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NonfictionTechnologyMemoir

Book Clubs: January 2021

Feature by Julie Hale

Four fresh takes on work and life in the digital age.

In Uncanny Valley, Anna Wiener chronicles her career at a Silicon Valley startup. After an unrewarding stint in New York publishing, Wiener was ready to give the San Francisco tech world a try, but the behind-the- scenes reality of the industry took her by surprise. Wiener tells of a patriarchal culture of wealth and ambition that left her disenchanted and in search of answers about her own life. Written with humor and intelligence, this briskly paced memoir explores gender in the workplace, the millennial mindset and the uses and abuses of power by influential companies. It’s a tech industry tell-all that’s both riveting and relevant.

Gretchen McCulloch delivers an intriguing study of the terminology, grammar and symbolism that shape online communication in Because Internet. McCulloch is a linguistics whiz who writes clearly and comprehensively for the lay reader about her area of expertise. In Because Internet, she delves into the development and diffusion of online slang, the power of memes and the inspiration behind emoji. Trends in online vocabulary and the progression of language are among the subjects up for debate, providing reading groups with meaty material for discussion.

Jia Tolentino critiques digital-age trends and attitudes in her acclaimed debut essay collection, Trick Mirror. Over the course of the book’s nine pieces, Tolentino examines the impact of social media and the internet, the American dream of perfectionism and other timely topics. She also shares personal stories, including an essay on her brush with reality TV. (She appeared on “Girls v. Boys: Puerto Rico.”) Funny, savvy and insightful, the collection establishes Tolentino as a vital millennial voice. Complex topics including self-image in the era of Instagram and the risks and rewards of social media make this collection a terrific pick for any book club.

Of the moment and utterly fascinating, Victoria Turk’s Kill Reply All explores the unique and multifaceted challenges of digital communication. Turk, who is a features editor at Wired UK, offers valuable advice about how to communicate online with confidence, whether that’s through chatting in a dating app or answering emails at work. Bringing a comic flair to the proceedings, she covers important topics like online friendships, the uses of emoji and the finer points of text messaging. There’s plenty for reading groups to debate and discuss in Turk’s thoughtful yet lighthearted guide to being polite in your online life.

Four fresh takes on work and life in the digital age that are also fantastic conversation starters for your reading group.

RomanceFantasy Romance

Romance: January 2021

Feature by Christie Ridgway

Escape the winter blahs with three thrilling romances that represent escapism at its finest.

★ The Stormbringer

The Stormbringer by Isabel Cooper gives paranormal fans everything they could wish for: imaginative world building, fast-paced adventure and characters ready to handle all that’s thrown at them. Darya, wielder of a sword inhabited by the spirit of a wise wizard named Gerant, discovers Amris, a man who’s been frozen in time for a hundred years. Gerant urges Darya to release Amris, whom she learns is not only a general ready to help fight a terrible villain but also Gerant’s former lover. Amris and Darya do their best to resist their immediate chemistry as they travel to warn others of the advancing danger, battling vicious creatures along the way. Written with verve and fantastically drawn battle scenes, this is great storytelling all around.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Isabel Cooper on the three-sided relationship at the heart of The Stormbringer.

The Princess and the Rogue

Kate Bateman pens a delicious Regency romance in The Princess and the Rogue. What’s not to enjoy about a roguish former soldier and a Russian princess in disguise? When they meet at a high-end brothel in London, Sebastien Wolff, Earl of Mowbray, is immediately captivated by Anya, said princess, who is there to tutor the women of the house. Though Anya initially rebuffs Sebastien, they find they have a common enemy, and Sebastien offers Anya sanctuary at his gambling hall, leaving them at the whims of their shared physical desire. There’s danger, a dashing hero and some Cinderella-esque fun when Anya returns to society in a gown worthy of her royal status. Sensual love scenes add heat to this thoroughly entertaining read.

Special Ops Seduction

Megan Crane masterfully combines romance, suspense and a dash of family drama in Special Ops Seduction. Jonas Crow and Bethan Wilcox are lethal members of an elite security team based in Alaska. While they’ve worked together many times, Jonas has kept his distance from the beautiful and kick-ass Bethan. But then their assignment to solve the theft of a brand-new biological weapon requires them to attend Bethan’s sister’s California wedding as a couple. Pretending to be lovers brings the pair closer, and proximity to family gives Bethan a new perspective on herself and what she wants from Jonas. A strong sense of place, whether it’s the wilds of Alaska or the vineyards of California, draws the reader deeper into this irresistible and emotional story.

Escape the winter blahs with three thrilling romances that represent escapism at its finest.

Mystery

Whodunit: January 2021

Feature by Bruce Tierney

A missing laptop, a treasure map and two bizarre murders await in this month's Whodunit column.

Bryant & May: Oranges and Lemons

Author Christopher Fowler’s Peculiar Crimes Unit investigates exactly what you’d expect: cases that are far from your everyday, humdrum homicide. But as Bryant & May: Oranges and Lemons—the latest entry in the popular series—opens, it appears that the unit will close up shop, having fallen victim to budgetary cuts and some remarkably public blunders. The chief will tend his garden on the Isle of Wight, while one detective chief inspector is barely clinging to life in the hospital and the other has dropped off the radar completely. But then the Speaker of the House of Commons (the U.K. analog of Nancy Pelosi) is nearly killed by a falling crate of oranges and lemons. This would have been written off as an accident, save for the fact that it took place within spitting distance of the Church of St. Clement’s, of nursery rhyme fame (“Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement’s”). Thus, the incident appears to fall directly within the purview of the Peculiar Crimes Unit, which is quickly confirmed by more nursery rhyme-themed crimes. As is the case with other books in the series, the setup is improbable (bordering on bizarre), the characters droll, the prose exceptionally clever and often hilarious and the “aha” moment deliciously unexpected.

The Butterfly House

Scandinavian mystery novels enjoy such constant appreciation from suspense fans worldwide that they’ve become an established subgenre unto themselves, with no signs of flagging. Danish writer Katrine Engberg hit the scene in 2020 with her critically acclaimed bestseller, The Tenant, and as 2021 opens, she returns with The Butterfly House. The Copenhagen police are summoned to a rather macabre display: A young woman has been found in a fountain, her body completely exsanguinated. It is clearly a murder, which is bad enough in its own right, but when another body is found the following day, also drained of blood, also in a fountain, it becomes starkly clear that a serial killer is at large. The case falls to Investigator Jeppe Kørner, one of the two protagonists of The Tenant. The other, Kørner’s partner Anette Werner, is on maternity leave at the moment, but that won’t stop her from taking part in the investigation. Engberg has crafted a fine police procedural. She is an author to look out for, one who will be cited years hence as a key player in Nordic noir.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Katrine Engberg on crafting a murder mystery rooted in human psychology.

