In her wickedly entertaining first short story collection, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Naomi Wood explores motherhood from multiple intriguing, often dark angles and revels in the sardonic humor of women who, having conformed for long enough, are resolute in their rebellion. With a few exceptions, Wood sets her scenes in London, and brings a thrilling focus to mothers rekindling sex lives, punishing former lovers, and navigating corporate dynamics while rejecting the confines of their society-sanctioned roles.

In these nine penetrating stories, women confront the physical and emotional fallout of childbirth. Battling postnatal depression and judged by coworkers for returning to work earlier than expected, the protagonist in "Lesley, in Therapy" has "learnt her truth: work saves." Wood's characters adore their children but crave sensual nourishment. The narrator of "Comorbidities," winner of the 2023 BBC National Short Story Award, is an anxious parent. After a glorious weekend during which her in-laws care for the children, she is blissfully zoned out on great sex and so relaxed she gorges on chicken feet at a dim sum restaurant, temporarily disregarding the fact that she is a pescatarian.

Yet, as with expectant mom Ani in "Peek-a-Boo," single motherhood has its allure. Ani doesn't want the baby's father, Lucca, in her life. While managing her own father, her man-child boss, and the new baby, Lucca will simply be one more person for her to look after.

In skillful prose with a delightful comedic edge, Wood (Mrs. Hemingway) introduces readers to a memorable sisterhood of women boldly assessing and recalibrating their identities as mothers in the age of modern parenting. --Shahina Piyarali

Discover: An acclaimed British author's first collection of nine short stories introduces readers to a memorable sisterhood of women and explores motherhood from intriguing, often dark angles.

In her insightful, multilayered debut novel, The Magnificent Ruins, playwright and television executive Nayantara Roy turns her storytelling skills to a new form: the intergenerational family saga. Set in the wealthy Ballygunge neighborhood of Kolkata, Roy's narrative unfurls the story of the wealthy Lahiri family through the eyes of its American granddaughter and reluctant heiress, Lila De.

Lila has just been promoted after a wealthy entrepreneur has bought the small publishing house where she's a rising-star editor. In the same week, Lila learns her grandfather has died and left her the family's massive, elegant, decaying mansion--much to the chagrin of her twin great-uncles, Rana and Hari; her beautiful and difficult mother, Maya; and other assorted relatives, most of whom live in the house. Lila takes a leave and returns to Kolkata, attempting to navigate the tangled legalities and emotions surrounding her inheritance and her family's opinions about it.

Roy expertly portrays Lila's ambivalence about both the house and her mother's family: she loves them, and they her, but her Americanness clashes with their more traditional family dynamics. As well, she's the outsider suddenly forced to make decisions affecting a group of people who literally live on top of one another. When Seth, one of Lila's authors and her sometime lover, shows up unexpectedly, Lila is forced to confront her two worlds side by side: the family and culture that both grounds and frustrates her, and the fast-paced, modern but isolating New York world she has left.

Sharp-eyed and vividly detailed, Roy's debut explores secrets, shifting identities, the clash between tradition and modernity, and the overwhelming gravitational pull of family. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Discover: Nayantara Roy's gorgeous, multilayered debut novel delves into the tangled secrets and legalities of a multigenerational family in modern-day Kolkata.

Mia P. Manansala (Arsenic and Adobo; Murder and Mamon) again folds the ingredients of culture, family, friendship, and food into Guilt and Ginataan, the lively fifth volume in her Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery series.

Brew-ha Cafe co-owner Lila Macapagal and her friends and co-workers find that their booth at the annual Shady Pines Corn Festival is drawing new customers eager to try their Filipino dishes and excellent coffee.

Two of those new customers are Judy Reyes, mayor of nearby Shelbyville, Ill., and her wife, Yvonne. Near the end of the day, Yvonne is found stabbed to death in the corn maze, a popular festival destination. Adeena Awan, Lila's best friend and business partner, lies unconscious next to the body, along with a bloody knife. Adeena remembers nothing about the murder. To prove her friend's innocence, Lila enlists her usual group: her three ninangs (godmothers), April, Mae, and June, whom she calls the "Calendar Crew"; her handsome boyfriend, Jae Park; Jae's brother, Jonathan; and Adeena's girlfriend, Elena Torres.

While adhering to the tenets of the cozy mystery, Manansala deftly addresses subjects such as stalking, toxic friendships, and political corruption. The characters' close relationships, respect, and love for one another continue to be an important aspect of Manansala's novels. Manansala also realistically shows how even strong friendships can be bumpy. Frequent meals at Tita Rosie's Kitchen, where characters discuss the crime and festival offerings, infuse the plot with mouthwatering diversions, and a welcome selection of recipes as well as a glossary of terms are also included. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer

Discover: This highly entertaining cozy mystery weaves into its tightly coiled plot depictions of Filipino American heritage, the importance of a close family, and the family one chooses.

