Starred Review

Advantage Player: A Memoir of Blackjack, Backrooms, and Beginnings

by Gina Fiore

Advantage Player: A Memoir of Blackjack, Backrooms, and Beginnings is an energetic account of false starts, big wins and big losses, challenges and redemptions. Gina Fiore tells her story with momentum and feeling, so readers share the tension of high stakes.

Fiore had a troubled childhood in a troubled Italian American family plagued by poverty and questionable decisions. They moved from New York to Reno, Nev., when she was eight. She began gambling at 14 years old, visiting the casinos where her mother dealt

Black Moon

by Stephen Wright

Stephen Wright's Black Moon is a wild romp of an adventure, lush with blood and debauchery, starring a spectacularly colorful character based on the historical figure of Anne Bonny. Readers will need a strong constitution for the violence and rape that populate these pages, but the heroine and her associates offer plenty of humor, thoughtful philosophy, and transcendence to balance the scales.

Not much is known about Anne Bonny, an Irishwoman turned pirate in the early 1700s. With this inspiration, Wright

The Last Temptation of Beck: The Untold Story of a Pop Messiah

by Josephine Riesman

Seasoned culture writer Josephine Riesman probes the wild and weird career of a mononymous musician whose eclectic arrangements and idiosyncratic lyrics flabbergasted the music industry. But The Last Temptation of Beck searches beyond the boundaries of hagiographic nostalgia and instead boldly centers Scientology within the equation of Riesman's savvy analysis.

In January 1994, Beck Hansen lumbered down a dirt road and into American households with the MTV debut of "Loser." The mordant slacker anthem propelled

The Little Stone Buddha

by Grace Lin

Caldecott Honor winner Grace Lin (A Big Mooncake for Little Star) writes and illustrates The Little Stone Buddha, a heartening, charismatic picture book about a lost figurine that inspires a community to come together and transform their run-down block.

The book's first double-page spread shows the little stone Buddha tumbling off the back of a bicycle. He lands, abandoned and ignored, in a trash heap on a busy city street. "Tall buildings [hide] his view of the stars" and "noisy cars and trucks rumble by,"

This Is How to Spot Animals!

by Aline Portman, trans. by Laura Watkinson

Determined narrator Bear searches here, there, and everywhere for the rare, red-breasted goose in Aline Portman's charming English-language debut, This Is How to Spot Animals!, translated from the Dutch by the Mildred L. Batchelder Award-winning Laura Watkinson (Mikis and the Donkey).

Clad in orange shorts and equipped with binoculars and a thermos, Bear settles in for a day of animal spotting, hoping to get a glimpse of a red-breasted goose. "Spotting animals isn't easy," Bear says. "But I'm very, very good

Radio Free Texas

by Libba Bray

A teenager volunteering at a radio station in 1980s Texas finds community and young love in this "righteous" rock 'n' roll novel from Michael L. Printz Award-winning author Libba Bray (Under the Same Stars).

Bowie (pronounced "Boo-eee" after "Jim Bowie, the Texas historical dude who died at the Alamo alongside Davy Crockett") feels adrift as he starts his senior year at Crockett High School. Bowie's only certainty is that he's "hopelessly in love with Holly 'Comet' Jensen. Emphasis on hopelessly." Comet, who

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Shelf Discovery

Wandering Cat's Cage

by Akane Torikai, trans. by Jocelyne Allen

Akane Torikai's Wandering Cat's Cage is an alarming--and all-too-convincing--graphic exploration of human autonomy under attack.

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The Spirits

by Bonnie Jo Campbell

Bonnie Jo Campbell invokes shades of Charles Dickens in this hopeful holiday novel in which reunited family members revisit their brutal patriarch's death and reckon with buried truths.

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Igloo

by Ann Kim Ha

In this soothing, compassionate picture book--perfect for a blustery day--a band of increasingly large animals wraps around one another to keep winter's chill at bay.

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Flyweight

by Courtney Ellis

Courtney Ellis's gritty third novel follows two aspiring female boxers in 1920s London as they battle social prejudice and inner conflict.

