2book multi

Fiction

A story for every reader: Four new collections make storytelling look easy

Feature by Ian Schwartz

What’s easier than writing a short story? Sit down on your lunch break, bang out a couple thousand words, maybe add a pinch of editing and there you are, four or five entertaining pages to wow friends, family and literary agents. After all, it’s not as if you’re writing a book. Practically anyone who has ever written a sentence knows they can write a short story—until they try.

With no space to waste and no space wasted, short stories may be the purest, most difficult form of fiction. Some of the greatest American writers—including Henry James, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville—were, at one point or another, short story writers. With dozens of delicious stories that range from a teenager’s New York City to the Egyptian desert, from the gray Soviet Union to fraught Central Asia, these four collections—including three debuts—do what great tales should: Hook you fast and hold on tightly, all the way to the end. Some are traditional, some are experimental, and some break all the rules. The one thing these writers have in common is the talent to make it look easy enough for anyone to do it.

Until, of course, they try.

HEARTS ALONE
I’d say remember the name Danielle Lazarin, but if you read her first collection of short fiction, there’s no danger you’ll forget it. In Back Talk, her tales of the inner lives of girls and young women are nothing short of revelatory. Forget about what women want; as Lazarin illustrates in gorgeous, limpid paragraphs that will make you go back for more, the more appropriate question is, what don’t women want? Lazarin’s New York women are uninterested in being anyone’s accessory. They fight tooth and nail against love that requires attachment, as they assume it will merely devolve into the heartbreak that has marked their families.

In one story, a teenage girl tries to navigate the evolution of a lifelong friendship while exploring sex with the friend’s cousin. In another, the youngest of three siblings tries to simultaneously fit in and distance herself from her broken family, which is scattered over two continents. In the title story, a high school girl at a house party turns the tables on a boy who stands behind her, harassing her and whispering in her ear, only to later pay the inevitable social consequences of speaking up.

Back Talk is a pulsing, muscular heart of a collection that is as good as any I have read in years.

A RUSSIAN GREAT
Modern Russian literature generally falls into two categories: tales of Soviet life so heavy you can practically feel the yoke upon your shoulders, and more recently, tales that evoke the manic staccato of the diaspora. While both are prominent in Aetherial Worlds, Tatyana Tolstaya’s writing is so good that it cuts through the surface directly to the universal workings of the human heart.

In the sad and elegant “Smoke and Shadows,” a visiting Russian professor at a Midwestern school reluctantly falls in love with a married American counterpart. In another, an old woman going through long-neglected suitcases finds her father’s clothes, and she is able to remember him as the young man he once was and recall his promise to give her a hint about the afterlife.

The Leningrad-born author is descended from both Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev; her bloodlines practically drip ink. But Tolstaya labors under no ancestor’s shadow.

WAR TALES
Bring Out the Dog, a debut collection from Navy veteran Will Mackin, takes us into the world of modern war—and the soul of the modern soldier.

On a night raid in Afghanistan, a member of a special operations unit is accidentally shot by one of his own. Back home in North Carolina, a Navy pilot happens upon a meeting of the Man Will Never Fly Society, whose membership is made up of former fliers. In my favorite story, Navy SEALs lie in ambush, waiting for the signal to attack, as an enemy patrol files by.

Mackin’s stories are at times raw and can feel unfinished, but he’s clearly a writer with promise who knows his subject matter. He spent 23 years in the military, the last five as a member of a SEAL team. His writing life is almost as interesting: An English major in college who opted for the service, he later met Booker Prize-winning author George Saunders at a literary seminar in Russia. Saunders became his mentor, and his influence is apparent in Mackin’s marriage of the mundane and the absurd.

NEW POWERS
Anjali Sachdeva’s debut, All the Names They Used for God, is a wide-ranging collection of stories that are a blend of fact and fiction, seamlessly integrating magical realism and the firmly earthbound. Sachdeva’s fantastic world is one where angels visit a blind old man and help him write one of the greatest poems in history, and where an albino woman on the American frontier discovers a world under the earth that she prefers to the one above ground.

Sachdeva’s spare, unsentimental writing is never more artfully deployed than in the title story, an emotionally scorching tale of two African women’s kidnap and escape from a Boko Haram-type army. In captivity, the two women discover powers they never knew they could possess, but can their strength ever allow them to be the girls they once were?

Sachdeva’s eclectic stories span time and geography, packing a wallop even greater due to their diversity. It’s a strong collection from start to finish, with not a weak story in the bunch.

 

This article was originally published in the March 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

What’s easier than writing a short story? Sit down on your lunch break, bang out a couple thousand words, maybe add a pinch of editing and there you are, four or five entertaining pages to wow friends, family and literary agents. After all, it’s not as if you’re writing a book. Practically anyone who has ever written a sentence knows they can write a short story—until they try.

Children's & YAPicture Book

Pointing out the everyday possibilities for poetry

Feature by Julie Hale

Four terrific new collections of verse will show beginning readers that the possibilities for poetry are everywhere—in the backyard, on city streets and even (surprise!) in the classroom. Here’s to the poets of tomorrow!

INSPIRED BY NATURE
Sarah Grace Tuttle pays tribute to the wonders of the outside world in Hidden City: Poems of Urban Wildlife. Tuttle’s playful poetic romp through the great outdoors features pieces inspired by the insects, plants and—of course—animals that can be found in urban areas. Her free-verse poems are filled with strong imagery and arresting phrases. In “Falcon Fledge,” a baby peregrine falcon on a high-rise building “teeters thirty-two stories above / busy sidewalks and a traffic jam.” In “At the Park,” under the limbs of a willow tree, “two ducks dabble down— / heads underwater / tail feathers above.” “Community Garden” celebrates a flourishing neighborhood flower bed, where “snakes sun themselves / by the graffitied wall.” From a pesky mouse to a fierce feral cat, this memorable collection introduces youngsters to an intriguing cast of wild characters. Amy Schimler-Safford’s multilayered illustrations bring depth, richness and color to the proceedings. Little readers will enjoy identifying the wild creatures in this collection.

A TRIP TO THE GALLERY
A book that hints at the splendors housed in America’s largest museum, World Make Way: New Poems Inspired by Art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins, features contributions from a group of acclaimed writers, including Marilyn Singer and Naomi Shihab Nye. Writing in response to images by Mary Cassatt, Kerry James Marshall, Gustav Klimt and other artists, each poet expresses a unique voice and vision. Julie Fogliano’s poem “Cat Watching a Spider” is the perfect companion to Ōide Tōkō’s painting of the same name, thanks to its brevity and playful rhyme scheme: “so silent and certain / a spider / can cause / a watchful and wondering cat / to pause.” In “Early Evening,” a poem inspired by Winslow Homer’s radiant “Boys in a Dory,” Charles Ghigna writes of “a watercolored world / where we float and dream, / soft and serene.” Filled with breathtaking reproductions of the artists’ work, World Make Way is an excellent tool for teaching young readers about the delights of visual art and the pleasures of poetry.

A CAUTIONARY COLLECTION
Angela McAllister uses poetry to explore endangered environments in the innovative book, Wild World. Rainforest and coral reef, desert and savanna, the Arctic and the outback—all are highlighted in this globe-trotting anthology of evocative free-verse poems. McAllister’s lovely, lyrical works provide fascinating perspectives on the Earth’s varied—and fragile—natural habitats while inspiring mindfulness and a sense of stewardship. “The Wild World is in danger, / Calling with many voices for your care. / What we see may soon be gone,” McAllister writes in the introductory poem. From “Mountain,” a natural monument “born in a collision of continents,” to “Prairie,” in which “plains of tall bluestem brush the bison’s shaggy hide,” this wide-ranging volume captures the essence of each locale. Thanks to the crisp illustrations of Danish design team Hvass and Hannibal, the book delivers a realistic visual sense of each setting. Wild World is the perfect blend of poetry and environmentalism.

