This wild debut tell-all from former Infowars editor Owens recounts his destabilizing stint working under Alex Jones. Owens was already an Infowars fan when he was hired in 2013. Yet even with foreknowledge of Jones’s extreme personality, his first day was a surreal experience, from Jones’s uncomfortable overshares (“I bet you weren’t expecting to learn on your first day that it takes Alex Jones thirty seconds to take a shit”) to foreboding warnings from new colleagues (“You don’t want to make him angry”). What follows is four years of constant instability as Jones churns out paranoid content based on mundane observations like a low-flying plane (“This is 9/11 all over again!”) and sends the author on harebrained “gonzo” assignments, including infiltrating an NSA data storage facility and crossing the border into the U.S. dressed as an ISIS member. The book serves as a morbidly fascinating character study of Jones, who’s depicted as a volatile self-proclaimed “drunk” given to outbursts of violence (destroying an office watercooler with a kitchen knife; goading underlings into punching him, then punching back; shooting at staff during a video production). Even as Jones “seemed to be struggling with the nature of reality,” his employees affirmed his delusional theories—not out of true belief, Owens asserts, but fear of his retribution. It’s a riveting insider account of a deranged media ecosystem. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

In this incisive dual biography, historian Vinen (1968) paints British prime minister Winston Churchill and French general Charles de Gaulle as having moved along opposite trajectories. As Churchill grew into the indomitable leader who rallied Britain to persevere against the Nazis, de Gaulle’s wartime exploits were less glorious. Exiled to London and often sidelined by the Allies, he managed, through clandestine intrigues and a carefully cultivated aura of destiny, to position himself as France’s leader. The relative statuses of Churchill and de Gaulle changed drastically in postwar decades, however. Churchill’s second stint as prime minister in the 1950s was a study in fecklessness and physical decrepitude, in Vinen’s telling, while de Gaulle’s presidential term from 1958 to 1969 was a triumph: he presided over an economic boom; turned France into a modern, efficient technocracy; and faced down military revolts and assassination attempts to grant Algeria its independence. Vinen’s colorful portraits note resonances between the two leaders: both were conservatives and unreconstructed racists with theatrical streaks who grappled with imperial decline. But he depicts de Gaulle as the more perceptive and realistic statesman, ushering France into a less ambitious but prosperous and independent new dispensation while Churchill wallowed in nostalgia. The result is a fresh and illuminating reconsideration of two statesmen who helped build the modern world. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

Debut author Averick sparkles in this empowering rom-com. Pre-K teacher and romance novel lover Phoebe Berman is a few weeks away from her 30th birthday and despairing that she’s never had sex. Unfortunately, crippling social anxiety has left her terrified of dating, still traumatized by an unfortunate vomiting incident during her first kiss 17 years ago. Now, however, the chronic list maker creates a “Guide to Losing Her Virginity in Thirty Days,” encouraging herself to explore a range of scenarios for potentially meeting someone, from the cute (petting a dog and striking up a conversation with its attractive owner) to the last resort (advertising herself on Craigslist). Things seem to be looking up for Phoebe when school starts and she meets gorgeous new fourth-grade teacher Finn. But even as Finn appears to take an interest, Phoebe’s roommate and close friend, Jonathan, suddenly starts acting weird (could he be jealous?), and a former classmate, Matthew, with whom she once exchanged flirtatious text messages, unexpectedly reenters her life. Averick makes the romantic entanglements fun and surprising, and Phoebe’s personality—including her palpable and sensitively handled anxiety—leaps off the page. The result is smart, savvy, and irresistible. (May)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

A real estate feud drives this riveting novel from Hua (Forbidden City). Jin Chang moves his family into an exclusive Bay Area enclave with plans to flip their new house. He immediately butts heads with his busybody neighbor, Blair Belle, a tech worker whose company makes a camera called an Orb, which she uses to monitor her home and surveil the neighborhood. Meanwhile, Blair’s husband has begun to build a nearby complex called Bellavista, to include affordable housing, which would help single mother Minerva Washington keep her teen daughter, Tasha, in the neighborhood’s coveted school district. When Jin’s spirited 15-year-old daughter, Jane, rescues Tasha from a coyote attack, the two become close friends. Unbeknownst to the Belles, Jin is behind an anti-Bellavista campaign, which causes further tensions between Blair and a rival she assumes is orchestrating it. Jane winds up in her own conflict with the Belles’ Princeton-bound daughter, Quinn, after Quinn catches Jane reading her diary, and the plot’s many strands come to a head during a party Quinn throws at the Changs’ house while they’re away. Hua’s spectacular character work offers complex and surprising views into the many players’ motivations. Readers will find much to love in this multilayered page-turner. Agent: Margaret Sutherland Brown, Folio Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

Mount Shasta, Calif., high school senior Izumi Tanaka is a normal 18-year-old American girl: she enjoys baking, watching Real Housewives, and dressing like “Lululemon’s sloppy sister.” But Japanese American Izzy, conceived during a one-night stand in her mother Hanako’s final year at Harvard, has never known the identity of her father. So when she and her best friend find a letter in Hanako’s bedroom, the duo jump at the chance to ferret out Izzy’s dad’s true identity—only to find out he’s the Crown Prince of Japan. Desperate to know her father, Izzy agrees to spend the summer in his home country. But press surveillance, pressure to quickly learn the language and etiquette, and an unexpected romance make her time in Tokyo more fraught than she imagined. Add in a medley of cousins and an upcoming wedding, and Izzy is in for an unforgettable summer. Abrupt switches from Izzy’s perspective to lyrical descriptions of Japan may disrupt readers’ enjoyment, but a snarky voice plus interspersed text conversations and tabloid coverage keep the pages turning in Jean’s (Empress of All Seasons) fun, frothy, and often heartfelt duology starter. Ages 12–up. Agent: Erin Harris, Folio Literary Management. (May)

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink

Kelkar’s (Bindu’s Bindis) novel features Oceanview Academy middle schooler Sonali, whose stoicism contrasts with her love of Bollywood movies’ melodrama. Stuck in a Los Angeles home with constantly arguing parents and her sensitive nine-year-old brother Ronak, Gujarati American Sonali, 11, tries to make sense of her world through the Hindi movies she’s seen all her life. Ever since an earnest public attempt five years ago to stop her parents’ fighting led to widespread embarrassment in front of family, Sonali has resolved to hide her emotions and do her best to ignore her parents’ arguments. But her efforts prove futile when her parents decide to try the “nesting” method of separation, where they take turns living in the house with Sonali and Ronak. The contemporary narrative takes an entertaining fabulist turn as Sonali’s life begins to transform into a Bollywood movie, with everything she feels and thinks made apparent through her “Bollywooditis.” Sonali’s first-person perspective is sympathetic as she navigates friendship and family drama, and Kelkar successfully infuses a resonant narrative with “filmi magic,” offering a tale with universal appeal through an engaging cultural lens. Ages 8–12. Agent: Kathleen Rushall, Andrea Brown Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink

When she was six, Justice Kasric watched her blue-eyed merchant father play chess with the Faerie King. Now 15, Justice believes the event was merely a dream. She spends her days yearning for adventure, watching from the sidelines while her 16-year-old sister Faith, as slender and golden-haired as Justice but not as curious, becomes the toast of Victorian London society. One night, however, their father shatters their comfortable lifestyles when he forces the family—Justice, Faith, their younger brother Henry, and their constantly medicated, distant mother—into a locked carriage that takes them to a shadowy mansion. Justice’s discovery that the Faerie have invaded the human world and are targeting her family gains further urgency when she learns that her parents are on opposite sides of the conflict. Together, the Kasric siblings—including older brothers Benedict and Joshua—must find a way to save their family. While characters lack depth at times, and insufficient historical details don’t fully evoke the Victorian setting, Klaver’s (the Supernatural Case Files of Sherlock Holmes series) rich, lyrical descriptions augment the fantastical source material in this engaging series starter. Ages 13–up. Agent: Lucienne Diver, the Knight Agency. (May)

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink

Nine years before this novel begins, eight-year-old best friends Esme Randal and Kayla Price snuck out of their cabin at Camp Pine Lake in Texas. They swore never to discuss the terrible events that followed, but when the girls, now 17, return to the camp as counselors-in-training from their hometown of Lewisburg, Pa., that proves easier said than done. Someone begins sabotaging camp activities, and ominous—and increasingly public—threats appear, referencing that fateful summer. The only other person who knows Esme and Kayla’s secret is a local girl named Lillian Campbell, whom they left to fend for herself that night in the woods. They’re loath to voice their suspicions of revenge lest they get in trouble or look bad in front of hunky fellow counselors Jake and Olly, but as events escalate, they realize they may not have a choice. Narrating from Esme’s increasingly apprehensive first-person perspective, Preston (The Twin) pays homage to classic summer camp slasher films. The underdeveloped, predominantly white cast relies heavily on stereotype, and the clichéd tormenter’s motive feels unearned, but horror fans will likely appreciate this paranoia-fueled tale’s gruesome, shocking close. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jon Elek, United Agents. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink

Inspired by her own family’s refugee journey from Vietnam to Hong Kong, Văn’s (If You Were Night) spare picture book, powerful in its deliberate simplicity, follows a black-haired, pale-skinned child as they, their guardian, and two younger siblings join other asylum seekers for a perilous maritime voyage. In a third-person voice, Văn anthropomorphizes objects, relaying their wishes: “The dream wished it was longer,” one spread reads, as a balding, mustached guardian holds the protagonist close, and a guardian with a bun rouses the second child to dress them. “The clock wished it was slower,” the subsequent pages read, as the two children tearfully hug their mustached guardian goodbye. The narrative continues as the now family of four make their way onto the boat and beyond. A final-act switch to first-person perspective drives home the journey’s personal nature. Intricate, lissome fine-lined art by Ngai (Dazzle Ships) recalls classical Asian compositions, Japanese woodblock prints, and an evocative sensibility in a gradated, surrealistic color palette. A seamless interweaving of elegant prose and atmospheric art marks this affecting immigrant narrative. Back matter includes heartfelt author’s and illustrator’s notes. Ages 4–8. (May)

Correction: A previous version of this review misquoted the book's text.

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink

In a straightforward picture book debut by Meloy (the Apothecary series), a red-orange octopus is “happy in his cave,” until a human, portrayed as a pale hand, tricks the cephalopod into occupying a glove and subsequently takes him to “a glass house that wasn’t a cave.” Though the octopus is offered interactive tests and activities—including building blocks, a jar to unscrew, tight passages to navigate, and a camera to photograph visitors to his aquarium home—his days lack differentiation, and the pining octopus soon devises an intrepid plan to return home. The sympathetic prose is rhythmic, allowing readers to see the octopus’s perspective at every step of the process: of the glass house, “There were no waves. No little shivery ones. No big tumbling ones.” Sala (Green on Green) contributes vibrant art rendered in gouache, watercolor, and pastel on paper; particularly effective are spreads of the sinuous subject’s ocean life, with its richly varied flora and fauna. The Finding Nemo–esque adventure follows a predictable arc, but the tender narrative is gratifying and may serve as an effective jumping-off point for discussions about animal captivity. Ages 3–7. (May)

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink