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books

The Ring and the Crown by Melissa de la Cruz

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Have you ever read a book that you know intellectually isn’t very good, but you rather enjoy it anyway? That’s how The Ring and the Crown was for me. I don’t mean it’s not good in terms of content – often I’ll hear people say that romances or chicklit are their guilty pleasures, and that’s not what I mean at all. I mean the writing just isn’t great. It’s 90% exposition, full of telling, all of the fun stuff happens off the page, the pacing is poor. We’re told what characters are like instead of reading it in their words and actions. There’s a lot that’s not done well.

And yet, I was mostly entertained by it. Here’s the gist: It’s the early 20th century (in an alternate world where magic exists), and Marie-Victoria, princess and heir to the throne of England, has just been told by her mother, Queen Eleanor, that she is to wed Leopold, the prince and heir to the throne of Prussia. This royal marriage will put an end to the war that’s raged between the two countries for the past several years. Marie-Victoria is none too thrilled about it, as she’s in love with a soldier named Gill and rather detests Leopold, whom she finds spoiled and mean.

Marie-Victoria is probably what I would consider the main protagonist, but she’s actually only one of five points of view in the story. The others are: Aelwyn, the daughter of the Merlin (a title rather than a name), a magician who serves (and controls) the crown; Ronan, an American whose once-wealthy family now depends on her finding a rich husband in London in order to save them from insolvency; Wolfgang, the younger brother of Leopold; and Isabelle, Leopold’s former French fiancée. Each of the characters schemes about something, and their relationships with each other become increasingly entangled as the book progresses. Magic is present, but it’s more of a background feature.
 
Despite its problems, the book held my interest, and I may even read a sequel (if there is one). I think its success in that regard has a lot to do with the frequent POV shifts. Just as I thought I might be tiring of this particular character’s post-party reflections of a certain event (an event which happened off the page, of course), de la Cruz would switch to a different character, and my interest would re-engage. There are some faint hints that some things are not as they seem, as well, so I was interested to see what exactly would shake out by the end. Things do shake out eventually, but it happens all in a rush, and it’s a long time coming. It makes the first 90% of the book seem like set-up. There are very few people who relish reading a book that’s almost entirely exposition.

Readers looking for action-heavy historical fantasy more along the lines of The Burning Sky would do better to look elsewhere. There’s almost no action here, and what little there is takes place off the page. I don’t require action, but I do require stuff to happen, and I want to see it happening rather than be told about it after the fact. Even the climax is told instead of shown – one character tells another what he did rather than experiencing it for the reader. Too bad. In those few times when de la Cruz does show us things, rather than tell us about them as a sort of afterthought, the book verges on exciting.

Still, this will certainly hold appeal for some readers, perhaps those who have enjoyed the Downton Abbey-esque Cinders & Sapphires. There’s a large cast of aristocratic characters with their own POVs, relationships are messy, and much of the plot focuses on fancy society and its peculiar brand of rules and manners. Plus, it’s set during the Downton Abbey time frame. Alternate history junkies may also get a kick out of how de la Cruz’s world with magic differs from our own (the United States lost the Revolutionary War, for instance).


Finished copy received from the publisher. The Ring and the Crown is available now.

Free to Fall by Lauren Miller

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I didn’t expect to like Lauren Miller’s Free to Fall as much as I did. I went in with some preconceived notions – that it would  be very heavy-handed with a message, that it would focus on a romance almost exclusively – and I was very happy to be proven wrong. (But you can forgive me about the romance thing, right? I mean, people talk about “falling” in love…)

What I got instead was a very smart, engaging thriller about a number of things: the pitfalls of technology, the danger of ceding any amount of free will, the nature of trust. It’s also a novel very much for teens, covering first love, parental betrayal, and the high school dance. (Did I mention it also has a secret society and some Da Vinci Code-style puzzles? Be still, my heart.)

Here’s the basic idea: Rory lives in the near future (the 2030s or thereabouts) where everyone has a handheld (think smartphone, supercharged). Gnosis manufactures the handhelds everyone has, and they also produce an app called Lux which helps users determine the best choice to make in any situation, right down to “What should I order for dinner?” Rory, along with most of her peers, relies on Lux pretty heavily.

