Norwegian author Frode Grytten's The Ferryman and His Wife is a beautiful meditation on love and loss that answers the question of how to tell the story of one man's life, outwardly modest yet nonetheless striking. The man is Nils Vik, trusted for years to ferry people across the fjord, now facing the last day of his life. Though it mentions a recent diagnosis, the novel doesn't offer further explanation; still, Nil's intentions are clear as he readies the house, leaves a note for his daughters, burns the mattress, and asks himself: "What do you take with you when you know you're not coming back?"

Translator Alison McCullough infuses Grytten's text with an artful simplicity, poetic but never ponderous: "The day had yet to take on its colours. The grass was trampled flat and autumnally mottled, and it had stopped raining. He loved mornings like this, laden and untouched." On his way to his boat, Nils is surprised by Luna, his canine companion who died years ago; readers come to understand this will be no ordinary narrative. Throughout the day, Nils travels the fjord, picking up figures from his past, each fulfilling his goal when he set out: "He will pull a thread through time, follow it backwards, see where time takes him.... He will trace what he has loved in life, lift it up, honour it. For if he doesn't do this, who will?" A stunning rumination on time and what it means to have lived well, this novel is a perfect reminder of the importance of life's small moments. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian

Discover: The Ferryman and His Wife is a stunning meditation on time and what it means to have lived well, a perfect reminder of how important even the small moments of life can be.

The Silver Book, Olivia Laing's eighth book, is steeped in the homosexual demimonde of 1970s Italian cinema. Its clear antifascist message is filtered through the coming-of-age story of an Englishman trying to outrun his past.

Laing's second novel (after Crudo) opens with 22-year-old art student Nicholas Wade fleeing London for Venice in 1974. He falls in with Danilo Donati, a 40-something art director meticulously designing costumes for Federico Fellini's Casanova. Nico becomes Dani's apprentice--as well as his lover. They move between Rome and Venice, also working on Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò, a Sadeian horror-cum-satire on fascism. The behind-the-scenes details of sets, props, and meals are fascinating.

Hedonism and menace mingle. An early scene warns of the danger of cruising: Dani comes home one night drunk and with a broken nose. Haunted by what happened back in London, Nico becomes addicted to sleeping pills. He catches Pasolini's eye, while Dani sleeps with other crew members. Cinephiles may know what's coming; for others, it will be a shock when a key character is murdered for his political convictions and accused of bringing it on himself by paying young men for sex.

This novel offers the best of both worlds: the verisimilitude of true crime reportage and the intimacy of the close third person. Laing (The Trip to Echo Spring) leavens the tone with some darkly comedic moments, especially when Donald Sutherland arrives to star in Casanova. The Silver Book is an elegant and psychologically astute work from one of the most valuable cultural commentators out there. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck

Discover: Olivia Laing's stylish second novel is at once an antifascist fable, a queer coming-of-age story, and a behind-the-scenes look at 1970s Italian cinema.

In Three Stories of Forgetting, Portuguese author Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida (That Hair) sharply and wrenchingly confronts terrifying colonial legacies in three novellas interconnected by suffering and (im)morality. De Almeida introduces three distinct narrators separated by centuries; these aging men struggle with debilitating memories of enslavement, war, and senseless violence as they confront grave acts of inhumanity both perpetrated by and forced upon each of them.

"A Vision of Plants" opens the trio, perhaps the collection's most powerful. Former ship captain Celestino has returned from countless voyages facilitating the heinous logistics of Portugal's slave trade: "He had burned down huts, cut off heads, and let everyone know it. And the world did nothing." He endures the last of his days trying to tame his "unkempt garden," its chaos not unlike his savage past.

"Seaquake" follows, jumping ahead to 21st-century Lisbon, presented as a father's epistolary confession to his estranged grown daughter, Aurora. He killed indiscriminately for the Portuguese military in his youth; now impaired by a hernia, he's barely subsisting, although he lives as if to make amends, extending kindness to his found family--an abandoned dog, a young runaway, an unhoused woman.

Slavery haunts again in "Bruma," the name of an enslaved 19th-century, 60-something footman. Voracious literacy--self-taught--allows him reprieve from his captive servitude, escaping to the "cabin" of his imagination. Bruma repeatedly blurs reality and the literary as a means of survival.

Despite the book's title, readers are unlikely to forget. Complacence is impossible as de Almeida exposes centuries of horror with demanding graphic detail in Alison Entrekin's haunting English translation. Forgetting is not a viable option. --Terry Hong

Discover: Portuguese writer Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida hauntingly, inexorably confronts heinous colonial legacy via a trio of aging narrators in Three Stories of Forgetting.

