Home Book Trade Subscribe Login
Latest News

Week of Friday, October 17, 2025

This week in our fiction selections, several protagonists encounter rather surprising obstacles to achieving their greatest aspirations. In Art on Fire, novelist Yun Ko-eun "brilliantly skewers the art industry" through the surreal story of an artist in residence at a Palm Springs museum--and the dog who runs the place. Meanwhile, with "satirical edge, exquisite pacing, and blending of myth and fact," Sonora Jha's "triumphant" Intemperance considers a feminist sociologist who devises a grand contest to determine whom she will wed as her third husband. And Jane Hamilton "blends dark comedy and high drama" in The Phoebe Variations, a "marvelous... enchanting" novel in which an aging woman reflects on her younger years as a piano prodigy and the misadventures that life brought her.

--Dave Wheeler, senior editor, Shelf Awareness

The Best Books This Week

Fiction

Intemperance

by Sonora Jha

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

In her third novel, Intemperance, Sonora Jha (ForeignThe Laughter) crafts an ingenious and triumphant story of a "pathbreaking feminist sociologist," as her 28-year-old son, Karan, puts it, who wants to be married for a third time.

The unnamed narrator will turn 55 years old in five weeks. She has chosen this date for her swayamvar, a Hindu ceremony in which a woman of upper-class status chooses her husband from a group of eligible suitors. She will design a feat for them to compete at, and--on that same day--will wed the winner. Jha brilliantly sets the structure of the novel in chapters that lay out the narrator's plans for the celebration.

Some strong women come forward to help, but not everyone is supportive. Karan asks his mother to "reconsider this," and the narrator receives missives from a "distant cousin-brother" in New Delhi who attempts to dissuade her from her plans by revealing in installments a family curse involving one of her ancestors. In a kind of antidote to this pall, a silver box of kohl arrives from an unfamiliar woman in Patna. Each time the narrator applies the kohl, she has a vision. Jha deftly intertwines the details of the curse and the kohl-induced visions to yield moments of clarity for the narrator, as she arrives at an acceptance of who she is and what she wants.

Thanks to Jha's satirical edge, exquisite pacing, and blending of myth and fact, the days leading up to her heroine's swayamvar will provide a series of epiphanies for readers as well as for the bride-to-be. --Jennifer M. Brown, reviewer

Discover: In Sonora Jha's brilliant novel, a "prominent feminist sociologist" considers how she could be interested in marrying a man (for the third time) and stages a swayamvar to find the right suitor.

HarperVia, $30, hardcover, 304p., 9780063440845

Art on Fire

by Yun Ko-eun, transl. by Lizzie Buehler

Buy Now

After exposing global voyeurism in The Disaster Tourist (2020), award-winning Korean writer Yun Ko-eun, with agile translator Lizzie Buehler, skillfully skewers the art industry in Art on Fire. Nine years ago, the photo Canyon Proposal transformed the art world when the photographer was revealed to be canine--a Papillon named Robert. The photo caught the late daughter of octogenarian businessman Mr Waldmann, who invites Robert to his Palm Springs, Calif., villa, where Robert becomes a "permanent guest." Upon Mr Waldmann's death, Robert is installed as head of the Robert Foundation.

Over the past seven years, the foundation has supported 20 artists with generous, four-month residencies at the Robert Museum of Art in Palm Springs. An Yiji, whose art career has stagnated while she struggles with low ratings working for a delivery app in Seoul, receives the latest invitation. Let the surreality begin.

Getting to Palm Springs is an ordeal: her airport pick-up never shows, fires cause extensive delays. Yiji secures her own ride, but is chastised when she arrives--and inexplicably treated like "an uninvited guest." Even Robert joins in the rebuke in a not-welcome letter, signed in gold-inked pawprint. Communication isn't exactly direct between dog and artist, requiring a black box and three intermediary interpreters, and still "phoenix" somehow becomes "mythical Korean pigeon." Between meals with Robert, trail runs with rentable canine companions, and inspirational location-scouting in a foundation-supplied Lamborghini, Yiji creates her art.

Yun's quotables are countless, her exposés relentless, not the least of which is, of course, that art's ultimate gatekeeping has gone to the dogs. Yun's clever layers are many, producing a biting demand to confront the deification (and commodification) of art, and the unchallenged assumptions of (mis)communication. --Terry Hong

Discover: Yun Ko-eun gloriously takes on the art world, hysterically, delectably, thoroughly exposing its gatekeepers, makers, and audiences.

Scribe US, $20, paperback, 256p., 9781964992198

The Phoebe Variations

by Jane Hamilton

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

Jane Hamilton blends dark comedy and high drama in her marvelous eighth novel, The Phoebe Variations. The story is narrated by a woman in her 60s, reflecting on her younger self's eagerness to shed her old life and the pivotal events that spectacularly derailed her senior year of high school.

When readers meet 17-year-old Phoebe in 1974, she is a piano prodigy who is "in love with several of the dead composers." She lives with her adoptive mother, Greta, outside Chicago. Hamilton (A Map of the World) has a remarkable gift for capturing her characters' quirky sensibilities. In Phoebe, she has crafted a spirited, witty teenager with fragile edges who identifies deeply with Jane from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Phoebe and her best friend, Luna, form an unlikely duo, since Luna's tennis-club vibe clashes with Phoebe's slightly feral tendencies. But their connection is "intergalactic," seemingly destined to last forever.

As graduation looms, Greta insists Phoebe visit the Dahlgrens, her biological family in Wisconsin. The encounter destabilizes Phoebe and sends her into a tailspin of entertaining misadventures from which no one in her orbit emerges unscathed. She searches for something she cannot yet articulate, and readers witness the "moment... where the good student starts to go down to the dark dogs" as Phoebe launches herself chaotically into the future.

Phoebe's yearnings--to fall in love, to perform as a concert pianist, to finally live--clash with her youthful reality, but fate inevitably delivers her exactly where she needed to be all along. The Phoebe Variations is an enchanting novel from an expert storyteller. --Shahina Piyarali

Discover: A young woman eager to shed her old life launches herself chaotically into the future in this marvelous comedic drama by Jane Hamilton set in a 1970s Chicago suburb.

Zibby Publishing, $27.99, hardcover, 368p., 9798991140287

Underspin

by E.Y. Zhao

Buy Now

In her debut novel, Underspin, E.Y. Zhao evokes a rare feeling of incessant hope combined with profound despair through the narrative of table-tennis prodigy Ryan Lo.

An array of perspectives tells the story of Ryan's table-tennis journey, which starts at the age of eight. His relentless but exceptional coach and his menacing training schedule unveil his potential for greatness. Childhood teammates, competitors, and lovers share how Ryan's competitive nature and charismatic personality shine through practices and matches. He has a budding romance with another table-tennis star, Anabel Yu, who does not know how to separate her life from the all-consuming world of table tennis, similar to Ryan. Their viewpoints reflect his growing hardships of intense competition and adolescent stardom. But among the poignant difficulties, joyful wins, and tender human connection, the beauty of table tennis is applauded and ultimately, celebrated.

As narrators bounce from one character to the next, Ryan goes from competing at the pinnacle of his sport to quitting competing altogether. Zhao captures the suspense of a table-tennis match in prose that illuminates small moments, conversations, and actions, slowly revealing what turned immense excellence into a tremendous tragedy. Zhao's finest victory is encapsulating both the highest highs and lowest lows of Ryan's life with the same amount of complexity, nuance, and detail. Underspin showcases the pressure, isolation, and loneliness of high-level sports. Table tennis, often underappreciated, is at the forefront of the narrative as each character circulates around the game, love, and loss. --Clara Newton, freelance reviewer

Discover: E.Y. Zhao's smashing debut follows a table-tennis prodigy through the perspectives of teammates, lovers, coaches, and others, highlighting the intensity, pressure, and risks of high-level sports.

