Witty, bombastic, and tightly wound, McGlynn’s poems are a delightful blend of pop culture and personal experience. McGlynn moves effortlessly across topics, from mental health to climate change to relationships, painting an intimate and bold portrait of her speaker.

A version of the Old English epic that translates archaic words into present-day vernacular while preserving the sentiment. For example, the Old English word Hwæt meaning "Hark, brother!" is now "Bro!" It's Living poetry that ties the language of the past and present.

In a 1950's London bookstore, three female store clerks begin a quiet revolution that will upend not only their own lives but the store and the men that work there. Cozy historical fiction for The Jane Austen Society fans and The Last Bookshop of London.

An unusual sci-fi story about a book eater woman who tries desperately to save her dangerous mind-eater son from tradition and certain death. Complete with dysfunctional family values, light Sapphic romance, and a strong, complex protagonist. Not for the faint of heart.

The story of three women from different worlds who end up sharing a connection through something that may seem trivial but has a deep impact on their lives. It’s also a story of faith and resilience.

A brilliant work depicting the brutality of a tyrannical regime. This novel by a young Senegalese writer has won many awards in France.

The story of a refugee from Africa to England, flashbacks to his past life, a family feud, drama, and the cultural norms of his native East African island.

Are your Halloween movies of choice The Witches of Eastwick and Practical Magic? Look no further than here - where a woman recovering from a breakup moves to a quaint town in upstate New York and befriends a beautiful witch.

Part love letter and poison pen to the publishing industry, this comedic graphic novel follows three Brooklyn editorial assistants as they navigate work, love, and an unlikely friendship with their elderly neighbor - a novelist who charted similar waters decades ago.

White's impressive debut collection takes readers through and beyond the concepts of conversation and the casual - both what we say to each other and what we don't, examining the possibilities around how we construct and communicate identity. And White does this with a style that is all her own; the way she thinks about the world, her clever metaphors, and the careful way she uses language are exhilarating.

I love a book that works as a surface-level sci-fi but also has SO MUCH subtext and metaphor, in this case, about NYC. And the sequel is finally coming out this year!

A meticulously researched history of the last years of the Soviet Union under the leadership (or lack of leadership, according to Zubok) of the late Gorbachev, as seemingly improbable as it is thrilling. Zubok gives us a picture of a statesman more concerned with his image on the world stage than for the task of governance, leading to a series of blunders that eventually stoked the fall of the Soviet Union and the hard years of the nineties as Russia's state-owned assets were sold off to the highest bidder.

In this book of translated poetry, Dorantes examines displacement from a perspective beyond sentimentality. The poems plumb the unconscious of the displaced "you not me" using a staccato voice and repetition that functions as punctuation.

Gamers and fans of the legendary game designer will want to read this. Experience a collection of essays that have inspired the legendary video game series Metal Gear Solid and more. Some may say Kojima reads at a pace faster than most librarians and that his book is an annotated bibliography of all the books and movies that have ever inspired him. Hideo Kojima… has a lot in common with librarians!

Customs is by turns a meditation on intergenerational displacement, depression, loneliness, and relationships; Sharif's poems craft a mood of uncertainty, unfinishedness, unspooling, and uneasiness.

Auerbach's engaging book places the 'Comedy' within the tradition of epic, tragedy, and philosophy in general, arguing for Dante's uniqueness as one who raised the individual and his drama of soul into something of divine significance—an inspired introduction to Dante's main themes.

Soto's subjects are police violence, the carceral state, his immigrant background, and queerness. These poems are frank and pull no punches without sacrificing lyricism.

Amidst the pandemic pandemonium and police protests of early 2020, a directionless 26-year-old is torn between her crush on her trust fund wannabe activist roommate --and her crush on her boss, a chef at a struggling dog biscuit bakery in Seattle. Satirical, topical, emotionally intelligent, and wrenching, this graphic novel follows characters who don't behave well but command our sympathy anyway.

It's impossible not to find pieces of oneself while Viola Davis guides us through her journey to find herself through the cascade of growing up black and poor in a highly abusive home.  I highly recommend the audiobook version in which Viola Davis narrates her story of survival, success, and finding herself.

Fans of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad looking for a more light-hearted take on the runaway slave novel will want to check out this bouncy anachronistic satire packed with irreverent narrative experiments & excoriating wit. The rich layers of historical esoterica are sure to inspire further research & re-readings!

One of the poems in this collection is titled "Covered Wagon as Spaceship." Enough said! Centering around a family history of "Afropioneers" settling the American West post-Reconstruction, Cortez employs ancestral, ecological, and cultural references to introduce readers to narratives that are at once meditative and witty, with the wonderfully subversive "Black Annie Hall" being a new personal favorite.

- Belinda Farley

The harrowing story of an ordinary American and a principled Naval officer who, horrified by the burning of Smyrna, led an extraordinary rescue effort that saved a quarter of a million refugees from the Armenian Genocide.

While we may be familiar today with racial microaggressions and dog whistles, biracial punk enthusiast James grew up in a scene where overt violence and white supremacy were the norms. Read all about his journey from outcast to activist.

The story of Penelope of Ithaca, the famed wife of Odysseus. Beyond Ithaca’s shores, the whims of gods dictate the wars of men. But on the isle, the choices of the abandoned women—and their goddesses—will change the course of the world for fans of Madeline Miller's Circe. 

Celebrating their retirement after four decades working for the same organization, four female assassins discover they are now targets. Fast-paced, witty, and downright laugh-out-loud, this contemporary thriller shows that you should never underestimate women, no matter their age.

A really cute, really fun paranormal romance! Gwyn and Wells are a total enemies-to-lovers situation, made worse by the fact that Wells didn’t show up to his brother’s wedding AND opened up a competing witchy store across the street from Gwyn’s. Complete with Sir Purrcival the Talking Cat, Baby Witches from the Local College, and a dangerously hot and mysterious person from both their pasts, The Kiss Curse was a delightful romp.

