“Your hen once told me humans are a lot like plants. We stand with confidence when we’re happy. We shrink and wither when we struggle.” Eleven-year-old Adara and her dad are moving from California to the cold and flat lands of Michigan . . . and it sucks. After Mom’s recent passing, it seems way…
Death Does Not End at the Sea by Gbenga Adesina
“Glory of the Latinof the dead and their grammarcomposed entirely of decay. Glory of the eyes of my fatherwhich, when he died, closedinside his grave, and opened even more brightlyinside me.” Gbenga Adesina’s stunning debut book of poems explores the complexity of elusive citizenship and offers the reader an immigrant’s brokenhearted prayer for a new…
The Wind That Lays Waste by Selva Almada
“Tomorrow. In the evening, we are all optimists. We think that when the light of a new day fills the sky above us, we will be able to change everything and begin afresh. But the next morning we wake up exhausted, tired before we start the day, and we leave it all to tomorrow again….
Bad Indians Book Club by Patty Krawec
“The dominating society loves to categorize people as good and bad depending on whether or not they support the existing system.” When a friend asked what books could help them understand Indigenous lives, Patty Krawec, author of Becoming Kin, gave them a list. This list became a book club and then a podcast about a…
Vampires at Sea by Lindsay Merbaum
“A boring orgy is a painful affair.” Immortal beloveds Rebekah and Hugh are on vacation! Against a backdrop of ongoing war, this pair of chic emotional vampires from San Francisco sets off on a queer Black Sea Cruise, eager to relax, join an orgy, and feast upon their fellow passengers’ desires and sorrows. When Hugh…
Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood
“I have never wanted anything as desperately, as ungovernably, as persistently as I want you. Not a single goddamn thing. Not my dead mother back. Not revenge. Not the well-being of the people I love. Not professional success, not even my own happiness. Absolutely nothing has consumed me as mercilessly as you have.” Maya Killgore…
2025 Women in Translation Month
Hello! I’m back again to make some recommendations for August, which is Women in Translation Month. Hardly anyone ever looks at this post, but I feel deeply enough about this that I keep writing a post about it. I suppose it is possible that we’re all reading the same five books each year and that’s…
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
“Bury my bones in the midnight soil, plant them shallow and water them deep, and in my place will grow a feral rose, soft red petals hiding sharp white teeth.” Three women over three different time periods are brought together by their mutual desire for more out of life. Maria wants to escape her lot…
At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop
“To translate is never simple. To translate is to betray at the borders, it’s to cheat, it’s to trade one sentence for another. To translate is one of the only human activities in which one is required to lie about the details to convey the truth at large. To translate is to risk understanding better…
The Will of the Many by James Islington
“Silence is a statement, Diago. Inaction picks a side. And when those lead to personal benefit, they are complicity.” Vis, the adopted son of Magnus Quintus Ulcisor, a prominent senator within the Hierarchy, is trained to enter the famed Catenan Academy to help Ulciscor learn what the hidden agenda is of the remote island academy….
The Great Book Wyrm 