CONNECTING IN THE CLASSROOM
Irene Latham and Charles Waters collaborate on a one-of-a-kind collection with Can I Touch Your Hair?: Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship. This lively anthology focuses on 5th-graders Irene and Charles (younger versions of the authors themselves), who get paired for a poetry project that they aren’t thrilled about. “Now I’m stuck with Irene?” Charles, who is African American, thinks. “She hardly says anything. Plus she’s white.” The engaging poems that follow chronicle everyday experiences—a beach trip, shopping, Sunday worship—and demonstrate the contrasting viewpoints of the two partners. In “Hair,” Irene describes her blond locks as “a curtain I can hide behind,” while in “Strands,” Charles gets angry when his hair attracts unwanted attention from a schoolmate. “My fists clench,” Charles writes, “and my face gets hot.” Artists Sean Qualls and Selina Alko work in a collage style that’s deceptively simple, creating childlike illustrations filled with color and texture. This is a winning anthology that offers important lessons about diversity and connection.

Four terrific new collections of verse will show beginning readers that the possibilities for poetry are everywhere—in the backyard, on city streets and even (surprise!) in the classroom. Here’s to the poets of tomorrow!

NonfictionMemoir

Overcoming hardship and hitting refresh

Feature by Julie Hale

Spring is a time for renewal—a period of promise that brings with it a sense of fresh possibility. These five new books celebrate the season and deliver inspiring perspectives on personal growth, healing and inner transformation.

In her uplifting memoir I Will Not Fear: My Story of a Lifetime of Building Faith Under Fire bestselling author Melba Pattillo Beals tells the story of how her spiritual beliefs helped her find a path forward during a troubling time in American history. Growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas, Beals endured death threats and harassment from white supremacists. On September 25, 1957, along with eight other African-American students, she integrated Little Rock’s Central High School, becoming part of the group dubbed the Little Rock Nine. “That day, I confronted for the first time the reality of what I was facing,” Beals writes. “I questioned whether I had what it took to live through the integration process over the long haul.”

She found the fortitude necessary in her Christian faith. Beals went on to become a successful journalist and reporter, and while building a career, she also raised a family. Her poignant memoir serves as a testament to the dynamic influence of faith and how it can be harnessed to improve individual lives and heal broken communities. Filled with stories of victories both great and small, Beals’ memoir is a true spirit- booster.

LEARNING TO LET GO
If you’re struggling with negative emotions or bad habits (and who isn’t?), you’ll find relief in Dean Sluyter’s Fear Less: Living Beyond Fear, Anxiety, Anger, and Addiction. In his new book, Sluyter, an expert on stress management and meditation, offers advice on how to break self-sabotaging habits, from obsessive overthinking to digital-device addiction. He also includes solutions for coping with deep-seated sources of anxiety, like aging and death. By combining spiritual teachings from across the centuries with current research, he shows readers how to embrace everyday life and build self-esteem.

Sluyter’s approach taps into both the body and the mind, providing simple meditation techniques and stretching exercises that are easy to integrate into a daily routine. “If, after a little practice,” Sluyter says, “you fear less—even one percent less than before—then you’re already coming out of the darkness and into the light.” With his help, you can banish negativity and adopt new habits that will improve your all-around attitude.

PAIN INTO TRIUMPH
In 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart made national news when she was abducted and held captive for nine months by religious zealot Brian David Mitchell. She chronicled the horrors of her kidnapping in her bestselling memoir, My Story (2013). Using her past trials as a point of departure, Smart has built a life based on positivity. Now president of the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, she works as a victim advocate. In Where There’s Hope: Healing, Moving Forward, and Never Giving Up, she reflects on her personal journey and explores the heartening accounts of others who have transcended hardship and found happiness. Smart interviewed a wide range of subjects for the book, from notable women like Ann Romney, who has struggled with multiple sclerosis, to survivors like Bre Lasley, a stabbing victim who founded the support group Fight Like Girls. The result is an empowering narrative that gives readers guidance for working through resentment, fear and sadness. “I think hope is something we can create for ourselves,” Smart writes, “and it can be a stronger force than anything life throws at us.” Readers in search of a bright side will find it here.

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS
​​​​​​​“I have spent much of my life worried that I was an ingrate,” bestselling author Diana Butler Bass admits in Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks. Bass had long associated gratitude with the disagreeable notion of “debt and duty,” and so in her new book, she set out to increase her understanding of what it means to be thankful. In the process, she cultivated her own life-changing sense of gratitude.

Mixing sociological research with warm personal anecdotes of appreciation for the everyday, Bass examines why individuals find it challenging to maintain a practice of gratitude and reveals how thankfulness can serve as the foundation of a healthy community. “Gratitude is not about stuff,” Bass stresses. “To choose gratitude is to hear an inner urging toward thanks, to see the grace in life, and to respond.” As Bass’ story proves, it’s never too late to start being grateful.

LEARNING LOVE
Bestselling author Geneen Roth wrestled with body-image issues for years before realizing that being thin did not equal being happy. She tried various approaches to self-improvement until her path to inner peace took an unexpected turn: Roth found that when she quit working on herself, she finally felt comfortable in her own skin. In This Messy Magnificent Life: A Field Guide, she opens up about the move from self-improvement to self-acceptance—a critical shift that allowed her to find true fulfillment.

Roth, whose 10 previous books include Women Food and God, has appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “The View.” In This Messy Magnificent Life, she shares insights into her struggles with food along with practical suggestions for overcoming the fears and anxieties that so often stand in the way of self-acceptance. Roth says a willingness “to relinquish the Project of Me and stop trying to fix what had never been broken” made it possible for her to live contentedly in the now. Her advice: Stop waiting for “someday.” Now is the time to celebrate the qualities that make you unique and to be bold in your pursuit of personal bliss. This book will help get you started.

 

This article was originally published in the April 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Spring is a time for renewal—a period of promise that brings with it a sense of fresh possibility. These five new books celebrate the season and deliver inspiring perspectives on personal growth, healing and inner transformation.

Celebrating National Poetry Month

Feature by Julie Hale

We live in a country that loves poetry. Today, 44 states have acting poet laureates, and April is acknowledged as a time for recognizing the beauty and power of verse. We’ve rounded up a quartet of terrific new poetry collections—the perfect picks for National Poetry Month.

An electrifying group of impassioned poems, Not Here is the sophomore offering from up-and-coming poet Hieu Minh Nguyen. Writing from the first-person perspective, Nguyen reflects upon his cross-cultural, Vietnamese-American roots and explores the nature of sexual identity.

Intergenerational friction is the subject of “Nguyễn,” a provocative look at the burden of family expectations, in which the narrator’s homosexuality is an affront to his traditionally minded mother—an offense “soiling the lace- / white landscape of her desires.” In an arresting tableau of forbidden affection, the speaker and a male companion are “two flies / drowning in a dish of honey.” The narrator of “Punish,” a poem about forgetting and forgiving, grapples with a painful scene from his boyhood: “I’m trying to understand that memory / is not a technology, a full charge / will get you nowhere, if you’re stuck / tracing the perimeters of your dull nostalgia.”

In this accomplished collection, Nguyen practices an abundance of poetic approaches and modes. For the reader, the richness of expression is intoxicating.

A DIALOGUE WITH HISTORY
“History is in a hurry,” U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith writes in her majestic new book, Wade in the Water. In this intimate yet epic collection, Smith aims to counteract that rush. Incorporating 19th-century correspondence and other documents (including the Declaration of Independence), Smith sets up a dialogue between history and the present that allows readers to muse on the passage of time. In composing the long piece “I WILL TELL YOU THE TRUTH ABOUT THIS, I WILL TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT,” Smith condenses and assembles statements from African-Americans who served in the Civil War. Says one veteran, “I always signed my name while in the army / by making my mark / I know my name by sound—”

It’s a pleasure when Smith narrows her scope for more personal works, like the lovely poem “4½,” a snapshot of life with a demanding young daughter: “Just the tussle of her will against mine, / That scrape and crack. Horn on rock. Rope / Relenting one fiber at a time.” Overall, this is a formally varied, masterful collection from the nation’s poet laureate.

A VISIONARY COLLECTION​​​​​​
In her ninth book of poetry, Blue Rose, former California Poet Laureate Carol Muske-Dukes probes both the personal and political realms to produce visionary works that plumb the limits of language. Her pieces often feature tightly packed stanzas alive with assonance and unexpected enjambments. In the taut title poem, she portrays childbirth as a metamorphic process, from which the newborn emerges looking “danger blue, yet to me her color was like / something never imagined: if-flower of myth, / blossoming on the isle of the color-blind.”

