Historian Goldman’s ambitious book takes a detailed dive into New York City over 10 years. He begins on New Year’s Eve in 1919 describing people partying before Prohibition took hold in this “consummate metropolis” and “home of modernity.” In 1920 the Gotham Book and Art bookstore was born at 128 West 45th Street. That same year J. Edgar Hoover a “rising figure” in the Justice Department was “preparing his list of subversives to bust.” Beginning in the 1920s more Americans lived in cities than rural areas and as Goldman notes that was largely due to New York’s growth. In 1920 the city’s population had swelled to 5.6 million. There were three times as many vehicles on the road than five years earlier. Goldman writes “Congestion had gotten so bad that one police commissioner proposed draining the East River and using it as a roadway.” A signature feature of the city arrived in 1923 thanks to the Neon Light Company; a year later the first neon sign went up in Times Square advertising a Willys-Overland coupe-sedan for $585 (roughly $11000 today). The author sprinkles in profiles of notable figures “at the dawn of public relations” including Dorothy Parker and Babe Ruth and lesser-knowns like the entertainer Eva Tanguay. The 1920s saw the rise of Black nationalism and Marcus Garvey the “Negro Moses” who was cheered by crowds and reviled by those who feared him. More women were entering the workforce and the number of Jewish New Yorkers in the 1920s grew to almost 30% of the city’s population. Goldman also explores how New York was plagued by a rising hostility toward immigrants and Black people while it was awash with all kinds of new music notably jazz. This complex city he writes was a rich site of “acceleration and deceleration.”

The author combines his own story of coming to terms with his identity as a gay man while seeking conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War with that of his ancestor Susannah tragically executed during the Salem witch trials. The novel also incorporates the story of Joseph Ring one of the men who accused Susannah of witchcraft. Along the way he weaves together storylines and genres to create something that’s hard to categorize but even harder to put down. He presents much of the book as a series of brief enchanting prose passages that feel more like interconnected pieces of flash fiction than chapters; the author labels the structure of the book by using the language of missals and hymnals: canticles preludes and so on. Sprinkled among these elements are sections written in verse as well as notes commentary and memoiristic passages. The overall effect is dreamlike following the logic of a montage. Overall the work feels a bit like an impressionistic painting with each element intriguing and beautifully rendered but impossible to fully process except holistically. The soaring writing dreamy organization and thematic clarity create a book whose substance far outpaces its brevity. Proffit beautifully honestly and realistically reflects on the othering that he experienced as he relates it to Susannah’s. Even so the parts that feature his ancestor are easily the strongest largely because he portrays her as such a compelling and steady character. Her calm firm refusal to cower in front of her accusers or even accept their premise is inspiring; she delivers a barrage of retorts imbued with a righteous defiant and matter-of-fact certainty: “I believe a lie repeated until it feels like scripture can make even a girl believe what she performs. I think you give too much credit to Satan and not enough blame to yourselves.”

When Meron’s native Poland was invaded in 1939 he writes in this impressive memoir “Nazi Germany brought an apocalyptic change in my life: from sweet uneventful pampered childhood to the horrors of fleeing from monsters.” Seven years later having fled those monsters he arrived in Israel in 1946. “I was nearly 16 years old with no Hebrew no English no algebra no geometry; a total ignoramus.” Meron quickly made up for lost time. After serving in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War he entered law school in Jerusalem successfully applied to Harvard University earning a doctorate in international law and joined the Israeli government as a legal adviser. Meron moved to the U.S.—teaching law at New York University Harvard and the University of California Berkeley—and served as a judge and president of international criminal tribunals. He retired in 2019 at age 89. As Meron notes international law deals with war genocide atrocities and torture—he presided over cases involving crimes committed in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Since no agency enforces international law however great powers including the U.S. routinely ignore it. Meron writes well but a lifetime in government has produced a text dotted with excerpts from documents letters and speeches that might not fully engage readers. What resonates the most are his personal reflections as when he writes about the death of his wife Monique. “I had a rough childhood losing my mother brother and most of my family to the Holocaust. Perhaps it was the chaos of wartime perhaps my emotional reserves had been drained or the survival instinct was too dominating but the pain of losing my family was nothing compared with the shock grief despair and total loneliness I felt when Monique left me….Perhaps this is the price one must pay for true love.”

