The Best Books of 2025 – All Genres

General – 2025
Other Years: 2025 2024
Other Subjects 2025: Art/Coffee Audiobook Bio/Memoir Children Comic Cookbook Fiction General History Mystery/Thriller/Horror Nonfiction Picture Poetry Sci-Fi/Fantasy Science/Nature YA
#1
Mother Mary Comes to Me

Mother Mary Comes to Me

by Arundhati Roy
Amazon Bookshop

Finalist for the Kirkus Prize A raw and deeply moving memoir from the legendary author of The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness that traces the complex relationship with her mother, Mary Roy, a fierce and formidable force who shaped Arundhati’s life both as a woman and a writer. Mother Mary Comes to Me, Arundhati Roy’s first work of memoir, is a soaring account, both intimate and inspirational, of how the author became the person and the writer she is, shaped by circumstance, but above all by her complex relationship to the extraordinary, singular mother she describes as “my shelter and my storm.” “Heart-smashed” by her mother Mary’s death in September 2022 yet puzzled and “more than a little ashamed” by the intensity of her response, Roy began to write, to make sense of her feelings about the mother she ran from at age eighteen, “not because I didn’t love her, but in order to be able to continue to love her.” And so begins this astonishing, sometimes disturbing, and surprisingly funny memoir of the author’s journey from her childhood in Kerala, India, where her single mother founded a school, to the writing of her prizewinning novels and essays, through today. With the scale, sweep, and depth of her novels, The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and the passion, political clarity, and warmth of her essays, Mother Mary Comes to Me is an ode to freedom, a tribute to thorny love and savage grace—a memoir like no other.

#2
Flesh: A Novel

Flesh: A Novel

by David Szalay
Amazon Bookshop

WINNER OF THE 2025 BOOKER PRIZE Finalist for the Kirkus Prize | Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence From “the shrewdest writer on contemporary masculinity we have” (Esquire), a “captivating...hypnotic...virtuosic” (The Baffler) novel about a man whose life veers off course due to a series of unforeseen circumstances. Teenaged István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. Shy and new in town, he is a stranger to the social rituals practiced by his classmates and is soon isolated, drawn instead into a series of events that leave him forever a stranger to peers, his mother, and himself. In the years that follow, István is born along by the goodwill, or self-interest, of strangers, charting a rocky yet upward trajectory that lands him further from his childhood, and the defining events that abruptly ended it, than he could possibly have imagined. A collection of intimate moments over the course of decades, Flesh chronicles a man at odds with himself—estranged from and by the circumstances and demands of a life not entirely under his control and the roles that he is asked to play. Shadowed by the specter of past tragedy and the apathy of modernity, the tension between István and all that alienates him hurtles forward until sudden tragedy again throws life as he knows it in jeopardy. “Spare and detached on the page, lush in resonance beyond it” (NPR), Flesh traces the imperceptible but indelible contours of unresolved trauma and its aftermath amid the precarity and violence of an ever-globalizing Europe with incisive insight, unyielding pathos, and startling humanity.

#3
Heart the Lover

Heart the Lover

by Lily King
Amazon Bookshop

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Lily King has written another masterpiece. This book overflows with her brilliance and her heart. We are so lucky.” —Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow From the New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers comes a magnificent and intimate new novel of desire, friendship, and the lasting impact of first love You knew I’d write a book about you someday. Our narrator understands good love stories—their secrets and subtext, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules. In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. But youthful passion is unpredictable, and soon she finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever. Decades later, the vulnerable days of Jordan's youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news bring the past crashing into the present, she returns to a world she left behind and must confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self. Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving love story that celebrates literature, forgiveness, and the transformative bonds that shape our lives. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.

#4
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: A Novel

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: A Novel

by Kiran Desai
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BOOKER PRIZE SHORTLIST • KIRKUS PRIZE FINALIST A spellbinding story of two young people whose fates intersect and diverge across continents and years—an epic of love and family, India and America, tradition and modernity, by the Booker Prize–winning author of The Inheritance of Loss “A transcendent triumph . . . not so much a novel as a marvel.”—The New York Times Book Review “A spectacular literary achievement. I wanted to pack a little suitcase and stay inside this book forever.”—Ann Patchett “Devastating, lyrical, and deeply romantic . . . an unmitigated joy to read.”—Khaled Hosseini One of the Most Anticipated Books of the Fall: The New York Times, Oprah Daily, Time, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, Book Riot, Publishers Weekly, and more When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that served only to drive Sonia and Sunny apart. Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her family in India. She fears that she is haunted by a dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee his imperious mother and the violence of his warring clan. Uncertain of their future, Sonia and Sunny embark on a search for happiness together as they confront the many alienations of our modern world. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the sweeping tale of two young people navigating the many forces that shape their lives: country, class, race, history, and the complicated bonds that link one generation to the next. A love story, a family saga, and a rich novel of ideas, it is the most ambitious and accomplished work yet by one of our greatest novelists.

#5
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

by Omar El Akkad
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 PALESTINE BOOK AWARDS • From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in a West that betrays its fundamental values "[A] bracing memoir and manifesto."—The New York Times “I can’t think of a more important piece of writing to read right now. I found hope here, and help, to face what the world is now, all that it isn’t anymore. Please read this. I promise you won’t regret it.”—Tommy Orange, bestselling author of Wandering Stars and There There On October 25, 2023, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.” This tweet has been viewed more than 10 million times. As an immigrant who came to the West, El Akkad believed that it promised freedom. A place of justice for all. But in the past twenty years, reporting on the War on Terror, Ferguson, climate change, Black Lives Matter protests, and more, and watching the unmitigated slaughter in Gaza, El Akkad has come to the conclusion that much of what the West promises is a lie. That there will always be entire groups of human beings it has never intended to treat as fully human—not just Arabs or Muslims or immigrants, but whoever falls outside the boundaries of privilege. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is a chronicle of that painful realization, a moral grappling with what it means, as a citizen of the U.S., as a father, to carve out some sense of possibility in a time of carnage. This is El Akkad’s nonfiction debut, his most raw and vulnerable work to date, a heartsick breakup letter with the West. It is a brilliant articulation of the same breakup we are watching all over the United States, in family rooms, on college campuses, on city streets; the consequences of this rupture are just beginning. This book is for all the people who want something better than what the West has served up. This is the book for our time.

#6
Wild Dark Shore

Wild Dark Shore

by Charlotte McConaghy
Amazon Bookshop
#7
Audition: A Novel

Audition: A Novel

by Katie Kitamura
Amazon Bookshop

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR FINALIST FOR THE 2025 BOOKER PRIZE INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER “A tightly wound family drama that reads like a psychological thriller."—NPR “Bold, stark, genre-bending, Audition will haunt your dreams.”—The Boston Globe One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. An exhilarating, destabilizing Möbius strip of a novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love. Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, muse – and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately. Taut and hypnotic, Audition is Katie Kitamura at her virtuosic best.

#8
Flashlight: A Novel

Flashlight: A Novel

by Susan Choi
Amazon Bookshop

Short-listed for the Booker Prize Long-listed for the National Book Award “The first major American novel to be published this year.” —Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal “Gorgeous . . . Almost impossibly heartbreaking.” —Sam Worley, New York Magazine A Must-Read: The New York Times, New York Magazine, Time, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, The Chicago Review of Books, Forbes, Literary Hub, and Town & Country “A major world writer . . . Choi is in thrilling command.” ―Dwight Garner, The New York Times “Devastating.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post “Ranks among her best work.” —Hamilton Cain, Los Angeles Times A Dakota Johnson x TeaTime Book Club Pick A novel tracing a father’s disappearance across time, nations, and memory, from the author of Trust Exercise. One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. She is ten years old. Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, is Korean, but was born and raised in Japan; he lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to North Korea. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her Midwestern family after a reckless adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences. But now it is just Anne and Louisa, Louisa and Anne, adrift and facing the challenges of ordinary life in the wake of great loss. United, separated, and also repelled by their mutual grief, they attempt to move on. But they cannot escape the echoes of that night. What really happened to Louisa’s father? Shifting perspectives across time and character and turning back again and again to that night by the sea, Flashlight chases the shock waves of one family’s catastrophe, even as they are swept up in the invisible currents of history. A monumental new novel from the National Book Award winner Susan Choi, Flashlight spans decades and continents in a spellbinding, heart-gripping investigation of family, loss, memory, and the ways in which we are shaped by what we cannot see.

#9
Katabasis

Katabasis

by R. F. Kuang
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Dante’s Inferno meets Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi in this all-new dark academia fantasy from R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface, in which two graduate students must put aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul—perhaps at the cost of their own. Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek: The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world. That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault. Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams…. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion. With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like. But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.

#10
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

by Sarah Wynn-Williams
Amazon Bookshop

An insider account charting one woman's career at the heart of one of the most influential companies on the planet, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to Facebook, the decisions that have shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them.

#11
King of Ashes: A Novel

King of Ashes: A Novel

by S. A. Cosby
Amazon Bookshop

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Propulsive and powerful. . . A gripping roller coaster ride of escalating danger.” —New York Times Book Review “Pick up the novel everyone will be talking about.” —The Atlantic “Dark, riveting, and accomplished.” —Washington Post Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby returns with King of Ashes, a Godfather-inspired Southern crime epic and dazzling family drama. When eldest son Roman Carruthers is summoned home after his father’s car accident, he finds his younger brother, Dante, in debt to dangerous criminals and his sister, Neveah, exhausted from holding the family—and the family business—together. Neveah and their father, who run the Carruthers Crematorium in the run-down central Virginia town of Jefferson Run, see death up close every day. But mortality draws even closer when it becomes clear that the crash that landed their father in a coma was no accident and Dante’s recklessness has placed them all in real danger. Roman, a financial whiz with a head for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, has some money to help buy his brother out of trouble. But in his work with wannabe tough guys, he’s forgotten that there are real gangsters out there. As his bargaining chips go up in smoke, Roman realizes that he has only one thing left to offer to save his brother: himself, and his own particular set of skills. Roman begins his work for the criminals while Neveah tries to uncover the long-ago mystery of what happened to their mother, who disappeared when they were teenagers. But Roman is far less of a pushover than the gangsters realize. He is willing to do anything to save his family. Anything. Because everything burns. "[A] sizzling summer read that concludes with a few unexpected twists.” —Atlanta Journal Constitution

#12
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

by Stephen Graham Jones
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An instant New York Times bestseller, a chilling historical horror novel tracing the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice. A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.

#13
A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children

A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children

by Haley Cohen Gilliland
Amazon Bookshop

"The epic, true story of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, grandmothers who fought to find their stolen grandchildren during Argentina's brutal dictatorship"-- Provided by publisher.

#14
A Guardian and a Thief

A Guardian and a Thief

by Megha Majumdar
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OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE Megha Majumdar’s electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller A Burning—longlisted for the National Book Award—is set in a near-future Kolkata ravaged by climate change and social disharmony, in which the lives of five characters collide and their fates become inextricably linked—a propulsive and shattering tour de force. In a dystopic Kolkata beset by flooding and blight, Ma, her two year old daughter Mishti, and her elderly father Dadu are just days from leaving the collapsing city behind to join Ma’s husband in the home he has been building for them in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After procuring long-awaited passports and visas from the consulate, they pack their bags for the flight to America. But in the morning, they awaken to discover that Ma’s purse, with all the treasured documents within it, has been stolen. A Guardian and a Thief tells two stories: the story of Ma and her family, their struggle to emigrate to America, and their devastation in the wake of the theft that changes their fate to one of implacable tragedy; and the story of Boomba, the thief, whose hunger and desperation to care for his family drive him to commit a crime whose consequences he cannot fathom. With stunning control and command, Megha Majumdar paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of two families whose destinies become inexorably entangled, wresting compassion from each narrative as the complexities of each character’s circumstances—their helplessness in the face of poverty and corruption, and the need to stave off encroaching catastrophe—are captured with clarity and piercing empathy. A masterful new work from one of the most exciting voices of her generation.

#15
A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck

A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck

by Sophie Elmhirst
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“This is nonfiction that reads like fiction – the best kind. Elmhirst’s retelling is a triumph, second only to the seemingly impossible feat of Maurice and Maralyn themselves. You won’t be able to put it down.” – USA Today “Remarkable… I found myself, alternately, holding my breath as I read at top speed, wandering rooms in search of someone to read aloud to, and placing the book facedown, arrested by quiet statements that left me reeling with their depth.” – The New York Times “Such an emotionally vivid portrait of a couple in isolation that I was shocked it wasn’t fiction. How could a writer get so deeply into the minds of two real people in such extraordinary circumstances? … So brilliantly depicted.” – Elle, Best Books of Summer “A beautiful meditation on endurance, codependence, and the power of love. A dazzling book.” – Patrick Radden Keefe “An enthralling, engrossing story of survival and the resilience of the human spirit.” —Bill Bryson The electrifying true story of a young couple shipwrecked at sea: a mind-blowing tale of obsession, survival, and partnership stretched to its limits. Maurice and Maralyn make an odd couple. He’s a loner, awkward and obsessive; she’s charismatic and ambitious. But they share a horror of wasting their lives. And they dream – as we all dream – of running away from it all. What if they quit their jobs, sold their house, bought a boat, and sailed away? Most of us begin and end with the daydream. But in June 1972, Maurice and Maralyn set sail. For nearly a year all went well, until deep in the Pacific, a breaching whale knocked a hole in their boat and it sank beneath the waves. What ensues is a jaw-dropping fight to survive in the wild ocean, with little hope of rescue. Alone together for months in a tiny rubber raft, starving and exhausted, Maurice and Maralyn have to find not only ways to stay alive but ways to get along, as their inner demons emerge and their marriage is put to the greatest of tests. Although they could run away from the world, they can’t run away from themselves. Taut, propulsive, and dazzling, A Marriage at Sea pairs an adrenaline-fueled high seas adventure with a gutting love story that asks why we love difficult people, and who we become under the most extreme conditions imaginable.

#16
Atmosphere

Atmosphere

by Taylor Jenkins Reid
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From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program, about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits. Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. She is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA's space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to go to space. Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston's Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, easygoing even when the stakes are high; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer who can fix any engine and fly any plane. As they become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe. Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant. Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love–this time among the stars.

#17
Is a River Alive?

Is a River Alive?

by Robert Macfarlane
Amazon Bookshop

A New York Times Bestseller A #1 Sunday Times (UK) Bestseller Finalist for the 2025 Banff Mountain Book Competition in Environmental Literature A New York Times "New Nonfiction to Read This Spring" Recommendation • A Financial Times "Best Summer Book of 2025" • A Guardian "Nonfiction to Look Forward To in 2025" Pick • A Washington Post "Book to Watch For" in 2025 From the best-selling author of Underland and "the great nature writer…of this generation" (Wall Street Journal), a revelatory book that transforms how we imagine rivers—and life itself. Hailed in the New York Times as “a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler,” Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law. Macfarlane takes readers on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada—imperiled respectively by mining, pollution, and dams. Braiding these journeys is the life story of the fragile chalk stream a mile from Macfarlane’s house, a stream who flows through his own years and days. Powered by dazzling prose and lit throughout by other minds and voices, Is a River Alive? will open hearts, challenge perspectives, and remind us that our fate flows with that of rivers—and always has.

#18
The Hounding: A Novel

The Hounding: A Novel

by Xenobe Purvis
Amazon Bookshop

The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides in this haunting debut about five sisters in a small village in 18th century England whose neighbors are convinced they’re turning into dogs. Even before the rumors about the Mansfield girls begin, Little Nettlebed is a village steeped in the uncanny, from strange creatures that wash up on the riverbed to portentous ravens gathering on the roofs of people about to die. But when the villagers start to hear barking, and when one claims to see the Mansfield sisters transform before his very eyes, the allegations spark fascination and fear like nothing has before. The truth is that the inhabitants of Little Nettlebed have never much liked the Mansfield girls—a little odd, think some; a little high on themselves, perhaps—but they’ve always had plenty to say about them and, as the rotating perspectives of five of the villagers quickly make clear, now is no exception. Belief in witchcraft is waning but an aversion to difference is as widespread as ever, and these conflicting narratives all point to the same ultimate conclusion: something isn’t right in Little Nettlebed, and the sisters will be the ones to pay for it. As relevant today as any time before, The Hounding celebrates the wild breaks from convention we’re all sometimes pulled toward, and wonders if, in a world like this one, it isn’t safer to be a dog than an unusual young girl.

#19
We Do Not Part: A Novel

We Do Not Part: A Novel

by Han Kang
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FINALIST FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD “[Han Kang’s] intense poetic prose . . . confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”—The Nobel Committee for Literature, in the citation for the Nobel Prize Han Kang’s most revelatory book since The Vegetarian—and her first published in English since winning the Nobel Prize—We Do Not Part tells the story of a friendship between two women while powerfully reckoning with a hidden chapter in Korean history. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, KIRKUS REVIEWS, BOOK RIOT, CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY • ONE OF BOOKPAGE’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR “[A] masterpiece.”—The Boston Globe “A haunting exploration of friendship amid historical trauma.”—Time “A novel that is both disquieting and entrancing.”—The Economist One winter morning in Seoul, Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend Inseon to visit her at the hospital. Inseon has injured herself in an accident, and she begs Kyungha to return to Jeju Island, where she lives, to save her beloved pet—a white bird called Ama. A snowstorm hits the island when Kyungha arrives. She must reach Inseon’s house at all costs, but the icy wind and squalls slow her down as night begins to fall. She wonders if she will arrive in time to save the animal—or even survive the terrible cold that envelops her with every step. Lost in a world of snow, she doesn’t yet suspect the vertiginous plunge into darkness that awaits her at her friend’s house. Blurring the boundaries between dream and reality, We Do Not Part powerfully brings to light the lost voices of the past to save them from oblivion. Both a hymn to an enduring friendship and an argument for remembering, it is the story of profound love in the face of unspeakable pain—and a celebration of life, however fragile it might be.

#20
What We Can Know: A Novel

What We Can Know: A Novel

by Ian McEwan
Amazon Bookshop

From the Booker prize–winning, bestselling author of Atonement and Saturday, a genre-bending new novel full of secrets and surprises; an immersive exploration, across time and history, of what can ever be truly known. 2014: At a dinner for close friends and colleagues, renowned poet Francis Blundy honors his wife’s birthday by reading aloud a new poem dedicated to her, ‘A Corona for Vivien’. Much wine is drunk as the guests listen, and a delicious meal consumed. Little does anyone gathered around the candlelit table know that for generations to come people will speculate about the message of this poem, a copy of which has never been found, and which remains an enduring mystery. 2119: Just over one hundred years in the future, much of the western world has been submerged by rising seas following a catastrophic nuclear accident. Those who survive are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost. In the water-logged south of what used to be England, Thomas Metcalfe, a lonely scholar and researcher, longs for the early twenty-first century as he chases the ghost of one poem, ‘A Corona for Vivian’. How wild and full of risk their lives were, thinks Thomas, as he pores over the archives of that distant era, captivated by the freedoms and possibilities of human life at its zenith. When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the elusive poem’s discovery, a story is revealed of entangled loves and a brutal crime that destroy his assumptions about people he thought he knew intimately well. What We Can Know is a masterpiece, a fictional tour de force, a love story about both people and the words they leave behind, a literary detective story which reclaims the present from our sense of looming catastrophe and imagines a future world where all is not quite lost.

#21
Baldwin: A Love Story

Baldwin: A Love Story

by Nicholas Boggs
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Drawing on new archival material, original research, and interviews, this spellbinding book is the first major biography of James Baldwin in three decades, revealing how profoundly his personal relationships shaped his life and work. Baldwin: A Love Story, the first major biography of James Baldwin in three decades, reveals how profoundly the writer’s personal relationships shaped his life and work. Drawing on newly uncovered archival material and original research and interviews, this spellbinding book tells the overlapping stories of Baldwin’s most sustaining intimate and artistic relationships: with his mentor, the Black American painter Beauford Delaney; with his lover and muse, the Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger; and with his collaborators, the famed Turkish actor Engin Cezzar and the iconoclastic French artist Yoran Cazac, whose long-overlooked significance as Baldwin’s last great love is explored in these pages for the first time. Nicholas Boggs shows how Baldwin drew on all the complex forces within these relationships—geographical, cultural, political, artistic, and erotic— and alchemized them into novels, essays, and plays that speak truth to power and had an indelible impact on the civil rights movement and on Black and queer literary history. Richly immersive, Baldwin: A Love Story follows the writer’s creative journey between Harlem, Paris, Switzerland, the southern United States, Istanbul, Africa, the South of France, and beyond. In so doing, it magnifies our understanding of the public and private lives of one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century, whose contributions only continue to grow in influence.

#22
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts

Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts

by Margaret Atwood
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How does one of the greatest storytellers of our time write her own life? The long-awaited memoir from one of our most lauded and influential cultural figures. “Every writer is at least two beings: the one who lives, and the one who writes. Though everything written must have passed through their minds, or mind, they are not the same.” Raised by ruggedly independent, scientifically minded parents—entomologist father, dietician mother—Atwood spent most of each year in the wild forest of northern Quebec. This childhood was unfettered and nomadic, sometimes isolated (on her eighth birthday: “It sounds forlorn. It was forlorn. It gets more forlorn.”), but also thrilling and beautiful. From this unconventional start, Atwood unfolds the story of her life, linking seminal moments to the books that have shaped our literary landscape, from the cruel year that spawned Cat’s Eye to the Orwellian 1980s of East Berlin where she wrote The Handmaid’s Tale. In pages bursting with bohemian gatherings, her magical life with the wildly charismatic writer Graeme Gibson and major political turning points, we meet poets, bears, Hollywood actors and larger-than-life characters straight from the pages of an Atwood novel. As we travel with her along the course of her life, more and more is revealed about her writing, the connections between real life and art—and the workings of one of our greatest imaginations.

#23
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

by V. E. Schwab
Amazon Bookshop

From V. E. Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: a new genre-defying novel about immortality and hunger. Download a FREE sneak peek today! Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532. London, 1827. Boston, 2019. Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots. One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild. And all of them grow teeth. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

#25
Perfection

Perfection

by Vincenzo Latronico
Amazon Bookshop

A scathing, provocative novel about contemporary existence by a rising star in Italian literature. "One of Europe’s most talented young writers, Latronico has written the great Berlin novel we’ve all been waiting for." —Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker staff journalist Anna and Tom, an expat couple, have fashioned a dream life for themselves in Berlin. They are young digital "creatives" exploring the excitements of the city, freelancers without too many constraints, who spend their free time cultivating house plants and their images online. At first, they reasonably deduce that they've turned their passion for aesthetics into a viable, even enviable career, but the years go by, and Anna and Tom grow bored. As their friends move back home or move on, so their own work and sex life—and the life of Berlin itself—begin to lose their luster. An attempt to put their politics into action fizzles in embarrassed self-doubt. Edging closer to forty, they try living as digital nomads only to discover that, wherever they go, "the brand of oat milk in their flat whites was the same." Perfection—Vincenzo Latronico's first book to be translated into English—is a scathing novel about contemporary existence, a tale of two people gradually waking up to find themselves in various traps, wondering how it all came to be. Was it a lack of foresight, or were they just born too late?

#26
Sky Daddy

Sky Daddy

by Kate Folk
Amazon Bookshop

“[A] bizarre and endearing debut . . . We can’t remember the last time we met a character this singular or read a book this funny.”—Oprah Daily (Best New Books to Read This Spring) “Sleek and darkly comical . . . with the melancholic wit and whimsy of Miranda July.”—The Boston Globe Cross the jet bridge with Linda, a frequent flyer with an unusual obsession, in this “audaciously imagined and surprisingly tender” (Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch) debut novel by the acclaimed author of Out There. LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (SO FAR): Time, Vox, Vulture Linda is doing her best to lead a life that would appear normal to the casual observer. Weekdays, she earns $20 an hour moderating comments for a video-sharing platform, then rides the bus home to the windowless garage she rents on the outskirts of San Francisco. But on the last Friday of each month, she indulges her true passion, taking BART to SFO for a round-trip flight to a regional hub. The destination is irrelevant, because each trip means a new date with a handsome stranger—a stranger whose intelligent windscreens, sleek fuselages, and powerful engines make Linda feel a way that no human ever could. . . . Linda knows that she can’t tell anyone she’s sexually obsessed with planes. Nor can she reveal her belief that it’s her destiny to “marry” one of her suitors, uniting with her soulmate plane for eternity. But when an opportunity arises to hasten her dream of eternal partnership, and the carefully balanced elements of her life begin to spin out of control, she must choose between maintaining the trappings of normalcy and launching herself headlong toward the love she’s always dreamed of. Both subversive and unexpectedly heartwarming, Sky Daddy hijacks the classic love story, exploring desire, fate, and the longing to be accepted for who we truly are.

#27
The Antidote: A Novel

The Antidote: A Novel

by Karen Russell
Amazon Bookshop

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • From Pulitzer finalist, MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and bestselling author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove Karen Russell: a gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town A Most Anticipated Book of 2025 from Lit Hub, Marie Claire, TIME, Vulture, Esquire, People, The Chicago Review of Books, and BookPage The Antidote opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing—not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the dust bowl drought but beneath its own violent histories. The Antidote follows a "Prairie Witch,” whose body serves as a bank vault for peoples’ memories and secrets; a Polish wheat farmer who learns how quickly a hoarded blessing can become a curse; his orphan niece, a basketball star and witch’s apprentice in furious flight from her grief; a voluble scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer whose time-traveling camera threatens to reveal both the town’s secrets and its fate. Russell's novel is above all a reckoning with a nation’s forgetting—enacting the settler amnesia and willful omissions passed down from generation to generation, and unearthing not only horrors but shimmering possibilities. The Antidote echoes with urgent warnings for our own climate emergency, challenging readers with a vision of what might have been—and what still could be.

#28
The Director: A Novel

The Director: A Novel

by Daniel Kehlmann
Amazon Bookshop

"G.W. Pabst, one of cinema's greatest directors of the 20th century, was filming in France when the Nazis seized power. To escape the horrors of the new and unrecognizable Germany, he fled to Hollywood. But now, under the blinding California sun, the world-famous director suddenly looks like a nobody. Not even Greta Garbo, the Hollywood actress whom he made famous, can help him. When he receives word that his elderly mother is ill, he finds himself back in his homeland of Austria, which is now called Ostmark. Pabst, his wife, and his young son are suddenly confronted with the barbaric nature of the regime. So, when Joseph Goebbels--the minister of propaganda in Berlin--sees the potential for using the European film icon for his directorial genius and makes big promises to Pabst and his family, Pabst must consider Goebbels's thinly veiled order"--

#29
The Emperor of Gladness

The Emperor of Gladness

by Ocean Vuong
Amazon Bookshop

The instant New York Times bestseller • Oprah’s Book Club Pick • Ocean Vuong returns with a bighearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive “Stunning . . . A heartfelt and powerful examination of those living on the fringes of society, and the unique challenges they face to survive and thrive.” —Oprah Winfrey “Magnificent . . . In writing this book, Vuong may have joined the ranks of an elite few great novelists.” —Leigh Haber, Los Angeles Times The hardest thing in the world is to live only once… One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to transform Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community on the brink. Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Ocean Vuong’s writing—formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness—are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.

#30
The River Has Roots

The River Has Roots

by Amal El-Mohtar
Amazon Bookshop

The River Has Roots is the hugely anticipated solo debut of the New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award winning author Amal El-Mohtar. Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death. The hardcover edition features beautiful interior illustrations and a foil case stamp. "Half delicious murder ballad, half beguiling love story." —Holly Black • "An absolute must-read." —T. Kingfisher • "Every sentence sings!" —Sarah Beth Durst • "Utterly enchanting." —Fonda Lee • "A story that outlasts itself." —Alix E. Harrow • "Truly exquisite." —Zoraida Córdova • "A beautiful, musical, and loving story." —Emma Törzs “Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.” In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family. There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees. But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk... At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

#31
The Wilderness: A Novel

The Wilderness: A Novel

by Angela Flournoy
Amazon Bookshop

NATIONAL BESTSELLER FINALIST FOR THE 2025 KIRKUS PRIZE FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR 2025 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION "Flournoy has delivered a future classic—the kind of novel that generations to come will read to understand the nuances and peculiarities of this time." — Harper's Bazaar An era-defining novel about five Black women over the course of their twenty-year friendship, as they move through the dizzying and sometimes precarious period between young adulthood and midlife—in the much-anticipated second book from National Book Award finalist Angela Flournoy. Desiree, Danielle, January, Monique, and Nakia are in their early twenties and at the beginning. Of their careers, of marriage, of motherhood, and of big-city lives in New York and Los Angeles. Together, they are finding their way through the wilderness, that period of life when the reality of contemporary adulthood—overwhelming, mysterious, and full of freedom and consequences—swoops in and stays. Desiree and Danielle, sisters whose shared history has done little to prevent their estrangement, nurse bitter family wounds in different ways. January’s got a relationship with a “good” man she feels ambivalent about, even after her surprise pregnancy. Monique, a librarian and aspiring blogger, finds unexpected online fame after calling out the university where she works for its plans to whitewash fraught history. And Nakia is trying to get her restaurant off the ground, without relying on the largesse of her upper middle-class family who wonder aloud if she should be doing something better with her life. As these friends move from the late 2000’s into the late 2020’s, from young adults to grown women, they must figure out what they mean to one another—amid political upheaval, economic and environmental instability, and the increasing volatility of modern American life. The Wilderness is Angela Flournoy’s masterful and kaleidoscopic follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut The Turner House. A generational talent, she captures with disarming wit and electric language how the most profound connections over a lifetime can lie in the tangled, uncertain thicket of friendship.

#34
Clown Town (Slough House Series #9)

Clown Town (Slough House Series #9)

by Mick Herron
Amazon Bookshop

THE NINTH BOOK IN THE SERIES BEHIND SLOW HORSES, AN APPLE ORIGINAL SERIES NOW STREAMING ON APPLE TV+ Jackson Lamb and the bad spies of Slough House are caught in a deadly battle between MI5's secret past and its murky future in this gripping, hilarious, and heartbreaking thriller by Mick Herron, “the le Carré of the future” (BBC). “Old spies grow ridiculous, River. Old spies aren’t much better than clowns.” Or so David Cartwright, the late retired head of MI5, used to tell his grandson. He forgot to add that old spies can be dangerous, too, especially if they’ve fallen on hard times—as River Cartwright is about to learn the hard way. David Cartwright, long buried, has left his library to the Spooks’ College in Oxford, and now one of the books is missing. Or perhaps it never existed. River, once a “slow horse” of Slough House, MI5’s outpost for demoted and disgraced spies, has some time to kill while awaiting medical clearance to return to work, and starts investigating the secrets of his grandfather’s library. Over at the Park, MI5 First Desk Diana Taverner is in a pickle. An operation carried out during the height of the Troubles laid bare the ugly side of state security, and those involved are threatening to expose details. But every threat hides an opportunity, and Taverner has come up with a scheme. All she needs is the right dupe to get caught holding the bag. Jackson Lamb, the enigmatic and odiferous head of Slough House, has no plans to send in the clowns. On the other hand, if the clowns ignore his instructions, any harm that befalls them is hardly his fault. But they’re his clowns. And if they don’t all make it home, there’ll be a reckoning.

#37
John And Paul: A Love Story in Songs

John And Paul: A Love Story in Songs

by Ian Leslie
Amazon Bookshop

"The Beatles shook the world to its core in the 1960s and, to this day, new generations continue to fall in love with their songs and their story. At the heart of this phenomenon lies the dynamic between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Few other musical partnerships have been rooted in such a deep, intense, and complicated personal relationship. John and Paul's relationship was defined by its complexity: compulsive, tender and tempestuous; full of longing, riven by jealousy. ... [This book] traces its twists and turns and reveals how these shifts manifested themselves in the music. The two of them shared a private language, rooted in the stories, comedy, and songs they both loved as teenagers, and later, in the lyrics of Beatles songs. In John & Paul, ... Leslie uses the songs they wrote to trace the shared journey of these two ... men before, during, and after The Beatles"--

#38
Memorial Days: A Memoir

Memorial Days: A Memoir

by Geraldine Brooks
Amazon Bookshop

A New York Times Bestseller “Brooks tracks the geography of grief with patience and grace as she comes to terms with the ongoing nature of outliving the ones you love most. ... Her memoir is certainly a testament to her own unique loss, but it’s moreover a lifeline to others who will find themselves in this familiar, shattered landscape of grief.” —Los Angeles Times “A rich account of marriage and mourning.” —Washington Post A heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey towards peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Horse Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz – just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy – collapsed and died on a Washington, D. C. sidewalk. After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, Geraldine and Tony settled down to raise two boys on Martha’s Vineyard. The life they built was one of meaningful work, good humor, and tenderness, as they spent their days writing and their evenings cooking family dinners or watching the sun set with friends at the beach. But all of this ended abruptly when, on Memorial Day 2019, Geraldine received the phone call we all dread. The demands were immediate and many. Without space to grieve, the sudden loss became a yawning gulf. Three years later, she booked a flight to a remote island off the coast of Australia with the intention of finally giving herself the time to mourn. In a shack on a pristine, rugged coast she often went days without seeing another person. There, she pondered the various ways in which cultures grieve and what rituals of her own might help to rebuild a life around the void of Tony’s death. A spare and profoundly moving memoir that joins the classics of the genre, Memorial Days is a portrait of a larger-than-life man and a timeless love between souls that exquisitely captures the joy, agony, and mystery of life.

#39
Raising Hare: A Memoir

Raising Hare: A Memoir

by Chloe Dalton
Amazon Bookshop

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE 2025 WOMEN'S PRIZE • A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman’s unlikely friendship with a wild hare. A BEST BOOK: The New York Times, The Economist, ELLE “Moving. . . . Impart[s] valuable lessons about slowing down and the beauty in the unexpected.”—USA Today “A philosophical masterpiece ruminating on our place as human beings in nature.”—Matt Haig, author of The Midnight Library “A perfect testimony to the transformative power of love. In learning to love an orphaned hare, Chloe Dalton learned to love the whole wild world. The great gift of this remarkable book is the way it teaches us to do the same.”—Margaret Renkl, author of The Comfort of Crows Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and bounded around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, more than two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and slept in your house for hours on end. For political advisor and speechwriter Chloe Dalton, who spent lockdown deep in the English countryside, far away from her usual busy London life, this became her unexpected reality. In February 2021, Dalton stumbles upon a newborn hare—a leveret—that had been chased by a dog. Fearing for its life, she brings it home, only to discover how difficult it is to rear a wild hare, most of whom perish in captivity from either shock or starvation. Through trial and error, she learns to feed and care for the leveret with every intention of returning it to the wilderness. Instead, it becomes her constant companion, wandering the fields and woods at night and returning to Dalton’s house by day. Though Dalton feared that the hare would be preyed upon by foxes, weasels, feral cats, raptors, or even people, she never tried to restrict it to the house. Each time the hare leaves, Chloe knows she may never see it again. Yet she also understands that to confine it would be its own kind of death. Raising Hare chronicles their journey together while also taking a deep dive into the lives and nature of hares, and the way they have been viewed historically in art, literature, and folklore. We witness firsthand the joy at this extraordinary relationship between human and animal, which serves as a reminder that the best things, and most beautiful experiences, arise when we least expect them.

#41
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping

by Sangu Mandanna
Amazon Bookshop

A whimsical and heartwarming novel about a witch who has a second chance to get her magical powers—and her life—back on track, from the national bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. Sera Swan used to be one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her Guild. Now she (slightly reluctantly and just a bit grumpily) helps Jasmine run an enchanted inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests' shenanigans, tries to keep said talking fox in check, and longs for the future that seems lost to her. But then she finds out about an old spell that could hold the key to restoring her power… Enter Luke Larsen, handsome and icy magical historian, who arrives on a dark winter evening and just might know how to unlock the spell’s secrets. Luke has absolutely no interest in getting involved in the madcap goings-on of the inn and is definitely not about to let a certain bewitching innkeeper past his walls, so no one is more surprised than he is when he agrees to help Sera with her spell. Worse, he might actually be thawing. Running an inn, reclaiming lost magic, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera Swan is about to discover that she doesn’t have to do it alone...and that the weird, wonderful family she’s made might be the best magic of all.

#43
Automatic Noodle

Automatic Noodle

by Annalee Newitz
Amazon Bookshop

A cozy near-future novella about a crew of leftover robots opening their very own noodle shop, from acclaimed sci-fi author Annalee Newitz. An instant USA Today and indie bestseller! Indie Next pick | Library Reads pick | Most Anticipated at Electric Lit, Ms. Magazine, Gizmodo, Autostraddle, Book Riot, IGN, New Scientist, Reactor, and more You don’t have to eat food to know the way to a city’s heart is through its stomach. So when a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen, they decide to make their own way doing what they know: making food—the tastiest hand-pulled noodles around—for the humans of San Francisco, who are recovering from a devastating war. But when their robot-run business starts causing a stir, a targeted wave of one-star reviews threatens to boil over into a crisis. To keep their doors open, they’ll have to call on their customers, their community, and each other—and find a way to survive and thrive in a world that wasn’t built for them. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

#45
Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

by Stephen Greenblatt
Amazon Bookshop

Poor boy. Spy. Transgressor. Genius. In repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights, and hangings. Into this crude world of government censorship and religious authoritarianism comes an ambitious cobbler’s son from Canterbury with a daring desire to be known—and an uncanny ear for Latin poetry. A torment for most schoolboys, yet for a few, like Christopher Marlowe, a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire, and dangerous skepticism. What Marlowe seizes in his rare opportunity for a classical education, and what he does with it, brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language, and culture. His astonishing literary success will, in turn, nourish the talent of a collaborator and rival, William Shakespeare. Dark Renaissance illuminates both Marlowe’s times and the origins and significance of his work—from his erotic translations of Ovid to his portrayal of unfettered ambition in a triumphant Tamburlaine to Doctor Faustus, his unforgettable masterpiece about making a pact with the devil in exchange for knowledge. Introducing us to Marlowe’s transgressive genius in the form of a thrilling page-turner, Stephen Greenblatt brings a penetrating understanding of the literary work to reveal the inner world of the author, bringing to life a homosexual atheist who was tormented by his own compromises, who refused to toe the party line, and who was murdered just when he had found love. Meanwhile, he explores how the people Marlowe knew, and the transformations they wrought, gave birth to the economic, scientific, and cultural power of the modern world including Faustian bargains with which we reckon still.

#46
Dream Count: A Novel

Dream Count: A Novel

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Amazon Bookshop

FINALIST FOR THE 2025 ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION • LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLER • LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER • A Heather's Pick A publishing event ten years in the making—a searing, exquisite new novel by the bestselling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists—the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires. Named 2025's Most Anticipated Release by The New York Times • Oprah Daily • The Times • ELLE (UK) • Literary Hub • The Guardian • The New Statesman • Financial Times • Marie Claire • Harper's BAZAAR • BBC Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until—betrayed and brokenhearted—she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America—but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve. In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations of the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.

#49
How to End a Story: Collected Diaries

How to End a Story: Collected Diaries

by Helen Garner
Amazon Bookshop

For the first time ever, collected here are all three volumes of the diaries of Helen Garner, inviting readers into the world behind the novels and nonfiction of a literary force. The name Helen Garner commands near-universal acclaim. A master of many literary forms, Garner is best known for her frank, unsparing, and intricate portraits of "ordinary people in difficult times" (New York Times). But the inspiration for it all was her extensive collection of diaries—fastidiously kept, intricately written, and delightfully dishy, unspooling the inner lives of her insular world in bohemian Melbourne. Now, for the first time, all three volumes of Garner's inimitable diaries are collected into one book. Spanning more than two decades, each finely etched volume reveals Garner like never before: a fledgling author publishing her lightning-rod debut novel in the late 70s; in the throes of a consuming affair in the late 80s; and clinging to a disintegrating marriage in the late 90s. And all the while, they bear witness to one of the world's great writers hard at work. Devastatingly honest and disarmingly funny, How to End a Story is a portrait of loss, betrayal, and the sheer force of a woman’s anger—but also of resilience, quotidian moments of joy, the immutable ties of motherhood, and the regenerative power of a room of one’s own.

#52
Lonely Crowds: A Novel

Lonely Crowds: A Novel

by Stephanie Wambugu
Amazon Bookshop

Luster meets The Idiot in this riveting debut novel about a volatile friendship between two outsiders who escape their bleak childhoods and enter the glamorous early '90s art world in New York City, where only one of them can make it. Ruth, an only child of recent immigrants to New England, lives in an emotionally cold home and attends the local Catholic girl's school on a scholarship. Maria, a beautiful orphan whose Panamanian mother dies by suicide and is taken care of by an ill, unloving aunt, is one of the only other students attending the school on a scholarship. Ruth is drawn forcefully into Maria's orbit, and they fall into an easy, yet intense, friendship. Her devotion to her charming and bright new friend opens up her previously sheltered world. While Maria, charismatic and aware of her ability to influence others, eases into her full self, embracing her sexuality and her desire to be an artist, Ruth is mostly content to follow her around: to college and then into the early-nineties art world of New York City. There, ambition and competition threaten to rupture their friendship, while strong and unspoken forces pull them together over the years. Whereas Maria finds early success in New York City as an artist, Ruth stumbles along the fringes of the art world, pulled toward a quieter life of work and marriage. As their lives converge and diverge, they meet in one final and fateful confrontation. Ruth and Maria's decades-long friendship interrogates the nature of intimacy, desire, class and time. What does it mean to be an artist and to be true to oneself? What does it mean to give up on an obsession? Marking the arrival of a sensational new literary talent, Lonely Crowds challenges us to reckon honestly with our own ambitions and the lives we hope to lead.

#53
My Friends: A Novel

My Friends: A Novel

by Fredrik Backman
Amazon Bookshop

Four teenagers form a deep friendship that offers them refuge from troubled home lives and inspires the creation of a mysterious painting. Twenty-five years later, Louisa, a young artist, inherits the artwork and sets out on a journey to uncover its origin. As she pieces together the story behind the painting and its creators--Joar, Ted, Ali, and the reclusive artist--Louisa discovers not only their lasting impact on one another but also how art and connection can change lives. Blending humor and emotional depth, Backman explores themes of friendship, healing, and self-discovery.

#56
Stone Yard Devotional

Stone Yard Devotional

by Charlotte Wood
Amazon Bookshop

Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, a novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be good. Burnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to the place she grew up, taking refuge in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of rural Australia. She doesn't believe in God, or know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive existence almost by accident. But disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signaling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who disappeared decades before, presumed murdered. And finally, a troubling visitor plunges the narrator further back into her past. Meditative, moving, and finely observed, Stone Yard Devotional is a seminal novel from a writer of rare power, exploring what it means to retreat from the world, the true nature of forgiveness, and the sustained effect of grief on the human soul.

#57
The Correspondent: A Novel

The Correspondent: A Novel

by Virginia Evans
Amazon Bookshop

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Discover the word-of-mouth hit hailed by Ann Patchett as “A cause for celebration”—an intimate novel about the transformative power of the written word and the beauty of slowing down to reconnect with the people we love. “The Correspondent is this year’s breakout novel no one saw coming.”—The Wall Street Journal “I cried more than once as I witnessed this brilliant woman come to understand herself more deeply.”—Florence Knapp, author of The Names LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE AND THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • A PBS TOP SUMMER BOOK • LIBRARYREADS PICK OF THE MONTH “Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle. . . . Isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?” Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime. Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter. Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness. Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.

#61
The Wax Child

The Wax Child

by Olga Ravn
Amazon Bookshop

An astounding, haunting tale of accused witches—a book of sorcery itself—from the celebrated author of The Employees and My Work In seventeenth-century Denmark, Christenze Kruckow, an unmarried noblewoman, is accused of witchcraft. She and several other women are rumored to be possessed by the Devil, who has come to them in the form of a tall headless man who gives them dark powers: they can steal people's happiness, they have performed unchristian acts, and they can cause pestilence or death. They are all in danger of the stake. The Wax Child, narrated by a wax doll created by Christenze Kruckow, is an unsettling horror story about brutality and power, nature and witchcraft, set in the fragile communities of premodern Europe. Deeply researched and steeped in visceral, atmospheric detail, The Wax Child is based on a series of real witchcraft trials that took place in Northern Jutland in the seventeenth century. Full of lush storytelling and alarmingly rich imagination, Olga Ravn also weaves in quotes from original sources such as letters, magical spells and manuals, court documents, and Scandinavian grimoires.

#62
The Wayfinder

The Wayfinder

by Adam Johnson
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A historical epic about a girl from a remote Tongan island who becomes her people's queen. Talking corpses, poetic parrots, and a fan that wafts the breath of life—this is the world young Kōrero finds herself thrust into when a mysterious visitor lands on her island, a place so remote its inhabitants have forgotten the word for stranger. Her people are desperate and on the brink of starvation, and the wayward stranger offers them an impossible choice: they can remain in the only home they’ve ever known and await the uncertainty to come, or Kōrero can join him and venture into unfamiliar waters, guided by only the night sky and his assurance of a bountiful future in the Kingdom of Tonga. What Kōrero and her people don’t know is that the promised refuge is no utopia—instead, Tonga is an empire at war and on the verge of collapse, a place where brains are regularly liberated from skulls and souls get trapped in coconuts with some frequency. The perils of Tonga are compounded by a royal feud: loyalties are shifting, graves are being opened, and everyone lives in fear of a jellyfish tattoo. Here, survival can rest on a perfectly performed dance or the acceptance of a cup of kava. Together, the stranger and Kōrero embark upon an epic voyage—one that will deliver them either to salvation or to the depths of the Pacific. Evoking the grandeur of Wolf Hall and the splendor of Shōgun, the Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Adam Johnson conjures oral history, restores the natural world, and locates what’s best in humanity. Toweringly ambitious and breathtakingly immersive, The Wayfinder is an instant, timeless classic.

#63
Things in Nature Merely Grow

Things in Nature Merely Grow

by Yiyun Li
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Yiyun Li’s remarkable, defiant work of radical acceptance as she considers the loss of her son James. “There is no good way to say this,” Yiyun Li writes at the beginning of this book. “There is no good way to state these facts, which must be acknowledged. My husband and I had two children and lost them both: Vincent in 2017, at sixteen, James in 2024, at nineteen. Both chose suicide, and both died not far from home.” There is no good way to say this—because words fall short. It takes only an instant for death to become fact, “a single point in a timeline.” Living now on this single point, Li turns to thinking and reasoning and searching for words that might hold a place for James. Li does what she can: “doing the things that work,” including not just writing but gardening, reading Camus and Wittgenstein, learning the piano, and living thinkingly alongside death. This is a book for James, but it is not a book about grieving or mourning. As Li writes, “The verb that does not die is to be. Vincent was and is and will always be Vincent. James was and is and will always be James. We were and are and will always be their parents. There is no now and then, now and later, only, now and now and now and now.” Things in Nature Merely Grow is a testament to Li’s indomitable spirit.

#65
Awake: A Memoir

Awake: A Memoir

by Jen Hatmaker
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From Jen Hatmaker—beloved New York Times bestselling author and host of the For the Love podcast—a brutally honest, funny, and revealing memoir about the traumatic end of her twenty-six-year-long marriage, and the beginning of a different kind of love story. At 2:30 a.m. on July 11th, 2020, Jen Hatmaker woke up to her husband of twenty-six years whispering in his phone to another woman from their bed. It was the end of life as she knew it. In the months that followed, she went from being a shiny, funny, popular leader, to a divorced wreck on antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds parenting five kids alone with no clue about her own bank accounts. Having led millions of women for over a decade—urging them to embrace authenticity, find radical agency, and create healthy relationships—this seemed nothing less than total failure. In Awake, Jen shares for the first time what happened when she found herself completely lost at sea—and how she made it to shore. In candid, surprisingly funny vignettes spanning forty years of girlhood, marriage, and parenting, Jen lays bare the disorienting upheaval of midlife—the implosion of a marriage, the unraveling of religious and cultural systems, and the grief that accompanies change you didn’t ask for. And, drawing on all her resources—from without and from within—Jen dares to question the systems beneath the whole house of cards, and to reckon with the myths, half-truths, and lies that brought her to this point. More than one woman’s story, Awake is a critical analysis of the story given to all of us: the story of gender limitations, religious subservience, body shame, self-erasure. With refreshing candor, Jen explores a Midlife Renaissance—grieving what’s lost, cherishing possibility, and entering the second half of life wide awake.

#68
Great Black Hope

Great Black Hope

by Rob Franklin
Amazon Bookshop

NATIONAL BESTSELLER “You’re going to get papercuts, you’re going to turn the pages so fast.” —Brad Thor, Today “If Tom Wolfe, Jay McInerney, and Margo Jefferson somehow collaborated, this might have been the delightful result.” —Boris Kachka, The Atlantic “Incandescent…full of sentences I want to cut out and glue to my forehead.” —Kaveh Akbar, New York Times bestselling author of Martyr! “A masterpiece…At once fresh and original while delighting the reader with hints of Franzen, McInerny, Baldwin. This novel—a whodunit, a coming-of-age, a New York novel—heralds the arrival of a rarefied talent.” —Elin Hilderbrand, bestselling author of Swan Song A gripping, elegant debut novel about a young Black man caught between worlds of race and class, glamour and tragedy, a friend’s mysterious death and his own arrest, from an electrifying new voice. An arrest for cocaine possession on the last day of a sweltering New York summer leaves Smith, a queer Black Stanford graduate, in a state of turmoil. Pulled into the court system and mandated treatment, he finds himself in an absurd but dangerous situation: his class protects him, but his race does not. It’s just weeks after the death of his beloved roommate Elle, the daughter of a famous soul singer, and he’s still reeling from the tabloid spectacle—as well as lingering questions around how well he really knew his closest friend. He flees to his hometown of Atlanta, only to buckle under the weight of expectations from his family of doctors and lawyers and their history in America. But when Smith returns to New York, it’s not long before he begins to lose himself to his old life—drawn back into the city’s underworld, where his search for answers may end up costing him his freedom and his future. Smith goes on a dizzying journey through the nightlife circuit, anonymous recovery rooms, Atlanta’s Black society set, police investigations and courtroom dramas, and a circle of friends coming of age in a new era. Great Black Hope is a propulsive, glittering story about what it means to exist between worlds, to be upwardly mobile yet spiraling downward, and how to find a way back to hope.

#69
Helm

Helm

by Sarah Hall
Amazon Bookshop

“Sarah Hall's writing has conquered the body and the soul and now it conquers the wind itself. She gets better with every word she writes.”–Daisy Johnson, author of Sisters and The Hotel From the twice-Booker-nominated writer of Burntcoat, a bold and astonishing literary masterpiece that explores faith, connection, and our relationship to the natural world. Helm is a ferocious, mischievous wind — a subject of folklore and awe, part-elemental god, part-aerial demon blasting through the sublime landscape of Northern England since the dawn of time. Through the stories of those who’ve obsessed over Helm, an extraordinary history is formed: the Neolithic tribe who tried to placate Helm, the Dark Age wizard priest who wanted to banish Helm, the Victorian steam engineer who attempted to capture Helm — and the farmer’s daughter who fiercely loved Helm. But now Dr. Selima Sutar, surrounded by infinite clouds and measuring instruments in her observation hut, fears human pollution is killing Helm. Rich, wild, and vital, Helm is the story of a singular life force, and of the relationship between nature and people, neither of whom can weather life without the other.

#71
Joyride: A Memoir

Joyride: A Memoir

by Susan Orlean
Amazon Bookshop

From the beloved New Yorker writer Susan Orlean, New York Times bestselling author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book and hailed as “a national treasure” by The Washington Post, Joyride is a masterful memoir of finding her creative calling and purpose that invites us to approach life with wonder, curiosity, and an irrepressible sense of delight. “The story of my life is the story of my stories,” writes Susan Orlean in this extraordinary, era-defining memoir from one of the greatest practitioners of narrative nonfiction of our time. Joyride is a magic carpet ride through Orlean’s life and career, where every day is an opportunity for discovery and every moment holds the potential for wonder. Throughout her storied career, her curiosity draws her to explore the most ordinary and extraordinary of places, from going deep inside the head of a regular ten-year-old boy for a legendary profile (“The American Man Age Ten”) to reporting on a woman who owns twenty-seven tigers, from capturing the routine magic of Saturday night to climbing Mt. Fuji. Not only does Orlean’s account of a writing life offer a trove of indispensable gleanings for writers, it’s also an essential and practical guide to embracing any creative path. She takes us through her process of dreaming up ideas, managing deadlines, connecting with sources, chasing every possible lead, confronting writer’s block and self-doubt, and crafting the perfect lede—a Susan specialty. While Orlean has always written her way into other people’s lives in order to understand the human experience, Joyride is her most personal book ever—a searching journey through finding her feet as a journalist, recovering from the excruciating collapse of her first marriage, falling head-over-heels in love again, becoming a mother while mourning the decline of her own mother, sojourning to Hollywood for films based on her work including Adaptation and Blue Crush, and confronting mortality. Joyride is also a time machine to a bygone era of journalism, from Orlean’s bright start in the golden age of alt-weeklies to her career-making days working alongside icons such as Robert Gottlieb, Tina Brown, David Remnick, Anna Wintour, Sonny Mehta, and Jonathan Karp—forces who shaped the media industry as we know it today. Infused with Orlean’s signature warmth and wit, Joyride is a must-read for anyone who hungers to start, build, and sustain a creative life. Orlean inspires us to seek out daily inspiration and rediscover the marvels that surround us.

#72
King Sorrow: A Novel

King Sorrow: A Novel

by Joe Hill
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From #1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill, a chilling tale of modern-world dangers, dark academia, and the unexpected consequences of revenge as six friends dabble in the occult and are tragically, horrifyingly successful… calling forth an evil entity that demands regular human sacrifice. “A brilliantly Faustian fable with a heart as huge as a dragon’s, and a stinging twist in its tail. I devoured it.” —Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in Suite 11 Arthur Oakes is a reader, a dreamer, and a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters, exceptional library, and beautiful buildings. But his idyll—and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot—is shattered when a local drug dealer and her partner corner him into one of the worst crimes he can imagine: stealing rare books from the college library. Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for comfort and help. Together they dream up a wild, fantastical scheme to free Arthur from the cruel trap in which he finds himself. Wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren suggests using the unnerving Crane journal (bound in the skin of its author) to summon a dragon to do their bidding. The others—brave, beautiful Alison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen—don’t hesitate to join Colin in an effort to smash reality and bring a creature of the impossible into our world. But there’s nothing simple about dealing with dragons, and their pact to save Arthur becomes a terrifying bargain in which the six must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow every year—or become his next meal.

#73
Lone Wolf

Lone Wolf

by Adam Weymouth
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An intimate account of an epic walking journey through a tense and shifting Europe in the footsteps of one extraordinary wolf. In the winter of 2011, a young wolf, named Slavc by the scientists who collared him, left his natal pack's territory in Slovenia, embarking on what would become a two thousand kilometre trek to northern Italy. There, he found a mate—named Juliet—and they produced the first pack in the region in a hundred years. A decade later, captivated by Slavc's journey, Adam Weymouth set out to walk the same route. As he made his way through mountainous terrain, villages and farmland, he bore witness to the fears and harsh realities of those living on the margins of rural society at a time of deep political and social flux, for whom the surging wolf population posed an existential threat. In Lone Wolf, Weymouth interrogates how the wolf—loved and loathed, vilified and romanticized throughout history—is re-emerging in wild and cultivated landscapes; how the borders between us and them are slipping away; and what our deep-rooted fear of the mysterious creature really means. Sharply observed, searching, poetic and revealing, Lone Wolf is a story of wildness and of the human desire for order in an ever-evolving world.

#74
Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar

Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar

by Katie Yee
Amazon Bookshop

A Chinese American woman spins tragedy into comedy when her life falls apart in a taut, wry debut novel that grapples with grief, motherhood, and myths—perfect for fans of Joan Is Okay and Crying in H Mart. A man and a woman walk into a restaurant. The woman expects a lovely night filled with endless plates of samosas. Instead, she finds out her husband is having an affair with a woman named Maggie. A short while after, her chest starts to ache. She walks into an examination room, where she finds out the pain in her breast isn’t just heartbreak—it’s cancer. She decides to call the tumor Maggie. Unfolding in fragments over the course of the ensuing months, Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar follows the narrator as she embarks on a journey of grief, healing, and reclamation. She starts talking to Maggie (the tumor), getting acquainted with her body’s new inhabitant. She overgenerously creates a “Guide to My Husband: A User’s Manual” for Maggie (the other woman), hoping to ease the process of discovering her ex-husband’s whims and quirks. She turns her children’s bedtime stories into retellings of Chinese folklore passed down by her own mother, in an attempt to make them fall in love with their shared culture—and to maybe save herself in the process. In the style of Jenny Offill and the tradition of Nora Ephron’s hilarious and devastating writing on heartbreak and womanhood, Maggie is a master class in transforming personal tragedy into a form of defiant comedy.

#75
Shadow Ticket

Shadow Ticket

by Thomas Pynchon
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The new novel from Thomas Pynchon, bestselling and award-winning author of Gravity's Rainbow, The Crying of Lot 49, Vineland, and Inherent Vice. “A masterpiece.” —The Telegraph “Bonkers and brilliant fun.” —The Washington Post “Late Pynchon at his finest. Dark as a vampire’s pocket, light-fingered as a jewel thief, Shadow Ticket capers across the page with breezy, baggy-pants assurance — and then pauses on its way down the fire escape just long enough to crack your heart open.” —Los Angeles Times Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labor-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it, he’s been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where there’s no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement—and of course no sign of the runaway heiress he’s supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them, none of which Hicks is qualified, forget about being paid, to deal with. Surrounded by history he has no grasp on and can’t see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for Hicks is it’s the dawn of the Big Band Era and as it happens he’s a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him somehow to Lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world, which may no longer exist, is another question.

#76
Sunrise on the Reaping a Hunger Games Novel

Sunrise on the Reaping a Hunger Games Novel

by Suzanne Collins
Amazon Bookshop

The phenomenal fifth book in the Hunger Games series! When you've been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for? As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Haymitch's name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He's torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who's nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he's been set up to fail. But there's something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

#77
The Book of Guilt: A novel

The Book of Guilt: A novel

by Catherine Chidgey
Amazon Bookshop

In 1979, in a version of England where nobody won WWII, 13-year-old triplets are the only boys left in an orphanage whose dark secret is the reason for their existence - and the key to their survival. After a very different outcome to WWII than the one history recorded, 1979 England is a country ruled by a government whose aims have sinister underpinnings and alliances. In the Hampshire countryside, 13-year-old triplets Vincent, Lawrence and William are the last remaining residents at the Captain Scott Home for Boys, where every day they must take medicine to protect themselves from a mysterious illness to which many of their friends have succumbed. The lucky ones who recover are allowed to move to Margate, a seaside resort of mythical proportions. In nearby Exeter, 13-year-old Nancy lives a secluded life with her parents, who dote on her but never let her leave the house. As the triplets' lives begin to intersect with Nancy's, bringing to light a horrifying truth about their origins and their likely fate, the children must unite to escape - and survive.

#80
The Compound

The Compound

by Aisling Rawle
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Author: S.A. Bodeen. Publisher: Square Fish Pages: 272 Publication Date: 2009 Edition: First Edition Binding: Paperback MSRP: 10.99 ISBN13: 9780312578602 ISBN: 0312578601 Language: en Store Location: Drama Paperback "Book cover image may be different than what appears on the actual book."

#82
The Possession of Alba Díaz

The Possession of Alba Díaz

by Isabel Cañas
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When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn’t trust…from bestselling author Isabel Cañas. In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family’s isolated mine for refuge. But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bare their teeth: Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions. She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. Something angry. Something wrong. Elías, haunted by a troubled past, came to the New World to make his fortune and escape his family’s legacy of greed. Alba, as his cousin’s betrothed, is none of his business. Which is of course why he can’t help but notice the growing tension between them every time she enters the room…and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon’s thirst for blood gets stronger. In the fight for her life, Alba and Elías become entangled with the occult, the Church, long-kept secrets, and each other… not knowing that one of these things will spell their doom.

