John le Carré meets Evelyn Waugh in Mann’s terrific second novel (after The Torqued Man), set mostly in California on the eve of WWII. Adventurer Richard Halifax, a thinly veiled Richard Halliburton, is presumed to have died in a shipwreck in 1939, until he begins sending off-color tall tal... Continue reading »

Miller’s outstanding third case for reporter Shona Sandison (after The Hollow Tree) effortlessly braids together three interconnected story lines. At the outset, Shona receives a U.K. Media Award nomination for her exposé of the government’s plans to pass the Great British Freedom Act, whic... Continue reading »

Newitz (The Terraformers) serves up comfort food for the soul in this bite-size novel about a squad of enterprising robots. Staybehind, Sweetie, Cayenne, and Hands are military, fem, cephalopod, and kitchen bots, respectively, all contracted to San Francisco fast-food restaurant Burgers N M... Continue reading »

With this lively, laugh-out-loud romantic adventure, Dade (At First Spite) whisks readers to an intriguing post-zombie-apocalypse setting populated by vampires, witches, and werewolves. When soap maker Edie Brandstrup tries to save her “sweet idiot” neighbor Chad from a zombie who has someh... Continue reading »

Boyd’s understated yet deeply moving second graphic memoir (after Chicken Rising) recounts her experience as a shy girl entering junior high in late 1970s Canada. Dawn’s mom, a bridge- and bingo-playing paragon of small-town decency, thunders against sex in movies, declares that the Legion ... Continue reading »

The joyfully inventive debut by Colgate honors the disabled community. Complete with an access guide and legend denoting options for the reader to interact with the poems on their own terms, Colgate radically reenvisions how a text might support its reader. A poem about the speaker’s partner finding... Continue reading »

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 »

Chaos is strewn by foolhardy leaders acting on bad information in this riveting history of the Iranian revolution from journalist Anderson (The Quiet Americans). The book centers on Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, who presented himself as the grand successor of conquering Persian e... Continue reading »

Bloom (Breast Cancer in the Workplace), a former employee benefits attorney, delivers a powerful resource for women dealing with serious illnesses. Aiming to help readers address healthcare and workplace concerns, Bloom offers valuable advice on navigating HIPAA laws, fighting arbitrary ins... Continue reading »

Historian Fletcher (Gender and the American Temperance Movement of the Nineteenth Century) incisively explores the dark underbelly of American evangelical missionary work via the experiences of missionaries’ children. Drawing on her own childhood in Kenya and interviews with 80 others who w... Continue reading »

Transfer student Charley is the new kid at Harrogate School for Girls, a former 13th-century monastery turned boarding academy off the coast of Ireland. Charley thinks she’s lucked out with her assigned roommate Olive, who shares Charley’s passion for all things horror. They strike up a tradition ca... Continue reading »