Rory has just been accepted to Theden Academy, an elite boarding school for teens which pretty much guarantees her a ticket to a prestigious college and the good life afterward. But Theden has a lot of secrets, and Rory finds herself personally caught up in it. Her mother attended Theden, but left abruptly, then died giving birth to her. She passed along a cryptic message to Rory, telling her father to give it to her when Rory entered Theden.

This book has a lot in it – parents’ secret past, a mysterious townie boy, a duplicitous roommate, an evil teacher, strange school tests, Paradise Lost, a secret affair, a secret society, math puzzles, future tech, pop science – and it all leads back to Gnosis and Lux in some way. It’s incredibly fun to watch Rory unravel it all. There’s never a dull moment. It’s a true thriller with a new secret at every turn. I won’t say much more since the joy of reading the story is discovering just what Miller throws at you next.

A couple quibbles: some of the foreshadowing is too heavy-handed, and the denouement is too much of a deus ex machina. But I was having so much fun, I didn’t care much. This is a near-perfect near-future thriller. It’s twisty,
surprising, fast-paced, and very timely. The sketchy boarding school aspect may appeal to fans of The Testing or Variant, the dangerous technology aspect may appeal to fans of Feed, and the sci fi mystery may appeal to fans of Unremembered or Starters (though I think Free to Fall is the smartest of them all). Highly recommended.

Finished copy received from the publisher. Free to Fall is available now.

Get Genrefied: Historical Fantasy

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I love talking about genre fiction, and I’m really loving exploring all of the many subgenres of fantasy and science fiction in our genre guides each month (though we don’t always stick to SFF). This month, we tackle historical fantasy.

I thought I had a pretty good grasp on the definition of historical fantasy, but in doing a bit of searching, I learned that my definition is different from many others’ definitions. Hugo winner Jo Walton gives a good overview at tor.com: What is Historical Fantasy? She (and others) use the term to describe any sort of fantasy that takes place in the past or seems like it might take place in the past – whether that past actually existed or not. I take a much narrower view. For me, historical fantasy is strictly fantasy that takes place in a past that actually existed, not just in a world that seems kind of historical-ish.

So there’s some disagreement. I prefer the narrower definition mainly because I find the more expanded definition nearly useless. So much of fantasy is pseudo-medieval, meaning we’d call almost all fantasy “historical fantasy” in that case. Moreover, these stories are quite clearly and deliberately not set in our own world. There’s no history to be gleaned from stories like that. Part of the appeal of historical fantasy is seeing the ways the author manipulates actual historical events with fantastical elements. I try to be careful in what I call historical fantasy for this reason, and my definition is the definition I’ll be using for this guide. (Read a few of the comments in the Jo Walton piece and you’ll see I’m not alone!)

Some well-known examples of historical fantasy that fit my definition well are Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. On the YA end, Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty and Robin LaFevers Grave Mercy are good examples.

We’ve covered awards and resources for fantasy and historical fiction before in our genre guides, so I won’t rehash them here. I did find a few interesting reads, though. The first is this piece by Dan Wohl at The Mary Sue: Is “Historical Accuracy” a Good Defense of Patriarchal Societies in Fantasy Fiction? Make sure you read the first comment as well, which points out a serious flaw in his argument, though the point he’s getting at is valid. If you’re a fan of Game of Thrones (tv series or book series), you’ve likely read defenses of its treatment of women, one of which probably was “But that’s the way women were treated back then!” And here’s another reason I prefer my definition of historical fantasy: Game of Thrones is not historical fantasy. The entire world is invented. Martin and the screenwriters made a choice to create cultures like this, and “historical accuracy” is not a legitimate reason.

Even for books that are clearly historical fantasy (or based on history, as GoT ostensibly is), if an author makes a choice to write about dragons and fairies in 17th century England, what’s stopping that author from making the society gender-equal? We can suspend our disbelief for dragons, but we can’t do the same for gender parity, or even female privilege? Falling back on the myth of historical accuracy demonstrates a supreme lack of creativity. The whole point of historical fantasy is to give the readers a historical time period that is accurate to a point – and then goes off the rails. If it weren’t historically inaccurate in some way, it wouldn’t be historical fantasy. My point is that the author chose to write the story in that way for a reason, and accuracy ain’t it. (I read the Ruins of Ambrai by Melanie Rawn as a teenager, which features a society where women hold all power. It’s really great high fantasy; not historical, but could easily be made so. Let’s see more of this, yes?)

Anyway.

On the YA front, there are a couple of places that review historical fantasy pretty regularly. TeenReads.com has a page devoted to it, as does Charlotte’s Library. Some of the titles mentioned don’t adhere to my strict definition, but that’s inevitable.

Below are a few recently published historical fantasy titles plus some forthcoming ones. I’ve restricted the list to books that fit my narrow definition of historical fantasy, otherwise it would be much, much longer. I omitted steampunk since we’ve covered that already. Descriptions are from Worldcat. What ones have I missed? Let me know in the comments.

The Diviners by Libba Bray
Seventeen-year-old Evie O’Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from
small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of
occult-based murders thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum
of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thick of
the investigation.

A Great and Terrible Beauty (and sequels) by Libba Bray
After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma
returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing
school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see
into the spirit world.

Bewitching Season (and sequels) by Marissa Doyle

In 1837, as seventeen-year-old twins, Persephone and Penelope, are
starting their first London Season they find that their beloved
governess, who has taught them everything they know about magic, has
disappeared.

Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama
Tells, in alternating chapters, the story of the mermaid Syrenka’s love
for Ezra in 1872 that leads to a series of horrific murders, and
present-day Hester’s encounter with a ghost that reveals her connection
to the murders and to Syrenka. (Kimberly’s review)

Deception’s Princess by Esther M. Friesner

In Iron Age Ireland, Maeve, the fierce, willful youngest daughter of
King Eochu of Connacht, is caught in a web of lies after rebelling to
avoid fosterage with another highborn family and an arranged marriage.

The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner

In the late eighteenth-century, Sido, the twelve-year-old daughter of
a self-indulgent marquis, and Yann, a fourteen-year-old Gypsy orphan
raised to perform in a magic show, face a common enemy at the start of
the French Revolution.

Chantress (and sequel) by Amy Butler Greenfield
Fifteen-year-old Lucy discovers that she is a chantress who can perform
magic by singing, and the only one who can save England from the control
of the dangerous Lord Protector

The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton
The year is 1871, and Tiki has been making a home for herself and her
family of orphans in a deserted hideaway adjoining Charing Cross Station
in central London. They survive by picking pockets. One December night,
Tiki steals a ring, and sets off a chain of events that could lead to
all-out war with the Fey. For the ring belongs to Queen Victoria, and it
binds the rulers of England and the realm of Faerie to peace. With the ring missing, a rebel group of faeries hopes to break the treaty with dark magic and blood–Tiki’s blood.

Grave Mercy (and sequels) by Robin LaFevers

In the fifteenth-century kingdom of Brittany, seventeen-year-old
Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the
sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where she learns that the god
of Death has blessed her with dangerous gifts–and a violent destiny. (Kimberly’s review)

Witchfall by Victoria Lamb

In order for magic-wielding Meg to keep the outcast Princess
Elizabeth and her secret betrothed, the Spanish priest Alejandro de
Castillo, safe in the court of Queen Mary, she needs to make the
ultimate sacrifice.

The Falconer by Elizabeth May

In 1844 Edinburgh, eighteen-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron is neither
an ordinary debutante, nor a murderess–she is a Falconer, a female
warrior born with the gift for hunting and killing the faeries who prey
on mankind and who killed her mother. (Kimberly’s review)

The Vespertine (and sequels) by Saundra Mitchell

In 1889, when Amelia van den Broek leaves her brother’s strict home
for the freedom of a social season with cousins in Baltimore, she is
surprised by her strong attraction to an unsuitable man, but more so by
the dark visions she has each evening which have some believing that she
is the cause, not merely the seer, of harm. (Kelly’s review)

Dark Mirror (and sequels) by M. J. Putney
When it is discovered that Lady Victoria has magic powers, she is sent
away to school at Lackland Abbey, where she joins a group of young mages
using their powers to protect England, and travels through time from
the early 1800s to the 1940s. (Kelly’s review)

