Gardner’s debut makes an impassioned case for returning America to economic self-sufficiency and national security via a revival of its once highly productive domestic labor force. Gardner, the proprietor of a highly specialized manufacturing business and son of a mechanical engineer, takes on such economic titans as Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, and Paul Krugman in his defense of tariffs and criticism of so-called free and fair trade, which he calls “disastrous” and “the destruction of countless family-built American businesses that for hundreds of years supported this country.”

Beginning in the years before the American Revolution, Gardner notes how domestic manufacturing was the force behind the phenomenal acceleration of the United States. Homegrown manufacturing nurtured by tariffs played a critical role in the rapidly growing country, he writes, an act that peaked with America’s victory in World War II—and in the international dominance that followed. But as jobs subsequently went overseas in a bid to exploit cheap labor in a post-war economy, it left many once thriving manufacturing-based cities in a wake of desperation.

Gardner argues that in many areas, including in America, free trade has backfired. He points to the lopsided effects of such deals as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the ramifications those deals have had on the working class, both in the U.S. and abroad, producing largely flat wages and a generally declining standard of living amid a growing wealth gap. Gardner also criticizes many foreign competitors for unfair labor practices, environmental degradation, and various abuses—including intellectual-property theft and forced labor—while simultaneously providing an abridged yet illuminating history of labor in the United States. He does leave readers with hope, arguing for a “national, government-funded marketing campaign” to foster our manufacturing industry and notes that “middle-class employment is a guardrail against economic hopelessness and blight.” This is an informative, discerning call to action.

Takeaway: Impassioned case for restoring America’s manufacturing industry.

Comparable Titles: Robert B. Reich’s The System, Farah Stockman’s American Made.

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

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Alive with telling detail, incandescent prose, and fresh insights into her adopted nation and city, Clementi’s sweeping memoir follows her from a childhood in Rome that found her dreaming of New York City, to graduate school in the “bubbly ferment” of Brandeis, near a Boston that is stubbornly not Manhattan; and then to exciting, unexpected opportunities in New York. Her circuitous route at times proves harrowing. She endures relentless sexual harassment as a young writer and thinker in Rome—"America may be militaristic, imperialistic, and hypernationalistic,” she notes, “but it recognizes the right of ‘No’ for women”—and later endures assault and rape during a brief New Jersey marriage.

But Clementi refuses to yield her story to horrible men. Despite moments of tension and heartbreak, South of My Dreams is a richly pleasurable read, its heft and discursiveness lightened by a restless intelligence and a passion for living. Her first days in New York find her falling in love with an Upper West Side diner and then hoofing it all the way down Broadway to the Battery. “What a pity that immigrants’ first impression today is but a frigid airport,” she writes. That energy persists when, in the late 1990s, she finds work as a reporter for the Queens Tribune (“$16,000 a year, no expense reimbursements”) before moving on to Town & Village (for whom she once interviewed a thoroughbred pug), and elsewhere. Apartment hunting, how sex and dating differ from sitcoms, the city’s deep Jewishness, and the surprising way Bill Clinton is responsible for her green card, are all explored with wit and vigor.

A late destination, teased by the title, surprises: Clementi becomes “the eccentric Italian professor of Jewish literature” in South Carolina. That adjustment compels, but Clementi is especially strong on the topic of cities and self-authorship, noting that her New York is a bit of a fantasy but that “I invent it a little too, hoping that my version will make room for me.” NYC lovers will find much to feast on.

Takeaway: Exuberant, incisive memoir of dreaming of and inventing a New York life.

Comparable Titles: Tova Mirvis’s The Book of Separation, David Adjami’s Lot Six.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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Miller’s sophisticated and resonant parable about inequality hits the right tone with empathy and revelation. Seventeen-year-old human, Rikki, is a midnight rider, a racer who rides the fire-breathing hell-horse, Elchron. His racing partner and frenemy, Darian, is a lupista, a wolf-like humanoid with big ears, fur, and a tail. In church, humans and lupista are taught that through the higher power’s grace, lupista successfully protested their enslavement by the humans and now live in peace as equals. Skeptical Darian, who lives with oppression every day, is tired of being told he should be grateful for what lupista have. He tells Rikki that the truth of this “tolerant” society lurks in the church’s basement. There, Rikki encounters a dangerous-looking manticore—part tiger and scorpion with a human face—who convinces him that society still separates humans and lupista. “I bet you never even considered it possible: a world without labeled categories of people,” it said. Rikki makes it his mission to convince the town of the injustice.

