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BANANA BALL

The heroes of this charming story are the Savannah Bananas, a goofball gang of athletes whose motto is, “Fans First. Entertain Always.” At their helm is Cole, a baseball-loving Bostonian who went south to pitch in college but didn’t quite have the right stuff to hit the majors. As he puts it, “I wasn’t hugely projectable,” meaning he wasn’t likely to develop the ability to compete with the pitchers in Major League Baseball. Regardless, studying humanities and theater, he also knew that he was a

ALEXANDRIA

An Alexandrian by birth, Issa, a curator, broadcaster, and professor of literature and history, relates his native city’s past principally through attention to its most famous figures and rulers. Alexandria may carry the name of an extraordinary world-historical military genius, but many other celebrated figures—Homer’s Helen of Troy and Paris, Aristotle (Alexander’s teacher), Cleopatra and Antony, and the Ptolemy dynasty—have been associated with it over the centuries. Gamal Abdel-Nasser, Egyp

MINISTRY OF TRUTH

It’s one thing to spin fables about the phone company killing JFK. It’s quite another to take an event within recent memory and twist it out of all recognition—to say, for instance, that the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol was just everyday tourist visitation or legitimate political protest. As Benen, a producer for the Rachel Maddow Show and the author of The Impostors, writes, any Republican who wants to make such claims has to do so without an ounce of bashfulness or self-doubt, for th

A PIGEON IN PARIS

Sporting a purple bow around her neck, Mama pigeon flies in from parts unknown, and before we even see eggs, three babies appear: Chérie, Bisou, and Petite. Her siblings begin learning to fly, but Petite finds it impossible and decides that she will not. Mama cradles and indulges her, but in the morning, Petite finds herself alone in the nest. To her cries of hunger, her mother responds: Fly or wait for Mama to return. She waits. The next morning, fog seems a good excuse to stay in, but Mama te

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

A JUST TRANSITION

This book centers the needs of African countries in the discussion of fossil fuel usage and renewable energy. The author points out that a significant portion of the continent lives in energy poverty, with insufficient access to basic electricity, and he argues that focusing on expensive forms of renewable energy, such as solar or wind power, doesn’t provide a feasible path forward. Instead, the book recommends using gas to bring the entirety of Africa up to an acceptable level, with a stable p

THE GOOD DAUGHTER SYNDROME

The author writes that her tumultuous relationship with her mother inspired her to write this book, which aims to help others “break free, guilt free” from dysfunctional dynamics. She defines a “Good Daughter” as a deferential woman with poor boundaries and little confidence and a “Difficult Mother” as a controlling, critical figure who’s impossible to please and may have a personality disorder or addiction issues. Difficult Mothers, she says, may have experienced shame and trauma that perpetua

DO FIRE ANTS FIGHT FIRES?

No (in response to the titular query), but fire ants do make fires (“in a way”) by stinging prey or unwary passersby. Similarly, damselfish do farm red algae on reefs, moles don’t dig subway tunnels (but they can dig burrows like anything), and so on. Though not as suspenseful as it might be if each question and its answer weren’t on the same spread, this fresh dive into animal behavior does offer amusing cartoon views of creatures in human(ish) clothes and settings as well as plenty of crowd-p

FORGET-ME-NOT

The author’s follow-up to her series debut, Reasonable (2023), backtracks to years before Elaine Reid’s death in North Carolina in 2023, and her former best friend Cat Clark’s arrest and indictment for the crime. Effectively narrating from the three first-person perspectives of central characters Elaine, Cat, and police detective Rachel McGowen, the book fills in the details of Elaine’s murder, beginning by highlighting the victim, the killer, and the former best friend caught in the middle. As

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

THE HEART NEVER FORGETS

In this story told from the perspective of a young child, a small town gathers for the masquerade—a West African event where people don masks representing ancestors, spirits, or deities. This masquerade, however, is different for our young protagonist—it’s the first one without Grandpa. Taking in all the sights, sounds, and smells, the child recalls the akaras that Grandpa loved to eat and the way he smiled as he shared them. The drums thump louder, and musicians join the din as the festival ra

