Food writer Minnick (Bourbon Curious) intertwines in this mixed-bag outing an account of overcoming PTSD with a history of bourbon, a uniquely American type of whiskey. After returning from a tour of duty in Iraq in 2005, the author suffered from debilitating trauma until a therapist helped him unravel it. At the same time, the author, already a food and beverage writer, discovered how focusing on food could help him shift his focus from Iraq to “my taste buds.” After being assigned a story about bourbon, Minnick became obsessed with the spirit, and set about learning the trade from Kentucky distillers and reading up on its history, from its popularity with the founding fathers to its role in shaping Kentucky’s economy. He also unearthed the saga of a bottom-shelf brand of bourbon, Old Crow, a once “sublime” spirit that had become “rotgut swill” after being bought by Jim Beam in the 1980s, and the life of its namesake James C. Crow, a Scottish immigrant who’d revolutionized the bourbon industry in the early 19th century. Unfortunately, this history is bogged-down in dry details; more captivating are Minnick’s candid reflections on dealng with the aftershocks of war and how a new hobby can help one recover. Still, for bourbon lovers, this has its moments. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

A 1982 plane crash in the Potomac River was the climax of an unprecedented day in which Washington, D.C., experienced multiple air, land, and water disasters, as former firefighter Goldfarb (OCME) recaps in this white-knuckle account. On Jan. 13, 1982, a massive blizzard, compounded by the inexperience and poor decision-making of key personnel, caused a transportation snarl both above and below ground that ended with a submerged airplane and crushed subway cars. Firsthand accounts of ordinary citizens who stepped in to rescue roles fill out the author’s tense reconstruction the day’s many official missteps, including the lack of advance warning to D.C. transportation officials that federal workers would be dismissed from work early, leading to snarled traffic on snow-covered roads; poor organization among subway operators and a faulty switch that led to a collision; and the pilots of Air Florida Flight 90’s failure to properly de-ice for takeoff. After the plane plummeted into the Potomac, six passengers clung to the fuselage but could not be rescued for hours due to traffic blocking rescue vehicles, leading to one death. Goldfarb sensitively balances the events’ inherent sensationalism with a compassionate narration of the aftermath for survivors and the day’s impact on safety regulations, including mandatory life vests in airplanes. It’s a thorough record of an overlooked yet consequential disaster. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Journalist Nuzzi’s rambling and often surreal debut reflects on a decade of America under Donald Trump as the country and its citizens warp in his image, including Nuzzi herself through her 2024 digital affair with then presidential candidate, now MAGA insider Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “That I have made of myself what others have determined to be Good Copy is a horror,” she writes, then proceeds to reveal uncomfortably intimate details about “The Politician,” as well as trace the public fallout of their professionally unethical relationship. However, her fall from grace is but one component of this nonsensical sequence of vignettes, which includes musings about Genesis (“Adam was a rat”), a court statement about the 2022 assault of Nancy Pelosi’s husband, and references to Trump’s frequent invocation of “the late, great” Hannibal Lector. Buried within these shards lies a withering examination of Trump as a singularly bizarre individual and of “Trumpworld,” with its fanaticism and intra-staff power struggles, as a mirror reflecting America back at itself. Yet, like the “endless scroll” Nuzzi recalls undertaking after watching Charlie Kirk’s assassination, each new vignette brings a chaotic surprise (the author’s memory of the sky on 9/11; a description of a viral video of a raccoon). This incoherent jumble of paranoia, self-pity, and power jockeying does, in its way, well represent the country’s “state of disunion and delirium.” For those willing to buckle up, it’s a wild ride. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Voskuni (Sorry, Bro) delivers an addictive contemporary about two Armenian Americans thrown together by their mutual ex’s wedding. Bisexual wedding planner Ani hopes a posh new client planning a wedding at a Napa winery will save her business. But when Ani arrives on-site, she learns that the bride is her ex-girlfriend, Mimi. The winery’s owner, Raffi, a former physician with a reputation of being “Northern California’s most eligible Armenian bachelor,” is in for a similar shock: he also used to date Mimi. As Raffi and Ani push aside their complicated feelings about Mimi getting married and scramble to accommodate the brides’ outrageous requests, their chemistry heats up. Meanwhile, major snags arise with the wedding, leaving them to wonder if it’s just bad luck or if it might be sabotage. Voskuni keeps the twists and turns coming, accompanied by flirty banter, energetic prose, and characters who are easy to love, including an expansive supporting cast of well-meaning but invasive family members. This is good fun. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Bestseller Ward (The Beloved) kicks off a new series with this bumpy slow-burning romantasy. Orphaned Sorrel has been shunned by her fellow villagers her entire life for her magical ability to foresee and experience the sensations of a person’s death when she looks into their eyes. When the Fulcrum, a recently crumbling magical wall outside the village that keeps demons away, kills a local boy, Sorrel becomes the target of an angry mob that blames her for not preventing the death. Desperate to escape, she makes a deal with brooding mercenary Merc: a night in his bed in exchange for safe passage to another city. Prior to leaving, Sorrel’s former employer gives her a magical compass and a black crown and tasks her with returning it to the legendary warrior queen to whom, he claims, Sorrel has a surprising connection. As Sorrel and Merc travel the monster-riddled wasteland, they slowly give in to their growing feelings. Ward’s worldbuilding is vivid and Sorrel’s magic is unique, but it takes too long to get the characters on their quest and into the meat of the story. This uneven pacing also leaves the relationship between Sorrel and Merc, while intense and spicy, feeling rushed. There’s plenty to enjoy here, but readers will hope book two is better constructed. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Choctaw historian Mihesuah (The Bone Picker) tracks the search for a missing Indigenous woman in this intense procedural. After competing in a traditional horse relay, Dels Billy disappears from the abandoned truck stop she pulls into when her vehicle gives out. Detective Perry Antelope of the Oklahoma City PD is determined to find Del at all costs, working with her partner Sophia Burns and members of the Seminole and Choctaw tribal police. As they analyze video recordings of the race and dig into Del’s family tensions, an anonymous attacker makes multiple attempts on Perry’s life. Mihesuah paints an optimistic picture of the cooperation required to solve the book’s “jurisdictional shit storm” of a crime, which crosses state and tribal nation lines, while also highlighting conflicts in Native communities that stem from the legacy of the land allotments doled out by the U.S. government in 1887. The author’s depiction of Native life is full of distinctive personalities who will hold readers’ attention, and her visceral fight scenes have a grittier, more lived-in edge than those in the average cop novel. The result is a satisfying, deeply felt, and uncomfortably relevant crime story. Agent: Jacqueline Lipton, Tobias Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

