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Book Witch, Book

by Shaffer, Meg
Book, 2026
Added May 01, 2026

Comment:

Rainy March is a book witch. She protects books of fiction from all kinds of threats. The main rule is simple: real people belong in the real world, and fictional characters in fiction. When Rainy's beloved grandfather disappears, she must turn to the one person who can help, the Duke of Chicago. He's a fictional detective who can solve any case, and the fictional character Rainy's been reprimanded for dating. Together, they must put together the clues and travel through stories to find the truth. Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. This is a fun, engaging adventure for anyone who loves books.

Autobiography of Cotton, PaperbackA Novel

by Rivera Garza, Cristina
Paperback, 2026
Added May 01, 2026

Comment:

Rivera Garza's dazzling fictionalized account of her grandparents' lives paints a picture of their work farming cotton in the borderlands of Northern Mexico in the 1930s, detailing the events that led them to be in that place at that momentous time. Rivera Garza, at the mercy of the scant historical record provided by the few official documents she has access to, opens by setting the scene for the cotton workers strike of 1934. The strike is a momentous event for the labor movement which leads to land reforms allowing the workers to own their land. The author then doubles back further in her grandparents' history, aided by archival research, her own travel, and published works about the period, which allow her to piece together a plausible timeline for her family's movements. She ruminates on possible motivations for the route her grandfather Jose Maria Rivera Donez took to end up in Estacion Camaron in the 1930s to experience the strike. Jose Maria, who lost his first two wives, persevered through punishing work as a miner, the Mexican revolution of the 1910s, the influenza of 1919, political instability, and the cotton boom and subsequent bust after an infestation of boll weevils. The reader is left with a visceral sense of the grueling work of leaving one's home to move to a new location in the wake of political strife, persecution, natural disaster, disease, and lack of opportunity. Readers will be inspired to do further research on the history that Rivera Garza fleshes out in her moving, introspective, timely novel.

Don't Tell Me How It Ends, PaperbackA Novel

by Thurman, Adrienne
Paperback, 2026
Added May 01, 2026

Comment:

Don't Tell Me How This Ends is a reflective summer romance that captures the uncertainty of early adulthood with honesty and warmth. The story follows Kaia, a recent college graduate stuck in the all-too-familiar post-grad spiral, questioning her career path, life choices, and most of all her feelings about love and commitment. Deeply pessimistic and hesitant to invest in anything long-term, Kaia is shaped by doubt, even as she remains grounded by her loyalty to her family. When she returns to her childhood home to help her hopelessly romantic mother and her pregnant sister, who has just lost her job, Kaia is pulled into a world that directly challenges her beliefs. Her sister's decision to start her own matchmaking business adds both humor and heart, especially when Kaia agrees to go on three blind dates, which pushes her further out of her comfort zone. A standout element of the story is Ro, a kind and endearing tow truck driver who enters Kaia's life unexpectedly. What begins as a simple friendship gradually evolves into something deeper, challenging Kaia in ways she isn't prepared for. Their relationship unfolds naturally, adding to the novel's gentle, slow-burn appeal. The novel's strength lies in its thoughtful writing and relatable themes. It explores the fear of the unknown, the pressure of finding direction after graduation, and the vulnerability that comes with opening oneself up to others. Kaia's emotional journey feels authentic, particularly as her guarded nature begins to shift. Overall, Thurman's novel will resonate most with readers who appreciate character-driven stories about growth, uncertainty, and the complicated path toward love.

Lake Effect, BookA Novel

by Sweeney, Cynthia D'Aprix
Book, 2026
Added May 01, 2026

Comment:

Sweeney's novel follows two families across two decades and the consequences of one big decision. The Larkins are your typical family living in Rochester, New York. As the mother, Nina, starts to feel like something's missing from her marriage, she examines her life looking for ways to improve it. What follows is a decision that will affect not only her life but all the lives around her. This character-driven novel examines the themes of family, forgiveness and making the most of one's life. It draws on realistic emotional responses to love, grief and everything in between. For fans of contemporary family dramas.