A century in the shadowlands of the Duskhold is a grueling sentence. A woman there has forgotten her birth name and also can’t recall what transgression begat this punishment—just that she a human had fallen in love with a Fae. She’s finally so distraught that she walks into the Whispering Sea convinced that a fatal drowning is her only chance at reprieve. Instead of dying she’s somehow “remade” and amazingly she travels to another realm altogether. There a couple shows her kindness and gives her the name Lyra. But she wastes little time before heading east to the Fae realm where she’s certain her lost love resides and she auditions to be a performer at the Amber Palace. Lyra can manipulate shadows and can even turn them into forceful energy courtesy of “lingering traces of Fae enchantment” in the Whispering Sea. She passes herself off as a mere illusionist however and quickly befriends Lysara the court historian. But it’s the prince who truly captures Lyra’s attention—and she captures his as well. Is he the Fae whom she loved so long ago? She’ll have to be cautious if she wants answers or a chance at rekindling the romance because Prince Torian is currently betrothed. And as Lyra soon discovers something is hunting her—a daunting presence that may have the inclination and the power to pull her right back into the shadowlands.

Gregorsdóttir’s tale which kicks off a prospective series boasts a consistently compelling protagonist. She begins as a tortured soul with a curiously murky past before she bravely travels to an unknown (or possibly forgotten) destination despite the danger involved. As the story continues readers learn much more about Lyra including details about her family. The supporting cast also shines including Lysara and the seemingly conflicted Torian as well as Tomas and Elidra who “monitor crossings between realms.” There’s a pleasing variety among the characters including smaller winged faeries an antlered forest spirit and nods to the godly Four Pillars. (Lyra apparently resembles most Fae although references to her distinguishing human feature of “curved ears” are abundant.) Lyra’s journey in this first installment effectively fuses genre elements of romance and suspense. She longs for what she once had and she does on occasion find herself in intimate situations—including a few moments that outright sizzle. At the same time she perpetually fears that someone from the court might recognize her Fae magic or that the aforementioned ominous presence will make itself known to her. Gregorsdóttir’s prose is pleasingly poetic whether describing scenes of love or magic-wielding: “I opened my hand again skin still stinging. Red crescents bit into my flesh encircling tiny scorches perfect black pinpricks edged in feverish pink. The stars had left their mark before dying branding me with their last betrayed sigh.” A twist of fate near the end will most certainly leave some readers shaken—and hoping for a sequel.

Twenty-something Alice Jones meets 18-year-old Leonard Kip Rhinelander in 1921. She’s one of three daughters of a couple who emigrated from England. Her father George Jones was the son of a West Indian sailor and a white English tavern owner; her white mother Elizabeth was a kitchen maid in a grand British estate. In 1891 the couple moved to New York. Now 30 years later Alice is walking down Pelham Road in New Rochelle when Leonard drives by in his new Oldsmobile convertible. Momentarily distracted by her Leonard can’t stop his car quickly enough and bumps into a police car parked by the curb. Impulsively Alice tells Sgt. Kelly that she saw what happened and that the tall gangly driver wasn’t speeding. Leonard the young scion of New York’s top-tier Rhinelander family gratefully offers her a ride. By the time he drops her home four hours later they’re smitten with each other. Within a few months Leonard’s father Philip learns of their relationship and he aims to torpedo their romance sending Leonard to places far and wide for the next two years—but he can’t prevent them from writing voluminous letters to each other. An uncomfortably generous portion of the novel is devoted to the steamy contents of Alice’s letters to her beau: “you always knew that I love to be in your loving arms and hold your warm lips to mine. I knew many times Len dear how I have made you feel very happy.” The letters are made public in a 1925 trial in which Philip forces his son to sue Alice for annulment of their secret 1924 marriage. The trial plays out in disturbingly lurid detail vividly illustrating the implicit and explicit misogyny and racism of the period. Alice’s older sister Emily Jones Brooks serves as a knowledgeable narrator for Kinsolving’s fictionalized version of the real-life drama.

