Australian author Choubey (The Migrant) paints a bleak portrait of the dangers of obsession in this muddled novel. The book opens with Dr. Walter West celebrating a triumph with colleagues at the Mind Experiments Corporation, which builds machines that can share and alter consciousness and memory. Then Walter is hit by a truck and glimpses a man who carries a blue diamond. The rest of the book covers the events of the preceding five days. Indian schoolteacher Bhanu Roy travels to a remote island and meets Spanish actress Camila, Malian general Mali, Iranian wrestler Farhad, and Russian oligarch Pushkin. All have fled scandals in daring escapes. Roy believes the island houses a magical blue diamond that can make his dreams come true, and he embarks on a desperate search.

This concept is promising, but the execution makes it challenging to follow. The point of view changes from one sentence to the next, making it difficult to really get to know the characters. The narration dispassionately describes reactions without evoking emotion (“Mali’s face displayed a look of shock and regret”). This does little to build a connection between the reader and the characters, and when danger threatens, it’s hard to get excited about it. The timeline jumps around quite a bit, and it’s not always clear whether the events of the book are dreams, fantasies, or reality.

Readers who persevere will be pleased with a philosophical section near the end of the book that explores the nature of the self. Unfortunately, the final revelations about MEC’s experiments fall flat. The glimmers of intriguing philosophy are hidden beneath a slippery story that, like Roy’s quest, offers much challenge and little reward.

Takeaway: Philosophical readers may appreciate this discursive thriller, which pivots around concepts of the self.

Great for fans of Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island, Hanya Yanagihara’s The People in the Trees.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: C
Illustrations: -
Editing: C
Marketing copy: C

Click here for more about The Astrologer's Curse

This richly poignant and romantic novel from Lovett (Rubies from Burma), set in 1920s Georgia, follows a poor young woman’s struggle to improve her life. Tenny Oakes leaves Weedy Grove and travels to Ashbyville to escape the unwanted attentions of landlord Arno Shackley and to search for her brother, Byron, who went off to serve in the Army and never came home. Eventually Tenny trains for a career in nursing, where she encounters intern Pete Godwin. Unbeknownst to Tenny, Pete’s cousin Gussie accidentally photographed her while she was bathing in the river some time before. Gussie reluctantly gives up photography to marry Ned Fletcher, a mill manager who looks much like Byron, while Pete and Tenny develop a friendship that’s strained when he weds snooty socialite Swanee Burkett. When Swanee has a stroke after giving birth, Tenny leaves the hospital to care for her, and she struggles to stay professional demeanor while pining for Pete, who suffers from Swanee’s disdain.

Lovett’s writing style is lyrical, with humble sensory depictions—an “evil-smelling” iron tonic, a clip-clopping mule—that pull the reader in. Her narrative expertly combines the stories of a host of characters, though Tenny always stands foremost. Tenny’s transformation from the daughter of a sharecropper to a well-educated nurse is admirable and uplifting, highlighting her grit and determination at overcoming the odds against her as she endures rape, an unwanted pregnancy, and heartbreak.

The author’s attention to class and racial distinctions reveals the tenor of the times. She references how both Ned and Tenny have changed their manner of speaking to distance themselves from their poor origins and alludes to the ease at which a black man is framed for a hit-and-run car accident. The pace of Lovett’s writing never falters throughout the lengthy narrative, which will appeal to any fan of stories set in the early-20th-century South.

Takeaway: This engrossing tale of a determined young woman escaping poverty in 1920s Georgia will capture readers’ hearts.

Great for fans of Delia Owens’s Where the Crawdads Sing, Jojo Moyes’s The Giver of Stars.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: -
Editing: A
Marketing copy: B

Click here for more about The River Nymph

Debut author Oshiro’s straightforward, sensible guide to excelling as a manager contains a wealth of valuable advice from his decades-long career in leadership. Taking the tone of a trusted mentor, Oshiro sets out to impart hard-won knowledge and help aspiring executives get ahead. Chief among his lessons are investing in one’s own training, learning how to understand and please one’s superiors, and battling through overwhelming tasks. Once readers take their first steps onto the leadership ladder, Oshiro counsels them on how to keep growing—emphasizing the importance of maintaining scrupulous business ethics, doing due diligence when hiring and firing, and dealing straightforwardly with complaints and discontent.

