, where the family lives, and dreams of growing up and starting her own animal-rescue center. In this series opener, Jasmine accompanies her mother on a medical visit to a neighboring farm, where she discovers a baby pig on the verge of death. The runt of the litter, the piglet is so small and weak that the farmer doesn’t think she’s worth rescuing. Outraged, Jasmine sneaks the piglet out in her coat, determined to give 142

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Truffle a chance at life. In the simultaneously publishing sequel, A Duckling Called Button, Jasmine rescues orphaned eggs. Jasmine’s sparkling personality, no-nonsense resourcefulness, and fiery commitment to wildlife make her a compelling heroine.

The well-paced plot intertwined with unusual facts about animals and farms makes for a page-turning read. Jasmine’s biracial background, however, is slightly puzzling. Her father seems to be white, and her mother’s identity is implied by a curious combination of a Muslim given name (Nadia) and Sikh surname (Singh), making her identity difficult to pin down. Aside from Jasmine’s complexion and a passing reference to kati rolls, the South Asian part of her identity is never explored.

This fast-paced series outing has a spunky, likable heroine but suffers from authenticity issues. (Fiction. 7-10) (A Duckling Called Button: 978-1-5362-1025-5)

POWWOW A Celebration Through Song and Dance Pheasant-Neganigwane, Karen Orca (88 pp.) $24.95 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-1-4598-1234-5 Series: Orca Origins

The modern powwow has been uniting Indigenous peoples in joyous celebration of culture for decades, but its roots are far older.

Anishninaabe author and educator Pheasant-Neganigwane has crafted a narrative that tells the history of the powwow, a celebration of Indigenous culture that occurs throughout North America. She describes the history of colonization and Indigenous resistance that culminated in the 19th century—a time when song and dance gatherings also were restricted by both the governments of Canada and the U.S. Holding steadfast to traditional culture and expressing it in the unlikeliest of places—the so-called “wild west shows” and harvest fairs— Indigenous peoples gradually developed these gatherings of song and dance into what are now vibrant celebrations that occur across the continent all year long. The powwow includes many aspects of Indigenous culture: rodeos, fashion shows, and even music awards. The gallery of photos throughout the book gives readers seats at a powwow, an event that is described as a continual space to restore kinship and preserve Indigenous identity. Weaving her own powwow experiences into her narrative, the author describes the formal elements of a powwow as well as regional variations. Sidebars look at related topics such as fry bread and victory songs, and the book ends with a brief primer of powwow etiquette and glossary of cultural vocabulary.

An enriching, information-rich resource that centers an Indigenous perspective. (resources) (Nonfiction. 8-14)

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WINGED WONDERS Solving the Monarch Migration Mystery

Pincus, Meeg Illus. by Imamura, Yasmin Sleeping Bear Press (40 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 15, 2020 978-1-53411-040-3

THE BOY WHOSE FACE FROZE LIKE THAT

Plourde, Lynn Illus. by Cox, Russ Running Press (32 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 10, 2020 978-0-7624-9347-0

An oft-heard cautionary statement comes true.

Wendell, who’s depicted with brown skin and straight black hair in the rather garish art, is a rule follower. “He never once disobeyed his parents,” reads the text that introduces the protagonist. The accompanying picture shows him equipped with every imaginable type of protective gear as he uses a skateboard to walk his dog. In an uncharacteristic moment of incredibly mild mischief-making, Wendell makes a silly face in the mirror, and (you guessed it) his “face froze like THAT!” Cox’s illustration shows Wendell facing readers, one eye screwed shut and |

CHEMICAL WORLD Science in Our Daily Lives

Rae, Rowena Orca (48 pp.) $19.95 | May 12, 2020 978-1-4598-2157-6

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So, who solved the mystery of the monarch butterfly migration?

Was it white Canadian scientist Fred, or was it the Indigenous people of the Sierra Madre mountains in central Mexico who had known for centuries about the monarchs’ “secret” winter roosting place? This lively account relates the 30-year efforts of thousands of volunteers of all ages to piece together clues. From tagging the fragile wings of the intrepid butterflies to physically tracking their flight, people across the North American countries of Canada, the United States, and Mexico joined together to decipher the puzzle of “one of the longest known insect migrations on Earth.” The chained answers to Pincus’ question “Where do they go?” guide readers along the riveting path of scientific discovery that finally culminated in 1976 in the oyamel fir groves of Mexico. Imamura’s colorful illustrations successfully capture the multiracial and multinational throng that was instrumental in unraveling the mystery of the monarchs’ epic journey. The butterflies flutter gracefully over almost every page, sometimes singly and sometimes in joyous festoons. The backmatter gives a more detailed history and suggested projects to help sustain the majestic monarchs.

Although the then-billions of monarchs have now dwindled to millions since 1976 because of insecticides and habitat destruction, Pincus ends the book on an optimistic note, encouraging the participation of us all in helping these “winged wonders” to not only survive, but thrive.

A fascinating and inspiring STEAM-driven tale. (Infor­ mational picture book. 5-11)

his teeth unnaturally protruding over opposite corners of his top and bottom lips. His parents (also people of color) try to fix his face with a rolling pin and a screwdriver, to no avail. In fact, nothing can seem to thaw his face, and his speech is comically distorted for several pages. Ultimately, it’s his own acceptance of his state and his parents’ unconditional love that cause him to transform: “We love you…Just the way you are,” they say, and: “PF-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-T!…The pressure Wendell felt to be perfect and to follow the rules all the time—it let go.” With this letting go, Wendell’s face transforms back to his original appearance. The resolution is both heavy-handed and at odds with his parents’ easy acceptance—why did he feel so much pressure in the first place?

A funny-enough joke doesn’t make a story that sticks.

(Picture book. 4- 7)

Simple explanations of what chemicals are and why some (but not all) deserve a bad rap.

Starting out with the observation that “everything on our planet is made of chemicals,” Rae first looks at her own morning routine. She invites readers to wonder along with her what all those ingredients in her shampoo and toothpaste are as well what the environmental costs of growing and processing her breakfast food, or throwing away that teabag and milk container, might be. She then goes on to explain some differences between natural and synthetic chemicals, with special references to plastic and DDT, and to trace the course of contaminants up the food chain. She briefly mentions disasters such as the Love Canal and Bhopal, along with more-insidious dangers like lead poisoning, before closing on a relatively upbeat note with general advice about “greener” practices and attitudes.

Though her presentation is simple enough that the only formulas in sight are decorative elements in the margins, she does define significant terms like “chemical reaction” and also gives young eco-activists a leg up on the uses and dangers of classes of chemicals from parabens to PCBs. Family groups and smiling children of diverse nationality and ethnicity feature prominently in the cramped but colorful photos along with glimpses of idyllic natural scenes and wildlife.

This consciousness-raiser downplays the more frightening prospects in favor of a mildly cautionary message. (glossary, index, resources) (Nonfiction. 8-10)

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NERP!

Reul, Sarah Lynne Illus. by the author Sterling (32 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-4549-3402-8 A tyrant in a footed, mustard-colored onesie proves that no household is safe from the squeamishly finicky toddler.

Once solid food is introduced, it’s an uphill battle for supremacy. The tot or the caregivers—who will reign supreme?

A parade of gourmet delectables is presented with fanfare, amid appreciative tongue swipes from the equally finicky family pet. Does it matter that the child presents as a green, bipedal iguana or that the pet resembles a reptilian anteater? No! “Nerp” means “NERP!” no matter the species. Who cares that these caregivers have clearly toiled at cooking for hours? Garble snarfy barflecrunch elicits a definitive “NERPITY NERPITY NERPITY NERP!” The surprise payoff will wrinkle a few faces in delighted disgust, but the toddler is happy—“Blurp”—and the caregivers are…resigned. Reul’s clever use of nonsensical monster vocabulary plays very well against the expressive green and yellow countenances of her charming and sympathetic characters. Even the scaly pet’s personality pops, especially when eying the foul contents of its food bowl. The creativity of the menu— both the names and the neon images—is half the fun of this homage to dinnertime chaos.

Will persnickety children drool after their own “squishalicious” masterpieces? “Yerpetty yerpetty yerpy yerp!” (Picture book. 2- 7)

UNSTOPPABLE

Rex, Adam Illus. by Park, Laura Chronicle (56 pp.) $16.99 | May 5, 2020 978-1-4521-6504-2 Collaboration is the key to success in this picture book.

The story enticingly begins with five double-page spreads, wordless except for onomatopoeia, as a cat leaps at a big-eyed crab sitting on a rock and the crab pinches back. The cat flees and leaps after a small bird next, who flies away with a startled “AAAH!” The illustrations, done in a collagelike style that combines simple shapes, deftly play with visual sequencing and wonderfully expressive characters to cleverly set up the story. After the bird lands near the crab, the text begins, with the crab waxing poetic: “Oh! If only I might escape this life of muddy scuttling and fly.” To which the bird replies, in a surfer-dude tone (the distinct voices of each character are a joy), that it wishes for “big, snapping claws” in order to “pinch that cat on the nose.” The two have an epiphany: combine forces and become “crabbird!” The illustration shows the bird clutching the crab as they fly through the air. The combinations don’t 144

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stop, and “crabbird!” becomes “craburtlebird!” and “birdraburtlebear!” as they pick up a turtle and a bear to become even more “UNSTOPPABLE!” Or so they think—until they spy bulldozers clearing their forest home for a shopping mall. Fear not! The power of cooperation reaches its zenith in a satisfying, high-spirited conclusion (that includes illustrated human diversity, most notably in the form of a president who’s a woman of color and a vigorously multiracial Congress).

The power of teamwork becomes the people’s power, all wrapped in a cheerful romp. (Picture book. 3-8)

THE HOTEL WHODUNIT

Rivera, Lilliam Illus. by Power, Elle Little, Brown (256 pp.) $14.99 | Mar. 17, 2020 978-0-316-45664-7 Series: Goldie Vance

Girl detective Goldie Vance moves from graphic novels to middle-grade prose.

Crossed Palms Resort valet and permanent resident Goldie Vance is a hopeful apprentice detective waiting for a big break. When movie star Delphine “the Temptress of the Ocean” Lucerne comes to Goldie’s decidedly unglamorous Florida town to shoot a film, her arrival is soon followed by a theft—the 10-pound, diamond-laden swim cap made for Delphine’s character in the film. What makes this complicated for Goldie is that clues seem to be pointing toward her mother as the culprit. But that can’t be true. Now Goldie has two tasks, not just one: find the swim cap and clear her mother’s name. Rivera’s novel for teens Dealing in Dreams (2019) was filled with creative, believable, and consistent slang and jargon; here she shows herself to be skilled at combining noir language conventions with contemporary sensibilities in a way that doesn’t feel anachronistic but is just a gas! Like Nancy Drew, brown-skinned Goldie is a teen girl, but her adventure really is entertaining and accessible for all ages—without the wooden characters or racism of the Carolyn Keene classics and with a little insertion of comics courtesy of Power to remind us where she came from.

This biracial, LGBTQ protagonist seamlessly shifts from comics to prose in a winner of a series opener. (Mystery.

10-16)

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The humorous, brief text offers clever rhymes and plenty of action and melodrama. hound won’t go

HOUND WON’T GO

Rogers, Lisa Illus. by Ishihara, Meg Whitman (32 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-0-8075-3408-3

PLANET SOS

Rohde, Marie G. Illus. by the author What on Earth Books (60 pp.) $24.00 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-912920-22-8 A gallery of civilization-threatening “modern monsters,” from Smogosaurus and the forest-chewing Logre to Acid Rain Spirits and Nuclear Jinns.

These menaces are modeled on or at least inspired by creatures from pop culture or world folklore—Trash Kong, for instance, is joined by the Noisybird, loosely related to the similarly nine-headed Jiu Tou Niao of Chinese tradition, and the E-Waste Golem. Each one steps up in turn to boast of its destructive habits and potential and comes with an inset “Monster Card” featuring arrays of icons (interpreted on a key that can be folded out for ready reference) indicating activities that will promote, or hinder, further damage to our planet. The monsters are all created or (more commonly) abetted by human agency, and though many acknowledge anxiously that efforts are being made to check their depredations, Rohde urgently makes the case at beginning and end that there is still plenty of work to be done. The monsters themselves, which are largely rendered as diaphanous or semi-abstract shapes in various |

BOATS WILL FLOAT

Rosenbaum, Andria Warmflash Illus. by Curzon, Brett Sleeping Bear Press (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 15, 2020 978-1-53411-041-0 Many types of working and pleasure craft are depicted in this humorous, straightforward picture book.

Curzon’s vibrantly colored illustrations bubble with plenty of detail, enough to help children recognize different boat types they may encounter on a trip to the ocean or harbor. The storyline progresses more or less through the day in different marine locations, from early morning, when fishing boats are starting out and dragon boats are “flying by,” to a gentle nighttime sailing scene. The view changes as the boats change, cycling through rolling waves, a festive beach tableau, underwater scenes as studied by divers from a research vessel and the crew of a submarine before culminating in the family depicted in the opening illustration, going to bed in their houseboat. This family is white; the crews of the various boats include some people of color. Rosenbaum’s text consists of easy, rolling rhymes, with plenty of descriptive language to conjure up the scene: “Sunlight sizzles, hot and bright”; boats “rise and fall in liquid motion”; Salty breezes. / Seagulls squalling.” There’s plenty of engaging visual detail, including a spread in which the signal flag alphabet is shown and the flags on two boats spell out the book’s title.

A buoyant introduction to many different maritime pursuits. (picture glossary) (Picture book. 4-6)

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A stubborn basset hound plunks down in the middle of a street and refuses to budge until a clap of thunder sends him running toward home.

Rhyming couplets tell the tale of this obstinate pooch, who is out walking with his owner, a young woman with pale skin and dark hair. Other characters include people with varied racial presentations. The dog, called Hound in the story, decides to lie down in a crosswalk right in front of a car, and he will not be moved. Hound rolls on his back, scratches, and even takes a little nap as traffic stops, horns honk, and his owner grows increasingly frustrated. A flash of lightning and accompanying thunderclap abruptly change the plot trajectory, and Hound races home with the owner trailing behind. The humorous, brief text offers clever rhymes with just a few words in each line and plenty of action and melodrama to advance the simple but effective story: “Splashing feet / pound the street.” Bold, cartoon-style illustrations give Hound plenty of personality, with amusing expressions and funny eyeball effects. Hound’s humorous tale will work for canine-themed storytimes as well as give a boost to new or struggling readers.

This funny hound should stick around. (Picture book. 3- 7)

transparent hues with stylized, geometric faces, come across as more pretty than dangerous looking, and the fold-out world “Monster Map” at the end conveys a misleading impression that they are mostly localized threats rather than ubiquitous ones.

Still, even younger readers will understand that each poses a real danger.

Challenges galore for young eco-crusaders, presented in an inventive format. (glossary, source list, index) (Informational picture book. 8-10)

IT’S A MOOSE!

Rosoff, Meg Illus. by Ercolini, David Putnam (40 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-399-16664-8 Moose in the forest or moose in the zoo are OK, but a moose in the house?

Baby’s room is all ready for the new sibling, but, as Sis tells the story, the baby has a few differences from other newborns in the hospital. He has “velvety soft skin and big brown eyes.” His diet is a little different, his nose is a lot bigger, and so are his feet. Nonetheless, he is loved and

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The riotous actions of the books—tumbling off shelves, flying through the air, teetering in rickety towers— are nicely balanced by the soft palette. castle of books

nurtured. Neighbors are jealous, and classmates all want “a moose baby.” As happens with babies, this one grows, but his growth is astonishing. Toys, bathtubs, and finally the house itself shrink in size by comparison. Reluctantly, the family maps out a trip to a forest where their (enormous) baby moose finds an inviting environment and new friends of his own sort. He does send his love in a postcard. Rosoff ’s little tale of interspecies family love should bring a laugh or two to young readers, juxtaposing as it does the absurdity of a very large member of the deer family residing in a human abode. Ercolini’s cartoon illustrations convey this quite aptly with their emphasis on height and an elongated perspective. The softly hued colors are inviting and feature people of various shades and a moose of brown hide and yellow antlers (the human members of the moose’s family of origin are white).

A lesson in animal care told with love and humor. (Pic­ ture book. 3-6)

WHAT’S THE WEATHER?

Rotner, Shelley Photos by the author Holiday House (32 pp.) $18.99 | Mar. 17, 2020 978-0-8234-4349-9

Full-color photographs accompany large-print text about weather and climate change.

As with Rotner’s other books, the layout and photography will draw viewers in. However, the diverse children in the photos lack the spontaneity of previous titles, too often looking like posed models rather than ordinary children experiencing different kinds of weather. There are some striking photographs of cloud formations and other phenomena (many from stock sources). The text vacillates, offering in turn simplistic two- or three-word statements regarding weather, well-formulated compound sentences with easily digested information, and complex, clumsy sentences such as: “It snows when the temperature is low and clouds get heavy and fill with drops of water that freeze and fall to the ground.” It is also unfortunate that, after mentioning that seasonal changes are dependent on “where you live,” the text launches into sentences that describe specifically the seasons in temperate climates—without specifying that this is the case. This is at least as important as the later introduction of the North and South poles or the word “meteorologist.” After giving some basic facts about such things as the difference between sleet and hail, there is a rudimentary explanation of global warming and climate change. Credit is due for including this. However, both in this section and earlier in the book, there are awkward sentences that almost defy meaning. In short, neither text nor art measures up to, for example, Hello Summer! (2019) and its seasonal companions.

Intermittent fog obscures introductory meteorology and climatology. (glossary, note from climatologist) (Infor­ mational picture book. 3-6)

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THE STRAY

Ruttan, Molly Illus. by the author Nancy Paulsen Books (32 pp.) $17.99 | May 19, 2020 978-0-525-51446-6 Challenges both unique and familiar await a family that takes in a (literally) otherworldly stray.

For her first solo outing, Ruttan unspools a narrative that could apply to any terrestrial animal: “He didn’t have a collar, and he didn’t have a tag…so we brought him home.” She pairs it with sprightly views of a human family laying out bowls and bedding on the kitchen floor for Grub,” a doglike (if stalk-eyed) creature pulled from a crashed flying saucer. At first Grub exuberantly emits anti-gravity waves that create glorious chaos (“He wasn’t even housebroken”), but when, rather than settle in, he turns mopey, the family puts out “Found” posters. Soon a larger saucer swoops down to beam him back aboard. “We were sad Grub had to leave, but it felt good to know he was happy and was back with his family.” His rescuers are never seen aside from similar eyes on stalks viewed through windows. Read one way this makes a droll and cozy tale…but if seen as a riff on E.T. (“Grub” evidently piloted his own saucer), it’s discomfiting to see a stranded, sapient stranger treated as a pet, kitted with a cute name, given a bone to chew, and leashed for a walk outside.

Subtle differences in the features and skin color of the human family’s two parents hint that they might be an interracial couple, though that too is left ambiguous.

A buoyant authorial debut spoiled by some unexamined assumptions. (Picture book. 6-8)

CASTLE OF BOOKS

Sanna, Alessandro Illus. by the author Tate/Abrams (48 pp.) $17.95 | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-84976-668-5

Two children discover why we need books.

The question is posed on the first, otherwise-blank doublepage spread: “Why do we need books?” On the next spread, two white children gaze up at a wall of books, rendered in swift watercolor strokes of reds, yellows, and blues. When a book falls off of the shelf and hits one in the head—“Thunk!”—the children get to take a look at the mysterious red object. “Blah Blah Blah,” it reads. Then, in a celebration of books (and of infinitives), the children find out just why we need books: “to play”; “to understand one another”; “to invent.” The children, accompanied by a black cat and a brown dog, read, build book towers, travel, and fly. A scribbly whale even leaps from an open book on verso across the gutter to amaze the children; the next double-page spread depicts a brown-skinned Pinocchio (a nod to Sanna’s Pinocchio: The Origin Story, 2016). The riotous actions of the books—tumbling off shelves, flying through the |

air, teetering in rickety towers— are nicely balanced by the soft palette of sunshine and golden yellows, watery blues, bold reds, and greens, with black waves that look like cursive writing. The children’s adventures with the books lead to the conclusion, which mirrors the opening in design: “Now I understand.”

A visual feast. (Picture book. 3- 7)

SEAGULLS SOAR

Sayre, April Pulley Illus. by Bogdańska, Kasia Boyds Mills (32 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-68437-197-6

FEAST OF PEAS

Sheth, Kashmira Illus. by Ebbeler, Jeffrey Peachtree (32 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 1, 2020 978-1-68263-135-5 Jiva, a hardworking gardener in India, eagerly anticipates his peas.

“Plump peas, sweet peas, / Lined-up-in-the-shell peas. / Peas to munch, peas to crunch, / I want a feast of peas for lunch.” He hoes, he waters, he weeds—and he waits. As his pea blossoms become pods, he builds a scarecrow from sugar cane stalks, an |

THIEVES OF WEIRDWOOD

Shivering, William Illus. by Earley, Anna Henry Holt (352 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-250-30288-5 Series: Thieves of Weirdwood, 1

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Ballad stanzas celebrate gulls who flourish both near and far from the sea.

Sayre, who has introduced all kinds of animals with clever rhymes and rhythms designed for reading aloud, turns to the gull family. While readers and listeners may know that gulls follow boats and frequent sandy shores, they may be surprised to learn that they fly into deserts, forage in garbage dumps, pursue plowing tractors and feeding whales, and use human-paved roads to open clams shells. After a series of action examples, one stanza to a spread, comes a change of pace, stretching out a reveal over a page turn: “Seagulls nest, / gather sticks. / Spotted eggs, then… // …spotted chicks!” The narrative pauses with a note about the curious way these birds move: “Left wing, left leg, / stretch as one.” With time, the chicks grow, fledge and become adults, circling “from ship to shore” all over again.

While Sayre’s books are often illustrated with her own photographs, the choice not to try to photograph the confusing gull family is sensible. From the laughing gulls on the title page to the California gull on the final, dedication page, first-time picture-book illustrator Bogdańska’s digital images are reasonably recognizable (though never identified) and convey something of the range of gull appearances and the wide variety of their habitats. The backmatter adds additional interesting information about gulls’ feeding habits, their varied and varying plumage, and their common name.

Another deceptively simple, soaringly successful flight. (acknowledgments) (Informational picture book. 3-8)

old dhoti, and a red turban to keep the birds away. Jiva’s neighbor, Rujvi, is mighty interested in Jiva’s pea harvest: “Jiva, some of your peas look plump,” he says. Jiva assures Rujvi that he will pick them the next morning, but when he goes to do so, they are gone! Rujvi suggests the rabbits might have eaten the peas, so Jiva builds a fence. When the same thing happens again a few days later, Rujvi suggests that a ghost might have eaten the peas.

Jiva is perplexed: Neither a scarecrow nor a fence will keep out a ghost. Jiva finally realizes he has been tricked by Rujvi and concocts an elaborate ruse to catch him in the act. After a mad dash through the village, Rujvi apologizes and makes a feast of peas—“peas with rice and spice, peas wrapped in mashed potato pockets, and peas swimming in soup”—for Jiva. Sheth’s use of language (poetry and repetition) is a singular delight.

Equally charming are Ebbeler’s illustrations, which include lots of funny details, with exaggerated and elongated cartoon-style figures that make the most of the story’s humor.

Delicious! (Picture book. 4-8)

Two young thieves break into a derelict house and discover a mirror world of magic.

When Wally Cooper’s older brother, Graham, decides to use the side of one of Kingsport’s public buildings for his “otherworldly” landscapes, he’s quickly arrested. And then his rants about “Rifts” and “Fae-born” conspiracies land him in Greyridge Mental Hospital. Wally must come up with a way to pay the hospital bills fast; although he is a member of the thieving Black Feathers, most of the money he steals is kept by the Rook, the notorious gang’s leader. When he hears about a secret job his friend and fellow thief Arthur Benton is planning, he convinces Arthur to let him in on the con. The mark is the ruins of a house called Hazelrigg that Arthur swears is more than it seems after he saw a girl in golden robes carrying swords enter the house. The two break in, find a treasure—and then become tangled up in a mystery made of nightmares. This series opener’s both funny and well paced, and the worldbuilding is fantastic, with information emerging about Mirror Kingsport at the same time new oddities arise.

Even with so much happening, character development is splendid: Arthur stands out as both flawed and heroic. Wally and his brother are black, Arthur is white.

A funny, unusual adventure with enough unanswered questions to have readers eager for Book 2. (Fantasy. 9-12)

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BECOMING KID QUIXOTE A True Story of Belonging in America Sierra, Sarah & Haff, Stephen Harper/HarperCollins (208 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-0-06-294326-2

A shy girl takes on the world through her acting.

For Sarah Sierra, a 10-year-old Mexican American girl from Brooklyn, her after-school program Still Waters in a Storm is the perfect haven.

Though she considers herself a shy person, at Still Waters Sarah sings, writes, and acts along with other children and teenagers.

To Sarah’s surprise she is also able to easily identify with her character, Kid Quixote, as they adapt and update Miguel de Cervantes’ 400-year-old novel, Don Quixote de la Mancha. The adapted play is then performed in a serialized format throughout New York and the country. Inspired by their pen pals from Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, the actors at Still Waters often include immigration in their work. For example, Sarah uses a stuffed horse as Rocinante, Quixote’s faithful steed, to rescue an undocumented farm worker who hasn’t been paid fair wages. In this young reader’s companion to Kid Quixotes (2020) by Stephen Haff (creator and director at Still Waters), Sarah recounts, with help from Haff, her creative process and how she uses her experiences at Still Waters to decipher and overcome real-world challenges. Through this empathetic and inspiring account of the imagination, triumphs, and worries of a child of immigrants, readers will be constantly reminded of the importance of stories to the triumph over and processing of difficult experiences.

A tender, inspiring, and courageous true story. (Memoir.

7-12)

A WISH IN THE DARK

Soontornvat, Christina Candlewick (384 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 24, 2020 978-1-5362-0494-0

A fugitive from prison must evade his pursuer, the prison warden’s daughter, while potentially joining a revolution.

Pong has lived his whole life in Namwon Prison until a chance escape leaves him free in the city of Chattana. Pong quickly finds that freedom does not come so easily: Since the Great Fire, Chattana is under the strict control of the Governor, who creates the magical lights that run the city and that are the only lights allowed.

Marked as a prisoner, Pong has nowhere to turn. Worse, the prison warden’s daughter Nok is on his trail, intent on proving both her worth and that of her family with his capture. Meanwhile, larger forces in Chattana are stirring, as not everyone is happy with the Governor’s rule. Set in a fantasy analogue of 148

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Thailand, all characters are presumed Thai, and Thai life and culture permeate the story in everything from the mangoes Pong eats in prison to the monks he meets beyond the prison’s walls. It’s also a retelling of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, and Soontornvat has maintained the themes of the original while making the plot and the characters utterly her own. Pong’s and Nok’s narratives are drawn together by common threads of family, loyalty, and a quest to define right and wrong, twining to create a single, satisfying tale.

