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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS MAGAZINE OF BOOK PUBLISHING AND BOOKSELLING

P u b l i s h e r s We e k l y. c o m
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A U G U S T

Malinda Lo
The YA author’s latest novel, A Scatter of Light,
is a bittersweet companion to her National Book
Award-winning Last Night at the Telegraph Club.
See our review on p. 73.

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Volume 269
Number 35
ISSN 0000-0019

August 22,
2022

FEATURES

28 Life Is What You Bake It
Forthcoming baking books emphasize inclusion, trust, and comfort.

41 Second Coming
In her new memoir, breakout fantasy author and academic Sofa
Samatar describes retracing the steps of a group of Mennonites
into the heart of Central Asia.

THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF FAN FAVORITE

/27ǵ,(%('/2:
WHO CARES
AS LONG AS
IT TASTES

GOOD?

75–95 BookLife
We talk with Leslye Penelope about her experiences as a successful
indie author—and her first foray into postapocalyptic fiction. Plus
we’ve got reviews and more.

NEWS
6 DOJ v. PRH Winds Down
Closing arguments were made Friday in a contentious trial of the
government’s lawsuit to block Penguin Random House’s purchase
of Simon & Schuster.

7 Print Sales Slip in Mid-August
Unit sales of print books dipped 2.9% in the week ended August 13,
compared to the similar week last year, with gains in adult fiction
and YA offset by losses in adult nonfiction and juvenile.

8 Bookstore Unions Gain Ground
Over the past two years, pandemic stress and uncertainty have led
to a wave of organizing efforts at bookstores around the country.

11 Deals
Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sells an autobiography to Simon & Schuster, Gallery Books takes a memoir by
ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith, and more.

12 From the Archive
We look back on our 1991 survey of the bookstore chain landscape,
when 11 corporations operated a total of 3,300 outlets.

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In Bushra Rehman’s coming-of-age novel, a young woman must leave
her Pakistani community in Corona, Queens, in order to find herself.

96 Soapbox by Michael Oren
A nonfiction author turns his attention to his first love: fiction.

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REVIEWS
Fiction

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43 General Fiction
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51 SF/Fantasy/Horror
53 Romance/Erotica
55 Inspirational
56 Comics

58 General Nonfiction
66 Religion/Spirituality

Children’s/YA
68 Picture Books
70 Fiction
74 Comics

Boxed Review
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48
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69
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Picture books celebrate
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The Week in Publishing
Salman Rushdie is recovering after being
stabbed on August 12 as he was being introduced before a lecture at the Chautauqua
Institution. The publishing community
offered widespread support for the author of
The Satanic Verses, and called the assault an
attack on free expression.

Terry
Nantier

Jim
Salicrup

Lynn Cully,
Kensington
publisher since
2015, has
moved into the
newly created
role of v-p and director of business.
Jacqueline Dinas, Kensington associate publisher, has been promoted
to publisher.

Mad Cave Studios, a fastgrowing graphic novel publisher, acquired Papercutz,
an independent children’s
graphic novel house founded
in 2005 by Terry Nantier
and Jim Salicrup. Papercutz
publishes 40–50 titles per
year and will become an
imprint of Mad Cave.

Online & On-Air
The Week Ahead
Editorial director Jim Milliot wraps
up the third, and ﬁnal, week of the
trial of the DOJ’s lawsuit to block
Penguin Random House’s purchase
of Simon & Schuster.
publishersweekly.com/DOJ-trial
More to Come
The hosts revisit past interviews
with Ben Passmore, Maia Kobabe,

Frederick Buechner,
widely
recognized as
one of
the great
Christian
writers of the 20th
century, died on
August 15. He was 96.

Carla Speed McNeil, James Tynion,
and Marjorie Liu.
publishersweekly.com/passmore
Children’s Bookshelf
In a speech given at the
Walter Dean Myers
Awards earlier this
summer, Newbery and Caldecott
Honor–winning author-illustrator
Grace Lin addressed the urgent need
to defend banned books.
publishersweekly.com/WDMawards

Bookstore sales fell 8.2% in June,
to $605 million, compared to
June 2021, when sales were $659
million, according to estimates from
the U.S. Census Bureau. Bookstore
sales through the ﬁrst
half of 2022 rose
LE
12.9%, to $3.89
SA
billion, over the ﬁrst
six months of 2021.

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DOJ v. PRH Winds Down
Closing arguments were made Friday in a contentious trial of the
government’s lawsuit to block PRH’s purchase of Simon & Schuster

with the remaining $31 million from the elimination of thirds the Department of Justice’s case against the
party contracts. A rep from PRH said that under no circumproposed acquisition of Simon & Schuster by
stances would anyone on the creative side be at risk of losing
Penguin Random House entered its third and
their jobs.
final week, the stress level for all concerned seem
Sansigre’s testimony created a stir, especially among S&S
to rise. That increased tension became evident Wednesday
employees, as he laid out plans for how S&S would be merged
morning, when presiding judge Florence Pan excluded the
with PRH. In his testimony, he said that since PRH’s sales
hours-long presentation of Manuel Sansigre, PRH senior
force is five times larger than that of S&S, there was no need
v-p of global mergers and acquisitions. Pan ruled that
to add to it. PRH later said it was not considering cutting any
Sansigre’s data were not independently verified, as required
field sales rep positions. On the distribution
by precedent. She was especially critical of
and fulfillment front, Sansigre said PRH would
the revenue projections, which she said should
only require the use of one of S&S’s three
not be based on models from prior mergers
warehouses—the primary one in Riverside,
or past experience. In addition, she said the
N.J. He also pointed to savings from the mergmodel, which was developed in November
ing of the companies’ IT divisions.
2020 but updated more than 100 times, was
Sansigre did identify the positive impact
itself unreliable because of the numerous
the merger will have for authors. For a start,
updates.
he said, presales were higher at PRH than at
The ruling was not totally unexpected. The
S&S, thus giving authors better chances of
dispute involves PRH’s claims that its acquisihitting bestseller lists, which would in turn
tion of S&S would create “cognizable merger“improve dollars returned to authors.” Better
specific efficiencies,” and thereby leave more
database management and metadata would
money for advances and to promote books.
The
fate
off
PRH’s
purchase
of
S&S
help improve discoverability, which would
At a July 25 pretrial hearing, Pan said the figis now in the hands of Judge
also improve sales.
ures developed by Sansigre had not been
Florence Pan.
Following Sansigre was Edward Snyder,
independently verified, but added that she
professor at the Yale School of Management, whom the
“was willing to hear the testimony from [PRH expert witness
defense called to challenge the theory that the proposed
Edward] Snyder and Sansigre to figure out if this is verifiable.”
merger would lead to lower advances for authors. Snyder
While the ruling is a blow to PRH, it is not seen as fatal, as
analyzed data from a survey of 18 literary agents who offered
the case was always going to come down to Pan’s view of the
him information about 975 different book deals. Of the
government’s argument that a merger would give a com975 deals, 360 were valued at $250,000 or more—of
bined PRH-S&S too large a share of the anticipated topthose, 150 were won by single bidders and 150 went to
sellers segment.
auction (60 were undefined in this regard). PRH and S&S
Some trial observers believe Pan decided to make the rulwon 96 of those 360 contracts, or 26.5%. Furthermore,
ing before hearing the presentation, considering that she
Snyder said his analysis of the 975 deals showed that
read it from a multipage document that referenced numerbetween 2019 and 2021, there were more than 25 pubous precedents. Predetermined or not, Pan’s decision
lishers that bid on books that sold for more than $250,000.
included a figure that was supposed to remain secret: PRH
He cited Chronicle and Norton as examples of publishers
anticipates $81 million in savings from the S&S merger by
bidding on the big books.
2025. The expense reductions include $25 million from
Throughout his testimony, Snyder maintained that imprint
distribution and warehousing, as well as $25 million from
competition—aided by agents who, he contended, routinely
IT and redundant administrative and managerial functions,
6

P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY ■ A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 2 2

News
encourage bidding wars between two imprints of the
same publisher—is enough to keep advances rising.
On Thursday, the final day of testimony, Nicholas Hill,
the DOJ expert witness, argued that only competition
between publishers can ensure increases in advances.
Hill and Snyder would later clash over whether or not, as
Snyder claimed, non–Big Five publishers can regularly
compete with the largest publishers, not only for big
authors but in sales overall. Hill argued that non–Big
Five publishers rarely win deals for advances of $250,000
or more, and that non–Big Five publishers “see significant barriers to expansion and haven’t significantly
changed their market share” in recent years.
The events of Wednesday somewhat overshadowed
the testimony of PRH US CEO Madeline McIntosh, who
was on the stand Monday. Under questioning from PRH
lead attorney Dan Petrocelli, McIntosh repeatedly made
the point that the size of advances plays no role in marketing plans. “It’s very much an iterative process,” she
said, referring to the shifts marketing strategy can
undergo depending on buzz, sales, and something she
described many times as “opportunity”—meaning when
a book gets unexpected attention (e.g., being selected
for a celebrity book club). “We’re adapting in real time,”
she explained, adding that by the time marketing plans
are discussed, a book’s advance is “a sunk cost.”
McIntosh admitted that “we’ve made some painfully
expensive mistakes” when it comes to buying titles by
big authors, noting that sales predictions can themselves be unreliable. She said the most profitable books
are unexpected—breakout hits like Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
“Even if we had hopes for them at the time of acquisition,
the sales so outstrip our expectations—they are the
books that account for the lion’s share of profitability,”
she added.
The government’s cross-examination focused on showing how big PRH already is. Pan also explored that avenue
and, picking up on a point made by HarperCollns CEO
Brian Murray in his testimony the previous week, asked
McIntosh if it’s true that if HarperCollins Christian Publishing were excluded from HC, PRH’s trade business
would be three times that of HC. McIntosh said she did
not have the data to confirm that.
On Friday, the trial moved to closing arguments, and
briefs will be due to the judge in September.
—Jim Milliot, with reporting by Ed Nawotka and
BethAnne Patrick

The Weekly Scorecard

Print Sales Slipped 2.9% in
Mid-August
Unit sales of print books dipped 2.9% in the week ended
Aug. 13, 2022, from the comparable week last year, at outlets
that report to NPD BookScan. The week’s sales pattern
looked a lot like that of the previous week’s—a modest
decline, with higher sales of adult ﬁction and young adult
titles oﬀset by lower adult nonﬁction and juvenile sales.
The 7.5% decline in adult nonﬁction sales came despite a
strong ﬁrst week for I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette
McCurdy, which sold more than 41,000 copies, landing it in
ﬁrst place on the category list. In the week ended Aug. 14,
2021, American Marxism by Mark Levine was #1, selling
about 43,000 copies. The highest-debuting title a year ago
was Woke, Inc. by Vivek Ramaswamy, which sold more than
21,000 copies. Colleen Hoover managed to place seven
books among the top 10 adult ﬁction bestsellers, helping to
boost category sales 13.2%. It Ends with Us was #1, selling
more than 89,000 copies, and her seven books sold about
320,000 copies in total. Sales of YA ﬁction were up 1.5% in
the week. For the second consecutive week, Long Live the
Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw was the category’s top
title, with more than 22,000 copies sold. It’s Not Summer
Without You was #2, selling more than 13,000 copies, and
was the highest-ranking of Jenny Han’s four books on the
category list. Sales of juvenile nonﬁction had the largest
drop of the major categories, falling 15%, with declines in
each of its subcategories.

TOTAL SALES OF PRINT BOOKS (in thousands)
AUG. 14,
2021

Total

AUG. 13, CHGE
2022
WEEK

CHGE
YTD

14,393 13,971 -2.9% -5.7%

UNIT SALES OF PRINT BOOKS BY CATEGORY (in thousands)
AUG. 14, AUG. 13, CHGE
2021
2022
WEEK

Adult Nonﬁction
5,588
Adult Fiction
3,451
Juvenile Nonﬁction
1,285
Juvenile Fiction
3,143
Young Adult Fiction
640
Young Adult Nonﬁction 76

5,168 -7.5%
3,906 13.2%
1,092 -15.0%
2,887 -8.1%
649 1.5%
84 10.0%

CHGE
YTD

-10.1%
6.9%
-10.1%
-7.5%
-0.8%
-1.7%

UNIT SALES OF PRINT BOOKS BY FORMAT (in thousands)
AUG. 14, AUG. 13, CHGE
2021
2022
WEEK

CHGE
YTD

Hardcover
3,718 3,372 -9.3% -10.2%
Trade Paperback
8,821 8,847 0.3% -2.2%
Mass Market Paperback 722 595 -17.5% -19.9%
Board Books
699
709 1.5% -4.2%
SOURCE: NPD BOOKSCAN AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. NPD’S U.S. CONSUMER MARKET PANEL COVERS APPROXIMATELY 80% OF THE PRINT BOOK MARKET AND CONTINUES TO GROW.

W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

News

Bookstore Unions Gain Ground

f indie bookstores lean progressive, grassroots organizprocess all these orders on a weekend with only four other
ing is testing their lefty mettle. Book Soup in West Hollyemployees in the store”).
wood and Page 1 Books in Albuquerque, N.Mex., are only
Recent hires are often quick to recognize room for improvethe latest to unionize in what may be a generational and
ment and push for unionization. Bookseller and organizer
Covid-related trend. Over the past two years in particular,
Heather Freeman recently celebrated her one-year anniverpandemic stress and uncertainty have led to frontline booksary with Page 1 Books, though she has been a customer for
store workers feeling unsafe and overburdened.
years. “To us as bookseller staff, it looks like the store is
Unions represent a way of taking collective rather than
doing well,” Freeman said. “There are lots of customers, lots
individual action, and successful union drives at Bookshop
of transactions every day, but the thing is, we’re wearing a
Santa Cruz in California, Elliott Bay Book Co. in Seattle, and
lot of different hats. A person can be doing customer service,
Moe’s Books in Berkeley, Calif.,
shelving, book returns, receiving,
appear to have emboldened
all in quick succession,” making
new organizers. At Snow Days
the labor unsustainable.
2022 earlier his year, ABA conTori Cardenas started his
vened a webinar on unionizabookselling job at Page 1 in
tion’s pros and cons with labor
April, after grassroots organizlawyer Jon Hiatt and collective
ing as a graduate student at the
bargaining specialist Mark R.
University of New Mexico. Among
Reiss. The ABA went to great
his goals are “to keep up with
lengths to maintain confidentiinflation and with rental costs,”
ality of those who attended and
he said. “If I can’t even afford a
asked questions via Zoom, indireliable place to live, how can I
cating the sensitivity of this In March 2020, the newly recognized Book Workers Union gathered at keep working at this job?”
Elliott Bay Book Co. in Seattle.
subject matter.
Staffers who had been accustomed to business as usual
Labor of love
had a chance to reconsider their working conditions and
One unforeseen consequence of unionization is that a large
everyday risks when stores closed in 2020. In union shops
number of workers, including young activists, move on after
like Portland, Ore.’s Powell’s Books (ILWU Local 5, estabtheir unions are established. At Moe’s Books, whose union
lished in 1999), disputes arose when management recalled
contract was ratified in November 2021, at least five
laid-off employees. In non-union shops, new hires that came
employees who took an active role in organizing are no longer
aboard during the pandemic felt an urgency to reshape the
with the store, including Noah Ross, Owen Hill, and Kalie
workplace—sometimes with long-standing coworkers’
McGuirl (McGuirl penned a pro-union blog post about Moe’s
encouragement, sometimes not.
for Verso in May 2022). In an email, Ross emphasized that
At Book Soup, a division of Vroman’s in West Hollywood,
even though he and the others left Moe’s, he and two fellow
Calif., Hazel Angell started a job as supervisor in summer
IWW delegates “stayed on [with the local] to help with our
2021. (Angell previously worked at Book Soup six years ago
contract in the hopes that they could create a nontoxic work
and called it “the best job I ever had.”) When she arrived,
environment for future workers.”
people who had been furloughed or on leave were just returnVictor Serrano, an organizing coordinator for CWA Dising, and only 10–15 customers were allowed in the store at
trict 9 (whose affiliates include Book Soup, Bookstore Santa
a time. As mask mandates and customer limits were lifted,
Cruz, and Skylight Books in L.A.), explained that resigna“someone at Vroman’s decided we were fully operational
tions are common after unionization. He believes that workagain,” Angell said. Whispers about unionizing led to grassers unite around shared labor principles and a desire to
roots efforts, and Vroman’s recognized the union in June
improve companies for the workers who come after them.
2022. A contract has yet to be negotiated, Angell said, and
Angell, of Book Soup, agrees. “Forming a union is a lot of
workers remain strapped (“Right now we have a Clive Barker
work, and I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t care,” she said. “I
campaign with hundreds of internet orders, and we have to
love this store, I love my coworkers, I love bookselling work—
8

P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY ■ A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 2 2

News
it is one of my greatest joys. The unionizing is to ensure that
this industry can survive. You can’t pride yourself on not
being Amazon and then not give your workers safety and
respect.”
At Bookshop Santa Cruz, which ratified its contract on July
8, manager Casey Coonerty Protti said some organizers were
connected to a graduate student strike at UC Santa Cruz and
sought “a progressive outcome for social justice.” After unionizing the store, Protti added, “the vast majority of them left.
The bargaining committee, which had been five people, was
down to one person at the end. Our retention of regular
workers didn’t change; it was normal.” An 18 to 10 vote to
unionize, with three eligible employees not voting, meant a
58% majority ruled. Even so, Protti found the process “hard
on employees who have been here a long time.”
Prior to the union, Protti explained, “there was a small pay
range for the off-floor positions, so you would start at something and move up to the top part of that range. In general,
unions find ranges to be subjective, so they prefer to have a
set wage.” With “a more democratized pay scale that eliminated ranges,” a six-year employee and a new hire with the

same off-floor position make the same hourly wage at
Bookshop Santa Cruz. “Now, that same is $2 more than they
were making before,” Protti said. “So it’s not to say one system is better than another. You have to weigh all the impacts.”
At Elliott Bay, booksellers refer to themselves as book
workers. They established their own Book Workers Union
rather than affiliating as a local with a shop like IWW or CWA.
After consulting with workers at the Frye Art Museum and
other leaders in the Seattle labor community, “we believed
that going independent would give us the maximum ability
to build the organization,” said BWU cochair and seven-year
Elliott Bay book worker Sam Karpp. “There are pitfalls, like
a ton of back-end labor that needs to be done. We had to set
up bank accounts, register for nonprofit status, develop a
constitution and bylaws. But it was important to us that the
rank and file be the central movers in our organization.” He
added that the BWU is open to affiliates, ideally in the same
geographic region.
Like other shops, it has seen some attrition. Three-year
Elliott Bay book worker Ellis Breunig no longer works at the
store, yet cochairs the BWU to fulfill an elected one-year

and
Celebrate the long life
and prodigious publishing brilliance

RIP 1939 – 2022

of
Diana Steel
founder and Publisher
of
Antique Collectors Club
now ACC Art Books

W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

News
obligation. Despite not being compensated for this role,
Breunig believes the BWU “definitely has been a net positive.” Workers now have a shorter waiting period for healthcare, guaranteed maintenance of health plans, an increased
wage floor, and regular raises twice annually for the duration
of their collective bargaining agreement.
There are sometimes unexpected outcomes when stores
organize. Workers may want the protections a union can provide but may also find union policies around assigned shifts
and approved time off to be more rigid. Owners may say they
are pro-union but later find that the process of collective bargaining and meeting labor demands is sometimes too costly
for small businesses. “Finding an attorney hits our bottom
line” and jeopardizes the store’s financial solvency, admitted
one management representative. Larger retailers may be
more amenable to unionization, if only because they can
shoulder the expenses, including legal fees, which can run
into six figures even for a midsize store. (The UFCW-affiliated
Half Price Books Workers United has unionized six shops so
far: four in Minnesota, one in Indiana, and one in Illinois.)
When booksellers began organizing at Moe’s Books, “the
advice I got from many people was to just give up,” said owner
Doris Moskowitz. “But there is no giving up—I feel like I made
this commitment to my parents [her dad was founder Moe
Moskowitz], and to Berkeley.” She described the cost of preparing the contract as “huge—more than we ever expected,”
but necessary to the collective process. “If Moe’s can do it,
Amazon can do it—they have the profit margin.”
When workers unionized at Skylight Books, general manager Mary Williams decided not to hire a contract attorney
at all. “We were negotiating the contract in 2021, when it
was unclear how long it would take us to bounce back from
our pandemic losses,” she said. “The costs of the contract
negotiation phase were just in time and hard work—and it
was hundreds of hours of my time and the negotiating committee’s time, altogether. But that hard work paid off in a
contract that I think we all feel good about.”
Skylight’s contract went into effect on February 21, and
Williams’s savings efforts enabled her to make other adjustments for employees. “We did have to change our time clock
and scheduling software to accommodate the introduction
of differential pay in the union contract, so that was an additional cost and labor-intensive transition, but it’s working
well now,” she said.
Skylight also made changes to pay structure in response
to wage compression, resulting in a “noticeable bump in pay
for our longer-term booksellers and managers, rewarding
them for their loyalty,” Williams said. “It also creates a scale
10 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 2 2

that combines years on the job and responsibilities in a way
that seems more fair than what we had before. It wasn’t my
idea, but after going through many drafts with the negotiating committee, I’m pleased with the way it turned out.”

No one-size-fits-all model
Management and nonmanagement employees alike attribute
unionization to various causes: changing generational values,
a need for clear boundaries between managers and staff,
and young workers motivated more by cash-in-hand than by
incentives like profit sharing. Every store requires its own
set of policies to satisfy its specific base.
“Bookstores are so idiosyncratic that my experience won’t
necessarily be everyone’s,” Williams said. “I don’t believe
there’s such a thing as a typical indie bookstore, so I don’t
think there will be a typical bookstore unionization experience. But I think the process of creating a union contract can
provide an opportunity for store owners and staffs to clarify
for themselves and each other what they’re looking for out
of that relationship.”
At San Francisco’s Green Apple Books, which has been a
union shop since 1994 (UFCW Local 5), Pete Mulvihill—who
co-owns the store with Kevin Ryan—described the process
of renegotiating the collective bargaining agreement every
three years. “The negative is that once every three years, the
difference between management and staff is accentuated,
and then for the next three years we try to blur that line
again,” he said. “On the other hand, the professionalization
of our store moved forward in leaps and bounds when we
unionized. Things unwritten or tacit became firm. People
hired now know exactly what they’ll get paid, how much
healthcare will cost.”
For Mulvihill, slim margins and a high cost of living in the
Bay Area come with the bookselling territory. “The overarching problem with the book business is that prices are
fixed,” he said. “If I need the new Stephen King, I buy it from
Simon & Schuster because that’s who makes it. I’m not a
grocery store, where if I don’t like the price of lemons I can
find a different supplier. If PRH wants to give us another
five percentage points, I can give all our workers a raise.”
At Elliott Bay, Karpp feels the BWU improved wages and
benefits, yet admits to having moderate expectations for
Seattle-area book labor. “When I started, I was making $9
an hour in New York City,” Karpp said. “I am better off making $19 an hour with benefits, with a union contract and fulltime work. But in Seattle, there’s an enormous gap between
where we’re at and the median wage.”
—Nathalie op de Beeck

DEALS

By Rachel Deahl

DEAL OF THE WEEK

■ Smith ‘Straight’ Talks for 13A
For Gallery Books’ 13A imprint,
Charles M. Suitt bought world rights
to the memoir Straight Shooter by
Stephen A. Smith, a sports pundit
and coanchor of ESPN’s First Take. In
the book, 13A said, Smith tells his
story of “growing up poor in Queens”
as “the son of Caribbean immigrants
and the youngest of six children.” He
Smith
details how he became a sports
reporter for the Daily News, covering the paper’s high
school beat, and worked his way up to a job at ESPN, where
he was hired, fired, then rehired. “He pulls back the curtain
on life beyond the set,” the publisher added, “with authentic
stories about his negligent father, his loving mother, being
a father himself, his life-threatening battle with Covid, and
what he really thinks about politics and social issues.”
Straight Shooter was sold by Rushion McDonald at 3815
Media and is slated for January 2023.

■ Sherbrooke Lands at Pegasus
Jessica Case at Pegasus Books took world English rights to
The Hidden Life of Aster Kelly by Katherine Sherbrooke.
The novel, set for April 2023, is about “identity and chosen

Sherbrooke

■ Morrow Wins Sue’s Debut
After a 10-bidder auction, William
Morrow won two books by Natalie
Sue, including her debut, I Hope This
Finds You Well. Morrow’s Julia Elliott
negotiated the North American
rights agreement with Root Literary’s Melanie Figueroa and Taylor
Haggerty. I Hope This Finds You
Well, the publisher said, follows an
Sue
office worker who, after being caught
writing negative emails about her coworkers, is mistakenly
granted access to her colleagues’ inboxes and then “decides
to turn the tables in the face of impending layoffs.” Morrow
is comparing the novel, slated for summer 2024, to works
like Anxious People and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.
Sue, a Persian British Canadian, lives in Calgary. At press
time, the novel had sold in numerous foreign auctions, with
sales concluded in the U.K., Italy, and Germany.

■ Penguin Buys Jonusas’s ‘Candy’
For Penguin, Terezia Cicel bought
North American rights to American
Candy by Susan Jonusas. Jonusas,
author of this year’s critically lauded
Hell’s Half-Acre, tells the story of
Juanita Slusher, a mid-20th-century
burlesque dancer who went by the
stage name Candy Barr. The book,
Penguin said, details how Barr “fought
Jonusas
her way out of sex trafficking as a
teenager” and “became a notorious performer who fraternized with the elite of golden era Hollywood as well as the
gangsters of L.A.’s seedy underbelly.” It shows how Slusher’s
life was “marked by profound injustice at the hands of a
society that both adored and despised her.” Georgina Capel
at Georgina Capel Associates represented Jonusas.

Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sold
his autobiography to Jonathan Karp at Simon & Schuster.
Karp took world rights to Bibi: My Story from lawyer Gary
Ginsberg on an exclusive submission. The book, which is set
for November 22, will be released through S&S’s Threshold
imprint and will be edited by Max Meltzer. It will, the publisher said, recount Netanyahu’s youth in Israel and America,
“the prominent legacy of his family in
the birth of Zionism, his service in an
elite unit of the Israeli Defense Forces,
and the devastating impact of the
death of his brother Yoni, who was
killed while leading his men in the historic rescue of 102 hostages in
Entebbe, Uganda.” S&S added that
the title, from Israel’s longest-serving
Netanyahu
prime minister, will stand as “required
reading for anyone with an interest in the past and future of
the Jewish state and the Jewish people.”

■ Simon & Schuster Buys Bibi’s Autobio

families,” the publisher said, “as
Aster, a model and aspiring designer
in 1940s Hollywood, makes a secret
decision that threatens to upend her
daughter’s life decades later.”
Michael Carlisle at InkWell Management represented Sherbrooke, who is
a former entrepreneur and author of
such novels as Fill the Sky and Leaving
Coy Hill.

W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

FROM THE ARCHIVE

August 29, 2011

In a 1991 survey of the
bookstore chain landscape,
we reported that there were
nearly 3,300 bookstores
operated by 11 corporate
parents. Those companies
included national and
regional chains as well as a
number of Christian bookstore chains. Thirty-one
years later, three chains
remain and are operating a
total of 995 outlets, with
the only constant being
that Barnes & Noble was
the largest chain in 1991
and is still the largest today.

12 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 2 2

Behind the Bestsellers
BY CAROLYN JURIS

AUG. 7–13, 2022

ON TO THE NEXT STAGE
Former child star Jennette
McCurdy has the #5 book in
the country with the memoir
I’m Glad My Mom Died.
Known for her role as Sam in
iCarly, McCurdy “recounts a
harrowing childhood directed
by her emotionally abusive stage
mother,” per our starred review.
“Insightful and incisive, heartbreaking and raw, McCurdy’s
narrative reveals a strong woman
who triumphs over unimaginable
pressure to emerge whole on the
other side.” On August 9, Brooklyn’s Books Are Magic hosted a sold-out launch event at the Bell House with McCurdy
(front row, second from r. with BAM staffers) in conversation with journalist Susan Burton.

Media Watch

N E W & N O TA B L E

5,777

The Netflix adaption of Neil
Gaiman’s Sandman comics, centered
on Morpheus, the personification
of dreams, dropped August 5. The
10-episode arc, which covers
issues #1–#16 of the 75-issue series,
shot to the top of the streaming
channel’s most-watched list. In
spring, DC released four new collected editions of the comics, and this week,
The Sandman, Book 1 (issues #1–#20)
debuts at #14 on our trade paperback list
with its best weekly sales to date.

PATH LIT BY LIGHTNING
David Maraniss
#3 Hardcover Nonfiction
Maraniss “trains his keen
eye on the remarkable
career of Jim Thorpe,”
our review said of this
biography of the athlete
who, in 1912, was the
first Native American to
win Olympic gold for the
U.S. “This essential work
restores a legendary figure to his rightful
place in history.”
LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI
Rinker Buck
#7 Hardcover Nonfiction
“Journalist Buck, who
documented his travels
by covered wagon in The
Oregon Trail,” per our
review, “returns with a
captivating and occasionally cantankerous account
of the 2,000-mile, fourmonth flatboat journey he
made in 2016 down the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers from Pittsburgh to New Orleans.”

Hot Spot
Debuting at #1 on our hardcover fiction
list, Heat 2 is director, screenwriter,
and producer Michael Mann’s crime
thriller debut, written with Edgar winner
Meg Gardiner. Our review said it “falls
short as a sequel” to Mann’s
1995 Al Pacino–Robert
DeNiro vehicle, Heat, citing
characters that aren’t
“meaningfully fleshed out”
and prose that’s “often
stilted and baroque.” But
there’s good news for those
who think more of Mann’s directing
chops—he’s just started shooting his
next film, Ferrari, a biography of the
eponymous race car driver and luxury
sports car manufacturer, with Adam
Driver in the title role.

Recent Weekly
Print Unit
Sales for
The Sandman,
Book 1
2,075
1,524
787
WEEK
ENDED:

July
23

July
30

August August
6
13

TOP 10 OVERALL
RANK TITLE

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

It Ends with Us
Where the Crawdads Sing
Verity
Ugly Love
I’m Glad My Mom Died
Reminders of Him
November 9
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
All Your Perfects
Long Live the Pumpkin Queen

AUTHOR

IMPRINT

Colleen Hoover
Delia Owens
Colleen Hoover
Colleen Hoover
Jennette McCurdy
Colleen Hoover
Colleen Hoover
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Colleen Hoover
Shea Ernshaw

Atria
Putnam
Grand Central
Atria
Simon & Schuster
Montlake
Atria
Washington Square
Atria
Disney Press

UNITS

89,517
69,755
68,146
58,431
41,687
36,058
35,895
35,433
24,483
22,037

ALL PRINT UNIT SALES PER NPD BOOKSCAN EXCEPT WHERE NOTED

W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

Information supplied by NPD
BookScan. Copyright © 2022
The NPD Group. All rights reserved.

Adult Bestsellers | AUG. 7–13, 2022
Hardcover Frontlist Fiction
RANK

TITLE

AUTHOR

IMPRINT

ISBN

–

Heat 2

Mann/Gardiner

Morrow

9780062653314

15,232

The 6:20 Man

David Baldacci

Grand Central

9781538719848

14,322

–

The Family Remains

Lisa Jewell

Atria

9781982178895

9,799

Portrait of an Unknown Woman

Daniel Silva

Harper

9780062834850

9,380

The Hotel Nantucket

Elin Hilderbrand

Little, Brown

9780316258678

9,023

Shattered

Patterson/Born

Little, Brown

9780316499484

8,751

Wrong Place Wrong Time

Gillian McAllister

Morrow

9780063252349

8,093

Sparring Partners

John Grisham

Doubleday

9780385549325

7,740

The It Girl

Ruth Ware

Scout

9781982155261

7,686

Lessons in Chemistry

Bonnie Garmus

Doubleday

9780385547345

5,747

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Gabrielle Zevin

Knopf

9780593321201

5,692

–

Glacier’s Edge

R.A. Salvatore

Harper Voyager

9780063029828

4,688

Reckoning

Catherine Coulter

Morrow

9780063004139

4,495

Horse

Geraldine Brooks

Viking

9780399562969

4,183

Run, Rose, Run

James Patterson

Little, Brown

9780759554344

3,679

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

Jamie Ford

Atria

9781982158217

3,660

The Last to Vanish

Megan Miranda

Scribner/Rucci

9781982147310

3,582

Black Dog

Stuart Woods

Putnam

9780593540008

3,556

Rising Tiger

Brad Thor

Atria/Bestler

9781982182151

3,555

The House Across the Lake

Riley Sager

Dutton

9780593183199

3,547

Hardcover Frontlist Nonfiction

UNITS

RANK

TITLE

AUTHOR

IMPRINT

ISBN

–

I’m Glad My Mom Died

Jennette McCurdy

Simon & Schuster

9781982185824

41,687

Unlock Your Potential

Jeff Lerner

Benbella/Holt

9781637741740

6,027

–

Path Lit by Lightning

David Maraniss

Simon & Schuster

9781476748412

5,568

–

The Uncanny X-Men Trading Cards

Lee/Piskor/Budiansky

Abrams

9781419757242

5,476

Atlas of the Heart

Brené Brown

Random House

9780399592553

5,434

–

Swerve or Die

Petty/Henican

St. Martin’s

9781250277817

4,576

–

Life on the Mississippi

Rinker Buck

Avid Reader

9781501106378

3,845

–

The Destructionists

Dana Milbank

Doubleday

9780385548137

3,634

The Return: Trump’s Big 2024 Comeback

Dick Morris

Humanix

9781630062071

3,443

Battle for the American Mind

Pete Hegseth

Broadside

9780063215047

3,442

Half Baked Harvest Every Day

Tieghan Gerard

Clarkson Potter

9780593232552

3,020

Killing the Killers

O’Reilly/Dugard

St. Martin’s

9781250279255

2,912

Defeating Big Government Socialism

Newt Gingrich

Center Street

9781546003199

2,897

Finding Me

Viola Davis

HarperOne

9780063037328

2,861

–

Shy

Rodgers/Green

FSG

9780374298623

2,815

Jesus Listens

Sarah Young

Thomas Nelson

9781400215584

2,721

–

Always Faithful

Schueman/Zaki

Morrow

9780063260610

2,433

The Power of One More

Ed Mylett

Wiley

9781119815365

2,416

–

The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban

John Talty

Benbella/Holt

9781637740835

2,275

Find Your People

Jennie Allen

WaterBrook

9780593193389

2,269

LW: rank last week

14 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 2 2

UNITS

Information supplied by NPD
BookScan. Copyright © 2022
The NPD Group. All rights reserved.

Mass Market Frontlist

RANK

TITLE

AUTHOR

IMPRINT

ISBN

Where the Crawdads Sing (media tie-in)

Delia Owens

Putnam

9780593540350

10,427

The Butler

Danielle Steel

Dell

9781984821546

6,388

Abandoned in Death

J.D. Robb

St. Martin’s

9781250846952

4,902

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Robert T. Kiyosaki

Plata

9781612681139

4,346

The Third Grave

Lisa Jackson

Zebra

9781420149074

4,278

Three Women Disappear

Patterson/Serafin

Grand Central

9781538750087

4,144

The Summer House

Patterson/DuBois

Grand Central

9781538752845

3,629

The Measure of a Man

Johnstone/Johnstone

Pinnacle

9780786048588

3,455

It’s Better This Way

Debbie Macomber

Ballantine

9781984818805

3,255

From Dusk to Dawn

Nora Roberts

Silhouette

9781335147578

3,163

Blue Skies

Nora Roberts

St. Martin’s

9781250847133

3,129

Aura of Night

Heather Graham

Mira

9780778386476

2,872

If It Bleeds

Stephen King

Pocket

9781982138004

2,674

Go West, Young Man

Johnstone/Johnstone

Pinnacle

9780786049158

2,634

Ready for Romance

Debbie Macomber

Harlequin

9781335744982

2,631

The Guest List

Lucy Foley

Morrow

9780063215382

2,478

Weddings in Orchard Valley

Debbie Macomber

Mira

9780778386186

2,423

The Texan Way

Diana Palmer

Harlequin

9781335454393

2,346

Brannigan’s Land

Johnstone/Johnstone

Pinnacle

9780786048687

2,263

In Love with the Amish Nanny

Rebecca Kertz

Love Inspired

9781335585127

2,078

TITLE

AUTHOR

IMPRINT

ISBN

Trade Paperback Frontlist

UNITS

RANK

UNITS

Verity

Colleen Hoover

Grand Central

9781538724736

68,146

Reminders of Him

Colleen Hoover

Montlake

9781542025607

36,058

Book Lovers

Emily Henry

Berkley

9780593334836

18,809

Every Summer After

Carley Fortune

Berkley

9780593438534

16,890

Where the Crawdads Sing (media tie-in)

Delia Owens

Putnam

9780593540480

14,040

The Wish

Nicholas Sparks

Grand Central

9781538728604

12,944

Things We Never Got Over

Lucy Score

Bloom

9781945631832

11,585

The Love Hypothesis

Ali Hazelwood

Berkley

9780593336823

11,252

Malibu Rising

Taylor Jenkins Reid

Ballantine

9781524798673

10,088

Apples Never Fall

Liane Moriarty

Holt

9781250220271

8,139

–

Komi Can’t Communicate, Vol. 20

Tomohito Oda

Viz

9781974731039

7,845

Billy Summers

Stephen King

Gallery

9781982173623

6,286

Hook, Line, and Sinker

Tessa Bailey

Avon

9780063045699

5,837

The Sandman, Book 1

Neil Gaiman et al.

DC Black Label

9781779515179

5,777

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (coloring book)

Koyoharu Gotouge

Viz

9781974729111

5,697

The Spanish Love Deception

Elena Armas

Atria

9781668002520

5,449

Art of Coloring: Hocus Pocus

–

Disney Editions

9781368076500

5,361

The Judge’s List

John Grisham

Vintage

9780593157848

5,340

–

Strong in Battle

Susie Larson

Bethany House

9780764231711

4,927

–

What Happened to the Bennetts

Lisa Scottoline

Putnam

9780525539759

4,907

LW: rank last week

W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

Information supplied by NPD
BookScan. Copyright © 2022
The NPD Group. All rights reserved.

Children’s Bestsellers | AUG. 7–13, 2022
Children’s Frontlist Fiction
RANK TITLE

AUTHOR

IMPRINT

ISBN

1 Long Live the Pumpkin Queen:
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
2 The Summer I Turned Pretty (media tie-in)
3 On Purpose (Cat Kid Comic Club #3)
4 Good Girl, Bad Blood
5 Heartstopper #4
6 The Bad Guys in Open Wide and Say Arrrgh! (The Bad Guys #15)
7 The Hawthorne Legacy
8 All of Us Villains
9 Big Shot (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #16)
10 Lally’s Game (Five Nights at Freddy’s: Tales from the Pizzaplex #1)
11 The Fourth Closet (Five Nights at Freddy’s Graphic Novel #3)
12 Perspectives (Cat Kid Comic Club #2)
13 FGTeeV: The Switcheroo Rescue!
14 Avatar, the Last Airbender: The Dawn of Yangchen
(Chronicles of the Avatar #3)
15 The Lightning Thief (media tie-in)
16 As Good as Dead
17 Good-Bye Stacey, Good-Bye
(The Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novel #11)
18 The Fear
19 Better Than the Movies
20 The Flames of Hope (Wings of Fire #15)
21 The Brightest Night (Wings of Fire Graphic Novel #5)
22 Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga...
23 The Hate U Give
24 Loveless
25 Family of Liars

Shea Ernshaw

Disney Press

9781368069601 22,037

Jenny Han
Dav Pilkey
Holly Jackson
Alice Oseman
Aaron Blabey
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Amanda Foody
Jeff Kinney
Scott Cawthon
Scott Cawthon
Dav Pilkey
FGTeeV
F.C. Yee

Simon & Schuster
Graphix
Ember
Graphix
Scholastic
Little, Brown
Tor Teen
Amulet
Scholastic
Graphix
Graphix
HarperAlley
Amulet

9781665922074 11,330
9781338801941 7,381
9781984896438 5,430
9781338617559 5,155
9781338813180 5,144
9780316105187 4,825
9781250789273 4,716
9781419749155 4,132
9781338827309 4,056
9781338741162 3,581
9781338784855 3,542
9780063093003 3,218
9781419756771 3,165

Rick Riordan
Holly Jackson
Martin/Epstein

Disney-Hyperion
Delacorte
Graphix

9781368051477 3,083
9780593379851 2,842
9781338616040 2,802

Natasha Preston
Lynn Painter
Tui T. Sutherland
Martin/Epstein
Dav Pilkey
Angie Thomas
Alice Oseman
E. Lockhart

Delacorte
Simon & Schuster
Scholastic Press
Graphix
Scholastic
HC/Balzer + Bray
Scholastic Press
Delacorte

9780593125014
9781534467637
9781338214574
9781338730852
9781338347258
9780062498540
9781338751932
9780593485859

Children’s Picture Books

UNITS

2,621
2,528
2,527
2,523
2,309
2,297
2,123
2,074

RANK TITLE

AUTHOR

IMPRINT

ISBN

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25

Eric Carle
Wing/Durrell
Martin/Carle
Steinberg/Chambers
Hepworth/Warnes
Olsen/Sonke
Martin/Archambault/Ehlert
Dr. Seuss
Brown/Hurd
Rossner/Hanson
Carraway/Hryvtsova
Wing/Zemke
Roger Priddy
Danneberg/Love
–
McBratney/Jeram
Roger Priddy
Robert Munsch
John/Climo
Paul/Walker
Emily Winﬁeld Martin
Mo Willems
Edwards/Marshall
Eric Hill
Ryan T. Higgins

Philomel
Grosset & Dunlap
Holt
Grosset & Dunlap
Tiger Tales
Shannon Olsen
Little Simon
Random House
HarperFestival
Sourcebooks Wonderland
Cedar Fort
Grosset & Dunlap
Priddy
Charlesbridge
Tiger Tales
Candlewick
Priddy
Fireﬂy
Dial
FSG
Random House
Hyperion
Silver Dolphin
Warne
Disney-Hyperion

9780399226908 12,512
9780448425009 11,678
9780805047905 9,799
9780448456249 9,382
9781589255517 8,818
9780578629094 8,692
9781442450707 8,565
9780679805274 7,645
9780694003617 7,566
9781728213743 7,163
9781462143634 6,081
9780448437477 6,061
9780312510787 5,766
9781580890618 5,606
9781589258723 5,594
9781536210637 5,495
9780312527594 5,395
9780920668375 5,391
9780735228559 5,295
9780374300210 5,262
9780385376716 4,992
9781368046459 4,950
9781684122585 4,758
9780399240461 4,643
9781368003551 4,624

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Night Before Kindergarten
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Kindergarten, Here I Come!
I Love You to the Moon and Back
Our Class Is a Family
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Goodnight Moon
I Love You Like No Otter
My Dear Little One
The Night Before First Grade
First 100 Words
First Day Jitters
A Is for Apple
Guess How Much I Love You
See, Touch, Feel
Love You Forever
First Day Critter Jitters
If Animals Kissed Good Night
The Wonderful Things You Will Be
The Pigeon Has to Go to School!
You’re My Little Cuddle Bug
Where’s Spot?
We Don’t Eat Our Classmates

16 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 2 2

UNITS

Department | RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY

Devotionals for Better Days
Short biblical readings can lift the spirit, publishers say

evotionals, which offer daily doses of uplifting
spiritual content and often quotes from the
Bible, are taking on a greater importance in the
market today, according to religion publishers.
Many devotionals follow a 365-day format, with
a reading for each calendar day, while others are shorter and
can be read in any order. The goal of every devotional is the
same, however: to guide readers into a deeper relationship with
God. This year, new devotionals are catering to audiences in an
especially troubled season.
“People are hungry for spiritual content written in modern
language that helps ground them in chaotic, difficult, or simply
mundane times,” says Keren Baltzer, v-p, editorial director,
Convergent and Image.
IVP is publishing more devotionals in the next two seasons
than it has for the past several years. In addition to citing the
perennial sales associated with Advent and Lenten devotionals,
Justin Paul Lawrence, IVP divisional v-p of sales and marketing,
says he believes the books can play a key role when it comes to
overall wellness. “I think the pandemic has caused many to
spend more time in personal reflection as the flexibility of
remote work coupled with increased stress from the news has
made spiritual care an essential component of self-care,” he
notes.
Bonne Steffen, senior editor at Tyndale, agrees. “Devotionals
are a quick read, but when the message resonates, the effect can
be long-lasting,” she says. “These inspirational pauses can
speak to heart issues in ways that are uplifting and challenging,
possibly even life-changing.”
With church attendance in decline, devotionals can fill contemporary spiritual needs, according to Becky Nesbitt, editorial
director at WaterBrook. “Readers who disconnected from the
church during the pandemic are looking for ways to reconnect
to their faith outside of a church setting,” she says.