A young human woman faces magic, violence, and courtly intrigue as a servant in a sadistic, debauched faerie court in the thrilling, suspenseful dark fantasy Servant of Earth by Sarah Hawley (A Werewolf's Guide to Seducing a Vampire), the first volume in the Shards of Magic series.

Kenna would love to "leave Tumbledown and its small-minded judgments, find a new place to live where [she] wasn't known as the herbwoman's wild daughter." Crossing a monster-infested bog and entering Mistei, the land of the Fae, isn't in her plans, but when her best friend is chosen as a tithe to the fairies, Kenna follows. To her horror, she survives while her friend is lost. Mistei was supposed to be paradise, but instead Kenna finds a depraved court ruled by a cruel, bloodthirsty king. He gives Kenna to Earth, one of six Fae houses, a gesture intended as an insult since faeries see humans as inferior to them. Kenna must help her new mistress pass a series of confounding trials in order to gain immortality. Cheating is forbidden, but refusal could mean death. Kenna is also drawn into a rebellion against the king led by a beautiful, mercurial prince and pressed into spying for the king by his shadow-wielding executioner. If anyone uncovers her triple life, she'll be doomed.

This treacherous, romantically charged adventure features magical weapons, seemingly impossible tasks, and a scrappy, ambitious heroine who beats the odds with wits and courage. Fans of Sarah J. Maas may find their next favorite series here, but Hawley's world-building and magic system take Servant of Earth into original, exciting territory. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Discover: A young woman must survive against all odds in a sadistic Fae court in the first volume of a dark, suspenseful fantasy series.

Author Christina Lynch departs from historical fiction with themes of love and espionage (Sally Brady's Italian Adventure; The Italian Party) to offer an inventively clever comic mystery, Pony Confidential.  

The novel's dual storylines start when Californian Penny Marcus, an unassuming third grade teacher, is arrested. Penny is charged with a murder committed 25 years ago, when she was 12 years old and living in New York. Penny is stunned to be considered a "wanted fugitive" and extradited--away from her estranged husband and mentally ill daughter--to her old hometown.

Decades earlier, Penny's sensitive, loyal pony--who accompanied her on the day of the murder--suffered a "primal wound" when he was sold. Cast adrift from home to home, the willful pony suffered from simmering resentment: "You make us think we're beloved family members (I'm looking at you, Penny!) and then you put a dollar sign on our heads and send us off with anyone who coughs up the cash." Now aging, cynical, and fed up with his lot in life, the pony escapes his current owner. He sets off on a cross-country adventure, enlisting the help of other whimsical talking animals to find Penny and exact his revenge. En route, however, new details emerge about the cold case that put Penny behind bars.

Lynch wrangles a searingly fun, imaginative story that shines with plausible, madcap plotting and keen observations about human nature and animal welfare. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Discover: In this madcap comic mystery, an old pony sets out to find and exact revenge on his former owner, a woman who has been arrested in a 25-year-old murder case.

Jennifer K. Morita transports readers to the beautiful islands of Hawai'i in Ghosts of Waikīkī , a well-plotted murder mystery featuring a reporter who must work with her ex-boyfriend cop to catch a killer.

Raised in Hawai'i, Maya Wong left the islands for graduate school in California and never looked back. But after the newspaper she writes for folds, she's in need of a new job and in no position to turn down an offer to ghostwrite the biography of Parker Hamilton, one of the biggest--and most controversial--real estate developers in Hawai'i. When Parker's wealthy father, Charles, is found dead during Maya's first interview with the family, Maya worries what she's gotten herself into. "How does a man who swam fifty laps a day drown in his own pool?" she wonders--and so do the police, including Detective Koa Yamada, Maya's long-avoided ex. As Koa and his partner investigate what appears to be the murder of the Hamilton patriarch, Maya is drawn further into the Hamiltons' scandals and further back into the life she once left an ocean behind.

"The scent of plumerias drifting on cool trade winds. Backyard parties and freshly picked mangoes. Portuguese doughnuts hot from Leonard's Bakery...." Morita skillfully evokes the Hawaiian setting, transporting readers to Waikīkī, with its white sand beaches and deep blue seas, long-lasting legacy of colonization and tricky relationship with tourism. As it melds the multifaceted context of an incredible place with a fast-paced whodunit, Ghosts of Waikīkī explores the many ways paradise is not always as perfect as it seems. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer

Discover: This well-plotted mystery evokes the beauty of Hawai'i as a writer aims to solve the murder of one of the islands' richest--and most controversial--figures.

Lou Berney's skill for weaving dark humor into his neo-noir novels erupts in full force in Double Barrel Bluff, which brings back former getaway car driver Shake Bouchon.