A complex, hopeful, fresh retelling. (Fantasy. 9-12)

THE LIST OF THINGS THAT WILL NOT CHANGE

Stead, Rebecca Wendy Lamb/Random (224 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 PLB | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-101-93809-6 978-1-101-93810-2 PLB Bea, 12, reflects on life since her parents’ divorce when she was 8.

Bea, who is white, tells her story in a direct, conversational tone, with age-appropriate insights.

Mostly she describes interactions with family members near and far, including her parents and her father’s partner, the aunt, uncle, and cousins with whom she and her parents spend an annual two-week summer vacation, and the new sister by marriage whose visit she eagerly anticipates. Glimpses of her school experiences focus on frustrations or antagonisms, like her struggle with spelling or the times that she allows her anger to spill out and cause (minor) injury to others. Stead packs in plenty of issues—divorce, therapy, a gay parent, homophobia, and a painful case of eczema—but her prose never descends to moralizing or moaning. Instead, Bea’s authentic, accessible voice and smooth interweaving of anecdotes keep the tone relatively light and make for a sometimes-amusing, sometimespoignant exploration of realistic contemporary experiences and concerns. The acknowledgements that not every problem can be solved and that doing a bad thing does not necessarily make someone a bad person will reassure readers that they too can find balance and comfort in complicated circumstances. Supported by multidimensional, sympathetic family and friends, Bea ultimately finds that her list of certainties provides the necessary foundation for personal growth—and change.

Uplifting without sentimentality, timely not trendy, and utterly engaging. (Fiction. 8-12)

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An outstanding effort, packed with interesting information but also too engrossing to put down. i am jax, protector of the ranch

KARATE KIDS

Sterling, Holly Illus. by the author Candlewick (32 pp.) $16.99 | May 5, 2020 978-1-5362-1457-4

I AM JAX, PROTECTOR OF THE RANCH

Stier, Catherine Illus. by Rosa, Francesca Whitman (96 pp.) $12.99 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-0-8075-1663-8 Series: Dog’s Day

In the first of a new series about working dogs, Jax, a Great Pyrenees, describes his efforts to protect his flock of sheep through a long, scary night.

When the lead livestock guardian dog, Bev, is injured in a coyote attack, only Jax and a very youthful novice dog, Stormy, are left to protect their owner’s flock. After one of the ewes delivers a new lamb, things get even more complicated. Jax, brave and pragmatic, must try to keep a close eye on the defenseless pair while still making sure the flock is safe, never certain that he can rely on Stormy’s unproven judgment. Then a mountain lion begins to menace the sheep.…Jax’s matter-of-fact voice is both believable and highly informative, providing readers with |

KNOT CANNOT

Stone, Tiffany Illus. by Lowery, Mike Dial (32 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-7352-3080-4 Knot is a short length of rope who wishes he were more like Snake, but…he’s knot.

Thus begins a zany exploration of all the things Snake can do (slither, hiss, swallow) that Knot cannot. Lowery’s signature madcap cartoons and hand lettering depict a smug snake and a surprisingly expressive knot with bug eyes and emotive stripes who produces long-suffering sighs in speech bubbles.

Meanwhile, Stone’s text is both funny and punny: “Snake can even shed her skin. Snake looks brand-new. Can Knot look brand-new? No, he’s a frayed knot.” Additionally, rhyme-y knot/ not combinations and jokes fill the pages. “Can Knot do this?

Knot can…not. What can Knot do? Not a lot.” When danger approaches, however, Knot’s signature ability (“Knot can… knot!”) finally comes in handy to save his friend. Yes, it’s essentially a one-trick pony, but Stone and Lowery’s collaboration is a fun vehicle for important learning, ably illustrating the futility of comparing yourself to others while celebrating each individual’s strengths. As a bonus, it also sneakily includes actual information about several different types of knots that Knot can make.

Clever wordplay and an unlikely (and adorable) protagonist make this book knot to be missed. (Picture book. 3- 7)

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Aspiring “karate kid” Maya leads readers through a typical Shotokan class.

The story starts with the day, as Maya rises “bright and early” to go to Saturday-morning karate class. A series of comics-style panels details preparations for the class, done with Dad’s help: donning gi and belt, then walking to class, stuffed tiger in tow.

A class of diverse children (Maya is white), all of varying ranks, are greeted by a sensei, a beige-skinned woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to the biracial, British author/illustrator.

The breakdown of the class covers all of the bases—bowing in, warming up, practicing basics (blocks, here), running kata (sequences of movements that represent a choreographed fight), and ending mokuso (meditation)—swiftly, devoting only one or two double-page spreads to each segment. Several essential segments of a typical karate class in the U.S., including the beginning mokuso and the ending bows, are missing; Sterling does, however, illustrate the multiple levels within the technique segments, as students move from demonstrating the techniques in the air to practicing them with one another. The delicate cartoons are dynamic and lively, doing much to enhance text that feels a bit lifeless at times. The spreads proclaiming “Look, I’m a karate kid! // We all are!” and showing a collective kiai (shout to release energy) and jumping kick, seems a bit forced, although the ending is, admittedly, empowering.

Enthusiastic—but not quite a winning strike. (Picture book. 3- 7)

a riveting step-by-step account of how livestock guardians are trained and how they do their work. Never lost in that enlightening presentation is the rising suspense generated by the large cat threatening the sheep—and the dogs. Rosa’s illustrations, a few for each short chapter, nicely enhance the text (and depict Jax’s human family as white). Considering that all of this is packaged in a slender volume intended for readers newly transitioned to chapter books, this is an outstanding effort, packed with interesting information but also too engrossing to put down. I Am Ava, Seeker in the Snow, about a chocolate Lab who does avalanche rescue, publishes simultaneously.

A thrilling and very worthwhile choice for emergent readers. (Adventure. 6-9) (I Am Ava, Seeker in the Snow: 978-0-8075-1664-5)

Bits of dense color saturation and keen, crisp, sometimes prickly edges pierce, delineate, and offset the bountiful, wet, organic swaths. outside in

SUMMER AT MEADOW WOOD

Tan, Amy Rebecca Harper/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $16.99 | May 19, 2020 978-0-06-279545-8

Eleanor Roosevelt and gardening both prove to be unexpected sources of inspiration for 13-year-old Vic, who finds herself reluctantly back at the summer camp she’s attended for years after she learns her parents are having marriage

difficulties.

Despite the friends Vic has made over the years at Meadow Wood, she’d hoped to spend a laid-back summer at home with her bestie, Jamie (whose story is told in A Kind of Paradise, 2019, which is not a prerequisite for this stand-alone), and is furious that she and her brother were shipped off as a matter of convenience for her mom. Slowly, with the help of her curmudgeonly but caring counselor Chieko, who is brooding over her own recent breakup with her girlfriend, and the mentoring of diligent camp co-director Earl, Vic begins to see a way through her struggles. If at times these worthwhile life lessons are a bit heavy-handed, many other elements in this warmhearted novel are likely to charm middle-grade readers, including the quirkily funny, brainy younger camper Vera whom Vic takes under her wing and a kind Latinx boy named Angel, who becomes a sweet first love interest when she meets him at the local farmers market. Vic and Vera are white, and there is some realistic ethnic diversity represented in secondary characters, conveyed both via description and naming convention (Chieko is likely of Japanese heritage, for instance).

A gentle novel perfect for middle graders looking for a summer read. (Fiction. 10-13)

SANDCASTLE

Tsarfati, Einat Illus. by the author Candlewick (48 pp.) $17.99 | May 5, 2020 978-1-5362-1143-6 Imagine a sandcastle big enough to hold an ice-skating rink, a greenhouse, a dinosaur skeleton, and galas for kings and queens.

A small child at the edge of the ocean begins a project. “I love building castles in the sand. So I built a sandcastle,” explains the narrator. The visual story frame of an outing to a jam-packed beach doesn’t quite offer a nonfantasy opening: Careful perusal reveals a bed, an elephant, a mummy, and an igloo among the multitudinous, tiny-figured human beachgoers.

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the castle, gazing out windows that vividly show the real ocean outside. Kings and queens arrive to feast and dance. Everything’s glamorous and copacetic until, suddenly, the sand itself is a problem. It’s in the royal almond strudel. It’s in the armor of sobbing knights. It’s in a king’s fig-milk bath. Everyone’s angry.

So the calm builder takes rambunctious action, bringing sand, water, and mood dramatically full circle. Tsarfati’s huge cast is happily multiracial and multinational (the protagonist is paperwhite), but some of the diverse portrayals unfortunately rely on cultural stereotypes.

Delightfully fanciful, with copious funny details to pore over. (Picture book. 3-8)

OUTSIDE IN

Underwood, Deborah Illus. by Derby, Cindy HMH Books (40 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-328-86682-0 Outdoors is part of people all the time, even when they’re indoors.

“Once we were part of Outside and Outside was part of us,” opens the text. The premise that nowadays humans sometimes forget about Outside is belied so thoroughly and passionately by the illustrations that it barely registers—which works just fine in this love letter to nature. From opening spread to closing, nature is all-encompassing. Derby uses watercolors, powdered graphite, and thread or flower stems soaked in ink to paint full-bleed scenes bursting with dampness and leaves, branches and sticks, and qualities of light so various that they evoke different seasons and different weathers all at once. Outdoors, watery paint describes hanging branches or rain; leaves look liquid; large orange patches are treetops but evoke flower petals. Indoors, sunlight beams through glass panes to set a watery, purple-black hallway quietly aglow. Bits of dense color saturation and keen, crisp, sometimes prickly edges pierce, delineate, and offset the bountiful, wet, organic swaths. Outside “sings to us with chirps and rustles and tap-taps on the roof ”; it “beckons with smells: sunbaked, fresh, and mysterious”; we feel it “in the warm weight of our cats and the rough fur of our dogs.” The child character embraced by Outside (when both outdoors and in) has peach skin and long, straight, dark hair.

Lushness without sweetness—wild, darkly romantic, and exquisite. (Picture book. 3-9)

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MARIE CURIE AND THE POWER OF PERSISTENCE

Valenti, Karla Illus. by Beghelli, Annalisa Sourcebooks Explore (48 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-7282-1356-9 Series: My Super Science Heroes

STAY, LITTLE SEED

Valentini, Cristiana Illus. by Giordano, Philip Greystone Kids (28 pp.) $17.95 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-77164-646-8

In Valentini’s fable, originally published in Italy in 2008, a gust of wind wafts a tree’s seeds away—leaving one.

The tree urges the little seed off: “Hurry up, or you’ll be left behind. / Don’t you want to join all your brothers and sisters?”

The seed is fearful about flying off to “Who Knows Where.”

The tree, personifying the parent’s classic conflict between the impulse to cosset offspring and helping them individuate, allows the seed to stay. “Just one more day” becomes another, then a week, then more, as the tree frets about rain, sun, and wind.

This shared stasis continues until a deus ex magpie snatches the |

YOU CAN DO IT, NOISY NORA!

Wells, Rosemary Illus. by the author Viking (32 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 28, 2020 978-1-101-99923-3

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Marie Curie was a superhero!

This first entry in the My Super Science Heroes series of highly fictionalized biographies details Curie’s brilliant achievements but pits her against a cartoonish archenemy determined to stop her. Super Evil Nemesis aims at world domination by halting the spread of knowledge. He sends his minion, Mr. Opposition, to thwart young Maria Skłodowska.

Try as he might, Mr. O fails. Maria excels at her studies; after high school, since universities are closed to women, she pursues her lessons secretly. Moving to Paris, she adopts the name Marie and earns degrees in physics and math. After Marie marries Pierre Curie, the two collaborate, winning the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903 with Henri Becquerel. In 1911, Marie wins another Nobel—for chemistry. This is a fact-filled, admiring examination. Unfortunately, however, her casting as a superheroine against a comic-book stock villain trivializes her. Not helping is the author’s breathless, demeaning remark that “She even loves mathematics and physics!” to demonstrate Curie’s youthful studiousness. Colorful and child-appealing, though static, illustrations feature humans resembling wide-eyed, pinkcheeked marionettes (all present white). Nemesis is a blue, sharp-toothed figure with striped horns and a crown; Mr. O is a red, four-legged, spiny-backed, counterintuitively cute creature sporting a fedora. Numerous “ALERT!” sidebars, a glossary, and a timeline bolster the factual load.

Scientific genius is a superpower of its own and does not need this pandering treatment. (websites) (Picture book/ biography. 4-8)

seed and, laughing, drops it Who Knows Where. Throughout ensuing seasonal cycles, the tree, “wondering with its tender heart,” worries about the seed. One day, a voice from below hails the tree, who recognizes its progeny, now transformed as “a sapling, beautiful and strong.” Giordano’s pictures—precise black line drawings against cream-colored pages—don’t so much extend the text as parallel-play with it. Tree and seeds sport faces dominated by curvilinear noses in accent colors of blue, green, and red. Woodland creatures help nurture the seed, which even spends time nestled among a bird’s eggs. Fancifully, tiny trappings—hats, rain boots—share some critters’ polkadot coloration.

Careful nurturing begets the launch into the unknown: Valentini celebrates both as natural and fitting. (Picture book.

3- 7)

After hearing the beautiful notes of “Clair de lune” float down from her violinist neighbor’s window, little mouse Nora dreams of learning to play the violin herself.

With all the enthusiasm and determination a young child can muster, Nora takes her family to the music store, where they all suggest different instruments for her. Maybe a xylophone? Banjo? Anything but a “screeching violin!” opines big sister Kate. But Nora is dead set on a violin, so her excitement is palpable when her music teacher, Mrs. Yamamoto, shows up for her first lesson. As expected, there are a lot of twangs, shrieks, and whines to be heard before a tune begins to be found. But Nora has a goal in mind, so she keeps at it to meet her Sept.

1 deadline and surprise her family. The theme of practice and hard work paying off in the end, coupled with the support of a loving family (albeit with slightly annoyed siblings), makes this a lovely read with kids. With one significant and uncharacteristic hiccup, the rhyming text flows easily and in exactly the same pattern as Noisy Nora’s eponymous debut (1973), making it a solid read-aloud. It is full of bright, cheery, and funny illustrations in Wells’ familiar style, but her decision to dress Mrs. Yamamoto in a kimono has the unfortunate effect of exoticizing her in this otherwise Western setting.

A sweet book for budding musicians. (Picture book. 4- 7)

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FINS

White, Randy Wayne Roaring Brook (320 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-250-24465-9 Series: Sharks Incorporated, 1 Three kids become involved in an effort to thwart shark poachers in this middle-grade spinoff of White’s longrunning Doc Ford series for adults.

Following an incident with his stepfather, Luke Jones, a white boy from Ohio, has moved in with his aunt, Hannah Smith (herself star of a companion to the Doc Ford series), on Sanibel Island. Sisters Sabina and Mariel Estéban, refugees from Cuba, have also recently arrived on Sanibel. The three kids find themselves working under Doc Ford, a white marine biologist who’s tagging blacktip sharks in an attempt to determine the cause of declines in the overall population. As the kids become more proficient, they name themselves Sharks Inc. and begin tagging on their own. However, thanks to the popularity of shark fin soup, poachers have found their way to the island to net the migrating blacktip sharks. Little do the kids know that exploring too deeply into the mangroves will lead them into danger and force them to work together in order to simply survive. The narrative puts a lot of focus on the three children and their personal histories. It does not shy away from difficult issues like losing a parent, abuse, being a refugee, and the conditions that may cause forced migration, but it examines how a difficult past can give strength and shape an intentional present.

This well-paced, exciting series opener will keep readers on their toes. (Adventure. 10-14)

ECHO MOUNTAIN

Wolk, Lauren Dutton (368 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 21, 2020 978-0-525-55556-8

After losing almost everything in the Great Depression, Ellie’s family moves to the Maine woods on Echo Mountain to start a farm—then tragedy strikes.

Not long after getting them established in their new life, Ellie’s father is struck on the head by a falling tree and lapses into a monthslong coma, his recovery unlikely. Never feeling threatened by the wilderness the way her mother and older sister, Esther, do, Ellie takes over many of her beloved father’s chores, finding comfort and confidence in the forest. She’s fully mindful of her place in the natural world and her impact on the plants and animals she shares it with. After she becomes determined to use the resources of the woods, however novel and imaginative the application, to save her father, conflict with her mother and Esther increases sharply. Led by a dog, Ellie discovers elderly 152

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Cate—called “hag” and shunned as a witch—badly injured, living alone in a cabin on the mountaintop. Cate fully understands the 12-year-old’s slightly supernatural sense. Cate’s grandson, Larkin, Ellie’s age, flits in and out of the tale before finally claiming his place in this magnificently related story of the wide arc of responsibility, acceptance, and, ultimately, connectedness.

Carefully paced and told in lyrical prose, characters—all default white—are given plenty of time and room to develop against a well-realized, timeless setting.

A luscious, shivery delight. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

COUNTING ELEPHANTS

Young, Dawn Illus. by Solis, Fermin Running Press (32 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-0-7624-6694-8

An energetic magician frustrates a staid counter’s endeavor to quantify a herd of elephants.

Written entirely in scripted dialogue, this odd effort takes middling passes at both humor and counting. The Counter’s metafictional announcement—that this is a counting book—is immediately contradicted by the Magician, who insists they are collaborating on magic, not math. Clad in the traditional black-and-red top hat and cape, the Magician begins transforming the gathered group of 10 elephants before the Counter even commences. Each time an attempt to enumerate begins, the Magician alters another elephant: The first becomes a frog; the second, a jar of peanut butter; the third, one of jelly; the fourth through seventh, some puppies; the eighth and ninth, more frogs; and the 10th, a rabbit. After restoring the elephants, the Magician turns the exasperated Counter into an anthropomorphic bag of (literal) “nuts.” In a genre distinguished by clever variations on a theme, these conceits—counting down rather than up and adding across categories to arrive at a total—just don’t tally, as the target age proves ambiguous. Solis’ digitally created images, which recall 1950s-era animation, teeter on the boundary between warm familiarity and generic boredom, with animated facial expressions lending them some exuberance.

The text placement doesn’t always correspond with illustrations, hindering the counting exercise. Human characters are both white.

Another average addition to an exponentially growing field. (Picture book. 3- 7)

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The problem is solved in a way that’s both entirely predictable and satisfyingly surprising. who will ask the four questions?

A WISH IS A SEED

Young, Jessica Illus. by Pritelli, Maria Cristina Creative Editions/Creative Company (32 pp.) $18.99 | Feb. 25, 2020 978-1-56846-338-4

easter & passover picture books WHO WILL ASK THE FOUR QUESTIONS?

Ben-Gur, Naomi Illus. by Ben-Ami, Carmel Trans. by Kahn-Hoffmann, Gilah Green Bean Books (32 pp.) $12.95 paper | Mar. 19, 2020 978-1-78438-463-0 Ben-Ami’s illustrations in this Israeli import by way of the U.K. are so expressive that readers can understand the plot just by looking at the characters’ faces.

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THE LITTLEST EASTER BUNNY

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Who hasn’t wondered where a wish goes?

In this airy musing, a wish floats on the wind like a maple seed. The wish takes a breathtaking journey, sailing over water, drifting through canyons, gliding down streets and along roofs, weaving among raindrops. Then it tumbles to the ground and waits, very still. At just the right time, “it sends down a silent root / and pushes up a hopeful shoot.” The shoot, in turn, grows, reaches up and out until it “bravely / blooms.” The simple, gentle narrative concludes as it began: “A wish is a seed carried on the wind.” But how that wish has burgeoned! By the end, it’s thrived and become a symbol flush with hope and possibilities to be marveled at in wide-eyed wonder by a young black child and dad—the objects of the wish? Readers should appreciate not only the fanciful notion of what happens to a wish, but also the whimsical typesetting: Some words and phrases are set upside down, sideways, or curved, the text playfully emulating the wish’s acrobatics. The evocative, slightly surreal illustrations work beautifully with the lyrical story. Mostly dark-blue or darkgreen backgrounds throw details of the city setting and natural world into relief. One delightful spread shows the “wish tree” in its bright red-orange blooming splendor.

A lovely way for children to imagine what happens to a wish. (Picture book. 6-8)

Second, and maybe the most important: They both love music.

She’s always singing, and he’s always strumming an apple-green guitar. And third: By the end of the meal, they’re both singing together again. Readers can learn most of this from the characters’ mouths and foreheads: the boy’s dismissive laugh when his younger sister tries to sing and, in the same picture, her one angry, cocked eyebrow. The only major detail readers need to learn from the text is the actual subject of the argument. At a traditional Seder, the youngest child sings the four questions, a chant that explains the meaning of the holiday, but in this family, the older child, brother Eitan, doesn’t want to give up the job.

The problem is solved in a way that’s both entirely predictable and satisfyingly surprising. Evie struggles with the words, and Eitan joins in to help her out. Throughout the meal, just about everyone is smiling. (The characters are all white and mostly related.) But in these illustrations, each person’s smile is distinctly, beautifully unique.

The ending is touching enough that the story is almost as vivid as the people in the pictures. (Picture book. 4-8)

Dougherty, Brandi Illus. by Pogue, Jamie Cartwheel/Scholastic (24 pp.) $4.99 paper | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-338-32912-4 Series: Littlest

The smallest bunny in Easter Town finds that she and her little chick friend are big enough to help the Easter Bunny prepare for the annual Easter egg hunt.

In the fifth entry in the Littlest series, Penny the bunny wants to help get ready for Easter. All the rabbits in her family are busy with their special jobs, getting eggs, candy, and baskets in order, but little Penny seems too small or clumsy to be of any help. Her parents and siblings try to let her assist them, but she falls into a vat of dye, spills marshmallow goo, gets tangled in the strands of a basket, and fails to fill even one Easter basket. Feeling dejected, Penny befriends a tiny chick named Peck. With the help of Penny’s family, Penny and Peck make miniature treats and petite baskets suitable to their own size. When the Easter Bunny’s main helpers fall ill, Penny and Peck convince the Easter Bunny that their small size will help them do the best job of finding spots to hide eggs as well as their own tiny basket creations. This too-pat conclusion doesn’t quite hold up to logical analysis, as the full-size eggs and baskets are still too large for Penny and Peck to handle. Bland cartoon illustrations are filled with bunnies in candy-bright pastels with a greeting-card cuteness quotient.

Sweet, but like marshmallow chicks, just a bit of fluff.

(Picture book. 3-6)

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The author not only works in a chase scene, but somehow makes a quote from the Talmud seem like a punchline. the passover mouse

WELCOMING ELIJAH A Passover Tale with a Tail

includes repeated elements and a winning sense of dramatic pacing as the alligator angle of the plot is revealed. Appealing watercolor illustrations strike a satisfying balance between the cuddly bunny and the slightly scary mother alligator with yellow eyes and a mouthful of pointed teeth.

A fresh and entertaining take on the bunny-and–Easter egg theme. (Picture book. 3-6)

Newman, Lesléa Illus. by Gal, Susan Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 28, 2020 978-1-58089-882-9

Passover nights are different, happily so for a boy and a kitten.

It’s a Seder night, and a boy and his large family welcome guests to the festive holiday celebration. There are many rituals in the evening, including filling a cup of wine for the prophet Elisha, but his favorite is opening the door to welcome Elijah in.

Writing in contrasting couplets, Newman relates the many elements of the holiday as “inside” activities. There are also “outside” goings-on. A fluffy white cat in the yard does feline things that seem to mimic what the family and their guests are doing except in one respect. The family enjoys plenty of good food while the kitten “swishe[s] his skinny tail.” Finally it is time to hold open the door, and who should be standing there but that irresistibly appealing fluffy white kitten. Boy and kitten, to be named Elijah of course, embrace as the others look on in joy.

Gal’s softly smudged illustrations, rendered in ink, charcoal, and digital collage, warmly reflect the text’s contrasts, with bright yellows illuminating the household and iridescent blues bathing the outdoor scenes. The family and friends are racially diverse, with both black- and white-presenting group members.

The boy himself presents white; the men wear kippot.

While not the traditional holiday outcome, it should please celebrants and cat lovers all. (author’s note, list of Seder rituals) (Picture book. 4- 7)

BUNNY’S BIG SURPRISE

Tildes, Phyllis Limbacher Illus. by the author Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 7, 2020 978-1-58089-684-9

A bunny boy finds a large egg to decorate for Easter, with an astonishing revelation when the egg hatches.

In his light blue sweater, the charming bunny looks like a distant relative of Peter Rabbit. He is outside by himself, collecting eggs in his Easter basket for painting later. When Bunny finds a single, large egg near the edge of a lake, he unsuccessfully tries to find the creature that laid the egg. He questions a goose, a heron, and an osprey, finally taking the huge egg home to paint as an Easter egg. When the decorated egg hatches, a surprise emerges—a baby alligator, although the little rabbit isn’t sure what sort of critter this might be. Bunny returns the baby to the lake where he found the egg, and a page turn reveals a mother alligator with four babies swimming nearby. The lost baby alligator jumps in the lake to rejoin its family, and the mother swims away, carrying the five babies in her mouth. The simple text 154

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THE PASSOVER MOUSE

Wieder, Joy Nelkin Illus. by Kober, Shahar Doubleday (32 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 PLB | Jan. 28, 2020 978-1-9848-9551-6 978-1-984895-52-3 PLB This animal story may help explain why Jews became known as the People of the Book: Even the holiest books might include jokes or fables or riddles.

This picture book, arguably, includes all three. It’s a very silly story about a very serious problem. Wieder explains that, when they’re preparing for the holiday of Passover, observant Jews are required “to remove all leavened food, or chometz—down to the last bread crumb!” Fastidious Jews are never certain when it’s safe to stop searching. The Babylonian Talmud addressed the issue with a sort of brainteaser, paraphrased in the author’s note at the end of this book: “The Jewish sages discussed the possibility of mice bringing chometz into a house that had already been searched for it.” Kober takes the passage as an opportunity to paint utterly adorable mice with heads shaped like apostrophes. (He also finds a surprising variety of shades in the skin tones of the human Jewish villagers.) And the author not only works in a chase scene, with townspeople and a cat, but somehow makes a quote from the Talmud seem like a punchline.

The endless arguments about cats and mice concludes with: “…This question is not decided.” But the story ends on a touching note, as the whole village joins together in a last-minute search for breadcrumbs.

A book that fits moving scenes, puzzles, and mice into the same story is an excellent addition to the Jewish tradition. (glossary) (Picture book. 4- 7)

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MIRIAM AT THE RIVER

Yolen, Jane Illus. by Le, Khoa Kar-Ben (32 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 4, 2020 978-1-5415-4400-0

Miriam is pivotal in the story of Moses and the Exodus.

A 7-year-old girl narrates the details of the day that she heeds “God’s voice,” places her baby brother in a basket, sets him adrift in the Nile River to save him from |

“Pharoah’s men,” and then watches as Pharoah’s daughter rescues him. That baby boy will grow up to be Moses, and his sister is the prophet Miriam. In her author’s note, Yolen explains that she has taken this story from Exodus and from the Midrash, tales that interpret the Torah. Miriam’s story is interwoven with miracles associated with water, ranging from that basket on the Nile to the parting of the Red Sea and the life-giving water flowing from a rock that sustains the Jews wandering in the desert, but there are relatively few children’s books that place her at their center. Many celebrants of the Passover Seder sing a song honoring Miriam and will welcome a book that celebrates her childhood. It is Le’s illustrations that truly shine, however. The vibrant blues and oranges reflect both calm and swirling waters dotted with a multitude of plant life. Elegant storks wade in the water as hippos and crocodiles swim nearby.