Japanese Gothic, Book

by Baker, Kylie Lee
Book, 2026
Added May 01, 2026

Comment:

Baker weaves together two tales from very different timelines around the same house in the countryside of Japan. In 1877 the house is occupied by Sen, a young woman training to be a samurai, and her family. Her father is violent and cold after returning home, disgraced by the failure of the samurai rebellion. In 2026, college student Lee Turner flees to the same house behind the sword ferns where his father lives after an incident with his roommate in New York. Their tales intertwine when the closet door of Lee's bedroom opens to Sen's timeline. Framed by a tale from Japanese mythology, the novel retains the quintessential atmosphere of fear inherent in traditional gothic horror. Lee is an unreliable narrator, muddled as he is by sleeping pills and anxiety medications, lending his point of view a hazy, almost dream-like quality to it, while Sen's perspective is unflinching in its portrayal of the violence and familial trauma of her life. It's a satisfying combination that by the end feels like a myth of its own.

How to Fake It in Society, Paperback

by Charles, KJ
Paperback, 2026
Added May 01, 2026

Comment:

Titus Pilcrow is not having a good day. He's on the verge of potentially losing his paint business and his living space when things take a dramatic turn while visiting an elderly client. Miss Whitecross is on her deathbed and needs to marry immediately to prevent her terrible nephew from inheriting her fortune. A short marriage ceremony and quick death later, Titus is now wealthy and widowed. Nicolas-Marc, Comte de Valois de La Motte is also not having a great day, or a great year, really. He was supposed to marry Miss Whitecross, but was inconveniently out of town when death came for her. He really needed that fortune to restore his mother's reputation and keep himself safe from the Bourbon agents trying to kill him. At least, that's what he tells Titus. While navigating their own complicated feelings, and the lies that still divide them, Titus and Nico must also join forces to protect each other from dangerous enemies on both sides. KJ Charles has made a career out of writing about charming scoundrels who ruin their own criminal schemes by falling in love, and this newest book is no exception.

How to Commit A Postcolonial Murder, BookA Novel

by McConigley, Nina Swamidoss
Book, 2026
Added May 01, 2026

Comment:

Adolescent Indian American sisters, Georgie and Agatha, set out to murder their sexually abusive relative in this short, sharp debut novel by Nina McConigley set in Wyoming in 1986. Georgie and Agatha's lives are disrupted when their mother's brother, Vinny Uncle, and his wife, Devi, and son, Narayan, arrive from India and move in with the family. Since Vinny Uncle isn't employed, he is tasked with being the children's babysitter but spends most of his time smoking and watching television. When Vinny Uncle begins to sexually abuse them, the girls hatch a plot to kill him slowly by adding antifreeze to his Mountain Dew. Georgie narrates, often talking directly to the reader, in this unconventional and darkly humorous novel exploring themes of trauma, identity and the legacy of British colonialism with a good dose of 80s pop culture.

The Last Contract Of Isako, Book

by Lee, Fonda
Book, 20260505
Added May 01, 2026

Comment:

Earth as we know it is no more, and humanity now exists inside terraformed domes on a frozen, hostile planet. The dome is run by the company and two rival factions - those seeking to continue terraforming, and others who want to reach out to the stars - who fight for the limited resources available to push their political agendas. Isako is the legendary Quickblade renowned throughout the company as one of the best contractors to do the job and wield the longblade. When her client's faction loses their battle against terraforming, he unexpectedly retires. Isako knows that she will do her duty and go into the frozen land outside their protected dome to die with dignity and bring honor to her family. Her client, however, had another plan and sold her contract to a rival director with one final mission. Isako has the political savvy, connections, and skills with her longblade to pull it off. Along the way she will uncover secrets that will change their planet's existence. Set in a terraformed world far from Earth and full of corporate espionage, politics, and sword wielding contractors, this is a fresh take on the sci-fi genre.

