NOVEMBER 1, 2023 | Vol. XCI NO.21
FEATURING 290 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children’s, and YA Books
ALICE MCDERMOTT IS AT THE TOP OF HER GAME The author’s ninth novel, a departure from her other work, is her masterpiece
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
ONE OF THE bestselling
music books of recent years is The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present (Liveright/Norton, 2021), in which Paul McCartney collected the words to more than 160 songs from his six-decade career, accompanied by commentary from the lyricist himself and photos from his archive. (The volume was edited with an introduction by poet Paul Muldoon.) Certainly, the shelf of books about McCartney and the Beatles is a long one, but The Lyrics offers fans something new: a fresh perspective on familiar songs. Our starred review called the book a “delightful, surprising treasure trove that no Beatles completist should miss.” For an encore, McCartney brought out 1964: Eyes of the Storm (Liveright/Norton, June 13), a collection of recently rediscovered photographs he shot with a 35
mm camera on the Beatles’ first trans-Atlantic tour. In another starred review, our critic called it a “luminous photographic record of the dawn of Beatlemania” and a “must for Beatles fans.” Like McCartney, musical legend Dolly Parton has found a readership for her song lyrics. In 2020, she released Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics (Chronicle Books), written with Robert K. Oermann, a sumptuous volume that collects the words of 175 favorites, including “Coat of Many Colors,” “I Will Always Love You,” and “Jolene,” along with notes on the backstory of each song and plenty of photographs. Kirkus’ starred review called it a “splashy, entertaining guide to the lyrics of one of the most popular musicians of our time.”
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This fall brings Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones (Ten Speed Press, Oct. 17), a “must-have treasury for diehard Dolly fans and armchair fashionistas,” written with Holly George-Warren and Rebecca Seaver. Here are 60 years’ worth of Parton’s flamboyant stage costumes, architectonic blond wigs, and shoes (high-heeled, of course), along with observations on personal style inspirations such as Mae West and RuPaul. Like the star herself, it’s flashy, irresistible fun—not to mention a revealing lens on this artist whose self-presentation has always been an essential element of her appeal. Johnny Cash: The Life in Lyrics (Voracious/Little Brown, Nov. 14), written with Mark Stielper and John Carter Cash, is a posthumous gift for fans of the Man in Black. This volume gathers lyrics to 125 songs, along with the stories behind them and a lavish assortment of archival photographs. Framed as a biography of this iconic songwriter and performer,
the book offers “invaluable insight into one of the major figures in American music,” according to our starred review. Last but certainly not least: Bob Dylan’s The Lyrics: 1960-2012 (Simon & Schuster, 2016) put the Nobel Prize winner’s poetic words between hard covers; now Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine (Callaway Arts & Entertainment, Oct. 24), edited by archivists Mark Davidson and Parker Fishel, presents more than 1,000 photographs and assorted ephemera from the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, along with an introduction by Sean Wilentz, an epilogue by Douglas Brinkley, and contributions by Peter Carey, Joy Harjo, Greil Marcus, Michael Ondaatje, and other writers. An essential volume, like all of the above—because the music alone is never enough.
TOM BEER KIRKUS REVIEWS
Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson
BEHIND THE MUSIC
Contents FICTION
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Editor’s Note
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Reviews & News
10 On the Cover: Alice McDermott 17 Booklist: Novels To Curl Up With 25 On the Podcast: Jamel Brinkley NONFICTION
52 Editor’s Note 53
Reviews & News
58 Q&A: Ziwe 67 Audiobooks 71 Booklist: Books That Go Beyond the Headlines
CHILDREN’S
One of the most coveted designations in the book industry, the Kirkus Star marks books of exceptional merit.
OUR FRESH PICK
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Editor’s Note
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Reviews & News
98 Q&A: Eoin Colfer 105 Booklist: Soothing Bedtime Stories
Nothing is as it seems in this bizarre satire of the literary life by London-based author Waidner.
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Editor’s Note
Read the review on p. 5
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Reviews & News
132
Q&A: Abigail Hing Wen
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YOUNG ADULT
137 Booklist: Novels To Give You a Scare INDIE
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Editor’s Note
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Reviews
77 On the Podcast: Ross Gay
ON THE COVER: Alice McDermott; illustration by Patrick Rosche, based on photos by Beowulf Sheehan and Miriam Berkley. Background: Olindana on iStock
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KIRKUS REVIEWS Co-Chairman HERBERT SIMON
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KIRKUS REVIEWS
Fiction Editor LAURIE MUCHNICK lmuchnick@kirkus.com Young Readers’ Editor LAURA SIMEON lsimeon@kirkus.com Young Readers’ Editor MAHNAZ DAR mdar@kirkus.com Editor at Large MEGAN LABRISE mlabrise@kirkus.com Senior Indie Editor DAVID RAPP drapp@kirkus.com Indie Editor ARTHUR SMITH asmith@kirkus.com Editorial Assistant NINA PALATTELLA npalattella@kirkus.com
Indie Editorial Assistant DAN NOLAN dnolan@kirkus.com Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Writers GREGORY MCNAMEE MICHAEL SCHAUB
Contributors
Alana Abbott, Colleen Abel, Mahasin Aleem, Autumn Allen, Stephanie Anderson, Jenny Arch, Kent Armstrong, Mark Athitakis, Colette Bancroft, Sally Battle, Elizabeth Bird, Ariel Birdoff, Sarah Blackman, Amy Boaz, Melissa Brinn, Kate Brody, Jessica Hoptay Brown, Justina Bruns, Jeffrey Burke, Timothy Capehart, Catherine Cardno, Tobias Carroll, Ann Childs, Anastasia M. Collins, Rachael Conrad, Adeisa Cooper, Jeannie Coutant, Devon Crowe, Evgeniya Dame, Sara Davis, Michael Deagler, Dave DeChristopher, Elise DeGuiseppi, Amanda Diehl, Steve Donoghue, Melanie Dragger, Ellie Eberlee, Gina Elbert, Lisa Elliott, Lily Emerick, Gillian Esquivia-Cohen, Jennifer Evans, Joshua Farrington, Rodney Fierce, Katie Flanagan, Mia Franz, Jenna Friebel, Jackie Friedland, Roberto Friedman, Glenn Gamboa, Laurel Gardner, Cierra Gathers, Jean Gazis, Carol Goldman, Danielle Galván Gomez, Melinda Greenblatt, Valerye Griffin, Michael Griffith, Ana Grilo, Tobi Haberstroh, Geoff Hamilton, Peter Heck, Zoe Holland, Katrina Niidas Holm, Natalia Holtzman, Kathleen T. Isaacs, Kristen Jacobson, Wesley Jacques, Jessica Jernigan, Betsy Judkins, Jayashree Kamblé, Maya Kassutto, Colleen King, Stephanie Klose, Megan Dowd Lambert, Carly Lane, Hanna Lee, Judith Leitch, Donald Liebenson, Coeur de Lion, Corrie Locke-Hardy, Barbara London, Patricia Lothrop, Georgia Lowe, Wendy Lukehart, Kyle Lukoff, Kirk MacLeod, Michael Magras, Joan Malewitz, Emmett Marshall, Gabriela Martins, Matthew May, Dale McGarrigle, Sierra McKenzie, Carol Memmott, Carrigan Miller, Tara Mokhtari, Clayton Moore, Karen Montgomery Moore, Lisa Moore, Rebecca Moore, Andrea Moran, Molly Muldoon, Jennifer Nabers, Christopher Navratil, Liza Nelson, Katrina Nye, Tori Ann Ogawa, Mike Oppenheim, Derek Parker, Hal Patnott, Deb Paulson, Elizabeth Paulson, John Edward Peters, Jim Piechota, Vicki Pietrus, Kathy Price-Robinson, Margaret Quamme, Judy Quinn, Kristy Raffensberger, Stephanie Reents, Jennifer Reese, Sarah Rettger, Nancy Thalia Reynolds, Erica Rivera, Lloyd Sachs, Bob Sanchez, Jeff Schwaner, Jerome Shea, Sadaf Siddique, Leah Silvieus, Linda Simon, Wendy Smith, Margot E. Spangenberg, Mo Springer, Jenn Strattman, Mathangi Subramanian, Jennifer Sweeney, Deborah D. Taylor, Paul Teed, Desiree Thomas, Martha Anne Toll, Amanda Toth, Katie Vermilyea, Christina Vortia, Francesca Vultaggio, Natalie Wexler, Vanessa Willoughby, Kerry Winfrey, Marion Winik, Bean Yogi, Jean-Louise Zancanella
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THE LAST WAVE OF FALL BOOKS Early November feels like the hinge of the publishing season, with the last of the big fall fiction hitting the shelves just before everyone’s thoughts turn to holiday gift books. Here are some great novels to look for this month: The Liberators by E.J. Koh (Tin House, Nov. 7): Koh is a memoirist, poet, and translator publishing her first novel, a multigenerational tale about a Korean family that emigrates to California in 1983. Set against a backdrop of 20th-century
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Korean history, the book is “a mesmerizing, delicately crafted novel about survival in the wake of civil war and transpacific nationalism,” according to our starred review. The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez (Riverhead, Nov. 7): Yes, it’s officially been long enough that we’re now seeing novels set against a backdrop of the Covid pandemic. Like Nunez’s National Book Award winner, The Friend (2018), this one features a relationship triangle among two humans
and a pet—in this case, a woman who’s locked down in the apartment of the friends of a friend, the miniature macaw she’s agreed to care for, and the bird-sitter who went AWOL before she arrived. “Spare and understated and often quite funny, the experience is less like reading fiction than like eavesdropping on someone else’s brain,” says our starred review. The New Naturals by Gabriel Bump (Algonquin, Nov. 14): Like Nunez’s protagonist, the couple at the center of Bump’s novel are academics who are, to some degree, taking shelter from the world. In this case, they’re a Black couple, Rio and Gibraltar, who set about creating a utopian commune under a restaurant in Western Massachusetts after their infant daughter dies. “Bump’s study of race and marginalization is built more on brief character sketches than deep-grain realism,” says our review, “which makes for some gorgeous and lyrical writing.…An affecting, experimental tale of race and reinvention.” Day by Michael Cunningham (Random House, Nov. 14): In his first book in nine years, Cunningham checks in on adult siblings Isabel and Robbie and the rest of their family over three consecutive
April 5ths, in 2019, 2020, and 2021. So: another pandemic novel. “Writing with empathy, insight, keen observation, and elegant subtlety, Cunningham reveals something not only about the characters whose lives he limns in these pages, but also about the crises and traumas, awakenings and opportunities for growth the world writ large experienced during a particularly challenging era,” according to our starred review. So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan (Grove, Nov. 14): Keegan is an Irish writer having a moment in the U.S.—after her 2021 novel, Small Things Like These, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Grove brought out an earlier book, Foster, that had never been published in the U.S. before, and now comes So Late in the Day, making three books in three years (and three starred reviews from Kirkus). The three stories in this collection span her career, and all explore relations between men and women. According to our review, “Keegan precisely observes the subtle dynamics between men and women, be they strangers or romantic partners, and how those dynamics can shift and curdle with little warning.” Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor. KIRKUS REVIEWS
Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson
LAURIE MUCHNICK
FICTION
EDITOR’S PICK Nothing is as it seems in this bizarre satire of the literary life by London-based author Waidner. When Corey Fah is named the winner of the Award for the Fictionalisation of Social Evils, they’re a bit nonplussed. The author attended the online prize announcement wearing a T-shirt and joggers, and is sent to Koszmar Circus, somewhere in the “international capital” where they live, to pick up their trophy. They soon find themself eyeing a UFO: “Circa half a metre tall, it hovered directly in my eyeline. It radiated neon beige, what a concept. I just stood there, one hand on my head, the other on my hip, considering the likelihood.” They discover they’re not alone: Also present in
These Titles Earned the Kirkus Star
the circus is a fawn, with “four spider’s legs” and “multiple sets of eyes, like that seraph-filtered kitty on Instagram.” The deer, which they name Bambi Pavok, follows them home, and Corey soon learns that the UFO was their trophy and the prize committee is annoyed that they didn’t retrieve it. Meanwhile, Corey and their long-suffering partner, Drew Szumski, an interpreter, become alarmed when the wormhole-obsessed host of their favorite television series, St Orton Gets to the Bottom of It, has a small meltdown on air. Add to this “a one-toothed rabbit with a white chest, flushed cheeks, and a set of behavioural problems,” a possibly time-traveling playwright, and Corey’s own ambivalence about their
Waidner, Isabel Graywolf | 160 pp. |$16.00 Feb. 6, 2024 | 9781644452691
newfound notoriety and you get another gleefully anarchic novel from Waidner, who was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize (the real-life Award for the Fictionalisation of Social Evils, one supposes) for Sterling Karat Gold (2023). This is a deeply funny and unrelentingly bizarre look at the vagaries of literary success,
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Swanna in Love By Jennifer Belle Beautyland By Marie-Helene Bertino
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Ilium By Lea Carpenter
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Float Up, Sing Down By Laird Hunt
KIRKUS REVIEWS
Corey Fah Does Social Mobility
Trondheim By Cormac James Invisible Woman By Katia Lief
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Prophet Song By Paul Lynch
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Old Crimes By Jill McCorkle
The Ascent By Adam Plantinga
and although Waidner loads it with their trademark absurdity, it’s still grounded by the author’s straight-faced (but lively) prose. It’s beginning to look like there’s nothing the immensely talented Waidner can’t do. Another smart, entertaining dispatch from Waidner’s bizarro world.
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Corey Fah Does Social Mobility By Isabel Waidner
The Archive of Feelings By Peter Stamm; trans. by Michael Hofmann
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Last Call at the Local By Sarah Grunder Ruiz
Hard by a Great Forest By Leo Vardiashvili
Say You’ll Be Mine By Naina Kumar
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Martyr!
The Curse of Penryth Hall
Akbar, Kaveh | Knopf (352 pp.) | $28.00 Jan. 23, 2024 | 9780593537619
Armstrong, Jess | Minotaur (336 pp.) $28.00 | Dec. 5, 2023 | 9781250886019
A philosophical discourse inside an addiction narrative, all wrapped up in a quest novel. Poet Akbar’s debut in fiction features Cyrus Shams, a child of the Midwest and of the Middle East. When Cyrus was an infant, his mother, Roya, a passenger on a domestic flight in Iran, was killed by a mistakenly fired U.S. missile. His father, Ali, who after Roya died moved with Cyrus to small-town Indiana and worked at a poultry factory farm, has also died. Cyrus disappeared for a time into alcoholism and drugs. Now on the cusp of 30, newly sober but still feeling stuck in his college town, Cyrus becomes obsessed with making his life matter, and he conceives of a grand poetic project, The Book of Martyrs (at the completion of which, it seems, he may commit suicide). By chance, he discovers online a terminally ill Iranian American artist, Orkideh, who has decided to live out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum, having candid tête-à-têtes with the visitors who line up to see her, and Cyrus— accompanied by Zee, his friend and lover, who’s understandably a bit alarmed by all this—embarks on a quest to visit and consult with and learn from her. The novel is talky, ambitious, allusive, deeply meditative, and especially good in its exploration of Cyrus as not being between ethnic or national identities but inescapably, radically both Persian and American. It succeeds so well on its own terms that the novel’s occasional flaws— big coincidences, forays into other narrators that sometimes fall flat, dream-narratives, occasional small grandiosities—don’t mar the experience in any significant way.
Armstrong’s debut, set in 1922 in the Cornish countryside, channels The Hound of the Baskervilles as her heroine wonders if a curse is actually to blame for a real-life murder. Ruby Vaughn, who works for a seller of old and rare books in Exeter, walks into a scandal when she goes to a village called Lothlel Green to deliver a box of books to Ruan Kivell, who’s known to the locals as the Pellar. As far as Ruby can tell, that means he’s “more or less some type of arcane Cornish exorcist....[A] cross between a physician, a witch, and a priest,” but that’s not to say she isn’t intrigued. Ruan is a mystery within a mystery; the second time Ruby meets him, she thinks: “This wasn’t the charming man I’d seen only yesterday...No. He had thunder on his face, and there was something different about him. Something untamed, uncivilized, and entirely terrifying.” While in Lothlel Green, Ruby reunites with Tamsyn, her old love, who’s been living there in Penryth Hall since she married Sir Edward Chenowyth and had a son. When Edward dies mysteriously and Ruby is nearly killed herself, she learns about the Curse of Penryth Hall, where the Chenowyth family lives. Years ago, a jilted woman foolishly asked a local witch for help winning back the heart of her lover, a Chenowyth ancestor who’d married a barmaid, and “the witch set a curse upon the Chenowyth line vowing revenge. She killed the faithless heir and his young bride, removing his inconstant heart and delivering it to his betrothed in a silver box.” Ruby is not sure she believes in curses, but she knows that Edward was not a faithful husband and likely has many enemies. Tamsyn isn’t too broken up about Edward’s death, but she’ll
Imperfect, yes, but intense, original, and smart. 6 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
do anything to protect her son from becoming the next victim of the curse, and she needs Ruby’s help. Romance and danger lurk in every corner of this spooky estate. The folklore in the story is charming, and the characters treat it with reverence even while searching for a human killer. An intriguing and altogether enchanting mystery.
Kirkus Star
Swanna in Love Belle, Jennifer | Akashic (288 pp.) $16.95 paper | Jan. 30, 2024 9781636141640
A neglected teenager has an affair with an older man in this unconventional coming-of-age story. In 1982, 14-year-old Swanna Swain is summoned off the bus that’s meant to take her home from camp to New York City. Five hours later, her mother, Val, arrives in a pickup truck driven by her new boyfriend, Borislav, to take Swanna to Vermont instead. Once there, Swanna and her younger brother, Madding, sleep outside the artists’ colony where their mother is crashing. (The colony doesn’t allow children.) As an escape from her situation, Swanna embarks on an affair with Dennis Whitson, an obstetrician she meets at the local bowling alley. The novel spans only a few days, from the end of camp to the beginning of the school year, and it captures that end-of-summer feeling that is also associated with the end of childhood. As in Lolita, the first-person narration is so compelling and seductive that it implicates the reader, making the relationship’s more sordid moments all the more horrifying. Still, the book never reduces Swanna to two-dimensional victim, nor does it settle for facile moralizing. What emerges, instead, is a complex and bittersweet KIRKUS REVIEWS
FICTION
A heartbreaking coming-of -age story that staggers with truth and beauty. BEAUTYLAND
coming-of-age novel. Swanna is a big reader and a precocious city child who quotes Eloise to herself when she’s stressed. As a character, she is up there with the icons she admires, like J.D. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield and Judy Blume’s Katherine Danzinger. Her incisive perspective is heartbreaking as often as it’s hilarious. The 1980s settings—the writers’ colony, suburban Vermont, and New York City—are brilliantly evoked, with a teenager’s eye toward skewering the excesses and absurdities of bohemians and the bourgeoise alike. Throughout the book, Belle’s dialogue is a highlight—pitch-perfect and often laugh-out-loud funny. Both a riotous page-turner and a thoughtful examination of girlhood, vulnerability, and sexual power.
Kirkus Star
Beautyland Bertino, Marie-Helene | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (336 pp.) | $28.00 | Jan. 16, 2024 9780374109288
A coming-of-age story in which the main character is, literally, out of this world. In Northeast Philadelphia, in the Earth year 1977, Adina Giorno is born to a woman destined to be a single mother. The baby is too small, and her mother, observing her under the hospital phototherapy lamp, thinks she looks “other than human. Plant or marine life, maybe. An orchid or otter. A shrimp.” One reason for this KIRKUS REVIEWS
might be the lamp’s unearthly bluegreen light, or the fact that the baby is early and the mother traumatized by her difficult birth. Another might be the fact that Adina is actually otherworldly, an alien life form from a planet 300,000 light-years away, sent to infiltrate human society and “take notes.” This Adina does assiduously all throughout her childhood and adolescence in 1980s and ’90s Philadelphia, where she lives with her Earth mother in a poor, ethnically Italian neighborhood that is slowly sinking into the toxic ground on which it was built. The notes themselves—winsome observations on the nature of the creatures that surround her (animal, vegetable, and, most mysteriously, human)—are sent via a fax machine Adina’s Earth mother scavenges from the trash and sets up in her bedroom. Adina’s extraterrestrial superiors return encouragement via interstellar fax and offer occasional instruction through telepathic dreams that take place in their best approximation of what an Earth classroom might look like. As Adina grows and her circle of influence widens to include her tough but loving mother, her iconoclastic friend Toni and Toni’s film-buff brother Dominic, enemies, loves, false friends, and the other characters of a well-rounded Earth existence, Adina becomes more and more aware of how different she feels from her Earthling friends, even as her life follows the pattern of their joys and sorrows. A compelling, touching story that weds Bertino’s masterful eye for the poignant detail of the everyday with her equally virtuosic flair as a teller of the tallest kinds of tales—so tall, in this case, they are interplanetary. A heartbreaking book that staggers with both truth and beauty.
Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time Brown, Angela | Little A (364 pp.) | $28.99 Jan. 1, 2024 | 9781662516351
A unique birthday present causes a woman to rethink her life in this debut novel. Olivia Strauss is turning 39. It’s not quite the big one but she’s beginning to realize that all the things she’s always said she would do, like getting back into writing poetry and spending more time in the city with her best friend, Marian, keep getting pushed behind more immediate needs, like caring for her 5-year-old son and teaching at the local high school. When Marian takes Olivia to a spa that uses genetic tests to tell you when you’re supposedly going to die, however, time becomes a lot more precious and Olivia must truly contend with her mortality to answer the question: If you’re going to die sooner than you thought, what would you change? Brown’s exploration of a modern woman’s midlife crisis is refreshingly mixed with a quasi–science fiction plot in which even the characters don’t know how much they should believe. There’s a little bit of mystery, a little bit of drama, and a lot of people finding themselves, with all the mess that involves. Olivia’s husband, Andrew, and son, Tommy, are both well drawn and lovable, something that isn’t always true in the common “woman feels unfulfilled at 40” trope. Flashbacks to college contrasted with Olivia’s current life throw both her situation and her friendship with Marian into strong relief, making it easy for the reader to understand where both women are coming from. The weakest moments are when Brown tries to conceal a plot point for a small twist that’s telegraphed so strongly that it would have been better just to let it breathe—but the outcome is still incredibly effective. A heartfelt exploration of figuring out what one truly wants from life.
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Harbor Lights Burke, James Lee | Atlantic Monthly (368 pp.) | $28.00 | Jan. 23, 2024 9780802160966
Eight stories, four of them new, continue the author’s careerlong project of expanding the mystery genre to include bigger crimes like slavery and deeper mysteries like the nature of evil. Two prison inmates set up to fight each other in “Big Midnight Special” move toward a finale that’s predictably eerie and violent but by no means inevitable. The romance in “The Wild Side of Life” is poisoned by echoes of racism and family history that doom it without opening the lovers’ troubled memories to new understanding. Aaron Holland Broussard and his grandfather, Hackberry Holland, both of them more than familiar to fans of Burke’s novels, run afoul of federal agents hunting down unauthorized Mexican immigrants in “Deportees,” and Aaron returns years later in “Strange Cargo,” the longest story here, haunted by his daughter’s death and eager to grasp his own from stomach cancer, to tangle with a bigoted sheriff, a prickly Black female detective, and a killer who’s apparently been transported from the past. The best stories are the most sharply focused: “Harbor Lights,” in which Aaron’s father, pressed by the FBI to keep quiet about a deadly German submarine that’s been shockingly close to the Louisiana coast, goes to a newspaper instead and sets off a deadly chain of events; “The Assault,” in which Professor Delbert Hatfield’s attempt to get justice for an attack against his brain-damaged daughter pits him against uncaring cops and neo-Nazis; and “A Distant War,” in which Francis Holland’s car trouble south of Colorado plunges him and his son into an inferno filled with racists, scammers, and a woman who claims she’s Jefferson Davis’ widow. 8 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
Burke’s not a polisher bent on perfecting every word but a bard who can’t help returning to each story over and over again.
Tom Clancy Command and Control Cameron, Marc | Putnam (464 pp.) | $29.95 Nov. 21, 2023 | 9780593422847
A generic title for Jack Ryan’s umpteenth encounter with mortal danger. An aide tells President Ryan that he is “the kind of man who creates his own weather,” but that weather tends to be a violent storm. This time, Ryan plans a flight to Argentina but decides to first make a secret stop in Panama to visit President Botero. The secret leaks, of course, resulting in mucho mayhem as Ryan stumbles into the middle of a coup attempt. Meanwhile, the CIA’s Ground Branch kills the Venezuelan Russian assassin Joaquín Gorshkov, incurring the wrath of his batbleep-crazy sister, Sabine Gorshkova. Not much of a family person, she decides to have her younger sister, Blanca, killed and fed to the pigs. Sabine lays blame for her brother’s death on Mary Pat Foley, Director of National Intelligence, and swears claw-hammer vengeance. “I have a special interest in a little bird traveling with the President,” she declares. Oh yes, and a plot is afoot to murder Panama’s president and vice president to “liberate” the country. Russian naval vessels linger near the Panama Canal, ostensibly ready to help should the need arise. Ryan must tread carefully so as not to make the situation worse than it already is. The action-filled tale carries on the late Clancy’s tradition, for example including great dollops of detail without hurting the storyline. There’s almost enough about the Panama Canal for a Wikipedia entry and yet the facts flow as well as water
through the Miraflores Locks. And readers will learn all seven types of weaponry on the Russian destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, aka The Black Terror, and the handy fact that a Bowers Group suppressor needs lithium grease. Bombs explode, bullets fly, and a Panamanian major shows her heroic mettle. Jack Ryan is in good hands with Cameron. There’s plenty of action for Clancy fans.
The Daughters of Block Island Carmen, Christa | Thomas & Mercer (332 pp.) | $16.99 paper | Dec. 1, 2023 9781662512988
Two Boston women pay separate yet equally perilous off-season visits to Block Island several fateful months apart. By the time attorney Thalia Mills gets a letter from Blake Bronson informing her that Blake is the sister she never knew existed, Blake is already dead. She was found with her wrists slit in one of the claw-footed bathtubs in White Hall, the venerable B&B/vineyard/winery kept by Aileen Searles, where Blake, a barely recovering abuser of alcohol and opioids, had gone to confront Maureen Mills, the mother who gave her up for adoption soon after her birth and then pretended she’d never been born. A long flashback to Blake’s visit shows her preparing for the confrontation by spending time with the longtime boyfriend of Maureen’s sister, Fiona, New Shoreham selectman Martin Dempsey, who owns the aptly named restaurant Martin’s Above the Rocks, and his competitor Timmy Graham, of Graham’s Resort, and fighting off their advances. All the while, Blake is falling under the spell of White Hall, which she compares to the haunted settings of The Castle of Otranto, The Mysteries of Udolpho, and Rebecca. When the local KIRKUS REVIEWS
FICTION
A lonely young London woman is drawn into a high-stakes intelligence campaign. ILIUM
cops decide that Blake’s apparent suicide was actually murder and place a suspect under arrest, Thalia determines to retrace the footsteps of the sister she never met. The convoluted mystery, in which everyone acts guilty of something because pretty much everyone is, is repeatedly upstaged by what Carmen, in an unusually candid and illuminating afterword, calls her decision to go for “gothic meta,” compelling both her heroines and her villains to play by the rules of the genre even as they recognize their creaky artifice.
Great fun for readers who’ve done their background reading and want to try a Gothic Plus.
Kirkus Star
Ilium Carpenter, Lea | Knopf (240 pp.) | $27.00 Jan. 16, 2024 | 9780593536605
A lonely young London woman is unknowingly drawn into a high-stakes intelligence campaign by the man she marries. Nearly 21, the never-named woman who narrates the novel is targeted by Marcus, a worldly, jet-setting American who happens to own the private garden she spent hours dreamily gazing at as a child. Innocent to the dangers of the world he inhabits, she is drawn to his controlling nature and sense of mystery even though he’s more than 30 years her senior. Eager to be part KIRKUS REVIEWS
of something, she goes along with Marcus’ efforts to groom her as an asset for a group of operatives with ties to the CIA and Mossad. Posing as an aspiring art dealer, she makes an extended visit to the exclusive Cap Ferret home of Edouard, a former Russian general with a fabulous collection of paintings and a lethal past. She is surprised to enjoy his company during their long nightly walks and becomes exceptionally fond of the sweet, super-intelligent 9-yearold son he dotes on. Knowing he is behind Operation Ilium, a revenge plot aimed at American assets in the U.K., will she be able to do what is necessary to help foil it? “The problem is, when you reinvent yourself for someone else you are reinventing around your idea of what they want, and this will get you into all sorts of trouble,” she muses. With its dreamily detached narration and elliptical feel, Carpenter’s third novel—following Eleven Days (2013) and Red, White, Blue (2018)—is less interested in spy vs. spy or good vs. bad (both sides are equally capable of the worst) than the lack of reliable truths in people’s lives and the ways they allow themselves to be formed by events beyond their control. “Truth is a toy I play with,” the narrator says in the end. But no more than it plays with her. An edgy confessional novel with the trappings of spy fiction.
For more by Lea Carpenter, visit Kirkus online.
Manner of Death Cook, Robin | Putnam (352 pp.) | $29.00 Dec. 5, 2023 | 9780593713891
A pathology resident hunts for evidence linking a handful of suspicious suicides. Like many of Cook’s novels, this one features Laurie Montgomery, chief medical examiner for the City of New York, and her medical examiner husband, Jack Stapleton, but the main protagonist this time around is Ryan Sullivan, an autopsy-averse resident doing a month-long rotation in the CME’s office. He’s curious about the commonalities among a handful of deaths that are believed to be suicides and sets out to prove they’re somehow connected, risking his life in the process. In a parallel plot line, we meet Hank Roberts, a former Navy SEAL turned assassin who’s been hired to make homicides look like suicides for a health care company that’s bilking corporations out of millions through phony diagnostic tests that indicate their employees have cancer when they don’t. While the idea of health care companies killing troublesome patients seems farfetched, Sullivan’s meticulous investigation into the deaths is one of the novel’s few highlights, as are scenes explaining how toxicology, scene investigation, and autopsy help MEs and their investigators determine the manner of death. Unfortunately, stilted dialogue stuffed with clichés is a distraction from Sullivan’s intriguing detective work, as are details of the bureaucratic minutiae involved in running a medical examiner’s office. Since Coma was published in 1977, Cook’s status as a founder of the medical thriller genre has garnered him countless bestsellers. Despite the novel’s weaknesses, diehard fans may be willing to wade through them in order to spend time—albeit limited—with Montgomery and Stapleton. Too few thrills in this thriller barely keep it on life support.
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SE O NCTTH I OENC O V E R
ALICE MCDERMOTT
For her ninth novel, set in Vietnam, the author wanted to engage with Graham Greene’s The Quiet American. BY LAURIE MUCHNICK
WHEN ALICE MCDERMOTT published her first novel, A Bigamist’s Daughter, in
1982, she made a splash. How could she not have, with that in-your-face title? The book was reviewed on the front page of the New York Times Book Review by Anne Tyler. That Night, her second novel, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize (won that year by Beloved). And on and on—for her beautiful, deeply nuanced portraits of Irish Catholic New Yorkers, McDermott has won the National Book Award and been a finalist for just about every honor out there, including the Kirkus Prize for The Ninth Hour. Her new book, Absolution (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Nov. 7), is a departure; set in Saigon in 1963, it introduces Tricia Kelly and a group of other young American women whose husbands are diplomats or corporate managers. Tricia recalls her life in Vietnam from 60 years on, looking back at the do-gooding schemes she was swept into by her friend Charlene. Our starred review says, “This transporting, piercing, profound novel is McDermott’s masterpiece.” I recently spoke to McDermott via Zoom; our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What’s going on backstage always interests me.
Your first few novels were set so firmly on Long Island that it seemed like a big move when you set one in Brooklyn. How did you decide to write about Saigon? It’s not a total departure—it’s a change of landscape, but I still have my New Yorkers in the mix. Ever since I read Graham Greene’s The Quiet American as an undergrad, I’ve wanted to address the way Greene portrayed women in that novel—and it’s a novel I admire tremendously. It’s about a CIA agent in Vietnam, and it questioned the U.S. involvement. Every time I’ve read it, I’ve been astonished by how politically prescient it was, published in the mid-’50s. For Greene to see America’s catastrophe in Vietnam so clearly—but what was going to happen to women in the ’70s? He couldn’t see that coming. So I’ve always wanted, as the millennials say, to be in dialogue with that book. And then I’ve lived inside the Beltway for so many years, and
Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images
McDermott read the great Vietnam novels and memoirs to prepare.
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S ESFC EIT C CITTOIIN O ON N
I’ve met so many women who would have been the kind of women Greene was so dismissive of, the American diplomats’ wives or secretaries at the embassy. Plus I’ve always wanted to visit Vietnam, so when I started this novel I thought, Here’s my professional excuse. And then Covid came, so that wasn’t going to happen. You still haven’t made the trip? I have not made the trip, so I had to make the trip during lockdown by just reading absolutely everything, reacquainting myself with people like Greene and Tim O’Brien and the great Vietnam political novels and memoirs. I told myself that if I can be in someone’s life at a time that I never lived, certainly I can be in someone’s life in a place that I’ve never lived. In some ways it was a challenge, but I had the guardrail because these are Americans. I would not presume to tell the story from a Vietnamese point of view. All those Vietnam novels you mention were written by men. I will not be the first writer, whether journalist or memoirist or fiction writer or poet, to say 1963 was a really important year, globally. At that time, on the cusp of so many things, I was more interested in the women who have been dismissed from the story. I think there aren’t many memoirs or stories about these women because they didn’t really feel they had a story to tell. They were good wives, they were good secretaries, they were young women who wanted an adventure and joined the State Department and…typed. They were not in the room, so to speak, when major things were happening. But what’s going on backstage always interests me. You mention all the pivotal things happening at that time, which reminds me that before she got married, Tricia and a friend from college drove down South to register Black voters. One of the risks of writing what is apparently a historical novel, but not with the same intention that writers KIRKUS REVIEWS
Absolution
McDermott, Alice
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 336 pp. | $28.00 Nov. 7, 2023 | 9780374610487
of historical novels usually have, is to overwhelm story and character with research and hitting every historical note. Medgar Evers was assassinated in ’63, and I couldn’t authentically, knowing Tricia as I came to know her, have her make note of that. It was where the events of this pivotal year brushed up against her daily life, and sometimes where she was drawn into it. You tell the story in a nonchronological way, circling around various events. It’s a novel about how memory works, which, for me, is the flip side of how storytelling works. It’s the story we tell ourselves. To authentically portray how memory works, you have to fudge chronology, because none of us remembers things in strict chronological order—you just have to listen to a bunch of friends sitting around talking to know that. Because Tricia is telling the story from the present, she’s able to say things like, “Today Charlene would be called a white savior.” She can take the
framework of the present and put it on the past. I think that’s the aspect of the novel that speaks to the sense of absolution, the sense of forgiveness. This is who we were then, this is what we knew then, this is the language we used, and now we can see the flaws in that. Can you forgive us for it? To go back to poor Graham Greene, to acknowledge that, politically, he really saw the future but he didn’t understand what was coming for women—or even bother to think about it. Do we blame him for that? Do we discredit what he did see, do we discredit his narrator? Do we discredit a writer of that generation who portrays a Vietnamese woman as if she’s a clever child? This is the narrator’s worldview at that time, and probably the author’s worldview, but is there a way to look back through time and say You were so wrong but I forgive you for it? Because I may be wrong now—the things that I’m so sure of have their parallel in the things that we were so sure of in the past. I have a question that’s hard to formulate without giving too much away, but there’s a spot where you put a small detail into the book that changes the whole ending if the reader notices it. This is something that certainly gets talked about a lot in writing workshops—when I was teaching I would say everything counts. That’s not true of memoir. That’s not true of journalism. That’s not true of history. You can throw things in. But for the fiction writer, everything is a choice. Every color, every adjective, every decision you make about storytelling is a choice. This is the thing I love as a reader—when the writer trusts that I believe that, and we’re sort of hand in hand entering into this narrative together, and I’m not going to assume anything is superfluous. I think that demands respect for the reader and also raises the stakes as a writer. And it’s what makes fiction so magical, when it works.
Absolution received a starred review in the August 15, 2023, issue. NOVEMBER 1, 2023 11
FICTION
The Couple in the Photo Cooper, Helen | Putnam (368 pp.) $18.00 paper | Dec. 5, 2023 9780593544907
When Lucy looks at photos of her colleague’s honeymoon in the Maldives, she’s shocked to notice the husband of one of her best friends, arms entwined with an
unknown woman. Over the last 15 years, Lucy has created a perfect life for herself in Leicester, England. A teaching job at a local school; a husband, Adam, whom she loves; two children, Fran and Tilly, who couldn’t make her happier; and family friends who are their match: Cora, Scott, Ivy, and Joe. Cora, Scott, and Adam were all housemates at university, and Ivy and Joe arrived around the same time as Lucy’s own children. The families are inseparable, the children friends, and impromptu barbecues and midweek dinners have evolved into a jointly purchased seaside cottage in Norfolk, which the adults are renovating on the weekends. It is this idyllic life and family network that Lucy feels is threatened by clear evidence that Scott is having an affair. Why else would he be in the Maldives rather than in Japan on a business trip as he claimed? Adam tells her to leave it alone, but she keeps digging, especially when the woman in the picture turns out to be Juliet Noor, a journalist-turned-novelist who goes missing on the island where she was writing, eventually turning up dead. While the novel starts with what appears to be a typical obsessive-wife-won’t-stop-digging-eventhough-her-husband-tells-her-to-stop storyline that feels a little worn, it unexpectedly unfolds into far, far more as Lucy races to discover who has killed Juliet—and just how many people in her close circle are involved. A clever plot, richly characterized, that explores how choices can cascade to unravel a seemingly happy life.
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Deaver pulls so many rabbits from his hat that you await each new one impatiently. T H E W AT C H M A K E R ’ S H A N D
The Watchmaker’s Hand Deaver, Jeffery | Putnam (432 pp.) | $29.00 Nov. 28, 2023 | 9780593422113
Step right up to see quadriplegic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme match wits with Charles Vespasian Hale, the Watchmaker, who terrorizes New York while he prepares to attack his nemesis head-on. Whoever sabotaged Garry Helprin’s crane, disturbing its delicate balance until it crashed 22 stories onto East 89th Street, has sent a demand that the city immediately stop building skyscrapers to accommodate the elite and earmark billions for affordable housing. The manifesto, signed The Kommunalka Project, threatens to sabotage a new high-profile building project every day until the city comes around, which of course it’s not going to do. Instead, Det. Lon Sellitto of the NYPD’s Major Crimes Unit entreats Rhyme, his old partner, to help identify the perpetrators before they can do any more damage. Meanwhile, Hale, identified from the beginning as the prime mover behind the plot, kills a broker who saw something incriminating that nobody else can identify and an accomplice he’d been using as an inside man who could get him close enough to Rhyme to kill him. Working with both advanced technologies and hydrofluoric acid, an ancient poison time has never improved, Hale keeps a step ahead of his pursuers, constantly planting new false leads, while Rhyme, together with Det. Amelia Sachs—his wife and forensic partner—and diverse
members of the NYPD, the FBI, and the ATF work feverishly to uncover the real motive behind the hollow pretense that the terrorists are out for social justice. As usual, Deaver pulls so many rabbits from his hat that you come to await each new one impatiently, and his final surprise, though not entirely predictable, isn’t all that surprising either. An also-ran among Deaver’s Greatest Hits that would do any lesser suspense-monger proud.
First Lie Wins Elston, Ashley | Pamela Dorman/ Viking (352 pp.) | $28.00 | Jan. 9, 2024 9780593492918
A professional con woman quickly realizes her latest job has become more personal and dangerous than planned. Evie Porter (not her real name) is on a job in Louisiana and has successfully convinced her latest mark, Ryan Sumner, to fall for her in a whirlwind romance. All seems to be going well with Evie’s investigation into Ryan’s side business, a trucking company moving black market goods, until Evie meets a woman dating one of Ryan’s friends who introduces herself as Lucca Marino—Evie’s actual name. When imposter Lucca dies in a fiery car wreck and the police question Evie and Ryan as the last people to see her, an outstanding warrant pops for Evelyn Porter’s arrest (though there should be no such history). It’s then that Evie understands that her KIRKUS REVIEWS
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current job is actually a test from her employer, Mr. Smith, who was unhappy after she busted her last assignment, and the stakes are much higher than she’d anticipated. To keep herself out of jail, Evie must pull in every favor she has accumulated during her career to outwit Mr. Smith, but she will have to first discern whether she can trust Ryan or if she has to cut and run if she wants any hope for a future. Interspersed with the current adventure are flashbacks that start 10 years earlier in which Evie recalls committing petty theft at the country club in a desperate bid for cash to pay for her mother’s cancer treatments during high school, being connected with Mr. Smith when she was caught, and the progression of jobs since then in which a host of lively side characters are introduced. YA writer Elston’s adult debut announces itself as a savvy thriller with intrigue and momentum from the first twist of Lucca’s arrival right up until the final showdowns. Evie is a smart and engaging protagonist, and her time on the run is anything but predictable. A genuine page-turner.
You Dreamed of Empires Enrigue, Álvaro | Trans. by Natasha Wimmer Riverhead (240 pp.) | $28.00 | Jan. 9, 2024 9780593544792
A vision of the Aztec empire on the verge of conquest. In 1520, Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés began to wrest control of Tenochtitlan (in what is now Mexico City) from the Aztecs. But in November 1519, when Enrigue’s arch historical novel is set, the two cultures were play-acting at diplomacy. The Aztecs are baffled by the Spaniards’ horses, the proclamations of their King Charles I, and tales of Christianity. The conquistadores, meanwhile, find the food KIRKUS REVIEWS
repulsive, the long waits frustrating, and are troubled by a citadel decorated with thousands of skulls. In the run-up to the inevitable horrors to come, Enrigue focuses on one junior representative from each side: Jazmín Caldera, an investor in Cortés’ expedition, and Atotoxtli, the sister and (figurehead) wife of Moctezuma, the Aztec emperor whose alliances are crumbling and who is prone to retreat into a druggy, sleepy haze. Moctezuma is mercurial, prone to calling for the execution of assistants at the smallest slights, but the Spaniards aren’t much better, slavers biding their time. Enrigue’s tone (nicely conveyed via Wimmer’s translation) is of ironic disbelief—the fate of two global cultures turns on the narcissistic preening of these two tribes? (“If there’s anything Spaniards and Mexicans have always agreed upon, it’s that nobody is less qualified to govern than the government itself,” Enrigue quips.) Little has changed, Enrigue means to say, at certain moments pushing the story out of strict historical fiction, at one point suggesting that a foreboding sound echoes a T. Rex song, or crafting an ahistorical dream sequence in which history turns the Aztecs’ way. In the acknowledgments, Enrigue cites Borges as a key inspiration, and the novel certainly shares an affinity for dark humor, metanarrative, and detail about history, real and imagined. But the irony and wit Enrigue brings to the story is entirely his own. An offbeat, well-turned riff on anticolonialist themes.
Family Family Frankel, Laurie | Henry Holt (400 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 23, 2024 | 9781250236807
A very unusual, and very Frankel, adoption story. Fans of Frankel, author of the groundbreaking trans-parenting novel This Is How It Always Is (2017), will feel at home
from the earliest sentences of her latest, to wit: “Whereas for Fig’s mother it all began, quite a bit after the birth of the universe, with Guys and Dolls.” Fig’s mother, in this case, is India Allwood, whom we meet in 1998 as she gets the lead in her high school’s production of Guys and Dolls, the beginning of extremely illustrious careers in both acting and, it turns out, motherhood, the latter eventually defined as “solving impossible-to-solve problems while also experiencing deep crises of faith while also being kind of annoyed while also never getting enough rest.” See—Frankel’s back! Without giving away too much of her dizzying plot, which is supercharged with cliffhanger chapter endings and parallel reveals, the novel is dedicated to the premise that not every adoption story is one of trauma—a position publicly advocated by the eventually world-famous actress India Allwood, who gets herself in big trouble with her proclamations, and also by Frankel in an author’s note. Along the way we will enjoy many fine young characters (Kevin Wilson fans who haven’t yet tried Frankel should) and classic Frankelisms: “One of her mother’s life theories was any argument had to have two buts. One objection wasn’t going to convince anyone.” “When she started breathing again, India wondered if it was possible to refall in love with someone based on parenthesis usage alone.” For all the narrative hijinks it’s these pithy formulations and nuggets of life wisdom that are the real draw. As India tells Bex, the daughter she gave up in high school, now back in her life trying to save her from her own public relations mistakes: “Regardless of how they get made, family is a force to be reckoned with.” Full of warmth, humor, and sound advice.
For more by Laurie Frankel, visit Kirkus online.
NOVEMBER 1, 2023 13
S IECCTTI IOONN F
The Best That You Can Do Gautier, Amina | Soft Skull Press (240 pp.) | $16.95 paper | Jan. 16, 2024 9781593767587
Cultural loss, romantic disappointment, sexism, sexual violence, and the cost of racism are examined in close to five dozen stories told through the eyes of Black and Puerto Rican characters. The biracial children in the stories in the first section, “Quarter Rican,” are all pursuing their Puerto Rican heritage: by sneaking behind their mother’s back to learn Spanish, searching for Puerto Rican faces on TV reruns, or scouring the neighborhood for old men who might be their grandfathers. What they don’t know is how much their Black grandmother struggled after her Puerto Rican husband abandoned her, returning to the island and starting a new family. Told from a constellation of points of view, these stories, many of which are no longer than five or six pages, accumulate emotional force and capture the complexity of families and generational divides. Gautier is a master of the short-short story (often referred to as sudden fiction). Pieces like “My Mother Wins an Oxygen Tank at the Casino, or, My Mother Makes an Exception” and “Forgive Me” evoke the fierce love of daughters for their mothers in just two pages, and “Summer Says” swiftly captures summer’s pleasures in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn: “All summer we have the days to ourselves, the neighborhood to ourselves, and the streets are ours for the taking,” the children announce. “Each morning we are few, but by afternoon we are legion.” Sometimes, brevity does a disservice to Gautier’s subject matter, especially when she’s writing about women’s disillusionment with men. In “So Good To See You,” for example, a woman goes on a quasi-date with an old high school 14 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
Gautier has a real gift for finding dignity in the lives of ordinary women. T H E B E S T T H AT YO U C A N D O
friend who spills gravy on his tie and thinks he’s a “good catch” just by virtue of not being in jail. This and a handful of other stories strike a single note and move on. Still, Gautier has a real gift for finding dignity and bravery in the lives of ordinary women. The collection’s final stories focus on Mrs. McAllister, an aging woman whose commitment to her family, especially her dead sister, may move you to tears. A collection with so many important stories that some of the less successful ones could have been left out.
The Buried Hours Grant, R.S. | Thomas & Mercer (380 pp.) | $16.99 paper | Dec. 5, 2023 9781662511509
A journalist’s dangerous project also provides the key to a haunting attack against her. A year after a painful divorce and two years after she was abducted and drugged, losing several hours of her memory, documentary journalist Signe Gates struggles to rebuild her life. Unhelpfully, she still sees her ex-husband, Leo, who’s her former cameraman, since they both work for the Wayfinders Network, a streaming app. Signe’s future rides on her pitch for Crime Lords, a series that links her personal violation to a larger criminal operation. A provocative text message from someone calling himself “DiscoFever” promises to share important information
about her attack if she’ll meet him at Yosemite National Park. Because her new cameraman, Roman, is on crutches, Leo, whom she runs into at an event at the Wayfinders Museum, agrees to find a replacement. The star of the event is dashing archeologist Cole Banner, whose swagger annoys Signe. With this foundation, Grant’s thriller cruises for a while as a romance. Cole and Signe meet cute: He of course is the substitute cameraman Leo’s found. Against the rugged backdrop of Yosemite, the pair banter and grow to trust each other. Romance stays in the mix as the tale swerves back into thriller territory. As DiscoFever continues to manipulate Signe, the wilderness provides both physical danger and a metaphor for her struggle. Grant skillfully shuffles familiar tropes and writes with precision and pace, keeping the stakes high by intermittently casting suspicion on the three most prominent men in Signe’s life. A brisk and satisfying, if formulaic, romantic suspenser.
The Pushcart Prize XLVIII: Best of the Small Presses Ed. by Henderson, Bill | Pushcart (580 pp.) $38.00 | Dec. 5, 2023 9798985469721
A journalist’s dangerous project also provides the key to a haunting attack against her. A year after a painful divorce and two years after she was abducted and KIRKUS REVIEWS
FICTION
drugged, losing several hours of her memory, documentary journalist Signe Gates struggles to rebuild her life. Unhelpfully, she still sees her ex-husband, Leo, who’s her former cameraman, since they both work for the Wayfinders Network, a streaming app. Signe’s future rides on her pitch for Crime Lords, a series that links her personal violation to a larger criminal operation. A provocative text message from someone calling himself “DiscoFever” promises to share important information about her attack if she’ll meet him at Yosemite National Park. Because her new cameraman, Roman, is on crutches, Leo, whom she runs into at an event at the Wayfinders Museum, agrees to find a replacement. The star of the event is dashing archeologist Cole Banner, whose swagger annoys Signe. With this foundation, Grant’s thriller cruises for a while as a romance. Cole and Signe meet cute: He of course is the substitute cameraman Leo’s found. Against the rugged backdrop of Yosemite, the pair banter and grow to trust each other. Romance stays in the mix as the tale swerves back into thriller territory. As DiscoFever continues to manipulate Signe, the wilderness provides both physical danger and a metaphor for her struggle. Grant skillfully shuffles familiar tropes and writes with precision and pace, keeping the stakes high by intermittently casting suspicion on the three most prominent men in Signe’s life. A brisk and satisfying, if formulaic, romantic suspenser.
Termush Holm, Sven | Trans. by Sylvia Clayton Farrar, Straus and Giroux (128 pp.) $16.00 paper | Jan. 9, 2024 | 9780374613587
Well-to-do survivors of a post-apocalyptic disaster hole up in an exclusive hotel. When unbelievable events regularly happen before our eyes, it’s instructive to have artifacts to give them context—for instance, this buried treasure, originally published by Danish novelist Holm in 1967, translated contemporaneously by British novelist Clayton and resurrected from the archives with a new introduction by science fiction lighthouse keeper Jeff VanderMeer. It’s a slim novel, but its universal setting and farsighted themes combine with the author’s eerie minimalism to make it feel as modern as it is avant-garde. “Everything went according to plan...” says the anonymous narrator, making observations from the titular hotel where a wealthy group of survivors are sheltering from deadly radiation outside. We learn that the narrator enrolled in the program some years ago, promised “a guarantee of help” when the time came, complete with protective shelters, security personnel, and uncontaminated food and water. Before long, things begin to go wrong, from the near-constant radiation alarms that drive Termush’s inhabitants underground to dead birds falling from the air to
Before long, things begin to go wrong, from near-constant radiation to dead birds falling from the sky. TERMUSH
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the arrival of other survivors quickly labeled enemies. Inevitably, the denizens of the resort are transformed. Like the privileged tourists playing dress-up in dystopian fictions like Westworld or White Lotus, our narrator and the other residents of Termush devolve to their basest instincts sooner than you’d think: “We paid money to go on living in the same way that one once paid health insurance; we bought the commodity called survival, and according to all existing contracts no one has the right to take it from us or make demands upon it.” When brandy and sedatives fail and violence and death follow, the survivors of Termush soon learn that money doesn’t provide as much insulation as it did in the Before Times. A prescient parable that finds the rich dismayed with what happens after the world ends.
On the Plus Side Howe, Jenny L. | St. Martin’s Griffin (368 pp.) | $18.00 paper | Dec. 26, 2023 9781250837882
After years of hiding her shine, a woman adjusts to life in the spotlight when she’s a guest on a plus-size makeover show. Everly Winters would rather blend in than stand out—after all, she spent years listening to her overly critical mother tell her she was too loud, too bold, and too much. It’s easier to hide and live life on the sidelines, preferably while wearing neutrals. But then she gets nominated to be a contestant on On the Plus Side, a Queer Eye–type makeover show that only showcases plus-size people. Instead of trying to hide their bodies, the contestants are encouraged to believe in themselves and their inherent fabulousness. Everly is wary of being in the spotlight, but she loves hosts Jazzy Germaine and Stanton Bakshi too much to say no. But this means she has to not only face her fears but do so on >>> NOVEMBER 1, 2023 15
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For more fall books to curl up with, visit Kirkus online.
5
5 Fall Books To Curl Up With 1 Digging Stars
By Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
Tshuma’s novel is cerebral yet passionate, a heady stew of science, family drama, and political intrigue.
KIRKUS REVIEWS
2 The Unsettled
By Ayana Mathis
An affecting and carefully drawn story of a family on the brink.
3 Wellness
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5
A warmhearted satire that chronicles our “perfectly, stupidly, dreadfully elegant” accommodations to life.
A House for Alice
By Diana Evans
The Armor of Light
By Nathan Hill
A baggy, striking, perceptive slice of intergenerational life.
By Ken Follett
A treat for fans of historical fiction.
NOVEMBER 1, 2023 17
FICTION
camera. Everly can barely admit to herself that she wants more out of life than her role as a receptionist at a marketing firm—she wants to work in the design department. Most important, she misses the woman she used to be before she took her mother’s words to heart and started dressing to blend in. The show’s producer also nudges her to admit her feelings for her Chris Hemsworth–doppelgänger coworker, James—someone Everly assumes would never be into her. Everly expects it to feel difficult as she breaks out of her comfort zone, but one thing she doesn’t expect is to develop a crush on Logan, the cameraman who follows her everywhere. He’s gruff and seems to dress exclusively in flannel, but the more she gets to know him, the more she sees that underneath his grouchy exterior is a deeply kind (and kind of sexy) interior. Everly is a relatable character, and her bravery and persistence in chasing the life she wants creates a satisfying arc. Howe balances Everly’s insecurities with her newfound belief in herself—while her mother may shame her, the novel never does, and Everly is presented as beautiful, capable, and the star of her own story. A romantic comedy that’s both cozy and empowering.
Kirkus Star
Float Up, Sing Down Hunt, Laird | Bloomsbury (224 pp.) | $26.99 Feb. 6, 2024 | 9781639730100
Covering just one day, these closely linked stories reveal the many ties and secrets of a rural Indiana town. It’s the early 1980s and Reagan is president. As she prepares for the monthly gathering of the Bright Creek Girls Gaming Club, Candy Wilson realizes she’s forgotten to buy paprika for her deviled eggs. Elsewhere in Bright 18 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
Creek, Turner Davis is late getting his zinnias in. Horace Allen smells the sea from the mix of herbs and vegetables in his garden. Each of the 14 stories is named for a town resident, and most are told in a close third person that shares characters’ thoughts and memories, often in connection with their neighbors. The paprika and zinnias might suggest a fair helping of the mundane, but Hunt, whose novels have featured war, racism, and sorcery, has a lot going on here. As he charts how often, and amusingly, characters’ paths cross in a small town, he delves into “all those little secrets that weren’t secrets at all,” from a teacher who is fired amid rumors of lesbianism to a high school custodian who was once a “promising ballroom dancer” to a World War II veteran who found unrequited love on Crete. Hunt gets a lot of life on the page with the shrewd accumulation of details. The teacher, Irma Ray, recently hanged herself, and her real secret is a late revelation. Also appearing is Zorrie Underwood, the title character from Hunt’s novel Zorrie (2021), which furnishes a few other people in the new work. This sort of cross-pollination comes up in recent novels by Elizabeth Strout and Michael Farris Smith, both writers with a defined literary terrain, which may be something Hunt is working toward. In broader terms, his book harks back to Our Town, of which Thornton Wilder said he sought “to find a value above all price for the smallest events of our daily life.” An entertaining work of exceptional vitality.
Kirkus Star
Trondheim James, Cormac | Bellevue Literary Press (288 pp.) | $17.99 paper | Feb. 6, 2024 9781954276239
When their son collapses, an unhappy couple travels to his bedside, leaving behind none of their exquisitely described marital baggage. Together for a quarter century, Alba and Lil are enduring an ordinarily unpleasant day at their home in the south of France— house renovation, subterranean power struggles, overt bickering—when they get a call that their 20-year-old son, Pierre, studying in the Norwegian city of Trondheim, has had a heart attack and died. Resuscitated, he now lies comatose in a hospital. Pierre might wake up fine. He might wake up with brain damage. He might not wake up at all. Lil “had often fantasized that a great life crisis would bring focus and calm. How maddening, now, that Alba seemed determined to make it another version of their petty everyday game.” Maddening indeed, but Alba is hardly the only troublemaker in either the relationship or in Irish writer James’ delicate, incisive third novel. Blunt, horny, and unsentimental, Lil, a former rugby player, handles the stress of Pierre’s catastrophe by acting out: She hits a Trondheim gay bar, initiates a flirtation, hatches a scheme, drinks. Alba, moderate and more conventional,
Covering just one day, these stories reveal the many secrets of an Indiana town. F L O AT U P, S I N G D O W N
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judges and withholds. Again and again, James captures with forensic accuracy the subtle tensions in the marriage. Consider Alba’s purchase of an airport coffee for Lil: “Lil peeled off the lid and peered into the cup. ‘That’s the way she gave it to me,’ Alba said. ‘What did you ask for?’ ‘If you don’t like it, don’t drink it,’ Alba said. This was the problem they called ‘dairy.’ It was an alibi, Alba knew, for something far more personal and far less precise.” Pierre’s medical situation is acute and dramatic, but the women’s marital troubles, mundane and chronic, are the real subject of this extraordinary and meticulous little book. An X-ray picture of the subcutaneous breaks and sprains in a rocky relationship.
Where You End Kahler, Abbott | Henry Holt (336 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 16, 2024 | 9781250873248
In 1983 Philadelphia, an amnesiac must rely on her twin for information regarding who she is and what she’s forgotten. When 22-yearold Katherine Bird wakes in the hospital two weeks after dying for 93 seconds, all she remembers is the name and face of her twin sister, Jude. Per Jude, they were driving a rural road late one night when Kat swerved to avoid a deer and crashed. The girls were homeschooled, their father left when they were 10, and their mother is dead, so only Jude can fill in the blanks comprising Kat’s past. Jude recounts a sheltered, largely happy childhood, but if her stories are authentic, why is Kat prone to sudden bouts of anger and violence? Further, why are there so few pictures of her and Jude, and who is the strange woman seemingly following Kat whenever she ventures from the siblings’ apartment? Although Jude has answers for everything, Kat can’t help but wonder whether all she thinks she knows about herself is a lie. Kahler’s debut KIRKUS REVIEWS
novel by turns thrills and devastates, interspersing Kat’s first-person-present narrative with third-person flashbacks from Jude’s perspective detailing the twins’ actual adolescence spent living with a New Age cult co-founded by their mother. Jude’s desperation to protect Kat intensifies in tandem with Kat’s determination to uncover the truth, fostering tension and drive. Artful, evocative prose and realistically damaged characters contribute to the book’s potency. At once a vertiginous paranoia tale and a melancholic meditation on identity.
The Night Island Krentz, Jayne Ann | Berkley (320 pp.) $29.00 | Jan. 9, 2024 | 9780593639856
A podcaster searches for an informant who’s gone missing under mysterious circumstances. Talia March, Pallas Llewellyn, and Amelia Rivers suspect that seven months ago, they were victims of an experiment designed to enhance their innate paranormal abilities—Talia, for instance, can now find hidden or lost objects, including dead bodies. Now the three friends co-host a popular podcast that investigates paranormal mysteries. When a devoted listener named Phoebe Hatch offers to sell them a list of possible subjects for the experiment they think they were part of, Talia heads off to Seattle to meet her. When she arrives at the designated spot, though, she discovers Luke Rand, another potential buyer, but no Phoebe. Luke believes he was part of a related experiment, with the goal of creating psychic assassins. Phoebe is missing, but Luke and Talia find several clues that point them to the Night Island, an exclusive getaway in the San Juans that promises meditation and a full digital detox. Determined to find the missing list and rescue Phoebe, they decide to go to the Night Island, posing as a married couple. The early chapters are overburdened with too
much exposition, but the plot picks up once Talia and Luke arrive on the island, where the bioluminescent plants give off a strange, menacing energy. Krentz successfully leverages the creepy, isolated setting. A bout of bad weather postpones the daily ferry service, and the island is cut off from civilization with no cell service or Wi-Fi. The staff is curt and unwelcoming, and when several of them die under mysterious circumstances, there’s no way to call for help. The guests are desperate to escape the murderous island even as the flora and fauna seem to become imbued with more power and energy. Talia and Luke continue their search for Phoebe and investigate the murders, even as their pretend relationship turns into a real romance. A slow start evolves into a pleasing paranormal story.
Kirkus Star
Invisible Woman Lief, Katia | Atlantic Monthly (272 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 9, 2024 | 9780802161406
When news of another Hollywood rape scandal breaks, Joni Ackerman—a former filmmaker now married to Paul Lovett, a powerful TV executive—reaches out to encourage an old friend to expose her truth. Joni has known for decades that the accused CEO was a sexual predator because he assaulted her friend Val Graham at a party almost 30 years ago. Val, at the time an aspiring actress, didn’t report the rape and eventually left Hollywood. Joni has always kept silent to honor Val’s wishes, but also because “she didn’t want [Paul] to love her less, which he would have if she’d told another man’s secrets.” Now, having recently moved to New York for Paul’s job, Joni is at loose ends: in her marriage, in her career, and, now that her younger daughter is at college, as a parent. And so she NOVEMBER 1, 2023 19
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contacts Val—for solace, for solidarity, and perhaps to finally uncover another secret: the identity of the second man who was present when Val was assaulted, someone never identified. Part domestic thriller, part psychological mystery, this is a tight, well-paced novel, and it hangs on the complex and flawed character of Joni herself. Rediscovering Patricia Highsmith’s novels, Joni begins to lean into the darkness of her own soul, which is perhaps not surprising given the experiences that have led her there: giving up her film career to play second-fiddle to a powerful husband; keeping the secrets of monstrous men; finding herself in a marriage where she’s expected to smile and serve as the perfect hostess at her husband’s star-studded parties but not be a star herself. Caught in the nefarious web of the patriarchy at every turn, she finds in Highsmith a way to fight back and reclaim some of her own agency. There’s an unexpected twist that flirts dangerously with the hysterical-female trope, but ultimately, this surprising piece of Joni’s story is just that: one more piece. Absolutely a novel of its time—and a novel of women’s stories across time.
The Road From Belhaven Livesey, Margot | Knopf (272 pp.) | $28.00 Feb. 6, 2024 | 9780593537046
A Scottish farm girl finds love and heads for the big city. Lizzie Craig has learned not to speak of the “pictures” that sometimes give her glimpses of the future. Her grandparents have enough to deal with struggling to make ends meet at Belhaven Farm in eastern Scotland, and they are the only family she knows; her parents were both dead by the time she was a year old, in 1874. When her sister becomes engaged to a young man willing to work on the farm, Lizzie feels free to think about moving to Glasgow; her oldest friend, Hugh, who left Belhaven 20 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
to work in a sewing machine factory, has been urging her to change her life for years, but the real reason is Hugh’s friend Louis Hunter, a tailor’s apprentice she falls in love with. Livesey writes evocatively about Lizzie’s mingled panic and excitement upon encountering Glasgow’s urban possibilities, and tenderly about her first experiences of sexual desire. It’s a nice touch, belying stereotypes about late-Victorian society, that no one other than her grandfather is especially shocked when Lizzie becomes pregnant. But Louis has years left in his apprenticeship and feels they can’t yet marry; the novel’s second half follows Lizzie as she struggles to care for infant Barbara back home on the farm while holding Louis’ possibly wandering affections in Glasgow. There’s nothing really new in this tale of a young woman slowly coming to terms with the conflicts between her responsibilities to those around her and to herself, but Livesey’s admirers will recognize the gentle compassion with which she limns all her characters, even those like Louis who don’t necessarily behave well. Lizzie’s second sight prompts a plot development that brings her odyssey to an interim conclusion, with some painful losses but also important satisfactions and new possibilities ahead. A quietly unconventional coming-ofage tale with engaging characters embedded in an absorbing story.
Kirkus Star
Prophet Song Lynch, Paul | Atlantic Monthly (320 pp.) $27.00 | Dec. 12, 2023 | 9780802163011
As Ireland devolves into a brutal police state, one woman tries to preserve her family in this stark fable. For Eilish Stack, a molecular biologist living with her husband and four children
in Dublin, life changes all at once and then slowly worsens beyond imagining. Two men appear at her door one night, agents of the new secret police, seeking her husband, Larry, a union official. Soon he is detained under the Emergency Powers Act recently pushed through by the new ruling party, and she cannot contact him. Eilish sees things shifting at work to those backing the ruling party. The state takes control of the press, the judiciary. Her oldest son receives a summons to military duty for the regime, and she tries to send him to Northern Ireland. He elects to join the rebel forces and soon she cannot contact him, either. His name and address appear in a newspaper ad listing people dodging military service. Eilish is coping with her father’s growing dementia, her teenage daughter’s depression, the vandalizing of her car and house. Then war comes to Dublin as the rebel forces close in on the city. Offered a chance to flee the country by her sister in Canada, Eilish can’t abandon hope for her husband’s and son’s returns. Lynch makes every step of this near-future nightmare as plausible as it is horrific by tightly focusing on Eilish, a smart, concerned woman facing terrible choices and losses. An exceptionally gifted writer, Lynch brings a compelling lyricism to her fears and despair while he marshals the details marking the collapse of democracy and the norms of daily life. His tonal control, psychological acuity, empathy, and bleakness recall Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006). And Eilish, his strong, resourceful, complete heroine, recalls the title character of Lynch’s excellent Irish-famine novel, Grace (2017). Captivating, frightening, and a singular achievement.
For more by Paul Lynch, visit Kirkus online.
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You Only Call When You’re in Trouble McCauley, Stephen | Henry Holt (336 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 9, 2024 | 9781250296795
Another chronicle of modern disappointments and their occasional consolations from a master of the modern social novel. There are four main characters in McCauley’s latest: Cecily, an academic embroiled in an investigation at her university; Tom, her gay architect uncle, also facing career trouble; Dorothy, Cecily’s ditsy mom; and the town of Woodstock, in which Dorothy is about to open a retreat center with a self-help author, a rather horrible person, natch. McCauley’s descriptive gifts shine in his evocations of Woodstock, where “almost every storefront along the main street was decorated with wind chimes, prayer flags, colorful pennants, or loose, billowing clothes for sale” and “in the middle of the tiny town green…was a drum circle and a group of gray-haired people in unstructured cotton pants doing what looked like interpretive dance.” His story, in which Cecily and Tom make a pilgrimage to the opening of Dorothy’s “more intimate, more affordable Omega Institute” and which revolves, per his usual, around secrets in the characters’ lives, gives him plenty of opportunities to do what he does best, which is make pronouncements. “No one can do ‘whatever they want to do,’ and probably no one should,” he plangently informs us. “When someone starts by telling you you can do ‘whatever you want,’ they end up forcing you to do what they tell you.” That seems reasonable, but the author also delights in less defensible assertions. “Academia was the one institution it was always safe to insult, no matter what the political persuasion of the person you were talking to. Like capers, it was universally disliked.” The emotional heart of the story is KIRKUS REVIEWS
As the characters blunder about, the narrator is perfectly on his game. Y O U O N LY C A L L W H E N Y O U ’ R E I N T R O U B L E
the profound devotion Tom feels for his niece, which at the opening of the book has caused his longtime partner to throw up his hands and move out. Even if we never quite believe this, and even if some other plotlines are also a little hokey, you don’t have to care much about plot to enjoy a McCauley novel. As the characters blunder about, the narrator is perfectly on his game.
Kirkus Star
Old Crimes McCorkle, Jill | Algonquin (256 pp.) | $27.00 Jan. 9, 2024 | 9781616209735
In her fifth story collection, McCorkle explores the emotional toll of keeping secrets and making compromises on her mostly female protagonists. In “Low Tones,” a mother is wracked with guilt at having once yelled Don’t make me slap the shit out of you at her sweet little son, even though she’s done far worse by giving cover to her abusive husband. “Swinger” is about a young woman named Marnie who’s left with next to nothing after the still-married man with whom she’s been living for three years suddenly dies. Once a swinger, her boyfriend has a box of nude photos of past lovers; Marnie is haunted by the absence of her image in the box, the fact that she could not bring herself to ask for more from their relationship because “she was the kind of invisible woman who might be referred to as sturdy or dependable,
smart and practical.” The cost of past mistakes is often regret, or even rage. In “A Simple Question,” Anna looks back on her friendship with Muriel, an older woman trying to parent a difficult son, and realizes the extent to which her youth made her self-involved. In “The Last Station,” a mother performs her own version of the Stations of the Cross every year in her front yard to call attention to social injustice. After her husband’s death, however, her performance becomes an expression of her disappointment—in how hard she worked as mother, wife, and librarian, and how little she got in return. “I want more,” she announces. “I want my turn and yet, here I am and it’s all over—finished.” McCorkle is a brilliant storyteller who makes use of the retrospective voice at key moments and employs peripheral characters as narrators to underscore the extent to which trauma and regret cast long shadows. The past is never too far from the present. Wonderfully rich and emotionally complicated stories.