Short takes on big
issues
Devotionals releasing in the coming
months explore the intersection of
spirituality and inclusivity, healing,
and growth, as well as the ways faith
can provide solace in times of fear.
“There’s no denying how difficult
things can be,” writes Jesuit priest
Gregory Boyle in Forgive Everyone

By Emma Wenner

Everything (Sept.), Loyola Press’s lead fall title. “But the way out
to the place of resilience, the place of restoration, the place of
not allowing your heart to be hardened by resentment, relies on
one thing: forgive everyone everything.”
The book collects 52 reflections on loss, pain, and redemption
gleaned during Boyle’s more than 30 years of experience as
founder of Homeboy Industries—a gang intervention, rehabilitation, and reentry program in Los Angeles. Nearly every entry
is accompanied by muralist Fabian Debora’s artwork. Debora is
a former gang member who now serves as executive director of
Homeboy Art Academy—a trauma-informed art center that’s a
division of Homeboy Industries.
According to Joellyn Cicciarelli, president and publisher of
Loyola, Forgive Everyone Everything is a unique devotional. “The
powerful combination of words and images humanizes people
on the margins and focuses on the inherent dignity of every
human person,” she says. “This is a book many people need now,
given the tensions of political polarization, cultural battles, and
the nationwide focus on racism.”
E. Carrington Heath, senior pastor
of the Congregational Church in
Exeter, N.H., addresses topics
including authenticity, coming out,
relationships, chosen family, and religious trauma in Called Out: 100
Devotions for LGBTQ Christians (WJK,
Sept.). Heath aims to nourish the
spirits of LGBTQ people while also
helping others grow in both understanding and faith, according to the
publisher. Jessica Miller Kelley, who acquired the book for
WJK, says, “So much attention has been given to apologetics
and advocacy for the full inclusion and affirmation of God’s
LGBTQ children in the church that books written by LGBTQ
authors for the spiritual edification
of LGBTQ readers were on the
periphery.”
That is shifting, though, Heath
and Kelley say. Heath writes in the
book, “The world has changed for
queer folks, and for the better. It
has changed even more for trans
folks, who for too many years
received less than even crumbs. I
pray that this change continues.”
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

Department | RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY

NEW BIBLES BROKER HOPE
Despite inflation and the many pressures on manufacturers
and retailers, Bible sales remain strong, publishers say.
Christian houses have learned to adapt to a disrupted
marketplace in order to better serve readers in need of hope.
Crossway has responded to supply chain delays and
paper shortages by implementing longer lead times for production and increasing the number of print runs for Bibles.
“The past 12 months have resulted in Crossway’s best year
of Bible sales, proving that the need for Bibles continues to
exist, almost more than ever,” says Daniel Bush, executive
v-p of sales and marketing. “As people encounter difficulties
in their lives, be it personal, political, or social, the Bible
remains a source of true hope and life.”
Sales at Tyndale also remain healthy, according to Bibles
publisher Amy Simpson. “Because we believe reading and
understanding the Bible can change a person’s life for the
better,” she says, “we’re hopeful that we’ll see continued
growth as we continue investing in new editions that will
meet people in their busy lives and bring hope in these
turbulent times.”
Ave Maria Press publisher and CEO Karey Circosta says
she’s working to “foster a community of women who want
to regularly read the word of God and live it in their daily
lives” with a new release, the Living the Word Catholic
Women’s Bible and its companion journal (Dec.). “We want
the women who use this Bible to feel connected not only
to the scriptures but also to other readers, as well as the
contributors, biblical women, and saints—women just like
them,” she adds.
New and forthcoming Bible editions and translations

Kelley adds, “Devotion and spirituality books for this audience will appear more frequently in the future.”
A Just Passion: A Six-Week Lenten Journey (IVP, Nov.) is a call
for Christians to confront injustice, written by Ruth Haley
Barton, Sheila Wise Rowe, Tish Harrison Warren, and Terry M.
Wildman. It includes short readings, breath prayers, and scripture passages related to repentance, lament,
worship, and healing.

Looking at the bright side
Daily readings can lend support in life’s
toughest chapters, and several new releases
take an optimistic perspective of common
challenges and obstacles. Tyndale is offering
Seasons of Waiting: 52 Devotions (Nov.) by
Barb Hill, a clinical mental health therapist
with a specialty in trauma. The book explores
the tension and pain associated with the
18 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 2 2

include the following:
• ESV Church History
Study Bible: Voices
from the Past,
Wisdom for the
Present (Crossway,
Jan. 2023) focuses
on more than 300
prominent figures in
the history of the
church, such as John
Bunyan, Martin
Luther, and Charles
Spurgeon.
• NLT Thinline Reference Bible, Filament Enabled Edition (Tyndale, Oct.) features
the New Living Translation and cross-references in a thin,
small trim size. Those who purchase it get access to the
Filament Bible app, which connects every page to additional
related biblical content via phone or tablet.
• NRSVue, Holy Bible (Zondervan, out now) features the
updated translation that succeeds the NRSV. The NRSVue
translation was a four-year project undertaken by the National
Council of Churches in collaboration with the Society of Biblical
Literature.
• The Readable Bible (Iron Stream Media, Nov.) is a new
biblical translation that contains graphics, charts, maps, and
modern formatting intended to “help people draw closer to
God by maximizing Bible comprehension,” according to the
publisher.
—E.W.

universal experience of waiting—including for a spouse, a
child, a career, or mental or physical healing. “The struggle of
waiting has an uncanny way of unearthing thoughts, feelings,
and reactions in us that not many other things can,” Hill writes.
“It exposes what we believe, challenges our patience, refines our
character, and confronts where we’ve placed our hope.”
Tyndale’s Steffen notes that
people today “are living on the
edge of anticipation, not knowing what we will wake up to
tomorrow.” She adds, “Barb Hill
reassures us that hope is always
ready to displace fear and uncertainty. Choosing the way of hope
requires trust on our part, but
nothing is more rewarding.”
Liturgies for Hope: Sixty Prayers
for the Highs, Lows, and Everything

Personal and universal reflections from
the pandemic

Blessing and Beseeching

Seventy Prayers Inspired by the Scriptures
Gail Ramshaw
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Collected here are seventy new prayers from liturgist and
poet Gail Ramshaw, inspired by the quietest months of the
pandemic. By turns bold and humble, universal and deeply
personal, Ramshaw’s poetry in prayer will inspire deep
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Department | RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY
in Between by Audrey Elledge and Elizabeth Moore (WaterBrook, Nov.) collects
entries, prayers, and scripture references, geared toward readers experiencing
burnout, anxiety, shame, and other stressors. Explaining what drew her to the book,
WaterBrook’s Nesbitt says, “As a postpandemic culture, collectively, we’re experiencing such a range of emotions, yet we’re struggling to articulate them in ways that
bring hope to our concerns. Liturgies for Hope helps us to express our common felt
needs in ways that make us feel seen and bring healing.”
In their new book, The Lives We Actually Have: 100
Blessings for Imperfect Days (Convergent, Feb. 2023), Kate
Bowler and Jessica Richie, the writers behind last year’s
bestselling Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of
Imperfection, offer “a spiritual account of time that is rich
enough to name the breadth of our experience,” according
to the publisher. “Good. Bad. Difficult. Sublime.
Mundane.” Each blessing focuses on gratitude and hope
“without making light of our real, messy lives.”
Bowler and Richie write in the book, “When I bless the
actual days I am living, I suddenly find I have a great deal
more to say that is honest. I am mourning. I am bored. I am
exhausted. I am apathetic. I discover that I am freed from
the need to declare everything #blessed. Good or bad, I don’t
have to wait to say something spiritually true. I can simply
bless it all instead.”

Divine by design
In addition to offering encouraging words and spiritual
wisdom, devotionals often feature artwork and other design
elements intended to relax and inspire readers. Ruth Chou
Simons, an artist and the author of Emmanuel: An Invitation
to Prepare Him Room at Christmas and Always (Harvest,
Sept.), aims to provide a fresh take on the Advent experience by reminding readers that “the birth of Jesus—the
Christmas story—is only the beginning,” according to the
publisher.
Too often, Christians view Christmas as a once-a-yearevent, but “God intends for our Christmas hope to thrive
all year long,” says Steve Miller, senior editor at Harvest
House. “In Emmanuel, readers are invited to experience
Advent in a way that outlasts the month of December. As
Ruth says, this devotional is all about letting the Christmas
story ‘fill our hearts so that it changes the way we celebrate
the season and live the rest of the year.’ ”
The book will be featured during a ticketed gala hosted
by the publisher in Nashville on November 12.
A Psalm for Every Season: 30 Devotions to Discover
Encouragement, Hope and Beauty by Arnold R. Fleagle
(Chosen, Oct.) features “full-color calligraphy” by Timothy
R. Botts, says Kim Bangs, editorial director at Chosen. She
was drawn to the way Fleagle uses the Book of Psalms “to
speak to the seasons of life that everyone encounters.”
Another devotional on the Bible’s sacred songs, Endless
Grace: Prayers Inspired by the Psalms by Ryan Whitaker Smith
and Dan Wilt (Brazos, Jan. 2023), features custom line art
continued on p. 24

Grace Can Lead Us Home
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“An invaluable resource for Christians looking to
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Department | RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY

STARS ADD POWER TO DEVOTIONALS
A number of new and forthcoming devotionals combine the
short, digestible format with entries from some of today’s
most popular authors. Jenn Gott, v-p and publisher for HarperCollins Christian Publishing’s gift division, notes, “We believe
wholeheartedly that creating devotionals for well-known
authors is one of the best ways to expand their message.
Readers are hungry for inspiration, for a daily routine of
reading and reflecting.”
HCCP is eyeing the vast audiences of three
of its major authors for new releases. Out now,
Resilient Hope: 100 Devotions for Building
Endurance in an Unpredictable World by Christine Caine (Thomas Nelson Gift) was inspired
by Caine’s hikes in the mountains of California,
where she experienced setbacks and disappointment as well as resilience, endurance,
and hope, according to the publisher. Caine is
cofounder with her husband of both the A21
Campaign, a nonprofit that fights human trafficking, and Propel Women, a Christian ministry.
Her books have sold more than a million copies,
according to HCCP, including more than 200,000
copies sold of the 2017 devotional Unshakable:
365 Devotions for Finding Unwavering Strength
in God’s Word.
Morgan Harper Nichols, a poet, artist, and
owner of the online store Garden24 who speaks
openly about living with autism, is offering You
Are Only Just Beginning: Lessons for the Journey
Ahead (Feb. 2023)—the latest art and poetry
book in a series with Zondervan. The collected
affirmations, such as, “Hold space for the
beauty of what was and still. Please. Trust.
There is more to come,” focus on confidence,
self-discovery, and grace. Past titles by the
author, including 2022’s Peace Is a Practice:
An Invitation to Breathe Deep and Find a New
Rhythm for Life and 2020’s All Along You Were
Blooming: Thoughts for Boundless Living, have
sold more than 200,000 copies, according to
the Zondervan.
Lysa TerKeurst, bestselling author and president of
Proverbs 31 Ministries for women, is publishing You’re Going
to Make It: 50 Morning and Evening Devotions to Unrush Your
Mind, Uncomplicate Your Heart, and Experience Healing
Today (Thomas Nelson Gift, Mar. 2023). In it, TerKeurst’s
insights on loneliness, compassion, and more are paired

22 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 2 2

with quotes from scripture, prayers, fill-in-the-blank prompts,
mantras, and color photography.
Joni Eareckson Tada, author of bestsellers such as
2010’s A Place of Healing, offers Songs of Suffering: 25
Hymns and Devotions for Weary Souls (Crossway, out now).
The book includes hymns chosen by Eareckson Tada, alongside devotions and photography. Sheet music is provided for
each hymn, and the audiobook features the author singing
the spiritual songs.
“The hymns in this volume are ones that I
turn to when I need help in persevering through
pain,” Eareckson Tada writes. “I have lived with
quadriplegia for more than half a century and
have wrestled with chronic pain for much of
that time. My suffering savior has taught me to
always choose a song—a song that fortifies
my faith against discouragement and breathes
hope into my heart.”
Roma Downey, who starred on the hit CBS
television series Touched by an Angel in the
1990s, presents Be an Angel: Devotions to
Inspire and Encourage Love and Light Along
the Way (Convergent, Feb. 2023), which was
inspired by her social media posts on friendship, kindness, courage, and faith. The book
collects quotes, words from scripture, and
Downey’s personal reflections in the form of
52 devotions.
“Readers have long admired Roma for her
outspoken faith in Hollywood,” says Becky
Nesbitt, executive editor at Convergent. “She
had the lovely idea to offer weekly devotions
in book form to her broad audience. She gently
nudges them with a ‘be an angel’ challenge,
prompting them to apply the reading in a
practical way.”
Finally, former NFL quarterback, Heisman
winner, and bestselling author Tim Tebow
debuts in the devotionals category with Mission
Possible One-Year Devotional: 365 Days of
Inspiration for Pursuing Your God-Given Purpose
(WaterBrook, Nov.). The secret to a meaningful life is not
more comfort or ease but a clear mission, he writes. The
book, which includes repurposed content from Tebow’s
2022 self-help title Mission Possible, promises to help
readers focus and make impactful choices, according to
the publisher.
—ANN BYLE

Families will discover the diﬀerence a few
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To order, please contact Cathy Hupka.

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Department | RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY
continued from p. 20

by Nathan Swann. Robert Hosack, executive acquisitions editor at Brazos, says Endless Grace was a
natural next step following the success of the
authors’ first title, Sheltering Mercy. The second
volume on the church’s prayer book provides “further poetic, free-verse prayer renderings on the rest
of the Psalter, Psalms 76–150,” he notes.
Brazos’s creative director Paula Gibson adds that
Endless Grace’s interior layout “was purposely
designed to help the reader enter into a calm and
inviting space—one that would visually enhance a
reader’s devotional reflection.”
Heart Speak: A Visual Interpretation of Let Your Life
Speak (IVP, Oct.) by Sherill A. Knezel, with Parker J. Palmer,
pairs excerpts from Palmer’s 1999 bestseller on connecting with
one’s inner self with more than 70 inspirational images. The
book is intended to help readers “explore and embrace both their
own limits and their own potential as they listen to their inner
voice and courageously follow its lead,” according to the
publisher.

Carrying on the tradition
Publishers have no plans to reduce the number of devotionals

coming out any time soon. At Crossway, chief
publishing officer Don Jones notes, “We are
continuing to invest in this important category
and view it as a way to fulfill our mission to
help individual Christians and the church grow
in knowledge and understanding of the
Christian life.”
Miller at Harvest House says devotionals are
immune to market cycles because Christian
readers are constantly searching for ways to bring
spiritual enrichment and nourishment into their
daily lives. “There will always be a base-level
demand for devotionals that feed their hearts
and minds so they can face the day with the peace and strength
only God can give,” he explains. “Given the stressful effects a
lengthy pandemic—and the aftermath—has had on people, we
would expect demand for devotionals to remain strong.”
Despite cultural shifts and various content, format, and
design options, Hosack at Brazos says, “the need for additional
texts—beyond the Bible—to inspire and comfort the faithful
remains the same. In an increasingly busy and hectic world, the
devotional as a tool to pause and encourage prayer remains an
ever-present balm for believers.”
■

PUBLISHING
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Cookbooks

AMERICAN
PIE
PW talks with Rossi Anastopoulo
Rossi Anastopoulo, blog editor for King Arthur
Baking Company, received the 2019 International Association of Culinary Professionals
Award for Narrative Food Writing for her
piece on the bean pie and the Nation of Islam.
In Sweet Land of Liberty (Abrams, Oct.), she
dishes the stories behind 11 noteworthy
pies and traces 400 years of rich and troubled history from the colonial era to the
present day. Anastopoulo spoke with PW
about research, recipes, and reexamining
history in tumultuous times.

Why pie?
I love pie; it’s delicious. And although versions of it exist
in many different countries and cultures, American pie is

so distinct to this nation. It’s amorphous
and malleable and versatile, which makes
it a great lens for telling broader stories
about our country and its history. Also, pies
and, more broadly, desserts, are unnecessary. When people make them, it
really can be very instructive. Settlers
going west made mock apple pie to
evoke their mother’s apple pie. It
wasn’t to fulfill a nutritional need,
but an emotional one. Pie has evolved
and adapted to encompass so many
things. Apple pie can be made with
real apples or with crackers—two
distinct approaches and two entirely
different entry points into a story.

What were your research
challenges and triumphs?
Access, especially for older pies. We don’t have as many
records from hundreds of years ago. For example, I read that

Cookbooks
Abraham Lincoln liked a certain bakery that served pecan pie;
I wished I could find a menu from that bakery. The flip side was
true for some of the later pies: the breadth of information was
often hard to wrap my arms around. The final chapter is on
how apple pie became a symbol of America and how the saying “as American as apple pie” became prevalent. That meant
sorting through almost a century’s worth of newspapers.
The coolest parts were when I had a theory and
then found the info to back it up. The pumpkin
pie evolved with Thanksgiving and became a
manufactured symbol of an America that completely erased Indigenous traditions. I found an
anecdote from a boarding school that sought to
assimilate Indigenous children, and they were
served pumpkin pie during a Thanksgiving celebration. I wasn’t happy to find that, but it really
did so perfectly illustrate this type of story.

What does it mean to be writing about
American history in these times?
I wanted to write about the darker side of American history and the painful moments in which

“American values” were actually about the wrong things.
I desperately didn’t want it to come across as a blind patriotic ode to the United States of America. The legacies of
racism and sexism are woven into the fabric of our history.
So many of the themes in the book are visible in the social
justice issues of today.

Which pie stories are you
most excited for the reader
to discover?
Abby Fisher and her sweet potato pie
because, one, she’s such an important
cookbook author in the history of
American food, and two, the pie’s a little bit unexpected. There are no spices
in it—just sweet potatoes and a little
bit of orange juice. When I served it to
my family, they thought it was one of
the best sweet potato pies they’d ever
eaten. It’s an interesting recipe from a
baking perspective and an eating one.
—P.M.

Cookbooks

Baking is a source of meditation for me....
The outcome is just a bonus.
—Steph Blackwell, author of Bake Yourself Happy

continued from p. 34

Steph Blackwell, a GBBS season 10 finalist, has been candid
with her 141,000 Instagram followers about her mental health
and the importance of self-care. “Baking is a source of meditation

for me,” she says. “I immerse myself in the science and creativity;
I find myself so absorbed in the process. The outcome is just a
bonus: if it doesn’t work, I’ve still managed to silence the negativity in my head.”
With Bake Yourself Happy (Mobius, Sept.), Blackwell hopes
to spark joy through 50 recipes that soothe a bad mood (savory
granola), aid relaxation (leek, mushroom, and cavolo nero tart),
pump up one’s confidence (comté and nutmeg puffs), and more.
“So many people struggle with their mental health,” she
explains. “Baking may not be a magic cure, but it’s certainly a
wonderful activity that I urge anyone to try.”
In Comfort Baking (Herald, Oct.), Stephanie Wise, who blogs at
Girl vs. Dough, honors the kitchen as a space for solace, worship,
relief, and relaxation. Her 100 recipes include sweets (iced cherry
almond loaf cake) and savories (green chili pulled pork enchiladas),

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Cookbooks

and celebrate the happiness inherent in cooking for others.
Becca Rea-Tucker, aka the Sweet Feminist (250,000
Instagram followers), recommends identifying and processing
emotions in the kitchen in Baking by Feel (Harper Wave, Aug.);
working with one’s hands, she writes, can be deeply therapeutic. She pairs each of her 65 recipes with an emotion and
an affirmation; triple chocolate cake is suggested for someone
who’s been insulted (“You are beautiful and you and your
uniqueness and impact on the world can’t be replaced”), while
cardamom caramel poke cake is a dessert for the optimistic (“It
takes courage to trust that things are going to turn out like
they should!”)

Of course, in baking, things don’t always
work out the way they should. Lottie Bedlow
(of GBBS season 11 fame) embraces this
reality in Baking Imperfect (Thunder Bay,
Nov.), with forgiving recipes including a
gingerbread shed (“They never look like
houses anyway,” she writes) and no-skill soda
bread, plus tips gleaned from her enthusiastic experimentation. For instance, in her
orange and passionfruit mousse cake jars, she
advises readers to blitz the fruit in a food
processor to make the most out of their pulp. “It’s easy to be
put off by what we see on Instagram,” she says. “There’s been a
shift towards anti-perfectionism and I want to lead the way.”
Bedlow encourages her 228,000 followers, and her readers,
to be less precious about their baking—even to trash the book.
(Her own copy, she says, is stained and well-worn.) “It’s a
movement away from detail, delicateness, and finesse, and
towards relatability and reality,” she explains. “I want people
to laugh at their journey. And anyway, who cares as long as it
tastes good?”
■
Pooja Makhijani is a writer and editor in New Jersey.

Cookbook
Highlights

978-1-91431-721-7
July 2022

978-1-91431-769-9
September 2022

978-1-83861-090-6
September 2022

Cookbooks

All You Knead Is Loaf
“We’re in a bread renaissance in America,” says
Greg Wade, head baker at Chicago’s Publican Quality
Bread. Interest in the craft was reinvigorated in the
early days of the Covid-19 pandemic—remember all
those starters?—and has sustained even as many
have eased into new routines.
In Wade’s debut, Bread Head (Norton, Sept.), he
explains the science of breadmaking and shares his
best practices for rustic, naturally leavened loaves;
offers a variety of recipes for sweet breads, such as
buckwheat brownies and cornmeal whoopie pies; and
brings his technical know-how to Ethiopian injera,
Indian parathas, and Georgian khachapuri. He also
addresses the restorative agriculture of grains, provides resources to accessing heritage grains, and
champions solutions to climate change. “It’s a multipronged approach, and a labor of love,” he says.
Wade’s book and others this
season celebrate what 18th-century
Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus
called “the most noble” of all foods.

Xiaolongbao, gnocchi, samosa,
momo, gyoza, empanada, siapao.. .

Everyone has a
dumpling story.

Thirty-one delectable essays about
dumplings: family stories, recipes,
their role in history, and, of course,
philosophical considerations of
what exactly qualiﬁes.
ISBN 978 1 55245 452 7
Available from Consortium/Ingram

Baking Bread with Kids
Jennifer Latham. Ten Speed, Nov.
Latham introduces children ages seven and up
(and their caregivers) to mixing, fermenting, proofing, and baking with 20
easy, familiar recipes—whole wheat bread,
focaccia, pita, pizza, and more. Latham is
former director of bread at Tartine in San
Francisco and mother to two; some of the
book’s recipes were tested alongside her
children and drawn from her Baking from
Home online video series.

Bread Head
Greg Wade, with Rachel Holtzman. Norton, Sept.
This eclectic collection of recipes emphasizes
the use of sustainable, locally milled grains.
PW’s starred review called the book “exceptional,” and said it “is sure to banish any remnants of sourdough fatigue.”

Evolutions in Bread
Ken Forkish. Ten Speed,
Sept.
The founder of Ken’s
Artisan Pizza and Ken’s
Artisan Bakery and author
of Flour Water Salt Yeast
(395,000 print copies sold) turns his attention
to developing doughs and techniques specifically for pans and Dutch ovens, with recipes
for black bread, rye bread with caraway, and
50% einkorn Dutch-oven levain bread. It’s a
“surefire boon for home bread bakers,” per PW’s
starred review.

The Pain
d’Avignon
Baking Book
Uliks Fehmiu,
with Kathleen
Hackett.
Avery, Oct.
Self-taught
baker and Serbian émigré Fehmiu
shares the origin story of his Cape
Cod bakery and New York City café in
this compendium of 60 recipes.
Recipes adapted for the home
kitchen include Cape Cod–inspired
cranberry and pecan bread, doublebaked almond croissants, cheese
amman, and thyme baguette with a
touch of lemon.

40 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 2 2

Le Cordon Bleu
Bakery School
Le Cordon Bleu.
Grub Street
Cookery, Nov.
First published
in French in
2021, this 80-recipe guide
from the illustrious cooking
school covers yeasted breads
and Viennoiseries (Danish pastries). It highlights recipes for
boulangerie classics such as
brioche and croissants, as well
as new spins on the familiar,
including a milk bread baguette
with white chocolate.

The Perfect Loaf
Maurizio Leo. Clarkson
Potter, Nov.
Leo, known for his exacting
techniques and encouraging tone, is the resident
baker at Food52 and a regular contributor to the King Arthur Baking
blog. In his debut, named for the website he
launched in 2013, he shares recipes for
freeform loafs (sourdough, demi baguettes),
pan loaves (naturally leavened brioche),
pizza and flatbreads (focaccia, naan), buns
and rolls (English muffins, bagels), and
sweet breads (doughnuts, peach and blueberry crostata).
—P.M.

Second
Coming
In her new memoir,
breakout fantasy author
and academic Sofa Samatar
describes retracing the steps
of a group of Mennonites
into the heart of Central Asia

sublime with casual aplomb.

Her latest, The White Mosque (Catapult, Oct.), is a mosaic
memoir that juxtaposes history, culture, religion and regionalism, tracing the journey of a group of German-speaking
Mennonites into the heart of Khiva in Central Asia—now
modern-day Uzbekistan—on a quest that promised no less than
the second coming of Christ.
Samatar’s own journey to the site where the group’s church
once stood started in 2016, when her father-in-law gave her a
book titled The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites, by Frank
Belk. “This guy, who’s sort of a cult leader, predicts Christ is
returning, and these people just uproot their lives to follow
him,” she says, speaking via Zoom from her office at James
Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., where she’s an associate professor of English. “Of course, nothing happens. But
they stayed for 50 years, until they were deported by the
Bolsheviks.”

ofia Samatar has a way with a sentence. No matter
what she’s writing—whether it’s short stories, like
her quietly devastating Nebula- and Hugonominated “Selkie Stories Are for Losers,” or novels,
like her World Fantasy Award–winning debut, A
Stranger in Olondria—her work has a way of pairing the mundane and

JIM C. HINES

BY SONA CHARAIPOTRA

Samatar, the child of a Black Somali Muslim and a white
Mennonite, became obsessed with the story. “Honestly, what
struck me was these images that are very familiar for me,” she
explains. “Mennonites with their plain clothes, and this mosque
in the background. It mirrored my upbringing—and I never
saw that anywhere. Here it was, this one moment in history. The
juxtaposition of my life.”
Like any writer, Samatar, who’s 50, fell into a rabbit hole,
reading memoirs about the Mennonite settlers, trying to reshape
the story into a fictional narrative. But it was so deeply resonant
with her own life that she felt compelled to undertake their
expedition firsthand. “So I went on this fantastic two-week trip
into a time and place that doesn’t really exist now,” she says,
shaking her head. “And it became this journey into finding
myself.”
The book reflects Samatar’s experiences growing up in two
cultures that appear to be polar opposites but have deep overlaps
that shaped the way she sees the world. “They were both these
insular communities, but there was so much shared between
them—and no one outside of them understood anything,” she
explains. “I was a misfit wherever I went, in so many ways.”
Born and raised in Goshen, Ind., Samatar says she had a “very
sheltered” childhood and was a kind of a third-culture kid. Her
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

Author Profile
father, Said Sheikh Samatar, was a professor of African history;
his work took the family from Indiana to Tanzania to London
to Kentucky, before they finally settled in South Orange, N.J.,
where he became a professor at Rutgers University when
Samatar was about 10.
“These are people,” she says of her parents, “who grew up with
large animals—my mom on a dairy farm in North Dakota, my
dad herding camels and goats—but they transformed their
lives.” Though the family was uprooted regularly, there were
anchors. “Their relationship was kind of steeped in language
and literature. We moved from place to place, but we always
had our books.”
Even in the more diverse environment of New Jersey, however, Samatar didn’t feel like she belonged. This led to her
enrollment at a Mennonite boarding school in Lancaster, Pa.,
and then at Goshen University—against her father’s wishes.
“All my friends were going there,” she says with a shrug and a
laugh. “It was where the arty Mennonite kids went, and that
was me. And my dad was like, ‘Absolutely not! Apply to
Harvard. Apply to Yale.’ ”
All the while, Samatar was reading—everything from fantasy
to Faulkner—and writing. “We read the Chronicles of Narnia
and Lord of the Rings aloud as a family, and I was drawn to
mythology and fantasy,” she says. “But my mother studied
Beowulf when she got her masters, and I was very into Joyce,
Faulkner, Wolff by the time I was in high school.”
Samatar got her bachelors in English from Goshen, fixating
on writers like Audrey Lorde, Toni Morrison, and Ntozake
Shange, but also inspired by Frida Kahlo. “I was writing poetry
and then short stories,” she says. “I always wanted to write
novels, but I didn’t feel like I had the capacity. At that point, I
was still in a state of discovering all these new voices. And it
takes a while to realize, as a person of color, that you are allowed
to write, too. But these women, they were like giants. I couldn’t
quite figure out how to cross over that gap.”
At Goshen, Samatar also met her husband, fellow writer
Keith Miller, then followed her father’s footsteps into academia,
getting a masters in African languages and literature at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she focused on contemporary Arabic Literature. Then she and Miller taught high
school in South Sudan during the Second Sudanese Civil War.
The country was under curfew and the couple “wrote, wrote,
and wrote,” she says, adding, “There was nothing else to do. We
didn’t have a computer. I still write longhand because of it.”
While in South Sudan, Samatar began working on A Stranger
in Olandria—a book that was 13 years in gestation, about a long
journey across a war-torn land. “I started it there and wrote
220,000 words,” she says. “Then we moved to Egypt for nine
years. We got a computer, I wrote the sequel, had two kids, and
Keith sold The Book of Flying to Riverhead. And I was still
working on it, querying and mailing manuscripts to America.”
When they returned to the States—and Samatar started her
PhD in Madison—she met Gavin Grant, the publisher at Small
42 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 2 2

Beer Press, and all the hard work finally paid off. The novel was
published in 2013 to acclaim, and by then she’d published
several short stories and was also reviewing for publications like
Uncanny and Tor.com. “There are so many things you can do to
just be involved in book culture—to be a good literary citizen,”
she tells her creative writing students now.
Samatar currently teaches literature and creative writing, and
she finally feels at home in both worlds. “For the longest time,
I didn’t even put my novels on my CV, there was such a divide,”
she says. “But now, I love the collaboration. I love teaching, and
I love working with other artists.”
In 2018 she released the illustrated novel Monster Portraits,
which she created with her brother, Del Samatar. It’s a kaleidoscopic work that melds prose, poetry, art, and narrative vignettes
both grounded and surreal. “I wanted to work with him so
people would know that Del is actually the gifted one in the
family,” Samatar says. “We grew up very Gen-X latchkey. He
was always drawing, and I was writing.”
Which brings her back to The White Mosque, a work that
unites the unique, startling contrasts of her journey. “It’s been
so interesting, exploring this space between fiction and nonfiction—a nonfiction world that can still feel like a novel,” she
says. “To get all these pieces of me into one book—being a
Mennonite with a Somali background—became this huge
challenge. The whole book is the journey, and for me, it was
transformative.”
■
Sona Charaipotra is senior editor at Parents and the author of five books,
including How Maya Got Fierce, Symptoms of a Heartbreak, and
Tiny Pretty Things, which has been adapted by Netflix.

Review_FICTION

TO N YA C A L L AG H A N

Reviews
Fiction
Liberation Day
George Saunders. Random House, $28
(256p) ISBN 978-0-525-50959-2

Booker winner Saunders (Lincoln in the
Bardo) returns to the short form with a
wide-ranging collection that alternates
his familiar fun house of warped simulations with subtler dramas. In “Ghoul,”
actors playing demons at an Inferno-esque
attraction called “Maws of Hell” succumb
to workplace rivalries under the watchful
eye of their managers. “Love Letter,” set
in a Trumpist dystopia where “loyalists”
report dissenters for infractions, takes the
form of a man’s cautionary letter to his
defiant grandson. The title story imagines a sinister company whose employees,
little more than programs, are forced to
recreate Custer’s last stand. Other stories
probe loss, regret, and hopefulness. “The
Mom of Bold Action” follows a frustrated
writer and housewife facing turmoil when
her son is attacked by at least one of two
identical old creeps. “Mother’s Day”
explores the inner life of a once feisty
elderly woman now living at a remove
from the world after her daughter runs
away from home. “Elliot Spencer” combines
futurism and pathos as a mind-wiped
counterprotester suddenly recovers his
identity. Saunders’s four previous collections shook the earth a bit harder, but he
continues to humanize those whom society has worn down to a nub. Despite the
author’s shift to quieter character studies,
there’s plenty to satisfy longtime devotees.
(Oct.)

The Night Ship
Jess Kidd. Atria, $28 (400p) ISBN 978-1982180-81-2

Kidd (Things in Jars) unfurls parallel
narratives of two nine-year-old children
in her intriguing latest, based on a historical shipwreck. In 1628, after the mother
of a girl named Mayken dies, she sails
from Holland to the Dutch East Indies
with her nursemaid to join her merchant
father. Mayken’s precocious nature leads

Suzette Mayr’s The Sleeping Car Porter
unfolds over the course of a train journey in
1920s Canada (reviewed on p. 44).

her to explore the ship, called the Batavia.
While dressed as a boy in order to pass
unnoticed, Mayken searches deep into the
Batavia for a monster that crew members
claim lives there. In 1989, a boy named Gil
goes to live on Beacon Island in Australia
after his mother’s death. Gil now lives with
his fisherman grandfather, Joss Hurley.
This is where the Batavia sank, and an excavation of the wreck is now underway. Gil is
intrigued by the project and by the rumor
that a ghost still haunts the island. Meanwhile, a feud escalates between Joss and
Roper, another fisherman, that started
years ago when Roper’s uncle drowned at
sea. Kidd effortlessly navigates between
the two time periods, highlighting the
similarities between Mayken’s and Gil’s
lives and the increasing dangers they face.
Readers will be swept up in this fastpaced narrative. Agent: Amelia Atlas,
ICM Partners. (Oct.)

★ A Ballet of Lepers
Leonard Cohen. Grove, $27 (272p) ISBN 9780-8021-6047-8

The late singer-songwriter and novelist Cohen (Beautiful Losers) leaves readers
with an enthralling collection of work
written in the 1950s and ’60s, as complex
and dark as his lyrics. The unnamed narrator of the title novella is an aimless,
solitary 35-year-old Montreal man who
leads “an underground existence.” After
the narrator learns his grandfather needs a
place to live, he takes the older man in. It
turns out the grandfather and narrator are
ruthlessly violent—in one harrowing

scene, the grandfather joins the narrator
in beating the narrator’s girlfriend—and
the story ends in a stunning reversal. In
“O.K. Herb, O.K. Flo,” the narrator
muses bitterly on Montreal’s cold surfaces: “All the stone you could want to
fool yourself that life is substantial.” The
narrator goes to a bar and meets a mediocre jazz player named Herb, who confides
he’s going to convince his former lover,
Flo, now married, to commit adultery.
Herb passes out, leaving the narrator and
Flo to discuss the situation. “Polly” follows a junior high girl who orders two
younger children to do a variety of
demeaning tasks in order for them to
hear her play her recorder, such as taking
out her trash. Cohen (1934–2016) writes
brilliantly of desire and cruelty as his
desperate characters yearn for connection.
This is magnificent. (Oct.)

Daughters of the New Year
E.M. Tran. Hanover Square, $27.99 (314p)
ISBN 978-1-335-42923-0

Tran debuts with a complex story
involving many generations of a Vietnamese family’s women and their resilience.
Xuan flees the fall of Saigon in 1975 for
the U.S. with her mother and sister, losing
her home, family wealth, and social standing. In the years after, she has three
daughters and charts the family’s future
with a complex zodiac almanac, as the
trauma of dislocation and war manifests
in her being ever ready for disaster. Now,
in 2016, Trac, the eldest, is a successful
lawyer, refusing to submit to her father’s
plans and hiding her sexuality from her
parents. Aspiring actress Nhi, the middle
sister, wanders off the set of a reality show
in Saigon and disappears. Trieu, the
youngest, hopes to live up to her mother’s
expectations by becoming a writer. Later,
Xuan reveals how she and her mother
managed to escape Saigon, and that tragic
story sheds light on the difficulties faced
by the three daughters. Tran further
complicates the legacy with stories of
the women’s ancestors who resisted
third-century Chinese occupation and
19th-century French imperialism.
Though the many threads can be hard to
follow, and Tran’s decision to abandon
Xuan’s daughters’ story lines will frustrate readers, she does an excellent job at
conveying the cyclical nature of family and
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

Review_FICTION

political history. Though a bit unwieldy,
there are plenty of powerful moments.
Agent: Dan Strone, Trident Media. (Oct.)

Life Is Everywhere
Lucy Ives. Graywolf, $18 trade paper (472p)
ISBN 978-1-64445-204-2

Ives (Cosmogeny) offers a discursive and
funny Nabokovian story of academic stultification. Erin Adamo is a graduate student
in New York City, where a recent scandal
involving a relationship between one of her
peers and faculty member Roger Herbsweet
has rocked her school’s department. Meanwhile, Erin’s husband has just left her. After
she accidentally locks herself out of her
apartment, she takes refuge in the library. In
her bag are three manuscripts—two short
novels, authored by herself, and Herbsweet’s profile of the enigmatic Démocrite
Charlus LeGouffre, an imagined 19th-century French novelist and child of a Parisian
courtesan, each of which Ives presents in
their entirety before cutting back to Erin
and her terrible night in the library, which,
prompted by Herbsweet’s text, sends her
into a fit of mania. Holding together these
layers are the theme of recursion and a hint
of mystery. Erin’s second novel, about the
end of a marriage, presages the end of her
own (“She had not known, and yet she had,”
Erin wrote of her protagonist). Meanwhile,
in Herbsweet’s pages, Ives nails the stuffy
remove of academic diction, almost to the
point of pain. Brave readers will enjoy
piecing together the puzzle. Agent: Chris
Clemans, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Oct.)

Hugs and Cuddles
João Gilberto Noll, trans. from the Brazilian
Portuguese by Edgar Garbelotto. Two Lines,
$14.95 trade paper (280p) ISBN 978-1949641-38-7

Late Brazilian writer Noll (Harmada)
offers a breathless exploration of a Porto

Allegre man’s sexuality and desire. Narrator João Imaculado has yearned for his
old friend, whom he calls “the engineer,”
since their erotically charged wrestling
as pubescent boys. João never acted on
his feelings for the engineer, and though
he’s now married with a son, he regularly
has sex with men, mostly strangers. He
reconnects with the engineer for a phantasmagoric scene aboard a German WWII
submarine, where they watch several
German men have an orgy and share an
old familiar feeling of mutual lust, again
unrequited. Before the boat heads to sea,
João returns to his home in Porto Allegre.
His insistent sexual needs (“I was so tired
of the eternal hell of libido”) lead to more
bathroom stall hookups at the movies and
wide-ranging lustful fantasies that may
or may not be realized, including with a
goat. When the submarine is targeted by
terrorists, Imaculado fears the engineer
is dead, but finds him at his side after he
is drugged and beaten by a rent boy. The
author creates a dizzying, hallucinatory
effect as João undergoes a series of wild
transformations. In the end, Noll (1946–
2017) transcends erotica for a memorable
story of an attempt at liberation. (Oct.)

deal with: a romance writer and her adult
daughter, a medium who believes her compartment is haunted, a recently orphaned
little girl, a spry doctor, and a recluse with
a possible stowaway in his cabin. It will all
be worth it, however, if Baxter’s work as a
porter allows
him to save
enough money
to go to dentistry school.
Mayr’s prose is
vivid but never
overwrought,
capturing the
surrealism of
intense fatigue
in constant
motion: “He sits on the hopper again, his
only escape, staring into the dark hole
between his legs as rail ties blur by in the
dark. He misses standing still.” Readers
will be captivated. (Oct.)

