Sam is in her early 30s, two years out of her English and Comparative Literature Ph.D. program, and, like many of her cohort, barely scraping by as an adjunct. When she lands a spot at Rosedale, an elite private college, as a last-minute replacement for an older professor, her problems seem temporarily solved. Sam is […]
No one notices Joe! Though his buddy Tiago—whose many talents include soccer prowess and a gift for language—is reassuring, Joe wants to start middle school “as a new person.” A YouTube video centered on an outdoor adventurer known as Wildman Mike convinces him to follow suit, and the report of a mysterious creature in nearby […]
Sixty-five-year-old Nancy Norman, who recently ended a career as a home nurse, loves James Bond movies and spy novels, her cat (Dr. GoldenPaw), and the act of bedazzling nearly every surface of her Minneapolis home. She’s a woman with big dreams but little means to make them a reality, beyond a casual flirtation with a […]
Historian Goldman’s ambitious book takes a detailed dive into New York City over 10 years. He begins on New Year’s Eve in 1919, describing people partying before Prohibition took hold in this “consummate metropolis” and “home of modernity.” In 1920, the Gotham Book and Art bookstore was born at 128 West 45th Street. That same […]
Lonely, Vera makes a wish on her favorite star for Grace’s return, but a few nights later, her wishing star disappears. At the library, Vera meets Malcolm, a fellow night sky enthusiast who explains that stars move. “My star didn’t leave me! It’s just on the other side of the world—in Grace’s sky!” Vera realizes. […]
Shuika, whose name means little thorn, goes by Shay, and lives in the city of Nezjar. She’s been raised by the midwife Ghita since her mother, who was addicted to Snow, died in childbirth. The drug temporarily activates Shawafa, an affinity-based magic all women possess—which is illegal to wield. Through her mother’s addiction, Shay inherited […]
In her fourth book set in a region unknown to many readers, Kassabova examines the threats facing one of the few remaining nomadic peoples in modernity: the Karakachans, “Greek speakers of mysterious origin” whose homeland is “impossible to know.” Moving their animals in search of fresh pasture, they have spent centuries breeding ancient races of […]
In humanity’s space-colonizing future, would-be Mars settler Michelle Arensen tries to put the suicide of her father behind her, working with her husband and brother to build a lasting Red Planet base. Suddenly, a bizarre phenomenon engulfs Michelle and other women on the expedition who find themselves held prisoner by faceless, noncommunicative humanoids. After a […]
British publisher and diarist Allen brings his love of notebooks to a lively, wide-ranging history of bound blank pages. Notebooks, he writes, “interest me as a technology that has had tangible effects on the world around us.” The author started keeping a journal in 2002: “Writing a diary made me happier; keeping things-to-do lists made […]
At the playground, Nadine hears a girl her age speaking to her doll in an unfamiliar language. Eager to learn more, Nadine asks the girl, Yan, if she has a “coming-here story.” Yan replies that she’s a recent immigrant from China, and the two children bond. Later, on her way home, Yan asks a woman […]