Book of the Day Roundup: November 17-21, 2025
The World That We Are
Andrew Furman
Regal House Publishing
Softcover $20.95 (292pp)
978-1-64603-638-7
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
Andrew Furman’s wondrous novel The World That We Are connects young Henry David Thoreau with a contemporary college professor.
In 1837, twenty-year-old Thoreau resigns from his position as a schoolteacher after his superiors insist that he use corporal punishment to control his students. Thoreau also struggles with his lifelong quandary of how to “maintain the integrity” of “individual genius” while avoiding social isolation. Keen descriptions of nature buoy the prose: Thoreau walks through “mentholated” pines, watching chickadees bicker in their “piano-key plumage.”
Nearly two centuries later, David lives in a Maine college town, widowed and estranged from his adult daughter, Ellen. Once regarded as an “academic wunderkind,” he’s the author of a respected book on Thoreau but is now stalled in his research. He tries to ignore his worries about his advancing age, sidelined work, and lack of contact with Ellen. As his scholarly priorities become more multicultural and expansive, David wonders if his dedication to a single “dead white male author” is too archaic.
The book’s perspective alternates between Thoreau and David with surety. Upon the advice of his mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau keeps a journal to heighten his powers of observation, but excludes his occasional erotic and romantic imaginings, not daring to “transcribe such bestial lines.” His beloved brother dies; a marriage proposal is refused. On the cusp of his Walden Pond “experiment,” he hopes to redirect his troubled focus. He is a fixated yet yearning hero who is fleshed out with humanizing details. And after a series of curious events lead to reunions and reconnections, David’s gradual emergence is rendered in propulsive, life-affirming terms too.
Eloquent and encompassing, the novel The World That We Are intertwines two lives with emotional and historical resonance.
MEG NOLA (October 17, 2025)
Welcome to the Best Bakery
Yue Zhang
Post Wave Children’s Books
Hardcover $18.99 (52pp)
979-889509021-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
Translated from Chinese, with illustrations reminiscent of Chinese animation, this picture book demonstrates that unlikely friendships can yield the sweetest rewards. On her way home, Bunny follows the smell of fresh bread to a bakery truck with a fearsome owner. Bunny asks Wolf to teach her how to make the bread, but her fear of him impedes her progress; a dash of acceptance and a pinch of compassion prove to be the secret ingredients to friendship.
DANIELLE BALLANTYNE (October 17, 2025)
Self Portrait
Ludwig Volbeda
Lucy Scott, translator
Levine Querido
Hardcover $19.99 (240pp)
978-1-64614-577-5
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
In Ludwig Volbeda’s intimate novel Self Portrait, a lovesick teenager grapples with their self-image.
During a school break, Jip struggles with their art class assignment. Between their attic bedroom sketches and former-affordable-housing-secret-hideout musings, they observe their beloved beetles, recount a bittersweet childhood friendship, fantasize about a new classmate, and confront their ambiguous, category-defying gender identity.
Jip’s introspections are revealed through their never-to-be-sent letters to their crush, a form that encases the book in blistering confessionality. Quiet, sensitive, and tender, Jip’s self-narrated daydreams marvel in forgotten moments; they find artful beauty in how “a bottle fly seems dirty at first glance. But move a millimeter and he turns these gorgeous shades of blue and violet. Move another fraction and here comes green. Blink and the black looks red.” Other snapshots are macabre and absurd yet humorous (Jip imagines holding a ladybug hostage to bargain for the troubling self-portrait assignment’s cancellation) or devastating if succinct: Jip contemplates how, if both they and their crush had cuts on their arms, “then maybe we’d have grown stuck together.”
The anguish of adolescence is excavated in an understated way throughout. While Jip’s family dynamic is not outright abusive, dysfunctional exchanges with their cloudcuckoolander father and hot-tempered mother are frustrating and anxious. Just as tense are Jip’s interactions with classmates, who call him a “nerd” for loving insects and demean Jip’s fascination with artists like Egon Schiele. Implicit at first, the book’s exploration of queer gender identity later becomes outright, as Jip is aggravated by how often others mistake them for a “boy” while contending with heartbreaking interpersonal ruptures that result from not fitting in either end of the boy-or-girl binary.