Astra House, $27, hardcover, 304p., 9781662603266

Spent Bullets

by Terao Tetsuya, transl. by Kevin Wang

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

Through the nine linked stories in this striking debut collection, Taiwanese author Terao Tetsuya examines the toll of competition, striving, and success on the lives of several tech geniuses as they drift between Taiwan and Silicon Valley.

The stories in Spent Bullets are defined by both disassociation and darkness, a tension that demarcates the lives of the characters. They are high achievers on the fast track to high-level tech careers after graduating from National Taiwan University, a trajectory Tetsuya himself followed, but they are profoundly, existentially depressed. In "Healthy Sickness," one brilliant logician, Hsiao-Heng, is unable to sustain a relationship and leaps from a building. Another, Jie-Heng, whose character casts a shadow across all the stories, is so deeply suicidal that his death seems preordained; he is unable to feel anything, even during the sadomasochistic sexual experiences he often seeks out. All the stories' unidentified narrators follow a similar path, constantly searching for meaning--or perhaps feeling--in their relentless march to the top of their field. To achieve this, they engage in increasingly risky behaviors, whether through drugs, sex, or self-harm. Ultimately, as the narrator of "Some Kind of Corporate Retreat" states, they come to see "the powerlessness of determination in the face of emotion."

Spent Bullets is not always an easy read, and some scenes are genuinely shocking. But Tetsuya's spare, dreamlike prose combined with Kevin Wang's expert translation make it a mesmerizing experience and one that, as Tetsuya writes in the afterword, "triggers both pain and joy." --Debra Ginsberg, author and freelance editor

Discover: This collection of linked short stories about the psychological toll of striving and success is striking, shocking, and gripping.

HarperVia, $26, hardcover, 208p., 9780063435919

People with No Charisma

by Jente Posthuma, transl. by Sarah Timmer Harvey

Buy Now

Dutch writer Jente Posthuma's quirky, bittersweet novel People with No Charisma (debuting in the Netherlands in 2016 but her second novel in the U.S.), traces the ripples that grief and ill mental health send through a young woman's life.

A dozen short, episodic chapters present snapshots from a neurotic existence. Although it doesn't occur until the final chapter, the unnamed narrator's mother's death from cancer colors everything. Out-of-wedlock pregnancy derailed her narcissistic mother's acting ambitions and caused her Jehovah's Witness parents to excommunicate her. Though her mother had once starred in a police procedural, she didn't work again until the narrator was eight--and then, just a bit part as a "whore" in a production of Faust. As a child, the narrator was convinced her mother's aborted career was her fault. The feeling that she could never live up to her mother's beauty and charisma follows the narrator into adulthood as she attempts to write a novel, finds a partner, and becomes a mother herself.

Posthuma (What I'd Rather Not Think About) excels at exploring family dynamics and the aftermath of bereavement. The narrator's father runs a mental institution but struggles with alcoholism and depression. He can't seem to offer his daughter anything more than his standard advice to patients: "to schedule my daily activities into time slots." Despite the melancholy subject matter, the tone is light and the prose and incidents idiosyncratic. It's touching that, even 30 years on, the narrator and her father still memorialize her mother. Deadpan humor meets heartfelt emotion, making this perfect for readers of Patricia Lockwood and Jennette McCurdy. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader and blogger at Bookish Beck

Discover: In Jente Posthuma's quirky, heartfelt first novel, a young woman comes to terms with the early loss of her mother as she becomes a writer and forms a family.

Scribe US, $20, paperback, 176p., 9781964992211

Mystery & Thriller

The Hitchhikers

by Chevy Stevens

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

The Hitchhikers by Canadian author Chevy Stevens (Never Let You Go; That Night) is a dark psychological thriller about a road trip gone horribly wrong.

After a stillbirth derails their marriage, Americans Tom and Alice Bell buy an RV and drive to Montreal to attend the 1976 Olympics in an attempt to regain their footing. Soon into their trip, they meet a young Canadian couple at a campsite who say their names are Ocean and Blue. Ocean is pregnant and the two have no transportation, so Tom and Alice offer them food and company, and then a ride. The situation goes south quickly when Alice discovers that Blue and Ocean are actually Simon Gray and Jenny Perron, wanted by police for the bloody double murder of Jenny's mother and stepfather. When Alice lets it slip that she knows who they are, Simon becomes violent and takes Alice and Tom hostage, forcing them on a terror-filled trip across Canada.

Though the pace never slows in this increasingly frightening thriller, Stevens is able to create nuanced portraits of her characters and their relationships. Alternating between the points of view of Alice and Jenny, Stevens dissects the mother-daughter dyad, revealing both its strength and potential for harm. Indeed, the tension between physical and psychological violence is at the fibrillating heart of the novel, which saves its most shocking twists for the very end. Provocative and full of unexpected left turns, The Hitchhikers is a nail-biter whose complex characters will linger in the imagination long after the last action-packed page is turned. --Debra Ginsberg, author and freelance editor

Discover: Chevy Stevens fills The Hitchhikers, a dark psychological thriller about a horrifying road trip, with plenty of unexpected left turns.

St. Martin's Press, $29, hardcover, 384p., 9781250133656

Fiend

by Alma Katsu

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

In Fiend, Alma Katsu turns her significant horror chops on the modern world in a novel that combines elements of Succession with the supernatural. The Berishas are an affluent Albanian family whose lucrative New York City import-export business is a commercial juggernaut thanks to the sour and taciturn Berisha patriarch, Zef. His son, Dardan, is in line to lead the company despite his desire to be his own man, while his daughter Maris aches for both power and her father's love. Nora is the adrift and ignored youngest child who sees more than she lets on.

Katsu creates a fraught tale of domestic dysfunction paired with a dark secret: for hundreds of years, the Berishas have been "blessed by fate, protected by the gods." Dardan dreads the "terrible burden," known mysteriously as "the protector," that comes with wearing the Berisha crown. When a whistleblower threatens to destroy the company, what Maris only knew as a myth suddenly takes monstrous form and begins to settle all family business. As Maris unravels the source of Zef's aloofness from his wife and children--related to the need to never lose his temper--she must decide what power is ultimately worth.

Katsu's novel employs strategic flashbacks with unexpected twists that explore what makes people into monsters and whether real monsters are necessary when human beings worship solely at the altar of avarice. Fiend is an absorbing, clever, and taut modern horror novel. --Peggy Kurkowski, book reviewer in Denver

Discover: In this devilish tale of lucre, lineage, and domestic dysfunction, a well-heeled family and their business may not survive after their deepest secret is unleashed.

Putnam, $30, hardcover, 256p., 9780593714348

Everyone a Stranger

by Kevin O'Brien

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

Kevin O'Brien (The Enemy at Home) presents another fast-paced historic thriller splendidly enhanced with 1940s details in Everyone a Stranger, his 24th novel.

Desperate to hide from a villainous politician, a pregnant widow flees Washington, D.C., for Seattle, only to stumble into a mysterious plot that threatens not just her but also the U.S. war effort. Virginia Abrams, 27, is alone after her husband's death at Guadalcanal. She is flattered when a prominent senator's dashing son invites her to dinner, but the date ends with him assaulting her. She learns she is pregnant and appeals to the senator for financial help, but he responds by hiring a henchman to silence her. Terrified, she slips out of Washington and arrives in Seattle as "Ginny Moore," hoping for safety and a new life. She secures a job with a famous mystery novelist and warily befriends her neighbors, but then one of them dies in a fall. The neighbor's earnest teenage son, Timmy, insists it was no accident, and Virginia's soft heart is drawn to assuring justice is done.

