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Book Riot's best books of 2025 are here at last, the winner of Canada's Giller Prize, a misuse of CHARLOTTE'S WEB, and more.

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. And the Giller Prize Goes to… Souvankham Thammavongsa for a book I really want to read. Thammavongsa is now a two-time winner of the Giller, Canada’s prestigious literary prize awarding C$100,000 for excellence in Canadian fiction. The author’s most recent win is for her buzzy new novel, Pick a Color, while her 2020 win was for her short story collection, How to Pronounce Knife. As Publishers Weekly points out, numerous authors declined to have their books considered for the prize due to sponsors’ ties to Israeli arms manufacturing, defense, and settlements. Read more about the protests and the uncertain future of the Giller. Book Club Curators, come hang out in your new favorite corner of the internet! All book club organizers are invited to join the Book Club Curators Community over on Edelweiss. Members can connect over favorite reads, share new picks and ideas, and discover the latest and greatest from publishers. Whether you are planning your first discussion… or your hundredth, there’s something in the Community to inspire your best book club yet. Join here to get in on the fun! Keep Charlotte’s Web Out Your Mouth Martha White, the granddaughter of Charlotte’s Web author E.B. White, clapped back at the Trump administration after the Department of Homeland Security announced the launch of “Operation Charlotte’s Web” in North Carolina. In case you were confused, this operation is not an unlikely DHS kids reading program but a series of raids in Charlotte launched by federal immigration officials. A border patrol official quoted the following passage from the kid lit classic: “Wherever the wind takes us. High, low. Near, far. East, west. North, south. We take to the breeze, we go as we please.” Talk about spinning silver into crud. Martha White responded in a statement shared with CNN, saying her grandfather “certainly didn’t believe in masked men, in unmarked cars, raiding people’s homes and workplaces without IDs or summons. He didn’t condone fearmongering.” Hear hear. A New Sense and Sensibility I’m an Emma Thompson fan so Ang Lee’s 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility will forever be my one true adaptation, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to put the upcoming Daisy Edgar-Jones version on my calendar. Edgar-Jones, also of that other notable adaptation, Normal People, will be our Elinor in the version directed by Georgia Oakley and scripted by Diana Reid. Call me basic, but I can’t get enough of the ubiquitous awkward advances and class friction in Austen’s most popular works, including this one. This story sits right up there with Pride and Prejudice for me. We’ll have to wait until September 2026 to see it in theaters, but I look forward to impending trailers. In the meantime, I leave you with this, because I don’t like to suffer alone: the Thompson Sense and Sensibility celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Best Books of 2025 Picking the best books of the year was no easy task, but we sure had a lot of fun doing it. This year brought us romances that left us swooning, horror that made us sleep with the lights on, and magical stories that swept us away. It gave us memoirs that moved us, nonfiction that expanded our worldview, poetry to ground us when we needed it most, and so much more. We present you with our picks for the best books of 2025!The Best Nonfiction Books of 2025 What are you reading? Let us know in the comments!

A very good literary dog, the abounding queerness of nature, rowdy wrestlers turned zombies, and more of today's best book deals.

Today’s Featured Book Deals $4.99 Forest Euphoria by Patricia Ononiwu KaishianGet This Deal $1.99 Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. SutantoGet This Deal $1.99 House of Frost and Feathers by Lauren WiesebronGet This Deal $3.99 Zombie Bake-Off by Stephen Graham JonesGet This Deal $1.99 Toto by A. J. HackwithGet This Deal $1.99 Girls With Long Shadows by Tennessee HillGet This Deal $1.99 Those We Thought We Knew by David JoyGet This Deal $2.99 The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka HiiragiGet This Deal In Case You Missed Yesterday’s Most Popular Book Deals $6.99 The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran DesaiGet This Deal $1.99 Tiffany Aching Complete Collection by Terry PratchettGet This Deal $1.99 So Thirsty by Rachel HarrisonGet This Deal $1.99 Witches of Honeysuckle House by Liz ParkerGet This Deal

There’s the story of a couple stranded at sea that has taken the nonfiction community by storm. And we can’t forget the memoir that is a love letter to reading.

Book Riot’s Best Books of 2025 list is finally here! The entire Book Riot team has selected books across genres to highlight, including a lot of nonfiction. There is a standout memoir from one of India’s greatest writers working today. There’s the story of a couple stranded at sea that has taken the nonfiction community by storm. And we can’t forget the memoir that is a love letter to reading. Get your TBRs ready! Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy By the time she won the Booker Prize for her debut novel, The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy had already lived several lives. Here, she recounts experiences as a poet, activist, architecture student, and award-winning novelist, but the real magic is in Roy’s reflections on the complex and ever-changing dynamics of family, relationships, and ambition. You needn’t know a thing about her career to find inspiration and intellectual delight in these pages. —Rebecca Joines Schinsky A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst When you promise to love your partner “in good times and in bad,” you’re probably not imagining that the bad times will include 117 days lost at sea in a tiny lifeboat with a dwindling food supply and no way to call for help. In 1973, Maurice and Maralyn Bailey accidentally put their vows to the test when a whale rammed a hole into the yacht they were sailing from England to New Zealand. This is the gripping and unforgettable tale of how they endured illness, dehydration, near-starvation, and every emotion on the spectrum and managed to stay married for decades after. It’s an unbelievable story masterfully told. —Rebecca Joines Schinsky All access members continue below for more of the best nonfiction books of 2025. This content is for members only. Visit the site and log in/register to read.

Included are a retired elderly serial killer, an 18-year-old who survives a bomb explosion and learns her past is not what she thought, and more!

At the start of July, I hit you with part one of 2025’s Best Mystery, Thrillers, and True Crime selections, and now it’s time for the second half of the list! I still 100% stand behind my first set of picks, so if you forgot them or want to see them for the first time, definitely check those out too. As for the second part of the list, I am here once again with a few selections picked from Book Riot’s big Best of 2025 list (which also overlaps with my list!) and then more of my personal favorites. At the time of writing this, I’ve read more than 200 books this year, and 61% of them have been in the mystery, thriller, and true crime genres. My favorites this year include a retired elderly serial killer, a woman obsessed with buying a house, an 18-year-old who survives a bomb explosion and learns her past is not what she thought, and more! From Book Riot’s Best Books of 2025 This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki, Nicole Goux (illustrator) This sapphic YA graphic novel takes place in the ’80s, but its story of teenage alienation is timeless. Wilberton Academy’s resident It Girl, Elizabeth Woodward, is found dead the morning after she starred in the school’s rendition of Romeo and Juliet. She’s said to have died by suicide, but something about that doesn’t feel right. Outcast Abby Kita is determined to find out what really happened to one of the few girls at Wilberton who was ever nice to her. Turns out, Elizabeth had secrets—secrets that might have gotten her killed. —Erica Ezeifedi Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan A perfectly blended family drama with a past and present missing person’s mystery that sinks readers into a small town by the Salton Sea. I was equally invested in Mal and her family—from her mother blaming her for her sister’s disappearance when they were in high school to Mal keeping the father of her teen daughter’s identity a secret—and finding out what happened to the missing women, then and now. Throw in nightmares about a horse-headed woman, a politician brother aligned with the rich, and a race to find another missing person, and this atmospheric mystery is all-absorbing. Bonus: Victoria Villarreal is an excellent audiobook narrator. The Scammer by Tiffany D. Jackson I was still preaching the gospel of The Weight of Blood when I got around to reading The Scammer, and let me tell you, Tiffany D. Jackson does not, cannot miss. I was engrossed from the moment I saw where this story was headed (it’s inspired by the events surrounding the Sarah Lawrence cult, but set on an HBCU campus), and the ending left me in open-mouthed appreciation of a well-executed twist. If you like suspenseful books set on college campuses, explorations of cult dynamics and manipulation, and stories ripped from the headlines, you’re going to want to read this one now. —Vanessa Diaz More of My Favorite Mystery, Thrillers, & True Crime of 2025 All access members continue below for more of the best mystery, thriller, and true crime books of 2025 This content is for members only. Visit the site and log in/register to read.

2025's best comics and graphic novels will make you laugh, cry, and everything in between — in this year or any other!

Book Riot has released its Best Books of 2025! Hit that link to check out the main list, but not before you scroll down to see our picks for the year’s best comics…some of them, at least. You can’t begin to imagine the time I had keeping this list short, and how painful it was to make cuts. In any case, here are just a few of the amazing graphic novels released this year. They’ll make you laugh, cry, and everything in between — in this year or any other! Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes and Setor Fiadzigbey I knew this would be a difficult read, and I was right — but it is also incredibly powerful, moving, and even uplifting in the end. At just 12 years old, Jerome is shot and killed by a white police officer for playing with a toy gun. Jerome’s ghost meets other Black boys murdered by fear and racism, and makes an unlikely connection that could save other boys from becoming ghosts before their time. It Rhymes With Takei by George Takei, Harmony Becker, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger I included this one on my Best Books So Far list back in July, and it’s still here for good reason! Whether you’re a Trekkie or not, you’re sure to enjoy following along on Takei’s journey from aspiring actor to political activist to true legend (though yes, there are some funny Star Trek stories in here). Lu and Ren’s Guide to Geozoology by Angela Hsieh One of my favourite books of all time is The Tea Dragon Society by K. O’Neill. I’ve been searching for a book that is as comforting and beautiful as that one, and I’ve finally found it. When Lu stops getting letters from her ah-ma, the famous geozoologist, she and her best friend set out on a trip to find her, learning more about geofauna along the way. This queernorm middle grade fantasy graphic novel is a cozy story that also deals with grief and cultural divides between generations. The illustrations are so stunning that I finished the book and immediately ordered several art prints, which are now proudly displayed on my wall. —Danika Ellis More Weight by Ben Wickey “Epic” is the only word that truly encapsulates this graphic novel. Revealing the oft-forgotten human tragedies behind the sensationalized Salem Witch trials, More Weight explores the full horror of the trials themselves and the many ways that American society still struggles to deal with the consequences. This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki and Nicole Goux This sapphic YA graphic novel takes place in the ’80s, but its story of teenage alienation is timeless. Wilberton Academy’s resident It Girl, Elizabeth Woodward, is found dead the morning after she starred in the school’s rendition of Romeo and Juliet. She’s said to have died by suicide, but something about that doesn’t feel right. Outcast Abby Kita is determined to find out what really happened to one of the few girls at Wilberton who was ever nice to her. Turns out, Elizabeth had secrets—secrets that might have gotten her killed. —Erica Ezeifedi For more great comics and graphic novels, take a look back at the books we were loving by the middle of the year with our Best Books of the Year (So Far) list.

Have you read the best historical fiction books of the year?

Determining the best books of the year is always an incredibly difficult challenge. How can you possibly narrow down hundreds of incredible releases into one, succinct list? Well, this year I did it with the help of my fellow Book Riot writers in our big Best Books of 2025 list, and I’m using their opinions again here to put together a shorter list of 2025’s best historical fiction. I may not be able to read every book out there, but between all of us, we do a pretty darn good job of narrowing that margin down some. So, these five titles are the best historical fiction books of the year, and that’s not just my opinion. At least three other Riot writers agree with me! My Favorites The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis When the townspeople of an eighteenth-century English village decide that a quiet, reclusive family of five sisters is hiding a magical secret, their fervor ignites into a terrifying fury. What gives them the right, and, moreover, what are the townspeople going to do about it? The Hounding is an incisive exploration of how hard times and herd mentality can transform prejudice and small-town gossip into real-life violence. What could happen then still happens now. Consider Pruvis’s haunting novel a primer on how not to treat your neighbor. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid If Daisy Jones brought you to Taylor Jenkins Reid and Evelyn Hugo made you love her, then Atmosphere can only be described as Taylor Jenkins Reid at her very best. It’s a romance and a character study, exploring what life was like during a particular moment for a very particular set of people: queer women working on the space shuttle program at NASA in the 1970s and 80s. It’s beautiful, moving, and, at times, heart-stopping. Whether describing moments of Joan’s life in triumph or disaster, Reid will have you wrapped around her finger. You won’t be able to look away—and you’d never want to. —Rachel Brittain Rioter Favorites The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones On the third day of reading Jones’ latest horror novel, I had a nightmare, but it might not be why you think. The monsters here are supernatural and all-consuming, but the true horror is the very real story that’s told of the Marias Massacre, where around 200 Blackfeet were murdered in the dead of winter. The story is told through a journal found in 2012, which was written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor. The pastor records his time with a Blackfeet man named Good Stab, a man with peculiar eating habits and seemingly superhuman abilities… and revenge on his mind. —Erica Ezeifedi Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray This Harlem-set, Jazz Age historical novel tells the story of the nearly forgotten Jessie Redmon Fauset, who changed the course of Black American literature and American literature as a whole. She made history as the first Black woman Editor of The Crisis, the oldest Black magazine in the world, and became known as “The Midwife of the Harlem Renaissance” because of her discovery and mentoring of writers like Langston Hughes and Nella Larsen. She wasn’t without her drama, though—it was well-known that she and her very married boss, W.E.B. Du Bois, were carrying on in the Biblical sense. And this book dives headfirst into the mess. —Erica Ezeifedi We Do Not Part by Han Kang, translated by E. Yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris Literary fiction of the highest order from a Nobel Prize-winning novelist. Not much happens in this quiet, dream-like novel that asks rich questions about history, memory, connection, and pain. It’s the rare book that can be equally subtle and unsettling, and that’s evidence of a masterful writer working at the height of her powers. You always know you’re in good hands with Kang, and that makes it a pleasure to follow her wherever she wants to go. —Rebecca Joines Schinsky Be sure to check out our picks for the best historical fiction of 2024, 2023, and 2022 as well, and if you’re craving even more distant backlist fiction, try the best historical fiction books from the last 10 years and the best historical fiction of the century (so far).

From a royal murder to a queer K-pop take on Jane Austen, read your way into this week's new YA book releases.

We’re really hitting our downhill slide to the end of the year in the world of new young adult book releases. Where it was once difficult to pick and choose which titles to highlight each week, this week and next week’s choices are much less difficult simply because there are fewer titles. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. next week, this week’s new releases also include titles hitting shelves then. I’ve indicated which titles those are with the publication date beside them; any books without a date next to them are available this week. On deck this week are a fun K-pop take on Pride and Prejudice, a story of a girl finding her place in roller derby, a short story collection set in the world of a popular series by a beloved YA author, and so much more. This week, we’ve also got another pair of book doing simultaneous releases in paperback and hardcover. I suspect that will continue to happen with frequency into the new year, and it’s a much-needed publishing trend that allows readers to pick the format that best fits their needs (and their budgets!). Note that this week’s releases are not as diverse as usual, and that’s a product of fewer releases hitting shelves. That said–and as noted before–there is some fear that we’ll begin to really see fewer diverse titles beginning next year due to the ongoing attacks on books by or about marginalized people. It’s our responsibility to watch what’s happening in publishing and call it out if this fear begins to bear out. New Hardcover YA Releases This Week The Cuffing Game by Lyla Lee In this K-Drama remix of Pride and Prejudice with queer lead characters, readers who love reality TV and YA books with older teens will find a lot to like. Mia got a full ride to film school behind her mom’s back, and it’s her way out of an unfulfilling small town life. She’s now working to produce a dating show, but all of her plans are challenged when she’s forced to ask her secret crush Noah to help her. She’d much rather just hate him instead. Noah’s one of the most eligible bachelors on campus, and despite pressure from his peers, he’s okay with that. He doesn’t need a relationship right now. But his eyes are on Mia, and he’s delighted when she asks him to help her on her show. He’ll be one of the eligible contestants. But watching Noah go on dates from behind the scenes isn’t sitting well with Mia. And those feelings are reciprocated by Noah, who wonders if he’s really meant to be dating the girl behind the camera. How Girls Are Made by Mindy McGinnis McGinnis’s latest novel is being pitched as Sex Education meets Euphoria and sounds like it tackles a whole lot of right-now issues in an intense and compelling way. The book follows three girls. There’s Fallon, a girl who thinks she’s got everything all figured out. But when her younger sister asks her a basic question about sex and Fallon realizes she doesn’t know the answer, she creates an off-campus group to get some practical answers. Shelby is a girl who fights, but things take a turn when her boyfriend hits her. After that happens, it’s a new guy who wants to court her. He’s saying everything right and flattering, and Shelby is willing to change some of the things he thinks could be better about her. Then there’s Jobie, who wants to be a social media influencer but never quite gets the traction she thinks she deserves. So when she gets a DM from someone who suggests an audience of open and receptive guys who’d be eager to help her career flourish. All three of the girls get to know each other in Fallon’s secret group. But while they all fight to achieve the things they think that they want, not all of them will get out of this alive. I’ll Find You Where the Timeline Ends by Kylie Lee Baker Yang Mina was born with the power to travel through time. This is because she is the descendant of a Japanese dragon god, and she’s spent her life preparing to join the Descendants. The Descendants are charged with protecting the timeline. There’s just one, err, many problems. Mina’s moved to Seoul and discovered that the Descendants are corrupt. That doesn’t touch upon her sister being literally erased from existence and her bad grades in calculus. It also doesn’t touch upon her dream of kissing the cutest boy in her class feeling more and more impossible. Mina has to do something. That something is teaming up with Yejun, a dangerous proposition, as he’s a rogue agent. But Yejun wants to help remove corrupt influence from the Descendants and he promises Mina he’ll restore her sister to the timeline. Mina and Yejun are meeting between classes in time travel dates, and all seems like it’s going well. At least, it did. Now Mina’s beginning to see the truth about Yejun, and all of his promises are sounding less and less, well, promising. New Hardcover Series Releases: Mindworks: An Uncanny Compendium of Short Fiction by Neal Shusterman–this one is releasing both in hardcover and paperback simultaneously. Wheel of Wrath by A. A. Vora More Hardcover YA Releases This Week: Heart Check by Emily Charlotte–this one is being released in hardcover and paperback simultaneously. Leave It On The Track by Margot Fisher New Paperback YA Releases This Week Out of Air by Rachel Reiss Phoebe “Phibs” Ray loves being underwater. It was only six months ago when she and her friends were on a dive and found some ancient gold coins. That gave them a rush of social media fame, even. Now it’s their final summer together before college and life post-high school, and Phibs and her friends are going to take one more dive together. Phibs finds an underwater cave on this dive, and it’s a cave rumored to have some sunken treasure. But when Phibs and her friend Gabe surface, strange things are happening to them. They’re hearing whispers in their head. They have wounds that aren’t healing. They’re being invaded from the inside out. Now treasure hunters have arrived, eager to find the bounty that Phibs and her friends think they may have stumbled upon. Those hunters plan to take the teens for ransom. But it won’t be long before Phibs and those wanna-be criminals discover the true monster lurking right beneath the surface. Red As Royal Blood by Elizabeth Hart Ruby loves a puzzle, but she was not prepared to put together why, when destined to the role of servant to the royal family, she was then named the heir to the throne before the king’s death. She’s now left to clean up an unbelievable mess. It begins with the king’s wife being angry. It continues with the king’s three sons being irate that they aren’t his successor. It only gets worse when she discovers a note from the king that he’s actually been murdered and that she, Ruby, will be next. To solve the king’s murder–to figure out if it was a murder at all–Ruby must work with the three princes. But her time is short because if they can’t figure out whether or not there’s a killer on the loose, her life may be the next one taken. New Paperback Series Releases: A Wild and Ruined Song by Ashley Shuttleworth–this one publishes next week, on November 25. More Paperback YA Releases This Week: Perfect Girl by Tracy Banghart Want more YA book recommendations? Of course you do. Here are some excellent recent queer takes on Jane Austen, as well as some of the biggest books of the fall.

This series starter is a prime example of well-plotted mystery/thriller novels that have characters at their heart

The first time I listened to the Frieda Klein series, I was tucked in on the couch in my parents’ living room in front of the fire during the holidays. All of us had come down with colds and sat in commiserable silence as we drank hot chocolate and ate Christmas Day leftovers. For the entire week, I finished a novel a day—one of those days, I inhaled this engrossing story about a psychotherapist who begins consulting for the police. This fall, I felt the overwhelm of—well, everything—so instead of doomscrolling my mental health into oblivion, I returned to the world of Frieda Klein’s 2010s London. Blue Monday by Nicci French On an ordinary autumn day in London, Matthew Farraday disappears from his primary school. Soon, his face is plastered in every newspaper and news program. But the police have exhausted every lead and crumb of evidence. Enter Frieda Klein, a psychotherapist who spends her days listening to her patients describe their troubled lives and her sleepless nights walking the streets of London. When her new patient describes a fantasy where he has a son matching the description of Matthew Farraday, Frieda breaks confidentiality and takes her concerns to the police. Soon, she finds herself entangled in the case that will change her life forever. The eight-book series follows Frieda through several years as this first case haunts her every step. No matter how many cases she solves, it always comes back to the Matthew Farraday case. While every book in the series is fantastic, it’s Frieda and her band of friends that keep us coming back for more. Through every twist and turn, Frieda grows to rely on the people around her. As I reread the series, I began to realize how much foreshadowing and complex plot French includes throughout these novels. One of Klein’s greatest loves is London geography, which shows up from the start. She especially loves London’s many rivers, which end up playing a huge role later in the series. Frieda is an endlessly fascinating character, and her many secrets are revealed slowly, making you want to pick up the next book immediately. Great writing happens in every genre, and the Frieda Klein series is a prime example of well-plotted mystery/thriller novels that have characters at their heart. For me, late fall and early winter will always be Frieda Klein season. You can find me over on my substack Winchester Ave, over on Instagram @kdwinchester, or on my podcast Read Appalachia. As always, feel free to drop me a line at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For even MORE bookish content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.

From Harry Dresden to Acatl, High Priest for the Dead, here are six of the best detective characters in fantasy novels.

Hell-bent on avenging her parents’ murders, Saffron Killoran lies her way into Silvercloak Academy—a training ground for elite detectives—with a single goal: to bring the ruthless Bloodmoons to justice. But when Saff’s deception is exposed, she’s given a rare opportunity: to go undercover and tear the Bloodmoons down from the inside. Descending into a world where pleasure and pain are the most powerful currencies, Saff must commit some truly heinous deeds to keep her cover—and her life. Each day tests her loyalties further—and one false step could destroy everyone she’s ever loved. I always enjoy when genres collide. Like when a fantasy creature unleashes its magic on a futuristic sci-fi society, or when a lovely romance finds its way into a horror novel. This particular post is about the merging of genres, too: when the detective of crime fiction enters a fantasy setting. Sleuthing amidst dragons and spells? Yes, please, and thank you. In this post, I’ll go over some of the best detectives in fantasy novels. That said, I want to make a little aside and clarify what I mean by detective here. Sometimes they’re a jaded PI or homicide detective, yes, but just as often they’re a normal person who finds themself thrust into a mystery and breaks out the detective-ing skills to solve it. Because let’s be real, professional detectives are amazing, and literature would not be the same without them (please don’t ever leave me, Monsieur Poirot), but someone beating the odds and solving the mystery when they’re not professionally trained to do so? Amazing. Spectacular. 10/10, no notes. I chose a mix of famous and lesser-known detectives from fantasy fiction, not necessarily because they are indisputably better than every other fantasy detective (that would be a tall order, considering the breadth and scope of the genre), but because I wanted to give an overview. If you’re not familiar with detectives in fantasy, this is a good place to start. Happy reading! October “Toby” Daye from Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series October “Toby” Daye is a changeling: a child born to a human and a fairy. Don’t let that fool you: that doesn’t make her life perfect and magical. On the contrary, since mortal halfbreeds aren’t exactly loved by the Fae, she tries her luck in the human world, which turns out to be… a disappointment, to say the least. Eventually, a murder drags Toby right back to the world of the Fae, where she has to balance solving the case and staying alive. Start with: Rosemary and Rue. Harry Dresden from Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series Who doesn’t love Harry Dresden? A professional wizard and private investigator based in Chicago, Harry has an impressive backstory and, more importantly, a great skill for solving cases, many of which are of the supernatural variety. Start with: Storm Front. Acatl, High Priest from the Dead, from Aliette de Bodard’s Obsidian and Blood series This series follows Acatl, High Priest for the Dead, as he splits his time between seeing to the funeral rites of the Aztec Imperial Family and investigating less mystical matters. Set in Tenochtitlan, I admit I had not heard of this series before beginning my research on this post, but you better believe I will fix that ASAP. Start with: Servant of the Underworld. Yusuke Urameshi from Yoshishiro Togashi’s YuYu Hakusho series I’ve mostly featured prose fantasy novels here, but I’m including this manga series because it’s still very much fantasy and because I refuse to leave Yusuke Urameshi out of this list. He is a belligerent teenager who, upon his death saving another child, is given the chance to return to life. Once back, he is given the title of Underworld Detective and told to investigate supernatural activity in the human world. Start with: Goodbye, Material World! Garrett from Glen Cook’s Garrett P.I. series Remember when I talked about genres colliding? This is a straight-up detective story taking place in a fantasy setting. Garrett is a freelance private investigator whose work takes him all over the kingdom of Karenta, a place where anti-human racism runs rampant. Start with: Sweet Silver Blues. Bree Matthews from Tracy Deonn’s The Legendborn Cycle series This YA series had me at “Arthurian legend”. Sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews is trying to cope with her mother’s death when she enrolls in a prestigious program at UNC-Chapel Hill. But the discovery of magic, a secret society, and the knowledge that there might have been more to her mother’s death than meets the eye all force Bree to embark on a quest to find out what exactly happened. Also, did I mention that she uncovers her own magic in the process? Start with: Legendborn. If you can’t get enough of fantasy, why not take a look at 10 of the best magic systems in fantasy? Or, if mysteries are more your thing (and you’re done with 2025), look forward to these 2026 mysteries & thrillers!

Picking the best books of the year was no easy task, but we sure had a lot of fun doing it. We present you with our picks for the best books of 2025!