The Last Phone Booth in Manhattan Merlin, Beth & Danielle Modafferi Montlake Romance (288 pp.) | $14.99 paper Jan. 1, 2024 | 9781662516481
After learning that her fiance is a criminal, an aspiring actress seeks to rediscover herself with the help of a magic phone booth. Avery Lawrence has everything she ever wanted: a penthouse on Park Avenue, a Tiffany engagement ring, NOVEMBER 1, 2023 21
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and a fiance, Adam, who’s head over heels for her. Sure, she’s pushed her Broadway dreams to the wayside, but personalized flash mobs and $800 bottles of wine soften the blow. So nothing could have prepared Avery for the startling discovery that Adam is a fraud. One moment, Avery is relishing her good fortune, and the next, Adam and Avery are being carted out of their apartment on Christmas Day in handcuffs. It turns out that her future groom is an imitation Bernie Madoff and the towering rock on her finger is little more than shiny plastic. When she’s released from the Metropolitan Correctional Center, shocked and penniless, Avery stumbles into a phone booth—the last phone booth in Manhattan, according to the prison guard who directs her there—in hope of calling a cab. When she calls the number on a business card the guard gave her, instead of reaching a car service, she hears a voice rattling off an unfamiliar nearby address followed by the ominous warning, “No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused.” When Avery reaches the address, she’s standing at the doorstep of her ex-boyfriend Gabe. Soon Avery finds herself in a flurry of flukey situations, scoring a gig at a singing diner and happening on an open-call audition that’s perfect for her range. Could the most disastrous moment of her life actually be the second chance she always needed? Merlin and Modafferi deliver a supernatural spin to a typical do-over story, and Avery’s journey through the phone booth of Christmas past is a colorful one. Broadway fans will enjoy the variety of show and song references. A modern Dickens homage with Broadway flair.
For more by Alex Michaelides, visit Kirkus online.
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The Fury Michaelides, Alex | Celadon Books (320 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 16, 2024 | 9781250758989
Michaelides takes a literary turn in his latest novel, employing an unreliable narrator, the structure of classical drama, and a self-conscious eye to dismantling the locked-room mystery. The novel starts off with a murder, and with seven people trapped on an isolated Greek island lashed by a “wild, unpredictable Greek wind.” The narrator, soon established as Elliot Chase, then zooms out to address the reader directly, introducing the players—most importantly movie star Lana Farrar. We meet her husband, Jason Miller, her son, Leo, and her friend Kate Crosby, a theater actress. We learn about her rise to fame and her older first husband, Otto Krantz, a Hollywood producer. We learn about Kate’s possibly stalling career and Leo’s plan to apply to acting schools against his mother’s wishes. We learn about Jason’s obsession with guns. And in fragments and shards, we learn about Elliot: his painful childhood; his May–September relationship with an older female writer, now dead; his passion for the theater, where he learned “to change everything about [himself]” to fit in. Though he isn’t present in every scene, he conveys each piece of the story leading up to the murder as if he were an omniscient narrator, capable of accessing every character’s interior perspective. When he gets to the climax, there is, indeed, a shooting. There is, indeed, a motive. And there is, of course, a twist. The atmosphere of the novel, set mostly on this wild Greek island, echoes strongly the classical tragedies of Greece. The characters are types. The emotions are operatic. And the tragedy, of course, leads us to question the idea of fate. Michaelides seems also to be dipping into the world of Edgar Allan Poe, offering an unreliable narrator who
feels more like a literary exercise. As an exploration of genre, it’s really quite fascinating. As a thriller, it’s not particularly surprising. More style than substance.
The Fetishist Min, Katherine | Putnam (304 pp.) | $28.00 Jan. 9, 2024 | 9780593713655
Three musicians reckoning with loss search for meaning, healing, and revenge. Despite her tattoos and piercings, Kyoko Tokugawa is shy, preferring to express her biggest emotions on stage with her guitar, or in her murder plot. Kyoko’s target is Daniel Karmody, a professional violinist and serial seducer of Asian American women, including Kyoko’s mother. In the years since her mother’s death, Daniel, the white, philandering fetishist, has haunted Kyoko. In her quest to avenge her mother, Kyoko aims not only to kill Daniel but to destroy him, setting loose the ghosts of his past misdeeds in an attempt to force repentance. Across the country, Alma Soon Ja Lee, a former colleague and fiancee of Daniel’s, stares at her cello. With her multiple sclerosis progressing, Alma finds her once-musical life has gone clinically quiet. Alma’s surging despair provides an opportunity to examine the characters of her past, including the “rice kings.” From the misguided attempts at connection (“I have a black belt in karate, I love Vietnamese food, I think Kurosawa is the Asian Spielberg”) to the more menacing advances, Alma inventories her experiences with the men who mistook her for a doll, a vixen, or a colonialist conquest. The lives of Alma, Daniel, and Kyoko echo and interweave, forming a trio of stories in much the same way the characters themselves might, if holding their instruments. The narrative accompanies Kyoko, Alma, and Daniel both forward and backward KIRKUS REVIEWS
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in time, but it is the past that mires them, pitted with losses that seem not only unavoidable, but addictive. This novel is framed as a fairy tale, perhaps to relieve the concern that these stories, gaping with grief, have sealed a bit too neatly by the end. Still, it is sensitive and insightful, and its detangling of the knot that is racism, otherness, and desire is nothing short of expert. A tenderly told tale of the losses that wreck and redeem us.
Nonfiction Myerson, Julie | Tin House (288 pp.) $17.95 paper | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781959030317
An English writer’s life descends into chaos as her daughter develops a drug addiction. “There’s a night—I think this is the middle of June—when we lock you in the house,” begins Myerson’s winkingly titled novel. The “you” addressed throughout is the protagonist’s daughter; through Myerson’s intercutting narratives, we see the daughter as a bright, friendly child, later to turn violent, withdrawn, and unpredictable in the throes of IV drug use. The narrator also tells the story of her relationship with her own cruel mother, whose cold and critical demeanor finally ends in an estrangement that lasts until the older woman dies. (The narrator is barred from her funeral.) Squeezed between the dual pressures of being mother to a difficult child, and daughter to a difficult mother, the narrator begins to question everything she believes about family life as well as everything she knows about writing, attempting to mentor a young writer while trying to keep her life from collapsing. Finally, there is the “he”—a man in the narrator’s past who swoops in and offers a tempting (and self-sabotaging) reprieve. Myerson has already published a memoir that looked frankly KIRKUS REVIEWS
A writer’s life descends into chaos as her daughter develops an addiction. NONFICTION
at her son’s addiction (The Lost Child: A Mother’s Story, 2013), which was a source of controversy in the U.K. (The novel’s opening sentence is one of dozens of close parallels between fictional and real events.) To title the novel Nonfiction feels less like a middle finger to critics and more like self-flagellation. The narrator is a bottomless well of self-pity, the book pressing an old bruise by imaginatively unspooling what was surely a real-life nightmare into a full-blown artistic obsession. On the one hand, this can make for emotionally claustrophobic reading; on the other, it feels, ultimately, like the truth. Both confounding and compelling.
Northwoods Pease, Amy | Emily Bestler/Atria (288 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 9, 2024 | 9781668017265
A bucolic resort town on a lake in northern Wisconsin is the setting for a grim tale of drug addiction and murder. Eli North, a former elite investigator with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service suffering from PTSD after a stint in Afghanistan that left him wounded, addicted to alcohol, and plagued by delusions and thoughts of suicide, is newly separated from his wife and barely getting by as a sheriff’s deputy under the supervision of his mother, Marge, who has been sheriff in the town of Shaky Lake for decades. When he’s called to investigate a noise disturbance at an empty cabin,
discovering the body of an adolescent boy and learning that a teenage girl is also missing, he rallies enough to investigate with the aid of FBI agent Alyssa Mason. Eli, Marge, and Alyssa discover a complex plot involving a pricey local drug rehab center, a resort with financial problems, and a prescription drug company and its representatives. In her debut novel, Pease brings the community to vivid life, from the bar where the locals drink cheap beer to the palatial homes of the summer people from Chicago. Nearly everyone in this world has deep problems that they attempt to alleviate with one substance or another, from Marge’s relatively benign attempts to deal with migraines to the debilitating drug addiction of the mother of the murdered boy. The bonds, for better or worse, between mothers and their children are crucial to the novel, and Pease illuminates their intricacies with a sharp eye. Eli, perpetually in danger of dropping off the edge of his life, is a particularly compelling character, but the others are also well developed and compassionately observed. While the author sometimes juggles more plot elements than the novel can comfortably handle, with the result that some storylines are inexplicably dropped, the depth of the setting and characters make for a rich reading experience. A powerful depiction of the repercussions of substance abuse in the rural Midwest.
For more literary fiction, visit Kirkus online.
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P O D C A S T // F I C T I O N
EDITORS’ PICKS:
From Here by Luma Mufleh (Nancy Paulsen Books) A Place Called America: A Story of the Land and People by Jennifer Thermes (Abrams) Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson by Sally H. Jacobs (St. Martin’s) Knockout by Sarah MacLean (Avon/HarperCollins) ALSO MENTIONED ON THIS EPISODE:
The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You by Dina Nayeri Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town by Warren St. John Outcasts United: The Story of a Refugee Soccer Team That Changed a Town (Adapted for Young People) by Warren St. John Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:
Take Good Care: 7 Wellness Rituals for Health, Strength & Hope by Dr. Dwight Chapin
Daniele Molajoli
Full Circle: A Jack Trench Thriller by Mike Howard Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.
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Fully Booked
In Witness, Jamel Brinkley delivers 10 stunning stories set in Brooklyn and the Bronx. BY MEGAN LABRISE EPISODE 335: JAMEL BRINKLEY
On this episode of the Fully Booked podcast, Jamel Brinkley joins us to discuss Witness (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Aug. 1), a sophomore story collection that meets the high mark set by his much-lauded debut, A Lucky Man (2018). “Short stories that in their depth of feeling, perception, and sense of place affirm their author’s bright promise,” Kirkus writes in a starred review of Witness. The book is a finalist for this year’s Kirkus Prize in fiction. Raised in Brooklyn and the Bronx, Brinkley teaches at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His stories have been published widely and twice anthologized in The Best American Short Stories. His aforementioned debut collection was a 2018 National Book Award finalist. Here’s a bit more from our review of Witness: “As in his debut collection, A Lucky Man (2018), Brinkley sets these stories in New York City ethnic neighborhoods on the edge of transformation, vividly and, at times, hauntingly showing how the people in those enclaves struggle to withstand, even transcend the changes around them.…[C]haracters’ presumptions are upended, secrets revealed, and wounds, both physical and psychological, are exposed.…In some ways, the plots of these stories, however engrossing, are less significant than their vivid physical details, graceful language, and acute observation of even the most bewildering of human behavior. After just two collections, Brinkley may already be a grand master of the short story.” Brinkley and I discuss his experience at the National Book Awards ceremony in 2018; the importance of allowing characters to speculate about themselves in fiction; conjuring a
Witness
Brinkley, Jamel
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 240 pp. | $27.00 Aug. 1, 2023 |9780374607036
sense of place; the vibrant setting of his story “The Let-Out”; the age-old question, So when’s the novel coming out?; what he loves about short stories; short story writer Gina Berriault; our capacity for self-determination; the terse narrator of the story “Bartow Station”; and much more. Then editors Laura Simeon, Mahnaz Dar, Eric Liebetrau, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week. Megan Labrise is an editor at large and host of Fully Booked. To listen to the episode, visit Kirkus online.
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Kirkus Star
The Ascent Plantinga, Adam | Grand Central Publishing (352 pp.) | $30.00 | Jan. 2, 2024 9781538739877
An action-packed, cinema-ready debut thriller. Kurt Argento is an ex-cop from Detroit with a stubborn, uncompromising sense of justice and formidable street-fighting skills. Having lost his beloved wife and—see “stubborn, uncompromising” above—recently his job, he heads south and west in his pickup, alone in the world but for his dog. When, at a small-town carnival in Missouri, he sees a young girl enticed into trouble by a pedophile, he intervenes, only to end up, when the perpetrator turns out to be the corrupt sheriff’s brother, beaten and in custody. Because of overflow in the local jail, Kurt—who’s given a false name and hasn’t mentioned being ex-police—is moved to a nearby for-profit maximum-security prison. As he’s booked in, all hell breaks loose: Either by glitch or by plan, the computerized lock system goes haywire, unlocking about half of the doors, and the guards—a skeleton crew because it’s July 4—quickly either seek shelter or are overwhelmed. After saving a nurse from sexual assault, Kurt encounters a private tour group consisting of a terrified assistant warden, two people who are clearly security officers, and a young woman who turns out to be the governor’s daughter, a graduate student doing a discreet site visit for research. They realize that their only hope of escape, in the short time before the whole computer system fails and every door springs open, is to make their way up six floors, each filled with more fearsome inmates than the last, to the roof. If this sounds formulaic, it is; if it sounds like a recipe for steadily escalating mayhem, it is; if you think you know where it’s headed, you do. But it’s also pulse-pounding, cleverly 26 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
plotted, fast-paced, expertly made entertainment.
A meat-and-potatoes thriller, sure—but they’re delicious meat and potatoes.
The Skin of Dreams Queneau, Raymond | Trans. by Chris Clarke NYRB Classics (224 pp.) | $16.95 paper Jan. 30, 2024 | 9781681377704
In this fantasy of fantasies, an imaginative boy becomes, after a time, a successful movie star. Jacques L’Aumône, the son of a sock manufacturer, is an engineer, a loafer, a frequenter of the pictures, a dreamer. As a young man, he abandons his wife and child to join a theater troupe and pursue a string of failed romances. He is down and out in Paris before decamping to the Americas, to live among an Indigenous tribe. Eventually he reemerges as James Charity, a famous actor from the “Youessuvehh.” Queneau (19031976) was an erstwhile surrealist—he was, in fact, an erstwhile brother-in-law of André Breton. In this novel, he’s cutting closer to the bone than the surrealists, ignoring the “dreams of sleep” that fascinated Breton in favor of daydreams. These fantasies are influenced by the motion pictures Queneau adored but maintain their own inscrutable logic. There is an internal logic in the way things repeat themselves in Jacques’ life, a regression line that traces the marks of his waking dreams. Queneau is an equal opportunity wordplayer. He writes sentences of real beauty: “He got to his feet, overflowing with dignity. He was soon stationed by the window. There he remained, motionless in the face of clouds and rooftops.” But he’s also taken by reallife language (“Shut your damn mouth, holy gawdinheaven!”) and by truly lame puns (a roast is “eaten with relish, but served with mustard”). The novel’s playfulness with language borrows from Joyce; its noir-isms and grand
fantasies predict gangster rap. There is a refreshing lack of morality in the novel. Jacques’ fantasies are not condoned, and his selfishness in making some of them real is not condemned. Read it in one sitting and find yourself more open to your own daydreams.
River East, River West Rey Lescure, Aube | Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.) | $30.00 | Jan. 9, 2024 9780063257856
In this debut novel set in China, two generations struggle with the consequences of ambition and the difficult search for belonging. In 2007, Alva is 14 and living in Shanghai, the daughter of a white American mother and a Chinese father she never knew. In 1985, Lu Fang is a young adult in the port city of Qingdao. Weaving between the perspectives of these two characters, the novel is a complex and moving exploration of race, class, gender, and family. Alva struggles to find her way in the world after her mother marries Lu Fang, now their rich landlord. She occupies herself with “wimpy mutinies” both at home and at school while scheming to enter the Shanghai American School, whose glossy advertisements are filled with smiling multiracial children and tidy grounds. When she meets Zoey, a “proper American teenager,” she feels irresistibly drawn to her new friend’s family, with their live-in maid and summers in the Hamptons. They seem like the family she’s always wanted, but her relationship with them risks exposing the shadows of their life—and perhaps of the American Dream itself. Back in the ’80s, Lu Fang is struggling to make sense of his own life as a shipyard clerk with a pregnant wife, having suffered the loss of his boyhood dream of KIRKUS REVIEWS
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A suburban mom reconnects with her now-famous high school sweetheart.
who descend from Evangeline, but why she chose to root the tale in Melville’s work isn’t entirely clear. Without the references to Ishmael, Captain Ahab, et al., Roberts would have had a finely detailed piece of historical fiction on her hands, well researched and rich. She is a natural storyteller and her prose is engaging. But Melville is doing her no favors here. Nor are the magical threads woven through the story. Evangeline, it turns out, had a gift—she could see the recent memories of those around her—which her daughter, Rachel, inherits in her own way. Rachel has been given the power of suggestion and, simply by speaking, can convince those around her to bend to her will. All of this, taken together, feels rather like a smoke screen that hides the novel’s real action. What’s actually happening here? It doesn’t look like Roberts could decide, so she threw everything in.
Her marriage isn’t perfect—her husband, Dan, isn’t super helpful or affectionate—but overall, she’s happy. That is, until old photos of her with her high school boyfriend, Jack Bellow, are published in the tabloids— along with the love letters he wrote her. Jack is now a mega-famous movie star, and the pictures make Rachel temporarily famous. Suddenly, all the other soccer moms are gossiping about her, she’s getting calls from tabloids, and reporters are even showing up at her house. When Rachel realizes who sold her out, she ends up reconnecting with Jack to explain and apologize. But seeing Jack again makes Rachel realize her feelings for him never really went away, and as she spends time texting and meeting up with Jack while growing more distant from Dan, she wonders if Jack might be the man she’s really meant to be with. Although the writing is at times stilted (especially in the many flashbacks, which lean toward telling versus showing), the book moves quickly as Rachel discovers new things about herself and her past. Saunders creates a fun story for those who can’t get enough celebrity gossip, and Rachel’s journey to decide if she should stay with Dan or get back together with Jack is genuinely surprising.
Love, Me
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becoming an international businessman. One day while swimming, he meets a golden-haired American woman who inspires him to reevaluate his life—the consequences of which will reverberate for years to come. Following the economic and cultural undulations of 1980s China and the precursors of what will eventually become the Great Recession, this novel examines the price people must pay when financial—and personal—debts come due. An ambitious, innovative take on both the immigrant and coming-ofage novel.
Wild and Distant Seas Roberts, Tara Karr | Norton (304 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781324064886
A Nantucket widow inherits an inn, and three generations of women succeed her. Evangeline Hussey’s husband has been dead for a couple of years when two strangers show up at her Nantucket inn requesting a place to stay. One “wore the outfit of a sailor, yet when he clasped my hand in his, I felt the soft, unmarred skin of a boy from the city,” Evangeline says. “He said I should call him Ishmael.” This cringeworthy moment is not the first hint that Roberts has used the characters and plot of Moby-Dick to undergird her debut novel—but it is the clearest, made with all the subtlety of a piano played by a baseball bat. Hussey’s novel follows four generations of women KIRKUS REVIEWS
Proceeding in fits and starts, this novel feels chaotic and poorly conceptualized.
Saunders, Jessica | Union Square & Co. (272 pp.) | $17.99 paper | Jan. 16, 2024 9781454950790
A suburban mom gets a blast from the past when she reconnects with her now-famous high school sweetheart. Rachel Miller has two wonderful children, a great relationship with her parents, and a successful career as a lawyer.
An entertaining and quick read about self-discovery.
Sims, Bennett | Two Dollar Radio (202 pp.) | $18.95 paper | Nov. 14, 2023 9781953387356
Sims’ collection balances high-concept fiction with visceral thrills. There are few writers who would think to blend a zombie narrative with ruminations on the epistemological implications of the undead, as NOVEMBER 1, 2023 27
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Sims did in the novel A Questionable Shape (2013). The stories in this collection tap into a similar vein of both uncanny menace and philosophical speculation, but Sims demonstrates a wider range of styles and tones, ranging from the academic satire of “Introduction to the Reading of Hegel” to the grotesque violence of “Pecking Order.” The best of these stories allow Sims to pull off unlikely juxtapositions, such as “The New Violence,” in which a writer’s thoughts on Italian giallo films and the details of an ancient Etruscan jug begin to converge in unsettling ways. Another highlight is “The Postcard,” which begins with the detective narrator meeting with a new client, an aging lawyer whose late wife had dementia. As the detective investigates the origins of a mysterious postcard his client received, the story slowly becomes a surreal meditation on memory and loss as it proceeds toward a haunting denouement. Cyclical structures are on display in several stories, including the aptly titled “Unknown,” which begins with a man letting a woman use his phone at a mall, only to become fixated on her conversation and its ramifications: “She was whispering angrily. You’ll never find me, he thought he heard her say. Never.” Sims writes obsession well, evoking the ways in which a seemingly quotidian encounter can transform into something bizarre or alienating when seen from the right angle. Readers who enjoy their fiction heady will find a lot to enjoy here. This ambitious collection finds the right balance of familiar and experimental.
Kirkus Star
The Archive of Feelings Stamm, Peter | Trans. by Michael Hofmann Other Press (192 pp.) | $15.99 paper Dec. 5, 2023 | 9781635422757
An archivist remembers his only love while his life’s work falls apart. In Swiss writer Stamm’s latest novel to be translated into English, an unnamed narrator painstakingly (and obsessively) keeps an archive that, he tells us, “not only points to the world, it is a picture of the world and a world in and of its own. And,” he goes on, “unlike the world, it has an order, where everything has its appointed place, and can with a little practice be quickly found.” Perhaps because the world has grown so unpredictable, our narrator has gradually stopped going out into it, aside from occasional forays for groceries or walks. He stays at home— the home he grew up in—to work on his archive and dwell on his memories. Most of these concern his long-gone love for a girl, Franziska, he knew in his youth, who eventually became a pop star and lost touch. Once upon a time, our narrator admitted to Franziska that he loved her but, alas, his love was not returned. Stamm’s novel is a deceptively quiet meditation on how we live, the choices we make, and the categories that define our world. From the beginning, we know that the narrator has been fired from his
A deceptively quiet meditation on how we live, the choices we make, and the categories that define our world. THE ARCHIVE OF FEELINGS
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now-obsolete job. Still, he carries on his work: “When something is fitted into the hierarchy of subjects,” he insists, “it becomes understandable and governable. If everything is equal, the way it is in the Internet, then nothing has any value.” It’s a gorgeous novel, constructed with subtlety and nuance and the sort of prose that seems to simply disappear as you read, like footsteps on a beach. An understated but profound and even enigmatic novel.
The New Detective Steiner, Peter | Severn House (192 pp.) $31.99 | Dec. 5, 2023 | 9781448306428
Munich’s mean streets don’t toughen up a young police recruit, but World War I does. After three previous mysteries following grim, dedicated German detective Willi Geismeier through the 1920s and into World War II, Steiner’s fourth installment takes the reader back to the beginning of Geismeier’s career. Hired in 1913 as a patrolman in the Munich police force, Geismeier, 19 and looking like a schoolboy, is partnered with old-school cop Werner Heisse, whose approach to showing him the ropes has a sadistic streak. Through meticulous police work on a corruption case that comes together piece by piece, Geismeier solves the murder of muckraking journalist Walter Metzger, found beaten to death in an alley. While Heisse is awarded a commendation, Geismeier is sent to Belgium to fight in the war. Steiner’s title, which has a sly double meaning, introduces a tale that unfolds as a triptych. The plot jumps over the hero’s battlefield experience to a hospital in late 1917, where Geismeier is recovering from injuries. The center of the novel is his societal reintegration, which involves family nurturing and intense physical labor. When he returns to the police department, he KIRKUS REVIEWS
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resembles an old man. What Geismeier has lost in enthusiasm he’s made up for in authority. Now he stumbles into a complex case that foreshadows the rise of the Third Reich and his future. Series fans will be fascinated to see the central character gradually becoming himself. Steiner writes with grim precision and economy, shooting out short, punchy sentences within short chapters that cast the evil of Nazism in a starkly illuminating light.
A gritty period procedural with a haunting antiwar core.
Break the Glass Swindler, Olivia | Lake Union Publishing (299 pp.) | $16.99 paper | Dec. 5, 2023 9781662516290
A college administrator gets her dream promotion but finds herself embroiled in scandal, mystery, and sexism when she takes the position. One morning, Nora Bennet gets a call from her boss, Sal Higgins, who’s just been fired from his job as athletic director at sportscrazy Renton University—the result of a news article accusing him of bribing professors to inflate grades of student athletes. Sal congratulates Nora, telling her she will take over the position he’s vacating. As thrilled as Nora is, she never anticipated the difficulties that would come with replacing a man as beloved, and also as shady, as Sal. A barrage of belligerent phone calls from angry donors ensues, and Nora begins to realize that Sal wasn’t the only Renton employee playing dirty. Amid rumors and suspicion, not to mention an ongoing NCAA investigation, Nora must continue running the school’s athletics while tolerating constant doubt about her abilities. As a woman in sports, she’s had to work twice as hard as the men around her, but as things at Renton grow increasingly complicated, she wonders if this time, her best won’t be good enough. KIRKUS REVIEWS
The book follows Nora as well as three other women who are pulled into the scandal: Alexis, a professor who’s taught many of the athletes at issue; Anne, a student intern in the athletics department; and Lauren, Sal’s wife, all trying to navigate the complexities of the chaos Sal has left in his wake. This is a fast-paced, plot-driven novel, and the action doesn’t lag for a moment. The story deftly portrays how quickly friendships, reputations, and careers can be undone. At times, the narrative moves so quickly that actions feel as if they’re coming from left field, and the setting could have been fleshed out. Even so, the realistic dialogue, unexpected twists, and energetic cast of characters will keep readers turning pages. A quick-witted exploration of the underbelly of college sports.
Kirkus Star
Hard by a Great Forest Vardiashvili, Leo | Riverhead (352 pp.) $29.00 | Jan. 30, 2024 | 9780593545034
Vardiashvili’s Kafkaesque debut follows a Londoner’s dark journey home to Georgia, his native country, to search for his missing father and brother. When Saba Sulidze-Donauri and his older brother, Sandro, came to London as children with their father, Irakli, in 1992, their mother had to stay behind in Georgia, where she died. Years later, Irakli returns to Georgia and two months later writes his sons, now young men, that he’s gone to the mountains and they should not look for him. Sandro flies to Georgia anyway, emailing Saba that he’s found a trail to Irakli. Then Sandro’s emails stop, so Saba, an insurance salesman, also heads to Georgia. Vardiashvili, who left post-Soviet Georgia himself when he was 12, has infused his ambitious first
novel with the traumatic energy of the refugee experience—Georgia’s history as a country continually invaded and destroyed is never far from Saba’s thoughts—as well as with an indefinably Eastern European sensibility combining melancholy, cynicism, and absurdist wit. Saba is obsessed with finding Sandro and Irakli but also obsessed with the past. Although he hires a guide, the intriguing taxi driver Nodar (who almost steals the novel), he also follows a host of voices from dead relatives and friends offering advice and grievances. As he continually eludes the shadowy police authorities tracking him, his pursuit becomes an increasingly desperate catand-mouse mystery. But Saba frames his hunt as a version of “Hansel and Gretel” in which he follows the trail of clue-crumbs his brother has dropped: hidden literary illusions, both playful and dark, in oblique graffiti messages and pages from a play Irakli once wrote. Saba finds himself in a world full of menace where the borders of the real and surreal blur, where wild animals that have escaped the zoo roam the countryside, and human killings occur as randomly as do moments of hope and humanity. An unforgettable aria to a lost homeland, full of anger, sorrow, and longing.
Blizzard Vingtras, Marie | Trans. by Jeffrey Zuckerman | Overlook (240 pp.) | $26.00 Jan. 23, 2024 | 9781419765902
Desperate efforts to find a woman and child who have disappeared into an Alaskan blizzard bring forth memories of past tragedies. When 10-yearold Thomas’ hand slips from the grip of his live-in caretaker, Bess, as she bends to re-tie her shoe during a devastating snowstorm, one to which she ill-advisedly exposed him and herself, he is quickly swallowed up by NOVEMBER 1, 2023 29
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the elements. His chances of survival are slim and hers aren’t much better. A mystery woman from California whom the locals think is half-crazy, Bess was brought to Alaska by the boy’s uncle Benedict after the precocious Thomas’ father (also named Thomas) abandoned him and his mother died. Reluctantly, Benedict ventures out into the storm to find Thomas and Bess, accompanied by neighbor Cole, a misogynistic drunk. “A kid and a pretty woman lost in a blizzard, though?” muses Benedict. “Best as I can recollect, no such thing’s happened before.” The deeper they penetrate the blizzard, the more violent memories surface. Everyone, including Freeman, a displaced Black Vietnam veteran who lives nearby, carries trauma around with them, including the murder of a sibling and a patricidal killing. There are frequent references to ghosts. Gothic in tone and Western in spirit, French writer Vingtras’ first novel, a bestseller in France that won the Booksellers’ Prize there for the year’s best novel, is short on smiles and long on vitriol and recrimination. Ultimately, the flashbacks, narrated by the characters, outbalance the physical descriptions of the storm, which never carries the threat it should. But the book commands the reader’s attention until the end. A chilly tale marked by twisted fates.
The War Begins in Paris Wheeler, Theodore | Little, Brown (352 pp.) $29.00 | Nov. 14, 2023 | 9780316563673
Historical fiction about an American journalist turned Fascist combines the smoky, morally complex, romantic atmosphere of WWII–era films with the sternly enthusiastic tone of their accompanying newsreels. Wheeler traces the intense, sexually charged friendship of two American 30 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
reporters from their first meeting in a Paris café in 1938 and through the ensuing war. The prologue describes Jane Anderson, nicknamed the Georgia Peach, and Marthe Hess, called Mielle, with ominous matter-of-factness so reminiscent of an Orson Welles narration that readers will rush to Google their names to see if either actually existed. Unscrambling which characters are real or fictional here, let alone trustworthy or villainous, is difficult because so many of the real figures are long forgotten, though not the war correspondents. Reports from William L. Shirer and Edward R. Murrow, among others, introduce chapters, while various real and imaginary correspondents play important roles in the storyline. Mielle, who mostly works for “a syndicate of ladies’ journals in the Great Plains,” agrees with the correspondents’ ideals, but their pretentious self-assurance intimidates her. Instead, she is emotionally drawn to flamboyant, pro-Fascist Jane. They meet on Mielle’s 24th birthday; Jane is 50, though claiming to be 36. After great success reporting on WWI, Jane has led an increasingly dissolute life. Now a Franco devotee, she declares, “Fascists represent the law….History is on their side.” Wheeler’s depiction of Jane shows how dangerously appealing authoritarianism can be and how corrosive it is to one’s character. Soon Jane is pushing Mielle toward uncomfortable ethical choices that peak after Kristallnacht. The novel then skips ahead three years and shifts into a Hitchcock-like plot. (An unnecessary, unfortunate subplot gives Mielle
“visions.”) Mielle becomes more than a fictional witness to history when an American army intelligence officer who’s probably in love with her (think Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman) enlists her for a dangerous spy mission to 1942 Berlin. There her reunion with Jane, now broadcasting Nazi propaganda to America, is brief but life-changing. This retro yet oddly fresh take on WWII captures the romance of wartime, but also the decadence and desperation.
The Second Chance Year Wiesner, Melissa | Forever (336 pp.) | $16.99 paper | Dec. 5, 2023 9781538741917
A 30-year-old gets a re-try at the worst year of her life. Sadie Thatcher has had a Very Bad Year. She was fired from her job as assistant pastry chef at a high-profile restaurant and her boyfriend of three years dumped her. She blames both things on her inability to keep her mouth shut, just as her mother always warned her. Alex, her ex, wanted her to play nice around his asshole Wall Street colleagues, and Xavier, her boss, wouldn’t tolerate her pushing back on his abusive behavior. Without a job, she’s given up her beloved studio in Williamsburg and is crashing in the spare room of her little brother’s best friend, Jacob, nursing her wounds with ice
This fresh take on WWII captures the romance of wartime, but also the decadence and desperation. T H E W A R B E G I N S I N PA R I S
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cream and The Golden Girls. As the year closes, she grudgingly agrees to join her best friend, Kasumi, at a circus-themed New Year’s Eve party where, drunk and filled with regret, she asks the fortune-teller for a do-over of the entire year. As the title suggests, the magic works. Sadie wakes up in her studio with Alex by her side and her old job waiting for her. She’s going to do better this time: bite her tongue around the finance bros, yes-chef her boss, and try to forget that sizzling New Year’s Eve kiss she shared with Jacob in the hours before the clock reset. Wiesner wisely does not put too fine a point on the time travel, offering instead a thoughtful exploration of Sadie’s growth as well as the ingrained unfairness of being a woman in a man’s world. Sadie is spunky and her outspoken sense of justice is wonderful. Jacob knows it. Kasumi values it. But Sadie is ambitious, and her mother’s voice echoes loudly in her head. Will she get what she wants by ignoring her conscience, and will it be worth it? Tough themes with a light touch and many winning characters.
Where the Dead Wait Wilkes, Ally | Emily Bestler/Atria (400 pp.) $27.99 | Dec. 5, 2023 | 9781982182823
The Victorian obsession with exploring the Arctic sets the stage for a gothic thriller. In the 1860s, a young British man named William Day sails north aboard a ship called the Reckoning on an excursion to the Arctic, one of many in those years that aimed to discover a passage over the top of the world. None of those explorers ever found that open passage, but this trip ended in worse disaster—the ship wrecked, and during the long months they were marooned amid the inhospitable KIRKUS REVIEWS
landscape, the crew turned to cannibalism. Day was one of the rescued survivors who returned to London, and he has lived for 13 years in disgrace when the Admiralty, to his surprise, calls on him to undertake another voyage. It seems one of his former shipmates, the charismatic Jesse Stevens, has sailed for the Arctic again and promptly disappeared. Day is also surprised to discover that Jesse has a wife now, and she is funding the trip—and going along. Olive Emeline Stevens is a renowned psychic medium from the United States, and she is determined to find her missing husband. Day is uneasy about everything involved in the trip but agrees to go; he is very deeply in the closet and just as deeply in love with Jesse. The novel begins well, with raw, energetic prose and a sense of adventure undercut by dread that’s downright thrilling. But soon, like all those ruined ships that dot the frozen North, the book gets stuck. Day’s traumatic memories and obsession with Jesse become repetitious, few characters are developed beyond sketches, the gothic tone slides into Grand Guignol, and the story turns from chilling to numbing. By the time the book reaches its Heart of Darkness finale, the horror is no longer surprising. After an intriguing start, the story founders on a repetitious plot and an overlarge serving of cannibalism.
Inverno Zarin, Cynthia | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (144 pp.) | $25.00 | Jan. 9, 2024 9780374610135
A woman is standing in the snow waiting for a phone call; that much is clear. Zarin, a poet and essayist, demonstrates little interest in conventional storytelling in her debut novel, which revolves around a couple
named Caroline and Alastair and their romantic attachment of 50-plus years, returning frequently to a moment in the middle of that period when Caroline was standing in the snow waiting for him to call, but also pinging back and forth among other apparently important moments—one says “apparently” because it’s hard to tell what the point is. For example, there’s this: “Caroline is standing in the snow in her fur hat and fur boots waiting for Alastair to call, a few yards from where thirty years before he hacked at the frozen roots of a locust tree with his penknife, and cut his arm.” And this: “Caroline is standing in the snow in her fur boots and hat. It is February. It is exactly halfway between the time she saw Alastair again, the previous November, after twenty-five years, and when she would see him for the last time, the following November.” And then this: “You have left Caroline in the snow: you have left two characters, standing around! Say the rest of what happened so we can move on.” Interspersed with this is a lot of other mysterious stuff: an extended retelling of H.C. Andersen’s The Snow Queen, where Gerda and Kai may or may not represent Alastair and Caroline; a critical review of popular music about phone calls; a recounting of the plot of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, with special attention to the line “I’d rather skip that scene, if you don’t mind.” In the movie, this line is delivered by a character who’s telling Butch she doesn’t want him to die, but takes on another, more immediate, meaning in its half-dozen repetitions here. Somewhere are probably readers who would enjoy this book. May it find them.
For more by Cynthia Zarin, visit Kirkus online.
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SEEN AND HEARD
Riverhead will publish the filmmaker’s All Fours next May. A new novel from filmmaker and artist Miranda July is coming next year. Riverhead will publish July’s All Fours in 2024, the press announced in a news release. It describes the book as “an irreverently sexy, tender, hilarious and surprising novel about a woman upending her life.” July began her career in performance art and released her full-length film debut, Me and You and Everyone We Know, in 2005, drawing critical raves. She also wrote and directed the movies The Future and Kajillionaire. Her short fiction has appeared in publications including the Paris
July worked on the new novel for four years.
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Review and the New Yorker, and her first book, the story collection No One Belongs Here More Than You, was published in 2007. Her debut novel, The First Bad Man, followed eight years later. All Fours follows an artist who plans a road trip from Los Angeles to New York, only to check into a roadside motel and reinvent herself in a surprising way. Riverhead says the novel “confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction” and “transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman.” July announced the novel on Instagram, writing, “Thank you for generally cheering on all the ways I’ve kept myself sane while writing this book for the last four years. I can’t wait for you to read it.” All Fours is slated for publication on May 14, 2024.—MICHAEL SCHAUB
Ilya S. Savenok_Getty Images for National Geographic
New Novel by Miranda July Coming in 2024
For a review of July’s first novel, visit Kirkus online.
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A W A R D S // F I C T I O N
AWARDS Finalists for First Novel Prize Are Revealed The winner of the Center for Fiction’s $15,000 award will be announced in December.
Minnicks: Samia Minnicks; Acevedo: Denzel Golatt; Johnson: Kimberlee Chang
The Center for Fiction revealed the shortlist for its 2023 First Novel Prize, with seven authors in contention for the annual literary prize. Elizabeth Acevedo was named a finalist for Family Lore, her first novel for adult readers. Her young adult novels include The Poet X and Clap When You Land, both past finalists for the Kirkus Prize. Christine Byl made the shortlist for Lookout, while debut author Eskor David Johnson was named a finalist for Pay as You Go. Jamila Minnicks was shortlisted for Moonrise Over New Jessup, which previously won the PEN/ Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction.
Tracey Rose Peyton was named a finalist for Night Wherever We Go, along with Tyriek White for We Are a Haunting and Esther Yi for Y/N. The First Novel Prize was established in 2006. Previous winners include Karl Marlantes for Matterhorn, Ben Fountain for Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Tiphanie Yanique for Land of Love and Drowning, and Noor Naga for If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English. The judges for this year’s award, which comes with a cash prize of $15,000, are Hannah Lillith Assadi, Ayana Mathis, Tochi Onyebuchi, and Deesha Philyaw. The winner will be announced on Dec. 5.—M.S.
For more awards news, visit Kirkus online.
From left, Peyton, Minnicks, and Johnson.
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Death Under a Little Sky: Abell, Stig | Harper/HarperCollins (352 pp.) | $18.99 paper | Jan. 9, 2024 9780063380998
A former London police detective who’s fled his life and failed marriage by moving to his wealthy late uncle’s house in the English countryside investigates a cold case no one wants to talk about. Jake Jackson is so eager to drop out of society at age 38 that he retires his cell phone; embraces his new home’s lack of internet connection, radio, and phone line; and, in the odd absence of a bath, shower, or washing machine, bathes and cleans his clothes in a lake. The nearest town isn’t close. He spends time reading mystery novels from his uncle’s vast library, naming local landmarks after crime lit favorites: Spenser Brook, Chandler Lake, Agatha Wood, etc. But when the bones of Sabine Rohmer, who died 10 years ago on a nearby farm in an apparent accident, are discovered in a bag in the town’s annual St. Aethelmere’s Day treasure hunt, he collaborates with the police in trying to determine who removed them from her grave—and replaced them with someone else’s remains. In the process he gets himself and local veterinarian Livia Bennett, his new friend and potential love interest, threatened by bullies, including Sabine’s onetime lover. Are the brutes trying to cover up what was in fact a murder? This cozy-ish novel, British media personality Abell’s first, boasts a familiar but niftily handled plot enhanced by poetic descriptions of the surroundings. Though Jake comes across as a nervous amateur detective rather than someone with actual police experience (in a tense moment, he envisions what Jack Reacher would do), he is an engaging narrator. And though his and Livia’s lust for each other is teased to an extreme, their scenes together are consistently enjoyable in an adult way. 34 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
One looks forward to the sequel that’s been announced.
streamlining to keep things moving and the suspense over “whodunit” alive.
Split
Death by Demo
Bremer, Alida | Trans. by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp | Amazon Crossing (271 pp.) $16.99 paper | Jan. 1, 2024 | 9781662507045
Carpenter, Callie | Crooked Lane | $29.99 Dec. 5, 2023 | 9781639105625
A congenial mystery with a fresh approach.
This murder mystery, set in the city of Split in what is now Croatia, is steeped in early-20th-century Europe’s roiling politics. The year is 1936. The action takes place against the forthcoming Olympics in Hitler’s Germany. Split is a cultural mélange, including remnants of the Austro-Hungarian Empire along with Croats, Czechs, Italians, Russians, Germans, and others who conduct business in the bustling port. Split is also a favorite spot for German film crews, notably the group scouting locations for White Slaves, a real movie released in 1937 as anti-Soviet propaganda. We learn that there are fascist, anti-fascist, and other forces at work in town, as well as Jewish refugees. Who is responsible for stabbing the man entangled in fishing nets at the port? An extensive list of characters at the beginning distinguishes real historical characters from fictional ones and is indispensable to following the plot. The author does an excellent job describing the geography and atmospherics of Split. We feel the sea’s salt air and smell the fishing boats in the harbor. Descriptions of food are mouthwatering and varied. Untranslated Croatian expressions peppered across the pages also remind readers where we are. Unfortunately, an overabundance of backstory and too many unnecessary details bog down the action all the way through. The translation from German can feel stiff at times, and some sentences jar: “Unperturbed, the sun continued to rise over Split, waking up the remaining sleepers.” This book would have benefited from some
A thoroughly researched novel that’s bogged down with unnecessary detail.
A North Carolina home renovator loses her business but gets a chance to find something more important: a killer. Jaime Moore has lost it all— some bad, like losing her half-ownership in King Contractors, her construction/interior design business, and some good, like losing Henry, her cheating now-ex-husband and former business partner. The only thing she has left in the world is a Queen Anne fixer-upper that’s more fixer than upper. But a Moore never gives up. So, true to her family motto, Jaime does what she does best and starts to renovate the Perkins County dwelling. Her streak of bad luck continues when her demolition reveals a dead body in the wall. And the body isn’t just a body. Det. Scoles tells Jaime that the deceased is none other than Cilla Price, whom Jaime remembers as someone who showed her kindness even though she was two years ahead of Jaime back in high school. Scoles further informs Jaime that there’s evidence Cilla has been murdered, which moves her to investigate and get Cilla the justice she deserves. Well, that and the fact that the home reno can’t be completed as long as it’s an active crime scene. When Jaime tries to find the killer, she’s stumped, not only because Cilla was so well liked but also because anyone in their small town would have had access to the house to stash Cilla’s body. But maybe solving the murder will help Jaime feel that she can restore a sense of justice in a world in which she’s gotten short shrift. Broadly drawn characters add little to the market value of a property that has all the personality of new construction.
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A haunted house and a blueberry pie provide clues to several murders. KNITMARE ON BEECH STREET
My Cousin Skinny Copperman, E.J. | Severn House (240 pp.) $31.99 | Nov. 7, 2023 | 9781448309719
A family wedding becomes a crisis for a family lawyer. Sandy Moss isn’t quite sure why she’s willing to leave her adopted home in Los Angeles to attend her cousin Stephanie’s New Jersey nuptials. Although Sandy’s an up-and-comer in the family law division of Seaton, Taylor, Evans, and Wentworth and in a serious relationship with TV star Patrick McNabb, a visit home is sure to be filled with invidious comparisons between Sandy and her older sister, Delia, a physician who’s actually married to boot. But although she’s prepared to brook her share of maternal disapproval, she’s not prepared for what she encounters at the rehearsal dinner: her cousin emerging from the kitchen, carrying a knife and covered in blood. Soon Stephanie, whom Sandy can’t help calling by her childhood nickname “Skinny,” is in the hoosegow, insisting that her cousin is the only person who can get her out of what seems like an impossible predicament. After explaining approximately a million times that she lives and works 3,000 miles away, of course Sandy capitulates, even after learning that opposing counsel is Richard Chapman, her slimy ex-boyfriend. What happens next is a slapstick version of Rashomon. Every witness gives a different account of the crime. Richard offers a ridiculous plea deal that Skinny inexplicably KIRKUS REVIEWS
wants to accept. And Patrick gets a gig playing Lady Macbeth in an offbeat, off-Broadway production of “The Scottish Play.” Copperman’s pace is nonstop and his timing impeccable. Let the mayhem continue.
The Lace Widow Cox, Mollie Ann | Crooked Lane (320 pp.) $29.99 | Dec. 12, 2023 | 9781639105281
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton wasn’t enough for you? Wish there was a sequel starring the Founding Father’s widow? Cox has you covered. Ten days after Alexander Hamilton is shot to death by Vice President Aaron Burr, John Van Der Gloss, a witness to their duel, is fatally stabbed. The leading suspect is Alexander Hamilton Jr., who’d brawled with the victim only hours before the body was discovered. Alexander’s arrest weighs heavily on his grieving mother, but Eliza Hamilton isn’t one to take things lying down. When she finds a cryptic note from Van Der Gloss on her husband’s desk (“You were right, though it pains me to say. There is evidence they set you up…”), she thinks it must refer to the 1797 embezzlement that blackened the former Treasury Secretary’s name, and she resolves to find out who’s responsible, thinking it may help free her son. Ignoring an anonymous missive that commands her to “mind [her] own affairs—or else!” she begins to question powerful men, who respond with solicitous inquiries
about her health. If asking questions is a sign that a woman is addled, imagine the reaction when Eliza bands together with several women living in a group house and ends up going undercover in male attire. Her investigation leads her to a secret society descended from the Bavarian Illuminati and a string of other murders before she’s finally able to clear her family’s good name with precious little help from any man. A spirited author’s note defends Eliza against all possible charges of anachronistic rebelliousness by pointing to the historical evidence that the real Eliza Hamilton had a distinctly modern sensibility.
All right, so there’s no music and not that much mystery. But you’ll cheer the righteous heroine through thick and thin.
Knitmare on Beech Street Ehrhart, Peggy | Kensington (304 pp.) | $8.99 paper | Nov. 28, 2023 9781496738868
A haunted house and a blueberry pie provide clues to several murders in New Jersey. Longtime friends Pamela Paterson and Bettina Fraser are members of the Knit and Nibble group, who are always willing to help support Arborville activities. When they join the town’s welcome committee on a visit to writer Tassie Hunt, who’s inherited the allegedly haunted Vorhees House, they find her dead in the kitchen, a whole blueberry pie the only seemingly odd item. Though she was a young woman, Tassie could have died from natural causes, but the police eventually reveal that she was smothered. Both Pamela and Bettina, who’s a writer for the Arborville Advocate, are familiar with Det. Lucas Clayborn, who’s not pleased to see them. Tassie’s next-door neighbor, who’s been keeping track of odd noises and flashing lights, subscribes to the haunted house theory. >>> NOVEMBER 1, 2023 35
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Book to Screen Obama Had Notes on Leave the World Behind Film
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The upcoming movie is based on Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel. While working on his film adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind, screenwriter and director Sam Esmail got an assist from Barack Obama. Esmail talked to Vanity Fair about the upcoming movie, telling correspondent Anthony Breznican that the former president— who executive produced the film along with his wife, Michelle Obama—gave
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him notes about the adaptation. The novel and film follow two couples who are forced to share a Long Island home when a mysterious blackout hits New York, leaving them without television, Internet, or cell phone service.
Esmail said Obama’s experience with managing crises helped spur him to suggest that some of the events in the screenplay were a little too dire. “In the original drafts of the script, I definitely pushed things a lot farther than they were in the film, and President Obama, having the experience he does have, was able to ground me a little bit on how things might unfold in reality,” Esmail said. “I am writing what I think is fiction, for the most part, I’m trying to keep it as true to life as possible, but I’m exaggerating and dramatizing. And For a review of Leave the World Behind, visit Kirkus online.
to hear an ex-president say you’re off by a few details…I thought I was off by a lot! The fact that he said that scared the fuck out of me.” Leave the World Behind stars Mahershala Ali, Myha’la Herrold, Julia Roberts, and Ethan Hawke. It is scheduled to premiere in theaters on Nov. 22 before streaming on Netflix 16 days later.—M.S.
The former president executive produced the film.
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Pamela and Bettina, sure there’s another answer, set out to discover the truth. Pamela gets help and support from her love interest, Pete Paterson— it’s just a coincidence that they have the same last name—who’d done some handyman work at Vorhees House. Bettina works on the story for the paper while her retired husband keeps everyone well fed with his cooking and baking. When Tassie’s boyfriend is also killed, the police suspect a squatter who’s been hiding in the attic. The sleuthing ladies, however, think the motive is altogether more complicated. Lovingly detailed descriptions of food, apparel, and knitting projects overpower the mystery in this charming cozy.
Murder in a Cup Elliott, Lauren | Kensington (304 pp.) $27.00 | Nov. 28, 2023 | 9781496739070
Shop owner Shayleigh Myers continues to defend her legacy against threats worldly and otherworldly. Shay never knew her mother, Bridget Early, but she received two precious gifts from her: Crystals & CuriosiTEAS, a tea shop in Bray Harbor, California, and an amulet containing a mysterious blue stone. The first she runs as a means of making a living and sharing her mother’s herbal healing secrets with her neighbors. The second she wears on a cord around her neck, showing it only to a select number of family members and friends. Now Peter Graham is threatening to ruin Shay’s business with a lawsuit accusing her of indoctrinating his teenage daughter, Tassi, into the practice of witchcraft through Tassi’s part-time job at CuriosiTEAS. In the meantime, Shay’s neighbor Liam Madigan alerts her to the possibility of a messenger sent from the old country who has his eye on her amulet. Liam’s Gran, recently relocated to Bray Harbor 38 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
from Ireland, has a wealth of information about Shay’s lineage, though she parcels it out sparingly for fear of overwhelming Shay with too-powerful knowledge of her ancestors’ association with seers and fairies. While Shay is intrigued by Gran’s folk wisdom, she has a more pedestrian task ahead of her: finding out who poisoned Peter’s girlfriend, Jasmine Massey, before the police charge Tassi with the crime. For readers who like their whodunits with a supernatural twist.
The Final Curtain Higashino, Keigo | Trans. by Giles Murray Minotaur (400 pp.) | $28.00 | Dec. 12, 2023 9781250767523
A summons to Tokyo leads Det. Kyoichiro Kaga of the Nihonbashi Precinct to some places that are unnervingly dark and close to home. When Michiko Oshitani, a cleaning salesperson for Melody Air, is found dead long after she’s been strangled in Mutsuo Koshikawa’s apartment, Tokyo Det. Shuhei Matsumiya and his colleagues would love to talk to Koshikawa. But no one has seen him since the weekend of the murder. The case seems open and shut, but the discovery soon after of the body of a homeless man strangled on the Shinkoiwa riverbank suggests that a single killer may be responsible for both deaths, and the evidence doesn’t support the theory that Koshikawa is the killer. Calling on his cousin Kaga for help, Matsumiya works with him to brainstorm theories and gather evidence, only to end up tossing out one theory after another. A particularly vexing clue is a list of 12 Tokyo bridges linked to specific months of the calendar that Kaga himself has a copy of, though he doesn’t know what it means. There are strong indications that both murders are somehow connected to actress/
playwright/director Hiromi Kadokura, Michiko’s classmate in junior high school (when she was Hiromi Asai); to Seizo Naemura, the homeroom teacher the girls shared; and to Kaga’s own troubled family history. Stunned by the fact that he knew both the first victim and the missing suspect, Kaga can’t believe that’s a coincidence. Only the most painstaking detective work will establish the motive behind the murders, rooted in a well-nigh endless series of masquerades by more characters than one. An intricate, many-layered puzzle created by a killer whose identity is its least surprising feature.
Murder of an Amish Bridegroom Johns, Patricia | Crooked Lane (272 pp.) $29.99 | Dec. 5, 2023 | 9781639105328
Petunia Yoder, known as “the youngest old maid” in Blueberry Township, finds a new life as a detective. Petunia, who lives with her widowed father, can’t cook or bake well enough to attract a husband, but she makes money as a seamstress. On a visit to the nearby ice house, she finds her best friend, Eden Beiler, in shock and covered with the blood of Ike Smoker, the man she loves. Everyone in the Amish community saw how unsuitable the wild Ike was for the naïve Eden, but she believed his lies about changing his life and marrying her. Det. Asher Nate, who can’t help but suspect Eden, naturally arrests her, but Petunia talks him into letting her act as his guide to the very different mores of the Amish community in hope of proving Eden innocent. Not that there’s any shortage of other suspects, since Ike was probably the most hated man in the community. He owed money to lots of people and was ruining Eden’s reputation while flirting with other women. Petunia KIRKUS REVIEWS
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Charming characters and a primer on parades add depth to a thorny mystery. COACHING FIRE
and Asher develop a good working relationship; without her, he would get little information from the closedmouth community. After a woman who turns out to be Ike’s wife shows up at the bishop’s house, minus her two kids, Petunia begins to uncover disturbing secrets that point to people she knows and loves. Plenty of suspects and a burgeoning relationship between the English detective and the Amish heroine make for a fun read.
Coaching Fire Laurie, Victoria | Kensington (304 pp.) $27.00 | Nov. 28, 2023 | 9781496742469
Old friends continue to excel at solving murders. Arriving home from Europe, life coach Cat Cooper and her best friend, Gilley Gillespie, are met at the airport by Cat’s boyfriend, East Hampton police detective Steve Shepherd, with a ring and a proposal. Although Cat’s in love with Shep, reservations stemming from her nasty divorce send her fleeing to Texas, where Gilley’s new boyfriend, designer Stuart Jacobs, is in charge of the Texas Rose Festival costumes. Stuart invites the friends to join him at the home of fabulously wealthy rose grower Nigel Bloomfield, where he’ll be staying in the guesthouse during the festival. Though they live in tony East Hampton, they’re impressed by the place, and willingly KIRKUS REVIEWS
pitch in to help Stuart, whose reputation is on the line. It quickly becomes apparent that the festival has attracted some nasty backbiting from people eager to see Stuart fail. When his assistant designer is murdered and his sister, dressmaker Imani, is arrested for the crime, Cat and Gilley start sleuthing. Although Cat knows Shep would be a big help, she can’t bring herself to call him until the warehouse holding the costumes and a safe with a fortune in diamonds is set on fire, leaving Stuart on the hook for a vast sum. Since someone keeps trying to destroy Stuart’s work and a murderer is still on the loose, it will take the combined talents of Cat, Gilley, and Shep to solve the interlocking crimes. Charming characters and a primer on festival parades add depth to the thorny mystery.
A Crust To Die For LoTempio, T.C. | Severn House (256 pp.) $31.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781448310036
A food critic isn’t even the prime suspect when an obstreperous restaurateur is killed during a pizza bake-off. Moving from temporary to fulltime writer on Southern Style magazine has its perks for food critic and blogger Tiffany Austin. For example, her idea of organizing the Bon-Appetempting Pizza Bake-Off, the first pizza contest in Branson, Georgia, has been heralded
with great fanfare. And her best friend Hilary Hanson’s sister, Arleen, has reached the semifinals, exciting Tiffany and redoubling her commitment to the event’s success. When gallstones force fellow food critic Pierre Dumont to withdraw from his judging duties, Tiffany is dismayed to hear that he’s being replaced by none other than Bartholomew Driscoll. Not only does Driscoll have a notoriously short temper, but Tiffany recently panned his restaurant, Ambrosia, and he didn’t take the news well. At the contest, the two are at odds almost immediately, with Driscoll working his usual routine of baiting Tiffany into arguments she’s determined not to fall for. But Tiffany may not be the only one who has an issue with Driscoll, she learns, and when he’s killed midway through the contest, possible suspects range far and wide. Tiffany has a bit of an in with the investigation through her rather personal connection to Det. Philip Bartell, so she’s ready to leap into action when suspicion seems to be settling on Arleen. There should be something more to warrant this series’ second helping.
Robert B. Parker’s Broken Trust Lupica, Mike | Putnam (400 pp.) | $29.00 Nov. 28, 2023 | 9780593540244
Lupica, having already continued the sagas of Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone, takes the helm for the latest adventure of Parker’s signature sleuth, with mixed results. “Laura Crain might have been the first dead client I ever had,” Boston shamus Spenser reflects after his psychologist lover Susan Silverman’s friend is found strangled in a Brookline park shortly after hiring him to find out what’s bugging her husband. Whatever it is must be big, NOVEMBER 1, 2023 39
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because scientist Andrew Crain’s mastery of a process to produce synthetic lithium has made him the sixth-wealthiest man in the U.S., and when do billionaires ever have bad days? Spenser tries to question entrepreneur Ethan Lowe, Crain’s best friend and partner in Lith, Inc.; Crain’s executive assistant, Claire Megill; and even Crain himself. But they’re a closemouthed bunch, and Crain actually runs out of a restaurant dinner he and Laura are having with Spenser and Susan. That’s the last Spenser sees of Laura, and Crain seriously threatens his own company (which Lowe is hoping to steer into a lucrative takeover by a Canadian automaker) by disappearing, returning just in time to give a highly uninformative press conference and then firing Spenser, whom he’d never hired. Feeling honor-bound to get to the bottom of the mystery that so exercised his client, Spenser keeps on the case without pay, pausing only for repeated coyly described bouts of sex with Susan, and ends up uncovering enough skullduggery for two installments of this beloved franchise. This time, though, Lupica’s addiction to multiplying subplots not only bulks up a tale that could have been slenderer but turns the big reveal into an endless series of confrontations with different malefactors to whom Spenser dispenses condign justice. Far too much of a good thing.
Hop Scot McPherson, Catriona | Severn House (240 pp.) | $31.99 | Dec. 5, 2023 9781448307692
A family therapist returns home to Scotland for a Christmas trip with her friends and finds a new mystery awaiting her. Lexy Campbell lives on a houseboat behind California’s Last Ditch motel, and the motel’s residents have 40 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
become her friends. These include Todd Kroger, a physician sidelined by his fear of bugs, and his husband, Roger Kroger, an exhausted pediatrician, who like the motel because co-owner Kathi Muntz, a partner in Lexy and Todd’s detective agency, is a germaphobe who keeps the place spotless. Roger hires a jet to take them, along with a supporting cast— Lexy’s fiance, ornithologist Taylor Aaronovitch; Kathi’s wife, Noleen Muntz; married couple Della and Devin Muelenbelt and their two very loud children—to visit Lexy’s family for the holidays. Much to Lexy’s surprise, her parents have purchased Mistletoe Hall in the village of Yule, which they plan to run as a hotel. Lexy has warned her friends about Scottish eccentricities, but they’re delighted with the small-town charm and the absence of bugs. Taylor is so entranced with the local birds that when a tree with an owls’ nest falls through the cellar door, he goes all out to save the egg. Lexy, puzzled by a bricked-up wall in the cellar, eventually opens it up, revealing a skeleton they decide must be the gardener Billy, who worked for the parents of Crispin Garmont, the former owner. Although Crispin is certain his parents killed Billy, Lexy and her friends are unpersuaded enough to investigate.
shot, stabbed, and draped over the grave of Zacharias Baer, who died in 1869, is identified as that of Joshua Baer, Zacharias’ great-greatgrandson. What would already be a tough week for the Baer family takes a turn toward the monstrous with the death of Stonewall Jackson Baer, who’s fatally poisoned at his 100th birthday party. Mark Baer, Jackson’s grandson, is the obvious person for Willie to talk to. But even though Mark was a reporter for the same dying newspaper where Willie works until his coverage of congressional candidate Felicia Delmonico turned into flacking for her, he’s not eager to talk to his former workmate because he’s consumed with grief, because he’s wary of giving out statements that might be used to compromise his family even further, and ultimately because the discovery of the knife that killed Joshua Baer buried in his yard leads to his arrest. Willie’s dogged investigation of the Baer curse, which seems to have struck down a member of every generation since Zacharias, reveals that although the family acknowledges its long history of slaveholding, it’s never owned up to the moral implications of that history. Warning: you’ll need a genealogical table to sort out all the victims, let alone have a shot at identifying the killer.
Hollywood
Public Anchovy #1
Owen, Howard | Permanent Press (242 pp.) $29.95 | Dec. 5, 2023 | 9781579626730
Quigley, Mindy | St. Martin’s (320 pp.) | $8.99 paper | Dec. 26, 2023 9781250792471
A rollicking mystery that will leave readers wondering whether the whole gang will relocate to Scotland.
Richmond, Virginia, crime reporter Willie Black tracks down a serial killer who’s apparently been at it for 150 years. It all starts, or ends, in Hollywood. No, not that Hollywood, but the Hollywood Cemetery, where a corpse
Forget the tangled whodunit and savor the continued death throes of the hero’s doomed newspaper.
A restaurateur lands the catering job from hell. Delilah O’Leary, who owns an upscale pizzeria in Geneva Bay, Wisconsin, lives in a lakefront mansion as caretaker to Butterball, the cat who owns the KIRKUS REVIEWS
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Alaska provides the backdrop to a complex tale of abduction and murder. LOST HOURS
evidence that conflicts with both her knowledge of animal behavior and established cryptid lore.
Fast-paced and ingenious, though mystery fans will have to overlook some grisly accounts of the attacks to savor the puzzle.
Lost Hours house, along with her Great-Aunt Biz, who’s bitter about losing her home over unpaid taxes. Though she’s no reader herself, Delilah is catering Speakeasy Soirée, a 1920s-themed fundraiser to benefit the library. The first problem arises before she even arrives, when librarian Isabel Berney begs her to create a non-pizza pizza for a donor with severe allergies to wheat, cheese, and tomatoes. Arriving with her staff and food on the boat sent by hostess Pam Phillips to carry them across the lake, she learns the entertainment is singer Lola Capone— yes, that Capone family—the mother of Delilah’s dream man, pianist and detective Calvin Capone. Delilah runs into Edgar Clemmons, the outgoing Friends of the Library board chair, who makes several enigmatic statements, gives Delilah two books, and asks her to deliver them, along with an odd message, to her friend Sonya before he apparently falls down the steps and dies. Then Lola Capone discovers an animal hiding in the piano. It turns out to be Butterball, who Delilah fears had a paw in Clemmons’ death. Calvin Capone requests backup, but a nasty storm delays the officers’ arrival. So almost everyone leaves except for a few people who are trapped when a tree falls on the road. Delilah and her crew hope to solve the mystery of the not-so-accidental death before more official reinforcements arrive. The remaining guests have rocky relationships and secrets that lead to another death and a murder attempt before Capone and the wannabe sleuths solve the crimes. Shades of Agatha Christie in a modern whodunit whose prime suspects keep getting killed off. KIRKUS REVIEWS
Death in the Dark Woods Ryan, Annelise | Berkley (336 pp.) | $27.00 Dec. 12, 2023 | 9780593441602
A cryptozoologist helps police investigate a pair of deaths in remote Door County, Wisconsin. The Chequamegon National Forest is noted for its Bigfoot sightings because the remote, heavily forested area offers many opportunities for residents and tourists alike to catch brief glimpses of large, hairy creatures who appear for a few moments and then vanish into the brush. So when Jon Flanders, chief of police for Washington Island, asks Morgan Carter to look into the deaths of a hunter and a fisherman, both of whom, according to witnesses, were dispatched by humanoid primates in the Cheq, she jumps at the chance to confirm or dispel rumors that Bigfoot was to blame. Department of Natural Resources warden Charlie Aberdeen is on the “confirm” side, since she believes that Bigfoot was also responsible for killing her father as she hunted by his side as a child. But Deputy Buck Weaver is solidly in favor of “dispel,” since he’s already filed the reports listing both deaths as the result of bear attacks. When it comes to cryptids, Morgan likes to keep an open mind. So she begins by viewing the death scenes and interviewing witnesses. But the more she digs, the more complicated her investigation becomes, with conflicting testimony from unreliable witnesses and physical
Shelton, Paige | Minotaur (288 pp.) | $28.00 Dec. 5, 2023 | 9781250846617
Alaska provides the stunning backdrop to a complex tale of abduction and murder. The small town of Benedict has provided a safe haven for author Elizabeth Fairchild, who, a year ago, was kidnapped and escaped her captor, though not without mental and physical scars. Under her real name, Beth Rivers, she has made fast friends and gained the strength to return to St. Louis to testify at the trial of her abductor. Beth’s mother is currently off the radar, but her semi-estranged father, Eddy, is in Benedict running fishing trips for tourists. While Beth and her boyfriend, Tex, are on a sightseeing boat trip, a woman covered in blood is spotted on an island, and Tex and others go ashore to rescue her. Hoping that her own experiences might help Sadie Milbourn recover, Beth listens to the woman’s story, which includes having spent six years in the Witness Protection Program and having been kidnapped from her home in Juneau three days earlier. The searchers find no body, no other blood, and no sign of the bear Sadie claims killed her abductor. Beth has helped Benedict Police Chief Gril Samuels with many cases, so he trusts her to assist him with this one, especially since Sadie refuses to talk to the police from Juneau, who seem to dislike her. Many things about Sadie’s story don’t add up, but Beth sympathizes with her because she remembers how her own traumatic NOVEMBER 1, 2023 41
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experiences messed with her memory. When Beth takes the opportunity to return to the island with her father and three tourists, one of them vanishes, producing more confusion but also revealing a clue that may crack the case. A mystery, a thriller, and an all-around great vehicle for an intrepid heroine who never gives up.
Murder With Chocolate Tea Smith, Karen Rose | Kensington (320 pp.) | $8.99 paper | Nov. 28, 2023 9781496738486
A podcast entangles the owner of Daisy’s Tea Garden in her 10th murder case in Pennsylvania’s Amish country. Daisy Swanson has agreed to be interviewed by her friend Trevor Lundquist, who’s trying to make a name for himself as a journalist, about having been involved in solving nine murders. A caller to Trevor’s tip line claims that an old trunk about to come up for auction contains clues to a 20-yearold murder. Out of curiosity, Daisy; her fiance, former detective turned woodworker Jonas Groft; and a few friends buy up two lots that contain a total of five trunks. Daisy already has plenty to do: Her wedding is in a few weeks, her younger daughter is heading off to college, and she’s seriously involved in the celebration of a covered bridge restoration. When someone breaks into the shed where a friend is housing the trunks and tries to get into Jonas’ SUV, Daisy and her friends, who’ve discovered nothing so far, decide they have to dig deeper. When a man is found murdered, Trevor thinks the old and new murders are connected and wants Daisy to help him prove it. Egged on, Daisy searches through the trunks, discovering a photograph and newspaper clippings that may have a connection 42 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
to the cold murder case. Once the long memories of Willow Creek residents turn up a number of suspects, Daisy settles down to find the killer before he finds her. Plenty of interesting folks in this community elevate the complicated mystery.
City of Betrayal Thompson, Victoria | Berkley (320 pp.) $28.00 | Dec. 5, 2023 | 9780593440605
As ratification of the 19th Amendment approaches, there’s nothing opponents won’t do to keep women from getting the vote. Elizabeth Miles Bates may come from a family of grifters, but she’s used her skills only for good since she married Gideon Bates, a respected New York lawyer. Along with the rest of the nation, she watches the massive push to get the amendment approved in Tennessee, the only state needed to get the suffragists to victory. To that end, Elizabeth, her husband, and his mother all head to Nashville to work for the cause. Much to her surprise, Elizabeth’s father, aka the Old Man, is there, too, working on a con in the city. Teams on the ground are trying to convince the legislators to vote yes, but opponents known as the Antis are pushing to defeat the bill. The Antis and the wealthy interests backing them, determined to keep women from the ballot box, are using every dirty trick they can think of: bribery, blackmail, fearmongering, and racist rhetoric, since they particularly don’t want Black women to get the vote. Although they have pledges from what they think are just enough men to pass the amendment, Elizabeth and company watch in horror and despair as a few defect to the other side and spend every minute fighting to change minds. Elizabeth can’t think of a con that will help, and the Old Man is busy with his own
misdeeds. So while working in the soul-sapping heat, Elizabeth must use her brains to counter every attack the other side launches. A fascinating exploration of the battle for suffrage, whose historical events drive an exciting thriller.