This biblical tale is filled with wonder, hope, and beauty.

(Picture book/religion. 4- 7)

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K AC E N C A L L E N D E R the author of king and the dragonflies writes the novels they wish they had found growing up [Sponsored]

By Alex Heimbach Ashley Cain

Kacen Callender’s new novel, King and the Dragonflies (Scholastic, Feb. 4), had a simple genesis: Over dinner, the author and their editor realized they couldn’t think of any middle-grade books with a gay black boy as the protagonist. So Callender resolved to write one.

“I really wanted to tackle a lot of issues that black queer people experience when it comes to the intersection of having to deal with both racism and homophobia,” they say.

King and the Dragonflies is the story of Kingston “King” James, a middle schooler in rural Louisiana who is grappling with the death of his older brother, Khalid. King believes that 156

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Khalid isn’t really gone, he has just transformed into a dragonfly. In attempting to find his dragonfly brother, King runs into former friend Sandy. Back when Sandy came out to King, Khalid overheard and warned King to stay away lest others think he was gay, too (which, King is realizing, he might just be). Filled with guilt and shame over the episode, King helps Sandy as he tries to escape his abusive dad, but the situation rapidly spins out of control.

The novel has an air of magical realism, which Callender says reflects how they see the world. “A lot of what people might say is magical—and this is where it becomes potentially New Age–y—for me it’s actually kind of a reality,” they say. Case in point: They picked a dragonfly for Khalid’s new form simply because it felt right, only to later discover the insect traditionally symbolizes transformation, self-realization, and hope.

Despite its dreamy, lyrical quality, the novel deals candidly with real-world problems. Both King’s grief and his questions about his sexuality are complicated by the casual homophobia and toxic masculinity prevalent in his community. “I don’t think that it’s something that is too heavy or too scary for that age range because they are also dealing with it every day,” Callender says.

Visiting schools in support of a previous novel, Callender found that homophobia remains a powerful force in many kids’ lives.

“I’m almost embarrassed to say that I really thought things were so much better than they are,” they reflect. Some students told Callender

they wouldn’t read the author’s novels at home for fear of how parents would react to a book with a queer protagonist.

These are exactly the kinds of stories that inspire Callender to write. “That’s been my motivation for every book that I write,” they say, “wanting to create space and stories for myself for all those years that I really needed them— but also for all of the teens and young readers that I know are struggling with the same things right now. I want to let them know that they do matter and they do belong.”

Callender is a passionate advocate for greater diversity in publishing, but they note that

simply welcoming new voices isn’t enough. Editors and readers (especially white ones) also need to cultivate a more broad-minded view of what makes a good book.

“I think that a lot of readers go into a book expecting that they will relate to the character and see that character reflect their own lives,” Callender says, “and when there is a moment when that character doesn’t reflect their life for the first time, it’s a shock.” That shock can lead readers to conclude that the book is bad rather than just unfamiliar. As someone who loves reading about people different from themselves, Callender finds this attitude hard to relate to, but it undeniably plays a role in shaping which kinds of books get published.

Callender hopes that more diverse writers and editors will encourage readers to embrace a wider range of viewpoints but maintains that there is one thing all children’s literature needs: hope. As many difficult topics as King and the Dragonflies tackles, its ending is an uplifting one.

“When I was that age,” they say, “I really needed the books I was reading to reflect as much hope as possible because I hadn’t lived enough years to see the cycle of pain and struggle and then happiness and hope and then pain and struggle and then happiness and hope.”

Alex Heimbach is a writer and editor in California.

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young adult MAD, BAD & DANGEROUS TO KNOW

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Ahmed, Samira Soho Teen (312 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-61695-989-0

WE DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS by Adi Alsaid.......................................159 DEEPLIGHT by Frances Hardinge......................................................166 RAYBEARER by Jordan Ifueko..........................................................169 THE LUCKY ONES by Liz Lawson.................................................... 170 ONE EARTH by Anuradha Rao.......................................................... 173

Khayyam Maquet, a 17-year-old rising high school senior, wallows in selfpity during her family’s annual summer trip to Paris.

Her failed essay contest entry chasing a theory about a lost Delacroix painting gifted to Alexandre Dumas dashed her hopes of impressing her dream art school. When Khayyam perhaps too coincidentally meets the sixth-great-grandson of Dumas himself, also called Alexandre Dumas, they embark on a quest to find the lost painting of a mysterious raven-haired woman. The narration alternates between Khayyam, a conflicted teen who falls for presentday Alexandre while she is still hung up on her noncommittal boyfriend back home in Chicago, and Leila, the beautiful, mystical Muslim subject of the painting who lived during the 19th century as a concubine to an Ottoman pasha and yearned for freedom and to be with her true love. Ahmed (Internment, 2019, etc.) explores weighty themes including Orientalism, women silenced by history, and the responsibility of sharing their unheard voices as Khayyam grapples with who has the right to tell someone’s story. Familiar teen romance and angst, including flip-flopping on feelings and motivations, mix with academic discoveries and intrigue in this fast-paced, if at times dense, mystery. Khayyam is an American Muslim teen with French and Indian parents; the novel explores her biracial and bicultural identities.

An entertaining tale that will appeal most to fans of art history and literature. (Fiction. 14-adult)

ELECTION MANIPULATION Is America’s Voting System Secure?

Allen, John ReferencePoint Press (80 pp.) $30.95 PLB | Apr. 1, 2020 978-1-68282-807-6

WE DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS

Alsaid, Adi Inkyard Press (384 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-335-14676-2

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A short but trenchant overview of a topic guaranteed to dominate headlines this election year.

“They’re doing it as we sit here.” Robert Mueller’s warning |

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WE DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS

Alsaid, Adi Inkyard Press (384 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-335-14676-2 An elite international school community reacts to one student’s climate protest.

Marisa Cuevas, cued as Latina, is known mostly for being a good student until she, with several followers, chains herself to the doors of Central International School on its legendary high school lock-in night—turning a playful tradition into literal imprisonment. Nobody’s leaving, she says, until each of her 30 environmental demands is met. She’s prepared for condemnation and even fury from her classmates, but she doesn’t expect the unlikely group that forms to protect her. Alsaid (contributor: It’s a Whole Spiel, 2019, etc.) takes readers deep into the students’ inner lives, winking all the while to offset the protest’s tragic urgency: Peejay Singh, half Indian/half Scottish, all charm and popularity, desperate to live up to his older brother’s example. Celeste Rollins, the black American new kid who befriends Japanese/British Kenji Pierce through improv but doesn’t yet know his terrible secret. Jordi Marcos (ethnicity and nationality unspecified), the outlier who isn’t sure himself why he’s against the protest—but still is, violently. Finally, Malaysian decathlete Amira Wahid, who finds her mother’s strictures falling away under Marisa’s fierce gaze. Packed with quips and insights, the wry narrative captures the intense yearnings of young adulthood; the ridiculous spectrum of clueless, controlling, and |

(sometimes) cooperative adults; and the overwhelming inertia of institutions. Several main characters are queer.

A droll, engrossing exploration of privileged teens striving to do better. (Fiction. 13-18)

MY LONG LIST OF IMPOSSIBLE THINGS

Barker, Michelle Annick Press (360 pp.) $18.95 | Mar. 10, 2020 978-1-77321-365-1

As World War II comes to a close, a German teen and her sister struggle for survival.

It’s March 1945. Katja, 16, her older sister, Hilde, and their Mutti live alone on a Pomeranian farm; Papi was killed two years earlier fighting in the German army. Hilde’s boyfriend is also a soldier. Katja mourns the loss of her Jewish piano teacher, Herr Goldstein, who moved to Poland three years ago. When advancing Russian soldiers take over their home, the three depart on foot for the fictional town of Fahlhoff to stay with their mother’s friends, whom the girls call Aunt Ilse and Uncle Otto. On the long trip there, Russian soldiers shoot and kill Mutti. In Fahlhoff Katja and Hilde struggle to survive under Russian occupation. Katja vandalizes a Russian officer’s automobile, setting off a series of deadly consequences. Unfortunately, the novel feels somewhat myopic—Katja seems much less aware of the danger the Goldsteins faced than seems reasonable given the harsh pervasiveness of anti-Semitic rhetoric. She also seems relatively unaffected by losing her father and Germany’s defeat, making it difficult to relate to her and muddling her narrative arc. Katja’s persistent short-sightedness and flip-flopping emotions leave readers frustrated and bored. For a better treatment of this time period, read Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (2016).

Tone deaf. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)

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in his Congressional testimony sets the urgent tone. “Election manipulation,” as used in this volume, focuses specifically on digital threats which are addressed in three distinct categories: the hacking of campaigns and other political entities; the use of social media to spread disinformation and propaganda; and tampering with the actual process of voting, including exploiting the vulnerabilities of voting machines. Allen looks at each in turn, emphasizing examples from the 2016 U.S. presidential election but with references to the 2018 U.S. midterms and European elections as well. Russia and Russian-sponsored entities are called out as the chief bad actors, but the dangers of North Korea, Iran, China, and domestic perpetrators are not discounted. The crisp, energetic prose endeavors to be nonpartisan but clearly disapproves of the priorities of President Donald Trump (and several other Republican politicians), repeatedly noting their indifference to and dismissal of the seriousness of the issues and their obstruction of proposed remedies. While the overall message is alarming, Allen emphasizes that basic awareness and common-sense safeguards can go a long way to improving security. The sources cited are all up-to-the-minute; color photographs and informative text boxes enhance the work.

Terrifying and timely. (source notes, further reading, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

THE BURNING

Bates, Laura Sourcebooks Fire (352 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-72820-673-8 A victim of misogynistic bullying finds strength in the story of a 17th-century accused witch.

When Anna and her mother move to the small Scottish town of St. Monans, they’re trying to escape both their grief over Anna’s father’s death and their horror at the severe slutshaming she experienced at her old school. Anna hopes for a fresh start, but she’s haunted by fear of her past—until someone else’s past finds her instead. Anna discovers a mysterious necklace in their new home and begins experiencing memories

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writing outside your identity: beyond “right” and “wrong” A few years ago, I enrolled in a mystery writing workshop taught by a Famous Mystery Author. I likely won’t ever write a mystery novel myself, but I thought that it would be interesting to get a glimpse into the secret inner workings of my favorite genre.

Most of the day was indeed as rewarding as expected; however, during the Q&A, things turned sour. The Famous Mystery Author, someone who is known for writing meticulously researched books set in a culture that is not their own, reacted with vitriol to a sincere question from one of the participants.

This aspiring writer expressed interest in writing books set in another country and asked for advice on how to make sure she did so in a way that was accurate, respectful, and realistic. We recoiled in shock as the Famous Mystery Author did not share useful strategies and practical tips learned after years of honing their craft but instead angrily launched into a monologue about how these days some people will tell you you’re not supposed to write about other groups, but you can write whatever you want, no one can tell you what to do, and so on in this now alltoo-familiar vein.

Non-#ownvoices books cross my desk every day and can be roughly divided into three categories: 1. books that impress our #ownvoices reviewers 2. books in which our #ownvoices reviewers find errors and misrepresentation 3. books that our #ownvoices reviewers find lacking in texture and substance; they cannot point to specific mistakes, but nothing sparks a sense of recognition or a feeling of being “seen” by the author Of course, there is no single way of being anything, but our reviewers consider books from a broad stance, approaching them with the needs of individual readers as well as librarians and educators in mind and with an awareness of common tropes, areas of current conversation and debate, and the context of the larger literary landscape in which the book will land.

Too often, conversations about non-#ownvoices writing focus on books that fall into the first and second categories.

Those in the third category—the kinds of books where you can’t necessarily say anything is “wrong” but it’s difficult to find anything substantive to praise about the non-#ownvoices portrayals—are harder (and perhaps less tantalizing) to discuss. But non-#ownvoices authors who wish to avoid egregious errors undoubtedly also aspire to avoid having their works fall into the third category.

I was reminded of this dilemma—and the writing workshop—when I read author, journalist, and writing professor Alexander Chee’s Vulture piece, “How to Unlearn Everything.” He answers a question frequently directed at him—“Do you have 160

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any advice for writing about people who do not look like you?”— by posing three questions of his own: “Why do you want to write from this character’s point of view?

Do you read writers from this community currently?

Why do you want to tell this story?”

The second question is particularly telling, as I have heard far too many writers confess that they have not read works by people from the community they wish to represent, a startling and perplexing oversight. Surely if you are interested enough in a community that you want to represent them in print, this interest would extend to learning all you can from actual members of said community?

Chee’s article is worth reading, as he delves into the complexities and nuances of the subject in a way that is both informative and thought-provoking. Whether you are a writer or simply a reader, he has something to say that will shift your perspective in some way.

Two non-#ownvoices YA titles that are good examples of polished execution are The Blossom and the Firefly by Sherri L. Smith (Putnam, Feb. 18) and 29 Dates by Melissa de la Cruz (Inkyard Press, 2018).

In Smith’s work of historical fiction set in Japan, readers are introduced to a perspective rarely covered in English-language novels about World War II. It focuses on the tender unfolding love affair between a teenage boy who is a member of the tokkō (usually referred to in the West as kamikaze pilots) and a girl who belongs to a youth group supporting those going to war. The black American author did extensive research, and the results more than speak for themselves.

Similarly, Filipina American author de la Cruz accurately conveyed specific details about South Korea that only informed cultural insiders would recognize and appreciate in her rom-com about a Korean girl who spends a year of high school in California and goes on a series of blind dates with different Korean boys. Readers unfamiliar with Korean culture will of course not fully appreciate the elements that escape their recognition, but they will learn something while being entertained.

The more broadly we read, the more we develop our crosscultural perspectives, insights, and knowledge, in the process cultivating a better instinct for noticing what succeeds and what doesn’t in non-#ownvoices writing and why. There’s a reading goal to strive for in 2020. —L.S. Laura Simeon is the young adult editor.

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Captivatingly moody. the truth about keeping secrets

that aren’t her own, drawing her to the story of a local woman who was ostracized and accused of witchcraft after having a baby out of wedlock. This gentle touch of the supernatural emphasizes how little misogynistic vitriol has changed over the years, as painful descriptions of the bullying Anna endures are interwoven with flashbacks to her counterpart’s public shamings. A halfhearted romance feels forced, but the core of Anna’s story will be viscerally recognizable to any young reader who’s experienced cyberbullying or revenge porn. As Anna tells her tormentors, as she stands in solidarity with other girls who’ve been victimized: “You can call me a prude, and you can call me a whore, but really you’re just calling me a girl.” One of Anna’s new school friends is coded as black; other major characters are white.

A haunting rallying cry against sexism and bullying. (discussion questions) (Fiction. 14-adult)

THE TRUTH ABOUT KEEPING SECRETS

In the depths of intense grief, a teen suspects her father’s fatal car accident was actually murder.

Sydney’s devastated by her father’s sudden death and can’t help thinking there was more to the story than a random accident—after all, as the town’s only therapist, he knew everyone’s secrets. She’s surprised to see her high school’s resident golden girl, June, at the funeral. While drowning in grief—depicted in a visceral, pitchperfect first-person voice—Sydney links her father’s death to mysterious text messages she’s receiving that contain harassing, homophobic content. At the same time, she develops a friendship with June—who had been one of her father’s patients— that quickly turns into an infatuation and then obsession (made awkward when Sydney befriends June’s longtime boyfriend).

The emotional character- and relationship-driven story arcs move slowly without sacrificing narrative tension. In the final act of the story, the mystery component—June’s secrets, the text messages, Sydney’s father’s death, and the identity of the true antagonist—tumble out in a fast (if somewhat predictable) whirlwind of pages. Tough and morbid topics are broached— death, abuse, homophobia—but not sensationalized. While the community—including Sydney—is mostly white, brownskinned June is mixed race (ethnicities not specified), and there is some diversity of race and sexuality in secondary characters.

A captivatingly moody, introspective drama. (author interview, resources) (Fiction. 14-adult)

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Carson, Rae Greenwillow (448 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-06-269190-3

A foundling orphan girl sets out to prove her worth by joining an elite—and patriarchal—fighting force.

Seventeen-year-old Red Sparkle Stone is about to be adopted by Empress Elisa and Prince Consort Hector of the kingdom of Joya d’Arena and gain everything she always dreamed of: a family and a place in the world. When the adoption petition is denied, blocked by the empress’s political rivals, Red asks to join the Royal Guard, traditionally a male-only institution. Her journey within the Guard is fraught, complicated even further by the news of a potential coup in the works. Carson (Most Wanted, 2018, etc.) returns to her Girl of Fire and Thorns world with a stand-alone novel featuring Red, the enslaved girl rescued by Elisa in The Bitter Kingdom (2013). This novel develops a taut, self-contained, political mystery within the confined quarters of the Guard and the palace, with a few chapters set in the past showing Red’s harrowing, traumatic history. Red’s PTSD is deftly and sympathetically handled and so is her coming-of-age as a capable, truth-speaking woman alongside her equally welldeveloped brothers in arms. The noticeable absence of other female characters for most of the book is a consequence of setting the story within the confines of a strictly gender binary, male-only Royal Guard. Most characters are brown-skinned.

A rewarding stand-alone novel with effortless plotting and deft characterizations. (Fantasy. 14-adult)

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Brown, Savannah Sourcebooks Fire (320 pp.) $10.99 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-7282-0967-8

THE EMPIRE OF DREAMS

THE WIDE WORLD OF CODING The People and Careers Behind the Programs Connor-Smith, Jennifer Twenty-First Century/Lerner (144 pp.) $37.32 PLB | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-5415-5282-1

A human-centered look at programming.

Focusing more on the conceptual side of programming—how to think like a programmer as opposed to explaining how to write in specific codes—science writer Connor-Smith (Living With Panic Disorder, 2018, etc.) illustrates her points with punchy, efficient anecdotes about the real-world applications and occurrences of the various ideas she presents instead of getting bogged down in theory. Early chapters cover the various steps that creating a program requires (with emphases on the amount of design that can be done on paper and on troubleshooting) followed by an overview of programming language (from a development and function viewpoint) and thorough-yet-succinct algorithm coverage. But it’s in the second half of the book where

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A story of self-discovery and family healing. a girl in three parts

Connor-Smith’s psychology background shines, in chapters covering good versus bad design (and the manipulative psychology behind addictive programming and why companies use it), a wonderfully timely chapter on ethics in the digital realm, and a chapter detailing both why computer science as a field lacks diversity and how—through specific examples—increasing diversity improves outcomes for users and programs alike. The final chapter highlights tech areas with exciting and sometimes scary developments happening now—the text doesn’t shy away from the dark sides of technology but avoids fearmongering— encouraging readers to jump into the world of coding.

This attractive, engaging volume is a must-have for every school library. (answer key, timeline, glossary, source notes, selected bibliography, further reading, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-adult)

A GIRL IN THREE PARTS

Daniel, Suzanne Knopf (320 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-9848-5107-9

Eleven-and-a-half-year-old Allegra is divided by a family at odds with each other.

Allegra’s mum died when she was 3, but she doesn’t know what caused her death or why it made her family stop speaking to each other. She just knows that they each love her differently, and she feels split in three ways trying to maintain relationships with each of them. Allegra lives at Number 23 with her Hungarian Jewish grandmother, Matilde, who is haunted by memories of the war and who runs a strict household. With Matilde she is Allegra. Her father, Rick, takes her surfing, and they have a good time together. But for reasons she doesn’t understand, he lives in the flat above Matilde’s garage; with him she’s Al Pal. Next door, at Number 25, lives her passionate Catholic grandmother, Joy, to whom she is Ally.

When Allegra helps a friend and things go awry, their family secrets must be confronted. Set in 1970s Australia at the cusp of a cultural revolution, this is both a story of self-discovery and one of family healing. Debut author Daniel’s strength lies in the creation of complex characters; Allegra in particular operates from a sheltered existence and makes decisions, judgments, and mistakes in an authentic—and, at times, painful—way. Most characters are white except Allegra’s best friend and her mother, who are Indigenous.

An emotionally moving portrayal of the effects grief has on a family. (Historical fiction. 12-14)

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GOTHAM HIGH

de la Cruz, Melissa Illus. by Pitilli, Thomas DC (208 pp.) $16.99 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-4012-8624-8 The high school beginnings of favorite Batman comic characters.

Seventeen-year-old Bruce Wayne just got kicked out of the fancy boarding school his Uncle Alfred sent him to when his parents died. Now he’s back in Gotham City, living in the family home and attending Gotham High. Bruce runs into his childhood neighbor Selina Garcia Kyle, who invites him to a party where he meets cardsharp Jack Napier, who becomes a new friend. One day, high school classmate Harvey Dent is kidnapped while trying on Bruce’s leather coat, and Bruce gets shot with a tranquilizer dart. Bruce, convinced he, not Harvey, was the real target, goes on a hunt to find the truth. As he uncovers more information, he discovers that his new friends aren’t what they seem. Narrated by Selina, the story puts Batman, the Joker, Catwoman, and other Batman favorites into a teenage setting, giving them more of a backstory. De la Cruz’s (The Queen’s Assassin, 2020, etc.) graphic-novel debut is dark and alluring. The characters do what they need to survive, creating suspense. Pitilli’s (Archie, 2019, etc.) vivid and captivating illustrations are the highlight of this graphic novel, and the darker palette adds to the ominous feel. Bruce’s mother was Chinese from Hong Kong, and his father’s ethnicity is not specified; Selina is Latinx, and there is diversity in secondary characters.

Fast-paced and entertaining. (Graphic fiction. 13-18)

RUTHLESS GODS

Duncan, Emily A. Wednesday Books (544 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-250-19569-2 Series: Something Dark and Holy, 2 Magic and romance steeped in blood and betrayal.

After the dramatic conclusion of Wicked Saints (2019), things have stuttered along. Serefin is king of Tranavia, but the court doesn’t trust him; Malachiasz is the Black Vulture, a monstrous magic wielder, but he still doesn’t have the power he sought, and Nadya can no longer hear her gods. Dual narration from Nadya’s and Serefin’s perspectives, with additional narrative interludes including two of the handful of brown characters in this Eastern European–influenced world of pale skin, takes readers on a (pedestrian) road trip to a scary forest where everyone has a goal that involves killing one of their reluctant allies and sort-of friends. Nadya and Malachiasz continue their doomed, toxic, intense romance even as they work at direct cross-purposes while Serefin (more tortured and less charming

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this time around) figures out that he likes Kacper and fights a voice in his head; meanwhile, gods (or maybe monsters) stir and manipulate mortals. The pacing lags early on before settling into a steady forward direction, and the prose veers toward overwrought, leavened by charmingly snarky, contemporarysounding dialogue; fans of the first volume will be pleased to have more of the same, with higher stakes and increasingly complicated questions of power and divinity.

Why mess with a formula that works? (map) (Fantasy.

14-18)

DANCING AT THE PITY PARTY

Feder, Tyler Illus. by the author Dial (208 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-525-55302-1

The experiences of watching a mother succumb to cancer and grieving her death are explored with honesty and compassion.

Feder (illustrator: Unladylike, 2018), the oldest of three sisters in a close-knit Jewish family, grew up with an artistic, spirited, playful, and affectionate mother, someone whose high spirits were the perfect foil for her daughter’s anxious personality. The summer after Feder’s freshman year of college, her mother was diagnosed with cancer, dying in the spring of Feder’s sophomore year. This vulnerable memoir is a tribute to a beloved woman as well as a meditation on losing a parent when one is on the cusp of adulthood. Much like

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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES

Juleah Del Rosario

HER YA NOVEL, TURTLE UNDER ICE, EXPLORES THEMES OF FAMILY GRIEF AND LOSS THROUGH THE CADENCES OF POETRY

By Connie Ogle Flor Blake

Juleah del Rosario loves turtles. Seriously.

“I know it’s really cheesy,” she says, laughing. “But there’s this pond I walk by in the summer, and it has these turtles. I was curious what happens to them in winter. I looked it up and found that some types of turtles survive under the ice in the pond during the winter. They survive!

They persist, really.”

From small curiosities grow great ideas. The metaphor of the turtle tucked into its shell, biding its time until the ice clears, was the first spark of del Rosario’s second novel, Turtle Under Ice (Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster, Feb. 11), a moving story about two teenagers trying to figure out how to live after their mother’s death.

Written in lyrical verse that gets right to the heart of the story’s emotion, Turtle Under Ice is a young adult novel,

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but its story of family bonds, death, and life is universal.

We all experience loss. We all try to find our way through the maze of grief. We all fail, then try again.

The book is narrated by two sisters: Row, the younger, a popular athlete who buries her pain on the soccer field, and Ariana, an artistic senior who witnessed her mother’s collapse in a Starbucks years earlier and is still weighed down by the terrible memory. Row grows impatient with her sister’s distance sometimes. “It’s not a competition,” she says.

“You don’t get to be the only one / who feels it. You don’t get to consume / all the sadness in the world.”

But in the wake of another painful loss for the family, Ariana withdraws further from her sister, her father, and her stepmother. One day she disappears from the house in a snowstorm, leaving Row to piece together where she has gone—and why.

A librarian at the University of Colorado-Boulder who is also the author of the young adult novel 500 Words or Less, del Rosario uses the sisters’ dilemma to address how we process grief and learn to adjust to change.

“Grief and death are part of life,” she says. “I felt like our conversations about this subject aren’t fully formed.

We don’t discuss it in society as much as we should, and it’s something everyone will experience.”

The book, she adds, is “about opening up this conversation about what it means to live—that’s Ariana’s story.”

Both of del Rosario’s novels are written in verse, a style that effectively captures the interior lives of the characters.

“I felt like I could capture the emotional quality I was looking to express,” del Rosario says of the poetry. “I felt the story could resonate better. The challenge with verse is structurally writing a full story with an arc and development over time. Putting those pieces together is challenging. If you change something you have to change the whole structure. You can’t just replace the words.”

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Connie Ogle is a writer in Florida. Turtle Under Ice was reviewed in the Dec. 15, 2019, issue.

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grief itself, the book careens from deep despair to humor to poignancy, fear, remorse, and anger, mirroring the emotional disorientation that comes with such a significant death. By sharing many particulars about her mother—the foods she loved and hated, the silly in-jokes, her endearing (and annoying) quirks—Feder personalizes her loss in a way that will resonate with members of the “Dead Moms Club,” with whom she describes having an immediate bond. Readers who have not experienced deep grief will learn from the missteps of wellintentioned friends and acquaintances. The pastel-toned illustrations effectively convey Feder’s youth and the intensity of her emotions while emphasizing the ultimate message of survival and resilience in the face of life-changing grief.

Cathartic and uplifting. (Graphic memoir. 12-adult)

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT ME

Guillaume, Jenna Peachtree (304 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 1, 2020 978-1-68263-160-7

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Young adult fiction is continuously broadening to include stories told in such different, innovative ways. Witness the success of Elizabeth Acevedo’s young adult novel in verse, The Poet X, which won the National Book Award in 2018.