Picnic in the Ruins

Picture a Tony Hillerman-style tableau: a red rock desert beneath a deep azure sky, imbued with the history of the sacred rituals and artifacts of the Southern Paiute. Now add a Tim Dorsey or Carl Hiaasen-esque overlay, awash in desiccated Ford pickup trucks, characters who embody the word “characters,” ulterior motives and belly-rumbling hilarity, and you’ll get an idea of the strange trip you’re about to embark on in Todd Robert Petersen’s Picnic in the Ruins. We open with a bungled burglary that would have been screamingly funny for its ineptitude if not for its deadly outcome. Now the perps are on the lam, treasure map in hand, with the really bad guys—the smarter criminals—in hot pursuit. Other assorted protagonists include an anthropology Ph.D. candidate banished to the wilds of Utah, a somewhat shady government dude, a German tourist on some sort of personal quest (Old West folklore is huge in Europe) and a cast of off-the-grid “desert rats” who add big yucks at every turn. Beneath all this, Petersen poses some intellectual questions, such as who really “owns” land, what rights and responsibilities such ownership conveys and how the inevitable collisions between titled owners, the public good and the ancient claims of sacred ground should be addressed.

★ Someone to Watch Over Me

Reboots of major suspense series after the death of the author have been a mixed bag at best; witness, for example, the hit-and-miss follow-ups to Ian Fleming’s books featuring MI6 superspy James Bond. But some series nail the reboot from the get-go, and Ace Atkins’ continuation of Robert B. Parker’s franchise featuring mononymous Beantown private investigator Spenser and his lethal sidekick, Hawk, falls firmly into the latter category. Someone to Watch Over Me finds the ace sleuth conscripted into retrieving a laptop from an exclusive Boston men’s club. Spens er’s client is his own young protege, Mattie Sullivan, who is building an investigation business of her own. Mattie has correctly surmised that her boss will carry a great deal more authority in demanding the return of the computer amid the club’s misogynistic all-male milieu. But as often happens in mystery novels, a seemingly simple initial task explodes into something exponentially more complicated, here threatening to link a loosely knit cabal of high-ranking socialites and politicians to a human trafficking organization operating offshore in a remote and private Bahamian island. Needless to say, these people will stop at nothing to save their reputations and their livelihoods, and it will take all of Spenser’s considerable talents to stay one step ahead.

A missing laptop, a treasure map and two bizarre murders await in this month's Whodunit column.

NonfictionSelf-Help

Resolve to make 2021 as bright as possible

Feature by Julie Hale

To guide you on the path of positivity in the new year, four books provide support, affirmation and inspiration.

Beginners

In Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning, author Tom Vanderbilt demonstrates the importance of cultivating curiosity and trying new skills on for size. Vanderbilt was looking for ways to reengage with life when—taking a cue from his inquisitive young daughter—he decided to immerse himself in activities he’d always wanted to tackle, including drawing, singing and surfing. “I was a quick study when it came to facts,” Vanderbilt writes, “but what had I actually learned to do lately?”

In Beginners, Vanderbilt reveals what it’s like to pick up skills as an adult novice. He blends his personal story with research into neuroscience, psychology and education and recounts his rookie experiences with humor and heart. His insights into midlife learning will resonate with readers who have a desire to try new pursuits but may need a little nudge. Beginners, he says, is not “a ‘how to do’ book as much as a ‘why to do’ book. . . . It’s about small acts of reinvention, at any age, that can make life seem magical.” As Vanderbilt proves, there’s no expiration date on the ability to learn. Pick up a copy of Beginners and make 2021 a time of discovery.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Tom Vanderbilt narrates the audiobook for Beginners, and it’s just the encouragement we all need.

This Book Will Make You Kinder

If becoming a nicer, more tolerant human is one of your objectives for the year ahead, then check out Henry James Garrett’s This Book Will Make You Kinder: An Empathy Handbook. Garrett’s academic background is in the field of metaethics, the study of the nature and meaning of morality, and he views empathy—“our capacity to experience those feelings we witness in others”—as the primary motivator of human kindness. In his new book, he offers guidance on how to maximize our empathetic impulse.

As he provides advice on overcoming limitations to empathy, building better listening skills and coming to grips with your own potential for not being nice, Garrett outlines concrete steps to help you increase your kindness quotient. A bang-up artist (you may have seen his Instagram account, Drawings of Dogs), his delightfully droll illustrations of talking animals and objects (e.g., two magic markers discuss the impact of coloring outside the lines) bring levity to his lessons. “If you don’t do the work of good listening, of paying attention,” Garrett writes, “you’ll continue to be cruel in ways you otherwise couldn’t and will fail to be outrageously kind in ways you otherwise would.” A total attitude-changer, this book will carry you into the new year on a tide of positivity.

Laziness Does Not Exist

In Laziness Does Not Exist, social psychologist Devon Price explores the culture of work and how our society’s emphasis on achievement is leading to burnout and exhaustion. From an early age, Price says, we’re conditioned to believe that productivity equals self-worth—an idea that’s part of what they call the “laziness lie,” which leads to feelings of guilt over not doing enough. “It’s also the force that compels us to work ourselves to sickness,” Price explains.

Price proposes that we adjust our perspectives on work and stop using achievement as a benchmark for appraising personal value. In the book, they take a cleareyed look at the science and psychology behind the concepts of laziness and productivity and share stories from folks who have grappled with work-life balance.

Perhaps most importantly, the author stresses the necessity of simple relaxation: “It’s not evil to have limitations and to need breaks.” With tips on setting boundaries and integrating beneficial techniques like expressive writing into your daily routine, Price’s book will give you a fresh perspective on the meaning of success—and the confidence to schedule more “me-time” this year.

Friendshipping

Making friends is a basic element of socialization, yet the ability to bond doesn’t come naturally to everyone, and many people find that the process becomes more difficult as they get older. How can we break down the barriers that keep us from connecting with others? Authors Jenn Bane and Trin Garritano offer answers in Friendshipping: The Art of Finding Friends, Being Friends, and Keeping Friends.

Hosts of the popular “Friendshipping” podcast, the authors have devoted many hours to the study of social networks large and small, and their chatty, accessible book collects the best of their advice, with suggestions on how to make new friends, how to handle a friendship that could be morphing into something more and how to call it quits when a friendship fails. The volume also includes valuable questions from podcast listeners and sample scripts that will kick-start your socialization skills.

Featuring fabulous illustrations by Jean Wei, Friendshipping provides readers with the right tools for building—and sustaining—valuable relationships. Whether you’re looking to enlarge your circle of intimates or cultivate more one-on-one connections this year, Bane and Garritano will help you develop habits and behaviors that will widen your world.

To guide you on the path of positivity in the new year, four books provide support, affirmation and inspiration.

Romance

Love and liberation

Feature by Carole V. Bell

These contemporary romances encompass an incredible range of topics: a political marriage of convenience, a big-city cop escaping sexual harassment in a small town, a cold-case murder mystery and a second chance for first love. But one theme runs through them all—powerful, complicated women fighting for autonomy and, somewhat secondarily, finding themselves falling in love.

Truth, Lies, and Second Dates

MaryJanice Davidson blends romance, horror and cozy mystery into a frothy tale of a star pilot who teams up with a hot medical examiner to solve her best friend’s murder on the 10-year anniversary of said friend’s death. When Captain Ava Capp finds herself in Minnesota at the same time as the memorial service, she receives a hostile welcome from her friend’s family, who suspect she may have had something to do with the murder, but finds an ally in the stern but sexy local M.E. Tom Baker. As a series of strange things start happening around her that may or may not be tied to the anniversary, Ava needs the support. She’s been pretty much alone for the past decade, with her career as her only constant. She’s used to hotel rooms and functional, transitional friends-with-benefits arrangements but no real personal connections. Grounded and family-oriented Tom offers something more (he's also on the autism spectrum, which Davidson refreshingly depicts with the same good-spirited and zany humor she bring to everything else).