Tracing humanity’s preponderance for vengeance back to the fall, “Creation Myth” features a God who’s confused by what he has wrought: “Should he have / allowed Satan to arm Adam & Eve at the outset? / Should he have accepted the wager: that in no time / they’d zero in on each other—shooting like snipers / from the Tree of Knowledge?” This wide-ranging book includes a powerful triptych about gun control and tributes to Simone Weil, Adrienne Rich and Mark Twain. Muske-Dukes’ facility and breadth of vision make Blue Rose a standout volume.

BEARING WITNESS
Spare, plain-spoken poems marked by unobtrusive beauty comprise Night School, the 13th collection from Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Carl Dennis. A writer who’s attuned to nature—images of lakes, woods and snow-covered trails recur in the collection—Dennis looks deeply at the world and encourages readers to practice “the task of witnessing.”

In works that express empathy for the human condition, the poet seems to be wrestling with himself—who he is now and who he should be—while speculating about the experiences of others. In “Blind Guest,” the narrator thinks about loaning his eyes to a sightless man: “For an hour or two, I can try to dwell / On the good it might do him to escape / The pervading dark.” A poem called “A Letter” comes as no surprise, as Dennis seems the sort of meditative correspondent who’d treasure the traditions of snail mail: “To fold the pages twice and insert them / Into an envelope seems to make them / More of a gift.” In an era of sensory overload, Dennis’ closely observed, perceptive collection is itself a gift.

 

This article was originally published in the April 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

We live in a country that loves poetry. Today, 44 states have acting poet laureates, and April is acknowledged as a time for recognizing the beauty and power of verse. We’ve rounded up a quartet of terrific new poetry collections—the perfect picks for National Poetry Month.

NonfictionParentingMemoirCookbooks

A Sunday kind of love

Feature by Alice Cary

If you’re lucky, your mom will always be your moon and stars, even after she’s gone. During the month of Mother’s Day, celebrate memorable moms and their adoring (and occasionally aggravating) children with these five books.

Margaret Bragg is an extraordinary octogenarian cook from Alabama who’s worn out 18 stoves and has no use for things like mixers, blenders or measuring cups. She whoops at the term “farm-to-table,” saying she had it in her day—it was called “a flatbed truck.” Even though Margaret proclaims that “a person can’t cook from a book,” her Pulitzer Prize-winning son and author of All Over but the Shoutin’, Rick Bragg, decided it was high time to collect her cooking stories and recipes in The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma’s Table. “I guess you would call it a food memoir,” Bragg writes, “but it is really just a cookbook, told the way we tell everything, with a certain amount of meandering.”

And what marvelous meandering it is. Each chapter contains a family photo, recipes and the often uproarious tales behind them, starting with the legendary tale of Bragg’s great-grandfather Jimmy Jim, who deserted his family after a bloody battle that may have involved a murder, but was summoned back years later to teach Bragg’s grandmother how to cook.

These stories shimmer and shine, casting a Southern spell with Bragg’s gorgeous prose, while the myriad of recipes—including Cracklin’ Cornbread, Spareribs Stewed in Butter Beans and a dessert called Butter Rolls—are guaranteed to leave readers drooling. Each recipe includes directions like, “Turn your stove eye to medium. My mother cooks damn near everything over medium.”

The Best Cook in the World is Julia Child by way of the Hatfields and McCoys. Margaret Bragg can cook up a storm, while Rick Bragg writes with a powerful, page-turning punch. The result is unimaginably delectable.

A LIFE LIVED WITH FLOWERS
Academy Award-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden writes an extended love letter to her mother in The Seasons of My Mother: A Memoir of Love, Family, and Flowers. Harden’s mother, Beverly, has always been her best friend and cheerleader; she prodded her reluctant daughter to try out for a local production of a Neil Simon play, which turned out to be her entree into show business.

Texas-born-and-bred Beverly married her college sweetheart at age 19 and soon had five children. As the family of a Naval officer who was frequently away at sea, Beverly and the children traveled the world, living in California, Maryland and Greece. “If Dad was our captain, she was our navigator,” Harden writes.

When their travels brought the family to Japan, Beverly fell in love with ikebana, the ancient art of flower arranging, which became her lifelong passion. Harden uses its imagery and philosophy to tell her mother’s story, interspersing chapters with photographs of ikebana arrangements specially created for her book. It’s a soulful tribute that’s framed with sadness and loss: Harden’s mother has been increasingly debilitated by Alzheimer’s since 2007.

“The details of a home are usually what fill up a mother’s life,” Harden notes, “but how often have her children stopped to consider that her sacrifices are actually gifts?” With The Seasons of My Mother, Harden lovingly shares her mother’s gifts with the world.

BREATHE, THEN GRIEVE
One day, while contemplating the horror of someday losing her mom, illustrator Hallie Bateman realized that a day-by-day book of instructions would be helpful at such an unimaginable time. Naturally, she turned to her writer mom, Suzy Hopkins, for help. Their collaboration has resulted in an exceptional self-help guide, What to Do When I’m Gone: A Mother’s Wisdom to Her Daughter.

From What to Do When I’m Gone, written by Suzy Hopkins and illustrated by Hallie Bateman. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Bloomsbury.

Bateman and Hopkins share a loving, humorous outlook, and their graphic memoir is filled with plenty of heartfelt wisdom and edgy humor reminiscent of Roz Chast’s Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? There are recipes to feed the soul (Day 1: Make fajitas.), burial instructions, tips for overcoming grief and advice for things like marriage, divorce, childbearing and aging. For example: “Things not to include in my obituary: Nobody but my immediate family needs to know that I made mosaic tile flower pots, played piano badly, bought season tickets but only saw two plays a year, or cooked with the same six ingredients for the past twenty-five years.”

What can you do to help someone who’s recently lost a mom? Give them a copy of What to Do When I’m Gone.

MAKE ’EM LAUGH
It takes real talent to be consistently funny while sharing both your worst fears and greatest dreams. Kimberly Harrington is a mother of two who does just that with her debut collection, Amateur Hour: Motherhood in Essays and Swear Words.

This always lively, sometimes sidesplitting series of short essays tackles everything from the exhausting days of early infancy to the dread of having one’s children grow up (“I worry about what I will do with that silence when you both are grown. What will I do with that? Is it payback for me shushing you and waving my hands at you when I was on a work call in that NO-NO-NO-OH-MY-GOD-GO-AWAY way that I did?”). Some essays are pure satire (“What Do You Think of My Son’s Senior Picture That Was Shot by Annie Leibovitz?”) while others are deadly serious (“Please Don’t Get Murdered at School Today”). Many are wonderful mixtures of both, such as the not-to-be missed “The Super Bowl of Interruptions.”

Whether she’s aiming for your funny bone or your heart, Harrington’s takes on motherhood are spot-on.

MOTHERING MADNESS
Life doesn’t always go as planned, as author Jennifer Fulwiler can tell you. “I used to be a career atheist who never wanted a family, yet I ended up having six babies in eight years,” she writes in One Beautiful Dream: The Rollicking Tale of Family Chaos, Personal Passions, and Saying Yes to Them Both. This, coming from an introvert who “needed to minimize having people all up in [her] face.”

To add to the chaos of writing and parenting six young kids, Fulwiler hosts “The Jennifer Fulwiler Show” on SiriusXM radio. Before the children arrived, this Wonder Woman’s life had already taken a few surprising turns—she converted to Catholicism and left her job as a computer programmer, a journey chronicled in Something Other Than God.

Fulwiler is a likable, down-home Texan who never preaches or proselytizes. Thoughtful and funny, she whips off lines like, “Our home life had been utterly derailed when Netflix suddenly removed Penny’s favorite show, ‘Shaun the Sheep,’ from its lineup. The role Shaun played in our house was similar to the role a snake charmer might play in a cobra-infested village.” The morsels of wit and wisdom Fulwiler delivers are as delightful as fresh-baked cookies.

 

This article was originally published in the May 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

If you’re lucky, your mom will always be your moon and stars, even after she’s gone. During the month of Mother’s Day, celebrate memorable moms and their adoring (and occasionally aggravating) children with these five books.

Fiction

Best story collections for a laid-back summer

Feature by Julie Hale

Perfect for dipping into, these four collections offer the experience of great fiction without the commitment that a novel requires. If you’re in need of an excellent read for the lazy weeks that lie ahead, check out the selections below.

