Samantha Allen's Roland Rogers Isn't Dead Yet is a raucous, rollicking, and occasionally racy romance featuring unlikely lovers: a "decidedly midlist writer" and "the most famous man in America." More than a decade has passed since Adam's memoir, Salt Lake City Sodomite, about being a gay ex-Mormon, made him a bestselling Lambda Literary Award nominee. Nothing he's published since has brought him much attention (or money), so he's shocked when his agent summons him for an expensive meal and offers him a quarter-million-dollar contract to ghostwrite A-list actor Roland Rogers's memoir. For that sort of money, though, Roland requires Adam to handwrite the book at his Malibu mansion within a month.

Adam immediately flies to California from New Jersey. He's eager to get started, but 24 hours after arrival, he still hasn't even seen the elusive star, only heard his voice from speakers throughout the mansion. An In-N-Out Burger (animal style) pick-up and a digital Timex watch impossibly flashing H-E-L-L-O eventually convince Adam that Roland is actually, literally, dead: he died in an avalanche in Alta, Utah, and woke up (minus his body) back home. Roland knows they've got to finish writing before his corpse is inevitably discovered. Falling in love, however, was never supposed to be part of the story.

In this inventive romp, Allen (Patricia Wants to Cuddle) balances supernatural romance with insightful gravitas about identity, expectations, perceptions, oppression, and truth-telling--oh, and food, plenty of indulgent food. Deliciously fun, delightfully endearing, Allen's novel provides readers with fulfilling fodder for the soul. --Terry Hong

Books provide the antidotal balm between an estranged mother and daughter in Kate Storey's absorbing novel The Memory Library. As much as Ella adored her father, she shed more tears for what she thought was her mother's betrayal than his premature death. She quickly fled Sally and London, and 21 years later, she is living in Australia with her husband, Charlie, and their young daughter, Willow. These days, her high-powered legal career leaves little quality time for Willow, while stay-at-home Charlie's patient kindness just seems to annoy. When Sally's neighbor calls to report Sally's hospitalization, Ella reluctantly returns home. Ella barely recognizes this Sally who's so beloved by so many surprisingly diverse friends. At 42, Ella can no longer avoid difficult conversations--not to mention all the assumptions she's held about her family, then and now.

Storey cleverly relies on stories and books to reveal the most affecting interactions. Reading the same books together--initially to keep up with Sally's book club--encourages deeper communication between mother and daughter (and Charlie, too). Sally's heartfully curated home library--populated with titles Sally added annually on Ella's birthday, which contained everything Sally couldn't say--is where mother and daughter finally experience unguarded, unconditional understanding. Storey is an emotional writer, occasionally veering toward the melodramatic: Ella's decades-old judgmental misunderstanding turns tedious, and some readers may feel that tears come too easily and characters are more caricatures than convincing. Quibbles (and coincidences), however, won't dampen the underlying literary charm that sparkles through, repeatedly reminding readers of the memory-renewing, relationship-repairing, love-inducing power of books, glorious books. --Terry Hong

A young woman with untamed magical powers struggles against domestic abuse and the constraints of Victorian society in The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt, an atmospheric gothic fantasy novel by Chelsea Iversen (The Witches at the End of the World).

Harriet Hunt's father, Clement, vanished six months ago. He was abusive and deeply in debt, so his probable flight from the country would not be much cause for concern for Harriet, were it not for its monetary ramifications and the fact that the police are starting to question his absence. Harriet rarely ventures farther from her house than the garden, where the plants are livelier than most, sometimes in dangerous ways. As she searches for proof of where her father went so she can deflect suspicion from herself, Harriet meets and quickly marries the charming Christian Comstock, who makes her feel accepted in society. But their relationship takes a turn for the darker starting with their wedding breakfast, which Christian demands they hold in Harriet's garden--after Harriet prunes it, of course.

Iversen weaves a vibrant tale of a woman isolated by society, set apart by natural peculiarity--with anxiety exacerbated by years of abuse--and then further punished for the crime of being odd. Readers will squirm with Harriet under the stifling gaze of her community's judgment and cheer her on as she finds surprising allies and begins to learn to wield her power. Fans of The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Miller or The Witches of New York by Ami McKay should snatch this up. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library

Loretta Ellsworth's second novel for adults, The French Winemaker's Daughter, weaves a thoughtful dual narrative about a young French girl whose life is upended during World War II and the American pilot who goes searching for her story decades later.