Heartfelt and genuine, Self Portrait is a reflective and authentic novel about growing up, art, bugs, and self-identity.
ISABELLA ZHOU (October 17, 2025)
Sugar & Spice
Flavor-Packed Dinners and Desserts to Crave
Remi Idowu
Interlink Publishing
Hardcover $35.00 (240pp)
978-1-62371-586-1
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
Remi Idowu’s hearty cookbook Sugar & Spice rejoices in comfort foods that brim with fusion flavors.
Idowu draws from her Ghanaian-Nigerian heritage and her life in England to feature tried-and-true family staples and creative riffs on takeout favorites. Organized around classics “with a twist,” “Friday Night Cravings,” “Childhood,” and scrumptious desserts, the book encourages breaking out of kitchen ruts through its cross-cultural flair for combining ingredients.
Chicken kiev is dialed up with gochujang. Spaghetti features harissa meatballs, and a sweet-and-sour stir-fry showcases paneer. Elsewhere, American standards like fried chicken are included, while jollof represents one of Idowu’s salient food memories. The recipes employ accessible, fresh ingredients; several embrace rich brown butter and sugar. Only a few ask for special additions, including ’Nduja (an Italian pork paste). Both metric and imperial measurements are given and the instructions are clear, with explanations given for trickier steps.
Entertaining notes enhance this guided tour through Idowu’s culinary growth. Finding birria tacos on TikTok led her to adapt ingredients; burning sausage prompted an improvised creamy pasta. An insider’s view of England’s diverse takeout choices shows how inspiration arises when trying new foods. The photographs of Idowu’s family dining together underscore the book’s personal nature, with some recipes marked as relatives’ favorites.
The book’s baked goods are a highlight. Helpful tips about oven temperatures, measuring with a food scale, and choosing pan sizes guide home bakers toward better results. The book’s eclectic approach to cooking vehicles, from using an air fryer for donuts to microwaving a single-serving mug cake, is widening too.
Themed around warm dishes and decadent treats, Sugar & Spice is a robust cookbook for cold-weather days and potlucks.
KAREN RIGBY (October 17, 2025)
The Stars Are a Million Glittering Worlds
Gina Butson
Allen & Unwin New Zealand
Softcover $19.99 (320pp)
978-1-991142-32-0
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
In Gina Butson’s pensive novel The Stars Are a Million Glittering Worlds, a woman evades her grief.
After her mountaineering father’s death, Thea, a New Zealander, backpacks in Guatemala, falling in with a drug-fueled community of expatriates and tourists among whom strangers bond as “friends for a day.” There she meets Chris and Sarah, an Australian couple who befriend her at their shared hostel. Thea, in her loneliness, develops feelings for Chris. Then Sarah is found dead in a lake. Both Thea and Chris feel that they should have done more for Sarah; despite their survivor’s guilt, though, they push their thoughts aside to forge a romance.
Thea is a knowing heroine, prone to reflecting on her past traumas; she often assumes an outsider’s role. She relishes new experiences and avoids disclosing private details to others. In Guatemala, she tires of the backpackers’ carefree lifestyles and yearns to return home. A detour reunites her with Chris, whom she follows to Tasmania, putting her independence on hold and ignoring her doubts. Though Chris is magnetic and adapts to their shared household and work routines well, he’s also self-focused. Across fourteen years, the couple grow older and face COVID-19 lockdowns together. News of a bushwalker’s death reminds Thea of her suppressed pain, including over Chris’s reserve around Sarah’s death.
Poetic descriptions of Thea’s inner world (“There’s a dark honeycomb of holes inside her”) and deft descriptions of trails, weather, and wildlife combine to hint at danger in the wilderness, mirroring the risks Thea takes in probing her heart. When Thea confronts her guilt, it reawakens her resolve to break free of the past by embracing the truth.
In the luminous novel The Stars Are a Million Glittering Worlds, a woman evolves through heartbreaks.
KAREN RIGBY (October 17, 2025)
Kathy Young