Timmy's obsession with Nazis and potential espionage seems far-fetched but eventually Virginia finds him credible, increasing her anxieties. Suspicions of a "safe house" for spies; a handsome, solicitous neighbor who keeps odd hours; and more sudden deaths add to the intrigue. When danger threatens the entire city, she wisely confides in her boss, who contributes his detective skills to the escalating mystery. Their sleuthing leads to a meticulously executed high-stakes climax, bringing Virginia's and Timmy's home-front bravery to the fore. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.

Discover: In this fast-paced World War II thriller, a pregnant widow flees Washington, D.C., only to be caught up in a murderous plot to disrupt the war effort in Seattle.

Kensington, $18.95, paperback, 416p., 9781496738523

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Red City

by Marie Lu

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

The drug Sand can perfect everything; it is the secret to how Alchemists have been able to run society from the shadows, unnoticed by most normal people. Ari and Sam, however, are not most people, though neither of them knows their potential when they're singled out and plucked from obscurity by competing Alchemist factions, Grand Central and Lumines, in Marie Lu's adult fantasy debut, Red City.

Ari is taken from his family in Surat, India, as a child, with no idea what the Lumines plan for him. Sam, however, finds her own way to Grand Central as she tries to make life better for herself and for her mother, who raised her alone after a tragic accident. Though they were friends at school, when Sam and Ari reconnect in adulthood, each with distinctly different Alchemist skills, they find themselves on opposite sides. Angel City is primed for war, with no end in sight to the escalating skirmishes between the syndicates to control the Sand market. Lu's captivating worldbuilding taps into the questions she had while being raised by immigrant parents of what can be lost to ambition.

Red City's alternate Los Angeles becomes the perfect backdrop for this twisted world to unfold, picking at the monstrousness and cruelty that underlies one's brightest possibilities. Lu essentially offers readers the chance to contemplate what they themselves might do for power, if they knew the costs--and whether they would ever decide to walk away. Red City is an enthralling first installment of the New Alchemists series, sure to leave readers clamoring for more. --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer

Discover: Marie Lu stuns with this dark contemporary adult fantasy that probes the true cost of perfection.

Tor Books, $29.99, hardcover, 432p., 9781250885678

Among the Burning Flowers

by Samantha Shannon

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

An ancient draconic nemesis rises to terrorize an unprepared world in this entry point to Roots of Chaos, the expansive, inclusive, and thrilling high-fantasy series by Samantha Shannon (A Day of Fallen Night; The Song Rising).

Centuries have passed since the Grief of Ages, when an army of dragons and their kin scourged the land until their forced hibernation. Estina works as a "culler," a hunter who kills the beasts now awakening from the earth in ever greater numbers. Her work is against the law in her homeland of Yscalin, but she is determined to remain there. "A second Grief is inevitable," warns a friend. "If the creatures are stirring... so are the wyverns."

Marosa, crown princess of Yscalin, lives under her father's thumb and longs for escape to Mentendon, where the heir, Aubrecht, waits to marry her. Their betrothal is an arranged political alliance, yet she "[bears] his absence like a broken rib." Her hopes for a better life are imperiled when Fýredel, the foremost dragon leader of the Draconic Army, emerges after centuries of subterranean hibernation. This time, his plan is subtler than large-scale destruction; Fýredel intends to bring Yscalin to its knees from within.

This suspenseful novel boasts a shorter page count than its predecessors, making it a perfect lead-in for readers new to the series or to high fantasy. Meanwhile, fans of Shannon's sprawling East-meets-West dragon-studded saga should find enough connections to The Priory of the Orange Tree here to tempt them to reread the series. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Discover: An army of dragons reawakens to trouble humankind in this accessible addition to Samantha Shannon's expansive, inclusive, high-fantasy saga.

Bloomsbury, $29.99, hardcover, 288p., 9781639736010

Kill the Beast

by Serra Swift

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

A battle-hardened young woman bent on revenge teams up with a foppish young nobleman to take down the faerie-made creature that destroyed her life in Serra Swift's adventurous and warmhearted first novel, Kill the Beast.

Lyssa "the Butcher" Carnifex kills menacing faerie creatures, but one creature has eluded her despite her dogged hunt for it: the Beast of Buxton Fields. The Beast killed Lyssa's brother, and she cannot live with herself unless she destroys it. She finally gets a lead on the Beast's whereabouts in the form of Alderic Casimir De Laurent, a drunken, flippant dandy who offers her an enormous sum to slay the Beast. Lyssa doesn't expect a nobleman who crochets flowers onto floppy hats to be up to the hardships of the quest. But Alderic turns out to be surprisingly capable, and Lyssa finds herself beginning to trust him after years of pushing other people away. The friendship that blossoms between them could bring Lyssa back to a life of love and closeness. The secrets both she and Alderic keep could wreck what they've built. The Beast awaits them.

Swift packs in plenty of fun action-adventure moments but also layers in messaging about the ripple effect of trauma and the complexities that can surround perpetration and victimhood. The concept often dwells in darkness, but the story's underpinnings of connection, healing, and redemption give the narrative a surprisingly warm tone, and secondary characters support the message of strength in community. Readers looking for a sweet yet substantial pause from the romantasy offerings should enjoy this friendship-forward fairy tale. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Discover: A young woman bent on revenge and a foppish nobleman take on a savage predator in this adventurous, warmhearted fantasy novel.

Tor Books, $27.99, hardcover, 320p., 9781250373786

Romance

The Austen Affair

by Madeline Bell

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

The Austen Affair, Madeline Bell's debut novel, brings readers along for the charming-yet-chaotic time-travel journey of Tess and Hugh, polar-opposite actors starring in a film adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. The two spar on set due to Tess's unreliability and Hugh's stiff Method acting--until a lightning strike sends them back in time to Hugh's ancestors' estate in Regency-era England. Although Hugh researched the period to prepare for his role, Tess is an Austen devotee dating back to her childhood with her now-deceased mother. The pair soon realize that the only way they'll survive 1815 England without ending up in the madhouse is by working together.

The plot unfolds primarily in the past, and The Austen Affair takes its 21st-century readers to a world where a mere hand on a shoulder leads to the altar. Told in the first person by Tess, this contemporary and historical romance crossover gives readers the true Austen experience of the absolute eroticism that can be found in the simplest gestures: brief brushes of the hand, a cravat adjusted, longing looks across the parlor.

Readers need not be as familiar with Austen's work as Tess is, though the author's fans will appreciate her cameos and many Easter eggs throughout. Bell derives much humor from Tess's anachronistic knowledge of Northanger Abbey--a novel published posthumously. The Austen Affair is a complete delight, perfect for any reader who wants to be teleported to another place and enjoy the ride. --Alyssa Parssinen, freelance reviewer and former bookseller

Discover: Madeline Bell's debut time-travel romance, The Austen Affair, sends two sparring actors to 1815, where they discover that they have more in common than they realized.

St. Martin's Griffin, $19, paperback, 336p., 9781250373519

Ladies in Hating

by Alexandra Vasti

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

Alexandra Vasti brings readers back to 19th-century England with Ladies in Hating, the third title in her Belvoir's Library series. Lady Georgiana Cleeve, acclaimed gothic novelist and former diamond of the season, is in quite the tough spot: another novelist has repeatedly published books nearly identical to her own. Then Georgiana discovers the perpetrator is none other than Cat Lacey, the butler's daughter, whom she secretly yearned for as a teen. The novelists are soon trapped together in Renwick House, a haunted manor, and must work together to discover its secrets.

Ladies in Hating contains plenty of family drama (although consistent to the world, none of it involves whether they accept the sapphic pairing or not), intrigue, and a little dog named Bacon. Readers will be drawn in by Renwick House and its mysteries. As is typical of series romance, Ladies in Hating can be read on its own, but those who have read Ne'er Duke Well and Earl Crush will be particularly satisfied with how Georgiana's story develops. And, of course, the lead couples from both previous novels make numerous appearances.

