{ "1": { "id": 1, "edition": "fall", "title": "A Book of Maps for You", "author": "Lourdes Heuer, illustrated by Maxwell Eaton III", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

Kids often have to do map units in school, and at first this book seems very much in that vein. Here’s a map of rooms in a home. Here’s a map of the street. The occasional pirate map. Still, as you read, a story slowly begins to emerge. Who is making these maps? Why? The unexpected gut punch of an ending gives a surprising resonance to what, at the start, just seemed like a straightforward map compendium. It turns out that this is less a book about the beauty of mapmaking (though that certainly plays a role) and more about moving from one home to another. Ideal for both reminding children about what they love and are leaving, and how much they may love the place where they are going. Seeming simplicity with an emotional core. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books" ], "isbn": "082345570X", "cover": "082345570X", "goodreads": 211401555, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780823455706, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51j+NLuWZCL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780823455706", "isbn10": "082345570X", "links": [] }, "2": { "id": 2, "edition": "fall", "title": "A Feast for the Eyes", "author": "Alex Crespo", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

Teenage girlfriends Shay and Lauren get into an argument in the woods near their small Oregon town. They barely make it out alive, and Shay blames the violence on an entity known as the Watcher. Zoe, a high school photographer desperate for inspiration, is sucked into the fray when Shay asks for help in proving the Watcher isn’t just a silly local legend but a real and terrifying being. I love young adult queer horror – it’s my favorite subgenre in YA – and this one is full of eldritch horrors and deadly secrets. It’ll leave you with the unnerving feeling of being watched.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "young adult", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1682635791", "cover": "1682635791", "goodreads": 223363677, "itunes": 9781682635797, "bookshop": 9781682635797, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510rD72t3GL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781682635797", "isbn10": "1682635791", "links": [] }, "3": { "id": 3, "edition": "fall", "title": "A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children", "author": "Haley Cohen Gilliland", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

Journalist Haley Cohen Gilliland offers an extraordinary investigation into how Argentine grandmothers banded together to find their disappeared children and grandchildren. Rendered in meticulous detail via deep archival research and reporting, A Flower Traveled in My Blood traces how, during the Dirty War in Argentina, a military junta systematically disappeared about 30,000 supposed “subversives,” including more than 300 pregnant women whose newborns were then fraudulently adopted. Through the story of one woman’s decades-long participation in the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo movement, searching for the truth about what happened to her daughter and grandchild, Gilliland weaves in a profound meditation on questions of generational bonds, identity and what makes a family.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "rather long" ], "isbn": "1668017148", "cover": "1668017148", "goodreads": 220161038, "itunes": 9781668017142, "bookshop": 9781668017142, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Ac08QBzhL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668017142", "isbn10": "1668017148", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 3, "book": "A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children", "source": "NPR", "text": "Hundreds of children disappeared in Argentina. Their grandmothers united to find them\n", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/08/08/nx-s1-5494307/argentina-dirty-war-grandmothers-flower-traveled-in-my-blood" } ] }, "4": { "id": 4, "edition": "fall", "title": "A Guardian and a Thief", "author": "Megha Majumdar", "reviewers": [ "Nayantara Dutta" ], "text": "

In near-future Kolkata, India, as the city faces blistering heat and famine, a family’s passports are stolen one week before they are meant to start a new life in the United States. The thief is no stranger; he has caught the mother of this family in her own crime. In a time of scarcity, both his family and hers take every measure to protect themselves, at the cost of each other. What would you do to save the people you love? In the novel, we see both sides of the story: the weight of lies, the humanity we lose in times of crisis, and how far we will go to survive. This National Book Award finalist was an exquisite read, short enough to consume in one go but arresting enough to stay in your thoughts.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "rather short", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "0593804872", "cover": "0593804872", "goodreads": 232207672, "itunes": 9780593804872, "bookshop": 9780593804872, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DVikufw6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593804872", "isbn10": "0593804872", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 4, "book": "A Guardian and a Thief", "source": "TPR", "text": "Book Public: 'A Guardian and a Thief' by Megha Majumdar", "url": "https://www.tpr.org/podcast/book-public/2025-10-19/book-public-a-guardian-and-a-thief-by-megha-majumdar" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 4, "book": "A Guardian and a Thief", "source": "WBUR", "text": "In 'A Guardian and a Thief,' families fight to survive in a future India ravaged by climate change", "url": "https://www.nprillinois.org/2025-10-21/in-a-guardian-and-a-thief-families-fight-to-survive-in-a-future-india-ravaged-by-climate-change" } ] }, "5": { "id": 5, "edition": "fall", "title": "A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck", "author": "Sophie Elmhirst", "reviewers": [ "Thea Chaloner" ], "text": "

It’s 1972, and a young British couple revolts against conventional suburban life. They sell their possessions and build a boat, intent on sailing to New Zealand. But a whale upends their plans – their boat sinks and they find themselves in a brutal endurance test. Floating in a life raft in the Pacific Ocean, they kill sharks with their bare hands, fish with safety pins, befriend (and eat) sea turtles and struggle to stay alive. But it’s not just a survival story; it’s a moving tale about marriage, boredom and making the best use of time. It brought me back to the pandemic and what it felt like to lose track of days. This is a true story, beautifully written by Sophie Elmhirst, who pored over logbooks and journals documenting all 118 days of the shipwreck.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "rather short", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593854284", "cover": "0593854284", "goodreads": 220239083, "itunes": 9780593854280, "bookshop": 9780593854280, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fgL2-HUyL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593854280", "isbn10": "0593854284", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 5, "book": "A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck", "source": "NPR", "text": "How one couple survived a shipwreck and kept their marriage afloat", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/07/08/nx-s1-5135663/how-one-couple-survived-a-shipwreck-and-kept-their-marriage-afloat" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 5, "book": "A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "By land and by sea, these new nonfiction books will carry you away", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/07/14/nx-s1-5451378/the-salt-stones-a-marriage-at-sea-review" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 5, "book": "A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck", "source": "KQED", "text": "Would your relationship survive a shipwreck?", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911201/would-your-relationship-survive-a-shipwreck" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 5, "book": "A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck", "source": "MPR", "text": "Sophie Elmhirst on 'A Marriage at Sea'", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2025/08/15/a-marriage-at-sea" } ] }, "6": { "id": 6, "edition": "summer", "title": "A New New Me", "author": "Helen Oyeyemi", "reviewers": [ "Keishel Williams" ], "text": "

Helen Oyeyemi is a brilliant and deeply imaginative writer, so it is no surprise that her latest offering is an intellectually provocative story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. In A New New Me, Oyeyemi introduces us to Kinga, a woman who has a different personality for every day of the week. Can you imagine being present and conscious of your actions for only one day out of the week? Or, even worse, waking up to a man tied up in your apartment by one of your other personalities – one who might be trying to erase the rest of you? A masterful storyteller, Oyeyemi takes us on a wild ride as Kinga unravels this mystery and tries to keep her many lives from exploding. A New New Me is a clever and original story that makes you think about how one’s identity is shaped and whether it can be controlled. A must-read.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "rather short", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0593718771", "cover": "0593718771", "goodreads": 222725803, "itunes": 9780593718773, "bookshop": 9780593718773, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41MNFoXpE3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593718773", "isbn10": "0593718771", "links": [] }, "7": { "id": 7, "edition": "fall", "title": "A Rare Find", "author": "Joanna Lowell", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

I adored it! Stylish and surreptitiously meaty, this historical romance – in the hands of a connoisseur of the craft – weaves together unapologetic swoon with lesser-known queer history. Elfreda Marsden liked her quiet, rustic life as everyone’s rock. Caretaker to her sisters and collaborator/uncredited ghostwriter for her archaeologist father, she even went as far as authoring a major paper in his name. Life was comfortable, if a bit tame, until her former childhood rival, Georgina Redmayne, now “Georgie,” barreled back into her life like a fashionable bull in a china shop. After ruining what could have been the find that put Elfreda on the map, the former frenemies unite to scope out long-hidden treasures and discover feelings they never imagined in the bargain.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "love & romance", "tales from around the world", "fiction", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593549740", "cover": "0593549740", "goodreads": 218695876, "itunes": 9780593549742, "bookshop": 9780593549742, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51TNx3F9IBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593549742", "isbn10": "0593549740", "links": [] }, "8": { "id": 8, "edition": "fall", "title": "A Silent Treatment: A Memoir", "author": "Jeannie Vanasco", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "

Shortly after Jeannie Vanasco invites her mom to live in the basement apartment of her home, her mom starts giving her the silent treatment. Sometimes for just a few days, but once for half a year. Why? A Silent Treatment is both a memoir and a chronicle of Vanasco’s search for answers: She makes lists, texts her mom, consults her very patient husband, Chris, calls friends, and asks the internet. “Hey Google. Why might a parent use the silent treatment?” It’s because Jeannie Vanasco is a good writer that this memoir feels raw and intimate – kind of like listening in on someone else’s therapy session – but it’s because she’s a good person that it also feels like a remarkably kind, patient and empathetic book.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "1963108450", "cover": "1963108450", "goodreads": 224042603, "itunes": 9781963108453, "bookshop": 9781963108453, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Haa45NG6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781963108453", "isbn10": "1963108450", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 8, "book": "A Silent Treatment: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Writer Jeannie Vanasco discusses her new memoir 'A Silent Treatment'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/13/nx-s1-5490101/writer-jeannie-vanasco-discusses-her-new-memoir-a-silent-treatment" } ] }, "9": { "id": 9, "edition": "fall", "title": "A Truce That Is Not Peace", "author": "Miriam Toews", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

I’m always skeptical when critics say a book about heavy stuff is darkly funny, but Miriam Toews’ memoir about the deaths by suicide of her father and sister 12 years apart really is both very serious and laugh-out-loud funny. This tribute to her only sibling – and to her stalwart mother, who shares her morbid sense of humor – is a tender meditation on writing and silence that ponders the question, “If silence says more, why write?” Clearly, like laughter, writing is a powerful coping mechanism for the talented Toews.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "family matters", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1639734740", "cover": "1639734740", "goodreads": 222376493, "itunes": 1822879168, "bookshop": 9781639734740, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41vkjxyfoiL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781639734740", "isbn10": "1639734740", "links": [] }, "10": { "id": 10, "edition": "fall", "title": "A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping", "author": "Sangu Mandanna", "reviewers": [ "Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez" ], "text": "

Sera Swan broke a law of magic in a moment of immense emotion as a young witch and, as a result, lost her magic – and access to the magic community meant to educate and guide her. This lovely, cozy, whimsical fantasy takes us through love and loss and is wrapped up in magic, family, friends, healing and ghosts of memories past. Sera has a shot at a second chance: Will she trust herself and those around her enough to take it? Sangu Mandanna continues to amaze with a lovely standalone set in the same world of her previous A Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. Thinking about re-reading this book makes me want to kick my feet in excitement.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "staff picks", "fiction", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "0593439376", "cover": "0593439376", "goodreads": 182484370, "itunes": 9780593439371, "bookshop": 9780593439371, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eWQIYcj2L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593439371", "isbn10": "0593439376", "links": [] }, "11": { "id": 11, "edition": "fall", "title": "A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, a Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out", "author": "Nicholas Day, illustrated by Yas Imamura", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

If a volcano erupts in Indonesia, can it starve cows in Switzerland? Can it inspire the world’s first work of science fiction? Can it write the hymn “Silent Night”? Even if the answer to these questions is yes, the natural follow-up question is “How?” Take a trip back in time to 1815, when a volcanic eruption managed to upend the entire world. These days, the Tambora volcano doesn’t have the same name recognition as Krakatoa, but Nicholas Day aims to change all of that. A clever summary at the end regarding climate change rounds out a book that’s as ambitious as it is genius. (For ages 10 to 14)

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "kids’ books", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "science!" ], "isbn": "0593643879", "cover": "0593643879", "goodreads": 223854725, "itunes": 9780593643877, "bookshop": 9780593643877, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bthoBN7IL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593643877", "isbn10": "0593643879", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 11, "book": "A World Without Summer", "source": "NHPR", "text": "The eruption of a volcano and the creation of Frankenstein inspire Nicholas Day's 'A World Without Summer'", "url": "https://www.nhpr.org/2025-10-16/the-eruption-of-a-volcano-and-the-creation-of-frankenstein-inspire-nicholas-days-a-world-without-summer" } ] }, "12": { "id": 12, "edition": "fall", "title": "A/S/L", "author": "Jeanne Thornton", "reviewers": [ "Andie Huether" ], "text": "

Scrappy and bootstrappy, endlessly niche and DIY, the early internet was very different from the infinite scroll it has become today. One could disappear into assumed personas and passionate interest groups, like the amateur game-development chat rooms where Abraxa, Sash and Lilith “meet” in cyberspace as teens, each struggling with different flavors of neurodivergence and gender dysphoria. Two decades later, their lives converge again. Through IRC chat logs and unsent emails, A/S/L tells a story of delusions, obsessions and compromises, as three online childhood friends find their way and each other in a world that has changed under their feet.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "it’s all geek to me", "identity & culture", "rather long" ], "isbn": "1641296046", "cover": "1641296046", "goodreads": 201479229, "itunes": 9781641296045, "bookshop": 9781641296045, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41eO2awvh3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781641296045", "isbn10": "1641296046", "links": [] }, "13": { "id": 13, "edition": "summer", "title": "Abundance", "author": "Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson", "reviewers": [ "Katherine Sypher" ], "text": "

As someone who consumes a lot of news, sometimes it is hard to remain optimistic about the future. Perhaps you feel it too: The woes of the world can be paralyzing. It was refreshing, therefore, to be called to action by Abundance. Well-known journalists and podcast hosts Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson argue that, yes, we really can build and invent our way to the better future we want and need. With a shift in our collective mindset – from one of scarcity to abundance – we can build “not just more, but more of what matters.” One question remains: When do we start?

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "nonfiction", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1668023482", "cover": "1668023482", "goodreads": 176444106, "itunes": 9781668023488, "bookshop": 9781668023488, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Ay8x7io0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668023488", "isbn10": "1668023482", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 13, "book": "Abundance", "source": "WBUR", "text": " 'Abundance' book argues more is more in securing America's future", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/03/20/abundance-book" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 13, "book": "Abundance", "source": "MPR", "text": "Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein’s new book looks at ‘failed liberal policies‘", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2025/04/18/shifting-americas-mindset-toward-abundance" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 13, "book": "Abundance", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Indicator from Planet Money: How to build abundantly", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/27/1253209947/how-to-build-abundantly" } ] }, "14": { "id": 14, "edition": "fall", "title": "Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success", "author": "Jeff Hiller", "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "text": "

The most pleasant surprise of this year’s Emmys ceremony was the best supporting actor in a comedy award going to Jeff Hiller, for his work in the brilliant Somebody Somewhere. Hiller had been working in Hollywood for years, mostly in bit parts, and Actress of a Certain Age is his funny, dishy, self-deprecating, occasionally filthy chronicle of his years in the wilderness. Hiller is candid and clear-eyed about himself and his work and he makes for a bracingly self-aware guide through his life. He reads the audiobook, too – and he lands every joke with a charming giggle.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "no biz like show biz", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "166803185X", "cover": "166803185X", "goodreads": 220902134, "itunes": 9781668031858, "bookshop": 9781668031858, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41J2IyGgbTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668031858", "isbn10": "166803185X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 14, "book": "Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success", "source": "NPR", "text": "Jeff Hiller’s Emmy-winning role gave him a profound example of kindness and decency\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/09/nx-s1-5567128/jeff-hillers-emmy-winning-role-gave-him-a-profound-example-of-kindness-and-decency" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 14, "book": "Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "A big break after age 40 is possible. Just ask Jeff Hiller of 'Somebody Somewhere'\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/08/12/nx-s1-5496253/somebody-somewhere-jeff-hiller" } ] }, "15": { "id": 15, "edition": "fall", "title": "After Life", "author": "Gayle Forman", "reviewers": [ "Cynthia Leitich Smith" ], "text": "

Though, perhaps, fantastical or ghostly, After Life is a grounded, conversational story that’s also a powerful, healing meditation on the rippling intersection of life and death. A teenage girl named Amber arrives home one day on the same bicycle she was riding when she was hit by a car and killed seven years earlier. As Amber slowly unfolds her life and legacy, her family members untangle their grief and mend cracked relationships. This deceptively concise novel raises questions and nurtures deep reflection. It’s a quietly gripping story with the resonance of a sermon, ideal for thoughtful teens and grown-up readers of all ages.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "young adult", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063346141", "cover": "0063346141", "goodreads": 211494315, "itunes": 9780063346147, "bookshop": 9780063346147, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ZHrhv4uDL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063346147", "isbn10": "0063346141", "links": [] }, "16": { "id": 16, "edition": "fall", "title": "Alabama Village: Faith, Hope, and Survival in a Southern Town", "author": "J. Malcolm Garcia", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "

J. Malcolm Garcia’s intimate portraits of young people struggling to survive in a rough neighborhood outside Mobile, Ala., are heartbreaking and, yet, somehow hopeful at the same time. We meet them through their connection to a church established by a Christian couple who see the good at the core of people whom society has largely written off. The community is plagued by gun violence, blight, generational poverty and addiction. Too many people don’t live to be 30. The storytelling is powerful: “Death has as much of a presence in the Village as the people living here, attaches to them like a second shadow.”

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1644214970", "cover": "1644214970", "goodreads": 223641729, "itunes": 9781644214978, "bookshop": 9781644214978, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Ab+Ll0VFL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781644214978", "isbn10": "1644214970", "links": [] }, "17": { "id": 17, "edition": "fall", "title": "All of Us Murderers", "author": "KJ Charles", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

Like an Edwardian Succession, this gothic romp is about who gets what in the event of a patriarch’s passing. Novelist Walter Wyckham lived until nearly 80 but, rumor has it, made a pact with the devil, ensuring that he would enjoy success and long life but that none of his successors would be as lucky. Many years later, the author’s son and heir, Wynn, gathers his quarrelsome family to sort out what will happen to the extensive estate in the event that the curse leads to his untimely death. Of course there’s an outrageous stipulation. And the lengthy house party is a nest of fortune-hunting vipers. The exception is Zeb, who’s more concerned that his ex is now Wynn’s personal secretary. Shady shenanigans ensue. But this is KJ Charles, so it’s also stylish and sexy.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "love & romance", "mysteries & thrillers", "let’s talk about sex", "family matters", "fiction", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "1464227527", "cover": "1464227527", "goodreads": 222476094, "itunes": 9781464227523, "bookshop": 9781464227523, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81takUZvaOL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781464227523", "isbn10": "1464227527", "links": [] }, "18": { "id": 18, "edition": "summer", "title": "All the Other Mothers Hate Me", "author": "Sarah Harman", "reviewers": [ "Elissa Nadworny" ], "text": "

This book got me out of a reading rut! It’s about a mom who is struggling to keep her life together – while simultaneously trying to solve the mystery of her son’s missing classmate. It’s got fun twists and turns and characters who surprise you. Very plot driven and definitely hard to put down.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593851463", "cover": "0593851463", "goodreads": 214537763, "itunes": 9780593851463, "bookshop": 9780593851463, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51jK84JQQpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593851463", "isbn10": "0593851463", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 18, "book": "All the Other Mothers Hate Me", "source": "NPR", "text": "In Sarah Harman's new novel, a hot mess of a mom sets out to find her son's bully", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/09/nx-s1-5071075/in-sarah-harmans-new-novel-a-hot-mess-of-a-mom-sets-out-to-find-her-sons-bully" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 18, "book": "All the Other Mothers Hate Me", "source": "KQED", "text": "‘All the Other Mothers Hate Me’ is a breezy read from Sarah Harman", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/arts/13972870/book-review-all-the-other-mothers-hate-me-sarah-harman" } ] }, "19": { "id": 19, "edition": "fall", "title": "American Grammar: Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation", "author": "Jarvis R. Givens", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

In this deeply researched book, Harvard University professor of education and African American studies Jarvis R. Givens locates 1819 as a “crossroads” in the history of education in the United States. That year, Congress passed the Civilization Fund Act, providing funding for assimilative boarding schools for Native American children, and the governor of Virginia signed an anti-literacy law that made it a crime to teach enslaved people to read and write in schools. Amid the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle the Department of Education, Givens’ clear-eyed assessment of American education offers an opportunity to reflect on the long-standing relationships among race, power and schooling in the U.S.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "rather long" ], "isbn": "006325915X", "cover": "006325915X", "goodreads": 223614831, "itunes": 9780063259157, "bookshop": 9780063259157, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Os+15x03L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063259157", "isbn10": "006325915X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 19, "book": "American Grammar: Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation", "source": "WBUR", "text": "5 books with New England ties to read this fall", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/09/23/2025-fall-book-releases-guide-boston-new-england" } ] }, "20": { "id": 20, "edition": "fall", "title": "American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback", "author": "Seth Wickersham", "reviewers": [ "Bill Chappell" ], "text": "

Do you think of quarterbacks like Pokémon? I do now, after reading this sweeping narrative that describes how unimposing creatures (teenage athletes) manage to evolve into world-beating stars blessed with superpowers. As Seth Wickersham finds, no two origins are the same. In short vignettes that are easy on a busy reader, he explores the self-doubt, pain and fortitude that are required of great athletes – and maybe of all of us. Along the way, he charts how a country evolved along with its favorite sport. Extra point: Wickersham explains his research clearly, taking us along on an intriguing journey.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "for sports lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "the states we’re in", "rather long", "biography & memoir" ], "isbn": "1368099181", "cover": "1368099181", "goodreads": 222420078, "itunes": 9781368099189, "bookshop": 9781368099189, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51KvMVLvgNL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781368099189", "isbn10": "1368099181", "links": [] }, "21": { "id": 21, "edition": "summer", "title": "Among Friends", "author": "Hal Ebbott", "reviewers": [ "Andrew Limbong" ], "text": "

It’s your oldest friends who can really grind your gears. Hal Ebbott’s debut novel starts off as an examination of this relationship – two families spend a weekend in a house together to celebrate a birthday and, of course, old resentments and jealousies creep in and out of friendly tennis games and predinner drinks. But then something happens and everything shifts and all those resentments don’t seem so old anymore and the jealousy blooms into something else altogether.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593854195", "cover": "0593854195", "goodreads": 219520678, "itunes": 9780593854198, "bookshop": 9780593854198, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41YtnygPpuL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593854198", "isbn10": "0593854195", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 21, "book": "Among Friends", "source": "NPR", "text": "With novel 'Among Friends,' Hal Ebbott says he wanted to take friendship seriously", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/07/10/1255443736/nprs-book-of-the-day-hal-ebbott-among-friends" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 21, "book": "Among Friends", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "Among Friends' explores issues of friendship, class and betrayal\r", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/06/24/among-friends-book" } ] }, "22": { "id": 22, "edition": "book ahead", "title": "An Oral History of Atlantis: Stories", "author": "Ed Park", "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "text": "

Although this is his first short-story collection, Ed Park told Lit Hub that the stories were actually written over a span of about 25 years. No surprise, then, that readers will recognize the same playful wit and eclectic, occasionally challenging style that animate his two previous novels, including the 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Same Bed Different Dreams. But unlike that book, which pulls from Korea’s past for a grandly wrought alternative history, the stories in Atlantis live squarely in our own absurd present, a workaday wonderland where lives can be told in sleep-medication side effects and Internet login passwords.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction", "seriously great writing", "rather short", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0812998995", "cover": "0812998995", "goodreads": 220998994, "itunes": 9780812998993, "bookshop": 9780812998993, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4145RgmI8KL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780812998993", "isbn10": "0812998995", "links": [] }, "23": { "id": 23, "edition": "summer", "title": "Animal Instinct", "author": "Amy Shearn", "reviewers": [ "Sarah Handel" ], "text": "

In the middle of reading Animal Instinct, I had to stop to text this to a friend: “Divorce is so HOT right now!” In this story, Rachel is stuck inside her Brooklyn apartment at the start of the COVID-19 shutdowns. She craves everything from flirting to full-on sex after her divorce, and as she cruises through the dating apps, she starts to think: What if I could create the perfect AI partner, who would always say just the right thing? She’s got the tech savvy to bring her idea to “life,” but it might take more than chat to satisfy her animal instincts.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "let’s talk about sex", "fiction", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "059371833X", "cover": "059371833X", "goodreads": 214986208, "itunes": 9780593718339, "bookshop": 9780593718339, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41wKUIuOKYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593718339", "isbn10": "059371833X", "links": [] }, "24": { "id": 24, "edition": "book ahead", "title": "Archipelago of the Sun", "author": "Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani", "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "text": "

Raised in Japan, now based in Berlin, Yoko Tawada reaches readers in English only via translation. Still, there’s no mistaking the shimmering strangeness of her voice. That’s partly a testament to translator Margaret Mitsutani, whose previous work with Tawada has earned one National Book Award and a spot on the shortlist for Scattered All Over the Earth. The latter book opened a trilogy that concludes with Archipelago. Consider this a recommendation for the whole series, frankly. Its three slim books craft a winningly genial kind of dystopia, bleak and earnest in equal measure, in which an intrepid band of misfits carry out their grail quest with all the logic of Calvinball, in which the only rule that really matters is the one you’re about to make up next.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "tales from around the world", "rather short", "fiction", "seriously great writing", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0811239799", "cover": "0811239799", "goodreads": 227989304, "itunes": 9780811239790, "bookshop": 9780811239790, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41hM0huiMiL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780811239790", "isbn10": "0811239799", "links": [] }, "25": { "id": 25, "edition": "book ahead", "title": "Atavists: Stories", "author": "Lydia Millet", "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "text": "

“Is there a writer more profound and less pretentious than Lydia Millet?” That question lead NPR’s review of the author’s previous short story collection and bears asking again now. After a spell that saw her publish a couple of novels and a work of nonfiction, the former Pulitzer and National Book Award finalist has returned to short fiction with her latest, a collection of 14 interconnected stories set in a Los Angeles that is teetering on the cusp of climate catastrophe. Careful though: As always with Millet, the writing here is spare, straightforward and often funny – but beware of its dark and perilous depths.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "rather short", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1324074418", "cover": "1324074418", "goodreads": 213395487, "itunes": 9781324074410, "bookshop": 9781324074410, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41VNgkIrHtL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781324074410", "isbn10": "1324074418", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 25, "book": "Atavists: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "This new story collection is marvelous — if a bit meandering\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/04/23/nx-s1-5333682/atavists-lydia-millet-book-review" } ] }, "26": { "id": 26, "edition": "fall", "title": "Atmosphere: A Love Story", "author": "Taylor Jenkins Reid", "reviewers": [ "Jenna Molster" ], "text": "

Fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid will agree that Atmosphere is one of her best books yet. This thrilling fictional portrayal of NASA’s space shuttle program in the 1980s doesn’t miss. It opens with Joan in Mission Control managing a catastrophe on the shuttle. Then readers flash back almost five years to learn how each of the astronauts earned their place on the mission. The novel is immediately complex, compelling and high stakes. I recommend listening on audiobook so readers don’t destroy a paper copy with tears. Themes include sexism in the workplace, LGBTQ relationships and found family.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "science!", "identity & culture", "fiction", "historical fiction" ], "isbn": "0593158717", "cover": "0593158717", "goodreads": 236746136, "itunes": 9780593158715, "bookshop": 9780593158715, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51e2hUYT3wL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593158715", "isbn10": "0593158717", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 26, "book": "Atmosphere: A Love Story", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Atmosphere', Taylor Jenkins Reid imagines the first women astronauts\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/06/07/nx-s1-5191492/in-atmosphere-taylor-jenkins-reid-imagines-the-first-women-astronauts" } ] }, "27": { "id": 27, "edition": "summer", "title": "Audition", "author": "Katie Kitamura", "reviewers": [ "Andrew Limbong" ], "text": "

I guess I could explain the plot to you: An actress meets up with a man who is convinced she’s his mother. It turns out she’s not. I think? Maybe she is? Or, maybe she’s not but actually kind of is? What is a mother? The most impressive thing about this Booker Prize finalist is how Katie Kitamura plays with the narrative and toys with the reader without being overly clever about it all. She’s stingy with details and answers, but generous with intrigue and depth.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "no biz like show biz", "seriously great writing", "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "rather short", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "059385232X", "cover": "059385232X", "goodreads": 216247518, "itunes": 9780593852323, "bookshop": 9780593852323, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41kap-nyLmL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593852323", "isbn10": "059385232X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 27, "book": "Audition", "source": "NPR", "text": "Katie Kitamura says a solution is not the point in her new novel, 'Audition'\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/04/16/nx-s1-5243214/katie-kitamura-says-a-solution-is-not-the-point-in-her-new-novel-audition" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 27, "book": "Audition", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Katie Kitamura's 'Audition' will leave you puzzling long after the final page\r", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review/2025-04-14/katie-kitamuras-audition-will-leave-you-puzzling-long-after-the-final-page" } ] }, "28": { "id": 28, "edition": "fall", "title": "Audition for the Fox", "author": "Martin Cahill", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "

I’m a sucker for trickster tales, especially involving foxes, and this is a really good one. Nesi’s audition for acolyte of T’sidaan, the Fox of Tricks, is harder than she imagined: She’s thrown into the past to ensure that a specific uprising occurs. If she fails, revolution against the brutal Wolfhounds never happens; the horror of occupation never ends; history changes. Martin Cahill’s novella shows that cleverness and connection are more important than brute force or special gear. Success is finding humor or beauty even with a boot on your neck. You’ll be gladder for reading this engaging, timely fantasy, and for meeting Nesi and T’sidaan. I was. Bonus fables breaking up the chapters are a treat.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "rather short", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1616964448", "cover": "1616964448", "goodreads": 228022844, "itunes": 9781616964443, "bookshop": 9781616964443, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41BLhU5WgwL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781616964443", "isbn10": "1616964448", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 28, "book": "Audition for the Fox", "source": "MPR", "text": "Ask a Bookseller: ‘Audition for the Fox’ by Martin Cahill", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2025/10/25/ask-a-bookseller-auditions-for-the-fox-by-martin-cahill" } ] }, "29": { "id": 29, "edition": "fall", "title": "August Lane", "author": "Regina Black", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

Regina Black is magic. I was mad at Luke Randall and his creator before I hit Page 1 – I knew he had made his career stealing credit from the heroine the book is named after. And I was supposed to root for him, for them? Well, I fell deeply in love with that “sober drunk,” his tender aching heart and the “deep, smoky tone he’d been told gave his voice more swagger” right alongside August. Plus, like Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter come to life, this masterful novel wraps bittersweet second-chance love and family loss around nuanced lessons about the overlooked and misappropriated legacy of Black women in country music. The result is the most snot-inducing, truly and swooningly romantic novel I’ve read in a long, long while.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "for music lovers", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "153876752X", "cover": "153876752X", "goodreads": 221179148, "itunes": 9781538767528, "bookshop": 9781538767528, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51UmnT1GkaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781538767528", "isbn10": "153876752X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 29, "book": "August Lane", "source": "WYPR", "text": "The Weekly Reader: New romance", "url": "https://www.wypr.org/show/the-weekly-reader-on-wypr/2025-09-16/new-romance-august-lane-regina-black-sweet-heat-by-bobu-babalola-and-jamaica-road-by-lisa-smith" } ] }, "30": { "id": 30, "edition": "fall", "title": "Automatic Noodle", "author": "Annalee Newitz", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "

This post-apocalyptic found-family novella about robot service workers who come up with a plan to make the best noodle shop in San Francisco is so charming. I needed this book; it made me happy and hungry. It believes in connection; in hope after immense upheaval. The stakes are survival. But there is worker solidarity, creative solutions and good people finding home. Come for the cool robots and rich world-building, but stay for the cozy vibes and likable characters succeeding in spite of prejudice, privilege and a callous algorithm. My only complaint is I’m ready for a second helping now, please.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "it’s all geek to me", "seriously great writing", "cookbooks & food", "rather short", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250357462", "cover": "1250357462", "goodreads": 217388015, "itunes": 9781250357465, "bookshop": 9781250357465, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pL9fFFNcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250357465", "isbn10": "1250357462", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 30, "book": "Automatic Noodle", "source": "KQED", "text": "Exploited robots and a commitment to community populate 2060’s San Francisco in Annalee Newitz’s ‘Automatic Noodle’", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101910969/exploited-robots-and-a-commitment-to-community-populate-2060s-san-francisco-in-annalee-newitzs-automatic-noodle" } ] }, "31": { "id": 31, "edition": "fall", "title": "Baldwin: A Love Story", "author": "Nicholas Boggs", "reviewers": [ "Adriana Gallardo" ], "text": "

The book is massive at 720 pages – but how else can anyone properly summarize James Baldwin’s love life and the effects it had on his creative process? Baldwin: A Love Story is a biography organized by the four men with whom Baldwin had his most significant relationships, until his death in 1987. Each was a turbulent affair, and several took the writer across the globe. Portions of the deeply researched book are told in Baldwin’s own words through excerpts of correspondence he kept with friends, family and, of course, his lovers.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "rather long", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "0374178712", "cover": "0374178712", "goodreads": 217387674, "itunes": 9780374178710, "bookshop": 9780374178710, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41hRtG346eL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780374178710", "isbn10": "0374178712", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 31, "book": "Baldwin: A Love Story", "source": "NPR", "text": "A new James Baldwin biography explores how his lovers influenced his work\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/08/nx-s1-5154994/james-baldwin-love-story-nicholas-boggs" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 31, "book": "Baldwin: A Love Story", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Roundtable: Nicholas Boggs on 'Baldwin: A Love Story'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2025-08-29/nicholas-boggs-new-book-is-baldwin-a-love-story" } ] }, "32": { "id": 32, "edition": "summer", "title": "Beasts of Carnaval", "author": "Rosália Rodrigo", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

The el Carnaval de Bestias is a fevered bacchanal, a luxurious, exotic escape for the elite, and a descent into surreal torment for Sofía. Born enslaved and now free, Sofía arrives on Isla Bestia searching for her missing brother. Instead, what she finds is a waking nightmare. The island seethes with pleasure and energy, but for her, the past and present blend together in a disorienting collision. Her Taike’ri ancestors call to her, and she dare not turn away. This may be Rosália Rodrigo’s debut, but she deftly weaves together Caribbean history, Taíno culture, and the Black diaspora into a profound experience.

", "tags": [ "rather long", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "family matters", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0778387232", "cover": "0778387232", "goodreads": 218171624, "itunes": 9780778387237, "bookshop": 9780778387237, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517jQRIbIpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780778387237", "isbn10": "0778387232", "links": [] }, "33": { "id": 33, "edition": "summer", "title": "Beautiful Ugly", "author": "Alice Feeney", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

Author Grady Green thinks he has the perfect marriage with an adoring wife – Abby – who will celebrate a long-awaited success with him. But when he calls her with the good news, the line goes dead and she doesn’t make it home to him. A year after Abby goes missing, he’s downtrodden and wrestling writer’s block when his agent convinces him that time on a remote Scottish island is what he needs to finish his next novel. Once there, he thinks he sees Abby among the inhabitants and it becomes clear that both they, and he, aren’t as they appear. Twisty reveals galore.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "125033778X", "cover": "125033778X", "goodreads": 211004123, "itunes": 9781250337788, "bookshop": 9781250337788, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41pFZig9XML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250337788", "isbn10": "125033778X", "links": [] }, "34": { "id": 34, "edition": "fall", "title": "Becoming Ghost: Poetry", "author": "Cathy Linh Che", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

In 1976, the author’s parents, then Vietnam War survivors living in a refugee camp in the Philippines, were able to earn relatively good wages by becoming extras in Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. They mostly played civilian casualties or Vietcong snipers who were background scenery or “ghosts” in the director’s operatic but ultimately hollow Vietnam parable. Cathy Linh Che restructures lines in Coppola’s filmscript to create dramatic monologues that lend texture and corporeality to her parents’ cinema-worthy history. Her approach is both poignant and humble. While wishing to rectify the past by serving as a vessel for her parents’ voices, Che is fully aware that such an attempt at capturing their elusive narratives is still a scripted effort. The collection was a finalist for the National Book Award.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "short stories, essays & poetry", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1668088924", "cover": "1668088924", "goodreads": 220161487, "itunes": 9781668088920, "bookshop": 9781668088920, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41I16D98VDL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668088920", "isbn10": "1668088924", "links": [] }, "35": { "id": 35, "edition": "summer", "title": "Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People", "author": "Imani Perry", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

As we’ve become accustomed to scrolling through pictures mindlessly, it’s easy to forget that there can be deep meaning in what we see, stories in a single color. Imani Perry dives deep to explore what the color blue has represented for generations of Black people across continents. It’s a color that represents hope. A color that became a sound. It’s the history in the hue of indigo dye, so valued that indigo cloth was a major currency of the slave trade. It’s a color that, like Black culture itself, contains multitudes and Perry’s meditation renders it in profound clarity.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "nonfiction", "rather short", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "0062977393", "cover": "0062977393", "goodreads": 199534697, "itunes": 9780062977397, "bookshop": 9780062977397, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51XTfBAdI-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780062977397", "isbn10": "0062977393", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 35, "book": "Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "A new book explains what the color blue can teach us about Black history\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/01/28/nx-s1-5275492/black-in-blues-imani-perry" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 35, "book": "Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Get Lit: Imani Perry on 'Black in Blues'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/get-lit-imani-perry-on-black-in-blues/" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 35, "book": "Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People", "source": "WBUR", "text": " 'Black in Blues' explores the rich history of the color blue in Black culture", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/02/26/black-in-blues-essays" } ] }, "36": { "id": 36, "edition": "fall", "title": "Black Woods, Blue Sky", "author": "Eowyn Ivey, illustrated by Ruth Hulbert", "reviewers": [ "Wailin Wong" ], "text": "

This novel takes the canonical dangers that confront children in fairy tales – menacing creatures, unforgiving landscapes, unreliable adults – and refashions them into a story that feels new and surprising. Birdie is a single mother raising her young daughter, Emaleen, in rural Alaska. When Birdie falls in love with a recluse named Arthur, it’s a chance for a fresh start and a freer life in the wild. But their idyll is threatened by Arthur’s true nature. In this story, the woods are dark and scary. But they’re also a place that cultivates resilience, love and forgiveness.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "the dark side", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593231023", "cover": "0593231023", "goodreads": 213243955, "itunes": 9780593231029, "bookshop": 9780593231029, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41B4nlI4vDL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593231029", "isbn10": "0593231023", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 36, "book": "Black Woods, Blue Sky", "source": "KTOO", "text": "Alaska author Eowyn Ivey explores childhood fears and love in new novel ‘Black Woods, Blue Sky’", "url": "https://www.ktoo.org/2025/02/13/alaska-author-eowyn-ivey-explores-childhood-fears-and-love-in-new-novel-black-woods-blue-sky/" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 36, "book": "Black Woods, Blue Sky", "source": "MPR", "text": "Ask a Bookseller: ‘Black Woods, Blue Sky’ by Eowyn Ivey \r", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2025/02/08/ask-a-bookseller-black-woods-blue-sky-by-eowyn-ivey" } ] }, "37": { "id": 37, "edition": "fall", "title": "Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama", "author": "Alexis Okeowo", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "

Think of Alabama. OK – now think again. That’s what New Yorker writer Alexis Okeowo asks readers to do when they read her book Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama. To the often black-and-white framing of the state’s history Okeowo adds the dimension of the Nigerian immigrant experience. So, what does that do to the story of Alabama? Of the U.S.? She explores what it means to love a state some Americans are determined to loathe.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "1250206227", "cover": "1250206227", "goodreads": 217388145, "itunes": 9781250206220, "bookshop": 9781250206220, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81jLKJyvkNL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250206220", "isbn10": "1250206227", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 37, "book": "Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Blessings and Disasters,' Alexis Okeowo honors their home state of Alabama\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/08/10/nx-s1-5398018/in-blessings-and-disasters-alexis-okeowo-honors-their-home-state-of-alabama" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 37, "book": "Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama", "source": "WBUR", "text": "How 'Blessings and Disasters' shape Alabama\r", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2025/08/18/blessings-and-disasters-alabama" } ] }, "38": { "id": 38, "edition": "fall", "title": "Blood in the Water", "author": "Tiffany D. Jackson", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

Kaylani has been sleuthing ever since her father was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. Now, against her will, she finds herself with family friends among Martha’s Vineyard’s Black elite – a world far removed from the life she knew in Brooklyn. And that’s before the blood-soaked body appears. This rip-roaring whodunit is filled with references to Jaws and Martha’s Vineyard’s Black history. And Kaylani’s detective instincts will delight budding mystery fans. (For ages 9 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "mysteries & thrillers", "identity & culture", "family matters", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1338849913", "cover": "1338849913", "goodreads": 216968938, "itunes": 9781338849912, "bookshop": 9781338849912, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81jnSynpH9L._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781338849912", "isbn10": "1338849913", "links": [] }, "40": { "id": 40, "edition": "fall", "title": "Brave", "author": "Weshoyot Alvitre", "reviewers": [ "Cynthia Leitich Smith" ], "text": "

Weshoyot Alvitre’s Brave reminds me of my grandfathers, who represented our tribal nations in the United States military. The writing and images in the book reclaim the word “brave” and center it, shining a light on the Native men who have grown their hair long despite such cultural traditions being at times outlawed, misrepresented and ridiculed. Alvitre’s pictures evoke the power of Indigenous peoples, through the generations. Share this book with young readers from Native families, from military families, and from every family that’s called upon to be courageous in a challenging world. (For ages 5 to 9)

", "tags": [ "family matters", "identity & culture", "kids’ books" ], "isbn": "0593531604", "cover": "0593531604", "goodreads": 216522724, "itunes": 9780593531600, "bookshop": 9780593531600, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515JG1JiPXL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593531600", "isbn10": "0593531604", "links": [] }, "41": { "id": 41, "edition": "fall", "title": "Bread of Angels: A Memoir", "author": "Patti Smith", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "

Bread of Angels is a sequel and a prequel to Just Kids, Patti Smith’s 2010 memoir that’s become a classic New York story. Bread of Angels feels more intimate. Here, Smith discusses her own sexuality and describes her first glimpse of her late husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith, at a party: “He stood by a white radiator in a blue overcoat. I noticed the threads where a button was missing. … He placed the button in my hand. … I felt a gravitational force; … I knew in that moment he was the one I would marry.”

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "for music lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "1101875127", "cover": "1101875127", "goodreads": 230422843, "itunes": 9781101875124, "bookshop": 9781101875124, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/310mQAwKSvL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781101875124", "isbn10": "1101875127", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 41, "book": "Bread of Angels: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Intimate and intriguing, Patti Smith's memoir offers new revelations", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/11/07/nx-s1-5600891/patti-smith-bread-of-angels-memoir-review" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 41, "book": "Bread of Angels: A Memoir", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "Patti Smith's 'Bread of Angels' serves as both a sequel and a prequel to 'Just Kids'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/11/06/nx-s1-5600673/patti-smiths-bread-of-angels-serves-as-both-a-sequel-and-a-prequel-to-just-kids" } ] }, "42": { "id": 42, "edition": "fall", "title": "Breadcrumbs: Coming of Age in Post-Soviet Poland", "author": "Kasia Babis", "reviewers": [ "Tahneer Oksman" ], "text": "

There aren’t many English-language comics set in Poland, so I was eager to dive into this graphic memoir about a young woman coming of age there after the fall of the USSR. Kasia Babis lays out the constraints of young people living through political and economic instability, particularly as related to the aftermath of communism and the stronghold of the Catholic Church. She and her girlfriends grapple with bodily autonomy and strained gender dynamics. Built of snapshots drawn in gray scale, with deft flashes of red, this memoir powerfully recounts Babis’ unique journey of finding her place through storytelling and activism.

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "comics & graphic novels", "rather short", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "1250877881", "cover": "1250877881", "goodreads": 215149263, "itunes": 9781250877888, "bookshop": 9781250877888, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41dqFwz4kQL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250877888", "isbn10": "1250877881", "links": [] }, "43": { "id": 43, "edition": "fall", "title": "Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future", "author": "Dan Wang", "reviewers": [ "Vincent Ni" ], "text": "

In a crowded field of China-themed books, Dan Wang’s book has already captured significant media and policy attention. While its core thesis isn’t entirely new, the timing makes it urgent. It forces Americans to confront a lingering question: How did the U.S. lose its ability to build, and can it reclaim that capacity today? It’s a book with China in the title, but America at its heart.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "science!", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "1324106034", "cover": "1324106034", "goodreads": 223736214, "itunes": 9781324106036, "bookshop": 9781324106036, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Afev6iMrL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781324106036", "isbn10": "1324106034", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 43, "book": "Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future", "source": "NPR", "text": "Lawyers vs. engineers: Dan Wang sees U.S.-China dynamics in a new paradigm\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/20/g-s1-89568/china-us-lawyers-vs-engineers-dan-wang-book" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 43, "book": "Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Lessons for the U.S. in 'China’s quest to engineer the future'", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2025/10/01/china-society-engineer-future" } ] }, "44": { "id": 44, "edition": "fall", "title": "Bring the House Down", "author": "Charlotte Runcie", "reviewers": [ "Leland Cheuk" ], "text": "

At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a male theater critic savages a one-woman show – and then has a one-night stand with the star. The struggling actress learns of the review only when she wakes up at his apartment the next morning. When word gets out, readers are justly outraged. This #MeToo-adjacent novel could have gone the easy route of hating on its villain for 300 pages, but Charlotte Runcie chooses a more complicated narrative. The protagonist is the critic’s female colleague, who develops a surprising fascination with the villain while staying with him in Edinburgh to cover the festival. When a reworked version of the one-woman show – now focused on lambasting the critic – goes viral, the narrator has to console and even understand her colleague.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "tales from around the world", "no biz like show biz", "identity & culture", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "038555107X", "cover": "038555107X", "goodreads": 220239067, "itunes": 9780385551076, "bookshop": 9780385551076, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ppOiO1PFL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780385551076", "isbn10": "038555107X", "links": [] }, "45": { "id": 45, "edition": "fall", "title": "Broken", "author": "X. Fang", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

What’s worse, losing your grandmother’s love or letting an innocent feline take the fall for your crime? If that sounds hyperbolic, it’s also an emotionally accurate encapsulation of how a child’s fear and guilt can sometimes feel overwhelming. Mei Mei has accidentally done the unthinkable: She’s broken her ama’s favorite cup. However, when it’s time to take the blame, she points the finger at her grandmother’s cat instead. Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart has nothing on the deep and penetrating stare of that cat, however, and Mei Mei finds herself unable to keep from confessing her sins in a flood of tears and shame. Forgiveness and cake round out this emotionally exhausting (but still very funny) slice of everyday life. (For ages 3 to 7)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1774882000", "cover": "1774882000", "goodreads": 228691236, "itunes": 9781774882009, "bookshop": 9781774882009, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51FrCsVmCxL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781774882009", "isbn10": "1774882000", "links": [] }, "46": { "id": 46, "edition": "fall", "title": "Buckeye", "author": "Patrick Ryan", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "

Where else would a novel called Buckeye be set but in Ohio? Its title, however, is the only expected thing about this moving historical narrative, which follows the lives of two intertwined couples in the fictional small town of Bonhomie from pre-World War II to the close of the 20th century. Patrick Ryan, whose previous books include the standout 2016 short story collection The Dream Life of Astronauts, aims to write an American epic and he has the chops to do so, even channeling Herman Wouk to take readers into the thick of naval battles in the Pacific.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "fiction", "staff picks", "family matters", "book club ideas", "rather long", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593595033", "cover": "0593595033", "goodreads": 221251828, "itunes": 9780593595039, "bookshop": 9780593595039, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Tdmhczo0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593595039", "isbn10": "0593595033", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 46, "book": "Buckeye", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "4 lives are upended by an impulsive kiss in the epic novel 'Buckeye'\r\n", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/10/nx-s1-5535609/buckeye-patrick-ryan-review" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 46, "book": "Buckeye", "source": "NPR", "text": "The novel 'Buckeye' explores forgiveness, war and a forbidden kiss\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/01/nx-s1-5397001/the-novel-buckeye-explores-forgiveness-war-and-a-forbidden-kiss" } ] }, "47": { "id": 47, "edition": "fall", "title": "Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil", "author": "V.E. Schwab", "reviewers": [ "Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez" ], "text": "

Some authors quickly become “instant reads” – and this one is at the top of my list. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, the exquisite turn of phrase that V.E. Schwab uses, packs juicy bites of hunger, rage and desperation. Feminist horror that spans centuries, it weaves together the stories of María (1532 Spain), Charlotte (1827 London) and Alice (2019 Boston). With strong metaphors for queerness, power and desire draped in a style of light gothic horror, it’s perfect for those interested in bite-size introductions to a darker genre. Five stars.

", "tags": [ "let’s talk about sex", "the dark side", "staff picks", "rather long", "fiction", "historical fiction" ], "isbn": "1250320526", "cover": "1250320526", "goodreads": 213263148, "itunes": 9781250320520, "bookshop": 9781250320520, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51CwB3HXpmL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250320520", "isbn10": "1250320526", "links": [] }, "48": { "id": 48, "edition": "fall", "title": "By Heart: Recipes to Hold Near and Dear", "author": "Hailee Catalano", "reviewers": [ "Lucas Chen" ], "text": "

I have never eaten as many delicious things in such a short period as my first weeks with By Heart. Hailee Catalano takes us inside her family’s Sunday gravies, days at culinary school (where she met her partner), restaurant kitchens – and the tastes, flavors and inspiration she found along the way. It’s a cookbook that reads as personally as a diary. The dishes inside are thoroughly comforting, while also driven by seasonal ingredients and a small amount of chef-y ambition. She spans every corner of the menu, so let Catalano do the planning, head to your local farmers market, and invite some friends over for a dinner party!

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0593842650", "cover": "0593842650", "goodreads": 216247484, "itunes": 9780593842652, "bookshop": 9780593842652, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51jXWbGHBSL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593842652", "isbn10": "0593842650", "links": [] }, "49": { "id": 49, "edition": "fall", "title": "Can't Get Enough", "author": "Kennedy Ryan", "reviewers": [ "Nia Dumas" ], "text": "

I first met Hendrix Barry in Before I Let Go, the first book in Kennedy Ryan’s Skyland series. From the beginning, she was courageous and outspoken and led with her humor and her heart – especially when it came to her friends Soledad and Yasmen. Hendrix’s story captures what it’s like being a curvier Black woman learning and relearning that she can be all things: a woman, loving, sexual, spiritual, nurturing and free. She shows that there is no shame in the range of emotions that make her whole. In this book, Hendrix faces the painful progression of her mother’s Alzheimer’s, reflects on missed and new opportunities and redefines what romance and fulfillment look like in her life.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "family matters", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "rather long", "fiction", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "1538706857", "cover": "1538706857", "goodreads": 218372451, "itunes": 9781538706855, "bookshop": 9781538706855, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510m-e1Y-5L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781538706855", "isbn10": "1538706857", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 49, "book": "Can't Get Enough", "source": "NPR", "text": "Kennedy Ryan's romances are coming for your heartstrings", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2023/05/19/1175677126/kennedy-ryan-romance-novelist-profile" } ] }, "50": { "id": 50, "edition": "fall", "title": "Cannon", "author": "Lee Lai", "reviewers": [ "Andrew Limbong" ], "text": "

The titular character in this graphic novel is the load-bearing wall in multiple one-sided relationships. She is taking care of a sick grandfather; is trying to track down her mom, who has been ignoring her calls; and is holding it down at her restaurant job, trying to impress the new hostess at said restaurant. Maybe worst of all, she’s got a best friend who is too wrapped up in her own business to listen. It’s a lot! And it’s unsustainable. But as it all comes crashing down, Lee Lai uses clean and precise linework to communicate big and messy feelings.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "comics & graphic novels", "staff picks", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1770468021", "cover": "1770468021", "goodreads": 222377076, "itunes": 9781770468023, "bookshop": 9781770468023, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51f4MvtxT8L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781770468023", "isbn10": "1770468021", "links": [] }, "51": { "id": 51, "edition": "summer", "title": "Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism", "author": "Sarah Wynn-Williams", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

Sarah Wynn-Williams was a young, idealistic policy wonk and diplomat who saw the potential of Facebook to influence geopolitics for good and wanted to be a part of it. Making a persistent, passionate case for the influence that the social media site could have, she got in the door, where she helped rearrange the seating charts to position the company’s leaders alongside global heads of state. What starts as a kind of dishy peek inside a tech startup growing into a Goliath morphs into an exposé of the people in charge failing to understand their power. Meta disputes the book’s allegations and argues the author violated a nondisparagement clause in her severance agreement.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "identity & culture", "rather long", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "1250391237", "cover": "1250391237", "goodreads": 223436601, "itunes": 9781250391230, "bookshop": 9781250391230, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41rRvRJAfYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250391230", "isbn10": "1250391237", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 51, "book": "Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism", "source": "NPR", "text": "Former Meta executive barred from discussing criticism of the company", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/14/nx-s1-5318854/former-meta-executive-barred-from-discussing-criticism-of-the-company" } ] }, "52": { "id": 52, "edition": "fall", "title": "Casanova 20: Or, Hot World", "author": "Davey Davis", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

This third novel from Davey Davis is also their best, which is saying something – their previous books, The Earthquake Room and X, were both marvels. This one follows two best friends on opposite sides of the U.S. both dealing with loss: Adrian realizes that his legendary beauty is fading, while Mark is confronted with a grim medical diagnosis. Davis’ writing is nothing short of beautiful, and the book is unsparing but compassionate. Novels this great don’t come around very often.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "1646222830", "cover": "1646222830", "goodreads": 228895488, "itunes": 9781646222834, "bookshop": 9781646222834, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41i6MWZhSDL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781646222834", "isbn10": "1646222830", "links": [] }, "53": { "id": 53, "edition": "fall", "title": "Casualties of Truth", "author": "Lauren Francis-Sharma", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "

Set in the relative present in greater Washington, D.C., as well as in South Africa during the Truth and Reconciliation hearings of the 1990s, this novel shines a light on the devastating impacts of government-sponsored racism. Prudence Wright is an engaging protagonist who struggles to navigate terrible truths as a young law student witnessing the Truth and Reconciliation hearings and, much later, as a mature woman with a neurodivergent son and a successful career behind her, trying to make sense of what she saw. The story may concern South Africa, but the casualties of truth could not be more relevant in today’s America.

", "tags": [ "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "fiction", "historical fiction", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0802163785", "cover": "0802163785", "goodreads": 214339549, "itunes": 9780802163783, "bookshop": 9780802163783, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/418ufxaV8oL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780802163783", "isbn10": "0802163785", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 53, "book": "Casualties of Truth", "source": "MPR", "text": "This author witnessed South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation hearings. Years later, she wrote about it", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2025/03/21/lauren-francis-sharma-new-book-casualties-of-truth" } ] }, "54": { "id": 54, "edition": "fall", "title": "Change the Recipe: Because You Can't Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs", "author": "José Andrés, with Richard Wolffe", "reviewers": [ "Elaine Coates" ], "text": "

José Andrés is recognized for his delicious recipes and famous restaurants, but he is world-renowned for his humanitarian work. His gregarious, loving and worldly persona is unmistakable in this memoir. Andrés has lived many lives: from early cooking lessons in Spain with his mother to mastering his culinary skills in school and the Spanish navy. Immigrating to the U.S. in his 20s, he advanced from cooking in restaurant kitchens to owning over 40 restaurants. His love of good food and his moral integrity led to the establishment of his nonprofit, World Central Kitchen. His simple philosophy: “When people are hungry, send in cooks!” His belief that “food and water are a universal right” propels his organization to provide them to those in need. You will laugh, cry and salivate simultaneously.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "identity & culture", "rather short", "cookbooks & food", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0063436159", "cover": "0063436159", "goodreads": 216724267, "itunes": 6566186670, "bookshop": 9780063436152, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51J1LzV7Z9L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063436152", "isbn10": "0063436159", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 54, "book": "Change the Recipe", "source": "NPR", "text": "Chef José Andrés on building a better world", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2026/01/01/1268423473/zz-1a-andres" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 54, "book": "Change the Recipe", "source": "KERA", "text": "Philanthropist chef José Andrés gives hope through food\r", "url": "https://think.kera.org/2025/07/04/philanthropist-chef-jose-andres-gives-hope-through-food/" } ] }, "55": { "id": 55, "edition": "fall", "title": "Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men's Tennis", "author": "Giri Nathan", "reviewers": [ "Becky Sullivan" ], "text": "

For an extraordinary 20-year stretch, men’s tennis was dominated by the legendary “Big Three” of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who collectively won more than 60 Grand Slam singles titles. Then, in 2024, a new era began when two young stars – Jannik Sinner, the willowy Italian with the mop of curly red hair, and Carlos Alcaraz, the Spaniard with the enormous boyish smile – emerged as the new twin suns of men’s tennis. Together, Sinner and Alcaraz have claimed every Grand Slam title of the past two years, and author Giri Nathan has been along for the ride. Nathan writes with both a deep knowledge of tennis and a love for it too. His proximity to the matches and the players comes through in this easy and enjoyable read that’s a must for any sports fan.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for sports lovers", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1668076241", "cover": "1668076241", "goodreads": 220161062, "itunes": 9781668076248, "bookshop": 9781668076248, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mtBPmD1mL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668076248", "isbn10": "1668076241", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 55, "book": "Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men's Tennis", "source": "NPR", "text": "Carlos Alcaraz wins U.S. Open, as men's tennis' new rivalry takes center court\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/08/nx-s1-5533153/carlos-alcaraz-wins-u-s-open-as-mens-tennis-new-rivalry-takes-center-court" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 55, "book": "Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men's Tennis", "source": "WAMC", "text": "Giri Nathan's new book is 'Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men's Tennis'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2025-08-21/giri-nathans-new-book-is-changeover-a-young-rivalry-and-a-new-era-of-mens-tennis" } ] }, "56": { "id": 56, "edition": "summer", "title": "Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare", "author": "Edward Fishman", "reviewers": [ "Mary Childs" ], "text": "

This book is a survey of how the U.S. has increasingly used the dollar’s global dominance as a way to exert control and influence over allies and enemies. The author is a former U.S. sanctions official, so this is part history, part research and reporting, and part a firsthand account from an insider. It’s immensely readable, despite pretty incredible information density. And with the dollar’s role in the spotlight right now (and maybe in flux), it could not be timelier.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "nonfiction", "rather long", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "0593712978", "cover": "0593712978", "goodreads": 213870122, "itunes": 9780593712979, "bookshop": 9780593712979, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51yipky5TxL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593712979", "isbn10": "0593712978", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 56, "book": "Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare", "source": "Boise State Public Radio", "text": " 'Chokepoints:' An author interview with Edward Fishman", "url": "https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/show/idaho-matters/2025-03-20/chokepoints-author-edward-fishman" } ] }, "57": { "id": 57, "edition": "fall", "title": "Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free", "author": "Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson", "reviewers": [ "Maya Rodale" ], "text": "

Every woman has something in her wardrobe she can thank fashion designer Claire McCardell for – a dress with pockets, a pair of ballet flats, a hoodie. This fascinating biography brings McCardell to life – her early days as a sporty small-town girl, her audacious move to New York City in 1925 and her time in the fashion world. After years of working in the Seventh Avenue trenches, copying French designers or creating others’ visions, McCardell was finally able to design the clothes she wanted to wear as a modern, active, working woman – and in the process she revolutionized the American fashion industry and women’s wardrobes.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for art lovers", "for history lovers", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1668045230", "cover": "1668045230", "goodreads": 220161398, "itunes": 9781668045237, "bookshop": 9781668045237, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41FTsi2CoWL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668045237", "isbn10": "1668045230", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 57, "book": "Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free", "source": "WYPR", "text": "Claire McCardell, the fashion maven from Frederick, Maryland", "url": "https://www.wypr.org/show/midday/2025-06-17/claire-mccardell-the-fashion-maven-from-frederick-maryland" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 57, "book": "Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free", "source": "NPR", "text": "Designer Claire McCardell revolutionized women's fashion. Why isn't she better known?\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/06/21/nx-s1-5418489/designer-claire-mccardell-revolutionized-womens-fashion-why-isnt-she-better-known" } ] }, "58": { "id": 58, "edition": "fall", "title": "Clown Town", "author": "Mick Herron", "reviewers": [ "Steve Drummond" ], "text": "

For me, the question hanging over the ninth outing for Mick Herron’s band of misfit spies in British intelligence was: Have the Slow Horses jumped the shark? Would the boorishness (and flatulence) of Jackson Lamb – played to perfection by Gary Oldman in the TV series – now seem formulaic? Would the bumbling ineptness of his team feel tiresome? Happily, the answer is no. Clown Town sparkles with the razor-sharp humor, complicated characters and drum-tight narrative that have marked the other eight books in the series. This one involves a secret left in the library of a legendary, but now deceased spy and how Lamb and his crew … Well, it doesn’t really matter. The book is funny, relevant and absolutely delightful.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction", "staff picks", "the dark side", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1641297263", "cover": "1641297263", "goodreads": 222176577, "itunes": 9781641297264, "bookshop": 9781641297264, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515b-TKPhoL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781641297264", "isbn10": "1641297263", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 58, "book": "Clown Town", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Mick Herron discusses his latest 'Slow Horses' novel, 'Clown Town'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/06/nx-s1-5469946/author-mick-herron-discusses-his-latest-slow-horses-novel-clown-town" } ] }, "59": { "id": 59, "edition": "fall", "title": "Coded Justice: A Thriller", "author": "Stacey Abrams", "reviewers": [ "Denise Couture" ], "text": "

A well-intentioned entrepreneur harnesses artificial intelligence to help military veterans get the best health care possible. What could go wrong? Murder, for a start. Are the robots behind it? This is the third in the Avery Keene legal-thriller series. Keene is now an investigator at a law firm assigned to look into it all. The novel is ethically and morally nuanced; plus, it’s a fun way to learn more about AI. Stacey Abrams told NPR’s Michel Martin that every Avery Keene novel starts with a question Abrams has. This one began with two: How does AI work? And why are we so bad at health care? Even if you have little interest in either question, the novel is a compelling read.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "staff picks", "science!", "the dark side", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0385548346", "cover": "0385548346", "goodreads": 218153667, "itunes": 9780385548342, "bookshop": 9780385548342, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eSiJig20L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780385548342", "isbn10": "0385548346", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 59, "book": "Coded Justice: A Thriller", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "Stacey Abrams warns of autocracy and voter suppression, doesn't rule out another run", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/07/15/nx-s1-5464737/stacey-abrams-coded-justice" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 59, "book": "Coded Justice: A Thriller", "source": "MPR", "text": "Talking Volumes: Stacey Abrams talks about democracy, the power of of reading and her new novel, 'Coded Justice'\r", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2025/09/12/talking-volumes-stacey-abrams-and-her-new-novel-coded-justice" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 59, "book": "Coded Justice: A Thriller", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Stacey Abrams discusses her new thriller, 'Coded Justice'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/07/14/nx-s1-5341444/author-stacey-abrams-discusses-her-new-thriller-coded-justice" } ] }, "60": { "id": 60, "edition": "fall", "title": "Courtroom Drama", "author": "Neely Tubati Alexander", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Migaki" ], "text": "

Some people dream of escape to a white sand beach, others the Eiffel Tower, but me? My wildest fantasies are being unreachable by phone. That’s what happens when Sydney Parks gets put on a sequestered jury for a high-profile murder case involving one of her favorite reality TV stars. Sydney’s life is put on pause as she spends her days listening to dramatic courtroom testimony. The rest of the time, she’s holed up at a hotel with no access to TV, the internet or the outside world. She has only her fellow jurors for company, one of whom just happens to be her estranged childhood best friend, Damon.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "fiction", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz" ], "isbn": "0063428288", "cover": "0063428288", "goodreads": 217896282, "itunes": 9780063428287, "bookshop": 9780063428287, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41oFR3v4GTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063428287", "isbn10": "0063428288", "links": [] }, "61": { "id": 61, "edition": "fall", "title": "Crumble", "author": "Meredith McClaren, illustrated by Andrea Bell", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

If you think feelings can be tough to live with, try baking with them. This sweet graphic novel is about a family trio – Emily, her mom and Aunt Gina – who can bake emotions into the desserts they sell at their bakery. When Aunt Gina dies in an accident, Emily pours her grief into making a crumble recipe. All her friends agree it’s awful, but they can’t stop eating and she can’t stop making it. A useful allegory for older kids and tweens explaining that sometimes we can’t stop consuming things – like social media – that make us feel bad. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "kids’ books", "staff picks", "family matters", "fiction", "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "1643753169", "cover": "1643753169", "goodreads": 214175255, "itunes": 9781643753164, "bookshop": 9781643753164, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51G9Oob0CLL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781643753164", "isbn10": "1643753169", "links": [] }, "62": { "id": 62, "edition": "fall", "title": "Cry for Me, Argentina: My Life as a Failed Child Star", "author": "Tamara Yajia", "reviewers": [ "Anna Bauman" ], "text": "

Remember that scene from Little Miss Sunshine where a young Abigail Breslin performs a striptease for a room full of horrified onlookers? That’s a story straight out of Cry for Me, Argentina. Only, it was Tamara Yajia’s real life and the crowd was full of rabbis. Her memoir is full of laugh-out-loud moments like that one as she recounts her attempts to become a child star, her moves back and forth between Argentina and California, as well as some heartfelt, difficult stories from her dysfunctional family life.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "no biz like show biz", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1639733914", "cover": "1639733914", "goodreads": 217387918, "itunes": 9781639733910, "bookshop": 9781639733910, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41lF4N4MWpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781639733910", "isbn10": "1639733914", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 62, "book": "Cry for Me, Argentina: My Life as a Failed Child Star", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "A 'Failed Child Star' looks back on life in Argentina and Hollywood", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/07/03/nx-s1-5451379/a-failed-child-star-looks-back-on-life-in-argentina-and-hollywood" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 62, "book": "Cry for Me, Argentina: My Life as a Failed Child Star", "source": "NPR", "text": "Performing Madonna at Hebrew school was pivotal for this 'Failed Child Star'\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/07/01/nx-s1-5232167/performing-madonna-at-hebrew-school-was-pivotal-for-this-failed-child-star" } ] }, "63": { "id": 63, "edition": "fall", "title": "Culpability", "author": "Bruce Holsinger", "reviewers": [ "Jesse Johnson" ], "text": "

AI, autonomous vehicles and shadowy political donors collide in Bruce Holsinger’s gripping, impossibly timely thriller. A fatal crash in a self-driving car shatters one family’s carefully constructed facade, launching a high-stakes investigation into technology, class and betrayal. As they work to determine who’s legally responsible, each family member harbors their own secrets – and the truth won’t stay hidden for long. I couldn’t put it down.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "staff picks", "family matters", "science!", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "1954118961", "cover": "1954118961", "goodreads": 222259253, "itunes": 9781954118966, "bookshop": 9781954118966, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51suWIg3jhL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781954118966", "isbn10": "1954118961", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 63, "book": "Culpability", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Bruce Holsinger on 'Culpability'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/show/the-book-show/2025-08-26/bruce-holsinger-culpability" } ] }, "64": { "id": 64, "edition": "summer", "title": "Culture Creep: Notes on the Pop Apocalypse", "author": "Alice Bolin", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

It’s fair to say that I have been anticipating Alice Bolin’s new essay collection since I turned the last page of her dagger-sharp debut Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession in 2018. If in Dead Girls Bolin probed what’s underneath our appetite for true crime stories – and what our desire for such narratives reveals about our culture’s attitudes toward women – in Culture Creep she widens her lens to interrogate a seemingly disparate array of millennial pop culture obsessions, from NXIVM to nostalgia for the teen magazines of the aughts. Under Bolin’s gimlet eye, what connects these topics is the overlap between (post)feminism, late capitalism, and technology, which all inspire cultish thinking. It all makes for an ambitious and unexpected collection.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0063440520", "cover": "0063440520", "goodreads": 218671824, "itunes": 9780063440524, "bookshop": 9780063440524, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51K5qA+ZGFL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063440524", "isbn10": "0063440520", "links": [] }, "65": { "id": 65, "edition": "fall", "title": "Cursed Daughters", "author": "Oyinkan Braithwaite", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

Cursed Daughters, by bestselling author Oyinkan Braithwaite (My Sister, the Serial Killer), is another genre-bending novel that offers family insights, multigenerational curses and surprises. Cursed Daughters follows three women of the Falodun family – Monife, Ebun and Eniiyi – who are bound by a long-standing curse that “no man will call your house his home.” Infused with Nigerian culture and magical realism, the novel showcases Braithwaite’s rich characterizations, atmospheric settings and a daring premise. It also offers a multilayered story that makes Cursed Daughters a captivating, immersive read.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0385551479", "cover": "0385551479", "goodreads": 227429747, "itunes": 9780385551472, "bookshop": 9780385551472, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511unWJwW+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780385551472", "isbn10": "0385551479", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 65, "book": "Cursed Daughters", "source": "MPR", "text": "Oyinkan Braithwaite talks curses, karma and the power to change fate in 'Cursed Daughters'", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2025/11/14/oyinkan-braithwaite-talks-curses-karma-and-the-power-to-change-fate-in-cursed-daughters" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 65, "book": "Cursed Daughters", "source": "NPR", "text": "Oyinkan Braithwaite discusses her novel 'Cursed Daughters'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/11/02/nx-s1-5398041/oyinkan-braithwaite-discusses-her-novel-cursed-daughters" } ] }, "66": { "id": 66, "edition": "fall", "title": "Daikon", "author": "Samuel Hawley", "reviewers": [ "Nishant Dahiya" ], "text": "

What if there had been three atomic bombs destined to fall on Japan at the end of World War II – and the first ended up in Japanese hands? From that, Samuel Hawley spins a compelling tale told entirely from the Japanese perspective. Deeply researched science; a window into nationalism in all its ugliness; love, resilience and humanity even as everything around you is destroyed … Daikon is alternative history at its best.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "fiction", "the dark side", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "1668083051", "cover": "1668083051", "goodreads": 220161302, "itunes": 9781668083055, "bookshop": 9781668083055, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41qUx8MlDzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668083055", "isbn10": "1668083051", "links": [] }, "67": { "id": 67, "edition": "fall", "title": "Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival", "author": "Stephen Greenblatt", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

Elizabethan scholar Stephen Greenblatt has written a riveting thriller about the short, daring life and work of Shakespeare’s contemporary, Christopher “Kit” Marlowe. The son of a poor Canterbury cobbler, Marlowe was an unlikely artistic genius whose innovative, popular plays reflected the brutal violence, backstabbing ambition and greed that characterized Elizabeth I’s regime. Did he spy for the queen? Was he killed at age 29 on her orders, or in a bar brawl? Was he an atheist? Homosexual? Due to lack of documentation, Greenblatt can’t say for sure, but he has his theories.

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "0393882276", "cover": "0393882276", "goodreads": 223736238, "itunes": 9780393882278, "bookshop": 9780393882278, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41L55LJwDEL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780393882278", "isbn10": "0393882276", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 67, "book": "Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Stephen Greenblatt on 'Shakespeare's Greatest Rival,' Christopher Marlowe", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/10/nx-s1-5453715/author-stephen-greenblatt-on-shakespeares-greatest-rival-christopher-marlowe" } ] }, "68": { "id": 68, "edition": "summer", "title": "Darkenbloom", "author": "Eva Menasse, translated by Charlotte Collins", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "

It is 1989, and the residents of the Austrian village of Darkenbloom are uneasy. East German refugees on the village’s border with Hungary are raising the ghosts of World War II. The town has secrets; “good Nazis” and bad Nazis abound, and there are no Jews left. The book succeeds on multiple levels – it’s a gossipy, small-town satire that’s laugh-out-loud funny but also a historical mystery that lays bare the complicity of characters who have convinced themselves it is possible to see evil only in hindsight. It is this last idea that sticks with you. “There was always so much to do, we couldn’t pay attention to that,” the Greek chorus whispers. Pay attention, says the book.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "historical fiction", "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "rather long", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "1964992044", "cover": "1964992044", "goodreads": 216526682, "itunes": 9781964992044, "bookshop": 9781964992044, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mKTvBm7GL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781964992044", "isbn10": "1964992044", "links": [] }, "69": { "id": 69, "edition": "fall", "title": "Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins", "author": "Barbara Demick", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

In 2009, journalist Barbara Demick published a bombshell article on the confluence of the Chinese Communist Party’s one-child policy and international adoption. Her reporting revealed that workers from the State Family Planning Commission kidnapped “excess” babies and toddlers from extremely poor families, transformed them into paper orphans and placed them for adoption to reap profits and satisfy Western demand. In Daughters of the Bamboo Grove, Demick expands on her reporting, unraveling how this scheme impacted the lives of twin girls, one who grew up with her Chinese family in a remote village and the other wrenched away and adopted by a couple in Texas. Their stories lay bare the all-too-human costs of social engineering, family separation and corruption in the adoption industry.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593132742", "cover": "0593132742", "goodreads": 217927688, "itunes": 9780593132746, "bookshop": 9780593132746, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pTVpsOQ1L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593132746", "isbn10": "0593132742", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 69, "book": "Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Journalist Barbara Demick follows a case of twin separation in 'Daughters of the Bamboo Grove'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/journalist-barbara-demick-follows-a-case-of-twin-separation-in-daughters-of-the-bamboo-grove/" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 69, "book": "Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins", "source": "KQED", "text": "Journalist Barbara Demick traces decades of trauma from China’s One-Child Policy", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101910347/journalist-barbara-demick-traces-decades-of-trauma-from-chinas-one-child-policy" } ] }, "70": { "id": 70, "edition": "book ahead", "title": "Dealing with the Dead", "author": "Alain Mabanckou", "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "text": "

For years, fairly or unfairly, Alain Mabanckou has shouldered the mantle of “the African Samuel Beckett” for his philosophical bent, linguistic mischief and keen sense of the absurd. In his new novel, the Congolese author, now based in California, returns to the coastal city where he grew up, Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo. This also happens to be the place where you died – “you,” in this case, referring to the book’s second-person point of view, a newly minted member of the deceased whose life, death and peculiar experiences after death shape this prismatic portrait of a city. Like the traditional, semiprofessional mourners who show up at your funeral – known in Helen Stevenson’s translation from the original French as “singer-dancer-weepers” – the novel nimbly dances from mood to mood in a loopy narrative arc that’s as restlessly surprising as it is convincing.

", "tags": [ "tales from around the world", "rather short", "fiction", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1620979551", "cover": "1620979551", "goodreads": 223604466, "itunes": 9781620979556, "bookshop": 9781620979556, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NfTa6P1-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781620979556", "isbn10": "1620979551", "links": [] }, "71": { "id": 71, "edition": "summer", "title": "Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life", "author": "Maggie Smith", "reviewers": [ "Christina Cala" ], "text": "

“Your creativity is calling. It needs you,” urges poet and writer Maggie Smith. This guide on craft is an open, thoughtful gold mine of advice for writers and nonwriters alike. Filled with breakdowns of Smith’s own poems, as well as exercises and suggested outside reading, these pages invite you to reference their knowledge over and over, for a lifetime.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "for art lovers", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "1982170840", "cover": "1982170840", "goodreads": 214152280, "itunes": 9781982170844, "bookshop": 9781982170844, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Vxl-uh0ML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781982170844", "isbn10": "1982170840", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 71, "book": "Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Maggie Smith: Life, like a poem, is a series of choices\r", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2025/03/27/pep-talk-poetry-dear-writer-good-bones-maggie-smith" } ] }, "72": { "id": 72, "edition": "fall", "title": "Death of the Author", "author": "Nnedi Okorafor", "reviewers": [ "Rebecca Hersher" ], "text": "

This book will keep you guessing until the last chapter. The plot jumps back and forth between two connected stories: one about a human author and one about a robot obsessed with human stories. The book tackles some big themes, including fame and immigrant identity. But one of my favorite things about it is that the robot storyline is absolutely gripping. I couldn’t put this book down, and thank goodness I didn’t, or I would have missed the final twist!

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "staff picks", "rather long", "fiction", "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "mysteries & thrillers" ], "isbn": "0063391147", "cover": "0063391147", "goodreads": 214283593, "itunes": 6503945437, "bookshop": 9780063391147, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91weKgRHp0L._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063391147", "isbn10": "0063391147", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 72, "book": "Death of the Author", "source": "NPR", "text": "Nnedi Okorafor's 'Death of the Author' explores art and AI", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/05/1235939371/1a-author-03-05-2025" } ] }, "73": { "id": 73, "edition": "fall", "title": "Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told", "author": "Jeremy Atherton Lin", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

As he proved in his 2021 book, Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, Jeremy Atherton Lin isn’t content to stay within one genre. His latest book blends his own love story with his partner, a British painter, with a history of LGBTQ+ activists’ struggle to win the right to intimacy with same-sex partners. The fact that this is often a deeply hilarious book doesn’t detract from the seriousness of its subject matter, and Atherton Lin’s unique voice is irresistible.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "seriously great writing", "rather long", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "0316545791", "cover": "0316545791", "goodreads": 212923976, "itunes": 6670592108, "bookshop": 9780316545792, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51UGwbvMmDL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780316545792", "isbn10": "0316545791", "links": [] }, "74": { "id": 74, "edition": "fall", "title": "Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls", "author": "Rob Edwards, illustrated by Sean Damien Hill and Alex Paterson, cover illustration by Nikolas Draper-Ivey", "reviewers": [ "Anastasia Tsioulcas" ], "text": "

Here’s the story of a real-life American superhero, spun into a graphic novel: Robert Smalls, who escaped enslavement by commandeering a Confederate ship in Charleston, S.C., and sailing it to Union-held territory. (And that’s before Smalls became a Union captain of the same ship he had taken – and before he became a U.S. congressman! What a life – and it will take three volumes of Defiant to tell the whole tale.) Author Rob Edwards knows just how to spin out Smalls’ story in comic book style, with powerful and deeply empathetic illustrations by Sean Damien Hill and Alex Paterson. Multiple generations of my family devoured this one.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "staff picks", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1939834376", "cover": "1939834376", "goodreads": 220423166, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781939834379, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51jmQ7tRCuL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781939834379", "isbn10": "1939834376", "links": [] }, "75": { "id": 75, "edition": "summer", "title": "Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television", "author": "Todd S. Purdum", "reviewers": [ "Eric Deggans" ], "text": "

Some I Love Lucy fans may have seen Cuban-born Desi Arnaz as little more than husband and co-star to comedy legend Lucille Ball on their groundbreaking 1950s-era sitcom. But Todd S. Purdum digs deep to detail how the son of Cuban aristocracy fled to America and fought racism to help redefine the shape of modern TV. As co-founder of Desilu Productions, he helped pioneer shooting I Love Lucy episodes with three cameras on film – making rebroadcast “reruns” of TV shows possible – building a studio that eventually made series like Mission: Impossible and Star Trek. It’s a detailed and compelling look at an ace performer who became the first Latino star and first Latino executive in American TV.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "no biz like show biz", "identity & culture", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir" ], "isbn": "1668023067", "cover": "1668023067", "goodreads": 220160582, "itunes": 9781668023068, "bookshop": 9781668023068, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41S0IFR0mAL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668023068", "isbn10": "1668023067", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 75, "book": "Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "With 'I Love Lucy' and beyond, Desi Arnaz helped shaped TV as we know it", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/06/02/nx-s1-5417932/i-love-lucy-desi-arnaz-lucille-ball-todd-purdum" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 75, "book": "Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television", "source": "KPCW", "text": "How Desi Arnaz revolutionized modern television", "url": "https://www.kpcw.org/show/mountain-money/2025-06-09/how-desi-arnaz-revolutionized-modern-television" } ] }, "76": { "id": 76, "edition": "fall", "title": "Discontent", "author": "Beatriz Serrano, translated by Mara Faye Lethem", "reviewers": [ "Leland Cheuk" ], "text": "

The funniest office comedy I’ve read in years culminates in the worst company retreat ever – paintball and tranquilizers, anyone? Marisa is an ad agency’s higher-up, but one would be hard-pressed to find a less engaged employee. “I only come into the office to lower my air-conditioning bill,” she says. Discontent is slim and voicey, and Marisa’s unhinged and mercilessly witty narration turns the book’s familiar premise into something delightfully unpredictable. One of the few office novels where you really feel like anything could happen.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "rather short", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "9798217006779", "cover": "9798217006779", "goodreads": 222828632, "itunes": 9798217006779, "bookshop": 9798217006779, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-SpRi0N0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9798217006779", "isbn10": "8217006776", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 76, "book": "Discontent", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Darkly comic 'Discontent' follows the inner world of a mid-level marketing executive\r", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review/2025-09-01/darkly-comic-discontent-follows-the-inner-world-of-a-mid-level-marketing-executive" } ] }, "77": { "id": 77, "edition": "fall", "title": "Don't Trust Fish", "author": "Neil Sharpson, illustrated by Dan Santat", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

If you like your picture books laugh-out-loud funny and delightfully unhinged (and honestly, who doesn’t?), Don’t Trust Fish belongs front and center on your bookshelf. Neil Sharpson’s latest is a cheeky, brilliantly structured romp with sharp comedic timing. Every page lands with laughs, chuckles, snorts, shrieks and groans, thanks in no small part to Dan Santat’s cinematic, joyfully ridiculous illustrations that get funnier with every read. Add a clever twist ending and you’ve got a story destined for the pantheon of hilarious picture books. Don’t Trust Fish is an instant classic. You’ve been warned. (For ages 3 to 7)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "0593616677", "cover": "0593616677", "goodreads": 216247491, "itunes": 9780593616673, "bookshop": 9780593616673, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31b2glWVgvL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593616673", "isbn10": "0593616677", "links": [] }, "78": { "id": 78, "edition": "fall", "title": "Dream Count", "author": "Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie", "reviewers": [ "Michel Martin" ], "text": "

What do women really want? To be respected, cherished, admired, successful? To have it “all”? Or just … something? Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s latest – her first novel in more than a decade – follows the interconnected stories of four women of Nigerian or Guinean heritage as they try to figure out what it is they really want and how to go about having it in a world that is not built for them no matter how privileged or educated or connected they are. It weaves in a shocking (but not surprising) real-world crime while it examines interior lives in a manner that is as real and raw as an X-ray.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "fiction", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0593802721", "cover": "0593802721", "goodreads": 219520778, "itunes": 9780593802724, "bookshop": 9780593802724, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41o21ST4iUL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593802724", "isbn10": "0593802721", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 78, "book": "Dream Count", "source": "WYPR", "text": " 'Dream Count' is the latest story about human desire and identity by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie", "url": "https://www.wypr.org/show/midday/2025-08-19/dream-count-is-the-latest-story-about-human-desire-and-identity-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 78, "book": "Dream Count", "source": "NPR", "text": "Celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: 'I have always longed to be known'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/04/nx-s1-5136636/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-dream-count" } ] }, "79": { "id": 79, "edition": "fall", "title": "Dream On", "author": "Shannon Hale, illustrated by Marcela Cespedes", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Cassie knows that being stuck in the middle is anything but easy. She’s not the oldest, not the youngest, just one of six kids squeezed into a too-small house, sharing a room with impatient, needy, snarky sisters, cleaning the bathroom every Saturday and constantly trying to catch the attention of her overworked, stretched-too-thin mom. Even her best-friend situation? That’s on the rocks. So when a sweepstakes form arrives in the mail, Cassie decides she has to win because someone in this family deserves a break. Cassie’s voice is raw, funny and quietly devastating: an unforgettable portrait of what it means to grow up feeling unseen. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "kids’ books", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250843073", "cover": "1250843073", "goodreads": 208840738, "itunes": 9781250843074, "bookshop": 9781250843074, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41dXFZaj71L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250843074", "isbn10": "1250843073", "links": [] }, "80": { "id": 80, "edition": "fall", "title": "Dream School: Finding the College That's Right for You", "author": "Jeffrey Selingo", "reviewers": [ "Michel Martin" ], "text": "

OK, so if you come from one of those Ivy League-or-bust families, then: I feel sorry for you. But if you are the parent of a high school student, a cool aunt or uncle who always knows what to say, a high school guidance counselor or a grandparent who’s picking up part of the college tab, then this is the book for you. And if you are a student thinking about college? Read it to help you decide what you really care about before you throw big money into a prestige trap that might have nothing to do with who you really are and what you want to do in your life.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "1668056208", "cover": "1668056208", "goodreads": 224003134, "itunes": 9781668056202, "bookshop": 9781668056202, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Ks88SmeLL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668056202", "isbn10": "1668056208", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 80, "book": "Dream School: Finding the College That's Right for You", "source": "NPR", "text": "Jeff Selingo on his new book 'Dream School: Finding the College That's Right for You'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/10/nx-s1-5332191/jeff-selingo-on-his-new-book-dream-school-finding-the-college-thats-right-for-you" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 80, "book": "Dream School: Finding the College That's Right for You", "source": "NPR", "text": "A smarter way to pick the right college", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/25/nx-s1-5552711/a-smarter-way-to-pick-the-right-college" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 80, "book": "Dream School: Finding the College That's Right for You", "source": "KJZZ", "text": "He wrote a book on how to choose a college, and says rankings aren't that useful", "url": "https://www.kjzz.org/the-show/2025-09-29/he-wrote-a-book-on-how-to-choose-a-college-and-says-rankings-arent-that-useful" } ] }, "81": { "id": 81, "edition": "fall", "title": "Dream State", "author": "Eric Puchner", "reviewers": [ "Mary Childs" ], "text": "

Eric Puchner’s Dream State is a melodic decades-long journey on the vector of a cluster of friendships. Puchner set out to write about friendship and marriage over the course of a life, so readers get to witness these characters evolve, in their own right and in relation to each other, all the way to the end. That scope makes the mundane wildly profound. Months after I finished reading it, the characters have stuck with me, and it changed the way I think about life.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0385550669", "cover": "0385550669", "goodreads": 215362651, "itunes": 9780385550666, "bookshop": 9780385550666, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Ka9uV8w1L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780385550666", "isbn10": "0385550669", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 81, "book": "Dream State", "source": "NPR", "text": "New novel asks: How much can a male friendship take?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/02/19/nx-s1-5137197/eric-puchner-dream-state-oprah-pick-male-friendship" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 81, "book": "Dream State", "source": "MPR", "text": "Eric Puchner’s new novel circles around a love triangle that spans a lifetime\r", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2025/04/11/eric-puchners-new-novel-dream-state" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 81, "book": "Dream State", "source": "HPPR", "text": "On 'Dream State: A Novel' by Eric Puchner", "url": "https://www.hppr.org/2025-06-09/on-dream-state-a-novel-by-eric-puchner" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 81, "book": "Dream State", "source": "WAMC", "text": "Eric Puchner's new novel 'Dream State' intertwines the stories of a bride-to-be, her fiancé, and his best friend", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2025-03-06/eric-puchners-dream-state-intertwines-the-stories-of-a-bride-to-be-her-fiance-and-his-best-friend-over-the-course-of-one-summer" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 81, "book": "Dream State", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Eric Puchner on his new novel, 'Dream State'", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/marginalia/2025-02-18/eric-puchner-on-his-new-novel-dream-state" } ] }, "82": { "id": 82, "edition": "fall", "title": "Dwelling", "author": "Emily Hunt Kivel", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

The shoe is a house shaped like a boot, the old lady is really a young lady who has nowhere else to go. Evie is just maintaining when a housing crisis leads to mass evictions in New York City, and she has to seek shelter from a distant Texas relative she’s never met. People interrupt her life in the boot, popping in for shoe repair. This story takes a mad, zany, surrealist turn midway as Evie falls in love with a key master, takes up cobbling and meets talking animals on a quest to rescue her sister from an asylum. It had me gleefully chuckling all the way to the last page.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "isbn": "037461606X", "cover": "037461606X", "goodreads": 217388070, "itunes": 9780374616069, "bookshop": 9780374616069, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41KfGq5fuML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780374616069", "isbn10": "037461606X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 82, "book": "Dwelling", "source": "NPR", "text": "In Emily Hunt Kivel's 'Dwelling,' a housing crisis in New York sets off an adventure\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/08/10/nx-s1-5391502/in-emily-hunt-kivels-dwelling-a-housing-crisis-in-new-york-sets-off-an-adventure" } ] }, "83": { "id": 83, "edition": "fall", "title": "El Dorado Drive", "author": "Megan Abbott", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Zutter" ], "text": "

Megan Abbott’s books trap readers inside highly specific bubbles: wannabe-Olympian gymnastics, a cutthroat science lab, a honeymoon-turned-imprisonment. Her latest bubble is more literal: suburban Detroit during the 2008 financial crisis. Down-on-her-luck Harper Bishop joins sisters Pam and Debra on the Wheel – neighborhood women pooling thousands in cash to lift up one member in need. But if it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is: The sisterhood is as false as the money cakes; one woman’s windfall is another’s murder motive. Abbott compellingly captures the endless cycles of feast or famine through these sisters whose family already lost everything with Detroit’s auto industry collapse, yet will gamble it all away again to scramble atop the Wheel.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "family matters", "the dark side", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593084969", "cover": "0593084969", "goodreads": 220239062, "itunes": 9780593084960, "bookshop": 9780593084960, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41vG5-6WdyL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593084960", "isbn10": "0593084969", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 83, "book": "El Dorado Drive", "source": "WYSO", "text": "El Dorado Drive' by Megan Abbott: Pyramid scheme thriller review", "url": "https://www.wyso.org/podcast/book-nook/2025-07-08/el-dorado-drive-megan-abbott-book-review" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 83, "book": "El Dorado Drive", "source": "WPR", "text": "Megan Abbott’s ‘El Dorado Drive’ explores a women-led pyramid scheme and the decline of the auto industry", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/news/megan-abbotts-el-dorado-drive-explores-a-women-led-pyramid-scheme-and-the-decline-of-the-auto-industry" } ] }, "84": { "id": 84, "edition": "fall", "title": "Elita", "author": "Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

This absorbing midcentury American take on Nordic noir opens with two men apprehending a seemingly feral girl on Elita, a tiny island in the Puget Sound that for years has been home only to a federal men’s prison. Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum elevates the moody mystery with her choice of protagonist – Bernadette Baston, a scholar of child development and single mother, who consults on the girl’s case. Bernadette is fascinated by the child’s fierce independence in a world that sets stark constraints on the lives of women and girls. She must fight for her own independence in order to uncover the girl’s origins in this slow-burn study of insular communities and working motherhood.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "historical fiction", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0810147866", "cover": "0810147866", "goodreads": 213520100, "itunes": 9780810147867, "bookshop": 9780810147867, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41jgi+3R4tL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780810147867", "isbn10": "0810147866", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 84, "book": "Elita", "source": "Spokane Public Radio", "text": "From the Studio: 'Elita' author Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum", "url": "https://www.spokanepublicradio.org/show/from-the-studio/2025-06-13/from-the-studio-elita-author-kirsten-sundberg-lunstrum" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 84, "book": "Elita", "source": "KUOW", "text": "KUOW Book Club's October pick from Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum is perfect for spooky season", "url": "https://www.kuow.org/stories/kuow-book-club-october-pick-kirsten-sundberg-lunstrum-elita-spooky-season" } ] }, "85": { "id": 85, "edition": "fall", "title": "elseship: an unrequited affair", "author": "Tree Abraham", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

Falling in love with your roommate is a horrible idea, but book designer Tree Abraham didn’t plan to – it just happened. When Abraham confessed her love, she was gently but firmly rebuffed; her roommate was straight and didn’t feel the same way. In this lyrical account of the months following that rejection, Abraham documents how, instead of letting this be the end of their friendship, she and her roommate forged something deeper from the awkward space, a complex relationship that included plenty of love. Anyone who has ever found romance and friendship more alike than not will find a deep recognition in these gorgeous pages.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1593767854", "cover": "1593767854", "goodreads": 212249382, "itunes": 9781593767853, "bookshop": 9781593767853, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/410x9eVabaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781593767853", "isbn10": "1593767854", "links": [] }, "86": { "id": 86, "edition": "fall", "title": "Endling", "author": "Maria Reva", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

A tragicomedy about the Russian invasion of Ukraine was always going to be challenging, but Maria Reva makes her debut irresistible with spectacular writing and a bonkers plot. At the center is Yeva, a scientist dedicated to the preservation of hundreds of endangered snails, many the last of their species (endlings). When grants and academia fail, Yeva funds her lab pretending to be a prospective bride on Ukraine’s lucrative international romance tours and then gets entangled in a cross-country mass kidnapping caper meant to sabotage the trade that sustains her. But that’s not all. Endling is also a formally daring novel that breaks the barrier between fiction and commentary. One of my favorite lines: “I need to keep fact and fiction straight, but they keep blurring together.”

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "science!" ], "isbn": "0385545312", "cover": "0385545312", "goodreads": 218460339, "itunes": 9780385545310, "bookshop": 9780385545310, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41SSnAqPSdL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780385545310", "isbn10": "0385545312", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 86, "book": "Endling", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "Endling' is a shape-shifting debut that takes on heavy themes with humor\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/06/23/nx-s1-5440259/endling-review-maria-reva-ukraine" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 86, "book": "Endling ", "source": "TPR", "text": "Book Public: 'Endling' by Maria Reva", "url": "https://www.tpr.org/podcast/book-public/2025-06-06/book-public-endling-by-maria-reva" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 86, "book": "Endling ", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Maria Reva on her novel, 'Endling'", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/marginalia/2025-06-03/maria-reva-on-her-new-novel-endling" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 86, "book": "Endling", "source": "NHPR", "text": "Check This Out: Maria Reva & 'Endling'", "url": "https://www.nhpr.org/show/check-this-out/2025-09-26/check-this-out-maria-reva-endling" } ] }, "87": { "id": 87, "edition": "fall", "title": "Every Monday Mabel", "author": "Jashar Awan", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

Fandom comes in many forms. Every Monday, Mabel grabs a bowl of cereal and drags a chair out the front door and onto her family’s driveway. Her family members either think she’s weird, or adorable, or funny, but Mabel doesn’t care. She loves what she loves … and what she loves is the arrival of the garbage truck! “Gah-dump!” Bold colors and simple shapes give Mabel’s passion the kind of respect that she doesn’t get from her own family members. Best of all, Jashar Awan rounds out the story by showing that she’s not alone. All around town there are people who adore Mondays for the exact same reason. A stirring ode to embracing whatever it is that makes you cheer! (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books" ], "isbn": "1665938153", "cover": "1665938153", "goodreads": 214152183, "itunes": 9781665938150, "bookshop": 9781665938150, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41VujZT57gL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781665938150", "isbn10": "1665938153", "links": [] }, "88": { "id": 88, "edition": "summer", "title": "Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection", "author": "John Green", "reviewers": [ "James Perkins Mastromarino" ], "text": "

Tuberculosis has preyed on the most vulnerable humans since the dawn of our species. But author John Green argues that we now have the knowledge and resources to defeat the disease – we lack only the will. Spun through surprising histories (did you know TB led to the creation of the Stetson hat?) and personal anecdotes from a modern-day survivor, Everything Is Tuberculosis makes an urgent case for the kind of global health initiatives that the U.S. has been turning against. It’s also witty, cogent and achingly beautiful – everything we’ve come to expect from the writer of The Anthropocene Reviewed and The Fault in Our Stars.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "science!", "it’s all geek to me", "seriously great writing", "nonfiction", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0525556575", "cover": "0525556575", "goodreads": 220341389, "itunes": 9780525556572, "bookshop": 9780525556572, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41tHyeI+t8L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780525556572", "isbn10": "0525556575", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 88, "book": "Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection", "source": "IPR", "text": "John Green wants you to care about tuberculosis", "url": "https://www.iowapublicradio.org/arts-life/2025-03-03/john-green-wants-you-to-care-about-tuberculosis-iowa-city" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 88, "book": "Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "Author John Green argues the global community could choose to live in a world without tuberculosis", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/03/18/john-green-everything-is-tuberculosis" } ] }, "89": { "id": 89, "edition": "summer", "title": "Fair Play", "author": "Louise Hegarty", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

Abigail hosts a New Year’s Eve murder mystery party at a countryside Airbnb – but in the morning her brother is dead for real. Who killed him? Can a renowned detective solve the crime? Or is it a crime? Is Abigail’s mind playing tricks on her, grasping for all the tropes of a fair play mystery as it seeks comfort and escape from this incredible loss? I cannot believe this clever and ultimately deep story about grief is Louise Hegarty’s first novel: It is a mystery within a mystery within the most existential of mysteries.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "seriously great writing", "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063360551", "cover": "0063360551", "goodreads": 216895124, "itunes": 9780063360556, "bookshop": 9780063360556, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mn31VO90L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063360556", "isbn10": "0063360551", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 89, "book": "Fair Play", "source": "NPR", "text": "Louise Hegarty's 'Fair Play' honors – and subverts – the crime novel", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/04/20/nx-s1-5279573/louise-hegartys-fair-play-honors-and-subverts-the-crime-novel" } ] }, "90": { "id": 90, "edition": "fall", "title": "Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty", "author": "Kaila Yu", "reviewers": [ "Dhanika Pineda" ], "text": "

Rock star and former model Kaila Yu traces the very fine line between Asian representation in mainstream media being empowering and objectifying. In this memoir-in-essays, Yu uses her personal stories as a woman who admits to “cater[ing] to the white male gaze” as a vehicle to explore the fetishization of Asian women, particularly in American pop culture. From her opening anecdote about an “Asiaphile” who wanted to start a class that would have Asian women teaching others how to be the best wives, to her closing reflection on self-objectification and internalized racism, Yu’s memoir is a true examination of the systemic factors that have shaped – and are still shaping – the exotification and fetishization of Asian women in the U.S. today.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "for music lovers", "identity & culture", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0593728017", "cover": "0593728017", "goodreads": 221754280, "itunes": 9780593728017, "bookshop": 9780593728017, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41pdq7L3nML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593728017", "isbn10": "0593728017", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 90, "book": "Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty", "source": "JPR", "text": "Asian women, colonialism and white male fantasies intersect in new memoir\r", "url": "https://www.ijpr.org/show/the-jefferson-exchange/2025-10-03/asian-women-colonialism-and-white-male-fantasies-intersect-in-new-memoir" } ] }, "91": { "id": 91, "edition": "fall", "title": "Fireblooms", "author": "Alexandra Villasante", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

In today’s era of Big Tech, social land mines and cancel culture, Alexandra Villasante’s Fireblooms is a searingly relevant YA dystopian romance. Lu and Sebas are two teens navigating the suffocating expectations of a school system where compliance isn’t just encouraged – it’s mandatory. If they misstep, their families face dire consequences. Fireblooms asks a chilling question: When does the call for civility and mindfulness become a tool for surveillance and suppression? Urgent, unsettling and profoundly prescient, Fireblooms challenges our modern obsession with safety, probes the cost of silence and affirms the enduring power and danger of speaking out.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "young adult", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0525514058", "cover": "0525514058", "goodreads": 223120403, "itunes": 9780525514053, "bookshop": 9780525514053, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51s9fMl2fnL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780525514053", "isbn10": "0525514058", "links": [] }, "92": { "id": 92, "edition": "fall", "title": "Fireworks", "author": "Matthew Burgess, illustrated by Cátia Chien", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

It would not be an act of hyperbole to say that this book presents the most accurate encapsulation of what it feels like to watch a fireworks display. Two children, in what appears to be a lightly fictionalized New York City, indulge in a day of freedom and frolic. As they run under a scorching sun, enjoying public fountains and munching on delicious watermelon, we’re sucked into their urban antics. Fluorescent pinks, dazzling blues and a picture book technique called a gatefold (where pages unfold to reveal something extraordinary) convey a sense of awe and wonder when the nighttime show starts. Certain to impress in any story time or read aloud, this is summertime synthesized into a mere 40 pages. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books" ], "isbn": "0063216728", "cover": "0063216728", "goodreads": 205592098, "itunes": 9780063216723, "bookshop": 9780063216723, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51UA04I1OEL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063216723", "isbn10": "0063216728", "links": [] }, "93": { "id": 93, "edition": "fall", "title": "First-Time Caller", "author": "B.K. Borison", "reviewers": [ "Brittney Melton" ], "text": "

Imagine hearing your daughter whispering on the phone late at night. When you ask her who she’s talking to, you discover she’s on the line with a radio show host. As you take the phone, you’re unexpectedly drawn into a conversation about your love life, which leads to your participation in a new segment on the local romance hotline aimed at helping you find love. The story takes the main characters, Aiden and Lucie, on a beautiful journey of letting love into their lives. If you are a hopeless romantic or just love a great meet-cute, this is for you.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "staff picks", "fiction", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0593641191", "cover": "0593641191", "goodreads": 213243908, "itunes": 9780593641194, "bookshop": 9780593641194, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41wjMOe32gL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593641194", "isbn10": "0593641191", "links": [] }, "94": { "id": 94, "edition": "book ahead", "title": "Flashlight", "author": "Susan Choi", "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "text": "

Susan Choi took home the National Book Award for her previous novel, 2019’s slim, slippery Trust Exercise, a formally inventive portrait of adolescence that the prize jury described as “timely, mesmerizing, and, in the end, unsettling.” This time, Choi broadens her scope, with a story that draws on geopolitics even as it obsessively returns to a single family catastrophe that’s as formative as it is mysterious. Both books share an affinity for shocking twists, as well as the happy tendency to twist reviewers into knots just trying to come up with a spoiler-free synopsis. Flashlight was nominated for both the Booker Prize and the National Book Award.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "rather long", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1250437822", "cover": "1250437822", "goodreads": 240020009, "itunes": 9781250437822, "bookshop": 9781250437822, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/414fdwzeHzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250437822", "isbn10": "1250437822", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 94, "book": "Flashlight", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Susan Choi discusses her latest novel, 'Flashlight'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/31/nx-s1-5108728/author-susan-choi-discusses-her-latest-novel-flashlight" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 94, "book": "Flashlight", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: Susan Choi's new novel 'Flashlight'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/susan-chois-new-novel-flashlight/" } ] }, "95": { "id": 95, "edition": "book ahead", "title": "Flesh", "author": "David Szalay", "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "text": "

David Szalay’s first book in seven years won the 2025 Booker Prize. Spare and detached on the page, lush in resonance beyond it, Flesh reads a bit like an immigrant bildungsroman crossed with Albert Camus. At the heart of it all is István, a Hungarian teen making his first stumbling steps into an adulthood that will bring him money and privilege. Along the way he’s beset by trauma, flashes of violence and the more mundane misunderstandings that come to shape his life.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "198212279X", "cover": "198212279X", "goodreads": 214152261, "itunes": 9781982122799, "bookshop": 9781982122799, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/412x0b91FRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781982122799", "isbn10": "198212279X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 95, "book": "Flesh", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Flesh' wins 2025 Booker Prize: 'We had never read anything quite like it'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/11/10/nx-s1-5604157/booker-prize-winner-2025-david-szalay-flesh" } ] }, "96": { "id": 96, "edition": "fall", "title": "Florenzer", "author": "Phil Melanson", "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "text": "

Florenzer focuses on a young Leonardo da Vinci as he comes to terms with his talent and what we would today call his queerness, in a way that never seems ahistorical or overdetermined, like it’s forcing modern sensibilities and perspectives onto a very unmodern world. Instead, Phil Melanson has taken great pains to capture the place and time with a bracing clarity and immediacy – not only the internecine politics of the Medicis and the papacy, but the physicality of Florence, Italy, itself. I love the vividness of Melanson’s prose, which captures the sights, sounds and smells so well you feel like you’re walking the streets of the city alongside his characters.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "for art lovers", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "historical fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1324095032", "cover": "1324095032", "goodreads": 218569838, "itunes": 9781324095033, "bookshop": 9781324095033, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SFsOrVp5L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781324095033", "isbn10": "1324095032", "links": [] }, "97": { "id": 97, "edition": "fall", "title": "Friends to Lovers", "author": "Sally Blakely", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Migaki" ], "text": "

When they were growing up, Joni’s and Ren’s families spent every summer together at a vacation home on the Oregon coast. The two best friends passed idyllic days at the beach and nights camping out on the porch. They haven’t spoken in recent years though, and this summer, everyone is back at the nostalgia-drenched beach house for a wedding. Inwardly, Joni is yearning for Ren, sifting through years and years of memories – right up to that last one where everything imploded. Outwardly, she’s doing her best to pretend that everything is FINE. But the thing about loving (and being loved by) a best friend is that they can see through the facade because they know you to your core.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1335014241", "cover": "1335014241", "goodreads": 218267185, "itunes": 9781335014245, "bookshop": 9781335014245, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81xMl384rzL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781335014245", "isbn10": "1335014241", "links": [] }, "98": { "id": 98, "edition": "fall", "title": "Fundamentally", "author": "Nussaibah Younis", "reviewers": [ "Linah Mohammad" ], "text": "

This book is laugh-out-loud funny in a way you wouldn’t expect, given the heavy subject matter – ISIS brides and extremism. Nussaibah Younis somehow turns one of the darkest corners of modern life into sharp, self-aware comedy. Her humor, about an academic on a U.N. mission to Iraq, is deadpan one moment, absurd the next and always disarmingly smart. It’s a light, quick read that keeps you laughing while making you think – proof that even the most serious topics can be handled with wit and heart.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0593851382", "cover": "0593851382", "goodreads": 213870133, "itunes": 9780593851388, "bookshop": 9780593851388, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/418HP+uoXRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593851388", "isbn10": "0593851382", "links": [] }, "99": { "id": 99, "edition": "summer", "title": "Ginseng Roots: A Memoir", "author": "Craig Thompson", "reviewers": [ "Andrew Limbong" ], "text": "

Craig Thompson’s follow-up to his award-winning (and still controversial) graphic memoir, Blankets, is an expansive look at the global ginseng trade. It was an accidentally timely release – Ginseng Roots came out while the United States’ trade relationship with China was dominating the news cycle. But as deeply researched and dense as the book is, it’s also a personal memoir about why we work, and why we bother trading stories with each other through the things we make.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in", "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "nonfiction", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0593700775", "cover": "0593700775", "goodreads": 216971212, "itunes": 9780593700778, "bookshop": 9780593700778, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51HbgF4Sl6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593700778", "isbn10": "0593700775", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 99, "book": "Ginseng Roots: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Where does the ginseng in your tea come from? A new graphic memoir explains the trade\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/09/nx-s1-5137011/ginseng-roots-craig-thompson-blankets" } ] }, "100": { "id": 100, "edition": "fall", "title": "Girl Dinner", "author": "Olivie Blake", "reviewers": [ "Emily Dagger" ], "text": "

The House is the most exclusive sorority on campus: The members are beautiful, the alumnae successful, and the traditions involve just the occasional touch of ritual cannibalism. Viewed through the eyes of Nina, an ambitious sophomore pledge trying to reinvent herself, and Sloane, a new mother and floundering adjunct professor drafted to serve as faculty adviser, The House becomes the locus for this smart and grimly funny satire. Girl Dinner is a slow burn of a book, where humor and horror work together to unpack contemporary notions of girlhood and femininity.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "funny stuff", "the dark side", "fiction", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "1250883458", "cover": "1250883458", "goodreads": 222376577, "itunes": 9781250883452, "bookshop": 9781250883452, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71yF+V4rToL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250883452", "isbn10": "1250883458", "links": [] }, "101": { "id": 101, "edition": "summer", "title": "Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves", "author": "Sophie Gilbert", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

Girls navigating the path to womanhood in the early aughts faced an onslaught of media telling them who and how to be. Contradictory depictions of young women were everywhere across pop culture: purity culture clashed with Girls Gone Wild, reality TV made beauty and love commodities, models went from “super” women to teenage waifs. Sophie Gilbert explores the influence pornography had on culture at the time, providing vital insight into messages for young girls that were often objectifying even if they were sold as empowering. For anyone who enjoys You’re Wrong About or craving connective tissue to Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "for art lovers", "for music lovers", "for history lovers", "no biz like show biz", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "nonfiction", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0593656296", "cover": "0593656296", "goodreads": 216970860, "itunes": 9780593656297, "bookshop": 9780593656297, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41NJ0McoTXL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593656297", "isbn10": "0593656296", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 101, "book": "Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves", "source": "NEPM", "text": " 'Girl on Girl' explores pop culture's impact on women\n", "url": "https://www.nepm.org/shows/newshour/clip/pop-culture-s-impact-1748722185" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 101, "book": "Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: Did Early 2000s Pop Culture Undermine Feminism?", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/did-early-2000s-pop-culture-undermine-feminism/" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 101, "book": "Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves", "source": "WYPR", "text": "Women on Women: New books from Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson and Sophie Gilbert", "url": "https://www.wypr.org/show/the-weekly-reader-on-wypr/2025-06-18/women-on-women-new-books-from-elizabeth-evitts-dickinson-and-sophie-gilbert" } ] }, "103": { "id": 103, "edition": "fall", "title": "Glitz, Glam, and a Damn Good Time: How Mamie Fish, Queen of the Gilded Age, Partied Her Way to Power", "author": "Jennifer Wright", "reviewers": [ "Maya Rodale" ], "text": "

We don’t party like we used to, as this delightful biography of Gilded Age hostess Mamie Fish reveals. Mamie wasn’t the smartest, prettiest or even the wealthiest, but she was funny and infused her parties with a sense of humor. Consider the time she hyped up a party celebrating “Prince Del Drago,” only to reveal a monkey dressed in a tuxedo as the guest of honor. More than just Mamie’s life story, this book is also a rollicking history of partying in America. These days, it’s wild to read about such reckless, excessive spending – but it is definitely “a damn good time.”