PORTRAITS OF HUMAN NATURE
Dark humorist A.M. Homes taps into the contemporary American mindset and our obsession with perfection in Days of Awe. An irreverent writer, Homes can create a completely realized character in just a few strokes, and her dialogue—chiseled to film-script perfection—is enlivened by rapid-fire exchanges and funny one-liners.

The collection’s excellent title story takes place at a genocide conference, where, among stiff scholars and serious academics, two old acquaintances—a novelist and a war reporter—strike up a romance that almost upends their lives. In “Brother on Sunday,” Tom, a plastic surgeon, injects himself with a Botox-like substance—an action that’s horrifying in its offhandedness. While vacationing with a group of affluent friends, an old feud erupts between him and his brother, disturbing the calm of their getaway. In “Hello Everybody,” Walter visits his wealthy friend Cheryl in her pristine, technologically advanced home. Her family’s fixation on physical flawlessness borders on the satirical—and feels all too familiar.

In these perceptive stories, Homes hits a nerve, offering reflections of who we are and projections of who we might become.

IN A WILD PLACE
Lauren Groff (Arcadia, Fates and Furies) plumbs the mysteries of her home state in the captivating collection Florida. Through arresting imagery and a sustained mood that’s ominous and unsettling, Groff, who lives in Gainesville, delivers a sense of the peninsula’s humid exoticism. Of an old cabin at a hunting camp, she writes, “the screens at night pulsed with the tender bellies of lizards,” and Florida itself is described as a place of “frenzied flora and fauna.” The region’s wild environment infects and affects her characters.

“Ghosts and Empties” features a figure who appears in a number of stories—an anonymous wife and mother who’s worried about the world’s decline and finds relief in walking through her neighborhood at night, where she observes the lives of others through lit windows. In “Dogs Go Wolf,” two young sisters are abandoned on an island and are able to adapt to their rough surroundings—it’s when they’re rescued that hardship begins.

In gorgeous prose, Groff offers startling insight into the human heart. Florida is as mesmerizing as its namesake state.

CALIFORNIA TALES
Set in Los Angeles and its affluent environs, Fight No More, Lydia Millet’s masterful collection of intertwined stories, features characters with conflicting wills and interests who can’t be made to compromise. The undercurrent of friction that results lends a quiet force to stories that explore the challenges of communication and the meaning of home.

Nina, a recurring figure, is a young real estate agent transformed by the prospect of new love. Many of the stories in the book feature her clients—people in various states of transition—and in a phenomenal feat of plot-spinning, Millet links the lives of this disparate group of characters. In “To Think/I Killed a Cat,” 16-year-old Jeremy, caught in the crossfire of his parents’ divorce, does his best to repulse potential purchasers of the family home. In “The Fall of Berlin,” his frail grandmother, Aleska, is forced to sell her beloved house and move into her son’s guest cottage, yet she refuses to surrender to the inevitabilities of old age. “I only want to keep going,” Aleska says. Like the other characters in these richly realized stories, she’s unwilling to give up the fight.

STORIES OF THE MODERN SOUTH
Mississippi author Nick White made a memorable literary debut with How to Survive a Summer, his 2017 novel about a gay-to-straight conversion camp. In his new book, Sweet and Low, an accomplished, atmospheric collection of stories that take place in his native state, White continues to explore the experience of being queer in a conservative culture.

“Gatlinburg” chronicles the unraveling of a romantic relationship involving Reed, a New Yorker, and Eric, a Mississippian. The two have fallen “into something like love” but can’t seem to fully connect, in part because of the North-South disjunction. (When Reed’s mother introduces Eric at a party, she says, “He’s from Mississippi—isn’t that adorable? Just wait till you hear him speak.”) In “The Lovers,” Rosemary knows her husband, Arnie, was having affairs but assumed they were with women. She learns otherwise after Arnie’s tragic death, when she unexpectedly connects with Hank, his last lover. A wonderful sequence of stories centering on would-be writer Forney Culpepper has the makings of a first-rate novel.

An author on the rise, White displays impressive range in this rewarding collection.

Perfect for dipping into, these four collections offer the experience of great fiction without the commitment that a novel requires. If you’re in need of an excellent read for the lazy weeks that lie ahead, check out the selections below.

NonfictionFiction

I know what you read last summer

Feature by the editors of BookPage

Thrills, laughs, romance, drama—you know what you want out of a beach read. But just because you know what you want doesn’t mean you’ve found it yet. Based on what you read last year, we’re recommending eight new beachy books to fill your long summer days.

LAST SUMMER, YOU READ:
Jessica Knoll’s Luckiest Girl Alive. You relish bad-girl thrillers fueled by toxic friendships, bad choices and exclusive parties.

THIS SUMMER, TRY:
Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton. In this deliciously dark novel, single white female Louise is 29, flat broke and feels like she has utterly failed at achieving her New York City dream of becoming a famous writer. Enter 23-year-old socialite and bohemian glamour girl Lavinia, bursting with youthful joie de vivre, boundary issues and seemingly unlimited funds. Their intense friendship blossoms into a glitzy NYC bender that includes designer drugs and copious selfies in increasingly over-the-top settings, including ultra-expensive hotel bars, secret literary parties, costume balls and seedy, bottle-service-only sex clubs. Louise is old enough to know that everything that goes up must come down, and her descent is glorious fun.

YOUR SUMMER INSPIRATION:
“I want to remember this forever. Until the day I die.”

RECOMMENDED VACATION:
The Big Apple. Catch Hamilton, stay up all night on a Manhattan rooftop, and ride the Staten Island Ferry for free at dawn.

LAST SUMMER, YOU READ:
The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand or any novel set by the ocean that revolves around women on the verge of something life-changing.

THIS SUMMER, TRY:
The High Season, the debut adult novel from YA author Judy Blundell, who has a gift for depicting issues of love and class in jaw-dropping, gorgeous prose. Museum director Ruthie Beamish rents out her magnificent beach house every summer. But when socialite Adeline Clay moves in for the season, Ruthie’s life begins to deteriorate—from her job to her self-respect to her fraught relationship with her estranged husband. Ruthie knows it’s not Adeline’s fault, but she increasingly views the other woman as a symbol of everything she’s missing. Additional storylines follow Ruthie’s social-climbing employee, Doe, and her teenage daughter, Jem, but the book begins and ends with Ruthie, whose interior state is rendered with remarkable insight. Blundell’s empathetic attention to tiny relational shifts makes every moment of connection feel magical.

YOUR SUMMER INSPIRATION:
“Summer was a forever season, and held no pain.”

RECOMMENDED VACATION:
The beach, of course, where you’ll dine al fresco, wander through an art gallery and casually infiltrate the lives of the obscenely wealthy.

LAST SUMMER, YOU READ:
A screwball historical novel like Christopher Moore’s The Serpent of Venice. You’re looking for an armchair escape that also engages your brain.

THIS SUMMER, TRY:
The Judge Hunter, a hilarious combination of historical adventure and bromance by acclaimed author Christopher Buckley. Hapless Balthasar “Balty” de St. Michel can’t seem to hold a job in swinging 1664 London, but his diabolical brother-in-law has hatched the perfect scheme: Send Balty to the New World in order to chase down some regicides on the lam. But Balty isn’t cut out for life in New England and only survives the first week thanks to a mysterious (and often murderous) secret agent of the crown known as Huncks. High jinks quickly ensue as Balty unwittingly blasphemes his way through Puritan society and Huncks attempts to covertly start a war with the Dutch. This is a Larry David- esque tale for the history buff, filled with delightfully off-putting characters and read-through-your-fingers moments of situational comedy.

YOUR SUMMER INSPIRATION:
“But you might fall in love with New England. . . . They say a man can be anything he wants to be there.”

RECOMMENDED VACATION:
A New England town with your bestie—ideally somewhere with a rowdy historical pub crawl.

LAST SUMMER, YOU READ:
An entertaining deep dive into culture like The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs.

THIS SUMMER, TRY:
Planet Funny by Ken Jennings, whom you may remember from his record-breaking run on “Jeopardy” or his bestselling books like Brainiac. Humor is difficult to study—it’s hard to define, it’s different for everyone, and it changes over time. But it’s also incredibly important in today’s world, whether you’re making a flight safety video, trying to land a date or attempting to get into politics. Jennings has penned a highly entertaining yet genuinely scholarly look at the evolution of humor—from ancient Sumerian fart jokes to Andy Kaufman’s absurdist humor and internet cat memes. This book will have you analyzing everything around you, because these days, everybody’s a comedian.