Martine Viner loves tending her family's grapevines alongside her beloved papa. When he is taken away by the Nazis, he leaves Martine with a bottle of wine he says is her inheritance. But Martine loses the bottle in her flight to safety, and even after she is rescued by a kind nun, Sister Ada, she mourns its loss. In 1990, pilot Charlotte Montgomery is given a rare bottle of wine and finds a hidden label on it bearing a handwritten note. Curious, she begins digging for information about the Viner vineyards and Martine, crisscrossing the Burgundy region in her search.

Ellsworth (Stars over Clear Lake) evokes the quiet beauty of rural France and the desperation of those who fought against the Nazis and their collaborators. Sister Ada emerges as a true heroine, and Martine, too, grows in courage and perseverance. As for Charlotte, her search is not only motivated by curiosity; she is mourning the impending sale of her grandfather's California vineyard, and navigating messy professional and personal relationships. Alongside information about Martine and her vineyard, Charlotte eventually gains insights about vocation, family obligations, and the possibility of romance. Ellsworth's narrative will appeal to those who enjoy a complex wine and a full-bodied story of luck, grit, and love. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Beth Kander's I Made It Out of Clay is a lovely, absorbing novel of grief, dark humor, and love and friendship, with a dash of magic.

In contemporary urban Chicago, as the holiday season approaches, Eve is struggling: layoffs are threatened at work, her best friend has been distant, she's begun hallucinating her dearly departed grandmother, and she's nowhere near done grieving her beloved father, who died just over a year ago. Eve is not close to her mother (overbearing) or her younger sister Rosie (overly perfect), who's scheduled her wedding for Eve's 40th birthday weekend. Eve has (foolishly) promised to bring a plus one to Rosie's wedding, but she's so far failed to find a date.

In desperation, a rather drunk Eve recalls a story told by her grandmother, ventures into the dank corners of her apartment's basement, and builds herself a golem out of foundation clay. A golem serves as protector and companion in Jewish tradition, and she feels in dire need of both. The next morning, Eve wakes up to find a handsome (and very naked) man in her apartment. She is horrified, in disbelief, and attracted to him. Heading into Rosie's wedding, all of Eve's crises crash together. A golem is either the best or worst idea she's ever had.

I Made It Out of Clay is a charming rework of a traditional tale. Kander gifts her readers with a novel that is often serious and sad, but ultimately uplifting, as Eve learns, "This isn't the end of anything. It's just one more beginning, like every damn day can be if we just let it." --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia

Kate MacIntosh's debut novel, The Champagne Letters, fizzes with Parisian adventures, narrow escapes, and women determined to create their own second chances.

Still reeling from her divorce a year ago, Natalie Taylor flees the chaos of moving boxes for a spur-of-the-moment trip to Paris. On arrival, a mix-up leaves the hotel staff with the impression that Natalie is a widow--grieving her husband's death instead of the demise of their marriage. Too embarrassed to correct this mistake, Natalie nonetheless finds solace in her Parisian adventure and in the company of Sophie, a young widow who works at the hotel and who introduces Natalie to another, more famous, widow: Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, the force behind the Veuve Clicquot champagne empire.

MacIntosh alternates between Natalie's 21st-century experiences, which include poring over a collection of letters from Barbe-Nicole to her great-granddaughter, Anne, and Barbe-Nicole's first-person narrative of steering the house of Clicquot through tribulation and triumph. Barbe-Nicole begins each letter with some sage (sometimes salty) advice to Anne, then recounts her struggle to recover from her husband's death and assert her authority as the owner of the Clicquot vineyards.

As Natalie explores Paris on her own and with Sophie, she quickly becomes enamored of both her new surroundings and a handsome Frenchman, Gabriel. But, like Barbe-Nicole, Natalie must face her past in order to move forward into her future. Her growing determination mirrors Barbe-Nicole's fierce resolve to outsmart Napoleon, keep her daughter safe, and retain her independence--even more precious than her famed 1811 champagne.

Bubbling with intrigue, surprises, and rich historical detail, MacIntosh's debut is a toast to courageous women past and present. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

What would happen if you followed a different path? Isabelle Duprees, a self-made businesswoman, is one of the wealthiest women in New York. She has everything she's ever dreamed of, after leaving her family behind in Tennessee to get it. An unwelcome visit from her estranged sister, Elaina, doesn't end when Isabelle tries to send her away. An argument between the sisters leads Isabelle to Google herself for the first time in her life, and her search reveals more than a distasteful article or unflattering photo.

