Zadie Smith
[isbn]
A snapshot of the multitudes of experience in 1970s London. White Teeth won Zadie Smith the Guardian First Book Award, the Betty Trask Award, and others. This is also Smith's debut novel.
Recommended by Alex Y.
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Louise Penny
[isbn]
A Better Man, the latest from master mystery writer Louise Penny, sees Armand Gamache back in his old position of head of homicide, after a demotion due to his actions in previous books. Penny's graceful, gentle writing and incisive psychological portraits continue to make this series better and better; this most recent addition to the story of Three Pines will please current fans and recruit new ones.
Recommended by Lucinda G.
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Hanif Abdurraqib
[isbn]
Hanif Abdurraqib’s unflinching and unabashed new poetry collection is a deeply personal work of grief, sorrow, loss, self-reflection, remembrance, violence, love, and death. Gritty and graceful, piercing and profound, A Fortune for Your Disaster connects the forgotten and the unforgettable — stirring your heart almost as easily as it breaks it.
Recommended by Jeremy G.
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Melanie Golding
[isbn]
I'll read just about anything with elements of creepy folklore, so I was all over this contemporary-thriller-meets-modern-fairy-tale. And it met my high hopes — I was fully engaged from the beginning, and sections were downright terrifying.
Recommended by Emily F.
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Chase Berggrun
[isbn]
R E D is razor-sharp, so so good, careful it may cut you. Dedicated to survivors of rape, sexual abuse, and domestic violence, the book is an erasure of Dracula by Bram Stoker; by cutting away at a deeply misogynist source text, Berggrun is able to reveal a story where the narrator recovers an "agency stolen from her predecessors" — an erasure that feels particularly loaded with significance when performed by a trans poet upon a... (read more)
Recommended by Darla M.
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Bryn Greenwood
[isbn]
Starting a new Bryn Greenwood book is like the best first date — all butterflies and promise. I fell immediately and hopelessly in love with Zee and Gentry, just like I did with Wavy and Kellen in All the Ugly and Wonderful Things. Greenwood writes characters that I feel in my soul, and I very nearly cannot bear to see them hurt.
Recommended by Emily F.
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Akihito Tukushi
[isbn]
Made in Abyss transitions smoothly between sugary cuteness and body horror, delightful coming-of-age adventuring and heartrending gut punches to your soul. It's the best thing ever and everyone should experience it!
Recommended by Cosima C.
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Shuzo Oshimi
[isbn]
Inside Mari is the quintessential body swap tale with a twist — a dark and deeply psychological coming-of-age story that plumbs the depths of gender, desire, and identity. A must-read.
Recommended by Cosima C.
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Carmen Maria Machado
[isbn]
Impossible to put down, even when it made my heart hurt/stomach turn/eyes sting with tears, Machado's memoir unfolds with the insidious, blooming ache of a bruise into something spectacular and necessary. One of the best books I’ve read this year, and ever.
Recommended by Tove H.
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Beth Piatote
[isbn]
Beth Piatote’s collection is a stunning debut. The variety of forms that her writing takes is audacious, and the skill with which she pulls it all off is enviable. Each story is filled with insight and empathy and the book as a whole is both moving and invigorating. This is a writer to watch. The Beadworkers is the best short story collection I’ve read this year.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Juan Jose Millas, Thomas Bunstead, Daniel Hahn
[isbn]
With an outlandish premise that is equal parts discomforting and absurd, From the Shadows probes the psyche of a middle-aged man who, after having been unceremoniously laid-off, decides to dabble in a bit of domestic hermitism. That is, he surreptitiously occupies the negative space, both literal and figurative, in a nuclear family's suburban abode, tidying up and doing odd jobs when no one is looking. As privacy violations go, it's on... (read more)
Recommended by Justin W.
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Téa Obreht
[isbn]
In Obreht's newest novel, she proves that the success she had with her debut (The Tiger's Wife) was no fluke. Her beautiful use of language perfectly captures the harsh, punishing experience of Arizona in the 1800s. This lovely, sad, and haunting book will stick with you for a very long time.
Recommended by Leah C.
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Amanda Goldblatt
[isbn]
Hard Mouth is one of the most unique novels about grieving I've ever read, with an utterly original narrative voice. Denny lives a solitary life working in a laboratory in Washington, DC, hanging out with her family, her longtime best friend, and her imaginary friend Gene. When her dad's cancer comes back and he decides to forego treatment, her existence is upended in almost every way imaginable. Thoughtful, dark, and page-turning,... (read more)
Recommended by Jill O.
