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Starred Review

Pretend You're Dead and I Carry You

by Julián Delgado Lopera

Pretend You're Dead and I Carry You, the enthralling second novel by Julián Delgado Lopera (Fiebre Tropical), is a father-daughter saga knotted into the "Travesti Lore" of a queer community in Bogotá, Colombia.

"It is a known fact that some people grow to be old, while others become birds or panthers or beasts. Some people even turn into rivers," begins the narrator, sage "travesti godmother" Mamadora Eléctrica. She is better known as Tía Mama to teenage Valentina, whose father,

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Turn (W)here: A Geography of Home

by Chet'la Sebree

Award-winning poet Chet'la Sebree's essay collection, Turn (W)here: A Geography of Home is a superb, creatively structured, and often lyrical inquiry into the many facets of home. In the prologue, Sebree (Blue Opening; Field Study) asks, "But where do I--single, Black, itinerant, aspiring parent--belong?"

Each of the collection's three parts contains three essays. Part I asks "Where are you from?" and begins with an intriguingly fragmentary piece about Sebree's genealogy, depicted as a series of brief records,

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Wellwater: Poems

by Karen Solie

Canadian poet Karen Solie's intricate sixth collection, the T.S. Eliot Prize-winning Wellwater, gilds the natural and human worlds with religious imagery and an environmentalist conscience.

Solie (The Caiplie Caves) writes engaging verse about grassland flora and fauna: caribou, foxes, yarrow, antelope, pine trees, and more. A well is a place of holy significance with a "cathedral's rock and temperature," a "site of worship/ from which song was drawn to feed the souls/ of planted trees." A meadowlark's call

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Claude

by Phyllis Harris

Claude by Phyllis Harris (The Gift Shop Bear) is a cleverly conceived, wordless picture book that encourages young readers to let go of preconceived notions and approach art--and life--with spontaneous joy.

A young bereted artist, accompanied by their dog, Claude, ponders a blank canvas while imagining the lush, Monet-inspired scene they will paint on it: blue strokes for sky, green for hills and trees, yellow and red for fields of flowers. While the artist works hard to make headway on their masterpiece,

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The Saw Mouth

by Cale Plett

A nonbinary teen in a remarkably homey post-apocalyptic lakeside town must destroy the monster stalking them in Cale Plett's sophomore YA novel, the fierce and haunting The Saw Mouth.

Ten years ago, the "chopped" up and "sewn together" souls of machines awoke in pain, destroying themselves and the world around them. Survivors, like thoughtful dreamer Cedar, call the event Autumn. Most remaining technology is analog and inert, but newer tech that was "used for a more devious purpose" woke "ashamed," "less stable,"

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Shelf Discovery

True Crime

by Patricia Cornwell

In this detailed, thoughtful memoir, Patricia Cornwell sweeps readers through her journey from a challenging childhood to international fame as an influential forensic thriller writer.

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The Edge of Forever

by Meghan P. Browne

The Edge of Forever is a charming middle-grade debut about smart, caring kids confronting secrets and corruption in a tiny Texas town.

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Queerleaders

by Olivia A. Cole, Ashley Woodfolk

In this swoony, high-energy YA rom-com, a cheer captain welcomes a straight girl into her all-queer squad after being told to "diversify"--except the token straight is definitely into the captain.

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The Author Weekend

by Laura Zigman

Laura Zigman's dishy, suspenseful novel about envy in publishing sends a bestselling author and her biggest fans to an island resort for a luxury weekend that turns murderous.

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Offseason

by Avigayl Sharp

Offseason meanders perversely and rampantly across boundaries with its singular narrator, whose obsessions include Joseph Stalin, pedophilia, literature, and vomiting. 

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The Second Life of Snap

by Erin Entrada Kelly

Twelve-year-old Zuzu must find a way to save a robot with a broken charger in The Second Life of Snap, a gripping, futuristic middle-grade survival story.

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Poisoned Pen Press: Beneath a Broken Sky (Ben Packard #4) by Joshua Moehling
Shelf Awareness

Media Heat

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Here & Now: Scott Simon, author of Ulysses S. Cat and Other Animals I Have Known (W.W. Norton, $24.99, 9781324117186).

Fresh Air: Ben Rhodes, author of All We Say: The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches (Random House, $35, 9780593595121).

CBS Mornings: Ai Weiwei, author of On Censorship (Thames & Hudson, $15.95, 9780500030820).

Tamron Hall: Amy Chan, author of Unsingle: How to Date Smarter and Create Love That Lasts (Abrams, $28, 9781419779848).

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Good Morning America: Martha Raddatz, author of The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose (Avid Reader Press, $32, 9781668093801).

Also on GMA: Sen. Chris Murphy, author of Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $29, 9780374621117). He also appeared on The View.

Today: Greg Baxtrom, co-author of Nothing Matters but Delicious: A Radically Honest Cookbook (Ten Speed Press, $35, 9781984863560).

Fresh Air: David Sedaris, author of The Land and Its People (Little, Brown, $30, 9780316264839).

Jimmy Kimmel Live: José Andrés, co-author of Spain My Way: Eat, Drink, and Cook Like a Spaniard (Ecco, $45, 9780063328068).

Thursday, May 21, 2026

NPR's Marketplace: Soumaya Keynes and Chad P. Bown, authors of How to Win a Trade War: An Optimistic Guide to an Anxious Global Economy (Simon & Schuster, $29, 9781668221310).

Today: Jodi Kantor, author of How to Start: Discovering Your Life's Work (Little, Brown, $25, 9780316609555).

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Fresh Air: Andrew Weissmann, author of Liar's Kingdom: How to Stop Trump's Deceit and Save America (Little, Brown, $29, 9780316601306).

Today: Isabel Klee, author of Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I've Cried About: A Memoir (Morrow, $28, 9780063451070).

Tamron Hall: Hayden Panettiere, author of This Is Me: A Reckoning (Grand Central, $30, 9781538773420).

Kelly Clarkson Show: Beth Stern, author of Coco and Stephen, Together Forever: How a Kitten and Bunny Became Best Friends (Random House Studio, $19.99, 9798217123544).

Also on Kelly Clarkson: Dr. Elisa Port, author of The Breast Advice: All You Need to Know About Breast Health, Screening, and Treatment (HarperOne, $29.99, 9780063492547)

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

CBS Mornings: Bruce Feiler, author of A Time to Gather: How Ritual Created the World--and How It Can Save Us (Penguin Press, $30, 9780593656433).

Good Morning America: Kennedy Ryan, author of Score (Forever, $30, 9781538769669). 

Today: José Andrés, co-author of Spain My Way: Eat, Drink, and Cook Like a Spaniard (Ecco, $45, 9780063328068).

Also on Today: Emily Henry, author of Great Big Beautiful Life (Berkley, $29, 9780593441299), and Dr. Elisa Port, author of The Breast Advice: All You Need to Know About Breast Health, Screening, and Treatment (HarperOne, $29.99, 9780063492547).

Fresh Air: Jesmyn Ward, author of On Witness and Respair (Scribner, $29, 9781668064269).

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