Darrel J. McLeod. Douglas & McIntyre, $19.95 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-77162-362-9
Memoirist McLeod (Mamaskatch) makes his fiction debut with a sublime foray into the complexities of Indigenous life in northern Canada. James, a gay Cree man from northern Alberta, has assimilated in Vancouver and works as a schoolteacher. He lives with a loving partner, with whom he has an... Continue reading »
Peter Swanson. Morrow, $30 (272p) ISBN 978-0-06-320503-1
Bestseller Swanson’s brilliant latest (following The Kind Worth Saving) revolves around a newlywed’s suspicions that her husband might be a murderer. Maine librarian Martha Ratliff is feeling uneasy about her recent marriage to traveling salesman Alan Peralta. Her fear that she doesn’t trul... Continue reading »
Robert J. Sawyer. Shadowpaw, $14.95 trade paper (190p) ISBN 978-1-989398-99-9
Hope wins out in this triumph of a postapocalyptic tale from Hugo and Nebula award winner Sawyer (The Oppenheimer Alternative). Capt. Letitia Garvey agreed to be cryogenically frozen for a 500-year space journey to a distant planet in hopes of colonizing a new home. Come the year 2548, Garv... Continue reading »
Joanna Lowell. Berkley, $19 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-593-54972-8
Muriel Pendrake, a cis female botanist, and Kit Griffith, a trans male cyclist, battle Victorian sexism and their own feelings in this sparkling romance from Lowell (Artfully Yours). Muriel visits St. Ives, Cornwall, with her best friend, Dr. James Raleigh, to collect algae specimens for an... Continue reading »
Jay Stephens. Oni, $34.99 (224p) ISBN 978-1-63715-291-1
In the faux-serious introduction to this addictively squirmy collection of linked comics, Stephens (Land of Nod) claims the “tainted” town of Elwich has “more hauntings per capita than any other place in Ontario.” Drawn in the disarmingly perky style of an old Disney comic, where all the ch... Continue reading »
Cindy Juyoung Ok. Yale Univ, $20 trade paper (100p) ISBN 978-0-300-27392-2
Winner of the 2023 Yale Younger Poets Prize, Ok in her refreshing debut uses language to push against the staid edges of the status quo, exposing the tenuous and often contradictory beliefs that seemingly undergird reality. With their capacious perspective, these verses bear witness to the hypocrisi... 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 »
James Parker. Norton, $23.99 (288p) ISBN 978-1-324-09163-9
Atlantic staff writer Parker (Turned On) gathers gemlike tributes to “the essence... the quality worth exploring and if possible exalting” in childhood memories, day-to-day irritations, internet videos, fictional heroes, and anything else “that gets me through the next five minutes... Continue reading »
Julius Roberts. Ten Speed, $35 (320p) ISBN 978-1-984862-66-2
Chef-turned-farmer Roberts’s rustic and delightful debut offers 100 simple, seasonal recipes that capitalize on freshness and ingredients at their peak. The amazing array of options includes everything from small plates and vegetable dishes to fish, meat, and desserts. Recipes are appetizing, unfuss... Continue reading »
Anne Lamott. Riverhead, $22 (208p) ISBN 978-0-593-71441-6
Lamott (Dusk, Night, Dawn) brings her signature wit and warmth to these effervescent meditations on matters of the heart. Drawing from across her life, Lamott details how seemingly lost love can be transmuted into different forms, recalling how friends and family stepped in after she was br... Continue reading »
Ying Chang Compestine, illus. by Xinmei Liu. Rocky Pond, $19.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-5935-3398-7
Compestine’s childhood informs this tense account of 10 years under Mao Zedong’s oppressive rule. Born in Wuhan, China, the book’s narrator is three years old in 1966, when Mao declares a Cultural Revolution to regain power over the government. Her parents were doctors, her father a surgeon trained ... Continue reading »