Instead, she finds another Isabelle Dupree. All the Other Me by Jody Holford (Deadly News) follows the sisters on a road trip to find out why a second Isabelle exists, but they uncover much more. The second Isabelle leads to a third and a fourth, all identical in some ways, but in others not at all the same. Izzy, Belle, and Iz show Isabelle what could have been if she had allowed her tight focus on success to loosen and let love, family, and true happiness come into view.

Though it's equally as unbelievable as other versions of herself existing, Isabelle finds herself enjoying Elaina's company and wondering whether another path might have left her family intact. As Isabelle is forced to consider the possibility that leaving everything and everyone behind was not the only option, Holford explores themes of identity and crafts a powerful testament to what is most important in life. All the Other Me is a brilliant portrayal of female success that suggests that it does not have to come at a steep price. --Clara Newton, freelance reviewer

The fiction of French Mauritian author J.M.G. Le Clézio, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature, has always focused on the need to overcome barriers both personal and political, as in his novel Wandering Star, in which a Jewish girl and a Palestinian girl briefly befriend one another in the aftermath of World War II. Borders and other hurdles are at the center of the eight stories in On the Wrong Side, a marvelous collection translated from the French by Teresa Lavender Fagan. One of the more personal hurdles appears in the subsection "Maureez Samson," in which a young girl living on Rodrigues Island off the coast of Mauritius endures a hard life with an abusive stepmother and, later, mistreatment at a convent, until her gift for singing leads to the possibility of escape.

With his spare prose and unsentimental approach, Le Clézio creates indelible portraits of powerless people, many of them children. In "La Pichancha," set at the Mexico border, young people try to cross to the U.S. through a pipe after "the gringos open the valves to clean the sewers." In "A Luminous Path," two children escape a Peruvian camp in the hope of finding safer accommodation. And in "Hanne," two brothers in war-torn Lebanon meet a girl who is deaf and does not speak, but who shares their desire to escape.

Le Clézio memorably highlights the inequities pervasive in underrepresented societies. Grim but hopeful, On the Wrong Side is an excellent introduction to the work of this distinctively sympathetic writer. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer

If travel writer Macon Leary was the titular accidental tourist in Anne Tyler's 1985 novel, then fellow travel writer Gabriel Dax is the accidental intelligence operative in William Boyd's Gabriel's Moon, a 1960s-era thriller reminiscent of the twist-filled British spy novels of Len Deighton and Boyd's Scottish compatriot John Buchan. In 1936, six-year-old Gabriel escapes a fire that kills his mother and destroys their home. By 1960, he's a travel writer who lives with trauma-induced insomnia and the guilt that his moon-shaped night light caused the blaze. While Gabriel is on assignment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a government official sets him up with the chance to interview Patrice Lumumba, the real-life prime minister of the newly independent country. Lumumba suspects that people want to kill him to gain control of the country's uranium. In fact, he's assassinated a few months later.

In the first of many developments Boyd (The Romantic; Waiting for Sunrise) dramatizes with elegantly cool detachment, Gabriel discovers that his interview tapes are highly coveted. An MI6 agent named Faith Green approaches him with a lucrative proposition: go to Spain, buy a drawing from an artist, and deliver it to a British Secret Intelligence Service officer. That one-time gig becomes vastly more complicated. Not surprisingly, a 1960s-set novel about espionage and the Soviet Union has old-fashioned elements, including some of the prose ("the soft, brumous dusk fell"). But if a turntable from yesteryear can still play good music, what's a few scratches? Ingenious plot twists and brisk pacing make for an exciting throwback. Spy novel devotees will love Gabriel's Moon. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer

Knife Skills for Beginners, the first in a planned mystery series from food writer and Masterchef semifinalist Orlando Murrin, is smooth and delicious, but it won't be mistaken for the book-form equivalent of comfort food.

Narrator Paul Delamare, a London-based chef and food writer, is still reeling from the death of his boyfriend when he bails out an old friend: fallen celebrity chef Christian Wagner's arm is in a cast and he needs help teaching a residential cooking course. But Paul is as miffed as his eight students when Christian's quick cameo on day one turns out to be the full extent of his classroom participation. The morning after Paul chews out Christian for abandoning him, Paul enters his friend's flat at the cooking school and finds Christian "with his head hacked almost off." Driven into the table beside Christian's body is a cleaver that looks exactly like the one Paul used in class.