Revenge of the Stormbringer Tremayne, Peter | Severn House (352 pp.) $31.99 | Dec. 5, 2023 | 9781448309801
A twisted tale of murder and revenge in 7th-century Ireland. It will take all of Sister Fidelma’s crime-solving skills to protect her brother, King Colgú, and his wife, Princess Gelgéis, from a murderous plot. The newlyweds are ensconced in a supposedly impregnable apartment when someone manages to get in and kill Cera, the princess’ guard and a member of the female warrior band Daughters of the Storm. Dar Luga, Colgú’s stewardess, seems disoriented and later dies. Cera had planned to marry Enda, commander of the household guard, and they’d been practicing a martial arts demonstration for the upcoming fair celebrating the king’s marriage, but Enda is still a suspect in her death. Fidelma’s husband, Brother Eadulf the Angle, who has extensive medical credentials, declares that Dar Luga was poisoned. Fidelma must solve a locked-room mystery; protect her brother, who seems the killer’s likely target; and deal with Eadulf’s uncharacteristic bursts of anger. The newly arrived physician thinks Dar Luga may have killed Cera and then herself. So the new priest, who’s adamantly opposed to women’s rights and follows the new faith’s laws rather than those of the old gods, refuses Dar Luga a Christian burial. Colgú’s near-death by an arrow aimed at him during the opening of the fair KIRKUS REVIEWS
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Class lines morph into clash lines when British aristocrats and police face off in this dead-on debut. THE OTHER HALF
seems to settle the question of who was the assassin’s real target. Unfortunately, there are so many motives for killing Colgú, ranging from the personal to the political, that it will be no easy task for Fidelma to unravel the case. Fascinating legends and mores of ancient Eire meld seamlessly with a complex mystery.
Daughter of Ashes Tuti, Ilaria | Trans. by Ekin Oklap Soho Crime (432 pp.) | $27.95 | Dec. 5, 2023 | 9781641294171
Hard-used Italian police Supt. Teresa Battaglia, returning to duty following her latest round of traumatic injuries, encounters some old enemies who just won’t let go. The most obvious of these is Giacomo Mainardi, a serial killer imprisoned for 27 years, who broke out of prison two weeks ago but turned himself in to the police because he feared for his life and thought prison would be safer than the world outside. A more improbable foe with a different approach but no more scruples is wily District Attorney Albert Lona, who doesn’t want Teresa to think bygones are bygones between them just because he rescued her from a fire that could have killed them both. Her most insidious enemy is her dementia, which has gone from creeping to KIRKUS REVIEWS
leaping forward in ways that make it impossible to conceal. As Teresa struggles to reopen the 27-year-old case of Mainardi’s murders and his theft of selected bones from each of his victims, dramatized in a series of flashbacks to the days when she was waiting for the results of her superintendent’s exam and hoping that she and the baby she was carrying could survive the violent abuse of her husband, psychiatrist Sebastiano Battaglia, everyone around her, from supportive Inspector Massimo Marini to longtime medical examiner Dr. Antonio Parri, recognizes that she has some uncanny bond with Giacomo Mainardi, who’s done something truly dreadful with the body parts he’s stolen. Linking the superintendent together with the criminal, and both of them with the fourth-century Christian community of Aquileia, is the heaviest lift of Tuti’s ambitious novel. A monumental tale that broaches just about every mystery you can imagine except for the question of whodunit.
The Other Half Vassell, Charlotte | Doubleday (368 pp.) $27.00 | Nov. 21, 2023 | 9780593685945
Class lines morph into clash lines when British aristocrats and police face off in this dead-on debut. On the night before an Instagram influencer
is found dead, Rupert Beauchamp, heir to a baronetcy, holds a tawdry black-tie 30th birthday bash at a London McDonald’s, where guests wash down fast food with champagne and coke. The dead woman turns out to be Rupert’s girlfriend, Clemmie O’Hara, whose body is discovered on Hampstead Heath by DI Caius Beauchamp (no relation to Rupert, but it’s an intriguing coincidence that eventually explains a lot about Caius). Clemmie’s death is convenient for the nasty Rupert because he’s always loved Nell Waddingham, whom he can’t marry because she’s not posh enough. Nell works in publishing and adores classic novels, especially Jane Austen’s, which she loves to read and post about. She’s Vassell’s most perfectly wrought character and, along with Caius, one of the few likable ones. On a recent trip to Greece with Rupert and Clemmie, she experienced a terrible act of violence (only hinted at later in the book) that she can’t seem to understand or process. Caius is clear-eyed about what happened to her and wants justice for her and Clemmie. He’s not afraid to set his sights on Rupert, even though his elite-enamored boss tells him to back off. Rupert, like all the other aimless upper-class millennials in this novel, can buy his way out of pretty much any criminal behavior, but will he get away with murder? There are plenty of other people in Clemmie’s circle with strong motives, and Vassell serves them up with gimlet-eyed precision. This is a sturdy police procedural whose plot is sometimes knocked off kilter by Vassell’s frequent sendups of her morally bankrupt characters, but the forthright Caius is a beacon of justice who makes this debut shine. Race and privilege light the fuse in this classics-laced whodunit.
For more mysteries, visit Kirkus online.
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Second Chances in New Port Stephen Alexander, TJ | Emily Bestler/Atria (352 pp.) | $17.99 paper | Dec. 5, 2023 9781668021965
An upbeat Christmas romance from the author of Chef ’s Choice (2023) and Chef ’s Kiss (2022). Out of work and out of money, TV writer Eli Ward heads home to Florida for the first time since transitioning. When his mom sends him out to buy more booze for a holiday party, Eli bumps into Nick Wu—his childhood best friend and high-school sweetheart. Nick is divorced, the father of a little girl, and as gorgeous as ever. What begins as an effort to revive their friendship turns into something…a lot more complicated. While the happily-ever-after is a given, these old flames face some challenges as they try to figure out if they have a future together. Surprisingly, Nick’s sudden realization that he’s not straight after all is not any kind of impediment. He accepts it without a struggle, and both his ex-wife and his father are equally at ease with this revelation. There’s no reason why queer romances have to be more realistic than hetero romances, but this aspect of the novel feels especially fantastic juxtaposed with Alexander’s occasional reminders that this story takes place in the “Don’t Say Gay” state. Also, while misunderstandings and miscommunication are genre staples, they feel contrived here, especially since Eli and Nick insist over and over again that they know each other better than anyone else does—despite not having seen each other in more than 20 years. This book’s most grating flaw, though, is the repeated assertion that both Eli and Nick are hilarious. They are not hilarious, and this is doubly problematic given that Eli is a comedy writer and standup comic. The 44 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
A lighthearted Regency romp about changing society from the inside. THE LADIES REWRITE THE RULES
only character who’s actually funny is Eli’s friend Margo (who bears a strong resemblance to the divine Bridget Everett of the HBO series Somebody Somewhere). Having said all this, it’s only fair to mention that the sex scenes are pretty hot. Sweet, but frustrating.
The Ladies Rewrite the Rules Allain, Suzanne | Berkley (272 pp.) $17.00 paper | Jan. 9, 2024 978-0-593-54964-3
When a group of women discovers their names on a published list of eligible ladies, they join forces to wield it to their advantage. As a widow still expected to be in mourning after the death of her much older husband, Diana Boyle has little desire to entertain a new courtship, so when suitors begin knocking on her door, her suspicions are instantly aroused. Shortly after she politely sends them on their way, she discovers the reason the men have been calling on her: She’s been included in a printed directory of wealthy women who are eligible for marriage, complete with names, addresses, and estimated fortunes. When Diana confronts the man who published this list, she’s more than a little surprised, and not just because he happens to be a handsome bachelor himself. Maxwell Dean had no malicious intentions in printing up the directory. From his perspective, he was merely providing assistance
to second sons trying to make auspicious matches. The directory’s existence proves to be both a blessing and a curse for Diana. When she invites the other women in it to a meeting, they agree that they’ll use it to figure out which men are worthy of their time and which are just fortune hunters, playing by their own rules instead of those established by men. However, Diana and Max have now been set on a collision course, and while Diana might not have envisioned herself getting married again before she found out about the directory, now she wonders if she’s actually uncovered something much more meaningful: her perfect match. Allain’s novel prioritizes friendship as much as romance, and although Allain doesn’t sufficiently develop every aspect of the story, it has the benefit of more than one blossoming relationship to follow, including a second-chance love story that’s just as charming as the main couple’s. A fun, lighthearted Regency romp about changing society from the inside.
Always Remember: Ben’s Story Balogh, Mary | Berkley (368 pp.) | $28.00 Jan. 16, 2024 | 9780593638385
Two people living on the periphery of their families take center stage in each other’s lives. Continuing her Ravenswood series, Balogh puts the focus on Ben Ellis, the widowed, illegitimate KIRKUS REVIEWS
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older brother of the Earl of Stratton, and Lady Jennifer Arden, the mobility-impaired sister of the earl’s new brother-in-law, the Duke of Wilby. Introduced in the previous novels in the series, the protagonists have already been established as kind, family-oriented people who keep their dissatisfactions buried. Ben wants to provide a loving mother to his young daughter even as he hides his childhood grief over losing his own mother. Conscious of his outsider status, he has also accepted that his marital aspirations must be lower than those of his aristocratic family. When he notices Lady Jennifer Arden struggle to walk with crutches, he intends only to assist her in gaining more independence of movement. Yet their stilted acquaintance morphs into a deeper understanding of each other, and sexual desire starts to disturb the resignation they had both felt about their socially prescribed limitations. Their un-courtship progresses over passages of Lady Jennifer acquiring new mobility aids tailored to her body’s abilities, culminating in a moving dance scene. The incorporation of a differently abled protagonist into the love plot without a savior narrative or magical transformation makes for a welcome departure from the genre’s tradition of pairing romance with normative bodies. On the other hand, the narrative is bogged down by a great deal of detail about numerous minor characters and an uncharacteristically clumsy info dump about Ben’s past. Balogh’s power in dramatizing the inner life, with meditations on the complexity of human emotions and connections, compensates for this weakness to some extent. A slow-paced Regency romance that reflects on bodily diversity and inclusivity.
For more by Mary Balogh, visit Kirkus online.
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You’re the Duke That I Want Bell, Lenora | Avon/HarperCollins (384 pp.) | $9.99 paper | Dec. 26, 2023 9780063316881
A naïve young girl falls in love with a man who turns out to be a duke. Sandrine Oliver has spent her life in quiet Squaltonon-Sea, longing for adventure. Though she’s generally stifled by her overprotective mother, she’s decided to enjoy one moment of “delicious, unpredictable freedom” in the sea. Unfortunately, it’s short-lived, as she’s suddenly hauled out by a strange man who thinks she’s in need of rescuing. That man is Lord Dane Walker, brother of the Duke of Rydell, but as the Rydells are not well liked in Squalton, he’s pretending to be Danny Smith. Though he ruined Sandrine’s swim, they seem to connect and even share a magical kiss, but then he disappears. They soon encounter each other again when Sandrine visits London to petition the Duke of Rydell on behalf of the local historical society—and that’s when she learns that Danny is now the duke, and he’s not necessarily happy to see her. At this point it will become clear to nearly every reader, if it isn’t already, that Bell’s latest is heavily inspired by Grease. The Duke is a member of the Thunderbolt Club, which is “all about racing,” and he’s returned to London to find that his buddy Kenwick’s new curricle has arrived, and it’s called Lightning Streak. Meanwhile, having been snubbed by Dane at the theater, Sandrine finds support in a group of young women who call themselves the Pink Ladies, though a certain Lady Roslyn seems to think she’s “too pristine to be pink.” Though the plot is familiar, the story is as steamy as Bell’s readers will expect, and certainly more explicit than the film. Because the book hews so closely to its inspiration, it’s not
groundbreaking, but Bell has fun with the premise, and readers looking for a lighthearted historical romance will enjoy it as long as they don’t mind having the soundtrack stuck in their heads. There are worse things you could do than read this Grease-inspired historical romance.
Barbarian’s Touch Dixon, Ruby | Berkley (352 pp.) $17.00 paper | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9780593639474
Two new human women are rescued and learn to live on an ice planet. A cargo hold full of kidnapped human women crashed onto an ice planet. The original group of women fell in love and were mated with the men from the small band of blue aliens who inhabit the planet. Now, in Book 7 of Dixon’s Ice Planet Barbarians series, a group of aliens and women return to the crashed ship to free two women who were trapped in stasis. Rokan is one of the aliens on the rescue crew. His strong sense of intuition, what he calls “knowing,” tells him he is essential to the rescue mission. When sisters Lila and Maddie awaken, they are shocked by their new circumstances. Lila is deaf, and her cochlear implant was removed by the kidnappers. She feels helpless without the ability to hear and relies on Maddie to help her understand the strange new world. One of the aliens on the rescue team takes Lila from the group, hoping if they are alone together she will “resonate” with him, which indicates that two people are fated mates. Rokan’s sense of intuition tells him Lila is in trouble, so he separates from the rescue crew to hunt for her. When Rokan finds her, she had already escaped on her own, a satisfying corrective to several earlier books in which human women fall in love with their captors. (Yes, there’s a lot NOVEMBER 1, 2023 45
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Franzen, Picoult, and Others Sue OpenAI
The Authors Guild and 17 authors filed a copyright infringement suit against the company. The latest group of authors to sue OpenAI includes Jonathan Franzen, Jodi Picoult, John Grisham, and George R.R. Martin. The Authors Guild, a professional organization for published writers, is joining with the authors
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ative AI machines can only generate material that is derivative of what came before it. They copy sentence structure, voice, storytelling, and context from books and other ingested texts. The outputs are mere remixes without the addition of any human voice.” Two other groups of authors have also filed suit against OpenAI. In July, novelists Mona Awad and Paul Tremblay sued the company; another suit filed by writers Sarah Silverman, Richard Kadrey, and Christopher Golden followed days later. The other plaintiffs in the Authors Guild suit include David Baldacci, Mary Bly, Michael Connelly, Sylvia Day, Elin Hilderbrand, Christina Baker Kline, Maya Shanbhag
Lang, Victor LaValle, Douglas Preston, Roxana Robinson, George Saunders, Scott Turow, and Rachel Vail. “It is imperative that we stop this theft in its tracks or we will destroy our incredible literary culture, which feeds many other creative industries in the U.S.,” Rasenberger said. “Great books are generally written by those who spend their careers and, indeed, their lives, learning and perfecting their crafts.”—M.S.
To read more about the OpenAI lawsuits, visit Kirkus online.
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SEEN AND HEARD
in a class-action suit against OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company that has drawn fire for using books, without permission from their creators, to train its ChatGPT bot. The suit claims that OpenAI infringed on their copyrights. In a news release, Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the guild, said, “To preserve our literature, authors must have the ability to control if and how their works are used by generative AI. The various GPT models and other current gener-
F I C T I O N // R O M A N C E
of kidnapping in this series!) Rokan agrees to teach her the basic skills, such as hunting and trapping, that will help her survive on the ice planet. Lila is won over by Rokan, who values her as an individual with her own needs and desires. Rokan cares about communicating with her and learns basic signs. Although this installment of the series continues to show the new culture the humans and aliens are creating together, Lila’s deafness is a plot device rather than a well-developed or accurately researched part of her character. New characters illuminate the growth of a small hybrid alien-human community.
Game On Glass, Seressia | Berkley (400 pp.) $17.00 paper | Dec. 12, 2023 9780593199077
An advocate for equal representation in video games tangles with the CEO of the company she’s recently put on blast. As a Black woman gamer, Samara Reynolds is used to living two separate lives, using the “ReyofSun” alias for her online presence. She’s built her platform on the importance of diversity and representation in gaming, and she’s never hesitated to call out companies for slacking in that department—even if it means being subjected to online vitriol. When she calls out Artemis Games for a racist depiction of a non-player character in its game Legendsfall, her video goes viral, forcing Artemis CEO Aron Galanis to sit up and take notice. He decides to meet with the mysterious ReyofSun in person, to show that he’s serious about implementing change at Artemis. Samara is suspicious of Aron’s intentions, so she’s shocked when he flat-out offers her a job revising Legendsfall. It means she’ll be a part of the Artemis team for the next 48 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
few weeks—and it also means she’ll be working up close and personal with Aron himself. The more time they spend in each other’s space, the harder it becomes to keep things professional, and when their personal relationship eventually goes public, the internet haters may be enough to drive them apart. Although the book tackles some important real-life issues, like the heightened level of harassment faced by women of color, the story relies a bit too heavily on exposition and plot to maneuver the characters in various directions rather than letting the characters themselves drive the narrative. Still, Aron continually evolves to earn Samara’s love and commitment, paying attention to her physical and emotional needs and making him the kind of hero worth swooning over. A modern love story that any true gamer will enjoy.
A Demon’s Guide to Wooing a Witch Hawley, Sarah | Berkley (432 pp.) $17.00 paper | Nov. 28, 2023 9780593547946
A gym-loving witch and an amnesiac demon set off on a quest to recover his lost memories. Brash and bold Calladia Cunnington loves nothing more than a good workout, and hitting the gym helps her work through her anxieties and fiery temper. A member of one of Glimmer Falls’ magical families, Calladia calls on a combination of magic and physical strength to rescue a stranger who’s being attacked by a demon, but soon realizes that the person she’s saved is a powerful demon himself—and one she’s been dying to vanquish. Astaroth is known for stealing souls, particularly the soul of Calladia’s best friend. Calladia has been out for revenge ever since, but something is off with Astaroth: He has no memories of the last 200 years and he’s stuck in the mortal world. Conflicted
about punishing a man, or rather a demon, who has no concept of who he is, Calladia vows to help him regain his memory before exacting revenge. Astaroth is the villain of Hawley’s previous book, A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon (2023), and while there’s enough context about his misdeeds for new readers to get by, his redemption might lack impact for them. The tension between Calladia and Astaroth is pulled so tight that it’s practically vibrating; it’s a great start. Unfortunately, it’s undermined by sexual attraction that arrives too soon. Even with amnesia, Astaroth hasn’t lost his demonic charm, which frequently butts up against Calladia’s tightly wound, quick-to-anger nature. Their banter frays the edges of an already thin line between love and hate, and they move onto lust pretty quickly. The rushed romantic entanglement does a disservice to an otherwise promising setup. A spicy, witchy romance mostly recommended for returning readers of the Glimmer Falls series.
Red String Theory Jessen, Lauren Kung | Forever (352 pp.) $16.99 paper | Jan. 9, 2024 | 9781538710289
Fate intervenes after two strangers spend a perfect, snowy evening together in New York City. Rooney Gao and Jackson Liu are opposites in almost every way. Rooney, an up-and-coming artist and hopeless romantic, believes in—and has been inspired by—the Chinese legend that everyone is tied to their soulmate by an invisible red thread wrapped around both of their ankles. Jack lives his life by the numbers. As a systems engineer at NASA, he’s had little time for romance, let alone the idea that true love exists. That all begins to change when, after a chance meeting at a Lantern Festival party, Rooney and Jack spend a perfect night together exploring the streets of Manhattan. Their chemistry is palpable KIRKUS REVIEWS
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Warm, engrossing, joyful and nerve-wracking. S AY Y O U ’ L L B E M I N E
from the moment they lay eyes on one another, but any chance of consummating a new relationship is thwarted when Jack accidentally gives Rooney the wrong phone number after they exchange a heartwarming kiss. In a twist of fate, Jack and Rooney are given a second chance months later when their jobs reunite them. As they spend more time together, it becomes increasingly clear that they’re meant to be, but, of course, love never comes easily. For someone who believes in fate and chance, Rooney seems frustratingly determined to keep things as by-the-books as possible so as not to risk losing Jack again, and the book is hindered by a general lack of spice despite Rooney and Jack’s undeniable chemistry. Despite this, Jessen’s second romance novel is delightful, inducing squeals and sighs in equal measure. A lighthearted slow burn that’s full of hope and heart.
Kirkus Star
Say You’ll Be Mine Kumar, Naina | Dell (336 pp.) | $16.99 paper Jan. 16, 2024 | 9780593723883
An arranged meeting leads to a fake engagement leads to love for an Indian American couple. Meghna Raman, 28, has been secretly in love with her college boyfriend, Seth Mitchell, for years. They only dated briefly before he relegated her to friend and writing partner, and she’s been his best friend ever since, still weighing in on all his songs before he sells them. But after KIRKUS REVIEWS
years of the same, three things happen in quick succession: Meghna gets an invitation to Seth’s wedding, he calls and asks her to be his best man, and her mother begins to arrange rishtas for her—arranged dates that are the precursor to an arranged marriage. When Karthik Murthy, her first date, abruptly asks her to fake an engagement so he can stop spending so many weekends traveling to meet appropriate women his mother has found scattered across the country, Meghna decides to say yes. Karthik is handsome, appealing, and—best of all—can be her plus-one to Seth’s wedding. What follows is an excruciatingly painful, wonderful, realistic look at two people getting to know each other as they navigate what they think they want and what they secretly hope might be. Karthik is terrified of turning into his domineering father, desperate to make his mother happy, and frightened of his own feelings. Meghna is in love with Seth—but is she really? She realizes that she doesn’t quite know, and she’s scared of making mistakes, sharing her emotions, and getting hurt. A delightful, layered book that addresses the frequent disconnect between what a person does, says, thinks they want, and actually wants—as individuals and within the context of their family, work, and community. The end might be a given, but the emotional roller coaster of this journey is warm, engrossing, joyful—and nerve-wracking.
For more romance reviews, visit Kirkus online.
Hunt on Dark Waters Robert, Katee | Berkley (336 pp.) $18.00 paper | Nov. 7, 2023 9780593639085
A chaotic, thieving witch finds herself stuck in a multiverse purgatory with a mysterious and stalwart pirate captain. Evelyn has a penchant for courting disaster, especially when her latest friends-with-benefits situation has gone sour. Seeking to needle her vampire ex-girlfriend, Lizzie, Evelyn makes off with some of Lizzie’s precious heirlooms. Escaping from her angry ex, Evelyn takes the only way out: a magic portal that literally dumps her directly into unfamiliar waters. Her saving grace comes from the crew of the Crimson Hag, led by its telekinetic captain, Bowen. Evelyn learns that she’s in Threshold, a realm connected to every other realm in existence. Bowen and his crew patrol its waters, fighting off all manner of frightening creatures that seek to make their way into other worlds. Bowen offers Evelyn a deal: She can join his crew or be tossed back into the sea, because becoming a resident of Threshold is permanent, one way or another. Though Evelyn agrees to his terms, she has no intention of upholding them and plans to return to her own world at the first chance she gets. Evelyn and Bowen are delightful opposites. She is cheeky, flirtatious, and has no problem inviting in a bit of trouble. Her attitude often chafes against Bowen’s; he adheres to rules and laws to a stubborn degree. Their banter is fun, but Evelyn adopts a “here for a good time, not a long time” mentality that doesn’t promise the romance a lasting foundation; it seems more likely that Bowen will become another temporary, no-strings-attached escapade for Evelyn than that they’ll have a happily-ever-after. The action and adventure are where things really shine. Seeing Evelyn, Bowen, and the NOVEMBER 1, 2023 49
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rest of the crew tackle insurmountable odds and dangerous monsters makes this magical, high-seas romp a quick read, even if the romance feels underutilized. The adventure is more engaging than the romance, which is sexy but shallow.
Consort of Fire Rocha, Kit | Montlake Romance (398 pp.) | $16.99 paper | Nov. 28, 2023 9781662513183
A princess and a trained assassin are ordered to kill a powerful dragon. Thousands of years ago, the humans of the Sheltered Lands made a pact with the gods for protection. In exchange, once a century, whatever mortal king is on the throne must send his oldest child to be bound as consort to Ash, the king of the gods. Ash can take the shape of a man, but his dragon form strikes terror and enmity into the hearts of most humans. The mortal king longs to be free of the pact for his own evil reasons. He has trained his daughter, Sachielle, to become both consort and killer. Sachi will be accompanied by Zanya, a trained assassin who is also her secret lover. The king tells the two women to kill Ash; if they fail, a powerful curse will kill Sachi and consume her soul. Once Sachi and Zanya arrive at the Dragon’s Keep, they realize that Ash is extraordinarily well protected by his private guard. He might be impossible to kill, and even more troubling, they realize they don’t want to even try. Ash is intelligent and incisive, hardly the monster of myth and legend. His years of experience make it easy for him to guess at Sachi and Zanya’s true purpose, but he’s fascinated rather than angry. Eventually the three become lovers, and the intrigue of court politics takes a backseat to the steamy, sexy world they 50 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
create for themselves. Zanya and Ash are powerhouse characters, completely overshadowing Sachi. Her bland, generic goodness is dull compared to them, yet the plot requires readers to believe that Zanya and Ash would do anything to save her. The fiery breath of a dragon pales in comparison to the incendiary heat of this epic erotic fantasy.
Kirkus Star
Last Call at the Local Ruiz, Sarah Grunder | Berkley (368 pp.) | $17.00 paper | Jan. 2, 2024 978-0-593-54906-3
An American musician accepts a temporary job at a pub in Ireland and falls for the owner. Since Raine Hart dropped out of medical school, she’s taken on a nomadic lifestyle, making a living busking abroad. When her guitar and other gear are stolen during what was supposed to be a brief stop in Cobh, Ireland, she heads to a pub to figure out what to do next and meets the handsome and heavily tattooed Jack Dunne and his large, floofy black cat. What starts as casual flirtation over drinks turns into a job offer; Jack needs an entertainment coordinator to revitalize the pub, so Raine agrees to stay for 12 weeks while she makes enough money to replace her stolen goods. Jack tries to be a professional co-worker but he finds Raine irresistible, and with her ADHD and his OCD, they understand each other better than most. She doesn’t want to stay in one place, though, and he can’t envision leaving, so a quickly approaching expiration date on their developing relationship feels inevitable. This warm romance sparkles with Irish charm and is filled with delectable banter. The leads are immensely lovable and thoughtfully crafted. They are both imperfect in ways that make
them perfect for each other. Dual first-person narratives effectively allow the reader to get inside the characters’ heads, allowing the book to realistically and empathically explore their mental health. Their love and partnership is well earned and sure to fill readers with fuzzy feelings. Compassionate and completely charming.
Raiders of the Lost Heart Segura, Jo | Berkley (368 pp.) | $16.99 paper Dec. 5, 2023 | 9780593547465
Two archaeologists who can’t stand each other are determined to uncover the remains of an Aztec warrior…but they may also uncover some hidden feelings. Dr. Corrie Mejía has long dreamed of traveling to Mexico to search for the remains of the Aztec warrior Chimalli. Not only would it finally get her colleagues to respect her as a serious archaeologist instead of a sexy Lara Croft type, but she believes that Chimalli was her ancestor. When a mysterious man shows up at her office and says he’s been sent by an anonymous investor to offer her a place on an expedition to find a special knife that Chimalli once owned, she’s intrigued. Corrie knows she should be on this dig, but she also knows that when an opportunity this perfect falls into your lap, it’s too good to be true. And it is, because the person heading up the expedition is her nemesis, Dr. Ford Matthews. When Ford took the fellowship Corrie thought she deserved eight years ago, he became her enemy—even if he’s quite easy on the eyes. But the chance to find a priceless artifact and be part of history is too much for Corrie to resist, so she agrees to join the team. Ford needs the money the investor promised so he can pay for his sick mother’s expensive care, KIRKUS REVIEWS
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Winfrey’s romantic comedy is a cozy classic. FAKI N G C H R I STMAS
and Corrie needs the respect. Falling in love with their professional rival would only get in the way of their goals…but their feelings for each other have no place to hide in the jungle. Segura balances action-packed adventure with enjoyable romance tropes: Instead of “just one bed,” there’s “just one tent.” Corrie is a likable heroine, and she and Ford have enough chemistry to keep readers turning the pages. A fun, fast-paced adventure rom-com with plenty of steamy scenes.
Technically Yours Williams, Denise | Berkley (384 pp.) $17.00 paper | Dec. 5, 2023 9780593437216
Former co-workers who didn’t quite get together back then find themselves working together and drawn to each other five years later. Pearl Harris has returned to Chicago following a stint in California. After she’d been drooling over Cord Matthews, the co-founder of the company at which she’d worked for years, they had evolved from co-workers to friends, but then he became her boss. At that time, a lot of touching and flirting led to a consensual encounter in a stopped elevator at work. But as much as Pearl was interested in Cord, she had career aspirations that she was unwilling to put second and moved to California for a job. Cord has never stopped thinking of Pearl, and when he finds himself being asked to serve on the board of the nonprofit where Pearl is KIRKUS REVIEWS
now the acting interim director, he’s all in. The pair finds themselves drawn together. Despite the fact that the prior director was asked to resign in part for having a sexual relationship with a board member, the pair hook up twice at a board camping trip and begin an ongoing relationship Pearl defines as casual. Cord wants so much more, but she is focused on work and scared to let herself love another person. Chapters alternate between Pearl’s and Cord’s points of view on the evolution of their past and current relationships, and much time is spent focusing on suggestive looks, daydreams about sexual encounters, and a tremendous number of lingering touches that would set off HR alarm bells anywhere—even as the pair feels they are keeping their relationship a secret. Elements of second-chance, friends-to-lovers, forbidden-love, and soul-mate tropes combine in this book, which also brings in the complexities of workplace politics. A romance heavy on physicality and light on character development.
Faking Christmas Winfrey, Kerry | Berkley (336 pp.) $17.00 paper | Sept. 26, 2023 9780593638361
A 30-something magazine columnist pretends to be her homesteading twin sister in Winfrey’s Christmas caper. Laurel Grant is a hot mess— or, at least, the Old Laurel was. Six months ago, the New Laurel Grant officially left the “Hot Mess Express”
and now lives a productive life as a columnist for Buckeye State of Mind, a local Ohio magazine. There, she writes about her scenic life running a nearby farm with her doting husband and two kids, and her boss, Gilbert, is none the wiser that he’s reading one giant lie. Well, more a stretch of the truth: Laurel doesn’t have a husband or kids, but Meadow Rise Farm does exist, and Laurel does work there…as the social media manager. The farm actually belongs to her twin sister, Holly, and her husband, Darius, who make homemade soap and cinnamon rolls and are the complete opposites of the free-wheeling, scatterbrained Laurel. But when Gilbert, heartbroken that his wife has left him for their accountant, invites himself to the farm for the traditional Christmas Eve Eve dinner, Laurel enlists her sister to help keep her precarious ruse afloat. At the farm, she’s convinced she can play the role of loving wife and mother to her sister’s family, until Holly reveals that Laurel will be fake-married to their other holiday guest, Max Beckett. Max is Laurel’s self-proclaimed nemesis and a professional grump—how can she pretend to be married to someone she completely loathes? However, when a blizzard traps the Grants, Max, and Gilbert in one throw-pillow-heavy farmhouse, Laurel realizes she may not hate Max or a well-balanced life as much as she imagined. In Winfrey’s latest rom-com, opposites attract amid festive holiday fun. Max and Laurel are quintessential enemies to lovers—“You yourself are a headache designed expressly for me”—and Gilbert excels in his role of pitiful and fatherly comic relief. Winfrey mixes up a tale of tenderness, mischief, and friendship as inviting as your favorite Hallmark movie. Holiday hijinks and fake dating make Winfrey’s romantic comedy a cozy classic.
For more by Kerry Winfrey, visit Kirkus online.
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Nonfiction
ERIC LIEBETRAU
Throughout the 90-year history of Kirkus Reviews, we haven’t covered just the biggest-name authors from the most recognizable publishers; we’ve always taken care to support independent publishers and highlight their important work. Here are five November titles from independent presses that you should add to your fall reading list. If you’re reading this, you’re likely a book geek, so let’s start with an appealing history of Scribner, one of the most respected publishers in the U.S. In Scribners: Five Generations in Publishing (Lyons Press, Nov. 7), Charles Scribner III lays out the story of his family’s iconic publishing house. “Describing himself as ‘a professional son,’ Scribner, who joined his family’s firm in 1975, recounts the history of the esteemed publisher,” writes our reviewer. For anyone interested in how a publisher evolves over decades, this is “a charming memoir of a life in books.” Since I started at Kirkus in 2004, Coffee House has published consistently excellent books, and nearly two 52 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
decades later they continue to deliver—this month with American Precariat: Parables of Exclusion (Coffee House, Nov. 14), edited by Zeke Caligiuri and the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. “Featuring contributions from Kiese Laymon, Valeria Luiselli, Steve Almond, Lacy M. Johnson, and other prominent writers, this book, edited by a collective of incarcerated writers in Minnesota, demonstrates what it means to live a life dominated by uncertainty,” notes our reviewer. With such an impressive list of contributors, it’s no wonder that the book is an eye-opening showcase of “important stories of the unseen and unspoken…in America.” In her latest book, Everyday Something Has Tried To Kill Me and Failed: Notes From Periracial America (Ig Publishing, Nov. 14), Kim McLarin gives voice to another marginalized community in America: Black women. The author of Womanish gets both personal and political in this series of essays on topics ranging from travel to hair to misogynoir. In a starred review, our critic writes,
“McLarin…prefers ‘periracial’ to the misleading term ‘post-racial’ America. As her essays eloquently and devastatingly demonstrate, there probably will never be a post-racial America…A highly rewarding, commiserating nod as well as an astute rallying cry.” An Unruled Body: A Poet’s Memoir (Restless Books, Nov. 14), by Albanian American poet Ani Gjika, is a testament to the power of writing to cope with trauma and pain. The winner of the 2021 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing is a harrowing account of Gjika’s struggle dealing with repressed sexual trauma. “The author’s poetic prowess is clearly reflected in this text’s lyrical, clean lines, as well as in her compassionate but critical analysis of every
character of the story, including herself,” according to our review. Another writer whose lyricism explodes on the page is Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author of the marvelous Thin Places. In her follow-up, Cacophony of Bone (Milkweed, Nov. 14), she “reflects on 2020, which she spent in isolation with her partner in a small stone cottage that he had inherited two years prior.…A voracious reader, ní Dochartaigh discusses works of literature that served as important companions and helped her navigate her emotions.” No sophomore slump for ní Dochartaigh, who delivers a “raw, honest, and poetic memoir.” Eric Liebetrau is the nonfiction editor. KIRKUS REVIEWS
Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson
NOTEWORTHY TITLES FROM INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS
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EDITOR’S PICK An essayist and novelist turns her attention to the heartache of a friend’s suicide. Crosley’s memoir is not only a joy to read, but also a respectful and philosophical work about a colleague’s recent suicide. “All burglaries are alike, but every burglary is uninsured in its own way,” she begins, in reference to the thief who stole the jewelry from her New York apartment in 2019. Among the stolen items was her grandmother’s “green dome cocktail ring with tiers of tourmaline (think kryptonite, think dish soap).” She wrote those words two months after the burglary and “one month since the violent death of my dearest friend.” That friend was
These Titles Earned the Kirkus Star
Russell Perreault, referred to here only by his first name, her boss when she was a publicist at Vintage Books. Russell, who loved “cheap trinkets” from flea markets, had “the timeless charm of a movie star, the competitive edge of a Spartan,” and—one of many marvelous details—a “thatch of salt-and-pepper hair, seemingly scalped from the roof of an English country house.” Over the years, the two became more than boss and subordinate, teasing one another at work, sharing dinners, enjoying “idyllic scenes” at his Connecticut country home, “a modest farmhouse with peeling paint and fragile plumbing…the house that Windex forgot.” It was
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The Bloodied Nightgown By Joan Acocella
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in the barn at that house that Russell took his own life. Despite the obvious difference in the severity of robbery and suicide, Crosley fashions a sharp narrative that finds commonality in the dislocation brought on by these events. The book is no hagiography—she notes harassment
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Grief Is for People By Sloane Crosley
Filterworld By Kyle Chayka
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Crosley, Sloane | MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 208 pp. | $27.00 | Feb. 27, 2024 9780374609849
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Dear Mom and Dad By Patti Davis
Dead Weight By Emmeline Clein
Grief Is for People
The Savage Storm By James Holland The Age of Deer By Erika Howsare
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The Blues Brothers By Daniel de Visé
How To Live Free in a Dangerous World By Shayla Lawson
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One Nation Under Guns By Dominic Erdozain
State of Silence By Sam Lebovic
complaints against Russell for thoughtlessly tossed-off comments, plus critiques of the “deeply antiquated and often backward” publishing industry—but the result is a warm remembrance sure to resonate with anyone who has experienced loss. A marvelously tender memoir on suicide and loss.
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The Last Fire Season By Manjula Martin Pure Wit By Francesca Peacock
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Rethinking Diabetes By Gary Taubes Our Enemies Will Vanish By Yaroslav Trofimov
Brutalities By Margo Steines
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The Holocaust By Dan Stone
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Kirkus Star
The Bloodied Nightgown: And Other Essays Acocella, Joan | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (368 pp.) | $30.00 | Feb. 20, 2024 9780374608095
From Gilgamesh and Beowulf to Elmore Leonard and Richard Pryor, a brilliant critic unpacks centuries of artists and their works. In this collection of 24 astute, consummately readable, and often droll essays on mostly literary topics, written between 2007 and 2021, New Yorker critic Acocella opens with a thorough history of vampires in popular culture, from Bram Stoker and the Victorians through Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyer. Here and throughout, the author’s wit and insight make anything worth reading about. Regarding vampires as “a persecuted minority,” she writes, “sometimes they are like Black people (lynch mobs pursue them), sometimes like homosexuals (rednecks beat them up). Meanwhile, they are trying to go mainstream.” In most cases, the essays are inspired by the appearance of a new book about the subject, and Acocella often counters the opinions of previous biographers—e.g., regarding Edward Gorey’s supposedly closeted homosexuality: “The worst part is that the secret [Mark] Dery assumes Gorey was most frantically hiding was that he was homosexual. Again, one must ask, Really? If so, then walking around in a green-dyed fur, with half a dozen rings on his fingers, was not a good cover.” Refreshingly free from academic baggage, Acocella notes that she also does not feel constrained to separate the work from the life. This operates to great effect in her essay on Little Women, in which she surprisingly declares Jo’s relationship with Professor Bhaer the most romantic in the book. She shows us how Alcott’s 54 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
treatment of marriage in her fiction, as distinct from her life, has left “confused feminists” and “displeased” queer theorists in her wake. Among all the delightful writing inspired by Agatha Christie in recent years, Acocella’s 2010 essay shines, and “Prophet Motive,” on Kahlil Gibran, is worth the price of admission. A top-notch collection full of information, elegance, and humor.
Beyond Complicity: Why We Blame Each Other Instead of Systems Banner, Francine | Univ. of California (264 pp.) | $29.95 paper | Jan. 16, 2024 9780520399464
An attorney and professor of sociology examines the current “complicity moment.” In her latest book, Banner, the author of Crowdsourcing the Law: Trying Sexual Assault on Social Media, uses her legal expertise to investigate figures from our collective memory and contemporary debate—e.g., George Floyd, Bill Cosby, and even the “Karen” meme—who demonstrate how the concept of “complicity” has evolved. While recognizing the isolation involved in social media shaming and so-called “cancel culture,” the author examines these judgments as “connective witnessing” to sweeping, systemic wrongs too long swept under the rug. As responsibility and accountability have shifted into the court of public opinion, Banner argues, the actions of individuals have garnered increased scrutiny, allowing corporations, colleges, and other institutions to evade blame for things like racism, sexism, addiction, and climate change. With encouraging gusto and approachable prose, the author suggests that people who are complicit in such problems can, upon recognizing them, participate in their dismantling and replacement. Such a positive spin on
complicity may be off-putting to some readers, especially as Banner attempts to reevaluate the particular shaming and judgment of white women. The author, who is white, stands to gain a measure of absolution by shifting the scrutiny of complicity from individuals to structures more broadly, and this reality flattens some of her optimism. Still, the author’s familiarity with the justice system allows her to sidestep many other pitfalls of performative gestures. In addition to consideration of past progress that has brought us to our current liminal moment, Banner offers observations about social and legal intertwining and salient warnings about over-translating moral vigilance into legal convictions. Such perception is sure to bolster current and future discourse, providing much-needed layering and nuance to a hot-button issue. An insightful contribution to an urgent national conversation that shows few signs of abating.
Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are Boyle, Rebecca | Random House (336 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 16, 2024 | 9780593129722
The moon in myth, history, and reality. Science and nature journalist Boyle opens in 1943 with the Marine invasion of the Japanese-held island of Tarawa. Planners expected high tide to allow landing craft to pass over the reefs. Stuck, the soldiers were forced to wade to shore under fire, and more than 1,000 were killed. The lesson: Ignore the Moon at your peril. Most readers know that the Moon influences the tides, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Rewinding the clock, the author delves deeply into prehistoric artifacts, monuments, KIRKUS REVIEWS
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A well-rendered, dismaying picture of repression. E GYP T I A N M A D E
cave art, and cryptic etchings on bones and stones, and she agrees with archaeologists that these markers mostly functioned as time reckoners for ceremonies and seasonal planning. Then, “as the first literate civilizations arose in Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Moon became…a recorder of events; a predictor of fates; an instrument of might; and a god in its own right.” In the final 100 pages, Boyle turns from calendars and myth to astronomy. Greek thinkers delivered an occasional insight, but it was Enlightenment figures who determined that the Moon was a physical body no less than the Earth. Because of its huge relative size (compared to other planet satellites), astronomers consider the Earth-Moon a dual planetary system. The Moon’s gravity stabilizes Earth’s rotation and wobble, which means that it stabilizes the climate. Boyle emphasizes that life may have been impossible without the Moon, and it plays an essential role in the growth, mating, feeding, and reproduction of countless plants and animals. The author does not treat the Apollo moon landing as an expensive technological spectacular but a scientific triumph. Rocks brought back turned out to be identical with those on Earth, suggesting that the Moon was torn from the Earth, likely from a planetary collision, and has evolved in predictable ways. A solid education on our closest celestial neighbor.
To read more from Leslie Chang, visit Kirkus online.
KIRKUS REVIEWS
God Calls Us To Do Hard Things: Lessons From the Alabama Wiregrass Britt, Katie Boyd | Twelve (288 pp.) | $30.00 Nov. 7, 2023 | 9781538756287
Alabama’s junior senator delivers a godlier-than-thou combination of memoir and political exhortation. There’s a rich irony, in light of the current GOP ethos, in Britt’s claim that “what sets us apart is our ability to disagree agreeably.” The irony gets thicker in her denunciation of those who “fall into the trap of believing that they need to bring others down to rise themselves.” She adds, “you’ll never be able to buy class. Real character and strength come from empowering— not undercutting or sidelining—those around you.” The words could be easily addressed to the former occupant of the White House, with whom Britt has danced delicately for endorsement and MAGA–stamp approval. Of course, according to the author, the evil liberals are to blame for most of society’s ills, to say nothing of those who “have taken on a mentality of ‘What can you do for me?’ ” (Never mind how much more red-state Alabama receives in federal handouts than it sends to Washington, D.C. in taxes.) The ironies thicken throughout this ponderous book: Given her party’s resistance to pandemic mandates, she takes a gently soft-shoe stance (“when you are sick, please stay home”), and as for its partnership with the gun lobby, one wonders at the audacity of Britt decrying our “eroding culture of violence.” No matter. In today’s political world, hypocrisy is never a disqualifier. Otherwise, the book is an
overlong string of do-this-and-not-that directives to the aspirational, with mostly groaningly obvious advice: “Pay attention to the little things”; “Present yourself how you want to be perceived.” “What ever happened to the Golden Rule?” The latter is a valid question that many current political leaders fail to address in a meaningful way; add Britt to the list. Emily Post meets Christian sermon.
Egyptian Made: Women, Work, and the Promise of Liberation Chang, Leslie T. | Random House (368 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 23, 2024 | 9780525509219
Women and work in Egypt. Award-winning journalist Chang, author of Factory Girls, brings an informed historical and cultural perspective to this close look at women’s lives in contemporary Egypt. Beginning in the 1980s with the spread of fundamentalist ideas, an increasingly conservative society has circumscribed women’s freedom, making them a minority of the nation’s workforce and impeding them from gaining social, economic, and political benefits from job opportunities afforded to women in other modernizing countries. In Egypt, Chang found, women wanting to work outside the home confront stubborn opposition from their families, fiances, and husbands: “The end goal is predetermined—to marry, quit, and become a homemaker.” The author focuses on three women working in the textile and garment industry: Rania, ambitious and skilled, who rose to become a supervisor; Doaa, a factory security guard who is continuing her education, with aspirations to become a social worker; and Riham, who earned a college degree in production engineering and rejected working for her family’s textile business to establish her own clothing factory. For Rania, trapped in NOVEMBER 1, 2023
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An important book about how to get out of the algorithmic box and make your own decisions. F I LT E R W O R L D
a bad marriage, the workplace served as “a place of refuge.” For Doaa, who divorced her husband, and in doing so was forced to give up custody of her daughters, work meant independence. For Riham, running a factory meant having a chance to innovate. Unlike these women, many others have been undermined by poor-quality education, especially in rural areas; and some who get jobs often balk at workplace demands, taking breaks to eat at their work area or simply leave. Factory employees “might quit on a whim or vanish for a month, cry at the sight of new technology, or fall asleep in the bathroom.” Drawing on perceptive observations and interviews, Chang reveals a society “not developed enough to benefit from globalization,” where misogyny and patriarchy stifle women’s potential. A well-rendered, dismaying picture of repression.
Royal Audience: 70 Years, 13 Presidents— One Queen’s Special Relationship With America Charter, David | Putnam (352 pp.) | $30.00 March 5, 2024 | 9780593712870
In her remarkable career, Queen Elizabeth II did more than anyone else to keep the “special relationship” special. There is only one person who engaged with every U.S. president from Harry 56 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
relationship,” writes the author. “It endured, just like her.” Most of the political history has been covered in more depth elsewhere, but this book serves as a handy reference to the mechanics behind maintaining the unique relationship between Britain and the U.S. Charter provides a wealth of stories about Elizabeth II and the 13 presidents she knew—and often charmed.
Truman to Joe Biden: Elizabeth II (1926-2022), whose reign as monarch of Britain lasted more than seven decades. In this intriguing book for royal watchers, Charter, U.S. editor of the Times of London, examines the relationships she had with each president, with an emphasis on the diplomatic role she played. The author believes that she impressed them with her sharp mind and grasp of global affairs, and he points out that she could be quietly persuasive when the situation demanded. When Eisenhower threatened to end the alliance over the Suez Canal crisis in 1956, Elizabeth was able to smooth things over through a personal visit. This pattern repeated several times, although protocol demanded that the substance of private discussions was never disclosed. Charter also reveals the queen’s impish sense of humor, always game for a droll comment. Four presidents emerged as “particularly special to the British sovereign, spanning the three distinct generations of her reign”—Eisenhower, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Obama. Even as “there was no downside to for US presidents in appealing alongside such a beloved figure as the Queen,” Elizabeth always seemed to enjoy being in the U.S., although she never forgot the role she had to play. “Her longevity contributed to the timeless sense of the Anglo-American To read more about algorithms, visit Kirkus online.
Kirkus Star
Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture Chayka, Kyle | Doubleday (304 pp.) | $28.00 Jan. 16, 2024 | 9780385548281
An important book about how to get out of the algorithmic box and make your own decisions. Algorithms have become the secret drivers of Google, Instagram, TikTok, and all the other digital platforms, and they are having an insidious impact on how we think, consume, and produce, writes New Yorker staff writer Chayka, author of The Longing for Less. They continually collect data, feeding our past choices—and the preferences of other people—back to us. This process makes endless browsing easy, but it locks us in an echo chamber, slowly degrading our capacity for original thinking. It also affects the physical world, and Chayka offers an intriguing—and distressing—explanation of how all the coffee shops in the world came to look the same, thanks to Instagram and Snapchat. Our world has become filtered and machinemanaged, with success measured in engagement metrics. As a remedy, the author offers interesting ideas for regulation, mostly focused on greater transparency. He admits that this would be hard to do, so he offers a more personal path. Undertaking an KIRKUS REVIEWS
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“algorithmic cleanse,” Chayka jumped off the social media sites that had taken over his life. For a while, he suffered from “fear of missing out,” but eventually, he felt his creativity returning. When he rejoined the online world, he ignored the constant flow of recommendations and looked only for the niches that interested him. During this time, the author discovered that guidance from algorithms is completely unnecessary. “Regaining control isn’t so hard,” writes the author. “You make a personal choice and begin to intentionally seek out your own cultural rabbit hole, which leads you in new directions, to yet more independent decisions…and, ultimately, a sense of self.” Chayka’s timely investigation shows how we can reject the algorithms of the digital era and reclaim our humanity.
Kirkus Star
Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm Clein, Emmeline | Knopf (288 pp.) | $30.00 Feb. 27, 2024 | 9780593536902
Combining personal experience, anecdotal evidence, and solid research, Clein examines how eating disorders have become a pervasive crisis. The author, a New York–based essayist and critic, pulls no punches in her analysis of eating disorders and their psychological underpinnings, and her prose style is urgent, intense, and often captivating. She has firsthand experience, and this book is as much the story of the impact on her life as it is an attempt to understand how and why eating disorders have become so widespread. “Have you ever seen a girl and wanted to possess her? Not like a man would, with his property fantasies,” writes Clein at the beginning. “Possess her like a girl or a KIRKUS REVIEWS
ghost of one: shove your soul in her mouth and inhabit her skin, live her life? Then you’ve experienced girlhood, or at least one like mine. Less a gender or an age and more an ethos or an ache, it’s a risky era, stretchy and interminable. It doesn’t always end.” The author examines the effect on young women of the equation of thinness with beauty, exploring characters in TV shows, movies, and novels. Innumerable social media sites praise anorexia and bulimia, and when communities form around addictions—not to escape from the addiction but to encourage it—breaking the pattern is nearly impossible. Another source of the problem is the companies that draw a direct line between skinniness and good health, selling dubious diet plans, extreme weight-loss drugs, and products built around celebrity endorsements. The disturbing subject matter of this book makes it difficult to read in some places. Nevertheless, this is a book that deserves attention—not just by those suffering from eating disorders, but by anyone trying to understand this insidious phenomenon. With painful honesty, Clein capably dissects eating disorders, locating the issues within wider cultural drivers.
Kirkus Star
Good Eats: 32 Writers on Eating Ethically Ed. by Cognard-Black, Jennifer & Melissa A. Goldthwaite | New York Univ. (352 pp.) $32.00 paper | Jan. 9, 2024 | 9781479821792
A collection of essays on the topic of eating ethically, practically, and personally. Editors Cognard-Black and Goldthwaite, both English professors who have written widely about food, begin with the guideline that there is no one specific diet or method for eating ethically. “Any
consideration of ethical eating requires ecological thinking and a close attention to relationships, the environment, and diversity,” they write. The editors divide the book into four sections: Nature and Nurture, Appetite and Restraint, What’s Eating Us, and Our Pasts as Present. Each section opens with an overview of the essays included in that section, and the essays range from two to 25 pages, making the book an excellent choice for casual reading. The editors seek to offer “creative and nuanced food stories that link the culinary imagination to practices of everyday eating,” and they are successful in that endeavor. The essays range from light reading—e.g., “My Children’s First Garden,” in which Michael P. Branch shares his struggles with creating a viable garden—to more focused historical topics, including traditional Indigenous knowledge around food and how the colonization of the Americas directly affected the diet of modern Americans. Vegetarianism and veganism receive ample attention alongside examinations of ethical meat eating and how food remains a vital connection point within our cultures and histories. In a piece titled “Between the Shopping Cart and the Chinese Restaurant,” Adrienne Su explores her often complicated relationship between the joy (and necessity) of cooking at home and the enjoyment of communal dining: “The pandemic revealed that restaurant-going of all kinds can be a social good, keeping people employed, enlivening neighborhoods, and sustaining sources of prepared food for those who can’t cook for themselves.” Other contributors include Nikki Finney, Maureen Stanton, and Aimee Nezhukumatathill. A wonderful starting place to think about how to eat ethically.
To read more about eating disorders, visit Kirkus online.
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N O N F I C T I O N // Q & A
THE KIRKUS Q&A: ZIWE
Ziwe’s favorite book when she was younger was Sula.
The comedian and former talk show host embraces awkwardness in a new essay collection. BY MATHANGI SUBRAMANIAN
Comedian and provocateur Ziwe has serious main character energy. Whether she’s executive producing and starring in her eponymous talk show (which ran for two seasons on Showtime), walking the Mugler runway in Paris, or releasing an album of satirical songs, Ziwe is, without fail, iconic. In her new essay collection, Black Friend (Abrams Image, October 17), which Kirkus gave a starred review, Ziwe reveals the intellectual foundations of her comedy. The goal of the book, she writes, is to explain what it feels like to be a “black friend” who, despite society’s attempts to sideline her, insists on remaining the “protagonist” of her own “perfectly imperfect story.” This witty, poignant collection showcases Ziwe’s literary prowess as well as her impressive knowledge of history, theory, and literature. Over the phone, Ziwe and I discussed vulnerability, pop culture, awkwardness, and Celine Dion (her dog, not the singer). Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I definitely think you did. The book kept me returning to your selfprofessed investment in 58 NOVEMBER 1 2023
awkwardness. What role did awkwardness play in constructing these essays? Awkwardness is a real element of humanity that we try to ignore. Like, if you’re meeting people for the first time, you talk about how everyone hates small talk, because the underlying sentiment behind that is that small talk is awkward so it’s the worst part of meeting. I am attracted to awkwardness because it’s this one part of human interaction where we can all connect to how deeply uncomfortable it is. In terms of what role it played, I think it’s just part
of everyday life for me, and it’s something that I am very adept at acknowledging. Even though I hate it, I can still admit when it’s happening to me. You write, “The truth is, I create art to heal my inner child.” Would you say this collection brought you healing? I think the process of being honest about your memories is healing because— well, I can’t go into the past and change anything. But what I can do is process it. The ability to just take a step back from my experiences— whether that’s privately or
publicly—that in itself is a part of my process. Pivoting here—your songs are amazing. “Men,” for example, is one of my favorites. Thank you! I wrote that at 7 in the morning. What? I wish I could write like that in 7 in the morning! Now I totally get why you once told Trevor Noah that you identify as a pop star. How did songwriting affect the way you approached writing your essays?
I think that comes back to my background in poetry, KIRKUS REVIEWS
Myles Loftin/Showtime
How did it feel to write this book as Ziwe the person rather than Ziwe the character? I think it demands more vulnerability that I’m not necessarily inclined to give to strangers. But that’s what makes a really compelling nonfiction book: when you’re able to connect with yourself and with others. People want to connect with reality. It was really difficult, but hopefully I accomplished it.
Q & A // N O N F I C T I O N
which actually is what started my experience in comedy. Poetry and comedy are really similar because they’re about things like economy of words and lyricism and meter. It’s about how sounds and visual elements are essential to my writing. Toni Morrison is probably the first Black woman I ever read where I really encountered this. In Sula—that was my favorite book as a child—I remember how visual Morrison’s writing was. I’ll never be Morrison, but I can imitate her. I apply the musicality of my life to these essays because I’m such a fan of Morrison’s words. Speaking of Morrison, in a recent interview on Dua Lipa’s podcast, you described your comedy as “deeply referential.” You’ve often discussed your pop culture references, but what are your most important literary references?
I think the process of being honest about your memories is healing.
James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time is one of my favorite books, because it was so crystal clear. If I could write a book that has even one one-hundredth of his observations about America, I would be a very happy person. That was the biggest inspiration. Also, I remember thinking bell hooks’ All About Love was really compelling because of the way that she used personal anecdotes to back up her ideas about theory. Writing Black Friend was such a genre-bending process—I actually started with theory before I injected my personal experiences—and hooks’ book was a guide for me to understand how to connect theory into something centered in identity. But I read everything, and I read a lot growing up. Plus, I have this weird encyclopedic memory for certain things. So it’s not that I’m constantly revisiting, for
example, Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. It’s just that it stays in my head. Another thing I love about this book is how you talk about your experience as the child of immigrants, which I rarely see in books about race. Why do you think you were drawn to writing about this aspect of your life? What a great question. I think it’s about how this is uniquely my own. I mean, my name is Ziwe, and I had a roommate in high school named Peyton Wilson, and she was from Oklahoma. We were two Black girls, but we had such disparate experiences—like, her great-grandparents were murdered in the Tulsa riots, and my grandparents died of famine during the Biafran War. Sure, colonization is at the root of both of these, but it’s coming from two different sides of the spectrum.
Black Friend: Essays Ziwe
Abrams Image | 192 pp. $26.00 | Oct. 17, 2023 9781419756344
But also, how do you separate it? Because being Nigerian is intrinsic to what I eat, to what I think is appropriate to talk about in conversation—it is my fiber. To separate it, I would have to have been born a different person in a different home. How do you think growing up in an immigrant household shaped your relationship to pop culture? Pop culture is how I relate to people. It’s actually the only reason why I started watching Real Housewives! I was such a snob about unscripted television, but I had nothing to connect with my peers in school about until I started watching Lisa Vanderpump. Pop culture is how I can connect with others. Only recently did I start appreciating the fact that pop culture is a form of American history. We had these commercials about things like Don’t do drugs! And we all have that shared experience. I’ve learned that my memory of these useless commercials is just me archiving the ’90s and the 2000s. Last question: I am now deeply invested in your chow chow, Celine Dion. How is he? I realized as I was writing that essay that I should say my dog is meaner so people don’t murder us. He has yet to attack anyone, but who knows what the future holds!
Mathangi Subramanian is the author of A People’s History of Heaven, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Black Friend received a starred review in the Sept. 1, 2023, issue. KIRKUS REVIEWS
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All Bleeding Stops: Life and Death in the Trauma Unit Cohn, Stephen M. | Mayo Clinic Press (256 pp.) | $26.99 | Dec. 5, 2023 9798887700632
A veteran surgeon recounts what makes his career in critical care both rewarding and frustrating. Cohn chronicles the joys and pains of his work as a trauma surgeon in an illuminating, educational, and graphically descriptive tour of trauma centers and surgeons’ role within the health care system. The author analyzes what makes a good trauma surgeon and creatively re-creates the arduous path toward becoming one—from a “long and grueling course of training” to hospital settings, where they are the “utility infielders for surgical emergencies.” Cohn discusses the differences in trauma care centers across the globe, and he describes his time as a junior surgical faculty member in the U.S. Army Reserve in the 1980s. In 1990, he was unexpectedly deployed to Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm. The author remarks that not every medical student in training has what it takes to be a trauma care professional. Patience, surgical agility, and rapid decision-making are crucial. Many times, surgeons like himself (and his father) often made decisions without prior knowledge of a patient’s medical history or sustained injuries. Throughout the book, Cohn vividly illustrates these fraught, lifesaving moments. The author also intersperses patient care cases from his longstanding career, during which he had to cope with issues of improper protocol, the misconceptions of a surgeon’s “technical brilliance,” and episodes involving complicated gall bladders, hernias, stomach blockages, and other clinical conundrums. In addition to his personal story, Cohn delivers striking medical statistics on the prevalence 60 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
of U.S. trauma incidents (100 million per year) and criticizes rising health care costs and how public health policies, gun laws, and poor ethics contribute to legions of disillusioned physicians and dissatisfied patients. The author’s seasoned perspective joins with real-time medical drama in this memorable clinical retrospective.
A well-balanced, eye-opening glimpse into the daily life, frustrations, and politics of a medical professional.
The 100 Trillion Dollar Wealth Transfer: How the Handover From Boomers to Gen Z Will Revolutionize Capitalism Costa, Ken | Bloomsbury Continuum (256 pp.) | $28.00 | Jan. 30, 2024 9781399407632
An examination of “the largest flow of generational capital ever seen in the history of humanity.” It turns out that millennials and Gen Z are not “entitled, ungrateful, impatient good-fornothings who complain about everything.” According to Costa, a former chairman of UBS Investment Bank, “at heart, [they’re] a deeply prophetic generation, willing to scrutinize every angle of the prism of society and call out a future that is not yet realized.” But, with the titular event looming as baby boomers age, the youngsters must be carefully mentored so that when they “inherit the financial world [they may] treat that responsibility in a grown-up way.” Adopting the portmanteau Zennial to describe both generations together, Costa alternately reassures his fellow boomers that their successors aren’t all that bad—in fact, “many…are ‘grown up’ ”—and warns them that if they don’t start engaging productively with Zennials, “capitalism dies.” While the author accepts responsibility on behalf of his generation for the
“bad hand” Zennials find themselves holding, his ability to see beyond the financial sphere is limited; he lays at young people’s feet “what we’ve seen happen socially, good and bad, in the 2010s and 2020s.” What about Brexit and Trumpism? Writing to a presumed audience of “intellectually privileged” boomer peers, Costa seems unaware that even as he calls for “a world in which boomers don’t patronize Zennials,” he models exactly that throughout. The author is short on analysis and long on buzzwords. Repeatedly, we learn that the future of capitalism rests on the fusion of “Boomer hindsight [and] Zennial insight.” Costa is also weak on strategy, as he offers no concrete tools for managing the $100 trillion transfer. He does offer up “a new way of working [called] CO,” or “a shift from me to we,” gesturing at length and with much repetition to the promise of intergenerational collaboration. Gassy and patronizing. OK, boomer.
Kirkus Star
Dear Mom and Dad: A Letter About Family, Memory, and the America We Once Knew Davis, Patti | Liveright/Norton (240 pp.) $27.99 | Feb. 6, 2024 | 9781324093480
The daughter of Ronald and Nancy Reagan offers an intimate glimpse into the life she shared with her two iconic parents. In this deeply personal epistolary memoir, Davis, the author of The Long Goodbye and Angels Don’t Die, examines the “private reality” behind the couple’s public image that only she knew as their rebellious firstborn daughter. The tone in which she addresses her parents is as loving as it is forgiving. Yet the author still continues her search for “truths” to KIRKUS REVIEWS
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Interesting to those who want to look past the hit songs and offstage antics. THE DOORS UNHINGED
help her understand the “distance and dissonance in our family.” Her earliest memories are happy ones that included “laughter and warmth,” even from the mother who made Davis the target of her “formidable” rages and kept the author’s brother, Ron, from associating with her when they grew older. The author writes warmly about the father who taught her how to ride horses and ignore bullies, but also loved America enough to make Davis feel “a bad case of sibling rivalry with this country.” Distanced from her father by his ambitions (and later, the conservatism of his beliefs) and victimized by her mother, Davis became a woman whose own anger “ruined romantic relationships, turned me down wrong paths, blinded me.” A desire to understand her parents’ secret griefs—e.g., the maternal abandonment that scarred her mother and paternal alcoholism that disrupted her father’s childhood—eventually brought Davis closer to understanding her parents. But it was her father’s Alzheimer’s disease that ultimately helped her make a separate peace with both “Mom and Dad” and own the “broken pieces” of her family. Humane, elegiac, and wise, this book moves smoothly through its portrait of a complicated family and of the daughter who learned the lessons of patient acceptance that family had to offer. A fully candid and profoundly moving memoir. To read more about the Doors, visit Kirkus online.
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The Doors Unhinged: Jim Morrison’s Legacy Goes on Trial Densmore, John | Akashic (336 pp.) | $27.99 Nov. 7, 2023 | 9781636141558
The drummer for the Doors recounts his legal battle to preserve the band’s legacy. Densmore, along with singer and lyricist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, and guitarist Robby Krieger, founded the Doors in Los Angeles in 1965. During the group’s early days, Morrison proposed that the four members would be equal partners, sharing in all proceeds, and each member would have a veto over any decision affecting the band. That clause came into play when they wanted to let Buick use “Light My Fire” for a commercial in 1968, and Morrison vigorously objected (“Tell them I’m gonna smash a Buick with a sledgehammer onstage!”). This led to a policy of refusing to license the Doors’ music for advertising purposes. Also, recognizing Morrison’s central role, the remaining members stopped calling themselves “The Doors”—until 2002, when Manzarek and Krieger began touring with a different drummer and singer, calling themselves “The Doors of the 21st Century,” with ads featuring the band’s original logo. They asked Densmore to approve a lucrative deal with Cadillac to use “Break on Through” for a commercial. When he took them to court to
stop them from using the old band name, they countersued him for blocking the deal. Densmore’s text is mainly a blow-by-blow account of the court proceedings on the two issues, spiced with the drummer’s insightful reflections on the Doors’ history and his encounters with other musicians. Fans looking for anecdotes about the band’s glory days will be disappointed, but Densmore’s concerns about his band’s legacy and its meaning in today’s society are thought-provoking and worth pondering. Also impressive is his continued respect for his former bandmates’ creativity and musicianship, despite the in-fighting, philosophical differences, and court battles. Not a typical rock memoir, but something more interesting to those who want to look past the hit songs and offstage antics.
What’s Left Unsaid: My Life at the Center of Power, Politics & Crisis DeRosa, Melissa | Union Square & Co. (384 pp.) | $29.99 | Oct. 24, 2023 9781454952336
A firsthand account of crisis in the governor’s mansion. DeRosa, who served as communications director and chief of staff for Andrew Cuomo, recounts her tenure, revealing in eye-opening detail the insidious forces that impelled him to resign. The daughter of a prominent Albany lobbyist, DeRosa was drawn to politics early, interning for Hillary Clinton when she was 19. Recruited to become Cuomo’s communications director in 2017, she quickly learned that her boss was “a micromanager who obsessively and single-mindedly focuses on the problem in front of him until it’s resolved.” The problem that engulfed the governorship in 2020 was the beginning of the Covid-19 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
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pandemic. With growing case numbers and a scarcity of reliable information from federal agencies, Cuomo, serving as “de facto commander in chief,” demonstrated his capacity to be “consummately cool” in a crisis, mounting a “massive operational undertaking” to find protective gear for hospital workers, set up testing sites, find labs to process tests, and procure hospital beds and ventilators. In addition, he made crucial decisions about lockdowns, quarantines, and masking, often in conflict with New York Mayor Bill di Blasio and a hostile President Trump. As she dealt with marital problems and infertility, DeRosa admits that the early weeks of the pandemic pushed her to her limit. The author admires Cuomo’s decisive leadership, but she admits that “his hard-charging style and aggressiveness had earned him a host of political enemies.” That enmity coalesced in the spring of 2021, when a whirl of “vague claims of sexual harassment” became a storm, whipped up by a voracious media. “Everyday interactions” were “weaponized,” contorted into vicious claims of abuse, and eventually led to his resignation. DeRosa counters those allegations, asserting that they “didn’t comport with the Andrew Cuomo I knew,” whom she portrays as compassionate, respectful, and dedicated. An angry, raw, and briskly told memoir.
Kirkus Star
The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic de Visé, Daniel | Atlantic Monthly (480 pp.) $28.00 | March 19, 2024 | 9780802160980
An award-winning journalist chronicles the story of the iconic 1980 film and the bond between its two stars. In the first half of this exhaustively researched, 62 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
highly informative book, de Visé, the author of King of the Blues and Andy & Don, provides an in-depth profile of the upbringing and career arcs of the film’s stars: the immensely talented, overgrown child John Belushi, who needed constant stimulation and elicited among his friends and colleagues the need to protect; and the quieter, highly intelligent Dan Aykroyd. The author also describes the rivalry-rich, drug-fueled evolution of 1970s comedy in the forms of Saturday Night Live, National Lampoon, and Chicago’s Second City group, all of which laid the groundwork for the movie. Gleaned from primary research and interviews with Aykroyd and director John Landis, among others, the narrative details the relationship between Belushi and Aykroyd, the sincerity with which they immersed themselves in the blues to live out their fantasies of fronting a great band, and how they overcame accusations of cultural appropriation to revive and amplify the careers of talents such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Cab Calloway. The book is also the definitive scene-by-scene account of a film—ambitious and over budget, panned by most critics of the day— that endures as a well-written and directed comedy doubling as a loving homage to a uniquely American genre and its capital city. “The Blues Brothers endures as a big, noisy, noir valentine to the city of Chicago,” writes the author. “Landis and his crazy car-crash musical ushered in a golden age of cinema filmed in the city and its suburbs,” and “no film inhabited the Windy City quite like [it].” Ultimately, writes de Visé, the film “earned immortality as a priceless artifact of American music.” A complete portrait of a classic film and the zeitgeist of its era.
For more by Daniel de Visé, visit Kirkus online.
Counting the Cost: A Memoir Duggar, Jill with Derick Dillard & Craig Borlase | Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) | $28.99 | Sept. 12, 2023 9781668024447
A measured memoir from a daughter of the famous family. Growing up in the Institute of Basic Life Principles community, which she came to realize was “a cult, thriving on a culture of fear and manipulation,” Duggar and her 18 siblings were raised never to question parental authority. As the author recalls, she felt no need to, describing the loving home of her girlhood. When a documentary crew approached her father, Jim Bob, and proposed first a series of TV specials that would be called 17 Kids and Counting (later 18 and 19 Kids and Counting), he agreed, telling his family that this was a chance to share their conservative Christian faith. It was also a chance to become wealthy, but Jill, who was dedicated to following the rules, didn’t question where the money went. A key to her falling out with her family was orchestrated by Jim Bob, who introduced her to missionary Derick Dillard. Their wedding was one of the most-watched episodes of the series. Even though she was an adult, Jill’s parents and the show continued to expect more of the young couple. When they attempted to say no to filming some aspects of their lives, Jill discovered that a sheet of paper her father asked her to sign the day before her wedding was part of a contract in which she had unwittingly agreed to full cooperation. Writing about her sex offender brother, Josh, and the legal action she and Derick had to take to get their questions answered, Jill describes how she was finally able—through therapy, prayer, and the establishment of boundaries— to reconcile love for her parents with Jim Bob’s deception and reframe her faith outside the IBLP. KIRKUS REVIEWS
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A profound demolition of misguided gun-rights arguments. O N E N AT I O N U N D E R G U N S
Dillard’s story reflects maturity and understanding from someone who was forced to mature and understand too much too soon.
