French novelist Antoine Laurain (Smoking Kills; The President's Hat) blends a bit of sci-fi with his signature wit in his sixth novel, Vintage 1954. On a September night in Paris, Hubert Larnaudie invites three acquaintances over to share a rare bottle of 1954 Beaujolais. Antiques restorer Magalie, mixologist Julien (who's secretly in love with Magalie) and Bob, a just-arrived Airbnb guest from Milwaukee, make an unlikely cocktail party in Hubert's staid if comfortable living room. But things get even stranger when all four of them wake up the next morning in 1954--with no idea how to get back to the present day.

The novel opens with a prologue about the disappearance of one Pierre Chauveau, back in 1954, after drinking a bottle of then-new wine. Laurain introduces his four present-day main characters and relates the history of the apartment building where they all live. When they end up in 1954, disoriented, Julien lands a job mixing cocktails at Harry's Bar, while Magalie and Hubert each follow clues in search of their own pasts. Charmed though they are by the Paris of postcard and legend, the four must figure out how to get themselves back to 2017. The way home will involve a vineyard outside the city and connect all of them to each other, plus the mysterious Pierre Chauveau.

Slyly whimsical, with equal parts flying saucers, Parisian charm and dry French wit, Vintage 1954 is a light and entertaining time-travel treat. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Playwright Tim Mason's first adult novel, The Darwin Affair, is a rousing mystery set in Victorian England. In 1859, the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species poses a menace to the powers that be, and some of society's upper echelon want him squelched. Amid the conspiracy lurks a tall, shadowy man with deep-set eyes; death seems to follow wherever he goes. The dogged Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field is on the case, although his findings are not necessarily welcomed by all. Field tracks his suspect from meat market to tavern to the royal court, from England to Germany, and even to the high-profile Wilberforce-Huxley debate on evolution at Oxford. Scenes of crashing action and adventure include a racing carriage on a collision course with a speeding train. With cameos by Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Karl Marx and a variation on Typhoid Mary rounding out the peripheral cast, this is a wild tale that engulfs the reader from start to finish.

Satisfyingly plot-driven, then, The Darwin Affair also offers very engaging characters: approachable Albert, Prince Consort; Queen Victoria, haughty but not humorless; a comic Marx; and a gracious, gentle Darwin.

But Mason's less famous hero definitely steals the show. Field has difficulties with authority that will be familiar to fans of contemporary fictional detectives like Harry Bosch and Dave Robicheaux. Mason's playwriting skills are evident in realistic dialogue and well-constructed, easily envisioned scenes. Readers of historical fiction, murder mysteries, action/adventure and thrillers will be equally entertained and perhaps edified: beneath the excitement lie thought-provoking questions about class and order, the interplay of science and religion and intellectual curiosity. The Darwin Affair has it all: thrills, engrossing characters, taut pacing and historical interest. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

In Conviction, Denise Mina (Field of Blood, The Long Drop) has created a wonderful mystery that blends true-crime podcasts, Twitter celebrities and international conspiracies. Mina captures the podcast vibe with precision, even down to the annoyingly repetitive ads from sponsors, and the medium's aficionados are sure to love this twist on a standard thriller.

Anna McLean is an upper-class Edinburgh housewife who loves listening to true-crime podcasts. One day, as she is listening to a new one, she realizes that the murder victim is connected to her former life--the life she's been at great pains to hide from her husband, Hamish. Then Hamish abruptly announces he's leaving Anna for her best friend, Estelle, and sets out on vacation with their daughters and the new woman. Reeling, Anna fears she can't sue for custody due to her unsavory past, when Estelle's husband, Fin, shows up at the door.

Fin is a famous former rock star, and a nosy neighbor posts a picture of Fin and Anna on Twitter. Suddenly thousands of people have recognized Anna, and with her cover blown, she and Fin set off on a crazy road trip into Anna's former life--binge-listening to the podcast as they go.

As the story unfolds, the reader realizes why Anna has gone into hiding and why so many people want her dead. The twists that follow become even more engaging. Told in alternating chapters that include the murders covered in the podcast and what's happening with Anna and Fin's hectic journey, Conviction is an irresistible story. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Tucson, Ariz.

