Starred Review

Final Cut

by Charles Burns

Charles Burns, winner of the Eisner/Harvey/Ignatz graphic trifecta for Black Hole, dramatically explores the (un)balance of isolation and creativity in Final Cut. When they were young teenagers, Brian and Jimmy started making slasher films, complete with intergalactic worms and murder by forked eyeball. Now as young adults, filmmaking still looms large, particularly for Brian who, unlike affable Jimmy, prefers his intricate, surreal drawings being readied for their celluloid closeups to actual human interactions.

Read More »

A Rift in Time: Travels with My Ottoman Uncle

by Raja Shehadeh

In A Rift in Time: Travels with My Ottoman Uncle, Raja Shehadeh (Palestinian Walks) invites readers into a "momentary... respite from the terrible confines of the dismal present" by retracing how his great-great-uncle Najib Nassar escaped from arrest under the Ottoman Empire. Shehadeh poignantly brings to life a historical moment not often considered in contemporary discussions, expressing sadness for what might have been and hope for what may yet be, even if it does not happen in his own lifetime.

Shehadeh

Read More »

Nose to Nose

by Thyra Heder

A dog's lucky find turns into a massive canine misunderstanding in the smart, funny, and playful picture book Nose to Nose, written and illustrated by Thyra Heder (How Do You Dance?).

Toby, a black-and-tan dog with a long tail, has moved into a new neighborhood and would like to make some friends. He introduces himself by marking a brick retaining wall, but making a splash on the wall does not help him make a splash socially. Other dogs don't acknowledge Toby when leaving their contributions, shown by Heder

Read More »

Ruin Road

by Lamar Giles

Ruin Road by Lamar Giles (The Getaway) is an unnerving, spine-tingling paranormal horror novel driven by a frank and sharp dissection of race and class.

Cade Webster, 6'2" with "hands like tennis rackets," is a formidable player for his high school football team. Even though he's the star wide receiver, his rich white teammates won't go near his Black "gangsta" neighborhood and his size and skin color make the white people with whom he interacts perceive him as a threat. Cade wishes people would stop acting

Read More »

Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue

by Sonia Purnell

Sonia Purnell's Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue stands as a model for what all biographies should strive for. It strikes the difficult balance of history, gossip, and journalistic insight in pitch-perfect prose that reads like a novel. This riveting account of Pamela Harriman's extraordinary life is highly recommended for readers interested in 20th-century history or politics, or in the lives of fascinating individuals.

Purnell follows Harriman through her early

Read More »

Flora and Friends: Colors

by Molly Idle

Molly Idle continues her ingeniously whimsical board book series with Flora and Friends: Colors. After showcasing counting, opposites, and letters, Idle's fourth board book--part of the larger Flora family, which debuted with 2014 Caldecott Honor-winner Flora and the Flamingo--is spectacular, melding superb art, minimal text, and an interactive layout that teaches the youngest readers about the transformative magic of color.

Pink-cheeked, button-nosed Flora simply adores her avian friends, and her story begins

Read More »

The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science

by Dava Sobel

In Ève Curie's biography of her mother, she wrote: "There are, in the life of Marie Curie, so many great moments that one is tempted to tell her story as a legend." This new biography by Dava Sobel (The Glass UniverseLongitudeGalileo's Daughter) traces not only the legend of Curie's scientific breakthroughs, but her impact on the presence of women in the sciences. The Elements of Marie Curie paints a human portrait not of an isolated genius, but of a woman who existed in and built

Read More »

Welcome

Shelf Awareness is a free e-newsletter about books and the book industry. We have two separate versions:

For Readers: Every Friday, discover the 25 best books published that week as selected by our industry insiders. Sign up now.

For Book Trade Professionals: Receive daily enlightenment with our FREE weekday trade newsletter. Sign up now.

Learn more about Shelf Awareness.

Shelf Discovery

Obligations to the Wounded

by Mubanga Kalimamukwento

Mubanga Kalimamukwento's superb 16-story collection, Obligations to the Wounded, illuminates the complicated experiences of Zambian women on both sides of the globe.

Read Full Review »

The Vaster Wilds

by Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff's riveting novel, set in Virginia in the early 17th century, is a classic study of solitude and survival that stars a teenage girl fleeing starvation--and the scene of a crime.

Read Full Review »

Tremor

by Teju Cole

Teju Cole's impressively kaleidoscopic third novel travels between the U.S. and Nigeria as it questions the ownership of Black art and the meaning of Black suffering.

Read Full Review »

A Muzzle for Witches

by Dubravka Ugresic, trans. by Ellen Elias-Bursać

From Dubravka Ugresic, a towering figure in international literature, comes a fitting posthumous capstone to her English-language oeuvre.