The 50-year-old author is a working actor who’s appeared in many minor roles in high-profile productions including the Netflix series House of Cards and the action-franchise film The Fate of the Furious. In these pages he chronicles his winding path to that success and the happy result is a mix of warm Generation X nostalgia and a dissection of life’s many ups and downs. Readers will be pulled in by Maher’s natural storytelling whether he’s detailing a recurring childhood nightmare (“The Shadow Man”) or his days spent at his grandfather’s worm farm. After witnessing the sudden death of a loved one Maher became more self-conscious as a teen. Like many other children of the 1980s he embraced his love of heavy metal and Dungeons & Dragons. Much of the book leans heavily on nostalgia; indeed Gen X and elder millennials will enjoy the numerous chapters about life in the United States pre-9/11 and before the financial crisis of 2008. After years of playing music on the side and pursuing his profession as a house appraiser Maher faced bankruptcy as a result of the Great Recession. His passion for the stage and for acting was invigorated however leading to some roles on hit TV shows and movies. Along the way readers will enjoy Maher’s casual conversational style as he talks about his first love first jobs pets (“I had zero interest in wanting a cat before that little bastard suckered his way into my life”) and general observations about life. The memoir lacks a clear thematic framework and by the end some may feel dissatisfied by its lack of structure. However Maher’s affable writing will win over many readers. He’s exceptionally good at chronicling conversations with various people in his life and these passages are a particular delight to read. Overall it’s a tale of an intriguing life told with breezy humor and confident wisdom.

Kaiut strategic director of the Kaiut Yoga Institute approaches holistic wellness with the Kaiut yoga method which works specifically at the “intersection of movement neuroscience and longevity” and most importantly how the nervous system affects pain and overall health. The author begins unsurprisingly with the origins of yoga: The agricultural revolution lowered diversity of movement due to specialized labor. Believing that mobility is the backbone of health Kaiut explains how “Kaiut Yoga restores the office worker.” Organized into three parts this guide covers the core principles behind the Kaiut method. Part I discusses the key indicators of physical health: strength flexibility and balance. Debunking common notions of these aspects of health the book preaches diversity in movement not performance. Most compelling is the author’s view of pain or “blockages”: Not only is pain systemic relating to the whole body through the nervous system but the key to healing pain is training the nervous system to feel safe again across diverse movements. Part II discusses joints where the center of the body’s adaptability lives. The author claims that students with joint pain or stiffness not only find relief from the Kaiut method but also experience “improved focus calmer thinking deeper sleep and renewed energy” which are all signs that the nervous system is well regulated. Part III interrogates traditional yoga practices that reward perfection and performance whereas in Kaiut yoga “If you stayed in a pose long enough to feel something new or found a way to feel the edges of what scares you this is success.” In addition to the author’s impressive bibliography and helpful poses in the appendices the text includes “From the Mat” stories where real Kaiut students candidly share their positive experiences with the method.

The narrative unfolds in a future where space-mining companies have accidentally destroyed Earth forcing humans robots and artificial intelligences to disperse to other planets. Piloting his space freighter the Red Dwarf Cpt. Sam Stonewell travels to the planet Oregon 4 to pick up a passenger called Kingsley a slight boyish android with blond hair a royal blue coat and loads of good-hearted charm who’s trying to find his missing castle. The search takes the Red Dwarf to offbeat locales including a hippie planet whose atmosphere contains high percentages of pot smoke and hallucinogenic mushroom spores and New Descartes headquarters of the Church of the Holy Androids Order of the Singularity which believes that the universe will disintegrate if there are no humans alive to observe it. Kingsley is significant to the Church which regards him as the one nonhuman who qualifies as a conscious Observer of the universe. Kingsley gets wind of a plot by CHAOS a sinister offshoot of the Church that’s planning to create the Singularity an artificial superintelligence that will impose perfect order on the universe after spreading a virus that will sterilize humankind so as to eliminate messy human free will. Kingsley and the Red Dwarf crew set out to thwart CHAOS with the help of a Catholic nun who doubles as a hit woman a hotshot fighter pilot and a mysterious old woman who sits in her wheelchair and knits.

