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Starred Review

Nowhere Girl: Life as a Member of ADHD's Lost Generation

by Carla Ciccone

When writer Carla Ciccone was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at 39, she went through a range of emotions: fear, anger, disappointment, self-recognition. She catalogs this in Nowhere Girl: Life as a Member of ADHD's Lost Generation, skillfully placing her own experience in a larger historical, scientific, and cultural context. Ciccone's smart, compelling memoir is sure to appeal to anyone living with ADHD--whether themselves or someone they love.

Ciccone highlights how many of

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A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, a Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out

by Nicholas Day, illus. by Yas Imamura

Nicholas Day, the Sibert Medal-winning author of The Mona Lisa Vanishes, explores the catastrophic, worldwide results of the 19th-century Tambora volcano eruption in his middle-grade nonfiction book A World Without Summer, illustrated by Yas Imamura (Love in the Library).

Mount Tambora on Indonesia's Sumbawa Island had been inactive for 400 years before April 1815, when "it began to rumble." On April 10, "Tambora blew itself apart.... It was as if the earth had been turned inside out and its glowing center

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Audition for the Fox

by Martin Cahill

Martin Cahill's Audition for the Fox is a brief, lyrical story about the power that exists where the powerful never think to look and fighting for justice even when it seems hopeless.

After 96 auditions where she failed to gain the patronage of one of the 99 Pillars of Heaven, Nesi is desperate enough to turn to the trickster god, T'sidaan the Fox. The Fox sends their would-be acolyte 300 years into the past, during an era of the brutal Zeminis occupation of Nesi's homeland, Oranoya, and tasks her with igniting

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Candace, the Universe, and Everything

by Sherri L. Smith

Sherri L. Smith (Pearl; Orleans) delivers a stellar work of middle-grade science fiction in Candace, the Universe, and Everything, about three generations of Black girls bound by a wormhole in their shared locker.

It's the first day of eighth grade, and a bird has just flown out of 13-year-old Candace's locker. Later, Candace finds a purple notebook on the top shelf of the locker that had not been there earlier; "Tracey Auburn, Fall '88" is written in the front cover. Tracey, a 53-year-old college professor,

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Waseem

by Lilas Taha

Waseem perceptively centers a Palestinian community's resilience in a Lebanese refugee camp. Author Lilas Taha infuses surprisingly poignant charm, reclaiming joy even if "it made little sense in this miserable world."

"I shall tell you lies," the titular Waseem opens. He's the firstborn son who should have been named Saleem, meaning " 'physically healthy'... [but] the kindhearted neighborhood midwife wanted to spare [him] ridicule." Born with "a number of handicaps"--he can't walk, he limits his speech to

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Circle of Days

by Ken Follett

Ken Follett (The Pillars of the Earth) is sure to delight his dedicated following and add new readers with Circle of Days, a thoroughly researched, engrossing, and richly imagined novel about the creation of Stonehenge.

Follett, whose research included access to recent archeological studies, reimagines late-Neolithic Britain as divided into communities of farmers, herders, and woodlanders. Overseeing all of these groups are the priestesses, who use their understanding of mathematics and the wooden "Monument"

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Shelf Discovery

What We Can Know

by Ian McEwan

In a post-apocalyptic England, a humanities professor seeking to solve a literary mystery discovers a tangled story of love and betrayal.

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The Shadow of the Mammoth

by Fabio Morábito, trans. by Curtis Bauer

Fabio Morábito's second collection of 18 stories impressively examines elliptical attempts to connect that end in success, failure, but more often something in between.

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Other People's Houses

by Clare Mackintosh

The uncommonly adroit third book in the DC Ffion Morgan series finds North Wales Police looking into a murder linked to a burglary in West Cheshire that's being investigated by Ffion's boyfriend.

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When We Were Monsters

by Jennifer Niven

A group of eight gifted teen students take part in an upsettingly immersive storytelling workshop in this eerie and suspenseful YA psychological thriller.

