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Old-lady craft no more! Jennie Ashmore brings pressing flowers out of the Victorian age and into the present by treating flowers like a painting ingredient. Deconstructing flowers into pieces and then patching them into place, many of her canvasses look like quilts. Both inspirational and instructional, Ashmore presents her take on this age-old art and teaches how we can follow her style to make our own creations.
– Tracey T.

Elizabeth Acevedo has worked her magic again in With the Fire on High, crafting a beautifully written novel that is both realistic and fantastical, touching, funny, thought-provoking, inspirational, diverse, and thoroughly entertaining, all at the same time. Bonus: it's chock-full of fantastic food descriptions! 
– Leah C.

There's no better summer escape than a deep dive into the history of the infamous Chateau Marmont, which for 90 years has served as refuge and playground for the world's most famous (and ill-behaved) movie stars and musicians. Film critic Shawn Levy dishes on Jean Harlow, Natalie Wood, Jim Morrison, and more in this entertaining and surprisingly thoughtful peek inside Hollywood's notorious pleasure palace.
– Moses M.

All the beauty of a West Coast road trip, condensed in a beautiful, yet practical book. The Best Coast: A Road Trip Atlas is perfect for those new to the West, and a wonderful supplement for the natives who haven’t quite been everywhere yet. Handy tips, stunning locations, and a number of side trips just in case you decide to do some wandering.
– Corie K-B.

Getting into the MFA program at Warren University was supposed to transform her life, but Samantha hates it there. She hates the sinister slant of the golden afternoon light, she hates her dingy apartment and the flasher who hangs around outside, she hates the rumors of random beheadings in the downtown area. But she hates the Bunnies most of all. Privileged, vapid, and unbearably perky, the only other members of her fiction writing class have formed a parasitic girl gang. Their ostentatious, performative joy is the bane of Samantha’s existence... until they invite her to join and dabble in the dark arts. What follows is one of the strangest stories I have ever encountered, one that is equal parts campy, snarky, and terrifying. It’s an incredibly unique way to explore the creative process, female friendships, and the universal journey towards establishing selfhood, and Mona Awad pulls it off with biting humor. Endlessly dark and toxically sweet, Bunny is a burnt sugar horror show of violent delights and violent ends.
– Lauren P.

In this unique and hilarious birding field guide, Matt Kracht simultaneously loves and hates birds. For each North American species, the author lovingly insults our feathered frenemy with sardonic drawings and true facts. A perfect gift for any nature lover with a great sense of humor and who doesn’t mind a little profanity! 
– Kim T.

A series of suspicious deaths in Alabama in the 1970s were so intriguing and harrowing that Harper Lee set out to write the book about them. She didn’t. Now, Casey Cep has nested three books into one in order to tell the story Lee never did and why she didn’t. The resulting book is more intriguing and harrowing than Lee could’ve imagined.
– Keith M.

City of Girls has everything I hope for in historical fiction: well-researched period details, gargantuan personalities, and more sex than I ever found in my history textbooks! With her trademark exuberance and wit, Elizabeth Gilbert vividly evokes the glitz, grit, and clamor of New York City in the 1940s. At the bright center of it all is Vivian Morris, a proper young woman itching to be anything but. She rushes headlong into all the adventures she can find and has more fun than polite society allows— but not without consequences. Gilbert doesn't shy away from exploring the uglier parts of American history, which lends the story a level of depth and credibility that makes it feel three-dimensional. It's a smart, heartbreaking, joyful look at a life and I closed the book wishing it were twice as long.
– Lauren P.

You don’t have to be an adventurous eater, a travel junkie, or a memoir lover to get tantalized by Hungry, food journalist Jeff Gordinier’s gripping account of journeying through Mexico, Denmark, and Australia with Noma chef René Redzepi. Just sit back and enjoy this feast of the senses.
– Lucinda G.

This striking book of essays is more than just a collection of sharp reviews or a celebration of the medium. Emily Nussbaum posits a bold way of thinking about television as an art form in and of itself — not on novelistic or cinematic terms, but according to its own specific grammar and visual language. It's a brilliant interrogation of the place that television, both "prestige" and "popular," has come to occupy in American life, and of the ways in which television shapes and is shaped by our culture. Anyone interested in what art means in contemporary society will find something to chew on here. 
– Tim B.