Del Rosario believes the genre has also developed to the point where a book can feature diverse characters but not be forced into a predictable storyline.

“I put in some details about the girls’ Filipino father, and their mother was a Pacific Islander,” says del Rosario, who is Chamorro and Filipina. “But I didn’t want the book to be about their racial and ethnic background. I wanted it to be about their relationship with each other— and their mother.”

That said, she thinks there’s room for more diversity in young adult literature and publishing in general, especially among the gatekeepers. Editors and librarians are mostly white, she says, which means there are few people of color at the top of the literary power structure.

“When you’re asking for more voices to be in the profession, you really need to have people at the table who can help foster that relationship,” she says.

Del Rosario says she has always gravitated toward young adult novels, not just as a writer, but as a reader. Why? “They always end with hope,” she says. “There’s still a lifetime that this character will go through, and the possibilities are great.”

A plus-size Aussie teen learns to love herself when she enters a beauty pageant.

For 16-year-old Maisie Martin, summer vacation is not getting off to a great start. Her English teacher, Ms. Singh, demands she keep a journal during the holidays while Maisie and her family—including her wine-swilling mother, her beautiful older sister, Eva, and Eva’s new girlfriend, Bess—spend Christmas in a beach town (Maisie’s dad stays at home due to work commitments). Thankfully Maisie’s best friend, Anna, comes along for the ride and soon hooks up with Maisie’s childhood pal and longtime crush Sebastian, leaving Maisie to face off with Sebastian’s obnoxious best friend, Beamer, who has all the wrong opinions about action movie stars. After connecting with fashion-forward townie Leila, Maisie decides to enter the local beauty pageant that Eva won years before, but Maisie must soon contend with an unexpected romantic entanglement, unwanted press attention for being a larger-than-average contestant, and her own issues with family, friends, and fat. Debut author Guillaume’s novel features funny dialogue and fresh takes on body image and personal relationships as well as a plucky heroine who slowly but surely comes into her own. Most major characters are white; Sebastian is Malaysian and Australian (ethnicities not specified); Leila is Lebanese Australian; and Bess is fat, queer, and proud—all positive representations.

Perfect for fans of Dumplin’, a hilariously sweet yet complex romance. (Fiction. 12-16)

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Cinematic action and a thrilling climax. deeplight

THE DARK MATTER OF MONA STARR

Gulledge, Laura Lee Illus. by the author Amulet/Abrams (192 pp.) $22.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-4197-3423-6

An intimate visual exploration of depression.

In this introspective graphic novel, Mona Starr, a sensitive, bespectacled high schooler with a floppy bob, loves journaling, making art, and music. Mona struggles with both depression and anxiety, which she imagines as “dark matter,” an internal shadow she must constantly fight to keep it from consuming her. Mona comes from a comfortable middle-class home with loving, supportive parents. She regularly attends therapy and practices self-care. Although she is doing all the seemingly right things, her journey is arduous: She faces debilitating physical pain eventually leading to hospitalization for GI issues. Resolving to take her life back, Mona establishes a personalized self-care plan and surrounds herself with “Artners” (a portmanteau of partners and art) who share “creative intimacy.” Mona’s story is loosely based on events from Gulledge’s (Sketchbook Dares, 2018, etc.) own life, which she discusses in an introduction and author’s note along with sharing her own plan for self-care. With an emphasis on both physical and emotional health, this should appeal to older readers of Raina Telgemeier’s Guts (2019). Gulledge’s absorbing black-andwhite art highlighted with bright yellow splashes easily pulls readers into Mona’s innermost thoughts as she strives to bring her own darkness into the light. Mona and her family appear white; her therapist, Dr. Vega, may be Afro-Latinx, and there is diversity in secondary characters.

Quietly arresting and ultimately empowering. (introduction, reading list, soundtrack, self-care plan, author’s note) (Graphic fiction. 12-adult)

DEEPLIGHT

Hardinge, Frances Amulet/Abrams (432 pp.) $19.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-4197-4320-7 Monsters and mortals collide in this fantasy adventure that explores the hypnotic allure of fear, the adamant grip of the past, and the redeeming power of stories.

For centuries, the islanders of the Myriad revered the murderous, terrifying gods who rose from the Undersea. Now, the gods are 30 years gone, and divers who dare to retrieve scraps of their magical remains can make a fortune—if they can get past the governor’s men. Fourteen-yearold Hark is an orphan who ekes out a living by spinning tall tales to gullible prospects while dreaming of a brighter future. Hark’s 166

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best friend, Jelt, has always been his fierce protector. But Jelt is also manipulative, abusive, and dangerous. Just as new possibilities open up for Hark, Jelt coerces him into another reckless scheme in which Jelt nearly drowns. Hark finds a mysterious pulsing relic and uses it to save Jelt, unleashing catastrophic consequences. Hardinge (A Skinful of Shadows, 2017, etc.) conjures up an atmospheric world peopled with sinister smugglers and a stubborn scientist, artful urchins and armed fanatics, ravenous gods and wretched priests. The unhurried opening soon escalates into cinematic action and a thrilling climax. The many pleasures of this tale include a range of extraordinary female characters and sensitive and respectful depictions of deaf people and hearing signers. Humans in this world vary in skin tone, but race has no significance; there are few physical descriptors for the main characters.

Spellbinding. (Fantasy. 12-adult)

THEY WENT LEFT

Hesse, Monica Little, Brown (384 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-316-49057-3

Well-researched historical fiction about what happened after the Holocaust ended.

So many books tackle experiences in the camps or the resistance movements, but what happened to the people liberated at the end of the war? Jewish Zofia, liberated from Gross-Rosen and then hospitalized, has trouble remembering things, like the last time she saw her younger brother, Abek, but she knows he is all she has left and that she needs to find him. Her journey takes her from Poland to Foehrenwald, a refugee camp in Germany. In Foehrenwald, Zofia begins to rediscover that life holds joy and opportunity. There, she connects with other people who have lost everything and yet have found purpose, including Zionists preparing for kibbutz life. She also meets Josef, to whom she is immediately attracted, and continues to follow leads to find Abek even as her patchy memory circles uncertainly around memories that hide something. Despite the well-researched setting and some genuinely touching emotional beats, the novel never really gels due to absences: intriguing side plots trail off, Zofia has little identity beyond her search for Abek, and the romantic subplot is needlessly convoluted. Judaism plays a minimal role in the Jewish characters’ lives.

Notable for exploring an oft-forgotten moment but ultimately succeeds mostly as a history lesson. (note on history and research) (Historical fiction. 13-18)

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LUCY CRISP AND THE VANISHING HOUSE

Hill, Janet Illus. by the author Tundra (224 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-77049-924-9

Lucy is having trouble settling on a profession but certainly never expected her explorations to lead her to the bewitching town of Esther Wren.

It’s when Lucy tries her hand at floral arrangements that a co-worker encourages her to apply to Ladywyck Lodge to train in floristry. Lucy’s acceptance to the program prompts her move from New York City to the quaint town where her father buys her an enchanting—or enchanted—house. As soon as she moves in, things begin appearing. Some are good surprises, such as a typewriter and a cat. But when Lucy sees other people in the house and items start disappearing, she determines to get

to the root of the problem. The combination of Lucy’s naïve sleuthing and the small-town setting with its quirky, slightly sinister residents, all illustrated in retro-looking full-color portraits and paintings, firmly mark this as a cozy horror. The meandering pace picks up with a humorous turn of events, and a hint of romance is interjected when the mysterious, attractive Daniel, a teacher at Ladywyck, enters the picture. As Lucy traverses the town, she uncovers its history, studies some shady characters, and meets friends who help. By the time Lucy is done, she has discovered her path in life.

Teens seeking a terror-free spine tingle are in for a treat. (Horror. 12-18)

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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES

Fred Aceves

HIS NEW YA NOVEL, THE NEW DAVID ESPINOZA, EDUCATES READERS ABOUT A LITTLE-KNOWN ISSUE: MUSCLE DYSMORPHIA AMONG YOUNG MEN

By James Feder Jalil Olmedo

“I knew I was the right person to write this book,” says Fred Aceves of his new YA novel. The Mexico-based writer spent his later teenage years in Tampa, Florida, where the pressure to have the “perfect body” was reinforced everywhere he looked, from WWF wrestlers to beachgoers and bodybuilders. The pressures on young women to look a certain way are widely known and discussed today.

But young men are affected, too—Aceves certainly was— and we’re just not talking about it. With his new novel, Aceves is looking to change that.

The New David Espinoza (HarperTeen, Feb. 11) follows the eponymous 17-year-old’s journey in the wake of an especially public instance of high school bullying. Long accustomed to the abuse of his peers, tall and lanky David decides to use the summer between junior and senior year to bulk up. His initial goal seems reasonable enough; he joins a local gym and carefully monitors his diet. But his progress isn’t fast enough. Rather than settling for a more modest goal, he decides to try a round of steroids—just one month, he tells himself, to give his summer routine a little boost.

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“This is an issue I have experience with,” Aceves explains. “I briefly took steroids as a teen, and I also showed signs of disordered eating in my 30s.” That firsthand knowledge was important, he insists, not only because it allowed him to speak to the psychological dimension of the disorder, but because the type of body dysmorphia David suffers from is so rarely talked about that even those affected are often unaware of its existence.

Muscle dysmorphia is a subset of body dysmorphia that affects, according to a recent study, nearly a quarter of men in the United States ages 18 to 24. Unlike the more well-known diagnoses of anorexia and bulimia, muscle dysmorphia fuels unhealthy eating and exercise routines in pursuit of gaining muscle. Whereas those with the former conditions see themselves as fat, no matter their actual size, someone with muscle dysmorphia looks in the mirror and sees a body that is always too small and weak.

“The way this disorder manifests itself,” Aceves explains, “is you have this goal to get bigger, but the ideal keeps getting even bigger. Maybe your goal was achievable in the beginning, but in the end it’s not enough, because you’re never big enough.”

The realization that maintaining muscle growth requires continued use of steroids comes as a shock to David in the novel, as it did to his creator in real life. Unable to imagine reverting to his old self, David descends deeper into the unhealthy world of his bodybuilding, steroid-using, alligator-wrestling friends (the latter a nod to people Aceves befriended during his own time of steroid abuse in Florida). The added testosterone coursing through his body causes him to lash out at those around him, eventually driving away even those he didn’t alienate through his constant obsession with his physique.

“I was surprised by the destruction that David allowed in his life,” Aceves admits. But at the same time, he says

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James Feder is a writer based in Tel Aviv. The New David Espinoza was reviewed in the Dec. 15, 2019, issue.

THE ACCURSED INHERITANCE OF HENRIETTA ACHILLES

Hörnig, Haiko Illus. by Pawlitza, Marius Graphic Universe (96 pp.) $29.32 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-5415-7243-0 Series: A House Divided, 1

Orphan Henrietta Achilles inherits a magical house in this action-packed graphic novel.

A war 9 years ago left Henrietta an orphan, so she’s surprised when Renault, a gentleman in a top hat, takes her on a carriage ride to the mysterious town of Malrenard. She learns she’s the last living relative of an uncle she never met—and he’s died and left her an estate with treasure allegedly hidden all over the house. Upon arriving, Henrietta quickly gets pulled into a battle with two groups racing to search for a secret vault hidden inside the house. Cannons boom and swords flash, and dashing blond bandit Nate Flemming and his crew come to Henrietta’s rescue. Humor abounds with witty banter, quiche thievery, alienlike creatures riding giant rats, and unexpectedly helpful stone statues that give either directions or riddles. Henrietta’s hesitant to share that she’s the owner of the estate—and when she’s captured by the rival crew, they laugh at her and lock her in a cupboard. The plot is heavy with setup and brief introductions to numerous characters, laying the foundation for the mysteries of the estate to be revealed in future installments.

Pawlitza’s breathtaking illustrations of the skyscraper-sized house will delight while darker, claustrophobic scenes provide a nice emotional balance. Renault is black, and the majority of the cast appears to be white.

An entertaining adventure. (quiche recipe) (Graphic fan­ tasy. 12-18)

RAYBEARER

Ifueko, Jordan Amulet/Abrams (368 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-4197-3982-8 Sixteen-year-old Tarisai of Swana is commanded to kill the one person in the world she’s sworn to love and protect.

Born of a mysterious woman known only as The Lady and her unholy coupling with an ehru (djinn), coily haired, darkskinned Tarisai is hidden away in the grasslands of her home realm and constantly tested by tutors, preparing her whole life to join the Council of Eleven that will advise the Crown Prince.

When she discovers that she was created as a weapon to assassinate that same beloved prince, Tarisai embarks on a journey through the 12 realms of Aritsar to discover the truth about her complicated history, hoping for a chance to shine a light on a new path for herself. Debut author Ifueko’s ethnically and |

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that he saw echoes of himself in the character. “His circumstances were more extreme than mine, but this is what happens with an obsession, with an addiction.”

While there is a growing awareness of young girls’ and women’s struggles with body image, when it comes to men, Aceves says, “everyone is clueless.” Part of the problem, he explains, is that when we see young men going to the gym and getting more muscular, we applaud them.

And then there’s the fact that celebrities routinely deny using steroids to gain muscle for movie roles, which has the effect of propping up hugely unrealistic goals and standards. While doing research, Aceves didn’t simply run into widespread ignorance of muscle dysmorphia— he experienced outright push back. His posts looking for people to interview were deleted from message boards, and the existence of the disorder was regularly dismissed by those in the bodybuilding and fitness communities.

“I just hope this book starts a conversation,” Aceves says. “I hope that the teens and the young men suffering recognize themselves in David, recognize that they are not alone. Simply knowing that there’s a name for this disorder is a huge step—I saw that with the kids I spoke to. We can’t change something until we name it.”

Wildly ambitious, devastatingly raw, and impossibly gentle. the lucky ones

religiously diverse empire is well-built, taking form as it unfurls and blossoms in a way that never feels rushed. This fantasy world—where tutsu sprites roam and people are graced with a never-ending spectrum of Hallows, or birth gifts—provides constant wonder and enchantment and has a tantalizing potential that engages readers. The perfectly paced plot is laid against a backdrop of political unrest and intrigue that explores colonialist and imperialist themes, ensuring its continued relevance.

The nuanced experiences of the fantasy communities will resonate with global, contemporary marginalized peoples and their struggles against discrimination.

A fresh, phenomenal fantasy that begs readers to revel in its brilliant world. (Fantasy. 14-18)

THE LUCKY ONES

Lawson, Liz Delacorte (352 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-593-11849-8

Two teens find each other (and themselves) with a little help from their friends in this story of survival, perseverance, and hope.

In alternating first-person narration, two familiar character types— loose-cannon May McGintee and awkward try-hard Zach Teller—are quickly defamiliarized. May is the sole survivor of a massacre that robbed her twin brother, favorite teacher, and five peers of their lives. She’s struggled with survivor’s guilt and PTSD ever since, and her best friend, Lucy, is the only person who keeps her going. Zach has been taking care of his family, especially younger sister Gwen, since his father fell into a deep depression five years ago. When his attorney mother defends the shooter, almost everybody he knows— except his best friend, Conor—abandons him. When Lucy auditions for Conor’s band, May and Zach meet cute. As May begins putting herself back together, Zach learns what being there truly entails. Lawson’s extraordinary knack for navigating typical teenage-rule predicaments—parent problems, friend frustration, budding desire—and the most searing circumstances—loss, terror, rage, fault—keeps the plot at a boil.

Though shaped like a romance, Lawson’s remarkable debut celebrates love’s many forms, from friends who refuse to be pushed away to families slowly closing years of distance. Lucy is Haitian; Conor, Zach, and May are white.

Wildly ambitious and wholly empathetic, devastatingly raw, and impossibly gentle; a must-read in this moment. (author’s note, resources) (Fiction. 14-18)

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THE BEST LAID PLANS

Lund, Cameron Razorbill/Penguin (368 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-593-11491-9

A high school senior aims to lose her virginity.

Keely Collins has grown up with the same small, tight group of kids all her life, making romance a difficult proposition.

It’s hard to feel sexy with someone when you’ve seen them eat paste. But after discovering she’s the last virgin standing, Keely resolves to lose her virginity before finishing high school. Luckily, Keely’s earned the attention of her sexy older co-worker, Dean. While Dean and Keely get hot and heavy, Keely’s best friend, Andrew, starts acting weird. If you think you know where this is going, you’re absolutely right. The novel takes the “childhood friends figure out they love each other” trope and sprints with it, forgetting to prop it up with complex characters or dynamic plotting. Events spill forward with little regard to pacing save for one element: the sexy bits.

The author’s steamy scenes are appropriately titillating when they need to be and emotionally affecting when it counts. The book’s scenes of true intimacy and pure sexual energy are wellcrafted set pieces, using heavy petting to illuminate characters that are stunningly two dimensional before and afterward.

There’s just enough going on here to halfheartedly recommend the title, but there’s also enough potential to cause anticipation for the author’s sophomore outing. All main characters are cued as white; secondary characters are black and Korean.

Read it for the sexy parts. (Fiction. 14-18)

IN GOOD HANDS Remarkable Female Politicians From Around the World Who Showed Up, Spoke Out and Made Change

MacKendrick, Stephanie Kids Can (256 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-5253-0035-6

It’s never too early for girls and women to get involved in politics—and this book was designed to show them exactly how.

When former journalist and debut author MacKendrick asked former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright about the biggest challenge she’s ever faced, she was shocked at the accomplished woman’s answer: self-doubt. MacKendrick realized the need for a resource to encourage young women interested in politics. The book begins with a series of profiles including those of Canadian politician Michelle Stilwell, who is quadriplegic; bisexual Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, the only member of Congress who is openly nonreligious; Taiwanese American Boston city councilwoman Michelle Wu; and

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Jordan’s Palestinian Muslim minister for social development Hala Lattouf. The profiles, which feature women from Malawi, Israel, Afghanistan, and New Zealand, not only chronicle the women’s decisions to run for office, but also the obstacles they faced along the way. The final third of the book provides a comprehensive guide to running for office, with information about goal setting, building a support system, volunteering, networking, building a campaign platform, and finances; there is an extensive list of resources. MacKendrick’s text is blunt and practical without ever feeling unkind; her matter-of-fact tone is motivating while insisting on self-reflection. Overall the book is useful and encouraging, making it an ideal read for girls with political ambitions.

A comprehensive guide for young women interested in running for public office. (Nonfiction. 13-18)

SWORD IN THE STARS

A band of heroes travels through time to put an end to King Arthur’s tragedy and save their future from corporate corruption.

In this second and final installment of a science-fiction reimagining of Arthurian legend, Ari, Merlin, and their friends crash into the past to steal a magic chalice from Camelot. They are guided by their quest to set the spirit of King Arthur free from his cycle of reincarnation and put a stop to Mercer, a murderous mega-corporation. However, their plans fall apart when they find themselves entangled in the legend—love triangle included—with Ari in the role of Lancelot and Gwen married to Arthur. Meanwhile, Merlin ages backward every time he uses magic. One false move could disrupt their whole timeline. Capetta (The Storm of Life, 2020, etc.) and McCarthy (Once & Future, 2019, etc.) have crafted a fastpaced, turbulent plotline with satisfying twists and luscious queer romance. Throughout they critique the whitewashing of medieval European history and, particularly, Arthurian retellings. Their cast of characters displays an intentional diversity of identities, including polyamorous. Encounters with Merlin’s past self and conflict with the Lady of the Lake explore the question of what makes someone a villain. Without rushing, the story resolves through a path of healing from the trauma of the past.

A heroic finale. (Science fiction. 14-18)

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Parks, Peggy J. ReferencePoint Press (80 pp.) $30.95 PLB | Apr. 1, 2020 978-1-68282-761-1

In a tweet heard ’round the world, #MeToo sparked a movement, igniting a fiery, complex conversation about sexual harassment.

Parks (Careers in Fashion, 2019, etc.) provides a robust history of sexual harassment, beginning with the #MeToo social media movement. Initiated by activist Tarana Burke in 2006 and pushed into the mainstream lexicon by actor Alyssa Milano in 2017, #MeToo demonstrates solidarity among people who have experienced sexual harassment.

Parks begins with the hashtag, then details allegations against the rich and famous, like Harvey Weinstein, and elected officials such as Al Franken. She also relates the stories of those who have spoken up, including Taylor Swift and journalist Gretchen Carlson. Parks pushes the narrative beyond a tale of victim and victimized to one of victors: She correlates the #MeToo movement with the historic rise in women elected to state and federal offices in 2018, asserting that the #MeToo movement played a significant role. #MeToo sparked a wave of legislative interest and workplace policies to address sexual harassment, but not without unintended consequences. Parks explains some of the serious externalities that resulted: a presumption of guilt against the accused, diminished opportunities for women to be mentored by male colleagues, and retaliation against accusers.

Men and boys are also mentioned as targets of sexual harassment. Ample color photographs add interest, and sidebars offer important contextual information.

A comprehensive examination of sexual harassment and #MeToo. (source notes, further reading, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

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McCarthy, Cori & Capetta, Amy Rose Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown (320 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-0-316-44929-8 Series: Once & Future, 2

THE #METOO MOVEMENT

GIRLS SAVE THE WORLD IN THIS ONE

Parsons, Ash Philomel (432 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-525-51532-6

June Blue has a solid plan—make special memories with her friends Imani and Siggy at the highly anticipated ZombieCon! and not think about life after high school.

At least, that is the plan until real zombies take over: Now June and her friends must save the day! The time has finally come for June, Imani, and Siggy to experience the rush of ZombieCon!, the fan convention centered around their favorite show, Human Wasteland—a huge event for their small town to host. June has carefully laid out every detail, from floor plans to an itinerary, in order to capitalize on their most significant adventure yet. She

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thought her biggest problems would be avoiding former bestie Blair (who stole June’s not-quite-boyfriend) and braving the long lines to meet her favorite actors. But at an all-cast panel, chaos ensues, causing everyone to question the reality of the very concept they’ve gathered to celebrate. Now they must fight their way out of the convention center and save their town with June leading a motley cast of characters, some of whom are not well fleshed out. Parsons (The Falling Between Us, 2018, etc.) successfully maintains a fast, humorous pace with heartfelt moments and palpable enthusiasm for zombies while also inserting social commentary about allyship for people with marginalized identities and the portrayal of women in horror. June and Siggy are white; Imani is black and Korean.

A ravenous read. (Horror. 12-18)

MEET ME AT MIDNIGHT

Pennington, Jessica Tor Teen (336 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-250-18766-6

Love sparks as a summer rivalry turns into a summer romance.

Since fellow swimmers Sidney Walters, who’s auburn-haired, and Asher Marin, with brown hair and magnetic blue eyes, were 13 years old, their families have spent every summer vacationing together at the Five Pines Resort and Lake House. Sidney and Asher have spent those summers as enemies, constantly trying to outdo each other with elaborate pranks such as putting self-tanner in sunscreen, lacing toothpaste with cayenne pepper, and spiking the shower with cherry Kool-Aid so it dyes everything red. It’s Sidney and Asher’s last summer before college, and their quest to outdo one another results in a prank that goes one step too far, costing their families their summer rentals. Forced to call a truce, their true feelings about each other begin to surface, and they’re faced with something even scarier than slipping in a room covered in mayonnaise: falling in love. In her novel told in Sidney’s and Asher’s alternating first-person perspectives, Pennington (When Summer Ends, 2019, etc.) crafts two believable teens ensnared in a hate-to-love romance that is addictingly enjoyable. The comedic matchup between Sidney, a meticulous overthinker, and the charming yet snarky Asher will have readers rooting for the duo. All main characters are assumed white.

A steamy, prank-filled summer romance that readers will devour. (Romance. 14-18)

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ELYSIUM GIRLS

Pentecost, Kate Disney-Hyperion (400 pp.) $17.99 | Apr. 14, 2020 978-1-368-04186-7 Debut author Pentecost mixes base notes of dystopia with steampunk and mythic fantasy in Depression-era Oklahoma.

On April 14, 1935, Black Sunday, 6-year-old Sal Wilkerson and her fellow townspeople come face to face with the Dust Soldiers, minions of the goddesses Life and Death, who present a terrifying challenge: They have been unwittingly thrust into the Game and given 10 years to establish an equitable and harmonious society or face annihilation. The community galvanizes behind the enigmatic bruja, Mother Morevna. As the end of the decade nears, Mother Morevna names Sal her Successor, taking her on as an apprentice in the magical arts. Meanwhile, a mysterious stranger with unexplained knowledge of the Game arrives at the gates of Elysium. Sal must use her skills to discover the truth and reveal secrets hidden by her mentor, the stranger, and the marginalized victims who fight for survival beyond Elysium’s walls in order to win the Game. In this matriarchal society where young women are gifted with magical ability, race becomes a major source of conflict. Though the book tackles themes of intersectional feminism and what it means to build a more just world, big reveals and climactic moments often feel perfunctory and rushed, leading at times to awkward pacing. Sal is white; her best friend is black; the supporting cast includes Mexican American and Native characters; and there is a samesex romance.

A not-always-successful genre-bender that is sure to find a niche. (Fantasy. 14-18)

POEMS TO SEE BY A Comic Artist Interprets Great Poetry illus. by Peters, Julian Plough (200 pp.) $24.00 | Mar. 31, 2020 978-0-87486-318-5

Visual adaptations of 24 short poems mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Graphic artist Peters (Stairs Appear in a Hole Outside of Town, 2014, etc.) has thematically arranged the content in quartets so that, for instance, Emily Dickinson’s “Hope Is a Thing With Feathers” and Maya Angelou’s “Caged Bird” (with two others) appear under “Seeing Yourself,” and Edgar Allen Poe’s wonderfully morbid “Annabel Lee” joins three others about “Seeing Death.” Siegfried Sassoon’s “Before the Battle” is set in the World War I trenches, but Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias” is just one of several in which different eras flicker past (in this case, a masked gunman brandishes an

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Shows that Earth’s salvation lies in the diversity of its people. one earth

Islamic State group flag in one late panel), and some, such as “Caged Bird” and Langston Hughes’ “Juke Box Love Song,” are montages or abstractions. The selections likewise encompass a range of moods and media, from a twinkly black-and-white manga version of W.B. Yeats’ “When You Are Old” to poignant watercolor scenes illustrating Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays.” The text is easy to follow, even when incorporated into the art, and the poems are reprinted at the end of each piece. The only serious misstep is the inclusion of Carl Sandburg’s “Buffalo Dusk,” with its hopelessly simplistic line, “Those who saw the buffaloes are gone”—compounded by images of ghostly Native Americans on horseback by a modern highway.

Fresh angles aplenty for poetic encounters. (preface, poetry credits) (Graphic poetry collection. 12-16)

INTO THE DEEP Science, Technology, and the Quest to Protect the Ocean

Explore the ocean with over a dozen oceanography professionals who use technology to further their scientific research and counter the effects of cli-

mate change.

Clearly organized chapters are divided into two sections, the first about the ocean’s physical properties and the second about marine animals, starting with microscopic phytoplankton and progressing to blue whales. The main text of each short chapter focuses on a research question currently being studied using technology. The engaging narration is augmented with easily digestible scientific information presented in callout boxes and profiles of professionals from around the world, many of them women, with primary source quotations that provide a glimpse of potential career paths and advice on how to gain experience at school and in the field. Throughout, readers are reminded that science and technology can help humans learn more about the ocean in order to make better choices to protect our planet.

