TOP PICK
Set in the not-too-distant future, The Power is a chilling sci-fi novel expertly executed by award-winning British author Naomi Alderman. In Alderman’s alternate world, women have recently gained the ability to release waves of electricity through their fingertips—and the jolts can kill. Their lethal facility grants them physical supremacy over men, altering the fabric of society. The novel focuses on a few central characters, including Margot, a politician who learns through her young daughter that she, too, has the power; Allie, an orphan who falls in with a circle of nuns and begins touting a new religion; and Tunde, a would-be journalist whose video of a woman unleashing electricity goes viral. Alderman’s convincing and disturbing vision of the future has been compared to The Handmaid’s Tale. Selected as a best book of 2017 by NPR and the New York Times, this hypnotic novel offers futuristic thrills even as it explores important questions of gender and identity.

No Time to Spare
by Ursula K. Le Guin

This delightful volume brings together the late, beloved author’s crisply composed meditations on aging, cats and the craft of writing.

Everything Here Is Beautiful
by Mira T. Lee

The future looks bright for Lucia Bok—until she is beset by a recurring mental illness. The resulting turmoil upends her and her family’s lives as they struggle with important questions about tradition and marriage.

Love and Ruin
by Paula McLain

In this exhilarating novel, McLain delivers an unforgettable portrait of pioneering reporter Martha Gellhorn, who holds her own against a formidable husband—literary titan Ernest Hemingway.

Tangerine
by Christine Mangan

It’s 1956 in Morocco, and a twisted friendship between two women is about to explode. Exotic and suspenseful, Mangan’s bestselling debut novel is a true page-turner.

This article was originally published in the January 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.