"Evolve Yourself, Embrace Yourself." So encourages Evolvoir, the fictional technology company disrupting the beauty industry in Eshani Surya's Ravishing. Evolvoir promises a face cream that delivers everything from minor facial tweaks to complete appearance overhauls, and teenager Kashmira is ripe for such messaging. She's spent her entire life attempting to conform to her father's wishes, only for him to walk out on their family for good, leaving her estranged from her older brother and living with her emotionally absent mother. She wants nothing more than to "separate herself from her dysfunctional specter of a family," but she sees her father's face every time she looks in the mirror, complete with his intensely internalized racism against his South Asian heritage and a "deep-seated hatred of what he called 'traditional shit.'  " Lonely, friendless, and steeped in online rhetoric and harmful beauty standards, Kashmira starts using Evolvoir's signature product. But although the product works on her face, it comes at a cost--one she's not sure she's willing to pay.

Surya's debut novel infuses an emotional family drama with the political intrigue surrounding Big Tech to great effect. Though some themes--structural inequities that bar people of color from accessing mental health resources, self-acceptance as the greatest gift, the risks of consumerism in place of actual healing, to name but a few--are planted a bit obviously within the larger plot, they never feel entirely out of place. As the wellness industry grows ever larger, Ravishing is a timely exploration of what it truly means to be well, and what happens when wellness becomes, in and of itself, a kind of illness. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer

Discover: This debut novel infuses an emotional family drama with the political intrigue surrounding Big Tech in timely exploration of what it means to sell wellness vs. what it means to be well.

In this accomplished and beautifully written debut novel, Lauren Rothery offers a sharp-edged homage to Hollywood past and present and a knowing look at the tension between fame and art.

Television shifts between two main points of view; Verity, an aging but still magnetic actor whose scrappy art-house days have given way to alcohol abuse, young girlfriends, and roles in mindless blockbuster franchises; and screenwriter Helen, his best friend, confidante, and frequent lover, who has known Verity for decades. A third narrator, Phoebe, an aspiring enigmatic screenwriter, enters the novel as Verity gets the idea to give away his earnings from his latest movie in a lottery. It doesn't take long before the louche Verity has taken up with an actress 30 years younger than him, much to Helen's dismay. The novel doesn't concern itself much with plot beyond this, but readers won't miss it as Rothery's wonderfully layered characters deliver observations on art, vanity, and beauty in prose that manages to feel vintage and contemporary at the same time. Perhaps anticipating an inevitable comparison, Helen notes, "Everybody thinks they're Joan Didion when they write about the flowers or the river."

Ultimately, however, the novel zeros in on relationships as the lifeblood of creativity. "Some people you meet them and you imagine this movie together. The two of you make a kind of movie and then it's over," Verity states. "Other people, what you imagine isn't a movie, because it keeps going. It's television." Stylish, smart, and glamorous, Television is catnip for lovers of literary fiction. --Debra Ginsberg, author and freelance editor

Discover: This stylish debut novel is a smart and beautifully written homage to Hollywood, past and present.

Find Him!, the third novel by the late Elaine Kraf (I Am Clarence; The Princess of 72nd Street), explores her trademark themes of women's mental health and sexual freedom through a case of Stockholm syndrome.

The unnamed narrator arrives at Oliver's home an unformed adult in need of schooling in numerous subjects, including toileting and speech. As Henry Higgins to her Eliza Doolittle, he teaches her with much ingenuity and patience. Yet he is also capable of violence. She always feels like an intruder, or a replacement for Oliver's departed love, Edith, whose violet dress he likes her to wear. As the woman's naïveté cedes to precocity, their relationship turns sexual--but he only rapes her once, she insists. "He was the prince of men and nothing can change my mind," she declares, despite repellent descriptions: "You would think Oliver loathsome with his huge stomach, urine odor and... brown-clawed toenails." His project is an "Encyclopedia of Great Men" who typify the "frenzied idealist" (perhaps he counted himself one?); he claims to have met Adolf Hitler and corresponded with Vincent van Gogh.

The 1977 novel is obsessed with vision and language. The experimental mixture of forms--poetry, sheet music, letters from Edith--is typical for Kraf and gives temporary relief from a claustrophobic, repetitive narrative. Readers are kept guessing: Was the protagonist kidnapped? Amnesiac? Where is Oliver now? And what do these "evil investigators" want with her? Disturbing but intriguing, Find Him! would be an ideal follow-up read for fans of Liz Nugent's Strange Sally Diamond. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck

Discover: This intriguing modern classic--experimental in form and feminist in message--explores women's mental health and sexual freedom through a case of Stockholm syndrome.

Secrets threaten to destroy not only a precious library but also the lives of those protecting it in The Library of Fates by Margot Harrison (Only She Came Back), a thrilling adventure packed with twists and turns.