The cooking school becomes a crime scene and Paul a suspect in the murder investigation. Meanwhile, he plays detective: Why are some of his students behaving strangely? And did Christian really break his arm by, as he claimed, falling down an escalator? Readers may identify one plot device hiding in plain sight, but otherwise they should find the novel's central puzzle bedeviling. Throughout Knife Skills for Beginners, Paul is a droll and refreshingly quirk-free guide who takes time out to give readers his professional opinions, among them: "There's something aggressively heterosexual about a full English breakfast." --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer

Alex Segura's agile and sinewy Alter Ego, his sequel to Secret Identity, pits the lo-fi world of comics against high-octane forces like corporate greed, Hollywood machinations, and big-screen superhero franchises. This premise may not have made a great comic, but it makes a rollicking good thriller.

Alter Ego begins in 2018, when journalist Laura Gustines dies in a carjacking in Queens, having just conducted an interview with Carmen Valdez. (The name will be familiar to readers of Secret Identity.) The interview was to be the hallmark of Laura's planned book about forgotten female comics creators--after all, Carmen had a hand in making the 1970s series The Legendary Lynx, not long after which she seemed to vanish. From the carjacking, the novel skips around in time and place, the narration now courtesy of spunky-slovenly comics artist and, later, filmmaker Annie Bustamante, whose fortunes are tied to the whims of the movie industry and, truth told, to her alcohol consumption. A Legendary Lynx fan, Annie has a tantalizing opportunity to revamp the comic, but at what price? And what, she's determined to learn, did happen to Carmen Valdez?

Alter Ego is front-loaded with exposition, but once Segura has set the scene, the story takes flight. The plot boasts a handful of tasty reveals that will inspire reader responses ranging from "Hnnnh?" to "WHAT?!," to quote from the comics excerpted throughout the novel. If Alter Ego ultimately has what can be described as a comic book villain, then that's arguably the point. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer

In Peter Lovesey's 22nd and final Peter Diamond mystery, Against the Grain, the curmudgeonly detective investigates a closed case in a bucolic English farming village. Diamond and his partner, Paloma, visit Julie, his former deputy, in Baskerville. She's retired--a status Diamond resists--but her police instincts are alert: Julie quietly disagrees with her neighbors that the owner of the town's largest farm is guilty of manslaughter. She suspects a killer's at large, and Diamond is keen to prove her right.

The hardworking villagers have little sympathy for Claudia Priest. Her father was a beloved landowner and generous employer, but Claudia left Baskerville as a teen, returned years later after her father's apparent suicide, and hosted her city friends at rowdy parties. When a partygoer's corpse was discovered in a grain silo--he'd been suffocated by the unstable wheat--villagers blamed Claudia's irresponsible behavior. 

Posing as a curious tourist, Diamond embraces rural life and befriends the colorful locals in his quest for clues. Will he be coaxed to dance at the Harvest Festival? Will his fine Italian suit survive an emergency stint in the calving shed? And when a body is discovered beneath the farmhouse's ornate stairs, what does it reveal, and will Diamond survive to solve the mystery? The gentlemanly detective lends a cozy feel to the whodunit as he fraternizes with Baskerville citizens. A murderer is afoot, but readers will be amused by the folksy scenes and the delightful camaraderie between Diamond and the savvy Julie and Paloma. As their country vacation ends, Paloma's hint at Diamond's retirement plans inspires hope for more from one of the mystery genre's favorite sleuths. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.

With The Jewel of the Isle, Kerry Rea (The Wedding Ringer; Lucy on the Wild Side) has written a hilarious romp sure to appeal to fans of Christina Lauren. After the death of her beloved father, uptight doctor Emily Edwards decides to fulfill his dream of visiting Isle Royale National Park, Mich., an isolated place that "can only be reached by ferry or seaplane." Emily is not exactly outdoorsy, so she hires a guide from the only outfitter available on short notice. Fleet Outdoor Adventures was essentially a two-man show run by brothers Caleb and Ryder. But Caleb was the outdoor enthusiast. Ryder just handled the marketing, and he hasn't had the heart to do even that since Caleb died. Desperate for money, Ryder can't turn Emily down, and he must have picked up some of his brother's outdoor skills by osmosis, right?

