Books

Loretta Chase has a lot to celebrate this year. Not only is she wrapping up her Difficult Dukes trilogy with My Inconvenient Duke, but she’s also marking the 30th anniversary of the crowning jewel in her oeuvre—and one of the most beloved romance novels ever written—Lord of Scoundrels. Chase has become somewhat of an expert

Haunting and Homicide, Ava Burke’s new cozy mystery, introduces a tour guide who sees ghosts—and helps one solve his own murder. Tallulah “Lou” Thatcher runs a ghost tour company in New Orleans. Though she just started, her tours are gaining in popularity thanks to her knack for finding paranormal activity on late-night strolls through the

Getting the latest book by a professional organizer whose breakthrough concept is minimalism may seem a little counterintuitive, but hear me out: LifeStyled: Your Guide to a More Organized and Intentional Life might change your life. At least, that’s what Shira Gill aims for. LifeStyled takes Gill’s well-established minimalist organizational principles, which she laid out

Food is among the greatest human connectors. In her latest book, How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love, and Plenty, chef and award-winning journalist Bonny Reichert weaves together vignettes about her family, her life and, most importantly, her intergenerational trauma, skillfully using food as a focal point and way to tie

Loretta Chase closes out her Difficult Dukes trilogy with My Inconvenient Duke, providing a satisfying conclusion to the series and a happily ever after for her final rambunctious hero, Giles, Duke of Blackwood. Giles is one of the Dis-Graces, three wild and rebellious dukes running around 1830s London, all of whom inherited their estates young

Korean author Han Kang, winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, returns with We Do Not Part, her poetic, starkly beautiful fifth novel to be translated into English. Kyungha, the book’s narrator, wanders through a bewildering internal dreamscape, haunted by a recurring nightmare of graves inundated by rising water. She has lost or cut

Amber can’t contain her feelings for Nico any longer. They’ve been best friends for years, and though part of her wishes they could go back to easy conversations, nights playing video games and chill hangouts with friends, she can’t hold back how she really feels. So during their eighth grade beach trip, she confesses—and he

Sarah, nicknamed Sally, is everything British society expects her to be: a polite, respectable, beautiful lady. An Egbado princess whom Queen Victoria claimed as a goddaughter, at 19 years old, Sally has learned to play the game of propriety and appearances. But it’s all in an effort to achieve her real goal: revenge against everyone

Everyone loves a housewife; housewife here meaning not the barefoot and pregnant archetype, but a girlboss with hair extensions, implants and a whole lot of attitude who’s always willing to tussle with her “friends” for an audience of millions. But what happens when a reluctant housewife ends up dead—and she’s only the first casualty of

Nnedi Okorafor knows that her latest novel is “a lot.” The way Okorafor delivers this pronouncement with a grin makes it clear that the description is anything but apologetic. “I feel like one of the things about this book that’s going to be interesting is this question of ‘What is it?’ Because it’s so much.”

The Big Empty Classic detective novels don’t need to be set in Los Angeles. The protagonist does not have to drive a vintage Corvette convertible, and they don’t necessarily require a loyal and lethal sidekick. It is not imperative that the narrative be spun in the first person. That said, it is a formula that

Fired from her lackluster job as an adjunct professor of writing, and on the verge of needing to move back in with her parents, Zelu has lost control of her life. Because she’s disinclined to pick up the pieces in a way that will satisfy her family, a Nigerian American dynasty for whom being exceptional

Téo Erskine is a Londoner in his 30s with an orderly, if somewhat aimless, life. As Tom Lamont writes in his smart, warm-hearted debut, Going Home: “He had been careful to arrange a life in which he could leave obligations at the door of his flat, next to the coins he saved for Ben’s poker

Monsters both corporeal and of the mind stalk the protagonists of these romantic suspense novels. Originally published here.