Visual context is provided through illustrated diagrams and color photographs showing professionals and their equipment in the field as well as images captured during expeditions. Most scientific terms are defined contextually and/or in the glossary.

Written by an experienced and passionate STEM nonfiction author, technical specificity is deftly balanced with engaging writing in this title that is perfect for homework and leisure exploration.

A captivating and well-researched deep dive into oceanography. (glossary, source notes, further reading, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

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Polisner, Gae Wednesday Books (288 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-250-31223-5

Will JL jump on the back of her boyfriend’s motorcycle and light out for California to see her dad—or stay on Long Island with her mother?

Jean Louise, or “JL”—named for author Jack (Jean-Louis) Kerouac—has grown up with both her mother and grandmother fixated on the fact that in 1961, her then-teenage grandmother was kissed by Kerouac in a restaurant in their hometown of Northport, Long Island. JL is baffled by their fascination (and likely so will most teen readers today be). However, as a high school sophomore, JL has bigger worries. Her father has moved to California for work, and it is unclear when he will return. Her mother is sinking into a dissociative state, writing letters to the dead author. Her former best friend, Aubrey, has found new friends. JL finds solace in her relationship with her 19-year-old boyfriend, Max (who is a stereotype of the bad boy with a heart of gold), and in raising tropical butterflies from a kit her grandmother bought for her. The major strengths of the book are deft deployment of the emerging butterfly theme, first-person narration by a strong and insightful character, and honest descriptions of JL’s sexual relationship with Max. Unfortunately, JL’s mother’s mental illness is portrayed shallowly, the Kerouac element is not very compelling, and the setting is indistinguishable from Anytown, USA. All characters seem to be white.

A serviceable exploration of teen relationships. (Fiction.

13-18)

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Peterson, Christy Twenty-First Century/Lerner (152 pp.) $39.99 PLB | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-5415-5555-6

JACK KEROUAC IS DEAD TO ME

ONE EARTH People of Color Protecting Our Planet

Rao, Anuradha Orca (208 pp.) $24.95 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-4598-1886-6

Conservation biologist Rao introduces 20 “environmental defenders” who are black, Indigenous, and people of color, inspiring young readers and

environmentalists.

When Rao entered the environmental field decades ago, she didn’t encounter many people who looked like her. But, she writes, “my culture and my passion for the earth are linked,” and she shows how that is the case for the defenders she interviewed for this book. Indonesian Muslim urban designer Nana Firman had limited results talking about “sustainability” and “conservation” with communities; when she identified Islamic foundations for stewardship, she found language that connected people

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Expertly brings to life the pre-AIDS world of San Francisco’s gay neighborhoods. music from another world

to the cause. Oakland native Rue Mapp founded Outdoor Afro to connect African Americans to nature by holding space for the histories of injustice and exclusion black Americans have experienced in outdoor spaces and using a social justice lens to create safe and welcoming outdoor experiences. These environmental defenders hail from all over the world and vary greatly in ethnicity, culture, age, and religious background. The ways in which they protect the Earth vary too, but their messages echo each other with hope in what can happen when people come together and make small changes that add up. Each short biography, enhanced by attractive color photographs and engaging sidebars, also illustrates how the defenders came to their chosen paths—thought-provoking reading for young people figuring out their own contributions.

This valuable compilation shows that Earth’s salvation lies in the diversity of its people. (glossary, resources, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

RAD AMERICAN HISTORY A-Z Movements and Moments That Demonstrate the Power of the People Schatz, Kate Illus. by Stahl, Miriam Klein Ten Speed Press (176 pp.) $19.99 | Mar. 3, 2020 978-1-9848-5683-8 Series: Rad Women

An examination of social movements that changed U.S. history and culture.

The team of Schatz and Stahl, collaborators on the Rad Women series that explores the impacts of women and progressive movements, in their latest entry present challenges to the status quo in U.S. history. In addition to centering little-known incidents, the focus is on grassroots organizations and underrepresented individuals who pushed for change and responded to injustice. When familiar narratives are included, it is with an original perspective. The creators are clear about their point of view: “These are the stories and truths that many people would prefer to deny, the details that often get ignored, glossed over, sanitized, or left out—especially in history books.” The role of Harriet Tubman as a spy and operative in the Civil War’s Combahee River Raid highlights another side of her work as a liberator of enslaved persons. A look at Jane Addams and Hull House shines a light on support for immigrants in the late 19th century.

Details about the Black Lives Matter and the Youth Climate movements provide useful context about contemporary activism. Attention is also paid to the arts, including music, theater, and visual art. The lively writing and the complementary blackand-white illustrations make this an enticing read. Useful sidebars and additional definitions expand upon the main text.

A concise and intriguing survey of the relentless fight for social change. (notes on the illustrations, index) (Nonfic­ tion. 12-16)

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SOMEBODY TOLD ME

Siegert, Mia Carolrhoda (272 pp.) $18.99 | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-5415-7819-7

An agnostic, bigender teen moves in with their Catholic aunt and uncle after being sexually assaulted.

Chapter headers indicate if the protagonist currently identifies as Aleks (male, using he/him pronouns) or Alexis (female, using she/her pronouns). Aleks/Alexis cuts off all contact with their cosplay community after these former friends enabled their assault. When Aleks/Alexis discovers that their new room beside the church allows them to overhear confessions, they decide to secretly aid troubled parishioners. When they hear the confession of a priest who is molesting boys—and when their uncle, the priest receiving confessions, absolves him rather than stepping in—Aleks/Alexis determines that drastic action is needed. Aleks/Alexis narrates in a heavy first person that is colored by the shame, anger, and self-hatred they feel as a result of their trauma. The novel’s strongest element is the authentic bigender representation: Aleks/Alexis’ frequent ruminations on their relationship to gender and presentation ring resoundingly true. Though Aleks/Alexis’ parents model an excellent support system, readers should prepare for intense transphobia and homophobia from other characters. Unfortunately, the story’s pacing is off-kilter, with some elements rushed and others overly convenient. Though some character moments feel real, others lack nuance. Olive-skinned Aleks/ Alexis has Russian Jewish heritage on their dad’s side; their crush, Sister Bernadette, has brown skin; the ethnicity of most other characters is not specified.

Authentic bigender representation is tempered by an ill-flowing narrative. (author’s note, topics for discussion) (Fiction. 14-18)

MUSIC FROM ANOTHER WORLD

Talley, Robin Inkyard Press (384 pp.) $18.99 | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-335-14677-9

As the national gay rights battle heats up in the summer of 1977, two high school girls from disparate California communities are paired in a pen pal assignment.

Tammy Larson is from a conservative Christian community in Orange County. She is forced by her family to participate in activities in support of Anita Bryant’s anti–gay rights crusade in Florida. Tammy knows she is gay and fears the wrath of her Aunt Mandy, a church leader. Sharon Hawkins lives with her mother and brother in San Francisco. She is keeping her brother’s gay

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identity a secret while also trying to figure out her feelings for her boyfriend—and for girls. The book’s structure includes Tammy’s and Sharon’s letters interspersed with Sharon’s diary entries and Tammy’s unmailed letters to her idol, gay rights leader Harvey Milk. The girls’ growing trust in each other makes Sharon’s home the logical place for Tammy to flee following a crisis at home. The author expertly brings to life the pre-AIDS world of San Francisco’s gay neighborhoods, the vitality of the nascent gay rights movement (including welcome details about the often overlooked lesbian community), and the punk rock scene. The book’s strengths include good pacing, a respectful acknowledgment of bisexuality, and satisfying personal and political denouements. Both girls are white; there is ethnic diversity in secondary characters.

This queer novel stands out thanks to the 1970s San Francisco setting and punk vibe. (Historical fiction. 13-18)

I WISH

This Dutch import pairs portraits with poetry to articulate wrenching individualism, yearning, humor, desires, and

pathos.

Transfixing faces—mostly pale, all moon-shaped and with unsettlingly wide-set eyes—conjure mildly unnerving sensations in readers, who will seek to understand, empathize, or at least interpret their expressions. These faces aren’t posing or posturing; they’re flat on the page, laid bare. Older children and teens, in particular, keenly aware of feelings, faces, and masks, will dwell upon these ambiguous, baffling visages. Colmer’s sensitive translation emerges as crucial, as the pictures’ powerful poignancy begs for explanation. Voiced in the first person, one of Tellegen’s poems appears opposite each portrait, expressing the characters’ deeply personal wishes and ringing with their unique phrasing and particular timbre. “I wish happiness was a thing and I / found it somewhere and took it home with me,” confides Carl, one of the book’s few kids of color. Piero, a white boy, grumbles, “I would like first of all to express my sincere thanks / to whoever gave me my looks. / I mean: IN-sincere. / Because I look horrible.” The kids’ names are printed close to the book’s gutter, bridging language and art. These many portraits and poems beg to be leafed through and read in several sittings, as they house too much emotional energy to digest in one read.

This probing psychological journey makes for an exciting exploration in empathy. (Picture book/poetry. 12-16)

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A girl and a witch go on a quest to reunite the witch with her missing powers.

Lelek is a witch who travels through the land cheating townsfolk to survive.

Sanja witnesses her conflict with a disgruntled customer and the magical fight that ensues. Lelek, after seeing how expertly Sanja wields a sword, kidnaps Sanja so that she can learn from her how to fight. Sanja insists that Lelek stop cheating people. The girls decide to move from town to town challenging witches to battles and charging spectators for tickets as they seek to restore Lelek’s missing magic. Along the way, they make friends and enemies, fall in love, and learn to trust. As Sanja’s past catches up to them, the girls’ journey takes a turn for the worse, and Sanja must save Lelek’s life. Zabarsky’s (contributor: Tim’rous Beastie, 2017) illustrations give texture to the abundant, fantastical natural setting. A mix of bright pastels and dark panels set the tone for this eccentric story. Dream sequences and flashbacks provide in-depth insights into Sanja and Lelek, furthering their characterizations and their relationship to one another. The minimal text will occasionally force readers to pay close attention to the visual cues and the meandering plot.

Lelek is brown skinned and Sanja is white and fat; secondary characters are diverse in skin tone.

A charmingly illustrated story with a strolling pace.

(Graphic fantasy. 12-18)

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Tellegen, Toon Illus. by Godon, Ingrid Trans. by Colmer, David Elsewhere Editions (105 pp.) $22.00 | Mar. 31, 2020 978-1-939810-32-8

WITCHLIGHT

Zabarsky, Jessi Illus. by the author Random House (208 pp.) $16.99 paper | Apr. 14, 2020 978-0-593-11999-0

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indie DISPLACED

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Baker, Bridget E. Purple Puppy Publishing (490 pp.) $17.99 paper | $4.99 e-book Oct. 11, 2019 978-1-949655-14-8

WHEN DEATH IMITATES ART by P.D. Halt..................................... 183 UNBLINDED by Traci Medford-Rosow & Kevin Coughlin..............188 THE NIGHT IS DONE by Sheila Myers..............................................189

A superhuman teen heiress must survive first love and her twin sister’s homicidal ambitions in this novel.

Seventeen-year-old Chancery Alamecha is an evian, a member of a genetically pure race in which humans are a corrupted subset. Evians can live for up to a millennium. They are faster and stronger than humans and can heal themselves from all but the most severe injuries. Chancery’s mother is almost nine centuries old and is ruler of one of the six evian families, to which human leaders pay obeisance. Evian succession defaults to the youngest daughter—in the case of the Alamecha family, Chancery’s twin sister, Judica. Chancery and Judica look alike but have very different personalities. Whereas Chancery is compassionate, Judica is cold and cruel. While Chancery daydreams about living in the human world, Judica trains in single combat (the evian way of settling disputes) and remains consumed by hatred for her sister. The protagonist has no ambition, but when her mother is murdered, having just changed her heirship document to name Chancery, everything changes. More than ever, Judica wants Chancery dead. Chancery must face her in a duel to the death or live forever in exile.

She has 10 days to decide. She chooses to spend this time in New York, training with Edam, Judica’s former bodyguard, for whom Chancery has more than a crush, and attending a human school, where she meets Noah Wen, the debonair youngest son of a Chinese magnate. Will Chancery return to face certain death at the hands of her sister? And who will win her heart, Edam or Noah? In this fantasy romance series opener, Baker (Finding Liberty, 2019, etc.) writes simply but effectively in the first person, present tense. The evian world is immediately compelling, emerging naturally from the story and offering some nice points of difference from the more standard fantasy fare of elves and vampires. Chancery is a relatable protagonist, and the other characters remain distinct without drawing too much from stock types. The genre mix is not without issue—for some, the romance and fantasy intrigue will make uneasy bedfellows—but nonetheless the story swiftly progresses, deftly playing to the escapism desired by YA and new-adult readers.

A fast-moving, engaging tale in what promises to be an epic fantasy romance series.

THE TOWN WITH ACACIA TREES by Mihail Sebastian; trans. by Gabi Reigh............................................................................193

WHEN DEATH IMITATES ART

Halt, P.D. Black Opal Books (290 pp.) $13.49 paper | $3.99 e-book Feb. 24, 2018 978-1-62694-887-7

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FINDING HOPE A Birthmother’s Journey Into the Light

BEYOND COFFEE A Sustainable Guide to Nootropics, Adaptogens, and Mushrooms

Baker, Hope O. Lioncrest Publishing (158 pp.) $15.99 paper | $6.99 e-book Oct. 21, 2019 978-1-5445-0486-5

Beshara, James with Engle, Dan & Haynes, Katherine Monocle Publishing (146 pp.) $11.99 paper | $3.99 e-book Nov. 4, 2019 978-1-5445-0545-9

A birth mother recounts each stage of the adoption process in this debut memoir.

Baker was 21 years old when she discovered that she was pregnant. The conception of her son was a “college, one-time thing,” and the father’s first reaction to the news was that she should get an abortion. The author was also told by her mom that she “wouldn’t be a good mother.” Deciding against a late-term abortion, Baker began scouring adoption books for prospective parents—finally finding the “holy grail” of an adoptive parent living in California. The author recalls how she briefly relocated from Minnesota to Hollywood to live with her “son’s mother” during her pregnancy. She details the complexities of parting with her son after the birth and the subsequent feelings of loneliness and mourning that led her to alcohol and drug abuse. The uplifting book goes on to examine how Baker rebuilt her life with the intention of demonstrating that “open adoptions can be successful, even if they’re messy at times.” The most striking aspect of Baker’s writing is her directness. Not one to mince words, she writes of the adoption process: “Let me tell you, I was fucking broken. Over and over again, a little more every day.” She also outlines her actions with a selfless clarity: “I knew it was the right decision for my son’s life at the time, even if it didn’t feel best for mine. I did it for him.” The author’s frankness makes for powerful, engaging prose, particularly when she speaks directly to readers: “This shit hurts. Let it. Slowly, you can start to let light in little by little.” This characteristically blunt conversational style occasionally lacks descriptive flair: “The only way I can describe that time was that it was an utter shit show.” But this is more than compensated for by Baker’s contagious, positive attitude that encourages birth mothers to seek self-acceptance and stop perceiving themselves as “irrevocably broken” by stating boldly: “I’m still broken, but I see those cracks as opportunities.” Other books of this type tell of similar odysseys, but few exhibit the lucidity and conviction found here.

A forthright, insightful, and empowering account of a difficult journey.

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A health science guide examines alternatives to caffeine.

At age 26, Beshara was diagnosed with a heart condition that required him to drastically cut down on his caffeine consumption. For the young business owner, the recommendation seemed impossible. “I took it for granted that coffee was the ambitious person’s best friend,” writes the debut author in his introduction, but after five years of experimentation, “I have learned about the different compounds from around the world that allow me to consume a fraction of the caffeine I used to, yet produce a multiple of the energy and productivity that coffee once delivered.” In this book, Beshara takes readers on a journey into the world of nootropics, adaptogens, mushrooms, antiinflammatories, and other noncaffeinated methods of keeping the body energized throughout the day. Nootropics—a broad category of compounds intended to improve cognitive function that run the gamut from safe and healthy to dangerous and addictive—take up the bulk of the volume’s pages. They include alphabet soup compounds like Omega-3 EPA and Alpha-GPC as well as obscure plants like ashwagandha and bacopa monnieri.

Adaptogens are destressing agents. Beshara structures the work like a series of product reviews, giving each compound or plant a sustainability score (how safe it is to consume regularly) as well as discussing how well it works and any negative side effects it might have. Panax ginseng, for example, receives a sustainability score of only three out of five (too low for the author to recommend). While this adaptogen has displayed signs of improving cognitive performance in Alzheimer’s patients, “Panax ginseng must be avoided in pregnancy. It has been shown to increase the risk of birth defects. Continuous use should also be limited to six months or less due to its hormone-like effects on the body.”

Beshara’s book—written with Engle (The Concussion Repair Manual, 2017) and debut author Haynes—is short at just over 120 pages, but it features an extensive bibliography that includes the many studies on which the text is based. Those who are looking to consume less caffeine will be intrigued by this extensive list of alternatives, though nothing the work describes sounds quite as good as a regular cup of joe.

A worthy, comprehensive exploration of supplements to improve brain function and energy.

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spinning eco-tales SECLUDED SUMMER AT HIDDEN HAVENS

With the widespread damage to the Great Barrier Reef, a spate of catastrophic hurricanes, an increase in infectious diseases related to global warming, and the fires in the Amazon rainforest and Australia, the climate change picture turns darker every day.

Influenced by such dire events, some authors have decided to explore the tragic consequences of this relentless assault on Mother Earth in eco-fiction.

Kirkus Indie recently reviewed three novels in this category.

In The Fourth Generation, by Roy Mankovitz and Alan Mankovitz (a father and son team), the world faces two deadly plagues.

The mysterious outbreaks may be linked to Veregro, a manufacturer of insect repellent and seeds. A company executive joins forces with a former Veregro attorney to quickly search for answers. According to our reviewer, “Readers will turna the pages with their stomachs in knots, hoping that some biological solution can be found” in this “frightening” eco-thriller.

A key figure in Ted Bernard’s Late-K Lunacy turns out to be Katja Nickleby, an academic and author of Over the Cliff, a 21st-century Silent Spring. Her protégé becomes a professor at Gilligan University, where a student uncovers an energy magnate’s plot to procure the mining rights to the college’s old-growth forest. While investigations reveal massive corruption, a bigger disaster looms. Our critic calls the book “a passionately cautionary eco-tainment tale that cross-pollinates an impressive garden of genres.”

The melting of Antarctica’s ice caps results in a new frontier in K.E. Lanning’s Listen to the Birds. Unfortunately, the continent’s first-generation settlers must contend with a dangerous Christian cult trying to poach animals in a refuge. Then the cult kidnaps a team of scientists working there. “Like the best ecofiction, Lanning’s tale will get the audience thinking seriously about the effect every human endeavor has on the ecosystem,” our reviewer writes. —M.F.

Black Farley, Wendy BookBaby

In Black Farley’s (Season’s Shadows, 2019, etc.) novel, the head of a literary agency swaps places with a writing teacher for a summer, and both find love and intrigue.

Until she was 16, Benita Sotolongo spent her summers in New York state’s Adirondack Mountains at Hidden Havens, a 19th-century tavern and inn. Now the successful owner of the Soto Literary Agency in Miami, Benita has made plans to return to New York once more to temporarily trade places with popular writing teacher Maren Scott. Maren will screen a massive amount of new manuscripts at Soto as Benita takes over Maren’s popular summer school writing seminar—much to the chagrin of its students. The new settings offer new opportunities for both women; Benita reconnects with old flame Troy Bradshaw while inspiring her doubtful students to start a collaborative novel called Secret Trust, which follows an 18-year-old boy who wins the lottery.

Maren, meanwhile, finds herself entangled with Soto’s interim CEO, Kendrick Harrington, while untangling an unsettling mystery involving forged manuscripts. Black Farley’s book is a lighthearted romp, offering a modern, less-serious spin on a campus novel. Its short chapters bounce back and forth between the Adirondacks and Miami, with numerous interjections from Benita’s students’ novel. Benita and Maren both find romance in their new circumstances, and their relationships are sweet and inoffensive, with nothing controversial or excessively steamy beyond occasional innuendo. The dialogue is often flirtatious, and the gossip between characters is downright infectious; the occasional small talk, though, can meander a bit, causing brief lulls in the action. Readers will be charmed by the author’s descriptions of the Adirondacks and by Benita’s beloved Hidden Havens, with its rich history and its feeling of midsummer whimsy.

A fun tale of two women’s summertime adventures, featuring compelling dialogue.

THROUGH A SOBER LENS A Photographer’s Journey Blanchard, Michael Photos by the author Genevieve Press (100 pp.) $29.95 | Dec. 12, 2019 978-0-578-49159-2

A compilation of photographs and musings shares the story of a man’s struggle to overcome alcoholism.

In May 2010, Blanchard (Fighting for My Life, 2014)—a former marathon runner and the COO of a Maine company— passed out in his car on the side of the road after drinking

Myra Forsberg is an Indie editor.

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vodka and taking Xanax. When a state patrolman approached his car, the author woke up and tried to speed away. This was the third time in three months he had been arrested for alcohol-related crimes. With his marriage in deep trouble and the prospect of jail time, he was extremely depressed and decided to end his life. Fortunately, he was sent to a psychiatric hospital, where he received compassionate, professional help and a referral to a rehab program. Blanchard took his last drink on July 26, 2010, and though it wasn’t easy, he used several tools, such as therapeutic writing, to remain on a sober path. One of his greatest pleasures was taking photographs of picturesque places, especially his beloved Martha’s Vineyard. A self-taught photographer, the author replaced vodka with the natural highs he received from studying and shooting lush landscapes, like peaceful seaside sunrises. Hoping to inspire others who struggle with addiction, he offers this captivating collection of more than 50 color photos of mostly outdoor subjects—like a majestic red-tailed hawk appearing at South Beach and the brilliant Gay Head Cliffs glowing in a sunset’s light, both on Martha’s Vineyard—along with his pensive thoughts about recovery and sobriety. Blanchard’s beautiful photos are often calming reflections of his words. For example, when he discusses how drinking kept him in a shell in which he didn’t have to share his true self with others, he includes a compelling photo of a spiral lighthouse stairway, which looks shell-like. Meandering from topic to topic—a thoughtful examination of the pain his bad decisions caused is followed by a list of personal affirmations and a moving anecdote about a Facebook friend’s death—Blanchard’s eloquent prose is easy to browse and ponder.

An engaging volume that offers lovely photos and stirring reflections.

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becomes a huge hit, his skyrocketing popularity fueled by social media. The principal reason he isn’t immediately caught? Most people are unwilling to turn him in. As one political strategist succinctly puts it, Harry encapsulates all the things the public at large is fed up with: “Of politicians and lobbyists, of backroom deals and huge corporations getting all the breaks while they cheat and exploit people like him. He’s sick and tired of all that and he’s sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Capturing this feeling of cultural frustration is one of Bloom’s (Hello, My Name Is Bunny!, 2018, etc.) chief strengths. At first, Harry seems unsure why he assaulted the senator, but that ambiguity isn’t ambivalence—like the electorate of which he is a microcosm, he’s seething with anger. The author masterfully allows that contempt and confusion to cohabitate within the story.

Budd’s character is the one misstep—he’s drawn hyperbolically into a cartoon caricature, especially conspicuous during a grim sex scene. However, that lack of sensitivity is only so obvious precisely because it’s such a stark departure from the thoughtfulness of the rest of the book.

A rollicking, funny, surprisingly thoughtful sendup of the current climate of political discontent.

THE PROBLEM ISN’T THEIR PAYCHECK How To Attract Top Talent and Build a Thriving Company Culture

Botma, Grant Lioncrest (200 pp.) $14.99 | $14.99 paper | $6.99 e-book Oct. 11, 2019 978-1-5445-0543-5 978-1-5445-0541-1 paper

SALT OF THE NATION

Bloom, Matt Adelaide Books (202 pp.) $19.60 paper | $7.99 e-book Mar. 28, 2019 978-1-950437-27-6

A debut guide offers management advice from a successful small-business owner.

This short yet substantive book presents a compelling case for focusing on company culture rather than monetary compensation. Botma, who built and runs a financial brokerage firm, writes passionately about his belief that employee motivation is based not on the size of the paycheck but on three fundamentals: freedom, affirmation, and purpose. He begins by discussing the “mindset shift” he went through when a valued employee resigned. By evaluating the loss, he realized “I hadn’t formally created a purpose, defined it, and woven it into my business.” The remainder of the manual dissects the three fundamentals; each is covered in a chapter with relevant examples and a few select references to other sources. At the end of each chapter, the author includes “Rebuttal,” in which he anticipates and addresses objections (a nice technique to quell uncertainty about adopting his ideas); “Key Takeaways,” a bulleted summary of the section’s content; and “My Intentional Actions,” blank lines to be filled in by readers. The text is largely based on Botma’s experience managing his own business, but he also uses the lessons he learned to counsel others. For example, he demonstrates ways in which he enabled employee freedom, such as

In Bloom’s satire, a New Jersey man punches out a Republican senator campaigning for the presidency and becomes a national sensation.

Harry McBride is an ornery gravel worker in New Jersey. Just like his father who left him, his “prospects of escape diminish[ed] with each year spent swinging that big scoop shovel.” When he has the opportunity to shake the hand of Idaho Sen. Joseph P. Landon, a “true blue Republican” running for president, he clocks him in the face without so much as uttering a word. A stunned Landon ends up in the hospital with a broken nose and tailbone, and Harry somehow eludes capture by Secret Service agents and flees with the intention of making it to Mexico. Grover Budd, a bombastic radio personality clearly modeled on Rush Limbaugh, tries to demonize Harry, suggesting he’s part of a conspiracy organized by the Democratic Party to humiliate Landon. But Harry |

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taking his staff to a spring training major league baseball game on a workday. (The author’s company is located in Arizona, where some teams hold spring training.) Botma was confident his employees would get their work done despite the outing. He concludes: “When you don’t trust your employees, you are stuck either doing everything yourself or micromanaging everyone around you.” In writing about affirmations, the author wisely distinguishes between positive and negative messages conveyed by management, offering a useful nine-step implementation process. He writes that using affirmations correctly can change an employee’s attitude “from confidence killer to killer confidence.” Perhaps most important, Botma asserts, is providing employees with a “unified purpose” for their efforts. (Purpose is an important theme in the powerful book.) The final chapter neatly ties the three fundamentals together.

Well-crafted and heartfelt management tips; a dose of humanity particularly appropriate for driven entrepreneurs.

money concerns, ring true. And principal Jeanne Martinez and counselor Mrs. Sovich are sympathetic adults. The story also presents a powerful lesson about the effects of bullying. The ethnicity and race of the characters are not stated, although the book cover shows a young white girl and there is a mention of Sammy’s best friend’s Japanese grandparents.

A relatable female protagonist and a meaningful message about the relationship between hurt and anger.