Carefully written with allegory, acerbic observation, and the striking details that bring an imagined world to life, the story navigates one side’s propaganda versus the other side’s lived reality: theaters feature lupista actors only as background characters, scientists claim lupista are inferior because their brains are wired differently, and there’s the derogatory name Footsies because lupista don’t wear shoes. At first Rikki is blunt, confronting clueless humans with insults, which only causes more adversity. But when the manticore’s solution is to kill anyone who disagrees, Rikki realizes that Darian and even Elchron have roles to play in making people listen.

With engaging, swift-moving prose, appealing dialogue, and much emotional urgency, Miller’s inventive fantasy setting reveals the truths and lessons we can learn for our own society. This consequential, fast-paced fable is captivating for its diplomacy and heart. A fantastic and timely allegory, this is fantasy at its best.

Takeaway: Relevant fantasy parable about social injustice between humans and werewolves.

Comparable Titles: Susan Dennard’s The Luminaries, TJ Klune’s Wolfsong.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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Seaborne’s twelfth Divisible Man thriller kicks off with welcome vigor, starting with a desperate chase, high stakes, interlocking mysteries, and chapters that fly by, all as series hero Will Stewart takes flight on the trail of his dear friend, Pidge, whose identity may have been compromised by the militant white supremacist group Company W. (She embarrassed them, anonymously, in an earlier entry.) The setup briskly invites in new readers while reminding fans why they have stuck with the series—yet again, Seaborne makes the process of launching a prop plane tense and exciting, and the cast of pilots and law enforcement pros he reintroduces on the (literal) fly proves, as always, irresistible. That dazzling set piece is just the start, though, as Twelfth Knight soon finds Will and his friends rushing to take on Company W in Texas, where a young woman has been murdered—and Company W might have support in the highest echelons of state government.

Further complicating matters for Will is the pregnancy of his better half, Andy, a highly capable police detective who refuses to sit this one out, much to Will’s chagrin. The mystery that follows involves clever ciphers, banking hijinks, and the bloody consolidation of white supremacist power. For all the exciting showdowns and sequences of tension—perhaps the most suspenseful involves an unpiloted plane in airspace it shouldn’t be in—the story is powered by Seaborne’s commitment to testing his characters. Will agonizes over his desire to shield Andy from danger, while FBI agent Leslie, an invaluable source of info, risks her career to help.

Helping Will is dangerous because Will could be—according to feds—“the greatest threat to our national security since Bin Ladin” due to his supernatural powers: the ability to vanish and to unshackle himself from gravity. Seaborne again finds fresh uses for these skills, but his series, admirably, sources its thrills in many other places, too, especially aviation action, smart detective work, and relationships that humanize the superheroics.

Takeaway: Swift, vigorous action thriller in a series that continues to soar.

Comparable Titles: Natalie Zina Walschots’s Hench, James Byrne’s The Gatekeeper.

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

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The latest historical novel from Villhard (author of Company of Women) captivates with a Roarin’ Twenties journey through the leather-helmeted early days of American football. The legendary and charismatic real-life star Harold “Red“ Grange, with his red hair and dynamic playstyle, leaves an indelible mark on the game, symbolizing the era when the sport was raw and unpolished. Grange works as an ice man to build strength in the off-season, before big pro money and agents were the norm. His partnership with opportunist C.C. Pyle connects him with Marion Davies, William Randolph Hearst, and Charlie Chaplin, while two women, Polly and Helen, offer true insights into a man challenged by his overwhelming celebrity.

Sharply told, pulsing with energy, this meticulously crafted historical fiction celebrates the legends but also critically examines the complexities of football’s early years, exploring excessive violence, the financial struggles of teams, and the dawn of mass-media celebrity. For all the crisp excitement of the gridiron action, and the impassioned considerations of questions like who invented the idea of the “running game,” Villhard deftly dramatizes football as business and life, finding fruitful tension between the reputed purity of college football and the perceived greed of the professional ranks, when in truth the pro teams could barely pay players while college coaches and the NCAA profit with increased incomes, intense loyalty, and monumental stadiums.

