Room on the Sea: Three NovellasAndré Aciman. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $27 (272p) ISBN 978-0-374-61341-9
This exquisite triptych from Aciman (Call Me By Your Name) explores desire and fate among old friends, new acquaintances, and heartbroken lovers. In “The Gentleman from Peru,” a group of young Americans visit Italy’s Amalfi Coast, where they become transfixed by a solitary 60-something gues... Continue reading »
The Medusa ProtocolRob Hart. Putnam, $30 (320p) ISBN 978-0-593-71742-4
Hart triumphs with this deliriously enjoyable sequel to Assassins Anonymous. Mark, once a legendary killer known as the Pale Horse, has assumed leadership of a serial killer recovery group that meets in a Manhattan church. Among the regular attendees is Astrid—the real identity of a notorio... Continue reading »
The Two Lies of Faven SytheMegan E. O’Keefe. Orbit, $19.99 trade paper (448p) ISBN 978-0-316-57202-6
O’Keefe (the Devoured Worlds trilogy) flexes her worldbuilding chops in this superior space opera, set in a future in which shards of “sacred cryst,” grown under women’s skins, are “plucked free to be nurtured into a woman, or something like a woman” who serve as spaceship navigators using their spe... Continue reading »
The Never ListJade Presley. Red Tower, $32.99 (432p) ISBN 978-1-64937-752-4
The sumptuous first book in the Never List series from Presley (The Veil of Blood & Magic) combines deliciously smutty romance with a surprisingly strong fantasy foundation. In the stratified kingdom of Lumathyst, Rylee is an Ashlander, a group condemned to a life digging in the kings’ mine... Continue reading »
Gilt FrameMatt Kindt and Margie Kraft Kindt. Dark Horse, $29.99 (216p) ISBN 978-1-5067-4594-7
Harvey award winner Kindt (the Mind MGMT series) collaborates with his mother, Margie Kraft Kindt, on this charming cozy whodunit that builds an intricate case around the murder of a Parisian antiques dealer. Amateur sleuths Meredith “Merry” Pearson and her nephew Sam have a knack for stumbling onto... Continue reading »
Viscera: Eight Voices from PolandEdited by Mark Tardi, trans. from the Polish by Malgorzata Myk et al. Litmus, $22 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-933959-83-2
This luminous bilingual anthology features eight contemporary women poets from Poland: Anna Adamowicz, Maria Cyranowicz, Hanna Janczak, Natalia Malek, Joanna Oparek, Zofia Skrzypulec, Katarzyna Szaulińska, and Ilona Witkowska. The opening “Cantata” section presents selections from each, displaying t... 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 »
The Third Reich of Dreams: The Nightmares of a NationCharlotte Beradt, trans. from the German by Damion Searls. Princeton Univ, $24.95 (152p) ISBN 978-0-691-24351-1
In this spare but haunting compendium, originally published in 1966 and newly translated by Searls, journalist Beradt (1907–1986) questions everyday Germans in the 1930s about their dreams, which they relay to her in interviews or provide her in written accounts. Beradt presents these records—“not d... Continue reading »
Kawaii Appliqué Quilts from Japan: How One Country’s Love of All Things Tiny Powers Today’s Most Intricate Quilts (with 5 Projects from Top Designers)Naomi Ichikawa and Teresa Duryea Wong. Schiffer, $34.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-7643-6925-4
Ichikawa, publisher of Quilt Diary Japan magazine, and art historian Wong (Sewing and Survival) serve up an enchanting celebration of kawaii (“small and cute”) quilts, which are characterized by their intricately detailed scenes featuring tiny, cartoon-like figures. Delvin... Continue reading »
Islam: A New History from Muhammad to the PresentJohn Tolan. Princeton Univ, $29.95 (296p) ISBN 978-0-69126-353-3
Historian Tolan (Faces of Muhammad) traces in this vibrant and sweeping survey the 1,400-year evolution of Islam. Stressing Islam’s conceptual unity (“we are one umma”) and diverse reality, he tells its history by stitching together the stories of key figures. Among them are Um Waraqa, a wo... Continue reading »
Seven Skies All at Once Ted Kooser, illus. by Matt Myers. Candlewick, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5362-2900-4
In lusciously stroked spreads, Myers (Children of the Forest) paints two children on the rooftops of facing brick buildings, a clothesline strung between them. As they wave at each other and their caretakers peg laundry on the line, another sort of washing rolls through behind them: bui... Continue reading »
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