Mexican author Dahlia de la Cerda reunites with translators Heather Cleary and Julia Sanches after her debut, Reservoir Bitches, was longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize. In Medea Sang Me a Corrido, she connects six chapters for a disturbing, illuminating novel-in-stories, interlinked through repeated appearances of Medea--yes, the mythical Medea who, betrayed by Jason of the Argonauts, murdered their children as punishment.

This novel's sorceress is an avenging feminist enabler in Aztlán, the mythic Aztec homeland that's not unlike the Mexico in which de la Cerda resides. She assists two young women with abortions--the first because her gangster boyfriend goes missing, the second because she needs to break free from her "golden cage." De la Cerda reveals the backstory of the missing gangster, Jordán, while Medea greets him in the afterlife. Medea next helps a would-be mother save her unborn child after surviving a cartel shoot-out. Jordán's mother confesses her decades of distant motherhood but, aided by Medea, she's determined to find Jordán's remains. Medea gets the last words, lamenting her own tragic story but admitting the "horrors" she's witnessed in Aztlán are "horrors that no Greek trag­edy could turn into metaphor," as she exposes abused mothers and lost children, addiction and murders, and so much death and destruction--but also dancing, tenderness, laughter, and survival.

Combining both rage and empathy, de la Cerda bears unfiltered witness to man-made suffering while highlighting impossible choices and challenging paths of women's endurance and escape. As founder of Morras Help Morras, a feminist collective empowering women on the fringe, de la Cerda transforms real-life experiences into raw, memorable, don't-look-away fiction. --Terry Hong

The act and accoutrements of writing flow through several lives in The Typing Lady, a contemplative and emotionally evocative collection of 11 short stories by novelist Ruth Ozeki (The Book of Form and Emptiness).

The collection opens with its titular entry, a metafictional story in the form of an author's note in which three typing ladies appear: the narrator, a writer, and the writer's main character, a woman who collects typewriters. The narrator muses that storytelling is "how we co-create each other and dream ourselves into being," and a ribbon of stories about characters whose lives are touched by the written word unspools to prove her point. A would-be poet tends to an aging doctor with dementia in exchange for housing in "Leafblower." A married couple lives uneasily with the ghostlike forms of their lost aspirations in "Where Ambition Goes to Die." A novelist creates a fake dating profile to observe the kinds of young men her teenage granddaughter might date and takes her ruse too far in "The Problem of the Body." The protagonist in "Immortal" feels a compulsion to eat plastic; of the typewriter keys they've eaten, they say the vowels tasted best.

Ozeki's settings include a 21st-century college town, a drizzly island off the coast of British Columbia, and Yale in the late 1960s. Her deft, observant prose is studded with pinpricks of nostalgia, regret, and humor. Typewriters, invisible ink, and logophilia appear as repeating motifs and underscore the written word's integral place in the human condition. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

We Were Forbidden by the late Belgian writer Jacqueline Harpman (1929-2012) collects three intriguing never-before-translated stories. Throughout the trio, Harpman nimbly examines personal agency, particularly for women. Ros Schwartz, who also translated I Who Have Never Known Men, skillfully captures Harpman's unembellished clarity, reflecting the directness of her spare prose.

"The Ardennes Forest" opens the collection, a dystopian narrative about a military group assigned to patrol the forests during a seemingly senseless war. When they happen upon a deserted village, for a few days they eat their fill, drink wine, dance, sleep in beds--and remember comfort and community. Harpman's writing turns autobiographical in "The Outcast," which takes readers to Casablanca where her Jewish family fled to escape the Nazis during World War II. The 15-year-old narrator recalls the cleaving of a close friendship over twisted words, cruel accusations, striking ignorance--and an administration that unfairly ostracizes and silences her as punishment. The final story, "The Broom Closet," is also the best, a slyly entertaining meta-narrative spotlighting an author composing a story about a woman and her affairs. Harpman shifts without warning--but entertainingly--between writer and protagonist. The young wife is 22, "married for six tedious years" but later, her creator will decide, "twenty-two may be too old, let us say nine­teen and married three years."

