Jordan McClellan is the youngest child of Rachel and Eamon, two Oklahoma farmers at the turn of the 20th century. His siblings, Danny and Becky, are both respected athletes—Danny is a draft pick for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, and Becky’s the star of her high school basketball team. Jordan, however, is more academically …
It’s 1978, and Jon Fenton, the courier for New York City’s notorious Flying Dragons gang, is on the run. After getting wind of gang leader Sifu Qiu’s plan to kill him, he took the money he was supposed to deliver and faked his own death. However, the gang still wants a measure of revenge, and …
“On a fraught, decade-long journey of dislocation,” Adams researched how queer people, mostly emigrants, survived and managed to thrive in the Persian Gulf States, where homosexuality is illegal and often punishable with hefty fines, a potential 10-year prison sentence, deportation, torture, and even death. In 2010, with a degree in Middle Eastern history from New …
Zada opens his memoir with a terrifying scene: Yanked off a bus at a military roadblock on the way to Mardin, Turkey, in 2015, the seasoned journalist wondered if the men with semiautomatic weapons would ever let him go. The author then flashes back to his very first trip to “the East” at age 24, …
Jovita’s father always told his daughter to use her palabras—her words—and when Jovita grows up, she doesn’t let him down; she writes and speaks about the injustices she sees in her community. As a teacher, she writes about the importance of bilingual and bicultural education. When she becomes a journalist, she uses her words to …
Dash is called “Diaper Kid” because he’s in no hurry to graduate to underwear. Why would he be, when in his diapered state, “he can GO anywhere”? The bold-type, capitalized verb in this clever line is best read with double meaning—Diaper Kid is always moving, and while on the go, he’s free to go (pee …
Since her best friend, Hope, died, Liv Porter has struggled with grief, anxiety, and debilitating panic attacks. The cops ruled Hope’s death a suicide, but Liv suspects that their other best friend, Brendan, was involved. On Halloween evening, she lures him to an isolated house and, with the help of her friends Kizzy and Sherie, …
Cartoonist Pond (Over Easy, The Customer Is Always Wrong) weaves glimpses of her own life into an entertaining group biography of the notorious, eccentric Mitford sisters—Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah. Growing up in suburban Southern California in the 1960s, Pond envied girls who had sisters rather than her boorish brothers; she envied, too, …
“The world’s biggest terrorist has a Pikachu bedspread.” So a reporter learned from former National Security Agency analyst Winner’s mother. In this matter-of-fact narrative, Winner, who “helped the United States government kill people,” opens on May 9, 2017, when she downloaded and printed a five-page document of Russian cyberattacks on U.S. election officials and a …
“The dark is for growing,” Alary writes, making a lovely comparison between a human baby developing in a dark womb and birds and turtles growing inside eggs. Throughout, the refrain “And you are not the only one” makes clear that both humans and animals enjoy aspects of the darkness. Humans dream and work through ideas …