The bucolic, self-sequestered life of a mother and daughter is unceremoniously interrupted by a curious stranger in Heller’s lush latest (after Burn). Hayley, a celebrated professor and translator of Chinese poetry, retreats from public life to rural Vermont, where she homeschools her bookish seven-year-old, Frith, in their off-the-grid cabin. Haley chose the rustic setting to escape the burdens of her career and the pain of intimate relationships, and Frith, who narrates, is comfortable with the pastoral arrangement. Things change with an unexpected visit from Rosie Lattimore, a local weaver, who reintroduces Hayley and Frith to the pleasures of social interactions, the notion of fun, and the bounties of true friendship. The unhurried narrative is flush with themes of motherhood, family, the healing properties of poetry, and the kindness of strangers, and periodically flashes forward to Frith as an adult recalling her youth and the way Rosie opened new worlds to her and Hayley. Heller brings the setting to life with lyrical prose (winter icicles “extended their glass fingers,” and pop-top cans of beer issue “sharp sighs”), and delivers an emotionally charged, heart-wrenching conclusion. Readers are in for a treat. Agent: David Halpern, David Halpern Literary. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Kelly and Thorne follow up Starlets with another tale of intrigue and subterfuge, this one set in 1883. Thirteen years ago, Alice Archer’s father was duped into an investment opportunity that wiped out his finances and left the family destitute. To exact revenge on the five scions of New York City’s upper crust responsible for his ruin, Alice, now 28, hatches a clever plan to upend their lives by getting them to invest in phony emerald mines. Posing as Grand Duchess Marie Charlotte Gabriella of Württemberg, she engages coconspirator Ward McAllister to introduce her to Manhattan society. She also recruits a German woman named Dagmar to be her cook and a sweet lady named Béatrice to serve as her maid. By happenstance, Alice meets Coraline O’Malley, aka “Cora Mack,” an accomplished pickpocket and crew member of a traveling magic act. In Pygmalion fashion, Alice transforms Cora Mack from a street-smart country girl into a refined lady who will play her cousin in the scheme and snare one of the younger scions. Readers will trip on a few anachronisms—Victorians didn’t tell each other to “stay in your lane”—but the authors pack the suspenseful plot with entertaining twists. There’s plenty to enjoy in this fast-paced romp. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Pastor Groeschel (Winning the War in Your Mind) teams up with psychologist Chappelle for an optimistic, faith-based guide to tackling mental health issues. He debunks myths that prevent Christians from seeking help, including that depression and anxiety stem from inadequate faith or repressed sin, arguing instead that God intimately understands believers’ pain and can serve as a source of stability amid personal crisis. Drawing from his own recovery from a burnout-induced breakdown and interspersing advice from Chappelle, the psychologist who helped him get better, Groeschel unpacks how readers can handle anger, trauma, and anxiety with a mix of faith-based and therapeutic interventions. These include praying, keeping a gratitude journal, and reframing negative feelings as “signals... to make adjustments” to ineffective habits and thought patterns. Groeschel’s at his most enlightening when drawing links between faith and psychology. He explains, for example, how consistently focusing on Bible verses can create new neural pathways that override negative thought patterns, citing research suggesting that praying for 12 minutes a day over an eight-week period creates neural changes profound enough to be measured on a brain scan. The result is both a down-to-earth guide and a welcome corrective to a church culture that’s often silent on psychological health. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink

Dance critic Veale debuts with a sinuous history of the women dancers and choreographers who transformed their male-dominated industry. She begins in the 1890s, when modern dancers rejected symmetrical forms of ballet and fluffy tulle in favor of “supple, free-flowing dances” and diaphanous tunics that shocked audiences. The 1910s saw the rise of a second generation of modern dancers, led by Martha Graham, who used their bodies to express freedom, empowerment, and equality. Veale credits these women—including Hanya Holm and members of the New Dance Group—with “reimagin[ing] the relationship between dance and society” by making the art form more accessible and mixing performances with advocacy against social ills. The third generation profiled emerged in the 1940s, as dancers harnessed “sweeping styles” and “visceral twists of the body” to celebrate individualism and revitalize marginalized histories. For example, Black dancers like Katherine Dunham combined modern dance with African and Caribbean influences, while Pearl Lang explored her Jewish identity in dances that dramatized the lives of biblical matriarchs. With evocative prose (“You could hear her body as it slapped the floor, heavy with suffering”), Veale vividly highlights how famous and lesser-known female dancers remade an often exclusionary art form while expanding the ways that art can be used to pursue sociocultural change. It’s a captivating chronicle. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/02/2026 | Details & Permalink