The Burning Sky (and sequel) by Sherry Thomas
A young elemental mage named Iaolanthe Seabourne discovers her shocking
power and destiny when she is thrown together with a deposed prince to
lead a rebellion against a tyrant. (Kimberly’s review)

The Fetch by Laura Whitcomb
After 350 years as a Fetch, or death escort, Calder breaks his vows and
enters the body of Rasputin, whose spirit causes rebellion in the Land
of Lost Souls while Calder struggles to convey Ana and Alexis, orphaned
in the Russian Revolution, to Heaven.

In the Shadows by Kiersten White and Jim Di Bartolo
Minnie and Cora, sisters living in a sleepy Maine town in the nineteenth
century, are intrigued by Arthur, a mysterious boy with no past who has
come to live in their mother’s boarding house–but something sinister
is stirring and the teens must uncover the truth, and unlock the key to
immortality. (Kimberly’s review)

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

In San Diego in 1918, as deadly influenza and World War I take their
toll, sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches desperate mourners
flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort and, despite her
scientific leanings, must consider if ghosts are real when her first
love, killed in battle, returns. (Kimberly’s review)

Dust Girl (and sequels) by Sarah Zettel
On the day in 1935 when her mother vanishes during the worst dust storm
ever recorded in Kansas, Callie learns that she is not actually a human
being.

A Look at YA Horror in 2014

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Last fall, I wrote about young adult horror for School Library Journal, hitting a wide variety of subcategories within the genre, as well as offering up a significant reading list. It’s still one of my favorite pieces I’ve written, and since it came out, I’ve been thinking a lot more about horror and keeping an eye on what’s coming up in the genre. I thought it might be worthwhile to do a roundup of forthcoming 2014 (and a couple of 2015) titles, since I know I’ve been feeling some of these out in my own reading and for building my own to-read pile. 

One of the trends I’m particularly fascinated with (and love seeing) is how many of these titles are being written by females. It looks like this is a pretty strong year especially for the more literary-leaning horror titles, like Amity, Fiendish, and The Fall. 

I know I’m going to miss some stuff, so feel free to chime in with other forthcoming horror titles that should be included. All descriptions come from WorldCat, unless otherwise noted. I’ve indicated when a title is part of a series, since some of these are sequels or installments on longer-running series. 

Amity by Micol Ostow (August 26): Two teens narrate the terrifying days and nights they spend living in a house of horrors. 

Creed by Trisha Leaver and Lindsay Currie (November 8): Three went in. Three came out. None even a shadow of who they once were. When their car breaks down, Dee, her boyfriend Luke, and his brother Mike walk through a winter storm to take refuge in a nearby town called Purity Springs. When they arrive, the emergency sirens are blaring and the small farming town seems abandoned. With no other shelter, they spend the night in an empty house. But they soon discover that not everything in Purity Springs is as it seems. When the town’s inhabitants suddenly appear the next morning, Dee, Luke, and Mike find themselves at the mercy of the charismatic leader, Elijah Hawkins, who plans to make Dee his new wife. Elijah’s son, Joseph, offers to help them escape . . . but the price of his help may be more than Dee and her friends can bear. (Description via Goodreads). 

Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff (August 14): Clementine DeVore, seventeen, is determined to learn what happened ten years ago that led to her magical imprisonment and problems in her town, but a dangerous attraction to Fisher, the boy who freed her, town politics, and the terrifying Hollow get in the way.

Of Monsters and Madness by Jessica Verday (September 9): In 1820s Philadelphia, a girl finds herself in the midst of a rash of gruesome murders in which her father and his alluring assistant might be implicated. 

Between the Spark and the Burn by April Genevieve Tucholke (August 14, sequel to Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea): Seventeen-year-old Violet is looking for the boy she fell in love with last summer, the charismatic liar River West Redding, but as she scours the country for him, she begins to wonder who she’s really chasing–and who she really loves. 

Silver by Chris Wooding (already available as of March 25): When the students at Mortingham Boarding Academy find a group of strange, silvery beetles on school grounds they are excited, but when the beetles attack them and a mysterious virus starts spreading, a group of mismatched students must work together to survive.