Picking the best books of the year was no easy task, but we sure had a lot of fun doing it. This year brought us romances that left us swooning, horror that made us sleep with the lights on, and magical stories that swept us away. It gave us memoirs that moved us, nonfiction that expanded our worldview, poetry to ground us when we needed it most, and so much more. We present you with our picks for the best books of 2025! A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar Fiction In the near future in Kolkata, India, a family prepares to immigrate to the United States as climate refugees. When a thief breaks into their home in search of food, his life becomes inextricably entwined with theirs as, over the course of one week, they all struggle to survive with their hope and humanity intact. It’s a powerful story made all the more urgent by Majumdar’s use of subtle, specific details and masterfully restrained writing. Nominated for the Kirkus Prize and National Book Award for Fiction, this is a story about a specific moment in history that will resonate for years to come. - Rebecca Joines Schinsky Buy Now A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst Autobiography/Biography/MemoirNonfiction When you promise to love your partner “in good times and in bad,” you’re probably not imagining that the bad times will include 117 days lost at sea in a tiny lifeboat with a dwindling food supply and no way to call for help. In 1973, Maurice and Maralyn Bailey accidentally put their vows to the test when a whale rammed a hole into the yacht they were sailing from England to New Zealand. This is the gripping and unforgettable tale of how they endured illness, dehydration, near-starvation, and every emotion on the spectrum and managed to stay married for decades after. It’s an unbelievable story masterfully told. - Rebecca Joines Schinsky Buy Now A Sharp Endless Need by Mac Crane Fiction Mack Morris lives for basketball, but after their father’s death, the game can’t fill the void. Despite being recruited to a top college, Mack feels lost. Then, Liv Cooper transfers to their team. Before long, their chemistry burns on and off the court. Mack hides their feelings, but desire keeps resurfacing. Crane captures longing and tension with poetic precision, turning basketball into a dance of longing. Mack’s doubts about college, the pros, and their own identity drive them toward self-destruction through substance abuse. Even for non-sports fan readers, Crane’s prose makes the rhythm and beauty of the game pulse on every page. - Kendra Winchester Buy Now A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna FantasyRomance Sangu Mandanna’s first adult romance, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, was acclaimed for its warm, immersive style, and Mandanna – facing all the challenges of delivering a follow-up – could have decided to go a completely different direction with her next book. Instead, she doubled down and provided another cozy novel about found family, this time centered on a witch who’s lost her magic and an inn that calls to those who need it most. Mandanna realizes that “cozy” doesn’t mean a lack of pain or emotion but rather ensuring that a character dealing with those things is offered love and support. And sometimes an undead rooster. - Trisha Brown Buy Now Along Came Amor by Alexis Daria Romance Ava is a divorced middle school teacher. Roman is a self-made and, somehow, ethical billionaire hotel owner. A chance meeting leads to a one night stand. But then Ava finds out that Roman is the best man in her cousin’s wedding, and she is the maid of honor. Roman is delighted and clears his schedule to accompany Ava to Puerto Rico to help organize the wedding. But Ava isn’t so sure. She’s feeling wounded from her divorce, pressure from her family, and unable to trust anything—even her own feelings. I am a former teacher and people pleaser, so I loved seeing Ava work through her complex emotions to get the fantasy romance she deserved! - Alison Doherty Buy Now Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid Fiction If Daisy Jones brought you to Taylor Jenkins Reid and Evelyn Hugo made you love her, then Atmosphere can only be described as Taylor Jenkins Reid at her very best. It’s a romance and a character study, exploring what life was like during a particular moment for a very particular set of people: queer women working on the space shuttle program at NASA in the 1970s and 80s. It’s beautiful, moving, and, at times, heart-stopping. Whether describing moments of Joan's life in triumph or disaster, Reid will have you wrapped around her finger. You won't be able to look away—and you’d never want to. - Rachel Brittain Buy Now Audition by Katie Kitamura Fiction Kitamura starts us out with a tight and masterful portrayal of people playing roles, and thinking about playing roles. Then, at about the halfway point, the stakes are changed, not in terms of register but in terms of what stories are and can do. Like many novels that contest and break expectations, Audition is not a general-purpose recommendation. (I would expect it to have the lowest Goodreads star rating of any book on this list, for example). But for readers who are interested in what else is possible in a book, or hell, what else is possible in a life, Audition is something other than satisfying—it is confounding, provocative, and new. - Jeff O'Neal Buy Now August Lane by Regina Black Romance This brilliant literary romance is a powerful reminder that Black country artists have always been here. One-hit-wonder Luke is honored to open for his idol, 90s superstar JoJo Lane, at her induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. But he’ll have to confront his complicated past, because the concert is being held in his and JoJo’s small hometown in Arkansas. Luke was close to JoJo’s daughter, August, until a shocking betrayal ripped them apart and jump-started his career. As Luke, August, and JoJo grapple with their complicated relationships to the music industry, a new love song takes shape. It’s fantastic in any format, but I recommend the full-cast audiobook. - Susie Dumond Buy Now Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz Science Fiction All the coziness and character of a Becky Chambers novel with the wit and charm of Martha Wells. I never knew I needed a book about robots running a restaurant in a near-future San Francisco, but Automatic Noodle proved I did. I would die for these robots—or at least leave them lots of really, really good reviews. - Rachel Brittain Buy Now Awakened by A.E. Osworth Fantasy When I heard that Awakened was about a coven of trans witches that fight an evil AI, it immediately rose to the top of my most-anticipated list. I'm happy to say it lived up to those expectations, from its dedication—"For everyone who feels betrayed by J.K. Rowling"—to its final page. The whimsical narrator makes for a fun contrast to the cynical main character, reluctantly adjusting to their new powers. Each of the members of this coven is complex and multifaceted, making their slow progression into a chosen family feel satisfying and realistic. Yes, this is a fantastic read for ex-Harry Potter fans, but it's so much more than that. - Danika Ellis Buy Now Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker Horror This is the book I cannot stop recommending or talking about. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cora’s sister was pushed in front of a train. Cora continues to clean up gruesome murders in Chinatown while Delilah’s assailant’s last words, “Bat Eater,” ring in her ears. The mutilated bats at every scene only heighten Cora’s suspicions that the attack on Delilah wasn’t random. Cora struggles with compulsions and her grief only grows as she begins to notice signs of Delilah everywhere. She turns to her remaining family and her coworkers for help to free Delilah from becoming a hungry ghost forever. Somewhere between horror and murder mystery, Bat Eater is a ghost story for 2025. - Courtney Rodgers Buy Now Best Woman by Rose Dommu Fiction Family weddings are never easy, but Julia’s brother’s is a particular kind of minefield. Since leaving Florida, she’s transitioned and is living her best, queerest life in New York. The references to iconic rom-coms are threaded throughout, but this still feels fresh and original. While Julia’s navigating the minefield of best woman duties for her brother, she encounters a former crush, Kim. Julia re-connects with Kim over a lie, but the genuine spark between them is impossible to deny. Dommu also retains her extremely pithy, irreverent Internet voice, expertly translated into long-form prose. Whatever rom-com she tackles next, I’m there. - Julia Rittenberg Buy Now Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su Fiction You don't have to like Vi to empathize with her experiences as a college dropout living in a Midwest town where she sees herself having no future. But you will certainly be unable to stop reading this book after she discovers a blob on the street and brings it home. This is no ordinary blob, though. It's sentient, and over the course of the story, it begins to grow limbs and a whole personality. Vi realizes she has an opportunity here: make this blob her ideal partner and finally find true, meaningful love. Blob is a weird, funny, and moving read about identity, family, and, err, street blobs. - Kelly Jensen Buy Now Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab Fantasy Maria, in 1532 Spain, latches on to a rebellious marriage to try and get her freedom from all the restrictions placed on her; Alice, in 2019, hopes college will be a fresh start, and is thrilled to meet the mysterious Lottie. The three women unspool into a centuries-long story about how far these women will go in the name of their rage and their desire for freedom. Playing on the same fears and dramas of Interview With the Vampire with a brush of her hit The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, Schwab's newest gives readers richly painted, queer vampires caught in a multi-century web of obsession, immortality, and longing. - Leah Rachel von Essen Buy Now Cannon by Lee Lai ComicsGraphic Novel After Stone Fruit, I longed for Lai’s second graphic novel about Cannon, a cook, and Trish, a writer, from Lennoxville. Every week, the best friends—“on the uncool side of [their] twenties”—watch a scary film until distance threatens their bond of 14 years. Opening in a trashed Montreal restaurant with a regretful Cannon, the story returns to three months prior. Featuring mostly black-and-white art, I devoured this, obsessed with the use of color, horror influences, and complex relationships. As I reread this stunning meditation on breath, intimacy, and care, I observed what appears in red, which frames birds populate, and how they converge. - Connie Pan Buy Now Cults Like Us by Jane Borden Nonfiction Is America a cult? Borden explores this question by diving into the morals and beliefs that shaped Puritanical colonization. The book surveys a cult's characteristics, tracing how groups, laws, and policies throughout American history have led to conspiratorial thinking among its people. This includes why Americans are so susceptible to pyramid schemes; why most American cults have been white and politically right-leaning; and when such thinking has surged in this country's timeline. Engaging and enraging, this is the history and contemporary exploration of America we need right now. - Kelly Jensen Buy Now Death In The Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown by Candace Fleming NonfictionYoung Adult Jim Jones, leader of one of the most notorious cults in history, The People’s Temple, managed to convince 900 people to drink cyanide to their ultimate deaths. But how did he do it? This book traces Jones’s story from his youth growing up during the Great Depression to where and how he convinced people to follow him and his beliefs. You’ll follow Jones and his devotees from California to their off-grid Jonestown compound in the depths of Guyana. Fleming's research is deep, and the story is situated in the experiences of young people growing up within this cult. An example of knockout nonfiction for young adult readers (and beyond!). - Kelly Jensen Buy Now Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley Fiction I’m still surprised that the BookTok and Bookstagram girlies didn’t become obsessed with this book and hold onto it for dear life. Set in the 2000s, Deep Cuts follows Percy and Joe, two college students who meet at a bar one fall night and instantly bond over their love of music. What follows is a years-long, on-again-off-again relationship (or toxic situationship, if you will) and a creative partnership that always brings them together as passionately as it tears them apart. Full of all the awkward twentysomething behavior most of us would like to forget, Deep Cuts is an ode to the miracle of music and the art of getting by. - Jeffrey Davies Buy Now Don’t Trust Fish by Neil Sharpson, illustrated by Dan Santat Children's What starts as a nonfiction animal classification book takes a wild and hilarious turn when the narrator begins describing why readers should not trust fish. First off, there are massive variations between all the species who fall under this category (some fish are tiny while others are big as a bus … and that’s NOT okay). But more importantly, they might be plotting dastardly plans, such as shipwrecks or even world domination! The comedic timing and hyperbole in the text make this book incredibly fun to read out loud. And the illustrations, by the legendary Dan Santat, are equally important to the hilarity of this picture book. - Alison Doherty Buy Now Down in the Sea of Angels by Khan Wong FantasyScience Fiction This blending of science fiction and fantasy takes place in San Francisco along three timelines—two in the past and one in the not-too-distant future. The oldest timeline is in 1906 with Li Nuan, a teen who was sold to a San Francisco Chinatown mob boss to settle her father’s debts. Then in 2006 is a queer, Chinese American named Nathan, who works in tech and is a Burning Man devotee. Finally, the year 2106 is woven in with Maida Sun, a woman with psionic abilities. It’s a beautifully written and thought-provoking examination of our connections and obligations to each other through time. - Patricia Elzie-Tuttle Buy Now Flashlight by Susan Choi Fiction Susan Choi's sixth novel is a masterpiece, a family saga wrapped in a mystery that haunts its characters. Young Louisa and her father are walking along a beach at night, carrying flashlights. Hours later, Louisa is found alone, barely alive, and her father is never seen again. As Louisa grows up with her mother, the loss of her father hovering over their lives, parts of their pasts are revealed, including a long-held secret. Flashlight is a sharp examination of not only the physical loss of someone, but loss of place, estrangement, and loss of self, as Louisa and her mother carry around a grief with no end. It's a stunning heart-puncher. - Liberty Hardy Buy Now Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray Historical Fiction This Harlem-set, Jazz Age historical novel tells the story of the nearly forgotten Jessie Redmon Fauset, who changed the course of Black American literature and American literature as a whole. She made history as the first Black woman Editor of The Crisis, the oldest Black magazine in the world, and became known as "The Midwife of the Harlem Renaissance" because of her discovery and mentoring of writers like Langston Hughes and Nella Larsen. She wasn't without her drama, though—it was well-known that she and her very married boss, W.E.B. Du Bois, were carrying on in the Biblical sense. And this book dives headfirst into the mess. - Erica Ezeifedi Buy Now Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance by Denali Sai Nalamalapu Autobiography/Biography/MemoirGraphic Novel Denali Sai Nalamalapu, a climate activist, brings the story of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the people who resisted it to vivid life. Spanning 300 miles through West Virginia and Virginia, the pipeline cut through farms and forests, devastating land. Nalamalapu spent hours with activists, organizing their experiences into six illustrated chapters. Each one depicts small but powerful acts of defiance, like Becky Crabtree chaining herself to her Bronco or Monacan seedkeeper Desirée Shelley preserving her community’s future. With its intimate storytelling, Holler shows how collective, everyday resistance can protect both land and hope. - Kendra Winchester Buy Now I Got Abducted By Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming RomanceScience Fiction When it comes to whimsy, irreverence, and outright silliness, Kimberly Lemming is That Girl. In her first sci-fi romance that takes the teeniest amount of inspiration from The Wizard of Oz, a grad student who just wants to complete her research and write her dissertation gets kidnapped by aliens alongside the lion that’s about to eat her, and it just gets more wild from there. Whether it’s about proper academic research, the lines of consent with regard to genetic programming, or trying to make Only One Bed happen when there are plenty to choose from, this book talks about both the serious and the silly in the most hilarious way. - Jessica Pryde Buy Now Katabasis by R.F. Kuang Fantasy While this book is more divisive than I predicted, I remain a fan and see it as yet more evidence of Kuang's versatility and willingness to take risks as a writer. This is dark academia with an emphasis on the academic, pulling concepts from linguistics, math, and religion to explore the afterlife as only Kuang can. I might be biased as fiction about this realm of the unknown is deep in my wheelhouse, but it's also pretty hard to make a dark academia fantasy stand out from the swiftly-growing category. Katabasis does. It was also compelling enough to attract Hollywood's attention with an adaptation already in the works. - S. Zainab Williams Buy Now King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby Mystery/Thriller Nobody is writing crime novels like S.A. Cosby is writing crime novels. In King of Ashes, Roman Carruthers has "made good" and left his Virginia hometown for Atlanta. He comes home following an accident that left his father in a coma to find his brother is in deep debt to dangerous people. How far will Roman go to protect his family? The backdrop of the family crematory business provides an atmosphere of omnipresent death and suffocating heat. Meditating on systemic racism and generational trauma, this unflinching book has complex characters that don't easily fit into archetypes and prose so sharp it could draw blood. - Isabelle Popp Buy Now Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders Fantasy This book was such a balm this year with themes of family, community, and love, but mostly Anders’s remarkable ability to make readers believe that magic and healing are within reach for all of us. Jamie is a grad student in New England who is incredibly stressed as she tries to nail down a dissertation that continues to slip through her fingers. Adding to her stress is her relationship with her mother Serena, who has been grieving the loss of her wife and living as a hermit in an old schoolhouse for years. Jamie is also a witch and decides that teaching her mother magic is a great idea to reconnect, yet this goes sideways quickly. - Patricia Elzie-Tuttle Buy Now Lu and Ren’s Guide to Geozoology by Angela Hsieh Children'sComicsFantasyGraphic Novel One of my favourite books of all time is The Tea Dragon Society by K. O'Neill. I've been searching for a book that is as comforting and beautiful as that one, and I've finally found it. When Lu stops getting letters from her ah-ma, the famous geozoologist, she and her best friend set out on a trip to find her, learning more about geofauna along the way. This queernorm middle grade fantasy graphic novel is a cozy story that also deals with grief and cultural divides between generations. The illustrations are so stunning that I finished the book and immediately ordered several art prints, which are now proudly displayed on my wall. - Danika Ellis Buy Now Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson by Tourmaline Autobiography/Biography/MemoirNonfiction This is a deeply researched, definitive biography of transgender activist and artist Marsha P. Johnson. Written by the brilliant multi-hyphenate Tourmaline, this beautifully written book shows Marsha as a whole person, both before and after the Stonewall Uprising of 1969. Many people have heard that Marsha threw the first brick during the Stonewall Uprising, but few people know much beyond that. She was an artist and performer who toured outside of the U.S. She was a poet and muse and a fierce friend bursting with love. This book also includes some gorgeous photographs and is told with the care and reverence that Marsha’s story deserves. - Patricia Elzie-Tuttle Buy Now Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy Autobiography/Biography/MemoirNonfiction By the time she won the Booker Prize for her debut novel The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy had already lived several lives. Here, she recounts experiences as a poet, activist, architecture student, and award-winning novelist, but the real magic is in Roy's reflections on the complex and ever-changing dynamics of family, relationships, and ambition. You needn't know a thing about her career to find inspiration and intellectual delight in these pages. - Rebecca Joines Schinsky Buy Now Oathbound by Tracy Deonn Fantasy Book three in The Legendborn Cycle may be Deonn’s best book yet. Bree Matthews will need her perseverance as she learns to wield her powers away from her friends, the Legendborn Order, and her Root magic ancestral elders. Instead, she must trust a dangerous bargain with the Shadow King—a being that would do anything to claim her power. Meanwhile, Selwyn is fighting his Demonia with the only person alive who can help, and Nick is doing everything he can to find Sel and Bree. Oathbound tests the strength of friendships, institutions, and magic as our heroes confront the true cost of power. - R. Nassor Buy Now Old Soul by Susan Barker FictionHorror This outstanding, genre-defying novel will ruin your life but in the best way! Two strangers stuck at an airport in Japan start talking, and eventually discover they have both had someone close to them die who had a connection to the same mysterious woman. One of the strangers, Jake, decides he needs to find everything out that he can about this woman, a journey that takes him all over the globe. But each bit of information he gathers only makes her story more mystifying and alarming. Who is this enigma? Part horror, mystery, and 'OMFG', this upsetting, brilliant novel has an ending that will haunt your days, and you'll thank it for it. - Liberty Hardy Buy Now On Again, Awkward Again by Erin Entrada Kelly and Kwame Mbalia Young Adult Geek out with this younger YA book, which follows two high school freshmen learning how to navigate school, friendship, family drama, and falling in love for the very first time. Pacy and Cecil meet on their first day of school, but neither has it together enough to fess up to their feelings. Both are forced into helping plan the freshman dance, and no matter how much they try to deny what's going on, the sparks only get brighter. The dynamic writing duo behind this book has created two memorable characters who will have you weighing in on their ongoing battle: Star Wars or Star Trek? - Kelly Jensen Buy Now One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad Nonfiction This is more than a book; this is a time capsule recording the visceral horror many of us in the U.S. and Western world at large felt as we bore witness to and were complicit in genocide. Omar El Akkad applied his first-hand experience, historical precedent, and journalistic reporting skills to the war in Gaza and the suffering of Palestinians, stepping away from fiction to write his first nonfiction book from a response that rang out across the digital world: "One day, everyone will have always been against this." This powerful reckoning has become a bestseller and is a finalist for a National Book Award. - S. Zainab Williams Buy Now Queer Enlightenments: A Hidden History of Lovers, Lawbreakers, and Homemakers by Dr. Anthony Delaney Nonfiction Reading this history of queer and gender nonconforming people in the 18th and 19th centuries was at times maddening in how familiar it felt: the moral panic, the cruelty, the self-righteous persecution of people just trying to live their lives. But it was also invigorating to spend time with the 11 fascinating subjects of the book, from more familiar figures like Anne Lister and the Chevalier d’Eon to Mary Jones and Mother Clap. These people were asking themselves a lot of the same questions queer folks are asking today about sex and gender expression, and Dr. Anthony Delaney dives into each of their stories with nuance, tenderness, and care. - Vanessa Diaz Buy Now Rosemary Long Ears by Susie Ghahreman Children's Sometimes, you've got to let your ears down and let your paws get dirty to have a little fun. This sweet picture book follows weiner dog Rosemary and her best human friend through a day of fun around the neighborhood. It's full of puddles, leaf piles, and all kinds of young people taking delight in a day outside. At the end of the day, we see Rosemary and her friend delight in a luscious bubble bath. The art is as bright and lively as the text, making this a surefire hit for young readers–especially those who love a good animal story. This has been a go-to gifting title this year. - Kelly Jensen Buy Now Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan HorrorMystery/Thriller A perfectly blended family drama with a past and present missing person’s mystery that sinks readers into a small town by the Salton Sea. I was equally invested in Mal and her family—from her mother blaming her for her sister’s disappearance when they were in high school to Mal keeping the father of her teen daughter’s identity a secret—and finding out what happened to the missing women, then and now. Throw in nightmares about a horse-headed woman, a politician brother aligned with the rich, and a race to find another missing person, and this atmospheric mystery is all-absorbing. Bonus: Victoria Villarreal is an excellent audiobook narrator. - Jamie Canaves Buy Now Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara Nonfiction What does it mean to be a person in a moment when technology is increasingly good at performing humanity? What does it mean to create art and seek connection when algorithms purport to replace both? Vara's attempt to co-write a book with AI ventures to surprising places and achieves a level of nuance that is all too uncommon in today's discourse. Part performance art, part social commentary, this is the book about AI and creativity I’ve been waiting for. - Rebecca Joines Schinsky Buy Now Sky Daddy by Kate Folk Fiction Yes, it's a book about a woman who gets off on planes. Literally. It's one of the ways she divorces herself from her job as a social media content moderator. By all means, Linda tries to appear as normal as possible, but as she grows closer to another person (quite accidentally, in fact!), the cracks in her facade grow bigger and bigger. Can she balance a human relationship with her sexual relationship with airplanes? This book is fresh, it's funny, and it's going to absolutely change how you see airports and airplanes for the rest of your life. 2025 has been flush with excellent weird lit, and this title is among the top. - Kelly Jensen Buy Now So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color by Caro De Robertis Nonfiction I named this a Best Book of 2025 So Far and had to bring it back for the finale, a collection of beautiful stories of self-discovery, activism, resistance, and survival from queer elders of color. These testimonies are a necessary record of lived experience and hard-won progress, a love letter to queer history, and a reminder of the gift it is to have living elders among us. The joy in each of these stories is what has stayed with me, a joy that persisted even in periods of profound struggle and loss. We hear all the time that joy is resistance; this is the kind of work that really drives that point home and gives me hope for a better future. - Vanessa Diaz Buy Now Startlement: New and Selected Poems by Ada Limón Poetry Pulling from Limón’s six published collections, these gorgeous poems unfold in chronological order from Lucky Wreck to The Hurting Kind. Having read every in-print title by the 24th U.S. Poet Laureate, I found myself electric with excitement to behold some of the prolific author’s new and new-to-me work. Revisiting familiar poems fed my bookish heart in myriad ways, and reading pieces from This Big Fake World and the final section for the first time is precisely why I open books—to connect, to learn, to feel awe. If you need a gift for yourself and for others, look into this exploration of dreams, grief, love, the ordinary, and the extraordinary. - Connie Pan Buy Now Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood Fiction This meditative novel from Australia quietly landed in the U.S. this year, but it was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize when it first published across the pond. I read it not knowing it was exactly the kind of book I needed, one that made room for rumination in the face of great loss. Following a woman who takes refuge in a religious community, this is a novel about grief and the unexpected ways we process trauma and forgive each other. I had no idea what to expect going into this book but looked forward to picking it up in a way I haven't experienced in a long time. In a loud and frightening world, it became my quiet place to think. - S. Zainab Williams Buy Now Sympathy for Wild Girls: Stories by Demree McGhee Fiction This collection of stories about queer Black women is going to live in my head for a long time. If you love Carmen Maria Machado's work, you need to pick up Sympathy for Wild Girls. They both excel at writing feminist, fabulist/magical realist stories that get under your skin. These stories explore intense, undefined relationships between women; the horror at having a body (especially a racialized, sexualized body); and the strange paths grief can lead you down. Visceral, evocative, and thought-provoking, these are stories that benefit from discussion and deep reading. This collection deserves to be recognized as a new classic. - Danika Ellis Buy Now The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia FantasyHorror In 1990s Massachusetts, Mexican grad student Minerva is researching an obscure horror writer who attended the same university decades prior, and the unexplained disappearance of that writer's roommate. The more she learns about both, the more parallels she sees with the unsettling stories her great-grandmother Alba told her about her life in 1900s Mexico, stories of witchcraft and an insidious evil that might now be lurking in the halls of this New England college. SMG stays spinning the genre roulette and going, “Yeah, I can do that.” And y’all, she did that, in deliciously creepy form. - Vanessa Diaz Buy Now The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones Horror On the third day of reading Jones' latest horror novel, I had a nightmare, but it might not be why you think. The monsters here are supernatural and all-consuming, but the true horror is the very real story that's told of the Marias Massacre, where around 200 Blackfeet were murdered in the dead of winter. The story is told through a journal found in 2012, which was written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor. The pastor records his time with a Blackfeet man named Good Stab, a man with peculiar eating habits and seemingly superhuman abilities... and revenge on his mind. - Erica Ezeifedi Buy Now The Conjuring of America by Lindsey Stewart Nonfiction Since the beginning of the United States, Black conjure women, who combine traditional West African spiritual beliefs with herbal remedies and local resources, have been a balm to their communities. The legacy of these Mammies, Voodoo Queens, and Reconstruction-era Blues Women began, like so much of American history, in the South during slavery. Here, Feminist philosopher Lindsey Stewart traces their influence and legacy, which includes everything from blue jeans to Vicks VapoRub, to 2023's The Little Mermaid. - Erica Ezeifedi Buy Now The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex by Melissa Febos Nonfiction A memoir about celibacy from a writer whose debut recounted her time working as a dominatrix could seem like a gimmick. In Melissa Febos's hands, it is anything but. Yes, this is a book about a year without sex, but it is really a book about all of the other ways to develop relationships, engage with the world, and find pleasure. In solitude, Febos discovers freedom, time to engage in intellectual and creative pursuits, and needed perspective. In her thoughtful and often surprising reflection, she offers us space to consider our own distractions of choice and what we might find on the other side of them. - Rebecca Joines Schinsky Buy Now The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch FantasyRomance The Entanglement of Rival Wizards is a stunningly effervescent D&D-inspired queer romantasy. When rival graduate researchers, Sebastian Walsh and Elethior Tourael, collaborate on a prestigious research grant, reluctant respect morphs into passionate love. Sebastian is a human Evocation Magus who thinks he can prank his way out of PTSD, and Elethior is a half-elven Conjuration Magus who hates the family legacy he has to perpetuate to pay for his mother’s long-term care facility. Somehow, Raasch delivers impeccable chemistry, impressive magical research, and a biting critique of the military-industrial complex under capitalism. - R. Nassor Buy Now The Favorites by Layne Fargo Fiction Here's the premise: "Wuthering Heights retelling set in the world of ice dancing." That was all I needed to go all in on this book, but maybe you need more. This tale of Kat and Heath, whose ambitions and obsessions draw them together and push them apart, is as absorbing and toxic as its inspiration. The story is told in a documentary format, which lends itself to a fantastic audiobook. Actual Olympian Johnny Weir narrates the part of a catty gossip blogger, and it's pure magic. If you like your books soapy, gossipy, and delicious, don't miss this one. - Isabelle Popp Buy Now The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O'Connor FictionHistorical Fiction In Nazi-occupied Rome, the Choir works to smuggle POWs, Jewish people, and other allies out of Nazi hands. But tensions are rising as known members of the Choir are cooped up in the Vatican and under surveillance by the SS, and a man's unexpected arrival threatens the entire operation. But one woman is committed to the Choir’s cause at any cost. Contessa Giovanna Landini goes head-to-head with the number one enemy of the Choir, the SS commander charged with taking the operation down. It's a book made all the more timely as masked men grab people off the streets of my beloved Chicago. Doing the right thing is hard and often full of sacrifice, but it's the only way forward. - Elisa Shoenberger Buy Now The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri FantasyRomance This book skyrocketed to the top of my personal best-of list as not only one of my favorite books of the year but one of my favorite books of all time. It explores the very heart of what it means to tell—and retell—stories. Simran and Vina know that meaning all too well as characters in a world where stories play out over and over again, reincarnated to live out the same tale across the centuries. But, much like in real life, the stories affect far more than just the characters within them. Five stars? I would give this book every star in the sky and then some. Simran and Vina have my heart. - Rachel Brittain Buy Now The Leaving Room by Amber McBride FantasyYoung Adult This novel in verse offered such a thoughtful and unique take on the afterlife. It reminded me of how I felt reading Gabrielle Zevin's Elsewhere as a teenager but for today's generation. It stars Gospel, a Keeper who guides recently deceased souls from life to what comes next. But when she meets another Keeper named Melody, they work together to find a way out of the Leaving Room. - Andy Minshew Buy Now The Macabre by Kosoko Jackson FantasyHorror Lewis is a struggling Baltimore artist grieving the loss of his mother, and he's in London for a curated art exhibit at the British Museum—or so he thinks. The exhibit is a ruse; he’s really there for a test to see if the fugue-like state he enters while painting is actually magic that can be used to enter nine paintings scattered across the globe, sinister paintings that are the work of Lewis’s great-grandfather and must be recovered at all costs. So begins this time-hopping, globe-trotting horror fantasy adventure into art history, Gothic magic, and cursed objects. It’s a gorey romp, a history lesson, a queer romance, and a damn good time. - Vanessa Diaz Buy Now The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli by Karina Yan Glaser Children's This gorgeous, expansive middle grade historical fiction delves into Chinese history through two alternating timelines. As Han Yu traverses ancient China with a poet to sell goods for his ill family, Luli launches a museum to aid her family during the Great Depression in Chinatown, New York City. These two tweens use courage and creativity to support their families, their two storylines becoming increasingly interconnected as the novel progresses. It’s an action-packed and heartwarming read, steeped in richly imagined worlds that are as well-researched as they are fascinating. - Margaret Kingsbury Buy Now The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar Fantasy This book became an instant favorite for me as soon as I read it, and it’s still my favorite read of 2025. It’s the story of two sisters living near a river, a boundary between our world and another, more magical one. When a terrible tragedy befalls one sister, the other is determined to find justice. To get it, she’ll need to traverse liminal worlds, face down magical threats, and try to retain some semblance of who she is. - Chris M. Arnone Buy Now The Scammer by Tiffany D. Jackson Mystery/ThrillerYoung Adult I was still preaching the gospel of The Weight of Blood when I got around to reading The Scammer, and let me tell you, Tiffany D. Jackson does not, cannot miss. I was engrossed from the moment I saw where this story was headed (it's inspired by the events surrounding the Sarah Lawrence cult, but set on an HBCU campus), and the ending left me in open-mouthed appreciation of a well-executed twist. If you like suspenseful books set on college campuses, explorations of cult dynamics and manipulation, and stories ripped from the headlines, you're going to want to read this one now. - Vanessa Diaz Buy Now The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy Angela Flournoy's first book, The Turner House, is a fantastic novel about a family, and this follow-up is a masterful work about 20 years of friendship between Black women, who are every bit a family as well. Over two decades, January, Monique, Nakia, and Desiree traverse school, love, loss, career changes, location changes, and all the in-jokes, silliness, disagreements, and fierce loyalty that come with long friendships. Each of their paths is filled with hurt and happiness, and the novel shares their lives in dazzling sections that speed toward an ending that will break your heart. (I highly recommend the audiobook version.) - Liberty Hardy Buy Now This Is the Only Kingdom by Jaquira Díaz Fiction With a focus on mother-daughter relationships, this is a deeply felt, layered generational drama and coming-of-age novel. Maricarmen’s life changes as a teen in Puerto Rico when her mom throws her out after overhearing her confess her love for a boy she was forbidden to date. Decades later, her daughter Nena finds herself in Miami trying to understand generational trauma. This was one of the very few 2025 releases that I was highly anticipating that actually delivered, and just like Díaz’s memoir, I felt this book inside my bones. Almarie Guerra does a fantastic job narrating the audiobook. - Jamie Canaves Buy Now This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Nicole Goux ComicsGraphic NovelMystery/ThrillerYoung Adult This sapphic YA graphic novel takes place in the '80s, but its story of teenage alienation is timeless. Wilberton Academy's resident It Girl, Elizabeth Woodward, is found dead the morning after she starred in the school's rendition of Romeo and Juliet. She's said to have died by suicide, but something about that doesn't feel right. Outcast Abby Kita is determined to find out what really happened to one of the few girls at Wilberton who was ever nice to her. Turns out, Elizabeth had secrets—secrets that might have gotten her killed. - Erica Ezeifedi Buy Now To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage Fiction Debut author Eliana Ramage shows as much ambition as her starry-eyed protagonist in what I’m already sure will be my favorite book of the decade. Steph knew from the first moment she looked through a telescope that she wanted to become the first Cherokee astronaut. But reaching her goal means making sacrifices, ones that seem to get bigger with each step she takes toward her objective. We follow Steph across decades as she shoots for the moon, with forays into the perspectives of her mother, sister, and other women who shape her journey. It’s an astonishing book about Indigenous communities and what it really takes to achieve big dreams. - Susie Dumond Buy Now Truth Is by Hannah V. Sawyerr Young Adult Truth is entering her senior year without a clear idea of what she wants for her future. She loves poetry, and while she doesn't love having to tiptoe around her mother, sneaking to weekly poetry classes has given Truth an outlet she so desperately needs. Her life becomes more complicated when she finds herself pregnant and must navigate the ever-changing landscape of abortion services. But this isn't just a story about Truth's challenges. It's a story about her finding her voice, sharing her voice, and owning what her own future looks like. This verse novel is moving and heartfelt, and Truth is an unforgettable character. - Kelly Jensen Buy Now Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon FantasyRomance Looks like I'm on board the romantasy train! I'm a big fan of Critical Role, so I had to try this novel that started as an in-universe romance book in their D&D game. Guinevere is a sheltered merchant's daughter with suppressed magical powers. Oskar is her reluctant half-orc protector on the road. Their undeniable chemistry upends all their plans. I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only is Tusk Love great for Critical Role fans, but it also stands alone as a steamy read that is somehow simultaneously tongue-in-cheek and heartfelt. It's delightfully slowburn and spicy: they're quick to sleep together and slow to admit their feelings. - Danika Ellis Buy Now We Do Not Part by Han Kang Fiction Literary fiction of the highest order from a Nobel Prize-winning novelist. Not much happens in this quiet, dream-like novel that asks rich questions about history, memory, connection, and pain. It's the rare book that can be equally subtle and unsettling, and that's evidence of a masterful writer working at the height of her powers. You always know you're in good hands with Kang, and that makes it a pleasure to follow her wherever she wants to go. - Rebecca Joines Schinsky Buy Now When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley FantasyHistorical FictionRomance Fantasy! Romance! Historical Fiction! Found family! Gorgeous art! Venessa Vida Kelley’s dreamy debut When the Tides Held the Moon has something for everyone. Puerto Rican blacksmith Benny is tasked with building a giant glass tank. When he delivers it to the 1910s Coney Island carnival sideshow that commissioned it, he realizes it was constructed for a real merman captured from the East River. And when he falls in love with that merman, Benny realizes he’s constructed his prison and now must find a way to help him escape. The ensemble cast of “human curiosities” and Vida Kelley’s vivid illustrations make this story truly shine. - Susie Dumond Buy Now Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy Fiction Dominic Salt and his three children are in charge of Shearwater island, an arctic, isolated place that harbors the world's biggest seed bank. As climate change takes its toll, fewer scientists visit. When a woman named Rowan washes ashore, the mystery of her appearance and her own mission to unpack the family's secrets both draw out over the strange, remote locale. McConaghy, author of 2020's Migrations, has become a singular author of our moment, writing climate fiction that is packed with rich humanity, at its best and worst. Her newest will break your heart into little pebbly pieces, and I mean that as the highest of compliments. - Leah Rachel von Essen Buy Now

This is a moderated subreddit. It is our intent and purpose to foster and encourage in-depth discussion about all things related to books, authors, genres, or publishing in a safe, supportive environment. If you're looking for help with a personal book recommendation, consult our Weekly Recommendation Thread, Suggested Reading page, or ask in r/suggestmeabook.