Reading Truth, Lies, and Second Dates feels like riding a roller coaster—twisty, turny and full of surprises. Davidson delivers a really good time if you enjoy the book's somewhat frantic, sometimes stream-of-consciousness third-person narration, which puts you in the center of Ava’s chaotic point of view. There’s a diary-like quality to many chapters, which frequently leap from one topic to another, sometimes mid-sentence, as we follow Ava’s trajectory. There’s also wonderful, flirtatious banter between the two highly intelligent and distinctive main characters, an element of their relationship that is particularly important to Tom, since he is demisexual (he doesn’t feel attraction until he has formed an emotional connection to someone). But the mystery element can also be hard to follow at times, so don’t expect a clear or solid trail leading to the culprit. Overall, this is an uncut gem with only a few slightly ragged edges.

How to Catch a Queen

How to Catch a Queen is a finely polished jewel of a novel about opposites not only attracting, but making each other whole. Cole has been doing this for a while and it shows: How to Catch a Queen is the first book in her Runaway Royals series, which is a spinoff from her critically acclaimed and award-winning Reluctant Royals trilogy. King Sanyu of Njaza is wracked with anxiety and self-doubt about his destiny. But when his father’s health takes a turn for the worse, he’s expected to find a queen at short notice. His union with Shanti Mohapti is a temporary and hastily arranged formality, a “trial marriage” facilitated through a royal matchmaking website, of all things. No one expects true love to take hold between a man who was born to be king but doubts his own fitness to rule, and a brilliant farm girl who believes it is her destiny to be a queen. Shanti is a consummate and focused professional who has prioritized career goals over her personal life—she’s studied politics and economics, sits on the board of several charities and has never given up her childhood dream of becoming a queen. She is very good at what she does, and sometimes attracts friction because of it.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our reviews of other books by Alyssa Cole.

Cole has crafted a compelling story about opposites and allies falling in love that is rich in political intrigue and social observation. Her depiction of the dynamics of politics, gender and ideology in this ostensibly fairytale-esque land is shockingly astute. It’s fascinating to see how these two individuals interact with each other and how larger social forces act upon them while they get to know each other. Shanti arrives in Njaza armed with dreams and binders full of research and strategic plans. She has education, confidence and political savvy enough for them both, and is just the partner Sanyu needs to move his country forward. However, it’s difficult for her to find her footing in the traditional, patriarchal monarchy she’s found herself in, since she’s both an outsider and a woman. Plus, there’s quite a bit of palace intrigue and jockeying for power among different factions working against them as well. Though Shanti is an ideal ally, Sanyu wasn’t raised to believe in love or to think that a woman could be his true partner, let alone that they could work together as equals. So he wastes quite a bit of time dodging their obvious attraction, and How to Catch a Queen ends up being a really slow burn as a result. Cole also does impeccable work with the diverse, fully formed and sometimes very funny supporting characters. These layers enrich Shanti and Sanyu’s journey and make the payoff that much sweeter.

Bayou Dreaming

Though it’s a more conventional novel, sexual politics also inform Lexi Blake’s small-town romance, Bayou Dreaming. Former military sniper Roxanne King’s divorce and her subsequent move to Louisiana were precipitated by the sexual harassment she suffered in the New York Police Department and the lack of support she received from her family. After filing a complaint that didn’t go anywhere and getting ostracized for it, Roxie starts over in rural Louisiana and finds herself inexplicably attracted to a local bad boy with a heart of gold.

Starting over as a deputy in a very small town suits Roxie fine. She likes her neighbors and she’s good at her job, even if it's less challenging than she’s used to. One year after the big move, though, Roxanne’s family turns up in what they call a visit but looks a lot like an intervention. Their unexpected, unsolicited and frankly unwelcome invasion threatens to overturn Roxie’s hard-earned peace of mind and independence, so she lies and says she has a boyfriend to keep her mother from interfering in her life.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our reviews of other books by Lexi Blake.

Desperate for someone to play the role, she turns to Zep Guidry, a local wildlife expert and Roxie’s one-time hookup partner. After her disastrous marriage and the sexism she fought on the job, Roxie has learned to keep men at a distance. But she can’t quite keep Zep out of her system. She doesn’t want to want him, but she’s inexorably drawn to him anyway. He so haunts her that she finds herself repeatedly arresting him just to have an excuse to keep him near (subconsciously). Zep is hip to her game. After all, he understands animal psychology, and “It wasn’t the first time he’d had some beautiful creature snarl his way even though it was obvious she needed some affection.” Roxie sees Zep as a charming layabout—even his muscles seem unearned—but there’s far more to the “baddest boy of the parish” than she gives him credit for, and her family’s visit forces them into close proximity, allowing these two to explore what’s really between them. Bayou Dreaming is straightforward and perfectly executed. The writing is tight, the characters are well drawn and Blake is especially good at writing swoony love scenes that deepen character and advance the central relationship.

The Way You Hold Me

Skye Palmer, the heroine of Elle Wright's The Way You Hold Me, shares Ava, Shanti and Roxie’s ambition and career focus, but emotionally, she’s more of a mess and she knows it. Thankfully, she’s seeking help. This book is really about Skye’s journey, through therapy and the support of family and friends, towards having the confidence to claim the love that’s always been there for her. What’s particularly challenging is her history of somewhat inexplicably mistreating the man who loves her, and she knows it: “I feel like I suck for treating him that way. Transferring my anger at myself to him is the only way I’ve been able to see him and not either fall apart or beg him to have sex with me.” As this deep history unfolds, Skye’s choices start to make more sense. Garrett was Skye’s first love, and when his mother died, he took responsibility for raising his 10-year-old sister. Garrett's new familial role would have thrust Skye into a step-parent-like position, which she wasn’t ready for, so she broke it off, but never got over him. It was the right move, but it wasn’t executed in the kindest way, and their subsequent run-ins have been less than ideal, with Skye punishing Garrett for transgressions he didn’t commit as a form of self-protection.

Many years later, Skye is working hard on her emotional health as well as her career, and the former lovers find themselves on opposite ends of a celebrity scandal. Garrett is an attorney doing crisis management for Julius Reeves, one of the hottest Black directors in the industry and an “unapologetic ladies’ man” who’s just been accused of sexual harassment. Skye is a public relations expert representing Reeves’ wife, an actress known as “Black America’s Sweetheart.” The case throws them together and their romance finally starts to take root again, despite Skye’s ongoing anxiety and guilt. Over the course of the novel, Skye learns to own her choices and her missteps, but there isn’t quite the amount of groveling that would be expected (and required) were their gender roles reversed. Skye’s anxiety also remains a bit of a mystery. She learns how to better manage her irrational responses, but the book doesn’t really dive into their origins as much as it could.

All four of these books skillfully negotiate a balance between familiar story beats and innovation. All are softly romantic in traditional ways, but also fiercely contemporary and feminist in how they prioritize self-determination for their heroines.

This month’s crop of contemporary romance encompasses an incredible range of topics. But one theme runs through them all—powerful, complicated women fighting for autonomy and finding themselves falling in love.

Children's & YAPicture BookMiddle Grade

Black history now

Feature by Alice Cary

In the pages of these books, young readers will meet American heroes and heroines who made vital and lasting contributions to a history we all share. Some lived long ago, some are still alive today, but each has left their indelible mark.