#84
The Sisters

The Sisters

by Jonas Hassen Khemiri
Amazon Bookshop

Instant USA Today Bestseller! Drawing on the little-known true story of one tragic night at an Ozarks dance hall in the author’s Missouri hometown, this beautifully written, endearingly nostalgic novel picks up 50 years later for a folksy, character-driven portrayal of small-town life, split second decisions, and the ways family secrets reverberate through generations. From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention for readers of Kristy Woodson Harvey, Donna Everhart, Sue Monk Kidd, Jeannette Walls, and Rita Mae Brown… "Anderson weaves a rich and poignant tale of a small Ozarks town's factual tragedy, its generational secrets and the juxtapose of searching and belonging. Vivid and evocative, this is a debut to savor." —Kim Michele Richardson, New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek series Daisy Flowers is fifteen in 1978 when her free-spirited mother dumps her in Possum Flats, Missouri. It’s a town that sounds like roadkill and, in Daisy’s eyes, is every bit as dead. Sentenced to spend the summer living with her grandmother, the wry and irreverent town mortician, Daisy draws the line at working for the family business, Flowers Funeral Home. Instead, she maneuvers her way into an internship at the local newspaper where, sorting through the basement archives, she learns of a mysterious tragedy from fifty years earlier… On a sweltering, terrible night in 1928, an explosion at the local dance hall left dozens of young people dead, shocking and scarring a town that still doesn’t know how or why it happened. Listed among the victims is a name that’s surprisingly familiar to Daisy, revealing an irresistible family connection to this long-ago accident. Obsessed with investigating the horrors and heroes of that night, Daisy soon discovers Possum Flats holds a multitude of secrets for a small town. And hardly anyone who remembers the tragedy is happy to have some teenaged hippie asking questions about it – not the fire-and-brimstone preacher who found his calling that tragic night; not the fed-up police chief; not the mayor’s widow or his mistress; not even Daisy’s own grandmother, a woman who’s never been afraid to raise eyebrows in the past, whether it’s for something she’s worn, sworn, or done for a living. Some secrets are guarded by the living, while others are kept by the dead, but as buried truths gradually come into the light, they’ll force a reckoning at last. Inspired by the true story of the Bond Dance Hall explosion, a tragedy that took place in the author’s hometown of West Plains, Missouri on April 13, 1928. The cause of the blast has never been determined. “A vivid blend of sensorial writing, historical detail, and memorable characters await in this compelling, surprising, insightful story of the weight of long-held secrets and the resulting hunger for truth.” —Susan Meissner, USA Today bestselling author of Only the Beautiful

#85
The Slip

The Slip

by Lucas Schaefer
Amazon Bookshop

NATIONAL BESTSELLER | WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2025 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, People, LitHub, Debutiful, and CrimeReads For readers of Jonathan Franzen and Nathan Hill comes a haymaker of an American novel about a missing teenage boy, cases of fluid and mistaken identity, and the transformative power of boxing. Austin, Texas: It’s the summer of 1998, and there’s a new face on the scene at Terry Tucker’s Boxing Gym. Sixteen-year-old Nathaniel Rothstein has never felt comfortable in his own skin, but under the tutelage of a swaggering, Haitian-born ex-fighter named David Dalice, he begins to come into his own. Even the boy’s slightly stoned uncle, Bob Alexander, who is supposed to be watching him for the summer, notices the change. Nathaniel is happier, more confident—tanner, even. Then one night he vanishes, leaving little trace behind. Across the city, Charles Rex, now going simply by “X,” has been undergoing a teenage transformation of his own, trolling the phone sex hotline that his mother works, seeking an outlet for everything that feels wrong about his body, looking for intimacy and acceptance in a culture that denies him both. As a surprising and unlikely romance blooms, X feels, for a moment, like he might have found the safety he’s been searching for. But it's never that simple. More than a decade later, Nathaniel’s uncle Bob receives a shocking tip, propelling him to open his own investigation into his nephew’s disappearance. The resulting search involves gymgoers past and present, including a down-on-his-luck twin and his opportunistic brother; a rookie cop determined to prove herself; and Alexis Cepeda, a promising lightweight, who crossed the US-Mexico border when he was only fourteen, carrying with him a license bearing the wrong name and face. Bobbing and weaving across the ever-shifting canvas of a changing country, The Slip is an audacious, daring look at sex and race in America that builds to an unforgettable collision in the center of the ring.

#87
Three Days in June: A Novel

Three Days in June: A Novel

by Anne Tyler
Amazon Bookshop

A new Anne Tyler novel destined to be an instant classic: a socially awkward mother of the bride navigates the days before and after her daughter's wedding. Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit. But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past. Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life, Three Days in June is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer at the height of her powers.

#88
Vera, Or, Faith

Vera, Or, Faith

by Gary Shteyngart
Amazon Bookshop

A poignant, sharp-eyed, and bitterly funny tale of a family struggling to stay together in a country rapidly coming apart, told through the eyes of their wondrous ten-year-old daughter, by the bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story and Our Country Friends “A novel you can read in one sitting that will stay with you forever.”—Karen Russell “Very funny, very sad, very sharp, and completely delightful.”—Elif Batuman “A brilliant fable about childhood, and so much more, in our broken country.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: The New York Times, Time, The Washington Post, Vulture, Publishers Weekly, Literary Hub, AV Club The Bradford-Shmulkin family is falling apart. A very modern blend of Russian, Jewish, Korean, and New England WASP, they love one another deeply but the pressures of life in an unstable America are fraying their bonds. There's Daddy, a struggling, cash-thirsty editor whose Russian heritage gives him a surprising new currency in the upside-down world of twenty-first-century geopolitics; his wife, Anne Mom, a progressive, underfunded blue blood from Boston who's barely holding the household together; their son, Dylan, whose blond hair and Mayflower lineage provide him pride of place in the newly forming American political order; and, above all, the young Vera, half-Jewish, half-Korean, and wholly original. Observant, sensitive, and always writing down new vocabulary words, Vera wants only three things in life: to make a friend at school; Daddy and Anne Mom to stay together; and to meet her birth mother, Mom Mom, who will at last tell Vera the secret of who she really is and how to ensure love's survival in this great, mad, imploding world. Both biting and deeply moving, Vera, or Faith is a boldly imagined story of family and country told through the clear and tender eyes of a child. With a nod to What Maisie Knew, Henry James's classic story of parents, children, and the dark ironies of a rapidly transforming society, Vera, or Faith demonstrates why Shteyngart is, in the words of The New York Times, "one of his generation's most exhilarating writers."

#90
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

by Grady Hendrix
Amazon Bookshop

"Superb ... a perfect horror for our imperfect age.” – The New York Times AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER They were never girls, they were witches . . . . They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, to give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened. Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, frightened, and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who. Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by the adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid . . . and it’s usually paid in blood. In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master” (NPR).

#91
Woodworking

Woodworking

by Emily St. James
Amazon Bookshop

"Big-hearted and hilarious, an ode to authenticity and a must-read in our current times." --Shelby Van Pelt, New York Times bestselling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures An unforgettable and heartwarming book-club debut following a trans high school teacher from a small town in South Dakota who befriends the only other trans woman she knows: one of her students. Erica Skyberg is thirty-five years old, recently divorced--and trans. Not that she's told anyone yet. Mitchell, South Dakota, isn't exactly bursting with other trans women. Instead, she keeps to herself, teaching by day and directing community theater by night. That is, until Abigail Hawkes enters her orbit. Abigail is seventeen, Mitchell High's resident political dissident and Only Trans Girl. It's a role she plays faultlessly, albeit a little reluctantly. She's also annoyed by the idea of spending her senior year secretly guiding her English teacher through her transition. But Abigail remembers the uncertainty--and loneliness--that comes with it. Besides, Erica isn't the only one struggling to shed the weight of others' expectations. As their unlikely friendship evolves, it comes under the scrutiny of their community. And soon, both women--and those closest to them--are forced to ask: Who are we if we choose to hide ourselves? What happens once we disappear into the woodwork? Detransition Baby meets Fleishman is in Trouble in this remarkable debut novel from an incisive contemporary voice. A story about the awkwardness of growing up and the greatest love story of all, that between us and our friends, Woodworking is a tonic for the moment and a celebration of womanhood in all its multifaceted joy.

#92
107 Days

107 Days

by Kamala Harris
Amazon Bookshop

For the first time, and with surprising and revealing insights, former Vice President Kamala Harris tells the story of one of the wildest and most consequential presidential campaigns in American history. Your Secret Service code name is Pioneer. You are the first woman in history to be elected vice president of the United States. On July 21, 2024, your running mate, Joe Biden, announces that he will not be seeking reelection. The presidential election will occur on November 5, 2024. You have 107 days. From the chaos of campaign strategy sessions to the intensity of debate prep under relentless scrutiny and the private moments that rarely make headlines, Kamala Harris offers an unfiltered look at the pressures, triumphs, and heartbreaks of a history-defining race. With behind-the-scenes details and a voice that is both intimate and urgent, this is more than a political memoir—it’s a chronicle of resilience, leadership, and the high stakes of democracy in action. Written with candor, a unique perspective, and the pace of a page-turning novel, 107 Days takes you inside the race for the presidency as no one has ever done before.

#94
All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation

All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation

by Elizabeth Gilbert
Amazon Bookshop

A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF SEPTEMBER 2025 'No one who reads this book will ever forget it' Meg Mason 'An absolute masterclass and truth-bomb ... I think many people will be shaken awake by this book' Emma Gannon In her first non-fiction book in a decade, the no. 1 bestselling writer who taught millions of readers to live authentically (Eat Pray Love) and creatively (Big Magic) shows how to break free. In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: the two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe. What if your most beautiful love story turned into your biggest nightmare? What if the dear friend who taught you so much about your self-destructive tendencies became the unstable partner with whom you disastrously reenacted every one of them? And what if your most devastating heartbreak opened a pathway to your greatest awakening? All the Way to the River is a landmark memoir that will resonate with anyone who has ever been captive to love – or to any other passion, substance or craving – and who yearns, at long last, for liberation.

#96
August Lane

August Lane

by Regina Black
Amazon Bookshop

From the author of The Art of Scandal comes a small town romance about the visibility of Black women’s voices in country music, for readers of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev. Every Thursday night, former country music heartthrob Luke Randall has to sing “Another Love Song.” God, he hates that song. But performing his lone hit at an interstate motel lounge is the only regular money he still has. Following another lackluster performance at the rock bottom of his career, Luke receives the opportunity of his dreams, opening for his childhood idol—90’s era Black country music star, JoJo Lane, who’s being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. But the concert is in Arcadia, Arkansas, the small hometown he swore he’d never see again. Going back means facing a painful past of abuse and neglect. It also means facing JoJo’s daughter, August Lane—the woman who wrote the lyrics he’s always claimed as his own. August also hates that song. But she hates Luke Randall even more. When he shows up ten years too late to apologize for his betrayal, she isn’t interested in making amends. Instead, she threatens to expose his lies unless he co-writes a new song with her and performs it at the concert, something she hopes will launch her out of her mother's shadow and into a songwriting career of her own. Desperate to keep his secret, Luke agrees to put on the rogue performance, despite the risk of losing his shot at a new record deal. When Luke’s guitar reunites with August’s soulful alto, neither can deny that the passionate bond they formed as teenagers is still there. As the concert nears, August will have to choose between an overdue public reckoning with the boy who betrayed her, or trusting the man he’s become to write a different love song.

#98
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

by Kylie Lee Baker
Amazon Bookshop

"A compelling, gory, ghostly romp." —Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie "This is what it felt like to live in New York City during lockdown: haunted, absurd, terrifying, ridiculous, and full of hungry ghosts." —Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House In this explosive horror novel, a woman is haunted by inner trauma, hungry ghosts, and a serial killer as she confronts the brutal violence experienced by East Asians during the pandemic. Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. But none of that seems so terrible when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister, Delilah, being pushed in front of a train. Before fleeing the scene, the murderer shouted two words: bat eater. So the bloody messes don’t really bother Cora—she’s more bothered by the germs on the subway railing, the bare hands of a stranger, the hidden viruses in every corner, and the bite marks on her coffee table. Of course, ever since Delilah was killed in front of her, Cora can’t be sure what's real and what’s in her head. She pushes away all feelings and ignores the advice of her aunt to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open. But she can't ignore the dread in her stomach as she keeps finding bat carcasses at crime scenes, or the scary fact that all her recent cleanups have been the bodies of East Asian women. As Cora will soon learn, you can’t just ignore hungry ghosts. For fans of Stephen Graham Jones and Gretchen Felker-Martin, Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng is a wildly original, darkly humorous, and subversive contemporary novel from a striking new voice in horror.

#99
Bread of Angels: A Memoir

Bread of Angels: A Memoir

by Patti Smith
Amazon Bookshop

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A radiant new memoir from artist and writer Patti Smith, author of the National Book Award winner Just Kids A TIME BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR “God whispers through a crease in the wallpaper,” writes Patti Smith in this moving account of her life. A post–World War II childhood unfolds in a condemned housing complex where we enter the child’s world of the imagination. Smith, the captain of her loyal and beloved sibling army, vanquishes bullies, communes with the king of tortoises, and searches for sacred silver pennies. The most intimate of Smith’s memoirs, Bread of Angels takes us through her teenage years where the first glimmers of art and romance take hold. Arthur Rimbaud and Bob Dylan emerge as creative role models as she begins to write poetry then lyrics, ultimately merging both into the songs of iconic recordings such as Horses, Wave, and Easter. She leaves it all behind to marry her one true love, Fred Sonic Smith, with whom she creates a life of devotion and adventure on a canal in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. Here, she invents a room of her own, a low table, a Persian cup, inkwell and pen, entering at dawn to write. The couple spend nights in their landlocked Chris-Craft studying nautical maps and charting new adventures as they start a family. A series of profound losses mark her life. Grief and gratitude are braided through years of caring for her children, rebuilding her life and, finally, writing again—the one constant in a life driven by artistic freedom and the power of the imagination to transform the commonplace into the magical, and pain into hope. In the final pages, we meet Smith on the road again, the vagabond who travels to commune with herself, who lives to write and writes to live.

#101
Broken Country

Broken Country

by Clare Leslie Hall
Amazon Bookshop

"Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. ... When Beth's brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn't realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives, for the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager--the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident. As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel's life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences"--

#104
Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free

Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free

by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson
Amazon Bookshop

The riveting hidden history of Claire McCardell, the most influential fashion designer you’ve never heard of. Claire McCardell forever changed fashion—and most importantly, the lives of women. She shattered cultural norms around women’s clothes, and today much of what we wear traces back to her ingenious, rebellious mind. McCardell invented ballet flats and mix-and-match separates, and she introduced wrap dresses, hoodies, leggings, denim, and more into womenswear. She tossed out corsets in favor of a comfortably elegant look and insisted on pockets, even as male designers didn’t see a need for them. She made zippers easy to reach because a woman “may live alone and like it,” McCardell once wrote, “but you may regret it if you wrench your arm trying to zip a back zipper into place.” After World War II, McCardell fought the severe, hyper-feminized silhouette championed by male designers, like Christian Dior. Dior claimed that he wanted to “save women from nature.” McCardell, by contrast, wanted to set women free. Claire McCardell became, as the young journalist Betty Friedan called her in 1955, “The Gal Who Defied Dior.” Filled with personal drama and industry secrets, this story reveals how Claire McCardell built an empire at a time when women rarely made the upper echelons of business. At its core, hers is a story about our right to choose how we dress—and our right to choose how we live.

#105
Daikon: A Novel

Daikon: A Novel

by Samuel Hawley
Amazon Bookshop

"A sweeping and suspenseful novel of love and war, set in Japan during the final days of World War II, with a shocking historical premise: three atomic bombs were actually delivered to the Pacific-not two-and when one of them falls into the hands of the Japanese, the fate of a couple that has been separated from one another becomes entangled with the fate of this strange new device"--

#107
Death of the Author

Death of the Author

by Nnedi Okorafor
Amazon Bookshop

THE INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER Recommended by New York Times Book Review • People • NPR • Rolling Stone • Los Angeles Times • Reader's Digest • and more! “This one has it all.” — George R.R. Martin • “As delicious as it is disorienting.” — Zakiya Dalila Harris • “Suspenseful, timely, and heartfelt.” — People • “Mind-bending.” — New York Times Book Review In this exhilarating tale by New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor, a disabled Nigerian American woman pens a wildly successful Sci-Fi novel, but as her fame rises, she loses control of the narrative—a surprisingly cutting, yet heartfelt drama about art and love, identity and connection, and, ultimately, what makes us human. This is a story unlike anything you’ve read before. The future of storytelling is here. Disabled, disinclined to marry, and more interested in writing than a lucrative career in medicine or law, Zelu has always felt like the outcast of her large Nigerian family. Then her life is upended when, in the middle of her sister’s lavish Caribbean wedding, she’s unceremoniously fired from her university job and, to add insult to injury, her novel is rejected by yet another publisher. With her career and dreams crushed in one fell swoop, she decides to write something just for herself. What comes out is nothing like the quiet, literary novels that have so far peppered her unremarkable career. It’s a far-future epic where androids and AI wage war in the grown-over ruins of human civilization. She calls it Rusted Robots. When Zelu finds the courage to share her strange novel, she does not realize she is about to embark on a life-altering journey—one that will catapult her into literary stardom, but also perhaps obliterate everything her book was meant to be. From Chicago to Lagos to the far reaches of space, Zelu’s novel will change the future not only for humanity, but for the robots who come next. A book-within-a-book that blends the line between writing and being written, Death of the Author is a masterpiece of metafiction that manages to combine the razor-sharp commentary of Yellowface with the heartfelt humanity of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Surprisingly funny, deeply poignant, and endlessly discussable, this is at once the tale of a woman on the margins risking everything to be heard and a testament to the power of storytelling to shape the world as we know it. “An ambitious, inventive tribute to the power of storytelling itself.” — Nikki Erlick, New York Times bestselling author of The Measure “A deeply felt dazzle. A blaze. It is true deep to the bones.” — Luis Alberto Urrea, Pulitzer Prize finalist and bestselling author of The House of Broken Angels "There’s more vivid imagination in a page of Nnedi Okorafor’s work than in whole volumes." — Ursula K. Le Guin

#110
Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife

Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife

by Francesca Wade
Amazon Bookshop

Drawing on never-before-seen interviews, a richly researched, sweeping examination of one of the most influential and mythologized literary figures of the 20th century and her partner’s emergence from the shadows after her death, in the decades-long fight to ensure her legacy. Gertrude Stein’s salon at 27 rue de Fleurus in the 6th arrondissement of Paris is the stuff of literary legend. Many have tried to capture the spirit and glamour of the place that once entertained and fostered the likes of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, but perhaps none as determinedly, and self-consciously, as Stein herself. In this new biography of the polarizing, trailblazing author, collector, salonnière, and tastemaker, Francesca Wade rescues Stein from the tangle of contradictions that has characterized her legacy, expertly presenting us with this towering literary figure as we’ve never seen her before. A genius to her admirers, a charlatan to her detractors, Stein achieved international celebrity in 1933 with her bestselling memoir, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, written in the voice of her devoted partner—a triumph which, ironically, only drew attention away from the avant-garde poetry she called her “real” writing. After Stein’s death in 1946, Alice B. Toklas made it her mission to shepherd all of Stein’s unpublished writing into print, all the while negotiating her own fraught role in the complex mythology they had built together. The biographers who flocked to Stein’s newly opened archive found a surprising trove of secrets which would change Stein’s image forever: a forgotten novel, a cache of love letters, and a series of notebooks which shed entirely new light on her early years in Paris. Pushing beyond the conventions of literary biography, Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife is a bold, innovative examination of the nature of legacy and memory itself, in which Wade uncovers the origins of Stein’s radical writing and reveals new depths to the storied relationship that made it possible. A captivating, brilliant work of biography, Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife is a groundbreaking examination of a true literary giant.

#111
Harlem Rhapsody

Harlem Rhapsody

by Victoria Christopher Murray
Amazon Bookshop

The extraordinary story of Jessie Redmon Fauset whose exhilarating world of friends, rivals, and passions all combined to create the magic that was the Harlem Renaissance, written by Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Personal Librarian. In 1919, as civil and social unrest grips the country, there is a little corner of America, a place called Harlem where something special is stirring. Here, the New Negro is rising and Black pride is evident everywhere…in music, theatre, fashion and the arts. And there on stage in the center of this renaissance is Jessie Redmon Fauset, the new literary editor of the preeminent Negro magazine The Crisis. W.E.B. Du Bois, the founder and editor of The Crisis, has charged her with discovering young writers whose words will change the world. Jessie attacks the challenge with fervor, quickly finding sixteen-year-old Countee Cullen, seventeen-year-old Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen, who becomes one of her best friends. Under Jessie’s leadership, The Crisis thrives, the writers become notable and magazine subscriptions soar. Every Negro writer in the country wants their work published in the magazine now known for its groundbreaking poetry and short stories. Jessie’s rising star is shining bright….but her relationship with W.E.B. could jeopardize all that she’s built. The man, considered by most to be the leader of Black America, is not only Jessie’s boss, he’s her lover. And neither his wife, nor their fourteen-year-age difference can keep the two apart. Their torrid and tumultuous affair is complicated by a secret desire that Jessie harbors — to someday, herself, become the editor of the magazine, a position that only W.E.B. Du Bois has held. In the face of overwhelming sexism and racism, Jessie must balance her drive with her desires. However, as she strives to preserve her legacy, she’ll discover the high cost of her unparalleled success.

#113
How to Dodge a Cannonball: A Novel

How to Dodge a Cannonball: A Novel

by Dennard Dayle
Amazon Bookshop

How to Dodge a Cannonball is a razor-sharp satire that dives into the heart of the Civil War, hilariously questioning the essence of the fight, not just for territory, but for the soul of America. How to Dodge a Cannonball is funnier than the Civil War should ever be. It follows Anders, a teenage idealist who enlists and reenlists to shape the American Future—as soon as he figures out what that is, who it includes, and why everyone wants him to die for it. Escaping his violently insane mother is a bonus. Anders finds honor as a proud Union flag twirler—until he’s captured. Then he tries life as a diehard Confederate—until fate asks him to die hard for the Confederacy at Gettysburg. Barely alive, Anders limps into a Black Union regiment in a stolen uniform. While visibly white, he claims to be an octoroon, and they claim to believe him. Only then does his life get truly strange. His new brothers are even stranger, including a science-fiction playwright, a Haitian double agent, and a former slave feuding with God. Despite his best efforts, Anders starts seeing the war through their eyes, sparking ill-timed questions about who gets to be American or exploit the theater of war. Dennard Dayle’s satire spares no one as doomed charges, draft riots, gleeful arms dealers, and native suppression campaigns test everyone’s definition of loyalty. Uproariously funny and revelatory, How to Dodge a Cannonball asks if America is worth fighting for. And then answers loudly. Read it while it’s still legal.

#115
Mark Twain

Mark Twain

by Ron Chernow
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The #1 New York Times Bestseller! One of Barack Obama's Summer Reading List Picks “Comprehensive, enthralling . . . Mark Twain flows like the Mississippi River, its prose propelled by Mark Twain’s own exuberance.” —The Boston Globe “Chernow writes with such ease and clarity . . . For all its length and detail, [Mark Twain] is deeply absorbing throughout.” — The Washington Post Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow illuminates the full, fascinating, and complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American literature, Mark Twain Before he was Mark Twain, he was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Born in 1835, the man who would become America’s first, and most influential, literary celebrity spent his childhood dreaming of piloting steamboats on the Mississippi. But when the Civil War interrupted his career on the river, the young Twain went west to the Nevada Territory and accepted a job at a local newspaper, writing dispatches that attracted attention for their brashness and humor. It wasn’t long before the former steamboat pilot from Missouri was recognized across the country for his literary brilliance, writing under a pen name that he would immortalize. In this richly nuanced portrait of Mark Twain, acclaimed biographer Ron Chernow brings his considerable powers to bear on a man who shamelessly sought fame and fortune, and crafted his persona with meticulous care. After establishing himself as a journalist, satirist, and lecturer, he eventually settled in Hartford with his wife and three daughters, where he went on to write The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He threw himself into the hurly-burly of American culture, and emerged as the nation’s most notable political pundit. At the same time, his madcap business ventures eventually bankrupted him; to economize, Twain and his family spent nine eventful years in exile in Europe. He suffered the death of his wife and two daughters, and the last stage of his life was marked by heartache, political crusades, and eccentric behavior that sometimes obscured darker forces at play. Drawing on Twain’s bountiful archives, including thousands of letters and hundreds of unpublished manuscripts, Chernow masterfully captures the man whose career reflected the country’s westward expansion, industrialization, and foreign wars, and who was the most important white author of his generation to grapple so fully with the legacy of slavery. Today, more than one hundred years after his death, Twain’s writing continues to be read, debated, and quoted. In this brilliant work of scholarship, a moving tribute to the writer’s talent and humanity, Chernow reveals the magnificent and often maddening life of one of the most original characters in American history.

#116
Not Quite Dead Yet: A Novel

Not Quite Dead Yet: A Novel

by Holly Jackson
Amazon Bookshop

From the#1 New York Times bestselling author of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. The stunning hardcover of Not Quite Dead features a custom-stamped case, beautiful endpapers, and a premium dust jacket! In seven days Jet Mason will be dead. Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, and back living with her parents, she's still waiting for her life to begin. I'll do it later, she always says. She has time. Until Halloween night, when she is violently attacked by an unseen intruder, suffering a catastrophic head injury. Doctors are certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a deadly aneurysm. Jet never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend. She has at most seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she's absolutely determined to finally finish something: Jet is going to solve her own murder.

#119
Pick a Colour

Pick a Colour

by Souvankham Thammavongsa
Amazon Bookshop

From Giller Prize and O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa comes a revelatory novel about loneliness, love, labor, and class, an intimate and sharply written book following a nail salon owner as she toils away for the privileged clients who don't even know her true name. “I live in a world of Susans. I got name tags for everyone who works at this nail salon, and on every one is printed the name 'Susan.'" Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer's day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound complexity. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complex power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange. As the day's work grinds on, the friction between Ning's two identities—as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances—will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning. Told over a single day with razor-sharp precision and wit, Pick a Color confirms Souvankham Thammavongsa's place as literature's premier chronicler of the immigrant experience, in its myriad, complex, and slyly subversive forms.

#121
Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy

Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy

by Mary Roach
Amazon Bookshop

Instant New York Times Bestseller One of Literary Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025 A Goodreads Readers' Most Anticipated Fall Book From the New York Times best-selling author of Stiff and Fuzz, a rollicking exploration of the quest to re-create the impossible complexities of human anatomy. The body is the most complex machine in the world, and the only one for which you cannot get a replacement part from the manufacturer. For centuries, medicine has reached for what’s available—sculpting noses from brass, borrowing skin from frogs and hearts from pigs, crafting eye parts from jet canopies and breasts from petroleum by-products. Today we’re attempting to grow body parts from scratch using stem cells and 3D printers. How are we doing? Are we there yet? In Replaceable You, Mary Roach explores the remarkable advances and difficult questions prompted by the human body’s failings. When and how does a person decide they’d be better off with a prosthetic than their existing limb? Can a donated heart be made to beat forever? Can an intestine provide a workable substitute for a vagina? Roach dives in with her characteristic verve and infectious wit. Her travels take her to the OR at a legendary burn unit in Boston, a “superclean” xeno-pigsty in China, and a stem cell “hair nursery” in the San Diego tech hub. She talks with researchers and surgeons, amputees and ostomates, printers of kidneys and designers of wearable organs. She spends time in a working iron lung from the 1950s, stays up all night with recovery techs as they disassemble and reassemble a tissue donor, and travels across Mongolia with the cataract surgeons of Orbis International. Irrepressible and accessible, Replaceable You immerses readers in the wondrous, improbable, and surreal quest to build a new you.

#123
Spent: A Comic Novel

Spent: A Comic Novel

by Alison Bechdel
Amazon Bookshop

The celebrated and beloved New York Times bestselling author of the modern classic Fun Home presents a laugh-out-loud, brilliant, and passionately political work of autofiction. “Truthful, rueful and delightful.”—LA Times In Alison Bechdel’s hilariously skewering and gloriously cast new comic novel confection, a cartoonist named Alison Bechdel, running a pygmy goat sanctuary in Vermont, is existentially irked by a climate-challenged world and a citizenry on the brink of civil war. She wonders: Can she pull humanity out of its death spiral by writing a scathingly self-critical memoir about her own greed and privilege? Meanwhile, Alison’s first graphic memoir about growing up with her father, a taxidermist who specialized in replicas of Victorian animal displays, has been adapted into a highly successful TV series. It’s a phenomenon that makes Alison, formerly on the cultural margins, the envy of her friend group (recognizable as characters, now middle-aged and living communally in Vermont, from Bechdel’s beloved comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For). As the TV show Death and Taxidermy racks up Emmy after Emmy—and when Alison’s Pauline Bunyanesque partner Holly posts an instructional wood-chopping video that goes viral—Alison’s own envy spirals. Why couldn’t she be the writer for a critically lauded and wildly popular reality TV show…like Queer Eye...showing people how to free themselves from consumer capitalism and live a more ethical life?!! Spent’s rollicking and masterful denouement—making the case for seizing what’s true about life in the world at this moment, before it’s too late—once again proves that “nobody does it better” (New York Times Book Review) than the real Alison Bechdel.

#125
Strange Pictures: A Novel

Strange Pictures: A Novel

by Uketsu
Amazon Bookshop

“Delightfully macabre and fiendishly clever. Seemingly unconnected stories tie themselves into a complicated knot, which Uketsu masterfully unravels.”—G. T. Karber, author of the national bestseller Murdle “Uketsu is a disrupter, the master of quiet horror.”—Janice Hallett, internationally bestselling author of The Appeal “Wonderfully complex and carefully crafted . . . Uketsu keeps readers guessing until the very end.” —New York Times Book Review The spine-tingling "triumphant international debut" (Publishers Weekly starred review) that has taken Japan by storm—an eerie fresh take on mystery-horror in which a series of seemingly innocent pictures draws you into a disturbing web of unsolved mysteries and shattered psyches. An exploration of the macabre, where the seemingly mundane takes on a terrifying significance. . . . A pregnant woman's sketches on a seemingly innocuous blog conceal a chilling warning. A child's picture of his home contains a dark secret message. A sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments leads an amateur sleuth down a rabbithole that will reveal a horrifying reality. Structured around these nine childlike drawings, each holding a disturbing clue, Uketsu invites readers to piece together the mystery behind each and the over-arching backstory that connects them all. Strange Pictures is the internationally bestselling debut from mystery horror YouTube sensation Uketsu—an enigmatic masked figure who has become one of Japan's most talked about contemporary authors. Translated from the Japanese by Jim Rion. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

#129
The Bewitching

The Bewitching

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Amazon Bookshop

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie multigenerational horror saga from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic. “In Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s sure hands, every uncovered secret is fraught with intrigue and creeping horror.”—Tananarive Due, Bram Stoker Award–winning author of The Reformatory “Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva—stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that’s why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales. In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story: Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances. As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay’s manuscript, she begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These disturbing events also echo the stories Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had a terrifying encounter with a witch. Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened the lives of her great-grandmother and Beatrice Tremblay is now threatening her own in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved.

#131
THE CATCH

THE CATCH

by Yrsa Daley-Ward
Amazon Bookshop

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR (SO FAR) BY THE NEW YORK TIMES A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW BOOK CLUB SELECTION Best Books of Summer: Washington Post, TIME, USA Today, Forbes Most Anticipated Books of 2025: TIME, Publishers Weekly, Lit Hub, We Are Bookish, The Millions and Book Riot A Belletrist (Emma Roberts) Featured Book A Prose Hose (Eli Rallo) Book Club Selection The inaugural novel in the Well-Read Black Girl Books series, The Catch is a darkly whimsical tale of women daring to live and create with impunity. Twin sisters Clara and Dempsey have always struggled to relate, their familial bond severed after their mother vanished into the Thames. As infants they were adopted into different families, Clara sent to live with a successful, upper-class couple, and Dempsey with a sullen, unaffectionate city councilor. In adulthood, they are content to be all but estranged, until Clara sees a woman who looks exactly like their mother on the streets of London. The catch: this version of Serene, aged not a day, has enjoyed a childless life—the very life, it seems, she might have had if the girls had never been born. As with most things, Clara and Dempsey cannot see eye to eye on the confounding appearance of this woman. Clara, a celebrity author with a penchant for excessive drinking and one-night stands, is all too willing to welcome the confident and temperamental Serene into her home. But cloistered Dempsey, who makes a modest living doing menial data entry work from the confines of her apartment, is dubious of the whole situation, believing this all to be the insidious ruse of a con woman. Clashing over this stranger who burrows deeper and deeper into their lives, the sisters hurtle toward an altercation that threatens their very existence, forcing them to finally confront their pasts—together. In her riveting first foray into fiction, Yrsa Daley-Ward conjures a kaleidoscopic multiverse of daughterhood and mother-want, exploring the sacrifices that women must make for self-actualization. The result is a marvel of a debut novel that boldly asks, “How can it ever, ever be a crime to choose yourself?”

#133
The Colony

The Colony

by Annika Norlin
Amazon Bookshop

In the bestselling tradition of In the Heart of the Sea, The Colony, “an impressively researched” (Rocky Mountain News) account of the history of America’s only leper colony located on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, is “an utterly engrossing look at a heartbreaking chapter” (Booklist) in American history and a moving tale of the extraordinary people who endured it. Beginning in 1866 and continuing for over a century, more than eight thousand people suspected of having leprosy were forcibly exiled to the Hawaiian island of Molokai -- the longest and deadliest instance of medical segregation in American history. Torn from their homes and families, these men, women, and children were loaded into shipboard cattle stalls and abandoned in a lawless place where brutality held sway. Many did not have leprosy, and many who did were not contagious, yet all were ensnared in a shared nightmare. Here, for the first time, John Tayman reveals the complete history of the Molokai settlement and its unforgettable inhabitants. It's an epic of ruthless manhunts, thrilling escapes, bizarre medical experiments, and tragic, irreversible error. Carefully researched and masterfully told, The Colony is a searing tale of individual bravery and extraordinary survival, and stands as a testament to the power of faith, compassion, and the human spirit.

#134
The Devils (The Devils, #1)

The Devils (The Devils, #1)

by Joe Abercrombie
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A brand-new epic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Joe Abercrombie, featuring a notorious band of anti-heroes on a delightfully bloody and raucous journey Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds. Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends. Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it's a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.

#135
The Everlasting

The Everlasting

by Alix E. Harrow
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From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part–even if it breaks his heart. Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters—but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten. Centuries later, Owen Mallory—failed soldier, struggling scholar—falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives—and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs. But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend—if they want to tell a different story--they’ll have to rewrite history itself. "Alix E. Harrow is an exceptional, undeniable talent." —Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six "An utter masterpiece... I loved every single page." —Rachel Gillig, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of One Dark Window At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

#136
The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 (Revolution Trilogy, #2)

The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 (Revolution Trilogy, #2)

by Rick Atkinson
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In the second volume of the landmark American Revolution trilogy by the Pulitzer Prize–winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The British Are Coming, George Washington’s army fights on the knife edge between victory and defeat. The first twenty-one months of the American Revolution—which began at Lexington and ended at Princeton—was the story of a ragged group of militiamen and soldiers fighting to forge a new nation. By the winter of 1777, the exhausted Continental Army could claim only that it had barely escaped annihilation by the world’s most formidable fighting force. Two years into the war, George III is as determined as ever to bring his rebellious colonies to heel. But the king’s task is now far more complicated: fighting a determined enemy on the other side of the Atlantic has become ruinously expensive, and spies tell him that the French and Spanish are threatening to join forces with the Americans. Prize-winning historian Rick Atkinson provides a riveting narrative covering the middle years of the Revolution. Stationed in Paris, Benjamin Franklin woos the French; in Pennsylvania, George Washington pleads with Congress to deliver the money, men, and materiel he needs to continue the fight. In New York, General William Howe, the commander of the greatest army the British have ever sent overseas, plans a new campaign against the Americans—even as he is no longer certain that he can win this searing, bloody war. The months and years that follow bring epic battles at Brandywine, Saratoga, Monmouth, and Charleston, a winter of misery at Valley Forge, and yet more appeals for sacrifice by every American committed to the struggle for freedom. Timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the Revolution, Atkinson’s brilliant account of the lethal conflict between the Americans and the British offers not only deeply researched and spectacularly dramatic history, but also a new perspective on the demands that a democracy makes on its citizens.

#141
The Isle in the Silver Sea

The Isle in the Silver Sea

by Tasha Suri
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From World Fantasy Award-winning author Tasha Suri comes The Isle in the Silver Sea, a heart-shattering standalone romantasy of sapphic longing, medieval folklore and a love that spans the centuries—in a stunning hardcover edition featuring designed endpapers, silver foiling, and a soft matte finish! ★ “Beautifully inevitable and surprising at the same time." –Kirkus (Starred Review) ★ “A sensuous and haunting story of love beyond time.” –Library Journal (Starred Review) In an England fuelled by stories, the knight and the witch are fated to fall in love and doom each other over and over, the same tale retold over hundreds of lifetimes. Simran is a witch of the woods. Vina is a knight of the Queen’s court. When the two women begin to fall for each other, how can they surrender to their desires, when to give in is to destroy each other? As they seek a way to break the cycle, a mysterious assassin begins targeting tales like theirs. To survive, the two will need to write a story stronger than the one that fate has given to them. But what tale is stronger than The Knight and the Witch?

#146
The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery

The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery

by Siddharth Kara
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From Pulitzer finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Cobalt Red: A notorious slave ship incident that led to the abolition of slavery in the UK and sparked the US abolitionist movement In late October 1780, a slave ship set sail from the Netherlands, bound for Africa’s Windward and Gold Coasts, where it would take on its human cargo. The Zorg (a Dutch word meaning “care”) was one of thousands of such ships, but the harrowing events that ensued on its doomed journey were unique. After reaching Africa, the Zorg was captured by a privateer and came under British command. With a new captain and crew, the ship was crammed with 442 slaves and departed in 1781 for Jamaica. But a series of unpredictable weather events and mistakes in navigation left the ship drastically off course and running out of water. So a proposition was put forth: Save the crew and the most valuable of the slaves—by throwing dozens of people, starting with women and children, overboard. What followed was a fascinating legal drama in England’s highest court that turned the brutal calculus of slavery into front-page news. The case of the Zorg catapulted the nascent anti-slavery movement from a minor evangelical cause to one of the most consequential moral campaigns in history—sparking the abolitionist movement in both England and the young United States Siddharth Kara utilizes primary-source research, gripping storytelling, and painstaking investigation to uncover the Zorg’s journey, the lives and fates of the slaves on board, and the mysterious identity of the abolitionist who finally revealed the truth of what happened on the ship.

#148
These Summer Storms

These Summer Storms

by Sarah MacLean
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From author Sarah MacLean, a razor-sharp, wildly sexy novel about a wealthy New England family’s long-overdue reckoning . . . and the one week that threatens to tear them apart. “Deliciously impossible to put down.”—Jodi Picoult “Addictive.”—Ali Hazelwood “A gripping inheritance drama, wrapped around a swoony summer romance.”—The New York Times Book Review Alice Storm hasn’t been welcome at her family’s magnificent private island off the Rhode Island coast in five years—not since she was cast out and built her life beyond the Storm name, influence, and untold billions. But the shocking death of her larger-than-life father changes everything. Alice plans to keep her head down, pay her final respects (such as they are), and leave the minute the funeral is over. Unfortunately, her father had other plans. The eccentric, manipulative patriarch left his family a final challenge—an inheritance game designed to upend their world. The rules are clear: spend one week on the island, complete their assigned tasks, and receive the inheritance. But a whole week on Storm Island is no easy task for Alice. Every corner of the sprawling old house is bursting with chaos: Her older sister’s secret love affair. Her brother’s unyielding arrogance. Her younger sister’s constant analysis of the vibes. Her mother’s cold judgment. And all under the stern, watchful gaze of Jack Dean, her father’s intriguing and too-handsome second-in-command. It will be a miracle if Alice manages to escape unscathed. A smart and tender story about the transformative power of grief, love, and family, this luscious novel explores past secrets, present truths, and futures forged in the wake of wild summer storms.

#150
Victorian Psycho: A Novel

Victorian Psycho: A Novel

by Virginia Feito
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Virginia Feito's Mrs. March was hailed as "a brilliant debut . . . [by] a writer who keeps pace with the grandees she invokes" (Sarah Ditum, Guardian)--from Daphne Du Maurier and Shirley Jackson to Patricia Highsmith. Now, Feito returns with her "silver-polish sentences and her eerie psychological acumen" (Constance Grady, Vox) to unleash an entirely new antihero on us all. Grim Wolds, England: Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess--she'll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate's dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family--Mr. Pounds can't keep his eyes off Winifred's chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband's wandering gaze. Compounded with her disdain for the entitled Pounds children, Winifred finds herself struggling at every turn to stifle the violent compulsions of her past. French tutoring and needlework are one way to pass the time, as is admiring the ugly portraits in the gallery . . . and creeping across the moonlit lawns. . . . Patience. Winifred must have patience, for Christmas is coming, and she has very special gifts planned for the dear souls of Ensor House. Brimming with sardonic wit and culminating in a shocking conclusion, Victorian Psycho plunges readers into the chilling mind of an iconic new literary psychopath.

#151
We Love You, Bunny: A Novel

We Love You, Bunny: A Novel

by Mona Awad
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A Most Anticipated Book for Goodreads, The Millions, BookPage, and Book Riot The highly anticipated follow up to the viral sensation Bunny, a brilliantly written, laugh-out-loud funny, dark, and delirious novel set in the Bunny-verse—a world that Margaret Atwood declared “soooo genius.” In the cult classic novel Bunny, Samantha Heather Mackey, a lonely outsider student at a highly selective MFA program in New England, was first ostracized and then seduced by a clique of creepy-sweet rich girls who call themselves “Bunny.” An invitation to the Bunnies’ Smut Salon leads Samantha down a dark rabbit hole (pun intended) into the violently surreal world of their off-campus workshops where monstrous creations are conjured with deadly and wondrous consequences. When We Love You, Bunny opens, Sam has just published her first novel to critical acclaim. But at a New England stop on her book tour, her one-time frenemies, furious at the way they’ve been portrayed, kidnap her. Now a captive audience, it’s her (and our) turn to hear the Bunnies’ side of the story. One by one, they take turns holding the axe, and recount the birth throes of their unholy alliance, their discovery of their unusual creative powers—and the phantasmagoric adventure of conjuring their first creation. With a bound and gagged Sam, we embark on a wickedly intoxicating journey into the heart of dark academia: a fairy tale slasher that explores the wonder and horror of creation itself. Not to mention the transformative powers of love and friendship, Bunny. Frankenstein by way of Heathers, We Love You, Bunny is both a prequel and a sequel, and an unabashedly wild and totally complete stand-alone novel. Open your hearts, Bunny, to another dazzlingly original and darkly hilarious romp in the Bunny-verse from the queen of the fever-dream, Mona Awad.

#153
When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life

When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life

by Steven Pinker
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From one of the world’s most celebrated intellectuals, a brilliantly insightful work that explains how we think about each other’s thoughts about each other’s thoughts, ad infinitum. It sounds impossible, but Steven Pinker shows that we do it all the time. This awareness, which we experience as something that is public or “out there,” is called common knowledge, and it has a momentous impact on our social, political, and economic lives. Common knowledge is necessary for coordination, for making arbitrary but complementary choices like driving on the right, using paper currency, and coalescing behind a political leader or movement. It’s also necessary for social coordination: everything from rendezvousing at a time and place to speaking the same language to forming enduring relationships of friendship, romance, or authority. Humans have a sixth sense for common knowledge, and we create it with signals like laughter, tears, blushing, eye contact, and blunt speech. But people also go to great lengths to avoid common knowledge—to ensure that even if everyone knows something, they can’t know that everyone else knows they know it. And so we get rituals like benign hypocrisy, veiled bribes and threats, sexual innuendo, and pretending not to see the elephant in the room. Pinker shows how the hidden logic of common knowledge can make sense of many of life’s enigmas: financial bubbles and crashes, revolutions that come out of nowhere, the posturing and pretense of diplomacy, the eruption of social media shaming mobs and academic cancel culture, the awkwardness of a first date. Artists and humorists have long mined the intrigues of common knowledge, and Pinker liberally uses their novels, jokes, cartoons, films, and sitcom dialogues to illuminate social life’s tragedies and comedies. Along the way he answers questions like: Why do people hoard toilet paper at the first sign of an emergency? Why are Super Bowl ads filled with ads for crypto? Why, in American presidential primary voting, do citizens typically select the candidate they believe is preferred by others rather than their favorite? Why did Russian authorities arrest a protester who carried a blank sign? Why is it so hard for nervous lovers to say goodbye at the end of a phone call? Why does everyone agree that if we were completely honest all the time, life would be unbearable? Consistently riveting in explaining the paradoxes of human behavior, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows… invites us to understand the ways we try to get into each other’s heads and the harmonies, hypocrisies, and outrages that result.

#154
Wreck: A Novel

Wreck: A Novel

by Catherine Newman
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A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK · INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Wreck is a delight. What an absolute joy to be reunited with Rocky and her family, the characters we all fell in love with in Sandwich. Newman's prose is laugh-out-loud funny. It's also profound. I couldn't stop reading, even though I didn't want it to end.”—J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of The Cliffs “Wreck is the kind of book that pulls up a chair, pours the wine, and dives deep—equal parts hilarious, sharp, and achingly sincere. I didn’t just read it—I felt known by it. A luminous, laugh-out-loud triumph.”—Alison Espach, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding People The acclaimed bestselling author of Sandwich is back with a wonderful novel, full of laughter and heart, about marriage, family, and what happens when life doesn’t go as planned. If you loved Rocky and her family on vacation on Cape Cod, wait until you join them at home two years later. (And if this is your first meeting with this crew, get ready to laugh and cry—and relate.) Rocky, still anxious, nostalgic, and funny, is living in Western Massachusetts with her husband Nick and their daughter Willa, who's back home after college. Their son, Jamie, has taken a new job in New York, and Mort, Rocky’s widowed father, has moved in. It all couldn’t be more ridiculously normal . . . until Rocky finds herself obsessed with a local accident that only tangentially affects them—and with a medical condition that, she hopes, won’t affect them at all. With her signature wit and wisdom, Catherine Newman explores the hidden rules of family, the heavy weight of uncertainty, and the gnarly fact that people—no matter how much you love them—are not always exactly who you want them to be.

#155
You Weren’t Meant to Be Human: A Novel

You Weren’t Meant to Be Human: A Novel

by Andrew Joseph White
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Alien meets Midsommar in this chilling debut adult novel from award-winning author Andrew Joseph White about identity, survival, and transformation amidst an alien invasion in rural West Virginia. Festering masses of worms and flies have taken root in dark corners across Appalachia. In exchange for unwavering loyalty and fresh corpses, these hives offer a few struggling humans salvation. A fresh start. It’s an offer that none refuse. Crane is grateful. Among his hive’s followers, Crane has found a chance to transition, to never speak again, to live a life that won’t destroy him. He even met Levi: a handsome ex-Marine and brutal killer who treats him like a real man, mostly. But when Levi gets Crane pregnant—and the hive demands the child’s birth, no matter the cost—Crane’s desperation to make it stop will drive the community that saved him into a devastating spiral that can only end in blood. You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is a deeply personal horror; a visceral statement about the lives of marginalized people in a hostile world, echoing the works of Stephen Graham Jones and Eric LaRocca.

#156
Your Name Here

Your Name Here

by Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff
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A major literary event over two decades in the making, Your Name Here marks the seismic return of Helen DeWitt (The Last Samurai), and will introduce readers to the riveting voice of Ilya Gridneff. A book of unparalleled scope and vision, Your Name Here is a spectacular honeycomb of books-within-books. In this death-defying feat of ambition, collaborators Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff weave together America's "War on Terror," countless years of literary history, authorial sleight of hand, Scientology, dream analysis, multiple languages, emails, images, graphs, into something wondrous and unique. A metafictional Pygmalion story reminiscent of Charlie Kaufman's Oscar-nominated Adaptation, or Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler; Your Name Here is a rare work of art that captures the process of becoming itself. A reminder that a masterpiece and a doomed voyage look the same at the start.

#161
Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success

Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success

by Jeff Hiller
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"A humorous collection of autobiographical essays from comedian and 'Somebody Somewhere' actor Jeff Hiller, who shares his journey from growing up 'profoundly gay' in 1980s Texas to his experiences as an inept social worker and how he clawed, scraped, andbrawled to Hollywood's lower middle-tier"--

#164
Angel Down: A Novel

Angel Down: A Novel

by Daniel Kraus
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER “A thunderous gallop of a war novel, a new classic, a best-in-class example of speculative fiction.” —The New York Times Book Review The critically acclaimed author of the “crazily enjoyable” (The New York Times) Whalefall returns with an immersive, cinematic novel about five World War I soldiers who stumble upon a fallen angel that could hold the key to ending the war. Private Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through his wits and deception, swindling fellow soldiers at every opportunity. But his survival instincts are put to the ultimate test when he and four other grunts are given a deadly mission: venture into the perilous No Man’s Land to euthanize a wounded comrade. What they find amid the ruined battlefield, however, is not a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel, seemingly struck down by artillery fire. This celestial being may hold the key to ending the brutal conflict, but only if the soldiers can suppress their individual desires and work together. As jealousy, greed, and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell. Angel Down plunges you into the heart of World War I and weaves a polyphonic tale of survival, supernatural wonder, and moral conflict.

#170
Beartooth

Beartooth

by Callan Wink
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“Skip Yellowstone for this rawer version of the West.”—The New York Times Book Review “This taut, compelling novel explores the great outdoors—and a realm of moral uncertainty. . . . A ferociously gripping book.”—The Economist Two brothers in dire straits, living on the edge of Yellowstone, agree to a desperate act of survival in this taut, propulsive novel reminiscent of the works of C.J. Box, Donald Ray Pollock and Larry McMurtry. In an aging, timber house hand-built into the Absaroka-Beartooth mountains, two brothers are struggling to keep up with their debts. They live off the grid, on the fringe of Yellowstone, surviving off the wild after the death of their father. Thad, the elder, is more capable of engaging with things like the truck registration, or the medical bills they can’t afford from their father’s fatal illness, or the tax lien on the cabin their grandfather built, while Hazen is . . . different, more instinctual, deeply in tune with the natural world. Desperate for money, they are approached by a shadowy out-of-towner with a dangerous proposition that will change both of their lives forever. Beartooth is a fast-paced tale with moments of surprising poignancy set in the grandeur of the American West. Evoking the timeless voices of American pastoral storytelling, this is a bracing, masterful novel about survival, revenge, and the bond between brothers.

#173
Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama

Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama

by Alexis Okeowo
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From a New Yorker staff writer and PEN Award winner, a blend of memoir, history, and reportage on one of the most complex and least understood states in America. “In Alabama, we exist at the border of blessing and disaster....” Alexis Okeowo grew up in Montgomery, Alabama—the former seat of the Confederacy—as the daughter of Nigerian immigrants. Here, she weaves her family’s story with her state’s, from Alabama’s forced removal of the Creek nation, making room for enslaved West Africans, to present-day legislative battles for “evolution disclaimers” in biology textbooks. She immerses us in the landscape, no longer one of cotton fields but rather one dominated by auto plants and Amazon warehouses. Defying stereotypes at every turn, Okeowo shows how people can love their home while still acknowledging its sins. In this emotional, perspective-shifting work that is both a memoir and a journalistic triumph, Okeowo investigates her life, other Alabamians’ lives, and the state’s lesser-known histories, to examine why Alabama has been the stage for the most extreme results of the American experiment.

#176
Bring the House Down

Bring the House Down

by Charlotte Runcie
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A theater critic at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe writes a vicious one-star review of a struggling actress he has a one-night stand with in this sharply funny, feminist tinderbox. "Bring the House Down is sharp-witted, wise, and authentic--what a fierce, fantastically funny read."--Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had and Same As It Ever Was Alex Lyons always has his mind made up by the time the curtain comes down at a performance--the show either deserves a five-star rave or a one-star pan. Anything in between is meaningless. On the opening night of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he doesn't deliberate over the rating for Hayley Sinclair's show, nor does he hesitate when the opportunity presents itself to have a one-night stand with the struggling actress. Unaware that she's gone home with the theater critic who's just written a career-ending review of her, Hayley wakes up at his apartment to see his scathing one-star critique in print on the kitchen table, and she's not sure which humiliation offends her the most. So she revamps her show into a viral sensation critiquing Alex Lyons himself--entitled son of a famous actress, serial philanderer, and by all accounts a terrible man. Yet Alex remains unapologetic. As his reputation goes up in flames, he insists on telling his unvarnished version of events to his colleague, Sophie. Through her eyes, we see that the deeper she gets pulled into his downfall, the more conflicted she becomes. After all, there are always two sides to every story. A brilliant Trojan horse of a book about art, power, misogyny, and female rage, Bring the House Down is a searing, insightful, and often hilarious debut that captures the blurred line between reality and performance.

#178
Cannon

Cannon

by Lee Lai
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A LAMBDA Award winner and breakout fiction sensation returns with a darkly funny slice of friendship strife We arrive to wreckage—a restaurant smashed to rubble, with tables and chairs upended riotously. Under the swampy nighttime cover of a Montreal heat-wave, this is where we meet our protagonist, Cannon, dripping in little beads of regret sweat. She was supposed to be closing the restaurant for the night, but instead, well, she destroyed it. The mess feels a bit like a horror-scape—not unlike the horror films Cannon and her best friend, Trish, watch together. Cooking dinner and digging into deep cuts of Australian horror films on their scheduled weekly hangs has become the glue in their rote relationship. In high school, they were each other's lifeline—two queer second-generation Chinese nerds trapped in the suburbs. Now, on the uncool side of their twenties, the essentialness of one another feels harder to pin down. Yet, when our stoic and unbendingly well-behaved Cannon finds herself—very uncharacteristically—surrounded by smashed plates, it is Trish who shows up to pull her the hell outta there. In Cannon, Lee Lai’s much anticipated follow-up to the critically acclaimed and award-winning Stone Fruit, the full palette of a nervous breakdown is just a slice of what Lai has on offer. As Cannon’s shoulders bend under the weight of an aging Gung-gung and an avoidant mother, Lai’s sharp sense of humor and sensitive eye produce a story that will hit readers with a smash.

#181
Culpability

Culpability

by Bruce Holsinger
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From the acclaimed author of the "wise and addictive" (New York Times) The Gifted School comes a riveting family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence. When the Cassidy-Shaws' autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, killing an elderly couple, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver's seat, with his father, Noah, riding shotgun. In the back seat, tweens Alice and Izzy are on their phones, while their mother, Lorelei, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, is absorbed in her work. Yet each family member harbors a secret, implicating them all in the tragic accident. During a weeklong recuperation on the Chesapeake Bay, the family confronts the excruciating moral dilemmas triggered by the crash. Noah tries to hold the family together as a seemingly routine police investigation jeopardizes Charlie's future. Alice and Izzy turn strangely furtive. And Lorelei's odd behavior tugs at Noah's suspicions that there is a darker truth behind the incident--suspicions heightened by the sudden intrusion of Daniel Monet, a tech mogul whose mysterious history with Lorelei hints at betrayal. When Charlie falls for Monet's teenaged daughter, the stakes are raised even higher in this propulsive family drama that is also a fascinating exploration of the moral responsibility and ethical consequences of AI. Culpability explores a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative.

#184
Death of an Ordinary Man

Death of an Ordinary Man

by Sarah Perry
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**SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO BOOK AWARDS NON-FICTION AWARD 2025** 'Please read this book. It may very well change how you live' Rachel Clarke 'I was spellbound' Kathryn Mannix This is not a book about grief: it is a book about dying, the universal aspect of life, and it is a book about family, and care and love. Sarah Perry's father-in-law David died in the autumn of 2022, only nine days after a cancer diagnosis. Until then he'd been a healthy and happy man: he loved stamp collecting, fish and chips, comic novels, his local church, and the Antiques Roadshow. He was in some ways a very ordinary man, but as he began to die, it became clear how extraordinary he was. Sarah and her husband Robert nursed David themselves at home. They bathed and cleaned and dressed him, comforted him in pain, sat with him through waking and sleeping, talked to him, sang to him, prayed with him. Day by day and hour by hour, they witnessed what happens to the body and spirit as death approaches and finally arrives. ‘We cannot be but somewhat changed by this remarkable book’ Daily Telegraph 'By the end I was left shaken, deeply moved' Christos Tsiolkas 'This book will be a lifeline for so many people' Seán Hewitt ‘Sarah is in a league of her own as a writer – I don't know how she does it’ Sara Collins 'To read this book is a privilege, a gift on the craft of dying' Amy Key

#187
Detective Aunty

Detective Aunty

by Uzma Jalaluddin
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“I’ll read anything Uzma Jalaluddin writes.”—New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn “I am such a fan.”—New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry When her grown daughter is suspected of murder, a charming and tenacious widow digs into the case to unmask the real killer in this twisty, page-turning whodunnit—the first book in a cozy new detective series from the acclaimed author of Ayesha at Last. After her husband’s unexpected death eighteen months ago, Kausar Khan never thought she’d receive another phone call as heartbreaking—until her thirty-something daughter, Sana, phones to say that she's been arrested for killing the unpopular landlord of her clothing boutique. Determined to help her child, Kausar heads to Toronto for the first time in nearly twenty years. Returning to the Golden Crescent suburb where she raised her children and where her daughter still lives, Kausar finds that the thriving neighborhood she remembered has changed. The murder of Sana’s landlord is only the latest in a wave of local crimes which have gone unsolved. And the facts of the case are troubling: Sana found the man dead in her shop at a suspiciously early hour, with a dagger from her windowfront display plunged in his chest. And Kausar—a woman with a keen sense of observation and deep wisdom honed by her years—senses there’s more to the story than her daughter is telling. With the help of some old friends and her plucky teenage granddaughter, Kausar digs into the investigation to uncover the truth. Because who better to pry answers from unwilling suspects than a meddlesome aunty? But even Kausar can’t predict the secrets, lies, and betrayals she finds along the way…

#188
Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations

Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations

by Sam Kean
Amazon Bookshop

New York Times's 21 Nonfiction Books Coming This Summer | Boston Globe's Best Summer 2025 Books From “one of America’s smartest and most charming writers” (NPR), an archaeological romp through the entire history of humankind—and through all five senses—from tropical Polynesian islands to forbidding arctic ice floes, and everywhere in between. Whether it’s the mighty pyramids of Egypt or the majestic temples of Mexico, we have a good idea of what the past looked like. But what about our other senses: The tang of Roman fish sauce and the springy crust of Egyptian sourdough? The boom of medieval cannons and the clash of Viking swords? The frenzied plays of an Aztec ballgame...and the chilling reality that the losers might also lose their lives? History often neglects the tastes, textures, sounds, and smells that were an intimate part of our ancestors’ lives, but a new generation of researchers is resurrecting those hidden details, pioneering an exciting new discipline called experimental archaeology. These are scientists gone rogue: They make human mummies. They investigate the unsolved murders of ancient bog bodies. They carve primitive spears and go hunting, then knap their own obsidian blades to skin the game. They build perilous boats and plunge out onto the open sea—all in the name of experiencing history as it was, with all its dangers, disappointments, and unexpected delights. Beloved author Sam Kean joins these experimental archaeologists on their adventures across the globe, from the Andes to the South Seas. He fires medieval catapults, tries his hand at ancient surgery and tattooing, builds Roman-style roads—and, in novelistic interludes, spins gripping tales about the lives of our ancestors with vivid imagination and his signature meticulous research. Lively, offbeat, and filled with stunning revelations about our past, Dinner with King Tut sheds light on days long gone and the intrepid experts resurrecting them today, with startling, lifelike detail and more than a few laughs along the way.

#189
Don’t Trust Fish!

Don’t Trust Fish!

by Neil Sharpson
Amazon Bookshop

An absurdly laugh-out-loud funny picture book about the villainy of fish, illustrated by National Book Award-winning creator Dan Santat "A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on." —Kirkus, starred review Why, dear reader, must you NEVER EVER trust fish? 1) They spend all their time in the water where we can’t see them. 2) Some are as big as a bus—that is not okay. 3) We don't know what they're teaching in their "schools." 4) They are likely plotting our doom. This nature-guide-gone-wrong is a hilarious, off-the-rails exploration of the seemingly innocent animals that live in the water.

