Sabina Murray (The Caprices) has built a lofty career on her ability to craft intricately layered, thought-provoking fiction: what she initially presents as straightforward storytelling is intensified with piercing cultural, sociopolitical and historical nuances that encourage greater interaction for deeper satisfaction. The Human Zoo is yet another compelling example of Murray's prowess. The narrative appears relatively simple--a Filipino American journalist living in New York City returns to her extended family in Manila, ostensibly to research her next book but more to escape her disintegrating marriage--onto which Murray will slyly layer intriguing complexity.

Christina "Ting" Klein--her mother Filipina, her father white American--is nearly 50, a peripatetic writer whose last assignment covered President Gumboc's popularity despite his murderous campaign against suspected drug dealers. Ting's new book, also called The Human Zoo, showcases real-life, early 20th-century indigenous Filipino chief Timicheg who, with his tribespeople, was exploited by a U.S. businessman to be ogled as savages by Coney Island tourists. In between stalled writing attempts and endless family functions, Ting is expected to introduce an in-law-to-be to her media contacts while perhaps reuniting with her former (married, powerful) boyfriend.

Like Ting, Murray, too, is of mixed Filipina and white parentage, and in 2017 wrote for Vice about President Duterte's inexplicably high ratings. She expertly presents the ironies of upper-class Manila life, lulling readers into what might be a quotidian family drama. But then corpses appear, threatening all semblance of safety. Fiction and headlines quickly blur. The Human Zoo sublimely transitions into a contemporary sociopolitical thriller enhanced with colonial legacy, cultural erasure, government corruption and unreliable narrators--an exhilarating literary experience. --Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon

The two couples who travel to Portugal for the wedding of one's younger brother have plenty of guilt to unpack in British author Sandie Jones's melodramatic but highly entertaining fourth novel. Jones uses gossip, sniping and conjecture to drive The Guilt Trip, which explores the intricacies of relationships.

Rachel and Jack Hunter and their long-time friends Noah and Paige Collins are staying at a beautiful clifftop villa in Nazaré to celebrate the nuptials of Jack's brother, Will, to Alison "Ali" Foley. Will is well liked, but Ali seems to irritate everyone; the consensus is she is self-centered, a liar, manipulative and may have recently cheated on her fiancé. The others agree with Paige, who says, "I don't think I've ever met someone so divisive." Tensions quickly flare, most of it directed at Ali, but it becomes obvious that everyone has been hiding secrets for such a long time that at any moment each may "spontaneously combust," ruining relationships. Such a toxic atmosphere isn't conducive to such a happy occasion as a wedding, though few guests will forget this event. When violence erupts and ends in a fatality, the moment is shocking but quite expected.

Jones distinctively sculpts each character--though these are not the friends most readers would want, nor would invite to any occasion. But watching them offers vicarious enjoyment to those inclined to eavesdrop when others cause a scene. Perceptive dialogue and each interaction move the slow-churning plot to an intriguing finale. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer

Romance readers and Great British Bake Off fans will both rejoice with the release of Battle Royal by Lucy Parker (Headliners; The Austen Playbook). In this delectable romantic comedy, two baking enemies find themselves suddenly becoming more than friends as a competition heats up.

For the past four years, ever since she accidentally exploded a cake at judge Dominic DeVere and got kicked off her season of Operation Cake, contestant Sylvie Fairchild has ignored the stern Dominic as much as humanly possible. And Dominic has continued to roll his eyes at Sylvie's over-the-top, fantastical dessert creations. But now Operation Cake has invited Sylvie back--as part of the judging panel this time. Inevitably, Sylvie and Dominic are forced to spend a great deal of time together, much to their initial mutual irritation. But as Dominic and Sylvie get to know each other better, they have to admit that they might have been wrong about each other. Then they find out they're both in the running to create a cake for the next royal wedding. Can their budding relationship survive the pressure?

Sweet in more ways than one, Battle Royal is Lucy Parker at her brilliant best. Witty, yet sensitive and heartfelt, with characters who have had to overcome genuinely difficult life circumstances, Battle Royal perfectly mixes reality television, endless piles of baked goods and some frothy royal intrigue into a recipe for romantic success. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Flagstaff, Ariz.

The first book by San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Lizzie Johnson, Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire, is a terrifyingly intimate account of the Camp Fire that killed 85 people and laid waste to the rustic northern California town of Paradise, "a tinderbox nestled between two geological chimneys."

