In this vivid, personable biography, debut authors Palmer and Robbins recount the rise and fall of restaurateur Joseph Costanzo, Jr., and his renowned restaurant, the Primadonna. In 1985, Costanzo, a second-generation Italian, buys a restaurant space in McKees Rocks, a rough-and-tumble neighborhood a mile from Pittsburgh, Pa., and names it after his loving wife, Donna. Thanks to Costanzo’s persistent marketing strategies, the Primadonna flourishes. But rumors of a mafia connection attract the scrutiny of the Internal Revenue Service, which charges him with tax evasion. Threatened with up to ten years in prison, Costanzo must prove his innocence or face the consequence of disastrous bookkeeping.

One author is a natural expert on Costanzo’s biography—Palmer is his daughter and figures into key life events. Recounted in Joe’s first-person point of view, his voice exudes local color and nostalgia about his choices. In addition, celebrity visits, bar fights, and newspaper articles filled with culinary accolades enliven descriptions of the everyday life of a restaurant owner and manager. Readers will celebrate with the Costanzo family when the Primadonna garners a much-coveted five-fork review from a hard-headed food critic and bite their nails as Costanzo faces the possible loss of everything he has strived to build.

Perhaps most enjoyable are details of Italian cuisine such as meeting patrons’ demand for tiramisu after the release of Sleepless in Seattle, mouth-watering descriptions of Joe’s fried zucchini hors d’oeuvre, and his famous salad dressing, eventually stocked in grocery stores. Joe’s ceaseless generosity, sensitivity to criticism, and harsh temper reveal a complex, compelling individual. Palmer and Robbins portray over two decades in the life of a vivacious man who brought high-class, authentic Italian food to a community and beyond.

Takeaway: Tantalizing peek at a notorious restaurateur’s life and culinary art.

Comparable Titles: Daniel Meyer’s Setting the Table, Bill Buford’s Heat.

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

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Conspiracies terrestrial and extra- power O'Connor’s swift, surprising debut, a thriller of alternate realities, mad preacher politicians, and alien intervention in Earth’s affairs—secrets stumbled upon by Mason Plater, a cameraman on documentaries. Mason first experiences something strange when he’s filming in the “Dead Zone” ward of a mental hospital and a comatose patient seems to move. Soon, on a beach, he encounters what seems to be Gail Hartston, the comatose woman from the hospital, possessed of intimate knowledge about the headaches he’s been suffering. Soon, Mason begins missing time, in the sense of classic UFO abductee stories, and desperately trying to remember whatever he can about the potentially cosmic mystery embroiling him.

The pleasures of this crisply told page-turner come from O’Connor’s deft handling of reader expectations, especially as what Mason is facing seems connected to the highest echelons of global power. As Mason and intern Molly investigate, in brisk and tantalizing scenes, a secret society and the manipulation of dreams, on both sides of the Atlantic, seemingly nefarious political forces are keeping secrets: the U.K.’s home secretary monitors an experiment involving the brain waves of the comatose, and in Dallas a megachurch pastor turned senatorial candidate takes dark action when an investigative journalist starts asking tough questions about the Church of the Reformation.

Bursts of action, creepy rituals, head-spinning revelations, and intimations of the supernatural deliver genre thrills, while O’Connor smartly games out the impact these developments could have on fictional but plausible political situations. Planting mysteries enough for the series to come, O’Connor draws on UFO abduction lore (including weird implants), the alternate realities of cyberthrillers, and even fun cults-and-demons hokum to conjure a horror-tinged urban fantasy that does something rare: it truly surprises, especially as a mismatched group faces the Others and an impossible machine. Despite the swift pace, the book’s hefty length and sweeping plot is at times daunting, though the companionable characters help (especially techie Zach). A promising start to the series.

Takeaway: Creepy, ambitious thriller of conspiracies, other realities, and major surprises.

Comparable Titles: Paul Cornell, Charles Stross.

