Anatomy of an Alibi

by Ashley Elston

Ashley Elston's arresting Anatomy of an Alibi opens as Aubrey Price seems to be establishing just that: an alibi. She's in a bar flirting with a stranger to kill time and be seen. But the alibi is not for her. She's wearing a wig, expensive clothes way beyond what she'd be able to afford on her bartending salary, and a wedding band on her finger, though she's not married.

Aubrey is impersonating Camille, a rich and unhappy housewife, while Camille spends the day implementing a plan to escape from her powerful

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Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a Theologian

by Miroslav Volf, Christian Wiman

In Glimmerings, poet Christian Wiman (Zero at the Bone; My Bright Abyss) and theologian Miroslav Volf explore some of the questions central to Christianity through an exchange of e-mails stretching from February 2023 through June 2024. The two men, colleagues at Yale Divinity School and professed Christians, come at their faith from strikingly different perspectives, and they don't hesitate to disagree. But always they extend an assurance of goodwill, an understanding that their opinions may differ, but their

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The Lions' Run

by Sara Pennypacker, illus. by Jon Klassen

In this humane and stirring work of middle-grade historical fiction, National Book Award-longlisted Sara Pennypacker (Pax) and Caldecott Medal-winning artist Jon Klassen (This Is Not My Hat) delve into an appalling and often-ignored piece of World War II history: the creation of "a massive, secretive web of maternity homes... whose purpose was to provide the population needed for Hitler's plans to conquer Europe and the world."

For 13-year-old orphan Lucas, the Nazi occupation of his French village is "like

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The Company of Owls

by Polly Atkin

Polly Atkin (Some of Us Just Fall) brings a poet's sensibility to a contemplative study of nature and self with her memoir The Company of Owls. From her home in the village of Grasmere in England's Lake District, Atkin can hear tawny owls calling to one another; on short walks, she feels privileged to watch them hunting, nesting, raising their young. During and after the Covid-19 lockdown, she marveled at their lives, so little known to us, and mused on isolation, companionship, humans' relationship to the

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