Areum is two years old when doctors first notice there is something wrong: he is aging faster than he should be, a result of a rare and uncurable disease. Ae-ran Kim's novel My Brilliant Life is told from Areum's perspective, as the now-16-year-old sets out to write his own story--and that of his parents--before he dies. "This is the story of the youngest parents with the oldest child," he writes in the first pages of this fictional memoir: the story of 32-year-old parents to a 16-year-old boy living in the dying body of an 80-year-old man.

My Brilliant Life, translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim, is an achingly beautiful story of a boy forced to come to terms with aging and death far earlier than any child should. More than that, though, it is that boy's attempts to share all that he has learned, all that he wants the world to know. "People say it's a miracle that I've lived this long.... But I believe that the larger miracle exists in the ordinary, in the living of an ordinary life and dying at an ordinary age. To me the miracles are my [family]... the middle of summer and the middle of winter." Kim's novel so perfectly captures the voice and sense of longing in young Areum that it is easy to forget that My Brilliant Life is a work of fiction. As Areum and his thoughts and feelings and family come to life on its pages, the novel delivers an important reminder that life is truly what one makes of it--even if, and sometimes especially when, that life is cut too short. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm

Dantiel W. Moniz's debut collection, Milk Blood Heat, is a hypnotizing revelation. In these 11 stories, love, grief, rebellion and hunger swirl about girls and women (re)possessing their bodies and spirits. Set amid Florida's retention ponds, under a sun like "a wax lemon melting, oozing light," characters on the brink of change consider the fugitive qualities of darkness and light, how they play both against and with one another, alternately freeing and restricting.

The titular "Milk Blood Heat" is as playful, melancholy and heartbreaking as its two 13-year-old girls from vastly different worlds who become blood sisters. Ava, "newly thirteen, hollowed out and filled back up with venom and dust-cloud dreams," plays at being a monster, "unnatural and unfamiliar in her body." She's among a few teenagers in this collection, and Moniz blesses them all with tender and brutal complexity, adeptly avoiding the usual gratuitous stigmas about teenage girls.

In "Tongues," 17-year-old Zey bucks against the decree from church and family that "she can be looked on, but not look." In "An Almanac of Bones," Sylvie is being raised by her unconventional grandmother while her mother travels the world. As they prepare for an upcoming "moon festival," Sylvie--always "interested in discarded things"--finds solace in the structure of animal bones and the mysteries of the deep earth where she's "a glorious creature, spare and glowing."

Moniz's debut is a beautifully unsettling gospel of light and dark, declaring "you could be both things and still be loved." --Shannon Hanks-Mackey, editor and writer

Consent by Canadian novelist Annabel Lyon (The Sweet Girl) is an insightful and unnerving piece of literary fiction that follows two women as they grapple with their guilt and despair in the aftermaths of their sisters' deaths. Sara, who has spent years pursuing a career as an academic, returns home after her mother's death to care for her mentally disabled sister, Mattie. She is distressed to learn that Mattie has married her mother's handyman, Robert, and forces him out of the house on the grounds that Mattie couldn't legally consent to the relationship. Years later, Sara is devastated by Mattie's accidental death, brought on by Robert's unexpected reappearance. Meanwhile, promising graduate student Saskia is drawn away from her studies when her volatile sister Jenny is paralyzed after a car accident. Following Jenny's death, Saskia discovers hints of a secret past that sets her on a collision course with both Sara and Robert.

A slow-burn exploration of love and duty, Consent is a precisely crafted, emotionally resonant accomplishment with an explosive ending. In poignant but unsentimental prose, Lyon guides readers through Sara's and Saskia's development, their complex relationships with their respective sisters, and the emotional nuances of both caretaking and losing a sibling. Far from being melodramatic, the novel manages to keep a cool head even while conveying the extremities of human experience. And even as Sara and Saskia become grounding forces for the story, the novel keeps readers always guessing about what the two of them will do next. --Alice Martin, freelance writer and editor

Best known for the 1991 Booker Prize-winning The Famished Road, Nigerian author Ben Okri has maintained a prolific output of lauded fiction, poetry and essays. His provocative collection, Prayer for the Living, presents 24 stories and a single poem that include previously published pieces from 1993 onward.