Welcome readers, The end of 2025 is nearly here and we have many posts and events to mark the occasion! This post contains the planned schedule of threads and will be updated with links as they go live. Start Date Thread Link Nov 15 Gift Ideas for Readers Link Nov 22 Megathread of "Best Books of 2025" Lists TBA Dec 13 /r/Books Best Books of 2025 Contest TBA Dec 20 Your Year in Reading TBA Dec 30 2026 Reading Resolutions TBA Jan 18 /r/Books Best Books of 2025 Winners TBA submitted by /u/vincoug [link] [comments]

Hello readers and welcome to our Weekly FAQ thread! Our topic this week is: What is your favorite quote from a book? Please post your favorites here. You can view previous FAQ threads here in our wiki. Thank you and enjoy! submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

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I have a number of books that I have read multiple times, some even many times, like the Lord of the Rings, but they aren’t necessarily the best books I’ve ever read. Some are amazing and some of my favorite books, and others are enjoyable but not especially spectacularly written or have amazing plots or characters. Some of my favorites to re-read are childhood books, like Hatchet, and My Side of the Mountain, as well as LoTR and Narnia. Others are just short and easy to read but just satisfying and beautiful, like the Time Machine. So again, what makes you want to re-read a book, and what books do you re-read the most? Edit: this wasn’t a reason for the post, but a book you like enough to re-read, especially multiple times is a great recommendation. submitted by /u/Pristine-Board-6701 [link] [comments]

Dolores Claiborne was the Stephen King book I put off reading for quite a while, not from disinterest, but because I was just catching up on most of his other popular works over the years. Now I've been trying to read his more underrated works or ones that didn't get as much attention according to other Stephen king fans. And this one from what I've seen was considered more of a thriller than a pure horror novel which was another factor of not reading it sooner. Which I do regret in hindsight, as even though it's not my favorite of his works, it's still a great read overall. Dolores herself is probably one of the strongest women leads in a book I've read so far. Especially coming from Stephen King, as I've found his writing for most of his female characters to be very up or down or neutral in terms of quality or complexity. You really get inside the mind of Dolores and her outlook on everything, including her flaws and take no-shit attitude as she's the main narrator of the story, her story. Due to being blamed for a death of an old frenemy, Dolores goes to a police station to tell her side of the story of how she had nothing to do with the recent crime but reveals more not so hidden dark things about her past that puts a spotlight on how much hardship she had to endure with her ex-abusive/psychotic husband, Joe St. George (main antagonist/villain). The structure of the book is written like a standard first-person narrative style, but the line breaks and the interruption in the story presents itself as being recorded on a tape recorder and we only hear/read Dolores's voice and side of everything. Which would give an extra layer of mystery to what wasn't being said in any other crime thriller, but Dolores herself explains multiple times how she's too much of a loud-mouthed talker and leaves nothing unsaid throughout the book. I think that the villain of the story, Joe St. George, is one of the weaker villains I've read from King so far. There's nothing inherently poorly written about the character as he's presented in a such a way to get the reader to hate his guts, which King succeeded at for me. But I just found his characterizations and motivations to be very one-dimensional and not that complex. But I think that's also what makes him scary in a way is how believable he is and how many physical and emotional abusers like him are out there in the real world. But compared to King's other supernatural, psychological, and monstrous creations I've read, he just doesn't stand out all that much from the list of other nightmare inducing villains of Stephen King and comes off as kind of generic in the horror literary sphere in my opinion. The semi-horror elements of the book do kick in through the second half of the book, but overall, still remains more thriller than horror and that's fine. There were a few heart racing moments, but I was more drawn in from wanting to know what happened next rather than looking for that certain scare factor. I enjoyed the book overall and would recommend it for any Stephen King fan who may have overlooked this underrated book or are looking for something that's not pure horror like his other well-known works. Also, going into the book, I knew it had some connection to his other novel Gerald's Game, and I won't say the connection for spoiler reasons, but I've noticed it in the second half of the book and thought it was interesting and haunting to discover it. I personally haven't read Gerald's Game yet, but I just know the basic plot points from videos I've seen of it a while ago, and I'll have to give that a read sometime in the near future. For any others who've read Dolores Claiborne, what are your thoughts on the book? Did you think Dolores Claiborne herself was and is the strongest female lead in a Stephen King book, or are there other women characters that are just as well written that I'm not aware of? Also, what other books would you consider or be classified as underrated from Stephen King's long list of books? submitted by /u/GhostPunkVG3 [link] [comments]

I had read a lot of reviews saying people couldn’t get past the male characters and their infidelity and it ruined the book. I don’t agree. The book was great and was so much more than that. No, I don’t condone infidelity but this is missing the bigger point of the book. A favorite philosophy theme of mine is what is beauty. It’s hard to find that theme, but this book pursued it and I loved the perspective. In fact, each characters’ life, though flawed, had their own beauty. submitted by /u/Mountain_Stable8541 [link] [comments]

Please note that there might be SPOILERS below. I just finished The Rose Field, which is the final instalment of The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman. It follows the initial trilogy His Dark Materials which started 30 years ago. I have to start off by saying I absolutely adore His Dark Materials. Amazing world building, great writing, great story, great ending. There were lots of emotions, I cried a lot reading it as a kid, and it is a beloved story for many. The Book of Dust has not managed to hit the same high notes. The first book (La Belle Sauvage) just seemed... dull? It was quite a few years ago now, but I recall feeling it was a short story dragged over 500 pages. The second book (The Secret Commonwealth) was very confusing. I struggled to understand what was happening and why. The premise of the story (which kicks off the events of the 2 final books) was... odd? Difficult to comprehend in terms of motivations for the characters. Now the final book started off a bit better. It felt like things were moving forward, multiple arcs happening in parallel, things were getting exciting, though it sometimes felt some were irrelevant (if you'd cut them out completely, nothing would change). But overall, it felt like things were rising to a climax. And then it just... ended. A number of arcs, hints and mentions just get trashed (eg. the setup for Mustafa Bey's successor that goes nowhere; whatever Abdel Ionides and Leila did in the red building; Lyra's evil grandmother who, let’s remember, is the reason why Delamare wants to capture Lyra, never makes an appearance; Oakly Street and Alice just get forgotten; no explanation for whatever happened to Brande and his daemon who persists after the death of his person; the developing mutiny around Delamare; … ). The author keeps mentioning Will (from the first trilogy) and there is hope that maybe we get a nice nudge in the nostalgia feelings by seeing him again, but no, nothing. We suddenly learn that Lyra is related to ALL the antagonists... and nothing develops from it. It doesn't even affect the plot in the slightest, apart from raise awkward questions about Mrs Coulter. The Magisterium brings their huge army... for what again? Then Delamare dies rather blandly as soon as things get interesting. We get constantly told that Malcolm and Lyra have feelings for each other, but he basically gets told to go back to Alice in the last couple of pages. Alice seems to have an absolutely meaningless arc in this final book which never really intersects with the main plot. And finally, the antagonist who has been hunting Lyra incessantly for 2 books just sits down with her for a chat without so much as an acknowledgement of their history. I mean, what happened here?! And then there is the issues with the meaning of the book. It all kicks off because Pan goes searching for Lyra's imagination. Did they ever find it? I'm not actually sure. What was the Secret Commonwealth vs. Dust vs. the Rose Field? Also not entirely sure. What happened to the Magisterium? As far as I can tell, nothing, they are still hanging around in the desert. On top of this, we get a shallow dose of morality in the form of "money is bad, kids" randomly thrown in our faces at the very end (with semi-dead daemons, no less). And nothing gets fixed as far as I can tell - corporations will continue the exploitation of the roses, and trade the oil. Loose ends remain loose, and nothing gets tied up at all. Whereas His Dark Materials neatly brought everything together for a satisfying ending, I’m not even sure there was an attempt to do so here. In a sentence: There was this whole build-up of cool events aiming for a promising climax, and the whole thing just fizzles out before anything even happens. Very disappointing. The whole premise of the last 2 books is that Lyra has lost her imagination . It really feels like the author may have been projecting there. submitted by /u/Cell_Division [link] [comments]

'ahlaan bik readers, This is our monthly discussion of the literature of the world! Every Wednesday, we'll post a new country or culture for you to recommend literature from, with the caveat that it must have been written by someone from that there (i.e. Shogun by James Clavell is a great book but wouldn't be included in Japanese literature). Yesterday was the National Day of Oman and to celebrate we're discussing Omani literature! Please use this thread to discuss your favorite Omani books and authors. If you'd like to read our previous discussions of the literature of the world please visit the literature of the world section of our wiki. Shukraan lakum and enjoy! submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

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Archive link in case you’re out of freebies: https://archive.is/hz5dT submitted by /u/pearloz [link] [comments]

For example, I’ve read quite a few translated horror books, and there were three that while I liked the concepts of, I didn’t like the actual text much (descriptors, dialogue, etc) only to realize that all three were specifically translations from Argentine authors. This makes me wonder if there’s something culturally or in the dialect that is lost in translation (at least for horror in my example). On the other hand, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed any translated Korean horror, even though it still feels distinctly different from American or English authors. I’m only working with a relatively small sample size though, so I was wondering if anyone else has noticed any trends with translated works in their reading preferences? submitted by /u/Springb00bSquirepant [link] [comments]

Ted Chiang's short stories have been on my radar for a long time, but like most everything else, kind of got lost in the TBR sea for a while. I finally got around to reading Stories of Your Life and Others and I'm incredibly pleased to say that, at least for me, the hype was completely justified. As a massive Vonnegut fan, the hallmark story "Story of Your Life" having a very Tralfamadorian-esque vibe to the messaging of nonlinear experiences of time absolutely tickled me. Whether or not Vonnegut was actually a direct inspiration for Chiang/this story, I can't say with certainty, but I'm thoroughly pleased nonetheless. What blew me away about Chiang's writing the most was his ability to speak with such perceived expertise about so many different highly academic subjects, but portray those subjects in a way that didn't feel completely overwhelming or pretentious. The stories were palatable, the ideas were interesting, and I sort of felt like I was getting an education without necessarily putting in any of the work. As somebody who doesn't work in any of those fields, I of course can't speak to the exact authenticity of the more scientific/field-specific terminology he used, but for it to have felt authentic from a layperson perspective was already more than impressive enough. Combining that perceived authenticity with legitimately entertaining storytelling is an unbelievable gift. The final story of the collection, "Liking What You See: A Documentary", is such a prescient, poignant take on personal vanity and corporate marketing. I was not expecting to like another story in this collection more than "Story of Your Life", but this one hit on such an intensely profound level for me. To have read this story in our current times, well into the social media era and freshly into the AI era... it was almost too much. Such a wizened view of humanity. What I loved about that story the most was its presentation of logical and illogical arguments from both sides of the topic. The ability to have a discussion rooted in disagreement, while maintaining a level of civility within that disagreement, is a skill that rapidly disappearing from society today on a broad scale. It's one of the single more sociologically worrisome topics for me personally, which is probably why this story hit me so hard. What a talent Ted Chiang is. I'll absolutely, unashamedly be picking up Exhalation next time I visit a bookstore. submitted by /u/PsyferRL [link] [comments]

“What does it mean to love?” That is the question this dystopian sci-fi by Kazuo Ishiguro explores, or at least it tries to. The book is about the titular character of Klara, who is an AF, or Artificial Friend for rich and “lifted” (we will come back to that later) kids. She stands in a store, hoping for someone to choose her as a friend and take her home, all the while observing her surroundings and thinking that the Sun is some form of God, as the AFs are solar powered. But when she is finally chosen, the manager of the store warns her not to put too much faith in the promises of a human. Review: I would like to start this review by saying that I was jumping up and down with excitement to read this book, as Ishiguro has become one of my favorite writers recently. Right off the bat, Ishiguro’s prose hits you like a fast-flowing river. The words simply flow, and the righting style is beautiful, as expected from his writings. The story sets up beautifully with our protagonist having inner monologues while pondering the magical workings of the world outside her store. Unfortunately, those are the only positive things I can say about this book. While the idea was beautiful, the execution was somewhat lacking, for the want of a better word. Initially, I found the protagonist really interesting, and she had my sympathy right off the bat, but the author keeps repeating the same words and thoughts again and again and again, making it quite monotonous and repetitive (just like I tried to do with this sentence). The story progresses extremely slowly. Ishiguro does an admirable job in the beginning to keep the “twist” under wraps, something he has done extremely well before in Never Let Me Go and The Buried Giant. However, unlike those books, you stop caring about it fast as the book fails to form any sort of grip on the reader. The reader is never fully informed what "lifted" means other than it is a genetic engineering approach to make the rich children superior to other humans, and why these children are treated the way they are in the society. We get some glimpses of the dynamics between different form of relationships like mother-daughter, father-daughter, mother-son, etc, but all of it becomes eclipsed with the obsession Klara has with the Sun. For being tagged as extremely “observing” in nature, the author does a poor job in building up on these relationships through Klara’s POV. The book lacks his typical subtly and we are hit repeatedly (there is that word again) in the head with the issues the book is trying to focus on. Some of the ideas that the book presents, such as replacing a dead child with a robot to help cope with the loss for a parent is simply laughable and goes against all thing’s human nature. There is a brief redemption at the end of the book in the form of the end that the titular character faces is admirable and saddening, to say the least, saying more about us humans in those last few pages than the author does in the whole book. Sadly, it arrives a little bit too late, even if the book is only 340 pages long, as you are too bored and uncaring at that point to be moved by it at all. As some who absolutely adores Ishiguro’s work, I was disappointed in this book. 2.5/5 stars. submitted by /u/TheReaderDude_97 [link] [comments]

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Welcome readers, Have you ever wanted to ask something but you didn't feel like it deserved its own post but it isn't covered by one of our other scheduled posts? Allow us to introduce you to our new Simple Questions thread! Twice a week, every Tuesday and Saturday, a new Simple Questions thread will be posted for you to ask anything you'd like. And please look for other questions in this thread that you could also answer! A reminder that this is not the thread to ask for book recommendations. All book recommendations should be asked in /r/suggestmeabook or our Weekly Recommendation Thread. Thank you and enjoy! submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

The Will of the Many, the excellent opening book in the Hierarchy series, gave a masterclass in pacing. There was a snap and rhythm to the story, starting in media res, with Vis, hanging bloody from a cliff and ending in attempted murder and the gory secrets of the labyrinth. It was the most exciting book in contemporary fantasy since The Name of the Wind and Red Rising. My anticipation for the sequel was high and I counted the days to its release. I grew concerned, a few months before The Strength of the Few's release, when the back cover teaser stated that there would be three Vis's in parallel worlds. A multiverse? I thought to myself. The wreckage of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to my mind, began with it's multiverse. Is there a better way to kill dramatic tension? There are no stakes (if Ironman dies, we can bring back an alternate dimension Ironman). There is character bloat (it's hard enough to fill a world with interesting, original characters, but how about endless galaxies of tepid and boring, rip-off characters?). Lastly, and most importantly, there is no vision - it is highly difficult to get all these character and character versions to fit and interact with one another in a compelling, well-paced way, while telling an overarching narrative. My concerns were ultimately realized in the opening chapters of The Strength of the Few. Not only do we get an exposition-heavy (and hardly any dramatic tension) opening of Vis's current situation after he ran the labyrinth. It is repeated twice more as we get the exposition of parallel worlds Vis 1 & 2's current predicaments. In a word, it's a slog of an opening. I remember vividly the mental picture of Vis striding naked into the underground fighting ring in the opening of book 1. In book 2, there are no striking pictures of the mind, but in gray, slippery prose, we get a heavy dose of tell don't show. This book feels like when a famous author dies/retires (looking at you, Lee Child), and the new author does not have the same ability and cannot replicate the tone and feel of the original author's writing. This book feels like it was written by a different author. The Will of the Many was so strong, that I am going to continue in this book and hope it gets better. But part of me is very disappointed, because the beginning is the most valuable thing an author has, and I can't help but wonder why Islington has squandered it. What do you think of the beginning of The Strength of the Few? How important are the opening chapters of a novel to you? submitted by /u/Polite_Acid [link] [comments]

Hi everyone! What are you reading? What have you recently finished reading? What do you think of it? We want to know! We're displaying the books found in this thread in the book strip at the top of the page. If you want the books you're reading included, use the formatting below. Formatting your book info Post your book info in this format: the title, by the author For example: The Bogus Title, by Stephen King This formatting is voluntary but will help us include your selections in the book strip banner. Entering your book data in this format will make it easy to collect the data, and the bold text will make the books titles stand out and might be a little easier to read. Enter as many books per post as you like but only the parent comments will be included. Replies to parent comments will be ignored for data collection. To help prevent errors in data collection, please double check your spelling of the title and author. NEW: Would you like to ask the author you are reading (or just finished reading) a question? Type !invite in your comment and we will reach out to them to request they join us for a community Ask Me Anything event! -Your Friendly /r/books Moderator Team submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

Throughout the years, I've mostly managed to avoid books that are horrible in the conventional meaning of the word. I've come across even fewer books that were horrible in the sense of being highly unpleasant and shocking. Hurricane Season is just such a book. I don't think I've read anything this bleak since A Little Life, except Hurricane Season feels much grittier and grounded. There's no suffering for suffering's sake, just the perfect storm that arises when degenerates with fucked up upbringings who've spent their whole lives trapped in hopeless hellholes stand in each other's way of supposedly achieving progress. Parts of the book are downright vile. I am not a prude, but some themes the book explores would likely be enough to make even more sexually liberated individuals than myself feel squeamish. If you know, you know. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad book, I am neither trashing the story nor the Melchor's competent writing. It's just one of those books, love it or hate it, you can't stay indifferent towards. It moved me, for better or worse, which not many stories are able to do anymore. Should you read it? If you want to explore the depths of human depravity, yeah, go ahead. I just picked it up because it's among r/truelit's favorites, and nothing in the blurb prepared me for the contents. I'm glad I read it, but it's the type of experience you'd only want to go through once. Bonus lighthearted eyebleach ending - at first, I accidentally got another book called Hurricane Season by Lauren K. Denton. Started reading that one and was confused by the simple prose and warm themes. Turns out it's a kind of feel good chic lit about finding oneself lol. Definitely not my cup of tea, but it was interesting enough and wholesome, so I completed it. What a contrast, though! submitted by /u/Mind101 [link] [comments]

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Hello readers! Every Monday, we will post a calendar with the date and topic of that week's threads and we will update it to include links as those threads go live. All times are Eastern US. Day Date Time(ET) Topic Monday November 17 What are you Reading? Wednesday November 19 Literature of Oman Thursday November 20 Favorite Books about Industrialization Friday November 21 Weekly Recommendation Thread Saturday November 22 List of Best Books of 2021 Lists Sunday November 23 Weekly FAQ: What do you use as a bookmark? submitted by /u/Reddit_Books [link] [comments]

To me, the memory of reading a great book seems to be encoded in my memory almost the same as any real life experience is. Just like I might hear Paris mentioned and suddenly feel all the sensory memories - sounds, tastes, atmosphere - of a great trip, I can see a book mentioned and all the sensory memories of reading it will all come back - where I read it, the music I had on, the vibes, the feelings, how it spoke to my life at that time. Just as I might get starry-eyed and say “oh that was a fantastic trip” I could say “oh I had a great time reading that book.” The thing is I might remember very little detail of the book itself - it’s more the experience of reading it that I remember. And it feels as real and treasured to me as any other great memory. I’m very fascinated by the often blurred lines between books and real life - and the way our brains don’t always massively separate them as experiences. What about you? submitted by /u/Ok-Friend-5304 [link] [comments]

Books any time any day.

Book Review Author :Delia Owens Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher : GP Putnam’s Sons Year of Publication: 2019 Number of Pages: 368 My Rating : 4 out of 5 I picked this up with a bit of hesitation. In spite of the great reviews that it got, I must say the title made me expect something … Continue reading Where the Crawdads Sing →

Book Review Author :Delia Owens Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher : GP Putnam’s Sons Year of Publication: 2019 Number of Pages: 368 My Rating : 4 out of 5 I picked this up with a bit of hesitation. In spite of the great reviews that it got, I must say the title made me expect something quite different from what it was. I expected a book filled with scientific details about marshes and birds that would be difficult to read. I was genuinely surprised and pleased to get drawn into the story and to find that it was not an exposition on the science of the marsh masquerading as a novel but a well written, enjoyable and easy to follow story. The story is about Kya a young girl born in the marshes of North Carolina, USA who is left to fend for herself by her family from the tender age of 7. The town people consider her strange and refer to her as Marsh Girl. She somehow manages to take care of herself all alone in the Marsh with only the occasional journey into town to get supplies. She is lucky enough to make a friend who teaches her how to read and helps her make use of her knowledge of the marsh to make a respectable living. When one day, Chase Andrews, the son of one of the town’s most prominent families is found dead in the swamp, the town people cannot help but suspect that the strange Marsh girl had something to do with his death. This is an interesting book about survival and overcoming all odds to make a good life in the face of extreme hardship and hostility. Though I must admit at times I found it difficult to believe that such a young child could survive alone in such difficult circumstances and that none of the residents of the town bothered to do anything about this situation, the story is touching in many ways. It would be amazing if anyone could actually survive such a childhood and manage to turn their life around as Kya did. I also enjoyed learning about the marsh and the different species to be found there and seeing the beauty in nature through Kya’s eyes, as she explored her marsh and got to know it better than anyone else. I rate this book 4 out of 5. If you enjoy reading coming of age historical fiction stories and are a lover of nature, you will absolutely love this book. If you are the skeptical and cynical type, you might find it a bit implausible. Happy reading!

Classics Book Review Author : Elizabeth Gaskell Genre : Literary Classic Fiction Original Publisher : Chapman and Hall Year of Publication : 1854 Number of Pages : 396 My Rating : 5 out of 5 My most recent read is this gem of a book by Elizabeth Gaskell, based in Victorian England. Margaret Hale is … Continue reading North and South →

Classics Book Review Author : Elizabeth Gaskell Genre : Literary Classic Fiction Original Publisher : Chapman and Hall Year of Publication : 1854 Number of Pages : 396 My Rating : 5 out of 5 My most recent read is this gem of a book by Elizabeth Gaskell, based in Victorian England. Margaret Hale is the daughter of a parson. At age nine, her parents sent her away from the sleepy hamlet known as Helstone, where her father serves as the Parish Priest, to go live with her maternal aunt in London’s Harley Street so she could get an education along with her cousin Edith. Nine years later, aged eighteen, she returns to the village home of her parents and is longing for a quiet, peaceful life walking in the forest and spending her days tending to the needs of her father’s congregation. “She took a pride in her forest. Its people were her people. She made hearty friends with them; learned and delighted in using their peculiar words; took up her freedom amongst them; nursed their babies; talked or read with slow distinctness to their old people; carried dainty messes to their sick; resolved before long to teach at the school, where her father went every day as to an appointed task, but she was continually tempted off to go and see some individual friend–man, woman, or child–in some cottage in the green shade of the forest.“ When her father suddenly announces that he is moving the family North to the manufacturing town of Milton-Northern, she is shocked and grief stricken and wonders how this change will affect her family, most especially her mother. Life in Milton is as different as expected – the air is heavy with smoke, the streets are bustling and the people are rough. Margaret tries her best to ease her mother’s worries and anxieties. With time, she gets to meet some of the people of Milton and make friends with them, in spite of the differences in behaviour, customs and mannerisms. She manages to get herself embroilled in the politics of the town and finds herself in the middle of a strike. She also manages to draw the attention of Mr. Thornton, a mill owner and one of the wealthiest manufacturers in the town, who is also her father’s pupil. John Thornton finds Margaret haughty and thinks she treats him with contempt while Margaret finds him hard and unfeeling and only interested in getting wealthy at the expense of his poor workers. Yet the two are brought together time and time again by fate. Will they be able to overcome their differences and find common ground? “If Mr. Thornton was a fool in the morning, as he assured himself at least twenty times he was, he did not grow much wiser in the afternoon. All that he gained in return for his sixpenny omnibus ride, was a more vivid conviction that there never was, never could be, anyone like Margaret; that she did not love him and never would; but she –no! nor the whole world –should never hinder him from loving her.“ This story is engaging and well written. It demonstrates what happens when there is a clash of cultures. Margaret and her family are used to Southern mannerisms and she struggles to understand the industrial town and its people. She has also had a privileged life at the her aunt’s London home which is very different from the life her own family leads. Through the eyes of the other characters, we get to experience the industrial revolution and the inevitable clashes between the mill owners and their workers as each strives to protect their interests. I loved how the author presented us with different view points of the lives of the people of Milton – that of the owners, workers and outsiders in the form of the Hale family. “After a quiet life in a country parsonage for more than twenty years, there was something dazzling to Mr. Hale in the energy which conquered immense difficulties with ease; the power of the machinery of Milton, the power of the men of Milton, impressed him with a sense of grandeur, which he yielded to without caring to inquire into the details of its exercise.“ This was my first Elizabeth Gaskell book to read as part of my 50 classics in 5 years’ challenge. Having gotten used to Jane Austen books where the biggest differences in social class were as a result of inheritance and the sort of family that one came from, it was refreshing to read about self-made characters who were not trapped in the lives that they were born into. Adaptation North and South has been adapted for TV three times. I watched the above 2004 BBC adaptation. It was a four episode production featuring Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe. I absolutely loved it and found the characters very fitting for their roles, save that the ending was to me a bit too different from the actual ending in the book. I would have loved to see that ending played out here, though I must admit that it did not come out very nicely in the last episode of the 1975 adaptation that I managed to find on YouTube! I enjoyed every part of this book and recommend it to all lovers of classics. I rate it 5 out of 5.

Author : Marian Keyes Genre : Family Drama Publisher : Michael Joseph -an imprint of Penguin Year of Publication : 2020 Number of Pages : 633 My Rating : 4 out of 5 I totally fell in love with Marian Keyes after reading Sushi for Beginners. It led me to her other books which I … Continue reading Grown Ups →

Author : Marian Keyes Genre : Family Drama Publisher : Michael Joseph -an imprint of Penguin Year of Publication : 2020 Number of Pages : 633 My Rating : 4 out of 5 I totally fell in love with Marian Keyes after reading Sushi for Beginners. It led me to her other books which I also absolutely loved. I know it says ‘gloriously funny’ on this book’s cover – a quote from the Sunday Times – but it was more of drama than humor to me. This is especially so when I compare it with some of her other totally hilarious ones, like Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married and Rachel’s Holiday. The book is based on the Casey family, complete with a family tree, so we know who fits where – and once you tally all the children, they are quite a number. The three Casey brothers are close and spend a lot of time together, despite their estrangement from their very cold and distant parents. The family is fairly well-to-do (or at least Johnny and his wife Jessie are) so a good portion of the book features them at elaborate dinners or on holidays in picturesque destinations. We see the usual family dynamics play out, as the different characters encounter their own unique challenges. The book is quite voluminous at over 600 hundred pages. It took me a while to get into the story, I suppose due to the many characters, each with their own backstory and peculiarities. In fact, this felt more like several stories told together. Thankfully, once the story got going, I found myself pretty much drawn into it and I was easily able to follow the different story lines. I enjoyed the way that Marian expertly combined them into one tightly woven tale and, towards the end, I could not put the book down. Whilst the story was not ‘laugh out loud’ (at least not for me), there was a lot of humor in it together with all the family drama. The characters felt pretty familiar to me. I loved the interactions between them, as I got to know them and watch as they evolved. Marian explores some pretty serious themes in the book as she reveals the characters’ strengths and weaknesses. There was no part of this story that I did not like and I would recommend it to anybody who enjoys warm family stories about relationships and the trials and tribulations that we all have to deal with in every day life. I especially loved that this story does not take itself too seriously and none of the characters is reflected as being perfect. I rate this heartwarming story as a 4. The only reason why it did not get a 5 is because I enjoyed some of Marian’s books so much more and actually laughed out loud!

Book Review Author : Colleen Hoover Genre : Romance Publisher : Simon & Schuster Year of Publication : 2016 Number of Pages : 384 My Rating : 5 out of 5 Lily Bloom is upset following her father’s very emotionally draining funeral and just wants to be alone on a rooftop where she can breathe … Continue reading It Ends With Us →

Book Review Author : Colleen Hoover Genre : Romance Publisher : Simon & Schuster Year of Publication : 2016 Number of Pages : 384 My Rating : 5 out of 5 Lily Bloom is upset following her father’s very emotionally draining funeral and just wants to be alone on a rooftop where she can breathe in the fresh air and unwind. She does not count on meeting handsome Ryle, a neurosurgeon with whom she makes an instant connection. During their brief chat, they tell each other some ‘naked truths’ about their lives. Lily is trying to overcome complicated feelings around her father’s death and the life that she left behind when she moved to Boston. Ryle is struggling with his own demons that plague him. After their initial rooftop encounter, Lily doubts she will ever see Ryle again, as they want different things from life. When they reconnect several months later, she finds herself unable to resist him. In addition to starting a new business, and settling her mother in Boston, she reminisces about her first love, Atlas. She met Atlas as a teenager, at a time when he was lost, and she saved his life. When she unexpectedly bumps into him again, she believes she will finally get the closure she needs to be able to move on with her life. This is a love story, but not just the usual love story. It is a love story that almost made me cry in some parts and left me frustrated in others. Colleen Hoover is a bestselling author of romance, young adult, thriller and women’s fiction. “And maybe a ghost story soon,” as she says in her Goodreads Bio. It is no wonder then that this was not just a romance story, even though romance is at the heart of the book. I really rooted for Lily and Ryle and the twist caught me by surprise. I honestly did not see it coming. As it turns out, this is a tale about life and relationships – and how complicated both can get. I found the story gripping, even as it took an unexpected turn. The author uses first person to narrate the story, so I felt all of Lily’s emotions intensely, as I followed her thoughts and experiences. I loved Lily as a character and wish I had her strength. The other characters were also well developed and easy to relate to. This story seemed so familiar to me, yet the author managed to show me that some circumstances in life are not as they seem at first glance. She shows how easy it is to judge people unfairly when we do not fully understand what they have been through and what makes them act the way they do. Ultimately, this is a story about one woman’s journey and her quest to overcome her past and build a fulfilling, meaningful life for herself. It tells us that we are not bound by our past – or even our present circumstances and we can make the decision to break patterns. No matter what path we take, there is always time and space to course-correct. This may not always be easy and it requires a lot of reflection to recognize where we went wrong and the right path. It also requires the courage to do what is right as opposed to what is easy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and rate it 5 out of 5. I recommend it to anyone who loves a good story with romance and a bit of a lesson.

Book Review Author : A. J. Finn Genre : Psychological Thriller Publisher : Harper Collins Published : January 2018 Number of Pages : 390 My Rating : 5 out of 5 The Woman in the Window is a psychological thriller by A. J. Finn. The main character, Dr. Anna Fox, suffers from severe agoraphobia and … Continue reading The Woman in the Window →

Book Review Author : A. J. Finn Genre : Psychological Thriller Publisher : Harper Collins Published : January 2018 Number of Pages : 390 My Rating : 5 out of 5 The Woman in the Window is a psychological thriller by A. J. Finn. The main character, Dr. Anna Fox, suffers from severe agoraphobia and is unable to leave her house. From the windows in her living room and her bedroom, she observes her neighbors. She knows all their goings and comings and sees everything that happens on her street. One day, she witnesses something shocking through her window. Unfortunately, no one believes her because of her condition. Dr. Anna Fox is an unreliable narrator. She has a severe anxiety disorder. At times, she either forgets to take her medication as prescribed, or takes double dosses after forgetting that she has already taken the medicine. She takes copious amounts of wine, even though she lies to her doctor that she will not take alcohol. She spends days and nights in her house, watching old thrillers shot in black and white. It is no surprise, therefore, that no one believes what she says. After a while, she even starts to doubt herself. I was drawn into this story from the beginning and it kept going at the same enthralling steady pace. It was full of twists and turns and a lot of suspense. At some point, I figured out part of the main character’s back story, but the main twist still caught me by surprise. I loved the way the author was able to clearly show us what Anna was going through, though at times, even Anna was confused and unclear about some of the events. I do not know anybody who suffers from agoraphobia, but I was able to feel the intensity of Anna’s fears, as they were set out so vividly. The characters were well developed. Most of the story is focused on Anna, but there is a good mix of supporting characters, who help to build the story. At the beginning, I thought this would be just a story about a nosy woman at a window spying on her neighbors – especially given how the story started. It turned out to be so much more. I’m glad I picked this as my last read of the year as I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I rate it 5 out of 5 and recommend it to anyone who loves psychological thrillers. A film based on the book, starring Amy Adams and Julianne Moore, is currently under production and is expected to air in 2020. I’m looking forward to watching it and hope it remains faithful to the book, as I could not bear the disappointment if they mess it up.

