This debut compilation of 15 tales, often driven by unlikely premises, works hard to upend readers’ assumptions. “My Son, David,” for example, centers on a young boy’s unsettling plea to leave his bedroom window open—and allow access to monsters that only he can see: “They need to come back or they can’t go home.” Many […]
Professors Amelia Tarrant and Caleb Sterling have been soulmates since they met as children at boarding school—he an orphan, she the neglected child of indifferent academics. They grew up together and became historians together. But double standards plague even the zany magical universe they inhabit and a stray moment of platonic touching sets tongues wagging. […]
The narrative focuses on the “brilliant, eccentric, unsettlingly precise” Gödel, a figure whom the author, in an introduction, compares to Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin and describes as not only a mathematician, but also a “philosopher of mystery” who found new puzzles in settled certainties. “In any system that’s powerful enough to talk about arithmetic,” […]
Going with the idea that any household-name celebrity deserves a biography, this one gets the job done. Olivia Newton-John was born in Cambridge, England, in 1948; in 1954, her father accepted a job at the University of Melbourne, taking the family with him. After Newton-John’s mother gave her an acoustic guitar, the teenager started performing […]
A deadly showdown at an Asian market ends with veteran Anchorage, Alaska homicide detective DeHavilland Beans’ first fatal shooting—of a police informant, no less. Luckily, an unexpected call from an old acquaintance offers the promise of redemption for the devastated detective, or at least an opportunity to clear his head and gain some perspective. Felicia […]
In today’s political landscape, individual politicians, rather than institutions and organizations, garner the lion’s share of public attention and trust. Sonnevend, author of Stories Without Borders, argues that this development has transformed politics into “a site of performance.” As a result, personal charm—“personal magnetism that rests on proximity to political ‘tribes’”—has become an increasingly important […]
Rockler presents an overview that’s separated into chapters on anxiety, social media, body image, cyberbullying, and getting and providing help. While many stressors have long been around, social media and isolation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic are new. The author summarizes important findings showing how the pandemic has adversely affected how teens socialize and negotiate […]
Months after the events of The Claiming (2023), Summer faerie princess Lady Dew Drop, nicknamed “Dewy,” remains a captive of the Winter Fae. They’re confining her to their Winter Court until Spense Ferrous, an apprentice mage in the human kingdom Telridge, tracks down a missing Heir—the child of exiled Princess Snow. It’s a seemingly impossible task […]
Ray hands out life advice using the framework of observing and caring for rocks. After all, “it’s hard to ignore a rock.” This observation is true whether they’re the big ones that invite you to climb upon them or the small ones you stuff in your pockets. You can do lots of things with rocks, […]
Writing in oratorical language, Salomon begins with her subject’s childhood in Mississippi, where “hate ran as deep as the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers,” but the love she received from her aunt and grandmother “flowed stronger than hate and river currents.” Young Myrlie showed the strength of character necessary to confront white bullies and later to […]