In this wide-ranging account, linguist Fridland (Like, Literally, Dude) surveys cutting-edge sociological, psychological, and historical explanations for why accents exist and what effects they have on society. As she touches on everything from the spread and evolution of Indo-European languages to U.S. accents influenced by the Great Migration, she repeatedly probes at the role that accents play in race and class, from the way that workplace advancement is hindered or helped by accents to the concept of the shibboleth, a “mispronunciation” that reveals someone as an outsider—an idea presented in the Old Testament but put into practice as relatively recently as the mid-20th century, when Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo’s militias sought out Haitian Creole speakers to execute by forcing people to pronounce the Spanish word for parsley. She notes that linguists have shown that accents develop naturally, along fairly robust and definable paths, as groups of people drift away from one another socially; she also explores how, as children acquire language, the mental process is deeply linked to categorization, which can include categorizing the types of people speaking. In short, she argues, accent and sociality are deeply intertwined, and addressing things like social inequality will always require people to think about what they think about how other people speak. Fast-paced and cheerily written despite sometimes heavy subject matter, this is a delightfully easygoing linguistic romp. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

Sports historian Gilbert (How Baseball Happened) delivers a probing biography of James Creighton, baseball’s first celebrity athlete, whose short-lived career ended with his sudden death in 1862 at age 21. Gilbert exposes the curious and corrupt chain of events that doomed Creighton to relative obscurity in the annals of sports history. Creighton, Gilbert alleges, was covertly compensated for playing in what was then an amateur sport, and it was his exceptional talent as a pitcher that led him to be literally worked to death. As a mid-19th-century wave of immigration prompted residents to flee Manhattan, baseball’s birthplace, for Brooklyn, they brought the sport with them, forming pick-up teams like the Atlantics and the Excelsiors. Gilbert argues that Creighton, the son of a Tammany Hall lackey, was intentionally relocated from Manhattan to Brooklyn at age 16 as a way of surreptitiously improving the Excelsiors’ roster. Local businessmen invested in the sport then attempted to spread its popularity beyond New York by sending the Excelsiors on exhibition tours; it was during one such game that Creighton began to complain of pain, dying days later of apparent internal injuries. Gilbert highlights that, despite the work Creighton did to popularize the sport, the Baseball Hall of Fame doesn’t recognize players of the “Amateur Era,” meaning he has gone relatively unrecognized. It’s a fascinating must-read for baseball history buffs. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

Noon (The Chronicles of Ludwich) offers few surprises in this mild coming-of-age fantasy recounting what led narrator Joe Sutter to a future as a science fiction writer. In an alternate 1968 England, Joe is among the very few able to perceive Greot, a mystical multicolored dust the exact nature of which is mysterious, but which is considered by some to enable access to people’s secret desires. An aimless teen, Joe makes little use of his abilities to interface with dust, but finds new direction after befriending G.K. Holbrook, an elderly author of dozens of SF novels. Holbrook is also able to perceive Greot, and mentors Joe on life and writing. Meanwhile, in a gentle mystery, Joe encounters in Holbrook’s home a ghostly girl only he can see and sets out to identify her. A preface discloses that the adult Joe has published over 20 books, leaving little suspense about whether the life lessons Holbrook imparts to him will take, and other developments are similarly telegraphed. Greot inevitably calls to mind Philip Pullman’s similar Dust, but Noon’s worldbuilding is far hazier. This is best suited for the author’s diehard fans. (May)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

Sutanto (Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers) delights with this tale of second chances. Mebel Tanadi, a “Chinese-Indonesian princess” whose “second and arguably most universal language is cash,” has spent the past 40 years as a happy trophy wife to Henk in Indonesia. When he suddenly runs off with the family’s 24-year-old private chef, she decides to attend culinary school at the Saint Honoré School of Culinary Arts in France in order to win him back, and heads to Paris loaded down with Birkins and designer shoes. After she arrives, she learns that she mistakenly enrolled at another branch of the school near Oxford, England. When she gets to Oxford and immediately has her handbags stolen, she considers turning around and going home, but decides to strap on her Louboutins, put on her Hermes suit, and see what comes next. Along the way, Mebel discovers a deeper sense of self, meets an apparently perfect man, and becomes a mentor for younger students, all the while wondering what she’ll do if Henk really does come back. Sutanto keeps the pages turning with tight plotting and thoroughly enjoyable characters. Readers are in for a treat. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

Travel writer Pergament debuts with a cheeky love letter to the pleasure-filled lifestyle of Southern Europe, where there’s “less hurry, more tapas... less retirement planning, more pesto.” In brief sections, she breaks down the Mediterranean philosophy for living well, which involves creating a chic but timeless style (sunglasses, statement bags, clothes that suit the wearer rather than current trends), enjoying good food and wine without overdoing it, and generally slowing down to enjoy the little things in life. Other sections provide irreverent tips on makeup (eyeliner is a must, but wearing concealer is like “going to a wine tasting while you’re chewing gum”); exercising (indoor workouts are best, to avoid the perils of running across steep, cobbled streets); and traveling (“Pack light... even the biggest yachts are smaller than you think”). Pergament couples her own experience living in Italy, Spain, Greece, and France with bits of wisdom from Mediterranean locals for a spunky, early aughts fashion magazine vibe that’s complemented by vivid, witty illustrations from Mokshini. This delights. (May)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