Eleanor Dennet finds solace in 1995 when she is invited to an exclusive seminar with Odile Vernet, the commanding founder and librarian of Harvard's Library of Fates, where students can request a book and the library will deliver the book that could change their lives. Along with five classmates, Eleanor discovers the secret of the library: The Book of Dark Nights, whose magical properties fuel the library's abilities and is filled with confessions its readers have scribbled in exchange for a prediction about their futures. Years after that tumultuous semester, Eleanor is thrust into the role of librarian when Odile dies under bizarre circumstances. Odile's son, Daniel, who has forgotten the brief but intense romance he shared with Eleanor in 1995, is back in town. But The Book of Dark Nights is missing from its safe, and mysterious notes Odile left before her death send Eleanor and Daniel on a race to find the book--and the truth about its origins and purpose--before it falls into the wrong hands.

Told in chapters alternating between past and present, The Library of Fates is a wild journey of ambition, confessions, and betrayals. The cast of characters adds depth, and a steady build-up of danger leads to a shocking showdown and an unexpected but satisfying conclusion. --Dainy Bernstein, freelance reviewer

Discover: Past events are slowly uncovered in this atmospheric novel about a magical book and the race to find it before it falls into the wrong hands.

The Week of Colors is Mexican writer Elena Garro's first--posthumous, overdue--collection in English, exquisitely translated by Megan McDowell. Over 13 stories, Garro (1916-1998) seamlessly layers reality and surreality, creating hybrid worlds where multiple timelines, monsters, and childish imaginations coexist (not always peacefully) with what seems readily visually, aurally, and intellectually recognizable.

In the disturbing titular story, the enigmatic Don Flor proudly escorts two young sisters through his home, where he imprisons women named for days of the week, assigns them vices, then tortures them to "fit [each] with the virtue that would check her vice." Sunday's vice is "lust"; he viciously violates her so she might attain "generosity." Those sisters, Eva and Leli, return in multiple stories, revealing both their privilege as "little blonde girls" and their suffering as too often being treated as the lesser gender. Moving marginalized voices into the spotlight, Garro gives voice to an indigent villager desperately seeing work in the poignant "The Cobbler from Guanajuato," and to an abused Indigenous woman hoping for safe shelter in the shocking "The Tree."

Not unlike her characters, Garro was all too familiar with being personally, societally, and creatively stifled, and particularly overshadowed and oppressed by her husband, Octavio Paz (they were married from 1937 to 1959). Contemporary novelist Álvaro Enrigue's introduction provides illuminating contextualization of Garro's own literary significance, reclaiming her as a "bold innovator" who championed oppressed voices and noting her rightful recognition as the "inventor of magical realism." Six decades since its original 1964 publication, Garro's collection should entice new generations to discover her with fresh, open eyes. --Terry Hong

Discover: Elena Garro's The Week of Colors, her first collection available in English, presents 13 stories that expertly, exquisitely blend reality and surreality.

South African novelist Nadia Davids's twisting gothic drama Cape Fever opens by highlighting narrator Soraya's ability to read, which she keeps from her employer. Soraya goes to work as combined cleaner and cook for the settler Mrs. Hattingh in 1920. In the colonial city in which Mrs. Hattingh reigns over a large, lonely home, Soraya's close-knit, loving family lives in the nearby Muslim quarter; Soraya is rarely permitted by her employer to visit. Soraya's fiancé, Nour, is an accomplished scholar who works on a farm while saving for teachers' college.

There are moments in which Soraya feels something like fellowship with her employer, but working for and living with Mrs. Hattingh, under power structures bigger than the individual, is deeply unpleasant. Soraya retreats, in her small room, into the stories and characters that have come to her all her life: the Gray Women, as she terms the spirits that she alone can see; a seawoman with ink for blood. She finds Mrs. Hattingh's house is teeming with spirits.

Mrs. Hattingh introduces a new comfort and stressor when she offers to write to Nour on Soraya's behalf. As one woman takes the voice of the other--and intercepts the correspondence that arrives in return--their identities blur in disturbing ways. In the increasingly claustrophobic manor, the tension between the two women builds, resulting in complex layers of psychological intrigue amid themes of class, race, love, grief, and haunting. In Soraya's compelling voice, Davids blends mysticism, quiet power and resistance, and pain born of a long stretch of history in this unsettling tale of suspense. Cape Fever is beautiful, discomfiting, and moving. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia

Discover: A lonely colonial woman offers to write letters to the fiancé of her maid and the two become disturbingly intertwined in this evocative gothic tale of race, class, and spirits.

In Laura Griffin's gripping Innocence Road, the death of Detective Leanne Everhart's father prompts her to leave her position in Dallas for the Madrone Police Department in her west Texas hometown.

Her father's death "had thrown everything into chaos," forcing Leanne to deal with "her dysfunctional family," including her mother and meth-addicted brother. Leanne knows the locals resent her for leaving Madrone, while Police Chief Jim McBride resents that she came back and he had to hire her, due to pressure to have "at least a token female, plus the weight of her father's legacy." McBride thwarts Leanne at every turn during her investigation of the murder of a Jane Doe found on a "parched patch of desert" near Madrone.