Villhard’s portraits of legendary figures prove rousing, including George Halas, who builds the league with entrepreneurial ingenuity through his roles as a player, coach, and owner of the Chicago Bears. The era’s vigor fizzes in the storytelling, especially as Grange’s cultural impact, highlighted by his foray into movies, broadens his appeal beyond the gridiron, while iconic writers Grantland Rice and Walter Camp shape the public’s perception of the sport. Preserving the legacy of Red Grange for a new generation makes this a must-read for both football enthusiasts and history buffs.

Takeaway: Exciting novel of pro football’s origins and first superstar.

Comparable Titles: David Neil Drews’s Iron Tigers, James Whitehead’s Joiner.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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This surprising diaristic novel follows a young woman named Lauren who opens her tale with a dispatch from her mother’s womb, in 1989, musing about how the world will see “a proper lockdown”—as in the Covid-19 pandemic—some 31 years later, but that we all begin life in one. The novel that follows charts Lauren’s childhood, student years, and early adulthood, her thoughts, desires, and observations about everyday life (“Is it a fact of life that only mothers can cope with poo,” she wonders), as Lauren recounts happy times with her wealthy family, charts their prodigious intake of Prosecco and cigarettes, muses on the friendships she attempts to maintain even as everyone ages and seemingly grows apart, and considers all that she can become as she excels in school amongst her peers.

Early on, Lauren seizes on the idea, floating in the family, that she could one day be a movie star, and Lauren takes steps in that direction, enrolling in the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. But Lauren's life is changed forever when tragedy strikes and she is forced to grow up fast and adjust to her new normal. Nicholson eschews conventional scenecraft and pacing for summarized reports of Lauren’s experiences that sound like actual diary entries (antsy budgeting; kisses noted; movies logged as viewed). Eight Mile High paints the emotional life and the everyday detail of a determined and intelligent young girl with insight and some playful wit. The novel’s present is like a fog of feeling from which milestones and adversities suddenly emerge or vanish; the storytelling emphasizes how choices become habits and fates become sealed.

Those unusual choices, plus a tendency toward long paragraphs, diminish narrative, though the story, turning on inheritances and what sense Lauren can make of what others want of her, builds to surprising, even noir-ish twists. Eight Miles High covers wide swathes of a young woman’s learning how to live, from crawling to surviving Los Angeles.

Takeaway: A young star-to-be’s surprising coming-of-age, in experimental journal form.

Comparable Titles: Alissa DeRogatis’s Call it What You Want, Bethany C. Morrow's So Many Beginnings.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: N/A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: C
Marketing copy: C

Click here for more about Eight Miles High

Australian student Maxwell’s picture book debut is a sparkling, compassionate fable that takes place at the base of “the Wish Tree, [...] an old enchanted tree [...] in a big, green field in the middle of nowhere.” Where the roots of the Wish Tree enter the soil, fairies founded a metropolis called Sparkle Time City, where they live in harmony among bees, birds, and other creatures of the Wish Tree ecosystem. That harmony is threatened, however, with the arrival of vengeful goblins who have been living in squalor due to the loss of a most prized, magical possession: “the Great Diamond of the Goblins.”

Maxwell’s vibrant illustrations have a lively, imaginative, but still-childish charm that will inspire young readers to consider telling their own stories. Maxwell brings fresh personality and pizazz to the fairies, goblins, and pixies that struggle for peace in the war for the diamond; the author delineates fey personalities through outfit choices and even includes an amusingly precise scale of the creatures’ bodies (“fairies are 100 times smaller than goblins” and “the pixies towered over the fairies but were still much smaller than the goblins.”) Sparkles and glittering stars adorn almost every page, and each creature has its own unique style, expression, and identity, like “Fire Fairy,” whose “wings are like flames,” and the royal goblin family.

Without the diamond, Maxwell presents the goblins’ domain, by contrast, as colorless and dismal; even the light from their bonfires is dull and gray, and after centuries of enjoying the diamond’s magical power given their long lifespans (“goblins live for over 1,000 years”) all they want is their home back. However, their method of getting their home back, centered on assumptions and revenge, creates more problems than solutions. Goblins and human readers both can discover an important lesson in this story from Maxwell, who readers will hope continues to write and illustrate many more.