Jade War is a deeply satisfying continuation of the story begun in Jade City. An amazing foundation of world building, realistic and very human characters, and the kind of tension found in the very best tales. I can’t wait for what comes next from Fonda Lee.
– Doug C.

I love a good apocalypse title. It’s not the devastation that intrigues me, it’s the rebuilding process. Starting from scratch, the uncertainty, the coming together of people and communities that in a different world would never even share the same dinner table, let alone rebuild civilization together. I suspect The Lightest Object in the Universe will provide many “what if” moments.
– Corie K-B.

Gailey's debut is for all the now-adult readers who just knew an admissions letter from Hogwarts was owling toward them, only to be reminded each autumn of their sad Muggle status. Ivy Gamble is a hardboiled private investigator with all the usual trappings – sordid office, foul mouth, alcohol habit — when she’s asked to investigate a murder at a private school for mages... which just happens to be where her long estranged, magical twin sister works. What makes Magic for Liars fun, fascinating, and novel, and not Harry Potter or Magicians Trilogy fanfic, is that the magic in the book is ancillary to Ivy’s development as a character. She’s pretty much a mess from start to finish, with the narrative freedom to wallow in all of her petty jealousies and fantasies about magic. Emphatically not a children’s book, Magic for Liars is dirty and morally ambivalent, with enough clever riffs on the magical school genre to keep you laughing and a true-to-life portrait of what it means to want and lack that just might make you cry.
– Lucinda G.

Depressed taxidermist Jessa-Lynn tries to be her family’s source of reason, only to repeatedly come up against her own emotional demons and her family’s eccentricities. Mostly Dead Things is absolutely fabulous: a quintessential Floridian novel, riotously strange and discomfiting, and at the same time deeply human.
– Rhianna W.

We love our books, and we love our vacations. How better to combine the two than Booked: A Traveler's Guide to Literary Locations Around the World. Visit West Yorkshire, England, to view Emily Brontë's The Heath; explore Margaret Mitchell's Atlanta, Georgia; or even the famous school bus in Healy, Alaska, from Krakauer's Into the Wild. Vacation planning made easy, for the book lover in your life.
– Corie K-B.

I’m not actually a forager myself, but The Skillful Forager makes me want to become one. It’s pretty much a perfect book — the author’s dedication to this practice is evident on every page, it’s so incredibly thoughtful and well put together. So much helpful information can be found here, whether you’re an established forager or just getting started. I can’t wait to give it a try!
– Leah C.

I had to read this book after listening to Waters's latest interview on Fresh Air, because I so taken aback by the intelligence and kindness behind the Pope of Trash's wicked sense of fun. In Mr. Know-It-All, Waters shares stories from his years in Hollywood and reflects hilariously, if disturbingly, on his Stalinist aesthetic, plastic custom-built son, Bill, and ongoing experimentations with drugs. Much like his cult films, the end result is as endearing as it is fascinating, and spending some time in the Waters pop culture warren is a good way to escape politics while still delving into critical cultural territory.
– Matt K.

Queenie is struggling with her career, a break-up, friendships, and toxic men... not to mention institutional racism, an eccentric Jamaican family, and serious childhood trauma. Queenie carefully explores heavy themes with sensitivity and humor in this addictive debut novel.
– Rhianna W.

This book is not only #relationshipgoals, it's also #governmentgoals. Sweet and vulnerable and so real, this book immediately made it to my top five. When the First Son and the Prince of England clash in an incident of international proportions, they are forced to make nice for the sake of both their countries. But what starts as a strained truce soon develops into a real friendship, and then grows into something more... I cried at the end of this book, and then immediately picked it up and read it again.
– Azalea M.

Elisabeth was raised in the Great Library, where sorcerous texts are kept appeased and imprisoned lest they transform into menacing beasts. When one such monster escapes, Elisabeth is accused of conspiracy. To prove her innocence and catch the real culprits, she’ll need the help of sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn — but can she trust anyone who gained their power from a deal with a demon? Reminiscent of Howl’s Moving Castle and Strange the Dreamer, this incredible novel instantly became one of my all-time favorites.
– Madeline S.