Oshiro's clear account of his career—including both achievements and failures—gives readers confidence in his advice, and he advocates for readers, advising them to believe in themselves and to move on from employers who don’t sufficiently value them. He shows managers how to encourage top performances and balance work and life demands. Oshiro also offers an unflinching and realistic look at doing what one must do to stay afloat during hard times, using his short-lived sales career as an example. Admirably, Oshiro focuses on the positives of his former employers, and he is especially generous in praising his time at Ross Perot’s company Electronic Data Systems, singling out Perot as a guiding light in his working life.

Suitable for executives and would-be managers at all levels and stages of their careers, Oshiro’s practical guide will serve as a handbook for success for those who follow its wise advice. His own sterling ethics are on display throughout, and his empathetic tone and well-paced narrative will easily draw readers in and invite them to soak up his knowledge.

Takeaway: Managers at any stage of their careers can benefit from this mix of thoughtful memoir and timeless business advice.

Great for fans of Bill George’s True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, Peter F. Drucker’s The Effective Executive.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: B+
Illustrations: -
Editing: A
Marketing copy: B

Click here for more about Individual Performer To Manager

Bell examines the heart-breaking consequences of bullying in her moving YA debut. Financial straits force Abby Feldman and her father to make an unwelcome move from San Francisco to the small town of Kissimah, S.C. A chance meeting leads Abby to meet Hollis Wickwire, whose dog promptly drags them into a muddy pond, and they form a delightful friendship full of adventures. However, the start of school brings new shocks as Abby discovers a tyrannical bully, Lexie Cross, rules seventh grade and that Hollis is Lexie’s favorite victim.

Bell draws on personal experiences to weave a revealing narrative on bullying and “bullycide” (when a person commits suicide because of bullying) into an otherwise nostalgic teen story. Lexie’s savagery shatters the idyllic sense of the initial chapters. When Lexie starts terrorizing Abby (including over Abby being Jewish) and Hollis with a wide variety of physical, verbal, and emotional abuse, she sets them off on a downhill ride to a sad conclusion. Bell skillfully portrays the psychological effect of Lexie’s bullying on the rest of their class as well. It’s particularly thought-provoking and saddening to see the failure of parents and school authorities to address Lexie’s behavior in a meaningful way.

Hollis and Abby are memorable, likable characters, and their attempts to capture an injured heron while evading alligators and bugs result in an endearing friendship. Bell’s crisp descriptions of fictional Kissimah give a clear sense of the teeming wildlife, and the townspeople vividly showcase the cultural nuances and complexities of the South in the 1980s. The framing of Abby’s adult recollections and the lively prose and pacing make the story immersive. The memorable characters and the questions raised in Bell’s heart-wrenching debut will stay with readers long after the final page is turned.

Takeaway: Both adult and teen readers will be moved by this poignant story and find it a valuable resource in discussing and countering bullying.

Great for fans of Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places, Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: -
Editing: A+
Marketing copy: A+

Click here for more about BFF

Inspired by the work of English poet George Crabbe (1754–1832), Ramsey’s lyrical debut book-length poem takes a rhapsodic tone while recounting his experiences living in community housing. Writing in the style of Crabbe’s “The Village,” which sought to depict the grim realities of village poverty in the 18th century, Ramsey gives an honest view of impoverished 20th-century urban life through untitled poems with a wide range of topics. Excoriating the gap between the privileged and the destitute (“The wealth around them makes them twice as poor”) and confronting the fear of dying homeless and alone (“Here, to the church behold no mourners come”), Ramsey paints a heartbreaking picture.

The verses have no named characters, but Ramsey exhibits a gift for empathy as he describes the plight of the lower classes through metaphor. However, the pastiche itself can be a barrier. The scansion of the heroic couplets sometimes falters, and many of the concepts can be lost in the anachronistic language. Readers familiar with older poetry may be comfortable with lines such as “Fain would they ask the hoary swain to prove,” but this work will be less accessible to the average reader.