Book Review Author : Margaret Atwood Genre : Literary Fiction/Science Fiction and Fantasy Publisher : Penguin Random House Year of Publication : 2019 Number of Pages : 401 My Rating : 5 out of 5 This book is a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. It is set fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s … Continue reading The Testaments →

Book Review Author : Margaret Atwood Genre : Literary Fiction/Science Fiction and Fantasy Publisher : Penguin Random House Year of Publication : 2019 Number of Pages : 401 My Rating : 5 out of 5 This book is a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. It is set fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale. The author, Margaret Atwood, is an accomplished author whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries. An adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale is now an award-winning TV series. Though I haven’t read The Handmaid’s Tale, I caught a few of the episodes which gave me some background into Gilead. The Testaments still reads well as a Standalone and prior knowledge of Gilead is not really necessary to follow the story. Atwood was selected as a joint winner of the Booker Prize in 2019 for The Testaments. Margaret Atwood This book takes us back to Gilead, a dystopian society that can only exist in one’s worst nightmare. It is a country set up after the so called ‘Sons of Jacob’ overthrow the US Government. They are deeply unhappy with a country bedeviled by numerous ills and want to make it better. I didn’t know there was a place in the Bible known as Gilead, but it makes total sense that the country would be named after a biblical place. Or maybe it was named after another actual town in the US called Gilead. The Sons of Jacob set up a theocratic government that has retrogressive views on the role of women in society, deeming them unsuitable for any positions of power. All steeped in religious bigotry. Women are not allowed to do any professional work. They can only be Wives, Aunts, Marthas or Handmaids. Marthas are domestic workers for the elites whilst the sole role of Handmaids is to get impregnated and carry babies for couples who are sterile. The world has a severe fertility crisis and most adults are sterile. Many babies are born with serious genetic defects and do not survive. As in many such societies, it is the women who are assumed to be infertile, hence the Handmaids are meant to bear children on their behalf. This makes the Handmaids extremely valuable and they are forced to perform their role with no escape. Handmaids wearing their ‘white wings’. The story is narrated through the voices of three women, whose connection becomes evident as it progresses. These are Aunt Lydia, who featured prominently in The Handmaid’s Tale and two young girls, Agnes and Daisy. Aunt Lydia is one of the founding women of Gilead. She is extremely resourceful, powerful and greatly feared. To ensure her own survival, she maneuvered her way into being placed in charge of all the women. She runs the revered Ardua Hall where Handmaids are trained and no men are allowed. She protects her position by ensuring she has incriminating information on all the senior members of Gilead’s governing council. Agnes is a fifteen year old girl, born after Gilead was formed. She is the daughter of a high ranking Commander. Through her story, we get an insider’s perspective of how life in a Commander’s house is and the sort of upbringing that Gilead girls have. She lets us in on life at school and the transition from being a girl to becoming a Wife. Eventually, she ends up at Ardua Hall under Aunt Lydia and gives us a front seat perspective of the lives of recruits selected to become Aunts. Daisy is a sixteen year old girl living with her parents in Canada. She only knows of Gilead through what she learns in school or sees on the news. She gives us an outsider’s perspective of Gilead, through the eyes of a young girl. She eagerly participates in anti-Gilead matches and disdains the Gilead Pearl Girls, who walk around her neighbourhood looking for fresh recruits to take to Gilead, thinking them ignorant. This is a story of horrific treatment meted out to others in the name of religion. Those in charge take it upon themselves to decide the fate of others with rigid oppressive laws, rules and guidelines. Spies are everywhere. Disobedience is severely punished and life in Gilead is full of fear, violence and death. Serious crimes by powerful men – such as pedophilia – are, for the large part, ignored and victims are more likely to be punished for speaking out than the perpetrators. Handmaids occasionally gather to carry out a horrific execution. Whilst this is not a story that one can call at all enjoyable, it was an intriguing look into what could happen when there is unchecked power. I loved the style that Atwood used to tell the story as I got a clear, firsthand view of events from different angles as represented by the three main characters. Whilst I really hated Aunt Lydia in the TV series, she somehow comes out as sympathetic in this book and I found myself empathizing with her, in spite of my better judgement. I suppose that is what happens when you are able to see a character’s motivation articulated so clearly. The book has quite a number of characters. Though many of them are totally unlikeable, they play a vital role in showing us the treachery, deception and vindictiveness pervading in Gilead. Some of them are heroes, working to end the tragedy that is Gilead. A few are even unsung heroes. All in all, what I loved most about this tale of woe was the ending. It gets a well deserved 5 out of 5. I recommend it to anyone who loves literary fiction.

A Classic’s Club Book Review Author: Henrik Ibsen Genre : Realistic Problem Play Publisher: T. Fisher Unwin Year of Publication: 21st December 1879 Number of Pages: 101 My Rating: 5 out of 5 I picked a Doll’s House as the next book to read for my Classics Club ’50 books in 5 years challenge’ because … Continue reading A Doll’s House →

A Classic’s Club Book Review Author: Henrik Ibsen Genre : Realistic Problem Play Publisher: T. Fisher Unwin Year of Publication: 21st December 1879 Number of Pages: 101 My Rating: 5 out of 5 I picked a Doll’s House as the next book to read for my Classics Club ’50 books in 5 years challenge’ because my son is reading it for school and I thought it would be cool to discuss it with him and share ideas on the themes. This exceptional read is a three-act play written by Henrik Ibsen, who was a leading Norwegian playwright. It features Nora Helmer and her relationship with her husband, Torvald. The play takes place just before Christmas. Nora is overjoyed because her husband has been appointed Manager of the local bank. He is to start at the beginning of the coming year. The family has been experiencing financial problems and Nora is looking forward to having more money than she can spend. Torvald believes his wife wastes money, calling her extravagant and a spendthrift who cannot save, even as she says that she really does save all that she can. His opinion of her is also evident in the way that he addresses her, calling her ‘a little squirrel’, ‘a little lark’, ‘a little skylark’ and ‘a little featherhead’. Ugh! When he says something that seems to upset her, he gives her money to cheer her up. Unknown to Torvald, Nora is not as helpless as he thinks, as she reveals to her old school friend, Mrs. Linde. She has had to work hard as well to support the family. Soon after their marriage, Torvald had overworked himself and fallen ill. The doctors had recommended that he travel south. The trip had to be taken, even though the couple did not have money to finance it. As far as Torvald knew, Nora borrowed some money from her father to pay for the trip. But Nora’s father had also been ailing at the time and she did not want to bother him. So she did the unthinkable and borrowed money from an unsavory man known as Nils Krogstad, without telling anybody else about it. Since then, Nora has saved what she can and worked long hours on whatever job she can get in order to repay the loan and the interest charged. When Mr. Krogstad realizes that Torvald is planning to fire him from his position at the bank because of a fraud that he committed, he attempts to blackmail Nora. He threatens to reveal that she borrowed money from him (and committed a fraud in the process) if she does not get her husband to retain him in his position. Nora is distressed by this as she knows Torvald detests loans and any impropriety. This play is a very insightful look into the way that women were regarded in society at the time. Torvald thinks his wife is a feather head and constantly refers to her as ‘little’. It is clear that he has all the authority in the home and does not regard his wife as an equal. Eventually, Nora realizes that her husband does not really love her, as he even refuses to do a favor for her. He implies that he would do anything for her, but when she faces condemnation, he turns on her and blames her for ruining him. All he cares about is himself. As appearances mean a lot to him, he is happy to keep her in his house but proclaims that she must not have any contact with her children, lest she infects them with her immorality. She also realizes that she does not love him anymore. She feels that she has been treated like a doll, first by her father, then by her husband. Her opinion does not matter. Torvald does not understand her and he has no respect for her. She decides to do the unthinkable and put herself first, for once, and look after her own interests. I found this play very thought – provoking. The characters were so well developed that I felt like I knew them and what drove them, within such a short period. Their obsession with societal expectations was evident as they place this above all else. I thought it was fascinating how they believed that a parent’s immorality or indiscretions would inevitably lead to the ruin of the children. And how Nora was astonished by the realization that altruistic intentions could not forgive a crime! The play shows us how damaging secrets can be. It also demonstrates how unreasonable it is to expect that others will always be grateful for what you do for them, especially when you cut some corners in the process. I found it hilarious that Torvald was quick to forgive his wife after he realized that no harm was to come to him and how he attempted to make her forget what he had said before when he thought he was going to be ruined. The only thing that puzzled me was how a mother can walk out on her children, especially when they had such a good relationship and the kids kept on insisting on spending more time with her. In as much as I understand the need to put herself first, this seems a bit extreme to me! It therefore does not surprise me that Ibsen was made to write an alternate ending to this play (which he called ‘a barbaric act of violence’) for a staging in Germany where Nora eventually decides to stay, as audiences of the time could also not fathom such an ending. All in all, A Doll’s House was an interesting take on life and marriage in particular in the 19th century and I give it 5 out of 5 stars! I also greatly enjoyed hearing my son’s take on the themes in the play, so that’s an added bonus. Adaptations This play was first performed at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark on December 21, 1879. Since then, it has been performed numerous times and adapted for TV, radio and cinema. I didn’t really enjoy watching the adaptations. I think this is because an adaptation of a play follows the script very closely, so I just felt like I was re-reading the play again! 1992: Part of the British “Performance” series, with Juliet Stevenson as Nora and Trevor Eve as Torvald. Directed by David Thacker. 1973 : Claire Bloom as Nora and Anthony Hopkins as Torvald. Directed by Patrick Garland. If you love plays or classical literature, I recommend that you check this one out!

Book Review Author : Heather Morris Genre : Biographical Fiction Publisher : Echo/ Bonnier Publishing Australia Year of Publication : 11th January 2018 Number of Pages : 194 My Rating :4 out of 5 The Tattooist of Auschwitz has been on my ‘to-be-read‘ list for a while. To be honest, it has stayed so long … Continue reading The Tattooist of Auschwitzt →

Book Review Author : Heather Morris Genre : Biographical Fiction Publisher : Echo/ Bonnier Publishing Australia Year of Publication : 11th January 2018 Number of Pages : 194 My Rating :4 out of 5 The Tattooist of Auschwitz has been on my ‘to-be-read‘ list for a while. To be honest, it has stayed so long on my TBR list because I really did not want to read a story about the horrors of the Holocaust, having never read one before. The movies and documentaries I watched on the subject gave me quite a chill! I still kept coming across it everywhere, so my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to read it. This is Heather Morris’ debut novel, originally written as a screenplay before being reworked as a novel. The book has received international acclaim with four million copies sold worldwide (according to Amazon). In the midst of all this success, there has also been some controversy surrounding the book. This is the story of Lale Sokolov, originally known as Ludwig Eisenberg. It is April 1942 when Lale leaves his home in Slovakia. The German government has demanded that each Jewish family provide an adult child to work for them. Failure to do this will lead to the whole family being sent to a concentration camp. To save his family from this fate, Lale presents himself to the Germans for service, believing his family back home will be safe. On the gate at Auschwitz are the words ‘Work will make you free’. Lale ponders the meaning of this phrase. A number is tattooed on his arm. He soon learns the true nature of life at Auschwitz where a simple misstep can lead to the loss of a life. Fortunately for Lale, he gets appointed as a Tätowierer, whose job is to tattoo other prisoners. This puts him in a protected and advantaged position but also at risk of being considered a collaborator, since he now works for the political wing of the SS. He meets Gita as he tattoos her arm and immediately feels a connection with her. They start a relationship that endures until they separately leave Auschwitz and find each other back home in Slovakia. Heather Morris wrote Lale’s and Gita’s story from Lale’s recollections, more than sixty years after the events had transpired. Lale told her the story after Gita had passed away. Gita and Lale I liked the author’s writing style. The story is well written and easy to follow. I was able to easily picture the events as they happened and follow Lale’s thoughts as he lived through the traumatic events. The horror of life at the concentration camp – fear, devastation and suffering – are laid bare in a manner that made me feel like I was watching the events unfold through the characters’ eyes. Yet in the midst of all that is a powerful story of the resilience of human beings, their ability to survive brutal events and remain hopeful, even when surrounded by suffering and death. Their ability to fall in love and trust that they can build a relationship. It would have been easy for the characters to just give up but throughout the book, the desire to overcome their circumstances was evident. It amazed me how Lale and Gita were able to find one another and develop such a close bond in such restrictive and devastating surroundings when their future was so uncertain. Although I really doubted the authenticity of some of their encounters given my (admittedly limited) knowledge of concentration camps, I rooted for them and admired Lale’s determination to be with his beloved. Most of all, I marveled at his courage and ingenuity. I rate this book 4 out of 5 and recommend it to anyone who loves stories about overcoming adversity. It would have been a 5 but for some discussions I came across online, which resonated with me, given some of my misgivings about the book. Controversy Given the historical significance of the Holocaust, any story that is centered on it is bound to attract a lot of attention. Some researchers have questioned the accuracy of some of the details in the book and have stated that some of the events that have been described could not have happened. Critics have been concerned that readers may take the story as a source of knowledge about life at Auschwitz – Birkenau. In as much as the author clearly states that she changed some facts to further the plot, the story is described as being ‘based on a true story’ and a lot of readers connected with the story because of this. When questioned about this, the author stated that she wrote “a story of the Holocaust, not the story of the Holocaust.” She told the New York Times that ;- “The book does not claim to be an academic historical piece of non-fiction, I’ll leave that to the academics and historians.” My Take on this This made me ponder on whether writers of historical fiction have an obligation to accurately depict historical events in their books. Is it not true that inaccuracies can mislead and leave readers with a wrong impression of events? Is it enough for authors to state that their stories are fictional and expect readers not to assume all the historical events are as they happened? What is the line between the fictional and the historical bit? And what is biographical fiction anyway? I think critics here were so concerned because this is described as a book about real people in a real place at a real time in history. A very sensitive time and place. This would therefore lead most readers to expect the story to be mostly true. And it should be. How much artistic license do you think an author has when they claim that a novel is based on a true story? Shouldn’t they at the very least get the actual known historical events correct? Let me know!

Book Review Author : Lola Shoneyin Genre : Literary Fiction Publisher: Serpent’s Tail Date of Publication: 2010 Number of Pages: 245 My Rating : 5 out of 5 Yes, I somehow ended up with two copies of this book. I think I bought the first one and whilst it was still on my ‘to read’ … Continue reading The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives →

Book Review Author : Lola Shoneyin Genre : Literary Fiction Publisher: Serpent’s Tail Date of Publication: 2010 Number of Pages: 245 My Rating : 5 out of 5 Yes, I somehow ended up with two copies of this book. I think I bought the first one and whilst it was still on my ‘to read’ list I came across it again and bought a second copy! Lola Shoneyin is a Nigerian poet. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives was her debut novel published in 2010. Lola was nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2010 for this book. She won the PEN Oakland 2011 Josephine Miles Literary Award and the 2011 Ken Saro-Wiwa Prose Prize. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives features the Alao family, made up of Ishola Alao (Baba Segi) and his four wives – Iya Segi, Iya Tope, Iya Femi and Bolanle. Iya is the Nigerian term for ‘mother of’ so they are named after their respective first born children. Baba Segi is, of course, named for the oldest child of the first wife. The book opens with Baba Segi contemplating a problem that he has had to deal with before. The latest addition to his family, his wife Bolanle, has not yet conceived a child. The last time he faced this problem, he found the solution at Teacher’s shack, where men gather and discuss different topics over whiskey. Teacher recommended a visit to a herbalist. Not long after taking the prescribed powder, his first wife got pregnant and Segi was born. Now with seven children from his three wives, he is again concerned because Bolanle has not yet conceived, after almost three years of marriage. Bolanle is different from the other wives. She has gone to university and is educated, whereas they are not. She refuses to see a herbalist. Teacher advises Baba Segi to take her to a hospital. Bolanle married Baba Segi against the wishes of her family and friends, who do not understand why she would marry an uneducated polygamist. Baba Segi’s other wives resent her because she is educated. As a result, they refuse to let her in on the secret that they all share, hoping to get rid of her. When Baba Segi decides to visit the hospital with Bolanle, he sets in motion a course of events that will change their lives in unimaginable ways. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It gives us a good view of life in a polygamous family and the power dynamics that influence it. The role of the first wife and how it evolves as the husband gets more wives is explored. I enjoyed seeing the different personalities of the characters and how they affect their relationships. Baba Segi believes he is fully in control of the family and tries as much as he can to be fair to all his wives. Iya Segi is cunning, wise and controlling. Iya Femi is spiteful and vengeful. Iya Tope is lazy and not so bright, yet she is also kind. Bolanle is lost and carries deep-seated pain. Lola tells this story in an engaging way. She lets the main characters tell us their backstories and show us their feelings by using a first person narrative. In other places, she uses the third person to further the story. These characters are well developed and authentic. I empathised with them, even when I did not like their actions. The book tackles themes such as polygamy, violence, infertility, prejudice and other social injustices. It is a beautiful narrative that both entertains, questions and challenges. It is a tale of how far people will go to get what they want and to maintain their livelihood. It shows how easy it is to misjudge people and not appreciate their strengths. How our prejudices can make us blind to what should be obvious. Perhaps the most important lesson of all is – always be wary of karma! I rate it 5 out of 5 and recommend it to lovers of African literature.

Book Review May contain spoilers….. Author : Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Genre: Literary Fiction Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers Date of Publication: 2004 Number of Pages: 307 My Rating : 5 out of 5 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (Best Debut Fiction Category) in 2004 and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in 2005 … Continue reading Purple Hibiscus →

Book Review May contain spoilers….. Author : Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Genre: Literary Fiction Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers Date of Publication: 2004 Number of Pages: 307 My Rating : 5 out of 5 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (Best Debut Fiction Category) in 2004 and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in 2005 for Purple Hibiscus. Purple Hibiscus is Chimamanda’s debut novel, published in 2004. I read it after reading Americanah which resonated with me because of all the stories I had heard about the lives of immigrants in the US. Purple Hibiscus is a heartbreaking story about fifteen year old Kambili and her family. Kambili’s father, Eugene, is a wealthy Nigerian businessman. He is also a religious fanatic who does not allow any dissent in his family. Everything has to be done his way. He exercises tight control over their lives, planning and intricately scheduling every minute including family time, reading time, eating time and prayer time. There are prayers before and after meals, with a prayer before meals taking twenty minutes. Any dissent is met with horrific acts of violence. Eugene is fastidious about rituals and prayers but fails in kindness and compassion, yet he is blind to his many faults. Typically, he blames others for his wrongdoing and makes them go for confession when they have done nothing wrong. There are a lot of lessons to be glimpsed from the book. Chimamanda shows us how violence begets violence. Eugene was exposed to violence for behavior that was deemed ‘sinful’ by a priest he lived with while in school and metes out similar punishment to his family. Whilst this is no excuse, it helps us get a better understanding of his character. His family lives in silence and fear. This has greatly affected Kambili who rarely talks. When she does it is in a voice that is barely audible. Their mother, Beatrice, tries to prevent the violence by deflecting Eugene’s attention when she sees his temper rising, though she rarely succeeds. When Kambili and her brother, Jaja, visit their Aunt Ifeoma at the University campus in Nsukka where she works and lives with her family, they are surprised at how different life in her house is. Though Ifeoma’s family lacks the abundant resources that Kambili’s family has, they enjoy cheerful banter during meal times. Ifeoma’s house is full of music and laughter, which is alien to Kambili and Jaja. To their surprise, their aunt tells them that there is no need to follow their father’s strict schedule while they are at her house. At Nsukka, Kambili meets Father Amadi, a young catholic priest whose amiable behaviour is unlike anything her father would approve of. Father Amadi quickly notices that Kambili is different and pays her special attention. Kambili develops a crush on him. Though we do not see any inappropriate behaviour on Father Amadi’s part, he manages to draw Kambili out of her shell. She is able to open up and relax due to the way he treats her. Eventually she falls in love with him, even though she knows nothing can come out of this relationship (sigh………). Another theme that is explored in this book is how the wealthy are allowed to get away with ghastly behavior. Eugene is extremely generous. He is the main benefactor of his church. This gives him the confidence to stand in judgment of other worshippers, regarding those who missed communion on two consecutive Sundays as ‘having committed mortal sin’. Villagers flock to his rural home when he goes there and he gladly dishes out money. He is a highly regarded member of society, even though he permits his children only fifteen minutes to visit his own father whom he regards as a ‘heathen’. He refuses to have anything to do with his father. When they fail to report that they spent time with their grandfather at Aunt Ifeoma’s house, Kambili and Jaja are punished for knowingly being in the same house with a heathen. This in spite of the fact that their grandfather is only brought to Nsukka due to his deteriorating health. Eugene is not even moved when his father dies, his only comment is that a priest should have been called to pray for him and convert him. This does not stop him from sending a lot of money for the funeral, though he doesn’t bother attending it. Neither the villagers nor Father Benedict are shown as being at all concerned about the way he treats his family, though it must be clearly evident that something is off as others easily pick up on this. The only person who dares defy him is his sister, Ifeoma, who goes as far as to refuse his financial assistance because he tries to control her life in exchange for his support. Another theme that Chimamanda brings out is how society tends to turn a blind eye to things that make us uncomfortable. Nobody asks Kambili how she got hurt when she lands in hospital after her father repeatedly kicks her, not even Father Eugene or the doctor. The only person who dares broach the subject is her cousin, Amaka, who mentions it in a way that makes it obvious that she is already aware of what happened. How long can people really survive such treatment? Kambili’s mother, Beatrice, seems weak and helpless, as victims of domestic abuse often appear to be. She tries to protect her children but seems trapped by circumstances. She goes back to her abusive husband even after Ifeoma begs her not to go. Ifeoma often tries to talk some sense into her brother, although ultimately, she concludes that he is broken, perhaps beyond redemption. Jaja is wracked with guilt because of his inability to protect his mother. He is eventually able to take a stance against his father, and we see his character begin to develop. Unfortunately, the cycle of violence is doomed to continue as victims of violence often retaliate. All in all, this book was a poignant look at religious fanaticism and domestic violence. It is heartbreaking and distressing. It made me mad and frustrated. I wished I could enter into the book and shake some sense into some of the characters. I found the story well-paced and superbly written. The characters are well developed and easy to understand, even those that I did not like – Eugene and Father Benedict. I felt sorry for Kambili, celebrated Jaja’s growth into manhood, and empathized with Beatrice. I understood Ifeoma’s anger and frustration with her brother and even Amaka’s attempt at rationalizing her uncle’s behaviour. The story is told against the background of political instability and a military coup in Nigeria, which provides some useful information on what is going on in the characters’ lives. I love how Chimamanda uses the blooming of the newly planted and rare purple hibiscus to depict a new beginning for the family and how the characters are at last able to move on. The story is told from Kambili’s point of view and her emotional turmoil is brought out beautifully. I appreciated the way Chimamanda contrasts religion as depicted by Ifeoma’s family and Father Amadi, as opposed to Eugene and Father Benedict. The same religion expressed very differently. We see how Kambili feels isolated from her religion because of her father’s fanaticism, whereas her cousins embrace their religion and have a friendly and casual relationship with their priest, free from judgment. Even though a lot of violence is depicted, and I could clearly see how inhumane and traumatic this is for the characters, I did not find it at all graphic. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even when it made me sad, and rate it 5 out of 5. I recommend it to lovers of African literature.

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Mason Kowalski is stuck in a dead-end job he hates, writing copy for his boss at a health-food company while taking care of his elderly grandmother in his free time. He regularly experiences stress, due to a generalized anxiety disorder, but he becomes alarmed when he also suffers vivid hallucinations and debilitating headaches. When Mason’s boss confronts him about missing work, he experiences an episode that he accidentally captures on video—only to discover later that the recording lacks audio, aside from his own voice, which sounds as if he’s possessed: “the gruesome voice moans into his ears. Through lungs clogged with tar. Sick with infection. Steeped in nightmares.” Terrified, Mason confides in his best friend and neighbor, Cassy, but his life quickly unravels when he learns that his boss has been murdered—and that he’s the prime suspect. Later, Mason has another attack, during which he unwittingly forces the police to destroy evidence; he escapes custody, but he knows that the police will soon be on his trail. With no idea of how to prove his innocence, Mason, along with Cassy, turns to Rudy Davidson, a former Navy SEAL and current San Mateo police detective. Determined to understand Mason’s condition, the trio run experiments to identify its source to little avail; then Mason encounters a mysterious man with a “shadow” of his own. They soon learn the man has been investigating a suspected supernatural serial killer.

Casamassina, a novelist who’s best known for his work in video game journalism as a cofounder of IGN, crafts a fictional world that feels both cinematic and intimate. However, his ambitious blend of various genres and themes sometimes blurs the novel’s focus. His background in storytelling shines throughout; the novel offers a vivid sense of place and mostly tight plotting, and the brisk prose grounds the surreal narrative in believable rhythms of friendship. Mason is an endearing and sympathetic character whose struggles with anxiety feel authentic. Readers may wish for greater nuance in the supporting cast, though, as their archetypical portrayals sometimes reduce them to ideas, rather than fully realized individuals. The dialogue is punctuated by coarse and often vulgar language, which reinforces the story’s gritty atmosphere. The story, however, takes a drastic turn more than halfway through the novel, shifting from an urban supernatural mystery to a futuristic SF thriller—a lively but disorienting change that may not appeal to all readers. The narrative threads unravel toward the novel’s end in favor of an operatic showdown that will leave readers with more questions than answers. Still, the novel does effectively gesture toward social and ecological themes, depicting a world that’s truly damaged by human excess. These motifs, while fleeting, give the book a timely resonance that will appeal to fans of genre fiction that looks at contemporary issues through a fantastical lens.

Ghosh is one of the leading chroniclers of the post-colonial South Asian experience. He explores what it is like to be both privileged and displaced: educated in the canons of the West, but always seeing power from the viewpoint of the historically excluded. This collection of essays on environmental trauma and historical alienation, drawn from newspapers and journals from the past 20 years, brings together the author’s major interests: how climate change has disproportionately affected South Asia and has led to mass migrations across the globe; how traditionally oppressed peoples have sought a place at the tables of the great; and how Western history is changed when retold by the non-Western teller. Most revealing in these essays is the story of the lascars, groups of North Indian sailors who played a major role in the expansion of British sea power. Their otherwise unwritten lives animate the middle of this work. Readers new to Ghosh will find much to lead them to his major work, especially his subtle blend of personal reflection and political polemic. His central question remains: How to write “of the past when the predicament of…characters is shaped precisely by a willed wordlessness, an intentional silence, a refusal, or inability, to acknowledge the legitimacy of an overarching narrative? This is a question that is forced upon us by the history of colonial India—indeed, by all colonial histories, replete as they are with examples of events that occur as symptoms of unknown motives and unspoken intentions.” Some of these essays are major interventions into these ideas. Others are chips from the writer’s workbench.

The Colony of New York, built underneath the ruins of the city following the great hurricane of 2085, faces mounting challenges as the 24th century draws to a close. Violent gangs draw in disillusioned youths. Increasingly frequent tremors (“The earth surrounding the tunnels was warming, shifting and changing”) damage buildings and cause pipes to leak or burst. Air quality is on the decline, leaving people fatigued and unable to work. Dealing with all of these problems would be enough for Manny Stewart, the Colony’s police commissioner and one of its wealthiest citizens, but he must also deal with his son, Zach, who’s become increasingly defiant and seems to have come under the sway of bad influences. Manny’s desperation to keep Zach out of trouble, combined with his own trauma of growing up with an abusive alcoholic father, causes him to come down harder and harder on his son—but the more he tries to control him, the more he resists. The generational conflicts reflect the tension between anxiety and hope that pulls at the Colony as it seeks its future. Feltman’s postapocalyptic setting is well developed and filled with the just the right amount of detail to make it feel lived in, without inundating the reader with minutiae. However, much to the novel’s credit, the setting mostly serves as a backdrop to a taut, unflinching portrayal of a difficult father-child relationship with high stakes that extend well beyond their home. Feltman excels at ratcheting up tension, but she also finds hope in unexpected places, leading to some hard-earned, authentically joyous and optimistic moments. Manny, in particular, is a memorable protagonist, often difficult to like but ultimately deserving of the reader’s admiration.

Born and raised in Los Angeles to parents who supported his dreams with love and money, Brown confesses to having been a low-performing student and a “jerk” to other kids around him. In high school, he broke the jaw of a popular class president who had humiliated him with a cake in the face following a stunt Brown thoughtlessly played on birthday celebrants. He never actually finished his formal education. But it was his passion for sports—first baseball, then kart racing—that saved him, he says, giving him a reason to think of how to get good at something and keep striving to be better. A decade pursuing race-car driving in Europe taught him he was not top-grade material behind the wheel, but while looking for sponsors he discovered a talent and passion for “deal-making,” which eventually put him on track to rise up in the world of sports management. A deal he negotiated between Crown Royal and NASCAR that led to the end of a decades-long ban on hard liquor sponsorship in motorsports (and other sports soon after) made Brown the first serious money to convince him he was on the right path. And up the corporate ladder he raced. Patient readers who suffer business clichés will find surprisingly humanistic principles in Brown’s lessons for managers and leaders: “You want a summary of my management style?” he asks. “I’m a democratic, diplomatic leader. A benevolent leader.” Not a pushover, by any means, he led his team from the basement to the top within 10 years, with a world-stopping pandemic in-between.

Semi-retired Bennett, a man “accustomed to mild interest” in most things, embarks on a road trip to visit ex-girlfriend Jenn in Ann Arbor after she texts him out of the blue. He’s not expecting much but brings along lubricants and lotions just in case. Jenn, however, seems more interested in Bennett’s rental car than romance. Her teen daughter, Zoe, an MMA fighter, needs a ride to Utah for an important match. Zoe’s crusty trainer, Hector, tags along, coercing Bennett into stopping at a small Nebraskan town on the way to the fight. In Ogallala, Hector and his friend Hank continue treating Bennett as a chauffeur. They ask him to give them a ride to someone’s house, and he’s ordered to wait in a corn field. Sneaking to the house, he witnesses a murder. Involvement in the crime’s aftermath makes Bennett feel alive for once, but now he’s complicit. Still, he tries to be a positive influence for Zoe, whose perspective also shifts on this trip. Briefly staying with Hank’s kind sister-in-law and kids on a farm, she sees welcome alternatives to her usual life. The sense of place plays a large role here. Eichhorn skillfully captures the small-town ambiance, at least as seen through the eyes of educated urbanite Bennett. Bennett envisions Ogallala as a place with “a rat-infested motel” and thinks the flat plains “emptiness felt like abandonment.” The town’s predominant clothing style is “bib overalls and greasy T-shirts.” Amber, the sex worker Bennett meets, has a second job at Walmart. Yet Zoe inhabits a much different Ogallala, petting a pig, noticing the high corn, eating delicious homemade pie. Like the landscape, the characters also show many sides. Though appearing shallow, Bennett actually seeks substance. Violent Hector at times encourages both Bennett and Zoe, and Hank is a proud father. Zoe is an especially convincing portrait, insecurely poised on the brink of adulthood without receiving much help in how to get there.

