Brad Watson. Norton, $29.99 (288p) ISBN 978-1-324-07642-1
This vibrant collection of new and selected works from Watson, who died in 2020, showcases the author’s wry humor and taste for the bizarre. “Dying for Dolly” follows an ex-con who releases a novelty song about Dolly Parton and scores a spot opening for the singer. “The Zookeeper and the Leopard” co... Continue reading »
Michael Gilbert. Union Square, $14.99 trade paper (264p) ISBN 978-1-4549-5426-2
In this exceptional story collection, first published in 1968, Gilbert (1912–2006) flexes his gifts for clever plotting and rich characterization. In 11 interconnected stories first printed in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Gilbert follows the exploits of unassuming British intelligence a... Continue reading »
T. Kingfisher. Tor, $27.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-250-24407-9
With this riff on the Brothers Grimm’s “The Goose Girl,” set in a fantasy world inspired by Regency romances, Hugo Award winner Kingfisher (Nettle & Bone) continues her hot streak of deeply compassionate, thrilling, and often laugh-out-loud fairy tale retellings. Cordelia, 14, grows up in a... Continue reading »
Evelyn Skye. Del Rey, $18 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-593-49927-6
An attorney faces the loss of the love of her life in Skye’s heart-wrenching latest (after The Hundred Loves of Juliet). Claire Walker is on track to make partner at her New York law firm when she meets Spanish artist Matías de León at a gallery opening. They fall hard for each other, but 1... Continue reading »
Maria Sweeney. Street Noise, $20.99 trade paper (160p) ISBN 978-1-951491-26-0
Cartoonist Sweeney debuts with a candid portrait of life with a disability, drawn in delicate brushstrokes and natural colors. Born in Moldova in 1994, Sweeney showed early signs of Bruck syndrome, which causes fragile bones and joint contractures. After her birth parents place her in an orphanage, ... Continue reading »
Philip Metres. Copper Canyon, $22 trade paper (144p) ISBN 978-1-55659-669-8
The powerful sixth book from Metres (Shrapnel Maps), who is of Lebanese descent, confronts the trials of the present moment—including forced migration, climate change, and nationalism—through his family’s migration story. Metres wields poetic forms (among them odes, sonnets, and prayers) to... Continue reading »
Marcus 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 »
Rob Jackson. Scribner, $29.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-6680-2326-6
“The cheapest, safest, and only sure path to a safe climate starts with slashing emissions,” according to this invigorating report. Jackson (The Earth Remains Forever), an environmental science professor at Stanford University, surveys how cows, gas ranges, and the cement industry, among ot... Continue reading »
Karen Tang. Flatiron, $30.99 (384p) ISBN 978-1-250-89415-1
This first-rate debut from gynecologist Tang details the causes, symptoms, risk factors, and treatment options for endometriosis, ovarian cysts, pelvic floor dysfunction, and other sexual and reproductive health conditions. For instance, Tang explains that fibroids—benign tumors that “form when cell... Continue reading »
Eliza Griswold. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $30 (352p) ISBN 978-0-374-60168-3
Pulitzer winner Griswold (Amity and Prosperity) delivers a riveting chronicle of the fracturing of a progressive Christian church during a period of social and political turmoil. In 1996, “hippie church planters” Rod and Gwen White founded the Circle of Hope church in Philadelphia as an alt... Continue reading »
Karen Kane and Jonaz McMillan, illus. by Dion MBD. Penguin/Paulsen, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-593-53229-4
Among the titles Milo reads one night, one is “about a monster under the bed. Milo should not have read that book.” Frightened, he uses a flashlight to signal Mel, his best friend who lives across the street. Through their facing windows, the two use ASL to communicate about Milo’s fears. Mel sugges... Continue reading »