Starred Review

The Ogre's Daughter

by Catherine Bardon, trans. by Tina Kover

In the searing and aptly titled The Ogre's Daughter, her first novel to be translated into English, French author Catherine Bardon (Les Deracines) imagines the tragic life of Flor de Oro Trujillo, the first daughter of Rafael Trujillo, the brutal and ruthlessly ambitious dictator of the Dominican Republic, to survive childhood. Flor is born in 1915 in the Dominican Republic. When she is young, her father is an army officer, but he realizes his bloody plans to attain power and the presidency by 1930. His reign

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Tasmania

by Paolo Giordano, trans. by Antony Shugaar

For anyone looking to have a lighthearted conversation, don't chat up a journalist who writes about the climate crisis and is working on a book about the atomic bomb, especially if that journalist is also justifiably freaked out about worldwide terrorism and rising authoritarianism. In other words, avoid Paolo, the narrator of Tasmania, a brilliantly unsettling, semiautobiographical novel by Paolo Giordano, translated from the Italian by Antony Shugaar. And to those who wonder what a natural splendor like

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Impossible Creatures

by Katherine Rundell, illus. by Ashley Mackenzie

The already much-lauded British title Impossible Creatures, first in a new fantasy series by Katherine Rundell (Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms), has arrived in the United States for young readers seeking an exciting, imaginative, and thrilling fantastical adventure.

Animals have always been drawn to Christopher Forrester, and he's always enjoyed their attention. The boy is spending a reluctant holiday with his grandfather at his remote lakeside cabin in Scotland, when an injured baby griffin appears beside

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Rejection

by Tony Tulathimutte

No one, whether an aspiring author or a love-struck romantic, wants to be rejected. The poor souls in Rejection, Tony Tulathimutte's thrilling collection of seven interrelated stories, encounter nonacceptance in various painful forms. The self-described feminist of "The Feminist" assumes women keep rejecting a catch like him, with his "academic achievement in his Gender Studies major," because he's narrow-shouldered, "the most oppressed subaltern group." A 20-something woman in "Pics" has a one-night fling

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Spirit Sleuths: How Magicians and Detectives Exposed the Ghost Hoaxes

by Gail Jarrow

Sibert Honor winner Gail Jarrow (Spooked!; The Poison Eaters) turns her astute attention to the phenomenon of spiritualism and the investigators who worked to disprove the con. Jarrow's remarkable ability to transform meticulous research into a gripping narrative once again results in a nonfiction work that will transfix readers of all ages.

Jarrow opens Spirit Sleuths in the mid-19th century with the story of the Fox sisters, two girls who claimed they had developed a communication system to talk with the

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Scaffolding

by Lauren Elkin

It's hard to resist a novel that explores desire, psychoanalysis, and feminism in unbridled French-literature style. Scaffolding is the first novel from Lauren Elkin, author of Flâneuse and Art Monsters, and readers should buckle up, because Elkin doesn't skirt the polite edges.

In 2019, Anna is a psychoanalyst in Paris, taking time off to process a miscarriage by doing anything and everything but thinking about it. With her husband working in London, she renovates her apartment, ponders the nature of

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Broke Heart Blues

by Joyce Carol Oates

The reissue of Broke Heart Blues, originally published in 1999, reintroduces readers to the breathtaking novel and includes a self-reflective afterword by its author, award-winning writer Joyce Carol Oates (Hazards of Time Travel). Oates's contemporary classic about small-town obsession and nostalgia in the wake of a true-crime scandal will appeal to today's readers perhaps even more than before.

John Reddy is only a teenager when he is tried for killing his mother's lover. Amid the trial's media circus,

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The Night Market

by Seina Wedlick, illus. by Briana Mukodiri Uchendu

The Night Market is a beautifully wrought, atmospheric tale of a child who takes in the many wonders of a Nigerian market held under a full moon.

The child, holding a bag of golden coins, is amazed by the market, "wide awake" under a dark sky. The protagonist sees "marvelous objects and strange relics" as well as glow-in-the-dark jellyfish; hears traders hollering; tastes plump tomatoes; smells fresh primroses; and feels the texture of "sparkly" fabrics. The details delight and the sights, sounds, smells,

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Welcome

Shelf Awareness is a free e-newsletter about books and the book industry. We have two separate versions:

For Readers: Every Friday, discover the 25 best books published that week as selected by our industry insiders. Sign up now.

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Learn more about Shelf Awareness.

