SupersonicThomas Kohnstamm. Counterpoint, $27 (400p) ISBN 978-1-64009-681-3
Kohnstamm (Lake City) serves up a splendid, centuries-spanning tale of Indigenous and colonial history in the Pacific Northwest. In 1856, Duwamish chief Si’sia vows to protect sacred land near Seattle from violent white settlers, some of whom are named Stevenson and Stalworth. In 1971, Si’s... Continue reading »
The Savage, Noble Death of Babs DionneRon Currie. Putnam, $29 (368p) ISBN 978-0-593-85166-1
The cruelty and absurdity of family bonds drive this riveting crime saga from Currie (The One-Eyed Man). Babs Dionne, the domineering French American matriarch of her Waterville, Maine, community, maintains a sprawling criminal empire through sheer force of will. After surviving a near-fata... Continue reading »
When the Tides Held the MoonVenessa Vida Kelley. Erewhon, $29 (464p) ISBN 978-1-64566-153-5
Kelley debuts with a captivating and perfectly balanced blend of history, fantasy, and good old-fashioned carnival magic. In 1911 New York City, Puerto Rican immigrant Benny makes a meager and dangerous living as an ironworker. When a commission comes in to craft the elaborate metal support for a hu... Continue reading »
Heart of the Shadow KingSylvia Mercedes. Ace, $19 trade paper (464p) ISBN 978-0-593-95222-1
Mercedes’s thrilling trilogy comes to an electrifying conclusion (after Vow of the Shadow King) that doubles down on adventure, romance, magic, and intrigue. As “the stirrings,” a series of earthquakes signaling the waking of a sleeping dragon, continue to rumble through Mythanar, reluctant... Continue reading »
Precious RubbishKayla E. Fantagraphics, $29.99 (196p) ISBN 978-1-68396-928-0
In this fierce and fabulous debut, book designer and indie cartoonist Kayla E. reconfigures the impersonal visual language of 20th-century commercial art into the harrowing, deeply personal story of her traumatic childhood. Over the course of a series of set pieces, a narrative emerges: after her pa... Continue reading »
Outside the JoyRuth Awad. Third Man, $17.95 trade paper (96p) ISBN 979-8-98661-459-5
Awad’s deeply felt sophomore collection (after Set to Music a Wildfire) reverberates with lines as hard and true as rock: “The lie is that I survived because parts of me didn’t.” She shifts and complicates the sentiment, adding, “we tell the version of the story/ that lets us live with ours... 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 »
Firstborn: A MemoirLauren Christensen. Penguin Press, $28 (208) ISBN 978-0-593-83181-6
New York Times book editor Christensen debuts with a devastating account of her decision to terminate a dangerous pregnancy. When Christensen became pregnant in the early 2020s, she was surprised, as her disordered eating had sabotaged her periods throughout much of her 20s and early 30s. B... Continue reading »
A Short History of Black Craft in Ten ObjectsRobell Awake, illus. by Johnalynn Holland. Princeton Architectural, $24.95 (144p) ISBN 978-1-7972-2854-9
Chairmaker Awake debuts with a wondrous celebration of how “Black people have resisted their erasure through craft” over the course of American history. Antebellum laws banning enslaved people from reading or writing led Black Americans to record their history in alternative ways, Awake explains, de... Continue reading »
Godstruck: Seven Women’s Unexpected Journeys to Religious ConversionKelsey Osgood. Viking, $30 (368p) ISBN 978-0-593-83467-1
In this illuminating account, memoirist Osgood (How to Disappear Completely) interweaves her own story with those of six other women who found religion in a rapidly secularizing society. All millennials currently in their 30s, Osgood’s subjects converted to faiths ranging from Mormonism to ... Continue reading »
The Trouble with SunshineYamile Saied Méndez. Scholastic Press, $19.99 (272p) ISBN 978-1-546-12274-6
In a heartfelt novel about adapting and overcoming personal challenges, Méndez (The Beautiful Game) spotlights the camaraderie to be found in difference and the joys one discovers while learning to fit in. Thirteen-year-old Dorani Gutierrez is multitalented: she’s smart, compass... Continue reading »
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