Portraying a small and often unacknowledged slice of life in its rhymes, the book stands as a forceful condemnation of class stratification as well as a respectful homage to Crabbe’s work. Even those readers who struggle with the language will applaud Ramsey’s ambition of conveying 20th-century plights in an 18th-century style, and he succeeds in engaging the reader’s sympathies, as he hopes: “Let this passing song distaste overpower,/ And make you more forgiving from this hour.”

Takeaway: Readers familiar with both 18th-century poetry and 20th-century poverty will appreciate this moving reminiscence in verse.

Great for fans of Giacomo Leopardi, William Blake.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: -
Editing: B
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about The City

Erickson’s debut is a comprehensive entreaty to save a rapidly dying Earth with compassionate activism. Erickson fears the planet is facing the end of the Anthropocene epoch, the “Age of Humans.” After citing dire statistics about global warming and vanishing species, he declares, “We are failing to take action to implement the solution because what we lack is awareness.” His five-part strategy is intended to create that awareness; encourage compassionate support for animals, humans, the land, communities, and democracy; and inspire action and collective work to heal the planet. To bolster his arguments, he includes three new short essays by activists, a photojournalist, and a doctor, as well as a reprinted poem by Wendell Berry.

Emotional descriptions (often illustrated by vivid photos) of animal cruelty, oceanic dead zones, and Farm Bill subsidies for “Big Ag” elicit compassion, outrage, and shame. Erickson takes care to balance his concerns with suggestions for solutions. For example, after decrying the ravages of diabetes and related ailments, he prints a brief essay by celebrity doctor Joel Fuhrman on healthy eating (though some readers may take issue with Fuhrman’s suggestion that people suffering from medical problems eschew medications in favor of following Fuhrman’s own trademarked dietary plan). A discussion of topsoil loss due to overfarming is followed by a primer on regenerative agriculture.

Readers who find calling their senators easier than going vegetarian will be relieved by Erickson’s view that government intervention is just as important as individual and community activism. “Realize your power as a citizen in our democracy,” he advises, encouraging readers to push for the Green New Deal and other large-scale actions. Though informed conservationists will know much of this information already, Erickson’s passion and earnestness make it accessible and interesting to a wider readership.

Takeaway: This alarming but not alarmist work provides purposeful, accessible, and concrete ways to counter and prevent ecological damage.

Great for fans of Melanie Joy’s Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows; Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A+
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: B

Click here for more about The Great Healing - Five Compassions That Can Save Our World

Carline’s fifth mystery featuring 51-year-old PI Peri Minneopa (after 2016’s A More Deadly Union) is an action-packed venture set in Placentia, Calif., that features a healthy dose of romance and family drama. Peri, rattled by past traumas, has closed her agency and sworn off investigating. Then she receives an unexpected phone call from her estranged older brother, Dev, who woke up in a hotel room next to a dead woman he swears he didn’t kill. Police confirm that the stabbing victim is Tressa Velasco, an electrical engineer who expressed interest in buying a device from Ro-Bet Engineering, where Dev works. When Peri starts pursuing leads, Dev turns himself in and abruptly confesses to the crime, complete with a murder weapon. Unconvinced, Peri becomes more determined to prove her brother’s innocence.

Readers will be drawn to Peri’s spunky personality and independence; she refuses to hide behind her affectionate, protective fiancé, police detective Skip Carlton, even when flashbacks double the stress of car chases and shoot-outs. Along for the ride is her quasi-assistant, Benny Needles, an autistic Dean Martin aficionado who proves to be indispensable during the story’s climax. The interactions between Peri and Benny are heartfelt as well as humorous, though Peri’s well-meaning neurotypical perspective can grate. (“Sometimes I get to the end of my rope with him, then I remember that he’s trying to process things the only way he knows how.”) In contrast, Dev’s relationship with Peri is one-note, and the reasons for their estrangement are unclear.

It’s fairly easy to spot the killer, but readers will appreciate Carline’s effective cliff-hangers and her ability to build truly creepy scenes, especially when Peri unearths sinister secrets in a prime suspect’s home. Carline also puts considerable effort into her depictions of PTSD, OCD, and autism. This is a satisfying mystery that will leave readers eager for Peri’s next investigation.

Takeaway: This entertaining mystery is perfect for readers who appreciate a funny and courageous heroine.

Great for fans of Anne George’s Southern Sisters series, Sue Grafton.