Shake and his wife, Gina, both of whom have checkered backgrounds, are happily retired in Bloomington, Ind., and enjoying their quiet, fairly mundane lives. Then Shake is tracked down by Armenian mobster Dikran Ghazarian, who once vowed to kill Shake. But to Shake's surprise, Dikran has come to ask for Shake's help to find Los Angeles mob boss Alexandra "Lexy" Ilandryan. Though Dikran is Lexy's "right hand," their relationship is more "like brother and sister" than employee and boss. She's also Shake's former lover. Lexy has disappeared from her annual off-the-grid trip, this year to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Dikran has lost communication with Lexy and she missed a usual check-in on a significant date. Reluctantly, Shake agrees to help find Lexy, who has been kidnapped by a former professor and ex-con who believe she is just a wealthy tourist. The clueless criminals have no idea about her true identity.

Betrayal upon betrayal fuel Double Barrel Bluff. Rescuing Lexy becomes more complicated as her "new number two" sees the situation as an opportunity to seize power. The wisecracking Shake and the "mean, dumb, brutal" Dikran make uneasy allies but are determined to outmaneuver the others and save Lexy. Berney (Whiplash River; The Long and Faraway Gone) propels Double Barrel Bluff with fully realized supporting characters, a vivid depiction of Cambodia, and action that enhances the story. Berney tackles his exciting plot with both barrels. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer

Discover: A former getaway driver is forced out of retirement to find an Armenian mob boss who has been kidnapped in Cambodia in this exciting neo-noir novel tinged with dark humor.

A resourceful, grieving young woman makes a fateful deal with the fae to save her sisters and rescue her father in Mary E. Pearson's transportive first novel for adults, The Courting of Bristol Keats. As in her YA novels, Pearson (The Remnant Chronicles) features a compelling heroine and plenty of action. Destitute Bristol Keats is suspicious when someone claiming to represent her late father's nonexistent aunt offers her the solution to all of her problems--a priceless sketch by Leonardo da Vinci--in exchange for her help closing a magical portal. It's not until they promise to help Bristol search for her father, who is supposedly not so dead after all, that she agrees. Little does she know that deals made with the fae are unbreakable.

When she enters Elphame, Bristol joins a group of fae and part-fae recruits being trained and tested for their ability to close portals. Except human Bristol doesn't have any magic, so what do King Tyghan and his allies want with her? As secrets about her father, the fae, and her own past are revealed, Bristol must decide whom to trust and how to uphold the conflicting promises she's made. The last thing she needs is to fall in love with someone holding her fate in his hands.

Unlike many heroines pulled into faerie lands, Bristol has strong familial and platonic relationships. These, combined with a romantic relationship that isn't unnecessarily delayed, make The Courting of Bristol Keats well equipped to enter the crowded field of fae romantasy. This series starter is perfect for fans of Holly Black and Sarah J. Maas. --Suzanne Krohn, librarian and freelance reviewer

Discover: This fae romantasy series opener, perfect for fans of Holly Black and Sarah J. Maas, features a compelling heroine torn between her father and the fate of the faerie lands.

Sophie Cousens (Before I Do; Just Haven't Met You Yet) has crafted a lovely story of second chances in Is She Really Going Out with Him?, a novel perfect for fans of Annabel Monaghan or Sophie Kinsella. Anna Appleby, a magazine columnist in Bath, England, is managing single parenting as best as she can. Her sister is encouraging Anna to rise from the ashes of her recent divorce and start dating again, but as Anna says, "I am not a phoenix. I am a dazed pigeon, looking for crumbs."

When Anna's magazine is bought out and rumors of staffing cuts begin, she realizes she needs to up her game in order to keep her job. So Anna devises a new angle for her column: she'll go on dates with people chosen by her children, seven-year-old Ethan and 12-year-old Jess.

Yet Anna's increasingly odd dates--with the postman, the father of one of Ethan's classmates, and a famous actor--are somehow freeing. Newly open to the possibilities of love, Anna finds a connection in an unexpected place. Will she be brave enough to go after what she wants?

Smart and poignant, Is She Really Going Out with Him? is a little bit about love and a lot about fresh starts. Readers who have questioned where life has brought them are sure to relate to Anna's joys and sorrows as she navigates circumstances she never saw coming (fishing hook stuck in a date's face, anyone?). Occasionally laugh-out-loud funny and often introspective, Is She Really Going Out with Him? is a delight. --Jessica Howard, freelance book reviewer and former bookseller

Discover: In this delightful novel, a recently divorced writer goes on a series of dates selected by her children and discovers unexpected love along the way.

The charming first volume of Purpah's Suitor Armor, originally released on Webtoon, introduces readers to an exciting world of humans, fairies, mages, and an enchanted suit of armor. Its protagonist, Lucia, is instantly lovable, and she and the other characters gain depth and complexity as the story progresses.

