A boy plays a parental role for a baby kaiju in E. C. Myers’s adventure-minded chapter book "Kaiju Gaga". On a trip to the Museum of Media, a boy drifts away from his class and visits an exhibit called Monster Movie Mania. There he... Read More

A murder in the Reconstruction-era South is excavated in Sylvester Allen Jr. and Belle Boggs’s history book "The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw". Following the conclusion of the Civil War, small-town citizens in places like Graham, North... Read More

Noelle Cook’s "The Conspiracists" is an in-depth, empathetic study of conspiracism, filtered through the outlook of two women involved in storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Cook ponders what draws middle-aged women, in... Read More

Art historian Roger Lipsey spent decades studying world art and encountering important pieces around the world. In "Eyes to See", a well-curated and contextualized virtual museum in book form, he highlights works that became meaningful... Read More

In Dana Diehl’s haunting short story collection "The Earth Room", spectral women are alienated from themselves and others. In “Daughter,” a woman births a floating ghost daughter following a pregnancy where “Things happened... Read More

In Cho Haejin’s intricate, touching novel "Simple Heart", a transnational adoptee returns to Korea. Nana, an actor and playwright, grew up in South Korea. Abandoned by her mother at a train station, she lived with the conductor and at... Read More

A night of violence is routine, expected, and devastating in Francisco Maciel’s literary novel There’s No Point in Dying. There is a favela (slum) in the birthplace of samba. At its center are three bars. They’re close enough that... Read More

A man is tasked with finding a missing painting in Naomi Hirahara’s historical novel "Crown City". While adrift in grief, Ryui is offered a job in California by his father’s former client. After a harrowing voyage from Japan, he... Read More