Although Janie and her mother go birding often, she never manages to spot an owl, which she longs to see in the wild. Fortunately, Janie’s teacher, Mr. Koji, is also a lifelong birder, and owls are his favorite too. After Mr. Koji offers her a tip, she heads to the snowy woods once more and

This is the year Julieta Villarreal will figure out how to escape from the climate disasters threatening her home, the broken friendships she’d rather leave behind, and the grief of losing her twin sister. So when the Cometa Initiative, a private space program, invites New American students to join a space mission, Juli sees a

On the morning of December 21, 1832, a Fall River, Rhode Island, man made a dark discovery while crossing the fields of his farm: The body of 30-year-old mill worker Sarah Cornell hung from a pole near a haystack. Word spread quickly through the New England town, the tragedy amplified by the revelations that the

★ Remember When Mary Balogh offers a Regency-era, quietly enchanting story of second-chance love in Remember When. Nearing her 50th birthday, widow Clarissa Ware, the Dowager Countess of Stratton, returns to her family’s country estate alone, intent on contemplating the next phase of her life. With her children launched into society, she is seeking new

I wanted to write about motherhood.  I set pen to white paper and brainstormed around the circled word “MOTHER.” What were my word associations and allusions? The Queen of Coins. Marmee March and Cersei Lannister. Josephine Rabbit. The Capitoline wolf.  A she-wolf nursing infant twins is an unforgettable image. Strange, certainly. Unnatural, perhaps. It is

Ellen Hendriksen offers ways to tune out your inner critic and tune in to your true self in her insightful self-help book, How to Be Enough. Originally published here.

Stephen Ellcock has been described as an “image alchemist,” which is a term that may sound vague or even nonsensical until you thumb through his tightly focused treasuries of esoteric imagery. Then, the term makes perfect sense. Following The Cosmic Dance and Underworlds, Elements: Chaos, Order and the Five Elemental Forces is the third title

Josh Sims’ Icons of Style: In 100 Garments is like a visual encyclopedia of every piece of clothing that matters, from mini skirts and leather jackets to blazers and T-shirts. Along with a brief summary that contextualizes the garment in both history and popular culture, a slew of visual components accompany each entry. For the

In prolific author-illustrator and Walt Disney animator Benson Shum’s colorful, upbeat new book We Are Lion Dancers, Lunar New Year is fast approaching, and siblings Lily and Noah are lucky enough to learn about and celebrate this festive Chinese tradition. The adorable duo’s curiosity is piqued when, after kung fu class, they encounter two lion

In Old Crimes and Other Stories, Jill McCorkle’s characters face moments of reckoning and work to make sense of the past. A father has trouble connecting with his daughter and adjusting to the digital era in “The Lineman.” In “Confessional,” a husband and wife buy an antique confessional for their house—a purchase that leads to

The most engaging aspect of The Resurrectionist isn’t its gaslamp adventure or macabre thrills. It’s the poignant queer love story at the center of the book—which is surprising, because the plot revolves around the theft of cadavers. Those two elements should feel at the very least incongruent, but in author A. Rae Dunlap’s hands, they

Matty Matheson doesn’t have to tell you that Matty Matheson: Soups, Salads, Sandwiches isn’t your typical cookbook. You’ll know just by looking at it. The charismatic chef, restaurateur and actor (he consistently steals scenes as Neil Fak in the FX series The Bear) is dressed down in a worn-to-the-point-of-translucency Grateful Dead T-shirt on the book’s

Tove Jansson and Tuulikki “Tooti” Pietila spent 30 years on Klovharun, an island off the Gulf of Finland, painting, writing and exploring the lush seaside. Known for her novel The Summer Book and the popular comic strip Moomin, Jansson reflects on her and Tooti’s time on Klovharun in Notes from an Island (2 hours). Notes

Former competitive skier Wylie Potts is trying to find a new identity. Her mother and coach, World Cup and Olympic medalist skier Claudine Potts, put so much pressure on Wylie that she began to experience panic attacks and, eventually, walked away from the sport. She’s found a career she loves at an art museum and

It may seem counterintuitive to read about music—why not just listen to your favorite song for the thousandth time? However, by learning about the people behind the instruments, you can understand not only what impacted you but also why it stirred such emotions. These books will make you want to put on a record and