SUMMER RENTAL
Eighteen-year-old Riley March and four girlfriends—Cam, Val, Nia, and Blake— are off on a celebratory Independence Day weekend away, their last before they all leave for college in the fall. Their destination is the exclusive and remote Palm Key Island, the perfect location for wealthy kids to spend their leisure time. Some of their other friends from school are there, too, including Riley’s crush, Sebastian. Riley needs to make sure no one finds out her biggest secret: She really doesn’t belon
TRAITOR'S RUN
Stevenson’s far-future SF series opener focuses on evil space invaders who happen to be human—an order called the Hegemony, which arose in the aftermath of a traumatic but victorious (though scarcely described in any detail) interplanetary war. Hegemony policy assures the safety of humankind by incorporating spacegoing alien civilizations in what is supposedly a protective alliance akin to the storied Federation of the Star Trek franchise. In fact, the oppressive arrangement subjugates and weak
DEAD DOG ROAD
After earning a master’s degree in counseling, debut author Black took a job at a center for abused children. Seeing firsthand the dilapidated state of the facility, she decided to open her own home. The Roosevelt House, finally realized in 2008, was a chance to help numerous children in need of care. But the author’s life took an unexpected turn, starting with a simple request from Child Protective Services to perform a psychosocial evaluation on a father and his adopted children in a nearby t
TECHLASH
Wheeler is a former chairman of the Federal Communication Corporation and a successful venture capitalist, so when it comes to regulation of the tech giants that dominate the U.S. economy, he is a person whose voice should be heard. In this follow-up to From Gutenberg to Google, the author argues that the past few decades are similar to the Gilded Age following the Civil War, when powerful barons built enormous wealth by harnessing new technologies. They used their power to bury potential compe
SIGN ME UP
When Alyssa Jackson moves from rural Alaska to California, she knows she’s going to miss ice-skating, but she soon makes friends with girls who do roller derby. The transition from blades to wheels isn’t a smooth one for Alyssa, however: The noise at the rink is often overwhelming, and she struggles with wanting to quit. But Saffy, a new friend who may be becoming more than a friend, helps her practice, and Alyssa’s loving parents provide support and understanding of her needs as an introvert.
LAWYER NATION
Since colonial days, the legal profession has been proud of “its role in the founding of the republic, the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, and the defense of democracy and the rule of law.” Today, however, the profession faces an “an existential crisis” on which “the American democratic experiment hinges,” writes law professor Brescia, author of How Cities Will Save the World. According to multiple studies, the legal system that helped create what can be called the longest-running democratic
THE RESET
The series’ central conceit is that certain humans are born with innate “Time Corrector” powers that allow them to halt or reverse time and thus rewrite reality. This talent is bound to a rare Earth substance called intreton—a key element in everything from clean energy technology to cybernetic limbs, digital mind transfer, and artificial intelligence. In the early 21st century, super-genius Vincent Abajian is the incredibly wealthy leader of the cutting-edge Quantum World, a company that makes
LAST NIGHT
Rice’s latest novel literally starts with a bang. Acclaimed artist Maddie Morrison—her level of fame is compared to that of Andy Warhol and Banksy—is fighting her way through a raging blizzard on her way to meeting someone outside a historic hotel situated on Rhode Island’s coastline. Within seconds, she’s shot execution-style, and the killer finds her 6-year-old daughter, CeCe, hiding in the snow. The killer kidnaps CeCe, then Maddie’s sister discovers her body, and the race to catch a killer
CRAB BAIT
In 1888, the city of London is abuzz over the sensational murders of Jack the Ripper in the East End, but over on the West End—in a neighborhood known as “Clubland” for its concentration of gentleman’s clubs—another murderer is at work. The most infamous of the clubs is Sizar’s, a place where boys from poor backgrounds can rise in the world so long as they’re willing to “bend.” Former Navy man Stewart Marsh sorts boys for Sizar’s; when he can, he sneaks down to Brighton to go for a run on the b
MAGICAL AND UNUSUAL SOLAR ECLIPSE
The narrator is a little boy with light skin, brown hair, and an orange baseball cap. The adults in his racially diverse group of friends and family have planned activities to demonstrate the magical effects of a total solar eclipse. First, they go looking for objects with holes in them and gather them together on white sheets laid out on the ground. The sunlight passes through the holes, creating circles of light on the sheet. Everybody puts on protective glasses as the moon begins to slowly p
