Libby Page. Berkley, $30 (416p) ISBN 979-8-217-18699-0
This painfully beautiful story of love and loss from Page (Mornings with Rosemary) is an emotional tour de force. Six months after her American husband Joe Carter’s death from cancer, London book editor Matilda “Tilly” Nightingale copes by throwing herself into her work. She then receives a... Continue reading »
Taylor Adams. Morrow, $30 (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-339413-1
This intricate thriller from Adams (The Last Word) kicks off with a daring attempt to rescue a young woman trapped in a remote Washington State cave system known as the Devil’s Staircase. Meanwhile, aging detective Layla Washington of the Stevens County Sheriff’s Department grapples with th... Continue reading »
Veronica G. Henry. 47North, $16.99 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-662520-29-7
Henry (the Scorched Earth series) shows off her impressive gift for worldbuilding in this striking dystopian novel set in the near future. Echo London loves working at Cleveland’s Lewis library. Then her branch is permanently closed and the powers that be appoint her as head librarian at the People’... Continue reading »
Shailee Thompson. Gallery, $18 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-1-6682-0671-3
Like a rom-com twist on Scream, debut author Thompson’s unputdownable slasher-romance mash-up gets a meta edge from protagonist Jamie Prescott’s passion for both genres. Jamie, a grad student at work on a thesis about the similarities between horror films and rom-coms, attends a speed datin... Continue reading »
Miriam Naiem, Yulia Vus, and Ivan Kypibid. Ten Speed Graphic, $19.99 (112p) ISBN 978-0-593-84015-3
The informative and inspiring graphic nonfiction debut by Ukrainian researcher and podcaster Naiem assumes that most readers outside Ukraine know little of its history. In a framing device, a woman named Vika takes shelter from bomb blasts and finds solidarity with her fellow evacuees. From there, N... Continue reading »
Saddiq Dzukogi. Univ. of Nebraska, $18.95 trade paper (112p) ISBN 978-1-4962-4427-7
The masterful second collection from Dzukogi (Your Crib, My Qibla) draws on the mythic and poetic traditions of northern Nigeria for a lyrical reimagining of the legend of Bayajidda, a prince whose exile from Baghdad leads to his founding of the Hausa States in what is today Nigeria’s predo... Continue reading »
Marcus 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 »
Sarah Ruden. Liveright, $29.99 (288p) ISBN 978-1-324-07590-5
St. Augustine’s advocacy of celibacy to avoid the dangers of female sexuality and Charles Dickens’s cautioning against putting off marriage for economic reasons are among the questionable pieces of literary advice about women on offer in this expansive study. Classicist Ruden (Perpetua) sur... Continue reading »
Ashely Alker. St. Martin’s, $30 (384p) ISBN 978-1-250-35964-3
Emergency medicine doctor Alker (Goodnight Grandma Angel) explores in this witty yet indispensable guide 99 of the “most terrifying, interesting, and unfortunate ways to die.” Drawing on her experience as a “board-certified death escapologist,” Alker assumes the role of a medical translator... Continue reading »
Edited by Rose Marie Berger. Broadleaf, $28.99 (336p) ISBN 979-8-88983-541-7
These stimulating essays and interviews from the first 50 years of Sojourners magazine, collected by poetry editor Berger (Who Killed Donte Manning?), seek “sabbath rest, contemplation, solitude, simplicity, and communal resilience” in today’s world. Franciscan priest Richard Rohr ... Continue reading »
Diane Zahler. Roaring Brook, $18.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-250-36311-4
A precocious princess must contend with ethical and physical peril in this immersive historical adventure from Zahler (Wild Bird). Twelve-year-old Princess Blanca prefers playing with her best friend Suna, whose hearing was impaired by a childhood illness, to devoting herself to her royal s... Continue reading »