Given Harpman's notable playfulness, certain details might imply connections between the three stories, like the soldier named Ulrich in "Forest" and "Closet." The suggestion of such liminal narratives makes Harpman's fiction even more cleverly enticing, while evergreen themes--war, coming of age, the fine art of writing--ensure Harpman's posthumous relevancy. --Terry Hong

Karen Odden (Down a Dark River) brings the hidden criminal side of Victorian London brilliantly to life in this enthralling historical mystery. Perfect for fans of Sherry Thomas or Anne Perry, An Artful Dodge tells the story of 20-year-old Kit Jimeson, one of the most talented thieves in a women-only criminal network. Keeping both shopkeepers and patricians on their toes, Kit is determined to steal enough to keep herself and her 14-year-old sister, Sarah, safe and fed. Maybe someday she'll even save up enough money to be able to quit her criminal ways, since, as Kit says, "The Society for the Suppression of Vice would have you believe crime doesn't pay. It does, of course."

However, when a beautiful but vicious woman named Maggie, who was transported to Australia 20 years ago, returns to claim her role as leader of the thieving syndicate, everything starts to change for Kit. Maggie wants vengeance on everyone involved in her arrest, and unfortunately for Kit, her talent catches Maggie's eye. Kit becomes entangled in a huge heist of Maggie's devising--one that could put Kit and even Sarah in the noose if she fails.

Rapidly plotted and full of engaging characters, An Artful Dodge is historical fiction at its best. The complicated schemes within schemes that Kit devises are reminiscent of the Ocean's Eleven films. Throw in a bawdy Southwark crowd, sharp-eyed constables, and supercilious merchants, and An Artful Dodge delivers Victorian London right to readers' laps. --Jessica Howard, former bookseller, freelance book reviewer

A father and son are thrust into a mysterious new reality when one of them unwittingly slips into the future in The Traveler, Joseph Eckert's tender family drama contained within an ingenious sci-fi adventure.

Scott Treder is a programmer who resides with his wife and their exceptionally gifted son, Lyle, in Madison, Wis. En route to work one morning, Scott suddenly time travels to the next day. Every morning afterward, an utterly disoriented and resistant Scott find himself slipping forward for ever-doubling periods of time. Scott misses large chunks of Lyle's youth, but their bond deepens as Lyle makes it his mission to rescue his father. Scott's time travel is powered by an unknown force far greater than anything the experts have seen. Lyle, who becomes a famous physicist, is Scott's only hope of stopping it. Meanwhile, people he encounters in the future who have heard of Scott can't decide whether he is a prophet or a charlatan.

Eckert renders his future worlds with bold imagery and imaginative high-tech props, such as an electronic dog belonging to Scott's descendants. As Scott's time travel accelerates frighteningly toward the end of times, toward the "Omega," he realizes that the true purpose of his ordeal is a mystical, awe-inspiring path to a "new beginning," with Lyle right by his side. The Traveler is a fantastical yet emotionally resonant saga reflecting on the mysteries of existence, the limits to understanding the universe's magic, and the sorrow of being separated from loved ones. --Shahina Piyarali

Instructions for the End of the World, a selection of Anglican priest Maggie Helwig's stirring sermons, affirms the importance of solidarity in turbulent times.

Helwig (Encampment) is the rector of inner-city Toronto's St. Stephen-in-the-Fields. Anglican homilies offer short reflections on set readings from the church lectionary. With the exception of a funeral address given for her father in 2018, these pieces date from 2020 to 2025. The early speeches--delivered online--capture the fear and isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic years. Helwig achieves the improbable, shedding fresh light on overfamiliar stories such as the parable of the Good Samaritan. Being a neighbor, she insists, means a willingness to step up. Wisdom comes from poetry by the likes of W.H. Auden and T.S. Eliot as well as from the Gospels and Hebrew scriptures.

With wars, climate breakdown, and the stripping of rights from transgender people and immigrants, "it is not in any way unrealistic to feel like we are living in the end times," Helwig acknowledges. Yet ordinary people committing to social justice can change the world, she asserts. This is not theoretical for her congregation but an everyday mission, seen most clearly in her church's efforts against the city's repeated attempts to shut down a camp of unhoused people in their churchyard. "To proclaim good news to the poor is an act of resistance," Helwig declares, fueled by Jesus's "logic of radical equality."

Helwig's vibrant voice speaks truth to power. This work of practical, progressive theology will likely elicit hearty amens from readers of Anne Lamott and Brian D. McLaren. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck

The Keys to My House: A Gaza Diary by Palestinian journalist Sami al-Ajrami, assisted by Italian daily la Repubblica colleague Anna Lombardi, is a powerfully humanizing record of the ongoing war in Gaza, diligently translated by Jim Hicks with Anna Botta. Retired academic/editor Hicks also provides an illuminating introduction. Al-Ajrami bears unblinking witness to the destruction of Gaza as he loses his home, family, and friends, while he survives another day to report relentless atrocities to the outside world. Black-and-white photographs add visceral urgency. The first, placed before al-Ajrami's first entry and setting the tone for what follows, captures his "breakfast nook," where he began every morning. It no longer exists, and is the place he misses most; he can return to it only through the photo he "look[s] at every day."