★ The Sleeping Car Porter

In this unsettling novel from Ernaux
(The Years), first published in France in
1977, a teenage girl has her first sexual
experience on summer break. Anne,
introverted and contemplative at 15,
harbors a cool contempt for her workingclass parents, especially her mother (“It
had been a long time since she had said
anything interesting to me”), and imagines
living like the misanthropic protagonist
of Camus’s The Stranger. She vacillates
between the intensities of her boredom
(“I wanted something to happen, that
was all, and nothing was happening”)
and curiosity about her secret-sharing
girlfriends, a lecherous neighbor, and

Suzette Mayr. Coach House. $17.95 trade
paper (216p) ISBN 978-1-55245-458-9

Mayr’s dazzling latest (after Dr. Edith
Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall) tells
the story of Baxter, a queer Black train
porter, during a trip from Montreal to
Vancouver in 1929. While Baxter grinds
through endless tasks to keep the passengers happy and comfortable, he endures
insufficient meals, sleep deprivation,
repressed sexual desires, and the ever-present threat of receiving his 60th demerit,
after which a porter is fired. On this particular journey, there are also singular guests to

Do What They Say or Else
Annie Ernaux, trans. from the French by
Christopher Beach and Carrie Noland. Univ. of
Nebraska, $17.95 trade paper (134p)
ISBN 978-1-4962-2800-0

▲

Our Reviewers

Allen Appel
Vicki Bloom
William Boisvert
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Rob Clough
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Anthony Costentino
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Ed Strauss
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Review_FICTION
Entry Level

★ Singer Distance
Ethan Chatagnier. Tin House, $27.95 (280p) ISBN 978-1-953534-43-9

hatagnier’s soaring debut novel (after the collection Warnings from the Future) centers on a group
of five MIT grad students who head west in their
attempt to contact extraterrestrial beings. In the
early 1960s, Rick and his girlfriend Crystal, along
with three friends Ronnie, Otis, and Priya, spend their
Christmas traveling along Route 66. Crystal’s father, an
academic statistician, told her stories when she was a
little girl about Mars and the mathematical messages
rumored in the early 1920s to have been carved into its
surface in response to contact attempts. After scrutiny,
she thinks she has solved the mystery of the latest Martian mathematical message and attempts to respond by planting flags in the
Arizona desert. When lovestruck Rick realizes Crystal has gone missing, he
searches for clues to her whereabouts and ends up looking for her in California.
Chatagnier does an excellent job channeling the hippie students’ grit, joy, and
constant self-awareness. Rick, describing the group in his narration, says they’re
“dirty as beggars but we were grinning,” and he offers enriching development of
all the characters as Rick incrementally solves the mystery of Crystal’s whereabouts.
The elements of astronomy, numerology, love, and the possibility of extraterrestrial
life are structured perfectly as each of the five commit to their “long-shot missions
and desperate hopes.” Readers are in for a memorable adventure. (Oct.)
sex, which she believes will fundamentally alter her being and place in the
world. It doesn’t, as all she learns from
losing her virginity to the older, politically engaged Mathieu is “the brutality of
boys, their lack of tenderness.” Nonetheless, Anne eludes the watchful gaze of her
parents to pursue more sexual encounters,
each a disillusionment that further
increases her puzzlement. All the while,
Ernaux renders a clear-eyed and pitiless
depiction of Anne’s dissatisfaction. It adds
up to a powerful portrait of a searching
adolescent. (Oct.)

Please Be Advised
Christine Sneed. 7.13 Books, $19.99 trade
paper (270p) ISBN 979-8-9853762-6-5

Sneed’s perplexing satire in memos
(after the collection The Virginity of
Famous Men) runs on workplace drama at
an office supplies manufacturer. Each
memo convincingly apes the corporate
voice of interoffice emails, with the
added touch of highly personal details
such as accounts of employees’ sex lives.
Dr. Ken Crickshaw, the new office manager (formerly a county coroner), slowly
becomes the designated rival of Bryan

Stokerly, Esq., the company president.
Meanwhile, an IRS audit is afoot, and
Ken has designated himself the company
matchmaker. For whatever reason, the
first lucky couple is expected to send
periodic dispatches regarding their relationship to the
entire staff. In
addition,
employees are
encouraged to
take frequent
wellness surveys. As each
share their
“Story of Personal Triumph,”
the reader
senses the author padding the manuscript
with manufactured character development. When a recall of the company’s
“collapsible paper cutter” causes financial
trouble, everyone’s secrets begin to come
out. Sneed nails the relentless falsity of
corporate jargon and company creeds, but
not for any clear purpose. Readers may
very well put in their notice before this is
over. (Oct.)

Wendy Wimmer. Autumn House, $17.95
trade paper (160p) ISBN 978-1-63768-058-2

Wimmer’s innovative and darkly
humorous debut collection employs
emergency situations and fantastical
elements as the protagonists struggle to
make a living with low-paying jobs.
“Passeridae” follows a group of crew
members aboard a cruise ship as they take
cover from terrorists in a laundry closet,
where they reflect on the debauchery of
their guests and reference the movie
Titanic while joking about their low likelihood of survival. “INGOB” involves a
search in Door County, Wis., for the missing county snowplow driver, nicknamed
“Chief.” Mabel, the narrator, wonders if
Chief’s disappearance is connected to a
mysterious stranger who recently
appeared at the rec center, where Mabel
runs the bingo table. She describes the
sound of his voice as “rustling leaves or
maybe a rusted chain dropping to the
floor,” which caused her to fumble the
cards, and Chief came to her aid by ordering the man to leave. In “Strange Magic,”
the employees of a skating rink discover
that if they skate counterclockwise
around the rink, they will reverse their
aging. When Mary Ellen, who had a mastectomy, discovers her breast has regrown,
the narrator’s understated reaction perfectly
sums up the mood of Wimmer’s characters:
“We had confirmation that something
weird was happening.” Throughout,
Wimmer makes the most of strange situations. (Oct.)

Marmee
Sarah Miller. Morrow, $27.99 (432p)
ISBN 978-0-06-304187-5

Miller (Caroline: Little House, Revisited)
offers another tepid retelling of an American classic, this time from the perspective
of Little Women mother Margaret “Marmee”
March. Marmee writes in her diary on
Christmas Eve in 1861 of how she wishes
to give her daughters treats but has no
money from her husband Amos, who has
been gone four months as an army chaplain. Marmee misses him dearly, though
she has her hands full doing charity work
and stretching his paychecks to keep their
home in Concord, Mass. What follows
hews closely to Alcott’s original as Marmee
describes their lives in the community and
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how she and the girls come to the aid of
the starving Hummel family. Their
neighbors, the generous Mr. Laurence
and his grandson, nicknamed Laurie, are
unexpected delights to their days, but
other entries are weighed by the war
news, the spiteful Aunt March, and
thoughts about her stillborn child.
Marmee feels guilt, too, over her temper,
adding to her worries over their financial
straits that keep Jo and Meg working
instead of at school (just how this happened is revealed near the end). Though
overlong and light on new angles to the
old story, Miller convincingly captures
Marmee’s world and offers a bit of insight
on the character. Die-hard Little Women
fans might find this intriguing. (Oct.)

That Summer in Berlin
Lecia Cornwall. Berkley, $17 trade paper
(464p) ISBN 978-0-593-19794-3

Cornwall (The Woman at the Front)
delivers a serviceable tale of intrigue during the 1936 Olympics. Viviane Alden is

a spirited English lady with a camera and
guts, and her leading man is gruff Tom
Graham, a Scottish earl’s illegitimate
son. Tom, a journalist, shares Viviane’s
determination to find proof during the
festivities that Germany is preparing for
another war. Though Viviane is purportedly in Berlin to chaperone her debutante
stepsister, who’s searching like many
women of their generation for a German
husband as part of Britain’s diplomacy
effort, she earns Tom’s trust by sharing
the story of her soldier father’s death from
German mustard gas. Still, as Tom gets
in deeper undercover with the Germans,
he worries she might betray him, his
thoughts confronting him with a “bottomless pool of intrigue and suspicion.”
Just about everything here is predictable,
but Cornwall does a good job making
Viviane a classic heroine, capable of saving herself while still appreciating being
saved, and of proving that women can
work just as well as men. There’s nothing
remarkable here, but it’s enjoyable none-

★ Blood Red
Gabriela Ponce, trans. from the Spanish by Sarah Booker. Restless, $18 trade paper
(192p) ISBN 978-1-63206-330-4

n this unflinching English-language debut from
Ecuadorian writer Ponce, a 38-year-old woman wrestles with life-changing decisions. The author adopts
a stream-of-consciousness style for the unnamed
narrator, who enjoys roller-skating in Ecuador with her
girlfriends and drinking in bars. With her marriage on
the rocks, the narrator develops a torrid affair with a
stranger who resides in a cave-like hovel, coated in
vines, moss, and mud. Their attraction is intense and
visceral; while on her period, her blood heightens his
desire. After her husband announces he’s leaving her, he
informs her that he’s also having an affair. Her own
affair, which is purely physical, leaves her unsatisfied and lonely. While despondent after realizing she’s in love with the cave dweller, she drives drunk and
believes she hits a man with her car, which destabilizes her. She seeks refuge at a
retreat that temporarily salves her heartache over her lover and guilt over the
accident, though she wonders if the crash was a hallucination. Ponce brings striking candor to the narrator’s ambivalence as she undergoes a series of emotional
transformations, and Booker expertly captures the rhythm and velocity of Ponce’s
prose, which skims along the surface before plunging into startling depths, such
as this scene with the narrator and her husband: “we talked about friends, filed a
few complaints, and then he said he’d met someone. I asked her name and then
came the quiet that warns of the greatest danger.” Ponce packs a powerful punch.
Agent: Sophie Savary, Sophie Savary Literary. (Oct.)

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theless. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon
Literary Agency. (Oct.)

The Empress
Gigi Griffis. Zando, $17 trade paper (336p)
ISBN 978-1-63893-016-7

Griffis debuts with a sumptuous historical, recently adapted for Netflix,
involving a romance among the royal
families of the Habsburg empire. In
1853, 15-year-old Duchess Elisabeth of
Bavaria is determined to avoid the fate of
her older sister, Helene, who is intended
to marry Emperor Franz Joseph, 23, their
cousin whom they’ve never met. Elisabeth, a budding poet with a mind of her
own, repeatedly rejects the noblemen
recommended by her mother. When the
three women travel to the Kaiservilla in
Bad Ischl so Helene can meet Franz,
chance encounters between him and
Elisabeth lead to a deep intellectual and
physical attraction. Franz, preoccupied
with modernizing the empire and keeping it out of a war that’s brewing between
France and Russia, hadn’t been keen on
marrying, but now tells his controlling
mother he will marry Elisabeth or no one.
Elisabeth is thrilled by Franz’s proposal
and eagerly accepts, which causes a painful rift in her usually close relationship
with Helene. Griffis lends her leads admirable strengths and forgivable flaws and
colors them in with plenty of lush period
detail. She also brings dramatic flair to
the political intrigue before satisfyingly
tying up the plot’s burning questions.
Nothing in this story disappoints. Agent:
Veronica Park, Fuse Literary. (Oct.)

Swann’s War
Michael Oren. Dzanc, $26.95 (256p)
ISBN 978-1-950539-60-4

Journalist, novelist, and former Israeli
ambassador Oren (To All Who Call in Truth)
opens his overwrought latest with an
engaging premise: what would happen if
the police chief of a normally tranquil Massachusetts island joins the Marines during
WWII and his wife has to replace him during an outbreak of murders? As a series of
bodies are discovered in the waters and
swamps off of Fourth Cliff, interim police
chief Mary Beth Swann finds herself fighting on several fronts; against skeptical and
disrespectful townspeople, FBI agents,
interloper Louis Corvelli, a Mafia boss from

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the mainland, and a multitude of suspects.
The murder victims are all Italian POWs
who were held at the island’s prison, and
the most prominent suspects include an
Army lieutenant, a fellow POW, Corvelli,
and a shell-shocked ex-bomber. Oren
succeeds at getting readers invested, and
there are some nice descriptions of the
bleak setting (the ocean’s waves “rose and
fell uninvitingly”), though the plot strains
credulity as Corvelli’s henchmen attack
the FBI agents, and the dialogue feels like
outtakes from a B-movie. Most exasperatingly, a story that seems intended to
exhibit a woman’s empowerment ends up
dwelling on Mary Beth’s incompetence.
An accomplished journalist and diplomat,
Oren does better when sticking to the
facts. (Oct.)

When We Were Sisters
Fatimah Asghar. One World, $27 (224p)
ISBN 978-0-593-13346-0

Asghar follows the poetry collection If
They Come for Us with her elegant debut
novel, which follows three Pakistani
American sisters scrabbling to get by after
their father dies. Nine-year-old Noreen,
the oldest and de facto caretaker; Aisha,
the quarrelsome middle child; and Kausar,
the sensitive youngest, are taken in by an
estranged relative, referred to only as
“Uncle,” who promises them a home with
a zoo. It soon becomes apparent that he
has taken custody only to cash the checks
that the government pays him to care for
the sisters (the “zoo” turns out to be a
hallway of mistreated pets), and he rules
the sisters’ lives with authoritarian
neglect, demanding they follow a strict
schedule even while he leaves them unsupervised for long stretches of time. The
sisters must learn to grapple with their
grief while caring for each other and establishing their own identities. Asghar’s
poetic sensibilities are on full display in
the lyrical and oblique prose (“Brown
fingers cradle porcelain, the news spreading fast and careless as a common cold”),
and the frequent formal experimentation
enlivens the text (for example, one page
reads in its entirety: “A bunk bed in
exchange for a father./ What idiots. He
was our father. We should have asked for
more”). The result is a creative telling of
a tender coming-of-age tale. (Oct.)

Mystery/Thriller
Seventeen: Last Man Standing
John Brownlow. Hanover Square, $26.99
(352p) ISBN 978-1-335-46959-5

The hit man codenamed Seventeen,
the narrator of Brownlow’s pulse-pounding debut, was preceded by Sixteen, now
retired, and the line stretches back to the
Romanovs. Seventeen, who reports to a
boss known only as Handler, works his
way through two stressful hits in Berlin,
pulling them both off but showing the
sort of weakness and hesitation that
make clients nervous. Sure enough,
Eighteen, highly trained and itching to
get to the top of the heap, is tasked with
taking out Seventeen, but fails. Rattled
and sensing that Handler may try to reactivate Sixteen, Seventeen begins an arduous
search-and-destroy mission at Sixteen’s
well-protected hideout in rural South
Dakota. The two clash, fighting to a deadlock, before deciding to join forces against
a mutual enemy. An explosive showdown
awaits in the California desert. After a
brisk start, the action moves more haltingly toward the end. Seventeen’s
captivating voice—imagine a cold killer
who speaks with savage directness but
desperately wants to bring the reader into
the complexity of his world—helps carry
the plot and mask some of its formulaic
aspects and silliness. Bronlow is off to a
good start. (Nov.)

★ Punishment of a Hunter:
A Leningrad Confidential

Yulia Yakovleva, trans. from the Russian by
Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp. Pushkin Vertigo, $15.95
trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-78227-679-1

Set in the
Soviet Union
during the
1930s, Russian
author Yakovleva’s outstanding
U.S. debut, a
series launch,
captures the
tense paranoid
atmosphere of
the period.
Investigator Vasily Zaitsev, of the Leningrad Criminal Investigation Department,
looks into the murder of bookkeeper

Faina Baranova, who was found strangled
in her room. Baranova’s killer posed the
corpse on an armchair, with a white rose
in one hand and a feather duster in the
other, and had brought red silk curtains
into the apartment to display behind the
body. Before Zaitsev can advance in his
inquiries, he falls afoul of the OGPU, the
secret police unit responsible for punishing “crimes against Soviet ideology,” who
believe the investigator has a suspect lineage. Fortunately, his terrifying captivity
is cut short when he’s needed to help with
a multiple murder, whose victims include
a Black American Communist and three
Russian women, all posed as if for a portrait. Yakovleva perfectly balances evoking
the terror of living in a police state with
her whodunit plotline. Fans of Martin
Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko will hope to
see much more of Zaitsev. (Oct.)

The Last Chairlift
John Irving. Simon & Schuster, $35 (912p)
ISBN 978-1-5011-8927-2

This overblown and underplotted
behemoth of a novel from Irving (The
World According to Garp) follows the idiosyncratic journey to adulthood of Adam,
an illegitimate child born and raised in
New England who becomes a writer. The
search for Adam’s father’s identity provides a thriller element, but it never
generates much narrative momentum.
Dickensian in scope, the book includes
multiple story lines, notably the complex
love life of Adam’s lesbian mother, Little
Ray, a ski instructor who marries a man
who will identify as a woman. Nora, an
outspoken lesbian cousin who’s a victim
of sexual violence, also plays a significant
role. Along the way, Irving chronicles
American society from the 1950s to
roughly the present, focused on feminism
and sexual intolerance. His enormous
imagination, his storytelling gifts, and
his intelligence are all on display, but this
feels more like a coda to his career, if one
with a still-resonant theme about family
and the maternal relationship: “We’re
alone in the way we love our mothers, or
in the way we don’t.” Irving’s fans may
love this, but it’s not the place to start for
anyone new to his work. Agents: Dean
Cooke, Cooke McDermid, and Janet Turnbull,
Turnbull Agency. (Oct.)

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The Maze: A John Corey Novel
Nelson DeMille. Scribner, $30 (464p)
ISBN 978-1-5011-0178-6

[Q&A]

PW Talks with Yulia Yakovleva

Policing in a Police State
In Yakovleva’s Punishment of a Hunter (Pushkin Vertigo, Oct.; reviewed on
p. 47), Insp. Vasily Zaitsev of the Leningrad Criminal Investigation
Department seeks the truth, and justice, in the Soviet Union of the 1930s.

Where did the idea of a killer posing
victims very elaborately come from?
From my twisted mind, I’m afraid. I
grew up in St. Petersburg, and it’s
hardly an exaggeration that I used to
visit the Hermitage every week. It’s
a great place to walk, especially in
wintertime. If you have just once
experienced the winter wind in St.
Petersburg, you cannot forget it, trust
me. I visited the painting collection
with no clue, and no interest, as to
who the painters were, which style
or era they represented, but I had an

impression of almost wax-looking,
or almost blue, bodies and faces, and
I thought disgusting, they look like
they’re dead. So much later, when I
was thinking about this book, this
impression just popped up.

MADICKEN SCHEI

What surprised you the most from
researching the period?
How people managed to keep living
in two dimensions simultaneously.
In the first one, you
enjoy your work or
your art, you are in
love, you have fun
with your friends,
you have ambitions,
you simply enjoy life,
both in its greatest
and most trivial
pleasures, like nice
weather, the sea, or
ice cream. In the
other dimension,
you feel nothing but
the wall of horror,
darkness, sorrow,
pain, fear, and anger around. I must
add that after Putin invaded Ukraine,
I could see myself how it is possible.
©

What led you to examine the Soviet
Union under Stalin through a crime
fiction lens after doing so in children’s
novels?
The idea that nobody had done it
before, first of all. It’s not just a crime
novel with Stalinist Soviet Union as a
background, but I tried to express the
spirit, the vibe, the zeitgeist of that
era through the crime genre. I tried to
imagine what it was like to be an ordinary person in Soviet
Leningrad in the
1930s. I was thinking
of the everyday
feeling of being
hunted, that every
minute can turn
unpredictable, most
likely in a horrible
way. And I found it
exciting that this
“ordinary person” is
a policeman, that is
to say a hunter. He
hunts, and is hunted,
at the same time.

How has this series been received in
Russia?
It became a bestseller and opened the
door to a huge wave of Soviet retro
crime novels of different kinds. The
Soviet era is the biggest obsession of
Russian culture of Putin’s time. Suddenly, tons of people said to themselves, “Aha! I have also something to
say about it.”

48 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 2 2

—Lenny Picker

Bestseller DeMille’s ponderous eighth
John Corey novel (after 2015’s Radiant
Angel) drags Corey—former NYPD
detective, former contract agent with the
Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force, former
member of the Diplomatic Surveillance
Group, and former adjunct professor at
John Jay College of Criminal Justice—
out of his enforced retirement. One of
Corey’s former lovers, Det. Beth Penrose
of the Suffolk County Homicide Squad,
urges him to take a job with a private
investigation firm on Long Island called
Security Solutions. After much dithering,
Corey finally succumbs to Beth’s entreaties and winds up in a treacherous maze of
vice, graft, and blackmail, and on the trail
of a serial killer. Fortunately, the dirty
cops and lowlifes employed by the detective agency are as old-school as Corey,
who ends up looking for incriminating
evidence among Security Solutions’
recent videocassettes and paper ledgers,
which are stored in a basement secured by
a padlock. Armed with his trusty Glock, a
crowbar, and unlimited cockiness, Corey
manfully succeeds in fighting crime. This
is for die-hard fans only. Agents: Sloan
Harris and Jennifer Joel, ICM Partners.
(Oct.)

A Strange Habit of Mind:
A Cameron Winter Crime Story
Andrew Klavan. Mysterious, $26.95 (288p)
ISBN 978-1-61316-351-1

Edgar winner Klavan’s subpar sequel
to 2021’s When Christmas Comes finds
Cameron Winter, who once worked for a
covert government entity called the
Division, now a literature professor at a
Midwestern university after blackmailing
the dean about “things the dean wanted
to keep hidden until the end of the world.”
Winter is troubled by the suicide of a former student, Adam Kemp, who jumped
from the roof of his San Francisco apartment building right after texting Winter,
“Help me.” Winter, who defended Kemp
against a date rape charge and is curious
why Kemp hadn’t waited a few minutes
for a response to the text, travels to California to investigate. Though he accepts
the official verdict of suicide, Winter
comes to believe that a powerful tech

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titan, an in-law of Kemp’s girlfriend,
played a role in the death. The lead’s
special gift—to suddenly understand
puzzling motives and actions after he
“slipped without warning into a silent
state akin to meditation”—isn’t distinctive enough to make the character
memorable. Klavan fails to make the
conceit of a guilt-ridden intelligence
operative turned academic plausible.
Agent: Mark Gottlieb, Trident Media
Group. (Oct.)

A Murder at Balmoral
Chris McGeorge. Putnam, $17 trade paper
(384) ISBN 978-0-593-54413-6

In this locked room mystery with
echoes of Agatha Christie, British author
McGeorge (Now You See Me) delivers a
droll if disappointing look at a fictional
royal family, whose members have gathered to celebrate a traditional Christmas
at Balmoral Castle located in the remote
Scottish Highlands. All the royals, a
mixed bag of egos, have been made to
hand over their mobile devices, and are
soon cut off from the outside world by a
huge blizzard. King Eric Windsor has
sent all servants and staff home, demanding that the only people to be present are
his family; his smarmy security “juggernaut,” Tony Speck; and his loyal personal
chef, Jonathan Alleyne. The 85-year-old
king plans to make an important announcement that will affect the monarchy. But as
he begins to describe his proposal during
a toast, he drops dead from drinking poisoned whiskey. Mouth-watering scenes of
the chef cooking make up only in part for
an uninspired plot, a ho-hum resolution,
and characters that are stock types, aside
from Jonathan. McGeorge has done better.
Agent: Hannah Sheppard, DHH Literary
(U.K.). (Oct.)

★ Noonday Dark
Charles Demers. Douglas & McIntyre, $16.95
trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-77162-328-5

In Canadian author Demers’s excellent
sequel to 2020’s Primary Obsessions, Vancouver psychotherapist Annick Boudreau
is shaken when the police inform her that a
patient she’s been treating for depression,
Danielle MacFadden, has disappeared,
leaving a suicide note. The psychologist
has never lost a patient before, and is convinced that MacFadden had turned things

around. Boudreau’s curiosity about what
happened is encouraged by her patient’s
estranged father, who also refuses to
believe that his daughter took her own
life, and she suspects the truth may be
connected with local politics. MacFadden, a gifted comedian, helped the
campaign of the newly elected mayor,
Alberto Rossi, by inserting laugh lines
into his speeches. Less than a month into
his term, Rossi is embroiled in scandal.
The mayor
pledged to
phase out a
major trucking
corridor, whose
residents suffered from air
and noise pollution as a result
of the heavy
commercial
traffic, but he
abruptly backs off his promise. Demers
makes the amateur sleuthing believable,
and populates the supporting cast with
well-developed characters, both major
and minor. This clever and empathic
series merits a long run. (Oct.)

The Medici Murders
David Hewson. Severn, $29.99 (288p)
ISBN 978-1-4483-0656-5

The murder of British TV historian
Marmaduke Godolphin, found floating
in a Venetian canal with a stiletto blade in
his chest, propels this gripping mystery
from Hewson (The Garden of Angels).
With the annual Carnival festival under
way and tourists swarming the city, the
police are determined to put the case to
rest as quickly as possible. Enter retired
archivist Arnold Clover, who was helping
Godolphin search historical documents
for clues Godolphin believed would
reveal the identity of the assassins of
Lorenzino de’ Medici 500 years earlier.
Meanwhile, Godolphin’s acolytes, known
as the Gilded Circle, have gathered in
Venice and have competing theories
about whether Lorenzino, who murdered
his cousin Alessandro, the ruler of Florence, deserves his evil reputation. Could
one of them have had motive to kill
Godolphin? Clover must use the aged
papers and his own 21st-century research
skills to determine the truth and whether

there’s a connection between Lorenzino’s
death and Godolphin’s. The wet, dark,
cramped alleys of Venice provide an
atmospheric backdrop as the action shifts
in time before and after Godolphin’s murder. Hewson educates and entertains in
equal measure. (Oct.)

The Foulest Things:
A Dominion Archives Mystery
Amy Tector. Keylight, $15.99 trade paper
(264p) ISBN 978-1-68442-883-0

On a cold day in January 2010, Jess
Novak, the narrator of this cleverly plotted
series launch from Tector (The Honeybee
Emeralds), settles into her Ottawa office
for her first assignment at Canada’s
Dominion Archives, where she has a oneyear probationary contract. She is to read
and catalogue business documents
belonging to the estate of Henry Jarvis, a
former cabinet minister. Hidden inside
the cover of a ledger she’s examining is a
letter dated Sept. 20, 1914, to Victoria
Jarvis in Alberta from Jeremy Crawford
in Paris. After determining that Victoria
was Henry’s niece and Jeremy a minor
painter, Jess decides to search for more
information with an eye to writing a
scholarly paper that would secure her a
permanent position at the archive. While
in the art vault at the archives’ conservation facility, she finds the body of Paul
Thibodeau, one of the facility’s commissionaires. Was the killer one of her new
colleagues? Could the death be connected
to Jess’s research? Letters between Victoria
and Jeremy provide lively counterpoint
to Jess’s dangerous search for a longmissing Rembrandt painting related to
their correspondence. Readers will eagerly
look forward to Jess’s further adventures.
(Oct.)

Antiques Liquidation
Barbara Allan. Severn, $29.99 (208p)
ISBN 978-0-7278-5091-1

At the start of Allan’s madcap 16th
Trash ’n’ Treasures mystery (after 2021’s
Antiques Carry On), flamboyant septuagenarian Vivian Borne—honorary deputy
sheriff of Serenity, Iowa, antiques dealer,
and magnet for murder—awakens her
long-suffering 33-year-old daughter,
Brandy, at 2 a.m. for a questionable meeting early that same morning with sleazy
auctioneer Conrad Norris to purchase
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dead stock (aka “old unused new merchandise”) for their shop. Vivian blithely
ignores the dangers of entering a decrepit
warehouse once owned by Lyle “the Liquidator” Dayton, who mysteriously
disappeared years earlier. Vivian uses
some dirt she has on Norris to blackmail
him into letting her cherry-pick from the
stock before he auctions it. When Norris
ends up dead atop an elevator after the
auction, Vivian is determined to solve
the case. With a reluctant Brandy and her
fiancé, Tony Cassato, Serenity’s chief of
police, Vivian investigates a lengthy list
of suspects with reason to kill the doubledealing auctioneer. Can Vivian and
Brandy expose the murderer before he
permanently liquidates them? Humorous
asides and loads of antique lore will please
series fans. Allan (the pen name of Barbara
Collins and Max Allan Collins) delivers
the cozy goods. Agent: Dominick Abel,
Dominick Abel Literary. (Oct.)

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of
the Fateful Arrow
Daniel D. Victor. MX Publishing, $12.95 trade
paper (184p) ISBN 978-1-8042-4040-3

In Victor’s competent eighth Sherlock
Holmes and the American Literati mystery (after 2021’s Sherlock Holmes and the

Pandemic of Death), Holmes takes on
celebrated American crime writer Anna
Katharine Green (aka Mrs. Charles
Rohlfs) as a client. It’s June 2, 1890,
when a distraught Mrs. Rohlfs arrives at
the door of 221B Baker Street. She has
seen a beautiful young woman murdered—her heart pierced by an arrow—
in the Battle of Hastings exhibit at the
British Museum. Inspector Lestrade,
who’s handling the case, scurries after
someone he believes to be the most likely
suspect, regardless of the lack of evidence
or motive. It’s up to Holmes, Dr. Watson,
and plucky Mrs. Rohlfs, who proves a
worthy partner in detection, to uncover
the truth as they amble through this
convoluted melodrama. Illuminating
footnotes and the observant quotes from
Mrs. Rohlfs that head each chapter add
some sparkle. Those seeking stylistic
elegance or a fast-paced plot will have
to look elsewhere. (Oct.)

★ The Poison Machine
Robert J. Lloyd. Melville House, $29.99
(464p) ISBN 978-1-61219-975-7

It’s 1679 in Lloyd’s outstanding sequel
to 2021’s The Bloodless Boy, and English
scientist Harry Hunt is hoping to succeed
his friend and mentor, Robert Hooke, as

★ Jackal
Erin E. Adams. Bantam, $27 (336p) ISBN 978-0-593-49930-6

iz Rocher, the Black narrator of Adams’s stellar
debut, an unforgettable gut punch of a horror
thriller, returns reluctantly home to Johnstown, Pa.,
a largely white rust belt town, for the wedding of
her white best friend, Mel Parker. When Mel’s mixedrace daughter, Caroline, disappears in the woods, Liz’s
attempts to find Caroline lead her to the discovery of
years of police cover-ups of the deaths of Black girls in
the woods, their hearts neatly removed, and the revival
of her own memories of hiding in the woods the night a
fellow Black teen was murdered. Adams’s careful plotting
impresses with the subtle organic feel of embedded clues primed to emerge as
relevant much later. The girls’ thoughts are included at various points, and the
reader is thrown off balance when the narrative shifts to the point of view of the
supernatural killer at the moment of violence. At the same time, Adams skillfully
presents changing theories about the possible humans involved as Liz struggles
with who to trust and navigates dreamscapes that seem increasingly real. This
novel is a masterful and emotionally wrenching gem of Black storytelling.
Agent: Kerry D’Agostino, Curtis Brown. (Oct.)

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the Royal Society of London’s Curator of
Experiments. But after botching an electrical experiment, Hunt deems it wise to
accept the offer of Sir Jonas Moore, the
head of the Board of Ordnance, to become
an investigator
for the board.
Moore asks him
to travel to Norfolkshire to look
into the murder
of a man whose
head was bashed
in with a cannonball. Moore
identifies the
dead man, based
on the size of the skeletal remains and initials on a knife, as Capt. Jeffrey Hudson,
a dwarf treated like a plaything by then
Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of
Charles I. The plot thickens when Hunt
learns someone has assumed Hudson’s
identity and that the impersonation and
murder may be linked to a missing diamond. Hunt’s pursuit of the truth, which
takes him to France, imperils his life.
Lloyd skillfully combines an endearingly
flawed lead, jaw-dropping twists, and the
fraught, conspiracy-laden politics of the
Stuart Restoration. Iain Pears fans will be
enthralled. Agent: Gaia Banks, Sheil Land
Assoc. (U.K.). (Oct.)

Blackmail and Bibingka
Mia P. Manansala. Berkley Prime Crime, $17
trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-593-20171-8

In Agatha Award winner Manansala’s
cheeky third culinary cozy (after Homicide
and Halo-Halo), the trouble begins with
the return of restaurant owner Lila Macapagal’s prodigal cousin, Ronnie Flores,
during the annual Winter Bash in Shady
Palms, Ill. After a 15-year absence and a
suspicious stay in Florida, the “king of
get-rich-quick schemes” has heady plans
to buy a nearby winery and hawk a line of
traditional vintages, especially a potentially lethal lambanog. He has lined up a
group of out-of-town investors, including
the “expensively beautiful” Denise Sutton
and her suave fiancé, Xander Cruz.
Things go awry quickly when Denise
imbibes too much and dies. Denise’s twin
stepchildren immediately suspect Xander
of money-grubbing. But when Lila’s
aunt, Tita Rosie, receives an email threat-

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ening to expose what happened in Florida
with the claim that “Ronnie and Co. have
blood on their hands,” amateur detective
Lila widens the net. The sleuthing sometimes takes a back burner to food tastings,
but Manansala’s breezy style makes for
another brisk entry in this flavorful series,
recipes included. Readers will be hungry
for more. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon
Literary. (Oct.)

The Stranger Vanishes
Wendy Corsi Staub. Severn, $29.99 (224p)
ISBN 978-0-7278-5017-1

The disappearance of a visitor to Lily
Dale, N.Y., home of psychics, mystics,
and mediums drives Staub’s busy fifth
Lily Dale mystery (after 2021’s Pros and
Cons). On Juneteenth, widow Bella Jordan, Valley View Guesthouse’s manager,
is startled by a tall Black man seeking
shelter. By morning, he’s gone, leaving
only a satchel containing an old diary as
evidence of his existence. Bella’s inquiries
into her missing guest lead nowhere.
Still, she and her writer friend, Calla
Delaney, become fascinated by the pre–
Civil War diary revealing a local murder
by a traitorous member of the Underground Railroad. Meanwhile, Calla,
frustrated with her novel’s progress and
her slacker boyfriend Blue, son of the
wealthy and politically ambitious David
Slayton, reluctantly becomes swept up in
Slayton’s run for governor. As days pass
with no sighting of the stranger, spirits
of enslaved people who fled captivity
appear to Calla and urge her to “Help
him!” But who is Calla supposed to help,
and why does someone desperately want
the diary? Keeping track of the many
characters can be hard, and the updates
on these characters don’t leave much
room for plot development. This one’s
for established fans. Agent: Laura Blake
Peterson, Curtis Brown. (Oct.)

If She Wakes (Harlow #2)
Erik Therme. Thecker, $11.99 trade paper
(234p) ISBN 979-8-4798-3984-9

The shocks come fast and furious in
Therme’s gripping sequel to 2021’s If She
Dies. In the Midwestern town of Harlow,
Tess Parker remains traumatized two
years after her five-year-old daughter was
fatally struck by a car driven by Brady
Becker, who was sentenced only to a short

prison term for the homicide. After Becker’s release, Tess hires a PI to keep an eye
on him, a step she’s concealed from her
husband. But she’s thrust into more danger following a car accident that seriously
injures her passenger, Torrie Adams, the
widow of Tess’s brother Colin, landing
Torrie in a coma. As Tess juggles her
responsibilities to enable her to care for
her infant nephew, a stranger appears,
claiming to be Torrie’s older sister,
despite Torrie having stated she’d grown
up without any family. Another supposed
sibling of the comatose Torrie enters the
picture, further muddying the waters.
Therme makes his lead’s responses to the
unexpected believable and the jolts from
the twists earned. The ending tease will
have Mary Higgins Clark fans eager for
the sequel. (Self-published)

SF/Fantasy/Horror
The Choice
Nora Roberts. St. Martin’s, $29.99 (448p)
ISBN 978-1-250-27272-0

Bestseller Roberts expertly weaves
threads from the previous two books of
her Dragon Heart Legacy series into an
epic climax and gratifying grand finale
(following The Becoming). Life continues
in the magical world of Talamh in the
aftermath of the Battle of the Dark Portal:
fallen loved ones are honored, couples
wed, babies are born, and the wheel of the
year turns. But the shadow of the evil god
Odran, who hopes to crush Talamh and
rule all the worlds, still looms, and series
protagonist Breen and her found family
prepare for a final confrontation between
the forces of light and darkness. The
world and characters are comfortably
established by this point, allowing readers to be swept away by waves of events
as the battle
intensifies.
Though the
broad outcomes
are easily anticipated, Roberts
raises the stakes
enough to keep
readers guessing from
moment to
moment. Add

in a little romance to round out the tale,
and the result is a rewarding outing
for old and new fans alike. Agent: Amy
Berkower, Writers House. (Nov.)

Empire of Exiles
Erin M. Evans. Orbit, $17.99 trade paper
(432p) ISBN 978-0-316-44087-5

Evans (the Brimstone Angels series)
launches her Books of the Usurper epic
fantasy series with a heady mixture of
magic, murder,
and revolution.
Twenty-three
years before the
start of the
book, Redolfo,
Duke Kirazzi,
attempted a
coup in the
empire of Semilla. But the
Kirazzi Rebellion failed and Redolfo was executed. In
the present day, Quill, an apprentice
scribe, arrives in the capital city of Arlabecca to retrieve some ancient artifacts
from the Imperial Archives on a special
request from the remaining Kirazzi family.
While there, the murder of a prominent
lord throws the city into chaos. When
Quill discovers a dangerous weapon hidden among the Kirazzi artifacts—one
that hasn’t been used since the days of the
coup—he must band together with the
city’s Archivists to investigate the attack
and halt a conspiracy that threatens to
destroy the empire. There’s a bit of a
learning curve to Evans’s complex worldbuilding, but readers will be drawn in by
the memorable cast, vibrantly drawn fantasy cultures, and vivid prose. Epic fantasy
fans will be eager to see where the series
goes. Agent: Bridget Smith, JABberwocky.
(Nov.)

The Last Hero
Linden A Lewis. Skybound, $28.99 (624p)
ISBN 978-1-982127-05-3

Lewis brings their First Sister trilogy
to a dramatic conclusion in this empowering sci-fi epic (following The Second Rebel).
The expansive cast grapples with grief
and the desire for revenge as galaxy-shattering conflict becomes increasingly
inevitable. Working to change the Sisterhood from within, Astrid and Lily—now
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

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Mother Lilian I—are undermined at every
turn by enemies at the highest echelons
of Gean government. Meanwhile Hiro,
mourning their partner’s death, works to
prevent their father from unleashing a
weapon that could endanger the fragile
peace between the Geans, the Icarii, and
the distant, powerful Synthetics. And,
still suffering the aftereffects of the
Genekey virus, Luce and Hemlock work
to hold the fragmenting Aster factions
together. One of Lewis’s great strengths is
their fluent, authentic-feeling representation of multiple marginalized identities;
this outing is particularly notable for
having three disabled point-of-view characters. Heavy with side plots and political
messaging, this book occasionally feels
like it’s trying to do too much in a single
volume. Still, it provides a satisfying
escalation and closes out character arcs
well. Anyone looking for diverse, queernorm space opera will want to check out
this series. Agent: Alexandra Machinist,
ICM Partners. (Nov.)

Legends & Lattes
Travis Baldree. Tor, $17.99 trade paper
(304p) ISBN 978-1-250-88608-8

Baldree debuts with a gentle little
cozy set against an epic fantasy backdrop.
Aging and tired of bloodletting, orc
swordswoman Viv leads her mercenary
crew on one last adventure. After slaying
a monster and wrenching from its skull a
legendary stone, a talisman said to bring
good fortune to its bearer, she abandons
her erstwhile
comrades—
warrior dandy
Fennus, Gallina
of the sharp
knives, and Taivus—and settles
down in Thune.
There, she buys
a decrepit stable
and hires Cal, a
hob carpenter,
and Tandri, a reformed succubus, who
become her friends and helpers in opening
a coffee shop that eventually takes the
town by storm. The slight conflicts that
follow are far from standard high fantasy
fare: Viv must defy a local protection
racket and evade the machinations of the
envious Fennus. Viv’s success in business

is buttressed by her growing affection for
Tandri, adding a dash of sweet romance to
this tale of finding meaning in the little
things. This charming outing will please
anyone who’s ever wished to spend time
in a fantasy world without all the quests
and battles. (Nov.)

Across the Sand
Hugh Howey. Harper Voyager, $27.99 (400p)
ISBN 978-0-358-67045-2

Howey’s standalone sequel to 2014’s
Sand delves deeper into a world where the
remnants of modern civilization lie buried beneath hundreds of meters of sand.
In the mining city of Agyl, resourceful
Anya discovers the dark secret behind her
father’s business trips when an atomic
bomb destroys her town. Meanwhile,
across No Man’s Land, four siblings
rebuild their lives in the aftermath of a
tragedy: Conner longs to take the family
West, away from the depressing routines
of survival, while Palmer’s desperation to
live up to their missing sister Vic’s
accomplishments as a sand-diver—specially
trained people whose suits allow them to
travel beneath the sand to salvage buried
technology—places the youngest, Violet,
in danger. Though the sand-divers face
constant pressure to recover ever greater
spoils, this is a world where very little is
known about the past. The only character
who expresses any curiosity is Rob, whose
fascination with old-world tech leads him
to create an amazing new tool for controlling the sand. Well-paced writing and
myriad intertwined narratives build
momentum as Anya’s and her father’s
quest for vengeance places them in conflict with the sand-divers. Marrying a
propulsive plot with fascinating worldbuilding, this postapocalyptic epic proves
well worth the wait. Agent: Kristin Nelson,
Nelson Literary. (Oct.)