#191
Dwelling

Dwelling

by Emily Hunt Kivel
Amazon Bookshop

A dazzling, surrealist fairy tale of a young woman's quest for house and home—from New York to the Texas hinterlands and, maybe, back again. The world is ending. It has been ending for some time. When did the ending begin? Perhaps when Evie’s mother died, or when her father died soon after. Perhaps when her sister, Elena, was forcibly institutionalized in a psychiatric hippie commune in Colorado. Certainly at some point over the last year, as New York City spun down the tubes, as bedbugs and vultures descended, as apartments crumbled to the ground and no one had the time or money to fight it, or even, really, to notice. And then, one day, the ending is complete. Every renter is evicted en masse, leaving only the landlords and owners—the demented, the aristocratic, the luckiest few. Evie—parentless, sisterless, basically friendless, underemployed—has nothing and no one. Except, she remembers, a second cousin in Texas, in a strange town called Gulluck, where nothing is as it seems. And so, in the surreal, dislodged landscape, beyond the known world, a place of albino cicadas and gardeners and thieves, of cobblers and shoemakers and one very large fish, a place governed by mysterious logic and perhaps even miracles, Evie sets out in search of a home. A wry and buoyant fairy tale set at the apex of the housing crisis, Emily Hunt Kivel’s Dwelling takes us on a hapless hero’s journey to the end of the world and back again. Madcap and magical, hilarious and existential, Dwelling holds a funhouse mirror to our moment—for anyone in search of space, belonging, and some semblance of justice.

#194
Evensong

Evensong

by Stewart O'Nan
Amazon Bookshop

“Stewart O’Nan has been one of the best chroniclers of the lives of American women.” – Susan Straight An intimate, moving novel that follows The Humpty Dumpty Club, a group of women of a certain age who band together to help one another and their circle of friends in Pittsburgh as they face the challenges of their golden years The Humpty Dumpty Club is distraught when their powerhouse leader, Joan Hargrove, takes a bad fall down her stairs, knocking her out of commission. Now, as well as running errands and shepherding those less able to their doctors’ appointments, they have to pick up the slack. Between navigating their own relationships and aging bodies and attending choir practice, these invisible yet indomitable women help where they can. They bake cookies, they care for pets, they pick up prescriptions, they sit vigil by the sick, and most of all, they show up for the people they’ve pledged to help. In the face of death, divorce, and the myriad directions our lives can take, the Humpty Dumpty club represents the power of community and chosen family. Weaving together the perspectives of the four cardinal members as they tend to those in need, Stewart O’Nan revisits beloved characters from his past work -- most notably Emily Maxwell -- to fashion a rich and moving novel that celebrates our capacity for patience and care. Vivid, warm, and often wryly funny, Evensong reminds us that life is made up of moments both climactic and quotidian, and we weather those moments with the people we choose to keep close.

#195
Fair Play

Fair Play

by Louise Hegarty
Amazon Bookshop

“Louise Hegarty’s genre-splicing debut is a treat—clever, confident, and always surprising, a mystery story that ingeniously escapes the locked room of the genre to take on the biggest questions of life and death.”—Paul Murray, author of The Bee Sting For fans of Anthony Horowitz and Lucy Foley, a wonderfully original, genre-breaking literary debut from Ireland that’s an homage to the brilliant detective novels of the early twentieth century, a twisty modern murder mystery, and a searing exploration of grief and loss. A group of friends gather at an Airbnb on New Year’s Eve. It is Benjamin’s birthday, and his sister Abigail is throwing him a jazz-age Murder Mystery themed party. As the night plays out, champagne is drunk, hors d’oeuvres consumed, and relationships forged, consolidated or frayed. Someone kisses the wrong person; someone else’s heart is broken. In the morning, all of them wake up—except Benjamin. As Abigail attempts to wrap her mind around her brother’s death, an eminent detective arrives determined to find Benjamin's killer. In this mansion, suddenly complete with a butler, gardener and housekeeper, everyone is a suspect, and nothing is quite as it seems. Will the culprit be revealed? And how can Abigail, now alone, piece herself back together in the wake of this loss? Gripping and playful, sharp and profoundly moving, Fair Play plumbs the depths of the human heart while subverting one of our most popular genres.

#197
Finding My Way: A Memoir

Finding My Way: A Memoir

by Malala Yousafzai
Amazon Bookshop

"Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate and New York Times bestselling author of I Am Malala, shares the most private journey of her young life-a story of friendship and first love, of mental illness and self-discovery, and of trying to stay true to yourself when everyone wants to tell you who you are. In 2012, Malala Yousafzai was thrust onto the public stage at fifteen years old, after the Taliban's brutal attack on her life. Millions of people around the world were inspired by her courage and dedication to fighting for girls' education, lining up to meet her and filling stadiums to hear her speak. But away from the cameras and crowds, Malala was still a young woman struggling to find her place in the world. Now, in Finding My Way, Malala shares a breathtaking story of searching for identity, a candid exploration of coming of age in the spotlight, and an intimate look at her life today. With an accessible voice that showcases the parts of her life rarely shown in public, Malala traces her path from high school loner to reckless college student to a young woman at peace with her remarkable past and hopeful for the future"--

#200
Fresh, Green Life: A Novel

Fresh, Green Life: A Novel

by Sebastian Castillo
Amazon Bookshop

After a year of self-imposed exile, a young writer attends a New Year’s Eve party in hopes of reconnecting with old classmates in a blackly humorous tale set on a single snowy night After experiencing a mysterious heart-related health scare, our narrator, Sebastian Castillo, who shares his name with this book’s author, resolves to spend a year alone in self-imposed exile, passing the time by exercising each day and watching self-improvement videos. But come New Year’s Eve, Sebastian will break his expulsion from everyday life by accepting an invitation to the home of a former philosophy professor for a reunion with his cohort, one decade after graduating. This invitation surely would have been ignored if not for the promised attendance of Maria, Sebastian’s former classmate and love interest. What follows is an inexplicable series of fascinating events charting the erosion of young, bookish hope. Fresh, Green Life is a meditation on literature, education, and philosophy, a trek through the past that forecasts a mediocre future, and a compact miracle of the fake-real.

#205
Great Big Beautiful Life

Great Big Beautiful Life

by Emily Henry
Amazon Bookshop

A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK ∙ Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping novel from Emily Henry. As featured in The New York Times ∙ Rolling Stone ∙ People ∙ Good Morning America ∙ NPR ∙ The Cut ∙ USA Today ∙ Harper's Bazaar ∙ Marie Claire ∙ E! Online ∙ The New York Post ∙ Bustle ∙ Reader's Digest ∙ BBC ∙ PopSugar ∙ SheReads ∙ Paste ∙ and more! Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: to write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years—or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the twentieth century. When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game. One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over. Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication. Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition. But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room. And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad . . . depending on who’s telling it.

#207
Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel

by Stephen King
Amazon Bookshop

The haunting tale of two brave children lost in a dark and dangerous forest, reimagined by literary legends Stephen King and Maurice Sendak in an all-new picture book. Let Stephen King, global bestselling and award-winning author, and Maurice Sendak, beloved creator of the Caldecott Medal-winning Where the Wild Things Are, guide you into the most deliciously daring rendition of the classic Grimm fairy tale yet. But will you find your way back out? With a personal introduction from Stephen King, the beautiful book has been created in close collaboration with the Maurice Sendak Foundation. This stunning storybook makes the perfect gift for fans of King, Sendak, and the Brothers Grimm.

#211
Helen of Troy, 1993: Poems

Helen of Troy, 1993: Poems

by Maria Zoccola
Amazon Bookshop

Part myth retelling, part character study, this debut poetry collection reimagines the mythic beauty from Homer's "Iliad" as a disgruntled housewife in 1990s Tennessee. Zoccola explores Helen's isolation and rebellion as her expansive personality clashes with the social rigidity of a small town: she marries the wrong man, gives birth to a child she is not ready to parent, and begins an affair that throws her life into chaos, but she never surrenders ownership of her story or her choices.

#212
Hollow Spaces

Hollow Spaces

by Victor Suthammanont
Amazon Bookshop

The only Asian American partner at a prestigious law firm sees his professional and personal life demolished when he is put on trial for murder. Three decades later, his children reunite to uncover the truth and try to salvage what remains of their family. Thirty years ago, John Lo was acquitted of the murder of an employee he was having an affair with. The repercussions of that long-ago event still haunt his adult children. Brennan, a lawyer following in her father’s footsteps in more ways than one, has always maintained that the trial got it right. Hunter, a disgruntled war correspondent whose similarities to his father run more than skin-deep, believes their father got away with murder. Their opposing convictions have pushed them apart. Now, spurred by their mother’s failing health, the estranged siblings decide to reconcile their differences by reinvestigating the murder to come to a definitive conclusion. Told in a dual timeline that moves between John’s perspective thirty years prior and Brennan and Hunter’s present-day investigation, Hollow Spaces is a moving portrait of a flawed man’s shocking fall from grace and a gripping exploration of race in corporate America, filial loyalty, ambition, and the fallout of a sensational trial for those caught in its wake.

#214
Homework: A Memoir

Homework: A Memoir

by Geoff Dyer
Amazon Bookshop

Named a most anticipated book of 2025 by Vulture | The Guardian | Financial Times | The Observer | The Times (London) | Literary Hub "A picture of postwar England unlike any other . . . A highly original memoir that will provoke, amuse, beguile—and endure." —Antony Quinn, Financial Times "Homework is wonderful Geoff-Dyer writing, which we've all learned to crave; something to delight and to move us and to edify us on every page. I find him an irresistible writer." —Richard Ford A portrait of a young boy, who keeps passing exams—and of a changing England in the 1960s and 1970s. The only child of a sheet-metal worker and a dinner lady who worked at the canteen of the local school, Geoff Dyer grew up in a world shaped by memories of the Depression and the Second World War. But far from being a story of hardship overcome, this loving memoir is a celebration of opportunities afforded by the postwar settlement, of which the author was an unconscious beneficiary. The crux comes at the age of eleven with the exam that decided the future of generations of British schoolkids: secondary modern or the transformative possibilities of grammar school? One of the lucky winners, Dyer goes to grammar school, where he develops a love of literature (and beer and prog rock). Mapping a path from primary school through the tribulations of teenage sport, gig-going, romantic fumblings, fights (well, getting punched in the face), and other misadventures with comic affection, Homework takes us to the threshold of university, where Dyer gets the first intimations that a short geographical journey—just forty miles—might extend to the length of a life. Recalling an eroded but strangely resilient England, Homework traces, in perfectly phrased and hilarious detail, roots that extend into the deep foundations of class society.

#220
I Deliver Parcels in Beijing

I Deliver Parcels in Beijing

by Hu Anyan
Amazon Bookshop

"Hu Anyan’s I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, translated by Jack Hargreaves, offers an unvarnished dispatch from the front lines of the gig economy, written by a guy who’s held nearly every low-wage, low-reward job on the market (delivery driver, security guard, convenience store clerk, bicycle salesman). The Cinderella bit of it is that now he can add a new title: internationally best-selling author." —Leah Greenblatt, The New York Times Book Review A runaway bestseller in China, sold in 17+ countries, this delightfully honest and humorous account gives a face and voice to the future of work—as if Nomadland met Nickel and Dimed. In 2023, I Deliver Parcels in Beijing became the literary sensation of the year in China. Hu Anyan’s story, about short-term jobs in various anonymous megacities, hit a nerve with a generation of young people who feel at odds with an ever-growing pressure to perform and succeed. Hu started posting essays about his experiences online during COVID lockdowns. His recollection of night shifts in a huge logistics center in the south of China went viral: his nights were so hot that he could drink three liters of water without taking a toilet break; his days were spent searching for affordable rooms with proper air-conditioning; and his few moments of leisure were consumed by calculations of the amount of alcohol needed to sleep but not feel drowsy a few hours later. Hu Anyan tells us about brutal work, where there is no real future in sight. But Hu is armed with deadpan humor and a strong idea of self. He moves on when he feels stuck—from logistics in the south, to parcel delivery in Beijing, to other impossible jobs. Along the way, he turns to reading and writing for strength and companionship. I Deliver Parcels in Beijing is an honest and startling first-person portrait of Hu Anyan's struggle against the dehumanizing nature of our contemporary global work system—and his discovery of the power of sharing a story.

#221
I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir

I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir

by Keith McNally
Amazon Bookshop

New York Times Bestseller The entertaining, irreverent, and surprisingly moving memoir by the visionary restaurateur behind such iconic New York institutions as Balthazar and Pastis. A memoir by the legendary proprietor of Balthazar, Pastis, Minetta Tavern, and Morandi, taking us from his gritty London childhood in the fifties to his serendipitous arrival in New York, where he founded the era-defining establishments the Odeon, Cafe Luxembourg, and Nell’s. Eloquent and opinionated, Keith McNally writes about the angst of being a child actor, his lack of insights from traveling overland to Kathmandu at nineteen, the instability of his two marriages and family relationships, his devastating stroke, and his Instagram notoriety.

#222
I’ll Tell You When I’m Home: A Memoir

I’ll Tell You When I’m Home: A Memoir

by Hala Alyan
Amazon Bookshop

The rich and deeply personal debut memoir by award-winning Palestinian American poet and novelist Hala Alyan, whose experience of motherhood via surrogacy forces her to reckon with her own past, and the legacy of her family’s exile and displacement, all in the name of a new future. After a decade of yearning for parenthood, years marked by miscarriage after miscarriage, Hala Alyan makes the decision to use a surrogate. In this charged time, she turns to the archetype of the waiting woman—the Scheherazade who tells stories to ensure another dawn—to confront her own narratives of motherhood, love, and inheritance. As her baby grows in the body of another woman, in another country, Hala finds her own life unraveling—a husband who wants to leave; the cost of past traumas and addictions threatening to resurface; the city of her youth, Beirut, on the brink of crisis. She turns to family stories and communal myths: of grandmothers mapping their lives through Palestine, Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon; of eradicated villages and invading armies; of places of refuge that proved only temporary; of men that left and women that stayed; of the contradictions of her own Midwestern childhood, and adolescence in various Arab cities. Meanwhile, as the baby grows from the size of a poppyseed to a grain of rice, then a lime, and beyond, Hala gathers the stories that are her legacy, setting down the ones that confine, holding close those that liberate. It is emotionally charged, painstaking work, but now the stakes are higher: how to honor ancestors and future generations alike in the midst of displacement? How to impart love for those who are no longer here, for places one can no longer touch? A stunningly lyrical and brutally honest quest for motherhood, selfhood, and peoplehood, I’ll Tell You When I’m Home is a powerful story of unraveling and becoming, of destruction and redemption, and of homelands lost and recreated.

#228
Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way

Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way

by Elaine Feeney
Amazon Bookshop

An Observer, Irish Times, and Sunday Times Ireland Preview Selection The Booker-nominated author of How to Build a Boat returns to western Ireland with a multi-generational family story about grief, inheritance, and learning to live with the past--and with yourself. Claire O'Connor is a promising writer who left the family's struggling farmstead in western Ireland for London, swearing never to return. But after the unexpected death of her mother, she is racked with grief, and when her father is diagnosed with cancer, she decides to return home to care for him, destroying everything she'd so carefully built up in the process. The pandemic follows, and Claire falls into a comfortable routine, one increasingly shaped by a growing obsession: the lives of the 20-something trad wives she discovers on social media. When Tom, her lost London love, unexpectedly shows up the next town over, her anxieties and obsessions collide, the resulting conflict forcing Claire and her brothers to finally deal with their family's historic trauma--a trauma whose evidence is carved into the beams of the family home and the stone floors upon which their ancestors bled. Ranging through recent Irish history, Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way is Elaine Feeney's most ambitious novel to date, a work of literary and cultural exorcism and a profound exploration of family, history, violence, and hope.

#232
Lucky Day

Lucky Day

by Chuck Tingle
Amazon Bookshop

“An existential masterwork that, like life, is equal parts atrocity and delights."—Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of Masters of Death Lucky Day is the latest from Chuck Tingle, USA Today bestselling author of Camp Damascus and Bury Your Gays, where one woman must go up against horrifying odds to save the world. Four years ago, an unthinkable disaster occurred. In what was later known as the Low-Probability Event, eight million people were killed in a single day, each of them dying in improbable, bizarre ways: strangled by balloon ropes, torn apart by exploding manhole covers, attacked by a chimpanzee wielding a typewriter. A day of freak accidents that proved anything is possible, no matter the odds. Luck is real now, and it's not always good. Vera, a former statistics and probability professor, lost everything that day, and she still struggles to make sense of the unbelievable catastrophe. To her, the LPE proved that the God of Order is dead and nothing matters anymore. When Special Agent Layne shows up on Vera’s doorstep, she learns he's investigating a suspiciously—and statistically impossibly—lucky casino. He needs her help to prove the casino’s success is connected to the deaths of millions, and it's Vera's last chance to make sense of a world that doesn’t. Because what's happening in Vegas isn't staying there, and she's the only thing that stands between the world and another deadly improbability. Also by Chuck Tingle: Bury Your Gays Camp Damascus Straight At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

#235
Mercy

Mercy

by Joan Silber
Amazon Bookshop

A rich and nuanced story beginning with a moment of fear and abandonment that will reverberate across decades and change the course of many lives, by a beloved PEN/Faulkner and National Book Critics Circle Award–winning author In the gritty East Village of 1970s New York, Ivan and his best friend, Eddie, a popular local bartender, are dabbling in drugs following a short tour of Europe. One night, as Ivan and Eddie experiment with heroin, things go horribly wrong. In a panic, Ivan rushes Eddie to a crowded local ER and, believing his friend is about to die, makes the awful choice to leave him there. This one act of abandonment haunts Ivan his entire life. He keeps this secret from his friends and later his family, forever searching for mercy from “a remorse that never dies.” Ivan’s decision also ripples across time through an extended community, affecting a host of other people unknowingly connected to that night. Following a bold cast of characters across decades, and set against the changing social and sexual mores from the 1970s onward, Mercy is Silber’s most ambitious and expansive novel yet, proving once again how we are all connected in mysterious and often unknown ways.

#237
Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church

Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church

by Kevin Sack
Amazon Bookshop

A sweeping history of one of the nation’s most important African American churches and a profound story of courage and grace amid the fight for racial justice—from Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Kevin Sack “A masterpiece . . . a dense, rich, captivating narrative, featuring vivid prose . . . expansive, inspiring and hugely important.”—The New York Times “Race, religion, and terror combine for an extraordinary story of America.”—Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., bestselling author of Begin Again Few people beyond South Carolina’s Lowcountry knew of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston—Mother Emanuel—before the night of June 17, 2015, when a twenty-one-year-old white supremacist walked into Bible study and slaughtered the church’s charismatic pastor and eight other worshippers. Although the shooter had targeted Mother Emanuel—the first A.M.E. church in the South—to agitate racial strife, he did not anticipate the aftermath: an outpouring of forgiveness from the victims’ families and a reckoning with the divisions of caste that have afflicted Charleston and the South since the earliest days of European settlement. Mother Emanuel explores the fascinating history that brought the church to that moment and the depth of the desecration committed in its fellowship hall. It reveals how African Methodism was cultivated from the harshest American soil, and how Black suffering shaped forgiveness into both a religious practice and a survival tool. Kevin Sack, who has written about race in his native South for more than four decades, uses the church to trace the long arc of Black life in the city where nearly half of enslaved Africans disembarked in North America and where the Civil War began. Through the microcosm of one congregation, he explores the development of a unique practice of Christianity, from its daring breakaway from white churches in 1817, through the traumas of Civil War and Reconstruction, to its critical role in the Civil Rights Movement and beyond. At its core, Mother Emanuel is an epic tale of perseverance, not just of a congregation but of a people who withstood enslavement, Jim Crow, and all manner of violence with an unbending faith.

#238
Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy

Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy

by Julia Ioffe
Amazon Bookshop

Award-winning journalist Julia Ioffe tells the story of modern Russia through the history of its women, from revolution to utopia to autocracy. In 1990, seven-year-old Julia Ioffe and her family fled the Soviet Union. Nearly twenty years later, Ioffe returned to Moscow--only to discover just how much Russian society had changed while she had been living in America. The Soviet women she had known growing up--doctors, engineers, scientists--had seemingly been replaced with women desperate to marry rich and become stay-at-home moms. How had Russia gone from portraying itself as the vanguard of world feminism to the last bastion of conservative Christian values? In Motherland, Ioffe turns modern Russian history on its head, telling it exclusively through the stories of its women. From her own physician great-grandmothers to Lenin's lover, a feminist revolutionary; from the hundreds of thousands of Soviet girls who fought in World War II to the millions of single mothers who rebuilt and repopulated a devastated country; from the members of Pussy Riot to Yulia Navalnaya, wife of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, she chronicles one of the most audacious social experiments in history and how it failed the very women it was meant to liberate--and documents how that failure paved the way to the revanche of Vladimir Putin. Part memoir, part journalistic exploration, part history, Motherland paints a portrait of modern Russia through the women who shaped it. With deep emotion, Ioffe shows what it means to live through the cataclysms of revolution, war, idealism, and heartbreak--and reveals how the story of Russia today is inextricably tied to the history of its women.

#241
No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson

No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson

by Gardiner Harris
Amazon Bookshop

An explosive, deeply reported exposé of Johnson & Johnson, one of America’s oldest and most trusted pharmaceutical companies—from an award-winning investigative journalist “A page-turning drama that raises life-or-death questions about the world’s largest healthcare conglomerate.”—Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of King: A Life One day in 2004, Gardiner Harris, a pharmaceutical reporter for The New York Times, was early for a flight and sat down at an airport bar. He struck up a conversation with the woman on the barstool next to him, who happened to be a drug sales rep for Johnson & Johnson. Her horrific story about unethical sales practices and the devastating impact they’d had on her family fundamentally changed the nature of how Harris would cover the company—and the entire pharmaceutical industry—for the Times. His subsequent investigations and ongoing research since that very first conversation led to this book—a blistering exposé of a trusted American institution and the largest healthcare conglomerate in the world. Harris takes us light-years away from the company’s image as the child-friendly “baby company” as he uncovers reams of evidence showing decades of deceitful and dangerous corporate practices that have threatened the lives of millions. He covers multiple disasters: lies and cover-ups regarding the link of Johnson’s Baby Powder to cancer, the surprising dangers of Tylenol, a criminal campaign to sell antipsychotics that have cost countless lives, a popular drug used to support cancer patients that actually increases the risk that cancer tumors will grow, and deceptive marketing that accelerated opioid addictions through their product Duragesic (fentanyl) that rival even those of the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma. Filled with shocking and infuriating but utterly necessary revelations, No More Tears is a landmark work of investigative journalism that lays bare the deeply rooted corruption behind the image of babies bathing with a smile.

#243
Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity

Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity

by Joseph Lee
Amazon Bookshop

From award-winning journalist Joseph Lee, a sweeping, personal exploration of Indigenous identity and the challenges facing Indigenous people around the world. Before Martha’s Vineyard became one of the most iconic vacation destinations in the country, it was home to the Wampanoag people. Today, as tourists flock to the idyllic beaches, the island has become increasingly unaffordable for tribal members, with nearly three-quarters now living off-island. Growing up Aquinnah Wampanoag, journalist Joseph Lee grappled with what this situation meant for his tribe, how the community can continue to grow, and more broadly, what it means to be Indigenous. In Nothing More of This Land, Lee weaves his own story and that of his family into a panoramic narrative of Indigenous life around the world. He takes us from the beaches of Martha’s Vineyard to the icy Alaskan tundra, the smoky forests of Northern California to the halls of the United Nations, and beyond. Along the way he meets activists fighting to protect their land, families clashing with their own tribal leaders, and communities working to reclaim tradition. Together, these stories reject stereotypes to show the diversity of Indigenous people today and chart a way past the stubborn legacy of colonialism.

#244
Old Soul

Old Soul

by Susan Barker
Amazon Bookshop

The Historian meets Under the Skin in this searingly provocative literary horror novel about one woman’s determination to stay alive at any terrifying cost. In Osaka, two strangers, Jake and Mariko, miss a flight, and over dinner, discover they've both brutally lost loved ones whose paths crossed with the same beguiling woman no one has seen since. Following traces this mysterious person left behind, Jake travels from country to country gathering chilling testimonies from others who encountered her across the decades—a trail of shattered souls that eventually leads him to Theo, a dying sculptor in rural New Mexico, who knows the woman better than anyone—and might just hold the key to who, or what, she is. Part horror, part western, part thriller, Old Soul is a fearlessly bold and genre-defying tale about predation, morality and free will, and one man’s quest to bring a centuries-long chain of human devastation to an end.

#245
Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3)

Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3)

by Rebecca Yarros
Amazon Bookshop

Brave the dark. Get ready to fly or die in the breathtaking follow-up to Fourth Wing and Iron Flame from the no. 1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Yarros. Returning to the richly imagined world of Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, the third instalment of Rebecca Yarros' scintillating romantasy series finds Violet in deadlier peril than ever before. "Rebecca Yarros has created some awesome dragons! Proud, beautiful, and full of unique magics." Christopher Paolini, #1 NYT bestselling author of the Inheritance Cycle. Rebecca Yarros is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than fifteen novels, with multiple starred Publishers Weekly reviews and a Kirkus Best Book of the Year.

#247
People Like Us

People Like Us

by Jason Mott
Amazon Bookshop

The riveting new novel by the author of the 2021 National Book Award winner and bestseller, Hell of a Book People Like Us is Jason Mott’s electric new novel. It is not memoir, yet it has deeply personal connections to Jason’s life. And while rooted in reality, it explodes with dream-like experiences that pull a reader in and don’t let go, from the ability to time travel to sightings of sea monsters and peacocks, and feelings of love and memory so real they hurt. In People Like Us, two Black writers are trying to find peace and belonging in a world that is riven with gun violence. One is on a global book tour after a big prize win; the other is set to give a speech at a school that has suffered a shooting. And as their two storylines merge, truths and antics abound in equal measure: characters drink booze out of an award trophy; menaces lurk in the shadows; tiny French cars putter around the countryside; handguns seem to hover in the air; and dreams endure against all odds. People Like Us is wickedly funny and achingly sad all at once. It is an utter triumph bursting with larger-than-life characters who deliver a very real take on our world. This book contains characters experiencing deep loss and longing; it also is buoyed by riotous humor and characters who share the deepest love. It is the newest creation of a writer whose work amazes, delivering something utterly new yet instantly recognizable as a Jason Mott novel. Finishing the novel will leave you absolutely breathless and at the same time, utterly filled with joy for life, changed forever by characters who are people like us.

#248
Persiana Easy

Persiana Easy

by Sabrina Ghayour
Amazon Bookshop

A brand new collection of inspiring recipes from the bestselling Middle Eastern chef - each carefully designed to be as easy as possible. The hotly anticipated new collection from Sunday Times bestselling author Sabrina Ghayour, every recipe in Persiana Easy balances irresistible Middle Eastern flavours with accessible cooking. From midweek meals and traybakes to pastries and sweet treats, this collection features easy recipes to delight your family and friends, time and again. Praise for Sabrina Ghayour: 'Sabrina Ghayour's Middle-Eastern plus food is all flavour, no fuss - and makes me very, very happy' - Nigella Lawson 'I don't think she could write a dull recipe if she tried. Every one an elegantly spiced delight.' - Tom Parker Bowles 'The golden girl of Persian cookery' - Observer 'Chef Sabrina Ghayour's new recipes deliver maximum flavour with the greatest of ease - perfect for busy lives' - Sainsbury's Magazine CONTENTS INCLUDE: Dips, Snacks and Light Bites: Sweet Potato, Basil and Feta Dip; Crispy Za'atar Salt and Pepper Prawns; Popcorn Halloumi Bread and Pastry: Turkish Pide Bread; Easy Bake Bagels(ish); Fig, Goat Cheese, Thyme and Honey Rolls Salads: Smoked Aubergine Salad with Pickled Chillies and Feta; Duck and Pomegranate Salad with Honey Pomegranate Sauce; Broad Bean, Pea, Orange and Goats Cheese Salad Midweek Meals: Lamb Kofta Patties with Yogurt and Burnt Orange; Butterflied Orange Paprika Butter Chicken; Shish Kebab Comfort Food: Turkish Lentil Soup; Couscous Royale with Spiced Lamb Shanks; Orange Spiced Pork with Charred Spring Onions and Pineapple Roasts and Traybakes: Spiced Saffron Chicken Kebabs; Tray-baked Harissa Lamb Chops; Baked Meatballs with Tomato, Harissa and Feta Vegetables and Side Dishes: Hot and Sour Green Beans; Mashed Chickpeas with Spice Oil; Stuffed Baby Peppers with Date Couscous and Feta Sweet Treats: Citrus and Spice Almond Tart; Bokaj; Apple Borek

#251
Say You’ll Remember Me

Say You’ll Remember Me

by Abby Jimenez
Amazon Bookshop

"Abby Jimenez has proven time and time again to be one of our must-read writers."―Cosmopolitan There might be no such a thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes--all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediately yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there's nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong... . . . unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date--possibly the best in living history--Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be. Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life--and even a love--worth remembering.

#255
Shield of Sparrows

Shield of Sparrows

by Devney Perry
Amazon Bookshop

"The gods sent monsters to the five kingdoms to remind mortals they must kneel. I've spent my life kneeling--to their will and to my father's. As a princess, my only duty is to wear the crown and obey the king. I was never meant to rule. Never meant to fight. And I was never supposed to be the daughter who sealed an ancient treaty with her own blood. But that changed the fateful day I stepped into my father's throne room. The day a legendary monster hunter sailed to our shores. The day a prince ruined my life. Now I'm crossing treacherous lands beside a warrior who despises me as much as I despise him--bound to a future I didn't choose and a husband I barely know"--

#257
Sister Creatures

Sister Creatures

by Laura Venita Green
Amazon Bookshop

Forthcoming from the publisher of Chelsea G. Summers' A Certain Hunger "Captivating and sublime... and centered on a cast of women bound to their roots in unexpected ways, this is a book that interchanges the tender and the cruel, the weird and the real, with breathtaking ease." -Jinwoo Chong, author of I Leave It Up to You In the muggy, insect-ridden town of Pinecreek, Louisiana, college dropout Tess Lavigne is watching two bickering siblings while their parents are away. Her listless day drinking is interrupted when someone emerges from the woods behind the house. Filthy and feral, the daughter of religious fundamentalists, the girl known in town as Sister Gail convinces Tess to take her in for the night. The strange events of that evening will set the course for Tess's future, and Sister Gail's ultimate fate. Meanwhile, other residents of Pinecreek try to cobble together a future from what little they have, their lives intersecting in small and not-so-small ways. Sisters fight to define independence for themselves (and from each other), while two young women on a bicycling trip wonder what their relationship promises, or threatens. Throughout, a deeply unsettling presence connects the characters to the buried secrets of Pinecreek: the ominous Thea, a malevolent shape-shifting entity whose rage and despair stems from a tragic history of misogyny, maternal loss, and stolen ambitions. As time marches forward, so does Tess, creating a new path for herself while accepting what can never be entirely left behind. At times atmospheric and eerie, and at others all too real, Sister Creatures is about manufacturing resilience from nothing but the bonds that tie us together.

#259
Something from Nothing: A Cookbook

Something from Nothing: A Cookbook

by Alison Roman
Amazon Bookshop

Something from Nothing is Alison Roman’s latest book featuring over 100 deceptively simple, casually stylish, impossibly delicious recipes that make the most of your pantry. In Something from Nothing, bestselling author Alison Roman gives you a collection of simple, smart, timeless recipes that rely on a home cook's best kept secret: a well-stocked pantry. Making the most of your shelf-stable bottles, bags, jars and cans, Alison shows you how to cook as she does–loosely, intuitively, and with maximum flavor. With each recipe you’ll fall deeper in love with the magic of pantry cooking by using flavorful, hardworking ingredients, leaving you to ask, “How did something so wonderful come from basically nothing?”. In this book, you’ll find warm, opinionated writing coupled with classic recipes, both with signature Alison flair, such as: Snacks and Things to Start with: Herbed Artichoke Dip; Spanish Tortilla & Friends; and Labne with Caramelized Harissa Soups & Stews: Kimchi-Tomato Soup with Rice & a Soft Egg; Golden Mushroom Soup with Orzo & a Pat of Butter; and Ginger & Greens Noodle Soup Vegetables & How to Make Them Taste Even Better: Forever-Roasted Squash with Browned Butter Dates; Wine-Braised Romano Beans with Anchovy; and Spiced, Butter-Roasted Carrots with Walnuts Pasta & Noodles: Saucy Roasted Eggplant Pasta; Bolognese with Fennel; and Carbonara for Two Beans & Grains: Crispy Baked Beans with Mushrooms & Parmesan; Buttered Polenta with Fresh Corn; Caramelized Beans with Tomato & Cabbage Meats & Fishes: Crushed-Olive Chicken with Turmeric; Steak Like Tartare; Crispy Fish with Dill & Fried Capers Whether you’re feeding yourself on a busy weeknight or hosting a last-minute dinner party, this book has just what you need. For easy, straightforward recipes that still impress, Something from Nothing has you covered, showing you how to turn every bag of beans, tin of anchovies and jar of olives into a meal worth celebrating.

#260
Spread Me

Spread Me

by Sarah Gailey
Amazon Bookshop

Spread Me is a darkly seductive tale of survival from Sarah Gailey, bestselling author of Just Like Home. A routine probe at a research station turns deadly when the team discovers a strange specimen in search of a warm place to stay. Kinsey has the perfect job as the team leader in a remote research outpost. She loves the isolation and the way the desert keeps temptations from the civilian world far out of reach. When her crew discovers a mysterious specimen buried deep in the sand, Kinsey breaks quarantine and brings it into the hab. But the longer it's inside, the more her carefully controlled life begins to unravel. Temptation has found her after all, and it can't be ignored any longer. One by one, Kinsey's team realizes the thing they're studying is in search of a new host—and one of them is the perfect candidate....

#261
Stay Dead

Stay Dead

by Natalie Shapero
Amazon Bookshop

In Stay Dead, Shapero's cutting, unflinching voice reveals the unsettling realities of the entertainment industry fueled by capitalist consumerism. Visual mediums--paintings and film--collide with Natalie Shapero's unflinching poems as they explore method acting, abstract expressionism, and space exploration in her fourth poetry collection, Stay Dead. With epigraphs from Claude Monet, several references to abstract expressionist Mark Rothko's work, and commentary on the practice and theory of acting, Shapero explores what it means to be an artist in a neoliberal, late-stage capitalistic world and how creative production is received by a consumerist society. The collection seeks to raise unsettled and unsettling questions, asking who is permitted intense expression and when, and how that expression might be captured, co-opted, and capitalized on by cultural and political institutions. Shapero asks: At what point is expression no longer an earnest extension of the self, but simply a product to consume? Readers are guided into a deep self-awareness of their own place in the entertainment industry. The collection is "A cautionary tale about painting / oneself right out of one's own life." An artist or not, Shapero's cutting, sardonic, humorous voice will place readers into a method acting dream-reality.

#266
The Beast in the Clouds

The Beast in the Clouds

by Nathalia Holt
Amazon Bookshop

A 2025 New York Times Nonfiction Summer Preview Pick “A beautiful and powerful book.” —Candice Millard, New York Times bestselling author “Valuable, revelatory, and contagiously page-turning.” —David Michaelis, New York Times bestselling author For lovers of history, nature, and adventure, the stunning true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s sons and their 1929 Himalayan expedition to prove the existence of the beishung, the panda bear, to the western world, from the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls. The Himalayas—a snowcapped mountain range that hides treacherous glacier crossings, raiders poised to attack unsuspecting travelers, and air so thin that even seasoned explorers die of oxygen deprivation. Yet among the dangers lies one of the most beautiful and fragile ecosystems in the world. During the 1920s, dozens of expeditions scoured the Chinese and Tibetan wilderness in search of the panda bear, a beast that many believed did not exist. When the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt sought the bear in 1928, they had little hope of success. Together with a team of scientists and naturalists, they accomplished what a decade of explorers could not, ultimately introducing the panda to the West. In the process, they documented a vanishing world and set off a new era of conservation biology. Along the way, the Roosevelt expedition faced an incredible series of hardships as they disappeared in a blizzard, were attacked by robbers, overcome by sickness and disease, and lost their food supply in the mountains. The explorers would emerge transformed, although not everyone would survive. Beast in the Clouds brings alive these extraordinary events in a potent nonfiction thriller featuring the indomitable Roosevelt family. From the soaring beauty of the Tibetan plateau to the somber depths of human struggle, Nathalia Holt brings her signature “immersive, evocative” (Bookreporter) voice to this astonishing tale of adventure, harrowing defeat, and dazzling success.

#272
The Eleventh Hour

The Eleventh Hour

by Salman Rushdie
Amazon Bookshop

From internationally renowned, award-winning author Salman Rushdie, a spellbinding exploration of life, death, and what comes into focus at the proverbial eleventh hour of life Rushdie turns his extraordinary imagination to life’s final act with a quintet of stories that span the three countries in which he has made his work—India, England, and America—and feature an unforgettable cast of characters. “In the South” introduces a pair of quarrelsome old men—Junior and Senior—and their private tragedy at a moment of national calamity. In “The Musician of Kahani,” a musical prodigy from the Mumbai neighborhood featured in Midnight’s Children uses her magical gifts to wreak devastation on the wealthy family she marries into. In “Late,” the ghost of a Cambridge don enlists the help of a lonely student to enact revenge upon the tormentor of his lifetime. “Oklahoma” plunges a young writer into a web of deceit and lies as he tries to figure out whether his mentor killed himself or faked his own death. And “The Old Man in the Piazza” is a powerful parable for our times about freedom of speech. Do we accommodate ourselves to death, or rail against it? Do we spend our “eleventh hour” in serenity or in rage? And how do we achieve fulfillment with our lives if we don’t know the end of our own stories? The Eleventh Hour ponders life and death, legacy and identity with the penetrating insight and boundless imagination that have made Salman Rushdie one of the most celebrated writers of our time.

#274
The Favorites

The Favorites

by Layne Fargo
Amazon Bookshop

To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession. NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice—now with bonus material including two never-before-seen chapters! “Part Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones & The Six, this novel is as brilliantly choreographed as a gold medal performance and will keep you guessing until its last page.”—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Wish You Were Here She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship. Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end. As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the “real story” through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.

#277
The Gods of New York

The Gods of New York

by Jonathan Mahler
Amazon Bookshop

A sweeping chronicle of four tumultuous years in 1980s New York that changed the city forever—and anticipated the forces that would soon divide the nation—from the bestselling author of Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning “A rip-roaring, sweeping, essential work of history . . . a deeply reported and brilliantly observed account of how the modern city was born and why all of us continue to live with the results.”—Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of King: A Life New York entered 1986 as a city reborn. Record profits on Wall Street sent waves of money splashing across Manhattan, bringing a battered city roaring back to life. But it also entered 1986 as a city whose foundation was beginning to crack. Thousands of New Yorkers were sleeping in the streets, addicted to drugs, dying of AIDS, or suffering from mental illnesses. Nearly one-third of the city’s Black and Hispanic residents were living below the federal poverty line. Long-simmering racial tensions threatened to boil over. The events of the next four years would split the city open. Howard Beach. Black Monday. Tawana Brawley. The crack epidemic. The birth of ACT UP. The Central Park jogger. The release of Do the Right Thing. And a cast of outsized characters—Ed Koch, Donald Trump, Al Sharpton, Spike Lee, Rudy Giuliani, Larry Kramer—would compete to shape the city’s future while building their own mythologies. The Gods of New York is a kaleidoscopic and deeply immersive portrait of a city whose identity was suddenly up for grabs: Could it be both the great working-class city that lifted up immigrants from around the world and the money-soaked capital of global finance? Could it retain a civic culture—a common idea of what it meant to be a New Yorker—when the rich were building a city of their own and vast swaths of its citizens were losing faith in the systems meant to protect them? New York City was one thing at the dawn of 1986; it would be something very different as 1989 came to a close. This is the story of how that happened.

#281
The Incandescent

The Incandescent

by Emily Tesh
Amazon Bookshop

Naomi Novik's Scholomance series meets Plain Bad Heroines in this sapphic dark academia fantasy by instant national and international bestselling author Emily Tesh, winner of the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. "Look at you, eating magic like you're one of us." Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood School and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions. Walden is good at her job—no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from—is herself. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

#283
The Knight and the Moth

The Knight and the Moth

by Rachel Gillig
Amazon Bookshop

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! "Prepare to meet your next obsession." — Rebecca Ross, author of Divine Rivals From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Gillig comes the next big romantasy sensation, a gothic, mist-cloaked tale of a young prophetess forced on an impossible quest with the one knight whose future is beyond her sight. Perfect for fans of Jennifer L. Armentrout and Leigh Bardugo. Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams. Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.

#285
The Last Days of Budapest

The Last Days of Budapest

by Adam LeBor
Amazon Bookshop

In 1945, Budapest, once one of the cultured twin capitals of the Austro-Hungarian empire, became the site of the last great, brutal city siege of WWII--now brilliantly recreated in this new history. Although Hungary was a German ally in 1941, two years into World War II, it was still possible for Allied prisoners of war, French and Polish refugees, spies of every kind, and the city's large Jewish population to live freely and openly, enjoying the cafes and boulevards that made Budapest one of the great European capitals. While the other multicultural centers of Europe had fallen to the almost all-consuming conflict, Budapest remained intact, a shining reminder of what middle European high culture could be. In September 1944, three months after D-Day, life in the city seemed idyllic. But under the guise of peace existed an undercurrent of tension and anxiety: British and American troops advanced from the west and Soviet troops from the east. Who would reach the capital first? By mid-October 1944, Budapest had collapsed into anarchy: death squads roamed the streets, the city's remaining Jews were funneled into ghettos, Russian shells destroyed city blocks, and everyone struggled to find food and survive the winter. Using newly uncovered diaries and archives, Adam Lebor brilliantly recreates the increasingly desperate efforts of Hungary's leaders to avoid being drawn into the cataclysm of war, the moral and tactical ambiguity they deployed in the attempt, and the ultimate tragedy that befell Hungary and, in particular, its Jewish population. Told through the lives of a glamorous aristocrats, SS Officers, a rebellious teenage Jewish school student, Hungary's most popular singer and actress, and a housewife trying desperately to keep her family alive, the story of how Budapest is threatened from all sides as the war tightens its noose is highly dramatic and utterly compelling.

#290
The October Film Haunt: A Novel

The October Film Haunt: A Novel

by Michael Wehunt
Amazon Bookshop

Horror Movie meets the scope and emotion of Stephen King in this heart-pounding, magnetic tour de force novel, destined to become an instant classic, about a woman pulled into a cult horror film that is determined to have a sequel, by critically acclaimed author Michael Wehunt. Ten years ago, Jorie Stroud was the rising star of the October Film Haunt – a trio of horror enthusiasts who camped out at the filming locations of their favorite scary movies, sharing their love through their popular blog. But after a night in the graveyard from Proof of Demons – perhaps the most chilling cult film ever made, directed by the enigmatic Hélène Enriquez – everything unraveled. Now, Jorie has built an isolated life with her young son in Vermont. In the devastating wake of her viral, truth-stretching Proof of Demons blog entry — hysteria, internet backlash, and the death of a young woman — Jorie has put it all, along with her intense love for the horror genre, behind her. Until a videotape arrives in the mail. Jorie fears someone might be filming her. And the “Rickies” – Enriquez obsessives who would do anything for the reclusive director – begin to cross lines in shocking ways. It seems Hélène Enriquez is making a new kind of sequel...and Jorie is her final girl. As the dangers grow even more unexpected and strange, Jorie must search for answers before the Proof of the movie’s title finds her and takes everything she loves. This riveting and layered horror novel unleashes supernatural terror in a world where truth can be manipulated, and nothing is as it seems. Beautiful and horrifying, with an unforgettable cast of characters, The October Film Haunt will shock and delight readers all the way to its breathless final page. "So unique and steeped in 21st century paranoia and dread you won't be able to read this alone at night." - Paul Tremblay "The horror in here is palpable, but the writing itself is just as scary: How can one pen have this many good lines in it?" - Stephen Graham Jones

#291
The Pretender: A Novel

The Pretender: A Novel

by Jo Harkin
Amazon Bookshop

A sweeping historical novel in the vein of Hilary Mantel and Maggie O’Farrell set during the time of the Tudors’ ascent. The Pretender tells the story of Lambert Simnel, who was raised in obscurity as a peasant boy to protect his safety, believed to be the heir to the throne occupied by Richard III, and briefly crowned, at the age of ten, as King Edward VI, one of the last of the Plantagenets. In 1480 John Collan’s greatest anxiety is how to circumvent the village’s devil goat on his way to collect water. But the arrival of a well-dressed stranger from London upends his life forever: John is not John Collan, not the son of Will Collan but the son of the long-deceased Duke of Clarence, and has been hidden in the countryside after a brotherly rift over the crown—and because Richard III has a habit of disappearing his nephews. Removed from his humble origins, sent to Oxford to be educated in a manner befitting the throne’s rightful heir, John is put into play by his masters, learning the rules of etiquette in Burgundy and the machinations of the court in Ireland, where he encounters the intractable Joan, the delightfully strong-willed and manipulative daughter of his Irish patrons, a girl imbued with both extraordinary political savvy and occasional murderous tendencies. Joan has two paths available her—marry or become a nun. Lambert’s choices are similarly stark: he will either become king or die in battle. Together they form an alliance that will change the fate of the English monarchy. Inspired by a footnote to history—the true story of the little-known Simnel, who was a figurehead of the 1487 Yorkist rebellion and ended up working as a spy in the court of King Henry VII—The Pretender is historical fiction at its finest, a gripping, exuberant, rollicking portrait of British monarchy and life within the court, with a cast of unforgettable heroes and villains drawn from fifteenth-century England. A masterful new work from a major new author.

#292
The Rarest Fruit

The Rarest Fruit

by Gaëlle Bélem
Amazon Bookshop

Gaëlle Bélem's The Rarest Fruit is a captivating tale of resilience, discovery, and the untold stories behind a beloved flavor. Set in 19th-century La Réunion, this novel follows Edmond Albius, a young Creole boy born into slavery, whose extraordinary talent for botany leads him to revolutionize the vanilla industry with his method of hand-pollinating orchids. Raised by a passionate botanist after becoming an orphan, Edmond defies the expectations of his time, making a discovery that connects the histories of La Réunion, France, and beyond. Based on the true story of Edmond Albius, Bélem weaves a richly detailed narrative, exploring themes of survival and ingenuity against the backdrop of colonial exploitation. The Rarest Fruit is both a poignant tribute to the unsung heroes of history and a vivid portrayal of the intertwined destinies shaped by a single discovery.

#294
The Remembered Soldier

The Remembered Soldier

by Anjet Daanje, trans. from the Dutch by David McKay
Amazon Bookshop

Flanders 1922. After serving as a soldier in the Great War, Noon Merckem has lost his memory and lives in a psychiatric asylum. Countless women, responding to a newspaper ad, visit him there in the hope of finding their spouse who vanished in battle. One day a woman, Julienne, appears and recognizes Noon as her husband, the photographer Amand Coppens, and takes him home against medical advice. But their miraculous reunion doesn't turn out the way that Julienne wants her envious friends to believe. Only gradually do the two grow close, and Amand's biography is pieced together on the basis of Julienne's stories about him. But how can he be certain that she's telling the truth? The Remembered Soldier is an extraordinary love story about the power of memory and imagination. Anjet Daanje immerses us in the psyche of a war-traumatized man who has lost his identity. When Amand comes to doubt Julienne's word, the reader is caught up in a riveting spiral of confusion that only the greatest of literature can achieve.

#295
The Rest of Our Lives

The Rest of Our Lives

by Ben Markovits
Amazon Bookshop

FINALIST FOR THE 2025 BOOKER PRIZE “Feels less like reading a novel and more like sitting in a car beside a dear friend as he navigates the road up ahead. A profoundly moving experience.” —Ann Patchett “Deeply human...a beautifully quiet and devastating book.” —Sarah Jessica Parker A triumphantly life-affirming road trip novel about a man at a crossroads in his life. When Tom Layward’s wife had an affair twelve years ago, he resolved to leave her as soon as his youngest child left the nest. Now, while driving his college-bound daughter to Pittsburgh, he remembers his promise to himself. He is also on the run from his own health issues and a forced leave from work. So, rather than returning to his wife in Westchester, Tom keeps driving west, with the vague plan of visiting people from his past—an old college friend, his ex-girlfriend, his brother, his son—en route, maybe, to California. He’s moving towards a future he hasn’t even envisioned yet while he considers his past and the choices he’s made that have brought him to this particular present. Pitch-perfect, tender, and keenly observed, The Rest of Our Lives is a story about what to do when the rest of your life is only just the beginning of your story.

#297
The Safekeep

The Safekeep

by Yael Van Der Wouden
Amazon Bookshop

"It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother's country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be--led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel's doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season. Eva is Isabel's antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn't. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house--a spoon, a knife, a bowl--Isabel's suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel's paranoia gives way to infatuation--leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva--nor the house in which they live--are what they seem"--Dust jacket.

#299
The Starving Saints: A Novel

The Starving Saints: A Novel

by Caitlin Starling
Amazon Bookshop

USA Today Bestseller! “As brilliant as it is bizarre. From the very first page you know you are in the hands of an author at the height of their abilities. . . . This is the unhinged cannibal book of my dreams—and my nightmares.” —Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning “Enthralling, weird, and brilliant. A medieval pseudo-historical horror tale that explores what happens when our prayers are answered but we’re not sure what has answered them, or what it will demand of us in return. There’s no other story like this, and I mean that in the best possible way.” —Christopher Buehlman, bestselling author of Between Two Fires From the nationally bestselling author of The Luminous Dead and The Death of Jane Lawrence, a transfixing fever dream of medieval horror following three women in a besieged castle that descends ravenously into madness under the spell of mysterious, godlike visitors. Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration. Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls. As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters… or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself.

#304
The Three Lives of Cate Kay

The Three Lives of Cate Kay

by Kate Fagan
Amazon Bookshop

"Cate Kay knows how to craft a story. As the creator of a bestselling book trilogy that struck box office gold as a film series, she's one of the most successful authors of her generation. The thing is, Cate Kay doesn't really exist. She's never attended author events or granted any interviews. Her real identity had been a closely guarded secret, until now. As a young adult, she and her best friend Amanda dreamed of escaping their difficult homes and moving to California to become movie stars. But the day before their grand adventure, a tragedy shattered their dreams and Cate has been on the run ever since, taking on different names and charting a new future. But after a shocking revelation, Cate understands that returning home is the only way she'll be a whole person again."--Provided by publisher.

#307
The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir

The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir

by Martha S. Jones
Amazon Bookshop

"A child of the civil rights era, Martha S. Jones grew up feeling her Black identity was obvious to all who saw her. But in Jones's first semester of college, a Black Studies classmate challenged her right to speak. Suspicious of the color of her skin and the texture of her hair, he confronted her with a question that inspired a lifetime of introspection: "Who do you think you are?" Now a prizewinning scholar of Black history, Jones delves into her own family's past for answers, only to find a story that archives alone can't tell, a story of race in America that takes us beyond slavery, Jim Crow, and civil rights. Ever since her great-great-great-grandmother Nancy emerged from bondage in 1865 determined to raise a free family, skin color has determined Jones's ancestors' lives. But color and race are not the same, and through her family's story, Jones discovers the uneven, unpredictable relationship between the two. Drawing readers along the shifting and jagged path of America's color line, The Trouble of Color is a lyrical, deeply felt meditation on the most fundamental matters of identity, belonging, and family"--

#308
The Village Beyond the Mist

The Village Beyond the Mist

by Sachiko Kashiwaba
Amazon Bookshop

From the bestselling, Batchelder Award-winning author and translator of Temple Alley Summer and The House of the Lost on the Cape comes the fantastic adventure that first inspired Hayao Miyazaki's beloved film, Spirited Away. A mountain town that's not on any map, a messy bookstore with infinite doors, and a spoiled prince under a forgetful wizard's curse . . . this school break might hold more than Lina bargained for! Lina's father had suggested she go "someplace different" for the summer, and she's beginning to wish she hadn't listened. She could be at her grandma's house in Nagano now, instead of trudging through a forest in search of a town that might not even exist. But when a gust of wind carries off her umbrella, it leads Lina down a secret path between the trees to a strange and incredible world. In the hidden village of Misty Valley, centaurs roam the cobblestone streets and gnomes visit shops stuffed with spellbooks and enchanted desserts. All magic has a dark side, though, and sometimes even sorcerers need a human's helping hand. Now, fifty years after its debut and decades of blockbuster success in Japan, Sachiko Kashiwaba's acclaimed novel is available in English and certain to delight readers of all ages.

#309
The White Hot

The White Hot

by Quiara Alegría Hudes
Amazon Bookshop

The story of a runaway mother’s ten days of freedom—and the pain, desire, longing, and wonder we find on the messy road to enlightenment—from Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes. April is a young mother raising her daughter in an intergenerational house of unspoken secrets and loud arguments. Her only refuge is to hide away in a locked bathroom, her ears plugged into an ambient soundscape, and a mantra on her lips: dead inside. That is, until one day, as she finds herself spiraling toward the volcanic rage she calls the white hot, a voice inside her tells her to just . . . walk away. She wanders to a bus station and asks for a ticket to the furthest destination; she tells the clerk to make it one-way. That ticket takes her from her Philly home to the threshold of a wilderness and the beginning of a nameless quest—an accidental journey that shakes her awake, almost kills her, and brings her to the brink of an impossible choice. The White Hot takes the form of a letter from mother to daughter about a moment of abandonment that would stretch from ten days to ten years—an explanation, but not an apology. Hudes narrates April’s story—spiritual and sexy, fierce and funny—with delicate lyricism and tough love. Just as April finds in her painful and absurd sojourn the key to freeing herself and her family from a cage of generational trauma, so Hudes turns April’s stumbling pursuit of herself into an unforgettable short epic of self-discovery.

#311
Theory & Practice

Theory & Practice

by Michelle de Kretser
Amazon Bookshop

WINNER OF THE STELLA PRIZE A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "Theory & Practice is a thrillingly original hybrid work that seeks truthful answers to the most difficult questions of the day—questions about the nature of love, art, and desire, about the thorny cultural legacy of colonialism and the unappeasable human yearning for connection." —Sigrid Nunez, author of The Vulnerables A new novel of startling intelligence from prizewinning Australian author Michelle de Kretser, following a writer looking back on her young adulthood and grappling with what happens when life smashes through the boundaries of art It’s 1986, and “beautiful, radical ideas” are in the air. The narrator of Theory & Practice, a young woman originally from Sri Lanka, arrives in Melbourne for graduate school to research the novels of Virginia Woolf. In the bohemian neighborhood of St. Kilda she meets artists, activists, students—and Kit. He claims to be in a “deconstructed relationship.” They become lovers, and the narrator’s feminism comes up against her jealousy. Meanwhile, an entry in Woolf’s diary upends what the narrator knows about her literary idol, and throws her own work into disarray. What happens when our desires run contrary to our beliefs? What should we do when the failings of revered figures come to light? Who is shamed when the truth is told? Michelle de Kretser’s new novel offers a spellbinding meditation on the moral complexities that arise in the gap between our values and our lives.

#317
To the Moon and Back

To the Moon and Back

by Eliana Ramage
Amazon Bookshop

One young woman’s relentless quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut will irrevocably alter the fates of the people she loves most in this tour de force of a debut about ambition, belonging, and family. My mother took my sister and me, and she drove through the night to a place she felt a claim to, a place on earth she thought we might be safe. I stopped asking questions. I picked little glass pieces from my sister’s hair. I watched the moon. Steph Harper is on the run. When she was five, her mother fled an abusive husband—with Steph and her younger sister in tow—to Cherokee Nation, where she hoped they might finally belong. In response, Steph sets her sights as far away from Oklahoma as she can get, vowing that she will let nothing get in the way of pursuing the rigorous physical and academic training she knows she will need to be accepted by NASA, and ultimately, to go to the moon. Spanning three decades and several continents, To the Moon and Back encompasses Steph’s turbulent journey, along with the multifaceted and intertwined lives of the three women closest to her: her sister Kayla, an artist who goes on to become an Indigenous social media influencer, and whose determination to appear good takes her life to unexpected places; Steph’s college girlfriend Della Owens, who strives to reclaim her identity as an adult after being removed from her Cherokee family through a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act; and Hannah, Steph and Kayla’s mother, who has held up her family’s tribal history as a beacon of inspiration to her children, all the while keeping her own past a secret. In Steph’s certainty that only her ambition can save her, she will stretch her bonds with each of these women to the point of breaking, at once betraying their love and generosity, and forcing them to reconsider their own deepest desires in her shadow. Told through an intricately woven tapestry of narrative, To the Moon and Back is an astounding and expansive novel of mothers and daughters, love and sacrifice, alienation and heartbreak, terror and wonder. At its core, it is the story of the extraordinary lengths to which one woman will go to find space for herself.

#318
Tongues, Volume 1

Tongues, Volume 1

by Anders Nilsen
Amazon Bookshop

From the three-time Igantz award-winning artist and author of Big Questions comes a fascinating graphic novel retelling of the Greek myth of Prometheus "An extraordinary reinvention of some of our oldest stories. Nilsen brings these old gods to an electrifying new life, and gives us a new sense of humanity as well."—Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel “Mind-bendingly good. It’s up there with Maus, Fun Home, Persepolis, Jimmy Corrigan.” —Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Set in a version of modern Central Asia, Tongues is a retelling of the Greek myth of Prometheus. It follows the captive god’s friendship with the eagle who carries out his daily sentence of torture and chronicles his pursuit of revenge on the god that has imprisoned him. Prometheus’s story is entwined with that of an East African orphan on an errand of murder, and a young man with a teddy bear strapped to his back, wandering aimlessly into catastrophe (a character readers may recognize from Nilsen’s Dogs and Water). The story is set against the backdrop of tensions between rival groups in an oil-rich wilderness. Tongues is both an adventure story and a meditation on human nature in our present fraught, historical moment.

#322
Truly

Truly

by Lionel Richie
Amazon Bookshop

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • USA TODAY BESTSELLER • LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER “Richie is refreshingly open in the book, which functions as both a fun memoir and a love letter to music and his beloved Tuskegee… There’s an abundance of love and gratitude in this wildly entertaining, utterly charming memoir.” – Kirkus, STARRED review "Satisfying... vulnerable and powerful." — New York Times The long-awaited memoir of the legendary Lionel Richie. As a storyteller second to none, Lionel Richie is ready to tell it all. In this intimate, deeply candid memoir, Lionel revisits hilarious and harrowing events to inspire all who doubt themselves or feel their dreams don’t matter. Lionel chronicles lessons learned during his unlikely story of remarkable success—his dramatic transformation from painfully shy, “tragically” late bloomer to world-class entertainer and composer of love songs that have played as the soundtrack of our lives. Funny, warm, and riveting, Lionel recalls his childhood in Tuskegee, Alabama, where he grew up on its university campus during the heyday of the Civil Rights movement, raucous adventures as a member of The Commodores, coming-of-age in late 1960s Harlem, culture shock playing gigs on the French Riviera, the big break of being signed to Motown, his meteoric solo career that included an Olympics performance witnessed by two billion around the globe, all the way through to writing and recording “We Are the World” and his current multi-generational fame as a judge on American Idol. Even with its turbulence, loss, and near-calamity, Lionel’s journey takes us on a thrill ride and delivers a memoir for the ages—reminding us of the power of love to elevate our own lives and our world. Lionel Richie’s memoir includes three eight-page photo inserts.