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "biography & memoir", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "030683460X", "cover": "030683460X", "goodreads": 218372938, "itunes": 9780306834608, "bookshop": 9780306834608, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51yVX-MCuZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780306834608", "isbn10": "030683460X", "links": [] }, "104": { "id": 104, "edition": "book ahead", "title": "Good and Evil and Other Stories", "author": "Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell", "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "text": "

It makes sense that Samanta Schweblin brought up David Lynch during her 2022 chat with NPR’s Weekend Edition. Sure, the Argentine expat (now based in Berlin) works in a different medium and language, but Schweblin’s fiction bears an undeniable resemblance to the late American director’s films. Even when they’re not outright fever dreams, her worlds tend to be inescapably off – disconcertingly akimbo and bathed in unplaceable menace. Best not to let your guard down with her new short story collection, brought into English by Megan McDowell, a veteran translator of Schweblin’s work.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction", "the dark side", "seriously great writing", "rather short", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0593803108", "cover": "0593803108", "goodreads": 222683966, "itunes": 9780593803103, "bookshop": 9780593803103, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-qVh1b9eL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593803103", "isbn10": "0593803108", "links": [] }, "105": { "id": 105, "edition": "summer", "title": "Good Dirt", "author": "Charmaine Wilkerson", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

Ebby Freeman’s idyllic childhood turned upside down the day she saw her big brother Baz shot and killed during a home invasion. Her peace shattered alongside the stoneware jar that broke the day Baz died, a jar that generations of her family had passed along starting in slavery to eventual prosperity. As she grows into adulthood, Ebby reckons with the lingering effects of prejudice and secrets in her broken engagement to a white man. This novel is a timely reminder that values, strength and connection sustain us more deeply than falsely taken power or the worship of status or things.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593358368", "cover": "0593358368", "goodreads": 213618132, "itunes": 9780593358368, "bookshop": 9780593358368, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51sTJ2kpBBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593358368", "isbn10": "0593358368", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 105, "book": "Good Dirt", "source": "NPR", "text": "New novel digs into generations of love and heartache of an African American family", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/nx-s1-5131612/new-novel-digs-into-generations-of-love-and-heartache-of-an-african-american-family" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 105, "book": "Good DIrt", "source": "KMUW", "text": " ‘Good Dirt’ is a well-researched tale, but suffers from too much of a good thing", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review/2025-02-03/good-dirt-is-a-well-researched-tale-but-suffers-from-too-much-of-a-good-thing" } ] }, "106": { "id": 106, "edition": "fall", "title": "Good Movies as Old Books: Films Reimagined as Vintage Book Covers", "author": "Matt Stevens", "reviewers": [ "Bob Mondello" ], "text": "

Never judge a book by its cover, but, man, is it ever fun to judge a film by its Matt Stevens cover. The ingenious designer/illustrator reimagines roughly 200 of his fave flicks as vintage paperbacks – Mad Max with a cover that could be a Peter Max-on-acid portrait of Dr. Dementus, Speed with a lit, clock-faced bomb, Ghostbusters as midcentury sci-fi noir. His covers conjure the 1950s and ‘60s so effectively that I found myself thinking that maybe I’d somehow missed that Jordan Peele’s Get Out (never a novel) was originally published in 1953. I also reeeeally wanted to read it.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for art lovers", "no biz like show biz", "it’s all geek to me", "staff picks", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1797232193", "cover": "1797232193", "goodreads": 217182248, "itunes": 9781797232195, "bookshop": 9781797232195, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Bk5mjVokL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781797232195", "isbn10": "1797232193", "links": [] }, "107": { "id": 107, "edition": "fall", "title": "Great Big Beautiful Life", "author": "Emily Henry", "reviewers": [ "Rachel Baye" ], "text": "

Journalist Alice Scott has stumbled upon what just might be her big break – a shot at writing the biography of a tragic heiress and onetime tabloid princess turned recluse no one has seen in years. But to win the book contract, Alice must compete with Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Hayden Anderson. As Alice and Hayden continue to bump into each other on the fictional Little Crescent Island off the Georgia coast, they begin to see beneath the personas both portray to the outside world, and sparks fly. This is a story about romance, but also about family, secrets and betrayal.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "love & romance", "rather long" ], "isbn": "059344129X", "cover": "059344129X", "goodreads": 231922031, "itunes": 9780593441299, "bookshop": 9780593441299, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51GdCrf3wQL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593441299", "isbn10": "059344129X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 107, "book": "Great Big Beautiful Life", "source": "NPR", "text": "Emily Henry discusses her new novel, 'Great Big Beautiful Life'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/04/20/nx-s1-5232108/emily-henry-discusses-her-new-novel-great-big-beautiful-life" } ] }, "108": { "id": 108, "edition": "summer", "title": "Great Black Hope", "author": "Rob Franklin", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

I love a debut that shouts its arrival and a novel that thrills while making you think. Artful and transporting, Great Black Hope is a book I couldn’t wait to get lost in. Smith is upwardly mobile but spiraling out at breakneck speed. One of his closest friends has died mysteriously, and just as he’s trying to numb his brain with illicit substances, he runs afoul of law enforcement. As a queer young Black man from an elite Atlanta family, with family money and a Stanford degree, Smith knows his identity matters. He’s privileged and protected by virtue of his class, but vulnerable on account of his race and sexuality. So when he’s arrested for cocaine possession in the Hamptons, the next moves are crucial. This compulsive coming of age novel traces the ups, downs and twists in Smith’s journeys, from grief to glam party circuit to gritty backrooms to recovery and beyond.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1668077434", "cover": "1668077434", "goodreads": 220160205, "itunes": 9781668077436, "bookshop": 9781668077436, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51lz4dt5CuL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668077436", "isbn10": "1668077434", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 108, "book": "Great Black Hope", "source": "NPR", "text": "Rob Franklin discusses his novel 'Great Black Hope'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/06/08/nx-s1-5137271/rob-franklin-dsicusses-his-novel-great-black-hope" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 108, "book": "Great Black Hope", "source": "NHPR", "text": "Check This Out: Rob Franklin on 'Great Black Hope'", "url": "https://www.nhpr.org/show/check-this-out/2025-06-05/check-this-out-rob-franklin-great-black-hope" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 108, "book": "Great Black Hope", "source": "WABE", "text": "Atlanta native's breakout novel 'Great Black Hope' already a favorite on NYT, NPR summer reading lists", "url": "https://www.wabe.org/atlanta-natives-breakout-novel-great-black-hope-already-a-favorite-on-nyt-npr-summer-reading-lists/" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 108, "book": "Great Black Hope", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: Rob Franklin's debut novel 'Great Black Hope'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/rob-franklins-debut-novel-great-black-hope/" } ] }, "109": { "id": 109, "edition": "fall", "title": "Great Disasters", "author": "Grady Chambers", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

This tender and thought-provoking novel of male friendship and the calamities of post-9/11 America follows Graham, a writer still trying to find his footing in his 30s, as he looks back on his coming-of-age and the relationships that once shaped him. “In those years we lived like sisters,” the novel opens, as Graham traces how his tight friend group of six high school freshman boys in 2001 Chicago came to splinter over the years and where that leaves him. Great Disasters masterfully entwines the personal with the national, examining the different ways these six friends have navigated building their lives through the long war on terror, the lost hope of the Obama era and the rise of Donald Trump.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1963108507", "cover": "1963108507", "goodreads": 224042595, "itunes": 9781963108507, "bookshop": 9781963108507, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/419ELJBb7hL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781963108507", "isbn10": "1963108507", "links": [] }, "110": { "id": 110, "edition": "fall", "title": "Greyhound: A Memoir", "author": "Joanna Pocock", "reviewers": [ "Bridget Bentz" ], "text": "

In 2006, grieving multiple miscarriages, Canadian writer Joanna Pocock embarked on a road trip across the U.S. via Greyhound bus. Seventeen years later, she repeated her Detroit-to-Los Angeles passage – a journey she chronicles in her new memoir. Pocock’s trip takes on what she calls a “mythical dimension.” Seatmates come and go, but delays are constant. One driver abruptly walks off the job in Indianapolis, and America seems coarsened by COVID-19 and capitalism. “Much of the hope I had seen in 2006 had evaporated,” she writes. Greyhound weaves together observations from Pocock’s two journeys, along with environmental and cultural commentary. The end result is an engaging combination of the profound and the profane – much like the country Pocock traverses.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "rather long" ], "isbn": "159376801X", "cover": "159376801X", "goodreads": 224046268, "itunes": 9781593768010, "bookshop": 9781593768010, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41npExART-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781593768010", "isbn10": "159376801X", "links": [] }, "111": { "id": 111, "edition": "fall", "title": "Hansel and Gretel", "author": "Stephen King, illustrated by Maurice Sendak", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Sometimes a book lands in your lap that feels like a gift you didn’t know you needed, and Stephen King’s Hansel and Gretel, with haunting, gorgeous illustrations by the late Maurice Sendak, is exactly that. Both familiar and unsettling, this retelling is deliciously creepy, slyly funny and brimming with wonder. King’s spare narration gives the classic tale a pulse, while Sendak’s art brings the darkness and wonder to life in a way only he could. It’s rare to see two legends so perfectly in sync. This isn’t just a picture book – it’s a treasure, an event, a must-read. (For ages 6 and up)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "the dark side", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "0062644696", "cover": "0062644696", "goodreads": 222156823, "itunes": 9780062644695, "bookshop": 9780062644695, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51s96mRmVvL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780062644695", "isbn10": "0062644696", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 111, "book": "Hansel and Gretel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Stephen King on ‘Hansel and Gretel’ and the future of his writing career", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/24/nx-s1-5584040/stephen-king-on-hansel-and-gretel-and-the-future-of-his-writing-career" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 111, "book": "Hansel and Gretel", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Stephen King pens 'Hansel and Gretel' adaptation with illustrator Maurice Sendak\r", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/09/03/hansel-and-gretel-stephen-king" } ] }, "112": { "id": 112, "edition": "fall", "title": "Happy Land", "author": "Dolen Perkins-Valdez", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

New York Times bestselling author Dolen Perkins-Valdez has written a beautifully crafted novel about hope, loss, tragedy, pride and family. Happy Land, inspired by actual events, explores the post-Reconstruction Black community that purchased land on the border of North and South Carolina and governed it, naming a king and queen. The story, told in a dual timeline, also examines legacy and estranged familial relationships while offering a compassionate look at how decisions made 150 years ago impact a modern family and help rebuild the bonds that connect generations. The novel is both an informative read and a loving tribute to Black families and the ties that link the past to the present.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593337727", "cover": "0593337727", "goodreads": 216247526, "itunes": 9780593337721, "bookshop": 9780593337721, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-0pXe2xcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593337721", "isbn10": "0593337727", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 112, "book": "Happy Land", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Dolen Perkins-Valdez discusses her new novel 'Happy Land'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/04/08/nx-s1-5110256/author-dolen-perkins-valdez-discusses-her-new-novel-happy-land" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 112, "book": "Happy Land", "source": "WFAE", "text": "New novel is based on African American kingdom founded in western North Carolina mountains", "url": "https://www.wfae.org/race-equity/2025-05-07/new-novel-based-on-african-american-kingdom-founded-in-western-north-carolina-mountains" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 112, "book": "Happy Land", "source": "WUNC", "text": "In 'Happy Land,' author Dolen Perkins-Valdez explores Western N.C. during Reconstruction", "url": "https://www.wunc.org/show/due-south/2025-04-17/happy-land-dolen-perkins-valdez-western-nc-reconstruction" } ] }, "113": { "id": 113, "edition": "fall", "title": "Harlem Rhapsody", "author": "Victoria Christopher Murray", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

Harlem Rhapsody, set in the early 1920s, is an outstanding novel that tells the fictionalized story of the real-life Jessie Redmon Fauset, the first literary editor of the NAACP’s monthly magazine, The Crisis. Victoria Christopher Murray writes a thoroughly researched and enjoyable novel about Fauset, arguably one of the most overlooked women of the Harlem Renaissance. Murray explores Fauset’s contributions as editor and mentor to literary icons such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston and Countee Cullen. The novel also explores Fauset’s complex relationship with W.E.B. Du Bois. New York Times bestselling author Murray (The Personal Librarian and The First Ladies, co-authored with Marie Benedict) crafts a well-paced, engaging story that is a must-read and a highlight of 2025 historical fiction.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "love & romance", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593638484", "cover": "0593638484", "goodreads": 212806640, "itunes": 9780593638484, "bookshop": 9780593638484, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51jeOlEQneL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593638484", "isbn10": "0593638484", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 113, "book": "Harlem Rhapsody", "source": "NPR", "text": "The relationship at the heart of the Harlem Renaissance", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/02/18/nx-s1-5280397/the-relationship-at-the-heart-of-the-harlem-renaissance" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 113, "book": "Harlem Rhapsody", "source": "WGVU", "text": "The Shelley Irwin Show: Harlem Rhapsody", "url": "https://www.wgvunews.org/the-shelley-irwin-show/2025-02-12/harlem-rhapsody" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 113, "book": "Harlem Rhapsody", "source": "WABE", "text": "Bringing Jessie R. Fauset to life in 'Harlem Rhapsody'", "url": "https://www.wabe.org/bringing-jessie-r-fauset-to-life-in-harlem-rhapsody/" } ] }, "114": { "id": 114, "edition": "summer", "title": "Heart Lamp: Selected Stories", "author": "Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi", "reviewers": [ "Diaa Hadid" ], "text": "

Heart Lamp hurls you into southwest India, where Muslim women survive in a world of casual cruelty, one of rules made for – and by – men. In one story, a woman despairs in marital abandonment but finds strength in her daughter. Another woman is ignored as she begs for help for her daughter, later describing her relief at her baby’s death. Banu Mushtaq’s book isn’t a simplistic takedown of Islam. These women are evocative and fully formed. They are inspired by Mushtaq’s own experiences as a lawyer representing women in her own Kannada-speaking community. When the book won the International Booker Prize, Mushtaq described the moment feeling “like a thousand fireflies lighting up a single sky.” That’s how I felt reading this book.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "rather short", "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1916751164", "cover": "1916751164", "goodreads": 205544315, "itunes": 9781916751163, "bookshop": 9781916751163, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Q+6Wmcz-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781916751163", "isbn10": "1916751164", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 114, "book": "Heart Lamp: Selected Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Heart Lamp' wins International Booker, with stories of India's Muslim women and girls", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/20/nx-s1-5399605/international-booker-prize-winner-heart-lamp" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 114, "book": "Heart Lamp: Selected Stories", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "Booker prize-winning 'Heart Lamp' tells stories of Indian Muslim women", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/07/15/heart-lamp-story-collections" } ] }, "115": { "id": 115, "edition": "fall", "title": "Heart the Lover", "author": "Lily King", "reviewers": [ "Beck Harlan" ], "text": "

An intimate novel about formative first love, friendship and the relationships that never leave us. This time-hopping story (of the perfect length, if you ask me!) sweeps you into the narrator’s point of view with such visceral immediacy that it’s easy to lose yourself in her memories. I canceled my plans to finish this gorgeous book, and I felt welcomely emo for a few days afterward. Heart the Lover is both a prequel and a sequel to Lily King’s beloved novel Writers & Lovers, published in 2020, but it absolutely stands on its own.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0802165176", "cover": "0802165176", "goodreads": 228110489, "itunes": 9780802165176, "bookshop": 9780802165176, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gHEm3bksL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780802165176", "isbn10": "0802165176", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 115, "book": "Heart the Lover", "source": "NPR", "text": "Lily King's new novel constructs an erotically charged love triangle", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/11/03/nx-s1-5592934/heart-the-lover-lily-king-book-review" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 115, "book": "Heart the Lover", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Lily King's new novel captures the highs and lows of a college romance\r", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/10/01/lily-king-heart-the-lover-book-review" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 115, "book": "Heart the Lover", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Lily King on her new novel, 'Heart the Lover'", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/marginalia/2025-10-04/lily-king-on-her-new-novel-heart-the-lover" } ] }, "116": { "id": 116, "edition": "fall", "title": "Heartwood", "author": "Amity Gaige", "reviewers": [ "Arielle Retting" ], "text": "

Heartwood is a perfect thriller for people who don’t like thrillers (🙋‍♀). A nurse nicknamed Sparrow who is trying to move past the trauma of working during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic disappears while hiking the Appalachian Trail. The narration alternates among three women: a state game warden leading the search, a lonely retiree who becomes very invested and the missing woman herself, whose plight is told via the journal that keeps her going while lost. Heartwood is equal parts gripping and moving, filled with empathy and hope – not just for Sparrow’s safe return but for human connection overall.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "staff picks", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "1668063603", "cover": "1668063603", "goodreads": 220259184, "itunes": 9781668063606, "bookshop": 9781668063606, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51qkJZBju2L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668063606", "isbn10": "1668063603", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 116, "book": "Heartwood", "source": "Connecticut Public", "text": "Connecticut Authors tell stories about the voyage", "url": "https://www.ctpublic.org/show/where-we-live/2025-04-10/connecticut-authors-tell-stories-about-the-voyage" } ] }, "117": { "id": 117, "edition": "summer", "title": "Helen of Troy, 1993: Poems", "author": "Maria Zoccola", "reviewers": [ "Camila Domonoske" ], "text": "

What if Helen of Troy was a small-town beauty in Sparta, Tenn., with a crappy washing machine? What if absconding with a stranger launched not a single ship, but set a thousand tongues to wagging? The thought experiment might sound a little goofy, but in Maria Zoccola’s hands, the results are clarifying. These poems expand, complicate and enrich. Zoccola favors the golden shovel, a poetic form – like an acrostic’s more sophisticated cousin – that hides another text within itself. Her collection pulls off a similar trick, threading The Iliad into something wholly new.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "family matters", "for history lovers", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "1668046334", "cover": "1668046334", "goodreads": 214152128, "itunes": 9781668046333, "bookshop": 9781668046333, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Z0sdMSk3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668046333", "isbn10": "1668046334", "links": [] }, "118": { "id": 118, "edition": "fall", "title": "Hemlock & Silver", "author": "T. Kingfisher", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "

Healer Anja’s expertise is poisons – specifically, antidotes, although her success rate is marginal. When the king “invites” Anja to save his daughter Snow, the sole survivor of a gruesome family tragedy, she can’t say no. Armed with intellect and curiosity, Anja is assisted by a talking cat and a reluctant guardsman, even as her investigation takes her to a dark mirror world. T. Kingfisher writes with such warmth and wit that it’s easy to become ensnared before you realize the story’s going to chill you to the bone. Hemlock & Silver is a masterpiece of character voice and a deeply creepy, utterly refreshing take on a familiar fairy tale.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250342031", "cover": "1250342031", "goodreads": 217388302, "itunes": 9781250342034, "bookshop": 9781250342034, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81B5fGVv72L._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250342034", "isbn10": "1250342031", "links": [] }, "119": { "id": 119, "edition": "fall", "title": "History Matters", "author": "David McCullough, Dorie McCullough Lawson (contributor), Michael Hill (contributor)", "reviewers": [ "Shannon Rhoades" ], "text": "

If history can be a comfort read, this is it. David McCullough’s daughter Dorie McCullough Lawson and his longtime researcher, Michael Hill, assembled this posthumous collection over two years. Some of the historian’s old manuscripts and files were kept in a New England barn, so the occasional acorn and nest turned up along with the historian’s glorious observations about Americans and their history. The essay subjects are diverse – painter Thomas Eakins, Harriet Beecher Stowe in Paris, “A Book on Every Bed” (it will melt your heart). One theme emerges that you might find reassuring in its own way: There was no “simpler time.”

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "rather short", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "1668098997", "cover": "1668098997", "goodreads": 228062187, "itunes": 9781668098998, "bookshop": 9781668098998, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ieFK-3iOL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668098998", "isbn10": "1668098997", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 119, "book": "History Matters", "source": "NPR", "text": "A new book, 'History Matters,' features the work of David McCullough", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/20/nx-s1-5301040/a-new-book-history-matters-features-the-work-of-david-mccullough" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 119, "book": "History Matters", "source": "Maine Public", "text": "Maine Calling: 'History Matters'", "url": "https://www.mainepublic.org/show/maine-calling/2025-09-17/history-matters" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 119, "book": "History Matters", "source": "WAMC", "text": " 'History Matters' an essay collection by the late David McCullough", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2025-09-29/history-matters-is-a-collection-of-essays-by-one-of-the-most-decorated-historians-david-mccu" } ] }, "120": { "id": 120, "edition": "fall", "title": "How to Dodge a Cannonball", "author": "Dennard Dayle", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

I thought I was done with reading anything about the Civil War until this kooky satire marched into my life. Conspiracy? It’s got it. Flag twirling? Oh, it’s there, ultimately deployed with deadly force. A white teenager flips sides – twice – before trying to pass himself off as a flag-bearing octoroon in a Black Union regiment. None of them believes his foolishness, but they tolerate him anyway. His naivete and vainglory are delicious and hilarious, employed deftly by Dennard Dayle to skewer those who think war is da bomb and those who can’t be bothered to think too deeply about race.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "funny stuff", "fiction", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1250345677", "cover": "1250345677", "goodreads": 217388187, "itunes": 9781250345677, "bookshop": 9781250345677, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/512ZvPQ4ZBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250345677", "isbn10": "1250345677", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 120, "book": "How to Dodge a Cannonball", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'How to Dodge a Cannonball' satirizes the Civil War through a 15-year-old flag twirler", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/06/15/nx-s1-5136733/how-to-dodge-a-cannonball-satirizes-the-civil-war-through-a-15-year-old-flag-twirler" } ] }, "121": { "id": 121, "edition": "fall", "title": "How to Say Goodbye in Cuban", "author": "Daniel Miyares", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

Isn’t winning the lottery supposed to be a good thing? Then why is Carlos so miserable? After his papi wins it big, his family moves away from Carlos’ friends, farm and beloved abuelo to live in the big city. Even that might be OK, but then Fidel Castro comes to power and suddenly everything changes again. Sumptuous watercolor art ripples off the pages, as the book provides the best explanation of the Cuban Revolution for kids I’ve ever read. There’s humor and some serious heart going on in these pages. Based on the experiences of the author’s father, this graphic novel brings historical fiction to an all-new level. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "kids’ books", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "historical fiction", "fiction", "family matters" ], "isbn": "059356829X", "cover": "059356829X", "goodreads": 221996668, "itunes": 9780593568293, "bookshop": 9780593568293, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517FXO95YEL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593568293", "isbn10": "059356829X", "links": [] }, "122": { "id": 122, "edition": "summer", "title": "How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love, and Plenty", "author": "Bonny Reichert", "reviewers": [ "Shannon Rhoades" ], "text": "

The moment you finish, you’ll want to share this book with family and friends, just like a good meal. Journalist and chef Bonny Reichert grew up loving food. She also grew up the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Saul Reichert, who had nearly starved to death when he was a boy. There is pain but so much joy – and readers will love spending time in the Reicherts’ kitchen. As the author writes in her introduction, it’s “about a family that lost everything and built itself up again, one meal at a time.”

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "0593599160", "cover": "0593599160", "goodreads": 211953307, "itunes": 9780593599167, "bookshop": 9780593599167, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41PyyMludxL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593599167", "isbn10": "0593599160", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 122, "book": "How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love, and Plenty", "source": "NPR", "text": "Bonny Reichert's 'How to Share an Egg' is a memoir about food and family", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/01/25/nx-s1-5185933/bonny-reicherts-how-to-share-an-egg-is-a-memoir-about-food-and-family" } ] }, "123": { "id": 123, "edition": "fall", "title": "Hungerstone", "author": "Kat Dunn", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Wessel" ], "text": "

This gothic horror novel feels both classic and excitingly fresh. I absolutely devoured this reimagining of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, where a listless, unhappy wife finds her world turned upside down with the arrival of a mysterious stranger. What follows is an enthralling story about female rage, desire and the visceral thrill of a woman finally discovering her own appetites. It’s a perfect “good for her” novel for anyone who likes their horror atmospheric and sharp.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "let’s talk about sex", "the dark side", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1638932166", "cover": "1638932166", "goodreads": 212342605, "itunes": 9781638932161, "bookshop": 9781638932161, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41vR5afVzaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781638932161", "isbn10": "1638932166", "links": [] }, "124": { "id": 124, "edition": "fall", "title": "I Regret Almost Everything: A Memoir", "author": "Keith McNally", "reviewers": [ "Rommel Wood" ], "text": "

Starting from a hospital bed after he suffered a stroke in 2016, restaurateur Keith McNally chronicles the inspiration behind each of his restaurants and the details that make them unforgettable – the origins of the neon clock at the Odeon and whom the topless busts that bookend the bar at Balthazar are modeled after. And he dishes about his encounters with downtown legends Patti Smith, John Belushi, Jean-Michel Basquiat and more. There is a lot to chew on! He goes deep on his sexuality, immigrating to America and his work as a stage actor and film director.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "cookbooks & food", "staff picks", "family matters", "no biz like show biz", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1668017644", "cover": "1668017644", "goodreads": 112086449, "itunes": 9781668017647, "bookshop": 9781668017647, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ChFsr3qKL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668017647", "isbn10": "1668017644", "links": [] }, "125": { "id": 125, "edition": "fall", "title": "I See You've Called in Dead", "author": "John Kenney", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

As an obituary writer, Bud Stanley knows a thing or two about leaving a legacy. But when he writes and accidentally publishes his own fantastically fictional obituary one night, the consequences rewrite his own life story. While HR figures out whether they can fire someone coded as “deceased” in their system, Bud finally starts to cope with the emotional fallout of his divorce. In a journey that’s both laugh-out-loud funny and moving, Bud and his friends figure out what a life well lived really looks like.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "9798989923014", "cover": "9798989923014", "goodreads": 217204419, "itunes": 9798989923014, "bookshop": 9798989923014, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bj4IM8UkL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9798989923014", "isbn10": "8989923018", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 125, "book": "I See You've Called in Dead", "source": "NPR", "text": "John Kenney on his new novel, 'I See You've Called in Dead'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/04/05/nx-s1-5287790/john-kenney-on-his-new-novel-i-see-youve-called-in-dead" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 125, "book": "I See You've Called in Dead", "source": "KWBU", "text": "Likely Stories: 'I See You've Called in Dead' by John Kenney", "url": "https://www.kwbu.org/show/likely-stories/2025-07-10/likely-stories-i-see-youve-called-in-dead-by-john-kenney" } ] }, "126": { "id": 126, "edition": "fall", "title": "I, Medusa", "author": "Ayana Gray", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

Ayana Gray reimagines a classic Greek myth in a compelling, emotional and unexpected coming-of-age story. The New York Times bestselling author of young adult fantasy series (Beasts of Prey, Beasts of Ruin, Beasts of War) makes her debut in adult fiction with I, Medusa. This bold novel provides an in-depth look into a villain’s origins, emphasizing themes of sisterhood, culture, identity and revenge. Medusa, or Meddy, is a mortal 17-year-old with two sisters who have immortal blood. She catches Poseidon’s attention, but jealousy leads to an unthinkable consequence. Gray’s adult novel offers a bold interpretation of Medusa’s monstrous origins, making it a must-read.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593733762", "cover": "0593733762", "goodreads": 228143091, "itunes": 9780593733769, "bookshop": 9780593733769, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81LbHoTuswL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593733769", "isbn10": "0593733762", "links": [] }, "127": { "id": 127, "edition": "fall", "title": "I'll Tell You When I'm Home: A Memoir", "author": "Hala Alyan", "reviewers": [ "Adriana Gallardo" ], "text": "

In I’ll Tell You When I’m Home, Palestinian American writer and psychologist Hala Alyan describes her experience with infertility and the decision to have a child via surrogacy. The process of “waiting for something to happen in someone else’s body,” as she told NPR, echoed metaphors of exile and displacement for herself and generations of women in her family who were forced to leave their homes throughout the Middle East. What the book lacks in linear structure, it makes up for in poetry, raw memories and visceral notes from a mother to her daughter.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "198218258X", "cover": "198218258X", "goodreads": 220161011, "itunes": 9781982182588, "bookshop": 9781982182588, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41dFGtEIYwL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781982182588", "isbn10": "198218258X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 127, "book": "I'll Tell You When I'm Home: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Palestinian American writer Hala Alyan finds home and motherhood in a new memoir\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/07/03/nx-s1-5282371/hala-alyan-memoir-i-will-tell-you-when-i-am-home" } ] }, "128": { "id": 128, "edition": "fall", "title": "If You Love It, Let It Kill You", "author": "Hannah Pittard", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "

Literature about the anxieties and dissatisfactions of 40+ women is one area in which, thankfully, middle-aged women are not to be disappointed. To the recently rich genre plumbing the particular discontent of this stage in life, add Hannah Pittard’s latest. Her narrator – significantly, Hana P. – is a funny and restless English professor plagued by the impending publication of her ex’s autofictional novel. Any midlife woman who has felt a little deranged by a relentless mix of desire and irritation will recognize herself in Hana, even as her mind takes unique and surreal detours. Read it for the mix of comedy and malaise, and for dessert, you can plumb the internet for the epic literary back-and-forth between Pittard and her ex-husband about their real-life breakup. Pittard’s novel is fabulous and stands on its own, but it also serves as her very satisfying last word on that matter as well.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "1250910277", "cover": "1250910277", "goodreads": 217387666, "itunes": 9781250910271, "bookshop": 9781250910271, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41NxrmMhcDL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250910271", "isbn10": "1250910277", "links": [] }, "129": { "id": 129, "edition": "fall", "title": "Immaculate Conception", "author": "Ling Ling Huang", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

Ling Ling Huang’s Immaculate Conception is one of those novels that are about so much that they’re hard to pin down. An exploration of art in the digital age, a narrative about the contrasts between those who have and those who don’t, a deep look at the world of art in a near future where most art is derivative or irrelevant, and a science-fiction tale of grief and friendship, this is a nuanced, complex novel that, despite its flaws, soars thanks to its author’s unflinching approach to discussing creation, originality and the volatile world of art.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "for art lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593850432", "cover": "0593850432", "goodreads": 217453576, "itunes": 9780593850435, "bookshop": 9780593850435, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51cndfRtKCL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593850435", "isbn10": "0593850432", "links": [] }, "130": { "id": 130, "edition": "fall", "title": "Indignity: A Life Reimagined", "author": "Lea Ypi", "reviewers": [ "Vincent Ni" ], "text": "

A viral social media post of her grandmother’s honeymoon photo in Mussolini’s Italy sparked Albanian philosopher Lea Ypi to reimagine Leman Ypi’s remarkable life. Indignity is part memoir, part historical reconstruction of the Balkans’ 20th-century turmoil: wars, dictatorships, forced migrations and sweeping societal upheavals. It is also a work of philosophy, exploring the meaning of dignity and its absence. With the narrative grace of a novelist and the depth of a philosopher, Ypi, whose previous memoir, Free, has been translated into 30 languages, crafts a story that feels both intimate and profound.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0374614091", "cover": "0374614091", "goodreads": 222376548, "itunes": 9780374614096, "bookshop": 9780374614096, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41WLYAJMpEL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780374614096", "isbn10": "0374614091", "links": [] }, "131": { "id": 131, "edition": "fall", "title": "Is a River Alive?", "author": "Robert Macfarlane", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "

Robert Macfarlane gives the river a voice in this extraordinary work of nature writing. In pursuit of an answer to the titular question, he explores the lives of three very different rivers, explicating their perils and potential triumphs. What is epic in scope, Macfarlane makes feel intimate and urgent. His thorough knowledge of the subject matter is rivaled only by his mastery of language. These pages are full of passion; of clarity and poetry, fascinating and absolutely gorgeous. I think Macfarlane is one of the best writers working today. Don’t miss this one. If you are interested in life, it’s for you.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "science!", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0393242137", "cover": "0393242137", "goodreads": 218569826, "itunes": 9780393242133, "bookshop": 9780393242133, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51r1hu7RVqL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780393242133", "isbn10": "0393242137", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 131, "book": "Is a River Alive?", "source": "OPB", "text": "British nature writer Robert Macfarlane’s new book asks, ‘Is a river alive?’", "url": "https://www.opb.org/article/2025/06/11/think-out-loud-british-author-robert-mcfarlane-new-book-asks-river-alive/" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 131, "book": "Is a River Alive?", "source": "WNYC", "text": "The Brian Lehrer Show: The rights of rivers", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/the-rights-of-riv%20ers/" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 131, "book": "Is a River Alive?", "source": "KQED", "text": "Robert Macfarlane on the lives and rights of rivers", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101910125/robert-macfarlane-on-the-lives-and-rights-of-rivers" } ] }, "132": { "id": 132, "edition": "fall", "title": "Island Storm", "author": "Brian Floca, illustrated by Sydney Smith", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

A pair of children explore their seaside town as a storm blows in. They get farther and farther from home, but pause – along the shore, at their neighbors’ homes, in town – to consider whether they should turn back. Have they had enough? Or do they dare press on? Hand in hand, they help each other be brave, until Sydney Smith’s illustrations burst forth with dark, stormy energy that sends them running home. An excellent way to talk with kids about courage, adventure, feeling scared and staying safe. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0823456471", "cover": "0823456471", "goodreads": 218461960, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780823456475, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51t3sonWR3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780823456475", "isbn10": "0823456471", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 132, "book": "Island Storm", "source": "NPR", "text": "During an 'Island Storm,' two kids on an adventure ask – 'Do we try for more?'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/08/09/nx-s1-5485308/picture-this-island-storm-brian-floca-sydney-smith" } ] }, "133": { "id": 133, "edition": "fall", "title": "Isola", "author": "Allegra Goodman", "reviewers": [ "Katie Daugert" ], "text": "

This is the story of a 16th-century French noblewoman taken against her wishes to “New France” by her guardian. Upon arrival, she is cruelly cast out as punishment for falling in love and must attempt to survive on a small, remote island. As a castaway, her entire existence hinges on her natural environment: finding food, water and shelter, and not becoming a meal for polar bears. A harrowing page-turner inspired by a true story.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "fiction", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0593730089", "cover": "0593730089", "goodreads": 212806636, "itunes": 9780593730089, "bookshop": 9780593730089, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41l7fNXLCkL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593730089", "isbn10": "0593730089", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 133, "book": "Isola", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Allegra Goodman on 'Isola'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/show/the-book-show/2025-03-11/allegra-goodman-isola" } ] }, "134": { "id": 134, "edition": "fall", "title": "J vs. K", "author": "Jerry Craft and Kwame Alexander", "reviewers": [ "Emiko Tamagawa" ], "text": "

Two bestselling, Newbery Medal-winning kids’ book authors and friendly rivals team up to write a book about … two creative fifth-graders with their own rivalry! Kwame Alexander and Jerry Craft (or Jerry Craft and Kwame Alexander, depending on who you ask) not only produce a fun story with lively illustrations, but also sneak in lessons for kids on how to tap into their own creativity, maybe write and draw their own stuff. To which I say yay and amen! (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "kids’ books", "staff picks", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0316582689", "cover": "0316582689", "goodreads": 218372247, "itunes": 9780316582681, "bookshop": 9780316582681, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51R5yFnAWXL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780316582681", "isbn10": "0316582689", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 134, "book": "J vs. K", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "Kwame Alexander and Jerry Craft throw down and collaborate in 'J Vs. K'", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/10/14/j-vs-k-book" } ] }, "135": { "id": 135, "edition": "fall", "title": "John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs", "author": "Ian Leslie", "reviewers": [ "Ann Powers" ], "text": "

Fans of the Fab Four may have been skeptical when this meditation on the Beatles’ central creative partnership, written by a bestselling human behavior specialist, hit the already heaving shelf of books on the band. But Ian Leslie’s dual portrait reframes the Lennon-McCartney relationship in ways that made this lore-soaked Beatles fan bow in recognition and respect. From the lads’ first meeting as teen strivers to the breakup that shook the world, Leslie fleshes out a deeply affectionate, wildly competitive dynamic between two exceptional young men unable to say in words what they shared so easily in song. A love story, indeed.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "for music lovers", "for history lovers", "rather long" ], "isbn": "1250869544", "cover": "1250869544", "goodreads": 211004838, "itunes": 9781250869548, "bookshop": 9781250869548, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41+FhiokFYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250869548", "isbn10": "1250869544", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 135, "book": "John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs", "source": "KQED", "text": "New book ‘John & Paul’ explores complex ties between Lennon and McCartney", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/arts/13974173/new-beatles-biography-book-john-lennon-paul-mccartney-love-story-songs" } ] }, "136": { "id": 136, "edition": "fall", "title": "Joyride: A Memoir", "author": "Susan Orlean", "reviewers": [ "Jennifer Vanasco" ], "text": "

Celebrated journalist Susan Orlean became a pop culture icon when her nonfiction book The Orchid Thief became the basis for the fanciful 2002 film Adaptation, written by Charlie Kaufman (Orlean was played by Meryl Streep). Her new book, Joyride, part writing manual and part memoir, deconstructs a handful of her best-known articles and books (including The Orchid Thief) and answers the questions most often asked at writing conferences: How do you come up with ideas? How do you report a full-length profile? How do you approach structuring a book for the first time? Though she breezes past most details of her life, the book is a master class in nonfiction writing, and Orlean instructs with humility and warmth.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "1982135166", "cover": "1982135166", "goodreads": 224003864, "itunes": 9781982135164, "bookshop": 9781982135164, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/411+SEM3iQL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781982135164", "isbn10": "1982135166", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 136, "book": "Joyride: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Bestselling author Susan Orlean discusses her new memoir, 'Joyride'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/11/nx-s1-5389555/bestselling-author-susan-orlean-discusses-her-new-memoir-joyride" } ] }, "137": { "id": 137, "edition": "summer", "title": "Julie Chan Is Dead", "author": "Liann Zhang", "reviewers": [ "Hafsa Fathima" ], "text": "

Julie and her estranged twin, Chloe, may look identical, but that’s where the similarities end. Julie works at a supermarket, while her sister revels in the love of millions as a social media influencer. But when Chloe dies, Julie realizes she can pass for her twin – if people don’t look too closely. What follows is a thrilling, haunting look at the upkeep of pretending to be someone you’re not, whether on-screen or in person. As Julie goes to brow-raising lengths to keep up the farce and maintain her newfound audience’s love, you’ll find yourself asking whether she has a limit.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "family matters", "the dark side", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1668067897", "cover": "1668067897", "goodreads": 220161576, "itunes": 9781668067895, "bookshop": 9781668067895, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41qo9OIZ9xL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668067895", "isbn10": "1668067897", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 137, "book": "Julie Chan Is Dead", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Julie Chan Is Dead' is a thriller that satirizes influencers", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/04/nx-s1-5252922/julie-chan-is-dead-is-a-thriller-that-satirizes-influencers" } ] }, "138": { "id": 138, "edition": "fall", "title": "Kakigori Summer", "author": "Emily Itami", "reviewers": [ "Emiko Tamagawa" ], "text": "

This book transported me to a hot summer in coastal Japan, where three half-Japanese sisters gather at the family home after one of them has become a national scandal. What rings so true for me is that it not only explores the shifting dynamics of sisterhood, but also probes what it’s like to be a perpetual outsider in a place that you think of as home. The book is a summer treat that doesn’t melt away but continues to resonate after you put it down.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0063432161", "cover": "0063432161", "goodreads": 218671811, "itunes": 9780063432161, "bookshop": 9780063432161, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/5138JVNb+zL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063432161", "isbn10": "0063432161", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 138, "book": "Kakigori Summer", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": " 'Kakigori Summer' explores issues of sisterhood and identity", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/06/30/kakigori-summer-emily-itami" } ] }, "139": { "id": 139, "edition": "fall", "title": "Katabasis", "author": "R.F. Kuang", "reviewers": [ "Jason Grosman" ], "text": "

Let’s get two things out of the way first: Katabasis is the Greek term for stories recounting journeys to the underworld, and the real hell is grad school. R.F. Kuang’s dense novel follows two rival doctoral students (of magic!) who follow their adviser into literal hell. Following the threads of tales like Dante’s Inferno, Alice Law and Peter Murdoch journey through each circle of the damned, which for them mirrors the college campus from whence they came. Though they face some genuine fire and brimstone demons, their real challenge is confronting their own notions of success and sacrifice and acknowledging the ways they’ve each been damaged by academia.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "the dark side", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather long", "fiction", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0063021471", "cover": "0063021471", "goodreads": 210191773, "itunes": 6479694621, "bookshop": 9780063021471, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91a4ACKmGXL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063021471", "isbn10": "0063021471", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 139, "book": "Katabasis", "source": "NPR", "text": "If you loved 'Yellowface,' R.F. Kuang's new novel 'Katabasis' is even better", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/08/29/nx-s1-5517939/kuang-katabasis-review-yellowface-babel" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 139, "book": "Katabasis", "source": "NPR Illinois", "text": "R.F. Kuang's 'Katabasis' follows 2 grad students' descent into hell", "url": "https://www.nprillinois.org/2025-09-05/r-f-kuangs-katabasis-follows-2-grad-students-descent-into-hell" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 139, "book": "Katabasis", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Author R.F. Kuang on 'Katabasis' and the absurdities of academia", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/npr/wamu1a-73161/author-r-f-kuang-on-katabasis-and-the-absurdities-of-academia" } ] }, "140": { "id": 140, "edition": "fall", "title": "Killer Potential", "author": "Hannah Deitch", "reviewers": [ "Alan Yu" ], "text": "

Former high-achieving student and now SAT tutor Evie Gordon shows up to her student’s luxurious home one day to find the rich parents dead, and a mysterious stranger tied up in a closet. She impulsively unties the stranger, who does not speak to her. Through a series of mishaps and fateful decisions, they both end up on the run on a crime spree/road trip, wanted as serial killers. The plot details slowly unfold from both Evie’s and the stranger’s points of view. A romantic plotline and bits of social commentary add more depth to the tense thrill ride of a story.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063356481", "cover": "0063356481", "goodreads": 215217589, "itunes": 9780063356481, "bookshop": 9780063356481, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51q155fKJlL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063356481", "isbn10": "0063356481", "links": [] }, "141": { "id": 141, "edition": "summer", "title": "Killing Stella", "author": "Marlen Haushofer, translated by Shaun Whiteside", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

Marlen Haushofer’s Killing Stella has much in common with the claustrophobic-yet-idyllic milieu of White Lotus or Patricia Smith’s Ripley novels. Originally published in German in 1958 and incisively rendered into English only recently by Irish translator Shaun Whiteside, this deceptively restrained novella by the Austrian author – framed as a written confession by an otherwise thoughtful housewife about her non-intervention regarding her husband’s casual seduction of a guileless teenager – anticipated Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange and Hannah Arendt’s famous “banality of evil” thesis. The novel’s chilling dissection of moral apathy, while confined to a small group of well-educated bourgeois in an urban European setting, is especially prescient since it implicates all of us. Our natural sins of omission can be extended to any marginalized individual or group, due to our cowardice, our insistence on the status quo, or our need to maintain emotional safety and social stability.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0811238652", "cover": "0811238652", "goodreads": 219299650, "itunes": 9780811238656, "bookshop": 9780811238656, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31bVjoqogdL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780811238656", "isbn10": "0811238652", "links": [] }, "142": { "id": 142, "edition": "summer", "title": "King of Ashes", "author": "S.A. Cosby", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

Family secrets are something and in this Southern crime drama, they burn! When Roman Carruthers’ elderly father is incapacitated by the local drug gang, this prodigal son returns to set things right and protect his hapless younger brother and his hardworking sister. She needs help keeping the family crematorium business going. Know what’s good for getting rid of a body you don’t want around? A crematorium! Roman gets pulled in deeper and deeper as he tries to take down the gang from the inside, just as his sister thinks she’s uncovered the mystery of what really happened to their long-missing mother. This story spins and spins violently to a dark and satisfying conclusion.

", "tags": [ "family matters", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "1250832063", "cover": "1250832063", "goodreads": 219833252, "itunes": 9781250832061, "bookshop": 9781250832061, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51dglc7FJhL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250832061", "isbn10": "1250832063", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 142, "book": "King of Ashes", "source": "WYSO", "text": " 'King of Ashes' by S.A. Cosby: Family, crime & crematory secrets", "url": "https://www.wyso.org/podcast/book-nook/2025-06-22/king-of-ashes-sa-cosby-family-crime-drama" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 142, "book": "King of Ashes", "source": "KPBS", "text": "S.A. Cosby discusses latest thriller ahead of San Diego event", "url": "https://www.kpbs.org/podcasts/kpbs-midday-edition/s-a-cosby-discusses-latest-thriller-ahead-of-san-diego-event" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 142, "book": "King of Ashes", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: S.A. Cosby's new thriller 'King of Ashes'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/sa-cosbys-new-thriller-king-of-ashes/" } ] }, "143": { "id": 143, "edition": "fall", "title": "Kirby's Lessons for Falling (in Love)", "author": "Laura Gao", "reviewers": [ "Rakiesha Chase-Jackson" ], "text": "

Kirby Tan prides herself as the “Queen of Balance.” A high school rock-climbing prodigy, she’s never let much hold her back. Still, she’s always been hesitant to reach too far beyond the path mapped for her by her traditional, religious upbringing. That is, until an injury has her falling – into new friendships, away from expectations, and (maybe most importantly) in love with the crystal-wielding, astrological girl of her dreams. Kirby’s Lessons for Falling (in Love) is an honest snapshot of how insecurity and fear can ground even the most confident person and how almost nothing is insurmountable on the climb back up to the top.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "staff picks", "family matters", "identity & culture", "for sports lovers", "young adult", "fiction", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "006306779X", "cover": "006306779X", "goodreads": 214369383, "itunes": 9780063067790, "bookshop": 9780063067790, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bxvMRJGKL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063067790", "isbn10": "006306779X", "links": [] }, "144": { "id": 144, "edition": "fall", "title": "Last Chance Live!", "author": "Helena Haywoode Henry", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

Last Chance Live! by Helena Haywoode Henry is a debut young adult novel that explores the “what if” of a reality TV-style premise: 18-year-old Eternity Price (love the main character’s name) is on death row, just in time to become a “contestant” on a new reality TV show where America votes for the inmate who will lose their right to appeal their death sentence or win their freedom. A compelling, emotionally raw, dark and thought-provoking story that digs deep, Last Chance Live! raises important questions about society, justice and humanity. At times challenging, Henry’s novel presents a new voice in YA fiction willing to push the boundaries of storytelling.

", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "the dark side", "rather long", "no biz like show biz", "fiction", "young adult" ], "isbn": "0593625307", "cover": "0593625307", "goodreads": 223362145, "itunes": 9780593625309, "bookshop": 9780593625309, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4198PT6pPhL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593625309", "isbn10": "0593625307", "links": [] }, "145": { "id": 145, "edition": "fall", "title": "Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families", "author": "Judith Giesberg", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "

In 2017, historian Judith Giesberg and her team of graduate student researchers launched a website called the “Last Seen” project. It now contains over 5,000 ads placed in newspapers by formerly enslaved people hoping to find family members separated by slavery. The ads span the 1830s to the 1920s and serve as portals “into the lived experience of slavery.” In Last Seen, her book drawn from that monumental website, Giesberg closely reads 10 of those ads placed in search of lost children, mothers, wives, siblings and comrades who served in the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "1982174323", "cover": "1982174323", "goodreads": 214152253, "itunes": 9781982174323, "bookshop": 9781982174323, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vpU0C0nbL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781982174323", "isbn10": "1982174323", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 145, "book": "Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": " 'Last Seen': After slavery, family members placed ads looking for loved ones", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/02/26/nx-s1-5308644/last-seen-judith-giesberg-slavery" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 145, "book": "Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families", "source": "WYPR", "text": "On The Record: 'Last Seen' tells how ads helped formerly enslaved people find family", "url": "https://www.wypr.org/show/on-the-record/2025-02-10/last-seen-tells-how-ads-helped-formerly-enslaved-people-find-family" } ] }, "146": { "id": 146, "edition": "fall", "title": "Lay Your Armor Down", "author": "Michael Farris Smith", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

Every year there is a novel that comes out of left field and sticks with me for a long time. This year, it was Michael Farris Smith’s Lay Your Armor Down. A novel that shyly dips its toes into the supernatural while anchored in crime fiction, this story of desperate men caught up in a strange situation with a child who may or may not have special powers is raw and violent. But it’s also full of lyrical passages and the kind of sharp prose that has made Smith a household name.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "seriously great writing", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "031657337X", "cover": "031657337X", "goodreads": 218372405, "itunes": 9780316573375, "bookshop": 9780316573375, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DOUAsH2eL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780316573375", "isbn10": "031657337X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 146, "book": "Lay Your Armor Down", "source": "Alabama Public Radio", "text": "Don Novle's Book Reviews: 'Lay Your Armor Down'q", "url": "https://www.apr.org/show/don-nobles-book-reviews/2025-06-23/lay-your-amor-down" } ] }, "147": { "id": 147, "edition": "fall", "title": "Let's Party: Recipes and Menus for Celebrating Every Day", "author": "Dan Pelosi", "reviewers": [ "Kyra Waller" ], "text": "

If you’re cooking for any sort of gathering, whether an intimate dinner for two or a large holiday party you’re hosting, you need this absolutely delightful cookbook and guide to entertaining. On top of the delicious recipes, Dan Pelosi walks you through how to set a table, what to bring to your next book club meeting and how to shop well at a farmers market. With chapters such as Pumpkin Spice Up Your Life, Tomato Girl Summer, and Let’s Grill, Girls!, Let’s Party encourages you to keep your meals simple and fresh and always bring your authentic and colorful self to the table.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "145495678X", "cover": "145495678X", "goodreads": 230274242, "itunes": 9781454956785, "bookshop": 9781454956785, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/513PmEfyeeL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781454956785", "isbn10": "145495678X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 147, "book": "Let's Party: Recipes and Menus for Celebrating Every Day", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: Dan Pelosi wants to help you throw a dinner party", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/dan-pelosi-wants-to-help-you-throw-a-dinner-party/" } ] }, "148": { "id": 148, "edition": "fall", "title": "Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist", "author": "Daniel Pollack-Pelzner", "reviewers": [ "Jennifer Vanasco" ], "text": "

This authorized biography of Lin-Manuel Miranda, the composer, lyricist, director and actor best known for Hamilton, delves into the fascinating nitty-gritty of the collaborations that help his productions come together. People call Miranda a genius because he seamlessly mashes seemingly disparate ideas together (the American Revolution and hip-hop!) to make work that is sparkling with joy, emotionally resonant and blazingly new. And writer Daniel Pollack-Pelzner brings us so deeply into this work – tracing the birth of individual songs line by line – that we feel the zing of creation.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "no biz like show biz", "identity & culture", "rather long", "for music lovers" ], "isbn": "166801470X", "cover": "166801470X", "goodreads": 224004620, "itunes": 9781668014707, "bookshop": 9781668014707, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Bk6jEvqZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668014707", "isbn10": "166801470X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 148, "book": "Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist", "source": "NPR", "text": "A new biography zeroes in on Lin-Manuel Miranda's superpower", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/12/nx-s1-5532081/lin-manuel-miranda-biography-hamilton" } ] }, "149": { "id": 149, "edition": "summer", "title": "Liquid: A Love Story", "author": "Mariam Rahmani", "reviewers": [ "Neena Pathak" ], "text": "

An unnamed ex-academic decides to marry rich to escape the grim university job market and her lackluster love life. She makes a spreadsheet and tracks her dates, while navigating life in LA and Tehran, her Iranian Indian heritage and a close will-they-won’t-they friendship. The novel is stylish and quick-witted, and it blends heady theory – about love, capitalism, immigration, sex and death – with the brass tacks of parties, hookups, post-9/11 surveillance in the U.S., health care in Iran and more. Mariam Rahmani includes the best details. And the cover art is gorgeous.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "fiction", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "1643756508", "cover": "1643756508", "goodreads": 215749072, "itunes": 9781643756509, "bookshop": 9781643756509, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41GBdtYOYYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781643756509", "isbn10": "1643756508", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 149, "book": "Liquid: A Love Story", "source": "VPR", "text": "Bennington professor's debut novel upends the traditional rom-com narrative", "url": "https://www.vermontpublic.org/show/vermont-edition/2025-04-16/bennington-professors-debut-novel-upends-the-traditional-rom-com-narrative" } ] }, "150": { "id": 150, "edition": "fall", "title": "Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America", "author": "Bridget Read", "reviewers": [ "Holly J. Morris" ], "text": "

At the start, this book sounds like it’s overselling the evils of multilevel marketing. Surely LuLaRoe and Mary Kay cosmetics aren’t part of “a radical ideological plot to reorganize everything about how we work, survive and take care of one another”?! At the end, you’ll say, “Wow, capitalism is the biggest MLM scheme of all.” In between, Bridget Read explains why few people understand how MLM organizations function; how MLM heavyweight Amway has tentacles in the Heritage Foundation (of Project 2025 fame) and the Republican Party; and why these cult-esque operations are still allowed to flourish – all over the world.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593443926", "cover": "0593443926", "goodreads": 217245597, "itunes": 9780593443927, "bookshop": 9780593443927, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41XYWr1fH+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593443927", "isbn10": "0593443926", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 150, "book": "Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America", "source": "NPR", "text": "Bridget Read discusses her book 'Little Bosses Everywhere' on multi-level marketing", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/11/nx-s1-5316885/bridget-read-discusses-her-book-little-bosses-everywhere-on-multi-level-marketing" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 150, "book": "Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America", "source": "RadioWest KUER", "text": "RadioWest: How multilevel marketing shaped America", "url": "https://radiowest.kuer.org/show/radiowest/2025-07-29/how-multilevel-marketing-shaped-america" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 150, "book": "Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America", "source": "KQED", "text": "How multilevel marketing became America’s ‘Unseen Propaganda Factory’", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101910113/how-multi-level-marketing-became-americas-unseen-propaganda-factory" } ] }, "151": { "id": 151, "edition": "summer", "title": "Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary", "author": "Victoria Amelina", "reviewers": [ "Joanna Kakissis" ], "text": "

A brilliant novelist and poet, Victoria Amelina faced Russia’s invasion and assault on her native Ukraine by transforming into a war crimes researcher and real-time documentarian. When I last interviewed her in June 2023, she was deep into writing this book, one focused on “extraordinary women” seeking justice. When a Russian missile killed her a few weeks later, it was left to three of her closest friends and her husband to finish her book using her notes. This book, at times anecdotal, is mesmerizing, combining short narratives, diary-like commentary, raw testimonies and disquieting detail.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir" ], "isbn": "1250367689", "cover": "1250367689", "goodreads": 211003691, "itunes": 9781250367686, "bookshop": 9781250367686, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41FpHW8P9+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250367686", "isbn10": "1250367689", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 151, "book": "Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary", "source": "Boise State Public Radio", "text": "Reader's Corner: 'Looking at Women Looking at War' by Victoria Amelina", "url": "https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/show/readers-corner/2025-10-10/looking-at-women-looking-at-war-by-victoria-amelina" } ] }, "152": { "id": 152, "edition": "summer", "title": "Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live", "author": "Susan Morrison", "reviewers": [ "Eric Deggans" ], "text": "

He’s been compared to everyone from Darth Vader to the Wizard of Oz. But Saturday Night Live creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels has remained a coolly enigmatic figure for most of the show’s 50-season tenure – ripe for a star-filled, myth-busting biography. Susan Morrison, an editor at The New Yorker, got Michaels to open up in interviews, developing a detailed, knowing look at his career, from his early days in Canadian TV to his status as major gatekeeper in American comedy. She explores it all in a 656-page tome flipping between his life story and work on one episode in 2018, revealing how Michaels leverages a detached confidence and command of the zeitgeist to keep SNL relevant.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "no biz like show biz", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "rather long", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0812988876", "cover": "0812988876", "goodreads": 216818681, "itunes": 9780812988871, "bookshop": 9780812988871, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41rK66Yhs4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780812988871", "isbn10": "0812988876", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 152, "book": "Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: Full Bio: Lorne Michaels and the creation of SNL", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/full-bio-lorne-michaels-and-the-creation-of-snl/" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 152, "book": "Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Author Susan Morrison on profiling Lorne Michaels", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/the-treatment/stories/lorne-man-invented-saturday-night-live-interview" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 152, "book": "Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live", "source": "WPR ", "text": " ‘His fingerprints are quietly on every aspect of it’: Lorne Michaels’ journey with SNL", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/culture/lorne-michaels-invented-saturday-night-live-snl-susan-morrison-biography-beta" } ] }, "153": { "id": 153, "edition": "fall", "title": "Love Forms", "author": "Claire Adam", "reviewers": [ "Denise Couture" ], "text": "

Don’t be put off by the dull title. This novel reads like a poignant memoir by an older woman trying to piece together fragments of her past, ostensibly to help her find the daughter she gave up for adoption decades earlier. Dawn, now divorced and living in England, grew up white and wealthy in Trinidad. At 16, she was sent on a harrowing journey by small boat to Venezuela, where nuns took in unmarried pregnant girls. Is it Dawn’s search for her daughter that finally allows her to seek answers to questions she’s never dared to ask?

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0593230922", "cover": "0593230922", "goodreads": 220999014, "itunes": 9780593230923, "bookshop": 9780593230923, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51rWQFC8rSL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593230923", "isbn10": "0593230922", "links": [] }, "154": { "id": 154, "edition": "fall", "title": "Loved One", "author": "Aisha Muharrar", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

When someone dies suddenly – young, healthy, in pursuit of their ambitions – it’s hard to come to terms with the loss. Not only is that person gone, but so is the part of you who existed in relation to them. We meet Julia in the throes of this reckoning as she mourns her first love, Gabe, who became a close friend after their romance. At Gabe’s mother’s request, Julia is sent to retrieve some items from the home where he lived with Elizabeth, his most recent ex-girlfriend. The novel follows these three women as they attempt to move forward under the weight of their shared grief.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593655842", "cover": "0593655842", "goodreads": 221473262, "itunes": 9780593655849, "bookshop": 9780593655849, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51dlcbTpkGL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593655849", "isbn10": "0593655842", "links": [] }, "155": { "id": 155, "edition": "fall", "title": "Make Sure You Die Screaming", "author": "Zee Carlstrom", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

You know that meme where a dog is sitting in a burning house saying “This is fine”? The narrator of this book is like that: They’re incredibly angry at the world and its ills, but they seem to be using that rage to suppress the ways their own life is on fire. They head home (ostensibly to help their mom search for their missing dad) in a stolen car with a new friend, Yivi, and spend days with her on the road making one bad decision after another. This book is for anyone who’s mad, messy and needs a good laugh to boot.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1250365678", "cover": "1250365678", "goodreads": 211004043, "itunes": 9781250365675, "bookshop": 9781250365675, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Wn2JMGCUL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250365675", "isbn10": "1250365678", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 155, "book": "Make Sure You Die Screaming", "source": "KQED", "text": "‘Make Sure You Die Screaming’ is an absurd road trip novel for modern times", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/arts/13974201/make-sure-you-die-screaming-zee-carlstrom-book-review-road-trip-novel" } ] }, "156": { "id": 156, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Manor of Dreams", "author": "Christina Li", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Wessel" ], "text": "

Not all ghosts are listless spirits; some are secrets with a legacy. When a reclusive Hollywood starlet dies, her will forces two estranged families to live under the same roof in her decaying, creepy mansion. Christina Li masterfully tells a multigenerational family tale about what achieving the American dream gets you, and what it costs. It also has moments of true suspense that kept me turning the pages long into the night. It’s a quiet, atmospheric and deeply unsettling book that will stick with you long after you finish.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "no biz like show biz", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers" ], "isbn": "1668051729", "cover": "1668051729", "goodreads": 214152076, "itunes": 9781668051726, "bookshop": 9781668051726, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41B4K0acmmL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668051726", "isbn10": "1668051729", "links": [] }, "157": { "id": 157, "edition": "summer", "title": "Marble Hall Murders", "author": "Anthony Horowitz", "reviewers": [ "Ameera Butt" ], "text": "

Anthony Horowitz is back with a new mystery-within-a-mystery book featuring returning character Susan Ryeland. She has to edit a new novel by Eliot Crace centered on world famous detective Atticus Pünd. Pünd finds himself in the South of France solving the murder of his friend, wealthy Lady Margaret Chalfont. After she is poisoned, Pünd has to figure out who in her family is the killer. As Ryeland tries to figure out who the killer is in Crace’s Pünd novel, she becomes a suspect in a murder herself. Horowitz delivers another cleverly written story full of hidden anagrams, secrets and disguises that is well worth the trip back into the world of Susan Ryeland and Atticus Pünd.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "rather long", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063305704", "cover": "0063305704", "goodreads": 217432789, "itunes": 9780063305700, "bookshop": 9780063305700, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41c0zZRPxWL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063305700", "isbn10": "0063305704", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 157, "book": "Marble Hall Murders", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "Author Anthony Horowitz on his latest book-within-a-book, 'Marble Hall Murders'", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/05/13/marble-hall-murders" } ] }, "158": { "id": 158, "edition": "fall", "title": "Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools", "author": "Mary Annette Pember", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

Mary Annette Pember, a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Wisconsin Ojibwe and a national correspondent at ICT News, grew up in the 1950s and 1960s as her mother’s “secret confessor,” listening to fairy-tale-like stories of the horrors she endured at an assimilative boarding school. In Medicine River, Pember traces the repercussions of her mother’s maltreatment, situating her family’s story within the United States’ systemic use of education to eradicate Native cultures. Through an approach that is “part journalistic research, part spiritual pilgrimage,” Pember provides a cuttingly personal account of the history of federally funded Indian boarding schools and a moving look at how Indigenous traditions and rituals can light the path for healing.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0553387316", "cover": "0553387316", "goodreads": 216750982, "itunes": 9780553387315, "bookshop": 9780553387315, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51akPRzBGpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780553387315", "isbn10": "0553387316", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 158, "book": "Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools", "source": "WPR", "text": "New book shows generational impact of Native American boarding schools through a Wisconsin family", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/news/medicine-river-mary-annette-pember-book-generational-impact-native-american-boarding-schools-wisconsin-family" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 158, "book": "Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools", "source": "Boise State Public Radio", "text": "Reader's Corner: 'Medicine River' by Mary Annette Pember", "url": "https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/show/readers-corner/2025-10-24/medicine-river-by-mary-annette-pember" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 158, "book": "Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools", "source": "WYSO", "text": "Book Nook: 'Medicine River' by Mary Annette Pember", "url": "https://www.wyso.org/podcast/book-nook/2025-06-22/medicine-river-a-story-of-survival-and-the-legacy-of-indian-boarding-schools-by-mary-annette-pember" } ] }, "159": { "id": 159, "edition": "summer", "title": "Meet Me at the Crossroads", "author": "Megan Giddings", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

I first got to know Megan Giddings’ writing through her short stories and flash fiction, and I adored her first two novels – so it’s no surprise to me that her third, Meet Me at the Crossroads, is gorgeous, heartfelt and wonderfully strange. Twins Ayanna and Olivia each live with a different parent: Olivia with their Christian mom and Ayanna with their Pathsong dad. Pathsong, the religion Ayanna comes of age in, is a belief system centered around the seven mysterious doors that have appeared around the world and which open at unpredictable intervals. Through the doors lies, maybe, the world of the dead – or, maybe, just a totally different plane of existence. When Ayanna takes part in a ritual that brings her through the doors, Olivia unexpectedly tags along and, well, you should read it and find out.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0063337975", "cover": "0063337975", "goodreads": 218431668, "itunes": 9780063337978, "bookshop": 9780063337978, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DrdAmZFTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063337978", "isbn10": "0063337975", "links": [] }, "160": { "id": 160, "edition": "summer", "title": "Memorial Days: A Memoir", "author": "Geraldine Brooks", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

Grief is both universal and extremely personal. When Geraldine Brooks’ vibrant husband, renowned fellow writer Tony Horwitz, died suddenly away from home, the shock was all-consuming. Moving through all of the paperwork, the practical tasks that needed tending didn’t allow Brooks to truly mourn the loss of her companion, lover, co-parent, family raconteur … the one who dealt with the accountant. Three years later, on a remote Australian island, Brooks really reckons with her grief and the ways in which our cultures and faiths support – or minimize – time for it. A beautiful ode to a life, a partnership and living with loss.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "biography & memoir", "rather short", "nonfiction", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "059365398X", "cover": "059365398X", "goodreads": 212806569, "itunes": 9780593653982, "bookshop": 9780593653982, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bosLalmPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593653982", "isbn10": "059365398X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 160, "book": "Memorial Days: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Tony Horwitz's widow Geraldine Brooks writes a beautiful memoir of grief", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/02/18/nx-s1-5294514/geraldine-brooks-tony-horwitz-memorial-days" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 160, "book": "Memorial Days: A Memoir", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Geraldine Brooks' memoir details how she grieved husband Tony Horwitz's sudden death", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/02/17/geraldine-brooks-tony-horwitz-memoir" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 160, "book": "Memorial Days: A Memoir", "source": "IPR", "text": "Geraldine Brooks on 'the work of grieving,' and what we can all do\r", "url": "https://www.interlochenpublicradio.org/2025-02-06/geraldine-brooks-on-the-work-of-grieving-and-what-we-can-all-do" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 160, "book": "Memorial Days: A Memoir", "source": "MPR", "text": "Novelist Geraldine Brooks reflects on the abrupt loss of her husband in her new memoir", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2025/02/28/novelist-geraldine-brooks-reflects-on-the-abrupt-loss-of-her-husband-in-her-new-memoir" } ] }, "161": { "id": 161, "edition": "fall", "title": "Mercy", "author": "Joan Silber", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

Joan Silber is one of America’s most underappreciated literary treasures, and she just keeps getting better. Her latest novel follows Ivan, who in 1970s New York experiments with heroin with a friend and then abandons him in a hospital. Silber recounts the fallout from Ivan’s decision with compassion and clearheadedness and explores the themes of friendship and forgiveness with the self-assuredness of a master storyteller – which she undoubtedly is.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "rather short", "historical fiction" ], "isbn": "1640097074", "cover": "1640097074", "goodreads": 224046271, "itunes": 9781640097070, "bookshop": 9781640097070, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41kiUG88N+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781640097070", "isbn10": "1640097074", "links": [] }, "162": { "id": 162, "edition": "fall", "title": "Minor Black Figures", "author": "Brandon Taylor", "reviewers": [ "Liam McBain" ], "text": "

Minor Black Figures is one of the most perfect books I’ve ever read. It’s about an artist struggling with modern life (and dating a hot ex-priest), and I was so engrossed by all the questions it raised. How do you make Black art when the world so badly misreads it? How can you love when love requires vulnerability? Can we restore our faith in the world when it keeps disappointing or harming us? These threads come together deftly, beautifully, with prose I happily lost myself in.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "for art lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "fiction", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0593332369", "cover": "0593332369", "goodreads": 228788985, "itunes": 9780593332368, "bookshop": 9780593332368, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41EKnnChSNL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593332368", "isbn10": "0593332369", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 162, "book": "Minor Black Figures", "source": "NPR", "text": "Art, faith, & your tendency to overthink it.", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/15/nx-s1-5574434/art-faith-your-tendency-to-overthink-it" } ] }, "163": { "id": 163, "edition": "fall", "title": "Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist", "author": "Liz Pelly", "reviewers": [ "Sheldon Pearce" ], "text": "

Both listeners and musicians are trapped in an abusive relationship with Spotify, the streaming service that has reshaped the modern music landscape. It has dramatically skewed the way we listen, making the experience more passive and the act of creating less tenable. Mood Machine masterfully interrogates this new paradigm. Part origin story, part investigation and part call to action, it creates a panoramic view of a flawed Spotify infrastructure that’s rapidly devaluing musical labor and engagement. Written by a fierce advocate for artists’ rights and one of the streaming economy’s most dogged critics, this rousing industry probe has the tenacity to challenge algorithmic hegemony and the conviction to imagine a more sustainable future.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "for music lovers", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "1668083507", "cover": "1668083507", "goodreads": 214151728, "itunes": 9781668083505, "bookshop": 9781668083505, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41M2x+FjpdL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668083505", "isbn10": "1668083507", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 163, "book": "Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist", "source": "WBUR", "text": "How Spotify shapes how we listen to music", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2025/04/11/spotify-music-liz-pelly-mood-machine" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 163, "book": "Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist", "source": "KJZZ", "text": "If you think Spotify was designed to be a music platform, this writer says you've been tricked", "url": "https://www.kjzz.org/the-show/2025-01-21/if-you-think-spotify-was-designed-to-be-a-music-platform-this-writer-says-youve-been-tricked" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 163, "book": "Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist", "source": "KQED", "text": "Liz Pelly on Spotify and the ‘Cost of the Perfect Playlist’", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101908652/liz-pelly-on-spotify" } ] }, "164": { "id": 164, "edition": "fall", "title": "Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church", "author": "Kevin Sack", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "

There was great symbolism when a white supremacist targeted Charleston’s Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, killing nine Black worshippers as a means to ignite a race war. As we learn in this deeply researched history, the congregation has been involved in the struggle for racial justice ever since it was founded in an “act of bold subversion” by enslaved and free African Americans in the 1800s. I am struck by the stories of clergy and members who fought against seemingly insurmountable odds at nearly every turn of history, truly living out their faith and believing in a better America.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "rather long" ], "isbn": "1524761303", "cover": "1524761303", "goodreads": 218460355, "itunes": 9781524761301, "bookshop": 9781524761301, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81wDDJr5ysL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781524761301", "isbn10": "1524761303", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 164, "book": "Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church", "source": "NPR", "text": "10 years after the deadly church shooting, a new history of 'Mother Emanuel'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/06/14/nx-s1-5391851/kevin-sack-mother-emanuel" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 164, "book": "Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church", "source": "South Carolina Public Radio", "text": "Kevin Sack on 'Mother Emanuel: Two centuries of race, resistance, and forgiveness'", "url": "https://www.southcarolinapublicradio.org/history/2025-06-06/mother-emanuel-two-centuries-of-race-resistance-and-forgiveness" } ] }, "165": { "id": 165, "edition": "fall", "title": "Mother Mary Comes to Me", "author": "Arundhati Roy", "reviewers": [ "Leila Fadel" ], "text": "

When your mother is your anchor, your icon and your tormentor, how do you deal with her death? That’s what celebrated writer Arundhati Roy grapples with in her searing memoir. It’s a raw look at the feminist force that shaped her as an award-winning novelist and essayist. The story begins in Roy’s childhood in Kerala, India, as her mother, Mary, strikes out on her own and founds a school. As a single mother, Mary is constantly fighting for a space for women like herself and her daughter, but the fight creates resentment that she takes out on her two children. So when Roy loses her in 2022, she is surprised by the intensity of her grief over a woman she writes was “my shelter and my storm.” What shape is she without the mother she ran from at 18 to survive? What shape is she without the woman who taught her never to shrink in the face of injustice, without her “gangster”? It’s a story of turbulent love and of liberation that is beautiful, witty and at times uncomfortable to read.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1668094711", "cover": "1668094711", "goodreads": 224004055, "itunes": 9781668094716, "bookshop": 9781668094716, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41EOmBW453L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668094716", "isbn10": "1668094711", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 165, "book": "Mother Mary Comes to Me", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Arundhati Roy discusses her new memoir 'Mother Mary Comes to Me'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/03/nx-s1-5341488/author-arundhati-roy-discusses-her-new-memoir-mother-mary-comes-to-me" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 165, "book": "Mother Mary Comes to Me", "source": "WVIA ", "text": "Arundhati Roy’s revealing new memoir 'Mother Mary Comes to Me'", "url": "https://www.wvia.org/shows/amanpour-co/clip/arundhati-roys-revealing-new-memoir-mother-mary-comes-to-me-rldn11" } ] }, "166": { "id": 166, "edition": "fall", "title": "Murder Ballads: Illustrated Lyrics & Lore", "author": "Katy Horan", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "

In this fully illustrated book, Katy Horan digs into the history and cultural life of 20 murder ballads. The stories behind the songs are told with careful empathy, impressive research and a storyteller’s surety. Murder ballads are rooted in violence: Somebody’s voice was taken. When possible, Horan gives those who were silenced their due. You don’t need to be a folklore, true crime, or music expert to enjoy this book or appreciate how well Horan’s strikingly evocative illustrations complement the subject. I loved this. Add a list of notable recordings and an extensive bibliography, and this brief but evocative book has an afterlife.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "for art lovers", "for music lovers", "for history lovers", "the dark side", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1524889261", "cover": "1524889261", "goodreads": 214150752, "itunes": 9781524889265, "bookshop": 9781524889265, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/419kFT0dw4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781524889265", "isbn10": "1524889261", "links": [] }, "167": { "id": 167, "edition": "summer", "title": "Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers", "author": "Caroline Fraser", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

Until I read this book, I never really thought about why there seemed to be a number of prominent serial killers in the 1970s and ‘80s, especially in the Pacific Northwest. Caroline Fraser, though, has thought a lot about it – and in Murderland she provides a detailed examination of the confluence of smelting, environmental pollution, poor highway design and murder in the region. It’s a miasma of psychopathy on the individual level and greed on the corporate one that makes you wonder whether the definition of “serial killer” ought to be expanded.

", "tags": [ "the dark side", "staff picks", "rather long", "nonfiction", "the states we’re in", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0593657225", "cover": "0593657225", "goodreads": 217927444, "itunes": 9780593657225, "bookshop": 9780593657225, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41qeOsU+AzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593657225", "isbn10": "0593657225", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 167, "book": "Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers", "source": "UPR", "text": " 'Murderland': Mapping the lives of serial killers on Access Utah", "url": "https://www.upr.org/show/access-utah/2025-09-29/murderland-mapping-the-lives-of-serial-killers-on-access-utah" } ] }, "168": { "id": 168, "edition": "fall", "title": "Muybridge", "author": "Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Dascher and Rob Aspinall", "reviewers": [ "Tahneer Oksman" ], "text": "

Our world seems to be transforming at a quicker pace than ever, largely due to new and emergent technologies. Like many other people, I’ve taken an increased interest in looking back at the histories of older innovations. Enter this splendid graphic biography of the “father of motion pictures,” Eadweard Muybridge, by the great biographical and travelogue cartoonist Guy Delisle. Muybridge is best known for his 12-panel series of photographs depicting a galloping horse at full speed. This detailed, thoughtful comics biography – which includes reproductions of Muybridge’s groundbreaking photographs – tells a comprehensive story of a man possessed by the possibilities of photographic invention.

", "tags": [ "for art lovers", "for history lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "comics & graphic novels", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1770467726", "cover": "1770467726", "goodreads": 217387843, "itunes": 9781770467729, "bookshop": 9781770467729, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4166MDl2qrL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781770467729", "isbn10": "1770467726", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 168, "book": "Muybridge", "source": "KQED", "text": "A new graphic novel explores the life and strange times of Eadweard Muybridge", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/arts/13976156/eadweard-muybridge-graphic-novel-review-san-francisco-photography-history-leland-stanford" } ] }, "169": { "id": 169, "edition": "summer", "title": "My Friends", "author": "Fredrik Backman, translated by Neil Smith", "reviewers": [ "Elena Burnett" ], "text": "

This is Fredrik Backman at the height of his empathy and resonance. It’s the story of a painting – its artist and its subjects – and the journey of a young woman to understand how it came to be. It’s also a deeply personal exploration of art, what we sacrifice of ourselves to bring beauty into the world and what we gain when others find a home within it. I frequently paused to marvel at the way Backman captured the rebellion of joy, the ferocity of devotion and the cruelty of indifference. Every Backman book should come with the warning that your heart will be split in two but also, more importantly, with the assurance that it will be repaired with restored faith in the small miracles of being human.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "for art lovers", "funny stuff", "fiction", "rather long" ], "isbn": "1982112824", "cover": "1982112824", "goodreads": 217163697, "itunes": 9781982112820, "bookshop": 9781982112820, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514j9xK5CjL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781982112820", "isbn10": "1982112824", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 169, "book": "My Friends", "source": "NPR", "text": "Bestselling author Fredrik Backman nearly retired before finishing new book", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/09/nx-s1-5159855/bestselling-author-fredrik-backman-nearly-retired-before-finishing-new-book" } ] }, "170": { "id": 170, "edition": "summer", "title": "My Name Is Emilia del Valle", "author": "Isabel Allende, translated by Frances Riddle", "reviewers": [ "Emiko Tamagawa" ], "text": "

I wish I could be more like Emilia del Valle! She doesn’t let the fact that she’s a woman (in late 19th century San Franciso) stop her from first becoming an author – and then a war correspondent. Deciding to explore her Chilean roots, Emilia plunges headlong into Chile’s civil war, travels with the troops and manages to fall in love. Yet she never loses her sense of who she is and what she wants. The book immersed me in history I didn’t know and gave me someone I could really root for.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "historical fiction", "fiction", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "059397509X", "cover": "059397509X", "goodreads": 217245557, "itunes": 9780593975091, "bookshop": 9780593975091, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/811Ksy0+TeL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593975091", "isbn10": "059397509X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 170, "book": "My Name Is Emilia del Valle", "source": "NPR", "text": "Isabel Allende on her new book – and 2 more titles for your summer reading list", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/02/1248664737/here-now-anytime-05-02-2025" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 170, "book": "My Name Is Emilia del Valle", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: Isabel Allende on her latest novel, 'My Name is Emilia del Valle'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/isabel-allende-on-her-latest-novel-my-name-is-emilia-del-valle/" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 170, "book": "My Name Is Emilia del Valle", "source": "NHPR", "text": "In her new historical novel, Isabel Allende raises underrepresented voices", "url": "https://www.nhpr.org/noticias-en-espanol/2025-08-29/in-her-new-historical-novel-isabel-allende-raises-underrepresented-voices" } ] }, "171": { "id": 171, "edition": "fall", "title": "My Presentation Today Is About the Anaconda", "author": "Bibi Dumon Tak, illustrated by Annemarie van Haeringen, translated by Nancy Forest-Flier", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

A group of animals, insects and water-based denizens have prepared a series of 20 short presentations. The catch? They’re making these presentations about one another, and nobody appears to be capable of seeing the world through their subjects’ point of view. As such, readers are treated to a fox’s view of geese (they’re delicious!) or a barn owl’s delight when considering the Tasmanian devil (proclaiming exultantly that “He can rip the skin off a kangaroo with the greatest of ease.”). Personal prejudices come into play, bringing into question whether animals are any more impartial and unbiased than their human counterparts. An index of delights rounds out this irreverent compendium of informational fiction and anthropomorphic animals at their finest. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "eye-opening reads", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1646145100", "cover": "1646145100", "goodreads": 215160418, "itunes": 9781646145102, "bookshop": 9781646145102, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/918T17BKrSL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781646145102", "isbn10": "1646145100", "links": [] }, "172": { "id": 172, "edition": "summer", "title": "Necessary Fiction", "author": "Eloghosa Osunde", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

I think everyone who read Vagabonds! is at least curious, if not downright excited, about whatever Eloghosa Osunde does next – and that next is here. Necessary Fiction takes readers into the hectic heart of Lagos and drops them into the lives of multiple queer characters looking for love, joy, freedom, and themselves while navigating their identity in a country where who they are can mean broken relationships and scorn. The lies these characters tell others are the tools that allow them to participate in everything the city has to offer, but these “necessary fictions” come at a price, and I can’t imagine anyone better to explore that price than Osunde.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "059385120X", "cover": "059385120X", "goodreads": 220687927, "itunes": 9780593851203, "bookshop": 9780593851203, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51qeY5G7NsL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593851203", "isbn10": "059385120X", "links": [] }, "173": { "id": 173, "edition": "fall", "title": "Never Thought I'd End Up Here", "author": "Ann Liang", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Leah Zhang is not the perfect daughter, not by her family’s standards, anyway. She’s sarcastic, emotionally messy and disconnected from her roots, and she barely speaks Mandarin. So her desperate parents send her to China to “fix” her attitude. What they (and she) don’t count on is that Leah’s childhood bully is on the same trip. As Leah stumbles her way through culture shock, complicated feelings and maybe even a little growth, the walls she has built start to crumble. Never Thought I’d End Up Here is a funny, raw and quietly gutting teen romance in all the best ways.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "young adult", "family matters", "tales from around the world", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1546110674", "cover": "1546110674", "goodreads": 216879705, "itunes": 9781546110675, "bookshop": 9781546110675, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51UchwOJjbL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781546110675", "isbn10": "1546110674", "links": [] }, "174": { "id": 174, "edition": "fall", "title": "Night People: How to Be a DJ in '90s New York City", "author": "Mark Ronson", "reviewers": [ "Annabel Edwards" ], "text": "

Much like a great night out, Mark Ronson’s account of his life in the ‘90s as an aspiring New York DJ rides the line of hedonism and transcendence, weaving smartly between the two. Before the age of Spotify, discovering new music to play required real adventure: befriending other music nerds and convincing them to share their record collections, visits to rare record dealers, putting in hours at clubs to absorb what other DJs were playing. Ronson chronicles those quests while naming song after song that shaped him, resulting in an encyclopedia of clues for anyone interested in their own musical treasure hunt. In the end, the story tips in the direction of transcendence – Ronson treats music like it’s sacred, and to him it is. It might be for you, too, by the end of the book.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "for music lovers", "the states we’re in", "rather short", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "1538741113", "cover": "1538741113", "goodreads": 223296217, "itunes": 9781538741115, "bookshop": 9781538741115, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41jdml2h+2L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781538741115", "isbn10": "1538741113", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 174, "book": "Night People: How to Be a DJ in '90s New York City", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "I can't stop DJing,' Mark Ronson says – never mind the back pain\n", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/30/nx-s1-5554333/mark-ronson-night-people" } ] }, "175": { "id": 175, "edition": "summer", "title": "No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce", "author": "Haley Mlotek", "reviewers": [ "Clare Lombardo" ], "text": "

Haley Mlotek and her high school sweetheart separated 13 months into marriage, after a 13-year relationship. Her memoir weaves her own memories of their divorce with vignettes on the history of the subject and examples from pop culture. Mlotek resists a clean narrative about her relationship and offers no answers or advice for those who may be looking. The only question that matters, she says, is a hopeful one: “But what happened after?”

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "love & romance", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1984879081", "cover": "1984879081", "goodreads": 213618273, "itunes": 9781984879080, "bookshop": 9781984879080, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41x2NtW7E7L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781984879080", "isbn10": "1984879081", "links": [] }, "176": { "id": 176, "edition": "fall", "title": "Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President", "author": "E. Jean Carroll", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

Journalist and columnist E. Jean Carroll says in her book that she was advised by counsel to keep her remarks short during two civil trials over her accusations that Donald Trump had raped and later defamed her. Now that she’s out of the witness box – and after the sexual abuse and defamation judgment against Trump – she’s telling the rest of her story. Carroll’s account of the preparation for, and unfolding of, the trials is part riveting legal drama and part courtroom-style compendium that’s utterly full of heart and conviction. Her insights are compelling and sharp about both the case itself and how our society judges women, views aging and treats survivors of sexual assault.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1250381681", "cover": "1250381681", "goodreads": 228098537, "itunes": 9781250381682, "bookshop": 9781250381682, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Snqq4OiJL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250381682", "isbn10": "1250381681", "links": [] }, "177": { "id": 177, "edition": "fall", "title": "Not Quite Dead Yet", "author": "Holly Jackson", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

Twenty-seven-year-old Jet Mason has been stuck in neutral in her idyllic Vermont hometown. She’s gearing up to make changes when, on Halloween night, she’s viciously attacked and left for dead in her parents’ home. While she survives the attack, she learns she will not survive the brain aneurysm forming in its aftermath. Rather than go through a risky surgery, Jet decides she has wasted too much time being passive and is going to use her final week to solve her own pending murder. Duplicity abounds among her friends and family, and the tangled betrayals she unwinds set the entire community roiling.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "the dark side", "rather long" ], "isbn": "059397705X", "cover": "059397705X", "goodreads": 220223963, "itunes": 9780593977057, "bookshop": 9780593977057, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514BNTURXcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593977057", "isbn10": "059397705X", "links": [] }, "178": { "id": 178, "edition": "fall", "title": "Notes to John", "author": "Joan Didion", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

In late 1999, Joan Didion started seeing a psychiatrist, hoping it would help untangle her troubled daughter Quintana’s issues. Her detailed, unguarded notes on her sessions, addressed to her husband, John Gregory Dunne, were found in a portable filing cabinet in her home office after her death in 2021. The decision by Didion’s heirs to publish them raises questions about privacy, but Notes to John offers a valuable key to the genesis of Didion’s memoirs about the devastating deaths of her husband and daughter, and it reaffirms that writing was how she processed everything.

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "biography & memoir", "rather short", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "0593803671", "cover": "0593803671", "goodreads": 223889073, "itunes": 9780593803677, "bookshop": 9780593803677, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416yFHVTaSL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593803677", "isbn10": "0593803671", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 178, "book": "Notes to John", "source": "NPR", "text": "Joan Didion leaves one more piece of writing to faithful fans", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/nx-s1-5333683/joan-didion-notes-to-john-review" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 178, "book": "Notes to John", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Notes to John' completes late author Joan Didion's trilogy on grief", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/04/27/nx-s1-5357826-e1/notes-to-john-completes-late-author-joan-didions-trilogy-on-grief" } ] }, "179": { "id": 179, "edition": "fall", "title": "Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity", "author": "Joseph Lee", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

Journalist Joseph Lee grew up spending summers on Martha’s Vineyard, working in his parents’ store and attending tribal camp. His book is an exploration of his identity as a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag, the tribe that called the island home long before it became a getaway for wealthy vacationers. He highlights the ways in which tribal communities are applying the knowledge of their ancestors in our modern culture, and across a patchwork of tribal systems, he finds a common thread of momentum and growth that’s encouraging and affirming.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1668087251", "cover": "1668087251", "goodreads": 220160508, "itunes": 9781668087251, "bookshop": 9781668087251, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416trqwGb3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668087251", "isbn10": "1668087251", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 179, "book": "Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "Beyond polo shirts and presidents, Martha's Vineyard has an indigenous past and present", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/07/21/nx-s1-5474952/marthas-vineyard-indigenous-joseph-lee-nothing-more-of-this-land" } ] }, "180": { "id": 180, "edition": "fall", "title": "Oasis", "author": "Guojing", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

For readers looking to read stories in the same vein as The Wild Robot, this post-apocalyptic tale of found family is certain to fit the bill. While their mother works in the city, two children survive on their own in a barren desert wasteland. One day, they find and repair a robot that instantly acts as a maternal guardian for the two of them. So what happens when their real mom comes home? As dystopian hellscapes go, this is undoubtedly the sweetest you’re likely to find. Guojing’s incredible pencil shadings render the deftest of emotions in children and robots alike, creating a cozy bubble in the midst of grim nothingness. A robot tale that never forgets what it is that makes being human both unique and important. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "comics & graphic novels", "kids’ books", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250818389", "cover": "1250818389", "goodreads": 208185072, "itunes": 9781250818386, "bookshop": 9781250818386, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/818x0jRsy6L._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250818386", "isbn10": "1250818389", "links": [] }, "181": { "id": 181, "edition": "fall", "title": "Oceans of Time: The Musical Autobiography of Billy Hart", "author": "Billy Hart and Ethan Iverson", "reviewers": [ "Nate Chinen" ], "text": "

Drummer Billy Hart, who turns 85 this year, is a jazz legend of multifarious experience: He played with soul-jazz titan Jimmy Smith, with crooner Shirley Horn, and with a funk-obsessed Miles Davis, among dozens of others. Reading Oceans of Time – a slender book co-authored and organized by Ethan Iverson, pianist in the long-running Billy Hart Quartet – feels like pulling up a chair as Hart holds court, spilling stories (and just a little tea). His tone is warmly approachable, even mildly self-deprecating, but he’s clear about what he’s learned and why it matters.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "for music lovers", "rather short" ], "isbn": "195560424X", "cover": "195560424X", "goodreads": 236860986, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781955604246, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41yXpT77uuL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781955604246", "isbn10": "195560424X", "links": [] }, "182": { "id": 182, "edition": "fall", "title": "Old Soul", "author": "Susan Barker", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

Jake and Mariko meet when they both miss their flight out of Osaka and decide to share a meal. Later, drunk, Mariko tells Jake about how her twin brother died, and Jake is eerily reminded of a beloved friend’s strange death. The deceased both began behaving differently shortly before they died, after meeting an exceptionally charming woman, and both had biological oddities discovered during their autopsies. Could it have been the same woman? If so, who is she? And what is she after? If you, too, are a sucker for books that follow a central mystery through the stories of seemingly disparate but ultimately interconnected characters, this one is a must.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593718291", "cover": "0593718291", "goodreads": 211178725, "itunes": 9780593718292, "bookshop": 9780593718292, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41OitDAt3oL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593718292", "isbn10": "0593718291", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 182, "book": "Old Soul", "source": "KAXE", "text": "Female monsters, free will at odds in Barker's 'Old Soul'", "url": "https://www.kaxe.org/show/what-were-reading/2025-02-19/susan-barker-oldsoul" } ] }, "183": { "id": 183, "edition": "fall", "title": "On Guard!", "author": "Cassidy Wasserman", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "

As a former fencer, I couldn’t wait to dive into this graphic novel. When Grace’s parents divorce, she is ignored by both her self-centered mother and former best friend. Unmoored, she eats lunch alone in the gym while the fencing club practices. There, Grace discovers the sport but, more importantly, finds loyal friends and teammates. Expressive art is a window into this seventh-grader’s life, and though this shining debut is heartbreaking at times, it is ultimately filled with joy, humor and hope. The best fencers are resilient, and Grace proves that she is that, and so much more. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "comics & graphic novels", "family matters", "for sports lovers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593649990", "cover": "0593649990", "goodreads": 219334806, "itunes": 9780593649992, "bookshop": 9780593649992, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51OtHcEPReL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593649992", "isbn10": "0593649990", "links": [] }, "184": { "id": 184, "edition": "summer", "title": "On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters", "author": "Bonnie Tsui", "reviewers": [ "Pien Huang" ], "text": "

I listened to this meditation on muscle over the course of a long bike ride. Physically, I pumped my legs over miles of pavement. Mentally, I was in Scotland with female weightlifting pioneer Jan Todd as she strained to lift the fabled, 700+ pound Dinnie Stones, or I was pondering how humpback whales propel their 50-ton bodies out of the water with the flick of a tail muscle – a feat that tests the limits of muscle fiber. Bonnie Tsui melds scientific fact with memoir and storytelling, weaving a thoughtful reflection on muscle as the stuff that allows us to weather hard things with grace. Like a long bike ride on a beautiful day, it was so lovely I didn’t want it to end.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "science!", "it’s all geek to me", "nonfiction", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1643753088", "cover": "1643753088", "goodreads": 217182346, "itunes": 9781643753089, "bookshop": 9781643753089, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51U5QFONCNL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781643753089", "isbn10": "1643753088", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 184, "book": "On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters", "source": "WBUR", "text": "The might and magic of human muscles", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2025/10/24/muscles-movement-excercise-bonnie-tsui" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 184, "book": "On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters", "source": "KALW", "text": "Bonnie Tsui on muscle as a physical, personal and cultural force", "url": "https://www.kalw.org/show/state-bay/2025-05-13/bonnie-tsui-on-muscle-as-a-physical-personal-and-cultural-force" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 184, "book": "On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters", "source": "KQED", "text": "Bonnie Tsui on the science, symbolism and strength of muscle", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101909641/bonnie-tsui-on-the-science-symbolism-and-strength-of-muscle" } ] }, "185": { "id": 185, "edition": "fall", "title": "Once Upon a Time in Dollywood", "author": "Ashley Jordan", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

Ashley Jordan’s debut novel (and Reese’s Book Club pick) Once Upon a Time in Dollywood is an emotionally fearless story that is simultaneously heartbreaking, funny and tender, while challenging traditional expectations of a happily-ever-after. Eve, a young woman on uncertain ground, must face tough choices and heartbreaks as she rebuilds her sense of self and love. The story draws out every emotion from its main character as she searches for herself amid the ruins. Unpredictable yet deeply satisfying, Jordan’s debut delivers an emotionally resonant ending from an exciting new voice in contemporary fiction.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "the states we’re in", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0593819128", "cover": "0593819128", "goodreads": 223854466, "itunes": 9780593819128, "bookshop": 9780593819128, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51887PtfcxL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593819128", "isbn10": "0593819128", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 185, "book": "Once Upon a Time in Dollywood", "source": "Boise State Public Radio", "text": " 'Once Upon a Time in Dollywood:' An author interview with Ashley Jordan", "url": "https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/show/idaho-matters/2025-09-04/once-upon-a-time-in-dollywood-an-author-interview-with-ashley-jordan" } ] }, "186": { "id": 186, "edition": "fall", "title": "One Crazy Summer: The Graphic Novel", "author": "Rita Williams-Garcia, illustrated by Sharee Miller", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

This lively, illustrated adaptation of Rita Williams-Garcia’s award-winning 2010 novel will capture young readers’ imaginations and hearts. The story of three sisters who visit their mom in Oakland – far from their home in Brooklyn – offers a glimpse into one Black family’s life during the tumultuous summer of 1968. Sharee Miller’s vibrant illustrations and graphics help a new generation of kids imagine what life was like during the Civil Rights Era. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "comics & graphic novels", "kids’ books", "staff picks", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0062935585", "cover": "0062935585", "goodreads": 217223432, "itunes": 9780062935588, "bookshop": 9780062935588, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/5133YZF1T6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780062935588", "isbn10": "0062935585", "links": [] }, "187": { "id": 187, "edition": "fall", "title": "One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This", "author": "Omar El Akkad", "reviewers": [ "Linah Mohammad" ], "text": "

This 2025 National Book Award-winning book is a blunt, courageous, searing condemnation of what Omar El Akkad sees as Western complicity in Israel’s war in Gaza and which he has labeled genocide. El Akkad beautifully, and painfully, captures what it feels like to be an Arab immigrant in the West while watching mass killing unfold in real time, funded in part by that very place he now lives – the grief, the anger, the helplessness. He says out loud what many have struggled to put into words: the discomfort of witnessing, the weight of silence and the question of accountability. A book that refuses to let you look away.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0593804147", "cover": "0593804147", "goodreads": 213870084, "itunes": 9780593804148, "bookshop": 9780593804148, "image": "https://i0.wp.com/www.nationalbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/01_One-Day-Everyone-Will-Have-Always-Been-Against-This_Omar-El-Akkad-w.jpg?resize=397%2C600&ssl=1", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593804148", "isbn10": "0593804147", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 187, "book": "One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This", "source": "KQED", "text": "Omar El Akkad’s new book critiques American hypocrisy on the Gaza War", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101909414/omar-el-akkads-new-book-critiques-american-hypocrisy-on-the-gaza-war" } ] }, "188": { "id": 188, "edition": "fall", "title": "Only Son", "author": "Kevin Moffett", "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "text": "

Kevin Moffett’s debut novel follows the arc of his narrator – an only son, natch – from the childhood loss of his father, to an adulthood as the father of an only son himself. Of course, that plot summary does little justice to this slim suburban Buddha of a book, which is composed of a series of short vignettes that are so simple, subtle and sweetly melancholy, they almost resemble Zen koans — though no koan I’ve encountered has, like this book, gotten me giggling enough to alarm passersby.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "funny stuff", "seriously great writing", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1963270304", "cover": "1963270304", "goodreads": 217535803, "itunes": 9781963270303, "bookshop": 9781963270303, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/412SoT-R63L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781963270303", "isbn10": "1963270304", "links": [] }, "189": { "id": 189, "edition": "fall", "title": "Onyx Storm", "author": "Rebecca Yarros", "reviewers": [ "Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez" ], "text": "

If you haven’t picked up this series, let me be your sign from the universe telling you “DO IT NOW.” The third installment of the Empyrean series (starting with Fourth Wing) picks up right where the previous book left off, and we immediately embark on new adventures that test the limits of what our group of cadets knows to be truth, of the strengths of their friendships and of their unit, of their magical and personal bonds with their dragons, and of the fragility of the kingdom they thought they knew in the face of an unknowable enemy. The stakes are raised even higher, with the search for new information to save the world they love, as well as those they have previously considered enemies. This book made me laugh, swoon, cry, and cry again – and again – in the three days it took me to inhale it. I now sit and stare at the calendar, wondering when the next book will be released.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather long", "fiction", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1649377150", "cover": "1649377150", "goodreads": 209439447, "itunes": 6480186648, "bookshop": 9781649377159, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91rcGxdclIL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781649377159", "isbn10": "1649377150", "links": [] }, "190": { "id": 190, "edition": "fall", "title": "Origin Stories", "author": "Corinna Vallianatos", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

Corinna Vallianatos won the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction for her collection My Escapee. She returns to the form with this new volume of stories that explore the worlds of love, longing and people trying to navigate their relationships with loved ones. In each story, Vallianatos creates a new world, with characters who pine for something, even if they don’t know what it is. This is a sometimes funny, sometimes poignant collection from a master of the form.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1644453215", "cover": "1644453215", "goodreads": 217171548, "itunes": 9781644453216, "bookshop": 9781644453216, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gd6bsESUL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781644453216", "isbn10": "1644453215", "links": [] }, "191": { "id": 191, "edition": "fall", "title": "Our Lake", "author": "Angie Kang", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "

How do we carry the memory of loved ones after they’ve passed? Angie Kang’s beautiful book explores this question by following two brothers returning to a lake where they used to swim with their father. There is an undercurrent of melancholy to swimming now without their father, but together the brothers find the strength to dive back in – and in doing so, they create new memories that help keep the old ones alive. Like the still surface of a lake, this book appears quiet but contains incredible depth, immersing readers in an experience that holds heartache and joy in equal measure. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593698231", "cover": "0593698231", "goodreads": 214269016, "itunes": 9780593698235, "bookshop": 9780593698235, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Nv8CQ9EiL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593698235", "isbn10": "0593698231", "links": [] }, "192": { "id": 192, "edition": "fall", "title": "Pakistan: Recipes and Stories from Home Kitchens, Restaurants, and Roadside Stands", "author": "Maryam Jillani", "reviewers": [ "Hannah Bloch" ], "text": "

If you think of Pakistani food, what comes to mind might be hearty curries or kebabs. But Maryam Jillani is here to tell you, persuasively, that there is so much more. Jillani crisscrosses the country where she was born and raised and shares her understanding of its diverse people and distinctive gastronomy: With influences such as India, Iran, Afghanistan and China, Pakistan is a culinary mosaic. Recipes here include familiar dishes like dal, plus surprises such as Bhapu: Fish Soup with Tamarind and Fresh Herbs and mamtu, steamed dumplings from Hunza. I’m loving the chapli kebabs (that’s ground beef with seasonings including pomegranate seeds) and Bhindi Masala: Okra with Tomatoes and Onions. I’m not quite ready for the Paya: Slow-Cooked Goat Trotters – but it’s a joy reading about each dish.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "staff picks", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1958417416", "cover": "1958417416", "goodreads": 218075321, "itunes": 6717584691, "bookshop": 9781958417416, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51woa9DYDnL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781958417416", "isbn10": "1958417416", "links": [] }, "193": { "id": 193, "edition": "fall", "title": "Paradise Logic", "author": "Sophie Kemp", "reviewers": [ "Leland Cheuk" ], "text": "

It’s about time someone dared to write about dating in their 20s in a hyperreal fashion. If you’re a reader who has grown allergic to low-affect Dimes Square coming-of-age novels, Paradise Logic is a perfect antidote. Sophie Kemp takes big swings with her 23-year-old narrator, Reality, whose name reflects only what she’s most out of touch with. Reality only wants to be the “perfect girlfriend” to her idiot boyfriend, and the lengths she’ll go to achieve this perfection are both hilarious and horrifying. How I described it to a friend: It’s like Room by Emma Donoghue, but the room is all of Brooklyn.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "let’s talk about sex", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "rather short", "funny stuff", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "1668057034", "cover": "1668057034", "goodreads": 214151534, "itunes": 9781668057032, "bookshop": 9781668057032, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51CPcrYZuJL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668057032", "isbn10": "1668057034", "links": [] }, "194": { "id": 194, "edition": "fall", "title": "Patchwork: A Graphic Biography of Jane Austen", "author": "Kate Evans", "reviewers": [ "Tahneer Oksman" ], "text": "

How do you take the life and work of one of the most popular novelists to ever walk the earth and make them new? Graphic biographer Kate Evans gives a fresh, revealing look at Jane Austen in the 250th anniversary year of the author’s birth. Combining images and words, historiography and fiction, imagination and research, Evans chronologically moves through Austen’s quiet but impactful life, adding fresh context and subtle humor to the story of an author famous for casting her observant eye on the British upper class. For Austen lovers and others, this graphic biography is a welcome addition.

", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "historical fiction", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1804296228", "cover": "1804296228", "goodreads": 224082434, "itunes": 9781804296226, "bookshop": 9781804296226, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4155e2731KL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781804296226", "isbn10": "1804296228", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 194, "book": "Patchwork: A Graphic Biography of Jane Austen", "source": "NPR", "text": "Patchwork' pieces together Jane Austen's personal life", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/27/nx-s1-5584949/jane-austen-patchwork-review-graphic-novel" } ] }, "195": { "id": 195, "edition": "fall", "title": "Patchwork: A Sewist's Diary", "author": "Maddie Ballard", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

I quilt. I make things. I love to chat with people who make things, to hear what they think about when they work and how what they make folds into their lives. Maddie Ballard learned to sew during the pandemic, and her memoir-through-projects is a thoughtful progression from basic pants to complex coats and from being part of a couple to being single again. A lovely read for anyone whose brain takes flight whenever they look at a bolt of fabric.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for art lovers", "identity & culture", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1963108485", "cover": "1963108485", "goodreads": 224042597, "itunes": 9781963108484, "bookshop": 9781963108484, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511rhmpkH-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781963108484", "isbn10": "1963108485", "links": [] }, "196": { "id": 196, "edition": "fall", "title": "People of Means", "author": "Nancy Johnson", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

People of Means by Nancy Johnson, the bestselling author of The Kindest Lie, tells the story of Freda, a student in 1959 at Fisk University, a historically Black college, and of her daughter Tulip, who is climbing the corporate ladder in 1992. In this dual-timeline novel, Johnson skillfully weaves rich characterization, social history and moral stakes into a compelling narrative set during two pivotal moments in American history – when students in Nashville began organizing against Jim Crow and during the national reckoning following the Rodney King verdict. People of Means is an important, thought-provoking novel that explores Black excellence, activism and the middle-class experience.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063157519", "cover": "0063157519", "goodreads": 213344051, "itunes": 9780063157514, "bookshop": 9780063157514, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515Kb1X-npL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063157514", "isbn10": "0063157519", "links": [] }, "197": { "id": 197, "edition": "fall", "title": "Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal", "author": "Mohammed El-Kurd", "reviewers": [ "Leah Donnella" ], "text": "

It’s been a while since I read a book that was simultaneously so easy and so difficult to read. Perfect Victims is beautifully written – the prose is gripping and poetic. But sitting with the meaning is a true challenge. It’s a book that forces readers to grapple with who they identify with and why; how our society lets some people be human and forces others to be either angels or monsters. Mohammed El-Kurd shows how Palestinians have been stripped of their humanity in both directions, as “perfect victims” or unredeemable villains. And in spelling out the process, he shows how, under the right circumstances, any group can be written into the same story.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "rather short", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9798888903155", "cover": "9798888903155", "goodreads": 213702691, "itunes": 9798888903155, "bookshop": 9798888903155, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51oAv0E-GXL._SL500_.jpg", "amazon_asin": "B0D4PGSZ2V", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9798888903155", "isbn10": "8888903151", "links": [] }, "198": { "id": 198, "edition": "fall", "title": "Photographic Memory: William Henry Jackson and the American West", "author": "Bill Griffith", "reviewers": [ "Tahneer Oksman" ], "text": "

Notable underground-era cartoonist and Zippy creator Bill Griffith turns his attention to his namesake in this serious, deeply researched biography told in sharply attentive black-and-white comics. Griffith’s great-grandfather, William Henry Jackson, was best known as the official photographer on the 1870 government survey of Yellowstone, with photographs that led to the establishment of the first national park. Griffith builds on a vast archive – including letters, diaries and a published autobiography – to painstakingly detail the 90 years of this adventurous illustrator, adventurer and photographer’s life, including brushes along the way with the likes of Ansel Adams, Thomas Nast, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Richard F. Outcault.

", "tags": [ "for art lovers", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "nonfiction", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1419784145", "cover": "1419784145", "goodreads": 227786720, "itunes": 9781419784149, "bookshop": 9781419784149, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51yub7DF6eL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781419784149", "isbn10": "1419784145", "links": [] }, "199": { "id": 199, "edition": "summer", "title": "Picks and Shovels", "author": "Cory Doctorow", "reviewers": [ "Chloe Veltman" ], "text": "

This smart and pacey “historical techno-thriller” – the third in a series by the Anglo-Canadian writer Cory Doctorow – transports readers to the dawn of the PC era. It’s the mid-1980s in San Francisco and a young MIT dropout turned freelance tech accountant, Martin Hench, finds himself working, somewhat improbably, for a computer manufacturing company run by a Mormon bishop, a Catholic priest and an Orthodox rabbi. When it turns out to be a huge scam aimed at fleecing religious groups, Hench joins a competitor startup run by a trio of defiant women. Hench and his new colleagues risk their lives in a fight to make the PC revolution more open source.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "it’s all geek to me", "mysteries & thrillers", "rather long", "fiction", "historical fiction" ], "isbn": "1250865905", "cover": "1250865905", "goodreads": 211004856, "itunes": 9781250865908, "bookshop": 9781250865908, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41G5RRVy4FL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250865908", "isbn10": "1250865905", "links": [] }, "200": { "id": 200, "edition": "fall", "title": "Pilgrim Codex", "author": "Vivian Mansour, illustrated by Emmanuel Valtierra, translated by Carlos Rodríguez Cortez", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

Mesoamerican mythology mixes and melds with a contemporary story of a family trying desperately to travel from Mexico to the United States. Told in the style of an ancient codex, the Vargas Ramírezes are determined to go from Iztapalapa, Mexico, Land of Clay Upon Water, north and, as with any epic journey, other characters come and go along the way. Threats appear in the forms of armed men and wild animals, but while violence is omnipresent, it never comes to pass on the page. Kids will come away from this book realizing how hard such a trip can be (and how important shoes are), but the standout element here is the art, which draws upon Aztec and Mixtec codices, as well as video games. Empathetic and timely. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "family matters", "for art lovers", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1646145151", "cover": "1646145151", "goodreads": 215160421, "itunes": 9781646145157, "bookshop": 9781646145157, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517sKJCLoBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781646145157", "isbn10": "1646145151", "links": [] }, "201": { "id": 201, "edition": "fall", "title": "Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats", "author": "Courtney Gustafson", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

Courtney Gustafson was just trying to survive in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic; she was working for a food bank but ironically struggling to make ends meet herself. She certainly didn’t expect the house she’d just signed a lease on to have dozens of feral cats hanging around. She was even less prepared for how much she began to care about those cats that were, like her, doing their best. As Gustafson and her feral cats accidentally go viral, she begins to think about the nature of care and how intertwined its different forms are. (Fellow cat lovers, make sure to keep some tissues handy.)

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0593727614", "cover": "0593727614", "goodreads": 216971220, "itunes": 9780593727614, "bookshop": 9780593727614, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/415TOU+wVBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593727614", "isbn10": "0593727614", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 201, "book": "Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats", "source": "NHPR", "text": "Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats,' with author Courtney Gustafson", "url": "https://www.nhpr.org/community-calendar/event/poets-square-a-memoir-in-thirty-cats-with-author-courtney-gustafson-11-04-2025-11-14-02" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 201, "book": "Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats", "source": "AZPM", "text": "Why Courtney Gustafson's book is resonating with more than just cat lovers.", "url": "https://news.azpm.org/p/edunews/2025/7/23/225668-az-spotlight-7-24-2025/" } ] }, "202": { "id": 202, "edition": "summer", "title": "Promise Me Sunshine", "author": "Cara Bastone", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Migaki" ], "text": "

Most nights, Lenny rides the Staten Island Ferry until sunrise. She can’t bear to go back to the apartment she once shared with Lou, her now-dead best friend. As she struggles to bear each day without Lou, a grumpy stranger named Miles falls into her life. Like some sort of guardian angel of grieving, Miles offers Lenny a balm for when the pain overwhelms: Do something good for you. Something bad for you. And, a change of scenery. Slowly, Miles coaxes Lenny back to life. On its surface, grief may seem an odd theme for a romance novel, but then again, what is grief if not the purest expression of love?

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "rather long", "fiction", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "0593595734", "cover": "0593595734", "goodreads": 214269328, "itunes": 9780593595732, "bookshop": 9780593595732, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51N2oS0OISL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593595732", "isbn10": "0593595734", "links": [] }, "203": { "id": 203, "edition": "fall", "title": "Psychopomp & Circumstance", "author": "Eden Royce", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

Set in an alternate, magical, post-Reconstruction South Carolina, this Southern gothic novella delves into generational secrets and self-realization. Phaedra St. Margaret and her socialite mother have never gotten along, what with Phee’s stubborn refusal to behave like a “proper” young lady. After her estranged aunt dies, Phee heads from New Charleston to the small town of Horizon in a cart pulled by a hippocamp to plan her aunt’s homegoing. Buried memories, mysteriously locked rooms and strange spirits lurk in the corners of Aunt Cleo’s home in this haunting story.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "family matters", "rather short", "fiction", "historical fiction" ], "isbn": "1250330963", "cover": "1250330963", "goodreads": 211004153, "itunes": 9781250330963, "bookshop": 9781250330963, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41GhLSlyP3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250330963", "isbn10": "1250330963", "links": [] }, "204": { "id": 204, "edition": "summer", "title": "Raising Hare: A Memoir", "author": "Chloe Dalton", "reviewers": [ "Beck Harlan" ], "text": "

I never knew I could care so much about a hare! In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chloe Dalton set out on a country stroll and crossed paths with a newborn hare too young to survive on its own, no mother in sight. Dalton takes the baby in, and this decision turns out to dominate the next years of her life (hares, which are not domesticated like rabbits, do not fare well in captivity). Part diary, part natural history, part field guide, this book is also an epic hero’s journey – where you set out on an ordinary day and stumble upon something that changes you forever.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "it’s all geek to me", "tales from around the world", "science!" ], "isbn": "0593701844", "cover": "0593701844", "goodreads": 214269337, "itunes": 9780593701843, "bookshop": 9780593701843, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41y9b7hrxVL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593701843", "isbn10": "0593701844", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 204, "book": "Raising Hare: A Memoir", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Chloe Dalton on 'Raising Hare'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/show/the-book-show/2025-04-22/chloe-dalton-raising-hare" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 204, "book": "Raising Hare: A Memoir", "source": "KQED", "text": "What has a wild animal taught you?", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101909806/what-has-a-wild-animal-taught-you" } ] }, "205": { "id": 205, "edition": "fall", "title": "Recipes from the American South", "author": "Michael W. Twitty", "reviewers": [ "Anastasia Tsioulcas" ], "text": "

This ambitious, expansive cookbook is a foundational survey of Southern food for the 21st century – and a must-have for anyone serious in the kitchen. Culinary historian Michael W. Twitty roams from the Chesapeake Bay to the Ozarks, from the Southern plains to Texas Hill Country, and from the Deep East southward toward the Gulf of Mexico. Through more than 250 deeply researched and lovingly rendered recipes, Twitty reminds us of how the South and its food – from beloved local staples like Gullah-Geechee benne seed wafers to a Sephardic pink rice recipe from the Jewish communities of Montgomery and Atlanta – have been shaped by legions of peoples over hundreds of years: Indigenous, African, European, Caribbean, Latin and Asian.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "cookbooks & food", "staff picks", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1837290873", "cover": "1837290873", "goodreads": 232409232, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781837290871, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51I3cYjkPfL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781837290871", "isbn10": "1837290873", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 205, "book": "Recipes from the American South", "source": "NPR", "text": "A celebration of the South's rich – and messy – heritage, delivered on a plate", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/15/nx-s1-5558287/michael-twitty-cookbook-recipes-from-the-american-south" } ] }, "206": { "id": 206, "edition": "fall", "title": "Remember Us to Life: A Graphic Memoir", "author": "Joanna Rubin Dranger", "reviewers": [ "Tahneer Oksman" ], "text": "

“I don’t understand how these stories could interest anyone outside the family,” author and artist Joanna Rubin Dranger exclaims in a moment of uncertainty. This statement ironically turns up toward the end of a book scrupulously detailing her family story. Part memoir, part historical investigation, Remember Us to Life is about much more than one family; it sheds light on what happened to many Jews in the purportedly politically neutral Sweden during World War II, and after. This text-heavy, mostly black-and-white memoir, composed in simple but powerful images reminiscent of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, offers a rare, immersive look into an oft-untold history.

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "nonfiction", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0593836901", "cover": "0593836901", "goodreads": 216247540, "itunes": 9780593836903, "bookshop": 9780593836903, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wJUrVvBIL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593836903", "isbn10": "0593836901", "links": [] }, "207": { "id": 207, "edition": "fall", "title": "Rules for Ruin", "author": "Mimi Matthews", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

Like the London smog, the chemistry is thick in this Victorian romance loosely inspired by David Copperfield. Products of London’s rookery, Effie and Gabriel are outsiders hustling hard to infiltrate London’s elite, but their aims make them rivals. Effie is the star protege of the mysterious Miss Corvus, who, like a more political Miss Havisham, wreaks revenge for her plight by training young women as secret agents in the fight for women’s rights. Effie’s role is to play a debutante, flirt her way through the marriage mart and gain the proof to bring down an aristocratic predator who opposes a key piece of legislation. That plan conflicts with Gabriel’s scheme to exploit the villain’s debts and secrets for the good of his people and himself. The journey from combatants to lovers sizzles.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "love & romance", "tales from around the world", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593639294", "cover": "0593639294", "goodreads": 62342354, "itunes": 9780593639290, "bookshop": 9780593639290, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51hK+MuypOL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593639290", "isbn10": "0593639294", "links": [] }, "208": { "id": 208, "edition": "fall", "title": "Saint of the Narrows Street", "author": "William Boyle", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

William Boyle has built a devout readership by delivering novels about normal people who get caught up in bad situations, and this one is his best work yet. It’s a heartbreaking tale of loss, anger, grief, poverty, the varying strength of familial bonds and how an accidental death can haunt a family for generations. Boyle is a master at making the ordinary important, the everyday special. A dark novel with a beautiful, broken heart.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "rather long", "fiction", "the states we’re in", "historical fiction" ], "isbn": "1641296402", "cover": "1641296402", "goodreads": 212808252, "itunes": 9781641296403, "bookshop": 9781641296403, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51YkcMr1FVL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781641296403", "isbn10": "1641296402", "links": [] }, "209": { "id": 209, "edition": "fall", "title": "Salsa Daddy: A Cookbook: Dip Your Way Into Mexican Cooking", "author": "Rick Martínez", "reviewers": [ "Milton Guevara" ], "text": "

For a long time, I had a pretty limited idea of what salsa was: usually a green or red sauce that comes in a jar, purchased at the grocery store. But Salsa Daddy by James Beard Award-winning author Rick Martínez explodes that idea. His book includes recipes for Chocolate Picante, a dessert salsa made with chocolate and chile de árbol, and La Pepita Roja, a Mayan-inspired salsa made with pumpkin seeds. Salsas are foundational to Mexican cooking, and Salsa Daddy demonstrates how vast the world of salsa really is. Along the way, he offers suggestions for foods to pair each salsa with. Although the cookbook mostly consists of salsa recipes, Martínez includes a few recipes for other classic Mexican dishes as well.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0593798937", "cover": "0593798937", "goodreads": 216971197, "itunes": 9780593798935, "bookshop": 9780593798935, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51L4PtHEG3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593798935", "isbn10": "0593798937", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 209, "book": "Salsa Daddy: A Cookbook: Dip Your Way into Mexican Cooking", "source": "KCRW", "text": " 'There are no rules for salsa making' says Rick Martinez", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/good-food/stories/salsa-daddy-recipe-rick-martinez" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 209, "book": "Salsa Daddy: A Cookbook: Dip Your Way into Mexican Cooking", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Curated Cuisine: Dip to dinner with ‘Salsa Daddy’ author and James Beard Award-winning chef Rick Martínez", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/events/1030944/curated-cuisine-salsa-daddy-rick-martinez" } ] }, "210": { "id": 210, "edition": "fall", "title": "Save Me, Stranger: Stories", "author": "Erika Krouse", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

It’s likely that we’ve all, at one time or another, wanted to save someone or be saved – sometimes both – and in these stories Erika Krouse explores how complicated, and maybe even impossible, those desires are to fulfill. From a pair of terminally ill combat veterans who become angels of death, to the mayor of the coldest town on Earth, Krouse’s narrators are people navigating what they want, what others want for them and what they think they deserve. My favorite kind of short story doesn’t resolve neatly, but rather leaves me with a lingering image, idea or possibility, and Krouse’s Save Me, Stranger absolutely fits the bill.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "rather short", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250240336", "cover": "1250240336", "goodreads": 203579141, "itunes": 9781250240330, "bookshop": 9781250240330, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41cj4f1DTpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250240330", "isbn10": "1250240336", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 210, "book": "Save Me, Stranger: Stories", "source": "CPR", "text": "‘Short stories are like watching a streaker. You see everything.’", "url": "https://www.cpr.org/show-segment/short-stories-are-like-watching-a-streaker-you-see-everything/" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 210, "book": "Save Me, Stranger: Stories", "source": "TPR", "text": "Book Public: 'Save Me, Stranger' by Erika Krouse", "url": "https://www.tpr.org/podcast/book-public/2025-01-24/book-public-save-me-stranger-by-erika-krouse" } ] }, "211": { "id": 211, "edition": "fall", "title": "Scarlet Morning", "author": "ND Stevenson", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

Two orphans, seemingly resigned to death by boredom on the island of Caveat, are rescued (in a sense) by a mysterious sea captain seeking a mysterious book in their possession. Once they leave, they find themselves plunged into a world of uncertainty, danger and undeniable excitement. Viola and Wilmur have only ever had one another, but after they throw in their lot with the captain and her crew, they begin to untangle the mystery of their decomposing world and whether it’s possible to set it right again. ND Stevenson puts his back into this inventive series of exploits and near escapes. Smart as a whip, with enough surprises and deeply creepy elements to keep kids guessing, this is a swashbuckling epic certain to make pirate enthusiasts out of all its young readers. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "kids’ books", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063210347", "cover": "0063210347", "goodreads": 222904055, "itunes": 9780063210349, "bookshop": 9780063210349, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51R8tAnF-JL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063210349", "isbn10": "0063210347", "links": [] }, "212": { "id": 212, "edition": "fall", "title": "Secret Lives of the Dead", "author": "Tim Lebbon", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

Tim Lebbon is great at horror and action, and Secret Lives of the Dead has both in spades. This is a novel about a family legend that manages to be two things at all times. The first is a frenetic, gruesome noir tale of secret agendas and violence. The other is a narrative full of folk horror and supernatural violence. Over the course of a single day, the lives of everyone in this story – and their pasts – collide with brutal consequences.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1835413552", "cover": "1835413552", "goodreads": 221997142, "itunes": 9781835413555, "bookshop": 9781835413555, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51I3xw-9EWL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781835413555", "isbn10": "1835413552", "links": [] }, "213": { "id": 213, "edition": "fall", "title": "Self-Sabotage: And Other Ways I've Spent My Time", "author": "Jeffery Self", "reviewers": [ "Glen Weldon" ], "text": "

Actor/writer/comedian Jeffery Self’s memoir Self-Sabotage is about exactly that – the many ways he’s managed to be his own worst enemy over the years. He writes with a kind of hilarious intensity about bad decisions, bad behavior and bad breakups. And he’s not just charmingly self-deprecating, he’s searingly self-lacerating, whether he’s telling stories about his life as a screamingly gay theater kid in rural Georgia, moving to New York and paying the rent with sex work or finding a mentor in Broadway actor Gary Beach – which is a hugely moving part of the book, all about what queer folk owe to our elders. Even if you don’t know Jeffery Self the actor, you should check out Jeffery Self the writer – he’s in complete command of himself and his voice.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "no biz like show biz", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "0063328771", "cover": "0063328771", "goodreads": 215169684, "itunes": 9780063328778, "bookshop": 9780063328778, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Blrfn096L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063328778", "isbn10": "0063328771", "links": [] }, "214": { "id": 214, "edition": "fall", "title": "Sex of the Midwest: A Novel in Stories", "author": "Robyn Ryle", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

Loretta has a vendetta against the hot-dog-cart guy. Coach Don has a vendetta against STDs and a need for a new lung. Rachel hates making bloody marys but loves reading Virginia Woolf. There’s a pink lady with pink hair riding her pink bike through the linked short stories about life in a small Midwest town where a sex survey has scandalized some and bored others and where the pandemic has shaken all sorts of assumptions. A rich, surprising and delightful short read.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "let’s talk about sex", "the states we’re in", "rather short" ], "isbn": "9798998954702", "cover": "9798998954702", "goodreads": 239769226, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9798998954702, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41WkZ4-lUSL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9798998954702", "isbn10": "8998954702", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 214, "book": "Sex of the Midwest: A Novel in Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "Robyn Ryle talks about her collection of short stories 'Sex of the Midwest'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/18/nx-s1-5424560/robyn-ryle-talks-about-her-collection-of-short-stories-sex-of-the-midwest" } ] }, "215": { "id": 215, "edition": "fall", "title": "Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia", "author": "Sam Dalrymple", "reviewers": [ "Diaa Hadid" ], "text": "

Sam Dalrymple’s book does the rare thing of recasting history to help us understand it anew. He investigates the five major partitions that the British undertook as they slowly ended their imperial rule over India – an India that we no longer know, which included Burma, parts of the Middle East, Bangladesh and, yes, Pakistan. The book is sweeping in scope but evocative in the small people and moments he brings forward. You don’t have to be a South Asia nerd to be into this book – it’s so gripping that it holds its own as a work of popular fiction. But for us nerds, it is an excellent work on the broken promise of ethno-nationalism in South Asia.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "rather long" ], "isbn": "1324123788", "cover": "0008466815", "goodreads": 229302298, "itunes": 6749278514, "bookshop": 9781324123781, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41SbmmtlAlL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781324123781", "isbn10": "1324123788", "links": [] }, "216": { "id": 216, "edition": "fall", "title": "She's Under Here: A Memoir", "author": "Karen Palmer", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

In 1974, Karen Palmer, then 17, fell in love with Gil, a 36-year-old in the midst of a divorce; she writes that he seemed like the answer to “How do I escape my unhappy home?” Yet over 14 years of marriage, Gil tormented Palmer with his alcohol and drug binges, illegal schemes, and violence, jealousy and control that only escalated when she filed for divorce. In a bid for safety, Palmer remarried and fled with her daughters to Colorado, where they all assumed new identities. Told with cinematic, heart-thumping detail, She’s Under Here offers haunting meditations on how fear lingers long after we reach safe shores and on what disappearing cost Palmer’s family.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1643757547", "cover": "1643757547", "goodreads": 221413462, "itunes": 9781643757544, "bookshop": 9781643757544, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mNeN3qYDL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781643757544", "isbn10": "1643757547", "links": [] }, "217": { "id": 217, "edition": "fall", "title": "Simplicity", "author": "Mattie Lubchansky", "reviewers": [ "Andie Huether" ], "text": "

Monsters, both metaphysical and metaphorical, threaten the ideals of a separatist utopian commune in a nearer-than-we’d-like future in which the U.S. has devolved into autonomous city-states. A trans anthropologist sent on a fact-finding mission for a philanthropic museum struggles to determine what’s real and what’s imagined in these sociopolitical contexts. What does it mean to be a member of a marginalized group recuperated into an oppressive society with a thin veneer of acceptance? What does it take to give up on the illusion of security as a complacent collaborator and dive into the precarity of radical revolution? Simplicity raises questions and hints at answers with a satirical voice and incisive imagery.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "comics & graphic novels", "staff picks", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593701127", "cover": "0593701127", "goodreads": 220999011, "itunes": 9780593701126, "bookshop": 9780593701126, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4188Qy5vYwL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593701126", "isbn10": "0593701127", "links": [] }, "218": { "id": 218, "edition": "fall", "title": "So Far Gone", "author": "Jess Walter", "reviewers": [ "Chris Maccini" ], "text": "

Jess Walter has a knack for capturing the absurdity and humanity in the places and eras his novels explore, whether it’s 1960s Italy (Beautiful Ruins) or early 1900s Spokane, Wash. (The Cold Millions). With So Far Gone, it’s the back roads of the Pacific Northwest in our fractured political moment. Retired journalist Rhys Kinnick is content to live off the grid, away from the toxic politics that have strained his relationship with his daughter and conspiracy-theory-obsessed son-in-law. That is until his grandchildren show up on his front porch with news that their mom is missing. Rhys becomes the reluctant hero of a madcap journey that ultimately leads to a face-off with a Christian nationalist militia in rural Idaho. It’s a story that is by turns hilarious, heartbreaking and all too relevant.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0062868144", "cover": "0062868144", "goodreads": 218671850, "itunes": 9780062868145, "bookshop": 9780062868145, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51m6TR0Q9cL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780062868145", "isbn10": "0062868144", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 218, "book": "So Far Gone", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Jess Walter on 'So Far Gone'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/show/the-book-show/2025-08-05/jess-walter-so-far-gone" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 218, "book": "So Far Gone", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Jess Walter's 'So Far Gone' is a funny, timely romp through a divided America", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review/2025-06-30/jess-walters-so-far-gone-is-a-funny-timely-romp-through-a-divided-america" } ] }, "219": { "id": 219, "edition": "fall", "title": "Something Rotten", "author": "Andrew Lipstein", "reviewers": [ "Leland Cheuk" ], "text": "

Andrew Lipstein nails the humorous culture clashes between an expat American and his adopted Danish community. Reuben loses his job at NPR for exposing himself on Zoom, and his wife, Cecilie, is all too ready to spend the summer in her native Copenhagen. Reminiscent of the recent Danish film Another Round starring Mads Mikkelsen, in which a group of friends decide to drink heavily to stimulate their creativity, Reuben gloms onto Mikkel, one of Cecilie’s hypermasculine, antisocial friends. Cecilie, meanwhile, becomes closer with an ex who may or may not be terminally ill.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0374613354", "cover": "0374613354", "goodreads": 211934919, "itunes": 9780374613358, "bookshop": 9780374613358, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ehJqH7ejL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780374613358", "isbn10": "0374613354", "links": [] }, "220": { "id": 220, "edition": "fall", "title": "Son of the Morning", "author": "Akwaeke Emezi", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

This book takes well-worn tropes and imbues them with Akwaeke Emezi’s trademark gorgeous literary style and an inventive queer romance. Sweet Galilee takes her first steps outside her hometown of Salvation and immediately meets sexy, dangerous Lucifer – yes, that Lucifer. The third point in the love triangle is Leviathan, a prince of Hell. He has Gali in his crosshairs for reasons she doesn’t fully understand. Full of religious commentary, twisty action and steamy scenes, this romantasy was a wild ride.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "love & romance", "let’s talk about sex", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063323184", "cover": "0063323184", "goodreads": 225910338, "itunes": 9780063323186, "bookshop": 9780063323186, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71mW7CiezbL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063323186", "isbn10": "0063323184", "links": [] }, "221": { "id": 221, "edition": "fall", "title": "Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell", "author": "Paul Lisicky", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "

Paul Lisicky adds a new dimension to his collection of memoirs with this elegant book. In lyrical prose, Lisicky brings us into his childhood as a budding songwriter, active in his church choir, awkward and gay. He discovers Joni Mitchell and feels her speaking to him. This volume is a love letter to the iconic folk singer, a meditation on her life and what makes her great, and a shout-out to her work as a painter. Lisicky splices his coming-of-age story in with his insightful exploration of her work, making for an absorbing read.

", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "for music lovers" ], "isbn": "006328037X", "cover": "006328037X", "goodreads": 213974065, "itunes": 9780063280373, "bookshop": 9780063280373, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gBiNz77XL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063280373", "isbn10": "006328037X", "links": [] }, "222": { "id": 222, "edition": "summer", "title": "Sounds Like Love", "author": "Ashley Poston", "reviewers": [ "Brittney Melton" ], "text": "

This magical romance follows a songwriter trying to make her next hit while struggling with writer’s block. She returns to her hometown and develops an undeniable connection with a musician she meets there. They have a telepathic line of communication, and they hope that by collaborating, they might break free of a haunting melody they share in their heads. This musical story explores love in many forms, from family connections to romantic bonds and reads like a ballad.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "family matters", "fiction", "love & romance", "for music lovers" ], "isbn": "0593641000", "cover": "0593641000", "goodreads": 219301746, "itunes": 9780593641002, "bookshop": 9780593641002, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/411gGZ+BZ9L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593641002", "isbn10": "0593641000", "links": [] }, "223": { "id": 223, "edition": "fall", "title": "Spent: A Comic Novel", "author": "Alison Bechdel", "reviewers": [ "Tahneer Oksman" ], "text": "

Best known for her graphic memoir Fun Home, Alison Bechdel has created a new “comic novel,” part self-parody, part ornate diatribe, that tracks a character in midlife (with the author’s same name) living with her partner on a goat farm in Vermont. The book’s cast of characters go about their lives against the backdrop of an exhausting cultural and political landscape. Sound familiar? Underneath the missives, jokes and Marxian headlines, the warmth of Bechdel’s storytelling is undeniable, and comforting. In an era calling for reinvention, Bechdel has produced her own inimitable genre.

", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "comics & graphic novels", "fiction", "the states we’re in", "no biz like show biz" ], "isbn": "0063278928", "cover": "0063278928", "goodreads": 217896244, "itunes": 9780063278929, "bookshop": 9780063278929, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51UgT0dBrhL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063278929", "isbn10": "0063278928", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 223, "book": "Spent: A Comic Novel", "source": "NCPR", "text": "Alison Bechel's new graphic novel is a 'love letter to Vermont'", "url": "https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/52126/20250729/alison-bechdel-s-new-graphic-novel-is-a-love-letter-to-vermont" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 223, "book": "Spent: A Comic Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Alison Bechdel on 'Spent'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/show/the-book-show/2025-07-29/alison-bechdel-spent" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 223, "book": "Spent: A Comic Novel", "source": "KQED", "text": "Alison Bechdel parodies her fame in comic novel ‘Spent’", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101910024/alison-bechdel-parodies-her-fame-in-comic-novel-spent" } ] }, "224": { "id": 224, "edition": "fall", "title": "Spread Me", "author": "Sarah Gailey", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

Erotic horror isn’t easy to pull off, but Sarah Gailey does so with flying colors here. A remote research outpost surrounded by sand can be either a dream or a nightmare depending on your personality, but when a researcher breaks safety protocols and brings in a dead animal full of the thing that killed it, what ensues is a tense, creepy story where everyone could be something else – and desire is only the means to an end.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "science!", "let’s talk about sex", "the dark side", "rather short", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250387337", "cover": "1250387337", "goodreads": 222376601, "itunes": 9781250387332, "bookshop": 9781250387332, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51uVJvcRnSL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250387332", "isbn10": "1250387337", "links": [] }, "225": { "id": 225, "edition": "summer", "title": "Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories", "author": "Torrey Peters", "reviewers": [ "Liam McBain" ], "text": "

Stag Dance is an incredibly engrossing collection of stories spread out among very different genres. There’s a lumberjack’s tall tale, a dystopian sci-fi, a teen romance and a horror story – but they all have a couple of things in common: One, they’re all wonderfully rendered, and two, they all explore the margins of gender. These stories explore the murky area between what we understand as cis and trans. Torrey Peters brings her signature wit and heart to get past the labels and into the core of how we all negotiate the ways we want to be seen.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593595645", "cover": "0593595645", "goodreads": 215362032, "itunes": 9780593595640, "bookshop": 9780593595640, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516Dgl6SWhL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593595640", "isbn10": "0593595645", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 225, "book": "Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "Gender is a negotiation' whether you realize it or not.", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/12/1263527057/stag-dance-torrey-peters-trans-stories" } ] }, "226": { "id": 226, "edition": "fall", "title": "Stay Dead", "author": "Natalie Shapero", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

It’s good to laugh when the world is crumbling – maybe it’s even better to laugh about the crumbling of the world. “I had to make sure/ I would not leave the world with my feelings/ unfinished,” writes Natalie Shapero in a book about death that is nonetheless exuberant. Gathering images from the products and the practices of film, of visual art, Shapero claws her way word-by-electric-word through troubles both personal and public. These poems often seem to start by giving up, but they find their way to something that is, if not hope, then a kind of determined cousin to it: “I was trying/ not to die. I’LL DIE WHEN I’M DEAD.”

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "for art lovers", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "1556597126", "cover": "1556597126", "goodreads": 223443635, "itunes": 9781556597121, "bookshop": 9781556597121, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41sXTIFRxqL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781556597121", "isbn10": "1556597126", "links": [] }, "227": { "id": 227, "edition": "fall", "title": "Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life", "author": "Tiffany Jenkins", "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "text": "

Don’t let the page count worry you; Tiffany Jenkins is a confident guide through several centuries of social upheaval, tracing developing concepts of personal privacy: freedom from surveillance, autonomy in work, the personhood to participate in public life. (Many specifics feel timeless; early Kodak ads touted “the thrill of capturing the likeness of a person without their knowledge.”) The scope of this history is impressive, and at a time when every app wants your location, concerning. A remarkable chronicle of the ways people have fought for our personhood and privacy – and what we stand to lose when those are gone.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1529034167", "cover": "1529034167", "goodreads": 217388034, "itunes": 9781529034165, "bookshop": 9781529034165, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416-HV2bOzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781529034165", "isbn10": "1529034167", "links": [] }, "228": { "id": 228, "edition": "book ahead", "title": "Strata: Stories from Deep Time", "author": "Laura Poppick", "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "text": "

It can be fun (or frightening) to imagine humans at the center of everything, but the truth is, we arrived awfully late to the party. Humans have been around for a vanishingly small fraction of the Earth’s roughly 4.5 billion-year life so far. Science journalist Laura Poppick’s first book offers an accessible introduction to what we know of the vast, obscure past that predates us, one layer of rock at a time, offering an entertaining answer to that eternal question of latecomers the world over: So, what did we miss, guys?

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "science!", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1324021608", "cover": "1324021608", "goodreads": 218569829, "itunes": 9781324021605, "bookshop": 9781324021605, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41MzfXmXqpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781324021605", "isbn10": "1324021608", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 228, "book": "Strata: Stories from Deep Time", "source": "Maine Public", "text": "Maine Calling: Geology: Stories of Earth's Layers", "url": "https://www.mainepublic.org/show/maine-calling/2025-07-15/geology-stories-of-earths-layers" } ] }, "229": { "id": 229, "edition": "fall", "title": "Sundust", "author": "Zeke Peña", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "

In Sundust, two kids venture past the rock walls of their border city to explore the untamed desert beyond. Here, away from all the gray concrete, they discover a galaxy of wonders beneath the blazing desert sun. A book that celebrates the magic of the Earth while also revealing marvels on a cosmic scale, Zeke Peña’s story is a mind-bending miracle that is somehow grounding and soaring at the same time. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593700112", "cover": "0593700112", "goodreads": 221251770, "itunes": 9780593700112, "bookshop": 9780593700112, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51loH8UAQvL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593700112", "isbn10": "0593700112", "links": [] }, "230": { "id": 230, "edition": "summer", "title": "Sunrise on the Reaping", "author": "Suzanne Collins", "reviewers": [ "Dhanika Pineda" ], "text": "

Rebel plots, bootleg liquor, underdog alliances and Edgar Allan Poe-try all await you in the latest addition to the Hunger Games universe. Sunrise on the Reaping is the long-awaited account of Haymitch Abernathy’s path to victory during the 50th annual Hunger Games. With double the number of children sent into the arena and appearances from a cast of familiar characters, this book provides an entirely new perspective on the history of Panem. While Haymitch’s victory at the the end of this book is not a surprise, the stakes still feel higher than ever in the small wins and losses that Haymitch and his loved ones face both in, and outside, the arena.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "young adult", "rather long", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1546171460", "cover": "1546171460", "goodreads": 214331246, "itunes": 9781546171461, "bookshop": 9781546171461, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/419JCm3Tr+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781546171461", "isbn10": "1546171460", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 230, "book": "Sunrise on the Reaping", "source": "NPR", "text": "New 'Hunger Games' prequel asks: How well do we really know our history?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/18/nx-s1-5330584/hunger-games-sunrise-on-the-reaping-suzanne-collins" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 230, "book": "Sunrise on the Reaping", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins was inspired by Greek myths and reality TV", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/18/1239156784/nprs-book-of-the-day-suzanne-collins-sunrise-on-the-reaping" } ] }, "231": { "id": 231, "edition": "fall", "title": "Milk Street Backroads Italy: Finding Italy's Forgotten Recipes", "author": "Christopher Kimball and J.M. Hirsch", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

With one or two titles a year arriving from the Milk Street media empire, you could be forgiven for losing track of what’s cooking. Don’t sleep on Backroads Italy, though. The most region-specific of the lot, it benefits from the attentions of award-winning food and travel writer J.M. Hirsch. Standards like Meatball Cacciatore and Chicken Saltimbocca come alive with detailed, foolproof instructions. Gnocchi with Saffron, Shrimp and Mussels shines whether you make your own gnocchi or punt. Above all, be sure to try the “erbazzone,” or Savory Greens Tart with Pancetta and Parmesan, which had me raving deliriously for weeks.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0316582069", "cover": "0316582069", "goodreads": 217182550, "itunes": 9780316582063, "bookshop": 9780316582063, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51aGaeNYmtL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780316582063", "isbn10": "0316582069", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 231, "book": "Milk Street Backroads Italy: Finding Italy's Forgotten Recipes", "source": "WOSU ", "text": "All Sides: Cookbook offers in-depth exploration of Italian cuisine", "url": "https://www.wosu.org/show/all-sides/2025-04-08/cookbook-offers-in-depth-exploration-of-italian-cuisine" } ] }, "232": { "id": 232, "edition": "fall", "title": "Umma: A Korean Mom's Kitchen Wisdom and 100 Family Recipes", "author": "Sarah Ahn and Nam Soon Ahn", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

“Oh. My. God.” I said, while biting into the accurately titled Fried Pork Rib with Cumin Seasoning Salt. Potato starch had fused into a crisp, chewy, sesame-flecked carapace around tender, garlicky rib meat. It was the kind of dish you convert to Catholicism for just so you can go to confession afterward. Less sinful but equally good were the mostly Korean riffs on chicken: Honey-Garlic Drumsticks, Soy Sauce-Braised Wings. If you’re concerned about the state of your soul (and your lipid panel), there are also hordes of vinegary pickles and banchan. Personal, specific and highly flavorful, Umma is an unusual, refreshing addition to America’s Test Kitchen’s roster of competent how-to books.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "family matters", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1954210566", "cover": "1954210566", "goodreads": 217116206, "itunes": 6651824842, "bookshop": 9781954210561, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mAckCXkHL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781954210561", "isbn10": "1954210566", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 232, "book": "Umma: A Korean Mom's Kitchen Wisdom and 100 Family Recipes", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "With 'Umma,' Sarah and Nam Soon Ahn bring their family recipes to the page\r", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/04/14/umma-sarah-ahn" } ] }, "233": { "id": 233, "edition": "fall", "title": "Kwéyòl / Creole: Recipes, Stories, and Tings from a St. Lucian Chef's Journey", "author": "Nina Compton with Osayi Endolyn", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

Caribbean cuisine often gets short shrift in the cookbook world, as if there is some unbridgeable gap filled with ackee, saltfish and pigeon peas. If you try one island cookbook, let it be this one from St. Lucian chef Nina Compton of New Orleans restaurant fame. Easily sourced offerings include tender Beef Empanadas with umami-packed salsa verde, or classic shrimp and grits. It’s worth finding guava paste just for the sticky, rosemary-flecked glazed ribs, and the Mango Crème Brûlée will make you swoon when Ataúlfos come into season. If you ever get a goat leg, I’ll be right over for Compton’s world-famous curry.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "059357897X", "cover": "059357897X", "goodreads": 215805815, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780593578971, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518-cbIi5lL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593578971", "isbn10": "059357897X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 233, "book": "Kwéyòl / Creole: Recipes, Stories, and Tings from a St. Lucian Chef's Journey", "source": "KCRW", "text": "From St. Lucia to New Orleans: Nina Compton shares her chef's journey through recipes", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/good-food/stories/nina-compton-kweyol-creole-cookbook" } ] }, "234": { "id": 234, "edition": "fall", "title": "Dinner: 120 Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes for the Most Important Meal of the Day", "author": "Meera Sodha", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

With its understated title and plain cover adorned by eight hand-drawn forks, Dinner might escape your notice as you browse the sumptuary delights of the cookbook section. This would be a pity, as Meera Sodha (veteran food columnist for The Guardian) has once again assembled a winning coterie of meatless mains: Indian-inflected crowd-pleasers like Asparagus and Cashew Thoran and Mango and Paneer Curry, but also striking innovations like Oyster Mushroom Larb and the oddly addictive, corn kernel-topped Golden Mile Pizza. Global in scope and thrifty with time, Dinner will have you dog-earing favorites nightly – and then turning the page to try another.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "1250358159", "cover": "1250358159", "goodreads": 209141998, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781250358158, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41lF05WH-aL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250358158", "isbn10": "1250358159", "links": [] }, "235": { "id": 235, "edition": "fall", "title": "Persiana Easy", "author": "Sabrina Ghayour", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

The Persiana books by U.K. food writer Sabrina Ghayour, despite their name, extend far beyond the Mesopotamian cradle of civilization without ever abandoning it entirely. Spicy Sausage Tacos feature an un-Mexican jolt of mint in the salsa. Salt and pepper shrimp receive a dusting of – surprise! – za’atar. The sauce for a peanutty, coconutty, pan-fried pork loin features – what? – harissa! These are boisterous flavors married with a confident hand, unafraid to scorch zucchini for bulgur salad or smash roast new potatoes and dredge them in chaat. Also, the book is lusciously photographed – but feasting your eyes is just the start.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "1783256125", "cover": "1783256125", "goodreads": 228712583, "itunes": 9781783256129, "bookshop": 9781783256129, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51VS1qhOjnL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781783256129", "isbn10": "1783256125", "links": [] }, "236": { "id": 236, "edition": "fall", "title": "Something from Nothing: A Cookbook", "author": "Alison Roman", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

The thing about an Alison Roman recipe, and I’m not sure how she does it, is that you’re rarely more than 45 minutes or 10 ingredients away from something deceptively spectacular. Something from Nothing elegantly walks the tightrope of simplicity, conjuring pantry miracles from what could be boring basics. Piquancy is the name of the game here, whether it’s sides like roasted fennel spangled with capers and crunchy, anchovied celery salad, or mains like a turmeric-gilded crushed-olive chicken or crispy schnitzel adorned with browned butter radishes. In short, stock up on your tins and go to town!

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "1984826417", "cover": "1984826417", "goodreads": 230337085, "itunes": 9781984826411, "bookshop": 9781984826411, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41kL8N8pTgL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781984826411", "isbn10": "1984826417", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 236, "book": "Joyride: A Memoir", "source": "WOSU Public Media", "text": "Susan Orlean, who celebrates other people’s stories, does what she’s dreaded most: her own memoir", "url": "https://www.wosu.org/2025-10-27/susan-orlean-who-celebrates-other-peoples-stories-does-what-shes-dreaded-most-her-own-memoir" } ] }, "237": { "id": 237, "edition": "fall", "title": "Celebrate: Joyful Baking All Year Round", "author": "Paul Hollywood", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

Looking decidedly less gimlet-eyed than he does on Bake Off, Paul Hollywood affably dangles a cherry over an artful drip cake on the cover of his latest. If that intimidates you, never fear. There are many accessible ways into this book, like the delectable Zucchini and Lime Cake, which is oven-ready in about 15 minutes – coincidentally, exactly how long it takes to devour it. There’s easy White Chocolate Cranberry and Nut Cookies and a ridiculously buttery Garlic and Onion Focaccia, babkas and custard tarts and meat pies and crumbles. Why wait for the holidays to celebrate when each of these is a party unto itself?