★ Slaughtered Gods
Thilde Kold Holdt. Solaris, $16.99 trade paper
(656p) ISBN 978-1-78618-745-1

Holdt sticks the landing with the satisfying conclusion to her Hanged God
trilogy (following 2021’s Shackled Fates),
a fascinating exploration of whether the
universe is governed by fate or free will.
The plot centers on whether Ragnarok,
the long-foretold twilight of the Norse
gods, can be averted as two characters

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attempt to stop it in very different ways.
Ragnar, a bard who has repeatedly miraculously survived dying, knows that Odin,
the Alfather, is prophesied to die during
Ragnarok, “torn
apart by the
great wolf, Fenrir,” one of the
trickster god
Loki’s three
monstrous children. So Ragnar
decides to kill
Odin himself as
soon as possible,
thus preempting the fall of the gods. Meanwhile,
Ragnar’s daughter Hilda, a warrior who
survived her hometown’s destruction and
is haunted by visions of Ragnarok, adopts
a different plan. Hilda hopes to kill Fenrir
so that the beast will not be alive to kill
Odin. Holdt keeps readers on the edge of
their seats as to whether either long-shot
scheme will succeed—and how they might
affect the fates of gods and men. Lush prose
and epic battles only enhance this wellcrafted series finale from a rising genre
talent. Agent: Jamie Cowen, Ampersand.
(Oct.)

A Study in Ugliness & Outras
Histórias
H. Pueyo. Lethe, $20 trade paper (250p)
ISBN 978-1-59021-601-9

The 10 eerie tales of Pueyo’s striking
debut collection all appear side by side in
English and Portuguese, honoring the
author’s multicultural heritage. Many of
these stories thin the veil between the living and the dead: in “The Memory-Eater,”
a nameless man absorbs the memories of
spirits to allow them to move on to a
peaceful afterlife, while “An Open Coffin”
follows a young woman who is hired by
an allusive, wealthy man to care for a
corpse on display in his home. As devoted
mourners pour in and out to visit the
body, the ritualistic nature of their visits
begins to unnerve the caretaker, leading
her to turn to the corpse itself for guidance. Other tales explore the very nature
of reality: in the eponymous story, the
daily routine of a bullied queer student
named Basília is disrupted by the appearance of a new classmate who everyone else
remembers as having always been there—

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and who harbors a dark and fascinating
secret. As haunting as it is thought-provoking, this impressive collection will
especially appeal to fans of Carmen Maria
Machado. (Oct.)

Night of Demons and Saints
Menna Van Praag. Harper Voyager, $17.99
trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-293250-1

Van Praag returns to the fairy tale–
inspired world of The Sisters Grimm with
an unevenly paced sequel that picks up
three years after the events of the first
book. After defeating their demonic
father, half sisters Liyana, Scarlet, and
Goldie lead mundane new lives: Liyana
works to keep her ailing aunt alive, Scarlet
deals with a relationship crisis, and Goldie
grieves the death of her love, Leo. Then
their fourth sister, Bea, now living as a
raven, talks Goldie into a dangerous plan
to resurrect Leo on Goldie’s birthday,
when her magic is at her strongest. When
Liyana learns of this plot, she knows she
and Scarlet won’t be able to stop Goldie
and Bea—so instead they offer to help,
hoping to mitigate the risk. But the
attempted resurrection comes at a hefty
price that none anticipate. Magic and
mystery make
this rich fantasy
world come
alive, but unfortunately the
plot is not as
skillfully crafted
as its setting.
The conflict is
disappointingly
easy for the sisters to dispel,
and, despite the low stakes, the story
often feels rushed. Still, the complex sibling dynamic keeps the pages turning.
For series fans, just reconnecting with
these magical characters may be enough.
Agent: Ginger Clark, Curtis Brown. (Oct.)

Deathless Gods
P.C. Hodgell. Baen, $16 trade paper (368p)
ISBN 978-1-982192-16-7

Political infighting and battles
between gods dog the Kencyrath people
as they continue their 3,000-year war
against Perimal Darkling in Hodgell’s
byzantine 10th Kencyrath epic fantasy
(after 2019’s By Demons Possessed). Jame,

the lone female Highborn of House
Knorth, takes command of the house
troops to fulfill mercenary contracts with
the native Rathillien king, Mordaunt,
who schemes to raise himself to godhood.
Meanwhile, Jame’s brother, Torisen,
Highlord of the Kencyrath, worries that
a poor harvest and a lack of payments
from the Rathillien will leave his people
fighting over food, and fears he’ll be left
unable to help as the larger Houses push
for more prestige and power on the High
Council. Throughout, both siblings continue to manifest the power of the
Tyr-ridan, avatars of the Three-faced
God who abandoned the Kencyr ages ago.
Hodgell’s intricate web requires careful
reading—and extensive knowledge of the
previous books—to follow, but the author
repays her fans with a saga that flows
neatly between the mythic and the mundane. There’s plenty of life left in this
series. (Oct.)

Nightwatch Over Windscar
K. Eason. DAW, $28 (416p) ISBN 978-0-75641859-5

Unlikely allies embark on a dangerous
mission to save their friends in the discombobulating second space opera in
Eason’s The Weep series (after Nightwatch
on the Hinterlands). Cantankerous Templar-Initiate Iari is promoted to captain
after successfully leading a mission to
save civilians from a lethal army of Confederation separatists, but things take a
turn when she and her team discover that
the separatists aren’t the only ones working
to bring destruction to the Confederation.
The separatists have allied with murderous cultists led by a mysterious arithmancer.
Together, they’ve created mutilated,
part-human, part-cyborg beings called
One-Eyes in the name of their god,
Axorchal One-Eye. Worse, the cult has
created a portal that enables the OneEyes to easily eradicate their enemies.
The odds are not with Iari and her misfit
friends as they infiltrate the cult to
destroy this portal. Eason packs in cool
action sequences, deeply complex characters, and an excess of specialized
terminology and technically detailed
worldbuilding. The result is that many
readers—even those who’ve been following the series—will struggle to find
their footing in the fray. This is best

suited for Eason’s most devoted fans.
Agent: Lisa Rodgers, JABberwocky Literary.
(Oct.)

Romance/Erotica
Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail
Ashley Herring Blake. Berkley, $17 trade
paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-593-33642-7

This sexy and heartfelt queer rom-com,
the second in Blake’s Bright Falls series
(after Delilah Green Doesn’t Care), stars
Astrid Parker, a “baby bisexual” interior
designer who’s
at loose ends
after splitting
from her
“golden boy”
fiancé. Then
she meets the
equally lost-inlife Jordan
Everwood, a
tarot-reading
“soft-butch”
carpenter whose purportedly haunted
family inn in Bright Falls, Ore., Astrid
will be remodeling for an HGTV show.
The women are initially at odds due to
clashing personalities and design sensibilities, but Blake puts a twist on the
enemies-to-lovers trope when they realize
that they’re stronger together and begin
secretly collaborating on the redesign
without the knowledge of the TV crew.
Though some of the secondary cast,
including Astrid’s mother and Jordan’s
ex, undergo character changes that happen too abruptly to feel natural, Astrid
and Jordan themselves are impressively
well-rounded, coming across as simultaneously rude, sarcastic, and short-tempered,
and caring, devoted, and kind, rather
than going from one extreme to the other.
Returning readers will be delighted to
revisit Bright Falls and any romance fan
will thrill at the sexual and emotional
gratification on offer here. Agent: Rebecca
Podos, Rees Literary. (Nov.)

Pride and Protest
Nikki Payne. Berkley, $17 trade paper (416p)
ISBN 978-0-593-44094-0

Payne debuts with an entertaining and
politically charged retelling of Pride and
Prejudice that tackles gentrification, prejuW W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

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dice, and the intersections of race, class,
and gender. Rigid Filipino CEO Dorsey
Fitzgerald and passionate Black DJ and
activist Liza Bennet are at odds over Dorsey’s efforts to gentrify Merrytown, Liza’s
DC neighborhood, before they even meet.
Dorsey is struggling to prove himself as
the heir to Pemberley Development following his adoptive parents’ death and
Liza’s efforts to rally the community to
halt the company’s plans using her radio
show and popular social media accounts
aren’t making his job any easier. In a twist
on Austen’s classic meet-ugly, Liza arrives
at a Pemberley gala to stage a flash protest, mistakes Dorsey for one of the
waitstaff, and attempts to entice him to
join her cause. When a snowstorm later
strands them together in the Pemberley
offices, their mutual misconceptions start
to melt away as their attraction heats up.
As their connection grows, they work hard
to see eye to eye, even while keeping up
appearances by performing their parts on
opposite sides of the fight for Merrytown.
While it doesn’t stand out among a
crowded field of Austen retellings, the
redevelopment plot puts a fresh twist on
familiar beats and the enemies-to-lovers
romance sizzles. This is good fun. Agent:
Kim Lionetti, BookEnds Literary. (Nov.)

★ To Capture His Heart
Nancy Campbell Allen. Shadow Mountain,
$15.99 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-163993-051-7

A photographer and a detective go
from friends to lovers while searching for a
killer in this thrilling Victorian romance
from Allen (The Matchmaker’s Lonely
Heart). Detective Nathan Winston, eager
to avoid his mother’s matchmaking
attempts at a
weeklong fundraising house
party, recruits
his good friend
Eva Caldwell,
the photographer for the
event, to pretend to be his
intended. Faking courtship
is complicated by the fact that neither
realizes the other’s feelings are real. When
Nathan receives a threatening message

from an unknown criminal seeking
revenge for Nathan putting his family
away, Nathan fears for his guests’ safety.
As he and Eva band together to stop the
villain, pretense falls away and real
romance blooms—but not before the
killer sets his sights on Eva. As tensions
rise at the house party, everyone becomes
a suspect, making the mystery read like
an especially lively game of Clue. Meanwhile the couple’s connection is so
undeniable that even readers who usually
look for heat in their romances won’t
mind the lack of sex scenes. It’s a delectable treat that’s sure to keep readers
guessing. (Oct.)

Bad Girl Reputation
Elle Kennedy. Griffin, $16.99 trade paper
(320p) ISBN 978-1-250-79675-2

When former “bad girl” Genevieve
West returns home for her mother’s
funeral, she’s tempted to fall back into her
wayward ways in Kennedy’s delicious
sequel to Good Girl Complex. Twenty-twoyear-old Gen has turned over a new leaf in
the year since she left Avalon Bay, quitting
drinking and getting her life together.
Most of the townspeople are willing to
chalk up her former misbehavior as teen
antics, but sheriff’s deputy Rusty Randall
has reasons for not letting it go. During a
drunken night out, he assaulted Gen, and,
in retaliation, she blew up his marriage.
Now that Gen’s back in town, Rusty’s out
for revenge. But he’s not her main concern.
That would be her ex-boyfriend, Evan
Hartley, whom she abandoned without a
word. Evan still loves Gen and hopes they
can pick up where they left off—but Gen
won’t let him lead her back down a bad
path. To prove himself, Evan must reform.
Evan’s growth from party boy to worthy
romance hero is a joy to witness, especially
as, along the way, he reminds Gen that
having fun is not a crime. The duo’s
unbreakable connection comes through on
every page with palpable chemistry and an
even stronger emotional connection. This
will-they-won’t-they offers a fun balance of
life lessons and steamy sex scenes. (Oct.)

End of the Day
Hanna Earnest. Carina, $8.99 mass market
(384p) ISBN 978-1-335-47511-4

In Earnest’s emotionally taut second
Night and Day romance (after All the Best

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Nights) Hollywood makeup artist Benjamina “Benj” Wasik must fake a relationship
with her nemesis, actor Milo Fox. When
Jackson Fox, Milo’s identical twin, gets
caught by paparazzi leaving the home of
married pop star Nelle, Benj’s client, it
causes a scandal. With Jackson off the
grid on vacation, and thus unable to clear
things up with
the press, Benj
hatches a complex plan to save
Nelle’s reputation. They’ll
say that Jackson
and Benj are
dating and that
he was at Nelle’s
visiting her—
and to sustain
the ruse, Milo will pretend to be his own
twin brother and Benj’s boyfriend. Even
as the pair fake-date, Benj is determined
to keep things platonic, having been
burned by Milo before when a heated kiss
between them got her fired from her first
movie set, where Milo was the star. Now
resentment—and unresolved sexual tension—make the act hard to maintain,
especially as, unbeknownst to Benj, Milo
has been pining for her. The emotional
tug-of-war between the characters crackles with chemistry and romantic tension.
Earnest should win some new fans with
this one. Agent: Elaine Spencer, Knight
Agency. (Oct.)

Fetish: A Collection of
Erotic Stories
Anonymous. Entangled Amara, $16.99 trade
paper (560p) ISBN 978-1-64937-199-7

This spicy collection of historical
erotica from the anonymous author of
Aphrodite in Bloom offers 10 taboo-breaking shorts set across 1870s Europe. It
opens in Paris with “A Neighboring
Hand,” in which an old school chum
coaches American heiress Camellia Zimmerfield through a new sexual experience,
and travels to the Swiss Alps for “How
Do You Do Your Do?” which explores
English Lord Ingram Uxton’s hair fetish.
In “How Stimulating,” two women in
Bohemia experience an unconventional
electrical spa service—and discover unexpected love. The standout tales are “The
Paddle, Pretty Please?”—which pairs

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English widow Eleanor, who craves punishment, with her secret admirer, Lucas,
who longs to administer it—and
“Temptress with a Teapot,” about a Berlin
housewife whose husband loves to hear of
her extramarital sexual exploits. The
author packs significant heat and heart
into each sensual tale and, though not
every piece will be for every reader, there’s
something for any erotica fan. The result
is sure to titillate. (Oct.)

Inspirational
The Amish Quiltmaker’s
Unconventional Niece
Jennifer Beckstrand. Zebra, $8.99 mass
market (352p) ISBN 978-1-4201-5203-6

In the fun third entry in Beckstrand’s
Amish Quiltmaker series (after The
Amish Quiltmaker’s Unruly In-Law), a
young Amish woman riles up the Amish
community of Byler, Colo., by running
for town council. Headstrong Mattie
Zook resents her father for making her
move from Pennsylvania to Colorado in
hopes that her aunt, a quilter, might be a
good influence on her. Twin sisters try to
set up Mattie with their strong-willed
brother, Freeman Sensenig, but Mattie,
miserable and
suffering from
altitude sickness, ends up
insulting the
community as
small and provincial, and he
declares Mattie
a snob. Meanwhile, the town
council passes
an ordinance forbidding buggies from
main streets, and Mattie decides to break
with Amish tradition and run for town
council against the anti-Amish councilman behind the ordinance, Bill Isom.
Freeman risks punishment from the
elders to become Mattie’s campaign manager and the two develop feelings for
each other, but their strong personalities
repeatedly threaten their chances at love.
After Bill’s campaign turns dirty, Mattie
struggles to determine God’s plan for
her. The lighthearted tone and witty
banter amuse, and the entertaining cast

of supporting characters—including Freeman’s meddlesome sisters, thuggish
Isom, and Englischer Cathy Larsen, who
helps organize Mattie’s campaign—add
color. Fans of Wanda Brunstetter will
want to check this out. (Nov.)

Concrete Evidence
DiAnn Mills. Tyndale House, $26.99 (384p)
ISBN 978-1-4964-5189-7

The exciting latest from Mills (Trace of
Doubt) pairs an FBI agent with the granddaughter of a former Texas state senator
to get to the bottom of a murder. After
Avery Elliott hears a gunshot, she races
across her family’s ranch and spies her
grandfather, Sen. Quinn Elliott, standing over a corpse while holding a gun.
Having learned her faith from her grandfather, Avery reels as she reconsiders her
relationship with God. When Avery tries
to get answers from Quinn, he demurs
and counsels her to confide in FBI Special
Agent Marc Wilkins, who has been dealing with the recent death of his father.
Marc’s mother believes that his father
was murdered, though Marc remains
skeptical until he discovers connections
between his father and Quinn. As Marc
and Avery team up to investigate the
deaths, they survive an attempt on their
lives and follow clues that point to questionable practices on a dam construction
project that could endanger thousands of
nearby residents. The confident plotting
keeps the mysteries coming, and red herrings will have readers guessing the
culprit through to the satisfying conclusion. Fans of Colleen Coble and Susan
Sleeman will savor this thrilling standalone. Agent: Janet K. Grant, Books & Such
Literary. (Oct.)

Dog Days of Summer
Kathleen Y’Barbo. Barbour, $14.99 trade paper
(256p) ISBN 978-1-63609-394-9

In the lighthearted second entry in the
Gone to the Dogs series, Y’Barbo (The Yes
Dare) follows Nashville country star Trina
Potter as she returns home to Brenham,
Tex., for Christmas. Upon arriving, she
discovers that a homemade bomb was
recently found next door to the pet rescue
run by Trina’s niece, Marigold, causing
Trina to fear for her family’s safety. Trina
reconnects with lawyer Wyatt Chastain,
who took her to high school prom and

encouraged her
to follow her
musical aspirations. After the
police reveal
that the wouldbe bomber
might be associated with the
rescue organization, Trina and
Wyatt team up
to find the perpetrator. The investigation
brings them into contact with an entertaining cast of characters, including
Trina’s producer, Gilbert “Sticks” Styler,
who worries Trina will move away from
Nashville; realtor Bitsy Decker, who
tries to seduce Wyatt; and Trina’s feisty
mother, Mama Peach, who has an onagain, off-again relationship with a
pastor. The easy chemistry between Trina
and Wyatt will please wholesome romance
readers, and the whodunit keeps up the
momentum. This fun cozy mystery is
worth howling about. Agent: Wendy Lawton,
Books & Such Literary. (Oct.)

The Premonition at Withers Farm
Jaime Jo Wright. Bethany House, $16.99
trade paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-7642-3833-8

A woman’s death dredges up memories
of a serial killer who stalked Kilbourn,
Mich., in the early 20th century in this
hair-raising thriller from Wright (The
Souls of Lost Lake). In 1910, 24-year-old
Perliett Van Hilton joins a murder investigation after the town doctor, George
Wasziak, asks her to help clean the body
of Eunice Withers, a young woman who
was stabbed to death. Then another
young woman turns up dead, and after
Perliett’s mother—who is a medium—
contacts Eunice’s spirit, Perliett becomes
convinced that she’s the killer’s next target.
In the present
day, Molly
Wasziak’s husband finds the
body of a young
woman in a
ditch weeks after
they move onto
the property
where the Withers’ farm once
stood. Molly is
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shocked when she discovers her new
home’s connection to the unsolved “Cornfield Ripper” murders and fears that a
new killer is on the prowl. Hearing mysterious noises and seeing ghosts, Molly is
uncertain if her supernatural visions are
real or the product of depression that’s
plagued her since having multiple miscarriages. Molly and Perliett must protect
themselves while reconciling their faith
in God with the supernatural events
they’ve witnessed. Wright excels at
wringing the eeriness out of her premise
and elegantly weaving the thoughtful
meditations on what happens after death
into the fast-paced murder mystery. This
will delight Wright’s fans and earn her
some new ones. (Oct.)

Falling for the Cowgirl
Jody Hedlund. Bethany House, $16.99 trade
paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-7642-3642-6

The rousing fourth entry in Hedlund’s
Colorado Cowboys series (after To Tame a
Cowboy) follows a young woman bristling
against the constraints of domesticity in
1869 South Park, Colo. Ivy McQuaid
plans to become a landowner and rancher,
and to that end she disguises herself as a
man to earn money as a cowhand competitor. After competing one night, she runs
into Jericho Bliss, her crush whom she
hasn’t heard from since he helped Ivy’s
brother flee town to escape a gambling
debt two years earlier. Jericho quickly
sees through her disguise but agrees to
keep her secret. He struggles to fight his
feelings for Ivy because he fears his job as
a bounty hunter for the Pinkerton Agency
could put her in peril. When Ivy’s brothers figure out her charade and demand
she stop, Ivy teams up with a dentist and
a barber to look for a treasure that would
enable her to buy the land she’s had her
eye on. Unexpected dangers arise, and
Jericho, believing himself
responsible
for putting
Ivy in harm’s
way, skips town
and prays for
guidance on
how to do right
by Ivy. The
McQuaid family
dynamics are

believable and the romance between Ivy
and Jericho tugs at the heartstrings. This
one’s worth rounding up. (Oct.)

Comics
★ Giantess
JC Deveney and Nuria Tamarit, trans. from the
French by Dan Christensen. Magnetic, $29.99
(200p) ISBN 978-1-951719-61-6

Deveney and Tamarit’s English-language debut, a luminously drawn
feminist fairy tale, uses its heroine’s journey to explore immersive fantasy settings
and probe fundamental questions about
society. In a vibrant medieval landscape,
a woodcutter
finds a giant
baby in the
woods and
adopts her.
Celeste grows
into a lively,
curious 60-foottall redhead
who yearns to
leave the family
farm and see the
outside world. When the opportunity for
adventure presents itself, she takes off,
beginning an extended bildungsroman in
which her literally larger-than-life existence challenges one societal norm after
another. The giantess is displayed for
money by a scheming peddler, romanced
by a kindly white knight and a troubled
acrobat, imprisoned in a dungeon with
other nonconforming women (“Because
we’re different, sweetheart!”), educated
by a witch, married to a king, and so on.
Nuria’s artwork, drenched in merry colors, has a folk-art directness reminiscent
of great children’s book illustrators like
Tomie dePaola. She draws simple, charming characters in endlessly imaginative
settings: a mermaid island, a town in a tree,
a stark mountain convent, a sunny seaside
village. Along the way, Celeste discovers
learning, art, sex, love, and compassion,
and gradually forms her own ideas about
how people might live. Insightfully
scripted and drawn with pages to pore
over, this labor of love has an instantclassic feel and deserves to be treasured.
(Sept.)

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It Won’t Always Be Like This
Malaka Gharib. Ten Speed, $19.99 trade
paper (224) ISBN 978-1-984-86029-3

Gharib’s empathetic second graphic
memoir, a follow-up to I Was Their American
Dream, covers culture clashes, family clashes,
and identity mash-ups, set in the late ’90s
to the early 2000s. In her tween years, Malaka—who normally lives with her Filipina
mother in Los Angeles—spends summers
in Egypt with her father and stepmother,
Hala. She and Hala, who is initially “more
like a big sister,” enjoy each other’s company, but Malaka misses her dad when he
works long hours and feels like a third
wheel once her stepsiblings are born. She
doesn’t speak much Arabic, which makes
it hard to bond with the relatives in her
extended family. As she finds her American identity in ska music, she resents Hala’s
growing religiosity and her father’s notions
of what a “young lady” should be. “Dad, I
don’t know if you noticed, but I’m into subculture,” Malaka scolds. But as Malaka
grows, so too does her grace toward her
father and for Hala, who has more going on
beneath her abaya than she lets on, as Gharib
disrupts and complicates cultural stereotypes. Gharib’s drawings are freehanded
and energetic, with brightly detailed marketplaces, beach scenes, and cityscapes,
peppered with excerpts from Gharib’s
actual adolescent diaries. This work will
resonate with any comics memoir fan who
felt like a fish out of water growing up,
and promises teen crossover appeal. (Sept.)

Living & Dying in America:
A Daily Chronicle, 2020–2022
Steve Brodner. Fantagraphics, $29.99 (480p)
ISBN 978-1-68396-5534

This sobering gallery of death and
greed during the global Covid-19 pandemic from Brodner (The Trumpiad)
exemplifies and elevates political caricature (this isn’t the funny pages). Between
March 2020 and January 2022, Brodner
documents people who suffered through
the pandemic as well as those who profited from it. Beginning with a nursing
manager, Kious Kelly, who died at a hospital where the staff wore garbage bags as
makeshift masks, Brodner’s portraits of
public servants who sacrificed their lives
to help others are expressive and compassionate. At the same time, Brodner heaps
scorn on opportunists like former Georgia

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Ari Mulch. Uncivilized, $19.95 trade paper
(112p) ISBN 978-1-941250-50-1

In her debut graphic novella, Mulch
takes on Mary Shelley’s immortal Frankenstein, giving it a clever queer romance twist
by reversing the gender of two of the main
characters. The story opens in the early
19th century, with heroine Violet breaking
gender norms of the day by studying anatomy in Ingolstadt, Germany. There she
meets Aveline, the sister of her classmate
Henry. Violet is instantly “smitten” with
the buxom, sassy Aveline, noting that “her
quick wit and bold personality contrasted
with my own contemplative nature.” As
they grow closer, Aveline reads Sappho’s
poetry aloud to Violet, and shows her an
experiment in which she uses electricity
to reanimate a
dead frog. But
their budding
romance is
shattered when
Aveline falls ill
and dies. Soon
after, Violet
unwisely revives
Aveline’s corpse,
before learning
that tampering
with life and death can have gruesome,
tragic consequences. Mulch’s drawings are
not particularly stylish, though her judicious use of bloody hues of red against an
otherwise black and white palette is effective, particularly when delineating viscera
and other scenes of queasy horror. It’s a bit
too brief in narrative as a full book release,
but will appeal as a quick and cute-creepy
divergence for queer romance readers. (Sept.)

PW Talks with Malaka Gharib

Growing Up Across Continents
Gharib’s graphic memoir It Won’t Always Be Like This (Ten Speed,
Sept.; reviewed on p. 56) recalls summers she spent in Egypt, culture
clash, and coming of age in a blended family.
How did spending summers in the
Middle East shape you?
You’re going to go through rites of
passage no matter where you live:
time is passing. I always thought my
first date would be with a guy I met in
a mall in Orange County. But it was
in a souq in Alexandria.
My dad assumed that because he was
Egyptian, I would automatically
understand what it meant to be Egyptian. But being Egyptian American is
different than living in Egypt; I also
had a Filipina mother. I
didn’t know the culture,
the phrases—like when
someone gives you a
compliment, you say
Mashallah, and ward off
the evil eye. My stepmother was 13 years
older than me and didn’t
speak English, so I had
to dig deep to transcend
the usual pop culture
references and create commonality.
We sang together, we watched the
entire OJ trial—it was the only thing
on the air—we’d play cards or do each
other’s hair. I learned you don’t need
language to make a relationship.
What was it like to develop yourself as
a character?
I was really annoying! I was into
bands like X and Social Distortion,
always wearing Dickies and a studded
belt in Cairo. In a way I wanted to be
Egyptian, but I also wanted to mark
myself as American. I’d go around
trying to explain ska references.
There’s this sense of American excep-

tionalism that my dad instilled in me,
though when I lived in the states, I
didn’t really consider myself American—in Egypt I leaned into it. But
adolescents are malleable; I still
wanted to fit in, so I listened to all
the coolest Arabic music, too.
How does your journalistic work at
NPR influence your comics?
My stepmother said “Go write whatever you want,” but as a journalist, I
wanted her to understand the gravity
of being a named character in a public, published book, so I hired
my brother to translate
every chapter into
Arabic. She would give
me feedback and fix
errors. In responsible
journalism, a source
should never be surprised.
MERCENE

The Prometheite

[Q&A]

©MARO

senator Kelly Loeffler, who profited off
several stock sales in the earliest days of
the pandemic. He saves his greatest disdain for Donald Trump, depicting him as
a twisted, obscene, vain monster (in one
perhaps more hopeful panel, Trump is
portrayed screaming behind bars). Brodner’s focus varies from individual stories to
larger events, but he maintains a relentless
march, full of grief and rage at senseless
loss of life. There’s a dense and desperate
quality to Brodner’s drawings. It’s a difficult collection to read, in response to
difficult times to live through. (Sept.)

How did you approach the portrayals
of your family?
I didn’t want to self-tokenize or
perpetuate stereotypes. Many people
outside of Arab Muslim family life
don’t understand it, and I wanted to
pull back that curtain. I didn’t know
if readers understood that women can
take off the hijab inside the family
home, or that you could wear the
hijab one day and then not the next.
As you grow older you see your
parents as people, and they continue
to grow with you. We struggled and
fought, but that time was all we
got—it was a time capsule.

—Cheryl Klein

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A R T E R R A P I C T U R E L I B R A RY / A L A M Y S TO C K P H OTO

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Nonfiction
★ Portable Magic: A History of
Books and Their Readers

“All books are magic. All books have
agency and power in the real world,”
writes Shakespeare scholar Smith (This Is
Shakespeare) in this entertaining history.
With a focus on “bookhood,” which
includes “the impact of touch, smell,
and hearing, on the experience of books,”
Smith makes a colorful case that a book’s
form contains as much “magic” as its content. In a chapter on how a book becomes
a classic, she points to Rachel Carson’s Silent
Spring. The paperback of Carson’s environmental manifesto made it available to a
wide audience—the 40th-anniversary edition, published in a “handsome” hardcover
Library of America volume, confirmed it as
a classic designed to last. A section on the
popularity of paperbacks details how they
were sent to soldiers during wartime, and
a chapter on book burnings points out
that the act is “powerfully symbolic and
practically almost entirely ineffectual,”
plus reveals that through the destruction
of unsold inventory, publishers themselves are the largest destroyers of books.
With wit and verve, Smith concludes that
a book becomes a book “in the hands of its
readers... a book that is not handled and
read is not really a book at all.” Readers
should make space on their shelves for this
dazzling and provocative study. (Nov.)

How Do We Know Ourselves?
Curiosities and Marvels of the
Human Mind
David G. Myers. Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
$26 (272p) ISBN 978-0-374-60195-9

In this edifying volume, Myers
(Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith), a
psychology professor at Hope College,
helps readers “think smarter about their
lives, and... savor the wonders within and
around us.” Adapted largely from Myers’s
Talk Pysch blog, these 40 short essays
provide “glimpses of psychology’s wisdom” on the self, relationships, and society.
Readers of pop psychology will be familiar with much of Myers’s material, which
covers such psych 101 topics as hindsight
bias, confirmation bias, and inattentional

Emma Smith. Knopf, $28 (352p) ISBN 978-15247-4909-5

Diegeo Rivera’s mural of Totonac culture at the Palacio National in Mexico City, as seen in Erica
Hannickel’s vivid study, Orchid Muse: A History of Obsession in Fifteen Flowers (reviewed on p. 63).

blindness. Myers’s accessible explanations read as if he’s describing the concepts
to a friend over lunch, as when he outlines
the availability heuristic, which refers to
the tendency to “estimate the commonality of events based on their mental
availability,” by noting that more people
fear flying than driving despite flying’s
superior safety record because of the
prominence of stories about airplane
crashes in the media. More advanced
students of psychology will appreciate
the final chapter’s evaluation of psychological theories that have been absorbed into
the mainstream, but have since been
called into question. Myers’s bite-size
treatment of the current state of social
psychology research makes for a quick
and illuminating overview of the human
mind. Novices would do well to pick up
this breezy primer. (Nov.)

No Filter: The Good, the Bad, and
the Beautiful
Paulina Porizkova. Open Field, $27 (240p)
ISBN 978-0-593-49352-6

Model, actor, and writer Porizkova
(A Model Summer) shares her thoughts on
beauty culture, the end of her marriage,
and honesty online in this solid collection
of memoir-driven essays. Much like her
social media presence, the writing is simple to a fault but disarmingly honest.
Porizkova’s scene setting is consistently
vibrant enough to draw readers in,

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though the notes she hits can become
repetitive. She describes everything from
growing up as a poor Czech refugee in
Sweden and her habit of reading palms
as a young model in Paris to secretly dating (and later divorcing) Ric Ocasek, lead
singer of the Cars. Some of the insights—
especially those about social media, the
beauty industry, and the fetishization of
youth—are sharp, crystallized by more
than four decades in the spotlight. One
particularly interesting essay, “Nude,
Not Naked,” delivers a striking treatise
on feeling free vs. feeling exploited while
posing nude; here, Porizkova delineates
the nuances of choice and power in a nude
photo shoot in a way that few others
could. Other insights, such as the idea
expressed in the essay “Childhood” that
women marry men like their fathers and
men marry women like their mothers, are
more banal. Fans of Porizkova’s work
will enjoy this glimpse into her life, but
ultimately little sets it apart from other
celebrity memoirs in the same lane. Agent:
Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff Literary
Agency. (Nov.)

The World Deserves My Children
Natasha Leggero. Gallery, $27.99 (230p)
ISBN 978-1-982137-07-6

In her irreverent debut, comedian and
Chelsea Lately regular Leggero shares
musings on motherhood in a series of
wise-cracking essays. “I decided to

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become a mom when I was in my prime,
but the world most certainly was not,”
she quips about getting pregnant “no
matter how bad” politics and climate
change threatened to turn, at age 42
(using eggs frozen when she was 38). No
topic is off-limits; Leggero bares all about
“geriatric pregnancy,” breastfeeding,
parental anxiety, and her conversion to
“Jew-by-choice.” She mocks her husband,
joking she’d have to be drunk to parent
like a father (“Don’t use Dawn on her!
She’s a baby not a duck after an oil spill”),
and resolutely defends having only one
child. Her brand of humor includes crossing-the-line bits like referring to Woody
Allen and Soon-Yi’s coupling as “the
greatest love story of our time” and recalling that as a tween she “thought abortion
was hilarious.” Parents without the luxury of a nanny may also raise eyebrows
when yet another celebrity laments lack
of leisure time. Still, behind the snark,
Leggero conveys tender endearment for
her four-year-old daughter. All in all,
this will induce grins from stand-up fans
who’ve been missing shows because they
can’t get a babysitter. Agent: Cait Hoyt &
Anthony Mattero, CAA. (Nov.)

Is It Hot in Here (or Am I
Suffering for All Eternity for the
Sins I Committed on Earth)?
Zach Zimmerman. Chronicle, $16.95 trade
paper (220p) ISBN 978-1-79721-757-4

In his cheeky debut, comedian Zimmerman charts his path from “conservative,
Southern Baptist carnivore” to “gay vegetarian atheist” and his life struggles along
the way. Raised in a deeply religious family, Zimmerman was taught from a young
age that homosexuality was a sin. But at
Princeton he found “the place... to
explore my identity and passions,” and
when a close high school friend died in
the Virginia
Tech shooting,
Zimmerman
began questioning his faith.
This led to a
reckoning with
his mother, who
quasi-accepted
his gay identity
while asking
“can we not

make this the discussion of the weekend?”
His blossoming life as a gay, irreligious
man in the hipster set of Chicago and
New York City leads to the memoir’s
more raucous scenes, including a date
that goes horribly wrong (the chapter
title sums it up: “The Twink on the Fire
Escape”). More poignant segments deal
with his relationship with an ex, who
after years living together breaks up with
Zimmerman on the plane during what
was supposed to be a romantic trip to
Europe. He later experimented with
meeting men at the sauna, but ultimately
decides he’s looking for something more
lasting, even though he can’t be sure if
his parents would attend his wedding.
The tonal changes can occasionally feel
abrupt, but Zimmerman’s good humor
makes this slice of modern life a charmer.
Agent: Robert Guinsler, Sterling Lord Literistic.
(Nov.)

The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy:
A Story of Resistance, Courage,
and Solidarity in a French Village
Stephen G. Rabe. Cambridge Univ., $24.95
(264p) ISBN 978-1-00-920637-2

Historian Rabe (Eisenhower and Latin
America) documents in this dramatic
account the collaboration between
American paratroopers and residents of
Graignes, Normandy, during the D-Day
invasion. More than 150 members of the
82nd and 101st Airborne divisions
landed near the French village (35 kilometers away from their assigned drop
zone) and were immediately welcomed
by locals, who carried out reconnaissance
missions, cooked for the soldiers, and
salvaged their equipment. Five days after
the landings, a recently commissioned
Waffen-SS Panzergrenadier division battered its way into Graignes, forcing most
of the paratroopers to withdraw. The
remaining U.S. soldiers, including a
medical doctor and a dozen wounded
men, were massacred, along with more
than 30 townspeople. Rabe, a son of one of
the paratroopers who landed in Graignes,
contends that the Waffen-SS, who wore
“death skull” insignia and reported to
Heinrich Himmler, “made a habit of violating customary laws of war.” He also
sketches the history of American airborne
warfare and its development as a highly
motivated, elite unit operating under

charismatic generals. Based on extensive
conversations with village families and
surviving paratroopers, including Rabe’s
own father, this history combines heroism and tragedy in equal measure. WWII
buffs will be engrossed. Photos. (Nov.)

The Kennedy Withdrawal:
Camelot and the American
Commitment to Vietnam
Marc J. Selverstone. Harvard Univ., $35
(288p) ISBN 978-0-674-04881-2

Selverstone (Constructing the Monolith),
head of the Presidential Recordings
Program at the University of Virginia’s
Miller Center, offers an intriguing deep
dive into a topic long debated among
scholars of the Vietnam War: had President Kennedy not been assassinated,
would he have followed through on his
plans to withdraw U.S. troops, or drastically escalated the conflict, as his
successor Lyndon Johnson did? Kennedy
partisans believe he would have taken
America out of the war; Johnson supporters contend that—faced with the
military and political situation in South
Vietnam in 1964 and 1965—Kennedy
would have ratcheted up U.S. involvement. Though Selverstone acknowledges
that the answer is “ultimately unknowable,” his thorough analysis of tape
recordings from the Kennedy and Johnson White Houses and other historical
evidence leads him to conclude that
Kennedy and Secretary of Defense Robert
McNamara, who had halted withdrawal
planning before Kennedy’s death, likely
would have taken a similar approach to
Johnson’s. Kennedy “never relinquished
his interest in brushfire wars, nor did he
dampen his rhetoric about their necessity,” Selverstone writes. “He continued
to operate from a worldview that embraced
the precepts of domino [theory] thinking... and the demonstration of resolve.”
Scrupulous and revealing, this is a persuasive answer to one of the Vietnam
War’s biggest what-ifs. (Nov.)

★ Polar Exposure: An All-Women’s
Expedition to the North Pole

Felicity Aston. Imagine, $24.99 (240p)
ISBN 978-1-62354-553-6

Polar explorer Aston (Life Lessons)
recounts in this vivid account the 2018
Women’s Euro-Arabian North Pole
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Expedition, a trek she did with 10
women from different countries. Aston
elaborates on how she selected and
trained her team, some of whom had
never skied or experienced intense cold
before: her goal, she writes, was to
“develop a better understanding of the
values and perspectives of
women from
different cultures.” What
sets the book
apart is the
enriching firsthand accounts
from the team
members interspersed throughout: “I am an introvert,”
writes Olga, a mountaineer from Russia,
“so the thought of living so closely with
ten women from different countries on
this expedition made me anxious.” Their
accounts cover the life-threatening
weather the team faced (“A storm like
this can destroy confidence just as it
destroys tents,” writes Steph from
Cyprus), treacherous turns of fate (“I
smiled as I approached the ground, thinking that if this was it, then there would
be no problems at all... Ten minutes later
my eyelashes were covered in ice and my
eyelids had frozen together. I had my
first moment of panic,” writes Nataša, a
Slovenian journalist), and finally the joy
of arriving at the Pole. The result is a
page-turning tale of adventure. Photos.
(Nov.)

Dinner with Joseph Johnson:
Books and Friendship in a
Revolutionary Age
Daisy Hay. Princeton Univ., $39.95 (536p)
ISBN 978-0-691-24396-2

In this illuminating account, Hay
(Young Romantics), a literature professor
at the University of Exeter, sheds light on
the far-reaching impact of the dinners
hosted by Joseph Johnson at St. Paul’s
Churchyard from 1760 to 1809. An influential bookseller, Johnson befriended,
hosted, and published many of the era’s
defining artists and thinkers, including
William Blake, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph
Priestley, and Mary Wollstonecraft, as
well as painter Henry Fuseli. Hay offers a
window into what went on in Johnson’s

dining room and outside of it; some of
what she covers is well-known, including the Priestley Riots and Priestley’s
exile from Britain. But the real value of
Hay’s account is in the small, humanizing stories she recounts. For instance,
Wollstonecraft, who described Johnson
as “a father and brother,” castigated him
for interfering in her interest in Fuseli—
later, Johnson would be a chief supporter
of Wollstonecraft. As Hay points out,
Johnson’s main attribute was kindness,
and his considerable role in the intellectual development of Britain was the
result of “the kinship of friends who
catch each other when they fall.” Hay’s is
a fascinating take on the intellectual and
political development of the time. Fans
of literary history will relish this opportunity to pull up a seat at Johnson’s table.
(Nov.)

The Extraordinary Life of an
Ordinary Man: A Memoir
Paul Newman. Knopf, $32 (320p) ISBN 978-0593-53450-2

Actor, race car driver, and philanthropist Newman (1925–2008) was a deeply
private man living an intensely public
life; this posthumous memoir features the
Hollywood legend’s own voice as he “sets
things straight” and “pokes holes in the
mythology” that accompanied his celebrity. Adapted from interviews taped with
his friend Stewart Stern before his death,
Newman’s story unfolds in a humble,
sometimes humorous narrative voice—
“I’m aware that in some ways it’s my
nature to deprecate everything I do”—
punctuated with earnest awe of the turns
his life has taken, astonishment at the
intensity of his passion for wife Joanne
Woodward, affection for his children and
anguish that he could not shelter them
from the vagaries of fame. Newman’s
voice is interwoven with transcripts from
friends, relatives, and colleagues (including Eva Marie Saint, Tom Cruise, Elia
Kazan, and more) whose memories shed
light on what transformed the summer
stock actor into an international sex symbol and what curbed his struggles with
alcoholism and grief from veering into
tragedy. As compiled by editor David
Rosenthal, these collective perspectives
do more than offer a prismatic view of
film industry glamour and dirty laundry:

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they elevate the book from a humble
autobiography to a more nuanced, human
portrait—with the “semblance of truth”
that Newman craved when he went on
the record. With equal parts grounded
authenticity and inviting charm, this
candid memoir captures the life of a
legend. (Oct.)