A HELL OF A STORM

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was, as Brown explains here, “almost certainly the most lethal piece of legislation to ever clear Congress.” In reversing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allowing slavery to expand into vast new western territories, the act deepened divisions between North and South and pushed the country toward civil war. This engaging history first examines the precarious balance struck between sectional differences at the nation’s founding, then charts its dramatic demolit

RACE FOR THE RUBY TURTLE

Eleven-year-old Jake Rizzi just wants to be seen as “normal”; he blames his brain for leading him into trouble and making him do things that annoy his peers and even his own parents. Case in point: He’s stuck spending a week in rural Oregon with an aunt he barely knows while his parents go on vacation. Jake’s reluctance changes as he learns about the town’s annual festival, during which locals search for a fabled turtle. But news of this possibly undiscovered species has spread. Although Aunt H

WHAT IT COST US

Ten Washington, D.C., residents in their late teens and early 20s collaborated to produce short fiction pieces, organized chronologically and divided into the four seasons, that reflect upon the events of 2020. Noted YA author and National Book Award finalist Candice Iloh’s foreword speaks to the impact of lockdowns on creative people and how these stressors show up in this volume that offers readers the experience of “holding a collection of hope in your hands.” Each piece is deeply influenced

LONG SHOT

Ambitious college graduate Iris DuPree stays with Caleb Bradley, her basketball-player boyfriend, because of an unexpected pregnancy, though she has her own career goals and feels an electric connection with his rival, August West. When Caleb slowly separates her from all her emotional and financial resources and turns violent, Iris is trapped in a nightmare of sexual and physical abuse, terrified of his threats of hurting her baby and her family members. Occasional interactions between Iris an

THE LEDE TO OUR UNDOING

Molly, the narrator, is dead: “As a final straw they buried me in this traffic circle under the cover of night,” she gripes in an arresting opening line. Molly is also a dog, and it’s through her eyes, as she reflects on her history, that the reader also witnesses the life of her young owner, Jake. Jake and his twin sister, Wren, acquire Molly as children at the height of the Cold War. Molly observes Jake and Wren, noting how they grow and change. Notably, she watches them fall in love, and see

I, SEA

In flat assemblages composed of brightly colored patterned paper elements, a seagoing tiger gazes through binoculars to spot an island (“Eye. See”), takes a sudden wave in the face (“Eye! Sea!”) that leads to a visit to a doctor’s office to read a wall chart (“I…C…”), and gets a rakish eye patch (“Eye. See?”), then heads back to the briny deep. A final page with a concluding “I see” for, perhaps, young audiences to intone depicts a cat checking out a brown-skinned child immersed in a sudsy, toy

WORDS ARE MAGIC

Elliot is ready to end the day and go to bed, but his adventures are just beginning. As he falls asleep, the young Black boy finds himself transported to a dark, lonely wood. He is so scared that he begins to cry, only stopping when he hears a mysterious voice whisper his name through the trees. It isn’t until a moment later that the voice, which sounds like his mother, tells him, “Say what you have, you’ll have what you say. You have just what you need to find your way.” At first, Elliot doesn

FRENCH HOLIDAY

New Yorker Merry DeLuca is dreading walking down the aisle. She is a bridesmaid at her sister Angela’s wedding but has been friends with the groom, Leo Fernandes, for years and is secretly in love with him. She was finally going to confess this to Leo when, alas, he met the more beautiful Angela. Further aggravating matters is Leo’s best man, Noah Wright, a famous travel documentarian. A pre-wedding meeting did not go well, with Merry spotting that the guarded, watchful Noah dumped her gift of

BLISS ADAIR AND THE FIRST RULE OF KNITTING

Sixteen-year-old Bliss Adair loves the order and predictability of math and knitting. She’s never been kissed and doesn’t really get boys. Bliss spends most of her time when not at school at String Theory, her parents’ knitting store, located just outside Toronto. One day, while ensconced in the store’s secluded window seat, Bliss overhears a whispered phone conversation by the mother of classmate Finn Nordin that appears to be about an adulterous meeting, and she is alarmed. To complicate matt