Read Full Review »

The Lightning Bottles

by Marissa Stapley

In novel that combines a heartwarming love story and a thrilling mystery, Lucky author Marissa Stapley portrays characters who find a sense of belonging in one another and in music.

Read Full Review »

A Two-Placed Heart

by Doan Phuong Nguyen

This fictionalized memoir-in-verse of the author's childhood lyrically follows the struggles of a Vietnamese girl adapting to American life.

Read Full Review »

Blood of the Old Kings

by Sung-il Kim, trans. by Anton Hur

This exciting novel about an empire that controls necromancy and a rebellion that forces ordinary people into heroic roles holds layers of intrigue and suspense.

Read Full Review »

The Undercurrent

by Sarah Sawyer

Sarah Sawyer combines beautiful, insightful prose with a propulsive mystery in this literary suspense novel that's perfect for fans of Angie Kim and Chris Whitaker.

Read Full Review »

Prophet Song

by Paul Lynch

In Prophet Song, Paul Lynch constructs an all-too-credible fable about democratic Ireland's descent into a police state, and its effect on a biologist, her trade unionist husband, and their family.

Read Full Review »

Forces of Nature

by Edward Steed

Best known for his single-panel New Yorker cartoons, Edward Steed collects about 150 of them here, a lot of them thinkers, all of them witty, a number of them brilliant.

Read Full Review »

The December Market

by RaeAnne Thayne

In this tender, small-town holiday romance, the power of unexpected love melts the hardened hearts of two locals whose lives have both been touched by grief.

Read Full Review »

America Fantastica

by Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien's black comedy America Fantastica takes both the dark and the comic to epic proportions with simultaneous absurdism and poignancy.

Read Full Review »

Esri Press: The Geography of Hope: Real Life Stories of Optimists Mapping a Better World by David Yarnold

Media Heat

Thursday, October 10, 2024

The View: Trevor Noah, author of Into the Uncut Grass (One World, $26, 9780593729960).

The Talk: Wilmer Valderrama, author of An American Story: Everyone's Invited (Harper Select, $29.99, 9781400336579).

Late Night with Seth Meyers: Alice Paul Tapper, author of Use Your Voice (Penguin Workshop, $18.99, 9780593752142).

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

CBS Mornings: Maha Abouelenein, author of 7 Rules of Self-Reliance: How to Stay Low, Keep Moving, Invest in Yourself, and Own Your Future (Hay House, $26.99, 9781401978662).

Today Show: Trevor Noah, author of Into the Uncut Grass (One World, $26, 9780593729960).

Drew Barrymore Show: Josh Gad, author of PictureFace Lizzy (Putnam, $19.99, 9780593463123).

The View: Riley Keough, co-author, with her late mother, Lisa Marie Presley, of From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir (Random House, $32, 9780593733875).

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

CBS Mornings: Emily Weinstein, author of Easy Weeknight Dinners: 100 Fast, Flavor-Packed Meals for Busy People Who Still Want Something Good to Eat (Ten Speed Press, $35, 9780593836323).

Good Morning America: Tom Colicchio, author of Why I Cook (Artisan, $35, 9781648291289).

Today Show: Chris Pine, author of When Digz the Dog Met Zurl the Squirrel: A Short Tale About a Short Tail (Flamingo Books, $18.99, 9780593528228).

Monday, October 7, 2024

CBS Mornings: Jason Reynolds, author of Twenty-Four Seconds from Now... (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy, $19.99, 9781665961271).

Good Morning America: Caroline Choe, author of Banchan: 60 Korean American Recipes for Delicious, Shareable Sides (Chronicle, $27.95, 9781797227115).

Also on GMA: Ryan Seacrest and Meredith Seacrest Leach, authors of The Make-Believers (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9781665949873).

Sherri Shepherd Show: Law Roach, author of How to Build a Fashion Icon: Notes on Confidence from the World's Only Image Architect (Abrams Image, $28, 9781419768217).

Thursday, October 3, 2024

CBS Mornings: Mellody Hobson, author of Priceless Facts about Money (Candlewick, $19.99, 9781536224719).

Today Show: Yotam Ottolenghi, author of Ottolenghi Comfort: A Cookbook (Ten Speed Press, $37.99, 9780399581779).

Drew Barrymore Show: Kate McKinnon, author of The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9780316554732).

Tamron Hall: Ina Garten, author of Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir (Crown, $34, 9780593799895).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Chris Wallace, author of Countdown 1960: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the 312 Days that Changed America's Politics Forever (Dutton, $35, 9780593852194).
Powered by: Xtenit