A young hustler who is subject to blackouts (a nod to My Own Private Idaho?) leaves the big city after he causes an accident and travels to a crumbling facility referred to as the Palace, to take care of an older, dying gay man named Juan. They met…
Temperance is excited to be the captain of her own scouting vessel, but when the crewmate she's been seeing runs off with the beautiful young intern, she's left bitterly rejected. She decides to focus on her work but the spaceship she acquired from…
Painter. Filmmaker. Anthropologist. Ethnographer. Folklorist. Esotericist. Inveterate collector of vinyl records, string figures, Ukrainian Easter eggs, even blood-soaked, mirror-image bandages from tattoo work...this was Harry Smith: a close…
How did humans become what we are today? Author Cat Bohannon explores the evolution of the female body using examples of different "Eves," or mothers, to explain the onset of each new trait as we went from small furry animals that secrete milk, to…
In this impressive debut, Rebecca Renner takes up the fascinating subject of poaching and ecology in her native Florida. What may seem at first a clear-cut and egregious crime becomes more nuanced as Renner explores the history of local people…
Advocate, author, and acclaimed LGBTQ+ educator Schuyler Bailar (Obie is Man Enough) blends together his experiences as a transgender man, in-depth research, and conversation into an intimate and accessible read diving into gender, sexuality, mental…
Esteemed short story-writer Paul Yoon portrays the Korean diaspora in his latest collection. The settings are as various as upstate New York, London, Russia, Spain, and Japan and range in time over centuries. One standout is set during the Edo…
In this provocative exploration of desire and destruction, Chicago author Lindsey Hunter delivers a twisty, dark story of troubled suburbia and murder. Though the murder takes place at the start of the book, the identity of the murderer remains a…
Wertz chronicles her history with recovery in this closely observed graphic novel. New York City's architecture, a glorious cacophony of different styles, takes center stage. Through her decades-long struggle with alcohol, Wertz manages to meet…
The starting point for this novel by Tania James is a real automaton made for Tipu Sultan (ruler of Mysore at the close of the 18th century) on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum, a life-size tiger eating a soldier. At the center of the story…
This superb stand-alone spy thriller by Herron is a great entry into the novelist's work for those who don't want to commit to a series. But fans of the Slough House series will no doubt enjoy the backstory provided for several familiar characters.…
This slender volume of three short stories packs a punch and serves as an ideal introduction to the author's work. The book starts off with a new story (the title story, originally published in The New Yorker), about an Irish man named Cathal who is…
On Father's Day in 2005, Robert Farquharson inexplicably drove his car off the road in Australia and into a pond, where his three children, who were with him, drowned. Farquharson's explanation for his actions - that he passed out from a coughing…
The latest from Alexandra Chang (Days of Distraction) brings together 15 slice-of-life stories told from different perspectives centered on life, identity, relationships and aging. Taking place across the US and Asia, Chang's collection is a…
