What eighth-month pregnant ex-Londoner wouldn’t distract themselves from moving and impending parenthood with a little amateur sleuthing? And snacks! Alice and her beautiful goofball of a dog are festively funny, surprisingly thoughtful, and remarkably insightful. Making friends in a new place is hard, even without murder and parenthood all at stake, but Alice’s fantastic voice makes this a mystery to savor. A perfect debut, especially for fans of Richard Osman and anyone who appreciates a shoutout to Morse or Death in Paradise. I love this book, and am already looking forward to the sequel!
I loved this book! Shades of The Tempest haunt this intriguing tale of people in the last remaining community after a (man-made) apocalypse. On an island where everyone survives together, Emory must use her so-far-unnecessary curiosity and observational skills to determine who committed a terrible murder before the colony collapses and humanity is doomed. What rough magic must we abjure to remake the world? I couldn’t put this puzzle down, even after I finished the book.
From Persephone’s letter to her mother, written from the underworld, to an homage to the plurality of scissors, Stallings’s fluency of meter and form make these poems sing. These are the stories we tell ourselves, ancient and daily, and every one reveals another layer of the world. An excellent collection by one of my favorite poets.
This rollicking mystery, perfect for fans of Benjamin Stevenson, finds writer Eleanor Dash hoping to kill off her much-loved series detective in her upcoming book. If only he weren’t on this trip with her! Italy is lovely, but Dash’s life and her next novel are both in shambles. Read this before it hits the TV—it’s the book to take with you on vacation, for sure!
The price of growing up in the public eye is high, and Aṅuṛị is done paying it. But when her young sister is dragged into the spotlight in her place, it’s not enough to simply step away. A powerful story about grief, love, and the ways that money can’t buy people sense opens a disturbing window onto a life lived on social media.
This sampler of Tate’s work is amazing. Tate builds little worlds of intimate insight and heartbreaking joy. Each page destroys and rebuilds itself anew, like a savior woken up from a fading nightmare, only to drink a cup of coffee and get lost again in how much he loves the world.
Shona is on the trail of a story she didn’t want to pursue—death, Ouija boards, and an MP’s most secret secret. And the Coine Tree has seen more stories than Shona can imagine. But power corrupts, and the dead only talk for so long. Miller’s spooky, gripping story is a great read.
Another spectacular collection from Bloodaxe Books. The past is another country, all memory and missed revelations. These poems are eulogy for a lost relationship and a lost lifetime, but also a foundation for the new life since, the one where one might learn to stop “saving things for later, saving things for best.”
A woman selling rocks from her front yard, a seed snuck out of another realm, a brain tumor that could rewrite history—Collins finds love hidden in more guises than we can imagine. These stories are scary and scandalous, ridiculous and real. After my time in Collins’s worlds, I see our world, with all its strange love and hopeful despair, in brighter, bolder light.
What if you wrote a bestselling mystery, but it was based on your murderous family? How would you write another mystery without another event to inspire you? Ernest embodies all the nervous writers and hapless boyfriends you can imagine, while trying to figure out who is killing all these people on this train! Another diverting adventure and riveting mystery from Stevenson.
A treasure trove of newly discovered stories by the much-mourned Terry Pratchett, written under a pseudonym as he learned his craft. Published before his career took off, these little stories from a small-British newspaper are full of all the invention, humor, and care of Pratchett’s later work. Perfect to dip into and fun for all ages—these stories are perfect for everyone looking for a moment of light in the world.
Harriot teaches us the history we should have been learning all along. His compelling stories, thoroughly researched and fantastically told, reveal a more accurate picture of America—its history and its present. This book is an education too important to miss.
This new stand-alone spy novel is a fantastic addition to Herron’s work, perfect for fans and newcomers alike. Herron’s spies are grubby, smart, jaded, foolishly compliant, and fiendishly cunning. His writing is brilliant, whether his characters are in nondescript London offices or in copses riddled with the scent of decaying badgers.
Chast has done the impossible—she’s made other people’s dreams absolutely riveting! From a talking mango that keeps its own counsel to her dad’s skeleton making itself at home to an overview of dream-theory itself, Chast’s exploration of the many dream districts of life is a fantastic and hilarious picture of the absurdities of our collective unconscious.
This is my book of the year! History is full of all the lies we tell ourselves and the world, but this book is the real thing.
Set in the 1800s against the rise and fall of popular author William Ainsworth, the success of Charles Dickens, the trial of the Tichbourne heir, and Britain’s abolition of slavery, The Fraud exposes our history and our present through the intimate observations of Ainsworth’s cousin, Mrs. Touchet, as she watches the lives around her, and her own, unfold. Once again, Zadie Smith reveals new ways to see our complex, brutal, often funny, and so often flawed world.
The best, clearest breakdown of strengths & failures of the US Constitution, & a fantastic guide to key points of constitutional law that we must grapple with, now, to make a better union. A crucial, illuminating, & brutally honest read!