In The Days Of My Youth I Was Told What It Means To Be A Man: A Memoir, Book

by Junod, Tom
Book, 20260310
Added May 01, 2026

Comment:

In the first half of this unusually nuanced and complex work of memoir, journalist Tom Junod (ESPN, GQ, Esquire) paints a picture of his father, his hero who loomed large over his childhood as a suave figure of authority who kept his wife and youngest son on a knife's edge of love and fear. "Big Lou" was a WWII veteran who became a crooner and then a traveling salesman of luxury goods who built up a legend around himself as a paragon of masculinity, a connoisseur of style, and a worldly ladies' man. Even as a young boy growing up in their Long Island home, Tom picked up on hints of his father's philandering. But while Lou flaunted himself in some ways, he was highly secretive about aspects of his background. As Tom matured and became a reporter, he felt compelled to solve the aura of mystery surrounding his father. In the second half of the memoir he reveals some explosive secrets he found lurking in their family's history and seeks out his father's friends, extended family and lovers to create a fuller, if more troubling, portrait. This powerful memoir is a classic journey from innocence to experience that will appeal to readers who share Junod's interest in the seamy underside of American manhood.

I Will Kill your Imaginary Friend for $200, Book

by Brockway, Robert
Book, 2026
Added May 01, 2026

Comment:

"I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200," the Craigslist ad reads. It sounds like a joke, but it isn't. Ivan, the man behind the ad, has a rare skill. A traumatic incident has left him with the ability to see imaginary friends. Desperate for rent money, he hires out his talent to wealthy adults eager to banish the childhood companions that once comforted them but now wreak havoc in their grown-up lives. But not all imaginary friends are harmless, and Ivan has just taken a job he'll wish he refused. Sarcastic, whimsical, and quietly heartbreaking, Brockway's novel blends humor and horror into a bittersweet exploration of loneliness and loss. Delivered with a snarky tone that keeps the pages turning, I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend is perfect for fans of Christopher Moore, Grady Hendrix, and Kira Jane Buxton's Hollow Kingdom.

Transcription, Book

by Lerner, Ben
Book, 2026
Added May 01, 2026

Comment:

Structured in three parts, this short novel combines seemingly disparate incidents into a thematically rich whole that feels appropriate for a writer also known for writing poetry. The first section concerns the narrator preparing to interview his aging mentor and former professor Thomas in Providence, but the narrator drops his phone in a sink so that he is unable to record the interview. In the second section, he attends a symposium in Spain about the now-deceased Thomas's work. And in the third he meets with his old friend, Thomas's son Max, and learns about Max's daughter's eating disorder. That summary doesn't make it sound like much, and it isn't in terms of plot, but the prose rich with fascinating ideas. And fans of autofiction will enjoy picking out the subtle threads connecting the novel's sections and tracing the book's themes, which include the role technology plays in modern life but much more besides. Recommended for fans of Katie Kitamura and Sheila Heti.

Whidbey : Novel, Book

by Madden, T Kira
Book, 2026
Added May 01, 2026

Comment:

Madden's novel opens with Birdie Chang traveling by ferry to Whidbey Island off the coast of Seattle. She's on the run from Calvin, a pedophile who sexually assaulted her when she was a child. Birdie shares her story with a stranger on the ferry, who offers to kill him. While this opening feels Hitchcockian, Madden's searing novel explores the aftermath of trauma and the commodification of pain and is far more complex than a psychological thriller. Calvin is killed by someone who plows over him with a car, and the question of who the killer is does propel the narrative, but this is not a whodunit. The voices of the three women impacted by Calvin's actions – Birdie and Linzie, his victims, and Mary Beth, his mother – and the intersecting of their lives, are the real essence of this novel. Madden has written a deeply humane and nuanced story about the reverberations of pain that fully fleshes out the lives of victims with a stunning twist ending.

