The Dream of the Jaguar

by Miguel Bonnefoy, trans. by Ruth Diver

Novelist Miguel Bonnefoy (Heritage) combines a layered and vibrantly imagined history of Venezuela with a multigenerational saga based on his own ancestry in The Dream of the Jaguar, an enchanting novel filled with colorful and unforgettable characters.

The novel begins in Maracaibo, Venezuela, when a surly beggar, Mute Teresa, discovers an abandoned infant, Antonio Borjas Romero, on the steps of a church and decides to raise him as her own. After a formative stint as a servant in a brothel, Antonio goes on

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How Girls Are Made

by Mindy McGinnis

Three teen girls, all struggling with abusive men, support their classmates by running an after-school sex-ed class in the keen and sharply truthful How Girls Are Made by Mindy McGinnis (The Female of the Species).

Eighteen-year-old overachiever Fallon thinks sex ed should better prepare girls "for the reality of a penis" and launches a secret class with fellow "pretty-­white-straight"­ seniors Shelby and Jobie. Shelby is a locally famous fighter whose new boyfriend, Baxter, showers her with admiration.

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Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore

by Emily Krempholtz

A young witch seeking redemption falls for a grouchy neighbor desperate to protect his family's legacy in Emily Krempholtz's charming feel-good debut romantasy, Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore.

Violet Thistlewaite is just like any other small-business owner: she has big dreams, a can-do attitude, and a secret past as a supervillain's right-hand henchwoman. A hero killed the evil sorcerer who raised Violet to be his weapon. She considered killing Violet as well, but spared her life on one condition:

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The Mirror of Great Britain: A Life of King James VI and I

by Clare Jackson

The life and legacy of King James VI and I receives a sympathetic and compelling reassessment in The Mirror of Great Britain by Clare Jackson. Crowned King James VI of Scotland in 1567 as an infant and King James I of England and Ireland in 1603, King James is most known for the 1611 Bible translation that bears his name, the "most influential and widely sold English-language work ever produced." But there is much more to the man, Jackson argues, and a new appreciation to be had for the "sheer difficulty,

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