There Is HappinessBrad 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 »
Game Without RulesMichael 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 »
Midnight RoomsDonyae Coles. Amistad, $28 (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-322809-2
Coles astounds in her atmospheric gothic debut set in Victorian England. Orabella has never been expected to amount to much due to her lower-class background and biracial (half-Black, half-white) identity. When her white uncle, who took her in after her parents’ deaths, accrues a massive gambling de... Continue reading »
One Year Ago in SpainEvelyn 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 »
Brittle JointsMaria 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 »
Fugitive/RefugePhilip 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 »
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 »
A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth: The Making of the Port of Los Angeles—and AmericaJames Tejani. Norton, $35 (448p) ISBN 978-1-324-09355-8
The decision to build a port in Los Angeles’s San Pedro Bay was driven by commercial interests, local and national politics, and personal agendas, not by thoughtful analysis of geography and geology, according to this enthralling debut. Historian Tejani documents the mid-19th-century political maneu... Continue reading »
It’s Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (But Were Never Told)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 »
Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American ChurchEliza 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 »
The GaleMo Yan, adapted by Guan Xiaoxiao, trans. from the Chinese by Ying-Hwa Hu, illus. by Zhu Chengliang. Simon & Schuster, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-66593-062-8
At seven years old, a child goes for the first time to collect satintail grass with their grandfather, Yeye, in this picture book debut from Nobel laureate Mo Yan, adapted from a short story of the same name. A low mist hangs over the quiet journey as the pair make the long trek to a familiar meadow... Continue reading »
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