Griffin’s yarn creates a richly detailed fictive future world that has a familiar lived-in feel as it satirizes present-day discontents: Earth-vintage cigarettes are collectors’ items worth their weight in gold people struggle to pay off 250-year mortgages bureaucracy is still maddening and ambient holo-ads are annoying (“SmileBoost! Now in mango! Side effects may include the sudden return of childhood dread and teeth that glow in the dark!”). The technology is inventive and aesthetic like the electric guitars that spaceship pilots use as instrument panels. The book is in part a crackerjack space opera that features engrossing action scenes in which intricate tech deals out vigorous mayhem: “Twin streams of superheated tungsten lanced across the chamber striking the wall-mounted weapons with surgical precision. The first emplacement simply vaporized…The second managed to return fire for exactly 1.3 seconds before Boombot’s superior targeting algorithms reduced it to molten slag.” But the story also has philosophical and emotional substance especially regarding Kingsley’s predicament; he’s doomed to suffer agonizing foreknowledge of loss and defeat (“Imagine knowing exactly how you’ll die when everyone you care about will leave how every good thing ends”) and freighted with a burden of memory that Griffin renders in darkly lyrical prose: “Watched the moon crack from a rooftop in Manhattan. Beautiful and terrible like a sunset made of apocalypse. The sky rained debris for weeks afterward. Killed millions of course but very prettily. Humans always did have a talent for aesthetic destruction.” The result is a tech-drenched fantasy that still has plenty of heart.

Surrounded by the serene waves of the Aegean Sea and home to Paradisos II an exclusive boutique resort the island of Phaedros rests on a bedrock of family faith and rigid roles that are not to be tested. Emilio Politis “on the verge of becoming Greece’s most celebrated hotelier” has recently opened Paradisos II fulfilling his mother’s promise of “a life in paradise.” Descended from refugees but now living a posh life filled with drink and women Emilio has grown cold calloused and selfish. Meanwhile in a refugee camp in southern Turkey young pharmacist Maryam plans an escape with her husband and daughter—they take a boat to Greece planning to pass through to Germany and then make their way to Canada. When the boat capsizes during a freak storm off the shore of Phaedros Emilio is the one to pull Maryam to safety; with this act of heroism paradise will never be the same. With the arrival of Maryam and another Syrian refugee who survived the sinking boat the people of Phaedros are forced to reckon with their own biases intolerance and previously unchallenged views of the world and when a murder shocks the island tensions rise to a boiling point—Emilio must fight to preserve his family and his paradise from total collapse. This tale of paradise found spans hundreds of years tracing the arcs of refugee and immigrant families from 1817 through 2015 to illustrate that the line dividing refugees fighting for their lives and a rich hotelier is shockingly thin—paradise can be taken away just as quickly as it was achieved. Though the plot and character development may have benefitted from more focus on Maryam and Emilio’s relationship the fascinating histories of both of their families compellingly bring themes of religious intolerance racism and societal norms to light. The characters and their stories are both unique and universal and Kokkaris’ depiction of their everyday lives broadens the reader’s understanding of the world.

Toshi Hunter and the ragtag crew of the spaceship Pandora already have a lot on their plates by the time they first encounter a dead ship full of metamorphic monstrosities tumbling through space. Players of the classic 2008 Dead Space video game will no doubt instantly recognize the kind of gruesome scene Toshi and company find. It would be a galaxy-class understatement to say that it’s the last thing the beleaguered crew needs at this point. They’re tired of being on the run because the Imperium has branded them as members of the Free the Galaxy organization as terrorists. Years of tossing intergalactic monkey wrenches into the Imperium’s never-ending plans to terraform the universe have taken a serious toll on them all and Toshi himself is pondering retirement. The Imperium’s version of Manifest Destiny however is just as mean and genocidal as the 19th-century variety because it too is lethal to indigenous communities and despite the trials and sacrifices the Pandora’s crew remains determined to fight it: “Every planet the humans had colonized had been terraformed its ecosystem destroyed and brought to Earth standards” notes the third-person narration. “Humanity was like a plague burning through the galaxy.” It’s true that the politics of Gurgu’s novel couldn’t be more overt. That said the galloping guns-blazing nature of the power-packed prose makes this space opera seem more pulpy than political. The text has a tendency toward gruesomeness in places: “Its upper body looked human but its legs were insectlike and its head was shredded as though something with huge mandibles had chewed on it.” Overall the author has a keen knack for mixing and melding SF and the supernatural in all kinds of intriguing ways. Clear allusions to vampirism would be too obvious; Gurgu opts instead for more obscure archetypes: When was the last time one read about a wendigo in outer space?

