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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Patrick deWitt
[isbn]
Tapped as a "tragedy of manners," French Exit is a wonderfully dark tale of "rich people problems" held up against a backdrop of human nature. Frances, an aging and not very nice, formerly wealthy widow, and her hapless, directionless, man-child, Malcolm, flee New York to the anonymity of Paris as the end of their finances run out. DeWitt has captured a sort of A. M. Homes-ness here; Frances and Malcolm seem to "acquire" a motley crew of... (read more)
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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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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Colson Whitehead
[isbn]
Colson Whitehead continues to be unafraid to expose the horror of the black experience in America, and to that I say, Amen, Mr. Whitehead. This is the story of a boys' reform school in the South, and the history of torture the boys endured there. Although this is fiction, the school this book is based on did indeed exist and operated as the novel depicts. The story of Elwood Curtis is a study in race relations and utter cruelty, and the... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Sara Jaffe
[isbn]
The euphoric highs and the despairing lows of adolescence are explored here in Jaffe's Dryland. Julie tries to negotiate the crushing weight of her superstar brother while sorting out her confused emotions. She needs help to understand her own fogged mind, but the people she relies on only seem to hinder her, and she is caught in the undertow of muddy waters. A Portland-centric coming-of-age story that touches on the city's quirks and... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Nico Walker
[isbn]
A lightly fictionalized autobiography, Cherry documents an Iraq War vet's cycle of crime and addiction. This book doesn't shy away from the ugly fallout of that conflict, making it not only a difficult read but an important one: this is Walker's story, but it's not just Walker's story.
Recommended by Lucinda G.
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Jo Nesbo
[isbn]
With Knife, Jo Nesbø, one of my favorite authors, delivers another explosive crime novel! Harry Hole, the tough, beat-up alley cat-type somehow attracts women like a magnet. And Nesbø is the best at creating human monsters! Will someone please tell Jo Nesbø and Walter Mosley to collaborate on a Harry Hole-Easy Rawlins international thriller?
Recommended by Adrienne C.
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David Szalay
[isbn]
David Szalay has written a La Ronde for the jet age: an elegant tour that demonstrates that hopping continents may be easy, but everything else remains complicated.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Ann Patchett
[isbn]
After the death of her husband, a magician named Parsifal, Sabine discovers that he was hiding much more than she thought. She alone knows that Parsifal was gay, but now she finds he had a "long lost" family. The idea of finding a connection to her husband is so tantalizing, Sabine can't resist meeting them. Love, loss, and new beginnings are explored.
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Antoine Laurain, Gallic Books
[isbn]
Antoine Laurain writes another incredibly charming tale, with themes on friendship, miracles, love, and dogs. The four main characters drink a bottle of wine one evening, and then find themselves transported back in time to the year the wine was made, 1954. But, once they've been transported, how on earth will they get back to their own time? Laurain has a writing style that makes you want to cuddle up with his books — they are so sweet. Dive in... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Kevin Panetta, Savanna Ganucheau
[isbn]
All Ari wants to do is escape the family bakery and move to the city, where he can finally focus on his music — but will a cute new baker with a new perspective change his mind? This book has some of my favorite things: queerness, blushing, and bread. An absolute ray of sunshine.
Recommended by Caroline M.
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R F Kuang
[isbn]
The first part of this book might remind you of J. K. Rowling or Nnedi Okorafor. The second part just goes dark, and if you want to see your protagonist make the biggest wrong choices, and if you want your hero to break bad, this is the joint for you. I loved it!
Recommended by Doug C.
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Tatsuki Fujimoto
[isbn]
This tale of a burning immortal out for revenge in a frozen wasteland is both witty and infinitely horrifying, always reaching to some new level of terror as it surprises with new subversions and twists. True trope-busting depravity.
Recommended by Cosima C.