Though Georgiana and Cat are from different backgrounds, they find they have plenty in common. For one, they are well matched in their pining for each other. The pair's transition from verbally sparring to exploring the hidden corners of Renwick House feels natural and makes both women the better for it. Vasti creates a wonderful, intelligent, heartfelt resolution for Georgiana's story, and in doing so, cements herself as a star of historical romance. --Alyssa Parssinen, freelance reviewer and former bookseller

Discover: Alexandra Vasti's Ladies in Hating, a sapphic romance set in a haunted manor, marks her as a star of historical romance.

St. Martin's Griffin, $19, paperback, 352p., 9781250910981

Biography & Memoir

Joyride: A Memoir

by Susan Orlean

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

When Susan Orlean chose the title for her memoir, it wasn't merely an apt description of the "joyride of a life" she's lived as a journalist for nearly 50 years. It also teases the pleasure her readers will derive from a book that illuminates her fascinating career while serving as a textbook of sorts for anyone eager to look behind the scenes at a highly accomplished writer's craft.

For Orlean, the drive to write has always seemed as elemental as the need to eat or sleep. After graduating from the University of Michigan, she headed to Portland, Ore., fending off her father's pressure to follow him into the legal profession. She progressed from working for publications like Portland's Willamette Week to a staff writer position with the New Yorker in 1992, where she remains to this day.

In Orlean's work, she writes, "the story is in charge," and the writer always must be prepared to put aside the assumptions she brought to the project. Joyride is packed with tips like these for aspiring writers, among them the importance of constantly cultivating story ideas, and the lesson her Willamette Week editor taught that the process of writing has three parts: "reporting, then thinking, and then writing."

Joyride concludes with an appendix containing a handful of Orlean's articles, including "The American Man Age Ten," her first article for Esquire magazine that she says was "a defining moment for me." These few pieces only hint at the variety of her work, and, as Orlean suggests, even after a lifetime of writing she hasn't lost her zest for finding the next great story. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Discover: Longtime New Yorker journalist Susan Orlean shares the story of her lengthy, diverse career along with a revealing look into how she fashions her intriguing stories.

Avid Reader Press, $32, hardcover, 368p., 9781982135164

Electric Spark: The Enigma of Dame Muriel

by Frances Wilson

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

Muriel Spark, the Edinburgh native who once said that fiction was "a lazy way of writing poetry," went on to become one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century. Frances Wilson examines the early years of Spark's peaks-and-valleys life in Electric Spark, a scholarly yet accessible biography. The Spark that Wilson presents "is not the grande dame of her last forty years but the young divorcee whose arrival in post-war London sent feathers flying and started all the hares." Wilson "explores how Muriel Spark became Muriel Spark, and why it took her so long." The focus is primarily on the first half of Spark's life--she died in 2006 at 88--and encompasses her first six novels, from 1957's The Comforters to 1961's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and two later masterworks, Loitering with Intent (1981) and A Far Cry from Kensington (1988), which Wilson calls Spark's "two most brilliantly achieved novels."

Wilson expertly covers Spark's progression, from growing up poor with a Jewish father and English mother to her short-lived marriage at 19 to a teacher prone to "erratic behaviour--such as firing starting pistols in the classroom" to her brief time as general secretary of London's prestigious Poetry Society, a tenure that rankled the stodgier members, and to her conversion to Catholicism in 1952. The valleys included bad relations with men, a psychotic episode due to Dexedrine, and more. That Spark still produced 22 novels is a testament to her determination and talent, both of which Wilson demonstrates in this appreciative work. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer

Discover: Electric Spark by Frances Wilson is an appreciative biography of Scottish novelist Muriel Spark, with a focus on her first 40 years and encompassing her literary evolution and checkered personal life.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $35, hardcover, 432p., 9780374613204

History

History Matters

by David McCullough

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

David McCullough, the beloved American biographer and historian who died in 2022, provides one more dispatch in History Matters, a posthumous collection edited by his daughter Dorie McCullough Lawson and his research assistant Michael Hill. The essays, interviews, and speeches--many previously unpublished--reveal McCullough's influences, writing habits, and overriding passion for the past as a guidepost to the present. Though slim in page count, the book's pieces are grand in sentiment and elocution, as only McCullough could make them. In "The Art of Biography," an interview with the Paris Review that McCullough was "particularly proud of," readers learn of his early childhood in Pittsburgh, how he chose his subjects, and even what happened to his proposed biography of Pablo Picasso: "I quit. I didn't like him."

Other entries revisit his most cherished subjects, including Harry Truman, whom McCullough deeply admired because "he put character first." Other selections reflect on artist Thomas Eakins, abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, and George Washington, a "truly indispensable" man who "was at his best when things were at their worst." McCullough's perceptive literary insights in tributes to writers such as Paul Horgan and Herman Wouk are compelling, and in "The Good, Hard Work of Writing Well," he encourages aspiring writers to "make music. Don't just pound out notes." Throughout, McCullough's inimitable voice reminds readers that "history should not ever be dull." In the pages of History Matters, McCullough's fans will lose themselves in one more missive that is anything but. --Peggy Kurkowski, book reviewer in Denver

Discover: This posthumous collection by the inimitable David McCullough reveals his philosophy on the writing craft and the importance of viewing history as a continuum where past and present meet.

Simon & Schuster, $27, hardcover, 192p., 9781668098998

Social Science

The People's Project: Poems, Essays, and Art for Looking Forward

by Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith, editors

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

Saeed Jones (Prelude to Bruise) and Maggie Smith (Keep Moving) have curated a moving and important collection of short writings in The People's Project: Poems, Essays, and Art for Looking Forward. The anthology is grounded in the harsh realities of U.S. politics in 2025 while gently encouraging of a more expansive view of place and time. "Our survival and future... depend on our ability to connect with and protect each other far and wide, to share what we've learned from our varied and shared histories in order to enrich each other's wisdom, confidence and imagination."

This carefully crafted compilation from 27 contemporary writers is a beautiful tribute to their "wisdom, confidence, and imagination." Ashley C. Ford reminds readers to ask themselves the hard questions, while Mira Jacob grounds them in the present. Smith shares her intentions for moving through the world differently in "My Own Project 2025," while Eula Bliss reflects in "An Education" on resistance as "a decision... to be made over and over and again." Jones and Smith call The People's Project "community as a book... both an offering and a prayer," and the variety within its pages honors that framing. With writings that encompass the deeply personal and the international, every piece in The People's Project is a reminder of what is, and an invitation to reimagine what could be. It's a timely and emotionally resonant reflection on what this moment--and all the moments yet to come--ask of readers as they fight to recognize and reaffirm a vision of a shared, collective humanity. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer

Discover: Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith curate an intentional and moving collection of poems, essays, and artistic offerings sure to be a balm to anyone living with existential angst and political uncertainty.

Washington Square Press, $22, hardcover, 128p., 9781668207024

Science

Why Rats Laugh and Jellyfish Sleep: And Other Enchanting Stories of Evolution

by David Stipp

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

With evident delight for the head-scratching bits of evolution, such as why humans have only one tube for food and air, science writer David Stipp (The Youth Pill) dives into minute details, including the skunk's distinctly recognizable smell and caffeine's benefits in small doses but fatality in larger doses. In Why Rats Laugh and Jellyfish Sleep, Stipp invites readers to awaken their inner child, ask every "why" question they've ever wondered about, and partake in the "catnip" and "pleasure" that "exploring why living things are the way they are" can provide.