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "1639735038", "cover": "1639735038", "goodreads": 217388048, "itunes": 9781639735037, "bookshop": 9781639735037, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nfJkQxmBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781639735037", "isbn10": "1639735038", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 237, "book": "Celebrate: Joyful Baking All Year Round", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": " 'Great British Bake Off' judge Paul Hollywood on new 'Celebrate' cookbook and American bakers", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/10/07/paul-hollywood-celebrate" } ] }, "238": { "id": 238, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Art of Jacques Pépin: Favorite Recipes and Paintings from My Life in the Kitchen", "author": "Jacques Pépin", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

It’s an abiding mystery how so much talent and humanity managed to combine in the person of Jacques Pépin, who turns 90 this year. Pépin’s pursuit of art dates back to his early student days, and his paintings meander deftly through Impressionist, Fauvist, Expressionist influences. Landscapes and still lifes riot with color in this jewel of a collection, but don’t overlook Pépin’s signature delectably simple recipes, such as succulent Lamb Shoulder Chops with Mushrooms or delicate shrimp patties. Like the charming portrait of halved pears on its facing page, even an unassuming Orzo with Arugula Sauce has charm to spare.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "0063420244", "cover": "0063420244", "goodreads": 222399122, "itunes": 6739210990, "bookshop": 9780063420243, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71vH6BPFAZL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063420243", "isbn10": "0063420244", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 238, "book": "The Art of Jacques Pépin: Favorite Recipes and Paintings from My Life in the Kitchen ", "source": "NPR", "text": "America's most famous French chef on the 'Art of the Chicken' and a life well lived", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/01/1124582510/jacques-pepin-french-chef-julia-child" } ] }, "239": { "id": 239, "edition": "fall", "title": "Long Day? Cook This. Easy East Asian Recipes with a Twist", "author": "Justin Tsang", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

Justin Tsang, according to his bio, is “a cook” – not a chef or influencer, just a kid who grew up chowhounding around his parents’ London Chinese restaurants. Though some of the techniques look familiar, Long Day? Cook This is no run-of-the-mill Chinese cookbook. This is textured, exuberant hangover food: Crispy noodles with shrimp and vegetables, Sticky Ginger and Garlic Ribs. Triple Garlic Crispy Chicken served up with pulverized broccolini rice was the loudest thing I ate all year, and I couldn’t get enough of it. A better match for confident cooks, as some instructions warrant reading between the lines.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "162371589X", "cover": "162371589X", "goodreads": 227828312, "itunes": 6738818734, "bookshop": 9781623715892, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51zCBmMccPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781623715892", "isbn10": "162371589X", "links": [] }, "240": { "id": 240, "edition": "fall", "title": "Dorie's Anytime Cakes", "author": "Dorie Greenspan, illustrated by Nancy Pappas", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

Making a cake doesn’t have to eat up an entire day of your life. Dorie’s Anytime Cakes are weekday treats that anyone with a decent mixer (or even just a bowl) can throw together. Cakes can be small, like the exemplary wheaten Bran-berry Muffins. They can be round, like springy, citrusy Olive Oil-and-Orange Grab-and-Go Cake. They can have corners, and cause you to engage in rabid hoarding behavior, like the deceptively understated Crunchy-Topped Almond Cake, with its silken, lofty crumb and heady frangipane scent. And every one of them is sized to share – not that you’ll necessarily want to.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "0063346966", "cover": "0063346966", "goodreads": 223830468, "itunes": 9780063346963, "bookshop": 9780063346963, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81T9OVTIABL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063346963", "isbn10": "0063346966", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 240, "book": "Dorie's Anytime Cakes", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: Dorie Greenspan talks cakes", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/dorie-greenspan-talks-cakes/" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 240, "book": "Dorie's Anytime Cakes", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "Dorie Greenspan's new cookbook pays homage to the simple cake", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/10/16/dorie-greenspan-anytime-cakes" } ] }, "241": { "id": 241, "edition": "fall", "title": "Tall Is Her Body", "author": "Robert de la Chevotière", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

After witnessing the brutal murder of his mother and uncle, young Fidel is taken from his quiet Caribbean home on Guadeloupe to live with his mother’s family on the nearby island of Dominica. There, life goes from placid to terrifying, with new people in his life either cruel, negligent or dying before they can save him. His ability to see spirits of the dead and his family’s belief in Obeah clashes with the strict teachings of his new Catholic school and, later, his life in Canada. The lush prose takes the reader on a journey across decades and continents. A magical realism tour de force where cultural identity confronts colonization.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "fiction", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1645662020", "cover": "1645662020", "goodreads": 218155555, "itunes": 9781645662020, "bookshop": 9781645662020, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51o99eFoV3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781645662020", "isbn10": "1645662020", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 241, "book": "The Antidote", "source": "NPR", "text": "Karen Russell discusses her new book 'The Antidote', set during the Dust Bowl", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/08/nx-s1-5130173/karen-russell-discusses-her-new-book-the-antidote-set-during-the-dust-bowl" } ] }, "242": { "id": 242, "edition": "summer", "title": "The Antidote", "author": "Karen Russell", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

A novel that’s both an epic and an omen, this work of historical fiction is rooted in Dust Bowl tragedies that transcend time and place. In a landscape that surely feels cursed, Karen Russell introduces us to, among others, a Prairie Witch, whose gift is radical listening, providing a kind of proto-therapy that takes the weight of “whatever they can’t stand to know” from her patrons. Histories we collectively cannot withstand and what they mean for our future are at the core of this National Book Award finalist, in which Russell masterfully renders the strange quotidian and imbues the everyday with menace or magic.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "rather long", "historical fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "059380225X", "cover": "059380225X", "goodreads": 214537790, "itunes": 9780593802250, "bookshop": 9780593802250, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ca4OdYKGL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593802250", "isbn10": "059380225X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 242, "book": "The Antidote", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "Karen Russell's 'The Antidote' is an American epic – and well worth the wait", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/19/nx-s1-5332088/the-antidote-review-karen-russell" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 242, "book": "The Antidote", "source": "WPR", "text": "Karen Russell on her novel, ‘The Antidote,’ and disaster’s road to hope", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/culture/karen-russell-novel-the-antidote-beta" } ] }, "243": { "id": 243, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon", "author": "Laurie Gwen Shapiro", "reviewers": [ "Maya Rodale" ], "text": "

If you thought you knew Amelia Earhart from children’s storybooks, this biography will make you think again. Though she wasn’t the era’s only female aviator or even the best one, Amelia was the one who captured America’s imagination. The surprising reason: her husband, George Putnam, “the publishing world’s P.T. Barnum,” whose stunts and knack for publicity made Amelia a celebrity. They were quite the team – the showman and the daring aviator – until her final, tragic flight. This book gives us the lovely opportunity to know Amelia not just as an icon, but also a kindhearted and complex woman.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "for history lovers", "book club ideas", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0593295900", "cover": "0593295900", "goodreads": 218460292, "itunes": 9780593295908, "bookshop": 9780593295908, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41KxRa4ruDL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593295908", "isbn10": "0593295900", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 243, "book": "The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon", "source": "WOSU", "text": "All Sides: Life and legacy of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart is highlighted in new book", "url": "https://www.wosu.org/show/all-sides/2025-07-23/life-and-legacy-of-aviation-pioneer-amelia-earhart-is-highlighted-in-new-book" } ] }, "244": { "id": 244, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Bewitching", "author": "Silvia Moreno-Garcia", "reviewers": [ "Ivy Buck" ], "text": "

“Could someone plateau at twenty-four? Could your brain shrink?” asks Minerva, one of three protagonists in this witchy, multigenerational tale. During a summer spent on the grounds of her beloved Stoneridge College, Minerva struggles to write her graduate thesis on the macabre literature of Beatrice Tremblay, an alum from the 1930s. But burnout isn’t quite the issue; Minerva begins to wonder whether she’s being haunted by a witch, a witch of the same ilk that crept into the life of her great-grandmother Nana Alba – and perhaps the life of Beatrice Tremblay as well. Does witchcraft somehow link these women together? There are endless delights to uncover within the novel’s enchanting orbit of historical academic spook. Dead rats abound, for one. And maybe even a touch of the sapphic.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "family matters", "the dark side", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593874323", "cover": "0593874323", "goodreads": 220458657, "itunes": 9780593874325, "bookshop": 9780593874325, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41oEa-MKvkL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593874325", "isbn10": "0593874323", "links": [] }, "245": { "id": 245, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life", "author": "Suleika Jaouad", "reviewers": [ "Christina Cala" ], "text": "

Some books can be daily companions for a more examined life. An invitation toward ritual, reminiscence and observation. In this collection of essays and journaling prompts, Suleika Jaouad offers a library of experiences and tools for written contemplation. Whether you’re a lifelong journaler or new to the practice of taking pen to paper, this creative tome is sure to inspire.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0593734637", "cover": "0593734637", "goodreads": 217245588, "itunes": 9780593734636, "bookshop": 9780593734636, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91DKvalBWcL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593734636", "isbn10": "0593734637", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 245, "book": "The Book of Alchemy A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life", "source": "NPR", "text": "Life Kit: The transformative power of keeping a daily journal", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/07/31/nx-s1-5464815/how-to-keep-a-daily-journal-book-of-alchemy" } ] }, "246": { "id": 246, "edition": "summer", "title": "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter", "author": "Stephen Graham Jones", "reviewers": [ "Cory Turner" ], "text": "

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is many things: a clever nesting doll of narratives, a sanguine revenge thriller stitched inside the corpse of an old vampire yarn, and a fearsome accounting of America’s murderous past. Lucky for us, Stephen Graham Jones has bound it all together with a hero (antihero?) for the ages – a man from the Blackfeet tribe, aptly named Good Stab, who is determined to right the wrongs of the past, even if it takes him a few lifetimes.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "mysteries & thrillers", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1668075083", "cover": "1668075083", "goodreads": 214565614, "itunes": 9781668075081, "bookshop": 9781668075081, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51G54Atqi+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668075081", "isbn10": "1668075083", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 246, "book": "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Buffalo Hunter Hunter' is Stephen Graham Jones' horror masterpiece", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/nx-s1-5330583/buffalo-hunter-hunter-review-stephen-graham-jones-horror" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 246, "book": "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter", "source": "KWIT", "text": "Check It Out: 'The Buffalo Hunter Hunter' by Stephen Graham Jones", "url": "https://www.kwit.org/show/check-it-out/2025-06-23/check-it-out-the-buffalo-hunter-hunter-by-stephen-graham-jones" } ] }, "247": { "id": 247, "edition": "summer", "title": "The Catch", "author": "Yrsa Daley-Ward", "reviewers": [ "Shannon Rhoades" ], "text": "

This novel bends genres and time. It opens on the 30th birthday of twin sisters Clara and Dempsey. As children, after the death of their mother, they were raised in different families and have little in common – until that birthday, when they are pulled together after Clara swears she sees their dead mother, very much alive and also … 30 years old. The first half of The Catch is riveting. It’s a nearly impossible story to “land,” but an ending is perhaps beside the point – the story could go on and on.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1324092513", "cover": "1324092513", "goodreads": 218569899, "itunes": 9781324092513, "bookshop": 9781324092513, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41YJs8e9iWL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781324092513", "isbn10": "1324092513", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 247, "book": "The Catch", "source": "NPR", "text": "Twin sisters uncover a huge mystery about their mother's death in 'The Catch'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/06/01/nx-s1-5298676/twin-sisters-uncover-a-huge-mystery-about-their-mothers-death-in-the-catch" } ] }, "248": { "id": 248, "edition": "", "title": "The CIA Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature", "author": "Charlie English", "reviewers": [ "Marcela Davison Avilés" ], "text": "

The CIA Book Club is Charlie English’s latest true story focused on official efforts to control or destroy narratives of civic culture. The book reveals an astonishing international spy effort to flood the post-World War II communist zone with The Gulag Archipelago, among other titles. His reporting of grassroots book smuggling by the Polish people in an effort to fight Cold War tyranny with literature is a gripping account of citizens risking their lives in the service of meaning. Their story is a timeless reminder of ideas unleashed.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0593447905", "cover": "0593447905", "goodreads": 222292403, "itunes": 9780593447901, "bookshop": 9780593447901, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41eBL48-0VL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593447901", "isbn10": "0593447905", "links": [] }, "249": { "id": 249, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Colony", "author": "Annika Norlin, translated by Alice E. Olsson", "reviewers": [ "Leland Cheuk" ], "text": "

A well-worn literary trope in recent years has been to portray an alternative living community as a scary cult – especially prevalent in dystopian or climate fiction. Fewer books, however, portray these communities without judgment. The Colony sidesteps cliches, and while it doesn’t make every one of its characters likable, it does make this unlikely band of misfits comprehensible. Weaving together multiple storylines spanning 50 years, Annika Norlin creates an off-the-grid colony that may not have all the answers but offers its residents what modern life often can’t: connection and family.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "rather long", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "9798889660828", "cover": "9798889660828", "goodreads": 214203940, "itunes": 9798889660828, "bookshop": 9798889660828, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31URPUZU1xL._SL500_.jpg", "amazon_asin": "B0D62GR2PC", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9798889660828", "isbn10": "8889660821", "links": [] }, "250": { "id": 250, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Compound", "author": "Aisling Rawle", "reviewers": [ "Kyra Waller" ], "text": "

When contestants are dropped in the remote desert to film a Love Island-esque reality show, they must couple up to stay in the game and complete tasks to receive everything from basic amenities to beautiful luxuries. As the tasks become more dangerous, contestants don’t know who to trust. Who is acting on their own and who is doing so because a task told them to? Even as their season spirals into dangerous chaos, they stay more interested in winning brand deals than their own well-being or in the vaguely alluded-to wars happening outside the show. With commentary on materialism, influencer culture and our ability to look the other way, you feel as trapped in the story as the contestants are in The Compound.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "fiction", "no biz like show biz", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "0593977270", "cover": "0593977270", "goodreads": 218460337, "itunes": 9780593977279, "bookshop": 9780593977279, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41yDZCFz9bL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593977279", "isbn10": "0593977270", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 250, "book": "The Compound", "source": "NPR", "text": "First time novelist writes about life in semi-dystopian reality TV show", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/07/05/nx-s1-5445273/first-time-novelist-writes-about-life-in-semi-dystopian-reality-tv-show" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 250, "book": "The Compound", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Love reality TV? Add this debut novel to your summer reading list", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review/2025-06-23/love-reality-tv-add-this-debut-novel-to-your-summer-reading-list" } ] }, "251": { "id": 251, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Correspondent", "author": "Virginia Evans", "reviewers": [ "Elissa Nadworny" ], "text": "

This is the story of a 70-year-old woman – who I’m honestly not sure I really liked! – who had a distinguished legal career, a painful family life and is on the way to going blind. The book is told through letters and emails – both sent and received. There are letters between friends, emails with customer support and even some hate mail. I was a bit hesitant about an epistolary novel, but there’s enough going on in all the various forms of contact that some parts read like a love story, others a comedy of errors, and then there are some mysteries and twists built in that keep you engaged until the end.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0593798430", "cover": "0593798430", "goodreads": 223001257, "itunes": 9780593798430, "bookshop": 9780593798430, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41MBbHyjJaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593798430", "isbn10": "0593798430", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 251, "book": "The Correspondent", "source": "MPR", "text": "Ask a Bookseller: ‘The Correspondent’ by Virginia Evans ", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2025/10/11/ask-a-bookseller-the-correspondent-by-virginia-evans" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 251, "book": "The Correspondent", "source": "HPPR", "text": "HPPR Radio Readers Book Club: A well-written life", "url": "https://www.hppr.org/2025-07-25/a-well-written-life-by-julie-a-sellers" } ] }, "252": { "id": 252, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb", "author": "Garrett M. Graff", "reviewers": [ "Tucker Ives" ], "text": "

This summer, the world marked 80 years since nuclear weapons were dropped on Japan. The author mostly features voices of the scientific and military personnel involved in the development of the bomb. But it’s interspersed with the memories of those whose lives were uprooted by the work in the United States because of eminent domain and those in Japan who had to live with the deadly, painful, lifelong consequences of the bomb. The audiobook version includes a full cast recording.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "rather long", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1668092395", "cover": "1668092395", "goodreads": 220160123, "itunes": 9781668092392, "bookshop": 9781668092392, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41qfrT0iLEL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668092392", "isbn10": "1668092395", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 252, "book": "The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff discusses his new book about the atomic bomb", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/08/02/nx-s1-5400694/pulitzer-prize-finalist-garrett-m-graff-discusses-his-new-book-about-the-atomic-bomb" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 252, "book": "The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb", "source": "KQED", "text": " ‘The Devil Reached Toward the Sky’ tells an oral history of the atomic bomb", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/arts/13979571/the-devil-reached-toward-the-sky-book-review-atomic-bomb-wwii-history" } ] }, "253": { "id": 253, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Door on the Sea", "author": "Caskey Russell", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

The cover copy describes this as “the Tlingit indigenous response to The Lord of the Rings,” and it lives up to that premise. This first book in the Raven and Eagle series centers on Elān, a young bookworm watching the shape-shifting Koosh invaders get closer and closer to his people, the Aaní. Elān would rather be learning than adventuring, but after an encounter with a foul-mouthed raven, he and a motley crew of warriors set off in a great canoe to find a lost weapon that will drive the Koosh away. Get ready for a new, fascinating take on a classic epic adventure and coming-of-age story.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1837863784", "cover": "1837863784", "goodreads": 224003904, "itunes": 9781837863785, "bookshop": 9781837863785, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51U5XwBAM-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781837863785", "isbn10": "1837863784", "links": [] }, "254": { "id": 254, "edition": "summer", "title": "The Dream Hotel", "author": "Laila Lalami", "reviewers": [ "Emily Kwong" ], "text": "

Archivist and mother Sara T. Hussein gets detained at an airport. Her crime? A dream deemed too high risk by an AI algorithm. Writing incisively, Laila Lalami brilliantly builds a world where a pre-crime system collides with surveillance capitalism. With the novel’s compelling cast of characters and endless parallels to today, I found The Dream Hotel instructive for navigating a society beset by mass surveillance – where the only escape can be found in shouldering risk together.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "fiction", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "staff picks", "seriously great writing", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "0593317602", "cover": "0593317602", "goodreads": 218695937, "itunes": 9780593317600, "bookshop": 9780593317600, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41a5gh2+oTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593317600", "isbn10": "0593317602", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 254, "book": "The Dream Hotel", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "AI eavesdrops on your sleep in this nightmarish 'Dream Hotel'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/04/23/nx-s1-5373440/the-dream-review-hotel-laila-lalami" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 254, "book": "The Dream Hotel", "source": "NPR ", "text": "In 'The Dream Hotel,' AI monitors people's dreams. The results are life-altering", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/30/nx-s1-5137014/in-the-dream-hotel-ai-monitors-peoples-dreams-the-results-are-life-altering" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 254, "book": "The Dream Hotel", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Get Lit: Laila Lalami on 'The Dream Hotel'", "url": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/all-of-it/articles/get-lit-laila-lalami-on-the-dream-hotel" } ] }, "255": { "id": 255, "edition": "summer", "title": "The Emperor of Gladness", "author": "Ocean Vuong", "reviewers": [ "Ari Shapiro" ], "text": "

The banal sentence, “This is the best novel I’ve read in years,” captures what I’ve told friends about The Emperor of Gladness – which is that Ocean Vuong’s gorgeous prose makes every line I’ve ever written seem wan by comparison. “Best novel I’ve read in years”? How insipid! This book tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a college dropout and an elderly woman with dementia. It paints a picture of the bond that forms among workers at a fast-food restaurant in a small New England town. And writing these sentences, all I can think is – Vuong would phrase it so much more beautifully.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "fiction", "rather long", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "059383187X", "cover": "059383187X", "goodreads": 219848315, "itunes": 9780593831878, "bookshop": 9780593831878, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41FtlT-B+6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593831878", "isbn10": "059383187X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 255, "book": "The Emperor of Gladness", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": " 'The Emperor of Gladness' is a beautiful novel about hard work and found family", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/19/nx-s1-5399596/the-emperor-of-gladness-review-ocean-vuong" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 255, "book": "The Emperor of Gladness", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "After his mother's death, Ocean Vuong wrote his way through grief", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/06/05/nx-s1-5424372/ocean-vuong-the-emperor-of-gladness" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 255, "book": "The Emperor of Gladness", "source": "NPR", "text": "Within the new novel 'The Emperor of Gladness,' a love letter to fast food workers", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/14/nx-s1-5395770/within-the-new-novel-the-emperor-of-gladness-a-love-letter-to-fast-food-workers" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 255, "book": "The Emperor of Gladness", "source": "WBEZ", "text": " ‘It was my Noah’s Ark’: Ocean Vuong bares all in new novel ‘The Emperor of Gladness’", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/reset-with-sasha-ann-simons/2025/05/13/poet-and-writer-ocean-vuong-on-the-emperor-of-gladness" } ] }, "256": { "id": 256, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Ephemerata: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief", "author": "Carol Tyler", "reviewers": [ "Tahneer Oksman" ], "text": "

Is there a right way to experience, or express, grief? Autobiographical cartoonist Carol Tyler’s latest heavyweight, crammed with inky, wild visuals and loopy prose, does not seek simple answers. Hurting from the deaths of her mother, sister and father, Tyler does not try to tell readers how they might feel in similar circumstances. Instead, she implores others to pay careful attention, not just to grief but also to the life that goes on as grief does. Brimming with gorgeous, meandering images and prose, this book showcases a highly skilled artist at the top of her game.

", "tags": [ "family matters", "for art lovers", "biography & memoir", "rather short", "comics & graphic novels", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "9798875001437", "cover": "9798875001437", "goodreads": 228140280, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9798875001437, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416T+vZwKRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9798875001437", "isbn10": "887500143X", "links": [] }, "257": { "id": 257, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Everlasting", "author": "Alix E. Harrow", "reviewers": [ "Kalyani Saxena" ], "text": "

First things first, The Everlasting is not a book you’re going to get over easily. It’s razor sharp and designed to cut you deeply. You’ll be moved, you’ll probably cry, and by the end you’ll say thank you for delivering my suffering so beautifully. This story follows a scholar and a mythical (lady) knight who have lived the same story countless times – caught in a historical time loop. It’s a book about storytelling, and how nationalism cannot exist without the support of a well-told myth. It’s a thrashing examination of how we choose our heroes. And, most importantly, it’s a love story – about two people who learn over and over again that they’re doomed in every possible way but still choose each other anyway. What exquisite agony, wonderfully delivered.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "love & romance", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250799082", "cover": "1250799082", "goodreads": 225699786, "itunes": 9781250799081, "bookshop": 9781250799081, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81nm2O4QZPL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250799081", "isbn10": "1250799082", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 257, "book": "The Everlasting", "source": "KAXE", "text": "Alix E. Harrow's ‘The Everlasting’ asks 'Who gets to tell your story?'", "url": "https://www.kaxe.org/show/what-were-reading/2025-10-27/alix-e-harrows-the-everlasting-asks-who-gets-to-tell-your-story" } ] }, "258": { "id": 258, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Experiment", "author": "Rebecca Stead", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

A tail. Nathan has grown a tail and now nothing will ever be the same again. Raised to understand that he, like his parents, is just an alien in human form, Nathan has always been perfectly comfortable with his double life. But the minute he grows a furry tiger tail (one with a mind entirely of its own), he begins to realize that there’s more to his existence than meets the eye. Could it be that his entire existence is a lie? Rebecca Stead expertly weaves such disparate elements as Charlotte’s Web and Calvin and Hobbes into a work of science fiction that makes good trouble, questioning authority in all the best possible ways. A rebellious response to untrustworthy leadership. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "kids’ books", "fiction", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1250374766", "cover": "1250374766", "goodreads": 220908981, "itunes": 9781250374769, "bookshop": 9781250374769, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41sbjMcwBnL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250374769", "isbn10": "1250374766", "links": [] }, "259": { "id": 259, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Expert of Subtle Revisions", "author": "Kirsten Menger-Anderson", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

Hase was raised by a single father who, despite shielding her from much of the real world, always loved her dearly, so when he doesn’t show up at Half Moon Bay on her birthday, she worries. Soon she’s embroiled in a mystery that involves a shady institute that believes in time travel. The book itself then travels back to 1930s Vienna, where readers meet two men who move in the same academic circles in very different ways. History, Hase knows from the hours she spends revising Wikipedia entries, can look different depending on who’s telling it and how, but she never imagined that knowledge applying to her own story.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "tales from around the world", "rather short", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593798309", "cover": "0593798309", "goodreads": 214986234, "itunes": 9780593798300, "bookshop": 9780593798300, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510k4oINgKL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593798300", "isbn10": "0593798309", "links": [] }, "260": { "id": 260, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Eyes of Gaza: A Diary of Resilience", "author": "Plestia Alaqad", "reviewers": [ "Linah Mohammad" ], "text": "

This book haunts you long after you put it down. It includes the author’s diaries, as well as her photographs and reporting following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, offering a clear, intimate and deeply affecting account of the first 45 days of Israel’s deadly campaign in Gaza. It’s a deceptively easy read, but one you’ll want to savor, linger over and return to in thought. Plestia Alaqad’s writing makes the unimaginable feel immediate and impossible to ignore. This book is one of the most important books of our time – essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0316597457", "cover": "0316597457", "goodreads": 228347658, "itunes": 9780316597456, "bookshop": 9780316597456, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41t0-rSFTVL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780316597456", "isbn10": "0316597457", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 260, "book": "The Eyes of Gaza: A Diary of Resilience", "source": "NPR", "text": "Palestinian journalist's new book offers a window into the war in Gaza", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/06/nx-s1-5398355/palestinian-journalists-new-book-offers-a-window-into-the-war-in-gaza" } ] }, "261": { "id": 261, "edition": "summer", "title": "The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780", "author": "Rick Atkinson", "reviewers": [ "Tom Bowman" ], "text": "

I’ve been eagerly waiting years for this book! This is the second volume of Rick Atkinson’s trilogy on the American Revolution. Atkinson makes good use of letters and diaries. You feel like you’re in the middle of a battle, with all the sights, sounds and tragedy. Harrowing tales of hand-to-hand fighting, scalping and desperate evacuations. Fine detail: the waxed mustaches of the Hessian forces, the number of rum barrels distributed to weary and ill-clad troops, the dull thud of cannonballs smacking into ships. The stench of makeshift hospitals, with piles of limbs stacked outside. He carefully lays out how the battles began, and the successes, mistakes and missed opportunities – on both sides.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "for history lovers", "seriously great writing", "nonfiction", "rather long", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593799186", "cover": "0593799186", "goodreads": 216971226, "itunes": 9780593799185, "bookshop": 9780593799185, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41InbjH6wdL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593799185", "isbn10": "0593799186", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 261, "book": "The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780", "source": "WYPR", "text": "The riveting story of a desperate phase of the American Revolution in 'The Fate of the Day'", "url": "https://www.wypr.org/show/midday/2025-07-03/the-riveting-story-of-a-desperate-phase-of-the-american-revolution-in-the-fate-of-the-day" } ] }, "262": { "id": 262, "edition": "fall (summer rewrite)", "title": "The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne", "author": "Chris Sweeney", "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "text": "

Forensic ornithology is real, and Roxie Laybourne made it happen. This painstaking biography traces the ornithologist’s Smithsonian career from early days restoring samples to being the world’s best bird identifier, assisting with everything from poaching investigations to NASA flights. Though not always comfortable under the pressure of working with law enforcement, Laybourne was an indomitable force, and her passion for birds – through investigation, teaching and conservation – is evident on every page. For those who love niche stories of nature, science and social history, The Feather Detective offers a timely account of a fascinating – and peculiar – ecosystem: one woman, and lots and lots of birds.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "science!", "it’s all geek to me", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "1668025841", "cover": "1668025841", "goodreads": 220160384, "itunes": 9781668025840, "bookshop": 9781668025840, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/412e2McTdxL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668025840", "isbn10": "1668025841", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 262, "book": "The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne", "source": "NPR", "text": "A new book tells the story of taxidermist and forensic ornithologist Roxie Laybourne", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/07/19/nx-s1-5187088/a-new-book-tells-the-story-of-taxidermist-and-forensic-ornithologist-roxie-laybourne" } ] }, "263": { "id": 263, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Ferryman and His Wife", "author": "Frode Grytten, translated by Alison McCullough", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

In its original Norwegian, the title of this short, quiet treasure is The Day That Nils Vik Died – and that’s precisely what this novel is about. On a rainy November day, we accompany the widowed ferryman on his last trip plying the fjords in his beloved boat. Along the way, the ghosts of passengers from his past “ooze out of the logbooks” and line the fjord. He reconnects with people (and a dog) he helped, as well as others whose needs he wishes he’d better understood. It’s a beautiful tribute to the power of kindness.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "fiction", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1643757458", "cover": "1643757458", "goodreads": 228646321, "itunes": 9781643757452, "bookshop": 9781643757452, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51JQWjs-+OL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781643757452", "isbn10": "1643757458", "links": [] }, "264": { "id": 264, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan", "author": "Lyse Doucet", "reviewers": [ "Vincent Ni" ], "text": "

Acclaimed Canadian journalist Lyse Doucet’s The Finest Hotel in Kabul is as elegant, incisive and poignant as her decades of reporting for the BBC. More than a chronicle of a landmark hotel, this book is a meditation on survival, memory and the human cost of decades of war in Afghanistan. Through vivid portraits of Afghan women and men whose lives – and deaths – intertwined with the Inter-Continental Kabul hotel, Doucet captures a nation’s struggle between hope and despair. Her storytelling blends journalistic rigor with literary grace, making these stories not just history, but testimony.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "eye-opening reads", "rather long", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "0735243417", "cover": "0735243417", "goodreads": 238299552, "itunes": 9780735243415, "bookshop": 9780735243415, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Mt7eUyYpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780735243415", "isbn10": "0735243417", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 264, "book": "The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan", "source": "PRX & GBH", "text": "Fragility and hope endure in Kabul’s ‘finest’ hotel", "url": "https://theworld.org/segments/2025/11/03/fragility-and-hope-endure-in-kabuls-finest-hotel" } ] }, "265": { "id": 265, "edition": "summer", "title": "The Garden", "author": "Nick Newman", "reviewers": [ "Jennifer Vanasco" ], "text": "

I normally edge away from post-apocalyptic stories, but this one drew me in with its intimate, slow-burn focus on two elderly sisters. Evelyn tends their garden sanctuary, collecting the eggs and picking slugs off the spinach. Lily … dances. When the life they have built is threatened, they approach this new test in very different ways. What haunted me afterward was the implicit question this climate fiction fable asks: Is it better to focus on the daily duties of life or on its beauties? On survival or on meaning? And can you have one without the other?

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "fiction", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593717732", "cover": "0593717732", "goodreads": 213618270, "itunes": 9780593717738, "bookshop": 9780593717738, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51P3mmEbfLL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593717738", "isbn10": "0593717732", "links": [] }, "266": { "id": 266, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Gathering Table", "author": "Antwan Eady, illustrated by London Ladd", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "

Imagine a warm welcoming tradition where family and friends come together. At the heart of this exuberant picture book is a simple wooden table in a lush outdoor setting. It’s here that generations of a Gullah Geechee community feast, honor and celebrate. Antwan Eady’s lyrical words swirl around, carrying the reader along, while London Ladd’s vibrant paintings jump off the page and then draw you in. Here, everyone has a place at the Gathering Table to share the love and pride, both past and present – plus a promise of a hopeful and joyous future. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "identity & culture", "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "0593480600", "cover": "0593480600", "goodreads": 219334732, "itunes": 9780593480601, "bookshop": 9780593480601, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516hec3GgxL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593480601", "isbn10": "0593480600", "links": [] }, "267": { "id": 267, "edition": "summer", "title": "The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World", "author": "William Dalrymple", "reviewers": [ "Nishant Dahiya" ], "text": "

The Golden Road puts ancient and early medieval India at the heart of an empire of ideas, trade, science, religion and culture. In this masterful work, William Dalrymple, the co-host of a popular history podcast, aims to correct “India’s often forgotten position” as a cultural and economic superpower that, in his telling, transformed Asia and much of the world.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "for history lovers", "nonfiction", "rather long", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1639734147", "cover": "1639734147", "goodreads": 201608148, "itunes": 9781639734146, "bookshop": 9781639734146, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DBqStlc2L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781639734146", "isbn10": "1639734147", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 267, "book": "The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World", "source": "NPR", "text": "William Dalrymple discusses 'The Golden Road' and ancient India's influence", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/03/nx-s1-5293367/william-dalrymple-discusses-the-golden-road-and-ancient-indias-influence" } ] }, "268": { "id": 268, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir", "author": "Neko Case", "reviewers": [ "Ann Powers" ], "text": "

If you’ve read even one sentence about Neko Case’s memoir of growing up and into her life’s work as a singer-songwriter, you know her family story has a mind-blowing twist. No spoilers here! The narrative of her difficult, often materially deprived youth is gripping, but what makes this book exceptional is the way Case writes about a creative mind finding – in nature, among steadfast friends and fellow baby rock and rollers, through solitude and small rebellions – a growing determination to speak, not only for herself, but for all the vulnerable creatures who make up her extended chosen family. Her prose is golden and gloriously ragged and deeply alive, like her songs.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "for music lovers", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "1538710501", "cover": "1538710501", "goodreads": 214175247, "itunes": 9781538710500, "bookshop": 9781538710500, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wadSWRXrL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781538710500", "isbn10": "1538710501", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 268, "book": "The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Neko Case talks about her new memoir and discoveries about her upbringing\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/01/27/nx-s1-5134642/neko-case-talks-about-her-new-memoir-and-discoveries-about-her-upbringing" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 268, "book": "The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir", "source": "WOSU", "text": "All Sides: Singer/songwriter Neko Case discusses her life in new memoir", "url": "https://www.wosu.org/show/all-sides/2025-03-19/singer-songwriter-neko-case-discusses-her-life-in-new-memoir" } ] }, "269": { "id": 269, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Heart-Shaped Tin: Love, Loss, and Kitchen Objects", "author": "Bee Wilson", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

In this collection of essays, food writer Bee Wilson explores the profound and personal meanings that mundane kitchen tools, tableware, utensils and even disposable coffee cups can hold. Sparked by her confrontation with the giant heart-shaped pan she used to bake her wedding cake, which fell from a cabinet shortly after her husband asked for a divorce, Wilson began asking around about others “who had invested objects in their kitchens with strong meanings or emotions.” What results is a delightful and moving series of stories and reflections about how we access memories through the items we cook and eat with.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "family matters", "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "132407924X", "cover": "132407924X", "goodreads": 223736285, "itunes": 9781324079248, "bookshop": 9781324079248, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DMx5PNzwL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781324079248", "isbn10": "132407924X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 269, "book": "The Heart-Shaped Tin: Love, Loss, and Kitchen Objects", "source": "NPR", "text": "Food writer Bee Wilson explores how kitchen items impact us in, 'The Heart-Shaped Tin'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/11/01/nx-s1-5398367/food-writer-bee-wilson-explores-how-kitchen-items-impact-us-in-the-heart-shaped-tin" } ] }, "270": { "id": 270, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Heartbreak Hotel", "author": "Ellen O'Clover", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Migaki" ], "text": "

This is one for the folks who leaf through guest books, wondering at the lives of previous visitors. After a breakup, Louisa convinces her mysterious landlord to let her turn the beautiful Colorado mountain home she had rented with her ex into a bed-and-breakfast for the brokenhearted. Guests arrive and form community over cups of coffee and chats about grief and love around the kitchen table. Henry, the landlord (did I mention he’s cute and likes dogs?), keeps popping up too, fixing things, joining guests on hikes and perhaps healing a heartbreak of his own. Grief often feels like the tragic end of a story, but romance novels and this one in particular are a reminder that heartbreak is the middle of your story, not the end of it.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "staff picks", "let’s talk about sex", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593952545", "cover": "0593952545", "goodreads": 222925843, "itunes": 9780593952542, "bookshop": 9780593952542, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510vdGouhLL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593952542", "isbn10": "0593952545", "links": [] }, "271": { "id": 271, "edition": "fall", "title": "The History of We", "author": "Nikkolas Smith", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

All of humanity began in Africa. That’s a simple statement of fact, but in an era when books about race are regularly banned from libraries, saying it can almost feel subversive. Nikkolas Smith doesn’t just lean into that historical reality, however. He pays homage to our earliest ancestors’ humor, dignity and lives. This is a human history, full of Black faces and joy. “What does ‘the beginning’ look like?” Here it looks like thick painted brushstrokes and vibrant scenes from humankind’s earliest days. When describing what people did back then, Smith reverts time and again not to statements of what “they” did but what “we” did. An inclusive and telling reminder of our shared past. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "kids’ books", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0593619684", "cover": "0593619684", "goodreads": 217927379, "itunes": 9780593619681, "bookshop": 9780593619681, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Hg9evM79L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593619681", "isbn10": "0593619684", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 271, "book": "The History of We", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Artivist' Nikkolas Smith combines art and activism into a singular superpower", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/29/883490848/artivist-nikkolas-smith-combines-art-and-activism-into-a-singular-superpower" } ] }, "272": { "id": 272, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Hounding", "author": "Xenobe Purvis", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

These sisters are real dogs. Or not. During an unusual drought in the 18th century that threatens the livelihood of an English village, a resentful boatman starts a rumor that five girls can turn into dogs at will. A quick, weird read about pernicious alternative facts, unreliable narrators and why people willingly believe things that beggar belief.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "rather short", "fiction", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "1250366380", "cover": "1250366380", "goodreads": 217388147, "itunes": 9781250366382, "bookshop": 9781250366382, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51f-e7-Qr6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250366382", "isbn10": "1250366380", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 272, "book": "The Hounding", "source": "NPR", "text": "Xenobe Purvis discusses her debut novel 'The Hounding,' about female persecution", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/08/09/nx-s1-5136748/xenobe-purvis-discusses-her-debut-novel-the-hounding-about-female-persecution" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 272, "book": "The Hounding", "source": "MPR", "text": "Ask a Bookseller: ‘The Hounding’ by Xenobe Purvis ", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2025/08/23/ask-a-bookseller-the-hounding-by-xenobe-purvis" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 272, "book": "The Hounding", "source": "NHPR", "text": "Check This Out: Xenobe Purvis on 'The Hounding'", "url": "https://www.nhpr.org/show/check-this-out/2025-10-16/check-this-out-xenobie-purvis-the-hounding" } ] }, "273": { "id": 273, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Imagined Life", "author": "Andrew Porter", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

Andrew Porter has quietly become one of the United States’ most reliably great fiction writers. This novel tells the story of Steven Mills, a man whose family has fallen apart and who embarks on a trip up the coast of California to try to find out what happened to his father, who disappeared long ago. Porter evokes both 1980s and contemporary California perfectly and writes with a psychological insight that calls to mind John Cheever and Richard Yates. He’s that good.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "historical fiction" ], "isbn": "0593538056", "cover": "0593538056", "goodreads": 216522659, "itunes": 9780593538050, "bookshop": 9780593538050, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nD9xjHkpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593538050", "isbn10": "0593538056", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 273, "book": "The Imagined Life", "source": "TPR", "text": "Book Public: 'The Imagined Life' by Andrew Porter", "url": "https://www.tpr.org/podcast/book-public/2025-04-18/book-public-the-imagined-life-by-andrew-porter" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 273, "book": "The Imagined Life", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Andrew Porter on his new novel, 'The Imagined Life'", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/marginalia/2025-04-15/andrew-porter-on-his-new-novel-the-imagined-life" } ] }, "274": { "id": 274, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Impossible Fortune", "author": "Richard Osman", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "

A wedding guest asks for help and then promptly disappears, setting off another installment in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series. The central mystery is entertaining, of course – there’s a car bomb, a safe that can’t be opened, octogenarians trying to understand bitcoin (I mean, same). But the main event will always be Osman’s characters: There’s the core four sleuths – Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim – who are as funny and warm as ever. But one of the things I love about this series is that with every book the world expands more and more – we meet new friends, cops, relatives and criminals (who we will inevitably love) – and get to grow up with them. Because Osman knows that even pensioners have more to learn about love, grief, aging, friendship and cryptocurrency.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction", "staff picks", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0593653254", "cover": "0593653254", "goodreads": 222292420, "itunes": 9780593653258, "bookshop": 9780593653258, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518jTIYVPxL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593653258", "isbn10": "0593653254", "links": [] }, "275": { "id": 275, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Incandescent", "author": "Emily Tesh", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Zutter" ], "text": "

What if you never left the site of your greatest adolescent screwup and stubbornly insisted you could do better for the next generation? Saffy Walden is the director of magic at Chetwood School and its most infamous alumna, having risen from precocious teen to fearsome demonic incursion expert. Her unorthodox doctorate studies into containing demons within puny mortal flesh demand equally staggering brilliance and hubris. When Chetwood’s resident slumbering demon awakens, Saffy’s interventions reveal the far greater threat that lurks beneath her own skin. This eminently worthy new addition to the “magic school” canon interrogates academic burnout, arrested development and the futility of inking over past mistakes while ignoring how you branded yourself in the first place.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "tales from around the world", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250835011", "cover": "1250835011", "goodreads": 217387935, "itunes": 9781250835017, "bookshop": 9781250835017, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51faGWitePL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250835017", "isbn10": "1250835011", "links": [] }, "276": { "id": 276, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Inheritance", "author": "Trisha Sakhlecha", "reviewers": [ "Nayantara Dutta" ], "text": "

Picture this: a deserted island in Scotland, a family reunion gone wrong, sibling rivalry and a messy murder. The Agarwals are waiting for their inheritance, which will come from the sale of their father’s multimillion-dollar company. Everyone desperately needs the money and will do whatever it takes to get their cut. We know that someone has died, but who is it and who killed them? This thriller is full of foreshadowing, but it’s still unpredictable. It will shock you, even at the last minute and on the last page. With layers of deception and intrigue, it questions how far we will go to protect our secrets and interests, and who we are willing to sacrifice to get there.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0593832566", "cover": "0593832566", "goodreads": 211953338, "itunes": 9780593832561, "bookshop": 9780593832561, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41CGZTU3z5L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593832561", "isbn10": "0593832566", "links": [] }, "277": { "id": 277, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems", "author": "Patricia Smith", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

Finally, we have a lot of Patricia Smith’s poetry in one big book. This new-and-selected volume, which won the National Book Award, draws from all of Smith’s collections. Early poems like “What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl (For Those of You Who Aren’t)” fiercely expose the injustice of everyday America, where “there’s something –/ everything – wrong.” With a sweeping cultural and historical memory, and a voice that ranges from keening to hope, Smith argues at times for and at times against “the rampaging theory that the earth/ is shutting down, spurning the pageant of her own murder.” There’s a lot here – sonnets, expert ventriloquy and enough music for a lifetime.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1668055724", "cover": "1668055724", "goodreads": 224004543, "itunes": 9781668055724, "bookshop": 9781668055724, "image": "https://d28hgpri8am2if.cloudfront.net/book_images/onix/cvr9781668055724/the-intentions-of-thunder-9781668055724_xlg.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668055724", "isbn10": "1668055724", "links": [] }, "278": { "id": 278, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Interpreter", "author": "Olivia Abtahi, illustrated by Monica Arnaldo", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

Can kids have jobs? Sure! Cecilia has two! On the one hand, she has the job of being a normal kid, and on the other, she’s an interpreter for her Spanish-speaking parents. But what happens when one job begins to overwhelm the other? The idea of Cecilia’s “job” is beautifully rendered visually in the metaphorical suits and ties that she and the other children of immigrants wear. With such a serious subject, it would be easy to create a dour, serious picture book. Instead, the tone and art keep things light and amusing throughout, while always bearing in mind how easy it is to overwhelm kids with adult concerns. There’s no blame here. Just an honest examination of how everyone needs to find balance in their daily lives. (For ages 5 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0593620445", "cover": "0593620445", "goodreads": 211953340, "itunes": 9780593620441, "bookshop": 9780593620441, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41c00yVAObL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593620441", "isbn10": "0593620445", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 278, "book": "The Interpreter", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": " 'The Interpreter' explores the reality of children acting as 'language brokers' for their parents", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/01/21/the-interpreter-children-book" } ] }, "279": { "id": 279, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Island of Last Things", "author": "Emma Sloley", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

In the not-too-distant future, climate change and its attendant complications have caused masses of species to go extinct, with some rare specimens inhabiting places like the private zoo on Alcatraz Island. Camille works and lives on Alcatraz and prefers spending her time with the animals – until, that is, a new zookeeper, Sailor, arrives, and she finally feels like she’s found a kindred spirit. But when Sailor begins hatching plans to free the animals, Camille is faced with questions about the nature of freedom, survival, fantasy and friendship. This sad, sweet and still hopeful book is for the animal lovers among us.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "science!", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250329248", "cover": "1250329248", "goodreads": 217387664, "itunes": 9781250329240, "bookshop": 9781250329240, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4169OzW2UIL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250329240", "isbn10": "1250329248", "links": [] }, "280": { "id": 280, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Isle in the Silver Sea", "author": "Tasha Suri", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Zutter" ], "text": "

This alt-historical fantasy England rises and falls on stories; if an archetypal fairy tale fails to follow expected narrative beats, that part of the Isle collapses into ash and ink. The entire Isle’s survival hinges on the story of “The Knight and the Witch,” who are fated to fall in love and kill each other, lifetime after lifetime. But this generation’s incarnates – bastard lady knight Vina and immigrant witch Simran – hail from Elsewhere, which empowers them to try and finally rewrite their tragedy’s ending. It’s an enchanting critique of how colonialism blurs individual histories in favor of a nationalist narrative, with royal archivists destroying seditious primary texts while Simran and Vina struggle to hold on to themselves through revisionist reincarnations.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "love & romance", "tales from around the world", "rather long", "fiction", "historical fiction" ], "isbn": "031659508X", "cover": "031659508X", "goodreads": 228499077, "itunes": 9780316595087, "bookshop": 9780316595087, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51YzVfVqbRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780316595087", "isbn10": "031659508X", "links": [] }, "281": { "id": 281, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Killing Fields of East New York: The First Subprime Mortgage Scandal, a White-Collar Crime Spree, and the Collapse of an American Neighborhood", "author": "Stacy Horn", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

In the 1990s, East New York, Brooklyn, garnered an ignominious reputation as New York City’s “killing fields,” because more than 100 people a year were killed there, with children routinely getting caught in the crossfire of gang violence. The status quo explanation for the neighborhood’s violence has long been that its predominantly poor Black and Puerto Rican residents were either responsible for trafficking in drugs and guns or stood by and tolerated the chaos. Journalist Stacy Horn offers a more complex diagnosis of East New York’s decline with her searing investigation of a white-collar criminal conspiracy that lined the real estate industry’s pockets while destroying a onetime affordable enclave for working- and middle-class families.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1638931224", "cover": "1638931224", "goodreads": 209087709, "itunes": 9781638931225, "bookshop": 9781638931225, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41I-836gXiL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781638931225", "isbn10": "1638931224", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 281, "book": "The Killing Fields of East New York: The First Subprime Mortgage Scandal, a White-Collar Crime Spree, and the Collapse of an American Neighborhood", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: How a subprime mortgage crisis led to the rise of crime in East New York", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/how-a-subprime-mortgage-crisis-led-to-the-rise-of-crime-in-east-new-york/" } ] }, "282": { "id": 282, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Land in Winter", "author": "Andrew Miller", "reviewers": [ "Neda Ulaby" ], "text": "

There’s a storm beneath the somber surface of The Land in Winter, Andrew Miller’s 10th novel. The land is the rural West Country of England during the legendary Big Freeze of the early 1960s, when blizzards engulfed trains on their tracks and froze over rivers. The two young couples who anchor the book are, unsurprisingly, frozen too: a gentleman farmer uneasily married to a former nightclub hostess, and a posh doctor’s wife whose husband is conducting an affair with a patient. The action unfolds like a thaw, and by the end of this Booker-shortlisted novel, it feels as though the drama has soaked itself into your soul.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "historical fiction", "fiction", "book club ideas", "love & romance", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9798889661573", "cover": "9798889661573", "goodreads": 239609195, "itunes": 9798889661573, "bookshop": 9798889661573, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31+NGU-3WWL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9798889661573", "isbn10": "8889661577", "links": [] }, "283": { "id": 283, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Last Tiger", "author": "Julia Riew and Brad Riew", "reviewers": [ "Dhanika Pineda" ], "text": "

Sibling duo Julia and Brad Riew took their grandfather’s request to eternalize his love for their grandmother seriously, and they ended up with an incredible novel inspired by their grandparents’ unique love story. Set in a fictionalized version of the Japanese colonial occupation of Korea, each chapter of The Last Tiger begins with a short quote from the Riew siblings’ grandparents about their real experiences. The novel tells the story of a high society Tiger Colony daughter falling in love with one of her family’s servants: a boy who happens to see her one night as she sneaks out to witness a tiger being slayed by the Dragon Empire. Filled with both magic and sobering realities, hardship and tenacity, love and pain, this tale of forbidden love is not one to miss.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "love & romance", "young adult", "staff picks", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9798217002047", "cover": "9798217002047", "goodreads": 220999057, "itunes": 9798217002047, "bookshop": 9798217002047, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91OzIuq4AkL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9798217002047", "isbn10": "8217002045", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 283, "book": "The Last Tiger", "source": "NPR", "text": "Composer and playwright Julia Riew discusses her new novel, 'The Last Tiger'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/07/26/nx-s1-5389849/composer-and-playwright-julia-riew-discusses-her-new-novel-the-last-tiger" } ] }, "284": { "id": 284, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Librarians", "author": "Sherry Thomas", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

As a longtime Sherry Thomas fan, I am delighted to see her master contemporary crime after winning acclaim for international historical romances and the inventive Lady Sherlock mystery series. At the center of a plot that reads like the cozy-glam love child of Crazy Rich Asians and Agatha Christie is Hazel Lee, who relocated to Austin, Texas, after her luxe life in Singapore ended with her husband’s indictment for financial crimes and disappearance. Working at the library near her grandmother seemed like the safe second act Hazel needed, until not one, but two library patrons turned up dead. Hazel is joined by a group of intrepid librarians who investigate, trying to remove the cloud of suspicion that suddenly lingers over them. I ate this one up and can’t wait for the sequel.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593640454", "cover": "0593640454", "goodreads": 223120401, "itunes": 9780593640456, "bookshop": 9780593640456, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/419CUcCkGAL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593640456", "isbn10": "0593640454", "links": [] }, "285": { "id": 285, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus", "author": "Emma Knight", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "

Oh, I love a great coming-of-age novel. And that’s one element of what Emma Knight has written in her debut, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus. It’s set in Scotland during a Canadian student’s first year at university – it includes train rides and first loves and solving a family mystery. And there’s wisdom therein! So, grab it for yourself or anyone setting off to figure out who they are in the world.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "funny stuff", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0593830458", "cover": "0593830458", "goodreads": 216247502, "itunes": 9780593830451, "bookshop": 9780593830451, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/5144s63cbEL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593830451", "isbn10": "0593830458", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 285, "book": "The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus", "source": "NPR", "text": "Emma Knight's debut novel takes on motherhood, female friendship and first love", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/01/07/nx-s1-5135553/emma-knights-debut-novel-takes-on-motherhood-female-friendship-and-first-love" } ] }, "286": { "id": 286, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny", "author": "Kiran Desai", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "

It took Kiran Desai almost 20 years to write this near-700-page novel – her first since The Inheritance of Loss – and, boy, was it worth the wait. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny explores themes of exile and displacement – not only from one’s home country, family and culture, but also from one’s own sense of self. At heart, though, this Booker Prize finalist is a great love story, abundant with coincidences, misunderstandings and one bona fide art monster.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0307700151", "cover": "0307700151", "goodreads": 222683974, "itunes": 9780307700155, "bookshop": 9780307700155, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-YmVM8BcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780307700155", "isbn10": "0307700151", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 286, "book": "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": " 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny' is a terrific, tangled love story", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/03/nx-s1-5560818/the-loneliness-of-sonia-and-sunny-review-kiran-desai" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 286, "book": "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: Kiran Desai's new epic novel, 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/kiran-desais-new-epic-novel-the-loneliness-of-sonia-and-sunny/" } ] }, "287": { "id": 287, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls", "author": "Judith Rossell", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

The orphanage nuns have had enough of Magdalena “Maggie” Fishbone, so they send the spirited girl off to the Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls to be “tamed good and proper.” But as soon as they’ve arrived, Maggie and the other two unfortunate girls dropped off that day see a teacher shoot fireworks out of the organ and realize Midwatch isn’t just about manners. It turns out they’ve been sent to the Institute to be trained to fight crime and solve mysteries, which turns out to be a lot more fun than being proper. Captivating black-and-white illustrations capture the grit and determination of these wonderfully wayward girls. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9798217002405", "cover": "9798217002405", "goodreads": 218573054, "itunes": 9798217002405, "bookshop": 9798217002405, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51qoWKQzbpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9798217002405", "isbn10": "8217002401", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 287, "book": "The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls", "source": "KPR", "text": "Conversations: 'The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls'", "url": "https://kansaspublicradio.org/podcast/conversations/2025-07-31/the-midwatch-institute-for-wayward-girls" } ] }, "288": { "id": 288, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse: A Memory of Vietnam", "author": "Vinh Nguyen", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

Inspired by Li-Young Lee’s poem “Visions and Interpretations,” in which “the migrant rain” represents a recurring burden, this lyrical memoir conjures an alternative fate for the author’s absent father, presumably drowned at sea while trying to escape Vietnam by boat. In Vinh Nguyen’s speculative universe, the father, while surviving the border crossing, still does not lead a happy life but succumbs to ill health after years of stress and hard labor. Via this poignant experiment, Nguyen astutely shows how a refugee’s migration narrative can be at once forward-oriented and tragically regressive; the idea of refuge cannot be defined by legal or political considerations but, as he explains, “something to be lived, something that is not yet over or that is still to come.”

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "1640096736", "cover": "1640096736", "goodreads": 216524212, "itunes": 9781640096738, "bookshop": 9781640096738, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41rtIT0M4mL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781640096738", "isbn10": "1640096736", "links": [] }, "289": { "id": 289, "edition": "summer", "title": "The Naming of the Birds", "author": "Paraic O'Donnell", "reviewers": [ "Holly J. Morris" ], "text": "

This Victorian mystery novel is Dickens meets Sherlock Holmes meets La Femme Nikita, and it wears its genre conventions proudly. The heroes: a brilliant, gruff police officer and his bumbling assistant, aided by a plucky lady journalist. The crimes: elaborate serial murders of insignificant elderly men. The killings are connected to the book’s prologue, a harrowing tale of mistreated orphans seemingly in training to be assassins. The reader knows this, but the detectives do not, giving the events a frisson of dramatic irony as the body count ticks up.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "the dark side", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1963108035", "cover": "1963108035", "goodreads": 213816154, "itunes": 9781963108033, "bookshop": 9781963108033, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51BJlccPwdL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781963108033", "isbn10": "1963108035", "links": [] }, "290": { "id": 290, "edition": "fall", "title": "The New Economy", "author": "Gabrielle Calvocoressi", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

Hopelessness is a beloved enemy in these poems, a necessary muse. So are grief and fear. “The days I don’t want to kill myself/ are extraordinary,” begins the most affirming poem about suicide I’ve ever read. All of our violence, Gabrielle Calvocoressi asserts – with a compassion so pure it feels out of step with the times – is born of fear: Violence begins in each of us, is always inflicted first upon ourselves. These poems urge us to do better – we must. The collection was a finalist for the National Book Award.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1556597215", "cover": "1556597215", "goodreads": 223443649, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781556597213, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41FzkVVnWsL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781556597213", "isbn10": "1556597215", "links": [] }, "291": { "id": 291, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Night Birds", "author": "Christopher Golden", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

Christopher Golden consistently delivers solid horror fiction, and The Night Birds is no different. A boat that turned into an island of mangroves and is now being studied by scientists is the setting of this tale of witches in which saving a child and overcoming the past are two almost impossible things. They are also just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Another great horror action novel from one of the best in the genre.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250285917", "cover": "1250285917", "goodreads": 217387939, "itunes": 9781250285911, "bookshop": 9781250285911, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41aJD+8efDL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250285911", "isbn10": "1250285917", "links": [] }, "292": { "id": 292, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Note", "author": "Alafair Burke", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

Alafair Burke is one of those authors who can turn a small note into a gripping novel, and that’s what she does here. A group of friends leaves a note on a car, and that implicates them in something – or is there more to the story? Engaging from the first page, full of complex, believable characters, and with an eye on internet and cancel culture, this is another solid addition to Burke’s already impressive oeuvre.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "0593537084", "cover": "0593537084", "goodreads": 211399773, "itunes": 9780593537084, "bookshop": 9780593537084, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41+-Di0XDoL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593537084", "isbn10": "0593537084", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 292, "book": "The Note", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Alafair Burke on 'The Note'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/show/the-book-show/2025-01-07/alafair-burke-the-note" } ] }, "293": { "id": 293, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Other Love: Poems", "author": "Henri Cole", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

I receive each new book by Henri Cole as a bright gift, dark though it may be. Cole intimately observes the everyday, drilling gently into the underbelly of whatever is before him – “armored vehicles” that “confront young people,” the indignities of app-based dating, the young T.S. Eliot in the extraordinary closing poem – softly drawing blood, if such a thing is possible, seeking the moments when “Darkness will no longer exceed light.”

