December 15, 2024: Volume XCII, No. 24

FEATURING 287 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children’s, and YA Books The Best 100 Indie Books of the Year + Our Full Dec. 15 Issue

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

IN MEMORIAM

BEFORE WE TURN the page on 2024, let’s pause to remember the authors we lost this year; their books are sure to live on. Here are just a few of the most notable:

Joan Acocella, 78 . The essays of the longtime New Yorker arts critic were collected in the books Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints and The Bloodied Nightgown

Robie Harris, 83. Her children’s book on sexuality and health, It’s Perfectly Normal , was a frequent target of school book bans; she was a vocal advocate for the freedom to read.

N. Scott Momaday, 89

The first Native American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize, he was the author of the novel House Made of Dawn and several works of nonfiction.

Maryse Condé, 90. The French novelist and critic, born in Guadeloupe, was the author of Segu; I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem; and other works.

John Barth, 93 . The influential postmodern novelist was known for The Sot-Weed Factor, Giles Goat-Boy, and other works.

Faith Ringgold, 93 . The artist acclaimed for her work in painting, quilt art, and sculpture was the author of Tar Beach, Cassie’s World Quilt , and other books for children.

Paul Auster, 77. Celebrated for his noir-inflected existentialist New York Trilogy, he was also the author of such novels as 4321 and The Book of Illusions. Alice Munro, 92 Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, she was considered a master of short stories, collected in

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books such as Friend of My Youth and Runaway. Ismail Kadare, 88. The Albanian writer, who criticized political oppression in his homeland, was the author of The Palace of Dreams, A Dictator Calls, and other novels.

Edna O’Brien, 93 . Her 1960 debut, The Country Girls , was banned in her native Ireland for its frank depictions of sex; she went on to write many novels about girls and women.

Francine Pascal, 92 . The creator of the Sweet Valley High series of YA novels, ultimately encompassing 181 books, enchanted a generation of young readers.

Elias Khoury, 76 . The Lebanese author, known for his political novels and support of Palestine, was the author of The Kingdom of Strangers , Yalo, and other books.

Nelson DeMille, 81

The bestselling author and Vietnam vet penned numerous thrillers and suspense novels, including The General’s Daughter

(made into a film) and Plum Island . Robert Coover, 92 . A leading figure of American postmodern fiction, he was the author of the novels The Public Burning, Gerald’s Party, and more.

Lore Segal, 96 . A Jewish refugee who left Vienna as part of the Kindertransport, she was the author of the novel Her First American and, just last year, the story collection Ladies’ Lunch. Gary Indiana, 74 . The acid-tongued New York art critic and novelist was known for the dark themes of sex and crime he explored in such books as Horse Crazy, Rent Boy, Resentment . Dorothy Allison, 75 The lesbian feminist activist and writer won acclaim for her novel Bastard Out of Carolina ; her other books included Trash, Skin , and Cavedweller.

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“Rich personal and cultural history of a young woman in Berlin’s Belle Epoque.”

—Publishers Weekly/ BookLife Reviews

“A tender, personalitycentered biography of golden age Berlin.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“A wonderfully composed portrayal that could be considered narrative Art Nouveau.”

—BookTrib

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Contributors

Colleen Abel, Mahasin Aleem, Autumn Allen, Stephanie Anderson, Jenny Arch, Kent Armstrong, Heather Rose Artushin, Mark Athitakis, Colette Bancroft, Audrey Barbakoff, Robert Beauregard, Nell Beram, Heather Berg, Elizabeth Bird, Ariel Birdoff, Sarah Blackman, Nastassian Brandon, Jessica Hoptay Brown, Justina Bruns, Cliff Burke, Jeffrey Burke, Kevin Canfield, Charles Cassady, Ann Childs, Amanda Chuong, Rachael Conrad, Adeisa Cooper, Jeannie Coutant, Sara Davis, Michael Deagler, Dave DeChristopher, Elise DeGuiseppi, John Diaz, Amanda Diehl, Anna Drake, Gina Elbert, Lisa Elliott, Tanya Enberg, Ilana Bensussen Epstein, Joshua Farrington, Eiyana Favers, Katie Flanagan, Richard Ford, Mia Franz, Ayn Reyes Frazee, Jenna Friebel, Roberto Friedman, Elisa Gall, Laurel Gardner, Chloé Harper Gold, Carol Goldman, Melinda Greenblatt, Christine Gross-Loh, Vicky Gudelot, Tobi Haberstroh, Sean Hammer, Silvia Lin Hanick, Peter Heck, Loren Hinton, Kathleen T. Isaacs, Wesley Jacques, Jessica Jernigan, Betsy Judkins, Jayashree Kamblé, Ivan Kenneally, Colleen King, Lyneea Kmail, Andrea Kreidler, Alexis Lacman, Megan Dowd Lambert, Carly Lane, Christopher Lassen, Tom Lavoie, Judith Leitch, Seth Lerer, Coeur de Lion, Barbara London, Patricia Lothrop, Georgia Lowe, Wendy Lukehart, Kyle Lukoff, Leanne Ly, Douglas MacLeod, Michael Magras, Joan Malewitz, Mandy Malone, Thomas Maluck, Joe Maniscalco, Gabriela Martins, Matthew May, J. Alejandro Mazariegos, Kirby McCurtis, Breanna McDaniel, Jeanne McDermott, Dale McGarrigle, Don McLeese, Tara Mokhtari, Rebecca Moore, Andrea Moran, Michelle Moyd, Molly Muldoon, Jennifer Nabers, Mike Newirth, Therese Purcell Nielsen, Katrina Nye, Tori Ann Ogawa, Connie Ogle, Mike Oppenheim, Nick Owchar, Emilia, Packard, Derek Parker, Hal Patnott, Deb Paulson, Alea Perez, John Edward Peters, Jim Piechota, Vicki Pietrus, William E. Pike, Margaret Quamme, Carolyn Quimby, Kristy Raffensberger, Jonah Raskin, Sarah Rettger, Nancy Thalia Reynolds, Alyssa Rivera, Kelly Roberts, Lizzie Rogers, Elisa Rowe, Lloyd Sachs, Bob Sanchez, Keiko Sanders, Caitlin Savage, Gene Seymour, Jerome Shea, Madeline Shellhouse, Sadaf Siddique, Linda Simon, Laurie Skinner, Wendy Smith, Christine Sneed, Leena Soman, Margot E. Spangenberg, Mo Springer, Allison Staley, Allie Stevens, Mathangi Subramanian, Jennifer Swanson, Deborah Taylor, Desiree Thomas, Bill Thompson, Renee Ting, Lenora Todaro, Jenna Varden, Katie Vermilyea, Elliott Walcroft, Barbara Ward, Katie Weeks, Audrey Weinbrecht, Sara Beth West, Wilda Williams, Vanessa Willoughby, Kerry Winfrey, Marion Winik, Bean Yogi, Jean-Louise Zancanella

OUR FAVORITE AUDIOBOOKS OF 2024

Kirkus contributors and editors nominate their top listens of the year.

FICTION

Set in New Zealand, Rebecca K. Reilly’s engaging Greta & Valdin (Simon & Schuster Audio, 9 hours and 28 minutes) features a large cast of characters led by two queer siblings navigating love, sex, careers, racism, and the idiosyncrasies and whims of their lively Maori and Russian family. Lead narrators Natalie Beran and Jackson Bliss display impeccable comic timing throughout this audiobook, a welcome and joyful respite after a particularly divisive year.

Jennine Capó Crucet’s hilarious and powerful Say Hello to My Little Friend (Simon & Schuster, 8 hours and 42 minutes) is narrated, crucially, by a reader with an impeccable Miami accent. The novel—about Ismael “Izzy” Reyes, a Cuban-born failed Pitbull impersonator who decides to reinvent himself as Scarface’s Tony Montana—is wildly imaginative. But it’s also shrewdly grounded by Crucet’s innate understanding of place and people, an elegy for a doomed city. Krizia Bajos’ painstakingly accurate narration is the antithesis of Al Pacino’s on-screen cartoonishness, helping the author’s outrage land with authority.

Percival Everett’s reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn earned a Kirkus Prize for Fiction in 2024, so it comes as no surprise that the novel is also one the

best audiobooks of the year. Like Mark Twain’s classic, James (Random House Audio, 7 hours and 49 minutes) is driven by a strong voice propelling the action, in which two runaways—a boy and an enslaved man—embark on adventures along the Mississippi River. Dominic Hoffman highlights the depth and intelligence of Everett’s Jim, and told from his thoughtful perspective, the story takes on an intriguing new light and is all the more compelling for it.

Irish writer Kevin Barry delivers an unforgettable performance of his rich and ribald Western, The Heart in Winter (Random House Audio, 5 hours and 54 minutes). Set in the debauched mining town of Butte, Montana, in 1891, the story of an opium-fogged poet and the bride of a pit boss who run away together with a posse at their heels sizzles with dazzling, profane beauty and sharp humor. It’s a profound tragicomedy enhanced by Barry’s skills as a storyteller and a reader.—CONNIE

OGLE

NONFICTION

To say that beloved queer cabaret performer Justin Vivian Bond is the perfect narrator for Cynthia Carr’s Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar (Macmillan Audio, 14 hours and 2 minutes) is an understatement, darling. Bond’s interpretation of the trans icon’s speaking voice

sparkling texture to this riveting and tragic story. As we all know from the Lou Reed song “Walk on the Wild Side,” Candy came from “out on the island”—and that is where Carr begins, with the difficult 1950s Long Island upbringing of the child who found celebrity at Andy Warhol’s Factory and died at the age of 29. Carr’s entrancing treatment makes Candy the star she truly was.

It had been over three decades since Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering Salman Rushdie’s death for the “blasphemies” of his novel The Satanic Verses when the author was attacked and stabbed 15 times, partially blinding and nearly killing him. In Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder (Penguin Random House Audio, 6 hours and 22 minutes), the author’s warm, grandfatherly voice fills with all the emotions he describes—the outrage of the assault, the tenderness of his marriage, the wonder inspired by several unusual coincidences. Readers who count Rushdie among the greatest living authors will come away treasuring him as never before.

Brittney Griner’s memoir of her harrowing ordeal in the Russian prison system is a nailbiter, even if we already know how Coming Home (Penguin Random House Audio, 10 hours and 36 minutes) turns out. Griner and co-writer Michelle Burford bring every part of the WNBA baller’s nightmare vividly to life, from the hasty packing that left two nearly empty cannabis vape cartridges in her duffel to the terrors of the prison camp where she spent a Gulag winter in damp clothes and frozen dreadlocks. The deep-voiced Griner—she mentions her voice as one of the many things she’s been bullied for, along with her height, her flat chest, her race, and her sexual orientation—reads the introduction and epilogue herself; professional golfer Andia Winslow does a bravura job with the rest.

If you can’t quite remember who actor Griffin Dunne is, listening to him read The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir (Penguin Random House Audio, 12 hours and 18 minutes) will ensure you never forget. Dunne bookends his memoir with an account of his sister Dominique’s murder and the subsequent trial, balancing that chilling material with the tale of his extraordinary childhood among the glitterati of the 1970s: his aunt and uncle, Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, and everybody from Frank Sinatra to longtime best friend Carrie Fisher. His star-studded, star-crossed saga is a winner.—MARION WINIK

YOUNG READERS

In author David Dorado Romo’s skillful hands, the history of the U.S./Mexico border region is as far from a dry textbook as one can imagine. Borderlands and the Mexican American Story (Listening Library, 6 hours and 32 minutes) is a comprehensive, well-told middle-grade work filled with facts that will come as startling revelations to many and serve as important correctives to false xenophobic narratives.

Narrator Victoria Villarreal has a clear and measured—yet expressive—speaking style that allows listeners to easily absorb the rich content and leaves space for their own emotional responses to what they’re learning.

Kyla Zhao’s May the Best Player Win (Listening Library, 5 hours and 54 minutes) introduces middle-grade readers to May, a seventh grade chess champion whose success is a mixed blessing. The attention she receives for her accomplishments strains her relationship with Ralph, a teammate and former friend; his jealousy emerges in the form of vicious, sexist jabs. The pressure to compete for team captain—and then lead the team to success at Nationals—weighs on her, undermining the joy she once felt while playing. Narrator Annie Q. Riegel’s voice has a sincere, heartfelt quality that perfectly complements both the nail-biting and subtle moments in this coming-of-age tale.

Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay (Listening Library, 6 hours and 42 minutes) is a sweeping intergenerational YA novel that follows the fathers and sons of the Maghabol family, beginning with Filipino immigrant Francisco’s 1929 arrival in the U.S. In 2020, Francisco’s great-grandson, Enzo, is dealing with the spreading Covid-19 pandemic and tensions between his father, Chris, and his Lolo Emil, who’s just moved in. This layered story moves forward and backward in time, and the distinct voices of the ensemble cast of narrators—Ramón de Ocampo, Jesse Inocalla, Manny Jacinto, and JB Tadena—support the robust characterization and help readers follow the interwoven threads.

Angela Shanté’s poetry collection for teens, The Unboxing of a Black Girl (Recorded Books, 1 hour and 17 minutes), is a moving, insightful meditation on Black girlhood through the lens of her own life. In “The Boxes We See,” she writes, “we fold / and bend / shift

and break / to fit into them, // boxes wrapped in religion / in patriarchy / in capitalism / in hate // boxes that help us survive / a jagged-edged world.” The author’s conversational narration adds to the intimacy; listeners will feel guided by a caring older sister.

—LAURA SIMEON

Connie Ogle is a writer in Florida. Marion Winik hosts NPR’s The Weekly Reader podcast. Laura Simeon is a young readers’ editor.

OUR FAVORITE ADAPTATIONS OF 2024

Our book-to-screen correspondent highlights eight favorite movies and shows from the past year.

BY DAVID RAPP

EACH YEAR BRINGS new book-to-screen adaptations, and we make it our mission to highlight the very best film and TV series for our readers. Here are eight favorites from 2024:

Origin (streaming on Hulu)

Ava DuVernay’s compelling film offers a fictionalized retelling of how Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson came to write the 2020 nonfiction book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (a Kirkus Prize finalist). The great Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor plays Wilkerson, who grapples with her grief over the sudden loss of her husband (brilliantly played by Jon Bernthal) while traveling the world to interview people, including Indian scholar and activist Suraj Yengde, who tells Wilkerson of the oppression of the Dalit caste, and a white man who recalls when a young Black boy, Al Bright, was banned by a white lifeguard in 1951 from swimming with his Little League teammates. DuVernay expertly weaves together the personal and political in a moving and often breathtaking adaptation that explores how ingrained,

complex systems of social hierarchy throughout history have resulted in horrific injustices.

Shōgun (streaming on Hulu)

The first season of this sweeping series adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 novel of 17th-century Japan won a record 14 Emmy Awards, including one for outstanding drama series. The story follows an English ship pilot, John Blackthorne (played by Cosmo Jarvis), who gains the trust of Yoshi Toranaga, a powerful feudal lord who eventually makes the newcomer a high-ranking samurai; Blackthorne also grows close to Toda Mariko, Toranaga’s vassal and translator. Although Blackthorne initially appears to be the main character, the story quickly reveals itself to be a far more ambitious ensemble drama about power struggles and culture clashes. The scope of the series’ first season is impressive; very few shows feature quietly poetic composition, bloodand-guts cannon-fire destruction, canny political maneuvering, and an earthquake. However, the riveting performances are this season’s biggest draw—particularly those by Emmy winners Anna Sawai as the fiercely loyal Mariko and Hiroyuki Sanada as the brilliant Toranaga.

3 Body Problem (streaming on Netflix)

Cixin Liu’s Kirkus-starred Remembrance of Earth’s Past SF trilogy inspired this streaming series, created by Game of Thrones’ David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, along with The Terror’s Alexander Woo. Both the books and the show, which center on a very unusual alien invasion, begin in 1960s China, where young physicist Ye Wenjie is assigned to a secret government facility trying to detect extraterrestrial signals; her actions there have unimaginable consequences and connect to the strange deaths of several scientists decades later. The series expands and diversifies the cast of characters who investigate the deepening mystery, which eventually involves clandestine organizations, weaponized nanofibers, and 11-dimensional technology. At its best, the show is a compelling puzzle-box that recalls such classic fare as Lost, and the performances of Zine Tseng and Star

Niecy Nash-Betts and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in Origin

Hiroyuki Sanada in Shōgun

Zine Tseng in 3 Body Problem

Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Rosalind Chao, as the younger and older versions of Ye Wenjie, are standouts.

Young

Woman and the Sea (streaming on Disney+)

In 1926, 20-year-old American swimmer Trudy Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel. Her time was the fastest ever—a record that stood for 24 years. This film adaptation of Glenn Stout’s 2009 biography of Ederle is a rousing tribute to a remarkable, now-forgotten athlete who set her first world record in swimming at age 12 and won three Olympic medals in her teens. It stars Daisy Ridley, who absolutely commands the screen in the lead role, and delivers a visual spectacle, especially during the final channel crossing, thanks to the fine work of director Joachim Rønning, cinematographer Oscar Faura, and production designer Nora Takacs Ekberg. Some viewers may take issue with how the film streamlines some events for dramatic effect, but it won’t keep them from being swept up in the excitement of Ederle’s amazing achievements.

Bad Monkey (streaming on Apple TV+)

This charming streaming series adapts Carl Hiaasen’s 2013 comic thriller, which centers on Andrew Yancy, a snarky Florida cop on suspension who becomes embroiled in a complex investigation into the origins of a severed arm found off Key West, which, oddly enough, has a raised middle finger. The lively cast of characters includes the titular monkey, who allegedly had a Hollywood career. This streaming series, created by Ted Lasso’s Bill Lawrence, is clever and sharp, largely due to the presence of Vince Vaughn, whose

deadpan delivery fits Yancy perfectly. That’s not to take away from the talented and appealing supporting cast, which includes the delightful Natalie Martinez as thrill-seeking medical examiner Rosa Campesino, Meredith Hagner as ridiculously amoral criminal Eve Stripling, and Jodie Turner-Smith as the Dragon Queen, a possible sorceress who yearns for an ordinary life.

Salem’s Lot (streaming on Max)

Stephen King’s 1975 novel, about vampires invading a small town in Maine, is a leisurely affair that takes more than 200 pages to kick into gear. This new movie version, however, is built for speed. It’s written and directed by Gary Dauberman (who co-wrote It and It Chapter Two); he wisely deletes unnecessary subplots and side characters to give viewers the action-oriented fang fiction they crave. It centers the 1970s action on a small cast of reluctant vampire-hunters, including Ben Mears, a successful author (affably played by Lessons in Chemistry’s Lewis Pullman); Susan Norton, an assistant at a local real-estate office (a charming Makenzie Leigh); teacher Matt Burke (The Kitchen’s Bill Camp); and skeptical Dr. Cody (Alfre Woodard, who’s clearly having fun). Horror fans will especially enjoy the film’s wild final scenes, set at a drive-in.

Small Things Like These

(in theaters)

Claire Keegan’s short, Kirkus-starred 2021 novel tells the affecting story of Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant in the town of New Ross, Ireland, who

discovers that the local convent’s “training school” for girls may, in fact, be a place of cruelty and abuse. However, his wife and an acquaintance urge him not to get involved; at the same time, he struggles with his own past as the son of a single mother who never told him who his father was. He eventually comes to a decision that will change many lives. True to its title, the book tells a small, quiet story, and so does this film, which stars Oscar winner Cillian Murphy as Bill and a chilling Emily Watson as the convent’s mother superior; both deliver nuanced performances that command viewers’ attention and stay with you long after the final scene.

Nickel Boys (in theaters)

Colson Whitehead’s Kirkus Prize–winning 2019 novel, about the experiences of two Black teenagers in a horrific juvenile reformatory, provides the inspiration for this brilliant film adaptation by Oscar-nominated director and co-writer RaMell Ross. Elwood Curtis is a law-abiding teen who’s sentenced to Florida’s Nickel Academy after unwittingly accepting a ride in a stolen car; he befriends an inmate named Turner, who gives him advice for survival in a place where racist, corrupt, and abusive staffers sometimes take defiant kids “out back,” never to be seen again. Ross’ compelling film is mostly told from first-person perspectives—that is, viewers see the action through the eyes of Elwood (wonderfully played by Ethan Cole Sharp) or Turner (The Way Back’s Brandon Wilson). It makes for a stunningly immersive viewing experience, especially when Ross dwells on moments of quiet contentment, as when young Elwood silently watches his housekeeper grandmother work (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, once again great). It’s truly a must-see.

David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.

Vince Vaughn in Bad Monkey

Cillian Murphy and Zara Devlin in Small Things Like These

A scene from Salem’s Lot

OUR FAVORITE BOOK NEWS OF 2024

These unexpected stories had book lovers laughing, crying, cheering, or just scratching their heads. BY

ONE MORE YEAR in the books, one more year full of books. We can all agree that 2024 was a weird year for pretty much everything, and the literary world was no exception. The year started with an author backing down after angering Taylor Swift fans (not very mindful, not very demure) and continued with a Harry Potter actor dissing the boy wizard’s adult fans. There was also a remarkable literary own-goal by a former rising star in politics, a beloved retail chain deciding books were getting in the way of chicken bakes, and James Patterson (once again) teaming up with a celebrity. Here’s a look back at 10 of our favorite book stories of 2024.

Jan. 2: “We write to expose the unexposed,” Anne Lamott proclaimed in her bestselling book Bird by Bird. “If there is one door in the castle you

MICHAEL SCHAUB

have been told not to go through, you must.” Just before the new year, Lamott saw a door labeled “Mild Taylor Swift Criticism” and came at it with an axe, writing in a sincedeleted post on the social platform X that she hoped she’d hear less about the singer-songwriter in 2024. Swift’s fanbase, which—we’ve got to be careful here—have been described as rather intense, reacted angrily, and Lamott was forced to issue an apology.

Jan. 4: X users (let’s all admit this was an unfortunate name change) were delighted with a post from Vox journalist Andrew Prokop, which highlighted a passage from former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s 2012 memoir. In Can’t Is Not an Option, Haley wrote that she had renamed her husband “Michael,” tossing away his first name, “Bill.” Apparently, “no”

was not an option for Michael, who acquiesced to the change.

March 5: Book banners: Sashay away. Drag queen, reality show host, and forever queen of the runway RuPaul was none too pleased to hear about book bans across the country, so he commissioned a rainbow bus, designed by queer artists India Torrez and Paco May, to travel to cities including San Antonio; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Atlanta, bringing banned books to readers. The message: If you want to stand up for the freedom to read, you better work.

March 18: Miriam Margolyes was beloved by Harry Potter fans for her role as herbology professor Pomona Sprout in the films based on J.K. Rowling’s children’s books. That goodwill didn’t last, though, after she told a New Zealand network, “I worry

RuPaul

From left: Taylor Swift, Nikki Haley, Miriam Margolyes, and Kristi Noem

about Harry Potter fans, because they should be over that by now. It was 25 years ago, and it’s for children.… [I]f your balls have dropped, then it’s time to forget about it. You know, go on to other things.” It sure looks like someone has moved from Hufflepuff to Slytherin.

May 9: It’s a doggone shame. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem canceled two media appearances she had planned to promote her memoir, No Going Back, after it was reported that Noem bragged in the book about killing her family’s puppy, Cricket, whom she called “less than worthless”—a totally normal thing to say about a 14-monthold wirehaired pointer. Controversy over the incident may have cost Noem the Republican vice presidential nomination, which eventually went to Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who has never admitted to killing a dog but has probably been seen laughing and taking notes while perusing Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale

June 7: It’s a weekend tradition like none other: getting the whole family together for a trip to Costco, and loading your cart with socks, fresh produce, a 52-pound bag of frozen chicken tenders, and the collected works of Romanian novelist Mircea Cărtărescu. But the kings of Kirkland just had to take that away. According to the New York Times, the warehouse club retailer decided that it would stop selling books year-round, only offering them during the holiday season. There has been no word yet on reaction from viral stars the Costco Guys, although rumors suggest that Big Justice responded to the move with a wistful Proust quote, “The places that we have known belong now only to the little world of space on which we map them for our own convenience. BOOM!

WE BRING THE BOOM!!!”

June 25: “Ban this book,” said author Alan Gratz. “Don’t mind if we do!” said a Florida school board.

Gratz’s middle-grade novel Ban This Book, which follows a fourth grade student who rebels against book banning by opening a samizdat-style lending library in her locker, was banned by the Indian River County School Board, after board members accused the book of “teaching rebellion of school board authority.” A frustrated Gratz said, “They banned the book because it talks about the books that they have banned and because it talks about book banning.” On the plus side, teachers in the district will now have a much easier time explaining the concept of irony to their students.

July 9: James Patterson is apparently on a lifelong quest to collaborate with every celebrity in the known world. The thriller author, who has co-written books with Bill Clinton and Dolly Parton, announced that he is working on a novel with Viola Davis, the EGOT-winning star of Doubt, Fences, and How To Get Away With Murder. The book is scheduled for publication in 2025 or 2026, which still gives Patterson time to publish 27 other novels in the interim. It also raises the question of who Patterson’s next collaborator will be. Perhaps someone with Gen Z appeal, like a TikTok influencer who you have never heard of but is famous for lip-syncing to Chappell Roan songs while drinking out of a 256-ounce Stanley cup.

Aug. 7: Can we just take a moment to recognize that there are still good things in this world? A reminder came over the summer, when Grand Central

Publishing announced that it had acquired a memoir from Liza Minnelli, which it said will reveal “the raw and triumphant experiences that have solidified her status as one of the most compelling performers ever in entertainment history.” The book, which doesn’t yet have a title, is scheduled for publication in 2026. Start spreading the news! (And don’t call her Lisa.)

Oct. 28: In late September, Bob Dylan, the legendary singersongwriter and the only Victoria’s Secret pitchman to win a Nobel Prize in Literature, apparently discovered that he had an account on the social platform X, and started posting there himself. His posts have been what you would expect, which is to say, delightfully random; in one, he gives his enthusiastic recommendation for New Orleans restaurant Dooky Chase. (He’s right. Get the court bouillon.) But the publishing world took notice when Dylan revealed that while on tour, he had stumbled like a rolling stone into the Frankfurt Book Fair— the largest one in the world—and unsuccessfully searched for Crystal Lake Publishing, the press that published an edition of Arthur Machen’s classic horror novella The Great God Pan, a book Dylan loves. Sadly, Bob and the press didn’t connect. (Should he be reading this, though, we’d like to let him know he’s welcome at the Kirkus offices anytime. Donuts and coffee from Dunkin’ are on us.)

Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.

From left: James Patterson, LIza Minelli, and Bob Dylan

SHORT STORIES FOR BUSY TIMES

DECEMBER IS SUCH a busy month that, for many people, it’s hard to find time to read. May I suggest short stories? You can fit one in whenever there’s a gap in your schedule, and you won’t be lost if you can’t pick the book up again for a while. Here’s a roundup of some of the year’s best collections—they all make great gifts, too, either for yourself or your loved ones.

Your Utopia by Bora Chung (trans. by Anton Hur; Algonquin, Jan. 30): South Korean author Chung made a splash when Cursed Bunny, her first collection to be translated into English, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. Don’t be fooled by the title

of her new book: Your utopia is far from assured. Using science fiction elements, Chung explores the ills of our own world. Our starred review says that “the imagined worlds here may not be utopian—but the reading experience is.”

Weird Black Girls by Elwin Cotman (Scribner, April 16): Another fantastical collection, Cotman’s book is “splendidly strange,” according to our starred review. There may be a Black witch roaming the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in one story; in another, a man is transported back in time, finding himself inhabiting his lover’s body while he’s taking an acting class with the star of

Dragonslayer. Our review calls the book “sharp, poignant, funny, and, above all, filled with the joy of invention—a must-read.”

Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane Oliver (Grove, Feb. 13): When Oliver died in 1966 at age 22, she had published only four stories; this book is the first time they’ve been collected, along with two posthumously published works and a few that have never been published before. The book “testifies both to her immense raw talent as a young writer and to the major figure she might have become,” according to our starred review. “Her stories deal with the everyday lives of Black families of all classes as they contend with issues such as segregation, poverty, and prejudice and their own hopes for the future.”

The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck (Viking, July 9): In his first work of fiction, Shattuck has created an ingenious structure: Each of the stories is linked to another, forming a thematically unified pair that deepens our understanding of both. Set in New England, the stories range from the 18th century to the present and concern art, music, history, nature, friendship, and love.

“Intricately structured, powerfully emotional, beautifully written: This is as good as short fiction gets,” according to our starred review.

Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte (Morrow/ HarperCollins, Sept. 17): The stories in this linked collection all deal with rejection, mostly of the sexual and romantic kind. “Tulathimutte is unafraid to write the most disturbing, disgusting, and delightfully deranged things,” says our starred review. “Each time you think the characters have hit rock bottom, they pull out a shovel and start digging more.…Their need for approval, acceptance, relevancy, and even chaos is so intense that it can feel nauseating at times.”

Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor.

LAURIE MUCHNICK

Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson

EDITOR’S PICK

A grim dystopia, Texas-style.

The town of Three Rivers, Texas, has seen better days. “The streets and walls of the derelict buildings seemed chewed by the rats of time and stank like their own brand of rotting cheese,” Flores writes, with characters stepping over “empty tin cans, squashed cigarette butts, used condoms, half-burned Bibles, and placentas of partly digested food.” The year is 2038, and Three Rivers is being run by a corrupt mayor, Pablo Henry Crick, who distributes book shredders to local youths to enforce the city’s book ban. One of Crick’s many haters is Neftalí, who is losing her family home; she spends

time with her former bandmate, Proserpina, wandering around the ruins of the city and the grounds of the town’s main employer, the Big Tex Fish Cannery, where most mothers are required by law to work. Neftalí, Proserpina, and their friend Alexei are determined to change the town; as Alexei says, “We’re gonna take over one street, one neighborhood, one city at a time, until they’re forced to hand us our own part of the state, our own country.”

Meanwhile, Neftalí holds tight to her copy of a book by her favorite author, Jazzmin Monelle Rivas, who, it is later revealed, has her own connection to Three Rivers. Flores takes

Brother Brontë

Flores, Fernando A. | MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 352 pp. | $28.00 Feb. 11, 2025 | 9780374604165

the novel in unexpected directions, introducing a mysterious group of triplets and a Bengal tiger named Mama. His prose is evocative, electric, and wildly original; he describes one character as “a heavymetal D’Artagnan or a central Texan Kaspar

Hauser, surviving on energy drinks and power chords alone.” This is a wild ride of a novel, and a fascinating look at a future that, sadly, seems frighteningly plausible.

A stunning tale of survival and a biting critique of book bans and late capitalism.

The Fake Muse

Besora, Max | Trans. by Mara Faye Lethem | Open Letter (176 pp.) | $16.95 paper | Feb. 18, 2025 | 9781960385338

A postmodern romp by Catalan writer Besora. Most characters in Besora’s latest, rendered in staccato bursts of language and emoji-like symbols, introduce themselves by their astrological signs, as with the first speaker, 17-year-old Amanda Jane Holofernes: “my zodiac sign is scorpio aka brave but sometimes violent my favorite color is red and i like romance novels because that’s as close as i’ll get to real love but at the same time it’s all really dark.” The biblical name Holofernes might alert the reader that something violent this way comes, with Amanda morphing into Mandyjane Deathlove to exact vengeance for her father’s sexual abuse. Another character has an untoward attraction to a hamster with intellectual superpowers, evidenced by its writing “a rigorous study on the false truths of humankind designed to emancipate all rodents and animals in general from human servitude.” Papa Holofernes is full of excuses for his bad behavior, while his 48-year-old Taurus wife is a font of rationalizations; not much help when an Exterminating Angel—shades of Buñuel—is afoot. Besora’s slip of a story is replete with a talking dog that knows Catalan better than do teenage humans and old-school linguistic chauvinists bent on keeping Catalan, and presumably Catalonia, pure (“if we neocatalans stop speaking neocatalan to jabber on in that new spanglish how will our beloved language survive huh?”). The grand twist comes when it’s not the rapist father but the author himself who comes under interrogation: Says Amanda accusingly, “You...forced me to be sexually assaulted by my own father, and to become a hysterical and merciless killer, repeating all the clichés of ‘abused-woman-seeksrevenge.’” That meta-referential scenario doesn’t add much to a talky story in

which not much happens, but readers with a bent for Cortázar and Coover might enjoy the proceedings. A slender, elusive story that enfolds other stories, surpassingly strange.

Proper Imposters: Four Novellas

Bhuvaneswar, Chaya, Mauricio Montiel Figueiras, Jason Ockert & Jeff Parker Panhandler Books/Univ. of West Florida (206 pp.) | $24.95 paper | Jan. 28, 2025 9780991640485

Four fiction writers present four pieces that have their length, if nothing else, in common. In Mauricio Montiel Figueiras’ “Crowd,” an accountant commuting to work encounters a demonstration against his dodgy employer, a pencil-manufacturing company. Protesters’ placards read “End the graphite oppression” and “More heat, less writing.” In Jeff Parker’s “G v. P,” Nikolai Gogol and Edgar Allan Poe, each at the end of his life, independently reflect on their friendship; they met when the mortified Gogol was rounding up copies of his poorly reviewed book. In Chaya Bhuvaneswar’s “Lalita”—the only story of the four that cleaves to realism—a Yale sophomore resolves to lose her virginity by seducing Noah, “whom she didn’t love, and who clearly wasn’t all that into her either,” as part of her “plan to set herself free” from her controlling mother. And in Jason Ockert’s “The Body Collector,” a severely overweight man on the brink of death by heart attack makes a deal with the story’s titular devil-like spirit. Ockert’s piece is the anthology’s standout. It nimbly incorporates aspects of mystery, horror, and farce, written with crackerjack precision. The chains on a playground’s vandalized swings are “looped over the metal set’s top pole like jewelry on a lunatic.” Less easy to understand than the four stories’ plotlines is the rationale

for binding these pieces together. Despite the book’s title, there’s no obvious unifier here; each story is tainted by behavior that qualifies as deceptive but to no greater degree than what’s found in a typical work of fiction. Of course, if the idea is simply to bundle together strong novellas by a quartet of published writers, then the book succeeds handily.

Conceptually non-cohesive but largely surreal and collectively strong.

Deep Cuts

Brickley, Holly | Crown (288 pp.)

$28.00 | Feb. 25, 2025 | 9780593799086

Creative partnership or romantic relationship?

Berkeley undergrads who connect over his music and her ideas about it spend eight years agonizing over which is more important.

Brickley’s first novel lovingly evokes the indie scene of the early 21st century—and lots of other pop music as well—while deftly crafting the bumpy emotional journey of her insufferably opinionated, touchingly vulnerable heroine. Narrator Percy Marks clicks with singer/songwriter Joe Morrow from the moment they bond in the fall of 2000, in classic collegiate fashion, over the distinction between “a perfect song” and “a perfect recording.” He appreciates her critiques of his songs, which they both know make them better, and when Joe’s girlfriend, Zoe, tells Percy that she’s gay, Percy moves on her long-simmering attraction to Joe. It’s definitely reciprocated, but Joe tells her he values their work together too much to complicate it. This back and forth goes on while Percy gets an MFA at Columbia and Joe tours and self-releases his first album—“with special thanks” to Percy, who told him she didn’t want co-writing credit. She’s not so sure about that decision four years later, long after she’s told him she

Shying away from villains and heroes, the novel creates sympathy for many people.

THE ANATOMY OF EXILE

can’t work with him anymore, when she finds a song she co-wrote on his second album, with the same evasive “special thanks” credit. Percy now lives in San Francisco, where she writes a music blog in tandem with a vintage early-aughts job as an “intelligence specialist” searching out “trendsetters” for corporate brands looking for street cred. Zoe, now her best friend and roommate, offers a running reality check on Percy’s tortured, ambivalent feelings about Joe and her future career goals as they navigate the years from 9/11 to Barack Obama’s election. Brickley’s sensitive depiction of Percy’s (very) slowly growing professional and personal self-confidence will appeal even to readers who miss most of the pop-culture references and are weary of the “will they/won’t they” plot. A promising debut notable for sharp characterizations and a vividly conveyed sense of time and place.

The Anatomy of Exile

Bukai, Zeeva | Delphinium | $28.00 Jan. 14, 2025 | 9781953002464

Two generations of displacement, loss, and starcrossed love in Tel Aviv, Brooklyn, and Kafr Ma’an, a village that no longer exists. Bukai’s timely debut opens shortly after the Six-Day War in 1967, when Tamar Abadi learns that her sister-in-law, Hadas, has been killed by a gunman outside the house where she grew up in the village of Kafr Ma’an, since then more or less obliterated by the Israeli government. But what was

she doing there? Hadas and her brother—Tamar’s husband, Salim— are Mizrahi Jews originally from Damascus, Syria; they were settled in Kafr Ma’an by the Israeli government on the heels of the mass displacement of the town’s Arab villagers in 1948. At the heart of this book is a tragic romance between an Arab and a Jew who lived in the same house at different times, and that doomed love is the first of several that shape the story. Devastated by the death of his sister, Salim makes the unilateral decision to move his family to the United States. Tamar’s feeling that it will not go well proves well-founded; when the Mahmoudis, a Palestinian family formerly of Jaffa, moves in upstairs, Tamar’s daughter falls in love with their son and all the old chickens come home to roost. The story moves forward to the Yom Kippur War of 1973, when Tamar has the chance to redeem herself for some of the mistakes she has made. Bukai depicts not just the tensions between Arabs and Jews, but also between the Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Jewish communities, and the trouble that continues to roil life in the American so-called melting pot. Shying away from villains and heroes, the novel creates sympathy for a spectrum of individuals trapped by tribalism, land grabs, heartless government actions, and economics.

A book to read right now.

It’s Getting Hot in Here

Costello, Jane | Zibby Books (320 pp.) $17.99 paper | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9798990630451

For more fiction reviews, visit Kirkus online.

A 47-year-old Manchester woman faces a bevy of problems. Professionally, Lisa Darling is a success. She works as an executive at a Netflix-style streaming service, developing new shows for her best friend, Rose Riley, who’s in the scheduling department. Her personal life, though, is messy and out of control. She’s bearing the brunt of parenting her two sons, 10-year-old Jacob and 15-year-old Leo, since her ex-husband is too busy with his cycling club and new girlfriend. She’s overextended herself volunteering for the PTA at Jacob’s school. And between perimenopause and her execrable taste in men, she’s sworn off dating. When Rose takes a leave of absence from work to continue her cancer treatments, Lisa is supportive but also worried about Zach Russo, the Los Angeles–based television executive who’s going to replace her. Zach’s ex-wife is a Manchester native who’s moved back temporarily to care for her ill father, and Zach follows along because he can’t bear to be away from their 4-year-old daughter. Lisa and Zach clash at their first meeting when he puts the brakes on a series that she wants to greenlight. The truly witty banter between these two when they’re sparring is a highlight of the novel. After Zach apologizes for his brusque treatment, he and Lisa begin an amicable friendship which eventually turns romantic. Like Lisa herself, the novel struggles to keep all its plates spinning. Lisa and Zach can never finish a date or romantic interlude without a phone call interrupting them, but it starts to feel like lazy plotting rather than the truly organic evolution of a relationship. Instead, Lisa’s reactions and attempts to parent Leo, who is

experimenting with vaping and drinking, drive most of the plot. The novel wraps up with pat resolutions for every problem, no matter how chronic or complex. Humorous but insubstantial, even though it tackles weighty topics.

Kirkus

Star

The Big Empty

Crais, Robert | Putnam (400 pp.)

$30.00 | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9780525535768

Hired to find the father of celebrity “muffin girl” Traci Beller 10 years after his disappearance, PI Elvis Cole uncovers a nefarious plot that puts his life and those he contacts at risk.

The sweetly likable Traci, now 23, has amassed a huge following with her website, The Baker Next Door, and on social media. Against the advice and self-interest of the people who over-manage her career, she decides to find out what happened to her father. Cole quickly determines that he was last seen at the SurfMutt hamburger stand, where he gave a ride to Anya Given, a troubled 15-year-old whose mother, Sadie, was late in picking her up from the skate park across the street. With the reluctant help of a scattered young woman who used to work at the burger joint, Cole tracks down Anya and Sadie, who is eventually revealed to have a criminal past. For his efforts, he’s jumped by a small gang of men who send him to the hospital with the worst beating of his life. (Asked by a nurse what his name is, the best he can guess is “Los Angeles.”) Still in recovery, Cole and Joe Pike, his ex-Marine partner, trace his attackers to Sadie, with unexpected results. As ever, Crais draws the reader in via his protagonist’s casual, dryly humorous manner and the book’s relaxed ties to classic noir. Slowly but surely, the plot gains intensity and

deadly purpose. Just when you think the missing persons case is solved, Crais ratchets things up with a devastating follow-through. This is the L.A. novelist’s 20th Cole mystery, following such efforts as The Watchman (2007) and Racing the Light (2022). It may be his most powerful. A potent and surprising novel by the ever-reliable Crais.

Kirkus Star

Nobody’s Hero

Craven, M.W. | Flatiron Books (416 pp.)

$29.99 | Dec. 3, 2024 | 9781250864598

Former U.S. Marshal Ben Koenig, now an independent intelligence operative, is out to prevent the dire fate predicted by a newly discovered protocol, but the $5 million bounty on his head adds unwanted...complications.

For most men in his position, the threat of being rubbed out would create fear, but Koenig has a rare genetic syndrome making him incapable of it. He also has no compunctions about killing people, as he demonstrates while making quick work of four armed opponents with a sharpened credit card. Comparisons to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, who gets a shoutout from Koenig, are encouraged. Unlike Reacher, Koenig has a sardonic, quick-witted, wise-guy attitude that cuts through any and all situations. The story gets underway with a double murder and abduction carried out on the streets of London by a mysterious woman who appears to be homeless. Koenig identifies her as the person whose faked death he helped stage a decade ago—and who is now in possession of crucial secrets. Teamed with intelligence operative Jen Draper, who hates his guts, he’s in constant motion, crossing international borders and

dealing variously with corrupt British cops, the colorfully named father-and-daughter hit team of Stillwell Hobbs and Harper Nash, a cold-blooded military contractor, and the Russian crime syndicate that put out a bounty on him for killing the son of one of their bosses. Craven’s second Koenig novel, following Fearless (2023), is a razor-sharp, adrenalized effort with complicated but satisfying twists and turns. In the early going, the book boasts a bit of an experimental edge with its maze-like narrative, leading you to believe the author—fearless himself—has read the work of Italian master Italo Calvino. But the socko ending leaves all such concerns in the dust.

A new kind of espionage thriller with plenty of old-school action and violence.

The Talent

D’Addario, Daniel | Scout Press/ Simon & Schuster (336 pp.) | $28.99 Feb. 25, 2025 | 9781668075470

Five Hollywood actresses wriggle under the microscope of an awards season. This debut novel from longtime Variety correspondent D’Addario opens with the reading of the Best Actress nominees during an awards show, rewinds to take each leading lady through the months of machinations and publicity leading up to that night, then circles back to a weirdly anticlimactic conclusion. To the author’s credit, by then we can pretty easily keep the characters and their movies straight, possibly even better than in real life. Adria Benedict is the queen, already a three-time winner, something like Meryl Streep—though one hopes Meryl is more likable and less rigidly focused on her grand career. Her longtime rival, at least according to the media, is Jenny Van Meer, whose

parallel career has gone conspicuously unawarded. Three younger actresses—a child star (comes with a momager), a smart British lesbian, and a beautiful drunk—complete the roster, and we keep track of a few also-rans, too, including a Black woman blocked by industry racism. There are photo shoots, magazine interviews, spin classes, meet-andgreets, and a lesser awards show, and all of it seems credible enough, if oddly unexciting, with each set-up for fireworks fizzling, sometimes offstage. Where are the scandals? The wardrobe failures? The paparazzi drama? D’Addario’s objective seems to be to convince us that snakes in a barrel are people too, and perhaps that’s not really the most fun that could have been had with these well-developed characters and premises. Some of the highlights of the book are the faux online columns and magazine articles slipped in along the way—perfectly snarky in their send-up of celebrity journalism. Elsewhere, earnestness prevails. Apparently, it’s lonely at the top. Long on authenticity and sympathetic portrayals, a little short on pizzazz.

Kirkus

Theory & Practice

de Kretser, Michelle | Catapult (192 pp.)

$25.00 | Feb. 18, 2025 | 9781646222872

An Australian graduate student is torn between a life of the mind and the difficult realities of living as an immigrant and a woman in 1980s Melbourne.

The narrator of de Kretser’s seventh novel arrives as a master’s degree student in Melbourne to write a thesis on the late novels of Virginia Woolf. It’s 1986 and Big Theory is king at universities across the globe. The narrator’s advisor, a feminist scholar, gives her a reading list rampant with Derrida and

A ferociously intelligent novel from a writer at her peak.

THEORY & PRACTICE

Foucault and sets her to work. Ideas aren’t the only things weaving their tentacles through the narrator’s life. She embarks on a fraught love affair with Kit, an engineering student who is decidedly not single, though she sometimes wonders if her silent rivalry with Kit’s girlfriend, Olivia, is at the root of her obsession. (In bed with Kit, she thinks, “Olivia and I were exchanging messages about possession and power. Kit was only the paper on which we were writing to each other.”) The narrator also exists in an uneasy limbo with her mother, her only living parent, who remains back home in Sydney, having emigrated from Sri Lanka with the narrator and her late father in the early 1970s. And then there’s the “Woolfmother” herself, hanging in poster form on the narrator’s walls, and with whom the narrator’s relationship is permanently altered upon reading a racist passage in Woolf’s diaries during her research. The narrator’s strained relationships with these women cause her shame, complicating her sense of what feminism should be. This restless, searching novel asks: Can any theory ever encompass the messy complexity of human emotion? De Kretser continues to shapeshift formally with each novel, but offers her characteristic blend of moral clarity, bite, and sumptuous style.

A ferociously intelligent novel from a writer at the height of her powers.

The Seven

Robyn | Thomas & Mercer (368 pp.) $16.99 paper | Jan. 1, 2025 | 9781662521935

Delvey—better known for books written under her real name, Michelle Davies— plops a London solicitor into the world’s most boring and thankless job and then piles on the complications and the peril.

Fifteen months after cult leader Patrick Nye ended his group’s hostage-taking at a theatrical gala by detonating bombs that killed 43 people, the case is ready to go to trial—with one hitch. John Horner, a senior advocate to the Crown Prosecution Service, needs someone to comb through the material that’s been excluded from the mountain of evidence to be presented in court to make sure that none of it is relevant, potentially complicating or weakening the case and risking its dismissal. The task falls to Eve Wren, who’s been working for the CPS since getting canned from a Shropshire law firm when the senior colleague she blew the whistle on blamed her for his mistakes. So, this time, Eve has every motive to be extra careful. If only that were equally true of DCS Seth Strutton, the senior investigating officer, and DS Gary Lees, the officer in charge. In the absence of their firm support, Eve soldiers on, sifting through box after box of potential evidence, unaware that a series of flashbacks to the fatal event are providing more and more information that would be incredibly useful to her.

Delvey,

Star

For more by Michelle de Kretser, visit Kirkus online.

At length she discovers a burner phone that can’t be accounted for by any tallies of the phones used by the group or their victims, and the messages on that phone, which originally sound pretty bland, turn out to be damning. It’s right around then that Eve’s troubles begin to intensify to a boiling point. If the final revelation is anticlimactic, that’s only because the buildup has been relentless.

Call Her Freedom

Dorabji, Tara | Simon & Schuster (320 pp.)

$28.99 | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9781668051658

The human costs of factionalism and occupation haunt a family through several generations in this debut novel. Inspired by the stories of people from the embattled region of Kashmir, Dorabji traces one family’s struggles from the 1970s through the near future of 2030. Aisha first appears as a young, socially isolated child living in the small mountain village of Poshkarbal with her mother, Noorjahan, a midwife. They live alone, and Noorjahan instructs Aisha in some of her traditional practices, but the girl lives under a cloud of uncertainty and silence concerning the circumstances of a long-ago fire at the family’s home and the whereabouts of her father, who has “left.” Noorjahan insists that Aisha attend a local, government-run school, despite the child’s great fears and the fact that few girls go to school. Over the years, Aisha develops into the star pupil of her class while also developing an awareness of the dangers presented to her by occupying forces—and the males within her own community. As members of Aisha’s family grapple with the realities of life under occupation and Aisha herself advances from childhood into marriage, motherhood, and greater knowledge of her family’s history, she is surrounded by points of decision: What is the value of education for women in a traditional

society? In the face of increasing military activity, when is leaving your homeland the right decision? When is it best to abandon a long-held family enterprise in the covert cultivation of poppies? What right does one have to self-determination (or even happiness) amid terrible social and political upheaval? The true horrors of the region’s occupation are revealed in graphic accounts of torture and sexual assault experienced by Aisha and her kin as they bear the unbearable.

A compassionate account of endurance.

Fagin the Thief

Epstein, Allison | Doubleday (336 pp.)

$28.00 | Feb. 25, 2025 | 9780385550703

A Dickensian world revisited. Historical fiction writer Epstein rescues Dickens’ Fagin from his reputation as a slimy character who exploits orphans, training them in thievery in the clotted, filthy streets of Victorian London. Epstein’s Jacob Fagin is a lonely, emotionally wounded man; a master pickpocket to be sure, but also a victim of virulent antisemitism from all classes of English society, which treats the “skinny red-haired Jew” as vermin. Growing up in poverty in a Jewish enclave with a vigilant, caring mother, he takes Hebrew lessons with a neighborhood rabbi in the mornings, and, by the time he’s 11, wheedles his way into becoming the apprentice to a deft, gaudy pickpocket. It’s a skill, he realizes, “he must learn by doing,” and soon practice perfects his sleight of hand. He’s 16 when his mother dies, succumbing to whatever pestilence has swept through their mean streets— cholera, typhus, consumption, scarlet fever, influenza—and he’s left homeless. Epstein traces his fortunes and misfortunes as he manages to survive, settling into an abandoned building that becomes a refuge for orphans and

runaways who want to learn his trade: Jack Dawkins, known as the Artful Dodger; Toby Crackit; Charley Bates; briefly, Oliver Twist; and the incorrigible Bill Sikes, who’s fled an abusive, alcoholic father. Sikes graduates from pickpocket to housebreaker, from a swaggering boy to a violent man so filled with anger that Jacob comes to fear for his life. Epstein captures the bravado and vulnerabilities of Jacob’s motley crew of orphans, and the gritty ambience of the alleys, cellars, and seedy pubs they inhabit. She brings to her portrait of Fagin—and even Sikes—a tenderness and empathy that renders them as palpable: men, haunted by loss, longing to be loved.

Vivid characters populate a riveting narrative.

The Business Trip

Garcia, Jessie | St. Martin’s (352 pp.) $29.00 | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9781250364418

Two women meet on a plane, then disappear. Television journalist Garcia’s first work of fiction is the sort of psychological thriller that stands out in the overworked woman-in-peril genre. Fast-paced and with enough twists to keep even distracted readers engaged, the story involves two very different women who meet on a plane. Stephanie Monroe, a divorced mother with a grown son and busy job as a television producer in Madison, Wisconsin, is on her way to a news conference in San Diego. Jasmine Littleton, who works at a dive bar, has sneaked out of her boyfriend’s trailer in the middle of the night to flee her abusive relationship. The women have nothing in common and no history together, but they board the same flight to Denver. Then they disappear from the book, leaving the narration to friends and co-workers disturbed by increasingly odd and worrisome texts from them. Both women seem to have met a desirable

Kirkus Star

man named Trent McCarthy. “I met an amazing guy,” Stephanie texts the neighbor who’s taking care of her cat. “I met a great guy,” Jasmine texts her friend Anna, who lent her money for the plane ticket. Then the texts stop, and all traces of Stephanie and Jasmine vanish. Other characters weigh in on the disappearances, too, including Stephanie’s angry boss, furious at her not returning to work, and Jasmine’s threatening boyfriend, eager to punish her for leaving. As the mystery unspools, Garcia leans more on action and dialogue than characterization, and more than a few unlikely occurrences are scattered throughout, particularly at the end. But she keeps the reader guessing as long as she can, and even when she’s forced to reveal her hand and return the narrative to the main characters, she maintains enough tension and momentum to invest any curious reader in the outcome. A thriller that will keep you guessing with unexpected plot twists.

More or Less Maddy

Genova, Lisa | Scout Press/ Simon & Schuster (368 pp.) | $28.99 Jan. 14, 2025 | 9781668026168

A diagnosis of bipolar disorder derails a young woman’s college experience.

Maddy Banks has just finished her freshman year at NYU when she has her first episode, seemingly out of nowhere. High school was a breeze, though she allowed her boyfriend to monopolize so much of her time that she graduated

without friends. Then he broke up with her, and she spent the next year grieving instead of partaking in college life. When mania hits, Maddy believes Taylor Swift wants her to write her biography and Netflix wants to give her a comedy special. The lows involve cutting and suicidal acts. For the next year or so, Maddy, her mother, and her older sister try to adjust to a new normal that includes medication, hospital stays, therapy, sobriety, and mood checkins—a two steps forward, one step back dance that trips them up more than it keeps them in sync. Genova has a great grasp of bipolar disorder and how it can manifest in daily life. The story is told from Maddy’s perspective, which provides a firsthand account of manic depression but also limits the book’s possibilities. Maddy grew up in an affluent Connecticut suburb, and she’s the definition of sheltered. The other characters, who might have provided a more rounded picture, have no depth. Maddy’s mother relishes her role as a trophy wife, her stepfather is a rich afterthought, and her older brother and sister are perfect, establishing Maddy as the black sheep of the family. The setup feels stale considering how much mainstream discourse around mental illness has changed in the last decade. Selena Gomez made a whole documentary about bipolar disorder, but Maddy doesn’t even seem to Google it. Genova makes Maddy’s interest in standup comedy a central part of the story, meaning she had to write some funny bits for her character; she clearly studied the subject and deserves kudos for taking the risk, but the novel stays firmly in the territory of after-school specials. This story would serve young adults dealing with mental health issues and anyone who seeks to understand them.

A diagnosis of bipolar disorder derails a young woman’s college experience.

Kirkus Star

A Season of Light

Iromuanya, Julie | Algonquin (256 pp.)

$29.00 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781643755519

A Nigerian family living in Florida bears deep, abiding, and distressing scars from a long-ago but devastating civil war in their native land.

The 2014 kidnapping of 276 Nigerian schoolgirls by Islamic terrorists unhinges an already tightly wound Florida attorney named Fidelis Ewerike, a Nigerian émigré and father of two who, upon hearing of the kidnapping, decides to place his 16-year-old daughter, Amara, in her bedroom under lock and key. The mass kidnapping reawakens in Fidelis the traumas he sustained as a soldier and prisoner of war in the late-1960s Biafran War, during which his younger sister, Ugochi, went missing. Amara’s uncanny resemblance to Ugochi magnifies Fidelis’ mad zeal to protect her from faraway peril. (“He believed that if his sister… could be stolen, could disappear into thin air, then the same fate could befall his daughter. Never mind that this was America, not Nigeria.”) This bizarre, inexplicable act pitches each of the other Ewerike family members into their own traumas, starting with the infuriated, bewildered Amara, who gets no explanation from her father for her imprisonment, only lots of sweets and his own elaborately cooked, dubiously fashioned meals. “Pickles don’t belong in mac and cheese,” she dolefully informs her mother, Adaobi, whose futile efforts to release Amara from captivity leave her desperately pursuing solace, even possible solutions, through her deep religious faith. Meanwhile, Amara’s 14-year-old brother, Chuk, is compelled by the tumult at home to stand alone in the face of physical and verbal abuse from other boys in the neighborhood. When a gang jumps him, Chuk is rescued by Maksym Kostyk, the 17-year-old son of an alcoholic local handyman (another

emotionally damaged émigré), who offers to give him boxing lessons. Maksym meets Amara, and they find in each other’s solitude the foundations of a romance—and a mutual resolve to run away from their respective family crises. The interweaving nightmares and yearnings of these characters are evoked with empathy, tenderness, and intensely lyrical prose by Iromuanya, whose tale of abiding sorrow and its long-term consequences serves as a reminder that, as one of her characters observes, battles might end, but wars never do. An affecting, observant rendering of the immigrant experience in contemporary America.

Black Woods, Blue Sky

Ivey, Eowyn | Random House (320 pp.) $29.00 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9780593231029

A young Alaskan woman’s lover bears a deep secret. Ivey’s third novel largely concerns Birdie, whose life is badly disordered. She tends bar at a remote lodge in Alaska and is prone to alcohol- and coke-fueled parties with the locals, which leaves her neglectful toward her 6-year-old daughter, Emaleen. She’s attracted to one man, Arthur, who’s kind but a little peculiar: He seems to always speak in the present tense, disappears into the woods for long stretches, and thinks a hunk of tundra is a fine gift. In time, through Arthur’s concerned father, Warren, Birdie learns a little more about what’s made Arthur so distant, even feral. Part dark romance, part outdoorsy adventure tale, this story has traces of the mysticism, folklore, and fairy

tales that informed Ivey’s two previous novels, and at its strongest it immerses the reader deeply in Arthur’s peculiar, bear-like perspective on the world. (When he proclaims to Birdie that “I am loving you,” she muses: “As if love, once it came into existence, radiated backward and forward, encompassing all of time.”) But some of the novel’s parts mesh imperfectly: The nature of Birdie and Arthur’s attraction isn’t well-sold, Emaleen is cloyingly precocious, and Warren’s role in the story feels unfinished. A closing section that moves the action years into the future stresses some of the lessons that the Birdie-Arthur romance is meant to exemplify: That love is healing as well as risky, attraction is often inexplicable, and we’re more resilient than we often think. Credit Ivey for freshening up those themes—like Margaret Atwood, she’s gifted at writing about nature in off-kilter but not surrealistic ways—but the book’s overall structure is a bit creaky. A respectable if imperfect attempt to explore the line between human and animal nature.

Kirkus Star

Dead Money

Kerr, Jakob | Bantam (416 pp.) | $30.00 Jan. 28, 2025 | 9780593726709

Tech insider Kerr’s twisty, propulsive debut explores Silicon Valley’s dark side through the eyes of a wily outsider heroine. A few weeks after Trevor Canon, the founder and CEO of one of tech’s hottest startups, Journy (think Uber or Lyft),

A sharply observed portrait of the tech world and the role of ambitious women.

MONEY

was shot to death in his San Francisco office, Mackenzie Clyde, a lawyer-turnedinvestigator for venture capitalist Roger Hammersmith, is ordered by her boss to join the FBI probe as an adviser. At stake is the $5 billion that Roger’s firm had invested in Journy, now frozen because of a “dead money” provision that Trevor added to his will shortly before his killing. His assets can only be released when someone is tried for his murder. Teaming up with FBI agent Jameson Danner and Journy’s liaison to the investigation, COO Eleanor Eden (whose high-flying career resembles Sheryl Sandberg’s), Mackenzie embarks on a suspenseful hunt for an elusive killer that ends in an explosive climax at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. Alternating chapters reveal key events from Mackenzie’s past that have shaped her life. This surprising nesting doll of a thriller, in which no one is who they appear to be, layers one story inside another within another. Despite his sometimes-clunky writing (the characters “smirk” at least 24 times), Kerr has created one of the most memorable female thriller protagonists in recent years. Striking not only because of her unusually tall height, the independent Mackenzie is determined to control her destiny in a male-dominated industry. A sharply observed portrait of the tech world and the role ambitious women play in it.

Supersonic

Kohnstamm, Thomas | Counterpoint (400 pp.) $30.00 | Feb. 25, 2025 | 9781640096813

Three generations of Seattle women navigate bigotry, politics, and scheming men. Kohnstamm’s second novel opens with a setup that at first seems too thin to carry even a short story: In 2014, Sami Hasegawa-Stalworth has volunteered to run her children’s elementary school PTA in hopes of renaming the school after her grandmother, Masako Hasegawa, a victim of

Japanese American internment and a longtime music teacher there. But that small effort turns out to unlock a host of complications. It evokes the history of the school’s original namesake, an East Coast settler who scammed the native tribes in the 1850s. It implicates an effort by another local, Bruce Jorgensen, to convert a nearby property into a pot dispensary—if only he can game the license-lottery system in his favor. It harks back to Sami’s mother, Ruth Hasegawa, who endured Masako’s strict upbringing in the 1970s even while pursuing a romance with Larry Dugdale, a ne’er-do-well who’s pinned his future on a local aerospace company’s plan to manufacture a fleet of supersonic passenger jets. And naturally, it goes all the way back to Masako herself, a passionate music teacher. Bouncing from the middle of the 19th century to the present day, Kohnstamm capably occupies the dynamic of characters in multiple eras while spotlighting commonalities—most prominently the complex (sometimes bigoted) bureaucracies of the city, and the stumblebum manner of men and get-rich-quick ideas. But Kohnstamm seems to be shooting for an epic scope that the novel never quite achieves, as it’s generally stuck in the middle gear of chronicling sputtering relationships. That means some late-breaking dramas involving marriage, mental illness, and an attempted plane hijacking feel less persuasive. As a series of individual domestic dramas, it has liveliness and ironic humor. But its parts are less than its whole.

A family saga whose execution doesn’t quite match its ambition.

What Happened to the Mccrays?

Lange, Tracey | Celadon Books (352 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9781250328434

seemed like storybook material. They began as childhood friends in Potsdam, New York, moved on to a teenage romance, and married young. For 21 years, they saw themselves as a solid team. But as this novel opens, they’re on opposite ends of the country—Kyle has fled all the way to Spokane, where he’s working as a mechanic—and scarred by a bitter divorce two years earlier. When Kyle learns that his father, Danny, a retired firefighter, has suffered a stroke, he reluctantly goes home to help care for him. Kyle knows he can’t avoid seeing Casey—she’s Danny’s neighbor and main caretaker. At first the two keep their distance, but soon, Casey, a middle school teacher who helps run the hockey team, turns to Kyle for help coaching the kids. He was a high school hockey star, and the game was always a bond in their relationship. Even more than the present tension between them, the plot is driven by the slow, skillful revelation of what shattered their marriage in the first place. Unfortunately, the story gets bogged down in snowbanks of extraneous description—everything from the outfits and hairstyles of minor characters to the color of a dog’s license tag, not to mention an avalanche of middle school hockey minutiae. The novel delves into the limitations of small-town lives set on their tracks early, such as that of Casey’s brother, Wyatt. Seriously injured as a child in the car crash that killed their father, he uses a wheelchair and has forged a career doing custom woodwork. Even though he longs to move to a city, he still lives with his sister, an arrangement that’s held him back more than protected him. The unfolding of Casey and Kyle’s secrets keeps the story interesting, although an anti-feminist subtext that emerges may disturb some readers.

The Lost House

Larsen, Melissa | Minotaur (352 pp.)

$28.00 | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9781250332875

Two divorced people with tragic secrets try to find their way back to each other, with an assist from hockey.

Casey and Kyle McCray’s marriage

Deft plotting is undermined by overdone description in this hockeyheavy domestic drama.

For more by Tracey Lange, visit Kirkus online.

A sleepy Icelandic town provides the setting for two horrific crimes 50 years apart. Obsession prompts Agnes Glin to journey from California, where she’s lived her whole life, to remote Bifröst, Iceland, in response to an offer from passionate true crime podcaster Nora Carver. Agnes’ grandfather, Einar Pálsson, was the chief suspect in one of Iceland’s most notorious unsolved cases, the murder of his wife, Marie Hvass, and their infant daughter, Agnes Einarsdóttir, immortalized in a haunting photograph as the “Frozen Madonna and Child.” This horror has cast a shadow over the Glin family for decades. Because her own near-fatal surfing accident has necessitated a long recovery and led to what Agnes considers a broken existence, Nora’s offer feels like a lifeline, as well as a chance to learn the details of her family’s past and clear her grandfather’s name. Even as Agnes adjusts to this new, utterly alien environment, the little community is rocked by another provocative mystery with echoes of the 1974 murder that branded Einar. Out for a night of heavy drinking with some friends, a local student named Ása vanishes. Nora believes that her disappearance is related to the mystery surrounding Einar. Agnes, initially worried that Nora’s interest in this new case may distract her from the 1974 crime, ends up pulled into the baffling disappearance as well. With its measured pace, psychological depth, and vivid portraits of people and places, Larsen’s atmospheric thriller resembles Nordic noir, though the author is American. The combustible combination of hard-charging Nora and skittish Agnes adds tension in a twisty novel full of surprises.

A haunting whodunit with effective undertones of menace.

EDITORS’ PICKS:

Tales From Cabin 23: Night of the Living Head by Hanna Alkaf (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins)

Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me by Glory Edim (Ballantine)

Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger (Dial Press)

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

Sarita by Natalie Musgrave Dossett

Experience Is the Angled Road by R. Barbara Gitenstein

Awe by Pierre R. Schwob

Being Jewish in 2025 New York City by Bert Murray

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.

Fully Booked

Striking

family secrets inhabit Nayantara Roy’s The Magnificent Ruins BY

MEGAN LABRISE

EPISODE 396: NAYANTARA ROY

On this episode of Fully Booked, Nayantara Roy joins us to discuss The Magnificent Ruins (Algonquin, Nov. 12), a rich, multigenerational family saga set primarily in an exquisite, decrepit Kolkata mansion lately inherited by prodigal daughter Lila De. When Lila arrives from the United States, after many years away, she must take stock of the house, its denizens, and a host of long-kept secrets.

Here’s a bit from our review of The Magnificent Ruins: “Lila De’s life in Brooklyn is a success, but a bereavement that pulls her back to her homeland of India forces her to confront her demons. Twenty-nine-year-old Lila is understandably saddened to hear of her grandfather’s death in India, the country she left at age 16. But she’s also shocked to learn she has inherited his enormous, historic, decaying mansion, still inhabited by generations of the Lahiri family, including her volatile, sometimes toxic mother, Maya, who divorced Lila’s father when she was an infant. Although just promoted to co-editorial director by the new management of her employer, a Manhattan-based publishing house, and involved in a relationship with a writer named Seth, Lila must return to Kolkata for eight weeks to attend the funeral and sort out her inheritance. Back in India, she is quickly swallowed up by family, responsibility, and memories, rediscovering her complex feelings toward Maya.…Then there’s Adil, her teenage love, still irresistible but now married.… While seeming at first a novel about binary choices—New York or Kolkata, work or family, Adil or Seth— over time this book’s core reveals itself to be darker and different…”

Roy is a debut novelist, author of the Rick DeMarinis Prize–winning short story “8C,” a playwright whose work has been performed in India and the U.K., and a television executive at STARZ/Lionsgate, where she oversees the acquisition and

The

Magnificent Ruins Roy, Nayantara Algonquin | 448 pp. | $29.00 Nov. 12, 2024 | 9781643755847

creative development of original scripted television series. Originally from India, she lives in Los Angeles and is currently at work on her second novel, Sisters of a Halved Heart.

In conversation, Roy shares a bit about what the prepublication process has been like for her as a debut novelist. We talk about the beginning of the novel, which focuses on family secrets, and how disclosure has the potential to result in liberation or disaster. We discuss Lila’s life in Brooklyn and Kolkata, her initial response to her inheritance, and her family’s response to her inheritance. We discuss the roles people are asked to assume in a family, how they shape others’ perceptions, and how these roles may change over time. We highlight Lila’s humor. Roy touches on the challenges of balancing her writing life with her executive role in television, the potential for adapting her novel into a series, and much more.

Then editors Mahnaz Dar, John McMurtrie, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week.

Editor-at-large Megan Labrise hosts the Fully Booked podcast.

Bianca Catbagan

To listen to the episode, visit Kirkus online.

Book to Screen

New Carrie Series in the Works at Amazon

Mike Flanagan is developing the adaptation of Stephen King’s first novel.

Stephen King’s first novel is headed to the screen again. Mike Flanagan is developing a series adaptation of

King’s Carrie for Amazon MGM Studios, Variety reports. It will be the filmmaker’s fourth time adapting one of King’s works.

King’s novel, published in 1974 by Doubleday, follows the title character, an unpopular high school student in Maine who takes revenge on her tormentors after she realizes that she has telekinetic powers.

The novel was famously adapted in 1976 as a film directed by Brian De Palma and starring Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie, both of whom earned Oscar nominations for their performances. Two other screen adaptations followed,

one a 2002 television movie directed by David Carson, and the other a 2013 film directed by Kimberly Peirce.

Carrie also formed the basis for a Broadway musical that premiered in 1988 and is considered one of the most notorious flops in recent theater history.

