by Mark Johanson
In his captivating travel memoir, Mark Johanson, an American expat living in Chile with his partner, describes being at something of crossroads as the Covid-19 lockdowns were lifting. His journalism career had stalled, and the ongoing political turmoil in Chile caused him to question his decision to settle there. He wanted to know his chosen home better, so he decided to take a solo trip through northern Chile and the Atacama Desert. Johanson explains that the Atacama is home to the world's largest reserve
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by A.S. King
In her 11th young adult novel, three-time Michael L. Printz Award-winner A.S. King employs her signature surrealism to portray the emotional reality of domestic abuse through an unflinching feminist gaze.
Pick the Lock follows 16-year-old Jane, who has rarely left her family's estate since March 2020. Her father used the Covid-19 pandemic as a pretext to keep Jane and her younger brother confined to their Victorian mansion, where he has locked her mother into the System, a network of human-sized pneumatic
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by Susan Minot
Susan Minot's Don't Be a Stranger is a penetrating, achingly honest novel of sexual attraction and self-discovery. In her early 50s, Ivy Cooper, a loving single mom to her son, meets someone who upends her world and causes her to reflect on who she is and what she truly wants.
Ansel Fleming is a singer/songwriter and musician; Ivy is a writer. For him, songs come easily; for her, writing is a struggle. When Ansel asks her how she likes writing, Ivy thinks, "Writing filled up spaces she hadn't known
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by John Hendrix
John Hendrix returns to the compelling style he employed in The Faithful Spy for The Mythmakers, a masterful graphic biography of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien told through narration, spot art, and comic panels. Hendrix guides readers on a mythic journey through the lives of the two literary luminaries, alternating between the authors' experiences and the adventures of a wise wizard and a witty lion.
Both Lewis and Tolkien lost their mothers early in life, but still benefited from childhoods that nurtured
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by Alex Hannaford
Alex Hannaford's sharp-eyed, thoroughly researched second book, Lost in Austin, examines the outsize myth and the complicated reality of the famously "weird" Texas capital. Long known for its live music, dance halls, tasty tacos, and relaxed vibe, Austin has experienced massive growth in the last several decades, and Hannaford argues that growth has changed the city almost beyond recognition. A British journalist who fell in love with Austin on a 1999 road trip and eventually made it his home for nearly 17
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by Bruce Gordon
The Bible by Bruce Gordon is not only a well-researched and thorough history of the Bible around the world but also a gripping account of literacy, bookmaking, and power. With an engaging conversational tone and a clear command of history, Gordon traces the Bible from its beginnings as a codex. He discusses the "two great surviving codices" of the fourth and fifth centuries and includes tantalizing asides, such as Napoleon Bonaparte's removal of one of those codices to Paris after he conquered Italy, and explains
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