Lady Lucia was taken in by Lady Kirsi's father when both girls were young, and she has served as Kirsi's lady-in-waiting and best friend ever since. Humans and fairies are at war, however, so she must hide her fairy wings and pointed ears from everyone. In the days leading up to Kirsi's wedding to the king, several events challenge the status quo. First, an imposing suit of armor enchanted by the king's mage, Norrix, defeats the champion, Sir Baynard, in a tournament, sparking intense curiosity from Lucia. Then a fairy gets into the castle, and Lucia sees an opportunity to learn more about her nature as a fairy. Lucia's explorations lead to some rule-breaking, despite her usually demure demeanor, and she treats the enchanted armor as a sentient being--despite Norrix's insistence that "it" is just an empty suit of armor--which yields delightful surprises.

The art in this graphic novel intertwines flawlessly with the text to create action and emotion, with small touches such as the word "lean" in light pencil perfectly conveying the movement of someone peeking around a corner, or the phrase "eye contact" forming a bold line between two adversaries squaring off. The story's steady pace and intriguing connections between characters will leave readers satisfied and eagerly awaiting the second volume. --Dainy Bernstein, freelance reviewer

Discover: This charming graphic novel pairs a fairy with an enchanted suit of armor to create a sweet, slow romance and set the stage for adventure in further volumes.

Artist David Lester, historian and activist Marcus Rediker, and retired historian Paul Buhle reunite for a third fascinating title--after Prophet Against Slavery and Under the Banner of King Death--illuminating little-known history through graphic storytelling in Revolution by Fire: New York's Afro-Irish Uprising of 1741. The narrative opens in Boston, Mass., with two women traveling via horse-drawn carriage to New York, their progress charted by diminishing mile markers. The older woman reveals fateful events when "the impoverished, the cold, and the angry gathered in our tavern." Owned by her father, Hughson's near the Hudson River was a haven where those who were "tired o' men in ruffles runnin' everythin' " met to drink, dance, and plan revolution. Formerly enslaved John Gwin, his Irish lover, Peg Kerry, and Harriet the obeah woman all speak their own truths while the traveler shares "the common story" with her companion, whose identity is poignantly revealed near the book's end.

Lester's dynamic, black-and-white art--often larger illustrations overlaid with smaller panels spotlighting facial expressions and details--impressively animates the text, which has been adapted by Lester and Rediker from a chapter of Rediker and Peter Linebaugh's 2013 book, The Many-Headed Hydra. The "uprising by a motley crew of enslaved Africans, Irish soldiers, and mixed-race Cuban sailors, all workers on the New York waterfront" fought to overthrow the power of the abusive white elite. By showcasing "history from below," Lester and Rediker judiciously reclaim agency for the "poor, working-class people who are often left out of the history books." --Terry Hong

Discover: A dynamic, sweeping graphic novel, Revolution by Fire showcases the little-known history of a 1741 uprising against the abusive white elite in New York City.

Bursting with vibrant color photos and endorsed as a "flavor revolution" by fellow food enthusiast and fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, Open Sesame: 45 Sweet & Savory Recipes for Tahini & All Things Sesame by Rachel Belle unlocks innovative uses for a pantry ingredient deserving of its turn in the spotlight. Food lovers eager to expand their recipe repertoire will enjoy Belle's easy-to-follow, globally inspired creations celebrating the humble sesame seed and the starring role it plays in dishes "from the Middle East to the Midwest."

Tahini, made from toasted sesame seeds, is an excellent "understudy for peanut butter when allergies are at play." Paired with chili crisp, tahini brings a nutty depth to gingery chicken meatballs, which feature "the greatest hits of Asian flavors," but its versatility also carries over to breakfast, party snacks, entrées, and even desserts. Belle's sesame-crusted waffles feature "the delicious marriage of tahini and maple syrup," while its addition to almond cake renders the finished result moist and tender. Tahini-spiked pita-chip nachos with chicken shawarma, an ingenious combination, are "tangy, crunchy, creamy, and zesty."

Hummus, a beloved Middle Eastern appetizer, has a complex cultural history. Belle pays homage to its Arab roots, noting its emotional resonance with the people of Palestine and Israel. After trying her "ethereally creamy" Israeli-style hummus, she warns, readers will be unable to go back to the store-bought version.

Belle, who is based in Seattle, Wash., and is an editor-at-large at the Cascade PBS public television station, is the creator and host of the podcast Your Last Meal, a James Beard Award finalist. Belle's first cookbook embraces the flavor and nutritional potential of "one of the most ancient ingredients." --Shahina Piyarali

Discover: The creator and host of the Your Last Meal podcast shares globally inspired recipes that celebrate tahini and the humble sesame seed, including inventive breakfast dishes and desserts.

Fans often perceive actors as tethered to certain roles. For Tim Matheson, such roles include Vice President John Hoynes on The West Wing (which earned him two Emmy nominations), Dr. Vernon Mullins on Virgin River, and a rascally student in National Lampoon's Animal House. It's from a catchphrase spoken by that last character ("Eric Stratton, rush chairman. Damn glad to meet you.") that Matheson draws the title of this highly entertaining, no-holds-barred memoir.