Early on the morning of November 8, 2018, gale force winds dislodged a section of Pacific Gas & Electric electrical line from a poorly maintained 100-year-old transmission tower and deposited it onto the bone-dry grass of a region that had received 0.88 inches of rain in the preceding six months. With that, the deadly Camp Fire was born. The ravenous blaze spread at an almost incomprehensible speed, obliterating Paradise, home to some 26,500 people, in barely four hours, destroying 95% of its commercial buildings and 90% of its residences, 18,800 structures in all.

Paradise is a comprehensive and vivid account of the fire, seen through the eyes of the town's terrified residents and the local and state officials who fought frantically to contain it and to reduce the unimaginable toll of life and property damage. For all the courage and heroism Johnson recounts, she clearly identifies her principal villain: PG&E. Though the company pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully causing a fire and 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter, the maximum fine imposed amounted to about 20 cents for each of its customers. And as Johnson thoroughly explains, other culprits like climate change, flawed forestry management and haphazard development in the wildland-urban interface guarantee that the Camp Fire won't be the last or the worst catastrophic wildfire. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

What About the Baby? offers 14 succinct and inspirational essays by National Book Award-winning author Alice McDermott (The Ninth Hour) on fiction writing for the novice novelist. Eschewing quick fixes and systematic how-to guides on writing, McDermott's essays focus on the big-picture concerns and realities of writing: What makes a good beginning? What makes a good ending? What makes a good sentence? What makes a reader keep reading? And what makes a writer keep writing? At nearly every turn, McDermott uses her own generous and lyrical prose to recommend patience over prolific achievement, hard work over reputational success, and valuing the truth of human emotion over the eye-catching lure of plot.

While some essays focus on more practical recommendations to beginning and emerging writers, others zoom out to consider what the writing life at large entails. In "Sentencing" and "Coaching," for example, McDermott speaks to the importance of vivid writing that honors clarity and precision. But in her more poetic and vulnerable entries, such as "Faith and Literature" and "Starting Over," McDermott explores her own writing passions, failures and routines to demonstrate how writing can be at once defeating and transcendent, full of doubt and unexpected discovery. Sprinkled with approachable personal anecdotes from McDermott's writing life and exemplary excerpts from authors such as Nabokov, Tolstoy and Woolf, this collection offers a tender but still often pragmatic set of reflections on writing. Most of all, it is a welcoming and warmhearted exploration of what it means to write (and re-write) when one finds one can do nothing else. --Alice Martin, freelance writer and editor

Adult and YA speculative fiction author Charlie Jane Anders (All the Birds in the Sky; Victories Greater than Death) approaches the craft of writing from an innovative point of view in this insightful, instructive essay collection. 

Anders focuses on the cathartic and therapeutic aspects of writing fiction in this "mixture of encouragement, ideas for how to use writing to feel okay in a world that is not okay, and actual technical advice." Readers will find wisdom on traditional topics such as worldbuilding and creating dynamic characters, but Anders also discusses imposter syndrome, how to harness authentic emotion and fiction's place as a tool "to process the trauma of living through a moment when the whole world turns into flaming walls of [excrement]." She also relates moments in her own life when writing gave her strength or helped her to find her way through difficult times, from overcoming a learning disability in elementary school and writing a play with the help of a teacher to transitioning from male to female.

Originally conceived as a series of blog posts published on Tor.com during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, Anders's essays provide an inspiring testament to the power of art to bring clarity and healing. Aspiring writers will pick up tricks of the trade, but her advice about taking refuge in creativity could apply to any art. Never Say You Can't Survive reminds storytellers that they can "shape worlds, and the monsters are scared of you." --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

As misinformation runs rampant, is it possible to do anything to combat conspiracy theories and science denialism? This is the question that science historian and philosopher Lee McIntyre (Post-Truth) earnestly attempts to address. In How to Talk to a Science Denier, he identifies and defines what tactics undergird science denial in all its forms, and then outlines strategies to combat misinformation and attempt to win science deniers back to the side of believing in science.

As he considers perspectives about a Flat Earth, those against vaccination and GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), as well as deniers of climate change, McIntyre carefully pulls apart the commonly held belief that people who hold such views are simply misinformed. He painstakingly connects the formation of beliefs to other constructs of identity, and presents a more compassionate and empathetic road map toward possible persuasion. Perhaps even more importantly, he outlines and demonstrates a process of technique rebuttal that allows space for engagement and leaves room for personal dignity for all parties. He emphasizes trust-building as part of the process, rather than a brute reliance on empirical proof as method of persuasion "to try to bring science deniers back into the fold and show them how useful science can be."

This book is a necessary tool in an age that depends more and more on people trusting and believing in science in order to meet the simultaneous challenges posed by the long-term effects of epidemics, climate change and post-truth misinformation. --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer

Laura van den Berg (The Third Hotel) leads her characters into bizarre and life-changing situations--all the more powerful for their underlying emotional resonance--in her thrilling and uncanny collection of 11 stories, I Hold a Wolf by the Ears.

