Starred Review

Thunder Song

by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe

Coast Salish author and artist Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe (Red Paint) engages in the art of the essay in the autobiographical collection Thunder Song. She skillfully sifts through the past, present, and the unraveling future, drawing from the different branches of her identity as a punk, queer Indigenous woman. Each essay presents distinctly captivating narratives that immerse readers in the powerful and rhythmic heartbeat of LaPointe's emotions. At one point she writes: "It was a dam or a dike bursting open

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Feeding Ghosts

by Tessa Hulls

It's a rare author who brings into clear focus the ever-shifting complexities of mother-daughter relationships. Feeding Ghosts, a graphic memoir by Tessa Hulls, covers the nesting-doll lives of three generations of women. It follows Hulls's grandmother, Sun Yi, a journalist who escaped from Communist China; the trajectory of Hulls's mother, Rose, from China to the U.S.; and Hulls's own arc of emotional growth. The skillfully told stories entwine in ways that make each section build on the previous one, propelling

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The First State of Being

by Erin Entrada Kelly

Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly (Those Kids from Fawn Creek; Hello, Universe) introduces a tender-hearted tween boy with anxiety who learns to live mindfully from a time traveler in this buoyant and entertaining middle-grade novel.

Twelve-year-old Michael worries about him and his single mom surviving Y2K, believing the theory that computers will glitch when systems switch to 2000 and shut down the world. But it isn't Y2K that threatens the universe first. It's a 16-year-old boy named Ridge, half Filipino

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The Morningside

by Téa Obreht

Téa Obreht (The Tiger's WifeInland) is a wildly inventive magician of a writer, every performance new and wonder-inducing, every book a distinctive blend of realism and fantasy. The Morningside enters the same world as the author's short story of the same name, but the novel is a weightier thing. It teases out the strands of truth and secrets that circle the narrator, Sil, who moves with her mother to the Morningside building when she is 11.

Their presence in Island City is due to the

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Ferris

by Kate DiCamillo

In the reflective and worldly-wise middle-grade novel Ferris, Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo (The Tale of Despereaux) renders with melancholy gusto a child's mission to shine love into all her relationships.

Ten-year-old Emma Phineas Wilkey, nicknamed Ferris because of her fairground birth, is having an eventful summer. Ferris's younger sister, Pinky, fully commits to a life of crime; their beloved grandmother Charisse falls ill and befriends a ghost; and their home may harbor raccoons. Meanwhile, Ferris's

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Blue Stars: Mission One: The Vice Principal Problem

by Kekla Magoon, Cynthia Leitich Smith, illus. by Molly Murakami

Coretta Scott King and Printz Honor winner Kekla Magoon (Revolution in Our Time), American Indian Youth Literature Award winner Cynthia Leitich Smith (Hearts Unbroken), and debut children's illustrator Molly Murakami collaborate in the charming, quick-witted middle-grade graphic novel, Blue Stars, about two cousins adjusting to life in their grandmother's home.

Riley, who lives in Muscogee Nation, Okla., is moving with her family to live with her activist Grandma Gayle in Urbanopolis so her mother can accept

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3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool

by James Kaplan

Hepcats, rejoice: fans of jazz and its mid-20th-century evolution who are looking for a history that's the cat's meow (for nonenthusiasts, that means excellent) will want to snap up a copy of 3 Shades of Blue by James Kaplan (Irving Berlin). Kaplan devotes this appreciation to jazz created from 1942 to 1967, music he calls "[n]ot antique, not anodyne, not forbiddingly difficult, and viscerally thrilling." Center stage are three indisputable giants: Miles Davis, who grew up in privilege and developed "a sound

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Welcome

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Learn more about Shelf Awareness.

Shelf Discovery

A Year of Last Things

by Michael Ondaatje

A wistful and wondrous assemblage of poetry and prose by a writer of formidable literary talents, this collection includes a tribute to his late dog and a return to his Sri Lankan boarding school.

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Doris

by Lo Cole

Lo Cole's engaging and astute Doris tells the story of an elephant who stands out but is uncomfortable with attention.

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The Divorcées

by Rowan Beaird

In this sparkling, lushly imagined first novel set on a "divorce ranch" outside 1950s Reno, Nev., women yearning for simple freedoms forge bonds that offer new hope and new dangers.

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Wild Houses

by Colin Barrett

Accomplished short story writer Colin Barrett's first novel is an engaging story of the machinations of a group of small-time criminals in small-town Ireland.

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The Underground Library

by Jennifer Ryan

Jennifer Ryan's heartwarming fifth novel centers on a London library that moves underground during the Blitz and the brave, kind women who keep it going.

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Tiny Wonders

by Sally Soweol Han

This enchanting, timeless, and endlessly optimistic picture book shows how one girl, channeling her grandmother's wisdom, teaches her fellow citizens to stop and smell the dandelions.

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Death and Fromage

by Ian Moore

In this follow-up to the equally farcical and funny mystery Death and Croissants, a cheesemaker is dead after the wrong goat cheese somehow ends up in a Michelin-starred chef's signature dessert.

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Poisoned Pen Press: The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill

Media Heat

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Sherri Shepherd Show: Melanie Brown, author of Brutally Honest (Quadrille Publishing, $14.99, 9781837831562).

Tamron Hall: Rebecca Quin, author of Becky Lynch: The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl (Gallery, $28.99, 9781982157258).

The View: Coleman Hughes, author of The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America (Thesis, $30, 9780593332450).

Jennifer Hudson Show: Jenn Drummond, author of BreakProof: 7 Strategies to Build Resilience and Achieve Your Life Goals (Mango, $29.99, 9781684814350).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Fareed Zakaria, author of Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present (W.W. Norton, $29.99, 9780393239232).

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Good Morning America: Kathryn M. Ireland, author of A Life in Design: Celebrating 30 Years of Interiors (CICO Books, $50, 9781800652774).

Monday, March 25, 2024

CBS Mornings: former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, author of Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism (Simon & Schuster, $32, 9781668021538). He also appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

The View: Melanie Brown, author of Brutally Honest (Quadrille Publishing, $14.99, 9781837831562).

Thursday, March 21, 2024

CBS Mornings: Mia Armstrong, author of I Am a Masterpiece! (Random House Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9780593567975).

The View: Gisele Bündchen, author of Nourish: Simple Recipes to Empower Your Body and Feed Your Soul (Clarkson Potter, $35, 9780593580486).

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Fresh Air: Catherine Coldstream, author of Cloistered: My Years as a Nun (St. Martin's Press, $30, 9781250323514).
 
The View: José Andrés, author of Zaytinya: Delicious Mediterranean Dishes from Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon (Ecco, $45, 9780063327900).
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