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Lorraine Heath
[isbn]
Beyond Scandal and Desire is the first book in the A Sin for All Seasons series. The whole series revolves around the Trewlove siblings. They are not related to each other but all have a fierce love for the widow who took them in as babies and an incredible loyalty to their makeshift family. With three books out so far and the fourth about to arrive in August, Mick and Aslyn's story from Beyond Scandal is still my favorite of... (read more)
Recommended by Mecca A.
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Beverly Jenkins
[isbn]
I love historical romances, but I'm guilty of picking up books that cover obscure parts of English history and ignoring excellent authors writing about American history. My new favorite author is Beverly Jenkins and her books about powerful African American men and women after the Civil War. Rebel has one of her strongest leads yet with the story of Valinda Lacy and her quest for independence from her family. Her growing relationship... (read more)
Recommended by Jennifer V.
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Maria Vale
[isbn]
I devoured the three books in the Maria Vale series The Legend of All Wolves. The third book, Forever Wolf, came out this year and it was the most wild of the pack. These books have the most natural and untamed account of a pack that is trying to survive living with humans and other shifters. I've enjoyed Vale's unique Wolf world and hunger for more books about the Great North Pack.
Recommended by Jennifer V.
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Thea Harrison
[isbn]
Pia is half human and half... something else. She's not entirely sure what. Pia made the mistake of trusting someone with her secrets and to fix it, she has to steal from a dragon. When this dragon catches up with her, their passion practically sets them on fire. While the romance is very intense, this book still had me laughing. My first paranormal romance... and you never forget your first.
Recommended by Rose H.
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Julia Quinn
[isbn]
Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series is one of my all-time favorites. The first book, The Duke and I, introduces a family saga so heartwarming, funny, romantic, and sexy that I find myself coming back again and again. Don't sleep on these books — especially because Shonda Rhimes is adapting the series for Netflix. Looking for queer historical romance as good as Julia Quinn? Try Cat Sebastian!
Recommended by Joanna S.
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Jean Baptiste Del Amo, Frank Wynne
[isbn]
A poetical, naturalistic revelation steeped in pervasive filth and shrieking fauna that's as sumptuous in detail as it is revolting in its bloodletting specificity. Animalia is a novel epic in both scope and execution, spanning the 20th century on a spit of farmland that grows from agricultural backwater to industrialized operation without ever sacrificing its central thesis: life is precious, life is cruel. Jean-Baptiste Del Amo renders... (read more)
Recommended by Justin W.
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Yukio Mishima, Sam Bett
[isbn]
Mishima's glitzy melange of playboy paranoia and heartthrob ennui cracks the proverbial 15 minutes wide open, spilling all the juicy details regarding fawning sycophants, monotonous re-shoots, and the anesthetizing effect of prolonged exposure to the limelight. Death-haunted and contemptuous, Star is a sneering "up yours" to celebrity and fanaticism depicted in panoramic decadence — though, notably, nowhere is its critique more biting... (read more)
Recommended by Justin W.
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Franny Choi
[isbn]
Choi's collection is a brilliant exploration of how we choose to recognize or deny other people's humanity. The tension between "hard" and "soft" sciences, between machinery and emotion, art and artifice, the real world and an online one, human and cyborg, was a constant reminder of the way we make hard and fast distinctions between "us" and "them" — and what we lose in doing so. Implicating everything from gendered language to Twitter trolls,... (read more)
Recommended by Darla M.
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Patrick Dewitt
[isbn]
Where to start with this strange little book? The Sisters brothers are a pair of killers-for-hire: Charlie, the hard-boiled pragmatist of the pair; Eli, the reluctant, sensitive softy. Assigned their next hit, the pair begins a long and winding journey which leads them in a wildly atypical direction: they befriend their "hit" and events diverge from the normal sordid path. Packed with quirky, dark humor and razor-sharp character studies, The... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Kira Jane Buxton
[isbn]
A foul-mouthed crow and a bloodhound adventure through the wilderness of postapocalyptic Seattle fighting monsters while rescuing animals in need of help. Kira Jane Buxton’s dark sense of humor and witty narrative make Hollow Kingdom a dystopian delight.
Recommended by Mary Jo S.
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Jos Charles
[isbn]
This book is astounding in so many capacities — its queering of language, its commitment to ambiguity and opacity, its attentiveness to violence against trans bodies on the one hand and to beauty and wonder on the other. What I love most is the way I find myself having to sound out each and every word in order to really recognize the language I am reading — the alternate spellings of words not only allow for different possible readings of a word,... (read more)
Recommended by Darla M.
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Joy Harjo
[isbn]
Joy Harjo is our new U.S. Poet Laureate and I'm so excited! Her poems never fail to make me gasp, they are always so perfectly truthful and beautiful, painful and real. This collection weaves between the past and present of both her tribe and her personal experiences and is once again gasp-worthy.