On October 13, 2023, a week after the Hamas attack on Israel, al-Ajrami fled his four-story, multigenerational home, "the house... built literally stone by stone by [his] family." For the next six months, into April 2024, basic necessities of food, water, shelter, medicine, fuel, and power dwindled to inhumane levels. Bombings accelerated, hospitals shut down, displacements proliferated, whole families disappeared, corpses piled up. Al-Ajrami's father died from lack of medical care. But joy was still possible: al-Ajrami's teen twin daughters managed to bake him the "best cake" in impossible circumstances for his 57th birthday. Through sober observations and unadorned facts, al-Ajrami documents the quotidian ordinariness of human needs--quenching thirst, feeding hunger, finding safety, longing for comfort and community--amid unspeakable horrors. His memoir honors the lost and celebrates the living. --Terry Hong

In Coming Out Perfect, Richard Mercado's stirring, empathetic YA graphic novel, the Ignatz Award-nominated cartoonist uses his own story about telling his family he's gay to explore the nuances of queer experiences.

Kevin Reyes, a high schooler in the Philippines, feels invisible: most of his classmates act like they don't know him; his parents don't react when he tells them he's gay; and his sister overshadows him with her flawless medical school grades. Kevin wishes he could be more like Raymond, his rich and handsome classmate who is "the perfect gay teenager." Fortunately, Raymond sees potential in Kevin and agrees to give him a makeover--as long as Kevin runs as his vice-president in the student council election. Kevin agrees and is transformed into a brand-new person, with a haircut, new clothes, and a refreshed social media presence. But before Kevin knows it, he's drinking and ignoring his childhood friends while trying to fit in. Is popularity worth sacrificing his true self?

Mercado deftly depicts the pressure to chase perfection that teens can feel from familial expectations. Kevin's parents constantly compare him to his older, more accomplished sister, which pushes him into actions that don't fit his personality. Mercado's art is dichromatic, featuring a dark blue and washes of peach. His illustrations are expressive and realistically depict characters' emotions so that even wordless panels speak loud and clear. Coming Out Perfect also spotlights queer experiences in the Philippines (for example, showing the unspoken constraints placed on Raymond to be a socially "acceptable" gay person), allowing teens worldwide to easily approach this earnest queer coming-of-age story. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader

Author Kristen McCallum adroitly constructs Free Girls, a clever and expressive YA novel about a Black teen receiving a second chance after having been labeled "trouble."

When police caught 16-year-old Jasmine riding in a stolen vehicle with friends, she was remanded to the juvenile detention center Guiding Hearts Home for Troubled Girls, where she spent 12 months. Now she's back with her mother, and their circumstances have changed drastically: her mom remarried, they live in a "big fancy house," Jas has a stepsister, and she will be attending an exclusive high school. Jas's mom asks Jas to keep her time in detention secret--"We have a chance here, Jas, a chance to do things over... do things right." But as Jas is beginning to settle into this new, comfortable life, Amari, an eccentric girl she shared a romantic connection with at Guiding Hearts, reaches out to her. Jas feels bonded to Amari, but she's trying to put her past in the past. And in the present, Jas is focused on the intimidatingly beautiful and warm Deanna.

McCallum develops intimate and complex relationships; Jas and Amari's is especially captivating. Jas knows she has been misunderstood and misidentified, and her attempts at fitting into her new life are mesmerizing as they depict her vulnerability and social-intelligence growth. Amari, equally a victim of the system, represents everything Jas and her mother want to hide. McCallum keeps a rapid pace; "Then" and "Now" chapters from Jas's point of view switch between the facility and the present, providing readers a direct and emotional connection to Jasmine's fears, joys, and struggles. --Kharissa Kenner, school media specialist, Churchill School and Center

In this radiant middle-grade coming-of-age novel, a reluctant and socially awkward farm girl with a penchant for droll, idiomatic language ("Babbling birdbrains!"; "Honking Hornworms!") launches an unexpected personal mission to protect her family's 150-year-old Iowa farm.

