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Starred Review

A Complete Fiction

by R.L. Maizes

Strike up the band: there's a new R.L. Maizes (We Love Anderson Cooper; Other People's Pets) book, and it's breakout-novel time--or at least it should be. As a funny-pitiless look at the lengths writers will go to get published, A Complete Fiction deserves shelf space alongside Percival Everett's Erasure and Jean Hanff Korelitz's The Plot.

P.J. Larkin is a Denver-based writer who drives for a ride-share company to pay the bills. She has three unpublished novels to show for herself; regarding her third unsold

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The Tree That Was a World

by Yorick Goldewijk, trans. by Laura Watkinson, illus. by Jeska Verstegen

A varied cast of eccentric animal characters inhabits The Tree That Was a World, a hilariously irreverent and enchantingly strange book of short stories by Dutch author Yorick Goldewijk, translated into English by Laura Watkinson (Movies Showing Nowhere), and illustrated by Jeska Verstegen (I'll Keep You Close).

A tree "as old as the world" and "as big as the world" grows in a fog-swept forest, its branches filled with the secret lives and stories of a hidden community of creatures. A sloth sneaks out of the

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The Hidden Seasons: A Calendar of Nature's Clues

by Tristan Gooley

British naturalist Tristan Gooley, known as the "Natural Navigator," takes readers on a fascinating journey of interpreting natural signs in his engaging, informative 10th book, The Hidden Seasons. Focusing on each month in turn, Gooley (How to Read a Tree; The Nature Instinct) highlights small but significant phenomena of flora, fauna, weather, and sky to help readers connect more deeply to, and understand the trends of, the shifting seasons in the temperate northern hemisphere.

"Our job is to decipher the

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No Hand Held Mine

by Kim Soom, trans. by Doo-Sun Ryu, Joon-Li Kim

No Hand Held Mine by Kim Soom, who's won every major Korean literary award, offers two extraordinary novellas, Granny Wild Goose and The Root's Tale, jointly translated by Joon-Li Kim and Doo-Sun Ryu.

Granny Wild Goose is a breathtaking homage to Gil Won-Ok (1928-2025), one of the last surviving comfort women when Kim interviewed her before the novella's original 2018 publication. By then, the nonagenarian's memory was in decline; Kim hauntingly mimics those gaps by writing in elliptical verse, creating white

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A Guardian and a Thief

by Megha Majumdar

The thrilling events of Megha Majumdar's novel A Guardian and a Thief take place over one week in a near-future Kolkata, India, where catastrophic consequences of climate change have caused flooding, food scarcity, and desperation.

Ma, her two-year-old daughter, Mishti, and elderly father, Dadu, are trying to flee the crumbling city and reunite with her husband in the U.S. "It was [Ma's] duty, as a guardian, to put into action the beautiful ideal of hope." Though their long-awaited immigration documents are

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Just in Case: Saving Seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

by Megan Clendenan, illus. by Brittany Cicchese

Debut picture book author Megan Clendenan (Design Like Nature) and illustrator Brittany Cicchese (No More Señora Mimí) skillfully combine their talents in the accessible, atmospheric picture book collaboration Just in Case.

Eight hundred miles from the North Pole, on a Norwegian island, in a frozen mountain is a global bank that holds only one kind of currency: seeds. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a repository that stores duplicates of every seed housed in every single one of the "1,700 seed

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Shelf Discovery

Workhorse

by Caroline Palmer

In this introspective and engrossing deep dive into the 2000s publishing industry, Clo Harmon must decide how many risks she is willing to take to make it to the top.

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The Unveiling

by Quan Barry

In this unflinching and darkly funny psychological horror novel, a woman stranded on Antarctica loses her grip on reality as she fights to suppress her past and survive the elements.

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The Free State of Jax

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

In this lively and unusual adventure-mystery, a boy creates a micronation by claiming eminent domain over a neighbor's pond--and finds friendship, family, and a way finally to be seen and heard.

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The Good Daughters

by Brigitte Dale

Brigitte Dale's compelling debut novel immerses readers in the activism, hardships, and triumphs of suffragettes in early 20th-century London.

