Pastor Brown (The Ache for Meaning) draws from the apostle Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians for this straightforward guide to “creat[ing] the conditions where our souls can flourish.” Expounding on Paul’s instructions to “love one another... aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, to work with your hands”—the author explains why loving fellow believers creates a strong church community; how cutting out unnecessary distractions makes room for “peace and tranquility”; why narrowing one’s focus lets one cultivate the “gifts that God puts within our care and attention”; and how working with one’s hands—taken here to mean doing personally meaningful work—helps make “something good and beautiful out of the world that God created.” Such advice, the author argues, “cuts through circumstances, traversing time and space” in addressing core human needs neglected in today’s hectic, online world. Brown builds a robust case supported by scripture and secular sources, even if he’s less insightful on how readers might actually go about creating the conditions for their flourishing. Still, believers seeking to recenter themselves in a stressful world will find inspiration here. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/15/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this fascinating memoir, psychiatric nurse Burgess (A Killer by Design) delves into her experiences as an expert witness in some of the most high-profile criminal cases of the past 30 years. With a robust background in researching trauma and the effects of sexual abuse at Boston hospitals, Burgess began tangling with the court system in the 1970s, when she advocated for rape victims, who, if they spoke out at all, were often treated as criminals. While most of Burgess’s work was with women, her profile as an expert witness rose during the trial of the Menendez brothers, where her testimony corroborated chilling details of the abuse they suffered as children at the hands of their father. Burgess also recalls helping the FBI pioneer the practice of criminal profiling, and interviewing and providing professional mental health assessments for accusers of Bill Cosby and Larry Nassar. Throughout, she’s an empathetic, matter-of-fact guide, chronicling the growing acceptance of testimony about psychological responses to trauma from a front-row perspective. True crime fans should take a look. Agent: Alice Fried Martell, Martell Agency. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 08/15/2025 | Details & Permalink

Stevens (Briefly, a Delicious Life) crafts an accomplished portrait of an art forger and the dubious return of her long-lost aristocratic cousin in 1899. Sixteen years earlier, Grace, now 25, was sent to live at Inderwick Hall in Oxfordshire with her aunt, uncle, and cousins after her parents were committed to an insane asylum. Growing up on the vast estate, Grace felt like “a person who belonged nowhere,” and became a skilled copyist with help from her cousin Charles, a painter. Charles was presumed dead at sea at 17, three years after Grace moved into the house. Now, he’s written to his only surviving family, Grace and his mother, calling them to Rome where he is recovering from illness. Many, including the family’s lawyer, Mr. George, question Charles’s true motives, given his position as heir of the family’s estate. Meanwhile, Grace, who’s expected to be married off to a man, grapples with her preference for women, and falls for the daughter of an artist brought in to verify Charles’s claims by examining his paintings. As the brisk plot unfolds in chapters alternating between the perspectives of Grace and the presumed Charles, Stevens raises thorny questions about the nature of art and identity. This will stay with readers. (July)

Reviewed on 08/15/2025 | Details & Permalink

Chilean writer Catrileo debuts with an impressive story of catastrophe and culture clash in near-future Chile. Mari, the 26-year-old narrator, has recently decamped with her partner, Pascale, from the overcrowded Capital City of her birth for Pascale’s homeland, the quiet and mysterious island of Chilco. Famous for its rebellious spirit and strong Indigenous communities, Chilco seems to move at a slower pace than the mainland, but that’s not the only thing Mari has a difficult time adjusting to. Pascale’s friends and neighbors don’t believe a city girl such as herself could ever fully appreciate or understand Chilco, though Mari is also of Indigenous descent. The narrative moves backwards in time, weaving in stories of Mari’s upbringing in a matriarchal household and the political unrest and natural disasters that begin to plague Capital City—from demonstrations in which houses are intentionally destroyed, to a series of sinkholes that devour pockets of the city—and finally force the couple to flee to Chilco. Though the dialogue often feels stiff, particularly in moments of tension, such as when Pascale and Mari debate whether to leave the city, Catrileo keeps the novel afloat with razor-sharp observations on the city’s exploitive colonial history and staggering decay. It’s a rewarding story of chosen family. (July)

Reviewed on 08/15/2025 | Details & Permalink

Barnás (The Parasite) spins an arresting but jumbled tale of a man’s dissociation in Budapest near the end of communism and its downfall. The unnamed 40-year-old narrator, a former literature professor, is purportedly working on a novel, for which he receives financial support from a German man named Michael. The narrator met Michael six years earlier, while the narrator was playing Mozart on the street after a mental breakdown, which was triggered by his lover leaving him. Instead of writing the novel, the narrator devotes his time to an obscure manuscript titled Transcriptions while reflecting on his life. Once the book is complete, he struggles to find a job, eventually settling on a position as a guard at a local museum. At work, the narrator repeatedly loses track of time, finding himself unexpectedly in different towns and forgetting how he got there. Over the course of 10 years at the museum, he slowly unknots his troubled past. There are many resonant passages on the narrator’s unraveling (“The changes underway inside us are often nearly impossible to notice; we may not want to. Then suddenly you realise everything is moving of its own volition”). Too often, though, Barnás leaves the reader feeling as lost as his protagonist. Despite moments of brilliance, it’s a bit of a slog. (July)

