by David Gate
David Gate takes inspiration from all corners of 21st-century life lived under the extractive systems of late-stage capitalism in the poems and essays of A Rebellion of Care, a moving and necessary collection for any reader feeling the heaviness of current events. Gate is an immigrant and Appalachian homesteader, and questions of belonging sit alongside his observations of the natural world, as in "The Good We Can Imagine," which compares planting a kale seed to "throwing a pebble/ at a panzer tank." Pop-culture
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by Ed Park
Ed Park (Same Bed Different Dreams) writes books that are easy to love and hard to define. His writing is hilarious but also serious; chaotic while still cohesive; irreverent and earnest all at once. The short stories in An Oral History of Atlantis are not linked, not exactly, but characters do recur, and the whole thing hangs together like an ensemble cut from the same cloth. Though the stories span decades, they maintain an odd kind of continuity, making the collection highly satisfying.
Park maintains
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by Jo Beckett-King
Newly acquainted cousins must solve a cryptic, puzzle-filled scavenger hunt to rescue a family heirloom in the gutsy middle-grade mystery The House of Found Objects by debut author Jo Beckett-King.
Twelve-year-old American Bea Bellerose is staying with her Aunt Juliette in Paris while her parents are away at a conference. Unfortunately, Aunt Juliette is working a lot more than planned and Bea is spending most of her time alone in the apartment or downstairs in her grandmother's antiques shop, La maison des
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by Sandra Jackson-Opoku
A popular soul food eatery on the South Side of Chicago is the scene of a possible homicide in Sandra Jackson-Opoku's action-packed mystery, Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes. The unforgettable narrator and cafe owner, Sapphire "Savvy" Summers, is a former English teacher with a knack for whipping up delectable dishes, including her famous sweet potato pie.
Jackson-Opoku (The River Where Blood Is Born), a Chicago native, is an award-winning poet and writer. She has created in Savvy a charismatic
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by Scott Johnston
Scott Johnston's The Sandersons Fail Manhattan is a satirical novel designed to capture its social, political, and cultural moment. And once that moment has passed, the novel will retain its zing on the strength of its plotting and humor.
William Sanderson, a parent at Manhattan's Lenox Hill School for Girls, is attending his first board meeting when the head of school announces that, in response to Lenox's diversity efforts, it's welcoming a transfer student who "self-identifies as goblincore, a growing subculture
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by Lisa Springer
Lisa Springer's second novel, The Other Side of Imani (after There's No Way I'd Die First), is an endearing stagger through new experiences as depicted by a Black tween who must stand up for herself and the truth.
Thirteen-year-old Imani's Barbadian father and Ghanian mother moved the entire family from California to Brooklyn, N.Y., so her dad could pursue his love of cooking Afro-Caribbean fare. Although Imani is nervous about going to a new school, she has "always dreamed about living in the Big Apple" because
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