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Olivia Gatwood
[isbn]
To the girls who walk the dark with their keys Wolverined between their fingers, who hover uneasily between fear and anger and desire, who crave the panopticon of the male gaze as strongly as they resent it: Life of the Party is the book for you. Describing the collection as true crime poetry, Olivia Gatwood uses the form to deconstruct female experience through acts of violence, both external and internal. Most interestingly, she... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Hely, Steve
[isbn]
A slacker dude decides the best way to get money and women is to write a bestselling novel... which he does. This is a flawless, hilarious satire of the book industry, and anyone who works in it should read this book. Hely is a writer for David Letterman, and it sure shows. Perfect.
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Kate Atkinson
[isbn]
Jackson Brodie is back! The protagonist of Kate Atkinson's terrific mystery series, he is funny, dark, kind, and understated — as are the books themselves. Atkinson always approaches her characters with compassion and understanding, which helps keep her mysteries (centered around lost girls) from sliding into too-dark territory. More Jackson, please!
Recommended by Leah C.
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Kristen Arnett
[isbn]
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.
Recommended by Rhianna W.
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Jamel Brinkley
[isbn]
This moving debut collection illuminates the lives of a generation of young black men in gentrifying neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the Bronx. As these nine stories move in time from the 1990s to the present, we watch as characters attempt to make connections and survive in a rapidly changing world.
Recommended by Adam P.
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Caleb Crain
[isbn]
I loved all the characters in Caleb Crain's Overthrow, and how the narrators bounced between them, while keeping the plot moving forward. Poetry, history, law, and queerness intermingle — all things that get me excited about a book. Not since I read Ben Lerner’s 10:04 have I felt like a novel captured the fraught relationships between humans and technology in late capitalism. I love a big novel with social concerns. If Henry... (read more)
Recommended by Adam P.
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Alexander Chee
[isbn]
In this collection of essays, Alexander Chee weaves his personal and political memory and history into a detailed fabric depicting his life as a queer writer in the world today. I was left feeling moved, inspired, and perhaps even somehow healed through Chee's piercing observations and insights.
Recommended by Adam P.
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Nathacha Appanah
[isbn]
There's something so unique about books that have been translated; the language feels different somehow — quieter, brighter, more lush — and here the translation is carried out elegantly. The Last Brother tells the story of Raj, a nine-year-old boy who lives on an island in the Indian Ocean during WWII. Raj is unaware of the war ravaging most of the world, but he becomes acutely aware of a group of Jewish refugees incarcerated in the... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Matt Haig
[isbn]
What if you could live for hundreds of years — but had to do so alone? What makes life worth living, and how do we make the right choices? Get ready to ponder these questions (and more!) in this poignant, adventurous, and wholly unique new novel by Matt Haig.
Recommended by Leah C.
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Nicole Dennis-Benn
[isbn]
Nicole Dennis-Benn nails the dislocation of immigration in this beautiful, wrenching novel about a woman who abandons her young daughter in Jamaica to rekindle a love affair in New York City. The titular character is both courageous and bitterly disappointing, making for a fascinating, heartbreaking spin on the common tropes of immigrant struggle and upward mobility.
Recommended by Lucinda G.
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Eve Joseph
[isbn]
Open this book and inside you will find slender slivers, pulsating with life: a cooked capon wedged in the ceiling; a caretaker rescuing whores; frogs falling from the sky; "the blue coffin of trees"; a tacklebox of shiny lures; "the moon hiding in a bowl of blood oranges"; a yard of white feathers; "the house you grew up in"; Prometheus locked in his bedroom; "little moons spilled on the floor"; the tattoo of a concentration camp survivor; a jar... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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David F Walker, Chuck Brown, Sanford Greene
[isbn]
The Sangeryes are a family of monster hunters who live in Harlem in the 1920s. The family seems to be getting smaller while the monsters are getting stronger. This story does a great job of balancing action and energy with heavy themes like racism and family dynamics. I can't decide what I like better: the art or the story. Good thing I don't have to choose.
Recommended by Rose H.
