How to Dodge a CannonballDennard Dayle. Holt, $28.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-250-34567-7
Dayle (Everything Abridged: Stories) delivers a bracing Civil War satire focused on a young white volunteer’s reversals of fortune. Anders, 15, joins the Union Army as a morale-boosting flag twirler, desperate to get away from his overbearing mother. He switches his allegiance after he’s ca... Continue reading »
EcstasyIvy Pochoda. Putnam, $28 (224p) ISBN 978-0-593-85117-3
In the backstory to this defiantly feminist reimagining of Euripides’ The Bacchae from Pochoda (Sing Her Down), broke 20-somethings Lena and Hedy were partying their way around the world when Lena met ruthless hotel developer Stavros. Seduced by his wealth, Lena “stumbled into a ha... Continue reading »
The Two Lies of Faven SytheMegan E. O’Keefe. Orbit, $19.99 trade paper (448p) ISBN 978-0-316-57202-6
O’Keefe (the Devoured Worlds trilogy) flexes her worldbuilding chops in this superior space opera, set in a future in which shards of “sacred cryst,” grown under women’s skins, are “plucked free to be nurtured into a woman, or something like a woman” who serve as spaceship navigators using their spe... Continue reading »
Writing Mr. WrongKelley Armstrong. Forever, $17.99 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-5387-4276-1
This irresistible second-chance sports romance from Armstrong (Finding Mr. Write) stars fiery romance novelist Gemma Stanton, whose debut novel, a highland historical, draws inspiration from her failed teenage romance. Knowing that readers love an “asshole hero,” she based her male lead off... Continue reading »
Gilt FrameMatt Kindt and Margie Kraft Kindt. Dark Horse, $29.99 (216p) ISBN 978-1-5067-4594-7
Harvey award winner Kindt (the Mind MGMT series) collaborates with his mother, Margie Kraft Kindt, on this charming cozy whodunit that builds an intricate case around the murder of a Parisian antiques dealer. Amateur sleuths Meredith “Merry” Pearson and her nephew Sam have a knack for stumbling onto... Continue reading »
Viscera: Eight Voices from PolandEdited by Mark Tardi, trans. from the Polish by Malgorzata Myk et al. Litmus, $22 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-933959-83-2
This luminous bilingual anthology features eight contemporary women poets from Poland: Anna Adamowicz, Maria Cyranowicz, Hanna Janczak, Natalia Malek, Joanna Oparek, Zofia Skrzypulec, Katarzyna Szaulińska, and Ilona Witkowska. The opening “Cantata” section presents selections from each, displaying t... 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 »
Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem RenaissanceA’Lelia Bundles. Scribner, $29.99 (368p) ISBN 978-1-4165-4442-5
In this scintillating account, biographer Bundles (On Her Own Ground) revisits the pioneering glamour and cultural patronage of her own great-grandmother, the hair-care heiress and Harlem Renaissance socialite A’Lelia Walker. Born in 1885, A’Lelia spent her early years in poverty until her ... Continue reading »
Kawaii Appliqué Quilts from Japan: How One Country’s Love of All Things Tiny Powers Today’s Most Intricate Quilts (with 5 Projects from Top Designers)Naomi Ichikawa and Teresa Duryea Wong. Schiffer, $34.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-7643-6925-4
Ichikawa, publisher of Quilt Diary Japan magazine, and art historian Wong (Sewing and Survival) serve up an enchanting celebration of kawaii (“small and cute”) quilts, which are characterized by their intricately detailed scenes featuring tiny, cartoon-like figures. Delvin... Continue reading »
Islam: A New History from Muhammad to the PresentJohn Tolan. Princeton Univ, $29.95 (296p) ISBN 978-0-69126-353-3
Historian Tolan (Faces of Muhammad) traces in this vibrant and sweeping survey the 1,400-year evolution of Islam. Stressing Islam’s conceptual unity (“we are one umma”) and diverse reality, he tells its history by stitching together the stories of key figures. Among them are Um Waraqa, a wo... Continue reading »
Seven Skies All at Once Ted Kooser, illus. by Matt Myers. Candlewick, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5362-2900-4
In lusciously stroked spreads, Myers (Children of the Forest) paints two children on the rooftops of facing brick buildings, a clothesline strung between them. As they wave at each other and their caretakers peg laundry on the line, another sort of washing rolls through behind them: bui... Continue reading »
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