The Ransomware Hunting Team:
A Band of Misfits’ Improbable
Crusade to Save the World from
Cybercrime
Renee Dudley and Daniel Golden. Farrar,
Straus and Giroux, $30 (368p) ISBN 978-0-37460330-4

Journalists Dudley and Golden (Spy
Schools) deliver an intriguing profile of
volunteer tech experts who work to
combat digital extortionists. The story
centers on Illinois tech support professional Michael Gillespie, “the most
prolific member of the Ransomware
Hunting Team, an elite, invitation-only
society of about a dozen tech wizards
who are devoted to cracking ransomware.” The authors detail how gangs of
hackers, many with ties to crime syndicates or hostile foreign governments,
target vulnerable computer systems,
introduce viruses that encrypt files, then
demand payment for a decryption key.
The U.S. government’s response has been
hampered, Dudley and Golden explain,
by the rigid culture of the FBI and the
Department of Homeland Security, where
cooperation with outsiders is discouraged
and cybercrime experts are often denigrated as the “Geek Squad.” However, in
the aftermath of high-profile ransomware
attacks such as the May 2021 Colonial
Pipeline incident, which paralyzed fuel
distribution on the East Coast, the government has coordinated more closely
with recognized experts like Gillespie.
Dudley and Golden render their subjects—some of whom endured poverty
and bullying in their teens—with
warmth and admiration while acknowledging that competition between hacker
gangs and ransomware hunters has
helped spur more sophisticated viruses
and bigger paydays. Readers will put
down this engrossing underdog story
just long enough to back up their own
files. (Oct.)

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Unchecked: The Untold Story
Behind Congress’s Botched
Impeachments of Donald Trump

[Q&A]

Rachael Bade and Karoun Demirjian. Morrow,
$35 (704p) ISBN 978-0-06-304079-3

PW Talks with Felicity Aston

Journalists Bade and Demirjian deliver
a searing analysis of the “political calculations” made by Democrats and Republicans
that led to Donald Trump’s acquittal in
two separate impeachment trials. Suggesting that the results were not as
“preordained” as many believed, given
Republicans’ control of the Senate in
2019, the authors document internal
disagreements among Democrats over the
issuing and enforcement of subpoenas,
the need for “high-profile” eyewitness
testimony, the degree of due process to be
afforded Trump, and whether it was better to expedite the proceedings or present
the fullest case possible. Bolstering the
authors’ case that “Trump escaped
accountability not simply because his
own party wouldn’t stand up to him, but
because the opposing party was also
afraid to flex the full force of its constitutional muscle to check him,” Bade and
Demirjian reveal that Republican congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler’s
expressed interest in testifying against
Trump in the second impeachment trial
wasn’t immediately shared with Democratic manager Jamie Raskin. Throughout,
the authors offer fly-on-the-wall accounts
of Republican and Democratic strategy
sessions and new details about Trump’s
pressure campaign on Ukraine, the January 6 Capitol riot, and other events.
Though some of the political and legal
headwinds faced by Democrats get short
shrift, this is a thorough and often riveting account of why the efforts to impeach
Trump failed. (Oct.)

On Thin Ice

The Persuaders: At the Front
Lines of the Fight for Hearts,
Minds, and Democracy
Anand Giridharadas. Knopf, $30 (352p)
ISBN 978-0-593-31899-7

Leftists’ efforts to persuade opponents
instead of writing them off are probed in
this searching study of progressive discourse. Journalist Giridharadas (Winner
Take All) interviews progressive leaders
who seek to maintain their principles
while appealing to the unconverted
without denouncing them as bigots or

In Polar Exposure: An All-Women’s Expedition to the North Pole (Imagine,
Nov.; reviewed on p. 60), Aston recounts the arctic trek she led in 2018.

Was there ever a point
when the mission seemed doomed?
It was before we ever got on the ice.
We were in Longyearbyen, a Norwegian settlement on the island Spitsbergen, to get the plane out to the ice.
There was delay after delay. At one
point, we were told the expedition
was canceled. We ended up waiting
two weeks—that’s a long time. All of
our insecurities and anxieties started
to really surface. But once we got out
on the ice, things were okay. On the
ice, you focus, and the world shrinks
down to basics needs and survival.
Besides reaching the North Pole, what
were the other goals of the expedition?
We had an ambitious science program

EURO-ARABIAN EXPEDITION

and were gathering data on physiological stress and psychological
impacts in extreme environments.
There’s no data for that on women.
It’s all from Caucasian males. We
were completely wired up—monitors
on our wrists, around our middles,
on the back of our arms. We had to
give saliva samples at different
times of the day
and do tasks—for
example, filming
ourselves counting
backward—to
test our mental
awareness.
©

The book contains the perspectives of
the women on the expedition, with
you providing the narrative glue.
How did you get the idea for that?
The expedition was a collective from
the start. I was their leader, but I
wouldn’t be writing the story for them.
During the trip, some of the women
kept video diaries, and others made
notes or left voicemails
to help them remember.
It took endless hours
of going through all
the narratives and
picking out the vital
bits and shaping them
into a chronology that
worked. I wrote my
own narrative, and I
added the necessary
background, the notso-thrilling parts—the
details I thrive on!

Your career has
gone full circle,
from climate scientist to explorer and
back to science.
What has that
been like?
It’s been a progression. I started spending time in the
arctic circle and was asked to take
samples of sea ice. It was really striking
how little data we have. I was aware
as a scientist that the computer
models are only as good as the data
we put in. But from the expedition
side, I know how hard it is to get the
samples. Since our 2018 expedition,
there have not been any others to
North Pole, because of Covid, but
also because the risks now are so great.
No country wants to be responsible
for sending out a team when things
can easily go so wrong. The ice is
getting less stable, and the window
of opportunity smaller.

—Suzanne Shablovsky

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★ Raising Them Right:
The Untold Story of America’s
Ultraconservative Youth
Movement—and Its Plot for Power
Kyle Spencer. Ecco, $29.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-06-304136-3

ournalist Spencer (the memoir She’s Gone Country)
draws a captivating and alarming portrait of the
activists and donors spreading right-wing ideology
to young voters. Tracking the rise of Turning Point
USA founder Charlie Kirk, talk show host Candace
Owens, and libertarian organizer Cliff Maloney, Spencer
intersperses accounts of her subjects’ political awakenings with vignettes of training conferences, activist
gatherings, and campus dustups. Kirk, a precocious
political misfit from a diversifying Chicago suburb,
decided to forego college on the advice of a 71-year-old
Tea Party activist and spent his senior summer fundraising across the Midwest. Maloney, a theater kid from a hardscrabble Philadelphia
suburb, surveyed the down-and-out patrons of the seedy pool hall he managed
and concluded that government dependency was the problem. Owens, who spent
her childhood in a “cramped, cockroach-infested” Stamford housing development,
chafed at her elevation to local cause célèbre when she reported receiving “a series
of disturbing and searingly racist voice mails” to her high school teacher. Behind
these and other activists is a network of donors who spend “hundreds of millions
of dollars annually” on indoctrinating young conservatives, putting Republicans
“ten steps ahead” of Democrats in youth outreach, according to Spencer. Marked
by its impressive access and vivid prose, this superb political investigation offers a
stark warning for the left. Agent: Larry Weissman, Larry Weissman Literary. (Oct.)

alienating them with politically correct
dogma. Profile subjects include Palestinian American activist Linda Sarsour,
reproductive justice crusader Loretta
Ross, and Black Lives Matter cofounder
Alicia Garza, who deplore the left’s habit
of ostracizing those who misunderstand
details of progressive orthodoxy and extol
outreach to moderates. Giridharadas also
talks to anti-racism trainers in Ohio; a
cognitive scientist who catalogues trickery in right-wing disinformation; and
Arizona “deep canvassers” who suss out
and influence attitudes toward migrants
during 30-minute porch conversations.
It’s illuminating to watch activists grapple honestly with the left’s internal
divisions and rhetorical shortcomings,
but the focus is on subtler manipulations,
not open-minded dialogue with opponents. (“Make them think of a pain point
in their life—that expensive diabetes

treatment—and tell them how giving
the federal government supervision of
elections and cracking down on gerrymandering and allowing mail-in-voting
would empower them to solve their problems,” suggests one messaging consultant.)
Still, for those committed to the progressive agenda, this is an incisive guide to
the art of persuasion. (Oct.)

Homecoming: The Path to
Prosperity in a Post-global World
Rana Foroohar. Crown, $28.99 (400p)
ISBN 978-0-593-24053-3

Globalization has yielded supply shortages, hostile superpowers, the hoarding of
essential commodities, and the collapse
of small businesses under the weight of
massive retail chains, according to this
ardent call for change. Arguing that the
benefits of globalization have accrued at
the “very top” and the “very bottom” of

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the marketplace, Financial Times columnist Foroohar (Don’t Be Evil) advocates for
a slew of policies designed to promote
and protect local interests in agriculture,
manufacturing, housing, and finance.
Debunking the myth that globalization
produces free societies, Foroohar details
how China and other countries have used
free trade in self-serving ways, undermining their trading partners and destabilizing
global politics. Throughout, Foroohar
offers fascinating glimpses into the
future, describing, among other innovations, farms grown in shipping containers,
sustainable homes fashioned by 3-D
printers, and affordable education programs that provide career paths for
students and needed skill sets for regional
businesses. Though the obstacles to
untangling global interdependencies on
oil, grain, and other resources are somewhat underdeveloped, Foroohar lucidly
explains complex financial and political
matters and draws sharp profiles of imaginative labor organizers, business leaders,
and policymakers. This astute survey
provides a welcome measure of hope. (Oct.)

Uniting America: How FDR
and Henry Stimson Brought
Democrats and Republicans
Together to Win World War II
Peter Shinkle. St. Martin’s, $29.99 (448p)
ISBN 978-1-250-76252-8

Democratic president Franklin Roosevelt and Republican secretary of war
Henry Stimson formed the “most important bipartisan political alliance in
American history,” according to this
meticulous study. Journalist Shinkle (Ike’s
Mystery Man) contends that Stimson, a
“sharp-tongued, free-thinking Republican” who had previously served in the
cabinets of Republican presidents William
Howard Taft and Herbert Hoover and was
critical of FDR’s New Deal policies, made
a successful partner for Roosevelt as he
sought his third term in 1940 not in spite
of their political differences, but because of
them. Stimson helped garner bipartisan
support for such controversial measures as
the 1941 Lend-Lease Act and served as an
effective back channel to FDR’s Republican foes. At a time when many Americans
were reluctant to enter WWII, Stimson’s
aggressive stance on confronting fascism in
Europe and Asia allowed “FDR to remain

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close to the center of the national debate,”
according to Shinkle, who acknowledges
that for all their foreign policy successes,
the two failed to effectively contend with
racial matters, including the wave of antiBlack violence that swept the country in
1943 in response to desegregation efforts.
Stuffed with detail yet fluidly written, this
is an expert study of wartime politics and
the value of bipartisanship. (Oct.)

★ Lapidarium: The Secret Lives
of Stones

Hettie Judah. Penguin, $22 (336p) ISBN 978-0143137-41-2

Judah (Frida Kahlo), senior art critic
at the British newspaper The I, delivers
a beautifully illustrated collection of
insightful essays that “explore how
human culture has formed stone, and
the roles stone has played in forming
human culture.” Judah digs into 60 types,
describing, for example, how people in
ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia turned
alunite into alum, a compound used for
tanning and textile production: “You
could make a fortune from rock and old
urine. You just needed the right rock.
And the right recipe.” Marble offers a look
at “the Roman Empire in its pomp” as well
as its decline, and diamonds are shrouded
in tall tales: “As long as gemstones have
been associated
with magic, silver-tongued
storytellers have
attributed powers for both good
and ill,” Judah
writes. Pink
ancaster, a form
of limestone, is
the material
used in Barbara
Hepworth’s 1934 sculpture Mother and
Child, and haüyne, a rare mineral, “occurs
in a zippy blue that declares modernity.”
Judah elegantly mixes archaeology,
mythology, literature, and philosophy,
building a solid case that “so much of what
we think of as culture—our modes and
places of worship, the tools we use, the
materials in which we adorn ourselves,
the stories we spin, our graven images—
is formed by geology.” This clever outing
fascinates. (Oct.)

Orchid Muse: A History of
Obsession in Fifteen Flowers
Erica Hannickel. Norton, $35 (320p) ISBN 9780-393867-28-2

Hannickel (Empire of Vines: Wine Culture
in America), a professor of environmental
history at Northland College, offers a
vibrant survey of orchids through history.
To show how the flowers “provide insight
into human history,” she tours a wealth
of figures who have taken a liking to
them. Empress Eugenie packed the Tuileries’ greenhouses with orchids; Frida
Kahlo painted a “giant lavender cattleya”; Charles Roebling, who designed
the Brooklyn Bridge, “had one of the
finest orchid collections in the United
States”; and Raymond Burr “took solace”
in them. Darwin, meanwhile, whose
grandfather was an avid gardener, followed
On the Origin of Species with a treatise titled
The Various Contrivances by Which Orchids
Are Fertilised by Insects, further developing
his theory of evolution, and historian
John Hope Franklin cultivated 900 species of orchids over three decades and
built a greenhouse on the roof of his Chicago home. Hannickel’s comprehensive,
fascinating history is leavened with plenty
of amusing tidbits—readers will learn, for
instance, that Burr named the hybrids he
experimented on after his costars, including Florence Henderson and Molly Picon.
Fans of Rebecca Solnit’s Orwell’s Roses
should give this a look. Photos. (Oct.)

The Wolf Age: The Vikings, the
Anglo-Saxons, and the Battle for
the North Sea Empire
Tore Skeie, trans. from the Norwegian by
Alison McCullough. Pushkin, $19.95 trade
paper (384p) ISBN 978-1-78227-835-1

Medieval historian Skeie makes his
English-language debut with a gripping,
detailed account of the 11th-century
struggle for dominion over a North Sea
empire stretching from England in the
west to Denmark and Norway in the
east. Drawing on Scandinavian histories,
Icelandic sagas, skaldic poetry, and
archaeological discoveries, Skeie breathes
new life into the epic conflict between
Anglo-Saxon king Æthelred, Danish
ruler Cnut the Great, and Norwegian
king Olaf Haraldsson for supremacy in
Northern Europe. Beginning in the late
10th century, Skeie details how sporadic

Viking raids on England shifted to invasion and conquest as Æthelred’s power
and influence collapsed under the combined might of Cnut’s Danes and his
Norwegian allies. In 1016, Cnut became
king of England, and soon thereafter
inherited the throne of Denmark. Through
military and political manipulation, he
eventually established his authority in
Norway as well, completing his conquest
of the North Sea empire. Meticulously
researched, Skeie’s account of ruthless
conflict, political intrigue, and diplomatic machinations reads like a real-life
Game of Thrones—without the dragons.
Medieval history buffs will be riveted.
Illus. (Oct.)

Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know
Ben Bowlin, with Matt Frederick and Noel
Brown. Flatiron, $29.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1250-26856-3

Bowlin, Frederick, and Brown expand
on their podcast of the same name in this
eye-opening and entertaining look at the
roots of American conspiracy theories.
Throughout, the authors alternate between
exposing U.S. government actions that
provide the seeds for conspiracy theories
and debunking those theories. Ranging
from biological warfare to CIA-engineered coups and assassinations and UFO
sightings, the authors showcase an alarming lack of transparency and deliberate
misrepresentations by government agencies. For example, they trace the roots of
the popular chemtrail conspiracy theory,
which posits that airplane vapor trails are
evidence of the government dispersing
chemicals for “nefarious purposes,” to a
1990s military paper on manipulating
the weather “as a way to alter or control a
battlespace” and 1950s tests in which
the Army Chemical Corps sprayed the
chemical compound ZnCdS over “enormous swaths” of the country to simulate
a biological or chemical weapons attack.
Elsewhere, the authors link the infamous
Tuskegee experiment, in which poor Black
sharecroppers were unwittingly enrolled in
a government syphilis study yet received no
treatment for the disease, to Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy among African Americans.
Though many of the examples—including LBJ’s disseminations during the Gulf
of Tonkin incident—are well-known, the
authors amass a wealth of detail and lucidly
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separate fact from fiction. This is a valuable
resource for understanding how conspiracy thinking gained its current grip on
American politics and culture. (Oct.)

★ Con/Artist: The Life and Crimes of
the World’s Greatest Art Forger
Tony Tetro and Giampiero Ambrosi. Hachette, $29 (288p) ISBN 978-0-306-82648-1

Everything I Never Dreamed: My
Life Surviving and Standing Up to
Domestic Violence
Ruth M. Glenn. Atria, $28 (288p) ISBN 978-1982196-00-4

In her harrowing tale of surviving
domestic violence, debut author Glenn
details the story of her abuse—and her
rebirth, including going on to helm a
major national nonprofit addressing
domestic violence. After growing up in
an abusive family that included sexual
abuse by a stepfather, Glenn endured
beatings and verbal abuse at the hands of
her husband, Cedric, the father of her son
David, whom she gave birth to at 16. For
the next 13 years, Cedric’s behavior escalates, until he abducts Glenn at gunpoint
and threatens to kill them both, subsequently shooting her twice in the head (he
later died by suicide). The author turned
the experience into action, ultimately rising to become the president and chief
executive officer of the National Coalition
Against Domestic Violence. Glenn ably
delves into the damaging psychological
effects prolonged abuse can have, and
what the reality of the situation is for many
women: she cites one nationwide study
that found that about half of the victims of
domestic violence surveyed listed not having enough money or resources as the most
significant barrier to leaving their abuser.
She also examines the various risk factors
that create abusive men, galvanizes readers and their allies to action by offering
possible escape routes, and stresses the
need for an increase in funding for emergency shelters. This is a raw, honest, and
hopeful account. (Oct.)

★ Martha Graham:

When Dance Became Modern

Neil Baldwin. Knopf, $40 (576p) ISBN 978-0385-35233-8

Biographer Baldwin (Edison: Inventing
the Century) reveals how the visionary
Martha Graham (1894–1991) revolutionized dance and choreography, making
them modern and free in this mesmerizing
portrait. Born in Pittsburgh, Pa., Graham
learned early on that “movement never

etro, one of the most prolific art forgers of the 20th
century, paints his own life story with flair in this
cinematic memoir. Coming of age in Fulton, N.Y.,
during the 1960s, Tetro started by freehand drawing from examples in his mother’s photo magazines, and
over time taught himself techniques from art books. As
a teen dad (his girlfriend got pregnant when he was only
16), he’d stay up late making elaborate copies of the
greats—Rembrandt, Renoir, Picasso. When his young
family relocated to Southern California, he took lowpaying jobs but also discovered museums. He dabbled
in forgeries offered at auction in the early ’70s, selling a
faked Chagall sketch to a local art gallery. Chasing clients and commissions, he
learned to print serigraphs and developed methods to create provenance or realistic history to the paintings (for example, smudging cigarette ash on the back of a
faux Dalí). What followed were fancy cars, lavish parties, and traveling the world.
But soon, the law would catch up to him and his art forgery empire crumbled.
Written in a colorful, conversational voice and blending memoir, art history, and
true crime, Tetro’s account takes readers on a turbulent, fast-paced, high-stakes
roller-coaster ride. This is the art world’s The Wolf of Wall Street. Agent: Jeff Klein-

man, Folio Literary Management. (Nov.)
lies.” The shy bookworm began to blossom once she arrived in exotic Santa
Barbara. Inspired after attending a recital
by the passionate diva Ruth St. Denis,
Graham “knew at that moment I was
going to be a dancer.” Studying first at
the Cumnock School of Expression in Los
Angeles, she trained under St. Denis and
the innovative Ted Shawn, “coming to
life” under his tutelage, and realizing “a
dance must dominate me, completely,
until I lose sense of anything else.” Influenced by contemporaries like Isadora
Duncan, Michio- It, Wassily Kandinsky,
and Rouben Mamoulian, Graham learned
to “do things in a new way,” emphasizing
movement out of stillness and believing
that “any great art is the condensation of a
strong feeling.” The trailblazing Graham
seemingly sculpted modern dance out of
thin air, creating indelible works like
Heretic, Lamentation, and Primitive Mysteries,
always looking to the future. Provocative
and passionate as the dynamo herself, this
richly detailed and insightful pageturner will delight dance aficionados.
(Oct.)

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The Essential Dick Gregory
Edited by Christian Gregory. Amistad, $27.99
(320p) ISBN 978-0-06-287920-2

The work of comedian and activist
Dick Gregory (No More Lies) comes
together in this standout anthology gathered by his son. The book is divided into
three chronological sections, “The Body,”
“The Mind,” and “The Spirit,” each representing a different phase of Gregory’s life.
The first part features his reflections on
his impoverished childhood in segregated
St. Louis, when he found in comedy a way
to turn the tables on bullies who teased
him for being on “relief.” Early brushes
with activism saw him participate in a
high school walkout to protest overcrowded conditions and the omission of
his name from the athletics section of the
yearbook because “they don’t list the
Negro track meet.” Gregory also recalls
learning comedy tricks from legends
Nipsey Russell and Sammy Davis Jr. and
preparing a response to being called a
racial slur by a white audience member:
“My contract reads that every time I hear
that word, I get $50 more a night.” Elsewhere, Gregory (1932–2017) covers racial

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discrimination in the performing arts,
birth control, his visit to Iran during the
1979 hostage crisis, and vegetarianism.
Sharp, funny, and often inspiring, this is a
must-read for Gregory’s fans, and a perfect
entry point for the uninitiated. (Oct.)

Thot
Chanté Reid. Sarabande, $17.95 trade paper
(88p) ISBN 978-1-95604-611-3

Reid mixes memoir, poetry, and close
reading in her innovative debut. She
opens with a startling account of her
neighbor’s murder at the hands of police,
which takes place as she drafts a college
paper on Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved.
Reid moves through scenes of violence,
love, and longing, most of which are narrated in verse or dialogue between her
and various figures. Along the way, Reid
weaves in stories from Greek mythology
(“We were talking about Narcissus
because she was calling me narcissistic
and so I wanted to like respond and
explain the math of that”), commentary
on American politics (“Americans don’t
know anything outside of America”), and
reflections on how Morrison’s work has
informed her life (“Beloved has shown me,
I’m not an/ argument/ conclusion-type;
however, I still check my body/ mother/
neighborhood for bullet wounds”). Photos of Reid’s personal copy of Morrison’s
novel punctuate the book-length essay.
Both poetic and blunt, Reid covers the
stark contrast as well as the connections
between her life as a reader and student
of literature, and the harsh realities of
American life—it makes for an illuminating record of a mind fascinated by literature
in a world of violence. This original essay
marks Reid as a writer to watch. (Oct.)

Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing
Porter Sisters, Who Paved the
Way for Austen and the Brontës
Devoney Looser. Bloomsbury, $30 (576p)
ISBN 978-1-63557-529-3

Critic Looser (The Making of Jane Austen)
covers in this mostly solid survey the life
and work of two “forgotten” literary sisters, Jane Porter (1776–1850) and Anna
Maria Porter (1780–1832). Jane Austen’s
contemporaries, the two were bestselling
authors in their time, publishing 30 books
between them. Looser positions them as
pioneers of the historical novel (a genre

usually said to be created by Walter
Scott), shows them freely mixing in
London’s artistic and theatrical circles,
and describes how later, burdened by
their brothers’ debts, Jane, Anna Maria,
and their mother lived in increasing
poverty. History hasn’t been kind to the
sisters, Looser writes: “As the nineteenth
century turned to the twentieth, and the
fame of Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters
grew, Jane and Maria Porter’s names
gradually faded out of literary histories.”
The author draws on their voluminous
correspondence, which she calls perhaps
“their greatest masterpiece,” and offers
plenty of insights into late-18th- and
19th-century social history. Though she’s
a strong writer, Looser can sometimes get
caught up in the details, slowing the
pace. Even so, fans of the era’s literature
will appreciate the light Looser shines
on these lesser-known figures. Agent:
Stacey Glick; Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.
(Oct.)

Scenes of Subjection: Terror,
Slavery, and Self-Making in
Nineteenth-Century America
Saidiya Hartman. Norton, $20 trade paper
(432p) ISBN 978-1-324-02158-2

MacArthur fellow Hartman (Wayward
Lives, Beautiful Experiments) probes in this
innovative critical study, which has been
revised and expanded from its original
1997 edition, why emancipation failed to
translate into freedom and equality for
Black Americans. Provocatively arguing
that American liberalism itself, not the
absence or denial of it, prevented African
Americans from becoming full-fledged
citizens, Hartman examines how “the
recognition of the slave’s humanity and
status as a subject extended and intensified servitude and dispossession rather
than conferring some small measure of
rights and protection.” Dissecting various “scenes of subjection” common to
19th-century culture, including parades
of coffled slaves and minstrel shows,
Hartman identifies the forces that made
it impossible for people once defined as
property to be immediately recognized
as human beings. Instead, white supremacist culture rendered Black persons
“socially dead” in all but the rarest
instances, Hartman argues. Though her
writing is impassioned and even lyrical at

times, the book’s theoretical discussions
will be challenging for nonacademic
readers. Still, this is a powerful and
thought-provoking examination of
slavery’s far-reaching legacy. (Oct.)

★ Quit: The Power of Knowing
When to Walk Away

Annie Duke. Portfolio, $28 (336p) ISBN 978-0593-42299-1

Duke follows up How to Decide with a
fascinating look at the power of walking
away from strategies and plans that aren’t
working. There’s a pervasive cultural narrative that proposes a false dichotomy of
“grit vs. quit,” she argues, but that oversimplified framing serves no one: “While
grit can get you to stick to hard things
that are worthwhile,” it can also mean
staying with something when it’s time to
stop. Duke breaks down why people get
so hidebound, explaining how the “escalation of commitment” can lead people to
double down when they’re losing. Finding the resolve to walk away from a project
that overlaps with one’s identity is especially hard, she notes, as people often fear
they’ll be judged “as being wrong, irrational, capricious, and prone to mistakes”
if they abandon a goal or belief. She offers
examples of people who were right to
drop the rope when they did, including
Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn, who recognized the risk continuing to compete
posed to her health, and Stewart Butterfield, who walked away from developing
the game Glitch to create Slack. Duke
reassures readers that there’s nothing
shameful about quitting: “Contrary to
popular belief, winners quit a lot. That’s
how they win.” This no-nonsense survey
packs a punch. (Oct.)

How Am I Doing? 40 Conversations
to Have with Yourself
Corey Yeager. Harper Celebrate, $22.99
(208p) ISBN 978-1-4002-3676-3

This excellent debut from Yeager, psychotherapist for the Detroit Pistons,
offers straightforward yet insightful
advice on how readers can “cultivate a
better sense of awareness” of their needs
and desires. The author uses anecdotes
from his career to explore 40 questions
(“Who is the most important person in
your life?” “What is your essence?”)
aimed at illuminating one’s unconscious
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feelings and motivations. Noting that
some Pistons players had wrongly
assumed that “success, fame, [and] fortune” would bring fulfillment, Yeager
encourages readers to ask themselves
“What makes you deeply happy?” to
ensure they’re pursuing their own goals
rather than “what society tells us will
make us happy.” The author asks “Are
you coachable?” and recounts how his
openness to feedback and criticism as a
student and college football player helped
him succeed in both arenas. Exercises
offer pragmatic guidance on how readers
can better understand themselves, such
as when Yeager recommends keeping a
record of one’s self-talk to gain clarity on
the question “Do you have an encouraging inner voice?” Yeager’s prose is lean
and direct, and the thoughtful reflection
prompts that end each chapter provide a
bounty of useful strategies for putting
the principles into practice. The result is
a perceptive guide for getting in touch
with oneself. (Oct.)

The Flow: Rivers, Water and
Wildness
Amy-Jane Beer. Bloomsbury Wildlife, $28
(400p) ISBN 978-1-4729-7739-7

“We come from water, and water runs
through us. It carries our chemistry and
our stories,” writes biologist Beer (Cool
Nature) in this lyrical, moving survey.
She opens with a tragedy: in 2012, Beer’s
close friend died in a kayaking accident
on the River Rawthey in North West
England. In the wake of that loss, Beer
began to study water in its many forms,
from rivers of gas in the sky to glaciers
that “groan and boom and spew rivers
from their nostrils.” With a poet’s gift for
description, Beer makes her global travels
vivid. She lovingly details an encounter
with a beaver in the wild and covers their
reintroduction after extinction in the
area, all in service of a broader look at the
history of humanity’s “tinkering with”
water flow, which goes back for millennia. Beer also considers chemistry (“The
willingness of these copious ingredients
to combine makes water very abundant
stuff”), climate change, and the depiction
of unusual water phenomena in literature
(Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about the
haunting sound of water moving in The
Hound of the Baskervilles). She’s got an

ability to make even a small moment
resonate, such as her child’s serendipitous
discovery of a carnivorous sundew plant,
with sharp prose and quick pacing. The
result is an aquatic tour de force. (Oct.)

Investing in the Era of Climate
Change
Bruce Usher. Columbia Business School,
$27.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-231-20088-2

Usher (Renewable Energy), a Columbia
Business School professor, breaks down
the implications of the climate crisis for
investors in this urgent call for action.
Noting that scientists are pushing for the
reduction of emissions from greenhouse
gases to zero “ideally by 2050 and no later
than 2070,” Usher cites data suggesting
the cost of doing so will be $125 trillion.
Investing in climate change solutions
will therefore be key, he writes. To help
readers do so, he explores four trends
“influencing the flow of capital,” including physical risks (such as rising seas,
drought, and other severe weather),
technological innovations (primarily
low-carbon ones), evolving social norms
(young consumers are interested in sustainable businesses), and government
action (namely, voters pushing for regulations). As well, Usher lays out how to
“redeploy capital” through divestment,
or “refusing to invest in fossil fuel companies”; describes “impact first” investing,
or being “willing to accept a below-market
financial return in exchange for greater
impact”; and takes a look at the cost and
history of renewable energy, electric vehicles, and carbon removal. Though his tone
at times veers toward the academic, he’s
always hopeful: “the window has not yet
closed for avoiding catastrophic climate
change.” Investors looking to do well
by doing good will find this a valuable
resource. (Oct.)

Religion/Spirituality
★ Christianity’s American Fate:
How Religion Became More
Conservative and Society More
Secular

David A. Hollinger. Princeton Univ., $29.95
(208p) ISBN 978-0-691-23388-8

This cogent and comprehensive chronicle
by historian Hollinger (Protestants Abroad)

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outlines how Protestant America’s “twoparty system” came to be. Divided between
progressive, cosmopolitan “ecumenicals”
on the one hand and conservative evangelicals on the other, this system, Hollinger
contends, has
shaped U.S.
politics for centuries, and the
“destiny of the
United States as
a whole remains
significantly
determined by
individuals and
groups who
claim the
authority to speak for Christianity.” The
author details how “Protestant cultural
hegemony” formed in the country’s earliest
years and was disrupted in the 20th century
by the assimilation of Jewish immigrants
and the dissent of Protestant missionaries
critical of Protestantism’s “religious parochialism.” The 1960s saw the split
between ecumenicals and evangelicals
grow as the latter resisted calls to engage
in the civil rights movement while the
former agitated for racial justice. Hollinger describes the decline of ecumenical
churches, which lost a third of their congregants amid growing secularization
by the 21st century, leaving evangelicals
with a larger relative share of “Christianity’s hollowed-out remnant.” The history
is thorough and often surprising, demonstrating how contemporary political
fissures have been shaped by internecine
conflicts within Protestantism. This is
superlative religious history. (Oct.)

You Are My Sunshine: A Story
of Love, Promises, and a Really
Long Bike Ride
Sean Dietrich. Zondervan, $26.99 (256p)
ISBN 978-0-310-35578-6

Sean of the South podcaster Dietrich
(Will the Circle Be Unbroken?) recounts
cycling the Great Allegheny Passage and
the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath
with his wife, Jamie, in this humorous
memoir. While Jamie waited to find out
if she had cancer, Dietrich promised her
(and God) they would one day do “something big.” After the results came back
negative, she coaxed him into taking on a
cycling odyssey, though they were “more

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Krispy Kreme enthusiasts” than “outdoorsy people.” The author chronicles
their escapades across four states and
shares amusing anecdotes that include
bruised butts, an encounter with aggressive turkeys, and getting caught in
Hurricane Sally. Dietrich claims that
“compared to other bikers, it had taken
Jamie and me longer to finish the trail
than it takes most people to finish a
PhD,” but he keeps his winning sense of
humor throughout. The author’s obvious
affection for his wife endears: he recounts
how she secretly submitted his first article to be published, and credits her for
saving his life: “Before her, I was a suicide
survivor, a dropout... with a considerably
dim future.” The zany escapades entertain, but it’s the life-affirming reflections
and conversations that set this apart, such
as when Dietrich discusses the afterlife
with a priest he meets along the trail. This
inspiring volume will melt hearts. (Oct.)

Bringing Up Kids When Church
Lets You Down: A Guide for
Parents Questioning Their Faith
Bekah McNeel. Eerdmans, $26.99 (266p)
ISBN 978-0-8028-8209-7

“Is the Christianity I grew up with
something I want to give my children?”
asks journalist McNeel in her searching
debut. She details how her ambivalence
about her conservative evangelical
upbringing has impacted her parenting
and how other parents might approach
sharing Christianity with their children
as they interrogate their own faith. She
addresses the complexities of teaching
children how to interpret the Bible and
talk with them about hell and sex, noting
that purity culture’s emphasis on deterrence often doesn’t work and that
maintaining a nonjudgmental disposition
will make kids more likely to feel comfortable asking about sex. Recounting
Sunday school races to find Bible passages
before her peers, the author critiques competitive approaches to scriptural study
and writes that she encourages her children to listen for God in their conscience,
nature, and friends, in addition to the
Bible. McNeel’s wry wit entertains (one
chapter is titled “How to Lose the Faith and
Keep It Off”), and she excels at biting social
commentary and psychological insight,
such as when she posits that punishing sins

often doesn’t work because “trouble outside
signals hurt inside, not corruption.” This
has plenty of wisdom for Christian parents
wrestling with their faith. (Oct.)

ONLINE ONLY
www.publishersweekly.com

FICTION

★ Baffling Year One, edited by dave ring, Craig

The Sacred Web Tarot Guidebook

L. Gidney, and Gabriella Etoniru. Neon Hemlock,
ISBN 978-1-952086-52-6, Aug.

Jannie Bui Brown, illus. by James Brown IV.
HarperOne, $39.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-06320555-0

A Detective’s Complaint Shimon Adaf, trans.
from the Hebrew by Yardenne Greenspan. Picador,
ISBN 978-0-374-13965-0, Aug.

Yoga teacher Jannie and her son James
Brown debut with a sensitive update to
tarot. Jannie posits that “tarot can be utilized as a tool for growth,” and to that
end she and James detail an original tarot
deck, “Sacred Web Tarot,” and use it to
imagine a “world without separation,
where everyone and everything is a silken
thread in the great weaving of the Cosmos.” Aiming to “honor all beings and
remove any bias,” James largely omits
human figures from his ethereal designs,
replacing, for example, the angel on the
judgment card with a hummingbird and
renaming it the “awakening” card. Card
descriptions highlight cosmic interconnectedness, such as the lovers card’s
representation of the “connection of one
being to all beings.” Jannie emphasizes
how readers can use the cards to nurture
personal development and improve one’s
environment, positing that the bind card
denotes freeing oneself from the “chains
that have bound you” and the justice card
calls readers to “create more equity in
your world.” She outlines 11 spreads, but
James’s images stray so far from the standard tarot that even experienced readers
will need to work with the text when
deciphering the cards’ meanings. However, the originality makes this volume
refreshing and offers a thoughtful overhaul sure to intrigue tarot practitioners
looking for a new take. A willingness to
buck tradition sets this apart. (Oct.)

Reading the Stars: Astrology for
Book Lovers
Book Riot. Abrams Image, $19.99 (160p)
ISBN 978-1-4197-5887-4

Literary website Book Riot (Lit Stitch)
serves up an irresistibly amusing look at
how booklovers can “better understand...
how your zodiac sign shapes your reading
life.” This covers the basics of astrology—
including sun signs, moon signs, and
the zodiac circle of life—and pairs
descriptions of each sign with reading

Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions Omolola
Ijeoma Ogunyemi. Amistad, ISBN 978-0-06311704-4, Sept.

NONFICTION
Daily Creative: A Practical Guide for Staying
Prolific, Brilliant, and Healthy Todd Henry.
Simple Truths, ISBN 978-1-72825-664-1, Sept.
Fifty Forgotten Books R.B. Russell. And Other
Stories, ISBN 978-1-913505-50-9, Sept.
Five Floors Up: The Heroic Family Story of
Four Generations in the FDNY Brian McDonald.
Grand Central, ISBN 978-1-5387-5320-0, Sept.
Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography
of the Old City Matthew Teller. Other Press,
ISBN 978-1-63542-334-1, Sept.

★ The Third Reconstruction: America’s
Struggle for Racial Justice in the 21st
Century Peniel E. Joseph. Basic, ISBN 978-15416-0074-4, Sept.

recommendations based on that sign’s
sensibilities. Because Libras prioritize
“balance and fairness,” they like to read a
variety of genres and might want to check
out self-care books because they “tend to
put others before themselves.” Emotionally intelligent Pisces, on the other hand,
are often romance and “vulnerable memoir” readers whose literary soulmate is
the Libra because “they can bond over
their love of feel-good books.” The reading recommendations provide several
titles based on each sign’s literary taste, as
when it’s suggested that Aries read Dead
Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia because the
whodunit will hold their fickle attention.
Brief profiles note the zodiac influence
on authors who share that sign; it’s suggested, for example, that the conclusion
of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones
series might be due to his “impossibly
high Virgo standards.” The analysis of
zodiac reading habits is lots of fun, even
if it only adds up to a slight diversion.
This is an ideal gift for bookworms with
a celestial bent. (Oct.)

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Children’s/YA
Picture Books
Autumnal Holidays
Our Day of the Dead Celebration
Ana Aranda. Penguin/Paulsen, $17.99 (32p)
ISBN 978-0-5255-1428-2

Opening with a naïf-style family tree,
Aranda offers a joyful, accessible introduction to a beloved holiday via one
family’s preparations. Watercolor, ink,
and gouache art, redolent with festive
magenta, turquoise, and violet hues, first
follows pigtailed siblings Mar and Paz
into town to buy marigolds and sugar
skulls. Back at home, decorating and
cooking give way to arrivals of living relations, portrayed with varying brown
skin tones, and of departed relatives. The
latter—represented with smiling painted
skulls and surrounded by embellishments
that reference their passions—hover
approvingly alongside the family, rendering the line between past and present a
happy blur. The party moves into high
gear when Abuelita, who “knows all the
family stories,” arrives in a swirling cloud
of monarch butterflies. “We feel close to
everyone,” says Mar, amid the singing,
dancing, and reminiscing, “the living
and the dead.” An author’s note closes.
Ages 3–7. (Sept.)

The Crayons Trick or Treat
Drew Daywalt, illus. by Oliver Jeffers. Philomel,
$9.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-593-62102-8

Costumes? Check. Enthusiasm? Check.
Door-knocking protocol? Not so much.
Halloween night is off to a rough start in
this spin-off from Daywalt and Jeffers, in
which the crayons make some hilarious
missteps when they head out trick-ortreating. Orange, fittingly dressed as a
jack-o’-lantern, assures rule-follower
Purple, sporting a sharp vampire getup,
that the crayon crew knows just what to
do, but the group proves unsure what to
say when they knock on their neighbors’
doors. Orange tries the first residence,
saying “Give us your candy, lady,” as
Peach, wearing the crayon box, calls back
to the original book, exclaiming, “I’m
naked!” Subsequent stops prove equally
silly as Purple, alongside bat-winged

Tucholke and Le juxtapose two sisters’
opposing sensibilities (reviewed on this page).

Black, coaches the pals on the holiday’s
conventional greeting, and finally gets
everyone in line. This book’s diminutive
trim size and classic costumes make for
predictably pleasing snack-size fun. Ages
4–8. (Sept.)

Beatrice Likes the Dark

take notice, Ghost can’t even get the
attention of the city family, portrayed
with white skin, who live in the same
house. When a big balloon as red as
Ghost’s apple cheeks floats within reach,
Ghost draws a smiley face on it, and the
two become inseparable. The balloon’s
departure back to the sky prompts a
frantic search (Ghost papers playground
participants with “MISSING FRIEND”
posters), but a turn suggests that perhaps
the balloon isn’t lost after all. Using ink
and watercolor, Kaufman’s emotionally
rich, sketchlike compositions—of sad
Ghost on a busy urban playground, of the
balloon offering Ghost steadfast companionship as a scary thunderstorm rages
outside—exude immediacy and empathy.
Ages 4–8. (Aug.)

The Most Haunted House in
America
Jarrett Dapier, illus. by Lee Gatlin. Abrams,
$18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4197-5246-9

An instance of compassion prompts
two siblings to overcome their emotional
distance in Tucholke’s gothic-inflected
picture book debut. “Beatrice likes the
dark dark dark/ and the dark dark dark
likes her,” reads incantatory prose as readers see the black-clad girl picnicking in a
graveyard and savoring the hush and creatures of starry nights. Rust-clad sibling
Roo is the exact opposite, preferring
“sunshine and birthday parties and
smashing crashing/ blasting noises and
wearing pink and red and purple.” When
Beatrice creates a potion one night that
makes Roo less afraid of the dark, Roo
teaches Beatrice a song to mitigate the
sensory overload she feels during the day.
Le’s earth-toned art revels in fairy tale
romanticism as the two protagonists,
portrayed with pale skin and blond hair,
discover that, without changing their
fundamental preferences, “they can love
each other, all the same.” Ages 4–8. (Sept.)

