Books

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

Translated by Gregory Dowling — It’s surprising it has taken so long for The Lover of No Fixed Abode to appear in English. Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini were highly respected Italian journalists and authors whose novels were bestsellers across Europe, a partnership that began in the 1970s and lasted until Lucentini’s death in 2002.

The son of a librarian, Chris M. Arnone’s love of books was as inevitable as gravity. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. His novel, The Hermes Protocol, was published by Castle Bridge Media in 2023 and the next book in that series is due out in

Meet the Pike Boys, heavy hitters in the New Orleans underworld. A step outside the law is the only way for dirt poor people to break out of poverty and make it in 1920s America – and when it comes to setting, what could be sexier than the Big Easy during the birth of jazz

The Clinic Celebrities in rehab: Newsworthy, if not especially surprising. Celebrities dying in rehab: front page, above the fold for at least a day, maybe even a week. But what about celebrities murdered in rehab? That’s the “what if” at the center of Cate Quinn’s deft new thriller, The Clinic. Let’s start with The Clinic

While we primarily focus on stateside bookish news, we thought some recent news on France’s reading habits was pretty interesting. According to the data from market research company GfK, 1 in 4 books sold in the country are comics. France’s affection for comics isn’t a recent thing — it is the home of immensely popular

There’s religious strife brewing in Belfast, but it’s not what you might expect. A group known as the Followers of Eden have been operating in and around the city for years, although their power and influence have reached significant heights of late. Led by shadily charismatic American expat Seymour Huber and sponsored by the likes

If you asked romance author Tia Williams what her favorite genre is, you might be surprised to learn it is horror. In fact, she once took a yearlong class on Dracula, taking an interest in the mythology of immortality and the fearsome, seductive title character. Williams chuckles as she says, “I’d love to write [a

Welcome to Today in Books, where we report on literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Librarians Hold the Front Line “Punk-ass book jockeys” was intended to be an insult when Aziz Ansari’s Tom Haverford uttered it on a memorable episode of Parks & Recreation, but I can think of no

Translated by Quentin Bates — The Dancer is Icelandic author Óskar Guðmundsson’s second book translated into English, following The Commandments in 2021. It’s a fast-paced psychological thriller linked to the world of dance. Tony has trained as a dancer since childhood with lessons from his mother. The book covers a little over a week in

Kacen Callender dedicates their first foray into young adult fantasy, Infinity Alchemist, to “the younger me who always wanted to write a YA fantasy.” While this might make one imagine a teenage Callender dreaming of a future as an author, Callender explains it is actually in reference to their early days of their career, when

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

Translated by Ekin Oklap — Daughter of Ashes is the third and possibly final instalment in Italian author Ilaria Tuti’s Teresa Battaglia series. It follows on from Painted in Blood in 2022, which was also published as The Sleeping Nymph. This bittersweet conclusion takes place a mere 20 days after the close of the Sleeping

The protagonist of Temim Fruchter’s remarkable debut novel, a queer grad student studying Jewish folklore, describes her work as collecting scraps. In the wake of her father’s death, 30-year-old Shiva decides to get her master’s, hoping to unravel the family mysteries her mother has kept hidden from her all her life. Shiva eventually travels to

At long last, the Argylle author has been revealed! If you’re a little late to the latest bookish conspiracy theory, read this rundown to catch up. Essentially, there’s been a lot of speculation surrounding the true identity of Elle Conway, the listed author of the book that inspired the new spy action comedy titled Argylle,

Tim Sullivan’s The Teacher is the newest in his entertaining series of police procedurals whose titles come from the murder victim’s profession and we’ve previously reviewed The Monk. When thinking ahead to 2024, and the kinds of crime books that are likely on the horizon, ones with neurodivergent protagonists seemed quite likely. The success of

Behind You Is the Sea, Susan Muaddi Darraj’s debut novel, brings readers into the lives of three Palestinian families in and around Baltimore: the Salamehs, the Baladis and the Ammars. Generational disputes form the core of the novel’s action, which unfolds through weddings, graduations, unplanned pregnancies and funerals. Women’s issues are also at the fore,

Elly Griffiths is best known for her Ruth Galloway series, which came to a halt in the North Norfolk salt marshes last year. Griffiths has set that series aside for the time being at least, but the good news for the fans of this hugely popular British author is that it gives her more time

Almost from the moment it docked in Mobile Bay, Alabama, much has been written about the Clotilda, the schooner that brought 110 captive Africans to the U.S. in 1860, more than five decades after the slave trade had been outlawed. The illegal voyage was conducted with stealth, but the arrival of the ship was an

February begins with a fine selection of crime fiction books to choose from, and we start this week’s roundup off with Iris Yamashita’s second novel set in Alaska, Village in the Dark. There are also new books from Gregg Hurwitz, Tony Kent, Tina Baker and Brandy Schillace – action, intrigue and mystery await… Village in

Some of Ben Guterson’s most treasured childhood memories center around two now-defunct grand old department stores in downtown Seattle: Frederick & Nelson and The Bon Marché. They “were absolutely places of magic for me,” the author reminisces in a call from his home in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. “At Christmastime, I would go

Happy February, friends! Can you believe we’re already a month into 2024? If you’re keeping on track to complete the 2024 Read Harder Challenge, you should be done about two prompts by now. But if you haven’t, there’s still plenty of time to catch up! I’m about to go on vacation for two weeks, which

The squeamish yet diligent Detective Hiroshi Shimizu returns in Shitamachi Scam, the sixth instalment of Tokyo-based Michael Pronko’s crime novel series. In 2022, Azabu Getaway transported readers to the cosmopolitan Azabu district, but this time the action takes place in an older, more traditional Shitamachi neighbourhood. An unscrupulous gang is targeting the elderly residents of

Anna Sinjari is a Kurdish woman dealing with both office drone existential dread and the lingering trauma of the violence she escaped when she immigrated to America. Ssrin is an alien on the run, who immediately bonds with Anna when they encounter each other in Central Park. As a cosmic crisis looms, the pair’s uncanny

The Alabama Public Library Service has voted not to renew its American Library Association (ALA) membership. This comes after some in the state have accused the ALA — the oldest and largest library association in the world — of promoting Marxism, supporting keeping sexual content in libraries, and discriminating against religious organizations. In October, Governor

Am I the only one who feels mighty old when a book set in 1968 is called historical crime fiction? It’s a label that’s been applied to Where We Lie, by Irish debut author Claire Coughlan and set in Dublin at the end of the Swinging 60s. Historical or not, from the get-go Coughlan works

As a 19-year-old undergraduate, Antonia Hylton read an academic paper that mentioned Crownsville State Hospital, known at its founding as the Hospital for the Negro Insane. That reference triggered an obsession with the hospital’s bleak history that has carried her through the 10 years it took to produce Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim

N. Scott Momaday was the first Native American author to win a Pulitzer Prize, with his novel House Made of Dawn. He passed away on January 24th at age 89. Momaday wrote novels, poetry, essays, and memoirs, and he incorporated his Kiowa heritage in his writing. He published House Made of Dawn in 1968, and

Smoke seems to be the theme this week as we begin with The Smoke in our Eyes from veteran author James Grady, and conclude our report with Smoke Kings by debut writer Jahmal Mayfield – two very different books but the smoke is pervasive. Our report includes a debut from Northern Ireland, and two historical crime

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles As the days become shorter, there’s nothing more comforting than immersing myself in a sweeping historical novel—the bigger, the better! When my book club recently voted to read Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow (Penguin, $18, 9780143110439), I welcomed the opportunity to escape nightly into the grand halls