reading list: july - september

Colleen Gleason, Clockwork Scarab. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2013. A young adult Steampunk mystery starring the nieces of Sherlock Holmes and Bram Stoker? This first in a series features time travel and an Egyptian death cult as the girls begin working for the British Museum. Sarah Adams, Beg, Borrow, or Steal. NY: Dell, 2025. We return to Rome, KY, where Emily, a second grad teacher, has begun a novel to escape from the pain in her life. Then, her long-time nemesis buys the house next door. After much intrigue, Emily sells her book -- thanks to the new neighbor, her new boyfriend. Emily Henry, Great Big Beautiful Life. NY: Berkley, 2025. When she was little, Alice’s father played the music of Cosmo Sinclair for her, and now she has the opportunity to write a biography of his reclusive widow. If she beats out Hayden, a rock biographer, for the job. But something about it seems off, even before she starts falling for her competition. Will she uncover the real story, find love, or both? Eli Cranor, Mississippi Blue 42. NY: Soho Crime, 2025. Rae Johnson’s first case as an FBI agent takes her into the familiar work of college football -- familiar because her father is a National Championship-winning coach, and our author a former professional player himself. The case really gets interesting when the quarterback falls off the roof of a bar and lands on a pile of cash. Megan Abbott, Turnout. NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2021. Abbott does for the ballet what Stephen King does for pet dogs in this slow-burn thriller built around a children’s performance of the Nutcracker. Walter Mosley, John Woman. NY: Atlantic Monthly, 2018. When sixteen-year-old CC kills his father’s employer in self-defense, it sets him on an unexpected path to academic stardom in this powerful meditation on history and identity. Christopher Moore, Anima Rising. NY: William Morrow, 2025. In which Moor asks, “What if the Bride of Frankenstein’s Monster had lived?” in his usual humorous style. Kwame Dawes, Chris Abani, and Siwar Masannat, Toward a Living Archive of African Poetry. Brooklyn: Akashic, 2025. This volume collects introductory essays from the first ten box sets of chapbooks by emerging African poets produced by the African Poetry Book Fund. In it the editors detail their history and vision, opine on what they found, what they learned, and what they hope to leave, and make a good case for the importance of their work. Although it would be better to read each piece in the context of its collection, this is a valuable document in its own right. Alexa Martin, How to Sell a Romance. NY: Berkeley, 2025. I usually love Martin’s work, but this just didn’t move me. Frank Hopkinson and Michael Heatley, Boy in the Song. London: Anova, 2012. No Taylor Swift spoilers, but short explanations of fifty songs from the Beatles, Elton Joh, Carly Simon, and others. Good trivial fun.

reading list: april - june

Reginald Hudlin & Denys Cowan, Captain America and Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers. NY: Marvel, 2017. Collecting the first four issues, this graphic novel chronicles the collaboration to defend Wakanda’s Vibranium from the Nazis. Alexander McCall Smith, Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse. NY: Pantheon, 2017. I love dog stories, and this is a good one. Of course, it’s not actually about the dog, but about good people in wartime. The dog just lets them be good. BK Borison, Lovelight Farms. NY: Berkley, 2021. Stella and Luka, according to the application, own a Christmas tree farm together. Except, the long-time friends aren’t really together. They try to fake it, but how often does the fake-dating trope work? Stephan King, Fairy Tale. NY: Scribner, 2022. How far would you go to save your dog? In this tale from a master at his peak, the answer is another world, in which our hero encounters strange magic and discovers a bit of his own. Christina Lauren, True Love Experiment. NY: Gallery, 2023. The authors’ love letter to romance and fandom and fangirls everywhere is a Fizzy treat: the romance-writing sidekick from Soulmate Equation is back, staring in a reality dating show. Doug Ten Napel, Cardboard. NY: graphix, 2012. It’s Cam’s birthday, but his unemployed dad can’t afford much of a gift -- just a (magic) cardboard box. Fortunately, “box” is one of the great toys, like ball, stick, or block, allowing all sorts of imagination adventures. Except, the things made from this cardboard become real. Sprague deCamp, Continent Makers. NY: Signet, 1971. This collection of previously-published tales brings together stories of Earth’s nearest galactic neighbors as new space-travelers learn to navigate other societies without the benefit of Star Trek’s Prime Directive. Sean Murphy, Punk Rock Jesus. NY: Vertigo, 2013. In which Christ is cloned from the Shroud of Turin for a reality TV show, discovers the Dead Kennedys, and decides to change the world. Helen Garner, This House of Grief. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2016. The in-depth report of an Australian murder trial, it is both compelling true-crime and a deeply empathetic study of human tragedy. Three children drowned in a damn. Did their father do it intentionally? Katie Holt, Not in My Book. NY: Alcove, 2024. An enemies-to-fiends romance finds classmates assigned to write together living out their plot. Will they write a Happily Ever After? Or even pass the class? It’s an entertaining bit of meta fun. A.J. Hackworth, Toto. NY: Ace, 2024. Wicked made it inevitable: this is the familiar story, from the view of a little dog who suddenly discovers that he can talk. There’s always more to history than the official version. Jo Nesbo, Macbeth. NY: Hogarth, 2018. Set in 1970s Scotland, this atmospheric Norse noir adaptation of the Scottish play features a corrupt police force, homegrown drugs, and a casino queen around the newly-appointed head of Organized Crime. Amanda Jones, That Librarian. NY: Bloomsbury, 2024. Jones is a highly-decorated school librarian from Louisiana who, after speaking against censorship at her pubic library, was targeted for online harassment. This is her memoir of response and recovery. Eva Jurczyk, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. Lisle works for a Toronto university library, and her boss has just suffered a stroke when more bad new hits: the most recent acquisition is missing, and finding it falls to her. This mystery is catnip for book lovers. William Goldman, Princess Bride. NY: HarperCollins, 2007. This tale reads almost exactly like the film -- making it a rollicking adventure powered by True Love -- aside from an occasional authorial interjection explaining something or other that isn’t really important. It’s a delight for kids young and old. Lisa Low, Crown for the Girl Inside. Portland, OR: YesYes, 2023. A subtle meditation of a chapbook, asking questions of identity and interrogating whiteness as an Asian woman in America. Theodore Sturgeon, Venus Plus X. NY: Pyramid, 1960. A disturbing look at humanity’s androgynous future -- and how that is achieved, told in parallel with a look at its antecedents. Chuck Palahniuk, Snuff. NY: Doubleday, 2008. Snuff films involve an actor dying on screen; this isn't about one. Rather, it's about an attempt to set a pornographic record, as told by four of the participants. Like all Palahniuk, it races along in fine style, flipping between perspectives, to uncover a plan to off the star which, in typical over-the-top fashion, fails spectacularly. vera brosgol, anya's ghost. ny: square fish, 2011. when anya falls down a well in this graphic novel, she encounters the ghost of a young woman. they become friends, until anya learns the ghost's secret.