McBride also ignores that a forensic anthropologist identified the remains of four additional women found near the same place over the years. He doesn't want more attention from the horde of journalists who arrive after the high-profile murder conviction of a man named Sean Moriarty is overturned. The court ruled that Moriarty's confession was coerced by the police, who included Leanne's father.

Griffin's evocative sense of place captures the minutiae of small-town life. Leanne misses "the life-altering freedom of being able to shop for groceries without someone peering over your shoulder" that she enjoyed in Dallas.

Innocence Road maps a strong plot buoyed by powerful characters like Leanne, whose tenacious personality enhances her skills as an investigator. Leanne has a two-fold determination for justice: as she pursues her own investigation, she's driven to find out if her father was partly responsible for convicting an innocent man. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer

Discover: A detective's investigation into a woman's murder leads to a string of similar deaths through the years in this crackling police procedural.

Valkesh army sergeant Nix Marr reluctantly accompanies the woman she once loved to look into a crime in an isolated outpost and discovers the danger to her heart is the least of her worries in This Gilded Abyss, the first volume in the Titan's Wrath steampunk horror trilogy by Rebecca Thorne (Can't Spell Treason Without Tea; Alchemy and a Cup of Tea).

Subarch Kessandra is beloved, the only member of the royal family to serve in the army. Nix wants to leave their affair buried in the past, but Kess wants Nix to accompany her to the underwater city of Fall to investigate a massacre, and Nix's parents could use the benefits of royal gratitude. On board the submersible to Fall, Kess explains that the massacre appears to have been the result of a disease characterized by uncontrollable, violent impulses--and it rapidly becomes clear that the disease is present on the submersible.

Thorne has crafted a taut, atmospheric fantasy full of both romance and peril. Nix and Kess have few people they can trust on their claustrophobia-inducing ship, and it's by no means clear if they can trust each other. The gradual pace at which readers learn what brought about the end of their romance mirrors their cautious reconciliation. Scenes of cinematically described violence combine with the latent disease's lingering menace to generate an inescapable sense of suspense. Fans will be eager to see what awaits in the next installment. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library

Discover: A horrific threat emerges on a submersible on its way to an underwater city in the taut, atmospheric first volume of Rebecca Thorne's sapphic steampunk trilogy.

In Colin Brush's debut novel, Exo, Earth's oceans have been overtaken by an encroaching gray substance that attracts humans with its siren call and disintegrates anyone who touches it. Among the few humans on the shore resisting its lure is Mae Jameson, who lost her husband to it decades ago. When she discovers that a scientist living nearby has been murdered, she's compelled to find out who killed him and takes responsibility for the young child he left behind.

This atmospheric novel takes place in a thoroughly imagined setting in which Earth is largely deserted and humanity is scattered across the solar system in orbital habitats and dome-shielded cities. The plot is a mathematical adventure featuring a scientist's journal and a hyperdimensional entity that will delight fans of hard sci-fi. A vividly constructed cast of characters reckons with Earth's demise: a cult priest worships the encroaching ocean; a perpetually helpful mechanic fixes everyone's jerry-rigged machines while desperately trying to find a way off the quarantined Earth; a pair of aging sisters hosts anyone who wants to visit the garden they tend around their homestead.

As Mae investigates the murder, the novel ramps up into a riveting mystery, although it is one that culminates in a scene likely to shock and unsettle readers especially sensitive to matters of fertility. But to say more would also spoil one of the central reveals of the book. Exo builds on cherished staples of postapocalyptic fiction: a ragtag collection of characters who help one another out in an inhospitable landscape. But the murder adds another layer, casting them all in the light of suspicion. --Carol Caley, writer

Discover: Exo is an atmospheric sci-fi murder mystery set on an Earth overtaken by a gray ocean that attracts humans with its siren call and disintegrates anyone who touches it.

Sophie Cousens (This Time Next Year; Is She Really Going Out with Him?) has a gift for writing crisp, nuanced romances with authentically awkward main characters. And Then There Was You includes all of those elements plus a strong dash of science fiction, thanks to some astoundingly futuristic technology.

Chloe Fairway is feeling fairly tragic about moving back to her parents' house after a bad breakup. She doesn't like her job either, and she is dreading her 10-year reunion at Oxford University, where she'll see her ex-best friend--now a famous movie director. But when a former co-worker connects Chloe with a mysterious dating service, she ends up having one of the best dates of her life with a man named Rob Dempsey.

Then to her horror, Chloe discovers that Rob Dempsey is not human. He's a walking, talking android programmed to be her match, and she's both appalled and intrigued. Desperate not to appear pathetic at her reunion, Chloe decides to bring Rob along to Oxford, where she reconnects with old friends and old flames. Rob turns out to be even better than Chloe at socializing--until his batteries start running low.