The Survivors of the Clotilda: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the American Slave Trade Durkin, Hannah | Amistad/HarperCollins (432 pp.) | $29.99 | Jan. 16, 2024 9780063072992
Transcontinental trauma and its legacy. Of the 10.7 million Africans displaced to the Americas between the 16th and late 19th centuries, 103 landed in Alabama in July 1860 on the Clotilda. Infamous as the last slave ship to arrive in the U.S., the Clotilda has been the subject of several recent histories and a documentary, which, along with rich archival sources, inform British historian Durkin’s vivid recounting. In searing detail, she relates the circumstances of the Africans’ capture by Dahomeyan kidnappers, the cruelty they endured as enslaved people, and their valiant efforts to assert their West African heritage when they finally were freed. After a long incarceration in Africa as they waited for slave buyers to arrive, family members were forcibly separated—mothers from infants, husbands from wives—and those chosen were stripped and crammed into the ship’s hold for a horrific ocean journey. Although the slave trade had been outlawed in the U.S. since 1808, bans were poorly enforced. A group of pro-slavery conspirators funded the voyage; a wily KIRKUS REVIEWS
captain navigated the ship to avoid detection; and when the crew threatened mutiny, they were bribed and threatened into submission. With the Africans offloaded, the Clotilda was set on fire, and its human cargo hidden on a plantation. Although the trafficking scheme soon became known, government officials failed to find the Africans or prosecute the conspirators. One by one, enslavers came to make their purchases. Durkin depicts the “incessant labour and violence” and the culture of virulent racism they found as freed men and women. Nevertheless, they endured: Some established a “self-sufficient community” they called Africa Town. They defied white efforts to keep them from voting, and they married, owned land, and raised families. Generations later, their descendants became active in the civil rights movement. The book includes maps, photos, and artwork. A welcome history of defiance and survival.
Kirkus Star
One Nation Under Guns: How Gun Culture Distorts Our History and Threatens Our Democracy Erdozain, Dominic | Crown (288 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 30, 2024 | 9780593594315
A corrective consideration of the right to bear arms. Erdozain delivers a formidable and timely argument: Contrary to the claims of contemporary gun rights advocates, the founders of
the U.S. feared the prospect of armed individuals, and the Second Amendment was crafted to guarantee the existence of a supervised collective force rather than the rights of individual gun owners. The author delivers an illuminating survey of American gun culture, locating its origins in the institution of slavery and its gradual adoption of a dangerously fervent and often overtly racist nationalism. Along the way, Erdozain systematically exposes popular claims about gun rights as “an American birthright” as “a false and fabricated history.” The author demonstrates that a careful, honest, historically informed reading of the Constitution and Bill of Rights reveals an unambiguous intention to protect the nation from predictable excesses of personal liberty. Freedom would depend on restricting weaponry to government control. Among the many strengths of this book is the author’s incisive commentary on the catastrophic failure of legislative safeguards, especially in the last two decades. The inadequacy of the nation’s response to massive and routine gun violence has only become more pronounced during this time, the author argues persuasively, as attitudes of self-righteousness among gun owners are fueled by misunderstandings of both history and the lethal consequences of gun ownership. The most striking chapter comes, however, in a closely argued, withering analysis of the 2008 Supreme Court decision District of Columbia v. Heller, which seemed to willfully misread historical context in its ratification of personal gun rights. As dismal as Erdozain’s conclusions about the fate of gun regulation are, he nevertheless affirms, with some plausibility, his hope that the nation might “reclaim the concept of freedom from the weapons and the values that violate it.” A profound demolition of misguided gun-rights arguments and a compelling call to action. To read more about the Clotilda, visit Kirkus online.
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NEW FROM CHESTNUT HILL PRESS NONFICTION
ISBN: 979-8-98575-008-9 RELEASE DATE: 10/16/2023
ISBN: 979-8-88855-005-2 RELEASE DATE: 5/27/2024
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“A labor of love that ably explores the relationship among three women and their shared love of music.” —Kirkus Reviews
For lovers of memoir and music alike.
Alden Mellor Heck ties deeply personal experience to the expressiveness of her own paintings.
ISBN: 979-8-88855-000-7 RELEASE DATE: 10/9/2023
ISBN: 979-8-88855-003-8 RELEASE DATE: 11/15/2023
ISBN: 979-8-88855-006-9 RELEASE DATE: 11/30/2023
This collection of twenty-one wry short stories features various animals that an acclaimed Polish writer uses to illustrate his experiences.
This humorous satire on communist Poland in the 1970’s takes place in an imaginary hotel deep in the Tatra Forest of Poland.
These stories pose philosophical and moral questions, inviting readers to contemplate their own place in the world and the nature of human responsibility.
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FOR GENERAL INQUIRIES, EMAIL NIKOLAI@CHESTNUTHILLPRESS • CHESTNUTHILLPRESS.COM
A U D I O B O O K S // N O N F I C T I O N
True Tales of Injustice
Prepare to be outraged—and moved—by these powerful nonfiction narratives. BY MARION WINIK
Headphones: Jukka Aahlo/Unsplash
SKILLFULLY BYPASSING
the barbed wire of politics and partisanship, Nathan Thrall offers a searing picture of what it means to be a Palestinian parent in A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy (Macmillan Audio, 6 hours and 44 minutes). Abed’s terrible day begins with him racing around to make sure his 5-year-old son, Milad, will be allowed to participate in a kindergarten field trip to a theme park. Soon after Abed drops the boy off, he hears of a crash involving a school bus. Eventually the story emerges: A semi swerved out of its lane; the bus overturned and caught fire; the emergency response was delayed at a checkpoint; the surviving children were taken to different hospitals, some in parts of town where Palestinians cannot travel. Thrall follows Abed and several other parents as they desperately search for their kids, navigating both physical barriers and bureaucratic limitations that they encounter daily but in this situation become monstrous. Narrator Peter Ganim’s clear, compassionate delivery makes it easy to follow the large cast of Palestinian and Jewish characters, following the story from its festering roots in the past to its KIRKUS REVIEWS
heartbreaking reality by day’s end. Our reviewer called it a “moving, often maddening portrait of the dire life straits of Palestinians in Israel.” Although its frustrations are on a different scale, bureaucracy and inequity are also villains in Alexandra Robbins’ The Teachers: A Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable, Important Profession (Penguin Random House Audio, 10 hours and 23 minutes). Robbins followed three teachers for a year: Miguel, a gay, Salvadoran American elementary school teacher; Penny, a middle school math teacher with an abusive husband and a toxic workplace that also contains a new love interest; and Rebecca, a musical theater maven who sings and dances her way through her underfunded fourth grade classroom. Robbins herself evinces acting props on the audiobook as she channels Penny’s Southern drawl and Rebecca’s Noo Yawk fuhgeddaboudit accent, also voicing a host of parents, administrators, colleagues, and supporting characters. You’ll feel like slapping some of these people, and you’ll be humbled again and again by the commitment the teachers demonstrate, whether they’re spending their own money
on classroom supplies or showing deep reserves of patience and understanding. As our reviewer concluded, The Teachers is an “important and eye-opening book that all parents, teachers, and educational administrators should read.” “Not a day laps by when I don’t think of all the women in my family who bear the blood-wound fixed deep by tragedy. Whose life and deeds washed away, unsung, unknown in the tide of history. All that I write now is for them,” says poet Safiya Sinclair in her exquisite reading of How To Say Babylon: A Memoir (Simon & Schuster Audio, 16 hours and 46 minutes). The author’s recording of this finalist for the Kirkus Prize, chronicling a writer’s coming-of-age in a Rastafarian
family in rural Jamaica, is a must-listen for devotees of audio memoir. Sinclair’s voice is girlish, her Caribbean diction elegant, her rendering of patois and Rasta jargon powerful and authentic. It was Sinclair’s gift for language that opened the door and allowed her to escape the confines of Rastafarian patriarchy and entrenched outsider status as a published poet in her teens, and it infuses this narrative sentence by transporting sentence. As the Kirkus reviewer concluded, “Sinclair’s gorgeous prose is rife with glimmering details, and the narrative’s ending lands as both inevitable and surprising.” Marion Winik is the host of the NPR podcast The Weekly Reader.
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Domestic Darkness: An Insider’s Account of the January 6th Insurrection, and the Future of RightWing Extremism Farnam, Julie | Ig Publishing (276 pp.) $19.95 | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781632461605
The former assistant director of intelligence for the Capitol Police offers an inside view of the events of Jan. 6, 2021. Farnam, who came to the force shortly before the mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, was well trained in intelligence gathering. Not long after she arrived, she began to hear murmurs, and she knew what she and her fellow officers were up against, “what kind of people made up that crowd…the extremist groups they belonged to, the bizarre and far-reaching conspiracies they believed in, the hatred that drove them.” Yet senior officers within the force ignored the alarms she raised and did so even long after the fact, discounting her because she was a woman in what was perceived to be the man’s world of law enforcement and because she didn’t come from a police background. Moreover, she writes, the USCP held to an ethos of secrecy. “I was told on more than one occasion that I was not allowed to share any information or documents with outside agencies,” Farnam writes, in part because the legislative branch wasn’t subject to Freedom of Information Act inquiries. The politics of the place, the author makes clear, are as divisive among the police as among legislators. Running down the long list of perpetrators on Jan. 6, Farnam also plainly demonstrates that some police officers served as conduits of information to the crowd. She closes with a set of recommendations for a future USCP that’s more attentive to intelligence matters. “Work with other governments to fight hate and track extremism, including designating more groups as terrorist organizations,” she urges, while calling for harsher penalties for 66 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
those who commit violence at political protests and those in power who—and here she names names—abet them. Politics watchers will find this portrait of an agency in need of reform alarming—and most urgent.
Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement Ford, Tanisha C. | Amistad/HarperCollins (368 pp.) | $29.99 | Oct. 24, 2023 9780063115712
A fluent study of the role of wealthy individuals in the funding of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and beyond. “Political intrigue, compromise and confrontation, beautiful gowns and luxury hotels, protests and violent uprisings”—all are part of the story of civil rights, writes Ford, a scholar of Black historical fashion and culture. At the center was Mollie Moon (1907-1990), a committed leftist who lived for a time in the Soviet Union as a “New Negro” activist. Disillusioned both by the “two competing agendas” of the Communist Party—one fomenting revolution, the other trying to secure diplomatic recognition by the U.S. government for the purposes of commerce—and by the racism prevalent in the U.S., Moon went to Germany just in time for the rise of Nazism. She then moved to New York, where she married and became a founder of what is called “Black internationalism.” Trained as a pharmacist, she later became a federal government employee and, in the aftermath of the Depression, found herself and her husband “becoming civic leaders who were deeply invested in electoral politics.” Moving easily among white power brokers, the Roosevelt administration’s “Black Cabinet,” and the African American community, Moon was well positioned to become an ambassador for civil rights to the powerful. She
organized balls, fashion shows, dinners, and other fundraising events for the Urban League and other organizations. In the more militant 1960s, Moon and other Black civic leaders came under criticism as having “become so caught up in the trappings of the upper class that they were of no use to the people,” which helps explain why her contributions have since been overlooked—even if, as Ford writes, “the reality is that movements cost money.” A welcome addition to the literature of civil rights, casting light on a little-known corner of the struggle.
The Allure of the Multiverse: Extra Dimensions, Other Worlds, and Parallel Universes Halpern, Paul | Basic Books (320 pp.) $30.00 | Jan. 16, 2024 | 9781541602175
The author of Einstein’s Dice and Schrödinger’s Cat returns with another examination of difficult scientific concepts. Halpern, a Guggenheim fellow and professor of physics at Saint Joseph’s University, begins by introducing the James Webb Space Telescope, launched in late 2021, whose instruments reach “faint, distant galaxies from the nascent era of the universe” and send back “vivid photo evidence.” By definition, our universe includes everything, so an “alternative” universe makes no sense; no one will ever see one. Yet multiverse models offer enticing mathematical and theoretical ideas. Such concepts were no secret to 19th-century mathematicians, but they entered the mainstream in the 20th when the physics community reluctantly accepted a fourth dimension to make sense of Einstein’s relativity. Then, scientists confronted quantum theory, which works so brilliantly, at least theoretically, that the traditional view (propounded by quantum pioneer Niels Bohr) requires physicists to accept that quantum phenomena occur in a KIRKUS REVIEWS
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Harding’s optimism is tempered by experience and knowledge, and her arguments are compelling and engaging. AI N E E D S YO U
“black box.” Although this remains the standard interpretation, plenty of geniuses yearn to look inside the box. A dedicated teacher, Halpern explores half a dozen relevant topics including string theory, supergravity, and M-theory. Readers anxious to plunge ahead may want to reserve their decision until they sample the author’s explanation of a simple high school physics term: the vector. Halpern’s analysis is not for the innumerate, but dedicated readers will be rewarded by illuminating discussions of a host of complex concepts, a penultimate chapter on the physics of time travel, and a conclusion that describes alternate universes portrayed in movies and TV. Halpern’s 2021 book, Flashes of Creation: George Gamow, Fred Hoyle, and the Great Big Bang Debate, is a delightful and accessible popular science book. This follow-up is an ingenious slog that may enlighten those with college courses in relativity and quantum theory under their belts. Cutting-edge physics for the educated layperson.
AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI’s Future and Save Our Own Harding, Verity | Princeton Univ. (296 pp.) $24.95 | March 12, 2024 | 9780691244877
Regulating AI will not be easy, but there are useful lessons available. Recently, a slew of books have warned about the dangers of AI, so it is refreshing to find one that takes a different approach. Harding KIRKUS REVIEWS
has been working at the intersection of technology and regulation for many years; she used to direct policy for Google DeepMind, and she is now director of the AI & Geopolitics Project at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. The author has a positive attitude toward AI, and she walks us through the benefits already gained or on the horizon. She also acknowledges the downsides. AI has reached the stage of requiring a global regulatory framework, she notes, perhaps begun by technical experts but eventually incorporating input from other interested parties. There are instructive precedents for this, such as the UN Outer Space Treaty, which has been effective at preventing the deployment of orbiting weapons. The regulation around in vitro fertilization is another example of workable compromises involving transformative technologies. A third area to examine might be the protocols drawn up to organize the internet, which have been remarkably durable. All of these required time and effort, with conferences and written agreements. Harding believes that the U.S., as the leader in the field, has to kickstart the process. She is likely correct, but it is hard to see how global talks could take place in the current heated geopolitical climate. Russia is not willing to discuss anything, and China has clear ambitions to dominate the AI arena. Nevertheless, we might hope that this book ends up in the hands of those who could take a leadership role, before it is too late. Harding’s optimism is tempered by experience and knowledge, and her arguments are compelling and engaging.
60 Songs That Explain the ’90s Harvilla, Rob | Twelve (288 pp.) | $30.00 Nov. 14, 2023 | 9781538759462
An oddly entertaining collection of essays that covers more than 100 songs but doesn’t really explain the decade that created them— which may be
beside the point. A senior staff writer at the Ringer, Harvilla adapts this book from his podcast of the same name, in which he outlines the importance of a song from the 1990s and then discusses it with a guest. The adaptation can be clunky, as the author looks for writing conventions to group often disparate songs and artists together under themes like “Chaos Agents,” “Villains + Adversaries,” and “Romance + Sex + Immaturity.” The way he switches gears from rapturous praise of Celine Dion to the misheard lyrics of Hole’s “Doll Parts” is as jarring as riding with a teenager driving a stick shift for the first time. Harvilla deftly moves from explaining a song’s backstory to how it connects to him or the music of the time. However, he rarely connects a song to the outside world, which may be by design. He purposefully removes Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” from everything that came after its stunning success. “What I’m saying is that sometimes you gotta let the singer be the singer and let the song be the song, and not hold its former culture-throttling ubiquity against it, nor hold its long-term unbearable biographical baggage against it,” he writes. “Empty your mind of all unpleasant and unnecessary context.” That approach doesn’t help to explain the ’90s—musically or historically— despite what the title promises. It can be forgiven, though, because Harvilla successfully captures what the ’90s felt like through his personal stories’ intriguing observations—e.g., “paging through somebody’s CD book was… NOVEMBER 1, 2023
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like drinking beer out of someone else’s mouth.”
A personal ’90s music overview that is far from definitive, but nevertheless instructive and often poignant.
Kirkus Star
The Savage Storm: The Battle for Italy 1943 Holland, James | Atlantic Monthly (480 pp.) $32.00 | Dec. 12, 2023 | 9780802161604
The acclaimed World War II historian returns with an account of the first months of the Allies’ World War II campaign to free Italy from Nazi rule. Holland, the author of Brothers in Arms and Big Week, draws on a number of on-the-ground accounts by participants from all sides of the conflict: diaries, personal letters, and other contemporaneous sources, many previously unpublished. Consequently, in addition to the perspectives of the generals and national leaders, readers experience the viewpoints of ordinary American, British, Canadian, and German soldiers, along with a number of Italians. The author structures the narrative chronologically, which means it jumps from one part of the front to another in the same chapter. Even readers familiar with Italian geography are likely to consult maps to follow the action. In one sense, this emphasizes Holland’s overall point—that the campaign was inherently chaotic, due to the mountainous terrain over which it was fought as well as the faulty planning on both sides. For the Allies, invading Italy was meant to draw Axis forces from Normandy and fulfill Stalin’s demands for a second front. However, this strategy meant that, in preparation for D-Day, too many landing craft and supply ships were withdrawn to England, leaving the troops in Italy short of supplies and reinforcement. On the German side, 68 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
rival generals Rommel and Kesselring had different ideas how to defend the peninsula, and Hitler changed his mind on which one to back in midstream. For soldiers and civilians on the ground, the result was often little short of a nightmare. Holland effectively conveys the drama on the front lines while giving a comprehensive account of what was going on at the strategic level. A riveting, often appalling look at an under-recognized part of the fight against Hitler—a must for WWII buffs.
Kirkus Star
The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship With Our Wild Neighbors Howsare, Erika | Catapult (368 pp.) | $27.00 Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781646221349
A fascinating exploration of deer. “Deer are the largest wild animals we still live with in any widespread way, one of the signal species of our time, as firmly established in our cities as in our national parks,” writes journalist Howsare. They are definitely not tame, but it’s a fallacy that they prefer untouched wilderness. Human-logged forests with plenty of brush provide lots of food, as do abandoned farms, cuts under power lines, and suburban neighborhoods. In parallel with bison, they were driven nearly to extinction by hunters after the arrival of European settlers. During their low point in the early 1900s, they survived in isolated pockets, but conservation and restocking supercharged them into a spectacular wildlife restoration success story—so much so that they began to wreak havoc on farms, parks, and gardens. Cars kill hundreds of thousands of deer per year, with several hundred humans dying in the collisions. What is to be done? Howsare offers no solutions but delivers entertaining
accounts of the efforts. Today’s “deer management” is the job of state wildlife agencies, who use recreational hunters as their essential tool. Yet hunters want bigger herds and prefer killing bucks to does. Because “most hunters take zero to two deer per year,” they can never reduce the population, and reintroducing wolves, bears, and other predators, even in national parks, produces fierce opposition from neighboring ranchers. Mass killing (“culling”), although popular to eliminate snakes, feral pigs, and even coyotes, produces almost universal outrage. Howsare is not a hunter, but she is evenhanded, agreeing that to eat meat and oppose killing animals doesn’t make sense. She delivers sympathetic portraits of her brother, an avid hunter, and of hunting ranches, largely denounced by the hunting establishment, where customers pay a small fortune to shoot deer and other wildlife. Outstanding natural history writing.
Enough Hutchinson, Cassidy | Simon & Schuster (384 pp.) | $27.00 | Sept. 26, 2023 9781668028285
An insider’s account of the rampant misconduct within the Trump administration, including the tumult surrounding the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. Hutchinson, who served as an assistant to Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, gained national prominence when she testified to the House Select Committee, providing possibly the most damaging portrait of Trump’s erratic behavior to date. In her hotly anticipated memoir, the author traces the challenges and triumphs of her upbringing in New Jersey and the work (including a stint as an intern with Sen. Ted Cruz) that led her to coveted White House internships and KIRKUS REVIEWS
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A treat for students of language, as well as would-be Don Rickles heirs looking to hone their craft. T R A S H TA L K
eventual positions in the Office of Legislative Affairs and with Meadows. While the book offers few big reveals beyond her testimony (many details leaked before publication), her behind-the-scenes account of the chaotic Trump administration is intermittently insightful. Her initial portrait of Trump is less critical than those written by other former staffers, as the author gauges how his actions were seemingly stirred more by vanity and fear of appearing weak, rather than pure malevolency. For example, she recalls how he attended an event without a mask because he didn’t want to smear his face bronzer. Hutchinson also provides fairly nuanced portraits of Meadows and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who, along with Trump, eventually turned against her. She shares far more negative assessments about others in Trump’s orbit, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and adviser Rudy Giuliani, recounting how Guiliani groped her backstage during Trump’s Jan. 6 speech. The narrative lags after the author leaves the White House, but the story intensifies as she’s faced with subpoenas to testify and is forced to undergo deep soul-searching before choosing to sever ties with Trump and provide the incriminating information that could help take him down. A mostly compelling account of one woman’s struggles within Trumpworld.
To read more about Stanley Kubrick, visit Kirkus online.
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Trash Talk: The Only Book About Destroying Your Rivals That Isn’t Total Garbage Kohan, Rafi | PublicAffairs (336 pp.) | $30.00 Dec. 5, 2023 | 9781541788916
An entertaining study of the taunts and insults that pervade sports and the larger culture. Consider the dozens, “a ritualized insult game endemic to Black communities” that is both playful and (sometimes literally) deadly serious, always designed to get inside your opponent’s head. Take it up a few notches, and you have Muhammad Ali, “the veritable godfather of modern trash talk.” Though an ascended master of trash talk, Ali was no pioneer. Kohan, the author of The Arena, traces it a couple of centuries back, locating incivility in American politics as well as sports and popular culture. The author opens with modern professional wrestling and MMA competitions, where bigmouth putdowns are the currency of the realm. He effectively links this nasty (if often staged) streak to what he calls the “Trump disinhibition effect” of the present, where Ali would seem the most diffident of interlocutors against the blustering ex-president, who promulgated an ethos ranging “from general rudeness to outright dickishness, in politics and well beyond.” In this light, Kohan cites instances where insult comics backed off, recognizing that their poking fun was crossing
the line into verbal abuse. The author deeply examines the psychology of trash talk, connecting it to the more positive quality of empathy—for, as primatologist Frans de Waal tells him, “In order to be cruel, you need to know what is hurtful to someone.” Kohan is also enough of a connoisseur of trash talk to distinguish the effective but relatively harmless slapdown from racist, misogynist, homophobic, or downright mean slurs—again a product of that disinhibition effect, which seems to be the current state of what should instead be a fine art of genteel character assassination. A treat for students of language, as well as would-be Don Rickles heirs looking to hone their craft.
Kubrick: An Odyssey Kolker, Robert P. & Nathan Abrams Pegasus (752 pp.) | $35.00 | Feb. 6, 2024 9781639366248
Though Stanley Kubrick and his body of work have been well documented, this book adds considerably to our knowledge of both the man and his masterpieces. Kolker and Abrams, noted film scholars who previously collaborated on Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of His Final Film, examine all 13 of Kubrick’s completed features, as well as many unfilmed projects, filling in the broad outlines of his life (1928-1999) based on interviews with family members and professional colleagues. The authors exhaustively catalog each film’s planning, financing, production, editing, and critical and commercial reception. They highlight Kubrick’s reimagining of such tried-and-true film genres as film noir (Killer’s Kiss), heist films (The Killing), war movies (Paths of Glory and Full Metal Jacket), epics (Spartacus), love stories (Lolita), science fiction (2001: A Space Odyssey), costume dramas (Barry >>> NOVEMBER 1, 2023
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5 Books That Go Beyond the Headlines 1 Prequel
By Rachel Maddow
America beat fascism once. Maddow’s timely study of enemies on the homefront urges that we can do so again.
2 How Not To Be a Politician: A Memoir By Rory Stewart
A biting, captivating memoir.
4 24 Hours in Charlottesville: An Oral History of the Stand Against White Supremacy By Nora Neus
By Jane Ferguson
A captivating, honest, and powerful attempt to do justice to the hardest stories to tell.
A masterful blend of narrative history and empathetic reporting.
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5
Not just a visceral portrayal of political violence, but also a major addition to our understanding of rightwing terrorism.
5 American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress
3 No Ordinary Assignment: A Memoir
4
For more books that go beyond the headlines, visit Kirkus online.
By Wesley Lowery
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Lyndon), and horror (The Shining). Notably, the authors place these films in the context of their times: 2001 as the emblematic film of the Space Age, Dr. Strangelove as the ultimate Cold War paranoid fantasia, and A Clockwork Orange as symptomatic of the 1970s age of anxiety. Kolker and Abrams register salient themes and motifs throughout Kubrick’s oeuvre, pointing out trademark visual cues such as symmetrical composition and geometric patterning. The authors are especially good at showing how Kubrick’s “confluent interests—sound and image—laid the foundation for a career that married both into films of exceptional power.” For example, they describe how “The Blue Danube” waltz, “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” and Ligeti’s otherworldly compositions helped make 2001 “a concerto for film images and orchestra,” as one critic noted. The authors’ consideration of Kubrick’s personal life is less detailed, as perhaps befits this “famously private family man.” But Kubrick left the world his remarkable, enduring films, and this volume pays homage to his considerable legacy. A welcome new biography of a cinematic genius.
Kirkus Star
How To Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir Lawson, Shayla | Tiny Reparations (320 pp.) $28.00 | Feb. 6, 2024 | 9780593472583
A nonbinary, disabled, Black writer describes how travel has informed their journey to liberation. When prize-winning poet Lawson, author of This Is Major, was 39, a doctor told them they were dying. The author had just been diagnosed with Ehlers–Danlos syndrome, which 72 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
caused them chronic pain. In reflecting on their ability to cope with the disease, Lawson writes, “getting healed for me has been about truly letting go, whether that means recovering from convention or from a chronic illness.” To that end, each essay in this collection traces the author’s path to letting go of something that held them back, as well as the role that place played in these transformational moments. In Amherst, Massachusetts, Lawson’s interactions with their students led them to a greater understanding of their own gender and their ultimate rejection of binary thinking. In Bloomington, Indiana, their immersion in drag culture gave them the strength to divorce their philandering husband. In Maastricht, Netherlands, an elder’s planned assisted suicide gave Lawson a new outlook on death and dying. In Venice, Italy, the author came to the realization that “we don’t become beautiful until we believe it.” At the same time, “knowing what you are worth makes you look at the world differently.” Each revelation builds on the next, leading to the final two chapters in Los Angeles and Bermuda, where Lawson outlines their vision for communal healing. Packed with lyrical lines, genuine insight, and ebullient confessions, Lawson’s latest nonfiction book sparkles with vulnerability, sincerity, and poetry. In addition to being masterfully structured, each essay interlocks with the next chapter with an intricacy that infuses the text with a rewarding sense of momentum. Lawson is a gifted chronicler not only of their own personal revolution, but also of the power structures that affect their place in the world. A stunning essay collection about travel, mortality, and liberation.
To read more from Shayla Lawson, visit Kirkus online.
Kirkus Star
State of Silence: The Espionage Act and the Rise of America’s Secrecy Regime Lebovic, Sam | Basic Books (464 pp.) $32.50 | Nov. 21, 2023 | 9781541620162
A history of the Espionage Act of 1917, which was designed to protect sensitive government information but has been used to perpetuate a “secrecy regime.” “The laws and practices of secrecy emerged in a piecemeal, improvised fashion over many decades,” writes Lebovic, author of A Righteous Smokescreen and Free Speech and Unfree News, in this illuminating chronicle. Beginning with World War I, the author proceeds through the various instances when the government tried to enforce the murky law, which had emerged from the earlier Defense Secrets Act (1911), created due to “a panic about Japanese spies.” The first attempt at enforcement of the Espionage Act was the arrest of socialist leader Eugene Debs in 1918 for his “seditious speech.” While Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. at first upheld the constitutionality of the act, he came around to a famous dissent in Abrams v. United States in favor of free speech (“the birth of the modern First Amendment”). Eventually, enforcement of the law turned from censorship to protecting the leak of “classified” information, a flawed tiered system put in place by Harry Truman in 1951. Lebovic delves into the little-known case of John Nickerson, who leaked documents from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1957, leading to charges and embarrassment for the new “military industrial complex.” In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg’s publication of the Pentagon Papers led to the pivotal trial, but the Nixon administration KIRKUS REVIEWS
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Insightful and alarming, hopeful and consistently engaging. THE LAST FIRE SEASON
failed to make the conviction, spurring the antiwar movement. Subsequent whistleblowers during the war on terror, including Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, have forced a new reckoning with the Espionage Act and the surveillance state in general. Lebovic concludes his thorough, engaging history with a reflection on various reforms for the law in the modern era.
A vital investigation of a “controversial, confusing law.”
Sex With a Brain Injury: On Concussion and Recovery Liontas, Annie | Scribner (304 pp.) $18.00 paper | Jan. 16, 2024 9781668015544
A personal study of the lasting effects of head trauma. At the age of 35, Liontas, author of the novel Let Me Explain You, fell off her bike and suffered what doctors called a “mild head trauma.” That same year, she suffered two more concussions, when an infant car seat and a heavy potted plant hit her on the head. In 25 short musings—essays, verse, records of conversations with her wife—Liontas offers frank reflections on the physical, emotional, and cognitive consequences of her injuries. She also considers a range of related issues: her wife; queer identity; connection to her mother, an addict and a lesbian who abandoned her when she was an infant, and to her father, KIRKUS REVIEWS
Kirkus Star
The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History Martin, Manjula | Pantheon (352 pp.) $29.00 | Jan. 16, 2024 | 9780593317150
who disowned her when she married. She reports on the prevalence of head trauma among prisoners, which has given rise to the Trauma Justice League, and on concussions among famous people, including Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, Henry VIII, and George Clooney. Concussions, Liontas reveals, changed her life, transforming her into a person with a chronic—although invisible— disability. Assaulted by debilitating migraines, the author also experienced “mood swings, disequilibrium, disorientation, disinhibition,” and an intensifying “streak of isolationism.” Even years later, she could not abide “crowds, spice, alcohol, concerts, intense exercise, hunger, temperature regulation, movie screens, maps, math, recipes, anything which requires holding on to two things in your mind at once.” After the traumas, she writes, “you walk around with the sense that you are ghostwritten into your own life.” That sense of disorientation affected her marriage, as well. The head injuries “had turned us into strangers” and, as the title reveals, affected sex. Though at times, Liontas did not know if she—and her marriage—would survive, her memoir stands as testimony to love and patience. An intimate memoir of a profound affliction and resilience.
To read more about wildfires, visit Kirkus online.
A memoir about living with wildfires in Northern California. Growing up in that region of the country, Martin was familiar with fire season, which usually occurred in autumn. Over the years, however, she noticed that fire season had both lengthened and intensified. In 2017, following a personal health crisis, Martin and her partner, Max, purchased a home and moved from the city to the woods of Sonoma County. Through tending her garden, Martin found a sense of healing, but a couple of years later, her place of solace became endangered. In 2020, California experienced one of the most intense fire seasons in recent history. Martin chronicles how she dealt with the devastation, and her language ably captures her fear and uncertainty. “Above the redwoods fathomless clouds lingered like silence,” she writes. “From inside them the furious sky hurled its energy at millions of acres of dry, deep wood. I had never seen so many lightning strikes. The blades of electricity bisected the air, the earth, everything.” Upon returning home, Martin found her garden “sepia toned and slightly out of focus: weeks of heat and smoke had turned the flowers and trees into memories.” The author also discusses Indigenous land-management practices, and she contends that individuals have been willfully ignoring the many obvious effects of climate change “to assuage… feelings of guilt” or “as a way to cope, to keep going.” As Martin notes, “fire was always a naturally occurring part of the landscape in the American West.” However, due to human-caused NOVEMBER 1, 2023 73
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problems, wildfires have become more unpredictable. Martin argues that a fundamental shift in the dominant culture’s attitude toward fire and nature is necessary. We can no longer think in terms of a “fire season.” We must now learn to adapt to living with fire throughout the year. Insightful and alarming, hopeful and consistently engaging.
Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty Matney, Mandy with Carolyn Murnick Morrow/HarperCollins (288 pp.) | $28.99 Nov. 14, 2023 | 9780063269217
A journalist’s memoir of covering the infamous Murdaugh family murders in South Carolina. Writing with Murnick, Matney chronicles how she was a young, hardworking journalist when she moved to the Hilton Head area to work at a small publication called the Island Packet. “I wanted to be a real investigative reporter who had the time and resources to dig into a story and produce work that made a difference,” she writes. Instead, her employer prioritized reporting that would “generate a lot of clicks,” which, in the coastal Southeast, meant stories about sharks, alligators, and hurricanes. Nearly three years into Matney’s tenure at the Packet, she received a tip about a boat crash involving a driver “from a family of powerful lawyers.” The driver turned out to be Paul Murdaugh, whose “daddy had everyone in law enforcement in his pocket.” The boat crash killed one of the teenagers on board; two years later, Paul would also be dead, murdered alongside his mother at the wealthy family’s hunting lodge. In a personable narrative filled with appealing local color, Matney explains how, as she dug deeper into the Murdaugh family history, 74 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
she became increasingly invested in the outcome of the boat crash case, particularly when her reporting led her to understand just how above the law the family was in the region. She was particularly moved by the story of another murder allegedly associated with the Murdaughs—that of Stephen Smith, a gay nursing student who was found dead on a roadside in 2015. The author takes us from her departure from the Packet to FITSnews, through the launch of her hit podcast, the Murdaugh Murders. She is clear about the toll the work takes on her mental health, noting how “the Murdaughs’ depravity and unhinged online trolls had permeated my every moment.” In a sea of Murdaugh-related media, this personal narrative stands out.
Camille Pissarro: The Audacity of Impressionism Muhlstein, Anka | Trans. by Adriana Hunter Other Press (320 pp.) | $29.99 | Nov. 7, 2023 9781635421705
A rich biography of the eminent artist of the belle epoque. Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) was an outsider, a Jew born in the Caribbean who did not arrive in France until he was 25. As Muhlstein, author of Balzac’s Omelette and The Pen and the Brush, writes, he “saw himself as an interloper in French society.” Still, he was held in high esteem by other painters who were breaking away from the prevailing neoclassicism. He became a close friend of Monet, Cézanne, and Degas, a sometime supporter of Paul Gauguin who broke away only because he disliked “Gauguin’s obsession with selling his work.” On that score, Pissarro, an anarchist and bohemian to the core, was often destitute, supporting a gaggle of children with a loving and endlessly patient partner, capable of making a reasonable living from his art only in his 60s. There is some
irony to the fact that although Pissarro organized the first of the salons where the “refused” impressionists exhibited their work and was regarded as the first among equals, his fame has been far eclipsed by his peers. Pissarro was also influential in admitting women such as Suzanne Valadon and Mary Cassatt into impressionist circles. As Muhlstein shows, the impressionists could be a querulous bunch, capable of falling out quickly. Pissarro was cast out for a time after he fell under the sway of pointillism and began to produce works in the style of Georges Seurat, another friend he recruited to join his neoimpressionist salons. For all his poverty, writes the author, Pissarro was inspiring enough, with an astonishing work ethic, that his surviving children all became artists— and artists predominate in the fifth generation of his descendants, long after his death. A spirited life of a painter who deserves both reconsideration and admiration.
Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes Nguon, Chantha with Kim Green Algonquin (304 pp.) | $29.00 | Feb. 20, 2024 9781643753492
In an evocative, haunting memoir, a survivor of Cambodia’s “Year Zero” generation recounts how memories of her culinary heritage have sustained her. Some tragedies are almost too large to describe. One of history’s most notorious was the genocide imposed by Pol Pot on Cambodia in the early 1970s, a project to destroy the societal structure and replace it with an agrarian society based on twisted Marxist principles. “The murderers among us would have us believe that history is slippery and unknowable,” she writes. KIRKUS REVIEWS
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A notable collection of short, pithy messages about race and identity. O U R H I D D E N C O N V E R S AT I O N S
“Insisting otherwise is an act of defiance.” Nguon and her family, half Vietnamese, were obvious targets, and they escaped to Saigon just in time for the arrival of the conquering North Vietnamese army. Nguon managed to scrape together a living with various jobs, although she often subsisted on small bowls of rice with some salt. Through the years of suffering and resilience, the author remembers the beautiful, subtle tastes of the Khmer dishes made by her mother, and she punctuates the book with recipes and the memories tied to them. Ngoun was shuffled between refugee camps before she was sent back to Cambodia, which was slowly emerging from chaos. Among other jobs, she worked as a cook for brothel workers, and she had the advantage of being literate and was good at making contacts. With the help of aid organizations, she was able to set up a center for helping Khmer women, teaching them silk weaving and providing literacy classes. Many parts of the text are heart-rendingly sad, but the author leavens the narrative with recipes for dishes like chicken lime soup and banh sung. Though the subject matter makes the book a sometimes difficult read, those who dive in will find it a remarkable and important piece of work. A moving book that mixes horror and hope, disaster and good food, creating a poignant, fascinating read.
To read more from Gregg Olsen, visit Kirkus online.
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Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity Norris, Michele | Simon & Schuster (528 pp.) | $35.00 | Jan. 16, 2024 9781982154394
A notable collection of short, pithy messages about race and identity. As Peabody Award–winning journalist Norris, the author of The Grace of Silence, notes, many Americans find it difficult to discuss race in an open-minded, productive way. In 2010, to gauge opinion about the subject, the author started a project in which she distributed cards, asking them to be returned to her with a six-word message about experiences or views connected to race. She first assumed she would receive a trickle of responses, but it became a flood, representing an impressive range of racial categories in the U.S., from white to Black to Asian to Native American and beyond. Gradually, the project expanded to include longer stories and interviews. This book is a curated collection spanning a wide spectrum of thinking. In many cases, the sense of resentment goes back decades or even generations, so deep it is difficult to see how it can be assuaged. Despite the variety of contributions, there is no clear answer to the central question of whether racial differences should be emphasized or minimized. Many Black respondents tell stories of police who automatically assume they are guilty of something, and many Asians reflect on how they feel persistently
stereotyped. Numerous white contributors indicate they believe they are assuming blame for past events in which they were not involved. Norris eventually comes down on the side of the “bridge builders” who can reach across differences, rather than the dividers. “America has made commendable and incredible progress in matters of race,” she writes. “I never take that for granted, but continued progress will require collective and constant toil.” The author’s own message? “Still more work to be done.” The book features dozens of full-color photos. Norris offers crucial insight into how Americans think about race, combining the painful with the inspiring.
The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy That Let a Killer Go Free Olsen, Gregg | Thomas & Mercer (379 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 1, 2024 | 9781662514180
Historical true-crime account of a pregnant Amish woman who died suspiciously in 1977. In his 1990 book, Abandoned Prayers, Olsen reported on a series of grisly murders allegedly committed by Eli Stutzman, a former member of an Amish community in Ohio. Now, dozens of books later, the author returns to the topic he says has haunted him all these years. Before Eli became a murderer, his wife, Ida, died suspiciously in a fire. Olsen—and others in the Amish community, he is quick to point out—is convinced that Eli was responsible for her death, and he sets out to prove it. Despite the subtitle, he doesn’t quite complete the mission. Olsen’s writing is engaging, his research is thorough, and his methods seem to be sound. He writes about the Amish with nuance and respect and, thankfully, >>> NOVEMBER 1, 2023 75
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Fully Booked
In The Book of (More) Delights, poet Ross Gay resumes a practice of chronicling everyday pleasures. BY MEGAN LABRISE EPISODE 339: ROSS GAY EDITORS’ PICKS:
The Blackwoods by Brandy Colbert (Balzer + Bray/ HarperCollins) Chinese Menu: The History, Myths, and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods by Grace Lin (Little, Brown) North Woods by Daniel Mason (Random House) ALSO MENTIONED ON THIS EPISODE:
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine by Sarah Lohman If These Walls Could Talk (TV movie) THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:
Circle of Night by Stephen de Villiers Graaff The Corroding by Ty Tracey
Natasha Komoda
No Skin Slim by Nessa Deen
To listen to the episode, visit Kirkus online.
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On this episode, Ross Gay joins us to discuss The Book of (More) Delights (Algonquin, Sept. 19), a sequel (of sorts) to his essay collection The Book of Delights. In both books, the revered poet engages a particular practice of noticing and noting one delight per day, for one year, in a series of short essays written quickly and by hand. The Book of Delights begins on Gay’s 42nd birthday, Aug. 1, 2016, and documents the ensuing year. The Book of (More) Delights, which begins on Aug. 1, 2022, achieves equally winning results, Kirkus writes in a starred review: “Keenly observed and delivered with deftness, these essays are a testament to the artfulness of attention and everyday joy.” Gay is the award-winning author of four books of poetry—Against Which, Bringing the Shovel Down, Be Holding, and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, which won the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry—and three essay collections, including Inciting Joy. He is the Ruth Lilly Professor of English at Indiana University. Here’s a bit (more) from Kirkus’ starred review of The Book of (More) Delights: “The essays are short, roughly three pages, and it’s a credit to Gay’s tone that he can captivate readers while writing about, for instance, ‘three truly beautiful spoons,’ the pleasure of petting his cat, his annual garlic planting (‘garlic’s your tiny professor of faith, your pungent don of gratitude’) and, in a separate piece, garlic harvesting. His sense of wonder at watching an NPR Tiny Desk Concert featuring El DeBarge leads him to this reflection on an Aretha Franklin cover: ‘She lets it be known, this is for the benefit of you who don’t believe.’ Gay closes with an essay sharing the same name as the first, ‘My Birthday, Again,’ in which the
The Book of (More) Delights Gay, Ross
Algonquin | 304 pp. | $28.00 Sept. 19, 2023 | 9781643753096
author writes, ‘I’ve completed another year of delights. Or maybe I should say another year of delights has completed me.’” Gay and I reminisce about our conversation at Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon, in 2019, celebrating The Book of Delights, and discuss his initial inspiration for recording daily delights. We then discuss whether we might call The Book of (More) Delights a sequel or a continuation—or a perpetuation—of that project; whether he abided by the same rules this time around (essayettes must be written daily, swiftly, by hand, etc.); imposter syndrome; aspiring toward collectivism; the importance of tactility; the importance of garlic; building networks of exchange; the dangers of resource hoarding; the word mycelial; and much more. Then editors Laura Simeon, Mahnaz Dar, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week. NOVEMBER 1, 2023 77
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without sentimentality—which might be one reason so many Amish men and women agreed to grant Olsen interviews. However, the author often lingers too long on the circumstances surrounding his research process rather than the research itself—e.g., “My oil-slick coffee finally, and thankfully, vanquished, I pick through the pages of the autopsy report and pause to write a single word on the outside of the file folder in block letters. For emphasis, I underscore it three times. ‘C-o-n-s-p-i-r-a-c-y?’” Cringeworthy moments like this aside, Olsen has a gift for taking mountains of paperwork and interview material and weaving them into a cohesive narrative that is often difficult to put down, especially for die-hard true-crime fans. Because he frames the book as a stepby-step process of discovery, readers will feel like they’re right there with him as he’s knocking on doors and spinning out on the Midwestern ice. An engaging, well-researched historical excavation that could have benefited from tighter editing and further revision.
The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction Pálsson, Gísli | Princeton Univ. (312 pp.) $27.95 | Feb. 6, 2024 | 9780691230986
An examination of the extinction of an iconic bird during the 19th century. Pálsson, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Iceland and author of The Man Who Stole Himself, examines the human-caused extinction of the great auk. The author focuses largely on the 1858 expedition of ornithologists John Wolley and Alfred Newton, who traveled from Britain to Iceland with the goal of gathering specimens of the great auk, which was “reported to be in serious decline.” As Pálsson notes, 78 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
A sensitive, nuanced biography of an idiosyncratic woman. PURE WIT
during the Victorian age, egg collecting was a popular hobby, and “obsessed collectors and scientists abroad” sought to fill their “cabinets of curiosities.” At the time, no name existed for the loss of a species, as most people believed that “existing organisms could not vanish, and that new species could not appear.” During the course of their expedition, Wolley kept detailed notebooks, known as the Gare-Fowl Books, which include interviews with locals and provide a real-time account of the extinction of the great auk. According to interviews and records, the “last successful trip” related to the great auk had been the infamous 1844 hunt. When Newton returned from the 1858 expedition, he concluded, “As to the extinction of the Great Auk, if it is extinct, I think it has been mainly accomplished by human means.” Pálsson demonstrates that Newton’s greatest achievement was establishing a clear distinction between unavoidable natural extinction, as theorized by Darwin, and “avertible extinction due to human agency,” which paved the way for animal protection measures. For his contributions, Pálsson contends that Newton deserves a place alongside other pioneering environmentalists. Despite its disturbing revelations, this well-written and researched narrative will appeal to scholars and armchair naturalists alike. Both haunting and disheartening, this is an accessible look at a signal species in the history of human-caused extinctions. To read about a children’s book about the auk, visit Kirkus online.
Kirkus Star
Pure Wit: The Revolutionary Life of Margaret Cavendish Peacock, Francesca | Pegasus (384 pp.) $29.95 | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781639366033
An engaging portrait of a significant 17th-century cultural figure. Arts journalist Peacock makes an impressive book debut with a deeply researched biography of Margaret Lucas Cavendish (1623-1673), a poet, essayist, fiction writer, and playwright who “was not just the over-indulged wife of a duke: she was the epicenter of a new wave of women’s writing, education, and thinking.” Cavendish sported outlandish clothes and wrote passionately about issues such as matter, knowledge, and free will. Her most famous novel was a pioneering work of science fiction. Though ambitious for fame, she knew that “many of her contemporaries saw her simply as…a lady writer who wrote silly books.” Peacock, though, contextualizes her life and work within contemporary scientific and philosophical debates and tumultuous cultural and political events. Margaret grew up in a wealthy, Royalist family that became victims of Puritan violence during the English Civil War. In 1643, she joined the court of Henrietta Maria, the defiant wife of Charles I, following her into exile in France. There, she met William Cavendish—later elevated to Duke of Newcastle—a man 30 years older. They married in 1645. Although Margaret later repeatedly expressed “antipathy to marriage,” which she KIRKUS REVIEWS
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deemed “a considerably better deal for a man than a woman,” Peacock sees this view as representing women’s collective experience, rather than her own dissatisfaction. William supported her writing endeavors, and, as a “literary and scientific patron,” afforded her entry into a cosmopolitan intellectual world. Peacock acknowledges the confusions and contradictions of much of Margaret’s work, but she takes her seriously as a feminist thinker and natural philosopher, grappling with questions that occupied Descartes and Hobbes. Drawing on a wealth of sources, she counters the trivializing image of Cavendish as “some strange combination of a costumed actress, unreal goddess, and magical princess.” A sensitive, nuanced biography of an idiosyncratic woman.
Curepedia: The A-Z of The Cure Price, Simon | Dey Street/HarperCollins (448 pp.) | $35.00 | Dec. 12, 2023 9780063068643
Everything you need to know about the goth-rock pioneers and pop hit-makers. Founded in the late 1970s, the Cure cannily blended gloom and psychedelia—and eventually developed a knack for overtly upbeat tunes like “Friday I’m in Love” and “Just Like Heaven.” British music journalist Price’s comprehensive guide to the band is earthbound, upbeat, well researched, and largely devoid of fanboy chatter. There are requisite factstuffed entries on the band’s members, albums, and major singles, alongside scads of details that might be too much for even the hard-core fan: How did their 2000 album, Bloodflowers, do in Denmark? What was front man Robert Smith’s first car? What is guitarist Pearl Thompson’s drink of choice? However, chapters on broader themes make the book enjoyable beyond settling bar KIRKUS REVIEWS
arguments and relating discographical arcana. Price riffs on the meaning of goth, sex, religion, poetry, and more in relation to the band, and he goes fairly deep into the band’s darker moments in entries on “alcohol” and “bullying.” (Often at the center of such stories is keyboardist Lol Tolhurst, who was fired by the band in 1989 and launched a failed retaliatory lawsuit.) Framing the band’s history in encyclopedia form allows Price to sidestep one fact that would sink a conventional bio: Not having released a studio album since 2008, the band is now mainly a much-loved global touring act. The author dedicates one entry to the longawaited 14th album, another to the band’s recent efforts to battle onerous Ticketmaster fees. For all of the book’s range—from its 1980 single “A Forest” to an entry on zoology—the narrative is effectively the story of Robert Smith, and for all the details it delivers about him, from drug use to sneaker preferences to sleep patterns, he remains intriguingly, appealingly enigmatic. Handy for fans of the band and British rock history in general.
Sito: An American Teenager and the City That Failed Him Ralph, Laurence | Grand Central Publishing (320 pp.) | $30.00 | Feb. 20, 2024 9781538740323
A professor of anthropology delves into the violence and terror on the streets of San Francisco, where real solutions are elusive. Ralph, the director of Princeton’s Center on Transnational Policing and author of Renegade Dreams and The Torture Letters, tries to find reasons for the increasing gang-related violence in San Francisco via a thorough examination of the death of a young man called Sito, a member of a family with which the author had a connection. Sito was 19
when he was killed, and the murderer was only 17. The motive was revenge for Sito’s peripheral involvement in the murder of the killer’s brother some years before. In his sociological investigation, the author finds a whirlpool of unstable families, conspiracy theories, dysfunctional legal systems, and gang violence with its endless cycles of retribution. Sito was trying to get his life back on course after a spell in juvenile detention, but it was a struggle. A high proportion of the men in this part of San Francisco have been incarcerated at some point, and Ralph traces the legacy of a host of psychological problems that have led to crime. Gang culture reaches into the jails, and a period of incarceration is effectively a badge of honor, so it is hard to see how the pattern can be broken. As a minor, Sito’s killer faces only a few years in juvenile detention, which hardly sounds like justice to Sito’s family. During this project, Ralph was forced to reassess his belief in a variety of liberal reforms, facing “the feeling that my ideals were betraying me.” In the end, he offers no concrete solutions, although he clings to hope and remains “sensitive to the reality that academic research has been—and can still be—exploitative.” Through a heart-wrenching study of a youth’s murder, Ralph reveals a larger picture of social decay, despair, and violence.
HBCU Made: A Celebration of the Black College Experience Ed. by Rascoe, Ayesha | Algonquin (224 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 30, 2024 | 9781643753867
Graduates praise their education at historically Black colleges and universities. Rascoe, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, gathers 16 essays testifying to the significance in the writers’ lives of attending an HBCU. With contributors from the arts, academia, NOVEMBER 1, 2023
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the tech world, popular culture, and politics, the essays represent a wide range of experiences, achievements, and schools. Rascoe, who grew up in North Carolina, went to Howard, where, she recalls, “I didn’t have to worry about trying to break into spaces that Black people had been shut out of. That was a relief. It allowed me to focus on what those unburdened by racism generally focus on in college: figuring out who the heck I was!” Stacey Abrams went to the all-women’s Spelman, which she chose partly because she hoped to date a Morehouse boy from the college across the street, partly because her mother urged her to attend. Like Rascoe, she chose an HBCU to immerse herself “in a singular experience, one where race and gender ceased to be wielded as weapons against us or used to justify questions about our capacity.” After attending the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, jazz artist Branford Marsalis opted for Southern University, attracted by its marching band. Shawn Zachery went there, too, studied computer science, and became a dancer. MSNBC political analyst April Ryan applauds her years at Morgan State. HBCUs have also nurtured famous TV personalities: Roy Wood Jr., with aspirations to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a journalist, went to Florida A&M because it had—besides a journalism program—a baseball team. Oprah Winfrey was one credit short for graduation from Tennessee State; reading news for a local TV station got in the way of finishing her degree. Other contributors include Nichole Perkins (Dillard University) and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (Talladega College). Warm testimony about critically important experiences.
To read more about the Grateful Dead, visit Kirkus online.
All the Years Combine: The Grateful Dead in Fifty Shows Robertson, Ray | Biblioasis (240 pp.) $17.95 paper | Oct. 3, 2023 9781771965705
Chronicling the Grateful Dead’s long strange trip in 50 concerts. “I believe that a Grateful Dead concert is life. Like life, it can be alternately compelling and lackluster; familiar and foreign; occasionally sublime and sometimes insipid.” So writes Robertson, author of Lives of the Poets (With Guitars), providing a reasonable encapsulation of the Dead experience. In this quick-hitting account of 50 memorable shows (in the author’s estimation), Robertson displays deep knowledge of the band’s personnel, songs, albums, mechanics, and milieu, and many of the vivid entries concisely capture the mysterious alchemy of what made the group a sui generis American rock band. As any Deadhead worth their weight in hemp and LSD will tell you, there’s nothing like a Grateful Dead concert, and the author capably demonstrates the good, bad, and ugly elements that followed the band around for decades. After a brief yet astute introduction, the author begins with the 7/29/66 show in Vancouver, ably describing the band’s unique lineup at the time: “Jerry Garcia was a banjo-picking bluegrass obsessive; Bob Weir was a teenage folkie; Bill Kreutzmann, a jazz-loving rock-androll drummer; Phil Lesh, another jazz
fan, who wanted to compose contemporary classical music; and Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan liked to sing the blues.” Those disparate elements, in addition to various other members across the years, would create some of the most indelible rock music of the late 20th century. Of course, readers will quibble with Robertson’s selections and omissions, and the text is heavy on the first decade of the band’s career—though the author dutifully parses the final show, in 1995, before Jerry Garcia died. Robertson is a fluid music writer, and while the book offers little for newcomers to the Dead experience, it’s an enjoyable read nonetheless.
A must for devoted Deadheads; appealing to fans of classic rock; pass for everyone else.
The Algorithm: How AI Decides Who Gets Hired, Monitored, Promoted, and Fired and Why We Need To Fight Back Now Schellmann, Hilke | Hachette (336 pp.) $30.00 | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9780306827341
A disturbing investigation into use of AI systems in hiring, firing, and employee surveillance. As Emmy-winning journalist and journalism professor Schellmann demonstrates, AI has moved into crucial areas of our lives, but the process has been so fast and silent that its influence is almost invisible. The author is particularly interested
A disturbing investigation into use of AI systems in hiring, firing, and employee surveillance. THE ALGORITHM
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in how it has infiltrated the business world, especially how it affects recruitment and dismissals. The use of AI systems began as a means to help human resources managers sort out the huge numbers of applications they received, but once the genie was out of the bottle, it spread into all areas of assessment, looking for keywords and patterns. These systems are already ubiquitous, writes the author, used by 99% of Fortune 500 companies. Schellmann records many cases of bias on the basis of gender and race; even a person’s zip code and social media posts can lead algorithms to jump to specific—and sometimes incorrect—conclusions. Bias is unintentional, but it does not seem possible to give algorithms a sense of context for making decisions about applicants. The results provided by an algorithm look impressive, but follow-up research has shown that AI–based hiring is no more successful than traditional methods. Comprehensive surveillance of employees is now possible, with AI systems tracking computer use and interaction with other employees. Schellmann examines instances of effective employees being dismissed simply because their results did not match an algorithm’s metrics. She argues that HR managers should be required to understand how their algorithms work, and there must be greater human input into personnel decisions. The author presents numerous good ideas, but she concludes that “it’s a dark outlook—a system in which algorithms define who we are.” This eye-opening book makes it hard to disagree. With clear-minded authority, Schellmann uncovers a fraught, often unfair system.
For further insight on Israeli identity, visit Kirkus online.
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A well-researched study that should interest job seekers of all varieties. THE STIGMA TRAP
The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World Senor, Dan & Saul Singer | Avid Reader Press (336 pp.) | $30.00 | Nov. 7, 2023 9781982115760
A portrait of a society that, often seen as fractured and fractious, is surprisingly unified and happy. “Why are Israelis so damn happy?” So asked a commentator on Israeli life, who marveled that, given all the stresses they face in daily life—high prices, congested roads, the constant threat of terrorism and war—Israelis seem quite content. Senor and Singer, co-authors of Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle, examine some of the manifestations of this contentment. On average, Israelis live longer than almost anyone else in the world; they enjoy cradle-to-grave health care and other social services and are healthy overall; they’re well educated. Moreover, they’re far younger than the citizenry of most other developed countries—and, as the authors observe, “clearly, a country with more strollers than walkers has a different feel, energy, and excitement about the future.” Given the often-remarked penchant for pitched arguments, one might expect high levels of adrenaline and bile in the Israeli bloodstream, but those arguments are carried out with the expectation that they will end with handshakes. What accounts for all this amity? Fundamentally, as a small country, Israel fosters affinities: family, for sure, but also
circles of connections at various intersections of life, people who are called hevre—something more than friends, constituting a social network that, one Israeli scholar remarks, “functions as almost a supra-family.” Consequently, the authors note, Israelis feel constant solidarity and do not feel alone, unlike so many solitary Americans, particularly among the elderly population. Granted, Senor and Singer acknowledge, there are outliers: the ultra-orthodox who want nothing to do with secular society, or the Arab Israelis who are not wholly part of the nation. For all that, though, “the culture of being together” makes a big difference. A thought-provoking study that non-Israelis will find particularly fascinating.
The Stigma Trap: College-Educated, Experienced, and Long-Term Unemployed Sharone, Ofer | Oxford Univ. (216 pp.) $29.95 | Jan. 30, 2024 | 9780190239244
A cogent argument against the “myth of meritocracy.” Sociologist Sharone, founder of the nonprofit Institute for Career Transitions, examines the social, financial, and emotional consequences of long-term unemployment, drawing on research with 539 college-educated, white-collar job seekers, ranging in age from 40 to 65, along with career coaches, network colleagues, and recruiters. Sharone’s interviewees “had had long and >>> NOVEMBER 1, 2023 81
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SEEN AND HEARD
The debut book from the WNBA star is an expansion of her 2020 essay.
A’ja Wilson will make her literary debut next year, the WNBA star announced on Instagram. Flatiron will publish Wilson’s Dear Black Girls: How To Be True to You, the first book from the Las Vegas Aces power forward. The press describes the book as “an inspirational collection on what it means to grow up as a Black girl in America.” Wilson was a standout player for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks from 2014 to 2018; the team won the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship in 2017. The Aces selected her as the first overall pick in the 2018 WNBA draft, and she led the team to its first title in 2022. Her book, she said on Instagram, is an expansion of “Dear Black Girls,” the 2020 essay she wrote for the media platform the Players’ Tribune. “We don’t want to be some meme or whatever,” she wrote in the essay. “We don’t want to be the Angry Black Woman or the Aggressive
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Black Woman. We just want to be seen as human beings in this world. We just want to be heard when we speak. We just want to be respected.” Flatiron says of the book, “Dear Black Girls is one remarkable author’s necessary and meaningful exploration of what it means to be a Black woman in America today—and an of-themoment rally cry to lift up women and girls everywhere.” It is scheduled for publication on Feb. 6, 2024— M.S.
For more on women in sports, visit Kirkus online.
Wilson’s book expands on an essay she wrote in 2020.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
A’ja Wilson To Publish Dear Black Girls in 2024
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AWARDS Royal Society Science Book Prize Reveals Finalists
Six books are in contention for the U.K. prize recognizing popular science writing.
The Royal Society
The U.K.-based Royal Society announced the finalists for its 2023 Royal Society Science Book Prize, with six books in contention for the award for “the best popular science writing from across the globe.” Ed Yong made the shortlist for An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. The book won the Andrew Carnegie Medal and was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature’s Secrets to Longevity, written by Nicklas Brendborg and translated by Elizabeth de Noma, was named a finalist; Brendborg, 28, is the youngest person in the prize’s history to be named a finalist. Roma Agrawal made the shortlist for Nuts
and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way), along with Lev Parikian for Taking Flight: The Evolutionary Story of Life on the Wing. Also named finalists were David Quammen for Breathless: The Scientific Race To Defeat a Deadly Virus, which was previously a National Book Award finalist, and Kate Zernike for The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science. The Royal Society Science Book Prize was first awarded in 1988. Previous winners include Jared Diamond for Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies; Stephen Hawking for The Universe in a Nutshell; and Caroline Criado Perez for Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. The winner of this year’s award will be announced on Nov. 22—M.S. For more science books, visit Kirkus online.
Branigan is one of six authors up for the prize.
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successful careers and assumed that employers would value and recognize their qualifications and they would be hired quickly.” Like many workers who attended top schools and filled upper-level positions, they believed that skill, education, and achievement would reap rewards—which left them stunned when they failed to find another job. Instead, once they were unemployed, “regardless of their level of education or past professional achievements,” they were “stigmatized in the eyes of potential employers,” recruiters, and colleagues from whom they sought referrals. “The core experience of both unemployment and networking,” writes the author, “is a series of rejections.” In addition, their situation generated feelings of shame, self-blame, and ongoing anxiety, especially when financial pressures worsened. Even family and friends, buying into the meritocracy myth, assumed there was something wrong with an unsuccessful job seeker. Traditional coaching rhetoric, Sharone found, underscores the message that finding a job is “primarily a matter of strategy and attitude,” but this “exaggeration of jobseekers’ individual control only distorts empirical reality and overlooks real obstacles. It is a harmful fiction because it reinforces stigmatization.” With three out of four American workers likely to become unemployed at some point in their careers, and the experience of long-term unemployment increasing, Sharone calls for collective action and advocacy to counter the meritocracy myth and widespread stigma: policies to address discriminatory employer hiring practices, expanded unemployment benefits, the possibility of universal basic income, and sociologically based support from coaches. A well-researched study that should interest job seekers of all varieties.
To read more from Tali Sharot, visit Kirkus online.
Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There Sharot, Tali & Cass R. Sunstein One Signal/Atria (288 pp.) | $28.00 Feb. 27, 2024 | 9781668008201
A lively look at how conscious change is the way to break out of stale thinking to recover joy and passion. There is a part of the human mind that seeks the comfort of habit. Establishing patterns is an essential aspect of living, but there is a dangerous downside, according to Sharot, a professor of neuroscience and author of The Optimism Bias and The Influential Mind, and Sunstein, one of the nation’s top legal scholars. Habit can blunt our sense of enjoyment and awareness of problems, and predictability can turn into stagnation. You look around one day and realize that it has been years since you have thought a new thought, listened to any new music, or spoken to someone you don’t know. The authors provide plenty of examples of this descent into inertia, as well as describing experiments and research that reveal the underlying factors. Habit can also allow for the acceptance of awful things because the steps to get to there are small and seemingly unimportant. Another interesting aspect is that people are more likely to believe a lie if it is repeated often, as the brain becomes habituated to it. The authors are equally interested in ways to break out of the psychological trap. One
way is to take a vacation—not to somewhere like home but to a different environment, one with unfamiliar rules and methods of interaction. Travel is good but not always necessary; simply reading an unusual book, taking some risks, or meeting new people are worthwhile endeavors. Eventually, the mind becomes more open, flexible, and willing to ask questions. With intelligence and humor, Sharot and Sunstein provide guidance on how to refresh the spirit and see the world anew. If your world is starting to look gray and dull, this book might be your road map out of the comfort zone.
Good Girls Go to Hell Sherman-Friedman, Tohar | Trans. by Margaret Morrison | Graphic Mundi (136 pp.) | $29.95 | Nov. 21, 2023 9781637790601
A welcome introduction to the work of an artist and children’s book illustrator well known in her native Israel. The daughter of a rabbi (“When I was a kid, the expression ‘the Rabbi’s daughter’ made me feel uneasy and like I didn’t belong”), Sherman-Friedman grew up in a walled settlement imbued with conservative values. In an early scene, the author depicts her family taking part in a vociferous protest against Ariel Sharon’s order that the Gaza Strip be evacuated, anathema to the right wing that would take power with the Netanyahu government a
If your world is starting to look gray and dull, this book might be your road map out of the comfort zone. LOOK AGAIN
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A painfully revealing, vital history. THE HOLO CAUST
decade later. Sherman-Friedman took a lesson in the power of prayer from her mother: Accidentally left alone at home, “I prayed with all my heart for someone to come and save me, and hug me tight,” only to receive a reassuring call seconds later from her mother, who promises to come home immediately. “Even now, when I hear my mother’s voice, I never feel alone,” she writes. In panels with a plain-spun style somewhat akin to the realms of Roz Chast and Marjane Satrapi, Sherman-Friedman recounts that her approaches to the supreme being were less successful, leading her to atheism: “You don’t reply,” she addresses God, “and perhaps You don’t even hear, and You’re surprised that I don’t, either.…Do you know who I am? Do I know? No, and why’s that? Because I suddenly realized that You don’t have an answer, that there isn’t an answer at all.” Sherman-Friedman’s book, originally published in French in 2021, is provocative, but it makes no overarching universal claims: This is her life, she makes clear, with her loves, her disappointments, her worries, her sorrows. Modest but self-assertive, the author touches on large issues and small ones with equal attentiveness, clearly unafraid of the consequences of speaking openly. A charged memoir of political and religious transformation that’s just right for young readers questioning such things.
To read about another top-notch history of the Holocaust, visit Kirkus online.
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Kirkus Star
Brutalities: A Love Story Steines, Margo | Norton (272 pp.) $17.95 paper | Oct. 3, 2023 9781324050872
Steines tackles complex, nuanced truths about power and violence through clear writing and an unflinching gaze. What might drive someone to seek out violence, rather than avoid it? In her propulsive debut memoir, the author addresses this question in her examination of her personal connection to violence and pain. With striking vulnerability, she recounts her work as a teenage dominatrix at a time when she was dealing with an eating disorder, drug addiction, and a long-term relationship characterized by violence. Later, Steines trained as an ironworker, a career she pursued for years despite the danger and pain. She also chronicles her unhealthy relationship with exercise, including the time she ran more than 100 miles on a broken heel. “Violences are as different from each other as kisses are,” she writes, and this vivid book is testament to that truth. The author’s skillful prose expresses pain clearly and can be challenging to read, but this discomfort is tempered by her clearheaded insights and retroactive self-empathy. “I went to metal for the same reasons I went everywhere else: to try and rebuild myself as a creature impervious to damage,” she writes, with palpable yearning. As much as the text is about pain, it’s also about
gentleness, as Steines depicts her more current self, caring for her pregnant body during the global pandemic, and she sweetly evokes the kindness of her partner and tenderness toward all versions of her past. Though the author is still drawn in by violence— her partner is an MMA coach, and Steines sometimes participates—she has developed a deeper love and respect for herself. The heart of this memoir is the author’s journey to transform her relationship to violence—and through that, her own body. A passionate and lyrical memoir and meditation on what might drive someone to seek violence.
Kirkus Star
The Holocaust: An Unfinished History Stone, Dan | Mariner Books (464 pp.) $32.50 | Jan. 23, 2024 | 9780063349032
A significant new history of the Holocaust from the director of the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway. Stone, a professor of modern history and author of The Liberation of the Camps, emphasizes that we must stop thinking about the Holocaust as solely a German affair. “The genocide of the Jews,” he writes, “could not have been so thorough and so brutal without almost ubiquitous collaboration across Europe and beyond.” Historians agree that the trauma of Germany’s World War I defeat led to a legion of revanchist splinter groups. The Nazis were not taken seriously until 1932, when they became Germany’s largest party, and Hitler took power peacefully in 1933. No one has yet explained his obsessive hatred of Jews, but his party—and most Germans—went along. Stone delivers a gripping account of prewar Nazi legal persecution. About half of Germany’s Jews fled before NOVEMBER 1, 2023
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emigration was banned in October 1941, although many found refuge in neighboring countries “that were later occupied.” Mass murder began with the 1939 invasion of Poland, and Stone’s blow-by-blow account may be more distressful than previous ones because he refutes their myths. Nearly half of the victims died of starvation or disease or were shot in “face-toface killings reminiscent of colonial massacres.” In the gas chambers, victims died in agony, but fanatics such as the SS did not do all the work. Ordinary civilians and soldiers participated with frightening enthusiasm. Years later, many decent people claimed that refusing would have provoked terrible retaliation, but that is a myth. No group or country that declined to cooperate suffered. Stone concludes that today, “fascism is not yet in power. But it is knocking on the door.” The solution, he writes, is not necessarily more Holocaust education, unless it addresses a society that takes equality and tolerance for granted. A painfully revealing, vital history.