It’s 2010, and the Keane family—mom Lyana, historian dad Ian, snarky teen daughter Ariel, and son Zach, a neurodivergent boy who obsessively counts things—are ensconced in a spooky old Tudor house in Littleton, Massachusetts. One night, Zach starts climbing the staircase and somehow ends up in an ancient society, where he befriends Akolo, a young boy brought to the city by the king after his village was raided. The king also brought back a chest. The two boys have ouroboros-shaped amulets that glow prettily near the chest, and the voice of God duly pronounces them “servants.” (Zach also miraculously gains the ability to speak the native language.) The king wants Zach and Akolo to harness the chest’s power for him, and is delighted when Zach figures out that objects placed beside the chest during a lunar eclipse—a blood moon—become imbued with divine mojo. Meanwhile, as months go by, the distraught Keanes refuse to entertain the likelihood that Zach is dead. Ian pursues seemingly unhinged theories regarding his disappearance while Lyana perceives whispering voices and unsettling visions of a blood-drenched girl. Their suspicions fall upon Marshall, the house’s informal caretaker, who lives in a cabin filled with rare ancient books and has an ouroboros tattoo; their misgivings heighten when Ariel discovers a photograph of him from the 1800s. Zach is working from his end to find a way back to the 21st century before the king takes him and Akolo back to Akolo’s village to help rebuild the temple, which will sever Zach’s access to the time-travel portal.

In this second installment of their Goodpasture Chronicles series, husband-and-wife authors Jason and Rhonda Halbert (writing under the pen name R.J. Halbert) create a richly textured portrait of an ancient society. Zach adroitly navigates palace intrigues, the king’s despotic whims, and the potentially fatal chest, portrayed by the Halberts in punchy, mordant prose. (“The sound was a muffled scream, as if the man was being strangled,” they write of a soldier forced to approach the chest as an experiment. “Akolo leaned forward to get a better look, then wished he hadn’t when he saw the man’s face—it was white as a tunic and frozen in fear. This man was dead.”) The contemporary branch of the narrative is a tense study of a family disintegrating under pressure, then struggling to regroup, written in evocative prose that strips bare the characters’ weaknesses and comforting delusions. (“Some of his best academic insights had come with a glass in his hand, the whiskey warming his thoughts until patterns emerged from chaos,” Ian tells himself as he hits the bottle. “Just one, he rationalized, already rising from his chair. Just enough to think clearly. For Zach.”) The result is a page turner with real literary depth.

The third memoir from Van Dyke covers similar ground as the previous two; now he is approaching 100 instead of 90, but before that, not much has changed. (That’s the thing about the past.) What’s new is the angle: the hundred chapters are titled for their takeaway: from “Don’t Act Your Age” and “Make Your Own Rules” to “You Can’t Protect Your Survivors” (a sad vignette about the late Gene Hackman) and “Find Your Arlene.” Van Dyke’s 46-years-younger wife, Arlene, is the sine qua non of his life and this book: “Well over three-quarters of the memories in this book were foggy in my brain but crystal clear in hers,” due to many previous retellings. These recollections include stories of shoveling ice and coal in pre–World War II Danville, Illinois, 15-cent movies, being edged out of a spot on Ed Sullivan’s show by President Harry Truman’s daughter’s tepid opera singing, and recollections from the sets of Bye Bye Birdie, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, and many more. If the upbeat tone of his preceding books prompted some critical calls for more conflict, emotion, and introspection, those are answered here by stories with a darker tone. These include a phone call from Cary Grant on LSD, an anxious encounter with a possibly predatory elementary school teacher, a long-running on-set prank involving walnuts, and a 20-year toothache, as yet not fully resolved. “Remember Honestly” corrects a childhood anecdote told in the previous book with more candor about the extreme stinginess of Van Dyke’s father. “I was so intent on putting a smile on my life experiences that I nudged the little hint of darkness out of the story.” In addition to his wife, the supporting cast includes the author’s 73-year-old son, Barry, and his 41-year-old personal assistant, Jimmy, who uses they/them pronouns and has a second career as a WWE-style wrestler—quite a breath of fresh air. Among the most poignant chapters are “You Will Not Be Alone,” which recounts the 1987 death of Van Dyke’s first grandchild at the age of 13, and “Read While You Can,” in which we learn that advanced dry macular degeneration has ended his life as a reader. Not as a writer, though!

Alyte learns about the world through a series of encounters with other creatures, all of them trying to comprehend their place in a great chain of being. It’s a fairly terrifying adventure: He continually learns that eating or being eaten is part of everyday life, and that dying is “the natural order of things.” In the opening pages, his father has a bloody, fatal encounter while crossing a road but is able to drag himself into the water before he dies. His first friend, an exuberant salmon on her way upstream to lay eggs, expires after accomplishing her mission. Plonk, a friendly baby ibex, is carried off by an eagle and fed to its eaglets in front of Alyte. “Life doesn’t want me,” he laments at one point. But after a peaceful night cuddling with another toad, Alyte becomes father to a cluster of eggs that he must carry to the safety of a pond. Moreau explores the boundaries between water and air, life and death, nature and “lethalyte,” or “death incarnate,” represented by the road where Alyte’s father was crushed. The clean, dramatic illustrations range from full-page depictions of water, land, and forest to an appealing, though not quite peaceable, kingdom of fish, birds, mammals, insects, reptiles, and trees, all engaged in the business of living and opposing the enemy lethalyte.

Working in western France, Slimak, author of The Naked Neanderthal: A New Understanding of the Human Creature, discovered that a group of Homo sapiens had taken up residence in a Neanderthal cave 54,000 years ago and remained for 40 years. Neanderthals themselves did not vanish for another 12,000 years, according to the latest evidence. Also present were innumerable sapiens’ flint points, similar to those thousands of miles to the east, revealing that early sapiens already followed ancient, widespread cultural traditions. The points could only have been useful in arrows, so archery was found in sites 40,000 years older than its supposed invention. On the site are remains of an ancient Neanderthal, whom the author and his team name Thorin (after “one of the last dwarf kings under the mountain” in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit). A few scattered teeth and bone fragments provide the first evidence of contact between sapiens and Neanderthals—so precious that his team spends seven years employing only tweezers to precisely tease out each particle and preserve its context. By the book’s midpoint, it becomes clear that the site illustrates contacts between sapiens and Neanderthals before they went their separate ways. This makes it a major finding. The author concludes that three waves of sapiens arrived in Europe over 12,000 years, which contradicts previous descriptions, and he elaborates on his hypothesis in details that will flummox readers not familiar with academic anthropological scholarship. The book’s second half defends his findings but emphasizes that no natural law governs the behavior of human societies, and thinkers who disagreed (Marx, Rousseau) are mostly known for being wrong. Readers searching for the details of human evolution should consult Ian Tattersall or Yuval Noah Harari. Slimak describes important findings, but his focus on their implications owes perhaps too much to his nation’s literary deconstructionists.

Williams has long worked magic with stories that, on the surface, seem quite quotidian, save that something unspoken—and occasionally sinister—lies beneath. The interactions of a woman and her driver in the opening story, “Flour,” are a case in point: She is well-off, but she invents an excuse to get rid of an expected weekend guest so that she can escape her daily life. The driver “spends the nights searching for the missing word in some Coptic riddle,” the woman tells us. That missing word figures in a folktale—Williams being a devotee of the genre—that echoes in the odd events that follow, ending at a destination that, the woman says, “struck me then as being utterly foreign.” In another story, a man is told he has cancer, then that he’s been confused for another patient but still has cancer. He tells his mother, “According to the doctor, I’m dying,” to which she replies, “Oh, well.” A talking dog tells an assistant at a writers’ retreat, “The river of indifference flows through the country of forgetfulness.” The mystical charlatan George Gurdjieff drifts down to Tucson, Arizona, to visit the childhood home of Susan Sontag, whom he adores; never mind that the chronology doesn’t line up. An ethereal child, perhaps a ghost, tells a woman, “Imagination only fails us in the end, when the stories we tell ourselves have to stop.” All the stories here are lovely, and so skillfully written that disbelief is suspended forthwith. But the pièce de résistance is “Baba Iaga & The Pelican Child,” where the Slavic folkloric figure meets the murderous naturalist John James Audubon, much to the detriment of her pelican daughter, a searing fable of the destruction of nature and the ease with which humans do harm.

As a Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award-winning actress and singer, Erivo, 38, who identifies as queer and bisexual, still considers her persona to be “more than many people expect or want.” She admits it’s taken years to release herself from others’ judgments and internally validate her outspoken personality in order to live the truest and fullest version of herself. Threaded throughout the book’s surfeit of dream-big guidance, sage takeaways, and supportive cheerleading, the author shares her love of running and singing, alongside personal anecdotes about her youth, growing up fatherless in a South London maisonette with just her Nigerian mother and sister as a “bossy, bubbly, chatty” child who “would sing absolutely everything.” After attending an all-girls Catholic school, Erivo honed her burgeoning performance skills through auditions, a degree from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (despite feeling like an outcast), and subsequent stage roles that followed, including her 2015 breakout Broadway role in The Color Purple. As her stage star rose, Erivo’s queerness became an integral part of her identity, manifesting early with crushes on girls; she considered her sexuality as simply “the cherry on top of who I am.” She discusses being awestruck when seeing Wicked on stage and the “deep connection” felt toward Elphaba, fueling her kinship to outsiders, and the need to “dilate my imagination, to stretch it big enough until I could see myself as a potential Elphaba.” Besides the insider details of her Wicked role, the book’s greatest feature is its balancing act as both an entertaining, reflective memoir and an uplifting motivational guide. Erivo remains an enchanting narrator throughout and connects with her fan base through a positive, proactive, and compassionate blend of emotional strength, identity, and resilience.

Journalist and author Cohen, author of Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck, strikes gold with a story from Victorian Britain that comes with a scholar’s favorite documentation: court transcripts. In 1883 a wealthy Australian bought a used yacht in Britain and hired a crew to deliver it: an experienced captain, two crewmen, and a cabin boy. After six weeks sailing south in the Atlantic, a storm sank it. With only minutes to save themselves, the crew fled to its dinghy with time to grab two cans of turnips and a few instruments but no water. After nearly three weeks, with all nearly moribund from thirst and starvation, the captain cut the boy’s throat, and all consumed his blood and organs “with quite as much relish as ordinary food.” Four days later, a ship appeared. The survivors did not conceal their actions, and their rescuers were not scandalized because all knew similar stories. Cohen describes half a dozen documented occasions and summarizes the history of human cannibalism before moving on to what followed after the men landed in England. Newspapers covered the story mostly favorably. No sailor in history had been prosecuted for cannibalism, so the men were shocked to be arrested and charged with murder. The decision came from the government where senior officials rejected the ancient tradition that allowed sailors in danger of starving to eat someone. More than half the book recounts the trials, which concluded for the first time in history that the men had committed homicide. Almost no one wanted them hanged, so they served six months in prison. Readers will likely agree with current legal opinion that denies that murder is justified when it can be presented as the lesser of two evils.

J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are two of the most widely read 20th-century British writers. For both men, the ideals of British-ness centered on the communal life of the village, the heroism of everyday people in great times, and the attempt to bring together a fecund imagination with a faith in a Christian god. Many things shaped their writings, not the least being their scholarship in the medieval English language. Beowulf, Chaucer, and romance adventure gave them a vocabulary for fantasy and faith. Both men looked back, too, to their experiences as soldiers in World War I for the vividness of conflict. And, as they lived through World War II on the home front, their memories came back to them, invigorating imagined places with the gore and grit of the trenches. At the heart of their work is a theme, writes historian and filmmaker Loconte: “the necessity of individual courage to combat evil.” That individual courage had to be found in the ordinary man, the Hobbit, the person like us, who was “not made for perilous quests.” Such men were like the men with whom they fought. And in the 1930s and ’40s, when Tolkien, Lewis, and their contemporaries came together in conversation and scholarship at Oxford, they bonded in the shared need to “cordon” off the fears of combat. The pub, the library, and the college common room made “space for relationships that were meaningful, for conversations rich in wit and wisdom, and for creative work that could inspire and enchant. For Tolkien and Lewis, male friendship fulfilled all of these needs like nothing else.” At their most fantastic, both writers were at their most real and personal.

Humans going back to ancient civilizations have tried to interpret and find meaning in our dreams. Dreams have been thought of as divine signals, warnings, and simply things that happen to us. But what if we could seize control of them? In her exploration, sleep expert and neuroscientist Carr deftly guides the reader through the science of sleep, dreams, and how the darkest of our mind inventions can traumatize us in waking hours. Carr has spent hundreds of nights awake and working in the sleep lab during her career, watching others sleep, electrodes placed on their scalps, later working to pull apart their dreams and disturbances. At the heart of her work in the sleep lab lie three questions: Why do we dream? Why do dreams go bad? How can we harness the science of dreaming to improve our health? In her unpacking of these questions, the author carries us through a raft of complicated brain science and sleep studies in compelling, clear writing. At times, the narrative is overly dense with study details that risk losing the nonscientist reader. While most of us have been taught to believe we have no agency over our dreams, Carr argues otherwise. She presents a strong case that we have the power to harness dreams and to guide our brains away from images and stories that might harm us while awake. What unfolds is a detailed manual for the notion of “dream engineering.” Though it may seem far-fetched to some, to those who experience chronic nightmares and lucid dreaming, the concept could introduce a revolutionary practice for healing.

A world where humans are descended from a variety of mammals endures its own equivalent of the U.S. Civil War—the northern, industrialized Parity arming against the southern, rural, and slave-owning Echelon. When a marauding Parity gang’s rampage in a frontier Echelon town kills otter-descended schoolteacher Martha Good, her lover, dog-descended fellow teacher Elizabeth Indigo Sandpiper, joins a group of Echelon guerrilla fighters, seeking a violent revenge that the gentle Miss Martha never would have wanted and earning her the moniker “Dog-Bitch Bess.” Assisting her in these brutal endeavors is Wakeful Slim, a multifunctional AI gun that’s a piece of ancient Precursor technology. In the distant past, a Pandominion strike team pursues rebels seeking a return to the old government’s policy of conquest over parallel Earths; the chase strands the rebels on an Earth whose inhabitants are unwitting participants in a terrible experiment. These two storylines converge after Bess, who’s on the run from Parity forces, picks up a new companion with a mysterious mission. In addition to the iconic tragedy of the gunslinger, whose bloody path can only have one ending, Carey adds the tragedies of the sentient gun and armed drone; this is probably the first time you will sympathize with actual weapons. Perhaps the messaging around the racism directed toward the novel’s Black and Native American analogues is a bit obvious, but it does two very important things: It highlights both how artificial the categories are that we put people into, and how the thoughtless acceptance of those categories leads to more brutal consequences.

Mona Miller is a people-pleaser by nature. Her reputation as a team player has served her well so far, even though she feels like she’s been running in place at the travel magazine where she works. When she’s called into her boss’s office, her first instinct is to expect a pink slip, but instead she’s offered the opportunity of a lifetime—a trip to Iceland to write the cover story for an upcoming issue. It’s not only a fun change of pace from the local gigs she’s been landing; it’s also an assignment that could set her up for a promotion. The only catch is that the photographer assigned to accompany her is an absolutely unwelcome blast from her past. Benjamin Carter is a rising star behind the lens, but he was also Mona’s childhood best friend, the person with whom she once shared all her secrets and a whole lot of firsts before he inexplicably broke her heart 14 years ago. Mona doesn’t want to rock the boat, though, so she decides to grin and bear it for the sake of professionalism. The next 10 days could make or break this opportunity for Mona, but the more time they spend together, the more likely it is that Ben could also break her heart all over again. Oliver’s debut is a stunning achievement, full of unresolved emotion and angst that results in feelings simmering to the surface, as well as proof that the embers of true love can never fully die down. Mona’s frequent reflection on her history with Ben is seamlessly interwoven with the present-day timeline, for which the Icelandic setting serves as the perfect backdrop, with vivid, descriptive imagery and intense, open-air experiences that push Mona beyond her physical limits while likely inspiring more than a little wanderlust in the reader.

Ruby considers herself lucky to be a housemaid for Lumaria’s royal family. After the parents she doesn’t remember were killed in a short but deadly war with neighboring Castella, a kind stranger placed Ruby in the care of Mellie, who was the royal family’s cook. Ruby grew up in the castle, befriended handsome Rowan, one of King Octavius’ sons, and secretly played asynchronous games of chess in the royal library against an unknown opponent. Ruby never imagined that, as a poor girl of unknown origins, she would become Lumaria’s reigning queen. She’s thrust into a terrifying new world, forced to prepare for her coronation, fortify herself against antiroyalist protestors, and possibly marry one of the princes to secure her place on the throne. To make matters worse, Ruby discovers a hidden message, left for her by the king himself, warning her that she’s in danger and that he was murdered—likely by someone close to him. Her life becomes an exacting game of chess: One wrong move and she may be the next piece to fall. Debut author Hart wastes no time launching the plot; the storytelling is straightforward and the worldbuilding is minimal. Readers can expect a satisfying stand-alone mystery with a delicious enemies-to-lovers romance that follows familiar beats. The cast presents white.

Suttaru is dead, but the realms of Paperworld are still under threat from Edwin Payne, the Rogue Sage, and his machinations. After an Unwritten monster murders the freshly minted Sage of Hope, Nu, Robin, and the remaining Sages search for a way to combat the darkness. They land upon the Maksus Stone, an artifact Suttaru mentioned in his ancient diary. Unfortunately for the heroes, the stone is currently split into three pieces: one inside the Great Library and the other two scattered to the realms. With some help from their old friend Arturo, Nu and Robin head to the Mother Tree in pursuit of one fragment, last seen in the scholar Haruto’s possession. Their search takes them to Adscendo, a fantastical realm of floating mountains, where Haruto is rumored to have absconded. But Payne is still working in the background, and he may outpace—and outwit—them all. The second entry in Aguilar Solace’s planned trilogy fails to launch, to the point that even readers who enjoyed the first novel will find this one less than compelling. A subplot involving another group of Sages and their search for the other Maksus Stone fragment wraps up too quickly and predictably. The dialogue is wooden and contains awkward info dumps. The bulk of the novel lacks any real tension, as the characters’ problems resolve no sooner than they appear. Everyone knows where to go and what to do in all situations. They immediately recognize newly introduced groups and objects, down to their history and use. Whenever the Sages make a request, it is honored instantly, without question or concern. This absence of conflict lasts until the final showdown with the primary antagonist, but by then, it’s too little, too late.

The person largely responsible for discovering and exposing the fascist ring was the star German journalist Peter Miller. All these years later, his 28-year-old grandson, Georg, a Hamburg reporter and podcaster, learns of the new Odessa (as the group is called) and their plans to upstage the country’s far-right political movement, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The first clue to their existence comes at a hospital following a terrorist attack at a football stadium. A grizzled old man with dementia confuses Georg with his father, Horst Miller, and snarls, “I killed you. You and the Untermensch whore you married.” Horst, a federal cop and intelligence officer, and his wife had supposedly died in a car accident. Posing (badly) as a doctor from the hospital in pursuit of the truth, a shaken Georg visits the ailing man’s family, which results in him being targeted himself. No one believes Georg’s claims about the Odessa except his grandfather, who talks him into importing a psycho killer from England as protection (read: someone who kills bad guys two at a time). Meanwhile, in a poorly developed subplot, Vanessa Price grows increasingly uncomfortable working as a staffer for a right-wing junior senator from Ohio with hopes for higher office. She finds herself surrounded by political operatives responsible for the death of the far better man the senator replaced, who are plotting an illegal government takeover. Suffice it to say that the panic attacks from which Vanessa suffers don’t get any better as the story proceeds. A middling thriller that commits the cardinal sin of using a terrorist attack as a background event, the late Forsyth’s co-write with Kent pales badly in comparison to classics like The Day of the Jackal (1971).

The novel begins with its narrator—the Quincy Police Department’s Det. Samantha Star, who grew up in town—recounting her 1994 abduction at age 16; her captivity ended when a detective discovered her later that night “in a couple of inches of water at the bottom of a ravine hidden in the miles of wooded wilderness near Quincy.” Samantha was lucky: Her best friend and companion that night, Bridget McGann, didn’t escape with her life. Now it’s 2014, and Samantha still can’t remember what happened between her abduction and her rescue, but ever since, she has been periodically overwhelmed by “episodes,” or fragmentary visions, tied to the tragedy. Also tethering Samantha’s past to her present is the murderer, who has occasionally sent her letters that contain clue-like references to Greek mythology. Samantha remains bent on solving her friend’s murder, and 20 years later, a new case suggests a link: The body of a man who overdosed is mutilated in a way that recalls what happened to Bridget. Things get even more personal for Samantha when yet another corpse is found—this time it’s the body of a member of her teenage daughter’s dance team. Ross’ capably structured first mystery for adults reads like something of a throwback, with its throughline about tapping into Samantha’s repressed memories and its use of reheated language (there’s a lot of eye-rolling and brow-raising). There’s some good stuff here about Samantha’s insider-outsider status, though it vies for attention with the book’s more psychologically frothy sections. As for the mystery’s multiple reveals, they’re probably equally likely to inspire “Oh my gods!” and “Oh, come ons!”

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The post Interview with Robert W Clark, Author of The Last Betrayal of Earth appeared first on NewInBooks.

Hold on to the edge of your seat as we hunt for clues and solve the case with these exciting new mystery and thriller books for the week! There are so many bestselling authors with new novels for you to dive into this week including Kae Wagner, Michele Scott, Avanti...

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Literary fiction readers are in for a treat. This week’s latest releases list is full of intriguing reads you won’t want to miss! The new releases list includes so many bestselling authors like Don Eron, George Wallace, Don Keith more. Enjoy your new literary fiction books. Happy reading! Sign up...

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Set off on an adventure to new worlds this week! This selection of new science fiction and fantasy books will surely please! Science Fiction fans should be excited about the latest from bestselling authors Robert W Clark, Joshua Candamo, Michael Cole, and more. If Fantasy is what your library needs,...

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Looking for some new biography and memoir books for your library? There are so many new releases this week that you’re bound to find a new favorite. You can pick up new books from Thien Ho, Edmund A. Kruszynski, Bruce Henderson, and more. Enjoy your new biography and memoir books....

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Looking to fall in love with some new romance reads? You’ll adore these exciting new novels! This week you can get your hands on books by bestselling authors Tijan, Dorothy Wiley, Nicole Fox, and more. Enjoy your new romance books and happy reading! Sign up for our email and we’ll...

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Looking for some new business and finance books for your library? There are so many new releases this week that you’re bound to find a new favorite. You can pick up new books from Dominic Hodgson, Joe Schorr, and John Ezra Buban. Enjoy your new business and finance books. Happy...

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Are you an avid reader of Young Adult books? This week you are in luck! With all of these new novels, you’re bound to find a new favorite book to add to your reading list. This week includes new novels from bestselling authors S.A. Montagueo, E. Lockhart, Kristen Pipps, and...

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Starlit Prophecies: Fantasy & Sci-Fi Where Fate and Cosmos Collide These books blend celestial magic, cosmic mysteries, and fate-driven quests. Characters confront ancient predictions that span worlds and timelines. Perfect for readers who love fantasy and sci-fi infused with destiny and wonder. The Healer’s Heir (The Healers of Cyridan Book...

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Hearts on Fire: YA Romance That Glows These YA romances deliver swoony moments, deep emotion, and the thrill of first love. Sparks fly as characters navigate vulnerability and big decisions. Ideal for readers craving warm, heartfelt teen love stories. The Subtle Art of Standing Still by Rebekah Wilson Release Date:...

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Romance book reviews. Reviews of books that make my heart race, have a beautiful love story, and a happy ending.

After a decade of reading and reviewing books, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to take a step back from blogging. Running this book blog has been such a huge and wonderful part of my life. I’ve written over 600 book reviews and loved the experience of getting to share my love of reading ...Read More  >

After a decade of reading and reviewing books, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to take a step back from blogging. Running this book blog has been such a huge and wonderful part of my life. I’ve written over 600 book reviews and loved the experience of getting to share my love of reading with so many other readers from around the world. Blogging was quite an unexpected journey for me though as I never set out to “start” a blog at all. Back in 2011, I simply began reading so much that I wanted a way to remember which books were my most favorites… and that’s when I started writing reviews. At first, my reviews were written more for my own sake than anyone else’s. They began as a way for me to keep track of the books I enjoyed and remember what I loved most about each one. You see, I was quite picky about the types of books I wanted to read and had a hard time finding anywhere specifically recommending what I was looking for. I was drawn to romantic books that made my heart race, but I also strongly preferred no stupidity powering the storyline or eye-roll-enducing drama, and of course I needed a happy ending as I’ve always been quite allergic to cliffhangers. At that time, there weren’t many romance book review sites out there in general and none that focused on the particular type of books I personally wanted to read so my reviews were a way for me to catalogue the books I’d found that fit within the criteria I was looking for. At first, I really didn’t expect anyone else to read my reviews, but as I began to realize that my reviews were actually helping other readers find books they loved as well, I decided to officially begin blogging and started this website to hold all my reviews. Writing reviews was also quite cathartic for me because, after reading a truly wonderful book, I was often overwhelmed with thoughts and feelings so writing my thoughts down in reviews helped give me closure from a story and highlight/remember what I loved most about a book. I also found that I genuinely loved helping other readers find new books. So my blog began and I continued reading and reviewing books for it for almost a decade. However, the truth is that in the last while, I found myself falling in love with fewer and fewer books — I don’t know if it’s because I started to feel like I’d basically read every plotline within the types of stories I loved so many times over, or maybe if the other parts out my life just became too busy and I began having less time to read, but, regardless of the reason, I was falling in love with fewer and fewer books. And here’s the thing – this blog has always been a passion project for me so if I genuinely wasn’t falling in love with as many books, I didn’t want to continue to review books just for the sake of reviewing them. That was never what this blog was about so I just felt myself naturally drifting away from reviewing and blogging. A few months ago, I decided to try taking a break from blogging and honestly I have really been enjoying the mental freedom that came from that decision. So, least for the immediate future, I’m going to officially step away from my blog. I may begin reviewing books again one day – and that might be in a month, a year, or never… I can’t say for sure, but that door will always remain open. My blogging goal was always to put a spotlight on the wonderful books I loved and to share them with other readers. So even though I’m not reviewing new books at this time, I will leave this whole website up in the hope that it will continue to help new readers find new favorite books to fall in love with. I have 630 reviews and recommendations of books I’ve personally loved and would love for other readers to fall in love with too and I can see through my analytics that, even though I’m not actively blogging, readers continue to come to my blog every day and read my older reviews so it makes me happy to know that my reviews are still connecting readers with awesome books. I also want to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to the thousands of amazing readers who’ve followed my blog over the years, and THANK YOU to the wonderfully talented authors who’ve written the beautiful stories that we’ve all fallen in love with. You’ve all given me so much joy and I’m so very grateful for all of it. I may return to blogging one day, and I may randomly post a surprise review/recommendation every now and again, but for now I wanted to officially make a statement that explains why my blog hasn’t been updated in a while and why it won’t have new content for the foreseeable future. If I ever start reviewing again, I will announce it by email, so please subscribe to my email list if you’d like to get a notification should that day come. I will not be sending emails out via that list until then though. In the meantime, if you’re looking for my top recommendations, here’s a list of my standout favorite books: The Bronze Horseman Trilogy by Paullina Simons (My Review) – this will always and forever by my #1 fav! The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay (My Review) – one of the most powerful endings ever! The Life Intended by Kristin Harmel (My Review) – incredibly unique love story with all the feels! Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah (My Review) – this has possibly my favorite epilogue ever! Archer’s Voice by Mia Sheridan (My Review) – gorgeous, heart-warming romance! Slammed & Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover (My Review) – one of my first reviews, and still a top fav! Devney Perry books: reading list – heart-warming, gorgeous romance perfection every single time! Kristen Ashley books: reading list – badass alpha romance – pure epic, great families, much variety! Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon: reading list – addictive paranormal romance, my fav PNR world! On The Island by Tracey Garvis Graves (My Review) – just a truly beautiful story! The Starcrossed series by Leisa Rayven (My Review) – the best purely angsty romance I’ve read! A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole (My Review) – ugly cry romance perfection! Crossfire series by Sylvia Day (My Review) – hot sexy romance but deeply emotional and addictive! Addicted series by Krista & Becca Ritchie – great romances and one of the best family dynamics ever! Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (Series Overview) – fantasy, fantastic morals and world building! Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost (Series Overview) – action-packed vampire romance fun! Mists of the Serengeti by Leylah Attar (My Review) – an ugly cry favorite! Becoming Calder & Finding Eden by Mia Sheridan (My Review) – another ugly cry favorite! Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward: reading order – badass/epic paranormal vampire romance! The Girl He Used To Know by Tracey Garvis Graves (My Review) – second half of the book hit me so hard! In The Stillness by Andrea Randall (My Review) – the feels… literally all the feels! Wallbanger by Alice Clayton (My Review) – most I’ve ever laughed reading any book! The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (My Review) – stunning wartime story! A full list of all my reviews can also always be found at this link. Happy reading! ~Aestas