#325
Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America

Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America

by Jeff Chang
Amazon Bookshop

"Water Mirror Echo is a remarkable story of a man, the traditions and communities that created him, and the new worlds he made possible. Like Bruce Lee himself, Jeff Chang is blessed with the vision to see things we do not yet see, thinking and writing with a restless, chasm-crossing, almost prophetic ambition." — Hua Hsu, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Stay True: A Memoir "This book is as celebratory as it is incisive, as it is, at times, heartbreaking. A massive achievement." — Hanif Abdurraqib, National Book Award-winning author of There’s Always This Year and A Little Devil in America A cultural biography, both sweeping and intimate, of the legend Bruce Lee, set against the extraordinary, untold story of the rise of Asian America—from the author of the award-winning classic Can’t Stop Won’t Stop and one of the finest culture observers of our era. More than a half-century after his passing, Bruce Lee is as towering a figure to people around the world as ever. On his path to becoming a global icon, he popularized martial arts in the West, became a bridge to people and cultures from the East, and just as he was set to conquer Hollywood once and for all, he died of cerebral edema at age thirty-two. It’s no wonder that Bruce Lee’s legend has only bloomed in the decades since. Yet, in so many ways, the legend has eclipsed the man. Forgotten is the stark reality of the baby boy born in segregated San Francisco, who spent his youth in war-ravaged, fight-crazy Hong Kong. Forgotten is the curious teenager who found his way back to America, where he embraced West Coast counterculture and meshed it with the Asian worldviews and philosophies that reared him. Forgotten is the man whose very presence broke barriers and helped shape the idea of what being an Asian in America is, at the very dawn of Asian America. Water Mirror Echo—a title inspired by Bruce Lee’s own way of moving, being and responding to the world—is a page-turning and powerful reminder. At the helm is Jeff Chang, the award-winning author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, whose writing on culture, politics, the arts and music have made him one of the most acclaimed and distinctive voices of our time. In his hands, Bruce Lee’s story brims with authenticity. Now, based on in-depth interviews with Lee’s closest intimates, thousands of newly available personal documents, and featuring dozens of gorgeous photographs from the family’s archive, Chang achieves the nearly impossible. He reveals the man behind the enduring iconography and stirringly shows Lee’s growing fame ushering in something that’s turned out to be even more enduring: the creation of Asian America.

#326
Wellwater

Wellwater

by Karen Solie
Amazon Bookshop

Winner, 2025 Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry Winner, Forward Prize for Best Collection of Poetry Finalist, T.S. Eliot Prize The poems in Wellwater, Karen Solie’s sixth collection, explore the intersection of cultural, economic, and personal ideas of “value,” addressing housing, economic and environmental crisis, and aging and its incumbent losses. In an era of accelerating inequality, places many of us thought of as home have become unaffordable. In “Basement Suite,” the faux-utopian economy of Airbnb suggests people with property “share” it with us and, presumably, we should be grateful. In “Parables of the Rat” the speaker feels affinity with scavengers while also wanting the rats gone. Having grown up in Saskatchewan on a small family farm, Solie sees the economic and environmental crises as inseparable. Climate change has made small farming increasingly untenable, allowing overbearing corporate control of food production. But hope, Solie argues, is as necessary to addressing the crises of our time as bearing witness, in poems that celebrate wonder and persistence in the non-human world. Tamarack forests in Newfoundland that grow inches over hundreds of years, the suddenly thriving pronghorn antelope, or a new, unidentified and ineradicable climbing vine, all hint at renewal, and a way to move forward.

#327
When the Cranes Fly South: A Novel

When the Cranes Fly South: A Novel

by Lisa Ridzén
Amazon Bookshop

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE SWEDISH BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD • A profoundly moving debut novel that follows an elderly man’s attempts to mend his relationship with his son before it’s too late: an emotional story of love, friendship, fatherhood, dogs, and atonement that is already an international sensation. "One of those ‘you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll want to buy twenty copies and give them to everyone you love’ books.” —Fredrik Backman, bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, in The New Yorker “A powerful, sneakily emotional meditation on life and death, and the foundational relationships in our lives. This is a book that will echo in your soul.” —Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain Bo is running out of time. Yet time is one of the few things he’s got left. These days, his quiet existence is broken up only by daily visits from his home care team. Fortunately, he still has his beloved elkhound Sixten to keep him company … though now his son, with whom Bo has had a rocky relationship, insists upon taking the dog away, claiming that Bo has grown too old to properly care for him. The threat of losing Sixten stirs up a whirlwind of emotion, leading Bo to take stock of his life, his relationships, and the imperfect way he’s expressed his love over the years.

#329
When the Tides Held the Moon

When the Tides Held the Moon

by Venessa Vida Kelley
Amazon Bookshop

The Shape of Water meets The Greatest Showman in this beautifully illustrated queer historical cozy fantasy, as a young Puerto Rican immigrant goes through a journey of love and self-discovery after capturing a merman for a Coney Island sideshow act in turn-of-the 20th century New York. “Venessa gives life to the most unexpected things. I have a strong, strong feeling that this is the start of something special.” —TJ KLUNE, New York Times Bestselling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea Benigno “Benny” Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds everyone, especially the eccentric side-show proprietor who commissioned it. Benny’s work earns him an invitation to join the show’s eclectic crew of performers—his first welcome in the city—and share in their astonishing secret: the tank Benny built is a cage for their newest exhibit, a living, breathing, in-the-flesh merman stolen from the banks of the East River under a gleaming full moon. The merman is more than a mythic marvel, though. Benny comes to know Río as a clever philosopher, an observant traveler, and a kindred spirit more beautiful and compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own. A cage is no place for a merman to survive. Though releasing Río means betraying his new family, bankrupting their home, and losing his soulmate forever, Benny must look within for the courage to do what’s right, and find a love strong enough to free them both. "When the Tides Held the Moon is a beautifully illustrated novel with artwork throughout by Venessa Vida Kelley, known for her stunning romance and fantasy art. This novel includes two different full-color endpapers for front and back, fully-designed chapter headers, and 27 pieces of detailed illustrations throughout, using beautiful two-color, aqua blue and black inks.

#331
Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service

Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service

by Michael Lewis (editor)
Amazon Bookshop

“Perhaps never before has there been a book better timed or more urgent.” —Washington Post “Michael Lewis has this incredible ability to zoom in on one person's story, and from there reveals something much bigger about our culture. His books leave you seeing the world differently, and his books about federal workers are no exception.” —Katie Couric As seen on CBS Mornings, CNN Anderson Cooper, ABC News Live, MSNBC Morning Joe, and many more Who works for the government and why does their work matter? An urgent and absorbing civics lesson from an all-star team of writers and storytellers. The government is a vast, complex system that Americans pay for, rebel against, rely upon, dismiss, and celebrate. It’s also our shared resource for addressing the biggest problems of society. And it’s made up of people, mostly unrecognized and uncelebrated, doing work that can be deeply consequential and beneficial to everyone. Michael Lewis invited his favorite writers, including Casey Cep, Dave Eggers, John Lanchester, Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Vowell, and W. Kamau Bell, to join him in finding someone doing an interesting job for the government and writing about them. The stories they found are unexpected, riveting, and inspiring, including a former coal miner devoted to making mine roofs less likely to collapse, saving thousands of lives; an IRS agent straight out of a crime thriller; and the manager who made the National Cemetery Administration the best-run organization, public or private, in the entire country. Each essay shines a spotlight on the essential behind-the-scenes work of exemplary federal employees. Whether they’re digitizing archives, chasing down cybercriminals, or discovering new planets, these public servants are committed to their work and universally reluctant to take credit. Expanding on the Washington Post series, the vivid profiles in Who Is Government? blow up the stereotype of the irrelevant bureaucrat. They show how the essential business of government makes our lives possible, and how much it matters.

#333
You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip

You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip

by Kelsey McKinney
Amazon Bookshop

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER • NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH BY TIME MAGAZINE, AMAZON, AND KOBO • NAMED MOST ANTICIPATED BY LIT HUB, PUREWOW, AND W MAGAZINE “Gossip is the only cultural tradition I care about, and Kelsey McKinney has written its Bible” – Samantha Irby, #1 NYT bestselling author From the host of the Normal Gossip podcast, a delightfully insightful exploration of our obsession with gossip that weaves together journalism, cultural criticism, and memoir. As the pandemic forced us to socialize at a distance, Kelsey McKinney was mourning the juicy updates and jaw-dropping stories she’d typically collect over drinks with friends—and from her hunger, the blockbuster Normal Gossip podcast was born. With listenership in the millions, Kelsey found herself thinking more critically about gossip as a form, and wanting to better understand the role it plays in our culture. In You Didn't Hear This From Me, McKinney explores the murkiness of everyday storytelling. Why is gossip considered a sin, and how can we better recognize when it's being weaponized? Why do we think we’re entitled to every detail of a celebrity’s personal life? And how do we define “gossip,” anyway? As much as the book aims to treat gossip as a subject worthy of rigor, it also hopes to capture the heart of gossiping: how enchanting and fun it can be to lean over and whisper something a little salacious into your friend’s ear. With wit and honesty, McKinney unmasks what we're actually searching for when we demand to know the truth—and how much the truth really matters in the first place.

#335
You’ve Changed

You’ve Changed

by Ian Williams
Amazon Bookshop

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 GILLER PRIZE NATIONAL BESTSELLER The eagerly awaited follow-up novel from the Giller prize-winning author of Reproduction, You’ve Changed is a daring and clever dissection of a crumbling marriage between two people who are morphing in ways that confound each other. Middle-aged and about to be dumped from his construction job, Beckett is not feeling his best—especially since his wife, Princess, is already pressuring him to improve himself. She’s a fitness instructor who spends a lot of time and energy finetuning every inch of her body. Still, they both think their marriage is basically fine, until a couple of friends show up for a visit, their mutual affection and sexual chemistry loudly on display. In one weekend, they upset the tenuous balance between Beckett and Princess, throwing them into parallel midlife crises. Princess thinks the problem is physical, and attempts to revive Beckett's interest with relentless surgical alterations and bodily enhancements that have the opposite effect on her husband. Beckett tries to woo Princess back to him by relaunching his contracting business, laying his manly accomplishments at her feet. Then, while Princess is away pursuing even more drastic beauty measures, Beckett meets Gluten, an energetic and erratic man devoted to living in the moment, whom Beckett feels drawn to in ways that surprise him. Beckett is changing, Princess is changing: what will happen to their already stressed marriage? Sharp, inventive and absurdly funny, You’ve Changed is a wild ride exploring identity, insecurity, intimacy and desire, and who individuals become when they unite, and how they change despite promising not to.

#337
1985

1985

by Dominic Hoey
Amazon Bookshop

It’s 1985 and Obi’s on the cusp of teenagehood, after a childhood marked by poverty, dysfunctional family dynamics, (dis)organised crime and violence. His dad’s delusional, his mum’s real sick, the Rainbow Warrior just exploded, and it’s time for Obi to grow up and get out of the spacies parlour. When he and his best mate Al discover a map leading to unknown riches, Obi wonders if this windfall could be the thing that turns his family’s fortunes around. Instead, he’s thrown into an adventure where the stakes are a lot higher than the games he loves. An electric novel about life in a multi-cultural, counter-cultural part of Auckland pre-gentrification. 1985 is an adventure story with a local flavour, a coming-of-age story for the underdogs, the disenfranchised and the dreamers. 'This is writing of raw and shining brilliance' NZ Herald on Poor People With Money

#341
A Book of Maps for You

A Book of Maps for You

by Lourdes Heuer
Amazon Bookshop

Before moving away, a young cartographer leaves some guidance behind about his old home for the child about to make it their new one. What if you moved to a new place and found a hand-drawn local guidebook, left there just for you? In A Book of Maps for You, an artistic young person gives just such a gift. He’s crafted and annotated maps of his neighborhood, school, and house; no slide, orange tree, or chicken coop left uncharted. He points out the best Halloween decorations, school lunches, and local stops for baked goods, books, or art supplies. He shows the best place to put your bed upstairs, right under the skylight. Just as his family’s moving truck pulls away, another pulls up, and sure enough, his book finds its way into the next child’s hands. During a big move, a child can feel a lot of pressure to open their heart to the place they’re headed. But what about the roads they’ve been down hundreds of times? The faces they’ve grown up seeing? The house where they know every bang of the pipes and drip of the faucet? That history deserves care, too. A Book of Maps for You honors the homes we leave behind and the ones we haven’t met yet, reminding us that they may just be two sides of the same coin. Lourdes Heuer’s achingly subtle text speaks volumes in all it pays attention to, and all it doesn’t have to say. Maxwell Eaton III’s signature detail-rich illustrations perfectly suggest the work of a talented child, and promise plenty of surprises to drink in and explore on each page.

#344
A Feast for the Eyes

A Feast for the Eyes

by Alex Crespo
Amazon Bookshop

Sawkill Girls meets Twin Peaks in a page-turning queer supernatural thriller, where four teens must track down a local cryptid that's feeding off secrets, before their own hidden truths are exposed. On the dreary Oregon coast, a beast who feeds on secrets--known as the Watcher--lies in wait. When Shay and her girlfriend Lauren get into a fight over whether to go public with their relationship, they awaken the creature. Although Lauren is badly injured, the girls escape with their lives but can't shake the feeling of the creature's eyes tracking them. Meanwhile, aspiring photographer Zoe is desperate to put together a portfolio worthy of earning a scholarship to attend art college. Her photography teacher praises her skill, but urges her to select more daring subjects for her submissions--a tall task when Zoe's camera acts as a barrier between herself and the rest of the world. As rumors swirl about Lauren's injuries, Shay remains steadfast in that the Watcher is to blame. She asks for Zoe's help in snapping a photo of the local legend. Proof would help Shay get her life back on track and would certainly be daring enough for Zoe's scholarship. Together with their friends Jack and Parker, they set out to expose the Watcher before its ever-creeping eyes cast the secrets they're keeping from the town--and each other--into the light. Eerily atmospheric and as piercing as eyes on the back of your head, Alex Crespo's LGBTQ+ supernatural thriller is a poignant story about the prices we pay to keep our secrets hidden--sometimes for good reason. Through creeping tension and mounting horror, readers will furiously turn the pages with their breaths held.

#345
A Forgery of Fate

A Forgery of Fate

by Elizabeth Lim
Amazon Bookshop

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A breathtaking romantic fantasy inspired by Beauty and the Beast about a girl who paints the future and a cursed dragon lord, bound by love and deception in a plot to bring down the gods. From the New York Times bestselling author of Six Crimson Cranes! “Everything I love in a story—danger, complex characters, romance, betrayal and gorgeous writing.” —Mary E. Pearson, New York Times bestselling author of Dance of Thieves Truyan Saigas didn't choose to become a con artist, but after her father is lost at sea, it’s up to her to support her mother and two younger sisters. A gifted art forger, Tru has the unique ability to paint the future, but even such magic is not enough to put her family back together again, or stave off the gangsters demanding payment in blood for her mother’s gambling debts. Left with few options, Tru agrees to a marriage contract with a mysterious dragon lord. He offers a fresh start for her mother and sisters and elusive answers about her father's disappearance, but in exchange, she must join him in his desolate undersea palace. And she must assist him in a plot to infiltrate the tyrannical Dragon King's inner circle, painting a future so treasonous, it could upend both the mortal and immortal realms. . . .

#347
A GORGEOUS EXCITEMENT

A GORGEOUS EXCITEMENT

by Cynthia Weiner
Amazon Bookshop

One young woman’s summer of infinite possibility takes a turn she never saw coming in “this 1980s coming-of-age tale [that’s] chillingly compelling. Get ready to be transported.”—People (Best Books of the Month) AN OPRAH DAILY BEST NEW THRILLER • A TOWN & COUNTRY AND CRIMEREADS MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK “I haven’t felt this kind of excitement reading a story set in the ’80s since I first discovered Jay McInerney, Tama Janowitz, and Bret Easton Ellis.”—Margarita Montimore, bestselling author of Oona Out of Order There are two things Nina Jacobs is determined to do over the summer of 1986: avoid her mother’s depression-fueled rages, and lose her virginity before she starts college in the fall. Both are seemingly impossible—when her mother isn’t lying in bed for days, she’s lashing out at Nina over any perceived slight. And after a blowjob gone spectacularly wrong, Nina is the talk of Flanagan’s, the Upper East Side bar where young Manhattan society congregates. It doesn’t help that she’s Jewish, an outsider among the blue-eyed blondes who populate this rarified world. She can fit in, kind of, with enough alcohol and prescription drugs stolen from her parents’ medicine cabinet. Flanagan’s is where she pines for the handsome, preppy, and charismatic Gardner Reed. Every girl wants to sleep with him and every guy wants to be him. After she’s introduced to cocaine, Nina plunges headlong into her pursuit of Gardner, oblivious to the warning signs. When a new medication seemingly frees her mother from darkness, and Nina and Gardner grow closer, it seems like Nina might finally get what she wants. But at what cost? Freud called cocaine “a gorgeous excitement,” but a gorgeous excitement for the wrong guy can be lethal.

#348
A History of England in 25 Poems

A History of England in 25 Poems

by Catherine Clarke
Amazon Bookshop

A delightful, thoughtful and original new way to understand England's history 'Catherine Clarke uses an eclectic mix of verse — satirical, scabrous, tragic, lyrical — to tell the English national story... the emotional intimacy of poetry (aided by Clarke’s careful, historically informed analysis) offers valuable insights into great historical events' - Katherine Harvey, The Times 'Catherine Clarke traces centuries of English thought and poetry, from the time of Beowulf to the protests written in the wake of Brexit. She weaves together the personal and the public with stories... an excellent, all-encompassing read' - The Idler This is the history of England told in a new way: glimpsed through twenty-five remarkable poems written down between the eighth century and today, which connect us directly with the nation’s past, and the experiences, emotions and imaginations of those who lived it. These poems open windows onto wildly different worlds – from the public to the intimate, from the witty to the savage, from the playful to the wistful. They take us onto battlefields, inside royal courts, down coal mines and below stairs in great houses. Their creators, witnesses to events from the Great Fire of London to the Miners’ Strike, range from the famous to the forgotten, yet each invites us into an immersive encounter with their own time. A History of England in 25 Poems is a portal to the past; a constant companion, filled with vivid voices and surprising stories alongside familiar landmarks, and language that speaks in new ways on each reading. Catherine Clarke’s knowledge and passion take us inside the words and the moments they capture, with thoughtful insights, humour and new perspectives on how the nation has dreamed itself into existence – and who gets to tell England’s story.

#354
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

by Tia Williams
Amazon Bookshop

From the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Days in June, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is an epic love story one hundred years in the making... Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing. Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn't one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she's the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they're long-stemmed roses, she's a dandelion: an adorable bloom that's actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her. When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers. One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way. Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked. Includes a Reading Group Guide.

#359
A Resistance of Witches: A Novel

A Resistance of Witches: A Novel

by Morgan Ryan
Amazon Bookshop

RESISTANCE IS MAGIC “War II meets A Discovery of Witches…I raced through this one.” —Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Briar Club “Historical fantasy at its absolute best.” —Alexis Henderson author of The Year of the Witching and An Academy for Liars As World War II rages around her, a witch abandoned by her coven must journey to find a book of unspeakable power before it lands in Nazi hands Stubborn, plain-spoken and from an unimpressive family, Lydia Polk never expected to be accepted into the Royal Academy of Witches. Now, with Hitler’s army rampaging across Europe, the witches of Britain have joined the war effort, and Lydia is key to the cause: she must use her magic to track down magical relics before Hitler and his sycophants can. When a Nazi witch infiltrates the Academy with heart-breaking consequences, the coven is left shaken, exposed and divided. The elder British witches have no interest in further loss of coven life in service of a government that has forced them into hiding for decades, no matter the consequences to the world. But with the discovery of the Grimorium Bellum, an ancient book that leaves a trail of death and destruction wherever it goes, Lydia knows her mission has never been more urgent. Alone and woefully outnumbered, Lydia makes her way to the heart of occupied France, where she finds allies in Rebecca Gagne—a fierce French resistance fighter chockful of secrets—and Henry Boudreaux—a handsome Haitian-American art historian with a little magic of his own. Together, they traverse the country, stalked by the natural and supernatural alike, in search of the grimoire. But, as Lydia soon discovers, finding the book is only half the battle—the Grimorium Bellum has a dark agenda all its own. Lydia must subdue it before the Witches of the Third Reich can use it—but she’ll have to survive the book herself, first.

#362
A Silent Treatment: A Memoir

A Silent Treatment: A Memoir

by Jeannie Vanasco
Amazon Bookshop

She did it to my dad, though. They used the silent treatment on each other, she explained, because they didn't want to say something they'd regret. What does she want to say now that she'd regret? Jeannie Vanasco's mother starts using the silent treatment not long after moving into the renovated apartment within Jeannie's home. The silences begin at any perceived slight. Her shortest period of silence lasts two weeks. Her longest, six months. As Vanasco guides us through her mother's childhood, their shared past, and the devastating silence of their present, she paints a layered, complicated portrait of a mother and daughter looking, failing, and--in big and small ways--succeeding to understand each other. In the margins of her research, at her kitchen table with her partner, in phone calls to friends, and in delightful hey google queries, Vanasco explores the loneliness and isolation of silence as punishment, both in her own life and beyond it, and confronts her greatest fear: that her mother will never speak to her again. From the acclaimed author of Things We Didn't Talk About When I was a Girl and The Glass Eye, Jeannie Vanasco's A Silent Treatment is a searingly honest and lasting testament to the power of all things left unsaid.

#364
A TROPICAL REBEL GETS THE DUKE

A TROPICAL REBEL GETS THE DUKE

by Adriana Herrera
Amazon Bookshop

He's not like other dukes… Paris, 1889 Physician Aurora Montalban Wright takes risks in her career, but never with her heart. Running an underground women’s clinic exposes her to certain dangers, but help arrives in the unexpected form of the infuriating Duke of Annan. Begrudgingly, Aurora accepts his protection, then promptly finds herself in his bed. New to his role as a duke, Apollo César Sinclair Robles struggles to embrace his position. With half of society waiting for him to misstep and the other half looking to discredit him, Apollo never imagined that his enthralling bedmate would become his most trusted adviser. Soon, he realizes the rebellious doctor could be the perfect duchess for him. But Aurora won’t give up her independence, and her secrets make her unsuitable for the aristocracy. When dangerous figures from their pasts return to threaten them, Apollo whisks Aurora away to the French Riviera. Far from the reproachful eye of Parisian society, can Apollo convince Aurora that their bond is stronger than the forces keeping them apart? Can't get enough of the Las Leonas? Book 1: A Caribbean Heiress in Paris Book 2: An Island Princess Starts a Scandal Book 3: A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke

#368
A Year with Gilbert White: The First Great Nature Writer

A Year with Gilbert White: The First Great Nature Writer

by Jenny Uglow
Amazon Bookshop

Uglow makes us feel the life beyond the facts.' GUARDIAN 'Few can match Uglow's skill at conjuring up a scene, or illuminating a character.' SUNDAY TIMES 'Charming . . . Like Radio 4's shipping forecast for naturalists.' Andrea Wulf, FINANCIAL TIMES In 1781, Gilbert White was a country curate, living in the Hampshire village he had known all his life. Fascinated by the fauna, flora and people around him, he kept journals for many years, and, at that time, was halfway to completing his path-breaking The Natural History of Selborne. No one had written like this before, with such close observation, humour, and sympathy: his spellbinding book has remained in print ever since, treasured by generations of readers. Jenny Uglow illuminates this quirky, warm-hearted man, 'the father of ecology', by following a single year in his Naturalist's Journal. As his diary jumps from topic to topic, she accompanies Gilbert from frost to summer drought, from the migration of birds to the sex lives of snails and the coming of harvest. Fresh, alive and original - and packed with rich colour illustrations - A Year with Gilbert White invites us to see the natural world anew, with astonishment and wonder. 'A feast of a book, it is beautifully illustrated and compulsively readable.' LITERARY REVIEW'The author brings her subject endearingly alive . . . [an] enriching book.' NATURE

#369
A/S/L

A/S/L

by Jeanne Thornton
Amazon Bookshop

A transformational, transformative story about video games, three queer friends, and the code(s) they learn to survive, from the winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Trans Fiction 1998: Lilith, Sash, and Abraxa are teenagers, scattered across the country but joined by the Internet as they create Saga of the Sorceress, a video game that will change everything, if only for the three of them. Eighteen years later, Saga of the Sorceress still exists only on the scattered drives of its creators. Lilith works as a loan underwriter at a rinky-dink bank in Manhattan, a trans woman in a very cis world. Sash is in Brooklyn, working as a part-time webcam dominatrix. Neither knows that the other is in New York, or that Abraxa is just across the Hudson River, sleeping on the floor of a friend’s Jersey City home after a disaster at sea. They have never met in person and have been out of touch for years, but none have forgotten the sorceress or her unfinished quest. Weaving together the technologies of two decades, and a healthy dose of magic, A/S/L is a novel that queers our notions of nostalgia, friendship, and even the possibilities of fiction itself, confirming Jeanne Thornton as one of our best and most ambitious novelists.

#382
Alchemised

Alchemised

by SenLinYu
Amazon Bookshop

In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy—and the man tasked with unearthing the deepest secrets of her past. “What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours? The war is over. Holdfast is dead. The Eternal Flame extinguished. There’s no one left for you to save.” Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed. In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive. According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance’s final gambit? To uncover the memories buried deep within her mind, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful and ruthless necromancers in this new world. Trapped on his crumbling estate, Helena’s fight—to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self—is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost.

#383
Alchemy of Secrets (Alchemy of Secrets, #1)

Alchemy of Secrets (Alchemy of Secrets, #1)

by Stephanie Garber
Amazon Bookshop

The HOTLY ANTICIPATED adult debut novel by the beloved, #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING author of the Caraval and Once Upon a Broken Heart series: a contemporary fantasy kicking off a brand new series! It starts with a class in an old movie theater. Folklore 517: Local Legends and Urban Myths, taught by a woman called the Professor. Most students believe the Professor’s stories are just fiction, but Holland St. James has always been convinced that magic is real. When she tracks down a local legend named the Watch Man, who can supposedly tell you when you’ll die, the world finally makes sense. Except that the Watch Man tells her she will die at midnight tomorrow unless she finds an ancient object called the Alchemical Heart. With the clock ticking, Holland is pulled deeper into this magical world in the heart of Los Angeles—and into the path of a magnetic stranger. Everything about him feels like a bad idea, but he promises Holland that her sister sent him to protect her. As they chase clues and stories that take them closer to the Alchemical Heart, Holland realizes everyone in this intoxicating new world is lying to her, even this stranger. And if she can’t figure out whom to trust, not even the Alchemical Heart will save her.

#388
All of Us Murderers

All of Us Murderers

by KJ Charles
Amazon Bookshop

"When Zeb Wyckham is summoned to a wealthy relative's remote Gothic house on Dartmoor, he finds all the people he least wants to see in the world - his estranged brother, his loathsome cousins, and his bitter ex-lover, Gideon Grey. Nothing, he is certain, could possibly be worse. Then the grizzled old patriarch announces the true purpose of the gathering: He intends to leave the vast family fortune to whichever of the men marries Cousin Jessamine, setting off a violent scramble for her hand and his wealth. Disinterested in being tied further to a family he can barely stand, Zeb tries to leave only to realize that he's been trapped. The walls are high, the gates are locked, and when the mists roll in, there's no way out. And there may be something trapped within the dark monstrosity of a house with them. Fear and paranoia ramping ever-higher, Zeb has nowhere to turn but to the man who once held his whole heart. As the mists descend, the gaslight flickers, and terror takes its hold, two warring lovers must reconcile in time to uncover the murderous mysteries of Lackaday House - and live to tell the tale"--

#389
All That We See or Seem

All That We See or Seem

by Ken Liu
Amazon Bookshop

Award­-winning author Ken Liu returns with his first scifi thriller in a brand-new series following former “orphan hacker” Julia Z as she is thrust into a high-stakes adventure where she must use her AI-whispering skills to unravel a virtual reality mystery, rescue a kidnapped dream artist, and confront the blurred lines between technology, selfhood, and the power of shared dreams. Julia Z, a young woman who gained notoriety at fourteen as the “orphan hacker,” is trying to live a life of digital obscurity in a quiet Boston suburb. But when a lawyer named Piers—whose famous artist wife, Elli, has been kidnapped by dangerous criminals—barges into her life, Julia decides to put the solitary life she has painstakingly created at risk as she can’t walk away from helping Piers and Elli, nor step away from the challenge of this digital puzzle. Elli is an oneirofex, a dream artist, who can weave the dreams of an audience together through a shared virtual landscape, live, in a concert-like experience by tapping into each attendee’s memories and providing an emotionally resonant narrative experience. While these collective dreams are anonymous, Julia discovers that Elli was also dreaming one-on-one with the head of an international criminal enterprise, and he’s demanding the return of his dreams in exchange for Elli. Unraveling the real and unreal leads Julia on an adventure that takes her across the country and deep into the shadows of her psyche.

#391
All the Parts We Exile

All the Parts We Exile

by Roza Nozari
Amazon Bookshop

From a queer Muslim woman and artist, a generous, insightful memoir that traces her journey toward radical self-acceptance and of exile from her ancestral home. As the youngest of three daughters, and the only one born in Canada soon after her parents' emigration from Iran, Roza Nozari began her life hungry for a sense of belonging. From her early years, she shared a passion for Iranian cuisine with her mother and craved stories of their ancestral home. Eventually they visited and she fell in love with its sights and smells, and with the warm embrace of their extended family. Yet Roza sensed something was amiss with her mother's happy, well-rehearsed story of their original departure. As Roza grew older, this longing for home transformed into a desire for inner understanding and liberation. She was lit up by the feminist texts in her women’s studies courses, and shared radical ideas with her mother—who in turn shared more of her past, from protesting for the Islamic revolution to her ambivalence about getting married. In this memoir, Roza braids the narrative of her mother’s life together with her own on-going story of self, as she arrives at, then rejects, her queer identity, eventually finds belonging in queer spaces and within queer Iranian histories, and learns the truth about her family’s move to Canada. All the Parts We Exile is a memoir of dualities: mother and daughter, home and away, shame and self-acceptance, conflict and peace, love and pain—and the stories that exist within and between them. In sharp, emotionally honest and funny prose, Roza tenderly explores the grief around the parts we exile and the joy of those we hold close in order to be true to our deepest selves.

#392
All Things Under the Moon: A Novel

All Things Under the Moon: A Novel

by Ann Y. K. Choi
Amazon Bookshop

Pachinko meets Beasts of a Little Land in this stunning, evocative tale, set in 1920s Korea, of one seemingly ordinary woman—an uneducated villager living under Japanese occupation—who takes control of her own destiny and rises to become an advocate for women’s literacy as a force for change. “Women need other women to survive.” In 1924, Korea is an occupied country. In Seoul’s secret, underground networks and throughout the countryside, rebellion against the Japanese Empire simmers, threatening to boil over. Kim Na-Young lives a simple life in the rural village of Daegeori, where she watches the moon rise and set over the pine-wooded mountains, tends to her household alongside her best friend, Yeon-Soo, and cares for her sick mother. But the occupation touches every Korean life—even Na-Young’s. In the wake of a tragedy that stuns the village, Na-Young’s father arranges her marriage to a man she’s never met, and Na-Young and Yeon-Soo decide to flee, taking their fate into their own hands. That decision sets them on their own collision course with the occupying forces, resulting in a violent encounter that will alter both of their lives forever—in shockingly different ways. Taking us from a small village to the bustling corridors of Seoul, where women and girls can learn to read and write in multiple languages and members of the revolution pass coded messages through the back rooms of teahouses, Ann Y. K. Choi weaves a masterful tale of a woman taking command not only of her own identity but her own destiny. A sweeping journey through historical Korea and an utterly compelling portrait of one woman’s remarkable life, All Things Under the Moon is both a stunning literary achievement and a beautifully written tribute to the sacrifices women make for each other.

#395
Along Came Amor

Along Came Amor

by Alexis Daria
Amazon Bookshop

USA TODAY BESTSELLER A MOST ANTICIPATED READ BY THE NEW YORK TIMES • OPRAH DAILY • PASTE • THE NERD DAILY • BOOKBUB • TODAY.COM • & MORE! "[T]he third and final volume in Daria's gloriously angst-saturated Primas of Power series... these three books have more concentrated pining than an Austen movie marathon on a rainy afternoon." —THE NEW YORK TIMES "[A]n emotional roller coaster of a finale that will leave readers exhilarated." —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review) From the international bestselling author of You Had Me at Hola and A Lot Like Adiós, the exciting third and final book in Alexis Daria's bestselling Primas of Power series No strings After Ava Rodriguez’s now-ex-husband declares he wants to “follow his dreams”—which no longer include her—she’s left questioning everything she thought she wanted. So when a handsome hotelier flirts with her, Ava vows to stop overthinking and embrace the opportunity for an epic one-night-stand. No feelings Roman Vázquez’s sole focus is the empire he built from the ground up. He lives and dies by his schedule, but the gorgeous stranger grimacing into her cocktail inspires him to change his plans for the evening. At first, it’s easy for Roman to agree to Ava’s rules: no strings, no feelings. But one night isn’t enough, and the more they meet, the more he wants. No falling in love Roman is the perfect fling, until Ava sees him at her cousin’s engagement party—as the groom’s best man, no less! Maintaining her boundaries becomes a lot more complicated as she tries to hide their relationship from her family, but Roman isn’t content being her dirty little secret. With her future uncertain and her family pressuring her from all sides, Ava will have to decide if love is worth the risk—again. “This ultra-steamy, feel-good, and funny romance is filled with a large and lovable cast of characters and emotional family dynamics and is lovingly rooted in Latine culture... [A] sensational final installment” —LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)

#397
Always Home, Always Homesick: A Love Letter to Iceland

Always Home, Always Homesick: A Love Letter to Iceland

by Hannah Kent
Amazon Bookshop

Immediate, intimate and never less than captivating' - Guardian From the bestselling author of Burial Rites comes an inspirational memoir about her travels in Iceland, an extraordinary country that has forged a nation of storytellers. When she was seventeen years old, Hannah Kent travelled to Iceland from Australia. She’d never seen snow before, didn’t speak a word of Icelandic. All she knew was that she wanted to have an experience – to soak up something of the world. Soon she found herself isolated in a remote part of Iceland in a dark winter. It was a gruelling experience, but she quickly fell in love with the country: with its brutally beautiful landscapes and with its people. On returning home, with images of Iceland's towering glaciers and windswept tundras in her dreams, Hannah began to write. Now, as a mother and a wife, she looks back to that extraordinary year in Iceland. Praise for Burial Rites: ‘Outstanding’ – Madeline Miller ‘Gripping, intriguing and unique’ – Kate Mosse ‘One of the best Scandinavian crime novels I’ve read’ – Independent ‘Remarkable’ – The Sunday Times ‘A must-read’ – Grazia

#402
American Mythology

American Mythology

by Giano Cromley
Amazon Bookshop

A charming and comic debut novel about a quirky ensemble embarking on an epic quest to find Bigfoot “American Mythology is a riveting, big-hearted novel about a group of pilgrims who encounter both the mysteries of nature and ultimately those of the human heart. Giano Cromley has given us a much-needed reminder that, if sought, wonder may yet be found in our world.” —Ron Rash, author of The Caretaker Every month at St. Pete’s Tavern in rugged western Montana, a meeting is convened by the Basic Bigfoot Society’s members—both of them. Jute and Vergil are lifelong friends, bound by an affinity for the elusive North American Wood Ape. Their monthly meetings and annual expeditions are a tradition that keep their friendship alive when so much else about their small town has fallen away. But things are about to get exciting for the Basic Bigfoot Society. Dr. Marcus Bernard, the country’s foremost Bigfoot “expert,” approaches them with a proposition that seems almost too good to be true: to join their next expedition, along with an ambitious young documentarian, Vicky Xu. Thankfully, Vergil’s daughter Rye is home from college, and decides to tag along in order to make sure her dad and Jute aren’t made fools of. Once in the woods, strange things begin to happen to them that seem to defy rational explanation. Is this a hoax? Or are they on the precipice of the greatest anthropological discovery ever? A spooky adventure story and a wry and heartwarming tale of friendship, American Mythology is a fabulous debut about the power of belief and our sacred bond to nature.

#407
Animal Instinct

Animal Instinct

by Amy Shearn
Amazon Bookshop

The world has stopped. But Rachel is just getting started… It’s spring of 2020 and Rachel Bloomstein—mother of three, recent divorcée, and Brooklynite—is stuck inside. But her newly awakened sexual desire and lust for a new life refuse to be contained. Leaning on her best friend Lulu to show her the ropes, Rachel dips a toe in the online dating world, leading to park dates with younger men, flirtations with beautiful women, and actual, in-person sex. None of them, individually, are perfect . . . hence her rotation. But what if one person could perfectly cater to all her emotional needs? Driven by this possibility, Rachel creates Frankie, the AI chatbot she programs with all the good parts of dating in middle age . . . and some of the bad. But as Rachel plays with her fantasy to her heart’s content, she begins to realize she can’t reprogram her ex-husband, her children, her friends, or the roster of paramours that’s grown unwieldy. Perhaps real life has more in store for Rachel than she could ever program for herself.

#412
Around the Table: 52 Essays on Food & Life

Around the Table: 52 Essays on Food & Life

by Diana Henry
Amazon Bookshop

Around the Table is a selection of some of bestselling writer Diana Henry's very best essays on food, handpicked from over two decades of her much-loved cookbooks. "Lyrical...radiant...timeless. A dazzling collection" - Nigel Slater "No one writes about food so beautifully..." London Evening Standard "Reading her recipes is almost as satisfying as making and eating them." Daisy Buchanan "Diana writes like a dream" Daily Mail "This is an extraordinary piece of food writing, pitch perfect in every way. I couldn't love anyone who didn't love this book." Nigella Lawson on How to Eat a Peach "...beautifully written and endlessly inventive..." Felicity Cloake, The Guardian, on Diana Henry's beloved culinary classic Simple "She has become the Delia of my generation" Clare Finney, The Telegraph "The food writers' food writer" Mark Diacono For Diana Henry's many fans, her evocative writing about both place and food brings just as much pleasure as her delicious recipes. Around the Table is a selection of some of Diana's very best essays, handpicked from over two decades of her much-loved cookbooks. From the bustling Turkish groceries of the Edgware Road to the kitchen table of a cottage in rural France, a trattoria tucked away in the suburbs of Rome to the chilly Vermont countryside famed for its maple syrup, Diana Henry has followed her tastebuds around the world. In this collection, Diana's writing brings ingredients to life on the page. Tuck into salty and sweet, buttery and inky purple and black olives. Blood-red threads of saffron that turn whole platters of food into gold, bleeding yolk-yellow streaks over creamy chicken and milky white yogurt. Mouth-puckeringly citrusy, easy to peel and almost seedless Valencia oranges. The simple pleasure of a warming slice of toast. This vivid and nourishing collection of essays on the joys of good food is an utter delight for the senses.

#414
Audition for the Fox

Audition for the Fox

by Martin Cahill
Amazon Bookshop

In this gripping fantasy adventure, a trickster Fox god challenges a quick-witted woman to rally her ancestors with cunning subterfuge and outright rebellion. Nesi is desperate to earn the patronage of one of the Ninety-Nine Pillars of Heaven. Without the protection of a divine animal, she will never be allowed to leave her temple home. But after she fails ninety-six auditions, Nesi makes a risky prayer to T'sidaan, the Fox of Tricks. In folk tales, the Fox is a loveable prankster. But despite their humor and charm, T'sidaan, and their audition, is no joke. They throw Nesi back in time three hundred years, when her homeland is occupied by the brutal Wolfhounds of Zemin. Now, Nesi must ally with her besieged people and learn a trickster's guile to snatch a fortress from the disgraced and exiled 100th Pillar: The Wolf of the Hunt.

#417
Awakened

Awakened

by A.E. Osworth
Amazon Bookshop

A coven of trans witches battles an evil AI in the magical coming-of-middle-age romp about love, loss, drag shows, and late capitalism. On a morning much like any other, 30-something queer Brooklynite Wilder makes a miraculous discovery: suddenly, as if by magic, they can understand every language in the world. Dazed and disconnected, Wilder is found and taken in by a small coven of trans witches who have all become Awakened with mystical powers of their own. Quibble, a handsome portal traveler, Artemis, the group’s caretaker and seer, and Mary Margaret, a smart-ass teen with telekinetic powers all work to make the cagey and suspicious Wilder feel at home, both within their group and with the knowledge that magic is, in fact, real. Just as Wilder is finding their footing, a malicious AI threatens to dismantle the delicate balance of the coven and the world as they know it. The group scrambles to stay united as they question whether any consciousness—be it artificial, material, or magical—is too dangerous to exist. Awakened is a hilarious, thought-provoking reflection on the ways that we are responsible for creating our own realities, a story of finding community, and a meditation on what it means to have a body.

#419
Bad Company

Bad Company

by Megan Greenwell
Amazon Bookshop

*ONE OF AV CLUB'S BEST BOOKS OF 2025* "[An] indictment of an industry that has cannily tilted the playing field in its favor. Bad Company details how clichéd abstractions like ‘consolidation’ and ‘efficiency’ have given cover to real betrayals.” - The New York Times A timely work of singular reportage and a damning indictment of the private equity industry told through the stories of four American workers whose lives and communities were upended by the ruinous effects of private equity takeovers. Private equity runs our country, yet few Americans have any idea how ingrained it is in their lives. Private equity controls our hospitals, daycare centers, supermarket chains, voting machine manufacturers, local newspapers, nursing home operators, fertility clinics, and prisons. The industry even manages highways, municipal water systems, fire departments, emergency medical services, and owns a growing swath of commercial and residential real estate. Private equity executives, meanwhile, are not only among the wealthiest people in American society, but have grown to become modern-day barons with outsized influence on our politics and legislation. CEOs of firms like Blackstone, Carlyle, KKR, and Apollo are rewarded with seats in the Senate and on the boards of the country’s most august institutions; meanwhile, entire communities are hollowed out as a result of their buyouts. Workers lose their jobs. Communities lose their institutions. Only private equity wins. Acclaimed journalist Megan Greenwell’s Bad Company unearths the hidden story of private equity by examining the lives of four American workers that were devastated as private equity upended their employers and communities: a Toys R Us floor supervisor, a rural doctor, a local newspaper journalist, and an affordable housing organizer. Taken together, their individual experiences also pull back the curtain on a much larger project: how private equity reshaped the American economy to serve its own interests, creating a new class of billionaires while stripping ordinary people of their livelihoods, their health care, their homes, and their sense of security. In the tradition of deeply human reportage like Matthew Desmond’s Evicted, Megan Greenwell pulls back the curtain on shadowy multibillion dollar private equity firms, telling a larger story about how private equity is reshaping the economy, disrupting communities, and hollowing out the very idea of the American dream itself. Timely and masterfully told, Bad Company is a forceful rebuke of America’s most consequential, yet least understood economic forces.

#423
Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming

Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming

by László Krasznahorkai
Amazon Bookshop

FROM THE WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE 2025Hailed internationally as perhaps the most important novel of the young twenty-first century, Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming is the culmination of László Krasznahorkai's remarkable and singular career.Nearing the end of his life, Baron Bela Wenckheim decides to return to the provincial Hungarian town of his birth. Having escaped from his many casino debts in Buenos Aires, where he was living in exile, he wishes to be reunited with his high-school sweetheart Marika. What follows is an endless storm of gossip, con men and local politicians, vividly evoking the small town's alternately drab and absurd existence. Spectacular actions are staged, death and the abyss loom, until finally doom is brought down on the unsuspecting residents of the town.'I've said a thousand times that I always wanted to write just one book. Now, with this novel, I can prove that I really wrote just one book in my life. This is the book - Satantango, Melancholy, War & War, and Baron. This is my one book.' László Krasnahorkai'Baron Wenkcheim's Homecoming is a fitting capstone to Krasznahorkai's tetralogy, one of the supreme achievements of contemporary literature. Now seems as good a time as any to name him among our greatest living novelists.' Paris ReviewTranslated by Ottilie Mulzet

#427
Beautiful Ugly

Beautiful Ugly

by Alice Feeney
Amazon Bookshop

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Her best book yet.” —Harlan Coben The million-copy bestselling Queen of Twists Alice Feeney returns with a gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage. . . . . . and revenge. Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life. Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared. A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible – a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife. Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t. Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do. “Magnetic and jaw-dropping.” —Mary Kubica, bestselling author "Unforgettable." —Chris Whitaker, bestselling author

#431
Best Woman

Best Woman

by Rose Dommu
Amazon Bookshop

The “best woman” in her brother’s wedding tells a little white lie in her quest to get the girl—her lifelong crush and the maid of honor—in this wildly entertaining debut novel about bad decisions and life’s messiest transitions. “Irresistibly fresh, bright, funny, and bursting with singular voice, this is the kind of romance I’ve been waiting for.”—Casey McQuiston, New York Times bestselling author of The Pairing Julia Rosenberg loves her brother. Really loves him. Enough to: be the “best woman” at his wedding; leave behind her hard-won New York life, brilliant best friends, and drag brunches for Boca Raton, Florida; entertain the uptight bride-to-be and her vicious cronies; try (and fail) to dodge the hometown hookup buddy she can’t resist; and navigate the tricky dynamics with her divorced parents. She’s not that nervous. Her family stood by her when she came out as a woman a few years ago. And it’s just one week in Florida—a week of old memories and sisterly duties that will force Julia to confront the tensions that have been bubbling beneath the surface of her closest relationships. No big deal. When it turns out that Kim Cameron, the gorgeous, self-assured girl that she crushed on hard in high school, is the maid of honor, Julia panics. She tells a teensy little lie to win Kim’s favor—a lie that snowballs out of control and threatens to undermine the blossoming attraction between them and complicate an already challenging relationship with her family. Using her wit, charm, and a suitcase full of couture “borrowed” from a pop star, Julia just might survive the horde of clone-like bridesmaids, go-kart racing bachelor parties, and alcohol-fueled speeches. But she won’t make it out unscathed. As best woman, she’s making the worst decisions of her life. An utterly contemporary send-up of My Best Friend’s Wedding and a riotous coming-of-age novel, Best Woman is rife with crackling wit and devastating poignancy and announces Rose Dommu as an exciting voice in fiction.

#433
Big Chief

Big Chief

by Jon Hickey
Amazon Bookshop

"There, There meets The Night Watchman in this gripping literary debut about power and corruption, family, and facing the ghosts of the past. Mitch Caddo, a young law school graduate and aspiring political fixer, is an outsider in the homeland of his Anishinaabe ancestors. But alongside his childhood friend, Tribal President Mack Beck, he runs the government of the Passage Rouge Nation, and with it, the tribe's Golden Eagle Casino and Hotel. On the eve of Mack's reelection, their tenuous grip on power is threatened by a nationally known activist and politician, Gloria Hawkins, and her young aide, Layla Beck, none other than Mack's estranged sister and Mitch's former love. In their struggle for control over Passage Rouge, the campaigns resort to bare-knuckle political gamesmanship, testing the limits of how far they will go-and what they will sacrifice-to win it all. But when an accident claims the life of Mitch's mentor, a power broker in the reservation's political scene, the election slides into chaos and pits Mitch against the only family he has. As relationships strain to their breaking points and a peaceful protest threatens to become an all-consuming riot, Mitch and Layla must work together to stop the reservation's descent into violence. Thrilling and timely, Big Chief is an unforgettable story about the search for belonging-to an ancestral and spiritual home, to a family, and to a sovereign people at a moment of great historical importance"--

#436
Big Kiss, Bye-Bye

Big Kiss, Bye-Bye

by Claire-Louise Bennett
Amazon Bookshop

A woman confronts the afterlife of intimacy, in a deeply tender novel by one of our most acclaimed and inventive fiction writers The things that hold life in place have been lifted off and put away. Uprooted by circumstance from city to deep countryside, a woman lives in temporary limbo, visited by memories of all she’s left behind. The most insistent are those of Xavier, who has always been certain he knows her better than anyone, better than she knows herself. Xavier, whom she still loves but no longer desires, a displacement he has been unable to accept. An unexpected letter from an old acquaintance brings back a torrent of others she’s loved or wanted. Each has been a match and a mismatch, a liberation and a threat to her very sense of self. The ephemera left by their passage –a spilled coffee, an unwanted bouquet, a mind-blowing kiss—make up a cabinet of curiosity she inventories, trying to divine the essence of intimacy. What does it mean to connect with another person? What impels us to touch someone, to be touched by them, to stay in touch? How do we let them go? In yet another tour de force of fiction, Claire-Louise Bennett explores the mystery of how people come into and go out of our lives, leaving us forever in their grasp.

#438
Bitter Root Volume 4: The Next Movement

Bitter Root Volume 4: The Next Movement

by David F. Walker and Chuck Brown
Amazon Bookshop

A Lie built a House of Oppression. The Bitter Truth will burn it down. It is 1964, the height of the Civil Rights Movement. A group of activists have gone missing, and a new generation of the Sangerye family must face a menace far worse than anything their ancestors ever encountered. The monstrous jinoo--creatures born out of hate and racism--have evolved into a threat that few people are willing to acknowledge, and even fewer know how to fight. A bold new chapter in the epic saga of the multiple Eisner Award-winning series collects BITTER ROOT: THE NEXT MOVEMENT #1-5.

#440
Black Flame

Black Flame

by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Amazon Bookshop

One woman's deadly obsession with a haunted archival film precipitates her undoing in Black Flame, from the USA Today bestselling author of Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin. A cursed film. A haunted past. A deadly secret. The Baroness, an infamous exploitation film long thought destroyed by Nazi fire, is discovered fifty years later. When lonely archivist Ellen Kramer—deeply closeted and pathologically repressed—begins restoring the hedonistic movie, it unspools dark desires from deep within her. As Ellen is consumed by visions and voices, she becomes convinced the movie is real, and is happening to her—and that frame by frame, she is unleashing its occult horrors on the world. Her life quickly begins to spiral out of control. Until it all fades to black, and all that remains is a voice asking a question Ellen can’t answer but can’t get out of her mind. Do you want it? More than anything? Also by Gretchen Felker-Martin: Manhunt Cuckoo

#443
Blood in the Water

Blood in the Water

by Tiffany D. Jackson
Amazon Bookshop

This summer, beware of sharks... Mega bestselling and award-winning author Tiffany D. Jackson (The Weight of Blood; White Smoke) makes her thrilling middle-grade debut with a can't-put-it-down murder mystery set on Martha's Vineyard. Brooklyn girl Kaylani McKinnon feels like a fish out of water. She's spending the summer with family friends in their huge house on Martha's Vineyard, and the vibe is definitely snooty. Still, there are beautiful beaches, lots of ice cream, and a town full of fascinating Black history. Plus a few kids her age who seem friendly. Until the shocking death of a popular teenage boy rocks the community to its core. Was it a drowning? A shark attack? Or the unthinkable--murder? Kaylani is determined to solve the mystery. But her investigation leads her to uncover shocking secrets that could change her own life as she knows it... if she survives. New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson makes her thrilling middle-grade debut with this heart-pounding mystery packed with twists and turns that will keep readers guessing until the end.

#444
Blood on Her Tongue

Blood on Her Tongue

by Johanna van Veen
Amazon Bookshop

"Gothic horror for the ages...Combining shiver-inducing horror with sharp-fanged social commentary, this more that merits comparison to Dracula and other genre titans."— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "I'm in your blood, and you are in mine..." The Netherlands, 1887. Lucy's twin sister Sarah is unwell. She refuses to eat, mumbles nonsensically, and is increasingly obsessed with a centuries-old corpse recently discovered on her husband's grand estate. The doctor has diagnosed her with temporary insanity caused by a fever of the brain. To protect her twin from a terrible fate in a lunatic asylum, Lucy must unravel the mystery surrounding her sister's condition, but it's clear her twin is hiding something. Then again, Lucy is harboring secrets of her own, too. Then, the worst happens. Sarah's behavior takes a turn for the strange. She becomes angry... and hungry. Lucy soon comes to suspect that something is trying to possess her beloved sister. Or is it madness? As Sarah changes before her very eyes, Lucy must reckon with the dark, monstrous truth, or risk losing her forever.

#449
Bones of a Giant

Bones of a Giant

by Brian Thomas Isaac
Amazon Bookshop

From the award-winning, bestselling author of All the Quiet Places, comes Brian Thomas Isaac's highly anticipated, haunting and tender return to the Okanagan Indian Reserve and a teenager's struggle to become a man in a world of racism and hardship. Summer, 1968. For the first time since his big brother, Eddie, disappeared two years earlier—either a runaway or dead by his own hand—sixteen-year-old Lewis Toma has shaken off some of his grief. His mother, Grace, and her friend Isabel have gone south to the United States to pack fruit to earn the cash Grace needs to put a bathroom and running water into the three-room shack they share on the reserve, leaving Lewis to spend the summer with his cousins, his Uncle Ned and his Aunt Jean in the new house they’ve built on their farm along the Salmon River. Their warm family life is almost enough to counter the pressures he feels as a boy trying to become a man in a place where responsible adult men like his uncle are largely absent, broken by residential school and racism. Everywhere he looks, women are left to carry the load, sometimes with kindness, but often with the bitterness, anger and ferocity of his own mother, who kicked Lewis’s lowlife father, Jimmy, to the curb long ago. Lewis has vowed never to be like his father—but an encounter with a predatory older woman tests him and he suffers the consequences. Worse, his dad is back in town and scheming on how to use the Indian Act to steal the land Lewis and his mom have been living on. And then, at summer's end, more shocking revelations shake the family, unleashing a deadly force of anger and frustration. With so many traps laid around him, how will Lewis find a path to a different future?

#451
BORN IN FLAMES

BORN IN FLAMES

by Bench Ansfield
Amazon Bookshop

"A young historian's superlative debut . . . this excellent book delivers the truth about 'the burning years." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "[R]iveting . . . an outstanding exposé of the predatory capitalist machinations behind the 'Bronx is burning' saga."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) The explosive account of the arson wave that hit the Bronx and other American cities in the 1970s--and its legacy today.

#455
Breathe With Me

Breathe With Me

by Becka Mack
Amazon Bookshop

Instant USA Today bestselling series From bestselling author and TikTok sensation Becka Mack comes the final book in her sizzling hockey romance series about a couple who face an agonizing challenge that could bring them closer—or tear them apart. Cara Hunter is a self-made woman. Driven and fearless, she’s never lost a battle. In fact, the only time she’s fallen to her knees was, well . . . for him. Emmett Brodie might be one of hockey’s hottest players, but the moment he sees Cara, he’s reduced to a single word: hers. And he’ll stop at nothing to change her last name. With a love as all-encompassing and fierce as theirs, they become the ultimate power couple and the backbone of their family. But when they decide it’s time to have a baby, they discover their journey to conceiving will be anything but easy. As they face off with infertility, a battle that strips them to their bones, they’ll see just how unshakable their foundation really is. They thought they could survive anything together, but how do you survive when you’re barely breathing?

#456
Broken

Broken

by X. Fang
Amazon Bookshop

A New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book! • Join Mei Mei on her hilarious and emotional journey in this dramatic and tenderhearted picture book about guilt and forgiveness, from the acclaimed creator of We Are Definitely Human. When Mei Mei accidentally breaks her ama's favorite cup, she's convinced it's the end of the world. What if Ama is angry? What if she yells? What if she kicks Mei Mei out of her house? Mei Mei can't face it. But when Mimi, the innocent cat who witnesses her crime, ends up being blamed, the guilt is too much! Mimi's accusing eyes follow Mei Mei until she just can't take it anymore, and the truth comes spilling out. With vibrant and moody cinematic illustrations and pitch-perfect pacing, X. Fang's newest picture book is filled to the brim with comedic drama and the comforting sweetness of a grandparent's forgiving hug.

#457
Brother Brontë

Brother Brontë

by Fernando A. Flores
Amazon Bookshop

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2025 by the Los Angeles Times, Town & Country, and Alta "Brother Brontë evokes Octavia Butler, William Gibson, and John Steinbeck; these are all my favorites, and with this book, Fernando A. Flores joins the list." —Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore "This crazy cakey world-making of Fernando A. Flores is all of literature, wide, plaintive, melancholy and full of feminist fellow joyousness and ways. Hated this world ending, I want more." —Eileen Myles Two women fight to save their dystopian border town—and literature—in this gonzo near-future adventure. The year is 2038, and the formerly bustling town of Three Rivers, Texas, is a surreal wasteland. Under the authoritarian thumb of its tech industrialist mayor, Pablo Henry Crick, the town has outlawed reading and forced most of the town’s mothers to work as indentured laborers at the Big Tex Fish Cannery, which poisons the atmosphere and lines Crick’s pockets. Scraping by in this godforsaken landscape are best friends Prosperina and Neftalí—the latter of whom, one of the town’s last literate citizens, hides and reads the books of the mysterious renegade author Jazzmin Monelle Rivas, whose last novel, Brother Brontë, is finally in Neftalí’s possession. But after a series of increasingly violent atrocities committed by Crick’s forces, Neftalí and Prosperina, with the help of a wounded bengal tigress, three scheming triplets, and an underground network of rebel tías, rise up to reclaim their city—and in the process, unlock Rivas’s connection to Three Rivers itself. An adventure that only the acclaimed Fernando A. Flores could dream up, Brother Brontë is a mordant, gonzo romp through a ruined world that, in its dysfunction, tyranny, and disparity, nonetheless feels uncannily like our own. With his most ambitious book yet, Flores once again bends what fiction can do, in the process crafting a moving and unforgettable story of perseverance.

#461
Can’t Get Enough

Can’t Get Enough

by Kennedy Ryan
Amazon Bookshop

"Can't Get Enough balances brutal emotion, whip-smart humor, and delicious spice. Moving, romantic, and thrumming with life, this is Ryan's best work yet." ―Talia Hibbert Hendrix Barry lives a fabulous life. She has phenomenal friends, a loving family, and a thriving business that places her in the entertainment industry's rarefied air. Your vision board? She’s probably living it. She’s a woman with goals, dreams, ambitions—always striving upward. And in the midst of everything, she's facing her toughest challenge yet: caring for an aging parent. Who has time for romance? From her experience, there's a low ROI on relationships. Anyway, she hasn't met the man who can keep up with her. Until...him. Tech mogul Maverick Bell is a dilemma wrapped in an exquisitely tailored suit and knee-melting charm. From their first charged glance at the summer's hottest party, Hendrix feels like she’s met her match. Only he can’t be. Mav may be the first to make her feel this seen and desired, but he’s the last one she can have. Forbidden fruit is the juiciest, and this man is off limits if she plans to stay the course she’s set for herself. But when Maverick gives chase—pursuing her, spoiling her, understanding her—is it time to let herself have something more? “Kennedy Ryan pours her whole soul into everything she writes, and it makes for books that are heart-searing, sensual, and life affirming.” ―Emily Henry “One of the finest romance writers of our age.” –Entertainment Weekly

#470
Casanova 20: Or, Hot World

Casanova 20: Or, Hot World

by Davey Davis
Amazon Bookshop

A novel about art, desire, and mortality, Casanova 20: Or, Hot World follows a young man isolated by his extraordinary beauty and his strange friendship with an older painter Cursed by an extreme and unrelenting beauty, Adrian has drawn the frenzied attention of adoring strangers since childhood. As a twenty-nine-year-old in New York City, he spends his days drifting between affairs with women (and occasionally men) who provide him with everything he needs, from spending money to luxurious vacations to even, once, a mini yacht. With this generosity comes a dangerous possessiveness that often puts him at risk of much worse than heartbreak. But as people begin removing their masks in the spring of 2021, Adrian’s aimless sexual availability is interrupted by a shocking discovery: He is no longer beautiful. Across the country, Adrian's best friend and companion, Mark, a world-famous painter, has returned to the family home in rural Northern California. He's faced with his own horrible revelation: He’s dying from the same mysterious disease that will soon take his mother and sister. Despite the depth of their platonic romance, neither man reveals his fate to the other. Feeling as if he’s disappearing from sight, Adrian searches for answers among his thousands of lovers. In a race against his failing body, Mark becomes obsessed with watching fifty-two VHS tapes of unknown origin, left to him by his sister, before it’s too late. “An astounding writer, seemingly unconstrained by taboos and waist-deep down in the maw of life” (Torrey Peters), Davey Davis presents a modern-day Casanova figure grappling with what it means to find true intimacy when his very existence means constant exposure to the world's violent desire.

#481
Chesnok

Chesnok

by Polina Chesnakova
Amazon Bookshop

Chesnok: Recipes with Love from Eastern Europe, the Caucases, and Beyond is Polina Chesnakova's third cookbook, a love letter to the food of her childhood. Born in Ukraine to Russian and Armenian parents from Georgia, she grew up cooking and eating at the hip of her mother and aunts. From Georgian tkemali (sour plum sauce) and Armenian gata (butter pastry) to Ukrainian varenyky (dumplings) and Russian golubtsy (stuffed cabbage rolls) and medovik (honey cake), Chesnok showcases over 110 vibrant regional recipes. Essays, stories, and profiles of the amazing cooks in her life are peppered amongst recipes as diverse as the communities from which they blossomed and the immigrant experience they were subsequently passed down in. Chesnok paints a potrait of the Soviet diaspora through food, and is for the children of that diaspora, but it is also for anyone looking to expand their palate and pantry and learn the rich history of a people through their most cherished recipes and traditions.

