Joined together, the grumbles of ill-appreciated and misunderstood knickknacks become cacophonous in Elisabeth Saake’s cheeky, delightful gift book "Tchotchkes and Their F*cked-Up Thoughts". Beware your baubles—they’re not content... Read More

In Laurie Schneider’s stirring historical novel "Gittel", a young immigrant makes her way in a small town where some people are hostile to differences. Once, Gittel’s family lived in fine circumstances among a proud Jewish community.... Read More

"Words" is an empathetic picture book that celebrates language’s ability to illuminate people’s lives. Beckoning to nascent logophiles with empathy and humor, Katherine Davis-Gibbon’s picture book "Words" is about trusting language... Read More

Viewing movements toward women’s equality through the lens of riding horses, Eliza McGraw’s "Astride" is a charming history book. At the turn of the twentieth century, just as horse-riding began to go out of fashion for society men,... Read More

An unflappable AI takes control of the future for humanity’s own good in Deni Ellis Béchard’s extraordinary speculative novel "We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine". Billions wake alone in rooms emanating blue light—spaces... Read More

A kindred relationship is severed by a winter storm in Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s novel "Heaven and Hell", about grave losses and lucent beginnings. In a place “built of cod bones,” Bárður and an orphaned boy are outliers among... Read More

In Nanae Aoyama’s droll novella "A Perfect Day to Be Alone", an indecisive girl cohabitates with a woman who challenges her preconceptions and directionlessness. Twenty-year-old Chizu is ill-employed and hard to impress. She wants to... Read More

Steve Stern’s "A Fool’s Kabbalah" is a crushing, startling novel about intellectual and spiritual defiance in the face of unbearable cruelties. On a scholarly scavenging expedition through Europe, famed kabbalist Gershom Scholem... Read More