Blood of My Blood by Barry Lyga (September 9, conclusion to the “I Hunt Killers” trilogy): Jazz Dent, who has been shot and left to die in New York City, his girlfriend, Connie, who is in the clutches of Jazz’s serial killer father, Billy, and his best friend, Howie, who is bleeding to death on the floor of Jazz’s own home in tiny Lobo’s Nod, must all rise above the horrors their lives have become and find a way to come together in pursuit of Billy.

Servants of the Storm by Delilah Dawson (August 5): After her best friend dies in a hurricane, high schooler Dovey discovers something even more devastating–demons in her hometown of Savannah.

The Fall by Bethany Griffin (October 7): Madeline Usher is doomed. She has spent her life fighting fate, and she thought she was succeeding. Until she woke up in a coffin. Ushers die young. Ushers are cursed. Ushers can never leave their house, a house that haunts and is haunted, a house that almost seems to have a mind of its own. Madeline’s life—revealed through short bursts of memory—has hinged around her desperate plan to escape, to save herself and her brother. Her only chance lies in destroying the house. In the end, can Madeline keep her own sanity and bring the house down?The Fall is a literary psychological thriller, reimagining Edgar Allan Poe’s classic The Fall of the House of Usher. (Description via Goodreads). 

Welcome to the Dark House by Laurie Faria Stolarz (July 22): Seven super fans have won the trip of a lifetime to meet the master of horror, legendary film director Justin Blake. But things quickly go from delightfully dark to dangerously deadly, when Ivy, Parker, Shayla, Natalie, Frankie, and Garth find themselves trapped in an abandoned amusement park. To earn a ticket out, they must face their darkest demons one ride at a time

Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudsen (September 9): When Cynthia Rothschild’s best friend, Annie, falls head over heels for the new high-school librarian, Cyn can totally see why. He’s really young and super cute and thinks Annie would make an excellent library monitor. But after meeting Mr. Gabriel, Cyn realizes something isn’t quite right. Maybe it’s the creepy look in the librarian’s eyes, or the weird feeling Cyn gets whenever she’s around him. Before long Cyn realizes that Mr. Gabriel is, in fact…a demon. Now, in addition to saving the school musical from technical disaster and trying not to make a fool of herself with her own hopeless crush, Cyn has to save her best friend from the clutches of the evil librarian, who also seems to be slowly sucking the life force out of the entire student body! From best-selling author Michelle Knudsen, here is the perfect novel for teens who like their horror served up with a bit of romance, plenty of humor, and some pretty hot guys (of both the good and evil variety). (Description via Edelweiss). 

The Fallen by Charlie Higson (June 10, fifth book in “The Enemy” series): The sickness destroyed everyone over the age of fourteen. All across London diseased adults are waiting, hungry predators with rotten flesh and ravaged minds. The fifth terrifying part of Charlie Higson’s bestselling Enemy series. The Enemy is closer than you think.

Last year, I wrote about Scholastic’s reboot of Point Horror, and these two titles are this year’s additions to the line. I read one of the titles last year on a flight and it was fun. I would call these more along the lines of campy horror than scary horror, but reader mileage will vary. 

Followers by Anna Davies (June 24): When Briana loses out on a starring role in the school’s production of Hamlet, she reluctantly agrees to be the drama department’s “social media director” and starts tweeting half-hearted updates. But then a body IS discovered in the theater: Briana’s rival. Suddenly, what seemed like a prank turns deadly serious. With the school in chaos and the police unable to find the culprit, it’s up to Briana to unmask the psycho-tweeter before the carnage reaches Shakespearian proportions . . . or she becomes the next victim. 

Wickedpedia by Chris Van Etten (June 24): Cole and Greg love playing practical jokes through Wikipedia. They edit key articles and watch their classmates crash and burn giving oral reports on historical figures like Genghis Khan, the first female astronaut on Jupiter. So after the star soccer player steals Cole’s girlfriend, the boys take their revenge by creating a Wikipedia page for him, an entry full of outlandish information including details about his bizarre death on the soccer field. It’s all in good fun, until the soccer player is killed in a freak accident . . . just as Cole and Greg predicted. The uneasy boys vow to leave Wikipedia alone but someone continues to edit articles about classmates dying in gruesome ways . . . and those entries start to come true as well. To his horror, Cole soon discovers that someone has created a Wikipedia page for him, and included a date of death. He has one week to figure out who’s behind the murders, or else he’s set to meet a pretty grisly end. (Description via Goodreads). 

