MiaowBenito Perez Galdos, trans. from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa. New York Review Books, $17.95 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-6813-7947-0
This wonderful novel by Tristana author Perez Galdos (1843–1920) peers into 1880s Madrid through the prism of the middle-class Villaamils family. There is patriarch Ramón, an unemployed civil servant desperately seeking one final appointment so he can retire soon after on a decent pension; ... Continue reading »
ListenSacha Bronwasser, trans. from the Dutch by David Colmer. Viking, $18 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-0-14-313846-4
Characters collide, bombs explode, and lives shatter in Dutch art critic Bronwasser’s arresting and kaleidoscopic English debut, narrated by a middle-aged woman named Marie. At the heart of the novel is her intense relationship with charismatic photography professor Flo da Silva, whom Marie met as a... Continue reading »
King SorrowJoe Hill. Morrow, $38 (896p) ISBN 978-0-06-220060-0
Bestseller Hill (The Fireman) masterfully sustains tension throughout this immersive doorstopper of a horror novel. On one of college student Arthur Oakes’s visits to his mother, Erin, in the Vermont prison where she is incarcerated, he recognizes Tana Nighswander, a pizza delivery person a... Continue reading »
Last on the ListAmy Daws. Canary Street, $18.99 trade paper (416p) ISBN 978-1-335-49842-7
In the sweet and spicy fifth romance in Daws’s Wait with Me series (after Take a Number), a precocious 11-year-old helps her father find love. Colorado millionaire Max Fletcher is nervous about spending the summer with his daughter, Everly, while his ex-wife heads on vacation, as it’s been ... Continue reading »
The Name and the Mark (Vattu #1)Evan Dahm. Iron Circus, $25 trade paper (270p) ISBN 978-1-63899-155-7
The spectacular first volume of Dahm’s long-running webcomic ushers readers into an instantly immersive fantasy world. In the year “855 of the Blue Age,” a girl named Vattu is born into a nomadic tribe of diminutive, musical people called “fluters.” As Vattu grows up, she develops a contentious rela... Continue reading »
Collected Poems of Stanley Plumly Edited by David Baker and Michael Collier. Norton, $39.99 (384p) ISBN 978-1-32410-593-0
This definitive retrospective gathers the work of an allusive, musical, and stylish writer and introduces nine new poems to his oeuvre. As in Plumly’s Selected Poems, the entries are presented in reverse chronology, helping to highlight the evolution of the poet’s voice, his turn towards a ... Continue reading »
The Long March HomeMarcus Brotherton and Tosca Lee. Revell, $26.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-8007-4275-1
In this tour de force from Brotherton (A Bright and Blinding Sun) and Lee (A Single Light), four friends’ lives change irrevocably when America becomes embroiled in WWII. In 1930s Mobile, Ala., preacher’s son Jimmy Propfield shares an idyllic upbringing with childhood sweetheart Cl... Continue reading »
Dead and Alive: EssaysZadie Smith. Penguin Press, $30 (352p) ISBN 978-0-593-83468-8
Novelist and critic Smith (Feel Free) brings an incisive eye and keen wit to art, music, fiction, politics, and more in this wide-ranging essay collection. Whether analyzing the misogyny faced by female muses; celebrating the work of a generational novelist, such as Toni Morrison; or pointe... Continue reading »
Real Japanese Cooking: The Only Japanese Cookbook You Will Ever Need!Makiko Itoh. Tuttle, $39.99 (512p) ISBN 978-4-8053-1615-3
This excellent compendium from Itoh (The Just Bento Cookbook) offers an encyclopedic introduction to “the complete range of modern Japanese home cooking.” She breaks down Japanese food into three main styles: washoku, or traditional fare, includes sake-steamed cod, mixed rice with greens (“... Continue reading »
As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase UsSarah Hurwitz. HarperOne, $32.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-337497-3
Former White House speechwriter Hurwitz (Here All Along) makes a full-throated case for Judaism’s relevance in an increasingly secular and often openly antisemitic world. Raised on a “cultural Judaism” from which she gleaned mostly “a collection of social justice slogans and self-help clic... Continue reading »
Family Feast!Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Frank Morrison. Crown, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-593-89829-1
Boston Weatherford and Morrison reteam for this joyful celebration of food, family, and tradition. Rhythmic lines describe Big Ma and Pops rising at five a.m. to begin preparations for an intergenerational Black family’s unspecified gathering. As relatives trickle in from all directions, everyon... Continue reading »
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