Clever and thought-provoking, And Then There Was You blends debates about the future of artificial intelligence with laugh-out-loud romantic moments. Cousens has a knack for witty repartee, and this novel is no exception. Perfect for fans of Holly Gramazio's The Husbands or Matt Haig's The Midnight Library, And Then There Was You is sure to appeal to romance and sci-fi readers alike. --Jessica Howard, former bookseller, freelance book reviewer

Discover: In this clever and slightly futuristic romance, a woman finds herself torn between a chance to reconnect with a college friend and her new high-tech, android boyfriend.

Originally published in France in 2023, comics creator Marc Chalvin's Pigeons! A Fable for Our Times proves even more uncomfortably, darkly humorous in 2025. In Chalvin's urban avian universe, pigeons are plentiful--and, initially, content: "Don't we have it good here?" Their complacency makes them easy victims of Korback the crow's manipulations. A pigeon crosses the road when Korbak claims it's safe to and is mowed down by a speeding car; he's watching in glee, commenting, "It really is a miracle the species has survived." Korbak gloats to Seagull about his absolute power over the pigeons, adding, "I have to restrain myself from being cruel."

Seagull wants to educate the masses: "Can't you see that he's taking advantage of you?" Yet all attempts are quickly dismissed. When Seagull finally overhears the pigeons' disgruntled complaints ("yeah, he's always on our backs"), she strategically swoops in to say, "If you want to get rid of Korbak... we need to plan elections." Seagull tenaciously explains the need, the process, the possibilities, even inspiring a candidate from among their own. Korbak barely expresses concern: "The pigeons are immature incompetents." Seagull rallies for their agency: "The pigeons are citizens free to express their opinion." Korbak remains confident, saying, "I'll make history as the first dictator ever to be elected democratically." Let the voting commence.

Chalvin's orderly black-and-white panels mirror the looming control throughout. His simple line drawings gloriously, anthropomorphically depict meticulous expressions and unmistakable body language. Laura Bourbonnais deftly translates. Chalvin brilliantly captures history on repeat: vicious bully vs. idealistic outsider with gullible masses to control. --Terry Hong

Discover: A city crow and aquatic seagull fight over wide-eyed pigeons in French comics maker Marc Chalvin's humorous but chilling Pigeons! A Fable for Our Times.

In Miguel Vila's graphic novel Comfortless, emotions are already at a breaking point and continue to fracture across a series of fervent vignettes, taking place in the Venetian region of Italy during Covid-19 and, eventually, in a speculative future. Translated from the Italian by Jamie Richards, Comfortless demonstrates Vila's expertise at exposing and exploiting the latent tensions. For instance, in the chapter aptly titled "Escalation," Irene "Ire" Bellamio becomes increasingly incensed by a man who takes masked jogs outside her window during lockdown. At first, she throws water balloons, but soon she graduates to arson, all while her friendship with Giulia undergoes its own frictions. Using a warm, soft palette of mostly pinks, purples, and reds, Vila (Milky Way) enhances a dissonance between emotional intensity and muted outward appearance. Vila often forgoes traditional equal-grid compositions for a range of styles that lend velocity and surprising white space to the project.

Comfortless has a large cast of characters, several in their 20s, whose lives have been upended by the lockdowns. The vignette characters reappear in other stories, and they contain a few intertwining through lines, including one that begins the book with a secret almost revealed between two friends, only to be interrupted and upended in multiple ways. However, the return to the secret at the end lends the book a satisfaction that, while hinted at in a few of the sections, becomes concrete with the final reveal. Comfortless offers an intense Covid-19 fever dream that will appeal to fans of Mattie Lubchansky's Simplicity. --Nina Semczuk, writer, editor, and illustrator

Discover: Comfortless by Miguel Vila exploits the latent hostilities within friend groups, heightened by the stress of living through Covid-19.

Fans of sketch comedy owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Sid Caesar. Decades before Second City Television and The Kids in the Hall, Caesar and his cohort of fellow comics, including Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, and a young writer named Mel Brooks, revolutionized television with the 1950s NBC sketch series Your Show of Shows. In When Caesar Was King, David Margolick (Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling; Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song) chronicles the career highs and two-decade lows of Caesar, "the most original and talented television comic there ever was." Caesar's humor, Margolick notes, was zany yet sophisticated, blending slapstick, pantomime, his extraordinary gift for double-talk, and parodies of films such as Bicycle Thieves and Ugetsu. Not bad for a guy born into a Jewish household in Yonkers in 1922 who didn't speak until he was three.

It wasn't long before Caesar, who discovered his gift for mimicry at an early age, became so popular that his fans included Leonard Bernstein, Isaac Asimov, and Albert Einstein. All that success had downsides, however, including a dangerously gargantuan appetite--he'd eat four steaks in one sitting, and had an affinity for jellied calves' hooves--and a booze-and-pills addiction that led to a period from 1960 to 1980 that Caesar called "a twenty-year lost weekend." Margolick covers all of this, as well as the influence of Caesar's Jewish heritage on his humor, in a lively narrative that explains Caesar's enduring appeal. Comedy fans will love it. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer

Discover: When Caesar Was King by David Margolick is a lively biography of Sid Caesar, the pioneering comic whose 1949-1954 sketch program, Your Show of Shows, set the standard for TV comedy.

