WHY CONGRESS

Congress has been the subject of jeers since the early days of the republic, but the past 20 years have seen the scoffing turn into outright contempt. Wallach, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, agrees that Congress has become dysfunctional and wants to know why. In this authoritative book, he begins with the period after World War II and the civil rights era, when Congress worked effectively. Much of the essential policy work was done through bipartisan committees, and even

A-TRAIN ALLEN

Meet A-Train Allen, who takes his time getting to school in the morning but is known for speeding back home (it’s said that he can traverse the city faster than the subway—hence his nickname). A-Train Allen flies through the park, past the big kids playing basketball and the older men playing chess. As fast as he may be, he’s careful when he crosses the street. Barreling down the pavement, he responds to passersby with, “Got somewhere to be, got somewhere to be!” Depicting a busy, diverse city

NO PERFECT PLACES

The summer before their senior year of high school, Olly and Alex’s well-known tech CEO father dies from a heart attack while still in prison. But before he dies, he tells Olly not to tell his sister about their secret half brother. Tyler Dell, who is two years older than the twins, sent a letter that Olly intercepted and kept from his sister. A year later, Alex is mired in an abusive relationship with a rich-boy drug dealer, and while Olly is coping, he’s still tangled in his father’s lies. Th

EASILY SLIP INTO ANOTHER WORLD

Born in 1944, Threadgill grew up in a Chicago whose airwaves were as catholic as they came: “I remember Mexican music, country music (which people used to call ‘hillbilly’ back then), jazz, rhythm and blues, boogie-woogie, plus regular programming including radio plays, detective shows, and science fiction.” All that, plus the gospel of the likes of Mahalia Jackson and the world music pioneered by none other than DJ Studs Terkel. Threadgill might have fallen victim to the mean streets of the So

THE MALTESE IGUANA

Where better to ride out the tedium of the pandemic lockdown than a condominium in Islamorada, halfway down the Florida Keys? With assistance from both Alexa and Siri, who compete vigorously for the boys’ attention, Serge and his perennial wingman, Coleman, collect enough consumer goods to keep them amused for at least 24 hours of isolation. Once that’s over, they go back to what they do best: careening wildly through the streets in Serge’s Ford ’73 Galaxie, going after scalpers who charge insa

STARS AND SMOKE

International superstar Winter Young is bewildered when Panacea, a secret organization with ties to the CIA, briefly abducts him following one of his concerts and suggests that he should work for them as they attempt to infiltrate the shadowy empire of an ultrawealthy tycoon who is poised to unleash a deadly new chemical agent on the world. The shipping magnate’s daughter is a huge fan of Winter’s, and a private concert for her birthday gives him the perfect cover. Winter is further taken aback

LEI AND THE FIRE GODDESS

Ever since her family moved to Colorado seven years ago, 12-year-old Anna Leilani Kamaʻehu has been spending summers with her tūtū, or grandmother, learning the family’s moʻolelo. Usually she enjoys these stories that connect her to her Native heritage. She also normally loves spending time with Kaipo, her best friend in Hawai‘i, and eating li hing mui gummy bears, but this year is different: Kids at school are mocking her, and her Colorado best friend has left her for the popular crowd, leavin

SAVING THE NIGHT

Aitken notes that many wild creatures are confused by increased levels of nighttime illumination—after all, as he states, half of all invertebrates, 3 out of 4 mammals, and nearly all amphibians are nocturnal. At times, he gets a bit off message, allowing that many bats enjoy the “all-you-can-eat bugfest” around streetlights; he also discusses how 3 out of 4 sea creatures naturally glow in the dark and that miners have used fireflies and dried fish skins for light. However, his laments for the

MARGARET OF AUSTRIA

Born in 1480 in Brussels, Margaret, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, is raised to be a queen. But destiny has other plans for the young princess. Betrothed to Charles, the Dauphin of France, when she is 3 years old, she is sent to that country to study its language and culture. Readers meet her in 1491 at the French court, just before the 11-year-old girl is told by Charles, now king, that he has married another. It takes several years but Maximilian, determined to increase the Habs

THE POINT OF NO RETURN

“The Trump era is not over yet—forewarned is forearmed.” So writes Edsall in this collection of opinion pieces from the New York Times, beginning in 2015. While it seems clear that the author is no fan of Trump’s, he takes an evenhanded approach in his analysis of events. For one thing, he notes, Trump took about the same share of White voters as did Mitt Romney four years earlier, but that White constituency was very different: “Trump won non-college-educated whites by 14 points more than Romn

ONE REASON TO LIVE

Rose writes that when she and her husband were living in California, she had been sexually assaulted three times in 18 months—each time by a different person she knew. She was diagnosed with “complex PTSD and accumulating traumas”; soon afterward, Ethan, a contractor, was injured in a construction accident. His recuperation took months and was accompanied by a change in personality. Rose writes that she also discovered that he’d been lying to her about things large and small. As the memoir open

THE ALGORITHM WILL SEE YOU NOW

Dr. Hope Kestrel is the “High Resident” at the Seattle-based hospital Prognostic Intelligent Medical Algorithms and the front-runner for a post-residency position. PRIMA is on the verge of a merger with Seattle Healthcare Associates, and its diagnostic technology is seemingly without error. But when a patient (called a Patron under the new system) is erroneously admitted onto her service, Hope begins an investigation that leads her and her new intern, Jacie Stone, into a web of lies and corpora

THE IRON CIRCUS

Lewis Bokurtz is not having a good summer. While his parents are at work, he spends his days being looked after by Mr. Butterfield, a retired teacher who forces Lewis to do schoolwork and whose idea of a good time is having a picnic in the basement. Distraught that he can’t go to summer camp like his friends, Lewis convinces Mr. Butterfield to take him fishing at a nearby pond. They don’t catch any fish, but Lewis finds a coin with the phrases “IRON CIRCUS” and “ADMIT ONE” stamped on either sid

MEMOIRS OF SPURIUS

In the second century B.C.E., Spurius holds the consulship, Rome’s highest political office. The real historical figure is largely remembered for his part in opposing Hannibal’s threat to Rome—particularly during the final eastern campaign that led to Hannibal’s death. In these pages, he’s also unearthed a massive conspiracy against Rome by devotees of the cult of Bacchus, the god of wine. It’s a strange affair that’s grippingly dramatized in this imagining, narrated by Spurius himself. Aebutiu

SAIGAMI

Ayumi, Sean, and Reyji have finally reached the city of Zaosz. Here, they plan to take the saigami exam as a team. However, since Ayumi recently migrated to the world of saigami from our Earth, her fire powers are untrained and untested. On the day of the exam, the testers teleport the prospective saigami into a maze, splitting up the team. With a six-shot limit before she’ll be too exhausted to continue, Ayumi is in serious danger as she goes up against the monsters wandering the maze. Despite

SALAT IN SECRET

It’s Muhammad’s seventh birthday, and Daddy has a special gift for him: a prayer rug that’s royal blue with gold stitching and that smells of incense. Muhammad is now old enough to independently offer the five Muslim daily prayers, or salat. He packs the rug before school the next day and plans to find a private place for salat. But asking his teacher for help feels harder than anticipated—especially after seeing mean passersby jeer at his father, who prays in the open while working as an ice c

THIS IS NOT MY STORY

As the book opens, a brown-skinned boy is flying a spaceship, surrounded by green aliens in their own spacecrafts, but announces to the unseen author/narrator that this is the wrong story for him (“I definitely don’t believe in aliens”). The boy ends up on a blank white page, looking startled, while the narrator considers other potential roles for him, such as Cattle King Carl, “quickest wrangler in the West,” a dragon-slaying knight, the victim of a Transylvanian vampire, and a plant in a scie

PAPÁ'S MAGICAL WATER-JUG CLOCK

Hooray, it’s Saturday! Jesús can help his gardener father with the family business. Jesús is tasked with taking care of the water jug, which, according to Papá, is “also a magical clock. It tells us how much work is left to do!” Jesús gets ready as Mamá reminds them “to drink lots of agua.” Piling into their trusty van with its supplies and intoxicating smell of gasoline, oil, and “yesterday’s cut grass,” Jesús and Papá head out. First stop: the Saldañas’ house, where Jesús gives water to some

HALF MOON SUMMER

Drew and Mia have an unusual origin story: They were born on the same day and in the same hospital in Half Moon Bay, California. One baby’s presence comforted the other inconsolable one in their shared bassinet. While this story is familiar to each, they don’t see each other again until life brings them together 12 years later when Mia returns to Half Moon Bay from Sacramento to visit her grandmother. The two young people feel a connection that blossoms into friendship, one that sustains each o

SLEEPING WITH THE ANCESTORS

McGill’s work history began as a National Park Service ranger at Fort Sumter National Monument, where the Civil War is said to have begun, a matter involving considerable diplomacy considering the number of visitors of Southern ancestry and even neo-Confederate leanings who visited the site. Whenever he could, he writes, “I pointed south to Morris Island to direct visitors to the nearby island where Black Union soldiers in the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment followed orders to enga