Before tech took over San Francisco, before cellphones but after the terrible reign of AIDS, there were the gleeful revels of the ’90s. Tradowsky’s ornate novel is a love letter to a foggy, analog metropolis lit up with nightlife and art, queer friendship and desire, movie houses and day jobs, and 20-somethings aching to define …
Lemuel lives in the town of Hmm with his sister Shane, whose current ambition is to become Hmm’s next mayor at any cost. When their uncle dies in strange circumstances involving both “fire and explosion,” Shane inherits the uncle’s money and Lemuel receives a bizarre, Frankenstein’s monster–like creature. With “some pig right there, a dab …
Sabrina Finkelstein is juggling library school, part-time work at a branch of the New York Public Library, and a geriatric roommate she adores. Marcia Haber is a spry, independent 72. The two met on an intergenerational app meant to match seniors who could use a hand around the house with young people who could use …
Lewis and Richardson, both of the British Museum, were inspired to assemble this book by the BBC TV series Digging for Britain, which describes the exploits of two English hobbyists who scour the countryside with their metal detectors. Readers will not regret looking it up. Organic objects decay (mostly); stone and bone survive; metals are …
Photojournalist Ethan McGuire takes pictures of those on the fringes of society: tattoo artists, cock fighters, spiritualists, burn victims. His current job has him tagging along with a group of white supremacists staging a rally in the Finger Lakes town of Geneva, New York. Ethan chooses this subject in part because he’s disturbed by the …
According to the author, K-12 education today is widely regarded as inadequate, and there is a connection between its failings and the “steady decline in our children’s well-being” in general. Unfortunately, per Jallepalli, our pedagogical philosophies have become stagnant and intractably resistant to revision, “almost like religions.” The central problem, as he understands it, is …
The author, an engineer and “volunteer activist by avocation,” scrupulously documents the trajectory of Covid-19’s march across the U.S. He focuses on Ravalli County, Montana, his own home, described as a “microcosm of what many communities in America have gone through.” Through this compilation of essays, interviews, and conversations, Olsen explores a diverse cross-section of …
Shuttle and Bell decided to travel along the Appalachian Trail for several weeks, equipped with little more than “fifteen pounds of dried bomb shelter food.” Neither was an experienced hiker or camper, but both were looking for the tranquility that sometimes only nature can provide—a sense of solace that the authors affectingly portray. Bell had …
Charlie Wags is a small and fluffy brown dog who lives in a house with a lovely garden. He’s a very ordinary dog aside from his love of travel and his unique ability to wag his tail and teleport to brand-new fabulous locations. Today, Charlie has decided on Paris, and with a little wag, he’s …
Following his father’s death, white farm boy Solomon Hunt, 15, sets off in hopes of supporting his mother and younger siblings. He meets the Seer, a nonspeaking little person with a mysterious history, and helps free him from the museum where he’s on display. The two go on the run, crossing the American Empire border …
