Goodman (Isola) delivers a bighearted linked story collection about a family’s travails. In the opener, “Apple Cake,” cancer-stricken Jeanne Rubinstein lies on her deathbed, stubbornly refusing to accept her terminal prognosis. As the family sits vigil, the baked goods provided by Jeanne’s ... Continue reading »

Mariola’s fifth crime novel centered on Baxter Police Department captain Delia Mariola (after Johnny-Boy) is another winner. Baxter, a “crumbling rust belt city,” has been transformed by a new Nissan assembly plant and an accompanying shantytown, known as Boomtown, where the workers live. T... Continue reading »

Wilson (Of Deeds Most Valiant) wows with this spectacular romantic fantasy. Queen Coralys of the Crocus Isles makes a plea to Okeanos, God of the Sea, to save her people from a terrible storm. In exchange for her kingdom’s safety, she agrees to marry the first man to set foot on her pier, w... Continue reading »

Vellner scores big with his outstanding debut set in the fiercely competitive tennis world. Closeted Leo Chambers’s hopes of winning his first U.S. Open are dashed by Gabe Montoya, who defeats him in a first-round match thanks to what Leo feels is a bad call, sparking an on-court altercation and a v... Continue reading »

Outrageous queer socialite and boat racer Marion Barbara “Joe” Carstairs (1900–1993) roars to life in this fearless and seductive graphic biography from late Angouleme winner Hubert, creator of Darkly She Goes, and animator Augustin. “I came out of the womb queer,” proclaims Carstairs, who ... Continue reading »

This brilliant collection of previously unpublished poems from Berryman’s Dream Songs cycle is proof, as Shane McCrae writes in the introduction, that he “understood his epic to be complete, but he did not believe that its completeness could have only one form.” For McCrae, Henry—Berryman’s alter-eg... 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 »

Novelist and biographer Mann (Bogie & Bacall) delivers a meticulous and humane reconsideration of one of America’s most sensationalized unsolved murders. Rather than dwell on the lurid mythology surrounding the 1947 killing of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short, whose mutilated body was discovered... Continue reading »

Reproductive endocrinologist Sekhon debuts with an accessible and reassuring manual for navigating fertility treatments. She begins by laying out the basics of the reproductive system—and the many ways it can go awry in women and men—and then dives into contemporary fertility treatments, explaining ... Continue reading »

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 »

Boundary-defying astronomer and astrophysicist Cecilia Payne (1900–1979) stars in this even-handed picture book biography. Early scenes highlight how a childhood spent immersed in the outdoors gives Payne the opportunity to hone her observational skills and learn to “always trust what she knew w... Continue reading »