BOOKWORM NEWS: Juniper Hill by Devney Perry is now live!! — “Memphis Ward arrives in Quincy, Montana, on the fifth worst day of her life. She needs a shower. She needs a snack. She needs some sanity. Because moving across the country with her newborn baby is by far the craziest thing she’s ever done. ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: Juniper Hill by Devney Perry is now live!! — “Memphis Ward arrives in Quincy, Montana, on the fifth worst day of her life. She needs a shower. She needs a snack. She needs some sanity. Because moving across the country with her newborn baby is by far the craziest thing she’s ever done. But maybe it takes a little crazy to build a good life. If putting the past behind her requires a thousand miles and a new town, she’ll do it if it means a better future for her son. Even if it requires setting aside the glamour of her former life. Even if it requires working as a housekeeper at The Eloise Inn and living in an apartment above a garage. It’s there, on the fifth worst day of her life, that she meets the handsomest man she’s ever laid eyes on. Knox Eden is a beautiful, sinful dream, a chef and her temporary landlord. With his sharp, stubbled jaw and tattooed arms, he’s raw and rugged and everything she’s never had—and never will. Because after the first worst day of her life, Memphis learned a good life requires giving up on her dreams too. And a man like Knox Eden will only ever be a dream.” The Girl in the Mist by Kristen Ashley is now live!! — “Renowned author Delphine Larue needs a haven. A crazed fan has gone over the deep end, and she’s not safe. Her security team has suggested a house by a lake. Secluded. Private. Far away. In a beautiful area of the Northwest close to the sleepy town of Misted Pines. It’s perfect. So perfect, Delphine has just moved in, and she’s thinking she’ll stay there forever. Until she sees the girl in the mist. After that, everything changes. Delphine quickly learns that Misted Pines isn’t so sleepy. A little girl has gone missing, and the town is in the grips of terror and tragedy. The local sheriff isn’t up for the job. The citizens are up in arms. And as the case unfolds, the seedy underbelly of a quiet community is exposed, layer by layer. But most importantly, girls are dying. There seems to be only one man they trust to find out what’s happening. The mysterious Cade Bohannan.”” The Summer Proposal by Vi Keeland is now live!! — “The first time I met Max Yearwood was on a blind date. Max was insanely gorgeous, funny, and our chemistry was off the charts. He also had the biggest dimples I’d ever laid eyes on. Exactly what I needed after my breakup. Or so I thought… Until my real date arrived. Turned out, Max wasn’t who I was there to meet. He only pretended to be until my real date showed up. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. Before he left, he slipped me a ticket to a hockey game a few blocks away, in case things didn’t work out on my actual date. I tossed the ticket into my purse and went about trying to enjoy the man I was supposed to meet. But my real blind date and I had no connection. So on my way home, I decided to take a chance and stop by the game. When I arrived, the seat next to me was empty. Disappointed again, I decided to leave at the end of the period. Just before the buzzer, one of the teams scored, and the entire arena went crazy. A player’s face flashed up on the Jumbotron. He was wearing a helmet, but I froze when he smiled. You guessed it: Dimples. Apparently, my fake blind date hadn’t invited me to watch hockey with him, he’d invited me to watch him play. And so began my adventure with Max Yearwood. He was everything I needed at the time—fun, sexy, up for anything, and only around for a few months since he’d signed with a new team three-thousand miles away. Max proposed we spend the summer helping me forget my ex. It sounded like a good plan. Things couldn’t get too serious when we had an expiration date. Right? Though, you know what they say about the best-laid plans.” Only One Mistake by Natasha Madison is now live!! — “Two pink lines changed all my plans. So did the guy I had a one-night stand with, a man who made me laugh and smile, a guy who I called to share my unexpected news with, only to find out his number was no longer in service. Once more letdown by the opposite sex, I figured I was doing this on my own. Then one day, I was staring into the eyes of the man I hated, the father of my baby. All it took was only one mistake to change everything.” Baden by Sawyer Bennett is now live!! — “While my injuries are physical, the same can’t be said for the woman I rescued. Suffering from wounds that can’t be seen, Sophie Winters has withdrawn from the world in fear and guilt. I didn’t know Sophie before that fateful night and have only met her once since, but I refuse to let her face her demons alone. Determined to be a friend, I support Sophie in the only way I know how… by simply being there. Through our shared trauma, Sophie and I begin to find peace within one another. As we grow closer, what started as friendship becomes more intimate until our broken pieces become one. But can a love born of anguish endure, or will the pain of our past prove too much to overcome?” Shielding Sierra by Susan Stoker is now live!! — “No one knows she’s been taken. Her missing belongings point to desertion—which means no one is looking for her, either. But someone is. Fred “Grover” Groves never forgot the redheaded spitfire working the chow line on a base in the desert. He’d felt an instant attraction to the petite woman, a connection deep in his bones…which Sierra herself clearly didn’t feel, since she’d promised to keep in touch after his mission ended, only to ghost him—and seemingly her job. But she didn’t. When several contractors go missing from the base, it looks more and more like Sierra didn’t abandon her post. Then a long-lost letter proves she’d followed through on her promise to stay in touch with Grover—and suddenly, all bets are off. He bucks every protocol he’s ever known… If Sierra’s still alive, he’ll find her. Or die trying.” Flame by Helen Hardt (Steel Brothers Saga) is now live!! — “Callie Pike always considered herself the plain sister—stuck in the middle between beautiful Rory and vivacious Maddie—so she still can’t believe gorgeous perennial bachelor Donny Steel has fallen in love with her. She should be the happiest woman on the planet, and she is…but her nemesis from ten years ago seems intent on destroying her newfound bliss. Donny Steel will do anything to protect his family, even sacrifice his ethics and his own happiness. As much as he loves Callie, he knows he can’t be the man she deserves—not until he solves the mysteries of his family’s past and finds out who shot his father. Though the two erupt in flames whenever they’re together, the secrets they both harbor could destroy any chance for a future together.” Wright Rival by KA Linde is now live!! — “No one on this planet pushes my buttons like Hollin Abbey. I don’t know if it’s the rugged, sexy cowboy look or the Harley Davidson motorcycle or the cocky swagger. Or just him. But whenever we’re together we fight like cats and dogs. Now our vineyards are rivals in the annual wine competition, and I’m determined to win. I just have to take out my Wright rival.” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP Juniper Hill by Devney Perry (small town neighbors to lovers romance, standalone in The Edens series) The Girl in the Mist by Kristen Ashley (romantic thriller, Misted Pines series) The Summer Proposal by Vi Keeland (sports romance, standalone) Only One Mistake by Natasha Madison (surprise pregnancy romance, standalone in Only One series) Baden by Sawyer Bennett (hockey romance, standalone in Pittsburgh Titans series) Wright Rival by KA Linde (enemies to lovers romance, standalone in Wright Vineyard series) Shielding Sierra by Susan Stoker (romantic suspense, standalone in Delta Team Two series) Flame by Helen Hardt (romantic suspense, Steel Brothers Saga) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase UPCOMING BOOK RELEASES Jan 18 Pre-Order Jan 18 Pre-Order Jan 18 Pre-Order Jan 24 Pre-Order Jan 25 Pre-Order Jan 25 Pre-Order Jan 25 Pre-Order Jan 25 Pre-Order Jan 25 Pre-Order Feb 01 Pre-Order Feb 01 Pre-Order Feb 08 Pre-Order WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! 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BOOKWORM NEWS: Shelter by Kristen Proby is now live!! — “Remi Carter has survived her fifteen minutes of fame and is putting LA in her rearview mirror. As a former reality show contestant, she’s trading staged expeditions and faked wilderness tours for real adventures. Only one fluke storm in Glacier National Park has her stranded ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: Shelter by Kristen Proby is now live!! — “Remi Carter has survived her fifteen minutes of fame and is putting LA in her rearview mirror. As a former reality show contestant, she’s trading staged expeditions and faked wilderness tours for real adventures. Only one fluke storm in Glacier National Park has her stranded with a handsome man, and adventure takes on a whole new meaning. Seth King is as rugged and sexy as he is annoyed to be trapped with Remi. Probably because she ghosted him at the local bar not three days ago. But she’s got her reasons for ditching him, and twenty-four hours in an abandoned Montana cabin with the wildlife biologist isn’t nearly enough time to explain. As tempting as he is by firelight, she’s been burned too many times. Except one day together and suddenly her travel van doesn’t hold as much appeal. The open road feels lonely. Remi’s about to learn that shelter is more than a safe place to weather a storm. Shelter might just be the man himself. If he can give her a reason to stay.” Code Name: Disavowed by Sawyer Bennett is now live!! — “Life works in mysterious ways. Jameson Force Security has just received notice of a disavowed CIA agent in need of rescue in Central America. My blood runs cold when I learn that agent is none other than Greer Hathaway—my former fiancée. Having gone our separate ways more than a decade ago, I still have bitter feelings toward Greer and the demise of our relationship. Those feelings don’t change the fact that I loved her more than anything, so I’m on the next flight out to embark on a rescue mission. Besides, Greer once saved my life, so now it’s time to return the favor and put her firmly in my past. Face-to-face for the first time since ending our engagement, Greer and I are left with not only anger, unanswered questions and regrets, but also the undeniable chemistry we apparently still have. Will the promise of a new future together be enough, or will the same obstacles tear us apart again?” Homecoming King by Penny Reid is now live!! — “Rex “TW” McMurtry’s perpetual single-hood wouldn’t bother him so much if all his ex-girlfriends didn’t keep marrying the very next person they dated, especially when so many of those grooms are his closest friends. He may be a pro-football defensive end for the Chicago Squalls, but the press only wants to talk about how he’s always a groomsman and never a groom. Rex is sick of being the guy before the husband, and he’s most definitely sick of being the best man at all their weddings. Bartender Abigail McNerny is the gal-pal, the wing-woman, the she-BFF. She’s dated. Once. And once was more than enough. Privy to all the sad stories of her customers, ‘contentment over commitment’ is her motto, and Abby is convinced no one on earth could ever entice her into a romantic relationship . . . except that one guy she’s loved since preschool. The guy who just walked into her bar. The guy who doesn’t recognize her. The guy who is drunk and needs a ride home. The guy who has a proposition she should definitely refuse.” My Unexpected Surprise by Piper Rayne is now live!! — “I never thought of myself as dad material. Until my one-night stand showed up in my small Alaskan town five months pregnant. But I don’t shy away from responsibility. First, because I’m a Greene and not to boast but we’re kind of a big deal in Sunrise Bay. Second, I’m the Sheriff. I couldn’t have predicted how protective I’d become for the safety of her and my unborn baby to the point of asking her to move in with me and be my roommate. Just when I think I have the situation under control, another surprise knocks me over, but it only spurs me to double down. I’ll be the first to admit, I didn’t think it through. Somewhere between the dinners, the TV show binging, the doctor appointments, and me walking in on her naked, lines blurred. In what feels like warp speed, my bachelor for life status is in jeopardy and I’m fighting for the most important thing of all—my family.” Dark Alpha’s Silent Night by Donna Grant (Reapers series) is now live!! — “There is no escaping the Reapers. We are elite assassins, part of a brotherhood that only answers to Death. But when Death says it’s our time to live, we are more than happy to obey. We have suffered betrayal, heartbreak, chaos, and even death. Despite another foe lurking around the corner, most of us have found happiness and love. While some still search, there is contentment—a sense of peace and purpose. And with the holidays upon us, it is time to celebrate the family we have made. The one we chose. The season is for revelry, and we intend to take advantage. Whatever may come next will still be there after the last present is unwrapped.” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP Shelter by Kristen Proby (close proximity romance, standalone in Heroes of Big Sky series) Code Name: Disavowed by Sawyer Bennett (second chance romance/suspense, standalone in Jameson Force Security series) Homecoming King by Penny Reid (small town romance, standalone in Three Kings series) My Unexpected Surprise by Piper Rayne (pregnancy/roommates, standalone in The Greene Family series) Dark Alpha’s Silent Night by Donna Grant (paranormal Christmas tale from Reapers series) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! LET’S STAY CONNECTED To get these lists sent to you every week, subscribe by email. 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BOOKWORM NEWS: Dream Keeper by Kristen Ashley (Dream Team series) is now live!! — “Pepper Hannigan is determined to keep any romance off the table while her daughter Juno is still young. Sure, a certain handsome commando is thoughtful, funny, and undeniably hot, but Pepper’s had her heart broken before, and she won’t let it ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: Dream Keeper by Kristen Ashley (Dream Team series) is now live!! — “Pepper Hannigan is determined to keep any romance off the table while her daughter Juno is still young. Sure, a certain handsome commando is thoughtful, funny, and undeniably hot, but Pepper’s had her heart broken before, and she won’t let it happen again. Not to her or her little girl, even if this hero could melt any woman’s resolve. Augustus “Auggie” Hero can’t deny his attraction to beautiful, warm-hearted Pepper or how much he wants to make a home with her and her little girl, but Pepper’s mixed signals have kept him away. That is, until Juno decides to play matchmaker. Her efforts finally bring Pepper into his arms, but they expose the danger Pepper is in. To protect Pepper and Juno, Auggie will have to live up to his last name and prove happy endings aren’t just for fairy tales.” Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander series) is now live!! — “Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall were torn apart by the Jacobite Rising in 1746, and it took them twenty years to find each other again. Now the American Revolution threatens to do the same. It is 1779 and Claire and Jamie are at last reunited with their daughter, Brianna, her husband, Roger, and their children on Fraser’s Ridge. Having the family together is a dream the Frasers had thought impossible. Yet even in the North Carolina backcountry, the effects of war are being felt. Tensions in the Colonies are great and local feelings run hot enough to boil Hell’s teakettle. Jamie knows loyalties among his tenants are split and it won’t be long until the war is on his doorstep. Brianna and Roger have their own worry: that the dangers that provoked their escape from the twentieth century might catch up to them. Sometimes they question whether risking the perils of the 1700s—among them disease, starvation, and an impending war—was indeed the safer choice for their family…” Change With Me by Kristen Proby (With Me In Seattle series) is now live!! — “Zane Cooper. Hollywood royalty. Fourth generation superstar. He knows what it is to be one of the biggest celebrities in the world. And how lonely that title truly is. When scandal hits, his career hangs in the balance, and Zane flees LA for Seattle, laying low with his newly married best friend. Things will eventually blow over, and he’ll have his life back soon enough. Aubrey Stansfield arrives in Seattle excited to start a new job, and eager to settle into her new home. But when she arrives at her rental, Aubrey’s sure she’s imagining things because the uber sexy Zane Cooper is unpacking in her new bedroom. Thanks to a rental snafu, and unwilling to relocate on such short notice, Aubrey and Zane are thrust into being roommates…” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP Dream Keeper by Kristen Ashley (alpha romance, Dream Team series) Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon (latest book in Outlander series) Change With Me by Kristen Proby (novella in With Me In Seattle series) Wrapped in Black by Tiffany Reisz (Christmas novella in Original Sinners series) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! LET’S STAY CONNECTED To get these lists sent to you every week, subscribe by email. FOLLOW THE BLOG Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | BlogLovin’ | Google+ | Goodreads

BOOKWORM NEWS: The Wolf by JR Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood Series, Prison Camp spinoff) is now live!! — “Return to the sizzling glymera’s prison camp in this dark and sexy second novel in the new Black Dagger Brotherhood Prison Camp spin-off series from the #1 New York Times bestselling author J.R. Ward. In the next ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: The Wolf by JR Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood Series, Prison Camp spinoff) is now live!! — “Return to the sizzling glymera’s prison camp in this dark and sexy second novel in the new Black Dagger Brotherhood Prison Camp spin-off series from the #1 New York Times bestselling author J.R. Ward. In the next installment of bestselling author J.R. Ward’s Prison Camp series, things get steamy when Lucan, a wolven forced into bartering drug deals for the infamous Prison Colony, meets Rio, the second in command for the shadowy Caldwell supplier, Mozart. After a deal goes awry, a wolf with piercing golden eyes swoops in to save her from certain death. As shocking truths unfurl, Rio is uncertain of who to trust and what to believe—but with her life on the line, true love rears its head and growls in the face of danger.” Next Time I Fall by Scarlett Cole is now live!! — “Love rocks. Heavy guitars, a voice with the burn of pure single malt, and lyrics that distill the meaning of love are the greatest things. If only the man singing didn’t have a temperament as foul as the Michigan winter. Jase sitting in her car while yelling at her to get him out of there is a surprise. Why she hits the accelerator and takes him to her father’s cabin on the lake is an even greater mystery. How was she supposed to know they’d end up snowed in for days? Or that when they got out again, their relationship, and her views on love, would be changed irrevocably?” 14 Days of Christmas by Louise Bay is now live!! — “I hate Christmas. As CEO of my company, I’ve banned decorations from the office, festive music from the lobby and any kind of secret Santa gifts between employees are strictly forbidden. I’m heading to the airport, away from the Christmas lights and the mulled wine, heading for sunshine and margaritas when I get a call from Granny. She’s sprained her ankle and needs my help filling in for her as head of the village Christmas Committee. Snowsly is the Christmas Capital of England and the last place I want to be in the lead up to Christmas. But there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for Granny. When I arrive in Snowsly, I’m introduced to Celia Sommers who is Christmas’ biggest fan and therefore my own personal nightmare before Christmas. Worse than that, I have to work with her to make Snowsly’s Christmas market a success. Celia is determined to get me in the festive spirit. It’s not going to work. It doesn’t matter if she’s smart and funny and easy to flirt with—if she doesn’t stop looking at me with her sparkling eyes and pouting her completely kissable lips, Celia is going straight to the top of my naughty list.” The Enigma by Jodi Ellen Malpas is now live!! — “After leaving her fiancé at the altar and quitting her job as a Miami cop, Beau Hayley stumbles through life, feeling only resentment. Injustice. Loss. Her mom’s death was called an accident. She’s not convinced. Grieving, she becomes numb to everything except the constant, biting pain of heartbreak and hate. She can see no light. Until she meets James Kelly, a man who seems as damaged as she is, inside and out. And yet despite his twisted, cold façade, he stimulates feelings. Pleasure. He is a respite from her own flaws. A complete mystery.” The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan is now live!! — “Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered yuppie life does not appeal. Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs help revitalizing his shabby old bookshop. So Carmen moves in and takes the job. Thrown rather suddenly into the inner workings of Mr. McCredie’s ancient bookshop on the picturesque streets of historic Edinburgh, Carmen is intrigued despite herself. The store is dusty and disorganized but undeniably charming. Can she breathe some new life into it in time for Christmas shopping?” Beard in Hiding by Penny Reid is now live!! — “Propositioning the Iron Wraiths’ money man seemed like a good idea at the time… Diane Donner—recently divorced pillar of polite society—is craving danger. She’s tired of playing it safe and she knows just the sexy criminal motorcycle man to proposition for a good time. Problem is, she doesn’t actually know his name. Jason “Repo” Doe never takes risks. So when the queen of local commerce walks into his club, looking to get risky and frisky, Jason knows the smartest thing to do is save himself a headache while saving the new divorcee from her worst impulses. But then one thing leads to another, and the memory of just-one-night doesn’t feel like enough. Theirs is a story with no future, because how can a dangerous criminal win (and keep) a queen?” Head Over Hooves by Erin Nicholas is now live!! — “You know in movies where the big city girl lands in a small town for the holidays and falls for the hunky guy who saves Christmas? This isn’t that story. But this guy does look fantastic in flannel. And out of flannel… Finding true love with his one-and-only soul mate? Drew Ryan’s given up on that. But a hot holiday fling in Louisiana, far from his responsibilities and good guy image back home, is now on the top of his list for Santa. So when he’s knocked on his ass—literally—by a Christmas elf who’s stealing a sleigh full of gifts and using his reindeer to commit the crime, he definitely doesn’t expect to fall head over heels.” The Singles Table by Sara Desai is now live!! — “After a devastating break-up, celebrity-obsessed lawyer Zara Patel is determined never to open her heart again. She puts her energy into building her career and helping her friends find their happily-ever-afters. She’s never faced a guest at the singles table she couldn’t match, until she crosses paths with the sinfully sexy Jay Dayal. Former military security specialist Jay has no time for love. His life is about working hard, staying focused, and winning at all costs. When charismatic Zara crashes into his life, he’s thrown into close contact with exactly the kind of chaos he wants to avoid. Worse, they’re stuck together for the entire wedding season. So they make a deal. She’ll find his special someone if he introduces her to his celebrity clients. But when their arrangement brings them together in ways they never expected, they realize that the perfect match might just be their own.” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP The Wolf by JR Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood Series, Prison Camp spinoff) Next Time I Fall by Scarlett Cole (rockstar romance, standalone in Excess All Areas series) The 14 Days of Christmas by Louise Bay (CEO/small town holiday romance, standalone) The Enigma by Jodi Ellen Malpas (romantic suspense, Unlawful Men series) The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan (heartwarming holiday novel, standalone) Beard in Hiding by Penny Reid (small town romcom, Green Valley world) Head Over Hooves by Erin Nicholas (holiday fling, standalone in Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild series) Kingdom Come by Aleatha Romig (dark romance, standalone) The Singles Table by Sara Desai (romantic comedy, standalone in The Marriage Game series) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase LATEST BOOK SALES UPCOMING BOOK RELEASES WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! LET’S STAY CONNECTED To get these lists sent to you every week, subscribe by email. FOLLOW THE BLOG Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | BlogLovin’ | Google+ | Goodreads

  BOOKWORM NEWS: Heard It in a Love Song by Tracey Garvis Graves is now live!! — “Love doesn’t always wait until you’re ready. Layla Hilding is thirty-five and recently divorced. Struggling to break free from the past—her glory days as the lead singer in a band and a ten-year marriage to a man who ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: Heard It in a Love Song by Tracey Garvis Graves is now live!! — “Love doesn’t always wait until you’re ready. Layla Hilding is thirty-five and recently divorced. Struggling to break free from the past—her glory days as the lead singer in a band and a ten-year marriage to a man who never put her first—Layla’s newly found independence feels a lot like loneliness. Then there’s Josh, the single dad whose daughter attends the elementary school where Layla teaches music. Recently separated, he’s still processing the end of his twenty-year marriage to his high school sweetheart. He chats with Layla every morning at school and finds himself thinking about her more and more. Equally cautious and confused about dating in a world that favors apps over meeting organically, Layla and Josh decide to be friends with the potential for something more. Sounds sensible and way too simple—but when two people are on the rebound, is it heartbreak or happiness that’s a love song away?” Just One Chance by Carly Phillips is now live!! — “As a former Marine, Xander Kingston’s writing keeps him sane. Bonus? His thrillers made him one of Hollywood’s most desired screenwriters—and also introduced him to a fledgling starlet who broke his heart. With his close-knit family in New York, Xander returned home and found peace. Until Sasha Keaton shows up at his Hamptons retreat. Now an A-Lister, she’s as beautiful as he remembers. And just as dangerous to his heart. Sasha learned from watching her mother to never sacrifice her dreams for anyone—only to discover how empty life could be without the man she loved. Now cast in Xander’s latest movie, she needs his insight to play the part, but secretly hopes for a second chance.” My Sister’s Flirty Friend by Piper Rayne is now live!! — “I broke the cardinal rule and slept with my sister’s best friend. Granted, I’d just found out that I was now a single father to a three-year-old little girl and was low on willpower. It should also be noted that there’s been sexual tension between us for years. There’s no way it would be a surprise if anyone in our small town found out. That is if we were telling people, which we’re not. We’re in agreement to keep our affair a secret, especially since neither one of us do relationships. You’ve probably figured it out already, but things didn’t go as planned.” More Than Hate You by Shayla Black is now live!! — “I’m Sebastian Shaw—CFO, pragmatist, and moneymaker. I’ve mismanaged love in the past, but when it comes to business, I’m pure shark, able to cut down any threat to my success…except Sloan O’Neill. We’re vying for the same major client, so I do what any self-respecting cutthroat does to gain the upperhand: spy on the ball-busting piece of work. She may be gorgeous and unnervingly clever, but I have skills. My gutsy roadblock doesn’t stand a chance. Until I realize I’m falling for her. Suddenly, everything from my objectives to my morals is cloudy. Stay loyal to my best friend and boss to win this critical client at any cost…or give my heart another chance? But the more time I spend with my redheaded adversary, the more I realize she’s not just ambitious but kind, vulnerable…and perfect…” Dark Tarot by Christine Feehan is now live!! — “Sandu Berdardi continues to exist only to protect his people. An ancient Carpathian, his entire long life has been dedicated to honor above all else. He knows his time has passed, especially since he has not been able to find his lifemate—the anchor to keep him sane in a world he no longer understands. But just as he truly starts to give up hope, a voice reaches out to him in the night and his world explodes into color. Adalasia enters Sandu’s mind seamlessly, as if she has been a part of him forever. While she can see the shape of things to come in her deck of cards, her gift is both a blessing and a curse. The true course of Sandu’s quest remains unclear, with danger waiting at every turn. She cannot see everything the future holds, but she does know it is a journey they will take together.” The Rhythm Method by Kylie Scott (Stage Dive novella) is now live!! — It all started in Vegas… After a wild and tumultuous beginning to their relationship, Evelyn Thomas and her rock star husband David Ferris have been happily married for years. Nothing needs to change, their life together is perfect. Which means that change in the shape of an unexpected pregnancy is bound to shake things up some. But could it be for the better? WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP Heard It in a Love Song by Tracey Garvis Graves (starting over & second chances, standalone) The Rhythm Method by Kylie Scott (novella in Stage Dive series) Just One Chance by Carly Phillips (second chance romance, standalone in The Kingston Family series) My Sister’s Flirty Friend by Piper Rayne (single dad romance, standalone in The Greene Family series) More Than Hate You by Shayla Black (enemies to lovers, standalone in Reed Family Reckoning series) Dark Tarot by Christine Feehan (paranormal romance, The Dark series) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! LET’S STAY CONNECTED To get these lists sent to you every week, subscribe by email. FOLLOW THE BLOG Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | BlogLovin’ | Google+ | Goodreads