Production grades
Cover: B-
Design and typography: B+
Illustrations: -
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about Murder Bytes

Historian Ansary (Jewels of Allah: The Untold Story of Women in Iran) shines a light on the “obscure lives” of “accomplished yet forgotten female innovators” in this illuminating volume. The title, she explains, derives from Virginia Woolf’s essay “A Room of One’s Own,” in which Woolf theorized that women’s genius “never got itself on to paper.” Ansary, hoping to “expose the roots and manifestations of institutionalized gender discrimination” and “inspire women and girls to move beyond gender barriers,” profiles 50 women born before 1900 who anonymized themselves in some fashion, starting with En Hedu-Anna, an Akkadian poet-astronomer in the 24th century BCE. She also cites Jane Austen, who wrote as “A Lady,” and Joanne Rowling, whose “J.K.” pen name is deliberately gender-neutral.

Ansary observes that the work of many of her subjects was stolen by or attributed to men. Spanish philosopher Oliva Sabuco, for instance, asserted mind-body dualism 50 years before Descartes, but her father took credit for her treatise. And though 19th-century scientist Eunice Newton Foote first showed that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and theorized that more of it in the atmosphere would warm the planet, a male physicist who published on the subject three years later is more often regarded as the founder of climate science.

The book’s design is beautiful, with gorgeous watercolor illustrations by Petra Dufkova. It’s best suited to classroom use; the brief profiles might appeal to laypeople interested in women’s history, but they’re preceded by scholarly essays on global calls for women’s rights, gender gap statistics, and the economic benefits of gender equality. Students will appreciate that the variety of women who made the cut—chemists, warriors, artists, educators—keeps reading lively.

Takeaway: Students of history will appreciate this reference work on women’s hidden achievements from the past 4,000 years.

Great for fans of Caroline Criado Perez’s Invisible Women, Jason Porath’s Rejected Princesses.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Anonymous Is a Woman

Drawing on Werner's own traumatic experiences, this well-crafted debut YA thriller shows a brother and sister coping as best they can with an abusive alcoholic father. When Louis drinks, he gets violent toward his teen children, Brian and Jessie. Their mother, Jan, makes excuses for him instead of protecting them. The siblings must learn how to stay alive. For Brian, that means taking a punch and not letting it escalate; for Jessie, it means running fast. As the emotional strain becomes too much, Jessie begins having out-of-body experiences and not recognizing herself in the mirror. Finally, when she finds her boyfriend kissing another girl, she becomes overwhelmed, a switch flips, and another personality named Lena takes over.

Alternating points of view from Jessie, Brian, and later Lena and toddler personality Annie give readers a distinct sense of dread, conflict, and the weight of every decision the children make. Werner combines the normal stresses of teen life with the oppressive atmosphere of an abusive home, showing how impossible it is for the siblings to ever feel safe. When Jessie’s new personalities appear, they feel almost inevitable, as does the showdown with Louis once sarcastic, violent Lena begins expressing everything Jessie has learned to suppress.

Werner brings a strong, confident voice to a difficult subject. Though the story is fiction, readers will feel the truth in Jessie’s raw emotions, experiences, and unique point of view. Werner gives some lift to the story, mostly in Jessie's romantic entanglements, but shows clearly that there is very little light in the everyday life of an abuse victim. The ending is a little abrupt and leaves some questions unanswered, but it's a deeply chilling conclusion to one major chapter of Brian and Jessie’s lives. This is a somber portrait of children clutching at any way to survive.

Takeaway: This gripping story of surviving abuse will enthrall teen and adult fans of unsettling psychological thrillers.

Great for fans of Katrina Leno’s The Half Life of Molly Pierce, Francesca Zappia’s Made You Up.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: -
Editing: A
Marketing copy: B

Click here for more about The Illusion of a Girl

In precise, evocative prose (“In Phnom Penh, we were living in a house of fractured glass that was on the verge of shattering”), Allen tells the incredible story of her aunt Siv Eng, who fought to survive the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror in 1970s Cambodia. Told in the first person, the memoir begins with Siv Eng’s idyllic life as a university student and quickly descends into increasingly nightmarish scenarios as the new regime took hold. She and her family are forced out of their homes, marched to labor camps, and separated. Siv Eng winds up in prison while trying to help her sister, and makes friends only to see them executed. Then the war’s tide turns and a series of unlikely events leads to Siv Eng's liberation and reunion with her family in America.