William Still and His Freedom Stories

Do you know about the remarkable life of William Still, “the Father of the Underground Railroad”? If you don’t, as Don Tate explains in William Still and His Freedom Stories, it’s because white abolitionists usually glorified their own heroism while diminishing the efforts of African Americans.

Born in New Jersey, Still was the son of formerly enslaved people who were forced to leave behind two of their elder sons when they escaped enslavement in Maryland. At just 8 years old, Still helped a neighbor avoid slave catchers and escape to safety, an experience that defined the rest of his life. As a young man, Still worked for the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery and assisted freedom-seeking people on the Underground Railroad. After a chance reunion with one of his older brothers, who had escaped and made his way north, Still began recording the testimonies of every person who passed through his office in case the stories helped family members find each other. Still concealed his records after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 to protect himself and the people he’d met, but he published them in 1872.

Tate’s short sentences and accessible language convey the urgency of Still’s work, and his illustrations sensitively communicate the danger and terror faced by enslaved people. Nighttime scenes bathed in ominous blue washes are particularly effective. There’s plenty of hope here, too. One particularly wonderful spread shows Still’s words like rays of light beaming from a copy of his book. “Stories save lives,” Tate writes. “William’s stories needed to be told, so slavery’s nightmare will never happen again.”

Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre

The nightmare of racism did not end with abolition, however, and Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre is an extraordinary account of the worst racial attack in American history, a 16-hour massacre in 1921 that destroyed thousands of homes and businesses and left as many as 300 people dead.

Author Carole Boston Weatherford begins by celebrating the successes of the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma, also known as Black Wall Street. It was a place where commerce and community thrived through more than 200 businesses, including beauty shops, movie theaters, soda parlors, two Black-owned newspapers and the largest Black-owned hotel in the country. Floyd Cooper’s illustrations convey the hustle and bustle of this booming, prosperous area and show the expressive faces of Greenwood’s residents filled with pride.

Then, in a spread dominated by shadow, Weatherford explains, “All it took was one elevator ride, one seventeen-year-old white elevator operator accusing a nineteen-year-old Black shoeshine man of assault for simmering hatred to boil over.”

The horror that follows is depicted with care, mindful that the book’s readers will be children. Many readers will feel angry at the injustice and violence that white police officers, city officials and Tulsa residents inflicted on the Black community in Greenwood. Cooper’s illustrations shift powerfully as expressions of fear and sadness replace pride on Greenwood residents’ faces.

The book ends in Tulsa’s modern-day Reconciliation Park with a reminder of “the responsibility we all have to reject hatred and violence and to instead choose hope.” Detailed notes from Weatherford and Cooper root the Tulsa Race Massacre in the context of anti-Black violence throughout American history. Cooper’s grandfather lived in Greenwood at the time of the massacre, a revelation that adds a deeply personal dimension to the book. Unspeakable deserves to be read by every student of American history.

Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston

Packed with evocative language and energetic illustrations, Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston is a fabulous showcase of not only Hurston’s storytelling abilities but also those of author Alicia D. Williams and illustrator Jacqueline Alcántara. Its vibrant opening lines offer a promise on which the book more than delivers: “In a town called Eatonville—a place where magnolias smelled even prettier than they looked, oranges were as sweet as they were plump, and the people just plain ol’ got along—lived a girl who was attracted to tales like mosquitoes to skin. Zora was her name.”

Williams focuses on key moments throughout Hurston’s life when she was inspired by her mother’s advice to “jump at de sun. You might not land on de sun, but at least you’d get off de ground.” As Williams chronicles Hurston’s journey toward literary greatness, she intersperses biographical details with lively commentary and poetic descriptions. Her writing sings and soars.

Alcántara’s illustrations playfully complement Williams’ prose and bring this tale to life on sunny pages filled with bright colors. Whether Hurston is running through the Florida swamps of her childhood or dancing the Charleston in Harlem, her zest for life shines through. An author’s note explains that Hurston died in 1960 and was buried in an unmarked grave until 1973, when Alice Walker honored Hurston with a tombstone inscribed with “A Genius of the South.” Jump at the Sun will leave readers in awe of the life of this national treasure and eager to discover more of her wonderful words for themselves.

That They Lived: African Americans Who Changed the World

Books that tell childhood stories of notable people are beloved by young readers, and That They Lived: African Americans Who Changed the World makes a fantastic addition to this category. Rochelle Riley profiles 20 Black leaders, including activists, scientists, athletes and artists, and accompanying each brief biography are two photographs: The first is a well-known image of the profile’s subject, and in the second, either Riley’s grandson Caleb or photographer Cristi Smith-Jones’ daughter Lola re-create the image in full costume.

Every page of this book has been tailor-made to appeal to young people, from Riley’s thoughtful profiles to the way Smith-Jones stages each portrait to honor the spirit of its subject rather than merely imitate the original photograph. Her attention to small details is extraordinary, such as Shirley Chisholm’s horn-rimmed glasses and Duke Ellington’s pocket square.

A variety of both historical and contemporary figures is included, and Riley relates fascinating stories about each of them. Muhammad Ali, for instance, might never have become a boxer if his bike hadn’t been stolen when he was 12. After he told police officer Joe Martin, “When I find whoever took my bike, I’m gonna whup him,” Martin introduced him to boxing lessons. Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her bus seat to a white man on March 2, 1955—nine months before Rosa Parks did the same. “It felt like Harriet Tubman was pushing me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth was pushing me down on the other shoulder,” Colvin later recalled. “History had me glued to the seat.” Every profile ends with a takeaway, such as “Claudette Colvin taught us that you are never too young to make a difference.”

“We want to show [young people] that every important or powerful or talented or beautiful person in the world was once a child,” write Riley and Smith-Jones in a foreword. To look closely at the young faces in Smith-Jones’ photographs and then at the luminaries to which they pay tribute is to gain a powerful under- standing that Black history is being made every day—even today.

In the pages of these books, young readers will meet American heroes and heroines who made vital and lasting contributions to a history we all share. Some lived long ago, some are still alive today, but each has left their indelible mark.

NonfictionCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooksArts & Culture

Lifestyles: February 2021

Feature by Susannah Felts

The writing workshop, the cottagecore aesthetic and, that’s right, the humble bean all get exciting updates in this month’s crop of lifestyles books.

★ Craft in the Real World

Matthew Salesses’ Craft in the Real World is a book whose time has come, and not a moment too soon. A critique of long-held assumptions about how creative writing should be taught, it is “a challenge to accepted models,” including “everything from a character-­driven plot to the ‘cone of silence,’ ” which silences a manuscript’s author while their piece is being workshopped. Salesses, who is the author of three novels, invites the reader to rethink the very notion of what constitutes craft and offers alternatives to a workshop model proliferated by, and largely for, white men. The world has changed, and the writing workshop must catch up. An essential addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in creative writing, Salesses’ text provides a compassionate approach sure to bring a new generation of authentic voices to the page.

The Mighty Bean

All hail the humble bean: Nutrient-rich, central to cuisines worldwide, inexpensive, easy to cook and with a low carbon footprint, beans are truly a power food. With her new book, The Mighty Bean, Judith Choate, author of An American Family Cooks, is our guide through the vast world of legumes, beginning with a bean glossary. (What wonderful names these little guys have: Rattlesnake! Eye of the goat! Black valentine!) With recipes ranging from Texas caviar to West African peanut soup to white bean gnocchi with bacon and cream, this cookbook travels the globe through “pulses” (another name for beans, and a tidbit I’m delighted to have picked up here) and encourages experimentation. I’m feeling inspired to shop the Rancho Gordo site ASAP.

