Just six months past her divorce, Meg Bloomberg decides to channel her self-pity in a different, more useful direction: playing pickleball. Actually, her friend Annie Yoon cajoled her into it, but after just a few volleys Meg can’t help but admit that playing pickleball is kind of fun. Meg joins Annie’s Lakeview pickleball league, which […]
Lady Georgiana Rannoch is cousin to David (King Edward VIII to you), sister to a duke, and wife of Darcy O’Mara, a spy for Great Britain. Happy to leave her exciting past behind and devote herself to doting on her adorable infant son, she lives with her family on the estate she’ll inherit from her […]
Born in Kentucky, the Bean brothers—James, Samuel, Joshua, and Roy—were living emblems of westward expansion. All possessed, to varying degrees, something of the rule-evading, even lawless ethos of the Anglo conquest, from outright murder to the mere gaming of the system. Trade brought some brothers west, war others; several thrived in an economy of contraband […]
Riley never meant to be a photographer; he was a professional skateboarder until a bad landing put him in a coma. When he woke up, his job on the tour was gone, and now he feels dizzy whenever he tries to get back on a board. Eventually, he settles for becoming a Phoenix-based skate photographer […]
Timid Bigfoot usually holes up inside his cave, afraid to venture out. Everyone makes loud, terrifying noises whenever they see him. But at least he has other misunderstood monster pals who appreciate his plight, among them Nessie, who lives in Scotland; Mothman, who’s from the Appalachian Mountains; and the Chupacabra, who resides in Puerto Rico. […]
Sometimes it takes the eye of an outsider to capture what is unique about a place. Pronko, an American literature professor at Meiji Gakuin University, has lived in Tokyo for decades and has written extensively about its many faces. “Words pointing at Tokyo are not Tokyo, granted,” writes Pronko in his preface. “But words can…reveal […]
Sixteen-year-old trans boy Dominic is trapped on a boring vacation in tiny Liverpool, Nova Scotia, with his parents. But his summer takes a positive turn when he meets the captivating Sunil, a genderqueer teenager who’s staying in the beachfront cottage next door. The two soon develop a friendship—and maybe something more. Dominic spends the first […]
As the youngest member of a student environmental club known as the Sea Musketeers, 9-year-old Gabby Torres is eager to stand out, and she decides that starting a social media account for the group is just the ticket. The others are encouraging, but Gabby’s worried parents lay down some guidelines for online safety. Her best […]
In the year 268, a handsome 26-year-old soldier, Valentinus Romanus, known as “Valentine,” saves the empress from an Alemanni attack. After the battle, he reminisces about his first love, a girl whom he knew as Rose, while drunkenly sleeping with Serena, the wife of a Roman magistrate. From the beginning, Valentine is a romantic and […]
Kaden Dave Oshima is a musicologist and “old crackpot musician” (he’s in his mid-60s) living in Honolulu. In his own words, he leads an “uncertain existence of contemplation” in which he ponders “morality, truth, ecstasy, and clear understanding from this world.” He is a devotee of Bach’s incomparable music and believes that in addition to […]