Intergenerational family secrets reemerge in Defne Suman’s devastating novel "Summer Heat". Melike is a Turkish art historian who agrees to guide Petro, a documentarian, through Byzantine churches. But intimacy with Petro challenges... Read More

In Mary Fleming’s evocative novel "Civilisation Française", three women’s lives intersect in 1980s Paris. Lily moves to Paris in 1982 to study at the Sorbonne. American-born, Lily was raised in London and speaks French quite well;... Read More

A girl becomes enchanted by American modernist painter Florine Stettheimer in this picture book for budding creatives. On a visit to a museum, the girl is drawn to the Stettheimer self-portrait, whom she bears a resemblance to; she later... Read More

A woman learns about her frightening family connection to gods and demons in L. B. Hazelthorn’s novel "Rare Birds". Rom knows almost nothing about her grandfather, Jasper, save that he was obsessed with the supernatural—or... Read More

Matthew L. Harris’s exposé of one religion’s role in US race relations, "Second-Class Saints" covers an ill-understood episode in Mormon history. The book charts the history of Mormonism’s infamous “priesthood ban,” a... Read More

Alisa Alering’s alluring novel "Smothermoss" enters the bloodstream of Appalachian storytelling like a fevered dream, unraveling the intergenerational tales of women living on the edge. Half-sisters born five years apart, Sheila and... Read More

An ambitious video game is at the center of a global terrorist plot in Larry Gaudet’s novel "Eris". Don creates Greenhouse, a video game in which players work to curb (or exacerbate) climate change in a simulated world, both to make... Read More

In the spirited historical novel "Fair Youth", the oft-debated “Oxfordian” theory of Shakespeare’s authenticity is explored with humor, verve, compassion, and irony. Lawrence Wells’s historical novel "Fair Youth" enlivens the... Read More