Aicha, Paperback

by Bouazzaoui, Soraya
Paperback, 2026
Added Apr 01, 2026

Comment:

Living life under the brutality of the 18th century Portuguese occupation of Morocco, Aicha and her people have endured extreme violence, religious oppression, starvation and so many more hardships. Aicha's home city is the last port remaining under Portuguese rule, but the occupying forces are desperate to either hold on to this city or burn it to the ground. As the conflict builds towards one final siege, the rage that has been inside Aicha her whole life starts to bubble over. This is no normal short temper. It is a terrible supernatural darkness that lurks within her, whispering to her in her toughest moments, and Aicha fears what will happen when she finally unleashes it. This compelling and highly emotional journey takes place in a richly painted historic setting. The tension and violence slowly build through the book, giving readers a richly satisfying ending full of romance, tragedy, lust and gore. This story gives readers an intriguing and fantastical take on a classic figure from traditional Moroccan folklore.

Crux, Book

by Tallent, Gabriel
Book, 2026
Added Apr 01, 2026

Comment:

Tallent's big-hearted coming-of-age novel centers an intense friendship between two 17-year-old rock climbers from working-class backgrounds and features both exhilarating passages about climbing and a tender portrait of platonic love. Tama is a dirty, foul-mouthed, queer girl who lives for climbing, which is her sole aspiration in life. Nothing will stand in her way, including poverty, a dysfunctional family, or a lack of reliable equipment. Her buddy, Dan, academically gifted and deliberate, feels most like himself when he's on the rocks with Tama but is vacillating between taking off to climb or attending college after graduation as the adults in his life are pressuring him to do. These two try to climb their way out of less-than-stellar circumstances and their mothers' intertwined pasts, as they figure out what the future holds in this propulsive, generous and life-affirming novel that will also appeal to a mature YA audience.

Frog, BookAnd Other Essays

by Fadiman, Anne
Book, 2026
Added Apr 01, 2026

Comment:

It's always a joy to have new essays to read by Anne Fadiman (Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader), and the only real fault of her latest collection of seven charming pieces is that it is over too soon, leaving us wanting more all over again. Fadiman has a quirky muse and a dry wit, turning her attention unpredictably from subject to subject. In the title piece, she eulogizes the family's pet frog, which was overshadowed by (even as it outlived) later pets that were more charming. In another she describes her long devotion to an old, outmoded computer printer and the lengths she went to in order to keep it functioning in a world that always favors the latest models. A college professor, she also has some enjoyable pieces about adjusting to distance learning during the pandemic and to changing trends in pronoun usage from the perspective of a grammar stickler. Many readers describe their tastes as "eclectic," and such readers are sure to find something to enjoy in Fadiman's latest tribute to the joys of the quotidian.

Kin, Book

by Jones, Tayari
Book, 2026
Added Apr 01, 2026

Comment:

Annie and Verniece ("Niecy") are "cradle friends" from birth and then friends for life. Both are raised motherless in postwar rural Mississippi, though for different reasons: Niecy's mother was killed, while Annie's abandoned her. Their fathers are also out of the picture, but it's the motherlessness that primarily shapes their lives in ways both subtle and overt over the next couple decades that follow. After high school, they embark on their separate journeys, Niecy to Spelman in Atlanta and Annie bound for Memphis in search of her mother. Keeping in touch over the ensuing years through correspondence and occasional reunions, they both tumble into unexpected romantic relationships and wrestle with fateful decisions. In a novel that balances hope and tragedy with elegance, Tayari Jones charts the changing times, all the while underlining - without ever sermonizing about - the challenges for women in midcentury America against the backdrop of the dawning Civil Rights movement. An Oprah Book Club pick as well as an Indie Next and LibraryReads selection, Kin is a love song to women's friendship that is sure to find a wide readership.

Spoiled Milk, BookA Novel

by Curran, Avery
Book, 2026
Added Apr 01, 2026

Comment:

In 1928 at The Briarley School for Girls, a mysterious death has just taken place. Violet, one of the most popular girls at the school, took a fatal fall on the night of her 18th birthday. Was it an accident, or was she pushed off of the balcony? Emily and Evelyn, two of Violet's admirers (but sworn enemies to each other), think that the pretty young French teacher might've had something to do with it. After all, she and Violet were exceedingly close. Against Evelyn's wishes, Emily recruits some of the other girls to visit a medium in the village in order to get Violet's perspective from beyond the grave. This is only the beginning of a slow-burn creepy tale full of petty teenage grudges, ectoplasmic seances and deep dark rot. Spoiled Milk is a queer coming-of-age gothic horror, seeping with claustrophobia and dread, proving to be a solid debut from author Avery Curran. Do not read while eating.