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Death Down the Aisle

by Colleen Cambridge

This clever cozy mystery follows Agatha Christie's sharp-witted housekeeper, Phyllida Bright, as she uncovers who murdered one of the guests at a wedding.

Read Full Review »

A Very Merry Detour

by Court Behr

In this heartwarming romance, Alaina's plan to get her ex-boyfriend back takes a detour in a charming town where festive activities and an unexpected connection light up the holiday season.

Read Full Review »

The Porcelain Sisters

by Daryl Gregory

A young woman and her sister, a foul-mouthed porcelain doll, discover their true history while pursued by supernatural threats in this hilarious, action-packed thriller.

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Chocolate Unwrapped: A Taste of the Science, History and Magic of Chocolate

by Alexandria Scott-Christensen, illus. by Yoko Baum

Young readers can devour the history and science of cacao beans and their delicious product in this fact-filled, enlightening debut picture book.

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Emperor of Nothing: The Making of Larry David

by Blake J. Harris

Blake J. Harris's highly entertaining Emperor of Nothing is as much a history of stand-up comedy as it is a biography of Seinfeld creator Larry David.

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Château Reverie

by Natasha Siegel

A dangerous magical auction ensnares a grieving young Frenchwoman and an amnesiac prisoner in this dark, secret-laden fantasy.

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Shelf Awareness

Media Heat

Thursday, October 29, 2026

Good Morning America: Susan Spungen, author of Cookie Queen: 80+ Irresistible, Doable, Giftable Recipes (Rodale, $40, 9780593980743).

The View: Sophia Bush, author of And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes from a Life in Progress (Flatiron, $29.99, 9781250457899).

Jennifer Hudson Show: Tisha Campbell, author of The A Word: A Mother’s Journey Through Autism and Love (Amistad, $29.99, 9780063446489).

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Christopher Lloyd, author of In My Own Time: A Memoir (Grand Central, $32.50, 9781538776544).

Wednesday, October 28, 2026

Fresh Air: Anand Giridharadas, author of Man in the Mirror: Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City (Knopf, $35, 9780593802014).

Today: Barbara Kingsolver, author of Partita: A Novel (Harper, $32, 9780063577541).

Also on Today: Sophia Bush, author of And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes from a Life in Progress (Flatiron, $29.99, 9781250457899).

Tuesday, October 27, 2026

Today: Tony Shalhoub, co-author of We Thought They'd Never Leave: Musings on Food and Family (Gallery Books, $30, 9781668194584).

Also on Today: Esther Choi, author of Hand Taste: Cook Like a Korean Grandmother (Voracious, $40, 9780316582612).

The View: Ayesha Nurdjaja, author of Mediterranean All the Way: Bold Flavors, Built to Share: A Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, $45, 9780593799901).

Drew Barrymore Show: Stephen Graham, co-editor of Letters to Our Sons (Union Square, $32, 9781454968283).

Late Night with Seth Meyers: Jessica Tarlov, author of I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends (Random House, $30, 9798217154135).

Monday, October 26, 2026

CBS Mornings: Sophia Bush, author of And I Will Tell You Mine: Notes from a Life in Progress (Flatiron, $29.99, 9781250457899).

Good Morning America: Adrianne Calvo, author of Maximum Flavor at Home (Agate Surrey, $32, 9781572843721).

Today: Christopher Lloyd, author of In My Own Time: A Memoir (Grand Central, $32.50, 9781538776544).

The View: John Grisham, author of The French Illusion: A Novel (Doubleday, $35, 9780385550543).

WBUR's Here & Now: Emily Feng, author of Our Hearts Burned for Home: Uyghur Militants in Syria's Civil War (Columbia Global Reports, $18, 9781967190188).

Thursday, October 22, 2026

The View: Collin Gosselin, author of In the Shadow of Eight: Surviving the Reality of My Childhood (Grand Central, $30, 9781538784723).

Live with Kelly and Mark: Jane Leeves, author of Daphne & Me: My Life on Frasier (And a Bit More) (Morrow, $29.99, 9780063426955).

Tonight Show: Joe Manganiello, author of Bloodlines: A Memoir (Avid Reader Press, $30, 9781668207109).