Chef and restaurateur Marc Meyer highlights the stories of 27 immigrant workers who help sustain his restaurants--and the New York City restaurant industry--in his dynamic, timely Voices from the Kitchen.

Meyer is a chef-partner of the Bowery Group, which owns five Manhattan restaurants, including Cookshop and Shuka. In a brief introduction, he praises the "strength, creativity, humor, and humanity" of the contributors. He then lets the narrators speak for themselves to share their struggles, triumphs, and essential food memories. Each personal narrative is a savory dish, flavored with the cuisine and memories of the speakers' homelands, including Honduras, Peru, El Salvador, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ireland, and many contributions from Mexico.

The narrators speak matter-of-factly, detailing danger from gangs or war; recounting long and often harrowing journeys to the U.S.; and humbly celebrating their triumphs, such as working their way up the restaurant ranks, buying a house, or supporting their families back home. Each story also contains striking sensory details: the savory flavors of Honduran tapado; the warmth of homemade tortillas; the sensation of being crammed into a water truck with other immigrants; and the chaos and bustle of a restaurant kitchen. Although each story is distinct in its particulars, there are several through lines: a lack of opportunity in the contributors' home countries (sometimes paired with violence or danger), the desire for a better life, and years of unrelenting hard work.

Spirited and moving, Voices from the Kitchen celebrates the vital contributions of immigrants to the literal and metaphorical nourishment of their adopted country. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Discover: Restaurateur and chef Marc Meyer celebrates the contributions of immigrant workers to New York City kitchens, including his own, in this striking and timely book.

Sarah Weinman (The Real Lolita; Unspeakable Acts), an avatar of literary true-crime writing, doesn't do feel-good books. But with the riveting and righteous Without Consent: A Landmark Trial and the Decades-Long Struggle to Make Spousal Rape a Crime, she leaves readers with something unexpected: a glimmer of faith in the criminal justice system.

Without Consent begins with the story of Greta Rideout, who was raped by her husband, John, in front of the Oregon couple's two-year-old daughter in 1978. At the time, only three states besides Oregon--Iowa, Delaware, and Nebraska--had laws against spousal rape; generally speaking, the idea was that marriage, as Weinman puts it, "implied a state of perpetual consent." When Rideout became the first Oregonian to bring rape charges against her spouse, she couldn't have known that the case would spark a media circus, take on an international profile, inspire a made-for-TV movie, and, per Weinman, "lead to one of the most successful activism campaigns in America."

That campaign had some setbacks alongside its legislative victories, and Weinman manages to turn each account into a taut courtroom drama. Without Consent has its share of noble warriors, among them advocates for the victims, but the true heroes are the plaintiffs, two of whom consented to interviews with Weinman that she recaps heartbreakingly here. Thanks to these and other brave women, spousal rape was a crime "to varying degrees" in all 50 states by 1993, but it was not a federal crime as Without Consent went to press, Weinman reports. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer

Discover: Sarah Weinman builds taut courtroom dramas out of the legislative victories and setbacks that eventually resulted in spousal rape becoming a crime in all 50 U.S. states.

Korean author Hwang Bo-reum and Singaporean translator Shanna Tan build on the success of their bestselling Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop with Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books, an inviting, encouraging essay collection celebrating the power of books to affect and improve everyday living.

Presented in 53 succinct, two- to four-page chatty chapters, Every Day I Read begins by gently suggesting easily accessible titles--in the first chapter, "Read Bestsellers," Hwang recommends such books for their popular appeal--then nudges readers to "read beyond bestsellers" in chapter two, once individual tastes emerge. Underline and annotate. Carry a book everywhere for those "pockets of free time." Forget the Internet: "The more we read, the better we will be able to focus." That said, social media can be a great source for book news and book recommendations, although independent bookshops provide the human touch. Yes, Hwang posits, physical books are better than e-books. Fiction may be "fake," but she writes, "When I read novels, it's as if I'm looking at my own life through the fictional characters." Reading poetry is permission to simply feel. It's okay to read more than one book at a time, and it's okay to not finish (that just means more time for the next, more interesting read).

Hwang organically reveals the impressive breadth of her own reading (Aristotle, Leo Tolstoy, Hannah Arendt, Susan Sontag, Haruki Murakami, and multiple Korean writers)--a reason for keeping a reading list and collecting quotations. Discussions matter: "Reading with friends brings more joy than reading alone." Just asking "What have you been reading?" can open "a doorway to self-reflection that's hidden inside us," Hwang asserts. --Terry Hong

M. Cynthia Cheung is both a physician and a poet. Her debut collection, Common Disaster, is a lucid reckoning with everything that could and does go wrong, globally and individually.