The episodic storytelling allows the reader to slowly absorb the horror of Siv Eng’s experiences. Grim scenes of violence are balanced with memories both sweet and sad, and the importance of family life is emphasized. Siv Eng’s story isn't sugar-coated, but she gives the reader a thread of hope even in the direst of situations. This is also a story about faith, as Siv Eng sees various signs and dreams that eventually lead her to Christianity.

Siv Eng pointedly mentions a lack of interest in politics, but this is a story of ideology vs. humanity. If it weren't for the kindness of certain chiefs, guards, and soldiers, Siv Eng would be dead. Her will to live and see her family again are inspirational. Allen has a remarkable ability to distill Siv Eng's stories into a smooth, if harrowing, reading experience, and readers will find it impossible to look away.

Takeaway: This harrowing, gripping story of survival in the face of horrific events will equally appeal to students of Cambodian history and fans of poignant memoirs.

Great for fans of Loung Ung’s First They Killed My Father and Haing Ngor’s Survival in the Killing Fields.

Production grades
Cover: TK
Design and typography: TK
Illustrations: TK
Editing: TK
Marketing copy: TK

Click here for more about The Girl Who Said Goodbye: A Memoir of a Khmer Rouge Survivor

Rosone and Watson (the World War III series) launch a series set in an alternate 2020 America where free elections are at risk. An attack on the email account of President Jonathan Sachs, a Republican who is up for reelection, is followed by bombings of early voting locations. Postal workers bribed by the Chinese government deliberately fail to deliver completed absentee ballots from Republican areas. While Lt. Col. Seth Mitchell and a team of operatives are sent to Kosovo to hunt for the people who orchestrated the attacks, U.S. federal agencies work diligently to unravel a worldwide plot to elect Democrat Marshall Tate.

The authors include plenty of realistic details of Mitchell’s operations in Kosovo and Serbia as he captures an Islamic terrorist leader and interrogates him (using drugs to induce compliance). One can almost hear the IEDs exploding and the helicopter blades whirring. The story line focusing on election security is both believable and current. However, the narrative loses some of its sharp focus following the election. All nine Supreme Court justices are assassinated; unable to have the election results invalidated, Sachs declares martial law. A vast international conspiracy is gradually uncovered. Though technically possible, these events in combination create an air of improbability, and a cliff-hanger ending does nothing to anchor them in reality.

The narrative’s sympathies clearly lie with Sachs, but there are moral shades of gray throughout. Tate scolds an aide who only cares about how the attacks benefit their campaign, a left-wing judge puts aside his hatred of Sachs in the name of protecting democracy, and a letter carrier takes bribes so she can pay off her enormous student loan debt from a Christian university. A wide range of thriller readers will be intrigued by this scary what-if scenario and curious enough to look for its sequels.

Takeaway: This terrifying scenario of a global conspiracy to throw a U.S. election will appeal to a wide array of espionage thriller fans.

Great for fans of Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Legacy, Tom Clancy’s Code of Honor.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: -
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about Rigged

Romance and murder meld in Bell’s energetic second Annalisse murder mystery (after Stolen Obsession), which showcases a keen eye for the details of nature, rural life, fine dining, and cars. Antiques appraiser Annalisse Drury’s romance with Greek millionaire Alec Zavos is faltering under the demands of his family business, which makes high-end automobiles. Annalisse is looking for a distraction, and rescuing her elderly aunt Kate Walker’s New York State farm from imminent sale might be it. But when the ranch hand, Ethan, discovers a strangled corpse in the barn and then Kate disappears, Annalisse, Alec, and their friends follow a bread crumb trail of texts and clues through New England to find her. The trail leads into Kate’s hidden past, unearthing family secrets that could explode Annalisse’s life.

The cozy, pragmatic everyday of horses, sheep, and farm life, and Annalisse’s own grounded personality, neatly counterbalance the excesses of Alec’s rarified world and the drama of the mystery. The story is welcoming and vibrant, and much of it is nuanced and warm. That care unfortunately falls short in one area: Annalisse’s hateful comments on other women’s bodies—notably her cousin Jillian’s weight—and repeated descriptions of antagonists as ugly. This pettiness risks alienating readers who expect a light, fun story.