Kirkus Star
Rethinking Diabetes: What Science Reveals About Diet, Insulin, and Successful Treatments Taubes, Gary | Knopf (512 pp.) | $35.00 Jan. 2, 2024 | 9780525520085
The author of The Case Against Sugar and Why We Get Fat returns with an investigation of diabetes. Taubes, a threetime winner of the Science in Society Journalism Award, explains that insulin allows cells to use sugars (i.e., carbohydrates) for energy. Diabetes results when insulin loses this ability. In Type 1 diabetes, usually beginning in childhood, the body produces little or no insulin. Type 2, which occurs later in life, is associated 86 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
with obesity, and weight control is the best treatment. Until the discovery of insulin in 1921, a low-carbohydrate, low-calorie diet prolonged lives. The use of insulin seemed to work miracles; patients rose from significant illness and resumed normal lives. Doctors continued to prescribe the same “diabetic” diet, but they quickly learned that patients rarely followed it. Doctors fumed but accepted reality and decided to “cover” the increased carbohydrates and calories with insulin and other drugs. That remains the standard treatment today. However, by the 1930s, even well-controlled diabetics were developing heart disease, kidney failure, strokes, blindness, blocked arteries, and other maladies. Decades later, we are experiencing an obesity epidemic, a 600% increase in diabetes (between the early 1960s and 2015), an outpouring of drugs meant to normalize blood sugar, and numerous studies to determine if this could prevent these complications. The author also examines “the demonization of fat.” Faced with skyrocketing heart attacks in the general population, experts condemned America’s typical high-cholesterol, highfat diet. In 1971, the American Diabetic Association “began prescribing carbohydrate-rich/low-fat diets for diabetic patients largely because this is what the American Heart Association was suggesting for effectively all Americans.” Taubes is blunt: “They were wrong.” Although the ADA has softened its condemnation of fats, which diabetics can metabolize, it continues to encourage carbohydrates, which they can’t without pharmaceutical help. A must-read book for diabetics, but doctors will also learn a lot.
Kirkus Star
Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence Trofimov, Yaroslav | Penguin Press (400 pp.) $32.00 | Jan. 9, 2024 | 9780593655184
A Ukrainian-born foreign affairs correspondent maps the war in progress. As someone who grew up in Kyiv and speaks both Ukrainian and Russian, Wall Street Journal reporter Trofimov, author of The Siege of Mecca, offers a fly-onthe-wall glimpse into the continuing conflict, via both official reports and firsthand accounts from the streets. In Feb. 23, 2022, when “Kyiv was still a city at peace,” the author’s meeting with former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko tipped him off to what was about to happen, as officials began to flee. “Russian triumph within days was a foregone conclusion, Western intelligence services predicted,” Trofimov reports; no one seriously believed Ukraine could hold off Russian forces. “For centuries, Russian military power had terrified Europe,” writes the author. “As for this place called Ukraine, was it, deep down, a real country after all?” Along with Spanish photojournalist Manu Brabo (the book contains a photo insert), the author moved toward the action, first from Kyiv in the first hours of the Russian onslaught, as the
Terrific on-the-ground reportage during the initial fraught months of the ongoing war. OUR ENEMIES WILL VANISH
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A thoughtful, wise, empathetic book that has the capacity to save lives. THE INVISIBLE ACHE
Ukraine Territorial Defense, National Guard, and Air Force helped withstand the capture of the crucial Hostomel Airport; to Kharkiv and Mariupol, strategic cities in the north and south, respectively; Voznesensk and Mykolaiv; and eventually to the Donbas, where Putin withdrew his forces reluctantly to dig in and retrench by April. Along the tumultuous journey of many uncertain months, the author interviewed scores of fighters, civilians, and officials, and he capably reveals how Ukraine managed to channel its steely motivation and national unity into real action on the battlefield. Trofimov also ably conveys that despite some wobbly local officials whose loyalties have been tested, there’s been no question where Ukraine has stood since 2014, when Russia invaded Crimea and essentially “forfeited the sympathy of most Ukrainians, likely for generations.” Terrific on-the-ground reportage during the initial fraught months of the ongoing war.
The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power Vance, Courtney B. & Robin L. Smith, with Charisse Jones | Balance/Grand Central Publishing (288 pp.) | $30.00 | Nov. 7, 2023 9781538725139
An actor and a psychologist examine the stressors in the lives of Black males, suggesting ways for improved self-care. Just as Vance was beginning to KIRKUS REVIEWS
enjoy success as an actor, his father, long traumatized by the feeling of abandonment in childhood, committed suicide. The event set him on a yearslong voyage of self-examination. “I loved my father deeply,” Vance writes, “but I hardly knew him”—a common feeling among Black men, who, writes Smith, “live with the contradiction of being highly scrutinized and invisible at the same time. They know that when they are in non-Black spaces, they are being watched, sometimes with admiration, sometimes with envy, often with fear.” Wrestling with that contradiction is a high-wire act for many, especially for those who become visible through fame, whether as an actor, athlete, politician, or business leader. “They try,” Smith adds, “to believe that it’s not painful or messy to know that their special status is fragile…or that if they are considered special, it means so many who look like them are not.” The resulting denial, she holds, is itself a stressor. Addressing those sources of friction requires men to seek help, which is sometimes difficult to do, contradicting cultural ideals of stoicism. Vance writes of the difficulty of seeking therapy—and then of the many benefits that resulted. Smith encourages constant alertness to the condition of those around you. “Get in other folks’ business,” she counsels, particularly, as both she and Vance write, when there is any hint of suicidal ideation or behavior. In a book whose lessons extend to readers of any background, the authors emphasize the necessity of self-care and the awareness that with all of life’s tragedies, “no circumstance is without meaning” and “no experience is wasted.” A thoughtful, wise, empathetic book that has the capacity to save lives.
The Trump Indictments: The 91 Criminal Counts Against the Former President of the United States Ed by Velshi, Ali | Mariner Books (272 pp.) $17.99 paper | Sept. 25, 2023 9780063382589
A compendium of charges brought by grand juries and prosecutors against Donald Trump. Four court cases, three prosecutors, 91 criminal charges, possible sentences totaling more than 700 years in prison: Trump has always dealt in superlatives, and those are the staggering numbers, well known to anyone who follows the news—though, as MSNBC host Velshi writes in his introduction, they are so many and so thoroughly laid out “that we risk becoming numb to their monumental importance.” There are the payoffs to Stormy Daniels and the cooking of corporate books to hide them, set in New York; those squirreled-away classified documents, bound for trial in Florida; the attempted coup on Jan. 6, which jurors in the District of Columbia will hear; and the tampering with the 2020 election in Georgia. Other suits are likely to follow, since Trump and various co-conspirators allegedly tried to overthrow the electors of Wisconsin, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and other states as well. As Velshi correctly notes, the charges against Trump and his alleged criminal colleagues are exquisitely detailed, ranging from macro level (“during an audio-recorded meeting with a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff, none of whom possessed a security clearance, TRUMP showed and described a [nuclear] ‘plan of attack’ that TRUMP said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official…[and] also said, ‘as president I could have declassified it’ ”) to the comparatively NOVEMBER 1, 2023 87
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micro level, such as Trump’s insistence that Georgia voting official Ruby Freeman “was a professional vote scammer and a known political operative” or that “close to 5,000 dead people voted” in Georgia. The text features the thickest of legalese, but it’s well worth plowing through as a preview of coming attractions. The courts will decide, but here’s the scorecard to follow along at home.
The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust White, Elizabeth B. & Joanna Sliwa | Simon & Schuster (336 pp.) | $28.99 | Jan. 23, 2024 9781982189129
The biography of a Jewish woman who impersonated a Polish countess during World War II to help those suffering during the Holocaust. As White, a former historian for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Sliwa, a historian at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, delineate, this meticulous biography began when White received a long-buried World War II memoir, written in the 1960s by Dr. Janina Mehlberg (19051969), in 1989. Although Mehlberg’s manuscript covered only her war years, White and Sliwa dig deeper. The authors examine her life as a math professor before and her career after the war in Canada and the U.S. with her husband, philosopher Henry Mehlberg, and they offer a thorough portrait of the larger structure of Polish resistance to German occupation. Working as academics in East Galicia (now Ukraine), the Mehlbergs relied on aristocratic friends to slip under the radar when roundups for Jews began. Spirited to Lublin by an old friend of the family, Count Andrzej Skrzyński, they changed their identities to Count and Countess Sucholdoska. As 88
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Skrzyński’s adviser, Janina was able to provide food and medicine to prisoners of the Majdanek, which was “designated a concentration camp on February 16, 1943.” As an insider, she conveyed messages for the Polish Resistance. The authors show the great risk involved, as “officials had to tread a thin line between service to Poland and collaboration with its enemy.” In her memoir, Janina wrote, “If I thought only of the dangers to myself or to those I loved, I was worth nothing. But if surviving meant being useful to many, I had to find the strength to survive.” Her bravery in the face of Nazi brutality allowed her to save countless lives, and the authors bring her story to life. A fine delineation of personal heroism amid an era of utter human depravity.
Purpose: What Evolution and Human Nature Imply About the Meaning of Our Existence Wilkinson, Samuel T. | Pegasus (356 pp.) $29.95 | March 5, 2024 | 9781639365173
A searching overview of scientific evolution that includes a plug for a personal God. Religion has been in decline across the developed world for several centuries, with some blaming the rise of Charles Darwin, whose theory of natural selection seemed to eliminate the need for a purpose in life. Many scientists rejected Darwin at the time, but by
the 20th century, hard evidence had convinced the scientific community, if not the general public. As knowledge of life and the universe grew, there were fewer reasons to postulate a God to manage matters beyond human understanding. Wilkinson, associate director of the Yale Depression Research Program, emphasizes that, despite dazzling advances in income and health, humans are no happier. Despair, hopelessness, and mental illness—especially depression—are epidemic. Perhaps, he suggests, we are missing something. The popular (but not scientific) view casts evolution as a mindless, survival-of-the fittest process that dooms us “to live, breathe, die, and whittle away our hours in a world without meaning.” Wilkinson argues that evolution is not random, but directed, and that a true understanding requires a Supreme Being “who is benevolent, who created us, and wants us to be happy.” Except for the first and last chapters, the author rarely mentions God; rather, he provides an expert account of evolution in which altruism plays as great a role as selfishness, groups as well as individuals evolve, and Homo sapiens’ superb ability to cooperate may be the leading factor in our spectacular achievements. Among its other countless accomplishments, science has discovered the single greatest element in human health and happiness: “a good marriage and family life.” Relying on solid research, Wilkinson illuminates related topics, including free will, sex, and the elements of “a good life” and “a good society.” An insightful explanation of evolution and human nature in which religion is neither excluded nor central.
A fine delineation of personal heroism amid an era of utter human depravity. THE COUNTERFEIT HEIRESS
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A sometimes stumbling but deeply empathetic and human memoir-inessays told with inquisitive subtlety. SECRETS OF THE SUN
Secrets of the Sun: A Memoir Yoshikawa, Mako | Mad Creek/Ohio State Univ. Press (168 pp.) | $19.95 paper | Feb. 8, 2024 | 9780814258934
A collection of essays about a complicated father’s unsettling truth. The afternoon before her wedding, novelist and essayist Yoshikawa learned that her father, Shoichi, had died. Though he was plagued by a heart condition for years, the author focuses mostly on his bipolar disorder, alcoholism, gambling, and abusive outbursts. A Japanese immigrant to the U.S. in the wake of World War II, Shoichi was a respected fusion energy scientist. Just as the technology fell short of its promise to revolutionize energy, Shoichi, too, failed to live up to his own predicted potential for genius. The memories, relationships, and conversations that fill this book center around disappointment, eccentricity, and rage, rather than breakthroughs, pride, and awards. Still, the refrain that Yoshikawa has heard her entire life—“He’s good inside”—haunts her. In a quest to find a cause or an explanation for her father’s illness and decline, and to examine and perhaps forgive the havoc he wreaked on his family To read about a novel by Mako Yoshikawa, visit Kirkus online.
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and other relationships, the author examines a series of frightening, painful, and embarrassing episodes and oddities. As she casts about for some sort of understanding and closure, she considers topics like the bombing of Japan during the war, racism and immigration, and gender roles and expression. It is a somber reality of mental illness that the damage left in its wake gains a life of its own, anchoring the lives of others. This reality, with its attendant frustration, desperation, and inherent dissatisfaction, leaves Yoshikawa unsure of her own purpose in her project. Readers will also feel this lack of tidy understanding, but the narrative’s open, curious, and at times meandering search hints at how reason and heart do battle with each other—and how memory complicates both. A sometimes stumbling but deeply empathetic and human memoir-in-essays told with inquisitive subtlety.
You’ll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other Than Love Zug, Marcia A. | Steerforth (352 pp.) $29.95 | Jan. 9, 2024 | 9781586423742
An exploration of “the instrumental use of marriage.” Zug, a professor of family law, examines in lively detail the prevalence of “blatantly transactional marriages,” unions entered into because of financial or legal benefits. Drawing on sources including court cases, historical anecdotes, and her
own family’s history, she provides ample evidence to show how generations of American men and women have used marriage “to combat racial, gender, and class discrimination,” gain money or status, ensure their parental rights, and even elude criminal prosecution. If “gold-diggers”—Melania Trump is Zug’s most recent example—are obvious participants in this kind of marriage, they are hardly alone. When widows of Revolutionary or Civil War veterans were able to claim a pension, many marriages occurred between needy young women and elderly men. Some individuals married for status, or to share in the power of politically influential families; marriage to nobility was a way “for new-money families” to bypass “old-money” social controls. For some would-be immigrants, “marriage was their only immigration option and, frequently, their only path to safety.” Marrying for a green card, Zug notes, “remains perfectly legal.” The author documents ways that transactional marriages have increased the risk of exploitation and abuse, but she finds, too, that forced marriages at times have protected women, and their children, “from abandonment and destitution.” She looks at the pros and cons of intermarriage. A white man marrying a Native American woman could gain rights to tribal resources; for a Native woman, intermarriage could mean access to valuable government benefits. Because of spousal privilege, some hasty marriages become an effective criminal defense strategy. In revealing the complex consequences of marrying, Zug concludes that marriage, at best, “is a Band-Aid that Americans have used when society is too sexist, too racist, or just too lazy to implement better solutions.” A fresh, engaging social history.
To read about a cultural history of marriage, visit Kirkus online.
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NOVEMBER IS National
Native American Heritage Month. This year, we’ve seen a variety of picture books centering Indigenous characters, but such stories shouldn’t be shared only this month; these are compelling works that children should be reading year-round. From a meticulously researched biography to a trickster tale to a poignant family story, these books will keep readers rapt for a long time to come. Just Like Grandma (Heartdrum, Jan. 24) by Kim Rogers (Wichita) centers on an Indigenous girl who longs to emulate a beloved grandparent. Whether Grandma is dancing barefoot in the backyard, painting a sunrise, or beading buckskin moccasins, young Becca wants to join in. The relationship goes both ways: Grandma is eager to be like her beloved granddaughter, too. With simple, flat colors and marvelous textures, illustrator Julie Flett (Cree-Métis) depicts a strong intergenerational bond; her images and Rogers’ matterof-fact text exude love and tenderness. 92 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
With Remember (Random House Studio, March 21), former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s (Mvskoke Nation) beautifully crafted musing on nature and ancestral heritage is adapted for a picture-book format. Harjo’s melodic verse reminds readers that they are an integral part of the universe, while Caldecottwinning illustrator Michaela Goade, taking inspiration from her Tlingit heritage, uses a veritable symphony of colors and textures to bring it all to brilliant life. “Two friends making history” are at the heart of Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series (Kokila, April 11) by Traci Sorell (Cherokee Nation). In 1911, Charles Bender (Ojibwe) and John Meyers (Cahuilla) became the first two Indigenous athletes to play against each other in a World Series. Sorell deftly traces both men’s paths to greatness; along the way, she balances the excitement of the games with details of the racism these players confronted. The talent, determination, and unwavering mutual support of
both Bender and Meyers come through in elegantly composed images by Arigon Starr (Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma). “Bear has fast legs. Turtle has a fast mind.” In Arihhonni David’s early reader Who Will Win? (Holiday House, April 25), an Akwesasne elder tells a child the story of two worthy competitors who go head-to-head in a race. David (Haudenosaunee Kanienkehaka) relies on just a few simple but well-chosen words per page, while his energetic illustrations amp up the drama as the slow but savvy Turtle finds a way to turn the contest to his advantage. This retelling of a classic trickster tale has it all—humor, suspense, and a satisfying ending, all of it pitched at the perfect level for beginning readers.
What does home mean? Initially Ojiig, the protagonist of When the Stars Came Home (Little, Brown, Nov. 21), by Brittany Luby (Anishinaabe), thinks it’s a physical place. But after he and his parents move to the city, leaving behind family members, traditions, and his habit of stargazing, the young Anishinaabe boy and his parents seek ways to make their new home feel more familiar. Soon Ojiig realizes that home is “where you learn who came before you,” “where you discover who you are,” and “where you imagine who you might become.” Natasha Donovan’s (Métis) vibrant layouts gracefully juxtapose scenes of Ojiig’s ancestors with present-day moments. Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor. KIRKUS REVIEWS
Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson
NATIVE STORIES FOR NOVEMBER—AND ALL YEAR LONG
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EDITOR’S PICK A Florida middle schooler tries to hide her problems at home as she attempts to have a normal school experience. Sharkita Lloyd is fearful that something will happen to disrupt her family life again. Her mother’s neglect landed Kita and younger siblings Lilli and Lamar in separate foster homes for the summer. Mama seems to be trying her best, but Kita continues to do more than her share of caregiving, a difficult task, especially given that 8-yearold Lamar has fetal alcohol syndrome. Mama’s fierce temper also keeps Kita on edge, doing all she can to make her happy. As she begins seventh grade, Kita ponders all the experiences
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she’s missed. She’s also self-conscious about her appearance due to dental issues that have led to bullying. The new assistant principal extends an invitation to her new dance team, but as much as Kita wants to join and become a baton twirler, she fears her mother’s irresponsibility will make it impossible. Even as Kita allows herself to relax, engage with friends and school activities, and believe in her family’s future, her worst fears come true. The cast is primarily African American, and cultural touchstones are woven throughout. This is an outstanding depiction of the impact that family stressors can have on a
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Between Two Brothers By Crystal Allen
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You Broke It! By Liana Finck
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Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem By Gary Golio; illus. by E.B. Lewis
Shark Teeth Winston, Sherri | Bloomsbury (304 pp) $17.99 | Jan. 16, 2024 | 9781547608508
household’s youngest members. Winston skillfully shares Kita’s story, allowing readers to understand and empathize with her plight. The supporting characters
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The Antiracist Kitchen Ed. by Nadia L. Hohn; illus. by Roza Nozari
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Coretta By Coretta Scott King with Barbara Reynolds; illus. by Ekua Holmes
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Slugfest By Gordon Korman
are well drawn and add both richness and texture to the narrative. A deeply satisfying tale with an irresistible protagonist. (Fiction. 9-12)
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Time To Make Art By Jeff Mack
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Threads By Lina Maslo
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Percy Jackson and the Olympians By Rick Riordan
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Shark Teeth By Sherri Winston
The Girl Who Sang By Estelle Nadel with Sammy Savos & Bethany Strout; illus. by Sammy Savos
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Programmed To Paint Abril, Mauricio | Penguin Workshop (48 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 9, 2024 | 9780593523773
A little robot desperately wants to be creative, but learning to paint also means learning to embrace imperfection. Programmed to know how to do everything, Pintro, an adorable automaton with expressive eyes and a perky antenna, excels at baking, gardening, and math. His attempts at painting, however, while impressive, look like exact copies of his inspirations. Pintro knows that there’s so much more to expression, so he attends an art class. Soon he realizes that making mistakes is key to creativity. With a little guidance from his supportive teacher and some reprogramming, Pintro discovers his inner artist. Abril’s message to readers is clear: Wonderful, creative results come from letting go of perfectionism. The author/illustrator plays with perspective, showing Pintro’s view of the class observing him as well as an image from above of Pintro’s exact copies of a still life. Though the takeaway is conveyed with a heavy hand, it is meaningful nonetheless. The idea that imperfect art is highly desirable and that making mistakes is a necessary part of the creative process is sure to resonate deeply with many children and adults alike. Pintro’s art teacher presents Black, while the children in his class are racially diverse. This tale of a sweetly personified machine offers a very human message. (Picture book. 4-6)
Solidly executed, with fast and frequent frights. (Horror. 8-12)
Kirkus Star
Between Two Brothers Allen, Crystal | Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (352 pp.) | $19.99 | Jan. 23, 2024 9780063047297
Last Laugh Alexander, K.R. | Scholastic (176 pp.) | $7.99 paper | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781339012155
A boy is haunted—and hunted—by possessed clown dolls. Victor’s older sister, Sarah, mocks him because he’s 94 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
afraid of their grandmother’s creepy collections of figurines and other odd objects. Sarah’s terrified of clowns, so when Victor, Sarah, and their younger sister, Genevieve, must spend the night at their grandmother’s house alone, he breaks one of the few rules—don’t go in Grandma’s room—to borrow a clown doll and hide it under Sarah’s pillow. The doll vanishes, kicking off a string of strange events. Could Sarah have caught wind of the prank? Or is there actually an army of animated clown dolls after him? What starts off as a series of blink-and-it’s-gone doll spottings quickly escalates into nonstop harassment; soon, the dolls also begin targeting Victor’s sisters and his friend Gareth. Victor goes to his grandmother for help, only to find she’s unconscious from a mysterious ailment—Victor knows it must be connected to the clowns, raising the stakes for him and his loved ones. Although the setup is somewhat contrived, the fast pacing and short chapters ending with ominous final lines quickly get readers to the good stuff. The book also makes clever use of design, breaking up sentences across multiple lines at key moments. The big climax and denouement are followed by a delightful twist. Victor and his siblings have olive skin and dark curly hair; Gareth is Filipino.
Some relationships cannot be broken. Black 13-yearold Isaiah Abernathy is gearing up to see Seth, his older brother and best friend, head off to Texas A&M for college in a few
months, much to his dismay. Seth is one of the few people who helps Isaiah keep a check on the inner “shy guy” who makes him feel nervous in social situations. The brothers have a strong bond and always look out for each other. So, when Seth misses the sibling sports competition at the local rec center, Isaiah fumes over what feels like a deep betrayal by his beloved older brother during his time of need. The following day, the two boys get into a heated argument—but before Isaiah can apologize, he learns that Seth was in a terrible accident that’s left him hospitalized in a medically induced coma. Isaiah battles his guilt and, rejecting the doctor’s grim prognosis, tries to find a way to help his brother heal. This book, narrated in Isaiah’s natural and inviting first-person voice, delves deeply into grief, accountability, and anxiety and shows, in an inspirational way, how strong the bonds between family members, friends, and community members can be in times of need. The book also explores with care the need for inner strength and the power of the human mind when working through trauma. A moving and uplifting exploration of sibling bonds. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)
The Fish of Small Wishes Arnold, Elana K. | Illus. by Magdalena Mora Roaring Brook Press (40 pp.) | $18.99 Jan. 30, 2024 | 9781250765321
A fish helps a young girl forge connections. Kiki Karpovich, a brown-skinned girl with thick dark hair, doesn’t have a lot of friends. Shy and quiet, she notices something glistening in the street. It turns out to be a huge fish mouthing the word help. Kiki rushes the fish home, fills the bathtub, and places the fish inside. It then reveals itself to be “a fish of small wishes.” Kiki wishes for more friends, but that proves to be too big of a wish for the fish to handle. Her wish to be less shy is met with the same response, KIRKUS REVIEWS
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Sure to excite a new generation of stargazers and scientists. CASTING SHADOWS
and when Kiki asks for help digging a big hole in her courtyard (for reasons that become clear only later), the fish repeats itself. So Kiki swallows her shyness, calls for help, and makes friends as the whole neighborhood unquestioningly pitches in, making a safe home for the fish to live in and granting Kiki her wishes at the same time. It’s a sweet story but a bit uneven, with stray lines that feel out of place and a slow, understated tone. Mora’s smudgy, saturated artwork depicts a racially diverse community. The author’s note in the back, describing Arnold’s Jewish family’s practice of buying live carp for gefilte fish, has more life in it than the preceding tale. A quiet lesson about finding your voice. (Picture book. 4-7)
The Curse of Eelgrass Bog Averling, Mary | Razorbill/Penguin (256 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9780593624906
Eelgrass Bog may be cursed, but Kess has her hopes pinned on what she’ll find there. Twelve-yearold Kess and her older brother, Oliver, have lived alone in the Unnatural History Museum ever since Mam and Da left for Antarctica on a research trip ever so long ago. Well, there’s also Shrunken Jim, a pickled, disembodied head Kess carries around in a jar, a staunch if unusual friend. Kess hopes that new exhibits will revitalize the museum, and when newcomer Lilou visits, Kess finds a partner in KIRKUS REVIEWS
exploration—and what they learn in Eelgrass Bog upends everything Kess thought she knew. Averling’s worldbuilding is deft and beguiling, from Kess’ unfamiliarity with modern tech that tells readers something’s very amiss to the delightful weirdness of the museum and its environs. Averling’s use of the present tense effectively unmoors readers (as well as Kess) from time, and Kess’ voice is a delight. “Oh, vermin,” she curses, and she dismisses Oliver as “a prunehearted cockroach.” Shining brightest is her endearing relationship with Shrunken Jim—an excellent supporting character for all that he’s brined. Most human characters are cued white; Lilou has two dads, and Kess and Lilou find that they might “like-like” each other, though active romance is left for Kess’ future. A deliciously offbeat magical adventure. (Fantasy. 8-12)
The Three Little Mittens Bailey, Linda | Illus. by Natalia Shaloshvili Tundra Books (32 pp.) | $17.99 Oct. 24, 2023 | 9781774880111
Who says things must match? Dotty and Other Dotty are a pair of pink mittens with yellow polka dots. Stripes is a gray-striped mitten, sans mate. The pair tease her for being a purposeless singleton and point out that the Little Girl who owns them will never wear her. Then Other Dotty gets lost, and the Little Girl pairs Dotty with Stripes. They almost become friends; that they’re mismatched is unimportant. But then
who should materialize but Other Stripes, leaving Dotty solo. This trio is confronted by the “very BIG voice” of the Little Girl, who asks why they must match. After much consideration, Dotty and the striped pair confess they don’t know, and, they concede, “someone always gets left out”; the Little Girl heartily concurs. Out comes her box of mittens that lost their partners long ago. Subsequently, she decides deliberately to wear mismatched mittens daily and even starts a trend at school. The mittens love it, making new friends along the way. The overarching themes of this witty, thought-provoking story are, of course, accepting differences and recognizing individual worthiness. Mittens are a sensible thematic metaphor, suggesting cozy warmth. The illustrations, created with acrylic and watercolor pencil, depict a diverse group of background children; the Little Girl is light-skinned. A sound, creatively told lesson in inclusion. (Picture book. 4-7)
Casting Shadows: Solar and Lunar Eclipses With the Planetary Society® Betts, Bruce | Lerner (32 pp.) | $9.99 paper Jan. 1, 2024 | 9798765624562
A short primer on eclipses, both solar and lunar. A note from Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye (the Science Guy) opens this book. Betts goes on to explain that eclipses—when either “the Moon enters Earth’s shadow” (lunar) or “Earth enters the Moon’s shadow” (solar)—are one of the times the wonders of space can be experienced here on Earth. The first chapter uses diagrams to show how shadows are cast by the moon and Earth and how their orbits affect the shadows. Betts also states that syzygy “refers to three bodies in space that are in a straight line” (Earth, the moon, and the sun). After covering the general concept, NOVEMBER 1, 2023
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the next chapters go into more detail on lunar and then solar eclipses, with beautiful full-color photos of both kinds of eclipses and racially diverse groups of people watching them. The solar chapter is especially strong, with safety warnings, instructions on using a piece of cardboard to watch the eclipse, and information on how the Mars rovers have photographed eclipses. The text blocks are kept small and straightforward so that the information doesn’t overwhelm readers. The result is impressively clear and efficient—the level of detail will satisfy advanced readers, while the digestible format will be welcoming to reluctant or hard-to-please readers. The author’s enthusiasm shines through clearly and is contagious. Sure to excite a new generation of stargazers and scientists. (glossary, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 6-10)
Sleep: A Kid’s Guide to the Science of Slumber Bjazevich, Wendy | Illus. by Juliana Eigner Bushel & Peck Books (32 pp.) | $19.99 Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781638191728
A quick summary of sleep’s purposes, stages, and disorders, with advice about how to get more of it. Bjazevich starts off in an informational rush with mentions of “circadian rhythms,” “homeostatic sleep drive,” and the brain’s “suprachiasmatic nucleus” on the very first page—but then goes on to dish out a mishmash of qualified claims and broad generalities: “Reduced health risks” are one of sleep’s “potential benefits” and that it’s “not uncommon” for people who are deaf to sign in their sleep. Late naps, caffeinated drinks, or electronic devices used too close to bedtime “might make sleeping more difficult.” Outdoor exercise “may improve and promote sleep.” Alarmingly, childhood growth “could 96 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
be slowed or stunted” by a consistent lack of down time. Diabetes and obesity have also been linked to too little sleep…but also too much (“more research is needed.” No kidding). Along with splashes of bright color, Eigner poses a large cast of figures, mostly children, all of whom range in skin tone, bedding down or posing as simplified anatomical models. The author does broaden her scope with closing pages of sleeping animals and of different types of beds throughout history and all over the world, from futons to hammocks. Still, young readers (or their parents) in search of practical and effective ways to achieve healthy sleep habits will come away with a clear impression that science has little to offer beyond equivocations.
historical fantasy is loosely inspired by the Celtic legends Brigit adores, including the love story of Oisín (son of the warrior Finn MacCool) and Neve (daughter of the sea god). Brigit narrates events in the first person as her sense of self-identity develops through family tragedy, community hardship, and her increasing awareness of her heritage. Everything culminates in Brigit’s dramatic quest to get the Great Selkie to lift the bane. The tale’s strength lies in its writing: well-drawn characters, a strong sense of place, vivid images of the natural world, and evocative fantastical elements. All characters are cued white. An immersive reading experience threaded through with Celtic lore. (Fantasy. 9-13)
An eye-glazing overview. (glossary, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 7-9)
Dear Ruby, Hear Our Hearts
The Selkie’s Daughter
Bridges, Ruby | Illus. by John Jay Cabuay Orchard/Scholastic (32 pp.) | $18.99 Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781338753912
Brennan, Linda Crotta | Holiday House (208 pp.) | $17.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 9780823454396
A girl comes of age and reconciles with her selkie blood in Brennan’s debut novel. Brigit lives with a secret: Webbing grows between her fingers, and no matter how often her cousin Alys cuts it away, it grows back. Her village on the coast of Nova Scotia may be under a selkie “bane” that’s affecting everyone’s catch—possibly as retribution for the killing of baby seals. Rumors also swirl about the origins of her mother, who, as Brigit says, “has no ties on land.” Brigit befriends new arrival Peter, an orphan who hails “from away”—in this case, Manitoba, where his family were homesteaders. Peter, who’s arrived with new priest Father Angus, his uncle, learns about Brigit’s life and community, revealing details about them to readers at the same time. This
Civil rights legend Bridges encourages young people to persevere. After becoming the face of school integration at just 6 years old, Bridges continued to further her legacy by visiting schools across the U.S. Over the past 25 years, she has received letters from thousands of students with “ideas and concerns that ran deeper than we grown-ups gave them credit for.” In her latest book for kids, Bridges responds to notes from children grappling with political and social crises, including anti-Asian racism, climate change, and gun violence. The issues that matter to young Americans come alive in Cabuay’s energetic illustrations, which make deft use of color and texture. On one spread, a short, brown-skinned child named Tala, bullied for being short, strides confidently down a school hallway past classmates who whisper and laugh. In the accompanying letter, Tala talks KIRKUS REVIEWS
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Anthropomorphized trees use the Wood Wide Web to support each other in tough times. LITTLE TREE AND THE WOOD WIDE WEB
about drawing strength from Bridges’ bravery; Bridges’ reply emphasizes that “it’s okay to be different because what really matters is your heart and what’s inside!” The correspondences are brief, barely skimming the surface, and Bridges’ messages are too general to have a genuine impact. Backmatter, which includes a glossary with pronunciation guides, is helpful but does little to connect Bridges’ historic contributions to the issues young people are facing today. This picture book’s superficial discussion of important topics doesn’t live up to Bridges’ advocacy or Cabuay’s dynamic art. Anemic messages of hope from an iconic activist. (more information on Bridges) (Picture book. 6-9)
Just Us, Platypus! Brown, Michelle L. | Illus. by Rayanne Vieira North Star Editions (48 pp.) | $7.99 paper Jan. 1, 2024 | 9781631637711 | Series: Kangaroo’s Big World
First impressions often need adjusting. How we perceive others when we first encounter them—and how they perceive us—are important issues, handled lightly but with focus here. Kangaroo is having a fine time hopping when she falls into a creek. She spots an unknown animal in the water and, seeing the creature’s bill, thinks it might be Duck. But no—not a duck, not a frog: The creature is brown and furry, with a large flat tail, black eyes, and sharp claws. Kangaroo worriedly KIRKUS REVIEWS
suspects that it might be a “River Monster,” while Platypus, observing Kangaroo’s deerlike head, giant feet, and short arms, fears she might be a “Land Monster.” Different preferred diets elicit a “Gross” from Platypus and an unspoken “Ick” from Kangaroo. But Kangaroo very politely asks to see his unusual paws and praises him when he teaches her to swim. Her wise conclusion is an acceptance of their individuality. Sometimes the rhyming four-beat lines are rocky, with anywhere from four to 13 syllables and changing stresses. The flat, grayscale, cartoonish illustrations are serviceable. A platypus has no teeth, but despite the “thought bubbles,” it might not be clear that the scary mouthful of sharp incisors depicted here exists only in Kangaroo’s imagination. Discussion questions close out the book. A worthwhile message in a longer beginning-reader format. (Easy reader. 4-7)
Ta-Da, Koala! Brown, Michelle L. | Illus. by Rayanne Vieira North Star Editions (48 pp.) | $7.99 paper Jan. 1, 2024 | 9781631637834 | Series: Kangaroo’s Big World
Entertaining oneself is good, but finding a new friend (and a lost boomerang) is even better. In this series entry, Kangaroo is bored, but she quickly finds inspiration in a cloud and digs her boomerang from her cluttered pouch.
When Boomerang fails to return and she has to wait, she distracts herself with shadow-boxing and then with making a kangaroo-shaped “sand queen.” Hopping into the forest to search, Kangaroo bumps into a tree, then introduces herself to the creature she’s knocked loose. Kangaroo would like to play, but koalas “sleep by day.” She gives him a ride in her pouch, but Koala gets motion sick, and they quickly return to his tree. Though Koala wants to nap, Kangaroo notices that his “two pairs of toes” (koalas have five front toes) would be great at boomerang-flinging, and Koala, realizing that the missing boomerang is in his tree, retrieves it. Sleeping forgotten, they become friends, and he asks Kangaroo to teach him to throw it. Of the three discussion questions that follow, one asks about story comprehension; the other two ask readers to connect with similar experiences they might have had. The four-beat lines rhyme, but uneven line-lengths, varying from eight to 13 or 15 syllables, can make for rough reading aloud. Cartoonish grayscale illustrations are not cute or cuddly, but they do show the action. Discussion questions at the end of the book offer a jumping-off point for conversations about playtime and differences. Different preferences don’t impede inter-species friendship here. (Easy reader. 4-7)
Little Tree and the Wood Wide Web Brownridge, Lucy | Illus. by Hannah Abbo Ivy Kids (32 pp.) | $21.99 | Sept. 5, 2023 9780711284876
Anthropomorphized trees use the Wood Wide Web to support each other in tough times. Little Tree is a Douglas fir sapling in an old-growth forest where sunlight and water are tough to come by. In despair, Little Tree cries, but trees don’t cry tears; instead, their sadness >>> NOVEMBER 1, 2023 97
C H I L D R E N ’ S // Q & A
THE KIRKUS Q&A: EOIN COLFER
The Artemis Fowl author prepares us for the holidays with a newfangled Christmas tale. BY MEGAN LABRISE
What inspired this beautiful Christmas book? I was working on a Christmas musical called Noël. Now, I didn’t write the music, but I did write the book and the lyrics, and 98 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
there’s a few characters in it that I wasn’t finished with. I’d also been doing a book called Illegal (with Andrew Donkin), which was about the migration of kids from North Africa to
The Artemis Fowl author says his series days are over.
Europe. That turned out to be one of the problems I thought was in one place— Europe—that, as we toured that book, turned out to be in every place. And I was doing some work with a charity called Focus Ireland, and they gave me the statistic that one in four migrants ends up homeless. That statistic really stuck with me. So I tried to put those two elements together— Christmas and people who are experiencing homelessness—so Juniper’s Christmas came out of that. It is in many ways a very, very traditional Christmas story that has lovely, warm characters, but in another way it’s a modern story. We know Santa, generally, as “Jolly Old St. Nick”—emphasis jolly, emphasis old. But not in your telling.
Whenever I write a book, I always think, What’s the expectation of it? If I’m writing about a known character, what’s the expectation of them? I’ve done a few sequels to other people’s books, like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Doctor Who. I always begin by looking at a character and saying, What do people know about this character, and What can I bring to it? With Santa, I tried to make him a little bit younger, a little more curmudgeonly. He’s actually closer to a young Scrooge, in the beginning. He has a journey then, because we want to bring him back to the lovable character we had in the beginning. You made me realize I’d made a lot of assumptions about Santa. KIRKUS REVIEWS
Mary Browne
For Christmas fan Eoin Colfer, the prospect of writing a modern-day tale celebrating the beloved winter holiday was both heady and daunting. Sure, the author of the multimillion-selling Artemis Fowl series knows a thing or two about telling a good story. But when you look, for example, at A Christmas Carol—an all-time favorite he considers nearly perfect—the stakes seem as high as reindeer can fly. “If you’re going to do a Christmas book, you want to have a good idea first, and that takes a long time,” says Colfer, speaking with Kirkus via Zoom from his Dublin home. “Then, you have to not be writing an eight-book series. Now that my series days are kind of over, I’m allowing myself to use all the best ideas that I’ve accumulated over the years, like vodka-drinking dragons and grumpy Santa Clauses.” In Juniper’s Christmas (Roaring Brook Press, Oct. 31), an admittedly grumpy Santa Claus hasn’t delivered gifts to the world’s children since the death of his true love nearly 10 years prior. He’s gone AWOL from the North Pole, flying under the radar at North London’s Cedar Park, where he stealthily performs good deeds for the park’s unhoused population. Plucky, magnanimous Juniper Lane is the 11-year-old daughter of the park’s caretaker. When her mother, Jennifer, goes missing just a few days before Christmas, she seeks out this mysterious Mr. Fixit—known only as “Niko”—to see if he can help bring her mother home. What neither knows is that Juniper might be the only child on earth with the potential to help Niko regain his Christmas spirit, in an action-packed adventure Kirkus calls a “soaring flight fueled by joys, sorrows, and deeds both ill and good” (starred review). (As the following transcript represents a 40-minute chat between an author of Irish extraction and an interviewer of Irish descent, it has naturally been lightly edited and heavily condensed.)
Q & A // C H I L D R E N ’ S
People don’t think of Santa being grief-stricken. Christmas might be stolen by Jack Frost or something like that, but Santa is always Santa. But in this story, I think the greatest enemy to the [holiday as we know it] is Santa’s current frame of mind. He has to meet someone amazing to bring him back to himself. There’s a long history of that in children’s literature, of people who remind adults how they used to feel when they were younger—Anne of Green Gables, Pippi Longstocking—and that’s what Juniper is. She’s one of these startling kids who just brings out the best in everybody.
What else do you love about Juniper? I think what I love about her is she’s determined to see the bright side. She had a bumpy few years [following her father’s death], but she came out of it. And now that her mother is coming out of it, she just thinks, This is great; everything’s going to be fantastic. Dad is not forgotten, but he would want us to be happy. Even when her mother goes missing, she has the determination to find her, to succeed, to show up. You’ve mentioned your series days are more or less over, and I respect that. However, in an epilogue
to Juniper’s Christmas, I did see a little prompt that someone might make use of if they did want to continue the story in another book… Yeah, I do have an idea. It’s my Achilles’ heel! I have to leave that little line. Thanks, Daniel Defoe! Is it Daniel Defoe—the actor is Willem Dafoe, so it’s not him—it’s the guy who wrote Robinson Crusoe. [Ed: Yes, it’s Daniel Defoe.] Maybe I’d better write these books quickly before the rest of my brain disintegrates. My copy of Juniper’s Christmas came with a postcard affixed to the last page. It says that for the first 10,000 people who return
I tried to make [Santa] a little bit younger, a little more curmudgeonly.
Juniper’s Christmas
Colfer, Eoin, illus. by Chaaya Prabhat Roaring Brook Press | 368 pp. | $22.99 Oct. 31, 2023 9781250321947
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these postcards to Santa’s Helpers (c/o Macmillan) by Christmas Eve, the publisher will donate one book to a charity supporting unhoused families. This is very important, and the most beautiful thing is that it wasn’t my idea. I did not push it on anybody. I didn’t demand it while stroking my beard, as writers do in their author photos. None of that happened. It was everybody at Roaring Brook Press who said, “Wouldn’t this be a nice idea?” And absolutely, it’s an amazing idea! I’ve been working with various charities over here [in Ireland and the U.K.], so it’s lovely to see that that’s going to be carried through all over the States. And wouldn’t that be a lovely Christmas present for somebody who is somewhere that’s not their home, somewhere that they’re kind of in [a holding pattern] until their lives can begin again, to get this book and maybe feel in a small way that someone like them is out there and that this is representing them? Juniper’s dad had to go through the [British immigration] system; in Ireland, sometimes going through that system can take 10 years. We really need to catch up with our own humanity in a way, because there’s people being left behind, and it’s unnecessary. There are so many amazing charities in the U.S. that serve people dealing with homelessness or migrants arriving. I think it would be beautiful for people to receive a copy of this book out of the blue. It’d be lovely to see that.
Juniper’s Christmas received a starred review in the Aug. 15, 2023, issue. NOVEMBER 1, 2023 99
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moves from their roots into the earth and touches a strand of fungus that is part of the Wood Wide Web. The message spreads to nearby trees. Most have reasons they can’t help; only one has energy to spare. Paper Birch sends her extra sugar and water through the Wood Wide Web, and though some of the trees in between take some of the nutrients and the fungus also uses some for itself, there’s still enough left to help Little Tree. And in winter, when Paper Birch loses her leaves and is struggling, Little Tree returns the favor. Some of the words in the closing glossary never appear in either the story or the final note about Professor Suzanne Simard and her discovery of the Wood Wide Web. The Briticism spinney may have readers reaching for the dictionary, and the fir is consistently referred to as having leaves, not needles. The colored pencil illustrations are charming, with patterns, textures, and shadings bringing the trees and other forest animals to life; fall foliage is especially well done. The trees’ faces and branches are expressive. A good introduction to the Wood Wide Web and a reminder that everyone needs a little help sometimes. (Informational picture book. 3-7)
The Doomsday Archives: The Wandering Hour Clark, Zack Loran & Nick Eliopulos | Zando Young Readers (224 pp.) | $17.99 Jan. 30, 2024 | 9781638930303 | Series: The Doomsday Archives, 1
Three kids gain access to magic in a fight against their town’s evil underbelly. New Rotterdam has so many strange occurrences that it has its own wiki to keep track of them. Emrys is new to town and delighted to live in one of America’s Most Haunted Cities. He resides in the same apartment building as Hazel, his old camp friend, who shares his interest in all things spooky, and Hazel’s friend Serena, who does not. 100 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
Odd mishaps and hostile grown-ups plague a lonely child in this set of surreal episodes. K IS IN TROUBLE
All three, however, are equally fascinated with their reclusive penthouse neighbor, Mr. Van Stavern. One night, they find his apartment trashed and him trapped within the pages of a grimoire. Mr. Van Stavern inducts the trio into the Order of the Azure Eye—a group dedicated to protecting occult relics—and gives them access to the Blue Reliquary, a magical space holding those items. And just in time, because people are disappearing in New Rotterdam, and Emrys, Hazel, and Serena are the only ones who can stop the evil forces at work. The wiki framing is clever, providing readers with background information and mirroring how many tweens would begin their own research. Legitimately scary scenes resolve quickly, with resolutions driven by the kids’ strengths and actions. A big reveal at the end promises exciting developments in future installments. Emrys and Hazel are white; Serena, who has dads who are Black and Dominican, is Black. An engaging start to a promising new series. (Horror. 8-12)
Where Did Benjamin Go? Clarkson, Chris | Illus. by Annalise Barber Abrams (40 pp.) | $18.99 | Sept. 19, 2023 9781419757273
An illustrated love letter to a lost loved one. On a snowy day, young Charlie is solemnly reminiscing about big sibling Benjamin until Daddy suggests that the young narrator make a list of things about Benjamin: “My top favorite things to do with you.” Watercolor,
gouache, and colored pencil illustrations depict memories of the two smiling brown siblings—one tall, with cornrows and long, protective, curvy arms, the other smaller, wideeyed, with short locs. Musical notes, flowers, and a football flow behind them. Charlie’s list is a long one that ranges from pickling vegetables to watching dolphins; it also includes “carousels / and bumper cars / and funnel cakes.” Benjamin’s absence is felt by Mommy and Daddy and even the piano, according to Charlie, who remembers the good times but visibly struggles today. As Charlie reflects on the pool game Marco Polo, the illustrations heartbreakingly show the child searching for a sibling who can no longer be found beneath the bed or in the bathroom. Both readers and Charlie are left to wonder, “Where did you go, Benjamin?” Though there isn’t a clear answer, the focus on the warm, flowery, exciting, and loving memories is as effective as it is bittersweet. Big grief in a small package shows us a complicated sort of healing. (Picture book. 4-8)
K Is in Trouble Clement, Gary | Little, Brown Ink (224 pp.) | $13.99 paper | Jan. 16, 2024 9780316468602 | Series: K Is in Trouble, 1
Odd mishaps and hostile grown-ups plague a lonely child in this set of surreal episodes. Channeling the spirit of Franz Kafka in the plot and the gothic sensibility of Edward Gorey in KIRKUS REVIEWS
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the art, Clement alternately strands tiny schoolboy K in large, sparsely furnished rooms or sends him ricocheting through crowds of forbidding adults in finely drawn belle epoque urban settings. After skipping a breakfast of grayish porridge and sardines “swimming in oil,” then being left for eons in an empty waiting room at school by harsh Frau Headmistress Z, K meets a friendly talking bug. Another day, when he’s home alone, a flock of crows bursts in to wreck the apartment. His miseries continue as he finds himself abandoned on a class outing, accused of theft and chased by crowds of passersby—including dogs and cats—after venturing to the market, and unjustly blamed for waking up all his neighbors after he locks himself out on a snowy night. Despite the calamities, shouting adults, and lonely moments, it’s not all existential gloom—K does get a free afternoon, for instance, thanks to the bug that frightens Herr Principal Y into evacuating school. Still, there’s little relief in the general run of dismal events. Readers may have difficulty seeing K as anything but a powerless victim, despite hints of at least a lively sense of curiosity and a modicum of resilience. The cast appears white. A series opener with niche appeal. (Graphic fantasy. 9-12)
A Fright To Remember Cuevas, Adrianna | Amulet/Abrams (248 pp.) | $14.99 | Oct. 31, 2023 9781419769863 | Series: Monster High School Spirits, 1
At an all-monster school, a new student struggles with identity. Frankie Stein (who uses they/ them pronouns) may look around the same age as the other students at Monster High, but they were actually only pieced together by their loving and supportive parents one month ago. The parts making up KIRKUS REVIEWS
Frankie’s brain came from monsters gifted in STEM subjects, and they’re incredibly intelligent and also very literal—Frankie has a tough time with idioms. An upcoming schoolwide talent show puts Frankie on the radar of mean-girl werecat Toralei, who expresses her jealousy through nasty EekTok videos after overhearing a shocking secret about the source of one of Frankie’s brain parts. Frankie is then plunged into an unexpected journey of self-discovery as they explore not only their past but also the choices of their parents and the history of the school. Cuevas’ series opener is deftly constructed for the middle-grade crowd, examining friendship, bullies, and the power of stories. For those unacquainted with Mattel’s Monster High franchise, this volume is an excellent jumping-in point, making enough introductions to the characters and the world’s specific parlance; for those who dismiss commercial tie-ins, this well-crafted volume will get them to reconsider that stance. With its cinematic pacing and contemporary slant told through a fantasy lens, expect readers of series such as Percy Jackson to find much to enjoy here. Satisfying and substantial. (Fantasy. 8-12)
Just One More Sleep Curtis, Jamie Lee | Illus. by Laura Cornell Philomel (32 pp.) | $18.99 | Jan. 16, 2024 9780593527047
In this latest collaboration from actor and author Curtis and illustrator Cornell, a child finds ways to pass the time. “It’s just one more sleep” until “I blow out candles on my birthday cake,” the young narrator informs us. But after that wonderful day, the gaptoothed, curly-haired, brown-skinned child will have to wait an entire year for the next birthday. Luckily, there are many other special days to enjoy and anticipate in the meantime. Lilting, rhyming verse accompanied by
sprawling, upbeat illustrations follows the unnamed protagonist and a boisterous, multiracial, interfaith family through a year of holidays and events. The child eagerly takes part in everything from dancing in a dragon mask on Chinese New Year and making red heart valentines to finding Easter eggs, listening to the Passover story, lighting Hanukkah candles, opening Christmas presents, and dressing up for Kwanzaa. Finally, it’s New Year! Basking in Mom’s pride, the child has learned patience—and feels quite pleased with that accomplishment. The refrain “just one more sleep”—a common phrase that helps children understand the concept of today and tomorrow— may be slightly confusing here. The book jumps from holiday to holiday, though there are in fact many sleeps between, for instance, the first day of school and Halloween. But no matter: Young readers will know their own special times and relate to this joyful child and loving family. Charming family fun. (Picture book. 3-7)
The Hare-Shaped Hole Dougherty, John | Illus. by Thomas Docherty | Frances Lincoln (32 pp.) | $18.99 Jan. 2, 2024 | 9780711276079
It’s hard to lose someone you love. Bertle the turtle and Hertle Hare are the best of friends; though different, they support each other no matter what. Then, one day, Bertle finds that he’s alone except for a dark, Hertle-shaped shadow: “a hole in the air where a hare ought to be.” Bertle looks everywhere, but he cannot find any sign of Hertle. He yells at the dark hole, but it doesn’t respond. Then he begs the hole to bring Hertle back; he offers toys and promises to be on his best behavior, to no avail. Bertle sits by the riverbank where the two friends used to go and cries. Gerda, a kind older bear, comes along and hugs Bertle, NOVEMBER 1, 2023 101
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letting him express his grief. When Bertle asks why Hertle had to go, Gerda responds that though sometimes those we love must leave us, we can fill the hole that’s left behind with memories of the good times. As Bertle shares his memories, the hare-shaped hole fills with colors and stars. Depicting several stages of grief, this sweet book is a tender portrayal of a character grappling with loss. The narrative is open-ended—Hertle is just “gone” one day—so readers in many situations will be able to relate. The steady, rhyming text works well with the painterly, roughly textured illustrations, which balance out the sad subject matter with a bright palette. Moving. (Picture book. 3-7)
Don’t Blow Your Top! Dyckman, Ame | Illus. by Abhi Alwar Orchard/Scholastic (40 pp.) | $17.99 Oct. 17, 2023 | 9781338837841
How to avert disaster? On a beautiful day in Paradise, Big Volcano and Little Volcano stand happily beside one another. A colorful bird unexpectedly drops a small boulder onto Little Volcano. Uh-oh. Will Little Volcano explode in rage? In the past, Little Volcano has had meltdowns, but Big Volcano models helpful strategies: deep breathing, counting, and thinking happy thoughts. The techniques work—until that clumsy bird drops two more boulders. “BONK! BONK!” This time, though, fed-up Little Volcano forgets the calming tricks and BLOWS THEIR TOP. When Little Volcano apologizes for blowing it—literally and figuratively—Big Volcano gently reassures them: “Sometimes it happens” and “It’s okay. Shake it off.” Peace and happiness are restored. Wait! Is that a bird flying over the volcanoes again? Now it’s Little Volcano’s turn to share the mindfulness tactics, and all ends well. This cute, soothing story 102 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
will help children learn to cope with and temper those explosive, potentially overwhelming emotions that we all feel from time to time. It also lets kids know they might even assist grown-ups when they occasionally lose their own cool. The vibrant, cartoonish digital illustrations are lively, with expressive protagonists and a tropical setting as a backdrop.
Deals with feelings in a gentle, easy-to-understand way. (Picture book. 3-6)
The Three Little Superpigs and the Great Easter Egg Hunt Evans, Claire | Scholastic (32 pp.) | $4.99 Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781339056760
The three superpowered piggies’ latest outing blends an Easter celebration with the story of Jack and the
Beanstalk. The pigs love hunting for eggs with the other denizens of Fairyland. They find as many as they can, and as soon as the hunt is over, they all gorge themselves (well, they are pigs). When they’ve eaten all their candy, each in their own manner, they all want MORE. A boy named Jack tells them that in a magical city in the sky, a goose that lays golden (chocolate) eggs is being held captive. He gives them some beans that will lead them up to the AMAZING eggs, but he also warns them about a giant. The greedy pigs plant the seeds, and when a beanstalk magically grows the next morning, they climb it to the City in the Sky. They immediately start collecting the golden eggs but feel bad when they see how unhappy the captive goose looks. They save her, enraging the Giant Bad Wolf (you saw that coming, right?). They then save Fairyland with a handy axe, much like in the original story. Evans’ slightly wordy tale feels a bit flat, with a slightly preachy moral. Still, the bright, detail-packed illustrations are eye-catching; this one will
please fans of the series. Jack presents white, but background characters are diverse. A predictable piggy lesson in greediness, if one is needed. (Picture book. 3-7)
The Three Little Tardigrades Fay, Sandra | Godwin Books (40 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 9, 2024 | 9781250776099
A familiar folktale with a microscopic twist. Tardigrades, also known as “moss piglets” and “water bears,” are renowned for their extreme durability. So it is that when Mother Tardigrade, being “a staunch advocate for fostering early childhood independence,” sends her offspring, Gavin, Colin, and Doug, off to explore the big wide world, they find agreeable new digs in (respectively) an erupting volcano, an Antarctic ice cave, and on the moon. Moments of terror ensue when a Big Hairy Wolf Spider tracks the three down in turn, but the extreme environments quickly send the hapless arachnid packing. Fay kits out her looming spider and rotund microfauna with big pop eyes for extra cuteness but otherwise renders them with reasonable accuracy and closes with boxes of tardigrade facts, plus a glossary of “slightly scientific terms” used in the narrative. Following the lead of Eugene Trivizas’ Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig (1993), illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, the author also gives the tale a happily-ever-after for all, as the scorched, hypothermic, suffocated, but otherwise unharmed spider, “transparent liquid welling up in his lacrimal glands,” tells Mother T that he was only looking to make friends, and she, suffering from empty-nest syndrome, invites him to stay for tea and cake. Compelling fare for bloodthirsty young STEM-winders. (source list) (Picture book. 6-9)
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A hilarious and heartwarming exposé of adults’ often ridiculous expectations for children. YO U B RO KE IT !
stars and planets, with the shape of a heart superimposed—an especially tender page. Soothing and affirming, this is an ideal offering for a loving adult to share with a little one. Perfect for a cuddly story hour or a cozy bedtime read. (Picture book. 2-5)
The Dancing Letters Kirkus Star
You Broke It! Finck, Liana | Rise x Penguin Workshop (48 pp.) | $18.99 | Jan. 23, 2024 9780593660409
Various anthropomorphized animals and natural phenomena scold their children for behaving in accordance with their natures. A chick cracks through its shell, only for its parent to admonish it for breaking its egg. A wolf tells its howling cub to be quiet. A cloud wants its child to stop crying (raining). Over and over again, these parents voice their disapproval. The repetitive structure allows both tension and comedy to steadily build, leaving readers wondering exactly how these series of demands and reprimands will be resolved—after all, aren’t these children simply being true to themselves? A pig scolds its child for wallowing in the mud, a frog chides its offspring for leaping into the water, and a worm tells its little one to “stop squirming!” It all culminates when a young octopus finally speaks up: “I am just being me.” The enveloping hug from the parent octopus says it all. This brief, simple story wastes no words, instead delivering a wallop of humor and emotion that will both entertain and foster empathy in adults inclined to punish youngsters for simply following their natural inclinations. Squiggly illustrations with minimal outlines and brief splashes of color emphasize the silliness of the demands. The visuals effectively get the action across KIRKUS REVIEWS
while letting the absurdity of the parents’ orders and concerns speak for themselves.
A hilarious and heartwarming exposé of adults’ often ridiculous expectations for children. (Picture book. 3-6)
Like So Forman, Ruth | Illus. by Raissa Figueroa Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (40 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781665917544
“We got love like so.” A Black-presenting grandparent and grandchild have endless love for one another. Forman punctuates each sentence with the refrain “like so”: “I kiss you like so / you kiss me like so // I hug you like so // you hug me like so.” The text has a rhythmic cadence that readers will enjoy; they’ll eagerly anticipate the refrain and will be chiming in by book’s end. Figueroa’s art subtly conveys the passing of time as we see the pair through all four seasons and during both day and night. In one scene, they share a good-night embrace while the child’s parents look on smiling; in another, the pair prepares pancakes in the kitchen. The two spend time in nature, too, holding hands while watching a butterfly alight on a sunflower and walking along the beach in the moonlight. Through it all, their love is unwavering, reflected in their hugs, kisses, and declarations. Figueroa employs a gorgeous gradient of colors. The illustrations have a watercolorlike feel, with an ephemeral mist that swirls across the page. One spread depicts the night sky filled with
Fournier, Evelyne | Illus. by Aurélien Galvan Trans. by Carine Laforest | CrackBoom! Books (32 pp.) | $17.95 | Sept. 5, 2023 9782898024917
A young girl tries to fulfill her grandmother’s birthday request. Olivia “is a true original.” She wears her shirt inside out and sports one yellow and one green sock. She’s incredibly creative, drawing pictures, making sculptures, and performing her own compositions at the piano. Olivia and her grandmother are a lot alike, and the two love to play together in their matching-mismatching socks! For her 70th birthday, Grandma asks for a story, trusting that Olivia’s imagination will result in something extraordinary. Olivia struggles with writing, however; when she tries, the letters always dance about, and grammar concepts won’t align. Olivia becomes frustrated and sad. Grandma joins her and helps ensure that “each letter finds its proper place.” Translated from French, this story of a child with a common learning difficulty will bolster readers struggling with similar problems and help those unfamiliar with these issues better understand them. Fournier presents the protagonist as quite capable, with just one big conflict to surmount. But it isn’t clear what help Grandma provides at the end, so a solution remains mysterious. Galvan’s illustrations are adorable and sweet, just like our main character, and are likewise imaginative in their artistry. In an author’s note, Fournier discusses her daughter Clémence’s journey with dyslexia and >>> NOVEMBER 1, 2023
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Book to Screen Roald Dahl’s The Twits Is Coming to Netflix
Carl Van Vechten Collection/Getty Images
Phil Johnston is directing the animated film based on the 1981 children’s novel. Yet another Roald Dahl adaptation is coming to Netflix, Deadline reports. The streaming service will air an animated film based on Dahl’s The Twits in 2025. The children’s novel, published in the U.S. in 1981, tells the story of a hateful couple who play practical jokes on each other out of spite. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book,
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“Dahl describes all this unredeemed viciousness with a spirited, malevolent glee that plays shamelessly, and no doubt successfully, to kids’ malicious impulses and unmerciful sense of justice.” The Netflix adaptation will be directed by Phil Johnston, who helmed the 2018 animated feature Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Johnston wrote the screenplay with Meg Favreau (Total Eclipse); Katie Shanahan and Todd Demong will co-direct. Netflix bought the Roald Dahl Story Company, which manages the rights to the children’s author’s copyrights, in 2021. The streamer released Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical the following year. In September, Netflix aired four short films directed by Wes Anderson based on Dahl’s work; an adaptation of the author’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is in the works. In a statement, director Johnston said, “I love the Twits and their terrible tricks. I love that they lack self-awareness and personal hygiene and any inkling of human decency. And I love this movie
because it reminds us that twits like the Twits, whose default emotions are anger and vengeance, can’t be allowed to win in our world.” —M.S.
For a review of The Twits, visit Kirkus online.
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B O O K L I S T // C H I L D R E N ’ S
5 Soothing Bedtime Reads 1
1 I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know
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By Leslie Odom Jr. & Nicolette Robinson, illus. by Joy Hwang Ruiz
A gentle testament to one of the few things that never changes—a parent’s love.
2 The Moon Remembers By E.B. Goodale
Peaceful and reverent, this is a book for all families to share as they cuddle closely together.
3 Awake, Asleep
By Kyle Lukoff, illus. by Nadia Alam
Soothing, familiar, and perfect for reading at bedtime—or any other time.
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4 In the Night Garden By Carin Berger
Nighttime is the right time for young readers thanks to this perfect amalgamation of soothing text and image.
5 I’m Not Sleepy / ¡No Tengo Sueño!
4
For more bedtime reads, visit Kirkus online.
By Angela Dominguez
Bedtime fun with a pair of unlikely friends.
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her preferred tools for dealing with her learning disability. Olivia and Grandmother have pale skin; Olivia has light red hair, while Grandma is gray-haired.
A visually pleasing, encouraging tale. (Picture book. 5-8)
This memorable offering is one readers will return to for moments of inspiration. EVE RY WH E R E B E AUT Y I S HAR L E M
Chasing Stars Gaertner, Meg | North Star Editions (160 pp.) | $9.99 paper | Jan. 1, 2024 9781631637902
Everything seems to be changing in Libby’s life… everything except for Libby. Seventh grader Libby’s older sister, Erica, will be attending boarding school come January, but until then they’ll have to share a room, since their grandfather, who’s having trouble with his memory, is coming to live with them. Their dad is taking a leave of absence from his job to be his caretaker, and Mom will be taking more shifts at the hospital where she works. Libby and Erica used to be close, stargazing and making funny videos, but ever since starting high school, Erica has distanced herself from Libby and deems most of her pastimes childish. As Erica’s departure day gets closer, Erica takes over their shared room, demanding more time for herself. Amid all the change, Libby feels as though she’s the only one staying the same—even Christmas Day is different this year, with Erica on her phone for most of the day and Gramps unable to recognize family members. This narrative deals with how sibling relationships and growing pains complicate each other. It doesn’t have a lot of heft; the topics it takes on are meaningful, but it just skims the surface, and everything is resolved quite quickly. Still, that could be a positive for young people who need something fast-moving to get them reading. Physical descriptions are minimal. Light family drama that passes quickly. (Fiction. 10-14) 106 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
Kirkus Star
Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem: The Vision of Photographer Roy DeCarava Golio, Gary | Illus. by E.B. Lewis Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers (48 pp.) | $18.99 | Jan. 16, 2024 9781662680557
A day in the life of photographer Roy DeCarava shows readers the joy of the everyday in Harlem. Roy DeCarava (1919-2009) gets off work, and now his “time is his own.” He loads a roll of film in his camera and pays attention to what he sees around him in Harlem. Relying on his senses, he takes in the city. With his camera, he captures a variety of sights. A boy drawing on the sidewalk with chalk. An artist showing his paintings as the sunlight catches his hat. A mother and son: the love in the boy’s eyes. A crushed soda can. And then there are the sights he can’t catch. A man holding a child as the bus pulls in front and blocks the photographer’s shot. Lewis’ watercolors, while not an obvious choice to echo the realism of photography, successfully capture the magical relationship between DeCarava and his subjects. With skillful use of line, light, and depth, Lewis transports readers and conveys the vision of an artist honoring the city he loves. Golio’s understated text makes judicious use of profound quotes from DeCarava himself on beauty and truth. Present-tense narration carries
the energy of a vibrant neighborhood as seen through the attentive eyes of a brilliant visionary, while artistic details connote the period-specific portrait DeCarava drew of mid-20th-century Harlem.
This memorable offering is one readers will return to for moments of inspiration. (more information on DeCarava, timeline, bibliography, list of museums featuring DeCarava’s work, photos, photo credits) (Picture-book biography. 4-9)
One Sweet Song Gopal, Jyoti Rajan | Illus. by Sonia Sánchez Candlewick (40 pp.) | $18.99 | Jan. 16, 2024 9781536219814
In this tale inspired by the Italian performers who serenaded their neighbors from their balconies during the Covid-19 lockdown, a single musical note leads to a neighborhood symphony. A young tan-skinned girl looks out her window and hears a neighbor play the flute (“One note trills…”). The child steps onto her balcony, chiming her triangle (“One note trills and / now there are two”), which inspires another neighbor to play the violin. Slowly, others join in from their balconies and open windows. A light-skinned neighbor plays a cello, while a South Asian family plays the ghatam and the morsing. A Black family bangs on African drums; a light-skinned neighbor bangs on a pot; several residents create makeshift instruments with remote controls or plastic bottles. The music builds, dips, rises, then slows and becomes KIRKUS REVIEWS
CHILDREN’S
silent. As the notes increase, the rhyming text counts to 10 and back down again as the music and voices merge to create a song that celebrates a spontaneous moment of community. The bright illustrations show swirls of colors and musical notes weaving in and out of the homes, suggesting a sense of connection. The residents are racially diverse, including Black and brown people of various shades. Though most are dressed in casual clothing—T-shirts, bathrobes—the South Asian family wears more formal regalia. A joyful celebration of music and community. (Picture book. 3-8)
The World-Famous Nine Guterson, Ben | Illus. by Kristina Kister & Ben Guterson | Christy Ottaviano Books (384 pp.) | $16.99 Jan. 30, 2024 9780316484442
Coded clues put two young sleuths on the trail of a magic mandala hidden somewhere in a huge, bustling department store. Hardly has meek young Zander Olinga arrived for a visit with Zina Winebee, his grandmother and owner-manager of the Number Nine Plaza, than he learns of a threat to the continued existence of the renowned emporium. The danger is linked to Darkbloom, a rumored evil spirit set on reversing the good-fortune charm left by Tibetan monks at the store’s founding. The stone tablet bearing the magical mandala vanished 90 years ago, and finding its hiding place becomes a race pitting Zander and intrepid new ally Natasha Novikov against unknown saboteurs whose minds have been taken over by Darkbloom. The keys to the tablet’s location are a series of ingenious word and number clues left by Zander’s great-granduncle Vladimir, and Guterson provides enough hints along the way for savvy readers to decode them. What he doesn’t do is give either his leads or the many-faceted KIRKUS REVIEWS
store (which, over the course of the story, is explored from the Ferris wheel on its roof to the bakery in the cellar) any more depth or distinctive traits than he gives Tibetan religious practice. Darkbloom remains a shadowy bugaboo, its actual nature and motivations unexplained and its fate left anticlimactically unresolved. Zander’s father is from Cameroon, and his mother reads white; names cue some diversity in the supporting cast. Final art not seen. A whodunit that doesn’t live up to its intriguing premise. (Mystery. 9-12)
Heather and the Stormy Birthday High, Linda Oatman | Illus. by Kris Aro McLeod | Kane Press (64 pp.) | $14.99 Nov. 14, 2023 | 9781662670312 | Series: Heather Whirl, Weather Girl
Wild weather–loving Heather Whirl experiences a superstorm. On her eighth birthday, Heather’s great-grandmother gives her a special gift, an heirloom umbrella that will take her on weather adventures—the first involving a wide-ranging storm on the East Coast of the United States. Soon Heather; her best friend, Edward; her dog, Fog; and her lizard, Blizzard, are whirled away to a windy wavewhipped seashore. The animals can talk now, and Edward and Blizzard get caught in the backwash from a big wave but are pulled to safety. Hearing a call for help, the quartet enter a small beach house, where they find, and help, an elderly woman who has fallen. A reporter covering the storm shows up and interviews Heather, who expounds on superstorms and climate change. When night falls, Heather and her friends return home in time for her birthday party. Though there’s plenty of solid weather information here, the author does more telling than showing, and many facts feel awkwardly inserted. Adventure-related backmatter includes Heather’s Weather
Journal entry on superstorms, two of Edward’s photos, Blizzard’s researchbased explanation of climate change, and Fog’s suggestions for staying safe during superstorms. Heather has light skin and straight hair; Edward has darker skin and curly dark hair. Despite its subject matter, on the dry side. (activities, Beaufort scale, jokes, weather websites) (Fiction. 6-9)
Eyes That Weave the World’s Wonders Ho, Joanna with Liz Kleinrock | Illus. by Dung Ho | Harper/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $19.99 | Jan. 23, 2024 | 9780063057777
A young Korean adoptee finds a sense of connection. The unnamed young narrator reflects on the annual family portrait. Everyone is in “matching clothes and matching shoes and matching laughter.” Yet there’s one distinct feature that doesn’t match: “No one in my family has eyes like mine.” As the protagonist and Mom, a white woman, explore an art museum, the child observes how Mom’s blue eyes are “like ocean waves.” Mom’s gaze makes it clear that the little one is “a masterpiece.” Next, the protagonist goes fishing with Dad, a white man with hazel eyes and brown hair and beard. Amid the idyllic river setting, the two get their lines tangled. Yet Dad’s eyes “tell me it will be okay. Some knots bind us with bonds more visible than blood.” Despite these close familial ties, the child wonders about meeting “someone who has eyes that kiss in the corner and glow like warm tea. Just like mine.” The lyrical narrative follows the child through explorations of fragmented memories from before the protagonist was adopted. The authors briefly touch on the complex feelings and questions of “who,” “what if,” and “why.” Ho’s richly detailed illustrations match the narrative by using warm colors and imagery that blend into one another. NOVEMBER 1, 2023
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Eventually the child weaves together dreams and stories, finding beauty in connections to a birth parent.
