In her third novel, Intemperance, Sonora Jha (Foreign; The 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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

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

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