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All These Ghosts: Poems

by Silas House

Novelist, activist, and poet Silas House offers a tender yet probing exploration of family and community in his debut collection about living in and disagreeing with the American South.

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Will There Ever Be Another You

by Patricia Lockwood

Patricia Lockwood's curious second novel, an autobiographical sequel to No One Is Talking About This, depicts a writer experiencing a mysterious illness and simultaneous mental breakdown.

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What About the Bodies

by Ken Jaworowski

In this engaging, character-driven novel, three people attempt to rise above their limitations in a small town, each coming heartbreakingly close to ruin as brutality seeps into their lives.

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One of Them

by Kitty Zeldis

Kitty Zeldis's insightful third novel explores the complexities of Jewish identity through the lives of two young women who meet at Vassar College.

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Miss Ruki

by Fumiko Takano, trans. by Alexa Frank

Fumiko Takano's Miss Ruki, who debuted publicly in 1988, timelessly, delightfully skips onto English-language pages.

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A Land So Wide

by Erin A. Craig

In an alternate 18th-century Canada, a young woman flees her magically protected village to follow her beloved and must battle monsters and a monstrous family legacy to save them both.

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Awake

by Jen Hatmaker

This eloquently crafted memoir by a podcast host and former pastor's wife recounts a devastating marital betrayal, the unraveling of a family, and the aftermath.

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Quarto Children's: Explore the History of Dia de Los Muertos
Shelf Awareness

Media Heat

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Good Morning America: Paul Hollywood, author of Celebrate: Joyful Baking All Year Round (Bloomsbury, $40, 9781639735037).

CBS Mornings: Matthew McConaughey, author of Poems & Prayers (Crown, $29, 9781984862105).

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

CBS Mornings: Kate McKinnon, author of Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science: Secrets of the Purple Pearl (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9780316555296).

All Things Considered: Kathy Fang and Peter Fang, authors of House of Nanking: Family Recipes from San Francisco's Favorite Chinese Restaurant (Abrams, $40, 9781419777875). 

Fresh Air: Mark Ronson, author of Night People: How to Be a DJ in '90s New York (Grand Central, $29, 9781538741115).

The View: John Edward and Robert Hilland, authors of Chasing Evil: Shocking Crimes, Supernatural Forces, and an FBI Agent's Search for Hope and Justice (St. Martin's Essentials, $32, 9781250291752).

Kelly Clarkson Show: Matthew McConaughey, author of Poems & Prayers (Crown, $29, 9781984862105).

Monday, September 29, 2025

Good Morning America: Lionel Richie, author of Truly (HarperOne, $36, 9780063253643).

CBS Mornings: Dan Hurley, co-author of Never Stop: Life, Leadership, and What It Takes to Be Great (Avid Reader Press, $32, 9781668095744).

Also on CBS Mornings: Brandon Stanton, author of Dear New York (St. Martin's Press, $42, 9781250277589).

Today Show: Kate McKinnon, author of Secrets of the Purple Pearl (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9780316555296).

All Things Considered: David McCloskey, author of The Persian: A Novel (W.W. Norton, $29.99, 9781324123194).

Thursday, September 25, 2025

Good Morning America: Lionel Richie, author of Truly (HarperOne, $36, 9780063253643).

The View: Clea Shearer, author of Cancer Is Complicated: And Other Unexpected Lessons I've Learned (The Open Field, $28, 9780593830611).

Tamron Hall: Priscilla Presley, co-author of Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis (Grand Central, $32, 9780306836480).

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

CBS This Morning: Brené Brown, author of Strong Ground: The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit (Random House, $32, 9781984855749).

Good Morning America: Kamala Harris, author of 107 Days (Simon & Schuster, $30, 9781668211656).

Also on GMA: Melissa King, co-author of Cook Like a King: Recipes from My California Chinese Kitchen (Ten Speed Press, $40, 9781984861924).

All Things Considered: Patricia Lockwood, author of Will There Ever Be Another You: A Novel (Riverhead, $29, 9780593718551).

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