CLARA'S MAGIC GARDEN
When lonely, young Clara hears a bush whispering to her in the winter, the white girl happily collects its berries and holds onto them until they can be planted in the spring. Soon, she takes them to her hidden garden, where the plants and flowers are her friends. She plants the berries, waters them, and gets rewarded with a sprout. When the bush matures, Clara is delighted, but the garden’s other plants consider the newcomer dreadfully plain. Feeling sad, the bush asks the wise old walnut tree
THE COMPLETE RECIPE WRITING GUIDE
There’s a lot more to creating a recipe than jotting a list of ingredients onto a notecard—even if that’s the form in which many of us encountered recipes for the first time. The author’s curiosity about recipes began in the kitchen of her grandmother, Sonia: “I believe that recipes (like my grandmother’s) are meant to be shared,” she writes in her introduction. “For recipes to live on, they must be accurately recorded.” With this book, Sarazen shepherds readers through the recipe-making proces
THE SOUND OF A RAINBOW
Raven’s nearly 16, and her happiness has already been destroyed. During the finals of a televised singing competition, her overused vocal cords snapped, and the teen star ended up hospitalized for a vocal hemorrhage. The result was online bullying and threats, leading Raven to attempt suicide. Now she’s been packed off incognito to Camp Rainbow Wings, whose advertising features clowns. It’s a performing arts camp where campers with physical, cognitive, and emotional disabilities are integrated
BAKING SPIRITS BRIGHT
Becca Ransom has no regrets about giving up her Los Angeles life to return to her gorgeous childhood home of Larch Haven, Vermont, where winter makes everything in the small town look even more beautiful. Not only does Becca get to be near her beloved grandparents Lolly and Pop; she’s also happily taken over their family chocolate shop, True Confections. When her closest friend, Dizzy Bautista, tries to talk Becca into entering the upcoming third annual Baking Spirits Bright competition, Becca
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
SMALL SPECKLED EGG
Between a die-cut front cover hole exposing the titular egg on the title page and a foldout map at the end, a tern describes its life cycle from hatchling to parent as, in smaller type, the author fills in details about diet, predators, behavior, and the annual migratory cycle that takes these birds from Arctic to Antarctic regions and back. Further comments on the foldout map expand on the main narrative with references to the terns’ amazing navigational abilities, sensitivity to magnetic fiel
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE AUNTIES
At a chaotic celebration outside Jakarta, where Meddy’s extended family has gathered to celebrate Chinese New Year, a red gift packet containing the title deed to a valuable parcel of land in downtown Jakarta that Abraham Lincoln Irawan, who’s long carried a torch for Second Aunt Enjelin Chan, has earmarked for his creditor Julia Child Handoko, accidentally ends up in the hands of one of Meddy’s cousins. Learning of the mishap, Julia Child—a rival businessperson who’s the perfectly law-abiding
LITTLE BROWN NUT
In Amazon rainforest settings that teem with flora and fauna, Auld and Cooper follow the nut as it is buried and forgotten by an agouti (“like a guinea pig, but with longer legs”), then germinates and over many years grows into a majestic tree that houses wildlife from tiny Brazil-nut poison frogs to harpy eagles. Adding additional details delivered in smaller type to join the nutty narrator, the author describes how the flowers, which have evolved to be accessible only to female orchid bees, a
STILL TRUE
For the author, there’s nothing contradictory about being a journalist and an activist. “Authentic journalism is a quest to tell the truth,” Jackson writes in her preface. “The conflation of what is viewed as objective and white cultural bias has become a liability that has limited the scope of our media and stunted our capacity as Americans to see each other clearly enough to tell complete, nuanced and true stories.” This collection features many pieces that center her perspective as a Black w
TO SLIP THE BONDS OF EARTH
Since graduating from Oberlin College, Katharine Wright has taught high school Latin and Greek, but she’s restricted to teaching underclassmen because she’s a woman. Katharine, who doesn’t suffer fools gladly, is proud of Wilbur and Orville and thrilled when a telegram arrives announcing their first flight. Soon afterward, she has words with lazy student Benny Shaw, the handsome, entitled son of a wealthy family who gets by on charisma. Although Katharine has no interest in attending the Shaws’