Intimate, often firsthand knowledge of human tragedies infuses the verse with melancholy honesty. "We all endure our personal/ disasters," Cheung affirms. Her struggles include the death of her grandmother, also a physician; pregnancy loss; and sandwich-generation concerns for her daughters and ailing mother. She broods on Covid-era failures, too: "I am the doctor who couldn't/ save you."

At the same time, existential threats--war, climate breakdown--are mounting. Recurring references to Chernobyl warn of the cataclysm of nuclear warfare. Scientific vocabulary abounds here, with history providing perspective on current events. Extinction can be gradual or sudden, as with the Chicxulub asteroid, believed to have killed the dinosaurs. Surgeons once practiced transplantation on animals (in "Two-Headed Dog"), and trepanning was an early treatment for depression ("People once drilled holes/ into other people's skulls, just to let/ that darkness out"). Given the pitilessness of nature and militaristic humans, the speaker argues, it is no longer possible to believe in God; "our universe is built like a bomb./ Surely no one still thinks God is listening." Cheung suggests that poetry might now fill the role that religion once played.

Ghazals with repeating end words (including "God," "nowhere," and "exile") reinforce the collection's themes, while "Grotto," an intriguing outlier, employs fairytale allusions, alliteration, and slant rhymes. These remarkable poems gild adversity with compassion and model vigilance during uncertainty. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck

Discover: The 45 poems in this striking debut collection form a lucid meditation on everything that could and does go wrong--especially in the body, especially during a pandemic.

Writer, critic, and blogger Maria Popova (Figuring) partners with author/illustrator Sarah Jacoby (Doris) to create The Coziest Place on the Moon, a soothing, enlightening picture book that celebrates the rewards of solitude.

Re, who resembles an adorable porcupine with a golden-tinted, sky-blue dye job, wakes up one Tuesday in July "feeling like the loneliest creature on Earth." Not one to wallow, Re resolves "to go live in the coziest place on the Moon." Re lands "on the edge of the Sea of Tranquility" then walks and walks until arriving at "a perfect nook." There, Re experiences "what it feels like to be happy-alone instead of lonely." Shortly after settling, Re hears "a huff" and "a gurgle," which belong to Mi, a flaxen marsupial-like voyager who also fled Earth after "feeling like the loneliest creature." The coziest nook has plenty of space to create "two parallel tranquilities"--ideal for solitude, but also to share company whenever Re and Mi need a bit of synchronous harmony.

Popova's concluding author's note discusses the scientific reality of the eponymous "coziest place[s]"--indicating NASA's July 2022 announcement of the existence of "cylindrical pits on the Moon." Artist Jacoby harmoniously matches Popova's introspective verses with welcoming, ethereal whimsy, garbing Re in a yellow-polka-dotted orange hat and scarf for their lunar journey and packing Re's suitcase with bright balls of fuzzy yarn. Lightness abounds, from flashlights, rainbows, and, of course, starlight. This exploration of that uniquely individualized, soul-nurturing balance of time alone and time with others is an aspirational odyssey suitable for all ages. --Terry Hong

Discover: In The Coziest Place on the Moon, Maria Popova and Sarah Jacoby synergistically create enchanting lunar adventures escaping loneliness, embracing solitude.

Oversized animals past and present run, hop, swim, slither, and fly through physical space and time in Mega, a fact-filled, mind-blowing, middle-grade nonfiction picture book written by science writer Jules Howard (Encyclopedia of Animals) and stunningly illustrated by Gavin Scott (Everything You Know About Sharks Is Wrong!).

Howard breaks down the important role megafauna has played in Earth's billions of years of evolution by first giving readers a brief introduction to megafauna and a definition. The term megafauna "is often used by scientists to describe animals that weigh more than 100 pounds." Howard describes five animal categories: mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and mollusks, breaking each category down into further subcategories. Within each, Howard profiles a "biggest extinct" animal (such as an Asian straight-tusked elephant) then discusses its modern, often smaller descendants (like the African bush elephant) and examines the role of the contemporary animal in their habitat (examples include spreading seeds, keeping other populations "in check," and affecting world-wide oxygen levels). Howard ends with a call to action and a helpful glossary of terms.

Mega features an incredible amount of information and insight packed into single double-page spreads. Scott's full-color illustrations are realistic and artful, beautifully capturing modern megafauna and bringing to life extinct creatures. His illustrations are detailed, accurate, and animate--not anthropomorphized but captured with the light of intelligence in their eyes. The culminating effect of Howard's text and Scott's art is a gratifying, wholly fascinating look at the animal world and a wonderful addition to middle-grade nonfiction. --Kyla Paterno, freelance reviewer

Discover: Mega is utterly fascinating and slightly mind-blowing middle-grade nonfiction featuring mini profiles of prehistoric and contemporary megafauna.

The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer (Cinder; Heartless) is a witty, romantic, and satisfyingly gory retelling of "Bluebeard."