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Simon Spurrier
[isbn]
Hum lives in a postapocalyptic world where magic is gone. He's trying to save his wife and has nothing but a freakish unicorn to help him. The story is both fun and emotional with characters you'll love and a world you'll need to know more about. The art, while sometimes super intense, is beautiful.
Recommended by Rose H.
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Teresa Wong
[isbn]
It is so good to continue to hear honest, healing stories of pregnancy and early motherhood. It's not all blue skies all the time and you can take courage from another woman's courage and keep moving forward. Teresa is funny and to the point in this graphic memoir! Some may not be able to relate to having so many resources (human and financial) to meet their needs, but for me that doesn't diminish the impact of her perseverance through postpartum... (read more)
Recommended by Ruth J.
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Autumn Christian
[isbn]
This is a story of sex worker as superhero and saint, and of sex as both superpower and sacrament. Girl Like a Bomb follows Beverly Sykes — a teenage girl bursting with desire who finds everyone she has slept with profoundly changed for the better — and her journey takes us everywhere from church orgies with depressed housewives to covert missions to sleep with a terrorist. Here, Autumn Christian has woven together an unapologetic fairy... (read more)
Recommended by Cosima C.
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Jen Beagin
[isbn]
Bizarre, uncomfortable, moving, and so creative. Following her breakup with a junkie, Mona moves to New Mexico and falls in with an cast of odd characters, all while excavating her past. A smart, very dark comedy.
Recommended by Eva F.
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Lucy Knisley
[isbn]
Finally, a smart graphic novel covering a wide range of modern maternity experience! Readers will also learn a little about medical and reproductive history, but the joy for me is in seeing the very real experiences of infertility, miscarriage, morning sickness, and birth represented plainly. This easy-to-read, delightfully illustrated novel left me feeling understood.
Recommended by Ruth J.
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Ocean Vuong
[isbn]
Ocean Vuong has written a true poet’s novel: a painfully perceptive and achingly beautiful reflection on American otherness. This book absolutely captured me.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Su Bristow
[isbn]
I'm a giant sucker for a selkie story, and Bristow does a admirable job of fleshing out this old Scottish fairy tale. Donald spies a group of seals removing their skins and transforming into women one night on the strand. He hides one of the skins, and soon he has a bride. Bristow tells a heartbreaking story about family, forgiveness, redemption, and loss; and if selkies aren't real, no matter, Bristow will make you believe. Beautifully done,... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Mirka Andolfo
[isbn]
Unnatural is already an Italian hit and now, thanks to Image Comics, U.S. readers can join Leslie the pig as she navigates life and dating under a totalitarian regime. Any same-sex or interspecies relationships are illegal and deemed "unnatural," which makes Leslie's erotic, lucid dreams involving a wolf all the more worrisome. Gorgeously illustrated and written, this series is one you won't want to miss.
Recommended by Haley B.
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Rita Indiana, Achy Obejas
[isbn]
Sea anemones! Francisco Goya! Buccaneers! Rita Indiana blends magical realism, time travel, eco-feminism, and art history into an unforgettable, zany romp. I never knew where the story was headed, but each element blended seamlessly, and not a word was wasted. I loved everything about this strange, wonderful book!
Recommended by Amy W.
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Zachary Schomburg
[isbn]
In the past several years, Zach Schomburg has become a singular voice in American poetry with work that seems both clear-headed and surreal. Even his recent forays into visual art, collages, and his debut novel, Mammother, have been startling and unique. Pulver Maar collects poems from various projects (weird kids' fables, small chapbooks, writing for performance) and delivers them in a wonderful package. A reminder that there... (read more)
Recommended by Kevin S.
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Max Porter
[isbn]
Max Porter pens a slender ode to mourning and loneliness in Grief Is the Thing With Feathers. When Mom dies, Crow comes to meet Dad and the Boys, and he vows to stay until he is no longer needed. Crow is a sort of trickster — a jester, but a gifted wordsmith as well, and he's here to help Dad through his grief. Crow's literary fireworks seem to soothe (or, perhaps, distract) Dad, and a timid bond begins. Porter's Crow reminds me a bit of... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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P Craig Russel, Linda Kindzierksi
[isbn]
So, you know the well-worn story of Tolkien's Middle Earth. Surely you've heard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyrie." But have you ever stopped to wonder what inspired Tolkien's One Ring, and where the Valkyrie originated? Wonder no more because P. Craig Russell's Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung is a stunning and accessible way to enjoy Wagner's opera, and explore the mythology which inspired Tolkien and countless others. A true... (read more)
Recommended by Alex Y.
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Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle, Kate Leth
[isbn]
This is the most inclusive comic I have ever read in my whole life. There are gay werewolves, a gender-nonconforming centaur, a mermaid who uses a wheelchair, and more. It touches on topics of not needing to change your body for other people, first arguments as a couple, and teamwork. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys Rebecca Sugar's work as well.
Recommended by Rin S.
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Cai Emmons
[isbn]
When Bronwyn realizes she has the ability to change the atmosphere around her, she feels woefully unqualified for the job. How much can she do, and how far can she go, and what is the purpose of this gift? Following her intuition, she boldly takes on catastrophes, but like a doctor, she understands that she must first do no harm. With an unusual storey, Emmons writes a tale full of science, faith, exploration, and maybe even love.
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Britteney Black Rose Kapri
[isbn]
Black Queer Hoe is a living, breathing masterpiece. A deep-dive exploration of identity that's at once brusque and tender, Kapri's debut collection is a must-read.
Recommended by Haley B.
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Seth
[isbn]
The story of two clashing Canadian brothers and the fan business that holds them together is a masterpiece 20-plus years in the making. Full of sentiment but never sentimental, its subtle emotional depictions of aching loneliness and disconnection expand the possibilities of the graphic novel form with complex layers of artistry. Astonishing and heartbreaking.
Recommended by Jason C.
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Ma Jian, Flora Drew
[isbn]
China Dream depicts the episodic efforts of Ma Daode, an aging apparatchik in the Chinese government intent on wallpapering over the violence of the Cultural Revolution with a REM-hijacking microchip that replaces dreams with nationalistic propaganda. While juggling a full schedule of political jockeying and wanton philandering, the beleaguered pencil pusher dodges his own visions of the past while becoming increasingly detached from... (read more)
Recommended by Justin W.
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Yangsze Choo
[isbn]
For the sheer pleasure of losing yourself in a striking time and place (colonial Malaysia in the 1930s); and in a love story between sharply drawn characters; and in a murder mystery involving ghost tigers, the Confucian virtues, an illicit trade in human fingers, and a train station that ferries the dead, nothing beats Choo’s evocative The Night Tiger. It threw me into that best of readerly conundrums: Racing through to see how it ends,... (read more)
Recommended by Rhianna W.
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Rene Denfeld
[isbn]
Rene Denfeld has amassed a small army of devotees here at Powell's, and with The Butterfly Girl, she's certain to garner more. This riveting follow-up to The Child Finder (which you needn’t have read beforehand, but do read it; it’s wonderful) showcases Denfeld’s unique ability to dive headlong into the murky depths and surface with something redemptive and beautiful in tow.
Recommended by Tove H.
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Leland de la Durantaye
[isbn]
Hannah Versus the Tree is a wholly original, genre-melding stunner. An epic poem for the digital age, a romance, and a mythological wonder all wrapped up into one. Leland de la Durantaye's debut will leave readers breathless under it's entrancing spell.
Recommended by Haley B.
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Bud Smith
[isbn]
An undeniably refreshing memoir, Smith chronicles his upbringing in a blue-collar family in New Jersey, his decision to opt out of college, and the daily grind of working a heavy construction job at an oil refinery. Using his lunch breaks to write and detailing his introduction into the literary world, this book serves as a glowing reminder that endless stories worth reading are created and exist outside of academia.
Recommended by Haley B.
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Jasper Fforde
[isbn]
Jasper Fforde's story takes place in a delightful alternate world filled with imagination and humor. It's a world where original author manuscripts are priceless, and ferocious debates about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays occupy the populace. Yep, this is a quite learned alternate universe. The story's protagonist, Tuesday Next, is a detective in charge of monitoring literary crimes. Her job title: LiteraTec. Her nemesis: A former English... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Evan Winter
[isbn]
This book was interesting enough for the first quarter, but then it grabbed me and didn't let go. It's a searing story, and Evan Winter never lets the plot, or the characters, take the easy way out. I can't wait for the next one!
Recommended by Amber N.
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Amy Hempel
[isbn]
Don't mistake Hempel's one-paragraph stories for gimmicks; they're powerful and precise enough to take my breath away with a devastating sentence casually dispensed. And oof, that novella at the end! Simmering with loss and tension, it has haunted me for weeks.
Recommended by Eva F.
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Rebecca Roanhorse
[isbn]
No sophomore jinx here: Storm of Locusts is every bit the thrilling read that Trail of Lightning was. We get to see more of the Sixth World, meet some new characters who are alternately hilarious and terrifying, and go on an adrenaline-filled adventure with Maggie and company. Everything works smoothly here: world-building, plot, and characters, adding up to a humdinger of a sequel.
Recommended by Mary Jo S.
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Rory Frances and Jae Bearhat
[isbn]
I’m always on the lookout for stories about trans punks and art freaks, so imagine my delight when Little Teeth hit my desk. It’s funny, poignant, biting, and deeply loving. If the mark of a good book is feeling inspired to practice more compassion towards others and one’s self, then Little Teeth is among the best.
Recommended by Kyan F.
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Sophia Shalmiyev
[isbn]
When I read it back in March, Mother Winter immediately popped to the top of my best books list for 2019. Portland author Sophia Shalmiyev tells her personal story of strength and perseverance with sharp honesty and vivid scenes. Any mother, feminist, artist, son or daughter, or immigrant will appreciate the gift Sophia has shared with us.
Recommended by Kim S.
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Kate Colby
[isbn]
Part internal dialogue on the essence of language, part critical essay on everything from Ben Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station to Nancy Milford’s biography of Zelda Fitzgerald, and all framed by a single road trip, Dream of the Trenches somehow meshes that all together into what feels like a remake of William Carlos Williams’s "Spring and All" for the 21st century. In place of Williams’s strident manifesto, Colby gives us a... (read more)
Recommended by Jordan M.
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Ferrett Steinmetz
[isbn]
Picture a faraway space station, one with the most exclusive and imaginative restaurant in the universe. Mix together a flamboyant impresario and a starving young philosopher about to give up on life, and then give them the task of making the most exotic soup imaginable. Space Soup! I love a novel that makes me hungry.
Recommended by Tracey T.
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Tim Johnston
[isbn]
I really loved Johnston's previous novel, Descent, so I mean it as an enormous compliment when I say that this book blows that one out of the water. The Current is a gorgeous, heartrending punch to the gut, and I loved every page.
Recommended by Emily F.
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Mary Beth Keane
[isbn]
Ask Again, Yes is a quietly moving family drama, attentive to the ways memory, hope, and failure test the limits of love. While the plot will keep you turning the pages, it’s Keane’s generous exploration of how families fall, recover, and forgive that makes this a gripping read.
Recommended by Lucinda G.
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Michael Chabon
[isbn]
Michael Chabon has proven time and again that he is a master of American prose and in this, his love letter to New York and superheroes, he has done it again. A modern classic, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is the story of two men whom readers watch grow together and form the standards of the American superhero. Taking place in New York, this epic will entertain anyone who admires the brawn of Superman, or feels like they... (read more)
Recommended by Alex Y.