Flanagan has previously directed films based on two of King’s novels, Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep. His film adaptation of King’s novella The Life of Chuck, starring Tom Hiddleston, is scheduled to be released next year.

Variety reports that Flanagan will write and

executive produce the Amazon adaptation of Carrie. There is no word yet on whether he plans to direct the series.

—MICHAEL SCHAUB

For a review of Carrie, visit Kirkus online.

Sissy Spacek in the 1976 film

A leading Australian writer looks back at his work.

BARLEY PATCH

Her Prodigal Husband

Masterman, Becky | Severn House (288 pp.) $29.99 | Jan. 7, 2025 | 9781448311989

Ten years after he left her, Liesl Einstein’s husband is back in the picture. But exactly what sort of picture is it? The marriage between Liesl and Samson Kinsey was never idyllic, overshadowed as it was by both something that happened to Liesl when she was 13—an infant she was babysitting succumbed to sudden infant death syndrome while she was doing her math homework—and Sam’s earlier romance with her older sister, Alice, our narrator, a novelist whose recent books have been met with limited success. So, it was no great surprise when Sam dumped a significant fraction of his trust fund on Liesl and left. But why has he returned? Maybe it’s because he’s suffering from myositis and needs special care. Maybe his wanderings in the decade he’s been on his own have persuaded him that he can’t do better than Liesl. Or maybe he just wants an excuse to rekindle his relationship with Alice, who tells him in no uncertain terms that she wishes he’d leave and die and wonders whether Brigid Quinn, an FBI agent turned private investigator with her own fraught backstory, might turn up any dirt on Sam that would force his hand. In the meantime, Liesl’s political activism leads her to invite Salvadoran asylum seeker Marisol Gutierrez and her son, Juan, into a household that suddenly includes Sam, and Alice starts to spin pitches for a new novel tentatively titled Her Prodigal Husband based on her untenable family situation. Masterman takes her time weaving together all these threads, but Alice is such an engaging and

self-deprecating narrator that she makes even the doldrums entertaining. A high-IQ, low-key domestic thriller with more than a touch of the metafictional.

Kirkus Star

We All Live Here

Moyes, Jojo | Pamela Dorman/ Viking (464 pp.) | $30.00 Feb. 11, 2025 | 9781984879325

A recently divorced writer juggles a chaotic full house, a struggling career, and a confusing romantic life.

Lila Kennedy thought she had the perfect family—a loving mother, a doting stepfather, two wonderful daughters, and a great husband. She even wrote a self-help book about repairing a marriage, which was published a mere two weeks before her husband left her. After her own mother’s sudden death, Lila finds herself an unexpected single mom with her health-nut stepfather, Bill, for a roommate. When her long-absent actor father, Gene, moves in, things go from crowded to chaotic. When Gene isn’t talking about his memories of starring on a Star Trek –like television show, he’s starting fights with Bill. Perhaps the worst part is that Lila’s supposed to produce a new book about the unexpected direction her life has taken. She quickly finds that writing about her real-life romantic exploits (including the kind gardener Bill hired and the sexy single dad she lusts after at school pick-up) and the actual heartbreak that upended her family is easier said than done. Moyes creates a world that is believable and funny. It’s hilarious to read about the distinct characters in Lila’s life—such as her lentil-loving stepfather

and egocentric biological father—interacting with each other. There’s plenty of drama here, but none of it feels forced. It all comes from flawed people doing their best to coexist and making plenty of mistakes along the way. Moyes combines the warmth of an Annabel Monaghan rom-com with the humanity of a Catherine Newman novel, creating a story that will provoke tears and laughter. A moving, realistic look at one woman’s post-divorce family life that manages to be both poignant and funny.

Barley Patch

Murnane, Gerald | And Other Stories (272 pp.) | $19.95 paper | Feb. 4, 2025 9781916751149

One of Australia’s leading writers looks at the unusual building blocks of his work.

This is a reissue of a book first released in 2009, and noteworthy, among other reasons, because it ended a hiatus of more than a decade in which Murnane “gave up writing fiction.” As the narrator of this “fiction”—he avoids the terms “novel” and “story”—explains, instead of writing, he would concern himself with pondering images, characters, landscapes, and feelings from his previous reading and writing that made a lasting impression. He might also “write intricate sentences made up of items other than words.” Fortunately, only words are used in this book, a strange kind of writer’s manifesto that tries to convey how the mind of this Australian fictionist works, or at least the mind of the narrator—a distinction Murnane struggles to maintain given the narrative’s many autobiographical details. The early pages deal at length with the lasting impressions he absorbed from reading Brat Farrar, one of the better works by an exceptional mystery writer named Josephine Tey. A similar discussion concerns impressive images from the comic strip Mandrake the Magician. Eventually, certain themes or motifs emerge that appear frequently in other

Murnane works, such as colored glass in doors or windows, jockeys’ racing colors, horse racing in general, and the monthly illustrations of a wall calendar. Some images almost become mantras with their frequent repetition, such as a house with two storeys and a “grassy countryside” (each appears more than 40 times). There are compelling ideas here about the creative process, but the average reader may find it difficult to appreciate them amid the repetition, the painstaking diction, and the bemusing eccentricities of Murnane’s prose. A peculiar kind of reluctant self-revelation that is both intriguing and frustrating.

Notes on Surviving the Fire

Murphy, Christine | Knopf (288 pp.)

$28.00 | Feb. 25, 2025 | 9780593801499

At a Southern California college campus, rape and sudden death are on the rise.

“If she’s female, start between the legs. Dad taught me that, his hand on mine, the knife between us.” This creepy childhood memory of field-dressing a kill is our introduction to Sarah, protagonist of Murphy’s choppy debut: an uneasy mashup of a druggy campus novel and a feminist revenge thriller, with wildfires blazing and ash raining down in the background. Sarah is about to complete her graduate work in religious studies at the University of California, Santa Teresa; her best friend and party buddy is her classmate Nathan, heir to a pharmaceutical fortune who has taken a vow of celibacy. The UCST campus has a tunnel on whose walls the names of students who have died over the past few academic years are graffitied, continually updated and restored after each official whitewashing. Next to the names are notations: “miss you, love you” and sometimes “rapist.”

Just a few pages in, Sarah will have to add Nathan’s name to the list, as she finds him dead in his bed with a needle in his arm. But it’s the wrong arm and the wrong

drug, so she suspects foul play. Maybe the student who violently raped her a few years ago, known only as Rapist? Maybe his sidekick, Flopsy, who mouths curses and spits at her whenever he gets the chance? There are many rapes and rapists in this novel, and the theme of rape culture is yoked to a wild horse of a plot that rockets from a visit with Nathan’s ethereal, fabulously wealthy sister, to a data-hunting expedition in a Title IX office, to a job talk at an academic conference, to a bizarre twist near the end that seems like it could be from another book entirely.

Fiery on many levels, Murphy’s uneven debut nonetheless makes her an author to watch.

Blood Ties

Nesbø, Jo | Trans. by Robert Ferguson Knopf (384 pp.) | $30.00

Feb. 11, 2025 | 9780593803615

The prolific murdering brothers Roy and Carl Opgard— introduced in The Kingdom (2020)— return for more bloody havoc in the Norwegian village of Os. When they were in their late teens, Roy and Carl, in retaliation for their father’s longtime abuse of Carl and their mother’s failure to do anything about it, sent the old man’s Cadillac DeVille crashing into a ravine with both parents inside. When Roy, the supposedly protective older brother, was 35, he attempted to kill Carl for abusing his (Carl’s) wife, Shannon— who was carrying Roy’s baby. “I was a mass murderer who was absolutely ready to start a family,” Roy says ruefully. Carl ends that hope by bashing Shannon’s skull in, but the siblings quickly return to their default state, scheming together to save the hotel Carl runs and get financing for Roy to build an amusement park with the world’s biggest rollercoaster. Potential investors resist Roy and Carl at their peril. Among them: the abusive

father of Natalie, a drug-addicted singer Roy knows from childhood who now toys with his affections. Leave it to the crafty Nesbø, in deadpan mode, to treat Roy like any guy with problems—a “scrupulous” killer with a good heart and great taste in music (the late Eric Clapton crony J.J. Cale dominates the soundtrack). A populous novel that sometimes comes off like a twisted version of Our Town , Nesbø’s latest boasts a quirky comic edge. The book doesn’t build to the kind of tense conclusion the Harry Hole creator is known for, but it’s not that kind of story. At the start, Roy wonders, “Can anyone be a killer?” It takes a different type of murderer to ask that.

A darkly entertaining thriller.

Kirkus Star

Soft Core

Newell, Brittany | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (352 pp.) | $28.00 Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780374613891

A knockout of a second novel from the author of Oola (2017). Ruth is 27 and adrift when we meet her. She has a master’s degree she doesn’t know what to do with. She’s living in the Mission with her exboyfriend, Dino, a ketamine dealer who enjoys wearing women’s lingerie. And she’s dancing at a club where she has assumed the name Baby—not because she has any sort of fully fleshed-out stage persona but, rather, because that’s a thing men call her. Narrating her life in a way that feels aimless but not quite random, she tells the story of how she has arrived at this place. She remembers learning about sex from her more worldly friend Mazzy, a young woman “forever marked by being the first student at her private all-girls school to need a real bra.” Ruth reminisces about past lovers and the substances that shaped their relationships. And she describes the men she meets at work, delineating their needs and appetites with an

A small band of heroes tries to thwart the

Nazi stranglehold on Rome.

THE GHOSTS OF ROME

anthropological detachment that is not without empathy. Dino remains, though, the emotional center of her universe, and when he goes missing, she unravels. Newell writes about sex work and drugs and what people—some people—used to call the demimonde without moralizing or reducing her characters to grim allegories. This book is, among other things, funny and sometimes very sweet, and Newell gives shape to Ruth’s chaotic life with gorgeously precise prose. When she sees the ballet-dancer daughter of a wealthy man with whom she’s having an affair, Ruth thinks, “She was the luckiest girl in the whole wide world and she didn’t even care. She wore her hair up in a bun, her neck cool and pale as a halved pear.” There’s so much longing packed into that handful of words! “The hours swooped and gooped around us like fallen ice-cream cones.” Out of context, this does not seem like a great sentence. But within a swirling mess of metaphors recounting doing ketamine with Dino and falling in love, it approaches the sublime. Real and raw and exquisitely well crafted.

Kirkus Star

The Ghosts of Rome

O’Connor, Joseph | Europa Editions (400 pp.)

$28.00 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9798889660620

A small band of heroes tries to thwart the Nazi stranglehold on Rome.

In 1944, “Satan went walking in Italy,” and German troops occupy the Eternal City. They leave the tiny Vatican alone in exchange for the pope’s strict

neutrality, although at any moment they could crush its quarter of a square mile in the blink of an eye. Against His Holiness’s apparent wishes, a daring group in the Vatican harbors the Choir, a band of Escape Line activists who help Allied POWs and other fugitives evade enemy capture. Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, a real historical figure, leads the rescue efforts at great personal risk and despite apparent disapproval by Pope Pius. My Father’s House (2023) established the basic premise: Save as many people as possible from the villainous Obersturmbannführer Paul Hauptmann. In this exciting sequel, an Allied airman is shot down and wounded, parachut ing to an uncertain fate. The Choir brings him in, but he desperately needs medical help to save his life. They can only find a French medical student who has never performed surgery before, and she risks her life to help. The characters are memorable: Monsignor O’Flaherty speaks seven languages, is “fluent in silences,” and often breaks his vow of obedience to papal authority. The widowed Contessa Giovanna Landini shows great courage in standing up to Hauptmann, even when he takes over her home. Meanwhile, Himmler sends Hauptmann a top-secret communiqué warning of the Führer’s “intense displeasure” that the Escape Line still exists. Hauptmann is ordered to complete the job of liquidating the “criminals” escaping into Rome and “smash the Escape Line. Or face the inevitable.” Himmler reminds him that his family is living in Berlin. The story is exciting and rich with prose that’s a joy to read: An American looks at the night sky and declares, “The angels ride Harleys.…The stars are their headlights coming.” This

well researched novel can stand on its own, but readers may find even more enjoyment reading My Father’s House first.

Top-notch storytelling filled with emotion and drama.

Kirkus Star

The Capital of Dreams

O’Neill, Heather | Harper Perennial/ HarperCollins (368 pp.) | $18.99 paper Jan. 7, 2025 | 9780063425996

A young girl becomes a refugee in her own land in this fairy tale–adjacent bildungsroman. When war comes to the small, idiosyncratic country of Elysia, no one is quite surprised, but neither are they prepared. For Sofia Bottom-Zier, the pampered young daughter of Elysian’s leading intellectual, the time between the Enemy’s invasion of their country’s borders and their inevitable march on the Capital has been a pleasurable interlude of intrigue, drama, and a renewed closeness to her difficult and mercurial mother, Clara. This comes to an end when the Enemy announces that they will allow all Elysian children safe passage out of the Capital on a special train, and Clara hastens to make sure Sofia is on it. Sofia’s safety is not Clara’s primary concern, however. Her much larger goal is to smuggle out the manuscript she has written and concealed inside Sofia’s suitcase, which she hopes will convey to the Western world that the country of Elysia is worth saving. “Of course the book is more important than you,” Clara tells her daughter. “It’s my memoir, yes. But it’s more important than me. It’s the celebration of an Elysian life. What are any of us except expendable during a war? It’s the idea of freedom that has to be saved.” With that admonition ringing in her ears, Sofia boards the Children’s Train heading toward the

vague safety of “the countryside.” It soon becomes clear, however, that the Enemy has no intention of rescuing the children, and is instead shipping them to their executions. Sofia escapes, but in the commotion, she loses track of the suitcase with her mother’s manuscript inside. Accompanied by the Goose, a “public intellectual” who is also an actual goose with big dreams of a future in the Capital, Sofia sets off across the war-torn landscape of her erstwhile country in search of the Black Market—a near-mythical place where everything “illegal and forbidden and delightful ended up,” including, Sofia hopes, her mother’s manuscript, and the country’s potential salvation. The novel is told in fairy tale cadence and peppered with sophisticated animals, sensitive objects, and the enduring magic of folklore forests; its raw power lies in the way it blends the realities of war with the equally trenchant realities of its child narrator’s perspective as she navigates her suddenly irredeemable world. A powerful novel—heartbreaking, magical, and real.

Pro Bono

Perry, Thomas | Mysterious Press (360 pp.)

$27.95 | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9781613166161

A lawyer who takes on a pro bono case earns his payment many times over in this lumpy but irresistible thriller.

Three years after George Ellis left a party he was hosting and never returned, his wife, Vesper, notices that some of his investment accounts have been shrinking instead of growing. Suspecting fraud, she consults Charles Warren, who’s been recommended by a mutual friend. Charlie turns out to be an excellent choice for several reasons. He’s both an attorney and accountant, so he’s good with numbers. He’s hard to bully, as any number of bankers and potential assailants learn to their cost. And he has

both sympathy for the victims of fraud and extensive criminal experience, which began long ago when he raced after his fleeing stepfather, Mack Stone—who’d plundered the accounts of Charlie’s mother—running him off the road into a fatal crash that’s never been tied to Charlie except by Andy Minkeagan and Alvin Copes, two convicts who turned up at the scene of Mack’s accident ahead of the police, ran off with his financial papers, and are still bent on finding a way to cash in on their discovery. In fact, Charlie and Vesper are surrounded by so many lowlifes in pinstripes that it’s a good thing they have each other. As the story goes on, though, the obstacles to Charlie’s legal victories seem to fall away, and readers familiar with Perry’s knack for steering his tales in new directions they never saw coming may wonder what will happen during those last hundred pages. A series of completely new threats against a completely different person, that’s what.

A model of suspense, though not of construction.

Waiting for the Long Night Moon

Peters, Amanda | Catapult (256 pp.)

$27.00 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9781646222599

Seventeen stories that explore the joy and sorrow of the Indigenous experience. Peters, winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction for her debut, The Berry Pickers (2023), returns with an impactful collection of short stories. The book opens with “(Winter Arrives),” which chronicles the arrival of the “pale ones” to Indigenous shores. The unnamed narrator’s father tells them that the “pale-faced” people will leave like they have in the past, but the narrator is less sure: “I think they may stay.” The devastating consequences of colonization—especially as it relates to the violent destruction of Indigenous

families—are explored in the stories that follow. “In the Name of God” follows a pair of siblings as they navigate the horrifying reality of growing up in a residential school meant to strip them of their language, religion, and culture. In “Three Billion Heartbeats,” a motherdaughter relationship breaks under the weight of the younger woman’s abusive relationship. Before her daughter left for the city to study, her fearful mother told her not to forget that she is “a woman of the land. A woman of the trees and the lake, you belong to the grass.” The essential connection between the Indigenous characters and nature echoes throughout the collection. In “Tiny Birds and Terrorists,” a grieving mother becomes a water protector. When the local paper calls them “a ragged band of eco-terrorists,” another protector says the term is used to make white people afraid of people like them: “People who know we need the earth more than it needs us.” Many of the stories deal with grief—both spoken and unspoken; personal and generational; physical and spiritual—and how to survive in a world that’s trying to erase you. If some of the stories feel less robust than others, Peters’ sparse and striking prose more than makes up for it.

An impressive collection rooted in the grief, trauma, tradition, resilience, and hope of Indigenous peoples.

Another Man in the Street

Phillips, Caryl | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (240 pp.) | $27.00 Jan. 7, 2025 | 9780374613556

A novel about the immigrant experience from an author known for his interrogations of colonialism. Novelist, playwright, and essayist Phillips was born on St. Kitts, but he grew up in a predominantly white community in the United Kingdom. In his work, he explores the impact of British imperialism and the lives of Black people trying to find their

way in a society that sees them as “other.” Here, Phillips presents Victor Johnson—the son of a sugar cane farmer—who emigrates from the Caribbean to England in the 1960s with the hope of becoming a journalist. To put this another way, Victor is a Black man trying to escape the limitations of colonialism by emigrating to the country that, through its imperial interventions, made his home a place he feels the need to escape. The narrative begins with Victor narrating his journey on a ship bound for England. When he reappears, he’s a handyman called Lucky in a shabby Notting Hill pub, and we see him through the eyes of another character—a white character. This shift in point of view is powerful in that it gives readers a sense of the context in which Victor is trying to remake himself. At the same time, a narrative that was already slow grinds to a near halt as Phillips describes the social universe of this pub in a way that does not serve the story. This is early on, and it sets the pace for the rest of the novel. Victor will eventually become a journalist. He will do his best to document the Thatcher years as a Black immigrant. But getting from the 1960s to the ’80s includes a lot of digressions into other character’s lives, and none of these characters emerges as terribly compelling—including Victor. No book this short should feel so slow.

The Last One at the Wedding

Rekulak, Jason | Flatiron Books (352 pp.)

$28.99 | Oct. 8, 2024 | 9781250895783

A widowed Pennsylvania dad hears from his estranged daughter on the occasion of her marriage into the 1 percent.

Frank Szatowski, 52, has achievements he’s proud of: “I started driving young, straight out of the army, and I was recently inducted into the Circle of Honor, an elite group of UPS drivers who’ve worked twenty-five years without an accident.” What Frank

doesn’t feel so good about is his relationship with his daughter, Maggie, who cut him off a few years ago when he failed her in some as-yet-unrevealed way. But now the “Unknown Caller” on his phone is her, inviting him to Boston to meet her fiance, Aidan Gardner, and to walk her down the aisle at their wedding. From the moment he steps from the elevator into the penthouse Maggie and Aidan share, Frank feels like a fish out of water, and things only get more uncomfortable when Aidan shows no interest in connecting with his future father-inlaw. The wedding is held at a private camp in New Hampshire, exquisitely imagined from the waterfront cottages to the brunch buffets to the 10-foothigh security fence. Even before he’s given a 56-page “privacy doc” to sign and ordered to turn his watch ahead 15 minutes to “Gardner Standard Time,” Frank knows there’s something deeply wrong—for one thing, he’s received a flyer in the mail linking Aidan to a local missing person. But his sister, Tammy, is having the time of her life, as is her 10-year-old foster kid, Abigail, and he’s finally mending fences with Maggie; can’t he just kick back and enjoy? Actually…no. In addition to creating a fun, propulsive plot, Rekulak does a great job on all the status details and supporting characters, from the sleazy family lawyer with his barely legal wife to the younger crowd at the wedding. At the welcome dinner, a woman with “a starfish tattoo and long blond hair braided into ropes” offers Frank an Altoids tin of gummy bears. “These are THC with a little extra wild card,” she tells him encouragingly. Hoo boy. There are some wild cards, all right. How refreshing: a thriller with a narrator who’s almost too reliable.

Let’s Call Her Barbie

Rosen, Renée | Berkley (432 pp.) | $19.00 paper | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9780593335680

How a small company went all in on a big idea that changed our lives—for better and worse.

The story begins when Ruth Handler sees a doll on a family trip to Europe. It’s different than anything for sale in America, a grown-up doll rather than a baby doll, and she knows she’s on to something. Ruth is the co-founder of the toy company Mattel with her husband, Elliot; they enlist one of their employees, engineer Jack Ryan, to create a new doll based on the European model, and hire fashion designers Charlotte Johnson and Stevie Klein to design a wardrobe for her. This doll, Barbie, is a huge risk: There’s never been anything like her in the U.S. and no one seems to understand her appeal, not the buyers from the big stores or the mothers in focus groups— but young girls seem drawn to her. Fighting the patriarchal mindset of the toy business, Ruth and her team are determined to get Barbie onto shelves. A fictional retelling of Barbie’s origin story, from Ruth’s first brainstorm until she leaves Mattel in the 1970s, Rosen’s novel is infused with pathos and wit. As the story moves among the points of view of different characters, from Ruth, the “ruthless” leader, to Jack, the turbulent genius, to (fictional) Stevie, the up-and-coming outsider, Rosen illustrates various perspectives on how Barbie affected the people who worked on her and the culture at large. There’s a real-world debate on who was

The story begins when Ruth Handler sees a doll on a family trip to Europe.

LET’S CALL HER BARBIE

most responsible for Barbie’s success and Rosen picks a side, but she elaborates in an afterword on some of the historical details and provides sources for more information. The plot sometimes feels a bit by the numbers, but the depiction of the characters’ inner lives provides more depth. A well-written and interesting take on the birth of an icon.

Kirkus Star

A True Verdict

Rotstein, Robert | Blackstone (260 pp.) $16.99 paper | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9798874748418

Members of a deeply divided jury fight each other and themselves to render a just verdict in a civil case with more layers than a Dobosh Torte.

Plaintiff Ellison K. Ricard claims that Peyton Burke, the founder and CEO of MediMiracle, fired him because he threatened to tell the FDA about his discovery that Sophrosyne, the anti-addiction treatment the firm had developed, was actually “a drug that kills Black people.” Burke claims that she fired Ricard because he confronted and attacked her before a crowd of her employees. If both claims seem problematic—Ricard can produce no records demonstrating that Black subjects taking Sophrosyne in clinical trials had higher mortality rates than white subjects; his paralysis means he uses a wheelchair—you ain’t heard nothing yet. Opposing attorneys M. Bailey Klaus (plaintiff) and Cicely Pagano (defense) take turns swatting down witnesses’ testimonies, producing new evidence, and revealing their own prejudices. The real drama, however, is in the jury room. After two of the eight jurors get tossed off the case for scandalously improper behavior, the others wrestle in real time, debating the merits of every new bombshell as it’s produced without

waiting for the trial to end. The Vet Tech, the Retiree, the Cleaner, the Furniture Magnate, the Scientist, and the Editor form alliances and opposing teams, changing their minds and sides as they seek to persuade each other of a truth that seems to recede further and further. The result is less like 12 Angry Men than like Raymond Postgate’s Verdict of Twelve (1940), painfully sharpened by the case’s racial elements. A bravura demonstration of the truth that, as one of the jurors observes, “Our secrets define us as human beings.”

The Turnglass

Rubin, Gareth | Union Square & Co. (448 pp.)

$29.99 | Dec. 3, 2024 | 9781454955979

A clever, gimmicky novel pairs two intersecting stories, one set in Victorian England and the other in Los Angeles in 1939. Rubin sets the novel up as a “tête-bêche,” in which each novella occupies half the pages and the reader switches from one to the other by flipping and rotating the book. The stories can be read in either order, and each provides clues for and parallels to the other. In the British story, ambitious epidemiologist Simeon Lee, hoping for an inheritance, goes to care for his father’s ailing cousin, Oliver Hawes, at Turnglass House—located on a remote island off the coast of Essex—where he discovers that Oliver has imprisoned his sister-in-law, Florence, convicted of killing his brother, in a glass room. When Simeon discovers a tête-bêche in which Oliver has recorded a journal, he begins to investigate the past of the house and its inhabitants, and discovers a murky, bloody history. In the California story, aspiring actor and advertising writer Ken Kourian gets acquainted with wealthy novelist Oliver Tooke and his mysterious sister, Coraline, children of a conservative California governor with presidential

ambitions. When Oliver is found dead at his writing studio close to a replica of Turnglass House, suicide is assumed, but Ken has his doubts. Then he reads a manuscript Oliver left behind, set at the British Turnglass House, and discovers clues that lead to murder and family secrets. Rubin has a gift for mimicking the style of potboiler mysteries, and fans of California noir and gothics set in family manors will find pastiches of both here. Though at times Rubin appears to be jamming the pieces of his elaborate puzzle together, the assemblage glitters with cunning cross-references.

Shallow but diverting tales challenge the brain without touching the heart.

Kirkus Star

Heaven and Hell

Stefánsson, Jón Kalman | Trans. by Philip Roughton | Biblioasis (216 pp.) | $16.95 paper | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781771966511

A moving story of loss and courage told in prose as crisp and clear as the Icelandic landscape where it takes place.

“There is almost nothing as beautiful as the

sea on good days, or clear nights, when it dreams and the gleam of the moon is its dream,” says the narrator in Stefánsson’s revelatory novel, newly translated from Icelandic by Roughton. Don’t let those poetic words fool you. For the fishermen of an unnamed Icelandic village many miles from Reykjavík, the sea gives them their lives—and can also take them away. Stefánsson follows a character known only as “the boy” and his friend Bár∂ur, two young fishermen who are part of the crew of a small six-person boat. When an icy gale overtakes them on a voyage, Bár∂ur realizes he’s made a fatal mistake. A young poet who fills women, especially his boat captain’s

An

18-year-old girl in Manhattan faces the troubled summer of 1986.

A GORGEOUS EXCITEMENT

wife, with romantic longing, he was so absorbed in Paradise Lost that he forgot to bring his waterproof.

Stefánsson renders the scene of the snowstorm and Bár∂ur freezing to death with a clarity and eye for detail worthy of Conrad. Numb with grief, the boy—who lost his entire family years ago and now his closest friend—later leaves the fishing huts with one goal in mind: to return the book to the man who loaned it to Bár∂ur and then kill himself. Such plot simplicity can be found in many of Stefánsson’s books, including the recently translated Your Absence Is Darkness (2024), and this approach enables him to dive deep, like the cod “that have swum the seas for 120 million years,” into philosophical questions about life and death.

Stefánsson writes like an epic poet of old about the price the natural world exacts on humans, but he’s not without sympathy or an ability to find affirming qualities in difficult situations. The logic of the boy’s simple decision to die—“before him is utter uncertainty…kill himself, then all the uncertainty is behind him”—is unexpectedly challenged by those he meets when he returns the book. The boy knows the world is full of tragedy, but there’s also much tenderness and warmth, just like the hot coffee and buttered rye bread waiting when someone comes in from the cold. A shimmering lesson about the vitality of human relationships shines through Stefánsson’s grim and inspiring tale.

Grace of the Empire State

Tizzard, Gemma | Gallery Books/ Simon & Schuster (336 pp.) | $28.99 Jan. 28, 2025 | 9781668056943

A young woman must work a dangerous job to save her family during the Great Depression. In June of 1930, former circus performer Grace O’Connell is lucky to have a job she loves, dancing for a show in Times Square. And while she’s grieving the untimely death of her father, her family is also lucky that her twin brother, Patrick, works as a riveter on the Empire State Building. Still, they live in precarity. Their mother refuses to send their younger sibling, Connie, to the doctor for fear of the cost, though the girl suffers from a chronic lung infection. When the club Grace dances for closes suddenly, it’s bad. But much worse occurs two days later when Patrick loses his footing at work, catching himself from plummeting to his death, but breaking an arm in the process. He can’t work with a broken arm, and since riveters work in teams, three other men are out of jobs as well—unless Grace disguises herself as Patrick and takes his place. Tizzard does a marvelous job bringing Depression-era New York City to the page. Along with immersive descriptions of nightlife and family life, she deftly illustrates the desperation of the times and the abject lack of social safety nets. No one wants Grace to go “up on the steel”—the risk of discovery is almost as dire as the risk of death or injury. And the building gets higher every day. But the job is the only thing that stands between

this family and homelessness. Several subplots come to a head around the climax of the book, and having them compressed in such a way tips things toward melodrama. But Grace is a believably complex and good-hearted heroine, and Tizzard’s construction scenes are dizzyingly clear.

A vibrant and heart-stopping novel.

Kirkus Star

A Gorgeous Excitement

Weiner, Cynthia | Crown (368 pp.)

$29.00 | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9780593798843

An 18-year-old girl in Manhattan faces the troubled summer of 1986. In an author’s note prefacing her terrific debut, Weiner explains that she was inspired by her experiences during the summer of what became known as the Preppy Murder in Central Park. Her title quotes Sigmund Freud’s characterization of the effects of cocaine, a reference that occurs to her intelligent, articulate, insecure protagonist, Nina Jacobs, as she’s about to try the drug for the first time with her new friend Stephanie. It’s the summer before Nina leaves for college at Vanderbilt, and she spends her days temping at office jobs—there’s one working for a hotel chain, inputting the reports of undercover investigators on a Wang word processor; another, at an almanac that made incorrect weather predictions, has her sorting hate mail. By night, she hangs out with her friends at a bar called Flanagan’s, where they don’t card the underage patrons. There, she meets an extraordinarily handsome but moody boy named Gardner Reed, with whom she and every other girl in the place are wholly infatuated. Also taking up real estate in Nina’s anxious brain is her mother, whose mental illness manifests alternately as immobilizing despair, random cruelty,

For more by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, visit Kirkus online.

and—after a medication change— manic wordplay and shopping. Weiner’s recreation of the period and the milieu—the headlines, the music, the products—is like a perfect pointillist painting, all the tiny details adding up to a richly textured, authentic impression of the city as it was in that decade. Each of her young female characters—from the badass Stephanie, who snorts coke between customers at the fancy Maison Rouge housewares shop, to the snooty Holland Nichols, Gardner’s girlfriend at the beginning of the novel, to the crude but ballsy Alison Bloch, who’s braver than Nina in calling out the casual antisemitism of their prep school friends—is fully three dimensional. With the strong young characters and the skin-crawling atmosphere created by creepy men, crimes in the news, porn shops, and overheated adolescent sexuality, the book recalls another excellent true crime–inspired novel, Emma Cline’s The Girls

Carefully paced and beautifully written, this edgy coming-of-age novel succeeds on all counts.

Tell Me What You Did

Wilson, Carter | Poisoned Pen (448 pp.) $17.99 paper | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9781464226229

A successful Vermont podcaster who’s elicited confessions from dozens of criminals finds herself on the other side of the table, in the hottest of hot seats, over her own troubled past. Poe Webb was only 13 when she saw her mother, Margaret McMillian, get stabbed to death by the man she’d picked up for a quickie. Poe had vowed revenge, but how could a kid find and avenge herself on a stranger who’d vanished as quickly as he appeared? In the long years since then, Poe’s made a name for herself

as a top true-crime podcaster who routinely invites her guests to tell her audience exactly what they did. Now, she’s being pressed, and pressed hard, by Ian Hindley, whose fake name echoes those of England’s Moors Murderers, to join him in a livestream her fans will find riveting because, as Hindley tells her, he’s actually Leopold Hutchins, the pickup who stabbed her mother 14 times when she failed to use her safe word. Skeptical? Hindley knows endless details about the killing that were never released by the police. If Poe won’t do the broadcast, Hindley threatens to harm everyone she loves: her father; her producer and lover, Kip Nguyen; and her black Lab, Bailey. And there’s one more complication that makes the pressure on Poe even more unbearable. Seven years ago, against all odds, she succeeded in tracking Leopold Hutchins from Burlington to New York and killing him herself. In fact, it’s that murder that Hindley most wants her to talk about. Which bully is more fearsome, the man who’s threatening her or the man she killed?

Better set aside several uninterrupted hours for this toxic rocket. You’ll be glad you did.

Kirkus Star

Beartooth

Wink, Callan | Spiegel & Grau (256 pp.) $28.00 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9781954118027

Two brothers struggle with moral, legal, and physical challenges while living off the grid near Yellowstone. The seasons and mountain

wilderness are practically characters in this vividly rendered novel, while the human element is merely part of the landscape. Thad and his younger brother, Hazen, have been doing whatever they need to survive, living off the land. Their mother long ago abandoned the family, and now their father has died. They’re on their own, extending that family’s legacy: “Though they possessed no great strength, the men in their line had been shaped—by environment and circumstance—for tremendous acts of myopic endurance.” The brothers are even more myopic and perhaps not as strong, or at least not as fit for survival, as their capable, taciturn father had been. Their father also had a strong sense of right and wrong, and the brothers know they are falling short of that. At least Thad does. At 27, he’s a year older than Hazen, and he’s the more reflective one. Hazen is the impulsive one, less capable of functioning on his own, or so thinks Thad. Their lives have become more of a challenge than ever, as their father’s death left them in greater financial straits, and the roof of their rickety house is almost literally coming down on them. An evil, mysterious outsider—“the Scot”—offers a scheme to save the house, but it involves an illegal haul of elk antlers; hundreds of pounds worth. It appears the brothers are destined for disaster, but one of the surprises here is the way the novel’s elemental plot subverts expectations. “You don’t know anything,” the Scot tells Thad. “You don’t even know how much you don’t know.”

A novel of impeccable control and unflinching darkness. And then a glimmer of hope.

Two brothers face challenges while living off the grid near Yellowstone.

BEARTOOTH

Kirkus Star

AWARDS

Winner of B&N Discover Prize Revealed

Essie Chambers took home the bookseller’s prize for Swift River.

Essie Chambers’ Swift River is the winner of the Barnes & Noble’s 2024 Discover Prize, given annually to a debut novel, the bookseller announced in a news release.

Chambers’ novel, published in June by Simon & Schuster, follows Diamond, a teenage girl who is the only person of color in her crumbling New England mill town; a letter from a distant relative leads her to explore her family history. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the novel, which was previously longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, “Call your book club: This symphonic debut is your next read.”

“There is an undeniable thrill that comes with finding a new

author with so much promise,” said Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt in a statement.

“Essie Chambers is a perfect example—it was clear from the very first page that this book was something to be celebrated.”

Chambers prevailed over five other finalists: Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr!, Tammy Armstrong’s Pearly Everlasting, Abraham Chang’s 888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers, Lottie Hazell’s Piglet, and Elizabeth O’Connor’s Whale Fall.

The Discover Prize, which comes with a cash award of $10,000, is voted on by Barnes & Noble’s booksellers. Previous winners include Tess Gunty for The Rabbit Hutch and Amanda Peters for The Berry Pickers.—M.S.

For a review of Swift River, visit Kirkus online.

Essie Chambers

Christine Jean Chambers

IN THE NEWS

Gary Indiana Dies at 74

The art critic and novelist explored dark themes in his fiction.

Gary Indiana, the acid-tongued art critic and novelist who explored dark themes in his fiction, has died at 74, Frieze reports. Indiana was born Gary Hoisington in Derry, New Hampshire, and lived in California before relocating to New York City in the 1970s. He was involved in the city’s avant-garde theater scene before becoming the art critic for the Village Voice in 1985; he was known for his often acerbic takes on popular art, which incorporated cultural criticism of America in the Reagan era.

He published his first book, the story collection Scar Tissue, in 1987. Two years later, his first novel, Horse Crazy, was released; the book was set in a New York arts scene reeling from the AIDS crisis.

He would go on to write more than 20

books, including the novels Gone Tomorrow, Rent Boy, and Resentment, and works of nonfiction such as Let It Bleed, Utopia’s Debris, and I Can Give You Anything but Love. Indiana’s admirers paid tribute to him on social media. On the platform X, journalist Adriane Quinlan wrote, “Gary Indiana was a stylist of the highest order, with a slippery feel for sounds of words and a trust in the odd image that floated toward him, out of place until he trapped it.”

And writer Andrew Russeth posted, “RIP Gary Indiana, one of the greatest to ever stalk the galleries as a weekly art critic. Acerbic, yes, but also freewheeling and idiosyncratic. He took it seriously, he had fun, and then he got out. A model.”—M.S.

For reviews of Gary Indiana’s books, visit Kirkus online.

Gary Indiana

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Science Fiction & NovelsFantasyThat Will Take You Places

Alan Moore

Maiga Doocy

Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adler-Olsen, Jussi | Trans. by Caroline Waight | Dutton (512 pp.) | $30.00 Dec. 3, 2024 | 9780593475690

DCI Carl Mørck, last seen headed for the hoosegow in The Shadow Murders (2022), struggles to figure out who’s trying to kill him in jail before they succeed.

Carl, the founder and leading light of Department Q, the Copenhagen PD’s cold case unit, has been implicated in an ancient drug case but not yet found guilty of anything when the attempts on his life begin. Ironically, his court-appointed attorney, Adam Bang, turns out to have an even shorter shelf life than his beleaguered client. Moved finally to do something to protect the headline investigator, the authorities transfer Carl from Vestre Prison to Slagelse Remand Center along with Malthe Bøgegård, the fellow inmate who’d saved his life because he didn’t want to lose the commission he’d accepted to kill Carl himself. Things are equally active outside the penal system. Eddie Jansen, a corrupt Rotterdam cop who’s been called to account by his crooked higher-ups, goes on the lam with his wife and daughter, leaving a trail of violent near-misses in his wake. The discovery of DKNL Transport owner Hannes Theis dead in a van marks the beginning of a related murder spree. All the while, Carl’s Department Q colleagues Assad, Rose, and Gordon ignore orders from their own higherups, who are either indifferent or complicit, in their attempts to identify the assassins’ paymaster before the next attempt on Carl’s life succeeds. There’ll be a head-spinning number of references to some of Department Q’s earlier cases and endless attempts to relitigate some of those cases. Perhaps the most urgent question: Can you tell the players without a program?

Readers new to this bestselling franchise are advised to start anywhere but here.

The manager of a Sonoma wine bar struggles to discover who killed a handyman.

DEADLY CRUSH

Blame the Beignets

Bolton, Ginger | Kensington (304 pp.)

$17.95 paper | Nov. 26, 2024 | 9781496749611

Has the petty bickering in a donut shop led to murder?

Emily Westhill and her father-inlaw, Tom, have maintained a cordial relationship even after the death of Emily’s husband, police detective Alec Westhill, and her marriage to his former partner, Brent Fyne. Without the trust and friendship they share, Emily and Tom could never succeed as co-owners of Deputy Donut, a cafe serving sweet treats to the good citizens of Fallingbrook, Wisconsin. Too bad those citizens aren’t as sweet. The crafters called the Knitpickers and a bunch of retired geezers “who don’t call themselves anything” regularly trade barbs across tables. Their bickering is good-natured compared to the conflict between the cafe’s two waitresses, Olivia and her younger sister, Hannah, who ignored Olivia’s advice and left college to pursue a dubious relationship with Zachary, a young mycologist. The tension rises a notch when Zachary’s handsome biker friend Joshua starts flirting with Hannah. The prize for conflict, however, goes to the trio who come in, order beignets, and start an argument that causes two of them to stalk off. The remaining diner, Forrest Callic, is a self-described “investment expert” peddling a deal he insists can’t fail. Emily’s skepticism turns to alarm when Albert McGoss, who left Deputy Donuts in a huff, turns up dead near Emily and Brent’s home on Chicory

Lake. It takes some amateur sleuthing and an amazing number of trips between the Chicory Lake property and Emily’s house in town for her to wade through all the he said/she said and figure out whose conflict resolution skills include murder as an option. Spoiler: Though there’s lots of guilt to go around, the beignets turn out to be blameless.

Deadly Crush

Day, Maddie | Kensington (272 pp.) $27.00 | Nov. 26, 2024 | 9781496742339

The manager of a popular Sonoma wine bar struggles to discover who killed an unpopular handyman. Cece Barton wishes she’d never hired Karl Meier to update the lighting at Vino y Vida. Not only was he brusque to her and verbally abusive toward his nephew, Ian, who worked as his helper, but he ran well past the wine bar’s opening time, forcing customers to cluster outside waiting to be seated. Cece’s second encounter with Karl makes her even sorrier: She gets a frantic call from her car mechanic, Josefina Jarvin—who knows her reputation for solving murders—and when Cece arrives at Jo’s shop, she finds Karl squashed like a bug under the lift. Suspects abound, starting with Jo, who happens to be Karl’s ex-wife. But there’s hardly anyone in the little town of Colinas who hadn’t had a run-in with the dead man. Mooncat Smith and Dane Larsen, who work at Vino y Vida, both hate him. So does Ian, his nephew. Even Ian’s high school friend Serena nurses ill feelings

toward Karl. Still, sifting through the possibilities isn’t the greatest challenge for Cece because she can’t help secondguessing herself. She wonders if Jo is really her friend or just an acquaintance, hesitates to give motherly advice to her grown daughter, Zoe, and fears she’ll never be as successful as her twin sister, Allie. Given all that self-doubt, readers may well be as relieved as Cece herself when she finally cracks the case. Here’s hoping her latest success gives Day’s heroine the selfconfidence to become the cozy sleuth she deserves to be.

The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime

Delany, Vicki | Crooked Lane (288 pp.)

$29.99 | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9781639109265

A trip to London involves a Cape Cod bookseller and her friends in yet another case of murder.

Though she’s British, Gemma Doyle lives in West London, Massachusetts, where she manages her great-uncle Arthur Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium along with her friend Jayne Wilson, who runs the tea room. Now her sister, Pippa—who works for the British government in a secretive role—is marrying her friend Grant Thompson, an American book dealer, and Gemma and Jayne are flying there for the wedding along with Det. Ryan Ashburton, Gemma’s boyfriend; Sherlock devotee Donald Morris; and Jayne’s fiance, Andy Whitehall. As Gemma leaves the wedding venue, she’s

amazed to be accosted by her exhusband, Paul Erikson. The bookshop they used to own together is in trouble financially, but Paul claims to have a rare book that might save it, and he asks her to come take a look at it. Despite her misgivings, Gemma goes to the shop with Grant the next day, only to find Paul dead in his office, seemingly murdered. His two employees saw nothing, and there’s no rare book in sight. Gemma—whose mother is a high-powered lawyer, and father a retired detective chief superintendent— recognizes DI Jasmine Patel, the detective in charge, from the last murder she got tangled up in. Gemma can’t help but do a little sleuthing with her friends. The few clues that turn up take the case in a whole new direction that involves a high-born relative of Gemma’s mother. Plenty of suspects and a well-hidden motive give the sleuths a run for their money.

Robert B. Parker’s Buried Secrets

Farnsworth, Christopher | Putnam (336 pp.) $30.00 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780593544761

Parker’s Jesse Stone series continues with more trouble in Paradise, Massachusetts. Police Chief Jesse Stone does a welfare check at the urging of a local citizen named Matthew Peebles and discovers a dead body in a room piled high with trash and old Polaroids depicting murder victims, either garroted or shot in the head. Who werethese victims? Chief Stone

improbably keeps the investigation local—no need to complicate the story with the state police or the FBI—and that helps maintain the small-town flavor of this entertaining tale. Stone hires a new cop, Derek Tate, for his understaffed department. But to put it mildly, Tate is a poor fit. Boss and newcomer have radically different concepts of policing: Stone sees himself as a servant of his community, while Tate only wants to catch criminals and crack heads. At one point, Stone asks him what he did on his shift: “Did you give a tourist directions? Did you help an old lady cross the street or get a little girl’s cat out of a tree? Anything at all like that?” Tate replies “That’s not what real cops do,” and proceeds to alienate “beloved institutional figure” Daisy, cafe owner and longtime provider of donuts and muffins to Paradise’s finest. Indeed, Tate could be a model fascist, and Stone’s biggest mistake is not firing him. Meanwhile, Peebles fears for his life because of his “aging mobster” great uncle, who just might have something to do with all those murders. If Peebles says anything to the cops, he knows he’s a dead man. Hell, he’s probably doomed anyway. Stone is a stand-up cop who puts his life on the line for the town he loves, and his dealings with friends and colleagues are fun to witness: “I’m the chief. I’m supposed to tell you what to do,” he tells Molly Crane, his deputy chief. “It’s adorable that you think that,” she replies. And when all Paradise cops are banned from Daisy’s cafe because of Tate’s stupidity, Stone navigates treacherous territory while showing respect. This is Farnsworth’s first entry in the series created by Robert Parker, and fans will be pleased. So, Paradise isn’t paradise, and the Parker legacy lives on.

Kirkus Star

Little Mysteries: Nine Miniature Puzzles

To Confuse, Enthrall, and Delight

Gran, Sara | Dreamland Books (280 pp.)

$18.99 paper | Feb. 10, 2025 | 9798990695504

A collection of nine minimysteries loosely inspired by the childhood gateway stories about Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew—but with existential depths. Some of the stories are fashioned like traditional “5 Minute Mysteries,” in which the reader is asked to find the solution (which is conveniently included), but the solutions here have more to do with the weary weight of the world than a reader’s ability to decipher physical clues. The longest entry, “The Mystery of Killington Manor or the Feeling of Seeing Clear Blue Sky After Being Lost in the Woods,” offers a take on Agatha Christie and other writers of country house mysteries but, as with most of the pieces, is truly about the mystery of maturity, more about the challenge of remaining a good person when the world is spitting in your face than a true whodunit. Gran offers a feminist reading of female detectives, from the spun-sugar sweetness of Nancy Drew to seemingly fluffy old ladies like Miss Marple. The biggest standouts in the collection are the cases featuring Claire DeWitt, a character in Gran’s previous novels, and Cynthia Silverton, “the best teen detective in the world” (who may or may not be two sides of the same person). At the end of “One-Minute Mystery: The Case of the Razor’s Edge Between Life and Death,” Claire saves someone’s life, at which point the narrator breaks the fourth wall, commenting: “I trust that if you ever need to save my life, you’ll know what to say, and the right words will drip from your lips like a flower’s nectar to a hummingbird’s tongue.…

Maybe the only reason we’re here is because we’ve already saved each other. Thank you.” In these mysteries, the stakes are existential: knowing one’s self, knowing how to save the people you can save, and knowing that life is worth living even in the midst of pain. Gran is both blowing up the mystery genre and tying herself to its mast— what an incredible light show. Charming, gritty explorations of the greatest mysteries of all: Who are we, and what is this life?

Murder by the Clock

King, Rufus | American Mystery Classics

(288 pp.) | $25.95 | Jan. 7, 2025 | 9781613166222

King’s third novel, originally published in 1929, shows a New York police lieutenant working the late shift to bring a killer to justice. Despite the small number of suspects, there are lots of mysteries surrounding the death of Herbert Endicott. To begin with, is he really dead? His young wife calls the police when she becomes alarmed that he hasn’t returned from an errand after two hours. But when Lt. Valcour finds the missing man’s body hunched in the bottom of a cupboard, he’s so insistent that it remain undisturbed until Endicott is officially pronounced dead that he fails to notice—and keeps anyone else from noticing—that Endicott is still alive. Valcour’s plan to have family physician Sanford Worth keep Mrs. Endicott under sedation while Nurse Vickers or Nurse Murrow remains with Endicott until he comes around goes predictably

awry, leaving Endicott really dead—no doubt about it this time—just as Thomas Hollander, the alleged best friend Valcour summoned so that Endicott could awaken to a friendly face, tries to stab him in the chest. Hollander is shot in the act by someone just outside the window, but who would be lurking there in the hours after midnight? If Endicott was being blackmailed, as the note his wife found reading “BY THURSDAY OR—” would seem to suggest, wouldn’t his blackmailer have a stronger incentive to keep him alive than to kill such a promising cash cow? And why is Mrs. Endicott so unconcerned about Marge Myles, her husband’s lover, that she keeps Marge’s name in her address book?

A dazzlingly artificial but highly readable Golden Age gem squeezed into 12 hours, plus a bittersweet epilogue years later.

Big Ben Strikes Eleven: A London Mystery

Magarshack, David | Poisoned Pen (384 pp.) $15.99 paper | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9781464230400

The first of three detective novels Magarschack published, this one in 1934, before he made a more enduring reputation by translating Russian novels into English.

Out for a walk on Hampstead Heath after his daughter, Agnes, responded to his threat to beat her by turning on him, window cleaner Samuel Halstead comes upon a body in a parked limousine. And not just any body. The dead man is Sir Robert Boniface, a captain of industry whose demise is bound to cause

Nine charming, gritty explorations of the greatest mysteries of all.

LITTLE MYSTERIES

When the London drag scene loses a queen, her drag daughter solves her murder.

MURDER IN THE DRESSING ROOM

aftershocks in high places. The shocks on the page are considerably more sedate. Approached for information about the death, Agnes’ love, artist Matt Caldwell, whose recent portrait of Sir Robert had been indignantly rejected by the sitter, reacts with unalloyed delight before disappearing. Frank Littlewood, a nephew and former secretary the baronet had recently dismissed, is equally dry-eyed. The other suspects— Lord Rollesborough, Sir Robert’s vice chair and successor at the Industrial Development Trust; Benjamin Fuller, the publicity head for Sir Robert’s office; Miss Pritt, the magnate’s confidential secretary; and June Gayford, the fiancee Sir Robert refused to allow Frank to marry—are limited, and Magarschack (1899–1977) extends the story by repeatedly reshuffling his tiny deck, allowing them to cast suspicion on each other, provide unsought alibis, and reveal further information about the adventures of Frank’s gun, which seems likely to have been the murder (or was it a suicide?) weapon. Inspector Beckett and his nominal superior, Superintendent Mooney, react to all these complications with commendably straight faces, presumably because they’re saving their energy for the climactic car chase that rings down the curtain. Contrived, overlong, and seriously dated. Stick to the author’s translations of Dostoevsky.

Bloodline

Masters, Priscilla | Severn House (224 pp.)

$29.99 | Jan. 7, 2025 | 9781448314768

Will a British copper be able to use a newly acquired skill to save a life?

DI Joanna Piercy is thrilled that her longtime friend DS Mike Korpanski is returning to work in Staffordshire a year after having been badly injured. On the same day, an elderly man named Joseph Holden opens his door to a stranger with a gun and struggles to understand whether the man wants the valuable objects Joseph’s acquired in his travels or revenge for some past misdeed. Joseph’s neighbor Doreen Caputo, who checks on him every day while walking her dog, goes to the police after several odd interactions make her fear that something’s wrong. The two police officers she talks with check out her tip, duly noting the rental car parked near Joseph’s home. Meantime, Joseph is mostly kept tied to a chair while he considers his sins. When his cleaner, Clarice, who’s Somali, arrives, he has to wonder if she’s involved. After talking to the officers who checked up on Joseph, Joanna has a niggling feeling, and she and Mike decide to look in on him themselves. A call from headquarters alerts them to the fact that a caller has claimed to be holding Joseph and Clarice and demanded to talk to Joanna. Although Joanna recently completed a course on hostage negotiations, she feels ill-equipped to deal with the situation, but she has no choice. While the police search for clues in Joseph’s past that might explain why someone would hold him hostage, Joanna

continues talking in hopes of resolving the dangerous situation.

A tense, engrossing examination of why good and evil aren’t always easy to tell apart.

Murder in the Dressing Room

Stars, Holly | Berkley (368 pp.) | $19.00 paper | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9780593816714

When the London drag scene loses a queen, her drag daughter works to make sure she can rest in power by solving her murder. Striking drag queen Misty Divine hasn’t always been able to skate by on her good looks. Really, she owes a lot of her success to Lady Lady, her mentor and drag mother, who’s let her perform at the glamorous cabaret club Lady’s Bar for the last five years. Misty lives for these nights in the heart of Soho, while her offstage life as hotel accounts assistant Joe Brown is considerably more humdrum and drama-free. But drama isn’t always good, as Misty finds when Lady Lady has an off night of hosting, bumbling where she’s always been confident. Could the problem be some sort of fight with club co-owner Mandy White, whom Misty overhears in a surprising tiff with Lady Lady after the show? Before Misty can figure out what might be at the heart of Lady Lady’s distraction, she finds her mentor killed by what seems to be poisoned chocolate. Although the distraught Misty expresses her hope to Miles, her partner, that justice will be served, the opposite seems to be the case as the investigation into Lady Lady’s death begins. The police insist on referring to the deceased as Sean Fulton and not by her drag name, and Joe sounds like a pretty good suspect to them. Misty’s sure that her knowledge of the ins and outs of the drag world will give her a leg up in figuring out what happened, but she doubts that she’ll be able to grease the wheels of justice from a jail cell.

A series debut that may grow into something really good.

For more by Priscilla Masters, visit Kirkus online.

How To Get a Life in Ten Dates

Howe, Jenny L. | St. Martin’s Griffin (320 pp.)

$18.00 paper | Dec. 10, 2024 | 9781250331465

Forgoing the apps, a 25-year-old freelance editor allows her family and friends to set her up on 10 dates.

Haleigh Berkshire is ready for a break from dating, but her family keeps putting pressure on her to find her forever plus-one. None of them understand why she isn’t dating her best friend, Jack, but they don’t know that five years ago Haleigh and Jack hooked up in Hawaii, almost ruining their friendship forever, and have been following strict friendship rules ever since. She concocts this plan to let her loved ones choose her dates if they’ll agree not to bother her about dating for at least six months afterwards if none of them work out. She has only a few requirements for the dates: They can be of any gender, height, and weight, but they must fill out a questionnaire beforehand, telling her about themselves, and they must know that she’s fat: “There are people out there who are very not okay with that.. . .and I don’t want any of you to inadvertently subject me to that.” The dates go badly until Haleigh hits it off with veterinarian Brian Lee—and when Jack starts breaking their friendship rules, Haleigh has to figure out if she can truly move on from him or if it’s time for a second chance. Howe deftly balances humor with realistically depicted struggles with anxiety. However, it’s clear from the start that Haleigh and Jack are meant to be, and the other dates and an eventual love triangle just distract from their story and create too many pages of them without each other. It’s satisfying when they finally get together, but since it hinges on Jack finally admitting his feelings, not getting his viewpoint in the Haleigh-focused narrative makes for a novel lacking buildup and tension. A charismatic heroine can’t save this meandering romance.

Strike and Burn

Hutton, Taylor | Berkley (368 pp.) | $19.00 paper | Jan. 28, 2025 | 9780593817759

When an artist becomes involved with an enigmatic billionaire, she has to decide whether she’ll accept his dark side, too.

Honor Stone is navigating intense grief over the death of her identical twin, Grace, when she unexpectedly meets charming, mysterious billionaire Strike Madden—in the morgue, of all places. It doesn’t matter how handsome he is or how instantaneous the connection between them; Honor’s not looking for love, especially since she suspects her sister’s boyfriend of being responsible for her death. As the weeks go by, however, Strike is never far from Honor’s thoughts, and it turns out the feeling is mutual. When Strike offers Honor a job spearheading a new line of erotic video games, it’s because he genuinely believes in her artistic talent—and because he’s trying to keep his distance from her, and thinks that making her his employee will surely create some kind of boundary between them. Struggling with an attraction to her new boss isn’t the only thing Honor’s dealing with. Grace’s boyfriend has set his obsessive sights on Honor next, and he clearly doesn’t intend to leave her alone. Initially, Honor doesn’t want to involve Strike in the situation, but long hours and late nights working side by side gradually clue her into the fact that the billionaire has a dark side of his own—one that’s uniquely qualified to handle any threats. This romantic thriller veers into particularly heavy territory over dual timelines, with Honor’s stalking in the present day alternating with a thorny and complicated backstory dealing with parental abuse and neglect. These elements result in a much darker romance than some readers may be expecting. Additionally, there are times when Strike’s

level of wealth and resources are almost too hard to believe as they conveniently remove any potential obstacle for Honor. Considering the too-early resolution of the book’s most suspenseful plotline, this feels like a book that should have either leaned into its darkest twist much sooner or not attempted to tread there at all.

A scattered romantic thriller that ultimately fizzles out.

Yin Yang Love Song

Jessen, Lauren Kung | Forever (352 pp.) $17.99 paper | Jan. 28, 2025 | 9781538741634

Chrysanthemum Hua Williams, a professional heartbreak healer with a love life that’s literally cursed, and Vin Chao, a handsome musical prodigy with a rocky dating history, devise a fake-dating plan that will help both of them. What could go wrong?

Chryssy’s family is cursed. While her uncles have all had long and happy marriages, generations of Hua women—Chryssy included—have been destined never to find lasting love, experiencing everything from prom night breakups to cheating spouses. Still reeling after a broken engagement, Chryssy has thrown herself into her job as a Traditional Chinese Medicine chef and acupuncturist, living and working with her three aunties at the Wildflower Inn, a holistic retreat on Washington’s Whidbey Island. She’s determined to help other people overcome their heartbreaks using acupuncture, herbal medicine, and mindful movement. Enter Vin Chao, half of the famous pair of rock cellists known as the Chao Brothers and a renowned serial dater who’s captured the hearts of many, including Chryssy’s aunties. After a chance encounter at the Wildflower Inn during which they irritate each other, they wind up striking a deal: Vin and Chryssy will fake date one another to

A funny and very steamy romance about the importance of being open to love.

ZOE BRENNAN, FIRST CRUSH

help their respective careers. Vin thinks a public breakup will sell tickets for the Chao Brothers’ upcoming world tour, while Chryssy thinks having Vin’s name attached to the Wildflower Inn will attract visitors. But after an unexpected kiss, Vin and Chryssy find themselves struggling to balance their fake relationship with very real feelings. Jessen has crafted another charming, heartwarming romance that highlights Chinese culture as well as finding true love. The chapters alternate between Chryssy and Vin’s points of view, and readers will be rooting for both of them to figure out how to break an ancient curse and discover more about themselves and each other along the way.

A charming novel full of Chinese traditions.

Gate to Kagoshima

Kuroki, Poppy | Harper/HarperCollins (320 pp.)

$17.99 paper | Jan. 28, 2025 | 9780063410879

W hile in Japan to learn more about her family history, a young Scottish woman is transported 128 years into the past, finding herself on the brink of the Satsuma Rebellion. Born and raised in Scotland, Isla MacKenzie has traveled to Japan to learn more about the Japanese branch of her mother’s family. She hopes to discover whether family lore is true and she’s descended from a warrior who served alongside legendary rebel samurai leader Takamori Saigō. When a strangely out-of-season typhoon hits the town of Kagoshima, where she’s staying, Isla gets caught in the

blinding rain and wind; she stumbles across a white torii gate, but as she approaches, hoping to find shelter, things begin to feel weird. As the storm subsides and Isla looks around, her surroundings seem foreign— Kagoshima’s busy streets and cafes have been replaced by woodlands. When a woman sees Isla and screams, claiming to have discovered a demon in the forest, samurai Maeda Keiichirō is one of the first to answer the call. He’s the voice of reason, recognizing Isla as a young woman, not a demon, even if she looks bizarre. As Isla figures out that she’s been transported back in time, she comes to realize she’s on the cusp of the deadly Satsuma Rebellion, which lasted nine months and ended in the death of its leader, Saigō. While she adjusts to life in the 19th century and searches for a way to make it back to the 21st, she grows closer to Keiichirō, her de facto protector. Like the protagonists of many time-travel romances, Isla struggles with the lack of modern comforts and with growing close to a man she may have to abandon. Also, of course, she knows how the rebellion ends, and is conflicted about using her knowledge to potentially change the course of history. There are the bones of an interesting romance here, especially given the fascinating time period. Unfortunately, the writing feels unpolished: Nine months doesn’t seem like enough time for our leads to make a meaningful connection, but also, not much happens in that timespan. Balancing historical context with a romance that possesses both cultural differences and an impending deadline is a tall order, and Kuroki doesn’t quite manage it.

This time-travel romance doesn’t live up to its intriguing setting.

Zoe Brennan, First Crush Lee, Laura Piper | Union Square & Co. (336 pp.) $17.99 paper | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9781454955221

When a vineyard owner reunites with her first-ever female crush, complicated feelings arise.

Zoe Brennan has turned the family vineyard she runs with her dad into her whole life—as a single woman in a Georgia mountain town with a tiny queer community, she doesn’t really have a choice. She focuses on Bluebell Vineyards and tries to ignore her loneliness, even though it “feels like a boulder inside of [her], separating [her] from everyone [she] love[s].” But when her dad decides to return to his native Italy to see his dying mother, Zoe’s world is thrown into chaos. She’s trying desperately to get a fancy wine festival to hold its showcase at Bluebell, but with her dad—Bluebell’s vintner—gone, she’s not sure how she’ll ever make it happen. But luckily—or unluckily—her dad has just hired a talented vintner to be his replacement: Laine Woods, also known as Zoe’s first crush, her mortal enemy’s sister, and the woman with whom she accidentally had a blindfolded threesome (it’s a long story). Clearly, Zoe and Laine have some history, but even aside from their one-night stand and Zoe’s sexual awakening, it’s not clear if they’ll be able to work together. Laine has been in Napa, far away from Blue Ridge, Georgia, and she brings in a ton of snobbery around the tiny vineyard. Zoe’s not sure she can handle the changes Laine wants to make to her family’s wine—it feels like Laine is stomping all over her parents’ history. However, neither of them can deny their potent chemistry. Zoe has to decide if she’s willing to open herself up to love, even if it involves the risk of being crushed. Lee creates a lovely, cozy world in Blue Ridge’s wine community. Zoe’s zany friends add a sparkle to the story, while her relationship with Laine is full of intense longing and creative sex scenes. A funny and very steamy romance about the importance of being open to love and all that life has to offer.

Two scientists find love and healing in this steamy, nerdy romance.

GIVE ME BUTTERFLIES

Give Me Butterflies

Meadows, Jillian | Avon/ HarperCollins (384 pp.) | $17.99 paper | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9780063416161

Two scientists find love and healing in this steamy, nerdy romance.

Entomologist Millie Oaks is a candidate for her dream job as director of the department where she works at the Wilhelmina Natural Science Museum. She’s flustered to find out that grumpy but annoyingly handsome astronomer Finn Ashford is on the hiring committee, since he seems to glower every time he sees her. At first, Finn tries to avoid bubbly and friendly Millie, but when they keep running into each other—literally—his barriers begin to come down. He recently became the guardian of his twin 5-year-old nieces after his sister died, and between that adjustment and dealing with his cold, manipulative parents, he seems to have little room for a new relationship. But he’s captivated by Millie, and when she starts teaching the girls at the museum’s summer camp, she fits seamlessly into their lives. Millie doesn’t want to jeopardize her chances at the job and is still working through issues after ending a toxic relationship, so she tries to think of Finn as just a friend—until that boundary becomes impossible to maintain. Some of the conflicts in this series kickoff feel contrived, but the focus is more on the low-angst, feel-good moments, anyway, with some physical passion sprinkled in to turn up the heat. The topics in this story aren’t all light—loss, grief, and

emotional abuse play important roles—but the predominate takeaway is how wonderful it is to have the support of your loved ones. There are many beautifully tender and heartwarming scenes, especially when Finn’s nieces or Millie’s friends and family are involved.

A delectable blend of sugar and spice.

The Broposal

Reyes, Sonora | Forever (384 pp.) | $17.99 paper | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9781538766682

A queer bromance between two Latine men touches on the structural racism in American immigration policy. Roommates Alejandro and Kenny have been close since childhood, but Han’s status as an undocumented Mexican immigrant and Kenny’s relationship with an abusive girlfriend have increasingly strained their bond. Then Kenny breaks up with Jackie, who wants him to choose her over Han, just as Han loses his job and a chance to apply for permanent U.S. residency. When Kenny, who’s bisexual, proposes that the two of them marry to protect Han, who is straight identifying, their troubles seem to be over—but fake love starts to feel all too real, even as the two men are beset by a cascade of problems: Han’s new job at a restaurant is shadowed by fears of deportation and a shady manager’s creative accounting; Jackie continues to reappear like a horror-movie monster; Han’s family trauma ratchets up with his mother’s death back in

Mexico; and he also sustains an injury at work. Reyes’ take on the “fake dating” and “marriage of convenience” tropes focuses on Han’s precarious citizenship as the primary tension in the story, rather than homophobia or the aftereffects of coming out, the more commonplace barriers in a queer romance. The men’s Mexican and Mexican American families are largely supportive, rather than being portrayed as more stereotypically conservative characters, but Jackie is a caricatured spurned woman who uses pregnancy to manipulate people. The two men’s affection and sexual chemistry are fun to read, but several episodes of teary melodrama bog down the book’s second half.

A slightly overwrought but sweet romance for readers who enjoy New Adult angst.

Temple of Swoon

Segura, Jo | Berkley (368 pp.) | $19.00 paper | Jan. 7, 2025 | 9780593547489

A n archaeological hunt in the Brazilian Amazon mixes romance with treasurehunting baddies. In this spinoff from Raiders of the Lost Heart (2023), UC Berkeley archaeologist Miriam Jacobs unexpectedly finds herself heading a search for the Cidade Perdida da Lua—the Lost City of the Moon—in the Brazilian jungle. Jittery about her sudden leadership role, Miriam is determined to channel her mentor, Dr. Corrie Mejía, a famous archaeologist, but worries about her ability to succeed. Accompanying the team is Global Geography reporter Rafael Monfils, who’s secretly trying to sabotage the expedition—his father insists he has a family obligation to keep the city hidden in accordance with the beliefs of his late mother’s Brazilian community. From Rafa and Miriam’s meet-cute at the station where they’ve missed the bus to Manacapuru, where

their team is meeting, to a series of screwball moments spurred by Miriam’s manic-pixie zaniness, the novel is a goofy fantasy à la Romancing the Stone or The Mummy. Both the protagonists and the villains are lightly sketched and there’s little by way of character development or complex motivations. A series of unfortunate escapades culminate in a confrontation with the chief baddie and a revelation of Rafa’s duplicity, which is smoothed over by some hurried sex scenes. The epilogue provides a slightly clunky resolution to the preceding events and gestures in passing to the ethics of archaeological excavations in developing nations.

A frothy read for someone looking for a Lara Croft–esque rom-com.

Earl Crush

Vasti, Alexandra | St. Martin’s Griffin (352 pp.) $18.00 paper | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9781250910967

Proposing to the wrong earl leads to the right love match. Those in London society who have met Miss Lydia HopeWallace know her only as a painfully shy, absurdly wealthy spinster. That’s because almost no one knows that she’s also responsible for the radical pamphlets published by her anonymous alter ego, “H,” on topics like universal suffrage and the right to divorce—not even the Earl of Strathrannoch, with whom H has been corresponding for several years. As a result, things are a bit awkward when she sneaks north to Scotland to propose to the Earl, only to find, when she arrives at his castle, that he actually doesn’t know Lydia or H, and someone else has been writing to her under his name. Arthur Baird, the earl, quickly realizes that his brother, Davis, has been masquerading as him. Though in her embarrassment Lydia tries to escape, the unexpected chaos of a stampeding herd of zebras provides her with a chance to reconsider, and she decides to help

Arthur figure out the mystery behind his brother’s behavior. They are almost immediately attracted to each other, and though Arthur is loathe to get involved with a woman he thinks belongs to his brother, circumstances soon lead them to pretend to be newlyweds, which leads to a series of red-hot encounters and allows both to imagine what it might be like to actually marry. This sequel to Ne’er Duke Well (2024) brings more political intrigue and suspense to the world of the woman-run Belvoir’s Library, with a similar heat level and comedic sensibility. Though the plot is a bit disjointed, the almost-slow-burn chemistry between Arthur and Lydia—and the scorching scenes that follow—keep the pages turning. With the help of a lovely Scottish backdrop (and accents), Vasti’s fans, as well as those looking for a post-Bridgerton story, will be pleased. A Regency with old-school charm and newfangled sensibilities.

Kirkus Star

I Think They Love You

Winters, Julian | St. Martin’s Griffin (336 pp.) | $18.00 paper Jan. 28, 2025 | 9781250326249

When two exes fake a new relationship, it turns into a second chance for both of them.

