In Ives’s clever novel (after Impossible Views of the World), it is 2003 and the title character is a brashly self-absorbed walking “boxer-briefs commercial” who concocts a brilliant plan for how to extend his college years of sleeping with hot coeds, with the added bonus of free money: gra... Continue reading »

Carr’s series sleuth, Dr. Gideon Fell, shows off his brilliance in this sterling entry in the American Mystery Classics series, originally published in 1933. Chief Inspector Hadley consults Fell on the case of Sir William Bitton, a book collector who stumbled on the find of a lifetime, the manuscrip... Continue reading »

Roanhorse’s second Sixth World apocalyptic fantasy novel is less emotionally charged than its predecessor, Trail of Lightning, but dives deeply into the characters, introduces a great new one, and continues weaving Navajo beliefs overtly and subtly into the story. Maggie Hoskie, monsterslay... Continue reading »

Ryan (Dirty Little Secret) delivers an intoxicating blend of hair-raising suspense, betrayal, and true love with this gripping contemporary set in the rich vineyards of Napa Valley. Evangeline Austen served four years in prison for a theft she didn’t commit; her arresting officer, Lt. Chris... Continue reading »

Snippets of dialogue between Jacob (The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing) and her family and friends form the basis of this breezy but poignant graphic memoir that takes on racism, love, and the election of President Trump. The bisexual daughter of Indian immigrants, Jacob effectively conveys... Continue reading »

In his debut collection, Kunz crafts a poetics of disappointment and consolation: disillusionment with an alcoholic father, a marriage quickly entered into and dissolved, boyhood friends transformed into unrecognizable adults. In prose and free verse poems, Kunz paints a working-class world, “the fa... Continue reading »

In this finely wrought story, Vogel Sawyer (Waiting for Summer’s Return) takes reader to the 1895 Cotton Exposition in Atlanta. Willie Sharp takes a job at the Expo to pay for his father’s medical treatment after he suffers a stroke. Laurel Millard, meanwhile, is expected by her older sibli... Continue reading »

A brilliant, abrasive diplomat struggles to resolve foreign conflicts while fighting bureaucratic wars at home in this scintillating biography. New Yorker writer Packer (The Unwinding) follows Holbrooke’s State Department career from his start in the American “pacification” program... Continue reading »

Michaels, a former contestant on MasterChef UK, debuts with an inspired collection packed with anecdotes and excellent recipes from Greece, with a focus on the food of Cyprus, where his family has roots. The fare is appropriately light and well-suited to sunny climes: a ceviche of sea bream... Continue reading »

In her fantastic debut, Mennonite pastor Florer-Bixler guides readers through a slow, participatory reading of the Old Testament that leads to thoughtful musings on issues including white supremacy, immigration, and the treatment of people with intellectual disabilities. Insisting that the God of th... Continue reading »

In this WWII thriller, Strange (The Secret of Nightingale Wood) crafts an evocative portrait of wartime suspicion and intrigue. Narrator Petra (Pet) lives with her older sister Mags, and her English Pa and German Mutti in a lighthouse cottage on England’s South East coast—a lighthouse they ... Continue reading »