The book: Fire Exit by Morgan Talty
Our reviewer says: "Talty follows up Night of the Living Rez with a moving if muted novel about a middle-aged white man yearning to tell his birth daughter, who was raised on the Penobscot Reservation, that he’s her father." Read more.
Alta Journal’s California Book Club
The book: Dead in Long Beach, California by Venita Blackburn
Our reviewer says: "Blackburn’s bold and formally inventive debut novel, a Black gay graphic novelist impersonates her dead brother.... This ambitious effort is worth a look." Read more.
The book: Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Our reviewer says: Read more.
Barnes & Noble Book Club and Sarah Selects
The book: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Our reviewer says: "The gripping and revelatory latest from Moore revolves around a prominent banking family’s troubled legacy in the Adirondacks.... This astonishes." Read more.
The book: Strange Fruit, Vol. 1 by Joel Christian Gill
Belletrist and Good Housekeeping Book Club
The book: Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Our reviewer says: "Brodesser-Akner’s latest combines the smarts of Sarah Silverman’s stand-up, the polymath verisimilitude of Tom Wolfe’s novels, and the Jewish soul of Sholem Aleichem’s stories." Read more.
The book: When Women Ran Fifth Avenue by Julie Satow
Good Morning America Book Club
The book: The Love of My After Life by Kirsty Greenwood
Our reviewer says: "Greenwood is working at a large scale: the emotions are sweeping, the humor feels straight out of a network sitcom, and the characters are bold, if sometimes broad." Read more.
Jewish Book Council Book Club (Fiction)
The book: Don't Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino
Jewish Book Council Book Club (Nonfiction)
The book: Vision by David S. Tatel
Our reviewer says: "Tatel shares in this inspiring debut how he navigated a flourishing legal career while living with the genetic condition that cost him his sight." Read more.
The book: Familiaris by David Wroblewski
Our reviewer says: "Wroblewski delivers a gratifying if overstuffed prequel to his 2008 bestseller, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle." Read more.
The book: Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
Our reviewer says: "A dead man reconsiders his life in this charming fantasy.... Tenderness, wit, and skillful worldbuilding elevate this delightful tale." Read more.
The book: Bits and Pieces by Whoopi Goldberg
Our reviewer says: "Actor Goldberg reflects in this tender chronicle on the deaths of her two closest family members.... Goldberg’s earthy, no-nonsense voice anchors her commentary on the ravages of bereavement. This is no dishy Hollywood tell-all—it’s a salve for wounded souls." Read more.
The book: Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
The book: How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
Our reviewer says: "Poet Sinclair recounts her harrowing upbringing in Jamaica in this bruising memoir. In dazzling prose, she examines the traumas of her childhood against the backdrop of her new life as a poet.... This is a tour de force." Read more.
The book: Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
Our reviewer says: "Bayron’s deconstructive reimagining of the classic fairy tale is ambitious, replacing the happily-ever-after with a tragic legacy and a defiant, feminist tone." Read more.
The book: James by Percival Everett
Our reviewer says: "Everett portrays in this ingenious retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a Black man who’s mastered the art of minstrelsy to get what he needs from gullible white people.... Everett has outdone himself." Read more.
The book: All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
Our reviewer says: "In 1975 Missouri, 13-year-old orphan Saint Brown and her scruffy, eye patch–wearing classmate, Patch Macauley, are drawing closer by the day when Patch’s disappearance rips them apart—setting in motion this lyrical, decades-spanning outing from Whitaker, which is both a riveting serial killer thriller and a heartrending love story." Read more.
The book: The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan
Our reviewer says: "Bestseller Sullivan toys with gothic and supernatural elements in her propulsive latest.... Sullivan leans on many pages of exposition and a few too many coincidences to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, but, for the most part, the plot motors along like a well-oiled machine." Read more.
The book: All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
Our reviewer says: "Tahir explores heavy themes, including grief, racism, financial need, trauma, and substance abuse, in a far-reaching novel that follows a working-class Pakistani American family across two generations.... This powerful, viscerally told novel unfolds across the past and present, painting solidly multidimensional characters alongside vividly wrought connections and pressure." Read more.
The book: It's Elementary by Elise Bryant
Our reviewer says: "Shady dealings at a California elementary school propel this frothy adult debut from YA author Bryant." Read more.
The book: Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías, translated by Heather Cleary
Our reviewer says: "A woman contends with her fraught relationships as a plague devastates her country in this vivid outing.... The novel captivates with its increasingly claustrophobic atmosphere, and Trías keenly explores the resentments that fester within a mother-daughter relationship, a failing marriage, and childcare work." Read more.