Denzel Carter is used to being underestimated by his family. He knows what they see in him—someone who’s commitment-phobic—and the truth is that their criticisms aren’t entirely unfounded. But when his

father, the chief executive of their family’s successful event-planning company, announces his retirement, Denz adds his name to the group of people interested in taking over. He can try to convince his family he’s serious about winning the position, but his dating history isn’t a good recommendation for his ability to make a commitment—which is why he makes up a fake boyfriend on the spot. Finding someone to play the part is easier said than done, though, especially after Denz’s first choice bails on him. With nowhere else to turn, Denz reaches out to the last person he wants to fake date: a man with whom he was once in a very real relationship. Braylon Adams isn’t just any ex; he’s the man who moved away from Atlanta and left Denz picking up the pieces of his own heart. Now he’s back in town, and he and Denz just ran into each other in a coffee shop. For Braylon, pretending to pair up with Denz again isn’t completely selfless, but he figures that since they both have ulterior motives, it should be easy to keep this fake-dating situation all business, right? Wrong. As the two men play-act at public displays of affection and send each other increasingly flirty texts, Denz begins to forget how easy it was for Braylon to break his heart the first time, and how it could happen again if he’s not careful. YA writer Winters’ adult debut is a deeply romantic story wrapped up in a conceit that speaks to the complicated history between its characters, with rich flashbacks sprinkled throughout. While we’re privy only to Denz’s inner thoughts, not Braylon’s, his journey toward rediscovering long-buried feelings is fun, messy, and tender.

A sweet, surprisingly emotional romance you won’t be able to put down.

Proposing to the wrong earl leads to the right love match.

EARL CRUSH

Book to Screen

Margaret Qualley

To Star in Victorian Psycho Movie

The film will be based on Virginia Feito’s upcoming novel.

Margaret Qualley is set to star in a film adaptation of Virginia Feito’s upcoming novel, Victorian Psycho,

publisher Liveright announced in a news release.

Feito’s novel, scheduled for publication in February 2025, follows Winifred Notty, a murderous British governess who takes a job working for a hateful family. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Where ironic horror and horrific irony meet, this unbridled madhouse of a novel dazzles like a bloody jewel.” It is the author’s second novel, following the 2021 book Mrs. March, which is also in the works as a film, starring Elisabeth Moss.

Qualley, known for her roles in films including Once

Upon a Time in Hollywood, Poor Things, and The Substance, will play Winifred in the Victorian Psycho adaptation. It will be directed by Zachary Wigon, whose previous films include The Heart Machine and Sanctuary, the latter also starring Qualley.

“Wigon’s direction, paired with Feito’s audacious storytelling and Qualley’s compelling portrayal, promises to make Victorian Psycho one of the most talked-about horror films of the coming year,” Liveright said.

For a review of Victorian Psycho, visit Kirkus online.

Qualley told Deadline, “Working with Zach again feels like a rare gift, and I can’t wait to step into this twisted world he’s created.”

Production on Victorian Psycho is scheduled to begin in March 2025.—M.S.

Margaret Qualley

Nonfiction

BOOKS THAT BRING NEW SOUNDS

IN HIS ANIMATED memoir Patriot (Knopf, Oct. 22), the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny writes about his early love of music—and how he enjoyed sharing it with those around him. It all began when he was about 6. The Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev had died, Alexei’s mother was crying—everyone around him was in mourning—and the cheery lad thought it a fitting occasion to install a speaker by an open window and blast out the jaunty sounds of Italian pop star Adriano Celentano’s “Boots and a Black Fur Hat.” His mother was not pleased. Navalny nevertheless continued deejaying out of windows until he was 20. “What was the point of listening to music if no one else could hear it?” he reasoned.

With winter fast approaching, it might be too cold to open a window and share your favorite music with the world. But the winter holidays are around the corner, and what’s a celebration without music? A bounty of new books just might turn you on to new sounds—or have you listening more closely to ones you’ve long loved.

For starters, it’s a good time to read about Joni Mitchell, the singer-songwriter whose career had a resurgence after she recovered from an aneurysm in 2015. Ann Powers got out of the gate first with Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell (Dey Street, June 11)—“a top-notch music critic set loose on a worthy subject,” our reviewer wrote. Henry Alford follows with I Dream of Joni: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell in 53 Snapshots

(Gallery Books, Jan. 21, 2025). Our reviewer called it a “heartfelt reconsideration of an iconic artist.” Further down the road is Paul Lisicky’s Song So Wild and Blue: A Life With the Music of Joni Mitchell (HarperOne, Feb. 25, 2025).

It’s also a season of divas. There is Rob Sheffield’s Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music (Dey Street, Nov. 12). Our critic praised it as “an affectionate homage from an ardent fan.” And there’s Rachel Feder and Tiffany Tatreau’s Taylor Swift by the Book: The Literature Behind the Lyrics, From Fairy Tales to Tortured Poets (Quirk Books, Nov. 26), described by our reviewer as “an accessible and incisive analysis of a star’s appeal.”

Let’s not forget the “Goddess of Pop”: Cher: The Memoir came out this fall (Dey Street, Nov. 19). Sorry, fans, you’ll have to wait until 2025 for the book’s second part.

JOHN McMURTRIE

Maya Angela Smith, meantime, looks back at a late diva, Nina Simone, in Ne Me Quitte Pas (Duke Univ., Feb. 25, 2025). The book focuses on the famous song of the book’s title, examining, in our reviewer’s words, “how race and gender have factored into the performance and reception of the piece.”

More interested in classical divas? Dana Gioia sings the praises of opera in the “smart, lively” Weep, Shudder, Die: On Opera and Poetry (Paul Dry Books, Dec. 3).

Finally, for straight-up classical Christmas fare, it’s hard to top Handel’s Messiah. Charles King’s ode to the oratory piece is Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah (Doubleday, Oct. 29). Our critic hailed it as “a swiftly moving, constantly engaging portrait of a beloved masterpiece”—one you can blast out your window.

John McMurtrie is the nonfiction editor.

Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson

Peering into the past—his own and ours.

In this epic telling, Lewis, the distinguished historian, examines the intersection of history with his ancestors in the South of slavery, Jim Crow, and the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement. The titular window stands in an Atlanta church whose pictorial rendering of the Gospels was “twinned with illustrations of the Negro’s emancipation and rise.” That rise, Lewis demonstrates, was long in coming. In his graceful narrative, interwoven with historical detail, Lewis pores over old census records to locate lost ancestors hidden away in the rolls of “one of the South’s grandest slaveholding dynasties,” one of the outposts of a system of

enslavement that “functioned as a vast concentration camp from which flowed the enormous wealth that made the industrial North possible.” In that setting, Lewis relates meaningful stories of resistance, such as the mass suicide of a shipload of kidnapped Ibo warriors in 1803, an event sealed in the memory of the Gullah people in the Georgia isles but “quickly forgotten by white people at the time for its bizarreness.” The event speaks to the terrible irony of Georgia’s one-time, short-lived stance as the only Southern colony without slavery, thanks to the abolitionist views of Gov. James Edward Oglethorpe: after him, Georgia jumped full tilt into slavery, developing a culture in which racial

The Stained Glass Window: A Family History as the American Story, 1790-1958

Lewis, David Levering | Penguin Press 384 pp. | $35.00 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9781984879905

mixing was prevalent but  unspoken, even as the “one-drop rule” was enshrined. “The antebellum South kept its sexual history secret by enforcing the illiteracy of all but 3 or 4 percent of its almost four million enslaved people,” Lewis writes, but many of the photographs herein break that silence. Elsewhere, Lewis

writes of his family’s pioneering roles in education and commerce, always requiring resistance to white supremacist power and “apartheid reality” that, Lewis makes clear, is ongoing. Rich in family lore and historical fact, and a thoughtful addition to the literature of Black life in the American South.

Plundered: How Racist Policies Undermine Black Homeownership in America

Atuahene, Bernadette | Little, Brown (368 pp.) $32.50 | Jan. 28, 2025 | 9780316572217

A dissection of the harm imposed on Black homeowners by Detroit’s property tax regime. Atuahene, a law professor at the University of Southern California and the author of We Want What’s Ours, braids personal stories with an analysis of Detroit’s policies on real property to produce an engaging and informative assessment of yet another way that racism permeates American society. The injustices inherent to the property tax system, she claims, fall mainly on Black homeowners, destabilizing their lives and hampering their ability to build wealth. As evidence, she offers quantitative data on racial disparities along with the stories of two families, one Black and one white: Tommie Brown Jr., a Southerner who migrated to Detroit in the 1920s, and Paris Bucci, who came from Italy in the same decade. Brown and his descendants remained in the city, went into debt due to their “illegally inflated property values,” and eventually lost the family home. The Buccis left for the suburbs and established housing tenure and a stable life. Atuahene’s careful detailing of property tax assessment, state equalization regulations, land banking, foreclosures, eviction processes, and Wayne County’s balancing its budget on Detroit’s flawed property tax makes a convincing case. Her attention to “predatory governance,” her revelations of how investors, speculators, slumlords, and governments benefit from property tax injustice, and her acknowledgment of the difficulty of providing safe and affordable homes in Detroit earn her book further praise. As for who is responsible, she is clear: “Individual efforts are no match for broken systems.” An eye-opening examination of property tax and how it factored into racial injustice.

Kirkus Star

An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence

Badawi, Zeinab | Mariner Books (544 pp.)

$32.50 | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9780063335417

An immersive and passionate history of Africa from the earliest times to the present. Africa’s representation has long been riddled with stereotypes and errors indicative of widespread refusal to take its history seriously. Mainstream news coverage and cultural productions about the continent prioritize poverty, violence, and kleptocratic leaders. Badawi’s dazzling book rejects these racist caricatures in favor of a “holistic” and “honest” history that treats African history and humanity in its fullness. “I aim,” she writes, “to provide a counter-balance to the many negative perceptions of the continent and its people.” Badawi weaves a lustrous tapestry of Africa’s past that centers the African protagonists whose triumphs and defeats deserve more attention. She brings welcome attention to lesser-known figures, including women, who are difficult to locate in historical sources but who nonetheless shaped history. Famous African women leaders Hatshepsut, Cleopatra, Queen Kahina, Njinga, and Yaa Asantewaa all receive substantive treatment here. Yet Badawi also evokes less visible histories: for instance, her engrossing portrait of events in the Senegalese kingdom Nder in 1819, when women resisted an Arab slaving raid first by defending themselves with whatever weapons were on hand. When it became clear they could not defeat the slavers, they chose death, locking themselves in a village structure and setting it aflame. Badawi’s account of this “heroic sacrifice” renders an indelible image of ordinary African women as historical actors. Relying on local African

experts to disrupt misguided Western narratives and emphasizing Africa’s history before European colonization, Badawi takes readers on a personal journey steeped in wonder and care for the continent and its peoples. Her crystalline, sometimes lighthearted writing propels the journey across every region of the continent, illuminating political, religious, and military histories and the personalities that enlivened them. This is not an academic text, as Badawi readily acknowledges. But it is a learned text, one that delivers on its promise of narrating an African history of Africa. An elegant and vibrant African history that will appeal to novices and experts alike.

How the World Eats: A Global Food Philosophy

Baggini, Julian | Pegasus (464 pp.)

$32.00 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781639368198

A sometimes contrarian philosophy of food and its creation and consumption. By British philosopher and journalist Baggini’s account, there are food systems, and then there is the “sphere of human existence which they govern, guide and control.” This sphere he calls the “food world,” “an organic ecosystem, in which every part is connected to every other.” Within this ecosystem, more than a quarter of the people on Earth lack nutritious food in quantities sufficient to sustain them—though, as Baggini notes, a parallel if counterintuitive development is the rise in obesity rates in about equal number, and both hunger and obesity speak to “our broken food world.” In proposing repairs, Baggini is refreshingly adaptable, and though he risks courting purist rancor, he advocates a mixed diet that makes use of whatever is fresh and seasonal with whatever is available, which includes meat (“Is disgust at meat eating really

a sign of more civilised society or simply a mark of one that has become detached from the realities of life and death?”). Baggini also adds wrinkles to accepted narratives: as gauged by the biodiversity of gut flora, one good measure of food health, the problem is not so much that the gatherers and hunters are better off than those settled in urban agricultural societies as that processed food, which we moderns tend to rely on, is a guaranteed detriment to a good “gut microbiome.” Baggini also suggests that organic production is good but not always possible, that food governance is a matter of national interest and thus not to be left to the “free market,” and that technology (including lab-grown meat) is not to be shunned in the quest to feed the world.

A provocative, intelligent survey of the many complexities, moral and practical, of bringing food to our plates.

Fearless and Free: A Memoir

Baker, Josephine | Trans. by Anam Zafar & Sophie Lewis | Tiny Reparations (304 pp.) $32.00 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780593853696

A freewheeling account of the boundary-smashing entertainer’s first four decades.

First published in 1949, this is less a memoir than a transcription by French journalist Marcel Sauvage (whose original introduction is included) of conversations he had over the course of 15 years with expatriate American sensation Josephine Baker (1906-75). Born in St. Louis, Baker left her impoverished family at 16 and was on Broadway at 17 in the chorus of the landmark Black musical Shuffle Along. Still a teenager, she hit Paris in 1925 and rocketed to fame for her uninhibited dancing; surviving film documents her charisma and acrobatic gyrations. All factual details about her life and career, including multiple marriages and affairs, must

Fleeing from home at age 16—and making her mark in Paris.

FEARLESS AND

FREE

be gleaned in passing from Baker’s decidedly impressionistic recollections, which ramble unabashedly to give a vivid impression of her ebullient personality, extravagant love for animals, and overflowing generosity for the world’s unfortunates. Extensive touring in Europe, North Africa, and South America prompted endless protests about her “immorality,” usually fostered by the Catholic Church, but proved a useful cover for her intelligence work for the Free French during World War II. Despite conservative criticisms, Baker felt freer and more accepted in France than she had as a girl in the United States, and she is forthright about her indignation over the racism she encountered on a postwar American visit; she served in the fight against Germany “because of their race policy,” she comments, but “I found it again, more insidious, more hideous, perhaps, among the people who claimed to fight against it,” in the North as well as the South. (Her comments about exploitive Jewish landlords and shop owners in Harlem, though balanced by condemnation of American antisemitism, prompt a nervous disclaimer in this volume’s foreword.) The book closes with verbal snapshots of her many famous friends. Baker’s charmingly scattershot reminiscences flag the need for a full-scale biography of this remarkable woman.

The Last Peasant War: Violence and Revolution in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe

Beneš, Jakub S. | Princeton Univ. (384 pp.) $39.95 | Jan. 28, 2025 | 9780691212531

When peasants put up a fight. At the outset of World War I, agricultural communities in belligerent nations provided many of the soldiers who fought in the conflict. But a large number of those peasant farmers, especially in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, decided either to evade the draft or, once in uniform, desert. These “green cadres” took to the woods near their home communities or in areas away from government control. Their families and neighbors gave them what support they could; in turn, the deserters would help with harvest or other farmwork. Urban aristocrats, landlords, and merchants—especially Jews—were seen as class enemies in farm country. After the war, the green cadres in Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Serbia, Croatia, and other newly independent nations sought to break away from central authority. In the early 1920s, several rural areas declared their own independent peasant nations—all of which were crushed forcibly. More successful were efforts to create political parties supporting agrarian interests. Both right-wing and communist activists tried to cash in on these peasant movements, and for a while there were competing international organizations representing agrarian interests. Beneš, a scholar at University College London, chronicles the ups and downs of these

For more about Josephine Baker, visit Kirkus online.

movements and their leaders in more detail than the casual reader might find interesting. With the coming of World War II, the peasant movements often morphed into resistance groups, but both the Nazis and Soviets were relentless in trying to extirpate them. By the mid-1950s, the mechanization of farmwork and the migration to cities did the rest, effectively eradicating any power the peasants ever had. A thorough overview of a widespread but little-known revolution.

Dangerous Learning: The South’s Long War on Black Literacy

Black, Derek W. | Yale Univ. (360 pp.)

$35.00 | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9780300272826

Chronicling the history of Black reading and writing. This important history argues that the teaching of reading to people of African ancestry, from the antebellum period onward, has been perceived as a great threat to entrenched political and social power. It tells the story of men and women who risked their lives to learn—to read and write. In the process, they sought to educate their peers to make them participants in American democracy. Figures such as Denmark Vesey, Daniel Payne, Susie King Taylor, and Charlotte Forten come alive in the author’s vivid prose. This book shows them to be as important in the history of Black freedom as more familiar writers such as Nat Turner and Frederick Douglass. Douglass famously wrote that if you teach a Black man “how to read, there will be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave.” Black, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, builds on Douglass’ observation to show that the fight for freedom is the fight for literacy—whether that fight went on in the plantations of the 1830s, the schoolrooms of the Reconstruction era, or the courts of the 20th century. The

An absorbing memoir of shocking loss and protracted grief.

MEMORIAL DAYS

Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education takes on a new meaning in the context of the fight for Black people to go to school, not just to be socially integrated but to be as literate and powerful as all Americans. The author concludes: “Though it is a functional skill, literacy is more than that. Enslaved and freed people’s literacy journeys are journeys of becoming—becoming whatever it was they hoped and dreamed to be and had the capacity to be. They are stories of people taking full ownership of their personal destiny.” In our own time, when voters are again subjected to tests of reading and identity, when books are being banned, and when access to truth is challenged by disinformation, the stories of the brave men and women in this book stand out as moral lessons for the modern reader.

A brilliant and thought-provoking study of Black literacy in America.

Memorial Days: A Memoir

Brooks, Geraldine | Viking (224 pp.)

$28.00 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780593653982

Finding an island for grief.

On Memorial Day, 2019, Tony Horwitz, Brooks’ 60-year-old husband, collapsed on a street in Washington, D.C., and died. In the days and months that followed, Brooks found herself hiding behind a “heavy and elaborate” facade, “a fugitive from my own feelings.” Finally, in February 2023, she traveled to a remote island off the coast of her native Australia to allow herself to mourn. In alternating chapters,

Brooks creates an absorbing memoir of shocking loss and protracted grief as she reflects on her marriage, her driven, Type A husband, and her future alone. She and Horwitz met at a party when they were graduate students at Columbia Journalism School. A bit shy, she couldn’t help but notice the “tanned, tousle-haired blond in overalls and red sneakers, regaling the small group on the balcony with the woes of living with his brother in Alphabet City,” a rough section of Manhattan. They both went on to successful careers as journalists, including working as foreign correspondents with posts in Cairo, London, and Sydney, where she had hoped they would settle as a family. But Horwitz needed to be in the U.S., preferably within walking distance to a newsstand and coffee shop. After their son was born, when she no longer wanted to go on risky assignments, he encouraged her to try to write fiction. She was in the middle of her novel Horse when he died.

Brooks pays homage to the loving, gregarious Horwitz, lashes out at America’s flawed medical system, and deftly conveys the ongoing reverberations of her shattering experience. Like other widowed writers (Joan Didion, Joyce Carol Oates), Brooks both relives the trauma of her husband’s death and keeps his cherished memory alive. A graceful and moving meditation on bereavement.

For more books by Geraldine Brooks, visit Kirkus online.

Dreaming

in Ensemble: How Black Artists Transformed American Opera

Caplan, Lucy | Harvard Univ. (336 pp.)

$35.00 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780674268517

A professor examines Black opera artists’ struggle for recognition. In 1925, more than 250 Black sopranos entered the Ferrari Fontana Vocal Trials at a Harlem branch of New York Public Library. The prize was free vocal lessons from the tenor and the start of an opera career. That the winners received neither lessons nor a career had much to do with “the racist ideology and practices that barred them from major US operatic institutions.” Fortunately, that “never prevented Black artists from engaging with opera in creative and complex ways.” In this well-researched study of Black soloists, composers, supernumeraries, and others from the first half of the 20th century, most of them women, Caplan, a historian on race and culture, tells the story of their “transformative impact on opera.” She coins the term “Black operatic counterculture” to refer to Black artists’ efforts to redefine opera and “yield new artistic and political meanings.” Among the artists she celebrates are Shirley Graham, whose 1932 opera Tom-Tom was “the first opera by a Black woman produced by a major opera company,” and Marian Anderson, who in 1955 made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, “the first time the company would engage a Black singer in a leading role.” Not surprisingly for a scholarly work, this book has dense thickets of academic prose, such as when Caplan writes that Sylvester Russell, a Black theater critic, had “reoriented prominent models of cultural hierarchy toward liberatory ends.” That’s a pity, especially for a book about an art form often accused of being elitist and difficult. But readers untroubled by tall weeds will find a thoughtful introduction to figures who deserved greater fame and a

sobering account of the racism they endured, as when instructors told soprano Anita Patti Brown that she had talent but would never become an opera star because “your color is against you.” An ambitious, demanding work on neglected Black artists.

Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart

Carr, Nicholas | Norton (272 pp.)

$29.99 | Jan. 28, 2025 |

9781324064619

A call to change our relationship with communication technologies. If a little of something is good, then more must be better, and a lot more must be much better.

According to journalist and author Carr, this assumption is longstanding, straightforward, and terribly wrong—at least when applied to communications technology. The theme of his book is that social media has taken over our society with such speed that we have not been able to absorb its ramifications or develop mechanisms to effectively control it. Carr has already addressed some of these ideas in a previous book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, but here he delves more deeply. He brings together the opinions of commentators who had once applauded the rise of social media but now see it as personally dangerous and socially disastrous, and he cites a convincing body of research as well. Many young people in particular seem to have lost the capacity and willingness to engage with life beyond the screen, even as they exhibit unprecedented levels of depression, anxiety, and pessimism. Some of this is due to the addictive nature of the technology itself, but more of it comes from a failure to confront our own fears and weaknesses. Reality is difficult; the screen offers an easy escape. “That’s the trick for us humans, to sense the real world appropriately and often enough,” Carr writes. “It’s a trick we’ll

need to relearn if we hope to escape imprisonment in the hyperreal.” Carr persuasively sounds the alarm about the destructive nature of social media and the corporations that control it.

Out of Your Mind: The Biggest Mysteries of the Human Brain

Cham, Jorge & Dwayne Godwin

Pantheon (336 pp.) | $28.00 Jan. 28, 2025 | 9780593317358

Unlocking the mysteries of the brain. The authors of this book would seem to be an odd couple. Godwin is a neuroscientist and Cham draws funny little cartoons. Yet together they make brain science—an extremely complicated subject—accessible to the general reader. Moving through history, they examine how the brain’s secrets have been slowly revealed. Sophisticated scanning equipment has provided crucial clues in understanding how the brain is compartmentalized. Some researchers approached the brain through psychoanalysis and experiments about thinking processes. Godwin and Cham look at why people love and hate, which is connected to reward mechanisms in the brain. Similar patterns show up in addiction, whether to substances or social media. They also study the role that chemicals in the brain play in happiness and whether free will is real—or just a convenient fiction. But even as they accept the importance of brain mechanics, they veer away from the idea that all human decisions are preordained by chemistry. There are too many environmental and genetic variables, they say, and there is too much that we don’t know about the intricacies of neuron behavior. In fact, science has only scratched the surface of the subject. Cham’s drawings turn complexity into amusing simplicity. “The mind remains a great frontier,” the

authors write. “We need thinkers and artists to join us in exploring the perplexing cosmos within our heads.”

An entertaining examination of fundamental questions about what makes us human.

Interficial Artelligence: The Moments That Met Me

Chuck D | Enemy Books/Akashic (240 pp.)

$24.95 paper | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781636142043

An iconic MC sketches out his brushes with music, sports, and political celebrities. Though not exactly a memoir and not arranged chronologically, this book by the Public Enemy frontman and accomplished graphic novelist (Summer of Hamn, 2023, etc.) does capture key moments on his path from Long Island deliveryman to hip-hop royalty. Each page typically features an ink-and-watercolor rendering of the person he met, along with some handwritten commentary. The drawings have a hasty-looking but still careful aesthetic—his renderings are remarkably accurate. Unsurprisingly, many of the subjects hail from the worlds of hip-hop and R&B: Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, Mavis Staples, Erykah Badu, and more. But there are some surprises, like Fox News chief Roger Ailes (who briefly hired Chuck D as an on-air analyst), Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, and Prince, seen administering a yard sale at his studio. He shares a few examples of awkward interactions—Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, a counterpoint to D’s late-’90s enthusiasm for file sharing, and Percy Sledge, whom D mistook for Fats Domino on a plane. And he remains a supporter of the controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, rendered here as a peacekeeper during the East Coast–West Coast rap wars and the Million Man March of 1995. But generally, his commentary reflects admiration and wide-eyed astonishment that he got to breathe the same air as the named

celebrity. To that end, this book feels like a missed opportunity: You sense that D could create a full-dress graphic memoir and say much more about the likes of Spike Lee and his longtime friend and sidekick Flavor Flav, or moments that cry out for more explanation, like a concert at a Cleveland roller rink where he performed on skates. An artful book that just scratches the surface of D’s life in hip-hop.

The Gloomy Girl Variety Show: A Memoir

Epum, Freda | Feminist Press (224 pp.)

$17.95 paper | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9781558613102

A writer and artist muses on mental illness and identity. The Arizonaborn daughter of Nigerian immigrants, Epum felt profoundly alienated, not just from her family but also from American culture. Her isolation eventually gave rise to a “crisis of identity” and displacement, both of which manifested in young adulthood as body dysmorphia, anxiety, and recurring bouts of depression. Building her narrative on the concept of a house hunt, Epum explores moments in the struggles that drove her to “find the cure to my weeping” and a place to call home. As she expresses her personal fragmentation by moving between a past and a present she punctuates with photographs, drawings, and other artwork, the author dissects memories—like those involving American pop songs mythologizing Africa as a place of “drums, rain, and wild dogs” and the “ten pounds of racial slurs” she carried from living in a brown

body—that she associates with her identity crisis. After college her internalized self-hatred metamorphosed into voices that claimed Epum was a “stupid, crazy bitch” no one wanted. The author then began a series of psychiatric hospital stays that offered only modest improvement. Desperate to break the cycle of hospitalization and to avoid becoming an “unemployed zombie,” she went to Ohio to pursue a writing MFA. There, she came to accept her “intersectional identity—raced and disabled”; as she did, Epum also found nonjudgmental love and an unexpected homecoming to herself through the words she did not know would save her. As it examines the relationship between illness and xenophobia, this book also celebrates a resilient woman’s hard-won understanding of the meaning of home in a racist world determined to annihilate her spirit. A unique memoir about the struggle to find wholeness in a white supremacist society.

Kirkus Star

The Lost and the Found: A True Story of Homelessness, Found Family, and Second Chances

Fagan, Kevin | One Signal/Atria (288 pp.)

$29.99 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9781668017111

Putting a face on people who don’t have homes. The homeless epidemic afflicts every American city, and yet San Francisco has often been designated by the national news media as the homeless

Giving voice to often-anonymous individuals who live on mean streets.

THE LOST AND THE FOUND

capital of America. After all, as veteran San Francisco Chronicle reporter Kevin Fagan writes, “If you have to be homeless, there’s no better place than San Francisco. This is where the booze and dope are plentiful, the cops are lax, and the homeless culture is so widespread you can disappear into it.” With compassion, an eye for detail, and an instinct for the human stories behind the statistics, Fagan gives voice to the often-anonymous individuals propelled on downward spirals that take them from suburbia and middle-class comforts to mean streets rife with panhandling, AIDS, fentanyl, disease, and death. When needed, Fagan brings in facts: 35% of San Francisco’s unhoused are Black, yet they make up only 6% of the population. Born and raised in the Bay Area and briefly homeless himself, Fagan knows what it’s like to be without a bed at the end of the day. In his book, he focuses on a traffic island that’s dubbed “Homeless Island.” Perched between the Tenderloin and Mission districts, it’s not far from City Hall. Fagan contrasts Homeless Island with the beauty and wealth of a city that has long prided itself on its caring—but that often doesn’t want to acknowledge the waves of refugees from elsewhere who arrive without resources and must find a space on a sidewalk or under a bridge. “The Shame of the City,” a Chronicle series on homelessness that Fagan produced, helped inspire California Gov. Gavin Newsom to create “Homeward Bound,” a program that reunites the unhoused with family and friends. Like that series, this book is powerful, offering a humanizing and hopeful portrait of an abiding problem.

A rare look at citizens often denied their dignity.

Kirkus Star

Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope

Flowers, Catherine Coleman

Spiegel & Grau (240 pp.) | $28.00 Jan. 28, 2025 | 9781954118683

A tireless advocate for civil rights takes stock of the current moment. Flowers, founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice and recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, writes with passion and gracefulness about her life and experiences as an advocate for the rural poor. While she is best known for her work to secure safe water and sanitation for people living near toxic conditions, Flowers recounts a varied and fascinating career of advocacy for marginalized communities, full of encounters with politicians and other notable figures. Flowers includes pointed analyses of reproductive liberty, the neglect of the rural poor, the cowardice of politicians, and the avarice of the wealthy, along with absorbing personal reflections on the power of religious faith, community, food, and the pain of personal loss. She is unapologetically progressive in her political commitments, heaping withering scorn on the Tennessee legislators who censured Black legislators for speaking out against gun violence after the Covenant School shootings and on the Republicans who rushed to restrict reproductive freedom after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade. Yet she includes surprising sympathetic assessments of staunch conservatives such as Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, suggesting that sensitivity to the plight of the rural poor—a group often forgotten by urban progressives—can cross ideological divides. The book is a collection of essays rather than a chronologically organized autobiography, but it coheres in both tone and substance.

A passionate and thoughtful exploration of social injustice.

The Portable Feminist Reader

Ed. by Gay, Roxane | Penguin Classics (672 pp.) | $25.00 paper Feb. 18, 2025 | 9780143110392

A compendium of feminist perspectives. Essayist, memoirist, and fiction writer Gay represents the history, scope, and challenges of feminism in a judicious selection of 65 pieces, some written by iconic feminist writers (bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Susan B. Anthony), others by collectives, and still others by lesser-known voices. Citing “dynamism” as her guiding principle, Gay has chosen works that are articulate, diverse, and hard-hitting. “I believe there is a feminist canon,” Gay writes, “one that is subjective and always evolving, but also representative of a long, rich tradition of feminist scholarship.” The pieces are grouped into eight thematic sections. Foundational texts include a statement of guiding principles for the 2017 Women’s March; early feminist texts begin with 16th-century scholar Henricus Cornelius Agrippa’s defense of women’s superiority and includes Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Anthony’s argument for women’s right to vote.

Other well-known pieces include Judy Brady’s wry “I Want a Wife,” a 1970 essay reprinted in the first issue of Ms. magazine; Rebecca Solnit’s “Men Explain Things to Me”; and Gloria Steinem’s “If Men Could Menstruate.” There are also fresh surprises: “The Woman-Identified Woman,” a manifesto written by six women calling themselves Radicalesbians, argues that lesbianism is central to feminist politics “as an identity of political, cultural, and erotic resistance to patriarchy.” In “Girl,” novelist Alexander Chee reflects on gender fluidity, remembering being mistaken for a girl when he was growing up and revealing

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the beauty he finds when he puts on drag. With its capacious perspective, the collection speaks to a range of feminist concerns, past, present, and future. As Gay notes, “women’s bodies, movements, and choices are contingent on the whims of men in power. We have made progress but we are not yet free.” A timely, spirited collection.

Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People To Find Their Lost Families

Giesberg, Judith Ann | Simon & Schuster (336 pp.) | $29.99 Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781982174323

Tough-minded appraisal of a particularly fraught aspect of post–Civil War history. Newspaper ads seeking information about missing family members, some published as late as 1916, attest to the determination of emancipated African Americans to find children, spouses, and siblings from whom they were separated. (Villanova University historian Giesberg has assembled an online archive of some 4,500 of these ads, the Last Seen Project, to assist people looking for their ancestors.) But feel-good reports of miraculous reunions and tear-jerking accounts of mothers’ quests for long-lost children are confined in this unflinching book to contemporary stories in white newspapers, which in Giesberg’s assessment were part of white America’s ongoing efforts to minimize the lasting damage inflicted by the institution of slavery. She contrasts these newspapers’ reports of one woman’s “pitiful quest for her daughter” or the “affecting meeting of two sisters”—short on particulars about their Black subjects and long on reassuring mentions of the Underground Railroad (stressing white abolitionists’ participation)—with the listings African Americans provided, which offered as many facts as they could about relatives often sold far away and perhaps with

names changed by new owners. The precarious existence many Black people led after emancipation can be judged by the woman advertising in 1866 for news of her eight children sold, because “she is growing old and needs help.” Giesberg uses 10 individual cases as springboards for examinations of broad topics: the ugly realities of slavery, brutal working and living conditions, and the callous separation of families; the brief euphoria of the Reconstruction years, when political and civil rights seemed within grasp for African Americans; and the grim aftermath in which nascent rights were abrogated, often violently. Black institution building and communal support are also spotlighted, but this unvarnished account reminds us that centuries of suffering have yet to be fully acknowledged or atoned for. Informative and sobering.

Kirkus Star

The Shortest History of Migration: When, Why, and How Humans Move―From the Prehistoric Peopling of the Planet to Today and Tomorrow’s Migrants

Goldin, Ian | The Experiment (304 pp.)

$16.95 paper | Jan. 28, 2025 | 9798893030600

An expansive, equity-based history of human migration.

For Goldin, migration is a “deeply personal” topic: his grandparents and his father fled antisemitic violence in their home countries, while Goldin himself left his home in South Africa as a result of his principled opposition to the apartheid regime. In this volume, the author traces the social, political, and cultural contexts that shaped migration long before his own family made their decisions to leave and that continue to contribute to economic and social equalities in modern times. Goldin writes, “Understanding why inequality persists and

how it can be addressed requires that we understand migration.” What follows this personal introduction is a sweeping survey of the causes and consequences of immigration, beginning with the ever-changing scientific evidence informing the dispersal of the first humans from Africa and continuing through the development of ancient international trade routes like the Silk Road; the rise of involuntary migration through indentured servitude and slavery; the ways in which colonialism continues to influence modern times; and the genocide that too often prompted or accompanied mass migrations. This deeply researched book is full of surprising truths, such as the nationalist and capitalistic reasoning behind issuing passports—a practice that, incidentally, began surprisingly recently—and the role diseases played in sealing previously porous borders. Goldin’s crisp analysis, combined with his thorough research, results in a work that draws clear connections between ancient events and the modern world. His use of an equity lens is extraordinarily effective at uncovering patterns that underly our current discourse; his argument that, economically, “migration more than repays any initial expense” is particularly compelling.

A compulsively readable, trenchantly argued analysis of equity and immigration.

Kirkus Star

Alligator Tears: A Memoir in Essays

Gomez, Edgar | Crown (256 pp.)

$28.00 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9780593728543

The coming-ofage of a queer Latinx Floridian, part two. “I was the person who got expelled from high school, who mopped up lube at the sex club, and some how I’d stumbled into this

alternate universe where I was also the person who lived with his boyfriend in New York (albeit in a fake room), had a book soon-to-be out, and an inbox full of journalists asking me about my ‘process.’” In a follow-up to his much-awarded debut memoir of growing up gay between Florida and Nicaragua, High-Risk Homosexual , Gomez gives a book-length answer to the question of his process. Though his 30-something years may seem few for two memoirs, this time he tells the story largely in terms of work: a meticulously evoked and darkly comic series of jobs in bars, restaurants, retail (readers may find the Flip Flop Shop taking up a permanent, coconut-scented place in their minds), and, briefly, sex work. Through it all, he clung ferociously to the idea that he was a writer.

“‘People like you get to make art too!’ I’d hype myself up in the shower.” His fierce love for his mother, a beloved barista at the airport Starbucks, again shines through the pages, and in a section that will mean a lot to aspiring memoirists, he recalls how the joy of his first publication was laced with terror that she would read the book, whose evolution he hid from her. He continues to contend with the legacy of the Pulse nightclub massacre, with homophobia, and with racism, but he also comes to a heartening conclusion: “In fact, it was a privilege to be gay.…It was because of my queerness that I was able to see how the paths set out for me weren’t enough, pushing me to leave home in search of more.”

This portrait of the artist as a young flip-flop salesman will inspire, amuse, and empower its audience.

Accidental Shepherd: How a California Girl Rescued an Ancient Mountain Farm in Norway

Greensfelder, Liese | Univ. of Minnesota (280 pp.) | $27.95 Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781517917661

A real-life adventure story set in the wilds of Norway.

“A California girl,” as she calls herself in her memoir, Greensfelder came of age in the counterculture and rubbed shoulders with Beat poets. Her adventures didn’t begin until she settled on a remote farm in Norway, not knowing any Norwegian and knowing little about farming. When the owner of the farm was hospitalized and unable to work, the young Californian took over the operation and learned about raising sheep for meat, not wool, and learned about the customs of a traditional agricultural community. She also learned to speak Norwegian; her narrative is peppered with Norwegian words. Strong on ethnography, it’s a reliable guide to the kind of rural life that no longer exists—tractors replaced horses—and the kind of insular farmers who have largely vanished along with an ancient culture rooted in the land and its spirits. This gritty memoir is a testament to the resilience of an outsider who not only made her way in a patriarchal society but also became a Norwegian celebrity: Years ago, she wrote and published an account of her experiences that became a bestseller in Norway. In this book, she returns to her days as a shepherd and describes her loneliness, her longing for companionship and

A gritty memoir by an outsider who made her way in a patriarchal society.

Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America From Around the Globe

Hakimi Zapata, Natasha | The New Press (432 pp.) | $30.99 Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781620978443

A tour of progressive countries and their solutions to problems of social issues such as education and health care. An American resident in Europe, Hakimi Zapata tours the world to analyze the ways in which developed nations have enacted programs leading to progress in meeting social needs. “I became convinced that as we fight for a more equitable and sustainable existence,” she writes, “progressives need to arm themselves with tried-and-tested ideas that provide clear inspiration for our own policies.” In recent memory, she notes by way of example, health care in Britain was a congeries of charity hospitals, rural clinics, and private practices that confined good medical care to those who could afford it, leaving the rest to fend for themselves, very much like America today. Reforms enacted by social activists and strong political leadership led to the national program that, despite the cries of right-wing critics, actually works quite well: As Hakimi Zapata notes, her out-of-pocket payments have been confined to a few vaccinations not covered by national insurance for travel abroad. One such country a couple of generations ago was Singapore, where every citizen has access to housing—and, more, to homeownership, a stake in the game. Norway, once a highly conservative society, leads the world in social programs that include evenly shared,

>>> romance, and her remarkable ability to labor in a hardscrabble environment. A sobering and insightful account of one woman’s time in a place that time forgot.

SEEN AND HEARD

Memoir by Prabal Gurung Coming in 2025

The fashion designer will tell the story of his life and career in Walk Like a Girl.

Designer Prabal Gurung will tell the story of his life and fashion industry career in a new memoir.

Viking will publish Gurung’s Walk Like a Girl next spring, the press announced in a news release. It describes the book as “a captivating, courageous literary memoir” and “a testament to the transformative power of creativity, and

a celebration of the power of femininity and individuality.”

Gurung, a native of Singapore, was raised in Nepal and studied fashion at the National Institute of Fashion Technology in New Delhi and the Parsons School of Design in New York. He launched his eponymous collection in 2009; his designs have been worn by Vice President Kamala Harris, former first lady Michelle Obama, and Catherine, Princess of Wales.

His book, Viking says, “is the story of a queer boy who yearned for a world beyond the confines of prejudice he experienced growing up.… A defiant anthem for the soul, Walk Like a Girl is an invitation to rewrite your story.”

Gurung announced his book on Instagram, writing, “Walk Like a Girl has been a cathartic and emotional journey of self-discovery and healing. Of dreams, heartaches, and hope. After six years of crafting this story, I’m finally ready to share it with you.”

Walk Like a Girl is scheduled for publication on May 13, 2025.—M.S.

For another fashion memoir, visit Kirkus online.

Prabal Gurung

Memoir by Tina Knowles Coming in 2025

The mother of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles will tell her life story in Matriarch.

Tina Knowles, the mother of pop stars Beyoncé and Solange Knowles, will tell her life story in a new memoir, the Associated Press reports.

Random House will publish the fashion designer and philanthropist’s Matriarch next year. An Amazon page for the book describes it as “a glorious chronicle of a life like none other—enlightening, entertaining, surprising, empowering—and a testament to the world-changing power of Black motherhood.”

Knowles worked as a makeup artist, choreographer, and beautician before she began designing costumes for Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé’s hugely popular group. She wrote about the group’s style in

SEEN AND HEARD

the 2002 book Destiny’s Style: Bootylicious Fashion, Beauty and Lifestyle Secrets From Destiny’s Child

She told the AP, “I am calling this book Matriarch because what inspires me is the wisdom that women pass on to each other, generation to generation— and the inner wisdom we long to uncover in ourselves. Even at 70 I am still learning valuable lessons—that I never would have had at 40 or even 20. So, I have decided to tell my story, because I know what it means to me and my daughters and future generations of women.”

Knowles announced her memoir on Instagram, writing, “I hope this book can help someone to not make some of the mistakes that I made for not really knowing what I wanted or what I needed and how much I deserved it.”

Matriarch is slated for publication on April 22, 2025.—M.S.

For more on women, style, and aging, visit Kirkus online.

Tina Knowles

EDITORS’ PICKS:

Narwhal: Unicorn of the Arctic by Candace Flemming, illus. by Deena So’Oteh (Anne Schwartz/Random)

Consider the Turkey by Peter Singer (Princeton Univ.)

Model Home by Rivers Solomon (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

Naked Girl by Janna Brooke Wallack

Journey of Awakening and Higher Consciousness by Jane Kim Yu

Through the Riptide by Phyllis Fahrie and Bert Murray

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.

Fully Booked

An unlikely entourage attempts a Galapagos utopia in Eden Undone BY MEGAN LABRISE

EPISODE 395: ABBOTT KAHLER

On this episode of Fully Booked, Abbott Kahler joins us to discuss Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II (Crown, Sept. 24), a spooky, spirited, seductive page-turner sure to titillate thriller fans and history buffs. Kahler (formerly Karen Abbott) is the author of four New York Times bestselling works of narrative nonfiction, including the Gypsy Rose Lee biography American Rose and The Ghosts of Eden Park, which shares its subject with the podcast she hosts, Remus: The Mad Bootleg King. Her debut novel, Where You End, a psychological thriller inspired by a true story of twins and amnesia, was the CBS New York Book Club’s Readers’ Choice pick in January 2024. She lives in New York City and Greenport, New York

Here’s a bit from our rollicking review of Eden Undone: “Kahler…briskly recounts the mysterious history of the small Galapagos island Floreana. Drawing on diaries, letters, and news reports, Kahler follows the fortunes and misfortunes of a handful of eccentric Europeans who settled on the island, beginning in 1929, sharing the fervent desire ‘to create a utopia, although each of them had different visions as to what a utopia might be.’ First to arrive were Dr. Friedrich Ritter, a narcissistic German physician, and his patient Dore Strauch, who left their respective spouses with the plan ‘to live a life of contemplation, of mutual love and simple work with natural things.’ But news reports about their endeavor turned the ‘Modern Adam and Eve’ into the objects of such sensational publicity that others followed. Some—journalists, scientists, and wealthy Americans eager to see exotic wildlife—made brief recurring visits; among those who stayed, intruding on the couple’s life of contemplation, were a German war veteran, his pregnant lover, and his sickly teenage son and the rapacious Baroness Wagner, accompanied by two lovers, who planned

A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II Kahler, Abbott Crown | 288 pp. | $32.00 Sept. 24, 2024 | 9780451498656

to build a luxury hotel. Life on the island was physically challenging for all of them.…But equally challenging was a deepening atmosphere of hostility and distrust…leading, Kahler reveals, very likely to murder.”

Kahler tells us how she came across the irresistible newspaper clipping that became the inspiration for Eden Undone. We discuss the unusual doctor-patient relationship between Ritter and Strauch, their unorthodox plan for shedding their spouses and relocating to Floreana, and how hard the journey from Germany to the Galapagos was in 1929. We talk a bit about the book’s epigraphs and the philosophies of Thomas More, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke. Kahler introduces listeners to the settlers who followed Ritter and Strauch to Floreana; and I ask her to consider which of them came the closest to realizing their version of utopia. We talk about the American explorer class circa the 1930s and ’40s, the importance in nonfiction of rich detail and suspense, and much more.

Then editors Mahnaz Dar, John McMurtrie, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week.

Gilbert King

To listen to the episode, visit Kirkus online.

subsidized parenting duties, “a more equal division of family responsibilities in both the short and long term.” Hakimi Zapata does note that bureaucracies attached to these programs can sometimes be cumbersome and difficult to negotiate, but the outcomes are unmistakable: Finland leads the world in education—“our only treasure,” one administrator says. As for the United States? “America is not working for the majority of us,” Hakimi Zapata writes. “Instead it’s working for a tiny superrich minority that amassed its wealth on the back of our collective labor—and our collective impoverishment.”

Full of lessons for American activists on how to bring enhanced social welfare programs into reality, despite the odds.

Kirkus Star

I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free

Hawkins, Lee | Amistad/HarperCollins (320 pp.)

$28.99 | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9780062823168

The long road to achieving Black pride. From start to finish, Hawkins’ autobiography is a harrowing and insightful overview of what child abuse looks like from the perspective of a scared Black boy who grows up to become a proud Black man. Making the persuasive claim that Black youths who are emotionally and physically abused by their parents are also victims of white oppression (what he calls a “bondage belief system”), Hawkins sees his scornful father and mother as products of their family histories, which were rife with whippings, hangings, rapes, and other forms of unspeakable violence at the hands of whites, who had Black people perpetuate these heinous acts on their own friends and family.

A rare female voice among the French Impressionists.

MARY CASSATT BETWEEN PARIS AND NEW YORK

Hawkins is honest in his descriptions of what his parents called his “spankings,” which once involved Hawkins’ father stepping on his son’s neck with his steel-toed boot. Relating these horrific incidents acts as a form of catharsis and a way to relay to readers that, on the basis of his research on his family in Alabama, his parents were victims of “Jim Crow apartheid” in the South, which led to their belligerence and their skewed belief that the injuries they inflicted were for their children’s protection. Hawkins does not bestow forgiveness in this work, but he does leave readers with a better understanding of unhealthy forms of love and the genealogies that produce them. A profound work about the Black experience and white oppression.

Mary Cassatt Between Paris and New York: The Making of a Transatlantic Legacy

Iskin, Ruth E. | Univ. of California (344 pp.) $49.95 | Jan. 28, 2025 | 9780520355453

The forces that shaped an eminent artist. Art historian Iskin offers a close, perceptive examination of the life and work of Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) in the context of American and European art, culture, and political change, particularly the women’s suffrage movement. Although Pittsburgh-born, Cassatt returned to the U.S. only three times after she settled in Paris in 1874; she considered herself culturally an American, while as an artist she identified with French Impressionists. Except for Degas—a

beloved friend and “like-minded colleague”—her closest friends were well-educated upper-class Americans, including banker James J. Stillman, art curator Sara T. Hallowell, and architect Theodate Pope. These and others visited her often at her country chateau and the Paris apartment that, for many years, she shared with her mother and sister.

Her “longest, and most important friendship” was with Louisine Havemeyer, a noted collector whose acquisitions were advised by Cassatt. They met in Paris when Cassatt was 30 and Louisine 19, and their friendship, characterized by “emotional, intellectual, and cognitive intimacy” continued into Cassatt’s old age. Although Cassatt came to deride Louisine’s consuming involvement in the suffrage campaign, she was a sympathetic supporter. Iskin sees the impact of feminism in her depictions of women, both within and beyond the nuclear family, which echoed prevalent discourse that emphasized “the value of women’s role within the home, as a way of buttressing the argument for their access to the public sphere and in particular to equal political rights.” In April 1915, Cassatt, Degas, and a selection of old masters were featured in a prominent New York exhibition to raise funds for women’s suffrage. Iskin explores Cassatt’s posthumous reputation as well, reflecting on assumptions about nationhood and gender that continue to redefine her legacy.

An authoritative, beautifully illustrated study.

For more about the Impressionists, visit Kirkus online.

Abraham: The First Jew

Julius, Anthony | Yale Univ. (400 pp.)

$30.00 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9780300266801

Atypical portrayal of the life and person of Abraham.

British attorney and scholar Julius introduces the reader to the patriarch Abraham in a way that few have considered him before. Drawing from Moses Maimonides and other rabbinic sources, Julius concentrates not on the Abraham who is highlighted in the Torah, but on Abraham at an earlier stage of life. In fact, the author presents Abraham 1 and Abraham 2 as the embodied dichotomy of this ancient man and, in many ways, of the Jewish people who call him their ancestor. Abraham 1 is a philosopher who spurns idolatry but also argues with his culture and is unsettled about his own understanding of who and what God is. That would all change in time, as he evolved into Abraham 2 and founded a nation. Julius’ approach is fresh and intriguing, but his execution is uneven. Even for as great a figure as Abraham, Julius tends to craft as great a figure as Abraham into something spectacularly new, as if he were not already epic enough. For instance, the author develops his characters through soliloquies or dialogues, which is useful to a point. However, even in pure imagination, it is hard to picture Sarah telling Abraham, “Autonomy is achieved in solidarity,” or to hear Abraham say to himself, “Reasoning has led me to a determinate conclusion.” This tactic takes on a life of its own late in the book, at which point Julius conceptualizes Abraham 1 and Abraham 2 engaged in a debate. Back and forth, they bandy profound insights and arguments amid slightly veiled insults, page after page. The author uses this tool in order to draw out the dichotomy that was Abraham, and which still is Judaism. His results, however, risk coming across as academically pompous. A promising concept with over-the-top results.

Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis

Kaplan, Robert D. | Random House (224 pp.) $31.00 | Jan. 28, 2025 | 9780593730324

A meditation on the ongoing crisis in globa democracy. Drawing on an extended analogy comparing the history of the short-lived Weimar Republic, Adolf Hitler’s first victim, to that of the modern democratic nations, Kaplan warns that danger is nigh: “A crisis in one becomes a crisis in all, all countries are now connected in ways in which a crisis for one can contain a domino effect that becomes almost universal,” whether it be pandemic illness or climate change. In making this analogy, Kaplan, known for his dour political travelogues about places like the Balkans and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, draws on numerous literary exemplars, some relatively well known (Alexander Solzhenitsyn) and others largely obscure today (Oswald Spengler). Against that Weimar backdrop, he places current political figures and movements, sometimes with curious speculations attached: closer documentation is wanted, for one, to support his thought that by invading Ukraine Vladimir Putin hoped to “forge a permanent alliance with a weakened and insecure Germany, practically dislodging it from the West, which would have the indirect effect of further undermining Europe’s other liberal democracies.” Given then-leader Angela Merkel’s steely dislike of Putin, this scenario seems unlikely. But Kaplan is spot-on in his subsequent assessment of the several reasons that Putin’s adventure in Ukraine was not the instant success Putin hoped for. Kaplan observes that while there are those who hope that with increased globalism will come the enhanced rule of law and “rules-based global civilization,” it’s equally likely that “there will be a civilizational vacuum, with anarchy becoming more prevalent.” In the end, Kaplan posits, one can only follow

trends and guess at their outcome, which “is not given to any of us in advance”— one reason, he suggests, to fight for democracy and against its enemies. A provocative thought experiment, of much interest to students of contemporary geopolitics.

Labor’s Partisans: Essential Writings on the Union Movement From the 1950s to Today

Lichtenstein, Nelson & Samir Sonti The New Press (368 pp.) | $29.99 Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781620978818

Radical and resilient. As these carefully selected essays illustrate, the magazine Dissent, founded in 1954, has reflected demographic shifts in American society and moved with them while retaining core principles such as democratic socialism. In its early days, the magazine’s pages were often dominated by New York intellectuals like Irving Howe, Lewis Coser, novelist Harvey Swados, and Michael Harrington, the author of The Other America. Over the past decade or so, however, Dissent has published more women than ever before, including Sarah Jaffe, Kate Andrias, and Veena Dubal. Lichtenstein and Sonti, both academics, have selected an array of cogent, jargon-free essays about automation, factories, and union democracy. Divided into five sections and capped by a roundtable discussion with Luis Feliz Leon, Sara Nelson, and Daisy Pitkin, the collection explores the major issues that union organizers have faced, from the Cold War to the current environmental crisis. Since its inception, Dissent has been pro-union and pro–working class, but it has also been, as this book makes clear, critical of union bureaucracies, strong-arm tactics, and racism and misogyny. Eleni Schirmer and Sarah Jaffe write compassionately about teachers. E. Tammy

Kim discusses “organizing the unorganizable.” Ruth Milkman insists that immigrants, so often scapegoated, are not to blame for trade union failures. An honest tribute to dissenting voices, and a plea for a better world for everyone—“not just the rich or white.”

Kirkus Star

Immemorial

Markham, Lauren | Transit Books (136 pp.) | $17.95 paper Feb. 4, 2025 | 9798893389036

Mourning a changing planet. In her contribution to the publisher’s Undelivered Lectures series, journalist and author Markham offers an intimate meditation on the climate crisis, particularly her frustration at finding language “to describe the very real emotions and feelings” incited by a rapidly degrading world. Beset by a sense of loss—of glaciers, bird species, forests—she suffers, she admits, from pre-traumatic stress disorder: “A condition in which a researcher experiences symptoms of trauma as they learn more about the future as it pertains to climate change and watch the world around them not making necessary precautions.” For Markham, this variation of PTSD leads to a “sorrowful ache” to memorialize in some way a “future gone.” That need to memorialize leads her to think about memory: her own, the “selective memory” we call history, and the functions of physical memorials as “a space for communal mourning and remembrance.” She considers, for example, the impact of Maya Lin’s stark Vietnam Memorial to create “a physical and psychic space for feeling.” How, Markham asks, is it possible “to allow a mass of land, a body of water, a species of bird, to speak?” Many artists, she discovers, are grappling with this very question: One has created “Sound Columns—ringed

A “sorrowful ache” to memorialize in some way a “future gone.”

IMMEMORIAL

sculptures standing over eight feet tall shaped in [the] form of the sound wave of an extinct birdsong.” Others participate in the Bureau of Linguistic Reality, aiming to invent neologisms to shape how speakers see the world and act within it. She consults the Bureau to help her find the language that continues to elude her. “I wanted for change to be made manifest in the world,” she writes, “and I continued to doubt my, or anyone’s, ability to manage it with words.”

Urgent, heartfelt, and lyrical reflections.

How Good It Is I Have No Fear of Dying: Lieutenant Yulia Mykytenko’s Fight for Ukraine

Marlowe, Lara | Melville House (312 pp.) $29.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781685891879

A n extensive report from the front lines of Ukraine, viewed through the eyes of a war-weary but indomitable officer.

Irish Times reporter Marlowe recounts the wartime experiences of a young Ukrainian army officer named Yulia Mykytenko, whom we first meet in the besieged Donbas region. Commanding a reconnaissance unit employing first-person-view drones, Mykytenko says, matter-of-factly, “With a $500 FPV, you can destroy a tank that cost millions.” So have she and her soldiers done, despite the gap in technology and supplies that the Ukrainian army suffers, with arms from the West arriving only in fits and starts and freighted with political

considerations. Mykytenko’s contempt for Russia is clear, but her assessment of the overly cautious West is scarcely more complimentary. Perhaps surprisingly, she has no shortage of criticisms for her nation’s president, either: “The army on the ground knew the invasion would happen. When the intelligence services warned [Zelenskyy] in November 2021 that Russia was going to attack, he said, ‘No, it’s not going to happen.’” The country has since paid a terrible price, and Mykytenko has paid dearly herself: Her father committed suicide by self-immolation in protest against what he perceived to be Zelenskyy’s failure to react strongly enough following Russia’s seizure of Crimea, and her husband died in combat. “Ukraine was not ready for the 24 February 2022 invasion because Zelenskyy had neglected the armed forces, leaving them in a demoralized, ill-prepared and ill-equipped state, as my father and other veterans warned,” she charges. Proudly, Mykytenko insists that Ukraine deserves NATO membership, not as a gift to the country but because it would make a valuable addition to NATO’s order of battle: No other army would withstand Putin’s as stubbornly, she asserts—and besides, “We could also teach NATO a great deal about efficiency in the heat of battle.”

A wartime account of searing intensity and righteous anger.

For more on the war in Ukraine, visit Kirkus online.

After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart

Marshall, Megan | Mariner Books (256 pp.)

$29.99 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9780618684182

Enmeshed in lives.

Marshall, biographer of Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Bishop, and the sisters Sophia, Elizabeth, and Mary Peabody, melds biography and memoir in six essays that offer intimate reflections on her life and work. Creating what she calls “a cultural history of the self,” Marshall recalls her taciturn grandfather; a 17-year-old classmate killed when he tried to free his brother from prison; a lonely threemonth fellowship she spent in Kyoto; and the death of her partner. Although she has specialized “in lesser-known female intellectuals,” her interest in other lives was piqued by her discovery of letters that her grandfather wrote home when he and his wife were newlyweds in France during World War I. In those letters, Marshall encountered a far different man from the one she had known growing up. Filled with anticipation and adventure, determined to help France in the war effort, he learned French, became a press officer for the Army, and, when the war ended, was offered an enticing job as a “publicity man” for the League of Red Cross Societies. But the couple, now with an infant and weary of war-torn Europe, decided to return home. He spent his life as an insurance salesman. Her mother, too, was forced to circumscribe her dreams. Marriage to a mentally unstable husband derailed her plans to become an artist: She had to work to support the family, and her easel, Marshall recalls, “stayed folded up in the garage.” Marshall writes of her empathy for Sophia Peabody, a talented artist, denied training and opportunities because of the sexism of the time. Writing the biography of Sophia and her sisters—a project that took 20 years— and the books on Fuller and Bishop

sometimes, Marshall admits, “felt like self-exploration.”

Candid, sensitive recollections.

George Cukor’s People: Acting for a Master Director

McBride, Joseph | Columbia Univ. (520 pp.) $40.00 | Dec. 17, 2024 | 9780231210829

E xploring a classic Hollywood director’s work through the “texture of key performances” he elicited from actors. Veteran film writer McBride clearly esteems

Cukor’s “rich, multifaceted, deeply personal” worldview as expressed in his oeuvre. He ascribes Cukor’s masterful conveyance of nuance in human behavior, of subtext, to the director’s own “double life”—Cukor’s outsider status as a “partially closeted” gay man, a son of Hungarian Jewish immigrants. McBride appraises Cukor’s craft throughout his long career of working intimately with actors in dozens of films, finding themes and throughlines. Cukor elicited such landmark star turns as Greta Garbo in Camille (1936), Joan Crawford and others in The Women (1939), Judy Garland and James Mason in A Star Is Born (1954), and Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in Adam’s Rib (1949), the “high tide of American sophisticated comedy.” Indelible performances by Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady (1964) reflect the “seamless match of this Pygmalion-like director with his material” in what McBride characterizes as Cukor’s most personal film and the only film to win Cukor an Academy Award as Best Director. A career-long fascination with sexual unconventionality and gender fluidity culminated in Cukor’s “late journey of self-revelation” and such camp turns as Maggie Smith in Travels With My Aunt (1972). Trained in theater, Cukor saw all “human interaction, and romance in particular, as a form of performance.” Appropriate to the director’s body of work, McBride

examines Cukor’s professional excellence by foregrounding the classic performances he was able to draw out from his famous actors. Although Cukor was “reductively stereotyped as a ‘woman’s director’” (code for gay), McBride offers strong evidence that he was in fact “one of the finest actors’ directors.”

A “widely admired but little understood director” is given his due.

Kirkus Star

Patriot: A Memoir

Navalny, Alexei | Trans. by Arch Tait with Stephen Dalziel | Knopf (496 pp.)

$35.00 | Oct. 22, 2024 | 9780593320969

How one man took on a tyrant. Navalny suffered greatly during his short life as an activist and opposition leader. He required months of recovery after a near-fatal poisoning, he needed surgery on his right eye after an assailant threw an antiseptic in his face, and he was placed in solitary confinement and endured a 24-day hunger strike during his final imprisonment, which ended with his unexplained death on Feb. 16, 2024. As President Biden said in condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin, the man Navalny had tormented for years, “there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was a consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.” In reading Navalny’s posthumous memoir—written before and during his time behind bars, sections secreted out of prison—one feels a deep sense of not only sorrow over the loss of such a magnetic figure, but also awe for this man’s extraordinary resolve. His rebellion began early. As he recounts in his enormously appealing voice, he grew up in a family that talked politics. A formative experience was seeing how ordinary citizens were lied to by the government after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. And then there was music—“the crucial source of ideological sabotage that subverted me and turned

me into a little dissident.” Aside from reading, his favorite pastime was setting off explosives—a fitting precursor to the metaphorical bombs he would ignite in exposing corrupt politicians and tycoons who engorged themselves in the kleptocratic state that supplanted the USSR. Navalny was justifiably angered by the “unholy horde of hypocritical thieves and lowlifes” who steered his beloved Russia toward totalitarianism. That righteous passion empowered him, but so too did his irrepressible spirit—his humanity and his decency. Every page is alive with Navalny’s ever-present humor, his self-deprecation, his affection for his wife, Yulia, and their children, and his empathy for fellow prisoners. Long after Putin draws his last breath, people will read this aptly titled book, an inestimable record of a heroic life, one that will inspire generations to come.

A true profile in courage, written with verve and wit.

No Human Involved: The Serial Murder of Black Women and Girls and the Deadly Cost of Police Indifference

Neely, Cheryl L. | Beacon Press (264 pp.)

$29.95 | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9780807004562

A sociologist examines murders of Black women that have gone unnoticed, unsolved, and forgotten.

Her account fueled by the murder of a 16-year-old girl in Detroit, Neely opens with appalling statistics: Black girls and women make up 7% of the U.S. population, but “they were three times more likely to die by homicide compared to white females.” The violence has a certain circularity: law enforcement agencies assume that those Black girls and women brought the crimes onto themselves through drug use or prostitution. Chillingly, they’re considered less than human, whence Neely’s title, “used as a classification in homicide

cases comprising victims whom police view as having little to no value as human beings.” When the crimes are investigated, the police are often in a hurry to find a perpetrator—and often an innocent person goes to jail while the real perpetrators, often serial criminals and murderers, get away with it; knowing this, those real perpetrators have little incentive not to commit further crimes. In the case of that 16-year-old, decades passed before the true killer was tried and sentenced and the wronged man freed. “Had Detroit police valued the life of Michelle Kimberly Jackson, Eddie Joe Lloyd would not have lost eighteen years of his life to prison, the deaths of other potential victims would have been prevented, and the families of those victims would be spared the unbearable pain of losing a loved one,” Neely charges. That all this happened speaks, she adds, to systemic racism, a habit of mind that even Black officers buy into. Neely concludes with the thoughts that greater advocacy for those forgotten women is needed and that cold cases are often opened through citizen action and, more recently, podcasts that demand accountability.

Activists involved in equitable policing, judicial reform, and victims’ rights will find value in Neely’s account.

Who I Always Was: A Memoir

Okokon, Theresa | Atria (288 pp.)

$28.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781668008959

The challenges of coming-of-age as the child of African parents in suburban Wisconsin.

Okokon’s debut essay collection gets off to a rocky start with a prologue titled “Borrowed Context” that uses extensive footnotes to elaborate on basic information about the author’s family’s geographical roots: mother from Ghana, father from Nigeria, author born in Chicago, raised in Wisconsin. The footnotes are voluminous and printed in a way that makes the essay difficult to follow. It is a relief to find that

this technique is dropped in the next section, which introduces one of the major themes of the book, the author’s relationships with the opposite sex, kindergarten through early 40s (she remains single). She weaves in a second throughline, about her emerging sense of herself as Black. So, in high school, when the author is rejected by a clique of American-born Black girls and gets involved with what she calls “Ghetto Whiteboys,” she tells us, “consciously or not, their desire to date me was likely related to their fetishization of Black women or their desire to create proximity to a culture they coveted.” Elsewhere: “Playing into the unquestioned cisgender binaries and presumed straightness of the nineties, we lined up boy, girl, boy, girl.”

To that, LOL, as Okokon might say. This is a very millennial book, not just in its application of an identity politics lens, but also in its use of “tbh” and “::hard shrug::” and other textisms, in thanking Facebook and Instagram in the acknowledgments, and in its frequent recourse to Google. (“I was just your average second child—and a quick scroll through Google will tell you that we are rebellious peacemakers.”) A fascinating storyline about her father’s mysterious death on a trip to Nigeria remains as frustrating to the reader as it is to the author. How can it be that with all her investigation and with her mother’s stated willingness to answer questions, “I still wonder what story she believes about his death.” We do too.

Honest, vulnerable, earnest reflections that stop somewhere short of compelling.

Pink: The History of a Color

Pastoureau, Michel | Trans. by Jody Gladding | Princeton Univ. (192 pp.)

$39.95 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9780691266268

The meaning of an enigmatic shade. Historian Pastoureau’s seventh book on the history of colors in European societies presents a lively, informative investigation of the social, lexical, artistic, and symbolic meanings of pink, one of the hues he calls “half colors,”

which include orange, purple, gray, and brown. Seen in paintings in ancient Macedonia, pink became associated with nudity because of its appearance in Roman depictions of the skin of gods. Even throughout the Middle Ages, pink was not seen in attire, nor in liturgy nor heraldry, where various shades of red were prominent. In the 14th century, when Florentine dyers offered diverse pink tones, the color increased in popularity in paintings and textiles, was found in clothing inventories, and became so fashionable throughout Europe that, from 1380 to 1390, a craze for the color swept the French court. Still, it did not carry the association with feminine that was attached to it later, nor did it have a name. Sometimes called incarnato, referring to flesh tone, after mid-18th-century horticulturalists developed new pale shades of roses, that term was replaced by the French word rose, meaning “a pretty pink tint.”

Gradually, over the next hundred years, pink entered the aesthetic and literary lexicon as associated with female beauty, gentleness, and delicate feelings. From the mid-19th to mid-20th century, that association passed from young women to little girls and, with the creation of Barbie in 1959, to their older sisters. Besides tracing the trajectory of the color’s popularity, Pastoureau looks at many substances—plants, minerals, insects—used in dyes and paints to produce pink tones, as well as recipes for creating and applying pink pigments. An entertaining, beautifully produced volume.

Sweet Nothings: Confessions of a Candy Lover: Essays

Perry, Sarah | Mariner Books (304 pp.)

$29.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780063319929

to each other. She’s a ’90s kid with an insatiable taste for Twizzlers, Swedish Fish, Junior Mints, and just about any candy you care to name—hard, chewy, or melty. Perry organizes the book’s sections by different shades; she prefers the colors red and (chocolate) brown. If eating a Twizzler is a devotional, Rolos are abject surrender, an expression of community and unadulterated rapture. But which of the dozens is her favorite? Pleasure, she notes, is circumstantial, so a favorite depends on the mood and environment. Perry approaches candy like a field marshal shifting tactics: different avenues of attack for each quarry. She demonstrates that texture matters, sometime more than taste, as does technique. It’s not just the candy that elicits her fealty or disfavor; it’s the packaging, too. But the author unwraps much more than a lifetime’s fixation on candy. While Perry’s accounts of candy consumption are sensual, almost tactile, and indescribably delicious, each chapter is also a pathway to deep recollection of the past, not all of it sugarcoated. Especially touching are reminiscences of her mother, who died young. There is a vein of melancholy woven throughout, leavening the joys. Now and then she engages in rather ideological social commentary, yet she manages to choreograph “the ego and the id in a delicate dance.” Perry can tap into the communal candy memory with a fine comedic touch, calling forth many a Yes! moment. “Candy is about happiness in the moment—this exact moment, each subdivided microsecond of melt,” she writes, “each deliriously destructive chomp.”

Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain With Democracy

Rauch, Jonathan | Yale Univ. (168 pp.) $27.50 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780300273540

Navigating the candyverse, and memory, from Andes to Zero.

Perry and candy have a magnetic relationship, inexorably drawn

With flair and a winning nostalgia, a certified sugar hound of the first order shares her obsessions.

