Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill An ancient lake creature teams up with a witch in this fresh take on British folklore. Jenny Greenteeth spends her days catching fish and collecting sunken treasures for her underwater cave. When she rescues a witch from drowning in her lake, the two realize they should work together to defeat the ancient evil that threatens the village, Jenny’s lake, and magic everywhere. Together they embark on … Read more
Bog Queen by Anna North Past meets present in this fast-paced archaeological mystery. Forensic anthropologist Agnes is wrapping up her studies in England when she is asked to identify a long-buried body for the local police. What she finds is something far older and stranger: an Iron Age woman, perfectly preserved by the peat bog’s acidic moss. The discovery launches Agnes and her colleagues into a race against time. Their archaeological dig is opposed by both peat miners … Read more
Spread Me by Sarah Gailey On a far-flung desert planet, research station life follows a predictable routine: days are for analyzing samples and tracking sandstorms. Nights are for drinking games and romantic entanglements. Or at least, that’s how the rest of the team lets off steam—head researcher Kinsey chose this assignment specifically for the isolation. As a desert storm appears on the horizon, they discover the body of an alien lifeform buried in the sand. Kinsey breaks protocol … Read more
Sunbirth by An Yu In the desert town of Five Poems Lake, a young woman tries to live a peaceful life of routine despite her circumstances. Twelve years ago, her parents disappeared one by one: only her father’s body was found. Her loss was overshadowed when the sun began to disappear from the sky a sliver at a time. Since then, the locals who remain have acclimated to the colder … Read more
Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language by Alec Aleksic Why are young people saying “unalive” instead of “dead”? Why do all influencers sound the same? How is TikTok changing the way we speak—even for people who don’t use the app? Using his experience as TikTok’s @EtymologyNerd, linguist Alec Aleksic answers these … Read more
American Bulk: Essays on Excess by Emily Mester In Emily Mester’s childhood home, the dining table was cleared for dining only on Christmas and Easter. Every other day was for piles: piles from shopping bags from shopping hauls from Chicagoland big box stores, but especially from the closest place Emily’s family had to church: Costco. … Read more
Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls This year’s winner of the Washington State Book Award for Creative Nonfiction is a breathtaking achievement of memoir, art and Chinese history. Growing up, Tessa Hulls knew three things about her grandma, Sun Yi: She was from China, she was a writer, she was crazy. Their home … Read more
Summerhouse by Yiğit Karaahmet, translated from the Turkish by Nicholas Glastonbury To their neighbors on Büyükada, a sleepy island off the coast of Istanbul, pianist Şener and playwright Fehmi are known to their neighbors as unusual artist friends who share a lush, hilltop garden estate. Only their closest friends know the two men have been … Read more
Friends of the Museum by Heather McGowan It’s a no good very bad day for the director of a floundering New York art museum. A PR disaster involving dubiously sourced artifacts is unfolding in real time; meanwhile, the head security guard has a hunch that the new artwork is a fake. Half the staff are … Read more
Orbital by Samantha Harvey Hour by hour, eight billion people wake across twenty-four time zones. High above the atmosphere, six astronauts on the International Space Station are having a very different kind of day. Over the span of sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets—one day—their spacecraft chases the sun as its orbit crisscrosses Earth. Orbital spends … Read more