This extraordinary volume of letters offers an intimate portrait of Ludwig Wittgenstein not as the granite logician of legend but as a man unguarded needy joyful and often undone by love. Written between 1946 and his death in 1951 the correspondence with Ben Richards a medical student 35 years his junior documents what Wittgenstein called “man’s greatest happiness.” The letters are disarmingly plain; they were edited by Citron assistant professor of religion at Princeton University and Schmidt assistant director-general of the Austrian National Library. The letters track weather train times tooth extractions flowers coming into bloom. Dried leaves are enclosed; cartoons are sketched; music is recommended with missionary zeal. Yet threaded through this domestic hubbub is an emotional intensity that can feel unbearable at times. “I want to tell you how much I love you & how much I need you” Wittgenstein writes again and again. Richards’ letters strain to meet this need without being consumed by it. That imbalance is the book’s quiet drama. Wittgenstein knows he is dependent; worse he knows his dependence can wound. A dispute over Richards growing a beard becomes a startling meditation on love possession and the sacredness of the beloved’s face. Elsewhere Wittgenstein’s self-abnegation (“there is really nothing in me that is lovable”) borders on emotional blackmail. The historical context matters. Sex between men was illegal in Britain; the language available was that of “romantic friendship” intense yet circumscribed. What survives improbably is joy. In his final letter Wittgenstein thanks Richards for having made his life “different altogether.” These are love letters and show how thinking for Wittgenstein was inseparable from feeling; and how love could both steady him and push him perilously close to the edge.

Acclaimed painter Laura Adams is known for her solitary ways. So Annie is perplexed and a little piqued to learn that her mother has taken art student Felicity Rowe under her wing even allowing Fliss to share her Chelsea town house. Annie isn’t hard up for lodgings since she inherited a fortune from her great-aunt Frances but her concern over her mother’s new living arrangements brings her down from rural Dorset to assess the situation in person. That concern rises to the level of panic when Felicity turns up dead in a dumpster behind the house. Laura’s clearly hiding something and to unravel the complex puzzle Annie needs the help of her old friend police Detective Rowan Crane. Felicity’s murder turns out to have roots in the decades-old death of socialite Vera Huntington who partied with Frances in London’s jazz clubs back in the 1960s. Perrin handles the twin narratives deftly giving careful attention to each and permitting their connection to develop richly. She allows the love interest in each story to follow their own peculiar trajectory. And she draws a vivid picture of London both past and present. The solution to the puzzle on the other hand is easily foreseen and too long in coming. Perrin is at her considerable best when she concentrates on drawing sympathetic believable characters facing tough emotional issues.

After the events of Shadow and Tide (2025) Mira finds herself imprisoned in the royal council’s court and forced into a deadly competition along with a boy named Kell who’s also a captive. Each territory sends champions to the Trials and victory brings power alliances and influence. To ensure Mira’s obedience the council is holding her best friend Agnes hostage. As the trials commence Mira and Kell determined to stay alive make deals with other contestants. Elsewhere Brielle separated from the powerful Coven Septern forges her own path building a new coven with two fledgling witches. Meanwhile Lowri teetering on the edge of burnout is stranded in another world with Eli. As they unravel Eli’s father’s secrets they discover the council’s hand in the realm’s ruin and realize they must return to their own world before it meets with the same fate. As the characters’ paths collide the truth emerges: The council has wicked plans and together the heroes must stop them from coming to fruition. The series closes with an explosive finale. Readers should be familiar with the earlier entries if they hope to follow the sprawling cast and their tangled relationships. Even returning fans may be challenged by the late reappearance of characters introduced in earlier books. Main characters are cued white.

Young Christian—a stand-in for the author—is such a soccer enthusiast that he carries a mini-ball with him everywhere he goes. But team tryouts turn disastrous when he finds himself surrounded by much taller stronger kids. His family springs into action—proclaiming the next morning a “Super Soccer Day” challenging him to earn his breakfast by beating his sister at a quick match and cheering him on. When Christian complains that his family members are bigger they respond that strength and size are not soccer superpowers but focus and determination are particularly when backed up by an internal “wall of confidence”—sound advice for young athletes delivered clearly. The next day at practice he passes the ball when it comes his way cheers on his fellow players and when an opportunity to score presents itself triumphs at last by believing in himself. In a personal afterword Pulisic explains that the episode was inspired by his family and though specific events are invented photos of him as a young player and of the actual “Confidence!!” sign on the wall of the garage in his childhood home in Pennsylvania provide autobiographical links. In the sunny illustrations Kissi depicts the protagonist joining his likewise light-skinned mom dad and big sister in athletically booting the ball around their kitchen and yard; other team members are racially diverse.