Shelf Discovery

Tell Me Everything

by Elizabeth Strout

This quiet, captivating novel finds beauty and meaning in the mundane and features many of the beloved characters after whom Elizabeth Strout has titled previous books.

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Space Oddity

by Catherynne M. Valente

This funny, philosophical sequel to Catherynne M. Valente's Space Opera continues the adventures of Decibel Jones and Mira Wonderful Star in a smart, screwball fantasia of a technicolor future.

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The Sequel

by Jean Hanff Korelitz

In this devilishly fun literary thriller--the sequel to The Plot--a widow who has gotten away with killing her husband learns that someone is onto her evildoing.

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Queen Macbeth

by Val McDermid

This slim novel imagines the true history of Gruoch, wife of Macbeth, as she fights for her survival in medieval Scotland.

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Sunshine and Spice

by Aurora Palit

A sunny brand consultant and a grumpy accountant must navigate cultural differences and interfering Bengali aunties in this sexy debut romance novel.

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Season of the Swamp

by Yuri Herrera, trans. by Lisa Dillman

Yuri Herrera applies his exceptional gift for succinct, imaginative storytelling to a fictionalized history of Benito Juárez in exile in New Orleans.

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The Drowned

by John Banville

A recluse discovers an abandoned car and winds up involved in a missing-person case with Strafford and Quirke, who are back at work in this novel of secrets and quiet desperation.

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The Bog Wife

by Kay Chronister

Kay Chronister's The Bog Wife, as atmospheric as it is thoughtful, will delight fans of Karen Russell and Angela Carter alike in its marriage of eco-speculative fiction and gothic horror.

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Esri Press: The Geography of Hope: Real Life Stories of Optimists Mapping a Better World by David Yarnold

Media Heat

Monday, October 7, 2024

CBS Mornings: Jason Reynolds, author of Twenty-Four Seconds from Now... (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy, $19.99, 9781665961271).

Good Morning America: Caroline Choe, author of Banchan: 60 Korean American Recipes for Delicious, Shareable Sides (Chronicle, $27.95, 9781797227115).

Also on GMA: Ryan Seacrest and Meredith Seacrest Leach, authors of The Make-Believers (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9781665949873).

Sherri Shepherd Show: Law Roach, author of How to Build a Fashion Icon: Notes on Confidence from the World's Only Image Architect (Abrams Image, $28, 9781419768217).

Thursday, October 3, 2024

CBS Mornings: Mellody Hobson, author of Priceless Facts about Money (Candlewick, $19.99, 9781536224719).

Today Show: Yotam Ottolenghi, author of Ottolenghi Comfort: A Cookbook (Ten Speed Press, $37.99, 9780399581779).

Drew Barrymore Show: Kate McKinnon, author of The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9780316554732).

Tamron Hall: Ina Garten, author of Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir (Crown, $34, 9780593799895).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Chris Wallace, author of Countdown 1960: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the 312 Days that Changed America's Politics Forever (Dutton, $35, 9780593852194).

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

CBS Mornings: Colin Kaepernick and Nessa Diab, authors of We Are Free, You and Me (Scholastic, $18.99, 9781339042947).

Today Show: Ann Patchett, author of The Verts: A Story of Introverts and Extroverts (HarperCollins, $19.99, 9780063064553).

Kelly Clarkson Show: Kate McKinnon, author of The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9780316554732).

Sherri Shepherd Show: Don Lemon, author of I Once Was Lost: My Search for God in America (Little, Brown, $30, 9780316567695).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Ina Garten, author of Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir (Crown, $34, 9780593799895).

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Jennifer Aniston, author of Clydeo Takes a Bite Out of Life (HarperCollins, $21.99, 9780063372368).

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Today Show: Ina Garten, author of Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir (Crown, $34, 9780593799895).
 
CBS Mornings: Malcolm Gladwell, author of Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering (Little, Brown, $32, 9780316575805).
 
The View: Kate McKinnon, author of The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9780316554732).

Monday, September 30, 2024

CBS Mornings: Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of The Message (One World, $30, 9780593230381).

Today Show: Kate McKinnon, author of The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9780316554732).

Also on Today: Law Roach, author of How to Build a Fashion Icon: Notes on Confidence from the World's Only Image Architect (Abrams Image, $28, 9781419768217).

Fresh Air
: Ina Garten, author of Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir (Crown, $34, 9780593799895).

The View: Dana Bash, author of America's Deadliest Election: The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History (Hanover Square Press, $32.99, 9781335081070).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Malcolm Gladwell, author of Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering (Little, Brown, $32, 9780316575805).
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