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Reading is a resource. It creates community and connections; fuels joy, revelation, and immersion; is company for a quiet afternoon or a quick break; and underpins a life of endless [...]

BARBARA HOFFERT IS A FORMER LJ EDITOR AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE Turn the page into 2024 and explore the books filling the year. Across fiction, [...]

* Bar-Nadav, Hadara. The Animal Is Chemical. Four Way. Mar. 2024.118p. ISBN 9781961897007. pap. $17.95. POETRY In this Levis Prize-winning collection, Bar-Nadav (The New Nudity) uses beautifully exacting language to [...]

* Atwood, Margaret. Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems, 1961-2023. Knopf. Oct. 2024. 624p. ISBN 9780593802649. $40. POETRY The iconic Atwood (Dearly) has produced nearly as many volumes of poetry [...]

MYSTERY Alexander, Tasha. A Cold Highland Wind. Minotaur: St. Martin's. (Lady Emily Mysteries, Bk. 17). Oct 2023.304p. ISBN 9781250872333. $28. Downloadable, MYSTERY/HISTORICAL Vacationing with her family at Cairnfarn Castle, the [...]

In Our fourth annual books preview, LJ presents 400+ titles in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The aim is to capture top titles and top trends, and the authors here--literary stars, [...]

ANNIE ERNAUX'S LATEST Ernaux, Annie. Look at the Lights, My Love. Yale Univ. (Margellos World Republic of Letters). Apr. 2023.96p. tr. from French by Alison L. Strayer. ISBN 9780300268218. pap. [...]

* Arendt, Hannah. What Remains: The Collected Poems of Hannah Arendt. Liveright: Norton. Dec. 2024.192p. ed. by Samantha Rose Hill. tr. from German by Samantha Rose Hill with Genese Grill. [...]

MYSTERY Armstrong, Kelley. The Poisoner's Ring: A Rip Through Time Novel. Minotaur: St. Martin's. (Rip Through Time, Bk. 2). May 2023.368p. ISBN 9781250820037. $28. Downloadable, MYSTERY/POLICE PROCEDURAL In A Rip [...]

MYSTERY Allen, Samantha Jayne. Hard Rain. Minotaur: St. Martin's. (Annie Mclntyre, Bk. 2). Apr. 2023. 352p. ISBN 9781250863812. $27.99. MYSTERY/PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR In Allen's LJ-starred, Tony Hillerman Prize-winning Pay Dirt Road, [...]

LITERARY FICTION Ganeshananthan, V.V. Brotherless Night. Random. Jan. 2023.368p. ISBN 9780812997156. $28. LITERARY In 1980s civil war-shattered Sri Lanka, 16-year-old Sashi works as a medic at a field hospital for [...]

This edition of Lj's thrice-yearly list of top debut novels covers the spring/summer season, including some key April titles but focusing on especially promising works published from May through August [...]

FICTION NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS Abdulrazak Gurnah's Afterlives (Riverhead, Aug.) uses a multigenerational saga to depict the brutal colonization of East Africa. Toni Morrison's Recitatif: A Story (Knopf, Feb.) is the [...]

MYSTERY Barton, Fiona. Local Gone Missing. Berkley. Jun. 2022.384p. ISBN 9781984803047. $27. CD. MYSTERY On medical leave in her coastal English village, Det. Elise King ponders her future even as [...]

MYSTERY Armstrong, Kelley. A Rip Through Time. Minotaur: St. Martin's. May 2022.352p. ISBN 9781250820006. $27.99. CD. MYSTERY/TIME TRAVEL In a series starter from the ever-popular Armstrong, homicide detective Mallory is [...]

This edition of ZJ's thrice-yearly list of top debut novels focuses on the winter season, including a few late 2021 titles and stretching to March 2022. They are all promising [...]

This edition of LJ's thrice-yearly list of top debut novels looks back at key summer reads and forward to promising new works coming out through November. Featured here are the [...]

In this issue, LJ focuses on the most promising debut novels for fall, with titles ranging widely in theme and genre. Some, like Victor Manibo's The Sleepless, blend genres. Billy-Ray [...]

This year's edition of Titles To Watch includes nearly 300 key works in fiction and nonfiction, reflecting current concerns with politics, the pandemic, and #ownvoices authors and the desire to [...]

The first word on titles and trends LITERARY FICTION Blau, Jessica Anya. Mary Jane. Custom House: Morrow. May 2021.320p. ISBN 9780063052291. $27.99. LITERARY In 1970s Baltimore, 14-year-old Mary Jane gets [...]

THRILLERS Bohjalian, Chris. Hour of the Witch. Doubleday. Apr. 2021.416p. ISBN 9780385542432. $27.95. Irg. prnt. CD/downloadable, SUSPENSE/HISTORICAL In 1660s Boston, blue-eyed, porcelain-delicate Mary Deerfield is determined to escape her marriage [...]

In hard times, reading can comfort, but it can also challenge, as evidenced by these 35 provocative debut novels. With publication dates ranging from October to April, but clustered mostly [...]

Since LJ'S last debut novels coverage. COVID-19 has upended business as usual, with publishers scrambling to get books out and review sources scrambling to cover them. Fortunately, plenty of first [...]

* Washington, Bryan. Family Meal. Riverhead. Oct. 2023. 320p. ISBN 9780593421093. $27. F In his second novel (after Memorial), NYPL Young Lion Washington offers a heart-shaking, scorchingly honest study of [...]

*Smith, Zadie. The Fraud. Penguin Pr. Sept. 2023.464p. ISBN 9780525558965. $29. F The cultural and literary life of Victorian England erupts vibrantly from each page of this extraordinary novel by [...]