Black Knight by Christopher Pike (second book in the “Witch World” series, available December 2): New dangers await Jesse, who possesses extraordinary powers and the ability to exist in both the real world and an alternate one known as witch world. Worth noting that the first book in the series was titled Witch World in hardcover, then it was changed to Red Queen in paperback. The Red Queen paperback will be available in August. 

Party Games by R. L. Stine (September 30, first in the reboot of Pike’s “Fear Street” series): It’s about girl named Rachel, who Brendan Fear invites along with a bunch of other people to the Fear’s summer house on Fear Island, in the middle of a lake. They’re 17, in high school. It’s Halloween time, and they’re reopening the summerhouse just for this party. Brendan invents games, he loves games, and one by one the guests start getting murdered—every murder is attached to a game. One girl is found all folded up and there’s a note that says, ‘Twister, anyone?’ They’re trapped on an island, and there’s a killer there who wants to kill everyone. (Description via Goodreads).  

Mary: The Summoning by Hillary Monahan (September 2): Teens Jess, Shauna, Kitty, and Anna follow all the rules, but when their summoning circle is broken the vengeful spirit of Bloody Mary slips through, and as the girls struggle to escape Mary’s wrath, loyalties are questioned, friendships torn apart, and lives changed forever.

Trollhunters by Daniel Kraus and Guillermo del Toro (March 24, 2015): This new 320-page horror novel written by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus is about monsters that move in unseen places and the resurgence of a 45-year-old mystery that threatens the seemingly sleepy city of San Bernardino, CA. (Description via Goodreads). 

What I’m Reading Now

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The last couple of weeks of my life have been chaotic, between traveling to Connecticut, changing jobs, and now, I’m in Virginia for a couple days. I haven’t had a lot of good time to “settle” into a new routine, and because of that, my reading has been a little all over the map. I’m a pretty good reader while traveling, so I’ve at least been able to sneak in pages between destinations. Here’s a look at what I’ve been reading and have in my bag right now while I’m trying to find that new groove. I guess I’m also a little all over the map in what’s been catching my interest, too!



Sex Criminals, Volume 1 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky: I heard about this one so long ago and preordered it so long ago, and when it showed up in my mail this week, I was really excited since I’d forgotten I bought it. It’s a comic book featuring a main character who is a librarian that, when she orgasms, she is able to stop time. The story picks up when she meets a partner who has that same special talent. I’m not too far into it, but I am really keen on the artwork.

The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison: I can only remember having read one collection of essays in book form before, and that was Eula Biss’s Notes From No Man’s Land, published by Graywolf Press. So when Jamison’s collection started getting some buzz, my interest was piqued. Then someone shared one of the essays in this collection titled “A Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain,” which you can read in full here, and I knew I wanted to pick up the book. I’m about half way through the collection and have had some hits and some misses, but Jamison’s writing is knockout.

The Break-up Artist by Philip Siegel: I haven’t cracked this one open yet, but I have it with me while I’m out this week because it looks like a lighter-hearted read. It’s a story about a girl who falls into the business of breaking up relationships.

The Half Life of Molly Pierce by Katrina Leno: I know very little about this book, and I wouldn’t have put the galley on my ereader had I not seen someone mention that it’s a great read alike to Stephanie Kuehn’s forthcoming Complicit. I read and loved Kuehn’s book, so I’m eager to see what makes this a read alike and if it’s as successful in being a psychological thriller that actually surprised me with its twists.

Before I left, I shoved a ton of other galleys on my ereader, as well, including Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist (another collection of essays), Carrie Mesrobian’s Perfectly Good White Boy, Micol Ostow’s Amity, and Kat Rosenfield’s Inland.

What’s been on your reading plate lately? Anything recently released or coming out soon that I should have on my radar?