When Emily and Ryder witness a shocking crime perpetrated by one of their fellow ferry passengers, they end up on the run through the deep forests of the national park. Hilarious shenanigans abound as they try to survive the wilderness and the criminals on the hunt for them. But Emily and Ryder also realize they share a deep grief, which bonds them as they race back toward civilization.

Touching in its exploration of sadness and loss, and laugh-out-loud funny as the inept explorers struggle to make their way through one of the most remote national parks in the United States, The Jewel of the Isle is fresh and perfect for those who enjoyed the Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum movie The Lost City. --Jessica Howard, freelance book reviewer and former bookseller

Brooke Randel's debut, Also Here, is a poised, tender family memoir blending research with her grandmother Golda Indig's recollections of the Holocaust.

"Bubbie" caught her granddaughter in her arms when Randel was born suddenly in her parents' car on her grandmother's driveway. Ever since, they have been close. Bubbie was warm and energetic; always giving, never asking. But in her mid-80s, she did make a request: that Randel write her story. Although Bubbie spoke multiple languages, she had only attended school for four years and was functionally illiterate.

The oral history that emerges is fragmentary and frenetic--full of impressions but few details, it couldn't stand on its own. Interview snippets are interspersed with narrative chapters based on follow-up research. Randel effectively contrasts facts and emotions, tracing how events translate into memories and, ultimately, written language.

Golda, born in 1930, grew up in Romania. When the Nazis came, her older brothers were conscripted into forced labor. Her mother and younger siblings were killed in a concentration camp. At every turn, Golda's survival was miraculous. Only because her mother gave Golda her fur coat did the 13-year-old look old enough to avoid the first cull at Auschwitz. As Bubbie repeats throughout these transcripts, "Unbelievable."

Golda married and immigrated to North America. She endured widowhood and breast cancer. This concise, touching memoir bears witness to a whole remarkable life as well as the bond between grandmother and granddaughter that emerged as one generation's history was entrusted to another. Randel speculates about reasons for Bubbie's continued illiteracy but ultimately it is little barrier to a loving connection across the generational divide. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck

Amid the daily news of war, politics, and the economy, few people likely spend much time reflecting on Europe in the early Middle Ages. Oathbreakers, a history of the decline of the Frankish Empire, and specifically its Carolingian dynasty, offers a good reason to put aside the rush of current events for a time and pay a visit to that crucial epoch. As they did in their myth-busting book The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe, Matthew Gabriele, a medieval studies professor, and David M. Perry, a historian and journalist, approach their subject from an iconoclastic perspective.

The Franks exercised supremacy over a large swath of Western Europe. In 800 CE, their domination "rivaled Rome at its height." Four decades later, that peak was a dim memory. At the bloody Battle of Fontenoy, the empire descended into an open civil war for the first time, pitting two of Charlemagne's grandsons--Louis the German and the Charles the Bald--against their brother Lothar, the emperor. Gabriele and Perry relate a fast-moving account of the abortive insurrections and failed diplomacy that led up to what ultimately seemed an unavoidable confrontation among the competing brothers and the splintering of the empire that followed.

Though the events in Oathbreakers are distant in time, Gabriele and Perry describe them with an immediacy that's both informative and entertaining. Without making any overt effort to do so, they reveal that the emotions driving the actors in the Carolingian drama--ambition, greed, and the lust for power--are in fact as timely as today's headlines. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, daughter of a publishing magnate and member of New York City's high society, was a revolutionary woman. She was the first woman to be accepted to the École de Médecine at the Sorbonne in Paris, conducted groundbreaking research about the menstrual cycle, and recruited hundreds of fellow society women to the suffragist cause. She published numerous books as an individual, and brought her medical knowledge to a wider audience with her husband, Abraham Jacobi. In The Cure for Women, Lydia Reeder (Dust Bowl Girls) recounts this history via an engaging nonfiction narrative that begins in the mid-19th century, with some of the first American women physicians, and concludes with Jacobi's death in 1906.

