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THE KILLER FLIES OF LUXOR

Blazquez was born in Cardenas, Cuba, in 1944. He began painting at an early age, using any materials he could lay his hands on—from house paint to bubblegum. When his mother decided to mail his abstract works to a Cuban celebrity painter, the reply came that the author was born with a gift and should be given “total freedom of creation.” As a child, Blazquez experienced recurring dreams of ancient Egypt, despite never having encountered imagery associated with the civilization. These dreams rem

QUANTA IN DISTRESS

Hassani observes that quantum physics has always attracted those with an interest in New Age spirituality, especially since the “rush of gurus” to the West in the 1960s. The injection of Eastern thought into Western philosophy, and the fascination with occultism in the West, had much to do with this rush, as well as the inherent “weirdness of quantum physics.” Many of the founders of quantum physics, like Schrödinger, Bohr, and Heisenberg, encouraged this association by publicly linking their w

YOU DON'T BELONG HERE

For the past week, aspiring writer Morris Hines has been staying (and drinking) at the Manderlay Colony, an artists residence where he’d hoped to make some headway on his fantasy novel. Now, on his last night in town before returning home to Washington, D.C., and his fiancee, Yasmin, Morris has wandered into the Public House, a dive bar with no signage, patronized mostly by locals. There, he runs into Henry, an old friend from college whom Morris has not seen for a decade. Morris’ history with

THE WHITE BONUS

Award-winning journalist McMillan, author of The American Way of Eating, combines investigative reporting and memoir in a penetrating look at the material advantages of racial privilege. “For a very long time,” she writes, “I thought race and racism ‘happened’ only to people who were not white.” Using her own family as one example, and profiling four others, she investigates the impact of whiteness on individuals of different generations, from different parts of the country, who have one thing

DEFY

Darius Anah, 17, lives with his mother and younger sister, Mahlah, in a city where every major milestone—known as a Life Event—is dictated by The Book of Zalmon. The teens’ father was a Leaver, someone who took off for the Town Beyond, past the forest surrounding Zalmon, which is a source of great shame—and also temptation—for Darius. The government justifies its control of the citizens by claims that it promotes “equal opportunity and liberty.” Instead of a Natural Death, which is presented as

RAGE, RESISTANCE AND REDEMPTION

“Forcefully Taken,” the fiery opener, describes the harrowing experience of violation and “the weight of oppression, its jealousy and lust.” The speaker endures physical and emotional pain, likening the body to a “diamond under pressure.” “Guineamen” reflects on the brutal history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The poet juxtaposes joyful memories of freedom, when “Freewill crowned each step of life— / life was bright as the day once,” with the horrors of enslavement, when “Harvested like ma

SWEETNESS IN THE SKIN

Pumkin Patterson’s story starts when she’s 11, a bright student and the apple of her Auntie Sophie’s eye. Sophie lives with her half-sister—the resentful Paulette—Pumkin, and Pumkin’s beloved grandmother. Sophie and Paulette have a volatile relationship, impaired by Paulette’s belief that her mother favors the lighter-skinned and status-conscious Sophie. Sophie and Pumkin dream of escaping their deteriorated home in a disadvantaged Kingston neighborhood to live in France. When Sophie eventually

A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999) began composing music as a young man in Valencia, Spain, at a school for the blind, where he learned a complex variety of braille that allowed him to make musical notation before dictating it to his assistant. “Being blind affected every aspect of Rodrigo’s life and brought him closer to music through an acute aural sense,” write Suárez-Pajares and Clark, both professors of musicology. Today, he is best known for his Concierto de Aranjuez, “the key with which Rodrigo

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

A WHISPER IN THE WALLS

As expected, Landwin Brood doesn’t appreciate Theo’s new bond to Ren Monroe; despite her brilliance and magical prowess, Landwin won’t look past her Lower Quarter origins. Although Landwin attempts to separate them, Ren maintains her single-minded focus on revenge. Unbeknownst to Thugar, the eldest Brood, Dahvid and Nevelyn Tin’Vori, who are in hiding, are also out for vengeance as descendants of another family who fell victim to the Broods. Their alliance with Ren and Theo (if he can be truste

FALL OF THE IRON GODS

Six months after the fall of the Narrows, the members of the rebel group Red Hand face an ongoing threat from the South Asian Province’s government and the Planetary Alliance Commission in the form of an ominous mind-controlling program called Solace. Ashiva struggles to become an inspiring hero for the Red Hand, despite being unable to fully sync with her new SynGenesis, a deadly and advanced bio-mechanical arm. When their base is targeted, Ashiva, Synch, and Taru, along with the remnants of t