  BOOKWORM NEWS: Indigo Ridge by Devney Perry is now live!! — “Winslow Covington believes in life, liberty and the letter of the law. As Quincy, Montana’s new chief of police, she’s determined to prove herself to the community and show them she didn’t earn her position because her grandfather is the mayor. According to ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: Indigo Ridge by Devney Perry is now live!! — “Winslow Covington believes in life, liberty and the letter of the law. As Quincy, Montana’s new chief of police, she’s determined to prove herself to the community and show them she didn’t earn her position because her grandfather is the mayor. According to her pops, all she has to do is earn favor with the Edens. But winning over the town’s founding family might have been easier if not for her one-night stand with their oldest son. In her defense, it was her first night in town and she didn’t realize that the rugged and charming man who wooed her into bed was Quincy royalty. Sleeping with Griffin Eden was a huge mistake, one she’s trying to forget. He’s insufferable, arrogant and keeps reminding everyone that she’s an outsider. Winslow does her best to avoid Griffin, but when a woman is found dead on Eden property, the two of them have no choice but to cross paths. As clues to the murderer lead to one of Quincy’s own, Griffin realizes Winslow is more than he gave her credit for. Beautiful and intelligent, she proves hard to resist. For him. And the killer.” Riggs by Sawyer Bennett is now live!! — “As a professional hockey player, people think I live a charmed life. On the surface, I do. But they don’t know the horrors of my childhood, or the real reason that I have custody of my seventeen-year-old sister, Janelle. And that’s exactly the way I like it. They may think I’m a prick because I don’t like to share, but that’s fine. They don’t know me, and they don’t need to. In an effort to help Janelle get settled in Phoenix and stay out of trouble at school, I set her up with a job at Clarke’s Corner, the local bookstore owned by the girlfriend of a teammate. It’s there that she makes friends with Veronica Woodley, the extremely annoying, arrogant, money-hungry divorcee who I don’t want anywhere near my sister. Janelle insists I’m completely wrong about Veronica, but I refuse to accept that. I have to keep reminding myself that that the gorgeous blond with legs for days is off limits. Through a series of events, I start to see Veronica for what she really is—an amazing woman who has survived her own hell to come out even stronger. I have to admit, we’re more alike than not…” Until April by Aurora Rose Reynolds is now live!! — “With happily ever after being something that happens to other people, April Mayson has decided to put all her energy into her career and living her best life, and things are better than ever. Little does she know that her world is about to be turned upside down when she’s asked to help out a family friend, Maxim Kauwe. Now, she’s dealing with a man unlike any she’s ever met before, her ex—a famous musician who’s decided he wants her back—and a possible serial killer. With all the drama suddenly swirling around her, she will have to figure out if she is brave enough to trust Maxim with her heart and maybe even her life.” Rebel North by JB Salsbury is now live!! — “In a city where image is everything, Gabriella turns heads for all the wrong reasons. The marks that slash across her neck and face turn people away. But I see the beauty that lies beneath, feel a kinship to her pain. I regret the way she found me—mugged and left for dead. I should walk away, follow the rules, but I can’t. I want to see her again. There’s only one problem. My brother convinced her I’m gay. I use that lie to my advantage, persuade her to be my pretend girlfriend, to help protect my fake-sexual identity from my judgmental family. But what starts as a shameless excuse to be near her leads to crossed lines and midnight confessions. I’m not who I led her to believe. I’m sin wrapped in silk. Betrayal masked by beauty. And she’s not the only one with scars…” Inked Devotion by Carrie Ann Ryan is now live!! — “Brenna Garrett watched her best friend fall in love with another woman all the while keeping his darkest secrets from her. Now she’ll have to figure out who she is without him while not letting the rest of the Montgomerys see her break. When her family forces her on a road trip, she finds herself bringing Benjamin Montgomery with her. The problem? He’s her best friend’s twin, so there’s no escaping that familiar face. Benjamin didn’t want to leave his family in a lurch, but Brenna isn’t the only one who needs a break. Only a drunken mistake leads to a night of passion with unintended consequences. When it turns out they can’t walk away, they’ll have to make a choice: remain just friends or start something new and possibly risk everything. Including themselves.” Rules for Heiresses by Amalie Howard is now live!! — “Born to a life of privilege, Lady Ravenna Huntley rues the day that she must marry. She’s refused dozens of suitors and cried off multiple betrothals, but running away—even if brash and foolhardy—is the only option left to secure her independence. Lord Courtland Chase, grandson of the Duke of Ashvale, was driven from England at the behest of his cruel stepmother. Scorned and shunned, he swore never to return to the land of his birth. But when a twist of bad luck throws a rebellious heiress into his arms, at the very moment he finds out he’s the new Duke, marriage is the only alternative to massive scandal. Both are quick to deny it, but a wedding might be the only way out for both of them. And the attraction that burns between them makes Ravenna and Courtland wonder if it’ll truly only be a marriage of convenience after all…” Man For Me by Laurelin Paige is now live!! — “Brett Sebastian is the very best kind of friend. Who else would get me a job at one of the biggest corporations in America? And hook me up with his uber-rich cousin to boot? And let me cry on his shoulder every time said cousin blows me off? Okay, it’s pretty obvious that Brett cares about me in a different way than I do for him, but he seems fine with how things are, and our friendship works. Until one fateful night when I’m mooning over his cousin, and Brett utters four words that should make me happy for him, should make me relieved, should balance out our uneven relationship: “I met a girl.” Suddenly my world is crashing down around me, and I’m forced to ask myself—am I only interested in Brett now that he’s taken? Or have I been looking at the wrong man all along?” Moonstone by Helen Hardt is now live!! — “As Moonstone, she was held captive. Now Katelyn Brooks is starting fresh and is determined to reclaim her life. With the help of the Wolfe family, she’s working toward healing…which doesn’t necessarily include falling for a gorgeous waiter. Luke Johnson is a recovering alcoholic who just wants to fly under the radar. He’s not looking for love, but when Katelyn walks through the doors of the restaurant where he works, he’s struck by her beauty and her meekness. Circumstances throw them together, and neither is able to resist the attraction that sparks between them. But Luke has a secret—a big one—that could spell danger for both of them.” Archangel’s Light by Nalini Singh (Guild Hunter series) is now live!! — “Illium and Aodhan. Aodhan and Illium. For centuries they’ve been inseparable: the best of friends, closer than brothers, companions of the heart. But that was before—before darkness befell Aodhan and shattered him, body, mind, and soul. Now, at long last, Aodhan is healing, but his new-found strength and independence may come at a devastating cost—his relationship with Illium. As they serve side by side in China, a territory yet marked by the evil of its former archangel, the secret it holds nightmarish beyond imagining, things come to an explosive decision point. Illium and Aodhan must either walk away from the relationship that has defined them—or step forward into a future that promises a bond infinitely precious in the life of an immortal…but that demands a terrifying vulnerability from two badly bruised hearts.” Home for a Cowboy Christmas by Donna Grant is now live!! — “Tis the season—for everyone except Emmy Garrett. She’s on the run after witnessing a crime. But when it becomes clear that trouble will continue following her, the US Marshal in charge takes her somewhere no one will think to look–Montana. Not only is Emmy in a new place for her protection, but now, she’s stuck with a handsome cowboy as her bodyguard…and she wants to do more than kiss him under the mistletoe. Dwight Reynolds left behind his old career, but it’s still in his blood. When an old friend calls in a favor, Dwight opens his home to a woman on the run. He tries to keep his distance, but there’s something about Emmy he can’t resist. She stokes his passion and turns his cold nights into warm ones. When danger shows up looking for Emmy, Dwight risks everything to keep her safe.” One Christmas Wish by Brenda Jackson is now live!! — “Vaughn Miller’s Wall Street career was abruptly ended by a wrongful conviction and two years in prison. Since then, he’s returned to his hometown, kept his head down and forged a way forward. When he is exonerated and his name cleared, he feels he can hold his head up once again, maybe even talk to the beautiful café owner who sets his blood to simmering. Sierra Crane escaped a disastrous marriage—barely. She and her six-year-old goddaughter have returned to the only place that feels like home. Determined to make it on her own, Sierra opens a soup café. Complication is the last thing she needs, but the moment Vaughn walks into her café, she can’t keep her eyes off the smoldering loner.” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP Indigo Ridge by Devney Perry (small town enemies to lovers romance, The Edens series) Riggs by Sawyer Bennett (hockey romance, standalone in Arizona Vengeance series) Until April by Aurora Rose Reynolds (contemp romance, standalone in Until Him/Her series) Rebel North by JB Salsbury (NA romance, standalone in The North Brothers series) Inked Devotion by Carrie Ann Ryan (roadtrip romance, standalone in Montgomery Ink series) Rules for Heiresses by Amalie Howard (historical romance standalone) Man For Me by Laurelin Paige (friends to lovers, standalone novella in Man in Charge series) Moonstone by Helen Hardt (love after hardship, new series) Archangel’s Light by Nalini Singh (paranormal romance, Guild Hunter series) Home for a Cowboy Christmas by Donna Grant (holiday romance, standalone) One Christmas Wish by Brenda Jackson (small town holiday romance, Catalina Cove series) now live Purchase now live Pre-Order now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! 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BOOKWORM NEWS: Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey is now live!! — “Two weeks before Christmas and all through Manhattan, shop windows are decorated in red and green satin. I’m standing alone in front of the famous Vivant department store, when a charming man named Aiden asks my opinion of the décor. It’s a tragedy in ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey is now live!! — “Two weeks before Christmas and all through Manhattan, shop windows are decorated in red and green satin. I’m standing alone in front of the famous Vivant department store, when a charming man named Aiden asks my opinion of the décor. It’s a tragedy in tinsel, I say, unable to lie. He asks for a better idea with a twinkle in his eye. Did I know he owned the place? No. He put me on the spot. Now I’m working for that man, trying to ignore that he’s hot. But as a down on her luck girl with a difficult past, I know an opportunity when I see one—and I have to make it last. I’ll put my heart and soul into dressing his holiday windows. I’ll work without stopping. And when we lose the battle with temptation, I’ll try and remember I’m just window shopping.” Only One Regret by Natasha Madison is now live!! — Him: “My name came with big skates to fill. . At the top of my game, I had everything I wanted, or so I thought. . Being traded to Dallas was not what I was expecting but neither were the divorce papers I was served. . Now I’m a single dad in a city that isn’t my home.” | Her: “Handed my biggest client when I was twenty-two made my dreams come true. . Over time, our work relationship changed, and we grew closer, leaning on each other for support. . He was my rock, my best friend.. Then one drunken night changed everything, and I saw what was in front of me all along. . I just hope that when the dust settles, we won’t regret it.” Promise Me Forever by Layla Hagen is now live!! — “As a divorced single father, I live by three rules: 1. Make sure every day my daughter, Paisley, knows she’s number one in my life. No. Matter. What. 2. Keep contact with my cheating ex-wife to a minimum. 3. Turn Maxwell Wineries into a legacy that keeps Paisley set for life. When I hire Lexi to look after my daughter, I realize I need another rule: don’t pursue Paisley’s nanny. But even if I had that rule it wouldn’t matter. Because I’m breaking it already.” Boyfriend by Sarina Bowen is now live!! — “The hottest player on the Moo U hockey team hangs a flyer on the bulletin board, and I am spellbound: Rent a boyfriend for the holiday. For $25, I will be your Thanksgiving date. I will talk hockey with your dad. I will bring your mother flowers. I will be polite, and wear a nicely ironed shirt… Now everyone knows it’s a bad idea to introduce your long-time crush to your messed-up family. But I really do need a date for Thanksgiving, even if I’m not willing to say why. So I tear his phone number off of that flyer… and accidentally entangle our star defenseman in a ruse that neither of us can easily unwind. Because Weston’s family is even nuttier than mine. He needs a date, too, for the most uncomfortable holiday engagement party ever thrown. There will be hors d’oeuvre. There will be faked PDA. And there will be pro-level awkwardness…” Sealed With A Kiss by Erin Nicholas is now live!! — “What’s a girl to do when faced with a hurricane, her celebrity crush, and a power outage in their shelter? Keep her damned feelings to herself. And her clothes on… Naomi LeClaire is just a small-town girl who loves her quiet, simple life. Donovan Foster is a sexy, charming, wildlife rescuing internet sensation who loves the spotlight. What do these opposites have in common? Only an impossible-to-resist chemistry that, when they’re stuck together in a storm becomes, well, impossible to resist. But the aftermath of the storm gives them something else in common—a rescue mission to help victims. Oh, and a heat-of-the-moment kiss caught on camera by the local paparazzi. Not to mention an offer for a reality TV show documenting them falling in love while saving animals from crazy, dangerous situations…” Well Matched by Jen DeLuca is now live!! — “Single mother April Parker has lived in Willow Creek for twelve years with a wall around her heart. On the verge of being an empty nester, she’s decided to move on from her quaint little town, and asks her friend Mitch for his help with some home improvement projects to get her house ready to sell. Mitch Malone is known for being the life of every party, but mostly for the attire he wears to the local Renaissance Faire—a kilt (and not much else) that shows off his muscled form to perfection. While he agrees to help April, he needs a favor too: she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend at an upcoming family dinner, so that he can avoid the lectures about settling down and having a more “serious” career than high school coach and gym teacher. April reluctantly agrees, but when dinner turns into a weekend trip, it becomes hard to tell what’s real and what’s been just for show…” Serendipity by Kristen Proby (Bayou Magic series) is now live!! — “My sight is a gift and also a curse. It cost me the love of my life. We may have been young, but some things you don’t get over. Like being the cause of the biggest tragedy of your boyfriend’s life. It’s something I’ll never forget, and a reflection of who I am. But now that Jackson’s back in town, with scars and a hero’s badge of honor, it’s time for me to be brave, too. A malevolent evil hell-bent on making my sisters and me pay for rebuffing him is still stalking my family, and some ancient writings portended that the six were the only ones who could defeat him. Jackson Pruitt and I round out that magical number, which means I have to face the evil and the things Jack makes me feel, to save my family and my city…” Infamous Like Us by Krista & Becca Ritchie (Like Us Series: Billionaires & Bodyguards) is now live!! — “22-year-old Sullivan Meadows knew dating Akara & Banks would be complicated, but now that her relationship is public, everything has been put on blast: @HeatherB: Can’t believe Sullivan Meadows is dating TWO men and they’re like all together. Like OMG. Totally didn’t think the rumors were true. @YuiK: anyone know what happened to Sullivan Meadows? News is saying something bad went down. Seems bad. @PaulieP: Why is there no reporting on the thing that “allegedly” happened to that Meadows girl? They aren’t saying whether her boyfriends were there??? @TiffanyW: Y’all I can’t with Sullivan’s boyfriends. They just sandwiched her in PUBLIC to avoid cameras lmao @RiverT: Banks Moretti & Akara Kitsuwon are totally banging. I don’t make the rules @CarlaR: OMGOMGOMG Sullivan Meadows qualified for the Olympics! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! @LacieA: Celebrity Crush is saying ALL the families will be at the Olympics to root for Sullivan. Im dead #HalesMeadowsCobalts @GeorgieO: Dude no way she wins a gold medal. Sulli the Slut is too busy screwing anything that walks @VenusQ: I bet her boyfriends will distract her. Last Olympics, she was single. This one, she’s a MESS. Messiness isn’t getting gold #sorrynotsorry” A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L Armentrout is now live!! — “Born shrouded in the veil of the Primals, a Maiden as the Fates promised, Seraphena Mierel’s future has never been hers. Chosen before birth to uphold the desperate deal her ancestor struck to save his people, Sera must leave behind her life and offer herself to the Primal of Death as his Consort. However, Sera’s real destiny is the most closely guarded secret in all of Lasania—she’s not the well protected Maiden but an assassin with one mission—one target. Make the Primal of Death fall in love, become his weakness, and then…end him. If she fails, she dooms her kingdom to a slow demise at the hands of the Rot. Sera has always known what she is. Chosen. Consort. Assassin. Weapon. A specter never fully formed yet drenched in blood. A monster. Until him…” House of Shadows by KA Linde (Royal Houses series) is now live!! — “Kerrigan Argon, a half-human, half-Fae, has joined the Dragon Society against almost everyone’s wishes. A year of training is required with her dragon. First she must travel with the dark Fae prince, Fordham Ollivier, back to his home in the House of Shadows. Nothing but slavery and death has ever awaited a half-Fae in their halls. But something is wrong within their wicked world. A thousand year old spell is weakening. Cracks forming in the foundation. And Kerrigan may just be their ruin or their salvation.” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey (feel-good holiday romance, standalone) Only One Regret by Natasha Madison (single dad hockey romance, standalone in Only One series) Promise Me Forever by Layla Hagen (single dad romance, standalone) Boyfriend by Sarina Bowen (hockey romance, standalone in Moo U Hockey series) Sealed With A Kiss by Erin Nicholas (opposites attract romcom, Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild series) Well Matched by Jen DeLuca (friends to lovers romance, standalone) Serendipity by Kristen Proby (paranormal romance, Bayou Magic series) Infamous Like Us by Krista & Becca Ritchie (Like Us Series: Billionaires & Bodyguards) A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L Armentrout (spinoff of Blood and Ash series) House of Shadows by KA Linde (fae romance, Royal Houses series) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! LET’S STAY CONNECTED To get these lists sent to you every week, subscribe by email. FOLLOW THE BLOG Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | BlogLovin’ | Google+ | Goodreads

BOOKWORM NEWS: A Moment For Us by Corinne Michaels is now live!! — “I was totally over Joshua Parkerson. Sure, I had a teenage crush on him way back when—and everyone knew it—but he never saw me as anything but his little brother’s friend, the girl who got tongue-tied any time he walked into a ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: A Moment For Us by Corinne Michaels is now live!! — “I was totally over Joshua Parkerson. Sure, I had a teenage crush on him way back when—and everyone knew it—but he never saw me as anything but his little brother’s friend, the girl who got tongue-tied any time he walked into a room. I had long ago accepted the fact that his strong arms would never hold me, his lush lips would never claim mine, and his blue eyes would never see me as anything more than who I used to be. But now he’s back in Willow Creek Valley, and there’s a brand-new spark between us—even he can’t fight it. Our chemistry is explosive, and every time we’re together, I swear I can feel the earth shake. It doesn’t mean anything… how could it? I’m over him. Until I see that little pink plus sign, and the earth stops turning completely. Now I want it all again, a life with him. But Joshua built walls around his heart for a reason, and his secrets haunt him. How can I show him that the ghosts of his past don’t have to define our new family’s future?” Not Without Your Love by Lexi Ryan is now live!! — “Two and a half years ago, I hit rock bottom and lost everything. Since then, I’ve turned my life around—no more booze, no more drugs, no more self-sabotage. With a new business to run and old promises to keep, the last thing I need is smart-mouthed hellcat Veronica Maddox disrupting my world. Veronica’s as beautiful as she is infuriating. She pushes all my buttons. Maybe that didn’t matter before, but now she’s working for me. She keeps this place running. As a business owner, I appreciate that. As the man she hates and the one who can’t forget our wild night together, I’m slowly losing my mind. I told myself I could resist her, but we only get along when our hands are doing the talking. Before I know it, our relationship is anything but professional [and] no matter how much I try to convince myself otherwise, what started as two enemies has developed into something neither of us imagined possible. And while Veronica’s a complication I never wanted, she is exactly what I need.” Hold On To My Heart by Bella Andre is now live!! — “Nash Hardwin has been on the road full time since leaving his rough childhood behind when he was sixteen. Beloved by millions of fans around the world, he’s never had a real home and never trusted anyone enough to fall in love. Not until he meets Ashley Sullivan. After she unexpectedly steps in to help him out of a very tricky situation, he ends up having the best day of his life with her in Vienna. Ashley is sweet, beautiful and intelligent…with the biggest heart of anyone he’s ever met. When their perfect day together inevitably turns into an even more perfect night, there’s no denying that they make incredibly beautiful music together. But is there even the slightest chance that the small-town single mom and the road warrior rock star can make things work? Or will the realities of lives that are polar opposites make it impossible to hold on to each other’s hearts?” Fallen Royal by Rachel Van Dyken (Mafia Royals #4) is now live!! — “I grew up knowing it would happen one day. Believing that I would fall into my father’s footsteps… So I fought it. I lived. I loved. I teased. And then one day… I destroyed… She saw my rage, my madness, and tried to stop me from destroying myself, and I hated her for it, pushing her away past the point of no return. She was supposed to be mine. But there are some things people can never come back from. I hurt her, she hurt me, and now I’m living a lie. Telling the ones I love that I’m on one side when for years I’ve been forced to play both. I’m no angel. I’ve fallen… I will win her back… She fell for the bad one. She fell for the sinner. So why does that make me smile?” The Blood That Binds by Madeline Sheehan & Claire C Riley (Thicker Than Blood #3) is now live!! — “Two brothers. A childhood sweetheart. Life has never been easy for this trio, and especially not after the end of civilization as they knew it. Having had their formative years ripped from them, they were thrust into a shattered, savage world, a world where they only had each other. Love and loss. Weary travellers on the brink, there is a storm brewing, a turbulent tempest that has nothing to do with the weather. When tragedy strikes, everything changes in the blink of an eye– facades come undone, and loyalty is pushed to a breaking point. A diamond in the rough. Immersed back into something akin to normal society, a safe-haven in the midst of misery, our travellers are forced to finally confront their demons–long-kept secrets that have been haunting them for nearly a decade. Love is never easy; And love during the end of the world is a hell of a lot more complicated.” The Butler by Danielle Steele is now live!! — “Joachim takes a job working for Olivia as a lark and enjoys the whimsy of a different life for a few weeks, which turn to months as the unlikely employer and employee learn they enjoy working side by side. At the same time, Joachim discovers the family history he never knew: a criminal grandfather who died in prison, the wealthy father who abandoned him, and the dangerous criminal his twin has become. While Olivia struggles to put her life back together, Joachim’s comes apart. Stripped of their old roles, they strive to discover the truth about each other and themselves, first as employer and employee, then as friends. Their paths no longer sure, they are a man and woman who reach a place where the past doesn’t matter and only what they are living now is true.” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP A Moment For Us by Corinne Michaels (surprise baby/unrequited love romance, standalone) Not Without Your Love by Lexi Ryan (enemies-to-lovers office romance, standalone in The Boys of Jackson Harbor series) Hold On To My Heart by Bella Andre (single mom/rock star romance, standalone in The Sullivans series) Fallen Royal by Rachel Van Dyken (mafia romance, Mafia Royals series) The Blood That Binds by Madeline Sheehan & Claire C Riley (love triangle, Thicker Than Blood series) The Butler by Danielle Steele (women’s fiction, standalone) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase LATEST BOOK SALES 45% OFF ★ Purchase 65% OFF ★ Purchase under $2 ★ Purchase 50% OFF Purchase 50% OFF Purchase under $1 Purchase under $2 Purchase under $1 Purchase under $3 ★ Purchase under $3 ★ Purchase 50% OFF ★ Purchase under $1 ★ Purchase UPCOMING BOOK RELEASES Oct 13 Pre-Order Oct 18 Pre-Order Oct 19 Pre-Order Oct 19 Pre-Order Oct 19 Pre-Order Oct 19 Pre-Order Oct 26 Pre-Order Oct 26 Pre-Order Oct 26 Pre-Order Oct 26 Pre-Order Oct 26 Pre-Order Nov 02 Pre-Order WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! LET’S STAY CONNECTED To get these lists sent to you every week, subscribe by email. FOLLOW THE BLOG Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | BlogLovin’ | Google+ | Goodreads

BOOKWORM NEWS: A Small Hotel by Suanne Laqueure is now live!! — “It’s the summer of 1941. Europe is at war, but New York’s Thousand Islands are at the height of the tourist season. Kennet Fiskare, son of a hotel proprietor, is having the summer of a lifetime, having fallen deeply in love with a ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: A Small Hotel by Suanne Laqueure is now live!! — “It’s the summer of 1941. Europe is at war, but New York’s Thousand Islands are at the height of the tourist season. Kennet Fiskare, son of a hotel proprietor, is having the summer of a lifetime, having fallen deeply in love with a Swedish-Brazilian guest named Astrid Virtanen. But the affair is cut short and the young lovers permanently parted, first by Astrid’s family obligations, then by America’s entry into the war. The rigors of military life help dull his heartache, but when Kennet’s battalion reaches France, he is thrown into the crucible of front line combat. As his unit crosses Europe, from the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, Kennet falls into a different kind of love: the intense camaraderie between soldiers. It’s a bond fierce yet fragile, vital yet expendable, here today and gone tomorrow. Sustained by his friendships, Kennet both witnesses and commits the unthinkable atrocities of warfare, altering his view of the world and himself. To the point where a second chance with Astrid in peacetime might be the most terrifying and consequential battle he’s ever fought…” Wild at Heart by Zoe York is now live!! — “Everyone in Pine Harbour loves Will Kincaid—except the one person he cares about actually impressing. Can grown men have crushes on their frenemies? When Catie joins the small town’s Search and Rescue team, Will finds himself spending every Thursday night swapping glares with the hairdresser while they get in each other’s way. Catie Berton has a long list of reasons why Will is an arrogant jerk. But the more time she spends with him, the more she’s forced to admit sometimes they make a good team. That doesn’t change the fact that Will has always been her right crush, wrong guy. When the SRT goes on a road trip to a competition, she surprises herself by agreeing to ride shotgun in his truck. The long drive could be a chance to repair a shredded friendship, if Catie can get past her complicated feelings for the too-attractive-for-his-own-good school principal.” Mr. Park Lane by Louise Bay is now live!! — “I haven’t seen him in over a decade, but Joshua Luca can still get to me. And I hate it. At twenty-nine, I’m a doctor and I’ve traveled the world, but just the thought of him has me sliding my sweaty palms down my jeans and wishing I could steady my racing heartbeat. Joshua was an almost obsession until, at seventeen, he cost me my future. In one night, I grew up and let go of my silly crush. My infatuation for Joshua is dead and buried. Forever. It doesn’t matter that he’s my new roommate. Or that he still has that same sexy smile. I barely notice how, despite his billions, he’s the kindest man I know. Or that when he touches me, a thousand tiny fireworks explode all over my body. I’m completely over Joshua Luca.” Spark by Helen Hardt (Steel Brothers Saga) is now live!! — “Donovan “Donny” Steel is on a partnership track with a major Denver law firm. He loves his city career and his luxurious downtown loft, and life is going just how he planned it…until his mother, the city attorney for his hometown of Snow Creek, Colorado, asks him to move back and work for her when her assistant retires. Mom asks? Donny goes. Because he’ll do anything for the family who took him in twenty-five years ago. The fact that he can pick up where he left off with gorgeous Callie Pike is simply a fringe benefit. Caroline “Callie” Pike was looking forward to finally beginning law school at age twenty-six, but the western slope fire that destroyed most of her family’s vineyards put that plan on hold. At least she has Donny Steel’s return to look forward to. After she spent an evening with him at a recent party, he hasn’t strayed far from her mind…” Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis is now live!! — “On a snowy evening in March, thirty-something Noelle Butterby is on her way back from an event at her old college when disaster strikes. With a blizzard closing off roads, she finds herself stranded, alone in her car, without food, drink, or a working charger for her phone. All seems lost until Sam Attwood, a handsome American stranger also trapped in a nearby car, knocks on her window and offers assistance. What follows is eight perfect hours together, until morning arrives and the roads finally clear. The two strangers part, positive they’ll never see each other again but fate, it seems, has a different plan. As the two keep serendipitously bumping into one another, they begin to realize that perhaps there truly is no such thing as coincidence.” A Reckless Match by Kate Bateman is now live!! — “Madeline Montgomery grew up despising––and secretly loving––the roguish Gryffud “Gryff” Davies. Their families have been bitter rivals for hundreds of years, but even if her feelings once crossed the line between love and hate, she’s certain Gryff never felt the same. Now, she’s too busy saving her family from ruin to think about Gryff and the other “devilish” Davies siblings. Since he’s off being scandalous in London, it’s not like she’ll ever see him again…” Wild Heart by Laurelin Paige (Dirty Wild #3) is now live!! — “Secrets, surprises, and second chances. This trip down memory lane with Jolie has mended as much as it’s torn up. I promised her I could handle anything. Whatever she was hiding, my wild heart would always belong to her. But I could never have imagined this truth. And she can’t blame me for how this will all end.” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP A Small Hotel by Suanne Laqueure (military/love/family fiction) Wild at Heart by Zoe York (frenemies to lovers romance, standalone in The Kincaids of Pine Harbor series) Mr. Park Lane by Louise Bay (second chance/roommates romance, standalone) Wild Heart by Laurelin Paige (contemp romance, book #3 in Dirty Wild series) Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis (snowstorm/strangers romance, standalone) More Than Possess You by Shayla Black (romance novella, standalone in More Than series) Spark by Helen Hardt (romantic suspense, Steel Brothers Saga) A Reckless Match by Kate Bateman (historical romance, Ruthless Rivals) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! 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196 countries, countless stories...

I’m very fortunate to receive messages from readers and writers around the world telling me about books I might like to read. Many of the titles I’ve featured on this blog are the result of conversations with people in parts of the planet from which we English speakers rarely hear stories. Examples include: Glimmer of […]

I’m very fortunate to receive messages from readers and writers around the world telling me about books I might like to read. Many of the titles I’ve featured on this blog are the result of conversations with people in parts of the planet from which we English speakers rarely hear stories. Examples include: Glimmer of Hope, Glimmer of Flame, sent to me by Colin after a discussion with a bookseller at Libraria Dukagjini in Pristina, Kosovo; and The Golden Horse, the manuscript translation of which was emailed to me by author Juan David Morgan after it was recommended to me by the Panama Canal on Twitter. (Yes, really.) Sometimes, however, I’m lucky to stumble across amazing stories from elsewhere closer to home. This latest Book of the month is a case in point: a few weeks ago, I spotted a new shop on the Old High Street near where I live in Folkestone, UK. It was, according to a sign in the window, a bookshop, gallery and publisher. Intrigued, I went inside and got talking to Goran Baba Ali, an author and co-founder of Afsana Press, which seeks to publish stories that have a direct relation to social, political or cultural issues in countries and communities around the world. After a pleasant chat, I bought one of their titles, The Last Pomegranate Tree by Kurdish writer Bachtyar Ali, translated by Kareem Abdulrahman, and headed home. I was excited to read the book but also a little nervous. I really hoped it was good. It could be a little awkward the next time I bumped into Goran otherwise… The novel begins with the release of 43-year-old peshmerga fighter Muzafar from a desert prison after 21 years. Yearning to reconnect with his son Saryas, who was only a few days old when Muzafar was arrested, he embarks on a quest to discover what happened to the boy. In so doing, he confronts the horrors visited upon his homeland and compatriots, the truth about love, loss and compassion, and what it means to be human. Magical realism is a term I treat with some suspicion. In certain contexts, it can be used by critics to lump together and diminish anything in stories from elsewhere that doesn’t conform to certain Western norms. It is a term that has been applied to this book by some reviewers and I can see why: the story features many extraordinary creations and happenings. There is a character with a glass heart. There are women with hair that tumbles, Rapunzel-like, from windows down to the ground. The rules of the world are liable to tilt and twist. But in Ali’s hands, these happenings do not feel curious, exotic or strange, but rather expressions of deep truths, ‘that something always remained unexplained’, that when you live in a world where everything can be taken from you nothing is impossible. One of the first things about this book that thrilled me (and there were many), was the beauty of the writing. Ali and Abdulrahman’s prose glitters with exquisite imagery. The pomegranate tree of the title stands on a mountaintop, ‘which rises up above the clouds like an island surrounded by silver waves’. Muzafar’s former friend Yaqub has ‘a strange gentleness in his words, as if you were standing near a waterfall and the wind was spraying the water towards you or you were asleep under a tree and the breeze had awoken you with a kiss’. Upon gaining his freedom, Muzafar ‘felt like a fish that had leapt back into the water from a fisherman’s net, its heart still filled with the recent shock of its probable death’. This beautifully direct, expressive prose carries brilliant insights. Many of them centre on the enmeshment of humanity with all beings, ‘that the earth and life are a single interconnected whole’. Some reveal the mechanisms we use to deny this and insulate ourselves from others’ suffering. One of the sharpest examples of this is a passage in which a character advocating for the marginalised streetseller community is interviewed by a journalist: ‘That night by the fire, the journalist spoke about the wealth of agriculture and the yield of livestock, but Saryas spoke about the neglected and forgotten wealth of the thousands of abandoned children who found themselves on the streets from the age of four. The journalist talked about the charm of the cities, of clean pavements and the right of drivers to sufficient space for cars, but Saryas talked about the lost beauty of those children, himself included, who were forced to wash in filthy swamps because they had no access to clean water. The journalist argued for the return of the villagers to the countryside, Saryas for the return of people to a decent life.’ The writing is so powerful here. You can hear the conversation unfolding. The shift in register between the presentation of the two speakers’ statements shows us how they miss each other, the distance between them, and the way privilege and partisanship deafen those who imagine themselves openminded and fair. Time marches to a beat that will be unfamiliar to some Western readers in this novel. Instead of the clockwatching chronology of many anglophone stories, there is a sense of a larger scope. A kind of deep time is at work, in which individual human destinies are only small parts of a much larger picture. ‘A person is a star that does not fall alone,’ reflects Muzafar. ‘Who knows where the echo will reverberate when we leave this earth? Perhaps someone will rise from our ashes in another time and realise they have been burned by the flame of our fall.’ The storytelling is similarly expansive. Over the course of the novel, it becomes clear that we readers are in the story too, cast as fellow refugees on a ferry Muzafar is taking to England in an effort to complete his quest. We are listening to Muzafar, whose account loops back on and contradicts itself, dented by his preoccupations and fears. The effect is marvellous. This is honestly one of the best books I have read in a long time – so humane, so moving, so engrossing and so beautiful. To me, it is a reminder that we can find extraordinary, underrepresented voices anywhere. I live in a small town on the south coast of the UK and there is someone publishing world-class Kurdish literature a few minutes’ walk from my house. The Last Pomegranate Tree by Bachtyar Ali, translated from the Kurdish by Kareem Abdulrahman (Afsana Press, 2025; US first edition Archipelago Books, 2023)

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing that happened during my 2012 quest to read a book from every country (and there were many extraordinary things) involved the small African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe. Of the 11 or so UN-recognised countries that had no commercially available literature in English translation at the time, this proved by far […]

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing that happened during my 2012 quest to read a book from every country (and there were many extraordinary things) involved the small African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe. Of the 11 or so UN-recognised countries that had no commercially available literature in English translation at the time, this proved by far the trickiest to source a book from. So much so that, as you can read in my original blog post, in the end a team of nine volunteers translated A casa do pastor, a collection of short stories by Santomean-born writer Olinda Beja, especially for me. Now, 13 years later, that collection of short stories, is finally available to buy in English. Edited by leading Spanish and Portuguese translator Margaret Jull Costa OBE, one of the generous nine volunteers who answered my 2012 appeal, it has just been published by new Canadian indie Arquipélago Press. The creation of this translation remains one of the most heartwarming and encouraging examples I’ve encountered of how stories can bring us together. It is wonderful to see these beguiling tales finally available in the world’s most published language. As I say in my foreword to the book: ‘every so often, I receive a message asking if the collection of stories I read for São Tomé and Príncipe back in 2012 is available to buy in English. It is now my great joy to be able to answer: Yes, here it is.’ The Shepherd’s House by Olinda Beja, ed. Margaret Jull Costa, translated from the Portuguese by Yema Ferreira, Ana Fletcher, Tamsin Harrison, Margaret Jull Costa, Clare Keates, Ana Cristina Morais, Robin Patterson, Ana Silva and Sandra Tavares (Arquipélago Press, 2025)

It’s out! My fourth book, Relearning to Read: Adventures in Not-Knowing, officially hits the shelves today. It’s available worldwide in English and can be ordered through all the usual channels and bookshops, as well as directly through my publisher’s website. Drawing on the interactions I’ve had through this blog and through the reading workshops I’ve […]

It’s out! My fourth book, Relearning to Read: Adventures in Not-Knowing, officially hits the shelves today. It’s available worldwide in English and can be ordered through all the usual channels and bookshops, as well as directly through my publisher’s website. Drawing on the interactions I’ve had through this blog and through the reading workshops I’ve been running for the last four years, it explores how embracing not-knowing can enrich our reading of ourselves and our world. Each chapter takes an extract from a different book likely to be outside most anglophone readers’ comfort zones as a launchpad for exploring themes such as how do we read books written from political viewpoints or based on religious views we don’t share? What do we do if we don’t know if a story is funny? And why might taste sometimes lead us astray? I hope it’s playful, mischievous, a bit subversive and thought-provoking. In the spirit of this, the book comes in three slightly different covers, reflecting the fact that there is more than one way of reading. If you order one, you won’t know what you’re going to get! And as a bonus, Renard Press is running a promotion: if you add Relearning to Read and the signed, limited-edition version of my novel Crossing Over to your basket on their website, and use the coupon ‘relearning’, you’ll get the novel half price. The offer runs until the end of October, so hurry if you like the sound of this. Every book will have its pound of flesh – at least that’s my experience. This one certainly had some twists and turns in the early days of developing the idea. Once I had the form clear in my mind, however, the writing process was a joy. There’s been some wonderful feedback. We’ve already had an international rights inquiry from a publisher in another territory. (If you would be interested in translating or publishing the book in another language, please drop Will at Renard Press a line.) Relearning to Read has already been included on the syllabus of a university course in the UK and I’ve been invited to speak about it at festivals in the UK, India and Hong Kong. What’s more, I’ve been particularly thrilled to see writers I admire supporting the book with generous endorsements. These include superstar translator and novelist Anton Hur, who called Relearning to Read ‘a lively discussion on how to read books from around our increasingly fractured world – and how to live within the chaos,’ and novelist, professor, translator and former English PEN president Maureen Freely, who wrote: ‘Living as we do in the golden age of surveillance marketing… it has become ever more difficult to negotiate uncertainty – in life as on the page. With this beautifully imaginative guide, Ann Morgan makes an eloquent case for reading beyond the bounds of our understanding, not just to broaden our horizons, but to better understand ourselves. I shall be taking it to my next book group! I urge you to do the same.’ Not everyone has been impressed, however. When I told my eight-year-old that my fourth book was being published today, she pulled a face. ‘What? You mean you’ve only written four books in your adult life?’ she said. Still, I hope other family members approve. In particular, my Dad. Sadly I can’t ask him: he died unexpectedly as I was preparing to write the final chapter, and this changed the shape of the ending a little. One of the earlier chapters also features the story of how his father, a native Welsh speaker, moved into the English-speaking world. I hope Dad would have enjoyed reading it. Certainly Dad would have enjoyed the international angle. Travelling was one of the things he most wanted to do in retirement. He had renewed his passport a few weeks before he died and was looking forward to several trips. I have dedicated Relearning to Read to his memory. As it sets off around the world, it makes me smile to think that, in a way, Dad is travelling with it too.