Though each chapter focuses on one organism and one trait--house sparrow invasiveness, bumblebee cannibalism--they are also wide-ranging in their coverage of evolutionary topics. Stipp draws on personal anecdotes and news items to illustrate these qualities in action or help readers understand animal characteristics in relation to human ones. Some of the research studies he cites are directly related to the organism, such as researchers' theories about the instinct of earthworms in the chapter on earthworm intelligence. Other studies expand the analysis of a species' behavior to encompass its broader contexts, like the research on terrible-smelling compounds concocted for military projects during World War II in the chapter on the olfactory weapon of skunk spray.

Beyond simply answering the question each chapter poses about an individual creature and trait, Why Rats Laugh and Jellyfish Sleep traces the evolutionary mechanisms that drive the development of these traits, giving readers tools for "participatory wonderment." Thus, they become a partner with evolution by exploring the beauty of life with a heightened sense of being part of nature. --Dainy Bernstein, freelance reviewer

Discover: Balancing small details of animal evolution with the interplay of life on a grand scale, Why Rats Laugh and Jellyfish Sleep inspires wonder and delight at nature's idiosyncrasies.

Timber Press, $30, hardcover, 320p., 9781643264875

Education

Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat To) the Modern Dictionary

by Stefan Fatsis

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

In his erudite, fascinating fourth book, Unabridged, journalist and amateur lexicographer Stefan Fatsis (Word Freak) dives into the history of dictionaries in the United States, the process by which new words are "officially" added to the language, and the threats and challenges facing language. At once a chronicle of his time at Merriam-Webster and a love letter to language, Unabridged examines differing philosophies of word inclusion and considers how dictionaries can remain relevant in the digital age.

Fatsis begins with Noah Webster himself, recounting Webster's early efforts at dictionary publishing. Fatsis meets lexicographers, handles rare editions of dictionaries, and spends untold hours at Merriam-Webster's elegant headquarters in Springfield, Mass.--all detailed in his ruminative history of a largely under-the-radar world that nevertheless has helped shape American thought and language for more than two centuries.

Although Fatsis is a self-professed dictionary lover, he understands that language changes--and that dictionaries and other resources must meet the moment. Thus, he delves into the acquisition and painstaking definition of neologisms, or new words; examines Webster's approach to handling racial and other slurs; discusses the shifting definitions and spectrum of pronouns; and wrestles with the looming question of artificial intelligence and its effect on language.

While obviously appealing to word nerds and writers, Fatsis's narrative is more broadly relevant to anyone who speaks, reads, and writes in American English. It provides a thorough, thoughtful history of dictionaries and the language they both shape and record, while championing the dictionary's continued relevance in the 21st century. Lively, well-researched, and often entertaining, Unabridged is an essential resource for anyone interested in understanding how language evolves. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Discover: Stefan Fatsis's erudite, fascinating fourth book is an entertaining deep dive into the history of dictionaries and how language continues to evolve in the 21st century.

Atlantic Monthly Press, $30, hardcover, 416p., 9780802165824

Children's & Young Adult

A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez

by María Dolores Águila

Buy Now

The lyrical middle-grade novel-in-verse A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez by María Dolores Águila (Barrio Rising) is based on the true story of the Lemon Grove Incident, when a boy and his California community fought against the forced segregation of Mexican students during the Great Depression. This National Book Award longlisted title is both a history lesson and a spotlight on a century of advocacy by the Latino community in the United States.

Twelve-year-old Roberto Alvarez is "el futuro" for his family of Mexican Revolution refugees. Roberto and his friends go to Lemon Grove Grammar School across Main Street; there the colonia where he lives "becomes the neighborhood/ holas become hellos." After winter break, the principal informs Roberto and all the other Mexican American students that they must attend a new school in an old barn closer to their side of town. Roberto's family--and eventually the entire community--rallies to raise funds and take legal action, with Roberto as the lead codefendant against the Lemon Grove school board. Despite eventual victory, much is lost. While some students are expelled and charged with truancy, whole families are forcibly deported during what is known as the era of Mexican Repatriation.

Águila's poetry in her first middle-grade novel is deft as she depicts bravery, cultural celebration, and the power of neighbors coming together: "The houses in la colonia/ are like patches,/ each one different/ but sewn together/ into a community." A Sea of Lemon Trees is flawlessly paced and full of lyrical pathos; a strangely sweet novel with a bitter aftertaste. --Luis G. Rendon

Discover: The true story of Roberto Alvarez and the Lemon Grove Incident is told in verse in this deeply felt and relevant tale of community and social justice.

Roaring Brook Press, $17.99, hardcover, 304p., ages 8-up, 9781250342614

If Looks Could Kill

by Julie Berry

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

Printz Honor author Julie Berry proved her skill at high-concept historical fiction with mythological elements in her 2019 novel, Lovely War. She ups the ante with If Looks Could Kill, which ponders what might have happened if Jack the Ripper had encountered Medusa.

It's 1888, and Francis Twomblety--a real Ripper suspect, as Berry's copious back matter reveals--has fled London for New York City's Bowery neighborhood. Also recently arrived to the neighborhood are Tabitha Woodward and Pearl Davenport, recruits to the Salvation Army trying to bring the Bowery's "sinners" to Christ. The two rarely see eye-to-eye; "not for nothing are we called an army," Tabitha reflects on the "open hostilities" between herself and her intensely pious roommate. But a chance encounter with Twomblety transforms Pearl, giving her Medusa-esque characteristics: snakes for hair, an incapacitating if not deadly stare, and an inexplicable drive to stop Twomblety from hurting anyone else. Tabitha realizes she must protect her exasperating comrade, "this new Pearl," against a killer, lest he prove a match even for a Medusa.

If Looks Could Kill drips with the historical and sensory detail Berry's readers have come to expect from her work, as when Tabitha describes "the mélange of corned beef, garlic, chop suey, horse manure, and stale beer that meant suppertime on the Bowery." Some readers might take issue with the first act's pacing, but it's necessary for Berry to lay the groundwork for the novel's most essential component: the relationship between Tabitha and Pearl. At this, she succeeds with aplomb, and the rest of the novel is better for it, offering a meticulously thoughtful exploration of vengeance, justice, mercy, faith, and sssisterhood. --Stephanie Appell, freelance reviewer

Discover: If Looks Could Kill, another meticulously thoughtful high-concept historical fiction novel by Julie Berry, ponders what might have happened if Jack the Ripper had encountered Medusa.

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $21.99, hardcover, 448p., ages 13-up, 9781534470811

Try Your Worst

by Chatham Greenfield

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

"Sadie Katz and Cleo Chapman were, quite literally, born to hate each other" in Try Your Worst, Chatham Greenfield's sophomore YA contemporary novel, a lively, prepossessing enemies-to-lovers romance.

A lifelong rivalry between Sadie and Cleo was established when their mothers met in Lamaze class. Sadie's mom, due on December 25th, refused to "give birth to her Jewish daughter on Christmas Day"; Cleo's mom, due on January 3rd, wanted to have "the first baby born in the new year." Though both succeeded, Cleo's mother won. After years of "fights, feuds, and one messy incident involving a hard-boiled egg," Sadie and Cleo are now high school seniors vying for valedictorian. When someone begins playing elaborate pranks at their school, they leave clues that point to Sadie and Cleo as the culprits. The girls, threatened with expulsion, realize they are being framed and reluctantly team up to uncover the prankster's identity. As they work together, Sadie realizes that her dislike of Cleo is more one-sided than she thought, while Cleo wonders if the girl that she has teased and secretly crushed on for years might return her feelings.

Try Your Worst is a satisfying gathering of classic rom com tropes--including misunderstandings and forced proximity--and whodunit story beats, told from the alternating perspectives of two endearingly mismatched protagonists. Greenfield (Time and Time Again) skillfully conveys the uncertainty that comes with finishing high school and transitioning to adulthood, showing Sadie and Cleo questioning what (and whom) they want in their futures. The novel delivers a happily ever after without tying its heroines' messy lives up too neatly, encouraging readers to embrace uncertainty. --Alanna Felton, freelance reviewer

Discover: Rival teens must work together to figure out who is framing them for a series of school pranks in this witty, winning YA rom com.