#490
Consider Yourself Kissed

Consider Yourself Kissed

by Jessica Stanley
Amazon Bookshop

"A grown-up love story told through ten years in the life of one woman as she finds a perfect partner, builds a longed-for family and career, and works desperately to be all things to all people without losing herself. When she first meets divorced dad Adam, Coralie is new to London and feeling adrift. But Adam is sexy, witty, generous, and devoted, and the existence of his charming four-year-old daughter only adds to Coralie's thrill as the couple falls in love. Gradually, alongside Adam, Coralie builds the life she's longed for, including two babies, a wonderful stepchild, a continuing career, and a warm, safe home. Ten years on, however, something important is missing. Or maybe, having gained everything she dreamed of, Coralie has lost something else she once had: herself. "Mother, writer, worker, sister, friend, citizen, daughter, wife. If she could be one, perhaps she could manage. Trying to be all, she found she was none." When she hits her breaking point, the results will surprise them all. Set against an eventful decade in the UK that included the soap opera of five Prime Ministers plus Brexit and Covid, Consider Yourself Kissed puts the subjects of love and family on a grand stage, showing how the intimate dramas in our homes inescapably compete for energy and attention with the shared public dramas of our times. Effortlessly balancing humor with heart, sweetness with bite, and the public with the personal, Jessica Stanley offers an honest, entertaining portrayal of the sacrifices women make for their families, and demonstrates the true, grown-up meaning of "happily ever after.""--

#493
Crawl

Crawl

by Max Delsohn
Amazon Bookshop

A darkly comic, introspective debut collection that looks beneath the surface of trans life in 2010s Seattle People called it paradise, but baby, it wasn’t. What to do when starting testosterone unlocks a newfound desire for men? How to respond when your boss’s boss asks if you’ve had “the surgery” and then requests you talk her niece out of transitioning? What obligation do you have to intervene in the faltering mental health of the baby trans drug dealer you’ve met only once while tripping on the acid he sold you? The young transmasculine characters in Crawl navigate these and other questions in the dive bars, bathhouses, parks, workplaces, music venues, beaches, and college campuses of 2010s Seattle. Max Delsohn’s stories—by turns exuberant, heartfelt, tragic, and wry—portray the pleasures and pains of sex and romance, the possibilities and ambivalences of gender expression, and the joys and failures of community in a city and a time that has branded itself a radical queer utopia but proves much more complicated in reality.

#511
Dealing with the Dead

Dealing with the Dead

by Alain Mabanckou
Amazon Bookshop

Format: Hardcover Page count: 208 Publication date: September 16, 2025 Author: Alain Mabanckou Acknowledged as one of the most prominent contemporary Franco African writers Author's work featured in various publications Excerpt featured on LitHub Promotion on Goodreads Instagram giveaway Holiday advertising in NYROB Promotion by Poets and Writers

#513
Dear New York

Dear New York

by Brandon Stanton
Amazon Bookshop

ln 2025, Brandon Stanton, creator of "Humans of New York" and author of four #1 NYT bestselling books, will publish his most personal work yet: Dear New York, a photographic love letter to the city he has embraced. Opening with a deeply moving prologue that reads like a train ride through the city, the book expands into nearly five hundred full-color pages of portraits and stories from the streets of New York. And for the first time ever, unlike Stanton's past books which were curated from his massive body of online work, more than 75-percent of the stories in Dear New York have never been published before. Stanton created the groundbreaking first volume of Humans of New York in 2013, only three years after beginning his photography career. Called "one of the most important art projects of the decade" by The Washington Post, its unique combination of intimate portraiture and on-the-spot interviews spawned a style of storytelling that has become a hallmark of our digital age. Twelve years later, having now interviewed more than ten thousand people around the world, a seasoned artist returns home with a very personal mission: to use everything he's learned, to capture the city he loves most. A Guyanese grandmother boxing beneath the Roosevelt Island Bridge. A political refugee practicing Tai chi during a blizzard. A fentanyl dealer bringing his child to a playground on the Lower East Side. Dear New York is a book filled with contradictions, yet brimming with life. It is an unprecedented portrait of the world's greatest city, and a deeply personal tribute to the people who provide its soul.

#517
Deep Cuts

Deep Cuts

by Holly Brickley
Amazon Bookshop

NATIONAL BESTSELLER “Tender as a ballad and pleasurable as a pop song, Deep Cuts is both a romp into the indie sleaze era of the early aughts and a timeless love story.”—Coco Mellors, New York Times bestselling author of Blue Sisters “Deep Cuts will live alongside all the unforgettable music that Holly writes about so beautifully, with her whole heart.”—Cameron Crowe, Academy Award–winning writer/director of Almost Famous Look, the song whispered to me, that day in my living room. Life can be so big. It’s a Friday night in a campus bar in Berkeley, fall of 2000, and Percy Marks is pontificating about music again. Hall and Oates is on the jukebox, and Percy—who has no talent for music, just lots of opinions about it—can’t stop herself from overanalyzing the song, indulging what she knows to be her most annoying habit. But something is different tonight. The guy beside her at the bar, fellow student Joe Morrow, is a songwriter. And he could listen to Percy talk all night. Joe asks Percy for feedback on one of his songs—and the results kick off a partnership that will span years, ignite new passions in them both, and crush their egos again and again. Is their collaboration worth its cost? Or is it holding Percy back from finding her own voice? Moving from Brooklyn bars to San Francisco dance floors, Deep Cuts examines the nature of talent, obsession, belonging, and above all, our need to be heard.

#522
Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television

Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television

by Todd S. Purdum
Amazon Bookshop

An illuminating biography of Desi Arnaz, the visionary, trailblazing Cuban American who revolutionized television and brought laughter to millions as Lucille Ball’s beloved husband on I Love Lucy, leaving a remarkable legacy that continues to influence American culture today. Desi Arnaz is a name that resonates with fans of classic television, but few understand the depth of his contributions to the entertainment industry. In Desi Arnaz, Todd S. Purdum offers a captivating biography that dives into the groundbreaking Latino artist and businessman known to millions as Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy. Beyond his iconic role, Arnaz was a pioneering entrepreneur who fundamentally transformed the television landscape. His journey from Cuban aristocracy to world-class entertainer is remarkable. After losing everything during the 1933 Cuban revolution, Arnaz reinvented himself in pre-World War II Miami, tapping into the rising demand for Latin music. By twenty, he had formed his own band and sparked the conga dance craze in America. Behind the scenes, he revolutionized television production by filming I Love Lucy before a live studio audience with synchronized cameras, a model that remains a sitcom gold standard today. Despite being underestimated due to his accent and origins, Arnaz’s legacy is monumental. Purdum’s biography, enriched with unpublished materials and interviews, reveals the man behind the legend and highlights his enduring contributions to pop culture and television. This book is a must-read biography about innovation, resilience and the relentless drive of a man who changed TV forever.

#528
Discontent

Discontent

by Beatriz Serrano
Amazon Bookshop

Life can’t go on like this – can it? This book is for everyone who has ever wanted more: more time, more meaning, more connection. A sexy and hilarious Spanish bestseller, where a young woman's office persona threatens to crack when she’s forced to attend her company’s annual retreat. 'Hilarious' Daily Mail 'A wild ride' Express 'An impressive new comic talent' Daily Telegraph On the surface, Marisa’s life looks enviable. She lives in a nice apartment in the heart of Madrid, her friendly neighbour and lover Pablo lives downstairs, and she’s risen quickly through the ranks at a successful advertising agency. And yet Marisa hates her job and everything about it. Over one hot summer she finds herself in danger of being exposed when she’s forced to deliver a talk on creativity at a horrendous team-building retreat. Surrounded by psychopathic bosses, flirty facilitators, and an excess of drugs, Marisa is pushed to the brink of a complete spiral. Discontent is a bold, biting novel about acting on our wilder impulses to reclaim our lives from work. 'Serrano writes with a caustic flair for detail, with charm and utter hilarity. Absolutely brilliant' Danya Kukafka, author of Notes on an Execution ‘I adored our heroine... A razor-sharp debut’ Anna Dorn, author of Perfume and Pain 'A love song to the listless and lonely of the LinkedIn age' Ariel Courage, author of Bad Nature

#535
Down in the Sea of Angels

Down in the Sea of Angels

by Khan Wong
Amazon Bookshop

An intense and thoughtful time-travelling dystopian fantasy where three individuals, psychically linked through time, fight enslavement, exploitation, and environmental collapse. A great read for fans of Emily St. John Mandel. In 2106, Maida Sun possesses the ability to see the entire history of any object she touches. When she starts a job with a cultural recovery project in San Francisco with other psions like her, she discovers a teacup that connects her with Li Nuan, a sex-traffificked girl in a 1906 Chinatown brothel, and with Nathan, a tech-designer and hedonist of 2006. A chance encounter with a prominent political leader reveals to Maida his plan to contain everyone with psionic abilities, eliminate their personal autonomy, and use their skills for his own gain. Maida is left with no choice but to join a fight she doesn’t feel prepared for, with flashes of the past, glimpses of the future and a band of fellow psions as her only tools. She must find a way to stop this agenda before it takes hold and destroys life as she knows it. Can the past give Maida the key to saving her future?

#540
Drome

Drome

by Jesse Lonergan
Amazon Bookshop

Jesse Lonergan rewrites the rules of graphic novels with Drome, a visually mind-blowing epic about war, love, and death in a fledgling world. First, there was nothing. Then, humanity was born, and an endless cycle of violence began. From the depths of the ocean, a mighty demigoddess is called forth to reign in humankind’s destructive impulses, and teach a language of peace and harmony. Civilization quickly takes root, a great city rising from the desert. But the balance between chaos and order is a fragile one, and there are higher powers at work in this strange new world. Creator Jesse Lonergan pushes the boundaries of the comics medium in this visually spectacular epic. In turns pulse-pounding and heart-wrenching, Drome is a creation myth for the modern age.

#542
Dungeon Crawler Carl

Dungeon Crawler Carl

by Matt Dinniman
Amazon Bookshop

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series—now with bonus material exclusive to this print edition. You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what. Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show. Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not. Includes part one of the exclusive bonus story “Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret.”

#543
Dust

Dust

by Michael Brissenden
Amazon Bookshop

Lake Herrod, a once-thriving community, now lies in the shadow of a nearly dry lake. The town, like the water, is evaporating and its residents are left clinging to what little remains. When Aaron Love discovers a fresh corpse near the cracked lakebed – along with evidence his missing father is alive and linked to a web of organised crime – he is thrust into a world of deception, injustice and betrayal. With the town on the brink of collapse, Aaron and a haunted detective, Martyn Kravets, uncover a web of conspiracy that reaches far beyond the small community. Dust is a dark, gripping thriller that explores the complexities of identity, a search for truth, and the unyielding forces of corruption in a world where lives are lived on the fringe and nothing is as it seems.

#545
Eat the Ones You Love

Eat the Ones You Love

by Sarah Maria Griffin
Amazon Bookshop

A twisted, tangled story about workplace love-affairs, and plants with a taste for human flesh During a grocery run to her local shopping center, Shell Pine sees a ‘HELP NEEDED’ sign in a flower shop window. She’s just left her fiancé, lost her job, and moved home to her parents’ house. She has to make a change and bring some good into her life, so she goes inside and takes a chance. Shell realizes right away that flowers are just the good thing she's been looking for, as is Neve, the beautiful florist who wrote the sign asking for help. The thing is, Neve needs help more than Shell could possibly imagine. An orchid growing out of sight in the heart of the mall is watching them closely. His name is Baby, and the beautiful florist belongs to him. He’s young, he’s hungry, and he’ll do just about anything to make sure he can keep growing big and strong. Nothing he eats – nobody he eats – can satisfy him, except the thing he most desires. Neve. He adores her and wants to consume her, and will stop at nothing to eat the one he loves. This is a story about possession, and monstrosity, and working retail. It is about hunger and desire, and other terrible things that grow.

#573
Far and Away

Far and Away

by Amy Poeppel
Amazon Bookshop

"Perfect strangers Lucy and Greta have agreed to a house swap...Trading Southern charm and barbecue for European sophistication and schnitzel, the two women get a lot more than a change of scenery as they move into each other's houses, neighborhoods, and lives...When Greta's biggest career achievement--the buzzworthy purchase of a Vermeer at auction--is thrown into question and Lucy's past with a hot Viking named Bjørn invades her present, the two women need each other in ways they never could have imagined. Through jet lag, culture shock, suspiciously nice neighbors, and scandals that refuse to be left behind, Lucy and Greta will have to decide if they can ever go home again"--

#576
Female Fantasy

Female Fantasy

by Iman Hariri-Kia
Amazon Bookshop

All's fair in love and lore. Joonie is living in a fantasy--at least that's what people keep telling her. A copywriter by day and fanfic auteur by night, Joonie continues to date and dump disappointing men in search of a happily ever after. But every potential suitor seems to have one flaw in common: They can't hold a candle to her book boyfriend, Ryke. The protagonist of her favorite fantasy romance series (and, notably, a sexy merman), Ryke is a symbol for the life Joonie craves and the kind of relationship she deserves. So with a book always in her back pocket, why would she ever settle for less? But when Joonie learns that Ryke's character is based on someone the author knows in real life, she embarks on an epic quest to track him down, meet him in person, and determine once and for all if soulmates really do exist. Unfortunately, her brother's annoying best friend who doesn't believe in love or happy endings insists on hitching a ride. And like any great hero's journey, it doesn't take long for the trials and tribulations to begin. As Joonie fights her way toward her love interest, using the skills she acquired through reading, she'll learn an important lesson: You can pursue a fantasy, but you can't always write your own plot. As unhinged as it is brilliant, Female Fantasy is both a self-aware dive into the concept of genre and a wild, steamy romp. Most of all, though, it's a heartfelt love letter to romance readers everywhere.

#580
Finding Grace: A Novel

Finding Grace: A Novel

by Loretta Rothschild
Amazon Bookshop

"Honor seems to have everything: she adores her bright and beautiful daughter Chloe and her charming, handsome husband Tom--even if he works one hundred hours a week. Yet Honor's longing for another baby threatens to eclipse all of it--until a shocking event changes their lives forever. Years later, Tom makes a decision that ripples through their families' lives in ways he could never have foreseen. As the consequences of that fateful choice unfold, two women's paths become irrevocably intertwined. But when old love clashes with new, who will be left standing? And what happens when your secrets come back to haunt you?"--

#590
Foreclosure Gothic

Foreclosure Gothic

by Harris Lahti
Amazon Bookshop

A multi-generational and deeply autobiographical gothic tale of Hollywood dreams and upstate New York reality that feels like Andre Dubus III meets Chantal V. Johnson. Foreclosure Gothic reimagines the American Gothic against the backdrop of today's Hudson Valley. The story tells of ex-Hollywood actor Vic Greener as he falls in love with the elusive Heather Roswell and the couple, following in the footsteps of Vic's father, resolves to make a life restoring one foreclosed home after another. Then comes the uncanny, destabilizing arrival of new tenants in their duplex, and the Greener's shocking discovery upon their departure. With evocative and unsettling black and white photos throughout, this debut novel is at once a skewed portrait of three generations of Greener men, an intimate look at both childhood and parenthood and an examination of the friction between chasing one's dream and working to make money.

#605
Gaysians

Gaysians

by Mike Curato
Amazon Bookshop

From the acclaimed author of the YA graphic novel Flamer, comes a gorgeous, heart-warming adult debut following four gay Asians as they navigate love, identity, and friendship in Seattle during the early aughts. When AJ arrives in Seattle, naïve and eager for a new, gay, life, he has no friends, no job, no money. His first apartment sits so far north of the gayborhood that "not even lesbians live there." Leaning into his identity for the first time in his life, AJ he walks past the velvet rope into his first gay bar and discovers what he moved across the country to find: gay men who are out, proud, and unashamed. That first night, a chance spilled drink unites him with new group of friends, also of Asian descent: K, ethereal drag queen, activist, matriarch; John, introverted gaymer who doesn't feel seen in real life; reckless Steven, who wields his good looks to secure validation via sex (whites only, please); and Tai and Eddie, the "perfect" Chinese-American couple. Together, this "Boy Luck Club" helps AJ navigate his new semi-fabulous life, with its equal trials and unbridled joys. But just as AJ begins to find his way, a devastating attack splinters the group, and tests everything each one of them knows about love, friendship, and family. A meticulously observed, gorgeously-crafted snapshot of gay culture in the pulsing early years of the tech boom, Gaysians renders its hilarious, flamboyant, human protagonists with love and individuality, showing tenderly the particular joy of queer friendship and yearning.

#607
Gemini

Gemini

by Jeffrey Kluger
Amazon Bookshop

ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF FALL 2025 From the bestselling author of Apollo 13 comes the thrilling untold story of the pioneering Gemini program that was instrumental in getting Americans on the moon. Without Gemini, there would be no Apollo. After we first launched Americans into space but before we touched down on the moon’s surface, there was the Gemini program. It was no easy jump from manned missions in low-Earth orbit to a successful moon landing, and the ten-flight, twenty-month celestial story of the Gemini program is an extraordinary one. There was unavoidable darkness in the program—the deaths and near-deaths that defined it, and the blood feud with the Soviet Union that animated it. But there were undeniable and previously inconceivable successes. With a war raging in Vietnam and lawmakers calling for cuts to NASA’s budget, the success of the Gemini program—or the space program in general—was never guaranteed. Yet against all odds, the remarkable scientists and astronauts behind the project persevered, and their efforts paid off. Later, with the knowledge gained from the Gemini flights, NASA would launch the legendary Apollo program. Told with Jeffrey Kluger’s signature cinematic storytelling and in-depth research and interviews, Gemini is an edge-of-your-seat narrative chronicling the history of the least appreciated—and most groundbreaking—space program in American history. Finally, Gemini’s story will be told, and finally, we’ll learn the truth of how we landed on the moon.

#610
Girl Dinner

Girl Dinner

by Olivie Blake
Amazon Bookshop

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six, Girl Dinner is a darkly-fun novel about power, lust, and eating your fill, as wealthy moms and sorority girls practice a sinister new wellness trend . . . Good girls deserve a treat. Every member of The House, the most exclusive sorority on campus, and all its alumni, are beautiful, high-achieving, and universally respected. After a freshman year she would rather forget, sophomore Nina Kaur knows being one of the chosen few accepted into The House is the first step in her path to the brightest possible future. Once she's taken into their fold, the House will surely ease her fears of failure and protect her from those who see a young woman on her own as easy prey. Meanwhile, adjunct professor Dr. Sloane Hartley is struggling to return to work after accepting a demotion to support her partner's new position at the cutthroat University. After 18 months at home with her newborn daughter, Sloane's clothes don’t fit right, her girl-dad husband isn’t as present as he thinks he is, and even the few hours a day she's apart from her child fill her psyche with paralyzing ennui. When invited to be The House’s academic liaison, Sloane enviously drinks in the way the alumnae seem to have it all, achieving a level of collective perfection that Sloane so desperately craves. As Nina and Sloane each get drawn deeper into the arcane rituals of the sisterhood, they learn that living well comes with bloody costs. And when they are finally invited to the table, they will have to decide just how much they can stomach in the name of solidarity and power.

#618
Gone Before Goodbye

Gone Before Goodbye

by Harlan Coben
Amazon Bookshop

AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An unforgettable suspense novel that combines the storytelling talents of Academy Award-winning actor Reese Witherspoon and internationally bestselling author Harlan Coben. Gone Before Goodbye is the story of a woman trapped in a deadly conspiracy—where uncovering the truth could cost her everything. Maggie McCabe is teetering on the brink. A highly skilled and renowned Army combat surgeon, she has always lived life at the edge, where she could make the most impact. And it was all going to plan ... until it wasn’t. Upside down after a devastating series of tragedies leads to her medical license being revoked, Maggie has lost her purpose, but not her nerve or her passion. At her lowest point, she is thrown a lifeline by a former colleague, an elite plastic surgeon whose anonymous clientele demand the best care money can buy, as well as absolute discretion. Halfway across the globe, sequestered in the lap of luxury and cutting-edge technology, one of the world’s most mysterious men requires unconventional medical assistance. Desperate, and one of the few surgeons in the world skilled enough to take this job, Maggie enters his realm of unspeakable opulence and fulfills her end of the agreement. But when the patient suddenly disappears while still under her care, Maggie must become a fugitive herself—or she will be the next one who is ... Gone Before Goodbye

#622
Good Grief

Good Grief

by Sara Goodman Confino
Amazon Bookshop

A mother- and daughter-in-law. To move on, one of them will have to move out in a hopeful and hilarious novel about widowhood and family friction by the bestselling author of Don't Forget to Write. It's 1963, two years since Barbara Feldman's husband died. Raising two kids, she's finally emerging from her cocoon of grief. Not yet a butterfly, but she's anxious to spread her wings. Then one day her mother-in-law, Ruth, shows up on her doorstep with five suitcases, expecting a room of her own with a suitable mattress. Abrasive and stuck in her ways yet well meaning, Mother Ruth arrives without warning to help with the children. How can Barbara say no to a woman who is not only a widow herself but also a grieving mother? As Ruth's prickly visit turns from days to weeks to what seems like forever, Barbara realizes Ruth has got to go. But Barbara has an ingenious plan: introduce Ruth to some fine gentlemen and marry her off as fast as she can. Soon enough, something tells Barbara that Ruth is trying to do the same for her. At least they're finding common ground--helping each other to move forward. Even if it is in the most unpredictable ways two totally different women ever imagined.

#624
Good Things Come and Go

Good Things Come and Go

by Josie Shapiro
Amazon Bookshop

The stunning second novel from the bestselling author of Everything Is Beautiful and Everything Hurts ''Poignant, redemptive, electrifying.' - Catherine Chidgey A novel about friendship and betrayal, ambition and grief, Good Things Come and Go is also a study of homecoming and heartbreak and an ode to taking risks no matter the consequences. After the death of their young daughter, Penny Whittaker and Adam Riggs are struggling. Penny's lifelong dream of becoming a successful artist has stalled, and Riggs, battling an addiction to prescription painkillers, is coming to grips with the end of his glittering professional skateboarding career. When Penny is unexpectedly offered a chance to exhibit her work at an Auckland gallery, she accepts, despite her reservations. At the same time, Jamie Flannery suddenly finds himself out of work and out of options. To recuperate, he moves to his uncle's abandoned bach on the Coromandel, and when his childhood friend Riggs calls out of the blue the three friends reunite. At first, being together feels just like old times. But secrets from their shared past threaten their newfound peace, forcing them to reckon with their history and themselves. 'A tender, tough story of loss and renewal, love and rage, the promise of youth and the aching regrets of middle age ... a powerful reminder that inside every one of us is a dream worth chasing, no matter how much time or talent has been laid to waste.'' - Noelle McCarthy

#625
Grace of the Empire State

Grace of the Empire State

by Gemma Tizzard
Amazon Bookshop

"After the death of their father, it's up to Grace O'Connell and her twin brother Patrick to support their family as the Great Depression takes its toll on New York City. When Grace is laid off from her dancing gig and Patrick is injured at work on the construction of the Empire State Building, desperation leaves them only one solution: Grace must disguise herself as Patrick and take his place on the half-built skyscraper"--

#628
Greta & Valdin

Greta & Valdin

by Rebecca K. Reilly
Amazon Bookshop

"Valdin is still in love with his ex-boyfriend Xabi, who used to drive around Auckland in a ute but now drives around Buenos Aires in one. Greta is in love with her fellow English tutor Holly, who doesn't know how to pronounce Greta's surname, Vladislavljevic, properly. From their Auckland apartment, brother and sister must navigate the intricate paths of modern romance as well as weather the small storms of their eccentric MÄ ori-Russian-Catalonian family"--

#629
Greyhound: A Memoir

Greyhound: A Memoir

by Joanna Pocock
Amazon Bookshop

Combining history, reportage, and nature writing with intimate moments of reflection, Greyhound tells of the journey from miscarriage to parenthood, and the purpose creativity gives to our lives when we feel purposeless In 2006, in the wake of several miscarriages, Joanna Pocock traveled by Greyhound bus across the United States from Detroit to Los Angeles. Seventeen years later, she undertakes the same journey, revisiting the cities, edgelands, highways, and motels in the footsteps of the few women writers—Simone de Beauvoir, Ethel Mannin, and Irma Kurtz—who also chronicled their road trips across the United States. Combining memoir, reportage, environmental writing, and literary criticism, Greyhound is a moving and immersive book that captures an America in the throes of late capitalism with all its beauty, horror, and complexity.

#630
Groceries

Groceries

by Nora Claire Miller
Amazon Bookshop

The winner of the 2023 Fonograf Editions Open Genre Book Prize contest, as chosen by Srikanth Reddy, Groceries is a book-length poem about what to do about objects. On earth everyone is worried about objects?getting them, naming them, maintaining them, destroying them, getting rid of them. Some people say objects will be the end of life on earth. Other people say objects will save us, if we get the right ones. But as we reckon with these object-mediated futures, we live on an earth full of the stuff itself: fax machines, horseshoes, waves. Groceries is a guide for what to do about these objects?how to speak to them and how to listen for a reply.

#638
Hemlock & Silver

Hemlock & Silver

by T. Kingfisher
Amazon Bookshop

From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Hemlock & Silver, a dark reimagining of “Snow White” steeped in poison, intrigue, and treason of the most magical kind Healer Anja regularly drinks poison. Not to die, but to save— seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on. But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja’s unorthodox methods can save her. Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick. Or it might be the thing that kills them all. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

#639
Herculine

Herculine

by Grace Byron
Amazon Bookshop

One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2025 Debutiful • LitHub • CrimeReads • LGBTQ Reads A “paranoid, self-annihilating” (Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt and Cuckoo) horror debut following a woman who seeks refuge at an all-trans girl commune only to discover that demons haunt her fellow comrades—and she's their next prey! Herculine’s narrator has demons. Sure, her life includes several hallmarks of the typical trans girl sob story—conversion therapy, a string of shitty low-paying jobs, and even shittier exes—but she also regularly debates sleep paralysis demons that turn to mist soon after she wakes and carries vials of holy oil in her purse. Nothing, though, prepares her for the new malevolent force stalking her through the streets of New York City, more powerful than any she’s ever encountered. Desperate to escape this ancient evil, she flees to rural Indiana, where her ex-girlfriend started an all-trans girl commune in the middle of the woods. The secluded camp, named after 19th-century intersex memoirist Herculine Barbin, is a scrappy operation, but the shared sense of community among the girls is a welcome balm to the narrator’s growing isolation and paranoia. Still, something isn’t quite right at Herculine. Girls stop talking as soon as she enters the room, everyone seems to share a common secret, and the books lining the walls of the library harbor strange cryptograms. Soon what once looked like an escape becomes a trap all its own. While trying to untangle the commune’s many mysteries, the narrator contends with disemboweled pigs, cultlike psychosexual rituals, and the horrors of communal breakfast. And before long, she discovers that her demons have followed her. And this time, they won’t be letting her go.

#641
History Matters

History Matters

by David McCullough
Amazon Bookshop

In this posthumous collection of thought-provoking essays—many never published before—Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and bestselling author David McCullough affirms the value of history, how we can be guided by its lessons, and the enduring legacy of American ideals. History Matters brings together selected essays by beloved historian David McCullough, some published here for the first time, written at different points over the course of his long career but all focused on the subject of his lifelong passion: the importance of history in understanding our present and future. Edited by McCullough’s daughter, Dorie McCullough Lawson, and his longtime researcher, Michael Hill, History Matters is a tribute to a master historian and offers fresh insights into McCullough’s enduring interests and writing life. The book also features a foreword by Jon Meacham. McCullough highlights the importance of character in political leaders, with Harry Truman and George Washington serving as exemplars of American values like optimism and determination. He shares his early influences, from the books he cherished in his youth to the people who mentored him. He also pays homage to those who inspired him, such as writer Paul Horgan and painter Thomas Eakins, illustrating the diverse influences on his writing as well as the influence of art. Rich with McCullough’s signature grace, curiosity, and narrative gifts, these essays offer vital lessons in viewing history through the eyes of its participants, a perspective that McCullough believed was crucial to understanding the present as well as the past. History Matters is testament to McCullough’s legacy as one of the great storytellers of this nation’s history and of the lasting promise of American ideals.

#644
Home of the American Circus

Home of the American Circus

by Allison Larkin
Amazon Bookshop

The acclaimed author of the “lyrical coming-of-age novel” (Good Morning America) The People We Keep returns with a luminous new story of redemption, breaking generational curses, and the power of family in its truest form. After an emergency leaves her short on rent, thirty-year-old Freya Arnalds bails on her lackluster life as bartender in Maine and returns to her suburban hometown of Somers, New York, to live in the house she inherited from her estranged parents. Despite attempts to lay low, Freya encounters childhood friends, familial enemies, and old flames—as well as her fifteen-year-old niece, Aubrey, who is secretly living in the derelict home. As they reconnect, Freya and Aubrey lean on each other, working to restore the house and come to terms with the devastating events that pulled them apart years ago. Set in the birthplace of the American circus, this deeply moving novel is an exploration of broken families, the weight of the past, and the complicated journey of finding home.

#647
Hooked Up

Hooked Up

by Fiona Sussman
Amazon Bookshop

The unforgettable detective duo from The Doctor’s Wife are back, and this time the stakes are even higher. When DS Ramesh Bandara is asked to head up a homicide investigation in a small New Zealand beachside town, he has no idea he’s stumbled onto something much bigger. With little to go on, the investigation is frustratingly slow to get off the ground, but it’s Bandara’s unconventional colleague, Hilary Stark, who spots similarities with a murder case she worked years before. Overnight, their suspect list expands to include the cast and crew from a controversial reality TV show, Hooked Up, that screened a decade earlier. Someone, it appears, has been holding onto a grudge for a very long time. But is Hilary’s hunch really on the money? This is New Zealand, after all . . .

#648
Hot Girls with Balls

Hot Girls with Balls

by Benedict Nguyễn
Amazon Bookshop

In this outrageous and deeply serious satire, two star indoor volleyball players juggle unspoken jealousies in their off-court romance ahead of their rival teams’ first rematch in a year Six is 6′7″, scheming to rejoin the starting lineup, and barely checks her phone. Green is 6′1″, always building her brand, and secretly jealous of her more famous girlfriend. Together, they’re going where no Asian American trans woman has gone before: the men’s pro indoor volleyball league. Our hot girls with balls just thought playing with the boys would spare them some controversy . . . haha. In between their rival teams’ away games across the globe, Six and Green stay connected on SpaceTime and selflessly broadcast their romance to fans on their weekly Instagraph live show. After a long season, they’ll finally reunite for the championship tournament, the first to accommodate in-person fans since the COVIS pandemic struck the world a year ago. Just as they enter an airtight bro bubble of the world’s best, they’re faced with a crisis that demands an indisputably humiliating task: make a public statement online. Can Green stock up enough clout for her post-ball future? Can Six girlboss her team’s seniority politics? Can they both take a time-out to just grieve? Their rabid fans and horny haters await their next move. We’re all just desperate for a whiff of the sweaty feminine energy that makes that ball thwack with such spectacular force.

#650
House of Beth

House of Beth

by Kerry Cullen
Amazon Bookshop

A haunting and seductive tale of a young career woman who slides quickly into the role of stepmother, in a life that may still belong to someone else. “Vivid, addictive, and crackling with life (yes, even the ghost), House of Beth asks us to consider how and why we make the lives we make” (Lynn Steger Strong). After a heart-wrenching breakup with her girlfriend and a shocking incident at her job, Cassie flees her life as an overworked assistant in New York for her hometown in New Jersey, along the Delaware. There, she reconnects with her high school best friend, Eli, now a widowed father of two. Their bond reignites, and within a few short months, Cassie is married to Eli, living in his house in the woods, homeschooling the kids, and getting to know her reserved neighbor, Joan. But Cassie’s fresh start is less idyllic than she’d hoped. She grapples with harm OCD, her mind haunted by gory, graphic images. And she’s afraid that she’ll never measure up to Eli’s late spouse, who was a committed homemaker and traditional wife. No matter what Cassie does, Beth’s shadow still permeates every corner of their home. Soon, Cassie starts hearing a voice narrating the house’s secrets. As she listens, the voice grows stronger, guiding Cassie down a path to uncover the truth about Beth’s untimely death.

#658
Human/Animal: A Bestiary in Essays

Human/Animal: A Bestiary in Essays

by Amie Souza Reilly
Amazon Bookshop

Amie Souza Reilly bought an old house in the suburbs. She had just gotten remarried and was looking forward to a new start with her new husband and her six-year-old son. But immediately after moving in, the next-door neighbors began a crusade to push them out. The two brothers followed her, peered in her windows, stood in her yard, trapped her inside her car. As they broke boundary after suburban boundary, she found herself implicated in their violence. Human/Animal merges personal narrative and cultural criticism to unleash the complicated relationship between instinct and action, violence and regret. This bestiary-in-essays wrestles American colonialism, horror films, feminism, and gender studies to confront the intrusive neighbors the author could not. Ultimately, this book asks larger questions about proximity, care, and the line between human and animal. Illustrated with the author's own sketches, Human/Animal: A Bestiary in Essays grapples not only with Reilly's place in her neighborhood, but with America's past and current political climate.

#659
Hunchback

Hunchback

by Saou Ichikawa, translated by Polly Barton
Amazon Bookshop

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE • A bombshell bestseller in Japan, a defiant, darkly funny debut novel about a young woman in a care home seeking autonomy and the full possibilities of her life—“not only a major achievement in disability literature but great literature period” (Johanna Hedva) “A literary phenomenon in Japan, Hunchback is an extraordinary and thrilling debut novel about sex, disability, and power.”—International Booker Prize Judges “Unforgettable . . . a thriller of the body . . . [a] miracle.”—The New York Times Book Review Born with a congenital muscle disorder, Shaka spends her days in her room in a care home outside Tokyo, relying on an electric wheelchair to get around and a ventilator to breathe. But if Shaka’s physical life is limited, her quick, mischievous mind has no boundaries: She takes e-learning courses on her iPad, publishes explicit fantasies on websites, and anonymously troll-tweets to see if anyone is paying attention (“In another life, I’d like to work as a high-class prostitute”). One day, she tweets into the void an offer of an enormous sum of money for a sperm donor. To Shaka’s surprise, her new nurse accepts the dare, unleashing a series of events that will forever change Shaka’s sense of herself as a woman in the world. Hunchback has shaken Japanese literary culture with its skillful depiction of the physical body and its unrepentant humor. Winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, it’s a feminist story about the dignity of an individual who insists on her right to make choices for herself, no matter the consequences. Formally creative and refreshingly unsentimental, Hunchback depicts the joy, anger, and desires of a woman demanding autonomy in a world that doesn’t always grant it to people like her. Full of wit, bite, and heart, this unforgettable novel reminds us all of the full potential of our lives, regardless of the limitations we experience.

#660
Hungerstone

Hungerstone

by Kat Dunn
Amazon Bookshop

NATIONAL BESTSELLER “I didn’t like this, I LOVED it.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Atmosphere and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo A Rolling Stone 10 Most Anticipated Books of the Year • An NBC Queer Summer Beach Read to Devour • A Barnes & Noble Best Horror Book of the Year • A Scary Mommy 11 Most Anticipated Books of the Year • A Them 10 Most Anticipated Books of the Year • A Goodreads Editors' Top Pick of the Month • A Town & Country Must Read Book of the Winter • A LitHub Most Anticipated Book of the Year • A Fable Most Anticipated Read of the Year • A Goodreads Readers’ Most Anticipated Horror Novel of the Year • A Book Riot Most Anticipated Book of the Year A compulsive feminist reworking of Carmilla, the queer novella that inspired Dracula. It’s the height of the industrial revolution and ten years into Lenore’s marriage to steel magnate Henry, their relationship has soured. When Henry’s ambitions take them from London to the remote British moorlands to host a hunting party, a shocking carriage accident brings the mysterious Carmilla into their lives. Carmilla, who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night. Carmilla, who stirs up something deep within Lenore. And before long, girls from the local villages fall sick, consumed by a terrible hunger . . . As the day of the hunt draws closer, Lenore begins to unravel, questioning the role she has been playing all these years. Torn between regaining her husband’s affection and the cravings Carmilla has awakened, soon Lenore will uncover a darkness in her household that will place her at terrible risk. “Hungerstone is a delicious tribute to the inherent horrors of womanhood and the desperate and exquisite vulgarity of desire. This is everything I dream of in a novel.” —Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning and Lady Macbeth

#668
I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always

I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always

by Douglas Kearney
Amazon Bookshop

On the heels of Sho (winner, Griffin Poetry Prize) and Optic Subwoof (Pegasus Award in Poetry Criticism), Douglas Kearney's visual poetry masterpiece, I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always, pushes further into Kearney's long-time practices of performance typography, collaging pre-existing media sources to create singular, multiplicitous texts that defy neat categorization. Through AfroFuturistic exploration of these techniques, Kearney presents a sustained consideration of precarious Black subjectivity, cultural production as self-defense, the transhistoric emancipatory logics of the preposition over, Anarcho-Black temporal disruption, and seriocomic meditations on the material and metaphysical nature of shadow. Engaging a rich history of visual poetics, I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always almost predicts its endurance as a visionary work of genius.

#670
I SEEK A KIND PERSON

I SEEK A KIND PERSON

by Julian Borger
Amazon Bookshop

This gripping family memoir of grief, courage, and hope tells the hidden stories of children who escaped the Holocaust, building connections across generations and continents. In 1938, Jewish families are scrambling to flee Vienna. Desperate, they take out advertisements offering their children into the safe keeping of readers of a British newspaper, the Manchester Guardian. The right words in the right order could mean the difference between life and death. 83 years later, Guardian journalist Julian Borger comes across the ad that saved his father, Robert, from the Nazis. Robert had kept this a secret, like almost everything else about his traumatic Viennese childhood, until he took his own life. Drawn to the shadows of his family's past and starting with nothing but a page of newspaper ads, Borger traces the remarkable stories of his father, the other advertised children, and their families, each thrown into the maelstrom of a world at war. From a Viennese radio shop to the Shanghai ghetto, internment camps and family homes across Britain, the deep forests and concentration camps of Nazi Germany, smugglers saving Jewish lives in Holland, an improbable French Resistance cell, and a redemptive story of survival in New York, Borger unearths the astonishing journeys of the children at the hands of fate, their stories of trauma and the kindness of strangers.

#673
I, Medusa: A Novel

I, Medusa: A Novel

by Ayana Gray
Amazon Bookshop

From New York Times bestselling author Ayana Gray comes a new kind of villain origin story, reimagining one of the most iconic monsters in Greek mythology as a provocative and powerful young heroine. “Ayana Gray brings her fresh, dynamic storytelling to one of the most monstered, maligned, and misunderstood women of Greek myth, imagining all the girls that Medusa was and could have been.”—Jennifer Saint, bestselling author of Ariadne Meddy has spent her whole life as a footnote in someone else’s story. Out of place next to her beautiful, immortal sisters and her parents—both gods, albeit minor ones—she dreams of leaving her family’s island for a life of adventure. So when she catches the eye of the goddess Athena, who invites her to train as an esteemed priestess in her temple, Meddy leaps at the chance to see the world beyond her home. In the colorful market streets of Athens and the clandestine chambers of the temple, Meddy flourishes in her role as Athena’s favored acolyte, getting her first tastes of purpose and power. But when she is noticed by another Olympian, Poseidon, the course of Meddy’s promising future is suddenly and irrevocably altered. When her locs are transformed into snakes as punishment for a crime she did not commit, Medusa must embrace a new identity—not as a victim, but as a vigilante—and with it, the chance to write her own story as mortal, martyr, and myth. Exploding with rage, heartbreak, and love, I, Medusa portrays a young woman caught in the crosscurrents between her heart’s deepest desires and the cruel, careless games the Olympian gods play.

#674
If We Survive This

If We Survive This

by Racquel Marie
Amazon Bookshop

The Walking Dead meets Yellowjackets in If We Survive This, a tense and emotional young adult horror novel from award-winning author Racquel Marie about a teen girl leading a group of survivors on a perilous journey during the apocalypse. Flora Braddock Paz is not the girl who survives. A colorful creative who spends as much time fearing death as she does trying to hide that fear from her loved ones, she’s always considered herself weak. But half a year into the global outbreak of a rabies mutation that transforms people into violent, zombielike "rabids," she and her older brother Cain are still alive. With their mom dead, their dad missing, and their LA suburb left desolate, they form a new plan to venture out to the secluded Northern California cabin they vacationed in growing up—their best chance at a safe haven and maybe even seeing their dad again. The dangers of the world have changed, but so has Flora. Still, their journey up the state is complicated by encounters with familiar faces, new allies, hidden truths, and painful memories of the family’s final time making this trip last year. And for Flora, one thing inevitably remains: No matter how far you run, death is never far behind.

#677
Immaculate Conception

Immaculate Conception

by Ling Ling Huang
Amazon Bookshop

What if you could enter the mind of the person you love the most? Enka meets Mathilde in art school and is instantly drawn to her. Mathilde makes art that feels truly original, and Enka—trying hard to prove herself in this fiercely competitive world—pours everything into their friendship. But when Mathilde’s fame and success cause her to begin drifting away, Enka becomes desperate to keep her close. Enter SCAFFOLD. Purported to enhance empathy, this cutting-edge technology could allow Enka to inhabit Mathilde’s mind and access her memories, artistic inspirations, and deep-seated trauma. Undergoing this procedure would link Enka and Mathilde forever. But at what cost? Blisteringly smart, thought-provoking, and shocking, Immaculate Conception offers us a portrait of close friendship—achingly tender and twisted—that captures the tenuous line between love and possession that will haunt you long after you turn the final page.

#686
J vs. K

J vs. K

by Jerry Craft and Kwame Alexander
Amazon Bookshop

Created by real-life rivals and #1 New York Times bestselling authors Kwame Alexander and Jerry Craft this hilarious illustrated story features two talented fifth graders going head-to-head in a competition for the ages. J and K are the most creative fifth graders at Dean Ashley Public School (DAPS). J loves to draw and his wordless stories are J-ENIUS! K loves to write and his stories are K-LASSIC!! Both J and K are determined to win the DAPS annual creative storytelling contest or at least get in the top five. And when they find out that they are both entering The Contest, it's the beginning of one of the most intense rivalries the world has ever seen. It’s artist vs. writer with plenty of shady double crosses as J and K plot their way to the top. This epic match-up from Newbery medal winners Kwame Alexander (The Crossover) and Jerry Craft (New Kid) celebrates comics, creativity, and the magic of collaboration.

#694
Kaplan’s Plot: A Novel

Kaplan’s Plot: A Novel

by Jason Diamond
Amazon Bookshop

“A love letter to Chicago, and a testament to the possibility of generational healing.” —Lindsay Hunter, author of Hot Springs Drive “A dazzling fictional debut. . . . Calls to mind both John Irving’s darkly funny tales of family dysfunction and E.L. Doctorow’s evocative dives into the American underworld.” —Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling writer of The Turnout Elijah Mendes was hoping for a more triumphant return to Chicago. His mother, Eve, is dying of cancer, his business flamed out, and he has nowhere else to go. So he returns to Chicago feeling listless and shattered, worried about how he’s going to help his mother despite their chilly relationship. He finds some inspiration when he discovers that their family owns a Jewish cemetery and that a man he’s never heard of, his great-uncle Solomon Kaplan, is buried in a plot there. With a new sense of purpose—and an excuse to talk more deeply with his mother—Elijah begins pursuing a family mystery of extraordinary proportions. Elijah discovers his grandfather Yitz, Eve’s father, was a powerful gangster in the 1920s. She was ashamed and never spoke about him to Elijah. As secrets unravel, the past and present become intertwined, and Yitz’s story forces Elijah and Eve to bond in ways they never have before and begin to accept each other, not as who they wish they were but as they both are. Kaplan’s Plot is an astonishing balancing act between the ruthless and the tender, the superficial and the truth, by a writer with tremendous promise.

#700
Ladies in Hating

Ladies in Hating

by Alexandra Vasti
Amazon Bookshop

A pair of Gothic novelists trade rivalry for love in this swoony, steamy, sapphic Regency by USA Today bestselling author Alexandra Vasti. Celebrated authoress Lady Georgiana Cleeve has achieved fame and fortune. Unfortunately, she’s also acquired an enemy: the enigmatic Lady Darling, whose spine-tingling plots appear to be pulled straight from Georgiana’s own manuscripts. What’s a stubborn, steely writer to do? Unmask her rival, of course. But unmasking doesn’t go according to plan—because Lady Darling is actually Cat Lacey, the butler’s daughter and object of Georgiana’s very secret, very embarrassing teenage infatuation. Cat Lacey has spent a decade clawing her family out of poverty. The last thing she needs is to be distracted by the stunning(ly pretentious) Lady Georgiana Cleeve. But Cat can’t seem to escape her infuriatingly beautiful rival—including at the eerie manor where they both plan to set their next books. The plot unexpectedly thickens, however, when the novelists find themselves trapped in the manor together. In between ghostly moans and spectral staff, Cat and Georgiana come face-to-face with real danger: the scorching passion that’s been haunting their rivalry all along.

#703
Late to the Search Party: Poems

Late to the Search Party: Poems

by Steven Espada Dawson
Amazon Bookshop

"The unsettled border between absence and presence haunts this stunning collection, in which Steven Espada Dawson contemplates belonging, identity, and grief in poems about his half-immigrant Mexican American family: his dying mother who raised him, his addict brother who has been missing for more than a decade, and his absent father. What does it mean to be a family of one--to be orphaned, whether by fate or by circumstance? In language that is both grounded and ethereal, Dawson tallies the losses and looks at what remains: the frustration and anger, the bewilderment and sadness--and the affection and humor that make themselves felt in spite of everything"--Page 4 of cover.

#710
Lessons in Magic and Disaster

Lessons in Magic and Disaster

by Charlie Jane Anders
Amazon Bookshop

In the vein of Alice Hoffman and Charlie Jane Anders's own All the Birds in the Sky comes a novel full of love, disaster, and magic. A young witch teaches her mother how to do magic--with very unexpected results--in this relatable, resonant novel about family, identity, and the power of love. Jamie is the average New England academic in-training--she has a strong queer relationship, generational trauma, and an esoteric dissertation proposal. But she has one extraordinary secret: she's also a powerful witch. Serena, Jamie's mother, has been hiding from the world in an old one-room schoolhouse for several years, grieving the death of her wife and the simultaneous explosion in her professional life. All she has left are memories. Jamie’s busy digging into a three-hundred-year-old magical book, but she still finds time to teach Serena to cast spells and help her come out of her shell. But Jamie doesn't know the whole story of what happened to her mom years ago, and those secrets are leading Serena down a destructive path. Now it's up to this grad student and literature nerd to understand the secrets behind this mysterious novel from 1749, unearth a long-buried scandal hinted therein, and learn the true nature of magic, before her mother ruins both of their lives. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

#717
Little World

Little World

by Josephine Rowe
Amazon Bookshop

A thrilling rush of a book about the mysterious body of a child saint and the lives it touches across time. Little World opens with the body of a child saint stranded in the Australian desert. Her name is unknown, as is the story of her life and the status of her canonization. She arrives in a box made of canoe timber, and Orrin Bird is dressed in his best clothes to receive her. As the novel sweeps across time and place, from the 1950s to the present day, we encounter the long shadow of the saint in many forms, revealed section by section: from the retired engineer who unwittingly becomes her custodian, to a woman driving across the Nullarbor Plain in the mid-1970s with a pair of young lovers and haunted by the forced adoption of her only child many years before, and ending in contemporary Victoria. As we follow the lives the child saint touches across time, what is revealed is a haunting reflection on violence and the interdependency of all things. Little World is a dazzling feat by one of Australia's finest writers.

#720
Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride

Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride

by Will Leitch
Amazon Bookshop

"From the award-winning author of How Lucky and The Time Has Come, this heartfelt and humorous novel follows an Atlanta police officer who learns he has months to live and determines to get killed in the line of duty to provide for his son . . . but keeps failing in unexpected ways. Lloyd McNeil has served as an officer with the Atlanta Police Department for 20 years while being a devoted father to his teenage son. But then he learns the worst possible news: He has learned he has an inoperable brain tumor, and he has only months left to live. Lloyd begins throwing himself into a series of increasingly dangerous situations, but things don't go according to plan. Instead of dying, he becomes a civic hero. Meanwhile, a malevolent force from his past shadows Lloyd as he tries to get his affairs in order, teach his son the lessons he needs to be a good person, and to say goodbye. Told in Lloyd's wistful but wonderfully comedic voice, Untitled is a masterful blend of suspense, humor, and compassion. It is a novel about what we leave behind and what we learn along the way, a bighearted story that brings into focus the depths of a father's love for his son"--

#721
Loca

Loca

by Alejandro Heredia
Amazon Bookshop

"It's 1999, and best friends Sal and Charo are striving to hold on to their dreams in a New York determined to grind them down. Sal is a book-loving science nerd trying to grow beyond his dead-end job in a new city, but he's held back by tragic memories from his past in Santo Domingo. Free-spirited Charo is surprised to find herself a mother at twenty-five, partnered with a controlling man, working at the same supermarket for years, her world shrunk to the very domesticity she thought she'd escaped in her old country. When Sal finds love at a gay club one night, both his and Charo's worlds unexpectedly open up to a vibrant social circle that pushes them to reckon with what they owe to their own selves, pasts, futures, and, always, each other"--

#732
Lu and Ren’s Guide to Geozoology

Lu and Ren’s Guide to Geozoology

by Angela Hsieh
Amazon Bookshop

Perfect for fans of Studio Ghibli and The Tea Dragon Society, this beautiful graphic novel follows a girl who learns more about friendship and family as she journeys across the fantastical land of Lirrin to tend to its majestic animals. Lu dreams of being a great adventurer, just like her ah-ma, who is a world-renowned geozoologist. Ah-ma has traveled far and wide, researching unique animals like dreamy cloud-jellies, enormous sunfish, and playful mossgoats. There’s nothing Lu loves more than reading Ah-ma’s letters about her quests, even if she and her mom struggle to understand the Cylian language Ah-ma writes in. But when Ah-ma’s letters suddenly stop, Lu becomes worried. So when a nearby town needs a geozoologist, Lu decides to go on the journey to find Ah-ma. She charts a course with the help of Ren, an old friend turned new travel buddy. As they follow in Ah-ma’s footsteps, Lu begins to discover the complex relationships between geofauna—and between people. What stories has Ah-ma never told her? And what’s Ren hiding from her?

#733
Luminous

Luminous

by Silvia Park
Amazon Bookshop

This is the arrival of a major new voice in science fiction.' Guardian Three siblings. Two human, one robot. The spectacular new debut about what it means to be alive. 'Wildly and, yes, luminously emotional.' Matt Haig, author of The Midnight Library In a recently reunified Korea, robots have integrated seamlessly into society. They are our teachers, our bus drivers and policemen. They are our lovers. They are even our children. Eleven-year-old Ruijie sifts through scrap metal in a Seoul junkyard, searching for anything that might repair her failing body. There amongst the piles of junk she happens across a robot boy: lifelike, strange and unlike anything she's seen before. Across the city, estranged siblings Jun and Morgan Cho haven't spoken since the abrupt disappearance of their robot brother Yoyo, which shattered their childhoods and left a gaping hole in their lives. But Ruijie's discovery is about to bring the lives of brother and sister hurtling back together, forcing them to confront the reality of Yoyo's true nature, and the dark purpose their father never revealed. At once a dazzling work of speculative fiction and a poignant family drama, Luminous is a timely, unforgettable story about what it really means to be human.

#734
Make Your Way Home

Make Your Way Home

by Carrie R. Moore
Amazon Bookshop

“Gorgeous, resonant, and startling.”—Lauren Groff, author of The Vaster Wilds “Glorious.”—Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies A debut collection of stories set across the American South, featuring characters who struggle to find love and belonging in the wake of painful histories. How can you love where you come from, even when home doesn’t love you back? In eleven stories that span Florida marshes, North Carolina mountains, and Southern metropolitan cities, Make Your Way Home follows Black men and women who grapple with the homes that have eluded them. A preteen pregnant alongside her mother refuses to let convention dictate who she names as the father of her child. Centuries after slavery separated his ancestors, a native Texan tries to win over the love of his life, despite the grip of a family curse. A young deaconess, who falls for a new church member, wonders what it means when God stops speaking to her. And at the very end of the South as we know it, two sisters seek to escape North to freedom, to promises of a more stable climate. Artfully and precisely drawn, and steeped in place and history as it explores themes of belonging, inheritance, and deep intimacy, Carrie R. Moore’s debut collection announces an extraordinary new talent in American fiction, inviting us all to examine how the past shapes our present—and how our present choices will echo for years to come.

#739
Martha’s Daughter: A Novella and Stories

Martha’s Daughter: A Novella and Stories

by David Haynes
Amazon Bookshop

Martha's Daughter is David's first short story collection and the first time that David's stories have ever been assembled in one volume. The collection ranges from the magically real life of a city's crumbling superhero to a rundown motel whose long-term guests are lucky to call home, to the titular novella, "Martha's Daughter," which details the first hours after Cynthia finds out her mother has died. What we learn is that Cynthia is a woman who has been bullied by her mother's overbearing opinions, her disdain for difference, her respectability politics, her outdated beliefs about how men and women should relate to one another. Martha's death is less a catalyst for Cynthia's grief than an opportunity to free herself of a burden too long endured. The sixth in McSweeney's Of the Diaspora series, Martha's Daughter is another record in David's oeuvre, of the people and places he's been recording since the beginning of his career, some thirty years ago. Editors interested in the everyday gossip and lives of sort of country city folk will enjoy this collection and its full circle connection to David's previous novels.

#740
Matriarch: A Memoir

Matriarch: A Memoir

by Tina Knowles
Amazon Bookshop

A glorious chronicle of a life like none other - enlightening, entertaining, surprising, empowering - and a testament to the world-changing power of Black motherhood Tina Knowles, the mother of three iconic singer-songwriters Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Solange Knowles, and bonus daughter Kelly Rowland, is known the world-over as a Matriarch with a capital M: a determined, self-possessed, self-aware, and wise woman who raised and inspired two of the great artists of our time. But this story is about so much more than that. This is a story about the wisdom that women pass down to each other, from mothers to daughters, across generations. Matriarch is a powerful reading experience, keepsake and gift of wisdom for readers everywhere - a poignant and impactful memoir that will feel as warm, honest, thoughtful, and aspirational as the author herself, filled with stories that highlight never-heard stories from a remarkable family's journey, along with a host of colourful characters and trailblazers along the way. This book will not only give readers a glimpse into fascinating personal stories, but will also share timely and urgent stories of resilience, humanity, and respect. As Ms. Knowles so eloquently puts it herself: 'I think when you value yourself and respect yourself, everything else just falls into place.'

#753
Minor Black Figures

Minor Black Figures

by Brandon Taylor
Amazon Bookshop

A bold novel about a black painter caught up in the currents of art, faith, and desire. New York simmers with heat and unrest as Wyeth, a painter, finds himself at an impasse in his own work. After attending a dubious show put on by a collective of careerist artists, he retreats to a bar in the West Village where he meets Keating, a former seminarian. Over the long summer, as the two get to know each another, they talk and argue about God, sex, and art. Meanwhile, at his job working for an art restorer, Wyeth begins to investigate the life and career of a forgotten, minor black artist. His search yields potential answers to questions that Wyeth is only now beginning to ask about what it means to be a black artist making black art amid the mess and beauty of life itself. As he did so brilliantly in the Booker Prize finalist Real Life and the bestselling The Late Americans, Brandon Taylor brings alive a captivating set of characters, this time at work and at play in the competitive art world. Minor Black Figures is a vividly etched portrait, both sweeping and tender, of friendship, creativity, belief, and the deep connections among them.

#754
Moderation

Moderation

by Elaine Castillo
Amazon Bookshop

“A love story for those who love Severance (both Ling Ma’s book and the unaffiliated Apple TV+ series). . . ambitious, challenging, and brilliant.” —Elle “Castillo’s flinty satire of the tech industry [transforms] into a sultry romance novel.” —The Atlantic A bold and inventive novel about real romance in the virtual workplace— bringing Castillo's trademark wit and sharp cultural criticism to an irresistible story about the possible future of love. Girlie Delmundo is the greatest content moderator in the world, and despite the setbacks of financial crises, climate catastrophe, and a global pandemic, she’s going places: she’s getting a promotion. Now thanks to her parent company Paragon’s purchase of Fairground—the world’s preeminent virtual reality content provider—she’s on the way to becoming an elite VR moderator, playing in the big leagues and, if her enthusiastic bosses are to be believed, moderating the next stage of human interaction. Despite the isolation that virtual reality requires from colleagues, friends, and family, the unbelievable perks of her new job mean she can solve a lot of her family's problems with money and mobility. She doesn't have to think about the childhood home they lost back in the Bay Area, or history at all—she can just pay any debts that come due. But when she meets William Cheung, Playground’s wry, reticent co-founder (now Chief Product Officer) and slowly unearths some of his secrets, and finds herself somehow falling in love, she’ll learn that history might be impossible to moderate and the future utterly impossible to control.

#767
Murder on the Marlow Belle: A Novel (The Marlow Murder Club)

Murder on the Marlow Belle: A Novel (The Marlow Murder Club)

by Robert Thorogood
Amazon Bookshop

The new cozy crime novel from the bestselling author of The Marlow Murder Club, soon to be a major TV series on PBS Masterpiece Verity Beresford is worried about her husband. Oliver didn't come home last night, so of course Verity goes straight to Judith Potts, Marlow's resident amateur sleuth, for help. Oliver, founder of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, had hired The Marlow Belle, a private pleasure cruiser, for an exclusive party with the MADS committee but no one remembers seeing him disembark. And then Oliver's body washes up on the Thames with two bullet holes in him. It's time for the Marlow Murder Club to leap into action. Oliver was, by all accounts, a rather complicated chap with a reputation for bullying children during nativity play rehearsals, and he wasn't short of enemies. Judith, Suzie, and Becks are convinced they'll find his killer in no time. But things are not as they seem in the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, and this case is not so clear-cut after all. The gang will need to keep their wits about them to solve this case--otherwise a killer will walk free...

#768
Murder Takes a Vacation

Murder Takes a Vacation

by Laura Lippman
Amazon Bookshop

“Murder Takes a Vacation has all Laura Lippman's trademark razor-sharp insight and effortlessly absorbing writing, plus huge amounts of warmth and fun. Mrs. Blossom is a pure joy, and I'm already hoping for more.” –Tana French Highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman returns with an irresistible mystery featuring Muriel Blossom, a former private investigator and middle-aged widow whose vacation on a Parisian river cruise turns into a deadly international mystery…that only she can solve. A New York Times “Best Beach Reads of Summer” One of Washington Post’s “Best Mysteries to Read This Summer” One of Boston Globe's "Books to Add to Your Summer Reading List" One of Minneapolis Star Tribune's "24 terrific books for the beach, cabin or lawn chair you’ll want to read this summer" One of Chicago Tribune's Summer Books 2025 Mrs. Blossom has a knack for blending into the background, which was an asset during her days assisting private investigator Tess Monaghan. But when she finds a winning lottery ticket in a parking lot, everything changes. She is determined to see the world that she sometimes feels is passing her by. When Mrs. Blossom booked her cruise through France on the MS Solitaire, she did not expect to meet Allan on her transatlantic flight. He is the first man who’s sparked something inside her since her beloved husband passed. She also didn’t expect Allan to be found, dead, twenty-four hours later in Paris, a city he wasn’t supposed to be in. Now Mrs. Blossom doesn’t know who to trust on board the ship, especially when a mystifying man, Danny, keeps popping up around every corner, always present when things go awry. He is convinced that Allan was transporting a stolen piece of art, and Mrs. Blossom knows more than she lets on, regarding both the artifact and Allan’s death. Mrs. Blossom’s questions only increase as the cruise sails down the Seine. Why does it feel like she is being followed? Who was Allan, and why was he killed? Most alarmingly, why do these mysterious men keep flirting with her?