Reeder writes boldly, pulling no punches when describing the hypocritical behavior of many men of that time, who "dreaded women as adversaries while simultaneously pitying them for their smaller brains." The book features appearances by historical figures such as suffragist Susan B. Anthony and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of "The Yellow Wallpaper," a story directly inspired by her treatment by a male physician with a poor understanding of women's health, and "Dr. Clair's Place," informed by her much better treatment at Jacobi's own hands. Reeder keeps readers firmly tuned in to how important and impactful Jacobi's work was.

Fascinating and timely, The Cure for Women is an excellent choice for both nonfiction lovers and those wanting deeper context for classics such as "The Yellow Wallpaper" or modern historical fiction like Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas. --Alyssa Parssinen, freelance reviewer and former bookseller

The subtitle of journalist Eliot Stein's volume of fascinating profiles of rare artisans--"Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping them Alive"--aptly captures the rare vocations of the 10 people profiled, several of which were adapted from stories he originally wrote for the BBC.

Each custodian's practice--most acquired through apprenticeship passed down through generations--takes years to master. Together, Stein's pieces create a mosaic of disappearing arts and lifestyles, some which portray artisans who have no clear heir to their expertise and wisdom, mostly due to the ways of modern life. He describes the larger-than-life creations of a movie poster painter in Taiwan; the quiet of Germany's Dodauer Forest, where a mighty 500-year-old oak brings lovers together; and a Sardinian pasta at the center of Italy's Feast of San Francesco, influenced by its place at the crossroads of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Custodians of Wonder demonstrates that it's impossible to appreciate the artistry of each without also understanding the origins of their work, so intrinsic to their birthplace, its geography and history. Stein traces the changes in Japan after World War II that contributed to a movement away from traditional techniques of making soy sauce, which involves "centuries' worth of black bacteria" and kioke cedar barrels, the construction of which has nearly vanished; and the history of Cuba through its cigar factory lectors--the people who have read newspapers and literature to the cigar rollers for more than 150 years.

Stein's 10 tales implicitly urge readers to slow down and absorb the astonishing world, beginning with the traditions one holds most dear. --Jennifer M. Brown

April Balascio's Raised by a Serial Killer is an unflinching memoir that delves into how the author realized her father had murdered a series of people in the many towns the family lived in throughout the 1980s. She subsequently submitted her DNA to police and was instrumental in not only her father's arrest for the killing of a young Wisconsin couple but also in solving a string of other murders.

Raised by a Serial Killer details the harrowing childhoods Balascio and her four siblings endured at the hands of their father, Edward Wayne Edwards, who sometimes treated them with affection but could also be violently abusive. The family moved frequently from state to state, sometimes fleeing in the middle of the night. Even as a child, Balascio suspected that something was not as it should be. "I thought of Curtis and Chris, our friends in Florida. And the missing boy and girl we heard about in Doylestown. Then the missing teens in Watertown. And now this boy. Was the whole world really such a dangerous place? Or did it just seem to follow us?"

As an adult, Balascio couldn't shake her suspicions. Some late-night Internet searching for cold cases where the family had lived led to Balascio piecing together memories of her father turning up in strangely filthy clothing on the same night a young couple disappeared.

Raised by a Serial Killer is a brave and haunting true-crime memoir that will keep readers riveted to the page long past the point where justice has been served. --Elizabeth DeNoma, executive editor, DeNoma Literary Services, Seattle, Wash.

Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri, translated by Joseph Luzzi, is a beguiling "little book" of poetry and prose crafted by the 13th-century Florentine writer at the dawn of his magnificent career. This enchanting translation from the original Tuscan dialect captures the music of Dante's youthful love for the beautiful Beatrice, a noblewoman he was destined to worship from afar.

Arranged marriages were common among nobility of this era, and Dante was betrothed from childhood to a girl in his family's elite class, so his adoration for Beatrice had nothing to do with forming a relationship with her or proposing marriage. In Dante's "literary milieu," explains Luzzi, a young man expressed desire for his unattainable "beloved" through poetic discourse while keeping her identity a secret.

Luzzi (Botticelli's Secret) is a scholar of Italian culture. He shares historical and cultural context in the marvelous introduction to the autobiographical Vita Nuova, the title of which means "new life" in English. In a move that was revolutionary for his time, Dante (The Divine Comedy) addressed the poem "Ladies who are intelligent in love" to Beatrice's female contemporaries. Seasoned with lyrical imagery, it soars with praise for the poet's mystery lady. Until this departure from custom, poetry in Western literary history had been crafted solely for male audiences.

Sadly, Dante's love for Beatrice was not immune to tragedy, and readers bear witness to the maturation of his writing in response to heartbreak. To read Vita Nuova with Luzzi as a guide is a deeply pleasurable experience, a literary escape to a glorified world of idealized love in medieval Florence. --Shahina Piyarali

What makes people flee from and reject ideas, facts, and knowledge about events and themselves that are demonstrably and inarguably true? That question is the subject of Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know by Mark Lilla, a humanities professor at Columbia University. Lilla refers to the book as an "intellectual travelogue." By taking readers through examples from ancient Greece, Christianity, psychoanalytic theory, and literature, Lilla entreats believers to see the righteousness of self-knowledge and justice, and builds the case for why individuals or societies--even those who see themselves as knowledge seekers--might shy away from a whole series of possible realizations.

Lilla's problem statement is compellingly put forth and all too recognizable: "Mesmerized crowds follow preposterous prophets, irrational rumors trigger fanatical acts, and magical thinking crowds out common sense and expertise." Readers will find accounts of ways in which people delude themselves, including neurological disorders such as anosognosia (which prevents "people from recognizing their own physical or mental condition"). He also dissects self-delusion as a result of societal taboos, and how the absence of responsibility can accompany willful ignorance. Lilla also discusses how self-delusion can serve and protect, and examines the limits of human knowledge itself.

Ignorance and Bliss is a thoroughly engaging and accessibly rigorous read in which everyone can find a bit of themselves and their circumstances to reflect upon. Knowledge, it seems, always comes at a cost. As Lilla concisely puts it, "Knowing is an emotional experience." --Elizabeth DeNoma, executive editor, DeNoma Literary Services, Seattle, Wash.

Hopi master woodcarver and middle-school teacher Mavasta Honyouti pays loving tribute to his grandfather (kwa'a) in the biographical picture book Coming Home. The text appears in both English and the Hopi language, Hopilavayi, translated by Marilyn Parra, while the exquisite illustrations are cottonwood root carvings painted with acrylic. The combination powerfully envelops readers in Hopi culture.

Honyouti's kwa'a experiences the trauma of family separation when the U.S. government abducts him and the other children of his village and forces them into federal boarding schools: "All of [the children] were gathered in a large room. Some they sent to get their hair cut, while others were brought to a room where they were plunged into a smelly fluid." The children were further dehumanized by being made to change their clothes and take new names. Honyouti's grandfather's Hopi name, Honkuku, is recorded as Honyouti, resulting in his family name being changed. Honkuku unsuccessfully tries to run away from the school multiple times, until he is finally released. When the young man returns home, he chooses to raise a family and live the life of a farmer, holding tight to his identity despite the government's efforts to eradicate it.

Honyouti includes notes about his illustrations and the Hopi translation in the book's back matter. His admiration for his kwa'a is evident on every page; his magnificent wood carvings add to the atmosphere of the book and pay homage to the art Honkuku taught his sons. The wood carvings' gentle earth tones and striking textures evoke cultural elements and deliver strong emotion. --Jen Forbus, freelancer

Every kid has to learn the truth someday: when cuteness goes too far, it can become annoying. But in the hands of William Joyce (The Man in the Moon; The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore), over-the-top cuteness becomes a picture-book vehicle for comfort and humor, both of which reach stratospheric heights in Rocket Puppies.

"Once upon a time," begins an omniscient narrator, "the world was sometimes happy, it was sometimes sleepy, it was sometimes silly, or it was sometimes sad." When Snarly McBummerpants of the Island of Woe is in a mood, the world gets "stuck being sad." That's when the Rocket Puppies, who hail from "the outer reaches of NOT-FROM-HERE," fly in and save the day, elevating the world's general mood with their heartwarming darlingness: they are fueled by hugs, they hiccup song-filled bubbles, and they "even make everyone love sharing the last piece of pizza!" But when Snarly McBummerpants directs his Mopey Smokes (sour-faced storm clouds) to dampen the fun, the Rocket Puppies have no choice but to unleash their heaviest (read: cutest) hitter.

