By recognizing imperfection and refusing to shy away from struggles—including the stigmas surrounding queer love and identity—Bellies soothes the imperfect, struggling parts of ourselves.
Author Tahir Hamut Izgil and narrator Greg Watanabe give a voice to a silenced community and, together, call for listeners to bear witness to the persecution of the Uyghur people.
In the dreamlike Underworlds, Stephen Ellcock pulls off an impressive feat in gathering material from sources as diverse and multifaceted as an underground ecosystem.
Elevated word choice and spirited phrasing give a timeless quality to Blexbolex’s fantastic graphic novel, which muses upon mercy, change and possibility.
A beautifully profound yet subtle story about refugees and global connection, The Ferris Wheel engages its text and illustrations in conversation, capturing the essence of what a picture book should be.
This treasury inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois acknowledges the past while celebrating modern times with illustrations throughout that are eye-catching in color, theme and style.
A Starlet’s Secret to a Sensational Afterlife is an engrossing supernatural murder mystery and a fierce ode to feminism.
A Stolen Child is a nicely done police procedural, but it also offers an insightful look at a rapidly gentrifying part of Dublin.
In Heather Chavez’s fresh and surprising new thriller, a botany professor is nearly as lethal as the assassin she’s evading.
Katie Siegel’s Charlotte Illes Is Not a Detective has a wonderful, engaging premise: What happens when a precocious child detective grows up?
Paul Doiron packs in lots of twists and turns, and enough suspense to keep you reading well past bedtime, in his 14th Mike Bowditch mystery.
Sarah Weinman’s second true crime anthology confronts how social media, misogyny, racism and classism shape how we perceive crime.
Garden of the Cursed is an exciting start to a duology starring a teenage cursebreaker.
Some retirees quilt; others fish. And then there’s Barbara Rae-Venter, who identified the Golden State Killer using investigative genetic genealogy and sparked a forensic revolution.
In his latest true crime investigation, James Renner refuses to let the murder of Shaker Heights, Ohio, teenager Lisa Pruett be washed away by the tide of time.
Stéphane Breitwieser stole more than 300 irreplaceable artworks. Journalist Michael Finkel now attempts to understand why this criminal aesthete hoarded those treasures in his attic.
With its fascinating investigation of the dark underbelly of Old Hollywood and an extremely creative twist ending, The Devil’s Playground is one of the best mysteries of the year.
This YA anthology set at a magical academy offers a resonant message of hope for a better future.
Tasha Sylva’s debut novel, The Guest Room, is a creepy, character-driven psychodrama with some truly excellent twists.
Alex Hay’s The Housekeepers is mischievous, suspenseful and just plain fun as it follows a gang of female thieves in Edwardian England.
Writing in a fast-paced and precise style, Barbara Butcher shares a treasure trove of stories from her 22 years as a death investigator in New York City.
The New York City death investigator shares what it was like to have a career that both saved and ruined her life.
The mega-popular thriller writer’s Zero Days finds the human heart within the high-stakes security industry.