Reviewed on 08/15/2025 | Details & Permalink

Mount Shasta, Calif., high school senior Izumi Tanaka is a normal 18-year-old American girl: she enjoys baking, watching Real Housewives, and dressing like “Lululemon’s sloppy sister.” But Japanese American Izzy, conceived during a one-night stand in her mother Hanako’s final year at Harvard, has never known the identity of her father. So when she and her best friend find a letter in Hanako’s bedroom, the duo jump at the chance to ferret out Izzy’s dad’s true identity—only to find out he’s the Crown Prince of Japan. Desperate to know her father, Izzy agrees to spend the summer in his home country. But press surveillance, pressure to quickly learn the language and etiquette, and an unexpected romance make her time in Tokyo more fraught than she imagined. Add in a medley of cousins and an upcoming wedding, and Izzy is in for an unforgettable summer. Abrupt switches from Izzy’s perspective to lyrical descriptions of Japan may disrupt readers’ enjoyment, but a snarky voice plus interspersed text conversations and tabloid coverage keep the pages turning in Jean’s (Empress of All Seasons) fun, frothy, and often heartfelt duology starter. Ages 12–up. Agent: Erin Harris, Folio Literary Management. (May)

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink

Kelkar’s (Bindu’s Bindis) novel features Oceanview Academy middle schooler Sonali, whose stoicism contrasts with her love of Bollywood movies’ melodrama. Stuck in a Los Angeles home with constantly arguing parents and her sensitive nine-year-old brother Ronak, Gujarati American Sonali, 11, tries to make sense of her world through the Hindi movies she’s seen all her life. Ever since an earnest public attempt five years ago to stop her parents’ fighting led to widespread embarrassment in front of family, Sonali has resolved to hide her emotions and do her best to ignore her parents’ arguments. But her efforts prove futile when her parents decide to try the “nesting” method of separation, where they take turns living in the house with Sonali and Ronak. The contemporary narrative takes an entertaining fabulist turn as Sonali’s life begins to transform into a Bollywood movie, with everything she feels and thinks made apparent through her “Bollywooditis.” Sonali’s first-person perspective is sympathetic as she navigates friendship and family drama, and Kelkar successfully infuses a resonant narrative with “filmi magic,” offering a tale with universal appeal through an engaging cultural lens. Ages 8–12. Agent: Kathleen Rushall, Andrea Brown Literary. (May)

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink

When she was six, Justice Kasric watched her blue-eyed merchant father play chess with the Faerie King. Now 15, Justice believes the event was merely a dream. She spends her days yearning for adventure, watching from the sidelines while her 16-year-old sister Faith, as slender and golden-haired as Justice but not as curious, becomes the toast of Victorian London society. One night, however, their father shatters their comfortable lifestyles when he forces the family—Justice, Faith, their younger brother Henry, and their constantly medicated, distant mother—into a locked carriage that takes them to a shadowy mansion. Justice’s discovery that the Faerie have invaded the human world and are targeting her family gains further urgency when she learns that her parents are on opposite sides of the conflict. Together, the Kasric siblings—including older brothers Benedict and Joshua—must find a way to save their family. While characters lack depth at times, and insufficient historical details don’t fully evoke the Victorian setting, Klaver’s (the Supernatural Case Files of Sherlock Holmes series) rich, lyrical descriptions augment the fantastical source material in this engaging series starter. Ages 13–up. Agent: Lucienne Diver, the Knight Agency. (May)

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink

Nine years before this novel begins, eight-year-old best friends Esme Randal and Kayla Price snuck out of their cabin at Camp Pine Lake in Texas. They swore never to discuss the terrible events that followed, but when the girls, now 17, return to the camp as counselors-in-training from their hometown of Lewisburg, Pa., that proves easier said than done. Someone begins sabotaging camp activities, and ominous—and increasingly public—threats appear, referencing that fateful summer. The only other person who knows Esme and Kayla’s secret is a local girl named Lillian Campbell, whom they left to fend for herself that night in the woods. They’re loath to voice their suspicions of revenge lest they get in trouble or look bad in front of hunky fellow counselors Jake and Olly, but as events escalate, they realize they may not have a choice. Narrating from Esme’s increasingly apprehensive first-person perspective, Preston (The Twin) pays homage to classic summer camp slasher films. The underdeveloped, predominantly white cast relies heavily on stereotype, and the clichéd tormenter’s motive feels unearned, but horror fans will likely appreciate this paranoia-fueled tale’s gruesome, shocking close. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jon Elek, United Agents. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink

Inspired by her own family’s refugee journey from Vietnam to Hong Kong, Văn’s (If You Were Night) spare picture book, powerful in its deliberate simplicity, follows a black-haired, pale-skinned child as they, their guardian, and two younger siblings join other asylum seekers for a perilous maritime voyage. In a third-person voice, Văn anthropomorphizes objects, relaying their wishes: “The dream wished it was longer,” one spread reads, as a balding, mustached guardian holds the protagonist close, and a guardian with a bun rouses the second child to dress them. “The clock wished it was slower,” the subsequent pages read, as the two children tearfully hug their mustached guardian goodbye. The narrative continues as the now family of four make their way onto the boat and beyond. A final-act switch to first-person perspective drives home the journey’s personal nature. Intricate, lissome fine-lined art by Ngai (Dazzle Ships) recalls classical Asian compositions, Japanese woodblock prints, and an evocative sensibility in a gradated, surrealistic color palette. A seamless interweaving of elegant prose and atmospheric art marks this affecting immigrant narrative. Back matter includes heartfelt author’s and illustrator’s notes. Ages 4–8. (May)

Correction: A previous version of this review misquoted the book's text.

Reviewed on 05/07/2021 | Details & Permalink