Rocket Puppies succeeds at having it both ways: readers will understand the joke--Of course cuteness can't solve a real problem!--but they are also unlikely to resist the allure of adorably big-eyed, tongue-wagging, rocket-winged pooches. Abounding in Joyce's trademark gauzy-shimmery art are winking allusions, including Oompa-Loompa-reminiscent moon creatures and a couple of dead ringers for Old Hollywood comedy greats Laurel and Hardy; thanks to the Rocket Puppies, these gents "stopped bullying and became florists." --Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author

Young siblings are lured into a late-night musical adventure by the beckoning sound of their father's jazz band in The Band in Our Basement, a tuneful and exuberant picture book by Kelly J. Baptist, with illustrations from Jenin Mohammed.

On the title page a child spots visitors in their driveway at bedtime. "Daddy's band is in our basement.../ We can't fall asleep!" Mama gives a knowing glance while tucking in the narrator's brother, then backs from the room with a loving directive: "Go right to bed/ and do not make a peep!" But a trumpet soon sounds while a bass guitar thrums and, before long, the siblings are silently dancing on their beds. With the page turn, "Kenny grins and whispers" a plan to "sneak downstairs and watch them play." When the narrator concedes, the pair tiptoe--"Careful, careful down the stairs"--and are caught almost immediately. The band extends an invitation to join them, making the jam session a full family affair.

Baptist rekindles the linguistic exuberance she used in The Electric Slide and Kai by mixing rhyme schemes and occasionally splitting stanzas across page turns to sustain a bopping, jazzy cadence. Mohammed (Song in the City) layers warm golden shades with cool blue tones of the night using gelli print collage and digital mixed-media illustrations. The artist uses jagged marks and sharp angles to effectively indicate the children's movement, and a line that moves sinuously across every page oozes musicality. This toe-tapping read-aloud seems destined to prompt bedtime hijinks among budding musicians in the best possible way. --Kit Ballenger, youth librarian, Help Your Shelf

Visual historian Andy Warner (Pests and Pets) traces the evolution of 10 agricultural products to highlight pivotal turning points in the relationship between plants and humans in the second entry of his Oddball Histories series, Spices and Spuds: How Plants Made Our World, a sweeping and instructive middle-grade graphic nonfiction.

All 10 plants covered are likely familiar to young readers: wood, wheat, corn, rice, peppers, sugar, potatoes, tea, tulips, and cotton. "Plants are things that people shape. And anything people shape, shapes people." Warner digs into "this relationship between people and plants, and how we changed each other" using humorous visual storytelling and exceptionally comprehensive text blocks as he spans the globe and millennia. He follows human consumption of the 10 pivotal plants and their subsequent impact on social issues, including migration, warfare, immigration, health, and politics. And he doesn't sugarcoat or shy away from the distressing moments, because "telling history is tough if you try to get somewhere honest." Warner draws salient points of connection "through the length and hurt of history" across eras, continents, and cultures--linking, for example, Chinese workers "fleeing war and famine" with descendants of formerly enslaved West Africans in the United States.

Warner strikes a quippy and conversational tone in his wildly informative, highly engaging text. He frames each of the 10 chapters as an independent narrative, allowing the book to be read from start to finish or enabling eager readers to skip among topics. Readers will likely devour this ambitious and immersive survey of agricultural connections and interdependence. --Kit Ballenger, youth librarian, Help Your Shelf

Killer Underwear Invasion! author Elise Gravel returns with a colorful, enlightening primer, This Is My Brain!, about neurodiversity and how brains work.

"Each of us has a brain," Gravel begins. An illustration of one of her distinctive, thickly lined, brightly hued figures points to its own visible, smiling brain. "Brains all look pretty much the same--like big, jellyish, squishy wads of chewing gum. Brains don't look like much, but they have many superpowers!" Not only do our brains control everything our body does, but they also receive and process information, are constantly working, "and keep learning new things our ENTIRE lives." There are different ways people learn, different speeds at which they understand information, and different approaches to processing emotions.

Understanding how brains work can help readers better understand themselves and their friends, Gravel explains. The author breaks down how brains function in an accessible way through simple, direct text and entertaining, approachable illustrations. Her focus is mental processing and how every brain is inherently different, leaving descriptions of more complicated elements of neurodiversities (such as mental illness) for more complex books to explain. Differences come in the form of cheerfully illustrated brains wearing different glasses, since every brain looks at the world through a different lens. Children curious about brains, who may need help understanding their peers, or who may be struggling to vocalize how their own brains work should find this title both useful and interesting. The message is clear: no matter how a brain works, it's a good brain trying its best. --Nicole Brinkley, bookseller and writer