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ORIGIN STORIES

In “Origin Story,” a piece that’s less about looking back than moving forward, the female protagonist muses: “Freedom wasn’t to be found in words but in being alone…thinking thoughts that would not appear in her stories because they were shameful in their intimacy and small in scope, the product of a lack of imagination or […]

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THE TWO PRINCES OF MPFUMO

O’Neill, a University of Southern California historian, excavates the story of two East African princes who boarded a British ship with the intention of traveling to London, only to be sold into slavery in Jamaica. After years of enslavement, the princes persuaded a lawyer to help them regain their freedom, setting up the next stage […]

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SWEET BABE!

This gray-haired, bespectacled, very chic grandmother “kvells” over every wonderful thing about the child (a glossary defines kvelling as “bursting with pride”). They play peek-a-boo, and Grandma hugs, kisses, and cuddles the little one. Baby’s every expression is met with excitement and joy, and Grandma decides that even the infant’s smiles are evidence of genius. […]

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ALL THE HIDDEN MONSTERS

When Sage goes to check on Lucy, her fellow werewolf friend, she finds dangerous, enigmatic warlock Oren in Lucy’s Manchester, England, apartment. He’s investigating her brutal murder to determine if it’s an Upside, or human, crime, or a Downside, or supernatural, one that would fall in his jurisdiction. Though Oren feels something about the crime […]

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KING OF THE NORTH

For decades, biographers have focused on Martin Luther King Jr.’s successful leadership in the South while suggesting that his Northern activism failed because it lacked direction and local support. Theoharis, a professor of political science at Brooklyn College, upends this narrative by painstakingly documenting King’s relentless and impassioned battles against Northern discrimination and police brutality, […]

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FAMILY WEEK

After a quartet of 4-year-olds built a block tower together at a Drag Queen Story Hour during Provincetown’s Family Week, their parents—an interracial, interfaith (Asian/white and Jewish) lesbian couple, an interracial, interfaith (Black/white and Jewish) gay couple, and a single lesbian mother (presumed white)—all decided to vacation together henceforth. But this Family Week, they’re bringing […]

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FACING INWARD

Sometimes a celebrity memoir is all about the glitz and the glam, the hobnobbing with the who’s who of the media industry; Carter’s new memoir delivers on this front. She dishes on her run-ins with RuPaul, David Byrne, and a juicy fake kiss with pop star Pink among other celebrity encounters over the course of […]

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RUN FOR THE HILLS

Madeline Hill finds her life exhausting, but mostly plentiful, having built her family’s little organic farm in Tennessee into a destination for foodies and families alike. But the chip on her shoulder comes rushing back when her half brother Reuben shows up in a PT Cruiser with a trunkful of family secrets about her deadbeat […]

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THAT’S ALL I KNOW

What does it mean for the world to end? Spanish author Levi’s novel takes up that question both literally and figuratively. Largely structured as 19-year-old narrator Little Lea’s tale of her life, which she’s recounting to a man in search of his lost dog, this novel reckons with the appeal and dangers of home. “I […]

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GOATS AFLOAT

On their way to deliver a birthday cake to Granny Goat, our spirited heroes carefully steer clear of the direct path, which would take them under the bridge where the fearful troll dwells. The bumpy journey down the river has many twists and turns, and the elaborate multilayered confection nearly meets a watery end. But […]