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Cait Flanders follows up The Year of Less with Adventures in Opting Out, a guide to navigating the road less traveled. I always feel better after I read Cait Flanders; there’s something about her mix of practicality and truth-telling that both soothes and inspires me. Interviews with fellow travelers, anecdotes, and sound wisdom make this a fast and inspirational read. 2020 has been filled with all sorts of intentional and unintentional adventures in opting out, and Flanders offers a sturdy and flexible framework to navigate whatever path you are currently on.

I read this at a time when I was only too happy to disappear into someone else’s world — a place where there was no pandemic, no rising unemployment rate, and a very different flavor of political turmoil. Black Sun is fantasy inspired by the Indigenous cultures of North and Central America. The world-building is meticulous and detailed. This is a big book with a lot of moving pieces that switches viewpoint and location with every chapter. It takes a tremendous amount of skill to make a plot this large work well, and to herd all the pieces into place. Roanhorse accomplishes all this easily, and I’m very curious to read the next book and find out what’s happening next.

A memoir of growing up in the Northwest, living below the federal poverty line, with a father who was larger than life, sometimes abusive, and always a force to be reckoned with. One of the things I really loved about this book was how it illuminated new corners of the Northwest — towns I’d never heard of, places I’ve only passed through. Ontiveros’s love of the natural world comes shining through. I also loved her refusal to reduce her father to a simple villain. She shows us his complexity without excusing his abusive behavior.

Sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews is living away from home for the first time. She’s dealing with the loss of her mother, and enrolled in a highly competitive academic program. I’ve always been fascinated by Arthurian retakes, but I haven’t read anything lately quite as brilliant as Legendborn. Deonn combines Southern Black culture and history, Arthurian myths, inherited trauma, grief, and more. The result is a smart, sharp urban fantasy that does not flinch or back down when talking about the legacy of chattel slavery and colonization. Oh, and the banter is world-class. What more could you want?

I love the art and inventive storytelling in this stunning young adult graphic novel. Tien has a secret that he wants to share with his parents and he's trying to find the right words for it. Tien speaks mostly English, while his parents speak mostly Vietnamese. They connect as a family by reading stories together. Using a beautiful color palate, Trung Le Nguyen weaves together the family’s past and present with the fairy tales they share, helping Tien find the words to come out to his family.

At last, the fourth and final book in the An Ember in the Ashes series is almost here! This series has it all: expansive world-building, complicated characters, intense action, steamy romance, and now an approaching apocalypse. I can’t wait to see how this series wraps ups and what happens to Laia, Elias, and the Blood Shrike. Since it is being released December 1, I have plenty of time to go back and reread the first three books to get ready for this sure-to-be thrilling conclusion.

I loved Kelly Yang’s previous book, Front Desk, and am so excited for this second book about life at the Calivista Motel. Things are looking up now that the Tang family and their investors have bought the motel, but problems arise for Mia and her best friend Lupe when they go back to school. The girls have a mean new homeroom teacher, and a proposed law cracking down on immigration is on everyone’s mind. I look forward to seeing how bighearted, plucky Mia deals with these new challenges.

This graphic novel from Portlander Seaerra Miller is gorgeous! The full color brings the quirky and fun illustrations to life. Mason Mooney is a wannabe paranormal investigator who is often outshined by the Paranormal Society led by heartthrob Trent Reilly. Mason finally lands a haunted house case that just may be his ticket to the fame he knows he deserves. Can he and new friend Iris find out who or what is haunting her older sister? This book is delightful, the perfect balance of sass and supernatural spookiness.

Sometimes, I need a good rom-com to escape into, and this second novel from Ben Philippe hits the spot. Henri is currently charming his way through his prestigious high school, trying to keep his parents happy, and earn some money walking dogs in order to reach his goal of being accepted into Columbia University. Things are going to plan until his classmate Corinne discovers that the dog walking company he works for is not what it seems. What starts as blackmail grows into friendship and romance. This book is very fun, romantic, and yes, charming.

A book by the Fan Brothers is always such a welcome treat! Brothers Terry, Eric, and Devin collaborate on this adorable story about Barnabus, a failed half-mouse, half-elephant toy created in an underground lab for genetically modified “perfect” creatures. Barnabus isn’t quite fluffy enough and has been deemed a failed project, due to be recycled along with his other misfit friends. The gang hatches a plan to escape the lab in this gorgeously detailed adventure story.

Sixteen-year-old Amal has been wrongly accused of a crime he didn’t commit, simply for being in the wrong place in the wrong time. Brilliantly written in verse by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five, Punching the Air is an impactful and necessary book for young adults, families, and educators trying to understand the injustice of systemic racism.

In this companion to Oliver Jeffers's Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth, What We’ll Build is a letter of hope to build a better future. Together, father and daughter build a world of love, understanding, and compassion, setting aside favorite things and memories for days when everything seems more difficult. Wonderful for reading together.

A companion to Newbery and Coretta Scott King American Library Award winner, The New Kid, Class Act follows Jordan’s friend Drew Ellis, an eighth-grader at Riverdale Academy Day School. This highly anticipated graphic novel for ages eight and above take the reader through Drew’s experience of working 10 times harder than his privileged peers for the same opportunities, while dealing with prejudices and microaggressions from his classmates and teachers. Illustrating tough situations with humor and compassion, Craft writes and illustrates from an authentic voice.

Eighteen-year-old Ginny has been helping her father raise her brothers Wes and Harry since her mother went missing eight years ago, after a catastrophic earthquake along the Cascadia Faultline. When a mysterious package arrives at their doorstep, Ginny knows she must leave the homestead in search of her mother to discover possible answers in an uncertain future. Award-winning author Jonathan Hill's trichromatic illustrations and story, set in the rich, forested Western landscape, is as compelling as it is beautiful.

I plan to be the most popular person at the Thanksgiving table this year with the help of local author Kate McDermott's Pie Camp. I loved her previous book, The Art of the Pie, and look forward to leveling up my pie skills. Maybe I'm just hungry, but every page of this book makes me want to get out a rolling pin and attempt to recreate her gorgeous pies.

There is no book that I would rather be reading this fall than His Truth Is Marching On. Jon Meacham is a powerful writer and his portrait of Congressman Lewis is sure to be one of the most significant books of the year.

It doesn't sound very sexy to call How to Catch a Queen the perfect romance for 2020, but honestly this is exactly the right book for the world right now. Our heroine is an activist and feminist who agrees to marry the king of a failing kingdom in order to bring positive change to his small country and the people who live there. This story proves that a quiet voice can still be powerful, that ignorance is not a valid excuse, and that you can fix a whole lotta problems with education and tongue kissing.

Allie Brosh fans have been waiting 100 years for this book to be ready. I just know it will be funny, tragic, awkward, and totally relatable.

Horowitz returns to the wonderful characters from Magpie Murders and revisits the book-within-a-book plotting device. It works again, brilliantly, in this bright, modern homage to Agatha Christie.

Based on my love for Ferrante's Neopolitan Quartet, I'm waiting impatiently for this new offering. Again set in Naples, featuring class struggle and a young woman's coming-of-age, this promises to be classic Ferrante.

I rarely read fantasy, but this story pulled me compulsively through all 600 pages, from France in the 1700s to current day NYC. Addie LaRue makes a deal with "darkness" for immortality, only the catch is that no one will remember her once she is out of sight. This makes Addie's 300-year adventure a fascinating challenge and a great tale of choosing life despite crippling loneliness, forging a career as an artistic muse, outwitting the "dark," and finding love.

Tana French's latest is set in a small Irish village and features a retired Chicago cop. It's richly atmospheric. Like all French's work, it is dark and utterly compelling.

Bring me the ocean! We are so lucky here in the PNW, whether we want desert, mountains, or ocean, it's only a couple hours away. I like to spend my downtime at the ocean: long walks with the pups breathing in the sea air, picking through the sand for shelled treasures, and exploring the rocks during low tide. Ocean Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of the World Under the Sea is the sort of book that I use as a nature guide — showing me what the ocean offers, even if I can't see if for myself. The charming illustrations make this a great crossover for the children in our lives too.

The calmness of nature poetry combined with beautiful watercolor artistry makes for a delightful combination. I find myself staring at the few sample copies provided, and yearning for more. I'm bookmarking this title as my go-to gift for all my fellow nature lovers.

Nobody can bring the sights and flavors of Louisiana to mind quite like James Lee Burke. The incredibly steadfast Detective Robicheaux will guide us through another mystery, but this particular novel contains quite a bit of the supernatural. There is always a little something for everyone in James Lee Burke's novels, and I suspect this one will bring a few more followers to the fold.

There are a lot of ways to replace that yearning for travel: read a great book with destinations far and wide, or perhaps watch a favorite movie with beautiful vistas. Good choices indeed, but I'm thinking that combining my love of European cities and embroidery is the way to go for me. The COVID era has given me an opportunity to refine my embroidery skills, and I can't wait to stitch up the streets of Europe for my next project.

Poetry is difficult for me. I like poetry, and I don't like it. It's not uncommon for me to find a book of poetry so lifeless that I put the poems down and never return to the words. Kate Baer has a different effect on me. Her relatable prose can hit me hard. Is this her life she's writing about, or is it mine? Her first book, What Kind of Woman: Poems, focuses on all things female: friendships, dating, marriage, motherhood, and life. With Baer's words, spoken from a place of pure honesty and practicality, I find myself wondering whom in my life can I share this book with.

There are a lot of choices in evolutionary science titles, and I personally feel it can get a bit overwhelming. When Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens came out a few years ago, it really brought evolutionary science to the masses. Thoughtful, engaging writing that is accessible, even to the non-science-y folks. With The Birth of Human Kind (Sapiens #1), we can see Harari's work brought to life in captivating illustrations, further encouraging us to discuss and debate our favorite subject: us. Who are we really, and where did we come from?

Nik Sharma’s stunning Flavor Equation deserves to be shelved next to your copy of Salt Fat Acid Heat. Sharma makes the science of cooking cool, fascinating, and completely relevant to growing your skills in the kitchen. Backed by over 100 recipes that exemplify the text and fill the belly.

John Malkovich, truly like you’ve never seen him before, posing as famous photographs. Malkovich as Che Guevara. Malkovich in haunting despair as Migrant Mother in the Dust Bowl shot by Dorothy Lange. Malkovich as a surprisingly beautiful Marilyn Monroe. Both a paean to great photographers and to Malkovich’s simple yet deep acting style.

Move past the stodgily written museum labels to learn the quirky backstories of the art you visit at the galleries. Monet: not just a blotter of pretty paint, but a rebel badass! Norman Rockwell: painter of cheesy Americana, or really cool and socially conscious artist? ArtCurious is a fun and engaging look at art history. No, really, it is!

Vivian Howard is one of my favorite TV chefs and I adored her first cookbook, Deep Run Roots. So naturally, I am looking forward to This Will Make It Taste Good. Who doesn’t want their food to taste good? She has an easy teaching style and her flavors are bright and often simple. Howard is an outstanding chef who makes your home cooking taste like her restaurant cooking. One hundred and twenty-five recipes, and I have deep love for every one of them.

I can’t but help fall in love with every new Marcus Samuelsson cookbook and The Rise is no exception. The Rise is a global celebration of Black cooking and of Black cooks. Americans owe a great deal of our food history to unsung and forgotten cooks of yesteryear. Samuelsson brings back respect and a feel of history to these folks whom time and society have erased. Here are 150 Black American recipes that will energize your kitchen.

Before Fun Home and Are You My Mother?, this brilliant creator brought us the long-running, hilarious, insightful, and heartbreaking comic strip, "Dykes to Watch Out For." My all-time favorite soap opera in cartoon form.

From the remarkable Roxane Gay, a graphic novel of her bestselling short story, a world where a tragic event has taken away the light of the sun.

Katie Skelly's sense of the strange, her delightful cartooning, and the underlying unhinged true crime story make an unbeatable combination. I can't wait.

Rucka is the cocreator and writer of a long list of great comics, graphic novels, and thrillers. He brought us the series Stumptown, set in a very real and current Portland, and the new Netflix hit, The Old Guard. This is my superhero pick of the season, but there's not much of the costumed kind here.

The publisher describes this as Rear Window meets Get Out. The heartbreak of your lifelong neighborhood being lost to gentrification turns to fear, paranoia, and wonder. What is happening to all those people who moved out of the neighborhood? I can't wait to find out.

Here is a standalone thriller from the master of Scandinavian dark mysteries. I'll make sure to read this with the lights on. Sure glad I don't live in Norway!

This traditional mystery threatens to become much more. It's the 1950s in Ireland, and the Catholic Church stands against any truth the police might uncover in the untimely murder of a priest.