Starred Review

Playground

by Richard Powers

Richard Powers (BewildermentThe Overstory) delivers a novel of spectacular thematic scope and surreal drama, centered on the tiny French Polynesian island of Makatea in the Pacific Ocean and those destined to make it their home. Starring four principal characters and the intriguing manner in which their stories converge and collide, Playground glides across the final decades of the 20th century and spills into the present day, culminating in a dramatic vision for mankind's oceanic and land-based

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Question 7

by Richard Flanagan

Ten years after winning the Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan revisits his father's time as a prisoner of war. It's the starting point but ultimately just one thread in Question 7, an astonishing and uncategorizable work that combines family memoir, biography, and history to examine how love and memory endure.

In 1945, while Flanagan's father was an enslaved laborer in Japan, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing at least 60,000 people. The physicist Leo Szilard,

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Represent: The Unfinished Fight for the Vote

by Michael Eric Dyson, Marc Favreau

Michael Eric Dyson and Marc Favreau, co-authors of Unequal: A Story of America, team up again to bring young readers accessible, comprehensive, and invaluable information about the American political system. In this collaboration, the authors focus on the history and importance of voting in the United States.

Dyson and Favreau discard the traditional history books and reveal many of the discriminatory reasons behind voting constructs like the Electoral College ("to block the will of the people"), property

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The Repeat Room

by Jesse Ball

Novelist and poet Jesse Ball's The Repeat Room is a Kafkaesque descent into a legal system based on an experimental program that allows one juror to have an immersive experience of the defendant's life. Abel, a low-class worker in a near-future society with a strict caste system, has been selected to be the juror to experience the life of a man charged with murder. As he is shuffled through a cold, bureaucratic selection process, he also shares a few glimpses into his own alienated life.

Once in

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Want, the Lake

by Jenny Factor

Want, the Lake, Jenny Factor's long, intricate second poetry collection, envisions womanhood as a tug of war between desire and constraint. "If want is a lake, I learned to sail in it," she writes, recalling her time as a girl at summer camp--until later life restricted her cravings.

Factor (Unraveling at the Name) showcases the tension between past and present, license and limit. Two poems titled "Elegy for a Younger Self" string together vivid reminiscences. "The Modern Lotus Eaters" subverts Alfred, Lord

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Tig

by Heather Smith

In this sensitive, absorbing, and funny novel, 11-year-old Tig must learn how to live with love, care, and hope from kind, stable uncles after a lifetime of neglect.

Tig and her older brother, Peter, were abandoned by their mother, left alone in their house for four months. Once the children are discovered, they are turned over to their sweetly bumbling Uncle Scott and his partner, Manny. The kids are "different" now, though: "It's like how abandoned animals stop trusting humans. They go wild and crazy and

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Esi the Brave (Who Was Not Afraid of Anything)

by Bernard Mensah, illus. by Raissa Figueroa

A girl must be brave when she loses her parents at a festival in this dazzling, triumphant picture book by debut author Bernard Mensah and Coretta Scott King illustrator honor recipient Raissa Figueroa (We Wait for the Sun).

Esi the Brave (Who Was Not Afraid of Anything) "loved monsters and ghosts and things that went bump in the night." When Mummy warned Esi that the Kakamotobi Festival would have loud music, scary monster faces, and a big crowd, Esi replied, "I am NOT afraid." On their drive to the festival,

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Welcome

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Learn more about Shelf Awareness.

Shelf Discovery

Signs, Music: Poems

by Raymond Antrobus

Raymond Antrobus's intimate collection contrasts the before and after of becoming a father as the poet reflects on his deaf and biracial identities and the death of his own father.

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The Phantom Patrol

by James R. Benn

Army investigator Billy Boyle tracks a criminal syndicate dealing in looted artwork during the lead-up to the Battle of the Bulge in James R. Benn's thoughtful and gripping mystery.

Read Full Review »

In the Air Tonight

by Marie Force

Marie Force's tightly plotted thriller examines a woman's decision to report a crime she witnessed in high school and the ramifications of her choice in her small hometown.