Based on personal experience drumming in costume at an Obama-presidency
White House Halloween party, Dapier
imagines a crew of google-eyed skeleton
percussionists invited to a similar event.
Though they know that “The White
House is HAUNTED from top to toe!”
even the squat skeletons are surprised by
the plethora of resident ghouls, introduced in unevenly metered rhyming
couplets: “Back in the hall and more spirits arrive:/ They step out of paintings like
something ALIVE!/ Abe Lincoln appears
in his stovepipe hat,/ scratching the chin
of a giant-sized cat.” As Gatlin’s digitally
enhanced pencil and ink drawings depict
a cheerily eerie, off-the-chain soiree that
sprawls from the White House’s lawn
and interiors, the Obamas are shown
welcoming everyone to boogie down,
from costumed people of varying skin
tones to Abigail Adams’s ghost. An extensive afterword discusses “consistently
reported and verified ghost sightings”
at the residence. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)

A Friend for Ghost

A Costume for Charly

Suzanne Kaufman. Holiday House/Porter,
$18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-4852-4

C.K. Malone, illus. by Alejandra Barajas.
Beaming, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5064-8405-1

Attic-dwelling Ghost, who has big
round eyeglasses and a beseeching face,
seems fated to be “always alone in the
crowd.” Though animals occasionally

Young Charly, portrayed with brown
skin, can’t decide whether to be “fabulous
or frightening” for Halloween, but
they know one thing for sure: this year’s

April Genevieve Tucholke, illus. by Khoa Le.
Algonquin, $18.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-6437-5157-3

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Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble
Seasonal titles center witches of many stripes.

Kit and Caboodle

The Witchling’s Wish

each year to October 31, when they join the “mortals” for
Harvest celebrations. Young Abigail, a light-brown-skinned
witch, wishes she could longer enjoy the humans’ holiday
sweet treats. Surveilling children year-round via her mother’s
brew, Abigail gets an idea: this year, she’ll offer the mortals a
trick in return for their treats, which successfully garners her
enough sweets to throw a whole immortal party. But when
those treats, too, prove insufficient, she makes a deal with
mortal adults to swap their children’s sweets for “a special
present.” Jewel-toned, ethereal art by Alshalabi displays the
coveted treats to enticing effect in an extended trick-or-treat
origin story that offers a pragmatic approach to handling
excess candy. Ages 4–7. (Self-published)

Lu Fraser, illus. by Sarah Massini. Bloomsbury, $17.99 (32p)
ISBN 978-1-5476-0906-2

If Your Babysitter Is a Bruja

Anna Pignataro. Little Hare, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-76050-633-9

Witch cat Kit lives alone for a century, until brokenwinged bat Caboodle tumbles through her window one
Halloween, in Pignataro’s tender tribute to friendship. While
Kit’s nonsense spells fail to heal Caboodle’s wing, it’s her offer
of a place to stay, and patience around his needs and presence,
that lead to healing and friendship. Folk-style, largely grayscale art with pencil and watercolor textures provides a quirky
domestic atmosphere for red-clad Kit and pink-eared Caboodle
to develop their better-together bond. Ages 3–5. (Aug.)

A lonely young Witchling’s plan to conjure a friend goes
gently awry in this sweet-natured, jauntily rhyming tale. The
Witchling, portrayed with pale skin, doesn’t mind the bed
beetles or dripping ceiling of her cozily appointed cave home,
but she longs for a friend to take up the emptiness in her
heart. Though her spell book has just the recipe, when she
flies off in search of a special ingredient—“some furriness”
from a one-eyed teddy bear—a crash landing offers friendship
in another child, portrayed with brown skin. Fraser’s bouncy
text carries readers through the night sky at a good clip, while
Massini’s playful mixed-media artwork introduces two winning
characters turned kindred spirits. Ages 3–6. (July)

Leila, the Perfect Witch
Flavia Z. Drago. Candlewick, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5362-2050-6

Author-illustrator Drago mixes a dash of family support
with a measure of witchy worldbuilding in this tasty tale
about a young witch developing grit. Though she’s the fastest
flier, most cunning conjurer, and sneakiest shape-shifter in
her coven, green-skinned Leila Wayward has her heart set on
winning “the most important trophy of all” as champion of
the Magnificent Witchy Cake-Off. She comes from “a long
line of... experts in the Dark Arts of Patisserie,” but the proof
is in her disastrous first batter: Leila lacks ace baking skills.
An assist from her sisters, portrayed with varying skin tones,
proves the perfect recipe for dealing with the Cake-Off, no
matter how things turn out. In colored pencil textures, multimedia illustrations are filled with witch-centric detail,
including clever nods to fairy tale fodder. Ages 3–7. (July)

Trick or Treat: The Story of the Switch Witch and
How She Came to Be
Antoinette Corley-Newman, illus. by Noor Alshalabi. Summit Street,
$24.99 (54p) ISBN 978-1-63877-585-0

The witch and warlock youth of Transylvania look forward

Ana Siqueira, illus. by Irena Freitas. Simon & Schuster, $18.99
(32p) ISBN 978-1-5344-8874-8

As Halloween approaches, an evening with a new babysitter becomes a high-energy adventure in Siqueria’s seasonal
story, which incorporates Spanish phrases. Though the sitter
rolls up on a bicycle, the book’s second-person narrator sees
things with holiday-colored glasses: “If she zooms in on a
broom, black sombrero on her
head, cackling like a crow...
¡¡CORRE! RUN!” Vibrant
vignettes center the child and
possibly-bruja babysitter, both
portrayed with tan skin, Freitas
depicts the action: the backyard
jungle gym becomes a castle
under an inky black sky dotted with ghost decorations, while
bath time is described as involving “a bubbling cauldron with
starving COCODRILOS!!!” As the child comes around on the
sitter, final scenes sustain the upbeat tone. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)

Witch in the City (Crimson Twill #1)
Kallie George, illus. by Birgitta Sif. Candlewick, $14.99 (64p)
ISBN 978-1-5362-1463-5

Giggling instead of cackling, skipping instead of slinking,
and sporting a black hat with a big crimson bow, young
Crimson Twill is portrayed as hardly witch-“typical.” When
the pale-skinned witch travels with her mother from their
Cackle County home to Broomingdale’s, New Wart City
offers myriad opportunities for Crimson to showcase her
developing know-how and compassionate heart. Riddled with
wordplay (“Slime Square,” “Vera Fang”), George’s chapter
book series starter revels in lighthearted witchy whimsy while
underlining themes of being true to oneself; Sif’s textural
b&w illustrations depict a variously inclusive city community.
Ages 7–9. (July)

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Review_CHILDREN’S

costume has to be “something that
showed they were both a boy and a girl.”
Barajas’s slick, animation-like illustrations have a slice-of-life energy as they
envision Charly assessing the options in
the costume box: a Red Riding Hood outfit makes Charly’s “boy half felt eaten by
the wolf,” while a Dracula costume “took
a bite out of their girl half.” Momentarily
disheartened (“Why can’t there be a costume just for me?”), Charly musters some
ingenuity worthy of Project Runway. In
Malone’s earnest prose, there is never any
doubt in this protagonist, who does whatever it takes to feel “one hundred percent
Charly.” An afterword discusses bigender
identity. Ages 4–12. (Sept.)

Monsters Growling in the
Background: Halloween Poems
for the Brave
Kenn Nesbit et al, illus. by Martin Ontiveros.
Reycraft, $17.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4788-7041-8

A vibe-setting anecdote about a
Halloween night that terrifies costumed
candy-seekers opens this immersive
assortment of poems, “some as old as a
rotting corpse in a grave, others as new
as a baby goblin.” The grouping intersperses works by contemporary authors
such as Kenn Nesbit (“Halloween Party”)
with those of classic poets including
Walter de la Mare (“Some One”) and Edna
St. Vincent Millay (“The Little Ghost”).
Accompanying the verses are bold-hued,
poster-style illustrations by Ontiveros,
which employ atmospheric elements (a
graveyard, a haunted house) in thick outline alongside individuals portrayed
with fancifully hued skin tones. Though
the poems’ creators are limited to whitepresenting American and English writers,
appealing visuals and truly spinetingling stanzas lend themselves to a
seasonally pleasing read. Ages 8–14. (Oct.)

Fiction
The Glass Witch
Lindsay Puckett. Scholastic Press, $17.99
(224p) ISBN 978-1-338-80342-6

The witches of the white Goode family—who share “wide hips, wide eyes,
wide smiles”—have long lived in New
England’s Cranberry Hollow, their presence necessary to maintain its plentiful

wild magic, but an old curse forbids more
than three Goodes from existing within
town limits at the same time. On the
cusp of Halloween, the town hosts a tourist-garnering festival, which includes a
baking contest and the Miss Preteen Scary
Cranberry pageant. It is then that 12-yearold baking enthusiast Adelaide Goode
arrives to stay with her grandmother and
aunt while her mother starts a new job.
Feeling like one of the abandoned “misfit” bunnies her
grandmother
takes in, Adelaide triggers
the curse, which
transforms her
bones into glass
and sees her
stalked by a
mystical hunter
that has possessed one of a
local witch-hunting family. Now Adelaide and new friend Fatima, a horror-loving
hijabi of Pakistani descent, must undo
the spell before the hunter claims Adelaide’s soul. Puckett focuses on Adelaide’s
insecurities around her comparatively
weak magical talent, internalized fat
phobia, and worries that she’s “never been
Goode enough” for her family, slowly outlining an arc toward self-acceptance as
the tween learns more about her relatives’
conflicts. Interstitials featuring the hunter’s sinister perspective both contrast and
complement Adelaide’s internal mix of
humor and frustration, highlighting a
complex stew of emotions. Ages 8–12.
Agent: Samantha Fabien, Root Literary. (Oct.)

How to Heal a Gryphon
(Giada the Healer #1)
Meg Cannistra. Inkyard, $16.99 (304p)
ISBN 978-1-335-42687-1

In this Amalfi Coast–set adventure
steeped in Italian culture and folklore,
Cannistra (The Trouble with Shooting Stars)
introduces readers to a stubborn heroine
determined to embrace her true strengths.
Giada Bellantuono, nearly 13, is in training to become a guaritrice—an Italian
witch specializing in the art of magical
healing. But unlike the rest of her renowned
streghe family, Giada doesn’t want to
serve the god Apollo and heal people,
nor undertake a looming apprenticeship.

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Instead, she feels drawn to Diana,
goddess of wild animals, and to healing
creatures “ordinary and extraordinary,”
like the baby gryphon she finds. When
Giada spills salt and olive oil, and wishes
that her esteemed 16-year-old brother
Rocco would disappear, he is kidnapped
by the Streghe del Malocchio—witches
who can “sniff out a person’s bad luck.”
To rescue him, Giada and her new feline
familiar, black cat Sinistro, must journey
to Malafi, the witches’ underground city,
and accomplish an impossible task. Via a
world where magic and modern medicine
coexist, and a secret spell-casting community lives undetected year-round,
Cannistra writes a compassionate quest
that interrogates tradition, legacy, and
humans’ effect on the natural world.
Ages 8–12. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New
Leaf Literary. (Oct.)

The Last Hope in Hopetown
Maria Tureaud. Little, Brown, $16.99 (304p)
ISBN 978-0-316-36845-2

In Hopetown, Pa.—“an American
Revolution time capsule kind of place”—
12-year-old Sophie Dawes lives with her
loving adoptive vampire moms. French
Revolution–era Mama, once best friends
with Marie Antoinette, embraces a 1950s
homemaker vibe, while the Duke, a former
Viking shield-maiden, has swapped the
battleground for the boardroom. Though
it’s been years since vampires “walked
into the light”—became part of human
society—stringent rules and regular
government check-ins now attend
human-vampire relations, especially in
the few years since vampires began “going
rogue.” Amid state-level policy changes
around corporate blood bank donations,
a Federal Bureau of Vampire Affairs rehabilitation facility being established
nearby, and growing online conspiracy
theories about rogue vampires, the epidemic reaches Hopetown. To investigate
the “rogue” phenomenon, Sophie and
her best friend Delphine Abernathy, a
300-year-old vampire stuck with a
12-year-old’s body and mind, take it
upon themselves to investigate. Though
it telegraphs reveals early on, Tureaud’s
high-concept debut offers an extended
metaphor exploring how the past informs
the present, touching on corporate
protections, government surveillance,

Review_CHILDREN’S

model minority dynamics, and personal
rights via vibrantly rendered characters.
Characters cue as white. Ages 8–12.
Agent: Amy Giuffrida, Jennifer De Chiara
Literary. (Oct.)

New Dragon City
Mari Mancusi. Little, Brown, $16.99 (352p)
ISBN 978-0-316-37668-6

Five years after the dragon apocalypse
wiped out most of humankind, and two
years after his survivalist father’s bunker
ran out of food, 12-year-old Noah is eking
out a tenuous existence as part of a band
of survivors in New York City. When the
dragons awake from their winter hibernation a month early, while Noah’s out
scavenging for nonperishables, the group
relocates from their part-time hotel residence to their subway-tunnel shelter.
Noah, however, secretly remains aboveground to search with his dad for Noah’s
mother, who has purportedly joined a cult
of dragon sympathizers. When a chance
Times Square encounter with a young
dragon named Asha leaves Noah inexplicably connected to her via a mental bond,
the revelation suggests it may be possible
for humans and dragons to coexist peacefully, but Noah’s father refuses to back
down from his anti-dragon crusade. In a
contemporary-feeling metropolitan
adventure replete with dragon deniers
and fake news, Mancusi (the Dragon Ops
series) lightly sketches the society’s dayto-day realities; if the resulting world is
unevenly built, it also imbues Noah’s
experiences with a sense of awe, making
for an entertaining, flashy novel centering
family and interspecies friendship. Noah
reads as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Mandy
Hubbard, Emerald City Literary Agency. (Oct.)

leaving the twins little time to banish the
monster back to its maritime prison. Setting off on a quest to save the town, Kai
and Peter enlist the help of their specialist
family: their ancient-weapons-wielding
grandmother, Greek archeologist mother,
English teacher father, and capable older
sister. Poetry, patterns, puzzles, and new
powers guide the twins to destinations
throughout Massachusetts, where they
destroy a series of booby-trapped symbols
to contain the monster. Yet impulsive
Kai and cautious Peter are continually at
odds, threatening the success of their
mission. Cheeky humor and familiar
lore keep the cinematic scenes moving,
while themes of powerful familial bonds,
teamwork, and leveraging individual
strengths ground the quick-moving
plotline. Characters present as white.
Ages 8–12. Agent: Lauren Abramo, Dystel,
Goderich & Bourret. (Oct.)

The Year the Maps Changed
Danielle Binks. Quill Tree, $16.99 (368p)
ISBN 978-0-06321-160-5

Set in a small Australian town in 1999,

Binks’s character-driven debut novel
follows 11-year-old Winifred “Fred”
Owen-Ricci through a complicated year
of change that stretches her understanding
of personal as well as global responsibility.
Since her mother died when Fred was six,
she has been raised in a cozy family unit
with her police officer stepfather, Luca,
and her beloved maternal grandfather,
Pop. When Luca’s new girlfriend and her
10-year-old son move in, Fred begrudgingly tries to adapt. Soon, the family’s
community also expands—in some cases
also begrudgingly—with the arrival of
400 Kosovar Albanian refugees
escaping war in Kosovo. Guided and
challenged by ethically driven adults
around her—including a thoughtfully
drawn history teacher who awakens and
nurtures her interest in geography—Fred
grapples with the concept of a moral compass and with her changing community
and relationships, especially when tragedy hits home. Acknowledging the mark
of colonialism on Australia’s history, and
including a parallel secondary arc about
Fred’s Vietnamese neighbors, Binks

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Secrets of Stone and Sea
Allison K. Hymas. Roaring Brook, $17.99
(304p) ISBN 978-1-2507-9947-0

History and mythology explosively
converge in a sibling-centered, summertime New England fantasy by Hymas
(The Explorer’s Code). When 12-year-old
identical twins Kai and Peter Syracuse
throw a sneeze-bloodied hot dog into the
ocean near Seaspire, Mass.’s purportedly
haunted lighthouse, neither expects to
awaken a vicious, godlike sea monster.
But the easily slighted entity promises to
flood Seaspire on the next full moon,

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Review_CHILDREN’S

★ Man Made Monsters
Andrea L. Rogers, illus. by Jeff Edwards. Levine Querido, $19.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-64-614179-1

panning generations, Rogers (Mary and the Trail of
Tears) recounts the past, present, and future trials
and tribulations of one Cherokee family in this
spine-tingling horror collection. Though the
stories presented can stand alone, each tale, arranged in
chronological order, follows members of the Wilson
family as they navigate myriad supernatural and reallife terrors. Opening the volume is “An Old-Fashioned
Girl,” in which 16-year-old Ama Wilson is turned into
a vampire while she and her family flee from Texas
Rangers in 1839. Mythical creatures such as ghosts,
zombies, werewolves, and even aliens abound, but most
threatening are monsterlike men who kidnap, abuse, and murder Native women.
Striking white line art on black backgrounds by Cherokee artist Edwards introduce each story, containing the tribe’s syllabary, adding to the haunting
atmosphere, and synthesizing handwritten language with stunning visuals. While
Rogers expertly crafts gripping grisly horror elements and cataclysmic paranormal
phenomena via a deep understanding and appreciation for her Cherokee ancestry,
the narrative’s strength lies in its powerful prose and thematic core: “How different
were zombies from the soldiers and settlers who wanted our land?” Fresh, crisply
written text, which alternates between first-, second-, and third-person tellings,
artfully tackles themes of colonialism and its effects on entire generations, for a
simultaneously frightening and enthralling read. A glossary and extensive family
tree are included. Ages 12–up. Agent: Emily Sylvan Kim, Prospect Agency. (Oct.)

engages Fred’s emotionally grounded,
intelligently questioning narrative to
look at the way “maps lie. Or at least,
they don’t always tell the truth.”
Protagonists largely read as white. Ages
8–12. Agent: Annabel Barker, Annabel
Barker Agency. (Oct.)

After Dark with Roxie Clark
Brooke Lauren Davis. Bloomsbury, $18.99
(352p) ISBN 978-1-5476-0614-6

Rather than fearing her family’s purported curse, 18-year-old Roxie Clark
embraces it with theatrical flair until
tragedy forces her to reevaluate her perspective in this eerie thriller from Davis
(The Hollow Inside). Whistler High School
student Roxie knows that many of her
relatives have died under mysterious
circumstances, which they blame on a
generational curse. Even so, Roxie is a
fan of all things morbid, and regales
anyone who will listen with woeful tales
of her family history. She’s even developed
a ghost tour about it, busing patrons
around town to the locations of the

historical and more recent deaths. When
the repeatedly stabbed and partially
burned corpse of Roxie’s sister Skylar’s
boyfriend is found in a cornfield, however, Roxie will do anything to help her
sibling move on. A year after his death,
new evidence prompts Skylar to enlist
Roxie to find his killer, but when she
insists that the murderer is Roxie’s best
friend, Roxie is torn between wanting to
prove his innocence and securing closure
for her sister. The narrative’s suspenseful
ambiance and Roxie’s distinct, loyal-to-afault voice make for a riveting meditation
on generational trauma and fierce female
relationships. Characters cue as white.
Ages 12–up. (Oct.)

If You Could See the Sun
Ann Liang. Inkyard, $18.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1335-91584-9

A Chinese American scholarship
student with an inexplicable ability to
turn invisible uses her newfound power
to monetize her peers’ secrets in Liang’s
imaginative debut. Unlike her affluent

72 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 2 2

classmates, 17-year-old Alice Sun has
only her hard-earned “established streak
of success” going for her. After receiving
news that her parents can’t afford the
tuition for her next semester at the
prestigious Beijing-based Airington
International Boarding School, she’s
faced with transferring to a local Beijing
academy or moving in with her auntie to
attend school in Maine. But when she
suddenly finds herself able to turn invisible, she uses this gift for leverage. With
help from her academic rival Henry Li,
they anonymously create the Beijing
Ghost, a phone app that allows students
to request Alice uncover secrets and
scandals for a fee. As the tasks escalate to a
criminal level, however, the cost becomes
greater than Alice anticipated. Liang
paints a clear picture of what it’s like to
struggle for certain advantages that are
seemingly handed to others, skillfully
exploring themes of classism and privilege via a sympathetic protagonist who
feels—sometimes literally—invisible.
Ages 13–up. Agent: Katherine Rushall,
Andrea Brown Literary. (Oct.)

Princess of Souls
Alexandra Christo. Macmillan/Feiwel and
Friends, $18.99 (416p) ISBN 978-1-25084174-2

Teenagers battle a tyrannical, undying
king in this starry-eyed, “Rapunzel”–
inspired standalone by Christo (the Into
the Crooked Place series). Pale-skinned
Selestra Somniatis spends most days confined to a tower on Floating Mountain,
waiting to replace her mother, Theola, as
King Seryth’s witch, a position whose
duties include prophesying deaths in the
annual Festival of Predictions. Participants must survive three potentially fatal
encounters over a fortnight, one of which
Theola foretells. Should they perish, their
soul will be devoured by Seryth to extend
his life. Those who live, however, are
granted a wish and given the opportunity
to let the king and his army hunt them
until month’s end. Seryth will cede his
immortality to anyone who bests him—a
never-before-achieved feat—but lightbrown-skinned soldier Nox Laederic,
hoping to avenge his father’s murder, is
determined to be the first. When Selestra
delivers Nox’s prediction as practice, she
intertwines their fates, and the pair are

Review_CHILDREN’S

forced to work together or perish. While
the plot is predictable, vividly rendered
backdrops and plentiful action coupled
with Selestra and Nox’s alternating
first-person accounts and snarky banter
candidly chronicle their heady burgeoning romance. Ages 13–up. Agent:
Emmanuelle Morgen, Stonesong. (Oct.)

★ The Restless Dark
Erica Waters. HarperTeen, $18.99 (400p)
ISBN 978-0-0631-1590-3

After serial killer Joseph Kincaid
plummeted into Georgia’s Cloudkiss
Canyon while pursuing amateur environmental scientist Lucy Wilson, his body
was never found. Two years later, popular
true crime podcast Human Beasties hosts
the Killer Quest, a weeklong hunt for
Kincaid’s remains with a $20,000 reward.
Lucy, now 17, secretly joins the contest,
believing that the discovery will finally
set her mind at ease (“I’m alive and Kincaid isn’t. And now I’m going to find his
bones and prove it”). There she meets
18-year-old Carolina Cassels, whose exboyfriend’s mysterious death and father’s
religious abuse causes her to believe
there’s evil inside her; the two team up
with charming, seemingly carefree college sophomore and psychology major
Maggie Rey. As the girls, all white-cued,
search for the bones, and Lucy and
Maggie fall for each other, they must
confront increasingly antagonistic contestants and their own fraught pasts.
Switching between Lucy and Carolina’s
perspectives, Waters (The River Has Teeth)
attentively acknowledges the appeal of
true crime while confronting the ways in
which it can be exploitative. Employing a
touch of the supernatural to create a consistently creepy environment, Waters
crafts a smart and memorable thriller.
Ages 13–up. Agent: Lauren Spieller, Triada
US. (Oct.)

Anne of Greenville
Mariko Tamaki. Hachette/de la Cruz, $18.99
(304p) ISBN 978-1-368-07840-5

Tamaki (Cold) puts a modern spin on
Anne of Green Gables in this finely detailed
rendering of half-Japanese, half-white,
and “deliciously queer” Anne Shirley, and
her new life in the “Ultimate Small
Town.” Anne—whose dyed orange hair
and sequined jumpsuits make her stand

out in a crowd—has just moved to
Greenville with her mothers: portrait
photographer Millie and Lucy, the new
vice principal at Greenville High.
Though Anne is not initially wellreceived—she announces her presence to
the town square by hanging tiny papiermâché disco balls on lampposts and
performing on orange leather roller skates
to “Funkytown”—she makes fast friends
with warmhearted, “moss and fluorescent
and forest and pine green”–haired Berry.
Together, the duo contend with racist
and homophobic classmates, but things
get complicated when Anne crushes on
Gilly, a tall blond girl whose friend group
is responsible for Anne’s mistreatment.
Though secondary characters—particularly the bullies—feel rote, Anne’s
effervescent voice, overwhelming openmindedness, and tenderly depicted
struggle to create joy in a change-resistant
town prove both a balm and a primer for
how to live as one’s truest self. Most characters read as white. Ages 14–up. (Oct.)

Henry Hamlet’s Heart
Rhiannon Wilde. Charlesbridge Teen, $18.99
(336p) ISBN 978-1-62354-369-3

An 18-year-old grapples with sudden
feelings for his best friend in Australian
author Wilde’s upbeat, 2008-set debut
rom-com. Henry Hamlet, the unpopular,
introverted school captain at Brisbane
Northolm Grammar School for Boys, is
worried about not having a clear life plan.
As graduation looms, he finds it difficult
to juggle tumultuous relationships with
an uncertain future: his grandmother
pressures him to pursue his art, while his
parents believe success lies in his academic prowess, and his friends have
begun fixating on romance, something
that Henry wants nothing to do with.
That is, until his best friend, Lennon
Cane—sports star, serial heartbreaker,
and aspiring photographer—kisses him
during a game of truth or dare, which
sparks confusing emotions in Henry.
After Len admits wanting to pursue a
relationship with Henry, the two begin
dating, but when Len unexpectedly pulls
away, Henry struggles to cope with
potentially losing both his best friend
and their budding relationship. Wilde
deftly captures classic adolescent boys’
dialogue, while Henry’s constant, occa-

sionally heartbreaking self-doubt is
mitigated by his endearing and at times
hilariously overwrought internal narrative in this sincere romance. Characters
present as white. Ages 14–up. (Oct.)

Night of the Raven, Dawn of
the Dove
Rati Mehrotra. Wednesday, $18.99 (352p)
ISBN 978-1-250-82368-7

Eighteen-year-old Katyani feels as if
her life is not entirely her own in this fluidly plotted, medieval India–set fantasy
by Mehrotra (Markswoman, for adults).
When Katyani was three, Queen Hemlata
of Chandela saved her from death by creating a soul bond between them; their tie
means that she always knows the queen’s
location and feelings, making Katyani
the perfect bodyguard. Now one of the
Garuda, elite royal protectors, she’s
responsible for the safety of the entire
royal family and serves as an adviser to
Crown Prince Ayan. After a barrage of
assassination attempts jeopardizes Ayan’s
safety, a reluctant Katyani must accompany him to an ethics and military arts
school. There she’s tasked with protecting
him from the dangerous creatures who
inhabit the surrounding area while he
learns from a monster-fighting sage.
Katyani and the teacher’s son, 19-year-old
Daksh, are immediately and openly hostile toward each other, but when war
breaks out and secrets from her past are
revealed, she realizes that her loyalties
may lead her to betrayal. Katyani’s bold,
vivacious personality and a swoony enemies-to-lovers romance imbue this tense,
action-packed narrative with wry humor.
Ages 14–up. Agent: Mary C. Moore, Kimberly
Cameron & Assoc. (Oct.)

★ A Scatter of Light
Malinda Lo. Dutton, $18.99 (336p) ISBN 9780-525-55528-5

This raw and bittersweet story by Lo, a
2013-set standalone companion to Last
Night at the Telegraph Club, follows MITbound 18-year-old Aria West, who’s
anticipating spending her summer visiting friends on Martha’s Vineyard, like she
does every year. But those plans are canceled when a classmate circulates topless
photos of Aria online just before graduation. Disappointed and blaming her for
the photo leak, Aria’s parents send her to
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

Review_CHILDREN’S

stay with her paternal grandmother in
“the remote woods of Marin County”
outside of San Francisco, where she
immediately connects with gendernonconforming singer-songwriter Steph
Nichols. Led by Steph, Steph’s possessive
girlfriend, and their acerbic friend Mel
Lopez, Aria
immerses herself in San
Francisco’s joyous LBGTQ
culture. Aria’s
enthusiastic
exploration of
her sexuality,
her growing
feelings for
Steph, and her
discovery of old photos, videotapes, and
papers from her divorced parents’ complicated history turn what she assumed
would be a lonely summer in exile into a
transformative experience. Aria’s vulnerable narration is an intensely driving force
in this expansive tale of yearning, selfdiscovery, and first love. Aria is white
and Chinese; Mel is Latinx-cued; most
other characters read as white. Ages 14–
up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel, Goderich
& Bourret. (Oct.)

The Sevenfold Hunters
Rose Egal. Page Street Kids, $18.99 (352p)
ISBN 978-1-64567-616-4

In this bustling debut from Egal, teenage students at an elite London-based
academy secretly train to hunt and kill
vampiric aliens plaguing a dystopian
future-Earth. Somali hijabi Abyan Farax
Guled, leader of The Sevenfold, Carlisle
Academy’s top-ranked hunting squad,
wants nothing more than to destroy the
Nosaru, parasitic aliens that infect and
usurp human bodies. After her squad
mate Jared dies in action, Abyan, who’s
clinically depressed, has trouble letting
go. When Jared’s former girlfriend,
“golden-brown” skinned Artemis Garrett-Coleman, is assigned to the Sevenfold
as his replacement, she and Abyan butt
heads. But, despite Artemis’s poor exam
scores and subpar combat skills, Carlisle’s
administration refuses to decommission
her. Upon realizing that there’s something
ominous going on within the academy,
the pair, joined by the rest of the Seven-

fold, must put aside their differences and
defy orders to uncover the truth. Rapid
pacing provides little time for emotional
beats to land and leaves romantic subplots
to falter. Nevertheless, Egal capably combines familiar tropes—academic intrigue,
mysterious shadow organizations, and
good old-fashioned vampire hunting—
with innovative sci-fi elements to deliver
an adrenaline-fueled galactic war adventure. Ages 14–up. Agent: Garrett Alwert,
Emerald City Literary. (Oct.)

Comics
Twelfth Grade Night
(Arden High #1)
Molly Horton Booth and Stephanie Kate
Strohm, illus. by Jamie Green. DisneyHyperion, $24.99 (160p) ISBN 978-1-36806239-8; $14.99 paper ISBN 978-1-368-06465-1

Booth (Nothing Happened), Strohm
(Restless Hearts), and Green (Brothers in
Arms) channel William Shakespeare’s
Twelfth Night in this joyful graphic novel
series opener. Human twins Viola and
Sebastian have been inseparable until, as
the duo prepare to transition into Arden
High, a school populated by humans,
fairies, and satyrs alike, Sebastian opts to
go to St. Anne’s boarding school, instead.
Juggling feelings of abandonment and
elation at being able to finally dress how
she wants (“I just felt more and more
uncomfortable in those skirts. I wanted
to dress more like Sebastian,” Vi says of
her middle school uniforms), Vi meets
and crushes on enigmatic human poet
Orsino. But things get messy when Orsino recruits her to help him woo his own
crush. Green’s distinct and whimsical
character designs, coupled with a rich
color palette, skillfully render Arden’s
ephemeral fairy-realm setting. The creators pay homage to the source material
by modernizing core elements while staying true to the original’s spirit. The twins’
struggles to forge their own personhoods,
and Vi’s exploration of her gender and
sexual identity, enrich the narrative.
Characters are portrayed with varying
skin tones. Ages 12–up. Agents: (for Booth)
Alex Slater, Trident Media Group; (for
Strohm) Molly Ker Hawn, Bent Agency; (for
Green) Chad Beckerman, CAT Agency. (Oct.)

74 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 2 2

ONLINE ONLY
www.publishersweekly.com

PICTURE BOOKS

★ Jigsaw: Mystery in the Mail Bob Graham.
Candlewick, ISBN 978-1-5362-2499-3, July

FICTION
Butt Sandwich & Tree Wesley King. S&S/
Wiseman, ISBN 978-1-66590-261-8, Aug.
Daybreak on Raven Island Fleur Bradley.
Viking, ISBN 978-0-593-40463-8, Aug.
Fenris & Mott Greg van Eekhout. HarperCollins,
ISBN 978-0-06-297063-3, Aug.
Haven: A Small Cat’s Big Adventure Megan
Wagner Lloyd. Candlewick, ISBN 978-1-53621657-8, Aug.

★ Hummingbird Natalie Lloyd. Scholastic
Press, $17.99 (368p) ISBN 978-1-3386-5458-5, Aug.
Molly and the Machine (Far Flung Falls #1)
Erik Jon Slangerup. Aladdin, ISBN 978-1-53449799-3, June

★ DPS Only!
Velinxi. Andrews McMeel, $18.99 paper
(432p) ISBN 978-1-5248-7649-4

Sixteen-year-old Vicky Tan navigates
e-sports’ misogynistic atmosphere in this
high-octane solo debut, originally a webcomic, by Velinxi (the Scum Villain series).
Vicky has always supported her older
brother, Virgil, username Aeneid, a topranked player of popular pvp game Xenith
Orion, which is notorious for its boys’ club
environment. She edits his videos, curates
his social media presence, and cheers him
on at tournaments. She also secretly
moonlights as an equally high-ranked
Xenith player; concealing her gender to
avoid harassment, she plays online using
voice modulators and the username
Aegis. After landing a spot in a tournament, she must decide if she wants to
fight for agency in her own life or to live
in Virgil’s—and her alter ego’s—shadow
forever. Velnixi’s bold lines, striking
shadows, dynamic paneling, and vibrant,
textured palettes stunningly illustrate
Vicky’s cloud-nine highs and subterranean lows. This powerfully emotional
graphic novel, set against a bombastic
technicolor e-sports backdrop, tenderly
navigates tumultuous, nuanced relationships and necessary conversations
regarding toxic bro culture and being
one’s authentic self. Vicky and Virgil cue
as East Asian. Ages 13–17. (Oct.)

AUGU ST 2 022

Your guide to self-publishing
Indie Spotlight • 63 New BookLife Titles Listed • 16 New BookLife
Titles Reviewed

“A World
Began to
Take
Shape”

Leslye Penelope
discusses her experiences
as a successful indie
author—and her first
foray into postapocalyptic
fiction
BY MARY MCNULTY JONES

e s ly e Pe n e l o p e , a b e s t s e l l i n g
fantasy author, filmmaker, and
podcaster who has published both
traditionally and independently, is
breaking out a new series, Bliss Wars.
The first book, Savage City, introduces
B O O K L I F E .CO M

INDIE SUCCESS

a young woman who goes from nearly invisible
to princess in a strange near-future world of human
shifters. In a recent starred review of Savage City,
PW praised Penelope’s “seamless blend of fantasy
subgenres, wrenching action, and all-too-human
characters.”
What was it like creating the rich and varied
world of Savage City?
I read across a variety of genres and am always
looking to write books I’d like to read. Worldbuilding
is one of my favorite things about writing. I’d never
tackled postapocalyptic fiction before, so, as I built
the characters and the two rival shifter clans, the
world began to take shape. I would get new ideas I
wanted to explore—ways to push the characters and
conflict further—and had to hold myself back from
making the world too complex, but I still wanted it
to feel full and inhabited, with its own history and
culture and beliefs.
What were some of your influences when
writing the hero-villain relationships in Savage
City?
I’ve always had a tough time writing pure villains.
Characters who are just pure evil aren’t that interesting to me. Because my writing is often mirroring
and inspired by real social conflicts, I’m far more
intrigued by realistic motivations for villainous acts.
The thing that really excited me the most about the
original idea for this book was the story’s main villain
and how he could be a tyrannical ruler and a truly
loving and caring father. Stories where characters
are painted in shades of gray are often my favorites,
and I was just trying to create more depth in my
characters.
How is Savage City different from your other
series?
Savage City was originally meant to be a spin-off
from another book. When it became clear I would
have to put that novel on the back burner indefinitely,
I changed the character names and origins to make
this book stand on its own. This book is right in line
with my other fantasy and paranormal series. It’s
about a woman who is searching for a place to call
home, a place where she is accepted. There’s plenty
of action and romance, like most of my books. It’s
different because I’m in a new time period—a nearfuture dystopia—and am playing with popular

76 B O O K L I F E , AU G U S T 22 , 20 22

elements, a different take on animal shifters from
what you often see.
How have the experiences in both traditional
and indie publishing been?
I really enjoy being a hybrid author. The freedom
and control of indie publishing work well with my
skills and personality. I love conferring with the
cover designer, laying out the print book, coming up
with schedules, and enacting a marketing plan. But
I also really enjoy working with a team of professionals who handle those things. It can be difficult
to not be in charge of the various aspects of publishing, or not even have a say in some of them, but
it’s also quite freeing not to have to organize everything myself. Because I’m hybrid, I can’t always enact
some of the latest indie tricks and tips—I’ll never be
someone who can pull off a rapid release—but the
attitude and skills I learned starting out as an indie
have definitely helped me with my traditional
releases.
What initially drew you to indie publishing?
What keeps you independent?
I’ve always had a DIY spirit. My undergraduate
degree is in film production, and I worked on
independent films in various capacities. I’m also a
web developer and started my business working
with indie musicians and artists. I cofounded an
independent literary magazine with a group of

INDIE SUCCESS
friends I met at a writing workshop. When it came
time to publish my own books, it was the natural
choice. I had also heard plenty of negative feedback
from other Black and POC authors about experiences
in the traditional publishing industry. Everything
from whitewashed covers to racially insensitive
editorial changes, to certain houses or imprints
being unwilling to publish more than one book by
a particular ethnic group or race in any given year.
I figured I’d save myself the drama and put my book
out myself. Now, what keeps me indie is the satisfaction I get from putting out professional products
that exactly match my vision. Also, I enjoy being
diversified. As the industry contracts and imprints
disappear, I feel confident that my author business
will be able to navigate whatever the future brings
by remaining flexible.
What would you like to tell readers about your
upcoming August release, The Monsters We
Defy?
The Monsters We Defy is a fantasy heist which
takes place in 1925 Washington, D.C. It’s my first
true historical fantasy, and my first heist, a genre
that I adore. The main character is based on a real
historical figure: a Black teenager arrested in the
1919 race riots for killing a white police officer
who had stormed into her bedroom. She was convicted, but went free after being granted a new
trial. The novel imagines her six years after these
events and gives her clairvoyant abilities. It’s a
Jazz Age story about a self-reliant Black community
threatened by powerful spirits, and a group of
people seeking freedom from special powers that
all come at high cost.
What projects are next for you, both in writing
and your podcast My Imaginary Friends?
I’m working on the follow-up to Savage City: Beastly
Kingdom, the second in the trilogy. It’s a marriageof-convenience story between warriors from the
enemy shifter clans. I’m also working on standalone
historical fantasy about a Depression-era all-Black
town and a mysterious, magical stranger who shows
up just as the town is on the brink of being flooded
by the construction of a new dam.
■
Mary M. Jones is a freelance reviewer who lives in
a house with a book dragon husband, too many
cats, and an ambitiously tall “to be read” pile.

An engaging, touching,
and heartbreaking
adventure.

—Kirkus Reviews

ISBN: 978-1684339785

Inspired by a true story, this wellresearched and unique Civil War
novel depicts love and loyalty
between an owner and his
resourceful dog.

—Sublime Review

AVAILABLE AT
AND OTHER ONLINE BOOKSELLERS

terryleecaruthers-author.com

Indie Spotlight
In our monthly thematic roundup of BookLife titles, we feature sci-fi and
fantasy novels
Want to see your book featured? Check out the Indie Spotlight Calendar at booklife.com/indiespotlight.

Children’s/YA Fantasy &
Sci-Fi
Blessed
Kandi J Wyatt
ASIN B0B1CT69BK

About the book: What would you give to be a
dragon rider and marry the princess? Hest
will do anything to save his kingdom and his
betrothed. Blessed is the second book in the
coming-of-age fantasy series Four Stars over
Ardatz: Sovereigns.
Author statement: “Four Stars over Ardatz: Sovereigns started as
a short story idea from my photographer husband. He had an
idea of telling the story of a queen heading into battle. When I
went to write the story he created, I realized there was a character missing—the husband. Brightlands (Uprooted, Blessed,
and Exalted) tells the husband’s story, while Divided Crowns
(Resolved, Determined, and Divided) tells the queen’s story as
well as their daughter’s.”

Eudora Space Kid: The Great Engine
Room Takeover
David Horn
ISBN 978-1-73667-740-7
About the book: The first in a new series of

early reader sci-fi chapter books for elementaryaged kids. Meet Eudora Jenkins, the math and
science whiz who lives in space!
Author statement: “I started these books as
dinnertime tales to my two elementary-aged daughters. I wanted to
make them laugh so hard that milk came out of their noses. I also
wanted to build a world around a young girl heroine that captured
their imaginations and made STEM seem fun. All that just to get
them to sit and eat their veggies!”

Gemma Calvertson and the Forest of Despair
Ryan Hoyt
ISBN 978-1-66412-858-3
About the book: When history is set to repeat itself and nobody is

78 B O O K L I F E , AU G U S T 22 , 20 22

left to read the warning signs, a young historian sets out to stop the rising darkness with
the help of an aged hero.
Author statement: “I began plotting this novel
in 2014, a year before Star Wars: The Force
Awakens came out. I put it on hold when I
feared the plots were too similar (only mine
was a nod to Tolkien), but I couldn’t let go of it.
As the story evolved, I realized it was nothing
like that film and overcame my fears.”

Secret of the Dragon Egg
N.A. Davenport
ISBN 978-1-73534-451-5
About the book: When Will’s family washes

up on a magical island after a storm, they
find themselves in a world filled with strange
people, dangerous animals, and mighty
dragons. When Will discovers a golden
dragon egg, he soon realizes he’s stumbled
upon something bigger than himself.
Author statement: “I’ve always loved dragons. Soaring effortlessly
on the wings of a mighty, fire-breathing beast has got to be one of
the universal daydreams of all fantasy lovers. Even C.S. Lewis, who
typically painted dragons as evil creatures, managed to squeeze a
dragon-riding scene into the Chronicles of Narnia.”

Sword and Sorcery: Frostfire
Ethan Avery
ASIN B09XC2N74S
About the book: Erevan has a problem. He grew

up on the unforgiving streets of Bogudos and
has the scars to prove it. His friend is stuck in
jail because of his mistake. But when a suspicious courier offers him a chance to fix things,
should he lift his sword and journey across
treacherous lands to aid her cause?
Author statement: “I believe in the power of stories. As a child
growing up in the Midwest, they gave me a chance to see a bigger
world and to hear what life was like for people that didn’t look like
me or believe what I did. And now, years later, I hope to do the same
for others.”

