In Phillips’s blunt, life-affirming debut collection, characters in rural, hardscrabble North Carolina grapple for hope while being sustained by a soundtrack of Today’s Country Hits on FM radio and a diet of Duck Thru hot dogs. In “Shania,” the unnamed seven-year-old protagonist is awed by ... Continue reading »

Goldsborough’s first-rate Nero Wolfe mystery (after 2019’s Death of an Art Collector) deepens Rex Stout’s characters by extrapolating from the original novels’ few clues to paint a plausible portrait of Archie Goodwin’s unnamed Ohio hometown. Archie’s aunt, Edna Wainwright, alerts him to a ... Continue reading »

The four never-before-published novellas in this collection represent horror master King at his finest, using the weird and uncanny to riff on mortality, the price of creativity, and the unpredictable consequences of material attachments. A teenager discovers that a dead friend’s cell phone, which w... Continue reading »

A grumpy diner owner and an adventurous waitress on her first vacation in years develop unexpected feelings in Morgenthaler’s thoroughly entertaining debut. Graham Barnett hates running the Tourist Trap, his popular Moose Springs, Alas., establishment famous both for the gimmicky menu items (“Growly... Continue reading »

Ennis again achieves what his best WWII comics, such as Johnny Red: The Hurricane and Night Witches, have done: illuminate a little-known corner of that sprawling conflict and highlight the humanity of those involved in pulse-pounding battles. Ennis showcases Britain’s obsolete and... Continue reading »

The psychologically rich latest from McSweeney (The Commandrine and Other Poems) is haunted by an excruciating event that is alluded to throughout but only briefly described. With references to a toxifying Earth filled with weapons of war, drones, and digital overstimulation, McSweeney pres... Continue reading »

Baker continues her Hope Chest of Dreams series (after Love at Pebble Creek) with this superb story of young love between Amish and Englisch. In Pebble Creek, Ill., Hannah, the youngest of 10 siblings, works at her family’s bakery and dreams of adventure. Despite her mother’s disapproval, H... Continue reading »

Mathews (Committed), a PETA executive, lovingly and hilariously recounts sharing his Portsmouth, Va., Victorian house with Perry, his ailing 79-year-old mother. In 2008, the 46-year-old party- and travel-loving Mathews moves his manic depressive mother in, despite being hesitant about their... Continue reading »

Restaurateur Silverton (The Mozza Cookbook) gives her all in this excellent carnivorous compendium of dishes served at her eponymous restaurant in Los Angeles. Despite the American cooking referred to in the title, these recipes “are inspired by how an Italian butcher might cook.” This is t... Continue reading »

Petrey, a professor of religion at Kalamazoo College, combines meticulous research with illuminating insight in this landmark work on gender and sexuality in Mormon thought. Petrey shows how Latter-day Saint teachings about race, marriage, homosexuality, and gender roles have adapted to different so... Continue reading »

In Ifueko’s stunning fantasy debut, a woman known as “the Lady” commands a djinn to build her an invisible stronghold and impregnate her with a child who must someday grant her third wish. She raises the resulting daughter, dark-skinned Tarisai, in ignorance of her origins, isolating and training he... Continue reading »