YOUR SUMMER INSPIRATION:
“One of the worst qualities of a Roman jokester, according to Cicero, was that he used jokes ‘brought from home’ instead of ones made up on the spur of the moment.”

RECOMMENDED VACATION:
A road trip with someone who won’t mind that you’ll be spouting off funny facts and cracking jokes for the majority of the vacation. Just don’t bring any from home.

LAST SUMMER, YOU READ:
An intense technothriller like Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz. You’re looking for suspense that makes the pages fly by as quickly as those beautiful summer days.

THIS SUMMER, TRY:
Exit Strategy by debut novelist Charlton Pettus. Wealthy scientist Jordan Parrish is on the brink of losing everything, so he makes the call to Exit Strategy, a secret organization that squirrels away high-profile criminals, crooked politicians or anyone who has reached the end of the line. They fake your death and give you a new face and life, and you can never contact your old family ever again—at the risk of their deaths. When Jordan begins to regret making the call, he starts asking questions: Was it really his choice, or did someone nudge him in the direction of Exit Strategy? As Jordan works his way back to his old life, the result is a fast-paced joyride with cool tech, hot romance and high-stakes adventure.

YOUR SUMMER INSPIRATION:
“In a while you’re going to be somewhere far away, new town, new life, new you.”

RECOMMENDED VACATION:
As far away from home as you can get.

LAST SUMMER, YOU READ:
The latest action-adventure thriller from Clive Cussler or Stuart Woods.

THIS SUMMER, TRY:
Gale Force by award-winning author Owen Laukkanen. When the cargo ship Pacific Lion founders off the coast of Alaska, it provides a multimillion-dollar opportunity for salvagers like McKenna Rhodes. After her father’s death at sea, McKenna left the deep-sea salvaging business, but retrieving the ship’s cargo would yield a profit she can’t pass up. And so she gathers her father’s old crew on her tugboat, Gale Force—but what they don’t know is that a stowaway was aboard the Pacific Lion with millions of dollars stolen from the Yakuza. The thrills come as hard and fast as a hurricane, and readers will love the brave female lead.

YOUR SUMMER INSPIRATION:
“She was happy, at least, to have escaped the city. The water was where she belonged.”

RECOMMENDED VACATION:
The Pacific Northwest, where you can marvel at the power of nature.

LAST SUMMER, YOU READ:
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes or any story that makes you feel the full depth of human emotion.

THIS SUMMER, TRY:
How to Walk Away, the latest uplifting novel by Katherine Center. This bittersweet romantic comedy covers all your heart’s bases: familial love, romantic love and, most importantly, self-love. The unthinkable happens to Margaret Jacobsen: Her fiancé, Chip, proposes to her while they’re flying high in a little white Cessna; when Chip tries to land the plane, he loses control, and they crash. Margaret wakes up in the hospital, badly burned and unable to use her legs. And the hits keep coming: Chip barely visits; Margaret’s physical therapist is morose and difficult; and Margaret’s estranged sister has returned after three years, dredging up long-buried family secrets. But lovable Margaret is enviably tough, and through all the trauma and change, she maintains a great sense of humor.

YOUR SUMMER INSPIRATION:
“It’s the trying that heals you. That’s all you have to do. Just try.”

RECOMMENDED VACATION:
A getaway with your closest girlfriends to a picturesque cabin, where any drama or pain will be met with understanding and love.

LAST SUMMER, YOU READ:
A book that made you laugh while also speaking to some deeper truths about femininity and aging, like I Thought There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley.

THIS SUMMER, TRY:
There Are No Grown-Ups by Pamela Druckerman. In this “Midlife Coming-of-Age Story,” the fresh and witty Druckerman (Bringing Up Bébé) makes sense of life after the big 4-0, settling into her home in Paris with her husband and children, figuring out what “age-appropriate” clothing really means, grasping the French woman’s philosophy of aging and truly becoming comfortable with herself. Druckerman’s funny yet deeply insightful essays ring true, and they will no doubt have you nodding your head in appreciation, because yes, someone out there really gets it.

YOUR SUMMER INSPIRATION:
“You know you’re a fortysomething parent when you’ve decided that swimming counts as a shower.”

RECOMMENDED VACATION:
The nearest pool, or if you can’t get that far, a bathtub will do. Just make sure someone else is watching the kids.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read a Q&A with Druckerman for There Are No Grown-Ups.

This article was originally published in the June 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Thrills, laughs, romance, drama—you know what you want out of a beach read. But just because you know what you want doesn’t mean you’ve found it yet. Based on what you read last year, we’re recommending eight new beachy books to fill your long summer days.

NonfictionParentingGraphic Novels & ComicsGraphic MemoirsFilmArt

A solution to the age-old conundrum

Feature by Keith Herrell

Father’s Day comes but once a year, and boy are we lucky for that. With ties going out of style thanks to tech billionaires (they’re all wearing hoodies now), the gift choices are slimmer than ever. Fortunately, as is so often the case, books can come to the rescue.

FOR THE SPORTS FAN
When it comes to sports, the “what-if” possibilities are endless. Mike Pesca has assembled 31 of them in Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History. His list might not match yours, but it’s still a fun exercise and a highly readable departure from traditional sports literature. Pesca, host of the Slate podcast “The Gist,” keeps his readers on their toes with a different author for each scenario, so an earnest “What If the National League Had the DH?” is followed by a whimsical “What If Nixon Had Been Good at Football?” (The verdict: still a president, but no Watergate.) Other authors bolster their arguments with charts (“What If Major League Baseball Had Started Testing for Steroids in 1991?”) or, in the case of “What If Nat ‘Sweetwater’ Clifton’s Pass Hadn’t Gone Awry?,” 38 footnotes. The contributors are a multitalented lot, including actor Jesse Eisenberg, radio host Robert Siegel and journalist/historian Louisa Thomas. The contributors are a multitalented lot but each one embraces the task with gusto, inspiring readers to come up with some “what-ifs” of their own.

FOR THE BIG READER
You probably know Michael Chabon as a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, but he’s also an acclaimed essayist. His first collection, Manhood for Amateurs (2009), was subtitled “The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son.” This time around, with Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces, he’s produced seven essays, all dad-oriented. The centerpiece, “Little Man,” recounts a trip to Paris Fashion Week with his youngest and most individualistic child, Abe. (Chabon was on assignment for GQ, where the essay originally appeared.) The essay is not about finding common ground, as is often the case in such essays where father and son are poles apart, but rather Chabon’s happiness that his son has finally found “your people.” The remaining essays are shorter and peppered with humorous insights, particularly “Adventures in Euphemism,” which has Chabon trying to read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to his children without uttering a certain word. Chabon’s relationship with his own father, of course, does not go unexamined, and again he zigs where others zag, taking care not to be overly sentimental.

FOR THE MOVIE BUFF
A cute gopher popping out of his hole adorns the cover of Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story. This is ironic, because the makers of the film hated the last-minute addition of the animatronic gopher that bedeviled Bill Murray in the 1980 film. They saw it as an example of the Hollywood studio system destroying their masterwork. But gopher or no gopher, Caddyshack, a slobs-versus-snobs tale set at a country club golf course, became a cult classic, rife with quotable lines and fondly remembered scenes. Film critic Chris Nashawaty tells the behind-the-scenes story in an entertaining fashion, starting at the very beginning with the founding of the National Lampoon, which served as a springboard for Doug Kenney, who co-wrote the classic Animal House and co-wrote and produced Caddyshack. In fact, Nashawaty doesn’t start recounting the actual filming of the movie until well past halfway through the book. No worries though, as readers will enjoy the backstories of writing, casting and the cocaine-fueled shenanigans of Murray and his pals, including Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield and Kenney, the real star of the book if not the movie.