Read Full Review »

As When Waking

by Daniel Schonning

The 37 poems in this dazzling debut collection relish linguistic experimentation and nature imagery as they convey philosophical musings and personal stories.

Read Full Review »

The White Hot

by Quiara Alegría Hudes

Delightful, unpredictable, and often harrowing, this mother-daughter tale of growing and learning will keep any reader riveted.

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Sea, Poison

by Caren Beilin

Caren Beilin's novel Sea, Poison challenges readers' expectations of what a novel is and can do, while invoking the playfulness of the Oulipian tradition.

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The Quilt of Our Memories

by Desirée Acevedo, trans. by Jon Brokenbrow, illus. by Víctor Jaubert

This brightly colored and heartfelt picture book offers a moving testament to one family's collectively created quilt and to the ability of physical objects to convey meaning.

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Evensong

by Stewart O'Nan

An empathetic, but decidedly honest, reckoning with the realities of old age in the lives of a group of Pittsburgh women.

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The Birds

by Tarjei Vesaas, trans. by Michael Barnes, Torbjørn Støverud

Norwegian author Tarjei Vesaas's The Birds is a haunting and gutting modernist exploration of the interiority of an intellectually disabled middle-aged man.

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Viz Media: Kingdom, Vol. 1 by Yasuhisa Hara
Shelf Awareness

Media Heat

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

CBS Mornings: Sen. John Fetterman, author of Unfettered (Crown, $32, 9780593799826).

The View: Rob Riggle, author of Grit, Spit, and Never Quit: A Marine's Guide to Comedy and Life (Grand Central, $30, 9781538769546).

Drew Barrymore Show: Alison Roman, author of Something from Nothing: A Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, $37.99, 9781984826411).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Jonathan Karl, author of Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America (Dutton, $32, 9798217047000).

Tuesday, November 11, 2025

CBS Mornings: Rob Riggle, author of Grit, Spit, and Never Quit: A Marine's Guide to Comedy and Life (Grand Central, $30, 9781538769546).

All Things Considered: Justinian Huang, author of Lucky Seed: A Novel (MIRA, $30, 9780778387862).

Fresh Air: Marion Nestle, author of What to Eat Now: The Indispensable Guide to Good Food, How to Find It, and Why It Matters (North Point Press, $36, 9780374608699).

Monday, November 10, 2025

Good Morning America: Alison Roman, author of Something from Nothing: A Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, $37.99, 9781984826411).

Kelly Clarkson Show: E. Lockhart, author of We Fell Apart: A We Were Liars Novel (Delacorte Press, $22.99, 9780593899168).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Ken Burns, co-author of The American Revolution: An Intimate History (Knopf, $80, 9780525658672).

Thursday, November 6, 2025

Good Morning America: Kardea Brown, author of Make Do with What You Have: 100 Delicious New Recipes from Favorite Old-School Meals (Amistad, $32, 9780063425576).

CBS Mornings: Rainn Wilson, co-author of Soul Boom Workbook: Spiritual Tools for Modern Living (Grand Central, $19.99, 9781538775547).

Drew Barrymore Show: Haley Lu Richardson, author of I'm Sad and Horny (Simon & Schuster, $28.99, 9781668210352).

Sherri Shepherd Show: Michelle Obama, co-author of The Look (Crown, $50, 9780593800706).

The View: Padma Lakshmi, author of Padma's All American: Tales, Travels, and Recipes from Taste the Nation and Beyond (Knopf, $40, 9780593535325).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Patti Smith, author of Bread of Angels: A Memoir (Random House, $30, 9781101875124).

Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Here & Now: Tom Colicchio, author of Why I Cook (Artisan, $35, 9781648291289).

Good Morning America: Mirta Ojito, author of Deeper than the Ocean (Union Square & Co., $28.99, 9781454961901).

CBS Mornings: Kenny Chesney, author Heart Life Music (Morrow, $32.50, 9780063423107).

Tamron Hall: Tim Tebow, co-author of Look Again: Recognize Your Worth. Renew Your Hope. Run with Confidence. (Thomas Nelson, $29.99, 9781400254200).
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