Indie Spotlight
The Way of the River
(Kellandale Wood #1)
Shan L. Spyker
ISBN 978-1-73661-970-4
About the book: After Tillie coaxes her worri-

some older sister, Elinora, to join her, they
travel deep into the strange and mysterious
wood. There, at the edge of a powerful river,
they discover a shivering, abandoned wolfhound pup in need of help—and a forest teeming with sentient
creatures.
Author statement: “In a world suffering from greed, threats of
animal extinction, social injustice, and threats to the environment,
The Way of the River reflects on the importance of cherishing our
own interconnectedness to nature, to one another, and to all living
beings.”

Fantasy Adventure
Dark Innocence
(The Star Seer’s Prophecy #1)
Rahima Warren
ISBN 978-0-9816278-3-0
About the book: In an ancient world of blood

sorcery and healing magic, the Soul-Drinker,
a vicious necromancer king, is draining the life
from the souls of the people and of the Earth
itself. Worse yet, he has banished the land’s
rightful Goddess and disrupted the Sacred Balance, sending the
mortal and divine realms whirling toward destruction. The only hope
for salvation is a youth named Kyr, born and raised as one of the
Soul-Drinker’s blindly obedient enslaved.
Author statement: “Once upon a time, I was a psychotherapist,
minding my own business, and seeing my clients. Then one day in
December 1999, I wrote a little story in my journal. The idea was to
write down this inner character’s story, so he’d stop bugging me.
Big mistake!”

The Dreamer and the Marked
Airic Fenn
ISBN 978-0-578-31412-9
About the book: The Dreamer and the Marked is

a dark fantasy novel in which the main character,
Krystal, follows a stranger, Draqa, to the realm
of the fae after he tells her she has faerish blood.
Only after arriving does she realize that this
isn’t quite the adventure she bargained for.
Author statement: “This book was a 10-year-long passion project
that gradually took on a life of its own. Within the story, I explore issues
such as racism and the different shades of grey that can exist between
one’s morals and one’s actions, especially when trying to bring about
change to a society that’s set in its ways.”

Godfrey’s Crusade
Mark Howard
ISBN 978-1-08-798204-5
About the book: Godfrey’s Crusade is an

Arthurian fantasy and is the first book in the
Griffin Legends series.
Author statement: “This story lived in the
dark corners of my mind for many years, but
it took a while to get serious about writing it.
I spent a long time fretting over certain details about the worldbuilding, and I always found myself too busy to write. Finally, I told
myself I just needed to make the time, write down the best ideas I
had at the moment, and edit out the worse ideas later. It took five
years to write Godfrey’s Crusade, but my only regret is not starting
sooner!”

Gryphendale
Lara Lee
ISBN 978-1-5391-8138-5

About the book: When Autumn, a human from
our world, investigates a lone door in the
woods, she is thrust into a faerie realm ruled
by the evil wizard Maldamien. Immediately,
she is cursed to look like a child with her
memories erased. She must depend on a
scholarly satyr, Puck, to help break the curse and unravel the mysteries
surrounding her, including the photo she holds of the missing
faerie Queen.
Author statement: “Gryphendale is an original fairytale for young
adults and adults alike. As an author with dyslexia, my books focus
on heroes overcoming difficulties without being the most talented,
the most skilled, or even the destined hero. They are books about
persistence and hope.”

The Last Prince
E.G. Radcliff
ISBN 978-1-73367-334-1
About the book: In a hellish city, the fate of a

young boy rests on the very thing he fears
most. Robbed of his childhood by tragedy
and betrayal and forced onto the streets in a
world of gangs and fae, only fury makes
young Ninian feel whole—and he is more than
willing to fight for his life. When he meets a crimson-eyed stranger,
a boy so broken he refuses even to speak, Ninian does not believe
he has the capacity to care. He is wrong. And that will change
everything.
Author statement: “My first book, The Hidden King, originated in a
dream and grew as I began writing. As I got to know my characters, I
knew that there was more to Ninian and that readers would love to
know more about him. Thus, The Last Prince became the origin story
for the series. I write because it makes me feel whole, it makes me
feel like all me. It’s grounding. It’s my center.”

B O O K L I F E .CO M

Indie Spotlight

On These Black Sands
Vanessa Rasanen
ISBN 978-1-73276-523-8
About the book: He doesn’t mind killing

people—he just prefers to do it on his own
terms. But the pirates have no say in who
they kill on this island. The council orders.
The pirates obey. This arrangement has kept
Declan from setting foot on these shores for
years, until a bit of bad luck forces him to return.
Author statement: “On These Black Sands was my first foray into
writing fantasy, and this book stretched me as a writer, pushing
me to give up my plotter ways to embrace the chaos that is pantsing
a story.”

Fantasy Romance
Bed of Rose and Thorns
Lee Hunt
ISBN 978-1777973438
About the book: Sir Ezra is an Elysian Bell; he

has a frightening potential that he keeps
hidden deep beneath tight layers of steel
armor. He secretly loves a dark queen whose
touch would mean his death.
Author statement: “Bed of Rose and Thorns is
an exercise in exploring the power of feelings—love, in particular—at
the same time that it examines the difficult life of an overscheduled
female CEO, the Queen.”

A Thousand Li: The Third Kingdom
Tao Wong
ISBN 978-1-77855-022-5

The Fire Prince (Qurilixen Lords)

About the book: Long Wu Ying has been banished from the Verdant Green Waters Sect
for defying the orders of the Elders. Forced to
prove himself in the outer world before he is
allowed to return, Wu Ying begins a journey
that will have him visiting old haunts and a

ISBN 978-1-62501-279-1

new kingdom.
Author statement: “Writing an ongoing series is always interesting,
especially when you start a new arc. In this case, Wu Ying leaves the
familiar confines of his immortal cultivation sect and journeys into a
new kingdom. Because of that, I needed to introduce new allies and
enemies while keeping the focus on our protagonist. In this case, I
chose to borrow from another genre, specifically the murder mystery,
while wrapping the entire experience in a familiar xianxia trope of a
fighting tournament.”

The Wolf’s Tooth
J. Steven Lamperti
ISBN 978-1-73459-744-8
About the book: Becoming a member of a

pack of wolves is just the first step on Twee’s
coming of age in the magical kingdom of
Liamec. Indentured and forced to work as a
blacksmith’s apprentice, Twee remembers
the freedom of the forests. Will Vix, the flamehaired street urchin who needs him as much as he needs her, help
him escape?
Author statement: “The Wolf’s Tooth started with the image of a
bumbling baby boy walking into a dark forest. The story grew from
there.”

Michelle M. Pillow

About the book: Charming a dragon prince
might be her people’s only hope. Too bad the
handsome shifter may be more than she can
handle.
Author statement: “Qurilixen Lords is the
latest series installment in my interconnected
Qurilixen world. It includes an extensive collection of paranormal,
fantasy, and science fiction romance novels.”

Foxen Bloom
Parker Foye
ISBN 978-1-919611-51-8
About the book: A queer fantasy romance

starring a forest god and a man who gets
more than he prayed for, Foxen Bloom begins
when human Prior petitions horned god
Fenton for his aid in saving Prior’s sister. A
deal is struck—providing Prior helps to kill
Fenton’s sibling in turn. Foxen Bloom is about the things we do for
the family we find. It’s about magic, hope, and eating your enemies.
It’s about, for some reason, goats.
Author statement: “There aren’t enough queer fairy tales, and certainly not enough where the monsters get a happy ever after! With
Foxen Bloom, I wanted to explore ‘traditional’ fantasy settings and
motifs, but with a view to exploring the narrative from a different
perspective.”

Magical Thrillers
Legacy Witches
Cass Kay
ASIN B0B6XPSPLY
About the book: Coming from a long line of murderous witches hasn’t

80 B O O K L I F E , AU G U S T 22 , 20 22

Indie Spotlight
exactly been sunshine and rainbows for
Vianna Roots. When she inherits the family’s
haunted house after her mother dies, she
decides flipping the run-down dump is her
smartest move—but the ghosts that haunt her
have a different plan.
Author statement: “Although storytelling is a
consuming hobby for me, I have dabbled in
genealogy for over 15 years. I’m compelled by
my ancestors; the lives they lived and the blood I’m honored to share
with them makes me feel a little less insignificant in a giant world. So
it should come as no surprise that there was a real Susannah Roots
who was, indeed, accused of being a witch during the infamous trials
that shook Salem, Massachusetts. And, yes, you guessed it—she’s
my ancestor.”

Sci-Fi Adventure

Those Left Behind
N.C. Scrimgeour
ISBN 978-1-83845-991-8
About the book: Time is running out for the

people of New Pallas. Nobody knows that
better than Alvera Renata, a tenacious captain determined to scout past the stars with
nothing but a hand-picked crew and a
promise: to find a new home for humanity. But
when a perilous journey across dark space leads to first contact
with a galactic civilization on the brink of war, Alvera soon realizes
keeping her word might not be as easy as she thought.
Author statement: “This action-packed space opera is a love letter to
all the sci-fi stories I’ve enjoyed over the years.”

Sci-Fi Thrillers
Cromby’s Axiom

Imperial Knight
James Evans
ASIN B09GJMCCWV
About the book: In an empire of 20 million

worlds, a young man sets out to become an
imperial knight. A captain of empire and
master of many trades, the newly raised imperial knight contends with alien wars, robot
assassins, terrorism, and political intrigue in
the very heart of the imperium.
Author statement: “I fell in love with the Dune and Foundation novels
as a kid, especially the notion of an empire that straddles the stars
and all the social and political complexity envisaged in such an institution—it provides a vast sandbox to both challenge the imagination
and examine the many facets of the human condition. With Imperial
Knight and the Humani series that will follow it, I intend to open a
door into a remarkable new world that achieves these purposes.”

Gary J. Kirchner
ISBN 978-1-5255-9608-7

About the book: When Tommy Pierre Antikagamac, the world’s most popular celebrity,
is suddenly cut off from the Hive and captured by free-thinking rebels, the unfamiliar
emptiness and silence of his unattached
mind almost drives him mad. In time, however, he comes to embrace the antiquated concepts of privacy,
individuality, and unenhanced mental imagery—and to hate the
Hive.
Author statement: “I’ve taken trends in modern society and extrapolated them into the near future. The result is a disturbing glimpse of
where we are heading. I had to publish this book now, because I was
afraid that in 15 years people would read it and simply say ‘What’s
the big deal?’”

Lo
The Segonian
(Aldebarian Alliance #2)
Dianne Duvall
ISBN 978-1-957006-03-1
About the book: Eliana’s life has never been

what one might term ordinary. At least, it
hasn’t been for a very long time. As a powerful
Immortal Guardian, she spends her nights
hunting and slaying psychotic vampires that
most of humanity doesn’t even realize exist. Then an opportunity
arises that instantly makes her extraordinary existence seem downright boring.
Author statement: “The Aldebarian Alliance series is a spin-off of my
bestselling Immortal Guardians series.”

Bradford Tatum
ISBN 978-0-9844896-4-0
About the book: Willoughby, known back on

Earth as “the East Hamptons of the Kuiper
Belt System,” is the first sustainable colony
on Mars. Built by the mysterious geneticist
Carlo Yakamura, this settlement allows the
rich to enjoy decadent homes, physically modifiable partners, meals based on their best memories, and boutique
children known on Willoughby as Builds. Even among the uniquely
gifted Builds, Lo is unique. And uniquely unbalanced.
Author statement: “I wrote Lo with the intention of bringing the
human back to science fiction. In a genre increasingly suffused with
dystopian AI and rogue technology, I wanted to explore an advanced
future in desperate need of humanizing rationality, care, respect,
■
understanding, and love.”
B O O K L I F E .CO M

PAID LISTINGS

PW SELECT LISTINGS

New Titles from
Self-Publishers
Booksellers, publishers, librarians, and agents are encouraged to look at the 63
self-published titles below. Each appears with a list of retailers that are selling the
book and a description provided by its author. Some of these writers are waiting
to be discovered; others have track records and followings and are doing it on
their own. If you are a self-published author interested in listing titles in this
section, please visit publishersweekly.com/pw-select for more information.
Fiction
After Claire: In Search of a Habitable Life
John R. Wallis. BookBaby.
$13.99 paper (260p),
ISBN 978-1-66780651-8; $4.99 e-book,
ISBN 978-1-66780652-5
Amazon

The story of a man
coming to terms with the loss of his wife
and a fractured relationship with his
grieving daughter, as events in his professional life threaten his very safety.
All I’m Asking
J. Marie Rundquist. Book,
Ink. $14.99 paper (342p),
ISBN 978-1-73792870-6; $4.99 e-book,
ISBN 978-1-73792871-3
Amazon, BN.com,
Bookshop.org, Kobo

In a story narrated via emails, texts, and
discussion forums, Rundquist delves
into the bonds of friendship and family,
what can test them, and how to find the
way back to strengthen those ties.
The Bowl of Salad
Salma Alrasheed. Salma Alrasheed. $4 paper
(33p), ISBN 979-88-402-7554-2
Amazon

82 B O O K L I F E , AU G U S T 22 , 20 22

Cucumber has big
dreams, but all around
her things are getting
more confusing. Will
she be able to make
her dreams come
true?
A Collection of Tiny Stories: Diminutive
Tales from the Tip of My Imagination
C.K. Sobey. Outskirts
Press. $27.95 (63p),
ISBN 978-1-73750614-0; $17.95 paper,
ISBN 978-1-73750613-3
Amazon, BN.com,
Outskirts Press

In this collection, Sobey relates tales that
came to them spontaneously.

Emma’s Army: How Millions of Angry,
Marching Seniors Saved Their
Vanishing America
Dan Chabot. KDP.
$16.99 paper (250p),
ISBN 979-84-3987486-6
Amazon

A feisty, patriotic
grandmother takes on
the woke and oh-sopolitically correct forces that are
threatening her beloved country.
The Emperor’s Regret
Barbara A. Pierce.
Pageturner Press and
Media. $12.99 paper
(44p), ISBN 978-1948304-20-7
Amazon

Don’t Poke the Bear
Robin D’Amato.
Atmosphere Press.
$19.95 paper (345p),
ISBN 978-1-63988290-8; $7.99 e-book,
ASIN B09ZDDDGPB
Amazon, BN.com

It’s 1995 and three
boho friends find themselves caught up
in the rough currents of New York City. Life
might be easier elsewhere, but for these
friends, elsewhere is never an option.

This original folktale
tells the story of a popular young emperor who makes the
decision to renounce his former lifestyle
for another.
Fallout Shelter
Steven Schindler. The
Elevated Press. $16
paper (296p), ISBN 9780-9662408-3-2; $9.99
e-book, ISBN 978-09662408-5-6

PAID LISTINGS

PW SELECT LISTINGS

the next pandemic
makes Covid-19 look
like sniffles. But
humans find guidance
to survive from those
with supreme wisdom,
namely influencers
and AI.

Amazon, BN.com

A coming-of-age mystery that follows
three best friends from the Bronx in the
1970s, when they suspect a priest of
sexual abuse.
The Johnson Place: A Rappahannock
County Story
J. Stewart Willis. Authors’
Tranquility Press. $13.99

The Secret Life of Sunflowers

paper (438p), ISBN 9781-958179-97-0

Marta Molnar. Marta
Molnar. $12.99 paper

Amazon

(388p), ISBN 978-1940627-49-6; $5.99

This is the story of a
tract of land, the site of
a tragic hunting accident, the sexual
enslavement of a 17-year-old, the
murder of a farmer’s wife, and more trivial
events.
The Lapone Sisters
Barry Wilker. Archway
Publishing. $28.95 hardcover (314p), ISBN 9781-66572-343-5; $19.99
paper, ISBN 978-166572-345-9
Amazon, Archway
Publishing, BN.com

In the summer of 1976, three exceptionally different sisters begin walking their
individual paths.
The Milkman Story

David Ellis. Xlibris. $8.99
paper (98p), ISBN 9781-66410-092-3; $3.99
e-book, ISBN 978-166410-091-6
Amazon

Be amused by the odd
ways of the characters
in this book. Feel sympathy for their mishaps and trials, and be shocked by their
goings-on and shenanigans.

Mystery/Thriller
Ashes of Despair

e-book, ASIN
B0B5G1KKCZ

Mary Schaller. Xlibris.
$19.99 paper (336p),

Amazon, BN.com,
Ingram, Overdrive

ISBN 978-1-54346675-1

When auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds a
100-year-old diary, the pages are full of
surprises. The first surprise is that it
belongs to Johanna Bonger, Vincent van
Gogh’s sister-in-law.
Tycho Brahe Secret
Trygve E. Wighdal. A.
Wighdal & Sons. $14.95
paper (422p), ISBN 9781-73381-515-4
Amazon, BN.com

A badass teenage
cypher-punk girl seeks
the help of a renegade
Nobel laureate and a 16th-century
alchemist in a struggle to rescue her
brother from a certain death—and
humanity.

Amazon

This sequel to Deadly
Distrust takes place
three years later,
during the AIDS crisis in San Francisco.
The morals of sex are changing, and the
LGBT community is in turmoil.
High Bluffs (High Bluffs Trilogy #1)
Sally Royer-Derr. KDP.
$19.99 hardcover
(405p), ISBN 979-88420-6771-8; $5.99
e-book, ASIN
B0B7CKP1YN
Amazon

Paul Robbins. Xlibris.
$14.99 paper (144p),
ISBN 978-1-66419368-0; $9.99 e-book,
ISBN 978-1-66419-

Poetry

Joanna Dresden lives
an idyllic life in High Bluffs, ME, running
her family inn with her husband. She’s
devastated when he is killed in a car accident.

367-3
Amazon

A Journey Through the Labyrinth of
Time

Jaykyll’s Joust

Somewhat biographical, somewhat didactic, this book tells a
story that brings fresh hope and inspiration through the simplicity and enduring
impact of a Gentile pastor on a Jewish
man.
Notes from the Pandemic of 2025
Rhys McCarney. Lulu Press. $1.99 e-book,
ISBN 978-1-387-98421-3
Amazon, Apple iBooks, Lulu Press

A mostly humorous peek into the future:

Jill E. Kinkel. Xlibris.
$17.99 paper (274p),
ISBN 978-1-66419364-2; $3.99 e-book,
ISBN 978-1-66419363-5
Amazon

A collection of inspirational poems written
to take readers on a lyrical adventure.
Naughty Nonsense, Lascivious
Limericks and Much More

R.H. Peake. Toplink
Publishing. $15.99 paper
(314p), ISBN 978-1948779-88-3
Amazon

John Jaykyll, a professor at a small
college in southern
Appalachia, is having a midlife crisis due
to his conflict with the new college
president, who hates his mountain origins.
B O O K L I F E .CO M

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Public Opinion

The Last Spy

Hell Spring

Bryan Mooney. BME
Publishing. $11.99 paper

Nathan Pettijohn.
Cordurouy Books.

Isaac Thorne. Lost Hollow
Books. $19.99 paper,

(414p), ISBN 979-88378-7816-9; $3

$17.99 paper (264p),
ISBN 978-1-5445-

ISBN 978-1-93827154-0; $2.99 e-book,

e-book, ASIN
B0B64HM4TS

3223-3
Amazon, Apple iBooks,

ISBN 978-1-93827155-7

Amazon, Apple iBooks,
BN.com, Kobo

BN.com, Google Play

IsaacThorne.com,
Amazon, Apple iBooks,

China has been stealing America’s
secrets. The CIA lets them, but soon that
secret is out when a low-level accountant discovers what the CIA has been
doing.

Herb is a fixer, a social
media manipulator, an anonymous barracuda in a sea of wealthy marks.
Blackmail, character assassination,
fraud—it’s all in a day’s work.
Unmasked

The Many Angles of Milestoneville

BN.com, Kobo, Google Play, Smashwords

Eight small-town neighbors attempt to
survive the predator in their midst during
a 100-year flood. Will they become victims of the night the townsfolk all
remember as Hell Spring?

Howard K. Pollack.

Lochranza (The Book #1)

Golden November. KDP.
$24.95 paper (619p),

Stonesong Digital.
$13.99 paper (268p),

ISBN 979-88-400-

ISBN 979-89-86271-

Macauley. $9.99 paper

4086-7
Amazon

80-4; $3.99 e-book,
ISBN 978-1-73620-

(254p), ISBN 978-1398-42651-1

599-0
Amazon

Amazon, Austin Macauley

Milestoneville is a fascinating town. It’s an
open world where the
characters roam freely. There are many
angles of Milestoneville.
The Marriage of Figgalo
Philip Emma. Philip
Emma Books. $12.45
paper (315p), ISBN 9781-957378-73-2; $1.99
e-book, ISBN 978-1957378-71-8
Amazon

A comedy that arises
when a detective tries to investigate
numerous sets of twins. He generates
many misunderstandings.
Once Is Never Enough:
Revenge Never Sleeps
Monique Gliozzi. Tellwell
Talent. $17.99 hardcover
(224p), ISBN 978-0228-87921-3; $13.99
paper, ISBN 978-0-22887920-6
Amazon, BN.com

This thriller follows a
female serial killer whose modus operandi is revenge.

84 B O O K L I F E , AU G U S T 22 , 20 22

Mark Haviland. Austin

A murder victim. A senseless robbery?
But the dead woman’s high school
sweetheart, a high-powered attorney,
uncovers a web of intrigue tied to China,
a weaponized virus, and the Feds.

Boy wizard meets girl
wizard, then loses her.
Distraught, he’s sent
on a mission to travel around the whole of
his world and record what he sees in a
journal, the Book.

SF/Fantasy/Horror

The Space Traveller’s Lover

2023: World War III
Carl Berryman. Author
Reputation Press. $15.99
paper (504p), ISBN 9781-64961-162-8
Amazon

The People’s Republic
of China explodes out
of its borders. This book
presents China’s military preparations
and grand strategy for such a disaster.
Castillo Cove
Conor Metz. KDP. $12.99
paper (292p), ISBN 97988-392-6636-0; $3.99
e-book, ASIN
B0B6727GCB
Amazon

In a quiet town where
hardly anything ever
strays from the ordinary, one night is
about to get real deadly.

Omara Williams.
AuthorHouse. $18.56
paper (284p), ISBN 9781-66559-247-5; $4.99
e-book, ISBN 978-166559-246-8
Amazon

Ten thousand years
ago, an alien race was driven from Earth
by ancient humans. As 16-year-old Erin
realizes her life is inevitably linked to the
aliens, she’s about to learn only her newfound love has the power to determine
her destiny and that of humanity.
Stoned in the
Afterlife: A Possible
Journey, Part One
Rupert Russel Douglas.
SITA Publishing House.
$1 e-book, ISBN 978-173970-710-1
Kobo

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Following a car accident, Joe isn’t convinced he’s dead. Nothing he’s
experiencing fits with any teachings of
any faith he’s heard of. He decides to play
along until he wakes up.

Nonfiction
75 Quotes of Inspiration for Today
Gregory Anson. 48 Hours
Book. $2.99 e-book,
ASIN B09YPSX3BW
Amazon

The quotes in this
book are based on the
author’s personal
experience and are
intended to encourage the reader to
strive for their highest purpose in life.
Above the Storm Clouds: A Discipling
Guide for Empowering Christian
Believers
William H. McIntyre.
WestBow Press. $11.95
paper (112p), ISBN 9781-66426-615-5
Amazon

McIntyre helps
readers prayerfully
review their walk as a Christian and
examine the benchmarks established
along the way.
Acts of Compassion: Bringing Love and
Caring Back into Your Life
Michael and Linda
Spangle. SunQuest
Media. $15.99 paper
(220p), ISBN 979-8985070-81-1; $9.95
e-book, ISBN 979-8985070-82-8
Amazon, BN.com

Filled with eye-opening stories, fresh
insights, and easy-to-follow examples,
the Spangles’ work seeks to renew
spirits and encourage kindness and
compassion.
American Apocalypse: Some Thoughts
on the Rise of Fascism and the Betrayal
of Democracy 1971–2020
M.G. Montpelier. Xlibris. $16.99 paper (130p),

ISBN 978-1-66980660-8

in U.S. Army history, written in English
and Spanish.

Amazon

A reflective commentary on the 50-year
Republican assault on
America starting with
the 1971 Powell
Republican political “dark money” offensive to “save capitalism from democracy.”

Compassionate Recovery: Mindful
Healing for Trauma and Addictions
Darren Littlejohn.
Rainbow Light Media.
$29.99 paper (440p),
ISBN 978-0-98952604-3
Amazon, Ingram

Ascendancy
Patrick Earl Dwyer.
Palmetto Publishing.
$24.99 paper (382p),
ISBN 978-1-68515119-5
Amazon

In this American heritage story, Dwyer
presents the saga of the Magoffins and
O’Dwyers and the diaspora from Ireland
circa 1800 to America, Australia,
Jamaica, and Mexico.
Be Transcendent to Sustain Happiness:
Ethics Philosophical Essays—Reduce
Miseries and Stresses
Yvon Milien. yMilien.
$16.99 paper (184p),
ISBN 979-89-8603640-3; $6.99 e-book,
ISBN 979-89-8603641-0
Amazon, BN.com, Ingram

Milien draws inspiration from many sources, prompting the
reader to follow the high path to sustain
happiness through life’s challenges.
The Borinqueneers: A Visual History of
the 65th Infantry Regiment/Los
Borinqueños: la historia visual del
Regimiento 65 de Infantería
Noemí Figueroa Soulet.
El Pozo Productions.
$39.99 hardcover
(200p), ISBN 979-8218-00184-1
Borinqueneers.com, Amazon

The inspiring, illustrated history of the
famed Puerto Rican 65th Infantry Regiment, the only Hispanic-segregated unit

Littlejohn presents
principles-based
recovery from trauma and addictions and
discusses ACEs, the neuroscience of
addiction, trauma, mindfulness, and
compassion. A guidebook with dozens of
practices for individuals and groups.
The Divine SelfQare Strategy: A
Wellness Guide to
Total Body Alignment
Sheila Brown. Lighthouse
Consulting. $19.95
paper (272p), ISBN 97982-18-00027-1; $10.99
e-book, ISBN 979-8218-00025-7
Queendomqare.com, Amazon, BN.com, Ingram

Follow Brown through a journey of spiritual enlightenment and divine wisdom as
she navigates her way through a rich
African ancestry and ancient health and
wellness practices.
Found (Love Seeker, Part 1)
Barbara Ann Quinlan. The
Book Reality Experience.
$9.95 paper (156p),
ISBN 978-0-64506298-4; $3.99 e-book,
ASIN B0964N9GXL
Amazon, BN.com

The memoir of a
1960s wild child who studied under
Jerzy Grotowski and had affairs with
high-profile Hollywood actors and an
Israeli music icon, all to find her place in
the world.
Imagineer Your Future: Discover Your
Core Passions
Les LaMotte. Goldtouch Press. $14.26 paper

B O O K L I F E .CO M

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(184p), ISBN 978-1-

Amazon, BN.com, Google Play

D. Patrick Miller. Fearless

956803-20-4
Amazon

Muse details his life challenges and
experiences. After a cancer diagnosis,
an internal fight ensued—a mental battle
against the shadowy figures who whispered morbid thoughts.

Books. $17.95 paper
(294p), ISBN 978-0-

Petals and Thorns: A Memoir: The
Round-the-World Journey of a
Remarkable Man

Bookshop, Smashwords

LaMotte seeks to help
readers discover their
core passions, which
he argues will free
them to begin imagineering the journey to their future
success. He says to stop fulfilling
someone else’s dreams.
Knitted Faith

Bhupat Doshi. Lulu
Publishing Services.

Karen E. Chin. CLM

$14.12 paper (228p),
ISBN 978-1-4834-

Publishing. $14.99 paper
(112p), ISBN 978-0-

9649-8
Amazon

9907171-0-2
Amazon, BN.com

Eleven lessons to help
readers develop powerful faith to move
mountains and build the lives they desire.
Use them to knit the threads of one’s life
into a glorious tapestry.
Manifest Your Secret Self: 9 Lessons
from Dance to Rediscover, Reconnect,
and Rebalance into Your Happy,
Authentic Self
Weiyi Zhou. AuthorHouse.
$11.46 paper (364p),
ISBN 978-1-66559421-9; $4.99 e-book,
ISBN 978-1-66559420-2
Amazon

This personal development book offers a series of nine lessons
derived from dance that, when applied
to life, can help the reader discover the
best authentic self and manifest true
happiness.
Morbid Thoughts and
the Domino Effect:
Passing Thoughts
During Cancer: A
Memoir
Perry Muse. Gatekeeper
Press. $28.99 paper
(364p), ISBN 978-166292-562-7; $6.99 e-book, ISBN 978-166292-563-4

86 B O O K L I F E , AU G U S T 22 , 20 22

Doshi, born in India but
raised in Sudan, was
expected to fulfill family obligations—
even if that meant giving up his dream
and walking away from the girl he loved.
The Pursuit of Marriage Oneness: The
Key to Marital Success
H. Irving Wilson. Xulon
Press. $16.73 paper
(232p), ISBN 978-166284-699-1; $7.99
e-book, ASIN
B09YN1K43S
Amazon, BN.com,
Books-a-Million

Wilson claims to reveal the key to marital
satisfaction using a faith-based perspective from the Song of Songs with practical
applications for marriage fulfillment.
The Shell and the Octopus: A Memoir
Rebecca Stirling. She
Writes Press. $16.95
paper (296p), ISBN 9781-64742-323-0
Amazon

This is a memoir of a
girl forced to navigate
survival and adventure
while raised by her father on a sailboat
circumnavigating the world and an
account of finding one’s true self.
Understanding A Course in Miracles:
The History, Message, and Legacy of a
Profound Spiritual Path

578-90643-0; $9.95
e-book, ASIN
B094Z1LN19
Amazon, BN.com,

A comprehensive and balanced overview
of the popular spiritual teaching known
as A Course in Miracles.
The Ups and Downs of Growing Older:
Beyond Seventy Years of Living
Viola B. Mecke. Xlibris.
$12.99 paper, ISBN
978-1-66980-701-8;
$3.99 e-book, ISBN
978-1-66980-700-1
Amazon

This book looks into
the difficulties
encountered by older people—the loss of
health, energy, memory, social relationships—and the creative approaches they
take to these life changes.
Vision of Hope
Leilani Faber. Brilliant
Books Literary. $10.99
paper (106p), ISBN 9781-64133-837-0
Amazon

Faber offers hope for
anyone who has found
their life severely
impacted by meth or other drugs. She
demonstrates that despite the damage
done by meth use, with hard work,
redemption is possible and a new life
awaits anyone willing to make that commitment.
What the Pluck? Hermes’s Joke: The
Image of the Harp in the Cinema
F. Marion Redd. Clairsech
House. $24.95 paper
(176p), ISBN 978-0578-28842-0
Amazon, BN.com

A study of the harp as
an archetypal symbol
for the god Hermes-

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Thoth, the trickster and lord of harmony
in the Platonic Cave of the Cinema. In
other words, a line from ancient gods can
be drawn straight to Cary Grant.
You Matter in This Information
Universe: Which May Contain No Matter
Particles; Just ‘In-Formed’ Energy
Jesuis Laplume. Jesuis
Laplume. $5.85 paper

A nightmare unfolds
when dead bodies
wash ashore, rekindling interest in a
mysterious occurrence. Local
residents challenge
the police to find the
killer.

ISBN 978-1-66980486-4
Amazon

This book chronicles the adventures
of Mr. McGee as he
goes on a scavenger hunt and follows clues that lead to
a wonderful surprise in the end.

Christy Hui. Kokomo

The Last
Triceracorn, Book 1

e-book, ASIN
B09LWQBLVJ

Entertainment. $12.99
paper (200p), ISBN 979-

Vincent M. Miceli. M4
Publishing. $19.99

Amazon

89-86299-81-5; $9.79
e-book, ISBN 979-89-

paper (304p), ISBN
979-89-86324-80-7

86299-82-2
Amazon

Amazon, BN.com,
Books-a-Million

(45p), ISBN 979-87583-7581-5; $4.09

Laplume explores his
theory that people are not physcial
beings but actually Special Information
beings with minds that connect, using
information-processing abilities, to the
Cosmic Mind of the sentient universe.

Children’s/YA
The Adventures of Toby Baxter: The
River Elf, the Giant, and the Closet
Tim Wright. BookBaby.
$11.99 paper (197p),
ISBN 978-1-66784963-8; $2.99 e-book,
ASIN B0B4PHGCKN
Amazon, BN.com,
BookBaby, Bookshop

On his 13th birthday,
Toby Baxter is led through his closet by
an elf into a magical land where, Toby discovers that he’s meant to be the hero to
do battle against the trolls.

Flying Fillies: The Sky’s the Limit

Twelve-year-old
cowgirl Dawn Springfield’s dreams are
as big as Texas. But her friendship with
the WASP female pilots of WWII gives
her something she’s never even
dreamed of.

My Animal ABC Book
The Ghost Story

A major depressive
disorder, seizures, and
an eating disorder lead
Mia Callan and Milo Chatham to a brutal
array of dangers.
David McGee and the Birthday Surprise
Andie Campbell. Xlibris. $12.99 paper (24p),
ISBN 978-1-66980-487-1; $3.99 e-book,

Daniel Guzman
Escobar. AuthorHouse.
$20.99 paper (30p),
ISBN 978-1-66553172-6; $3.99 e-book,
ISBN 978-1-66553173-3
Amazon

Victor Bonsignore. Great
Writers Media. $14.95
paper (64p), ISBN 9781-957974-35-4
Amazon

Filled with spooks,
screams of fear, and
the tricks and treats of Halloween.
How Books Changed My Life: The Story
of an Awkward Kid
Vino Venitas, illus. by
Meraki Goya. Kobo. $6
e-book
Kobo

Dancing Without Music
Angela Grey and Paige
Peterson. KDP. $12.99
paper (241p), ISBN 97984-7650-519-8
Amazon

This modern-day
fantasy is about two strong-willed and
gifted sisters who unexpectedly find
themselves drawn into an epic of adventure, suspense, mystery, and magic.

Fun and educational,
this book is designed to introduce children to the alphabet while teaching
them about the wonderful animals that
live on the planet.
My Smile Is My Mask
Francesca De
Geronimo, illus. by
Hong Diep Loi.
GateKeeper Press.
$13.99 paper (104p),
ISBN 978-1-66292761-4; $5.99 e-book,
ASIN B0B6WWWGDQ
Amazon, Apple iBooks,

Traza is a young boy
who deals with anxiety
and the inability to
make friends. One day
he picks up a book and learns about the
joy of reading.
Lake of Secrets
Angela Grey and Paige Peterson. KDP. $17
paper (255p), ISBN 979-88-368-5678-6;
$9.99 e-book, ASIN B0B6CMTWBX
Amazon

BN.com, Google Play

A collection of poems exploring the
challenging thoughts that adolescents
and young adults often experience.
■
B O O K L I F E .CO M

PAID REVIEWS

BookLife Reviews
BookLife Reviews are paid reviews of independently published books. Each review
contains the honest opinion of a professional Publishers Weekly reviewer. A lightning
bolt ( ) indicates an Editor’s Pick, a book of outstanding quality.
SPIRITUALITY & INSPIRATIONAL

Artist: Awakening the
Spirit Within
Jocelyn Jones | Goodspeed Press
286p, E-book, $9.99, ISBN 978-1-54452831-1

MYSTERY/THRILLER

Hunting Rabbits
Mark Gilleo 342p, trade paper, $14.99,
ISBN 978-0-999-04726-2

Hollywood acting teacher
Jones delivers a motivational
debut that encourages artists
of all types to connect to their
muse or spirit—the ultimate
source of their inspiration—to
power their creativity and
achieve personal goals. “The
artist seeks to discover what
we can be beyond what we already are,” Jones writes. She
urges readers to know themselves, first and foremost, exploring
their values and heeding their inner voices, particularly in a
time of social unrest, when influencers bombard us with
overpowering messages. Jones urges readers to tune out the
noise and connect to inner truths, arguing “It’s time to wake
up and realize who you are and what you’re capable of.”
Jones first tackles the importance of identity, encouraging
analysis of questions like whether one’s goals contribute to
one’s art, well-being, and community—and encouraging readers
to say “I am an artist” rather than “I want to be an artist.” Each
chapter opens with an enlightening story from Jones’s own life
to illustrate how experience can be a guide to awareness. Jones
also delves into the discomfort that comes with not having all
the answers, encouraging readers to explore uncharted territories,
declaring “Once you think you know, you’re done learning.”
Readers will appreciate the uplifting tone of Jones’s guidance as she outlines how to
perceive without prejudice and
attributes living in the moment
to confidence in our own decision making. Hands-on
activities like sample meditations, exercises, and journaling
prompts offer user-friendly
methods for taking Jones’s
Great for fans of Marti
advice to heart. The result is a
DeLeon and Cameron D.
practical and upbeat guide to
Rodriguez’s You Are Worthy!,
living a creative life through
Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic.
spiritual awakening.

Gilleo’s propulsive, catand-mouse mystery finds
local-boy-turned-Williamsburgpolice-chief Charlie Gates and
his detective, Miami import Luis
“Quags” Millares, chasing after
a serial killer deliberately being
shielded from their reach. The
case is personal for Gates; his
sister Heather was one of the
victims as a college student
back in the eighties. Paired with Quags, a former big city
detective with the skills and bullet wounds to prove it, the
two are a formidable pair. When a local armed robbery produces a print from a good Samaritan that matches one found on
Heather’s Walkman, Charlie thinks he finally has an opportunity to put old ghosts to rest. But the two men find during their
initial investigation that their killer is likely from the CIA’s
Camp Peary, aka The Farm, and the agency holds its cards–
and its employees–close to the vest.
Gilleo (Terminal Secret) writes a fast-paced story that’s easy
to get into, and serves as a stark reminder of the power of
government in protecting its own. Mystery and procedural
lovers will enjoy the convincing (and chilling) details about CIA
tactics for misdirection, and also the ingenuity of the protagonists as they strive to hold the killer accountable. Quags and
Gates will have to work quickly, because women are starting
to turn up dead.
Crisp, engaging interplay
between these sharply drawn
leads powers the book, and
Gilleo maintains the tension,
making the case complex
enough to keep readers
guessing, while the unveiling
of the clues and twists feels
satisfying. The focus is on the
Great for fans of David
case and cast, not violence,
Baldacci’s Memory Man,
making this a great read for
Joanna Schaffhausen’s Gone
any lover of thoughtful yet
for Good.
urgent mysteries.

PRODUCTION
GRADES:

Artists of all kinds
will find inspiration
in this guide to
knowing and expressing yourself.

Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: –
Editing: A | Marketing copy: A

88 B O O K L I F E , AU G U S T 22 , 20 22

A Virginia police
chief and a detective face off against
the CIA to catch a
killer in this potent
mystery.

Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: –
Editing: A | Marketing copy: A

PAID REVIEWS

FICTION

A Place of Refuge: Book
Four of First Light

The Last Single Woman
In New York City

Linda Cardillo | Bellastoria Press Llp
402p, trade paper, $19.99, ISBN 978-1942-20997-3

Lorraine Duffy Merkl | Heliotrope
Books 226p, mass market, $17, ISBN
978-1-942-76295-9

The fourth book of Cardillo’s
uplifting First Light series offers
an absorbing tale of love between
Daniel Richetelli, a Jesuit priest
looking for renewed purpose in
life, and Isabella “Izzy” Monroe,
whose Chappaquiddick Wampanoag ancestry connects this
standalone title to the earlier
books in the series. She’s also an accident victim dealing with
short term memory loss. She seeks refuge at Portarello, a
thirteenth-century farm in the Tuscan countryside, serving as
an intern on the suggestion of her friend Maria Belli, whose
cousin runs the hotel connected to it. Though a bit reclusive
because of her memory problem, she copes well with her duties,
which involve much physical labor. She even manages, at times,
to make peace with her condition, until Daniel’s arrival throws
everything out of gear because of the deep connection she
feels with him.
Written alternately from the perspective of Izzy and Daniel,
the novel invests deeply in character and its gorgeous milieu,
at times at the expense of pacing in the early sections. Still,
Izzy’s memory loss, which she tries to cover up, contributes to
an intriguing feeling of tension and uncertainty throughout,
especially when she realizes the second time she sees Daniel
that she must have met him before–and, as Cardillo writes
with her customary incisiveness, “the intimacy with which he
greeted her frightened her.” Cardillo finds in these well-drawn
characters some fresh twists on stories of romance and priestly
temptation, while digging into rich themes of guilt, lust, redemption, and the healing power of love.
The archaeological dig and sense of ancient Etruscan culture
that backdrops the story adds novelty and thematic weight.
The expectation and excitement of the final find also
coincide with the resolution of
conflict between the main characters, adding resonance to
their process of discovering
how to connect. One of the
most engaging is Raffaello
Richetelli, Daniel’s archaeoloGreat for fans of Colleen
gist grandfather, who enlivens
Coble’s Rosemary Cottage,
the proceedings with his sharp
Wanda E. Brunstetter’s The
commentary.
Hope Jar.

Merkl’s (Back to Work She
Goes) novel of heartbreak, the
Hamptons, and a crusade
against marriage itself follows
marketing executive Samantha
“Sam” Dennehy on her path
down a life crisis of epic proportions. After her fiancé
breaks their engagement, Sam
throws herself into the launch of her own marketing company,
becoming a fiercely independent entrepreneur. When her
agency is hired to market the new reality TV show of Hannah
Randolph, founder of the Anti-Wife movement, Sam soon finds
herself entangled in Hannah’s trendy, unorthodox teachings—
and her glittery lifestyle. At the behest of the ever-commanding
Hannah, Sam agrees to spend two weeks at her compound in
the Hamptons for “a deep dive into [Hannah’s] day-to-day,” but
the decision comes at an immense cost for Sam.
Sam, who devotes herself fully to her career, finds herself
forging a mostly one-sided friendship with the controversial
guru, and, spurred on by Hannah, quickly forgets about her
standards while pushing away the most important people in
her life, on a journey to heal from wounds she didn’t know she
still had. Merkl excels at character development as Sam’s
growing relationship with Hannah spotlights their unhealed
wounds, stemming from their respective childhoods, giving
the tale a rich backstory. Readers will sense Sam sliding down
the wrong path but also understand why that trajectory is
necessary for her eventual comeback.
With crisp dialogue, a vivid sense of New York, and prose
that refreshes like a summer cocktail, Sam’s story upends the
old-fashioned theme of women needing men to heal them. The
Anti-Wife movement fascinates, seeming invitingly bold at
first as it encourages women to get comfortable in their
own company, but Hannah’s
teachings turn very toxic
very fast. Readers will simmer
with tension when Sam loses
sight of everything she once
held dear, but cheer as she
finds her way back and maybe
even learns to love again.