The surreal permeates these stories in masterful fashion, as if each narrative, grounded in the real, slowly slips into the fantastical. The author admits this much in a sly, almost undetectable self-consciousness. "And this is the problem with translating experience into fiction, the way certain truths read like lies," the narrator says in "Last Night." In "Hill of Hell," the narrator explains "the way we are walled in by our secrets and the implacability of our judgments." When these walls come down, the experience for van den Berg's characters is both terrifying and liberating. When the world's expectations finally lay broken like a husk, each character emerges anew, shocked but utterly alive.

In one of the best stories, "Slumberland," a woman who has been photographing her Florida neighborhood at night discovers her neighbor has been crying for the pleasure of strangers on the phone; "dacryphilia," it's called. Like so many of van den Berg's stories, the plot twist provides an eerie but powerful form of human connection.

Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize and named one of Time's 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020 as well as a Best Book of 2020 by NPR, I Hold a Wolf by the Ears is not only a testament to the power of the short story, but to how, cumulatively, a collection can sustain an entire ethos and atmosphere. Van den Berg is a maestro of the form, and these stories shouldn't be missed. --Scott Neuffer, writer, poet, editor of trampset

Educator and poet Gloria Amescua makes her picture-book debut with the inspiring Child of the Flower-Song People, spectacularly illustrated by award-winning Mexican American author/artist Duncan Tonatiuh (Undocumented). Amescua poignantly uses her own experiences of "almost losing my Spanish language and culture" as a Latina in Texas as her inspiration for documenting and celebrating Luz Jiménez's story.

Throughout Mexico, Luz is revered as "a powerful woman of the flower-song people"--the Nahua who were direct descendants of the native Aztecs. Born in 1897, Luz grew up speaking Nahuatl, learning traditional cooking and weaving and absorbing ancient tales. Her village was mostly "a forgotten shadow to those who governed," until mandatory public education arrived to silence the Nahuatl language and ban Nahua clothing, in order "to turn the native children into modern ones." Then the Mexican Revolution destroyed Luz's home, leaving her family fatherless. Fleeing to Mexico City, Luz quickly became "the most well-known model in all of Mexico," galvanizing artists who eschewed colonial erasure: "The world recognized the beauty and strength of the native people after five hundred years of being in shadows." From model to teacher, Luz channeled her artistic influence into preserving her language, traditions and history.

Amescua enhances her flowing prose with natural imagery (mountains, winds, blossoms), as if Amescua is re-grounding Luz's Nahua identity into the very earth. Tonatiuh's magnificent signature style--a hand-drawn and digitally colored contemporary adaptation of pre-Columbian art forms--couldn't be more ideal for animating Amescua's illuminating text, which also includes extensive backmatter to encourage further investigation. This perfectly paired collaboration provides both reclamation and revelation. --Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon

Big Apple Diaries by Alyssa Bermudez is a playfully illustrated graphic memoir that takes the form of journal entries by Bermudez's instantly empathetic middle-school self as she navigates tweenhood and the tragedy of 9/11.

Alyssa is "very shy," has "no boobs yet" and "really likes drawing." She also secretly likes Alejandro. He's from Colombia, Alyssa is half Puerto Rican, and both tweens feel that/;  they have no freedom. Rules set by her mom (who lives in Queens) and dad (who lives in Manhattan) mean Alyssa's social life is nonexistent. "[Mom] told me I have to put my grades before my friends," Alyssa writes. Unfortunately, focusing is impossible when Alejandro is so distracting ("He said, 'Hola lol!' Is that flirting?!"). Also, she wants to have fun with her classmates, but when she makes mistakes with them, her parents ground her: "I just feel really sad, ugly, and lonely." Then tragedy strikes and, after 9/11, the freedom Alyssa wants seems especially out of reach.

Bermudez convincingly captures the chaos of middle school. Throughout, particularly via her memories of 9/11, Bermudez demonstrates how support--from friends, parents, strangers--lends strength. Handwritten diary entries are interspersed with charming digital drawings. The inky, monochromatic renderings add flair by illustrating Bermudez's worries and hopes; through creative closeups and periodic panel usage, they also dramatize standout moments--among them, mistakes (shaving her "kissing caterpillar" eyebrows), daydreams (a comic-style Alejandro fan fiction) and monumental AIM conversations. While exploring her identity ("Am I too white?"; "What do I actually even like about Alejandro?") Alyssa exudes wit, flare and personality, showing how second-guessing oneself is part of self-discovery. Big Apple Diaries is a beautiful snapshot of preteen life. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer