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.”

Medieval Tallinn a friendly and prospering community on the Gulf of Finland provides the setting for Hargla’s richly appointed Apothecary Melchior mystery the first in a series. Henning von Clingenstain the former commander of the Teutonic Order in Gotland has been on a bender for several days. So despite his impressive size he’s easy pickings for a determined assassin who beheads him. At length the local magistrate hands over the investigation to popular Melchior Wakenstede whose apothecary is both a pharmacy and a community hangout for a cross section of the citizens of Tallinn like the Meistersinger Kilian Rechpergerin besotted with demure Mistress Gerdrud. Estonian author Hargla delves into the backstories of several citizens and provides a deep and detailed depiction of northern European society during the period: the rise of the Hanseatic League threats of war a powerful group called the Brotherhood of Blackheads and the important role of the church. The nuns of Tallinn it seems are famous for their sublime beer and Kilian is urged to become a monk. Melchior faces his own personal challenges from the death of his father to the specter of an ominous family curse. The whodunit mostly simmers on a back burner until the discovery of another beheaded victim provides a bit more urgency.

Parisian prostitute Celine Genet will do anything to survive and claw her way out of the poverty she was born into. After a night of scorching amorous relations with Englishwoman Kate Duke of Howard Celine is devastated to be abandoned in the morning. Years later she makes her way to London and blackmails the duke. Celine possesses a letter Kate wrote in her youth that led to the deaths of various members of her family including the aunt from whom she inherited the dukedom; in this alternate Georgian era English law allows women to claim titles. Celine demands Kate set her up in society and find her a titled spouse. Kate can’t afford to let anything sully the power she wields right now not when she’s close to gaining the upper hand against her rival the Earl of Wroth. Although at first she wants Celine out of her life as soon as possible Kate grows to admire Celine’s tenacity and intellect. Neither woman has forgotten their night of passion and despite how much they’ve hurt each other since their attraction continues to strengthen. Author Cowan takes the trappings of the classic historical romance—a brooding intimidating hero; political machinations; a glamorous ball; secrets betrayals and lots of yearning—and flips it on its head by making it queer and giving women power. Celine and Kate are flawed humans who have faced hardship but together they soften each other’s rough edges and discover the value in being fully seen understood and loved. They are driven by desperation—for power security pleasure love—which heightens the drama and fills the lushly written tale with deep emotions.

Traditional media have rarely portrayed the transgender community in a positive light. Yet as Horak an associate professor of film studies who runs the Transgender Media Lab at Carleton University points out there is “a vast and diverse catalog of trans media made by trans creators” works that offer more nuanced and authentic depictions than had previously been seen. In this essential book Horak uses “core methods of film studies—historical contextualization and aesthetic analysis” to examine films videos and web series by transgender artists most of them from the U.S. and Canada focusing primarily on creators who are Black Indigenous and people of color. Horak divides this volume into two sections. The first “Foundations” offers brief histories of transgender representation where transgender people were invariably the butt of jokes objects of suffering in films like Boys Don’t Cry and Dallas Buyers Club or “psychokillers” as in The Silence of the Lambs. The second “Key Themes” celebrates works that address “the promises and the challenges of trans community and chosen family” such as Wu Tsang’s Wildness which “invites us to experience the joys and pains of striving for queer- and trans-of-color connectedness”; artists who “use cinema to rethink families of origin” such as Canadian director Luis De Filippis whose 13-minute For Nonna Anna (2017) “manages to convey a deep and compassionate familial relationship” between a Canadian transgender woman in her early 20s and her Italian grandmother; films such as Isabel Sandoval’s Shangri-La (2021) and Lingua Franca (2019) which focus on a transgender woman’s sexual desires; and transition documentaries “probably the most numerous films about trans people.” This encouraging book is a fitting tribute to the artists who are raising awareness of the realities of transgender lives.

One Kateiko who goes by Katja is a medical apprentice who’s recovering from the Fourth Elken War and missing fire mage Tiernan her older lover and a wanted criminal. When a rift splits open versions of people she knows enter her world including her other self who decides to be called K. K is hunting down tel-saidu Suriel to demand he return her spirit so she may finally find happiness preferably with her charismatic Iyo-boy who’s imprisoned back home. Katja and K begrudgingly join forces to save their respective worlds from destruction by sealing the rift. But K believes the saidu in Katja’s world need to be awakened while Katja and her allies just fought a war to prevent that from happening. The disagreements lead to divergence and distrust with friends taking sides. Katja is deeply empathic and her complex love triangle with two Tiernans offers a painful juxtaposition with the much rougher K whose love for Tiernan is unrequited. As a misunderstood K arduously regains her humanity which has been greatly damaged since her bonding with Suriel she finds a love triangle of her own. Helpful exposition throughout along with a glossary and timeline will assist readers with this sometimes-overwhelming story’s rich complexity; those with a fresh recall of the previous installments will best appreciate this gratifying series closer with its broadly diverse cast.

The author recounts her life alongside her husband Gary as dementia gradually altered the rhythms of their shared world. Drawing from journal entries and memory the narrative begins before his subtle lapses took over—forgetting their dog died or how to start the car; arguments about his lack of freedom. From there Marple traces their changing marital roles as she became a full-time caregiver who managed things like his medication and their finances all while navigating the intense emotional upheaval. As shared memories eroded the couple’s once-easy companionship gave way to a quieter more solitary dynamic marked by profound exhaustion and grief for a relationship that persisted physically but had transformed emotionally. The memoir’s emotional center is the author’s redefinition of love itself; spoken affection evolved into lived devotion encapsulated in the shift from “I love you” to “I live you.” Marple’s writing is accessible and conversational expanding the book’s reach beyond readers directly affected by dementia while acknowledging caregivers and families navigating similar journeys. At times the narrative’s episodic structure mirrors the unpredictability of the disease itself scaffolded by the author’s effortless prose. The author’s greatest strength is her unguarded vulnerability—she writes candidly “Daily life with Gary now is like living with a toddler…This day-in day-out high alert mode leads to a despair I feel mainly at night when I’ve run out of energy when there’s no one to share the load or fears with when the world has gone silent” capturing the relentless vigilance and loneliness that accompanied his decline. She pairs this honesty with steadfast affirmation insisting that she’s never regretted anything about their time together despite the hardships. This tension allows frustration and tenderness to coexist without diminishing either.

A downcast Van Gogh is full of self-doubt. “How can I paint if I never go anywhere exciting?” Enter a small dog who mysteriously appears from a wheat field before dashing away with the artist’s paintbrushes. The naughty pup leads Van Gogh on a chase through the places found in his works. They cavort through “bright-yellow sunflowers” that leave the artist crowing “Such colors! Such light!” and into a town past the establishment from Van Gogh’s famed red-toned Night Café (he reassesses the location as “bright and welcoming”). After the dog’s antics necessitate a rescue from the river under a painterly starry night Van Gogh returns home bursting with ideas bringing the newly named Sunny along. There’s no doubt the intrepid pup is a child-friendly tour guide though a note clarifying whether Van Gogh actually owned a pet might have enriched the book. Altogether the adventurous duo introduces nine different paintings reproduced as a mini art gallery on the last page—an especially valuable component for teachers or adults planning museum trips. Helmer’s energetic art winks at but doesn’t replicate Van Gogh’s style; her bright confident paint and digital illustrations rely heavily on the dabbed lines swirls and spirals that Van Gogh favored.

The term “heartland rock” writes music journalist and author Osmon emerged in the 1970s to refer to the “roots-driven rock music that spoke of small towns the working class the open road and coming-­of-­age nostalgia.” If your mind goes right to a certain guy from New Jersey when you read that you’re not alone—many credit Bruce Springsteen’s album Born To Run released in 1975 to critical acclaim as the moment the genre broke through although Osmon credits Bob Seger with having more influence on the music than people realize. Her book is structured as a year-by-year history of the form in the 1980s tracing the careers of among others Tom Petty John Mellencamp and Bonnie Raitt placing the songs and albums in their correct sociopolitical concept “of Cold War paranoia labor resistance embattled farmers Southern reckoning technological advancements national mourning jingoism generational change and cultural appropriation.” The author writes convincingly about how conservative politicians co-opted the music of progressive artists—President Ronald Reagan played Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” while in New Jersey—and she notes that such songs’ “social and political messaging were remixed by the personal biases of its listeners.” The book contains some fascinating facts—who knew that Mellencamp and the decidedly non-rural Lou Reed were friends?—and is leavened with humorous asides: “The music video for [Springsteen’s] ‘Dancing in the Dark’ featuring young Courteney Cox is further evidence that straight white men can’t dance” she writes. The book ends with her conclusion that the genre is “here to stay” citing acts like the War on Drugs Waxahatchee and the Drive-By Truckers.

“They took Mita away in the month of Ruby and now we are in Sapphire.” Dolores Hamilton keeps time using her beloved birthstone calendar marking off the days since her parents sent her identical twin sister Mita who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy to live at a hospital in their father’s native England. Since Mita’s departure Dolores and her parents have moved from their small town of Santanésia Brazil to the high society of Rio de Janeiro. Dolores has had no formal schooling and can’t read or write and now she’s sent to the British school against her will. There she tries to find her place among girls who whisper about her behind her back and teachers whose cruelty is only thinly veiled. Dolores’ desperation to express her feelings about the loss of her sister is hindered by her inability to write; nor can she speak of Mita with her parents who turn away from any mention of their missing daughter. The loss of Mita is made all the more gut-wrenching as scenes from the twins’ childhood in Santanésia are woven throughout the novel. In Rio Dolores slowly finds community through a new friend Andrea and a sympathetic teacher who helps her learn to write. Now Dolores can send letters to Mita but when months go by without a response she vacillates between worrying that Mita hates her or perhaps worse has forgotten her. Faithfull seamlessly blends Dolores’ personal journey with an occasionally scathing portrayal of life in Brazil in the 1970s particularly through the story of Sofia a trans sex worker who befriends Dolores. While Faithfull’s novel is filled with multilayered characters—with the exception of Dolores’ mother who sometimes falls flat—it is Dolores’ reckoning with the loss of her other half that is the heartbeat of the novel: “Now when I look in the mirror I just see me. It used to be Mita there looking back at me. So much has changed.”

As novelist and essayist Dasgupta writes the default mode of social organization in the world today is the nation-state which governs “99.75 percent of our species.” It has not always been so: In 1900 most people lived in empires colonies principalities and the like. Yet in the post–World War II order and under the influence of the U.S. most exceptions to the nation-state—among which Dasgupta numbers duchies caliphates dependencies and protectorates—gave way to this default mode of governance which “produced an astonishing expansion of equality democracy and material security.” Against those who saw the nation-state as a Platonic ideal that would bring about a vaunted “end of history” though processes and practices emerged that challenge the nation-state from the de facto rule of megacorporations to globalism at various scales. Dasgupta digs deep into history to examine this evolution with contributing factors that significantly include the breakaway of European Protestant states during the Reformation and the development of the “Westphalian” system which granted rulers “sovereign power within their territories free from outside interference.” In the end Dasgupta writes these developments weakened transnational entities such as the Holy Roman Empire in favor of national states—national all too often signaling ethnostates. Dasgupta suggests that the collapse of communism led to nation-states controlled by private interests with liberty interpreted to mean “freedom of capital” and governments increasingly trending toward class systems in which citizenship was the key currency of the realm—and with much political energy devoted to rooting out noncitizens. Challenges to the nation-state are also coming from China Dasgupta notes intent on “introducing a coherent global order whose organizing principles were incommensurate with America’s own” an order all too likely to prove victorious.

Ambrosia “Brosh” Lee was once a successful child actor—a “perky Wednesday Addams.” But at 16 she struggles to get roles; playing Dead Asian Girl #3 on Law & Order doesn’t feel like much. She’s up for a role on an Emmy-winning television series but her agent isn’t hopeful. Instead he’s booked a commercial audition: Korean American Brosh is trying out for Unidentified Asian Female. Meanwhile Sri Lankan British Liam Sweet her ex is thriving. They met while auditioning for Sherlock Jr.—he got the lead but she wasn’t cast as Watson. After they bump into each other at a party Liam invites Brosh to go see her favorite comedian Josie Kang and then flakes. Left outside the venue alone Brosh meets Korean American stand-up comic Teddy Yoon and gives him her extra ticket. They click. Teddy encourages her to try stand-up helping Brosh who’s used to following a script learn how to write a joke. By carefully observing other comics going on stage herself and even taking a class Brosh finds her voice. Park delves into serious issues including fat-shaming cultural dislocation and how we measure success—all presented with nuance through the lenses of identity and the entertainment industry. This accessible humorous and empowering narrative is sweet and threaded with hope as Brosh recovers from the disappointment of her acting career and attempts something new.

Maisy Gallagher is barely making ends meet. With her father’s unexpected death a few years earlier she dropped out of nursing school to help out in the family’s jewelry store working with her uncle. Her older brother Sean also moved back home so he and Maisy could help their mother and their 10-year-old brother Patrick. When Maisy offers a ride to a rude businessman who sat next to her on the plane she’s just operating on the kindness her grandmother instilled in her. That businessman Chase Furst turns out to be an incredibly wealthy banker; he’s flown into Seattle to make funeral arrangements for his mother to whom he hasn’t spoken in years. Sparks fly in this gentle and predictable romance that leans heavily on long-distance and class-divide tropes. As with many of the author’s books Christianity and the characters’ reliance on God’s will—as they wait and see what happens next—play a large part as do traditional gender roles where women cook clean and only work in paying jobs until they have children at home to take care of. The author does offer a lighter touch when it comes to the painful ways alcoholism can destroy family relationships with an understanding of the regret that can weigh on every family member.