Seventeen-year-old Mallory and 19-year-old Anaïs Fontaine are "descended from a long line of powerful witches." Due to a badly botched spell at age 10, Mallory is now "without a drop of witchcraft"; instead, she is dubiously gifted with the ability to see ghosts. Mallory and her sister, Anaïs (who hides her own powerful death magic) have been on their own for six years; they run a phony magic shop and Mallory conducts illicit tours through the derelict and haunted House Saphir. There, long ago, the "devilishly handsome" Count Bastien Saphir (known as Monsier Le Bleu because "his hair and beard were so black... they were said to appear almost blue") brutally murdered his first wife, Triphine. Mallory is surprised when she takes Count Armand Saphir himself on a tour--the descendant is a lookalike of Count Bastien and believes Mallory can truly cast magic. Armand hires Mallory to rid his château in Comorre of Le Bleu's ghost. The sisters, and the ghost of Triphine, travel to the "sprawling" Comorre château where they try to trick Armand with "faux witchcraft." But time is short: servants are being maimed and murdered, actual monsters roam the halls, and Mallory suspects that she and Anaïs accidentally released Le Bleu during their botched spell seven years ago.

Meyer's bloody, beguiling version of the Bluebeard story is replete with a fraudulent witch, a handsome count, not one but two haunted mansions, four dead wives, and an array of mythical French monsters. The House Saphir is magical, spooky, and romantic and suspensefully unfolds through the actions of feisty characters with unexpectedly excellent comedic timing. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author

Discover: The House Saphir is a spellbinding Bluebeard retelling, complete with a coterie of ghosts, a gutsy heroine, a mysterious, handsome count, and a satisfying amount of gore.

Yxavel Magno Diño (The Serpent Rider) artfully entwines enchanting magic, a resilient young sorcerer, and high-stakes action in her Filipino mythology-inspired middle-grade fantasy The Firefly Crown.

Mayumi, or "Yumi," is a 12-year-old sorcerer who can communicate with and control crickets. "Cricket mambabarangs" are born with the ability to understand crickets and have certain cricket-like abilities, such as jumping large distances. Except Yumi's talents haven't shown up yet. Additionally, Crickets are the lowest class of mambabarangs with powers that seem insignificant when compared to other mambabarangs: Dragonflies move quickly and fly; Fireflies have the "near-mythical" power to manipulate light. When all the magicians are summoned to the imperial city, Tinanglawan, to attend the imperial heir's coronation, the princess is supposed to receive the "Firefly Crown." The headpiece amplifies Firefly magic and helps stave off the "Ghost Swarm," a threatening "entity of dark energy" that surrounds the empire. But the crown disappears and Yumi is blamed for stealing it. To prove herself innocent, Yumi decides to find the real culprit, hopefully before the Ghost Swarm invades.

Diño's delightful fantasy is packed with action and threaded with themes of self-worth, self-acceptance, and economic disparity. The imaginative magic system rooted in insect hierarchies masterfully provides sharp social commentary on class and privilege. The insect-based magic also offers rich visuals to accompany Yumi's adventure, such as wolf spiders running up walls or "the decay of a hundred years setting in within the space of heartbeats" in the wake of an army of ghost insects. A thrilling adventure with an important message: never doubt yourself. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader

Discover: In this delightful, imaginative, Filipino mythology-inspired middle-grade fantasy, a lower-class sorcerer must prove her innocence when a magical artifact goes missing.

Young readers will find a lively introduction to one of nature's most energetic creatures in Squirrels Leap, Squirrels Sleep, which offers a brisk tour through the everyday habits and adaptations of squirrels as well as a playful glimpse into the variety of species children might encounter in backyards and forests. First published in 2016, the book's return feels especially poignant given the 2021 deaths of both its author, April Pulley Sayre (Raindrops Roll), and its Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator, Steve Jenkins (Tiny Monsters with Robin Page).

Squirrels are familiar sights to most children, yet their busy lives often go unnoticed. Sayre writes in her trademark spare, rhyming style, giving the text a pleasing bounce: "Squirrels stretch./ Squirrels yawn./ Munch the acorns./ Are they gone?" The approach keeps the narrative light while weaving in factual content about four different kinds of squirrels (the eastern gray, the eastern fox, the American red, and a flying squirrel) and how they feed, defend themselves, and prepare for the seasons.

Jenkins's newly remastered cut-and-torn-paper collages bring texture and an earthy warmth to the pages. The compositions feel active and varied, matching the energy of Sayre's clipped verse. Updated back matter includes practical tips (like planting trees, the "best bird and squirrel houses and feeders") and a list of sources and suggestions for further reading. Squirrels Leap, Squirrels Sleep succeeds as an accessible and engaging primer on one of the most familiar backyard creatures, and teachers, librarians, and young naturalists alike will find it a charming celebration of the squirrel's world. --Julie Danielson

Discover: With playful rhyme and textured illustrations, this updated reissue of Squirrels Leap, Squirrels Sleep makes the familiar lives of squirrels fascinating for children.