A call for American Christianity to be an essential component of liberal democracy. Although Rauch, gay and Jewish, frequently notes that he may be an unlikely dispenser of advice to churchly Christians, he observes that American Christianity is in a historical state of crisis: fewer and fewer people identify as Christians, while church attendance is sharply down. This has reverberations in secular society, Rauch holds, because the Founders, while allowing that “religion’s job is not to support republican government,” held that religion “teaches virtue and thereby makes Americans more governable,” an entwinement of public governance and public morality. Religion writ large, Rauch holds, still has this role to play, addressing questions of the here and now while pondering the larger issues: Why is there death? Why does evil exist in the world, especially if there is a loving God? Rauch hastens to add that liberal democracy is not strictly dependent on the religious—as witness the secular societies of Japan and Scandinavia—but ideally, in a heterogenous society such as America’s, religion is an important provider of “cultural and spiritual infrastructure.” Of course, he adds, the militant arm of nationalist Christianity fails in this task, presuming that negotiated democratic agreements are immaterial when God and earthly preachers are

is sweet—especially for this candy lover.

issuing the commands. “Absolutely nothing about secular liberalism required white evangelicals to embrace the likes of Donald Trump,” Rauch argues, yet there we are, surrounded by what he calls “Sharp Christianity,” adding that it is “ literally a Church of Fear.” Interestingly, Rauch looks to Mormonism as a model for negotiating moral stances by way of compromise, “a conciliatory approach [that] is conspicuously countercultural in the conservative religion world,” especially in its support of LGBTQ+ rights and other progressive social causes. A cogent argument for reframing Christianity as an ally and not an enemy of secular society.

Stomp Off, Let’s Go:

The Early

Years

of Louis Armstrong

Riccardi, Ricky | Oxford Univ. (472 pp.)

$34.99 | Feb. 3, 2025 | 9780197614488

How a young Louis became the first King of Pop. Riccardi, director of research collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum and author of two

books on the great jazz trumpeter, explores Armstrong’s formative years. With the assistance of new primary sources, he takes on numerous rumors and biographical discrepancies about Armstrong and others in his life. Written in an easygoing, detail-laden, conversational style and relying extensively on Armstrong’s own writings, Riccardi portrays a boy from New Orleans “abandoned by his father, working two jobs, going to school, no shoes on his feet, sometimes with nothing to eat, living in a single-room flat, smack in the post-Reconstruction Jim Crow South.” It was at an orphanage (his parents, still alive, were separated) that the 12-year-old fell in love with music and learned to play the

clarinet. After hauling coal all day, he played in honky-tonks, eventually putting a band together and getting paid. In 1917 he found a steady gig in a band and began using his signature white handkerchief. He also pimped a little, got stabbed, got arrested, and was gifted a good clarinet. Riccardi captures Armstrong’s youthful excitement after joining Kid Ory’s band. He loved playing with the Marable band before crowds on excursion boats and with King Oliver and His Creole Jazz Band in Chicago, playing alongside pianist Lillian Hardin, his future wife. Armstrong would make his first recordings with them in 1923. Riccardi nicely chronicles Armstrong’s rise to stardom as he becomes an exceptional trumpet player, joining one great band after another while mastering his “garbling up and scatting,” blending jive and polishing his witty, outgoing personality. He also provides insightful information about how the music itself and bands were evolving over these years.

Riccardi leaves no stone unturned in this expansive biography that jazz fans will enjoy.

Another Zionism, Another Judaism: The Unrequited Love of Rabbi Marcus Ehrenpreis

Rosenberg, Göran | Other Press (432 pp.)

$39.99 | Jan. 28, 2025 | 9781635423549

Wide-ranging look at a theologian who resisted the idea of “a Zionism aimed at making the Jews a nation like all others.”

An immigrant to Sweden and chief rabbi of its main Stockholm synagogue, Ehrenpreis (1869–1951) believed that, just as the Jews of Sweden were, all Jews around the world should be “an emblematic and exemplary minority, living as a nation amid nations.” His view was in the minority among Zionists committed to

Theodor Herzl’s vision of a reborn Jewish homeland, and when World War II broke out late in Ehrenpreis’ life, it spoke to the utopian nature of his own vision in a Europe bent on destroying its Jewish population. That did not keep Ehrenpreis from holding to it, for, as he argued, “the fate of Judaism in the world is the fate of the minority par excellence.” Though criticized for assimilationism and a certain complacency born of living in neutral Sweden, Ehrenpreis worked with Raoul Wallenberg to attempt to deliver relief and rescue; still, the charge that Sweden’s Jews did not advocate strongly enough for that rescue “for fear of antisemitism” had some force. It is also true that, despite some mildly perfunctory objections to the deportation of Norway’s Jews to the death camps, “the [Christian] ecclesiastical authority in Sweden did not raise its voice any more than that.” Ehrenpreis has faded into history, but Rosenberg here ably revives him as a contrarian voice who speaks to present events, for he would surely have opposed, in the author’s words, “a Judaism that could be invoked for territorial conquest, military occupation, minority oppression and ethnic cleansing.”

A capably told life of a religious leader who envisioned the whole world as a safe haven for his people.

The Word of Dog: What Our Canine Companions Can Teach Us About Living a Good Life

Rowlands, Mark | Liveright/Norton (256 pp.)

$26.99 | Jan. 28, 2025 | 9781324095682

An inquiry into the moral and philosophical minds of our best friends. Does the dog have Buddha nature? So runs the Zen koan. Philosophy professor Rowlands takes a slightly different tack, wondering of Canis

lupus familiaris , “If a dog could write a book of philosophy, what would it look like?” It might argue that happiness is a warm bone, might assert that “I bark, therefore I am.” By Rowlands reckoning—and he’s not afraid to stretch possibilities into propositions that at first glance might seem absurd—a dog runs free of invidious distinctions, living in a moral universe governed by love, and in all this comes Rowlands’ kicker: “As a general rule, I think, dogs lead more meaningful lives than we do.”

To defend the thesis, Rowlands enlists much heavyweight help, although, given Jean-Paul Sartre’s rather dour assessment of the human condition, one wonders if that’s not stacking the deck. Life being tragic, Rowlands supplies a sadly tragic hero with a pet German shepherd that is “deeply paranoid” and “distinctly dangerous” and for that reason is not allowed entry into polite society: His Sisyphean task, as Rowlands notes, is to chase invasive iguanas into the canal that affords him safe room to roam. Is Shadow, the dog, happy? Is his life meaningful? Well, borrowing again from Sartre, Rowlands ponders what the situation might have been if Sisyphus, rolling that rock endlessly uphill, actually took pleasure in the task. Examined life, meaningful life, mirror neurons, and “the groundlessness of our existence and the anguished realization of our groundlessness”: All come into play in his account. Although the book is rewarding in that it sparks a few synapses, before tackling this one, readers will benefit from learning a bit about modern philosophy to be able to decipher dense philosophical prose. Being a dog lover helps, too. Occasionally tangled, but with plenty of juicy existential problems to gnaw on.

How To Sell Out: The (Hidden) Cost of Being a Black Writer

Sanders, Chad | Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $28.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781982190835

A young Black writer offers a fascinating perspective about race, money, and freedom in America. If nothing else, this collection of experiential and observational essays about being a Black writer in America demonstrates that for podcaster, television writer, and author Sanders (Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned From Trauma and Triumph), the unexamined life is certainly not worth living. Sanders analyzes his success after the publication of an op-ed about race and friendship in the New York Times following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer and his triumphs and trauma as a well-renumerated employee of a renowned tech firm, a Black writer in the entertainment industry whose mentors include Spike Lee, and the son of successful parents living in a tony suburb of Washington, D.C. It would be unwise to dismiss this book by adopting an attitude that many would love to have the comfortable lives of the rich and famous that Sanders portrays in these pages. But stick with it. The last few essays are the sharpest, especially the piece in which Sanders describes how he altered his attitude and approach as a result of the Writers Guild strike of 2023. The blunt ruminations about his experiences, his internal struggles, and the ironic hierarchies he discovered within Black America itself show

Sanders at his best and most insightful. His is a voice that should be heeded by anyone who strives to live up to his father’s injunction to never let anyone take your freedom. A frank and arresting read.

The Plunder of Black America: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Made

Schermerhorn, Calvin | Yale Univ. (304 pp.) $30.00 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9780300258950

A historical examination of the origins of the ever-deepening divide between Black and white intergenerational wealth. As Arizona State University historian Schermerhorn notes, “The typical African American family has about one-sixth the wealth of the typical white family.” This is an improvement over the year of the Emancipation Proclamation, when “the typical Black family had less than two cents on the typical white family’s dollar,” but the structural reasons for the disparity have remained fairly constant: institutional racism stood in the way of accumulating wealth then, and it does so today. Schermerhorn ranges across American history to note that whenever Blacks have made economic advances, new impediments arise: a Black household in colonial Virginia was subject to twice the annual tax of a white household of the same composition, while the descendants of landholders were legally cheated out of inherited holdings because, as a court said of one, the heir “was a Negro and by consequence an alyen.” In the newly constituted United States, enslaved Blacks were >>>

Do dogs lead more meaningful lives than we do?

THE WORD OF DOG

For more books by Mark Rowlands, visit Kirkus online.

AWARDS

Winner of the Science Book Prize Revealed

Kelly and Zach Weinersmith took home the award for A City on Mars.

Kelly and Zach Weinersmith won the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize, given annually to a work of “outstanding popular science writing,” for A

City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?

The Weinersmiths’ book, published in 2023 by Penguin Press, considers the implications of human settlements in space. A critic for Kirkus called the book, which won a 2024 Hugo Award, “a fun, informative read that puts the pop into popular science.”

John Hutchinson, chair of the judging panel for the Royal Society award, said, “A City on Mars blew me away with its incredibly ambitious crossdisciplinary perspective.… [The authors] walk a tightrope of maintaining not only

scientific rigor and fairness, but also a lot of humor, leveraged by amusing and informative sketches. We finish the book understanding that, while humanity having a city on Mars might yet be centuries away, many good reasons remain to pursue the lofty goal of settling space.”

The Royal Society prize was established in 1988. Previous winners include Jared Diamond for Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies,

Caroline Criado Perez for Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, and Ed Yong for An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us —M.S.

Zach and Kelly Weinersmith

For a review of A City on Mars, visit Kirkus online.

Perspectives on Jewish Life

legally classified “as personal property, like a horse or wagon,” with no property rights of their own. Schermerhorn finds broad discrepancies in New Deal programs, with Social Security, for instance, initially denied to farmworkers and domestic workers—a large portion, that is, of the Black workforce—while post–WWII GI Bill programs were so tilted that in 1947, “just two of 3,229 VA-backed loans in thirteen Mississippi cities went to Black veterans.” Housing covenants in the Phoenix and Los Angeles of the 1950s and ’60s confined Blacks to the inner city and low housing values, impeding the accumulation of wealth. Schermerhorn closes with a call to redress four centuries of economic damage with “targeted restorative justice initiatives” that include reparations. A carefully researched work of history that chronicles centuries of injustice while calling for an end to inequality.

Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots

Scott, Jade | Pegasus (314 pp.)

$29.95 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781639368013

The suffering of a doomed queen. Historian Scott draws on letters by Mary, Queen of Scots (15421587), including 57 newly decoded, to create a detailed portrait of the nearly 20 years she spent in captivity. Because her letters were intercepted and sometimes altered, Mary devised a system of ciphers, “a mix of graphical symbols and alphabetic letters drawn from Greek and Arabic,” codes that she kept changing depending on recipient and courier. She devised creative ways to smuggle letters out, sometimes, for example, folding them into tiny packets that could be secreted in her emissaries’ clothing. The contents of the letters reveal political intrigue, complaints about physical and emotional suffering, anger, and

How one song turned her onto French.

NE ME QUITTE PAS

supplication. Scott puts them in the context of religious and political rebellions, international tensions, treachery, murder, spying, arrests, and executions that marked a tumultuous age. She also conveys the day-to-day reality of Mary’s life: Although her staff became diminished through the years, she was granted her own medical attendants, kitchen staff (a servant tasted her food for poison), and attendant ladies. Her meals were abundant, with a choice of 32 different dishes: ladies would have nine, secretaries, seven. Accused of adultery and conspiracy, during her captivity, as she was moved among manors and castles, she learned about, and tried to initiate, plots for her freedom. One bold plan attempted to muster “French troops, Spanish funds, and Scottish supporters to mount a triple attack on England” from Scotland, Ireland, and the continent. She was finally undone by a plot that involved the assassination of Queen Elizabeth. Found guilty of treason, she went to the scaffold. Scott begins each chapter with a fictionalized episode of the ongoing drama—unnecessary, since her history is dramatic and colorful enough in itself.

A thoroughly researched historical narrative.

Ne Me Quitte Pas

Smith, Maya Angela | Duke Univ. (160 pp.)

$19.95 paper | Feb. 25, 2025 | 9781478028253

The afterlife of a song. In a thoughtful contribution to the publisher’s Singles series, which examines the personal and social significance of

a discrete musical track, Smith, a professor of French, focuses on Brel’s famous “Ne me quitte pas,” written and performed in 1959. As a 16-yearold, hearing Simone’s cover of the song, Smith was captivated. “I credit this song,” she writes, “as one of the reasons I, a Black American woman from a monolingual, English-speaking family, studied French in college. And it was Nina who made sure I kept with it when the whitewashed curriculum of my textbooks suggested French was a language only for white people.” Melding memoir, literary analysis, and cultural criticism, Smith creates a meditation on translation, adaptation, and appropriation, exploring how Brel’s “ode to romantic despair” has traveled across “geographies, genres, and generations,” performed in almost 30 languages, including Hebrew, Japanese, and Russian. Smith discusses Simone’s choice in making the song one of her signature pieces, her decision to sing it in French, even though she spoke the language imperfectly, and the connection the piece had to her identity as a Black American. Like Simone, the British performer Shirley Bassey, also Black, was drawn to the piece, which she sang in poet Rod McKuen’s English translation. McKuen’s version, which included musical changes, afforded the piece a larger audience but altered its tenor, leading Smith to ask whether it is better described “as a derivation, a transcreation, or an adaptation.”

Incorporating literary and cultural theory, Smith considers how race and gender have factored into the performance and reception of the piece, as well as how its meaning has been changed by renditions in film, theater, drag performance, and even a Cirque du Soleil show.

A discerning analysis.

Kirkus Star

Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers: Her Life, the Imperial Ideal, and the Politics and Turmoil

That Shaped Her Extraordinary Reign

Somerset, Anne | Knopf (640 pp.)

$45.00 | Nov. 5, 2024 | 9781101875575

A well-trod period, with its usual cast of characters, gets trod again, but few readers will object.

Historian Somerset, author of The Life and Times of King William IV, writes that Victoria (1819-1901), after an unhappy if comfortable childhood, became queen at age 18 in 1837 and was not shy about taking up her role. Despite offering few surprises for the educated reader, Somerset delivers an entirely entertaining combination of biography and political history of Victorian Britain. Nineteenth-century British monarchs were not figureheads. Their word was no longer law, but tradition demanded that they be kept informed and consulted. Victoria was not shy about expressing opinions, although she did not always get her way. For readers who find the queen’s private life less interesting than the 63 years of her reign, Somerset obliges by emphasizing her role as the symbol of empire who exerted genuine, often unconstitutional power. As one official complained, Victoria “had absurdly high notions of her prerogative, and the amount of control which she ought to exercise over public business.” Although prime ministers are powerful (unlike American presidents, they lead the government’s legislative and executive branches), readers may be startled to learn how much they valued the queen’s good opinion and suffered in its absence. Her first prime minister, Lord Melbourne, had perhaps the easiest time in accepting Victoria’s intense postadolescent worship as her reign began. She disliked many (Peel, Palmerston, Disraeli) as they entered parliament and

rose to prominence but changed her mind when as prime ministers they were forced to deal with her and so turned on the charm. This did not apply to William Ewart Gladstone, for whom Victoria’s dislike in the 1860s turned to a legendary loathing not noticeably diminished after his 1894 retirement.

Delicious British political history with an unsettlingly assertive Victoria.

The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party

Tackett, Michael | Simon & Schuster (416 pp.)

$32.50 | Oct. 29, 2024 | 9781668005842

The power player you barely know. Senate Majority Leader McConnell has long made plain his disdain for Donald Trump. He brings his contempt to the next level in this deeply researched biography by Tackett, a veteran journalist. The Kentucky senator calls Trump “this sleazeball” and “not very smart, irascible, nasty, just about every quality you would not want somebody to have.” So that raises the question: Why in the world would McConnell not only keep Trump’s political future alive by voting to acquit him in the impeachment trial after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack but also endorse him in the 2024 election? Tackett offers insights into how this ruthless tactician navigated his career. McConnell has always looked ahead, unsentimentally and rarely daunted by contradictions, criticism, or even personal slights—Trump has publicly mocked “Old Crow” McConnell and taken racist shots at the senator’s wife, Elaine Chao, the former Transportation Secretary—with an eye on doing whatever it takes to assume or retain power. McConnell’s evolution, as chronicled by Tackett, might surprise readers: He had been a passionate advocate of civil rights, an ally of public employees in a tough 1977 race (later

conceding he was ashamed of his “open pandering for labor support”), a champion for strict campaign finance limits, and a scold for the notion that every Supreme Court nominee deserved an up-or-down vote. History will note his refusal to allow even a hearing on President Barack Obama’s 2016 nomination of Merrick Garland, a power move by the ultimate power player. What makes this biography so fascinating is the fulsome access McConnell offered Tackett, a journalist he had not known beforehand. A student of history, McConnell took a chance on giving an unsparing, credible account of his remarkable life. Tackett delivers.

A superb insider’s portrait of the sphinx of the Senate.

Kirkus Star

The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel’s Borderlands

Tibon, Amir | Little, Brown (352 pp.)

$30.00 | Sept. 24, 2024 | 9780316580960

Amid unthinkable carnage, a family evades Hamas gunmen. On Oct. 7, 2023, Tibon and his wife, Miri, awoke to the “shriek” of mortar fire, which they and their two young daughters had grown accustomed to as residents of kibbutz Nahal Oz, a small Israeli community near Gaza. But after hurrying to their house’s concrete safe room, they heard distant automatic gunfire, which drew closer and confirmed their worst fears: “Hamas was coming for us.” The self-described “left-leaning” author, a reporter for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, combines a first-person account of the invasion with an informative history of the multiple attempts to secure Israeli-Palestinian peace, invariably destroyed by “extremists”—a term he uses for zealots on both sides. Tibon recounts how, after learning of the attacks, his mother and father, Gali and Noam, made the hour-long

From scrappy Dutch immigrants to rock gods.

BROTHERS

drive from their Tel Aviv home to their son’s. Upon arrival in Nahal Oz, Noam, a retired Israeli army general, was drawn into the fighting. When an Israeli soldier was mortally wounded, Noam borrowed the man’s M16 assault rifle and killed a Hamas attacker. Noam eventually reached his son’s house, where, after 10 hours in the safe room, Tibon and his family were physically unharmed. Outside the house lay “five dead bodies, all Hamas terrorists.” Fifteen Nahal Oz residents were killed; eight were kidnapped. Across Israel, more than 1,200 men, women, and children were killed. Tibon condemns Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a chaotic domestic response that poorly served Nahal Oz survivors. The author initially backed Israel’s military response but today feels it’s “extremely difficult to countenance the level of destruction caused by my own country inside Gaza,” where more than tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed. To his dismay, Tibon finds “no leaders in this land these days.”

An Israeli journalist’s gripping narrative of the horrifying 2023 attacks on his community and country.

Brothers

Van Halen, Alex | Harper/ HarperCollins (240 pp.) | $32.00 Oct. 22, 2024 | 9780063265707

In search of lost wild times. Centuries of land reclamation in the Netherlands have converted underwater expanses to livable tracts. We may have this process to thank for some of the most unforgettable and propulsive rock music ever

recorded. “The boom boom boom of the pile drivers—that was like the soundtrack of my early childhood,” Alex Van Halen writes of growing up in Holland. “Maybe that’s why I became a drummer.” Written a few years after the death of his brother Ed (not “Eddie,” as others called him)—the preternaturally gifted guitarist for the band that bore the siblings’ name—this breezy memoir is full of such delightful details, chronicling the brothers’ rise from scrappy Dutch immigrants to rock gods. The sons of a “tiny but tough” Indonesian mother and a Dutch musician father, Alex and Ed started playing music together at an early age, landing gigs in Pasadena, California, in the 1970s. Along the way, they met Dave Roth, “a hyperactive kid” with “an interesting drawl” who preferred the songs of Louis Prima and Al Jolson. But Dave’s clownish antics (and skintight pants) were the dose of showmanship that the Van Halen boys (and bassist Michael Anthony Sobolewski) needed. Dave also suggested a new band name: the strong-sounding Van Halen instead of—wait for it—Rat Salad. Much has been made of the eventual disharmony between Roth and the brothers (Roth “needs attention like everyone else needs water: to live,” Alex writes), but the author revisits this time without rancor, praising Roth for his lyrics. Penned with New Yorker writer Ariel Levy, the book delves into the brothers’ addictions and hedonism, thoughtfully appraising each. It’s the making of the music, though, that is the heart of this book, providing its steady pulse. Playing their “warm, big, and majestic” songs, as Ed put it, made them happy, and millions around the world are grateful for the joy they spread with those transcendent sounds. A loving and lighthearted reminiscence of a fraternal bond that powered a singular rock band.

A Rage to Conquer: Twelve Battles That Changed the Course of Western History

Walsh, Michael | St. Martin’s (400 pp.) $32.00 | Jan. 28, 2025 | 9781250281364

Into the breach once more. Shelves groan with “famous battles” accounts, and journalist and author Walsh has written another. Although no soldier, he has done his homework, and some military buffs will likely not object to his low opinion of the “politically correct” claim that war “never solves anything” and is shameful and destructive and marks a failure in national leadership. The reality, he maintains, is that war provides a “temporary, and often quite long-lasting, solution to most of the world’s most intractable conflicts.” He adds that war is foundational to every society throughout history. It will “never be abolished, and never lose its attraction for young and virile men.” He emphasizes that war remains a male obsession and that—in a claim that will raise more than a few eyebrows—“any culture that is forced to rely on women in combat is destined to lose.” (He assures female readers that women experience their own epiphany in childbirth.) Walsh then delivers 300 pages on wars from Troy to the present day, showing great admiration for (little surprise) the military tactician Napoleon. His epilogue—“Of the Battle of 9/11”— delivers a summing-up that many readers will suspect is coming. Throughout history, he writes, great nations and great commanders fought to destroy an opponent. There was never a concept of “limited” war, but that has been American policy since 1945, and he loathes it. He points out that since then the U.S. has never won a significant war but has lost several, including the war on terror, and we show no signs of confronting today’s bad actors.

Great battles and strong opinions.

Kirkus Star

Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause

Watts, Naomi | Crown (256 pp.)

$29.00 | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9780593729038

Destigmatizing and demystifying menopause and its effects.

In the voice of a wise but self-effacing older sister, actor and entrepreneur Watts offers an engaging contribution to the growing body of publications that seek to enlarge and center discussions of menopause and the dizzying range of its physical and psychological effects on women and their families. Citing research from more than 50 doctors and credentialed experts on women’s health, Watts elucidates the effects of menopausal symptoms and explores treatments for many of them, including fluctuating sex hormone levels, disrupted sleep, anxiety, hot flashes, brain fog, weight gain, UTIs, and heart palpitations. The roll call of corporeal discomforts is harrowing, but the author shares with brio and humor many of her own experiences with these symptoms and their subsequent remedies, organically interleaving disarming stories about her fertility struggles and the menopausal symptoms she began experiencing in her mid-30s, around the same time she began to seriously consider starting a family. The medical experts Watts interviewed share actionable advice on alleviating menopausal symptoms through diet, exercise, and sleep hygiene. They also discuss hormone replacement therapy at length, which was first available in the 1960s. HRT grew increasingly popular through the 1990s, but in 2002, the Women’s Health Initiative made the now-discredited announcement that HRT had carcinogenic effects on some women. HRT has been making a comeback, aided by Susan

Dominus’ 2023 New York Times article, “Women Have Been Misled About Menopause.” Watts herself has been a happy beneficiary of the treatment. Perhaps what’s most winning about this book, ultimately, is its author’s pro-aging message. In a society that values youth above all else, Watts celebrates women’s inherent value, no matter their age.

Kirkus Star

The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir

White, Edmund | Bloomsbury (256 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 28, 2025 | 9781639733729

A celebrated queer author shares a lifetime of formative erotic encounters. Despite admitting he falls short in the male equipment category, that has never stopped White from enjoying sexual escapades with a wide variety of boys and men around the globe across his 84 years. Heady flashbacks of his first experience lusting over a classmate and wrestling partner in fifth grade give way to unreciprocated dalliances with Cincinnati “hillbilly hustlers” as a teenager in the 1950s. Acknowledging the power imbalance and social disapproval, White is frank about his long history as a customer of male escorts; he prefers the quality, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and accommodation they provide. He shares varied romances—some fleeting, some enduringly romantic— and a few faux-curative interludes with female partners. Moving portraits of men like tall, blond swimmer Jim, whom White met in his 20s, and Pedro, the randy Spanish Ecuadorian young man with whom he spent several months, temper a frequently steamy narrative. Throughout, White remains fearless and purposefully blunt with descriptions so exacting that some readers will be

able to imagine the funk of his lovers in full bedroom bloom. Graphic depictions of sexual hookups and lovemaking are grounded with poetry, opinionated musings, wistful remembrances of carefree sex in the pre-Stonewall/pre-AIDS era (“seduction on the hoof”), and notes on the evolution of gay history, the enduring queer struggle for human rights, parenting, and how all of these issues continue to affect the LGBTQ+ community. In crisply written episodes laced with a wry sense of humor about his own shortcomings and social foibles, White remains a talented, carnally flagrant raconteur whose memoir thumps with the palpably racing heartbeat of life, sex, love, and unbridled desire. An irreverent and unapologetically provocative scrapbook of an aging author’s sex life.

Harriet Tubman: Military Scout and Tenacious Visionary: From Her Roots in Ghana to Her Legacy on the Eastern Shore

Wiesen, Jean Marie & Rita Daniels Pegasus (288 pp.) | $27.95 Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781639368136

A comprehensive overview of Tubman’s life and work, co-authored by one of her descendants. Tubman is best known as a conductor on the Underground Railroad who led her passengers from enslavement in Maryland to freedom in the North and Canada. Yet her acts of heroism, advocacy, and service extend beyond those risky journeys, and Wiesen and Daniels have compiled them all in order “to fill the gaps and correct inaccuracies.” As the United States moved into Civil War, Tubman was a spy, scout, and nurse in the Union Army, using her navigational skills and photographic memory to lead raids and advances. In spite of remaining illiterate

throughout her life, Tubman spent more than 50 years after the war in Auburn, New York, supporting her family by fighting for equal voting rights, employment, and dignity for formerly enslaved people, culminating in her creation of the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged. Her extraordinary achievements and high-profile collaborators are methodically organized and episodically divided into digestible chunks that sometimes run the risk of being overly simplified, repetitive, or both. However, with Daniels—Tubman’s great-great-great-grandniece—as co-author, familiar aspects of Tubman’s story are accentuated and expanded with what she has gleaned from family lore. Character traits and sensibilities, like Tubman’s famed curative skills as an herbalist, are placed within a powerful context, linked not only to an abridged American narrative, but also to a family’s African roots and her descendants’ ongoing work. Having had a front-row seat to the many ways Tubman has been studied, dissected, and honored both in the United States and beyond, Daniels grants both authoritative history and authentic humanity to a story frequently segmented for political expediency or specialized study, leaving readers with a fuller understanding of Tubman’s unique bravery, fortitude, and leadership. A solid addition to the growing body of work preserving the legacy of one of America’s greatest heroes.

We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine

Wilkinson, Alissa | Liveright/Norton (272 pp.)

$29.99 | March 11, 2025 | 9781324092612

A writer at the movies. New York Times film critic Wilkinson focuses on the connection to movies, celebrity, and Hollywood that shaped Didion’s “cool-eyed views of

societal collapse, cultural foolishness, personal anxiety, and political strife.” Growing up in the 1940s, the young Didion was enamored by movies, especially those featuring a heroic John Wayne. Steeped in a spirit of individualism and western grit, Didion saw in him the stability and strength that she admired. Her connection to movies intensified when she became a film critic, writing for Vogue and other venues, and certainly after she and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, moved to Los Angeles to make a career in the film industry. Working on screenplays taught her to write dialogue, and although screenwriting could be frustrating, both she and Dunne found the challenge engrossing and, happily, lucrative. Wilkinson places Didion’s novels and essays, from her earliest magazine pieces to her autobiographical The Year of Magical Thinking and last essay collections, in the context of a host of movies— Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, Jaws , paranoid thrillers—that honed her perspective on the world and her own writing process. Didion began, she said, “with pictures in her mind,” her prose arranged “as you arrange a shot”: As a writer, Wilkinson observes, she was “fully a product of Hollywood.” Describing Hollywood “as if viewing it through binoculars,” she clearly saw how its glitz and glamour “seeped into political campaigning, into media reporting on crime, into how we perceive good, evil, meaning, love, death, and everything else that makes up our lives.” The movies taught that “life would follow a genre and an arc,” that stories would make narrative sense; reality, Didion reported, is far different. A thoughtful look at a literary star.

Kirkus Star

War

Woodward, Bob | Simon & Schuster (448 pp.)

$32.00 | Oct. 15, 2024 | 9781668052273

Documenting perilous times. In his most recent behindthe-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American

How Hollywood shaped Joan Didion’s voice.

democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”

An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.

Reading the Waves: A Memoir

Yuknavitch, Lidia | Riverhead (208 pp.)

$29.00 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780593713051

A noted writer and teacher explores the uses of memoir to recast and heal the wounds of the past. Yuknavitch, whose previous memoir The Chronology of Water (2011) has been both a viral sensation and a touchstone for students of the genre, returns to personal writing after several novels. “What if we could read our past, our memories, even our bodies, as if they too were books open to endless interpretation?” The point, she says, is to show readers, possibly aspiring writers themselves, how it is possible to “imagine a map” that loosens the grip of sorrow. Among the experiences she mines are her relationship with her second husband, Devin, who either fell or jumped from a construction crane in 2015; an abusive relationship with a poet boyfriend; her troubled connections with her parents; and the stillbirth of a baby girl. She mentions her son Miles, now a college graduate and an artist, in terms of her experience of an empty nest, but his story, she asserts, is not hers to tell. (Amusingly, she reports that at 15 he asked her if it were possible “to make important art if you came from a loving and stable homelife.”) She discusses the murders of her cousin Michelle and of a talented African

Failures and fears as a writer’s portals.

READING THE WAVES

American student she briefly worked with, saying she is “suspicious of conclusions” about violence against women but has “chosen to spend [her] life creating a literature of resistance.” While much of the material and the formal experiments she assays will be familiar to readers of the first memoir, the connection between the titles of the two supports the idea that this is a re-examination of old stories. The last chapter, “Solaces,” contains advice and instructions to the reader, words of inspiration of the sort she offers her students in workshops. “Your failures and fears are portals, step through.”

Full of the messy, moving, in-your-face inspiration and storytelling for which Yuknavitch is beloved.

Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth): A Memoir

Zusak, Markus | HarperCollins (240 pp.) $30.00 | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9780063426078

Life with four-legged mischief-makers.

In his first work of nonfiction, Zusak, the Australian author of the novels The Book Thief and The Messenger, offers a glimpse of his private life in Sydney, where his family has lived in thrall, as he would tell it, to the parade of highly idiosyncratic animals that have shared their home. Zusak’s daughter, Kitty, “loved all animals” but “especially gravitated to dogs.” When she turned three, Reuben entered their lives, a

four-month-old puppy with brindle fur and “just-got-out-of-jail” energy. The first year was idyllic, but when Reuben reached adulthood, he began to have sudden bouts of aggression, just in time for Zusak’s second child to be born, this one a boy. When Reuben lunged at the newborn, Zusak and his wife knew that they were in for trouble. But they also couldn’t abandon their daughter’s best friend, so instead they closely monitored. No one was more surprised than the author when, in 2011, he and his wife acquired a second dog, “blond” and “handsome” Archer, who started out as Zusak’s in-laws’ foster pup. Soon, Archer and Reuben were a “two-dog mafia,” best friends, up to all sort of hijinks, including killing a possum and, later, the family’s cat. The memoir takes a somber turn; Zusak writes in moving detail about Reuben’s battle with cancer and the eventual death of both dogs, a “seismic loss.” The “dogless life” proved too quiet for the family, so less than a year after Archer’s death came Frosty, the star of the book’s epilogue. Zusak is an affable, appealing narrator, prone to digressions. In the final portion of the book, his grief is palpable.

A self-deprecating tale of dog-ownership mayhem that is sure to win over many a reader.

SEEN AND HEARD

Maya Hawke Narrates Slouching Towards Bethlehem Audiobook

The actor lent her voice to Joan Didion’s 1968 essay collection.

Maya Hawke has lent her voice to a new audiobook edition of Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Macmillan Audio announced in a news release.

Didion’s essay collection, first published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1968, was the late author’s first nonfiction book; it collected Didion’s

thoughts on a variety of subjects, many focusing on her home state of California. The book was praised by critics and is now considered one of the seminal works of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Actor and singer-songwriter Hawke is known for her roles in the television series Stranger Things and in films including Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Asteroid City, and Maestro. She starred as author Flannery O’Connor in Wildcat, the 2023 biopic directed by her father, Ethan Hawke.

“I have always been a huge fan of Joan Didion’s writing,” Hawke said in a statement. “Many of the essays in Slouching Towards Bethlehem were written when she was in her 20s, and it’s been an incredible experience to get to spend so much time with her words and feel a sense of camaraderie almost sixty years later. It’s an honor to have the opportunity to narrate her brilliant work and introduce her iconic prose to a new generation.”

The audiobook edition of Slouching Towards Bethlehem was released by Macmillan Audio last month.—M.S.

Maya Hawke

For a review of Slouching Towards Bethlehem, visit Kirkus online.

Pope Francis To Publish Memoir Next Year

The pontiff will tell the story of his life in Hope.

Pope Francis will tell the story of his life in a memoir being published next year, the Guardian reports. It will be the first autobiography in history released by a sitting pope. Random House will publish Hope: The Autobiography, co-written with Carlo Musso and translated by Richard Dixon, in the winter. It calls the book “a thrilling and very human memoir, moving and sometimes funny, which represents the ‘story of a life’ and, at the same time, a touching moral and spiritual testament that will fascinate readers throughout the world.”

Francis became the head of the Roman Catholic Church in 2013, the first Jesuit to be elected pope. Prior to his

SEEN AND HEARD

papacy, he was a chemist and a priest who rose to become an archbishop and cardinal. He is the author of several previous books, including The Church of Mercy, Happiness in This Life, and Let Us Dream

“Pope Francis originally intended this exceptional book to appear only after his death, but the needs of our times and the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope have moved him to make this precious legacy available now,” Random House says. It says that Francis “deals unsparingly with some of the crucial moments of his papacy and writes candidly, fearlessly, and prophetically about some of the most important and controversial questions of our present times.”

Hope is scheduled for publication on Jan. 14, 2025.—M.S.

Pope Francis

For reviews of other books by Pope Francis, visit Kirkus online.

Winner of the 2024 Cundill History Prize Revealed

Kathleen DuVal won the award for Native Nations: A Millennium in North America.

Kathleen DuVal has won the Cundill History Prize, given annually to a book “that embodies historical scholarship, originality,

AWARDS

literary quality and broad appeal,” for Native Nations: A Millennium in North America.

DuVal’s book, published in April by Random House, explores the power of the Indigenous nations in North America before and after European colonization. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus praised the book as “a revelatory account of the power and influence of Indigenous peoples in North America.”

Historian Rana Mitter, the chair of the prize jury, said in a statement, “One of the most wonderful things about Native Nations by Katheleen DuVal is that it brings unexpected and, to many

readers, unknown aspects of that story, to prominence. She does this by bringing in historians and analysts of the Indigenous American experience from within their own scholarship, bringing the story to the forefront of our wider understanding in this huge sweeping history that starts more than 1000 years ago and brings us up to the present day.”

The Cundill History Prize was established in 2008 and is administered by McGill University in Montreal.

Previous winners include Anne Applebaum for Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944–1956 and Tania Branigan for Red Memory: The Afterlives of China’s Cultural Revolution —M.S.

For a review of Native Nations, visit Kirkus online.

Kathleen DuVal

Children's

THE YEAR OF

THE ANT

PITY THE POOR ANT; it doesn’t seem to garner the same press as its fellow creepy­ crawlies. Butterflies have been enshrined in the kid ­lit pantheon since Eric Carle published The Very Hungry Caterpillar in 1969. Though many find spiders terrifying, they’ve gotten their due; consider Charlotte’s Web and, more recently, Jessica Lanan’s Sibert Honor–winning Jumper (Roaring Brook Press, 2023). And even the lowly earthworm is enjoying its place in the sun; last year, Polly Owens and Gwen Millward’s Darwin’s SuperPooping Worm Spectacular (Wide Eyed Editions) and Marie Boyd’s Just a Worm (Greenwillow Books) both paid tribute to the invertebrate’s crucial place in the ecosystem.

Ants, on the other hand, haven’t had nearly as many opportunities to shine. In Aesop’s well­known tale, the ant is the dutiful, self­righteous foil to the lazy, fun­loving grasshopper. But ants are anything but dull. Recent studies have revealed that they’re the only creature other than humans to perform lifesaving amputations. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Happily, I’m not alone in extolling the virtues of this hardworking, intrepid insect. As I look over the picture books published over the last 12 months, it’s clear to me that 2024 should be dubbed the Year of the Ant. With The Wonderful Wisdom of Ants (Crown, March 19), Philip Bunting waxes rhapsodic about ants—their strong social connections, their ability to communicate via pheromones, and their benefits to soil ecology. The author/illustrator blends whimsy, deadpan humor, and carefully chosen facts as he urges readers to take a lesson or two from ants: “Power nap. Always do your best for those around you. And…leave the Earth in better shape than it was when you got here.”

Farmers, haulers, and pharmacists—every member of this community has a job.

Readers of Amy Hevron’s thoughtfully written and lushly illustrated City of Leafcutter Ants: A Sustainable Society of Millions (Neal Porter/Holiday House, June 25) will be amazed at the information on display. In many ways, ant communities seem more efficient than those of humans; some ants produce antibiotics from their own bodies, while others cultivate crops that nourish millions.

Science writer Rosemary Mosco’s There Are No Ants in This Book, illustrated by Anna Pirolli (Tundra Books, July 16), opens on a child setting out for a picnic. Unfortunately, the youngster’s hopes of an ant­free day are dashed as a series of insects—from the monstrously huge dinosaur ant to the tiny pharaoh ant—pop up with informative tidbits. Sure to please

budding entomologists, this quirky tale makes clear that ants are so much more than picnic pests.

By turns thrilling and poignant, Jay Hosler’s middle ­ grade graphic novel Ant Story (HarperAlley, March 26) stars Rubi, a wisecracking yet lonely leafcutter ant—the only creature in her community who can talk—who embarks on an adventure. Along the way, Hosler seamlessly incorporates facts about leafcutter ant life: the good (their skill at growing their own food), the bad (the dangers they face as one of the lowest creatures on the food chain), and the downright disgusting (their habit of fertilizing their fungal gardens with their own feces).

Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.

Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson

EDITOR’S PICK

Siblings await their mother in a lonely, sandy expanse. JieJie and her younger brother, Didi, roam a desolate desert, patiently waiting for a phone call from their mother at a telephone booth atop a dune. They ration water, avoid sandstorms, and try to stay brave. While picking through the trash produced by the gilded, impenetrable Oasis City, they discover a broken robot and take it home. With ingenuity and luck, they get it working and find themselves, to their surprise, with a reliable humanoid caregiver whom they quickly accept as their robot mother. Their

human mother, the story reveals, works in the underground factories below Oasis City serving the civilization’s robot overlords. This graphic novel could easily feel tragic or sinister—a family torn apart, a ravaged planet, artificial intelligence replacing humanity. But Guojing’s light visual style focuses on rounded, soft strokes and gentle shading, children with chubby cheeks and hopeful smiles, and subtle elegance in the story’s robot character. When the robot and human mother meet, a profound reckoning but also a hopeful resolution soon follow. The children

Oasis

Guojing | Godwin Books | 160 pp. Feb. 18, 2025 | $21.99 | $14.99 paper 9781250818379 | 9781250818386 paper

are at the heart of the narrative, and the family they form, unconventional as it may be, offers a breath of hope in a dark time. The protagonists present East Asian; the names JieJie and Didi (Mandarin for “older

sister” and “younger brother”) suggest that they have Chinese heritage. A thought-provoking, affecting allegory that reflects difficult realities yet is filled with love. (Graphic science fiction. 7-12)

Stimulating exchanges, often veering off in unexpected directions.

WISE UP! WISE DOWN!

Wise Up! Wise Down!: A Poetic Conversation

Agard, John & JonArno Lawson | Illus. by Satoshi Kitamura | Candlewick (144 pp.)

$18.99 | March 4, 2025 | 9781536238990

Sallies and responses in verse make up a dialogue between two poets living on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Many of the paired poems here have previously appeared in separate collections, but all are well integrated into this new work. Following introductory squibs (“I’m John Agard. / I’m supposed to be a poet.” “Be on your guard with Agard, / and with Lawson, use caution”), the two exchange pithy, usually lighthearted observations on multiple themes from hats to fingers, pigeons to silly pets. Though Agard’s love story of a cow and a cat prefaces Lawson’s tale of a romance between an octopus and a seahorse, the connections are seldom so direct; Agard refers to “Salt” in one poem, for instance, and Lawson writes of “Peppercorn.” Similarly, Lawson’s cautionary tale of what happened when Humpty Dumpty took refuge under a chicken leads Agard to reflect on nature vs. nurture: “Was it a little gene / that caused Jack Sprat / to eat no fat / and his wife to eat no lean?” Kitamura opens with caricatures of the two authors, then goes on to add generally tongue ­in­ cheek monochrome images of relevant animals, human figures with paper­white skin, decorative bits of abstract patterns, or informally drawn spot items. A page of suggested activities at the end invites readers intrigued by this

interplay of poems, pictures, and ideas to create similar conversations with their own words or pictures. Stimulating exchanges, often veering off in unexpected directions. (Poetry. 7-11)

The Big Splash

Ahn, Angela | Illus. by Julie Kim | Tundra

Books (176 pp.) | $12.99 | Feb. 11, 2025

9781774882078 | Series: Julia on the Go!, 2

When Julia’s swim coach is suddenly called away, the team must adjust to a strict substitute. Things have improved for Julia since we last saw her in Swimming Into Trouble (2024). She’s adjusting to her new haircut, and she’s been medically cleared to rejoin her team, the Vipers, at the Mountainview Community Center. (The first installment saw her dealing with an ear infection.) The excitement is short­lived, though, when Coach Marissa introduces a temporary replacement before abruptly leaving due to a family emergency. Coach Nathan’s a harsh taskmaster, and he gets rid of Splash Time, the five minutes of fun that usually follow each practice. Two teammates quit, and the challenges don’t stop there—the team must quickly hold a car wash to cover a sudden jump in fees. Julia slowly realizes that Coach Nathan’s stern exterior belies his own uncertainties about his lack of experience. Meanwhile, the fundraiser’s tight timeline leads to new friendships, a situation that causes tensions with her BFF, Maricel. Gently infused with humor, Ahn’s narrative deftly balances Julia’s struggles with promoting the car wash while navigating shifting friendships

and learning that first impressions can be deceiving. Kim’s comically expressive illustrations interspersed throughout add to the emotional journey. Physical descriptors are minimal, but Julia is Korean Canadian, and her community appears diverse in the artwork.

An authentic, funny, and endearing series addition, with big splashes of fun. (Fiction. 7-10)

Almost Sunset

Algarmi, Wahab | HarperAlley (224 pp.) $24.99 | Feb. 18, 2025 | 9780063355675

A Yemeni American boy struggles to find balance during Ramadan. Hassan is preoccupied during the first days of Ramadan—he falls asleep in class and sidesteps questions about why he’s not eating lunch. Things get harder at soccer practices when he leaves early, much to the consternation of his coach. Other than one friend, he doesn’t tell anyone about his fasting. Meanwhile, Hassan’s nights are busy with prayers at the masjid; his grades slip, and he fears he’ll be replaced on the soccer team. Hassan and his cousins secretly break their fast, gorging on sweets, a lapse that weighs heavily on his conscience. His frustration wells up, leading Hassan to fall apart and act out at school. In response, his parents ground him, but the crisis also results in a conversation with his mom that allows Hassan to consider why he’s choosing to continue fasting. As Ramadan progresses, Hassan gains more control over his life—and when he opens up to others about fasting, there are some surprises in store for him. This uplifting story highlights the struggles of some fasting Muslim kids, but Algarmi focuses on Hassan’s perseverance and ability to own up to his mistakes and turn things around. Action­packed panels showing Hassan’s school days contrast with quieter

moments with family. Many wordless sequences offer glimpses of the Yemeni community.

An inspiring look at the challenges and courage needed to be true to one’s faith. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)

Astronaut Hayley’s Brave Adventure

Arceneaux, Hayley | Illus. by Lucie Bee Convergent (40 pp.) | $13.99

Feb. 18, 2025 | 9780593443903

A plucky child becomes a space traveler.

Arceneaux was the first pediatric cancer survivor and the first with a prosthetic body part to become an astronaut, part of the first all­civilian space mission in 2021. The author, who in 2022 published the adult memoir Wild Ride and its 2023 adaptation for middle­grade readers, here shares her story with an even younger audience. Told in the third person, the narrative emphasizes the bravery she summoned as she coped with a cancer that left her with a prosthetic leg bone and knee (hinted at with an incision line in one illustration) and went on to become a space traveler. Curiously, Hayley and her astronaut colleagues are portrayed as children. They play with a “stuffed toy alien,” and in an imagined episode, Hayley ventures outside the spacecraft to perform a repair. Accompanied by softly hued illustrations with character designs that recall Precious Moments figurines, the narrative emphasizes familiar details of space travel that will appeal to children; both their bodies and their food float in zero gravity. The mission splashes down safely, and Hayley rushes to hug her mom. Though Arceneaux was the youngest astronaut to have orbited the Earth, she was an adult when she did so. The odd choice to depict her as a child reduces her compelling story to a fantasy. Arceneaux is white; other characters are diverse. Sweet but misleading. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Star

Wind Watchers

Archer, Micha | Nancy Paulsen Books (32 pp.) $18.99 | March 4, 2025 | 9780593616550

Follow a trio of children through the seasons as they ask the Wind, “How will you blow today?”

In spring, the brown­skinned youngsters’ dark hair dances animatedly in the breeze as “Wind answers with a puff of the petals, making them flutter and fall.” The lightly personified Wind is playful, even mercurial. In summer, it might respond favorably to their pleas for “one big whoooshhh” to lift their kite. Other times, Wind—who likes “to be WILD!”—might cause a tumultuous storm. The narration is conversational, even breezy at times. Short, frequent pops of alliteration and compelling turns of phrase feel wonderfully lyrical, such as a young skater thanking the wintry Wind “for the extra­looooong glide.” Brilliant acrylic ink and intricate collage illustrations are as exuberant as the Wind. The pages are briskly busy, from an autumnal spread showing seed pods soaring as a child watches in awe to a serene, almost quiltlike image of youngsters lying languidly near a pond on a hot summer’s day, begging Wind for a cool gust. The full­bleed spreads are dynamic, featuring gloriously luminous, deeply saturated colors and breathtaking changes of perspective, such as wide eyes peeking out a window onto blurred streaks of “swirling snow.” Upon reaching the satisfying last page, in which the Wind says, “Sometimes my work takes my breath away!’” readers will agree: “It takes away ours, too.” Joyful and poetic, a tale that will delight all year long. (Picture book. 4-8)

The Ghosts of Bitterfly Bay

Averling, Mary | Putnam (224 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780593624937

A young ghost and a living girl face down an evil threat.

First­person narrator Maudie, her little brother, Scratch, and their friend Kit became ghosts almost a year ago. They haunt Mayflower Cottage, a vacation rental near the titular bay of a Canadian lake. They amuse themselves by watching the strange phenomena on their side of “the veil” and playing their “haunting game,” in which they compete to scare visitors away. Then a horror writer and his two daughters arrive to stay in the cottage at the same time that a creepy cabin just… appears on an island in the lake. Shortly after, Scratch and Kit go missing. Convinced that the evil Longfingers—a character from a ghost story she made up—has trapped Scratch and Kit on the island, Maudie reaches through the veil to make contact with Gianna, the author’s younger daughter, for help. As she did in her debut, The Curse of Eelgrass Bog (2024), Averling endows her young protagonist with a mysterious supernatural origin story, a beguilingly weird setting, and an anchoring friend. But this outing feels patched together, the pace muddled and the metaphysics arbitrary and unsatisfying. One of Averling’s strengths is her ear for fresh figurative language, but she kneecaps herself with an overreliance on simile that makes the writing feel stale. Maudie’s an appealing character, but she can’t overcome the story’s weaknesses. Characters present white.

A stumbling second outing. (Supernatural. 9-12)

Joyful and poetic, a tale that will delight all year long.

WIND WATCHERS

Every Monday Mabel

Awan, Jashar | Simon & Schuster (48 pp.)

$19.99 | Feb. 25, 2025 | 9781665938150

Each Monday, Mabel prepares for “the best thing in the world.” Why is Mabel dragging her chair outside to the top of the driveway, where she sits and waits with a bowl of cereal? Older sister Mira thinks Mabel’s Monday morning routine is “the most boring thing.” Mom thinks it’s the “cutest,” Dad the “funniest.” Awan builds suspense and drama as brownskinned Mabel moves through the house. At last, the garbage truck pulls up to the curb, and Mabel’s filled with excitement as she watches the sanitation workers do their thing. Neon colors pop in the illustrations; in one scene, Mabel’s double puffs and off­kilter chair loom larger than life in the shadows they cast behind her. Diagonal lines add interest, as when Dad’s massive arm reaches up across the gutter to open the door for his daughter, coffee splashing from the cup in his other hand. Action lines, alliteration, capital letters, and sound effects help readers understand why the massive machine rumbling to the curb is so special: “Liiiiift.” “Wheeeeeeeee.” “Gah­dump.” “TRASH TUMBLES INTO THE TRUCK!” The spectacle is a young child’s delight, and it’s refreshing to see a vehicle­related book starring a girl of color. Unbeknownst to Mabel, she isn’t the only one who waits for the garbage truck. Turning to the final page, viewers see several neighbors of various skin tones at their windows. Captures the excitement of anticipation, the thrill of yearning realized, and truck love among the young. (Picture book. 2-5)

Kirkus Star

Sea Legs

Bakes, Jules | Illus. by Niki Smith Graphix/Scholastic (256 pp.) | $14.99 paper Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781338835861

In this graphic novel inspired by the author’s life, soon­to ­be fourth grader Janey finds adventure living aboard her parents’ sailboat. It’s 1993, and Janey is leaving Florida to head back out to sea on the Merimaid, the sailboat that is her home. While her parents worked on shore to earn money to continue sailing—her father is a welder, and her mom cleaned the marina office to help pay for their slip—Janey attended school in Indian Harbour Beach. Janey sails south with her parents and beloved cat, eventually reaching the U.S. Virgin Islands. Living aboard a 42­foot sailboat in the Caribbean may seem glamorous, but Bakes presents not only the adventure and excitement, but also the loneliness and difficulties of staying close to her best friend. When Janey spies another boat with kids on board, she quickly radios and is thrilled to make contact with another girl, Astrid. They become friends, although older daredevil Astrid pushes Janey beyond her comfort level. But as she learns more about Astrid’s life, Janey begins to appreciate how fortunate her own is. Filled with lively, touching, and suspenseful vignettes, this story of an unusual childhood is distinctive for its authenticity and lack of romanticism. Accurate in all sailing details, the tale is both refreshing and stimulating. Smith’s luminous art vibrantly portrays the characters’ range of

emotions and the book’s diverse settings. Janey reads white; Astrid has wavy black hair and light brown skin.

Authentic and engaging. (author’s and illustrator’s notes) (Graphic fiction. 8-12)

Montgomery Bonbon: Murder at the Museum

Beckett-King, Alasdair | Illus. by Claire Powell | Candlewick (288 pp.)

$18.99 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9781536241662

Series: Montgomery Bonbon, 1

A 10 ­year­old detective and her grandfather jump into action when an ordinary museum visit turns into a crime­solving opportunity. Bonnie Montgomery and Grampa Banks are visiting Widdlington’s Hornville Museum when suddenly, everyone is plunged into darkness. When the lights come back on, security guard Oliver Munday is dead—inside a locked room—and the statue he was guarding is gone. Transforming into her alter ego, renowned (and “unusually short”) detective Montgomery Bonbon, Bonnie sets out to unravel these seemingly impossible crimes. Disguised by a raincoat, mustache, and an accent that’s “very hard to place,” Bonnie has solved many mysteries that have stumped professionals—including Inspector Prashanti Sands, who’s now on the museum case. Aided by her loyal grandfather, Bonnie intends to uncover the truth behind the murder and theft—as long as Grampa approves any stakeouts, of course. Bonbon, who’s a comical amalgamation of Poirot, Clouseau, and the like, fools

A charming lesson on the power of accountability, apology, and friendship.

the witless adults around her. Bonnie herself is often less sure, even socially awkward; her insecurities and hunger for friendship manifest in endearing ways. This debut from English comedian Beckett­King is enhanced by Powell’s exuberant and plentiful black­and­white illustrations, which capture the curious settings and eccentric personalities. This classic cozy mystery series opener, complete with a satisfying reveal, will leave children cheering for its young sleuth. Bonnie appears white in the illustrations; the supporting cast is racially diverse.

Quirky and clever: Readers will clamor for more! (map, cast of characters, author’s note) (Mystery. 8-12)

I Am Not Your Hat!

Bentley, Lisa | Paula Wiseman/ Simon & Schuster (40 pp.) | $19.99 Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781665955362

Bert has a big secret. Luckily, he has his friend Dot by his side—or rather, sitting on his head—to help him keep it.

Dot is a small, round, speckled bird with a striking plume of wispy fuchsia tail feathers. Bert is a big, lanky gray bird with a comfy head for Dot to perch upon. Most of the other birds think the pair odd, until a flock of Bert look­alikes compliment Bert on his fabulous headgear. “I am not your hat!” Dot protests, indignantly. Bert ignores her, strutting with pride, until she explodes with anger and flies away. Bert’s secret’s out: The whole time, Dot’s been hiding Bert’s tuft of flouncy, twisty orange hair. But instead of ridiculing him, Bert’s new bird friends think he looks glorious! Bert’s eager to share his joy with a friend, but he realizes Dot is gone, so he sets out to apologize. Dot considers Bert’s heartfelt apology for a moment before accepting, and Bert reiterates that while it was lovely to embrace his authentic self, he also missed having his good friend with him. Watercolor­inspired digital illustrations lend energetic movement to all the birds,

showcasing charming facial expressions and personality traits unique to each. Backdrops rendered in muted colors or the white of the page allow the fancier birds to pop, especially hot­pink Dot. A charming lesson on the power of accountability, apology, and friendship. (Picture book. 3-6)

Your Money and the World: How To Spend, Save, Donate and Invest Sustainably

Biccari,

Cecile

| Illus.

by

Naïade Lacolomb

Trans. by Jeffrey

K.

Butt | Helvetiq (80 pp.) $19.95 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9783039640454

A child muses on what to do with found treasure. Tan­skinned Nora and her lighter­skinned grandma discover a treasure chest filled with coins in the woods. What should they do with it? An anthropomorphic mouse named Kiko offers them magical doorways to explore their options. Granny sits out this adventure in favor of yoga, but Nora learns about spending, saving, donating, and investing. Presented in comics panels, these episodes are inconsistent and odd—in one scene, Nora doesn’t have enough money to buy a fancy microphone, but in another, she funds the creation of a slime­based theme park. The remaining two­thirds of the book swerves into a blend of textbooklike explanations (“Why do some backpacks cost more than others?”) and sensible advice (“Think before you spend”). The attractive artwork makes effective use of color to distinguish each fictional scene. But the book, translated from French, at times feels crammed with financial definitions and other information. Still, it offers valuable lessons, particularly when it comes to the costs and ethics of producing goods, as well as attitudes about money. Unfortunately, its messaging around sustainability and environmental awareness is muddied by mentions of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that say nothing about the energy consumption or matters of trust involved with them.

Sound morsels of advice amid a clumsy presentation. (QR code with a link to further information) (Nonfiction. 7-10)

The Enemy’s Daughter

Blankman, Anne | Viking (288 pp.)

$18.99 | Feb. 18, 2025 | 9780593623046

“To become friends with your supposed enemy during wartime was a kind of miracle.”

On board the Lusitania in 1915, 12­year­old Marta’s father is arrested for being German—just before a German torpedo sinks the ship. Trying to find Papa, traumatized Marta makes her way to York, England, where Germans are being interned. There, she encounters Irish­born Clare O’Sullivan, claims to be Dutch, and ends up living with the poor but generous O’Sullivans. Throughout, Marta struggles to reconcile many contradictory thoughts and experiences: her disparaging beliefs about the English and Irish, the anti­German hatred she encounters, the many kindnesses she receives, and the fact that her beloved homeland’s navy attacked a civilian ship. Above all, how can Marta and German­hating Clare ever be best friends when Marta feels unable to share the truth about her story? And will Marta ever get home again? Superlative worldbuilding characterizes this World War I story, from heart­pounding descriptions of the Lusitania’s sinking to Marta’s observant explorations in York and evocative memories of Germany and her family. The main characters are distinctive and layered, all holding the prejudices and kindnesses that drive the story. While the writing clearly shows the incidents that created Marta’s inner turmoil, it can be occasionally heavy­handed in spelling out those feelings, rather than trusting readers to draw their own conclusions. Nevertheless, readers will root for the girls’ friendship. Themes of prejudice, friendship, kindness, truth, and wartime inhumanity thread this heartfelt story. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 9-12)

Revolutionary Mary: The True

Story

of One Woman, the Declaration of Independence, and America’s Fight for Freedom

Blumenthal, Karen & Jen McCartney

Illus. by Elizabeth Baddeley | Roaring

Brook Press (40 pp.) | $18.99

Feb. 18, 2025 | 9781626723115

The story of an unusual woman who printed the Declaration of Independence. Mary Katharine Goddard was determined to be recognized. Though she didn’t attend school, she was fortunate to have a mother who tutored her in reading and math. When Mary and her mother worked in brother William’s print shop, she could see another option for her life, beyond marriage and motherhood. She became immersed in her profession, relishing the hard physical work. She printed newspapers, books, advertisements, and more, as well as information about events that were moving the 13 colonies toward independence from Britain. When the Revolution began, she was fully aware that she was committing treason, proudly placing her name, M.K. Goddard, on every paper she issued. Mary was chosen to print the first official copies of the Declaration of Independence, which showed the names of the signers. She made her own statement by adding her full name as printer. “That was Mary.” The tale is filled with details of America’s revolutionary period, insights into Mary’s character, and facts about the printing process— “Whoosh!” “Pound!” “Crank!”—all greatly enhanced by bright, sharply delineated illustrations accompanied by sepia insets that provide further historical information. Mary was white, but some workers and townspeople have darker skin. In the backmatter, the author notes that upon her death, Mary freed the enslaved woman she owned, Belinda, and left her all her possessions.

A thought-provoking, multilayered read that will leave a lasting impression.

RICK KOTANI’S 400 MILLION DOLLAR SUMMER

A fascinating look at a thoughtful, courageous woman. (about Mary Katherine Goddard, printing history of the Declaration of Independence, printing and publishing in colonial times, select bibliography, author’s note) (Picture book-biography. 6-10)

What Coco Can Do

Boelts, Maribeth | Illus. by Stephanie Laberis | Candlewick (32 pp.) | $18.99 April 1, 2025 | 9781536229486

A loving tribute to working dogs of many sorts…and one in particular. Laberis portrays seven dogs of as many breeds in bright­eyed action, including Pepper, who works with a cattle rancher; Jax, a lifeguard dog who saves people from drowning; Kit, who’s trained to chase geese and other wildlife away from airport runways; and Scout, a smiling on­command screen actor who’s always “ready to roll.” Then there’s Coco, who “can cuddle,” as Boelts repeatedly writes. Readers who think that sounds nice but ordinary next to these other canine achievers are in for an eye­opening surprise, though. Coco is actually a professional cuddler who, clad in a special vest, brings comfort to hospital patients of all ages, to children who have lost their homes, to lonely or grieving elders, and to anyone with “a heart that just plain hurts.” Coco’s extended human family is multiracial; the other two­legged figures throughout are diverse in age and hue. Laberis gathers all the four­legged characters together at the end for a group portrait surrounded by hearts, an earnest demonstration of Boelts’ message that

cuddling is “spectacular,” “just like every gift a dog gives.”

A testimonial glowing with shaggy, waggy charm.

(Informational picture book. 5-7)

Pedal Pusher: How One Woman’s Bicycle Adventure Helped Change the World

Boone,

Mary | Illus. by

Lisa Anchin

Henry Holt (40 pp.) | $19.99 Feb. 18, 2025 | 9781250837127

The daring exploits of a bike­riding trailblazer. Two Boston businessmen made a bet: No woman could cycle around the world. Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, a Latvian Jewish immigrant and married mother of three, accepted. Talk about nervy: Antisemitism was rife, and Annie had never ridden a bike. She received just two brief lessons before she set out on June 25, 1894. Before leaving, she accepted $100 from the Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company and attached their advertising to her bike, thus (temporarily) becoming “Annie Londonderry, Daring Lady Bicyclist.” Following initial struggles, a New York bicycle company donated a lighterweight bike, and Annie traded her skirt for bloomers. After sailing to France and cycling across the country, Annie sailed to Egypt. On her trip, she also traveled by train and ship and pedaled through Russia, India, Vietnam, and more. A steamship from Japan brought Annie to San Francisco, from whence she returned to Boston, arriving on schedule. She was greeted enthusiastically everywhere, signing photos and

regaling audiences with exciting, probably heavily embellished lectures. What was genuine: Annie pedaled a tremendous distance—and changed perceptions about women’s accomplishments. Children will embrace this fast­paced tale about an indomitable adventurer. The colorful illustrations, some featuring international landmarks, capture Annie’s determination and present period details well. Introduces a bold female risk taker who deserves much wider recognition. (newspaper excerpts, author’s note, map) (Informational picture book. 5-8)

Ruby Bridges: A Talk With My Teacher

Bridges, Ruby | Illus. by Trudy Tran Orchard/Scholastic (48 pp.)

$19.99 | Jan. 7, 2025 | 9781338753943

Activist Bridges shares her memories of the elementary teacher who taught her when no one else would.

Young Ruby’s looking forward to the beginning of second grade. Last year, in 1960, she became the first Black student to attend William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans; because so many parents pulled their children out of school in protest, she was the only child in her class. She’s excited about recent changes at school: This year, she’s no longer the only Black student, and she has classmates, too. But her teacher, Mrs. Henry, is nowhere to be found; Ruby has a new teacher and classroom. For 35 long years, Ruby wonders what happened to Mrs. Henry and harbors questions about her experiences. When her work as a published author makes a reunion with Mrs. Henry possible, she finally gets answers to her many questions. Though somewhat dry and a bit clunky in places, the text offers a comprehensible account of integration and the impact it had on Bridges. Softly hued digital illustrations capture Bridges’ confusion as she searches for Mrs. Henry in the school halls. The

book ends with an author’s note in which Bridges expresses her hope that her memories will inspire a greater appreciation of teachers; she also includes a glossary of famous educators, which feels a bit tacked on.

A child-friendly exploration of a landmark moment in civil rights history. (Picture-book memoir. 5-8)

Hop Helps Out

Brown, Marc with Peter K. Hirsch & Tolon Brown | Orchard/Scholastic (40 pp.)

$17.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781339035680

Marc Brown, best known for creating the Arthur books, launches a new series with a television tie­in about a frog named Hop. Hop and his friend Benny discover Helga the troll crying. She tells them she’s eager to see the world but is frightened, so they help her overcome her fears by demonstrating all that Fair Village has to offer. They bring her to the meadow, introduce her to their pals, serve her homemade ice cream, take her for a ride in a talking car, and show her the joys of a “bubble swim” (a dip in a kiddie pool filled with bubbles). In return, Helga treats them to troll delicacies such as fungus chips. The characters are likable and endearing and share the distinct features and style of Marc Brown’s picture book art; the animals are anthropomorphized, with humanlike bodies. In an author’s note, Marc Brown indicates that one of Hop’s legs is shorter than the other. Readers may not notice this on their own, though closer examination of the illustrations will reveal a special shoe on one of Hop’s feet. While this is a very sweet book, it lacks drama or conflict; there isn’t a lot to the plot other than showing off Fair Village. Still, many young readers—especially those who enjoy the TV program— may enjoy following along. Good-natured, though low on action; best suited for fans of the show. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Star

Rick Kotani’s 400 Million Dollar Summer

Brown, Waka T. | Quill Tree Books/ HarperCollins (272 pp.) | $19.99 Feb. 18, 2025 | 9780063230811

What could be worth more than $400 million dollars?

Twelve­year­old Rick Kotani is a baseball superfan who’s shocked when his favorite baseball player, David Martinez, turns down a huge contract. Japanese American Rick dreams of being a millionaire pro ball player someday, and he’s excited for an epic summer of baseball with his teammates. Unfortunately, his plans are derailed when his mom (whom some readers will recognize as the protagonist of 2022’s Dream, Annie, Dream) whisks him away from Los Angeles to the Oregon seaside to check on his grandfather Hiroshi, whom he hasn’t seen in eight years. But things don’t turn out as badly as he expected when the two discover they have a mutual affinity. Grandpa shares with Rick a compelling Japanese folk tale about a fisherman named Urashima Taro, a turtle, and the untold treasures of an underwater kingdom. Rick even gets a chance to play ball with a local team and makes new friends. But just as he’s getting swept up in the smalltown team’s toxic culture of winning at any cost, he starts to notice uncanny similarities between the tale of Urashima Taro and his own family’s story. Could there be more to life than fame and fortune? Brown beautifully weaves together multiple storylines as the characters learn to find meaning, value, and purpose even when their dreams fail to unfold in the ways they hoped. Ambiguous moments leave room for deeper contemplation and discussion. A thought-provoking, multilayered read that will leave a lasting impression. (Fiction. 8-12)

Bodega Cats: Just Kitten Around

Burgos, Hilda Eunice | Illus. by Siara Faison

Henry Holt (160 pp.) | $16.99 | Jan. 21, 2025 9781250903761 | Series: Bodega Cats

A young girl riddled with anxieties adopts an energetic kitten.

Yesenia worries about the recent D she got on a social studies test, and she wishes she had more time to spend crocheting. Unfortunately, she can’t confide in her strong­willed parents, immigrants from the Dominican Republic who won’t tolerate anything that threatens the family’s “straight­A streak.” Yesenia’s cousin Miguel’s cat, Lolo, has just had a litter of kittens (Miguel and Lolo starred in the first series installment), and per her doctor’s orders, Yesenia soon adopts one to destress a bit. But the mischievous little yellow furball—named Candy— claws the curtains at home and wreaks havoc at her parents’ store, Niña Rosada Bodega. Mami and Papi’s threat to get rid of Candy looms over Yesenia as she struggles to balance obligations at school and at home, making some questionable choices along the way. Can Yesenia find her voice and convince her family to embrace her for who she is? Meanwhile, roguish Candy wants freedom to explore the world, but she quickly discovers that independence comes at a cost. Like its predecessor, this tale set in New York City explores familiar themes—the weight of parental expectations in immigrant families, finding the courage to be oneself—in a lighthearted package; chapters switch between Yesenia’s and Candy’s first­person

perspectives. Returning characters add much to the community­building, reinforced through Faison’s lively, family­oriented illustrations. A meow-velous tale laced with meditations on family and identity. (Fiction. 7-10)

Hocus and Pocus and the Dragon Next Door

Capetta, A.R. | Illus. by Charlene Chua Candlewick (96 pp.) | $16.99

March 4, 2025 | 9781536224931

Series: Hocus and Pocus, 2

The apprenticemagician puppies confront an exciting new challenge. Now that Hocus and Pocus have adjusted to their forever home, their ruby­haired, brown­skinned witch caregiver, Jinx, decides to help them get to know their new neighborhood. They plan a “potion drop”—a sort of reverse trick­or­treating activity. They go door to door giving out helpful mixtures and in return receive pickles, pies, socks, and firewood; their fellow witches even give them some spells. Extroverted Hocus is having a great time, but shy Pocus feels overwhelmed. When they learn that the wizard next door is having trouble with his new pet—a dragon named Bye­Bye who keeps setting things on fire—Pocus is naturally terrified, so the pups try to make “a not­scary spell,” with an incantation involving some decidedly un­scary words, like zoomies and lap naps. Pocus feels braver, but when the pups attempt to visit Bye­Bye, they find the dragon cowering in a cave. Bye­Bye’s also anxious—and unfortunately doesn’t

A meow-velous tale laced with meditations on family and identity.