Bloomsbury YA, $20.99, hardcover, 320p., ages 12-up, 9781547613939

The Secret World of Spiderwebs

by Jan Beccaloni, illus. by Namasri Niumim

Buy Now

Thirteen different kinds of webs and the spiders that build them take center stage in The Secret World of Spiderwebs, a fact-filled guide by debut children's author Jan Beccaloni, senior curator of Arachnida and Myriapoda at London's Natural History Museum.

"Fossils from 50 million years ago tell us that spiders" have been building webs since birds were evolving from dinosaurs. Spiders do this by creating a liquid protein inside their abdomen which, when pulled from their body and exposed to air, hardens into a thread. "Many people think that a spider's web is its home.... but a web is also a highly technical device for catching prey." Each double-page spread explores a web structure--such as the lace web of the twig spider or the sheet web of the hammock spider--and includes descriptive text about the spider's natural habitat as well as descriptions of how the webs work. Details, like how some spiders use webs as a fishing line (water web) while others work as a family unit (colony web), will likely capture readers' curiosity.

Illustrations by Namasri Niumim (Bird Spotter) depict attractive, active, and, in the case of the large-eyed ogre-faced spider, sometimes silly arachnids and their habitats. Occasional awkward phrasing makes a slightly clunky reading experience and readers sympathetic to a spider's prey may want to seek another source. But Beccaloni expertly conveys interesting facts and includes a spider-spotter's guide, a glossary, and a list of sources. The Secret World of Spiderwebs will surely entrap readers who love to learn about arachnids and may act as a wonderful resource for teachers and librarians. --Nicole Brinkley, bookseller and writer

Discover: The senior curator of Arachnida and Myriapoda at London's Natural History Museum gives readers an informative, well-illustrated guide to 13 different types of spiders and their webs.

Thames & Hudson, $19.95, hardcover, 48p., ages 8-12, 9780500653845

Moonleapers

by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Buy Now Listen to Audiobook

Moonleapers is compelling, high-stakes time-travel fare in which a 12-year-old's new phone reveals unexpected connections between her sick great-aunt, "moonleapers," government spies, and herself.

Maisie is delighted to be finally getting her own phone, a hand-me-down from Great-Aunt Hazel. Unfortunately, she's receiving the phone because Hazel is "really, really sick" and Maisie and the rest of her family will be moving to Maryland for the summer. Maisie's first-ever text on Hazel's old phone is an unknown number: "Hey diddle diddle/ Are you ready for your riddle?" The message is confusing, as is the blank, old-fashioned-looking book titled Guide for Moonleapers Maisie's mother hands her, saying, "it might make you feel closer to Great-­Aunt Hazel." Maisie decides to correspond with the anonymous texter and begins answering the riddles; when she does, writing appears on some of the previously empty pages of the guide. Then, Maisie accepts a call from the "MOONLEAPERS HOTLINE"--the girl on the other end is "from a different century." She tells Maisie that time itself can be "taken apart and reknit in a better way" and that the two of them, plus Hazel, must "change the world."

Margaret Peterson Haddix (Running Out of Time) masterfully grounds her suspenseful series opener in contemporary dynamics, such as Maisie feeling "weird" and not fitting in at school. The cryptic communications advance the narrative and raise the stakes until, by the end of Maisie's time in Maryland, readers can well believe she has thwarted Nazis, saved lives, and is now one of a privileged few who can both see and affect the past and future. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author

Discover: In Margaret Peterson Haddix's suspenseful series opener, 12-year-old Maisie experiences a life-changing summer in which she learns how to take apart and reknit time.

Quill Tree Books, $19.99, hardcover, 320p., ages 8-12, 9780063392564

Now in Paperback

The Writer's Life

Reading with... ND Stevenson

photo: Derrick Boutte

ND Stevenson is the author and illustrator of Nimona and The Fire Never Goes Out and co-creator of Lumberjanes. He was also the showrunner for the award-winning Netflix series She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. He lives in Los Angeles, Calif. His first middle-grade novel is the suspenseful and magical Scarlet Morning (Quill Tree Books).

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

Fantastical pirate adventure set in a world where the sea has turned to a desert of salt. Enigmatic pirate captain. Whale with arms and legs.

On your nightstand now:

A compilation of Edgar Allan Poe mystery stories. I've been reading a lot of Poe lately and the more I read, the fonder I become of him and the less I respect him. I love his love of interior decorating. He'll be writing something horrifying and go, "I cowered in my chair (which was velvet)."

Favorite book when you were a child:

By the Great Horn Spoon! by Sid Fleischman, illustrated by Eric von Schmidt. I still have my ratty old paperback copy with its surprisingly homoerotic cover (look it up). The interaction between the nimble text and the lively pen-and-ink illustrations instilled a love of comics in me long before I'd ever read a graphic novel.

Favorite book to read to a child:

The Redwall series by Brian Jacques. I haven't done it myself yet, but my mom was a legend at reading aloud and always went all out on the accents and songs, so I'm just gonna channel her.

Book you've faked reading:

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. Less "faked" reading it and more that I have been working on it for three years and I'm still not finished. His obvious neurodivergence wreaks havoc on my own. He'll be like, "But first, let's all think about the color white. Let me list all the things that are white in order of scariness!" and I'll be like "Oh! Okay!" and then four hours later I'll realize that I've just been staring at a wall thinking about the color white instead of reading.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling by D.M. Cornish. It's a dark, goopy, vaguely Victorian middle-grade fantasy where monster hunters implant monster organs into their bodies to better fight monsters. I spent a lot of time as a teen on the author's blog debating monster physics with other fans and it's a huge part of my DNA now.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. Lesbians and submarines--catnip for me specifically.

Book you hid from your parents:

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. It was THE forbidden book in my ultra-conservative community growing up, and I desperately wanted to know what was so bad about it, so I secretly rode my bike to the library and read the whole first book sitting on the floor in a corner. Then I channeled my secret shame into my enormous crush on Mrs. Coulter, so the moral of the story is, book bans make kids gayer. (This is 80% a joke.)

Book that changed your life:

Eragon by Christopher Paolini, because it was the book that made me believe I could write a book. He was a teenage homeschooler just like me. I set myself a goal that I was going to finish my first book by the time I turned 15, and I ended up with a 600-page epic about pirates. Long story short, that book was Scarlet Morning, and it's coming out in September.

Favorite line from a book:

"There are moments when, even to the sober eye of Reason, the world of our sad Humanity may assume the semblance of a Hell--but the imagination of man is no Carathis, to explore with impunity its every cavern. Alas! the grim legion of sepulchral terrors cannot be regarded as altogether fanciful--but, like the Demons whose company Afrasiab made his voyage down the Oxus, they must sleep, or they will devour us--they must be suffered to slumber, or we perish." --"The Premature Burial," Edgar Allan Poe.

I like this one because it's about how you should go to bed.

Five books you'll never part with:

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, illustrated by Jules Feiffer; Ducks by Kate Beaton; the Delilah Dirk graphic novels by Tony Cliff; By the Great Horn Spoon! by Sid Fleischman, illustrated by Eric von Schmidt; the Monster Blood Tattoo books by D.M. Cornish.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. This book blew my mind. I love it when a sparse, quiet narrative keeps you on the edge of your seat the way this one did.