A striking adoption tale that opens space for larger questions and feelings. (note from Kleinrock) (Picture book. 4-8)
The Princess and the (Greedy) Pea Hodgkinson, Leigh | Candlewick (32 pp.) $17.99 | Dec. 5, 2023 | 9781536231328
A unique parody of an iconic, cumulative, rhyming nonsense song. An attractively decorated bowl is full of peas of varying hues, one of which sports big, round eyes, a huge mouth, and stick arms and legs. The pea exclaims, “I am SO hungry!” The following double-page spread sets up a pattern of the pea swallowing various comestibles—beginning with a brussels sprout—while on the next spread, the text details just what the pea has eaten, in a precise, easily memorized litany that ends each successive verse with, “Without a doubt, / he swallowed a sprout. / What’s that about?” Each colorful spread adds another item to the pea’s ever-hungry stomach, as well as new verbs, such as noshed and gobbled. As in some versions of “The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly,” the gluttonous pea eventually meets his demise— in this case, via the princess from a well-known fairy tale. The vivid, entertaining visuals continue as the grumpy, tan-skinned princess observes the damage done by the pea’s eating and drinking binge and then retires to a pile of mattresses made lumpy by the engorged pea who lies beneath. For readers familiar with both stories, the ending is much funnier than either tale on its own—although it also stands alone. The careful scansion replication allows readers to sing the text as a refreshing replacement of other versions. A superior revision. (Picture book. 4-8) 108 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
Afikotective
Kirkus Star
Hoffman, Amalia | Kar-Ben (32 pp.) | $18.99 Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781728475363
A young bear dons a deerstalker and attempts to solve a Passover mystery. After the seder, Grandma, who uses a wheelchair, hides the afikomen (a piece of matzah broken during the meal and hidden for children to find afterward). The little bear decides to use Elfie, a toy elephant, to track it down, since “elephants have a great sense of smell.” Turning Elfie into “an Afiko-Sniffer,” the young “Afikotective” searches everywhere: in a bowl of apples, in the fridge, and in the pantry. No luck. Believing that the AfikoSniffer must be broken, the bear heads to the tool kit…and finds a surprise. Throughout the story, the bear encounters important Passover foods, such as apples, an egg, and maror. No information is provided about the significance of these items, and while the backmatter defines afikomen (“afikomen comes from the Greek word epikomon or epikomion, meaning ‘what comes after the meal’—or dessert!”), it doesn’t explain the holiday itself; adults may want to add context if sharing this story with children unfamiliar with Passover. Little ones with background knowledge, however, will find it delightful. The story is simple and fun, with vibrant collages that incorporate 3-D elements like photos showing bits of matzah, wool, and ribbon. Throughout it all, this multigenerational family’s love and joy are evident. A charming romp to share in anticipation of Passover preparations. (Picture book. 3-5)
For more by Amalia Hoffman, visit Kirkus online.
The Antiracist Kitchen: 21 Stories (and Recipes) Ed. by Hohn, Nadia L. | Illus. by Roza Nozari Orca (160 pp.) | $29.95 | Sept. 12, 2023 9781459833432
Discussing racism isn’t a piece of cake, but this work offers key ingredients nonetheless. In her introduction, editor Hohn notes that talking about bigotry and prejudice can be difficult, even painful, but emphasizes that food gives us an opportunity to do so—after all, “it’s a lot easier to listen and share when our taste buds are awake and our tummies are full.” Twenty-one kid-lit authors of color share a wide array of delicious recipes as well as personal experiences related to culture, race, and racism. Accompanied by vibrant illustrations, these story-recipe pairings demonstrate how intertwined food and identity are. Janice Lynn Mather’s recipe for Fusion Fried Plantain is preceded by a childhood account of not feeling Bahamian enough compared with her peers—her grandmother’s unique approach to the dish felt like yet another thing that set her family apart. Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park puts a recipe for Fried Bologna—a food enjoyed by her Korean immigrant family—into historical context as she reflects on the time she introduced the dish to her Girl Scout troop. Alternative ingredients are sometimes offered. Deidre Havrelock (Plains Cree) notes that bison has traditionally been a staple for First Nations people but suggests substituting beef (or even wild meats such as moose) in her recipe for bison stew. The result is a thoughtful, beautifully designed work that fosters inclusivity and respect. A hearty meal that doles out both culinary delights and moving cultural insights. (author bios, glossary, index) (Anthology/cookbook. 8-12)
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Will leave readers hoping for more magical adventures. EMMA AND THE LOVE SPELL
A Grand Idea: How William J. Wilgus Created Grand Central Terminal Hoyt, Megan | Illus. by David Szalay | Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins (48 pp.) | $19.99 Jan. 23, 2024 | 9780063064744
A brief account of the iconic terminal’s birth and rebirth. Hoyt builds her narrative around a profile of William J. Wilgus, the engineer who oversaw Grand Central’s completion, put it on sound financial footing by ingeniously proposing the sale of its “air rights,” and played a significant role in making New York’s railways generally safer. The result is a colorful tale of robber barons, competing architectural visions, and urban development on a truly grand scale. Along with glimpses of the building’s wonders both past (a movie theater, a ski slope, the original red carpet that was rolled out for passengers of the elegant Twentieth Century Limited train) and present, the author gives a nod to the eminently successful efforts led by Jackie Onassis to preserve and restore the renowned historical structure. Szalay’s graciously expansive illustrations are too sparsely populated to evoke a realistic picture of Grand Central’s customary crowds; the scattered human figures are racially diverse. And if the single cross-sectional view of the terminal’s underground is cramped and inadequate, the art overall does capture a good sense of both the massive scope of the construction and the finished building’s majesty, inside and out. Begging a ludicrous claim that the Hudson River is 40 miles away “across KIRKUS REVIEWS
town,” closing facts and comments offer further enticements to prospective visitors.
A rare introduction to one of New York City’s more influential but lesser-known builders, and his “Grand” work. (timeline, source list) (Informational picture book. 7-9)
Emma and the Love Spell Ireland, Meredith | Bloomsbury (288 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 23, 2024 | 9781547612604
A powerful young witch grows the confidence to manage difficult emotions and wield her magic. Two years have passed since Korean American Emma and her white adoptive parents moved to their small town, and Emma still has only one friend—one with whom she’s fallen in love. So, when Avangeline (who reads white) shares that she’ll be moving across the country due to her parents’ divorce, Emma is devastated. But she can’t express her pain freely, because her feelings have consequences: When she’s joyful, flowers bloom; when she’s upset, there’s lightning. Emma’s nonmagical parents try to suppress her magic with a “Just Act Normal” strategy that leaves her feeling fragmented, ashamed, and afraid of herself. If only someone other than talking animals could guide her so she could use her magic for something good—like making Avangeline’s parents fall back in love. With her parents leaving for a few days, Emma has a chance to try, but babysitter Mrs. Cornwall spots her practicing and
reveals that she, too, is a witch. Should Emma trust her suspicions about Mrs. Cornwall, or has she found a helpful mentor? Clear, descriptive storytelling elucidates complex emotions and relationships with care and the right pacing. Readers will resonate with Emma’s struggle for authenticity as she considers the risks of conflict or rejection if she exposes hidden parts of herself. A satisfying story of emotional growth that will leave readers hoping for more magical adventures. (Fantasy. 9-13)
Cheeky Chick! Jarman, Julia | Illus. by Tom Knight | Boxer Books (32 pp.) | $18.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 9781914912306
Fox meets his match with Cheeky Chick. Rhyming text in a singsong cadence pairs with art reminiscent of Paul Galdone’s style to tell this home-away-from-home farm story. Four of Mother Hen’s little chicks heed her warning to “play near the hen-house” and to run away if Fox comes by, but the fifth, Cheeky Chick, replies, “Tosh!” and “Bosh!” before continuing to ignore Mother Hen and wandering far indeed. Other barnyard animals step up to act in loco parentis, warning Cheeky Chick of hazards and voicing concerns. He ignores them, however, and ultimately confronts Fox. Visual perspective zooms in at that point, with all background detail omitted as the focus is placed on a large, toothsome fox’s face leering down at the tiny chick. On the following page, the layout is used to terrific effect as the perspective zooms out to an aerial view and shows a chase scene across four panels. Cheeky Chick scurries away, with Fox in hot pursuit, as they pass all the erstwhile helpers who tried and failed to warn the young chicken. Ultimately Fox gets his comeuppance when Cheeky Chick lives up to his name >>> NOVEMBER 1, 2023 109
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SEEN AND HEARD Picture Book by Isabel Allende Coming in 2024
Allende: Oscar Gonzalez/NurPhoto via Getty Images; Van Ness: Taylor Hill/WireImage
Perla, the Mighty Dog will be published by Philomel next June. Legendary novelist Isabel Allende has a new audience in mind with her next books. Allende, author of books including The House of the Spirits, Paula, and Island Beneath the Sea, has signed a deal to write three children’s picture books for Philomel Books, the Associated Press reports. The first book will be Perla, the Mighty Dog, which is slated for publication on June 4, 2024. Illustrated by Sandy Rodriguez, the book was inspired by Allende’s own pooch. It tells the story of a boy named Nico and
Allende is under contract to write three children’s books.
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his dog, who boasts two superpowers: earning the love of people and barking at an unusually high volume. It will be published in both English and Spanish. “I love dogs more than people because we have so much to learn from them,” Allende told the AP. “Perla is joyful, loyal, loves unconditionally and is always ready to protect her family. Perla and Nico’s adventures are about the power of friendship, teamwork and the magic hidden in our daily lives.” Allende announced the news of her book deal on Instagram, writing, “This is a poignant story about the bond between child and pet that also teaches young readers to stand up for themselves. I can’t wait for you to share it with your families.”—M.S.
For more books by Isabel Allende, visit Kirkus online.
New Kids’ Book by Jonathan Van Ness Coming in 2024
The Queer Eye star’s Gorgeously Me! will be published by Flamingo next spring. Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness has a new children’s book coming next year, People magazine reports. Flamingo is scheduled to publish Van Ness’ Gorgeously Me!, illustrated by Kamala Nair. It will be Van Ness’ second children’s book, following Peanut Goes for the Gold, which HarperCollins published in 2020. Van Ness was a hairstylist and podcaster before joining the Netflix reboot of Queer Eye in 2018. They are also the author of two books for adults, Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love and Love That Story: Observations From a Gorgeously Queer Life. Gorgeously Me! will be “a celebration of all the things that make you extraordinary, unique, and gorgeously YOU,” Flamingo says. “Being true to yourself and showing the world who you are isn’t always easy. Gorgeously Me! assures young readers that they are loved and cherished, exactly as they are.” Van Ness announced their new book on Instagram, saying in a video, “This
book is so special to me, and I think it’s just very timely, because we live in a time where young people need to know that they have a place in this world to be celebrated, accepted, and really cherished for their differences and uniquenesses.” Gorgeously Me! is slated for publication on April 30, 2024.—M.S. For a review of Love That Story, visit Kirkus online.
The Queer Eye star has written books for adults and children.
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and leads Fox to a dunk in the pond before heading home under a duck’s watchful eye. Three cheers for this unlikely but intrepid hero. (Picture book. 2-5)
A glowing tribute that will ignite young people everywhere. WE DREAM A WORLD
Ida B. Wells Marches for the Vote Johnson, Dinah | Illus. by Jerry Jordan Christy Ottaviano Books (48 pp.) | $18.99 Jan. 2, 2024 | 9780316322478
A tribute to a tireless African American journalist and crusader for social justice. Presenting her subject as a woman who learned the importance of doing “the right thing” from her parents and tallying her achievements up to the eve of World War I, Johnson mentions her anti-lynching campaign in passing but really focuses on her women’s suffrage work—and in particular her defiance of the racist stance taken by Alice Paul and the all-white National American Woman Suffrage Association. Quoting Paul’s “despicable” assertion that the planned Washington, D.C., march of 1913 “must have a white procession, or a Negro procession, or no procession at all,” the author heatedly comments that the Association “did not care about African American, Asian American, or Mexican American women. They were not concerned about Indigenous women, whose ancestors were the first to live on this land.” Nonetheless, once the march began, Wells stepped out of the crowd of spectators and “did the brave and bold and truthful thing” by joining her state’s contingent uninvited. The bold stare Wells directs out from the climactic final scene challenges viewers to realize that when it comes to gender and racial equality, there’s still work to be done. Young activists in search of role models will find much to admire in this tough, courageous woman. (photos, timeline, source lists) (Picture-book biography. 6-9) 112 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
Kirkus Star
Coretta: The Autobiography of Mrs. Coretta Scott King King, Coretta Scott with Barbara Reynolds Illus. by Ekua Holmes | Godwin Books (40 pp.) | $18.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 9781250167101
A moving testimonial, distilled from 2017’s Coretta: My Life, My Love, My Legacy. “I was the doer, a workaholic always looking for a project,” King writes of her childhood, and in this set of lightly edited extracts from her long-delayed last memoir, she traces her rise from someone “born in Nowhere, USA, into a race that was virtually disqualified from humanity and a gender condemned to silence” to a true mover in the struggle for civil rights and, later, human rights. Though she does describe her first meeting with Martin—and her later demand that there be no mention of “obeying” or submission in their wedding vows—in general she brushes in the era’s family and larger events with broad strokes, up to her husband’s death, her foundation of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and, in 1983, the establishment of his birthday as a national holiday. It’s unclear why Holmes opts to leave the figures in the wedding picture and in some other scenes startlingly faceless, but overall the illustrations, which deftly incorporate collaged photos and news clippings along with richly patterned drapes and other background details,
give the author a formidable presence both in private moments and standing proudly before marching masses. “The Dream,” she concludes meaningfully, “is a work that is very much in progress.” Eloquent and stately. (Six Principles of Nonviolence, timeline) (Picture book memoir. 7-9)
We Dream a World: Carrying the Light From My Grandparents Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King King, Yolanda Renee | Illus. by Nicole Tadgell | Orchard/Scholastic (40 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781338753974
The teenage granddaughter of two civil rights luminaries continues their legacy as she forges a path of
her own. King never met her grandparents, but she has been keenly aware of their achievements for as long as she can remember. Their ideals of freedom, equality, and love live on throughout the world. Bright, soft watercolors depict the author proclaiming her readiness to not only follow her grandparents’ worthy example but “to start a new revolution that values kindness, truth, equality, and service.” King voices the dreams of the current generation—ones that include a world free of gun violence, where schools are safe, and where no one goes hungry. With serene greens and blues, Tadgell depicts King and other, racially diverse young people considering issues such as climate change and the right to KIRKUS REVIEWS
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education. The author promises her grandparents that her generation will plant the seeds of change as they learn to advocate for themselves. Our young author’s words, hopeful and bright, breathe life into her peers and help them recognize the power they hold to effect everlasting change. Her words are a call to action addressed both to young people and their adults to help them start much-needed conversations. Tadgell’s illustrations bring the text to life with energetic, ethereal watercolors reminiscent of a child’s daydreams. A glowing tribute that will ignite young people everywhere. (a word from Yolanda’s parents, artist’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)
Secrets of the Forest: 15 Bedtime Stories Inspired by Nature Klepeis, Alicia Z. | Illus. by Kristen Adam Neon Squid/Macmillan (160 pp.) | $19.99 Oct. 3, 2023 | 9781684493111 | Series: Nature Bedtime Stories
A collection of brief stories featuring animals and plants living in forests around the world. While many of the creatures included in this book might be familiar to readers—reindeer, elephants, penguins—the detailed yet digestible stories of each include fascinating facts and helpful blurbs that provide “the science behind the story.” In addition to these animals common to children’s books, Klepeis also includes the lesser-known margay, wood frog, and kauri tree. Some of the more remarkable facts include the wood frog’s incredible cold-weather survival skills such as freezing itself nearly solid. There’s also the baobab tree’s impressive storage skills—some 26,000 gallons of water! Because each story is only a few pages long, with balanced text and image, it’s very approachable for young readers who might only read one section at a time. Adam’s detailed illustrations KIRKUS REVIEWS
work well with the text and provide plenty for readers to observe. One impressive image features the stunning aurora borealis casting its glow on the snowy forest. Klepeis manages to discuss both climate change and deforestation with a subtle hand while still clearly showing humans’ effects on animals and their fragile habitats. This book is full of information and illustrations that will appeal to readers of all ages and is sure to be revisited by readers often. Quality narrative and a treasure trove of details and images. (glossary, index) (Picture book. 5-8)
Kirkus Star
Slugfest Korman, Gordon | Balzer + Bray/ HarperCollins (304 pp.) | $19.99 Jan. 9, 2024 | 9780063238091
Unlikely teammates in a summer school PE class go for glory on the gridiron. Korman rewards readers willing to suspend their disbelief with a middle school romp that takes the “Bad News Bears” premise for a wild ride. Thanks to a new state rule that eighth graders can’t graduate to high school without a PE credit, summer school sees a motley assortment of students assembled in the gym—from world-class klutz Kaden Cooperman, who skipped that class all year to avoid being bullied, to multisport superstar Arnie “Yash” Yashenko, left high and dry after being led to believe that he had been excused to play with the high school’s varsity teams. When the class falls under the management of a retired second grade and home ec (“Family and Consumer Studies”) teacher named Mrs. Finnerty, the stage seems set for a wasted summer—but the author has other plans. If none of the classmates (except for Yash) initially show much enthusiasm
for sports, by the time the annual all-city flag football tournament rolls around, they’ve become a quarrelsome, disorganized, laughably inept… team. Even elderly Mrs. Finnerty demonstrates hidden depths, plus an apparently limitless supply of baked goods that will keep readers salivating alongside this lively, large-hearted, sharply seen cast of middle schoolers. Characters largely read white. The pastries aren’t all that’s sweet in a tale rich in wins both public and personal. (Fiction. 9-13)
Like You, Like Me Kostecki-Shaw, Jenny Sue | Christy Ottaviano Books (40 pp.) | $18.99 Jan. 16, 2024 | 9780316330084
In this companion to Same, Same but Different (2011), two pen pals delight in their differences and
commonalities. Tulsi, a light-skinned child in New Mexico, and Vanessa, a Black-presenting child in Tanzania, begin writing to each other as part of a library pen pal program. Tulsi lives in the mountains; Vanessa lives by the sea. Vanessa takes a long city bus ride to school; Tulsi is homeschooled. Tulsi rarely sees rain, but when it does, the child rushes outside to dance; Vanessa prefers to cuddle up with a book during the rainy season. Their differences are fascinating and innumerable, but each one also brings them closer together. The woods near Tulsi’s house may smell like butterscotch, while Vanessa’s city is awash in the scent of frangipani, but both pen pals love their homes’ perfumes—“like you, like me!” Vanessa daydreams of racing like a cheetah, while Tulsi wishes to soar like a red-tailed hawk, but both agree that riding a bike is the next best thing. Every shared detail shrinks the distance between northern New Mexico and the Tanzanian coast until the pair are all but face to face in their mutual understanding. The gently paced text NOVEMBER 1, 2023 113
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moves smoothly from one letter to the next. Bright, mixed-media illustrations visually align the children’s busy lives with balanced, reflective spreads that defy the barrier of the gutter and emphasize difference as a means of connection. Charming. (Picture book. 3-7)
There’s No Place Like Hope Lawler, Janet | Illus. by Tamisha Anthony Farrar, Straus and Giroux (32 pp.) | $18.99 Jan. 30, 2024 | 9780374389918
“There’s no place like hope, where possible lives, where people are helpful, and everyone gives.” Clean, accessible rhymes coupled with whimsical, playful illustrations of children from many races demonstrate the power and necessity of hope and teamwork in this warm and playful book. A nice choice for units on social emotional learning and a good way to provide comfort for children who are learning how to manage their feelings and expectations, this straightforward concept book features spreads that explain how hope can provide humor and help build resilience, determination, and friendship. It offers visual depictions of children working together to learn, explore new experiences, play indoors and outdoors, and enjoy one another’s company. While this is an age-appropriate tool for understanding feelings and working together, the energetic text and action-filled illustrations keep the tone light, sweet, and nearly free of proselytizing, and the open, cheery scenarios invite children to come up with examples of how they can work together to use hope and teamwork themselves. A good choice for early-year classrooms or for home, this appealing selection will provide a solid foundation on which to build. An inclusive and inspiring paean to hope and cooperation for the very young. (Picture book. 2-6) 114 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
The Five Impossible Tasks of Eden Smith Llewellyn, Tom | Holiday House (320 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9780823453122
Orphan Eden Smith meets her iconoclastic grandfather just as he’s imprisoned by his Guild. Can she complete five impossible tasks to free him? After years in foster care, 13-year-old Eden learns she has a living grandfather. In the smiths’ vast, secretive, rule-bound Guildhall, Vulcan’s the only Eleventh-Level Master, but the Council jails him anyway for rules violations. Estranged from Eden’s manufacturing father, the prickly Vulcan at first feigns disinterest in his granddaughter, but he thaws upon discovering her unexpected smithing skills. Meanwhile, Eden, lonely among the aging smiths, befriends kitchen boy Nathaniel. Like all Guild staff, he is a Jones, forbidden from smithing, but Eden finds that rule ridiculous. After all, her mother was a Jones. Recruiting Vulcan, Nathaniel, and other Joneses serves Eden well during the deadly tasks. Can she clean dishes, catch steel birds and rats, steal a girdle, and avoid Uriah Pewtersmith’s vindictive troublemaking to save her grandfather, her life, and her new home? Eden is a resourceful, brave, sympathetic character in an intricately crafted and original setting. But the blend of tongue-in-cheek dark humor with genuine emotions feels uneven, and plot mechanisms are overt; Eden learns something vital to each task before attempting it. Eden and Vulcan have brown skin; Nathaniel is
cued white, and contextual clues signal diversity in ethnicity and race in the supporting cast.
Themes of family and prejudice thread this creative, slightly uneven adventure in smithing. (Adventure. 10-13)
Here Comes Shopkeeper Hippo London, Jonathan | Illus. by Gilles Eduar Astra Young Readers (32 pp.) | $12.99 Dec. 5, 2023 | 9781635925937 | Series: Little Hippo Story, 4
Little Hippo spends the day selling goods from his red wagon to his fellow animals. Playing at shopkeeper, Little Hippo tows around a variety of objects. Selling them for five cents apiece, he earns enough money to buy something special for Mama Hippo. Ostrich selects a snazzy pair of sunglasses, Long Neck Giraffe chooses a colorful scarf, and Graceful Gazelle purchases a Frisbee. The setup and resolution are quite simple: Little Hippo spends the day as a shopkeeper and uses his money to buy something nice for his mother. But the journey along the way is enjoyable. The illustrations make use of bright colors: an ever-present bright blue sky, rich yellows, and vibrant shades of red. Shopkeeper Hippo is darling in his blue apron and visor, though not all the animals are quite as adorable—Big Hairy Gorilla looks a bit unnerving, for example. Little Hippo is assisted by a small yellow monkey who is never mentioned in the text but is a helpful addition to the business. This tagalong
An inclusive and inspiring paean to hope and cooperation. THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOPE
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pal also does some silly things and has a storyline with an ending that parallels Little Hippo’s—a fun visual detail sure to appeal to attentive readers. The use of onomatopoeia, like the repetitive “squeakidy-squeak” sound of the wagon rolling, makes this one a good read-aloud choice. Simple but sweet. (Picture book. 3-5)
Horse & Buggy on Wheels! Long, Ethan | Holiday House (32 pp.) $15.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9780823454839 Series: I Like To Read
A skateboarding creature learns to practice a challenging skill by tackling the easy steps first. “Buggy,” the cautious horsefly who befriended the cavalier main character in earlier books, watches, with two long-lashed, bulging eyes and downturned mouth, as Horse tries tricky skateboarding maneuvers and repeatedly falls and hurts himself. Each time, Buggy worriedly suggests a safety measure: a properly adjusted helmet, gloves, knee pads, etc. Horse accepts all suggestions, each time confidently claiming “I am REALLY ready” and “I will not get hurt” but always managing to fall next on an unprotected anatomical area. Then Horse gets a rope and wraps every part in whole-body padding. Alas, that doesn’t work, either: An especially twisty move undoes it all. Horse finally appropriates Buggy’s original sensible idea—learn easy tricks first, then try more difficult ones— before announcing a final idea: “TO THE POOL!” Buggy is extra alarmed until, on the final page, we see Horse not skating in an empty concrete basin but soaking a very bruised body in blue water. The words are manageable; tension is maintained without too much predictability; pratfalls produce laughs. The illustrations are cartoon-style against orange and mustard-yellow fields, with lots of crashes (“bonk,” “whoop,” “wham”) KIRKUS REVIEWS
emphasized by exaggerated facial expressions registering Horse’s excitement, pain, and frustration.
Young fans of action and dramatic upsets will enjoy this romp while possibly learning a bit of caution. (Easy reader. 5-7)
Have You Seen Mikki Olsen? Macdonald, Alex | Frances Lincoln (32 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9780711285316
A roly-poly penguin misplaces his favorite toy. According to the to-do list tacked to the wall, the penguin has three very important responsibilities every day: fishing, chopping plenty of wood, and purchasing “sticky icky fish.” Through it all, the penguin has a constant companion by his side: Mikki Olsen, his beloved, bright pink bear. They are inseparable. But one day, a “sticky icky fish” accidentally gets stuck to Mikki Olsen. When the penguin sits on the toy, Mikki Olsen gets stuck to the penguin’s posterior, and his routine starts to unravel. The poor penguin searches everywhere for the missing plushie—in the sink, in a box of fish flakes, in the garbage can, between the pages of a book, and even in the riskiest place for a penguin to look: inside a whale’s mouth. Young readers will delight in pointing out the missing toy on every page as it unintentionally follows the penguin wherever he goes. A well-timed, defeated flop in the snow finally reveals Mikki Olsen’s hiding place. Spare text and uncluttered scenes (with fun details, such as the initials MO in a heart carved on trees in the background) provide a soothing backdrop for the penguin’s fretful search. Macdonald gives this predicament, which will be familiar to many young readers, a suitably reassuring ending. A soothing, sweet reminder that sometimes, missing objects are right under your…tush. (Picture book. 3-6)
Kirkus Star
Time To Make Art Mack, Jeff | Henry Holt (48 pp.) | $19.99 Jan. 16, 2024 | 9781250864666
Mack explores fundamental questions about human visual expression. As a brownskinned young protagonist, sporting cornrows and a lavender beret, ponders the nature of creativity, palette and brush in hand, artists from around the world and throughout history respond. Pointing to God’s finger on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the child wonders if art must be perfect. Michelangelo assures the child, “You can make your art any way you want.” The youngster discusses the use of color with Piet Mondrian, contemplates whether to privilege realism over other styles with René Magritte and Vincent van Gogh, and mulls the emotional content of art with Chris Ofili and Frida Kahlo. The diversity of talent and array of topics included are truly impressive. Vibrant handmade and digital illustrations portray a stone sculptor from 200 CE Teotihuacán, a cave artist, and Esther Mahlangu, a South African artist who applies traditional Ndebele house patterns on everything from jewelry to sneakers. The questions addressed are ones that will occur to most people of any age: What about mistakes? How do you know if your art is good? Leonardo da Vinci fields that last one: “Good art will be fun and mysterious…no matter how many times you see it.” Humor and wonder shine through in Mack’s intelligent, playful scenes. The book can be enjoyed without recognizing the artists (who go unnamed in the story itself), but backmatter identifies them and offers salient snippets for each. An inspiring and empowering manifesto for young creators. (Informational picture book. 4-9) NOVEMBER 1, 2023
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Kirkus Star
Threads: Zlata’s Ukrainian Shirt Maslo, Lina | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (40 pp.) | $18.99 | Jan. 23, 2024 9780374391218
Drawing inspiration from the experiences of her grandparents, Maslo offers a window into the Ukrainian spirit. It’s 1932, and Communists are going door to door collecting extra taxes and grain. Zlata’s mama starts hiding food, and Papa buries bags of grain. On Zlata’s eighth birthday, her best friend and neighbor, Yeva, and Yeva’s parents come over to celebrate. Zlata wears the blouse her mother made with colors traditionally used in Ukrainian embroidery: red for love, black for sadness. The conversation between the girls reveals their parents’ opposing political views. When Yeva’s father informs on Zlata’s family, their food and goods are confiscated, including the birthday blouse. Maslo effectively uses dialogue, a first-person narrative with plenty of helpful historical context, and a controlled palette to create a meaningful, engaging tale. Golden wheat is a recurring image, at first suggesting sustenance, then forbidden food. With spring, wheat symbolizes hope. A stark white page—with a corner of shadow—reveals that Zlata’s papa has been taken. Brown sets the mood for hunger. The girls mend their broken relationship when Yeva explains that her father was taken, too, but that he had rescued the blouse. Reflecting on the importance of holding on to what “made us Ukrainian—our language, our beliefs, our traditions,” the protagonist notes: “Beauty made life bearable.” A poignant yet accessible entry into Ukraine’s ongoing suffering—and survival. (author’s note, bibliography) (Picture book. 5-8) 116 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
The Collector of Heads
Ellie Mae Dreams Big!
Matsusaki, Ana | Trans. by Bruna Dantas Lobato | Tapioca Stories (44 pp.) | $19.95 Sept. 12, 2023 | 9781734783988
McMorris, Kristina | Illus. by Amanda Yoshida | Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (40 pp.) | $18.99 | Jan. 16, 2024 9781728256122
A quick-witted Brazilian import asks big questions within a mildly creepy framework. There are all sorts of things out there that people like to collect. Facts. Travels. Battles. But Rosália? She collects heads. There’s the architect’s head, which is filled with thoughts and emotions, such as “the fear of tilting her straight lines” and “the dream of living at a time when the hanging gardens of Babylon were in bloom.” There’s the child’s head, which contains “a nosy dog called Zipolite,” and a rich lady’s head with its “eight ways of forgetting her loneliness.” Somehow the book walks the tightrope between the body horror of keeping heads in jars and the sheer delight of what those heads might contain. Brought to life by art that’s a mixed-media bonanza of different styles and feelings, this illogical logic ties the narrative together, inviting children to respond to “What’s in your head?” by drawing in the book and then, inevitably, to speculate about what might be in Rosália’s. Strange and sweet, mysterious and open-ended, this is a book for introspective kids, the ones unafraid to ask the big questions. Characters’ skin tones are depicted in a wide range of vibrant hues. Introspective intelligentsia in a clever format encourages readers to ponder what our personalities boil down to. (Picture book. 7-9)
A young girl wonders what she’ll be when she grows up. Ellie Mae, who presents as East Asian, loves school but doesn’t like assignments with lots of choices. It’s just too hard to make decisions. So when her class is asked to dress up as what they want to be when they grow up, Ellie Mae struggles. After much thinking, and eating, she finds inspiration in her grilled cheese sandwich—she’s heard that the moon might be made of cheese, which makes her decide to dress up as an astronaut-chef. But what about dessert? Ellie Mae next hits upon the idea of becoming a candy-farmer. With each idea spurring the next, Ellie Mae comes up with more and more fun possible dual-career ideas: a pirate-dentist! A zookeeper-teacher! Her mind racing, Ellie Mae takes a deep breath to slow her thoughts until she comes up with the perfect solution. Funny and imaginative Ellie Mae teaches readers to dream big and believe they can become anything. While readers will laugh at the fun ideas and silly pictures, the message is clear: The sky’s the limit when it comes to career choices. The book also demonstrates a way to calm down when overwhelmed. Ellie Mae is spontaneous and quirky, with lots of emotions and creativity, brought to life by vivid, candy-colored illustrations. Fun and silly—but sure to inspire kids to dream big. (Picture book. 3-6)
A poignant entry into Ukraine’s ongoing suffering— and survival. THREADS
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Short and sweet, like its winning protagonist. CLASS PET ON THE LOOSE
I Am Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Buttons on the Loose
Meltzer, Brad | Illus. by Christopher Eliopoulos | Rocky Pond Books/Penguin (40 pp.) | $16.99 | Jan. 9, 2024 9780593533338 | Series: Ordinary People Change the World
Murray, Laura | Illus. by Mike Lowery Putnam (48 pp.) | $17.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 9780593532393 | Series: The Gingerbread Man Is Loose, 1
The distinguished jurist stands tall as a role model. Not literally tall, of course— not only was she actually tiny but, as with all the other bobbleheaded caricatures in the “Ordinary People Change the World” series, Ginsburg, sporting huge eyeglasses on an outsize head over black judicial robes even in childhood, remains a doll-like figure in all of Eliopoulos’ cartoon scenes. It’s in the frank acknowledgment of the sexism and antisemitism she resolutely overcame as she went from reading about “real female heroes” to becoming one—and also the clear statement of how she so brilliantly applied the principle of “tikkun olam” (“repairing the world”) in her career to the notion that women and men should have the same legal rights—that her stature comes clear. For all the brevity of his profile, Meltzer spares some attention for her private life, too (“This is Marty. He loved me, and he loved my brains. So I married him!”). Other judicial activists of the past and present, all identified and including the current crop of female Supreme Court justices, line up with a diversely hued and abled group of younger followers to pay tribute in final scenes. “Fight for the things you care about,” as a typically savvy final quote has it, “but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
The Gingerbread Man loses his candy buttons and needs help finding replacements. The cookie from Murray and Lowery’s popular picture-book series is back in this graphic novel spinoff. The tale starts with the Gingerbread Man’s backstory (he was baked by a class of kids and now lives among them). Upon realizing his buttons are gone, he looks all over the school, including their classroom, the library, and the gym, before hitting the lunchroom. There, he meets a brown-skinned, curly-haired girl who offers to share her cookie. Breaking it open, she finds candies—the perfect replacement buttons for the Gingerbread Man—and he discovers that he’s made a new friend. Murray’s rhyming text lends itself well to a read-aloud but will also hold solo readers’ attention. Lowery’s artwork uses an effective combination of full-page images and paneled scenes. An appealing lead, the Gingerbread Man is darling in his hat and bow tie; the teachers and children at his school are racially diverse. No doubt fans of the picture books starring this edible detective will enjoy this tale, even though the plot is a little less compelling than in earlier stories. Ultimately, readers will want to know what the book doesn’t answer: What did happen to those original buttons?
Quick and slick, but ably makes its case. (timeline, photos, source list, further reading) (Picture-book biography. 7-9) KIRKUS REVIEWS
Class Pet on the Loose Murray, Laura | Illus. by Mike Lowery Putnam (48 pp.) | $17.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 9780593532447 | Series: The Gingerbread Man Is Loose, 2
The Gingerbread Man searches for a missing class pet. The Gingerbread Man was baked by a class of students and now lives in their classroom, taking part in daily activities. Today it’s his turn to feed Squeaks, the pet mouse, but she isn’t in her cage. So he follows her paw prints, uncovers clues, and then finally comes across Squeaks in a most unexpected place. This delectable tale is the second in a new spinoff series in which the Gingerbread Man transitions from picture books into graphic novels. Murray’s rhyming text follows the pattern of others in the series, echoing the cadence of the original Gingerbread Man refrain. The cartoon panels give the book a sceneby-scene flow, which especially works well for a clue-based pet hunt. The Gingerbread Man has wide, cartoon eyes, an icing bow tie, and little red buttons. Speech bubbles help differentiate dialogue from narration, and the formatting works well as an introduction to graphic novel reading for the early elementary school crowd. Children reading on their own will have a blast, and caregivers and children alike will enjoy sharing it as well. The few humans in the story are depicted with varying skin tones and hair colors. Overall, this is a fun tale with a clear, concise plot. Short and sweet, like its winning protagonist. (Graphic early reader. 5-8)
For more by Laura Murray, visit Kirkus online.
Not as strong as other installments, but its toothsome hero never really disappoints. (Graphic early reader. 5-8)
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Kirkus Star
The Girl Who Sang: A Holocaust Memoir of Hope and Survival Nadel, Estelle with Sammy Savos & Bethany Strout | Illus. by Sammy Savos | Roaring Brook Press (272 pp.) | $17.99 paper Jan. 23, 2024 | 9781250247773
The true story of how a musicloving Jewish girl survived the Nazis and rebuilt her life in America. Enia Feld was 5 when the Nazis invaded Poland. At first, even as her mother sewed the Star of David onto her clothes, Enia “didn’t know to be scared,” but violence soon came to the family. Suddenly warned that they must flee, Enia, two older brothers, and her mother managed to escape and seek protection from a neighbor. After years of hiding, their mother’s death, and the end of the war, the siblings ended up in an Austrian displaced persons camp and then on a ship to New York. Enia felt deep gratitude toward her rescuers and contemplated the reasons why some people helped, and others betrayed them. In the U.S., the three Felds took new names, and Enia became Estelle. Her brothers found work, and despite her wish to stay together, they arranged for her to be adopted by the Nadels, whose only child had died in combat. Told in five parts, Nadel’s story presents readers with a picture of her life before (“I thought we would be this happy forever”), during, and—crucially—after the war. Savos’ exceptionally powerful illustrations convey the extremes of human emotion, make original use of different perspectives, and are both cinematic and intimate; they also do not shy away from accurately portraying the hardships and violence. Sweeping, stark, tragic, and triumphant. (family trees, authors’ notes, process notes, photographs, resources, photo credits) (Graphic memoir. 11-16) 118
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First Day, Worst Day Nonamus, Andy | Illus. by Amy Jindra Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (128 pp.) $17.99 Jan. 9, 2024 | 9781665942218 Series: The Very Worst Ever, 1
An embarrassment-prone kid starts at a new school. The protagonist’s name is redacted, and an emoticon-style sticker (showing different emotions) covers his face in the illustrations, because, as he explains, it would be far too humiliating for readers to know his identity. He hopes his new town and school will be a fresh start, but right away, he’s plagued by misfortunes. Once he finally makes it to school (late because of a hilarious incident involving maple syrup and a pack of dogs), he searches for his classroom, encountering more woes. Along the way, he crosses paths with star athlete Jake Gold and video game heiress Regina Du Lar, who help him find room 31-Z. The unusual school becomes even odder as the trio uncover a staircase hidden in a locker. Nothing comes of the discovery, however, other than the kids making a new friend (described as having “ghostly pale hands,” though in the illustrations, her skin color is somewhere between the narrator’s and Jake’s paper-white skin tone and Regina’s dark brown complexion), who quickly solves their problem and leads them to the classroom. And though the protagonist endures one last embarrassing moment, he’s also reassured that his new friends like him anyway. Some readers may be distracted by illustrations that occasionally don’t match the stated character details. Though the plot’s a little thin, it sticks the landing, and the occasionally gross-out, cringe-type humor will please many readers.
Big Babies O’Brien, Patrick | Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 23, 2024 | 9781623543662
A portrait gallery of baby dinos and dino cousins. Going straight for the “AWWWW” reaction from viewers, O’Brien poses 11 big-eyed, usually fuzzy prehistoric hatchlings on plain white backgrounds in front of huge, slightly blurred parental legs that extend past the page tops. He doesn’t stint on the factual load, either. Along with identifying labels, each creature comes with an informative one- or two-sentence comment, such as, for the stegosaurus (“roofed lizard”): “This pint-sized critter grew into a leaf-eater that had a body the size of an elephant but a brain the size of a meatball.” Just for reference, a plate of meatballs is placed temptingly in front of the little stego…and all the rest of the dino tykes likewise come with either food (notably a box of doughnuts being thoroughly mangled by a tiny triceratops) or plastic toys ranging from a rubber ducky delighting a dinky Anatotitan (“giant duck”) to a race car zooming past a trio of downy velociraptors (“swift thief”). A baby T. rex (“tyrant lizard king”) gazing out sweetly, ensconced in a comparatively huge crown, is an especially adorable addition. Following a set of additional descriptive notes at the end, budding dino-fans will find silhouettes of the babies lined up on a comparative size chart—with a four-foot-tall human child towering commandingly over all. Awwwwesomely cute. (Informational picture book. 4-6)
For more by Patrick O’Brien, please visit Kirkus online.
Carried by wackiness and jokes aplenty. (Fiction. 6-9)
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Engaging enough to soothe even confirmed arachnophobes. SPIDERS
Spiders: We’re Not Scary― We’re Amazing! Owen, Ruth | Ruby Tuesday Books (32 pp.) $30.65 PLB | Aug. 1, 2023
An introduction to the arachnid clan, with lots of close-up “spider selfies.” “Thank you to all our human readers joining us here today,” effuses an eight-limbed lecturer sporting a lab coat and a disguising mustache. Our narrator goes on to offer pithy descriptions of common body parts, the process of silk production, and types of webs, as well as reassurance that spiders make good parents, are mostly not at all dangerous (to people), and are helpful neighbors. Owen considers reasons why some people are afraid of spiders (maybe it’s their long, spindly legs, or perhaps children develop a fear when they see adults panic at the sight of a spider) and suggests safe techniques for transporting spiders found indoors back outside. “OK…not all of us are beautiful,” admits a spider that camouflages itself as bird droppings, but the many photos of various species, some posed fetchingly on human hands or caught chowing down on insect prey, give young viewers plenty of opportunities to make up their own minds about that. Also, like so many other wild creatures, some are threatened by our destruction of their natural habitats or by pesticide use; others are captured and sold as pets. Not ideal, as Owen points out, because there’s “NO Planet B” for spiders. Engaging enough to soothe even confirmed arachnophobes. (glossary, index) (Informational picture book. 6-8) KIRKUS REVIEWS
The Fire Fox Page, Alexandra | Illus. by Stef Murphy Two Hoots/Macmillan (32 pp.) | $18.99 Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781035027590
A young girl experiences magical nighttime illuminations. When winter arrives, Freya and Mum decide to stay in the log cabin that Freya’s father loved. Though it’s never stated where Dad is, Freya feels “cold and empty” now that it’s just the two of them. Taking her sledge, Freya opens the door and spies a white fox whose fur shines like moonlight. Freya follows the wondrous creature, whose paws send colored sparks flying up from the snow. Tugging the sledge’s rope, the fox pulls Freya down a slope, lights flashing from his fur, his tail sending “frosty fires” into the sky. Then, he disappears; Freya is bereft but feels a glow spreading above. Looking up, she’s dazzled by the brilliant fires filling the dark sky: the northern lights. Back home, she and Mum admire the light show. An author’s note indicates that this gentle U.K. import was inspired by a Sami myth from Finnish Lapland, which tells of “fox fires”—sparks that fly from the fur of a magical fox, resulting in the northern lights. Page’s prose sweetly captures the magic, using lovely sounds of consonance to evoke wintry crispness. Delicate mixed-media illustrations, digitally edited, suggest lightness and airiness; blues and whites dominate, reflecting the winter, but flashes of bright hues throughout conjure images of gorgeous “fox fires.” Freya and Mum present white.
A warm evocation of an extraordinary natural phenomenon. (Picture book. 4-8)
The Far-Out Fort Petrik, Mike | Hippo Park/Astra Books for Young Readers (64 pp.) | $12.99 Oct. 3, 2023 | 9781662640254 Series: One Cool Duck, 2
Duck, Cat, and the gang need a new place to hang out. “Bored outta their gourd,” the friends search for somewhere to go, but each spot they try is a dead end. The arcade is closed, the skate park’s too crowded, and the local food shack is a mess. As they’re brainstorming other options, Turkey suggests building a treehouse, and the others jump on the idea. Skeptical Cat deems the idea “crab” (uncool), but Duck and the others are into it. The gang go into the woods to find the perfect tree, and the friends disperse to collect building materials. They each pitch in and work hard…except Cat, but he eventually brings the finishing touches that really make this place a “far-out hangout.” This second installment has the same format as the earlier book in the series: three chapters with minimal words and fun, cartoony comic panels. Like The King of Cool (2023), it features children having fun by living it up and accomplishing something together. Petrick’s art is kid-friendly with a rad edge. The anthropomorphic animals sport sunglasses, baseball caps, and graphic tees. Young readers may not get all the oldschool references, but they’ll appreciate the sick vibes and smooth wordplay (“dope-as-a-cantaloupe”). Totally sweet! (Graphic fiction. 5-8)
For more by Mike Petrik, visit Kirkus online.
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Don’t Trust Cats: Life Lessons From Chip the Dog Petty, Dev | Illus. by Mike Boldt | Doubleday (32 pp.) | $18.99 | $21.99 PLB | Jan. 2, 2024 9780593706787 | 9780593706794 PLB
A very good, very smart dog explains how readers can be their best doggy selves. Chip, the protagonist of Don’t Eat Bees (2022), is back with some more lessons. First and foremost? “Don’t trust cats!” It doesn’t matter if they’re fluffy or stripy, big or small. But our hero assures us that there are plenty of things we can trust—like one’s nose. Of course, our narrator may be a bit too trusting; Chip emphasizes that “Those birds and squirrels you try so hard to catch? You can trust them. They’re laughing with you, not at you.” (Readers may beg to differ.) Boldt’s views of a wide-eyed pooch with a massive, shiny nose enthusiastically rolling in muck, shredding mail as it drops through a slot, and bounding up to a porcupine and then a skunk in expectation of meeting new friends steal the show. But Petty gets in quite a few good zingers, too—punctuating a tally of “trustastic” things like the fire hydrant (“It’s always been there for you”) and Grandpa, who may cheat at cards but always has a doggy treat ready. Don’t trust the vacuum, though, advises the stubby-tailed sage, and ESPECIALLY don’t trust cats: “Nohow, no meow.” A sly-looking cat and an olive-skinned human family add comical background reactions to the hilariously mismatched maxims and misdeeds of this canine life coach.
What a wag! (Picture book. 5-8)
For more by Dev Petty, visit Kirkus online.
There’s no chance for anyone to chill in this well-crafted, action-packed sequel. HEROES OF HAVENSONG
We Need Everyone Redhead Champagne, Michael | Illus. by Tiff Bartel | HighWater Press (40 pp.) | $21.95 Jan. 30, 2024 | 9781774920114
How can our individual gifts better the community? We’ve all heard it said that so-and-so has a particular gift, but what does that mean? And how can young people discover theirs? As this book explains, a gift is a special talent or skill we cultivate not only to make ourselves shine brighter, but also to share with our community to make it stronger. If you’re not sure what your gift is, fear not! This book walks readers through three concrete steps to help them identify, cultivate, and use their gifts. Gifts help us individually “reach our goals and overcome challenges,” but the real magic happens when we use our gifts together to accomplish something we could never do on our own. “Some people call this activism,” the text continues. “I call this building community.” The author provides examples and highlights their social impact—some are more expected, while others may surprise readers. Gamers, for instance, are strong strategists who find novel solutions to challenges, while good friends “build healthy relationships,” which in turn lead to strong communities. With lively, colorful illustrations of children with diverse skin tones, hair types, and physical abilities, this is an engaging, encouraging primer on how to develop one’s skills to make the world a better place. An inspiring book that encourages activism. (Picture book. 6-8)
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Heroes of Havensong: The Last Ice Phoenix Reyes, Megan | Labyrinth Road (432 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 23, 2024 | 9780593482414 Series: Heroes of Havensong, 2
Young Heroes align on opposing sides amid revelations about their families and powers in this second series entry. Although ruthless Chancellor Cudek has sown the seeds of a plague on Meraki Island that’s turning the residents to stone, his scheme to revive the Forgotten Ones, a group of heterodox magic workers forcibly exiled from Meraki long ago, can only advance if he’s able to bring his stolen fragment of the Offering Tree back to life. Familiarity with the opener, Heroes of Havensong: Dragonboy (2023), is a must. Reyes disperses her expanding multiracial cast on multiple hunts for exotic ingredients for medicines and spells while continuing personal journeys. For instance, Shenli angrily battles panic attacks and feelings of powerlessness while consistently making problematic choices; meanwhile, Blue wrestles with imposter syndrome even after learning how to switch between boy and dragon at will. Slyly giving her dialogue a modern bent (“I’m super stoked to help!”) while pitching characters into encounters with Fates (only two in this iteration: a blabby brother and more secretive sister), antlered bears, an ancient phoenix, and various long-lived wizards with complex love/hate relationships, the author expertly moves pieces into place for a climactic face-off and also KIRKUS REVIEWS
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An entry that deepens fans’ love for the series: There is no higher praise for a sequel. P E R C Y J A C K S O N A N D T H E O LY M P I A N S
introduces a tantalizing element of doubt about just who the good guys are in this scenario. Characters are diverse in skin tone.
There’s no chance for anyone to chill in this well-crafted, action-packed sequel. (map) (Fantasy. 8-13)
Kirkus Star
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods Riordan, Rick | Disney-Hyperion (288 pp.) $19.99 | Sept. 26, 2023 | 9781368098175 Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, 6
Following years of eager anticipation, Percy Jackson returns in this follow-up to 2009’s The Last Olympian that is well worth the wait. Now a high school senior, Percy wants nothing more than to leave his old life behind and attend New Rome University in California with his love, Annabeth. In order to fulfill his dream, however, Percy requires three godly letters of recommendation—and the price is completing one heroic quest for each. Reading this latest installment feels like the literary equivalent of coming home after a first year of college: Everything and everyone feels similar yet changed in ways that are poignant. The action is as gripping and well paced as ever, keeping readers guessing about the identities of the villains and culprits as Percy and his friends save the day for various gods. Happily in a committed relationship, the titular KIRKUS REVIEWS
hero is more introspective and less impetuous. As graduation nears, Percy grapples with the inevitability that life as he knows it is changing, and the emotion he demonstrates as he savors moments with loved ones and mourns the missed opportunities that come with growing up imbue the novel with heart and heft. Best of all, readers will be inspired to grab the first volume and relive this modern Olympian epic all over again. An entry that renews and deepens fans’ love for the series: There is no higher praise for a sequel than this. (Fantasy. 9-14)
You Are a Star, Malala Yousafzai
Robbins, Dean | Illus. by Maithili Joshi Scholastic (40 pp.) | $5.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 9781338895094
An inspirational look at a young girl’s path to activism. The third book in the You Are a Star series features Malala Yousafzai, the well-known activist for girls’ education. Using a first-person narrative, the book highlights aspects of her life in her hometown of Mingora, in the Swat Valley region of Pakistan. Malala’s fondness for books and learning and the spirit of inquiry encouraged by her parents all grow into a passionate belief for the right to education, equality, and freedom for all. When the Taliban take over her town with their strict diktats about girls not going to school, Malala opposes their ideas through her writings and media interviews. While her budding activism grew, so did the threats from the Taliban, until one
day she and her friends were violently attacked. As the world rallied around the brave young girl, Malala strengthened her resolve to fight for girls’ education “everywhere children [need] help.” Using brightly illustrated comicstyle panels that depict her home life and relationships with her family and friends, the book is a straightforward account of Malala’s budding activism and commendable achievements. Though none of the information feels new in the crowded landscape of books on Malala, it does showcase her determination and steadfastness in the face of immense odds. A rousing biography that examines its subject’s motivations to serve others. (author’s note, notes about Malala, timeline, glossary, resources) (Picture-book biography. 5-8)
The Book of Whys Rodari, Gianni | Illus. by JooHee Yoon Trans. by Antony Shugaar | Enchanted Lion Books (152 pp.) | $27.95 | Jan. 23, 2024 9781592703647
Translated questions from kids, answered by renowned Italian children’s writer Rodari in his 1950s newspaper columns. Rodari, who grew up during Mussolini’s reign, briefly joined the Fascists to obtain work but actively resisted the regime. His ethos shines through in this work; respect for his child audience mingles with his pro-labor, anti-authoritarian outlook. He often appends mini-parables and rhyming ditties to his answers. Throughout, Rodari excoriates proverbs for their fusty, contradictory didacticism. Responding to “Why do we have to study?” he notes that learning helps students make the world “a better and more beautiful place”—yet he urges children to seek lessons beyond books, in firsthand experiences. His brilliant riposte to why gold is so precious locates its NOVEMBER 1, 2023
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answer in the human labor expended to extract it. He then skewers the proverb “Silence is golden,” avowing that if “it’s the right time to express your point of view, then silence isn’t even worth as much as…sawdust.” Rodari provides pithy answers to basic queries about rainbows, light bulbs, and auto engines. There are koanlike nuggets for some “whys,” from “Why are kings kings?” (“because they say so”) to “Why does it rain? (“because of the sun”) to “Why do we all wish for things?” (“wishing…amounts to living”). His riff on the secret to lifelong happiness is lovely and affirmative: “You learn it from life.” Depicting diverse children and adults, Yoon’s whimsical illustrations further enliven the text. Welcome insights from a celebrated author. (introduction from Shugaar, artist’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-12)
Easter Bunny Helper Rosenthal, Amy Krouse & Christy Webster Illus. by Brigette Barrager & Chiara Fiorentino | Random House (32 pp.) | $11.99 $14.99 PLB | Jan. 23, 2024 9780593651780 9780593651797 PLB | Series: Uni the Unicorn
When the Easter Bunny loses a basket full of colorful eggs, Uni the Unicorn lends a helping horn. It’s early spring, and Uni is on the way back to the land of unicorns after visiting a friend. Uni soon runs into the Easter Bunny, who fretfully shows the unicorn a disappointingly empty basket. Uni offers to help look for the missing eggs. Although the unicorn spots lots of look-alikes, the eggs are never found. But the Easter Bunny purchases some eggs from the grocery store, and with a touch of Uni’s horn, the Easter Bunny once again has a pile of colorful eggs. Little readers following along might also notice the hidden splashes of color that Uni believes are eggs, though each turns out to be bits of nature, like a cherry blossom or a bumblebee. Uni, a white unicorn with a deep-purple mane 122
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and blue sparkly eyes, cuts an endearing figure, as does the Easter Bunny, who sports a scarf and jacket. The illustrations feature pale spring blues, greens, and pinks, as well as a rainbow on one spread. There isn’t much substance to this tale, though it should please fans of Rosenthal’s original Uni story, those who love all things unicorn, or anyone seeking an Easter story. Uni’s friend is a blond-haired, blue-eyed white girl. Low-key Easter fare. (Picture book. 3-5)
Jump for Joy Ruelle, Karen Gray | Illus. by Hadley Hooper Astra Young Readers (32 pp.) | $18.99 Jan. 23, 2024 | 9781662602023
A girl and a dog lead parallel lives, until they meet. Joy, a pigtailed youngster in a polka-dotted dress, longs for a dog. “A big dog. A little dog. A spotted dog. A curly dog. It didn’t matter.” But she’s willing to wait. As the omniscient narrator tells readers, “She’d know her dog when she saw him.” Jump, a playful pup, also has a wish. He longs for a kid: “a big kid. A little kid. A spotted kid. A curly kid. It didn’t matter.” But he’s patient. “He’d know his kid when he saw her.” In the spring, Joy carefully crafts a dog out of flowers. She names him Tulip. Alas, the flowers wilt. Jump carefully crafts a kid out of plants. He names her Fern. But the ferns also wilt. Each season, Joy and Jump create a friend out of natural materials to manifest their destiny. Then, the following spring, Joy and Jump finally meet—and both jump for joy. Ruelle packs in an impressive amount of clever wordplay in a relatively spare text. The repetitive rhythm of both Joy and Jump doing similar actions is reassuring, while Hooper’s brilliant, mostly black-and-white collaged world highlights the sepia-toned friends as they navigate their way toward each other. Of course, when they finally cross paths, the world blooms into color.
A wistful meditation on patience and discovery. (Picture book. 3-6)
The Fabulous Fannie Farmer: Kitchen Scientist and America’s Cook Smith, Emma Bland | Illus. by Susan Reagan Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers (40 pp.) | $18.99 | Jan. 30, 2024 9781635926125
A Bostonian revolutionizes the recipe world. Fannie Farmer (1857-1915) grew up helping in the kitchen, as most girls did at the time. She learned to love cooking, and when polio left her with a limp that prevented her from attending college, she devoted herself fully to cooking. She developed methods based on precision measurements—a groundbreaking concept at a time when most recipes called for “a suspicion of nutmeg” or “as many yolks as may be necessary.” She became a teacher and later principal at the Boston Cooking School and wrote a cookbook (still in print years later). Deborah Hopkinson’s Fannie in the Kitchen (2004), illustrated by Nancy Carpenter, focused on Farmer’s life before cooking school; Smith, by contrast, spends more time on her subsequent professional life. The prose is peppered with rich cooking imagery and includes two workable, though not simple, recipes—for popovers and angel food cake. Reagan’s engaging watercolor and digital illustrations convey a sense of Fannie’s world; quotations from her writings are interspersed. Most people shown present white, like Fannie, but there are Black faces among her cooking school classmates, students, audiences, and customers for her books. In the backmatter, Smith carefully notes that some scenes about Fannie’s early life are based on speculation, due to lack of available information. Delectable! (more about Fannie Farmer, resources, timeline, bibliography, photos, picture credits) (Picture-book biography. 7-10)
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Baker Makers Smith, Kim | Clarion/HarperCollins (48 pp.) $19.99 | Jan. 16, 2024 | 9780063241374
An aspiring baker learns to make the best of his mistakes. This week in Naveen’s Bakers Makers Lab, the class will be making creative cakes. Naveen can’t wait to whip up his dream concoction: a “twelve-layer space-unicorn cake” capable of breathing fire! Although he’s barely baked before, Naveen has learned a lot from cooking shows, looking at pictures of his favorite pastries, and, of course, sampling plenty of sweet treats. So when his teacher gives the class the recipe, he decides that he’s experienced enough to rely on his instincts. Unfortunately, his first attempt is a sloppy, terrible-tasting flop. The next day, he decides to follow the class recipe. Naveen’s second attempt seems like an improvement until he tries to decorate it, and everything falls apart again. Luckily, with a little creativity and a lot of persistence, Naveen turns his cake into something—or, more accurately, a collection of somethings—that is totally different from what he originally planned. The surprising results are nothing short of scrumptious. With witty, lively text and vibrant colors, Smith tells a story that will reassure young readers worried about trying new things. The book’s message isn’t groundbreaking, but its approach is fresh and funny. Naveen is cued as South Asian. An entertaining and humorous story about the power of creative thinking. (Picture book. 3-7)
For more by Kim Smith, visit Kirkus online.
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An entertaining and humorous story. BAKER MAKERS
Engine of Change Snider, Brandon T. | Illus. by Ed Steckley Amulet/Abrams (256 pp.) | $14.99 Oct. 3, 2023 | 9781419750083 | Series: Rube Goldberg and His Amazing Machines, 3
Middle school inventor Rube Goldberg and his friends attempt to save their town from the nefarious Null Corporation. In this third book in the Rube Goldberg and His Amazing Machines series, the quirky tween sets his mind to his biggest project yet: saving the town of Beechwood. After spotting what looks like a giant robot at the junkyard and finding plans detailing the closure of Beechwood Middle School, Rube rallies his friends to investigate. Rube’s misfit friend group is still likable; Pearl is a natural, determined leader, in contrast to Boob’s hopeless goofball nature. Rube’s widowed father, previously never around and constantly traveling for work, returns home—and stays put— for this installment, even engaging in meaningful conversations with his son. There are plenty of plot twists, and the mystery is strong enough to keep series fans turning pages. That said, the stakes never feel high, and the villain’s motivations feel flimsy, even though the story revolves around how the entirety of the town is threatened. The danger is discussed in broad terms but without the necessary specificity to make readers feel truly invested. Rube’s machines aren’t front and center, dampening the appeal for readers drawn to that element of the stories. Busy black-and-white illustrations add
little to the overall reading experience. Pearl is Black; other main characters are white, and racial diversity is cued among the supporting cast. An interesting if shallow mystery. (Mystery. 8-12)
Today Snyder, Gabi | Illus. by Stephanie Graegin Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster (40 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 30, 2024 | 9781665924856
A child experiences time’s elasticity while waiting for, engaging in, and remembering a summer trip. The young protagonist has brown skin and a face framed by wavy dark hair; no gendered pronouns are used to describe this child. According to the youngster, today seems to last forever when you’re counting the weeks until a family visit to Pop-pop’s or waiting in the car while “your parents yak-yakyak with the neighbors” (one parent is brown-skinned; the other presents Asian). Time seems to race by when the child goes swimming at Pop-pop’s lake house—until the little one is stung by a wasp and wants nothing more than to get past that moment. Root beer and fireworks bring the child back to the present. Snyder’s descriptions ground the story in the scents and sounds of summer. Graegin’s palette, dominated by greens and blues, creates a peaceful atmosphere; her finely textured compositions depict an orderly world. The affection between the brown-skinned grandfather and child is evident, down to their matching yellow caps during the family NOVEMBER 1, 2023
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picnic. Back home, when sleep is elusive and time stretches out again, the youngster practices breathing exercises while envisioning vacation scenes: “Remember today. / It’s yours to keep. / Always.” Children will relate to the protagonist’s varying feelings about time; parents wishing to reinforce the benefits of mindfulness will have a useful model. Will help young readers learn to live in the moment and appreciate memories. (information on mindfulness) (Picture book. 4-6)
Kid Olympians: Summer: True Tales of Childhood From Champions and Game Changers Stevenson, Robin | Illus. by Allison Steinfeld Quirk Books (240 pp.) | $14.99 Jan. 30, 2024 | 9781683693710 | Series: Kid Legends, 9
Profiles of 16 Olympians and Paralympians who qualify as “Kid Legends.” Though all, as Stevenson writes, were “little kids who liked to run, jump, and play,” the five men and eleven women introduced here each had a unique array of obstacles to overcome and sacrifices to make on their way to athletic glory— of which sexism and racism were, for most, only the beginning. Wilma Rudolph, for instance, came back from childhood polio, little person Ellie Simmonds won Paralympic gold twice in 2008, and Simone Biles triumphed over sexual abuse, mental health issues, and ADHD. The author highlights the important roles parents have played in many of these success stories: After she spent years scooting around on the floor of her Russian orphanage, racer Tatyana McFadden received a wheelchair from her adoptive moms; Venus and Serena Williams’ father had their tennis training mapped out on paper before they were born; and it was her mother who initially persuaded a 124
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reluctant Ibtihaj Muhammad to take up fencing, because the sport’s protective clothing allowed the hijabi Muslim girl to compete while remaining modestly covered. Steinfeld’s cartoon scenes, which are as upbeat as the narratives, place the budding international stars amid physically and racially diverse groups of family members and fellow competitors or in climactic victory poses. More inspiring tales of young dreamers and achievers. (bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)
Everybody’s Book: The Story of the Sarajevo Haggadah Strauss, Linda Leopold | Illus. by Tim Smart Kar-Ben (32 pp.) | $18.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 9781728486468
One object travels through several countries over centuries. That object is a haggadah, read at Passover seders. The beautifully illustrated book was a 14th-century Jewish wedding gift. Handed down through generations, it left Spain in the late-15th century, when the Inquisition forced Jews into exile. It was taken to Italy and then Bosnia, but its pages stayed intact even when wine stains and a child’s Hebrew writing marred its appearance. In 1894, the National Museum in Bosnia purchased the book, now known as the Sarajevo Haggadah. People of many faiths—including Catholicism, Christian Orthodoxy, Islam, and Judaism—coexisted in Sarajevo, “sometimes in peace, sometimes quarreling.” When World War II broke out and a Nazi general wanted to steal the haggadah, the curator of the museum, a Muslim scholar, hid the book in his pants and took it to a village, where it was concealed by an imam. After the war, the curator brought the haggadah back to the museum, but other misfortunes befell the book. With colorful, naïve illustrations highlighting different eras, the appealing narrative emphasizes that
people of different religions and cultures saved the book, still on view. This tale is based on stories told over the years; throughout, the strong message of the importance of caring for such a rare volume shines through, making this unusual selection useful in religious and secular settings alike. An absorbing story that will engage readers in the study of history. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 7-10)
Tyrannosaurus Tsuris: A Passover Story Tarcov, Susan | Illus. by Elissambura Kar-Ben (24 pp.) | $18.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 9781728492377
A tyrannosaurus has terrible tsuris—Yiddish for troubles—because no guests will come to his
Passover seder. Tyrannosaurus is all ready for his seder, but there’s a problem: All the other dinosaurs think he wants to eat them. Meanwhile, the other dinosaurs have their own tsuris, too: Stegosaurus can’t find parsley for the seder plate, Ankylosaurus accidentally stepped on the box of matzah, and Allosaurus has too many guests. Tyrannosaurus is too busy moaning about his own tsuris to listen to the troubles of others, but eventually, they listen to his, and they agree that his tsuris is the worst. After all, the most important thing about seder is gathering around the table with guests. The solution is obvious: They will all attend Tyrannosaurus’ seder, which will neatly solve their problems as well. Each dino is brightly colored, with a textured pattern (or feathers, for the microraptor); herbivores have rounded teeth, and carnivores have sharp ones. A butterfly provides a fun seek-and-find element on each page. Kids who are sticklers for dinosaur facts might notice that many of these dinos did not live at the same time period. The initial alliteration may be the spark for this story, but there’s plenty to keep kids enticed:
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A much-anticipated reunion between two pals gets off to a rocky start. K E YA N A L O V E S H E R F R I E N D
bright colors, patterned language, and a happy ending. Clever, dino-themed fun to get kids excited for Passover. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)
Keyana Loves Her Friend Tarpley, Natasha Anastasia Illus. by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow Little, Brown (32 pp.) | $18.99 Dec. 12, 2023 | 9780316056885
A much-anticipated reunion between two pals gets off to a rocky start. The protagonist, whom readers may remember from Keyana Loves Her Family (2022), is excited: Her best friend, Nia, who moved away last year, is back in town. Keyana has big plans for Nia’s visit. She’s hoping for the “biggest, most spectacular sleepover ever,” which will include activities that the two have enjoyed together in the past, such as bike riding. Nia has her own plans, however: She’s bringing a scooter instead of a bicycle and has arrived with a new hairstyle and different interests. Unsurprisingly, the girls’ diverging opinions about how they should be spending their time together lead to frustration, confrontation, and a tearful confession about friendship fears. Fortunately, Keyana’s parents are there to help the duo work together to create new traditions and embrace the next stage of their friendship. Tarpley has a strong ear for dialogue—the children’s banter rings true and also captures the intense emotions that often characterize young friendships. Created digitally and finished with a handmade watercolor texture overlay, KIRKUS REVIEWS
the inviting illustrations convey the excitement of the text. Pinkney Barlow’s attention to detail, such as the Black dolls that the girls play with, continues to make this series an authentic and positive representation of Black families and communities, as well as the joyous childhood traditions that exist within them. A loving example of how to navigate friendship challenges. (Picture book. 4-9)
Not Quite a Ghost Ursu, Anne | Walden Pond Press/ HarperCollins (288 pp.) | $19.99 Jan. 16, 2024 | 9780062275158
This novel set in Minneapolis combines the stress of changes with a haunting. Eleven-year-old Violet is about to enter middle school. If that wasn’t anxiety-inducing enough, her mom and stepdad announce that they will be moving. To Violet’s relief, she’ll still be in the same school district with her two best friends. The move to a larger if decrepit Victorian means that Violet and Mia, her older sister, won’t be sharing a room anymore, something Violet has mixed feelings about. Her new attic room is private, but the ugly wallpaper in a mustard-and-green vine-filled pattern is decidedly creepy. Soon after starting school, Violet begins to have nightmares about the wallpaper coming to life, and she starts to feel weak and tired. Doctors can find nothing wrong, and her best friends become skeptical, implying
it’s all in her head. Meanwhile, Violet tries to navigate the strains of middle school—fitting in and changing friendships—with the ever-increasing menace of the haunted attic and its link, presented possibly as a metaphor, to her chronic illness. This storyline works pretty well, addressing the experience of invisible disabilities, which are too rarely represented in middle-grade fiction, but some readers may wish for the connection between Violet’s illness and the ghost to feature a clearer resolution. Violet and her mom are white; Violet’s stepfather is Black, and other characters bring diversity in race and sexual orientation. An ambitious presentation exploring resonant themes. (author’s note) (Paranormal. 8-12)
Sally Ride Vegara, Maria Isabel Sánchez | Illus. by Alona Millgram | Frances Lincoln (32 pp.) $15.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9780711291515 Series: Little People, BIG DREAMS
The latest in the Little People, BIG DREAMS series focuses on the first American woman in space. This brief, well-written biography begins with Sally Ride’s childhood and ends with Ride starting a company that produced science books for children; it’s not until the timeline in the backmatter that readers learn she died in 2012. The book stresses Ride’s dedication to learning; she’s described as “studying physics in college,” though what that entailed gets little explanation. When NASA opened up its pool of astronauts to scientists, Ride applied and, along with five other women, was accepted. The text doesn’t mention that they were the first women astronauts, though the backmatter does clarify this point, and the book does later refer to Ride as “the first American woman to explore the universe beyond the bounds of Earth!” The author also touches on NOVEMBER 1, 2023
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Rich in adventure, intrigue, and magical fun. L U L U S I N A G TA L A A N D T H E C I T Y O F N O B L E W A R R I O R S
her invention of a robotic arm and her pilot’s license, her confidence in the face of sexism, and her feelings and accomplishments. The astronauts’ grief over the fatalities in the Challenger shuttle explosion occupies a page. The book is silent on her marriage to fellow astronaut Steven Hawley but discusses “her partner, Tam,” without using a pronoun (or citing their 27 years together). Most of the appealingly simple, subtly colorful illustrations feature the astronaut; where possible, racially diverse children appear. An attractive treatment of an inspiring life. (photos) (Picture-book biography. 4-7)
Lulu Sinagtala and the City of Noble Warriors Villanueva, Gail D. | Harper/HarperCollins (368 pp.) | $19.99 | Jan. 9, 2024 9780063255364 | Series: Lulu Sinagtala and the Tagalog Gods, 1
A Manila tween learns of her magical powers in this duology opener steeped in Tagalog mythology. Lulu has always known that she was adopted; the physical differences between her and her Chinese Filipina mother and sister, Kitty, are clear. Lulu’s painfully aware that to the outer world, her darker skin and hair, flatter nose, and shorter stature make her “not ‘pretty,’ ” unlike them. Still, Lulu and Kitty, both 11, are extremely close. Lulu’s inner circle also includes best friend Bart and supportive adult friends. But her life is suddenly shattered by a violent 126
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earthquake, the revelation that she’s a salamangkero (someone with the power to “save the universe from falling into chaos”), and the kidnapping of her mother by a wakwak, a sharp-toothed flying creature. It also emerges that Lulu’s adoptive and chosen family are deities and that Bart is an aswang, or were-dog shape-shifter. They’re all trying to protect her from malicious spirit Maligno, who seeks to bring chaos to all three Realms: the Upperworld, the Middleworld, and the Underworld. Lulu, while trying to make sense of everything and explore her new powers, must now rescue her mom. Readers will be completely immersed in the book’s fantastical and culturally and historically rich world, which features inclusive representation; Lulu’s bisexuality is naturally woven into her characterization. Villanueva deftly balances complex worldbuilding, plot twists, and moments of levity while touching on serious themes such as colonization. Rich in adventure, intrigue, and magical fun. (author’s note, glossary) (Fantasy. 9-12)
Keep Dreaming, Black Child Williams, Nyasha | Illus. by Sawyer Cloud Running Press Kids (32 pp.) | $17.99 Dec. 5, 2023 | 9780762482818
“Dreams carry whispers from your soul.” This picture book encourages young readers to follow their dreams. Dreams are powerful, Williams notes. “They allow you, the dreamer, to see your celebrated role in the global community.” They “speak of our
future” and “shape our life choices.” The images depict Black and brown children creating, doing, and, of course, dreaming. Windows and doors figure heavily in the visuals; one image shows a child walking along a path made up of giant books before walking through a door to another world—perhaps a reference to the work of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop. Moons, stars, and planets steeped in lavenders, pinks, and blues make the book feel otherworldly. The poetic and ethereal writing is a call for young people to be antiracist, to make the impossible possible, and to employ patience and dedication to make their dreams come true. Though some of the wording may be a bit abstract for the target audience, the artwork will resonate, and the text will likely spark conversations between children and supportive adults. Books promoting kindness and empowerment to young people are always needed. Fans of Antiracist Baby (2020) by Ibram X. Kendi, illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky, and Woke Baby (2018) by Mahogany L. Browne, illustrated by Theodore Taylor III, will enjoy this motivating book. Stirring words and images for budding activists and leaders. (Picture book. 4-8)
Alterations Xu, Ray | Union Square Kids (240 pp.) $24.99 | Jan. 30, 2024 | 9781454945840
A Chinese Canadian daydreamer faces the tough realities of school and family life. Navigating a recently divorced mom, a moody older sister, and a weird grandmother at home, 10-year-old Kevin seeks refuge in his comics. In addition to eagerly awaiting the next issue of Star Odysseys, Kevin imagines and draws his own deep-space adventures. School life comes with further challenges— his former friend (and maybe crush) Lily hates his guts, and as one of his school’s few Asian kids, he’s subject to KIRKUS REVIEWS
CHILDREN’S
A fantastical blend of quirky characters and goofy adventures. THE MISFITS
a fair amount of casual racism. When Kevin brings a century egg to school, he sets off a disastrous chain of events that culminates in a thrilling transformation. Mostly taking place over the course of a week in 1994, the story feels a little disjointed at times, with Kevin’s fantasy world intercutting his real-life struggles. The cultural specificity and humor shine, however: From Kevin’s refreshing lack of self-consciousness about the century egg and his mom’s backbreaking work at the family’s clothing alterations business to his popo’s love of game shows, the portrayals are authentic and lovingly complex. Most characters who populate Kevin’s Toronto are white, except for his family and his two Asian friends (one is Japanese and white, and the other is Chinese from Hong Kong). The detailed, loosely drawn illustrations emphasize the characters’ emotions and convey a sense of bustling energy. A busy, evocative slice of school life and the trials of a second-generation immigrant. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)
The Misfits: A Royal Conundrum Yee, Lisa | Illus. by Dan Santat | Random House (288 pp.) | $14.99 | $17.99 PLB Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781984830296 9781984830302 PLB | Series: The Misfits, 1
Olive’s move to a new school leads to friends, adventures, and greater self-confidence in this series opener. Invisible at school and forgotten by her KIRKUS REVIEWS
distracted parents, 12-year-old Olive Cobin Zang is lonely and drifting. Her only source of solace is memories of her loving grandmother’s wise words. So, when Olive’s parents transfer her to the Reforming Arts School, a Bay Area boarding school located in a former prison, she is ambivalent but curious. The school’s unusual approach includes both individual and group placement auditions. These challenges reward often-overlooked skills that Olive and four other idiosyncratic new students turn out to embody: creativity, teamwork, and reasoning. The new pod of five coalesces, exuberant upon learning that they will “join an elite force of specially trained operatives” and become the youngest group ever to go undercover and bring fresh ideas to solving crime. The self-styled Misfits have finally found their calling, but will it last? A crisis is unfolding: The villainous Bling King could keep the school’s main benefactor from attending the annual fundraiser, threatening the school’s existence as well as the Misfits’ own ambitions and newfound feelings of sanctuary. The straightforward storyline has more telling than showing, making it accessible to younger and reluctant readers. Readers will delight in the cartoonlike worldbuilding, zany capers, and plentiful and expressive illustrations. Olive is Chinese American and white; there’s racial diversity among the remaining cast.