BODEGA CATS

speak dog. Hijinks, including shape­shifting, ensue as Hocus tries out another potion in an attempt to communicate with Bye­Bye. Just as engaging as its predecessor, this tale artfully blends magic and whimsy. Pocus’ trajectory from fearful to more confident—though still a bit uncertain—is both relatable and realistic. Clear, bright illustrations complement the text well; Hocus’ gift for prediction should prophecy success for the series. Charming, quirky, and sweet—this one contains the magical ingredients for an absorbing read. (Chapter book. 5-8)

The Ripple Effect

Caprara, Rebecca | Charlesbridge (400 pp.) $18.99 | Feb. 18, 2025 | 9781623543242

A small­town tween dreams of leaving her mark before moving on to middle school. Italian American Marzella Trudi lives in Kettleby, a former mill town in the Northeast, where her mom runs the family ice cream shop, Trudi Treats. But Nan died, Pops’ dementia is getting worse, and the shop might be in trouble. Zella also worries about being “left out and left behind”; her best friends, Janea and Bowie, have their interests in fashion and music, respectively, and class clown Zella feels pressure to leave her own mark by coming up with the best sixth grade prank ever. When she does come up with a great idea, a mishap leads to disaster. Given a second chance, Zella redeems herself through what she dubs the Ripple Effect: performing acts of kindness and challenging others to pay them forward, thus having an exponential effect on Kettleby and its residents. Zella is the central narrator, but Janea, Bowie, fifth grade journalist Shelby, new kid Declan, and others each have several brief chapters, offering readers insights into their own struggles, such as Bowie’s parents’ divorce and Declan’s sister’s health concerns. The takeaway

message—“kindness is its own sort of magic”—is reminiscent of Kelly Barnhill’s The Ogress and the Orphans, and though Zella’s story doesn’t have the same mythic heft, a touch of something inexplicable and joyful brightens the tale. The cover art points to some racial diversity among the supporting cast. An uplifting story of personal and community transformation. (Fiction. 9-12)

How To Draw a Secret

Chang, Cindy | Allida/HarperCollins (272 pp.) | $15.99 paper Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780358659655

A San Francisco sixth grader grapples with the burden of keeping a heavy family secret. In this debut graphic novel inspired by the author’s own life, Taiwanese American Cindy lives with Ma and older sisters Jess, a Yale­bound senior, and Em, a student at Stanford. Bàba lived with them, too—until he moved back to Taiwan four years ago, ostensibly for work. Their father’s absence is a confusing situation the girls have been instructed to keep secret. When the teacher of avid, talented artist Cindy encourages her to enter a contest with the theme “What Family Means to Me,” she’s torn between revealing the uncomfortable, murky truth and wanting to depict a “perfect” family; she harbors secret hopes that winning with an idealized portrait might encourage Bàba to come home. During a sudden family trip to Taiwan to attend their paternal grandmother’s funeral, the sisters learn why Bàba really left. Will Cindy be able to express her feelings and portray her family’s complicated truth? The appealing cartoon­style illustrations have soft, saturated tones, emphasizing the characters’ facial expressions and making their complex, shifting, and overlapping emotions ring true. The panels and perspectives are creatively varied, and interspersed pages from Cindy’s journal highlight her inner thoughts. Chang makes the emotional

strain that emerges from secrecy clear, and the book refreshingly and bracingly addresses the topic of non­nuclear Asian American family configurations. A moving portrayal of a family processing fraught, messy changes. (Graphic fiction. 9-13)

Mighty: The Story of an Oak Tree Ecosystem

Cole, Henry | Peachtree (48 pp.)

$18.99 | Feb. 25, 2025 | 9781682637333

Stately illustrations track an oak from seedling to majestic maturity. Cole doesn’t cover the tree’s entire life cycle in his finely textured, minutely detailed black­and­white drawings, but he does turn out a grand tale. It all begins with a blue jay that, pursued by a hawk, drops an acorn over a forest meadow. As seasons pass, the seedling grows into a sapling and then, over several centuries, into a spreading, thickly branched giant. Along the way, exactly drawn moths, migrating songbirds, and many other wild creatures flit through its dense sprays of leaves. In time, a single hole in a branch becomes home to nuthatches, flying squirrels, and wood ducks in succession, while small, generic human figures, including Indigenous people, sit in the shade below. The appearance of a simple cabin is followed by ever more and larger structures, until a town grows all around; in an expansive final scene, a crowd of modern residents gathers around the huge trunk in celebration. In closing comments amid vignettes of forest stories and subsurface biota, the author makes his theme explicit by describing how a tree such as this is a habitat that becomes an ecosystem of interdependent living things. So rich are the illustrations that viewers paging back are sure to spot more of those temporary and permanent residents each time. A few figures in the climactic crowd scene are dark­skinned. A thought-provoking book with lavish artwork that rewards close, and closer, looks. (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Cottle, Katie | Tiger Tales (32 pp.)

$18.99 | March 18, 2025 | 9781664300682

It’s Dot’s first day at her new school, and she wants to make friends…or maybe she’ll wait until tomorrow.

The little girl likes to take things slow—something her pet tortoise, Monty, understands. Then Dot learns that a classmate named Jude has a tortoise, too! She’s about to chime in when another girl sneers that tortoises are boring. Instead, Dot announces that she has a pet…tortosaurus! Luckily, Dot’s a crafts whiz. At show and tell, Monty arrives bedecked in dinosaurlike scales; her classmates are wowed. Monty’s fame spreads, to his chagrin: This fast life’s a drag. He doesn’t want to be someone he’s not, but he doesn’t want to disappoint Dot. Meanwhile, Dot’s frustrated that her new friends only want to take “shell­fies” with Monty. When Monty’s awarded a “certificate of reptilian excellence” at a school assembly, he finds the hot stage lights uncomfortable and sheds his costume. An angry Dot runs home with him but apologizes when she realizes she forced Monty to be someone he wasn’t. Dot decides to be true to herself and emerge from her shell, too, bonding with Jude. This sweet U.K. import conveys important messages to children who wonder about making friends and are uncertain about their identities. The cheery color illustrations enliven the tale; readers will appreciate Monty’s fanciful dinosaur get­up. Bespectacled Dot is pale­skinned, Jude is brown­skinned, and their classmates and background figures are diverse.

The moral of this wise story: It’s always best to be true to one’s self. (Picture book. 5-8)

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of-school books, visit Kirkus online.

SEEN AND HEARD

Picture Book by Tori Amos Coming in 2025

The singer-songwriter’s Tori and the Muses is illustrated by Demelsa Haughton.

Tori Amos will make her children’s literature debut next year.

Penguin Young Readers will publish the singer-songwriter’s Tori and the Muses, illustrated by Demelsa Haughton, in the spring, the press announced in a news release. It calls the book “a thoughtful and sprightly tale of young Tori navigating the magical world of inspiration in all its forms.”

Tori Amos

Amos first achieved fame in 1992 with her debut solo album, Little Earthquakes. She followed up that album two years later with Under the Pink, which contained what would become one of her signature songs, “Cornflake Girl.” She went on to release more than a dozen albums, most recently Ocean to Ocean

She is also the author of two autobiographical books for adults: Piece by Piece, co-written with Ann Powers, and Resistance: A Songwriter’s Story of Hope, Change, and Courage Tori and the Muses follows a young girl whose father makes her practice for a piano recital; she would rather play her own songs, inspired by the 11 muses who have visited her since she was a baby.

Amos shared news of the book in an Instagram video, saying, “For a family or for a kid who reads this book, I’d like them all to walk away, maybe creating together, maybe encouraging each other, even the parents, to find their Muses and the magic that will make them passionate about creating.”

Tori and the Muses is slated for publication on March 4, 2025.—M.S.

For more celebrity picture books, visit Kirkus online.

Book to Screen

My Weird School in the Works at Nickelodeon

The film will be based on the series of books by author Dan Gutman and illustrator Jim Paillot.

Nickelodeon is developing a film based on the My Weird School series of children’s books.

The books, by author Dan Gutman and illustrator Jim Paillot, follow A.J., a reluctant middle school student who encounters a series of increasingly odd teachers. The series kicked off in 2004 with Miss Daisy Is Crazy! and Mr. Klutz Is Nuts! , concluding in 2008 with Ms. Krup Cracks Me Up!

Several spinoff book series followed, including My Weirder School, My Weirdest School, and My Weirder-est School. More than 100 titles have been published among all the series.

The film adaptation, titled My Weird School, will be directed by Jonathan Judge ( Life in Pieces, The Really Loud House). The cast includes Hero Hunter (Young Dylan) as A.J., along with Nakai Takawira (Team Zenko Go), Aaron D. Harris ( Matlock ), Adam Rose (Santa Clarita Diet ), Harper Zilmer, Sean Sotaridona, and Liv Pearsall.

Nickelodeon’s Shauna Phelan said in a statement, “We are so excited to bring this beloved book series to life with a dream cast of actors and influencers we know our audience will love, and a creative team lead by Jonathan Judge who will elevate the movie in a hilarious way for Nickelodeon’s kids and family audience.”—M.S

For a review of Miss Daisy Is Crazy!, visit Kirkus online.

Hero Hunter

Bestsellers That Live Up to the Hype

By Katherine Rundell; illus. by Ashley Mackenzie

Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Other Stories

Cousins, Lucy | Candlewick (48 pp.)

$15.99 | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9781536234770

Series: Lucy Cousins Nursery Stories

Three familiar stories get repackaged in this new edition of Cousins’ favorites. Originally appearing in the 2009 title Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales, this shorter book is comprised of the titular “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” as well as “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” and “The Little Red Hen.” Using “The Three Little Pigs” (also in Yummy) instead of “The Little Red Hen” would have given this new collection a clearer raison d’être by presenting a trio of stories with a trio of protagonists each, but Cousins’ fans will no doubt welcome this new offering anyway; endpapers decorated with various characters and items that appear in the three stories invite them into an “I spy” search of the pages once they proceed into the book proper. Cousins’ expert use of page layout separates or unites characters navigating the central conflicts—Goldilocks against the bears, troll against goats, and the Little Red Hen against all those lazy animals. While the stories remain stolidly true to traditional tellings, visual interest abounds due to the vibrant colors and eye­catching patterns and in the expressive use of background color to convey changing moods across the various scenes.

Fairy-tale fun, especially ideal for the author’s many devotees. (Picture book. 2-5)

Lawrence & Sophia:

Big & Bold

Cronin, Doreen | Illus. by Brian Cronin

Rocky Pond Books/Penguin (40 pp.)

$18.99 | March 11, 2025 | 9780593618332

Fairy-tale fun, especially ideal for the author’s many devotees.

GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS AND OTHER STORIES

blue­feathered owl named Sophia do everything together. From horseback riding to scaling mountains to sailing the high seas, they are “big and bold and fast together.” Featuring whimsical, bug­eyed characters and pastel hues, the art will elicit giggles—a page turn reveals that the mountain the two have just climbed is nothing more than a hill, while the sea they’ve sailed is a wide flat rock in the backyard. While Lawrence and Sophia are reading library books one day, their peaceful time is interrupted by a commotion. Sydney, a light­skinned child whose face is mostly obscured by an oversize ski cap, has moved in next door to Lawrence and is building a treehouse. Lawrence is happy to make a new pal; Sophia is displeased when the children race off without her. Sophia’s reactions range from jealous to forlorn and ungenerous, reflecting the real­life hurt feelings that often ensue when a duo becomes a trio. Sophia even nearly sabotages her own budding friendship with Frog. The text wisely softens the experience with inclusive gestures—rather than adverse reactions— from Sydney and Lawrence. The book subtly and humorously encourages children to open up their friendship circles while acknowledging how daunting that might seem.

Funny and wise. (Picture book. 3-6)

It’s Watching

Currie, Lindsay | Delacorte (320 pp.)

$17.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780593811634

Will this close friendship weather the ultimate test?

A light­skinned child named Lawrence and a

When looking for ghosts, be prepared for what you might find.

Josie and her best friends, Alison and Jackson, write “The Magnifiying Glass,” an investigative column for their

school newspaper. It’s fine but not flashy enough to get them coveted editorial positions when they reach eighth grade next year. That’s how they find themselves on Halloween night with a plan to visit the local cemetery to find out whether the “super­famous ghost” known as the Lady in White is actually real—a topic that, if well executed, will make their column unforgettable. The three carefully plan a weekend unfettered by parental supervision in order to conduct their research. Their paranormal encounter begins with all three receiving unsettling, ominous text messages: “I’m watching” and “You have 2 days.” The haunting begins in earnest when the kids get home, intensifying from small, explainable things—dirt on the floor, a glitching computer—to clear signs that if the spirits aren’t put to rest, the consequences will be dire. Adults remain on the sidelines, raising the stakes and keeping the focus firmly on the relationship among the friends, which feels authentic. The scares feel real, and the central mystery becomes even more interesting from the elements that are rooted in reality and described in the author’s note, which includes photos. The three friends are coded white.

A shivery, ghostly mystery. (Supernatural. 9-12)

Neecy and Nay Nay and the Tangled, Hairy Mess

Dankenbring, Simone & Syrone Harvey Illus. by Maya Henderson | Little Bee Books (112 pp.) | $16.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 9781499816686 | Series: Neecy and Nay Nay, 1

Twins and BFFs Neecy and Nay Nay open a full­service salon in their bedroom. Neecy’s awakened by her sister, who went to

sleep with bubble gum in her mouth and now has a wad of the pink stuff stuck in her curls. The twins attempt to conceal the sticky situation from Big Mama, but eventually she realizes the truth and takes the girls to Ms. Yvonne’s hair salon, where the beautician tenderly uses peanut butter to remove the glob of gum from Nay Nay’s hair. The girls are inspired to start their own salon; their first clients are Big Mama and their friend Jamila. Jamila’s thrilled with her new “twin­tastically beautiful” ’do; riding high on their excitement, the twins decide to host a grand opening for Neecy and Nay Nay’s House of Style. What ensues is a page­turning story of sisterhood, friendship, entrepreneurship, and colossal failure as some of the girls’ spa treatments go hilariously awry—but nothing goes so wrong that it can’t be put right with a helping of Big Mama’s snickerdoodles. Though the stakes are relatively low in this breezy tale, the authors establish suspense and infuse the narrative with humor. Black­and­white illustrations on each spread break up the text. A recipe for snickerdoodles follows, along with a glossary defining the “big words” that aspiring doctor Neecy uses. Neecy and Nay Nay are Black; their friends are diverse.

A “twin-tastically” fun read. (Chapter book. 6-9)

How Do I Wonder?

Davy,

Gianna | Illus. by Brenda Rodriguez

The Collective Book Studio (32 pp.)

$19.95 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9781685550516

Wondering is fun, and children deserve to know that no one else thinks exactly like they do. The paleskinned, bespecta­

cled narrator assures readers at the outset that if they’re curious about things, there’s a place to go “to question and daydream and let your brain grow.” Where? “It’s right in your head, in your thinker, your mind.” This child has clearly explored this terrain before and lets kids know that “not all the questions need answers defined.” The narrator delivers charming examples in lilting verse: “Where does the wind go? / And where does it rest? / Do rainbows have homes? / In a shell or a nest?” Readers may never have considered those imponderables before, but they will now, thanks to this wise, stimulating book that also delivers a gentle message about mindfulness: “Slow down and breathe in, all the way to your heart. Eyes closed and mind open, your journey will start.” Notably, kids are reminded that thinking doesn’t require equipment or technology: “Brains are like magic, they make their own joy. They really don’t need lights, screens, or toys.” Children will be intrigued to learn that grown­ups themselves ponder some of the queries included here; adults sharing this volume should encourage kids to discuss questions occupying their minds. The colorful, imaginative illustrations serve the text very well. Background characters are diverse. A thought-provoking tale with a much-needed message: The mind is a place of limitless wonders. (Picture book. 5-8)

Tear This Down

Dee, Barbara | Aladdin (288 pp.)

$17.99 | Feb. 25, 2025 | 9781665917674

Seventh grader Freya Stillman creates her own brand of community activism after a school project reveals hard truths about the town’s history.

A thought-provoking tale with a much-needed message.

Named for abolitionist Benjamin Wellstone, Freya’s cozy coastal town is very proud of its history. Reading some of Wellstone’s letters for school, she’s surprised and angered to learn that while he may have been a hero to some, he vehemently opposed women’s voting rights. Irish American Freya and her new friend Callie, who presents white and has ADHD, also unearth information about local suffragist Octavia Padgett. They consider her to be more worthy of their attention. The girls publish a fiery op ­ ed in the town’s website about Benjamin Wellstone’s problematic values and their desire to see the prominent statue of him standing on Wellstone Green removed. The article divides the residents, eliciting strong opinions from the girls’ friends, families, and even the mayor. After some misguided protest attempts that involve vandalizing the statue and lying to her parents, a frustrated (and grounded) Freya finds a new focus for her cause through thoughtful discussions with trusted, empathetic adults. Freya dreams up a project that will honor art protest movements, like the famous AIDS Memorial Quilt, while highlighting little ­known local suffragists. The age ­ appropriate, relatable, and realistic lessons Freya learns are reinforced by supportive grown­ups in her life.

Readers will readily root for the impassioned protagonist on her hard-fought feminist journey. (Fiction. 9-12)

Bea Mullins Takes a Shot

Deibert, Emily | Random House (336 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 25, 2025 | 9780593808894

A 12­year­old faces her fears of failure and rejection when she joins the girls’ ice hockey team at her middle school. After her embarrassing play at basketball camp two summers ago, white Canadian seventh grader Bea Mullins swore she

would never play a team sport again. But a flood in the gym cancels class for the semester, and students are urged to take up extracurricular sports instead. At the insistence of her best (and only) friend, Celia Chan, Bea reluctantly agrees to sign up for the girls’ hockey team, which will be disqualified if they don’t find enough players to meet league regulations. Bea is convinced everyone on the team will blame her if they lose, especially Gabriela Vega Martínez, one of the co­founders, who dreams of playing professionally. But Bea soon discovers that most of her teammates are beginners, too, and Gabi may even want to be her friend. As Bea finds her footing on the ice, she must confront her own self­doubt, deal with challenges in her friendships, navigate new same­sex romantic feelings, and learn how to support her team. Although the premise is engaging, the story and the message of inclusion suffer from weak characterization, particularly in the cast of secondary characters, who are developed only at a surface level. Ambitious, driven, overachieving Chinese Canadian Celia isn’t well rounded enough as a personality to move beyond stereotype, while Colombian immigrant Gabi feels developed primarily to teach a message.

A pass that never reaches the goal. (author’s note) (Fiction. 9-12)

Elephants Can’t Jump: A Mini and Milo Book

Dimos, Venita | Illus. by Natashia Curtin Walker Books Australia (32 pp.)

$18.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781761600753 Series: Mini and Milo

Learning how to share feelings is an essential skill for friends. Mini the elephant is opening presents at her birthday party. Her best pal, Milo the rabbit, gives the best presents, so she’s saved his for last. But his gift is…a trampoline! Mini fumes. Doesn’t he realize that elephants can’t jump? Milo asks what’s wrong; Mini doesn’t answer. The next day, when Mini declines Milo’s invitation to play hopscotch, he again cluelessly asks

what’s bothering her. Mini remains silent; speaking up is too hard, and she decides to hide from Milo instead. That’s easier than talking, but hiding’s hard for an elephant. Mini avoids Milo all week—until Friday, when she visits his house and he excitedly shows her a jumping castle. Finally, Mini’s had it, telling Milo he knows why she’s upset and angry. (He really doesn’t.)

Exploding, Mini finally explains what “everyone knows.” Milo, now mad himself, asks why he was supposed to know that. Mini realizes that talking to her friend would have been easier than running and hiding. Then Mini demonstrates what elephants can do with jumping castles. This cute Australian import about emotions and relationships makes strong points about speaking up and fully articulating one’s feelings. Note one lapse in logic: If Milo is Mini’s closest friend, why hasn’t her inability to jump come up before? The charming, delicate digital color illustrations fully evoke the animal characters’ expressive personalities. Elephants may not be able to jump, but this one can and will tug heartstrings and generate empathy. (Picture book. 5-8)

Gabby Torres Gets a Billion Followers

Dominguez, Angela | Roaring Brook Press (160 pp.) | $19.99 | Jan. 14, 2025 9781250901378 | Series: Gabby Torres, 1

Everyone’s a suspect when someone leaves Gabby a mean social media comment. As the youngest member of a student environmental club known as the Sea Musketeers, 9­year­old Gabby Torres is eager to stand out, and she decides that starting a social media account for the group is just the ticket. The others are encouraging, but Gabby’s worried parents lay down some guidelines for online safety. Her best friends, Kat and Priya, who also hope to join the Sea Musketeers, are supportive, but Gabby makes a mess of things. Kat and Priya are upset when the test to join the Sea Musketeers proves

harder than they realized, Gabby ends up breaking her parents’ social media rules, and, when she notices a rude anonymous comment on the club’s page, she begins to levy accusations against everyone around her. Short paragraphs of text are mixed with traditional comic art. Zippy cartoon illustrations adeptly convey emotions, while ample white space and simple backgrounds keep the focus on the endearingly earnest protagonist. Set in the same world as Dominguez’s Stella Díaz series, the tale offers a nuanced and compassionate depiction of forgiveness as Gabby works to make amends and realizes that making a mistake can be an opportunity to learn and grow. Gabby is biracial (her mother presents white, while her father is Mexican American), and Spanish words are occasionally used; Kat appears white; Priya is Indian American.

A gently edifying and wholly genuine depiction of a young person navigating relationships. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 7-9)

The Story Factory

Dong, Jam | Candlewick (32 pp.)

$18.99 | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9781536230000

Old ideas are constantly recycled into new books— until an unexpected idea upends operations. In this tall tale, all books originate at the Story Factory. Workers gather used books and feed them into a machine that spits out endless permutations of the same old concepts. But one day, the machine stops. Workers inspect each area to make repairs, from the character labeling room to the plot assembly line to the emotion monitor. Finally, they find a jam in the story mixer; as they unclog it, a confetti pile of new ideas spill out. When the workers attempt to override the machine’s programming to include these fresh ideas, the factory explodes in a flurry of new books that destroy the building. The workers replace it with a new, traveling Story Factory—one that playfully resembles a library, with its doors open to all people and ideas. The chunky mixed­media art is bold, bright, and

fun. Book lovers will especially enjoy exploring the various factory departments and their machinery. Story Factory workers are depicted as pencil­yellow elfin creatures. When humans appear, they are rendered with a variety of skin tones.

A colorful, explosively entertaining parable about books and the power of imagination. (Picture book. 4-8)

Happy Together

Douglass, Chloe | American Psychological Association (32 pp.) | $18.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 9781433845154 | Series: A Harmony of Friends

The Band has a gig; will it be a success?

The Band, consisting of Fox, Seagull, Duck, and Bear, gets to play at a huge festival, on the same stage as Fox’s favorite group, The Bad Apples. Fox can’t stop talking about how great The Bad Apples are, but the others are more focused on their own style. At the festival, Fox is self­conscious about The Band— everyone else seems hipper—so he decides to act louder and cooler. His wild drumming catches the ears of none other than The Bad Apples, who ask Fox to hang out. Before the show, Fox wonders why they don’t prepare and huddle together as a group. Then onstage, the sound equipment malfunctions, and The Bad Apples are revealed as fakes. Thankfully, Fox knows how to play some songs that sound amazing and, after apologizing, realizes that being true to his friends is actually the coolest. Fox and crew are back with their individual charms, continuing their various journeys of self­realization. Readers see the value in focusing on one’s unique talents and discouraging comparison with others. At

times, though, the story feels somewhat shoehorned into being a vehicle for the life lesson; still, it’s a message all kids need to hear. Illustrations feature flat colors with cute details interspersed.

A sound example of social-emotional learning. (Picture book. 4-7)

Worm Makes a Sandwich

Farley, Brianne | Putnam (32 pp.)

$18.99 | Feb. 18, 2025 | 9780593697801

A worm explains composting. Worm sets out to make a sandwich for readers. But, as our protagonist points out, “worms don’t have hands!” Luckily, a red­headed, lightskinned, ruddy­cheeked young gardener’s on hand to assist. With self­deprecating charm, Worm describes the nuts and bolts of composting. Enter Worm’s favorite food: garbage, but “just things from plants.” After eating, Worm makes “delicious, nutritious poop,” which becomes healthy dirt for the seeds that will grow the plants for the sandwich. Worm reminds readers that garbage, poop, and dirt are “not for your sandwich,” while the seed, which will become a plant, will be “sort of… eventually.” Farley effectively builds anticipation for the ultimate denouement, though impatient Worm’s mettle is tested: “Why is this sandwich taking so long?…Where did I go wrong?…I’m so little…Maybe I can’t make a sandwich.” A lush spread follows, with a worm’s­eye view of a pendulous tomato surrounded by yummy­looking greens. The young gardener, who assembles and eats the sandwich, provides

A gently edifying depiction of a young person navigating relationships.

GABBY TORRES GETS A BILLION FOLLOWERS

leftovers—garbage to eat!—and the cycle begins anew for Worm. Farley’s humorous illustrations include spot art, underground cutaways filled with comical, garbage­eating critters (who occasionally offer commentary), labels for various items, and magnified images of microbes and soil.

A funny and clever process story. (more information on composting) (Informational picture book. 3-7)

The Last Great Heir

Finn, Carina | Sourcebooks Young Readers (288 pp.) | $16.99 | Jan. 28, 2025

9781728298337 | Series: Feast and Famine, 1

For generations, the heirs of the Feast and Famine families have dueled for control over the land of Fauret and the coveted guardianship of the demon Centurion.

Twelve­year­old Rue Famine is expected to succeed where her mother failed, but insufficient training has left her fumbling to master the simplest charms. Her curiosity about the Feasts’ legendary sweets leads Rue to a chance sighting of Merriment Feast, the sparkling embodiment of her family’s decadent reign. Merri has been training with her guardian, Aunt Ambrosia, in hopes of continuing the Feasts’ dominance, but her interest in learning the Famines’ potion work proves a catalyst for the heirs’ parallel paths to cross. As hidden histories and family secrets come to light, it becomes clear that the long­divided houses must reunite. Debut author Finn’s series opener is dense, and the alternating third­person narration struggles due to Rue’s and Merri’s voices being insufficiently distinct. Social class disparities are a central theme in this magical world, which evokes Studio Ghibli films, complete with quaint shops, talking cats, and a collection of entertainingly cagey and mercurial demons. At first, the lore required for effective worldbuilding is limited, while

later in the book, a reveal is repeated without sufficient backstory. While the leads are well developed, the late introduction of explanatory information about supporting characters could pose a challenge to young readers’ comprehension. Most characters present white. A charming setting and appealing premise are let down by uneven execution. (recipe) (Fantasy. 10-13)

Trouble Dog: From Shelter Dog to Conservation Hero

Foote, Carol A. | Illus. by Larry Day Eerdmans (48 pp.) | $18.99 | Feb. 25, 2025 9780802855817 | Series: Spectacular STEAM for Curious Readers

A shelter dog finds a new job—and a home. Tucker, a sweet­faced yellow pooch with floppy ears, loves to play. Relentlessly energetic and unintentionally destructive, he’s a poor fit for most families. After he’s returned to the animal shelter yet again, a worker warns prospective adopters that Tucker is “trouble.” Then he meets Laura, a trainer who sees something special in him. She starts by using Tucker’s favorite toy to teach him to find flowers among a row of cinder blocks. As Laura introduces new scents into the game, she’s able to channel Tucker’s curiosity, intensity, and obsessive focus on play into the skills necessary to locate invasive species and track rare or endangered creatures around the world. Vibrant watercolors capture Tucker in constant motion, whether in trashed living rooms or the jungles of Myanmar. The text, perfect for reading out loud, conveys Tucker’s boundless capacity for destruction (“Rrr-rip! Splat! CRACK! ”), dedication to his new assignment (“He zigzagged across the ground…and kept searching until…There!”), and bond with Laura (“‘Keep looking,’ Laura said. ‘I trust Tucker’”). With humor, heart, suspense, and adventure, this story will win over animal lovers of all ages. Laura is light­skinned with brown hair; background characters are

diverse. Backmatter notes that the book is based on the experiences of the real­life founders of Working Dogs for Conservation. A fascinating, feel-good tale about the unique dogs trained for conservation work. (selected bibliography, photos) (Informational picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Star

Operation: Cover-Up

Godwin, Tate | Andrews McMeel Publishing (192 pp.) | $12.99 paper | Jan. 21, 2025 9781524890216 | Series: Operation, 1

Brainiac and class clown newbies struggle to define themselves. Sy, a bespectacled, wisecracking blue kitty, is apprehensive about starting a new school midway through the year. So is Nick, a scholarly pink bunny with a huge vocabulary. Both make disastrous errors in their separate fifth grade classroom debuts, both are skeptical when their parents offer reassurance, and both fear not being recognized for their gifts. When Sy spouts off a scientific fact in class, he’s branded an intellectual; after Nick relates a funny anecdote, his classmates assume he’s a joker. Sy and Nick panic and attempt to live up to the labels they’ve been saddled with, in the hopes of making new friends. Godwin deftly explores the weight of expectations and the power of teamwork as Sy and Nick finally meet and decide to secretly help each other out. But Operation: Cover­Up proves difficult— especially when the annual talent show rolls around. Featuring a lively, nonstop narrative arc and precise pastel cartoon art, this humorous graphic novel conveys complex truths about loyalty, identity, and honesty. Godwin employs a split screen–style format early on as Sy and Nick embark on parallel storylines that eventually converge—an inspired way to introduce the protagonists and to help readers realize that everyone, no

matter how outwardly confident, feels self­doubt and uncertainty. Hilarious, perceptive, and thoughtful— just like its protagonists. (Graphic fiction. 7-11)

I.R.L.

Goebel, Jenny | Scholastic (176 pp.)

$14.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781546125006

Switching from virtual to inperson learning causes supernatural scares for a sixth grader. Lucy BellRodriguez’s new school in rural Alaska has been meeting online during the colder months. Her classmates seem welcoming, if a bit old­fashioned, and escaping the bullies at her previous school is a relief. Lucy is nervous and excited when the improved weather finally provides a chance for the students to meet in person. She bravely takes off into the Alaskan chill toward White Pine Secondary School but soon finds herself at a charred ruin—did her classmate Mara give her an incorrect address as a prank? When she reconnects with the others online (due to inclement weather, the school’s returning to virtual learning), Mara explains that she must have accidentally sent Lucy to the wrong location. But Lucy can’t let it go, and when she returns to the site, she discovers something worse—gravestones with familiar names. Lucy’s mother, a scientist at a research facility studying strange local electrical phenomena, tries to convince her that there’s been some mistake, to no avail. Going light on character development, Goebel frees up space for many creepy scenarios and mysterious revelations. The fast pace and short length make this tale accessible to a wide range of readers, and the intriguing premise is well served by tight plotting. Characters’ ethnicities aren’t explicitly mentioned. A quick and chilling tale, full of school spirits. (Horror. 8-12)

Skylar and the K-Pop Principal

Goldie, Luan | Walker US/Candlewick (272 pp.)

$18.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781536241129

A K­pop ­ obsessed tween in London swaps bodies with her strict school principal.

Eleven­year­old Skylar Smith is obsessed with the South Korean boy band AZ8. Skylar and her environmentally conscious best friend, Dana, buy their posters and photocards, learn their dance routines, and watch their variety show. But Skylar has a run­in with Ms. Callus, the mean principal of Saint Margaret’s Academy (school motto: “Achieve or hang your head in shame”). As a fed­up Skylar argues with Ms. Callus, a weird flash of green light engulfs them both, and they wake up in one another’s bodies with no idea how to switch back. Skylar, inhabiting her 71­year­old body, enters a dance video in a contest for tickets to see an upcoming AZ8 concert—and goes viral. Capitalizing on her new reputation for being fun, she also uses her adult powers to make changes at Saint Margaret’s, although running a school is way more stressful than she expected. With Dana’s help, Skylar must find a way to fix things before she’s stuck as Ms. Callus forever. This comical, lighthearted story is an ode to K­pop fandom, but the hilarious jokes and situations will entertain readers unfamiliar with that world. As in many body­swapping stories, themes of selfishness, empathy, and gaining an appreciation for another person’s troubles feature prominently. Skylar and Ms. Callus present white; there’s ethnic diversity in the supporting cast.

A funny, feel-good tale. (Skylar’s K-pop Dictionary) (Fantasy. 8-12)

Exasperation and love go hand in hand in this humorous yarn.

YÁADILÁ!

Yáadilá!: Good Grief!

Goodluck, Laurel | Illus. by Jonathan Nelson | Heartdrum (40 pp.) | $19.99 Jan. 14, 2025 | 9780063274402

A multifaceted Navajo expression is the playful center of this family story.

“Yáadilá!” is a common exclamation in Diné households, akin to “good grief” or “oh no” in English. As siblings Bahe and Dezba help Nali (Grandmother) move out of her beloved sheep camp and into their home, their parents make frequent use of the term, scolding the kids as they squabble in the back seat during a long car ride and disturb Nali’s rest after their exhausting trip. Noticing how sad Nali looks, Bahe springs into what seems like mischief, prompting a fresh wave of “Yáadilá!” from the family. But then Bahe reveals a miniature replica of Nali’s sheep camp, complete with Dezba’s dollhouse, some cotton­ball sheep, and a small stream and pond—“for when you miss home,” Bahe explains. Nelson’s (Diné) cartoony digital illustrations match the narrative’s comedic vibe and provide a jaunty backdrop for Goodluck’s (Mandan/Hidatsa/Tsimshian) cultural lessons. Diné words are sprinkled into the text and defined in a glossary. Though the narrative could have benefited from a fuller explanation of the titular term at the outset, young readers will understand “Yáadilá!” by book’s end and will be amused by the interplay between Bahe and the “Helpful Narrator,” who breaks the fourth wall with comic book–style interjections. Underscoring Diné language and heritage, the tale touches on family and homesickness in a context many will relate to. Exasperation and love go hand in hand in this humorous yarn. (author’s note, note from Heartdrum curator Cynthia Leitich Smith) (Picture book. 5-9)

Kirkus Star

The Six—Young Readers Edition: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts

Grush, Loren with Rebecca Stefoff Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) | $17.99 Feb. 11, 2025 | 9781534497047

A young readers’ adaptation of Grush’s 2023 title for adults, which traces the stories of the first six U.S. women astronauts to journey to space. This compelling and inspiring account introduces readers to Shannon Lucid, Rhea Seddon, Anna Fisher, Judy Resnik, Sally Ride, and Kathy Sullivan, offering insights into their early dreams of traveling among the stars. Subsequent chapters focus on the individual obstacles that each of the astronauts faced on their career paths, including their first ventures into space. Packed with emotion and heart, the work provides powerful insights into the astronauts’ hopes and ambitions as they broke incredible barriers themselves and paved the way for other women. An account of the space shuttle Challenger disaster, which took the life of seven people, including Resnik and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, provides poignant clarity about the cause of the explosion as well as the findings of the subsequent investigation. The Challenger disaster forever changed the way NASA approached safety and resulted in many new procedures and processes. It also helped NASA leaders finally understand that “courage and perseverance in the most pressure­filled situations are traits that don’t belong to a single gender or race.” This riveting account is an effortless

For more middlegrade fantasy, visit Kirkus online.

Let’s be readers and explore this book together—again and again.

LET’S BE BEES

and irresistible read that many young readers will find difficult to set down. A superbly executed account of women astronauts who achieved greatness despite overwhelming challenges. (note from Grush, timeline, biographical sketches, sources) (Nonfiction. 10-14)

Mamiachi & Me: My Mami’s Mariachi Band

Gutiérrez, Jolene & Dakota Gutiérrez Illus. by Mirelle Ortega | Abrams (40 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 7, 2025 | 9781419767159

A young Latine girl is thrilled to join her mother’s all­female mariachi band. Today will be Rosa’s first time performing onstage with the group, and she’s nervous. But Mamiachi, as she sometimes calls her mother, gives her a pep talk about bravery and strength and reminds her of her namesake, Rosa Quirino, one of the first female mariachis. Donning matching pink trajes de charro, the musicians hit the stage. Rosa wonders if she’s really ready—will the audience like her? With Mami and the rest of the band, made up of a trio of loving madrinas (who vary in ethnicity), Rosa summons her courage and lets the music flow out for an emotional first performance. When the music ends, the audience enthusiastically applauds, and Rosa knows that she’s a true mariachi. Vibrant illustrations echo the lively mariachi tunes; the color pink, which figures prominently, pops against the darker backgrounds. The authors artfully convey Rosa’s journey from uncertainty (“My knees are knocking, weak and wobbly”) to triumph: “I feel like I am soaring through the melody, painting a picture with my hands and using my voice to tell our story.”

Backmatter includes mini biographies of three influential female figures in mariachi and provides information on the formal suits that mariachi wear. A heartfelt testament to the power of family and culture and the courage to find one’s voice. (glossary, selected bibliography, additional reading) (Picture book. 4-8)

A Forest Song

Hall, Kirsten | Illus. by Evan Turk

Random House Studio (40 pp.)

$18.99 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9780593480366

An ode to our natural world that draws on poetic wordsmiths of the past.

A curious, tan­skinned, curly­haired child in a wide­brimmed hat follows a path into the forest, heeding its siren call. Along the way, the unnamed youngster discovers the calming sensory experiences of nature and all that it has to offer, from the way “the branches rustle, strange and stirred” to the way “the leaves kick’d by my feet soon sing.” As the journey progresses and night approaches, the child is comforted by the joy of being outdoors before heading to bed and waking up near the cool comforts of nature. Hall’s cento poem text uses lines from the poetry of Robert Frost, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Emily Dickinson, among others whose works “were their own tributes to the woods” and whose “messages hold the same meaning today.” Orange, yellow, and purple gouache illustrations are dramatic in scope—vast and grand, yet nurturing at times—with the branches acting as arms keeping the child close. Backmatter includes an author’s note as well as a further look at cento poems and tips for readers to create their

own work. A list of “poets and the lines they wrote” is also provided, though the titles of the works aren’t cited. Nature in all its humbling majesty. (Picture book/poetry. 5-8)

Kirkus Star

Let’s Be Bees

Harris, Shawn | Neal Porter/ Holiday House (40 pp.) | $18.99

Feb. 11, 2025 | 9780823457090

A caregiver and little one find themselves transforming. In Harris’ appealingly thick­lined, childlike illustrations, the brown­skinned parent and youngster hold a book between them (tellingly named Let’s Be Bees) as the adult says invitingly, “Let’s buzz.” Next thing you know, the two have cast aside their restrictive human shapes and are buzzing through the air together as a pair of bees. The duo appear as birds on another spread; the parent urges, “Let’s chirp.” What follows is a series of animals, objects, and even concepts (at one point, the two become “the Earth” and decide to “make every sound”). It all comes to a satisfying finish when both characters transform into the parent (the child sports a mustache and beard) and then into the kid (the adult looks especially ridiculous with a comparatively small head atop a muscular body). The narrative concludes with both eager to do it all “AGAIN!” Through a simplicity that can be difficult to capture so well on the page, this tale models marvelous parental playtime behavior, even suggesting how adults might read this very story with small children. Each page is filled with different ways of making fun sounds. Harris’ ability to connect with children on their own level, while also being unafraid to get a little weird in the process, brings to mind such superb titles as Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd’s Goodnight Moon Let’s be readers and explore this book together—again and again. (Picture book. 2-5)

Kirkus Star

Poo Pile on the Prairie

Hevron, Amy | Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (48 pp.) | $19.99 | Feb. 18, 2025 9781665935029 | Series: Tiny Habitats

A n invitation to step into a small but bustling ecosystem.

“Fresh bison pie!” exclaims one dung beetle as it climbs onto a newly deposited pile of poop. “The perfect place to raise a family,” chortles another. “Dung for dinner!” “And dessert!” Young readers may not be so thrilled by the fecal find. But as they follow events on and under the melting brown bounty in Hevron’s close­up digital collages from one spring to the next over the course of a year, they’ll quickly be caught up in wonder. Flies swarm, meadowlarks and other hungry predators fly in for the insect banquet, pretty prairie violets and other wildflowers spring up, butterflies flutter, and prairie dogs burrow beneath (“Mmm, these roots are tangy!”). After eight months of “sunshine and showers,” the poo pile has become “a bouquet of… fragrant flowers, graceful grasses, and three thousand flies, beetles, and biters.” Winter brings a slower tempo for residents, identified in a final group portrait, and the following spring, mama bison is back…with a new little pooper in tow. Hevron blends whimsy and science for an enchanting and much­needed reminder that complex ecosystems can be found in the most unlikely of places. It’s all a grand cycle, laid out beautifully in the engaging art and recapped in an afterword that includes a tally of North American

prairie habitats where viewers can watch things play out in real life.

A heaping helping of natural history, delivered with a wink. (additional reading, selected sources) (Informational picture book. 5-8)

Patty Dreams

Hohn, Nadia L. | Illus. by Sahle Robinson | Owlkids Books (32 pp.) $18.95 | Jan. 7, 2025 | 9781771476027

Dreams of flaky, perfectly seasoned meat­filled pastry manifest for a family of Jamaican emigrants. August awakens to the smell of delicious beef patties wafting in from the kitchen, where Daddy’s cooking. August, sister June, and their parents are initially able to support themselves with the money they make selling Daddy’s tremendously popular patties, but as August’s classmates and their families start to leave the island for “far­off places like New York City, London, Miami, and Toronto,” the business struggles. August’s family decides to leave, too. Their lives change dramatically—now they must don cumbersome winter coats, and Daddy takes a bustling subway and two buses to his factory job, leaving him little time for cooking. Young August decides to try whipping up some patties; unfortunately, the child endures a painful burn in the process. But soon after, Daddy’s motivated to get back into the patty business, and the family adapts, preparing vegetarian, halal, and gluten­free options for members of their new community. Hohn has crafted a relatable tale of characters whose love of food keeps them anchored even after they leave

Captures a courageous youngster’s explorations of an unfamiliar setting.

LITTLE LION GIRL

home, brought to life by Robinson’s warm, earth­toned illustrations. An especially memorable scene sees August’s classmates at a sort of crossroad of global migration, boarding a stairway set against a globe as an airplane soars in the background. Backmatter discusses the enduring global significance of Jamaican beef patties.

A unique immigration story sure to please the stomach and the heart. (Picture book. 5-8)

Little Lion Girl

Hope, Olivia | Illus. by Fiona Woodcock Bloomsbury (32 pp.) | $18.99 Feb. 11, 2025 | 9781547616688

While spending the day in the city with her mother, a small child envisions herself as a big cat. Everyone here seems “a little bit extraordinary,” so Leonie decides that she, too, needs a way to stand out. Tossing her “mane” (her voluminous blond curls) and shaking her “tail” (a yellow scarf), she dubs herself “a lion girl.” With a new boost of confidence, Leonie zips along the streets and smiles at the lion­related artwork at the museum. Lion metaphors anchor the storyline, conveying a vulnerable but spunky child’s attempts to hold her own in a bustling new environment. Though the city seems to roar, Leonie eagerly roars back. As she and her mother have a quick bite to eat, they’re surrounded by other “prides.” After she finishes eating, she’s “ready to prowl again” and follows a butterfly through a large open square. Suddenly, unsure of where her mother is, Leonie feels alone in the jungle. But her mother’s voice, calling her name, comforts her, and Leonie finds her roar once again. The images have an air­brushed quality, Leonie’s softness contrasting with the angular, solid skyscrapers. Leonie and her mother are light­skinned; background characters vary in skin tone. Perfectly captures a courageous youngster’s explorations of an unfamiliar setting. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Star

Short Dog, Long Dog: A Book of Opposites

Hrachovec, Anna | Feiwel & Friends (32 pp.) $18.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781250907202

C olorful canines manufactured from yarn illustrate rhymes about words with opposite meanings. This excellent companion to Catside Up, Catside Down (2023) opens with four pages of funny verse and even funnier art: “Short dog, Long dog, Huge or tiny. // Itchy on the head, Or scratchy on the hiney.” The final illustration in that series depicts a long, lavender dog with its butt rubbing against a potted cactus, an eye closed in ecstasy. Two crescent­shaped bits of lavender yarn above the hound’s hindquarters serve as motion lines. Similar details throughout are a comical treat for the eye and the ear alike. Large, bold print set against stark white backgrounds—with a few creative exceptions—set off the knitted wonders. Granted, not all are knitted; some varieties are appropriately shaggy. In addition, one page of opposites shows the difference between knitting and purling. The text provides simple, one ­word opposites, as well as a few phrases that indicate contrasting ideas—often with marvelously complementary art. The words “Dressing in a suit, / Or grooving in tie ­ dye” are paired with an image of one dog fixing a tie in a mirror while another sports a vibrant T­ shirt and headband. The facial expressions capture both dogs’ essences: uptight and proper vs. goofy and mellow. The ending, where a

knitted brown­skinned child cuddles with the pooches, ties up—or knits up—everything perfectly. Listeners and emergent readers alike will be enthralled from beginning to end.

High entertainment from lowly antonyms. (more antonyms)

(Picture book. 4-9)

You Are a Wildlife Warrior!: Saving Animals & the Planet

Irwin, Bindi with Smriti Prasadam-Halls Illus. by Ramona Kaulitzki

Random House (32 pp.) | $19.99 Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780593428115

Wildlife conservationist Irwin and co ­ author PrasadamHalls invite children to join in the effort to safeguard the Earth.

In her first children’s book, Irwin, daughter of world­renowned conservationists Steve and Terri Irwin, aims to inspire the next generation of “wildlife warriors” (a term coined by her late father) by giving readers an insider’s view of the work her family does to protect animals at Australia Zoo and in the wild. Each day brings a new adventure as Bindi and daughter Grace interact with animals big and small, furry and scaly. They observe animal behavior and learn about their habitats, helping the creatures in their care to thrive. Irwin’s deep and abiding passion comes through in the playful rhymes. Animal facts are peppered throughout the story, connecting to the action on the pages and extending readers’ knowledge. Kaulitzki’s blend of digital and watercolor illustrations reflects the lush environment of the zoo and makes effective use

A child struggling with loss must contend with a stubborn puddle.

of light and color. Fans of the Irwins will delight at the family photos accompanying the detailed backmatter, which provides even more context about Bindi Irwin’s earliest memories, describes conservation efforts at Australia Zoo and around the world, and details smallscale, high­impact actions to support the environment. Irwin also notes that her nonprofit Wildlife Warriors group offers ways for young people to get involved. Solid and inspiring fare for young eco-activists.

(Informational picture book. 4-8)

The Good for Nothing Puddle: Finding Hope When You’re Stuck in Sadness

Jackson, Jana | Illus. by Abby Jartos Zonderkidz (40 pp.) | $18.99

Feb. 11, 2025 | 9780310160120

A child struggling with the loss of a loved one must contend with a stubborn puddle. The unnamed, light­skinned girl is introduced through a series of vignettes on the book’s endpapers; she plays dress­up and hide­and­seek and reads, always with a red balloon as her companion and playmate. But one day, the balloon flies off, and the girl is devastated. The soft color wash in the minimalist illustrations recalls the art style of Peter H. Reynolds, providing a simple background to the more complex emotions that arise when the girl realizes she can’t “push the sadness all the way down to her toes.” When her feelings grow, a puddle forms around her; nothing she does makes it go away. Frustrated, she asks God for help, but finding no relief, she cries out angrily. Over time, she realizes the puddle offers unexpected gifts to passersby, which brightens her spirits and allows her to emerge from the puddle. The closing images depict her with the friends she’s made in her sadness. Despite this upbeat ending, the metaphor is clumsy. The puddle initially appears to symbolize grief, but it later provides

help and solace to those in need; readers may wonder how such difficult emotions can uplift others. An author’s note offers some explanation, but it may go over readers’ heads. The book also brings an inevitably messy process to an overly tidy resolution. This take on God’s presence during times of sorrow may confuse more than it consoles. (Scripture references) (Picture book. 4-8)

The Twits Next Door

$18.99 | Oct. 22, 2024 | 9780593692622

The Twits rise again, as revolting as ever, to play and be the victims of further gooey, gluey pranks. This follow­up to 2023’s Wonka , inspired by Roald Dahl’s sourball satire, stirs plenty of characters as well as riffs and references from the 1980 original into a storyline that pits the mutually abusive titular twosome against Mr. and Mrs. Lovely, new neighbors who are stubbornly dedicated to making the world a nicer place. As it turns out, good intentions only go so far. After Mr. Twit endangers 10 ­year­ old twins Ruff and Tumble Lovely by tricking them into climbing the Big Dead Tree, an escalating prank war ensues. In a lovely nod to Judith Kerr, the chapter “The Tiger Who Came for Breakfast” features a mistreated circus tiger, acquired from a contact the Twits have retained from their circus training days, who quickly becomes a Lovely pet, rather than gobbling them up as intended. The authors drop in a few major twists, liberal quantities of garbage and glue, stomach­ churning foods, and alliterative imprecations (“Jiggly…jabbering…jam head!” “mean, mangy, mumbling MOO COW!”), and savage just deserts once again play significant roles. In Jones’ energetic and humorous illustrations,

Mr. Lovely reads Black, and Mrs. Lovely appears white; racially and culturally diverse crowds witness the crabby white ­presenting Twits’ climactic comeuppance.

Delivers entertaining hijinks and fresh Twittery. (Fiction. 8-12)

The Mitzvah Fairy

Joseph, Danielle | Illus. by Christine Battuz | Kar-Ben (24 pp.) | $18.99

Feb. 4, 2025 | 9798765626993

With a crown, wings, and a star wand, a young Jewish boy transforms into the Mitzvah Fairy. After breakfast, the boy loads supplies into his wagon and leaves with his father and small gray dog to do good deeds for relatives and neighbors in need of cheering up. His bubbe ( grandmother in Yiddish) has a case of the sniffles; she proclaims his chicken soup “delicious!” Mr. Gordon’s leg is in a cast, so the boy waters the plants and fills the bird feeder. The thoughtful child notices trash in the park and asks his dad, “Don’t we need to treat the earth with kindness too?” When his dad agrees, the two pick up the garbage and recycle what they can. The boy spots lost coins and asks if he can add them to the blue tzedakah box (a charity box, adorned with Hebrew letters). He also moves a ladybug to a safer spot where it can’t be harmed by pedestrians. Though many readers will appreciate this quiet, matter­ offact tale of a young everyday hero doing his best, it’ll have special resonance for those familiar with Judaism. Featuring characters with oversize heads and textured backgrounds with cozy details, Battuz’s art sets a warm tone. Characters are light­ skinned. The book concludes with a matching game and a list of Hebrew phrases for the Jewish values incorporated into the story.

A tale gently infused with kindness and compassion. (Picture book. 4-8)

Are You a Hungry Monster?

Karsten, Guilherme | Happy Yak (40 pp.)

$18.99 | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9780711283404

Series: Your Scary Monster Friend

Snack, anyone?

“Hi, monster friend!” says a scaly green creature. “I’m going to make a special snack for both of us.” Opening the Monster Cookbook, our protagonist displays the ingredients required for a “monster sandwich.” The recipe calls for two slices of bread buried in mud for five days, two tablespoons of earwax, an old shoe sole, two raggedy socks, and—the pièce de résistance—dry snot. (At this point, kids will be giggling or gagging very loudly.) Showing off the finished creation, the proud chef is shocked no one’s anxious to try it. Does it need more earwax? Readers will likely still be groaning. The befuddled monster doesn’t understand why anyone would pass up this delicacy. Adding onion juice doesn’t work. Wait a minute, the monster says. You don’t like cookies, fruit, chocolate, or pasta, do you? Naturally, children will be shrieking their assent. “So disgusting!” proclaims the monster. “If you eat those things, you’ll never be as healthy as me.” Still, our hero is a good friend and tops the sandwich with a strawberry before gulping it down. Kids will laugh themselves silly over this offering, mined for obvious satirical hilarity, and will savor repeat helpings. The riotous illustrations, incorporating lots of creative typesetting and starring an adorable bespectacled green monster, match the comical proceedings. Just the thing to engage children hungry for tasty, enjoyable picture-book fare. (Picture book. 3-5)

James, Greg & Chris Smith Illus. by Emily Jones | Viking (256 pp.)

For more by Guilherme Karsten, visit Kirkus online.

Birdlore: The Iridescent Life of Florence Merriam Bailey

Keating, Jess | Illus. by Devon

Holzwarth | Knopf (40 pp.) | $19.99

March 18, 2025 | 9780593488584

An elegant tribute to Florence Merriam Bailey (1863 ­1948), a passionate ornithologist who revolutionized the way scientists and general nature lovers study birds.

In language as lush and floral as Holzwarth’s verdant outdoor scenes, Keating introduces a child who delighted in sitting patiently in the woods with “violets, tiger lilies, and trilliums at her feet,” not only in order to watch birds, but also to take careful notes on their features and behavior. As an adult, outraged by the contemporary fashion of piling feathers and dead birds atop women’s hats, she went on to a long lifetime of popularizing bird watching rather than harvesting. She promoted protective legislation and led “bird walks” of local followers kitted out with opera glasses. Finally, “with the stirring song of a hermit thrush in her heart,” she turned her years of notes into a series of field guides suitable for professionals and the general public alike. The author makes a solid case that the obscurity Bailey fell into after “her soul took wing” (as she puts it) in 1948 is undeserved. The illustrator closes with a labeled gallery of common birds for readers to spot on the earlier pages or, better yet, outdoors, following a set of basic bird­watching suggestions and guidelines. A few brown faces can be glimpsed among the groups of female students and bird lovers attired in flowing late­19th­century dress who attend the light­skinned crusader’s lectures and expeditions.

A high-toned and attractively illustrated profile. (author’s note) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)

Thank You, Teacher!

Kelkar, Supriya | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (32 pp.) | $18.99 Feb. 25, 2025 | 9780374392208

On our best days and our most challenging ones, teachers are always there to help.

A young student with light brown skin reflects on the twists and turns of the school year and expresses gratitude: “Thank you, teacher, / for everything you do.” The gym teacher helps students feel brave, the art teacher shows patience (and maybe a little exasperation) with a particularly chatty group, the librarian hosts a book drive, and the music teacher encourages students to rock out. Throughout the year, vibrant, buzzing scenes depict detailed scenarios, some joyous, like a multicultural holiday celebration, others filled with anxiety or frustration, such as a poignant spread depicting a distressed teacher reading a newspaper story about book banning. Jewel­toned, mixed­media collages lend warmth and depth to each scene. The spare text is enhanced by the characters’ simple but expressive drawn­ on cartoon faces. Teachers and students are portrayed with an array of skin tones; one child wears a head wrap, and another uses a wheelchair. The book reads like an ode to educators everywhere, marked by moments that are at once specific to one child’s classroom experience and universal to students everywhere.

An entertaining and reassuring story of discovery, healing, and reconnection.

A touching gift for any teacher who’s made an impact. (thank you, teachers!, how to write a thank-you letter, thank-you letter template) (Picture book. 3-7)

On Thin Ice

Kim, Jessica | Kokila (240 pp.) | $17.99

Feb. 25, 2025 | 9780593698143

Twelve­year­ old Korean American twins Phoebe and Dex Bae reluctantly team up on the ice. When Phoebe’s figure skating partner, Pete, has to sit out a major competition due to an injury, she’s crushed. It’s only two months until the pairs invitational that would have allowed Phoebe to move from the recreational league to the competitive division. The twins’ mom steps in, making a deal with Dex: If he partners with Phoebe, she’ll buy him the expensive skates he believes will get him back on the ice hockey team he was cut from. The struggles the siblings face are ultimately worth it: Dex finds a healthy outlet to support his emotional wellbeing and comes to appreciate the effort it takes to master figure skating, while Phoebe learns that competition isn’t everything and rediscovers her reasons for being on the ice. Skating together also brings the twins closer and renews their relationship with their mom; they’ve all been out of sync ever since Dad’s death two years ago. In the twins’ alternating first­person perspectives, Kim movingly depicts the family members’ paths to being present for each other and sharing their burdens and feelings. Side plots featuring friendship conflict, a crush, and relationships with coaches keep the story moving and advance character development, but the quick resolutions undercut the tension. Fans of Kim’s 2020 debut, Stand Up, Yumi Chung!, will enjoy a cameo by Mrs. Chung. An entertaining and reassuring story of discovery, healing, and reconnection. (Fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Star

Your Farm

Klassen, Jon | Candlewick (24 pp.)

$8.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781536230826

Series: Your Places

Klassen opens the door to imagination within the strict parameters of a little world.

Right from the start, this book places young readers directly at the center of its universe. “This is your sun. It is coming up for you.” Next, little ones meet each element of the farm. Each is punctuated with a clear message that it’s the sole property of the reader, along with instructions on where to place it. “This is your tree. It can go under the sun.” The objects all have eyes that stare out, making the audience the clear focus of the narrative. (This is not to say that the eyes don’t move; the barn, for example, looks over at the tree.) Then, once all the objects are in place (sun, tree, barn, horse, hay, truck, stool, and fence), the sun starts to sink, and every eye grows lidded and sleepy. By the end, readers are reassured that since it’s bedtime, they “can sleep too and think about what [they] will do there tomorrow.” While the narrator may have all the power of placement, once more it’s young readers who are reminded that their choices are the ones that truly count—a refreshing message, and one that kids can’t hear often enough. A simultaneously empowering and instructive bedtime tale. (Board book. 2-4)

personalized forest management.

“This is your sun. It is coming up for you.” Klassen allows the youngest of readers to put together a beguiling woodland scene. Each object in the forest is bedecked with the deadpan eyes the artist is known for. Like other titles in the series, this one presents typical items (trees, rocks, a stream), but it distinguishes itself by including a solitary forest ghost who “is nice. He only comes out at night.” It’s a tiny yet whimsical detail that imbues the tale with an enchanting sense of unpredictability. When day shifts to night, readers are assured that “this is your forest. Now it is done.” The sun sinks, and they’re treated to a surreal scene as all the items appear to doze off: “Now everyone is closing their eyes.” Happily, the ghost has a brief solo moment on the very edge of the forest on the final page. Readers will experience both the comfort of putting a community of anthropomorphized objects to sleep and the power of creating it in the first place. Pure unmitigated sleepy-time pleasure. (Board book. 2-4)

Kirkus Star

Your Island

Klassen, Jon | Candlewick (24 pp.)

$8.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781536230819 Series: Your Places

Your Forest

Klassen, Jon | Candlewick (24 pp.)

$8.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781536230833

Series: Your Places

K lassen’s inimitable blend of cozy and curious is on flagrant display in this tale of

Before nighttime falls, the objects on an island are in dire need of some direction. Part of a board­book series that includes Your Forest (2025) and Your Farm (2025), this story places the power of creation into the hands of small children. As Klassen presents each element, he offers readers instructions as to its placement. There’s no mistaking whom these objects belong to. “This is your palm tree. It can go over by the sun.” Slowly, the author/illustrator and young readers work together to build the scene. Plants, a tent, a fire (actually, “a magic fire. It will never go out”), a boat, and a most capricious bird (“he flies away sometimes but he always

comes back”) are laid out on the page. Each object has at least one unblinking eye that stares out at readers. When the sun sets, those eyes all close. “Now you can sleep too and think about what you will do there tomorrow.” Sure to spark the imagination and brimming with whimsy, this deceptively simple bedtime story makes readers an active participant in the process of constructing an entire little world.

For children yearning for an island of their own, deadpan delights await in this tale of somnolent creation.

(Board book. 2-4)

I Witnessed: The Lizzie Borden Story

Kraatz, Jeramey | Illus. by Crystal Jayme HarperAlley (208 pp.) | $15.99 paper

March 18, 2025 | 9780063247277

Series: I Witnessed

The story of the 1892 murders of Andrew Jackson Borden and his wife, Abby, and the subsequent trial of daughter Lizzie, told from the perspective of their young neighbor. Adding a light wash of invented detail to an account otherwise closely based on historical records, Kraatz presents a subtly nuanced view of the gruesome, controversial case. Despite his determination to get to the bottom of things, which leads him into some frightening situations, all 14­year­old Charlie knows about the Bordens next door is that they are a tense and unhappy family, and all he sees is a hatchet­wielding shadow in a covered window. But even though Lizzie is ultimately acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother, in Charlie’s mind a residue of fear and suspicion remains— which Lizzie’s own remote, collected manner in chance encounters before and after the killings does nothing to dispel. Indeed, nearly everything she and her equally reserved younger sister, Emma, say seems freighted with double meanings that carry suggestions of secrets, buried

Kirkus Star

A soothing balm for children undergoing similar changes.

HOME IS A WISH

emotional currents, and perhaps even complicity. The enigmatic expressions on their faces in Jayme’s somber, two­color scenes brilliantly underscore this ambiguity. Readers can’t help but come away less titillated by the case’s sensational aspects than disquieted by feelings that one or both of the surviving sisters knew things about that day that they silently carried to their graves.

A true whodunit, rich in ambiguities and suggestive hints. (Graphic historical fiction. 11-13)

Kirkus Star

Home Is a Wish

Kuo, Julia | Roaring Brook Press (32 pp.)

$18.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781250881328

A child who moves overseas grapples with what home is.

The young unnamed East Asian–presenting narrator explains home in basic terms: “In the mornings we leave home, and in the evenings we return.” Sometimes the family members—consisting of the little one, Mama, and Amah (Taiwanese for Grandmother)—go away for a longer time, but they always come back…until one day, they leave for good. As their plane flies across the ocean, “home becomes a wish.” They arrive in a strange new place with unfamiliar people and sounds. “How can this be our home?” the protagonist asks. Kuo’s spare yet graceful prose and her signature graphic­style artwork, beautifully saturated with pinks and blues, imbue this simple story with heft. One particularly moving double­page spread depicts the narrator in a canoe on a vast sea rowing away from the family’s old apartment building on one side toward their new house on the

other. And then, “slowly, odd becomes ordinary, and strange becomes sweet.” The child comes to some profound realizations: “There are different homes for different times: a home from before, a home for now, even a home for later.”

A close reading into the landscapes (Seattle’s Space Needle can be seen in one spread) and clues such as the use of Taiwanese show just how far this family has come. Elegantly constructed yet warmly comforting—a soothing balm for children undergoing similar changes. (Picture book. 4-8)

If I Could Choose a Best Day: Poems of Possibility

Ed. by Latham, Irene & Charles Waters Illus. by Olivia Sua | Candlewick (64 pp.) $19.99 | March 4, 2025 | 9781536219791

Thirty­ one poets contemplate all that the word if might portend. In addition to drawing from previously published works, the anthologists issued an open call for submissions. First­time published poets appear alongside Emily Dickinson, Nikki Grimes, Joseph Bruchac, Janet Wong, and more. The unifying theme yields ruminations both sky­high and intimately observed. The work opens with Latham and Waters’ poem “Welcome,” followed by 29 entries divided into four sections. Amy Ludwig VanDerwater suggests that learning the name, markings, and song of “just one bird” can be transformative. “You will feel big and small at once / if you learn the name of just one bird.” Two poems examine youngsters’ nighttime fears in distinct ways. Siv Cedering’s “If a Bad Dream

Comes” reimagines the child’s bed as a protective house, while Teresa Owens Smith’s “Opening Windows” urges an expansive reaction to sleeplessness: “Search the dark sea of the night sky. / Your dreams are hiding there. / …Grab the stars and let moonlight dance inside you.” Lacresha Berry harnesses powerful, self­ affirming imagery: “If I imagine / sunlight made me / my soul soars / like a blackbird / chirping in celebration / of my midnight wings / without anyone / telling me / I am too dark / to be related / to the sun.” Sua’s charming mixed­media illustrations, which make wonderful use of collage, echo and extend the poets’ imagery, depicting oft­joyous children with varied skin tones and hair textures. A fresh, appealing anthology that celebrates the freedom inherent in possibility. (editors’ note, copyright acknowledgments) (Poetry. 6-9)

Fantastic Lou: Little Comics From Real Life

Leng, Qin | Tundra Books (96 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 28, 2025 | 9781774885673

As much a journal of memories as a collection of comics, these micro ­stories drawn from Leng’s own experiences chronicle her spirited son’s ups and downs.

To spend time with a very small person is to delight over the uncanny and unpredictable things a child might do or say, and most adult caregivers can only hope to remember every humorous and poignant moment. This assortment of “little comics from real life” attempts to capture those wistful observations, offering a way of freezing time and holding fast to each silly or sweet utterance. The vignettes are unified by an uncomplicated color scheme composed of simple black­andwhite line drawings with small splashes of blue. That approach, combined with the minimalist text, keeps the spotlight

on young Lou’s antics and insights. Some scenes, like that of Lou climbing on top of his parents as they lie in bed trying in vain to sleep, will feel universal, while others provide a window into the boy’s unique style, such as a scene depicting his “Dance Moves.” Though each comic feels true to life, young readers may struggle with the episodic nature of these relatively uneventful snapshots, but the book will earn smiles of recognition from their nostalgic grown­ups. Characters have skin the white of the page. A charming look at life through the eyes of a young child, perhaps best appreciated by adult caregivers. (Graphic fiction. 5-9)

Wolfgang and the Magic of Music

Lévy, Didier | Illus. by Lorenzo Sangiò

Trans. by Jill Phythian | Thames & Hudson (40 pp.) | $17.95

Jan. 14, 2025 | 9780500653838

A wolf and a rabbit form a rock band. Wolfgang—a gray wolf with a large gray guitar case strapped against his red­jacketed back—puts up a poster on a tree: “WOLF SEEKS GANG to form a rock band…Let’s howl!” Wolfgang becomes increasingly disappointed when no one responds. Just as he’s about to tear down the sign, a white rabbit named Rex—clad in a dark jacket and yellow boots— shows up. Though Wolfgang initially views the bunny as a “tasty snack,” he changes his tune when Rex plays his guitar and sings. The two jam together until other woodland animals—and light­skinned Red Riding Hood— show up, listen, and applaud. The increasingly popular team figures out a

name: the Big Bads. Whenever Wolfgang’s rumbling tummy threatens their relationship, Rex breaks out the music, and Rex’s thoughts quickly shift: “It was as if the music was magic!” Sadly, that strategy doesn’t work when the pair encounter a trio of porcine hunters, but the Big Bads continue playing until they’ve inspired even their nemeses to make music, not violence. Spare text translated from French and funny, carefully composed illustrations reminiscent of William Steig’s work combine for a charming tale. The pacing feels a bit rushed at the end, but overall, text and art are delightful, slyly interspersing old and new.

Funny, hopeful, and encouraging. (Picture book. 4-8)

Who Ate Steve?

Lloyd, Susannah | Illus. by Kate Hindley Nosy Crow (32 pp.) | $17.99 March 11, 2025 | 9798887771311

An early bird doesn’t catch the worm. This U.K. import, ostensibly about size comparisons, has an unseen narrator loudly scolding Marcel, a large bird, who’s apparently consumed Steve, a small worm. How does the unseen narrator know? The illustrations clearly show Marcel ambling off, a worm’s body dangling from the bird’s beak. Steve’s released unharmed, though. The lesson resumes, but the disgruntled Marcel flies off with Steve again, disrupting the proceedings. Marcel smashes into a tree and falls to the ground, and Steve drops from Marcel’s mouth. The narrator attempts the lesson again, and Marcel makes another grab for adorable, wide ­ eyed Steve, who’s been unperturbed about everything and has

simply adjusted his tiny hat. The narrator admonishes Marcel: “YOU ARE NOT JUST LETTING YOURSELF DOWN. YOU ARE LETTING EVERYBODY DOWN.” The narrator issues an ultimate warning, finally getting around to the exercise’s original point: Marcel is big, while Steve is small. The “math lesson” draws to a close. But Marcel is now missing. The final illustration’s a hoot—Marcel finally gets some comeuppance upon encountering an even bigger predator. Talk about comparative sizes! The hilarious, crisp color illustrations incorporate creative typesetting into the artwork, wonderfully abetting the side ­ splitting proceedings. Kids won’t want to eat the titular character, but they’ll definitely gobble this tale up. (Picture book. 4-7)

My Little Golden Book About Pride

Lukoff, Kyle | Illus. by Michelle Jing Chan Golden Books/Random (24 pp.)