The Little Book of Cottagecore

I first heard the word cottagecore from my 12-year-old daughter, likely my informant for all trends henceforth. For the uninitiated, cottagecore is a way of being—an aesthetic, a vibe, if you will—exalting the soothing textures and gentle rhythms of pastoral life. “It focuses on unplugging from the stresses of modern life and instead embracing the wholesomeness and authenticity of nature,” explains Emily Kent in The Little Book of Cottage­core. A cottage­core existence might include relaxing tasks such as baking bread, gardening and pouring your own candles—though I have to wonder how truly calm one may feel when feeding a sourdough starter or smoking the hives or coping with tomato blight. (Forgive me. I’ve suffered my share of frustrations during various vaguely cottagecore endeavors.) But simply brewing a cup of proper English tea is entry-level cottagecore that anyone can enjoy.

The writing workshop, the cottagecore aesthetic and, that’s right, the humble bean all get exciting updates in this month’s crop of lifestyles books.
NonfictionGraphic Novels & ComicsBlack History

Six books reveal the dreams of America’s Black forefathers and foremothers

Feature by Matt Gifford

Our national conversation about anti-Black racism made 2020 a pivotal year—painful for many, cathartic for others, memorable to all. Now a new year brings new opportunities to listen to Black voices and stories. Pick up one of these titles to deepen your knowledge of our country’s past, and join the chorus of voices advocating for a better future.

Ida B. the Queen

Ida B. Wells gets the royal treatment in Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells, written by Michelle Duster, Wells’ great-granddaughter.

From the 1890s through the early 20th century, Wells was a pioneering activist and journalist who fought racism by publicizing heinous acts of violence toward Black Americans during the Jim Crow era. Crafted with empathy for and intimate knowledge of this American icon, the book recounts Wells’ many groundbreaking achievements, which caused the FBI to dub her a “dangerous negro agitator” in her time. Unlike in a typical biography, however, Duster integrates her own perspective of her great-grandmother into this narrative, inspecting her family’s legacy along the way. Duster also outlines the cultural impact Wells had on her contemporaries, such as W.E.B. Du Bois, and draws a throughline from Wells’ defiant voice at the turn of the 20th century to the struggle for Black lives today.

In addition to its compelling content, this book is also drop-dead gorgeous. Vibrant illustrations of Wells and other important history makers, such as Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Malcolm X and Bree Newsome, add even more color to their colorful lives. Wells was righteously indignant and wise beyond her era, and Duster translates her drive to today’s racial discourse with insight and grace.

★ Four Hundred Souls

If you’re looking for a single work that spans the entirety of the Black experience in America, pick up a copy of Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019, edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. This comprehensive meditation on Black history in the United States features 90 noteworthy Black authors and poets ruminating on the last 400 years—beginning with the date of the first recorded arrival of enslaved people from Africa on these shores.

Each author reflects on five years in America, focusing on a different “person, place, thing, idea, or event”—such as Phillis Wheatley, Oregon, cotton, queer sexuality and the war on drugs. At the end of each 40-year section, a poet captures that historical period in verse. With contributions from huge names in the community of Black thought leaders, such as Nikole Hannah-Jones, Isabel Wilkerson, Angela Davis and Jamelle Bouie, just to name a few, the scope of the writing is immense and powerful, the content both celebratory and harrowing.

You may feel drawn to this book because of its heavy-hitting roster of big names, but look forward to widening your familiarity with more up-and-coming writers, too. With so many authors and topics represented in these pages, you’re sure to gain new insight about every tumultuous period in our nation’s history.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Four Hundred Souls is the year’s most astounding full-cast audiobook production. Go behind the scenes with Kendi, Blain and the producers.

Julian Bond’s Time to Teach

One valuable yet often overlooked leader in the fight for Black equality is finally getting his due in Julian Bond’s Time to Teach: A History of the Southern Civil Rights Movement. The late author’s lectures from his prolific teaching career, assembled here for the first time, are full of firsthand lessons from his direct involvement in the civil rights movement.

As one of the founding members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Bond participated in myriad sit-ins and protests in the Southern United States and even worked directly with Martin Luther King Jr. Later he became an elected member of both the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate and then began teaching at institutions such as Harvard, the University of Virginia and American University. As a lifelong activist, Bond not only protested for Black civil rights but was also an early advocate for LGBTQ rights and rights for disabled people, long before any legislation, courts or popular thought addressed these needs.

Reflecting his storied life of activism, Bond’s lectures offer a road map of the history of the United States and white supremacy, covering the formation of the NAACP, the treatment of Black soldiers through World War II, the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case and other milestones. Along the way, he meticulously details the daily efforts to build and expand the Southern civil rights movement throughout the 20th century, highlighting the contributions of many underrecognized individuals.

During his life, Bond wanted to educate the world about the history of the Black experience, as well as about the nuts and bolts of starting and maintaining a protest movement. With this posthumous collection, and with the help of the editors who assembled it, he can finally share his teachings with the broad audience he deserves.

★ A Shot in the Moonlight

Imagine being woken up in the middle of the night by a mob outside your house, calling your name, accusing you of crimes that you didn’t commit. Then imagine that they start throwing explosives and firing guns at your house, at your family. You defend yourself and your home as best you can, and one of the assailants dies from the intervening fight. Suddenly you find yourself, a Black man, a formerly enslaved person, fleeing through 1890s Kentucky, trying to stay out of the hands of lynch mobs. With the Ku Klux Klan and newspapers calling for your execution, you’re forced to put your life in the hands of a lawyer who fought to uphold slavery.

This complicated tale is masterfully told in Ben Montgomery’s A Shot in the Moonlight: How a Freed Slave and a Confederate Soldier Fought for Justice in the Jim Crow South. Montgomery, the Tampa Bay Times journalist who covered the Dozier School for Boys (which would later inspire Colson Whitehead’s novel The Nickel Boys), guides us through the events that took place on the night of January 21, 1897, at the home of George Dining.

A Shot in the Moonlight reads like a riveting thriller, with multiple moving pieces and conflicting perspectives, but historical artifacts such as newspaper excerpts and first-person accounts also give it journalistic depth. Set during an era when being Black and accused of a crime was almost a guaranteed death sentence, this gripping history offers hope through the actions of an unlikely cast of characters who sought to save a man from a cruel and vindictive fate.

Soul City

If you’re looking for something lower octane that still offers an intriguing exploration of what could have been, take a trip to Soul City: Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia. Author Thomas Healy tells the story of Soul City, North Carolina, an intentional community founded in the 1970s by the Black lawyer Floyd McKissick, aimed at helping Black people achieve the American dream. While not an exclusively Black community, Soul City was intended to be a place for Black people to grow, prosper economically and exercise their hard-won civil rights outside of segregated cities.

Envisioning a city whose main streets were named after the likes of Nat Turner, John Brown and Dred Scott, McKissick lobbied for help from the federal government to pursue his municipal dream, and surprisingly, the Nixon administration eventually granted him the seed money. However, despite years of effort, the town is now little more than a blip on the historical radar. And by some dark irony, Soul City’s largest industry today is the operation of a for-profit prison. 