The fine mechanics of a whodunit are derailed by multiple subplots and threats—including murder, blackmail, kidnapping, sexual assault, and a love triangle—that undermine one another’s urgency and can make Alec’s romantic gestures feel awkwardly mistimed. Several threads are left unresolved, and the answers to many questions fall into Alec and Annalisse’s laps through accident and luck. But when Bell aims for fun adventure, she hits the bull’s-eye. This mystery will appeal to readers who want to fall into intense moments of danger and lyrical descriptions of breezes rustling through maple trees.

Takeaway: Atmospheric descriptions will draw fans of thrilling stories to this romantic rural whodunit.

Great for fans of Sarah Barrie’s Hunters Ridge series, Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache novels.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: -
Editing: B
Marketing copy: B

Click here for more about Spent Identity

Lynch’s painstaking character work in New Persia: Before the Storm pays off in this riveting, intense sequel. In the far future on a world founded by descendants of Arab and Persian peoples from Earth, Azania has launched an attack on New Persia. Tank commander Basir Turani and fighter pilot Farad Hashemi join with other New Persian forces to repel the attack. Suri Pahlavi and Nasrin Avesta, defying their society’s limitations on the roles of women, play key roles in the defense. Submarine captain Azeri and Azanian tank commander Aran provide crucial new perspectives. As an enormous natural firestorm threatens them all, its immense scale is humanized through a rescue operation. Triumphs and tragedies abound.

Lynch’s expertise is in military tactics, and he clearly depicts the perspective of officers who have to lead in combat. Each chapter is short and packs a punch. The cultural politics from the first book are still factors here, but are more in the background as the story focuses on what it means to engage in total warfare. Lynch’s characters are all capable but far from perfect or invincible, and that lends tension to every encounter.

Lynch is also interested in how technology affects war, as tactics can only go so far when the enemy has superior weapons and vehicles. With the technology on this world at a 1950s level, the introduction of helicopters proves to be a devastating move. There are times when the battle scenes are too dense, especially since so much of the book involves combat, but Lynch always brings the focus back to people, creating a resonant payoff. This is not a good starting place for newcomers, but series fans will be thoroughly satisfied by this installment and breathlessly await the next.

Takeaway: Series fans eager for more of Lynch’s gripping, tense, and detailed battle sequences will get their fill in this thrilling installment.

Great for fans of Edward L. Beach’s Run Silent, Run Deep; Taylor Anderson’s Destroyermen series.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: -
Editing: B-
Marketing copy: B

Click here for more about The Tempest: New Persia Book Two

In this frank memoir, Herrig (Forever Joy) describes surviving many troubles and retaining her optimism. Her childhood was idyllic until her senior year of high school, when her parents divorced. Her “sketchy years” began then and culminated in a serious heroin addiction. Herrig managed to clean up her act and joined the family business: the Gas Pipe, a head shop. The family’s holdings soon grew to include other businesses. Marriage, the birth of her twins, and divorce all followed before Herrig found true love with the manager of a fishing lodge in Alaska. Just when Herrig’s happiness seemed complete, the government seized the business’s assets and prosecuted Herrig and her father for the sale of synthetic marijuana, a hugely profitable product that Herrig believed was legal.

Herrig’s memoir is a perceptive portrait of someone who’s learned that “greed itself can be addicting.” Humble sometimes to the point of self-deprecation, she accepts full blame for every mistake she’s made while giving God all the credit for everything that went right. Though she acknowledges that her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment were devastating, she counts the cancer as a blessing because it delayed her trial and gave her time to bring on better attorneys. At times this relentless positive attitude is grating, though it’s unquestionably sincere. Balancing it are direct critiques of the aggressive prosecution.

Herrig is still in “survivor mode,” but she has come to the realization that “our strength is not defined by what we have but rather by who we are – the decisions we make, how we treat others, and how we live our lives.” A feel-good, faith-based memoir about being prosecuted for selling herbal incense seems implausible, but Herrig makes it work, and readers looking to immerse themselves in positivity will enjoy her story of finding “the rainbow” that follows the years of storms.

