MacMillan

In his newest novel, the author of two of my favorite books of the past decade (Leaving the Atocha Station and 10:04) tells the story of a “lefty household” in Topeka, Kansas, in the 1990s. The parents are psychologists transplanted from the big city, their son a gifted high school debater. It is about the end of the 20th century and the breakdown of our political discourse, but it’s also about language. Lerner is a poet—literally; he’s published three books of poetry—and every page here brims with fresh turns of phrase, startling images, and precisely rendered emotional moments. - Rico

Ghosh is old-school, a throwback to the 19th century, when novelists wrote sweeping sagas that captured the essence of entire nations and cultures. Here he tells the story Deen Datta, a rare-book dealer who, after hearing a tale of a lost shrine that pays homage to both a Hindi snake goddess named Manasa Devi and a Muslim saint named Ilyas, sets out on a journey that will change his life. The book is about a world on the brink, about loss and displacement, and also about hope. It’s a deeply satisfying read. -  Rico

Do you remember the way you used to draw as a child? Most of us lose that as we grow older. Making Comics is a master class in the comic form. Barry, a powerhouse creator of strange and beautiful comic books, guides us through an intensive process to get the creative juices flowing and remind us of the courage we had as younglings. I was pleasantly surprised at my own daring as I worked my way through the book. - Ivy

The Long Call was everything I wanted to curl up with and lose myself in. A vibrant British seaside town is rocked with the mysterious murder of a formerly homeless man, himself more mysterious yet. The character-driven mystery kept me turning pages for the secrets and complexities of a community of artists, do-gooders, bird watchers, spiritual seekers, and of course police—including haunted detective Matthew Venn, whose husband may be at the center of everything. I am so satisfied, and so ready for the next of this wonderful new series. - Jocelyn

From Cixin Liu, legendary author of The Three-Body Problem, comes Supernova Era, an earlier work being published in English for the first time. Liu’s vision of the future reads like Lord of the Flies on a global scale. Eight light years away, a star has died, creating a supernova event that showers Earth in deadly levels of radiation. Within a year, everyone over the age of 13 will die. And so the countdown begins. “A political thriller founded on a thought experiment reminiscent of classic SF.” —Publishers Weekly

Leigh Bardugo thrusts you behind the ivy-covered walls of Yale, where Alex (Galaxy) Stern knows the occult power wielded by the secret societies’ elite and finds herself at the center of a plot that snakes between mysteries and murders, rituals and secrets, and vivid, recognizable characters. Ninth House’s magic illuminates real truths within our world: privilege, addiction, mental illness, #MeToo, and everything in between. It goes to some of the darkest places but never loses the shine of hope, or the will to fight for what’s right. - Jocelyn

I first learned about Lydia Davis at one of my favorite bookstores, Dog-Eared Books in San Francisco, when I overheard the booksellers there waxing poetic about her. Reading Break It Down was a revelation, and I’ve been a fan ever since. In Essays One, the first in a two-volume set, Davis has gathered essays dating back to the 1970s, revealing her influences as a reader and an early writer/student and discussing process at length, most deliciously in her “Thirty Recommendations for Good Writing Habits.” There’s a reason Davis is considered a “writer’s writer”—this book is an education you didn’t know you needed. - Chorel

In the Dream House is an incredible follow-up to the glorious Her Body and Other Parties. Carmen Maria Machado has written an honest and harrowing memoir about her psychologically abusive relationship. Machado contrasts her memories with true examples of oppression in queer history and with narrative tropes. A beautiful exploration of the reality of abuse in queer relationships and a necessary account that subverts any idea of what a memoir can be. - Natalie O.

Friends, it’s Tegan and Sara! These twins, Canadian indie pop bandmates and LGBTQ icons, have been creating revelatory music together since the late ’90s, and now they’ve turned to the page, writing a bracing memoir that sends them (and us!) back to high school and all the powerful emotions that lie therein. Told in alternating chapters, each explores her own path of emerging identity and sexuality, isolation, ferocity, and joy, and finally their unifying passion for music. High School is at once deeply personal and achingly universal, just like their songs. - Melinda

I highly recommend this book, even if I struggle to explain exactly why. It’s a cancer book that talks about everything but cancer, focusing instead on the painful rawness that so many other books pass by. She writes of that liminal space between the individual and the diagnosis, the array of changes a person goes through while retaining pieces of themselves even as others redefine them: survivor, patient, terminal. The book itself meanders through the hazy experience of decisions and pain before zooming out to look at the big picture of the motivation and success behind cancer treatment. It’s the sort of book I’d like to thank for allowing me to read it, and thank the author for sharing these words. - Rachel