WHITE RAIN

Canfield, Joel joined at the hip (376 pp.) $15.99 paper | Sep. 24, 2019 978-0-9975707-3-1 In this fourth installment of a series, a private eye—out of commission for nearly a year—tries to regain lost memories and stumbles on a nefarious plot.

Sixty-year-old Max Bowman has no idea how he ended up in “the Community.” He knows he’s a former CIA operative, but the last few years of his life are a blank. After Howard, an old friend, visits, Max learns he’s in a Florida retirement home (of sorts) for agents who may know too much. He stops taking his medicine and makes a daring escape via motorized cart. But the life he’s slowly remembering has drastically changed in only 10 months.

His girlfriend, Angela Davidson, has wed lobbyist Dudley “Duds” DeCosta. It’s not a happy marriage and Duds readily agrees to a divorce at Max’s request. The condition is that the private investigator must attend fundraisers for Sen. Eddie di Pineda’s reelection campaign. Max’s vouching for him will ease the senator’s ties to conspiracies swirling around the detective’s last few cases. At the same time, Max believes an enemy he thought he killed is still alive, at least according to cryptic, grammatically inaccurate texts he’s receiving. Soon, the PI and Angela’s son, Jeremy, called PMA (for Power, Mind, Action), find themselves in the middle of another conspiracy of worldwide proportions. As in earlier books, Canfield’s (Red Earth, 2017, etc.) latest entry—supposedly the final volume starring Max—boasts an often humorous tale and a progressively convoluted plot. Though initially the hero is simply piecing together returning memories, the story ultimately focuses on the mysterious yet clearly sinister scheme. But the best moments involve Max’s reunion with Angela and PMA. Max even acts like a nosy father to “the kid,” asking about his love life and offering his unsolicited opinion that PMA’s last boyfriend “wasn’t the right guy.” Max has been cynical throughout the series, but in this bracing and enjoyable tale, readers will surely sympathize with him as he hears what he’s missed (primarily in 2017). His reaction to Donald Trump as president and Coke Zero becoming Coke Zero Sugar is apropos: “What the hell had happened to the world in the past ten months?”

A comically eccentric detective gets a terrific and fitting send-off.

SAMMY AND THE DEVIL DOG

Brown, Susan CreateSpace (286 pp.) $9.95 paper | $3.99 e-book Sep. 30, 2017 978-1-5447-9935-3

A grade schooler’s determination to tame a fearful, aggressive pup with love brings both trouble and unexpected change in this children’s novel.

Everything has gone wrong for Samantha “Sammy” Connor since the death of her beloved grandfather Papa Jack. She and her single mom had to move after he died; money is short; and Sammy is messing up at her elementary school. The girl also feels distanced from her mom, an artist who spends a lot of time in her ceramics studio. When Sammy sees chained-up pup Jack being cruelly mistreated by school bully Brian Haydon’s teenage brothers, she persuades her classmate to sell Jack to her, earning the money by reading to an elderly woman at the local seniors’ home. Sammy soon wonders, though, if kindness will be enough to change the barking, lunging, destructive “devil dog” into a loving pet. She comes to see a parallel in Brian’s anger when she witnesses him being denigrated and physically abused by his bad news brothers—and comes up with a plan to rescue him too. But “why was it that when she tried so hard, things kept going wrong?” Jack chews things up, won’t listen, and nips at people. Brian comes to school with bruises and keeps shoving kids and mouthing off to teachers. Then a shockingly violent incident occurs, bringing eventful consequences for Jack, renewed closeness between Sammy and her mom, and the girl’s sad realization that she can’t be Brian’s rescuer. As her mom says, “people have to fix themselves.” In this novel, Brown (Not Yet Summer, 2017, etc.), a prolific author of books for ages 9 and up, offers an affecting portrait of a young girl struggling to recover a sense of stability after a profound loss. Sammy’s ups and downs with her mom, who is caring but self-absorbed with professional and 180

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Cole argues persuasively for dream interpretation’s utility in resolving internal conflicts and aiding self-discovery. morpheus speaks

MORPHEUS SPEAKS The Encyclopedia of Dream Interpreting

WAKE UP, WANDA WILEY

Diamond, Andrew Stolen Time Press (186 pp.) $9.99 paper | $2.99 e-book | Nov. 1, 2019 978-0-9963507-9-2

Cole, R.J. iUniverse (602 pp.) $39.99 paper | $3.99 e-book Jul. 31, 2019 978-1-5320-7006-8

A psychologist offers a guide to the symbols and potential meanings of dreams.

Cole’s (The Archipelago of Dreams, 2011, etc.) book, the third he’s written about dream interpretation, is intended to be more of a manual on the practice. After a lengthy introduction, wherein the author explains his background working with children and teens, the utility he has found in dream interpretation, and the various inspirations and motivations behind this volume, the main body of the work is divided into three sections. The first and most extensive section is a dream dictionary, where symbols and concepts are listed alphabetically and given short descriptions and definitions as to their potential or most commonly held meanings. Some entries have special portions called “Insights,” in which Cole delves more deeply into the spiritual, historical, or cultural wellsprings for the concepts in Western thought. The second section is devoted to archetypes, symbols that appear in similar forms throughout most cultures, while the third focuses on nightmares. Uncredited, amateurish, yet charming hand-drawn illustrations are sprinkled throughout the book. Although dream interpretation may seem like one of the stranger practices in the field of psychology, Cole argues genially and persuasively for its utility in resolving internal conflicts and aiding self-discovery while being careful to distinguish it from scientific analysis. Calling dream interpretation “an intuitive expression of the psyche,” the author roots the practice in such similar impulses as art and spirituality and makes clear throughout that his exhaustive work in these pages is intended to serve as a guide, not a definitive resource. Readers who are skeptics by nature may not hold much truck with the idea that dream interpretation could be useful. But Cole’s intelligent, reassuring prose coupled with his insights into the mind’s workings gained from three decades of working with troubled youth makes a strong argument for his claims.

Intelligent discussions and broad research into cultural and spiritual symbols make this work about interpreting dreams a resonant, thoughtful read.

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A character attempts to make her author a better writer in this comic novel from Diamond (To Hell With Johnny Manic, 2019, etc.).

Author Wanda Wiley’s subconscious has a long-term resident. She’s Hannah Sharpe—a willful runaway who has failed to make the final draft of any of Wanda’s 18 romance novels due to her recalcitrant personality—who lives in a Victorian farmhouse surrounded by foggy, nebulous Nowhere. Now the political thriller that Wanda is ghostwriting, The President Has Been Stolen, has produced a roommate for Hannah. Trevor Dunwoody is a nottoo-bright alpha male who doesn’t immediately grasp that he is temporarily out of his book, stashed—like Hannah—in a timeless netherworld. Hannah would love to get away from Trevor and onto the pages of a real novel, but Wanda can’t come up with anything for her. Wiley’s imagination isn’t helped by all the marijuana she’s smoking to self-medicate her depression, the result of her six-and-a-half-year toxic relationship to skirtchasing professor Dirk Jaworski. Can Hannah enlist Trevor in her effort to inspire Wanda to leave Dirk, get a grip, and write them out of their depressing morass? Or will the insidious influence of selfish men—in Wanda’s personal life and in the publishing industry—keep Hannah trapped forever? Diamond’s prose is funny and barbed, particularly the dialogue between Hannah and Trevor. He takes aim at genre conventions and their unrealistic treatment of characters. “You’ve been living in a world of male fantasy,” Hannah tells Trevor about the series of which he is the star. “In the real world, not every woman is a hot babe. In the real world, the forensic scientist earns her position through brains and hard work. And not every woman falls into bed with a man just because…he has a big pistol and is good at shooting it off.” Wanda’s waking life, which involves insecurities surrounding her career and relationship as well as a new potential romantic partner, serves as an emotional ballast against the metafictional struggles of Hannah. Together, their narratives make an argument for better fiction that is both clever and surprisingly compelling.

A well-crafted literary satire with something to say about genre fiction.

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MY EPIDEMIC An AIDS Memoir of One Man’s Struggle as Doctor, Patient and Survivor

RUNNING WITH MY HEAD DOWN An Entrepreneur’s Story of Passion, Perseverance, and Purpose

Faulk, Andrew M. Self (240 pp.) $24.95 | $16.95 paper | $9.99 e-book Dec. 1, 2019 978-1-73342-910-8 978-1-73342-911-5 paper

Fiume II, Frank V. Greenleaf Book Group (208 pp.) $20.95 | $9.99 e-book | Oct. 1, 2019 978-1-62634-641-3 An entrepreneur shares the trials and tribulations of building his softball-

A survivor of the AIDS epidemic chronicles his unique role as both doctor and patient in this debut memoir.

Faulk was a physician during the AIDS epidemic. In fact, from 1984 to 1991, he limited his practice to patients with HIV, a population for whom the disease was viewed as a death sentence. The author possessed one thing that many other doctors of the time did not: He was infected with HIV himself. “In spite of my efforts to separate the two roles of doctor and patient,” he recalls, “every patient’s illness became a mirror of my own disease. Every time I walked into an examination room I was seeing me, talking to me, diagnosing me—in every patient I saw, I saw myself.” With this book, Faulk recounts his singular experience straddling both sides of the AIDS crisis. It is, in part, a narrative of death: The author treated some 50 patients who died as well as his partner and many of his friends. (As he labored to make them comfortable, he assumed his own death was imminent.)

It is also a narrative of one community’s tremendous courage, empathy, and triumph in the face of an existential threat and a wider culture that turned its back on it. From his time in medical school, when he first caught wind of the disease at the edges of his social circle, to his long and ultimately tragic relationship with his partner, Jack, to his current marriage and activism all these years later, the author offers an account of love, loss, grief, and survival. Faulk’s prose is warm and wistful, and he describes the people in his life with great admiration and generosity. His bedside manner is present even in his descriptions of the hard times, as when he had to inform people of their diagnoses: “As part of this strategy, I wouldn’t answer questions which weren’t asked; I would wait for the patient to lead me to their hopes and fears. I wouldn’t rush. I would take my time.” The author’s experience makes him particularly suited to speak about the scope of the epidemic, and his story is a valuable window into a time that was not long ago and yet has become so difficult to imagine.

An affecting AIDS account from the epidemic’s trenches.

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related businesses.

Fiume’s debut is broken into four parts, roughly equivalent to the developmental phases of building a business. Part 1 traces the author’s traumatic childhood, which included his parents’ divorce and a period of poverty. The author’s love of baseball sustained him, but his father’s influence pushed him into an unwanted career in medical industry sales. Still, Fiume’s passion was for sports, which led to the development of his first business, the Amateur Ballplayers Association Softball League. In Part 2, he tells of how the league became a regional success and how he decided to go to the next level by starting a franchising company called i9 Sports. In this part of the book, the author clearly reveals some of the most challenging aspects of running a franchise business, and it will be particularly valuable to anyone considering becoming a franchisor or a franchisee. The evolution of the business is recounted in Part 3; Fiume realized the necessity of hiring a president for the company while he struggled with his changing role in the business. The author also writes frankly of his struggles with diet pill addiction and burnout. Part 4 effectively demonstrates the somewhat chaotic ups and downs of his business: “Never solve a problem by creating a new, bigger one,” he warns. Readers also learn of the author’s “persistent feelings of deep discontentment” despite i9’s success. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this final part is Fiume’s account of the wrenching process of selling a company. Throughout this memoir, the author observes his own behavior with a critical eye, exhibiting candor and humility. He’s bravely unafraid to admit his flaws, and his tale sometimes depicts the unsettling effects that his work had on him and his family members.

A cautionary but ultimately uplifting business book.

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The author captures the edgy atmosphere of Germany’s art and club scenes in the ’80s. when death imitates art

WHEN DEATH IMITATES ART

Halt, P.D. Black Opal Books (290 pp.) $13.49 paper | $3.99 e-book Feb. 24, 2018 978-1-62694-887-7 In Halt’s debut mystery, an art gallery co-owner is sent a painting depicting her slain in a bathtub—and then the scene plays out for real.

In 1980s Cologne, Germany, American Amanda Lee and German Marlene Eichler own the Lee Eichler Gallery. Glamorous Marlene laments her divorce from prominent architect Wolf Eichler, with whom she remains friends. However, she also enjoys high-end shopping, posh salon visits, and sex with wealthy, married art collectors and pickups at questionable clubs. A major show is about to open at the gallery, featuring the death-inspired works of leading artist Klaus Kruger. Art critic Dieter Becker works with Marlene to promote it, and he feels entitled to kickbacks from gallery sales for his efforts.

Amanda refuses, infuriating the critic, who hides a dark past.

Then Amanda finds Marlene slashed to death in a bathtub, and it turns out that Marlene had received a mysterious package at the gallery—one that contained a painting of her own future murder. Kommissar Fredrich Grutzmacher and his underling Ernst Rudolf investigate both Amanda and Wolf as potential suspects. Readers will find this chilling story hard to put down, as the crimes (yes, plural) are gruesome and the suspects, numerous. The author, who once lived in Germany, captures the edgy atmosphere of that country’s art and club scenes in the ’80s, and she offers richly developed characters along the way; at one point, for instance, the entitled Marlene insists that a married lover appear with her in public at an expensive restaurant—where she then orders a pricey bottle of champagne.

Indeed, luxury is everywhere in vivid descriptions of cashmere and silk attire, high-performance sports cars, and fine wine and food. The pacing is also well calibrated as the action moves from scares in the dark to sensual trysts.

An engagingly written mystery featuring art, glamour, sex, love, and murder.

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trader traveled alone, attempting to make money in a neighboring city. He overheard two brothers discussing the location of a hidden treasure: a cup of great power that showed its owner visions of the past and future. The trader imagined himself in possession of it: “With such powers I could rule / with greater sanity, I swore, / than these cruel and heedless / rulers with their cruel and senseless wars.” He presented himself to the brothers as a desert guide, able to lead them to the remote Devil’s Springs that they sought. At the springs, the trader encountered the eponymous demon of the well, who made an infernal deal with the man in exchange for the cup. It was a pact that would have consequences that still plague the trader—and his country—in the storyteller’s present. Hendricks’ tale has an ancient quality to it that comes both from its setting and its form. Told in rhyming couplets, the poem reads like something concocted by one of the Fireside Poets: “I was growing quite impatient / when at last he reappeared. / And brandishing the magic cup, / he brought it up quite near. / ‘A bargain is a bargain / as a trader would agree. / And now for this handsome treasure / you must give your soul to me.’ ” The imagery, which the author says was inspired by the landscapes of the Tarim region in modern China and by the path of the historical Silk Road, is evoked with skill and subtlety. There are a few lines where the rhymes feel forced or the rhythm gets clunky, but overall Hendricks manages to sustain an aura of mystery and magic. One could imagine hearing the poem read aloud around a summer campfire or on a chilly winter night.

An old-fashioned narrative poem that deftly captures the deadly wonder of the Silk Road.

EATING FOR PREGNANCY Your Essential Month-byMonth Nutrition Guide and Cookbook, 3rd Ed.

Jones, Catherine & Hudson, Rose Ann with Knight, Teresa Da Capo Lifelong Books (416 pp.) $18.99 paper | Jul. 2, 2019 978-0-7382-8510-8

This third edition of a nutritional guide offers recipes, menus, and health advice geared to all phases of pregnancy, from preconception to post-delivery.

Before launching into the figurative and literal “meat and potatoes” portion of this collection of 150 healthy recipes for pregnancy, the authors include a lengthy introductory section that provides detailed information about nutrition as it relates to the well-being of mother and child. This portion features a list of do’s and don’ts for the “pregnancy journey” and charts that show optimal caloric intake and weight gain during each trimester. Other sections explain the essential roles of macronutrients, such as proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, as well as the nutritional functions of vitamins and minerals as related to the process of growing a tiny being inside one’s body. Specific sections are dedicated to those with special diets, either by choice, such as vegetarian or vegan, or by necessity, such as lactose- and

THE DEMON OF THE WELL

Hendricks, James B. BookBaby (74 pp.) $14.00 paper | Jan. 18, 2020 978-1-5439-9334-9

An old caravan trader tells a tale of treasure and greed in this long debut poem.

With a bit of cajoling, a group of children convinces an old trader who lives in the town’s “caravanserai” to tell them his story—one he seems reluctant to talk about. Years ago, in a time of war and instability, the |

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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES

Judith Moffett

A WRITER AND ACADEMIC DELVES INTO ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIPS OF HER PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL LIFE

By Rhett Morgan It wasn’t! I never set out to be anything but a poet, and in fact nearly all my work is related to poetry in one way or another. The different genres just sort of happened as I went along through my life, had different experiences, and got interested in different things.

What drew you to SF? I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy growing up—the books available in the children’s section of the public library in the 1950s. I don’t know why fantastic fiction appealed to me so much; I’m not sure any of us who grew up loving it understands exactly why the attraction was so intense, but I think as a group, we were probably rather “different” from the other kids. I was a compulsive reader; I needed to believe that life could be other, and better, than the one I was living.

What first made James Merrill so fascinating to you?

It’s hard to explain an initial attraction to a total stranger. Easier to say what it wasn’t: not a romantic spark, not shared activities and interests (apart from poetry), not a sense that here was an admirable character. He was altogether different from anyone I had ever met before, a sort of alien being in midwestern Wisconsin….These things are mysterious! You recognize something in the perfect stranger that can take years—decades!— to figure out. Unlikely Friends spends a lot of time struggling to unravel the nature of that initial fascination.

Judith Moffett has earned awards and recognition for 12 books across six different genres, but her recent memoir, Unlikely Friends, which earned a Kirkus Star, focuses on her singular friendship with the poet James Merrill. After taking his class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the two corresponded for the rest of Merrill’s life as Moffett became a professor herself, undertook translating the work of Hjalmar Gullberg from Swedish to English, and began to write SF novels. A poet and academic at heart, she spoke with us about Merrill’s lasting influence on her work.

Why did you decide now to write about the personal relationship you had with him?

Despite a strong desire to add what I could to the Merrill legacy, fill in the picture from my own unique perspective, I could see that I would have to say a lot about myself as well in order for the story to make sense. And I felt that

Why has it been important to you to work in such a wide range of genres?

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readers would want to know about the Great Poet, not about me. But I had kept a journal throughout the years of our friendship, had saved all his letters, and I am, after all, an academic as well as a writer! To own such a wealth of primary material and not use it to contribute anything to literary history felt wrong.

In revisiting your friendship, what surprised you the most?

The biggest surprise was how consistently I had misinterpreted Merrill’s attitude toward me. I thought all along that I had remained more or less on trial with him. Again and again, I saw tolerance and patience in the letters where I had recalled irritation. I certainly tried that patience, but he put up with me in a far kindlier way than I had remembered. That was a happy discovery.

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gluten-free, with extra detail given to the vitamin and mineral needs of those who do not consume animal products. The recipes that follow this exhaustive introduction are divided into nine chapters, one for each gestational month. Each begins with a brief introduction describing ongoing fetal development and nutritional needs. Recipes are designed to be both tempting and nourishing. Even the exceedingly simple offerings suggest additions for the adventurous, such as sliced scallions or curry powder mixed into the basic egg, celery, and mayonnaise base of “Pr-Egg-O Salad.” Others deliver easy-to-prepare, restaurant quality entrees while minimizing cleanup. For “Baked Salmon and Broccoli Rabe with Scallion-Ginger Sauce,” the authors suggest cooking everything on one parchment-lined baking sheet. Most recipes supply ideas for side dishes to make meal planning easy. Jones (A Year of Russian Feasts, 2002, etc.), an accomplished cookbook author; Hudson, a licensed and registered dietitian; and Knight, a physician, bring a wealth of expertise to the project. Their informational chapters are well researched and documented with extensive notes, and the recipes are varied and appealing. While the work’s tone is authoritative, it is also caring and informal, like a warm conversation with a knowledgeable friend.

A comprehensive manual for healthy eating that could become a pregnant woman’s most helpful resource.

Why was it important to share your many years of correspondence?

The letters of writers are so often collected and published because they are fascinating to readers. It’s like eavesdropping on a private conversation between the poet and their various friends. Merrill was one of the last great correspondents; he had dozens and dozens, maybe hundreds, of friends with whom he exchanged letters regularly, and the letters are brilliant! And also, I wanted Jimmy to speak for himself in the memoir. The relationship had its ups and downs; I didn’t want anyone to doubt that what I reported about him is grounded in fact, in his own actual words, often quoted at length.

TANGLED UP IN CHRISTMAS

Jones, Lisa Renee Entangled: Amara (352 pp.) $7.99 paper | $5.99 e-book Oct. 29, 2019 978-1-64063-762-7

A young woman runs into an old flame in her Texas hometown in this romance.

Once a Texan, always a Texan—or so the saying goes. This is certainly true for 28-year-old Hannah, who’s just moved back to her hometown of Sweetwater in October after a botched attempt to make it in Los Angeles. At first, she has no job prospects in sight and nowhere permanent to live— until she runs into her ex-boyfriend Roarke Frost. Although Hannah’s memories of how he broke her heart come rushing back, she can’t help but notice how handsome he still is, and the way that he says her name makes her weak in the knees, just like it did all those years ago. But as she starts to make a life for herself and hone her photography skills, she vows to avoid entanglement with Roarke at all costs. This proves to be easier said than done, though, as it seems that he’s everywhere she goes—and she can’t stop thinking about him. Will she be able to stay focused while avoiding the mistakes she once made? The dialogue is snappy and funny throughout, and Hannah’s encounters with Roarke generate some satisfying sexual tension, which only escalates as the story goes on; at one point, Hannah observes that Roarke’s “brown eyes are still that warm milk chocolate, but I was always the one who melted in the heat of any moment spent

Rhett Morgan is a writer and translator living in Paris.

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with this man.” It’s easy to sympathize with the protagonist in her attempts to start afresh, and the concept of running away from a painful past is relatable. Although this romantic narrative is a bit predictable, an intriguing conflict develops halfway through the story that feels realistic and consistent.

There are also thought-provoking themes of forgiveness and second chances, and the later Christmastime setting gives the story an upbeat tone.

A light, enjoyable novel with pleasant holiday cheer.

stress in order to minimize the condition.

A lucid guide to burnout with valuable content for employees, employers, and medical professionals.

WHERE THERE IS MOVEMENT

Knapp, Evan Self (69 pp.) $4.99 paper | $1.99 e-book | Sep. 9, 2019 978-1-68740-400-8

AM I BURNED OUT AT WORK? A Self-Care Solution

A gay teen from a small Oregon town falls in love with dance and a selfdestructive new-wave underground in this debut coming-of-age memoir set in the radical 1980s Portland arts scene.

Knapp was in seventh grade when his queerness and nonconformity transformed him from an “outgoing, popular, naive little limpet” into a constant target of bullies and jocks. Embracing his status, he found a home among “the thespians, the smokers, punks, mods, the Wave-os” and in the local ballet studio, where he could express his emerging self. His parents, a kindergarten teacher and a college music professor in the town of Corvallis, Oregon, were well-meaning people who had little idea of how to deal with their maverick son except to be carefully willing to let him distance himself from them. Recognizing this offer of freedom as a form of rejection, the author explored his emerging sexuality and his art, concealing his self-consciousness with “eyeliner and a lotta what-have-yous.” He eventually abandoned the security of his family home and ran to Portland, where he became part of the desperate and thrilling community of the “lost, those who’d evicted hope.” High on a cocktail of artistic camaraderie, sexual discovery, the “tangible magic” of dance, and the dangers of the emerging AIDS epidemic and homophobic violence, he turned experience into movement. Knapp’s prose is energetic, defiant, and roguishly cadenced, as he evokes the youthful state of being “teenager know-it-all strong,” driven by cacoethes, the urge toward the inadvisable. He is especially successful in conveying his transcendent love of the freedom of dance and his rebellion against the snooty strictures of conventional ballet’s efforts to turn him into a “Ken doll forklift.” The short, cacophonous narrative is satisfyingly taut up to the final pages, where it ends with a jarring abruptness just as it takes a dark turn into sexual violence.

While the ending feels rushed, this lively account of youth culture adroitly evokes its time.

Khan, Salar A. Archway Publishing (204 pp.) $26.95 | $12.95 paper | $0.99 e-book Oct. 14, 2019 978-1-4808-8332-1 978-1-4808-8331-4 paper

A physician offers a prescription for overcoming burnout.

According to Khan (Unlocking the Natural-Born Leader’s Abilities, 2017), “workplace burnout is becoming a national epidemic,” and it has not yet been identified as “purely a medical or psychiatric illness.” The author’s antidote is a “self-care solution”; he offers intelligent, if at times repetitive, advice to diagnose and treat burnout. Khan begins with lyrics to a “Burnout Awareness Song” as well as “Burnout Self-Care Poetry,” both of which seem a bit odd, yet they immediately put the problem on a personal level. Of greater significance is the material concerning selfassessment in the first chapter; in addition to addressing how personality plays a role in the condition, the author includes a scoring tool that helps readers determine their burnout levels. Khan then presents some research regarding the condition followed by a discussion of workplace burnout. One of the more engaging and perhaps strongest aspects of the book is how the author relates burnout to the medical profession.

He provides useful advice for primary care doctors about the diagnosis of burnout (again using a scoring tool), but he also adds a very personal element to the book by discussing his own professional experience with the condition. During his career as an attending physician and pulmonologist, Khan was under tremendous pressure as his responsibilities dramatically increased; he had “to learn how I did all that extra hard work with excellence without severe burnout.” His keen insights and observations of himself and others lend a particularly powerful element to this manual. Later, the author identifies what he believes are “eighteen phases of burnout,” describing each one and adding his recommendations for dealing with it—instructive, if somewhat overwhelming. It is the “Step-by-Step Self-Care Solution” that is likely to be the most pertinent portion of the volume. Here Khan gently but firmly walks readers through a series of steps to avoid burnout and treat it. He also talks about how to prevent future burnout and offers some helpful ways to reduce workplace 186

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The book is a thoroughly enjoyable coming-of-age tale of a somewhat precocious girl finding her way. seoul food

SEOUL FOOD Short Stories of a Korean American Living in Los Angeles

QUEST-TERRESTRIALS Vol. 2

Król, Malgosia Illus. by the author Sowka Publishing (42 pp.) $16.99 | $11.99 paper | Oct. 30, 2019 978-1-9990618-1-4 978-1-9990618-0-7 paper

Koo, Sarai SPICES Publications (202 pp.) $14.95 paper | Jun. 28, 2019 978-0-9907750-1-0

A writer shares anecdotes from her youth in Los Angeles County’s Korean American community in this debut memoir.