One of the lovely things about this project is the interactions I’ve had through it with writers around the world. The Chinese literary master Ning Ken is a great example. After I gave a quote to support Thomas Moran’s English translation of Tibetan Sky, I received a copy of the finished book sent from Beijing, […]

One of the lovely things about this project is the interactions I’ve had through it with writers around the world. The Chinese literary master Ning Ken is a great example. After I gave a quote to support Thomas Moran’s English translation of Tibetan Sky, I received a copy of the finished book sent from Beijing, inscribed with a message of thanks from the author as shown above. His publisher tells me it means: ‘If my humble work surprised you, that is exactly what I hoped for. Rarity makes it all the more precious. Thank you for your poetically concise critique.’ The novel certainly did surprise me. Like the image that its title suggests – of a Tibetan sky burial, in which a dismembered body is left on a stone plinth for eagles to bear aloft – this is a book that turns many accepted (Western) norms upside down. On the face of it, the novel is a love story. The troubled divorcé Wang Mojie, who came to rural Tibet on a ‘Teach for China’ scheme, encounters the alluring and mystifying Ukyi Lhamo, who has spent time studying in France. Both are on a quest for meaning, and they bond over their lack of fulfilment and conviction that answers may be found in mystical Tibet, but as Wang Mojie urges Ukyi Lhamo to satisfy his masochistic fantasies, they find themselves pushed to and beyond the limits of human connection. Through all this run Wang Mojie’s interior monologues and authorial reflections. ‘As the author of this novel, I will interrupt the narrative from time to time with thoughts and comments,’ Ning Ken, or whoever he is positing as the author, informs us near the start. They certainly make good on this promise, filling the text with thought-provoking and sometimes mischievous asides that often undermine and sometimes soften the characters, as well as sharing some of their own struggles with and doubts about the process of writing. Indeed, it’s no spoiler to say that the book ends with a lengthy authorial disquisition on the unreality of endings, bringing in reflections on Virginia Woolf’s The Voyage Out and discussions with the characters in the novel about what would have been a fitting resolution. ‘While fiction is, of course, made up, we should think of it as the art form of the exploration of the possible, fiction imagines different possible lives,’ the authorial voice tells us. In Ning Ken’s hands, fiction can imagine impossible lives too – at least to those of us used to looking from a Western perspective. In Tibet, the novel shows us, rules work differently, and this is partly a question of language. The concept of selfhood remakes itself, ghosts exist and people have very different views on life’s purpose and meaning, partly because the language of the nation fosters other ways of thinking – ‘We place strict limits on what we think is possible and impossible, but Tibetans do not acknowledge these limits. They don’t accept, or one might say their language does not accept, that death exists.’ In its difference and singularity, Tibet provides a brilliant setting in which to bring together Western and Eastern philosophy. Ning Ken does this through the visit of Robert, a Paris-based academic keen to debate his son who has embraced Buddhism. This is done through at times dense but often hearteningly frank and sometimes irreverent discussions – we’re told at one stage that we’re better off skipping Derrida, as he only really has meaning for exceptional intellectuals like Wang Mojie, and he’s an overthinker. For a reader like me, it was fascinating to see this culture clash filtered through a Chinese perspective. Yet even Tibet cannot resist the pull of globalisation. Despite the hunger for authenticity that Wang Mojie and Ukyi Lhamo share, the novel bristles with examples of a trend towards ‘cultural hybridity’. Historic rituals are staged for tourists who look on listening to music played through boomboxes and sipping coke. This performative ‘postcard culture’, we learn, has arisen partly because of the hiatus in Tibetan practices brought about by ‘what we may call, euphemistically, the “intervention of history”.’ Reading lines like this, along with references to people being imprisoned for praying and the events of ‘the Square’, I found myself feeling strangely anxious. Was it safe for an author in mainland China to write about the actions of the government in this way? Then I shook my head and smiled. Whether intentionally or not, Ning Ken was once again turning things upside down for me, forcing my assumptions into the light in the process. Why did I imagine I knew what the Chinese government would or wouldn’t allow? (This is something I examine in the politics chapter of Relearning to Read, where I look at some of the mental labyrinths we go through when we read works written under censorship or in political systems different to our own.) What resonated most for me was how Tibetan Sky explored the experience of not-knowing. In a way I’ve rarely encountered in fiction before, it captured what it’s like to feel bewilderment in the face of cultural artefacts we don’t know how to ‘read’ – books written in scripts we can’t decode, songs in tonal systems to which our ears are not attuned. What’s more, it showed the value of staying with these experiences – exploring them and turning them around in our minds to notice how we respond. Indeed, not-knowing seems to be fundamental in the journey towards enlightenment – when the 29-year-old Buddha began his spiritual quest, we learn, he did so in confusion. This is a book that works on you in ways that it is only possible to articulate in part. ‘Reading in Tibet is really reading,’ Wang Mojie informs us. ‘You feel as if no one else exists, you are outside of time, away from the world. It is a peaceful, dreamlike state. This dreamlike reading, the dreamlike thoughts that came to me while I was reading, made me feel as if I were floating in air, everything around me filled with my own soaring thoughts.’ The experience of reading Tibetan Sky is similar. Tibetan Sky by Ning Ken, translated from the Mandarin by Thomas Moran (Sinoist Books, 2025)

Many of those I interact with about books through this project, both virtually and at my Incomprehension Workshops, are young people. Even now, all these years after I set out to read the world, I sometimes find my inbox flooded with messages from students whose teacher has asked them to write to me recommending a […]

Many of those I interact with about books through this project, both virtually and at my Incomprehension Workshops, are young people. Even now, all these years after I set out to read the world, I sometimes find my inbox flooded with messages from students whose teacher has asked them to write to me recommending a story. A while ago, I received a wonderful video from a young boy in Beijing advising me to read a book that explained why tomatoes can sometimes be quite dangerous. Statistics bear out the enthusiasm for reading internationally that I’ve seen among the young: according to data compiled by Nielsen for the Booker Prize Foundation, ‘book buyers under the age of 35 account for almost half (48.2%) of all translated fiction purchases in the UK‘. So it was a delight to be invited to contribute an essay to a new collection celebrating the importance and joy of reading for children and young people. The Gifts of Reading for the Next Generation is the second such anthology put together by editor Jennie Orchard. Like the first volume, The Gifts of Reading, it was inspired by an essay by the UK nature writer and scholar Robert Macfarlane, who wrote the foreword to this new collection. Other contributors include such household names as William Boyd, Michael Morpurgo, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, Imtiaz Dharker and Horatio Clare, and all royalties go to Room to Read and U-Go. Founded by John Wood, these organisations promote literacy and education for girls and women. Indeed, U-Go’s aim is to fund the university education of 100,000 young women in the world’s lowest income countries. We celebrated the UK publication of The Gifts of Reading for the Next Generation with a launch at London’s Daunt Bookshop. Also published in the US and Australia, the collection is widely available. BUT I have one copy that I am happy to sign and send anywhere in the world. If you’d like it, simply message me or leave a comment below telling me about a book you gave or received that was important to you. Looking forward to hearing your stories! Photos © Amber Melody

This month, a dream came true. I spent two weeks visiting Greenland with my hero, legendary Togolese explorer Tété-Michel Kpomassie, sixty years after he first arrived in the country that became his home from home (an experience recorded in his landmark memoir, An African in Greenland, tr. James Kirkup, and recently rereleased as a Penguin […]

This month, a dream came true. I spent two weeks visiting Greenland with my hero, legendary Togolese explorer Tété-Michel Kpomassie, sixty years after he first arrived in the country that became his home from home (an experience recorded in his landmark memoir, An African in Greenland, tr. James Kirkup, and recently rereleased as a Penguin Modern Classic, titled Michel the Giant, with a new afterword, tr. Ros Schwartz). It will take me a while to process this incredible experience and I am working on several projects to tell the story of it. Watch this space! In the meantime, however, I decided it would only be right to make Greenlandic literature the focus for my latest Book of the month. And, it being #WITMonth, I knew I would feature a book by a female author. If you ask anyone about contemporary Greenlandic literature, one name will dominate: Niviaq Korneliussen, a young Greenlandic writer hailed widely as the leading light of a new generation of voices telling stories on the world’s largest island. Her writing is fresh, daring and confronting, and having started the month reading her novel Last Night in Nuuk, I would have found it an easy choice to feature one of her books. (And she is extremely well worth reading – if you are looking for Greenlandic literature you should absolutely start with her.) But as I try to highlight lesser known voices on this blog, I decided to look further afield. This brought me to Nauja Lynge’s Ivalu’s Color, adapted from the Danish by the author and International Polar Institute Press. Lynge is something of a hybrid writer. Describing herself as a Danish Greenlander, she is the descendant of several figures who were instrumental in establishing Greenlandic identity, including Henrik Lund, author of the national anthem, and Hans Lynge, who promoted independence. At first, given her Danish heritage, I was hesitant as to whether to include her in my reading. But as many of the conversations I have had over the past few weeks have involved the influence of colonialism and other political agendas on Greenland, and the way those stories are woven into the Inuit experience (and, as we have seen over the thirteen years of this project, storytelling is a messy, cross-pollinated business that rarely fits neatly in a single box), I decided to give Ivalu’s Color a try. From the pitch, the novel sounds as though it follows a familiar formula. In 2015, three women are found murdered in the Greenlandic capital, Nuuk. Whodunnit? Yet, the similarities with anglophone crime fiction end with the premise. Even before you turn to the first page, it’s clear that this is a book that marches to a different beat. In place of a blurb, the back cover has a lengthy endorsement from Martin Lidegaard, former Danish foreign minister. And on the inside flaps we are told that the true victim of the crime will turn out to be the Inuit people. This political focus continues in the body of the book. In place of an epigraph, we find an unattributed paragraph appealing for a moderate approach to Greenlandic independence: It’s almost as if there is a chapter in our common history missing. My major concern is that we open the doors to outsiders before we are ready to welcome them. Things take time. This applies to Greenland to such an extent that we might be better off seeing ourselves as a developing country, not co-opted immediately into the international economy. The characters of the book take a similar tone. Indeed, rather than focusing on the grisly fate of the three women whose bodies have been found in a shipping container (two of whom are barely mentioned), most of the dialogue rehearses political concerns, feeding off the fact that Ivalu, the most prominent victim, was a blogger on issues connected to independence. Unlike the traditional anglophone detective novel, there is not one sleuth on the trail of the culprit but many. They include the Chinese agent Hong and the Russian agent Nikolai (both of whom do little to disguise their roles in trying to further their countries’ interests in controlling the Arctic), as well as local figure Else. Like the murder victims, these characters remain relatively faceless. What seems to interest Lynge is not so much the personal stories of the figures she portrays but the bigger forces that drive them. These she explores by choosing to focus on aspects a mainstream anglophone writer would not normally centre, and selecting and ordering details in a way that might seem bewildering or even irrelevant to a Western eye. It is as though the apparatus of a European crime novel has been commandeered and turned to different ends. As a reader, I found this challenging. The old knee-jerk irritation I often feel when I struggle to understand literature that works on other terms rose in me, and I was tempted to dismiss the book as bad. Indeed, there are aspects of Ivalu’s Color that will be deeply problematic for many anglophone readers, particularly when it comes to the presentation of Hong. Lynge describes him and his actions in terms that betray a strikingly different, even shocking, approach to presenting otherness. There is also a challenging discussion of femininity and ‘primal’ womanhood running throughout the book, which at times seems to take a stand against ‘the modern age’s fussily democratic women’. This, when set against Hong’s shocking encounter with Else, raises uneasy questions. However, as I continued on through the pages of this book, I found another Greenlandic title that I was reading in conjunction with it beginning to shift my thinking. Knud Rasmussen’s The People of the Polar North, tr. and ed. G. Herring, features the verbatim accounts of many Inuit myths collected by the great explorer on his expeditions through his homeland. Striking and strange, these tales share some of the hallmarks of Lynge’s writing. There is a similar relative effacement of the individual and focus on bigger forces. Extreme and sometimes shocking acts are presented baldly and with little ceremony. They inhabit a framework that calibrates ideas of community, duty, tradition, physicality and individuality very differently. Perhaps Lynge was fusing the storytelling ethos of the country of her birth with the commercial structures of European literature? Wasn’t that, in itself, thought-provoking and subversive? For me, Ivalu’s Color wasn’t an easy or enjoyable read, but it was a valuable one. It was fascinating to see Nauja Lynge testing the limits of a familiar genre and trying to reshape them to accommodate her aims. It was a reminder that truly reading widely (far beyond the offerings that the mainstream outlets curate for us) requires openness, and a readiness to embrace gaps and questions. There is still so much we don’t know. Ivalu’s Color by Nauja Lynge, adapted from the Danish by the author and International Polar Institute Press (IPI, 2017)

This writer came onto my radar thanks to Keith Kahn-Harris, author of The Babel Message: A Love Letter to Language, with whom I did a musical incomprehension experiment a few years back. He shared some information with me about Llanito, the language of Gibraltar (a British Overseas Territory at the southern tip of the Iberian […]

This writer came onto my radar thanks to Keith Kahn-Harris, author of The Babel Message: A Love Letter to Language, with whom I did a musical incomprehension experiment a few years back. He shared some information with me about Llanito, the language of Gibraltar (a British Overseas Territory at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula). It was, he told me, an amalgam of Spanish and English with bits of Maltese and Genoese thrown in. In fact, the literary scene in Gibraltar was similarly fascinating, a kind of experiment in answering the question of how small a population you need to establish a literary culture. Yorkshire-based M.G. Sanchez is a key player in this, having co-founded Patuka Press, which publishes anthologies of Gibraltarian writing. Indeed, several of Sanchez’s own books feature Llanito and his most recent has both an English and a Llanito edition. The title that caught my eye on his back catalogue, however, was Diary of Victorian Colonial and other Tales, my latest Book of the month. Originally published in 2008 through Rock Scorpion Books, a now-defunct publishing forum that Sanchez also founded after he struggled to find an outlet for Gibraltarian work, Diary is Sanchez’s second work of fiction. It features one novella and two shorter works that, according to its marketing material centre on ‘themes of emotional and geographical displacement’. The title work is the most ambitious piece. Chronicling the return of ex-convict Charles Bestman to Gibraltar, the land of his birth, in the nineteenth century, it explores what it means to belong and how history can entrap us in many senses. After this comes ‘Intermission’, a stream-of-consciousness account of a UK-based magazine publisher’s snap decision to give up the world and enter a French monastery. Last and, for my money, least is ‘Roman Ruins’, the story of an Italian lawyer’s attempt to save a homeless Kosovan man. Voice is one of the key strengths of Sanchez’s writing. The first two pieces lift off the page thanks to compelling, energetic and distinctive first-person narrators. The diary form is not easy to pull off and sustain for a whole work of fiction, and it’s credit to Sanchez that Bestman’s account is engaging, and peppered with telling observations. Meanwhile, the would-be monk of ‘Intermission’ is often extremely funny. His claim that the notorious British serial killer Fred West looked ‘a bit like an ugly Tom Jones’ had me laughing out loud. Although his spiel is occasionally repetitious and tips over into raw ranting on a few occasions, lines like this meant that I was more than happy to stay with him for the ride. There is a rich, mischievous seam to the writing in the first two-thirds of the book that put me in mind of anglophone authors such as Helen DeWitt and C.D. Rose, as well as the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. It’s also fascinating to see colonialism and Britishness discussed from fresh angles, as Sanchez does in the first two pieces. There is a Trojan horse element to many of the passages, with certain ostensibly harmless or familiar formulations being used to smuggle in sentiments that challenge the status quo or reframe ideas. Some of these, such as the magazine publisher’s reflections on political correctness gone mad, now feel a little dated, but many are still disconcertingly fresh. There’s a meta element to the title work too. At the end of the text, an editor’s note informs us of the way in which the diary was discovered and praises Rock Scorpion Books for publishing it after it was rejected by many other outlets. Finding a way to be heard and recognised is, it seems, part of the story. Language has a big role to play in this. Llanito and Spanish feature in dialogue in the opening piece, while French appears in ‘Intermission’, and Italian and Serbian ring the changes in the final story. Multilingualism and pluralism are part of the fabric of this literary world, with Sanchez rarely choosing to translate on the page. Bewilderment and codeswitching are de rigueur. All that said, the final story is an odd fit in this collection. Whereas the first two pieces complement each other tonally, stylistically and thematically, ‘Roman Ruins’ feels as though it is out on a limb. From the retail blurb, I see that a story called ‘The Old Colonial’ is listed in its place in the collection, and I wonder if a late need for a substitution has led to this piece being shoehorned in. Certainly, there is a stilted, slightly unfinished quality to it. Characters often seem to exist to make arguments rather than to act in their own right, with several conversations featuring long expositions of the history of the former Yugoslavia and the atrocities committed during and since its collapse (although as I write this, I’m conscious that numerous literary traditions have a much higher tolerance for political and historical discussion than is generally accepted in anglophone literature – it may be that Gibraltarian literature does too). Coming after the mischievous, subversive antics of the first two pieces, the straightness of ‘Roman Ruins’ is hard to take. I also found the female lawyer less convincing than Sanchez’s male creations. All in all, the story felt uneven. But then perhaps evenness isn’t necessarily a virtue, or a quality essential to every work or literary tradition. It may be that Sanchez and his fellow Gibraltarian writers are nurturing a literary culture that works according to other standards – one that has no need to appeal to the sensibilities of a citizen of the country that once colonised their homeland. Sanchez has since published numerous works that may have taken his writing in any number of directions. I’m intrigued to learn more. Diary of a Victorian Colonial and other Tales by M.G. Sanchez (Rock Scorpion Books, 2012) Picture: ‘Gibraltar’ by John Finn on flickr.com

Last Thursday, I had the unusual experience of giving a paper at an academic conference. The event was about the future of English studies, and I was there because of a call for papers put out in association with Wasafiri magazine, a British publication championing international contemporary writing. I suggested that I might speak about […]

Last Thursday, I had the unusual experience of giving a paper at an academic conference. The event was about the future of English studies, and I was there because of a call for papers put out in association with Wasafiri magazine, a British publication championing international contemporary writing. I suggested that I might speak about my work with embracing not-knowing in reading, which forms the basis of my Incomprehension Workshops and forthcoming book, Relearning to Read. The organisers liked the sound of this, and so, last Thursday morning, I found myself joining other speakers and delegates in the gracious surroundings of York’s Guildhall for the start of the three-day event. The University of York’s Professor Helen Smith opened proceedings, saying that she felt the event was about survival and finding positive ways that the field of English studies could continue. As an English literature graduate myself, I was a bit taken aback – surely the subject couldn’t be in so much trouble? But as the discussion opened up and academics from universities across the UK began to speak, it became clear that there are many challenges facing those teaching English literature, language and related disciplines today. From the declaration last year that the English GCSE isn’t fit for purpose and the increased testing of performance all through school, to the encroachment of AI on students’ work practices, the sector seems increasingly restricted and hobbled. The main issue, as several of the people sitting near me said, was a lack of joy in the classroom these days. This made me sad. For me, reading has always been about joy. I was eight when I decided that I wanted to study English literature at university, having been entranced by L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. Reading was magic, it seemed to me. I couldn’t imagine a better thing than spending three years reading stories. How miserable to think of today’s young readers having all that pleasure squashed out of them. Still, when I thought about it, I could recognise what was being said. Last year, I ran an Incomprehension Workshop at a sixth-form college near where I live in Folkestone. It being World Book Day, I started the session by asking participants to write down how they would complete three sentences: Reading is… The world is… Stories are… At the end of the session, I invited students to read out what they’d written. One said this: Reading is boring The world is crazy Stories are exciting It was clear that something of that disconnect the university lecturers were describing had happened for that sixth-former. Although they still felt the power of stories, this had somehow become separated from reading for them. Books were not the source of connection and electricity they had been for me. I hope my panel helped propose some ways in which that gap might be rebridged. Titled, ‘Incomprehension and Living Between’, it opened with Turkish writer and translator Elif Gülez reading from her memoir about the culture clash she experienced growing up. The extract was powerful and resonated with the small but highly engaged audience, showing how personal narrative can cut through barriers and make experience live in other minds. Then, I spoke about incomprehension and how I try to foster a spirit of play in my work with this. I was particularly touched when one audience member said afterwards that the demonstration I had given had taken her back to the wonder of reading like a child once more. Lastly, we were joined remotely by Indian academic Gokul Prabhu, who delivered a fascinating paper on ‘Queer Opacity in Translation’ – considering how the attempt to make things legible and understandable may sometimes work against the spirit of a text, and how translators may sometimes need to leave gaps and jolts in work that does not intend to make its meaning plain. There was a marvellous electricity in the room, and this carried on into the afternoon, in a session on teaching creative writing, chaired by poet Anthony Vahni Capildeo, whose work-in-progress memoir I read as my Trinidadian pick back in 2012. The panel featured four writers who all teach at UK universities: J.R. Carpenter (University of Leeds), Joanne Limburg (University of Cambridge), Juliana Mensah (University of York), and Sam Reese (York St John University). They were honest about the challenges facing the industry and sector, but so full of enthusiasm and powerful insights that it was impossible not to be encouraged. I was particularly struck by Carpenter’s statement that a poem ought to unfold in the same way that it was gathered up, although, as Mensah observed, this idea is faintly terrifying when I think about the chaotic nature of my own creative process! I came away heartened to think that the academic branch of the field I love has such people working in it. And grateful that so many of those labouring under such pressure at the UK’s universities felt it was worth taking three days out of their hectic schedules to consider how better to foster and share a love of reading stories. I also felt a renewed energy for and commitment to the possibilities of embracing not-knowing and incomprehension too. More soon! Picture: ‘Municipal Offices and Guildhall, York, North Riding of Yorkshire, England’ by Billy Wilson on flickr.com

‘I’ve got a book I think you’d like,’ said bookseller Erin when I wandered into my local bookshop, The Folkestone Bookshop, a few weeks back. They were right. Waiting to Be Arrested at Night, translated by Joshua L. Freeman, is a memoir by Tahir Hamut Izgil, one of the leading contemporary Uyghur poets. It tells […]

‘I’ve got a book I think you’d like,’ said bookseller Erin when I wandered into my local bookshop, The Folkestone Bookshop, a few weeks back. They were right. Waiting to Be Arrested at Night, translated by Joshua L. Freeman, is a memoir by Tahir Hamut Izgil, one of the leading contemporary Uyghur poets. It tells the story of his decision to flee his homeland, along with his wife and children, in the late 2010s, following decades of mounting discrimination and persecution of the Uyghur population in Xianjiang, a nominally autonomous region in northwestern China. Through Izgil’s eyes, we live the experience of seeing your world contract to the point where there is no longer space for you to exist. The accounts of the imprisonments of many of Izgil’s friends and associates – often for minor or even unspecified breaches of the ever-shifting rules – are chilling and heartrending, yet it is the cruel absurdity of many of the directives that restrict everyday life that sticks in the mind. The requirement, for example, for Muslim clerics to participate in televised disco dancing competitions (and the brave attempt of one to embrace this insult as good exercise). Or the Looking Back Project, under which ‘many previous legal things had become illegal’, rendering authors vulnerable to being arrested for books that had been published with the censors’ blessing in previous years. Perhaps most horrifying of all is the List of Prohibited Names, a sporadically updated inventory setting out which names may no longer be used. In light of this, anyone may suddenly find themselves banned from using the appellation by which they have been known all their lives. ‘A name is a person’s most personal possession,’ as Izgil, writing through Freeman, reflects. ‘If he cannot hold on to his own name, what hope does he have of keeping anything else?’ The way language is weaponised to curb and control is similarly disturbing. As the Chinese government’s restrictions on the Uyghurs grow ever tighter, seemingly innocuous words turn traitor. People called in for questioning are said to be taking ‘tea’, those removed to the concentration and re-education camps have been sent to ‘study’, if you have a black mark on your record, you are said to carry a ‘dot’. Uyghurs too, learn to bury their meaning to keep safe: ‘A political campaign was a “storm”, while innocent people caught up in mass arrests or in a Strike Hard Campaign were said to be “gone with the wind”. A “guest” at home often meant a state security agent. If someone had been arrested, they were “in the hospital”. Yet, language is also a source of great joy and beauty in this book. As Freeman explains in his introduction, poetry is a way of life in Izgil’s homeland: ‘Verse is woven into daily life – dropped into conversation, shared constantly on social media, written between lovers. Through poetry, Uyghurs confront issues as a community, whether debating gender roles or defying state repression. Even now, I wake up many mornings to an inbox full of fresh verse, sent by the far-flung poets of the Uyghur diaspora for me to translate.’ Poetry is central to this memoir too. Several of Izgil’s poems appear. What’s more, there is a beautiful litheness and directness to the prose, which captures key moments in the story with memorable clarity. When Izgil’s wife, Marhaba, learns that after years of fighting bureaucracy the family have finally received the visas that will enable them to escape to the US, her face opens ‘like a flower’. Because of the quality of the writing, we feel the Izqil family’s bravery and the loss that goes with uprooting yourself from all you know (including necessarily severing ties with those who stay behind for their safety). As the best writing does, the story speaks for itself, urging itself on the reader, making the pages fly past. Nevertheless, as I read, I found a question surfacing repeatedly in my mind. There are many urgent and brilliant stories by writers from persecuted minorities in the world today. Most of them do not find homes with some of the English-speaking world’s biggest publishers as this one has (coming out through Penguin Random House on both sides of the Atlantic). If they make it into English at all, such stories are usually released by small presses, which, as I often say on this blog, are where most of the risky, exciting, boundary-pushing publishing happens these days. (Books like Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse’s The Convoy, translated by Ruth Diver and published in February by Open Borders Press, for example.) So what is it about this story that has enabled it to cut through? I think there are a couple of reasons. The first is that the book paints the West in a relatively flattering light. Although Izgil likens the contempt of the Han Chinese authorities to the attitudes of European colonialists and quotes a friend saying they wish China would conquer the world because the rest of us are so ignorant about the realities they are facing, the US is a place of safety for Izgil. It is where he can finally taste freedom once more and thrive. I think this is a picture that fits with what many of us in the English-speaking global north would like to believe about our homelands. The second is that the story necessarily reinforces certain narratives about China that happen to serve Western agendas. This portrayal of the Chinese authorities as harsh and unpredictable feels familiar and relatively comfortable. In this respect, although it may challenge other preconceptions, this book will resonate with significant aspects of many people’s prevailing world view. This is not to call into question anything Izgil has written: the atrocities he describes are well documented. Nor is it to detract at all from the brilliance of this book. Rather, it is to say that this may be a story to which many in the English-speaking world may be able to listen to more easily than we can to comparable narratives that do not align with Western agendas so neatly. If anything, this may make this book even more important. It may speak more directly and powerfully about the refugee experience to many anglophone readers because it will not invite the sort of resistance that can often arise when we read challenging books from elsewhere. By happening to echo ideas that feel familiar and safe, it may move us to deepen our sense of humanity and connection with those forced to leave their homelands. Waiting to Be Arrested at Night by Tahir Hamut Izgil, translated from the Uyghur by Joshua L. Freeman (Vintage, 2024)

This book came on my radar through fellow international bibliophile Suroor Alikhan, who kindly hosted me at an online event organised by the Hyderabad Literary Festival last year. A few weeks ago, she contacted me saying that she had found a website that she thought I’d be interested in, featuring a list of more than […]

This book came on my radar through fellow international bibliophile Suroor Alikhan, who kindly hosted me at an online event organised by the Hyderabad Literary Festival last year. A few weeks ago, she contacted me saying that she had found a website that she thought I’d be interested in, featuring a list of more than 100 books by Pacific Islanders. I was intrigued. The Pacific Island nations were among the most difficult countries to source stories from during my 2012 quest to read a book from every country. And although the criteria of the list’s compiler were a little different from mine – she included a number of titles by writers with Pacific Island heritage (including herself) – there were many fascinating-sounding works. The book I’ve picked to feature – Is Anyone Out There? And Other Stories by Julian Maka’a from the Solomon Islands – didn’t strike me as the most satisfying of those I read from the list, but I found it interesting for several reasons. The Solomon Islands are hard to source stories from: back in 2012, the best option I could find was The Alternative, a 1980s boarding school novel. So I was curious about what this much more recent short story collection would be like. My interest was also piqued by Maka’a’s statement on the back cover that the collection – which he self-published in 2012, 27 years after his first collection was brought out by the University of the South Pacific – draws on various aspects of his professional life, including efforts to build staff understanding about sexual reproductive health in his capacity as the manager of Wantok FM, part of the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation. This is reflected in frank descriptions of the treatment of and stigmas around sexually transmitted diseases in several of the earlier pieces. As with many of the books I read ‘from’ Pacific Island nations in 2012, the collection seems written with a consciousness of needing to represent its nation. ‘The themes and general messages [of the stories] are different and varied,’ writes Maka’a, ‘but the one thing that is common is they reflect what life is like in Solomon Islands’. To an outsider like me, this manifests itself most tellingly in the glimpses into local beliefs and customs, presented most richly in the title story, in which a legend about a philandering man ritually killed for breaking taboos haunts the narrator. The emphasis on education, so apparent in The Alternative, is also strong in Maka’a’s work. The most ambitious piece in the collection, a three-part story called ‘Is This Fair?’ centres on a teenage pregnancy at a boarding school and makes clear the sacrifices that the nation’s geography and economic situation demand of families keen to give their children opportunities. Some eight thousand students drop out of education every year, we learn, and just getting to school at the start of term often requires many stomach-churning hours in a boat. As is so often the case in books from elsewhere, it is the assumptions and things taken for granted that prove most intriguing. One of the central characters in ‘Is This Fair?’, for example, seems not to bat an eyelid at the notion that her parents will decide her career path, as set out in a letter her mother sends her: ‘In her brief letter which she wrote in language and pijin, she explained that she and dad always discussed about me. About the future that I would give them from my education – benefits to cut a long story short. She said they had differences in the job I should take up after I graduate in form five. My mother said she wanted me to become a nurse – that way I would help her when she gets sick or even my father. My father on the other hand wanted me to be a teacher.’ For all its interest, however, this book is a challenging and occasionally bewildering read. My knee-jerk reaction is to pin this on the fact that it has probably not been through the editorial processes of many traditionally published books in mainstream anglophone literature, with the result that there are structural idiosyncrasies, and spelling and grammatical oddities that are sometimes distracting. There seem to be some inconsistencies in the character names between the different parts of ‘I Am Fair?’ that make it hard to follow. There is also an abruptness to certain emotional shifts and transitions that risk interrupting the flow of the story. But I’m also aware that what I read as errors or idiosyncrasies may in many cases not be considered as such by readers in the Solomon Islands. There, a different form of English is used, one in which certain formulations and word uses that sound odd to me may be customary. Similarly, shifts between registers and emotional states that jar for me may simply reflect different norms or storytelling traditions beyond my experience feeding into this book. Regardless of how I read it, what remains is a sense of urgency. A desire to communicate. A hand stretched out from this place we in the UK rarely hear of, seeking connection and the chance to convey something. This is me, this book says. This is us. This is where we are. Is Anyone Out There? And Other Stories by Julian Maka’a (Xlibris, 2012)