Books

In her engaging Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution, Denise Kiernan (The Girls of Atomic City) takes readers on a remarkable journey to discover—and rediscover—some of the fascinating women who helped to shape the Revolutionary Era. Along the way, Kiernan challenges traditional ideas of who belongs in history

The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society Letters unfurl the story of a small community in the Channel Islands during World War II in this modern classic of epistolary fiction. The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows has a whimsical, poignant charm that will resonate with fans of

Celebrating America’s 250th isn’t just about the Founding Fathers, as Denise Kiernan reminds us in her impressive Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution. Engaging, informative and surprising, Obstinate Daughters goes beyond documenting the transformative events of the American Revolution to ask questions about America today—and who belongs in

James Wilson was the most democratic of all the Founding Fathers and fervently promoted the philosophy that all power rests with the people. He wrote the first draft of the Constitution and was one of only six men who signed both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence; he coined the phrase ‘‘We the people”;

Some nights, I dream that my dad comes back from the dead and everything goes back to normal. That is, until we both remember that this can’t be happening, and he must leave again. I’ve had that dream a few dozen times over the past 20 years, and not one of those goodbyes has been

Ten years after she was last there, 32-year-old horticulturist Sophie Drear returns to Lilymoor House to restore the gardens for its owner, Eula Beck. Sophie was last at the aging estate with Harriet, her best friend, and tending the deteriorating grounds now unearths painful memories of Harriet’s death. Although Sophie had not understood Harriet’s belief

Northern Maine fingerprint analyst Shaw Connolly is back in Restless Bones, the excellent follow-up to Gillian French’s adult debut, Shaw Connolly Lives to Tell. Fans may enjoy this novel even more than the first—it’s like catching up with an old friend who lives a hectically unsettled, yet completely absorbing life.  Thanks to Shaw’s die-hard efforts

Curious about what all creatures great, small and microscopic are getting up to? These two far-ranging and eye-opening books take an in-depth, often irreverent look at animal sex and reproduction with an eye toward evolution, biodiversity and the vitality of life on Earth. ★ Poking the Squid Fans of Perrin Roosevelt Ireland’s “Thirsty Science” short-form

Bright music and an ode to love stories from author Katherine Center set the tone for the audiobook of The Shippers (11 hours), a delightful romance narrated by Patti Murin. Life is anything but smooth sailing for JoJo Burton, who has found her plans repeatedly thrown into chaos by Cooper, her childhood best friend. Cooper

In the audiobook of Mikki Brammer’s Good Joy, Bad Joy (11 hours), Joy Bridport is a woman who has always chosen stability and respectability, steering clear of the chaotic way of being practiced by her outgoing lifelong best friend, Hazel. At 89, Joy is content with her careful life—until Hazel delivers devastating news that forces

The lacunae in our family histories are often sites of deep pain. When our elders refuse to tell us their stories, we are left not only with large gaps in our understandings of the contexts of our lives but also with the echoes of the hurt they surely felt. While we might not want to

With a title that sounds like a mean girl turning down a nerd in a ’90s sitcom, Isabel Waidner’s third novel signals a similar rejecting attitude toward the reader’s expectations. Following 2023’s gloriously madcap Corey Fah Does Social Mobility, As If, brings captivating absurdity to the question of whether people are really more like actors

From an early age, Gary Paul Nabhan would fall into what ecologist E.O. Wilson called “the naturalist’s trance.” Intensely absorbed by the sand dunes and wildlife of the shores of Lake Michigan, young Nabhan was called the “Dune Detective” by his loving Lebanese American family. He was much less comfortable in school, where his preference

Hot summer sun, charming flights of fancy and a juicy red watermelon add up to superb summer fun in Bonsoir Lune’s Watermelon Pool, translated from Korean by Frances Cha.   In this lushly illustrated fantastical tale of “opening day at the watermelon pool” (rumor has it that “the coconut pool in the next town is

Ethel Just, a fluent German speaker, earned degrees from Ohio and Boston universities, then taught languages at Howard University and Washington, D.C., public schools for many years before ultimately becoming a college administrator. But when she was laid off at 59 during an economic downturn, the U.S. government only grudgingly hired her into a job