The child of South Korean immigrants, Koo, along with her siblings, was forced to abide by certain traditional customs when she was growing up. This included respecting elders, like her grandmother, even when their behavior was somewhat bizarre: “Without our permission, my dad’s mom rampaged through our house with a pair of silver shears, grabbing and cutting pieces of our clothing, big blankets, and any available patches of fabric….She took those pieces of old and new fabric to make oddly-patched small pillow covers.” Sometimes this traditional Korean worldview was shocked by the reality of the family’s American surroundings: Koo’s father’s first gas station was on Crenshaw Boulevard in South Central LA, and a few months after he sold it, the building was set on fire during the city’s riots in 1992. But there was no shortage of other Koreans in LA County, and Koo’s childhood was an often hilarious clash between her American-born peers and her parents’ immigrant generation. At the center of it all, there was always a table laden with traditional food: jeon, bibimbap, banchan, bulgogi, and even the Korean adaptation of the American hamburger (or hambegeo, as the author’s mother called it). Koo’s prose is conversational and amusing, managing to make both Korean and American cultures appear simultaneously alien and familiar: “Ken had long bangs that dangled to the sides of his chin. He was a young eleventh grade ‘wangsta,’ a wannabe gangsta, who wore baggy clothes….He often went to noraebangs to drink, smoke, and sing the latest Korean songs with his fellow wangsta friends, and sometimes he got into trouble.” The book is a thoroughly enjoyable coming-of-age tale of a somewhat precocious girl finding her way in a particularly loud and chaotic environment where the old and the new rested side by side and not always comfortably. Additionally, the work captures a specific time and place in the history of LA and the so-called “Third Wave” of immigration to the United States.

A compelling and often funny account of growing up in one of America’s Korean enclaves.

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The Quest-terrestrials return in this picture-book sequel, sharing good news about what humans are doing to save their own planet.

When the adorable titular aliens return to Earth, they discover that “the planet is drowning in garbage,” much to the dismay of sea creatures and mermaids. However, the “Q-ts” soon find out that humans are working on solutions, and author/illustrator Król (Quest-terrestrials, 2018) reveals real-world initiatives that are making a difference in the amount of trash. The aliens discover sculptures made from old flip-flop shoes in Kenya, recycled musical instruments in Paraguay, “newspapers rolled into logs” that ease the burden on the forests of Norway, and roads made out of recycled tires in Canada, among other efforts.

Of course, the Q-ts have their own solution to garbage: eating it.

Król’s aliens have the same lovable sense of humor that they did in the first installment, and their silly antics, including mooseriding in Canada, are sure to keep readers giggling while they learn about cool environmental initiatives. The author’s softedged, cartoonish digital paintings are also full of funny details.

Adults may wish Król had added a list of the locations and projects depicted in the book, however.

An inspirational, environmentally minded tale of delightful, colorful aliens.

THE AMERICAN WAY OF EMPIRE How America Won a World— But Lost Her Way

Kurth, James Washington Books (464 pp.) $20.00 paper | Dec. 5, 2019 978-1-7331178-2-1

A remarkably comprehensive account of the history of American foreign policy coupled with unflinching predictions of

its future.

Kurth (Political Science Emeritus/Swarthmore Coll.; Fam­ ily and Civilization, 2008, etc.) notes that the general consensus in the international community is that “we are now nearing a major inflection point in world history”—one marked by the nearly certain end of the “American Empire” and the diminishment of its global influence. The height of the United States’ power, he says, will be from 1945 to 2020—the “American Century”—within which the nation managed to rebuild Europe after its victory in World War II and successfully defeat the Soviet Union in the Cold War. With dizzying scholarly breadth, |

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the author traces the development of America’s foreign policy from its inception, marking the birth of its imperial stature in the late 19th century—specifically, the Spanish-American War and aggressive expansion into Latin America and the Caribbean. Kurth explores the nation’s cultural and ideological traditions in his search for the nation’s identity—one that abides despite oscillations in ideology among liberalism, conservatism, and socialism—and argues that Protestantism, as practiced by Americans, shows moral deterioration due to “successive departures” from its original version. One could reasonably criticize the book for attempting to traverse too broad an intellectual landscape. Still, this is a compellingly astute study and a brilliant indictment of the “extraordinary ambition, pride, greed, and fantasies” that left American influence “in ruins.” Over the course of this book, Kurth’s analysis is astonishingly exhaustive; he impressively covers the failings of the Iraq War, as well as the dangers of plutocracy, and he presents a conclusion that’s neither fatalistically grim nor cheerily hopeful: The United States will surely lose its worldwide dominance, he asserts, but not necessarily its prominence, and it will continue to persuasively offer the “most attractive…of the ways of life.” In order to do this, he says, it needs to maintain its technological superiority and recapture its economic strength.

A stunningly original work that provocatively explores the heights and depths of America’s global stature.

pictures. Coughlin also achieved sobriety and took up meditation, prayer, and ayurvedic practices. His physical and spiritual health improved, which helped him deal with the loss of another job and a beloved guide dog. Fifteen years after becoming blind, his sight began to return, but he already saw life differently. He began a journal (reprinted as an appendix), in which he cites “patience, prayer and turmeric” as “the corner stones of my journey out of the darkness.” Each chapter closes with a selected journal entry, foreshadowing and eventually merging with the narrative. Medford-Rosow (Inflection Point, 2015) and debut author Coughlin skillfully condense two decades into 33 easy-to-read vignettes about Coughlin’s challenges, setbacks, and breakthroughs. This results in a multilayered account that works on several levels, offering granular details of the blindness experience, detailing the difference between physical sight and personal vision, and highlighting the redemptive power of healing. The authors convey Coughlin’s spirituality and faith without being preachy, and they balance poignant moments with workaday complaints and unvarnished assessments of Coughlin’s behavior and relationships. The patient delivery allows this truly exceptional story to speak for itself.

An emotional account of a remarkable personal odyssey.

DRUIDS ARE FROM OUTER SPACE, ALIENS ARE FROM ENGLAND

UNBLINDED One Man’s Courageous Journey Through Darkness to Sight

Murphy, Len Illus. by Catling, Andy Cooper Murphy (298 pp.) $12.99 paper | Dec. 2, 2019 978-1-08-781100-0

Medford-Rosow, Traci & Coughlin, Kevin Morgan James Publishing (201 pp.) $27.95 | $16.95 paper | $12.99 e-book Apr. 10, 2018 978-1-68350-784-0 978-1-68350-782-6 paper

In this debut YA novel, two teenage siblings host a foreign exchange student who plunges them into a mystery involving aliens and Illinois crop circles.

In the greater Chicago area, the household of teen siblings Natalie and Chase Dailey is hosting a British foreign exchange student named Fletcher Jain. Clever Chase suspects there’s more to the newcomer than meets the eye when he spots a mystery woman giving Fletch a secret envelope at the airport.

When a crop circle and a mutilated cow come to light in the rural countryside, Fletch—actually an affiliate of an international flying-saucer investigation network called UFORB—is uncommonly interested and gets the eager Chase and the somewhat skeptical Natalie to join him for their own personal sleuthing. In a parallel plotline, somewhat confusing but eventually merging with the Daileys’ part of the narrative, professor David Wu has written a book featuring the thesis that advanced ancient alien explorers landed in the British Isles, interbred with humans, and gave rise to legends of wonder-working “Druids.” He is also here, in Deadwood, Illinois, prompted by the mysterious death of a reader who promised to reveal to Wu a whole list of humans next scheduled to be “abducted” by UFOs, thus enabling the professor to catch space intruders in the act.

But Wu’s meddling gets him and his own teenage daughter,

This biography chronicles a man’s sudden vision loss, his self-reinvention, and his seemingly miraculous partial recovery of sight.

In New York City in February 1997, Coughlin’s sight began deteriorating. Five days later, he was completely blind—stricken in his 30s by a rare, irreversible genetic disorder of the optic nerve that normally affects teens and young adults. Already alcohol-dependent, he was soon unemployed and dependent on disability checks. He confronted countless challenges in navigating city life, including physical barriers, inconsiderate strangers, and bureaucratic delays. In his favor, however, were his persistence and his preternatural ability to enlist help from others. For example, he persuaded a clerk to sell him a cane without the required mobility certification, and an ally at Gay Men’s Health Crisis helped him join a support group of HIVpositive blind people even though he was upfront about being HIV-negative. He continued to pursue his love of visual arts and photography by engaging a curator to narrate museum visits and a sighted Alcoholics Anonymous colleague to help take 188

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The ending offers a compelling cast of complex and emotionally stranded characters betrayed by their institutions of government and religion. singing the voice of god

Janelle, caught up in considerable underhanded malice among Deadwood elites. With moon boots firmly on YA soil, Murphy takes a largely light, comedic approach to this SF conspiracy plot. The vibe is not unlike the roller-coaster thrills of The 39 Clues series, though written for a slightly more elevated age range and with an actual body count. There are also edutainment bits about ancient code writing (“steganography”), how hoaxers create crop circles using simple planks and rope, and pop-culture shoutouts to the Star Wars series, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and Harry Potter. As opposed to The X-Files, starring the serious Dana Scully/Fox Mulder team, a natural precursor, this tale is breezy and angst-free, with cool illustrations by Catling (A Pirate Christmas, 2018, etc.) setting a lively ambiance.

Alien shenanigans delivered with a sense of Disney Channel mischief rather than Scully/Mulder gloom.

old camp Eagle’s Nest. To compare William to the aged Oedipus is not so great a stretch.

A well-wrought, classically inspired riches-to-rags tale.

SINGING THE VOICE OF GOD

O’Doran, Lyn Manuscript (232 pp.)

THE NIGHT IS DONE

Myers, Sheila CreateSpace (260 pp.) $10.40 paper | $1.99 e-book Aug. 11, 2017 978-1-5487-3239-4 A historical novel, set largely in upstate New York’s Adirondack Park, about the troubled lives of real-life real estate investor William West Durant and his embittered sister, Ella.

Myers (Castles in the Air, 2016, etc.) continues the story of the Durants in this third book in her Durant Family Saga trilogy.

Thomas C. Durant was a railroad magnate who lost a fortune and died under a cloud—and intestate—in 1885. His son, William, assumed control of the family’s remaining assets and began new real estate and construction ventures in the Adirondacks.

His sibling, Ella, who was somewhat of a bohemian, always felt financially shortchanged and ill-treated by her older brother— which caused litigation between the two. In the novel, told in the form of reminiscences of various characters, readers follow the arc of William’s career from his early days as a high roller (starting in 1892) to his impoverished life as an old man (circa 1931). In the end, not only has William lost all of his own wealth, but also money and land that Ella won in her final lawsuit—so they both end up losing. However, as William wrote to a friend in 1932, “I am poor, but I am happy, what more can most of us expect?” Myers writes with skill and has chosen well in deeply researching the Durant saga, which remarkably parallels Greek tragedy. It’s a truly engrossing story, and Myers does it justice.

William is effectively portrayed as being more clueless than anything else, as he honestly doesn’t understand that he is treating his sister—and his wife, for that matter—very badly. He’s also obsessed with his camps in the Adirondacks, giving readers the impression that he sees the whole park as his personal fiefdom.

That’s likely the reason why Myers uses the very clever gambit of telling the story from the perspective of William in his old age, when he’s “calm of mind, all passion spent,” being interviewed by wealthy Harold Hochschild, who now owns William’s |

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A psychic Catholic priest joins a government project to train dolphins in O’Doran’s debut SF novel.

In what appears to be the late 21st century, rising seas have devastated humankind, and among the societies thrown into turmoil is the United States, now merged with Mexico as MEXUS. The plague- and poverty-stricken MEXUS is under the political spell of TV evangelist and murderer Amos Bilby, who captivates masses with a “Prosperity Gospel” message that Jesus wants everyone to be rich. This version of Christianity also abhors any animals that aren’t exploitable as food or labor. (Yet, paradoxically, readers are told that ape language has been deciphered and that a kind of telepathic internet has enhanced human-to-animal communication.) In the Pacific Northwest, the MEXUS military has been trying to train cloned porpoises to guard the nation’s submerged mining resources. Completing the project requires the Bilby-dominated president to cooperate with the widely hated Catholic Church for the unique services of the Rev. Dr. Liam Jamieson.

This scientist/priest has extreme psychic empathy; touching people is emotionally overwhelming for him, and touching animals led him to publish the heretical opinion that beasts have souls and deserve the same rights as humans. At MEXUS’ United Forces Center for Biological Research, Liam has a positive working relationship with Kate Mendoza, a project manager who’s also a member of a burka-wearing, quasi-Catholic sisterhood that protects animals. Mendoza’s work with the dolphins takes a fateful turn with the unforeseen capture of a distressed bottlenose dolphin; the team’s discoveries point to the possibility that sea mammals are not only intelligent, but also have their own religion.

This SF tale swims in the sizable wakes of Robert Merle’s 1967 novel Day of the Dolphin and the 1986 hit movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the latter of which featured singing humpback whales that know a bit more about the universe than mankind does. One may also hear echoes of the 1993 film Free Willy as well as the subgenre of novels about ruggedly handsome Catholic priests struggling with sexual desires and yearning for redemption, exemplified by Colleen McCullough’s 1977 bestseller The Thorn Birds and the works of Andrew M. Greeley. Despite this mulligan stew of antecedents, once the author gets past the initial, complex setup—a familiar exploration of the future as a nasty, waterlogged climate change dystopia—the narrative is surprisingly coherent and effective and rendered in a lyrical prose style.

The ending doesn’t cheapen the story by leaning on formula; 189

instead, it offers a compelling cast of complex and emotionally stranded characters betrayed by their institutions of government and religion, and their tale, overall, is a haunting one. Readers who agree with the work’s animal rights message and philosophy of sustainability, however, may note that despite the lead characters’ preference for animals over treacherous and greedy humans, none of them seems to have embraced a vegan diet—at least, not yet.

A spiritual SF eco-drama that serves up considerable food for thought after an overly complicated setup.

hard to ensure the next generation of corporate leadership meets his high standards in all aspects of the job.

An effective guide to succeeding in corporate leadership and bringing integrity and determination to work.

SEE THE SEA

Pechter, Alese & Pechter, Morton Illus. by the authors Best Publishing Company (48 pp.) $11.99 paper | $8.99 e-book Nov. 12, 2019 978-1-947239-25-8

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMER TO MANAGER A Practical Guide to Career Advancement Into Management

This picture book introduces children to undersea creatures through an

angelfish’s travels.

Jamie, a queen angelfish, wants to take readers along as she meets other aquatic animals and swims around “our ocean park,” a coral reef, hoping to meet a shark. Humans will naturally need to don flippers and a mask to accompany Jamie, but once they do, they can explore all the lovely things underwater, such as corals, sponges, many kinds of fish, and other sea creatures. These are described in rhyming verse; a moray eel, for example, “has fang-like teeth / that hold very tight. / It may hurt a little / if he gets a bite.” Jamie finally spies a shark and helps redeem the animal’s scary reputation: “They’re not interested in us when other food can be found, / while they clean up the ocean as they move around.” Finally, the work urges readers to safeguard the oceans, giving some practical tips on how kids can help (by reducing plastic use, for example). This book by the Pechters (Skyward Bound, 2017, etc.), a husband-and-wife team of underwater photojournalists, is packed with many gorgeous pictures of beautifully colored and patterned creatures. (Morton Pechter died in 2008.) A useful table of contents identifies each denizen of the deep with name, page number, and a snapshot. Altogether, this pleasing display rewards long gazing and helps the lessons about oceans, sea creatures, and environmental protections go down easily.

An attractive, well-illustrated tale that examines coral reef ecology.

Oshiro, Norm E. Self (195 pp.) $14.50 paper | $6.50 e-book Dec. 7, 2018 978-1-72963-483-7

A retired executive offers insights from his decades in the corporate world.

In this debut business book, Oshiro shares leadership lessons he learned over more than three decades working for the technology company EDS, founded by Ross Perot and later acquired by HP. The author recounts his evolution from entry-level programmer to manager, overseeing the work of nearly 200 colleagues. Illustrating general principles of management with stories from throughout his career, Oshiro shows how demonstrating responsibility, integrity, and drive is crucial to succeeding as a manager, both of people and projects. The book recounts the author’s best and worst moments at work along with providing a thoughtful discussion of what readers can learn from his experiences. Oshiro is an excellent storyteller, and he presents a vivid picture of corporate life with an enthusiasm that even the most cynical reader will appreciate. Much of the book’s advice for aspiring managers (“Always take on your assignments with a sense of urgency,” for instance) is broadly applicable to both traditional corporations and less formal office settings, making it useful to a wide audience. (The more buttoned-down aspects of working at EDS are less applicable to 21st-century aspiring managers, but the author has an eye for detail and does a great job of depicting a world where employees were not allowed to leave their cubicles in shirtsleeves.) Not all readers will embrace Oshiro’s arguments in favor of a hierarchical organization where workers are ranked and appearance matters, but many will appreciate the holistic approach of EDS, where “employees could have failures that do not define their overall and long-term value to the company.” The prose includes some stylistic quirks, particularly an overreliance on quotation marks for emphasis, but on the whole is highly readable. Oshiro is an engaging narrator who comes across as an authoritative and ethical mentor who is willing to work 190

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QUEEN OF THE OWLS

Probst, Barbara Linn She Writes Press (330 pp.) $16.95 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-63152-890-3

A frustrated wife tries to get her groove back with the help of a sexy photographer and inspiration from the artist Georgia O’Keeffe in this debut novel.

At the age of 34, with two preschool kids, Elizabeth Crawford finds herself going crazy in a passionless marriage to her husband, Ben, whose lack of desire for her leaves her feeling “unloved and |

Without getting overly technical, Quinlan explains the sometimes-complicated concepts with clarity and energy. one single species

unbeautiful.” She’s also hit a roadblock in her Ph.D. dissertation on 20th-century painter O’Keeffe, struggling to figure out how a sojourn in Hawaii provoked the artist to switch from creating lush flowers to producing pictures of cow skulls in the desert. Assistance on both problems materializes in the form of Richard Ferris, a handsome photographer who turns his smoldering gaze on Elizabeth in their tai chi class.

Richard is fascinated by her O’Keeffe theories and proposes a daring way for her to connect more deeply with the painter’s psyche: pose nude for him to re-create a famous series of photographs taken of the artist in the 1920s by her lover, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz. During the photo sessions, Elizabeth progresses from severe bashfulness at loosening a few buttons to ebullience as more clothing comes off. She feels “her skin tingling, alert and alive,” while the heightening sexual tension with Richard renders her “dizzy, weak with the desire that flooded her body.” Her walk on the wild side leads to more exposure than she bargained for and eventually forces her to reconsider her attitudes toward Richard, her marriage, O’Keeffe, and herself. The art history musings in Probst’s yearning tale of renewal—“Her core’s still there, her female essence, but it isn’t accessible, not like it is in the flower paintings she did earlier”—often feel murky and uninvolving.

Fortunately, the author paints a vivid and absorbing portrait of domestic life—she’s a superb observer of children’s moods and antics—in an unhappy marriage that limps along on deadening routine and sedated feelings. (After a perfunctory coupling with Ben, Elizabeth “knew they’d had sex the same way she knew that the rent was due or that she needed to move a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer.”) Readers will root for Elizabeth—and wince in amusement at her pratfalls— as she strikes out in improbable new directions.

Artsy ruminations aside, an entertaining, psychologically rich story of a sometimes giddy, sometimes painful awakening.

She names it “Leonardo,” after Leonardo da Vinci, and experiments with flying it until she becomes confident in her skills.

She then selects her favorite new drone-assisted photo for the contest. Readers will be unsurprised by Leah’s victory, but parents are more likely to appreciate how Leah devotes herself to practicing her craft. Purdy’s present-tense narration lends immediacy to Leah’s experiments, and the straightforward vocabulary and sentence structure will encourage independent reading. Rodella-Purdy’s cartoonlike digital images effectively capture Leah’s inventive problem-solving paired with her successful and failed photos. QR codes (not tested) offer readers a chance to see more drone photos online. A text introduction to drone technology is included at the end of the book.

An engaging, well-illustrated invitation to look at the world from a different—and higher—angle.

ONE SINGLE SPECIES Why the Connections in Nature Matter y o u n g a d u lt

Quinlan, Susan E. Illus. by the author Raven Mountain Press (48 pp.)

Mar. 10, 2020 978-0-9970077-4-9 978-0-9970077-6-3 paper

This children’s book examines a scientist’s experiment that shows the importance of a single species within an ecosystem.

In her latest science work for young readers, Quinlan (The Case of the Monkeys That Fell From the Trees, 2003, etc.), a wildlife biologist, writer, and artist, explains the important ecological research of Robert T. Paine (1933-2016). Interested in the intertidal zone ecosystem, the scientist studied Washington state tide pools and their characteristic sea life, including barnacles, mussels, sponges, algae, limpets, anemones, and more. He noticed that ochre sea stars were important predators in this system and wondered what the effect would be of removing them from their rocky shoreline habitat. An experiment to test this question led to startling results: “More than 26 species of anemones, chitons, urchins, limpets, whelks, and algae that had thrived in the lower intertidal zone no longer had space to live. They were completely crowded out by the mussels.”

When the ochre sea stars were reintroduced, the ecosystem gradually recovered. The experiment proved that “keystone species,” to use Paine’s phrase, were crucial to the health of Washington’s tide pools. Scientists studying other ecosystems also identified keystone species. Their work proved that the delicate balance of an ecosystem can be affected or even destroyed by just a single species’ disappearance. The author’s beautiful full-spread illustrations capture the atmosphere, variety, and splendor of Washington’s coast along with lovely depictions of sea life and other creatures.

Without getting overly technical, Quinlan explains the sometimescomplicated concepts with clarity and energy. She gives readers a chance to see how a working scientist conducts experiments, conveying a sense of exploration, curiosity, and wonder at the interconnectedness of things. This is greatly bolstered by a section that

THE ADVENTURES OF LEONARDO THE DRONE Book 1: Photos From the Sky

Purdy, John A. Illus. by Rodella-Purdy, Cindy Creative Cat Media (40 pp.) $19.90 | $9.90 paper | $3.90 e-book Oct. 29, 2019 978-0-9996842-4-5 978-0-9996842-5-2 paper

A young girl discovers how a drone can enhance her photography skills in this series-starting picture book by debut author Purdy and illustrator Rodella-Purdy (The Little Gray Squirrel, 2019, etc.).

Leah is frustrated that she can’t seem to win the monthly photo contest at her local library. She loves finding new and different angles to capture images. Inspired by flying birds, she attempts to take pictures of things from above, using a number of tools with underwhelming results, before she buys a drone. |

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VIRAL DREAMS

provides capsule descriptions of other keystone species around the world, such as the northern flying squirrel, the little auk, the mound-building termite, and the African elephant, and why they’re crucial. For example, mound-building termites construct “extensive underground tunnels and farm fungi that break down wood and other plant material the termites gather. These actions enrich the soil with nutrients.”

Useful, informative, beautifully illustrated, and well written—a superior introduction to understanding ecosystems.

Saenger, John TouchPoint Press (306 pp.) $17.99 paper | $7.99 e-book Nov. 22, 2019 978-1-946920-82-9 A father fights for his missing daughter in this debut biotech thriller.

Saenger parlays his expertise as a pharmaceutical immuno-oncologist in this novel about widowed single father and former SWAT team leader Max Tyler, who becomes embroiled in a nefarious biomedical scheme. While camping in California, his 9-year-old daughter, Megan, is nearly abducted by an unknown assailant; she’s shot with a tranquilizer dart and becomes gravely ill. Infectious disease specialist Beth Collins, at a nearby hospital, enters the picture to care for Megan. Another clumsy attempt to kidnap the girl occurs as Max struggles with Larry Drake, a disgruntled, drug-addled nurse who’s been committing murders at the hospital. Megan is abducted, along with Beth, who’d tried in vain to rescue her. Max holds the remaining kidnapper at gunpoint, and he confesses that Megan was taken to a secret lab. As Max and special ops expert Mark Hunter frantically plot a mission to save the day, Saenger expands his riveting narrative by offering further details about biotechnology company Viralvector and its diabolical “projects” involving Megan, whom they’d initially targeted long ago. Its chief scientist has collected several kids for viral experiments that allow the company to hijack certain youngsters’ brain cells, spur their intellectual advancement, and create prime candidates for stem cell harvesting. The author describes this process and many medical procedures with the ease of a seasoned clinical scientist. Some readers may find his expert explanations of genetic manipulation to be overly complicated, but they do add more intrigue and mystery to the story. Megan, who later teams up with another kidnapped girl, emerges as a tenacious character with plenty of youthful determination. In the end, Saenger’s villains aren’t nearly as wicked and calculating as readers may want them to be. However, the author’s gripping storytelling and characterization—and particularly his riveting conclusion— more than make up for this.

An exhilarating, confident novel involving hardy heroes and nefarious bioscience.

KOYAAN Book One: The Gods of Iniquity

Ruiz, J Alex Self (662 pp.) $19.99 paper | $3.99 e-book Aug. 5, 2019 978-1-08-743730-9 This debut fantasy follows the travails of an ancient Egyptian peasant girl impregnated by a god.

Thirteen-year-old Anggun is newly a woman. In the peasant village of Arrousa, her family performs the Dawning Ritual by leaving beer for Ra, God of the Day. Nunuco, Anggun’s mother, is a widow and doesn’t take the ritual as seriously as her father-inlaw, Iawii, would like. If the family’s offerings please Ra, he will take Anggun to heaven, where she’ll live in comfort and beauty.

Later, as Anggun sings in a field, she does attract a deity. Set, the God of Storms, approaches in the form of a black snake. He eventually morphs into a powerful man, forcing himself on the girl before vanishing. When Anggun’s twin brother, Gunang, and their younger brother, Buku, find her, she’s burned but otherwise uninjured. At home, Anggun’s belly grows with shocking speed.

Unbeknown to anyone, Nunuco removes a red scale from her daughter’s body, keeping it hidden. Iawii believes that Anggun “brought this on herself ” and trusts in aid from the High Priests of Horus. But Nunuco learns that Iawii’s brother, Mekheb, is a Priest of Set living in the city of Neqada. Surely, he can help with Anggun’s supernatural pregnancy. Ruiz blends impressive historical research, family dynamics, and frank depictions of sex in her series opener. Readers learn not just about the narrative’s principal deities, but also about others who shaped ancient Egyptian life. “Ptah created Himself out of Chaos,” Mekheb says of the god who originated thought, “So, when you think to yourself, that is an aspect of Ptah in you.” The author also reveals lovely fusions of nature and architecture, as “orange light streamed between long rows of tall red and black columns that lined the temple’s outer courtyard.” Still, even readers with strong stomachs should prepare for Anggun’s intense sexual assault and, later, Gunang’s descent into drug use and prostitution. Egypt’s Crown Prince Imseti, who’s sure that Set’s child is a girl and is determined to pair with her, is the perfect villain to enliven the sequel.

A robust historical fantasy showcasing the Egyptian pantheon and the strength of family.

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Schmit’s stimulating volume of down-to-earth writings will spur a deep reflection on Christian values. head lines

HEAD LINES Poems & Provocations: A 60 Day Guide Book Toward Personal Psalmistry

THE TOWN WITH ACACIA TREES

Sebastian, Mihail Trans. by Reigh, Gabi Aurora Metro Press (280 pp.) $22.95 paper | Apr. 7, 2020 978-1-912430-29-1

Schmit, Will EA Books Publishing (134 pp.) $14.00 paper | Apr. 15, 2019 978-1-945976-37-7

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Romanian author Sebastian (For Two Thousand Years, 2017, etc.), in Reigh’s (Poems of Light, 2019) English translation, offers a bildungsroman set in Romania during the interwar period.