Favorite nonfiction:

I like reading about doomed Arctic expeditions because I like reading about people who made bigger mistakes than me. One of my favorites is The Expedition by Bea Uusma. It's about the Andrée Expedition of 1897, a disastrous attempt to reach the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon, which is very famous in Sweden but not so much in the U.S. The expedition was a complete clown show. On the day of the balloon launch they cut the rope, and it immediately flew straight into a wall, then into the ocean, and they just--kept on going! Anyway, they all died. The author attempts to solve the mystery of their deaths despite being, by her own admission, completely unqualified to do so. At one point she consults a psychic. This book is a ride, is what I'm saying.

Book Candy

Book Candy

"Kyobo bookstore-flavored bread's mystery drives shortage," according to the Chosun Daily, which noted that 250,000 units of the product have been sold.

---

Atlas Obscura explored how cigar factory "readers" shaped Cuban political movements.

---

Mental Floss recommended "the 10 best Roald Dahl film adaptations."

My Name Means Fire

by Atash Yaghmaian

Buy Now

Atash Yaghmaian's transformative memoir, My Name Means Fire, answers a question she often hears: "But how did you survive?" To endure a childhood defined by horrific experiences, she "left reality. Just like that." She later learned her coping mechanism had a name, dissociative identity disorder (DID), tainted with stigma and judgment. "I've heard many colleagues say that people like me are 'too crazy' or 'too hopeless' to treat rather than seeing dissociation as the lifesaver it can be and has been for me." After years of experience as a therapist in New York City, she ferociously challenges that stifling perception: "Through the many trauma survivors I've worked with, I've come to see the blessing in dissociation and am determined to tell my story now in order to give hope to others."

Yaghmaian's family, even before her birth, began with alarming circumstances: when her father--"a scrawny young man"--sent his own mother with a marriage proposal to Atash's mother (whose beauty was legendary), she immediately refused him because "she knew she could do better." But when her rejection led to his attempted suicide, she relented and married him as soon as he recovered. "What might have been a red flag for some was exactly the sign she was waiting for: a man who would give his life for her." First, they had a son. When her mother became pregnant with Yaghmaian, her energy seemed boundless: "People used to come up to him and say, 'There's a fire in your wife's belly,' and so my father called me 'Atash,' which means fire in Persian."

Their union ended before her first birthday. Her mother blamed Atash: "Fire has a spirit.... With that name, you brought a spirit into my life, one that burned my marriage." After the divorce, her mother returned home to her own mother, Maman Bozorg, who became caretaker for Yaghmaian and her brother. Maman thought nothing of tying the siblings to their beds whenever she needed to leave: "This is what my mother did to me when I was your age and what I did to your mother." That early pattern of psychological and physical abuse never relented, while Atash grew up during the Iranian Revolution, then the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, amid ongoing danger, violence, and destruction. And yet, for the young girl, home proved far more dangerous. Sexual abuse began at age five. At seven, Maman Bozorg's cousin, "a very well-respected religious leader" referred to as "the saint," viciously raped her. Other sexual predators targeted her, including the boy next door and her own stepfather.

Her beloved Uncle Hossain, who was both her protector and sometime babysitter, taught her "everything about how to prepare heroin" by age nine. At the end of elementary school, bullies called her "ugly Terhani" and threw rocks as big as grapefruits at her, landing her in the hospital. Her own mother regularly made her ill, trapping her in a cycle of Munchausen syndrome by proxy: she recalled a memory of having worms because her mother fed her "dog shit. On [her] china plates." Her mother reacted: "I know you always had an imaginative mind.... You were always a strange, mean child, trying to get your mother in trouble. It was so long ago too. You need to let it go."

Let go and leave is exactly what Yaghmaian did from her earliest years by disassociating to escape terror and torture. She moved into a refuge in her mind. "When I first came to the House of Stone, the housekeepers brought me a wooden box and told me to put my memories into it... I put in a few memories of being hurt by people who were supposed to love me. I took some old screams from out of my throat and slid them into the dark, warm box. It felt like a relief to put them away." Distinct personalities emerged, each "called only by their favorite colors," each a distinct being separate from Yaghmaian. Each of her nine colorful selves help her live.

Alternating between narrating her "outer life," Yaghmaian structures her memoir to give her other selves the chance to introduce and share their own stories. Little girl Red is the first guide to the House of Stone. Inside the House, "real boy" Blue gets to "look like [himself]." Orange, the oldest girl, "take[s] care of the others." Green tends the garden where she can create any manner of antidotal teas. Gray is "ready to kill any motherfucker who tries to get inside these walls." Black emerges as the leader they all need. Her "magical forest... was [her] salvation," but to be "truly free," Yaghmaian "had to leave [her] family, the House, and Iran for good." After escaping Iran, she lands at JFK alone at 19. Although burdened with the prospect of an arranged marriage, she heads out "toward the life I knew I was going to have to build myself."

Yaghmaian is an open, forthright writer without screens or artifice. Perhaps because she composes in a second language, eschewing her native Farsi, Yaghmaian's prose carries a fierce directness. That the book took 12 years to complete speaks to her tenacity and determination to help others: "Many people with our condition end up killing themselves.... We wrote this book for them, and for all who are ready to heal their childhood traumas." Transparently, resolutely, Atash Yaghmaian channels the power of her fiery name to illuminate a path toward hope and healing. --Terry Hong

Beacon Press, $26.95, hardcover, 248p., 9780807020722

"All of me is answering these questions!"

An Interview With Atash Yaghmaian

Atash Yaghmaian
(photo: Ori Dubow)

Atash Yaghmaian's My Name Means Fire (Beacon Press) is a haunting memoir of coming-of-age amid historical turbulence and horrific personal trauma. As a child in Iran, Yaghmaian lived through the Iranian Revolution, then the Iran-Iraq War, but home--where she endured verbal, physical, and sexual assaults--proved significantly more perilous. To stay alive, she left reality and moved into multiple selves. Her impassioned memoir recounts how that fluid ability to disassociate saved her life.

Your memoir takes readers from your precarious childhood in Iran to your solo arrival in New York at age 19. You're incredibly open about your dissociative identity disorder. When and how did the official diagnosis come about? And what was your reaction? Has that initial reaction evolved in the years since?

My first diagnosis with DID happened when I was 18, in Iran, after a suicide attempt. I had the good fortune to be seen by a really kind doctor who noticed my amnesia and correctly saw that it was a protective mechanism. At first, when he used the term "multiple personalities," I was frightened, because in Iran, saying someone has multiple personalities is often used to insult them. But he was kind and generous, and it planted a seed in me that, many years later, would sprout in wanting to understand my condition instead of run from it. Later, in the U.S., I was also misdiagnosed many times: depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia. It was only when I met my therapist Nancy, many years later, that she helped me accept my own condition. 

In a previous exchange about doing this q&a, you used this phrase: "so that all my parts can understand what's happening." Could you explicate further? Might I ask who is answering these questions?

All of me is answering these questions! The nice thing about doing an interview by text is that it gives all parts of me a chance to reflect and answer each question. If it were a live interview on camera with a time pressure, the part that hears the question would probably be the one that answers. Either way, my parts trust that whoever needs to come out will give an answer that we're all okay with. We've worked on this for many years. 

When did you decide you would write this book and so candidly share your difficult survival with strangers? What prompted this determination?

When I came to the U.S., I brought with me the mystery of my own condition. In order to make sense of my reality and things I forgot, I kept a journal. By doing that, I started to see the magic in writing: not only to make sense of my days, but to witness different parts of me on the page. Any time I shared my story with people, they would say, "You should write a book." So I decided to start writing a memoir, but at first, I didn't put any pressure on myself to publish it. That gave me the strength to really tell the truth. I also started taking memoir-writing classes at that point.

How did you approach the actual process of writing, particularly in welcoming/inviting all your different selves to contribute?