In Damn Glad to Meet You, Matheson recounts the highs and frequent lows of his acting career, which began with bit parts when he was 12 years old, after his single mother contacted the talent agent who represented her boss's son. It's not a career filled with glamour and red carpets, but rather with endless auditions, long stretches without work, and substantial roles augmented by smaller parts. It also afforded him the opportunity to work with such luminaries as Lucille Ball, Dick Van Dyke, and Henry Fonda.

Matheson comes across as charming with an edge. He loves to gossip about co-stars and relays stories about friends such as Bruce McGill, with whom he worked on Animal House, but he doesn't identify those he doesn't like. He also admits to being "an arrogant tool." For instance, after his first meeting with Clint Eastwood, Matheson wonders what he could possibly learn from him--turns out, a lot. Matheson also freely admits his shortcomings in relationships, marriages, and friendships.

Matheson's easy, conversational style and self-deprecating humor invites readers to pull up a chair and reminisce. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer

Discover: In this highly entertaining memoir, actor Tim Matheson recounts the highs and lows of his long career.

In the preface to Innermost House, Cynthia Blakeley writes that her memoir is "about memory and its conjoined twin, forgetting, as well as about our curation and co-construction of the past--and with it, our shaping of the present and future." That prismatic sensibility informs the scope of her enthralling work. Blakeley, who teaches at Emory University, excavates her impoverished childhood on Cape Cod, Mass., examining her own memories and the memories of others. One poignant example is her mother. When Blakeley was 40, she interviewed her mother and learned about a violent, shame-filled episode that occurred before Blakeley was born. Her mother, who often said that "the past is a cancelled check," never spoke of the traumatic years she experienced with an abusive, obsessive husband, but Blakeley felt the presence of secrets haunting her childhood. Some members of Blakeley's family, such as her maternal grandmother, are forthright with their recollections. Others, such as her youngest sister and cousin, recall aspects of the past entirely differently than Blakeley does. Blakeley explores why each memory stands out to her, but perhaps not to others, and how emotions and internal wiring can impact retention.

The memoir loses momentum when Blakeley devolves into describing and decoding her dreams, but readers will forgive this when they learn Blakeley's Ph.D. dissertation was about that very topic. Blakeley is an evocative writer who captures the lush beauty of a "half feral" childhood spent immersed in the natural world while never losing sight of the precarity and violence that permeated it. --Nina Semczuk, writer, editor, and illustrator

Discover: Cynthia Blakeley's evocative, prismatic memoir examines her hardscrabble, Cape Cod, Mass., family through lenses of memory, dreams, and co-created narratives.

The dark, playful, and sometimes tragic roots of Christmas traditions old and new come to light in The Dead of Winter: Beware the Krampus and Other Wicked Christmas Creatures, an entertaining and captivating investigation of the evolution of Christmas celebrations and folkloreby British historian Sarah Clegg (Women's Lore).

Clegg opens with an atmospheric recounting of going out late on a "howling, windswept night" in the British countryside for a Year Walk, a Swedish tradition in which a walk before dawn on Christmas Eve can reveal who will die in the coming year. No ghostly funeral processions appear on Clegg's stroll, but she still sets an ominous mood for her exploration of customs and creatures diametrically opposed to the wholesome, respectable perception of Christmas today. Clegg traces Carnival's "wild, hierarchy-shredding freedom" back to riotous Saturnalia celebrations, delves into folktales to find the origins of the horned monster Krampus, an unsettling wassailing horse-skull costume called the Mari Lywd, and mummers' plays in which the dead return to life. "Are you sure that the darkness has been kept entirely at bay?" she asks readers. "And do you think it might be fun to let a little in?"

This thoroughly researched journey across Europe in search of Christmas past entertains partly through its subject matter and partly through Clegg's engaging voice, which is filled with fascinated enthusiasm for her topic tempered with wry humor and patient research. Readers may find a new favorite tradition or two from Christmases of days long past. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Discover: Wild celebrations and chilling creatures emerge from Christmases past and present in this entertaining and thoroughly researched look at the darker side of the holiday's traditions.

American consumers have been a subject of public scorn, political courtship, market analysis, and journalistic investigation. As a faceless demographic, their habits have seemed to mystify, and even disgust, those who study their preferences, their predictability, their pathology. But in American Bulk: Essays on Excess, Emily Mester takes a more compassionate route through the labyrinth of brand-name overabundance and the pantheon of casual dining chains.

Throughout these 10 inquisitive and deeply observed pieces, Mester is frank about the privilege that raised her. Her parents and her grandparents built significant wealth through dedication and hard work, raising a banner of money over her that distorted her sense of need. In a trilogy of essays about her grandmother's home in Storm Lake, Iowa, Mester ruminates poignantly on the animosity between her lavish spender of a father and his frugal and hoarding mother, who battle like the lost souls in Dante's circle of hell dedicated to the greedy: "They think that they clash because they're opposites. But the impulses that drive them are exactly the same." Nonetheless, a product of her upbringing like many Americans, Mester's gaze through the glass seems preoccupied with neither extravagance nor miserliness, but the very impulse itself to consume. "It wasn't the things that I loved so much as the transaction, the beep of the buttons, the receipt paper smooth between my thumb and forefinger."