So what happened? Was Soul City doomed from the beginning, like so many ambitious utopian experiments? As Healy shows, it’s not that simple. Soul City’s bumpy background is littered with statewide backlash, legislative resistance and financial undercutting, which prevented the project from flourishing. This chronicle of what went wrong, and who wanted it to go wrong, outlines both missteps by the city’s planners as well as outside obstacles that contributed to the experiment’s failure. Even so, McKissick’s shining vision for Soul City will inspire readers to dream of what kinds of communities we could create next.

The Black Panther Party

For education that’s easy on the eyes, snag The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History by David F. Walker (The Life of Frederick Douglass). Beautifully illustrated by Marcus Kwame Anderson and supremely informative, this graphic novel offers a digestible history of the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party, correcting many negative assumptions about them while still addressing their flaws.

The book especially excels in illuminating the motives of the party’s founders, Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. Their original aims were to improve community security, defy the tactics of racist police departments, provide free community breakfast and offer support to underserved youth. However, the party’s faulty decision-making, along with efforts by police institutions and the FBI to sabotage the party every step of the way, led to its ultimate unraveling.

A breeze to read and a feast for the eyes (and mind), this book is perfect for every burgeoning revolutionary.

A new year brings new opportunities to listen to Black voices and stories. Pick up one of these titles to deepen your knowledge of our country’s past, and join the chorus of voices advocating for a better future.
Mystery

Whodunit: February 2021

Feature by Bruce Tierney

Some of the biggest names in the genre knock it out of the park, and one half of an acclaimed Scandi-noir writing team goes it alone in this month’s Whodunit column.

Serpentine

Cases don’t come much colder than the 36-year-old murder of Dorothy Swoboda, whose burned-beyond-recognition remains were found in a similarly scorched late-model Cadillac down a steep embankment off of Los Angeles’ serpentine Mulholland Drive, thus providing the title of Jonathan Kellerman’s excellent Serpentine. Now, all these years later, the case has been assigned to LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis, who enlists consulting psychologist Alex Delaware as backup. Neither expects much to come of further investigation. The cops back in the day had their suspicions, but nothing panned out. Nowadays the case files are sketchy, and the best line of inquiry seems to be to interview some of the original investigating officers and witnesses and see what insights they might have had that never made it into the official case files. Only problem is, Milo finds that virtually everyone with any insight into the case has met an untimely death. There is no statute of limitations on murder, so it would appear that someone is doing his (or her) level best to stay one step ahead of this latest investigation, and in this case “level best” makes for a scorching good read.

Before She Disappeared

Lisa Gardner’s thriller Before She Disappeared introduces us to Frankie Elkin. For a time, Frankie struggled to find some purpose in her life, some reason to keep moving forward while in recovery for alcoholism. She discovered her niche as an advocate for missing persons, seeking out those who have disappeared, the unimportant, the hitherto forgotten. She does this on a volunteer basis, taking no payment, propelled along by a remarkable success rate, at least by one metric: She is very good at finding people. Unfortunately, the subjects of her searches routinely turn up quite dead. There is hope yet for her new case, however. Haitian teenager Angelique Badeau was a stellar and motivated student, intent on a career in medicine. Then, nothing. She disappeared nearly a year ago, leaving virtually no trace. As Frankie’s investigation progresses, it offers an up-close look into some of the issues that plague American society today—racism, antipathy toward immigrants and the trafficking of young women—while providing a blistering narrative and sympathetic characters (even an annoyingly endearing cat!). Before She Disappeared is billed as a standalone, but I’m thinking it would be the perfect setup for a terrific series.

Knock Knock

It’s likely that regular readers of this column are familiar with my gushing over mystery novels from Europe’s frozen north, a subgenre known as Scandinavian noir. After the death of his longtime writing partner Börge Hellström, Swedish writer Anders Roslund returns with Knock Knock, his first solo novel and the next installment of his and Hellström’s gripping series featuring police superintendent Ewert Grens and undercover informant Piet Hoffman. Every cop has one nagging case that they were unable to solve, a case that remains within their being, waiting for some kind of closure. For Ewert, it was the murder of a family 17 years ago in which only a 5-year-old girl was spared, although she was unable to yield any usable clues to the killings. Now there has been a break-in at the same apartment, and Ewert, who is on the verge of retirement, would like nothing more than to see this case resolved before he rides off into the sunset. Meanwhile, Piet, having been outed as an informant, is being blackmailed by lethal munitions brokers, his family threatened to the point that they must go into hiding. Roslund cleverly interlaces these two disparate storylines, and readers will marvel at just how much action can take place in a period spanning only three days. Knock Knock has handily reaffirmed all my Scandi-noir gushing.

★ Blood Grove

It is a fair bet that if Walter Mosley has a book coming out during any given month, a) it will get reviewed here, and b) there’s an excellent chance it will be the best mystery of that month. Case in point: his latest, Blood Grove. Private detective Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins is nudging 50 years of age in this novel, which is set in late-1960s Los Angeles. The Vietnam War has taken its toll on the nation. Hippies are tuning in, turning on, dropping out. Racism is rampant. And in the middle of this uneasy milieu, Easy gets approached by a vet suffering from what we now call PTSD. The vet spins an incredible story: He went to the aid of a screaming woman in distress at a remote hilltop cabin, stabbed her attacker and then lapsed into unconsciousness. When he awoke, there was no woman, no stabbed man, really no indication whatsoever that any of his memories were anything more than a hallucination. Nothing is quite what it seems in this place, in this time, in this book. Lurking just beneath the surface are a heist gone bad, a gangster or three on the vengeance trail and a trio of lethal ladies. And there are all manner of ’60s cultural references, from Lucky Strike cigarettes to Edsel cars to free-love clubs—not to mention a character who bears more than a passing resemblance to real-life record producer Terry Melcher, who was briefly associated with Charles Manson. I read it all in one sitting, as I just could not stop turning the pages.

Some of the biggest names in the genre knock it out of the park, and one half of an acclaimed Scandi-noir writing team goes it alone in this month's Whodunit column.

RomanceWestern Romance

Romance: February 2021

Feature by Christie Ridgway

Whether you’re a longtime romance fan or are jumping in to the genre for the first time, celebrate Valentine’s Day with a love story.

★ Big Bad Wolf

Contemporary life looks different in the alternate reality of Suleikha Snyder’s Big Bad Wolf, where the existence of shape-shifters and other supernatural beings has recently been revealed to the public. Lawyer and psychologist Neha Ahluwalia’s new client is Joe Peluso, an ex-soldier and wolf shifter who committed murder in an act of vigilante justice. He’s big, brooding and so attractive that she can’t suppress her longing for him. When Joe manages to break out of jail, Neha is at his side, and he can’t turn her away. They hide out and then seek help from an underground team of supernatural beings devoted to people who, like Joe, were turned into shifters by the government. Big Bad Wolf is filled with cinematic action and blazing passion, but the characters (including an intriguing pansexual vampire) are well drawn, and the world building is first-rate despite the breakneck pace. Snyder’s vision of how the political and social order would change in the wake of such paradigm-­shifting news is spot on. Readers of sexy paranormal romance will thoroughly enjoy this first in a new series—and clamor for more.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: How Suleikha Snyder put her unique stamp on the shifter romance.