The Summer My Mother Had Green Eyes, Book

by Ţîbuleac, Tatiana
Book, 2026
Added Apr 01, 2026

Comment:

Aleksy, a British teenager nearly old enough to leave home, hates his immigrant Polish mother with a burning passion (and his narration of this novel is unstinting in his elaborate insults for her). But she bribes him with promises of a laptop and a car into accompanying her to a small village in northern France for the summer, and their relationship undergoes a powerful transformation of healing and heartbreak. Mother and son have had a difficult past, and this novel is written in a way that forces the reader to peel back the layers of their story, which is being told by an older Aleksy over a decade later. Intense and rife with tragedy and beauty, this short novel, translated from the Romanian and written by an acclaimed European author, is both poignant and haunting.

Mega Milk, PaperbackEssays

by Milks, Megan
Paperback, 2026
Added Apr 01, 2026

Comment:

In Mega Milks, Lambada Award finalist Megan Milks explores their relationship to their family name, names in general, milk production and the marketing of milk. Milks's intimate musings on their 1980s childhood, 1990s teen years, and evolving relationship to their family of origin are candid, blunt, and humorous. Mega Milks is an exploration of identity as it relates to the names and value we give the most ubiquitous parts of life – milk, for example, but also gender, race, familial relationships, and the passage of time. Even when the essays seem to stray away from family, home, and origin to ruminations on animal rights, climate change, white supremacy, politics, bull semen and commerce, Mega Milks feels like a conversation at the kitchen table with your closest queer family. The intimate confessionary style will appeal to fans of Melissa Febos.

This Is Not About Us, Book

by Goodman, Allegra
Book, 2026
Added Apr 01, 2026

Comment:

Goodman's new novel follows the extended family of three formidable Jewish matriarchs, Jeanne, Helen and Sylvia Rubinstein. The story opens on 74-year-old music teacher Jeanne's deathbed. As family members drop in to say goodbye, the days turn into weeks and Jeanne holds on, not ready to leave her New England Tudor house, her violin and piano, her yard with its sunlit trees. Goodman introduces the Rubinstein children and grandchildren, whose stories will spool out in subsequent chapters. As the weeks turn into months, middle sister Sylvia and her stern older sister Helen argue over honoring Sylvia's wishes to be cremated versus giving her a traditional Jewish burial. Months later, after Jeanne's eventual passing, Sylvia brings her well-loved apple cake to the memorial reception despite a ban on non-catered food. Inferior baker Helen's insecurities are triggered, and the sisters stop speaking. Describing universal experiences like family dinners, holidays, graduations, new partners, break-ups, and family fights, Goodman creates an incisive portrait of a contemporary American family with its specific idiosyncrasies. Fans of Jami Attenberg will enjoy this page-turning, relatable story.

Wolf Worm, Book

by Kingfisher, T.
Book, 2026
Added Apr 01, 2026

Comment:

All the ingredients for a great (and gross!) gothic horror are brewing in this entomological-centered fantasy. Set in 1899, with the North Carolina woods as a backdrop, a scientific illustrator named Sonia Wilson arrives at the large mansion of her new employer. The cantankerous scientist, Dr. Halder, needs her illustrations to accompany the book he's writing on parasitic insects, as his last illustrator disappeared under some very strange circumstances. With warnings from the household staff about "blood thieves" lurking in the woods and a seemingly possessed possum trying to break into the mansion at night, Sonia's rational mind is starting to consider some downright supernatural explanations. Told in the first person, the reader is only aware of what Sonia knows, which helps build the tension as the mysteries unfold. Sonia is a truly likeable character, anxious and relatable, which is one of Kingfisher's specialties. Full of insects burrowing and lantern-lit jaunts through the woods at night, this title is brimming with unease and dread in the best possible way.