FOR THE COMIC-BOOK FAN
The genre of graphic literature has grown past just comic books and the newspaper funny pages, and Michael Kupperman, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker and Marvel comics, is deadly serious in All the Answers. This black-and-white graphic memoir is perfect for dads who grew up reading comic books and are looking for something with a bit more weight to it. It tells the story of the author’s father, Joel Kupperman, who became famous as one of the stars of the 1940s and ’50s radio and television show “Quiz Kids.” The elder Kupperman subsequently became an author and professor of philosophy, but he retreated from public life as an adult. Spurred by his father’s diagnosis with dementia, Michael coaxes him into talking about his experiences in the public eye and how they shaped his life as an adult. In the process, father and son have some frank exchanges. The son learns how to be a better father as a result of the failings of his own dad, who was perfect in math, perhaps, but not so perfect in the challenges of marriage and family life. Kupperman’s simple, stark drawings add to the somber mood of the book and enhance readers’ understanding of its haunting story.

FOR THE JOKESTER
So Dad thinks he’s funny, eh? He likely has nothing on Tom Papa, whose Your Dad Stole My Rake: And Other Family Dilemmas is a collection of essays with laughs on every page. The aptly named Papa, a father and head writer for the radio variety show “Live From Here” (formerly known as “A Prairie Home Companion with Chris Thile”), has a one-liner for every family situation, from Facebook (“a class reunion every day”) to owning a cat (“like dating a supermodel”). The book is organized by topics (wives, grandparents and so on), so skip around if you like, or simply read straight through for an extended look at Papa’s twisted but ultimately sunny (well, no more than partly cloudy) vision of family life. If you’re lucky, it lines up with your own.

 

This article was originally published in the June 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Father’s Day comes but once a year, and boy are we lucky for that. With ties going out of style thanks to tech billionaires (they’re all wearing hoodies now), the gift choices are slimmer than ever. Fortunately, as is so often the case, books can come to the rescue.

Children's & YAPicture Book

Salute dear old dad with four fresh picture books

Feature by Julie Hale

Plan some family storytime this Father’s Day with one of the four new warmhearted books below that celebrate dads and families. These sweet, silly and love-filled tales are sure to make any dad feel extra special. 

A HAPPY HOMECOMING
Good Morning, Harry—Good Night, Daddy (ages 4 to 8) by Katy Beebe is a delightful celebration of a father and son’s bond. As the story opens, Harry’s father sets off for work in the evening as a conductor on an overnight train while Harry, Mummy, Gran and Baby settle in for the night. Beebe artfully juxtaposes their separate stories, alternating between scenes on the train, where Daddy looks after passengers, and scenes at home, where it’s almost bedtime for Harry: “Whoo-whoo sings the train, rocking on its way. ‘Too-ra-lee, Too-ra-loo,’ sings Mummy, winding down the day.” The concurrent stories come together when Daddy returns from work the next morning, and the family is reunited. Valeri Gorbachev’s detailed illustrations bring out the warmth of Beebe’s tale. The final scene of the book is a playful moment between father and son, making it clear that every day is Father’s Day at Harry’s house.

BETWEEN GENERATIONS
In Davide Cali’s funny, furry family tale, Great Dog (ages 3 to 7), a father-and-son canine pair peruses portraits of their four-legged forebears and discuss their distinguished pedigree. From Aunt Doris, a courageous firedog, to Uncle Tibor, a champion runner, their relatives were all Great Dogs who the young son hopes to emulate. Anxious about living up to such high ancestral standards, he asks his father, “What about me? What will I be?” Dad is ready with the right answer: “No matter what,” he replies, “you will be a GREAT dog.” Each canine portrait is accompanied by a fold-out page with scenes of each dog’s remarkable exploits, and the book’s final spread reveals a surprise. Animal lovers of all ages will adore Miguel Tanco’s droll dog illustrations. This wry, uplifting story is just right for sharing with Dad on his special day.

A DAD WHO’S ALWAYS THERE
Written and illustrated by popular Instagram artist Soosh, Dad by My Side (ages 4 to 8) is a tender little tale that captures the special connection between dads and daughters. The narrator—a tot with braided pigtails—enumerates all the things she loves about her father: “With Dad by my side, there’s nothing we can’t do. He knows how to make me smile,” she begins. “He’s not afraid to look silly.” Whether he’s presenting a puppet show or getting stuck in a hula hoop, Dad is clearly game for anything, and Soosh portrays him as a big, bearded figure who’s capable, comforting, sensitive and completely worthy of his daughter’s adoration. Her gorgeous watercolor illustrations beautifully depict the duo’s special relationship. Featuring simple, poetic text and a heartfelt message, this is an ideal gift book.

A TWILIGHT ADVENTURE
In Laura Krauss Melmed’s Daddy, Me, and the Magic Hour (ages 3 to 6), a spunky youngster can’t wait for the special time after supper when he and his father go for a stroll. The boy views their evening walks as a time of discovery and excitement and calls it “the Magic Hour.” As they begin their trek, “bright, loud daytime is getting softer.” Neighbors are doing yard work and joggers and dog owners fill the sidewalks. After they swing at the playground and catch fireflies, darkness begins to fall, and it’s time to head back home. “One swoop, and I’m up on Daddy’s shoulders. . . . Together, we make a quiet giant who can almost reach the moon,” the boy says. Sarita Rich’s bold, expressive illustrations communicate the boy’s sense of wonder surrounding the outside world—and his admiration for dad. This fun father-son adventure will inspire families to implement Magic Hours of their own.

Plan some family stor time this Father’s Day with one of the four new warmhearted books below that celebrate dads and families. These sweet, silly and love-filled tales are sure to make any dad feel extra special. 

Fiction

Stay up all night with cold-blooded fiction

Feature by G. Robert Frazier

It’s Private Eye July at BookPage! This month, we’re celebrating the sinister side of fiction with the year’s best mysteries and thrillers. Look for the Private Eye July magnifying glass for a dose of murder, espionage and all those creepy neighbors with even creepier secrets.

The latest wave of suspenseful novels brings thrills and chills to your summer reading list. These five stories of mystery, intrigue and horrific happenings are perfect for lazy days at the beach or hot summer nights.

What begins as a fun, relaxing getaway at a New Hampshire lake for 7-year-old Wen and her dads, Andrew and Eric, turns into a terrifying ordeal of survival in The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay. When the trio is visited at their cabin by four mysterious strangers—Leonard, Adriane, Redmond and Sabrina—their familial bond is put to the ultimate test. “We are not going to kill you, Wen, and we are not going to kill your parents,” promises Leonard, the smooth-talking leader of the visitors and an alleged bartender from the Chicago area. He goes on to explain: “The four of us are here to prevent the apocalypse.” But to ensure that happens, Wen, Andrew or Eric has to die, and they must choose among themselves who it will be. The unusual deal thrusts the family into a tense moral dilemma that tests the limits of their love. Tremblay won the 2015 Bram Stoker Award for A Head Full of Ghosts and may be on his way to a repeat with the chillingly good The Cabin at the End of the World.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read a Q&A with Tremblay for The Cabin at the End of the World.

DON'T DIG TOO DEEP
What secrets do a mother and her son keep, and how far are they willing to go to protect those secrets? These are just two of the questions facing Lydia Fitzsimons and her son, Laurence, in Lying in Wait, set in 1980s Dublin. Lydia explains on page one that her husband, Andrew, “did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.” It’s off to the races from there. Within short order, 18-year-old Laurence—who recently had sex for the first time with his girlfriend and endures bullying every day at school because of his excess weight—discovers Annie’s body buried in their backyard. As Laurence wrestles to learn what happened and how his parents could have done such a thing, Lydia goes about her business as if nothing happened. Elsewhere, Annie’s twin sister, Karen, begins a meticulous investigation into her sister’s disappearance. Events cascade toward a collision as the trio’s stories unwind in alternating chapters. Author Liz Nugent, whose debut novel, Unraveling Oliver, earned high critical praise, has upped her game here with a darkly twisted tale of murder, lies and secrets best left buried.

AND THE CREDITS ROLL
Sibling rivalry and Hollywood obsessions collide in young adult novelist Jennifer Wolfe’s adult fiction debut, Watch the Girls. From the start of her acting career, Liv Hendricks (formerly known as child actress Olivia Hill) has been pushed at every turn by her domineering mother, Desiree, and has lived in the shadows of her successful sisters, Miranda and Gemma. Then Liv’s career reaches a dead end when Miranda goes missing. Years later, after a bout of alcoholism and being ousted from a reality series, Liv decides to reignite her career by filming her own detective web series. Her first case: find the missing daughter of auteur Jonas Kron, whose horror films have earned him a cult-like following. Liv follows the trail to Kron’s California hometown of Stone’s Throw, where fans are converging for an annual film festival in Kron’s honor. With bitter townsfolk, a none-too-helpful sheriff and Kron’s crazed followers to contend with, Liv discovers that finding the truth will be a challenge. When Liv’s younger sister Gemma also goes missing in the haunted woods of Stone’s Throw, the stakes intensify. Wolfe incorporates text message exchanges into the more traditional first-person narrative to create a novel that reflects today’s social media-obsessed world. Fast-paced and fraught with suspense, Watch the Girls unravels like a perfect summer-night movie.