Takeaway: Charming, glittery story of what happens when goblins make assumptions

Comparable Titles: Sophia Spencer’s The Bug Girl, Ul de Rico’s The Rainbow Goblins.

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

Click here for more about The Wish Tree

McGavin and Cornell’s patient and methodical self-help manual offers both a comprehensive diagnosis of the problems that become the sticking points in people’s lives, and remedies to get unstuck. By “deliberately inviting a felt sense” of what keeps you stuck “and then spending time with it,” rather than ignoring or seeking to vanquish it, we can “untangle,” be happy, and be free. Through a mixture of powerful personal anecdotes, astute theoretical analysis, and concrete, easy-to-follow instructions, McGavin and Cornell have created an indispensable manifesto of personal healing.

The authors draw their techniques for unburdening yourself from past baggage and harnessing your full potential from Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing, a landmark work of psychotherapeutic theory and technique, thoughtfully adapting and translating his ideas for contemporary readers. In doing so, Untangling explores many terms—“getting a felt-sense,” “Parts,” “Self-in-Presence”—which are both key to its power as an actionable resource and its potential undoing. Readers who master these patiently explained and readily understood terms will find that they easily interlock to produce potent, multivalent meanings that can be effectively converted from theory into practice. But this language sometimes slips into the cryptic, and the urgent meaning behind it can become obscured.

Fortunately, McGavin and Cornell are highly trained and intuitive teachers. Their personal stories of overcoming alcoholism and depression ground the ideological advance of the book whenever it becomes unmoored from its pragmatic tracks. Clear analogies also aid understanding, as when they explain “change alone” not being enough to heal: “If the ocean liner is sinking, it doesn’t help to rearrange the deck chairs!” The volume of itemized, actionable information, such as how to practice the five “Powers of Presence” to create an environment conducive to untangling, or “resourcing” to remain “relaxed, open, and energized,” is so ample that it’s hard to imagine the reader who won’t come away better off.

Takeaway: Methodically detailed motivational program for anyone who’s ever felt stuck.

Comparable Titles: Manis Friedman and Rivka GoldsteinCreating a Life That Matters, Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly.

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

Click here for more about Untangling

Raw, tender, lyric, uncompromising, and bursting with life, the second volume of Sullivan’s A Place of Safety series follows 17 year-old Brendan Kinsella as he faces life in the aftermath of the first book’s quite literally explosive climax. To his surprise, he awakens not in the war-torn Northern Ireland city of Derry and the life of poverty to which he had become accustomed. Instead, smuggled out by the IRA, he’s in a wealthy suburban Houston neighborhood—where Americans “lived in fine homes and drove cars as big as barges on the Foyle”—and in the care of an aunt and uncle he’s not sure he can trust. In the U.S. illegally, uncertain whether he’s guest or prisoner, Brendan must adapt to a new identity, a new nation with its own violent fissures, and the guilt he feels over what happened in Derry— and left people he loved dead.

Sullivan’s story covers just a few years of the 1970s, as Brendan begins to find his place, working at a bar and then as a mechanic, experimenting with sex, discovering love, and facing the harsh starkness of American racial and sexual binaries. Again, the narrative voice is intimately insistent, touched with music, frank about dark feelings and events. Even as Brendan finds much to love in his new home—friendships, family, romance, opportunity—the worst of his past bleeds through his consciousness, creating scenes of raw tension when offhand remarks from, say, his scene-stealing young cousins set him spiraling, fighting his own mind.

The ample dialogue and occasional sex are handled with electric vigor, as both author and narrator alike find transcendence in moments of urgent connection, as when Brendan and a girlfriend, who is Black, discuss the roots of hatred in their homelands, or when Brendan and a friend in Israel’s IDF commiserate over what it costs a person to have to kill. For all its density and heft, the novel often moves briskly, at a fierce emotional pitch.

Takeaway: Vigorous, fiercely emotional novel of an Irishman’s coming of age in Texas.

Comparable Titles: Dennis Lehane’s Small Mercies, Sebastian Barry’s On Canaan’s Side.