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "0374619034", "cover": "0374619034", "goodreads": 217387733, "itunes": 9780374619039, "bookshop": 9780374619039, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511f-QeGxPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780374619039", "isbn10": "0374619034", "links": [] }, "294": { "id": 294, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Other Wife", "author": "Jackie Thomas-Kennedy", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

Zuzu’s life seems perfect: Her wife is a high-powered lawyer, she lives in a beautiful house full of beautiful things, and she’s a full-time mom to her son Gideon. But she’s restless, and when a chance comes up to see her longtime friend Cash, whom she had a crush on in college, she jumps at it. Sound like a book about the one who got away? Sure, in some ways it is. But in more ways, it’s about the sometimes sustaining, sometimes destructive nature of living inside one’s fantasies of what other people are like.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "0593851609", "cover": "0593851609", "goodreads": 220458624, "itunes": 9780593851609, "bookshop": 9780593851609, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/418GC5fGD4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593851609", "isbn10": "0593851609", "links": [] }, "295": { "id": 295, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Paris Express", "author": "Emma Donoghue", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

In her latest historical novel, Emma Donoghue takes us for a ride on the Paris-bound train that left the Normandy coast on Oct. 22, 1895, and ended up crashing through the parapet of Montparnasse Station seven hours later. En route, we meet a cross-section of fin-de-siècle France, including crewmen, artists, engineers, prominent politicians, rich toffs, immigrants and an angry young radical feminist who plans to detonate a homemade explosive sometime before the train reaches Paris. The result is a propulsive read that plows ahead unstoppably to its climax.

", "tags": [ "tales from around the world", "historical fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1668082799", "cover": "1668082799", "goodreads": 214151304, "itunes": 9781668082799, "bookshop": 9781668082799, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41tBHRBimFL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668082799", "isbn10": "1668082799", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 295, "book": "The Paris Express", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Emma Donoghue discusses her new historical thriller, 'The Paris Express'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/19/nx-s1-5119315/author-emma-donoghue-discusses-her-new-historical-thriller-the-paris-express" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 295, "book": "The Paris Express", "source": "Houston Public Media", "text": "How one surreal photo inspired Emma Donoghue’s latest novel, ‘The Paris Express’", "url": "https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/shows/houston-matters/2025/03/19/516247/how-one-surreal-photo-inspired-emma-donoghues-latest-novel-the-paris-express/" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 295, "book": "The Paris Express", "source": "Boise State Public Radio", "text": "Idaho Matters: 'The Paris Express:' An author interview with Emma Donoghue", "url": "https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/show/idaho-matters/2025-03-24/paris-express-author-interview-emma-donoghue" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 295, "book": "The Paris Express", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Emma Donoghue on 'The Paris Express'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/show/the-book-show/2025-04-08/emma-donoghue-the-paris-express" } ] }, "296": { "id": 296, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Payback", "author": "Kashana Cauley", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

Who hasn’t fantasized about getting a crew together, Ocean’s Eleven-style, and executing a heist? Well, narrator Jada probably hadn’t before her life began to fall apart and the weight of her student loan debts became unbearable. But after being fired from her dream job and then being fired from her retail job, which she mostly liked OK, Jada and her friends begin to plan a heist, of sorts, to wipe out their – and everyone else’s – student loan debts. The stakes are especially high because the chiseled, turquoise-wearing members of a newly formed police division have been brutally beating people in debt, disproportionately targeting Black women like Jada.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "rather short", "mysteries & thrillers" ], "isbn": "1668075539", "cover": "1668075539", "goodreads": 220160561, "itunes": 9781668075531, "bookshop": 9781668075531, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bqZyeV8hL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668075531", "isbn10": "1668075539", "links": [] }, "297": { "id": 297, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Pelican Child: Stories", "author": "Joy Williams", "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "text": "

Joy Williams is adept in the art of estrangement – in literally making the mundane strange. The short stories in her latest collection are spiny little nuggets of jamais vu. Sure, they tend to bear the distinguishing characteristics of the familiar world, with all its stressed assistants and heiresses and bewildered man-children. But they’re also moved by some alien inner logic that can be disquietingly difficult to discern. In Williams’ hands, reality is a changeling with a wicked sense of humor.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "fiction", "rather short", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0525657584", "cover": "0525657584", "goodreads": 228143064, "itunes": 9780525657583, "bookshop": 9780525657583, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ckGFbrTVL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780525657583", "isbn10": "0525657584", "links": [] }, "298": { "id": 298, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Place of Tides", "author": "James Rebanks", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

If you’re looking for an escape from the stresses of what English farmer and author James Rebanks calls our “dark and chaotic world,” I highly recommend his transporting account of 10 weeks on a tiny Norwegian island where he arranges to help one of the last “duck women” through the annual eiderdown harvest. Initially feeling burned out and restless, Rebanks comes to find the painstaking, repetitive work of preparing for and tending the breeding ducks both settling and calming. This lovely, meditative book is a paean to slowing down and paying attention.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0063434172", "cover": "0063434172", "goodreads": 219494894, "itunes": 9780063434172, "bookshop": 9780063434172, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51FqGFrO-ML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063434172", "isbn10": "0063434172", "links": [] }, "299": { "id": 299, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Poems of Seamus Heaney", "author": "Seamus Heaney, edited by Rosie Lavan, Bernard O'Donoghue, and Matthew Hollis", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

Though Seamus Heaney died in 2013, his poems are still everywhere in the atmosphere of contemporary poetry and are now, at last, collected in one mammoth volume. We urgently need Heaney’s moral clarity and profound nuance, his capacity to embody the earthiness of the Earth in words, his bottomless knowledge of the history of language, which connects us across the ages like a mycelial network. This is one of the books of our time.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0374235236", "cover": "0374235236", "goodreads": 222376780, "itunes": 9780374235239, "bookshop": 9780374235239, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Ylz3txH9L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780374235239", "isbn10": "0374235236", "links": [] }, "300": { "id": 300, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Possession of Alba Díaz", "author": "Isabel Cañas", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "

1765, Mexico: Alba Díaz flees the plague to the countryside around her fiancé’s family’s silver mine. Elías, her fiancé’s cousin, is a black sheep with a dark secret, only there to get rich and get out. Both are isolated, striving sans allies for security; then they discover a supernatural terror as old as the dark. Isabel Cañas writes nuanced, sympathetic characters and knows exactly what to hide and what to reveal – surprising me more than once, to my delight. Our protagonists can’t take a step without finding a secret, and I couldn’t wait to read more. This is an exemplary gothic full of dread, tension, sensuousness and yearning – a perilously good read.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593641078", "cover": "0593641078", "goodreads": 221502398, "itunes": 6738158924, "bookshop": 9780593641071, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81-fdLjhNaL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593641071", "isbn10": "0593641078", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 300, "book": "The Possession of Alba Díaz", "source": "KUOW", "text": "The five spice levels of horror, according to KUOW's Katie Campbell", "url": "https://www.kuow.org/stories/the-five-levels-of-horror-according-to-kuow-katie-campbell-isabel-canas" } ] }, "301": { "id": 301, "edition": "summer", "title": "The Pretender", "author": "Jo Harkin", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "

Perhaps you thought the Wolf Hall trilogy was the last of historical fiction that combines Tudor history and psychological exploration so brilliantly? I present to you Jo Harkin’s novel about Tudor impostor Lambert Simnel. The book is narrated by the pretender himself: a 10-year-old, manipulated by powerful adults, robbed of his personhood again and again, a pawn in a European power struggle. It contains some of the most authentic writing in a child’s voice I’ve ever read. And while the book is a deeply engaging read, it underlines profoundly the experience of those who must try to forge and keep their identity without agency, caught in the powerful maw of history.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "rather long", "historical fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593803302", "cover": "0593803302", "goodreads": 216371549, "itunes": 9780593803301, "bookshop": 9780593803301, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41uWW+7iYsL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593803301", "isbn10": "0593803302", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 301, "book": "The Pretender", "source": "NPR", "text": "Jo Harkin on 'The Pretender,' her novel set during the time of the Tudors' ascent", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/04/19/nx-s1-5137039/jo-harkin-on-the-pretender-her-novel-set-during-the-time-of-the-tudors-ascent" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 301, "book": "The Pretender", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Jo Harkin on her historical novel, 'The Pretender'", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/marginalia/2025-04-22/jo-harkin-on-her-historical-novel-the-pretender" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 301, "book": "The Pretender", "source": "MPR", "text": "Ask a Bookseller: ‘The Pretender’ by Jo Harkin", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2025/06/21/ask-a-bookseller-the-pretender-by-jo-harkin" } ] }, "302": { "id": 302, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Princess and the P.I.", "author": "Nikki Payne", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

Nikki Payne is a powerhouse in the romance genre, and her latest novel, The Princess and the P.I., showcases her signature mix of wit, heart and social insight. The plot description: Fiona Addai leads a double life – by day, she is the obedient daughter of a Ghanaian megachurch pastor; by night, she becomes the Reddit sleuth “@Princess_PI,” solving scandals and cold cases. Payne expertly combines romance, mystery and thrills, pairing a badass heroine and a guilt-ridden hero in a story that offers substance, style and excitement in a beautifully wrapped romance package.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0593817362", "cover": "0593817362", "goodreads": 221251779, "itunes": 9780593817360, "bookshop": 9780593817360, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41TdhS42yBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593817360", "isbn10": "0593817362", "links": [] }, "303": { "id": 303, "edition": "summer", "title": "The Raven Scholar", "author": "Antonia Hodgson", "reviewers": [ "Kalyani Saxena" ], "text": "

Let me start by saying that writing a really good epic fantasy is hard to do. But with The Raven Scholar, Antonia Hodgson makes it look like a breeze. The story takes place in Orrun, where a fierce competition to replace the emperor is about to take place. When a contender is found dead before the tournament begins, Neema Kraa, a scholar – with admittedly dubious morals – is tasked with finding the killer. This tale of murder, tragedy and familial betrayal is firing on all cylinders, layering multiple mysteries with characters who defy their own archetypes.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0316577227", "cover": "0316577227", "goodreads": 217182392, "itunes": 9780316577229, "bookshop": 9780316577229, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kF83-4-vL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780316577229", "isbn10": "0316577227", "links": [] }, "304": { "id": 304, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Rest of Our Lives", "author": "Benjamin Markovits", "reviewers": [ "Andrew Limbong" ], "text": "

If you’re here from the future hoping to find your next read, some quick context for you – there was a lot of ink spilled about men and literature in 2025. This year, we were very curious to answer questions such as: Are men reading? Why don’t men read literature? If they are reading, is it honest or performative? If men read more, would they stop acting like that? Which brings us to this Booker Prize finalist novel that, yes, is about and by a man. And it teasingly approaches male anxieties about aging, masculinity and sex (it’s about a guy whose wife cheated on him, and now he’s on an indefinite road trip). But Benjamin Markovits instead veers away from trying to answer the big questions plaguing men, and instead offers up a quiet story that’s funny, tender and intimate.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "rather short" ], "isbn": "057138854X", "cover": "057138854X", "goodreads": 231181159, "itunes": 9780571388547, "bookshop": 9781668231562, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81vFWs+X0eL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780571388547", "isbn10": "057138854X", "links": [] }, "305": { "id": 305, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Road to Tender Hearts", "author": "Annie Hartnett", "reviewers": [ "Beck Harlan" ], "text": "

This quirky novel, which is somehow gentle, disturbing and darkly comedic, will take you for a ride – especially if you can embrace a little magical thinking. I went into it cold, and I was glad I did, propelled by the twists, turns and reveals as this ragtag cast of characters embarks on a cross-country journey, each on their own mission for answers, adventure and belonging.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593873440", "cover": "0593873440", "goodreads": 218460347, "itunes": 9780593873441, "bookshop": 9780593873441, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51RriERDhbL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593873441", "isbn10": "0593873440", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 305, "book": "The Road to Tender Hearts", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Annie Hartnett on her new novel, 'The Road to Tender Hearts'", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/marginalia/2025-04-29/annie-hartnett-on-her-new-novel-the-road-to-tender-hearts" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 305, "book": "The Road to Tender Hearts", "source": "WAMC", "text": "Annie Hartnett pens dark comedy 'The Road to Tender Hearts'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2025-05-12/annie-hartnett-pens-dark-comedy-the-road-to-tender-hearts" } ] }, "306": { "id": 306, "edition": "summer", "title": "The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne", "author": "Ron Currie", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

Babs is a clear-eyed, ruthless grandmother who is the de facto ruler of her small, predominately Franco-American town in Maine. The town has seen better days, and when her control of the drug trade is usurped, everything comes crashing down. One daughter goes missing, the other daughter seeks the truth, and Babs makes a defiant final choice. Ron Currie creates compelling and complex female characters operating with cool logic in a morally corrupt world. Funny at times and entirely enthralling.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "mysteries & thrillers", "staff picks", "the states we’re in", "fiction", "family matters", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "0593851668", "cover": "0593851668", "goodreads": 215362022, "itunes": 9780593851661, "bookshop": 9780593851661, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Ok0Mzl9VL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593851661", "isbn10": "0593851668", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 306, "book": "The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne", "source": "NPR", "text": "Ron Currie on his latest novel, 'The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/29/nx-s1-5252800/ron-currie-on-his-latest-novel-the-savage-noble-death-of-babs-dionne" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 306, "book": "The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Marginalia: Ron Currie on 'The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne'", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/marginalia/2025-03-25/ron-currie-on-his-new-novel-the-savage-noble-death-of-babs-dionne" } ] }, "307": { "id": 307, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story", "author": "Pagan Kennedy", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "

Pagan Kennedy’s book tells the story of the United States through the frame of The Secret History of the Rape Kit. The “box that holds DNA evidence collected after a sexual assault” was something that had to be invented and then disseminated. The woman who fought for it, Marty Goddard, and her untold story are the heart of this book – one of the best I read this year. As Kennedy told NPR in an interview, Goddard “created the idea that every survivor had the right to file evidence and to be treated with respect and to have that evidence taken seriously.” That should not be remarkable, but it was.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "rather short", "science!", "biography & memoir" ], "isbn": "0593314719", "cover": "0593314719", "goodreads": 175413085, "itunes": 9780593314715, "bookshop": 9780593314715, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gidLZYNPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593314715", "isbn10": "0593314719", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 307, "book": "The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "A woman invented the rape kit. So why was a man given credit for it?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/01/16/nx-s1-5256205/rape-kit-history-marty-goddard-pagan-kennedy" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 307, "book": "The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story", "source": "NPR", "text": "The new book 'The Secret History of the Rape Kit' tells an overlooked origin story", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/01/14/nx-s1-5137025/the-new-book-the-secret-history-of-the-rape-kit-tells-an-overlooked-origin-story" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 307, "book": "The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story", "source": "KMUW", "text": " 'Secret History of the Rape Kit' reveals another woman lost to history", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review/2025-01-20/secret-history-of-the-rape-kit-reveals-another-woman-lost-to-history" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 307, "book": "The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story", "source": "WAMC", "text": "Pagan Kennedy on 'The Secret History of the Rape Kit'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/show/51/2025-01-16/pagan-kennedy-on-the-secret-history-of-the-rape-kit" } ] }, "308": { "id": 308, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Secret Room", "author": "Jane Casey", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

I’ve read all of Jane Casey’s addictive London-based Maeve Kerrigan detective novels at least twice. All 12 are deviously smart and character-driven, blending meticulously plotted mysteries with psychological insight, like Tana French’s Dublin Murder series – but with more chemistry and snark. The Secret Room delivers two impossible scenarios. The first is that the investigation Maeve is leading is a locked-room murder with a married woman found dead in the bathroom of her swanky hotel room. The second, which Maeve shouldn’t touch but can’t resist, is that nemesis-turned-trusted-colleague (and would-be lover) Josh Derwent is suspected of beating his semi-estranged partner unconscious in their home. It’s completely out of character, yet the evidence says otherwise. The twists are diabolical.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "love & romance", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "000870225X", "cover": "000870225X", "goodreads": 224111379, "itunes": 9780008702250, "bookshop": 9780008702250, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/413Gr6UprIL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780008702250", "isbn10": "000870225X", "links": [] }, "309": { "id": 309, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Seeds", "author": "Cecily Parks", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

These poems are dark, lavish, far-reaching and subtly layered, making a harsh and rich mirror of the pastoral and the domestic. Cecily Parks reckons with the compromises that every life demands, that motherhood and art demand, that a country where violence and cruelty are suddenly triumphant require: “now I think of hope// as a swing chained to a branch.” This book is a strange delight, a feast of grief and determined celebration. A fallen world that is this lovingly observed must be at least somewhat redeemed.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1949944891", "cover": "1949944891", "goodreads": 223443664, "itunes": 9781949944891, "bookshop": 9781949944891, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31rmQ1egEBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781949944891", "isbn10": "1949944891", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 309, "book": "The Seeds", "source": "KUT", "text": "Poet Cecily Parks' new book 'The Seeds' was a decade in the making", "url": "https://www.kut.org/life-arts/2025-10-27/poet-cecily-parks-new-book-the-seeds-was-a-decade-in-the-making" } ] }, "310": { "id": 310, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Seers", "author": "Sulaiman Addonia", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "

Sulaiman Addonia, born in 1974 to an Eritrean mother and Ethiopian father, lived in a Sudanese refugee camp as a child, before landing stateless in London via Saudi Arabia. After mastering English, he settled in Brussels. His third novel (the second to be published in the U.S.) pushes gender, race and national boundaries. Hannah, an Eritrean refugee sex worker, both loving and violent, fixates on men and women. She’s bereft and traumatized yet enamored of London’s wet weather. She lives moment to moment but is consumed by her past. The result is a fever dream of emotion and geopolitics, with Addonia’s command of language and structure making for a breathtaking, original read.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "tales from around the world", "rather short" ], "isbn": "9781566897228", "cover": "9781566897228", "goodreads": 222380380, "itunes": 9781566897228, "bookshop": 9781566897228, "image": "https://coffeehousepress.org/cdn/shop/files/9781566897211_FC_8e39d80d-e902-43d0-8eec-a87b3357f2f1.jpg?v=1727718688&width=1650", "amazon_asin": "B0DPVRHXXF", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781566897228", "isbn10": "156689722X", "links": [] }, "311": { "id": 311, "edition": "", "title": "The Slip", "author": "Lucas Schaefer", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

This debut novel from Lucas Schaefer is a sprawling epic with a memorable cast of characters, including a 16-year-old boxing student in Austin, Texas, who disappears and another teenager who seeks answers to questions about his body via a phone-sex line. The book tackles themes of sex and identity beautifully, and Schaefer writes with a self-assurance that’s stylish but not showy. Fans of authors like John Irving, Paul Murray and Nathan Hill will find a whole lot to love in this knockout of a novel.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "for sports lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "let’s talk about sex", "rather long" ], "isbn": "1668030705", "cover": "1668030705", "goodreads": 220160272, "itunes": 9781668030707, "bookshop": 9781668030707, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41VHwJ2CrsL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668030707", "isbn10": "1668030705", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 311, "book": "The Slip: A Novel", "source": "KUT", "text": "Kirkus Prize-winning novel ‘The Slip’ sets mystery in early-2000s Austin", "url": "https://www.kut.org/text/texasstandard/2025-10-09/the-slip-book-novel-schaefer-austin-texas-atx-kirkus-prize" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 311, "book": "The Slip: A Novel", "source": "NHPR", "text": "Check This Out: Lucas Schaefer on 'The Slip'", "url": "https://www.nhpr.org/show/check-this-out/2025-06-19/check-this-out-lucas-schaefer-the-slip" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 311, "book": "The Slip: A Novel", "source": "TPR", "text": "Book Public: 'The Slip' by Lucas Schaefer", "url": "https://www.tpr.org/podcast/book-public/2025-07-04/book-public-the-slip-by-lucas-schaefer" } ] }, "312": { "id": 312, "edition": "fall", "title": "The South", "author": "Tash Aw", "reviewers": [ "Vincent Ni" ], "text": "

At times, Tash Aw’s The South evokes the quiet intensity of Chekhov. It explores the contradictions within a Malaysian family: generational divides, subtle tensions around sexuality, and class differences – set against the backdrop of late-1990s Malaysia during the Asian financial crisis. At its heart is Jay Lim, a teenager navigating desire and identity amid the disarray of a failing family farm. This coming-of-age novel, longlisted for the Booker Prize, is the first in a planned quartet. It’s a strong opening, and a compelling reason to anticipate the Lim family’s journey in the volumes to come.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "staff picks", "fiction", "book club ideas", "tales from around the world", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "0374616280", "cover": "0374616280", "goodreads": 217387871, "itunes": 9780374616281, "bookshop": 9780374616281, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4148po4ImeL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780374616281", "isbn10": "0374616280", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 312, "book": "The South", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Marginalia Tash Aw on his new novel, 'The South'", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/marginalia/2025-05-27/tash-aw-on-his-new-novel-th" } ] }, "313": { "id": 313, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Stalker", "author": "Paula Bomer", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

The antihero of Paula Bomer’s novel is Doughty, a liar, misogynist and dyed-in-the-wool sociopath who manages to fail upward by preying on women who fall for his deceit. The novel chronicles his time in New York City, where he hurts everyone he can, with no semblance of guilt or even basic humanity. This is, in part, a darkly funny novel, and Bomer walks a fine line brilliantly – the moments of humor don’t detract from the book’s important themes.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "rather short", "mysteries & thrillers" ], "isbn": "1641296267", "cover": "1641296267", "goodreads": 217247985, "itunes": 9781641296267, "bookshop": 9781641296267, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41klrHMswUL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781641296267", "isbn10": "1641296267", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 313, "book": "The Stalker", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Stalker' is one of the most appalling characters in recent American fiction", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/25/nx-s1-5406760/the-stalker-review-paula-bomer" } ] }, "314": { "id": 314, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Summer of the Bone Horses", "author": "Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, illustrated by Steph Littlebird", "reviewers": [ "Cynthia Leitich Smith" ], "text": "

Did you know that upward of 80% of Native Americans live in cities? Many Indigenous kids like Eddie from The Summer of the Bone Horses by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve (Sicangu Lakota) are partly raised in urban areas and partly by extended families back home on their reservations. While his parents are away for his father’s medical treatment, Eddie stays with Grandma and Grandpa High Elk; their dog,Fritz; their horse, Buck; and the chickens. As the days pass, Eddie grows to appreciate rural life, including his chores, the local store, church and fishing, while also navigating challenges like an injury to Grandpa and rattlesnakes. Steph Littlebird (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde) offers bright, dynamic illustrations that add texture and emotion to this gentle page-turner. (For ages 5 to 8)

", "tags": [ "fiction", "kids’ books", "identity & culture", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1419759558", "cover": "1419759558", "goodreads": 217111921, "itunes": 9781419759550, "bookshop": 9781419759550, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/8178+zOBgYL._SL1403_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781419759550", "isbn10": "1419759558", "links": [] }, "315": { "id": 315, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Survivor Wants to Die at the End", "author": "Adam Silvera", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

When is the call coming? That’s the question Paz Dario constantly wonders. Paz is tired: tired of waiting, tired of faking his way through life. He just wants the call, the call that will let him know death is coming for him. But the call doesn’t come, and Paz decides to take his death into his own hands. In this latest installment in Adam Silvera’s They Both Die at the End series, despair is at its zenith; living has become a prison. What happens when you survive, but all you want is release? The Survivor Wants to Die at the End illuminates the hidden pain of survival, the cruelty of expectation and the fragile hope of choosing to live anyway.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "young adult", "the dark side", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063240858", "cover": "0063240858", "goodreads": 199531917, "itunes": 9780063240858, "bookshop": 9780063240858, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41xsgQb+NmL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063240858", "isbn10": "0063240858", "links": [] }, "316": { "id": 316, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story", "author": "Daniel Nayeri", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

In the 2025 National Book Award-winning The Teacher of Nomad Land, Daniel Nayeri again proves he operates on a level all his own. Spare, sharp and profoundly moving, the novel follows Babak and his sister, newly orphaned in World War II-era Iran, as they navigate a world closing in on all sides. When they meet Ben, a Jewish boy in hiding, their fragile hope collides with the brutal weight of history. Nayeri distills war, childhood, grief, loyalty and faith into something achingly intimate. The emotional terrain he covers in so few words is astonishing. This isn’t just a book – it’s a prayer, a lament, a master class in storytelling. Nayeri writes like someone who knows what stories are for: to carry us, to crush us and then to redeem us. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "kids’ books", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1646145666", "cover": "1646145666", "goodreads": 222139368, "itunes": 9781646145669, "bookshop": 9781646145669, "image": "https://i0.wp.com/www.nationalbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/03_The-Teacher-of-Nomad-Land_Daniel-Nayeri-w.jpg?resize=403%2C600&ssl=1", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781646145669", "isbn10": "1646145666", "links": [] }, "317": { "id": 317, "edition": "summer", "title": "The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West", "author": "Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "

Has the Western world lost interest in the great possibilities of science and technology? This provocative book claims giant tech firms are focusing on short-term commercial gain from consumer products that don’t – and won’t – have lasting impact, while ignoring bigger questions that could – and should – benefit society at large. The authors argue for a renewed partnership between tech companies and government, viewing it as a moral responsibility. Artificial intelligence makes the stakes high. The time is now, as it all shapes the community to which we belong. These important questions merit debate. The book is easy to read, and though it doesn’t exactly declare definitive answers, it’s worthy of your time.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "science!", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "0593798694", "cover": "0593798694", "goodreads": 213618136, "itunes": 9780593798690, "bookshop": 9780593798690, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41e+OtrH6sL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593798690", "isbn10": "0593798694", "links": [] }, "318": { "id": 318, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Ten Year Affair", "author": "Erin Somers", "reviewers": [ "Andrew Limbong" ], "text": "

My fellow millennials, we’ve made it. We’re now old enough to be in long, unhappy marriages and to have our fiction reflect that. Hurray! As a consolation prize, Erin Somers’ take on the slog that marriage can sometimes be doesn’t feel like a mere throwback to the types of domestic dramas that used to be literary fiction’s bread and butter. Instead, the novel takes a multiverse approach to marriage and infidelity. (Our hero doesn’t really cheat — she just thinks about it a lot. But wait — isn’t that sorta, kinda cheating?) And as any superhero fan will tell you, multiverses have a tendency to … crash into each other in interesting ways.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "let’s talk about sex", "seriously great writing", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "166808144X", "cover": "166808144X", "goodreads": 224003127, "itunes": 9781668081440, "bookshop": 9781668081440, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41r1p-zo9KL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668081440", "isbn10": "166808144X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 318, "book": "The Ten Year Affair", "source": "NPR", "text": "In the new novel, 'The Ten-Year Affair,' a married woman's fantasy starts to feel real", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/19/nx-s1-5387413/in-the-new-novel-the-ten-year-affair-a-married-womans-fantasy-starts-to-feel-real#:~:text=In%20the%20new%20novel%2C%20The,starts%20to%20feel%20real%20%3A%20NPR&text=Pop%20Culture-,In%20the%20new%20novel%2C%20The%20Ten%2DYear%20Affair%2C%20a,reality%20in%20her%20new%20novel." } ] }, "319": { "id": 319, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Three Lives of Cate Kay", "author": "Kate Fagan", "reviewers": [ "Hafsa Fathima" ], "text": "

Anne Callahan and her best friend, Amanda, have dreams of making it big in Hollywood, until the night that changes the course of their lives. The story follows Annie’s transformation from high school thespian to one of the world’s most famous authors – though she’s known as the pseudonym Cate Kay to her readers. But Annie also goes by other names to satisfy different ambitions. We learn what she gains and loses along the way – the friends and homes she leaves behind, the heart she breaks along the way, and the loneliness that comes with her isolated fame.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers" ], "isbn": "1668076217", "cover": "1668076217", "goodreads": 223370541, "itunes": 9781668076217, "bookshop": 9781668076217, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zTxEkF45L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668076217", "isbn10": "1668076217", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 319, "book": "The Three Lives of Cate Kay", "source": "NCPR", "text": "Betsy Kepes reviews new queer romance novel by former Glens Falls Post-Star reporter", "url": "https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/51973/20250701/betsy-kepes-reviews-new-queer-romance-novel-by-former-glens-falls-post-star-reporter" } ] }, "320": { "id": 320, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Tokyo Suite", "author": "Giovana Madalosso, translated by Bruna Dantas Lobato", "reviewers": [ "Leland Cheuk" ], "text": "

The dual narratives of The Tokyo Suite grip the reader right from the opening chapters, which alternate between the points of view of a mother distracted by her job as an executive and the nanny who kidnaps the exec’s daughter. As this two-hander unfolds, Giovana Madalosso plays with the reader’s sympathies as both protagonists entangle themselves in the consequences of their bad choices. By the end, you’re certain the only path forward is tragedy, but instead you’ll be left thinking about what happens beyond the pages long after you close the book.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1609459806", "cover": "1609459806", "goodreads": 214204553, "itunes": 9781609459802, "bookshop": 9781609459802, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81bEWpoyPXL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781609459802", "isbn10": "1609459806", "links": [] }, "321": { "id": 321, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories That Define Us", "author": "John J. Lennon", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

Over the course of the past decade, alongside the post-Serial boom of true crime, John J. Lennon has emerged as our country’s leading prison journalist, writing for outlets like The New Yorker from inside New York state prisons, where he is serving a 28-year-to-life sentence for second-degree murder. In The Tragedy of True Crime, Lennon reflects on his own crime and time spent in prison alongside the intimately reported stories of three other guilty men whom he has served alongside. This revelatory, challenging book asks readers to grapple with how true crime narratives flatten victim and perpetrator alike, and to consider what it might mean to allow admitted violent criminals to be given second chances.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1250858240", "cover": "1250858240", "goodreads": 222376732, "itunes": 9781250858245, "bookshop": 9781250858245, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31t-Fe3plkL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250858245", "isbn10": "1250858240", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 321, "book": "The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories That Define Us", "source": "WNYC", "text": "What's wrong with true crime?", "url": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/articles/whats-wrong-with-true-crime" } ] }, "322": { "id": 322, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Trouble Up North", "author": "Travis Mulhauser", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

Travis Mulhauser perfectly evoked northern Michigan, in all its beauty and icy menace, in his previous novel, Sweetgirl. He returns to the region in this new book, which is just as accomplished as his last. The new novel follows a family of bootleggers and smugglers whose criminal enterprise has fallen on tough times, leading one member of the clan to take matters into her own hands. This is a top-notch literary thriller that’s extremely difficult to put down.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "family matters", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1538767988", "cover": "1538767988", "goodreads": 215748809, "itunes": 9781538767986, "bookshop": 9781538767986, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41hlsNgzppL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781538767986", "isbn10": "1538767988", "links": [] }, "323": { "id": 323, "edition": "fall", "title": "The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)", "author": "Rabih Alameddine", "reviewers": [ "Linah Mohammad" ], "text": "

This book – winner of the 2025 National Book Award for fiction – feels like sitting down with an old friend who is a brilliant storyteller. It’s an amusing and beautifully written portrait of a mother and her middle-aged son that lingers long after you finish it. Rabih Alameddine’s prose is so warm and vivid that you can almost hear him talking to you as you read. I loved his tender, nuanced portrayal of Raja’s prying mother, Zalfa, and how he captures the complicated bond between mothers and their children.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0802166474", "cover": "0802166474", "goodreads": 228110355, "itunes": 9780802166470, "bookshop": 9780802166470, "image": "https://groveatlantic-b.b-cdn.net/core/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/TrueTrueStory-NBA-Winner-HC-1600px-RGB.png", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780802166470", "isbn10": "0802166474", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 323, "book": "The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)", "source": "NPR", "text": "Rabih Alameddine discusses his new book about the relationship between a mother and son", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/08/30/nx-s1-5397977/rabih-alameddine-discusses-his-new-book-about-the-relationship-between-a-mother-and-son" } ] }, "324": { "id": 324, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Uncool: A Memoir", "author": "Cameron Crowe", "reviewers": [ "Molly Seavy-Nesper" ], "text": "

As a die-hard Almost Famous fan, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Cameron Crowe’s memoir about the years that inspired the movie. Crowe was just a teenager when he started writing for Rolling Stone. The Uncool takes you backstage and on the road with some of the biggest artists of the 1970s – The Allman Brothers Band, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Joni Mitchell and more. In a reversal of the usual tendency to compare the movie adaptation to the book, it’s fun to compare the book to the movie – the real stories are often much grittier and darker than the Hollywood version. I was particularly moved by Crowe’s account of his late sister Cathy, who died by suicide, and how her absence and the silence around her death in part drove him to spend a life asking questions.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "for music lovers", "no biz like show biz", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1668059436", "cover": "1668059436", "goodreads": 224004354, "itunes": 9781668059432, "bookshop": 9781668059432, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31bNmtPiqnL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668059432", "isbn10": "1668059436", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 324, "book": "The Uncool: A Memoir", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "Why Cameron Crowe wears 'uncool' as a badge of honor", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/27/nx-s1-5585123/cameron-crowe-memoir-almost-famous-uncool" } ] }, "325": { "id": 325, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Very Heart of It: New York Diaries, 1983-1994", "author": "Thomas Mallon", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "

I’ve loved Thomas Mallon’s writing ever since I reviewed Henry and Clara, his 1994 novel about the engaged couple sharing the Lincolns’ box at Ford’s Theatre on that fateful night in 1865. Throughout a career spanning 11 novels – most of them historical – Mallon has captured the tragic and absurd lurking in even the weightiest moments of the past. Turns out that in his diaries, Mallon was doing the same for his own life and times. This volume gathers entries from the years 1983 to 1994, when he’d recently come out and moved to New York, even as the AIDS epidemic raged.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "for history lovers", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0593801806", "cover": "0593801806", "goodreads": 219400150, "itunes": 9780593801802, "bookshop": 9780593801802, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41SyQczOL9L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593801802", "isbn10": "0593801806", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 325, "book": "The Very Heart of It: New York Diaries, 1983-1994", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "Thomas Mallon's NYC diaries get to the 'Very Heart' of the AIDS crisis", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/06/11/nx-s1-5429612/thomas-mallon-the-very-heart-of-it-new-york-aids" } ] }, "326": { "id": 326, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Village Beyond the Mist", "author": "Sachiko Kashiwaba, illustrated by Miho Satake, translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki was deeply influenced by the books he read throughout the years. In 1975, a book of extraordinary imagination was released in Japan. The story featured a young girl, dropped off unceremoniously at a train station, who discovers a small magical village where all the denizens are descended from wizards. Spoiled princes, magical sweets, cowardly tigers, malevolent toys, this book has it all! Now finally published for the first time in the U.S., the book is ideal bedtime reading. Experience the originality and creativity that helped inspire Miyazaki to make Spirited Away. (For ages 8 to 13)

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "kids’ books", "fiction", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1632063921", "cover": "1632063921", "goodreads": 216680405, "itunes": 9781632063922, "bookshop": 9781632063922, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/912HdKGh6CL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781632063922", "isbn10": "1632063921", "links": [] }, "327": { "id": 327, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Voice of Blood", "author": "Gabriela Rábago Palafox, translated by M. Elizabeth Ginway and Enrique Muñoz-Mantas", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

It’s a shame that the late Gabriela Rábago Palafox is not nearly as well known in the U.S. as she was in her home country of Mexico. Lucky for us, this newly translated collection of some of her gothic short stories offers a striking introduction. In these stories, Rábago Palafox takes vampire lore and layers in feminism, fabulism and folklore to create a shockingly good body of work. At once alluring and gruesome, the collection is a must-read for fans of thrills, chills and bloodsuckers.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "rather short", "fiction", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "1597322237", "cover": "1597322232", "goodreads": 235659140, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "image": "https://utampapress.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/tvob_cover-e1760381850524.png", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781597322232", "isbn10": "1597322237", "links": [] }, "328": { "id": 328, "edition": "fall", "title": "The War of Art: A History of Artists' Protest In America", "author": "Lauren O'Neill-Butler", "reviewers": [ "Chloe Veltman" ], "text": "

This book is about the creative – if often short-lived and not always successful – ways in which artists have fought for social change in the U.S. since the 1960s. Personal favorite: a chapter on how the scrappy video collective, Top Value Television (TVTV), changed the public’s view of political conventions. With artist-led protests once again becoming a thing – from the thousands of actors and filmmakers who recently pledged to boycott the Israeli movie industry in response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, to the presence of a 12-foot statue depicting President Trump and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein frolicking on the National Mall, this book about the past provides a powerful frame for thinking about artist-led actions today.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "for art lovers", "for history lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "identity & culture", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1804296333", "cover": "1804296333", "goodreads": 219303580, "itunes": 9781804296332, "bookshop": 9781804296332, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Twy2FZFuL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781804296332", "isbn10": "1804296333", "links": [] }, "329": { "id": 329, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Waterbearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters", "author": "Sasha Bonét", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "

This searing, poetic memoir covers generations of powerful Black women who raise their children singly and transmit strength by showing up. The author’s iconic grandmother may have little money and fewer words, but there’s enough to feed anyone who appears, and plenty of love as well. The author’s mother is tough and wise, purposeful if not effusive. Sasha Bonét writes her own mothering story with brute honesty. Even as she becomes a successful professional, she is dogged by racism. She’s another strong woman in her line, telling it like it is. If only this outsized strength weren’t necessary to live in your own country.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "family matters", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0593536088", "cover": "0593536088", "goodreads": 222684008, "itunes": 9780593536087, "bookshop": 9780593536087, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71SYqmCkXKL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593536087", "isbn10": "0593536088", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 329, "book": "The Waterbearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters", "source": "TPR", "text": "Book Public: 'The Waterbearers' by Sasha Bonét", "url": "https://www.tpr.org/podcast/book-public/2025-09-21/book-public-the-waterbearers-by-sasha" } ] }, "330": { "id": 330, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Wayfinder", "author": "Adam Johnson", "reviewers": [ "Colin Dwyer" ], "text": "

Adam Johnson’s back catalog doesn’t take up much shelf space – just four titles in the last 20-plus years. Of course, he won a National Book Award for one of those books, Fortune Smiles, and a Pulitzer Prize for another, The Orphan Master’s Son. Johnson’s first novel in more than a decade shows that the intervening years haven’t dimmed his ambition any. Anybody who knows a kid under 10 may hear echoes of Moana in The Wayfinder’s jacket copy, but the arc of a would-be teenage voyager is just one thread in an impressively dense weave. As he did with North Korea before this, Johnson takes a remote setting – in this case, the Tongan Empire of the Middle Ages – and eschews cliché for living detail, animating this swashbuckling adventure with vivid characters, unnerving violence and more than one literal bag of human bones.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "rather long", "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0374619573", "cover": "0374619573", "goodreads": 222631694, "itunes": 9780374619572, "bookshop": 9780374619572, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ZKAAqQVJL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780374619572", "isbn10": "0374619573", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 330, "book": "The Wayfinder", "source": "KQED", "text": " ‘The Wayfinder’ weaves Indigenous Polynesian tales into an epic novel\n", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/arts/13982332/adam-johnson-the-wayfinder-book-review-indigenous-polynesian-epic" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 330, "book": "The Wayfinder", "source": "Houston Public ", "text": "Adam Johnson’s ‘The Wayfinder’ charts an Indigenous people before colonial disruption", "url": "https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/shows/houston-matters/2025/10/09/533037/in-the-wayfinder-adam-johnson-charts-the-story-of-an-indigenous-people-who-were-never-colonized/" } ] }, "331": { "id": 331, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Weight", "author": "Melissa Mendes", "reviewers": [ "Tahneer Oksman" ], "text": "

This quiet, powerful volume, clocking in at almost 600 pages, collects mini comics that Melissa Mendes has been creating since 2015. Drawn simply but delicately, in black-and-white, symmetrically tiered comics, the story follows Edie, a spirited girl born on a rural farm in the 1930s. After barely surviving her father’s domestic abuse, she eventually comes to live with her loving grandparents, but the cycle seems to start anew when, at 17, she finds herself pregnant. In this immersive, atmospheric work, Mendes expertly captures the beauty and pain of growing up in the countryside, alongside the rhythms of the natural world.

", "tags": [ "family matters", "comics & graphic novels", "rather long", "the states we’re in", "rather long" ], "isbn": "1770467165", "cover": "1770467165", "goodreads": 222377139, "itunes": 9781770467163, "bookshop": 9781770467163, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51QLF+rUULL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781770467163", "isbn10": "1770467165", "links": [] }, "332": { "id": 332, "edition": "fall", "title": "The White Hot", "author": "Quiara Alegría Hudes", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised that a novel by the lyricist and playwright known for writing the book for the Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights would be stunning. But this slim, powerful debut shook me nonetheless. April Soto was barely holding it together, containing the white-hot rage that had plagued her since childhood, when she learned that daughter Noelle might face the same struggle. With prose that reads like poetry and unflinching honesty, the novel mostly takes the form of April’s letter to Noelle explaining why she ran and stayed away for so long. Contemplating whether the best thing she could do for her child was, in truth, to vanish from her life, she thought: “But how, God? How can love look like leaving? And tell me, will I ungunk the gutters of my bad, bad soul?”

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "family matters", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0593732332", "cover": "0593732332", "goodreads": 223362310, "itunes": 9780593732335, "bookshop": 9780593732335, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41W2C0t+F+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593732335", "isbn10": "0593732332", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 332, "book": "The White Hot", "source": "NPR", "text": "Exploring 'The White Hot,' a novel by Quiara Alegría Hudes", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/11/08/nx-s1-5397169/exploring-the-white-hot-a-novel-by-quiara-alegria-hudes" } ] }, "333": { "id": 333, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Wilderness", "author": "Angela Flournoy", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy was longlisted for the National Book Award and is the author’s second novel, after The Turner House, which was also a finalist. Flournoy’s new work follows five Black women – two sisters, Desiree and Danielle, and their three friends, January, Monique and Nakia – beginning in their early 20s and spanning decades as they navigate relationships, motherhood, careers, lovers and friendship. A nonlinear, complex story that is loving, tragic, funny and thought-provoking, The Wilderness showcases Flournoy as a fearless writer who creates richly nuanced characters, revealing their raw emotional lives and the deep bonds that connect them. It’s a must-read.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "book club ideas", "family matters", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0063318776", "cover": "0063318776", "goodreads": 222658339, "itunes": 9780063318779, "bookshop": 9780063318779, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51yJan2IFNL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063318779", "isbn10": "0063318776", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 333, "book": "The Wilderness ", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Angela Flournoy explores 20 years of adult friendship in 'The Wilderness'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/16/nx-s1-5307333/author-angela-flournoy-explores-20-years-of-adult-friendship-in-the-wilderness" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 333, "book": "The Wilderness ", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: Angela Flournoy's new novel about friendship", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/angela-flournoys-new-novel-about-friendship/" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 333, "book": "The Wilderness ", "source": "KMUW", "text": " 'The Wilderness' explores the pitfalls of life and the value of found family", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review/2025-09-15/the-wilderness-explores-the-pitfalls-of-life-and-the-value-of-found-family" } ] }, "334": { "id": 334, "edition": "fall", "title": "Theater Kid: A Broadway Memoir", "author": "Jeffrey Seller", "reviewers": [ "Jeff Lunden" ], "text": "

Jeffrey Seller’s well-written and compulsively entertaining memoir, Theater Kid, gives insight into the circumstances that formed one of the most successful theater producers of our time. Not only does the book detail bringing Hamilton, Rent and In the Heights to life, but Seller examines his hardscrabble childhood as the adopted son of a troubled Jewish family, discovering his passion volunteering with a community theater and coming out as gay during the AIDS crisis. Anyone who loves theatrical memoirs will cherish – and reread – this book.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "no biz like show biz", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1668064189", "cover": "1668064189", "goodreads": 220377455, "itunes": 9781668064184, "bookshop": 9781668064184, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51V4aqElcYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668064184", "isbn10": "1668064189", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 334, "book": "Theater Kid: A Broadway Memoir", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": " 'Hamilton' producer Jeffrey Seller traces his journey from 'Theater Kid' to Broadway", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/06/30/nx-s1-5448861/hamilton-rent-broadway-jeffrey-seller-theater-kid" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 334, "book": "Theater Kid: A Broadway Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Jeffrey Seller on his memoir 'Theater Kid' and what theater can unlock for us", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/03/nx-s1-5283973/jeffrey-seller-on-his-memoir-theater-kid-and-what-theater-can-unlock-for-us" } ] }, "335": { "id": 335, "edition": "fall", "title": "There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America", "author": "Brian Goldstone", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

In this paradigm-shifting, immersive book, journalist and anthropologist Brian Goldstone follows five families in Atlanta who, despite working full time, struggle to stay housed amid gentrification, a lack of tenants’ rights and low wages. These families, all Black, fall into a “shadow realm” – they are not considered officially homeless by the federal government, but lack a fixed living place as they double up with friends and family, sleep in their cars, or pay exorbitant rates at extended-stay hotels. Woven throughout their stories is a trenchant exploration of how America’s disinvestment in public housing and relentless pursuit of free-market growth have fueled housing insecurity for poor working families.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0593237145", "cover": "0593237145", "goodreads": 215362634, "itunes": 9780593237144, "bookshop": 9780593237144, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61RuvEHLR8L._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593237144", "isbn10": "0593237145", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 335, "book": "There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America", "source": "KQED", "text": "‘There Is No Place for Us’ shines lights on a homeless population often ignored", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/arts/13973478/there-is-no-place-for-us-shines-lights-on-a-homeless-population-often-ignored" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 335, "book": "There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America", "source": "KCRW", "text": "‘There Is No Place for Us’: How Americans were pushed into homelessness\r", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/stories/there-is-no-place-for-us" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 335, "book": "There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America", "source": "MPR", "text": "Journalist Brian Goldstone talks about America's homeless problem in his new book", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2025/09/19/journalist-brian-goldstone-talks-about-americas-homeless-problem-in-his-new-book" } ] }, "336": { "id": 336, "edition": "summer", "title": "There's Something About Mira", "author": "Sonali Dev", "reviewers": [ "Hafsa Fathima" ], "text": "

Mira’s pre-wedding trip to New York is turning out to be interesting: Her fiancé is too busy with work to travel, her twin brother is mad at her, and she stumbles upon a mysterious ring. She’s determined to find the ring’s owner, but she needs the help of surly journalist Krish Hale. Meanwhile, in parallel, we hear through letters the story of two women in India in the 1980s – friends who are forbidden to be anything more – who are connected by, you guessed it, a ring. This is one of Sonali Dev’s most powerful works yet, going beyond just romance to explore identity, family and resilience.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "identity & culture", "fiction", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "1662524269", "cover": "1662524269", "goodreads": 211100483, "itunes": 1789788650, "bookshop": 9781662524264, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mMw09HYCL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781662524264", "isbn10": "1662524269", "links": [] }, "337": { "id": 337, "edition": "summer", "title": "These Days", "author": "Lucy Caldwell", "reviewers": [ "Shannon Rhoades" ], "text": "

It’s April 1941, just before the “Belfast Blitz,” Germany’s deadly bombing of the capital of Northern Ireland. Two sisters, Audrey and Emma Bell, are both testing boundaries – society’s and their own – to find out what kind of women they want to be. Lucy Caldwell so beautifully balances a book that feels intimate and deeply personal, as if you’re reading someone’s diary, with the greater historical resonance of this very real chapter of World War II history (one readers might not know).