WELCOME BACK TO CAMP
Riley Sager, who made a splash with last year’s Final Girls, returns this summer with another tense thriller. Whereas Final Girls followed the plight of the sole survivor of a horror movie-like massacre whose past comes back to haunt her, The Last Time I Lied follows Emma Davis in her quest to find her friends, who disappeared in the dead of night during a camp outing 15 years ago. Emma, who has become an accomplished New York artist, is invited to return to Camp Nightingale as an art instructor and sees it as an opportunity to learn what really happened that night. The past has a way of repeating itself, and it isn’t long before Emma suspects she and her new camp companions may be in as much danger as her lost friends. The tension ratchets up with each chapter, leading to a suspenseful showdown. Like Final Girls, The Last Time I Lied has all the earmarks of a campy Friday the 13th-type horror flick, but Sager elevates the story with a strong lead character and a grounded, realistic threat.

MONEY WON'T SAVE YOU
In case the previous thrill-a-minute reads are a little too intense, or readers are looking for a more intellectually stirring, sophisticated mystery, The Banker’s Wife by Cristina Alger may fit the bill. A former financial analyst and corporate attorney, Alger brings her real-world experiences to bear in this novel about the world of global finance, insider trading and corruption. After Swiss banker Matthew Lerner’s private plane bound for Geneva crashes in the Alps during a storm, his wife, Annabel, is left to piece together her life and, perhaps more importantly, the mysteries he leaves behind—namely, an encrypted laptop and a client who doesn’t want Matthew’s secrets getting out. At the same time, journalist Marina Tourneau is enlisted to obtain a USB drive containing highly sensitive materials from a Luxembourg courier that may reveal the whereabouts of long-thought deceased financial schemer Morty Reiss. Along the way, Marina discovers a financial web with far-reaching implications, inevitably bringing the two storylines together. With global settings, covert government agencies and intricate plotting, The Banker’s Wife reads like an old-fashioned international espionage thriller. But Alger’s talents keep the plot digestible for readers while her female protagonists provide strong, smart alternatives to this typically male-dominated genre.

 

This article was originally published in the July 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

The latest wave of suspenseful novels brings thrills and chills to your summer reading list. These five stories of mystery, intrigue and horrific happenings are perfect for lazy days at the beach or hot summer nights.

Children's & YAYA FictionYAMiddle Grade

Summer fantasies to keep young readers flipping pages

Feature by Hilli Levin & Savanna Walker

Sweeping fantasies are this year’s biggest trend in children’s and teen literature—think breathtaking action, complex world building, magical abilities and bands of young heroes who must save the day.

Like any great high fantasy should, Jaleigh Johnson’s The Door to the Lost opens with a series of maps depicting the land of Talhaven and the grand city of Regara, where “magic is dying,” only to be found in the abilities of 327 seemingly orphaned children who have been mysteriously jettisoned from their magic-filled homeland known as Vora.

A young girl known as Rook happens to be one of these magical refugees, and she and her friend Drift survive in Regara by offering their magical skills on a sort of black market. Rook’s particular talent is creating doors—she simply draws a rectangle with a piece of chalk and channels thoughts of her destination in order to open a portal. But one client’s door goes horribly wrong, and Rook lets in a giant Fox, whom she discovers is actually a shape-shifting boy from a snow-filled world. Can Rook and Drift get Fox back home again when they’re not even sure how to get there?

Johnson’s spell-casting cast of young heroes will entertain and endear, and their sweet adventure will help young readers grasp some key details of the refugee crisis in a way that never feels ham-fisted.

MAGIC OF FRIENDSHIP
The latest middle grade novel from Printz Honor-winning author Garret Weyr, The Language of Spells, is an extraordinary tale that meshes real historical events with a winning cast of magical creatures.

As this magic-filled journey begins in 1803, we meet a young dragon known as Grisha in the Black Forest. He’s young and carefree and enjoys eating acorns and playing by the stream—until one day, a heartless sorcerer imprisons him in a teapot. Grisha’s teapot is sold to the highest bidder, and for hundreds of years, he silently observes the world as it changes around him. When his enchantment is finally broken, he’s reunited with a group of dragons in Vienna during World War II. But the lives of the once mighty dragons are now controlled by the Department of Extinct Exotics, an organization that refuses to allow them to return to the forest and instead assigns them strict jobs and curfews. On a night off in a hotel bar, Grisha meets a human girl named Maggie, and the two forge a sweet and powerful friendship built on empathy and honesty. Soon, the two join forces to face their fears and investigate what happened to the city’s missing dragons.

Katie Harnett’s black-and-white illustrations kick off each chapter and add to the classic European fairy-tale atmosphere, and Weyr’s allegorical tale never glosses over a heart-rending detail or passes up a chance for a gorgeous turn of phrase, making this an ideal read-aloud that fantasy lovers of all ages can enjoy.

EPIC TRAGEDY
Puccini’s opera Turandot is based on a Persian fairy tale about a princess who challenges her suitors to solve three riddles in order to win her hand. If they fail, they will be executed. As one would expect from an opera written in 1924 set in the “mystical East,” there isn’t much historical accuracy to be found—but the original fairy tale was inspired by a Mongol warrior woman named Khutulun, who declared she would only marry a man who could beat her in a wrestling match. It is within this Mongol Empire that author Megan Bannen sets her retelling of Turandot, The Bird and the Blade (Balzer + Bray, $17.99, 432 pages, ISBN 9780062674159, ages 13 and up).

Slave girl Jinghua is on the run with deposed Mongol Khan Timur and his kindhearted son Khalaf. Timur wants to raise an army to take back his lands. Khalaf wants to marry the princess Turandokht by solving her riddles and, as her husband, restore his father to power. Jinghua, who thinks both plans are idiotic, is hilariously blunt about her chances of surviving either of them, but less open about her growing feelings for Khalaf.

Bannen plays with time in her YA debut, beginning with the trio’s arrival at Turandokht’s palace and then flashing back to their dangerous journey there. The awkward attraction between Jinghua and Khalaf, plus Timur’s caustic sarcasm, makes this novel surprisingly funny. But after Bannen reveals the utter devastation behind one character’s self-deprecating facade, it’s a relentless rush to the finale as Jinghua tries to save Khalaf.

Bannen’s prose grows ever more lyrical, soaring to match her ambition as The Bird and the Blade arrives at an unforgettable climax.

LOST GIRLS
For some reason, there are an awful lot of new YA novels in which women are endangered or oppressed. Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart is one of the most compelling of the bunch.

Serina Tessaro and her sister, Nomi, travel to the capital city of Bellaqua where Serina will compete for a chance to become one of the Heir’s Graces. Banghart doesn’t spell it out all at once, but Graces are essentially glorified concubines who represent the ideal subservient woman. The sisters are shocked when rebellious Nomi is chosen, and soon Serina takes the fall for one of Nomi’s crimes and is sent to Mount Ruin, a prison island.

Nomi’s storyline has the romantic entanglements and sparkling settings common to YA fantasy, but Banghart presents both with queasy suspicion. The beautiful rooms and pretty gowns of the Graces are mere decoration for another type of prison, and it is impossible to fall in love with a man who might see you as a possession or a tool.

Meanwhile, the all-female prisoners of Mount Ruin are forced to fight for rations, and Serina’s lifelong training to become a Grace surprisingly helps her excel in her new environment. As she begins to enjoy the camaraderie and mentorship of other women for the first time in her life, Serina’s feminine ideal quickly transforms from elegant consort to ferocious warrior. After all, in a society that constrains women at every turn, both roles offer a way to survive.

 

This article was originally published in the July 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Sweeping fantasies are this year’s biggest trend in children’s and teen literature—think breathtaking action, complex world building, magical abilities and bands of young heroes who must save the day.