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

Click here for more about A Place of Safety-New World For Old

Debut author Riley pulls from their own childhood experiences of being bullied to spin this redemptive story of grief, found family, and, above all else, unconditional love. Imari, a young Black boy horribly bullied by his peers—even as he’s tethered to life by his mother’s “blinding glow of acceptance and love”—struggles under the weight of his resentful father, George, who feels trapped by his family duties. Imari’s mother Imani, on the other hand, pours her love into Imari, taking him on adventures and regaling him with creative stories, forming an incredibly close bond that is shattered by her quick and unexpected death from cancer when Imari is in fifth grade.

This is a moving story of a mother’s eternal love, unbroken even by death, and the legacy such a love can bestow on others. Unbeknownst to Imari, his mother arranged for a new white family in the neighborhood, the Antenellis—whose daughter, Andrea, becomes a fast friend for Imari—to be his guardians after her death, a decision that comes with timely protection for Imari. When a neighborhood bully, Bruce, mercilessly torments Imari, Imari decides to take matters into his own hands, launching the two boys on a near-death collision course that’s stopped at the last minute by Andrea’s father, Andrew. Meanwhile, George descends further into destruction, eventually signing over his parental rights to allow the Antenellis to adopt Imari, conceding that Imari has “a right to get some joy in his life.”

From there, Riley paints Imari into a world of new beginnings, with the Antenellis’ care and concern allowing him to start over and later return to his hometown, as an adult, with his own family. Readers will be transfixed as Imari carries his young son Jack down the very same paths he walked with his mother, bringing the “magic and wonder” of her love full circle.

Takeaway: Transfixing story that illuminates the power of a mother’s love.

Comparable Titles: Rumaan Alam’s That Kind of Mother, Claire Lombardo’s Same As It Ever Was.

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

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Williams intertwines past and present, devotion and heartache, in a metaphoric story centered on Ronan Byrne and Emily Walton, two fractured individuals who come together on a bridge in New York City in December 1968, moments before Ronan plans to take his own life. Emily, recovering from a devastating accident, becomes the unexpected savior for Ronan, who is mourning the death of his beloved wife, Carrieann. The supernatural force responsible for uniting the pair later drives their separation, though their subconscious bond remains unbreakable.

The bridge Ronan and Emily meet on serves as a powerful image for their relationship throughout the book, symbolizing connection and the joining of past with present—and illustrating how love can transcend any challenge. Their initial joining is ripe with both spiritual and existential tokens, and, though Williams later shifts the narrative to 1975—where Ronan is managing a business alongside his sister Michelle while Emily runs the Safe Haven Clinic, providing mental health services to veterans and underserved individuals—the pair’s bond endures, tested over decades as buried histories resurface and threaten to untangle the delicate threads of destiny that bind them.

Williams (author of Unexpected Places) seamlessly blends genres, delivering a romance that is achingly tender and realistic, paired with mystery and suspense elements that add welcome tension. The narrative culminates in the COVID 19 era, where the supernatural force unveils itself in a poignant twist of fate that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Ronan and Emily’s journeys illuminate how individuals can find purpose and make a difference in a constantly changing world, making this a thoughtful exploration of personal and societal transformation. Despite occasional moments where the social commentary feels heavy-handed, the enduring love story between Ronan and Emily will keep readers engaged. Ultimately, this deeply emotional and socially conscious fiction is a testament to the power of love.

Takeaway: Emotive, socially conscious story that testifies to the power of love.

Comparable Titles: Christian Kiefer’s The Heart of It All, Gae Polisner’s The Memory of Things.

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

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TED speaker Knill offers a look at her life as a deaf person through the 1960s and 2000s in this eye-opening debut. Having acquired progressive hearing loss due to in utero rubella, she charts out her journey to cochlear implant surgery—all while living in an inaccessible world that demanded countless emotional and technical adaptations from her. Through this, Knill—born at a time when neither accommodation laws nor assistive technology were properly in place—takes readers through both her personal experiences and society’s evolving treatment of persons with disabilities, cautioning readers against “failing to acknowledge hearing loss as a distinct and valid perspective in its own right.”

