Glenn Gould wakes up in a hotel room he has no memory of checking into, alarmingly separated from the potpourri of pills that permit him to navigate life. The scene he discovers in his room is as bizarre as it is macabre—a woman has been hacked to death with a hatchet, and a record player that is not his own is playing a recording of him (he doesn’t own that either) performing the Goldberg Variations on repeat. Stuffed in the victim’s mouth is a crumpled piece of paper on which is printed a hostile review of one of his performances, written by the critic Paul Henry Lang. Later, Gould learns t ..read more

“Peering down / on the beings below,” Boxer writes anthropomorphically, a pine cone hangs for 40 years out of harm’s way, until a wildfire’s heat melts the resin that glues it together, and seeds are released to shower down to the ash-covered ground. “It wasn’t an end,” she concludes. “From the fire, / life / unfolds. / Green / and new / and ready / to begin.” As she explains in a reflective afterword, lodgepole pines are just one of several fire-dependent types of flora and fauna, reminding readers that we find our strength through adversity; like that pine cone, “we might find we were made ..read more

Set to the familiar, bouncy tune of “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush,” this perky tale of an energetic, all-animal crew who erect a school from the ground up can be sung by or to an appreciative group of youngsters. Children will be captivated by the sights and sounds of the skilled team carrying out their specialized tasks. They’ll practically hear the heavy clangs of the machinery and equipment; truck mavens will have a field day watching the crew’s vehicles digging and hauling dirt. Most readers may not know exactly what their own school’s construction entailed: laying the foundation an ..read more

Lake, who has olive skin and black hair, finds an intriguing story about dragons while visiting the library. He loves dragons, and as he reads, he becomes more and more inspired by the story. When the book ends, Lake doesn’t know what to do, because he wants more narrative about the dragons. He learns from the librarian that he can’t write in the book to maintain the story’s momentum, so he and his parents leave.  Lake and his mother talk about why stories end and the possibilities of new beginnings (“When the book is over, you can just close the cover and dream”). Gatza offers an engagi ..read more

Farmers and their families are never idle, no matter the season. They must keep an eye on the weather so they know when to till the soil, what and when to plant, and when to harvest their crops. They must also closely monitor soil conditions and plantings. They take care of farm animals, who are themselves busy caring for their young; the geese even honk to announce “signs of autumn on the farm.” This delightful book, expressed in sprightly rhymes, bursts with vivid seasonal colors as it offers glimpses of bustling activities outside and inside the farmhouse, not to mention some specialized e ..read more

When the young narrator needs to be quiet, his brain is a roaring T. rex. When he needs to wash the dishes, his brain is a submarine diving into the depths of an imaginary ocean. Sometimes, even though he knows it’s wrong, his brain is a raging bull that scares his friends. And after all that, his brain is a hurricane of self-loathing as he wonders why he can’t just behave. Though attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder isn’t named in the text, many children with ADHD will see themselves reflected here. The authors validate the feeling of being overwhelmed by a brain you can’t control, while ..read more

Ethan Moll is the very definition of an eligible bachelor: He’s handsome and charming, hails from a wealthy family, and is a rising star as a digital-marketing recruiter at Integrated Business Solutions.When he’s found stabbed to death in the shower in his Kentucky home, some suspecthis ex-girlfriend, Gabbi Edwards, who was openly distraught when he left her. Jenna,the fiancée of Ethan’s best friend, Ross, is absolutely convinced that Gabbi is the killer. Gabbi does seem a bit flighty as an enthusiast of whatever is the most fashionable spiritual movement of the moment; she runs a fitness coa ..read more

Even before the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China in 2019, American leaders like presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama had anticipated the possibility of a global outbreak—their preparations and warnings were largely disregarded by the Trump administration, per the author. Yet despite Trump’s fumbling of the public messaging about the pandemic, his administration’s Operation Warp Speed achieved the extraordinary by fast-tracking Covid-19 vaccines in just seven months. (“By reducing the drug makers’ financial risk, Warp Speed greatly accelerated the development of the COVID vaccines ..read more

The fiction debut of filmmaker and playwright Austen, this novel opens with a notarized roster of building residents, from the refugee seamstress Masha Balyayeva in the 5th floor maid’s room to the Sauvin and Raphaël families in 4L and 4R, to the building manager and preparer of this list, Jan Everard, on the ground floor. In an impressive display of Austen's storytelling skill, about a dozen of these individuals become point-of-view characters, unfurling an unusually colorful and intelligent, poignant and rich World War II novel, a special treat for the many fans of that genre. “To me, archi ..read more

Jun, the cop, is a veteran of the “so-called Bloodless War” that united North and South. He’s also trans, and a recovering virtual-reality addict. His younger sister, Morgan, is a lonely corporate pawn gunning for her shine at Imagine Friends, the Apple of a thriving neurobiology industry. Both struggle with the burden of their father’s pioneering career in technology along with tremendous grief for Yoyo, the robot brother he introduced into their family when they were children and then took away without explanation. It turns out that Yoyo lives, unbeknownst to his first family, in a nearby j ..read more