Recommended by Leah C.
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Amanda Coplin
[isbn]
Amanda Coplin’s debut novel fits squarely into the Really Wonderful Novel category, and deserves a far wider readership. Set among the apple orchards of Washington’s Wenatchee Valley, The Orchardist follows the life of the introspective Talmadge, who, as a child, loses his family in quick succession to accident, illness, and mystery. As an adult, Talmadge’s solitary life is disrupted by the arrival of two pregnant runaway prostitutes,... (read more)
Recommended by Rhianna W.
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Rachel Cusk
[isbn]
A writer goes to Athens to teach a class... and nothing much happens. And yet, I couldn't put this quiet, consuming novel down. Cusk just lets her characters talk, and her narrator listen, and the whole thing comes together in an impressionistic chaos of images and muted longing.
Recommended by Eva F.
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Sarah Gailey
[isbn]
Magic for Liars is a magical noir set in a faux-Hogwarts, and dives deep into the millennial psyche. I found myself relating more to the main character (a struggling, non-magical private investigator) in ways I didn't expect, and which I've been dwelling on ever since I put the book down. I will read everything Sarah Gailey writes in perpetuity.
Recommended by Joanna S.
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Amy Hempel
[isbn]
I loved every story of this concise, precise collection. As the title suggests, Hempel's prose sings — to a harmed and harmful world, to shelter dogs, to cuckolds and climate change and children given away at birth. Not a soothing song, but an aching-loving-necessary one.
Recommended by Darla M.
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Andre Aciman
[isbn]
The sequel to Call Me by Your Name is probably one of the most anticipated books in the literary world, and yes, it was worth the wait. The continuation of the story of Elio and Oliver examines the lives they've lived separately for the past 20 years, and it's genius how well Aciman recaptures the essence of these two. Untangling themes of loneliness, love, commitment, and the intangible idea of soul mates, Aciman writes a story that... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Toni Morrison
[isbn]
This book of collected essays, speeches, and meditations spans the length of Morrison's long and illustrious career. From investigating the ways in which American writers have confronted or failed to confront racism over the course of our literary history to illustrating how these same considerations have played out in her own novels, from essays about the changing language around war to beautiful commemorations of black leaders and thinkers,... (read more)
Recommended by Darla M.
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N K Jemisin
[isbn]
I had to put off this final story in the Broken Earth trilogy simply because I devoured the previous two with breakneck speed. As the story concludes, N. K. Jemisin's talent does not. Readers have reached the end of Nassun's journey, but I daresay that it won't be the last time you enter the Stillness.
Recommended by Alex Y.
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Jeanette Winterson
[isbn]
Veering between satire, romantic reverence, and meditation on the nature of intelligence, Frankissstein explores how the ongoing quest for the future often comes at the expense of the present.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Mitchell Jackson
[isbn]
Survival Math is a brilliant memoir told in a unique and powerful voice. Jackson explores his family history, the history of Portland, and the larger issues that surrounded his childhood. “Survival math” refers to the hard economic choices he and his family made in one the whitest cities in America. Jackson’s eloquent and mesmerizing prose makes this a standout read.
Recommended by Mary Jo S.
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Olga Tokarczuk and Antonia Lloyd Jones
[isbn]
Crackling with energy and wholly original, Olga Tokarczuk dazzles with this literary thriller that is both ecofeminist manifesto and page-turning whodunit. Tokarczuk transports the reader to a snowy, isolated plateau in Poland where villagers are mysteriously turning up dead. This book is fierce and essential, fundamentally challenging how we perceive the world.
Recommended by Mary S.
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Ursula K Le Guin
[isbn]
No list of Pacific Northwest must-haves is complete without a title from our reigning goddess of sci-fi, fantasy, and literature, Ursula K. Le Guin. The Lathe of Heaven, to me, feels like her sleeper hit; of course, lots of people have read and loved it, and there are even two TV movie adaptations, but it still doesn't seem to get the recognition of The Left Hand of Darkness or her Earthsea series. Published in 1971 and set in... (read more)
Recommended by Jill O.
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Clarice Lispector, Benjamin Moser, Johnny Lorenz
[isbn]
A dazzling novel of surfaces — every sentence enchants. Lispector's protagonist, Lucrecia Neves, becomes a kind of vehicle for exploring the function of looking — the way that looking is not a passive act but a participatory one, an act in which we not only observe the world we live in, but create it. The Besieged City is one of Lispector's more experimental novels, and as far as I'm concerned, one of her best.
Recommended by Darla M.
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Joe Sacco
[isbn]
I’ve been an admirer of local war reporter/comics journalist Joe Sacco since reading Safe Area Goražde, his incredible long-form comic about the Bosnian War. Journalism gathers many of his shorter cartoon pieces from war zones ranging from the Russian military occupation of Chechnya to the Iraq War to the Gaza Strip. Though the locations change, Sacco’s commitment to capturing the daily realities of both military and civilian... (read more)
Recommended by Rhianna W.
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Margaret Malone
[isbn]
Margaret Malone's debut book of short stories will grab you and amuse you and maybe horrify you with its wry and dark look at the small imperfections that make us human. A lovely, clear, engaging voice.
Recommended by Doug C.
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Raymond Carver
[isbn]
In Cathedral, Carver’s third short story collection, he adds more detail and color to his bleak landscapes, and the unrelenting misery of his characters abates a bit. There’s a breath of possibility in every story, a beam of light that illuminates and pierces the heart of the reader, and it’s those moments of illumination that grab me every time I read through Cathedral.
Recommended by Mary Jo S.
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Ruth Ozeki
[isbn]
A Tale for the Time Being is a hard book to describe. First of all, it’s two stories in one — the story of Ruth Ozeki (the character, who may or may not also be Ruth Ozeki, the author), a writer living on a Pacific Northwest island where a diary from Japan washes up on the beach, and Nao, the teenaged Japanese journal writer whose story Ruth gets caught up in. But it’s so much more than that — it’s also the story of Nao’s family, Ruth’s... (read more)
Recommended by Leah C.
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Ursula K Le Guin
[isbn]
The Farthest Shore becomes the story of Ged being a mentor in a way you never thought he would. He and Prince Arren sail the archipelago together on a quest to quell the darkness engulfing the lives of those touched by wizardry. You get to see Ged's thoughts and ways of life age in a way opposite of how we knew him in Wizard of Earthsea. I highly recommend this book if you'd like to continue your journey in Earthsea.
Recommended by Rin S.
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Quim Monzo, Peter Bush
[isbn]
Quim Monzó’s stories start by sketching simple human foibles, and then things get gloriously weird.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Craig Davidson
[isbn]
Craig Davidson honors both the wonder of childhood and the unsettling truths of adulthood in this engaging novel about pursuing the supernatural.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Amor Towles
[isbn]
Yes, everything you've heard about A Gentleman in Moscow is true; if I had my way, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov would be my dad. Beginning in 1922, Towles tells the story of a Russian count under house arrest in the Moscow Metropol Hotel, and follows his charmed (yes, really!) life for the next 30 years. The Count is an extraordinary fellow, with charisma, smarts, and kindness in excess, and it's pretty hard not to fall in love with... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Elly Griffiths
[isbn]
Elly Griffiths writes a spooky ghost story and a chilling murder mystery tangled into one creepy novel. Set in a school on the moors of rural England, with a haunted mansion and plenty of intrigue, The Stranger Diaries is framed by a sinister horror story, and absolutely every character is hiding something. Peppered throughout with literary references and — surprisingly — some spot-on humor, this is the brilliant gothic/ghost/school... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Karl Marlantes
[isbn]
Despite its length, Deep River is a quick read. Over the course of several decades, it follows the life of Aino, a Finnish woman who comes to the PNW in the early 1900s with her brothers, and is chock-full of wonderful characters, settings, and historical and political detailS. Seven hundred-plus pages still aren't enough!
Recommended by Leah C.
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Liska Jacobs
[isbn]
Cilla is starting to realize that there are no earthly rewards for dutiful daughters: her hypercritical mother doesn't appreciate her devotion and her personal life is nonexistent. So when her brother-in-law invites her to Italy to help out with her niece, it seems like the escape she's been waiting for. But Hannah isn't the little girl she remembers; she's grown into a confident young woman with a vibrant social life. And despite the exotic new... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Iain Reid
[isbn]
Oh, Iain Reid, what have you done here? What is this, and why can't I stop reading it? Foe is a book that messed me up — it is messed up — but it's also startling and original. Junior and Hen are a married couple, comfortably settled in the countryside, away from everyone. Even though Junior says, "We don't get visitors. Not out here. We never have," they do indeed have a visitor one night, and there begins the bizarre odyssey... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Tom Spanbauer
[isbn]
It's been a year since I first laid eyes on this book, and I'll tell you not one day has passed that I haven't thought about it. Tom Spanbauer's The Man Who Fell in Love With the Moon has been out since the early 1990s, but the story of Shed and his extraordinary life in Excellent, Idaho, is just as fresh and exciting today. Drawing upon tropes of the colonized Western genre and exploring the landscape of his own unique style, Spanbauer... (read more)
Recommended by Alex Y.
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Tillie Walden
[isbn]
Sweet, sad, and perfectly short, I Love This Part shows the growing feelings between two friends as they turn from platonic to romantic, borne of shared interest and seemingly bigger than the world around them. This story captures the engrossing emotions of young love and depicts the moment it breaks and the heartache that follows.
Recommended by Brianna B.
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Garth Stein
[isbn]
Denny has dreams of becoming the world's best race car driver, but life seems to get in the way. When Denny's life careens out of control, his adorable mutt Enzo tries to be supportive. Enzo is quite ready to be human, so he deeply feels, and is frustrated by, his absence of thumbs and speech. This is a sweet, poignant, and unique book.
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Ruth Ware
[isbn]
Ruth Ware writes another twisty tale for us to devour. This time around there's a surprise letter from an attorney, a will to be read, new family members, and too many secrets to keep quiet. Ware does her typical terrific job of sussing out the motivations and fears of her characters, and her story is flooded with tension. She delivers the goods: a creepy psychological portrait of a family rife with lies and desperation. Delicious!
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Jonathan Evison
[isbn]
Jonathan Evison gives us the feel-good book of the year with Lawn Boy. Twenty-two-year-old Mike's world is falling apart: his job is toast, he has no money, he can't get a girlfriend, he worries constantly about his overworked mother and his special needs brother. All he wants to do is sculpt his topiaries, read great novels, figure out how to survive, and maybe find some companionship. Falling into one strange job after another, Mike is... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Natasha Trethewey
[isbn]
Weaving together personal narrative and historical accounts, Natasha Trethewey exposes the trials of the South both in the past and near-present in her collection of poems titled Native Guard. Her concise style will astound and inspire readers, while her voice feels increasingly important in today's fractured world.
Recommended by Alex Y.
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Eric Puchner
[isbn]
While Warren Ziller is watching his family's financial security bleed out, his wife, Camille, is making really bad public service movies, and their children are struggling to make a meaningful life of their own, something far, far worse is coming their way. A study in modernity, Model Home provides a template for a life gone impossibly wrong. As distressing as the subject matter is, Puchner's three-dimensional characters make this a... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Ursula K Le Guin
[isbn]
Tombs of Atuan takes you on a different journey than you expect to go on, or rather, someone else's journey. You follow Tenar as she gives away her name to the darkness and later discovers her true self and her true name along with the secrets of the tombs and her home. She eventually crosses paths with our favorite wizard, and the story continues. I highly recommend this continuation of the Earthsea series. The lore only gets richer and... (read more)
Recommended by Rin S.
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Abi Andrews
[isbn]
Erin, a young British woman, is inspired by Into The Wild to make her own journey to the Alaskan wilderness while filming a feminist documentary. This isn't your usual travelogue or wilderness survival story. It's fresh and funny, yet deeply philosophical, while drawing inspiration from Ted Kaczynski, Rachel Carson, and the history of the space race. I was personally inspired by the story to be more adventurous.
Recommended by Amy W.
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Ben Lerner
[isbn]
Ben Lerner’s novel is both a contained story of family life and a far-reaching exploration of this exact moment in America. The focus doesn’t stray from Adam, a skilled high school debater, and his parents, both psychologists at a Topeka foundation, but the themes addressed are so numerous that they resemble the “spread” — when debaters inundate their opponents with every argument they can muster. Yet The Topeka School never buckles... (read more)
Recommended by Keith M.
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Euripides
[isbn]
As someone who cannot get my hands on enough Greek and Roman mythology, I was so excited to see Anne Carson had a translation of the little-known poem written by Euripides. Differing from the traditional story where Iphigenia's sacrifice results in death, Euripides presents an alternative — Iphigenia saved by Artemis and transported to the barbaric Taurian land. Anne Carson's translation humanizes Iphigenia, and in this emotional tale we come to... (read more)
Recommended by Alex Y.
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James Ellroy
[isbn]
This is grit lit crime fiction that will suck you in and spit you out feeling like you've just spent an hour in an interrogation room with Vogel and Koenig. The splendid and grotesque Black Dahlia, the first in Ellroy's L.A. Quartet series, it a terrific place to begin.
Recommended by Eva F.
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Benjamin Percy
[isbn]
Since Benjamin Percy never writes the same book twice, I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened his latest. By the end of it, I still wasn't sure. Is it literature, horror, pointed social commentary, or some sort of hybrid? He defies expectations with and between his stories, which range from the grittily realistic to the highly supernatural, and together they form a powerfully affecting display of Percy's range. My personal favorite was... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Morgan Parker
[isbn]
Parker is one of the greatest contemporary poets of this decade and her newest collection does not disappoint. Her electric prose illuminates the page and sparks with energy and life. An overall outstanding read.
Recommended by Haley B.
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Erika Meitner
[isbn]
These poems paint a grappling portrait of life in Southern Appalachia. Meitner tackles religion, violence, racial tensions, and motherhood, all with ever-present empathy and nuance. This collection is a timely and necessary addition to any poetry lover's library.
Recommended by Haley B.
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Katherine Dunn
[isbn]
As a teenager who often felt alone in my weirdness, reading Geek Love changed EVERYTHING for me. Discovering this story of a circus family that purposefully experiments with drugs and chemicals to create children (and therefore performers) with physical deformities rocked my world! The idea that weird could be considered good, that uniqueness was a gift, and that differences should be celebrated? Well, that was mind-blowing. Fast forward... (read more)
Recommended by Leah C.
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Charles D'Ambrosio
[isbn]
Charles D'Ambrosio's essays are excitingly good. They are relevant in the way that makes you read them out loud, to anyone who happens to be around. Their subjects include Hell House, a Christian haunted house in Texas designed for conversion; Mary Kay Letourneau (at the time of her trial); whaling rights for the Makah Tribe in Alaska; his brother's suicide; and the title piece, about life in a Russian orphanage. D'Ambrosio's essays do what good... (read more)
Recommended by Jill O.
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Don Berry
[isbn]
Set along the northern Oregon coast range in the late 1840s, Don Berry’s 1960 landmark novel, Trask, was inspired by the life of settler, mountain man, and fur trapper Elbridge Trask (for whom both a river and a mountain are named here in the Beaver State). Compelling and adventurous, the story follows the titular character as he tries to become the first white man to settle in Tillamook Bay. Along the arduous journey, he and his guide... (read more)
Recommended by Jeremy G.
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Tom Spanbauer
[isbn]
“If you’re the devil, then it’s not me telling this story.” How can a book that opens like that not be the perfect combination of intimate and epic? Tom Spanbauer’s iconic tale of the (very quirky, very particular) Old West follows the lives of Idaho madam Ida Richlieu, widowed prostitute Alma Hatch, Montana cowboy Dellwood Barker, and narrator “Shed,” a half-Shoshone bisexual young man seeking love in a hostile world. Written with his brilliant... (read more)
Recommended by Gigi L.
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Molly Gloss
[isbn]
Set in the brutal Oregon high country in the 1890s, The Jump-Off Creek tells the story of the widow Lydia Sanderson and her struggles to settle in an unforgiving land. Gloss did her research, drawing on pioneer journals and hand-me-down stories, and she writes with a quiet restraint that respects the characters and their vast surroundings. Anyone interested in what life was actually like for Oregon's pioneers — the elaborate... (read more)
Recommended by Renee P.
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Barry Lopez
[isbn]
As someone who has broadened the notion of what it means to be both a world traveler and a profoundly curious writer, it’s no wonder that National Book Award–winning author Barry Lopez, now 74 years old and battling terminal cancer, has given us a work so expansive it can only be named Horizon. Lopez has visited more than 70 countries, and though his book is loosely divided into just six regions — from the Oregon Coast to the... (read more)
Recommended by Renee P.
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Jay Ponteri
[isbn]
This deeply introspective and meditative memoir is near and dear to my heart: I reread it often, and recommend it to those who aren't afraid to ask difficult questions and sit with the uneasiness of where those questions might lead — deeper into the unknown, unknowing self, perhaps. Wedlocked deals heavily with questions of shame and its consequences: the struggle to be both seen and to remain secretive inside a marriage, the appeal of... (read more)
Recommended by Darla M.
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Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy
[isbn]
The second volume of this graphic novel adaptation of the McElroys' much-beloved D&D podcast grants +2 to all stats and delivers the goods. Longtime listeners and first-time readers alike are sure to be delighted by Carey Pietsch’s joyous rendering of this classic train mystery — featuring, as all good train mysteries do, a secret moon base (with no dogs allowed), a mystical being known as Garfield the Deals Warlock, questionable physics, and... (read more)
Recommended by Madeline S.
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Rene Denfeld
[isbn]
Like the iridescence of butterfly wings, dazzling and magical, Butterfly Girl is perfectly stunning.
Recommended by Adrienne C.
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Jo Baker
[isbn]
Baker pens a timely story of the female experience today, and it's unpleasant — the experience, not the story. After a violent attack, our nameless narrator can only express that she needs to flee, to get away from the man, the memory. But it's not long before her new situation devolves into something far worse than the attack she fled. Baker lays bare the underlying problem of male/female relationships: women are often seen only in reference to... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Maria Kuznetsova
[isbn]
Oksana, Behave! begins as a quirky, darkly humorous coming-of-age story. Oksana, the daughter of a Ukrainian family relocated to Gainesville, doesn't fit in, or doesn't want to, and the family's Eastern European sensibilities are withering in the Floridian sun. But as Oksana matures, so does the novel. A family tragedy changes her trajectory and we follow Oksana as she navigates adulthood, making some head-scratching choices as she tries... (read more)
Recommended by Bill L.
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Tana French
[isbn]
Readers familiar with Tana French's books will not be surprised by the depth of her latest mystery, nor by the dark current that runs beneath the surface of the plot. It begins typically enough: crimes are committed — maybe unrelated, maybe not — and the narrator takes it upon himself to conduct his own investigation. But the book doesn't end with the killer's confession, it continues on into the aftermath. And what starts out as an engrossing... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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R.O. Kwon
[isbn]
To call The Incendiaries a love story would be an oversimplification. There is love, yes, but there is also the darkness beyond that, where love crosses the line into obsession, and faith into fanaticism, and pain into annihilation. R. O. Kwon doesn't waste a single word, with prose sharp enough to draw blood and a distinctive, fully realized voice. I fully expect this to be one of the most-discussed debuts of 2018!
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Oyinkan Braithwaite
[isbn]
Blood is thicker than bleach, and you can find both in abundance in this short and addictive novel about two sisters who have to cover up some very dark secrets. The dynamic between Ayoola, a compelling and murderous golden child, and her sister Korede, the one roped into cleaning up the dirty work, is strained with tension and adoration that play a wicked game of tug-of-war so close it could seemingly tear the book right in half.
Recommended by Brianna B.
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Fonda Lee
[isbn]
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.
Recommended by Doug C.
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Lisa Kleypas
[isbn]
Kleypas's Wallflowers books are the perfect Regency romance novels. A group of friends, dubbed this season's "wallflowers," are determined to find great husbands... "trap" is probably a better word. The first book in the series starts with Annabelle — she looks the part of a noble, except that she isn't one. And she's determined to find a rich aristocrat to save her family from the streets. Simon, rich but without a title, ruins everything...
Recommended by Rose H.
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Kresley Cole
[isbn]
Werewolves and vampires hate each other. Everyone knows that. So when Lachlain finds the woman destined to be his mate, he is more than a little disappointed to find that she's a vampire. Emma wants nothing to do with him — in fact, she's terrified of the crazed werewolf. This book is full of sass and excitement. I love the world Kresley Cole has created.
Recommended by Rose H.
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Maaza Mengiste
[isbn]
From its first beautiful sentence — “She does not want to remember but she is here and memory is gathering bones” — Maaza Mengiste’s magisterial The Shadow King drew me into the stark, dusty sweep of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. Drenched in the blazing light of near-equatorial Africa , a light that feels almost omniscient as it slants through the narrative, the novel focuses most closely on a female servant named Hirut who becomes a... (read more)
Recommended by Rhianna W.
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Joe Hill
[isbn]
It's no wonder that Joe Hill is one of my favorite authors of horror. These electrifying, horrifyingly fantastical stories are mind-blowing! Huge imagination and strange creatures
make Full Throttle so good! Perfect for around the campfire!
Recommended by Adrienne C.
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Sarah Gailey
[isbn]
By pieces True Grit and Ocean's Eleven, but with hippos, this novella is as stunningly brutal as it is effortlessly entertaining. Set in an alternate universe that is almost true to life, the prototypical cowboy heist story becomes a grim and swampy romp with diverse characters that you love to hate and hate to love. The only downside? River of Teeth is so short that you'll be begging for the sequel.
Recommended by Allison S.
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Nick Drnaso
[isbn]
Technically a mystery. Technically a graphic novel. But in my mind, Nick Drnaso's Sabrina occupies a category all its own, with its horrifyingly hyperrealistic story line juxtaposed with its drab and oversimplified art. Sabrina creeps up on you and will leave you with an urgent desire to get off the Internet.
Recommended by Alex Y.
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Wendy N Wagner
[isbn]
An enjoyable thriller on an alien world. The story moved quickly, but with thoughtful pauses in the action for character and meaning. Relatable to our own world, but not in a preachy way. I’d love to see more of the protagonists and just more in general from this author.
Recommended by Doug C.
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Ocean Vuong
[isbn]
Every sentence of On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous is a gift crafted with care and obsessive attention to the little details that make up our brief existence. This debut novel from poet Ocean Vuong is heartbreaking and revelatory, writing from a place writers rarely dare to tread.
Recommended by Alex Y.
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Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder
[isbn]
I was incredibly excited to read a review copy of this book, and it did not disappoint. It's a short read with a very big idea; after everything we know disappears, what is left? This is a great read for fans of Murakami or last year's The Travelling Cat Chronicles.
Recommended by Deana R.
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Kat Gardiner
[isbn]
Kat Gardiner’s Little Wonder is a wondrous little book. In tiny, engaging fragments, it tells the tale of Gardiner’s one-year foray into owning a business — a coffee shop music venue in Anacortes, Washington. Poignantly, beautifully written, Little Wonder examines the joy and heartbreak of trying and failing at something you love.
Recommended by Gigi L.
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Kate Atkinson
[isbn]
Juliet is a strange duck, and I loved every minute of her prevarications, snarky inner monologue, fondness for Shakespeare, and impressive appetite. Britain during WWII is always a compelling setting, but Kate Atkinson’s London, peopled with fifth columnists, shady spies, and earnest BBC programmers, evokes the period’s strangeness and moral ambiguity to wonderful effect.
Recommended by Rhianna W.
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Chuck Klosterman
[isbn]
Chuck Klosterman’s latest book is an ’80s cartoon-themed lunchbox full of microdoses of unreality. Each story lays silly putty down on a conventional thought or woke ideal and stretches the afterimage. It’s like Thirty Two Short Films About What If We’re Wrong?.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Ursula K Le Guin
[isbn]
In my eyes, Tehanu is the tale of a family being woven together. We are reintroduced to Tenar, and are given a glimpse into what her life has been like since the escape from Atuan. She and Ged become parental figures to a mysterious injured child, and are brought closer together for it. This is a story of all levels of love and hardship that bring communities together during times of chaos.
Recommended by Rin S.
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Alix Nathan
[isbn]
"Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true." That old adage certainly applies to Alix Nathan's terrific tale of the rampant abuses inherent in the days before ethics committees existed. Rich, intellectual, science-loving Herbert Powyss can have anything he wants, and does, but it's not enough. He devises an experiment wherein a man will live sequestered for seven years in the cellar apartment Powyss has meticulously furnished with books,... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Ottessa Moshfegh
[isbn]
Only Ottessa Moshfegh could write a book that makes me laugh and want to die at the same time. She has a particular affinity for the grotesque and a singular talent for drawing beauty out of grime that is both hilarious and magnificently depressing. This is all admirably showcased in her latest book, chronicling a year in the life of a young woman who has everything we aspired to in 2000: beauty, an apartment on the Upper East Side, and a closet... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Ottessa Moshfegh
[isbn]
I was slightly scared to read Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation as her Eileen is one of my favorite books, and I was worried this one couldn't possible live up to it. Well, no worries! Our nameless narrator wants to spend an entire year sleeping; she believes this will solve all of her problems. She manages to connect with the worst psychiatrist in the history of the planet, and things go downhill from there. Our... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Esi Edugyan
[isbn]
Washington Black’s story begins as an 11-year-old slave who is taken in by the plantation owner’s brother, Titch, and, after incurring a burn that leaves his face disfigured and then witnessing a tragic event for which he is blamed, "Wash" is urgently sent out into the greater world by way of a hot air balloon. What follows is a wondrous, harrowing journey spanning continents as Titch and Wash struggle to leave the ghosts of their past behind,... (read more)
Recommended by Aubrey W.
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Kate Atkinson
[isbn]
Atkinson has created a memorable character in Juliet Armstrong. Her voice is strong, witty, and acerbic. Juliet, a young recruit for British Intelligence in the early days of WWII, is pragmatic, resourceful, and nowhere near as jaded as she thinks she is. This is a thrilling novel even when showing the very unglamorous side of spy work. Juliet, brave, unflappable, lonely, and sad, is a character I loved and will remember.
Recommended by Kathi K.
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Naomi Novik
[isbn]
Set in a richly imagined proxy for medieval Eastern Europe, Spinning Silver delves into the Jewish history of money lending and persecution by way of a dark retelling of the tale of the miller’s daughter, who spins straw into gold and so wins the king’s hand. The province of Lithvas is beset by a ceaseless winter wrought by the Staryk, a malicious people whose magical ice road shimmers in the woods. Desperate to save themselves, their... (read more)
Recommended by Rhianna W.
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Celeste Ng
[isbn]
Ng pitches you headfirst into the deep, complex lives of two very different families who give us an in-depth look at a small town polarized by a young, poor, Chinese mother who is fighting for custody of her baby, who has been adopted by a wealthy white family. The narrative of secrets and ideologies that are exposed is not unlike the current state of society.
Recommended by Brianna B.
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David Sedaris
[isbn]
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering, Who feeds their tumor to a snapping turtle?, you need some David Sedaris in your life. His latest collection is hilarious, poignant, and distasteful in equal measure, a combination I found reassuringly human and absolutely delightful.
Recommended by Rhianna W.
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