In this novel, a young man and woman fall in and out of love as they come to terms with the banalities of adulthood.

As the story opens, it lucidly depicts the bookish, 15-year-old Adriana’s reappraisal of childhood “with the weary eyes of a survivor” and the intensities of first love. Gelu is a 20-yearold university student from Adriana’s unnamed town, and he’s preoccupied with his own romance—but in the course of rescuing a depressed peer from an attic refuge, he and Adriana form a friendship. The author reveals how their bond builds, slowly and subtly, until they find themselves in a passionate tryst. Adriana floats in and out of Bucharest, pursuing her musical talent as a pianist with the help of affluent relatives, and finds herself tangled in the lives of Gelu, whose studies are in the capital, and Cello Viorin, an impetuous and romantic composer. (The sensory experience of music is a repeated focus, in an evident nod to Marcel Proust’s work.) The Bucharest backdrop—the university, the concert hall, the tram, the streetscapes—effectively recalls Sebastian’s other works, but this novel expands on the tension between province and capital, which acts as a stand-in for the conflict between traditional and modern values. Adriana and Gelu, in the midst of a century-defining sea change, discover their need for each other even as they witness a marriage that ends in divorce, due to a previous affair between the wife and a nun, and another matrimony that becomes “something that destroys youth and drains desire.” Reigh handily preserves Sebastian’s supple, languid syntax, shaping each sentence to accentuate his exquisite lyricism, as when the couple remains unable to yield entirely to their desire “to be held in such a way that it obliterated everything apart from the ecstasy of the flesh.”

An endearingly wistful story of young love.

Divine grace suffuses a seemingly mundane reality in these lyrical Christian devotional poems.

Schmit (Jesus Inside, 2015), a poet and writing instructor at the Bethel School of Supernatural Discipleship, offers 60 poems featuring vivid imagery of everyday life lit by epiphanies that bring God onto the scene. Nature vignettes (“The branch at bud point, / lightly bears the warbler’s weight, / shakes free of frost, / and offers a blossom peek / to the sun”), vegetable stands (“A roadside cascade of tumbling tomatoes / splits its sides laughing”), and holiday decorations (“The wren wonders at outdoor / Christmas lights, / not much there for nesting, the wires make poor worms”) make typical homespun backgrounds. Jesus appears in humble guises as an ordinary workman “in jeans /…a tool belt, thermos, / some decent boots” or a car passenger on a shopping trip (“Tuesdays I drive into town with Jesus. / We don’t talk much. He gives me / His ‘What more needs to be said’ look and fiddles with the radio to get psyched. / We pour love at the Walmart, walking down the aisles like they were water”). God figures in as a numinous, loving omnipresence (“Grace spins in spontaneous space, / the fingertip of His creation…every breath, / from the mouth of God, / is a song”). Some poems deftly call readers to a Christian engagement with worldly concerns, from homelessness (“Rainy season; plastic tarps / rumble in the wind, blankets / become roofs. /…any question where He’d be born / again this Christmas?”) to climate change and renewable energy (“The commonsense of the sun, / the compassion of the wind, / will steal the thunder of hard blowing coal fire. Cool water will yet have its day”). A few brief, punchy prose essays are sprinkled in that treat political issues more directly (“If we truly wish to make America great, let’s enlist the words of Jesus Who admonishes us to become servants of all”). The result is a stimulating volume of down-to-earth writings that will spur a deep reflection on Christian faith and values.

A fine collection that expresses ardent religious feelings in fresh, evocative language and metaphors.

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full consciousness. (The boat’s wake image recurs in “Wake & Island”: “The surface just before us always / smooth…and when we / mar it it repairs itself.”) A productive confusion of boundaries is also suggested by the subtitle of “W a k e”: A nap is a daytime sleep, and winking is partway between open and shut eyelids. Many poems touch on the domestic: paying bills, shoveling snow, scrubbing a pot—but something else always breaks through. The collection is haunted by the suicide of the speaker’s father-in-law and her difficulty dealing with it: “I am brave when I say he shot himself / braver / not so brave as him / —scratch that—.” As in many other pieces, this one uses form to great effect, the short centered lines forming a column like the fall of water in the shower where the suicide took place, ending with “the uncomfortable / circumferences / of drain.” The gurgling repetition almost magically evokes its subject; the final word, “drain,” is as stark as the facts. But sly wit also inhabits the volume, as with the sequence of “billets-doux” between the speaker, “a midlife poet flirting with crisis,” and Robert Frost.

A fine collection of poetry that strikingly engages readers with complexity.

Steinorth, Jennifer Sperry Texas Review Press (98 pp.) $19.95 paper | Sep. 2, 2019 978-1-68003-191-1

This volume of poetry offers accomplished attention to form, originality of language, and a look at the challenges of midlife.

Many of the poems in Steinorth’s (Forking the Swift, 2010) collection first appeared in literary journals, and the book was a finalist for several prizes. The second poem, “W a k e : A Sleep in Forty-Something Winks,” is, a note explains, patterned after Caroline Bergvall’s poem “VIA (48 Dante Variations) mix w fractals,” which is based on English translations of the opening lines of Dante’s Inferno. Like Dante’s narrator, the speaker in Steinorth’s poem is at a midpoint in a dark place, her sense of direction confused: “Midway through our night’s sleep / I woke to find the dream lost.” The several definitions of wake (a vigil for the dead; to rouse from sleep; the track left on water) connote alertness and the clarity of seeing your path, but the speaker paradoxically loses that lucidity with

THE LAST ANGEL TO FALL

Walsh, Brian G. Self (563 pp.) $19.97 paper | $2.99 e-book | Jul. 4, 2019 978-1-07-818665-0

This Issue’s Contributors #

In this first volume in an epic urban fantasy series, an American federal agent has to deal with hell itself.

The protagonist of Walsh’s ambitious debut novel is a depressed, downon-his-luck Diplomatic Security Service agent named Jubal Stone who’s been “effectively benched” by his boss, who thinks little of him. Stone was once a special investigator for the Office of Asset Recovery (“a deliberately obscure name for what sometimes turns out to be very nasty work”), but now he’s bitterly resigned to life in Norvell Township, Michigan, where he seems very much out of the loop. As a result, he’s cultivated a kind of big-picture cynicism: “Earth itself was no more than a rock with a bubble of air surrounding it,” he thinks at one point, “a tenuous condition that supposedly existed at the whim of some unknowable and unreachable God.” God suddenly seems much more reachable when a supernatural meteor crashes to Earth bearing a fallen Angel—a mystical being who quickly becomes the object of Stone’s new job for the agency. He’s partnered again with his former mentor, Thaddeus Coleman, and tasked with safely delivering the Angel to none other than Satan himself. The pairing of Jubal and Thaddeus is one of the strongest aspects of the book, as neither is a typical hero: They were chosen for the job, one character says, because the agency had nobody else available (“They’re both capable, but neither has been on top of their game for a while now”). What follows is an extremely winning variation on the formulaic model of Dan Brown’s 2003 bestseller The Da Vinci Code that offers a compelling combination

ADULT Colleen Abel • Maude Adjarian • Jeff Alford • Stephanie Anderson • Rebecca Leigh Anthony • Mark Athitakis • Eleanor Bader • Colette Bancroft • Joseph Barbato • Sarah Blackman • Amy Boaz Catherine Cardno • Tobias Carroll • Lee E. Cart • Kristin Centorcelli • May-lee Chai • Carin Clevidence • K.W. Colyard • Morgan Davies • Dave DeChristopher • Kathleen Devereaux • Amanda Diehl • Bobbi Dumas • Daniel Dyer • Lisa Elliott • Chelsea Ennen • Mia Franz • Harvey Freedenberg Amy Goldschlager • Michael Griffith • Janice Harayda • Katrina Niidas Holm • Dana Huber • Kerri Jarema • Laura Jenkins • Jessica Jernigan • Skip Johnson • Paul Lamey • Tom Lavoie • Judith Leitch Peter Lewis • Elsbeth Lindner • Michael Magras • Joe Maniscalco • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Michael Merschel • Clayton Moore • Sarah Morgan • Jennifer Nabers • Christopher Navratil • Sarah Neilson • Liza Nelson • Mike Newirth • Connie Ogle • Mike Oppenheim • Jim Piechota • Margaret Quamme • Carolyn Quimby • Kristen Bonardi Rapp • Stephanie Reents • Amy Reiter • Lloyd Sachs • Bob Sanchez • Richard Santos • E.F. Schraeder • Lindsay Semel • Gene Seymour Linda Simon • Wendy Smith • Margot E. Spangenberg • Rachel Sugar • Claire Trazenfeld • Jessica Miller • George Weaver • Steve Weinberg • Joan Wilentz • Wilda Williams • Marion Winik CHILDREN’S & TEEN Maya Alkateb-Chami • Autumn Allen • Alison Anholt-White • Kazia Berkley-Cramer • Elizabeth Bird Marcie Bovetz • Jessica Anne Bratt • Christopher A. Brown • Timothy Capehart • Alec B. Chunn Tamar Cimenian • Jeannie Coutant • Cherrylyn Cruzat • Erin Deedy • Elise DeGuiseppi • Lisa Dennis Luisana Duarte Armendáriz • Brooke Faulkner • Rodney M.D. Fierce • Ayn Reyes Frazee • Laurel Gardner • Judith Gire • Carol Goldman • Hannah Gomez • Melinda Greenblatt • Gerry Himmelreich Kathleen T. Isaacs • Elizabeth Leanne Johnson • Danielle Jones • Betsy Judkins • Deborah Kaplan Megan Dowd Lambert • Angela Leeper • Wendy Lukehart • Pooja Makhijani • Joan Malewitz Michelle H. Martin PhD • Kirby McCurtis • Jeanne McDermott • Zoe McLaughlin • Kathie Meizner Mary Margaret Mercado • Daniel Meyer • Lisa Moore • Katrina Nye • Tori Ann Ogawa Deb Paulson • John Edward Peters • Susan Pine • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Asata Radcliffe • Kristy Raffensberger • Nancy Thalia Reynolds • Leslie L. Rounds • Hadeal Salamah • Katie Scherrer • Dean Schneider • Stephanie Seales • Rita Soltan • Mathangi Subramanian • Pat Tanumihardja • Steven Thompson • Renee Ting • Tharini Viswanath • Angela Wiley • Bean Yogi INDIE Alana Abbott • Kent Armstrong • Julie Buffaloe-Yoder • Darren Carlaw • Charles Cassady • Michael Deagler • Stephanie Dobler Cerra • Steve Donoghue • Jacob Edwards • Eric F. Frazier • Tina Gianoulis Lynne Heffley • Matthew Heller • Justin Hickey • Ivan Kenneally • Maureen Liebenson • Tara Mcnabb Randall Nichols • Brandon Nolta • Jim Piechota • Sarah Rettger • Jerome Shea • Barry Silverstein Peter Guy Witzig

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An especially strong, moving, and well-described theme is the power of music to overcome barriers of many kinds. street of storytellers

STREET OF STORYTELLERS

of interagency thriller and supernatural fantasy. As various agents either help Stone or hunt him, Walsh handles the action scenes in a smooth and professional manner, and the dialogue is similarly efficient. The author also pays his readers the bedrock compliment of taking his absurd premise—a secret partnership between the U.S. federal government and hell—completely seriously, which works wonders.

A powerhouse first volume in a supernatural-thriller series.

Wilhelm, Doug Rootstock Publishing (226 pp.) $13.95 paper | Sept. 10, 2019 978-1-57869-016-9

W.C. FIELDS FROM SOUND FILM AND RADIO COMEDY TO STARDOM Becoming a Cultural Icon

Wertheim, Arthur Frank Palgrave Macmillan (428 pp.) $57.50 | Jan. 8, 2019 978-1-137-47329-5

The final volume of a biographical trilogy captures W.C. Fields’ ascent to Hollywood immortality.

If his movie career had ended with his appearances in silent films between 1925 and 1928, W.C. Fields might only have been remembered as a second-tier talent. “I am at a stage where I cannot get an offer at all,” he wrote his wife after his first, not-toomemorable stint as a film actor. “I have been badly handled and am now out of the movies.” But after returning to Hollywood in 1931, Fields successfully made the transition to sound pictures, leaving an indelible mark on film comedy history with such classics as “It’s a Gift,” “The Bank Dick,” and “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.” Wertheim (W.C. Fields From the Ziegfeld Follies and Broadway Stage to the Screen, 2016, etc.) colorfully and comprehensively captures Fields’ journey from “sacrificial lamb thrust aside” by Hollywood to “American cultural icon” in this final volume of a biographical trilogy. Fields was a “virtuoso comedian…who brought so much laughter to millions while enduring so much anguish,” he writes. The book makes effective use of a newly available archive of Fields’ papers to add texture to its portrait of a man whose life has already been the subject of numerous studies.

“I stunk so badly the police came in [the theater] with the impression that someone had been throwing stink bombs around,” Fields wrote of one of his performances. Wertheim focuses mainly on the work, not only showing how Fields used his vaudeville background and vocal gifts to fashion his unique comic routines and persona, but also how iconoclastic many of his films were. “Instead of idealizing the sacrosanct family dining table as a place of tranquility, Fields lampoons it as a place of domestic turmoil,” he observes of “The Bank Dick.” But as the author also vividly shows, Fields’ comic genius cannot be separated from his inner turmoil, which manifested itself in his legendary drinking, his failed relationships with women, and a cantankerous disposition that prompted one director to call him “the most obstinate, ornery son of a bitch I ever tried to work with.” As with so many artists, fame could only go so far to fill the “voids in his life.”

A thorough, insightful study not only of Fields’ film comedies, but of the inner turmoil that fueled his genius. |

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In this YA thriller, an American teenager in Peshawar faces an ethical conundrum when he’s recruited by jihadis to destroy his father’s project.

It’s December 1984, and Luke Sands, 15, is angry that because of his parents’ recent divorce, he has to spend Christmas vacation with his father in Peshawar, the capital city of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. Professor Sands is so obsessed with writing a book about an ancient civilization in the Peshawar Valley that it broke apart his marriage, and Luke wants nothing to do with the project. Luke shuts down and refuses to go sightseeing, preferring to listen to Bob Marley on his Walkman. But when father and son reconnect with the Shaheens, a Pashtun family they’d known back home in Saratoga, New York, Luke is drawn to the rebelliousness of their son, Rasheed, or “Rashi,” and to the beauty and intelligence of Rashi’s younger sister, Danisha, “Dani.” Although Luke makes a rash promise to help carry out a fatwa against his father’s book, he also gains a new appreciation for Pakistan’s rich cultural past when he’s introduced to Pir Sahib, a wise Sufi teacher, and hears traditional music at the shrine of a Sufi poet. Meanwhile, Luke struggles with his feelings for Dani, because any interaction is forbidden in strict Pashtun culture. A dangerous culture clash brews that puts people, artifacts, and scholarship at risk. Wilhelm (Treasure Town, 2016, etc.), a prolific writer of middle school, YA, and Choose Your Own Adventure books, offers an absorbing, rich historical tale. The thriller educates readers about the mid-’80s forces that led up to 9/11, and Wilhelm also provides a useful historical afterword covering 1985 to the present day. An especially strong, moving, and well-described theme is the power of music to overcome barriers of many kinds while the book also honestly acknowledges limitations and challenges in fighting extremism. Luke is a believable character who makes mistakes but also redeems himself with courage and generosity.

An entertaining, thoughtful look at a complicated historical, religious, artistic, and cultural crossroads.

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lives. They’re also both exceedingly likable. (It helps, of course, that the people whom Hattie kills at Shady Rest aren’t remotely sympathetic.) Startling moments arise naturally, as in a scene in which Hattie cleans out a safe deposit box that’s filled with goodies from her former profession. Various mysteries creep into the narrative, involving the Mortensen investigation and Milly’s unexplained death years ago. The latter case is easy to figure out, but the book’s overall resolution offers a pleasant surprise.

Intriguing and refreshing female characters enliven this mystery tale.

Willis, Craig N. Outskirts Press (228 pp.) $32.95 | $19.95 paper | $5.99 e-book Apr. 30, 2019 978-1-977209-25-2 978-1-977209-05-4 paper In Willis’ debut thriller, a seemingly meek retirement home resident handles unsavory types by using skills that she picked up during a career as a profes-

BLOWOUT

sional assassin.

In many ways, 84-year-old Hattie Rosales is like other residents at Shady Rest Retirement Home in Gethsemane, Illinois.

However, she’s also a former hitwoman who doesn’t actually need the wheeled walker she uses, and when racist resident Dottie Tyler threatens to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement on a Guatemalan Shady Rest employee, Hattie decides to kill her.

Periodic bits of backstory reveal that Hattie, as a young wife and mother, met Ludmilla “Milly” Netsurov at a Tupperware party in 1961. The two eventually turned the parties into a business called M&H, but they later earned the bulk of their profits from murder for hire, arranged by a man named Sid. In the present day, Hattie offs two more people, making the deaths look like accidents. This doesn’t stop police chief LaTasha Cranton from poking around Shady Rest. LaTasha recognizes Hattie’s sharp intelligence and accepts her advice on an active homicide case—the shotgun slaying of wealthy businessman Jack Mortensen. However, LaTasha also begins to suspect that Hattie had something to do with the recent Shady Rest demises, leading to a battle of wills between two savvy women. Willis’ novel showcases two multifaceted characters and provides parallels between them; although they’re on opposite sides of the law, Hattie and LaTasha, both people of color, have experienced sexism and racism throughout their

Wood, M.B. Lulu (284 pp.) $14.95 paper | $2.99 e-book May 22, 2018 978-1-387-33585-5 In this sequel, an oil company succeeds despite a dysfunctional chairman, until someone kills him.

The year is 1981. More than a decade has passed since the murderous Captain Courageous stalked Randy Capra halfway around the world.

Randy now lives outside Lorain, Ohio, with his wife, Monique, and their three children. He’s the vice president of operations for the DeVille Petroleum Company. When one of its oil wells in Caddo County, Oklahoma, erupts in flames, two DPC workers die instantly while four are critically injured. It takes a week to gain control of the accident site and yet company chairman Dick DeVille isn’t thankful for Randy’s expertise and leadership. He instead complains that Randy took DPC’s plane to the burning well. But Randy knows that the wrong size blowout preventer, suggested by Dick, caused the accident. Company president Bobby Wendover defends Randy’s actions while Dick threatens to fire him. Later, at the DPC Christmas party, organized by Axel Eriksen, liquor flows freely and stripper Marilyn Moore makes the rounds. After the party, when cleaner Graciela Estevez enters the chairman’s office, she finds Dick at his desk with his pants down and his head bashed in. She calls Randy, the only employee she knows who speaks any Spanish. The author revisits his trouble-magnet protagonist of Hunted (2012) at a more secure place in his life, a family man at the dawn of the Reagan era. Wood’s (The Hoo-Li Chronicles, 2019, etc.) knowledge of the oil industry gives the plot weight, as in the line “Dick had told him what specifications his buddies in Houston had suggested, insisting he save money by using a ‘normal’ blowout preventer.” This sequel is also structured more confidently than its predecessor, with richly drawn characters, like the dogged and sympathetic Lt. Jack Grueden, thundering through a traditional whodunit. Still, “sex” remains the operative word at the DPC office because there are enough extramarital liaisons and related fights to win over fans of the soap opera Dallas. While the murder weapon is slightly telegraphed early on, the killer is skillfully hidden until the finale.

This bracing thriller features an intriguing cast and a realistic plot.

K I R K US M E DI A L L C # Chairman H E R B E RT S I M O N President & Publisher M A RC W I N K E L M A N Chief Executive Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N # Copyright 2020 by Kirkus Media LLC. KIRKUS REVIEWS (ISSN 1948- 7428) is published semimonthly by Kirkus Media LLC, 2600Via Fortuna, Suite 130, Austin, TX 78746.

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THE EXISTENCE OF PITY

Zokan, Jeannie Red Adept Publishing (256 pp.) $13.99 paper | $5.99 e-book Oct. 5, 2016 978-1-940215-80-8

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In Zokan’s debut novel, the members of an American Baptist missionary family in Cali, Colombia, confront some surprising secrets.

Teenager Josie Wales, the kid sister of Aaron and the daughter of Henry and Astrid, narrates this story of a fateful summer in the family’s lives. It’s 1976, Josie is soon to enter her junior year of high school, and Aaron, his senior year. The season’s first bombshell hits when Josie discovers that her father’s mysterious errands are to see and support a woman with whom he secretly fathered a child. Henry is contrite, and he and Astrid try to work through the situation. The other woman, Samara, then tricks them into taking care of the baby, whose name is Piedad Maria. If the mission hierarchy finds out that the child is Henry’s, he could lose his position, which would put the family back in the United States, adrift. Then a second bombshell goes off, involving Astrid, which shakes the family to its roots. Josie’s only confidante is young Blanca, a Colombian housekeeper, and the teen begins to flirt with Catholicism. To her parents, this nascent apostasy is morally worse than what they’ve done—even though sneaky, unpleasant Aaron is hardly a model child. As Josie navigates her family situation, she deals with typical, young-love issues with her boyfriend. Overall, this is an offbeat coming-of-age story, albeit a brutal one, and Josie is perfect in her role as the story’s protagonist and moral center.

Zokan effectively shows how the teenager heroically tries to make things right and to get her family members to stop their denial and hypocritical behavior—and they are revealed to be very ugly Americans indeed. The reader aches for a happier ending, as Henry, Astrid, and Aaron appear to have learned nothing, satisfying themselves that somehow all their misfortunes were Josie’s fault. Intriguingly, however, they haven’t ostracized the protagonist at all—they’ve liberated her.

A sensitive work from a very promising author.

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Se e n & He a r d

By Michael Schaub Authors have shared their memories of Sonny Mehta, the longtime editor-in-chief of Random House imprint Alfred A. Knopf, who died on Dec. 30 of complications from pneumonia.

“He…was a great champion of good books in particular and of humane culture in general,” novelist John Banville told the New York Times. “He would have wished us better times ahead.” Novelist Jane Smiley added, “Sonny was always smart and kind and friendly….Maybe what I am most grateful for is that he let me do what I wanted to do.”

At the Washington Post, biographer Wil Haygood recalled that Mehta was fond of telling people that he “felt like he had the best job in America.” “He had faith in writers. What to make of a man who published both Bill Clinton and E.L. James of Fifty Shades of Grey fame? Who published both Tony Blair and Bret Easton Ellis?”

Joyce Ravid for Getty Images

TRIBUTES TO KNOPF EDITOR SONNY MEHTA

Logan Cyrus - AFP via Getty Images

SLAIN USC STUDENT HONORED IN STAR WARS BOOK

A college student killed while trying to stop a school shooting in North Carolina has been honored in a book by Lucasfilm, producers of the Star Wars movies he dearly loved, the Charlotte Observer reports.

Riley Howell, a 21-year-old student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, was shot to death last April after tackling a gunman who opened fire in a classroom.

Howell was widely hailed as a hero, with friends and family recalling his deep affection for the Star Wars movies. A man in Florida who was touched by the story emailed Lucasfilm, writing, “I cannot think of a person more deserving to be canonized somewhere in the Star Wars universe.”

Lucasfilm agreed. In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, a new companion book, Howell makes an appearance as “Ri-Lee Howell,” a Jedi master known for collecting “many of the earliest accounts of exploration and codifications of The Force.”

“That really made me cry when I heard about it,” said Natalie Henry-Howell, Howell’s mother.

More than 1,000 letters written by poet T.S. Eliot to his close friend Emily Hale have been unveiled by the Princeton University Library, the school announced.

The collection of 1,131 letters from Eliot to the woman whom many consider to be his muse were written between 1930 and 1957. Hale donated them to the university on the condition that they not be unsealed until 50 years after her death.

Eliot scholar Anthony Cuda told the Associated Press that the unveiling of the letters is “perhaps the literary event of the decade….I don’t know of anything more awaited or significant.”

Admirers of Eliot hoping to get a look at the letters for themselves will have to plan a trip to New Jersey to satisfy their curiosity—the university is not making the collection available online.

Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas–based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.

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T.S. ELIOT LETTERS TO EMILY HALE UNSEALED AT PRINCETON

Appreciations: Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland at 30

B Y G RE G O RY MC NA MEE

Leonardo Cendamo-Getty Images

Thomas Pynchon has been living out of the public eye for most of a career going on 60 years now, a literary hermit who has succeeded by his very reclusiveness in attracting attention. His 1973 novel, Gravity’s Rainbow, which makes Ulysses seem like light reading, elevated him to cult-hero status. Ever since, his fans—and I’m one—have eagerly awaited a new blockbuster, answered by relatively light but still worthy fare such as Bleeding Edge (2013) and Inherent Vice (2009).

Vineland, published in 1990, may be the closest he’s come to his peak since the glory days of Gravity’s Rainbow and The Crying of Lot 49 (1966). It reveals Pynchon in the unmistakable guise of a creature of the 1960s. Vineland, that sturdy Viking name, is Pynchon’s new world, the weedy, clear-cut coast of northern California, where ’60s

Pynchon in 1955

survivors grow marijuana, live untroubled by reality, age, and die. “Times go on, and we never change,” says one free spirit. The times, of course, do.

Protagonist Zoyd Wheeler is a hazy veteran of the Haight who lives from one federal mental disability check to

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the next, the qualifying requirement being only that he commit one “publicly crazy” act each year in full view of the dispossessed lumberjacks, hippies, and yuppies who inhabit the territory. But, as the novel opens, Zoyd learns that he’s being “defunded,” for this is 1984, with Reaganomics in full tilt. Adding to his angst, Zoyd’s teenage daughter, Prairie, is dating an “NBA-sized violence enthusiast” who sings zeitgeist-y lyrics for a thrash-metal band like “I’m just a floozie with an Uzi,” stuff befuddling to a fan of Jerry Garcia and Bob Dylan.

Bent on finding herself, the smart, resourceful Prairie is just as intent on exploring her ethereal mother’s past. Of his ex-wife, who sports the manically suggestive name Frenesi, Zoyd says only that during their time together he “felt like Mildred Pierce’s husband.” Frenesi, Prairie learns, was an informant for the FBI during the anti-war years, a witness protection graduate still controlled by the resident nemesis of the local heads, a man very much like the Bigfoot Bjornsen of Inherent Vice. She has drifted through the decades without a mooring cable, but when Prairie reaches out, she begins to find herself, too. Her transformation to something like normality comes late, but it’s classic redemption, and it’s a surprisingly conventional turn for Pynchon.

Though broadly satirical, Vineland is also a subtle take on our dystopian recent past, marked by a self-inflicted “thanatoid syndrome” whose willing victims exist in a state “like death but not quite dead.” These Thanatoids, who are legion and of course vote, make inroads into Zoyd’s paradise throughout the book, though they spend most of their time glued to the television, abhorring liberal, independent thought and all who engage in it, sating themselves on Rabelaisian TV-dinner banquets.

We know who they are, just as we all know a Zoyd, a Prairie, a Frenesi. Vineland extends Pynchon’s vision, both grim and comic, never concerned with what the neighbors will think. In a mostly grim and only occasionally comic time, it’s worth a fresh look.

Gregory McNamee is a contributing editor. |

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