Mohammed (Pleasantview) offers a wrenching novel-in-stories of a Trinidadian family spanning from the matriarch’s passage to the West Indies at the end of the 19th century to her present-day descendants’ efforts to cope with inherited trauma. It opens with “The Legend of Jayanti,” whose tit... Continue reading »

Mukherjee’s talent for elevating genre tropes suffuses the stellar fifth installment of his 1920s-set Wyndham and Banerjee mystery series (after The Shadows of Men). It’s been three years since British detective Sam Wyndham helped his onetime partner, Indian investigator Surendranath Banerj... Continue reading »

Opposites attract when a halfling and a goblin vie for ownership of a forest cottage in Sylva’s utterly enchanting romantasy debut. Halfling Pansy Underburrow inherited the house from her grandmother and sees renovating it as an opportunity to assert her independence from her overbearing family and ... Continue reading »

In this winning romp, bestsellers Murphy and Simone (A Merry Little Meet Cute) perfectly balance heat and sweet. Recent law school grad Maddie Kowalczk has just been dumped by her politician boyfriend when she leaves Los Angeles for Kansas’s Astra University, where she’ll be a political sci... Continue reading »

Former The Nib editors Mirk (Guantanamo Voices) and Harris (Be Gay, Do Comics) deliver a handy-dandy how-to for aspiring and established creators of fact-based comics. The various types of graphic nonfiction are helpfully broken down: graphic journalism, history comics, pe... Continue reading »

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 »

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 »

In this piercing, ingenious account, American studies scholar Heideman (Class Struggle and the Color Line) unpacks why the Republican Party and the business elites that dominated it failed to rein in Donald Trump. Heideman draws a comparison between Trump and Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who, like... Continue reading »

Taste the Nation host Lakshmi (Love, Loss, and What We Ate) uses this gorgeous compendium of recipes collected during her travels across the U.S. to craft a “love letter” to “all [the] immigrants who have made a life here and, in turn, made America what it is.” An extensive introdu... 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 »

In this effervescent chapter book by Alexander (Black Star), 80 snappy poems recount a bookish tween’s love for her library. Twelve-year-old Macy can’t wait to pick up the next installment of her new favorite book series, The Mighty Zora, from the school library. But first, she must practic... Continue reading »