WhistlerAnn Patchett. Harper, $30 (294p) ISBN 978-0-06-351163-7
Patchett follows 2023’s Tom Lake with another perfectly executed and quietly profound family drama. Daphne, a 53-year-old happily married English teacher, is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City with her husband, Jonathan, a retired hospital administrator, when she runs into E... Continue reading »
The Lost Soldiers (The Kyiv Mysteries #3)Andrey Kurkov, trans. from the Russian by Boris Dralyuk. HarperVia, $30 (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-348867-0
The difficulty of solving crimes in a war-ravaged city is at the core of Ukrainian novelist Kurkov’s excellent third mystery featuring novice police investigator Samson Kolechko (after The Stolen Heart). It’s 1919, and Bolsheviks have a precarious hold on power across Ukraine. Samson is ord... Continue reading »
I’ll Watch Your BabyNeena Viel. Griffin, $19 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-250-90634-2
Viel (Listen To Your Sister) skewers the racist stereotype of the “welfare queen” in this delightfully gruesome, larvae-infested tale. In 1974, Lottie Turner makes her way in life through petty welfare fraud and kidnapping very young children on behalf of wealthy clients looking to adopt. H... Continue reading »
The ShippersKatherine Center. St. Martin’s, $30 (336p) ISBN 978-1-250-40805-1
Center (The Love Haters) sets this beguiling contemporary aboard a weeklong cruise. Middle school math teacher JoJo Burton has left a string of broken hearts in her wake, most recently when she dumped her fiancé at the altar at the encouragement of her childhood best friend, Cooper Watts. J... Continue reading »
The WoodchipperJoe Ollmann. Drawn & Quarterly, $25 trade paper (216p) ISBN 978-1-77046-823-8
Nothing comes easy for the denizens of Hamilton, Ontario, in these wry, bruising, and mordantly funny stories from Ollmann (Fictional Father). In “Nestled All Snug,” a toppled pile of boxes traps a bookstore employee in a dingy staff bathroom. In “Meat,” a security guard at a meat-packing f... Continue reading »
VisitationsJulia Alvarez. Knopf, $27 (112p) ISBN 978-0-593-80503-9
In her prismatic fourth collection, novelist, memoirist, and poet Alvarez (The Woman I Kept to Myself) spins richly detailed micro-narratives of her childhood in the Dominican Republic in the 1950s, her young adulthood in New York City, and beyond. Vivid scenes include reciting poems for he... 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 »
Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets WorkAlvin E. Roth. Basic Venture, $35 (368p) ISBN 978-1-5417-0201-1
Nobel Prize–winning economist Roth (Who Gets What—and Why) delivers a stimulating study of morally contested products and services, such as abortion, assisted suicide, and marijuana. He refers to these as “repugnant transactions,” as they spark objections primarily on religious or moral gro... Continue reading »
My Jamaican Table: Vibrant Recipes from a Sun-Drenched IslandAndre Fowles. Artisan, $35 (328) ISBN 978-1-64829-374-0
“I discovered food as a bridge to hope,” writes chef Fowles, three-time Chopped champion, in his bold and flavorful debut. In more than 100 recipes, the Kingston native pays homage to his island roots, drawing particular inspiration from his grandmother’s kitchen. The vibrant flavors of Jam... Continue reading »
Freedom Round the Globe: A World History of the American RevolutionSarah M.S. Pearsall. Doubleday, $35 (432p) ISBN 978-0-385-54871-7
This sprawling, immersive account from historian Pearsall (Atlantic Families) explores “the effect of the world on the American Revolution” rather than the “too often” emphasized opposite. The book opens with a reflection on colonial militiamen’s powder horns, which were typically carved wi... Continue reading »
Midsummer SistersNiki Smith. Graphix, $25.99 hardcover (272p) ISBN 978-1-5461-2895-3; $14.99 paper ISBN 978-1-5461-2894-6
A blended family grapples with shifting relationships throughout an expertly crafted and emotionally perceptive graphic novel by Smith (Sea Legs). Kenzie, an avid rock collector with a prominent facial birthmark, and Quinn, a quick-tempered redhead whose favorite pastime is texting her crus... Continue reading »
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