The Tainted Cup, Book

by Bennett, Robert Jackson
Book, 2024
Added Apr 01, 2026

Comment:

Din Kol is an engraver, a human who has been modified to have a perfect memory. He works as an assistant to Ana Dolabra, an easily overstimulated but brilliantly perceptive investigator within the Empire of Khanum. A Sherlock and Watson-esque duo, Ana and Din must solve the mystery surrounding an engineer who died from exposure to a modified plant called dappleglass, which caused an entire tree to burst forth from his chest, thereby murdering him. While they investigate suspects and interrogate witnesses, the rest of life in the Empire marches on, including the steady approach of the wet season, when leviathans emerge from the ocean and the forces at the imperial sea wall must do their best to repel them. The setting is a well-built fantasy world, and the plot is a satisfying murder mystery, the beats of which play out in a way similar to Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels. The genres of fantasy and mystery are artfully combined here to create something wholly original.

Brawler, BookStories

by Groff, Lauren
Book, 2026
Added Mar 01, 2026

Comment:

An excellent novelist who is also celebrated for her skill with short stories (her second collection Florida won the Story Prize) delivers a rich, rangy and relatable new collection. The novel kicks off with a short gem called "The Wind," a story of a woman and her kids fleeing a domestic violence situation, that deserves to be a classic staple of college course anthologies. Groff seems equally able to convince with characters who are rich or poor, male or female, straight or gay, parent or child, innocent or guilty, and she has a delicious predilection for messy relationships. "What's the Time, Mr. Wolf?," a nicely chewy, longer piece of prose fiction, delves into the psyche of a boy born to WASPish generational privilege (a banking family) as he grows into troubled manhood while being provided with ample opportunity to succeed. The collection's closer, "Annunciation," follows a young woman fleeing after her college graduation for a new life in California, where she takes a temp job and sets about learning the hard, unforeseeable lessons of life as an adult. Highly recommended for book clubs and readers who enjoy fiction about women and families, this is just an outstanding collection of short fiction that will win favor even with readers who think they don't like short stories.

The Fox and the Devil, BookA Novel

by White, Kiersten
Book, 2026
Added Mar 01, 2026

Comment:

Anneke is an investigator extraordinaire. Despite the prejudice against women in Victorian era Europe, she's called upon in respected circles for her keen insights and ability to solve the most puzzling crimes. But she lives under the shadow of her late father's reputation. The world-famous Abraham Van Helsing was once a great scientist who went into a downward spiral of unhinged ramblings about monsters and vampires, ending in his mysterious death. When a case she is working on strikes an odd resemblance to her father's murder, Anneke makes the breakthrough she had lost all hope of. She is suddenly hot on the trail of the woman she saw standing over her father's body all those years ago. A desperate cat-and-mouse chase across Europe unfolds into a case more unusual and horrifying than she could have imagined. Perhaps her father wasn't mad after all, and perhaps she is not the predator on the hunt for a killer. Maybe she is the prey being toyed with by something she doesn't understand. This book features a quaint historic setting paired with a unique mystery storyline that slowly adds paranormal elements, building towards a thrilling conclusion packed with twists and turns. White's novel features an interesting cast of characters whose emotional journeys make this a very well-rounded story.

I Told You So!, BookScientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right

by Kaplan, Matt
Book, 2026
Added Mar 01, 2026

Comment:

Economist science writer Matt Kaplan's I Told You So covers why new ideas are sometimes unfairly rejected by the scientific community. Of course, any new scientific theory needs to be challenged to test it and see if holds up. However, the examples he talks about are cases where ideas were rejected because they didn't present them in an easy-to-digest manner or because other experienced scientists didn't want to admit that an outsider might have insight they didn't. He also explains that the way we fund science today can discourage radical ideas. Getting funding can be too hard to risk on a good idea that might be wrong, thus making it harder to get funding in the future. Overall, an insightful read for anyone who interested in how scientific advancement happens.

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