What goes in your summer tote bag? Some water, a snack, something to read in the park. And what's better for lounging in the shade of a big leafy tree than a fantasy saga like Django Wexler's hilarious and irreverent Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me, or Rachel McCarthy James's witty, breezy social history of axe murder, Whack Job? And let's not forget something for the kids, like Dream for the Land by Laekan Zea Kemp, illustrated by Leo Espinosa, "a moving and ultimately hopeful" picture book about surviving a megadrought in the Southwest.
Meanwhile, in The Writer's Life this week, the writing duo known as Mae Marvel shares how they created community and formed a found family for the highly secretive spy characters in If I Told You, I'd Have to Kiss You, a "delightfully over-the-top sapphic romance."