Takeaway: This frank and moving memoir about choices and regrets will especially appeal to Christian readers looking for a feel-good, faith-based story.

Great for fans of Kevin McCarthy’s Blindspots: Why Good People Make Bad Choices, Edward Snowden’s Permanent Record.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: -
Editing: B
Marketing copy: B

Click here for more about No More Dodging Bullets

Serrell’s second novel (after Fall Rotten) follows a former FBI agent who returns to undercover work after serving prison time. Elise McNeil’s stealthy skills are valuable enough for her to be recruited by a shady security firm as soon as she’s paroled. Eager for money, she agrees to a job following Cuban-Hawaiian grifter Mia Garcia, whose high-stakes con games take them around the world. As Elise falls under the spell of the magnetic Mia, she begins to wonder whether Mia knows that Elise has been hired to keep tabs on her. Meanwhile, the Secret Service takes an interest in Elise. When Elise and Mia encounter a powerful man in Busan, all their plans fall apart and Elise is left in a desperate situation.

Serrell explores Elise’s history with flashbacks—to her childhood, the death of her biological mother, battles with her sisters, and involvement with various criminals, among other events—but the delineation between the present and the past is not always clear. The frequent jumps to different periods interrupt the flow of the main narrative, and characters from various eras pile up without receiving much development. The purpose of Elise’s journey becomes clearer towards the novel’s conclusion, but the slow plot doesn’t benefit from a sudden final rush of happenings.

Elise is a complex character. Her mixed-race heritage (African-American father, white South African mother) leaves her feeling like an outsider in both her parents’ cultures, and her facial scars, which she’s always conscious of, isolate her further. Her family and professional history and ambiguous morals set her up as someone who can go nearly anywhere and do nearly anything. She’s equally comfortable nannying her sister’s infant daughter in Belgium, flirting with a 16-year-old barista in Iceland, and shooting a former associate in the head in Los Angeles. Even when the story drags, readers will enjoy exploring Elise’s fascinating character.

Takeaway: Readers interested in character more than suspense will warm to the intriguing heroine of this twisty novel.

Great for fans of David Baldacci’s A Minute to Midnight, Lee Child’s Blue Moon.

Production grades
Cover: C
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: -
Editing: B
Marketing copy: B-

Click here for more about Don't Tell Mom About This

Comedian Nicholls’s effervescent debut memoir recounts family shenanigans, adventures abroad, and other entertaining and embarrassing experiences with a mix of humor and humility. The book is split into four sections, each one providing a theme for the stories (or “elephants”) it contains. The first section, “A Broad Abroad,” recalls traveling with Nicholls's mismatched family. The standout tale “I Love English” begins with Nicholls joking about her father’s family crest being “a light-bulb, a middle finger, and an Entenmann’s Danish” as a way of introducing a story about a booze-fueled wedding in England. The “Boys to Man” section recalls her dips into the dating pool, including “Mother Nose Best,” set in Wisconsin, in which Nicholls is determined to prove her mother wrong about her foul-smelling boyfriend.

In every story, Nicholls exhibits a gift for description; as she describes screaming a nonstop litany of curses while incompetently driving a stick-shift rental car through Iceland (“I accelerated and the car cried out ‘help me’ ”), readers will both cackle hysterically and want to tighten their seat belts. Her stories of childhood exude a clear love of family while never sacrificing the absurdity of growing up. If readers are looking for a combination of laughing and crying, the “Dearly Departed” section, filled with heartwarming stories of Nicholls’s grandparents, is sure to deliver. Family photos are given hilarious captions to underline that these stories are as true as they are absurd.

There’s no overall arc to the collection, but each anecdote stands well alone. Readers will admire the fluidity with which Nicholls describes her intensely relatable way of stumbling cheerfully through life. Nicholls’s zeal for storytelling about the everyday proves that any event can form the kernel of a good memoir. She sticks the landing by simply bearing and sharing it all.

Takeaway: This laugh-out-loud collection of anecdotes will delight any fan of funny and heartfelt memoirs.

Great for fans of Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Woman, Justin Halpern’s Sh*t My Dad Says.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about Elephants In My Room