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Ruth Ware
[isbn]
Ruth Ware pens a riveting Gothic ghost story set in the Scottish highlands, giving a nod to Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, and ratcheting up the suspense. Rowan desperately wants the nanny position at Heatherbrae, but when she gets it she's not prepared to care for three small children 24/7. And what is going on with the house? Things keep disappearing and reappearing, there are noises coming from the attic, and what about that... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Sachiko Kaneoya
[isbn]
I love everything Iron Circus Comics puts out, but the main reason I picked up this delightful art book was because a friend told me it's "the closest it's possible to get to a female equivalent of the cishet male gaze." Almost every single painting involves the same man, objectified in perhaps every way imaginable in everything from portraits to surreal fever dreams — exploring themes of submission, erotism, the monstrous, and the abject. It's... (read more)
Recommended by Cosima C.
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Joe Wilkins
[isbn]
Fall Back Down When I Die is beautifully written, amazing story with realistic characters
that grabs you by the heart. Worth the read!
Recommended by Adrienne C.
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Jason Allen
[isbn]
When a horrible accident at a wealthy family's estate threatens to bring uncomfortable secrets to light, a young man who was in the wrong place at the right time must make some life-changing choices, and quickly. This drama will keep readers glued to the page with its urgency, sympathy, and subtle social commentary.
Recommended by Eva F.
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Julian Barnes
[isbn]
A story that seems unlikely but is painted in a very believable way: the love story of a 48-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man. Everything is wonderful about this book. That doesn't mean it isn't sad, but I breezed through this in a matter of days and adored every page.
Recommended by Jeffrey J.
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Sara Collins
[isbn]
This searing debut is packed tight with historical references, racial exploration, and mystery. The suspense of The Confessions of Frannie Langton is expertly built on Sara Collins's use of metaphors and similes, and although this topic has been explored before, Frannie Langton's story will be forever impressed on your soul. You won't be able to put this book down, nor will you be able to ignore the lessons Langton has to impart.
Recommended by Alex Y.
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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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Gregg Olsen
[isbn]
This is a thrilling account of two British sisters who come to a Pacific Northwest sanitorium to take a "fasting cure." They think they're in for a spa treatment, but they could not be more misinformed. Up against the horrid Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard, the sisters grow weaker as the doctor grows impatient to relieve them of their assets. One of the creepiest things I've ever read!
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Colin Bell, Neil Slorance
[isbn]
Don't let Dungeon Fun fly under your radar! Colin Bell and Neil Slorance have created a truly delightful story. It is funny (so, so funny) and quirky, witty, and smart, a perfect book that is full of heart and is truly for all ages. What a joy.
Recommended by Lesley A.
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Michael Deforge
[isbn]
DeForge's new collected edition of his web comic Leaving Richard's Valley may just be his most spectacular work to date. A haphazard crew of animals are kicked out of the valley they call home by Richard, their Fabio-esque quasi-cult leader, as a punishment for saving their friend's life without his permission. Shenanigans galore ensue, both in the valley and as we follow our protagonists on their quest to find a new home. A five-star... (read more)
Recommended by Haley B.
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Taylor Jenkins Reid
[isbn]
I wish so badly to go back in time and forget this book so that I could experience reading it again for the first time. This is a heartbreaking and compelling story about the life of fictional megastar, Evelyn Hugo, and we follow her through decades of her life as the story explores themes of power, sexuality, and loss that tie in with her identity as a bisexual woman of color. It's wonderful and sad, so if you like a good cry, I can't recommend... (read more)
Recommended by Brianna B.
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Kate Gray
[isbn]
Kate Gray writes a poetry collection that uses the earth, and everything in it, as a medium. Her poems are moody with rain, and fresh with bursting spring. Her body, an island in a river; the moon, the woman she loved; the lives she lived before as a man — these are all ripe and ready for her pen. This is a safe place for women, for girls, for queers, for the damaged, for the lost. Just so gorgeous!
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Kago
[isbn]
The elderly clients that young home aide Yukie is tasked with caring for throw her into bizarre and grueling situations that often blur the line between horror and comedy. Yukie is determined to give her clients the best care possible, and will quite literally stop at nothing to ensure their comfort. This was a wacky, dreamlike read that I found myself immersed in late into the night.
