Shorr (The Plum Trees) sets this spectacular portrait of abandonment against the backdrop of the Rust Belt’s decline over the second half of the 20th century. Spanning decades, the novel chronicles the slow dissolution of an Ohio family after the charismatic but feckless Martin Brier, a doc... Continue reading »

Jackson’s perceptive debut introduces Martha Allen, a Scotland Yard detective who’s plunged back into a case that’s stayed with her for three decades. On an August night in 1990, five-month-old Bella Carpenter was reported missing from her London hotel room. Allen, then a newly minted detective insp... Continue reading »

Pueyo (But Not Too Bold) spins a glittering neo-noir that reinvigorates vampire lore, rendering the classic monsters as both decadent and threatening. In an alternate Brazil where vampires, known as guls, hold some degree of political power, quadruple-amputee Ariadne, who lost her limbs in ... Continue reading »

Kicking off the Hope Harbor series, this sweet and steamy contemporary from Nicole (the Boston Bolts series) sends aspiring chef Tally Darling home to her family’s New England daffodil farm to help with the spring season after her father’s death. Upon arrival, she’s shocked to find an incredibly han... Continue reading »

The informative and inspiring graphic nonfiction debut by Ukrainian researcher and podcaster Naiem assumes that most readers outside Ukraine know little of its history. In a framing device, a woman named Vika takes shelter from bomb blasts and finds solidarity with her fellow evacuees. From there, N... Continue reading »

Ondaatje (A Year of Last Things) presents a superb and comprehensive collection of selected works, or “condensary of time,” that crystallizes for devotees and new readers alike the poet’s lifelong devotion to place. “From now on I will drink my landscapes,” he writes, “here, pour me a cup o... Continue reading »

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 »

Great replacement theory is the ideological beating heart of the new authoritarianism sweeping the globe, according to this brilliant and eye-opening study. Historian and National Book Award winner Kendi (Stamped from the Beginning) notes that countries whose current head of state or opposi... Continue reading »

Emergency medicine doctor Alker (Goodnight Grandma Angel) explores in this witty yet indispensable guide 99 of the “most terrifying, interesting, and unfortunate ways to die.” Drawing on her experience as a “board-certified death escapologist,” Alker assumes the role of a medical translator... Continue reading »

This impressive collection celebrates the life and thought of late progressive Christian author Rachel Held Evans (A Year of Biblical Womanhood). Arranged thematically, the entries critique the evangelical Christianity in which Evans was raised, including the tendency of some believers to v... Continue reading »

A teen magician contemplates vengeance in this empowering series opener from Burton (the Sing Me to Sleep duology). Most Virdei citizens believe the country is ruled by Virdeian-born men, and that all the republic’s magic users, or aikkari, have been conscripted into military service. In truth, some... Continue reading »