A Lady’s Formula for Love

A Victorian widow and scientist pursues her passion in A Lady’s Formula for Love by debut author Elizabeth Everett. Lady Violet Hughes has established a social club for ladies, the real function of which is to mask a collective of women interested in math and science. When Violet’s stepson asks her to use her scientific prowess for a secret government project, he also provides her with a bodyguard, Arthur Kneland, to protect her and the club. Violet is fascinated by the taciturn Arthur and even more by his rare smiles. Arthur is smitten as well, but he resists; he can’t afford distraction if he’s going to keep Violet safe. Though the pair are worlds apart in intellectual interests and social class, their hearts find common ground. Arthur represents a beloved romance trope: the silent hero who becomes a skilled linguist in the language of love. Sensual and tender love scenes and secondary female characters seeking their own empowerment make this an entertaining, standout debut.

★ Wild Rain

Adventure awaits in the Wyoming Territory in Wild Rain by Beverly Jenkins. Rancher, horse-breaker and all-around badass Spring Lee (who stole many a scene during her first appearance in Jenkins’ Tempest) rescues an injured man during a blizzard. She brings Garrett McCray to her cabin, where she learns he’s a reporter from the District of Columbia who’s traveled all the way to Wyoming to interview her famous brother, Dr. Colton Lee. Garrett soon finds himself as intrigued by the independent and accomplished Spring as he is entranced by the surrounding mountains. The two discuss their families and personal experiences as a Black man and woman from very different parts of the country, and face down bigotry together in the neighboring community of Paradise. Spring is an engaging, action-oriented character, and she’s met her match in the more cerebral and softer-edged Garrett. Their love story is sigh-inducing, the scenes of passion sizzle, and the enriching historical details of the Black experience—including Garrett’s service in the Union Navy during the Civil War—make this a romance not to be missed.

Driven

An ex-FBI agent hunts a serial killer who appears to be back from the dead in Driven by Rebecca Zanetti. Angus Force shot the murderer himself and was grievously wounded in the process, but now women are dying in the same gruesome manner as before. As he and his team, the secret Deep Ops Unit, investigate the new deaths, the clues begin to point to Angus. Could he actually be responsible? Nari Zhang, the team’s on-staff psychologist, knows he’s innocent, even though it’s clear he’s a man driven by pain and guilt. She sticks close to help uncover the truth, even after it becomes clear that the killer has her in his sights. Angus is the sort of grim, wounded hero that every romance fan wants to see healed, but smart and self-aware Nari protects her heart even as the two reluctant lovers come together in spicy scenes that match the pulsing suspense. The story moves fast, and there’s an unexpected twist or two, as well as a scene- and booze-stealing German shepherd that provides a little levity to this dark and satisfying romantic thriller.

The Duke Heist

The Duke Heist by Erica Ridley introduces a new series via a delightful family of orphans. As the six adopted siblings of a wealthy and eccentric baron, the Wynchesters are determined to recover a painting dear to their hearts and to their dearly departed adoptive father. Chloe Wynchester takes point on the plan to retrieve the artwork from the newest Duke of Faircliffe, Lawrence Gosling. Rebuffed initial overtures mean she must resort to more nefarious undercover measures—something familiar to a woman who survived her childhood by picking pockets. A chance encounter leaves Lawrence in Chloe’s debt and begins an association that allows love to blossom. But the impoverished duke needs a respectable heiress to restore his family’s fortunes and make up for his father’s mistakes, and the scandalous Chloe wants a man to love her for herself, not her bank account. Both will have to learn valuable lessons about self-respect and the limitations of society’s rules before finding their happy ever after. Ridley’s motley crew of Wynchester siblings is as charming as it is unforgettable, signaling more great romance ahead. The Duke Heist is everything a Regency romance fan hopes for.

Whether you’re a longtime romance fan or are jumping in to the genre for the first time, celebrate Valentine’s Day with a love story.

Fiction

The Hold List: Thriller hangovers

Feature by the editors of BookPage

Private Eye July gives us so many opportunities to recommend our favorite thrilling, 100% entertaining, purely pleasurable reads. As mystery and thriller fans know, there’s nothing quite like a book that gets under your skin and ruins any chance of a good night’s sleep. Here are our favorite twisty novels that shook us to the core.

Behind Her Eyes

Single mom Louise meets a man, David, at a pub one night. They kiss, it’s great, what a night—but it turns out he’s her new boss. Then Louise meets a gorgeous woman named Adele while out for coffee. Adele is new in town, looking for a friend—and is married to David. Such drama! But what starts as an addicting love triangle thriller— the kind of domestic drama that seems a bit run-of-the-mill in this golden era of suspense fiction—becomes something completely different. It’s character-driven, flawlessly written, and it swept me along to an ending that made my brain into soup. In her 2017 interview with BookPage, Sarah Pinborough called her novel a “Marmite book,” as not everyone will love it. Color me obsessed.

—Cat, Deputy Editor

The Thirteenth Tale

If you love books (obviously you do, you’re reading BookPage) and haven’t yet read The Thirteenth Tale, I am legitimately jealous. This delightfully eerie tale of a reclusive author and her biographer is a love letter to bibliophiles and books, specifically the gothic masterpieces of the Brontë sisters and Daphne du Maurier. Echoes of Jane Eyre and Rebecca swirl in Diane Setterfield’s elegant, evocative prose as Margaret Lea, bookseller and biographer, listens to what Vida Winter says is the unvarnished truth of her life. I thought about this book whenever I wasn’t reading it and, upon reaching its moving conclusion and truly shocking final twist, felt as if I had been jolted out of a vivid dream.

—Savanna, Assistant Editor

Child 44

A serial killer in Stalinist Russia? If this premise sounds fresh to you, there’s a historical reason: Soviet propaganda. Stalin asserted that social problems like crime were a byproduct of capitalism. Therefore, in a socialist workers’ paradise, they couldn’t exist. Which puts MGB officer Leo Demidov in an awkward position, since he’s seen the files on dozens of children who died by similar, violent means. Though he’s sure one person is responsible, Demidov knows the consequences of questioning the state. In a society ruled by silence, fear and the inability to tell the truth, can a crime ever be solved? This tension gives the novel a depth that complements Tom Rob Smith’s talent for jaw-dropping twists. Child 44 is an attention-grabbing, one-sitting read.

—Trisha, Publisher

The Cat Who Saw Red

The last time I read a truly heart-stopping, hair-raising novel was . . . never. I’m a huge wuss, and when I settle in with a good book, my aim is to escape the horrors of the real world rather than to approach them. Cue Lilian Jackson Braun’s cozy, low-stakes murder mystery series starring reporter Jim Qwilleran and his two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum. Full disclosure: My grandma recommended this series to me when I was in middle school, and my level of literary courage hasn’t increased even a little bit since then. So to my fellow scaredy-cats out there, I recommend The Cat Who Saw Red for a charming murder mystery that will raise your curiosity more than your blood pressure.

—Christy, Associate Editor

Security

Perhaps this is an unpopular opinion, but I dislike about 90% of the horror novels out there. They often just don’t work as well as horror films can. One book that attempted to enter into the grand tradition of slasher movies—and in my opinion, pulled it off—is Security, Gina Wohlsdorf’s genre-rattling debut. It’s set in a luxe 20-story hotel in Santa Barbara 24 hours before its grand opening, and a masked killer is taking out members of the staff one by one. But the audacity of this thriller is that Wohlsdorf sometimes splits her narrative into columns, signifying different security cameras, allowing the reader to visualize different scenes at once. The stakes stay high, the horror never flags, and I have yet to come across another novel to surprise me in such a way.