Read Full Review »

Beirut

by Barrack Zailaa Rima, trans. by Carla Calargé, Alexandra Gueydan-Turek

Arab comics creator Barrack Zailaa Rima's electrifying trilogy, Beirut, debuts in English, showcasing tumultuous personal and national histories.

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Silence

by Julia Park Tracey

In this harrowing novel inspired by the author's own ancestor, a grieving young woman is censured for her outspoken mourning by her Puritan town, resulting in a symbolically misogynistic punishment.

Read Full Review »

Rachel Weiss's Group Chat

by Lauren Appelbaum

In this witty take on Pride and Prejudice, a carefree single woman awakens to new possibilities as her friends settle down and a handsome CEO makes her ponder what she really wants in life.

Read Full Review »

The Last Dream

by Pedro Almodóvar, trans. by Frank Wynne

The Last Dream, a collection of previously unpublished pieces by director Pedro Almodóvar, is a delightful mix of surreal stories and autobiographical essays.

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Greater Ghost

by Christian J. Collier

In his powerful and memorable first full-length collection, poet Christian J. Collier dips his hands into the cold, clear stream of grief and tries repeatedly to give shape to loss.

Read Full Review »

Thames & Hudson: The Lives of Lee Miller: The Inspiration for the Major Motion Picture Lee by Antony Penrose

Media Heat

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Today Show: Ina Garten, author of Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir (Crown, $34, 9780593799895).
 
CBS Mornings: Malcolm Gladwell, author of Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering (Little, Brown, $32, 9780316575805).
 
The View: Kate McKinnon, author of The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9780316554732).

Monday, September 30, 2024

CBS Mornings: Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of The Message (One World, $30, 9780593230381).

Today Show: Kate McKinnon, author of The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9780316554732).

Also on Today: Law Roach, author of How to Build a Fashion Icon: Notes on Confidence from the World's Only Image Architect (Abrams Image, $28, 9781419768217).

Fresh Air
: Ina Garten, author of Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir (Crown, $34, 9780593799895).

The View: Dana Bash, author of America's Deadliest Election: The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History (Hanover Square Press, $32.99, 9781335081070).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Malcolm Gladwell, author of Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering (Little, Brown, $32, 9780316575805).

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Good Morning America: Cory Richards, author of The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within (Random House, $30, 9780593596791).

CBS Mornings: Vernon Davis, author of Playing Ball: Life Lessons from My Journey to the Super Bowl and Beyond (Dafina, $28, 9781496746573).

Today Show: James Middleton, author of Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life (Pegasus, $28.95, 9781639367917).

Also on Today: Henry Laporte, author of Salt Hank: A Five Napkin Situation (Simon Element, $35, 9781668025482).

The View: Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack, authors of What's Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service (Dutton, $35, 9780593184547).

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Fresh Air: Uzo Aduba, author of The Road Is Good: How a Mother's Strength Became a Daughter's Purpose (Viking, $30, 9780593299128).

CBS Mornings: Lance Bass, author of Trick or Treat on Scary Street (Union Square Kids, $18.99, 9781454952176).

Today Show: Coco Mellors, author of Blue Sisters (Ballantine, $30, 9780593723760).

Drew Barrymore Show: Ms. Rachel (aka Rachel Accurso), author of Ms. Rachel and the Special Surprise (Random House Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9780593811252).

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Good Morning America: Aaron Zebley and Andrew Goldstein, authors of Interference: The Inside Story of Trump, Russia, and the Mueller Investigation (Simon & Schuster, $28.99, 9781668063743).

Also on GMA: Caroline Manzo, author of Food & Other Things I Love: More than 100 Italian American Recipes from My Family to Yours (Chronicle, $29.95, 9781797225258).

Also on GMA: Uzo Aduba, author of The Road Is Good: How a Mother's Strength Became a Daughter's Purpose (Viking, $30, 9780593299128).

Today Show: Ms. Rachel, author of Ms. Rachel and the Special Surprise (Random House Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9780593811252).

The View: Michael Eric Dyson, author of Represent: The Unfinished Fight for the Vote (Little, Brown, $19.99, 9780759557062).

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Josh Gad, author of PictureFace Lizzy (Putnam, $19.99, 9780593463123).
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