Okri's longest stories prove the strongest, as if they are claiming the space for comparatively intense narrative development. In "Dreaming of Byzantium," "unreality makes the world" for a man who awakes in a luxurious hotel with a woman claiming to be his wife ready for their Istanbul explorations. "Alternative Realities Are True" follows a London detective solving murder out of synch with time. And "Don Ki-Otah and the Ambiguity of Reading" is a quirky Don Quixote-riff complete with a meta-reference to Okri himself.

Okri imaginatively plays with various literary forms among his more compelling shorter pieces. The titular "Prayer for the Living" is a survivor's snapshot homage to the missing and dead. "The Lie" is a modern fable about a king's "search for truth." Two atmospheric short-shorts are labeled "stoku," an amalgam of story and haiku that Okri created in 2009. Inventiveness aside, Okri is equally assured with more forthright approaches: in "Boko Haram" (1), (2) and (3), he writes of tragedy so horrific as if its presentation required division over three parts separated in between by some 100 pages filled with other stories.

Writing across countries, citizens, centuries, Okri effortlessly showcases his literary fluency. Even beyond specific details of time and place, global audiences will discover resonating enlightenment and entertainment between these taut pages. --Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon

It seems nothing good can happen in an abandoned ski resort during a snowstorm. In Shiver, the gripping debut thriller by British writer Allie Reynolds, five former competitive snowboarders gather for a reunion weekend at Le Rocher, a secluded spot in the French Alps. They haven't seen each other in more than a decade, but old wounds remain fresh: last time they were at Le Rocher to train for an elite competition, fellow snowboarder Saskia Sparks mysteriously vanished. Each member of the group had a complicated relationship with the hyper-aggressive and possibly sociopathic Saskia--particularly Milla, who serves as the story's no-nonsense narrator and whose drive to win sometimes overrides her basic morality. As the off-season weather turns increasingly hostile, it doesn't take long for the group to realize they've been lured to the resort by someone who knows their secrets--and isn't afraid to seek revenge. Trust among the group withers, and Milla longs for the intimacy she experienced with her former friends as she tries to uncover who could have murdered Saskia, all while concealing her own role in the crime.

An ex-freestyle snowboarder who spent several years traveling internationally, Reynolds writes with the same fast-paced intensity of an energy drink-fueled trip down the slopes. Alongside its central mystery, Shiver offers an intimate look at the convoluted relationships of athletes who excel at a sport most people are too cautious even to attempt--including what happens when the truth becomes inescapable, both because of the blizzard and other equally unpredictable forces. --Angela Lutz, freelance reviewer

Three Men and a Baby meets Regarding Henry in this charming romance from Marina Adair (RomeAntically Challenged). Levi Rhodes meant to leave the tiny town of Rome, R.I., 16 years ago to sail around the world. But his sister got pregnant, and Levi couldn't leave her alone. So, he stayed and ran the family marina and bar. Now, however, his niece has both her stepdad and her bio dad back in her life, so she doesn't really need Levi. It would be the perfect time to set off on that round-the-world sailing trip. Except, it seems to Levi that maybe Beckett Hayes needs him instead.

As the primary caretaker for a brother and father with autism, Beckett considers herself a master of handling tricky situations. She opened her own concierge business, so she could best work around family needs, as well as her side gig training therapy animals. She has been happily juggling things for years. Her busy life leaves no room for serious dating, which is fine, except that she can't stop glancing at Levi.

Sweet and sensitive, Hopeless Romantic is a funny romance that gently manages heavy issues like loss of a sibling, parental abandonment and caring for loved ones on the autism spectrum. Can two people who have spent a lifetime putting other people first finally find love for themselves? Readers will hope so, as they enjoy Levi and Beckett's flirting and laugh out loud at the antics of Rome's zany residents and Beckett's many animals. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Tucson, Ariz.

Some 40% of adults say that they're lonely, compared to about 20% in the 1980s, meaning that there is "a full-blown loneliness epidemic, one that would only become worse with the arrival of a virus that forced us apart." Experts agree that friendship is vital for physical and mental health--the human species thrives on social connections--which is what led Billy Baker's editor to ask him to do an article about how many middle-aged Americans are suffering from a dearth of friendship.

Baker, a writer at the Boston Globe, was 40 at the time, and had settled into a comfortable routine of work and family. His editor's request, however, made Baker realize how rarely he actually hung out with his friends and started him out on a quest to rectify the situation, which he documents in We Need to Hang Out: A Memoir of Making Friends. Baker is specifically writing to the middle-aged male experience, but his advice is broadly applicable. Entertaining and informative, We Need to Hang Out is a timely, fascinating look at the crisis of loneliness in modern society. Baker walks readers through some of his attempts at making new friends and reconnecting with the pals of his college days. He shares funny anecdotes, and painfully awkward moments where no one shows up to an invitation, but slowly his adventures lead to some genuine friendships, which is truly encouraging for anyone who has ever needed a friend. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Tucson, Ariz.