Recommended by Brianna B.
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Natalia Ginzburg
[isbn]
She is possessed by her desire to possess her husband. Because that's what marriage is, she thinks, you know where your partner is all the time and they are with you most of all. To make a short story even shorter, that's not how it works out and she is left alone in a world where nothing is familiar except the same old dread. So while it is a surprise when she shoots him between the eyes on the very first page, it isn't by the last. It is a... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Ian McEwan
[isbn]
Had this been written by any other author I would have thought, Not for me, and moved on. Because it's written by McEwan, I had to try it, and like most of his novels, I loved it. Machines Like Me not only has science fiction, with one of the main characters being a new robotic person, but it also has a great alternative history set during the Falklands War of 1982. Things go differently for England in this history, but at least... (read more)
Recommended by Jeffrey J.
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Karen Russell
[isbn]
Karen Russell has always had a knack for creating intricate, somewhat fantastic scenarios grounded by a seasoned respect for her characters and the worlds they occupy. Each story in her new collection showcases these talents spectacularly. Darkly funny and quietly moving, Orange World is as rewarding as it is fun to read.
Recommended by Renee P.
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Tommy Orange
[isbn]
Add me to the growing chorus of people who are raving about this book! In highlighting too often ignored Native voices, Tommy Orange takes the ugliness of rage, sorrow, heartache, and displacement, and channels them into something indescribably beautiful, something miraculous.There There is an oil slick rainbow of a book and a magnificent debut!
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Kate Zambreno
[isbn]
I should be embarrassed by how much I idolize Kate Zambreno, but I'm not. I'm covetous of the breathtaking sprawl of her mind (which I imagine as being similar to my own, only cleaner and with more rooms). A compelling and curious mix of observation and speculation, Screen Tests blurs the line between fact and fiction — in fact, it makes the distinction feel unnecessary. As an attempt to reconcile interior and exterior lives, this... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Un Su Kim
[isbn]
Set in a fictional Korea, The Plotters tells the story of Reseng, a young assassin whose familiar, brutal world is slowly disintegrating in the shadow of a looming power struggle. When Reseng finds himself on the receiving end of an unorthodox assassination attempt, he plunges down the rabbit hole and finds far more than he was prepared for, including a soul-shattering change of heart. Reseng is clever, confident, and fatalistic; his... (read more)
Recommended by Steph C.
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Jane Harper
[isbn]
I so enjoyed Jane Harper's previous novel, The Dry, I immediately wanted to read The Lost Man. Its plot is seemingly simple: two men meet in the remote Australian outback, where their brother has been found dead under odd circumstances. What follows is a convincing family mystery set in a landscape (central Queensland, Australia) so unforgiving that running out of gas while running errands can be fatal. The themes of isolation... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Myla Goldberg
[isbn]
Myla Goldberg delivers a brilliant story of a woman whose life is informed almost completely by her art. Lillian spends every spare minute honing her passion for photography, and is thrilled when she gets her first show in a gallery. When photos Lillian took of her daughter are declared obscene, an arrest, a prison stint, and lawsuit after lawsuit blow Lillian's world apart — dragging her daughter along for the ride. Goldberg digs deep into the... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Julia Phillips
[isbn]
Disappearing Earth is a finely constructed novel set in the remote Kamchatka Peninsula, an arresting landscape of active volcanoes and unspoiled wilderness in the far eastern edge of Russia. Julia Phillips masterfully unfurls the story of two sisters who vanish and the tensions between socioeconomic communities that come to light during the desperate search to find the girls. A stunning book so well written, it’s hard to believe this is... (read more)
Recommended by Mary S.
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Max Porter
[isbn]
Lanny is a marvel — an extraordinary mythological examination of childhood and a gorgeous prose extravaganza of voices and narratives. Max Porter somehow captures the deep magic and blunt prosaic rhythms of life in the same sentences. Completely unique and absolutely worthwhile.
