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EVERYONE HERE IS LYING

After being dumped by his lover, William Wooler comes home to find Avery, his precocious, difficult 9-year-old daughter, alone in the kitchen when she’s supposed to be at choir practice. A confrontation ensues, and William leaves. Several hours later, it appears that Avery is missing. The police are immediately on the case, interviewing the family and the neighbors for information, but instead of providing clarity, each conversation seems to complicate the investigation. Why does it take Willia

THE FREEZIES

Kai, Leo, and Suleikha (who goes by “Sully”) live in an English village. Some locals, who wish to keep away “squatters and travellers,” quickly become outraged when an unfamiliar van towing a trailer shows up on the common. The driver, Mr. Christaki, plays the violin beautifully. When a small mob of residents recruits the police to evict him, Leo’s parents, a lawyer and a barrister, instead invite Mr. Christaki to relocate to their property and hire him to teach Leo violin. Following the winter

JUST SNOW ALREADY!

Everything reminds the young narrator of snow, even the milk and sugar at breakfast. Though the child’s sister doesn’t really care, the protagonist’s imagination runs wild with plans of sledding, snowball fights, and snowman building, but “absolutely NOTHING” is happening outside. The child doesn’t see what the readers do. It may not be snowing, but the neighborhood is bursting with activity: A parade of bicycles (including a unicycle and an old-fashioned penny-farthing) zips by, a firetruck ar

MISTRESS OF LIFE AND DEATH

Eischeid, a performer and teacher who specializes in the music of the Holocaust, has researched the life of Maria Mandl (1912-1948) for more than 20 years. Some of Mandl’s surviving contemporaries have been willing to talk, and Mandl herself added to the massive documentation on the Nazi years. She was born to a close-knit, middle-class Austrian family who passed smoothly through the 1920s but suffered during the Depression the following decade—although her father, a shoemaker, kept working. Wh

BIG RIVER

Photographer and biologist Moskowitz and nature writer Pearkes survey, in words and images, the enormous Columbia River Basin, stretching from British Columbia to Nevada and from Montana to the Pacific Ocean, its many rivers now punctuated by dozens of dams. The book opens with an expansive essay by Pearkes on the Basin’s natural and human history, including the ancient geology and glaciology that forged its rugged landscape, the evolution of salmon and their epic upriver migrations from the se

A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING

After Amaya is born, her parents repeat an affirmation to her every day: “You have a little bit of Mama in you, / and a little bit of Papa. / You have a little bit of where you go, / and a bit of who you meet. / You have a little bit of the things you do, / and a bit of who you want to be.” Sure enough, Amaya experiences many things for the first time, some concrete, such as encountering the ocean and going camping, and some intangible, such as using her imagination. And when Amaya meets her ne

SOME DAYS ARE YELLOW

Life’s an awesome adventure, filled with highs and lows—sometimes all in the same day. This delightful book explores the idea of life’s shifting sands. Through simple, bouncy verses and charming, colorful illustrations depicting a variety of scenarios, readers learn that some days will be filled with triumphs, friendship, and excitement, while others might deliver disappointment, hurt, sadness, fear, loneliness, and self-doubt. In other words, life isn’t static. The author and the illustrator p

INCIDENTS AROUND THE HOUSE

Set in the fictional small town of Chaps, Michigan, near the other made-up places in dread specialist Malerman’s novels, the story involves a deeply troubled family. Bela’s actual mommy has been cheating on her father, Daddo, whose friendliness and good cheer clash with his wife’s dark streak. Wrapped up in their squabbling and work demands, they’ve neglected to pay attention to Bela. Sweetly seductive in the beginning, Other Mommy offers Bela, who blames herself for the whole mess, a solution.