Ellen McGarrahan used to believe in an objective reality. That changed when she devoted a year of her life to learning the truth about the 1976 crime that led to the execution of Jesse Tafero, for which she volunteered to be present. While researching the riveting Two Truths and a Lie: A Murder, a Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice, McGarrahan found herself bombarded with self-serving, conflicting testimonies. As a prosecutor put it to McGarrahan, "Murders don't usually happen in front of a busload of bishops."

The murders at the center of Two Truths and a Lie occurred on February 20, 1976, when a Florida state trooper and his Canadian-constable friend approached a Camaro parked at a rest stop 15 miles north of Fort Lauderdale. Inside the car were Tafero, a drug dealer and fugitive convicted rapist; his girlfriend, Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs, and her two children; and Walter Rhodes, who was on parole for armed robbery. After Trooper Black and Constable Irwin engaged with the Camaro's occupants, an altercation broke out that left both officers dead.

Readers of Two Truths and a Lie shouldn't expect a polemic against capital punishment, although it's possible to read the book as a slow-build evisceration of the American justice system's classism. Nor should readers expect McGarrahan's lucidly written deep dive to produce crystalline clarity about the case. McGarrahan would come to realize that this wasn't the point. "I'm writing a book about Jesse Tafero" was her opening gambit when reaching out to an interview subject, but Two Truths and a Lie is equally about Ellen McGarrahan. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer

Russell Shorto is known for writing about the past. Over six nonfiction books, he's tackled narrative histories about Jesus (Gospel Truth), the world's most liberal city (Amsterdam) and notable founders of the U.S. (Revolution Song). In Smalltime, Shorto intimately mines his own life, his "normal small-town America childhood," contrasted against the history of his Sicilian American family and their ties to the mob. He delivers a beautifully rendered, spellbinding saga about family secrets and taboos.

Shorto's inspiration to explore his own life began when he and his extended family paid an after-Christmas visit to a distant cousin, once a successful jazz singer in Las Vegas who "came home" to Pennsylvania and continued to croon lounge songs publicly with a "local geriatric combo." At a break in his musical set, Cousin Frank, now in his late 70s, casually asked Shorto when he was finally going to write about his grandfather, Shorto's father's father, and his connection to the mob. That question sparked the reluctant Shorto to learn more about his grandfather--a man for whom Shorto was named--who was once a mob boss in Johnstown, Pa., when it was a bustling steel mill town.

The journey Shorto takes to trace his grandfather's life is eventful, entertaining and enlightening. He investigates his grandfather's origins, who he was, and how and why he came to establish a criminal network of gambling. Smalltime is a thorough, immensely moving and empathetic portrait of Shorto's namesake, and how his Sicilian American immigrant experiences shaped the course of history. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Part survey of thrilling new discoveries, part memoir of a restless intellect and part polemical airing of grievances, this curious volume from Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb challenges readers--and Loeb's contemporaries in the sciences--to take seriously the likelihood that we are not alone in the universe. Loeb's "first sign" of intelligent life from elsewhere in the cosmos: 'Oumuamua, a peculiar object that skipped into and then out of the solar system in 2017, zipping through so quickly that astronomers charted it for only 11 days. Scientific consensus has labeled 'Oumuamua, the first interstellar object humanity has ever tracked through our solar system, as a comet, despite the many peculiarities of its behavior.

Loeb asks readers to consider a bolder hypothesis: the possibility that 'Oumuamua "must have been designed, built, and launched by an extraterrestrial intelligence." Extraterrestrial finds Loeb testing that claim, explaining how his life and his research has brought him to make it, considering its implications and lamenting the reluctance of many scientists to consider such a possibility at all. He encourages his contemporaries to approach the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence with the open minds of children, and, perhaps inevitably, he trots out the story of Galileo facing trial for heresy for his break with scientific orthodoxy.

Fortunately, Loeb's infectious sense of wonder breezes away the faint sourness of those passages. Loeb proves adept at illuminating cosmic complexities for a lay audience, especially when it comes to the mysteries of 'Oumuamua. He's just as strong at stirring hopeful awe at his vision of humanity--and possibly other civilizations--launching probes powered by lightsails across the vast emptiness. --Alan Scherstuhl, freelance writer and editor

Ask 100 children what might happen if you put wild animals in charge of a country fair in the middle of the night--there's a good chance that variations of their answers appear in this gloriously imaginative wordless picture book by Gideon Sterer (From Ed's to Ned's) and Mariachiara Di Giorgio (Professional Crocodile).

Dozens of animals watch from the nearby woods as evening turns to night and the swirling, neon-bright magic of a country fair begins to wind down. A worker switches off the main power switch and drives away. But the night of thrills, games and fried dough is not over. Emerging from the trees is the second shift of fairgoers: bears, rabbits, owls and deer. What follows is a fanciful wordless story with myriad familiar fair tableaux: the ring toss, magnificent carousel horses, cotton candy bigger than the indulger's head... all enacted by local wildlife under the inviting glitter and glow of lights.

Lush watercolor, gouache and colored pencil artwork by Di Giorgio is spectacular not just in its liveliness and beauty but in its remarkable depth and perspective. On first "reading," viewers might focus on the main action: animals lining up for rides, waiting at the concession stands, playing games. But look again! In the foreground of these positively frame-worthy illustrations, roller-coaster riders' expressions range from thrilled to terrified, and weasels crack up over a buddy's grinning head in the cutout face of a wooden bathing beauty. Surprise after surprise emerges for the keen-eyed reader, and not a detail is neglected. The Midnight Fair--like a ride on a Ferris wheel--will likely elicit entreaties of "Again, again!" --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor

Anyone who has felt a rush of frigid wind as they stepped onto a beach on a winter's day knows the exhilaration of the child protagonist in Charles Trevino and Maribel LeChuga's alliterative and observant Seaside Stroll. 

The book opens on an adult and child bundling up to take a beachside winter stroll. Poetic sibilance--"slow steps--shuffle, straddle, saunter"--soothes while also hinting at the action to come: child, caregiver and doll "spin" and "swing" at the "spectacular... sparkling" seaside. In one scene, a sudden wave leaps up over a rock, causing the child to drop a doll into a tide pool: "Swish... swirl... surge... surprised!" LeChuga (Ten Beautiful Things) uses playful mixed-media illustrations to round out each action, showing with the page turn the child's face alight with relief as the doll is "saved!" After an afternoon of exploration, the pair trudge home, the sun setting at their backs. The story ends as cozily as it begins with a steamy tub soak, a story, silence and sleep.

The play between text and art highlights the natural world's impermanence as the child explores. The changing perspectives of the illustrations allow readers to experience the story through multiple views, while the text, refreshingly devoid of pronouns or first names, lets readers make their own choices about the narrator. The back of the book features an author's note with a brief lesson on parts of speech and a discussion of the importance of the story's structure which is "meant to capture the wonder of exploration and discovery." --Kieran Slattery, freelance reviewer, teacher, and co-creator, Gender Inclusive Classrooms

Hans Christian Andersen Medalist and Caldecott Honoree Peter Sís (The Pilot and the Little Prince; The Wall) revisits the occupation of Czechoslovakia, his homeland, in this tender picture book about a 10-year-old girl and the unassuming hero who saved her life--and hundreds more--on the eve of World War II.

Englishman Nicolas Winton visited Prague in December 1938. Recognizing the looming danger to Jews in Czechoslovakia, the resourceful Renaissance man quickly arranged the transport of hundreds of children by train from Prague to England. Little Vera left her family behind to board one of Winton's eight trains, escaping the Nazis for a foster family in London with whom she waited out the war. Humble Nicky "never told anyone about the children." Decades later, and only after his wife unearthed Winton's records and went public, word of Winton's heroic efforts spread and led to the public reunion of Nicky, Vera and other rescued children. Winton saved 669 lives.

With an earth-toned palette and characteristically intricate details, Sís reveals the characters' intersecting stories through alternating spreads, shifting between cool blues and honeyed sepia tones to cue transitions. Pointillistic flourishes and illustrative elements carry through the story; variety in scale and perspective ensure Sís's illustrations remain every bit as captivating as Nicky and Vera's unfolding tales. An author's note reveals Sís's connection to Winton's story as well as additional information on the rescue efforts and real-life Vera.

With quick work and no expectation of thanks, Nicky Winton changed the course of Vera's life. Sís does them both justice with this stunning biography. --Kit Ballenger, youth librarian, Help Your Shelf