by Alba de Céspedes, trans. by Ann Goldstein
Times have changed for women since the 1950s, as the protagonist of Alba de Céspedes's excellent Forbidden Notebook, first published in 1952, confides to the titular diary. That title, rendered from the Italian by translator Ann Goldstein, offers a clever double meaning that encapsulates 43-year-old Valeria Cossati's predicament: she is forbidden from pursuing a more rewarding life and confides those frustrations only to a secret notebook. In November 1950, she buys the notebook--"black, shiny, thick,
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by Aurélie Lévy , Elizabeth Colomba, illus. by Elizabeth Colomba
Duke Ellington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Dutch Schultz, Lucky Luciano: perhaps because they were men, their legacies have long survived their deaths. Too often missing from this notable New York roster is Stephanie St. Clair, a Harlem legend who ran the numbers racket in the 1930s. Aurélie Lévy and Elizabeth Colomba reclaim her history in Queenie, an outstanding graphic collaboration. In 1933 when Prohibition finally ended, St. Clair emerged from prison (not her first stint, nor her last) and returned
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by Krystal Marquis
Krystal Marquis's debut, The Davenports, is the captivating story of four young Black women navigating love and society in early 20th-century Chicago.
The formerly enslaved William Davenport built a successful and worldwide business. Now, in 1910, William is the patriarch of a family that can afford a cushioned life in Chicago's Freeport Manor. William's 19-year-old middle daughter, Olivia, has met the perfect suitor and is ready to fulfill her duties as a loving wife and host of dinner parties. Until, that
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by Jared Yates Sexton
To observers reassured about the health of American democracy after the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, Jared Yates Sexton's blunt and provocative The Midnight Kingdom may come as an unwelcome splash of cold water. In this survey of the history of Western civilization that begins in first-century Rome and spans nearly 2,000 years, Sexton, a political analyst and podcaster, explores "the means by which power shields and hides itself." He argues that it does so chiefly through deceit and paranoia-inducing
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by Dianne K. Salerni
The Carrefour Curse, a darkly comic supernatural mystery by Dianne K. Salerni (Eleanor, Alice, and the Roosevelt Ghosts), begins with "a quiet but disgusting bit of magic."
Garnet Carrefour's mother, Emerald, has been estranged from her family since before Garnet was born. The now 12-year-old knows she and her mother have magic in their veins--they hear and speak to stones to coax out the magic within. When Garnet begins vomiting frogs, though, mother and daughter must return to the family home, Crossroad
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by Tove Alsterdal, trans. by Alice Menzies
At one point in Swedish crime novelist Tove Alsterdal's You Will Never Be Found, a character observes that a cabin contains "bookshelves full of cheap American thrillers." This may prompt regular readers of Nordic noir to wonder: Is there even such a thing as "cheap Scandinavian thrillers"? Adeptly written and plotted, with in-depth characterizations and rich topography, You Will Never Be Found is yet another fine contribution to the redoubtable genre.
The novel, translated from the Swedish by Alice Menzies,
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by Maiya Ibrahim
Spellbinding magic, lush description and whirlwind action define Maiya Ibrahim's YA debut, Spice Road.
Seventeen-year-old Imani, Qalia's youngest Shield, is tasked with defending her country's walls from a "never-ending onslaught of monsters," which include djinn, ghouls and sand serpents. Shields awaken their magical abilities by imbibing misra (the Spice gifted by the Great Spirit) in a daily tea ceremony. But misra and the city of Qalia itself are meant to be kept secret from the outside world. When Imani
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by Nick Brooks
Three students with public grudges and no alibis become prime suspects when the principal of their all-boys charter school turns up dead in the gripping and propulsive social critique Promise Boys by Nick Brooks.
Urban Promise Prep seems perfect on paper, but Principal Moore runs the regimented Washington, D.C., charter school with an iron fist and increasingly erratic behavior. After Moore is shot dead at his desk, the police focus on three students serving detentions that afternoon: hot-tempered lyricist
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