"Scattered" 12-year-old Xyla feels like she can't please her single mother, Cassiopeia, a hardworking fifth-generation farmer. Xyla is certain that if she could find her absent father, he would appreciate her and not make her do chores. At the same time, her new friend, Alegría, is desperately trying to convince her own father to let her have a quinceañera. When the industrial hog farm Porca Miseria leaks "a bunch of stinking, sloppy piles of sludge" into the creek that flows through Xyla's farm, the girls have a new focus: convincing Porca Miseria to clean up their mess. Luckily Xyla learns her dad is a lawyer for the hog farm. Surely, she thinks, he'll want to help.

Jilanne Hoffmann treats her first middle-grade novel as a blank canvas for her extensive creativity: she changes voices and times, alternates between prose and poetry, and uses animate and inanimate points of view. She also includes snippets from Cassiopeia's childhood diary throughout the text, offering surprising parallels between mother and daughter. HeartLand is a multifaceted and beguiling novel; it is a sensitive exploration of the complexities of multigenerational family business, a zealous ode to environmental stewardship, and a compassionate portrait of a girl who finds it hard to "pay attention" and "focus." Xyla's sincere, zany personality stands out in this exuberant novel, making her a perfect protagonist for readers who are trying to embrace their own quirks. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor

Debut author Emily Rosenthal and illustrator Thai My Phuong (Another Word for Neighbor) craft the charming, empathetic picture book Leroy Has Something to Say, about a silent gardening ghost who finds a kindred spirit.

Leroy, a white-sheeted ghost wearing a wide-brimmed sun hat, tends to the plants in the abandoned greenhouse at Rosebud Manor. His azaleas and lilacs thrive, but when he tries to make friends with new residents by presenting them with a yellow rose (a token of friendship), they flee. Then Tara, a pigtailed, redheaded girl who uses an "Augmentative and Alternative Communication" (AAC) tablet to speak, moves in with her multiracial, plant-loving family. Leroy tries to connect by caring for the family's plants while they sleep, but they catch the soundless (but not invisible) gardener watering their bromeliad. Leroy presents a yellow rose to the family and Tara understands immediately: "You want to be friends." Tara demonstrates her tablet's text-to-speech features, empowering Leroy to communicate. The family and Leroy begin gardening together--just what Leroy "always wanted."

Rosenthal's text features measured, lilting sentences with poetic imagery to fertilize the imagination. The author, who uses AAC herself, includes a note to readers explaining that though someone may not speak, that doesn't mean "they don't have anything to say." Phuong's digitally colored graphite-pencil illustrations are comforting and use a soft, earth-toned palette to highlight Leroy's emotions: when Leroy is disappointed, the hues darken; when he's content, colors brighten, and transparent Leroy glows. Love for Leroy will likely take root in fans of Christy Mandin's Millie Fleur books and Tiffany Hammond and Kate Cosgrove's A Day with No Words. --Cristina Iannarino, children's book buyer, Books on the Square, Providence, RI.

Author Brad Davidson and illustrator Rachel Más Davidson (I Like Your Face) collaborate on their third book for young readers, Teachers in the Wild, which cleverly and with great comic effect compares teachers outside their classrooms to animals in nature.

"Teachers are amazing!" asserts the cheerful, brown-skinned, braided narrator. At school, teachers are always in their classrooms, where they offer "warm smiles and cool handshakes," and "at the end of the day, they're always sad to see you go." But outside of school, teachers "behave very differently"; they "roam freely" and may be spotted anywhere, like a dentist's office, hair salon, or pet shop. They even camouflage themselves to look like "everyday people doing everyday things." While it can be shocking to discover a teacher in the wild, the narrator suggests that it's best to remain calm. They won't "bother you if you don't bother them," and they may even be surprised or confused to see you in your "natural habitat." However, if teachers and parents begin to tell stories about the student, the narrator recommends creating a distraction and fleeing. Luckily, in the classroom, things "will be back to normal"--at least until next time.

Throughout this amusing, warmhearted picture book, Brad Davidson uses matter-of-fact text to create his deft metaphor and normalize the "strange creatures" who prowl the pages. Rachel Más Davidson's humorous mixed-media illustrations expand on the text, exaggerating facial expressions, placing teachers and students in detailed "habitats," and highlighting the humor, such as when a student comes face-to-painted-face with a teacher at a soccer game. As the intrepid narrator exclaims, "It's all quite fascinating!" --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author