In this story “of love in a time of violence” the narrator never reveals his name; he’s an octogenarian who reasonably expects that “terrible powerful soulless people are coming to kill me.” Yet his own soul is at peace. He loves the “hum of Brooklyn roads the muffled roar of the BQE and the sound of air whistling through the steel weave of the bridges…” Brooklyn is “embraced by the ocean the harbor the East River” and its deep blue sky is a rhapsody that calms the heart. Yet with rhapsody comes tragedy. The narrator recalls with melancholy his wife Clare their son Charles and the joy they all once brought to each other. But Charles died fighting in Iraq and Clare’s own violent passing nearly strips the narrator’s life of meaning. The couple—he once a rich investment banker she a lawyer—enjoyed long walks from Brooklyn into Manhattan until one day a crazed man wielding a machete began butchering people. The narrator then a 70-something Vietnam veteran killed the attacker but at a heavy and permanent cost. The ensuing events are nothing he could have anticipated which is much to the readers’ benefit. A few years later he saves a friend from the clutches of a drug gang and he knows the gang is now coming for him. But he feels he’s lived his life and isn’t about to skip town to escape his likely death: “Emily Dickinson stuck like a limpet to Amherst” he says. “Brooklyn is good enough for me.” The narrator reflects deeply on the family and possessions he once had on his love of his family and his city and on the ghosts to whom he owes allegiance. Had he known what was going to happen would he have interrupted the machete attack? He and Clare could have kept walking but they didn’t and he is forever haunted by the consequences.

At Camp Refuge a Christian summer camp run by her family’s church Clarity (who’s Black) grows closer to fellow camp counselor and classmate Hannah (who’s cued white) discovering a part of herself that just feels right. But when they’re caught kissing by other counselors Clarity experiences the sting of her peers’ disapproval of her sexuality—something she still doesn’t have totally figured out. One thing she knows is that she’s not ready to come out to her Baptist parents so she avoids Hannah for the last week of camp. Clarity’s senior year becomes a series of obstacles testing her ability to keep her secret: Her best friend Kristen tries to set her up with a boy; the camp director Mrs. Patricia who knows about what happened with Hannah wants Clarity to be her Sunday school assistant; and Clarity is forced to be around Hannah because they’re co-presidents of their school’s festival committee. While aspiring to embody her name Clarity also yearns to figure things out at her own pace offering a refreshingly honest reminder that developing self-knowledge is a complex and nuanced journey. Her anxiety over being outed her struggle with faith and the impact of hiding her true self from the most important people in her life unequivocally tugs at the heart.

Stormcliff’s economy depends on both the jellyfish-sting harvest and the annual Firebloom Festival that draws tourists from the mainland to see the bioluminescent jellyfish. The stings are used in a variety of balms and medicines by apothecary Pickle Armstrong. Tally fears that her powers won’t manifest and she’ll never become a Sting Winkler like her mum Grandad and generations before—back to Agnes Smuck the first Victorian-era jellyfish seeker (quotes from Agnes’ The Sting Winkler’s Handbook appear as epigraphs throughout). Understanding and communicating with jellyfish is the purview of Sting Winklers as is the gentle harvesting of the stings from their tentacles. Tally who has curly hair and light brown skin was 6 when her mother died; she lives with her doting Grandad and his husband Mandeep whom Tally calls Mandad. This year on the eve of the festival something is very wrong. The moon jellies in their lantern jars are dimmer than usual and the jellyfish in the sea are behaving oddly. Tally investigates engaging in some brave scouting with best friend Farran and classmate Colette. They embark on a dangerous expedition up the cliffs to the castle traditional home of the laird and lady. Every worldbuilding detail is amusing appropriate convincing and charming and all the pieces of the story fall entertainingly into place. Ficorilli’s grayscale illustrations add atmosphere and heighten the suspense.