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

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

Parker, the author of Magical Negro, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, is good at snappy titles, clever formulations, and bitter humor, all of which are on display in these provocative and personal reflections, structured as a kind of symphony of themes and metaphors. One of the central images is the slave ship, which features in essays with titles like “Everything Is a Slave Ship: Rupture” and “Strategies for Boat Repair: A Guide to Reparations.” Positing that “a Bla

THE HUNTER

In fictional Ardnakelty, on Ireland’s west coast, lives retired American cop Cal Hooper, who busies himself repairing furniture with 15-year-old Theresa “Trey” Reddy and fervently wishes to be boring. Then into town pops Trey’s long-gone, good-for-nothing dad, Johnny, all smiles and charm. Much to her distaste, he says he wants to reclaim his fatherly role. In fact, he’s on the run from a criminal for a debt he can’t repay, and he has a cockamamie scheme to persuade local townsfolk that there m

WOODROW WILSON

Historian, lawyer, and former Congressman Cox writes that Wilson was the first Southern Democrat to occupy the White House since Andrew Johnson. Scholars have long considered him a giant among presidents for his progressive reforms and leadership in World War I. They have not ignored his flaws, emphasizing the censorship, suppression of civil rights, and persecution of war opponents. Cox will have none of that. Sticking to the historical record but keeping Wilson’s achievements in the backgroun

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

TAMING THE OCTOPUS

In this astute history, Hedgehog Review senior editor Williams charts the evolution of the corporation into its outsized and seemingly predatory role in American life, along with prominent efforts undertaken to reform it. Drawing on “the stories of businesspeople, employees, consumers, and activists who have waged battles over business decisions, managerial strategies, and public policy,” the author traces key stages of the corporation’s rising autonomy and activists’ resistance to its undemocr

THE COLLECTED REGRETS OF CLOVER

When she was 5, Clover witnessed her kindergarten teacher’s collapse, and then, when she was 6, her parents died in an accident while on vacation in China. Taken in by her maternal grandfather, she moved from Connecticut to New York City, where he raised her lovingly, if in some isolation. Now 36, she still lives in her grandfather’s West Village apartment, though he’s been dead for 13 years; works as a death doula; and counts as her only true friends her pets and her 87-year-old neighbor. Her

THE CURSE OF EELGRASS BOG

Twelve-year-old Kess and her older brother, Oliver, have lived alone in the Unnatural History Museum ever since Mam and Da left for Antarctica on a research trip ever so long ago. Well, there’s also Shrunken Jim, a pickled, disembodied head Kess carries around in a jar, a staunch if unusual friend. Kess hopes that new exhibits will revitalize the museum, and when newcomer Lilou visits, Kess finds a partner in exploration—and what they learn in Eelgrass Bog upends everything Kess thought she kne

JAX FREEMAN AND THE PHANTOM SHRIEK

Twelve-year-old Jax Freeman is an unwilling transplant to Chicago, sent away from his Raleigh, North Carolina, home by his parents after an incident lands him in the juvenile justice system. Just about as soon as he descends from the train, the weirdness starts: Inanimate objects speak to him, a strange old woman tells him his ancestors need him, and a terrifying creature tries to steal his skin. The strangeness keeps building, from the inspirational signs at his grandmother’s house that keep c

THE FOURTH TURNING IS HERE

In 1997, entrepreneur and history buff Howe published The Fourth Turning with William Strauss. In that book, they laid out a clear cyclical pattern of Anglo-American history that occurs in units of 80 to 100 years, called a saeculum, which are further divided into roughly two-decade increments called turnings. The First Turning is a High, an upbeat era of strengthening institutions and weakening individualism when a new order arises. The Second, Awakening, is a turbulent era when the new order

LESBIAN LOVE STORY

“Mostly grown and living in New York City, I still rarely spotted other lesbians,” writes book publicist Possanza in her debut. “I joined a queer swim team, but it was full of gay men who didn’t recognize me.” As such, she “resolved to become a collector of lesbians.” Part personal memoir, part archival research, the book expertly weaves together stories of lesbians across time with a historian’s precision and a novelist’s pacing. Bringing together seven epic love stories across eras, ranging f

THE PARTITION PROJECT

Pakistani American seventh grader Mahnoor Raheem, an aspiring journalist, and Talha, her older brother, are instructed by Abba to greet their grandmother with “happy faces”—Dadi is leaving Lahore to live with them in Sugar Land, Texas. But smiling is hard for Maha. She’s had to give up her bedroom for Dadi and move into the attic, and she even has to take care of her after school. She’s excited about media studies, her new elective, but even that goes awry when they’re assigned to make document