Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver. Harper, $29.99 (560p) ISBN 978-0-06-325192-2
Kingsolver (Unsheltered) offers a deeply evocative story of a boy born to an impoverished single mother. In this self-styled, modern adaptation of Dickens’s David Copperfield, Demon Copperhead, 11, is the quick-witted son and budding cartoonist of a troubled young mother and a stepfather in... Continue reading »
Shadow SisterLindsay Marcott. Thomas & Mercer, $24.95 (400p) ISBN 978-1-6625-0004-6
In this chilling thriller from Marcott (Mrs. Rochester’s Ghost), photographer Ava Holland returns to Blackworth Mansion, the house where she grew up on California’s Monterey Peninsula, 17 years after the mysterious death of her artist mother, who painted still lifes “that looked like Dutch ... Continue reading »
GhostwrittenRonald Malfi. Titan, $15.95 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-78909-959-1
The four horror novellas of this wonderfully meta collection from Malfi (Come with Me) all turn on a vibrantly imagined theme that fans of macabre fiction will easily relate to: books as agents of horror. The centerpiece of “The Skin of Her Teeth” is a novel whose story adamantly refuses to... Continue reading »
One Last GiftEmily Stone. Dell, $17 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-593-59834-4
With this beautiful and heart-wrenching Christmas story, Stone (Always, in December) delivers an epic story of family, loss, and the triumph of love. Siblings Cassie and Tom relied on each other and a group of friends who became like surrogate family after the death of their parents when th... Continue reading »
Where Black Stars RiseNadia Shammas and Marie Enger. Nightfire, $17.99 (128p) ISBN 978-1-250-75017-4
In this inventive horror comic, Dr. Amal Robardin is a therapist in training whose first client, a schizophrenic New York City theatre scene blogger named Yasmin, has been experiencing increasingly intense nighttime visions of a figure looming in the dark beside her bed. Grappling with her own inexp... Continue reading »
Girls That Never DieSafia Elhillo. One World, $16 trade paper (144p) ISBN 978-0-593-22948-4
In this spellbinding outing, Elhillo (The January Children) examines misogynist attitudes in religion and culture that incite violence against women. “Infibulation Study” addresses female genital mutilation, once a common practice in Sudan, from where the poet’s family emigrated. Conversati... Continue reading »
FalloutCarrie Stuart Parks. Thomas Nelson, $16.99 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-7852-3985-7
This propulsive thriller from Parks (Woman in Shadow) follows a small-town art instructor who must face her past to stop a murderer. Sam Williams is miraculously unscathed after an SUV crashes into the temporary classroom where she teaches art to elementary schoolers in LaCrosse, Wash. An i... Continue reading »
The Tomb of Oedipus: Why Greek Tragedies Were Not TragicWilliam Marx, trans. from the French by Nicholas Elliott. Verso, $29.95 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-78873-613-8
Marx, a comparative literature professor at the Collège de France, refreshes ancient literature and the concept of tragedy in this intelligent work of criticism. A “chasm of misunderstanding has opened” between ancient Greek poetry and modern readers, Marx argues, because it references places and pr... Continue reading »
Bloom: The Secrets of Growing Flowering Houseplants Year-RoundLisa Eldred Steinkopf. Cool Springs, $25 (176p) ISBN 978-0-7603-7415-3
The Houseplant Guru blogger Steinkopf (Houseplants) offers clever tips on caring for flowering plants. Starting with the basics of light, potting medium, containers, and watering, Steinkopf advises on how to keep a plant healthy before, during, and after it blooms. The difference, ... Continue reading »
An Odd Cross to Bear: A Biography of Ruth Bell GrahamAnne Blue Wills. Eerdmans, $24.99 (288p) ISBN 978-0-8028-7581-5
This discerning debut from Blue Wills, a religious studies professor at Davidson College, chronicles the life of Ruth Bell Graham, the wife of evangelist Billy Graham. Blue Wills suggests that Ruth was a poet, practical joker, and philanthropist who “devised her own ethic of Christian womanhood, cha... Continue reading »
The Blanket Where Violet SitsAllan Wolf, illus. by Lauren Tobia. Candlewick, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7636-9665-8
A “The House That Jack Built” narrative structure gives a night of stargazing galactic dimensions in this expansive picture book. As the sun sets, a child cuddles on a blanket with two affectionate caregivers, all of whom are portrayed with brown skin. “This is the blanket where Violet sits,/ eating... Continue reading »
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