In her vivacious Chain Reaction: How Chemistry Shapes Us and Our World, research chemist Ijeoma Uchegbu celebrates the chemical bonds that dance—sometimes harmoniously, sometimes discordantly—among us and the world we live in.  From the moment we raise our heads from pillows filled with down or latex, walk across a ceramic floor or polyester carpet and

New editions of previously published cookbooks are a perfect example of how food and tastes evolve over time, providing a look into the past while connecting the dots to what still resonates today. First published in 1976, The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis is the primer for the recipes and foods that define

Plus, a sleepwalking murder mystery installment of Seishi Yokomizo’s beloved Japanese detective series. Originally published here.

Set in contemporary Mumbai, Devika Rege’s Quarterlife chronicles the lives of three young protagonists during a time of political change. Financial consultant Naren Agashe returns home to Mumbai from the United States with his friend Amanda, who is keen on doing social work in the city’s slums. In need of direction, Rohit, Naren’s brother, joins

Ruth Ozeki is known and acclaimed for her long, substantial novels, including The Book of Form and Emptiness, A Tale for the Time Being and My Year of Meats. But she’s also a short story writer, and The Typing Lady: And Other Fictions collects 11 of her stories published over the past two decades. The

Alternatives to monogamy are becoming much more visible, leading more people to consider the idea of having multiple partners. But as any modern dater knows, relationships of any kind are rarely simple. Haili Blassingame’s debut novel, They All Fall in Love at the End, shows us a main character who upends her life for the

In This Story Might Save Your Life, best friends Joy and Benny run a podcast together—until Joy disappears. Julia Whelan and Sean Patrick Hopkins share their experiences crafting this unique, dual-narrator audiobook production, featuring duet-narrated podcast segments in addition to alternating chapters in which Whelan reads for Joy and Hopkins reads for Benny.   What

The great Ann Patchett’s 10th novel, Whistler, will surprise you not just once but several times—but Patchett’s surprises are as sad as they are pleasurable. Most of Whistler’s characters, after all, are at an age when the wistful backward glance is a thing. One of the younger characters, and the sometime narrator of the book,

★ The Open Era  Edward Schmit debuts with The Open Era, an appealing exploration of love, rivalry and the rigors of professional sport, centered on the US Open Tennis Championship. At 20, Austin Hardy qualifies for his first Grand Slam tournament. Out since high school, the press focuses on his being gay more than his

Justine van der Leun opens her introduction with the story of Nikki Addimando, a woman convicted of murdering her boyfriend, who’d been sexually and physically abusing her for years. After her sentencing, she told the court, “I was afraid to stay, afraid to leave, afraid that nobody would believe me, afraid of losing everything. This

If you’re looking for a work of fiction that’s charming from start to finish, Villa Coco is the book for you. It’s seductively entertaining from the get-go, with a luscious opening line: “The little Tuscan train station, brown shutters against yellow paint, seemed so fanciful you might unwrap it and find it was chocolate.” Indeed,

So often we focus on the big gestures in life, searching for the most momentous minutes. But Spendin’ Time is all about the simple moments. It is rare that a book comes around with such an unassuming and quiet message that is all joy and no strife. Author Gary R. Gray, Jr. honors his picture

In Robin Stevenson’s sensitive, engrossing novel The Book of Jupiter, readers see into the life of a child deeply imbedded in the control and perils of a cult community. The stars have never been so limitless, yet also limited, for 13-year-old Ara, who has grown up cloistered in a small rural homestead known as Jupiter

Not every crime is solved by a grade A detective or a hotshot sleuth, and in this case, an eclectic and rompy friend group bestows upon themselves the duty to solve the messiest of offences. Nicole is a Black lesbian junior lawyer with big dreams and near-zero social life; Brandon is a gay Jewish hotelier

Steven Pfau’s expansive memoir, Say Nephew: On Boyhood, Unclehood, and Queer Mentorship, tells layered stories from his life and pays homage to his singular uncle Bruce, while also offering something more wide-ranging and complex: a theoretical meditation on the mentorship of uncles in the gay community.  Pfau’s prose is characterized by acute self-awareness and a