Recommended by Jill O.
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Eve Babitz
[isbn]
Jacaranda spends her twenties partying. As she nears 30, she uses those years as fodder for an eventually successful writing career. The slim plot is vehicle enough for thoughtful meditations on art and impostor syndrome and, of course, Los Angeles. Babitz writes about Los Angeles with the same subtlety and love that others write about Paris, and though the attention paid to the rich inner lives of her female characters is probably what caused... (read more)
Recommended by Eva F.
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Nick Hornby
[isbn]
Nick Hornby does an excellent job of deconstructing relationships using smart, funny dialogue and characters, and State of the Union is no exception. Louise and Tom are trying to repair their marriage in couple’s therapy, but the real gist of the matter unfolds in the time spent before their sessions, as they grapple with the many foibles that intimacy brings.
Recommended by Lucinda G.
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Carl Adamshick
[isbn]
Adamshick writes quiet poetry disguised as an aching love letter to the mother he lost recently. It untangles other losses, too: his innocence, his security, and his view of the benevolent world. Stark and spare, Adamshick's poetry is tightly controlled, yet it is awash with love and sorrow and grace. Beautiful.
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Nastashia Minto
[isbn]
Minto flays open her wound for the whole world to see in this stark and searing work that examines every feeling for nuance and meaning. First, there's pain, but with love, healing and redemption can catch fire and explode. Beautiful.
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Kim Stanley Robinson
[isbn]
Kim Stanley Robinson writes dense, complex science fiction that's a joy to read. This one involves moon bases, feng shui, quantum entanglement, AI development, social revolution, and memorable characters.
Recommended by Amber N.
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Binnie Kirshenbaum
[isbn]
You know that inner voice that knows and calls out your every flaw? Binnie Kirshenbaum must walk through the world that way. Luckily for the world, she’s so hilarious that we welcome the shock and the sting of her observations.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Pola Oloixarac, Roy Kesey
[isbn]
Holding fast to her reputation as a writer of pyrotechnic erudition, Argentinian agitator Pola Oloixarac dabbles in everything from botanical arcana to incel hacktivism, biosurveillance to reptile porn, and — when in one of her more charitable moods — favorably recalls the midway point between Tony Tulathimutte and Helen DeWitt. Bookended, more or less, by tropic psychedelia and stuffed in the center with a comparatively crowd-pleasing origin... (read more)
Recommended by Justin W.
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Lucy Ellmann
[isbn]
Ducks, Newburyport resembles a Dewey Decimal card catalog dedicated to post-9/11 Americana being rifled through at warp speed or the collected stories of Diane Williams algorithmically rewritten with a Great Lakes accent. Superlatives fall short, especially when we're talking about a book that flouts the fusty conventions of the canon so wildly. Simply put, this mile-a-moment internal monologue is indisputably a landmark work of... (read more)
Recommended by Justin W.
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Nagata Kabi
[isbn]
This is an amazing queer manga touching on a lot of relevant issues. Kabi experiences self-harm, anorexia, and a longing for feminine affection that goes deeper than she can explain. This one struck me to my very core, and I've never had a manga do that before. I can't recommend Kabi's story enough.
Recommended by Rin S.
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Jill Ciment
[isbn]
No one knows why the defendant murdered her younger brother. And juror C-2 isn't sure why she is so drawn to juror F-17, she isn't looking for anything outside her marriage. But as they go back and forth between the courtroom and the budget motel where they are sequestered, it isn't long before they start having an affair. It should be jarring, all the competing elements of the story: the gruesome trial details, the painfully sterile locales, the... (read more)
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Susan Choi
[isbn]
Reading Susan Choi’s novel is like being on a tightrope, with several abrupt shifts that threaten to throw everything off balance, but when you make it to the end you’ll see that you’ve just read one of the most audacious and timely novels of the year.
Recommended by Keith M.
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