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "historical fiction", "tales from around the world", "identity & culture", "fiction", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1638931836", "cover": "1638931836", "goodreads": 216684509, "itunes": 9781638931836, "bookshop": 9781638931836, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41jn7i2BaUL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781638931836", "isbn10": "1638931836", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 337, "book": "These Days", "source": "NPR", "text": "Lucy Caldwell discusses her latest novel, 'These Days'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/04/05/nx-s1-5189841/lucy-caldwell-discusses-her-latest-novel-these-days" } ] }, "338": { "id": 338, "edition": "fall", "title": "These Summer Storms", "author": "Sarah MacLean", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Zutter" ], "text": "

For her first contemporary novel, historical romance author Sarah MacLean opens with a tried-and-true trope: Alice Storm sleeps with a fiercely protective stranger the night before reuniting with her estranged (and very wealthy) family on their private island, only to discover that Jack is her late father’s fixer and the overseer of Franklin Storm’s inheritance scavenger hunt. Succession-esque stakes are masterfully anchored by Alice grieving the brilliant but stubborn father whose pride kept her a pariah, despite their being kindred spirits. The isolated setting is lightning in a bottle for the Storm siblings, as they squabble over these cruel games designed to pit reconciliation against recompense – all while Alice and Jack grapple with whether their attraction is fate or Franklin’s will.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "family matters", "let’s talk about sex", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0593972252", "cover": "0593972252", "goodreads": 220239075, "itunes": 9780593972250, "bookshop": 9780593972250, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51m4+Z2Fq9L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593972250", "isbn10": "0593972252", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 338, "book": "These Summer Storms", "source": "KQED", "text": "‘These Summer Storms’ is a steamy take on rich people behaving badly", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/arts/13978389/these-summer-storms-is-a-steamy-take-on-rich-people-behaving-badly" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 338, "book": "These Summer Storms", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Two new novels offer page-turning summer escapes", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/07/22/these-summer-storms-sarah-maclean-you-belong-here-megan-miranda-book-review" } ] }, "339": { "id": 339, "edition": "fall", "title": "They Bloom at Night", "author": "Trang Thanh Tran", "reviewers": [ "Barbara J. King" ], "text": "

In They Bloom at Night, Trang Thanh Tran writes about monsters real and imagined with luminous language, a rich sense of place (haunted Louisiana waters) and nonbinary and trans kids as compelling personalities. The tale they tell is infused with memories and myths from Vietnamese culture. Readers come away believing that an ability for gritty transformation – to create our own strengths, to find our genuine selves, to take revenge where necessary and to love well wherever possible – is within reach of all of us.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "young adult", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1547611111", "cover": "1547611111", "goodreads": 211003894, "itunes": 9781547611119, "bookshop": 9781547611119, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/412w+XAJeDL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781547611119", "isbn10": "1547611111", "links": [] }, "340": { "id": 340, "edition": "summer", "title": "Things in Nature Merely Grow", "author": "Yiyun Li", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "

I must begin with the facts, as the author does: Writer Yiyun Li lost both her teenage sons to suicide. It’s a tragedy we might call “unthinkable,” but Li’s book is about thinking. While the deaths of her sons are the context, the subject is Li’s thought process as she lives through the aftermath of her younger son’s death in 2024. To be in Li’s head is a rare privilege – she is a writer of elegance and clarity and is a deeply interesting thinker. And the book, surprisingly, is not sad. This National Book Award finalist is moving and even funny in places as she writes about her wonderful friends, a few awful strangers, but most of all her extraordinary sons. You may find yourself transformed after reading it. I did.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "biography & memoir", "rather short", "nonfiction", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0374617317", "cover": "0374617317", "goodreads": 221164555, "itunes": 9780374617318, "bookshop": 9780374617318, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31MizsSsEGL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780374617318", "isbn10": "0374617317", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 340, "book": "Things in Nature Merely Grow", "source": "NPR", "text": "In Yiyun Li's book about her son, she endures the impossible", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/24/nx-s1-5283975/in-yiyun-lis-book-about-her-son-she-overcomes-the-impossible" } ] }, "341": { "id": 341, "edition": "summer", "title": "This Beautiful, Ridiculous City: A Graphic Memoir", "author": "Kay Sohini", "reviewers": [ "Hafsa Fathima" ], "text": "

If you’re looking for a love letter to New York City, you’ll find few as passionately written as Kay Sohini’s latest work. It traces her journey moving from India to New York – and with it comes joy, excitement, heartbreak and anguish. It’s a visually gorgeous work that brings both of Sohini’s worlds alive, from her family kitchen table in India to the bustle of Manhattan. And as an immigrant who made a similar journey years ago, I found myself nodding along to every word.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "rather short", "nonfiction", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593836154", "cover": "0593836154", "goodreads": 212294437, "itunes": 9780593836156, "bookshop": 9780593836156, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ScrF5wBqL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593836156", "isbn10": "0593836154", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 341, "book": "This Beautiful, Ridiculous City: A Graphic Memoir", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": " 'Coming to New York' stories are alive and well in these two new books", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/02/06/nx-s1-5288896/new-york-city-gay-talese-kay-sohini" } ] }, "342": { "id": 342, "edition": "fall", "title": "This Book Will Bury Me", "author": "Ashley Winstead", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Wessel" ], "text": "

If, like me, you’ve ever found yourself a little too obsessed with a true-crime case, this book is for you. It’s also a cautionary tale. Trying to channel her grief after her father’s death, college student Jane Sharp joins a group of armchair web sleuths to solve a murder. With echoes of the 2022 killings of four University of Idaho students, Ashley Winstead turns a critical eye on the voyeurism of true crime. It’s a story that points out the dangers of seeking easy answers and questions our own culpability in turning human tragedy into entertainment. It’s a page-turner that will leave you unsettled and make you rethink your own true-crime consumption.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "rather long" ], "isbn": "1728270006", "cover": "1728270006", "goodreads": 213570821, "itunes": 9781728270005, "bookshop": 9781728270005, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Gx0pzeS5L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781728270005", "isbn10": "1728270006", "links": [] }, "343": { "id": 343, "edition": "fall", "title": "This Might Surprise You: A Breast Cancer Story", "author": "Hayley Gullen", "reviewers": [ "Tahneer Oksman" ], "text": "

At 37 years old, with a busy work life and young child in tow, Hayley Gullen wakes in terrible pain, soon to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Entering treatment is, as she later realizes, “the start of a story.” Integrating humor into her earnest, sweet line drawings, Gullen joins other powerful graphic memoirists grappling with the topic, including Marisa Acocella Marchetto with Cancer Vixen and Jennifer Hayden with The Story of My Tits. Through art and openness, Gullen forges her way from feeling like a statistic to expressing herself as more than a body in crisis.

", "tags": [ "family matters", "comics & graphic novels", "rather short", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "1399424742", "cover": "1399424742", "goodreads": 222377070, "itunes": 9781399424745, "bookshop": 9781399424745, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-jTIqO6uL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781399424745", "isbn10": "1399424742", "links": [] }, "344": { "id": 344, "edition": "fall", "title": "Three Days in June", "author": "Anne Tyler", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

This short, funny and wise charmer features a divorced couple – one inflexible and judgmental, the other loosey-goosey and forgiving – thrown together by their daughter’s wedding (and an aged, overweight rescue cat in need of a home). Both are teachers, and neither cares about fancy food or clothes. It may be Anne Tyler-lite, but it’s the perfect setup to address one of her pet subjects: how marriages, whether successful or failed, morph through the years.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "family matters", "funny stuff", "rather short", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0593803485", "cover": "0593803485", "goodreads": 213243949, "itunes": 9780593803486, "bookshop": 9780593803486, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51tWeEV2c7L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593803486", "isbn10": "0593803485", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 344, "book": "Three Days in June", "source": "KMUW", "text": "With ‘Three Days in June,’ Anne Tyler gives us more characters to love and root for", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review/2025-02-17/three-days-in-june-headline-here" } ] }, "345": { "id": 345, "edition": "summer", "title": "Tilt", "author": "Emma Pattee", "reviewers": [ "Andrew Limbong" ], "text": "

An extremely pregnant woman has to go to Ikea – and yet her day somehow gets worse from there when an earthquake hits. In a lot of ways, Emma Pattee’s debut is a lean, action-adventure novel about a woman who has to overcome obstacles to get from Point A to Point B. But the book is tender in its approach to the singular will to survive, while also making time to poke fun at the keeping-up-with-the-Joneses of modern-day motherhood.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "family matters", "rather short", "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "1668055473", "cover": "1668055473", "goodreads": 214151301, "itunes": 9781668055472, "bookshop": 9781668055472, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41lYoghs5+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668055472", "isbn10": "1668055473", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 345, "book": "Tilt", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Tilt' is the story of an epic journey following a catastrophic quake", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/25/nx-s1-5088116/tilt-is-the-story-of-an-epic-journey-following-a-catastrophic-quake" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 345, "book": "Tilt", "source": "NHPR", "text": "Check This Out: Emma Pattee on 'Tilt'", "url": "https://www.nhpr.org/show/check-this-out/2025-05-29/check-this-out-emma-pattee-tilt" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 345, "book": "Tilt", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Tilt' recounts one woman's journey through post-earthquake devastation", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review/2025-03-24/tilt-recounts-one-womans-journey-through-post-earthquake-devastation" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 345, "book": "Tilt", "source": "KUOW", "text": "A decade after 'The Really Big One,' this author imagines the devastation of the major quake", "url": "https://www.kuow.org/stories/emma-pattee-tild-mega-earthquake-novelization" } ] }, "346": { "id": 346, "edition": "fall", "title": "Time Loops & Meet Cutes", "author": "Jackie Lau", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Kuypers" ], "text": "

Noelle is a cautious, lonely workaholic whose adventure starts when she eats a magical dumpling from a mysterious night market vendor that causes her to keep reliving the same Friday. Avery, a woman Noelle meets in the market, is caught in the same loop but a very different predicament, and together they try to figure out why this is happening and how to get unstuck. Noelle’s strategy involves trying to orchestrate the perfect meet cute with brewery owner (and walking green flag) Cam, who aaalmost seems to remember her, despite meeting her anew each time. Romance is the goal here, but learning to take risks and how to be a good friend are just as important in this book.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1668030799", "cover": "1668030799", "goodreads": 220161319, "itunes": 9781668030790, "bookshop": 9781668030790, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71-Ovs5OtRL._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668030790", "isbn10": "1668030799", "links": [] }, "348": { "id": 348, "edition": "fall", "title": "Tomorrow Is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine", "author": "Hussein Agha and Robert Malley", "reviewers": [ "Shannon Rhoades" ], "text": "

There’s no way to spin it: This is a book-length reflection on failure. Two insiders to the Middle East peace process (Hussein Agha, on behalf of the Palestinians; Robert Malley under Presidents Biden, Obama and Clinton) reflect on why, despite efforts spanning decades, there is still no lasting peace. A failure to address history – the ghosts of the past – is at the root, they argue. This book is gutting and illuminating.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0374617120", "cover": "0374617120", "goodreads": 225699834, "itunes": 9780374617127, "bookshop": 9780374617127, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/512NFTwjluL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780374617127", "isbn10": "0374617120", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 348, "book": "Tomorrow Is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Tomorrow is Yesterday' is a book on why the Israeli–Palestinian peace process failed", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/13/nx-s1-5453183/tomorrow-is-yesterday-is-a-book-on-why-the-israeli-palestinian-peace-process-failed" } ] }, "349": { "id": 349, "edition": "fall", "title": "Tongues", "author": "Anders Nilsen", "reviewers": [ "Nicolette Khan" ], "text": "

I have been resisting the serialized issues of Tongues for a few years now, in anticipation of the collected first volume of this epic graphic novel. Anders Nilsen has built a sprawling, rich and textured world with complex, enigmatic characters. At the heart of the book is a retelling of the Greek myth of Prometheus, but it is the contemporary storyline of the brave, precocious Astrid and her chicken sidekick Hermaea that kept me turning the pages. The page design and colors are stunning, and each panel features the meticulous line work some might expect from Nilsen. Tongues is a canonical work by a comic artist with a distinctive vision.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "comics & graphic novels", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1524747203", "cover": "1524747203", "goodreads": 213618141, "itunes": 9781524747206, "bookshop": 9781524747206, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mVABQYm6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781524747206", "isbn10": "1524747203", "links": [] }, "350": { "id": 350, "edition": "fall", "title": "Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer's Legendary Editorship", "author": "Dana A. Williams", "reviewers": [ "Tinbete Ermyas" ], "text": "

Years before becoming a household name as a novelist, Toni Morrison was an editor at Random House. Those years are the subject of Dana A. Williams’ Toni at Random. Morrison’s goal was to document the Black experience. But to get there, we learn just how deft a businesswoman Morrison was: She knew how to speak to bottom-line-obsessed corporate publishers and reclusive writers in equal measure. The book is full of tension – fights with writers over prose and with fellow editors for respect – but it always comes back to the craft, and the care Morrison took to getting it right on the page. Her brilliance was always evident – it’s just nice to have a fuller picture of it.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "0063011972", "cover": "0063011972", "goodreads": 219278638, "itunes": 9780063011977, "bookshop": 9780063011977, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zLGMYAV3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063011977", "isbn10": "0063011972", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 350, "book": "Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer's Legendary Editorship", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: Toni Morrison the editor", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/toni-morrison-the-editor/" } ] }, "351": { "id": 351, "edition": "summer", "title": "Too Soon", "author": "Betty Shamieh", "reviewers": [ "Christina Cala" ], "text": "

Betty Shamieh’s page-turner of a family epic, Too Soon, tells the story of three generations of Palestinian-American women finding their places in the world, looking for love and, as Shamieh puts it, wringing “an acceptable amount of joy out of a world that is not designed for them to do so.” The story starts with granddaughter Arabella, a theater director given a chance to put on Hamlet in the West Bank. Her grandmother sets her up with an old flame’s grandson, a doctor saving lives in Gaza. But Arabella can’t stop thinking about the Israeli American she’s leaving behind in New York.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "no biz like show biz", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1668046547", "cover": "1668046547", "goodreads": 214152335, "itunes": 9781668046548, "bookshop": 9781668046548, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mQ3IWXSTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781668046548", "isbn10": "1668046547", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 351, "book": "Too Soon", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Too Soon' is a fun, flirty novel about three generations of Palestinian women", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/01/25/nx-s1-5270945/too-soon-is-a-fun-flirty-novel-about-three-generations-of-palestinian-women" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 351, "book": "Too Soon", "source": "NPR", "text": "This Palestinian American's debut novel may not be political – but her existence is", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/12/1237991532/palestinian-american-sex-and-the-city" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 351, "book": "Too Soon", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Betty Shamieh's 'Too Soon' intertwines three generations of Palestinian American women", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/01/29/too-soon-betty-shamieh-book-review" } ] }, "352": { "id": 352, "edition": "fall", "title": "Tuck Me In! A Science Bedtime Story", "author": "Nathan W. Pyle", "reviewers": [ "Linah Mohammad" ], "text": "

This whimsical picture book turns the science of tides into the sweetest bedtime story. My baby lights up whenever I read this to her – I don’t know if it’s Nathan Pyle’s funny writing or his charming illustrations. Either way, it’s a clever little masterpiece that makes science feel a little like magic. It’s so simple, yet so brilliant. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks", "science!", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "9798217029433", "cover": "9798217029433", "goodreads": 223889059, "itunes": 9798217029433, "bookshop": 9798217029433, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41M9i8mcgPL._SL500_.jpg", "amazon_asin": "B0DTTJBGSK", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9798217029433", "isbn10": "8217029431", "links": [] }, "353": { "id": 353, "edition": "summer", "title": "Twelve Post-War Tales", "author": "Graham Swift", "reviewers": [ "Shannon Rhoades" ], "text": "

Like its title, the stories in this collection are deceptively simple. “Where were you when” is invoked explicitly in one; more often, the stories concern themselves, very quietly, with how great historical events linger in the lives of ordinary men and women. I’m still thinking about “Blushes” – when a 72-year-old doctor thinks back on his 10th birthday while driving to the hospital for a shift in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. I’ll be adding this book to my shelf. I’m not ready to part with it.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction", "historical fiction", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593803388", "cover": "0593803388", "goodreads": 217245577, "itunes": 9780593803387, "bookshop": 9780593803387, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mkDPcWFuL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593803387", "isbn10": "0593803388", "links": [] }, "354": { "id": 354, "edition": "fall", "title": "Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World", "author": "Jessica Slice", "reviewers": [ "Emiko Tamagawa" ], "text": "

This book made me question assumptions I’d made about child-rearing. Author Jessica Slice became disabled, then a parent, and discovered that not only could she raise a child, but she was also better able to cope with some of the demands of parenting than those who weren’t disabled. Slice interviews other parents with disabilities and discovers a variety of creative ways they take care of their kids, even while she and they continually encounter prejudice about their fitness to do so. A mind-opening read.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0807013242", "cover": "0807013242", "goodreads": 216524259, "itunes": 9780807013243, "bookshop": 9780807013243, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/5179fcIQSzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780807013243", "isbn10": "0807013242", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 354, "book": "Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World", "source": "NPR", "text": "A disabled mom's message to parents: We all need help, and it's OK to ask for it", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/05/31/nx-s1-5414631/parenting-disability-pots-support" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 354, "book": "Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: A disabled mother writes about the challenges of parenting in an inaccessible world", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/a-disabled-mother-writes-about-the-challenges-of-parenting-in-an-inaccessible-world/" } ] }, "355": { "id": 355, "edition": "fall", "title": "Universality", "author": "Natasha Brown", "reviewers": [ "Liam McBain" ], "text": "

Universality is a delicious, nasty read. A tight novel in several parts, it’s a splashy magazine piece followed by the story of its fallout. As the book unfolds and the magazine article’s truthfulness comes into question, Universality also explores the wretched state of Britain’s media ecosystem and culture at large. So riveting, so funny, perfectly satisfying. It was nominated for this year’s Booker Prize.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "fiction", "rather short", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "0593977300", "cover": "0593977300", "goodreads": 214269374, "itunes": 9780593977309, "bookshop": 9780593977309, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41NyZingdfL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593977309", "isbn10": "0593977300", "links": [] }, "356": { "id": 356, "edition": "fall", "title": "Unpacking My Father's Bookstore", "author": "Laurence Roth", "reviewers": [ "Marcela Davison Avilés" ], "text": "

I opened Laurence Roth’s biography of his bookseller father anticipating an eloquent journey of memory and meaning. There could be, I thought, a window opened into Roth’s fascinating life as a writing teacher, lover of books and elucidator of history and identity. Roth’s memoir is even more – a beautiful lamentation of his father’s work, an epic family history, a timely illumination of Jewish life in modern Los Angeles. His elegy ends not in despair but instead arrives at a sort of pragmatic consolation. I know the feeling – when I recall my family during Día de Muertos, remembrance is also deliverance. Roth rescues himself and his father with a beautiful – and mindful – embrace.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "it’s all geek to me", "identity & culture", "biography & memoir", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1978836600", "cover": "1978836600", "goodreads": 221740970, "itunes": 9781978836600, "bookshop": 9781978836600, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41R3xfkdvcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781978836600", "isbn10": "1978836600", "links": [] }, "357": { "id": 357, "edition": "summer", "title": "Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance", "author": "Laura Delano", "reviewers": [ "Lauren González" ], "text": "

Unshrunk issues a provocative challenge to psychiatrists across the U.S.: Maybe pharmaceutical drugs aren’t always the antidote. In this memoir, Laura Delano shares how a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in her teen years led to a life in and out of treatment. After more than a decade and 19 prescriptions, Delano made the decision to taper off her medication and find relief outside the mental health system. This is an uncomfortable read but one that will leave you wondering how we might take better care of ourselves and each other.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "science!", "identity & culture", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "1984880489", "cover": "1984880489", "goodreads": 214986194, "itunes": 9781984880482, "bookshop": 9781984880482, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51tRyUqAZcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781984880482", "isbn10": "1984880489", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 357, "book": "Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Have we taken therapy culture too far?", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2025/09/12/therapy-culture-mental-health" } ] }, "358": { "id": 358, "edition": "summer", "title": "Vantage Point", "author": "Sara Sligar", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "

A summer mystery with a rich, troubled family and a curse? Sign me up. Vantage Point is set on a secluded island in Maine and reads like a tech thriller with the soul of a gothic dynastic horror story. It’s told from the dual perspectives of Clara, the youngest member of the wealthy, politically connected and highly unlucky Wieland family, and Jess, Clara’s childhood best friend who’s married to Clara’s brother, Senate hopeful Teddy. When a series of deepfake videos targets Clara and then Jess, it feels as though the famous Wieland curse has come into the digital age. The book is a rich drama about friendship, class and inherited trauma – all in the package of a propulsive yarn.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "the dark side", "mysteries & thrillers", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0374282293", "cover": "0374282293", "goodreads": 195790637, "itunes": 9780374282295, "bookshop": 9780374282295, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4177EtWnyhL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780374282295", "isbn10": "0374282293", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 358, "book": "Vantage Point", "source": "WPR", "text": "Sara Sligar’s ‘Vantage Point’ explores family, identity and technology", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/science-and-technology/technology/sara-sligar-vantage-point-gothic-technology-wieland" } ] }, "359": { "id": 359, "edition": "fall", "title": "Vera, or Faith", "author": "Gary Shteyngart", "reviewers": [ "Krishnadev Calamur" ], "text": "

In Vera, or Faith, Gary Shteyngart’s most recent novel, the story of a credibly dystopian America of the near future is told through the eyes of a precocious, chess-playing 10-year-old girl. The book has Shteyngart’s usual combination of breezy writing, incisive wit and poignant cultural observations about American identity, masculinity, cultural snobbery and politics. At the heart of the novel is its eponymous heroine, Vera, who weaves her way through Manhattan in an attempt to find her Korean American birth mother and ultimately learns truths too complicated even for grown-ups. I loved this little book, which despite its bleak themes, leaves you with just the right amount of hope.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0593595092", "cover": "0593595092", "goodreads": 220239019, "itunes": 9780593595091, "bookshop": 9780593595091, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416N3GclaRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593595091", "isbn10": "0593595092", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 359, "book": "Vera, or Faith", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Gary Shteyngart's new novel offers a dystopian America that feels familiar", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/07/08/gary-shteyngart-vera-or-faith-book-review" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 359, "book": "Vera, or Faith", "source": "KQED", "text": "In Gary Shteyngart’s 'Vera, or Faith,' a child navigates family, American dystopia", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101910708/in-gary-shteyngarts-vera-or-faith-a-child-navigates-family-american-dystopia" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 359, "book": "Vera, or Faith", "source": "KMUW", "text": " 'Vera, or Faith' looks at a broken world through the eyes of a child", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review/2025-07-14/vera-or-faith-looks-at-a-broken-world-through-the-eyes-of-a-child" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 359, "book": "Vera, or Faith", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Gary Shteyngart on 'Vera, or Faith'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/show/the-book-show/2025-07-22/gary-shteyngart-vera-or-faith" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 359, "book": "Vera, or Faith", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: Gary Shteyngart's new novel 'Vera, or Faith'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/gary-shteyngarts-new-novel-vera-or-faith/" } ] }, "360": { "id": 360, "edition": "summer", "title": "Victorian Psycho", "author": "Virginia Feito", "reviewers": [ "Nikki Birch" ], "text": "

Dear Reader, if you crave an exquisitely unhinged novel, look no further. Within these pages, you’ll find simmering rage, aristocrats behaving badly and more than a little murder. When our protagonist, Winifred Notty, arrives at Ensor House to become the Pounds’ family governess, we can’t help but admire her dark humor and sharp wit. But Winifred has grisly urges and deranged plans. Virginia Feito choreographs a literary waltz of intrusive thoughts and vile actions – I found it impossible to put down.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "funny stuff", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "rather short", "fiction", "historical fiction" ], "isbn": "1631498630", "cover": "1631498630", "goodreads": 213395480, "itunes": 9781631498633, "bookshop": 9781631498633, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51FJN7jN1sL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781631498633", "isbn10": "1631498630", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 360, "book": "Victorian Psycho", "source": "NPR", "text": "Virginia Feito discusses her darkly funny new novel 'Victorian Psycho'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/02/02/nx-s1-5022911/virginia-feito-discusses-her-darkly-funny-new-novel-victorian-psycho" } ] }, "361": { "id": 361, "edition": "summer", "title": "Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses", "author": "Peter Wolf", "reviewers": [ "Felix Contreras" ], "text": "

It makes complete sense that a memoir by a respected rock veteran would read like a favorite album, with each chapter playing like one great storytelling track after another. Although, in this case, Peter Wolf’s stories challenge the usual rock star narrative to include his experiences with art (he’s a painter), philosophy, books, short marriage to a Hollywood star and even a very brief NPR mention. But don’t fret, musician stories abound, including mentions of Keith Richards, Merle Haggard, and the most intimate, loving portrayals of blues musicians John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters that I have ever read.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "for music lovers", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "no biz like show biz" ], "isbn": "0316571709", "cover": "0316571709", "goodreads": 215748429, "itunes": 9780316571708, "bookshop": 9780316571708, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-GcvRvlYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780316571708", "isbn10": "0316571709", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 361, "book": "Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "Peter Wolf recounts long music career in 'Waiting on the Moon'", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/03/11/waiting-on-the-moon-peter-wolf" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 361, "book": "Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses", "source": "NHPR", "text": "Writers on a New England Stage: Peter Wolf", "url": "https://www.nhpr.org/show/writers-on-a-new-england-stage/2025-04-10/writers-on-a-new-england-stage-peter-wolf" } ] }, "362": { "id": 362, "edition": "fall", "title": "Wanting", "author": "Claire Jia", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

How much is enough? That’s the question Claire Jia asks in her debut novel about two childhood friends who reconnect in Beijing and whose lives intersect with an architect whose marriage is falling apart. Jia tackles themes including jealousy, love and the special bonds of friendship perfectly – this is a moving novel, funny in parts and heartbreaking in others, and also a quietly wise one.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1963108272", "cover": "1963108272", "goodreads": 220517410, "itunes": 9781963108279, "bookshop": 9781963108279, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41N3DACXJPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781963108279", "isbn10": "1963108272", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 362, "book": "Wanting", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Big promises are unkept in both US and China, says 'Wanting' author", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/stories/wanting-book" } ] }, "363": { "id": 363, "edition": "fall", "title": "Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America", "author": "Jeff Chang", "reviewers": [ "Nate Chinen" ], "text": "

Bruce Lee was a marvel in motion and in stillness: the most consequential martial artist of the last century and a pioneer for Asian representation onscreen. This revelatory biography vividly captures his hunger and his hubris, as well as the sparkplug charisma and rigid discipline that made him an icon. But what really elevates Water Mirror Echo is the way Jeff Chang, author of the touchstone Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, places Lee’s story within a concurrent bloom of Asian American identity. Chang tracks that cultural and political dimension so deftly that it feels inseparable from his biographical subject — and more than 50 years after his untimely death, so it is.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "staff picks", "for sports lovers", "no biz like show biz", "identity & culture", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0358726476", "cover": "0358726476", "goodreads": 222904071, "itunes": 9780358726470, "bookshop": 9780358726470, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pVcXinHsL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780358726470", "isbn10": "0358726476", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 363, "book": "Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America", "source": "KQED", "text": "How Bruce Lee helped shape Asian American culture", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911272/how-bruce-lee-helped-shape-asian-american-culture" } ] }, "364": { "id": 364, "edition": "fall", "title": "We Computers", "author": "Hamid Ismailov, translated by Shelley Fairweather-Vega", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

This National Book Award finalist, an exuberant homage to all forms of translation and reinvention, is replete with infinite mirror effects. AI, its first-person plural narrator, is a Scheherazade-like computer program taught to analyze and generate literature. AI’s creator and rival, Jon Perse, a French poet and Lacan-trained psychologist, in turn acquires an extensive knowledge of Persian poetry from his Uzbek translator and colleague, Abdulhamid Ismail, whose initials are also AI – and whose name can be found overlapping the author Hamid Ismailov’s – suggesting that the computer program, its programmer, the Uzbek translator and the book’s real author are all intrinsically connected or reflected by their alternate selves.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "030027274X", "cover": "030027274X", "goodreads": 220804608, "itunes": 6748540073, "bookshop": 9780300272741, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xQG7AZCvL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780300272741", "isbn10": "030027274X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 364, "book": "We Computers", "source": "KUOW", "text": "A Seattle-based translator on 'We Computers,' dirty jokes and AI-proof careers", "url": "https://www.kuow.org/stories/we-computers-shelley-fairweather-vega-seattle-translator" } ] }, "365": { "id": 365, "edition": "fall", "title": "We Survived the Night", "author": "Julian Brave NoiseCat", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

Sugarcane, the 2024 Oscar-nominated documentary co-directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat, follows NoiseCat and his father, Ed Archie NoiseCat – a renowned traditional carver and member of the Canim Lake Band of the Secwépemc – as they confront the grievous abuses perpetrated against Indigenous children, including their ancestors, at St. Joseph’s Mission in British Columbia. In this rousing book, NoiseCat deepens and expands the work of Sugarcane, exploring how Indigenous peoples have persisted despite centuries of attempted erasure by North American settlers. He weaves together lexéy’em (oral histories), tspetékwll (legends), memoir and on-the-ground reporting in a fascinating multifaceted restoration of Indigenous history and a celebration of contemporary Indigenous life.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "rather long", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593320786", "cover": "0593320786", "goodreads": 223854579, "itunes": 9780593320785, "bookshop": 9780593320785, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41xlQhC9PwL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593320785", "isbn10": "0593320786", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 365, "book": "We Survived the Night", "source": "WHYY & NPR", "text": "Julian Brave NoiseCat's survival story is both personal and ancestral", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/16/nx-s1-5575209/julian-brave-noisecat-we-survived-the-night" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 365, "book": "We Survived the Night", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'We Survived the Night' tells a story of survival and the Indigenous experience", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/13/nx-s1-5338787/we-survived-the-night-tells-a-story-of-survival-and-the-indigenous-experience" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 365, "book": "We Survived the Night", "source": "KQED", "text": "In 'We Survived the Night, Julian Brave NoiseCat weaves memoir with Indigenous myth and history", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911615/in-we-survived-the-night-julian-brave-noisecat-weaves-memoir-with-indigenous-myth-and-history" } ] }, "366": { "id": 366, "edition": "fall", "title": "We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution", "author": "Jill Lepore", "reviewers": [ "Milton Guevara" ], "text": "

As the U.S. approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding, it feels like an appropriate time to reflect on where we’re at as a country and how we got here. We the People, by Jill Lepore, a history and law professor at Harvard University, helps satisfy that impulse. It tells the story of the U.S. Constitution, which is among the world’s oldest constitutions. Lepore focuses on battles over amendments, which were fought not just by politicians but by ordinary Americans. The founders designed the Constitution to be amended, but it has become much more difficult to do so over the years. As the Constitution becomes harder to amend, Lepore writes, the risk of political violence becomes greater.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "for history lovers", "rather long" ], "isbn": "1631496085", "cover": "1631496085", "goodreads": 223736225, "itunes": 9781631496080, "bookshop": 9781631496080, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51CuaUiB1+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781631496080", "isbn10": "1631496085", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 366, "book": "We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'We the People' explores the history and complexities of the U.S. Constitution", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/03/nx-s1-5325260/we-the-people-explores-the-history-and-complexities-of-the-u-s-constitution" } ] }, "367": { "id": 367, "edition": "fall", "title": "Whale Eyes: A Memoir About Seeing and Being Seen", "author": "James Robinson, illustrated by Brian Rea", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

It’s a brave book indeed that starts off by teaching kids how to fake reading in class. Born with an eye condition called strabismus, author James Robinson had firsthand knowledge of how to find workarounds in his daily life. With the use of clever illustrations and inventive techniques, young readers are placed directly into Robinson’s shoes (eyes?) as they attempt to read words that bob and leap about the page. That he grew up to become a successful documentary filmmaker is a testament to the resilience and strength depicted on these pages. An incredible memoir, as empowering as it is empathetic. (For ages 10 and up)

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "kids’ books", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0593523954", "cover": "0593523954", "goodreads": 214986228, "itunes": 9780593523957, "bookshop": 9780593523957, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41UeT8TsTlL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593523957", "isbn10": "0593523954", "links": [] }, "368": { "id": 368, "edition": "fall", "title": "What Debt Demands: Family, Betrayal, and Precarity in a Broken System", "author": "Kristin Collier", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

Kristin Collier, like millions of other American students, funded her college education in part with loans. But she was shocked when she first saw her credit report – it listed more than $200,000 in debts, mostly for private student loans that Collier did not take out herself. In What Debt Demands, Collier braids her personal experience of familial identity theft and fraudulent debt together with a broader reckoning with how being saddled with debt impacts every aspect of a person’s life, and how banks, loan servicers and the federal government benefit from borrowers’ suffering. Student debtors especially will find sympathy and solidarity in this book, which takes the dysfunctional American student loan system to task.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1538764989", "cover": "1538764989", "goodreads": 228646241, "itunes": 9781538764985, "bookshop": 9781538764985, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41yQb2YjXyL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781538764985", "isbn10": "1538764989", "links": [] }, "369": { "id": 369, "edition": "fall", "title": "What We Can Know", "author": "Ian McEwan", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "

The year is 2119, and catastrophes (climatic, nuclear) have reshaped the world entirely. On the archipelago that is now Britain, literature scholar Tom Metcalfe is engaged in a 21st century pursuit: hunting for the missing masterpiece of poet Francis Blundy, a birthday poem written in 2014 for his wife, Vivien, and heard only by the six guests at her birthday dinner. In the first half, Tom narrates his search, speculating on the Blundys’ marriage and other shifting alliances. In the second half, the reader is poignantly reminded of the limits of scholarship. The book is egalitarian about genre; it’s a romance, a mystery and a post-apocalyptic domestic drama that makes the stakes of our own precarious epoch deeply personal. And it demonstrates a hopeful counterweight to anxiety about the future – perhaps our epistemic limitations are merely an opportunity for our most tender and human artistic endeavors.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "mysteries & thrillers", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593804724", "cover": "0593804724", "goodreads": 223854881, "itunes": 9780593804728, "bookshop": 9780593804728, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51VRHPV6N4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593804728", "isbn10": "0593804724", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 369, "book": "What We Can Know", "source": "NPR", "text": "Ian McEwan discusses his new novel, 'What We Can Know'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/09/20/nx-s1-5289956/ian-mcewan-discusses-his-new-novel-what-we-can-know" } ] }, "370": { "id": 370, "edition": "summer", "title": "When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines", "author": "Graydon Carter with James Fox", "reviewers": [ "Hannah Bloch" ], "text": "

“You never know when you’re in a golden age,” Graydon Carter writes. “You only realize it was a golden age when it’s gone.” Carter is a larger-than-life figure from the magazine world’s golden age, but he can be self-deprecating: He describes himself as a “beta male” even during the time he helmed Vanity Fair, at the height of his influence. For me – someone who’s devoured magazines all my life and came of age as a reporter at Time, where Carter got his start – this memoir was essential reading of the most joyful sort, with its evocation of a more abundant, irreverent and freewheeling journalistic time. “I simply love being an editor,” Carter writes. I simply love his book.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "rather long", "for history lovers", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "0593655907", "cover": "0593655907", "goodreads": 218494525, "itunes": 9780593655900, "bookshop": 9780593655900, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41sUd9OuvKL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593655900", "isbn10": "0593655907", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 370, "book": "When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines", "source": "WBUR", "text": "When the Going Was Good': Former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter on the last golden age of magazines", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/events/989955/when-the-going-was-good-graydon-carter" } ] }, "371": { "id": 371, "edition": "summer", "title": "When the Moon Hits Your Eye", "author": "John Scalzi", "reviewers": [ "Brett Neely" ], "text": "

How would you respond to a world-changing event that probably means the end of humanity as we know it? And what if that event were completely silly and absurd? That’s the premise of When the Moon Hits Your Eye. It’s the last of a loose trilogy of absurdist sci-fi books by John Scalzi. It imagines how humanity might respond to the moon suddenly being replaced by a massive chunk of “organic matrix,” aka cheese. This breezy beach read will keep you giggling as dozens of characters come to terms with the idea that the world may not end with a whimper or a bang, but rather in a layer of hot mozzarella.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "funny stuff", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0765389096", "cover": "0765389096", "goodreads": 211004190, "itunes": 9780765389091, "bookshop": 9780765389091, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41JdbB2LsCL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780765389091", "isbn10": "0765389096", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 371, "book": "When the Moon Hits Your Eye", "source": "KWBU", "text": "Likely Stories: 'When the Moon Hits Your Eye' by John Scalzi", "url": "https://www.kwbu.org/show/likely-stories/2025-07-17/likely-stories-when-the-moon-hits-your-eye-by-john-scalzi" } ] }, "372": { "id": 372, "edition": "fall", "title": "When the Wolf Comes Home", "author": "Nat Cassidy", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "

Jess is having a bad day. Then she winds up on the run with a scared, runaway kid, chased by his monstrous father. What follows feels like classic 1980s or ‘90s horror – gritty and fast-paced with practical effects and over-the-top gore. In the periphery there’s a big bad world, one with mysterious government agencies, dishonest parents and uneasy choices. Nat Cassidy keeps the focus tight, leaving the fleeing protagonists only to amp up the urgency, to reflect on pathos. We struggle with fear, love and perception of ourselves and others; there’s horror in that. Turns out, it’s a lot of fun to read.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "125035434X", "cover": "125035434X", "goodreads": 211004893, "itunes": 9781250354341, "bookshop": 9781250354341, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/413wWoNWhPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250354341", "isbn10": "125035434X", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 372, "book": "When the Wolf Comes Home", "source": "NPR", "text": "This terrifying horror novel proves: Nothing is old if you make it new", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/04/24/nx-s1-5333679/when-the-wolf-comes-home-review-nat-cassidy" } ] }, "373": { "id": 373, "edition": "fall", "title": "When They Burned the Butterfly", "author": "Wen-yi Lee", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

Post-independence Singapore in the 1970s was a time of great change and economic upheaval. While turmoil roils outside, 16-year-old Adeline Siow is bored and lonely at home. But life gets a lot more intense when her mother is murdered and Adeline, who like her mother has the ability to manipulate fire, is soon dragged into a dangerous world of gangsters, gods and secrets. A blossoming sapphic romance is threatened by patriarchal violence. With its heart-pounding action and vivid imagery, this book will have you hooked from the first word to the last.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "love & romance", "book club ideas", "tales from around the world", "rather long", "fiction", "historical fiction" ], "isbn": "1250369452", "cover": "1250369452", "goodreads": 222376977, "itunes": 9781250369451, "bookshop": 9781250369451, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41t+WwTmsTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250369451", "isbn10": "1250369452", "links": [] }, "374": { "id": 374, "edition": "fall", "title": "Where Are You Really From: Stories", "author": "Elaine Hsieh Chou", "reviewers": [ "Nayantara Dutta" ], "text": "

If you’ve ever thought short stories are boring, this collection will change your mind. From a teenage girl in Taiwan who plans to kill and cook her neighbor into soup, to a mail-order bride who arrives at her new husband’s doorstep in a cardboard box, to an American au pair who moves to Paris to find herself but becomes obsessed with her French doppelgänger, each premise is dark and mesmerizing. In Chou’s signature razor-sharp style, these stories examine loneliness, projection, redemption and revenge – all while being masterfully funny and unexpected. This collection feels like a surreal dream sequence that isn’t afraid to make you uncomfortable, but helps you see the world differently.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593298381", "cover": "0593298381", "goodreads": 221754305, "itunes": 9780593298381, "bookshop": 9780593298381, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41D3I1YvL8L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593298381", "isbn10": "0593298381", "links": [] }, "375": { "id": 375, "edition": "fall", "title": "Where You're Planted", "author": "Melanie Sweeney", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Migaki" ], "text": "

After natural disasters, communities often come together, pooling resources to rebuild. Well, the guy at the botanic garden where Tansy Perkins is supposed to set up her makeshift library clearly never got that message. The hurricane that swept through Houston damaged both Tansy’s library and Jack Reid’s gardens. Now the two have to share desperately needed resources to rebuild. The more time they spend together, though, it’s clear that Tansy and the, ahem, Plant Daddy have chemistry. They might even have a future if they can navigate the debris left by previous natural disasters in their personal lives.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593716116", "cover": "0593716116", "goodreads": 56808518, "itunes": 9780593716113, "bookshop": 9780593716113, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51APGOwe5wL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593716113", "isbn10": "0593716116", "links": [] }, "376": { "id": 376, "edition": "fall", "title": "Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service", "author": "Michael Lewis (editor)", "reviewers": [ "Darian Woods" ], "text": "

Thousands of unsung heroes in the government are making life better for Americans. But because of bureaucracies being made up of bureaucrats, we rarely hear those stories. This book showcases them. Like a coal-mining safety official who helped the U.S. reach zero mine-collapse deaths. Or the man who has led the National Cemetery Administration to the top of the American Customer Satisfaction Index. As the federal government is in its biggest shake-up in a generation, it’s worth learning about where the bright spots are.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "nonfiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9798217047802", "cover": "9798217047802", "goodreads": 219551344, "itunes": 9798217047802, "bookshop": 9798217047802, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/716Gef+GR6L._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9798217047802", "isbn10": "8217047804", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 376, "book": "Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service", "source": "KQED", "text": "Sarah Vowell and Dave Eggers celebrate public servants in ‘Who is Government’", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101909247/sarah-vowell-and-dave-eggers-celebrate-public-servants-in-who-is-government" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 376, "book": "Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service", "source": "HPPR", "text": "On 'Who is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service' by Michael Lewis", "url": "https://www.hppr.org/2025-07-09/on-who-is-government-the-untold-story-of-public-service-by-michael-lewis" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 376, "book": "Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service", "source": "WWNO", "text": "Bestselling author and NOLA native Michael Lewis out with new book: ‘Who Is Government?’", "url": "https://www.wwno.org/show/louisiana-considered/2025-04-11/bestselling-author-and-nola-native-michael-lewis-out-with-new-book-who-is-government" } ] }, "377": { "id": 377, "edition": "fall", "title": "Wild Dark Shore", "author": "Charlotte McConaghy", "reviewers": [ "Rachel Treisman" ], "text": "

A father and his three (teen and tween) kids live, not exactly harmoniously, on a sinking research island off Antarctica. It’s home to the world’s biggest seed vault and no other humans – until a mysterious woman washes ashore in a storm. Suspicions arise and trust is tested as the family helps the woman regain her strength. Wild Dark Shore is a thrilling page-turner, but all the action and suspense disguise something deeper: a beautiful meditation on love, loss and resilience in the face of climate change.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "science!", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "1250827957", "cover": "1250827957", "goodreads": 211004089, "itunes": 9781250827951, "bookshop": 9781250827951, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41J-k6d+M6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781250827951", "isbn10": "1250827957", "links": [] }, "378": { "id": 378, "edition": "fall", "title": "Witchcraft for Wayward Girls", "author": "Grady Hendrix", "reviewers": [ "Christina Cala" ], "text": "

In the 1970s, young women who got pregnant before marriage were sent to homes to have their babies away from prying eyes. It was like a magic trick – a practice in concealment, disappearance and forgetting. In a state of complete powerlessness, hidden away in the stifling heat of St. Augustine, Fla., Fern – not her real name, never give your real name – meets other young girls like herself. Then a visiting librarian gives Fern a book on witchcraft, and she learns what she is willing to give up in return for that power.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "fiction", "rather long", "historical fiction" ], "isbn": "0593548981", "cover": "0593548981", "goodreads": 207611566, "itunes": 9780593548981, "bookshop": 9780593548981, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/412MdjPXrIL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780593548981", "isbn10": "0593548981", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 378, "book": "Witchcraft for Wayward Girls", "source": "NPR", "text": "Grady Hendrix on his horror novel 'Witchcraft for Wayward Girls'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/01/12/nx-s1-5116574/grady-hendrix-on-her-horror-novel-witchcraft-for-wayward-girls" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 378, "book": "Witchcraft for Wayward Girls", "source": "KWBU", "text": "Likely Stories: 'Witchcraft for Wayward Girls' by Grady Hendrix", "url": "https://www.kwbu.org/show/likely-stories/2025-10-23/likely-stories-witchcraft-for-wayward-girls-by-grady-hendrix" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 378, "book": "Witchcraft for Wayward Girls", "source": "KUOW", "text": "Witchcraft and reproductive rights: The horror of Grady Hendrix's latest novel", "url": "https://www.kuow.org/stories/witchcraft-and-reproductive-rights-the-horror-of-grady-hendrix-s-latest-novel" } ] }, "379": { "id": 379, "edition": "fall", "title": "Wolf Bells", "author": "Leni Zumas", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

When the government abandons its most vulnerable citizens, others step in to protect them. That’s the hope, at any rate, and in Leni Zumas’ latest novel, it works – at least for a little while. The book follows a house where the elderly and infirm live, assisted by others who live there rent-free. But everything is thrown off-balance when two kids, who are being sought by the authorities, arrive. Zumas’ writing is arresting, and she writes with a compassion informed by a punk-rock spirit. This is a funny, bighearted novel with special resonance in our current era.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1643756575", "cover": "1643756575", "goodreads": 223296388, "itunes": 9781643756578, "bookshop": 9781643756578, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41BPUWf+LML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781643756578", "isbn10": "1643756575", "links": [] }, "380": { "id": 380, "edition": "fall", "title": "Woodworking", "author": "Emily St. James", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Escobar" ], "text": "

At first glance, the friendship between 17-year-old Abigail and her 35-year-old teacher Erica might raise some eyebrows. But the two share something in common that no one else at their school in small-town South Dakota knows: Erica is a transgender woman, closeted to everyone except Abigail, who came out as trans as a teenager. Life can be difficult in their conservative town, particularly in the lead-up to the 2016 election, in which local leaders have taken anti-trans positions. But any heaviness in this story is counteracted by how delightfully rendered its two protagonists are, with lives full of friendship, romance and chosen family.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "163893147X", "cover": "163893147X", "goodreads": 217311813, "itunes": 9781638931478, "bookshop": 9781638931478, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-SXrk3z4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781638931478", "isbn10": "163893147X", "links": [] }, "381": { "id": 381, "edition": "fall", "title": "Words for My Comrades: A Political History of Tupac Shakur", "author": "Dean Van Nguyen", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

When rap legend Tupac Shakur was killed in 1996 at the age of 25, he left behind a discography that changed American music forever. While his albums and singles have been studied for nearly three decades, Dean Van Nguyen takes a different approach in this book, writing about the influence the rapper’s parents, who belonged to the Black Panther Party, had on him, as well as Shakur’s own engagement with politics. This is a beautifully written, fascinating look at the legacy of an American legend through a different lens.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "for music lovers", "for history lovers", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0385550022", "cover": "0385550022", "goodreads": 217245591, "itunes": 9780385550024, "bookshop": 9780385550024, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41GfkgsV2dL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780385550024", "isbn10": "0385550022", "links": [] }, "382": { "id": 382, "edition": "fall", "title": "Wreck", "author": "Catherine Newman", "reviewers": [ "Sarah Handel" ], "text": "

If you haven’t yet reached that stage of life when your body starts falling apart, it may sound terrifying. Wreck reveals the truth: Sure, it can be, but it can also be filled with warmth – a time to lean into your people and throw your hands up as each new indignity presents itself. That’s how Rocky (who you may remember from Catherine Newman’s prior novel, Sandwich) deals with it, anyway, and she makes a good case. Obsessed with news of a terrible accident in her community, navigating the byzantine medical system, Rocky lingers in beauty, too, from the fragrance of her grown daughter’s hair, to the (smug?) satisfaction of turning foraged grapes into sparkling jars of jelly. As a whole, Wreck is both a balm and wry smile – it’s only life, after all (with full credit to the Indigo Girls).

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "family matters", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0063453916", "cover": "0063453916", "goodreads": 227967141, "itunes": 9780063453913, "bookshop": 9780063453913, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51XdbOz+7ML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063453913", "isbn10": "0063453916", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 382, "book": "Wreck", "source": "NPR", "text": "If you liked 'Sandwich,' you'll love 'Wreck,' its warm, witty sequel", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/10/29/nx-s1-5587829/wreck-sandwich-sequel-catherine-newman" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 382, "book": "Wreck", "source": "KMUW", "text": "With 'Wreck,' author Catherine Newman revisits some favorite characters and topics", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review/2025-11-03/with-wreck-author-catherine-newman-revisits-some-favorite-characters-and-topics" } ] }, "383": { "id": 383, "edition": "summer", "title": "You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip", "author": "Kelsey McKinney", "reviewers": [ "Meghan Keane" ], "text": "

Whether you think of gossip as delicious or trashy (or both), Kelsey McKinney makes the razor-sharp case that it is built into the fabric of our society, with a role in everything from Picasso to politics. McKinney, co-creator of the Normal Gossip podcast, is just as funny as she is smart, so the book reads like an excellent gab session with a friend.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "nonfiction", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1538757400", "cover": "1538757400", "goodreads": 212426504, "itunes": 9781538757406, "bookshop": 9781538757406, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/512d+3SLCSL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781538757406", "isbn10": "1538757400", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 383, "book": "You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip", "source": "NPR", "text": "Journalist Kelsey McKinney breaks down the pull and power of gossip in new memoir\r", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/02/10/nx-s1-5134644/journalist-kelsey-mckinney-breaks-down-the-pull-and-power-of-gossip-in-new-memoir" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 383, "book": "You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip", "source": "WAMU & NPR", "text": "You didn’t hear it from us, but we’re talking about gossip", "url": "https://the1a.org/segments/you-didnt-hear-it-from-us-but-were-talking-about-gossip/" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 383, "book": "You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip", "source": "KQED", "text": "In ‘You Didn’t Hear This From Me,’ Kelsey McKinney Wants You to Reconsider Gossip", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/arts/13971852/review-you-didnt-hear-this-from-me-kelsey-mckinney-gossip" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 383, "book": "You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip", "source": "MTPR", "text": "Former ‘Normal Gossip’ host Kelsey McKinney continues to spread the gospel of gossip in ‘You Didn’t Hear This From Me’", "url": "https://www.mtpr.org/podcast/the-write-question/2025-02-13/former-normal-gossip-host-kelsey-mckinney-continues-to-spread-the-gospel-of-gossip-in-you-didnt-hear-this-from-me" }, { "year": 2025, "id": 383, "book": "You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip", "source": "WHYY", "text": "Kelsey McKinney on our obsession with gossip", "url": "https://whyy.org/episodes/kelsey-mckinney-gossip/" } ] }, "384": { "id": 384, "edition": "fall", "title": "You Must Take Part In Revolution", "author": "Badiucao and Melissa Chan", "reviewers": [ "Matteen Mokalla" ], "text": "

Freedom, as the saying goes, is never free. That truth runs through this graphic novel, set in a near future where a techno-authoritarian China clashes with a United States ruled by the far right. Caught in between are three friends we first meet in Hong Kong, each pursuing freedom in their own way. The striking imagery and astute prose make this masterful work of fiction grim. Yet amid the darkness, a note of hope remains – as one character says, “take a deep breath and dream of the light.”

", "tags": [ "fiction", "comics & graphic novels", "staff picks", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "1951491297", "cover": "1951491297", "goodreads": 192793634, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781951491291, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nz3z1fpNL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781951491291", "isbn10": "1951491297", "links": [ { "year": 2025, "id": 384, "book": "You Must Take Part In Revolution", "source": "NPR", "text": "Co-authors discuss their dystopian graphic novel 'You Must Take Part in Revolution'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/13/nx-s1-5309489/co-authors-discuss-their-dystopian-graphic-novel-you-must-take-part-in-revolution" } ] }, "385": { "id": 385, "edition": "fall", "title": "Your Steps on the Stairs", "author": "Antonio Muñoz Molina, translated by Curtis Bauer", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

“Read this amazing novel about a man waiting for his wife in Portugal” might not seem like the best pitch, but the fact that Antonio Muñoz Molina managed to write a captivating book that’s mostly about waiting merits attention. A man is waiting for his wife after they decided to leave New York behind, but the emptiness of the wait makes him think, and those ideas, memories, obsessions, fears, desires and opinions make up most of the novel. A perfect example of a book that shouldn’t work, but definitely does.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "mysteries & thrillers", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1635424348", "cover": "1635424348", "goodreads": 216189342, "itunes": 9781635424348, "bookshop": 9781635424348, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41+th9uOGNL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9781635424348", "isbn10": "1635424348", "links": [] }, "386": { "id": 386, "edition": "", "title": "Helm", "author": "Sarah Hall", "reviewers": [ "Mika Ellison" ], "text": "

Helm, a wind that blows through a region of England, is fascinated with humans, the strange animals that encounter and almost immediately anthropomorphize the wind and allow it to weave in and out of their lives. Sarah Hall spins a lively series of stories starring Helm, from a girl in the 1970s who is in love with the wind, to a man hell-bent on quantifying it and, finally, a scientist in the present day who slowly realizes that the very humans who created Helm’s personality may be the ones who bring about its end. Helm’s story, and those of the humans it observes, brims with emotion and delight and manages to wrap up in its small details weighty ideas about humanity, love and climate change.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0063439948", "cover": "0063439948", "goodreads": 226381542, "itunes": 9780063439948, "bookshop": 9780063439948, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91uRDBNPG6L._SL1500_.jpg", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9780063439948", "isbn10": "0063439948", "links": [] }, "387": { "id": 387, "edition": "", "title": "Vulture", "author": "Phoebe Greenwood", "reviewers": [ "Majd Al-Waheidi" ], "text": "

I grew up in Gaza and covered it until I left in 2017. This novel reminded me that fiction can reveal more about the people who bring us the news than reportage ever can. It shows the relentless stress of the work, the creeping numbness, and the small moments of humanity that survive in spite of everything. I was struck by how accurately it captures the younger version of myself: ambitious, chasing the biggest and riskiest stories, never stopping long enough to understand what that drive was doing to me. Vulture grasps the moral and personal cost of that pursuit with remarkable clarity. Its emotional center is the relationship between the Western correspondent and the local journalist, two people trying to report honestly in a place sealed off and constantly in danger. The novel also exposes the gendered hierarchy of war reporting, where young women are taken seriously only when catastrophe surrounds them. By the end, it reminded me what it meant to live that life and why I stepped outside it.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world", "rather short", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "9798889660958", "cover": "9798889660958", "goodreads": 219091011, "itunes": 9798889660958, "bookshop": 9798889660958, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71mxMHxxU+L._SL1500_.jpg", "amazon_asin": "B0DGWVJN5B", "year": 2025, "isbn13": "9798889660958", "isbn10": "8889660953", "links": [] } }