A fantastical blend of quirky characters and goofy adventures. (Adventure. 8-12) For more by Lisa Yee, visit Kirkus online.
Take Me to Lăolao Zhang, Kelly | Illus. by Evie Zhu | Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins (32 pp.) | $19.99 Jan. 9, 2024 | 9780063217652
A sense of longing ignites a young Chinese girl’s fantastical journey. Lili and her family, who live in a village by the sea, have finished observing the Lantern Festival, the last day of the Lunar New Year festivities, marked by riddles, food, and, of course, lanterns. Lili is exhausted. Yet the absence of her grandmother Lăolao (perhaps deceased, though this is never explicitly stated) lingers in her mind as she falls asleep. In her dream, brought to life by charmingly textured illustrations against a blue backdrop, she walks through her backyard to a stream, where a boat (with eyes and a mouth) is waiting for her. “Can you take me to my lăolao?” Lili asks. Although the boat doesn’t know where Lăolao is, it offers to take her to the Dragon King of the East Sea. The King welcomes her but doesn’t know where Lăolao is, either. He turns into his dragon form to take her to the Jade Emperor in his Celestial Palace. The Jade Emperor demands that she solve a riddle. Lili correctly answers it and is whisked away to a village crowded with festivities, where she and Lăolao, reunited, fill their quiet moments together with new memories. This tender tale of family bonding is followed by detailed backmatter, including an author’s note in which Zhang describes her relationship with her own grandmother, now deceased. A charming journey rich with Chinese folktales and imagery. (descriptions of the Lantern Festival, information on Chinese mythological figures and symbols, craft activity) (Picture book. 4-8) For another Lunar New Year book, please visit Kirkus online.
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CLASSIC READS REFRESHED FOR TODAY’S TEENS ADAPTATIONS OF classics
are staples of young adult literature. Many readers will already be familiar with the storylines from school assignments, film adaptations, or pleasure reading, allowing them to appreciate contemporary twists and delight in spotting allusions. Others will be motivated to seek out the originals that inspired the new works. When you look past differences in social conventions and language, classics can offer enduring insights into human nature that transcend time and place. These recent and upcoming releases are
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enjoyable whether you’re already enamored of the novels that inspired them or take them on their own merits, without any other frame of reference. Rosewood: A Midsummer Meet Cute by Sayantani DasGupta (Scholastic, March 7): “It is a truth universally acknowledged that whatever happens at Regency Camp stays at Regency Camp.” Following on Debating Darcy (2022), DasGupta pens another delightful tribute to Jane Austen in this loose take on Sense and Sensibility filled with romantic hijinks and
lively sibling dynamics. The setting: a Regency-themed camp run by the producers of period detective drama Rosewood. The Das sisters: practical activist Eila and fashion-conscious, TikTok-obsessed Mallika. The love interests: dashing and slightly naughty Rahul Lee (for Eila) and bubbly, creative Annie Park (for Mallika). Midnight at the Houdini by Delilah S. Dawson (Delacorte, Sept. 5): Do you believe in magic? Teens Anna and Max each answer that question very differently in this intoxicating fantasy in which the topsy-turvy world of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland meets the mysterious drama of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Anna is her family’s “backbone”—the logical, organized one—in contrast to her sweet, flighty older sister. A torrential storm drives Anna to shelter in the Houdini, a mysterious hotel where she meets a white rabbit, falls through a hole into an opulent world, meets a cute boy called Max, and discovers that leaving isn’t so easy. Into the Bright Open: A Secret Garden Remix by Cherie Dimaline (Feiwel & Friends, Sept. 5): This entry in the Remixed Classics series, each title offering a different author’s interpretation of a well-known work, takes Frances Hodgson
LAURA SIMEON
Burnett’s haunting 1911 novel and transports it from the Yorkshire moors to Georgian Bay, Ontario. Newly orphaned teenager Mary Craven struggles to adapt to the rural wilderness home of an uncle she’s never met after leaving her pampered but lonely city life. She delves into family secrets, falls for a charmingly free-spirited Métis girl named Sophie, and confronts the prejudices she was raised with. Emmett by L.C. Rosen (Little, Brown, Nov. 7): Rosen’s latest takes Jane Austen’s oh-so-humanly flawed protagonist from Emma and reimagines her as skittish, somewhat self-aware, Stanford-bound senior Emmett Woodhouse, an out gay boy who always strives to be nice (“I’m blessed, and blessed people have to give back”). The wealthy Southern California teen is happy setting up his friends but has vowed not to become emotionally attached until he’s 25; ever since learning about the unfinished state of the adolescent prefrontal cortex, he’s “felt a relationship before your brain is developed is silly.” But Emmett’s resolve is tested in this clever, effervescent, and romantic story. Laura Simeon is a young readers’ editor. KIRKUS REVIEWS
Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson
Young Adult
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EDITOR’S PICK Through honest and powerful vignettes, Jewell’s latest stitches together a collective memoir of formative experiences of educational racism and American schooling by people of the global majority. Anchored by the author’s narrative of navigating school as a “light-skinned Black biracial cis-female” in a working-class neighborhood of a city in New York state, the work incorporates both her experiences of being labeled and othered in school as well as the first-person experiences of people of various ages, ethnicities, races, and genders, who write about how they navigated and were affected by systemic racism in their
These Titles Earned the Kirkus Star KIRKUS REVIEWS
K-12, college, and postgraduate educations. The contributors include wellknown authors of young people’s literature including Joanna Ho, Minh Lê, and Randy Ribay; writers and educators such as Lorena and Roberto Germán, Torrey Maldonado, and Gayatri Sethi; and two entries by teens from Portland, Oregon. Alongside stories of segregation, mistreatment by white educators, hypervisibility, surveillance, stereotyping, pigeonholing, and exclusion, this collection asks readers to “envision what freedom in schools might be.” These bold tales of truth telling are interspersed with historical facts, definitions, and
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In Utero By Chris Gooch
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Beasts of War By Ayana Gray
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Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School By Tiffany Jewell
Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School Jewell, Tiffany | Versify/HarperCollins (272 pp.) | $21.99 | Jan. 30, 2024 9780358638315
anti-racist pedagogy that emphasize and contextualize the reality that, while experiences of racism in educational systems evolve with each generation, one constant is that schools are microcosms of larger systems of inequality and
institutional oppression in the world beyond classroom walls. Unapologetic and unflinching: a critical read. (resources, recommended reading, references, about the contributors) (Nonfiction. 12-18)
For great YA reads exploring American society, visit Kirkus online.
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Immortal Games
Cupid’s Revenge
Avery, Annaliese | Scholastic (336 pp.) | $12.99 paper | Jan. 2, 2024 9781338754520
Brueggemann, Wibke | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (400 pp.) | $20.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 9780374314026
A mortal girl and a Greek god fight for the future of their world. Sixteen-yearold Ara has spent the five years since her sister Estella’s death training to exact revenge on the one responsible: Zeus. Estella was killed during the Immortal Games, a competition between the Gods where mortals are used as tokens for their entertainment. Ara’s only hope of fulfilling her oath to Estella is to be chosen as a token herself. When Ara almost dies while saving her mother from a fire, Hades rescues her and selects her as his token. She’s plunged into the trials with 11 other mortals, including childhood friend Theron. While Ara loathes the Gods, Hades is not what she expected, and their relationship quickly grows. As the competitors find themselves in increasingly dangerous situations, Ara must decide if her newfound relationship with Hades is more important than vengeance, and Hades must determine whether his love for Ara matters more than the fate of the world. Told in Ara’s and Hades’ alternating perspectives, the novel is compelling, with riveting action sequences. Mythological elements, from the gods to lesserknown monsters, are seamlessly included. While the character development is rushed at times, resulting in some relationships feeling shallow, Ara’s and Hades’ motivations ring true throughout. Characters are diverse in appearance, with skin that is variously described as “sunbronzed,” “almost translucent,” and dark, “with a deep luster.”
London teens navigate crushes and family drama in this story that highlights making errors—and making amends. Matilda Taylor isn’t happy that Grandad is moving in—there’s enough going on, and she’s sure they won’t be able to handle his Alzheimer’s. Tilly and best friend Teddy Booker are still processing the loss of their beloved mutual friend, Grace, three years earlier, when they were 13. On top of that, Tilly and Teddy don’t always feel like they fit in with their musical families: They aren’t creative and have no interest in pursuing careers in the arts. But when Teddy needs support with going after Katherine Cooper-Bunting, the girl he fancies, Tilly begrudgingly accompanies him to the community theater audition where Katherine will be. Unfortunately, when Tilly first lays eyes on Katherine, she’s smitten. Organized into three acts, this novel includes a sex-positive, willthey-won’t-they romance that follows Tilly’s desperate attempts to protect her friendship with Teddy while also harboring a secret crush. Against the backdrop of West End amateur dramatics, the delightful cast of characters provides pages of witty banter, swoony moments, and poignant scenes. Tilly and Teddy navigate their familial and grief-related traumas productively, and the mistakes they make are addressed seamlessly, with respect, and in a nonpreachy manner. This sweet and serious story is perfect for fans of Alice Oseman. Main characters read white.
A fun, fast-paced tale set in the perennially popular world of Greek mythology. (map, pronunciation guide, author’s note) (Fantasy. 13-18) 130 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
Authentic and artful. (Fiction. 14-18) For another YA Greek mythology retelling, visit Kirkus online.
Star Wars: The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life Córdova, Zoraida, Tessa Gratton, Claudia Gray, et al. | Disney Lucasfilm (352 pp.) $18.99 | Sept. 5, 2023 | 9781368093798 Series: Star Wars: The High Republic
In this High Republic–era anthology featuring contributions from many noted YA authors, the devastating impact of Starlight Beacon’s crash reverberates throughout the galaxy. A senator’s son constrained by social expectations finds himself at the mercy of an alluring but violent band of criminals. Aboard the Gaze Electric, a lone Evereni hunts for her people and herself. Young Jedi and rebellious heroes of the Republic confront the challenges before them—knighthood trials, homesickness, missing friends, invasion by the Hutts, and recovering a sense of purpose in the wake of disaster. These nine stories can stand independently of one another but also combine to capture a panoramic view of a historical turning point for the Republic and the Jedi, from the events leading up to the rise of the Nihil to the aftermath of the space station’s fall. The narrative progression from one story to the next creates a satisfying overarching plot that packs an emotional punch at its climax. Although the focal point of the collection is a tragedy, the stories emphasize the power of hope, connection, and community. Fans of the series will recognize significant recurring characters such as Rooper Nitani and Marda Ro, but each story provides enough context to entice the interest of new readers. As with other installments in the High Republic series, this anthology reflects a galaxy of diverse and complex characters. Cohesive and captivating. (Science fiction anthology. 13-18)
KIRKUS REVIEWS
Y O U N G A D U LT
The delightful cast provides witty banter and poignant scenes. CUPID’S REVENGE
Okay, Cupid Deaver, Mason | PUSH/Scholastic (320 pp.) $19.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9781338777697
An agender 16-year-old from the Bay Area is torn between love and their Cupid duties. Jude recently made the biggest mistake of their Cupid career: They fell in love with a human boy. Worse, they kissed him. Broken-hearted Jude, who is white and trans, was placed on probation, and they are determined not to make the same mistake twice: Kiss a human again, and they’ll lose their powers and their memories of ever having been a Cupid. When Jude’s latest assignment goes off the rails, senior Cupids consider imposing more consequences but instead give them a challenging test as a second chance. Their assignment: restore the broken relationship between a girl named Alice Tran and a trans boy called Huy Trinh, who are both Vietnamese American. Posing as regular high school student Jude Ricci, befriending the pair, and then engineering a reconciliation should be child’s play. At first, everything seems to be going smoothly, but the situation gets hairy when Jude grows closer to Huy, raising the stakes with both their memories now on the line. Jude and Huy’s budding romance is both tender and heartbreaking, given that readers are constantly aware of potential tragedy looming over every sweet moment. The romantic tension between the two will move even the most stonehearted readers. A deep look at the expectations of family and society and how they can negatively KIRKUS REVIEWS
affect teenagers’ lives fills out the narrative.
character, whose motivations and actions shift abruptly; lively Marlene is engaging, if underdeveloped. The generic historical English setting is vaguely fleshed out. While many of the Lost Boys seem to be younger than the twins, some sparse but pivotal violence that is not foreshadowed makes the book skew older. Most characters are cued white.
A well-crafted slow-burn romance with plenty of depth. (Romance. 14-18)
An origin story that will leave readers with more questions than answers. (Fantasy. 12-16)
The Lost Ones
Ghost Roast
DeStefano, Lauren | Disney Press (336 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 9, 2024 | 9781368067157 Series: Dark Ascension, 2
Gibbs, Shawnelle & Shawneé Gibbs Illus. by Emily Cannon | Versify/ HarperCollins (224 pp.) | $26.99 $18.99 paper | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9780358141815 9780358141808 paper
This entry in Disney’s freshly reimagined backstories for signature villains follows Robin Benway’s The Wicked Ones (2023) with a look at Peter Pan’s
archnemesis. James and Marlene, English twins from a town on the North Sea, are close despite their differences in temperament. Shy, timid, methodical James dreams of higher education and life in London—not inheriting their father’s struggling fishing business. Outgoing, fearless, impulsive Marlene rejects the demure role their mother, nanny to a wealthy London family, cherishes for her. Swept out to sea on their 15th birthday, the twins surface on the beach of a tropical island, where Peter Pan rules a loyal band of fairies and the Lost Boys. Marlene’s thrilled with Never Land and fascinated by Peter, while James is increasingly anxious to leave before Never Land erases their memories of home. They clash over their next steps after discovering a rival band of Lost Boys, exiled by Peter following a failed coup, and the twins’ sibling bond continues to be tested. This intermittently entertaining tale suffers from jarring inconsistencies in James, its linchpin
A high school student tries to solve a longburied mystery involving the spirits haunting a New Orleans mansion. After years of being known as the Ghost Girl from the Seventh Ward, 15-year-old Chelsea Grant is now a member of the popular crowd. Shortly before summer vacation, a rowdy night out with friends ends in a jail cell. Much to her chagrin, Chelsea must spend the summer working for her father’s ghost-removal agency as punishment. When her dad is hired to exorcise Harrington Manor, Chelsea assumes the job will be another bust. However, soon after setting foot on the former sugarcane plantation, Chelsea, who is Black, realizes she can see and speak to the manor’s ghosts—including Oliver, the gorgeous Harrington heir who went missing in 1879. As Chelsea’s friendship with Oliver deepens, she uncovers grave secrets, and Oliver lies at the heart of them. In this well-paced graphic novel by the Gibbs sisters and debut artist Cannon, the tender flush of a first romance is effectively wrapped up in historical intrigue. Chelsea’s relationship with her parents is >>> NOVEMBER 1, 2023 131
Y O U N G A D U LT // Q & A
THE KIRKUS Q&A: ABIGAIL HING WEN With a film adaptation now streaming, the author continues her Loveboat saga. BY ILANA BENSUSSEN EPSTEIN
We enter the story with a timely inciting incident— that of a TikTok-fueled controversy. Pearl is steeped in the classical music world, and 132 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
it’s very much the music of Vienna, of Mozart and Beethoven, of Bach and Brahms. She loves these composers—classical music is in her blood—and she would
Wen’s background in tech ethics informed the new novel.
really rather not think about being Asian American. Yet this social media blow-up requires her to think about who she is and where she comes from, and it’s not something she can escape. That’s been true for me, too. For many years I would rather not have been Asian American; it would have been much easier to be like everyone else around me in Ohio. But over time, I came to realize there was something richer and deeper that I was missing out on, and I think that’s Pearl’s journey, too. Even if it’s thrust upon her, she begins to figure out how to make her culture her own. I know some of your work has been on the ethics of technology, and specifically AI. How did that background influence your writing about social media in the book? The internet polarizes people. It rewards con-
troversy. In Pearl’s case, people piled on, and piled on, and then the algorithms pushed [her video] out so that it would be discovered by even more people who could get angry about it. That’s a huge negative to our social lives and to our mental health. I think that’s where our AI systems still need work. How do we encourage algorithms to promote healthy behaviors? It can absolutely be done, but we have to make the choice not to reward certain behaviors. That does mean you have to make profits in different ways, and that requires creativity. But it’s not an impossible task; we just have to value it and prioritize it. We see Pearl juggle in this book with what kind of life she wants for herself—what she values and what she wants to prioritize. This is especially evident when she KIRKUS REVIEWS
Olga Pichkova/I0PhotoStudio
Abigail Hing Wen has worn many hats. A lawyer by training, she spent years clerking on the D.C. circuit, working toward becoming a law professor. “The next step would have been to write the law review article that would’ve been my calling card to go on the market,” she tells Kirkus over Zoom from her sunshiney Bay Area living room. On the wall behind her is evidence of a different path taken: prints of the covers of her three published books, as well as a poster for the recent film Love in Taipei, which is based on the first of the trilogy. “My husband insisted on putting these up for me very recently,” Wen explains. “This is the first interview I’m taking with these in the background.” The series of novels opens with Loveboat, Taipei, the story of Ever Wong, whose parents enroll her in Chien Tan, a Chinese language and culture program in Taipei, Taiwan, against her wishes. Her arc takes her on an exploration of identity as she seeks balance between her parents’ aspirations for her and her own dreams, modulated by the choice of romance with two very different boys, Rick and Xavier. With the third and most recent installment, Loveboat Forever (HarperTeen, Nov. 7), readers return to Taipei six years later, this time in the company of Pearl Wong, Ever’s younger sister. Pearl is driven to attend Chien Tan after the explosive reaction to a video she posts on TikTok. A gifted pianist, she has a significant following on the video-sharing app for her classical renditions; when she shares a photo of herself at the piano wearing a traditional conical Chinese straw hat, she faces a severe backlash from those who feel she’s performing an offensive caricature of Chinese identity. Wen spoke to Kirkus about the series, the new film, the complex give-and-take of immigrant identity, and the future of artificial intelligence. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Q & A // Y O U N G A D U LT
visits her family’s ancestral home. Growing up, the prevailing wisdom was, We are so lucky to have come to America for a better life. That was why my parents left [Asia], and that’s why a lot of immigrants come to America. And I think it was a better life in many ways. For my mom, she was the eleventh child, and I think the sixth girl in her family, and she was able to have opportunities in America as a woman she wouldn’t have had if she’d stayed home. But at the same time, when I went back to visit my family—I took a trip just like Pearl,
to the Lim family village [in Fujian province, China], where my mom’s family is from—I experienced that amazing resonance of, Oh my God, these are all my relatives, and there are millions of Lims who have come out of this province. I didn’t know I had such a wide network of people out there in the world. I always felt that it was just the five of us in Ohio. Pearl has that revelation as well. Over time, I came to realize it’s not so black and white. There are things you give up when you leave your family behind to move to another country, and
there are benefits to living in a community of people who know you and know your family. But I think we build that as immigrants, too. When we come to a new place, we find people and we make connections, and that’s beautiful. We make friends with people we would never have made friends with. For Pearl, part of the exploration is, Can we have all of it? Can we find a way to reclaim some of the things we’ve lost? In her story, that balance comes through music: She loves the piano, but she also comes to love the pipa.
When we come to a new place, we find people and we make connections, and that’s beautiful.
Loveboat Forever Wen, Abigail Hing
HarperTeen | 400 pp. | 19.99 Nov. 7, 2023 | 9780062957276
KIRKUS REVIEWS
How did it feel to work on the film Love in Taipei? Did it change your thoughts about the story you were telling? Seeing what people took away, seeing how it was translated into a shorter film version, really made me appreciate how [Loveboat, Taipei] is about a girl coming to a deeper understanding of her family. The romance arc of the book ends in a different place than in the movie: She ends up with Rick in the book and Xavier in the film. That was a big question mark: Why is she ending up with Rick, when her parents actually like him? He’s the boy wonder; he’s what’s always been held up as a standard for her; he’s everything she’s supposed to achieve. The instinct is to rebel against that. But that’s her journey: She’s able to separate what she wants from what her parents want in a nuanced way. She can end up with the guy her parents like, but she can also choose dance, which her parents don’t want for her. With the film, that arc doesn’t quite go there, so that difference made me reflect on what made the book different. The South China Morning Post did a review that was about how Loveboat, Taipei was the first Asian American young adult novel in which the kids come to a deeper understanding of their parents. That is very much what I hope for in all my work: to bridge the gap between generations and between cultures.
Ilana Bensussen Epstein is a writer and filmmaker in Boston. Loveboat Forever was reviewed in the Sept. 15, 2023, issue. NOVEMBER 1, 2023 133
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crafted with realism, and the manor’s legacy of slavery is explored with honesty. The lively and expressive manga-style illustrations complement the narrative well. Present-day scenes feature a rich, vibrant palette, while Chelsea’s flashbacks and historical interludes use faded tones. A fresh and charming modern Southern ghost story starring a plucky hero who isn’t afraid to stand up for the truth. (Graphic paranormal. 13-18)
Kirkus Star
In Utero Gooch, Chris | Top Shelf Productions (248 pp.) | $24.99 paper | Jan. 23, 2024 9781603095341
An inquisitive girl encounters strange and monstrous phenomena while exploring a decaying shopping center. When Hailey, an Australian tween, is dropped off by her mum at a low-budget holiday childcare program in a shuttered mall, she isn’t enthused. Plucky and adaptable (and one of the oldest kids in attendance), she easily evades adult supervision and meets Jen, an enigmatic teen who promises to show her more interesting things amid the urban decay. Eager to prove herself to someone older, Hailey follows Jen deeper into the expansive, crumbling complex. Meanwhile, the other children make a disturbing discovery: The building is infested with grotesque organisms that defy scientific explanation. Soon it becomes clear that something otherworldly is due to awaken, and Hailey and Jen lean on their tentative new friendship as they face the impending calamity. Gooch’s distinctive cinematic style of visual storytelling is both sweeping enough to convey the incomprehensible scale of the skin-crawling horrors the characters face and also intimate enough to deliver poignant moments with 134 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
impact. Color is inventively used as a storytelling device—shades of muted blues and reds alternate across and within layouts to denote shifts in perspective and create palpable tension. Hailey and Jen have light complexions with black hair and read Asian; there is racial diversity among the supporting and background characters. Coming-of-age meets cosmic horror; unforgettably striking, both visually and emotionally. (Graphic horror. 14-adult)
Kirkus Star
Beasts of War Gray, Ayana | Putnam (448 pp.) | $19.99 Jan. 16, 2024 | 9780593405741 | Series: Beasts of Prey, 3
Two headstrong characters must trust themselves and their community as they fight to change their destinies in this trilogy closer. Koffi awakens after her grueling battle with Fedu, the god of death, who remains a threat as the Bonding swiftly approaches. Not only disoriented and wary, she now also bears the marks of the powerful splendor she carries within her body. As Koffi is reunited with her friends, Fedu sends his Untethered— undead souls who aren’t allowed to cross over—to wreak havoc on their encampment, forcing them to flee without a plan in place. Knowing that Fedu won’t rest until he recaptures her, Koffi seeks help from Badwa, one of Eshōza’s six ancient gods, who sends her on a pilgrimage to recruit the other gods for the final battle. Ekon, recently reunited with his presumed-dead mother, is haunted by his past and trying to outrun a prophecy, both of which affect his chronic anxiety. Infighting, dangerous creatures, and a love triangle plague our protagonists along their journey; however, only together can they hope to end
Fedu’s murderous plot. Their fragile plans begin to unravel as Ekon’s past catches up with him. Gray continues to dive into complicated relationships and explore what it means to break free from societal pressures. Readers will stay engaged through the vivid descriptions and action-packed battles in this African-inspired fantasy. Secondary characters are just as vital as the leads, something made evident in their development throughout.
A thrilling end to a lively saga. (Fantasy. 12-18)
Our Divine Mischief Howard, Hanna C. | Blink (400 pp.) | $18.99 Oct. 17, 2023 | 9780310156222
For the islanders of Fuiscea, everything is determined by the will of the gods. Áila LacInis, a fisherman’s daughter with tanned skin, green eyes, and dark, curly hair, awaits the moment when the goddess Yslet will tell her what her vocation will be. Only the Unblessed, the most unfortunate people on Fuiscea, are deprived by Yslet of any special aptitude. Among them is Hew LacEllan, a lanky, auburn-haired laborer with an unwavering faith in the gods despite the abuse he faces at the hands of his fellow islanders. To Áila’s shock, Yslet fails to appear at her Goddess Trial; Áila instead is faced with Orail, a strange doglike creature who possesses the power to grant wishes. The goddess’s absence means Áila must complete a series of intensive Ordeals intended to test the gods’ favor. In the process, Hew, Áila, and Orail become bound together as three outcasts fighting the limits of tradition. Unfolding through their three alternating viewpoints (Orail’s sections are in verse), the story’s rich narration is sure to enchant fantasy lovers. While the first half of the novel seems disconnected from the conclusion due to an unexpected redirection KIRKUS REVIEWS
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of the twist-filled plot, themes of identity and belief are carried throughout a text that’s layered with references to Scottish lore.
An absorbing exploration of truest friendship and the fulfillment that comes from knowing one’s worth. (map, author’s note, glossary) (Fantasy. 12-18)
Just Happy To Be Here Kanakia, Naomi | HarperTeen (320 pp.) $19.99 | Jan. 2, 2024 | 9780063216570
A trans teen girl in Virginia faces discrimination. Tara Rituveni, an Indian American student at St. George’s Preparatory Academy for Boys, was granted permission to attend its all-girl sister school, Ainsley Academy. Now she has her sights set on the Sibyls, a secret society offering access to a hefty, much-needed scholarship. However, Angel Beaumont, the benefactor of the Sibyls, doesn’t want to award the scholarship to a trans girl, and the controversy could draw the attention of Child Protective Services to Tara’s parents, who are supportive of her transition. Tara is a complex character, full of very human contrasts. She admits that she wishes she were cis and confesses “that when I thought of myself in a girl’s body, I imagined being white.” She struggles to envision life beyond transition and dismisses attempts by Liam (her friend who’s a trans boy) to belong, though they are the mirror image of her own. Meanwhile, people seem to be saying that in order to be embraced, Tara must be better than other girls. The book itself contains a similar duality: honest, perceptive, and readable, although the writing is sometimes unpolished and some elements are confusing. Nevertheless, the story thoughtfully explores the desire for acceptance, the difficulty of living under laws targeting trans youth, and the tension of seeking access to an KIRKUS REVIEWS
oppressive system, rather than sacrificing your own well-being to fight it.
Insightful characterization and relatable moments make this story worth reading. (author’s note) (Fiction. 13-17)
Escaping Mr. Rochester McKinney, L.L. | HarperTeen (352 pp.) $19.99 | Jan. 16, 2024 | 9780062986269
Jane Eyre teams up with Bertha Mason to defeat the real enemy— Mr. Rochester. In this retelling of Charlotte Brontë’s novel centering queer Black characters, 19-year-old Jane has left Lowood School in Lancashire, England, for Thornfield Hall, where she’ll be a “right and proper governess” to Adèle Varens, the young light-brown-skinned ward of white Englishman Edward Rochester. Jane feels a sense of freedom in pursuing her new role, leaving behind employment under a cruel headmaster—though she misses the comfort and support of her lover, Helen. The story alternates between the first-person perspectives of Jane and Bertha (Rochester’s wife), a format that gives Bertha voice and agency denied her in the original iteration. Bertha is imprisoned in the upper floors of the house; Rochester only married her for access to her family’s wealth. His debts have mounted, and he previously pursued marriage with Adèle’s late Parisian mother, who had a fortune of her own. This book nails the atmosphere of the brooding historical setting in which “punishment and pain” seem “to lurk around every corner.” The love story between Jane and Bertha, which is also developed through their secret letters, is a refreshing addition. Bertha, who is from New Orleans, shares multiple flashback scenes, adding depth to her character. Unfortunately, readers may find the culminating twist a disappointment. A sinister gothic romance revamped with mixed results. (Historical fiction. 14-18)
The Emotionally Intelligent Teen: Skills To Help You Deal With What You Feel, Build Stronger Relationships & Boost Self-Confidence McNally, Melanie | Instant Help Books (168 pp.) | $19.95 paper | Dec. 1, 2023 9781648482083 | Series: Instant Help Solutions
Teen psychologist McNally offers a self-help toolkit for developing emotional intelligence. A perky, first-person narrator guides readers through a series of skill-building chapters focused on specific components of emotional intelligence, including self-awareness of emotions, thoughts, and behaviors and topics like self-regulation, awareness of others, and understanding physical sensations. Each chapter is filled with examples and exercises, such as a self-awareness questionnaire, breathing and visualization scripts for mindfulness practice, and a feelings wheel diagram to assist with identifying and articulating emotions. Reflective journal prompts throughout the book encourage readers to slow down and take time in building skills. Helpful tips for managing device usage and social media habits encourage teens to be screen time savvy and understand the potential impact of technology on their well-being. Readers experiencing common conflicts like sports team struggles or academic challenges may find value in this approach. The sample scenarios throughout the guide, while likely useful to many, do not address the more serious concerns many readers will have at a time when many young adults face identity-related pressures around their rights to be themselves: The absence of discussion around how emotional intelligence factors into conflicts that involve race, sexual orientation, or gender identity is a missed opportunity to bring helpful >>> NOVEMBER 1, 2023 135
Adventures in a world where everything happens that didn’t happen in this one! “A tale for the ages [If You Ride A Crooked Trolley…]. Incredibly rich with adventure, daring, friendship, idea, and imagination [The Judgment Of Biestia].” —Keith Ekiss, Author of A Pima Road Notebook “If You Ride A Crooked Trolley... casts a spell. An enchanting, wildly inventive, beautifully written fantasy.” —Jack Foley, Poet, Critic & Radio Personality
“A pair of appealing adventures with an edgy through-the-looking-glass feel.” —Kirkus Reviews For All Inquiries, Please Email regentpress@mindspring.com
B O O K L I S T // Y O U N G A D U LT 1 2 3
5 Novels To Give You a Scare 4
1 When Ghosts Call Us Home By Katya de Becerra
Haunting, intense, and eerily spooky.
2 The Forest Demands Its Due By Kosoko Jackson
A bold addition to queer dark academia stories.
5
4 All These Sunken Souls: A Black Horror Anthology Edited by Circe Moskowitz
One to enjoy with the lights on.
3 Beholder
5 Here Lies Olive
By Ryan La Sala
By Kate Anderson
Gritty and imaginative: modern noir that’ll leave you wary of your reflection.
A creative and surprising mixture of upbeat and macabre make for an engaging read.
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For more YA horror, visit Kirkus online.
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perspectives to this well-trodden subject. Nevertheless, this is an accessible overview of a perennially important subject.
A well-intentioned and helpful manual that doesn’t stand out in a crowded field. (references) (Nonfiction. 13-18)
The surreal vibe will keep readers on the edges of their seats. YO U ’ R E B R E AKI N G MY H E ART
Yours From the Tower Nicholls, Sally | Walker US/Candlewick (256 pp.) | $17.99 | Jan. 9, 2024 9781536223194
An epistolary novel unfolding through letters, primarily round-robin correspondence between three young women in late-19th-century Britain. Friends Tirzah, Polly, and Sophia were at school together and are now out in the world seeking their futures. Tirzah bookends the novel with her letters: A girl “in misery and exile,” she feels trapped and lonely in her grandmother’s house in Perthshire. Her story unfolds through her confinement, her actions to change her circumstances, and readers’ understanding of her mysterious childhood. Polly—the novel’s moral center— teaches in an orphanage in Liverpool. Her missives detail her happy family life, dedication to her students, and romance with the superintendent. Sophia, meanwhile, is in London with her aunt’s family during her first “Season,” where she feels duty-bound to secure a financially advantageous marriage. Her letters describe parties and suitors and her conflicting emotions around her prospects, and they introduce readers to the unconventional love match she eventually makes. The three girls, who are cued white, encourage each other’s best selves and turn tropes on their heads as they find some control over their lives despite their circumstances. This clever novel’s strength lies in its structure: The format effectively supports the drama, character development, 138 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
voice, and pacing, even while it asks readers to pay attention and fill in details—or wait to see what the next letter will reveal.
A warm, gentle work with welldrawn characters and brisk pacing celebrating female friendship and independence. (Historical fiction. 14-18)
You’re Breaking My Heart Rhuday-Perkovich, Olugbemisola | Levine Querido (304 pp.) | $19.99 | Jan. 23, 2024 9781646141814
A guilt-stricken 14-year-old Nigerian American girl in Harlem travels with her cousin and her brother’s best friend on an underground odyssey as she tries to make sense of her grief. The murder of Harriet Adu’s older brother, Tunde, in a shooting at their old school fractured her family. Attending a new school, where her reputation as “The Girl Whose Brother Died” follows her, hasn’t made Harriet feel any less lonely. Even the presence of Nikka (her cousin) and attempts by Luke (Tunde’s best friend) to support her can’t blot out the guilt she feels over the last words she said to her brother during a fight on the morning of the day he died: “I wish you were dead.” The swimming pool, once the only place where Harriet felt safe, becomes strangely malevolent when an unseen force attacks her in the water. Soon after, a new classmate named Alisia arrives and, with her talk of people living in subway tunnels
and stories that are “different the second time around,” seemingly offers Harriet a pathway to the absolution that she seeks. Visions of Tunde and a near-drowning lead Luke and Nikka to help Harriet figure out what’s going on. Although the backstory of the underground world isn’t sufficiently revealed, the genre-crossing elements and the story’s surreal fun house vibe will keep readers on the edges of their seats. A highly original tale exploring grief and weaving together the realistic and fantastical. (Speculative fiction. 12-18)
If I Promise You Wings Small, A.K. | Algonquin (336 pp.) | $18.99 Jan. 16, 2024 | 9781643750286
After her best friend’s death, a 17-year-old French girl makes the leap to becoming a feather artist in a Parisian boutique. Alix Leclaire can rarely express her feelings, whether it’s not wanting her father to leave for weeks at a time to pursue his musical ambitions or her frustrations with best friend Jeanne, who prioritizes boys and partying over their friendship. After Jeanne dies in a car crash, Alix pushes past her shyness and approaches Mademoiselle Salomé, owner of the boutique Mille et Une Plume, about an apprenticeship, soon setting herself on a path of romance. Flirtatious Raven, Mademoiselle Salomé’s son, brings an element of fun into Alix’s life, while Blaise, a boy from Alix’s past, grounds her with KIRKUS REVIEWS
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A fascinating, well-told story full of compelling innovation. AMERICAN WINGS
his cozy qualities and talent with the guitar. But even as the boutique begins to craft wings for the Moulin Rouge, feeding Alix’s dreams, she must figure out what she wants to do and who she wants to be with. Although the book has a slight overabundance of tragic backstories, the melancholy tone is balanced against vivid descriptions of the fashion elements and moments of spontaneity to create a romantic, theatrical mood. French is sprinkled throughout, firmly cementing the Parisian setting. While full catharsis remains just out of reach, readers will remain intrigued by the locale and atmosphere until the finale. Alix and Blaise are coded white; Raven and his mother have brown skin. A prettily executed account of a young woman learning how to spread her wings. (Fiction. 14-18)
American Wings: Chicago’s Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky Smith, Sherri L. & Elizabeth Wein Putnam (384 pp.) | $19.99 | Jan. 16, 2024 9780593323984
An account of how brilliant and resourceful early-20th-century Black aviators created their own runway to the skies. Originally trained as auto mechanics, Cornelius Robinson Coffey and John Charles Robinson shared a common dream of becoming pilots despite facing racism. “We’re going to KIRKUS REVIEWS
make it regardless,” Coffey prophetically declared after they were both reluctantly admitted—under threat of a lawsuit—into Chicago’s Curtiss–Wright School of Aviation. They successfully finished their program, persuading the school’s initially hostile director to register a cohort of Black students whom they could teach as assistant instructors. Coffey and Robinson then sought interested men and women through advertisements in the Chicago Defender, whose publisher sponsored pioneering Black pilot Bessie Coleman. They organized the Brown Eagle Aero Club, and Robinson even accepted an invitation from Haile Selassie to help train Ethiopian pilots as the country prepared to defend itself against fascist Italy. Smith and Wein tightly thread together overlapping narrative threads, including the early evolution of aviation, the history of Tuskegee University, the role of the African American press, and tense geopolitical matters concerning the only African country to have escaped European colonization. Photographs scattered throughout are an additional treat, adding a special layer to the storytelling. The writing is accessible and buoyant, creating anticipation for what is to come, all culminating in an engaging slice of history. A fascinating, well-told American story full of compelling innovation. (authors’ note, source notes, resources, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)
For a book that explains more about Indigenous communities, visit Kirkus online.
School Statue Showdown Starr, David | James Lorimer (112 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 1, 2024 | 9781459417557
This novel about a conflict between Indigenous activists and those opposing their request to change the name of a local school offers a model for navigating tough conversations around reconciliation and heritage. Harold Sullivan Secondary School was named after AJ Sullivan’s great-grandfather. The white teen is upset by an article in the local paper saying that Great-Grandpa Harold “profited from stolen reservation land and was actively involved in sending Big River First Nation children” to a residential school. When the statue of Harold in front of AJ’s school is defaced, tensions escalate between those in the Canadian logging town who venerate him and the Big River First Nation community. The pressure feels personal for AJ and longtime First Nations friend Jackson Thomas, whose father wrote the article. Following a fight with Jackson, AJ is suspended and sent to his paternal grandmother’s house, where Grandma sets him on a mission to truly understand Harold’s past. AJ’s research, including hearing a firsthand account, leaves him questioning Harold’s legacy, facing hard truths, and making a decision that drives a rift between him and his father. A school board meeting offers an opportunity for long-buried stories to be shared, leading to a resolution that is positive and hopeful without being unrealistically tidy. This accessible, fast-paced, and informative work follows AJ as he moves realistically from defensiveness to courageous action. A thought-provoking title that explores integrity in the era of truth and reconciliation. (author’s note) (Fiction. 12-16)
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DAVID RAPP
MANY NOTABLE fictional
portrayals of the movie industry, such as Nathanael West’s novel The Day of the Locust (1939) and the classic film Sunset Boulevard (1950), focus on its darker aspects, and outsiders may assume that Hollywood is little more than a place littered with actors’ and screenwriters’ broken dreams. The truth, as it often is, is more nuanced than that, and these nonfiction works by filmmakers, critics, and others—all recommended by Kirkus Indie over the last few years—feature determined creatives grappling with the creative process and working hard to bring visions to the silver screen: In The Trouble With Love in the Movies (2020), Rob Harris presents his second memoir recounting life as a publicist
for big-budget blockbusters, following Unexposed Film: A Year on Location (2012). In this remembrance, the author combines stories of his complicated love life with accounts of his publicity work for such productions as Troy (2004), Syriana (2005), and Blood Diamond (2006). There are, naturally, cameos by such celebs as Brad Pitt and George Clooney, but our review pointed out that Harris also “shin[es] a light on the lives of the unknown people who make movies happen, including makeup artists, caterers, and frazzled assistants.” Kirkus’ reviewer called it “a glitzy but never sugary tale of love, work, and family.” Vince Onken draws on his experiences working as a crewmember on such
movies as Planet of the Apes (2001) and Men in Black II (2002) to offer tips for others in his 2017 book, How To Find Work in the Movies: Zen and the Art of Creating a Career in Film. Refreshingly, he notes that it’s not necessary to have a specific strategy when one is starting a career as a crewperson—but one must have determination. He offers key advice on what helped him succeed, noting the importance of networking, showing up early, and always keeping an eye on the future. Once again, there are a few famous faces in these pages, such as Madonna and Arnold Schwarzenegger, but it’s the practical aspects of this work that are the real stars here; as our reviewer noted, it’s “a valuable read for
anyone hoping to thrive in Hollywood.” As filmmakers ply their trade and seek success, they’re naturally influenced by the artists who came before them. Children of the New Flesh: The Early Work and Pervasive Influence of David Cronenberg (2022), edited by Chris Kelso and David Leo Rice, is a collection of writing by critics, fiction writers, and moviemakers inspired by the Canadian auteur of such distinctive films as Scanners (1981), The Fly (1986), and A History of Violence (2005). Some intriguing names contributed to this anthology’s mix of critiques and short fiction, including author Patrick McGrath, whose novel Spider (1990) was adapted by Cronenberg as a feature in 2002; novelist and screenwriter Bruce Wagner, who wrote the screenplay for the director’s 2014 movie, Maps to the Stars; and Mick Garris, who memorably directed the 1994 miniseries based on Stephen King’s apocalyptic epic The Stand (1975). “New and longtime Cronenberg fans will devour this intelligent, earnest, and comprehensive tribute,” wrote Kirkus’ reviewer. David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
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Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson
MOVIE MAGIC
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EDITOR’S PICK Sixteen stories illuminate the wonder of human connection in Heefner’s collection. To read this debut collection is to confront the messy, fragile, joyful business of being alive. “Everyone is their most interesting while they’re becoming their best, not after,” says the eponymous character in “What Crissy Calls Becoming,” a wildly unpredictable story about a man who’s unlucky in love, his new acquaintance, and the intense, more-than-friends/ less-than-lovers relationship they develop. It is this “becoming” that unites the characters in these stories, a broad cast that hails from all over the map: They are
These Titles Earned the Kirkus Star
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from South Dakota and Oregon, Idaho and Kentucky; they are lawyers and store clerks, waitresses and car salesmen; they are children caring for their aging parents and divorced people looking to find love again, criminals on the run and spouses madly in love after years of marriage. All of them are searching for paths to their true and better selves. When an armed man threatens a cashier in “From Hibernation,” Olaf can’t help but intervene to protect his colleague—a heroic act that earns the attention of a local sheriff and threatens to expose Olaf’s murky past. A recovering alcoholic in “Nosy SOB” becomes obsessed with the woman
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Unmaking the Bomb By Shannon Cram
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Unredeemable and Other Stories By Glen Heefner
Unredeemable and Other Stories Heefner, Glen | Don’t Wake Me Fiction | 224 pp. $15.00 | Aug. 18, 2023 | 9798218264673
whose life he may have saved in a traffic accident, looking for ways to get in touch with her. “I Want To See Your Hand” follows Pam as she attempts to make amends with the woman her father unintentionally crippled years earlier. And in the title story, a tragedy at the Adult Sunday School sparks a man’s heartbreaking journey to come to terms with his
father’s suicide. While the plots are sometimes overly intricate and hard to grasp, these stories reward a second read. The author writes with an impeccable eye for detail and endless reserves of warmth and humor—his sentences deftly capture the mundane and the sublime. A lighthearted yet profound assemblage; every story here is a little miracle.
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Nature Ninja Saves the Natural World By Tania Moloney; illus. by Jelena Sardi
For more Indie content, visit Kirkus online.
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Pandora’s Gamble By Alison Young
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Better Days: Tame Your Inner Critic Allen, Neal | Namaste Publishing (200 pp.) | $21.95 paper | Dec. 5, 2023 9781897238851
With this debut motivation work, Allen teaches harried readers how to tune out their own negativity. As the saying goes, we’re all our own toughest critics—we all, per the author, carry judgmental voices inside our heads that second-guess our decisions, undermine our successes, and chastise us for our mistakes. “My wife calls hers The Governess,” writes the author. “Mine’s The Gremlin. You have one, too. Everybody does. It’s your inner critic. If you wake up confident and raring to go, by noon it has beaten your self-esteem to a pulp.” Psychology has known about the inner critic for a long time: Freud called it the superego. Some call it the conscience. The author thinks of it as a parasite—an entirely unhelpful entity that feeds off our own insecurities. According to him, understanding the way the inner critic operates is key to confronting and silencing it. Developed as a tool for socialization when we are children, our inner critic reminds us to follow the rules imposed upon us by those around us, including parents, teachers, authority figures, and even our peers. As we age, we outgrow the need for this inner critic—even if the inner critic doesn’t get the message. With this book, Allen seeks to help the reader take back control from that judgmental voice. Offering a mix of exercises designed to help isolate and quiet negative thoughts and anecdotes from Allen’s long quest to conquer his own critic, the author demystifies this strange creation that is the human mind. As a means of challenging the superego, Allen encourages readers to do some of the very things that the inner critic proscribes, 142 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
Allen writes with the breeziness of a man who has successfully gotten his superego to put a sock in it. B E T T E R D AY S
like purposefully wasting time and reveling in one’s ordinariness. He also treads into more philosophical territory, discussing the relationship between the inner critic and concepts such as love and God. Allen writes with the breeziness of a man who has successfully gotten his superego to put a sock in it. Here he raves about the joys of letting go of the need to be a “special” person: “If I don’t have to be special, if I don’t have to spend all my time maintaining a valued self-image, if I’m not worried about being judged, then I can discover how fun it is to watch the world unfold without having a stake in it.” Though the foreword by author Anne Lamott might suggest this guide is specifically geared toward silencing the inner critic as it applies to writing, Allen’s project is much broader: He proposes a way of living in the world unrestricted by the harsh and arbitrary judgments of our least enjoyable selves. The exercises he provides are targeted and easy to perform. Some may balk at the idea of sloughing off their “conscience,” but Allen is not advocating for immorality or even a lack of self-discipline—the goal of this guide is to help the reader to live more intentionally by eliminating an unintentional decision-making party from the conversation. A novel and well-articulated approach to intentionality. For more Indie content, visit Kirkus online.
Find Them Ash, Julia | Self (314 pp.) | $23.99 $13.99 paper | July 25, 2023 9798218218041
In this horror novel, a dream house turns into a nightmare when a woman encounters a spirit. Nora Bliss and her beloved husband, Dex, are living a comfortable life in Washington, D.C. But when Nora barely avoids being hit by a train, they decide it is time to leave the big city to enjoy the safety of idyllic, small-town living. Little do they know that they will confront an entirely new trial when the plot they buy—lot 16 of a larger property called Windy Hill Farm in Boulder, Pennsylvania—turns out to be the site of a haunting and other unexplained phenomena. The ordeal starts slowly, with Nora experiencing disarming and increasingly dangerous brushes with the ghost of a teenage girl. The apparition tries to communicate with Nora, leaving the message “FIND THEM” written across surfaces. Convinced that the ghost needs her help and against Dex’s more pragmatic take, Nora starts to investigate the history of the farm, delving into local lore, archives, and the diaries of members of the prestigious Williams family, which once owned the property. She eventually finds that the spirit may well be linked to the 70-year-old cold case of a vanished girl. Ash’s haunted house tale/ murder mystery is a moody, melancholic, slow-burning story peppered KIRKUS REVIEWS
INDIE
with genuinely terrifying moments and classic horror elements, including jump scares and the use of a Ouija board. Other standout facets are Nora’s close relationship with her sister, Madeline, and the protagonist’s resolute, self-imposed mission to solve the case and save her home: “My days of being immobilized in the face of danger were gone. My determination was fierce. The only unknown was if my newfound resolve could prevail over spirits from the afterlife. The living versus the dead.” The novel runs a bit long, with a protracted resolution, and some readers may question the nonchalant acceptance of ghosts and the paranormal displayed by every character when told about Nora’s experiences. Still, the tale is a gripping, scary read. An atmospheric, chilling, and riveting ghost story that’s perfect for Halloween.
My Real-Life Rom-Com: How To Build Confidence and Write Your Own Relationship Rules Berk, Carrie | Post Hill Press (272 pp.) $17.99 paper | Sept. 19, 2023 9798888450529
Berk shares stories about her dating experiences in this advice guide/ memoir. “Like Carrie Bradshaw, I’m a New York City native who has always been interested in love and relationships,” writes the author, a blogger whose given name is Caroline but is always called “Carrie” (“my mom adored the [Sex and the City] character when she worked as a writer on the HBO website”). Berk, who notes that she has been “boy crazy from the second my parents stuck me in elementary school,” dedicates 13 chapters to specific relationships, including “The Bar Mitzvah Boy,” “The First Love,” “The Pandemic Fling,” and “The Dating App Disaster(s)” (her “First Love” is a fellow popular influencer, an Australian KIRKUS REVIEWS
boy on a U.S. media tour with her). She concludes the book with a chapter entitled “The Journey to Self-Love,” detailing her “anxiety journey,” which involved being diagnosed with generalized anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder and her growing realization that “if I were insecure in my own skin, it would be impossible to understand and accept love from others.” The author scatters info boxes throughout the book, including “Learn the Lingo” definitions focused on online behavior (like kittenfishing and zombieing) and advice on topics such as “What To Keep in Mind for Your First Hookup” and “How To Slide Into DMs.” Berk, the co-author (with her mother) of several children’s books series, here offers a compelling portrait of growing up with a large part of your life playing out online. She beautifully captures the bravado and uncertainty involved in online bantering and the often jarring IRL meetups that follow. Some of Berk’s “hookup” anecdotes are quite amusing (such as her dealing with a chin-biter in “The Vampire”), but she also offers a wealth of serious insights and guidance worth heeding. An entertaining and enlightening account of coming of age as a Gen Z digital native.
The Destination Birth Bisset, Alex | Bubba Books (136 pp.) $12.99 paper | June 10, 2023 9798988374206
In this remembrance, a man and his wife travel from New York to Montana for a wedding, where their firstborn child is delivered unexpectedly. In 2022, when Bisset’s spouse, Lauren, was 34 weeks pregnant, they were assured by doctors that they could safely travel to a close friend’s wedding in Paradise Valley, Montana. Indeed, they were excited to embark upon a last adventure before the baby came. After some Montana hiking and a fun-filled wedding celebration,
they were expecting to head home to New York City the next day. However, at 6:52 that morning, Lauren’s water broke; they had no car, they were far from a hospital with a neonatal care nursery, and they were 2,157 miles away from home. The couple suddenly had to adapt to a different birth plan and navigate the complications of preterm delivery. They later had to adjust to living temporarily in Bozeman while balancing the care and demands of a newborn and Lauren’s recovery from a cesarean section. Bisset’s engaging narrative offers an offbeat combination of a parenting memoir and travel diary. It provides a firsthand account of a father’s experience of unplanned delivery, while also providing fine descriptions of Montana’s landscape, as when Bisset writes of a morning run: “As I crested the hill, a whole herd of elk was there crossing the road in the pre-dawn light. I watched it all at a safe distance as the bucks and cows led their calves to the next pasture.” The prose is brisk and informal throughout, while also encouraging expecting and new parents to seek out the support of others, as having a newborn is no easy feat. Indeed, the author’s descriptions of the emotional connections they made—with hospital nurses, with friends of friends who cooked for them—are appealingly hopeful. Overall, the book will be an especially good fit for fathers and partners who aren’t delivering, but who are encountering birth and parenthood for the first time. An upbeat birth and childcare memoir from a father’s perspective.
Farewell to Dust and Sun: A Slow World Tale Broadhead, John M. | Self (556 pp.) Oct. 31, 2023
A pariah returns to save his twilit community from the encroaching night in Broadhead’s dystopian fantasy. In a dystopian, Earthlike world, the sun is about NOVEMBER 1, 2023 143
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to set on the remote farming colony of Dirthome. This is big news, given that the sun hasn’t set on their patch of desert for at least a hundred generations. In this parched land of eternal day, the citizens of Dirthome mostly live underground in the colony’s ever-expanding network of tunnels. Coal was born here, though he left seven years ago, traveling beyond the edges of the known world to find a place for his people to live after the sun goes down and plunges the desert into frozen darkness. He thinks he’s found the answer, but convincing the powers that be in Dirthome to follow his plan will be no easy task. For one thing, everyone believes Coal is dead, and when they find out he isn’t, he’ll likely be executed for desertion. He’s just a lowly digger, after all, a peon in the eyes of Dirthome’s ruling class. Complicating matters, the colonists’ eternal feud against the outliers who live in the desert is approaching a boiling point. Coal wants to be a hero, to show everyone—especially his childhood crush, Bright, who is now married to Dirthome’s governor—that they were wrong to doubt him. But changing people’s minds is a bloody business, and if Coal isn’t careful about how he enacts his plan, there won’t be many in Dirthome left to save. Broadhead captures this hardscrabble world in muscular prose and with plainspoken wisdom: “Everyone needs war, I think,” muses Coal early on. “It’s a distraction that keeps people from worrying about the real big problem. Dying in war is a lot simpler than facing the end of the world.” The characters’ earthen names— Cliff, Clay, Grit, Slate—are perhaps a bit too cute, but overall the world is thoroughly original and highly immersive. This is an ambitious first volume in a planned series—readers will anxiously wait to see how deep this tunnel goes. A stark and gripping dystopian novel with high fantasy flourishes. For more Indie content, visit Kirkus online.
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The work’s strength is its depiction of the friendship among its characters. MONARCHS
Monarchs: Chapter 1: The Backyard Brawl! Bullock, Joshua | Black Sands Entertainment (64 pp.) | $19.99 paper Dec. 12, 2023 | 9798987909935
A super-strong boy strives to follow in the footsteps of his heroes in Bullock’s YA graphic novel. Aided by his noisy humanoid cheetah best friend and hype-man, Pepper, Ja’Khari hopes his unexplained phenomenal strength will help him achieve his goal in life: to become one of the Monarchs, a revered fighting force known and admired throughout the galaxy. It’s an ambitious dream for a boy living in the futuristic human settlement known as The Bloks. Ja’Khari and Pepper head to the Big Brawl, where a large amount of cash and “a crack at Big Bruce’s Monarch crown” are the prizes. Ja’Khari runs up against the neighborhood bullies, brothers Jug and Jar Gallon, who “have issues with their milk glands that make them look like grown men when they are only 10 years old.” Ja’Khari squares off first with Jug, overcoming his stench and then knocking him out (he fears he killed the boy) with a head butt. Ja’Khari resuscitates the lad by jumping on him, and Jug awakes bawling. Jar moves to avenge his humiliated brother and soon gains the upper hand. Unfortunately, Jar’s sure-to-be-epic battle with Ja’Khari ends in a cliffhanger. Bullock has a background in animation, and that experience shows in his comic’s kinetic style. His characters’ expressions
also help to propel the action along. The story might in fact have been a better fit for animation, as it includes nearly as many sound effects as it does passages of expository text. The narrative doesn’t proceed very far over 64 pages, with one fight concluding and a second battle starting. The work’s strength is its depiction of the friendship among its characters, between Ja’Khari and Pepper and even between the oafish Gallon brothers, all of whom look out for each other. There’s little character development, but this is only the first book in the series; there should be more time and space for the cast to develop in future installments.
This action-packed graphic novel gives a modern twist to an old notion.
Death Is Potential: A Kate Swift Mystery Burnett, Bob | Palmetto Publishing (322 pp.) | $17.99 paper | Aug. 22, 2023 9798822916852
A U.S. marshal stumbles into romance and a homicide case at a therapeutic hot-springs resort in Burnett’s debut thriller. Kate Swift is on psych leave from the Marshals Service following a Federal Witness Protection Program family’s massacre. She checks in at the Satori Institute in California’s Garrapata State Park, replete with therapeutic seminars and workshops in the comfort of a scenic retreat, complete with cabins and spa-like hot baths. Unexpectedly, she reunites with KIRKUS REVIEWS
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Tom Scott, a widower she met six months earlier. Kate wasn’t ready for a relationship then, but now might very well be. Meanwhile, local detectives are there as well: Someone discovered the lifeless, probably murdered body of Satori co-founder Malcolm Eastwick. When another body turns up, a fire blocking the road impedes the detectives’ return trip, so they enlist Kate to pick up their investigation. She and Tom, who’ve already helped the cops, are now partners in a murder mystery, and the couple scours for clues to identify a killer who’s likely right there at the institute with them and fellow guests. Burnett’s lead characters are engaging, each reluctant to dive into a relationship (Kate has previously dealt with a cheater). The murder investigation, led by personable detectives Laura Sanchez and Daniel O’Malley, initially unfolds as a separate plot. The dual storylines gradually and organically fuse once the cops learn there’s a U.S. marshal on site. Unfortunately, the “transitions workshop” in which Kate and Tom participate unfolds at a sluggish pace; recurring scenes over the course of days linger on many guests who play no part in the investigation. Nevertheless, tension surges when it’s clear that the murderer is watching (“They’ve planted spy cameras around the campus. Last night we found a camera in the room that I’ve been sharing with another workshop member”), possibly creeping into cabins and suites, and may have Tom in the crosshairs. Once Kate finally demonstrates her much-touted taekwondo skills and general badassery, the final act ignites in a satisfying ending. New lovers headline this unhurried but worthwhile murder mystery.
Warriorborn: The Cinder Spires Butcher, Jim | Podium Publishing (146 pp.) | $15.99 paper | Sept. 19, 2023 9781039452442
A novella set in the Cinder Spires fantasy universe sees its protagonist caught up in a potentially deadly mission. Humanity survives in the Spire-cities that tower well above the deadly surface of a steampunk world. Newly minted lieutenant of the Spirearch of Albion’s Guard and warriorborn (denoting a catlike species of humanoids with “enhanced senses and speed”) Sir Benedict Sorellin-Lancaster is called upon by the ruling Spirearch, Lord Albion himself, to go on a secret, undercover mission. He is to take the airship Predator to Colony Dependence, a backwater Spire, on an assignment to retrieve a bag that may or may not contain important intelligence information regarding a looming war with their enemies. Joining him on his mission are three notoriously uncooperative warriorborn, convicted felons who had been captured and put in jail by Benedict and have now been promised their freedom on the condition Benedict survives and successfully returns home. As the ragtag team’s journey proceeds, they investigate the mystery of the inexplicably abandoned Dependence while facing danger and death. While readers familiar with the series will have a better understanding of the ins and outs of the Cinder
An engaging, fast-paced read with well-defined characters. WARRIORBORN
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Spires world, this is mostly a standalone story that, despite its brevity, packs a lot of punch in an engaging, fast-paced read with well-defined characters, including Benedict, a reluctant yet fierce hero. But the real standout is one of the secondary characters who follow Benedict into the fray: the warriorborn vigilante serial killer Lady Herringford, who becomes his de-facto second-in-command: “She’d identified his biggest problem and was now attacking it as effectively as an excellent subordinate officer. Evidently, when Matilda Herringford gave her word, she meant it.” Add steampunk vibes, terrifying monsters, charming talking cats, and an open ending that tantalizes readers into reading the series—this is a recipe for success. A delectable slice of SF adventure.
Roger and the Worst Thing Combs, Tami L. | Zweedley Books (35 pp.) | $11.99 paper | July 27, 2023 9781960900173
In author/ illustrator Combs’ picture book, a child who’s always been followed by “The Worst Thing” encounters his siblings: “The Best Thing” and “The Actual Thing.” A faceless, blue Worst Thing follows young, pale-skinned, bespectacled Roger wherever he goes, telling him every situation’s worst-case scenario. (It’s apparently invisible to everyone but Roger.) One day, the boy’s classmate calls his own turtle “the best ever,” which makes Roger think there could also be a Best Thing. Indeed, it’s The Worst Thing’s brother: a bouncy, yellow figure who fantasizes about the best possible scenarios. Roger realizes they can’t both be correct, but he didn’t know to whom he should listen. The two Things admit there’s a third Thing: their green little sister, The Actual Thing, who says “We don’t know what will happen until it actually happens.” Roger >>> NOVEMBER 1, 2023 145
SPONSORED CONTENT
40 Indies Worth
2023
Kirkus presents Indies Worth Discovering, a sponsored feature spotlighting an array of fiction and nonfiction works recommended by Indie editors. Here readers can find a useful sampler that shows the excellence and breadth of Indie titles. Find pulsepounding thrillers, revealing memoirs, twisty mysteries, fiery romances, thoughtful business books, problem-solving self-help guides, and incisive poetry collections, among many other works. Searching for something new and exciting? Read on.
Ripped paper: Raul Ortin
WINTER
Kirkus Star
The Queen of Gay Street
By Esther Mollica An entertaining, often poignant portrait of New York romance blending humor with heartache.
Frankie’s Wish By Once Upon a Dance Illus. by Emilia Rumińska
A strong quest tale encouraging imagination, movement, and hard work.
Firefly Fran’s Fran-tastic Day By Kristin Crowell Ellis Illus. by Brian Talbott
An uplifting, well-illustrated adventure full of whimsy and joy.
By Accident
By Joanne Greene A clearsighted reflection on the need to let go in the face of uncertainty.
Girl of Light
By Elana Gomel A cerebral, nightmarish, but compulsively readable tale.
Suburban Bigamy By Michael S. Zimmerman
An engrossing work about the explosiveness of secrets exposed.
Polished Stones By Cynthia Schumacher
An engaging collection with luminous language that seeks to explore and reassure.
Kirkus Star
World Citizen By Jane Olson
A stirring account of humanitarianism.
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Spiritual Energy Explained
Medicine Goes Corporate
A detailed handbook for those looking to learn about and connect with spirituality.
A taut amalgam of medical thriller and convincing exposé about medical industry kingpins and exasperated physicians.
Artima’s Travels: Part II—Ella
The Foundry
By Walter E. Broach
By E.A. Dustin
An engaging, time-jumping sequel that skillfully brings Nazi supernatural secrets into SF territory.
Windekind
By Mark Lavine A sharp, deftly plotted thriller by a promising new author.
Azazel’s Public House
By Marc Arginteanu A grim but thoroughly enjoyable tale set amid urban horrors.
By Jack Spenser
By J. Fitzpatrick Mauldin
An enjoyable comingof-age SF action tale that builds to a satisfying conclusion.
Wealth Your Way By Cosmo P. DeStefano
An energetic, helpful, and very readable guide to strengthening your financial situation.
Funny Bones
By David Friedman A rollicking collection of good-natured humor designed to put patients at ease.
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Tricking Power Into Performing Acts of Love By Shepherd Siegel A compelling catalog of Tricksters and a convincing analysis of their power.
Henry Wharton Shoemaker By Guy Graybill
A concise yet thorough repudiation of the history and folklore written by a Pennsylvania luminary.
Soul Fraud
By Andrew Givler A hilarious, fun, and exciting fantasy adventure.
The Acorn & the Oak
By Rhonda Accardo Illus. by Jessica Waterstradt A beautiful, comforting tale for nature lovers.
Kissproof World By William West
A grim but riveting tale of afflictions both below and on the surface.
Thomas Edison and the Purgatory Equation By David Church
This rollicking romp seamlessly blends characters, history, and adventure into an enjoyable read.
Faraway and Forever
Because I Loved You
A high-quality anthology with a Christian outlook that embraces science.
A compelling relationship tale that explores two lives over a half-century.