Knill also aims to educate readers about disabilities in general. Though her wry humor and pragmatic writing keep the memoir lively, the book is information-heavy at times, and that, coupled with a non-linear narrative that jumps across different times in her life, can make for a slightly challenging read. However, readers quickly get used to Knill’s style as the memoir progresses, as she goes a step beyond traditional accessibility talk and puts forth the refreshing concept that disability is not disabling; rather, it is society’s refusal to accommodate that is disabling. Knill opens readers’ minds to a new world, sharing that “a person with a disability might not have chosen their condition, [but] that doesn’t mean they actively wish for another life.”

While Knill’s experiences with disability are front and center here, she also delves into an array of other life circumstances: her childhood and parental dynamics, friendship, faith, community, romance, and work, all with her hearing loss—or “deaf gain” as an alternative term—expertly woven throughout. Knill includes a call-to-action at the book’s close, asserting that “those who claim that diversity goals are discriminatory… dismiss the fact that they have been given a head start; the deck is already stacked in their favor.”

Takeaway: Eye-opening memoir and call-to-action on accessibility for individuals with disabilities.

Comparable Titles: Anne Boyer’s The Undying, Claudia Marseille’s But You Look So Normal.

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

Click here for more about Radio Head Gal

Fablewright’s ambitious and thought-provoking debut delves into the complexities of human existence and the eternal quest for meaning. The novel's protagonist, Edward, serves as a compelling vehicle for the author's philosophical musings, as his journey from successful CEO to a man grappling with divorce and unemployment provides a relatable context for exploring his purpose and role amid his changing circumstances. Fablewright skillfully uses Edward's relationship with his daughter to ground the novel’s more abstract concepts in tangible human connections, as the two orbit around each other in this newfound world, with Edward marveling at “the loss of his previous existence and the hopelessness of it all.”

Fablewright's prose is both engaging and challenging, seamlessly weaving together fictional narrative, historical facts, and scientific concepts, all while making complex ideas accessible without oversimplification. Edward muses on such concepts as the immortality of lobsters, atom-sharing, and the symbiosis between viruses and human survival, prompting readers, also, to ruminate on the twists and turns that comprise this life. Humor woven throughout balances the weightier themes amidst the layers of critical thinking and philosophical prowess, played out in Edward’s rambling conversations with his friend, Albert, where the two probe the limits of the “human machine,” comparing life to children’s board games and wondering if God is more “science geek” or “dictator.”

Readers will be immersed in Edward’s thought processes throughout the lofty narrative, and, though the novel's philosophical digressions may occasionally disrupt the flow, they ultimately contribute to its unique charm. Whether Edward is analyzing his seemingly pointless daily proceedings—questioned by Albert if “survival without purpose might only be consumption”—or working to understand that “purpose is the difference between filling in time and making a difference,” those readers willing to embrace the novel’s unconventional structure will be rewarded with a richly contemplative reading experience.

Takeaway: Intellectually stimulating journey that embraces the wonders of human existence.

Comparable Titles: Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World, Sigrid Nunez’s The Vulnerables.

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

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Writers Pangburn and Shearer team up with cartoonist Nic Touris to tell a single story in two different ways through an intricately crafted “flip book.” Each half of the graphic novel presents the story of two siblings’ trip to Egypt from a different character’s point of view. One half follows the perspective of tween Otto, an aspiring cartoonist who draws stories featuring his own superhero characters. When the book is flipped over, it tells the story of the same Egyptian adventure from the perspective of Nan, Otto’s teenage sister who wants to be a travel blogger like her mother.

Pangburn and Shearer ingeniously weave Otto and Nan's stories together, avoiding repeated scenes while using each character’s different context and viewpoint to cleverly link the two halves of the tale. When the siblings decide to explore a tomb, Otto is tasked with tracking down the spirit of an ancient mummified cat to placate the tomb’s resident mummy, while Nan focuses on searching for the special bracelet she lost in the chaos of their hasty exit. Pangburn and Shearer smoothly integrate historical and contemporary facts about Egypt as the siblings pursue their own goals and work through their conflicts.