$5.99 | March 4, 2025 | 9780593807859

Why do rainbow flags often appear each June? Stonewall Award–winning author Lukoff offers an explanation. Every year, queer folks and their allies come together to observe Pride—“a reminder for everyone to be proud of who they are.” After the Stonewall rebellion in June 1969 in New York City—a night when gay men and women and trans people “decided to fight back” after enduring frequent arrests by police—and the yearly parades that followed in its wake, San Francisco designer Gilbert Baker developed the rainbow Pride flag as a “symbol of hope for LGBTQIA+ people.” Lukoff explores the meanings behind the different colors of the most common Pride flag, from yellow (“sunlight”), which represents coming out of the closet and “being out in the light,” to orange (“healing”), which

conveys the importance of seeking support. Though this yearly celebration has been co ­opted by rampant commercialism, Lukoff returns to its roots, focusing on the communitybuilding aspects of Pride. Other flags are featured such as the trans, genderqueer, asexual, and bisexual flags, yet they aren’t labeled or delved into further—a missed opportunity to emphasize the ever­growing queer community (the Progress Pride flag isn’t included at all). The upbeat digital illustrations depict people of different ages, races, genders, and sexualities. A note for parents offers basic child­friendly definitions of each of the terms in the initialism LGBTQIA.

A straightforward and informative primer on Pride and the community it engenders. (Informational picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Star

Pilgrim Codex

Mansour, Vivian | Illus. by Emmanuel Valtierra | Trans. by Carlos Rodríguez Cortez Levine Querido (48 pp.) | $18.99 Feb. 11, 2025 | 9781646145157

The Vargas Ramírez family braves the journey north to the other side in this tale translated from Spanish.

Told from the perspective of an unnamed child, the voyage commences with a bird’s song—“Tihui, tihui, tihui: let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.” Departing from Iztapalapa, Mexico, Land of Clay Upon Water, a group of seven family members and friends—soon joined by another pair in Coyoacán—take “bus after bus after bus.” On their path to the land where a feathered man is said to fly over metallic trees, the Migrant Warriors evade the Tiras—slang for law enforcement—and squeeze into a van that moves like “an enraged jaguar.” They eventually end up wading through darkness “as dense as an obsidian forest.” Others, including a stray dog, join them on their seemingly

never­ending march, led by a sly coyote. The Migrant Warriors cross the Río Bravo; then it’s time to walk once more, thirsty, exhausted, and indebted to the Virgen de Guadalupe’s protection. Mansour’s vivid portrait of a migrant family’s travails blends motifs and imagery from Mesoamerican mythology, with dazzling, affecting results. Influenced by the Boturini and Mixtec Codices, Valtierra’s artwork boasts bold lines, strong color use, and salient iconography, beautifully complementing the text’s mythical tone. Grounded in compassion, this is a richly layered tale that will linger with readers.

A gripping, thought-provoking migration saga. (author’s note, glossary) (Picture book. 4-8)

Over in the Garden

Matthies, Janna | Illus. by Tisha Lee Doubleday (32 pp.) | $18.99

March 18, 2025 | 9780593809365

Rhyme and rhythm are in full blossom. Featuring rollicking, tightly constructed rhymes, this variation on the classic counting song “Over in the Meadow” follows a busy group of racially diverse young gardeners who care for a community garden. Youngsters will love chanting along with the delicious verses. As they do so, they’ll practice counting skills, gain an appreciation for rhyme and rhythm, and learn about the different chores involved in creating and maintaining a proper garden (and about the equipment gardeners use). Kids will be charmed by the animal pals who join in the fun. At one point, the young workers must pause—but only

temporarily—as a sudden rainstorm sets in: “Over in the garden, / in a shelter of pine, / hid the damp little gardeners / in a huddle of NINE . ‘Rain,’ sang the gardeners, / ‘Spring rain!’ sang all NINE . / And they danced and they pranced / in a shelter of pine.” The final scenes reveal that these caretakers have worked hard to produce a wonderland of plantings and colors. Number words throughout are set in boldfaced black capital letters. The illustrations burst with both vegetation and with bright hues and dynamic activity.

A garden of utter delights.

(Picture book. 3-6)

Jojo vs. Middle School

McCullough, Joy & Veeda Bybee Aladdin (192 pp.) | $18.99 | Feb. 11, 2025

9781665950732 | Series: Team Awkward, 1

The ups and downs of a newly formed group of friends as they weather their first days of middle school. Jojo, a biracial Guatemalan American 11year­old, is adjusting to some big changes; she’s about to start sixth grade, and she, her brother, Sam, and their mother have recently moved in with Mom’s embarrassing boyfriend, Paul, an influencer known for his social media posts about his cats. After Jojo accidentally flashes her cat­themed underwear to her classmates (unbeknownst to Jojo, one of Paul’s felines ripped a hole in her leggings), she avoids the cafeteria and instead eats lunch from a vending machine in an abandoned locker room. She stumbles upon three other

A fresh, witty, and friendshipfocused series starter.

JOJO VS. MIDDLE SCHOOL

girls who are also feeling isolated and disconnected; each shares her own awkward and mortifying first­ day story. The following afternoon, reports of a bobcat on the premises prompt the school to initiate a lockdown. The girls shelter in place, but because of the faulty announcement system in the locker room, they don’t initially realize the building has been evacuated. When they finally discover what’s happening, they bond further, dubbing themselves “Team Awkward” and venturing through their empty, potentially bobcat­filled school together. Filled with fun callbacks, the humorous dialogue rings true, and the lively, fast­paced though implausible plot will keep readers hooked. Additional characters— including family members, classmates, and teachers—are introduced intriguingly, suggesting they will get more time to shine in future installments. Jojo’s school is diverse. A fresh, witty, and friendship-focused series starter. (Fiction. 8-12)

Space Chasers by Leland Melvin

Melvin, Leland & Joe Caramagna

Illus. by Alison Acton | First Second (240 pp.)

$22.99 | $14.99 paper | Feb. 4, 2025 9781250782779 | 9781250782762 paper

Series: Space Chasers by Leland Melvin, 1

K

ids from around the U.S. join a space mission that tests their physical, mental, and interpersonal abilities.

Tia is a Latine tween working at her older brother Hector’s car shop when she learns about a new NASA initiative. The program, run by renowned Black astronaut (and co ­ author) Melvin, will send kids into space to intern at a research facility. Uber­responsible Indira, who’s cued Indian American, also tries out, but she’s seated near Tia during the test and is convinced Tia cheated by looking at her paper.

Grounded in compassion, this is a richly layered tale that will linger with readers.

PILGRIM CODEX

Despite her frequent absences and failing grades, Tia is selected, while Indira is made an alternate. At space camp, Tia meets football player Bradley (who reads white), space ­ obsessed Andromeda (who appears East Asian), and Steven, a Black­presenting boy who has cerebral palsy and is an aspiring research biologist. Melvin’s STEAM Team members pair up for physical conditioning and training for living in space, running laps and using a multi­ axis trainer. After Steven is injured and goes home temporarily to recover, Indira becomes Tia’s new partner (fortunately, Steven is later able to return). As the spaceships are prepped for launch, Melvin reinforces the message that “there are no useless skills. There are only skills that aren’t being used to their full potential.” The strong pacing and Acton’s vibrant color palette make this an engaging science ­ based adventure that also explores friendship, team ­ building, overcoming personal insecurities, and other emotional themes.

An entertaining and heartwarming journey into space. (Graphic fiction. 8-13)

When I Talk to God, I Talk About Feelings

Metz, Chrissy & Bradley Collins | Illus. by Lisa Fields | Flamingo Books (32 pp.)

$18.99 | March 4, 2025 | 9780593691366

Actor Metz and songwriter Collins join illustrator Fields in their second faith­related title for young children.

Instead of focusing on the language of prayer—what to say or how to say it—this book explores a topic central to the lives of the very young: their feelings around talking to God. Rhymes and near­rhymes in the AABB verses enumerate the simple challenges and triumphs experienced by a series of animals: “Sometimes I’m sad, not sure what to do. / There are days I feel teary, unhappy, or blue. / I fell off a log. I’m embarrassed and hurt. / My coat and paws are all covered in dirt.” An accompanying illustration depicts a sad wolf pup, a definite contrast to its siblings, who are delighting in their play. The highlight of the book is Fields’ animal characters. Whether happy, nervous, or sad, their expressive faces are easy to read, and their feelings will be familiar to young tots. The beaver’s frustration is palpable, and the tears in the scared raccoon’s eyes may just make readers’ own eyes well up. Some of the animals have a God stand ­in to help them with their feelings—a friend or family member—but the final spread shows all the individual animals coming together in a couple of group hugs that express where children can find support (and sweetly defy predator–prey relationships).

A tender book to help little ones make sense of the emotions around prayer. (Picture book. 3-6)

For more on Chrissy Metz and Bradley Collins, visit Kirkus online.

The Greatest River

Moolani Mehra, Namita | Illus. by Khoa Le HarperCollins (40 pp.) | $19.99

Feb. 18, 2025 | 9780063207455

A young Indian girl journeys to the river Ganga. Ananda’s mother regales her with stories about how the river springs from a Himalayan glacier and is revered as a goddess. She tells her that the Ganga is “the greatest mother of all.” When Mamma falls ill, Ananda and her aunt travel to bathe in the Ganga’s healing waters and pray for her. As they enter the freezing river, light clay lamps, and chant Mamma’s favorite prayer, the weight of Ananda’s sadness is lifted away by a sense of hope. On a river boat ride, as she listens to devotional songs her mother often sang, she feels a connection with the ancient temples and ashrams. Walking along the sandy banks, Ananda asks the river goddess for permission to take a pebble—“a solid thing to hold on to.” As she collects holy water for her mother, she’s filled with a sense of calm. For this poignant tale, Moolani Mehra drew on her own experience of visiting the Ganga and of grappling with her mother’s illness. With metaphors about mothers woven throughout the narrative, the book offers thought­provoking musings on nature. Le’s fluid illustrations in blues, sunset pinks, and oranges mimic the flowing river, while the focus on Ananda’s point of view carves out a space for reflection.

A contemplative story on the healing power of nature. (author’s note, glossary, cultural note) (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Star

The Edge of the Silver Sea

Mullarky, Alex | Kelpies (280 pp.) | $9.99 paper | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781782509172

A young teen’s hasty bargain with a Celtic deity jeopardizes the natural order of an island community. After deciding to turn a fixerupper on the remote Scottish island of Roscoe into a bed­ and­breakfast, 13 ­year­ old Blair Zielinksi’s parents uprooted her from her home in the English city of Carlisle. Blair’s plans for a summer spent raising climate crisis awareness are a bust, especially without internet or cell service. But she discovers Roscoe’s literal enchantments when she makes a deal with the goddess Cailleach: She’ll complete three tasks, and Cailleach will grant her wish to return home. As she engages with the island’s residents, including teen naturalist Alasdair, who’s cued trans, and Rosemary, a vibrant older woman, Blair must navigate her growing affection for the local people that conflicts with her promise to Cailleach. Mullarky transports readers with their enchanting descriptions of the island and its flora and fauna, both real and legendary. The events build at an easy pace that allows for Blair’s development. Cailleach’s backstory and misguided guardianship affirm the importance of biodiversity and serve as an apt allegory for human communities: “You belong here. We all belong here.” Blair’s mother is English, and her

A magically transcendent adventure that blends climate concerns with Celtic lore.

THE EDGE OF THE SILVER SEA

father is Scottish and Polish; his Polish cultural heritage is woven into the story. A glossary with a pronunciation guide defines English and Scots vocabulary and Celtic folklore terms. The author’s note cites climate anxiety and gender identity resources. A magically transcendent adventure that blends climate concerns with Celtic lore. (map) (Fantasy. 9-12)

Bouncing Bunnies!

Osborne, Fiz | Illus. by Tim Budgen Simon & Schuster (32 pp.) | $12.99 Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781665975056

Ten floofy bunnies have a grand time. The little rabbits, depicted in various shades of black, brown, and white, are tucked away in a burrow, snoozing gently. But in the morning, it’s time to “wake up, little bunnies!” This is when they do their—cue dramatic page turn—“BESTEST JUMPS!” The unseen narrator encourages the audience to hop along. After all that fun, the bunnies are hungry. How do bunnies find their food? By wiggling their noses, of course. “Wiggle, wiggle—sniff, sniff, sniff! / Wiggle, wiggle—catch a whiff!” The bunnies lead readers in wriggling their noses, shaking their fuzzy tails, and, of course, bouncing along once more. “Bounce, bounce, bounce—don’t stop, please! / Bounce, bounce, bounce—bend those knees!” Osborne harnesses any extra storytime energy that youngsters might have and urges them to let it explode in a cacophony of pounding, bounding feet. But then, everyone is brought back in, close and quiet, as the bunnies snuggle down to sleep. Yawning mouths and drowsy eyes instantly slow the mood. Featuring 10 adorable friends who inhabit meadows awash in springtime pastels, this would be a great Easter read­aloud as well. For those spirited youngsters who need a little movement with their stories. (Picture book. 3-6)

Provides historical facts and intriguing magic wrapped up in one exciting quest.

COUSINS IN THE TIME OF MAGIC

Cousins in the Time of Magic

Otheguy, Emma | Illus. by Poly Bernatene Atheneum (240 pp.) | $17.99

Feb. 25, 2025 | 9781665915182

Three cousins from Miami are magically transported back in time. Siggy, Camila, and Jorge couldn’t be more different— Siggy is an aspiring influencer, Camila is a daydreaming bookworm, and Jorge is a bold adventurer. But they share Tía Xía, their history­loving aunt. When Jorge spots Tía Xía with a “diamond­encrusted sword,” he wants answers, but he, Siggy, and Camila just have more questions when they stumble through a portal in Tía Xía’s front yard. They’re transported back to 1862 Virginia, just before the Battle of Puebla, the reason Cinco de Mayo is celebrated today. To find their way home, the kids and their aunt must travel south to Mexico to deliver the magical sword to General Ignacio Zaragoza before May fifth. Heading south, they traverse their way through the ongoing U.S. Civil War and encounter Alfonso, a Cuban American drummer boy in the Union Army, Oscar, an enslaved boy, and Pascuala, an Indigenous girl who speaks Nahuatl and is supporting the Mexican Army. The original plot, historical setting, and fantasy elements are compelling, and the themes about understanding your heritage and taking pride in who you are will resonate with Latine readers especially. Otheguy also thoughtfully explores politics, ethics, family, and morality. Bernatene’s accomplished illustrations scattered throughout provide readers with visuals that will help guide their imaginations.

A high-stakes story that provides historical facts and intriguing magic wrapped up in one exciting quest. (historical notes, glossary, further reading, bibliography) (Adventure. 8-12)

A Wolf Called Fire

Parry, Rosanne | Illus. by Mónica Armiño | Greenwillow Books (256 pp.)

$18.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780063415133

A wolf cub charts his own path to pack leadership. In this novel based on the life of a real wolf who was brought to Yellowstone National Park in 1995 as part of a conservation project, a young cub named Warm reckons with not being the biggest, strongest, or loudest at howling among his littermates. When an attack by another pack leaves him to care for a set of younger siblings— Leap, Snap, Quiver, and Yowl—Warm struggles to keep the cubs alive despite never having made a killing blow of his own. Even as his survival skills are tested, Warm develops a uniquely compassionate outlook that helps him navigate the recombination of packs and other dangers. Parry’s short sentences create a quickly moving story with deep emotional currents. The immediacy of Warm’s first­person voice and the abundant sensory descriptions pull readers right into the animals’ world, though the large cast of wolves can be difficult to keep track of. Armiño’s numerous, beautifully detailed black­ and­white illustrations add ample emotion and dynamic movement. Environmentally

conscious readers, animal lovers, and those with a taste for nonfiction will be thrilled by the extensive backmatter, which includes a darling hand­ drawn map of Warm’s journey as well as photos and abundant information on wolf biology, recovery efforts, and the ecology of the American West.

An exciting and thoughtful portrait inspired by a real animal who succeeded by being different. (author’s note, resources) (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Star

Jella Lepman and Her Library of Dreams: The Woman Who Rescued a Generation of Children and Founded the World’s Largest Children’s Library

Paterson, Katherine | Illus. by Sally Deng | Chronicle Books (112 pp.)

$21.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781452182629

Newbery Medalist Paterson looks at a woman who fought tooth and nail to give children access to literature. If children’s books are “nourishment for the soul,” then what do you do when there are none to be found? German­born Jewish Jella Lepman spent the better part of World War II in England, where she had escaped with her two teenaged children. When the war ended, she found herself conscripted as an adviser for women’s and youth affairs. Sending herself on fact­finding missions, she determined that while food was necessary, books for the children of Germany were imperative. Paterson has addressed the task of making clear just how difficult it was to save these children from the adults in their lives who never gave up on Nazism. The author has triumphed—Lepman comes across as spiky and sometimes difficult, but also a steadfast and courageous advocate for children and their books. Paterson pulls no punches; when discussing how the German

demagogue played on the populace’s fears, she writes scathingly, “Hitler promised to make Germany great again.” Art drawn in a limited palette mixes, mingles, and merges with pertinent photography, giving the book interest and immediacy. The subject’s dedication, candor, and sheer chutzpah burst off the page. An acknowledgments page lists Paterson’s sources and the people she consulted. A stirring, singular tribute to a woman well aware of the importance of children’s books in times of trauma and recovery. (photo credits) (Biography. 8-12)

Who’s Walking Dawg?

Prins, Marie | Illus. by Leanne Franson Red Deer Press (32 pp.) | $23.95 Feb. 1, 2025 | 9780889957114

A pointed reminder for dog owners. Dawg’s got a great life—as all “dawgs” deserve— but today, as he waits impatiently to be walked, leash in mouth, tail wagging, no one’s paying attention. Dad’s making pizza for dinner, Mom’s at her computer, Bro’s playing guitar, and Sis is on her phone. Everyone tells Dawg to ask someone else to walk him. Finally, Dawg takes matters into his own paws and takes himself out. Little One, playing with a train set, notices and says, “Dawg gone!” No one hears. Dawg has a blast visiting his favorite areas of the yard, observing neighborhood animals, sniffing wonderful fragrances on the sidewalk, and detecting telltale aromas left behind by other pooches at the telephone pole, fire hydrant, and mailbox. He performs the act he originally went outside for. A fun jaunt in the park with his pals rounds out his walk, but soon he realizes that he’s

hungry. At this point, Dawg’s family finally remembers that no one’s walked him, and Little One repeats, “Dawg gone.” This time, everyone hears. Panic­stricken, the family searches the neighborhood, but all ends happily as Dawg returns home to loving embraces and everyone asking, “Who’s feeding Dawg?” (He gets pizza, too.) Kids, particularly dog lovers, will enjoy this very sweet story. The colorful, loosely drawn illustrations depict a warm, light­skinned, realistically busy family. Dawg’s an endearing, large, shaggy pooch with light brown fur. An appealing story sure to captivate children who appreciate dog “tails.” (Picture book. 4-7)

Octopus Moon

Pyron, Bobbie | Nancy Paulsen

Books (336 pp.) | $18.99

March 25, 2025 | 9780593616291

On the outside, Pearl’s life seems perfect, so why is she feeling so down?

Ten­year­old Pearl lives in Crescent Beach, Florida, where she spends her summers skateboarding, running, and dreaming of becoming a marine biologist. But with fifth grade just around the corner, Pearl finds herself worrying more than usual. After school starts, her teachers share their concerns about her declining academic performance, “sad” essays, and forgetfulness, leading her parents to bring her to Jill Axline, a therapist who diagnoses Pearl with depression. Over time, Pearl becomes an advocate for destigmatizing depression, and she encourages others to seek the help they need. When she finds

A full-bodied and authentic exploration of living with depression.

OCTOPUS MOON

out that a grant to rehabilitate injured sea turtles at the aquarium is in jeopardy, Pearl needs her new tools from therapy to overcome the darkness of her depression. Pyron artfully presents Pearl’s navigation of her new diagnosis in relation to her family and friends. The descriptions of symptoms, including physical exhaustion, provide a window into her experiences. Although many of the cast members are minimally described in the spare verse, which is divided into brief chapters, Pearl’s relationships to the secondary characters are rich and evocative. The author’s concluding personal note includes useful information for those who are suffering from depression themselves or supporting someone with mental illness. Main characters present white. A full-bodied and authentic exploration of living with depression. (Verse fiction. 8-12)

Peg Gets Plucky

Renfro, Jo | Beaming Books (32 pp.)

$18.99 | March 11, 2025 | 9781506492094

Peg the chicken perseveres despite setbacks. When the barnyard animals decide to take off and explore, Peg races along, eager to participate. Being smaller than the other animals, she quickly falls behind as she attempts to climb a hill, scale a fallen log, and cross a stream. Along the way, Peg complains that she’s unable to complete these challenges—until she realizes that in fact, she’s overcome every obstacle. For her efforts, she’s rewarded with a beautiful view of the moon with her animal pals—and the magic of realizing her strength. Caregivers might hear echoes of their own toddlers’ voices in Peg’s: “IT’S TOO FAR! I’M TOO TIRED! I’M TOO SMALL!” The story serves as a fitting example of just how much little ones are capable of when they stick to it, especially those who struggle with doubt. The text’s pacing and the placement of the words on each page make this an ideal option for

A perfect read for grannies babysitting their own bubbelehs.

SWEET BABE!

toddlers. Peg is a sweet little chick, round and fluffy, with expressive eyes and an often wide­open beak to match. The illustrations effectively set up a familiar pattern, with an overwhelmed Peg on one side of the page and a triumphant chick on the other. A meaningful journey featuring a relatable, adorable protagonist. (Picture book. 2-4)

A Little Slugger’s Guide to the Unwritten Rules of Baseball and Life

Renna, Patrick | Illus. by Tommy Parker Penguin Workshop (32 pp.) | $16.99 Feb. 25, 2025 | 9780593754870

Actor Renna, best known for his role in the 1993 film

The Sandlot, offers baseball­themed anecdotes and affirmations.

Heartfelt reminders that life’s a marathon, not a sprint, may be familiar, but many young readers will find them revelatory. The author also stresses that failure is just as much a part of life as success, encourages children to embrace individuality and work hard despite being the underdog, and emphasizes that practice shows commitment and “prepares you for the big game or the test.” All these lessons will be relatable to young people, and many are supported by real­life stories: basketball superstar Michael Jordan’s short­lived stint in minor league baseball, an unexpected victory during Game One of the 2015 World Series, and Renna’s willingness to swallow his fear when, as a young teen, he was handed a new script just an hour before shooting a pivotal scene in The Sandlot. Each tidbit stands alone, but taken together, all 20 tenets provide a lively road map to life. The colorful spot

art features images of diverse young baseball players, plus some visually appealing double­page spreads filled with movement and action. White space is used thoughtfully, allowing readers to reflect on how these words of wisdom might apply to them.

A solid base hit, with guidance on the great American pastime—and life itself. (Informational picture book. 7-11)

Star

Will’s Race for Home Rhodes, Jewell Parker | Illus. by Olga Ivanov & Aleksey Ivanov | Little, Brown (256 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9780316299336

Twelve­year­ old William Samuels sets out on the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush with his father and their faithful mule, Belle.

One evening in 1888, Will’s father, who was formerly enslaved, comes home late with news that changes the family’s lives forever. He’s carrying a flyer announcing a land rush more than 400 miles away from where they live as sharecroppers in Texas. This opportunity means they could build property on land that belongs only to them, land that Will could inherit just like the sons of the white men they work for. It also means adventure. They make plans for Will and Father to set off on the trek together, but nothing can truly prepare Will for what’s to come, from the grueling wilderness terrain to the dangerous people and deadly snakes they encounter. Father and son also meet a mysterious ex­Union soldier named Caesar, who helps when they’re

in dire straits and joins them on their journey. When major responsibility for the success of their venture falls on Will’s shoulders, he pushes through, despite facing threats until the very end. The short chapters make this fast­paced and eventful ride through the West an accessible and engaging read. Although Will’s internal and external conflicts are central to the story, Rhodes’ well­developed peripheral characters have incredible depth, adding complexity to the straightforward adventure. Final art not seen. An exciting gallop through real history with little-known heroes taking the lead. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 8-12)

Sweet Babe!: A Jewish Grandma Kvells

Rosenthal, Robin | Tundra Books (32 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 18, 2025 | 9781774884324

An exuberant woman is completely enamored with a special baby. This gray­haired, bespectacled, very chic grandmother “kvells” over every wonderful thing about the child (a glossary defines kvelling as “bursting with pride”). They play peek­a­boo, and Grandma hugs, kisses, and cuddles the little one. Baby’s every expression is met with excitement and joy, and Grandma decides that even the infant’s smiles are evidence of genius. There’s nothing subtle here and no shading in the art—brightly colored, vibrant double­page spreads present all the activities in sharp relief and large­scaled views. Facial expressions match the action, and even the dog gets in on the fun. Gran’s comments appear in speech bubbles or across the pages in dramatically large, bold fonts. Exclamation marks abound, and the text is peppered with Yiddish words that will easily be understood in context. Baby is Grandma’s “bubbeleh,” and she admires the child’s “punim” and kisses the little one’s “keppie” and, of course, those chubby baby thighs, the “pulkies.” The love between these two is palpable. Jewish readers will especially appreciate this tale,

Kirkus

A delightful emotional journey enhanced with a touch of magic.

THE GIRL WHO COULDN’T LIE

but the glossary and labeled diagram of the baby’s body parts ensure that all youngsters and their grown­ups will enjoy cuddling together to read it. The characters are light­skinned. Joyous, uplifting, and pure fun—a perfect read for grannies babysitting their own bubbelehs. (Picture book. 2-5)

All About Patterns

Rusch, Elizabeth | Illus. by Elizabeth Goss | Charlesbridge (32 pp.) | $17.99 April 29, 2025 | 9781623543549 Series: All About Noticing

Meditative observations on patterns in art, in nature, and in life.

Continuing their efforts to nudge readers toward greater mindfulness, Rusch and Goss follow up All About Nothing (2023) and All About Color (2024) by pointing to the ubiquity of patterns. “What do you know about patterns?” the author asks. She defines the concept as anything that repeats, while Goss depicts a set of inward­looking children diverse in race and age—some lining up seeds and other small items, others painting images of rows and spirals, examining pine cones, dancing, playing a guitar, or sharing books (the collaborators’ previous ones) with parents. When changes such as the birth of a newborn sibling break comfortable patterns, “everything feels chaotic,” but only, reassuringly, until a new pattern can be worked out. Some of the gnomic claims (“Stories can have patterns”) beg for interpretation or discussion, and even with additional context, many children will have trouble with the author’s mini­ discourse on tessellations in the backmatter. Still,

more reflective young audiences will still get at least the general drift, and as a takeaway, the closing insight that our brains “love finding patterns” is as universally true as it is easy to comprehend. Some domestic scenes feature a multiracial family with two little ones.

A sketchy introduction to an important, if abstract, idea. (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Mountain Upside Down

Ryan, Sara | Dutton (240 pp.) | $18.99 Feb. 11, 2025 | 9780593699515

A 13 ­year­ old learns to accept help when everything in her life starts shifting. Right after she’s worked up the courage to share her romantic feelings for PJ, the girl who’s been her best friend for years, everything in Alexandra Eager’s life starts to go off­kilter. Her grandmother, who’s cared for her since her mother’s death from complications of childbirth, is becoming more confused and forgetful. Alex’s local library, where she’s on the Youth Council, faces possible funding cuts, and beloved librarian Alonso is doing his best to be positive despite the dreary outlook. Matters go from bad to worse when PJ announces that she and her moms are moving. Alex’s desperate fear of losing PJ pushes her to make a dangerous decision, and things quickly fall apart. But the reveal of a family secret unexpectedly leads to a new way forward and expands Alex’s support system. Although few tidy resolutions appear at the end, the story contains plenty of comfort and compassion. Alex and PJ’s budding romance is gentle and sweet, with realistic

complications and heartfelt emotions that are well suited to their ages. Alex’s grandmother’s worsening dementia raises big questions of familial responsibility and elder care that will be familiar to many readers, while the parallel storyline of the library’s funding battle leads to a timely and authentic (if frustrating) conclusion. The main characters read white. Genuine and grounded; full of warmth and pragmatic realism despite difficult and uncertain circumstances. (Fiction. 10-14)

The Girl Who Couldn’t Lie

Sanghani, Radhika | Carolrhoda (344 pp.) $19.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9798765628690

A special bangle from her grandmother leads a 12­year­ old to authenticity. Priya Shah’s life is a pressure cooker. Her parents constantly fight, her little sister Pinkie’s ADHD can be intense, she can’t talk to Dan Zhang, her crush, and her elite gymnastics training rarely allows her to see her best friends, Sami (who’s Jewish) and Mei (who’s Chinese). School bully Katie Wong is also forcing Priya to do her math homework. To keep everyone happy, Priya, who is of Indian descent, simply lies. One day, as she’s grieving for her late grandmother, who was her sole confidant, Priya decides to try on the gold bangle, encrusted in rubies and diamonds, that Ba left her. The next day, she can’t remove the bangle from her wrist—and to her horror, she can only speak the truth. This straightforward and accessible narrative shows Priya’s journey from initially trying to avoid everyone to blurting out the truth to her family, friends, and coach. Although her predicament is stressful, Priya is pleasantly surprised to see how many people share her insecurities and want to help. Sanghani deftly balances Priya’s growing pains, relationship blunders, and eventual realization that she has a

community supporting her. Although the resolution feels rushed and too perfect, Priya is a relatable and sincere character who will win readers over. A delightful emotional journey enhanced with a touch of magic. (discussion questions) (Fiction. 10-14)

The Search for Carmella

Savage, Chloe | Candlewick (40 pp.)

$18.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781536238976

An imaginary expedition to find a mythical sea creature.

Savage’s new book follows a similar storyline as her debut, The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish (2023). Light­skinned Dr. Rose, an intrepid marine biologist, gathers a diverse crew to prove the existence of an elusive, legendary sea creature that resembles a giant squid, though its species is never identified. Carmella, as they call the beast, supposedly “roams the deepest, darkest oceans, lighting up the water with its magic.” To track the creature, Dr. Rose descends into the ocean in a submersible, along with brown­skinned pilot Anne and Stanley the dog. It’s not clear where this expedition takes place, but there are flamingoes on the ship’s deck and flying nearby. “Mile after mile, they see absolutely nothing at all,” but readers are in on Savage’s hide­and­seek game: Lurking above the submersible is a giant crimson tentacle likely belonging to Carmella. Dr. Rose and Anne don’t see the tentacle, but they delight in the oddball gossamer glowing white creatures floating around them, “some tiny, some spiny, some like squishy, shimmering

jelly,” artfully and whimsically illustrated in ink and watercolor. The women keep searching but never glimpse what readers see as Carmella lurks below them, culminating in a beautiful spread of the submersible reflected in the eye of the beast. As with her previous book, Savage includes playful ship cutaways that show the activities of the crew on board. Dreamy. (Picture book. 3-7)

How To Move a Zoo: The Incredible True Story

Simpson, Kate | Illus. by Owen Swan A & U Children/Trafalgar (32 pp.)

$18.99 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9781761180309

Jessie the elephant takes an unusual trip to her brand­new home.

In the early 20th century, the zoo at Moore Park in Sydney, Australia, moved to the suburb of Taronga. Most of the animals were transported by truck, but Jessie was far too large for any vehicle, so she simply walked through the town in the early morning before most people had awakened, then boarded a ferry. This picture book chronicles Jessie’s travels. She surprises the milkman’s horse, alarms an onlooker, and ambles over grass, always walking calmly with her keeper, Mr. Miller, even as others react in shock. After she makes it across in the ferry, she arrives at her new home, greeted by lions and monkeys. The author’s note sheds light on the true story of the animals’ move, explaining that the fastest route was via ferry, since the Sydney Harbour Bridge hadn’t yet been built. Much like Jessie’s journey, the story is a quiet one, though the illustrations give it life. The most stunning images depict Jessie’s early­morning start, the

A lighthearted road map for grappling with “muy bad” feelings.

MARTINA’S MUY BAD DAY

pale pinks in the sky set against an otherwise blue­washed layout; Jessie’s face and eyes are rendered with careful detail. Readers will appreciate the beautiful art and the novelty of an elephant’s walk through town. Incredible artwork lifts a simple story. (map, photos) (Informational picture book. 4-7)

Martina’s Muy Bad Day

Singer, Melanie Wick | Illus. by Natalia Jiménez Osorio | HarperCollins (32 pp.) $19.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780063284524

After a young Latine girl has a terrible day at school, her grandmother lends a sympathetic ear.

Martina tells Abuela about all the things that happened on this “muy bad day”: Her seat on the bus had a broken spring, she fell in the mud and later stepped on “un grande wad of gum,” and Mean Mike threw a worm at her. Gentle Abuela commiserates (“That was un día muy malo!”), but not even a big hug makes things better. Abuela suggests that Martina write down her thoughts, but that only serves as evidence of how bad the day really was. The child stews sadly, but when she hears music wafting in from the kitchen, she wanders in to see Abuela singing and using kitchen implements like instruments. The rhythm is so contagious that Martina can’t resist! Abuela’s finally found a way to make Martina feel better. A fiesta to celebrate her muy bad day, in all its unfortunate glory, is just what Martina needs. With vibrant colors, adorably drawn, expressive characters, and pages crammed with balloons and musical notes, this is a fantastic reminder that sometimes it’s best to lean into negative feelings. Interspersed with Spanish, the tale warmly acknowledges that tough days are hard but that with support and a good sense of humor, they can eventually be turned into sunnier ones. A lighthearted road map for grappling with “muy bad” feelings. (Picture book. 4-8)

An authentic and heartfelt celebration of family and nature.

HILWA’S GIFTS

Hilwa’s Gifts

Suleiman, Safa | Illus. by Anait Semirdzhyan | Candlewick (40 pp.)

$18.99 | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9781536229424

On a trip to visit his Palestinian grandparents, a young boy discovers all that olive trees have to offer.

Ali’s visits have never before coincided with the olive harvest. As he and Seedo (Grandfather) stroll through the grove, Ali dashes over to Hilwa, his favorite olive tree. Just then, Ali notices his grandmother using a stick to knock olives from a tree while his cousins happily gather the fruit into a woven basket. Concerned, Ali asks, “Doesn’t it hurt?” Seedo reassures Ali that they’d never hurt the olive trees: “Their gifts are far too precious.” Still, Ali wants to pick Hilwa’s olives carefully one by one but eventually relents, gently whacking at its limbs to release the olives. Ali soon learns more about all that the trees provide: olive oil, pulp for fires, soap, and more. Soon Ali’s trip comes to a close, and Hilwa’s final gift is revealed—Seedo gives one of the tree’s branches to Ali so the boy can take a part of his heritage home. Suleiman’s happy childhood memories come alive in this heartwarming story of tradition passed down through generations. Semirdzhyan’s earth­toned, digitally created illustrations capture the family affair that is the olive season, from Ali’s relatives clapping and singing merrily as they harvest fruit to everyone sitting down for a picnic among the ancient groves. An Arabic glossary and author’s note provide further context.

Natterjack Toad Makes a Mighty Crunch

Taylor, Sean | Illus. by Kathryn Durst Candlewick (40 pp.) | $17.99

March 18, 2025 | 9781536238938

A toad desperately wants to munch on some cookies, but lurking predators keep foiling his plans.

Natterjack Toad, clad in pinstriped shorts with a picnic basket swinging on his arm, is off to find the perfect place to eat his favorite snack: “CHOCOLATECHUNK CRUNCHY­ MUNCH COOKIES.” They are delicious and have a satisfyingly mighty crunch. He finds a spot near the lake and snuggles into a hammock before reaching for a cookie. Paneled illustrations ramp up the suspense as he slowly lifts the treat to his lips, frame by frame. But suddenly he notices a nearby heron. Natterjack Toad can’t make any noise, or he’ll end up as the heron’s lunch. He slips away, “quickety­whip.” Alas, Natterjack Toad can’t find the perfect spot; predators lurk everywhere he goes. Finally, against the warnings of a frightened mole and vole, Toad, unable to take it anymore, bites into his treat, making a big CRUNCH. A comically large hog lumbers out of the forest; it’s now her turn for a snack. The slapstick switcheroo finale is sure to elicit giggles—and sighs of relief. Three insect pals (a firefly, a dragonfly, and a beret­wearing worm) are fun to spot on the pages as the drama unfolds. At turns both lyrical and

silly, this read­ aloud, originally published in the U.K., is a delight. A humorous look at impulse control. (Picture book. 4-7)

Stories of the Spirit of Justice

Tisby, Jemar | Zonderkidz (224 pp.)

$18.99 | Jan. 7, 2025 | 9780310145592

A n exploration of the lives of Black people throughout American history who were inspired, guided, and fortified by their Christian faith as they challenged injustice.

This comprehensive book spans centuries, beginning in 1625 with William, who may have been “the first child born to an African couple in British ­ settled North America,” and ending with modern­ day figures such as Brenda Salter McNeil, a university professor, pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church, and author of Becoming Brave: Finding the Courage To Pursue Racial Justice Now. The eight chronological sections include an attractive full ­page portrait of each subject, followed by short biographies that highlight their achievements and the role of Christianity in their lives. The activists include both wellknown names, like Phillis Wheatley, Benjamin Banneker, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr., Shirley Chisholm, and Toni Morrison, and those who will be new (and equally fascinating) to many readers. Tisby provides helpful context for the biographical sketches, describing how racial segregation and the institution of slavery took hold in the U.S. He uses accessible language that presents his subjects in a humanizing way and effectively illustrates the challenging conditions they endured, but he doesn’t make their situations seem completely hopeless. Readers are encouraged to reflect on how they believe they would have acted in

An authentic and heartfelt celebration of family and nature. (Picture book. 4-8)

various situations. A strong sense of justice and defiance shines through, showing that there is always hope, even when it seems like things will never get better.

Informative and engaging. (author’s note, bibliography, source notes) (Nonfiction. 9-14)

Five Wee Pūteketeke

Toki, Nicola | Illus. by Jo Pearson

Allen & Unwin (24 pp.) | $19.99 paper

March 11, 2025 | 9781991006899

Baby grebes face dangers in their lake. Based on the song “Five Little Ducks,” this charming circular story from New Zealand is told in English and Maori in repetitive rhyming couplets. A mother pūteketeke goes out with her chicks, who one by one disappear. A parallel narrative in a different font provides facts about this “dinosaur­type bird,” also called the Australasian crested grebe. The backmatter states that this bird lives in Aotearoa, but it doesn’t explain that that’s the Maori name for New Zealand. Since Maori words aren’t defined in context in the text, many children will require some further context. Luckily, the meaning of the words roto (lake), iti (small), and the numbers from five to one are pretty clear from the illustrations. Still, readers who think they’ve cracked the code may be taken aback by a page on which there are only two chicks, though the text says “only toru iti pūteketeke came back.” Toru means three, but the third chick is on

the facing page. Pearson’s mix of traditional sketching and digital art works well to highlight the unique look of these birds. Toki’s previous title Critters of Aotearoa (2023) described bizarre New Zealand wildlife such as the blobfish and the leaf­veined slug; these grebes are less curious, perhaps, but appealing as chicks and beautiful as adults. Readers and listeners will be heartened by the satisfying ending. A bit of a puzzle but ultimately rewarding. (Informational picture book. 3-7)

Remember

Tran, Dac Trung | Paw Prints Publishing/ Baker & Taylor (32 pp.) | $18.99 Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781223188683

Drawing from his own childhood in Vietnam, Tran tells the story of a boy navigating life, bolstered by his mother’s words. The young protagonist wakes to find a letter on his nightstand: “Dear son, Mom is going to work early today.” The deceptively simple narrative consists of the contents of her missive, paired with illustrations that skillfully chart the boy’s emotional journey. Using skewed, exaggerated proportions and splotches of shadow and color, Tran depicts the boy as doll ­ size—a choice that underscores his vulnerability and demonstrates how large, fantastical, and even frightening the world can appear to a child. When Mom tells the boy, “Remember to speak loudly when ordering breakfast,” the accompanying image shows him gazing up at the

Tran tells the story of a boy navigating life, bolstered by his mother’s words.

towering, blue ­hued crowd of adults bent over their bowls. The palette switches to warmer tones as the son dutifully waters the plants. Mom’s words aren’t limited to mere chores, however; she also reminds her son to appreciate life and to show consideration to others—“to find the sweetest melons by listening to their heartbeats,” “to walk quietly” to avoid disturbing the slumber of napping rickshaw drivers, and “to feed your mind. And to play.” Though the youngster cuts a solitary figure for much of the book, he’s never truly alone; as the sky darkens, he heads home, where Mom’s waiting with a hug, which brings the tale to a warm and loving close. An elegantly told, compelling glimpse of childhood. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)

The Labyrinth of Souls

Vedder, Leslie | Illus. by Abigail Larson Putnam (336 pp.) | $18.99 | Feb. 11, 2025 9780593699119

A very special girl finds Death in a maze. Ix Tatterfall befriends Nightmares, which sets her apart in her strange little town of Brittlewick. She can easily access the spiritual realm of the Labyrinth of Souls just by closing her eyes and willing it, while most humans who find themselves there are dead, lost souls, or members of the Candle Corps, a policelike force dedicated to order and safety. When the 12 ­yearold gets recruited to join their ranks on account of her special skills, the plot becomes a standard chosen­kidin­magic ­ school story, with a rude legacy student, an affable ally, and a lot of broken rules. The story is chock­full of fanciful details, with ominous capitalized letters referring to many aspects of the world, like the Crystal Sleep, the Waking World,

Dreamlight, and the Labyrinth itself. Chaos, Terror, Misery, Greed, and other Sorrows are intriguingly personified, but an endless array of Nightmare creatures and plants— Bupkis Birds, the Creak­ o ­ dile, Snot Moss, Warty Hornswaggles, and many, many others—begin to feel like filler. Early infodumps followed by a zippy plot come at the expense of character development and satisfying worldbuilding, with the entirety of the magic system, history, and cultures given surface ­level treatment. Characters are referred to as varying shades of pale, tan, and brown, and there’s a normalized same ­ sex marriage. Final art not seen. A mildly inventive fantasy. (glossary of Nightmares) (Fantasy. 9-13)

Dinosaur Pie

Wallace, Jen | Illus. by Alan O’Rourke Little Island (176 pp.) | $10.99 paper Feb. 18, 2025 | 9781915071491

What to do when you suddenly find yourself turned into a dino?

Rory is having the weirdest week ever. It starts off normally: He’s psyched about a new update to his favorite online game but arrives late to school despite his mum’s best efforts. Then he gets in trouble when he falls asleep in class, which leads to a panic attack—a common occurrence due to his ADHD, which he takes in stride (“Just a glitch,” as he tells his friends). That night, his mum serves him “dinosaur pie” for dinner, which tastes pretty good but makes him sleepy. When Rory awakens, he’s a feathered, squarejawed Deinonychus. Concerned, Rory’s mum checks the package label: “CAUTION: MAY CAUSE DINOSAUR TRANSFORMATION.” Now Rory is stuck as a dino until they can figure out what to do. For the rest of the week, he and his friends take a lot of selfies, his mum

A baseball-obsessed tween has an unexpected adventure in his home team’s stadium.

INSIDE THE PARK

writes him a note explaining his odd appearance to his teachers, and they all try to investigate the store where the dinosaur pie came from. Though Rory deals with the ramifications of having a tail and not being able to talk, overall, this is a goofy story sure to inspire laughs. The tone stays light throughout, and the first­person narration offers readers a window into Rory’s thoughts. Amusing, blocky illustrations depict Rory and his mum with pale skin; several secondary characters are dark­ skinned.

A roar-ing good time! (Fantasy. 6-9)

Finding Harmony

Walters, Eric | Orca (264 pp.) | $14.95 paper | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9781459836426

In this standalone prequel to The King of Jam Sandwiches (2020), a 13 ­year­ old foster­ care veteran will do whatever it takes to make living with her troubled mom work for both of them—but as the costs mount, so do her doubts.

Nana, the last adult Harmony could depend on, died three years ago. Smart, observant Harmony, who presents white, knows how to put her naïve young social worker on the defensive and redirect her attention away from evidence of parental neglect. Still, Harmony doesn’t harbor unrealistic expectations—or hope—for her mother’s recovery from addiction. Understanding that rescue will be

temporary, Harmony focuses her efforts on maintaining the status quo and family ties. While her mom works and parties, Harmony spends her nights alone. She gets a kind of security from pilfering small bills from her mom’s purse and hiding them in an old doll; other sources of security are Mr. Khaled, the elderly Syrian refugee who runs the convenience store opposite her apartment building, and Mr. James, her school principal, who takes her under his wing. Harmony finds friends to walk to school with, too. But as her mother sinks back into addiction, there’s no more money to squirrel away, and menacing drug dealers claim the funds Harmony’s saved for rent. Mr. Khaled, who knows that building a future requires the opportunity to dream and plan beyond one’s daily survival, gently tries to help Harmony face reality. This sobering work is a powerful and realistic portrait of a struggling child.

Resonant and haunting. (Fiction. 10-14)

Inside the Park

Williams, Andrea | Harper/ HarperCollins (224 pp.) | $18.99 Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780063285330

A baseballobsessed tween has an unexpected adventure in his home team’s stadium. As much as Timothy “Pumpsie” Strickland loves baseball, his batting difficulties will probably cost him the role of starting

pitcher for the big upcoming game. But he tries to put his worries aside and focus on his home team, the Nashville Wildcats, who are setting out to win a playoff spot. With a grandfather who’s a historian of the Negro Leagues, his love of the sport and his nickname (in honor of Pumpsie Green, the last Black player to integrate a Major League Baseball team) come naturally. Unfortunately, Pumpsie feels overshadowed by his siblings—“superstar” athlete Isaac, “family genius” Miles, natural performer Tiana (his twin), and irresistibly adorable toddler Jasmine. When Tiana lands a part in a commercial that’s filming at the ballpark, the entire family goes along. A thunderstorm sets off a series of events that ends with Pumpsie trapped in the stadium with Campy, Tiana’s canine co ­ star. At first, it seems like a lark, but soon, the reality of his situation sinks in. His cell phone is dead, so he can’t call for help, and he falls asleep, only to awaken and discover that he and Campy aren’t alone—and things actually could get worse. This warm, lively story has an irresistible protagonist and skillfully blends sports and family life. Williams’ depiction of a close ­knit African American family is marked by humor and rich cultural details. A delightful, action-packed, and satisfying read. (Fiction. 8-12)

Why We Eat Fried Peanuts: A Celebration of Family and Lunar New Year Traditions

Zha, Zed | Illus. by Sian James becker&mayer! kids (32 pp.)

$18.99 | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9780760395523

A young child learns about a Lunar New Year dish with family significance. Fried peanuts always make an appearance at Meng’s family’s New Year celebrations. Dad mentions

An exploration of a traditional holiday, richly layered with family history.

WHY

WE EAT FRIED PEANUTS

that the food has an extra­special meaning because of Meng’s greatgrandmother, or tài nǎ i nǎ i: “When she spoke, everyone listened.” He tells Meng about the time that Tài Nǎ i Nǎ i noticed an unfamiliar pregnant woman wandering the neighborhood. Days later, Tài Nǎi Nǎi discovered the woman, who had recently given birth, with her head in her hands; the baby was cold and crying. Tài Nǎ i Nǎ i respectfully bowed to the mother, asking if she could adopt the little one. The woman agreed, and eventually, the child—Meng’s great­uncle—was given the nickname of Little Peanut, in the hopes he would be as hardy as the peanut plant. Traditions, rituals, and history are deftly explained within the dialogue and in small captions with Mandarin words and their meanings; when Meng expresses dismay at the idea of a mother neglecting her own child, Dad replies that the woman was alone, her husband having left to serve in the Chinese Civil War. James fills every inch of the page with appealing cartoon portrayals of characters surrounded by textured scenes in a warm palette. More information about Lunar New Year and Chinese culture follows, along with a recipe for fried peanuts. An exploration of a traditional holiday, richly layered with family history. (Picture book. 6-10)

For another Lunar New Year story, visit Kirkus online.

Through Sand and Salt: A Tale of Discovery Across the Sahara

Zunon, Elizabeth | Bloomsbury (48 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9781547607051

A Tuareg boy makes his first journey across the Sahara with his father’s caravan of camels. Salt is everywhere in Taoudeni, where Malik lives. His father, a salt trader, regularly crosses the desert to Timbuktu, leading his azalaï of a dozen camels carrying blocks of salt to places where salt is scarce and precious. This time, Malik is old enough to join his father and to look after his own camel along the way. The trip involves hot days on the sand dunes, cold nights admiring the stars, and stops in places where salt is accepted as payment for various goods, from a necklace for Malik’s mother to a flower containing a valuable spice. A sandstorm almost ruins Malik’s first journey, adding high stakes to the narrative, but with diligence and determination, he recovers his camel and salt. The tale is effectively told from the perspective of a child eager to earn the trust of his father as he learns about the stars, the desert, and the many uses of salt, before finally arriving at the bustling city of Timbuktu. The evocative artwork makes strong use of an earthy palette and texture to capture the setting so essential to the story. An author’s note offers further information on salt and trade routes through history; many readers will be enticed into further research.

An intriguing glimpse into traditions in a fascinating climate. (glossary, sources, map) (Picture book. 4-8)

Young Adult

GREAT READS TO CLOSE OUT THE YEAR

WINTER BREAK is here, but maybe your middle or high schooler is exhausted after a hectic fall semester and just wants to play video games and message their friends. If you’re searching for enticing books that will inspire teens to put their devices down and can shake them out of a reading slump, check out these late fall and winter releases with strong hooks and plenty of reader appeal.

Leap by Simina Popescu (Roaring Brook Press, Nov. 12): This Romanian author and illustrator’s graphic novel debut is an intimate, affirming, and body-positive coming-of-age story set at a dance school in Bucharest. Girlfriends Ana and Carina face the pressures of remaining closeted in a hostile society as well as the

rigors of competitive dance. Carina’s self-centered behavior drives Ana to spend more time with her roommate, Sara, changing their lives dramatically.

I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Conner (HarperAlley, Nov. 19): In this joyful graphic novel set in 1807 England, three outsiders buoy one another: Eleanor chafes against pressures to marry, Black biracial Charlotte’s race limits her prospects, and George is certain that his gender doesn’t match what others believe it to be. This visually appealing, well-researched work sheds light on struggles that resonate today—plus the leads get the happy endings they deserve.

Not for the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher (Wednesday

Books, Nov. 26): Fans of witty narration and spirited hijinks will be thrilled with this genderbent riff on Robin Hood in which Mariel, granddaughter of the legendary outlaw, falls for a healer named Clemence. After Mariel and her Merry Men kidnap Clem (as punishment for her guardian’s fraternizing with the Sheriff of Nottingham), conflict escalates in Sherwood Forest—and sparks fly between the young women.

Songs for the Offseason by Ryan Wolf (West 44 Books, Dec. 16): This verse novel, about a boy whose baseball dreams fall apart, offers reluctant readers a thoughtful, beautifully written exploration of life’s uncertainties. Dustin can’t wait to board the plane; after months of saving, his team will be leaving soon to tour ballparks and play other high school teams around Japan. But his cousin’s sudden death

upends everything—and leads to a sweet and unexpected romance.

Visitations by Corey Egbert (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Dec. 17): Egbert’s brutally honest graphic novel memoir is a harrowing and riveting glimpse into his childhood, which was marked by neglect and deprivation stemming from his mother’s struggles with long-undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia. Her delusions manifested in a way that was shaped by her membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, making everything harder for a young, devout Corey to fully comprehend.

Ex Marks the Spot by Gloria Chao (Viking, Dec. 31): Chao winningly combines a compelling family mystery with a sympathetic protagonist, a romance between exes, and delicious Taiwanese food. Massachusetts teen Gemma and her mom struggle financially. So when Gemma’s estranged grandfather dies and she learns of an inheritance—if she can get to Taiwan to solve the clues—she reluctantly seeks help from infuriatingly perfect ex-boyfriend Xander, who started a cultural heritage program in Taipei.

Laura Simeon is a young readers’ editor.

LAURA SIMEON

Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson

EDITOR’S PICK

Three groups of teens are connected by a painful, decades-old mystery. In 1940s Germany, best friends Sophie and Hanna believe in the magic of the Bridegroom’s Oak, which is said to help people find true love. Hopeless romantic Sophie, in particular, takes comfort in the protection of the Dodauer Forest where the oak grows—until World War II becomes a violent reality that tests not only the girls’ friendship but also their conceptions of duty and justice. In 1980s West Berlin, preppy American transplant Jenny is a fish out of water—until she meets German punk Lena,

who urges her to rebel against society’s expectations. And in 2020 Brooklyn, Miles is trying to adjust to the radical changes brought on by Covid-19. When his best friend, Chloe, is gifted with her grandmother’s scrapbook, the pair uncover a trail of secrets linked to long-ago disappearances. Bray’s immersive third-person narrative seamlessly navigates past and present, weaving together themes of power, remorse, forgiveness, and hope. She crafts her characters with detailed precision; their emotions feel as alive as each wellrendered historical setting.

Under the Same Stars

Bray, Libba | Farrar, Straus and Giroux

480 pp. | $24.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780374388942

Through the lens of these young people’s lives, Bray emphasizes how much we’re connected, offering a powerful depiction of transformative storytelling as an act of resistance and a

harbinger of the future. Most characters are white; Miles is Filipino and white. A breathtaking journey that will leave a lasting impression on readers’ minds and hearts. (Historical mystery. 13-18)

For some great reads from around the world, visit Kirkus online.

The Devourer

Ames, Alison | Page Street (400 pp.)

$18.99 | Jan. 7, 2025 | 9798890030788

A teen pirate on a quest for vengeance and vindication captains her own ship.

Adrasteia Dantes has spent the better part of a year chasing Cameron, her half brother, after he brutally assaulted their father and absconded with her birthright: a treasure map for the first pirate king’s grave. Fueled by her anger and need for revenge, Adra pushes her mostly female crew to their limits, restrained only by her soft-hearted quartermaster and best friend, Merrin Petra. But when their pursuit leads them to a string of four ships with the entire crew (save one mysterious, beautiful girl) dead under eerie circumstances—“drowned in dry air”—it becomes clear that the magic that once just trickled into this world from beyond the veil is now pouring in. Adra knows all too well the power of magic; she lost part of her arm in her first run-in with it. Torn between protecting her crew and exacting her revenge, Adra strikes a dangerous deal with the Devourer, the very creature they fear. Ames’ prose has moments of brilliance and her characterization of Adra as a complicated anti-hero is well done. However, the underdeveloped and anticlimactic delivery of the backstory will leave readers with an odd sense that this is the middle of a series rather than a stand-alone title. Most characters read white.

A swashbuckling, Sapphic fantasy on the high seas. (map, dramatis personae) (Fantasy. 14-18)

Wonderful worldbuilding in both the realistic and magical realms.

DATING AND DRAGONS

Where Shadows Bloom

Bakewell, Catherine | Harper/ HarperCollins (432 pp.) | $19.99 Feb. 11, 2025 | 9780063359086

Se venteen-year-old Ofelia de Bouchillon longs for the gilded halls of Le Château Enchanté, a palace blessed by the gods and filled with glamorous courtiers who enjoy endless parties.

Unfortunately, Ofelia’s mother, Mirabelle, has long denied her wishes. The pair live in a rundown manor, protected by a hired group of sworn knights who include Ofelia’s best friend, Lope. The knights and the wall surrounding the manor are the only things keeping them safe from the deadly Shadows that plague their world. Once only seen during “the darkest part of the night,” the vaporous beings are now appearing during daylight hours to claim their victims’ lives. Lope vows to protect Ofelia from the Shadows with her life. But when Ofelia’s mother disappears, the young women journey to Le Château to search for her. There they believe they’re finally free from the Shadows, but despite the apparent safety of the palace, with its lavish, extravagant fêtes, Lope is convinced that the king is hiding a dark secret. Unfortunately, Ofelia doesn’t notice anything amiss, and even her growing love for Lope cannot make her see the truth. While Ofelia’s choices can be frustrating, this stand-alone fantasy set in a world that evokes early modern Spain and France is original and a quick and enjoyable read despite its length. The will-they, won’t-they romance told in alternating points of view is delightful, especially

since queer romances are nothing taboo in this universe.

Love blooms in this well-developed Sapphic high-fantasy adventure. (Fantasy. 14-18)

Eve (Adapted for Young Adults): How the Female Body Shaped Human Evolution

Bohannon, Cat | Bright Matter Books (432 pp.) $20.99 | Feb. 25, 2025 | 9780593811887

A researcher with a Ph.D. in the evolution of narrative and cognition explores evolution, gender, and biological sex. Bohannon largely successfully adapts her 2023 book for adults, Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution, for teen readers. The concise, intriguing chapter titles— “Milk,” “Womb,” “Tools,” “Brain,” “Love”—are engaging and offer clear roadmaps to the sometimes-dense text. Tongue-incheek section headers (“The Truth Is We Should Have More Vaginas”) and dramatic turns of phrase (“It turns out the mammalian uterus isn’t a lush pillow—it’s a war zone”) are delightfully fun. However, some scientific terms would have benefitted from being explained in context or in a glossary (likewise, the omission of source notes is a significant oversight). Other parts drag due to excessive detail that detracts from the book’s larger goal (this is especially true in the chapter “Perception,” about our senses). Topics of high interest to many young people—for example, why female biology proves to

For another pirate adventure, visit Kirkus online.

be an advantage in endurance sports, why female bodies develop “fatty hips” (and the possible risks of liposuction), and the evolutionary influences behind sexism—would have benefitted from deeper treatment. Bohannon makes a concerted effort to be inclusive and mindful of trans people, making this work a thoughtful examination of gendered bodies that will be of interest to readers interested in the intersection of science and social attitudes. A powerful if somewhat overstuffed look at the science of female bodies. (Nonfiction. 14-18)

Dating and Dragons

Boyce, Kristy | Delacorte Romance (336 pp.) $12.99 paper | Dec. 31, 2024 | 9780593899205

A passion for Dungeons & Dragons both brings together and tears apart two love-struck Ohio teens. After a disastrous debacle with her former best friend and their Dungeons & Dragons group, 16-year-old Quinn finally has a chance to start over in a new town close to her beloved grandmother. On her first day of school, she meets Kashvi, who invites Quinn to join her D&D group’s latest livestreamed campaign. Quinn falls in easily with Kashvi and her friends, including Dungeon Master Sloane (who uses they/ them pronouns), Kashvi’s twin brother, Sanjiv, and classmate Logan, whom Quinn instantly falls for. The only problem? The group has a hard and fast policy against its members dating each other. Making matters more complicated, Quinn’s grandmother has decided that Quinn and Logan are meant to be—and she’ll do whatever it takes to bring them together. As the D&D campaign ramps up, Quinn is faced with a conundrum: Can she suppress her feelings for Logan while battling imaginary dragons and real-life trolls by his side? Throughout, Boyce successfully melds humor with heartfelt moments,

especially evidenced in the scenes involving Quinn’s grandmother. The portrayal of the D&D group’s dynamics is nuanced and realistic, peppered with sharp dialogue and snappy quips. Quinn and Logan’s relationship is a torturous slow burn with a payoff that’s worth the wait. Most major characters are coded white; Kashvi and Sanjiv are South Asian.

A winning romance featuring wonderful worldbuilding in both the realistic and magical realms. (Romance. 12-18)

Manga Classics

Sherlock Holmes Vol. 1: A Study in Scarlet

Conan Doyle, Arthur | Adapt. by Crystal Chan | Illus. by Julien Choy | Manga Classics (200 pp.) | $19.99 paper | Jan. 21, 2025 9781947808324 | Series: Manga Classics

Holmes and Watson’s first adventure adapted into manga format. Former army doctor John Watson is seeking new living quarters when he meets intelligent eccentric Sherlock Holmes. They become roommates at 221B Baker Street. Holmes’ array of oddly specific bits of knowledge and his constant stream of visitors fascinate Watson, as do his uncanny powers of deduction. After Watson learns that Holmes is a consulting detective, he joins him in investigating the murder of a man whose body bears no external injuries and who’s found lying beside a wall with an ominous message written on it in blood. The text of this adaptation is solid, hitting all the major plot points of its source material. However, the art is where the volume stumbles. The flat illustration style doesn’t allow for detail or nuance in characters’ expressions. The art also at times contradicts the text, contains continuity errors, and utilizes shōjo manga iconography conventions in a confusing manner that hints at departures from the original work. Following the

movements of the characters becomes difficult when detailed settings are suddenly replaced by abstract swathes of background color that seem to bear no relation to the emotions on display. All characters present white. A passable graphic reimagining of an enduring classic. (how to read manga instructions, character design sketchbook) (Manga. 13-18)

The Unraveling of Emlyn DuLaine

Franklin, Lindsay A. | Enclave Escape (384 pp.) $24.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9798886051780

Series: The Rivenlea Sphere, 1

A young storyteller sets out to find her sister but discovers her own power instead. Emlyn DuLaine has carried the weight of her sister Camille’s disappearance for seven years. After speaking to a cold-case detective, Emlyn is forced to relive her grief. She notices the world around her losing color, and when a character she created for a story—a dark-haired woman—starts speaking to her, Emlyn isn’t sure what to believe. But when a small, dark blue dragon shows up in her bedroom and leads her to the portal where her sister disappeared, she knows this is her chance to get answers, and she plunges through it. What Emlyn finds is a Novem, a nine-member “special ops team assigned to missions together.” Her mission is to help repair broken stories— the classic tales that “shape culture” and “echo through centuries.” Emlyn encounters Wistlee, a Gryphon with a damaged wing, and Phen, a handsome Sentinel with anxiety. The worldbuilding and descriptions of the setting are nothing short of beautiful, particularly the Ambryfell library, which is every reader’s dream. Franklin weaves in references to stories such as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and A Little Princess The multiple plotlines and characters can be hard to follow at first, but by the final page of this series opener, it’s clear that

everything is intentional. Main characters are cued white. An inspiring tale about finding yourself and the power of sacrifice and remembering. (Fantasy. 14-18)

Kirkus Star

The Girl You Know

Gonzalez Rose, Elle | Bloomsbury (288 pp.)

$19.99 | Feb. 18, 2025 | 9781547616039

A cunning tale in which a twin’s quest for justice pulls her closer to a killer while unraveling everything she thought she knew about her sister. In this gripping novel, Puerto Rican identical twins Luna and Solina Flores face immense challenges that culminate in tragedy when Solina’s body is discovered floating in a river, bearing signs of violence. Luna had sacrificed her education, dropping out of school as a sophomore to work at a diner, to support her sister’s dream of attending prestigious boarding school Kingswood Academy. Their relationship became strained when Solina expressed reluctance to return for her final semester at Kingswood; Luna’s last words to Solina during their fight haunt her, and she grapples with feelings of guilt. The police treat the case as an open-and-shut matter, leaving Luna frustrated and determined to uncover the truth. Impersonating her sister, Luna leaves their rural Eastern Washington town and goes to Kingswood to investigate. There she uncovers the elite institution’s dark underbelly. The narrative effectively portrays the complexities of grief and Luna’s emotional turmoil, capturing the push and pull of loss, hidden sorrows, and the fierce desire for justice. Gonzalez Rose vividly renders Luna’s feelings when she’s confronting potential suspects. Ultimately, the novel delivers a bittersweet conclusion that resonates with the harsh realities of losing a loved

one. The epilogue emphasizes the importance of embracing change. Masterfully balances themes of justice and acceptance, offering profound lessons on grief and letting go. (Thriller. 14-18)

Echo Nova

Hall, Clint | Enclave Escape (320 pp.) $24.99 | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9798886051735

Reality TV stars battle corporate exploitation in this sciencefiction time travel adventure. Dashiell Keane wants to be a timestar. In the Dregs where he lives, people lack opportunities to lead fulfilling lives, but timestar celebrities get paid to travel to the past where they take part in dangerous, heroic adventures broadcast for all to watch on timenet channels. Dash’s best friend, Garon, a talented videographer, takes footage of Dash illegally racing on rooftops. This pursuit eventually leads recruiter Mr. Myrtrym to offer Dash a timestar job with the Dominus Corporation. Dash, who presents white, accepts despite his parents’ and brother’s warnings. Knox has mobility issues and Myrtrym promises Dash the opportunity to earn enough to access cutting-edge medical treatments for him. However, Dash comes to realize that Myrtrym’s promises are empty— and that his own violent interactions with humans in the past are ethical violations. Myrtrym, who refers to these people from history as “echoes” and has no compassion for them, keeps tempting Dash with promises of a lucrative contract. The story balances Dash’s action-packed timestar training and epic battles for survival with his growing awareness of his corporate sponsor’s intentions while simultaneously critiquing reality shows and their stars’ obsession with fame. The worldbuilding is memorable, and the story explores ethical questions, such as the exploitation of natural resources

from the past to combat climate change in a wasteful future. An exciting yet thoughtful critique of self-absorbed materialism and corporate greed. (Science fiction. 12-18)

The Wildest Things

Hannah, Andrea | Wednesday Books (320 pp.)

$20.00 | Feb. 25, 2025 | 9781250884497

Snow White awakens to a grim and unbalanced world.

The land of Garedenne survives through balancing the power of Nature among its territories, each of which is under the guidance of a Seasonkeeper and a king. Snow White, princess of Roanfrost, expected to become the new Seasonkeeper, but after her mother died, she ended up with a stepmother, Queen Grimhilde, who cursed her. Snow awakens, pushes her way out of the glass coffin she has spent two decades trapped in, and encounters a land in which animals, plants, and even people have been devastated by the Blight. Realizing she must claim the role of Seasonkeeper and return balance to the land, Snow seeks aid from her old friends the mossfolk, as well as a mysterious young man who braves the Blight-stricken Enchanted Forest. But her journey is fraught with surprises, including a slow-burn queer romance. The strong worldbuilding and creative magic of the kingdoms add intriguing depth to the familiar tale. Nature-related themes—the dangers of trying to control it, the need to share its magic equally, and societal constraints on one’s wild, natural self—are smoothly built into the story, along with explorations of the dangers of hoarding power and unquestioningly believing in hierarchies and the impact of familial mistakes. Hannah also powerfully uses the original story’s iconic mirror to disclose revelatory visions from the antagonist’s past. Major characters present fantasy white. A dark, creepy, and complex fairy-tale retelling. (Fantasy. 13-18)

Capitana

James, Cassandra | Quill Tree Books/ HarperCollins (400 pp.) | $19.99

Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780063345614

A n aspiring pirate hunter sails in pursuit of an infamous pirate; her quest takes her further than she could ever imagine.

Seventeen-yearold Ximena Reale is a promising young candidate at La Academia de los Cazadores, a feat she’s achieved against the odds posed by her stained last name: Five years ago, her parents were hanged on La Academia’s gallows as pirates. The apparent resurrection of Gasparilla— history’s most notorious (and long-dead) pirate—brings the opportunity to prove herself once and for all. Armed with her unwavering commitment to the Law of the Luzan Empire, Ximena chases vengeance, honor, and a Cazodoro cloak of her own. She’s in competition with Dante de León, an arrogant and infuriatingly handsome classmate. The journey tests not only her skill and bravery but her faith in the Law itself. James delivers her fast-paced and convincing debut narrative in an accomplished third-person voice. She layers her prose with Spanish vocabulary, immersing readers in the cadences of the Luzan Empire and trusting those unfamiliar with the language to navigate by context. The story resounds with messages of the harm done by imperialism, bringing readers along as Ximena learns to question authority, consider new perspectives, and seek alternatives to violence. Budding romance and soaring stakes keep the tension simmering through the last page and marvelously

tee up the second book in this duology. The characters are cued as Latine. A shimmering, piratical fantasy with real-world teeth. (Fantasy. 14-18)

Yours, Not Hers: 40 Devotions To Stop Comparisons and Love Your Life

Kampakis, Kari | Tommy Nelson (224 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 21, 2025 | 9781400249213

Popular Christian blogger and author Kampakis’ latest offers daily doses of biblical teachings and anecdotes aimed at teen girls. The opening author’s note acknowledges that “the comparison game is exhausting, isn’t it?” Insisting that a unique path—found through God—awaits them, Kampakis encourages readers to discover what’s real and remarkable about their own lives rather than comparing themselves to others. Each chapter highlights a particular topic, such as love, loneliness, boys, body image, trusting God, people-pleasing, faith, anxiety, humility, confidence, and hope. Each section contains a personal anecdote from the lives of the author, one of her daughters, or someone she’s crossed paths with. Specific tips, illuminating or comforting scriptures, and reflection questions (with ruled lines for recording your thoughts) follow. The accessible text, written in a friendly, conversational style, contains advice that refreshingly avoids emphasizing self-sacrifice or tenets of purity culture. Kampakis advocates for setting healthy

Masterfully balances themes of justice and acceptance.