SAINT-SEDUCING GOLD

Joan’s godfather, Baba Ben, is still locked away in the Tower of London, so it’s Joan’s job as one blessed by the Orisha Ogun to protect their people with her power to manipulate metals. Fae creatures that feast on the bones and blood of humans are growing bolder and stronger now that the Pact forged to keep them in their own realm has been broken. Since iron is the only defense against Fae folks, Joan’s gift is critical in the fight against them. But Titanea, queen of the Fae, has risen from t

BEFORE NOW WAS NOW

In New Mexico, Andrea “Rae” Aragon suffers a frayed relationship with her mother, a recovering alcoholic. Her mom’s struggles have tanked her restaurant business and her marriage, forcing Rae to leave her friends for a new school. Unexpectedly, Rae’s beloved grandmother, Lydia, radically complicates her life by telling her that she, like others in her family, is a time traveler. To prove she’s legit, Lydia, after giving Rae an itinerary case (which fits on a belt like a buckle) and a personal t

THE EVER-CHANGING EARTH

Following a distant glimpse of a small Asian child named Kûn pedaling through a modern landscape past outsize ghostly images of turbulent waters and immense prehistoric creatures, Baker-Smith rewinds to a view of the dinosaurs’ cataclysmic demise. He then goes further back to depict the massive interplanetary collision that produced our moon and, after millions of years of raging storms, led to the appearance of teeming life in unusual forms that evolved over eons into those of today. Meanwhile

RUMAYSA

Rumaysa is back in this sequel to Rumaysa: A Fairytale (2023), this time with a spin on the classic fairy tale “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” The purple onyx necklace gifted to her by her friend Sulieman takes her to “enchanted lands and troubled people,” those who are most in need. Among other adventures, she helps a mermaid escape captivity and saves Little Red Riding Hijab from a wolf. Yet, all Rumaysa wants is for the necklace to return her to her parents. After she rescues a young boy

SHORTY'S ARK

While several YouTube videos of the tune make clear the message of climate change and its effect on the Earth, the connection in this book isn’t nearly as obvious. What starts out seemingly as a rehash of Noah’s Ark, with a list of animals, takes a turn in the middle. “When the rain comes we’ll be there / to sing them in the sky / make constellations with our song / together, you and I // they’ll remind us of eternity / so we won’t have to die / they fill our dreams with savage schemes / we’ll

THE BOY WHO FOUND HIS VOICE

Tyler’s words always get “STUCK.” “Long words. Short words. Silly words. All words.” In his head, Tyler can speak “loudly” and “proudly,” tell knock-knock jokes, and “even reveal the real reason why that chicken crossed the road.” Yet in reality, “his tongue [gets] tied, and his words just [won’t] come out right,” a predicament vividly expressed via tangled scrawls and a spread depicting Tyler with a long, loop-laced tongue. Still, Tyler won’t give up. His mother encourages him, and together th

REAR-VIEW REFLECTIONS ON RADICAL CHANGE

While activism that addresses social justice and climate change has helped define our current moment, the practice is hardly new; many people, including the author, have been agitating for policy changes in these areas for decades. With this volume, Wagner collects her writings from a half-century of fighting the good fight, from her high school graduation speech (given in 1970) to reflections written in the aftermath of 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests. Over that time, the “revolution” she w

JO'S SPECIAL GIFTS

Jo is like other kids, but he’s also “unique in [his] own way.” He loves outer space and music, and sometimes shouts words he likes while reading or counting. He loves spinning objects, playing piano, and riding on his big, green bike. He knows he does some things differently from other kids, such as having trouble when a surprise changes his routine, but he’s also very observant: “My Mom says I have super-hearing— / and we both think that’s amazing! / I can spot a flying plane / from far away—

THE FRAGILE BLUE DOT

In the story “The Real Manhattan,” New York–based journalist Abbie Dial scores a chance to interview a famed “climate crusader.” But just a few minutes spent with subject Tillie McBivens may beget an entirely different piece than Abbie anticipates. Such world-threatening issues as global warming play a central part in each of this book’s 15 tautly written stories. “Cowabunga Sunset,” for example, unfolds inside a dome with a virtual, programmable beach setting—a resort for people to escape the