By Nancy Joie Wilkie
By Donnaldson Brown
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Scribbles of the Empress
By Robert Tomoguchi A sensational conclusion to a dark, captivating series.
Chaos Calling By E.M. Williams
An action-packed tale of valiant heroes and vibrant, unforgettable monsters.
Kirkus Star
Reef Road
By Deborah Goodrich Royce
Klippe the Viking
By Bjorn Fyrre Illus. by Ankitha Kini A sweet, comforting, and encouraging Viking tale about friendship and compassion.
The Shadow of War: The Rise of Oceania By Timothy S. Johnston
Fans of high-tech SF will enjoy the concepts and worldbuilding here, despite its pacing problems.
The Company of Ghosts
By Stephanie Martin Glennon
A truly absorbing mystery by a writer at the top of her game.
A powerful, heart-wrenching cancer chronicle of enduring love and compassionate care.
A Taste of Opportunity
Ever: Forged Into Midnight
An inspiring guide that conveys the passion and promise of the food business with pragmatic advice.
A vigorous yarn that mixes stout swashbuckling with moody reflection.
By Renee Guilbault
By Sen Taylor
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Otherwise
By Christopher Bernard A pair of appealing adventures with an edgy through-the-looking-glass feel.
Hop Lola Hop
By Kathy Urban Illus. by Siski Kalla A sweet, charming story that could have practical applications.
Rembrandt’s Station
By Christie Meierz An immersive, layered, and extensively developed space opera.
Expect Obsession
By JoAnn Smith Ainsworth An entertaining espionage tale with a memorable cast wielding otherworldly skills.
Suburban Monsters
By Christopher Hawkins An assortment of jolts, abominations, and shaken nerves that readers won’t soon forget.
Steve the Dung Beetle By Susan R. Stoltz Illus. by Melissa Bailey
An informative, well-illustrated story that clarifies the key role of dung beetles in the natural world.
Ricky, the Rock That Just Couldn’t Rhyme By Mr. Jay Illus. by Erin Wozniak
A little absurd, a little breezy, this rhyming story helps make rhyming easy.
Velvet
By Heather Strommen A sincere, endearing coming-of-age tale about a daughter and her single mom.
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A f latly devastating book about egregious mismanagement. UNMAKING THE BOMB
decides to spend the day keeping track of which Thing is most accurate, and finally comes to a conclusion. This thoughtful work with a humorous ending will help young readers to put anxiety in perspective. Roger will be relatable to many children (and adults), and the three lively siblings are funny and entertaining as they help simplify complex topics; as such, it’s a good pick for libraries. The author’s straightforward, full-color cartoon illustrations are simple but cute; background characters have a range of skin tones. An appealing story with a good message for anxious youngsters.
Kirkus Star
Unmaking the Bomb: Environmental Cleanup and the Politics of Impossibility Cram, Shannon | Univ. of California Press (222 pp.) | $85.00 | $29.95 paper Oct. 10, 2023 | 9780520395114 9780520395121 paper
Cram offers a study of the limits and failures of nuclear cleanup and its safety risks. This latest volume in the University of California Press’ Critical Environments series on nature, science, and politics takes a sweeping look at strategies for the remediation of nuclear harm. It focuses on the Hanford Site in eastern Washington state, where it estimates that 56 million gallons of 152 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
radioactive waste product are stored in underground tanks, and nine reactors and five chemical processing plants contaminated the soil with about 450 billion gallons of liquid waste. Cram is a professor at the University of Washington Bothell’s School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. Every member of her immediate family was diagnosed with cancer (including the author), and both her parents died of it; her mother grew up in eastern Washington. “It matters that I want to know what caused my family’s cancer. And it matters that I will never be able to fully answer that question,” Cram writes. Working outward from the Hanford site and backward in time to the Castle-Bravo nuclear test in 1954—a detonation whose irradiated ash poisoned the crew of the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon—Cram works to find answers to a question posed by Hanford scientist Jack Healy: “How do we strike a proper balance between the interests of the individual and the interests of the Nation?” What does it mean, Cram asks, “to safeguard individual bodies with regulations that only envision disembodied statistical aggregates?” It’s a problem, she notes, that’s worsened by the fact that the disembodied statistics are skewed: She writes that women and children, for instance, are far more likely to develop radiation-caused cancers than the adult male “Reference Man” in industry use. In prose that’s both calm and solidly grounded in cited research, Cram presents a flatly devastating book For more Indie content, visit Kirkus online.
about egregious mismanagement at the Hanford site and, more broadly, about the U.S. government’s calculation of risk in the field of nuclear waste disposal—a problem that, as Cram rightly points out, will certainly outlast the government itself. The result is a quietly devastating indictment that calls to mind such environmentalist classics as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962). A powerfully researched and important look at the ravages of nuclear waste remediation.
Cobalt: Rise and Fall of the Great Reset Davis, Travis | Defiance Press & Publishing (294 pp.) | $24.95 | May 8, 2023 9781959677314
The United States faces destruction unless an undercover CIA agent and Team Texarkana can foil an intricately conceived conspiracy in Davis’ thriller. The diabolical plans James Bond villains concoct to rule the world are kid stuff compared to the Great Reset, a far-reaching, decades-in-themaking plot to “take down the United States.” Who is involved? Perhaps the question should be, “Who is not involved?” Spearheaded by German multi-billionaire Klaus Burger, the Great Reset is a partnership between “some disillusioned Russians and Chinese officials in prominent positions in governments and private enterprises,” in addition to “a secret underground group of carefully selected green-energy zealots” and “one of Washington, DC’s most influential and known political leaders who was at the cusp of taking power.” The Chinese discovery of cobalt in a meteorite crater has game-changing implications for energy efficiency and battery performance. This development, coupled with a covert Chinese scheme to buy “immense swaths of farmland in the US, Canada, and KIRKUS REVIEWS
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other countries that permitted the selling of land to foreign companies,” promises to give them control of food and energy production in those countries. “No country, not even the Americans or their allies, will be able to stop us,” Burger proclaims. Enter Team Texarkana, introduced in Davis’ Flames of Deception (2022). Tex and his elite, first-names-only team of four is black ops–funded and can be placed anywhere in the world within 18 hours. The team is dispatched into action when Mary Johnson, a deep undercover CIA agent (by way of the Culinary Institute of America: “CIA squared”) disappears, along with her sister, Janet, who has fallen into Burger’s unspeakable clutches. As in the previous installment, this sophomore outing gets much of its energy from drawing on ripped-from-the-headlines situations. The fantastical conspiracy is “out there” to the extreme, and the writing is not subtle (Burger also operates a sex-trafficking ring), but the briskly paced action covers the globe from Washington, D.C., to North Korea to the Gobi Desert and Mongolia, providing the requisite escapism.
There’s “no rest for Team Texarkana” in this entertaining diversion.
Moths and Moonlight Fazendin, Krista | Self (435 pp.) $12.41 paper | July 10, 2023 9798988683018
A woman from a magical realm aids the spirit of a murder victim on Earth in Fazendin’s fantasy/ mystery novel. When still a child, Fleur Harkyn lost her mother; now a young adult, she has lost her father as well, leaving her with no connection to her magical childhood home. She and her father left the magical realm of Evirdahl for mundane Mundad days after her mother’s death following Fleur’s dark vision of the future. In the realm of Mundad, KIRKUS REVIEWS
The author deftly weaves Norse mythology into the story. FORGED
also called Earth, Fleur finds a job at a library and lives with her wonderful girlfriend, Theda, and life is good. That changes when her earthly stepmother, Viola, talks her into going to a séance, and suddenly her life is turned upside down. Haunted by a dead woman’s plight, Fleur must aid the spirit of the illustrious and mysterious Lenora Khade, who doesn’t remember any of her life, or her murder. Fleur reluctantly agrees to help Lenora solve her murder, but she is unhappy to discover this involves her ex-boyfriend, police detective Javier Torres. Now he follows her every move as she tries to put Lenora’s spirit to rest and move on with her life. The author has crafted an excellent supernatural mystery with compelling twists and a dynamic main character in Fleur. She takes no guff and has a hard edge, but genuinely cares about others deep down. Fleur’s aloof personality finds an excellent foil in Lenora, who is bursting with her emotional drive to learn the truth about her murder and help the goddesses of Evirdahl hide their existence from humanity (lest the revelation spark a war between the realms). Fazendin’s prose teems with wonderful imagery: “Fleur inhaled the scent of strawberries and summer dew, the tingling warmth of the sun off the eastern sea.” This is a promising start to a fantasy/mystery series readers are sure to enjoy. A surprising and complex murder mystery, complete with ghosts and magic, that will leave readers wanting more. For more Indie content, visit Kirkus online.
Forged Flowers, A.J. | Self (582 pp.) | $19.99 paper Jan. 1, 2022 | 9781953393067
A Valkyrie in human-teen form vows to save the boy she loves—as well as the universe from annihilation—in this collected YA fantasy-romance trilogy. Valerie Frigg, though she outwardly looks like a 16-year-old mortal, is actually an immortal Valkyrie from another planet. She feigns a typical human life in Tennessee as she gets close to schoolmate Will Johnson—the first soul she’ll reap. Will is cursed with darkness by the Norn, former Valkyries who feed on suffering. Valerie, however, suspects that reaping Will’s soul and putting him in the “service of the gods” isn’t the best course of action. She’s fallen in love with him, and she vows to save him by breaking the curse, a reputedly impossible feat. Valerie has indisputably broken Valkyrie laws, including the first law by falling in love, and incites the wrath of new and old enemies. As her fragmented Valkyrie memories, at odds with her implanted human recollections, slowly return, Valerie feels herself torn between Will and fellow Immortal and best friend, Tyler. Although each book in Flowers’ collection has its own arc, all three connect seamlessly. The author deftly weaves Norse mythology into the story, from recognizable elements, such as Asgard and Ragnarök, as well as characters or creatures readers may not know as well. Valerie, who narrates, is a resilient, sympathetic protagonist—one NOVEMBER 1, 2023 153
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of the only Immortals who cares about human lives. She’s still mastering her Valkyrie powers on Earth, leading to superb visuals as she sees others’ colorful auras (“his aura glimmered around him like a fuzzy backdrop, fluttering blues, greens, and purples through the air like tiny sparks of lightning”) and, sometimes inadvertently, manipulates space and time. There’s ample mystery in Book 1: Valkyrie Landing, with Valerie’s missing memories and neither her older sister nor Tyler filling in the gaps. This carries over to Book 2: Valkyrie Rebellion, which likewise builds to the trilogy’s fraught conclusion, Valkyrie Uprising, as Valerie fights to save people she loves while impeding the universe’s destruction. A lively divine hero headlines a keen and rewarding epic tale.
Illuminating Darwin: Arabella’s Light George, Jill | Heinze Quill Publishing (360 pp.) | $17.99 paper | Aug. 6, 2023 9798988630715
A courageous Englishwoman in the 19th century pursues her love of science in George’s historical novel based on the life of writer and educator Arabella Buckley. Arabella—who’s 24 in 1864, as the story opens—is unlike many young ladies in England, as she isn’t afraid to speak her mind or to go after her passions. Her enjoyment of and aptitude for science eventually leads her to become a literary secretary for Sir Charles Lyell, a geologist and a visionary academic of his era. Arabella lands the job because of her neat handwriting, but Lyell soon learns that her ideas and fierce intelligence are her most valuable assets. Eventually, Arabella’s wit and vigor lead her to spend time with Charles Darwin, whose evolutionary theories she would go on to promote through her own writings. The book catalogs several years of her life 154 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
and explores how science and societal expectations affected every stage of her life. Although the dialogue and some of the situations are fictionalized, several characters are based on real historical figures, including Lyell (and, of course, Darwin). The novel’s main strength lies in George’s ability to immerse readers in 19th-century England with rich descriptions in natural, conversational first-person narration: “The clouds overhead spread across the sky like a thick, grey quilt, typical of London.” However, although the work is consistently engaging, its flaws lie in its intermittent and occasionally confusing perspective shifts; most of the story is told from Arabella’s point of view, but, at times, other characters have their turn, and these changes aren’t always readily apparent. This is a relatively minor quibble, though, as this blend of historical fact and imaginative fiction is otherwise thoughtful and well conceived. An often compelling story that combines science, history, and defiance of societal norms.
Black Sands: The Seven Kingdoms Godoy, Manuel | Illus. by David Lenormand Black Sands Entertainment (94 pp.) | $19.63 June 1, 2018 | 9780999473481
A teenager and his friends fight for the safety of their Egyptian kingdom in this middle-grade comic. The story begins in media res, with African teens Ausar, Auset, Nehbet, and Seth finding themselves in an underground cavern under the kingdom of Kemet
in ancient Egypt, where they live and Ausar someday hopes to rule. In the midst of an argument between Ausar and the adult accompanying them, Auset experiences a vision that prompts the group to search for Hyperion, a powerful titan who lurks within the caves. They journey through a network of tunnels, only to find an army of Ancients, massive supernatural warriors made of stone who are awaiting Hyperion’s awakening and who will certainly not be friends to Kemet. In the meantime, Kemet finds itself penned in as Spartans sail toward its main cities and force the kingdom’s rulers to split their defensive efforts across multiple fronts. The story’s four heroes consult the rulers of Kemet and a seer before gritting their teeth and standing against the rising tide of Ancients in a battle where they must test their powers in epic combat. This powerful and exciting comic is the fourth installment of Godoy’s Black Sands series and covers issues 11 to 13. Readers should note that it is necessary to peruse the preceding issues to fully understand the story. The plot moves quickly and never fails to deliver thrills while building toward certain themes, such as the effects that war and ambition have on Ausar (“Rah has really made you a monster, brother,” asserts Nehbet) and the importance of working together. Lenormand’s illustrations not only reflect, but also amplify this energy as each page has its own unique layout and plays with the juxtaposition between light and dark, especially in the caverns where Auset has her vision. Fans of the Percy Jackson graphic novels and other tales based in mythology will enjoy this volume’s blend of ancient history and religion as well as its inclusion of informational pages on the god Nun. A fast-paced, engaging installment of a successful mythological-historical comic series.
The plot moves quickly and never fails to deliver thrills. BLACK SANDS
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The Great Gimmelmans Goldberg, Lee Matthew | Level Best Books (386 pp.) | $18.95 paper | Nov. 14, 2023 9781685124212
A novel focuses on a close-knit, dysfunctional clan of aspiring bank robbers. In New Jersey, the stock market crash of 1987 signals a rude awakening for Barry Gimmelman. With his job, savings, and house gone, he piles his family into the only thing to escape repossession, the RV lovingly nicknamed Gas-Guzzler, and heads for Florida to stay with his mother-inlaw. Narrated by Barry’s 12-year-old son, Aaron, Goldberg’s book is part road novel, part crime story, and part family saga. Aaron and Barry are like two tropical hurricanes feeding off each other’s destructive potential. When Aaron intuits the depth of his family’s financial need, he empties the cash register at a gas station, which gives Barry the idea to enlist the members of his family as accomplices in larger robberies. They include his devoted wife, Judith, and Aaron’s two sisters: boy-crazy Steph and mildly psychopathic Jenny. Driven by love, despair, the desire for adventure, or simply Barry’s charisma, the Gimmelmans soon transform from an average American family into Bonnie and Clyde with kids. Meanwhile, to escape his conscience, Aaron begins dipping into his father’s vial of cocaine stashed in the glove compartment. Goldberg’s writing sparkles with humor and wit, fitting moments of intimacy into otherwise dark scenes. For the family’s first heist, the parents use Judith’s bra, ripped in half, as masks. When Barry tries to sell his wife on a life of crime, he argues, “I’ll tell you why it will work. We are the most mild-mannered-looking squares on the planet. The kids, the RV, my hair, your fanny pack,” to which Judith responds: “You know a purse hurts my back.” KIRKUS REVIEWS
Goldberg’s writing sparkles with humor and wit. T H E G R E AT G I M M E L M A N S
As the family’s appetites spiral out of control, the robberies become more and more elaborate, with the jackpot rising exponentially. And even as the excitement brings the deliciously dysfunctional family together, Barry’s unchecked ambition soon develops ominous undertones in this engrossing story. What are the Gimmelmans willing to sacrifice in their quest for financial stability, and what will it take to stop them? An engaging dark comedy about the dangers of family ties.
Understanding Superhero Comic Books: A History of Key Elements, Creators, Events and Controversies Grand, Alex | McFarland (358 pp.) $39.95 paper | June 13, 2023 9781476690391
Grand explores the history of the medium in this nonfiction work. The author was first introduced to comic books as a kid in 1982 when he read the backstories of his favorite He-Man action figures through a series of promotional Masters of the Universe mini-comics published by Mattel. Comic books would play a central role in his life for the rest of his childhood and teenage years. Even after he graduated from medical school and joined a medical practice, the supernatural lure of comic books remained ever-present. With a sound research background honed during his postgraduate studies, Grand began a multiyear study of the history of comic books that has culminated in this work. The book begins with the origins of the
medium, Victorian-era visual sequential art (“proto-comics”) such as Rodolphe Töpffer’s newspaper comic strip, Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck. Dividing comic book history into eight eras, the author explores the development of the form from its early-20th-century roots through the present. The “Golden Age” of the 1930s and 1940s moved away from the comedic sensibilities of earlier works toward violent stories with superheroes such as Captain America and Batman and featuring characters with “superhuman abilities, costumes/ code names, and a mission of justice.” As society and culture developed in the mid-20th century, so too did comic books—they adapted to the television culture of the 1950s and 1960s, and later to the cynicism of the 1970s with the rise of antiheroes, “good-guy type of killers who got the job done.” The 1980s and 1990s (the “Dark Age” and “Extreme Age,” respectively) saw the growing popularity of dark, brooding themes, as well as “over-the-top anatomy, weaponry, and sexuality combined with sales-driven gimmicks,” culminating in the current “Movie Age,” characterized by CGI, special effects, and blockbuster films. While Grand acknowledges that this is not “a complete history of comics,” it is nevertheless a thorough one, covering many of the larger trends as well as artists, authors, and publishers who helped to shape the superhero genre. A thoughtful final section on diversity explores representations of women and Black people in comic books throughout the 20th century and the intersection of comic book narratives with social issues like civil rights, women’s rights, and multiculturalism. This impressively researched book boasts more than 1,000 reference endnotes and a 19-page bibliography that reflect a solid grasp of the vast library of American comic books as well as a NOVEMBER 1, 2023 155
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT In Suburban Bigamy, Michael S. Zimmerman untangles the complicated story of his father’s secret second family. BY AMELIA WILLIAMS
MICHAEL ZIMMERMAN WILL be the
first to tell you his dad, Norm, was his childhood hero. Born in Chicago but raised in suburban Winnetka, Michael believed he had the aspirational nuclear family: He and his
brother, Allan, grew up wanting for nothing; his mother was a prominent community figure; and his father was an attorney who ran a Lincoln car dealership. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1993, ski-bummed for a bit, and eventually began a career in finance. But in 2013, while living in Philadelphia and working for Vanguard, that idealistic image imploded when Michael and his mother discovered his father had been harboring a secret second family, just six miles away, for 40 years. He shares this story and how he and his family weathered the fallout in his memoir, Suburban Bigamy. This wasn’t the family’s first experience with infidelity, but it was a far more sinister and traumatizing experience than Norm’s prior
affair in the ’90s. The ruse finally unraveled because Norm suffered a stroke while on a weekend “fishing trip” away from the family, and when Zimmerman and his mother called the hospital, staff said his family was already with him. This set off alarm bells in Zimmerman and his mother that led them to discover that Norm had a second “wife” and two children just out of sight—he’d even had his first child with this other woman, called Margaret to protect her privacy, 14 months before Zimmerman himself was born. “I don’t think he ever intended to get stuck the way he did,” says Zimmerman, looking back. “I can’t imagine someone would deliberately put himself in that position. And ultimately, he probably had a pretty miserable life. He was stuck between two worlds. One of his comments to me, when I was a teenager was, ‘Life is not a dress rehearsal.’ At the time, I always took it to mean, ‘Seize the day, do everything you want to do, live life to the fullest.’ Now that I’ve gone through this experience, and I look back on his words, he was probably also giving guidance to not make the mistakes he’d made.” The story has all the potential for an HBO limited series, or as Zimmerman puts it, a Lifetime movie. But he hadn’t seriously considered writing the book until his father passed due to complications from Covid-19 in 2020. Kirkus Reviews praises Zimmerman for wading through not only the painful memories of the last decade but also exploring the stain and shadow that his father’s deceit cast upon all of his memories, calling Suburban Bigamy a “a frightening story intelligently told, one that exposes the frailty of even people’s most pedestrian certainties,” told with “admirable candor.” While Zimmerman hopes that few people can relate to his story exactly, he sees the broader emotional beats as accessible to many kinds of readers dealing with family trauma. One of the book’s most poignant aspects is Zimmerman’s introspection on how his dad’s secrecy—missed
Michael S. Zimmerman
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or incomplete holidays, time away from home, and lack of emotional intimacy with his family—permeated his children’s psyches well before his bigamy came to light: “The lie impacted us long before the truth ever did. His absence and non-committal nature toward women and family led my brother and me down a similar path as his. In fact, all three of my father’s sons were single into their 40s. I treated my relationships with women as disposable and avoided commitment. This was not just a product of observing his behavior but also a consequence of growing up with his absence.…By my early 40s, I was on a self-destructive path of selfish indulgence and emotional avoidance. While I always maintained my professional responsibilities, my social life was a hedonistic blur better fitted for a college student than a middle-aged man.” Eventually, Zimmerman reached out to the family with the truth. But an initially diplomatic encounter with his half-sister quickly devolved into a yearslong legal and personal battle that destroyed Norm’s relationships with Ann, his legal wife; Michael; and Allan. In the book,
Suburban Bigamy: Six Miles Between Truth and Deceit Zimmerman, Michael S.
Conversation Publishing 196 pp. | $29.99 | $13.99 e-book Aug. 9, 2022 | 9798985287967
Margaret bears a resemblance to Annie in Stephen King’s Misery, isolating Norm from his children, writing them out of the will once he’d divorced Ann and could legally marry her, and for a time sequestering him in a nursing home. They weren’t even personally told of Norm’s death; Ann received a notice from Social Security that her payments were increasing. Zimmerman’s transparency comes from catharsis. He began therapy soon after the revelation and began journaling to help make sense of what amounted to lifelong deceit. Writing it all down helped him keep a record, to finally get the true picture of a father who had deceived him and his family. But a depression that arose as a result of his father’s “sociopathic manipulator” antics and utter lack of remorse caused him to pause the project. It was Norm’s death, and a very thorough vetting by a defamation lawyer friend, that helped Zimmerman put it all on paper and get his story out. As it turns out, other members of their suburban community were harboring their own suspicions. “In the last couple of months, I’ve had some of their former neighbors
reach out to me, people who lived next door and across the street from them in the late ’70s and early ’80s, which has just been fascinating,” he says. “They would say things like, ‘Gosh, we knew something was up, but we didn’t know. We saw your father very rarely.’ Little things, like how little they saw those children and how the children weren’t allowed to play freely in the neighborhood—these are things that we didn’t have insight into. It sounds like my father and that other woman were really trying to keep their world small.” If such a situation can have a silver lining, Zimmerman believes it’s that seeing the hole his father dug himself into catalyzed Zimmerman’s own emotional growth. After dating his wife, Beth, on and off for years, he put his frat boy days behind him. They were married amid his and his father’s festering estrangement, and one of the last times he attempted communication with his father was to try and let him know that he was going to be a father himself. Margaret called the police on him, and he never made contact. Zimmerman still lives in the Philadelphia area with his family, working as a product manager for a fintech company. Unlike his father, he works from home, which gives him a hands-on relationship with his now 4-year-old son, Weston. Both time and fatherhood have lessened the betrayal and anguish at never receiving closure and true honesty from Norm, but Zimmerman says he has deeper regrets for not “catching more powder” on the ski slopes than for how he’s handled the repercussions of the last decade. Norm has been dethroned as his hero too; that honor now goes to Weston. “I think about the things my father missed, and I don’t want to miss those things; I want to be a bigger part of my son’s life in everything. I want him to think of me as his best friend, and I want to be a huge part of his life. Part of doing that is being there for him in the ways that my father wasn’t always there for me.” Amelia Williams is a writer in Brooklyn.
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respect for academic scholarship. Also included are the perspectives of insiders such as comic artist Guy Dorian Sr. and wholesale comics distributor Bud Plant, who were interviewed by the author, as well as legendary artist Jim Steranko, who writes the book’s foreword. Grand’s narrative, which balances the enthusiasm of a lifelong fan with astute analysis, is accompanied by a wealth of images and reproductions of comic book panels and iconic covers. Combined, these elements make not only a well-written, smart study of superhero history and lore, but also a beautifully crafted, visually appealing volume. And while admittedly not comprehensive (the text largely ignores the history of underground and alternative comix and Japanese manga), this is an admirable addition to the scholarship on superheroes and comic books. A well-researched, engaging history of American superhero comics.
No Wet Feet for Quincy Hayes, Renee | Illus. by Kristina Dutton Self (32 pp.) | $13.99 paper | Jan. 19, 2023 9781737754923
Hayes’ picture book shows readers that it’s okay to have unique sensory needs. Under no circumstances does Quincy like getting his feet wet. This is unusual for little ducks like him, and swans and geese that live at Dragonfly Pond cruelly mock him, asking if he’ll ever swim and why he cries. However, he also has a few friends who encourage him to come swimming with them. Quincy can’t express exactly what he hates about the feeling of wet feet. He tries to wear bright purple flip-flops into the water, but they float away; next, Quincy tries wearing a snorkel mask and flippers, but pond water leaks through the holes. He again tries to join his friends for an aquatic adventure by wearing galoshes, but 158 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
they’re not tall enough to keep water off his feet. Finally, Quincy decides to wear waders, which keep his feet nice and dry, and his friends surprise him by wearing waders of their own. Other ducks jump into the pond with Quincy, celebrating the fact that he feels comfortable enough to swim around the pond. When swans and geese appear to make fun of Quincy again, his friends help him ignore them and celebrate that Quincy persevered to find a solution to his sensory needs. The entire story is appealingly written in rhyming couplets with first-person narration from Quincy himself: “It took a few tries / To make this work,” he tells his friends. “Thank you for seeing / Beyond my quirk.” Dutton’s full-color cartoon illustrations are absolutely charming, and the textured background shading is a lovely touch. The story subtly integrates a clear message about accepting people who have specific sensory needs, and it’s one that young readers will easily understand, whether or not they have sensitivities of their own. Quincy also effectively models determination throughout with a daily mindful mantra: “Today’s a new day. / My friends are here.” A fine work with a caring message and appealing illustrations.
Sophia: Daughter of Barabbas House, M.D. | Self (282 pp.) | $14.99 paper Aug. 15, 2023 | 9781088253274
In House’s work of Christian fiction, the daughter of Barabbas meets the Apostle John. In this book, the author extends the storyline he created in his first three novels devoted to the biblical figure of Barabbas, the Roman prisoner who’s freed by Pontius Pilate when the crowd chooses him over Jesus. In the first three installments of this series, readers follow House’s rough-hewn
version of the character as he comes to embrace Christianity; in this new entry, the story follows Sophia, the daughter of Barabbas, as she joins another scriptural figure, the freed slave Onesimus, who’s mentioned by St. Paul in Colossians 4 and Philemon. Sophia has already seen a good deal of the Roman world of the first century, from Jerusalem to Ephesus to Antioch to Rome to distant Armenia, and, as she and Onesimus come to know each other, they set out on another journey—this time, to find the Apostle John, who’s elderly but still traveling from one beleaguered community of the new faith to another and still preaching to crowds. “Love each other. Serve each other,” he urges. “By so doing, you will abide in the light and will have no cause to fear; otherwise, you will face your battles in darkness.” Sophia is attracted to the simple faith and charisma of Christ’s “beloved apostle,” and other characters are surprised when she takes part in his mission. “I know you probably don’t see a lot of women teachers,” she reassures one person, “but if you think about it, we can teach as well as men.” House writes from a faithful Christian perspective throughout this series: Angels exist, miracles occur, and the spiritual truth of Christianity is both real and convincing to the many non-Christians the devout characters encounter in their travels. The narrative is littered with anachronistic contemporary terms and phrases (like “bat an eyelash” or “Okay”), but it’s also rich in its detailed evocation of the first-century world, particularly the final years of the Roman emperor Vespasian and what his reign meant for Christians. Like many authors of Christian fiction, House fills the conversation of his characters with as much declamation as dialogue: “If we seek God, in truth, nothing can keep us from eternal glory,” Onesimus observes in a typical exchange. “It doesn’t matter the form our death takes, only how we live while he grants that we remain here, in his wisdom.” This might grow tiresome for non-Christian readers (and for Christian readers looking for more stories and fewer sermons), but KIRKUS REVIEWS
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A worthwhile read for anyone looking to improve their life. FEISTY RIGHTY
House compensates with the wonderfully feisty and individual nature he develops for Sophia, who’s constantly struggling to reconcile her Christian meekness with her forthright spirit. “Her determination in that moment warmed her soul, both spirit and body,” readers are told. “It felt good to share testimony so firmly. It felt good to be bold.” Even readers unfamiliar with the series’ earlier books will quickly come to like Sophia enough to follow her on her wanderings. A passionately religious and involving historical novel about the early days of Christianity.
Feisty Righty: A Cancer Survivor’s Journey James, Jennifer D. | Bowker (332 pp.) $15.99 paper | June 28, 2023 9798218077891
James presents a memoir of survival that tackles real life as experienced by a breast cancer patient. Nine months separated a clean mammogram and the author’s discovery of a golf ball– sized lump in her right breast that would forever change her life. James chronicles the long, painful process of getting diagnosed and going through treatment (and life in general) as a breast cancer patient. While her story is similar to those of other breast cancer survivors, her insights are compelling as she shares the realities of the disease, the accompanying anxiety, and her methods for coping with KIRKUS REVIEWS
everything. She clears up common misconceptions, including the facts that cancer has more than four stages; survival sometimes hinges on a “cancer-fighting gene”; and cancer is in no way karmic retribution (“could I have somehow prevented this from happening if I’d just been a better person?”). James also details her experiences with post-chemotherapy illness and fatigue, the psychological and emotional effects that come with it, and the disease’s impact on the patient’s everyday life. Though cancer is understood to profoundly disrupt a sufferer’s lifestyle, James acknowledges the little things readers may forget, like how we experience time, or the significance of losing hair. Along the way, she pays tribute to the long list of people in her support system, from the bevy of doctors she encounters to members of her “Secret Society,” a list of intimate friends and family members who help her cope with her illness. The most important elements of the memoir are the wisdom she acquires throughout her journey and the issues she raises regarding the status of cancer patients in society. Her book shifts from powerful insights (take each day at a time, discover your “why” for surviving) to railing against the hypocrisy of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, likening it to pumpkin spice latte season—all with brevity, wit, and style. This cancer memoir is both inspiring and entertaining; a worthwhile read for anyone looking to improve their life. For more Indie content, visit Kirkus online.
Rites of Passage: The Legacy of Adventure Climbing in the Sierra Nevada Joe, E.C. | Self (352 pp.) | $34.99 paper March 23, 2023 | 9798218176013
Joe’s collection of rock-climbing tales chronicles his and 14 other contributors’ adventures in California’s Sierra Nevada. West Coast readers who’ve visited a Yosemite Valley meadow have likely watched in wonder at rock climbers perched on the vast, vertical terrain of El Capitan; from the ground, these climbers appear as mere pinpricks in the distance, with their human forms becoming clear only with binoculars. Those who have pondered the experiences of these adventurers will find that this book brings their pursuits to vivid life. The author—an accomplished rock climber, climbing teacher, and guide—has gathered his and fellow climbers’ tales of mountaineering in the backcountry. Among this elite group, discovering a new route up a vertical slope is a sterling accomplishment. Readers learn the importance of community and teamwork in climbing—it’s definitely not a solo sport, and a competent partner can mean the difference between life and death. The book’s greatest strength is in the variety of voices telling its stories; brief biographies at the end introduce the various players and expand on their lives. However, for non-climbers, the plethora of technical terms brings unsettling confusion. A glossary would have been helpful to clarify what a hex is (a hexagonal nut attached to a cable that climbers insert into rock-face cracks). It would have strengthened the descriptions of moment-to-moment decisions made during an ascent, as in this passage: “The main crack bottomed out into a shallow groove at a point just about mid-way up the pitch. I used my NOVEMBER 1, 2023 159
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only #8 Hex in a spot before this section….The Hex was a super good piece, but the better crack above the appeared to be #8 size for a long way. I sure would have liked two more #8 Hexes!” Overall, the book is richly illustrated with photographs. However, some are low quality or lack captions, leaving readers to guess their meaning and significance. A wealth of rock-climbing stories that would have benefited from more detail for non-experts.
26 Ways To Come Home for the Holidays Joy, Jennifer | Foxburg & Stern Books (162 pp.) | $9.99 paper | Aug. 15, 2023 9798218213664
A historical romance novella focuses on two co-workers in New York City during World War II. Stella West is “Head of Holidays” for Hanover’s Department Store. This means she’s in charge of making the store as cheerful as possible for the upcoming Christmas holiday as well as ensuring that Hanover’s remains one of the top places to go for family fun and shopping. As if that weren’t a big enough job, Stella and Hector Donovan, the store’s press agent, just got word that the famous decorator who was hired to design and execute all 26 of Hanover’s beloved window displays has quit—just two days before the public unveiling. This year’s theme, “Home for the Holidays,” is especially poignant, as it’s 1942 and so many sons, husbands, friends, and family members are away, fighting in the war. So Stella cannot let Hanover’s and the shoppers down. Stella and Hector, plus a small group of Hanover’s staffers, work day and night to bring the holiday spirit to life. With their jobs on the line and a series of mishaps keeping everything from running smoothly— or as smoothly as decorating over 20 160 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
windows in two days can proceed— Stella and Hector are relying on each other more than ever before. And as they spend a lot of time together, the protagonists discover that contentment can be found with someone you truly care about. In this engaging novella, Joy delivers a tale of two co-workers who realize their love for each other as they frantically tackle a daunting project during the hectic holiday season. At one point, Stella decides that Hector is “handsome. More handsome than Cary Grant…Grant wasn’t funny. Hector was very funny.” In 160 pages, the author manages to pack a lot of hijinks and setbacks into the story, making for a brisk pace. While there is a scene in which Stella reminisces in vague terms about a shared private moment between herself and Hector, the intimacy happens offstage, which makes this a welcome holiday read for those who prefer sweet romances. A fast-paced and charming colleagues-to-lovers tale for holiday romance fans.
Breakable Julians, Sue | New Generation Publishing (263 pp.) | $13.67 paper | June 6, 2023 9781803697420
Julians reflects on surviving the Covid-19 pandemic in this medical memoir. Throughout this spirited criticism of England’s pandemic response, the author, a British physiotherapist, asserts that when “our environmental coping mechanisms are taken away, the maintenance of good health may become an impossibility.” She focuses on the mental health toll that pandemic restrictions took on communities. Julians’ experience as a healthcare professional working “in the thick of it” at a clinic through the grueling months of lockdowns and restrictions greatly informs her perspective. She describes her life in early 2020, when she began experiencing
back soreness, a nagging cough, and fatigue while on an Austrian skiing trip with her husband. She was eventually diagnosed with Covid-19—by then, the public’s awareness of an uncontrolled infectious global health disaster began tipping over into panic. Widespread lockdown restrictions and isolation ensued, measures that were the opposite of what she advises readers to do. The author recalls how the pandemic detrimentally affected her small business (her clinical practice faced financial uncertainty), her family, and the world around her as she eventually became critical of mask mandates, droplet precautions, furloughs, and the necessity of virtual clinical consultations. Unaccustomed to working with the publicly funded National Health Service, Julians became a vaccinator at Nightingale Hospital. Scattered throughout the book are haunting photographs vibrantly depicting a stark, abandoned London at the pandemic’s peak. The author’s journey through the ordeal palpably reflects the confusion, frustration, and helplessness felt by many; some readers will relate as she questions the true efficacy of the imposed lockdowns, mask mandates, and other restrictions. Julians’ perspective offers a bracing critique of her country’s response to one of the world’s darker periods. A meticulously detailed and sharply observed chronicle of Covid-19 in Britain.
Floriography Child: A Memoir in Poems Krueger, Lisa C. | Red Hen Press (152 pp.) | $17.95 paper | Oct. 3, 2023 9781636281483
Krueger offers a memoir about caring for a sick child in poetry form. Krueger explores connections between flora, motherhood, and illness in this poetry collection. The title KIRKUS REVIEWS
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Vivid writing that will leave readers on the edges of their seats. A REASON TO RUN
refers to the way different types and colors of flowers convey emotion: “Everyone speaks / a little flower,” she writes in “Floriography of a Birth.” She praises “the women before me” who “knew / which flowers were delicious, / which could heal” (“Heritage”). In “Sunflower,” three days after a birth, she takes the new child to the garden and tells her, “I grew this for you.” As wildfires rage, she nurses her ill daughter (later diagnosed with dysautonomia) and longs for her own mother. “Make-Believe” captures a couple’s everyday moments while caring for a sick child: “We are making love and ignoring everything. / We are opening up the medicine cabinet / and staring at it. We are drinking too much. / We are sleeping too much.” As laypeople and medical professionals alike disregard the severity of her daughter’s disease—a teacher reports that the 5-year-old has trouble keeping her head up at school, like a drooping sunflower— Krueger visits a medicine woman and a shaman for answers. Throughout, photographs and mixed-media art pieces by the author echo the poems’ themes. Krueger’s knowledge of flowers is impressive, as is her ability to infuse them with meaning. Regarding runner beans, she writes, “Brilliant shack of sun-shock / already in prayer—couldn’t / carry the weight of themselves— / just born, fading” (“Sunflower”). Camellias open “themselves like / unabashed valentines” (Camellia, Bruise”), and Irises are “silken scarves” that “smell / like jelly beans” (“Growing Iris”). Unfortunately, the art doesn’t add much to the book, and many of the reproductions of the images are of poor quality. The words stand on their KIRKUS REVIEWS
own and paint a more vivid picture of what it means to love in the face of health challenges.
A poignant and bittersweet poetry collection about a mother’s devotion.
A Reason To Run Magluilo, Mike | Rootstock Publishing (286 pp.) | $18.99 paper | Oct. 3, 2023 9781578691456
A debut novel focuses on an athlete’s intense journey. Sam Bagliarello is a 17-year-old student in Linden Grove, Illinois, in 1988. Sam’s life is split into three timelines: his recent past climbing the social ladder at school and caddying at a golf club; his current recovery from the aftermath of a horrific car accident that leaves him dead for 51 seconds; and a year in the future when he is in the midst of the biggest race of his varsity track career. His quest for popularity in the first of these periods takes him to a house party where he drinks, embarrasses himself, and rides away on his bike, only to be struck by an errant driver at local landmark Spirit Hill. The battle to survive after severe injuries is long and hard, altering everything about Sam’s life. “It sounds like the easy road through senior year vanished with your bike. You’re going to have to get comfortable leaning on others for help even if you don’t like the idea,” his friend Sara tells him. With the help of his brother, Frank, a former high school football player
who burned out in college, Sam takes up running and sets his sights on going to the state finals. Meanwhile, he still has to navigate his complicated connection with his family, his vision of his academic future, and the ins and outs of high school relationships. Magluilo’s sports novel reads like a John Hughes movie that indulges in its love of the story’s setting, from the early Jane’s Addiction Sam listens to before races to Sara’s punk aesthetic. The book may appeal less to today’s teens and more to adults who grew up in the 1980s in that regard. Still, the author clearly did his research on track and field and is able to successfully convert this visual, fast-paced sport into vivid writing that will leave readers on the edges of their seats. A gripping, highly nostalgic dive into a decade and a high school sport.
The Self-Liberation of Parson Sykes: The Escape From Enslavement in Southampton County, Virginia Mason, David | PublishDrive (233 pp.) $19.99 paper | Nov. 23, 2022 9780999133118
In Mason’s historical novel, a young enslaved man escapes to join the Union Army during the Civil War. In this impassioned and historically grounded book, the author draws on both research and family oral tradition to recount the experiences of his ancestor, Parson Sykes. After researching and planning their escape, in 1864 Parson and his two brothers leave the Virginia plantation where they have spent their lives, elude pursuers and slave-catchers, and make their way to a Union Army camp, where they enlist in one of the recently formed Black regiments and join in the fighting until the war’s NOVEMBER 1, 2023 161
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A sure-fire inspiration for budding environmentalists. N AT U R E N I N J A S A V E S T H E N AT U R A L W O R L D
conclusion. Parson’s decision to liberate himself and his brothers is born of an awareness that being enslaved is an abhorrent condition, and a fortuitous set of circumstances—he is literate, and a part-time job at the local railroad station gives him access to outside news and information about the wider world—allows him to move from intention to action. The book establishes the historical context for Parson’s experience of enslavement shortly before the Civil War by connecting it to local history: He and his family lived in the region of Virginia where, a generation earlier, Nat Turner had led an uprising that terrified white enslavers and solidified their commitment to maintaining the practice of slavery. The author also provides a detailed explanation of how the U.S. Colored Troops were established and how they fit into the military and racial hierarchy of the North. The book, the first in a planned trilogy about Parson, offers an insightful and informative look at a crucial piece of history through the experience of a single person. Mason presents the book as a novel, but readers are likely to experience the book more as a biographical or historical work than as a piece of fiction. The narrative centers documentary evidence and historical context as much as plot, and there is no dialogue. The characters’ actions are generally described rather than dramatized (“Parson and his brothers devised passive resistance by damaging equipment, working slowly, and keeping their human rights and religious beliefs alive”). While the book is effective as a history, as a novel it has its shortcomings. This family-inspired history tells a compelling story while straddling genres. 162 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
Marvin and Me: How a Girl and a Mouse Beat Anxiety Together Milojkovic, Bojana | Illus. by Yuliia Zolotova Self (39 pp.) | $12.99 paper | Aug. 14, 2023 9798218259556
Milojkovic offers a picture book designed to offer children and caregivers practical strategies for dealing with anxiety. Psychiatrist Sylwia Fowler, in a foreword, explains how adult patients dealing with anxiety describe having had such feelings “always.” This puts into perspective the importance of addressing anxiety with young children. The narrative follows Pippa, a girl with auburn hair wearing a yellow dress. She visits her grandmother one day and tells her what’s on her mind: “What if my brother falls off his bike? Or what if Mom doesn’t turn the stove off?… These thoughts just keep on coming!” Grandma tells Pippa, “Everyone has scary thoughts sometimes,” and maybe Pippa just has “more of them.” In the garden, the girl meets a mouse that Grandma’s named Marvin. Grandma encourages Pippa to imagine her worries as tiny Marvin, and Pippa learns to let the mouse come and go. Zolotova’s full-page color cartoon illustrations depict the human characters as white; Marvin is small and gray. The bold, simple story is interspersed by sections directed at caregivers, explaining the story’s underlying psychology and offering advice for how to apply the story’s lessons to real life. Ultimately, the book offers a way into having open conversations with
a child about their thoughts and feelings—a crucial first step in managing anxiety.
A kids’ book of practical strategies for dealing with difficult emotions.
Kirkus Star
Nature Ninja Saves the Natural World Moloney, Tania | Illus. by Jelena Sardi Nurture in Nature Books (31 pp.) $14.99 paper | Aug. 2, 2023 9780645730500
A small green ninja makes nature a little brighter at the backyard level in this action-centered book for
nature warriors. Nature Ninja, a kid ninja shaped vaguely like a human, with a soft round body in the green hue of a cartoon turtle (and no hair), loves nature. Nature Ninja is a kid on a mission: The natural world needs saving! The Amazon Rainforest is being destroyed. There’s a Climate Emergency! The oceans are full of garbage. Nature Ninja wants to solve all of that. “BUT WAIT! I don’t live anywhere near the Amazon Rainforest. I’m actually not even allowed out of my backyard by myself. AND I’m only ONE little ninja,” the child bemoans. Luckily, Nature Ninja’s owl friend, Boobook, has plenty of wisdom, and Nature Ninja launches into several kid-friendly backyard projects that will empower kids to change the world one small step at a time. Many books focus too much on the big issues, but Moloney’s three suggestions—planting trees, building a bee hotel, and encouraging parents to let parts of the backyard stay wild—are easy enough to tackle. Sardi’s final illustration, a two-page spread of the whole neighborhood, swarms with details, showing even more possibilities to spark the imagination. While each small project won’t save the world on its own (changes on the national and international level KIRKUS REVIEWS
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The author’s prose is punchy, colorful, and evocative. BUNGALOW TERRACE
are needed, too), the hope offered here—in the accessible tone, repeated vocabulary, and soft pastel digital illustrations—is a sure-fire inspiration for budding environmentalists. Nature plus ninjas make a winning combination!
Bungalow Terrace Monroe, Robert | Maine Authors Publishing (394 pp.) | $21.95 paper | March 1, 2023 9781633813373
Members of a rock mega-band wrestle with drug addiction, scandals, gay sexuality, and a manipulative record label while trying not to lose their lifelong friendship in this sprawling show-biz novel. Monroe’s yarn follows four boys who live in a nameless American town and attend St. Cecilia’s Catholic School, where they suffer savage beatings from a brutal math teacher but get mentored by kindly music instructor Sister Pat, who nurtures their talents. After high school, the quartet’s garage band, called The Sapphires, is spotted by Colin Anderson, the sharklike head of Sea Glass Records. Colin brings the musicians to New York City and shepherds them into the big time and a haphazard name change to the titular street where they grew up. The narrative follows the band members’ intertwined lives: Vince DiPaulo, the group’s leader, who chafes at Colin’s control and gets heavily into pot, LSD, and speed; sexy front man Steve Russell, whose constant womanizing KIRKUS REVIEWS
strains his marriage to a Hollywood starlet; backup vocalist and songwriter Dave Corcoran, who marries Shelia Somers, not knowing that the child she is carrying is by her rapist and not him; and guitarist Kevin Bennett, a squeaky-clean but deeply closeted gay man who lives in dread that his proclivities will be discovered and ruin his career. The novel deepens these complications as the 1960s progress. The band undergoes several makeovers, moving from blue-suited doo-wop to bell-bottomed psychedelia; Vince enters a downward spiral of drug abuse that makes Colin and Steve maneuver to kick him out of the group; Dave is shaken by a family tragedy that sends him on a spiritual quest to India; and a blackmailer reveals Kevin’s secret to Colin, who has him committed to a conversion-therapy rehab unit, where he endures torturous aversion treatments. Monroe, a former casting director, paints a complex, nuanced portrait of the entertainment industry and the personalities that inhabit it. (Colin, for example, is a domineering jerk, but his keen eye for what works in pop music underlies the band’s success.) The author’s prose is punchy, colorful, and evocative, whether he’s describing Vince’s first acid trip—“He floated about the room, and the physical contours of his body began to disappear and meld into the pigments.… Everything that was concrete and real seemed illusive and fake, and everything illusory and unseen began to take on form and shape”—or aversion therapy (“Screaming through his clenched teeth, Kevin felt like he was being incinerated alive, as every muscle in his body constricted and the jolt of electricity pulsated through his hands and his private parts”). But Monroe
also gets at the hidden, achingly familiar psychological forces that drive his characters—even a hanger-on, as when Shelia’s mother reflects on the poverty that would be relieved if her reluctant daughter would marry Dave: “It sat like a weight in the pit of her stomach, and her body shook with the recognition of it. Images of scarcity and lack played out in her mind’s eye like the endless reels of a bad horror movie, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t silence the relentless voice of doom that echoed in her head.” As lurid as their excesses can be, the author grounds his players in motivations that feel universal. A richly textured, entertaining tale of musicians struggling with their demons.
The Carry-On Imperative: A Memoir of Travel, Reinvention & Giving Back Pascoe, Robin | Botania Books (188 pp.) | $19.95 paper | Sept. 5, 2023 9781738904006
A Canadian journalist and authority on expatriation presents a memoir to inspire readers to “carry on,” whatever the challenge. In 1975, when a young Pascoe told her father that she was going to journalism school, he toasted her for seeking a “second career” to supplement her more important job as a wife and mother. This irritated but challenged the author, and Pascoe’s account of her dogged determination to succeed as a reporter and author is just one of the many subtle, good-natured rebellions against conventional expectations that mark this gem of a book. Pascoe spent much of her life traveling the world with her Canadian diplomat husband, Rodney Briggs, and their children. Aspiring to the “spunk” of her idol, Mary Tyler Moore, she turned the NOVEMBER 1, 2023 163
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oft-bewildering experience of expatriation into the source of her success as a writer. She authored several books aimed at expatriate families adjusting to life abroad and back home, and she became a sought-after speaker and writer. Each chapter in this book is quite brief, but Pascoe’s skill at creating vivid scenes of expat life is superb, and readers will find her self-deprecating humor endearing. Admitting her lack of fashion sense, for example, she notes that the wives of other diplomats would always appear at gala events looking “divine while I resembled a reupholstered sofa.” But there’s a serious side to Pascoe’s story, including her struggles against entrenched sexism in journalistic and diplomatic circles in the final decades of the 20th century, and the impact of personal loss on the formation of her character: As a young teenager, Pascoe lost her mother to a brain aneurysm, and she helps readers to see how this led her to forge her own notions of womanhood and motherhood. A witty, honest, and inspiring remembrance.
Moon Mountain Porto, Jess | Self (318 pp.) | $14.99 paper Nov. 28, 2022 | 9798218114251
A college student in the North Carolina foothills finds herself a pawn in a deadly game in Porto’s thriller. Morgan Thomas and her roommate and best friend, Sheridan Gallagher, make their way to a friend’s Halloween party. Morgan’s still wearing her woodland fairy costume hours later when she wakes up in the middle of the night in a dark wooded area as some great creature bashes its way through the trees above her. She manages to make it home, but in the morning finds herself unable to speak about her experience to 164 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
Sheridan (“Before I could begin to describe what had happened, my throat suddenly tightened and felt drier than chalk dust, and I had to take a sip of my coffee to moisten it. My head also started pounding rhythmically inside my skull”), who thinks she may have had too much to drink. Morgan does remember an odd encounter with a tall man dressed like a ninja, who simply put his hand on her shoulder and looked at her without speaking. After the strange incident, she finds herself revisiting the forest, sometimes in her dreams and sometimes in real life. What strange forces are affecting her? And why can’t she tell her friends what’s going on, even as she finds herself at the scene of a murder? The plot rolls out slowly and impressively; just as Morgan begins to get a feeling about what’s happening to her, she’s so caught up in the action that there’s not much she can do. Morgan spends her most adventurous moments dreaming or sleepwalking; in her waking hours, she has even less control over her life. So what is the reader to make of Morgan? With the introduction of a young detective, Grayson Blair, whom Morgan first notices as she’s bartending a gala event hosted by Sheridan’s wealthy family, it begins to seem like she has found an ally and secured a fighting chance. But expectations continue to be subverted up to the story’s sequel-setting climax, which is tinged with elements of romance, fantasy, and even SF. A basic damsel in distress story turned upside-down.
Oracle Rainer, Marc | Rukia Publishing (220 pp.) $16.99 paper | Nov. 8, 2023 9798989108435
Rainer offers the eighth continent-spanning installment in his Jeff Trask thriller series, in which the hero must help avert a plan for nuclear armageddon. In 2021, CIA agent “Buck” Buckley is mere months into a new posting in Athens, Greece, when Yuri Mikhail Gilfoy, a senior Mossad official from Tel Aviv, appears. Yuri hasn’t left his office to catch up with an old friend. Instead, he warns Buck about recent intel he’s received from an anonymous source, nicknamed “Oracle,” regarding a possible nuclear attack. The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, it appears, aims to take retaliatory measures following the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020, in which several Arabic nations recognized the state of Israel and agreed to normalize relations. Yuri’s source has suggested that Athens, the “original cradle of Western civilization and democracy,” represents a likely target. Shortly after delivering this jaw-dropping news, Yuri departs, leaving Buck and his colleagues at the U.S. Embassy to brace for any possibility. Meanwhile, in Tehran, a former champion wrestler-turned-colonel of the Iran Revolutionary Guards, Ahmed Jafari, plays games of Football Megastars online and keeps his head
The book is clearly written in the spirit of good, gripping fun. ORACLE
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An absurd, self -aware romp with plenty of love, sex, and acceptance. T R A N S - C O N T I N E N TA L B R E A K FA S T
down as the Supreme Leader speculates about a mole in his office. Back in Kansas City, Missouri, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Trask and his wife, Lynn, prepare for a long-awaited vacation to Greece—where they become entangled in Rainer’s serpentine narrative. Over the course of this espionage thriller, the author ably weaves together the various threads of his capacious and complex international doomsday narrative. Some readers may be surprised that the chief player is not Trask; indeed, it isn’t any one character, but more of an ensemble piece, and the action moves too fast for any real interior character development. However, the author’s sleek, propulsive prose effectively drives readers toward a promised climax. Some bits of dialogue feel a bit clichéd, but for this, Rainer can be forgiven, as the book is clearly written in the spirit of good, gripping fun. In this sense, it’s successful—explosively so. An often-engrossing spy novel on an international scale.
Don’t Stick Your Toes in Your Nose Shell, Kama; Illus. by Tyrus Goshay | Self (35 pp.) | $11.95 paper | June 2, 2023 9798396908994
An irrepressible child gets into many messes in Shell’s picture book of sage instructions from a parent to a precocious youngster. A Black toddler with natural hair and huge brown eyes stars in each twopage spread, which features instructions from an adult caregiving figure who only ever appears in part or from KIRKUS REVIEWS
behind. After being urged to not put fingers in their mouth, the toddler promptly puts two slices of bread into their hair: “Leave your chair, wash your hair / and don’t scrub your head with the bread,” urges the adult. The youngster’s mischief continues as the child uses red sauce for handwashing, wipes eggs on their legs, and plays football and Rollerblades in the house, among other things. In some cases, the parent is able to keep the child out of trouble (preventing them from sticking a crayon in their ear, for example), but mostly, the fun is in seeing exactly how much mischief the child creates. Shell’s repeating rhymes invite young lap readers to chime in with their own instructions, and the ending rhyme, offering words of love about trying one’s best, may keep readers from feeling scolded. Goshay’s gorgeous fullcolor cartoon illustrations tell much of the story from gleeful chaos to cleanup. An introduction to reasonable rules featuring repeating rhymes and an appealing main character.
Trans-continental Breakfast Slapbush, Thundertail | Self (154 pp.) $7.24 paper | April 18, 2023 9798391780250
Walking, talking food populates Slapbush’s quirky tale of a restaurant owner who finds love in the most unexpected place. When readers first meet International “Nat” Cuisine, she is a bowl of chicken-and-mustard-green rice congee.
In this world, everyone can change what specific food item they present as each day, but they always stick to their breakfast, lunch, or dinner characterization—that is, unless someone like Homestyle “Homes” (born a dinner) decides that he is, in fact, a breakfast; that’s where things get complicated. While Nat struggles to entice her customers to try new foods at her breakfast bistro, Homes admires her from afar, convinced she’s his dream girl: “I close my eyes and take a whiff of her, hoping that she won’t notice, and my stomach rumbles at the perfume of tangy rice vinegar, umami aged soy sauce, and bright anise...My mouth waters, and for one moment, I fantasize about dipping myself into her wet warmth and swallowing a whole mouthful of her chunky sweetness.” When the two finally meet up, sparks fly, but Nat is unsure if she’s really ready to date a breakfast-who-used-to-be-a-dinner…especially with her narrow-minded friend, Keto, whispering doubts in her ear. Slapbush has managed to create literal food porn with scenarios and dialogue so explicit and naturalistic that readers are likely to forget that they’re reading about literal food, that is, until the odd mention of a “frosting nozzle” and “acai berries” arises, at which point laughter is a likely result. But that’s okay—Slapbush makes an important statement at the beginning of the book that sets the tone for everything that comes after: “Very little about this book is serious, dear reader, but there is one thing that I want to make very clear: Homestyle’s identity as a transgender individual is not the punchline. The absurdity of gender gatekeeping absolutely is.” The food puns are spot on (“It’s the brats of times, it’s the wurst of times…”), while the message of social tolerance is laudable.
An absurd, self-aware romp with plenty of love, sex, and acceptance for readers wanting something a little different. For more Indie content, visit Kirkus online.
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The Lost and the Blind
The Blue Iris
Smith, Curtis | Running Wild Press (288 pp.) | $19.99 paper | Sept. 5, 2023 9781955062619
Stone, Rachel | Koehler Books (380 pp.) $22.95 paper | Oct. 3, 2023 9798888240939
In Smith’s novel, a high school senior grapples with the fear of what his future holds while dealing with the struggles of living with a drugaddicted mother. Here, the author of the Kirkusstarred The Magpie’s Return (2020) explores a complex story of how children suffer the consequences of their parents’ actions. Mark Hayes is a 17-year-old who’s about to start his last year of school. He and his mom, Jill, have recently escaped a dangerous man who threatened to kill them, and are staying at a farmhouse somewhere in the Midwest where Jill’s addict friend, Amy, lives. By the end of summer, Mark notes, his mom doesn’t even try to hide it from him when she shoots up anymore. At one point, Amy’s parents take legal custody of her baby after a doctor finds drugs in the child’s system. At home, Mark takes care of both adults; at school, he spends his lunches talking to U.S. Army recruiters and wonders what his life will look like after graduation, as he feels trapped in an endless cycle. People know who his mother is, which sometimes puts him in dangerous situations. Smith’s story takes place over roughly a year, but there’s never a lull in the action, and his sentences break apart in unusual and unexpected places to create a constant lyrical flow: “She drives off, and in me, a drowning I hadn’t expected. Open fields beneath an open sky. My house of empty rooms.” There’s also a colorful cast of characters, from Mark’s crew of friends at school—Andy, Derrick, Jason—his crush, Kate Evans, and the many people trying to hurt or help his mother and Amy. Many figures in Mark’s life offer him hope and a chance at a better future, but in the end, it’s up to him to decide to take it.
In Stone’s novel, a modest Canadian flower shop becomes an arena for romance, heartache, and betrayal. Twenty-six-yearold Tessa Lewis is looking for her “big”—a career that would cap years of studies, internships, and three summa cum laude degrees in liberal arts, applied statistics, and social sciences. She’s all but engaged to her boyfriend, Will Westlake, a successful lawyer whose father is a shoo-in as Toronto’s next mayor. Tessa wants to prove to everyone—but especially to Will’s controlling mother, Eleanor—that she isn’t involved with Will for his money. She takes one last summer off to figure things out and unexpectedly finds herself working at a small flower market, the Blue Iris, which she and her late mother used to visit. Now Tessa’s days involve carrying bags of manure, learning how to water a linebacker plant, and placating difficult customers. Stone’s debut reveals true affection for plant shops and their quirky, tough inhabitants: Unflappable Charlie has been working at the store for decades, and her calm reserve hides past tragedy; employees Luke and Tony are as competitive about meeting women as they are about unloading boxes; and Darryl, the brother of the man who long ran
the store, seems ready to fly off the handle given the slightest chance, which Charlie is happy to provide. Plant-enthusiast readers will find much to love in this often funny tale, which offers deep insights into the drama of each planting season and Mother’s Day: “Trays lay overturned, portulaca and cilantro swaying like seaweed. SUVs idled in the street as screaming matches broke out over parking spots, the last cherry tomato plant.” The narrative’s beginning moves slowly, establishing mysteries and setting characters on collision courses: Will Tessa help Will secure votes, or will she pursue her attraction to Luke? When the novel finds its rhythm, it’s a pleasure to watch the little community fight for what matters to them—human connection, how to run a flower business, and, when the Blue Iris is in danger of being converted into condos, the shop’s very existence. A captivating read that’s full of humor and heart.
Vandemere Tait, Kimberly D. | Self (337 pp.) $18.00 paper | Sep. 26, 2023 | 1738090442
A young circus performer struggles to understand his psychic abilities in Tait’s YA supernatural historical novel. At 17 years old, Vandy Davidson (aka Vandemere Petruska) is the star trick rider in a traveling circus who
Plant-enthusiast readers will find much to love in this often funny tale. THE BLUE IRIS
An engaging and often beautiful work.
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A sensitive and absorbing portrait of a woman who is braver than she knows. TH E M O R E B EYO N D
feels a special bond with his horses; he’s even named after the horse that his great-grandparents brought from Europe when they first came to the United States. His mother, fortune-teller Bonnie Petruska, has “magie”—true psychic powers that she inherited from her Romanian ancestors and has passed on to Vandy. (Del Davidson, a renowned horse trainer, abruptly left his wife and son when Vandy was only 12.) The story opens with the circus stationed in a small town in Dust Bowl Oklahoma in June 1939. Vandy, confident of winning because of his paranormal abilities, tries to grift a few dollars by betting three patrons on a card trick, despite feeling uneasy about one of the men. Unfortunately, that man turns out to be an off-duty cop who threatens to arrest Vandy for illegal gambling. Jimmy Custer, the owner of the circus and a mentor to Vandy, rescues him by making a deal with the police detective. And that’s just the beginning of Vandy’s troubles: Bonnie is seriously ill, and she and her boyfriend, Jake, whom Vandy loathes, drink excessively; Vandy has a huge crush on Sylvia, a stunningly sexy, self-centered aerialist who ignores him (except to tease him or be mean); Jimmy’s fed up with him; he’s broke; and he experiences blackouts in which he has nightmarish visions of being pursued by a demon, which he can’t clearly remember after they end. He also suffers from extreme claustrophobia, sparked by a childhood incident. Worst of all, a little girl wanders unaccompanied into his horse’s stall; he returns her to her mother, but when she later goes missing, Vandy is named the prime suspect. Despite some awkward passages, KIRKUS REVIEWS
Tait’s writing pulls the reader into Vandy’s world with striking descriptions that vividly capture the settings, and introduces characters in a few deft strokes, making them lifelike and believable. (“I was a wind-blown tumbleweed caught in the guywires of life. I hadn’t grown much over the last few years, and at five-foot-seven, I looked about as threatening as a jackrabbit.”) Vandy is sympathetic and relatable—at times naïve, at others world-weary, filled with teen angst, impatient but also kind. The story is told from his point of view, and his voice is honest and selfaware, with a dose of snarky humor. There are several raunchy sexual references, including allegations of incest and abuse, that seem overly graphic for a YA audience. The story moves quickly, switching back and forth between Vandy’s childhood memories and present challenges. The narrative has several competing plot threads, and almost none are fully resolved. Vandy learns little about controlling his paranormal abilities, or about the meaning of his nightmarish visions. Although the novel is promising as a series debut, in the end it mostly feels like backstory. One hopes that Vandy’s true mission and quest, and the dangers he’ll have to face to fulfill them, will unfold in the next installment. A promising historical fantasy series debut that lacks resolution.
For more Indie content, visit Kirkus online.
The More Beyond Thomas, Jill Charlotte | Self (208 pp.) $15.99 paper | Sep. 9, 2023 9798218259273
In this novel, a young woman has a life that most would deem enviable—so why does she keep trying to end it? Morton Guthrie is a trust fund baby, an only child. Readers learn early on that she attempted back-to-back suicides, one with pills, the other by exsanguination. She survives and winds up in a psychiatric facility (in her words, “a nuthouse”). She has no recognized mental disorder, but well-balanced people don’t try to kill themselves. Now, her parents have invited her to a weekend in Manhattan. These are seriously rich and extremely screwed-up people, and against the advice of her psychiatrist, she accepts. Her father is autocratic and a bully and her mother is neurotic and prone to nervous breakdowns—and they are both deeply narcissistic. The scene where readers meet them and Morton tries, timidly, to get their attention borders on parody. Her Aunt Elyse and Uncle Charlie are drunks, and her twin cousins, Clive and Libby, are creepy and cold. The question is, against this noxious background, will the poor woman try to prevail? As she says, “I am searching for the purpose of my presence on this earth.” Unfortunately, she is spending the weekend with relatives with no discernible purpose but to enjoy a sybaritic lifestyle, people who are trying desperately and sadly to be happy. So at least she knows what not to do or be. Morton is the narrator, so it’s her fragile point of view that deftly drives the story, as when she says, “I felt very small, like…a hummingbird without wings.” The scenes toggle between the Manhattan weekend and her stay in the facility, so there is time shifting, too, but it’s not distracting. Thomas offers some witty and revealing lines, as when Aunt Elyse waves “a NOVEMBER 1, 2023 167
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frantic white napkin as if she’s calling an early truce.” The engrossing book is studded with Morton’s reflective contemplations of her struggles. Readers will feel for her and root for her. A sensitive and absorbing portrait of a woman who is braver than she knows.
The Countess Game Wilding, Deborah Cay | Self (283 pp.) Sept. 30, 2023
Wilding offers a romantic historical novel that’s set against the backdrop of the 1715 Jacobite Rising to place James Stuart on the British throne. In 1715, Elizabeth Hartwell is expelled from the court of the recently crowned King George I. After the death of her court physician father, she took over ministering to Queen Anne, but now Anne has died, and supporters of James, the pretender to the throne, are rebelling, and George has become suspicious of Elizabeth’s Jacobite lineage. Fortunately, Elizabeth’s Aunt Maude has received an invitation from her cousin Mary to reside with her at Holliston Castle, the estate of Mary’s brother, Ashton Wentworth, Earl of Haverdale. Elizabeth and Maude hastily escape London, headed for the North Country. Handsome, roguish bachelor Earl Wentworth, an early supporter of James, has been living in exile in Paris for years; now that he’s pledged his allegiance to George, he’s returned home, determined to refurbish his neglected castle and look after his farming tenants. He asks Elizabeth if she’d be willing to revamp its deteriorated dispensary. It’s the perfect opportunity for her to find her place and purpose, and to adjust to the more informal style of country life; plus, the attractive earl pleasantly upsets her equilibrium. The combination of political upheaval, dangerous adventure, conflicting loyalties, and 168 NOVEMBER 1, 2023
potential romance keeps Wilding’s narrative moving at an entertaining pace throughout. Her attention to details of architecture, decor (“The pavilion was a pleasant respite from the afternoon sun and was luxuriously furnished with armchairs, sofas, benches and tables inlaid with floral patterns of wood and semi-precious stones”), fashion, and linguistic patterns will vividly transport readers to the early-18th century. Elizabeth is an engaging narrator who’s smart, witty, and independent. Although the bulk of the story centers on the developing relationship between her and Ashton, there’s a large cast of supporting characters—it may take readers some time to keep them all straight—with a few standouts, such as the intrepid stable hand known as Young Robbie, who repeatedly proves his mettle.
A fun read filled with intriguing history and featuring an amusing final surprise.
Kirkus Star
Pandora’s Gamble: Lab Leaks, Pandemics, and a World at Risk Young, Alison | Center Street (352 pp.) $21.38 | April 25, 2023 | 9781546002932
Deadly germs escape from advanced laboratories with alarming and perhaps catastrophic consequences, according to this sobering nonfic-
tion book. Investigative journalist Young, who’s worked as a reporter and editor for such outlets as USA Today, the Detroit Free Press, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, explores lapses, accidents, and disasters at high-containment biosafety level 2, 3, and 4 laboratories around the world. They include a 1978 smallpox outbreak at a lab at Britain’s Birmingham University that resulted in the world’s last smallpox death (in
which the remorseful lab director committed suicide); a 1979 anthrax release from a Soviet bioweapons lab in Sverdlovsk, which killed dozens of people; several leaks of contaminated wastewater at the U.S. Army’s Fort Detrick biological research institute in 2018, which may have traveled to the nearby town of Frederick, Maryland; a lab tech’s death from a bacterial infection in a San Francisco Veterans Administration medical center; several leaks of a SARS-associate coronavirus from Asian labs in 2003 and 2004, resulting in one death; and the exposure of lab workers to engineered microbes during “gain of function” research that seeks to make pathogens more infectious. A lengthy chapter explores the possibility that the Covid-19 pandemic was caused by a virus that escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Young dives deeply into how lab safeguards can fail because of equipment breakdowns, leaky pipes, holes in biohazard suits, mislabeled vials, accidental needle sticks, and other circumstances. The book also offers an absorbing account of Young’s own dogged reporting as she visits labs (she once found a high-tech containment-lab door sealed shut with duct tape), pries information out of reluctant officials, and receives tips from anonymous sources. She renders scientific issues in lucid, accessible prose that vividly conveys the insidious nature of potentially lethal microbes: “Other liquid or solid particles were so small they became airborne, spreading on invisible air currents, pushed along by heating and cooling systems, the opening and closing of doors, and the movement of people between rooms and down hallways.” Throughout, Young shows just how perilous infectious-disease research can be. A hard-hitting and timely report on a pervasive threat. For more Indie content, visit Kirkus online.
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As Cozy as a Pumpkin Spice Latte in Fall! From CRYSTAL MALDONADO,, author of
A heartwarming autumn rom-com that touches on topics like PCOS, fatphobia, Latine identity, and class.
“A pumpkin-spice-latteflavored treat about friends, family and the importance of fun.” Featured in PEOPLE Magazine’s Must-Read Books for Fall!
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