Children's & YAPicture Book

Wacky tales of animal antics

Feature by Julie Hale

These rollicking picture books feature animals who get mixed up in some outrageous situations. High jinks and humor ensue in five slapstick stories for young readers. Reading has never been more uproarious!

Sterling, Best Dog Ever by Aidan Cassie is a heartwarming parable about a lonely pooch’s search for his place in the world. Sterling is living in a box in an alley when he gets a crazy idea. He sneaks into the Butlery Cutlery Company’s warehouse, takes a ride down the silverware assembly line, gets packed up in a box of brand new forks and is soon delivered to the Gilbert family’s front door. As a skinny critter with a silvery coat, Sterling blends right in with the utensils at first glance, but the Gilberts quickly realize that he’s different. Their daughter befriends him, and Sterling is determined to please her and keep up the ruse. Instead—with the help of his new friend—he learns the importance of being himself. Cassie brings Sterling’s changeable nature to vivid life through vibrant, playful illustrations. This is a sweet story that addresses important ideas about self-esteem and individuality.

TOO MANY MISSING PETS
The confused little girl in Mark Iacolina’s Did You Eat the Parakeet? is convinced her cat has made a meal of her pet bird, but readers know from the get-go that this isn’t the case. It’s a silly scenario that’s sure to elicit lots of laughs during storytime. The girl takes her cat to task: “Did you eat the parakeet? He was right there on his tiny seat! He was such a small and scrawny bird. To eat him would be absurd!” The frustrated feline soon sets the girl straight, and all is well—until her pet mouse goes missing! Iacolina’s rhyming text is irresistible, and his stick-figure illustrations, embellished with patches of color and pattern, are wonderfully expressive. There’s lots to love about this story of pet ownership gone awry.

FINDING FRIENDSHIP
Jim Averbeck’s touching Trevor features a solitary canary who longs for someone to sing with. Perched in his “safe, boring cage,” Trevor is feeling dejected until he spies a lemon hanging on a branch outside the window. Mistaking it for a bird, he leaves his cage and flies to the tree with a seed as a gift. Although the lemon remains strangely silent, Trevor builds a nest where they can live together. When the lemon disappears during a storm, Trevor is alone again, but not for a long. The kernel he brought as a gift has sprouted into a sunflower, and its seeds attract a feathered flock who welcome him as one of their own. Amy Hevron’s lovely acrylic-on-wood illustrations have eye-catching texture. Filled with hope, this gentle book shows that friendship can materialize at the perfect moment.

AN UNEXPECTED GUEST
Deborah Underwood’s madcap Walrus in the Bathtub is filled with splish-splash fun. Mom, Dad and the kids are excited about their new house. It has a large yard and a big bathtub that—surprise!—is already occupied by an enormous walrus. He’s having a leisurely soak as the family arrives on move-in day, accidentally creating some “bathtub tidal waves.” Between the walrus’ pool parties (er, bathtub parties)—complete with friendly seagulls and a blasting boombox—and his unendurable singing, the family’s nerves begin to fray. Despite the efforts of a plumber, a firefighter and a wildlife rescuer, the walrus won’t budge from the tub, which means the family might have to move out, but perhaps the troublesome walrus is just a little misunderstood. Matt Hunt’s bright, vivid illustrations are chock-full of details, including lots of floating soap bubbles. Bath time will never be the same once the kiddos get a look at this book.

LOST AT SEA
Leo is a wee infant when he goes flying overboard—and away from his frantic parents—during a boat trip. Following the accident, he’s cared for by friendly sea lions. In A Home for Leo, Vin Vogel tells the delightful story of the boy’s life by the ocean. Leo has fun with his new family—they teach him to swim and catch fish—although he doesn’t quite fit in with them. After he’s unexpectedly reunited with his parents, Leo is one happy lad, but he misses his animal pals. Can he find a way to bring his two lives together? Vogel’s energetic, cartoonish illustrations add to the appeal of Leo’s adventures. This out-of-the-ordinary story has a heartwarming ending, as Leo and his parents find the perfect home—by the sea, of course.

 

This article was originally published in the July 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

These rollicking picture books feature animals who get mixed up in some outrageous situations. High jinks and humor ensue in five slapstick stories for young readers. Reading has never been more uproarious!

FictionDebut Fiction

Six new authors you need to know

Feature by the editors of BookPage

Become a fan from the very beginning, as these six outstanding new novelists make their debuts with deeply emotional narratives peopled with tremendous characters that will leave you aching for more.

IF YOU LEAVE ME
By Crystal Hana Kim

For fans of: Lisa See, Amy Tan, Toni Morrison and Jesmyn Ward.

First line: “Kyunghwan and I met where the farm fields ended and our refugee village began.”

The book: In war-torn Korea, Haemi and Kyunghwan find love in a refugee village, but honor and duty take precedence when a wealthy man begins courting the spirited Haemi.

The author: Winner of the PEN America’s Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, Crystal Hana Kim is a contributing editor for Apogee Journal and lives in Brooklyn.

Read it for: Lyrical prose that offers an unflinching look at motherhood and the aftermath of American imperialism.

BABY TEETH
By Zoje Stage

For fans of: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver and movies like The Babadook, The Bad Seed and The Ring.

First line: “Maybe the machine could see the words she never spoke.”

The book: Upscale parents grapple with an inexplicable and unremitting evil—in the form of their 7-year-old daughter.

The author: Zoje Stage is a former filmmaker and screenwriter who lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Read it for: One more book to talk you out of procreating.

FRUIT OF THE DRUNKEN TREE
By Ingrid Rojas Contreras

For fans of: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.

First line: “She sits in a plastic chair in front of a brick wall, slouching.”

The book: Two coming-of-age stories—that of rich city girl Chula and her maid, Petrona—overlap during Colombia’s violent 1990s.

The author: A Bogotá native, Ingrid Rojas Contreras and her family fled to Los Angeles when she was 14. She now writes for HuffPost and NPR, and teaches writing to immigrant high schoolers in San Francisco.

Read it for: A first-hand glimpse into the plight of vulnerable Colombian children in the recent past.

THE SHORTEST WAY HOME
By Miriam Parker

For fans of: Camille Perri, Elin Hilderbrand and Stephanie Danler.

First line: “I would have never predicted that a winery could change my life.”

The book: A business school graduate lands a coveted New York investment job, but her heart is set on a path less traveled (quite literally) in the wine country.

The author: Miriam Parker has worked in publishing for more than 17 years and is currently an associate publisher at Ecco. She lives in Brooklyn with her dog, Leopold Bloom.

Read it for: The love of wine, and the inspiring tale of taking chances and dreaming of a life more rewarding than a nine-to-five job.

LET ME BE LIKE WATER
By S.K. Perry

For fans of: Mitch Albom, Anne Tyler and Rachel Khong.

First line: “I was sitting on a bench at the beach when Frank told me I’d dropped my keys.”

The book: After the death of her boyfriend, 20-something Holly finds solitude and hope at the seaside in Brighton, in particular through a new friendship with an elderly, retired magician.

The author: The author of the poetry collection Curious Hands: 24 Hours in Soho, S.K. Perry was long-listed for London’s youth poet laureate in 2013.

Read it for: A sense of comfort, and for a reading experience as soothing and cathartic as ocean waves lapping at your toes.

BROTHER
By David Chariandy

For fans of: Zadie Smith, Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid, Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn.

First line: “Once he showed me his place in the sky.”

The book: The lives of two Canadian brothers are forever changed after a violent shooting draws additional police scrutiny to their neighborhood.

The author: David Chariandy grew up in the same Toronto public housing as the family in Brother. He currently teaches English at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. He has been previously published in his native Canada (the critically acclaimed novel Soucouyant), but this is his first novel to be published in the United States.

Read it for: A poignant and timely look at community, family and race in a setting that will be new to many American readers.

August is First Fiction Month at BookPage! Click here to read all our First Fiction coverage on the blog; click here to read our most recent coverage of debut novels.

This article was originally published in the August 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Kim photo credit Nina Subin.
Stage photo credit Gabrianna Dacko.
Contreras photo credit Jeremiah Barber.
Parker photo credit Shannon Carpenter.
Perry photo credit Naomi Woddis.
Chariandy photo credit Joy von Tiedemann.

Become a fan from the very beginning, as these six outstanding new novelists make their debuts with deeply emotional narratives peopled with tremendous characters that will leave you aching for more.

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