Emma Brennan is the owner of Aroma Wellness Spa in beautiful Carmel-by-the-Sea California. Emma’s mother a college professor is unhappy about her life choices but Emma is supported by her grandmother and father even if he’s often away on outdoor adventure trips. The spa is hosting a bunch of events leading up to Addison Lacey’s “happily divorced” party where friends and relatives who never thought the marriage would last help her celebrate its end. The fly in the ointment is Addison’s mother Gianna McKay who’s hard to get along with and even threatens to cut Addison’s trust fund. When Emma goes to the McKay house to pick up her payment she and Addison find Gianna dead in her bedroom. Emma’s already been involved in solving a murder and although Det. Dylan Summers knows she has a talent for sniffing out the truth he’s far from pleased to see her when he arrives at the crime scene. Gianna may have been smothered with one of the lavender pillows given to all the divorce party guests and Emma fearing her murder might damage the spa’s reputation can’t resist poking around. Addison’s father golf course designer O’Malley McKay rushes home from a business trip to San Francisco to support his daughter who was upstairs wearing headphones and listening to loud music when the murder presumably happened—making her a suspect. Enough people disliked Gianna to mount a challenge to Emma’s investigation. As the spa treatments continue for the divorce party guests Emma hopes to keep everyone serene while she digs around looking for answers.

Veteran stand-up comic Hilarious (born Jessica Moore) grew up in Baltimore as the daughter of fiercely protective staunchly religious parents who only wanted the best for her. In an early chapter the author meticulously describes the panic of her pregnancy discovery at age 19 her feelings of naïveté and vulnerability and the ordeal of deciding whether to keep the baby with father Gerome “Rome” James whom she’d casually met on Myspace. After the shock and concern abated the author’s parents remained supportive as Hilarious decided to carry the child to term. By the third trimester however her dreams of becoming Rome’s loving wife began to sour as his dalliances with other women forced her to abandon any future plans with him. After giving birth to Ashton in 2012 she remained at her mother’s home while Rome dipped in and out of their lives. Co-parenting in an atmosphere of “unhealthy and hostile communication” was tough but Hilarious persevered at being the best mother imaginable through Ash’s “mouthy” toddler years as she worked odd jobs and dated a succession of well-intentioned men who were ill-equipped at handling a single mom. After further betrayals heartbreak and disappointments she and Rome took a more mature route to parent Ash together responsibly and with as little senseless melodrama as possible. Though their childrearing styles clashed and money was tight both persevered for Ash’s sake until after a nudge from Nick Cannon the author’s stand-up comedy career heated up and the real juggling act of parent and performer began. With wit pride and more than a few zings of profanity-laced attitude Hilarious presents her experiences as a mother and celebrity with the same candor as in her stage act. The author is a seasoned and captivating storyteller and fans will appreciate her fork-tongued evolution into motherhood. Hilarious has since given birth to a daughter Marley in 2024 and ends this chapter of her busy life with a well-earned reflection about Ashton: “I did a good job with him.”

Beaton professor emeritus of history at King’s College London delivers an outstanding history of Europe beginning with the Battle of Marathon in ancient Greece. Were it not for that victory 2500 years ago Asian culture first in the form of Persia’s would have dominated the western tip of Europe instead of the reverse. After false starts with Alexander the Great and the Crusades largely fed by firearm and naval technology during the Renaissance Europe spread empires across the world. Even contemporaries denounced the greed injustice and mass murder that occurred. Other accomplishments such as the Scientific Revolution almost entirely a European achievement are admirable. Also uniquely European was the rise of representative government in which citizens choose leaders and enjoy rights that a government must respect. Born in a European offshoot (colonial America) representative government survived the disastrous French Revolution made progress the following century and flourished in the 20th. It seemed to triumph with the USSR’s 1991 collapse although Beaton points out that while America celebrated its victory Europe progressed toward a genuinely visionary future: the European Union a vast prosperous supranational system with open borders and a free market under the rule of law. It’s no secret that the present century has seen this progress stumble as nationalism always more powerful than brotherly love returned with a vengeance. War too still rages in Ukraine. Beaton writes “Today it is no longer the rule of law or liberal democracy that is in the ascendant around the world but Russian-style authoritarianism…even in parts of Europe itself and…a new administration in the United States.”