—Cat, Deputy Editor

As mystery and thriller fans know, there’s nothing quite like a book that gets under your skin and ruins any chance of a good night’s sleep. Here are our favorite twisty novels that shook us to the core.
NonfictionMemoirBiography

Book Clubs: March 2021

Feature by Julie Hale

Celebrate Women’s History Month with terrific nonfiction titles spotlighting female pioneers and groundbreakers.

Adam Hochschild’s spirited biography Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes chronicles the life of Rose Pastor Stokes (1879–1933), a Russian refugee of Jewish descent who married millionaire James Graham Phelps Stokes. The two became members of the Socialist Party and mixed with figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois and anarchist Emma Goldman. Hochschild’s enthralling narrative shines a light on Pastor Stokes’ work as a champion of the working class and of the feminist cause. Pick this one if your group is ready for a dynamic discussion of social justice, women’s rights and the often overlooked history of American activism during the early 20th century.

In Horror Stories, musician Liz Phair—perhaps best known for her 1993 release Exile in Guyville—looks back at some painfully formative moments in her life. She writes with vibrancy and honesty about being unfaithful to her first husband, getting into a street brawl in Shanghai and giving birth to her son after 32 hours of labor. She's refreshingly upfront about her own personal shortcomings, but she's also compassionate about them, allowing her to connect with readers who've experienced their own missteps. Book groups will appreciate Phair’s skills as a memoirist and find rich topics for conversation, including the female experience in the music industry and riot grrrl-era feminism. 

Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century by John Loughery and Blythe Randolph provides an in-depth look at a legendary lady. Dorothy Day (1897–1980) was a noted journalist, pacifist and advocate for labor and women’s rights. A Brooklyn native, she was also part of the Greenwich Village scene that included poet Hart Crane and playwright Eugene O’Neill. This lively biography documents her personal and political evolution in wonderful detail. Brimming with history and discussion topics related to religion and progressivism, it’s an inspired choice for Women’s History Month.

In her brave, probing memoir Recollections of My Nonexistence, essayist and activist Rebecca Solnit recounts her coming-of-age as a writer. Solnit settled in San Francisco as a teenager during the 1980s. While in grad school, she entered the writing world—an arena dominated by men—and worked to overcome gender barriers and find her place as an artist. Solnit’s astute observations of the literary life and the San Francisco art scene make for fascinating reading, and her evolving sense of her own identity and empowerment will prompt lively conversation among readers.

Celebrate Women’s History Month with terrific nonfiction titles spotlighting female pioneers and groundbreakers.

Mystery

Whodunit: March 2021

Feature by Bruce Tierney

Things aren't what they appear in some of this month's best mysteries—plus, a tale of murder during Hollywood's golden age.

Lightseekers

Many Nigerian-set suspense novels have riffed on the money scams perpetrated on gullible retirees abroad. Not so for Femi Kayode’s thriller Lightseekers, which centers the religious and class violence of Africa’s wealthiest country. Investigative psychologist Dr. Philip Taiwo, who has recently returned to his homeland after a stint in the United States, is hired to find out who murdered the son of a prominent local businessman. The assignment is a bit out of his wheelhouse, as he is much more comfortable theorizing about crime than taking part in a hands-on investigation. Plus, arrests have been made, and there is evidence galore, so Philip frankly doesn’t see what he can add to the investigation. That said, he is under a certain amount of pressure from the victim’s family, and there is a paycheck involved, so he unenthusiastically signs on. He is aided in his efforts by some unlikely sidekicks: a driver who is much savvier than one might expect; a vampishly beautiful attorney who causes Philip to question his marital vows; and a harried police chief, initially recalcitrant until Philip turns up evidence too compelling to ignore. The milieu is drawn especially well, which is unsurprising given that Kayode trained as a clinical psychologist in Nigeria. Steam-bath humidity, sizzling yams, road dust in every breath, danger lurking around every corner—welcome to Kayode’s Nigeria.

Nighthawking

The title of Russ Thomas’ latest thriller, Nighthawking, refers to a practice not dissimilar to grave-robbing—clandestine late-night metal detecting and potential plundering at archaeological sites, cemeteries or other locations of historical interest. One particular nighthawker got a bit more than he bargained for this time around: A foray into the Sheffield Botanical Garden in search of buried treasure instead turned up the body of a young woman, a stabbing victim, her eyes covered with a pair of coins from ancient Rome. It falls to Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler and his protégé, Detective Constable Mina Rabbani, to investigate. The case gains international implications when it is discovered that the victim was a botany student from a prominent Chinese family, and that her life in the U.K. was not what it seemed to be. Tyler and Rabbani are an interesting pair: He is gay, she is Muslim, both are relative outsiders with respect to the insular world of Yorkshire policing, and both routinely suffer the slings and arrows of innuendo. Nighthawking is their second adventure together, after last year’s Firewatching (also a terrific read), and I hope there will be many more to come. 

Smoke

Smoke, Joe Ide’s latest mystery featuring quixotic brainiac Isaiah Quintabe, finds our hero far afield from his Long Beach, California, home. He has disappeared into the unfamiliar wilds of the Golden State’s mountainous north, on the lam from more than one person who would like to see him dead. At other points in his career, he probably would have stayed to duke it out with the bad guys, but he has fallen in love and doesn’t want to risk putting his sweetheart in harm’s way. Isaiah’s once-sidekick, Juanell Dodson, assumes a larger role in Smoke than in earlier novels as he tries to leave his dangerous former career behind in a bid to save his marriage. Dodson holds down the SoCal part of the narrative as the street hustler reluctantly morphs into an ad agency account exec, while Isaiah becomes embroiled in the more perilous pursuit of a serial killer, drawn into the case by a none-too-stable escapee from a psychiatric hospital. Isaiah is something of a sucker for a person in need who presents him with a good story, and this story is perhaps the most intriguing he has come across to date. 

★ Windhall

Windhall by Ava Barry spins the tale of a modern-day copycat murder that echoes the high-profile slaying of a Hollywood movie star in 1948, at the beginning of the end of the golden age of Hollywood. The star in question, Eleanor Hayes, was found badly disfigured and quite dead in the garden of Windhall, the estate of film director Theo Langley, after a party that would have been regarded as legendary even if it hadn’t featured such a macabre coda. Initially, Theo looked pretty good for the murder—Eleanor had stopped showing up to work on his latest movie and seemed terrified of something—but as the investigation wore on, the so-called evidence became less compelling, and finally charges were dropped. Theo disappeared from view for decades. Although from time to time there were reported sightings from far afield, there was never much in the way of corroboration, and his story took its rightful place in Hollywood lore, one of the great unsolved mysteries of the golden age. The present-day murder piques the interest of investigative journalist Max Hailey, who is somewhat obsessed with Windhall and its closely guarded secrets. For years he has suspected that Theo was guilty, and when it turns out that the director has mysteriously returned to Windhall just in time for the new murder, it all seems a bit too preposterous to be simple coincidence. Windhall is Barry’s first novel, and it is one heck of a debut. She nails her protagonist’s first-person voice and vividly channels the Hollywood vernacular and vibe both past and present. 

Things aren't what they appear in some of this month's best mysteries—plus, a tale of murder during Hollywood's golden age.

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