Kowloon is a dystopian city full of walls and walls of apartment buildings. And within this nostalgic city are two realty employees, who are not only oblivious to the feelings one has for the other but oblivious to the oblivion that's befallen their home.

A timely and revelatory new biography of Queen Elizabeth (and her family) exploring how the Windsors have evolved and thrived as the modern world has changed around them.

After Aurie is the victim of a hit-and-run, she transforms into a ghost. While the human world can't see her, Aurie encounters Mys, a nonbinary, intersex empath, and Zyr, a werewolf detective. The three work together to help Aurie solve her murder, but the chemistry between them begs the question - should Aurie move on, even if it's unsafe to linger in the paranormal underground of New Orleans?

A white progressive Oakland mom wants to live her values and find a suitable school for her daughter. This searingly honest and self-reflective book is a must-read for listeners of Nice White Parents.

The greatest John Waters film never-made. This book should get a Pulitzer.

Murata brings her signature alien-like prose to this newly translated collection of short stories that tackle subjects generally considered taboo but which politely ask you not to look away.

Colton Hayes shares his story of breaking into hit TV shows like Arrow and Teen Wolf and his struggle with addiction, and his journey to make peace with the death of his mother.  

These poems form a collected, imagined biography of the life of Mumtaz Mahal, the namesake of the Taj Mahal. It was intriguing to read that Mahal was a poet before she was an empress, and though not much intimate detail is known of her life, Bandukwala imagines it here. This may be a page-turner for those interested in this legacy.

-Belinda Farley

An intergenerational tale of love, loss, and grief. After his family fled the Balkan wars in the 1990s, Bekim, a young gay man living in Finland, returns home to Kosovo to confront his inner demons. Will he find love and find peace in his family’s past?

A bit dark, a bit humorous.  It requires pondering, insight, and possibly a second read.  A good read for those who loves language.

Ryan Britt's humorous and thorough take on ST fandom and its offshoots is a thoughtful and comprehensive revisiting of Star Trek and its enduring mark on pop culture. While picturing Deforest Kelley having a Carrie Bradshaw moment seems dubious at best, his irreverent musings hit the mark.

An apolitical nonbinary artist in a colonized country upsets their sister by attempting to find a job in the occupying government's Ministry of Art. But when they're blackmailed into working for the Ministry of Armor instead, they uncover the atrocious artistic magic animating the army's magical robots and the secret behind a recent massacre. Sword lesbian? Check. Robot dragon? Check. Very fun, very gay, and very anti-imperial.

McCain and McNeil have painstakingly compiled anecdotes and interviews from the figures of the punk movement that detail everything from its 1960s origins to its downtown dominance in 1970s New York.

With the fall rolling around, one can't help but think of baseball's postseason coming up! And what better way to prepare for it than reading the biography of one of the game's all-time greatest performers, the Man of Steal, Rickey Henderson?

With tenets such as "learned ignorance" and "negative theology," Nicholas of Cusa's spiritual writings may, at first, confound—but the persistent reader will receive a reward much greater than they'd expected, challenging common-sense notions of what God "is" toward something less readily pocketed, yet more profound. A must-read not just for students of religion but philosophy as well, for Cusa undeniably influenced modern western philosophers such as Hegel.

Exes Tegan and Sara find themselves chained together by hairballs of codependency. A father and child experience the shared trauma of giving birth to gods from their wounds. An alien seeks connections on Earth by impersonating an intimate vibrating toy. And--of course-- someone transforms into a slug and finds it more fulfilling than any experience they've had before. Milks' stories are surprising, funny, and about the body and how it betrays us.

This book is a one-part Sci-fi thriller and one-part philosophical journey through trauma with an added dash of nutella-loving spider aliens. Beautifully written and super unique. Do you like fiction about Politics, history, morality, AND space? This is for you.

About a band of post-apocalyptic traveling troubadours and a mysterious cult. This sci-fi stands out for its rich character development and plot structure that moves backward and forwards in time. It's all sewn together with a spicy little twist for fans of Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Told in alternating periods, this historical fiction novel involves a return to Winthrop's Island and the ensuing drama.

Purcell’s poems examine how illness moves through the body and the world with painful clarity, unpacking the complexities of living with chronic illness as a queer person.

After a virus renders all animal flesh unsafe for human consumption, society quickly adapts... by normalizing the previously unthinkable in its desperation to keep meat on the menu! It easily stands out as one of the most disturbing reads of this or any year, no matter how much transgressive/dystopian fiction you regularly consume!

Gleick melds science facts and pop culture conjecture in this surprisingly accessible accounting of time: its history, paradoxes, and impact on everyone.

Porter shares his story of growing up Black, and gay, surviving sexual abuse, and his struggles with being excepted by the media industry. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook version in which Billy Potter narrates. 

In these five short stories about self-care and Black/Afro-Latina hair, we follow four best friends as they manage their social lives, family, and depression. Each pastel vignette in this uplifting comic shows these young Bronx women supporting and nurturing each other through fun and tough times.  

This graphic memoir is an emotional, multilayered examination of race, gender, identity, religion, history, family, and belonging. Khan's cerebral and surreal drawings question her experiences and struggle growing up in East London as a British Pakistani Muslim feminist.  

A noblewoman works to take control of her own life, even if it is dealing with a fake engagement with the wicked Duke Noah Wynknight.

In the era of book banning and cancel culture, bell hook’s book is more relevant than ever in that to heal, we need to label problems for what they are. hooks asks -- when men are taught not to feel emotions to the point where it’s become toxic both to them and society at large. How can healing happen to live emotionally fulfilling lives?