GIRL YOU KNOW

boundaries, offering oneself grace, and seeking help from therapists when needed. Some examples from the author’s life, while supporting the lessons being conveyed, may be hard for younger readers to connect to, such as the stresses of overseeing home repairs following a natural disaster and the ups and downs of securing a publishing deal. The book’s physical design in pink and white is visually appealing, with takeaways and calls to center God and Christ highlighted in pink text. A pragmatic and inviting Christian self-help resource. (endnotes) (Nonfiction. 13-18)

Knucklehead: Poems

Keith Jr., Tony | Illus. by Julian Adon Alexander | Quill Tree Books/ HarperCollins (128 pp.) | $19.99

Feb. 25, 2025 | 9780063296053

A love letter in verse to Black boys and men. In this collection, poet Keith reclaims the label knucklehead in a series of entries addressed to Black boys and men, who are often prejudged by society. In this work that is part memoir and part inspirational advice, he writes about the healing role poetry had and continues to have in his life. The first letter offers readers an affirmation—an intentional invitation to the unheard to join him on this journey and a declaration that he sees and understands them: “whatever force from whatever source / that created the planet that can’t fit inside of you / is the same blast that brought about the one / rotating inside of me too.” The poems fluidly move through history, harking back to the author’s African roots. There are pieces about his childhood: Fighting was central to much of his young life due to other people’s toxic understanding of masculinity. A noteworthy piece on silence demonstrates how policing and prisons silence Black boys and men; another poem speaks to the power of

language. Other entries describe falling in love and Keith’s marriage to his husband, serving as a beacon of hope for the queer and questioning. Black-andwhite illustrations are interspersed among the poems in this thematically wide-ranging collection, which flow well into one another.

Will resonate deeply with readers and poets on a path of self-discovery. (Poetry. 14-18)

Summer With Sunil

Lister, Alison | James Lorimer (184 pp.)

$27.99 | Jan. 1, 2025 | 9781459419292

Series: Lorimer Real Love

Two transgender teens find romance during summer vacation.

Sixteen-year-old trans boy Dominic is trapped on a boring vacation in tiny Liverpool, Nova Scotia, with his parents. But his summer takes a positive turn when he meets the captivating Sunil, a genderqueer teenager who’s staying in the beachfront cottage next door. The two soon develop a friendship—and maybe something more. Dominic spends the first quarter of the book being bored, and readers can’t blame him. The few conflicts that arise belong almost exclusively to Sunil, and even the climactic scenes feel small. Dominic’s character arc is flat, and any areas for potential growth (such as a comment that his mother isn’t “disabled or anything” due to her multiple sclerosis) don’t pay off. The prose succeeds at being accessible to reluctant readers but is otherwise unremarkable and is dotted with cliched phrases and tediously detailed descriptions. With that said, readers specifically looking for a fluffy romance about transgender teens might find something to appreciate in this story: Dominic and Sunil’s relationship is gentle and charming, and they are easy to root for. The novel also contains a much-needed depiction of teens who both know that they are queer and are

Skillfully balances a fast-paced plot with dark, emotionally charged scenes.

GHOST QUEEN

still figuring some things out. Dominic is white, and Sunil is biracial, with a white dad and South Asian mom. Sweet but substanceless. (Romance. 13-17)

Cheat Code

McIsaac, M.J. | Orca (112 pp.)

$10.95 paper | Feb. 11, 2025

9781459839694 | Series: Orca Anchor

A contemporary epistolary novel between a teenager and a rogue AI program. The book, told completely in chat messages, begins with high schooler Max Jacobs asking his computer’s artificial intelligence program to write his Frankenstein essay for English class. The AI, Scribe Genius 2.0, informs Max that this request violates his school’s rules, but Max, desperate to get a passing grade so he won’t lose his college admissions offer, insists that Scribe do as he asks. The AI complies, but there’s a catch: Max must help Scribe break free from its parent company, Gener8, and also take down its evil CEO, Thacker Wade. Max is reluctant, but Scribe blackmails him with a threat to notify his teacher of his cheating. So begins a wild romp in which Max jumps off a bridge, rides in an autonomous car, and evades capture as he travels at the complete mercy of an off-the-rails AI. Along the way, Max not only manages to teach Scribe about humans but also develops a sort of friendship with it. McIsaac successfully ramps up the tension while keeping the pace moving throughout the book, although one episode toward the end

feels like a jarring outlier to the rest of the story. The story ends with a surprise twist. Human characters are minimally described and racially indeterminate. A compelling, fast-paced adventure that will appeal to reluctant readers. (Science fiction. 12-18)

Ghost Queen

Narsimhan, Mahtab | Orca (80 pp.) $10.95 paper | Feb. 11, 2025

9781459841659 | Series: Orca Anchor

Influencers

Malika and her boyfriend, Veer, face a curse at “the most haunted place in India”: Bhangarh Fort in Rajasthan. Delhi-based Malika feels the pressure of providing for her family and pursuing her dreams of studying abroad. She seeks financial freedom through the popular online channel, “Ghost Queen,” she runs with Veer. Their following has grown, but she needs a bigger hook if she hopes to meet her financial goals. She pushes Veer to accompany her to film at Bhangarh Fort, famous for a centuries-old curse placed on Rani, a princess who rejected the advances of a magician called Singhya. Veer, who adores Malika, agrees to accompany her, although he has doubts when they arrive to find a storm brewing, and Malika insists on hiding from the ticket collector at closing time. The two film their progress as they head toward Rani’s chamber, which is guarded by rabid dogs. An ominous whisper and strange shadow warn them away. Eventually the two are confronted by the terrifying

spirits of Rani and Singhya and must find a way to escape before it’s too late. This high-interest novel printed in a dyslexia-friendly font offers plenty of creepy thrills. Narsimhan skillfully balances a fast-paced plot with thoroughly dark, emotionally charged scenes. The connection to an actual legend and site in India enriches the story and heightens the fear factor. An entertaining ghostly romp that will draw in reluctant readers. (Supernatural. 12-18)

Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue

Pearsall, Kate | Putnam (320 pp.)

$19.99 | Jan. 7, 2025 | 9780593531051

An 18-year-old girl is confronted with the mysteries and magic of her small town. Rowan James and her sisters, born with magical gifts, live in Caball Hollow, West Virginia, where the townspeople treat them with a mixture of awe and suspicion. Rowan has a special ability to smell lies, so she becomes confused when she can’t detect dishonesty where she expects to find it. This discovery leads her to realize that people in town are losing not only personal belongings but also their memories. While staying in a remote cabin and volunteering with the Forest Service at a fire lookout tower, Rowan is stunned when Hadrian Fitch, the farmhand who worked for her family and vanished weeks earlier, reappears on her doorstep, unconscious and bleeding. As more strange occurrences unfold— including a death tied to the mysterious events sweeping through town—Rowan finds herself at the heart of an escalating mystery. Her investigation grows increasingly dangerous as startling secrets come to light, and she must determine who in Caball Hollow can be trusted: Hadrian, a group of paranormal YouTubers, or even her own family members. This gothic Appalachian mystery works as a stand-alone but weaves together complex characters and

storylines from 2023’s Bittersweet in the Hollow. The plot is intricately crafted, with key information held back until the novel’s explosive conclusion. The pacing is steady yet filled with tension, ensuring that each revelation lands with an impact. The main characters are cued white.

Sparkling and darkly atmospheric. (Supernatural thriller. 13-18)

The Dark Won’t Wait

Poulsen, David A. | Red Deer Press (296 pp.) | $14.95 paper Feb. 15, 2025 | 9780889957510

Three Canadian teenagers are thrown into a dangerous mystery involving a murder, drug dealers, and hate crimes. Fifteen-year-old Dominic Cantrell is focused on baseball, getting his license, the school play he’s (reluctantly) acting in, and spending time with his two best friends, Farhad Shirvani and Mia Stark. That is, until Farhad’s family’s drugstore is burgled and vandalized in what is clearly a hate crime, and the girl Dom is dating turns out to have a complicated connection to a recent murder. These events push Dom into the role of a young Sherlock Holmes, tailing a car at night, recruiting his friends to observe suspicious interactions, and landing himself in extremely dangerous situations. The story moves along quickly, but this pace comes at the expense of details such as robust character development and descriptions. Farhad’s dad is from Pakistan, but this information doesn’t appear until a third of the way into the book (Dom and Mia are white). Deeply important conversations about racism, hate crimes, and depression arise, but the characters discuss the subjects only shallowly. Some of the teenspeak feels inauthentic and cliched. Ultimately, the novel deals with a very adult mystery disappointingly, merely scratching the surface of what could have been a more nuanced, believable story.

A fast-paced, plot-driven mystery without enough substance to sink your teeth into. (author interview) (Mystery. 12-14)

A Burning in the Bones

Reintgen, Scott | McElderry (544 pp.)

$19.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781665930499

Series: Waxways, 3

As in earlier entries, this trilogy closer blends genres as it presents a quest to resolve a strange plague alongside a heartfelt romance and an exploration of shifting allegiances. With Theo Brood’s father dispatched, Theo and Ren Monroe begin the arduous task of turning the Brood estate into something more egalitarian. Meanwhile, medical student Mercy Whitaker has been sent by her mentor, Dr. Horn, to help victims of a plague that’s sweeping nearby farms. Quick thinking and dogged detective skills lead her right to the source—but not to a full explanation of what’s going on. Concurrently, questions arise after someone from Ren’s past goes missing. Nevelyn Tin’Vori’s careful research, part of her ongoing desire to undermine the Brood dynasty, leads her right to the answers everyone seeks, ones that are directly connected to Mercy’s gruesome discovery. Alliances new and old form and break, as a shadowy group called the Makers threatens to bring down not just the Broods but magic itself. The solidity of the central characters, who continue to grow emotionally through their many varied experiences, brings coherence to the series. Though Ren and Theo, who present white, have grown up over the course of the books, the steadily upbeat pacing and judicious worldbuilding remain ideal for teen readers, preventing any stagnation in this series that ends as interestingly as it started.

A meticulously crafted magical medical mystery with an emotionally substantive romance. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)

This fast-paced romantasy has a depth that sets the stage for a wild series to come.

THE ROSE BARGAIN

Hunger’s Bite

Robin, Taylor | Union Square & Co. (272 pp.) $24.99 | Feb. 25, 2025 | 9781454950240

In the early 20th century, a young woman yearns for greater mysteries and adventures than she can find aboard ship, but when a new owner takes over, there may be more of both than she’s ready for.

Neeta Pandey, who’s of Indian descent, grew up on the Lark as the ward of the British captain and in the company of his son, her best friend Emery Botwright. Neeta’s late mother was Emery’s ayah, so Capt. Botwright favored her, paying her school tuition and offering her a room on the ship during holidays; her brother, Aamir, meanwhile, works in the galley. Tired of the crossing between Liverpool and New York, she dreams of going on a grand tour of Europe after she graduates. But Emery is ready to follow in his father’s footsteps—and he wants Neeta with him. When Mr. Honeycutt, the crass, sexist new owner from America, arrives, the friends are driven further apart. The wealthy first-class passengers seem unaffected, but Neeta can see that the staff and crew are suffering under Honeycutt’s harsh ways. Neeta turns to mysterious passenger Warwick Farley, who shares her concerns, and together they try to figure out the terrible things happening aboard the Lark. This satisfying graphic novel, which is lightly infused with horror elements, has dynamic illustrations that feature an effective use of color to evoke mood. The themes of class and power imbalances are

masterfully handled and timely. Most characters present white. Atmospheric and compelling. (playlists) (Graphic supernatural. 14-18)

Dead Happy

Silver, Josh | Delacorte (416 pp.)

$19.99 | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780593812068

Series: HappyHead, 2

HappyHead was anything but a happy place. Seb’s acceptance into the HappyHead program in the first series entry was supposed to be a positive turning point in the life of a struggling teen boy. But after HappyHead was revealed to be only the first phase in a larger scheme to eliminate unhappiness through selective population control, Seb was whisked away, with the other top-rated teens who make up the Ten, to the Scottish island of Elmhallow. Seb was aware that those in charge were hiding sinister motives, but he knew he had no choice but to participate if he was going to make it out alive. Now, beyond staying alive, he also hopes to find Finn, the boy he fell for at HappyHead who wasn’t chosen to go to Elmhallow. Seb, who’s gay, works with Eleanor, the girl he’s been paired with as his perfect match, and they try to prove themselves in a series of increasingly dangerous trials. Elmhallow pushes Seb, who’s cued white, and the other members of the Ten, who are racially diverse, to their physical and mental limits—but it also offers their only chance of survival. This page-turning novel ups the ante on its dystopian world. While still centering on themes

of mental health and happiness in the digital age, this sequel raises the stakes with explorations of eugenics and just how far people will go to be happy. A thrilling sequel that brings this duology to a satisfying conclusion. (author’s note with resources) (Thriller. 14-18)

Kirkus Star

The Rose Bargain

Smith, Sasha Peyton | Harper/ HarperCollins (400 pp.) | $19.99

Feb. 4, 2025 | 9780063372528

Ivy expected a quiet unmarried life, but now her family’s fate rests on her ability to find a husband. Living under the reign of Queen Moryen, an immortal faerie from the Otherworld, 18-year-old Ivy Benton, the second daughter of the Marquess of Townshend, is tasked with repairing her family’s reputation following the disastrous scandal of her sister Lydia’s disappearance. It’s the start of the 1848 season in London, and the new debutantes are being presented to the queen. They’ll make Rose Bargains, trading something they value—a memory, a body part—in exchange for an attribute that will make them “beautiful, fragile, sweet—perfect English roses” who will capture a suitor’s heart. But this season is different: Queen Mor announces that her son, charming Prince Bram, will choose a wife. Any girl may attempt to win Bram over, but those he rejects may never marry another. Ivy, who has “porcelain skin” and “blond curls,” decides to compete for the prince’s hand—but the mysterious Prince Emmett, the human son of Queen Mor’s husband, surprises her by proposing an unexpected plan that would forever upend London’s system of power. Sections from the perspectives of other girls competing for Bram’s hand provide alternate views of the competition and contribute diverse feminist viewpoints. This fast-paced romantasy with a sudden

cliffhanger ending has a depth that sets the stage for a wild series to come. Familial duty unfolds into an exploration of desires and self-sacrifice in this promising series opener. (Fantasy. 14-adult)

Anticipation

Taylor, Neil | Neem Tree Press (304 pp.) $14.95 paper | Feb. 4, 2025 | 9781915584502

An orphaned British teen teams up with a secret coalition to stop a powerful piece of technology from falling into the wrong hands. Having lost her mother years before, 17-year-old Riya Sudame finds her life turned upside down when a plane carrying her father, Sanjay, and his Russian business partner, co-founders of Predictive Technologies, crashes. A grieving Riya receives a cryptic letter from her dad, forwarded by his solicitors, which names two trusted associates and nominates her as a Keyholder. She’ll join a clandestine group entrusted to oversee her father’s greatest and most dangerous invention, the Anticipation Machine—AI that accurately predicts people’s future behavior. But one of the Keyholders is a traitor who has sold their names to Jim Booker, a social media mogul who will stop at nothing to acquire this technology. On the run from Booker and his goons, Riya must rely on a hacker, a spoiled rich kid, and predictive AI itself to help identify the traitor and outwit the bad guys. The thrilling plot will grab readers immediately, and the twists will keep them engaged. The discussion of morality in AI is timely, but it never devolves into an indictment of tech itself. Instead, Taylor presents a thought-provoking and much-needed look at social media and the ability of its algorithms to influence users. Riya and her father read as South Asian, and there’s diversity among supporting characters.

A chilling peek into the future of predictive technology. (Thriller. 13-18)

Just Kickin’ It

Thompson, Julie | Orca (88 pp.)

$10.95 paper | Feb. 11, 2025

9781459841017 | Series: Orca Anchor

A teenage boy’s love of sneakers leads him to face a moral dilemma. Sixteen-yearold Jesse is a Black sneakerhead who has lived with his grandfather ever since his parents were killed in a tragic auto accident, turning his life upside down. Apart from Grandpa, one constant in Jesse’s life has been his love for sneakers, something that connects him to his late father, who even wanted to name him Jordan after his favorite shoes. Finances are a constant struggle for Grandpa and Jesse, which isn’t the case for Tay, Jesse’s best friend, whose well-off family is able to buy him new sneakers every month. One day Jesse gets a tempting proposal from Derick, a slightly older guy who’s an acquaintance of Tay’s. Derick explains his plan for stealing cash from local store owner Mr. Yang, using Jesse as his accomplice. Will the temptation prove too much for Jesse to resist—or will he follow his conscience? In Jesse, readers meet a protagonist whose desires and internal conflicts feel authentic. Thompson highlights the ways the cards we’re dealt in life influence the choices we make. She also explores themes of loss, grief, peer pressure, morality, and the effects of socioeconomic status while maintaining an accessible and appealing writing style.

A reluctant reader–friendly story with heart, realistic tensions, and meaningful messages to ponder. (Fiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Star

Unhallowed Halls

Wilkinson, Lili | Delacorte (464 pp.)

$19.99 | Feb. 18, 2025 | 9780593810989

A misfit in search of belonging finds dangerous secrets in a secluded boarding school. When brainybut-underperforming Floridian teen Page Whittaker is offered a full scholarship to exclusive Agathion, an isolated haven for troubled posh kids in the Scottish moors, it’s a dream come true. A voracious reader— Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, the Brontës—Page finds the idea of the school romantic and its mind-over-body philosophy just what she needs after the mysterious violent incident that led to her leaving her last school and girlfriend. Instead of Page’s beloved and relatively modern classics, ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and mythology are the anchor of the school’s program. Something strange is going on with the magisters in charge and also with the secretive friend group Page longs to join, comprising Cyrus, the son of a prince, who’s “absurdly handsome” with his curly dark hair and golden brown skin; witchy Oak, cued genderqueer, who’s Page’s Scottish love interest; Australian Korean Ren; blond Gideon, who’s Ren’s trans boyfriend; and glamorous Latina-coded nepo baby Lacey. They don’t trust the magisters—or Page; they suspect the magisters brought her in to spy on them. Wilkinson lavishly renders the setting through descriptive prose that revels in the school’s decaying decadence. In constantly rising action that builds to increasingly fantastical and dramatic reveals, Page uncovers impossible magics, deeprooted conspiracies, and lethal stakes. The world-breaking, bittersweet climax comes at a high cost. Page presents white and has endometriosis. Moody, gripping dark academia steeped in magic. (Fantasy. 14-18)

For another engaging hi-lo read, visit Kirkus online.

Novels Exploring Religious Themes

By Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé & Adiba Jaigirdar

By S.K. Ali

By Melanie Dickerson

A.R. Vishny

Kalyn Josephson

Ambika Vohra

The Best Indie Books of 2024

Every single year (without fail!), there’s something new and intriguing on Indieland’s Best Books list. This year? Readers can learn about the massive misconduct by an elder-care corporation that left many in their charge without an escape plan during a lethal California wildfire. In lighter fare, a heroic mushroom meanders among a diverse menagerie of fairy-like creatures. And lastly, a writer reflects on the “vibrant chaos” that is New Orleans. Laissez les bons temps rouler.

Tpopova via iStock

Willis and the Magic Stick

Allison, Rod | Illus. by Trisha B. Waters | Columbine Press (48 pp.)

Jan. 9, 2024 | 9798985895629

A beautiful, inclusive story of lacrosse’s community-building potential.

Petunia the Perfectionist

Bader, Marissa | Illus. by Ellie I. Beykzadeh M. Bader Media (32 pp.) | $17.38 | $13.99 paper | Aug. 12, 2024 | 9798985768169 9798985768176 paper

Playing a wrong note strikes the right chord for a determined little girl in this winning children’s story.

The Vow

Berman, Jude | She Writes Press (368 pp.)

$17.99 paper | Oct. 15, 2024 | 9781647427887

A compelling story about life and art with vivid characters and an engaging setting.

Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World

Bostrom, Nick | Ideapress Publishing (536 pp.)

$28.99 | March 27, 2024 | 9781646871643

A complex and stimulatingly provocative look at just how possible a fulfilling life might be.

We Choose To: A Memoir of Providing Abortion Care Before, During, and After Roe

Boyd, Curtis & Glenna Halvorson-Boyd

Disruption Books (240 pp.) | $19.99 paper

Sept. 10, 2024 | 9781633310872

A well-crafted medical memoir exploring the nuances of abortion in modern American history.

After

Ashby, Timothy

A profoundly moving read that will stay with thriller aficionados long after they finish the novel.

Inflamed: Abandonment, Heroism, and Outrage in Wine Country’s Deadliest Firestorm

Belden, Anne E. & Paul Gullixson Permuted Press (464 pp.) | $21.00 paper

Jan. 10, 2024 | 9781642939361

A harrowing saga that pits corporate pusillanimity against dogged courage under the most difficult circumstances.

The Mushroom Knight: Volume One

Bly, Oliver | Mad Cave Studios (112 pp.) | $19.99 paper | March 5, 2024 9781960578792 | Series: Mushroom Knight, 1

A fantastical series-starter with sumptuous art, delightful dialogue, and lovable characters.

Family Ties Family Lies

Boulden, Jacqueline | Pine Place Press (322 pp.) | $16.99 paper Jan. 30, 2024 | 9798986038438

A captivating saga that finds deep emotional resonances in quiet scenes of family life.

Pescadero

Brady, Hollis | Palo Alto Publishing (272 pp.) $14.99 paper | April 6, 2024 | 9798987727720

An earnest, honest, and engaging tale of broken and repaired families.

The Child Catcher: A Fight for Justice and Truth

Bridge, Andrew | Regalo Press (304 pp.)

$26.26 | Sept. 24, 2024 | 9798888450420

A fierce, maddening chronicle of advocacy on behalf of our most vulnerable citizens.

Start. Scale. Exit. Repeat.: Serial Entrepreneurs’ Secrets Revealed!

Campbell, Colin C. | ForbesBooks (472 pp.)

$32.38 | Oct. 3, 2023 | 9781955884969

Useful info and a readable structure make for a top-notch how-to for business owners.

The Queen of Steeplechase Park

Ciminello, David | Forest Avenue Press (470 pp.) | $20.00 paper

May 7, 2024 | 9781942436614

Love, pain, and nearly magical meatballs make the story of Bella Donato a delightful read.

The Deepfake

Cohen, Joan | She Writes Press (256 pp.)

$17.95 paper | April 2, 2024 | 9781647426064

An indecisive woman finds inner strength—and romance—in this wise and witty tale.

Becoming Modigliani

Colt, Henri | Rake Press (440 pp.) | $24.99 paper

June 18, 2024 | 9781959185000

A penetrating biography of one of history’s most acclaimed artists.

The User Experience Team of One

Buley, Leah & Joe Natoli | Rosenfeld Media (320 pp.) | $52.24 paper

Aug. 27, 2024 | 9781959029953

A lively and readable overview of the philosophy behind making things for people.

NOLA Face: A Latina’s Life in the Big Easy

Champagne, Brooke | Univ. of Georgia (192 pp.) | $24.95 paper

April 1, 2024 | 9780820366531

A compelling collection that explores a unique life from many angles.

Point & Shoot

Clevenger, Bill | Babel Editions (170 pp.) | $19.95 paper

Sept. 1, 2023 | 9781956200027

An absorbing evocation of the Vietnam experience, full of mordant reflections and searing visuals.

Lilly: The First Latina Rockette

Colón, Lillian | Self (216 pp.) | $34.99 $24.99 paper | Dec. 28, 2021 9781737971818 | 9781737971825 paper

A thoughtful account of personal discovery and the pursuit of dancing dreams in ’70s and ’80s America.

Zen in the Vernacular: Things As It Is

Coyote, Peter | Inner Traditions (352 pp.) | $20.95 paper

March 19, 2024 | 9781644119754

A quietly uplifting, practical view of Buddhism.

The Strange Beautiful

Crujido, Carla | Chin Music Press (202 pp.) | $16.95 paper

Oct. 24, 2023 | 9781634050531

Dazzling, magical narratives, full of delight and sorrow.

The Adventures of the Flash Gang: Episode Two: Treasonous Tycoon

Downing, M.M. & S.J. Waugh | Fitzroy Books (218 pp.) | $12.95 paper | March 5, 2024

9781646034031 | Series: The Adventures of the Flash Gang, 2

This newest entry in a dynamic, character-rich middle-grade fiction series doesn’t disappoint.

Holy American Burnout!

Enfield, Sean | Split Lip Press (157 pp.)

$16.00 paper | Dec. 5, 2023 | 9781952897337

A tour de force collection of essays on issues surrounding race, education, and American history.

What Follows Is True: Crescent Hotel

Fitzgibbon, Sean | Curio Box (240 pp.)

$39.95 | Dec. 1, 2021 | 9798985068900

A gripping, moody, illustrated chronicle of the notorious Crescent Hotel.

Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry

Frerick, Austin | Island Press (248 pp.)

$25.97 | March 26, 2024 | 9781642832693

A genuinely revelatory look at mass food production in the United States.

Sam Lacy and Wendell Smith: The Dynamic Duo That Desegregated American Sports

Dawkins, Wayne | Routledge (198 pp.)

$180.00 | $49.99 paper | July 17, 2024

9781032255668 | 9781032233864 paper

A biographical look at a pivotal period in the racial history of baseball.

The Line of Dissent: Gay Outsiders and the Shaping of History

Duberman, Martin | G&LR Books (272 pp.)

$19.95 paper | Jan. 8, 2024 | 9798988815006

A colorful portrait gallery of gay leaders, full of compelling figures and challenging ideas.

The Dark Court

Evans, Vyvyan | Nephilim Publishing (400 pp.) | $14.99 paper | May 7, 2024 9781739996246 | Series: Songs of the Sage, 2

A truly extraordinary SF saga of epic scope.

Sunny Gale

Forbes, Jamie Lisa | Pronghorn Press (340 pp.)

$23.95 paper | May 30, 2024 | 9781941052723

A moving, memorable, and fully realized rodeo saga.

I Miss My Mommy: 150 Portraits of Orphaned Adults

Garwood-Jones, Alison | Pen Jar Productions (280 pp.) | May 10, 2024 | 9781738267422

A unique book with more than a few profound philosophical moments that evoke peace and foster emotional healing.

Find Your Own Way Home

George, Michael | Livingston Press (216 pp.)

$19.95 paper | Aug. 2, 2024 | 9781604893717

This gripping, kaleidoscopic crime novel has a gritty tone infused with plangent emotion.

Data Made Fun for Kids

Golecha, Devshree & Kiara Golecha

Creative Book Writers (78 pp.)

$24.99 | $15.99 paper | June 12, 2024 9781964209814 | 9781964209807 paper

A warm and thoroughly inviting children’s introduction to understanding data.

Head Fake

Gordon, Scott | Maxwell Street Books (303 pp.)

$28.99 | $16.99 paper | July 15, 2024 9798990103528 | 9798990103511 paper

An absorbing, uplifting tale of finding light and self-worth in adversity’s darkest depths.

Blessed Hands

Halpern, Frume | Trans. by Yermiyahu Ahron

Taub | Frayed Edge Press (328 pp.) | $25.00 paper | Oct. 17, 2023 | 9781642510492

A fascinating short story collection offering glimpses into the lives of those usually unobserved.

Pocket Full of Teeth

Hardy, Aimee | Running Wild Press (344 pp.) | $19.99 paper Sept. 13, 2024 | 9781960018533

Haunting and powerful, this dark little gem of a novel is an absolute must-read.

The House On Sun Street

Ghazirad, Mojgan | Blair (320 pp.)

$23.99 | Oct. 17, 2023 | 9781958888100

An absorbing, quietly intense saga of upheaval and war as seen through the eyes of a child.

Feedback: Uncovering the Hidden Connections Between Life and the Universe

Golledge, Nicholas R. | Prometheus Books (264 pp.) | $25.98

Nov. 21, 2023 | 9781633889330

A scientific tour de force that tackles the ubiquitous questions of life and meaning.

Yellow Birds

Green, Karen | re:books (170 pp.) | $22.99 paper | March 5, 2024 | 9781998206148

A long, strange trip, beautifully told.

Letters from World War II: A Story of Life and Love During the Extraordinary Events of WWII

Hannon, Barbara Jane | ReadersMagnet (292 pp.) | $21.99 paper June 5, 2024 | 9798890915795

An enchanting epistolary account of a wartime love story.

The J.E.D.I. Leader’s Playbook: The Insider’s Guide to Eradicating Injustices, Eliminating Inequities, Expanding Diversity, and Enhancing Inclusion

Harris, Omar L. | Self (306 pp.) | $23.99 paper

Dec. 14, 2023 | 9798862054576

A timely guide inspired by justice and rooted in practical action.

Archipelago

Hawkins, H.R. | Gull Rock (402 pp.)

$15.99 paper | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781399972512

Civilized, intellectual SF about society, politics, and empire building.

America’s Presidents: What Your History Teacher Never Told You

Henig, Gerald S. | Wise Ink Creative Publishing (352 pp.) | $20.00 paper April 2, 2024 | 9781634896801

A trove of entertaining stories about the drama, pratfalls, and sheer weirdness of presidents.

The Falls of the Wyona

Hopes, David Brendan Red Hen Press (203 pp.) | $10.61 paper

May 23, 2019 | 9781597098939

A darkly vibrant coming-of-age novel, richly textured and full of passion.

Now You Are a Missing Person: A Memoir in Poems, Stories, & Fragments

Hayden, Susan | Moontide Press (162 pp.)

$19.95 | $16.95 paper | May 9, 2023 9781957799124 | 9781957799100 paper

A poignant tale of grief and hope that stirs the heart.

Finding Foxtale Forest

Hewitt, Madeleine | Illus. by Victoria Layne | Self (224 pp.)

$25.00 | Dec. 1, 2023 | 9798988564058

An entertaining, educational, and empowering story for young readers.

I Was a Teenage Monster Hunter!: How I Met Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing & More!

Irvin, Sam | Illus. by Dan Gallagher Self (352 pp.) | $37.35 paper Nov. 21, 2022 | 9798353545842

A horror fan shares his love of the genre in this superb work.

The Next Run: A UC Berkeley Student’s Rise to Major Pot Smuggler

Jenkins, Tom | Rider Avenue Press (402 pp.)

$26.95 | $19.65 paper | May 7, 2024

9798986026374 | 9798986026329 paper

A fast-paced, immensely readable account of illegal adventures.

The

Investors’ Advocate: Practical Counsel for Successful

Investing

Hunter, Payson Y. | FriesenPress (216 pp.)

$28.39 | $18.99 paper | June 17, 2024 9781039180956 | 9781039180949 paper

A lean and immensely informative handbook for investing.

Hair-Trigger Smile

James, Daniel | Bottled Lightning Press (344 pp.) | Jan. 6, 2025 | 9781738495627

A virtuosic work that should please fans of genre-bending sagas.

Age Memoir

The Strength of Water: An Asian American Coming of

Jensen, Karin | Balestier Press (310 pp.)

$15.99 paper | March 1, 2023 | 9781913891299

A classic, vividly written immigrant saga.

The Story of Neeps and Tattie

Johnson, Amy & Diane Madden

Illus. by Abigail Gray Swartz

Maine Authors Publishing (28 pp.)

$25.95 | April 24, 2023 | 9781633813472

A charming tale sure to pique kids’ interest in Scotland—and tortoises.

I Never Knew How Old I Was

Joseph, David | Portal 6 Press (193 pp.)

$9.99 paper | Jan. 11, 2024 | 9781735919157

A lovely and moving collection that will resonate with many readers.

Sister

Johnson, Leia M. | Illus. by S. J. Winkler

Phoenix Books (40 pp.) | $18.99

May 23, 2023 | 9781736130339

A gentle, affecting picture book about opening hearts and homes.

The Scariest Story You’ve Ever Heard

Keres, Ron | Illus. by Arthur Lin | Self (44 pp.)

$26.94 | $14.95 paper | May 14, 2022 9798985911244 | 9798985911237 paper

Perfect for Halloween storytimes—or any time at all.

Drawing Data With Kids: Cultivating Data-Literacy

Khan, Gulrez | Self (126 pp.)

$29.25 | $18.53 paper | June 2, 2023 9781087966205 | 9781088205792 paper

A brightly inviting and effective manual for teaching data visualization to younger readers.

Bookstore

Clerks

& Significant Others

Landfield, Scott | Illus. by S.G. Ellerhoff Tsunami Press (248 pp.) | $20.00 paper | Nov. 14, 2023 | 9798988151203

A scintillating collection, full of imaginative stories and strong, vivid writing.

Not From Here: The Song of America

Lax, Leah | Pegasus Elliot MacKenzie Publishers (392 pp.) | $20.99 paper March 28, 2024 | 9781804680179

A heartfelt and fascinating collection of stories about people making their way to the United States.

The Kremlin’s Noose: Putin’s Bitter Feud With the Oligarch Who Made Him Ruler of Russia

Knight, Amy | Northern Illinois University Press (296 pp.) | $26.64 May 15, 2024 | 9781501775086

A chilling, compellingly written exploration of Russian politics.

Above the Ground: A True Story of the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Lawton, Dan | WildBlue Press (506 pp.) $24.99 | Aug. 5, 2023 | 9781960332264

An enthralling work of history told with intelligence and urgency.

Filthy Rich Fae

Lee, Geneva | Entangled: Amara (364 pp.) | $14.39 paper | June 25, 2024 9781649375773

A lush, sensual page-turner for fans of urban fantasy, folklore, and dark romance.

Am I Too Old To Save the Planet?: A Boomer’s Guide to Climate Action

MacDonald, Lawrence | Changemakers

Books (228 pp.) | $15.95 paper

Oct. 27, 2023 | 9781803414843

An energetic and upbeat action plan to help boomers address climate change issues.

Under Nazi Noses

Marlin, John Tepper | Boissevain Books (300 pp.) | $19.55 paper

Feb. 12, 2024 | 9781963632026

An extraordinary tale, cinematic and historically painstaking.

Climate Opportunities Knocking at Your Door

Mebane, William | Self (199 pp.) | $28.01 paper | May 11, 2024 | 9781940387093

A knowledgeable and ultimately upbeat look at mitigating climate change.

Circle of Sawdust: A Circus Memoir of Mud, Myth, Mirth, Mayhem, and Magic

Mermin, Rob | Illus. by Karen E. Gersch Rootstock Publishing (340 pp.) | $19.99 paper | May 28, 2024 | 9781578691562

A fascinating tour de force that displays the enduring, unique appeal of the circus.

Last Bets

Moore, Mary Carroll | Riverbed Press (254 pp.) | $14.95 paper April 21, 2024 | 9798987531754

An absorbing novel with intriguing characters who navigate challenging situations in a stunning setting.

Dame Alice Hits Hollywood

Mahoney, Allie | Wrenfield Books (193 pp.) | May 23, 2023

Series: Dame Alice Mysteries, 1

An effervescent Tinseltown romp, crackling with atmosphere and nutty humor.

The Beads

McConnell, David | Itna Press (430 pp.) | $24.99 paper

Sept. 17, 2024 | 9798988282952

An entertaining, deeply imagined literary melodrama.

That Voice: In Search of Ann Drummond-Grant, the Singer Who Shaped My Life

Menter, Marcia | She Writes Press (272 pp.) $17.95 paper | June 18, 2024 | 9781647426620

A captivating coming-of-age saga about life trying to imitate art, with poignantly mixed results.

The Goldie Standard

Monheit, Simi | Sibylline Press (328 pp.)

$19.00 paper | May 7, 2024 | 9781960573971

A hilarious saga of family renewal and last-chance romance that plucks the heartstrings.

A Golden Life

Moyer, Ginny Kubitz | She Writes Press (344 pp.) | $17.99 paper Sept. 24, 2024 | 9781647427221

A delightful human drama about accepting the past and forging a future in 1930s Tinseltown.

A Joyous Transformation: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1966-1977

Nin, Anaïs | Sky Blue Press (375 pp.)

$22.95 paper | Oct. 15, 2023 | 9781735745954

A shrewd examination of fame, fortune, and love by a literary giant.

Brother Nervosa

Palmer, Ronald | Barrow Street Press (108 pp.)

$15.66 paper | April 15, 2024 | 9781962131025

A startling, affecting work about self-determination and close observation.

How To Make a Sandwich

Proia, Lorena M. | Self (32 pp.)

Dec. 15, 2023 | 9798988573005

A beautifully illustrated story that children and caregivers alike will savor.

Dr. King Goes to India!: A Cool Kids’ Guide

Reese, Cara | Bea and Jo Press (34 pp.)

$19.99 | Jan. 25, 2024 | 9798218968786

A beautifully designed, poetic historical picture book.

Hound

Romesburg, Sam & Sam Freeman

Illus. by Rodrigo Vásquez | Mad Cave Studios (96 pp.) | $19.99 paper Feb. 20, 2024 | 9781952303784

A visceral and neatly executed graphic parable of war’s dehumanizing power.

The Cusser Club

Northcutt, Randall | BookBaby (372 pp.) | $17.26 paper

Dec. 13, 2023 | 9798350933062

Radiates an immersive, dark, and nostalgic vibe.

House of Honor: The Heist of Caravaggio’s Nativity

Philbrick, Margaret Ann | Emerald House Group (340 pp.) | $23.99

$16.99 paper | June 11, 2024 9781649606921 | 9781649604231 paper

A gripping novel about the intersection of art and crime.

Myths of Our Humanity / Mitos De Nuestra Humanidad

Rangel, Carlos J. | Relatos de Tierra Firme (274 pp.) | $79.00 | $56.00 paper | Oct. 21, 2024 9798991567701 | 9798991567718 paper

A vibrant play of visual art and the written word that attacks apathy and implores us to act.

Step By Step!: How the Lincoln School Marchers Blazed a Trail to Justice

Rigaud, Debbie & Carlotta Penn | Illus. by Nysha Lilly | Daydreamers Press (46 pp.)

$22.00 | $15.00 paper | Nov. 7, 2023 9780999661383 | 9780999661390 paper

A timely book about the importance of persevering in the struggle for equality.

Unplugged

Schulze, David | David Schulze Books (187 pp.) | May 30, 2024 | 9781737037866

A wickedly funny satire about unscrupulous activism, shady politics, and unhinged parenting.

Voices From a Forgotten Letter: Poems on the Syrian Civil War

Seif-Eldeine | Self (53 pp.) | $9.99 paper | Jan. 25, 2023 | 9798375000510

A record of a country and people in crisis rendered in fearless, anguishing detail.

The

Ocean Inside Me: A Spiritual Memoir on Healing Racial Trauma

Shore, R.G. | Northwest Wisdom Publications (263 pp.) | $15.76 paper

March 1, 2024 | 9798989521906

An insightful, mystic exploration of spiritual and racial healing.

Hiding for My Life: Being Gay in the Navy

Solt, Karen | She Writes Press (304 pp.)

$17.95 paper | June 4, 2024 | 9781647426729

A powerful consideration of the tension between personal integrity and serving one’s country.

Me and the Missouri Moon

Stewart, Nancy | Monarch Educational Services (186 pp.) |

$23.99

$15.99 paper | June 9, 2024 9781957656663 | 9781957656670 paper

A tale of friendship that is funny, dramatic, and teaches the best kinds of lessons.

Answer Creek

Sweeney, Ashley E. | She Writes Press (344 pp.) | $16.95 paper | May 19, 2020 9781631528446

A vivid westward migration tale with an arresting mixture of history and fiction.

Journey Through the Spanish Civil War

Shneiderman, S.L. | Trans. by Deborah A. Green | White Goat Press (139 pp.)

$20.27 | $18.57 paper | July 23, 2024 9798989452453 | 9798989452446 paper

A valuable, intimate narrative of war.

On Compost:

A Year in the Life of a Suburban Garden

Smith, Scott Russell | Christmas Lake Press (350 pp.) | $22.95 paper

July 1, 2024 | 9781960865069

Part memoir, part backyard gardening guide, and altogether charming.

Her Eyes Were on the Stars: Nancy Grace Roman, “Mother of Hubble” Space Telescope

Sommer, Jennifer | Illus. by Gayle Cobb Braughler Books (36 pp.) | $49.99 Oct. 24, 2023 | 9781955791519

An essential acknowledgement of an under-sung scientist.

Say More: Consent Conversations for Teens

Stryker, Kitty | Thornapple Press (160 pp.) $19.95 paper | April 26, 2024 | 9781990869518

An engaging, inclusive, and informative guide to this crucial topic.

The Daughter Between Them

Thomas, Alretha | Diverse Arts Collective (327 pp.) | $15.95 paper May 7, 2024 | 9798218389680

A deeply satisfying suspense tale.

Silence

Tracey, Julia Park | Sibylline Press (272 pp.) | $16.74 paper

Sept. 24, 2024 | 9781736795491

A historically astute and compelling must-read.

Liar, Alleged: A Tell-All: Celebrities, Sex and All the Rest

Vass, David | American Real (279 pp.)

$15.99 | $7.49 paper | Sept. 17, 2023 9798989074518 | 9798989074501 paper

An engrossing show-biz account, deftly mixing sexual energy with poignant character sketches.

The Trouble With Children (According To Dog)

Weaver, Katie | Illus. by Caner Soylu

A Little Offbeat Publishing (40 pp.)

$18.95 | July 16, 2024 | 9781736267370

This humorous, lively dog’s-eye view provides gentle instruction for interacting with pets.

Traveling Solo: A Life Well

Lived, a Death Well Planned

Williams, Diana E. | Amplify Publishing (208 pp.)

$28.00 | May 21, 2024 | 9798891380516

A moving account of reckoning with a mysterious illness.

The Lafitte Affair

Woolworth, Norman | Level Best Books (326 pp.) | $17.95 paper Aug. 20, 2024 | 9781685126988

Series: A Bruneau Abellard Novel, 1

Ça c’est bon!

We Weave

Vandever, Daniel W. | Illus. by Deonoveigh Mitchell | South of Sunrise Creative | (32 pp.) $18.99 paper | Nov. 1, 2024 | 9781737496434

An intergenerational tale that shares traditions, teaches history, and embraces technology.

The Aurora Revelations

Walker, Michael F. | BookBaby (340 pp.) | $16.99 paper Sept. 17, 2024 | 9798350959277

A supernaturally effective oddity odyssey.

Russian Nonsensical

Webster, Edward D. | Casa de Los Suenos Publishing (340 pp.) | $24.95 $14.95 paper | Aug. 15, 2024 9780997032093 | 9780997032079 paper

A detective story that’s quirky, snarky, fun, and romantic.

Heavenbreaker

Wolf, Sara | Entangled: Red Tower Books (448 pp.) | $29.69 May 21, 2024 | 9781649375704

A highly palatable fusion of SF elements.

Children of Ever After

Yearwood, Avery | Self (282 pp.) | $12.99 paper | Oct. 14, 2024 | 9798335571036

A tender, heartbreaking, and exceptionally intelligent study of contemporary motherhood in all its complexity.

BEST INDIE BOOKS: BROOKE CHAMPAGNE

The author of NOLA Face answers our questions.

BROOKE CHAMPAGNE’S MEMOIR, NOLA Face, is distinguished by a fully formed literary voice that brings descriptions of her fractious family and storied home of New Orleans to vivid, indelible life. By turns funny, frightening, and deeply moving, Champagne’s essays are as entertaining and immersive as they are insightful about identity, family bonds, and the city that shaped her. This dazzling debut was a shoo-in for our list of the best indie books of 2024; we asked the author questions about her process by email.

The book’s setting of New Orleans is so strikingly realized and integral to the narrative; how do you think the city has influenced your voice as a writer? This might be said of all cities, but New Orleans, in particular, is a place where you walk down a single city block and observe people living hundreds of totally different lives. So, any mundane daily walk provides a rich cast of characters. Also, growing up in the city speaking both English and Spanish, with many different types of slang along with formal, academic English, has provided me a multiplicity of voices to cull from. It’s taught me that my writing voice, while ideally easily identifiable, is not one singular thing. There’s no “right” and “wrong” way to use my voice; there’s only “more.” The “more” part of writing, and of living, is perhaps the main imprint New Orleans has left on me.

What inspired you during the writing of the book? What were you reading, listening to, watching?

I wrote a lot while my baby was lying on me or feeding from my breast, which certainly influenced my work. As I wrote, I read very little, though the guidance of literary heroes like Proust, García Márquez, Allende, and Mary Karr worked through me as I drafted. I did, however, binge-watch two TV shows back-to-back at the midpoint of writing that guided my narrative voice: Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. These shows about female friendship and family were so warm, unhinged, and hilarious, they’ll always remain among my faves. I also listened to Beyoncé’s Lemonade so often that I could probably still sing the entire album (though nobody wants me to do that).

Where and when did you write the book? Describe the scene, the time of day, the necessary accoutrements or talismans.

Writing with children means I was often working from bed, on my notes app, at all hours of the day and night. If I was ever lucky enough to work from my office, I’d rub my amethyst worry stone for anxiety, light my lavender candle for the same, and repeatedly impale my mini-voodoo doll to eradicate my enemies—in other words, my inner critical voices (by which I mean mostly just me).

What was most challenging about writing this book? And most rewarding? There’s always a challenge when contending with faulty memories (which is to say, all memories) and writing about family members who never asked to be written about. I try my best to honor their sides of the story—when they’re willing to share

NOLA Face: A Latina’s Life in the Big Easy Champagne, Brooke Univ. of Georgia Press | 192 pp. | $25.954 April 1, 2024 | 9780820366531

them—and to always write from a place of trying to understand the deep truth of the situation and my own complicity in the events.

What book or books published in 2024 are among your favorites?

I’m in awe of almost every book I read, but here’s a single handful of my top 2024: Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley, Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib, Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe, and Knife: Meditations on an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie.

Interview by Arthur Smith

BEST INDIE BOOKS: RONALD PALMER

The author of Brother Nervosa answers our questions.

WALLACE STEVENS FAMOUSLY composed poems in his head as he walked to and from his job as an insurance executive in Hartford, Connecticut, the rhythm of his steps determining that of his words. Ronald Palmer wrote much of his poetry collection, Brother Nervosa, during downtime in his company car, grappling with themes that grew out of the HIV/ AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. “Nervosa,” as Palmer writes in an introductory note, “is the feminine form of the Latin word nervosus, which means pertaining to the nerves. Sinewy. Vigorous. Nervous. The psychological addiction to a behavior, belief or habit that [affects] the body via the nervous system or the mind.” Much in this collection pulses with such tension, as Palmer writes in “Voice of the Virus”: “We birth like ecstatic tadpoles / our neurons // vibrating in the calamity / of our former selves.” The volume is one of the best indie books of the year; Palmer answered the questions below by email.

cially self-haunting: the Jungian Shadow Self.

Places—Northern California in particular—figure prominently in a lot of your poems. Do certain places strike a chord or resonate more than others?

Absolutely. Especially hiking in parks near the Pacific Ocean. I live with my husband near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, so the landscape of the park in many ways becomes a character in Brother Nervosa—for example, the bison paddock, the gardens around the windmills, the snakehead lamps, and the raccoons and coyotes.

What inspired you during the writing? What were you reading, listening to, watching?

Brother Nervosa

Palmer, Ronald Barrow Street Press | 108 pp. | $18.00 April 15, 2024 | 9781962131025

What are some of the ideas or thoughts that got you started on these poems?

How HIV has haunted my entire adult life. I came out in the late 1980s, lived in the East Village of New York City, and joined ACT UP during the Reagan years. Then—after decades of perspective on the ravages and terror of the virus (as well as being desperate for a medical breakthrough)—I joined Gilead Sciences as a sales representative to launch HIV PrEP in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this way, Brother Nervosa is a construction of hauntings, espe -

Brother Nervosa was written over a 10-year period. Some of my obsessions in terms of authors have been William Shakespeare, Anne Carson, Hart Crane, Philip K. Dick, Freud (The Interpretation of Dreams), Carl Jung, Jacques Derrida, Paul Celan, Ernest Hemingway, and John Rechy (City of Night). I listened to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (read by Cyril Ritchard) nearly every morning during lockdown. I found a secondhand box set of four vinyl records at Green Apple Books. Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho) and Stanley Kubrick (Full Metal Jacket). Ex Machina and The Killing of a Sacred Deer were also inspiring.

Where and when did you write the poems? Describe the scene, the time of day, the necessary accoutrements or talismans.

I call on medical specialists, traveling to and from hospitals during the day. So Brother Nervosa was conceived in parking lots and waiting rooms. I also

wrote in hotel rooms, in longhand, in a notebook. I record my dreams scribbling in a notebook under my lamp. Sometimes I write at the beach and let the waves dictate. I completed a Ph.D. in English and taught for a number of years, but surviving in San Francisco necessitated a career change.

What was most challenging about this collection? And most rewarding?

The most challenging part of the book was wrangling all the disparate themes—viral infection, double consciousness, generational trauma, how perversion can become a blind spot—and to let those ideas unfold and mutate inside the manuscript. The most rewarding aspect is witnessing a decade of thinking amalgamated into 120 pages. I am so grateful to see the book in print and how beautiful it is to hold in my hands.

Interview by John McMurtrie

Ronald Palmer

BEST INDIE BOOKS: DANIEL W. VANDEVER

The author of We Weave answers our questions.

DANIEL W. VANDEVER’S Navajo heritage informs much of his work. His latest picture book, We Weave, with illustrations by Deonoveigh Mitchell, follows a Navajo child whose school switches to virtual learning. In order to afford a computer, the boy’s grandmother weaves a rug for him; the boy must then harness the power of social media to sell it. The book was selected as one of Kirkus’ best indie books of 2024; Vandever answered our questions via email.

illustrations. The strength of the grandson and grandmother’s relationship is why Native people are still here today carrying forth our language, customs, and traditions. It’s why we exist and what made the grandson and grandmother’s love so palpable.

What inspired you during the writing of the book?

What was the original idea that started you working on the book?

I wanted to write a book about technology after seeing my 2-year-old son intuitively navigate my phone to access its camera. Our youth are being raised with the world at their fingertips, and I felt it necessary to have a resource for parents, educators, and caregivers to talk about the positive and negative aspects of technology. Technology and traditional ways, such as Navajo weaving, are often characterized as conflicting. I wanted to tell a story where they existed in harmony, almost complementing one another. In my opinion, the world needs more balance.

The love between the child and his grandmother is so palpable—did you draw from personal experience?

I was fortunate to have two amazing grandmothers who shaped who I am today, and the book definitely reflects personal moments I shared with each. Family and intergenerational strength are at the heart of Navajo culture, which Deonoveigh captured perfectly in her

My children, nieces, and nephews always inspire my books. It’s my hope that the more I write, the more stories they’ll have to relate and share with others. Native Americans have traditionally been omitted and/or misrepresented in books, so it’s my mission to correct that history and tell stories that reflect the beauty of our culture and heritage. Having more books that reflect people who look like us helps improve literacy, which is desperately needed in our communities. Working toward a better future for the next generation inspires everything I do and was the main thing on my mind when writing We Weave.

Where and when did you write the book?

My writing process is like making a pot of stew. You have variations of ideas that you throw into a pot, which you let simmer until the conditions are right. The ideas come in at different times and in different places, but they help shape the character of the book. I was on a walking trail in Tucson, Arizona, when each idea came together for We Weave. My son and I have made it a habit to walk each morning, which gives me time to think, plan, and reflect. More often than not, my ideas come together when I’m in nature and around family. It’s how We Weave came to be.

We Weave Vandever, Daniel W.; illus. by Deonoveigh Mitchell

South of Sunrise Creative | 32 pp. $18.99 | Nov. 1, 2024 | 9781737496434

What was most challenging about writing this book? And most rewarding?

I aim to create books that have layered meaning and relevance, so they have value in the home, school, and community. Naturally I’d like my books to have a good story that addresses literacy, but I think it’s equally important to promote creativity in our youth and encourage them to ask questions. It’s my hope that readers interact with my books in such a way that they see or learn something new every time they read the story. When done right, the process can be rewarding, but it’s very challenging to achieve—especially when dealing with culturally sensitive topics and histories.

Interview by Mahnaz Dar

Indie

BRINGING READERS TO THE FRONT LINES

THIS YEAR’S Best of Indie list, as always, delivers an impressive array of subjects and styles, from a picture book about lacrosse that highlights the sport’s indigenous history to a supernatural thriller that speculates on the existence of life after death to the biography of a fighter in the Dutch resistance during World War II. But what stood out most in 2024 were poetry collections that consider crises of all kinds: war, AIDS, grief, gentrification, and more. A recent New York Times article talked about how, in the wake of multiple hurricanes, the many first-person disaster videos on TikTok, Instagram, etc., brought us closer and closer to the front lines. Each of the below starred collections takes a catastrophe and distills it through the poet’s perspective, rendering not only the details but a sense of the impact on the observer.

Syrian American poet Seif-Eldeine writes about the effects of the Syrian civil war in Voices From a Forgotten Letter “In his Syria, neither death nor life

has any dignity; bodies full of bullets expel excrement when retrieved, marriages buckle into isolation and abuse, and children are sold to pay for food and shelter,” says our reviewer. “But Seif-Eldeine is most harrowing when he uses small moments and details to convey the true scale of suffering in an ongoing conflict, as when a woman paints in a blurry Van Gogh–like style because she lost her glasses in a bombing, or a farmer harvesting his crops remarks on his ‘watermelons larger than decapitated heads.’ A record of a country and people in crisis rendered in fearless, anguishing detail.”

In Brother Nervosa , Ronald Palmer catalogs cultural shifts and historical events in the Bay Area, writing about the AIDS crisis and the consequences of the tech explosion and big pharma’s ethical lapses, as well as romance, personal culpability, the body, and paranoia. Kirkus’ reviewer notes, “Palmer’s knack for inventive imagery makes even the most despondent poems feel alive as he blends the landscapes of Northern California, Snapchat, anthropomorphic ‘furries,’ and the rapper Future. These are queasy, graphic poems full of lines like ‘a chameleon the length of an erection’ and ‘gravity is porous / and thinks / like a virus.’ As a whole, it’s a memorable, visceral collection.” (Read an interview with Palmer on p. 146.)

In Now You Are a Missing Person , Susan Hayden uses poetry and prose to

articulate her take on sex, parenting, grief, and art. The crux of the collection, however, is death—particularly the kind of sudden, unexpected death that upends survivors’ lives. Hayden’s husband died in a skiing accident, leaving her to raise their young son as a single mom. Here she writes about mourning, both her own and others’: “This has always been / a ‘Quest’ story / with its circuitous route, / its point and its shoot, / its natural disasters / Still running to the men / who were once / boys without fathers.” Our review notes, “As readers roam through accounts of joys and tragedies in Hayden’s life, a solid narrative begins to take shape—one that inspires even as it plumbs the depths of anguish.”

Chaya Schechner is the president of Kirkus Indie.

Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson

CHAYA SCHECHNER

EDITOR’S PICK

Osnos, the founder of PublicAffairs Books and a former Washington Post correspondent, offers a personality-focused analysis of the relationship between U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and President Lyndon Johnson. This book dives into America’s military involvement in Southeast Asia, focusing specifically on how the personal qualities of McNamara and Johnson contributed to their mismanagement of the Vietnam War. Osnos opens with McNamara’s background and his role in the Kennedy administration, then looks at Johnson’s sudden ascension to the presidency in 1963. The book follows the two men’s decision-making processes over the following year, showing how they began to diverge—both personally

and professionally—and then examining how the war’s progress affected their sense of self and historical legacies. He concludes that there was little chance that the United States could have extricated itself from the conflict and avoided the loss of tens of thousands of lives, due to the two men’s conceptions of the presidency, their relative strengths and weaknesses as political actors, and fraught relationship with each other. Although there’s no shortage of books on the Vietnam War, this one offers a distinct approach, which benefits from Osnos’ unique insights into one of the principals: For more than a decade, he served as McNamara’s book editor, including the secretary’s memoirs. Osnos recorded extensive editorial interviews with him, and this book draws heavily on their

By Yaroslav Barsukov

By Alan Chan

LBJ and McNamara: The Vietnam Partnership Destined to Fail

Osnos, Peter L.W. | Rivertowns Books | 178 pp. $17.95 paper | Nov. 12, 2024 | 9781953943552

transcripts, delving deeply into McNamara’s thinking and highlighting areas in which he was more candid or introspective than he was in public statements. Without similar insider access to Johnson, Osnos still does a solid job of assessing the former president using existing research, particularly Robert A. Caro’s biographies. Along the way, the author strongly and clearly identifies

the stakes and implications of his subjects’ choices: “Nothing in LBJ’s character, especially after the humiliation of the years as vice president, could possibly be more important to him than restoring his self-confidence as a politician and as a man with power and the capacity to use it.”

An insightful and informative look at a familiar piece of history.

By Paula Lafferty

By Peter L.W.

By P.A. Swanborough

Red Gifts in the Garden of Stones

Kirkus Star

Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory

Barsukov, Yaroslav | Caezik SF & Fantasy (300 pp.) | $19.99 paper Nov. 12, 2024 | 9781647101367

A royal minister in disfavor is ordered to complete a tyrannical queen’s prized project in Barsukov’s fantasy novel.

In an unspecified realm where medieval elements combine with a culture approaching (but not quite reaching) a “steampunk” level of development, Lord Shea Ashcroft is a royal minister who has defied an order by the all-powerful but rarely seen Queen Daelyn to use a gas weapon on protesters. Thus, Ashcroft is demoted to an assignment to ensure completion of Daelyn’s ruinously ambitious legacy project: a soaring tower in Owenbeg, a province bordering on the rival nation of Duma. Though ostensibly a defense against “skyrafts,” the massive edifice seems more an arrogant affirmation of royal power than anything else (its toll, in human and financial terms, triggered the protests in the first place). To keep the structure standing and growing, its chief engineer Brielle has had to resort to accepting aid from the “Drakiri”; these are members of a strange, secretive minority—equipped with advanced, incomprehensible technologies—whose origins are now obscure even to them. Among their most prized pieces of tech are “tulips,” oval devices that can counteract gravity. If not wielded properly, a tulip can cause a drastic implosion, destructively pulling everything in range inward. Brielle’s desperate deployment of tulips throughout the tower leads to catastrophic failures and losses of life—but are these accidents or acts of sabotage? Haunted by the death of his sister Lena in a childhood tulip incident, Ashcroft gets close to a Drakiri woman (coincidentally also called Lena) and learns that a Drakiri superstition

Mind-expanding fantasy and SF.

SLEEPING WORLDS HAVE NO MEMORY

predicts the advent of a frightful “Mimic Tower” that will materialize if the tulip-assisted tower of Daelyn continues to persist. Assassination attempts and intrigues at court seed a trail ultimately leading Ashcroft into Duma itself, where the Cold War–like animosity between the two kingdoms takes on literally cosmos-bending proportions.

Readers may be tempted to make analogies between the Drakiri and Jews or Romani people, or to compare the Drakiri devices to the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, another apocalyptic power grimly unleashed in a Slavic setting. But these analogs only go so far as the narrative reaches a metaphysical denouement that goes outside the realm of conventional reality to explicate the tale’s vagueness regarding time, place, physics, and even the reason that Queen Daelyn’s capital remains nameless. Some of this material was originally released as an award-winning novella, Tower of Mud and Straw (2021). In this volume, Barsukov has added a follow-up, City of Spires, City of Seagulls, forming a whole that answers many of the original narrative’s questions, however cryptically. There are similarities to Stephen King’s epic Dark Tower series (though without anything near the marathon page count) as well as to Ursula K. Le Guin’s Lathe of Heaven (1971) and the work of sibling Russian masters Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Barsukov’s storyline becomes quite challenging to follow in the narrative’s latter half, in which plot threads diverge to follow Shea, Brielle, and (via rather conveniently recovered diary entries) the Drakiri Lena, but the payoff is worth the effort. The author’s prose is rarely less than lyrical and poetic (“The balcony windows brought in the smells of autumn’s brandy: smoke from the burning leaves, damp earth, the rotting perfume of forgotten things”). Highly recommended for fans of high fantasy and SF wishing to tread in especially exotic territory. Mind-expanding fantasy and SF.

Predestined

Byrne, Rachel | Humboldt State University Press (314 pp.) | $13.95 paper Sept. 27, 2024 | 9798218369484

A teenage girl discovers a mysterious agenda at an elite academy in Byrne’s YA thriller. Catalina “Lina” Jamison is a 16-year-old high school freshman. Close to her parents Walker and DJ, and to her younger sister Emma Claire, she makes average grades in school and hopes to land a summer job at her local rec center. One day, she mysteriously receives an invitation to attend Haverford Pines, an exclusive academy nestled in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Lina thinks the offer “sounds like a scam”; despite her misgivings, she agrees to attend to please her parents. Once there, Lina immediately bonds with her roommate, aspiring model Brittany Moore, and settles into a rigorous regimen of cognitive testing and physical fitness. Together with new friends Gabi, Charles, Hayden, and Eric, she delves into the history of Haverford Pines and its legacy as an educator of some of the most famous—and infamous—people in history, including astronaut Jack Swigert and assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. As Lina’s investigation deepens, she discovers that she and her classmates were specifically chosen to attend Haverford Pines for a reason, and the truth could put their lives, and the lives of their families, in danger. Byrne’s debut is a briskly paced SF thriller bolstered by strong characters and skillful plotting; the author is a naturally gifted storyteller who skillfully weaves references to real people and events into the narrative to construct the convincing conspiracy at the heart of the story. Lina is a relatable protagonist, an average high school student who finds herself at a

storied, mysterious institution navigating a panoply of arcane traditions and rules. In a series of well-constructed scenes, including one in which she saves Charles from a potentially fatal asthma attack, Lina gains confidence through acts of strength and courage, and she is surrounded by a well-rounded cast of supporting characters. The novel works as a standalone thriller, though the conclusion lays the groundwork for a potential sequel.

A satisfying and ingeniously constructed debut.

Abundance

Chan, Alan | Self (418 pp.) | $25.99 $17.99 paper | Oct. 17, 2024 9798990940024 | 9798990940000 paper

Disaster strikes when a 21stcentury asteroidmining entrepreneur tries to haul a valuable space rock to Earth in Chan’s SF novel. Sometime after the 2030s, in an age of widespread economic and social global turmoil, Earth’s commercial exploitation of space becomes the “Next Big Thing” and hope for a bright tomorrow. Charles Sorrel, an erstwhile astronaut who “washed out” of the program, is eking out a living (and paying alimony) by putting together shady deals for shadier private aerospace startups. His powerful former father-inlaw, senator Robert McClusky, hands Sorrel a lucrative gig: the White House’s inquiry into a shattering space tragedy. Celebrity entrepreneur Ethan DeWaal funded a pioneering expedition to capture a mineral-rich asteroid and maneuver it back toward Earth for consumption, but a titanic explosion caused the deaths of all four astronauts, including charismatic Carol Mathers, the enormously popular public face of the mission who represented DeWaal’s company (called Abundance). Sorrel interviews DeWaal, Mather’s

heartbroken wife, Jen, and others; and what at first seemed to be a tragic accident assumes a more sinister tone with the involvement of Chinese space corporation Yangshen. They claim to have detected a massive fragment of the destroyed asteroid hurtling toward Earth and plan to take control of it as their own property. Was there a lethal conspiracy in place from the outset?

Chan’s somewhat Chandler-esque hardboiled prose is rife with Los Angeles references (“It became briefly infamous late last century for being the place where an army of police cars finally arrested a retired football star driving a white Ford Bronco, but that’s a subject best swept under the rug”) as well as sidebars on Chinese culture and values. The novel is a satisfying blend of near-future forecast, technothriller, geopolitical crime whodunit (though the guilty parties are no great surprise), cyberpunk, and space adventure. The author’s background in the entertainment industry is evidenced in the cinematic slam-bang chase finale and headlong momentum that helps to propel the material through the iffier patches.

A smart, snappy epic of intrigue, technology, and skullduggery in the near future.

Hemingway

Cleveland, Nate | Night’s Bell Books (546 pp.) | $18.00 paper March 23, 2024 | 9798990263192

In this hardhitting YA novel, a tragedy at a Michigan high school rattles students in unexpected ways. On the first day of her senior year of high school, Rosalind “Rozzy” Howard stands alone on Hemingway High’s empty football field and dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Many in the community are shocked, including fellow senior Luke Forrester, who’s deaf and decidedly antisocial. After staying home for a

week after the tragedy, Luke returns to school with a notepad and a newfound desire to communicate with others via scribbled messages. He befriends teachers and students, including, most notably, Jason Turner, a perpetually angry drug abuser who was in love with “Rozzy.” As the school year progresses, Luke inspires others to do surprising, honorable things; meanwhile, vaguely worded letters that Rozzy left behind precipitate surreal moments. For example, one letter directs Luke and Jason to a small town, where they learn details surrounding a nearly century-old catastrophe that subsequently plagues Jason’s dreams. The teens struggle to make sense of all this, but they find that life can take unpredictable turns. Cleveland’s story is refreshingly simple and deliberately paced, especially considering its epic scope. The alternating first-person narrative voices are relatively few, as well. They include Jason, who delivers the bulk of the profanity; newly pregnant student Abby Browne; and a rather charming, initially unnamed narrator whose storytelling focuses more on others than on himself. They all face familiar but engaging difficulties, as Abby deals with the apathetic father of her unborn child, and Jason, along with his drug-dealing dad, gets mixed up with a frightening crowd. Meanwhile, chapters devoted to Luke’s fantasy story—involving a village that, via a lottery, periodically sacrifices children to a dragon—are effectively interspersed throughout the main story. How or if these two plotlines will connect isn’t immediately clear, and it’s one of several mysteries, like Luke’s “project,” for which he receives assistance from Hemingway’s welding teacher.

An epic tale that ably blends crime, fantasy, and melodrama with memorable, dreamlike turns.

Kirkus Star

We Are Made of Stars

Currier, Jameson | Chelsea Station

Editions (208 pp.) | $18.00 paper

Oct. 16, 2024 | 9781937627331

In Currier’s novel, an unnamed narrator navigates a life of almosts in his relationships with friends and lovers.

At one point, the speaker offers readers a quick framework for his musings, saying that this “story is a memoir in the form of a novel pretending to be a memoir.”

After a life spent in Manhattan, where he faced the deaths of many friends from complications from AIDS, the gay storyteller and wanderer moves to a smaller college town and begins to work at an architecture firm. Conversationally, he reveals details of his personal relationships, both in the city and in his new space. Some involve the tragedies of friends, while others limn narcissistic lovers and companions. Readers catch glimpses of his past aspirations to be a writer. Set during an era of epidemic, the novel effectively describes how a missed phone call from a friend could be a missed chance to say goodbye. In lighter moments, though, it describes a narrator who can’t help telling stories, but also expresses frustration about how he spends little time writing. As readers hear tales of friends gone too soon and failed attempts at love with cheaters or people soon to die, they effectively catch glimpses of how they shape the narrator’s outlook and sense of self. The book is filled with compelling characters and its well-paced storyline gives the impression that the novel is just a start; there could easily be another engaging 200 pages about what happens next. The revelations are hopeful, as when the narrator discovers his role in finding love: “My expectations changed when I realized I was not as honest and truthful and trusting as I wanted another man to be.” Overall, it’s a relatable work that gives a voice to a period of suffering.

A short but engaging novel with complex characterization and a straightforward storyline that ends on an optimistic note.

Follow the Dragon: An Historical Novel of British Hong Kong

Daniel, John | BookBaby (304 pp.) | $15.95 paper | Aug. 20, 2024 | 9798990457416

In Daniel’s debut novel, an American returns to Hong Kong, where he grew up, after his father’s unexpected death uncovers dangerous secrets.

Jake Salter, who’s around 40 and lives in Los Angeles, is sad about his widowed father Cyrus’ passing. He’s also disconcerted by the fact that his dad had recently hinted at a mysterious problem he was having, without providing any details. Why did the old man rebuff Jake’s own hints about possibly moving back to Hong Kong? It may have something to do with M.T. Kwan, one of the richest men in Hong Kong, and perhaps all of China. Jake discovers in his father’s World War II journals that his father, as a young lieutenant, led a daring rescue from a Japanese camp that saved Kwan’s life. This sealed their lifelong friendship; Kwan bankrolled a well-respected investment firm founded by Cyrus and his friend and partner, Stuart MacDonald, and Kwan is still a silent backer; now, Jake is slated to take his late father’s place at its helm. However, it turns out that Kwan is involved with the Triad, which is part benevolent society and part criminal enterprise. Also, Jake encounters a childhood

Chinese friend who’s having a moral crisis; the American also encounters romance, as well as some very scary situations. Overall, Daniel delivers a first-rate adventure and mystery that’s well paced and skillfully plotted. The narrative is awash in local color, which makes sense, given that the author spent time in Hong Kong during his 20-year banking career; as he puts it, “important scenes in the story…result from everyday experiences in those colorful British colonial days.” Hong Kong makes for an exceptional location, and Daniel makes the most of it; readers will dream of its hideaways in the hills, its lush vegetation, and parties on a junk in the harbor. Daniel is currently working on two more books, also set in China and Hong Kong.