A gentle elegiac tone pervades this stunning posthumous historical fantasy from multi–Hugo and Nebula award winner McIntyre (Dreamsnake), who died in 2019. In ancient Crete, Iakinthu, a former bull dancer, is at the apex of her second profession as chief diplomat-trader of her seafaring nation. To fulfill Minoan tradition, she must take her adopted son, Rhenthizu, to meet his birth mother in a faraway land no Minoan has ever visited, after which he will choose which woman to live with. Their epic journey plays out as a feminist odyssey through six distinctive and mostly matriarchal cultures, superbly constructed around permutations of myth and legend. McIntyre’s scene-setting is lush and immersive, and her finely drawn, women-led cast leaps off the page as they confront obstacles with wit and wisdom. This sensitive and captivating voyage of discovery is a fitting capstone to a remarkable career. (May)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

Elan’s magnificent debut traces the reverberations of a computer game on the work of late-21st-century ecologists and seafaring migrants in the distant future. In 1983, college student Becks grieves the loss of Ben, her computer programmer uncle who died of AIDS. As she digs through Ben’s possessions in her grandmother’s house, she uncovers an unfinished video game, Homebound, that he left for her, and she sets out to complete it, reveling in the material language of computer programming (“Words between people... is like a glaze over the realness of action and being.... But code is the doing, is the thing: words and syntax and rules creating their own world”). In 2086, UC Berkeley professor Tamar Portman, who inherited a copy of Homebound from her late mentor, makes the startling discovery that Chaya, a robot she built to study ecosystems damaged by climate change, has become sentient. Later, Tamar and Chaya play the game together, in which an astronaut is lost in space. In a third thread, Chaya sails north in 2586 with a group to a site where they believe a time-traveling spaceman will return to Earth. Elan intersperses the sprawling epic with fascinating ontological discussions on the nature of life (“You are a part of our collective intelligence, part of the great spiral of being,” Tamar tells Chaya). It’s a marvel. Agent: Julie Barer, Book Group. (May)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

In this refreshing debut guide, Maguire, creator of the Substack newsletter The New Fatherhood, upends traditional notions of fatherhood as a “side quest” to “life’s main plotline.” He lays out a philosophy that sees fatherhood as a chance to “be better: for our kids, for loved ones, and for ourselves,” suggesting, for example, that dads focus on managing their feelings rather than controlling their kids’ behavior. Doing so, he writes, makes it easier to navigate daily crises while modeling appropriate emotional responses for one’s children. Other chapters discuss embracing personal vulnerabilities, getting comfortable with not having all the answers, separating professional identity from self-worth, and even considering psychedelics like psilocybin as possible treatments for mental health problems. Maguire is a smart and self-aware guide, candid about personal challenges like his struggle with paternal postpartum depression, and full of practical tips for reframing tough situations. (Readers can get through tedious parenting tasks by reflecting that it might be the last time they’re doing it, which boosts gratitude.) This will resonate with modern dads frustrated with outmoded parenting advice. (May)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

Wall Street Journal editor Baer debuts with a labyrinthine history of Fidelity Investments. one of the world’s most powerful financial institutionsBaer recaps the company’s evolution from its 1946 founding in Boston by Ted Johnson, who pioneered mutual funds that let small investors buy into professionally managed portfolios of stocks and bonds. His son Ned took over Fidelity in 1972 and cultivated a vast new business in administering 401(k) retirement plans for millions of workers who constituted a gigantic pool of customers for Fidelity funds and other financial services. In more recent years, the company has innovated with zero-fee index funds and bitcoin investments. Along the way, Baer revisits company scandals, including traders’ acceptance of bribes from brokers they bought stock from and a convoluted familial succession melodrama. (Ned barred his daughter Abigail, a Fidelity executive, from replacing him, whereupon she tried to oust him from the company; the two reconciled and Abigail later became an effective CEO, Baer reports.) Baer argues cogently that Fidelity has been a leader in the democratization of Wall Street, but the narrative bogs down in eye-glazing details of mundane office politics. The result is an overstuffed and undershaped portrait of a Wall Street institution. (May)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

In the delightful final volume of Daws’s Mountain Man Matchmaker quartet (after Honeymoon Phase), the focus finally turns to perky Everly Fletcher, who, having successfully paired up her father and all three of her uncles, is now looking for love of her own. Unfortunately, her talent as a matchmaker doesn’t translate to her own romantic life, which sees her nervously discussing her pooping habits while trying to flirt. As she prepares to graduate from Dublin’s Trinity College and return to her Colorado hometown, Everly doesn’t expect to have her best friend Cliona’s surly twin brother, Conri “Wolf” Reilly, in tow. Wolf is a talented rugby player, but after getting into one too many fights on the pitch, no Irish team will take him. There’s a fledgling squad in Denver that’s interested, on the condition that he prove he can play nice with others. He recruits Everly to help clean up his image and, while working together at Everly’s aunt’s animal rescue, the pair let their guards down and fall in love. Daws delivers all the spice and raunchy humor that fans expect, coupled with touching displays of vulnerability. Cameos from past series leads add to the appeal. This is grumpy/sunshine done right. (May)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink