The Rest of Our LivesBen Markovits. Summit, $28 (256p) ISBN 978-1-6682-3156-2
An unhappy family man takes stock of his life in Markovits’s superb road novel (after The Sidekick), which was recently shortlisted for the Booker Prize. At 55, New York City law professor Tom Layward decides to make good on a promise he made to himself 12 years earlier: to leave his wife, ... Continue reading »
A Gift Before DyingMalcolm Kempt. Crown, $28 (272p) ISBN 978-0-593-80100-0
This stunning debut from criminal lawyer Kempt finds Sgt. Elderick Cole exiled to the remote Arctic hamlet of Cape Dorset after making critical mistakes in a sensitive murder case on the Canadian mainland. Estranged from his ex-wife and daughter, Cole waits for the outcome of a civil lawsuit that wi... Continue reading »
PersonaAoife Josie Clements. Littlepuss, $15.95 trade paper (280p) ISBN 978-1-964322-06-3
Clements’s harrowing and gorgeously written debut follows two transgender women, Amy and Annie, who are drawn together by impossible secrets that then threaten to tear them apart. Annie lives a life of isolation and despair, working a menial online survey-taking job from her fetid apartment while st... Continue reading »
Female FantasyIman Hariri-Kia. Cosmo Reads, $18.99 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-72827-064-7
A devoted romantasy fan embarks on an outrageous quest to find her soulmate in this hilarious and intelligent romp from Hariri-Kia (The Most Famous Girl in the World). A dutiful copywriter by day and beloved fan fiction writer by night, Joonie Saboonchi credits A Tale of Salt Water and ... Continue reading »
Fela: The Music Is the WeaponJibola Fagbamiye and Conor McCreery. Amistad, $48 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-305879-8
This rousing celebration of Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti (1938–1997)—Afrobeat star, truth-teller, commune leader, and frequent “rascal”—blends brisk biographical storytelling with urgent cultural and political history, gorgeous evocations of the power of music and dance, and bursts of bloody violence both fa... Continue reading »
Lola the InterpreterLyn Hejinian. Wesleyan Univ, $18.95 trade paper (176p) ISBN 978-0-8195-0197-4
The wry and sprawling final offering from the late, great Hejinian (Fall Creek) comprises a book-length prose poem in which the speaker moves through the motions and emotions of the “every day,” engaging with a cast of local characters. By doing so, Hejinian and her narrator explore a centr... 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 »
On MorrisonNamwali Serpell. Hogarth, $32 (416p) ISBN 978-0-593-73291-5
Serpell (The Furrows), a novelist and professor of English at Harvard, provides an insightful and stimulating exploration of the work of Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison. Arguing that Morrison’s literary skill often gets overshadowed by her public image as a Black female writer, Serpell foc... Continue reading »
Weightless: A Doctor’s Guide to GLP-1 Medications, Sustainable Weight Loss, and the Health You DeserveRocio Salas-Whalen. Rodale, $29 (288p) ISBN 978-0-593-98120-7
Endocrinologist Salas-Whalen offers a compassionate and comprehensive guide to losing weight with GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. She walks readers through the process of evaluating GLP-1 medications (short for glucagon-like peptide-1, a hormone that regulates blood sugar le... Continue reading »
Beard: A Memoir of a MarriageKelly Foster Lundquist. Eerdmans, $28.99 (250p) ISBN 978-0-80288-473-2
Lundquist, an English professor at North Hennepin Community College in Minnesota, debuts with a wrenching account of the breakup of her marriage to a gay man. Lundquist met her future husband in the late 1990s at a Christian camp, where the two bonded over their love of TV soaps and off-kilter humor... Continue reading »
How to Have a Thought: A Walk with Charles DarwinNicholas Day, illus. by Hadley Hooper. Holiday House/Porter, $19.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-5850-9
For readers who feel constantly hurried along, Day (Nothing) offers up an anecdote from the life of Charles Darwin (1809–1882) as permission to do something downright rebellious: slow down and let their thoughts wander. Fittingly discursive text describes how Darwin literally walked... Continue reading »
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