June 29, 2021, 7:50am
Why, you might be asking yourself, do all these introductions begin with some reference to the season or to how hot it is? It’s because that’s all I can think about. The feels-like temperature in Brooklyn is 100 degrees, and even my dog does not want to go outside. Thankfully, there are new books to take our minds off this maddening heat.
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Francine Prose, The Vixen
(Harper)
“…witty, recursive, and complex — one could say meta — but also heartfelt. Sincerity has rarely been this much fun.”
–The Boston Globe
Diane Johnson, Lorna Mott Comes Home
(Knopf)
“There are endless strings of smart observations, tucked next to moments of real vulnerability and fear.”
–The Star Tribune
John Ashbery, Parallel Movement of the Hands
(Ecco)
“The renowned poet’s style, often challenging the limits of expression on the page, is on full display throughout.”
–Publishers Weekly
Clare Sestanovich, Objects of Desire
(Knopf)
“The stories in Clare Sestanovich’s brilliantly crafted debut […] wrestle with the realities of love, sexuality, desire, and the myriad intimacies—including disappointment and loss—that comprise women’s lives.”
–Fiction Writers Review
Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, The Personal Librarian
(Berkley)
“Every element of this blockbuster historical novel is compelling and revelatory.”
–Booklist
Brenda Myers-Powell, Leaving Breezy Street
(Henry Holt)
“…consistently frank and often shocking … A gritty and relentlessly grim survivor’s tale, certainly not for tender sensibilities.”
–Kirkus
Emma Marris, Wild Souls
(Bloomsbury)
“Marris’ engrossing examination of the human-animal connection is free of polemics and offers much to ponder.”
–Booklist
Anita Sethi, I Belong Here
(Bloomsbury)
“…it is the way Sethi’s connection to nature is refracted through her experience as a woman of colour that gives the book its rare power.”
–The Guardian
Victor Jestin, Heatwave
(Scribner)
“Jestin’s charged and chilling debut turns on a stifling vacation that descends from purgatory into a nightmarish inferno.”
–Publishers Weekly
Beck Dorey-Stein, Rock the Boat
(Dial Press)
“The author perfectly captures what it means to come home again and rediscover yourself in the process.”
–Kirkus
Amy Mason Doan, Lady Sunshine
(Graydon House)
“A well-written, well-paced novel that unfolds slowly, hinting at the events that broke apart a young woman’s life.”
–Kirkus
Frank Rose, The Sea We Swim In
(W. W. Norton)
“Rose offers good advice on how to capture attention (don’t treat an audience like just a pair of eyeballs).”
–Publishers Weekly
Gabriel Krauze, Who They Was
(Bloomsbury)
“Who They Was is a powerful, challenging, and fearless debut from an author with a story to tell and the talent to tell it. And if you let yourself get swept away by this narrator, you may just find yourself reconceptualizing your reading process.”
–Chicago Review of Books
Remigiusz Ryzinski, tr. Sean Gasper Bye, Foucault in Warsaw
(Open Letter)
“Ryziński, a lecturer on gender and queer theory, debuts with a brisk and intriguing account of the months French philosopher Michel Foucault spent in Poland before he was expelled from the country for ‘immoral conduct.’”
–Publishers Weekly
Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta, Nightmare Scenario
(Harper)
“Abutaleb and Paletta are on the money when it comes to the challenges in formulating policy advice on the basis of science that was not fully settled.”
–The Washington Post
Robin DiAngelo, Nice Racism
(Beacon Press)
“DiAngelo follows White Fragility with a fierce critique of the ‘culture of niceness’ that prevents the hard work of dismantling racism.”
–Publishers Weekly