When a bridge in Austin was renovated in the 1980s, the crevices beneath it became the perfect home for Mexican free-tailed bats, which moved in by the hundreds of thousands. Their human neighbors didn’t welcome them—until a bat biologist, Dr. Merlin Tuttle, explained how beneficial the bats were to the environment; they ate insect pests, […]
Born into a wealthy English family, Radclyffe began life as a girl in denial about her crushes on other women. After coming out as gay, the author visited the Bluestockings bookstore in New York City, a short train ride from the Connecticut home where Radclyffe was masquerading as a housewife despite suffering from hair and […]
Danica dela Torre, the “youngest sleuth” in the small Canadian town of Renley Crow, worries that her new neighbor and all-around smart kid Kennedy Fang might take all the good cases away from the Unofficial Official Renley Crow Detective Club, the business she began with her best friend, Jack Harrow. Instead, Kennedy enlists their services […]
Twelve-year-old Jax Freeman is an unwilling transplant to Chicago, sent away from his Raleigh, North Carolina, home by his parents after an incident lands him in the juvenile justice system. Just about as soon as he descends from the train, the weirdness starts: Inanimate objects speak to him, a strange old woman tells him his […]
Hollinghurst’s seventh novel features a narrator who, like his creator, is about 70: David Win—the dark-skinned son of a British woman and a man she met while working as a typist in Burma after World War II—was raised by his mother on her own in provincial England. The story opens with a fairly recent event: […]
The author has spent over a decade teaching her writing method to a variety of audiences, helping to prompt procrastinators or aspiring writers who don’t know how to get started. The steps cover topics including generating ideas; developing characters, settings, and plots; and drafting and revision. Each day’s agenda begins with “warmups,” moves on to […]
World War II had barely ended, writes former Associated Press chief correspondent Petty, when German chancellor Konrad Adenauer declared impatiently, “This sniffing around for Nazis has to stop.” It did, quickly. As Petty notes, 24 major players in the Third Reich were put on trial “on charges of crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes […]
Andee Paxton is used to things blowing up…literally. She’s a fireworks designer, and while there aren’t many sparks in her love life, her career is literallly on fire. For 26 years, Andee has been under the impression that her father is Oscar-winning actor Keith Huxley-Beck, a fact she regrettably shared with her coworkers, who enjoy […]
In this heart-stopping sequel to Thieves’ Gambit (2023), Ross, an 18-year-old professional thief, once again finds herself at the whims of the organization, competing in something that’s “less like a gambit, more like a gauntlet” to help their leader retain control after a takeover attempt puts the Quest family at risk. From New Orleans and […]
Prolific picture-book author and illustrator Brett depicts Alice with short black hair, tan skin, and a fur-lined parka, while Lewis Carroll’s well-known characters are recast in new guises: The Cheshire Cat and Queen of Hearts appear as a Smilodon (saber-toothed cat) and snowy owl, respectively. Progressing at a rapid-fire pace, the narrative follows key moments […]