While each narrative is satisfying on its own, the different points of view it offers enriches the story in surprising and amusing ways—in Nan’s version of the siblings’ snorkeling trip to the Red Sea, she focuses on how Otto tripped and pushed her into the water, while Otto's version omits that event but reveals a shark Nan didn’t see. The authors’ succinct and vivid prose keep the narrative’s momentum moving briskly forward, and Touris's art is energetic and wildly expressive, giving life to chase scenes and the climactic conflict with the mummy. More than just a gimmick, the book’s novel format will enhance readers’ understanding of the siblings’ conflict and better appreciate their journey toward mutual understanding.

Takeaway: Creatively formatted graphic novel of Egyptian history and sibling relationships

Comparable Titles: Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man series; Judd Winick’s Hilo series

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

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Agent Derrick Faulk is back in Gittlin’s action-packed sequel in his AndroBiotica series, after Nearly Human. When an embarrassing demotion costs him the director job in the Investigative Division of the National Science Service, Faulk teams up with his close friend and innovative entrepreneur, Adrien Mattias—owner of AndroBiotica and best known for creating “nearly Human Androids.” When Mattias discovers, with the help of his employee Kristina Flemming, a near future where tech similar to his is being irresponsibly distributed by Life-Like Technologies, he recruits Faulk’s help to shut down the infringement, setting Faulk on a trailblazing adventure that could forever alter the delicate balance between humans and Androids.

Gittlin pens complex three-dimensional characters and an inventive, unique world that features realistic tech advancements and scientific developments. Derrick Faulk is a no-nonsense agent who excels at keeping secrets and clinching deadly missions, but he falters when it comes to matters of the heart, a problem that only intensifies when he’s tasked with traveling to the future alongside Flemming—and realizes his former flame, Aurora, is also part of the mission. As the two race against time—the protective technology in their body gear lasts only 96 hours before it disintegrates, causing their cells to rupture—to save their future from a certain Android takeover, Gittlin fills the narrative with forbidden romance, covert missions, and the uncertain symmetry between human nature and advanced AI.

Faulk’s mission teems with thrills, and his special skill set, alongside Flemming’s knowledge of time travel, give them the expertise needed for this dangerous cat and mouse adventure. The narrative sheds light on the potential for criminal misuse of AI technology, a timely message for contemporary sci-fi fans, and Gittlin’s out-of-this-world robotics and futuristic elements combine to make this an immersive and turbulent roller-coaster that will hold attention until its final climactic conclusion.

Takeaway: Exiting SF thriller probing the criminal misuse of human-like androids.

Comparable Titles: Martin Tuori’s A Singular Goal, Annalee Newitz’s Autonomous.

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

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Doyon’s witty and poignant debut novel explores the American dream through the lens of a millennial food-truck chef. Set against the backdrop of Washington D.C.'s bustling food scene, the novel follows Arjun Chatterjee, an Americanized Indian immigrant, as he navigates love, ambition, and identity in a world of oversized dreams and precarious realities. With only a trickle of regular customers, Arjun agrees to team up with a diverse group of neighboring food trucks to throw a block party—Gourmet Battle of the Vans—that will get the word out about all the food trucks in the lot.

With prose as flavorful as Arjun’s fusion cuisine, Doyon skillfully uses the food truck microcosm to comment on cultural identity, entrepreneurship, and the search for meaning in modern America. Populated with a diverse cast of chefs, musicians, office workers, and even a rescued pigeon, the vividly drawn characters each add their own unique spice to the community. With their range of backgrounds and perspectives, conflicts do arise within the “food truck family,” but readers will love watching relationships evolve, as when former lawyer-turned-food truck chef Melinda overcomes her ire at itinerant coder Jared for stealing her Wi-Fi and feeds him one of her Burger Bombs because he looks hungry.

While the book's episodic structure occasionally feels disjointed, it ultimately reinforces the unpredictable nature of Arjun’s chosen path and struggling artist’s lifestyle, and his quest for culinary and romantic success is a compelling throughline that will keep readers invested in his journey. The characters’ philosophical musings at times edge toward the heavy-handed, but Doyon blends humor with moments of profound introspection (Arjun enlists the pigeon he rescued in his quest for existential answers). This savory slice of contemporary American life will edify readers who have ever dared to follow their dreams or wondered, "Why am I here?"

Takeaway: Quirky, thoughtful meditation on creativity, purpose and the American dream.

Comparable Titles: Michelle Jauner’s Crying in H Mart, J. Ryan Stradal’s Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club.

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

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