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THE NOTEBOOK

British publisher and diarist Allen brings his love of notebooks to a lively, wide-ranging history of bound blank pages. Notebooks, he writes, “interest me as a technology that has had tangible effects on the world around us.” The author started keeping a journal in 2002: “Writing a diary made me happier; keeping things-to-do lists made me more reliable (which in turn made those around me happier), and I learned never to go to a doctor’s appointment, or a meeting of any kind, without taking not

ACCIDENTAL DEMONS

Bernadette Crowley’s family are an esteemed Missoula, Montana, clan of Irish American witches led by powerful and spirited Grandma Orla. But their specialty—using blood for summoning demons—has become more complicated since 13-year-old Ber’s diabetes diagnosis. Because she must prick her finger to check her glucose levels, she’s begun summoning by accident. Big sister Maeve cooks up a plan to find a demon that can serve as a glucose monitor—but the girls get more than they bargained for in the

RADICAL EMPATHY

The book opens with the O. Henry Prize–winning “Marital Problems.” An unnamed narrator and her husband, Victor, search for a dead bird their daughter has entombed within Victor’s estranged late father’s binocular case, while Victor rages over the incompetence of their contractor and the narrator distracts herself with sexual fantasies (both about the contractor and about her friend, a single mom). This story is a knockout—its characters are brilliant, their relationships meticulously muddled by

EXTINCTION

What a glorious way to spend a honeymoon: Mark and Olivia Gunnerson go backpacking through the vast Erebus Resort in the mountains of Colorado, where scientists have “de-extincted” species like the woolly mammoth and other Pleistocene megafauna. Just watch the peaceful beasts at their watering holes. Behold the giant armadillos, and the indricothere that make mammoths look like dwarfs. The scientists have removed genes for aggression in these re-creations, so humans will be safe unless they’re

BLUE RUIN

Kunzru’s seventh novel is narrated by Jay, who in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic is in ill health, getting by delivering groceries in upstate New York. His route takes him to an estate that’s coincidentally occupied by Alice, a former flame, and her husband, Rob, Jay’s one-time art school rival. Alice is disinclined to bring him into their pod for fear of infection—or of stoking old drama—so instead hides him in a barn while his health improves. In the weeks that follow, Jay recalls th

STARLING HOUSE

Opal’s life in Eden, Kentucky, has never been easy. When their mother died, teenage Opal faked her way into getting custody of her younger brother, Jasper, and years later Opal and Jasper are still struggling to make ends meet. Jasper is an exceptionally bright and creative boy, and Opal desperately wants to scrape together enough money to send him out of Eden to a fancy private school with all the resources he deserves. Opal has always been mysteriously drawn to Starling House, a big old mansi

BUSTING THE BANKERS' CLUB

“Finance,” writes Epstein, “is an essential and highly productive part of our economic system; but the financial system can also be a source of stagnation, instability, inequality, and crisis.” The essential inequities in the system have been laid bare at several points, but especially in the financial crisis of 2007-2008, when many corporations and financial institutions walked away unscathed at a cost to taxpayers of $50,000 to $120,000 per household—and not the mega-wealthy households, you c

PUMPKIN SPICE & EVERYTHING NICE

Autumn leaves aren’t the only stunning thing to hit the town of Briar Glen—so has good-looking new boy Jack Harper, and Lucy Kane is enamored with both. Her new crush is the perfect thing to take her mind off the fact that Java Junction, part of a global chain, is opening across the street from Cup o’ Jo, Lucy’s mother’s coffee shop, where they take pride in baking everything from scratch and avoiding artificial ingredients. But there’s more than coincidence in the timing of the arrivals of bot

LAKETOWN

In the fictional town of Indian Lake, Illinois, the author’s experiences of growing up by the northern lakes are given fictional life in four short stories—three set in the 1950s and one in 1989. In “The Man With Three Fists,” farmer Hank Wenslow prays for the arrival of rain while grieving his infant son’s death and loss of connection with his wife, Sandra. A mysterious stranger offers to help, “calling on wisdom ancient and eternal,” which leaves Wenslow obsessed with a goddess he does not un

A CHILD'S INTRODUCTION TO ASIAN AMERICAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER HISTORY

Hirahara starts by discussing how college students Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee coined the term Asian American in 1968; she also defines the phrase Pacific Islanders but notes that the book doesn’t cover those with Central and Western Asian heritage. She goes on to explore various identities within the AAPI communities, as well as U.S. cities with large populations of each group, such as Springdale, Arkansas, home to half of the U.S.’s Marshallese population. From there, the author examines AAPI h