Summer 2017, Littleport, Maine: On the night of the last party of the season before rich vacationers leave the seaside town, Sadie Loman's body is found on a beach at the bottom of a cliff. Sadie's parents own most of the vacation rentals, which are managed by Avery Greer, self-professed best friend of the deceased. The police conclude Sadie committed suicide, but Avery's not buying it.

Summer 2018: The one-year anniversary of Sadie's death is approaching and a memorial is planned to take place on the beach where she died. With the renewed interest in the tragedy, Avery is more convinced than ever Sadie didn't kill herself and sets out to prove it. Possible suspects have returned for the ceremony, or are locals who never left. Digging into the past is dangerous, however, and before the summer is over, Littleport might see another death on its shores.

Told in timelines alternating between the summers of both years, Megan Miranda's The Last House Guest uses mystery as a device to explore female friendships, as well as the emotional layers in relationships between the haves and have-nots. Avery lives rent-free in a guesthouse on the Lomans' property and pals around with Sadie, but is well aware she's not in the same class--she literally wears Sadie's castoffs. That doesn't stop her local friends living in less lofty digs from resenting her. The revelations about Sadie's death are compelling, but perhaps more so is Avery's journey from being someone perceived as less-than to a woman who chooses her own station in life. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd

A Sand Book, the fourth book of poetry from lecturer and performance artist Ariana Reines, draws from ancient and occult sensibilities to examine thoughtfully the afflictions of postmodern life. The 12-part epic takes on climate change, mass shootings, family trauma and sexual harassment, all in Reines's singular, deadpan poetic vernacular. The book opens with a seven-page poem titled "A Partial History" that catalogues myriad ways life in a digital culture has reshaped human behavior. Styled like an ancient document recently rediscovered, this opener is a powerful example of what makes Reines's poems so compelling: they have a way of divorcing readers from expected language and culture, creating a distance that allows reexamination of intimate knowledge from a new perspective.

For Reines, alienation is both method and subject. Many of her poems are confessional, at times even painfully so, detailing awkward sexual encounters and describing the painful manner in which acne is distributed across her face. Reines has always incorporated elements of vulgarity and body horror into her poems, insisting, as Julia Kristeva once did, that abjection has a necessary place in feminist literature. Gross as many of the poems in A Sand Book might be, Reines often embeds astute cultural criticisms within her cruder language, as in the line: "Logic is the world robbing you of your boner." Although this book is not for the squeamish or faint-hearted, readers will find a distinct charm in the experimental form and associational style of A Sand Book. --Emma Levy, bookseller at Third Place Books Seward Park, Seattle, Wash.

History may remember postmodernist writer and raconteur William S. Burroughs as many things: a genius, a visionary, the man next to Marilyn Monroe on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover, a killer--but history will undoubtedly remember him. In William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll, director of music licensing for SiriusXM, course developer for Berklee Online and longtime music critic Casey Rae explores the cultural tempest that was Burroughs, via his impact on popular music. 

Rae sketches him thusly: "Here was a homosexual drug addict, born in the Gilded Age, who killed his wife in a drunken game of William Tell and wrote infamous prose featuring orgasmic executions, shape-shifting aliens, and all manner of addicts, sadists, and creepy crawlies." Burroughs rocketed into the public eye with the publication, and almost immediate banning, of Naked Lunch in 1959. Soon, the man and his methods--in particular, his "cut-ups," wherein words were literally cut up and rearranged--became embedded in the institution of rock music and its various offshoots: heavy metal, punk, new wave.

Burroughs remained mostly behind the scenes as scads of musicians sought his advice or drugs or both. Scads more simply worshipped his ideas, imbuing their work with them. Notable fans included David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Kurt Cobain and Patti Smith.

Rae offers thoughtful, generous analysis. As Burroughs's own cut-ups might, Rae renders a portrait of Burroughs's influence akin to a reflection in a disco ball: fragmented, refracted, multiple and beautiful. --Katie Weed, freelance writer and reviewer

The question "Where are you from?" is all too familiar for many people of color who call the United States home. One little girl attempts to answer simply: "I'm from here, from today, same as everyone else." But the insistence lingers and the bewildered child can't satisfy her interrogators. She turns to her Abuelo "because he knows everything."