#780
Nesting

Nesting

by Roisín O'Donnell
Amazon Bookshop

In this beautiful, urgent, and ultimately uplifting novel by a rising Irish literary star comes a heart-pounding, life-affirming story about one woman trying to leave her marriage and start over. On a bright spring afternoon, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change everything. Grabbing an armful of clothes off the clothesline, she straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe—and that this time, when she leaves, she must stay away. On the surface, she has a perfect life: her husband, Ryan, is a good provider, sometimes even kind and attentive, from a nice Irish family, and they have another baby on the way. But he also monitors Ciara's every move, flies into unpredictable rages where he convinces her she can do nothing right, and has isolated her from work, friends, and her beloved family. Was fleeing the right thing to do? With no job and no support, Ciara struggles to provide a sense of normalcy for her little girls. Facing a broken housing system, they move into a hotel room on a floor reserved for women like her, eating takeout, washing their clothes in the bathroom sink, and building a community with the other residents. Ryan, meanwhile, wages a relentless campaign to win her back, and Ciara wavers. He never hit her, after all, and don't the girls need a stable home? For fans of Claire Keegan and Louise Kennedy, Roisín O'Donnell’s extraordinary debut creates a devastating and suspenseful portrait of gaslighting and emotional abuse—and even better, a triumphant story about family, love, and finding a new place to nest.

#781
Never Thought I’d End Up Here

Never Thought I’d End Up Here

by Ann Liang
Amazon Bookshop

Leah Zhang has just ruined her cousin's wedding. She didn't mean to wish the bride a depressing marriage and poor health, but she's forgotten most of her Mandarin. Her parents stage an intervention: Leah will be sent on a travel program across China's most beautiful cities. To them, it’s the perfect opportunity for Leah to get back to her roots. To Leah, it’s simply a much-needed escape.

#782
New and Collected Hell: A Poem

New and Collected Hell: A Poem

by Shane McCrae
Amazon Bookshop

Shane McCrae, “peer to the peerless” (New York Journal of Books), takes up and turns on its head the mantle of Dante in this contemporary vision of Hell. Of death the muse is death the muse of Hell Is death the muse of Heaven I don’t know O muse of where howcan I hope to go To where I pray I’ll go sing at least tell Shane McCrae, one of the most prophetic and powerful poetic voices of our time, has created a twenty-first-century epic in New and Collected Hell. As David Woo wrote in Poetry, “McCrae’s poems allude to literary precursors like Dante, Milton, and the Bible, but the voice is unabashedly of our time . . . By seeking to heal the rift in his own identity, McCrae has listened intently to the literary echoes emanating from the English language and transmuted them through his own dynamic voice.” Here, he gathers new and previous work as a culmination of his long-standing poetic project: a new and unforgettable journey through Hell. McCrae’s work is indelible, and this collection brings his searing vision to new depths.

#784
Next of Kin

Next of Kin

by Gabrielle Hamilton
Amazon Bookshop

In her long-awaited new memoir, the author of the New York Times bestseller and James Beard Award winner Blood, Bones & Butter tells the “raw and darkly humorous” (People) story of her family's unexpected dissolution. “Hamilton’s voice is as singular and rollicking as ever in Next of Kin, but it feels rare and special to have it applied to the kind of complicated family history that so many of us only come to confront in adulthood (if at all).”—Vogue “We were a family veined through with certain brutalities, rifts, and unresolved conflicts, as well as some remarkable violences and some decades-long silences. But together we had rituals, systems, congruent cohering events that made us who we were as one. I thought of the black and blue marks as if they were the desirable spores of mold found in noble cheeses.” The youngest of five children, Gabrielle Hamilton took pride in her unsentimental, idiosyncratic family. She idolized her parents’ charisma and non-conformity. She worshipped her siblings’ mischievousness and flair. Hers was a family with no fondness for the humdrum. Hamilton grew up to find enormous success, first as a chef and then as the author of award-winning, bestselling books. But her family ties frayed in ways both seismic and mundane until eventually she was estranged from them all. In the wake of one brother’s sudden death and another’s suicide, while raising young children of her own, Hamilton was compelled to examine the sprawling, complicated root system underlying her losses. She began investigating her family’s devout independence and individualism with a nearly forensic rigor, soon discovering a sobering warning in their long-held self-satisfaction. By the time she was called to care for her declining mother—the mother she’d seen only twice in thirty years—Hamilton had realized a certain freedom, one made possible only through a careful psychological autopsy of her family. Hamilton’s gift for pungent dialogue, propulsive storytelling, intense honesty, and raucous humor made her first book a classic of modern memoir. In Next of Kin, she offers a keen and compassionate portrait of the people she grew up with and the prevailing but soon-to-falter ethos of the era that produced them. A personal account of one family’s disintegration, Next of Kin is also a universal story of the emotional clarity that comes from scrutinizing our family mythologies and seeing through to the other side.

#792
No Sense in Wishing

No Sense in Wishing

by Lawrence Burney
Amazon Bookshop

“Among the most profound and dazzling debuts I've ever read.” —Kiese Laymon, award-winning author of Heavy: An American Memoir An essay collection from culture critic Lawrence Burney that is a personal and analytical look at his home city of Baltimore, music from throughout the global Black diaspora, and the traditions that raised him. There are moments throughout our lives when we discover an artist, an album, a film, or a cultural artifact that leaves a lasting impression, helping inform how we understand the world, and ourselves, moving forward. In No Sense in Wishing, Lawrence Burney explores these profound interactions with incisive and energizing prose, offering us a personal and critical perspective on the people, places, music, and art that transformed him. In a time when music is spearheading Black Americans’ connection with Africans on The Continent, Burney takes trips to cover the bubbling creative scenes in Lagos and Johannesburg that inspire teary-eyed reflections of self and belonging. Seeing his mother perform as the opening act at a Gil Scott-Heron show as a child inspires an essay about parent-child relationships and how personal taste is often inherited. And a Maryland crab feast with family facilitates an assessment of how the Black people in his home state have historically improvised paths for their liberation. Taking us on a journey from the streets of Baltimore to the concert halls of Lagos, No Sense in Wishing is a kaleidoscopic exploration of Burney’s search for self. With its gutsy and uncompromising criticism alongside intimate personal storytelling, it’s like an album that hits all the right notes, from a promising writer on the rise.

#793
No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain

No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain

by Rebecca Solnit
Amazon Bookshop

New York Times Bestseller In the spirit of her bestselling book Hope in the Dark, Rebecca Solnit explores how our actions can shape the future and the liberatory possibilities of embracing uncertainty. Beginning with an essay about a three-hundred-year-old violin and what it can tell us about forests, abundance, and climate, and ending with on about a prisoner dreaming of seeing the ocean, No Straight Road Takes You There deftly bridges the political and the literary, offering unique insights, nuanced understanding, and inspiration for the challenging work ahead. In her latest essay collection, the award-winning author explores climate change, feminism, democracy, hope, and power and its abuse. Throughout she asks us to heed the stories we tell or have been told, and the ways those stories can be, or should be changed. Solnit offers a reappraisal of the value of indirect consequences, an embrace of unpredictability, slowness, and imperfection in the politics of how to change the world. “I've tried to find other ways of seeing and to prize the migratory routes ideas take,” Solnit writes in the introduction, “the way that hope is most often grounded in memory, because you can't see the future but you can understand the patterns and possibilities if you know the past.”

#794
North Sun, Or, The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther

North Sun, Or, The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther

by Ethan Rutherford
Amazon Bookshop

Finalist for the 2025 National Book Awards for Fiction From “one of our great artists of catastrophe” (Laura van den Berg) comes North Sun, or the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther—an allegory of extraction and a tale of adventure and endurance during the waning days of the American whaling industry. Setting out from New Bedford in 1878, the crew of the Esther is confident the sea will be theirs: in addition to cruising the Pacific for whale, they intend to hunt the teeming northern grounds before the ice closes. But as they sail to their final destination in the Chukchi Sea, where their captain Arnold Lovejoy has an urgent directive of his own to attend to, their encounters with the natural world become more brutal, harrowing, ghostly, and strange. With one foot firmly planted in the traditional sea-voyage narrative, and another in a blazing mythos of its own, this debut novel looks unsparingly at the cost of environmental exploitation and predation, and in doing so feverishly sings not only of the past, but to the present and future as well.

#796
Notes from a Regicide

Notes from a Regicide

by Isaac Fellman
Amazon Bookshop

Notes from a Regicide is a heartbreaking story of trans self-discovery with a rich relatability and a science-fictional twist from award-winning author Isaac Fellman. When your parents die, you find out who they really were. Griffon Keming’s second parents saved him from his abusive family. They taught him how to be trans, paid for his transition, and tried to love him as best they could. But Griffon’s new parents had troubles of their own – both were deeply scarred by the lives they lived before Griffon, the struggles they faced to become themselves, and the failed revolution that drove them from their homeland. When they died, they left an unfillable hole in his heart. Griffon’s best clue to his parents’ lives is in his father’s journal, written from a jail cell while he awaited execution. Stained with blood, grief, and tears, these pages struggle to contain the love story of two artists on fire. With the journal in hand, Griffon hopes to pin down his relationship to these wonderful and strange people for whom time always seemed to be running out. In Notes from a Regicide, a trans family saga set in a far-off, familiar future, Isaac Fellman goes beyond the concept of found family to examine how deeply we can be healed and hurt by those we choose to love.

#799
Oasis

Oasis

by Guojing
Amazon Bookshop

“It’s rare to find a book so thought-provoking and haunting that also feels like it’s welcoming the reader with a warm hug.” - The New York Times ★ FIVE STARRED REVIEWS! ★ "Perfectly blending story and art, this deeply compelling fable assures middle-grade readers that, with resilience, adaptability, and the hope for connection, love can prevail even amid desolation." - Booklist, starred review JieJie and her little brother, DiDi, are living on their own in a barren desert while their mother works tirelessly to earn their admission into Oasis City. Their days are filled with weathering sandstorms and scavenging for water, but everything changes when they come across an AI-powered robot lying dormant in an abandoned junkyard. Filled with equal parts hope and suspense, Oasis tells the story of a potentially not-so-distant future that you won’t ever forget. "The children are at the heart of the narrative, and the family they form, unconventional as it may be, offers a breath of hope in a dark time." - Kirkus, starred review

#800
Oathbound

Oathbound

by Tracy Deonn
Amazon Bookshop

The phenomenal third book in the TikTok sensation Legendborn Cycle by New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Tracy Deonn. Perfect for fans of Tahereh Mafi, Sabaa Tahir, Cassandra Clare and Leigh Bardugo! Severed from the Legendborn. Oathbound to a monster. Bree Matthews is alone. She exiled herself from the Legendborn Order, cut her ancestral connections, and turned away from the friends who can’t understand the impossible cost of her powers. This is the only way to keep herself – and those she loves – safe. But Bree’s decision has come with a terrible price: an unbreakable bargain with the Shadow King himself, a shapeshifter who can move between humanity, the demon underworld, and the Legendborn secret society. In exchange for training to wield her unprecedented abilities, Bree has put her future in the Shadow King’s hands – and unwittingly bound herself to do his bidding as his new protégé. Meanwhile, the other Scions must face war with their Round Table fractured, leaderless, and missing its Kingsmage, as Selwyn has also disappeared. When Nick is detained by the Order’s Merlins, he invokes an ancient law that requires the High Council of Regents to convene at the Northern Keep and grant him an audience. No one knows what he will demand of them . . . or what secrets he has kept hidden from the Table. As a string of mysterious kidnappings escalates and Merlins are found dead, it becomes clear that no matter how hard Bree runs from who she is, the past will always find her . . . Praise for Legendborn: 'I love the feeling of a magical world existing just beneath the surface of our own and this story gave me everything I wanted: incredible characters, ancient lore and secret societies – all grounded in our very real, very flawed world . . .' Leigh Bardugo, author of Shadow and Bone 'Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn braids southern folk traditions and Black Girl Magic into a searing modern tale of grief, power and self-discovery.' Dhonielle Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Belles

#804
Of Monsters and Mainframes

Of Monsters and Mainframes

by Barbara Truelove
Amazon Bookshop

Spaceships aren't programmed to seek revenge--but for Dracula, Demeter will make an exception. Demeter just wants to do her job: shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying--and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire decided to board Demeter and kill all her humans. To keep from getting decommissioned, Demeter must join forces with her own team of monsters: A werewolf. An engineer built from the dead. A pharaoh with otherworldly powers. A vampire with a grudge. A fleet of cheerful spider drones. Together, this motley crew will face down the ultimate evil--Dracula. The queer love child of pulp horror and classic sci-fi, Of Monsters and Mainframes is a dazzling, heartfelt odyssey that probes what it means to be one of society's monsters--and explores the many types of friendship that make us human.

#806
Oh Dear, Look What I Got!

Oh Dear, Look What I Got!

by Michael Rosen, illus Helen Oxenbury
Amazon Bookshop

The incomparable creative team behind We're Going on a Bear Hunt reunite for a read-aloud comedy of misunderstandings that has all the hallmarks of a classic. I went to the shop to get me a carrot. Oh dear! They gave me . . . . . . a parrot. Oh dear! Look what I got. Do I want that? No, I do NOT! As a hapless boy goes from shop to shop, requesting a series of perfectly reasonable items--a hat, a coat, a cake, a chair--he finds himself thwarted at every turn, amassing instead a growing menagerie of animals who happily follow him on his errands. It's not until he finally asks for a cup that he's proffered a wriggly creature that solves his dilemma . . . or does it? Adding delicious momentum to Michael Rosen's rhymes (and mastery of the page turn) are an expressive crew of animal characters rendered as only Helen Oxenbury can, making for a timeless story guaranteed to beg many repeat readings. Oh dear!

#808
On Again, Awkward Again

On Again, Awkward Again

by Erin Entrada Kelly and Kwame Mbalia
Amazon Bookshop

The laugh-out-loud YA romance by two award-winning and bestselling authors, Erin Entrada Kelly and Kwame Mbalia, that's perfect for fans of To All the Boys I've Loved Before or When Dimple Met Rishi When Pacy Mercado and Cecil Holloway spot each other during the first week of freshman year, it's love at first sight. Well, more like love at first fleeting, injury-riddled glance, since the moment is ruined thanks to clumsiness and a criminal case of IBS. Despite their total lack of game, Pacy and Cecil are drawn to each other. Seven seconds of eye contact turns into days of yearning and stress as they make the mistake of following misguided advice from their friends, dysfunctional families, and strangers on the internet. But the universe conspires to bring Pacy and Cecil together when they both end up on the WADS committee to plan the freshman dance (that's Wakeville's Awesome Décor Society, if you must know). As they spend more time together, they realize that the other person might be just what they need . . . that is, if they can figure out how to be themselves and embrace the mishaps, mistakes, and hilariously awkward interactions that make up their imperfectly perfect love story.

#820
One Yellow Eye

One Yellow Eye

by Leigh Ranford
Amazon Bookshop

In this heart-wrenching and unique spin on the zombie mythos, a brilliant scientist desperately searches for a cure after a devastating epidemic while also hiding a monumental secret—her undead husband. How far would you go to save your marriage? For British scientist Kesta Shelley, there is no limit. Having always preferred the company of microbes, Kesta has spent her life looking down the barrel of a microscope rather than cultivating personal relationships. But that changed when Kesta met Tim—her cheerleader, her best friend, her absolute everything. So, when he was one of the last people in London to be infected with a perplexing virus that left the city ravaged, Kesta went into triage mode. Though the government has rounded up and disposed of all the infected, Kesta is able to keep her husband (un)alive—and hidden—with resources from the hospital where she works. She spends her days reviewing biopsy slides and her evenings caring for him, but he’s clearly declining. The sedatives aren’t working like they used to, and his violent outbursts are becoming more frequent. As Kesta races against the clock, her colleagues start noticing changes in her behavior and appearance. She is withering away, self-medicating with alcohol, and has stopped attending her mandated ZARG (Zombie Apocalypse Recovery Group) meetings. Her care for Tim has spiraled into absolute obsession. There are whispers of a top-secret lab working on a cure, and Kesta clings to the possibility of being recruited like a lifeline. But can she save her husband before he is discovered? Or worse…will they trigger another outbreak?

#825
Ordinary Love

Ordinary Love

by Marie Rutkoski
Amazon Bookshop

A page-turning, irresistible novel of class, ambition, and love, this is the breathtaking story of a woman risking everything for a second chance at the one who got away • “A stunning love story.” —J. Courtney Sullivan, bestselling author of The Cliffs Emily has, by all appearances, a perfect life: a townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, two healthy children, and a husband who showers her with attention. But the truth is more complicated: Emily’s marriage is in trouble, her relationship with her parents is fraught, and she is still nursing a heartbreak from long ago. When Emily runs into her high school girlfriend at a cocktail party, that heartbreak comes roaring back. But Gen Hall is no longer the lanky, hungry kid with holes in her shoes who Emily loved in her youth. Instead, Gen is now a famous Olympic athlete with sponsorship deals and a string of high-profile ex-girlfriends. Emily and Gen circle one another cautiously, drawn together by a magnetic attraction and scarred by their shared history. Once upon a time, Gen knew everything about Emily. And yet, she still abandoned her. Can Emily trust Gen again? Can they forgive each other for the mistakes they made in their past? Should Emily risk her children, her privacy, and the fragile peace she has found to be with a woman she loved long ago? A sweeping romance, Ordinary Love is the beautiful, wrenching, completely seductive story of two people trying to forge a path toward hope, bound by a love they discovered when they were too young to understand its power.

#829
Other People’s Houses

Other People’s Houses

by Clare Mackintosh
Amazon Bookshop

New York Times bestselling author Clare Mackintosh is back with another unputdownable installment in the DC Morgan series. You want what they have, but what price would you pay? The Hill is the kind of place everyone wants to live: luxurious, exclusive and safe. But now someone is breaking and entering these Cheshire homes one by one, and DS Leo Brady suspects the burglar is looking for something, or someone, in particular. Over the border in Wales, DC Ffion Morgan recovers the body of an estate agent from the lake. There's no love lost between Ffion and estate agents, but who hated this one enough to want her dead - and why? As their cases collide, Ffion and Leo discover people will pay a high price to keep their secrets behind closed doors . . .

#838
Padella: Iconic Pasta at Home

Padella: Iconic Pasta at Home

by Tim Siadatan
Amazon Bookshop

"They've bottled up the Padella magic and made it available to us all. Complimenti!" -YOTAM OTTOLENGHI From bold Italian chef Tim Siadatan, 100 recipes for true pasta lovers everywhere, from the freshest raviolis to the richest ragu-with a foreword by Jamie Oliver. Since its inception in 2016, Padella restaurant has set the standard for pasta in London and beyond, drawing long lines, big crowds, and global attention for its range of simple, innovative, expertly prepared Italian fare. Now, head chef Tim Siadatan will collect Padella's renowned recipes and aim them squarely at the home cook, marrying style and flavor to create the elegant yet accessible pasta book his worldwide fans have been waiting for. With a foreword from Jamie Oliver, Siadatan's longtime mentor, Padella will also include a section on the origin and philosophy of pasta preparation, how to create and store your own pasta, and a Sauce-Shape Matrix to calculate the best shape and texture of pasta to work with each different kind of sauce. The recipes include both meat and vegetarian dishes and range from fresh, flat pasta recipes like Fettucine with Artichokes, Pancetta & Sage; filled pastas such as Tortellini of Veal & Pork in Brodo; baked pasta dishes like Mushroom Lasagna; and gnocchi recipes like Ricotta Gnudi with Broad Beans & Basil. With recipes that are adaptable, accessible, flavor-forward, and deeply satisfying, Padella is set to become your go-to book for perfect pasta every time.

#841
Palm Meridian: A Novel

Palm Meridian: A Novel

by Grace Flahive
Amazon Bookshop

“A riotous novel about a farewell party that celebrates all of life’s emotions—big and small—while marking the arrival of an exciting new voice in fiction.” —Steven Rowley, New York Times bestselling author of The Celebrants A rollicking, big-hearted story of long-lost love, friendship, and a life well-lived, set at a Florida retirement resort for queer women, on the last day of resident Hannah Cardin’s life—perfect for readers of Less and The Wedding People. It’s 2067 and Florida is partially underwater, but even that can’t bring down the residents of Palm Meridian Retirement Resort, a utopian home for queer women who want to revel in their twilight years. Inside, Hula-Hoopers shimmy across the grass, fiercely competitive book clubs nearly come to blows, and the roller-ski team races up and down the winding paths. Everywhere you look, these women are living large. Hannah Cardin has spent ten happy years under these tropical, technicolor skies, but after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, she has decided that tomorrow morning she will close her eyes for the very last time. Tonight, however, Hannah and her raucous band of friends are throwing one hell of an end-of-life party. And with less than twenty-four hours left, Hannah is holding out for one final, impossible thing… Amongst the guest list is Sophie, the love of Hannah’s life. They haven’t spoken since their devastating breakup over forty years ago, but today, Hannah is hoping for the chance to give her greatest love one last try. As Hannah anxiously awaits Sophie’s arrival, her mind casts back over the highs and lows of her kaleidoscopic life. But when a shocking secret from the past is revealed, Hannah must reconsider if she can say goodbye after all. Spanning the course of a single day and seventy-odd years, and bursting with irresistible hope, humor, and wisdom, this one-of-a-kind novel celebrates the unexpected moments that make us feel the most alive.

#843
Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America

Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America

by Beth Macy
Amazon Bookshop

"There couldn’t be a timelier book . . . searingly poignant, essential . . . Macy follows closely in the footsteps of . . . Barbara Ehrenreich and Tracy Kidder, combining memoir with reportage, a raft of sobering statistics and, most uniquely in our era, a willingness to engage in uncomfortable conversations." —The Washington Post From one of our most acclaimed chroniclers of the forces eroding America’s social fabric, her most personal and powerful work: a reckoning with the changes that have rocked her own beloved small Ohio hometown Urbana, Ohio, was not a utopia when Beth Macy grew up there in the ’70s and ’80s—certainly not for her family. Her dad was known as the town drunk, which hurt, as did their poverty. But Urbana had a healthy economy and thriving schools, and Macy had middle-class schoolmates whose families became her role models. Though she left for college on a Pell Grant and then a faraway career in journalism, she still clung gratefully to the place that had helped raise her. But as Macy’s mother’s health declined in 2020, she couldn’t shake the feeling that her town had dramatically hardened. Macy had grown up as the paper girl, delivering the local newspaper, which was the community’s civic glue. Now she found scant local news and precious little civic glue. Yes, much of the work that once supported the middle class had gone away, but that didn’t begin to cover the forces turning Urbana into a poorer and angrier place. Absenteeism soared in the schools and in the workplace as a mental health crisis gripped the small city. Some of her old friends now embraced conspiracies. In nearby Springfield, Macy watched as her ex-boyfriend—once the most liberal person she knew—became a lead voice of opposition against the Haitian immigrants, parroting false talking points throughout the 2024 presidential campaign. This was not an assignment Beth Macy had ever imagined taking on, but after her mother’s death, she decided to figure out what happened to Urbana in the forty years since she’d left. The result is an astonishing book that, by taking us into the heart of one place, brings into focus our most urgent set of national issues. Paper Girl is a gift of courage, empathy, and insight. Beth Macy has turned to face the darkness in her family and community, people she loves wholeheartedly, even the ones she sometimes struggles to like. And in facing the truth—in person, with respect—she has found sparks of human dignity that she has used to light a signal fire of warning but also of hope.

#853
Peak Human

Peak Human

by Johan Norberg
Amazon Bookshop

"All golden ages are marked by periods of spectacular cultural flourishing, scientific exploration, technological achievement and economic growth; yet no two are the same. Their beliefs, societies and place in the wider world all vary. Despite this, all previous golden ages have ended, whether it be because of external pressures or internal fracturing; too much hubris or too little wariness. Looking at seven of humanity's greatest civilizations - ancient Athens, the Roman Republic, Abbasid Baghdad, Song China, Renaissance Italy, the Dutch Republic and the Anglosphere - historian and commentator Johan Norberg seeks to distil their strengths and shortcomings in answering the question: how do we ensure that our current golden age doesn't end? As insightful as it is riveting, Peak Human is at once a paean to our incredible progress and a warning that we cannot afford to be complacent."--Publisher's description.

#860
Pink Dust

Pink Dust

by Ron Padgett
Amazon Bookshop

Ron Padgett is one of America's best-known and most acclaimed poets. Admired by John Ashbery, Jim Jarmusch, and Anne Waldman, his poems have moved and delighted generations of readers with their inventiveness, their gentle humor, and above all their ability to elicit wonder. These qualities are as evident as ever in Pink Dust, whose title refers to the residue from all the author's erasers, swept away or blown into the air. Like that dust, this is a book of memories rubbing up against the present. Its poignant reflections on old age shimmer with all the insouciance of youth.

#862
Play Nice

Play Nice

by Rachel Harrison
Amazon Bookshop

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A woman must confront the demons of her past when she attempts to fix up her childhood home in this devilishly clever take on the haunted house novel from the author of Black Sheep and So Thirsty. Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parents' messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped her of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house. After Alex’s sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content. Only, as the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother’s book, a sinister presence in the house manifests, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation.

#864
Plum

Plum

by Andy Anderegg
Amazon Bookshop

"You wish to never see a plum again in your life... You think: When I am an adult, I will never have a fruit tree. I will never be like this." For fans of Sarah Rose Etter and Scott McClanahan, Plum is a darkly beautiful, unflinching novel about modern girlhood in the internet age, the daily toll of trauma, and the limits of love. Told entirely in the second person, Plum follows J as she grows from kid to teen in a house ruled by her alcoholic dad and complicit mother. Her older brother is sometimes wonderful, sometimes gross, and he's her only hope of getting out. J's world is one of nail polish, above-ground pools, and drive-thrus--and of violence, carelessness, and so many rules. J covets the peace that comes when she slips on her headphones, turns on her handheld radio, and dreams of how she and her brother can make their escape. When her brother leaves home and disappears, so does J's best chance to flee her parents' chaotic orbit. Alone and angry, J reaches through her computer screen for the life she wants: blonde hair, glittering nails, attention, freedom. As she stumbles into adulthood with no template to follow, J must figure out how to build a family for herself full of the love she deserves. In her brutally compelling debut, Anderegg turns her singular gaze on the generational patterns of addiction and abuse.

#867
Polybius

Polybius

by Collin Armstrong
Amazon Bookshop

“If you’re a fan of Stephen King and Stranger Things, then this is the book for you.” —Richard Chizmar, New York Times bestselling author Stranger Things meets The Walking Dead in this chilling horror novel based on the terrifying urban legend about a video game created by the government for psychological warfare. October, 1982. Forced to move to the quiet seaside town of Tasker Bay by her mother, the only thing on high schooler Andi’s mind is saving up enough money to return to her old stomping grounds in Silicon Valley. Her self-taught skills with all things electronic make her a perfect fit for a job at the dingy local arcade where she can tune out from life and bankroll her eventual escape. Pining over the distant and aloof Andi is Ro, the son of Tasker Bay’s sheriff, who begins spending more time at the arcade. Despite promising herself she wouldn’t get attached to anyone in town, Andi finds herself opening up to the thoughtful, like-minded Ro. With Polybius—a new bleeding-edge game of unknown origin arrives—the shop is suddenly overwhelmed with players fighting for time on the machine. Seemingly overnight, a virus-like epidemic grips Tasker Bay while a violent coastal storm rolls in, isolating it from the outside world. People begin experiencing fits of anger, paranoia, and hallucinations—no one can be trusted. After a grisly act of violence goes unsolved, the town descends into chaos. Is the arrival of this mysterious game and the disorder in Tasker Bay a coincidence? Convinced the dire situation is somehow linked to Polybius, Andi and Ro desperately search for clues that might stop the spread before they, too, begin experiencing side effects…

#874
procession

procession

by Katherena Vermette
Amazon Bookshop

you are only here to learn from those who came before and make space for those who come after Procession: a line of people moving in the same direction; a formal ceremony or celebration, as in a wedding, a funeral, a religious parade. Bestseller and Governor General's Award-winner Katherena Vermette's third collection presents a series of poems reaching into what it means to be at once a descendant and a future ancestor, exploring the connections we have with one another and ourselves, amongst friends, and within families and Nations. In frank, heartfelt poems that move through body sovereignty and ancestral dreams, and from '80s childhood nostalgia to welcoming one's own babies, Vermette unreels the story of a child, a parent, and soon, an elder, living in a prairie place that has always existed, though looks much different to her now. This book is about being one small part of a large genealogy. A lineage is a line, and the procession, whether in celebration or in mourning, is ongoing. Processiondelves into what it means to make poems and to be an artist, to be born into a body, to carry it all, and, if you're very lucky, age. be a good ancestor be a good kid

#879
Queen Esther: A novel

Queen Esther: A novel

by John Irving
Amazon Bookshop

"Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board the ship to Portland, Maine; her mother is murdered by anti-Semites in Portland. Dr. Larch knows it won't be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; in fact, he won't find any family who'll adopt her. When Esther is fourteen, soon to be a ward of the state, Dr. Larch meets the Winslows, a philanthropic New England family with a history of providing foster care for unadopted orphans. The Winslows aren't Jewish, but they despise anti-Semitism. Esther's gratitude for the Winslows is unending; even as she retraces her roots back to Vienna, she never stops loving and protecting the Winslows. In the final chapter, set in Jerusalem in 1981, Esther Nacht is seventy-six"--

#885
Recipes from the American South

Recipes from the American South

by Michael W. Twitty
Amazon Bookshop

A home cook's guide to one of America's most diverse - and delicious - cuisines, from James Beard Award-winning author and culinary historian Michael W. Twitty 'Our cuisine, with its grits and black-eyed peas, crab cakes, red rice, and endless variations on the staple foods of the region, casts a spell that, if you're lucky, gets passed down with snapping string beans at the table and chewing cane on the back porch.' - Michael W. Twitty In the introduction to this groundbreaking recipe collection, acclaimed historian Michael W. Twitty declares, 'No one state or area can give you the breadth of the Southern story or fully set the Southern table.' To answer this, Recipes from the American Southjourneys from the Louisiana Bayou to the Chesapeake Bay, showcasing more than 260 of the region's most beloved dishes. Across more than 400 pages, Twitty explores the broad culinary sweep that Southern history and its many cultures represent. Recipes for breads and biscuits, mains and sides, stews, sauces, and sweets feature insightful headnotes and clear, step-by-step instructions. Home cooks will discover both iconic dishes and lesser-known specialties: Chicken and Dumplings, She-crab Soup, Red Eye Gravy, Benne Seed Wafers, Hummingbird Cake, and Mint Juleps appear alongside Shrimp Pilau, Chorizo Dirty Rice, Sumac Lemonade, and Cajun Pig's Ears Pastry. A masterful storyteller, Twitty enriches his extensive recipe collection with lyrical, deeply researched essays that celebrate the region's "multicultural gumbo" of influences from immigrants from across the globe. Vibrant food photography adds further color to the fascinating narrative. Expansive, authoritative, and beautifully designed, Recipes from the American South is a classic cookbook in the making.

#887
Red Scare

Red Scare

by Clay Risen
Amazon Bookshop

This wry, big-hearted noir brings 1950s New York to life, from the tenements of Hell’s Kitchen to the mansions of Riverdale, from Sing Sing to City Hall, with a gripping murder mystery laying bare the explosive conflicts between its big wheels, its working stiffs, its gangsters, and its dreamers. July 1950: Mick Mulligan has just hung out his shingle as a private investigator in New York’s sweaty Hell’s Kitchen. A former Hollywood cartoonist who was blacklisted during a communist witch hunt, Mick is broke, divorced, and in need of a paying gig to make his child support payments. But maybe not this gig. First off, it’s impossible. Worse, it’s liable to get him killed. Last year, universally reviled cab company owner Irwin Johnson was murdered. One of his drivers, an African American Communist Party member named Harold Williams, was arrested, tried, and found guilty, despite scant evidence. Now his execution date is two weeks away. New York City labor leader Duke Rogowski asks Mick to find fresh evidence that might buy Harold a stay of execution. Lots of people might have wanted Irwin Johnson dead—anyone from his betrayed wife to his jilted mistresses’ jealous husbands to the mafiosi he was stealing business from. But no one has any reason to help Mick exonerate Harold Williams, and some of Irwin’s former associates are happy to take a blunt object to the head of anyone asking awkward questions. Yet Mick can’t abandon a potentially innocent man to the electric chair. Can he pull off a miracle?

#902
RULES FOR RUIN

RULES FOR RUIN

by Mimi Matthews
Amazon Bookshop

A Most Anticipated Romance for Paste Magazine · The Nerd Daily · BookBub · Marie Claire No one betrays the Academy. But now Euphemia must decide: break the rules for her enemy, or let the rules break her heart. On the outskirts of London sits a seemingly innocuous institution with a secretive aim—train young women to distract, disrupt, and discredit the patriarchy. Outraged by a powerful lord’s systematic attack on women’s rights in Parliament, the Academy summons its brightest—and most bitter—pupil to infiltrate the odious man’s inner circle. A deal is struck: bring down the viscount, and Miss Euphemia Flite will finally earn her freedom. But betting shop owner Gabriel Royce has other plans. The viscount is the perfect pawn to insulate Gabriel’s underworld empire from government interference. He’s not about to let some crinoline-clad miss destroy his carefully constructed enterprise—no matter how captivating he finds her threats. From the rookeries of St. Giles to the ballrooms of Mayfair, Euphemia and Gabriel engage in a battle of wits and wills that’s complicated by a blossoming desire. Soon Euphemia realizes it’s not the broken promises to her Academy sisters she should fear. . . . It’s the danger to her heart.

#903
Run Away With Me

Run Away With Me

by Brian Selznick
Amazon Bookshop

From #1 New York Times bestselling author/illustrator Brian Selznick, a profoundly romantic YA novel about two boys finding each other and falling in love over one summer in Rome. "I'm going to call you Danny. What are you going to name me?" "Angelo." Danny is spending his sixteenth summer in Rome. As his mother spends the day at work in a mysterious museum, he wanders the ancient sites and streets. Soon after his arrival, he encounters a shadow... who becomes a voice... who becomes a boy his age. Angelo. Soon Danny and Angelo are spending as much time as they can together, piecing together stories of the city while only gradually letting their own histories be shared. Attraction leads to affection, and affection leads to both an intimate closeness and a profound fear of what happens next. Danny has never really had a home, or known the love of another boy. Angelo seems to have more experience... but he also has secrets just out of Danny's reach. Run Away With Me is a stunning creation, weaving words and illustration to tell the story of a transformative love over the course of one Roman summer.

#910
Saint of the Narrows Street

Saint of the Narrows Street

by William Boyle
Amazon Bookshop

As an Italian American family's decades-old secret begins to unravel, they will have to bear the consequences—and face each other—in this thrilling south Brooklyn-set tragic opera of the highest caliber from crime fiction luminary William Boyle. William Boyle is the master of Brooklyn-set crime fiction and Saint of the Narrows Street is his magnum opus. For fans of The Sopranos, Jonathan Lethem, and Dennis Lehane. Gravesend, Brooklyn, 1986: Risa Franzone lives in a ground-floor apartment on Saint of the Narrows Street with her bad-seed husband, Saverio, and their eight-month-old baby, Fabrizio. On the night Risa’s younger sister, Giulia, moves in to recover from a bad breakup, a fateful accident occurs: Risa, boiled over with anger and fear, strikes a drunk, erratic Sav with a cast-iron pan, killing him on the spot. The sisters are left with a choice: notify the authorities and make a case for self-defense, or bury the man’s body and go on with their lives as best they can. In a moment of panic, in the late hours of the night, they call upon Sav’s childhood friend—the sweet, loyal Christopher “Chooch” Gardini—to help them, hoping they can trust him to carry a secret like this. Over the vast expanse of the next eighteen years, life goes on in the working-class Italian neighborhood of Gravesend as Risa, Giulia, Chooch, and eventually Fabrizio grapple with what happened that night. A standout work of character-driven crime fiction from a celebrated author of the form, Saint of the Narrows Street is a searing and richly drawn novel about the choices we make and how they shape our lives.

#911
Sakina’s Kiss

Sakina’s Kiss

by Vivek Shanbhag
Amazon Bookshop

A taut story of hidden violence and self-deception from "an Indian Chekhov" (Suketu Mehta) An upper-middle class couple in Bangalore, Venkat and Viji, find their quiet life upended--and the flaws in their marriage exposed--when two strange young men come knocking at their door in the middle of the night, claiming to have business with their daughter, Rekha, a college senior who happens to be visiting relatives in the countryside. Venkat--a narrator whose account of his marriage, and of the lives of his wife and daughter, we soon learn to doubt--sends the boys away, but they come back the next day, and now they're not alone. While Venkat begins to fear for his daughter's safety, he is haunted by the memory of a betrayal and disappearance from long ago. As his guilt-ridden imagination leaps between knowing and unknowing, evasion and confrontation, Shanbhag reveals not just the tensions in a marriage or a family, but also the polarization of Indian politics and the resurgence of the Hindu right. Precise, enigmatic, and suspenseful, Sakina's Kiss fulfills the promise of Vivek Shanbhag's lauded debut, Ghachar Ghochar, which Parul Seghal called "A great Indian novel...elegant, lean, balletic" (The New York Times).

#914
Salt Bones

Salt Bones

by Jennifer Givhan
Amazon Bookshop

Three women in one twisted family race for answers in this "stunning" mystery set in the Mexicali borderlands that "breathes new life into the myth of Persephone and Demeter" (Ana Reyes, author of The House in the Pines). "Beautifully explores the dark complexities of mother-daughter relationships." —Erin E. Adams, author of Jackal “An irresistible world of secrets, grief, and horror.” —Tananarive Due, author of The Reformatory “Will absolutely mesmerize you.” —Cosmo At the edge of the Salton Sea, in the blistering borderlands, something is out hunting. . . Malamar Veracruz has never left the dust-choked town of El Valle. Here, Mal has done her best to build a good life: She’s raised two children, worked hard, and tried to forget the painful, unexplained disappearance of her sister, Elena. When another local girl goes missing, Mal plunges into a fresh yet familiar nightmare. As a desperate Mal hunts for answers, her search becomes increasingly tangled with inscrutable visions of a horse-headed woman, a local legend who Mal feels compelled to follow. Mal’s perspective is joined by the voices of her two daughters, all three of whom must work to uncover the truth about the missing girls in their community before it's too late. Combining elements of Latina and Indigenous culture, family drama, mystery, horror, and magical realism in a spellbinding mix, Salt Bones lays bare the realities of environmental catastrophe, family secrets, and the unrelenting bond between mothers and daughters. “Taut with a mother’s fierce love and the corrosive power of secrets . . . this is storytelling at its most urgent and haunting.” —Morgan Talty, author of Night of the Living Rez “A novel of visceral and celestial storytelling power, where the grieving land holds as many secrets as the characters.” —Kali Fajardo-Anstine, author of Sabrina & Corina

#915
Saltcrop

Saltcrop

by Yume Kitasei
Amazon Bookshop

From the acclaimed author of The Stardust Grail comes the epic tale of two sisters who sail across oceans to find their missing third sister—and Earth’s environmental salvation. In Earth's not too distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother. But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to find—and save—her. As they voyage through a dying world both beautiful and strange, encountering other travelers along the way, they learn more about their sister's work and the corporations that want what she discovered. But the farther they go, the more uncertain their mission becomes: What dangerous attention did Nora attract, and how well do they really know their sister—or each other? Thus begins an epic journey spanning oceans and continents and a wistful rumination on sisterhood, friendship, and ecological disaster.

#925
Scorched Earth

Scorched Earth

by Tiana Clark
Amazon Bookshop

"SCORCHED EARTH moves between ruins and radical love-fragility and tenderness in the wake of a divorce transform and expand into virtuosic stanzas, full of ache and sweetness. From ekphrastic poems on Kara Walker, to a standout series on the first Black Bachelorette, Clark's stanzas shift between reverence and irreverence, hold institutional and historical pains alongside sensuality and queer, Black joys"--

#927
Seascraper

Seascraper

by Benjamin Wood
Amazon Bookshop

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 BOOKER PRIZE “Seascraper shimmers, salt-flecked and rippling. It swells with tense, memorable moments…Poignant, authentic, and hopeful.” —The Spectator “In two words: Short. Brilliant.” —The Times (London) Twenty-year-old Thomas Flett lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, Northern England, working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the drizzly shore to scrape for shrimp, and spends the afternoon selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and sea-scum, pining for his neighbor, Joan Wyeth, and playing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but this remains a private dream. Then a mysterious American arrives in town and enlists Thomas’s help in finding a perfect location for his next movie. Though skeptical at first, Thomas learns to trust the stranger, Edgar, and, shaken from the drudgery of his days by the promise of Hollywood glamour, begins to see a different future for himself. But how much of what Edgar claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas? Haunting, timeless, and stunningly atmospheric, Seascraper tells the story of a quiet existence upturned over the span of one day, and a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows. “A small wonder...Wood delivers so much in few words...reads like the forging of a new myth.” —Financial Times “Benjamin Wood is a magnificent writer and I intend to read everything he has written.” —Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize–winning author of Shuggie Bain

#931
See How they Fall

See How they Fall

by Rachel Paris
Amazon Bookshop

In this compelling debut thriller perfect for fans of Lucy Foley and Liane Moriarty, one detective’s investigation into a family tragedy threatens to collapse a powerful dynasty. . . . When Skye married into the wealthy Turner family, she thought she was entering paradise. But now, several years later, she remains uneasy amid the opulence of her husband’s world, struggling with her own secrets and working to maintain a normal life for their young daughter, Tilly. Skye’s delicate balance is undone when the family patriarch, Sir Campbell Turner, dies suddenly and an illegitimate heir comes forward to stake his claim in the luxury goods empire the old man leaves behind. Reluctantly, the Turners receive the newcomer at an intimate weekend retreat at Yallambee, the family seaside estate, but tempers flare and egos clash within their first few hours together and the night ends in a tragedy that leaves one dead and another fighting for life. Sergeant Mei O’Connor is assigned to investigate the incident and though her superiors are keen to close the case as swiftly as possible, the evidence just isn’t lining up. Convinced that there’s more to the suspicious death than a simple accident, Mei continues to search for answers. But pulling at these threads may just tear down the Turner empire.

#937
She’s a Lamb!: A Novel

She’s a Lamb!: A Novel

by Meredith Hambrock
Amazon Bookshop

A darkly comic suspense in the vein of All’s Well and Yellowface, She’s a Lamb! is an edgy and incisive novel that marches toward showtime with a growing unease about the dangers of magical thinking and the depths of delusion Jessamyn St. Germain is meant to be a star. Not an actor who occasionally books yogurt commercials and certainly not a lowly usher at one of Vancouver’s smallest regional theaters. No, she is bound for greatness, and that’s why the part of Maria in the theater’s upcoming production of The Sound of Music is hers. Or it’s going to be. Jessamyn may have been relegated to the position of childminder for the little brats playing the von Trapp children, but it’s so obvious she’s there for a different reason — the director wants her close to the role so when Samantha, the lead, inevitably fails, Jessamyn will be there to take her place in the spotlight. This must be it. Because if it isn’t, well, then every skipped meal, every brutal rehearsal, every inch won against a man attempting to drag her down will have all been for nothing. Sharp, relentless, and darkly funny, She’s a Lamb! is a cutting satire about the grotesque pall patriarchy casts over one woman’s delusional quest to achieve her dreams and the depths she will sink to for a chance at the life she’s convinced she deserves.

#941
Silver Elite

Silver Elite

by Dani Francis
Amazon Bookshop

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In the first book of a sizzling dystopian romance series, psychic gifts are a death sentence and there are rules to survival: Trust no one. Lie to everyone. And whatever you do, don’t fall for your greatest enemy. “Dani Francis wrote the adult dystopian romance I’ve been wanting to read for the longest time. . . . I’m absolutely obsessed, and I need the next book in the series injected into my vein right now.”—Ali Hazelwood, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Bride This stunning hardcover features a jacket with foil and a black-and-white interior map! TRUST NO ONE. Wren Darlington has spent her whole life in hiding, honing her psychic abilities and aiding the rebel Uprising in small ways. On the Continent, being Modified means certain death—and Wren is one of the most powerful Mods in existence. When one careless mistake places her in the hands of the enemy and she’s forced to join their most elite training program, she’s finally handed the perfect opportunity to strike a devastating blow from inside their ranks. LIE TO EVERYONE. But training for Silver Block can be deadly, especially when you’re harboring dangerous secrets and living in close quarters with everyone who wants you dead. AND WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T FALL FOR YOUR GREATEST ENEMY. As the stakes grow ever higher, Wren must prove herself to Silver Block. But that’s easier said than done when your commanding officer is the ruthless and infuriatingly irresistible Cross Redden, who doesn’t miss anything when it comes to her. And as war rages between Mods like her and those who aim to destroy them, Wren must decide just how far she’s willing to go to protect herself . . . and how much of the Continent is worth saving.

#943
Simultaneous: A Novel

Simultaneous: A Novel

by Eric Heisserer
Amazon Bookshop

“A twisty, mind-bending thriller that will keep you guessing until the final gut punch.” —Leigh Bardugo From the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Arrival comes a phenomenal speculative thriller about a federal agent and a therapist who team up to stop an otherworldly killer. Federal agent Grant Lukather works for an unknown department of Homeland Security called Predictive Analytics. They look for patterns in tips and chatter to prevent a terrorist event before it happens. One of these calls, about a possible explosion in New Mexico, leads Grant to a case with unimaginable consequences. He meets Sarah Newcomb, a therapist who uses past-life hypnosis in her treatment but has recently stumbled upon a phenomenon that seems to defy logic. Grant follows this thread to another crime: a copycat killer case in Colorado. With the help of one of Sarah’s patients, they embark upon an investigation that spans multiple states, timelines, and consciousnesses. With limited time and only a tenuous grasp of how this phenomenon works, the unlikely trio are in a race for their lives—past, present, and future. Full of thrilling reveals, stunning plot twists, and a mordant sense of humor, Simultaneous is a mind-bending, one-of-a-kind thriller by a true genre star.

#944
Sisters in the Wind: A Good Morning America Book Club Pick

Sisters in the Wind: A Good Morning America Book Club Pick

by Angeline Boulley
Amazon Bookshop

From the instant New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper’s Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed comes a daring new mystery about a foster teen claiming her heritage on her own terms. Ever since Lucy Smith’s father died five years ago, “home” has been more of an idea than a place. She knows being on the run is better than anything waiting for her as a “ward of the state”. But when the sharp-eyed and kind Mr. Jameson with an interest in her case comes looking for her, Lucy wonders if hiding from her past will ever truly keep her safe. Five years in the foster system has taught her to be cautious and smart. But she wants to believe Mr. Jameson and his “friend-not-friend”, a tall and fierce-looking woman who say they want to look after her. They also tell Lucy the truth her father hid from her: She is Ojibwe; she has – had – a sister, and more siblings, a grandmother who’d look after her and a home where she would be loved. But Lucy is being followed. The past has destroyed any chance at safety she had. Will the secrets she's hiding swallow her whole and take away any hope for the future she always dreamed of? When the past comes for revenge, it’s fight or flight. Angeline Boulley's award-winning canon of books puts compelling characters and fast-paced action at the center of narratives rich in historical context. Read Firekeeper's Daughter; Warrior Girl Unearthed; and the soon-to-be-released Sisters of the Wind in any order; but like the world itself, there are echoes within each for the other stories. Pick this up if you love: - quiet girls with dark pasts - explosive opening scenes - wolves in sheeps’ clothing

#946
Skipshock

Skipshock

by Caroline O'Donoghue
Amazon Bookshop

Set in a universe where time is key to power and privilege, this dazzlingly inventive, genre-defying fantasy romance is the first in a duology by best-selling author Caroline O'Donoghue. Margo is a troubled schoolgirl. After the death of her father, she's on her way to a new boarding school in a new city. Moon is a salesman. He makes his living traveling through a series of interconnected worlds on a network of barely used train lines. They never should have met. But when Margo suddenly appears one day on Moon's train, their fates become inextricably linked. If Margo wants to survive, she has to pass as a traveling salesman, too--except it's not that easy. Move north on the train line and time speeds up, a day passing in mere hours. Move south and time slows down--a day can last several weeks. Slow worlds are the richest ones: you live longer, your youth lasting decades. Fast worlds are sharp, cruel, and don't have time for pleasantries. Death is frequent. Salesmen die young of skipshock. That is, if they're not shot down by the Southern Guard first. As Margo moves between worlds and her attachment to Moon intensifies, she feels her youth start to slip between her fingers. But is Moon everything he seems? Is Margo? Told through the eyes of both naive Margo and desperate Moon, the unforgettable realm of Skipshock will shake the way you think about love, time, and the fabric of the universe. The first in a planned duology from the best-selling author of the Gifts series, this utterly original epic is a must-read.

#950
Small Town Horror

Small Town Horror

by Ronald Malfi
Amazon Bookshop

Five childhood friends are forced to confront their own dark past as well as the curse placed upon them in this horror masterpiece from the bestselling author of Come with Me. Maybe this is a ghost story… Andrew Larimer has left his past behind. Rising up the ranks in a New York law firm, and with a heavily pregnant wife, he is settling into a new life far from Kingsport, the town in which he grew up. But when he receives a late-night phone call from an old friend, he has no choice but to return home. Coming home means returning to his late father’s house, which has seen better days. It means lying to his wife. But it also means reuniting with his friends: Eric, now the town’s deputy sheriff; Dale, a real-estate mogul living in the shadow of a failed career; his childhood sweetheart Tig who never could escape town; and poor Meach, whose ravings about a curse upon the group have driven him to drugs and alcohol. Together, the five friends will have to confront the memories—and the horror—of a night, years ago, that changed everything for them. Because Andrew and his friends have a secret. A thing they have kept to themselves for twenty years. Something no one else should know. But the past is not dead, and Kingsport is a town with secrets of its own. One dark secret... One small-town horror...

#957
Something in the Walls: A Novel

Something in the Walls: A Novel

by Daisy Pearce
Amazon Bookshop

Unbearably tense, utterly propulsive, and studded with folklore and horror, Something in the Walls is perfect for anyone who loves Midsommar and The Haunting of Hill House. Newly-minted child psychologist Mina has little experience. In a field where the first people called are experts, she’s been unable to get her feet wet. Instead she aimlessly spends her days stuck in the stifling heat wave sweeping across Britain, and anxiously contemplating her upcoming marriage to careful, precise researcher Oscar. The only reprieve from her small, close world is attending the local bereavement group to mourn her brother’s death from years ago. That is, until she meets journalist Sam Hunter at the grief group one day. And he has a proposition for her. Alice Webber is a thirteen year old girl who claims she’s being haunted by a witch. Living with her family in their crowded home in the remote village of Banathel, Alice’s symptoms are increasingly disturbing, and money is tight. Taking this job will give Mina some experience; Sam will get the scoop of a lifetime; and Alice will get better, Mina is sure of it. But instead of improving, Alice’s behavior becomes increasingly inexplicable and intense. The town of Banathel has a deep history of superstition and witchcraft. They believe there is evil in the world. They believe there are ways of...dealing with it. And they don’t expect outsiders to understand. As Mina races to uncover the truth behind Alice’s condition, the dark cracks of Banathel begin to show. Mina is desperate to understand how deep their sinister traditions go–and how her own past may be the biggest threat of all. "Unexpected, mesmerizing, and totally original...will keep you guessing until its wild end." -#1 International Bestselling author Darby Kane "Harrowing and moving...Pearce has written something magical. There are scenes in this book I'll never forget." -Kristi DeMeester, author of Such a Pretty Smile

#965
Source Code: My Beginnings

Source Code: My Beginnings

by Bill Gates
Amazon Bookshop

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The origin story of one of the most influential and transformative business leaders and philanthropists of the modern age “A surprisingly candid memoir of the Microsoft mogul’s early years…Reading this book feels like watching someone take a well-known black-and-white sketch, fill in the details, and paint it in vivid color.” —GeekWire Everyone is programmed a little differently, and Bill Gates' unique insight led to business triumphs that are now widely known: the twenty-year-old who dropped out of Harvard to start a software company that became an industry giant and changed the way the world works and lives; the billionaire many times over who turned his attention to philanthropic pursuits to address climate change, global health, and U.S. education. Source Code is not about Microsoft or the Gates Foundation or the future of technology. It’s the human, personal story of how Bill Gates became who he is today: his childhood, his early passions and pursuits. It’s the story of his principled grandmother and ambitious parents, his first deep friendships and the sudden death of his best friend; of his struggles to fit in and his discovery of a world of coding and computers in the dawn of a new era; of embarking in his early teens on a path that took him from midnight escapades at a nearby computer center to his college dorm room, where he sparked a revolution that would change the world. Bill Gates tells this, his own story, for the first time: wise, warm, revealing, it’s a fascinating portrait of an American life.

#967
Star Gazers

Star Gazers

by Duncan Sarkies
Amazon Bookshop

The alpacas are nervous. Accusations are flying about a rigged election, a mysterious illness is spreading, the Alpaca News is being censored by higher powers, and skullduggery is threatening the Breeders Showcase. Amidst a mass of self-interested parties, a forthright vet and a diplomatic engineer strive to protect the herds and restore democracy. By turns vital, farcical, heartbreaking and chilling, the much-anticipated alpaca novel by award-winning writer Duncan Sarkies is a wild and tender leap - or, more accurately, pronk - into the heart of alpaca breeding, and a snapshot of a world at a crossroads.

#972
Strange Beach

Strange Beach

by Oluwaseun Olayiwola
Amazon Bookshop

A debut poetry collection wrangling the various selves we hold and perform—across oceans and within relationships—told through a queer, Nigerian-American lens At times surreal, at times philosophical, the poems of Strange Beach demarcate a fiercely interior voice inside of queer Black masculinity. Oluwaseun’s speakers—usually, but not specified, as two men—move between watery landscapes, snowy terrains, and domestic conflicts. Each poem proceeds by way of music and melody, allowing themes of masculinity, sex, parental relations, death, and love to conspire within a voice that prioritizes intimate address. In announcing their acquisition of the UK edition, after a three-way auction, Strange Beach was described as “a wrangling of the various selves we hold and perform – across oceans and within relationships – through a highly patterned and textual lyrical play: it is a deeply moving and philosophical tapestry.” Strange Beach often eschews meaning, preferring, in its deluge of images and emotions, to transmute messages straight to the mind to the reader. Oluwaseun’s poetic influences are clear: Claudia Rankine, Jorie Graham, Louise Gluck, Carl Phillips, Kevin Young, Hannah Sullivan, John Ashberry, and Ocean Vuong. Strange Beach is a searching collection where land and water, body and mind, image and abstraction, are in productive tension, leading to third ways of considering intimacy, selfhood, and desire.

#976
Strong Ground: The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit

Strong Ground: The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit

by Brené Brown
Amazon Bookshop

#1 New York Times bestselling author Brené Brown returns with an urgent call to reimagine the essentials of courageous leadership. In a time when uncertainty runs deep and bluster, hubris, and even cruelty are increasingly framed as acceptable leadership, Brown delivers practical, actionable insights that illuminate the mindsets and skill sets essential to reclaiming focus and driving growth through connection, discipline, and accountability. Over the past six years, Brené Brown, along with a global community of coaches and facilitators, has taken more than 150,000 leaders in 45 countries through her Dare to Lead courage-building work. In Strong Ground, Brown shares the lessons from these experiences along with wisdom from other thinkers. This is a vital playbook for everyone from senior leaders developing and executing complex strategies to Gen Z-ers entering and navigating turbulent work environments. It is also an unflinching assessment of what happens when we continue to perpetuate the falsehood that performance and wholeheartedness are mutually exclusive. With equal amounts of optimism and caution about AI, Brown writes, “I hear a lot of experts trying to soothe people’s anxiety about the pace of technological change by offering platitudes like, What makes us human will ensure our relevance. This is dangerous simply because, right now, we’re not especially good at what makes us human. We’re not hardwired for this level of uncertainty, and many of us feel as if the constant need to self-protect is driving the humanity right out of us. This is why organizational transformation today must foster deep connection, deep thinking, and deep collaboration. We need the courage to lead people in a way that honors and protects the wisdom of the human spirit.” Brown offers a broad assessment of the skill sets and mindsets we need moving forward, including the capacity for respectful and difficult conversations, increased productive urgency and smart prioritization rather than reactivity, and strategic risk-taking, paradoxical thinking, and situational and anticipatory awareness skills. She identifies the toughest skill set as the discipline, humility, and confidence to unlearn and relearn. Brown writes, “Individuals and organizations are building new muscles. Finding our strong ground—that athletic stance—is the only thing that can provide both unwavering stability in a maelstrom of uncertainty and a platform for the fast, explosive change that the world is demanding.”

#980
Sweetener

Sweetener

by Marissa Higgins
Amazon Bookshop

From the author of A Good Happy Girl, a lesbian screwball comedy following two exes who turn to online dating after their dramatic split—only to end up seeing the same woman In Sweetener, recently separated wives, both named Rebecca, can’t seem to disentangle their lives. Lonely and depressed, Rebecca is scraping by as a part-time cashier at an organic grocery store. Despite having less than ten dollars in her bank account, she lists herself as a sugar mama on a lesbian hookup app. Enter Charlotte, a charismatic artist who, unbeknownst to Rebecca, is also dating her wife. Meanwhile, the other Rebecca, a newly sober doctoral student, has renewed her efforts to foster a child. The catch? Because the Rebeccas are still legally married, she needs her wife to attend parenting classes with her as part of the approval process. Neither of them asks whether this means they’re getting back together, but the idea alone sends Charlotte into a tailspin. As Charlotte navigates her desire for each Rebecca—or her desire for attention—her world becomes more and more Gumby-like and surreal. It doesn’t help that she’s been wearing a fake pregnancy belly to all of her dates, and only one of the Rebeccas knows it isn’t real. Sumptuous, sticky, and slightly absurd, Sweetener brings together three women fixated on the fantasy of motherhood, and trying to figure out what kind of mother, partner, or sugar mama they want to be.

#982
Swordheart

Swordheart

by T. Kingfisher
Amazon Bookshop

The delightful charm of The Princess Bride meets the delicious bodyguard romance of From Blood and Ash in this cozy fantasy romance from New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher *This beautiful hardcover edition features turquoise sprayed edges, a foil stamp on the casing, and custom endpapers.* Halla has unexpectedly inherited the estate of a wealthy distant uncle. Unfortunately, she is also saddled with money-hungry relatives full of devious plans for how to wrest the inheritance away from her. While hiding in her bedroom to escape her family, Halla inspects the ancient sword that's been collecting dust on the wall since before she moved in. On a whim, she unsheaths it—and suddenly a man appears in her bedroom. His name is Sarkis, he tells her, and he is an immortal warrior trapped in a prison of enchanted steel. Sarkis is sworn to protect whoever wields the sword, and for Halla—a most unusual wielder—he finds himself fending off not grand armies and deadly assassins but instead everything from kindly-seeming bandits to roving inquisitors to her own in-laws. But as Halla and Sarkis grow closer, they overlook the biggest threat of all—the sword itself.

#983
Sympathy for Wild Girls: Stories

Sympathy for Wild Girls: Stories

by Demree McGhee
Amazon Bookshop

A debut collection of surreal, skin-piercing stories about the boundless longing of queer Black women In Sympathy for Wild Girls, young Black women yearn for intimacy and search for it on turbulent ground. Navigating a subtly warped version of our world, where social mores loom like shadows and bigotry shape-shifts, Demree McGhee’s characters track the prints of their desire and pain to the edges of reality, finding refuge in unlikely places. Can they survive the chasms lurking in our common notions of “girlhood”—considering their heightened peril as queer women of color? A runaway seeks shelter from violence with a pack of wild coyotes. A young woman falls into a hypocritical crew of white Christian YouTube influencers. A mother witnesses her daughter’s prophecy about the end of the world come true. A group of shoplifters lose themselves in their quest for cheap lipstick and cheaper fame. Fighting self-loathing and societal abuse, McGhee’s characters chase abandon on their own terms—embracing their feral strength and ugliest truths, howling at the moon to be known.

#986
Talking to My Father’s Ghost: An Almost True Story

Talking to My Father’s Ghost: An Almost True Story

by Alex Krokus
Amazon Bookshop

"Shortly after his funeral, my dad started haunting me . . . and it's been a delight!" --Alex Inspired by real-life experience, Alex Krokus's graphic novel is a heartfelt and humorous story of losing a parent and getting to know him better after his passing. Set over the course of a single year, this book follows Alex and his father's ghost as they stroll along winter beaches, camp in rattlesnake-infested deserts, and share countless diner meals together. Between fielding fatherly lectures on the importance of doing his taxes, how to properly shovel the driveway, and why he should always tip twenty percent, Alex tries to figure out what he needs to say to his dad. Is this a good time for him to come out as bisexual? Or maybe he should ask his dad why he loved drinking so much when it nearly destroyed his health? With help from his mom, his brother, a whole cast of extended family members, and, of course, the ghost himself, Alex tries to figure out how to say goodbye. In the tradition of Roz Chast's Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant? and Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, this graphic novel uses humor to examine family foibles and eccentricities as well as the experience of losing a parent. Relatable and heartfelt, it speaks to the universal experience of grief and how it ripples through a community. HEALING THROUGH HUMOR: Told in a series of vignettes with illustrated panels, this graphic narrative evokes the nostalgia of Sunday comic strips. Alex casts his family and friends as anthropomorphic animal characters, lending a playful irreverence to their most serious conversations. His insightful and honest exploration of grief and memory is punctuated with moments of levity and warmth, making this a cathartic, funny, and uplifting read. EXCITING COMICS CREATOR: This is the first long-form graphic novel from cartoonist Alex Krokus. His webcomic, Loud & Smart, follows the mundane misadventures of raccoon Alex and his millennial friends as they navigate their arguably "adult" lives in the big city. In Talking to My Father's Ghost, Krokus brings his trademark humor to new narrative terrain, guiding readers through big, scary feelings with expert comedic timing and refreshing honesty. Perfect for: Fans of Roz Chast, Sarah Anderson, Tyler Feder, and Michelle Zauner Anyone looking for a funny, insightful book about grief, memory, and family relationships Readers of Alex Krokus's comic strip series, Loud & Smart People who enjoy unconventional ghost stories

#987
Tart: Misadventures of an Anonymous Chef

Tart: Misadventures of an Anonymous Chef

by Slutty Cheff
Amazon Bookshop

A hilarious, hot, and steamy account of coming of age in and out of the kitchen, from the anonymous chef and columnist, Slutty Cheff. “It’s the two best things in the world: food and sex.” When Slutty Cheff finds herself bored and fed-up with her 9–5 job in corporate marketing, she turns to the only thing that she really likes to do: cooking. So she quits her job, swaps emails for emulsions, and sets off to pursue her dreams of becoming a chef. The world of London’s fine dining restaurants is so much more than she imagined: it’s more challenging, and more exciting too. There are the exhausting lows of sixty-hour work weeks in windowless kitchens, and the shock of stepping into the changing room as the only woman. There are the thrilling highs of a busy night, when service is running smoothly; electrifying run-ins with hot bartenders and even hotter chefs; and, always, the exhilaration of cycling hands-free through a city that is still sleeping, on a morning where anything can happen. This is a story about searching for your purpose, and experiencing and embracing life to the fullest along the way. The pleasure and the chaos too… An exquisite mix of raw Anthony Bourdain-style honesty with the sharp wit of Lena Dunham’s Girls, Tart is THE book for those who like to eat and f**k.

#988
Tartufo

Tartufo

by Kira Jane Buxton
Amazon Bookshop

"After nearly losing the election to a geriatric but wildly popular donkey named Maurizio, newly installed Mayor Delizia Miccuci can't help but feel like the sun has finally set on the rural Italian village of Lazzarina Boscarino. Tourists only stop by to ask for directions, Nonna Amara's cherished ristorante is long shuttered, and the town hall is disgustingly overrun with glis glis poo-even Postman Duccio has been disgraced. All that's left is Bar Celebrità, a rustic establishment where weary locals gather to quibble over decades-long disputes, submit their poor stomachs to bartender Giuseppina's volcanic espresso, and wonder what will become of the place where together they've spent their entire lives. Little do the villagers know that, mere miles away in the forest, local truffle hunter Giovanni Scarpazza has just happened upon something that could change everything. Swollen to massive proportions, soaking the atmosphere in its pungent fumes, potentially worth six figures in certain international circles, a truffle-un tartufo, that is-sits beneath the soil with the power to either be the greatest gift or the foulest curse the village has ever seen-they're not completely sure which since Giuseppina's psychic was a bit unclear on the matter. Tartufo is much more than a charming romp through the foothills of Tuscany. Written in the same enchanting style and raucous humor that defines Hollow Kingdom and Feral Creatures, Buxton's newest story is a reflection on the interconnectedness of life in all its manifestations-and how holding on to harmony in the face of hardship can grow something beautiful and rare beneath the surface"--

#993
Thank You, John

Thank You, John

by Michelle Gurule
Amazon Bookshop

Sex sells, but what can it buy? Thank You, John is Best American Essays Notable Michelle Gurule's debut memoir: a heartfelt, laugh-out-loud tragi-comedy of errors based on her time spent as an inexperienced sugarbaby in 2010s Denver. Michelle, a queer, wanna-be writer exasperated by student loans, bad teeth, and the poor decisions of her loveable sitcom-worthy family, believes a sugar daddy is written in her density as firmly as she believes her idol, Alanis Morissette, holds the musical blueprint to the life she desires most. With a salt-of-the-earth Chicano father who's convinced aliens will eventually rule the world, a white mother who maxes out her credit cards on fast food, and a sugar-hyped 7-year-old nephew, Michelle diagnoses herself as self-parentified with a core mistrust in the world's unreliability. Left to her own devices and barely making ends meet, she turns to the world of stripping until her chance for financial freedom arrives in the form of John, a lonely older man who offers her a weekly pile of cash for lively conversation and sex. She will keep her family, and only her family, availed of all the gritty details. Grateful and convinced by the immediate improvement money makes in her life, sugaring takes the role of any other exploitative job in America- the physical wear and tear, competition between colleagues, the crossed personal boundaries, dangerous power imbalances, and the reliance on hierarchy to keep only the rich and powerful rich and powerful -- it's just a lot more intimate. A worthy sacrifice, right? Looking back at her time as a 24-year-old stripper and sugarbaby, struggling to pull herself-and her entire family-out of poverty, Gurule grins and bears it all in a tragi-comedy of errors: heartbreak, complete social isolation and self-denial, glares at The Cheesecake Factory, cringey sex, and scheme after scheme for a better life with everything money can buy. "Your teeth will ache as you read this book, both with pain and with pleasure." --Celia Laskey, author of Under the Rainbow and So Happy for You

#1000
The Anthropologists

The Anthropologists

by Aysegül Savas
Amazon Bookshop

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD LONGLIST * NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER, TIME, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, AND ELECTRIC LITERATURE * A DAKOTA JOHNSON x TEATIME BOOK CLUB PICK * VULTURE #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR * A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE SELECTION "The Anthropologists is mesmerizing; I felt I read it in a single breath." -Garth Greenwell "Savas is an author who simply, and astoundingly, knows." -Bryan Washington Asya and Manu are looking at apartments, envisioning their future in a foreign city. What should their life here look like? What rituals will structure their days? Whom can they consider family? As the young couple dreams about the possibilities of each new listing, Asya, a documentarian, gathers footage from the neighborhood like an anthropologist observing local customs. “Forget about daily life,” chides her grandmother on the phone. “We named you for a whole continent and you're filming a park.” Back in their home countries parents age, grandparents get sick, nieces and nephews grow up-all just slightly out of reach. But Asya and Manu's new world is growing, too, they hope. As they open the horizons of their lives, what and whom will they hold onto, and what will they need to release? Unfolding over a series of apartment viewings, late-night conversations, last rounds of drinks and lazy breakfasts, The Anthropologists is a soulful examination of homebuilding and modern love, written with Aysegül Savas' distinctive elegance, warmth, and humor.

#1003
The Art of a Lie

The Art of a Lie

by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
Amazon Bookshop

"Following the murder of her husband in what looks like a violent street robbery, Hannah Cole is struggling to keep her head above water. A friend of her late husband, Devereux, helps Hannah unravel some of the mysteries surrounding his death. But their friendship opens Hannah to speculation and gossip and draws attention her way, locking her into a battle of wits more devastating than anything she can imagine"--

#1006
The Artist and the Feast

The Artist and the Feast

by Lucy Steeds
Amazon Bookshop

Longlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction, The Artist and the Feast is a captivating novel of love, art, food, desire and thwarted ambition, which builds propulsively over one scorching French summer in 1920s Provence. During a scorching summer in 1920s Provence, a young journalist, Joseph Adelaide, turns up at the farmhouse of reclusive artist Edouard Tartuffe, hoping to write an article about him. There, he meets Ettie, Tartuffe’s niece, who appears to do everything for her uncle—from cooking and cleaning to catering to his maniacal moods. Joseph is beguiled by where he finds himself, not just by this foreign place or Tartuffe himself, but by Ettie, who watches everything so quietly from the periphery. Both Joseph and Ettie carry scars from their pasts and it’s as they get to know each other that they start to lay bare those scars to themselves and to each other. As the summer wears on, and as new ideas and passions are explored, Joseph, Ettie, and Tartuffe are propelled toward a finale that reveals long-held secrets and sets the world on fire. Fans of Sarah Winman’s Still Life and Paula McClain’s The Paris Wife will be enchanted by this compelling novel.

#1008
The Bakery Dragon and the Fairy Cake

The Bakery Dragon and the Fairy Cake

by Devin Elle Kurtz
Amazon Bookshop

Running a bakery is no cakewalk for a tiny dragon with a big sweet tooth! Tummy rumbles turn to belly laughs in this feel-good picture book from the bestselling author and illustrator of The Bakery Dragon. Batter up! Ember is in charge while the baker takes a trip and he's excited to show what he can do! When an opinionated fairy princess swoops in demanding a cake, he eagerly agrees. So what if he's only baked bread before? How hard can it be? The sugar hits the fan when Ember's first attempt is a complete disaster. He tries again and again, but the royal customer is not happy. Everyone told Ember he was such a good baker, so why can't he get this right? If he doesn't figure it out soon, the only thing on the menu will be humble pie. Magic shimmers on every page of this whimsical story about how to bake a cake, make new friends and learn from your mistakes.

#1011
The Benefactors

The Benefactors

by Wendy Erskine
Amazon Bookshop

AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVEL 2025 'I couldn't put this book down' Sheena Patel, author of I'm a Fan 'A powerful, moving, compelling, utterly enthralling debut' Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13 'Perfectly pitched, surefooted, and charged with feeling' Colin Barrett, author of Wild Houses From the prize-winning author of Dance Move and Sweet Home, this is an astounding novel about intimate histories, class and money - and what being a parent means. Meet Frankie, Miriam and Bronagh: three very different women from Belfast, but all mothers to 18-year-old boys. Gorgeous Frankie, now married to a wealthy, older man, grew up in care. Miriam has recently lost her beloved husband Kahlil in ambiguous circumstances. Bronagh, the CEO of a children's services charity, loves celebrity and prestige. When their sons are accused of sexually assaulting a friend, Misty Johnston, they'll come together to protect their children, leveraging all the powers they possess. But on her side, Misty has the formidable matriarch, Nan D, and her father, taxi-driver Boogie: an alliance not so easily dismissed. Brutal, tender and rigorously intelligent, The Benefactors is a daring, polyphonic presentation of modern-day Northern Ireland. It is also very funny.

#1016
The Book Club for Troublesome Women

The Book Club for Troublesome Women

by Marie Bostwick
Amazon Bookshop

Four dissatisfied sixties-era housewives form a book club turned sisterhood that will hold fast amid the turmoil of a rapidly changing world and alter the course of each of their lives. By early 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan, Viv Buschetti, and Bitsy Cobb, suburban housewives in a brand-new "planned community" in Northern Virginia, appear to have it all. The fact that "all" doesn't feel like enough leaves them feeling confused and guilty, certain the fault must lie with them. Things begin to change when they form a book club with Charlotte Gustafson--the eccentric and artsy "new neighbor" from Manhattan--and read Betty Friedan's just-released book, The Feminine Mystique. Controversial and groundbreaking, the book struck a chord with an entire generation of women, helping them realize that they weren't alone in their dissatisfactions, or their longings, lifting their eyes to new horizons of possibility and achievement. Margaret, Charlotte, Bitsy, and Viv are among them. But is it really the book that alters the lives of these four very different women? Or is it the bond of sisterhood that helps them find courage to confront the past, navigate turmoil in a rapidly changing world, and see themselves in a new and limitless light?

#1018
The Book of Jonah

The Book of Jonah

by Luke Kennard
Amazon Bookshop

A brilliant and absurdist new poetry collection from the winner of the Forward Prize winner. None of the Old Testament prophets was especially happy or confident in their calling, but Jonah was the only one to attempt to reject it outright, disobey direct instruction and literally run away. A late addition to the canon, taken by some to be a parody or satire of the major prophets, The Book of Jonah occupies a unique and awkward space in scripture, part dream, part joke, part provocation. Luke Kennard's Jonah is more of a business traveler than seer, determined to remain very much of the world, a mercenary for hire by non-governmental organizations, arts development agencies, conflicting institutional agendas. Convinced that he possesses nothing that might change the world for the better in even the most incremental ways, Jonah believes he is saving the world from himself. In The Book of Jonah we are given the spectacle of a reluctant prophet undergoing increasingly absurd course corrections to arrive, finally, at the triumphant scene of his prophecy. Here Jonah deals not so much a lack of meaning as an excess, plagued with doubts as to his place in divine or infernal revelation, bereft of any motivation other than escape, but nonetheless displeased by what he finds on his way--to the point that he might be fulfilling his obligations as a prophet after all. Decimated arts, cynicism, ignorance and apathy. What if, in doing everything he can to avoid his vocation, he's actually doing everything as intended?

#1021
The Boys in the Light

The Boys in the Light

by Nina Willner
Amazon Bookshop

An Amazon Best Biography & Memoir and Best History Book of the Month! An epic story of the triumph of good over evil. The soldiers of D Company could not believe their eyes as they came face-to-face with the human cost of Hitler’s evil: two teenage boys—survivors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald—who had escaped. The Boys in the Light follows the parallel journeys of Company D and Eddie Willner, the author’s father, as they are caught up on two sides of World War II. At sixteen, Eddie Willner was among the millions of European Jews rounded up by Hitler’s Nazis. He was forced into slave labor alongside his father and his best friend, Mike, and spent the next three years of his life surviving the death camps, including Auschwitz. Meanwhile, in the United States, boys only a few years older than Eddie were joining the army and heading toward their own precarious futures. Once farmers, factory workers, and coal miners, they were suddenly untested soldiers, thrust into the brutal conflicts of WWII. A company of 3rd Armored Division tankers, led by 23-year-old Elmer Hovland, quickly became battle-hardened and weary, constantly questioning whether the war was worth it. They got their answer when two emaciated boys stepped out of the woods with their tattooed arms raised. The Boys in the Light is a testament to survival against all odds, the strength of the bonds forged during war and the resilience of the human spirit. This extraordinary true story is a must-read for fans of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, and Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile.

#1023
The Bright Years

The Bright Years

by Sarah Damoff
Amazon Bookshop

This multigenerational novel follows the Bright family across four generations as they navigate secrets, addiction, and unexpected reunions. Newlyweds Ryan and Lillian Bright are raising their daughter, Georgette, while each harbors a hidden truth -- Lillian has a son from a previous relationship, and Ryan struggles with alcoholism. As Georgette grows up amidst the tensions in their marriage, a life-altering event separates the family. Years later, Lillian's son seeks out his birth family, prompting Georgette to confront her family's past and consider reconciliation. The Bright Years is told from multiple perspectives and explores themes of family legacy, personal identity, and emotional healing.

#1027
The Burial Tide

The Burial Tide

by Neil Sharpson
Amazon Bookshop

Drawing on the creatures and horrors of Irish folklore, The Burial Tide unearths our darkest truths: how far we’d go to win our freedom, and how quickly our desires can become monstrous. A woman who can’t remember her death. On an eerily quiet island off the coast of Ireland, a woman with no memory claws her way out of her grave and back to life. But not everyone welcomes the return of Mara Fitch. An island with a terrible secret. Inishbannock. Where strange misshapen figures watch from the trees and the roads are covered in teeth. Where two brothers gamble for nothing, the doctor only treats one patient, and the pub owner speaks in riddles. Where a poet loses and finds his soul. And a man without a heart claims he's the key to unlocking Mara's secrets. A past that refuses to stay buried. As Mara returns to her life on this upside-down island, her memories begin to leech their way back to the surface. The more she remembers, the more the village will do anything to stop her . . . But the sea remembers it all.

#1036
The Confessional

The Confessional

by Paige Hender
Amazon Bookshop

In this compelling debut horror graphic novel, a newly turned vampire yearns for salvation in the arms of the priest who uncovers her secret. New Orleans, 1922. Cora Velasquez lives with her sister and her own haunted memories in a speakeasy run by a vampire coven. Unable to bear the weight of her damned soul, she turns to Father Orville Thibodeaux, a charismatic priest and the object of her hidden desires. Their veiled courtship becomes deadly serious when he discovers her nature, and proposes a way to both slake her thirst and save her soul. So begins the charged dance between an all-powerful but unsure young woman, and the mortal man who claims to hold her fate in his hand. A gothic story of adoration, power, and manipulation, lushly told in Art Nouveau-inspired illustration.

#1037
The Conjuring of America

The Conjuring of America

by Lindsey Stewart
Amazon Bookshop

One of BookRiot's Best New Nonfiction Out in July, a crucial telling of U.S. history centering the Black women whose magic gave rise to the rich tapestry of American culture we see today—from Vicks VapoRub and Aunt Jemima’s pancake mix, to the magic of Disney’s The Little Mermaid (2023), and the all-American blue jean. Emerging first on plantations in the American South, enslaved conjure women used their magic to treat illnesses. These women combined their ancestral spiritual beliefs from West Africa with local herbal rituals and therapeutic remedies to create conjure, forging a secret well of health and power hidden to their oppressors and many of the modern-day staples we still enjoy. In The Conjuring of America, Black feminist philosopher Lindsey Stewart exposes this vital contour of American history. In the face of slavery, Negro Mammies fashioned a legacy of magic that begat herbal experts, fearsome water bearers, and powerful mojos—roles and traditions that for centuries have been passed down to respond to Black struggles in real time. And when Jim Crow was born, Granny Midwives and textile weavers leveled their techniques to protect our civil and reproductive rights, while Candy Ladies fed a generation of freedom crusaders. Sourcing firsthand accounts the of enslaved, dispatches from the lore of Oshun, and the wisdom of beloved Black women writers, Stewart proves indisputably that conjure informs our lives in ways remarkable and ordinary. Above all, The Conjuring of America is a love letter to the magic Black women used to sow messages of rebellion, freedom, and hope.

#1041
The Country Under Heaven

The Country Under Heaven

by Frederic S. Durbin
Amazon Bookshop

Louis L’Amour meets H.P. Lovecraft in this thrilling western epic about a former Civil War soldier wracked by enigmatic visions . . . Set in the 1880s, the story follows Ovid Vesper, a former Union soldier who has been having enigmatic visions after surviving one of the Civil War’s most gruesome battles, the Battle of Antietam. As he travels across the country following those visions, he finds himself in stranger and increasingly more dangerous encounters with other worlds hidden in the spaces of his own mind, not to mention the dangers of the Wild West. Ovid brings his steady calm and compassion as he helps the people of a broken country, rapidly changing but, like himself, still reeling and wounded from the war. He assists with matters of all sorts, from odd jobs around the house, to guiding children back to their own universe, to hunting down unnatural creatures that stalk the night — all the while seeking his own personal resolution and peace from his visions. Ovid’s epic journey across the American West with a surprising cast of characters blends elements of the classic Western with historical fantasy in a way like no other.

#1043
The Cree Word for Love: Sâkihitowin

The Cree Word for Love: Sâkihitowin

by Tracey Lindberg
Amazon Bookshop

Bestselling author of Birdie, Tracey Lindberg, and renowned artist George Littlechild join together in a stunning collaboration of story and art to explore love in all its forms--romantic, familial, community and kin--in the Cree experience In The Cree Word for Love, author Tracey Lindberg and artist George Littlechild consider a teaching from an Elder that in their culture, the notion of love as constructed in Western society does not exist. Here, through original fiction and select iconic paintings, Lindberg and Littlechild respond. Together they have created and curated this collaboration which travels, season by season, mirroring the four rounds in ceremony, through the themes of the love within a family, ties of kinship, desire for romantic love and connection, strength in the face of loss and violence, and importance of self-love, as well as, crucially, a deeper exploration of the meaning of "all my relations." Together, art and story inspire and move readers to recall our responsibilities to our human and more than human relations, to think about the obligation that is love, and to imagine what it could possibly mean to have no Cree word for love. The result is a powerful story about where we find connection, strength, and the many forms of what it means to live lovingly.

#1052
The Defender

The Defender

by Ana Huang
Amazon Bookshop

Book two in the Gods of the Game series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Ana Huang. He has to play by the rules...but for her, he'd break them all. As the captain of Blackcastle Football Club and one of the highest-paid athletes in the game, Vincent DuBois should be on top of the world. But when his fame brings danger to his doorstep, he finds himself in a nightmare scenario--sharing a flat with his coach's daughter, knowing full well she's far too big a temptation for him to resist. When his new living arrangements escalate into a bet that throws them even closer together, he realizes he's in deeper trouble than he thought. He's always played to win--but for her, he might just risk it all. *** As a sports nutritionist and the daughter of a legendary coach, Brooklyn Armstrong is used to dealing with hotshot athletes. However, no player gets under her skin like Vincent, her best friend's infuriatingly cocky (and gorgeous) brother. She left California hoping for a fresh start, and he's the kind of distraction she doesn't need. Now, he's sleeping in the room next to hers while her career is up in the air and her defenses are crumbling. But no matter how many sparks fly between them, a relationship between the captain and the coach's daughter could never work...could it?

#1056
The Door on the Sea

The Door on the Sea

by Caskey Russell
Amazon Bookshop

An epic quest fantasy debut that is the Tlingit indigenous response to The Lord of the Rings When Elān trapped a salmon-stealing raven in his cupboard, he never expected it would hold the key to saving his people from the shapeshifting Koosh invaders plaguing their shores. In exchange for its freedom, the raven offers a secret that can save Elān’s home: the Koosh have lost one of their most powerful weapons, and only the raven knows where it is. Elān is tasked with captaining a canoe crewed by an unlikely team including a human bear-cousin, a massive wolf, and the endlessly vulgar raven. To retrieve the weapon, they will face stormy seas, cannibal giants and a changing world. But Elān is a storyteller, not a warrior. As their world continues to fall to the Koosh, and alliances are challenged and broken, Elān must choose his role in his own epic story.

#1059
The Echoes

The Echoes

by Evie Wyld
Amazon Bookshop

From the award-winning novelist, a ravishing new novel set between London and rural Australia, both a love story and a ghost story Max didn’t believe in an afterlife. Until he died. Now, as a reluctant ghost trying to work out why he is still here, he watches his girlfriend, Hannah, lost in grief in the apartment they shared and begins to realize how much of her life was invisible to him. In the weeks and months before Max’s death, Hannah was haunted by the secrets she left Australia to escape. A relationship with Max seemed to offer the potential of a fresh new chapter, but the past refused to stay hidden. It found expression in the untold stories of the people she grew up with, and the events that broke her family apart and led her to Max. Both a celebration and an autopsy of a relationship, and spanning multiple generations, The Echoes is a novel about love and grief, motherhood and sisterhood, secrets and who has the right to reveal them—what of our past can be cast away and what is fixed forever, echoing down through the years.

#1060
The Enchanted Greenhouse (The Spellshop)

The Enchanted Greenhouse (The Spellshop)

by Sarah Beth Durst
Amazon Bookshop

EXCLUSIVE DELUXE EDITION—a gorgeous hardcover edition featuring beautiful blue sprayed edges! New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst invites you to her new standalone novel nestled on a far-away island brimming with singing flowers, honey cakes, and honeyed love. The hardcover edition features beautiful sprayed edges. Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium. This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes—at least until she’s ready to sail home. But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to—the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing—causing the death of everything within them—Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again. This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island—and have a fresh chance at happiness and love. Funny, kind, and forgiving, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a story about giving second chances—to others and to yourself.

#1061
The End Is the Beginning: A Personal History of My Mother

The End Is the Beginning: A Personal History of My Mother

by Jill Bialosky
Amazon Bookshop

Jill Bialosky, the poet behind the “tender, absorbing, and deeply moving memoir” (Entertainment Weekly) History of a Suicide, returns with a lyrical portrait of her mother’s life, told in reverse order from burial to birth. When Iris Yvonne Bialosky died in an assisted care facility on March 29, 2020, it unleashed a torrent of emotions in her daughter, Jill Bialosky. Grief, of course, but also guilt, confusion, and doubt, all of which were compounded by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic which made it impossible for Jill to be with her mother as she was dying and to attend her mother’s funeral. Now, with a poet’s eye for detail and a novelist’s flair for storytelling, Jill presents a profoundly moving elegy unlike any other. Starting with her mother’s end and the physical/cognitive decline that led her to a care home, The End Is the Beginning explores Iris’s battle with depression, the tragedy of a daughter’s suicide, a failed second marriage, the death of her beloved first husband only five years into their young marriage, her joyful teenage years, and the trauma of losing her own mother at just eight years old. Compounding her challenges of raising four daughters without a livelihood or partner, Iris’s life coincided with an age of unstoppable social change and reinvention, when the roles of wife and mother she was raised to inhabit ceased to be the guarantors of stability and happiness. As we see Iris become younger and younger, we learn how we are all the sum of our experiences. Iris becomes a multi-dimensional, fascinating woman. We come to understand her difficulties and shortcomings, her neediness and her generosity, her pride and her despair. The End Is the Beginning is not just a family memoir, it is a brave and compassionate celebration of a woman’s life and death and a window into a daughter’s inextricable bond to her mother.

#1062
The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand

The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand

by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene
Amazon Bookshop

An original short story anthology based on master storyteller Stephen King’s #1 New York Times bestselling classic The Stand! Since its initial publication in 1978, The Stand has been considered Stephen King’s seminal masterpiece of apocalyptic fiction, with millions of copies sold and adapted twice for television. Although there are other extraordinary works exploring the unraveling of human society, none have been as influential as this iconic novel—generations of writers have been impacted by its dark yet ultimately hopeful vision of the end and new beginning of civilization, and its stunning array of characters. Now for the first time, Stephen King has fully authorized a return to the harrowing world of The Stand through this original short story anthology as presented by award-winning authors and editors Christopher Golden and Brian Keene. Bringing together some of today’s greatest and most visionary writers, The End of the World As We Know It features unforgettable, all-new stories set during and after (and some perhaps long after) the events of The Stand—brilliant, terrifying, and painfully human tales that will resonate with readers everywhere as an essential companion to the classic, bestselling novel. Featuring an introduction by Stephen King, a foreword by Christopher Golden, and an afterword by Brian Keene. Contributors include Wayne Brady and Maurice Broaddus, Poppy Z. Brite, Somer Canon, C. Robert Cargill, Nat Cassidy, V. Castro, Richard Chizmar, S. A. Cosby, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, Meg Gardiner, Gabino Iglesias, Jonathan Janz, Alma Katsu, Caroline Kepnes, Michael Koryta, Sarah Langan, Joe R. Lansdale, Tim Lebbon, Josh Malerman, Ronald Malfi, Usman T. Malik, Premee Mohamed, Cynthia Pelayo, Hailey Piper, David J. Schow, Alex Segura, Bryan Smith, Paul Tremblay, Catherynne M. Valente, Bev Vincent, Catriona Ward, Chuck Wendig, Wrath James White, and Rio Youers.

#1063
The Entanglement of Rival Wizards

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards

by Sara Raasch
Amazon Bookshop

Ali Hazelwood meets Dungeons & Dragons in this enemies-to-lovers fantasy academia romcom where rival grad student wizards are forced to work together without killing—or falling for—each other. Will they conjure love, or evoke chaos? Two rival wizards are about to find out. Sebastian Walsh: Evocation Department. Human. The first of his family to pick college over the military. Elethior Tourael: Conjuration Department. Half-elf. Pretentious asshole. The latest legacy Tourael at Lesiara U. Both: Mageus Research Grant finalists. Sebastian refuses to let anyone snatch this away, least of all a snob riding on old money. But what’s worse than a nemesis stealing your grant? You could both get it. Under the condition you work together. Sebastian is in hell. Thio’s broody. Takes up their shared lab space with his projects . . . and biceps. Brings treats for Sebastian’s familiar . . . . . . and is nothing like Sebastian thought. When Sebastian’s past with the Touraels forces him to choose his research or Thio, the decision should be simple. But while working with his rival is volatile . . . falling for his rival might blow up Sebastian’s future. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

#1077
The Four Spent The Day Together

The Four Spent The Day Together

by Chris Kraus
Amazon Bookshop

“The intelligence and honesty and total originality of Chris Kraus make her work not just great but indispensable…I read everything Chris Kraus writes; she softens despair with her brightness, and with incredible humor, too.” —Rachel Kushner, author of Creation Lake An unforgettable new novel from the “powerfully original” (Dwight Garner, The New York Times) author of the cult classic I Love Dick—a stark, witty journey into a fractured, violent America, culminating in the investigation of a teenage murder on Minnesota’s Iron Range. On the Iron Range of northern Minnesota, at the end of the last decade, three teenagers shot and killed an older acquaintance after spending the day with him. In a cold, depressed town, on the fringes of the so-called “meth community,” the three young people were quickly arrested and imprisoned. At the time of the murder, Catt Greene and her husband, Paul Garcia, are living nearby in a house they’d bought years earlier as a summer escape from Los Angeles. Locked into a period of personal turmoil, moving between LA and Minnesota—between the art world and the urban poverty of Paul’s addiction therapist jobs, the rural poverty of the icy, depressed Iron Range—Catt turns away from her own life and towards the murder case, which soon becomes an obsession. In her attempt to pierce through the brutality and despair surrounding the murder and to understand the teenagers’ lives, Catt is led back to the idiosyncratic, aspirational lives of her parents in the working-class Bronx and small-town, blue-collar Milford, Connecticut. Written in three linked parts, The Four Spent the Day Together explores the tensions of unclaimed futures and unchosen circumstances in the age of social media, paralyzing interconnectedness, and the ever-widening gulf between the rich and poor.

#1083
The Ghosts of Rome

The Ghosts of Rome

by Joseph O'Connor
Amazon Bookshop

As thrilling, beautiful and sensational a novel as you'll read this year or any year' Sunday Times February 1944. Six months since Nazi forces occupied Rome. Inside the war-torn city, the Contessa Giovanna Landini works for the band of Escape Line activists known as 'the Choir'. Her mission is to smuggle Allied soldiers to safety, all under the nose of Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann. During a ferocious morning air raid a mysterious parachutist lands in Rome and disappears into the backstreets. Is he an ally or an imposter? His fate will come to put the whole Escape Line at risk. Meanwhile, Hauptmann's attention has landed on the Contessa. As his fascination grows, she is pulled into a dangerous game with him - one where the consequences could be lethal. 'Thrilling, terrifying and entertaining' Liz Nugent 'Vivid and moving' Guardian 'A stellar piece of storytelling' Daily Mail 'Not just a wartime thriller, but a meditation on how we remember, how we resist and how, even in the darkest times, humanity endures' New York Times

#1084
The Ghostwriter

The Ghostwriter

by Julie Clark
Amazon Bookshop

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! "Deftly and engagingly delves into this complicated not-so-cold case." —The New York Times "Expertly plotted and exquisitely twisted." —Ashley Elston, #1 New York Times bestselling author of First Lie Wins From the instant New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell comes a dazzling new thriller. June, 1975. The Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their own home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who killed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets. Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she's offered a job to ghostwrite her father's last book. What she doesn't know, though, is that this project is another one of his lies. Because it's not another horror novel he wants her to write. After fifty years of silence, Vincent Taylor is finally ready to talk about what really happened that night in 1975.

#1085
The Girls Who Grew Big

The Girls Who Grew Big

by Leila Mottley
Amazon Bookshop

From the author of Oprah's Book Club pick and New York Times best seller Nightcrawling, here is an astonishing new novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a small town on the Florida panhandle. Adela is sixteen years old. When she tells her parents she's pregnant, they send her from their home in Indiana to her grandmother’s in Padua Beach, Florida, "a town built on y’all bein good now? and babies havin babies, said in the rasp of a loud whisper in the back of a church." There, Adela meets Emory, who has a baby of her own she brings to high school, strapped to her chest; and Simone, ringleader of “the Girls,” a group of teenage mothers who hang out with their growing brood in the back of her red truck—dancing defiantly, breastfeeding, watching the kids and having each other's backs. The town thinks they've lost their way, but really they are finding it: looking for love, making and breaking friendships, navigating the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood. But before long they will find themselves on a collision course with one another. Full of heart, life, and hope, set against shifting sands of power and betrayal, The Girls Who Grew Big confirms Leila Mottley's promise and offers an explosive new perspective on what it means to be a young woman.

#1087
The Gloomy Girl Variety Show

The Gloomy Girl Variety Show

by Freda Epum
Amazon Bookshop

"A literary revue merging memoir, art, and criticism to trace a first-generation Nigerian American's search for home and belonging on her own terms. Freda Epum meditates on the cost of living and enduring as a Black disabled woman in America and examines her journey through healthcare and housing systems via a pop cultural lens: our collective obsession with HGTV's home buying and makeover shows"--

#1088
The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World

The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World

by William Dalrymple
Amazon Bookshop

The internationally bestselling author of The Anarchy returns with a sparkling, soaring history of ideas, tracing South Asia's under-recognized role in producing the world as we know it. For a millennium and a half, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilization, creating around it a vast empire of ideas. Indian art, religions, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics and mythology blazed a trail across the world, along a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific. In The Golden Road, William Dalrymple draws from a lifetime of scholarship to highlight India's oft-forgotten position as the heart of ancient Eurasia. For the first time, he gives a name to this spread of Indian ideas that transformed the world. From the largest Hindu temple in the world at Angkor Wat to the Buddhism of China, from the trade that helped fund the Roman Empire to the creation of the numerals we use today (including zero), India transformed the culture and technology of its ancient world – and our world today as we know it.

#1090
The Good Father

The Good Father

by Liam McIlvanney
Amazon Bookshop

WHEN A CHILD DISAPPEARS, NO SECRET IS SAFE . . . *THE TIMES BOOK OF THE MONTH* 'This is McIlvanney at his masterful best' - DAILY MAIL 'A moving and absorbing dive into grief and love, and how far a parent would go to save their child' - OBSERVER 'Fascinating, moving, disturbing, and surely Liam McIlvanney's best novel to date' - SCOTSMAN 'Heart-stopping and heart-rending, this is Liam McIlvanney's best novel yet' VAL MCDERMID THE POIGNANT AND BRILLIANTLY CLEVER NEW PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER FROM AWARD-WINNING CRIME AUTHOR, LIAM McILVANNEY. Gordon and Sarah Rutherford are normal, happy people with rich, fulfilling lives. They have a son they adore, a house on the beach and a safe, friendly community in a picture-postcard town. Until, one day, Bonnie the labrador comes in from the beach alone. Their son, Rory, has gone - the only trace left behind is a single black sandal. Their lives don't fall apart immediately. While there's still hope, they dig deep and try to carry on. But as desperation mounts, arms around shoulders become fingers pointed - at friends, family, strangers, each other. Without any answers, only questions remain. Who can they trust? How far will they go to find out what happened to Rory? And the deadliest question of all: what could be worse than your child disappearing? When the truth begins to emerge, they find themselves in a world they could barely have imagined. 'Beautifully written, this is easily one of the finest crime novels I've read in a very long time' C.M. EWAN

#1091
The Good Liar

The Good Liar

by Denise Mina
Amazon Bookshop

In this provocative mystery from beloved crime writer Denise Mina, new evidence in an old murder case forces one woman to make an impossible choice. WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO TELL THE TRUTH WHEN YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON A LIE? A year ago, a father and his fiancée were brutally murdered in their opulent London townhouse, sparking the most high-profile murder investigation in recent history. Blood spatter expert Doctor Claudia O’Sheil’s evidence put the killer behind bars—or so everyone believes. But since the trial, Claudia’s learned a horrific truth: her evidence and her testimony were wrong. And someone she knows made sure of it. Now, as she takes the stage to give a career-defining speech before London’s elite, Claudia faces a devastating choice. Protect her children and her career with her continued complicity, or blow the whole conspiracy apart and reveal the truth: not only is the real murderer still out there, but they’re in the audience. As Claudia steps toward the microphone, she revisits that fateful night. What really happened? And what will Claudia say?

#1101
The Heir Apparent

The Heir Apparent

by Rebecca Armitage
Amazon Bookshop

An irresistible modern fairy tale about a British princess who must decide between her duty to her family--or to her own heart It's New Year's Day in Tasmania and the life Lexi Villiers has carefully built is working out nicely: she's in the second year of her medical residency, she lives on a beautiful farm with her two best friends Finn and Jack, and she's about to finally become more-than-friendly with Jack--when a helicopter abruptly lands. Out steps her grandmother's right-hand-man, with the tragic news that her father and older brother have been killed in a skiing accident. Lexi's grandmother happens to be the Queen of England, and in addition to the shock and grief, Lexi must now accept the reality that she is suddenly next in line for the throne--a role she has publicly disavowed. Returning to London as the heir apparent Princess Alexandrina, Lexi is greeted by a skeptical public not ready to forgive her defection, a grieving sister-in-law harboring an explosive secret, and a scheming uncle determined to claim the throne himself. Her recent life--and Jack--grow ever more distant as she feels the tug of tradition, of love for her grandmother, and of obligation. When her grandmother grants her one year to decide, Lexi must choose her own destiny: will it be determined by an accident of birth--or by love?

#1112
The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems

The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems

by Patricia Smith
Amazon Bookshop

The Intentions of Thunder gathers, for the first time, the essential work from across Patricia Smith's decorated career. Here, Smith's poems, affixed with her remarkable gift of insight, present a rapturous ode to life. With careful yet vaulting movement, these poems traverse the redeeming landscape of pain, confront the frightening revelations of history, and disclose the joyous possibilities of the future. The result is a profound testament to the necessity of poetry--all the careful witness, embodied experience, and bristling pleasure that it bestows--and of Smith's necessary voice.

#1114
The Intruder

The Intruder

by Freida McFadden
Amazon Bookshop

There's someone at your front door - should you let them in? Find out in a riveting new thriller from global sensation and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Housemaid, Freida McFadden! Who knows what the storm will blow in... Casey's cabin in the wilderness is not built for a hurricane. Her roof shakes, the lights flicker, and the tree outside her front door sways ominously in the wind. But she's a lot more worried about the girl she discovers lurking outside her kitchen window. She's young. She's alone. And she's covered in blood. The girl won't explain where she came from, or loosen her grip on the knife in her right hand. And when Casey makes a disturbing discovery in the middle of the night, things take a turn for the worse. The girl has a dark secret. One she'll kill to keep. And if Casey gets too close to the truth, she may not live to see the morning. In this taut, deadly tale of survival and desperation, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden explores how far one girl will go to save herself.

#1117
The Killer Question: A Novel

The Killer Question: A Novel

by Janice Hallett
Amazon Bookshop

Janice Hallett, “the new queen of crime” (Electric Literature), returns with a fresh, edge-of-your-seat mystery that takes place at a pub’s weekly trivia night, revealed through quiz categories, phone messages, and email correspondence. Sue and Mal Eastwood run an isolated rural pub called The Case is Altered where a weekly trivia game has revived its flagging fortunes—that is, until a body is found in the nearby river. Soon after, a mysterious new team arrives and shakes up the diverse field of regulars by scoring top marks in every round...every week. Meanwhile, Sue and Mal have a secret of their own. Before arriving here, they were caught up in a secret police operation which meant they had to leave town—and whatever happened back then seems to have finally caught up with them. Five years later, the pub lies derelict, and their nephew Dominic is determined to make a documentary about their story. What happened at this unassuming pub? And can a single question really kill?

#1118
The Killing Fields of East New York: The First Subprime Mortgage Scandal, a White-Collar Crime Spree, and the Collapse of an American Neighborhood

The Killing Fields of East New York: The First Subprime Mortgage Scandal, a White-Collar Crime Spree, and the Collapse of an American Neighborhood

by Stacy Horn
Amazon Bookshop

In this groundbreaking work of investigative journalism and true crime, Stacy Horn sheds light on how the subprime mortgage scandal of the 1970s and a long history of white-collar crime slowly devastated East New York, a Brooklyn neighborhood that would come to be known as the Killing Fields. On a warm summer evening in 1991, seventeen-year-old Julia Parker was murdered in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York. An area known for an exorbitant level of violence and crime, East New York had come to be known as the Killing Fields. In the six months after Julia Parker's death, 62 more people were murdered in the same area. In the early 1990s, murder rates in the neighborhood climbed to the highest in NYPD history. East New York was dying. But how did this once thriving, diverse, family neighborhood fall into such ruin? The answer can be found two decades earlier. In response to redlining and discriminatory housing practices, the Johnson administration passed the Housing and Urban Development Act in 1968. The Federal Housing Authority aimed to use this piece of legislation to help low-income families of color finally achieve homeownership. But they could never have predicted how banks, lenders, realtors, and corrupt FHA officials themselves would use the newly passed law to make victims of the very people they were trying to help, and the devastation they would leave in their wake. A compulsively readable hybrid of true crime and investigative journalism, The Killing Fields of East New York reveals how white-collar crime reduced a prospering neighborhood to abandoned buildings and empty lots. Following the dual threads of the hunt for the network of criminals behind the first subprime mortgage scandal and the ensuing downfall of East New York, Stacy Horn weaves a compelling narrative of government failure, a desperate community, and ultimately the largest series of mortgage fraud prosecutions in American history. The Killing Fields of East New York deftly demonstrates how different types of crime are profoundly entangled, and how the crimes committed in nice suits and corner offices are just as destructive as those committed on the street.

#1120
The Lack of Light: A Novel of Georgia

The Lack of Light: A Novel of Georgia

by Nino Haratischwili
Amazon Bookshop

A PEOPLE MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE WEEK “Catnip for Ferrante fans.” —Boston Globe “Readers will find [The Lack of Light] irresistible.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A thrilling, heartbreaking, unforgettable story. Not a page too long."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A page-turning epic of loss and redemption in the vein of Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, about a group of four women who formed a deep friendship in the turbulent years leading up to and after Georgia’s independence from the Soviet Union. They are four, as different as can be: the romantic Nene, the clever outsider Ira, the idealistic Dina, and the sensitive Keto. Inseparable since childhood, they grow up together in an old Tiblisi courtyard, in Georgia, at a time when the Soviet Union is crumbling and the future of their country is in question. Each in her own way experiences love, hope, and disappointment as local mob wars, romance, and civil war threaten to swallow up their worlds. Rising to challenges both personal and political —a first love that can only blossom in secret, violent street skirmishes, a ravaging drug epidemic—the four women’s friendship seems indestructible, until an unforgivable act of betrayal and a tragic death shatter their bond. Decades later, the three survivors reunite at a major retrospective of their late friend’s photography. The pictures on display tell the story not only of their country but also of their friendship, and, confronted by them, Nene, Ira, and Keto relive their staggering loss. Then, unexpectedly, something new is glimpsed, and forgiveness seems within reach. Like the International Booker Prize nominated The Eighth Life before it, Nino Haratischwili’s The Lack of Light is an emotionally bold, decades-spanning epic in which to lose yourself, brought to life by the vibrant colors of Georgia's culture and its people. It is a glorious book readers will return to again and again. Translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin

#1121
The Land in Winter

The Land in Winter

by Andrew Miller
Amazon Bookshop

⭐ Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025 ⭐ ⭐ Winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2025 ⭐ ⭐ Winner of the Winston Graham Historical Prize 2025 ⭐ 'One of the best writers at work today' TELEGRAPH 'Has an uncanny beauty and depth... A novel that travels into the darkest places of history and the strangest corners of the human mind' GUARDIAN 'Money, class, love: all of life is in there' SUNDAY TIMES 'Tender, elegant, soulful and perfect... Superb' SAMANTHA HARVEY, Booker Prize-winning author of Orbital 'A classic in the making' ELIZABETH DAY, author of How to Fail and One of Us DECEMBER 1962, THE WEST COUNTRY. Local doctor Eric Parry, mulling secrets, sets out on his rounds, while his pregnant wife sleeps on in the warmth of their cottage. Across the field, funny, troubled Rita Simmons is also asleep, her head full of images of a past life her husband prefers to ignore. He's been up for hours, tending to the needs of the small dairy farm where he hoped to create a new version of himself, a project that's already faltering. But when the ordinary cold of an English December gives way to violent blizzards, the two couples find their lives beginning to unravel. Where do you hide when you can't leave home? And where, in a frozen world, can you run to? More praise for The Land in Winter 'Perfect' OBSERVER 'Delicate and devastating' I PAPER 'Incredibly satisfying' FINANCIAL TIMES 'A novel of dazzling humanity and captivating, crystalline prose' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'I loved The Land in Winter . . . There were moments I thought of Penelope Fitzgerald... A thing of rare beauty' RACHEL JOYCE, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry 'An exquisite achievement, luminously written, full of wonder at the diversity and strangeness of human experience.' FRANCIS SPUFFORD, author of Golden Hill Praise for Andrew Miller 'Andrew Miller's writing is a source of wonder and delight' HILARY MANTEL 'One of our most skilful chroniclers of the human heart and mind' SUNDAY TIMES 'A writer of very rare and outstanding gifts' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'A highly intelligent writer, both exciting and contemplative' THE TIMES 'A wonderful storyteller' SPECTATOR

#1122
The Last Guy on Earth

The Last Guy on Earth

by Sarina Bowen
Amazon Bookshop

The latest LGBTQ hockey novel from bestseller Sarina Bowen! One cold December day, two men are blindsided by a hockey trade; one is the most decorated goalie in the league, while the other one is the youngest coach in the majors. Jethro Hale is the last player Coach Clay Powers wants to see on his roster, but the G.M. pulls a fast one. And it's not like he can even explain why. Nobody knows about their love affair fifteen years ago. Cue the all-star awkwardness, the painful memories and the reawakening of deep feelings on both sides. Unfortunately, their attraction still burns brightly. But it can never be. A player and a coach? The scandal would overshadow the team's banner year. If only they could resist each other... If you love grumpy heroes, high stakes hockey, struggling single parents and smoldering kisses, grab your copy of The Last Guy on Earth.

#1125
The Leaving Room

The Leaving Room

by Amber McBride
Amazon Bookshop

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST! "A must-read." "Achingly tender." "Intimate and astonishing." For fans of You've Reached Sam and If I Stay, a hauntingly beautiful, ultimately hopeful novel-in-verse about a girl in between life and death, by National Book Award Finalist Amber McBride. Gospel is the Keeper of the Leaving Room—a place all young people must phase through when they die. The young are never ready to leave; they need a moment to remember and a Keeper to help their wispy souls along. When a random door opens and a Keeper named Melodee arrives, their souls become entangled. Gospel's seriousness melts and Melodee’s fear of connection fades, but still—are Keepers allowed to fall in love? Now they must find a way out of the Leaving Room and be unafraid of their love. In a novel that takes place over four minutes, National Book Award finalist Amber McBride explores connection, memory, and hope in ways that are unforgettable and poignant.

#1129
The Life of Chuck

The Life of Chuck

by Stephen King
Amazon Bookshop

Stephen King’s “The Life of Chuck,” is a “phenomenal” (USA TODAY) tale of life and legacy—now a feature film directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Karen Gillan—available for the first time in a beautiful stand-alone edition with a new introduction by Stephen King and a design surprise. Originally featured in the acclaimed story collection If It Bleeds, this unforgettable, mind-bending tale unfolds in reverse, taking readers through the extraordinary life of Charles “Chuck” Krantz. In a crumbling world plagued by natural disasters, collapsing infrastructure, and mass panic, bizarre billboards and advertisements appear throughout town: “Charles Krantz. Thirty-nine great years. Thanks, Chuck!” Marty Anderson, a schoolteacher, becomes obsessed with these messages as the world, inexplicably linked to Chuck’s life, seems to be approaching its end. Told in three acts, presented in reverse order, The Life of Chuck explores one man’s past. We see him in middle age on a business trip in Boston as he is seduced by a busker into spinning a gorgeous sidewalk dance. And we see him as a child, in a house haunted by a terrible secret, learning to dance with his grandmother. In these pages King reminds us that life’s quotidian pleasures are even more glorious because they are fleeting: the outrageous good fortune of a beautiful blue day after a string of gray ones; the delight of dancing when every move feels perfect; a serendipitous meeting. King’s ability to describe pure joy rivals his ability to terrify us. Now a major motion picture and winner of the Toronto International Film Festival People’s Choice Award, The Life of Chuck is a glorious story about community and about humanity at its best, a celebration of joy, mystery, existential wonder, and the multitudes contained in all of us.

#1130
The Life That’s Waiting

The Life That’s Waiting

by Brianna Wiest
Amazon Bookshop

On the other side of the life you are trying to keep together, on the other side of the pain you think will never dissolve into peace, on the other side of everything you are forcing-is the life that is waiting. The life where you are not pushed by your fears, but moved by your vision. The life where the right things arrive, and remain, and you do not have to contort your truth to make them so. The life where you are actually living, not just waiting to begin. The life that is really yours. The life you arrive to the end of with tired eyes and a full heart. The life that you are proud of. The life that you actually want The life that is gently asking you to let go, and see it. The life that's been waiting, all this time, for you to arrive.

#1133
The Living and the Rest

The Living and the Rest

by José Eduardo Agualusa
Amazon Bookshop

“Cross J.M. Coetzee with Gabriel García Márquez and you've got José Eduardo Agualusa, Portugal's next candidate for the Nobel Prize” — Alan Kaufman, author of Matches A thrilling tale that considers how the mind bends when the known world ends in a storm’s flash A Financial Times Fiction in Translation Book of the Year and Winner of the Portuguese PEN Prize A funny and lively tale about a group of writers stranded at a literary festival turns increasingly ominous as it explores the nature of life and of time, and the extraordinary power of imagination and the written word. Writers from across Africa descend on the Isle of Mozambique to participate in the island’s first literary festival. When a sudden cyclone strikes the land, they are cut off from the mainland. One writer wakes from sleep with lines running through her head, reaching for a small red notebook with dream trash written on the cover. Another posts a picture of a writing desk gleaming in the ancient light of the Captains-General Palace, now a museum. The caption: “If I had a desk like this, I’m sure I’d write more. I’m sure I’d write better.” Agualusa traces their conversations as they wonder together whether the world they know has ended, and what, real or imagined, might come next. They talk, and set pens to paper, in this sometimes-surreal tale of how the physical world is changing rapidly around us and how we can (and must) forge new contexts.

#1139
The Macabre

The Macabre

by Kosoko Jackson
Amazon Bookshop

From award-winning and USA Today bestselling author Kosoko Jackson comes his adult speculative debut, a stand-alone novel blending time travel and globe-hopping adventure, art history, and dark fantasy about magical paintings and the lengths people will go to collect them, destroy them…or be destroyed. A picture is worth a thousand nightmares. Art has always been an escape for struggling painter Lewis Dixon. But other than his mom, who has recently passed away, no one has ever praised his work. If he is being honest, there’s really no one in his life. So he is shocked when the British Museum shows an unusual interest in his art. This is his chance to show the world what he’s capable of…he just has no idea that he might also be saving the world at the same time. As Lewis soon learns, he has not been invited to participate in a curated show, but rather a test: to see if the fugue-like exhilaration he experiences when painting is actually magic, a power that allows him to enter nine very special paintings—paintings made by his great-grandfather. Spread across the globe, these paintings have unbelievable eldritch abilities…and not necessarily beneficial ones. In terms of power, these are the most valuable works of art in the world, and there are those out there who would do anything to possess just one. And Lewis, upon passing the test, has been asked to destroy them all. Partnered with an alluring agent in museum’s employ, Noah Rao, Lewis must travel to Japan, Australia, Nigeria—and the past—plunging himself into a world of black markets, gothic magic, ancient history, and cursed objects to save those unlucky enough to call any of the paintings their own—or to free the world from those who would misuse the power of the paintings. In doing so, he will need to discover if he has what it takes to truly be an artist, the confidence to finally open himself up to someone who could give his lonely life meaning, and the strength to enter and navigate a reality where magic is everywhere.

#1144
The Merge: A Novel

The Merge: A Novel

by Grace Walker
Amazon Bookshop

A thrilling and ominously prophetic debut set in a world when Earth and its resources have been pushed to breaking point, giving rise to a revolutionary—and highly controversial—procedure in which two people’s consciousness can be combined to exist in one body. How far would you go to never say goodbye? Laurie is sixty-five and living with Alzheimer’s. Her daughter Amelia, a once fiery and strong-willed activist, can’t bear to see her mother’s mind fade. Faced with the reality of losing her forever, Amelia signs them up to take part in the world’s first experimental merging process for Alzheimer’s patients, in which Laurie’s ailing mind will be transferred into Amelia’s healthy body and their consciousness will be blended as one. Soon Amelia and Laurie join the opaque and mysterious group of other merge participants: teenage Lucas, who plans to merge with his terminally ill brother Noah; Ben, who will merge with his pregnant fiancée Annie; and Jay, whose merging partner is his addict daughter Lara. As they prepare to move to The Village, a luxurious rehabilitation center for those who have merged, they quickly begin to question whether everything is really as it seems. An exhilarating, immersive debut from an astonishing new voice, The Merge is a personal story of love, family, and sacrifice, as well as a thought-provoking examination of the limits of control, resistance, and freedom in our modern world.

#1145
The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls

The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls

by Judith Rossell
Amazon Bookshop

A whimsical, adventure-filled mystery about a young orphan at the edge of society who finds herself at the center of a city's secrets. For fans of The Swifts and A Series of Unfortunate Events. "I was hooked from the beginning … Move over Lemony Snicket!" —Karen Foxlee, award-winning author of Lenny’s Book of Everything Maggie Fishbone is not expecting much when she’s sent to the Midwatch Institute for Orphans, Runaways, and Wayward Girls—the last resort after causing a ruckus at the orphanage where she was living. Except . . . the Institute isn’t some dreadful, dreary place like she thought. Instead it’s full of curious girls training to solve mysteries, fight bad guys, and keep the city safe. In between fencing lessons and discovering all the shortcuts in the building, Maggie finds herself making friends at the Midwatch and finally feeling like she’s home. And when a woman goes missing, Maggie’s off on her first assignment, with each step leading her deeper into the secrets of the city. With gorgeous black-and-white illustrations and pages of “Useful Things Every Girl Should Know” (like how send messages in morse code and how to shout extremely loudly), The Midwatch is a whimsical, adventure-filled mystery from internationally bestselling author-illustrator Judith Rossell.

#1148
The Mirror of Great Britain: A Life of James VI & I

The Mirror of Great Britain: A Life of James VI & I

by Clare Jackson
Amazon Bookshop

A major reassessment of one of Britain’s most important monarchs 'After finishing this beguiling book, there seems no point in reading anything else. It’s the quintessence of James; rather like his big brain, it flows everywhere and is impossible to contain. In research, analysis and imagination, it’s a masterpiece... In [Jackson's] mirror one views a life perfectly rendered — complete, complex and awe-inspiring' - Gerard de Groot, The Times James VI & I, who died 400 years ago, was one of Britain’s most consequential and interesting monarchs, not least in creating the British monarchy itself by joining the English and Scottish thrones. A major intellectual, James's preoccupations ranged from witchcraft and theological controversy to hunting, diplomacy, poetry and sartorial fashion. The 'Mirror of Great Britain' was a spectacular jewel that gave symbolic endorsement to James's vision of British union, but mirrors themselves — with their limitless capacity to magnify, illuminate and distort — supplied James with one of his favourite literary metaphors. Ruler of Scotland for nearly four decades before his accession to the English throne in 1603, James was a ‘cradle king’ whose long reigns encompassed extraordinary dramas, including his abduction in the ‘Ruthven Raid’ in 1582 and his attempted assassination in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In his lifetime, James often confounded contemporaries’ expectations while his posthumous reputation has been distorted by crude stereotypes. Closely attentive to James’s own words — in numerous publications, manuscript musings, topical verse and private correspondence — Clare Jackson's wonderful new book tells the story of this highly unusual monarch with great flair and insight.

#1154
The New Economy

The New Economy

by Gabrielle Calvocoressi
Amazon Bookshop

The New Economy memorializes the world's pleasures and perils told through the point of view of an aging, ungendered body. A devotional to the ungendered vessel as it ages, dreams, and survives. A practice of radical collaboration, failure, and renewal. A world of "Miss You" poems opening a portal to all those we've lost and would love to visit for a while. In Gabrielle Calvocoressi's latest collection, The New Economy, poems are haunted by the ghosts of loved ones and childhood memories, by changing landscapes and bodies. Calvocoressi's own figure is examined--investigating the desire to protect the body one is born with and the longing to have been born in another. Cisterns sing with the musicality of a poet who understands both the power of sound and silence--those quiet spaces inviting us to consider the words we cannot hear. "The days I don't kill myself are extraordinary" one poems says. "Why don't we have a name for it?" Lyrical and unafraid, The New Economy invites us to name our fears and sorrows, to write to who or what has left us, to create practices that can hold both the darkness and light of this (in)finite life.

#1155
The Next Conversation: Argue Less, Talk More

The Next Conversation: Argue Less, Talk More

by Jefferson Fisher
Amazon Bookshop

From communication expert Jefferson Fisher, the definitive book on making your next conversation the one that changes everything No matter who you’re talking to, The Next Conversation gives you immediately actionable strategies and phrases that will forever change how you communicate. Jefferson Fisher, trial lawyer and one of the leading voices on real-world communication, offers a tried-and-true framework that will show you how to transform your life and your relationships by improving your next conversation. Fisher has gained millions of followers through short, simple, practical videos teaching people how to argue less and talk more. Whether it’s handling a heated conversation, dealing with a difficult personality, or standing your ground with confidence, his down-to-earth teachings have helped countless people navigate life’s toughest situations. Now for the first time, Fisher has distilled his three-part communication system (Say it with control, Say it with confidence, Say it to connect) that can easily be applied to any situation. You will learn: Why you should never “win” an argument How to assert yourself and communicate with intention How to set boundaries and frame conversations Why saying less is often more How to overcome conflict with connection The Next Conversation will give you practical phrases that will lead to powerful results, from breaking down defensiveness in a hard talk with a family member to finding your own assertive voice at the boardroom conference table. Your every word matters, and by controlling how you communicate every day, you will create waves of positive impact that will resonate throughout your relationships to last a lifetime. Everything you want to say, and how you want to say it, can be found in The Next Conversation.

#1157
The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli

The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli

by Karina Yan Glaser
Amazon Bookshop

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER * INDIE NEXT PICK * FIVE STARRED REVIEWS! Breathtaking suspense, unforgettable characters, and a pinch of magic combine in the dual stories of two young people—one in 731 China, and one in 1931 Chinatown—on perilous journeys to save their families. An instant classic from the beloved and bestselling author of the Vanderbeekers series. “A page turner that is at once epic and intimate. This is a must read!” —Lisa Yee, New York Times bestselling author of The Misfits In ancient Chang’An, Han Yu sells steamed buns in a bustling market full of whispers about his ability to summon tigers. In New York’s Depression-era Chinatown, Luli gazes out from the roof of her parents’ restaurant, dreaming of dim sum and Chinese art. Familiar rhythms rule the contained-but-contented lives of Han Yu and Luli. But when plague strikes Chang’An and financial crisis threatens Luli’s family, Han Yu and Luli must each venture out into the larger world—and into danger-filled adventure—to save what they love most. Filled with wondrous caves and conniving thieves, desert storms and magical lakes, Karina Yan Glaser’s epic and rewarding novel is a testament to the bravery required to face the unknown and the power of art to connect us through the ages. “The work of a virtuoso, this is quite simply dazzling and the best book I’ve read in a long time.” —James Ponti, New York Times bestselling author of City Spies

#1161
THE OLD MAN BY THE SEA

THE OLD MAN BY THE SEA

by Domenico Starnone
Amazon Bookshop

From the author of Ties and The House on Via Gemito Domenico Starnone's The Old Man by the Sea is a slim masterpiece of a novel about an 82-year-old Neapolitan man, Nicola, who has spent his entire life telling stories, becoming very, very good at it. In words, with his pen, in the notebook he carries with him everywhere, he records life's minutiae, its ephemera, those vibrating essences and almost imperceptible atoms of existence that most of us barely notice but that constitute the very stuff of life. Yes, recording the universe in each grain of sand has become second nature to Nicola. But of course, there is always something that escapes. Something unnamable that resists, remaining on the margins, slithering away, a movement intuited rather than identified. And this fact, for Nicola, is a source of deep anxiety and a growing sense of failure. Now, ensconced in a house on the dunes south of Rome, Nicola spends his mornings writing, watching the waves, and observing Lu, a store clerk in her twenties whose graceful canoeing stirs faint echoes of his mother--a glamorous, headstrong woman who defied convention with her beauty and creativity. As Nicola reflects on the women who shaped him and the passions he has never outgrown, he finds himself drawn into the nefarious intrigues of the small seaside town and its inhabitants. He will end by embarking on an improbable and ill-advised kayak adventure of his own with Lu's young son, as Starnone himself brings this slim, virtuoso novel about eros and melancholy, memory and reinvention, age and imagination, to an unexpected conclusion.

#1168
The Past is a Jean Jacket

The Past is a Jean Jacket

by Cloud Delfina Cardona
Amazon Bookshop

why am i nostalgic for the shitty times in my life? Reminiscent of being in a heavily postered room with rock music blasting, Cloud Delfina Cardona's debut collection the past is a jean jacket is a time capsule of a 90s queer, Latinx teenhood. Cardona's speaker explores their gender through sex and relationships, searches for belonging in their family lineage, and copes with depression using movies, indie bands, cigarettes, and tumblr. Featuring compelling visual collages and inventive imagery throughout, these poems are firmly rooted in Southern Texas. Cardona brings readers to a jukebox on S LBJ Drive, underneath a Catholic girls high school, and to "San Marcos sunsets above the HEB parking lot" with weighted and poignant reflection. Each careful line produces a soundtrack to a passionate coming-of-age and implores us all to be gentle, yet honest, with our younger selves. Evocative and blunt, the past is a jean jacket asks the essential existential questions: "where did all the wishes of my ancestors go? / what memory of me will play in someone's head before i die for the final time?"

#1169
The Payback

The Payback

by Kashana Cauley
Amazon Bookshop

When Jada Williams is relentlessly pursued by the Debt Police, she is left with no choice but to take down her student loan company with the help of two mall coworkers—from the author of the “lethally witty” (The New York Times Book Review) The Survivalists. Jada Williams is good at judging people by their looks. From across the mall, she can tell not only someone’s inseam and pants size, but exactly what style they need to transform their life. Too bad she’s no longer using this superpower as a wardrobe designer to Hollywood stars, but for minimum wage plus commission at the Glendale mall. When Jada is fired yet again, she is forced to outrun the newly instated Debt Police who are out for blood. But Jada, like any great antihero, is not going to wait for the cops to come kick her around. With the help of two other debt-burdened mall coworkers, she hatches a plan for revenge. Together the three women plan a heist to erase their student loans forever and get back at the system that promised them everything and then tried to take it back. “A novel of great fun and unforgettable fury” (Megha Majumdar, bestselling author of A Burning) The Payback is a razor-sharp and hilarious dissection of race, power, and the daily grind, from one of the most original and exciting writers at work today.

#1171
The Pelican Child: Stories

The Pelican Child: Stories

by Joy Williams
Amazon Bookshop

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A razor-sharp new collection of stories of visionary childhood misfits and struggling adult dreamers from this legendary writer of “perfectly indescribable fiction . . . To read Williams is to look into the abyss” (The Atlantic). “Night was best, for, as everyone knows, but does not tell, the sobbing of the earth is most audible at night.” “Men are but unconscious machines and they perform their cruelties so effortlessly.” “Caring was a power she’d once possessed but had given up freely.” The sentences of Joy Williams are like no other—the coiled wit, the sense of a confused and ruined landscape, even the slight chortle of hope that lurks between the words—for the scrupulous effort of telling, in these eleven stories, has a ravishing beauty that belies their substance. We meet lost souls like the twin-sister heiresses of a dirty industrial fortune in “After the Haiku Period,” who must commit a violent act in recompense for their family's deeds; in “Nettle,” a newly grown man who still revolves in a dreamscape of his childhood boarding-school innocence; the ghost of George Gurdieff, on an obsessive visit to the Arizona birthplace of the shining Susan Sontag; the “pelican child” who lives with the bony, ill-tempered Baba Yaga in a little hut on chicken legs. All of these characters insist on exploring, often at their peril, an indifferent and caustic world: they struggle against our degradation of the climate, of each other, and of honest human experience (“I try to relate only to what is immediately verifiable,” says one narrator ruefully), possibly in vain. But each brief, haunted triumph of understanding is celebrated by Williams, a writer for our time and all time.

#1176
The Predicament

The Predicament

by William Boyd
Amazon Bookshop

"Boyd is one of my favorite authors."--Kate Atkinson From the internationally bestselling author, a thrilling novel starring the travel writer-turned-reluctant spy Gabriel Dax, who finds himself implicated in a dangerous conspiracy with global consequences 1963, Guatemala. The country is in turmoil, with a presidential election looming and a charismatic, left-wing ex-priest and trade union leader predicted to win. United Fruits, a giant American corporation responsible for a large percentage of the country's GNP, meanwhile, is not pleased by this prospect. Neither is the CIA. Amid the uncertainty, Gabriel Dax arrives on orders from his MI6 handler Faith Green, who has tasked him with assessing the fallout from the election. Upon arrival, Gabriel meets Frank Sartorius, the local CIA agent. Despite Sartorius's genial manner, Gabriel suspects something untrustworthy brewing under the surface. Soon, a political assassination with suspicions of Mafia involvement leads to riots, and Dax escapes to Europe, thinking he will finally return to his normal life as a travel writer. But when Green compels him to investigate some shady characters in West Berlin, it becomes clear that an even greater danger is afoot as the magnetic young President Kennedy prepares to arrive for a state visit. A gripping novel of politics and spy craft with dramatic twists and turns, The Predicament shows Boyd to be one of our most masterful contemporary storytellers.

#1179
The Protocols of Spying

The Protocols of Spying

by Merle Nygate
Amazon Bookshop

Simply put, Merle Nygate is one of the best spy novelists writing today.' I.S. Berry 'Sophisticated and pulse-pounding writing' Express In the aftermath of Hamas's October 7th attack on Israel, Mossad's London station chief Eli Amiram is fighting battles on all fronts. When his ambitious rival plans an assassination on British soil - supposedly authorized by Trump supporters - Eli suspects a deeper conspiracy. Meanwhile, British intelligence asset Petra is hunting for redemption. Tasked with recruiting Wasim Al-Arikhi - whose sister she failed to save from becoming a suicide bomber - Petra's drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse. Can Wasim be trusted or has she become a target? As Eli and Petra's paths converge, they discover that in the shadow world of international espionage, the greatest threats often come from within. They must confront not just their enemies, but their own moral choices. A sophisticated spy thriller that weaves together tradecraft, betrayal and the human cost of intelligence work.

#1183
The Reformatory

The Reformatory

by Tananarive Due
Amazon Bookshop

"Gracetown, Florida. June 1950. Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie's journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory. Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it's too late." --

#1186
The River Is Waiting

The River Is Waiting

by Wally Lamb
Amazon Bookshop

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK A USA TODAY BESTSELLER #1 New York Times bestselling author Wally Lamb, celebrated for two prior Oprah Book Club selections, returns with an exceptional third pick, a propulsive novel following a young father grappling with unbearable tragedy as he searches for hope, redemption, and the possibility of forgiveness. Corby Ledbetter is struggling. New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown his marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin. And that’s before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart. Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness and elemental kinship with a prison librarian who sees his light and some of his fellow offenders, including a tender-hearted cellmate and a troubled teen desperate for a role model. Buoyed by them and by his mother’s enduring faith in him, Corby begins to transcend the boundaries of his confinement, sustained by his hope that mercy and reconciliation might still be possible. Can his crimes ever be forgiven by those he loves?

#1191
The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne

The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne

by Ron Currie
Amazon Bookshop

“Literary thrillers just don’t come any better than Ron Currie’s The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne. It’s profoundly serious and terrifying in equal measure.” –Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Somebody's Fool A mythic, propulsive novel about the tangled fates of a matriarchal crime family in Maine. Your ancestors breathe through you. Sometimes, they call for vengeance. Babs Dionne, proud Franco-American, doting grandmother, and vicious crime matriarch, rules her small town of Waterville, Maine, with an iron fist. She controls the flow of drugs into Little Canada with the help of her loyal lieutenants, girlfriends since they were teenagers, and her eldest daughter, Lori, a Marine vet struggling with addiction. When a drug kingpin discovers that his numbers are down in the upper northeast, he sends a malevolent force, known only as The Man, to investigate. At the same time, Babs's youngest daughter, Sis, has gone missing, which doesn't seem at all like a coincidence. In twenty-four hours, Sis will be found dead, and the whole town will seek shelter from Babs’s wrath. The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is a crime saga like no other, with a ferocious matriarch at its bruised, beating heart. With sharp wit and profound empathy, award-winning author Ron Currie, delivers an unforgettable novel exploring love, retribution, and the ancestral roots that both nurture and trap us.

#1192
The Scammer

The Scammer

by Tiffany D. Jackson
Amazon Bookshop

New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson delivers another stunning, ripped-from-the-headlines thriller, following a freshman girl whose college life is turned upside down when her roommate’s ex-convict brother moves into their dorm and starts controlling their every move. Out from under her overprotective parents, Jordyn is ready to kill it in prelaw at a prestigious, historically Black university in Washington DC. When her new roommate’s brother is released from prison, the last thing Jordyn expects is to come home and find the ex-convict on their dorm room sofa. But Devonte needs a place to stay while he gets back on his feet—and how could she say no to one of her new best friends? Devonte is older, as charming as he is intelligent, pushing every student he meets to make better choices about their young lives. But Jordyn senses something sinister beneath his friendly advice and growing group of followers. When one of Jordyn’s roommates goes missing, she must enlist the help of the university’s lone white student to uncover the mystery—or become trapped at the center of a web of lies more tangled than she can imagine.

#1194
The Sea Gives Up the Dead: Stories

The Sea Gives Up the Dead: Stories

by Molly Olguín
Amazon Bookshop

The Sea Gives Up the Dead is a collection of stories sprinkled into the soil of fairy tale, left to take root and grow wild there. A lovesick nanny slays a dragon. The devil tries to save her mother. A girl drowns and becomes a saint. Three kids plot to blow up their dad, a grieving mother sails the sea to find her son's grave, a scientist brings a voice to life, and a mermaid falls into the power of a witch. Here, historical fiction, horror, and fantasy tangle together in a queer garden of love, grief, and longing.

#1195
The Secret of Secrets: (Robert Langdon Book 6) – Robert Langdon)

The Secret of Secrets: (Robert Langdon Book 6) – Robert Langdon)

by Dan Brown
Amazon Bookshop

The world’s most celebrated thriller writer returns with his most stunning novel yet—a propulsive, twisty, thought-provoking masterpiece that will entertain readers as only Dan Brown can do. Robert Langdon, esteemed professor of symbology, travels to Prague to attend a groundbreaking lecture by Katherine Solomon—a prominent noetic scientist with whom he has recently begun a relationship. Katherine is on the verge of publishing an explosive book that contains startling discoveries about the nature of human consciousness and threatens to disrupt centuries of established belief. But a brutal murder catapults the trip into chaos, and Katherine suddenly disappears along with her manuscript. Langdon finds himself targeted by a powerful organization and hunted by a chilling assailant sprung from Prague’s most ancient mythology. As the plot expands into London and New York, Langdon desperately searches for Katherine . . . and for answers. In a thrilling race through the dual worlds of futuristic science and mystical lore, he uncovers a shocking truth about a secret project that will forever change the way we think about the human mind.

#1200
The Sideways Life of Denny Voss

The Sideways Life of Denny Voss

by Holly Kennedy
Amazon Bookshop

In this poignant and funny novel, a man who is defined by his limitations sets out to fight a murder charge--and discovers unexpected truths about himself, his family, and the world at large. On the surface, Denny Voss's life in rural Minnesota is a quiet one. At thirty years old, he lives at home with his elderly mother and his beloved blind and deaf Saint Bernard, George. He cleans up roadkill to help pay the bills. Though his prospects are limited by a developmental delay--the result of an accident at birth--Denny has always felt that he has "a good life." So how did he wind up being charged with the murder of a mayoral candidate--after crashing a sled full of guns into a tree? As Denny awaits trial, his court-appointed therapist walks him through the events of the past year. Denny's had other scuffles with the law, the first for kidnapping a neighbor's cantankerous goose. And then there was the time he accidentally assisted in a bank robbery. It seems like whenever Denny tries to do the right thing, chaos ensues. Untangling the events around the murder reveals even more painful truths about his family's past. He's always been surrounded by people who love him, but now it's up to Denny to set his life on a new course.

#1201
The Sirens

The Sirens

by Emilia Hart
Amazon Bookshop

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • #1 LibraryReads Pick • Indie Next Pick A spellbinding novel about sisters separated by centuries, but bound together by the sea, from the author of the runaway New York Times bestseller Weyward 2019: Lucy awakens from a dream to find her hands around her ex-lover’s throat. Horrified, she flees to her older sister’s house on the Australian coast, hoping she can help explain the strangely vivid nightmare that preceded the attack—but Jess is nowhere to be found. As Lucy awaits her return, the rumors surrounding Jess’s strange small town start to emerge. Numerous men have gone missing at sea, spread over decades. A tiny baby was found hidden in a cave. And sailors tell of hearing women’s voices on the waves. Desperate for answers, Lucy finds and begins to read her sister’s adolescent diary. 1999: Jess is a lonely sixteen-year-old in a rural town in the middle of the continent. Diagnosed with a rare allergy to water, she has always felt different, until her young, charming art teacher takes an interest in her drawings, seeing a power and maturity in them—and in her—that no one else has. 1800: Twin sisters Mary and Eliza have been torn from their loving father in Ireland and forced onto a convict ship bound for Australia. For their entire lives, they’ve feared the ocean, as their mother tragically drowned when they were just girls. Yet as the boat bears them further and further from all they know, they begin to notice changes in their bodies that they can’t explain, and they feel the sea beginning to call to them... A breathtaking tale of female resilience and the bonds of sisterhood across time and space, The Sirens captures the power of dreams, and the mystery and magic of the sea.

#1207
The Spellshop

The Spellshop

by Sarah Beth Durst
Amazon Bookshop

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY AND INDIE BESTSELLER! A #1 LibraryReads pick! An Indie Next pick! EXCLUSIVE DELUXE EDITION—a gorgeous paperback edition featuring beautiful sprayed edges! The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love. Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite. When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home. In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries. But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop. Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.

#1209
The Spirit of Scatarie

The Spirit of Scatarie

by Lesley Crewe
Amazon Bookshop

A stunning new work of historical fiction from the bestselling author of The Spoon Stealer, set on Nova Scotia's remote Scatarie Island, following three friends whose lives are inextricably bound, and the spirit who guides them. You might be startled that this tale will be told to you by a ghost. I prefer the word spirit but it's all the same. The truth is, I have as much right to tell this story as anyone. Scatarie Island belongs to the living and the dead Christmas Day, 1922: three babies are born on Scatarie Island, off the coast of Cape Breton. Although born to different parents, Hardy, Sam, and Mary Alice grow up together in their wild homeplace, exploring the rocky coastline, picking bakeapples, and scavenging treasures from the countless ships that have wrecked there over the centuries. But change is lapping at the shores of this isolated island, the Second World War the biggest change of all. One friend leaves to fight, one tends the light, and one struggles to understand how a place where wealth is measured in fish and family can possibly survive this outmigration. Only one of them knows about Cara. A girl who wrecked on the island's shores a hundred years earlier, emigrating from Ireland. A girl who fell in love with the windswept grasses and salt-scrubbed air and tight community of Scatarie, and remains as a spirit. A girl who keeps watch, everywhere from the rugged island to the blood-soaked beaches of France?nudging the three friends towards their destinies. Part ghost story, part romance, part history, and a stirring tribute to young soldiers and their brave war brides, The Spirit of Scatarie is an epic tale with whispering island winds at its heart.

#1218
THE SUNFLOWER BOYS

THE SUNFLOWER BOYS

by Sam Wachman
Amazon Bookshop

"That rarest phenomenon: a war novel that feels at once timeless and precisely of the moment…" —Washington Post A poignant coming-of-age story with the sensitivity and haunting power of What Belongs to You and Swimming in the Dark, about a young boy wrestling with his sexuality as war breaks out in modern Ukraine. In many ways, twelve-year-old Artem’s life in Chernihiv, Ukraine, is normal. He spends his days helping on his grandfather’s sunflower farm, drawing in his sketchbook—a treasured gift from his father, who works in America—and swimming in the river with his little brother, Yuri. In secret, Artem has begun wrestling with romantic feelings for his best friend, Viktor. In a country where love between two boys is unthinkable, Artem has begun to worry that growing up, his life will never be normal. Then, on a February night, Artem and Yuri are woken by explosions—the beginning of a war that will tear their life in two. The invading Russians destroy their home, killing their mother and grandfather, and leaving young Artem and Yuri to fend for themselves. Fleeing in hopes of somehow reuniting with their father, the brothers traverse the country their ancestors once fought and died for, with nothing but their backpacks and each other. Surrounded by death and destruction, Artem is certain of one thing—that whatever may come, he must keep himself and his brother alive. A harrowing and gorgeous tale of love, identity, lost innocence, and survival set in a time of devastating war, The Sunflower Boys is a powerful, heartrending exploration of young queer love, the Ukrainian spirit, and a family’s struggle to survive.

#1221
The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story

The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story

by Daniel Nayeri
Amazon Bookshop

Page-turning WW2 hidden history masterfully told by award winner Daniel Nayeri 1941. The German armies are storming across Europe. Iran is a neutral country occupied by British forces on one side, Soviet forces on another. Soldiers fill the teahouses of Isfahan. Nazi spies roam the alleyways. Babak and his little sister have just lost their father. Now orphans, fearing they will be separated, the two devise a plan. Babak will take up his father's old job as a teacher to the nomads. With a chalkboard strapped to Babak's back, and a satchel full of textbooks, the siblings set off to find the nomad tribes as they make their yearly trek across the mountains. On the treacherous journey they meet a Jewish boy, hiding from a Nazi spy. And suddenly, they are all in a race for survival. Against the backdrop of World War II comes an epic adventure in the faraway places. Through the cacophony of soldiers, tanks, and planes, can young hearts of different creeds and nations learn to find a common language? Master storyteller Daniel Nayeri keeps you on the edge of your seat, uncertain to the very end.

#1230
The Trouble with Anna

The Trouble with Anna

by Rachel Griffiths
Amazon Bookshop

"Anna didn't intend to ride in a high-stakes horse race or start up a betting ring. She certainly didn't mean to find herself in so many darkened corners with Lord Julian Ramsay, quarreling and kissing. But when her grandfather's strange will stipulates that Anna must marry or she'll be left broke, there's nothing she won't do to win her fight for independence. Even go head-to-head with Lord Ramsay, with her own heart as the prize."--

#1232
The Uncool: A Memoir

The Uncool: A Memoir

by Cameron Crowe
Amazon Bookshop

"The long-awaited memoir by Cameron Crowe--one of America's most iconic journalists and filmmakers--revealing his formative years in rock and roll and bringing to life stories that shaped a generation, in the bestselling tradition of Patti Smith's Just Kids with a dash of Moss Hart's Act One. The Uncool is a ... dispatch from a lost world, the real-life events that became Almost Famous, and a coming-of-age journey filled with characters you won't soon forget"--

#1239
The Waterbearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters

The Waterbearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters

by Sasha Bonét
Amazon Bookshop

“An epic love song and remarkable ballad of generations.” —Leslie Jamison “I couldn’t write about Black motherhood without writing about America.” —Sasha Bonét Sasha Bonét grew up in 1990s Houston, worlds removed from the Louisiana cotton plantation that raised her grandmother, Betty Jean, and the Texas bayous that shaped Sasha’s mother, Connie. And though each generation did better, materially, than the last, all of them carried the complex legacy of Black American motherhood with its origins in slavery. All of them knew that the hands used to comb and braid hair, shell pecans, and massage weary muscles were the very hands used to whip children into submission. When she had her own daughter, Sofia, Bonét was determined to interrupt this tradition. She brought Sofia to New York and set off on a journey—not only up and down the tributaries of her bloodline but also into the lives of Black women in history and literature—Betty Davis, Recy Taylor, and Iberia Hampton among them—to understand both the love and pain they passed on to their children and to create a way of mothering that honors the legacy but abandons the violence that shaped it. The Waterbearers is a dazzling and transformative work of American storytelling that reimagines not just how we think of Black women, but how we think of ourselves—as individuals, parents, communities, and a country.

#1243
The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival

The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival

by Anne Sebba
Amazon Bookshop

Moving and powerful, this is a vivid portrait of the women who came together to form an orchestra in order to survive the horrors of Auschwitz. New York Times bestselling author of Les Parisiennes and That Woman: A Life of Wallis Simpson now examines how a disparate band of young girls struggled to overcome differences and little musical knowledge to please the often-sadistic Nazi overseers. In 1943, German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra be formed among the female prisoners. Almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations were drafted into a band that would play in all weathers marching music to other inmates, forced laborers who left each morning and returned, exhausted and often broken, at the end of the day. While still living amid the harshest of circumstances, with little more than a bowl of soup to eat, they were also made to give weekly concerts for Nazi officers, and individual members were sometimes summoned to give solo performances. For almost all of the musicians chosen to take part, being in the orchestra saved their lives. But at what cost? What role could music play in a death camp? What was the effect on those women who owed their survival to their participation in a Nazi propaganda project? And how did it feel to be forced to provide solace to the perpetrators of a genocide that claimed the lives of their family and friends? In The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, award-winning historian Anne Sebba traces these tangled questions of deep moral complexity with sensitivity and care. From Alma Rosé, the orchestra's main conductor, niece of Gustav Mahler and a formidable pre-war celebrity violinist, to Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, its teenage cellist and last surviving member, Sebba draws on meticulous archival research and exclusive first-hand accounts to tell the full and astonishing story of the orchestra, its members, and the response of other prisoners for the first time.

#1249
There Is No Antimemetics Division: A Novel

There Is No Antimemetics Division: A Novel

by qntm
Amazon Bookshop

Humanity is under assault by malevolent “antimemes”—ideas that attack memory, identity, and the fabric of reality itself—in this whip-smart tale of science-fiction horror, an entirely reimagined and expanded version of the beloved online novel. “The coolest, smartest, mind-blowingest novel to be published this year, and probably for many years to come.”—Blake Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter They’re all around us, hiding in plain sight. One could be in the room with you now, just to your left. You could be seeing it right now—but from this second to the next, you’ll forget that you did. If you managed to jot down a note, the paper would look blank to you afterward. These entities can feed on your most cherished memories, the things that make you you—and you’ll never even know anything changed. They can turn you into a living ghost—make it so you’re standing next to your spouse, screaming in their ear, and they won’t know you’re there. They’re predators equipped with the ultimate camouflage, living black holes for information, able to consume our very memories of their existence. And they aren’t just feeding on us. They’re invading. But how do you fight an enemy when you can never even know that you’re at war? How do you contain something you can’t record or remember? Welcome to the Antimemetics Division. No, this is not your first day.

#1252
These Days

These Days

by Lucy Caldwell
Amazon Bookshop

WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2023 "Adroit, precise storytelling, atmospheric and satisfying; These Days is a novel of real substance." --Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall An "exquisitely lyrical" (Louise Kennedy) novel from a singular Irish writer following two sisters over the course of four nights as they reckon with their futures in war-torn Belfast. April 1941: Belfast has escaped the worst of the Second World War--so far. Over the next two months, it will be so destroyed from above that people will say, in horror, "My God, Belfast is finished." Many won't make it through, and those who do will be forever changed. Living amid the rubble are sisters Emma and Audrey. One is engaged to be married; the other is in a secret relationship with another woman. As the bombs fall, and tomorrow feels further and further away, these young women must grapple with the cultural expectations standing firm around them, and try to seize control of their destinies. After all, Emma thinks, if one is to survive, one must survive for something. Featuring the voices of the community--from their mother to the wee girl down the road--These Days is a timeless and poignant tale of interrupted girlhood, life under duress, and the struggle to stay true to ourselves. Winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Lucy Caldwell's portrait of the Belfast Blitz is to be cherished.

#1254
These Memories Do Not Belong to Us

These Memories Do Not Belong to Us

by Yiming Ma
Amazon Bookshop

"Ma’s brilliantly inventive These Memories Do Not Belong to Us weaves worlds around a central question: What happens when technology enables a totalitarian government to break into the last private frontiers of the internal mind? Chilling, poignant, and uncomfortably timely, Ma’s braided memory dispatches explore a future in which the shifting concepts of safety, loyalty, and truth lead nowhere except condemnation." — Tessa Hulls, author of Pulitzer Prize-winner Feeding Ghosts For fans of Cloud Atlas and The Power, a hauntingly beautiful and prescient debut set in a future where a renamed China is the sole global superpower. When I was a boy, my mother used to tell me stories of a world before memories could be shared between strangers… In a far-off future ruled by the Qin Empire, every citizen is fitted with a Mindbank, an intracranial device capable of recording and transmitting memories between minds. This technology gives birth to Memory Capitalism, where anyone with means can relive the life experiences of others. It also unleashes opportunities for manipulation: memories can be edited, marketed, and even corrupted for personal gain. After the sudden passing of his mother, an unnamed narrator inherits a collection of banned memories from her Mindbank so dangerous that even possessing them places his freedom in jeopardy. Traversing genres, empires, and millennia, they are tales of sumo wrestlers and social activists and armless swimmers and watchmakers, struggling amid the backdrop of Qin’s ascent toward global dominance. Determined to release his mother's memories to the world before they are destroyed forever, the narrator will risk everything—even if the cost is his own life. Powerful and provocative, These Memories Do Not Belong to Us masterfully explores how governments and media manipulate history to control the collective imagination. It forces us to see beyond the sheen of convenient truths and to unearth real stories of sacrifice and love that refuse to be eradicated.

#1256
Thirst Trap

Thirst Trap

by Gráinne O'Hare
Amazon Bookshop

A bitingly funny novel about your late 20s as you stare down 30—when do you tire of morning hangovers, days of dead-end entry-level jobs, and late nights at bars? This friend group is about to find out. Sometimes friends hold you together. Sometimes they’re why you’re falling apart. Harley, Róise, and Maggie have been friends for ages. After meeting in primary school years ago, the women are still together, spending their nights on the sticky dancefloors of Belfast’s grungiest pubs. Each woman is navigating her own tangle of entry-level jobs, messy romantic entanglements, and late nights, but they always find their way back to each other, and to the ramshackle house they share. And amidst the familiar chaos, the three are still grieving their fourth housemate, whose room remains untouched, their last big fight hanging heavily over their heads. The girls’ house has witnessed the highs and lows of their roaring twenties—raucous parties, surprising (and sometimes regrettable) hook-ups, and hellish hangovers. But as they approach thirty, their home begins to crumble around them and the fault lines in their group become harder to ignore. In the wreckage, they must decide if their friendship will survive into a new decade—or if growing up sometimes means letting go. Brimming with heart and humor, Thirst Trap is an exuberant ode to friendship, to not having it all figured out, and to ordering just one more round before heading home.

#1258
This Book Will Bury Me

This Book Will Bury Me

by Ashley Winstead
Amazon Bookshop

From the acclaimed author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and Midnight is the Darkest Hour comes a chilling, compulsive story of five amateur sleuths, whose hunt for an elusive killer catapults them into danger as the world watches. It's the most famous crime in modern history. But only she knows the true story. After the unexpected death of her father, college student Jane Sharp longs for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with true crime, befriending armchair detectives who teach her how to hunt killers from afar. In this morbid internet underground, Jane finds friendship, purpose, and even glory... So when news of the shocking deaths of three college girls in Delphine, Idaho takes the world by storm, and sleuths everywhere race to solve the crimes, Jane and her friends are determined to beat them. But the case turns out to be stranger than anyone expected. Details don't add up, the police are cagey, and there seems to be more media hype and internet theorizing than actual evidence. When Jane and her sleuths take a step closer, they find that every answer only begs more questions. Something's not adding up, and they begin to suspect their killer may be smarter and more prolific than any they've faced before. Placing themselves in the center of the story starts to feel more and more like walking into a trap... Told one year after the astounding events that concluded the case and left the world reeling, when Jane has finally decided to break her silence about what really happened, she tells the true story of the Delphine Massacres. And what she has to confess will shock even the most seasoned true crime fans...

#1261
This Inevitable Ruin

This Inevitable Ruin

by Matt Dinniman
Amazon Bookshop

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Carl and Princess Donut are ready to battle it out in the epic seventh book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series—now with bonus material exclusive to this print edition! The ninth floor. Faction Wars. Nine armies enter, led by rich and powerful aliens from across the galaxy. The winning team must capture and hold the castle at the very center of the battlefield. Strategy, alliances, pitched battles, betrayal . . . It all makes for great fun and even greater television. But thanks to Carl, Donut, and Katia, this season is different. For the first time ever, the crawlers have their own army. The NPCs, who are normally used as nothing but cannon fodder, have become fully self-aware and have formed an unprecedented team of their own. And it’s not just the crawlers who are at risk this Faction Wars. Any combatant who dies on the battlefield stays in the ground. For Donut and Katia, the stakes are even higher. No matter who wins the war, only one of them will be allowed to leave this level. If they all want to survive, they’re going to need a little help from a veteran or two. This is it. This is what they’ve been fighting toward. This is war.

#1262
This Is For Everyone

This Is For Everyone

by Tim Berners-Lee
Amazon Bookshop

Charming, clever, self-effacing, interesting and thoughtful' Observer 'Visionary... Full of warmth and humanity' Kate Bush 'Profound' Al Gore The groundbreaking memoir from the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. This is the story of our modern age. The most influential inventor of the modern world, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is a different kind of visionary. Born in the same year as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Berners-Lee famously shared his invention, the World Wide Web, for no commercial reward. Its widespread adoption changed everything, transforming humanity into the first digital species. Through the web, we live, work, dream and connect. In this intimate memoir, Berners-Lee tells the story of his iconic invention, exploring how it launched a new era of creativity and collaboration while unleashing a commercial race that today imperils democracies and polarizes public debate. As the rapid development of artificial intelligence heralds a new era of innovation, Berners-Lee provides the perfect guide to the crucial decisions ahead – and a gripping, in-the-room account of the rise of the online world. Filled with Sir Tim's characteristic optimism, technical insight and wry humour, this is a book about the power of technology – both to fuel our worst instincts and to profoundly shape our lives for the better. This Is for Everyone is an essential read for understanding our times and a bold manifesto for advancing humanity’s future. 'Who is the greatest living Englishman? It would be hard to argue against the merits of Tim Berners-Lee' Stephen Fry

#1263
This Is the Only Kingdom

This Is the Only Kingdom

by Jaquira Díaz
Amazon Bookshop

LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL AWARD • From the Whiting Award-winning author Jaquira Díaz, an epic novel of a mother and daughter wrestling with the aftermath of a murder, set against the backdrop of a tightknit, working-class barrio in Puerto Rico. When Maricarmen meets Rey el Cantante, beloved small-time Robin Hood and local musician on the rise, she begins to envision a life beyond the tight-knit community of el Caserío, Puerto Rico – beyond cleaning houses, beyond waiting tables, beyond the constant tug of war between the street hustlers and los camarones. But breaking free proves more difficult than she imagined, and she soon finds herself struggling to make a home for herself, for Rey, his young brother Tito, and eventually, their daughter Nena. Until one fateful day changes everything. Fifteen years later, Maricarmen and Nena find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation as the community that once rallied to support Rey turns against them. Now Nena, a teenager haunted by loss and betrayal and exploring her sexual identity, must learn to fight for herself and her family in a world not always welcoming. For lovers of the Neapolitan novels, This is the Only Kingdom is an immersive and moving portrait of a family – and a community – torn apart by generational grief, and a powerful love letter to mothers, daughters, and the barrios that make them.

#1265
This Place Kills Me: A Graphic Novel

This Place Kills Me: A Graphic Novel

by Mariko Tamaki
Amazon Bookshop

A compelling, propulsive YA graphic novel mystery from acclaimed Eisner Award-winning author of Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, Mariko Tamaki, and Eisner-nominated illustrator Nicole Goux At Wilberton Academy, few students are more revered than the members of the elite Wilberton Theatrical Society--a.k.a. the WTS--and no one represents that exclusive club better than Elizabeth Woodward. Breathtakingly beautiful, beloved by all, and a talented thespian, it's no surprise she's starring as Juliet in the WTS's performance of Shakespeare's classic tragedy. But when she's found dead the morning after opening night, the whole school is thrown into chaos. Transfer student Abby Kita was one of the last people to see Elizabeth alive, and when local authorities deem the it-girl's death a suicide, Abby's not convinced. She's sure there's more to Wilburton and the WTS than meets the eye. As she gets tangled in prep school intrigues, Abby quickly realizes that Elizabeth was keeping secrets. Was one of those secrets worth killing for? Told in comics, letters, diary entries, and news articles, This Place Kills Me is a page-turning whodunnit from award-winning writer Mariko Tamaki and acclaimed illustrator Nicole Goux that will have readers on the edge of their seats and begging for an encore.

#1274
Trans History A Graphic Novel From Ancient Times to the Present Day

Trans History A Graphic Novel From Ancient Times to the Present Day

by Alex L Combs
Amazon Bookshop

An essential introduction to trans history, from ancient times to the present day, in full-color graphic nonfiction format. Deeply researched, highly readable, and featuring a broad range of voices. What does "trans" mean, and what does it mean to be trans? Diversity in human sex and gender is not a modern phenomenon, as readers will discover through illustrated stories and records that introduce historical figures ranging from the controversial Roman emperor Elagabalus to the swashbuckling seventeenth-century conquistador Antonio de Erauso to veterans of the Stonewall uprising Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. In addition to these individual profiles, the book explores some of the societal roles played by trans people beginning in ancient times and shows how European ideas about gender were spread across the globe. It explains how the science of sexology and the growing acceptance of (and backlash to) gender nonconformity have helped to shape what it means to be trans today. Illustrated conversations with modern activists, scholars, and creatives highlight the breadth of current trans experiences and give readers a deeper sense of the diversity of trans people, a group numbering in the millions. Extensive source notes provide further resources. Moving, funny, heartbreaking, and empowering, this remarkable compendium from trans creators Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett is packed with research on every dynamic page.

#1275
Truth Is

Truth Is

by Hannah V. Sawyerr
Amazon Bookshop

From the critically acclaimed author of All the Fighting Parts comes an empowering and defiant novel in verse in which a teen poet grapples with an unplanned pregnancy and determines what happens to her body in a world that wants to take the choice away from her. Seventeen-year-old Truth Bangura wants nothing more than to know a life beyond her hometown. Writing and performing is her only solace in a life overwhelmed by a drifting relationship with her best friend, an emotionally turbulent home environment, and the reality that her below average grades make her true dream—escaping her mother’s grasp after graduation—uncertain. When Truth learns she’s pregnant by her ex-boyfriend, she makes one decision she’s finally sure about: an abortion. Determined to move forward, Truth turns to the pages in her notebook with the support of her slam poetry team—including the poet with a voice smooth as summer jazz, who’s been catching her eye during practice. At an open mic night, Truth finally gains the courage to perform a piece that dives into her rocky relationship with her mother–and reveals the choice she never told her. But when a video of Truth’s performance is posted online and starts going viral, her decision quickly becomes everyone’s business–including her mother’s. Told through searing free-verse, journal entries, and interspersed fill-in-the-blank poetry prompts, Hannah V. Sawyerr’s Truth Is reminds us there is always a choice. There is always hope. And there is always a way forward.

#1279
Tusk Love

Tusk Love

by Thea Guanzon
Amazon Bookshop

A merchant’s daughter who yearns for adventure gets more than she bargained for when she falls for a broodingly handsome stranger in this saucy romantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hurricane Wars. This gorgeous hardcover edition features beautiful designed endpapers and a reversible jacket with in-world fan art by Jester Lavorre. “A true delight of a book! Spicy and heartfelt—this one is a winner all around.”—Katee Robert, author of Neon Gods As the daughter of an ambitious merchant, Guinevere’s path has been predetermined: marry into a noble house of the Dwendalian Empire, raise her family’s station, and live quietly as a lordling’s obedient wife. But Guinevere longs for a life unbounded by expectations, for freedom and passion and adventure. Those distant dreams become a sudden reality when her caravan is beset by bandits, leaving her guards slain and Guinevere stranded alone on the dangerous Amber Road. Her only chance of survival is to travel alongside Oskar, the aloof half-orc who saved her during the attack. Unlike Guinevere, Oskar’s path is not so set in stone. With his mother dead and his apprenticeship abandoned, all that’s left is a long, lonely walk to a land he’s never seen to find family he’s never met. The last thing he needs is a spoiled waif like Guinevere slowing him down—even if the spark between them sizzles with promise. Despite his cold exterior, Oskar is brave and thoughtful and unlike anyone Guinevere has ever met. And while Guinevere may be sheltered, she brings out a softness in him that he has never dared to feel before. As the flames of their passion grow, they realize that soon they’ll need to choose between their expected destinations or their blossoming romance. Written by New York Times bestselling author Thea Guanzon at the behest of Critical Role’s Jester Lavorre, Tusk Love brings the most romantic story on Exandrian bookshelves to life.

#1285
Under a Fire-Red Sky

Under a Fire-Red Sky

by Geraldine McCaughrean
Amazon Bookshop

From the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Geraldine McCaughrean comes an utterly immersive and unforgettable novel set during the London Blitz, inspired by her firefighter father. With World War II looming, four young people sit on a train waiting to be evacuated to a safer place...but they don't want to go. They climb out of the carriage window and head back to Greenwich, forming an unlikely friendship. They spend their days trying to be useful. Laurence is building a secret machine. Gemmy searches bombed-out homes for things of value - only to find an adorable mutt she can't even give away. Franklin wants to join the Fire Service, although it means lying about his age. Olive looks after her father, who is broken by the deaths of his fellow firefighters. And together, the four roam the streets of London, discovering their resilience amongst the secrets of the city. But as the Blitz unleashes a barrage of bombs on London, turning the sky ragged with flame, can the friends keep each other safe and survive?

#1288
Underspin

Underspin

by EY Zhao
Amazon Bookshop

"E. Y. Zhao's Underspin is an eruption of a debut. This novel displays a wondrous ability that renders both the central sport and lives that weave around it with meticulous precision and tremendous heart. The beauty of sport, the spirit of desire and the sacrifice required for greatness are all captured here in this stunner." —Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars Stay True meets Headshot in this intimate, bruising coming-of-age novel about the short and tumultuous life of a charismatic and enigmatic table tennis prodigy, as seen through the eyes of those pulled into his orbit. Ryan Lo begins playing table tennis at age eight, under the tutelage of his brilliant but ruthless coach Kristian, who sees talent in him that might be nurtured into greatness. Throughout an adolescence circumscribed by Kristian's demanding behavior, Ryan forms jealousy-fueled and mutually adoring friendships with his teammates and competitors, falls in love with fellow table tennis star Anabel Yu, and above all, wins championships. By twenty-one, Ryan ascends all the way to the German Bundesliga, the highest echelon of international table tennis, just as he was supposed to, but he doesn't stay there. It is clear to all that Ryan Lo was meant to be the greatest in the world. Instead, he abandons competition and is dead before his twenty-fifth birthday. What happened? In crisp, evocative prose, Underspin masterfully delves beneath the relentless pressure that forges a champion, considering adolescence, estrangement, and the great injustices committed within our closest relationships. A love letter to an underdog sports circuit and a tender exploration of love, loss and abuse, Underspin is a bildungsroman and literary puzzle for readers of Rita Bullwinkel, Hua Hsu, Susan Choi, and Brandon Taylor.

#1291
Unknown Enemy:

Unknown Enemy:

by Charles Dick
Amazon Bookshop

The harrowing true story of Organisation Todt, the builders-turned-killers at the center of the Nazi war machine. Adolf Hitler described the Organisation Todt as “the greatest construction organization of all time.” It was from this organization, headed by Albert Speer, that Hitler enlisted the nation's leading engineers and architects to build his empire of dreams. In time, it became a key partner to the SS and the Wehrmacht and led to the deaths of millions. Unknown Enemy reveals the full extent of the OT and its long arm across Europe and the Reich. In wartime, its operations relied mainly on Germany's slave labor system, the largest exploitation of foreign labor since the end of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Charles Dick takes us inside the OT's vast building projects throughout German-occupied Europe, from the Arctic circle to the Balkans, to tell the story of how engineers and builders-so-called “ordinary men”-perpetrated some of the gravest war crimes under its banner. Despite its extensive network, the Organisation Todt largely managed to slip under the radar of war prosecutors after Germany's defeat. Drawing on extensive new research, first-person accounts and survivor testimony, Unknown Enemy finally unearths its dark story.

#1292
Unpacking My Father’s Bookstore

Unpacking My Father’s Bookstore

by Laurence Roth
Amazon Bookshop

Unpacking My Father's Bookstore brings to life the history of J. Roth / Bookseller of Fine & Scholarly Judaica, which was a microcosm of the Los Angeles Jewish community from 1966 to 1994 and one of the premier Jewish bookstores in the United States. Blending critical analysis with a personal account of growing up in his father's bookstore, and connecting both to larger forces that helped shape Jewish and American book retailing in the twentieth-century, Laurence Roth crafts a richly felt narrative about his family's Jewish experience in America. It is a reminder, too, that while most independent bookstores like J. Roth Bookseller disappear from history, these retailers often had outsized effects on their communities. Breaking with conventional modes of scholarship, Unpacking My Father's Bookstore tells a unique and troubled story that rarely gets told, one that is both personal and analytical, theoretical but rooted in the everyday.

#1294
Vagabond: A Memoir

Vagabond: A Memoir

by Tim Curry
Amazon Bookshop

This memoir is a celebration of Tim Curry's’s life’s work, and a testament to his profound impact on the entertainment industry as we know it today. There are few stars in Hollywood today that can boast the kind of resume Tony award-nominated actor Tim Curry has built over the past five decades. From his breakout role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show to his iconic depiction as the sadistic clown Pennywise in It to his critically acclaimed role as the original King Arthur in both the Broadway and West End versions of Spamalot, Curry redefined what it meant to be a “character actor,” portraying heroes and villains alike with complexity, nuance, and a genuine understanding of human darkness. Now, in his memoir, Curry takes readers behind-the-scenes of his rise to fame from his early beginnings as a military brat to his formative years in boarding school and university, to the moment when he hit the stage for the first time. He goes in-depth about what it was like to work on some of the most emblematic works of the 20th century, constantly switching between a camera and a live audience. He also explores the voicework that defined his later career and provided him with a chance to pivot after surviving a catastrophic stroke in 2012 that nearly took his life. With the upcoming 50th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the 40th anniversary of Clue, there’s never been a better time for Tim to share his story with the world.

#1295
Vaim

Vaim

by Jon Fosse
Amazon Bookshop

Jatgeir è partito dal villaggio di Vaim a bordo della sua barca, Eline, che porta il nome di un amore perduto di gioventù. Deve fare acquisti in città, ma l’accoglienza che gli riservano i suoi abitanti è tutt’altro che cordiale. La notte, mentre dorme sulla barca ormeggiata al molo di Sund, sente una voce femminile chiamarlo, un suono familiare che lo riporta a un lontano passato. A pochi passi da sé vede Eline, la donna che non aveva mai dimenticato: ha deciso di lasciare il marito, ha una valigia in mano ed è determinata a tornare a Vaim con Jatgeir, sulla barca che porta il suo nome. Questo incontro inatteso è l’inizio di un viaggio sospeso in un triangolo amoroso, che esplora le sfumature della perdita e del desiderio, in un intreccio di vita e morte, realtà e sogno. Il ritorno al romanzo di Jon Fosse dopo il premio Nobel per la Letteratura 2023 prosegue la sua indagine sulla condizione umana, sugli incontri che definiscono le nostre vite, sulla lotta quotidiana tra quello che accade e ciò che desideriamo.

#1300
Venetian Vespers

Venetian Vespers

by John Banville
Amazon Bookshop

A masterful, enthralling new novel from the Booker Prize winner Everything was a puzzle, everything a trap set to mystify and hinder me. . . . 1899. As the new century approaches, struggling English writer Evelyn Dolman—a hack, by his own description—marries Laura Rensselaer, daughter of an American oil tycoon. Evelyn anticipates that he and Laura will inherit a substantial fortune and lead a comfortable, settled life. But his hopes are dashed when a mysterious rift between Laura and her father, just before the patriarch’s death, leads to her disinheritance. The unhappy newlyweds travel to Venice to celebrate the New Year at the Palazzo Dioscuri, ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo. From their first moments in the mist-blanketed floating city, otherworldly occurrences begin to accumulate. Evelyn’s already jangled nerves fray further. Where has Laura disappeared to? How to explain the increasingly sinister circumstances closing around him? Could he be losing his mind? Venetian Vespers is a haunting, atmospheric novel from one of the most sophisticated stylists of our time.

#1305
Water Moon: A Novel

Water Moon: A Novel

by Samantha Sotto Yambao
Amazon Bookshop

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets, and then embarks on a magical quest when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop, in this dreamlike fantasy novel. FEATURES A UNIQUE ORIGAMI JACKET that folds into a boat, joining the characters in an enchanting way. The jacket artwork is also printed directly onto the hardcover case underneath. “Race through a lush world of pure wonder and romance—kites made of wishes that become stars, origami that holds time in its folds, and a night market in the clouds—in this lovely, cozy fantasy reminiscent of Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea.”—Booklist (starred review) On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only the chosen ones—those who are lost—will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets. Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike its other customers, for he offers help instead of seeking it. Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice—by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and a night market in the clouds. But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own—and risk making a choice that she will never be able to take back. “Highly recommended . . . Readers who have been swept up in the cozy charm of Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee will fall hard for the mix of magical realism, fantasy mystery, and star-crossed romance.”—Library Journal (starred review)

#1311
We Did Ok, Kid: A Memoir

We Did Ok, Kid: A Memoir

by Anthony Hopkins
Amazon Bookshop

Academy Award-winning actor Sir Anthony Hopkins delves into his illustrious film and theatre career, difficult childhood and path to sobriety in his honest, moving and long-awaited memoir. Born and raised in Port Talbot – a small Welsh steelworks town – amid war and depression, Sir Anthony Hopkins grew up around men who were tough, to say the least, and eschewed all forms of emotional vulnerability in favor of alcoholism and brutality. A struggling student in school, he was deemed by his peers, his parents and other adults as a failure with no future ahead of him. But, on a fateful Saturday night, the disregarded Welsh boy watched the 1948 adaptation of Hamlet, sparking a passion for acting that would lead him on a path that no one could have predicted. With candour and a voice that is both arresting and vulnerable, Sir Anthony recounts his various career milestones and provides a once-in-a-lifetime look into the brilliance behind some of his most iconic roles. His performance as Iago gets him admitted into the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and places him under the wing of Laurence Olivier. He meets Richard Burton by chance as a young boy in his art teacher’s apartment, and later, backstage before a performance of Equus as an established actor meeting his hero. His iconic portrayal of Hannibal Lecter was informed by the creepy performance of Bela Lugosi in Dracula and the razor-sharp precision of his acting teacher. He pulls raw emotion from the stoicism of his father and grandfather for an unforgettable performance in King Lear. Sir Anthony also takes a deeply honest look at the low points in his personal life. His addiction cost him his first marriage, his relationship with his only child, and nearly his life – the latter ultimately propelling him toward sobriety, a commitment he has maintained for nearly half a century. He constantly battles against the desire to move through life alone and avoid connection for fear of getting hurt – much like the men in his family – and as the years go by, he deals with questions of mortality, getting ready to discover what his father called The Big Secret. Featuring a special collection of personal photographs throughout, We Did OK, Kid is a raw and passionate memoir from a complex, iconic man who has inspired audiences with remarkable performances for over sixty years.

#1315
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh

We Pretty Pieces of Flesh

by Colwill Brown
Amazon Bookshop

"An exuberant and ribald debut novel about three adolescent girls coming of age in a gritty post-industrial town in Yorkshire, England in the '90s who are as sweetly vulnerable and funny as they are cunning and tough "Ask anyone non-Northern, they'll only know Donny as punchline of a joke or place they changed trains once ont way to London." But it's also the home of Rach, Kel, and Shaz, bezzies since childhood. From scheming one another's first kisses, to sneaking vodka (or the occasional Cointreau) into school in water bottles, to accompanying one another to Family Planning for pregnancy tests, the girls come of age together, Donny lasses through and through. Never mind that Rach is skeptical of Shaz's bolder plots; or that Shaz, who comes from a rougher end of town, feels left behind when the others begin plotting a course to uni; or that Kel sometimes feels split in two trying to keep the peace - the girls are inseparable, their friendship as indestructible as they are. But as the girls grow up and away from each other, a long-festering secret threatens to rip the trio apart. Is their shared past enough to keep them close? Written in a Yorkshire dialect that brings a place and its people magnificently to life, We Pretty Pieces of Flesh spans decades and continents as its heroines come of age, never shying from the ugly truths of girlhood. Like Trainspotting and Shuggie Bain, it tracks hard-edged lives and makes them sing, making one overlooked and forgotten place the very center of the world"--

#1323
What God in the Kingdom of Bastards

What God in the Kingdom of Bastards

by Brian Gyamfi
Amazon Bookshop

What God in the Kingdom of Bastards is a poetic exploration of grief, memory, Blackness, and the haunting legacy of familial trauma by way of colonialism, told through the lens of two brothers: Lot, the elder, who is flesh and alive, and Frank, the younger, a ghost navigating his post-suicide existence. Their relationship anchors the collection, weaving themes of love, loss, and the arduous reconciliation between the living and the dead. Combining vivid imagery with fragmented, conversational tones of prayers, laments, and whispered confessions that are surreal and lyrical, Gyamfi delves into the ways trauma--both personal and systemic--permeates family, faith, and identity.

#1328
When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World

When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World

by Jordan Thomas
Amazon Bookshop

2025 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST “Exceptional. . . . When It All Burns is one of those books that immerses the reader in the nuances of a world most of us know only through the lens of tragedy and destruction. Thomas’ visceral, crystalline prose only adds fuel to the fire.” —Los Angeles Times A hotshot firefighter’s gripping firsthand account of a record-setting fire season Eighteen of California’s largest wildfires on record have burned in the past two decades. Scientists recently invented the term “megafire” to describe wildfires that behave in ways that would have been nearly impossible just a generation ago, burning through winter, exploding in the night, and devastating landscapes historically impervious to incendiary destruction. In When It All Burns, wildland firefighter and anthropologist Jordan Thomas recounts a single, brutal six-month fire season with the Los Padres Hotshots—the special forces of America’s firefighters. Being a hotshot is among the most difficult jobs on earth. Thomas viscerally renders his crew’s attempts to battle flames that are often too destructive to contain. He uncovers the hidden cultural history of megafires, revealing how humanity’s symbiotic relationship with wildfire became a war—and what can be done to change it back. Thomas weaves ecology and the history of Indigenous peoples' oppression, federal forestry, and the growth of the fire industrial complex into a riveting narrative about a new phase in the climate crisis. It's an immersive story of community in the most perilous of circumstances, told with humor, humility, and affection.

#1331
When the Moon Hits Your Eye

When the Moon Hits Your Eye

by John Scalzi
Amazon Bookshop

New York Times bestselling author John Scalzi flies you to the moon with his most fantastic tale to date: When the Moon Hits Your Eye The moon has turned into cheese. Now humanity has to deal with it. For some it’s an opportunity. For others it’s a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible. Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives -- over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve. All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you’d expect, and then to so many places you wouldn’t. It’s a wild moonage daydream. Ride this rocket. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

#1332
When the Wolf Comes Home

When the Wolf Comes Home

by Nat Cassidy
Amazon Bookshop

Nat Cassidy, author of the acclaimed horror Mary, returns with When the Wolf Comes Home, an unabashed, adrenaline-fueled pop horror thriller where the darkest fears can become reality. A USA Today bestseller! ABA Indie Bookseller bestseller! Best Horror of 2025—Men's Health, Vulture Editors' Pick—Page Six “Get your claws into this one, horror fiends. It's terrific. . . . Sink your teeth into a classic.”—Stephen King “A crazy-good, balls-to-the-wall horror novel . . . it’s full throttle from the first pages.” —Joe Hill “This is the kind of great, big, epic horror novel we got back in the '80s that came out swinging for the fences and left everything on the field. Welcome back, you shaggy, bloody monster of a book!” —Grady Hendrix Best Books of 2025—Vulture The 25 Best and Most Anticipated Horror Books of 2025—Men's Health Most Anticipated Horror of 2025—Paste Magazine, LitHub One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy's father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives. As they attempt to evade the boy's increasingly desperate father, Jess slowly comes to a horrifying understanding of the butchery that follows them—the boy can turn his every fear into reality. And when the wolf finally comes home, no one will be spared. Other Books by Nat Cassidy Mary, an Awakening of Terror Nestlings At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

#1333
When They Burned the Butterfly

When They Burned the Butterfly

by Wen-yi Lee
Amazon Bookshop

In this fierce, glamorous adult fantasy debut, Silvia Moreno-Garcia meets Fonda Lee, with the feverish intensity of R.F. Kuang's Poppy War trilogy. Singapore, 1972: Newly independent and grappling for power in a fast-modernizing world. Here, gangsters in Chinese secret societies are the last conduits of their ancestors' migrant gods, and the back alleys where they fight are the last place magic has not been assimilated and legislated away. Loner schoolgirl Adeline Siow has never needed more company than the flame she can summon at her fingertips. But when her mother dies in a house fire with a butterfly seared onto her skin and Adeline hunts down a girl she saw in a back-alley barfight—a girl with a butterfly tattoo—she discovers she’s far from alone. Ang Tian is a Red Butterfly: one of a gang of girls who came from nothing, sworn to a fire goddess and empowered to wreak vengeance on the men that abuse and underestimate them. Adeline’s mother led a double life as their elusive patron, Madam Butterfly. Now that she’s dead, Adeline’s bloodline is the sole thing sustaining the goddess. Between her search for her mother’s killer and the gang’s succession crisis, Adeline becomes quickly entangled with the girls’ dangerous world, and even more so with the charismatic Tian. But no home lasts long around here. Ambitious and paranoid neighbor gangs hunt at the edges of Butterfly territory, and bodies are turning up in the red light district suffused with a strange new magic. Adeline may have found her place for once, but with the streets changing by the day, it may take everything she is to keep it.

#1334
Where Monsters Lie, Volume 2: Cull-de-Sac

Where Monsters Lie, Volume 2: Cull-de-Sac

by Kyle Starks and Piotr Kowalski
Amazon Bookshop

The return of the hit meta-horror comedy by Eisner-nominated writer Kyle Starks (Those Not Afraid, Lobo) about a group of monsters who reside at a gated community in the middle of nowhere where they relax—or try to—when they are not out killing. Come join us, friends, for it's time to visit another gated community for slashers and meet a new cast of horrible monsters as we return to the world of Where Monsters Lie. Connor Hayes, final girl turned apex monster hunter, has been brought to Site B and expected to be a good little killer, but will he cooperate? And what sort of bone-tingling secrets inhabit this new horror hamlet? Welcome to Site C! Home of hillbilly slashers, backwoods cannibals, and all the rural killers. I'm sure everything will be perfectly fine here. The monstrous terrors increase in the second arc of WHERE MONSTERS LIE! Collects Where Monsters Lie: CULL-DE-SAC #1–#4.

#1343
Wild Thing

Wild Thing

by Sue Prideaux
Amazon Bookshop

ONCE MORE, IN SECRET This isn't your average love story. Five years ago, Dylan Forrester had her heart smashed into smithereens. But while she died inside, other parts of her life thrived. And now? It seems like she has it all. A skyrocketing career, a steady boyfriend and a picture-perfect life. But behind the fake smile, you'll find the truth: she's a chaotic mess. Enter Brax. Six foot three. Tattooed. A human wrecking ball of bad decisions. Oh, and her ex--the one who shattered her into tiny, unfixable pieces. When fate throws them together, buried feelings and bad decisions take control, threatening to blow their lives to bits. Told in gripping alternating timelines, Wild Thing is a razor-sharp dive into love's darker edges, the places where morals are tested, and secrets are exposed.

#1344
WILL THERE EVER BE ANOTHER YOU

WILL THERE EVER BE ANOTHER YOU

by Patricia Lockwood
Amazon Bookshop

From the Booker Prize finalist and “formidably gifted writer” (The New York Times), a vertiginous novel about a woman’s descent into illness and insanity. Amid a global pandemic, one young woman is trying to keep the pieces together – of her family, stunned by a devastating loss, and of her mind, left mangled and misfiring from a mystifying disease. She’s afraid of her own floorboards, and “WHAT IS LOVE? BABY DON’T HURT ME” plays over and over in her ears. She hates her friends, or more accurately, she doesn’t know who they are. Has the illness stolen her old mind and given her a new one? Does it mean she’ll get to start over from scratch, a chance afforded to very few people? The very weave of herself seems to have loosened: time and memories pass straight through her body. “I’m sorry not to respond to your email,” she writes, “but I live completely in the present now." Will There Ever Be Another You is the brain-shredding, phosphorescent story of one woman’s dissolution and her attempt to create a new way of thinking, as well as a profound investigation into what keeps us alive in times of unprecedented disorientation and loss, from one of our most original writers. Praise for Will There Ever Be Another You “Patricia Lockwood… writes with the impish verve and provocative guilelessness of a peeing cupid.” – The New Yorker “Completely singular… Patricia Lockwood’s body of work is like this: a hymn—or ode, depending on the day—to the painful project of being human.” – The New Republic “The author’s fans will find her trademark humor, originality, and depth on full display. This is a knockout.” – starred Publishers Weekly Praise for No One Is Talking About This “A book that reads like a prose poem, at once sublime, profane, intimate, philosophical, witty and, eventually, deeply moving.” —The New York Times “Reading Patricia Lockwood raises questions. Questions such as, How can a person understand both herself and the world with such clarity? How does a person experience things so intensely and express them so buoyantly? Am I laughing or am I crying? Lockwood’s first novel is as crystalline, witty, and brain-shredding as her poetry and criticism.” —Vulture “Wow. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much reading a book. What an inventive and startling writer…I’m so glad I read this. I really think this book is remarkable.” —David Sedaris “God, is she funny!” —The New Yorker

#1353
Wonderland

Wonderland

by Tracy Farr
Amazon Bookshop

Te Motu Kairangi Miramar Peninsula, Wellington 1912. Doctor Matti Loverock spends her days and nights bringing babies into the world, which means her daughters - seven-year-old triplets Ada, Oona and Hanna - have grown up at Wonderland, the once-thriving amusement park owned by their father, Charlie. Then a grieving woman arrives to stay from the other side of the world, in pain and incognito, fleeing scandal. She ignites the triplets' curiosity and brings work for Matti, diverting them all from what is really happening at Wonderland. In a bold reimagining, Marie Curie - famous for her work on radioactivity - comes to Aotearoa and discovers both solace and wonder.

#1358
Xolo

Xolo

by Donna Barba Higuera
Amazon Bookshop

It is said the mighty feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl, helped create the earth. He is the hero who stole back the bones of humanity from the evil god of the Underworld. In his quest to bring humans to the earth, Quetzalcoatl's dog-headed twin brother, Xolotl, was present. Not much is known of Xolotl, the god of lightning, death, and misfortune. A monster. This is what really happened. From Newbery Medalist Donna Barba Higuera comes a singular twist on the Aztec myth of the origin of man-and man's best friend-illustrated throughout with stunning full-color art from Mariana Ruiz Johnson.