PRODUCTION
GRADES:

An engaging tale of
love, acceptance,
and priestly romance
set in the Tuscan
countryside.

Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: –
Editing: A | Marketing copy: B

Left at the altar, an
exec gets caught up
in an anti-marriage
movement in this
sharp summer read.
Great for fans of Kristan
Higgins, Elaine Dundy.

Cover: B- | Design & typography: A- | Illustrations: –
Editing: A- | Marketing copy: A

B O O K L I F E .CO M

PAID REVIEWS

MYSTERY/THRILLER

Risk: A Thriller

Dark Sonnet

Kathleen Morris | Dunraven Press
256p, e-book, $6.99, ISBN 978-1-73798666-9

Tom McCarthy & Bill Dohar | De
Profundis Books, LLC 582p, e-book,
$4.99, ISBN 979-8-986-39520-3

Morris (The Lily Of the West)
crafts a thriller that’s equal parts
romance, character study, and
white-knuckle road chase. Jack
and Grace, struggling country
music singers stuck in a neverending cycle of dive bars and
dead-end gigs, are on tour in
the American Southwest when
Grace discovers, and takes, a
backpack stuffed with close to a million dollars in cash, abandoned in a bathroom stall. The money, a result of a drug deal
gone wrong, kickstarts a breakneck chase that leaves behind
a trail of bodies and bad decisions—with Jack and Grace
caught in the middle.
Morris’s focus on character development and skillful rendering of backstories adds a level of richness to an otherwise
uncomplicated plot. Ruthless cartel boss Luis brokers the
seemingly routine drug deal with hired assassins Roberto
and Chang, allowing his enslaved mistress, Angel, to attend,
never suspecting her loyalty may not be absolute—and when
the deal turns deadly, giving Angel and Chang a chance for
freedom, they make off with the money and drugs, in search
of a different life. While a furious Luis sets out to hunt down
Angel and Chang, Jack and Grace are caught in the crosshairs of their own deadly pursuit, as they try to escape with
the stolen money.
The couples are artfully depicted as two sides of the same
coin: desperate, unyielding, and willing to do anything in
order to outrun their misery. Readers will find themselves
sympathizing with all four of the main players, even as they
choose gruesome actions to survive, and no one escapes
without blood on their hands. The characters are equal
parts tough and clever, without coming across as superhuman, and the final confrontation will satisfy even the
most astute reader. Morris sacrifices some tension for
excessively lurid violence, but fans will relish the journey.

In McCarthy and Dohar’s
taut thriller, an ex-Jesuit,
Myles Dunn, travels back to
the venerable University of
Oxford, where a deadly accident years earlier cost him
his faith. A distressed friend,
Father Jeremy Strand, needs
help decoding a newly discovered sonnet by 19th-century
poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, which may confirm the existence of a lost medieval chalice. Oxford is reeling from a
gruesome murder that locals believe is the work of Muslim
terrorists. While Dunn puzzles over the poem with university librarian Eva Bashir, another murder occurs, and
Strand disappears—possibly the third victim. The duo hurries to unravel the poem’s wordplay and symbols to save
their friend.
The novel would benefit from tightening to reduce its
hefty number of point-of-view characters. When the narration zeroes in on the main characters, including several
chapters from Hopkins’s perspective, the plot picks up speed.
The authors admirably connect the disparate dots—how does
a “dark sonnet” shed light on a secret society from the 1500s
and Britain’s history of anti-minority rancor?
An array of well-drawn suspects keeps the mystery thrumming. While the characterization is strong, Dunn’s mastery of
“a singular conjunction of skills”—he’s expert in everything
from Hopkins’s poetry and the Arabic language to electrical
wiring and martial arts— strains believability. Still, Dark
Sonnet is an entertaining ride in the vein of the best historical conspiracy puzzle-thrillers, and its smart characters
even playfully acknowledge the assumptions of the genre,
when one wonders aloud why the poet resorted to an
elaborate ruse when dying
and desperate to convey a
secret: “Couldn’t Hopkins
have sent a letter to some
trusted soul”? Fans of such
mysteries will be glad he
didn’t.

A character-driven
road thriller with a
touch of romance.

This Oxford-set
puzzle thriller explores secret societies and prejudices
past and present.

Great for fans of Stan

Great for fans of Liam

Parish’s Love and Theft, Lisa
Lutz’s The Passenger.

Fialkov’s The Newton Code,
Matthew Pearl.

PRODUCTION
GRADES:

Cover: A- | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: –
Editing: A | Marketing copy: A

90 B O O K L I F E , AU G U S T 22 , 20 22

PRODUCTION
GRADES:

Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: –
Editing: A | Marketing copy: A

PAID REVIEWS

SF/FANTASY/HORROR

BUSINESS & PERSONAL FINANCE

Conscience of the King:
The Dragonhorse
Chronicles, Book 2

FasTrack Export

Showandah S. Terrill | Shorthorse
Press 314p, e-book, $9.99, ISBN 978-1732-80525-5
Terrill’s second installment
in the inventive, galaxy-spanning Dragonhorse Chronicles,
after Dragonhorse Rising,
sees the latest Dragonhorse,
Ardenai Morningstar, now the
most powerful being in the
known galaxy, up against a
new alien delegation, battling his own complex emotions,
and confronting the weight of responsibility placed on his
shoulders. Ardenai’s personal trials as he reckons with the
realities of being the Dragonhorse showcase his maturation
over the course of the story. Making alliances and enemies
left and right, Ardenai is certain of only one thing: that his
role as the new Dragonhorse is as precarious as the choices
he makes.
Terrill has created a believable futuristic landscape in her
network of planets forming the Affined Equi Worlds, and she
includes a helpful index so that readers can keep track of the
many characters and locales spread throughout the galaxy.
The otherworldly atmosphere Terrill conveys will draw in and
surprise even the most well-versed science fiction readers,
and she has created a fully believable milieu with multilayered, dynamic cultures and characters. At times, incongruous
expressions and details, like a character asking if another is
“hot to trot” or multiple characters making the thumbs up
gesture, may pull readers from the otherwise finely detailed
inner workings of Equi.
Sensitive readers should be aware that Terrill does not shy
away from the dystopic realities in her imagined world: rape
is described in graphic detail. The depictions of sexual violence are not for the faint of heart. However, Conscience of
the King stands out for its emotional weight and rich storytelling. This second
compelling volume in the
ongoing Dragonhorse Chronicles, boasting highly original
worldbuilding, technologies,
conflicts, and action, while
offering seasoned science fiction readers much to sink
Great for fans of Octavia
their teeth into.
E. Butler’s Lilith’s Brood,

An immersive,
inventive continuation
of an epic science
fiction saga.

Elizabeth Stephens’s Taken to
Voraxia.

PRODUCTION
GRADES:

Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: –
Editing: B+ | Marketing copy: A

W. Gary Winget and Sandra L.
Renner | FasTrack Global Expansion
Solutions, Inc. 420p, trade paper,
$89.99, ISBN 978-1-733-14748-4
In this clear-eyed, resultsminded guide, Winget and
Renner lay out their strategic
“FasTrack” methodology for
businesses seeking to build
effective export organizations
targeting global markets.
Arguing that companies are
leaving “hundreds of thousands,
even millions, of dollars ... on the table because of inefficient
and ineffective global growth implementation,” the authors
present a flexible, step-by-step approach to entering into
international markets, building effective export organizations
and distribution systems, achieving rapid market penetration,
and maximizing sales and profits.
This isn’t a book about why a company should consider
global markets. Instead, it offers a smartly organized framework for getting the job done with speed and efficiency,
including guidance about establishing teams, setting benchmarks, conducting assessments, developing resource networks
and distribution channels, and the multitude of other considerations it takes to succeed—what to worry about now to save
headaches later, and what can be adjusted as the team grows
more experienced. The framework is notable for its clarity,
adjustability, and thoroughness.
Drawing on the experiences and challenges faced by companies who have succeeded in global expansion, Winget and
Renner maintain a fat-free, highly practical emphasis, offering
a refined, expanded version of the process laid out in 1991’s
Fast-Track Exporting. Each worksheet has a clearly defined
purpose—”Export Process
Flow Chart,” “Trade Term
Analysis.” Whether explicating the actions and
paperwork a company must
take on to secure letters of
credit, or offering direction on
broader questions of how to
achieve greater market penetration, the authors’ decades
of experience are clear. They
Great for fans of Donna
offer action steps, case studies,
L. Bade’s Export/Import
and a host of worksheets and
Procedures and Documentation,
briefs to facilitate and refine
Entrepreneur’s Start Your Own
the process.
Import/Export Business.

A highly practical,
flexible, and thorough
guide to expanding
a business into
global export
markets.

PRODUCTION
GRADES:

Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: A
Editing: A | Marketing copy: A

B O O K L I F E .CO M

PAID REVIEWS

BUSINESS & PERSONAL FINANCE

SELF-HELP

Broken to Better: 13
Ways Not to Fail at Life
and Leadership

The Innovator’s
Handbook: A Short
Guide to
Unleashing Your
Creative Mindset

Michael Kurland| Houndstooth
Press 161p, trade paper, $15.99, ISBN
978-1-544-52970-7
Kurland, co-founder of the
Branded Group, a facility management provider, shares the
business principles he and Kiira
Belonzi have used to rocket their
company to success, with a
welcome focus on creating an
inviting, inclusive company
culture. After relocating from Long Island to Newport Beach,
Calif., Kurland vowed to create a company where employees
were excited to come to work. Now, he lays out a path for
others to achieve that goal. He shares his lessons in this slim
yet weighty step-by-step guide, delivering straightforward
advice that can be generalized to virtually any business model
(and may inspire in personal areas, too).
Among other clear-eyed advice, Kurland counsels readers
and leaders to strive to form new connections, to be open to
new people and lessons, to be fearless and not confined to a
comfort zone, and always to be people-centric and futuredriven, valuing your team and searching for ways to move the
company forward with those talented team members. He
warns against complacency at all costs, “whether your bottom
line is booming or suffering,” and stresses the need for service-oriented efficiency, a mindset of continuous improvement,
and a commitment to leading by example–“authentically,
vulnerably, and transparently”–both in business and the
community.
“Inclusivity means ensuring every voice in your organization is heard and everyone has equal opportunities to advance,”
Kurland writes. A caring communicator who solicits the honest
opinions of employees and partners, Kurland prioritizes an
inclusive company culture where workers and supervisors
feel valued and appreciated.
This down-to-earth roadmap
for success will be a perfect
fit for companies large and
small, and Kurland’s
emphasis on creating a supportive culture will resonate
with bosses, leaders, and other
professionals eager to set their
teams up not just for success
Great for fans of Simon
but feeling valued.
Sinek’s Leaders Eat Last, Tony

This slim yet
weighty guide offers
practical guidance
toward leading
teams to success.

Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness.

PRODUCTION
GRADES:

Cover: B+ | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: –
Editing: A | Marketing copy:A

92 B O O K L I F E , AU G U S T 22 , 20 22

Hussain Almossawi
242p, trade paper, $17, ISBN
978-1-737-85080-9
Almossawi explores a
multifaceted process of
innovation in this sharp
debut, delivering valuable resources and straightforward tools
for readers who have or seek to develop an “innovator’s
mindset.” Declaring his goal is to stimulate curiosity in new creatives, he approaches that outcome in a fresh, engaging way
by emphasizing the driving forces behind curiosity and innovative thinking—such as diversity, understanding the impact
of our environments, laser-focused thinking, and never being
afraid to ask questions. Almossawi’s advice, based on the
“first principles” approach to innovation, is delivered against
the backdrop of Mélissa Menu’s brightly colored, comicsinspired illustrations, resulting in an inviting layout that will
hold reader attention.
Although compact, Almossawi’s handbook thoroughly analyzes the power of innovation within a tech-world framework.
Drawing from years of design industry experience with companies including Apple, Nike, and Intel, he breaks down the
thought processes, mindset, and environments that have fostered innovation, often illustrating the concepts with examples
from the lives of Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, and others.
Almossawi presents guidance in a light, motivational tone,
giving the handbook an airy and companionable feel that
will resonate with readers—and the addition of key takeaway
points sprinkled throughout the guide keep the emphasis on
the practical. Particularly helpful are eight practical exercises
aimed to stimulate the creative brain.
Readers will find this handbook rich with constructive
advice. Almossawi asserts
that “childlike wonder” is an
essential skill for innovation,
encouraging readers to view
the everyday through a quizzical lens. Creative minds,
especially designers, will
appreciate Almossawi’s
chummy, inspirational manner
Great for fans of Scott
in this accomplished guide.

Designers and other
creatives will enjoy
the fresh, practical
feel of this guide to
innovation.
D. Anthony’s Eat, Sleep,
Innovate, Jeff DeGraff and
Staney DeGraff’s The Creative
Mindset.

PRODUCTION
GRADES:

Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: A
Editing: A | Marketing copy: A

PAID REVIEWS

SELF-HELP

MEMOIR

Emotional Magnetism:
How to Communicate to
Ignite Connection in
Your Relationships

The Road Taken: Men,
Motorcycles, and Me

Sandy Gerber | Page Two Press
206p, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1774-58199-5
Communications expert
Gerber (Woman of Worth:
Defining Mom Success) powerfully lays out the importance of
communication skills and how
to use them effectively in this
smart and sensitive work. Key to
Gerber’s philosophy are four “emotional magnets”— safety,
achievement, value, and experience–that correspond to the
emotional needs that “magnetize” people, motivating them
through life while also making it easier to engage and connect
with them. She urges readers to understand these, in themselves
and in others, while mastering key elements of successful
communication, no matter the emotional magnet involved, such
as empathy, authenticity, knowing yourself and how your
behavior affects others, and maintaining a positive regard for
others, which means stirring feelings of respect by focusing
on others and taking their situations seriously.
Gerber demonstrates empathy herself—and a keen sense
of her readers’ needs — as she explains and explores the emotional magnets, identifying the characteristics, motivating
factors, and challenges (which she calls “speed bumps”) associated with each. For example, people whose magnet is “safety”’
are driven by security, control, health, family, and ease of the
path—they tend, she writes, to avoid spontaneity. Gerber
tempers concerns about generalization by noting that a person’s emotional magnet can shift over time, that we’re all
individuals, and that it’s important to pay attention to
behavior over time for a fuller understanding of what drives
someone.
Writing with a positive spin throughout, Gerber shares her
original advice and formulations with stories from her
experience and practical tools.
“When you speak to people’s
emotional needs, not only will
you be heard and understood,
you’ll also be able to understand what people truly
want,” she writes. This slim,
Great for fans of
savvy guide actually delivers,
Kathleen Edelman’s I Said
offering a clear route to deep,
Thiss, You Heard That, Kate
effective improvement of
Murphy’s You’re Not Listening.
communication skills.

Gerber’s straightforward, inviting guide
will transform communication skills
and relationships.

PRODUCTION
GRADES:

Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: –
Editing: A | Marketing copy: A

Linda Dodwell | Galah Press
213p, e-book, $19.99, ISBN 978-1-95359622-2
This inspiring debut describes
one woman’s transformation
from insecure to boldly optimistic, even in the face of
heartrending failure. Linda
Dodwell was born during the
dark days of World War II, into a
self-described “apocalyptic
world” in which nothing was
guaranteed. As she poignantly writes, “My life tumbled out like
a sack of rocks on a chaotic path that turned and twisted, endlessly marked by exhilarating triumphs and sobering defeats.”
Against this backdrop, she takes readers on a breathless ride
through the ups and downs of her life, charting the development of—and discovery of—her reservoirs of inner strength.
Dodwell’s rocky relationships with men often form the backbone of the story: her Marine father was usually absent; she
ended her marriage after a long road of conflict and frankly
recounted incidents in which both sought satisfaction outside
it; and, later, the man she thought would be her companion
for life changed irrevocably after a traumatic head injury from
a motorcycle accident. These setbacks don’t slow her down,
however, as she speeds ahead to discover her true potential—
and becomes “the Linda [she] always wanted to be.” Readers
will immediately recognize her wanderlust, which she attributes to a childhood move from California to New Jersey, and be
staggered by the sheer amount of traveling she has accomplished, mostly on the back of her true love, the motorcycle.
In fact, motorcycles become somewhat of a metaphor for
Dodwell’s unpredictable path and are a major contributing
factor to her happiness, despite the upheavals throughout
her life. She also gives readers glimpses of her artistic side
(she graduated from The San Francisco Art Institute and
refers to herself as a “serial
restorer”) and her passion for
women’s rights, including a
rousing interaction with Gloria
Steinem. The takeaway is
Dodwell’s circuitous path of
self-discovery and her eventual
realization that she can “take
on whatever comes next.”
Great for fans of

An uplifting account
of personal transformation, motorcycle
road trips, and
overcoming.
Kathryn Schulz’s Lost &
Found, Ayelet Tsabari’s The
Art of Leaving.

PRODUCTION
GRADES:

Cover: A- | Design & typography: A- | Illustrations: –
Editing: B | Marketing copy: B

B O O K L I F E .CO M

PAID REVIEWS

MEMOIR

MIDDLE GRADE

Are You Okay?: The
Carryover of Kindness

Scaredy Bat and the
Frozen Vampires, Book 1

A.S. Drayton | A.S. Drayton Books,
LLC 282p, trade paper, $19.95, ISBN 9781-667-81176-5

Marina J. Bowman | Code
Pineapple 113p, e-book, $4.99, ISBN
978-1-950-34108-5

Drayton’s coming of age memoir
effectively captures the terrors
and agonies of the journey to
self-confidence and self-love. The
memoir opens with college-aged
Drayton facing despair after
being dumped by his girlfriend.
Though he feels like the only
person on the George Mason
campus who cares about his pain, a chance encounter with an
empathetic pool-playing dorm resident named Anthony helps
Drayton recover from the rejection and enjoy life on campus
by making new friends. “Are you okay?” Anthony asks, and
Drayton emphasizes what he found so heartening about the
encounter: “In 2012, a black man talking about his emotions
was already quite the rare sight, let alone inquiring about
another black man’s obvious distress.”
Drayton decides to join a fraternity in an attempt to overcome his shyness and develop self-esteem. That choice does
bring out some of his strengths in the open, though in different
ways than he expects, as several personal issues and setbacks
remain to be confronted on the road to becoming an adult. Told
in simple, clean prose with an incisive emotional intelligence,
the memoir follows an uncomplicated linear structure. The
honest descriptions about fighting shyness and Drayton’s keen
desire for love and companionship, and his ambition to have
“a loving family to call my own; the classic wife and kids” are
relatable. However, passages describing the tasks he undertook
to secure admission into his fraternity, and the problems that
fraternity faced, lack the urgency of the more personal material, though readers with a connection to that milieu may find
these sections engaging.
Evocative descriptions of a recurring nightmare add weight
to the tale, and eventually dream
and reality bleed into each
other, deftly capturing his sense
of abandonment, his sinking
self-worth, and his slow descent
into an all engulfing sadness–
all while showing readers that
such feelings can be faced and
discussed without stigmatiGreat for fans of J. R.
zation. The last chapter, which
Moehringer’s The Tender Bar:
catches Drayton and friends
A Memoir, Kendra James’s
after a few years’ gap, movAdmissions.
ingly ties the loose ends.

Like any 12-year-old girl, Ellie
is trying to find her place in life–
but she’s also a vampire, and a
jumpy one at that. In Bowman’s
playful and surprising story for
middle-grade readers, Ellie’s
friends call her “Scaredy Bat.”
Any time something frightens
her, she transforms into a spooky
nocturnal mammal—but still wearing cute little round
glasses, of course. This is a major problem for Ellie, who longs
to be a detective solving real mysteries. She finally gets to try
some sleuthing when she attends a wedding and all of the
guests are shockingly frozen solid. As Ellie and her friend Jessica work to crack the case, they make new friends—and Ellie
learns to face her fears.
In addition to the book’s magical elements, the story hinges
on a very serious component. The wedding Ellie is attending
will cement the “Fang and Flesh Peace Treaty,” which allows
humans and vampires to marry. This is a big deal, especially
since Ellie’s mom is a vampire, her dad is a human, and her family
could be split up if the treaty were reversed. Young readers
will likely want to discuss with adults how this fictional law
mirrors certain situations in the real world, as well as how devastating it could be for people facing the possibility of losing
essential rights.
Serious themes aside, most of this story is filled with lighthearted, inventive fun, including a monster/suspect called a
Jotun Frost Giant and super-powered hot sauce that keeps
Ellie and her friends from freezing. Yevheniia Lisovaya’s crisp,
colorful illustrations also provide levity and humor, showing
wild-haired Ellie and her friends uncovering clues and working
to find the culprit—while readers are encouraged to keep
track of hints as well. Ultimately this book creates a likable
cast of characters and sets
the stage for an entertaining
series of mysteries to come.

PRODUCTION
GRADES:

A touching collegiate
coming-of-age
memoir about an
introvert finding
love and confidence.

Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: –
Editing: A | Marketing copy: A

94 B O O K L I F E , AU G U S T 22 , 20 22

Bowman’s surprising,
lighthearted story
introduces a jumpy,
12-year-old vampire.
Great for fans of Olivia
Stephens’s Artie and the Wolf
Moon, Laura Ellen Anderson’s
Amelia Fang series.

Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: A
Editing: A | Marketing copy: A

PAID REVIEWS

MIDDLE GRADE

YOUNG ADULT

Boken’s Crazy
Camping Caper

Misfit’s Magic: The
Last Halloween

Boken the Dog
105p, e-book, $4.99, ISBN 978-1916-31818-2

Fred Gracely | Biskett Press, LLC
406p, e-book, $1.99, ISBN 979-8-98613640-0

In this delightful continuation of a middle-grade series
narrated by a canny canine,
Boken is living his best dog
life, even when roughing it on
a weekend camping trip.
(While Boken himself is credited as the author, Sara
Mastriforte helps document the Miniature Schnauzer’s rollicking tales.) Back home in Costa del Sol after traveling
through Europe, he’s whisked off to a Spanish national park
by his British dad Neil, who brings along military pal Karl and
Boken’s best buddy, Bounce. The comfort-loving Boken is
baffled by camping, but eager for new experiences, and he
bristles when domesticated friends warn him that they’ll
encounter wild creatures who could be hostile.
Boken’s exuberant voice pulls young readers into his
adventures, which are driven by his overwhelming curiosity
and reckless confidence. He laughs at his own jokes with a
delighted “teehee,” and rushes headlong into dangerous
situations. The greyhound Bounce is his eager companion in
mischief, and is not slowed down by the curved blade that
functions as his prosthetic front leg. They enjoy their dads’
skill at the grill and frolic in the wide open world. Surprised
by the friendliness of boars and wolves, who accept the dogs
into their protective packs, Boken and Bounce are targeted
by lone predators: a Spanish imperial eagle and Iberian lynx.
Travel expands this eager dog’s knowledge of the animal
world, and Boken’s Crazy Camping Caper focuses on introducing
him to Spain’s native wildlife. Embedded in this action-packed
outing is a humbling lesson: the impetuous pup frightens his
beloved Bounce, which affects him more powerfully than
risking his own safety. The lively design by Anna Hancock (who
illustrates with Jo Litchfield)
makes each page pop with
energy, its bold characterdefining illustrations bursting
with joyous chaos, and text
that appears to be Boken’s
handwritten scrawl, reflecting
a mind bouncing between distraction and comprehension.
Great for fans of
Boken the dog offers young
Victoria J. Coe’s Fenway and
readers an enthusiastic guide
Hattie, Chris Grabenstein’s
to finding fun everywhere.
Dog Squad.

Gracely’s riveting debut young
adult horror novel brings
together a group of misfits—
both human and magical—who
must save their town, and magic
in general, by stopping the most
powerful wizard in the world
from achieving omnipotence. In
a town called Sparksville, young
teen Goff Grahm accidentally stumbles into the world of
magic while writing a research paper, setting in course a
chain reaction that starts when Harkland Mathers, the rich
and creepy new man in town, instantly becomes his sworn
enemy. When Harkland’s intentions to steal Sparksville’s
magic become clear, Goff is the only one with a chance at
stopping him—by collecting the magic himself. But when
Harkland kidnaps Goff’s dog as leverage in ensuring Goff
promises not to cause trouble, the hero and his misfit cohort
quickly find the stakes are higher than they could have imagined.
Each character—both magical and human—stands out in an
engaging way, ensuring relatability for young readers. Kids
who normally can’t get along end up working together to save
their town, and the real magic of this story is Gracely’s skill in
showing that anyone can be a hero. These misfits’ antics are
equal parts bewitching and entertaining: a skeleton from science class comes alive, Goff’s best friend is a stuffed cat that’s
resurrected at night, and readers will adore Majesty, who gives
Goff magical abilities, though she isn’t well-versed in how to
do it.
Gracely ensures the story never slows, with constant action
and new developments hidden around every corner. Goff and
his friends don’t just fight a bad
guy; they also solve the mystery
of who he is and how the past
can help them save the future.
Whether it’s running from scary
henchmen, seeking advice
from gargoyles, time traveling,
or figuring out why the adults
in town are disappearing,
Gracely manages to sneak in
Great for fans of
friendship alongside the
Victoria Aveyard’s Blade
adventure. Readers will be
Breaker, Leigh Bardugo’s
drawn in quickly and never
Shadow and Bone.
want to get out.

PRODUCTION
GRADES:

Boken shares his
canine credo: enjoy
family and friends,
eat great food, and
learn all you can.

Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: A
Editing: A- | Marketing copy: B+

A group of young
friends on an actionpacked magical
adventure young
readers won’t want
to put down.

Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: –
Editing: A | Marketing copy: A

B O O K L I F E .CO M

REVIEWS

The following are reviews of self-published titles that have previously appeared in PW

Fiction
Circadian Algorithms
Tom B. Night. Tom B. Night, $13.99 trade paper (302p) ASIN B09W4JFZF3

In this engrossing techno-thriller from
Night (Mind Painter), Madeline Johnston,
the CEO of a company preparing for a lucrative IPO, decides to go for an early-morning
swim at the fancy Tokyo hotel where she’s
staying for business. At the deserted rooftop
pool, she’s accosted by a bloodstained and
rambling Japanese man, who refers to
having gone without sleep for over 22 days.
He asks her if she believes in dragons, then
jumps to his death. Madeline later learns
the man was Takayoshi Yamamoto, a controversial entrepreneur and just one of several successful corporate executives recently
to die by suicide. Another such suicide,
from the Golden Gate Bridge, is witnessed
by Madeline’s husband, Darwin Johnston,
the uncredited inventor of a cure for narcolepsy. The couple’s marriage and lives come
under threat after Madeline secretly undergoes a procedure, illegal in the U.S., aimed
at decreasing the amount of sleep she needs
to function, despite being warned the operation could affect her dreaming in alarming
ways. Night keeps the pages turning
without sacrificing believable characters for
his intriguing plot. John Marrs fans will be
pleased.

Future Tense:
Tales of Apocalyptic Vision
Michaelbrent Collings. Written Insomnia,
$14.99 trade paper (390p) ASIN B09W786VX5

Collings (Malignant) chills in nine horror
shorts that consistently twist and turn,
never going in the direction the reader
expects. In the cryptically named opener
“Jingle All the Way,” a suicidal woman in
a conformist dystopia participates in experiments on clones. The elderly agoraphobic
heroine of “Lucid Dreams” sees strangers’
faces in her bathroom mirror then lives out
their lives in her nightly dreams. Collings
himself appears in the wacky “The Shortest
Con,” where he plays poker with a ghoul, a
troll, and a witch at a comic convention.
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The powerful postapocalyptic “Button
Man” asks what punishment should befall
the person responsible for the end of the
world. In “That’ll Sell,” a satire of convoluted science fiction plots, a book’s character visits the avaricious author who makes
his life a living hell. The most unnerving of
the bunch, “I Am an Ocean,” takes readers
to a dystopia run by an omniscient artificial
intelligence that keeps humans in thrall and
punishes anyone who longs for a better life.
The novella, “The Stranger Inside,” will be
of special interest to Collings’s fans, as it
later became the basis for Collings’s I Am
Legion series. Collings has an intuitive
sense of what will scare; his disquieting
stories are sure to leave readers unsettled.

The Horsemen: Manifest Destiny
Jiba Molei Anderson and Kofi Malik Boone.
Griot Enterprises, $14.99 trade paper (66p)
ISBN 978-1-6662-7123-2

Anderson fuses African myths with
American superhero aesthetics in this lofty
compendium from the Horsemen series.
Eight immortals have begotten Orishas—
“Horsemen” who command elements of
weather, water, etc. The volume mixes
political and fantastical themes in three
tales. In the first, Ogun, a herculean Orisha,
bears a sacred mask over his chest showcasing his mastery over the element iron,
facing off against a rival who represents
death and destruction. The second episode
explodes with successive splash pages of
Horsemen repelling an American invasion
of modern Nigeria. The final chapter imagines that 1% of the global population developed superpowers through an event called
the Manifest. The larger-than-life characters, though lavishly drawn, overshadow
narrative development, as character introductions and worldbuilding are packed into
chapter openers, which frame a central
dynamic similar to Greek Gods and Titans.
Exposition is meted out through explanatory word boxes, sometimes in the guise of
news reports. The volume bridges ancient
and contemporary times, and nods are made
to economic inequality, unchecked imperialism, and military aggression. Anderson’s
care for the comics craft is evident

throughout in the eye-popping, colorfueled action sequences. However, it’s more
of an add-on for those who already follow
the Horsemen series—a way station rather
than a jumping-on point for new readers.

Lost Island
Barbara Newhall Follett. Farksolia, $21.95
trade paper (430p) ISBN 978-0-9962431-4-8

Follett, who published her 1927 novel,
The House Without Windows, at age 12, before
disappearing in 1939, left in her papers this
engaging story of a restless young woman.
Jane Carey, tired of soothing her friends’
troubles and bored with her job as an entomologist’s secretary, yearns for the wildness
of her Maine childhood, which she fled after
leaving her fiancé at the altar. She impetuously signs up to join the crew of the schooner
Annie Marlow and, once on board, endears
herself to the other sailors, especially the captain—she reminds him of his deceased
daughter—and Davidson, a Joseph Conrad–
adoring second mate. When the ship goes
down in a squall, only Jane and Davidson
survive, drifting on the open sea. They eventually land on an uninhabited island where
they rhapsodize their primitive lifestyle and
fall in love. After three years, a research team
arrives on the island and rescues them,
despite their hesitation to return to modernity. Back in New York, their choices pull
them apart as Jane grapples with reintegrating into her old life. The zesty, ratatat
dialogue echoes the era’s screwball comedies,
and the plot flies by. It’s a strange thrill to
encounter this assured young writer’s voice
emerging from the ether.

The Potrero Complex
Amy L. Bernstein. Regal House, $18.95 trade
paper (270p) ISBN 978-1-64603-250-1

Bernstein (The Nighthawkers) explores a
plausible dystopic near future in this effective thriller. For almost five years in the
2020s, a pandemic devastated the globe.
The disease decimated many communities,
including Canary, Md. In 2030, veteran
newswoman Rags Goldner arrives in Canary
to assume the helm of the local paper, the
Courant, improbably still a going concern
despite the town’s loss of about two-thirds

REVIEWS
of its population. She finds Canary preoccupied with the recent disappearance of
16-year-old Effie Rutter. But as there’s
nothing new to report, Rags stops the
Courant from continuing to run warmedover articles about the teen on page one in
favor of covering a local environmental
hazard. Rags finds numerous oddities in her
new job, including that the Courant has
stayed afloat from an odd source of revenue—“print ads in a tiny newspaper
serving a dying community in a digital
world.” She finds other mysteries to unpack
as well after a second teen disappears and the
local health authorities move to impose
harsh, seemingly unnecessary restrictions on
the town’s residents. Bernstein’s imagination is matched by solid pacing and characterizations. Chris Holm fans will be pleased.

Ten Worlds Away
Christopher Mari. Christopher Mari, $8.99
e-book (126p) ASIN B09RHNSKCL

Mari (The Beachhead) collects 10 poignant
and contemplative speculative shorts that
run the gamut of human emotions,
endeavors, and faults. Characters attempt to
improve their relationships in “The Pigeon
Coop”—about a young woman who goes
back in time to prevent her 16-year-old
grandfather from becoming the broken,
loveless man who raised her father—and
“Hypothymesia,” in which colonists debate
settling on a planet where a microorganism
removes all worry and guilt. Other off-world
adventures thrill with unexpected revelations: as a scientist in “Up Above the World
So High” explores his planet’s frozen sky, he
encounters another explorer on the other
side of the ice; and, in “Tell Me Why,” the
people on two dying worlds make arrangements to preserve their genetic material.
“Greener Grasses” offers a humorous commentary on humanity’s potential if only
people applied themselves with the story of
a traveler from a parallel Earth that has
already cured cancer and established colonies on Mars. Mari cites The Twilight Zone as
his inspiration for this collection, and the
story that will most remind readers of an
episode is “Constant Contact,” in which a
lonely old man receives phone calls from
dead loved ones. This clever collection is
sure to please fans of wistful sci-fi.

Westbound
K. Patrick Conner. Nalc, $7.99 e-book (318p)
ISBN 978-0-9856312-3-9

In Connor’s wistful multigenerational
saga (after Dying Words), a downhearted
patriarch delves into stories of an ancestor. In
San Francisco, elderly divorcé Elliot Madison
lives with his granddaughter Alissa, 23,
whom he raised since she was a teen after his
daughter’s divorce. Now Elliot grumps
about the rebellious Alissa’s partying and
playing drums in a metal band called the
Sores. Once the editor of the San Francisco
Chronicle, Elliot spends his retirement
researching and reading the journal of his
adventurous great-grandfather William
Henry Madison, who in 1851 left his home
in Charleston, S.C., in search of gold in
California (he took the sea route around Cape
Horn, and his journal describes the harrowing six-month voyage). Adding intrigue
to Elliot’s genealogical research is a stranger,
Phoebe Crighton, who claims her ancestor
knew William. As Elliot begins writing a
book about William, he collaborates with
Phoebe on untangling the mysteries of their
lineages and begrudgingly supports the
Sores, ordering takeout for them and visiting
their gigs. Connor teases out smart insights
on his characters as they forge new identities.
Here’s Elliot reflecting on William: “he had
also gone in search of himself, hoping to learn
who he was and who he might become.”
Readers will delight in the lead’s moving and
surprising discoveries.

Children’s/YA
The MisAdventures of George and
the Talking Butt
J.L. Frankel. Bradley & Brooke, $12.99 paper
(202p) ISBN 978-1-66291-084-5

White 10-year-old George Smith discovers that his butt can talk in this chuckleinducing, bathroom-humor-laden novel by
Frankel, which tonally recalls the Captain
Underpants series. Told through episodic
vignettes, George navigates life with his
newfound companion, whose speech emits
so much noxious gas that it’s unbearable for
other people to stand too close. George and
his posterior endure madcap misadventures, trials, and tribulations, including a
painful case of poison ivy and battling a

whoopee cushion at school. Though George
tries to explain that these mishaps aren’t his
solo doing, and that his talking tush is the
cause of all this misfortune, no one seems to
believe him—they just wish he would stop
farting. Frankel’s thinly inked b&w illustrations feature throughout, depicting a
fire-breathing George following chili
pepper consumption and a Halloween
mishap in which George and a friend show
up in the same costume. Genuinely childlike-feeling prose, which occasionally
breaks the fourth wall, capably portrays
George as a woebegone protagonist who,
nevertheless, takes his chatty derriere—and
all its ups and downs—in stride. Additional
jokes labeled “Butt’s Wisecracks” conclude.
Ages 8–10.

Samuel Shootingstar
Adam Sanford. Jumpmaster, $19.99 (78p)
ISBN 978-1-949184-69-3

Samuel Shootingstar encounters life
forms he’s never met and places he’s never
been while exploring the galaxy with new
friend Luna Bunny in Sanford’s heartwarming ode to connection, healing, loss,
and the meaning of home. Samuel, a starfish
from the Brine Nebula who wears an astronaut suit and a jet pack, and large-eyed
Luna, a purple bean-shaped creature called
a bunnibee, have been traveling together
since Samuel rescued Luna from the dastardly chef-pirates who destroyed her home.
Vowing to help her find a new place to live,
Samuel visits Council City to request an
escort through the stars. Accompanied by
a gelatinous steed, who “has many teeth and
a surly attitude,” they begin their trek, but
are soon derailed by a meteor storm, which
frightens their escort and sends Samuel and
Luna hurtling adrift through space before
crash-landing on a planet inhabited by
giant, slimy worms. While spare text sometimes lacks emotional punch, Sanford’s
variously textured art, rendered in appropriately galactic blues and purples as well
as luminous greens and yellows, provide
narrative depth. This vibrantly illustrated
space adventure, filled with curious creatures and imaginative locales, is a touching
reminder that home is anywhere one’s loved
ones reside. A note detailing the author’s
inspiration concludes. Ages 7–up.

B O O K L I F E .CO M 95b

Soapbox

“Fiction... is the highest truth—the truth about human nature. The truth about me.”

Confessions of a Closet Novelist
A nonfiction author turns his attention to his first love: fiction
By Michael Oren
“When did you decide to write novels?”
It’s the question I get most frequently
from my readers, many of them curious
and even disappointed that I’ve strayed
from serious research to what they consider the “frivolities” of fiction. I have to
explain to them that, in fact, I actually
started out as a poet and screenwriter and
only later turned to history. Even then, I
was—and always will be—a novelist.
“Nonfiction,” I confess to them, “supports
my fiction habit.”

ver since that day I returned from
sixth grade with a strange almostout-of-body sensation, sat down
at my bedroom desk, and wrote my first
poem, I knew I was a writer. I started
with poetry—my first collection, completed at age 13, was grimly titled, Who
Cries for the Soul of the Pigeon?—and went
on to compose short stories and a film
that won the PBS National Young
Filmmakers Award. Fiction writing
gained me admission to a college that
otherwise would never have accepted me,
and landed me a job as a gofer for director
Orson Welles.
But along with these early successes
came a stack of rejection letters that only
thickened over time. Denied admission
to the famed Iowa Writers’ Workshop, I
used my GRE scores to apply to a graduate program in history. That, in turn,
led to bestselling books about the 1967
Six-Day War and America’s 200-year
involvement in the Middle East, and to
diplomatic posts and visiting professorships. I had fulfilled my dream of
becoming a published writer, but only of
nonfiction.
Inside, though, I was still writing

stories. Poems, vignettes,
novellas—I scribbled
them all in the off-hours,
submitted them for publication, and reeled with
each rejection. My best
friends urged me to stop,
saying they could no
longer bear my suffering.
“Your fiction is a fiction,”
they said.
“Even if I were a musician who never made the
philharmonic and only
played weddings, I’d still be a musician,”
I replied. “A writer is who I am.”
So a fiction writer I remained, and
eventually some of those rejections
became offers. I published three novels
and two collections of stories, all positively reviewed. But while my history
books continued to sell, my fiction books
rarely made it to a second printing.
Friends still advised me to give it up and
focus on what I was good at. “History is
about truths,” one of them declared.
“Fiction is lies.”
My response was to insist that fiction,
on the contrary, is the highest truth—the
truth about human nature. The truth
about me.
All of my fiction writing reflects three
things about me: the thrill I derive from
telling a good story, the joy of drawing on
the rich experiences of my life, and the
deep satisfaction of exploring the human
condition. A story could be an international murder mystery, for example, and
reflect my service as a diplomat and
undercover agent, but it will also be a
commentary on betrayal, memory, and
love. Fiction is also freedom. It enables

96 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 2 2

me to be whomever I
want—a retired gay
school principal, an alien,
even a tiger—in any
place or time I choose.
In writing about the
16th century or cultures
far from mine, I’ll often
employ the tools I
learned in graduate
school. My forthcoming
novel, Swann’s War, set
on an island at the height
of WWII, required
research into fields as diverse as lobster
trapping and cranberry farming, life on
the home front, and the barriers facing
policewomen in the 1940s. The highest
compliment I receive as a nonfiction
writer—“Your books read like novels”—
is outdone only by the reaction my novels
occasionally merit: “They read like
history.”
Still, there is the frustration of convincing audiences that while I continue
to be a serious historian, I am a no less
substantive novelist. There is the challenge of proving that history writing and
fiction writing are not contradictory but
complementary, that my love for storytelling does not in any way detract from
my passion for facts. Both stem from an
irrepressible need to connect with people
on multiple levels and to convey the
truth as I see it. I want to share that same
wondrous out-of-body feeling I experienced in sixth grade and welcome all my
readers to my world.
■
Michael Oren is a historian, author, and former
Israeli ambassador to the U.S. His novel
Swann’s War (Dzanc) is due out October 25.

1 0 0 R E C I P E S TO E AT
TO L I V E TO 1 0 0
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all move away from fried foods, sugars, and
processed meats and toward a true diet of
longevity. The recipes are fantastic!”
— K AT E H U D S O N , award–winning actress
and co-founder of INBLOOM

“This is the most important book you will read
this year, guaranteed.”
—A N D R E W Z I M M E R N , Emmy Award–winning
television host, chef, and author

“Dan Buettner possesses an uncanny ability
to develop a novel idea, do deep research,
and produce new insights and evidence on
health and longevity. The Blue Zones American
Kitchen is for anyone interested in eating
their way to a longer, better life.”
— S A N JAY G U P TA , Emmy Award–winning
chief medical correspondent for CNN

O N SA L E D E C . 6 , 2 0 2 2
ISBN 978-1-4262-2247-4 HC / $35.00

AVA I L A B L E 1 2 /6 / 2 2 W H E R E V E R B O O K S A R E S O L D
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