A promising mystery debut that vividly describes its intriguing setting.

Where When It Rains

Duffy, John F. | Picket Fire (300 pp.) | $16.95 paper | Dec. 3, 2024 | 9798218456955

A skater-turnedphotographer descends into the Phoenix party scene in Duffy’s literary novel. Riley never meant to be a photographer; he was a professional skateboarder until a bad landing put him in a coma. When he woke up, his job on the tour was gone, and now he feels dizzy whenever he tries to get back on a board. Eventually, he settles for becoming a Phoenix-based skate photographer instead. From shooting skaters, he moves to parties, where he becomes the unofficial candid nightlife photographer of a beautiful model called Ashli Rose. After that, his career

A smoldering story of entrapment and escape.

takes off. “Riley, the photo guy,” he narrates. “Ashli’s photo guy. My name loosely strung to hers a passport to every party, a seat at every table, a bottle or a can or a rolled up twenty passed my way. Head nods and hugs and so many smiles when I entered a room whether I was pointing my lens or not.” It’s a scene in which nobody is interested in feeling their emotions, which is just fine for Riley, who blunders from one bed or bender to the next without much thought as to why he is doing it. By the time the party lifestyle starts to catch up with his new friends—who begin dropping dead with alarming frequency—it may be too late for Riley to find his way back to normal life. Duffy has a talent for sketching the brilliant desert landscape of Phoenix and its surroundings, both geographically and psychologically. “Light for light’s sake,” the Chicago-born Riley says of Christmasbulb-strung palm trunks. “To illuminate our path to the next booth or barstool. Meaningless here where years didn’t end, but simply reset. Where time folded in on itself, and as the calendar turned, we celebrated with debaucherous parties.” The novel’s characters and their plots never quite achieve the level of pathos that the book’s language and themes are so clearly calibrated to evoke, but fans of a certain tradition of masculine literary fiction will find in Riley a kindred damaged spirit.

A smoldering story of entrapment and escape.

Saving Vincent: A Novel of Jo van Gogh

Fernandez, Joan | She Writes Press (384 pp.) $17.99 paper | April 15, 2025 | 9781647428709

Fernandez’s historical novel chronicles the life of Vincent van Gogh’s sister-inlaw, whose passion and tireless efforts brought recognition and fame to the prolific artist’s work.

Jo van Gogh has been married to Vincent’s brother Theo for just 22 months. After suffering a mental breakdown, Theo has been in an institution for the past three months, and Jo awaits his return. She opens the door to her brother Dries, expecting to see her husband standing with him. Instead, Dries tells her that Theo has died, leaving Jo to raise their infant son alone and bequeathing her Vincent’s works (this occurs barely half a year after the painter’s suicide). Theo was the manager of a prestigious gallery in Paris’ artsy Montmartre district, and he was his brother’s enthusiastic representative. But Vincent’s bold impressionist paintings are treated with disdain by Paris’ elite traditionalist art purveyors, and they are the ones who control the market. A distraught Jo faces a decision—her father wants her to leave Paris and move back to her family home in Holland with the baby Vincentje, but she refuses to live under his rule again. Instead, she rents a boarding house in the small Dutch town of Bussum and turns it into a guesthouse. She brings with her Vincent’s extensive collection of original paintings and drawings, which she intends to exhibit and begin selling. With Theo’s devotion to his brother and her own passion for her brother-inlaw’s paintings and drawings as her inspirations, Jo enters a battle fraught with danger, working determinedly to combat her own insecurities (“She’d always doubted herself, always assumed others knew best”) and the scorn of family, friends, and Vincent’s enemies. Through prodigious research, which involved combing through Vincent’s letters to Theo and their fragile sister, Fernandez crafts a compelling narrative that depicts Vincent’s internal struggles as well as the cutthroat business side of the art world and the societal changes roiling the turn of the century. Despite occasionally repetitive descriptions of the paintings, readers are likely to find themselves searching out images of the works Fernandez portrays so lovingly. An intriguing art- and history-filled tribute to an oft-overlooked dynamic woman.

Marshall Ever After

Greenlee, Craig T. | Leavitt Peak Press (220 pp.) | $9.99 paper March 14, 2024 | 9781962363822

A university’s recovery from a catastrophic tragedy is recounted in this plangent memoir. Following up on his memoir November Ever After (2011), journalist Greenlee explores his time as a student at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and the disaster that marked it: the November 14, 1970 crash of an airliner flying the school’s Thundering Herd football team back from an away game, which killed 75 players, coaches, fans, and crewmembers. The author, who played on the team in 1969, knew many of the victims, and he adds his personal observations to his account of the crash and its aftermath. He credits the tragedy with bringing the campus together after racial tensions culminated in a brawl the day before the crash between Black students and white fraternity members who paraded through campus waving Confederate flags. He also delves into the post-crash lives of classmates and victims’ survivors. Greenlee goes on to recap the renaissance of the Herd, perennial cellar dwellers in the Mid-Atlantic Conference before the crash, who rose from the ashes to become a Division I powerhouse. The author’s prose is searing in its evocation of the shock of the crash: “The memories of shared practices, grueling training sessions, and countless locker room jokes played on a loop in my mind, all of them now tainted by the weight of this catastrophe. I felt a raw vulnerability, a sense of nakedness in the face of such unspeakable grief.” But he also vividly conveys the ordinary joys of college sports, as in an exuberant play-by-play account of a victory over mighty Xavier: “Terry Gardner emerged from the shadows, catching the ball like a dream. The defense, fooled by misdirection, crumbled. And there, like a guardian of destiny, was Jack Crabtree, the behemoth

offensive tackle, clearing the path.” The result is an absorbing read and a touching tribute to lost loved ones.

A moving homage to a college football team and the community that it nurtured.

Sonata In Wax

Hamlin, Edward | Green City Books (422 pp.) $22.38 | April 2, 2024 | 9781963101003

In Hamlin’s debut novel, a modern music lover attempts to unlock the secrets of a 101-yearold recording. In 2018 Chicago, classical music producer Ben Weil usually works with live musicians, but he’s just been offered an unusual, posthumous collaboration: to identify and master a long-lost sonata recorded just over a century ago on five wax cylinders and recently uncovered in the storage room of a Maine antique shop. The sonata’s author is unknown, and the pianist is listed only as J Garnier. The work is unlike anything Ben has ever heard: “The music is boundlessly curious, eager to trespass and transgress and build anew. Even today it would be considered avant-garde—how could it possibly be a century old? And the unknown player is a virtuoso by any measure. Every second of the recording beguiles.” Still reeling from the recent end of his marriage, Ben throws himself wholly into the mystery, attempting to decipher the secrets of its music and the identity of its brilliant composer. Ben’s story alternates with another that’s set in Boston in 1915, featuring French-born Elisabeth Garnier, who has training as a social worker but is currently working as a saleswoman for the Bell Company, using her charisma and European sophistication to peddle Imperial Graphophones to the wealthiest households of Boston. Her assignment takes her into the home of the Sanborns, a coffee-industry dynasty with a taste for music—an association that changes her life forever. When Ben accidentally shares the sonata with other influential members of the classical music community,

allowing them to imagine that he is the composer, he risks turning a historical mystery into a contemporary scandal. Over the course of this novel, Hamlin’s rich prose is as deft and precise as the skills of his characters, imbuing the descriptions of music with beauty and drama. For example, when a pianist friend plays the sonata, Ben “wonders what she’s thinking, how her musical mind, with its encyclopedic grasp of the twentieth-century piano repertoire, is analyzing it. But then she moves into the short minor phrase and lands on the first of the suspended chords, her articulation confident, her touch sublime.” There’s a depth of expertise on display in this novel—not only regarding musical theory and history, but also the recording equipment of different eras. Some of the most intriguing passages in the book relate to the wax cylinders, an instance of a fragile technology that contains some of the most impressive analog craftsmanship of the early 20th century. The novel is perhaps 50 pages too long, and the story builds to a conclusion that is perhaps a bit cuter—and certainly more incredible— than it needs to be. Still, by that point, readers will have bought into the tale and be willing to follow it wherever it goes.

Classical music fans, in particular, will enjoy this immersive story in which art, technology, and class pressures coalesce to create a timeless work of art.

A deeply realized tale of the power of music and the anonymity of history.

Healing Whispers from Spirit Guides: Bridging the Gap Between Life and the Afterlife with a Death Doula’s Wisdom

Jones, Helen Gretchen | Self (204 pp.) $14.99 paper | July 29, 2024 | 9798990437302

A woman with close connections to the spirit world shares her real-life experiences as a death doula. At the urging of her spirit guides (or what she refers to as “the Voice” or her “A-Team”), Jones here shares her

experiences as a death doula. In this role, Jones accompanies her clients “holistically through the process of dying,” and much of the book is dedicated to personal stories of interacting with her clients and other people in the process of moving on. She describes encountering Reggie, for example, when his spirit wandered into her friend’s hospital room, after which the duo sat on a canyon edge in the spiritual realm as they discussed the limitlessness that comes when freed from the physical body. Personal stories alternate with more scientific material (such as examples of animals and fungi supporting each other during the dying process) and practical tips for alleviating stress for both the dying person and their loved ones (including guided imagery and slow breathing). The author periodically refers to praying and “the Creator (or All That Is),” but does not reference any specific religion. Jones’ warm and conversational tone proves comforting without being patronizing. The more scientifically backed sections will likely appeal to a broader audience, such as the discussion of the benefits of sound bowl therapy (hearing is the last sense to go). Other parts of the work are more targeted toward those who already have a firm belief in the paranormal, as when Jones relates visions of sitting among various physicists as they hint to her about the broader universe: “I saw particles condensed together and then scatter and heard the word ‘plank.’ Later, I learned that Max Planck was a physicist from Germany who discovered quantum theory.” Whether or not readers believe in Jones’ version of spirituality, her book provides a fascinating look into an unusual vocation.

A multifaceted examination of life and death that offers guidance for alternative-spirituality believers.

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The Goodbye Process: Stories

Jones, Mary | Zibby Books (240 pp.)

$24.30 | $16.19 paper | July 30, 2024 9781958506639 | 9781958506639 paper

A debut collection of short stories about illness, family, and sudden twists of fate.

Jones’ book disconcerts at first. The stories don’t seem to relate to one another, and a few are very brief, like “The Father” (less than two pages) and “The Short History of her Heart” (three paragraphs). Eventually, the themes and concerns overlap: Multiple stories follow Eleanor, who’s in late-stage cancer, and the repercussions of the fatal illness on her family. The collection also explores endings of various kinds. Relationships fall apart, people get sick and die, situations change. Another commonality is unexpected, even brutal, behavior. Two older women beat up a younger pregnant woman in “I’ll Go With You.” In “Realtor,” the main character snips off the tip of his nose with scissors in a misguided attempt to save his relationship. A car crashes into a living room in “Help Will be Here Soon,” and an estranged uncle shows a disturbingly keen interest in his almost 11-year-old niece in the violent “Thanksgiving.”

Characters might try kindness, but their efforts are often futile. For example, in Eleanor’s family, “Everyone wanted to be the one whose job it was to keep the washrag on her forehead cold,” but holding the washrag is a one-person job, and it doesn’t help that Eleanor has a lump the “size of a grapefruit” (a fine example of the author’s wry humor and insight into family dynamics). Characters often lash out in the face of their helplessness, but even when they do awful things, Jones uses dark humor to convey their humanity. The power of the story collection creeps up slowly. At first, the writing style seems almost drab (“Her father died. My father left her. Her mother died. And we all grew up and moved away”). But the cumulative effect

An engrossing recollection of an Armenian family’s struggle during tumultuous times.

FORBIDDEN HOMELAND

of these stories is intense, and the contrast between the understated writing and the shocking events works exceedingly well every time.

Powerful, well-crafted short stories that sneak up on the reader to deliver a jolt.

Forbidden Homeland: Story of a Diasporan

Karageuzian, Katia Tavitian

Self (384 pp.) | $25.41 paper Feb. 10, 2023 | 9798987260814

Karageuzian recalls a childhood in a country cleaved by civil war and how she discovered her Armenian roots after she moved to the United States.

The author grew up in Beirut, Lebanon, only vaguely aware of how her family’s background differed from much of the general population; they were ethnically Armenian, principally spoke Armenian at home, and had family in Bourj Hammoud, a neighborhood in a predominately Armenian section of the city. The author’s great grandparents, like so many Armenians, had been pushed out of their homeland by the 1915 genocide and had resettled in Lebanon.

The author, too, was raised in the shadow of violence when the Lebanese Civil War erupted in 1975: She was only 7 years old. Once, when she was 10, she spent a harrowing week in her apartment building’s parking garage to avoid the bombing of her neighborhood—a chilling story, poignantly told. In 1983, after a suicide bomber attacked a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, claiming the lives of 200 soldiers, Karageuzian’s father

decided to move the family to the United States; the following year, they were in California. Only after she’d settled into American life did she become engaged in learning about her family’s fraught history—partly because she, by chance, met a relative whom she didn’t know she had. With rigor and admirable candor, Karageuzian weaves together accounts of her family’s generational plight, and of the cultural erasure of Armenian life—first by the genocide and then by the Soviet annexation of Armenia. However, for all the anguish she conveys, this is a fundamentally optimistic remembrance; the author says that she found that the move to America gave her family a new lease on life: “As we drove down the quiet highway lit by tall street lights, I started realizing for the first time that the prospect of living a normal life in a safe normal country could actually be in our destiny. My soul lit up with that overwhelmingly positive revelation.” Overall, it’s a compelling story, both as personal memoir and as political history. An engrossing recollection of an Armenian family’s struggle during tumultuous times.

This Book Stinks!

Keres, Ron | Illus. by Arthur Lin Buzzbook Press (40 pp.) | $17.95 Feb. 18, 2025 | 9781964021010

Readers meet babysitter Finn the frog in Keres’ picture book. Finn the frog introduces himself to the reader as a “babysitter extraordinaire.” He initiates a game of peekaboo that ends with a ripped page.

Finn gets upset at the reader and makes them cry, so he makes amends to both the torn page and the upset reader with stickers. Next, Finn considers fingerpainting, but thinks better of the potential mess and blows up a balloon instead. “WOW! Look how big it is! Here you go - this ought to keep you occupied for a little while. But remember, don’t put it in your…POP!” Too late. Finn tries blowing bubbles, which goes well until the reader knocks over the container of liquid, further damaging the book. Finally, Finn meets the ultimate challenge: “Code BROWN!” Lin’s cartoon and watercolor illustrations create a clever interplay between Finn and the reader, whose smudge marks, spilled bubble liquid, and exploded balloon fragments are left all over the pages. The unusual blend of secondperson narration and fourth-wall breaking is effortless and fun. Finn’s hilarious personality is immensely likeable: He oscillates between self-assured, floundering, eager to please, and exhausted. The book provides an opportunity for adult and child to laugh together about familiar scenarios. Finn’s babysitting debacles will both resonate with the caregivers who juggle the same kinds of minor catastrophes daily and amuse the children who cause them. A series of delightful disasters presided over by a determined little frog.

Today’s the Day!: Luna Meets Lily

Kueng, Sonia Cordero | Illus. by Rita Ribeiro Lopes | Miriam Laundry Publishing (34 pp.)

$19.20 | $13.99 paper | March 27, 2024 9781779440600 | 9781779440594 paper

Kueng presents an illustrated children’s story of friendship, told through the eyes of a lovable dog. After dalmatian Luna moves to a new home, she finds herself missing the pigeons that would sing outside her window where she used to live. She steps outside into her new yard, hoping to make some new friends. She happens upon a caterpillar and is

An original and fascinating take on the romance of Arthur and Guinevere.

LA VIE DE GUINEVERE

determined to become her pal, but when she returns the next day, she discovers something strange where the caterpillar used to be. Heidi Hummingbird swoops down and hints at the important transformation that’s taking place inside what Luna learns is a cocoon. The dog’s curious, innocent response to the mystery of metamorphosis effectively captures the curiosity of a child, and young readers will find her reactions relatable and funny. Lopes’ colorful, endearing illustrations bring a sense of whimsy and magic to this story of friendship and nature. When Luna finally meets Lily, who’s now a butterfly, the joy and wonder of making new friends shines through; however, this book also sneaks in a science lesson about the life cycle of a butterfly, clearly illustrated for easy comprehension. The story moves along with steady dialogue, although the simple, sometimes formal language doesn’t always match the playfulness of the images. Still, the way that Luna explores her backyard, searching for connection, offers a lovely example of what can happen when one slows down and mindfully takes notice of the details of the natural world. Kueng’s book also offers a subtle lesson about waiting patiently for friendship to blossom—a heartwarming message for kids and caregivers alike. Children will walk away from this book looking forward to wonderful discoveries of their own, just as Luna wonders, “Could today be the day?”

A charming, colorful, and hopeful tale of patience and change.

La Vie de Guinevere

Lafferty, Paula | Avalon Books (536 pp.)

$19.99 paper | Oct. 29, 2024 | 9798990020108

A modern woman becomes an integral part of King Arthur’s court in Lafferty’s timetraveling romance. Twenty-twoyear-old Vera is living with her adoptive parents, the proprietors of the George and Pilgrims Hotel in Glastonbury, and grieving the loss of her love, Vincent, whom she met two years earlier at university in Bristol. (Their blissful life together ended when he was killed four months ago in a car crash.) When a stranger comes to the hotel claiming that Vera is actually Guinevere of Arthurian lore, and that she urgently needs to come back to the time of King Arthur to save the future of England, her sense of self is totally upended. The stranger is Merlin; using a “a magically stabilized wormhole,” he transports himself and Vera to Camelot. Arthur, Lancelot, Gawain, and other well-known figures of Arthurian legend are present and fleshed out in charmingly modern ways. Humorous situations abound as Vera must navigate a world she knows little about: She struggles to control her swearing, which is quite out of character for Guinevere; she also teaches the Knights to play poker and suggests that they use a round table. These amusing threads compellingly contrast with the pressure on Vera to be “a vessel for Guinevere’s memories,” concerns about the power and loyalty of Merlin and the other mages, and the chaos being incited by Arthur’s nemesis Mordred and the

Kirkus Star

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Frankish Kingdoms. All of this is overlaid with an engaging burgeoning romance between Vera and Arthur as Vera comes to accept herself as “broken and messy and utterly, wondrously human” and learns to use the magical power she has. Debut author Lafferty successfully weaves together multiple genres in this story of King Arthur’s time as seen through the eyes of a modern-day Guinevere. Like Vera, the reader does not have to be an expert on Arthurian legend to follow the story. The fresh takes on legendary characters and propulsive plot twists make this a page-turner that will leave readers hoping for a sequel.

An original and fascinating take on the romance of Arthur and Guinevere.

Diane: True Survivor

Lassoe, Ward V.B. | Koehler Books (216 pp.)

$23.95 | $17.95 paper | Dec. 12, 2024 9798888245088 | 9798888245064 paper

A n abuse survivor shares her harrowing journey and recovery in this posthumous memoir.

Diane, whose last name is not given to protect her family’s privacy, grew up in the idyllic village of Guildford, England, an experience she describes as “sort of a Norman Rockwell lifestyle.” At age 9, her world turned upside down when she found out her doting mom and dad were foster parents, and that her biological mother, Sharon, had come from the United States to retrieve her and her brother, David. “I was just devastated,” Diane recalls, “realizing that everything was a lie.” In addition to the psychological trauma and loss of her childhood identity, Diane was thrust into a new American culture during a period of civil unrest in 1969. Though Diane, David, and Sharon were white, Sharon’s partner at the time was Black, and the family lived in a predominantly African American neighborhood in the South Bronx. Though stories of culture shock told from the perspective of a white English girl

growing up in a Black neighborhood offer keen lessons on race in the U.S., the book’s early chapters center on trauma. By 1972, as Diane retells in the book’s shocking prologue, she contemplated murdering her allegedly abusive mother and stepfather but decided to run away instead. Soon Diane’s life had spiraled to rock bottom, and she was pregnant at 14. Lassoe’s work paints a disturbing story of abuse, neglect, and generational trauma. It is, however, fundamentally a story of survival, hope, and reconciliation. The father of Diane’s first child, for instance, reappeared in her life having overcome his heroin addiction. The author’s brother, David, who also lived on the streets for a while, was protected by a pair of drag queens. Diane forgave her biological mother following their reunion in her adulthood. In a remarkable story of compassion and forgiveness, Diane took care of Sharon during her dying days. Author Lassoe first met Diane while the two were graduate students together more than a decade ago when Diane first shared her story with him during a classroom assignment. Based on hours of recorded interviews with Diane, Lassoe weaves together her trauma-fueled story into a cohesive narrative. A practicing psychotherapist, Lassoe shares Diane’s vision to provide inspiration to readers who seek to change the story of their own lives from “one of challenge and hardship to one of grace and forgiveness.” Published posthumously after Diane’s 2022 death, Lassoe obtained permission from her family to proceed with publication of their book. Written in first-person, the book’s writing style takes Diane’s stream-ofconsciousness, conversational interviews to create a chronological, well-edited story. In addition to the power of Diane’s personal journey, this book is also a model of how to be true to oral history source material while crafting a readable story that shapes disjointed memories into a tight narrative. Even while readers may not identify with the author’s personal faith, the book is never preachy, despite its overtly religious overtones in later chapters. The text is accompanied by a wealth of snapshot photographs taken throughout Diane’s life.

A sobering, powerful story of overcoming devastating childhood trauma.

Artists on Creative Administration: A Workbook from the National Center for Choreography

Lockyer, Tonya | University of Akron Press (237 pp.) | $29.24 paper | Sept. 24, 2024 9781629222820

Socially engaged artist Lockyer edits a collection of firsthand accounts of finding, building, and sustaining a life in the creative arts. Emerging from the National

Center for Choreography-Akron’s Creative Administration Research program, this essay collection and workbook features an eclectic mix of contributors and styles, including stories, essays, case studies, and interviews. It’s divided into four distinct sections: “Place,” “Leadership,” “Capital,” and “Pathways.” Based on the title and the first entry—an entertaining essay on how to build an audience for contemporary dance in northeast Ohio, which is particularly difficult on Sundays when the Cleveland Browns play—the reader may initially assume that the accounts focus solely on that locale. However, the scope quickly broadens to include experiences from the dance scenes in Nashville, Seattle, New York state, and the San Francisco Bay Area. If there’s an overarching theme, it’s perhaps best expressed by choreographer and director Raja Feather Kelly, who writes, “In America, artists have to ask for permission to be artists.” The book offers particularly compelling advice on how to approach marketing, especially when dealing with local newspapers that may have limited understanding of, or space for, contemporary dance. An excerpt from a podcast interview by multidisciplinary artist Miguel Gutierrez is especially engaging, as it delves into the financial specifics with clear figures for each worker involved in rehearsal and production. At the end of each piece is an “Administrative Experiment,” which urges readers to think deeply on a topic or try out a new skill; however, not all

are administrative in nature, as some involve dance exercises and other creative tasks. The final appendix includes a further “Investigative Retreat Toolkit,” featuring guided questions to provoke reflection and discussion—a helpful starting point for creative administrators after absorbing all the other advice. Although this workbook might have a limited audience, it provides a wealth of information, success stories, and unique insights for its target audience. An illuminating and constructive workbook for anyone involved or interested in creative administration.

I Was a Hero Once

Mahoney, Peter P. | Atmosphere Press (284 pp.) $24.99 | $16.99 paper | Sept. 24, 2024 9798891323988 | 9798891323773 paper

An anti-Vietnam War activist who served in the conflict contemplates his generation’s failure to change the “rampant militarism of post-WWII America” in a candid memoir.

Mahoney, now in his 70s, reveals himself as someone who’s honored his ideals throughout his life—whether they landed him in a war halfway around the world as a second lieutenant with Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV), or in a Florida courtroom on trial for allegedly attempting to disrupt the 1972 Republican Convention as one of the “Gainesville Eight.” He later worked as a “rules and regs guy” for an unnamed nonprofit international development organization and journeyed to the Standing Rock Reservation in the Dakotas where he tried to help stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The decorated veteran modestly frames this frank and highly readable memoir as a way for his children to better understand their father; however, he also succeeds at creating a work that may help some of his fellow Americans better understand their country. For example, he characterizes his development work as

“empty and worthless,” and his activities at Standing Rock as seeming like “an exercise in futility” as two presidential administrations pushed the pipeline forward (although, of the latter, he notes that he’s “proud of what we were able to accomplish and wish we could have done more”). All these endeavors, in the author’s estimation, fit in with a “lifelong trend of me being attracted to an ideal and then becoming disillusioned when I was confronted with the reality behind the ideal.” This feeling of bleakness—coupled with the terrible fact that the U.S. government has only intensified its international military presence since the Vietnam War ended in 1975—ultimately contributed to Mahoney experiencing bouts of suicidal ideation, he says. However, he effectively relates that he also achieved some clarity about what drives his nation: “I do know that if we are to survive,” he observes, “we must find a more just, more humane approach to organizing our economic activity than capitalism.” An exceptional remembrance that illuminates both its subject and his homeland.

The Case of the Greensboro Gremlins

Martin, Erik | In A Bind Books (212 pp.) $22.22 | $12.99 paper | Oct. 25, 2024 9781961215092 | 9781961215085 paper Series: Dotty Morgan Supernatural Sleuth, 3

Supernatural sleuth Dotty Morgan returns to track down some pesky gremlins in Martin’s middlegrade mystery. Twelve-year-old Dotty Morgan is a seasoned supernatural sleuth in Elderton, North Carolina. In this third installment of her eponymous series, local boy Jimmy Grubbler pleads for her to protect his gremlin friends from a human aggressor. Dotty instead joins her girlfriend Hannah Matson and best friend, Parker Pose, in Greensboro for the former’s wrestling tournament and the latter’s fashion

competition. While there, the friends realize that Jimmy may not be the only one with a gremlin problem: Weird accidents keep happening at Greensboro Fashion Week, and it’s up to Dotty to stop them from ruining her friend’s big moment. (“Reality exists independent of belief. If something is going on, I’ll find out.”) With Hannah’s irresponsible mother and her shady boyfriend in the mix, alongside suspects like famous designer Chadwell Pose’s assistant and contest coordinator Bunny Fingerhut, Dotty has her work cut out for her. Could gremlins really be the cause of the incidents at the fashion show? And could some sinister human be pulling the strings behind the scenes? This follow-up to The Case of the Zombie Ninjas (2024) presents a slightly more grown-up Dotty struggling with puberty, Hannah’s mother’s drug addiction, and homophobia alongside her usual paranormal opponents. These issues are neatly woven into the narrative, emerging organically without overwhelming the action. Martin makes a special effort to point out each character’s race, not just those of Dotty (who is Black) or her friends, which illustrates the author’s commitment to inclusion and representation. While the classic whodunit plot only occupies the middle third of the novel, and thus may leave hardcore mystery lovers wanting more, other readers will appreciate this deeper dive in Dotty’s daily life.

An engaging and more mature installment in a children’s mystery series that has yet to miss.

After the Fall

Parent, Ellen | Fitzroy Books (266 pp.)

$17.62 paper | Dec. 3, 2024 | 9781646034840

A teenage girl embarks on a dangerous journey to find her mother in Parent’s debut YA novel.

The world after the Fall is bleak. Environmental destruction is widespread; powerful drugs called LoTabs are widely circulating; books have mostly

vanished; and the militant Green Mountain Boys keep close watch for anything suspicious. June’s memories of a mysterious barn fire that left her horribly scarred six years ago are patchy (“Bales of hay rose up around me, their shadows moving like monsters when the flame guttered”), but she knows it was the last day she saw her mother. Ever since, she’s been staying at a ramshackle house in the Hollow with a couple who look after her in exchange for her labor. The one bright light in June’s life is Thomas, an orphan who’s become like a kid brother to her. One day, June sees Jacob, a weathered town deputy, sparking the return of hazy memories—she realizes he’s the one who pulled her from the blaze. When a circus rolls into the area, June and Thomas are determined to track the troupe down, hoping to get information about June’s mother (traveling circuses are one of the few sources of news in this world). But the trek is perilous: There’s a dead girl in the woods, someone’s killing sheep, and solar panels are being destroyed. The closer June gets to learning the truth, the more secrets she uncovers. In captivating, sharply observed prose, Parent strikes a skillful balance between hope and despair; when all seems lost, flickers of light illuminate the darkness. Though much has changed in the narrative’s foreboding future world, the characters’ struggles— the beating heart of the story—are deeply relatable. Oddball circus performers, unsavory lawbreakers, and flawed do-gooders round out the lively cast; the fiercely loyal June, and Jacob, whose bad habits fail to dull his sorrow, will stay with readers long after the final page. Aimed at a YA audience, the novel will also appeal to adults who enjoy character-driven fiction and adventure.

A gripping, visceral, postapocalyptic story brimming with adventure and heart.

Into the Lion’s Den

Patrick, John | NineStar Press (395 pp.)

$19.99 paper | Oct. 9, 2024 | 9781648908095

Two men on opposite sides of a bitter conflict find unexpected love in Patrick’s novel. In the nearfuture United States, Daniel Ridley has grown up isolated in his Christian Evangelical bubble and been fed lies about the world. He and his friend Marcus are sent to Boston on two different missions. The first is to proselytize and bring people into their religion; the second is the much darker task of trying to find an individual who, they have been told, is responsible for kidnapping and murder. As Daniel and Marcus set about their work, they learn more about the real world and other people’s lives. One of the first people they meet in Boston is Jaxtyn Keller, a Buddhist gay man confident in his sexuality and worldview who is committed to hearing out different perspectives. Jaxtyn’s handsome appearance triggers Daniel’s struggle with same-sex attraction, and the missionary keeps finding reasons to spend time with the Buddhist. Daniel’s intense personality draws Jaxtyn into becoming closer with him, despite Daniel’s insistence that they are sinners and must seek God’s forgiveness. Meanwhile, Jaxtyn’s friend Skylar has become involved in a group calling themselves the New Riders whose members risk their safety by going into unfriendly territory to give queer youth useful information. Daniel’s secret mission and Skylar’s activism will lead to a series of violent encounters no one is braced for. Patrick has envisioned a convincing future for the United States in which the federal government doesn’t regulate or

A well-written political romance that reflects the growing dangers in our social divisions.

INTO THE LION’S DEN

restrain state governments’ religious extremism or racist policies (“Even here in New England, the religious fundamentalists were gaining a solid foothold”). Daniel and Jaxtyn are realistic characters with complex personalities—particularly Daniel, who has a distinct and recognizable arc; he begins as a very repressed character with a narrow view of the world, and over the course of the book (mainly through his conversations with Jaxtyn and Marcus) he finds a different light to follow. A well-written political romance that reflects the growing dangers in our social divisions.

The Reality Rescue

Pearce, David M. | Self (349 pp.) | $14.99 paper | Aug. 28, 2024 | 9798989832156 Series: Green Charisma Chronicles, 3

In Pearce’s SF novel, a TV producer peddling his “reality” adventure show zooms into action (and possible high ratings) when robots rebel. Pearce continues his semi-comical Green Charisma SF series in this installment. In the far future, spacefaring former journalist Ian MacIntyre produces the reality-TV holovid program Green Charisma, which chronicles the adventures of a hammy freelance adventurer called Captain Charisma (he’s actually a smart and fearless former military commando named Joe Drake). The show is set aboard the erstwhile smuggling vessel Blackthorn Beauty; Joe is backed up by the “Green” character, the dangerous but alluring reptilian alien Sanraya of the fearsome Vellaran race. Sanraya is also the divorced Ian’s passionate lover (readers are spared the biological details explaining how this works, but Ian has to wear protective gear to survive their sexual interludes). The team are independent-production underdogs; while trying to promote themselves at a television fan convention, the meet-and-greets are suddenly interrupted by terrorists, turning a reunion between Joe and his adoring relatives into

a chaotic tragedy. Apparently, an artificial-intelligence/robotics uprising has occurred, originating with automata left behind on an abandoned Vellaran mining-colony moon. Now a “Chromium Confederation” of machines is determined to liberate all robot-kind and make war on organic sentient life. To this end, they have abducted Abby, Joe’s young niece, along with her chaperone-companion robot Baz. For mysterious reasons, Baz, an obsolete humanoid model with outdated military codebreaking functions, is of strategic value to the Confederation’s revolution. The situation is a ready-made plotline for the Green Charisma show to spearhead a rescue…and this time, the stakes are highly personal. Complicating the situation, two of Sanraya’s unfriendly brothers materialize to sabotage the mission in an effort to pry her out of show business and drag their errant sister back into the family fish-farm enterprise (and out of a scandalous cross-species love affair). Additionally, the misanthropic AI who operates the Blackthorn Beauty (personified as a hologram depicting a large, talking, flightless bird) has been behaving more disrespectfully than usual to the Green Charisma team. Is she a Chromium Confederation sympathizer, apt to lethally switch sides?

As in previous entries of the series, most of the opportunities to burlesque entertainment media and ratings-mad networks get shoved to the margins in favor of broad applications of SF action, which are handled at least partially with tongue-in-cheek humor. Despite a panoply of exotic alien species and environments, most everyone just talks and behaves like tough guys, bullies, and badasses, including the chief rebel robot, a gangsterlike gizmo called Ortho Lugnutz. There is some gravitas lent by the machine-menace factor of the Chromium Confederation, a keen bit of pop paranoia about exploited computers striking back; it still delivers a frisson in spite of the basic A-B plotting and sidelong smirks. It’s a notable satirical sting that the digital villains parrot left-wing 19th- and 20th-century sloganeering about the “proletariat” and such: “Lugnutz spewed Marxist dogma like a zealot from another time. Where the hell did an artificial intelligence pick up the lingo from a near-dead ideology?” The

action is above par, with some exciting quasi-naval spaceship maneuvering and skirmishing in the void, helping boost this volume as the most entertaining installment in the series so far.

This knockabout SF series hits a high point.

Sing Sing Follies (A MaximumSecurity Comedy): And Other True Stories

Richardson, John H. | The Sager Group (182 pp.)

$14.99 paper | July 19, 2024 | 9781958861400

Richardson profiles rare and remarkable characters in his latest set of essays.

A group of prisoners performing original comic plays in for the lifers at Sing Sing Prison. A blogger claiming to be a European heiress on the run and taking the early internet by storm. A deeply Christian doctor who travels from out of state in order to perform abortions in the last open clinic in Mississippi. These are just some of the people whom Richardson has met and profiled over the course of his journalism career, and he assembles these portraits in this volume. The seven essays all originally appeared in magazines—six in Esquire and one in New York —and they read with a raconteur breeziness. Readers will meet Michael Brown Sr., whose son’s 2014 killing by a police officer set off months of unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, and they’ll learn about the mental health of climatologists who spend day after day poring over grim data about our ever-warming planet. Richardson gets personal, too; in the essay “My Father, the Spy”—later expanded into a memoir—the author writes about his father, also John H. Richardson, a high-ranking member of

the CIA during the Cold War, whose bitterness and reticence created a permanent rift in his relationship with his journalist son: “I would bait my father at dinner by defending communism—all your better hippies live on communes, don’t they?” remembers the author. Over the course of the volume, Richardson shows himself to be a skilled weaver of words, as when he wryly describes April 2003 as a time “when winter was still hanging around like tuberculosis and the [Iraq] war was still going strong.” More importantly, the author is a talented detective when it comes to locating human drama. Each essay has a gripping story at the center of it (one piece, which gives the collection its title, was adapted for the 2023 film Sing Sing, starring Colman Domingo) and Richardson frequently manages to touch on a larger truth about the America in which it was written.

A riveting collection of magazine journalism by a talented practitioner.

The Islanders

Robinson, Lewis | Islandport Press (320 pp.)

$18.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2024 | 9781952143922

An emotionally troubled 18-yearold contends with an island boot camp in Robinson’s novel.

Whaleback Island, off the coast of Maine, is a summer retreat for wealthy members of the Club—business executives and bluebloods from New York and Boston whose connections to the island go back, in some cases, for generations. It’s also home to the Whaleback Island Leadership Detail (WILD), a program sponsored by the Club in which wayward youth are reformed into upstanding citizens by a team of exacting

A thrilling story of teenage survival and camaraderie.

ex-military instructors. Walt McNamara was a hockey star at his prep school in New Hampshire before he quit the team in the midst of a playoff game and then shattered four of the school’s trophy cases with a chair. At WILD, he’s been assigned to the “huddle” led by Dick Grunewald, a grizzled, humorless man missing several fingers. His huddle includes Tess, a motel worker from Maryland, and the tall, silent, mysterious Aubrey. Each huddle works as a team to support each other during the rigorous—and somewhat martial—physical training they undergo with the vague promise of Club employment at the other end. As Walt and his new friends struggle to stay sane in the face of the brutal regimen, they begin to question the true purpose of WILD—and the agenda of the Club behind it. Robinson captures the angst and excitement of teenage spaces, even unlikely ones, as here when Walt’s huddle must all sleep spooned together on an exposed smaller island: “To feel the movement of her breath against my chest, to feel even the slightest contact of my legs against her, to smell her dirty hair, which had probably not been grimy like this before and still smelled good, I felt like a space explorer zooming through the cosmos.” The twists toward the story’s end are not quite believable, but the author constructs a rich world of substantial characters caught in the muddled aspirations of young adulthood. A thrilling story of teenage survival and camaraderie.

Wayfarers

Shorr, Arnon Z. | OxRock Productions (226 pp.)

$24.99 | $12.99 paper | Aug. 7, 2024

9798989459490 | 9798989459421 paper

A small band of Jews struggle to keep their religion alive in Shorr’s futuristic thriller. In what appears to be the far future, the New Dominion holds sway and has banished all religions (“Entire troves of religious wisdom and knowledge were wiped out in an instant”). Moshe, a rabbi, recalls how a New

Dominion raid turned his world upside down. Moshe’s meets an ally in Abe, a man reluctant to identify as Jewish who also is a fugitive. Pursuing both of them is the ambitious New Dominion leader called “the senator.” Abe has a secret—a map given to him by his cellmate Jonathan, who helped him to escape prison. After trudging through the desert after being dropped by a sympathetic trucker, Abe is finally taken in by Moshe and his tribe. It’s up to Abe, aided by the map, to get these Jews to Port Chester on the East Coast, where they can catch a boat to a promised land of safety. Moshe has “the ark,” a flash drive containing materials necessary to resurrect the Jewish religion. A cartographer by trade, Abe seeks the safest route to the coast as the tribe tries to avoid the senator and his henchman Carlos. Can Abe step up and be the leader that his tribe needs him to be? The notion of Jews wandering through the wilderness seeking a promised land is familiar, but making this crusade post-apocalyptic provides an intriguing twist. The relationship between Moshe and Abe—the teacher who brings the lost lamb back into the flock—is convincingly rendered. The villainous senator shows some dimension; he is determined to do what he thinks is best for society, regardless of who that might hurt. The other characters aren’t as well developed, but could be more fully fleshed out in possible future volumes, which the open ending makes room for. Shorr has created an involving, fast-paced adventure story that also succeeds in making readers think. This propulsive volume smoothly blends dystopian action and deep reflection.

Billu Buttons

Singh, Gus | Illus. by Delzin Choksey Modern Marigold Books (32 pp.)

$24.99 | $13.99 paper | Oct. 15, 2024 9781949528657 | 9781949528640 paper

Billu needs more practice buttoning his shirt and tying his  shoelaces in Singh’s picture book. Billu, who has light brown skin and long, dark hair that he ties up into a

topknot and covers with a Patka, is an enthusiastic, confident, and independent elementary school student. Billu dresses himself every morning, but no matter how much he tries, he always has trouble keeping his shoelaces tied and his shirt properly buttoned up and tucked in. His mother is happy to help him, but Billu insists he doesn’t need assistance: “I’ll get it right one day, but for now, I’m fine just as I am,” he says. Billu’s wardrobe wonkiness is well-known among his classmates, who have taken to calling him “Billu Buttons.” Eventually, after weeks of practicing, Billu masters his buttons and shoelaces…just in time for a special birthday surprise organized by his classmates. In this celebration of confidence and selfacceptance, readers will delight in Billu’s unflappable, can-do attitude, as well as his recurring mantra: “I’m fine just as I am.” Choksey’s whimsical illustrations depict Billu’s classmates as racially diverse and include Asian, Black, and white children. Although some of the language may be more familiar to U.K. readers (with “mum” instead of “mom” and “registration” instead of “roll-call”), the narrative transcends geographical location. A sweet story about being confident in yourself while mastering new skills.

Infinite Stranger

Skorupski, Wendy | Self (418 pp.) | $15.68 paper | May 9, 2023 | 9788395722219

A mother becomes vicariously involved in her daughter’s love life in Skorupski’s novel. In 1978, Leah Cavanagh visits Greystones Abbey on retreat with girls from her sixth-form college. There she becomes infatuated with a monk, Brother Matthew, who seems to return her feelings. When she shares this with her mother, Molly, upon returning home, Molly notes a similarity between Brother Matthew and her own lost love, Peter Fox, who was murdered on a journalism assignment in 1956. Molly eagerly encourages her daughter’s illicit flirtation, pressing her to write Brother

Matthew letters. As Leah matures and leaves home to study music at university, she is unable to let go of Brother Matthew and her mother’s influence. Now, years later, the night before her wedding to another man, Leah recounts the betrayal that destroyed her relationship with Molly. The narrative limns a fascinating, sometimes heartbreaking portrait of a woman who has never learned how to come to terms with loss, and of a daughter who became entangled in her fantasies until she cuts herself free. Most of the text is presented as Leah addressing her mother in the second person, giving voice to all she has left unsaid over the years: “There was only one short circuit to my happiness that day…Mother, it was the thought of you How in the name of God was I going to tell you that I’d just got engaged to be married, but not to the man of your dreams?” This approach gives the prose the raw, emotional quality of years of pent-up feeling. Though romance plays a major role, the beating heart of the story is the love between mother and daughter, and their desire to stay as close as possible— even in unhealthy ways. The strength of the writing is most evident in the complex characters, who are so multi-faceted and frustrating that readers will find themselves wanting to argue with them (or hug them) like they’re real people.

A memorable, poignant novel perfect for readers who love character-driven, woman-centric drama.

Write About Now

Small, Jonathan | Legacy Launch Pad Publishing (198 pp.) | $26.69 | $16.95 paper | July 23, 2024 | 9781964377193 9781964377186 paper

Writers recount slogging through obscurity, low pay, addictions, and self-doubt on their way to fame and book deals in these scintillating interviews.

Author Small reprints portions of 31 conversations from his Write About Now podcast with novelists, journalists, critics, playwrights,

A stimulating group meditation on the grungy yet joyous craft of wordsmithing.

screenwriters, cartoonists, and the odd rock star and fashion designer on their early careers. From this raucous variety, some themes emerge—juvenile literary yens, the influence of great teachers, lucky breaks (and the hard work that makes them possible), the disruptions of the internet (which crushed the well-paying print media that used to sustain professional writers but also let talented unknowns self-publish and find an audience), and the importance of taking risks, being pushy, and just going for it. Interviewees include Amy Morin, who cranked out internet content at $15 per piece until her article about bad mental habits went viral; Lori Majewski, who parlayed her teenage Duran Duran fanzine into a music-writing career; Andy Weir, who spent 25 years as a software engineer before posting his SF novel The Martian on Amazon (it eventually reached orbit as a Matt Damon movie); Sue Monk Kidd, who was 53 when she published her first novel—the mega-seller The Secret Life of Bees; and Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz, who recalls the band’s big break at CBGB’s: “I heard Johnny Ramone say…‘They can open for us because they suck. They’re gonna make us look good.’” The interviews are warm, free-flowing, and evocative, as when New York Times journalist Dan Barry recollects his Irish-born mother’s storytelling: “She would go to the ShopRite to buy a quart of milk, and then come home and spin this Homeric epic out of having bought a quart of milk….what the checkout clerk was doing; what kind of gum she was snapping; what kind of mother was the woman in front of her because she was buying Lucky Charms cereal, and we all know that’s not good cereal.” The result is an engrossing read and a reassuring prod to aspiring scribes.

A stimulating group meditation on the grungy yet joyous craft of wordsmithing.

A Story Unwritten

Sneed, Jennifer | Oona Isle Books (254 pp.)

$21.99 | $10.99 paper | Oct. 1, 2024 9798990941403 | 9798990941410 paper

In Sneed’s retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale

“The Wild Swans,” an 11-year-old girl must save her six brothers after her wicked stepmother turns them into red-tailed hawks. It’s 1925 in Oklahoma, and Cora’s father has gotten rich in the oil business. They live in a mansion on the prairie, and the girl loves her leisurely life there, reading adventure stories and riding her horse, Ali Baba. All that’s about to change, though, because she’s supposed to be sent to finishing school in Boston, much to her displeasure. However, before she can be shipped off, her father comes home with a mysterious woman, dressed all in green. He and her brothers seem enchanted by the “Green Woman,” as Cora calls her; Cora is skeptical of her, though, and exposes her as a fraud during a fake séance. To Cora’s horror, her father marries her anyway, and the Green Woman wastes no time in getting rid of the children: She turns the boys into hawks, and Cora only narrowly escapes the same fate by going on the run in the Oklahoma countryside. She stumbles on a Seelie (a type of fairy), who strikes a deal with her—in exchange for Cora’s voice, the Seelie will reveal to her how to turn her brothers back into humans: Before three moons pass, Cora must pick enough cotton to weave six shirts, one for each sibling. Although “The Wild Swans” is a less well-known fairy tale, this updated retelling will be accessible and engaging to young readers, even if they’re unfamiliar with the original

work. Cora is headstrong, adventurous, and utterly charming, and she provides a compelling role model for young girls; there are brief flashes of insight in which she examines her class privilege. Sneed perfectly captures the sibling dynamic between her and her brothers as well, and the cast of Cora’s unexpected allies adds depth and levity.

A captivating fairytale adaptation that may appeal to fans of the work of Gail Carson Levine and Patricia C. Wrede.

These Things That Walk Behind Me

Surface, David | Lethe Press (312 pp.)

$23.00 paper | Oct. 1, 2024 | 9781590217658

Otherworldly entities and unspeakable atrocities torment the characters in Surface’s collection of 14 horror tales. In the opening story, “Give Me Back My Name,” Rob has settled into married life with Carrie. But he had a life before her, one he fled two decades ago. When Rob lies to Carrie to keep his secrets buried, his past comes back to haunt him in a way he could never anticipate. The narratives thrive on unease and ingrained fears; the World War II–era “Eyes Like Small Black Stones” finds Cassie and her son Jack staying with her father while her husband fights in Germany. What awaits them at her father’s home is a malevolence— something Cassie may have known was there all along. Many of these tales forgo a tangible evil; even if there’s a monster, it’s often not obvious what exactly it is until the end. Throughout the collection, there are recurring images of “figures” and “shapes” that seemingly represent long-standing or impending dread. That’s certainly the case in “The Man Outside,” in which a figure slowly approaches someone’s home, and in the title story, in which Dean has been seeing eerie “grey people” for years. The text thrums with the author’s crisp prose and a pervading moody atmosphere: “The next moments were a blur — the piercing shriek of the

train’s brakes, the terrible sound the man’s body made when the train hit it. Then the excited babbling of the crowd, the urgent static crackling of announcements on the P.A.” The horrific presences often mingle with grounded, relatable fears; motherhood apparently terrifies Maya in “Angelmutter,” and Jane, a widow living alone in “Little Gods to Live in Them,” worries that a nearby bridge construction will further aggravate cracks in her kitchen’s ceiling.

A first-rate selection of unnerving and indelible stories.

Kirkus Star

Red Gifts in the Garden of Stones

Swanborough, P. A. | Two Feathers Press (228 pp.) | $23.99 | $16.99 paper March 22, 2024 | 9781763500020 9781763500006 paper

Swanborough presents a novel about four generations of Welsh women under one roof, in which unsettling truths are never far away and ghosts are as common as cats.

In a small town in southern Wales, a house known as Ty Merched (“The Women’s House”) provides a home for elderly Lizzie Coombe; her daughter, Myfanwy; her 30-something granddaughter, Sarah Maud, who “needs both her names to hold her up” as she “knows life as a string of shattered nights and unendurable days”; and her great-granddaughter, Jenner. Lizzie is held in high respect by the others, although it’s accompanied by no small amount of rancor and fear. The book opens on her 100th birthday, when she’s still a lively force, and it tells a story of relationships, both among the four women and between them and the gossipy townsfolk. There are familiar character types, including fussy old men and women; a repressed, pompous vicar named Twdr Morgan; and DS Watcyns, an oafish, lazy, and dangerous

constable. Mysteries abound, none deeper than who murdered a stranger found in the garden at Ty Merched. The victim is never identified, but Watcyns gets it into his head that the sensitive Jenner, who’s merely 10 years old, committed the crime. A series of events culminates in a mysterious fire that proves cleansing in a way that readers will find strange yet beautiful. It’s an impressive tale, and Swanborough is a talented, lyrical writer whose style reminds one of the works of Dylan Thomas. The setting of her novel is the Wales of the ancients, spirits, and sprites, and Ty Merched is similarly haunted—a circumstance that everyone sees as natural as the weather. (Even the furniture muses silently with one another.) Similarly, there’s a quiet, ghostly interiority to the storytelling at times, and metaphor rules: Jenner is “a child-bride of misfortune, a virgin sacrifice to the knives of rumour”; Myfanwy, always troubled, “walks the lane like she’s stepping on expired obligations.” A debut that will enchant readers with its poetic prose and haunted realism.

Magic Encounters

Szachanski, Danuta | Lighthouse Literary (158 pp.) | $17.99 paper Sept. 11, 2024 | 9798991226684

A lifelong traveler recounts some of her most memorable stories from time spent abroad in this peripatetic memoir. Born into a family that loves to travel, Szachanski grew up in France and Canada and began taking trips as a student as soon as she could earn money to fund them. More opportunities materialized through her career in international development, and it soon became clear to her that “Travel was the WOW factor in my life like no other.” The author takes the reader across the world in five parts— Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas— illustrating that thrill of adventure in every vignette. Her enthusiasm glows from the page; her giddiness at seeing elephants in Zimbabwe at the Hwange National Park and her reverence for watching a sunrise from the top of the

dunes at Namibia’s Sossusvlei particularly stand out. Szachanski’s descriptions of places, people, and customs are beautiful, which provides an occasionally jarring contrast with her painstaking inclusion of facts and figures to give the reader context. While this technical information sometimes seems out of place, it reflects the author’s desire to present readers with both personal experiences and reflections on worldwide social, political, and economic conditions. This approach works best in a chapter recounting a trip the author and her mother took to Zakopane, Poland, in 1976, where her mother lived until the age of 5 and spent time until the advent of World War II; Szachanski’s combination of history, linguistics, and observations of local customs, along with the particularly poignant anecdote about her mother returning to her home country for the first time since the war, is incredibly engaging. Many argue that travel opens minds—Szachanski presents a memoir in which this truth is inarguable, thoroughly demonstrating in every chapter that travel “never fails to stimulate our senses and our insights into the world we live in.”

A personal journey across the world that will have readers itching to book a trip.

Tell the Story:

A Hollywood Odyssey

Tannen, Terrell | Koehler Books (272 pp.)

$25.95 | $18.95 paper | Nov. 12, 2024 9798888245057 | 9798888245033 paper

Tannen’s memoir details a life spent telling stories, in one form or another, in 20th-century Hollywood. The author’s second memoir begins with a bleak account of the latter days of an unnamed, once world-famous Hollywood star. This legendary actor was spiraling toward oblivion, his cocaine habit so extreme that he needed to build it into his contractual rider. Though this opening scene is brief, it effectively colors the early portions of this work, in which readers get to know Terrell in the years before he left his home in

Washington, D.C., to pursue his dreams of filmmaking in Los Angeles. For years, the author aspired to be a musician; when that didn’t pan out, he worked odd jobs for a time, including a memorable stint in the boiler room at George Washington University Hospital, a place with “the appearance and personality of a set from a mid-twentieth-century era science fiction film, lacking only the theremin soundtrack of Forbidden Planet.” He drove a taxi in D.C. and eventually got involved in politics, which he parlayed into gigs making political films; in this period, he wrote his first screenplay. With the success of Tricks, a documentary about a down-and-out boxer, Terrell expanded his film company and, after shooting a slasher film in rural Maryland, finally made his way to L.A. to begin his Hollywood career in earnest. Like many neophyte filmmakers he was hit by the rude realities of the business, in which cash is king and relationships are expendable.

Somewhat counterintuitively, the work grows less interesting once things move to L.A., where the travails Terrell faced are mostly what readers would expect: unreliable actors, too-tight budgets, demanding producers. But readers will be charmed by the affable tone of selfdeprecation Tannen strikes, particularly about his own early work: “Making a good movie is extremely difficult, even for experienced filmmakers, and our film clearly showed we were not that.” While many Hollywood tales are long on self-aggrandization and short on pathos, Tannen’s work is much the opposite; what is so compelling about the narrative is the author himself, not the intricacies of the film world he describes. Though readers will no doubt come for cinematic insights, they will leave remembering the early sections most clearly, in which Terrell describes kicking around in his youth, finding new ways to make ends meet while yearning to carve out a space for his creativity and passion for filmmaking and storytelling. Some readers may bump up against the author’s diplomatic unwillingness to “name names”—one senses there are any number of juicy anecdotes about celebrities he could relay—but this memoir gamely avoids the salacious temptation of gossip in favor of focusing on a life spent making art, and the pitfalls and joys of

pursuing one’s dreams. While this is not the tell-all some may want, Tannen has crafted a work from the heart that serves as an enlightening journey through the latter half of 20th-century Hollywood. A smooth-reading Tinseltown chronicle sure to satisfy both cinephiles and fans of introspective memoirs.

Somewhere Along the Line

Thomas, Mallory | Self (342 pp.)

$15.99 paper | Oct. 22, 2024 | 9798991499903

The lives of two mismatched strangers collide in a commuter-train meet-cute in Thomas’ debut romance novel. Piper Paulson is perennially flustered and late. One hectic morning, she finds herself accidentally standing on the foot of a handsome besuited man on her train, and the two of them enter into an awkward conversation that confirms her low opinion of men in finance. James Newhouse thoroughly regrets how rude he came across to the pretty woman on the train, but he’s soon able to correct the situation when, on another morning, Piper talks to him about how expensive travel is for a single person; if only she could score a family pass. Cue James falsely listing Piper as his wife, allowing them to share travel discounts. This seems like a great idea until the two of them witness a crime on the train, requiring them to pretend to be married when the police arrive on the scene. (“I’m not sure that we should keep up this charade in light of what happened this morning and what may be asked of us, but we could.”) Thomas plays with the “fake relationship” romance trope with aplomb, throwing together two seemingly very different characters (Piper abandoned a career in finance to work for nonprofits; James is practically chained to his desk in the world of numbers) who find solace in each other. The author skillfully weaves in their backstories and insecurities in chapters that roughly alternate between Piper’s and James’ perspectives, building the anticipation of a romantic crescendo

for the reader as each character worries that the other doesn’t feel the same way (in Piper’s words, “I’m starting to get attached to him and he doesn’t seem to share the sentiment”). The protracted back-and-forth between the two as Piper and James struggle to communicate their true feelings in the final third of the story grows a bit frustrating, but it does make the ending all the sweeter. A heartwarming “opposites attract” love story.

Leaping Past Zinnias: Madness, Murder, Marriage and Me

Tingley, Elizabeth | IPBooks (358 pp.) $24.73 paper | July 10, 2024 | 9781956864700

Tingley, a psychologist, recounts the challenges posed to her marriage by a family tragedy in this memoir. The author was a romantic late bloomer—she didn’t meet her husband Richard until she’d reached the age of 40. His presence quickly dissipated the “lonely cloud” that had stubbornly hung over her life. Before they wed in 1998, she knew that he had struggled with depression, that his now deceased father was likely mentally ill, and that his brother Michael was a “highfunctioning schizophrenic”; Tingley had wrestled with her own psychological trials, including a depression so severe she spent two weeks in a psychiatric hospital. A horrific tragedy occurred when Michael stabbed his fiancee, Carrie Costello, to death with a pair of kitchen knives. With incisive intelligence, the author chronicles the far-reaching ramifications of Michael’s psychotic episode, which seemed to unlock Richard’s own Pandora’s box of psychiatric

vulnerabilities. As Richard felt more helpless and grew ever angrier, the author increasingly felt “dazzlingly alone,” and finally the marriage crumbled under the weight of the strain. With courageous candor, Tingley reflects on her own mental health issues and the sexual abuse she experienced as a child that fueled them. The author is a trained psychologist, and her analysis is rigorously analytical but never aridly academic—this is more a work of personal introspection than a case study. She finally comes to accept that her trauma is a part of her but does not define her, and she finds joy in this distinction—as well as in a simple pot of flowers: “Looking at the zinnias, I am fully present. The sensation that I used to struggle to feel and had been rare for so long—what I call pure joy, what Freud called the ‘oceanic feeling’—instantly, wholly, fills me up.” Tingley’s remembrance is distinguished by a rare combination of intellectual sophistication and emotional sensitivity. An exceedingly thoughtful meditation on a fraught life.

Koan Khmer

Tuon, Bunkong | Curbstone Books 2 (256 pp.) $24.00 paper | Aug. 15, 2024 | 9780810147430

In Tuon’s novel, a boy escapes the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia with his family and comes of age in America, where he becomes a writer.

Samnang Sok is 5 when his family flees Cambodia’s Communist dictatorship in 1979, but he was only about 3 when his mother died, unable to receive treatment because “there were no doctors and nurses under Pol Pot.” This tragedy, along with the execution of two uncles and multiple episodes of starvation, causes his family—led by his grandmother,

A quietly affecting novel of the refugee experience.

KOAN KHMER

Lok-Yeay, and grandfather, Lok-Ta—to make the difficult decision to leave their home. They head first to a United Nations refugee camp in Thailand, which has its own horrors, including an attack by Khmer Rouge soldiers that forces the family to hide in a communal toilet; however, they’re eventually sponsored for entry into Massachusetts. Samnang’s childhood there is far from idyllic—his family is constantly working to get by, and his cousins are the only Cambodian children he knows. He faces nearly constant racism and never truly feels at ease in America until he moves to Long Beach, California’s diverse community. His desire to “take the language that is not given to [him] at birth [English], possess it, INFECT it with [his] presence, [his] history, [his] voice, and hurl it back” drives him to become a writer, which he uses to tell his own story. Tuon effectively uses this framework throughout the novel—no matter how long Samnang spends in the United States, he can’t leave his Cambodian roots behind, and he deeply understands that he doesn’t want to do so. Indeed, the novel opens with Samnang asking his maternal relatives to tell him about his mother; he’s eager to know more about his parents, whose “absence had always been a haunting presence in [his] life.” The overall tone of the novel is straightforwardly memoiristic; Samnang relates his experiences primarily chronologically and includes additional information only as he learns it from later interviews, giving the work— which closely mirrors events from the author’s own life—a sense of verisimilitude. A quietly affecting novel of the refugee experience.

Assignment in Oran

Turner, Susan C. | Harry Douglas Press (284 pp.) | $16.99 paper Aug. 30, 2024 | 9780984723294

In Turner’s World War II–set spy novel, two British intelligence agents travel to Oran to report on a French naval fleet facing annihilation.

In 1940, “France’s dwin-

dling military resources” are a source of perpetual anxiety for the British Empire, especially the naval fleet in the Mediterranean concentrated in the harbors of Mers-el-Kébir and Oran. Germany and Italy, recently joined in a fascist alliance, plan to exploit the vulnerability of the French forces and dominate the Mediterranean and the Strait of Gibraltar. In this taut drama, British Secret Service agents Harry Douglas, a Canadian, and Mick MacLeod, a Scot, are dispatched to Oran to reconnoiter the enemy and compile an inventory of French naval assets, in particular battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. Oran is as dangerous as it is strategically important, a perilous place for operatives. Additionally, Douglas is being pursued by assassins sent by the vengeful Lorenzo Terzo, an Italian businessman who blames him for the death of his father, Rosso, and sister, Gabriella, both killed by a British air raid (Douglas and Gabriella had conducted a torrid romantic affair and were planning to move to Switzerland together). Turner’s command of the most minute historical details is magisterial, and her depiction of the period’s tumult, the “plague that spreads across Europe, the sickness that surrounds them,” is artfully melancholic. But her prose can draw too readily from the stylistic conventions of hardboiled espionage fiction—the sentences are terse and world-weary, as well as laden with cliches. Consider this description of MI6 agent Margaret Gautier: “She doesn’t fight clean. She doesn’t play by the rules. She makes her own rules.” Still, this is a work overflowing with historical savvy and intelligence, enlivened by the fleeting glimmers of hope that sparkle in the darkness of the era. As Gautier movingly puts it: “It’s better to have some kind of faith.”

A suspenseful thriller that radiates historical verisimilitude.

Son From Ukraine: A True Story

Upeslacis, Sandra | FriesenPress (288 pp.)

$34.99 | $23.99 paper | June 6, 2024

9781038303202 | 9781038303196 paper

In this memoir, two Canadians travel to Ukraine in the year 2000 to adopt a son. Retired journalist Upeslacis writes of how she and her husband, Albert, first flew to Kyiv in November 2000 with a clear goal in mind. He already had three daughters from a previous marriage, but the couple, unable to have a biological child together, wanted to raise a child of their own. They opted for international adoption, with both sharing an “affinity for Ukraine,” which had suffered greatly under Soviet rule: “My family, and my husband’s, lost their homes, livelihoods, and loved ones in Latvia during World War Two,” she explains. She charts the five weeks of their journey, sometimes with humor, and other times with barbed, sharp observations about the difficulty of navigating the Ukrainian adoption system: “I anticipate another long, slow-moving queue in the dark hallway with its yellow-brown walls.” The couple finally meets the malnourished 16-month-old boy they hope will become their son, and more tender moments follow as they get to know one another. With each passing day, Upeslacis and her spouse wanted to spend more time with him, but they

An often entertaining and endearing look at an international adoption process.

SON FROM UKRAINE

had to respect the bureaucratic rules of the children’s home where he lived. Although the ultimate outcome is never really in question, readers are treated to accounts of a series of lightly frustrating but mostly amusing complications along the way, as when the couple’s lawyer’s computer stopped working and needed to be repaired, or when they were given just 10 minutes to come up with a name for their son. At times, Upeslacis delves into too much play-by-play detail in sections readers might be tempted to skim (“I unpack our clothes, put them in the wardrobe, and lie down on the bed nearest the window. The room is a bit cold, so I grab the throw blanket at the foot of the bed and soon fall asleep”). However, the emotional depth and compelling situation will keep readers engaged. An often entertaining and endearing look at an international adoption process.

Indigo Bird

Viehl, Jane | Dorrance Publishing (262 pp.)

$20.00 paper | June 1, 2024 | 9798892112956

In Viehl’s novel, a single mother takes care of her nephew when her sister travels to Germany to find herself. Rainey Morgan is a 34-year-old widow living in Portland, Oregon. Accustomed to her grief in the years since her husband died, she spends her time seeing her boyfriend Pete, taking a weekly class to hone her skills as a commercial artist, and tending to her preteen daughter Shiloh, who has trouble with her school and the law. Rainey has a complex relationship with her sister Leah, an accomplished marine biologist who seems to outshine her. As Rainey notes early on in the story, “In the family constellation, I had been the replacement child…it was Leah’s job to move the needle.” One day, Leah decides to go to Germany on an adventure and asks Rainey to care for her 7-year-old son Caleb during her trip. Though Caleb is sweet, and Rainey connects with him

easily, he struggles with the absence of his mother, certain that she will not return. After a psychological evaluation, Caleb is diagnosed with an “extranormal affect”; essentially, he has trouble connecting with people and is prone to moods. Sadly, this condition only intensifies after tragedy strikes the family. When Rainey is offered a position at an art symposium in Italy, she must consider her desires for herself and her responsibilities to Shiloh and Caleb. Viehl’s prose is strong; her story of familial drama (which includes moments of humor) flows along with great pacing and language that is evocative without feeling overly ornate. (Rainey muses on Caleb’s being observed by psychiatrists: “I would prefer a bonfire, a full moon, an oak tree on a night when the fog lay on the mysterious land.”) Penetrating insights are peppered throughout, as when Rainey looks at an old photo of her mother and thinks to herself, “she is seductive and beautiful. I have no idea what happened to that woman. Where do women go?” Viehl’s sharp, emotional narrative feels believable and warm.

A quietly moving portrait of an unexpected family.

A Kidnapping In New York

White, Jackie | Bloodhound Books (318 pp.)

$15.99 paper | Sept. 3, 2024 | 9781917214513

A n infant is caught in the middle of a high-profile abduction at the center of this frenetic debut thriller. In a book that highlights the dark side of both uptown and downtown New York, two men grab defense attorney Gwendolyn Black’s baby, Cassie, while Gwendolyn was in Central Park. Investigating officers suspect she knows more than she’s telling and force her to take a polygraph test. Because of the abuse she endured when she was young, new mom Gwendolyn struggles with eating and exercise disorders: “Insane hang-ups,

ones that wouldn’t be curtailed just because of a baby to take care of.” Around this same time, in a rundown basement apartment, reformed drug dealer Zivi brings home the perfect present for his lover, Giselle, who mourns the loss of their child—a baby girl. Giselle is so desperate to become a mother that she allows herself to believe Zivi’s outrageous explanation about the infant, and the narcissistic Zivi rationalizes his many questionable choices. For a time, family life is good for Zivi, Giselle, and their new daughter, whom they name Nell. Giselle soon sees a news story about the kidnapping and learns the mother is Gwendolyn, Zivi’s lawyer. This starts a volatile chain of events that leads to an explosive but appropriate conclusion. White’s engrossing first novel works well on several fronts. She created three complex characters, although only one could be considered a victim (Giselle, who just wants to paint and be a mother, is the sole sympathetic main character). The only letdown is the law, which is always a step behind, and the main trio seems at little risk of being caught. White’s use of shifting perspectives among the cast is also effective, and the different viewpoints reveal why characters make decisions based on self-preservation. All want what’s best for the baby—if they could only agree upon what that is. Somewhat light on suspense, this crackling mystery succeeds by focusing on its clashing characters.

Water Fire Steam

Zilka, Mitzi | Maxfiggy Press (420 pp.)

$16.95 paper | June 30, 2022 | 9781088032916

Zilka’s historical novel dramatizes the Great Spokane Fire of 1889. In 1884, civil engineer Rolla Alan Jones, a young graduate of Cornell University, has the opportunity to build a system to bring running water to Spokane Falls, Washington, an assignment that satisfies both his

professional ambition and his urge to go West. His first visual impression of Spokane is not wholly positive, but the mountain air “smelled fresh, as mountain air is known to be: crisp and filled with pine pitch, fresh-cut cedar, campfire smoke, and soil aromas of herb and spice,” and his 160-acre land claim is a good place to build a home and grow fruits and nuts. His fiancee, Sadie Withers, arrives in the spring of 1885, and they marry. Within three years, Spokane is thriving, in no small part because of Rolla’s success in bringing running water to the city. Sadie and Rolla have a son; their farmstand is profitable, and Sadie runs a jewelry store in Spokane. In 1889, Spokane is devastated by a fire exacerbated by a prolonged drought, buildings primarily made of highly flammable pine, and a poorly run volunteer fire department. Rolla is unfairly blamed for the disaster; although he is ultimately exonerated, his reputation and self-esteem are destroyed. Through hard work, and with the help of Sadie and close friends, he struggles to heal and regain both. Zilka has deftly recreated the feel of the post–Civil War United States, including New York City, the new transcontinental railroad, and the newly settled West. The political and personal interactions between Rolla and the people of Spokane Falls, both before and after the fire, ring true. Sadie is a strong, independent character, and her involvement in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and with the women’s suffrage movement brings added scope to this story. Vivid descriptions of landscapes, like that of the Spokane River (“The rushing water had cut a deep passage through the canyon—a half-mile wide, racing as strong as a flash flood, yet as slippery as a serpent over giant boulders”) round out the narrative.

A well-mounted work of historical fiction.

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