From this vantage, American Bulk presents an affable and humble study of the senses that consumption can satisfy and the ones it can't. In a late-stage capitalism heaving with choice, Mester assumes the role of a millennial Virgil with both style and grace. --Dave Wheeler, senior editor, Shelf Awareness

Discover: With 10 essays, Emily Mester forges a compassionate route through brand-name overabundance to better understand the impulse to consume.

There are two pulsing questions at the heart of Spanish journalist Begoña Gómez Urzaiz's The Abandoners: On Mothers and Monsters. Why did women such as Muriel Spark, Mercè Rodoreda, Ingrid Bergman, and Joni Mitchell leave their young children behind? And why do their stories ignite such violent emotional reactions?

In the opening chapter, Gómez Urzaiz delineates the cultural phenomenon. For mothers who abandon children, condemnation is swift, vicious, and widespread. It far exceeds that faced by fathers who do the same. While such fraught situations have no easy answers, Gómez Urzaiz deftly provides examples from history and fiction as she digs into this messy topic.

In 1939, Spark separated from her husband and left her four-year-old son, Robin, at a convent in Zimbabwe, then set off for Edinburgh, Scotland, to pursue writing as a career. When Gómez Urzaiz encountered this aspect of Spark's history, she was caring for two young sons while desperately trying to carve out time to write. The tapestry she weaves by placing the details of Spark's situation alongside her own struggle with the mundanity of parenting is entertaining and enlightening.

Gómez Urzaiz tells each account of abandonment, including Rodoreda leaving her only son behind when she went into exile and Mitchell placing her infant daughter for adoption, with nuance and compassion. That her book is such a gripping read reflects the intensity of the cultural snarl created by gendered expectations of parenting. The Abandoners is an essential exploration of motherhood and feminism. --Carol Caley, writer

Discover: Begoña Gómez Urzaiz boldly shares the stories of real and fictional mothers who left their children behind in this gripping exploration of maternity and feminism.

Taking a leaf from her beloved book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer gleans life lessons from the humble serviceberry tree: embrace "the gift economy" and give as generously as the tree shares its fruits. Known by more than seven names, the serviceberry is beloved in indigenous cultures for its benefits of beauty and sustenance for humans and other creatures. Confronting the dire effects of human overconsumption, Kimmerer nevertheless offers hope that people might live harmoniously with the Earth.

Kimmerer teaches at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry in New York and is founder of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. Her premise in The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World foregrounds examples from Native as well as natural practices. "When the natural world is understood as a gift instead of private property, there are ethical constraints" that limit its overuse, she writes. By contrast, a capitalist economy takes water, "a gift from the skies," and "encase[s] it in plastic containers to sell," and "an old-growth forest is 'worth' far more as lumber than as the lungs of the Earth."

Kimmerer relies on "our oldest teachers, the plants," to impart the rules of a gift economy, including "take only what you need" and "ask permission before taking." In this diminutive primer, illustrated with delicate, detailed sketches by internationally renowned artist John Burgoyne, Kimmerer suggests that "wealth means having enough to share." In spite of her grim accounts of diminishing resources, Kimmerer describes birds with bellies full of serviceberries and cultures based on generosity, gently inspiring readers to embrace a sense of "enoughness." --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.

Discover: With The Serviceberry, Braiding Sweetgrass author Robin Wall Kimmerer offers a gently inspiring guide to fostering generosity and "enoughness," which will lead to a culture in harmony with nature.

Comedian Youngmi Mayer opens her memoir, I'm Laughing Because I'm Crying--equal parts rollicking and heartbreaking--with a confessional epigraph: "To Mom and Dad (Don't be mad at me)." She quickly warns, "I am comfortable saying shit that I truly should not be saying in any situation." Woven through her unfiltered memories of growing up biracial--her mother is Korean, her father white--in a dysfunctional family are crucial, smack-in-the-face observations about selfhood, inherited Korean and Irish generational trauma, gender disparity, and, most poignantly, the mother/child bond.

Born in Songtan, South Korea, near a U.S. military base, Mayer's challenging childhood continued in Jeju, Saipan, and Seoul before she moved to San Francisco, Calif., at age 20 to escape an abusive boyfriend. After obtaining a refund for the unused return portion of her airline ticket, she had $700 to start her new life. Her young adulthood was defined by drugs, violence, and brief stint as a sex worker. She met and married chef Danny Bowien, with whom she shared skyrocketing fame and fortune, and also a son. She chose to be a "poor... happy" single mom and eventually found her voice as a stand-up comedian.