Abuelo takes her on an extraordinary journey to see the places, people, histories and experiences that make the girl who she is, identifying where she comes from and who her family and community are. "You're from the Pampas," Abuelo begins, "the open, free land." He points out "the brown river that cleanses and feeds the land"; he leads her high up in the mountains and down into the blue oceans; and tells her about "copper warriors," "island people" and "ancestors [who] built a home for all." Far and wide they wander, and yet, despite all his wondrous explanations, the little girl asks with grave persistence, "But, Abuelo... where am I really from?" With a finger pointed at his heart, he answers, "You're from here, from my love and the love of all those before us."

That intrusive "where are you from" scenario makes young children especially vulnerable to feeling unwelcome, question their sense of belonging and doubt their very identity. Yamile Saied Méndez (Blizzard Besties) counters with an enchanted, hand-in-hand odyssey through Abuelo and his granddaughter's richly diverse heritage. Artist Jamie Kim (Take Heart, My Child) uses watercolor and digital techniques to create vibrantly hued, double-page landscapes onto which she actively integrates Abuelo and granddaughter sharing the vastness of who they really are. From the Southern Cross to the North Star, "You are from all of us," Abuelo explains. And, finally, the little girl responds--and reclaims--"I am." --Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon

Of the many space books timed for the moon landing anniversary, The Astronaut Who Painted the Moon: The True Story of Alan Bean stands out for its luminescent illustrations and interdisciplinary appeal.

Journalist Dean Robbins (Margaret and the Moon) worked closely with Bean to bring the artist-astronaut's story to a wider audience, immersing readers of this picture book biography in the thoughts and perspective of the fourth person to walk on the moon. Robbins's action-infused text and color-tinged vocabulary sheds light on the adrenaline-filled experience. Sean Rubin's (Bolivar) always lovely and lush renderings, which manage to be cartoony with a classic flair, will likely captivate aspiring explorers and artists. The true star is the moon itself; with each page turn, the orb changes colors--sometimes white or shades of gray, other times a spectrum of violets and blues. "The Moon didn't look exactly real, but Alan didn't want it to. The painting showed how stunning outer space looked through his eyes." Just as Bean's pieces tried to capture the wonder of his experience among the stars by using moon "dust from his spacesuit" and footprints from his "astronaut boots," Rubin's digital art has a multidimensional texture and an expansive, otherworldly feel. The back matter reflects the research that Robbins put into this packed text, and the most fascinating tidbits include a side-by-side comparison of Bean's original photos from his expedition and the paintings they inspired. The scientific accuracy and sheer artistry of the subject's work is sure to mesmerize future astronauts and artists alike. --Shelley Diaz, supervising librarian, BookOps: New York Public Library & Brooklyn Public Library

"When Aidan was born, everyone thought he was a girl." But his name, his room, his clothes just didn't fit. Aidan realized "he was really another kind of boy": Aidan is transgender. With the help of other families with transgender children, Aidan's family figured things out. Now his parents have announced they are having another child, making Aidan a soon-to-be big brother. As the baby's arrival approaches, he expresses his fears: "I don't want them to feel like I did when I was little, but what if I get everything wrong? What if I don't know how to be a good big brother?" Thoughtfully, his mother explains, "We didn't know you were going to be our son. We made some mistakes, but you helped us fix them." Most fundamentally, "you taught us how important it is to love someone for exactly who they are."

Like Aidan, when author Kyle Lukoff (A Storytelling of Ravens) was born, everyone thought he was a girl; he reveals in his author's note that parts of his own story are "very much like Aidan's." Kaylani Juanita clearly enjoys challenging gender expectations with her digital illustrations. As Aidan explores "different ways of being a boy," Juanita shows him posing in a superhero cape (with cutouts from his discarded dresses) and wearing pink shoes with bows. His wardrobe couldn't be more gender-defyingly fabulous, comprised of a mishmash of stripes, zig-zags, checks and animal prints. Together, Lukoff and Juanita create "a world that supports and believes in [Aidan]," modeling a community that embraces "all different kinds of kids." With insight and empathy, both author and artist encourage and enable young readers to help "create that world." --Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon