The Say SoJulia Franks. Hub City, $28 (368p) ISBN 979-8-88574-007-4
Franks (Over the Plain Houses) follows in her beautiful latest the ripple effects after a teenager is forced to give up her baby. It’s 1957 in Charlotte, N.C., and quiet, pretty Edie Carrigan falls for Simon Bloom, an older Jewish boy, whom Edie’s parents don’t approve of. Edie’s mother wou... Continue reading »
The GetDietrich Kalteis. ECW, $21.95 trade paper (230p) ISBN 978-1-77041-684-0
In this captivating, irreverent 1960s-set caper from Kalteis (Under an Outlaw Moon), small-time Toronto thugs Lenny Ovitz and Gabe Zoller make their living strong-arming store owners into paying protection money to their boss, Ernie Zimm. Having borrowed $200,000 from a shady boxing promote... Continue reading »
Many Worlds: or, The SimulacraEdited by Cadwell Turnbull and Josh Eure. Radix, $24.95 trade paper (180p) ISBN 978-1-73771-843-7
This excellent anthology delves into an unsettling shared multiverse in which individuals struggle to understand a world being constantly edited around them. Project creator Turnbull’s opening piece, “Notes on the Form of the Simulacra,” serves as an explanation of the setup in the form of an analys... Continue reading »
Mortal FolliesAlexis Hall. Del Rey, $18 trade paper (416p) ISBN 978-0-593-49756-2
Set in a magic-infused Regency England and narrated by the hobgoblin Puck, of A Midsummer Night’s Dream fame, this stirring outing from Hall (Boyfriend Material) proves a fresh and delightful addition to the queer romance canon. Maelys Mitchelmore, a noblewoman, falls desperately i... Continue reading »
Minami’s LoverShungiku Uchida, trans. from the Japanese by H. Paige. Fantagraphics, $29.99 (200p) ISBN 978-1-68396-760-6
Uchida’s classic manga, first serialized in the underground Japanese magazine Garo, sketches the outline of a cute rom-com fantasy, then digs into murky psychological territory. Chiyomi, a high school girl, has gone missing, and only her boyfriend, Minami, knows the truth: she has inexplica... Continue reading »
Black Observatory Christopher Brean Murray. Milkweed, $16 trade paper (96p) ISBN 978-1-63955-026-5
In this playful and haunting debut, Murray turns his gaze toward the ordinariness and expansiveness of human life. Murray’s poems defy convention, propelling down the page with generous narrative energy, spinning stories about characters—“Winston,” “Knut,” and “Segovia”—with the detail-oriented eye ... Continue reading »
The Long March HomeMarcus Brotherton and Tosca Lee. Revell, $26.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-8007-4275-1
In this tour de force from Brotherton (A Bright and Blinding Sun) and Lee (A Single Light), four friends’ lives change irrevocably when America becomes embroiled in WWII. In 1930s Mobile, Ala., preacher’s son Jimmy Propfield shares an idyllic upbringing with childhood sweetheart Cl... Continue reading »
Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New WorldChristopher Clark. Crown, $40 (880p) ISBN 978-0-525-57520-7
Bitter defeat bequeathed lasting victories in the pan-European revolutions of 1848, according to this sweeping history. Cambridge historian Clark (Iron Kingdom) untangles the chaotic political conflagrations that engulfed Europe, starting with a rebellion in Sicily; then moving to Paris, wh... Continue reading »
Stuffed: The Sandwich Cookie BookHeather Mubarak. Chronicle, $29.95 (272p) ISBN 978-1-79721-453-5
Sixty-five irresistible renditions of the sandwich cookie come together in Browned Butter Blondie blogger Mubarak’s sublime debut, which is as attractive to the eye as to the palate thanks to its mouthwatering photos. Employing 13 simple kitchen tools (including a cookie scoop and a kitchen... Continue reading »
Tell Me the Dream Again: Reflections on Family, Ethnicity, & the Sacred Work of BelongingTasha Jun. Tyndale Momentum, $22.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-496-45957-2
“I’ve always been caught between worlds... struggling to find a firm place to land,” writes Jun of negotiating a biracial identity in this stirring debut. The daughter of a Korean mother and a white father, Jun recalls how, as a kid, she’d think of purging the fridge of kimchi before her friends cam... Continue reading »
BigVashti Harrison. Little, Brown, $19.99 (60p) ISBN 978-0-316-35322-9
This ode to big self-love from Harrison (Sulwe) begins with a smiling, brown-skinned baby girl who has “a big laugh and a big heart/ and very big dreams.” Through a series of emotionally centered, affectionate digital images set against dreamy chalk pastel backdrops, this smiling, bouncing ... Continue reading »
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