Abraham, George. Birthright. Button. Apr. 2020. 144p. ISBN 9781943735679. pap. $16. POETRY In their first full-length collection, Palestinian American poet/activist Abraham highlights the plight of the Palestinian people in caustic, [...]

TOP LITERARY FICTION Alther, Lisa. Swan Song: An Odyssey. Knopf. Jun. 2020. 240p. ISBN 9780525657545. $25.95; ebk. ISBN 9780525657552. LITERARY After the death of her parents and longtime female lover [...]

FICTION COMING INTO ADULTHOOD: In Elena Ferrante's The Lying Life of Adults (Europa, Jun. tr. from Italian by Ann Goldstein), moody teenager Giovanna seeks her identity in both classy and [...]

LITERARY FICTION Ackerman, Elliot. Red Dress in Black and White. Knopf. May 2020. 288p. ISBN 9780525521815. $26.95; ebk. ISBN 9780525521822. Downloadable, LITERARY When hotshot Turkish real estate developer Murat is [...]

Books To Get CHILLERS Colt, Peter. The Off-Islander. Kensington. (Andy Roark, Bk. 1). Oct. 2019. 240p. ISBN 9781496723413. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781496723451. M A Vietnam War veteran working as a [...]

Drawing on news and reviews, personal reading and publishers' insights, LJ seasonally gathers the best forthcoming novels for your perusal. In this list, 'Books To Get' covers titles published from [...]

Libraries have long served as a natural place for hosting book clubs, connecting people to and through books with benefits that accrue not just to club members but to libraries [...]

Pandemic, protests, politics: 2020 was a year like no other, its consequences strongly felt in the library world as in life's every nook and cranny. With libraries shuttered for at [...]

Armstrong, Kelley. The Boy Who Cried Bear: A Haven's Rock Novel. Minotaur: St. Martin's. (Haven's Rock, Bk. 2). Feb. 2024.352p. ISBN 9781250865441. $28. Downloadable. MYSTERY The youngest resident of Haven's [...]

Toutonghi, Pauls. The Refugee Ocean. S. & S. Oct. 2023. 352p. ISBN 9781668007433. $27.99. F A Pushcart Prize--winning, first-generation U.S. author, Toutonghi (Red Weather, Dog Cone) here explores the immigration [...]

Blondel, Jean-Philippe. Cafe Unfiltered. New Vessel. Jul. 2023. 232p. tr. from French by Alison Anderson. ISBN 9781954404205. pap. $17.95. F As with his quietly incisive The 6:41 to Paris, French [...]

Spotlighting titles published from February through June, this seasonal roundup uncovers more hot debuts than ever, whether already reviewed by LJ ('Books To Get') or chosen as the best yet [...]

The LJ Reviews editors here present our top picks for spring and summer books. Pinpointing key topics of 2018 -- politics, #MeToo, increasing diversity--as Neal Wyatt notes (p. 16), we [...]

*Chen, Kevin. Ghost Town Europa. Oct. 2022.384p. tr. from Taiwanese by Darryl Sterk. ISBN 9781609457983. $27. F At once vibrant and tartly observant, Chen's tour de force--a Taiwan Literature Award [...]

LITERARY FICTIONAcampora, Lauren. The Paper Wasp. Grove. Jun. 2019.304p. ISBN 9780802129413. $26; ebk ISBN 9780802147080. LITERARYHaving abandoned her artistic promise, Abby Graven envies former best friend Elise, a rising Hollywood [...]

Good times rolled at the 2018 American Library Association (ALA) annual conference, June 21-26, in New Orleans's Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Although final total attendance of 17,599-12,423 attendees and [...]

The first Word on titles and trends By Barbara Hoffert MYSTERY Brum, Ken. In the Galway Silence. Mysterious: Grove Atlantic. Nov. 2018. 288p. ISBN 9780802128829. $26. MYSTERY Asked to investigate [...]

FICTION Cameron, Marc. Tom Clancy Oath of Office Putnam. Nov. 2018. 432p. ISBN 9780735215955. $29.95; ebk. ISBN 9780735215962. Irg. prnt. CD/Downloadable. THRILLLER The Ayatollah's power in Iran is subsiding, a [...]

Campbell, Jane. Cat Brushing. Grove. Aug. 2022.192p. ISBN 9780802160027. $26.F ] Published as its author turns 80, this first collection plumbs the lives, longings, and ongoing intellectual turmoil of older [...]

Sullivan, Hannah. Was It for This: Poems. Farrar. Jan. 2023.128p. ISBN 9780374607982. $26. POETRY Like her T.S. Eliot Prize-winning Three Poems, British author Sullivan's new collection is maximalist in framework [...]

Sikelianos, Eleni. Your Kingdom. Coffee House. Jan. 2023.144p. ISBN 9781566896597. pap. $17.95. POETRY Always a poet to summon up our being in the world, Sikelianos (What I Knew) here directly [...]

*Shockley, Evie. suddenly we. Wesleyan Univ. Mar. 2023.112p. ISBN 9780819500236. $26; pap. ISBN 9780819500458. $15.95. POETRY 'we are the sailors/ we are the ships/ we are the stars/we are the [...]

Price, Karisma. I'm Always So Serious. Sarabande. Feb. 2023. 92p. ISBN 9781956046045. pap. $16.95. POETRY In a distinctive debut illuminating Black life in the United States, Price offers a startling [...]

Hoskote, Ranjit. Icelight. Wesleyan Univ. Apr. 2023.120p. ISBN 9780819500533. $26; pap. ISBN 9780819500557. $15.95. POETRY In pristine, conversational language shot through with sharp imagery and a meditative sense of life's [...]