There were nine parts of me that wrote the book, even though now we are 13. At first, we were only telling the story of our outer world--the girl who grew up in Iran, experienced war, revolution, ritual abuse, and incest. Eventually, we were able to come up with a coherent narrative. But still something was missing. We hadn't really gotten to the truth of how we survived. The answer was: because of our multiplicity. So it was necessary to include our inner world and listen to more parts, even when it made the narrative more complicated. This is why the whole process took more than a decade. 

You left behind many relationships when you came to the U.S. Your mother, who likely suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, looms large throughout your book. Have you somehow made peace with your relationship with her? 

I have made peace with the fact that there is not much change likely to happen in that relationship. My mother hasn't been interested in growing with me, but I'm grateful for the life she has given me.

How do you balance an active therapy practice of your own with your writerly self? How does helping others face/address/recover from trauma affect your understanding of your past selves?

The good thing about being multiple is that we have a lot of energy! If one of us gets tired, another part can step forward. So even after seeing a lot of clients, the parts of me that like to write still have the stamina to do that. Helping people--even when they are in a lot of distress--always makes me feel rejuvenated. Also, by learning to validate other people's pain, we came to have an easier time validating our own.

You end the memoir with a letter addressed to "Dear Parts of Mine I Have Not Yet Met." Since completing the process of creating this book, other "parts" have emerged. What more did you discover about your selves in remembering and freeing your/their past?

Four more parts have come forward since we finished the book: Pink, Lilac, Purple, and Four. In the beginning of my journey, the parts that arrived usually carried a memory of something very painful from the past, such as my abuse or experiences with violence. But lately, the parts that have been arriving tend to carry more of a wish to live a fuller life. Pink, for example, really wants us to be dancing, so we've been doing that a lot! Lilac really wanted us to stop working at our high-stress job, so we quit it! Purple likes to work out. But more shall be revealed as they start to share their memories more. It takes time, and we don't put pressure on parts to speak prematurely.

Do you have any expectations from your readers-to-be?

I want my readers to come to my book with open hearts and open minds, and to try to identify with the feelings rather than comparing the details of their stories to mine.

Your epilogue briefly shares some of what happened post-U.S. arrival, to eventually being settled in a NYC psychotherapist's office. You also add, "There's another book to write." Might we expect a sequel soon?

Yes, expect a sequel! I'm working on it as we speak. The next book will be about the years I spent in the U.S. as an undocumented and sometimes homeless immigrant. The book will still be about DID, since in those years I still didn't completely understand my condition. But instead of my parts telling separate stories in separate chapters, they start communicating with each other within the same narrative. --Terry Hong

Beacon Press: My Name Means Fire: A Memoir by Atash Yaghmaian

Shelf vetted, publisher supported.

Rediscover

Rediscover: Ivan Klima

Czech writer Ivan Klima, "whose survival of two totalitarian regimes--one Nazi, the other communist--made him one of Eastern Europe's most perceptive distillers of the human condition under authoritarianism," died October 4 at age 94, the New York Times reported. The author of more than 40 books, Klima was deeply affected by his incarceration as a boy, from 1941 to 1945, by the Nazis at Terezin concentration camp north of Prague. He lived with the daily prospect of being transported to Auschwitz.

The Times noted, however, that his writing "dwelled most heavily on the communist era, including the aftermath of the Prague Spring in 1968, a period of relative freedom when he and other intellectuals supported the reformist efforts of the leader Alexander Dubček, who hoped to create a 'Socialism with a human face' in Czechoslovakia. Their optimism was thwarted when the Soviets sent an estimated 750,000 Warsaw Pact troops to suppress the Prague reforms later that year."

After graduating from Charles University in Prague in 1956, Klima worked at a publishing house for five years. His first novel, An Hour of Silence, was published in 1963. He was editor of Literarni Noviny, the leading publication of the liberal communist intellectuals, from 1964 to 1967, when he switched to Literarni List.

In 1967, he "greeted the annual assembly of the Czechoslovak Literary Association with the words 'respected friends,' rather than the customary 'comrades,' as he called for elimination of censorship," the Times wrote. Two months later, he was expelled from the Party and barred from publishing, a ban that lasted until 1989.

After Klima returned to Prague in 1970 from a sabbatical in the U.S., he became a publisher of underground texts, smuggling some to Western publishers. He also organized a clandestine literary salon, attended by other dissident writers, including playwright and future president Vaclav Havel. As a dissident, Klima had to take menial jobs, an experience he later turned into the story collection My Golden Trades. Some of the stories were published in "samizdat" copies and circulated in Prague.

After the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, Klima "depicted the lives of those who had obediently served the dictatorship, only to find themselves adrift and lost amid the newfound freedoms of a newly democratic country," the Times noted. His books My Merry Mornings and Love and Garbage were rushed into print and sold more than 100,000 copies each. Judge on Trial, completed in 1986 and distributed underground, was not published until 1991. His work has since been translated into dozens of languages and is available from Vintage.

"Ivan Klima is one of the greatest Czech writers and, having experienced concentration camps and the communist period, is a walking symbol of what our country endured in this century," said Jiri Pehe, director of New York University in Prague. "He was more than a literary figure, he played a crucial role in publishing banned works and challenging the communist regime."

Journalist and author Paul Berman, writing for the Times, described Klima's two-volume memoir, My Crazy Century, as having "a bellowing anger at what has happened to many millions of people, himself included, victims of the serial horrors that used to be known, and maybe still are known, as totalitarianism."

Advertisement
stories that celebrate us all

Every kid deserves to open a book and think, Hey, they're like me!--and these stories make sure they do.

Waiting is hard. Really hard for Louise when her new baby brother, Max, was born early and needs to stay in the hospital NICU. Waiting for Max is a heartfelt story for anyone who has ever had to wait for something--someone--they love.

In Andy: A Dog's Tale, readers follow a determined pup on his journey to become a service dog, inspired by the impactful mission of Canine Companions, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing service dogs to those in need.

Embark on a heartwarming quest for love in The Heart That Found You, a tender picture book about adoption, belonging, and the joy of becoming a family--perfect for anyone discovering home in unexpected places.

And in These ABCs Belong to Me!, each letter becomes a declaration of pride and power. These stories celebrate love, hope, and belonging in all their beautiful forms and are perfect for story time, classrooms, or quiet moments before bed.

Each book reminds young readers that every kind of kid--and every kind of family--deserves to be seen and when kids see themselves on the page, magic happens.

Collective Book Studio: Helping Kids See Themselves in Every Story

Read what writers are saying about their upcoming titles

How to Drive Your Brother Bananas
(I Can Read Level 2)

by Diane Z. Shore, illus. by Laura Rankin

Dear Reader,

Get ready for more sibling shenanigans! Following the success of my bestselling How to Drive Your Sister Crazy (thank YOU!), inspired by my own son and daughter, readers can now dive into the equally uproarious world of Bradley Harris Pinkerton in my new Level 2, I Can Read, How to Drive Your Brother Bananas.

Bradley is back, and this time his target--you guessed it--is his older brother. Ever wondered how to drive him up the wall? Bradley is here to show you how, with a trusty remote control, a sneaky rubber snake, and even some dirty underwear!

I hope you’ll find that How to Drive Your Brother Bananas and its companion book are perfect recommendations for kids who read on their own but still need a little help and a lot of laughs!

"Children will enjoy Bradley just as they adore David Shannon’s No, ­David!­ The high jinks of a younger ­brother will be enjoyed by children, especially those with siblings." --School Library Journal

Diane Z. Shore
www.dianezshore.com
@dzshore

 

KidsBuzz: How to Drive Your Brother Bananas by Diane Z. Shore, illus. by Laura Rankin

Publisher: 
HarperCollins

Pub Date: 
Available Now

ISBN:
HC - 9780063395862
PB - 9780063395855

Type of Book:
Beginning Reader

Age Range: 
4-8

List Price: 
$17.99 Hardcover
$5.99 Paperback

arrow_backPreviousOctober 10, 2025