Laughing while crying was, and is, Mayer's coping mechanism. "Do you know what happens if you laugh while crying?" her mother insisted. "Hair grows out of your butthole." Mayer laughed herself to survival: "I come from the strongest people, who have been through the worst of humanity, and the jokes were what made it possible for us to continue. I would not be here without inappropriate humor." For her lucky readers, chortles and tears prove inevitable. --Terry Hong

Discover: Comedian Youngmi Mayer's raw, revealing memoir is ready to shock and delight.

It's not difficult to find drawings from World War II, but among the pithiest are those that Saul Steinberg (1914-1999) made for the New Yorker and other publications in 1943 and 1944. In 1945, he collected those works, along with earlier humorous pieces, in All in Line, a book that New York Review Books has reissued with an introduction by New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck and an afterword on the book's development by Australian scholar Iain Topliss. Steinberg, Finck writes, "disowned his native Romanian," attended architecture school in Milan, Italy, and adopted English when he came to the United States in his 20s. When Steinberg was drafted, writes Topliss, New Yorker editor-in-chief Harold Ross used his influence to get Steinberg "assigned to the propaganda arm of the Office of Strategic Services." During his 15-month stint, Steinberg made many of the drawings that appear here.

The first third of this handsome volume contains deceptively simple charmers unrelated to wartime, such as a little girl in her playroom with her trussed father lying on a toy railroad track as a tiny train approaches. The remainder is devoted to cartoons Steinberg made while stationed in China, India, Algeria, and Italy. Most of those drawings involve soldiers interacting with locals, as when servicemen eat Chinese food at a restaurant also patronized by a Chinese contingent or crouch to inspect goods for sale at an Indian curio shop. This reissue is a fitting tribute to the reportage of one of the more significant cartoonists of the 20th century. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer

Discover: This fitting tribute to New Yorker cartoonist Saul Steinberg, originally published in 1945, combines whimsical cartoons with reportorial pieces he drew while stationed overseas in World War II.

Josh Silver's thrilling YA debut, HappyHead, follows a teenager with an anxiety disorder as he takes part in an experimental mental health program that offers participants "the opportunity to find enduring happiness."

Seventeen-year-old Sebastian (Seb) Seaton's mum thinks he has "always had a bit of a sensitive nature." Seb, an anxious, queer kid from a religious family, thinks he is misunderstood by most everyone in his life. When he receives an invitation to take part in the HappyHead Project, his parents and teachers see it as the perfect chance for Seb to "equip [himself] for the Next Phase of Life." After a long journey from Woking to the remote Scottish coast, Seb finds himself in a sterile facility governed by the imperious Madame Gloria Manning and her squad of overalls-wearing, garishly smiling Assessors. Seb and his "teammates"--fiercely competitive Eleanor, athletic and resourceful Ash, and skeptical troublemaker Finn--must work together to complete a series of tasks, designed by elite psychologist Dr. Eileen Stone. But as time progresses and the participants' tasks become more extreme, Seb begins to wonder whether something sinister lies behind the smiling faces of the staff at HappyHead.

Silver, who is a mental health nurse, writes realistic teens who grapple with adolescent anxieties around social acceptance and self-expression--anxieties that are especially acute for the novel's queer characters. Central to the novel is an interrogation of formulaic approaches to mental health and the search for happiness which, Silver argues, depends on one's ability to express themselves openly, love whom they wish, and to feel safe. --Cade Williams, freelance reviewer.

Discover: This suspenseful YA science fiction thriller follows a troubled queer teenager as he takes part in a questionable mental health program "to find enduring happiness."

Halfway There is an emotional, inspiring graphic memoir by comic artist Christina Mari (Diary of a Tokyo Teen) about her own experience with depression while attending college in Tokyo.

Christine was born in Tokyo to a Japanese mother and an American father and was called "all kinds of different things" growing up: "mixed/ half/ wasian/ halfie/ hapa/ hafu." At five, she moved to the States; at 19, she returned to Tokyo to attend college. But Christine continues to struggle with her identity--she feels "too American to be Japanese and too Japanese to be American." Even though Christine feels alone and her mental health begins to decline, her mother's mother, Baba, works to prove her love for the young woman. Christine, often apologetic for her lack of Japanese, is still comforted by Baba's loving, tender words: "Maybe you don't think I know you that well... I know you."

Mari's artistic depiction of depression is stunning. The entire graphic novel is illustrated in a purple-hued grayscale that uses stark black to magnify Christine's loneliness and her all-consuming internal crisis. The author uses the book's format to enhance emotions: she fills a single page with a crowd full of people, Christine screaming at its center; on pages with panels, the boxes scatter, change shape, or shrink. Pops of red and pink are sprinkled throughout and become especially meaningful on the graphic novel's single full-color page, which depicts Christine and Baba standing by a cherry blossom tree. The cherry tree suggests the importance of understanding that moments of beauty and joy may be brief, but they will return. --Kharissa Kenner, library media specialist, Churchill School and Center

Discover: This deeply moving graphic memoir recounts the author's experience finding her place in this world while battling depression.