BIRD IS DEAD

Margaret Wise Brown’s The Dead Bird, illustrated by Remy Charlip in 1958 and then by Christian Robinson in a 2016 edition, portrayed children discussing death’s finality and enacting grown-up rituals over a deceased bird. This Dutch import is imbued with a kindred spirit, although here the childlike, direct dialogue comes from within the flock. On an overcast, gray-green day, a bird observes the still creature. This realist assures the shocked newcomers who gather that the prone bird is not sle

THIS IS MY BODY - I GET TO CHOOSE

In this brief manual, a handful of racially diverse children and adults demonstrate simple concepts of bodily autonomy. Photographs show children hugging themselves and others, fist-bumping, and nonverbally asking for space. Some of the kids and adults use different kinds of wheelchairs, and the American Sign Language words for yes and no are provided early on. The meter of the rhyming text is fickle, wavering between different stressed and unstressed syllables, and the end words are as likely

ALL WE COULD HAVE BEEN AND MORE

A woman—who may be controlled by a zombie ant fungus—invites her ex-boyfriend over for a late-night reconciliation (“Zombie Ant Fungus”). A parks and wildlife employee is forced to take a bear into her home when there’s no more room in the woods only to realize, a few weeks into the stay, that the “bear” is actually just a man in a bear suit (“Parks and Wildlife”). A zombie, reanimated for the purpose of serving as a crash test dummy, falls in love with his zombie co-pilot, Jane, over the cours

HOW TO WRITE THE SOUNDTRACK TO YOUR LIFE

Trotting in several of the racially diverse preteen classmates of her co-published How To Make a Movie in 12 Days (2023) to fill out the rich supporting cast, Australian author Hardy gives socially anxious 11-year-old Murphy Parker, who presents White, the lead in an episode that speaks to the ethics of stealing intellectual property. The novel also sensitively models friendships—true and otherwise—and ways of living with a clinically depressed parent. It’s bad enough that an unknown band is dr

THE COMMITTEE WILL KILL YOU NOW

It’s 1992, and 28-year-old Noah Meier is just keeping his head above water in his first year at a Seattle hospital. For a medical intern, it’s a year of 36-hour shifts, little sleep, and no life outside of work. His father was a surgeon, and although Noah’s a gifted writer, he gave up his dream of getting a Master of Fine Arts degree to go to medical school, instead. At the hospital, one of his colleagues commits suicide, but Noah has no time to grieve and is immediately back at work. He makes

THE POLICING MACHINE

As Duke sociology professor Cheng shows, the largest police department in America creates the impression of democratically led reform, while securely guarding its own autonomy. This book, writes the author, “describes how police cultivate political capital through a strategic politics of distribution— the discretionary distribution of public resources and regulatory leniency toward constituents, alongside coercive force against alternative voices.” Cheng carefully and convincingly develops his

SHERIDAN'S SECRET MISSION

Philip Sheridan (1831-1888), writes Cwiklik, was no icon of civil rights: “He shared most of the prejudices against black people harbored by white Americans in those days.” He was, however, a fierce unionist, as well as the designer of several scorched-earth campaigns against the secessionists during the Civil War. It was for that reason that Ulysses S. Grant sent Sheridan to Texas and Louisiana under the cover of a pleasure tour in order to report on the progress of Reconstruction. There was m

FOUND

In humanity’s space-colonizing future, would-be Mars settler Michelle Arensen tries to put the suicide of her father behind her, working with her husband and brother to build a lasting Red Planet base. Suddenly, a bizarre phenomenon engulfs Michelle and other women on the expedition who find themselves held prisoner by faceless, noncommunicative humanoids. After a series of cruel, fatal medical experiments, the prisoners revolt. When Michelle awakens (a mystery narrative gap that author Weber w

THE HIVE AND THE HONEY

Yoon’s work, whether in novels or short fiction, tends to create miniature mysteries, but his latest is all unanswered questions and old regrets. In the opener, “Bosun,” a life of crime leads to one of life’s crossroads for an ex-con working at a Canadian casino. Cold war politics provide the backdrop but not the drama in “Komarov,” which finds a North Korean maid who's lived in Europe for years traveling to Russia circa 1980 to reunite with the son she left behind, now a professional fighter.

THE MISSING

The book opens with “I Saw Him Sleeping,” in which the events of young Marcella’s troubled childhood land her in a Colorado detention center; later, she’s sent to a residential treatment center, which feels like anything but a real home. Marcella staves off boredom and loneliness by forging a relationship with fellow teen Carlos; she’s separated from her mother and beloved brother. The characters throughout the collection’s seven stories often feel isolated, even in a family household. The moth