In Goodbye, Hello: A Going Home Travel Adventure, author Angela H. Dale (Bus Stop) and artist Daniel Wiseman (When Your Llama Needs a Haircut) infuse a weighty topic with charm and joy: the separation and reunion of U.S. military families.

On a New York City sidewalk, a mother and her two young children are ready for transit, saying goodbye to the grandparents as a yellow-cab driver begins to load their luggage: "One last hug./ Strap and click./ Airport, please./ Quick, quick, quick." A long journey awaits the trio, through the international terminal, long lines, and a "hustle, bustle" to reach their gate. Once on board, it's soon "Wheels go round./ Rumble, whoosh./ Goodbye, ground/ Cars and buildings/ shrink--goodbye./ Hello, clouds,/ sun, and sky." The family lands in Tokyo for more "hustle, bustle" through lines at immigration, baggage claim, and another shuttle. After one "last big wait" at the pier, the children spot their other parent: "Hello, Mama!/ 'Missed you so!' " Finally "we're four./ More to love."

Dale's succinct, measured verses are inspired by her own experiences as a U.S. Navy spouse. Her rhythmic text, with its distinct beat, should work as both a read aloud and as practice for beginning readers. Wiseman's whimsical, vibrant digital art depicts the constant motion of all manner of airport travelers and staff, and the excited welcome-home crowds on the Navy pier. A few minute but specific details are problematic: for example, the Japanese in the Tokyo airport is inaccurate. Small quibbles aside, the standout message here is all about family being together: "Goodbye, goodbyes,/ Hello, hugs." --Terry Hong

Discover: Angela H. Dale and Daniel Wiseman warmly celebrate a very special, very inclusive family reunion in this welcoming picture book.

Rebecca E. Hirsch's A Deathly Compendium of Poisonous Plants: Wicked Weeds and Sinister Seeds starts with a warning: "Proceed with caution." Rather than striking fear, Hirsch's conspiratorial tone creates an invitation that will be especially enticing to those who dance with danger and those curious about the science of deadly plants. Each of the book's 23 chapters focuses on a single plant, opening with a vivid illustration by Eugenia Nobati and a suspenseful anecdote before Hirsch (Plants Can't Sit Still) dives in. Most chapters contain a box of brief information, including the featured plant's scientific and common names, where it grows, and symptoms of poisoning, as well as a section Hirsch calls "Deadly Details." In the chapter on the gympie-gympie tree, this section describes a marsupial found in the tree's native Australia that is immune to the tree's toxins.

Each chapter stands alone, and some of the narratives can be grisly, so some readers may want to take breaks while reading. Some chapters include fascinating history, such as the chapter on the opium poppy, which is the source of such addictive drugs as morphine and heroin. Readers may be surprised to learn that heroin was originally manufactured in the hope of creating a nonaddictive substitute for morphine and that "in 1900 the charitable St. James Society offered free heroin through the mail to anyone wishing to kick morphine." The book closes with an author's note (in which Hirsch includes a poison control phone number), a glossary, and a list of further resources, making this a deeply interesting and highly informative YA offering that could easily cross over to adult readers. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian

Discover: A Deathly Compendium of Poisonous Plants is a deeply interesting and informative YA book that will appeal to those who dance with danger and those curious about the science of deadly plants.

In Billie and Bean in the Mountains, the third charmer in Julia Hansson's Billie and Bean picture book series, all translated from the Swedish by B.J. Woodstein, city child Billie is once again facing an unbidden opportunity to flex her independence, this time on a ski slope.

Billie, her mother, and their dog, Bean, are in the mountains, where Mom has decided that her daughter is going to ski school--Billie is "too big now" for Mom to pull her around on a sled. Billie quickly determines that sled rides from Bean would be more fun than ski school. Not so fun: when they're in the woods, Bean gets freaked out by a mass of falling snow and runs off with the sled, stranding Billie. Finally, a small white animal (it looks like a stoat) shows her the way back. Billie resolves to keep her rescuer's identity to herself--the suggestion is that it's a secret that she, by virtue of her bravery, has earned the right to keep.

As the book's storyline commands readers' attention, Billie and Mom's relationship invites contemplation. Mom, who is obviously exhausted--she's parenting solo and "needs to rest because she's been busy at work"--has something to gain from her daughter's self-reliance, and this seems to at least partly fuel Billie's sulkiness about skiing. It's all there on the clearly articulated faces in Hansson's digitally aided watercolor-and-pencil art, in which primary and secondary colors assume well-defined shapes against pristine-canvas-like snow. --Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author

Discover: In the third charmer in the Billie and Bean picture book series, young Billie flexes her independence once again, this time on a ski slope, and makes a woodland friend.