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

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“In the cedar-scented breeze of Lebanon, there came the smell of gunpowder,” writes Bhattacharjee in this impassioned debut, a romantic tragedy deeply invested in faith, class, art, love, exploitation, and the Lebanese civil war. The story centers on the unjust relationship between two families in Lebanon near the end of the 20th century. Two generations ago, the Chehabs fled Turkey as refugees with dreams of a better life, but establishing themselves in Lebanon meant securing the sponsorship of a “kafeel”—in this case the wealthy Ahmed family—and taking on extraordinary debt that, in the narrative present, still shackles the Chehab descendants to the Ahmeds. As sectarian war throws the nation and its economy into turmoil, Anas Chahab, a woodworker and furniture maker with a deep love of art, finds his debts mounting, especially as his money-and-power-hungry boss,Ibrahim Ahmed, uses his business to “grind” others down.

Then Ibrahim offers Anas a wrenching deal: the Ahmeds will clear the generational debt if Anas’s daughter Sareena marries Ibrahaim’s son Asif. But Sareena, a Sunni dreamer with bold ideas about women’s roles in society, is already in love with Calvin, a Lebanese Maronite Christian—and also the novel’s narrator. Bhattacharjee invests this classic setup with a ripe sense of poetry, as Sareena and Calvin express their love in rich metaphorical dialogue: “I must sip the honey of your deeps, so you’ll bloom in my fondling.” That’s matched by incisive considerations of the religious and class conflicts shaping these lives, as Bhattacharjee addresses, with clear eyes, economic concerns, the rights of women, cross-faith romance, and more—even “Beirut’s biggest art heist.”

The prose alternates between the strikingly evocative and the uncertain and hard-to-parse: “Hurling barbarous reminders at her would be his final throw if savagery ever laid its claim on him!” There’s many lines like that, diminishing clarity and narrative momentum, meaning there’s unfortunate barriers between readers and the heart of this humane, ambitious novel.

Takeaway: Romantic tragedy of class, exploitation, and love in war-torn Lebanon.

Comparable Titles: J.D. Neill’s Disintegration, Hanan al-Shaykh's Beirut Blues.

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

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Croft (The Wayward Spy) picks up on the newest adventure of journalist/spy Michael Vaux, as he's tricked by his old bosses in British intelligence into investigating a potential coup in Egypt. Vaux is recovering from an assassination attempt as the story begins, convalescing with his girlfriend Anne. When the British spy agency learns of a radical Egyptian officers’ plot, Vaux gets dispatched to the same boat going up the Nile as the radicals. Double-crosses turn the operation into a fiasco, but the doggedly determined Vaux is able to root out an even deeper betrayal.

Fans of good old-fashioned geopolitical spy thrillers will find a lot to like with Croft's array of quirky spies, informants, and agitators. Croft loves the mechanics and jargon of spy stories so much that he injects phrases like "back in from the cold" to let the reader in on the joke. He spends a lot of time on the inner workings of MI6, both as a way of detailing the particulars of operations like this but also to show how bureaucracy, office politics, and personal rivalries impact international espionage as though it were a typical office job. Vaux is smooth and unflappable but also relatable, more clever everyman than superhuman hero. His greatest ability is being able to read others and act accordingly. Croft also gives all of the supporting players distinct personalities and motivations, creating a colorful cast that avoids clichés.

The action on the boat is appropriately tense and exciting, so much so that the final part of the book feels like a bit of a letdown, though that seems Croft's intent: not every spy caper has a clean beginning and ending. Most of the time, it's not about abductions and shoot-outs; instead, it's about paperwork and documentation, realpolitik rather than derring-do. Fortunately, Vaux is the right man for spy hijinks as well as spy drudgery, and Croft makes both entertaining.

Takeaway: Exciting but down-to-earth international spy thriller.

Comparable Titles: Olen Steinhauer’s The Cairo Affair, Mark Greaney’s Gunmetal Gray.

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

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A touching memoir of a life that began in 1920 and then stretched over a century of love, laughter, loss, and success, Lady Slippers shares the story of Bernice Dietrich, a spunky child, through her journals and the reminiscence of Melissa Bini, the granddaughter who calls her “Gram”—and notes, touchingly, that Dietrich’s life was bookended by global pandemics. Between them, growing up on a Staten Island of woods, truck farms, factories, train yards, and much “freedom and exploration,” Dietrich faced the Great Depression, the second World War, and the boom times and turbulence that followed, all recounted here with an inviting conversational spirit.

Dietrich’s exciting account of everyday wildlife while growing up will delight readers who are more familiar with the steel and concrete landscape of the island today, though the funny story of encountering an apple-stealing rat in their Wilde Avenue home the night after her wedding remains entirely contemporary. Such engaging details transport readers into the era-defining hardships the family endured, like lack of work and having to glue new soles onto worn shoes during the Depression, or the attack on Pearl Harbor three months after her wedding to Henry Dietrich. (A draft notice inevitably follows.) Also moving is Dietrich’s account of the premature birth of their firstborn, and Dietrich’s daily bus trips to nurse the infant at the hospital.

Dietrich’s photos serve as timestamp milestones for readers to visually experience these moments, including the couple on their wedding day, with Dietrich in a classic lace dress, and all their hopes pervading from youthful smiles. Dietrich’s family continued to grow, and the memoir captures the essence of their lives, loves, successes, celebrations, and the starting of families of their own. Through it all, Dietrich shares the things that fascinated her, from the gadget that allowed an aunt with a broken neck to read books, to a closing insight into how nature endlessly renews itself.

Takeaway: Touching memoir of life and love on Staten Island, from the 1920s to Covid-19.

Comparable Titles: George T. Wright’s Starting from Staten Island, T.H Watkins’s The Hungry Years.

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

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Marking the day of adoption as a celebration, this gentle rhyming picture book presents a short, sweet, and heartfelt look at the joy to be found in adding a new member to a family by way of adoption. Pastel-hued colored pencil illustrations add to the uplifting and cheerful tone of the book, with round-faced smiling family members of all ages and skin tones found across all the pages. Simple in premise, Chosen from the Heart delivers a borderline overly sweet celebration of adoption that will most likely appeal to the parents adopting children rather than the children themselves.

Berning-Bowman notes in an “About the Author” section that the story is inspired by her family’s experience fostering (and later adopting) when she was a teenager. Berning-Bowman writes from the point of view of an adopted child, describing a family’s tradition of celebrating adoption day, the “day I met my father and mother,” mostly in upbeat generalities: “Love makes a family / no matter where you start.” Despite the first-person narrator, there’s not much story here, as Berning-Bowman depicts a diverse array of kids and families, united in the warmth and love of her inviting illustrations, both remembering the day of adoption and relishing togetherness in the present. The emphasis in the art is on the kids themselves, as the adults’ faces are out of frame save for hints of smiles.

What Chosen from the Heart lacks in nuance it makes up for with heart, offering a kind-hearted and joyous celebration of a big day for any family who chooses to adopt. The retro style colored pencil illustrations add to the overall twee feel, which is played up by the simple rhyming text and the dainty drawn hearts in the corners of every text page. Well-meaning family members looking to welcome adopted children into their family or those looking to support parents adopting children will certainly find validation and positive reinforcement of this major life change.

Takeaway: Heartfelt call for the day of adoption to be commemorated with celebration.

Comparable Titles: Todd Parr’s We Belong Together, Ame Dyckman’s Wolfie the Bunny.

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

Click here for more about Chosen from the Heart

The climactic book of Dzikowski’s multi-generational Moon Trilogy saga (following The Last Moon Before Home) reconnects the Ziemny, Trudeau, and Roberts families in a search for a murdered preacher’s Bible, a precious family heirloom that once belonged to a great-great-grandfather who was born and died in slavery. Leon Ziemny replanted willow trees as atonement for his absence during his late wife Noël Trudeau’s pregnancy, and now Leon and Noël’s daughter, Willow, named after the trees her mother loved, seeks refuge in her namesake town, after leaving behind her artist’s dream in New York. On the day of Willow’s return, Booker Roberts meets Leon, hoping to finally locate his murdered brother Raymond’s long-lost Bible, which Booker believes was buried with Willow’s grandmother, Lily Trudeau.

The Fireweed Moon touchingly contrasts the Americas of 2017 and the 1950s, especially when it comes to race and faith. Leon, Willow, and her half-brother agree to exhume Lily’s grave, while more messages from the past, in the form of letters and family testimonial, reveal Lily and Raymond’s interracial love affair in the ‘50s, which resulted in Raymond’s murder. Unfortunately, the same biases haven’t gone away in the novel’s present, as exhibited by the Crosswinds of Eden Community Church megachurch members and Reverend Tommy Brookdale, who fuel the flames of racial hatred and “In-vaders!”

Meanwhile, Lily’s letters reveal how Reverend Roberts preached eloquently generations ago a message that still urgently resonates, how “To be a sensitive person is to suffer” and that transcending the human impulse toward fight or flight means “trusting in each new moment of each new day, not in yesterday, not in tomorrow, but in right now—where God is.” Readers of humane stories that don’t shy away from life’s darkness will be moved as Willow, too, must decide whether to fight or flee again as the community threatens her sobriety and safety. This entry compels on its own, but readers are advised to start with the first book

Takeaway: Resonant finale to a humane multi-generational saga of American families.

Comparable Titles: Maisy Card’s These Ghosts Are Family, Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s The Shape of Family.

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

Click here for more about The Fireweed Moon

Nineteen-year-old “defender of the dead” Chris Chandler, hero of The Mortsafeman Trilogy, is back in a pulse-pounding new horror adventure filled with vengeful spirits and historical relics. Eager to leave his demons in the rearview mirror, he waves goodbye to America and crosses the Canadian border, where he naively accepts a too-good-to-be-true college scholarship under the tutelage of Professor Ignatius Greyson. Unbeknown to Chris, Greyson is in hot water with the college and the professor’s only path forward is by digging up mysteries of the past. He ropes Chris into a quest to secure an ancient amulet with possible mythical powers and a unique connection to epochal 20th century crises. Now, Chris once again finds himself in a battle between life and death, this time involving dark rituals and an inhuman awakening from folklore, but has his luck finally run out?

Readers unfamiliar with the earlier books in the Mortsafeman Trilogy will feel quickly welcomed into this one, though reading the earlier entries (starting with Dead Scared) is a pleasure. Blake efficiently draws in new readers by sprinkling concise background details and summations of past events throughout the harrowing story at precisely the necessary moments, without slowing momentum. Chris serves as a complex protagonist with intriguing and unique supernatural abilities. Several familiar faces return in welcome encores, while enticing new villains and heroes drive the suspense forward and raise the dynamic stakes. Together, this large ensemble cast explores themes of power, revenge, and redemption.

Elements of Jewish folklore sit at the heart of this gripping mash up of fantasy and horror. These unique elements serve as a creative foundation for thrilling twists, rancorous ghosts, and rage-filled demons, all of which make this fast-paced, deeply engrossing tale a welcome—and thoughtful—genre bender. In addition to the potent suspense, some gnarly descriptions will jolt and delight fans of visceral imagery masterfully invoking a delicious dose of stomach-churning nausea. Readers will settle into this riveting narrative and enjoy the gripping ride.

Takeaway: Thrilling fantasy-horror series comes to a strong end steeped in folklore.

Comparable Titles: Bari Wood’s The Tribe, Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House.

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

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Author and educator Sherr steps out of the realm of homeopathy textbooks and journal articles and into the world of fiction to tell the gripping and charmingly illustrated story of pre-teen best friends Beryl and Carol. Their lives are transformed after a game of kick-the-can ends in a frantic sprint from a group of bullies, who chase the duo into the Forbidden Forest of their English country village. This feels “like jumping off the edge of the universe,” as the girls leave behind their lives of math homework and basketball practice for adventure involving hidden caves, treasure maps, and greedy foes seeking the girls’ downfall at every turn.

The appealing heroes have been best friends since birth, hardly ever apart, living in adjacent cottages beside a river that is their source of joy and play. Their bond strengthens even more after a surprise discovery in the forest leads them on a treasure hunt with much higher stakes than mere material wealth. Sherr blends strong characterization and the quest plot with real-world concerns. Due to the town’s economic hardships related to rural gentrification and the local textile factory’s closing, Carol’s family is being forced to sell their house and shatter the girls’ lives for good. That makes the hunt all the more urgent: the only way to save their town is to find the treasure.

Beryl and Carol’s journey takes them mountain biking through the woods, boating down the river, caving behind waterfalls, and burrowing into the hollows of old trees, and though they face various hardships along the way, they follow their motto no matter what: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Kids in the middle-grade age group will easily fall in love with Sherr’s fast-paced, lively writing style and his two unlikely, ice-cream-loving heroes who “dared to follow an empty can into the unknown.”

Takeaway: An exhilarating treasure hunt to save a town from economic ruin.

Comparable Titles: Roshani Chokshi’s Aru Shah and the End of Time, G.M. Savage’s ​​Jack Mathias and the Boonetown Bandits.

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

Click here for more about The Noble Adventures of Beryl and Carol

O’Neill’s debut, a memoir, is the inspiring life story of a hardworking high school football coach and his eventual fight against cancer. At 16, though Mike decides to quit football, an opportunity to coach his kid brother’s team kindles in him a lifelong passion for football coaching. As injuries end his baseball career in college, and romance and marriage usher in the responsibility of providing for a young family, he shelves his dream and becomes a salesperson instead, doing well financially. A chance comment by a friend leads him to eventually becoming a teacher and football coach. Decades later, a shocking throat cancer diagnosis throws life out of gear.

Narrated in a straightforward, often conversational prose, O’Neill’s account of his life story brings out two outstanding qualities: his positive attitude and his commitment to working hard. Despite setbacks, he moves forward relentlessly, both in living life and in telling the story. He exhibits little regretful or dwelling upon the past, whether about wrong decisions, injuries, or disruptions due to reasons outside his control. He takes stock, evaluates his resources and moves forward with determination, never shy of working hard. His upbeat, get-it-done attitude, the hallmark of a coach, remains the same even when it comes to fighting cancer.

Another heartening element of Don’t Back Down is the love story at its heart, as O’Neill frequently acknowledges that he is extremely lucky to have found a soul mate in Beth. Without an understanding and supportive spouse, his life’s most dramatic transitions—from a highly paid corporate job to following his dream into the comparatively lower paid job of a teacher—would not have been possible. Disappointingly, the narrative does not describe the transformative process of slowing down post diagnosis even while the author admits that both he and his wife have lived life in the fast lane. Though heavy on coaching jargon, O’Neill’s memoir is an inspiring, fast-paced memoir as exciting as a tightly contested game.

Takeaway: Inspiring memoir of high school football coach’s fight against cancer.

Comparable Titles: Edward Ulloa’s 27: A Football Coach’s Memoir, Michael DiMatteo’s Confessions of a High School Football Coach.

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

Click here for more about Don't Back Down

With a mix of practical advice, entertaining anecdotes, and welcome wit, Lowengard’s charming and insightful account of a New Yorker’s life in a country house in mountainous Bucknoll Hills, Pennsylvania, will please readers interested in cottage living—or any urban dweller who recognizes the truth in Lowengard’s declaration that “if you don’t feel the urge to leave town at least three times every two weeks, you’re not really living in the City.” In candid and relatable chapters that originated as newspaper columns, Lowengard takes us on her country house journey, sharing amusing stories, personal reflections, and worries about ticks, bears, and those “decluttering consultants roaming the Earth charging the same hourly rates as your estates and trusts attorney.”

While the book's structure is slightly disjointed, with a collection of anecdotes that resemble individual vignettes more than a cohesive narrative, it doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment of the book. Readers will feel as if they’re right there with her, as Lowengard's writing style is light-hearted and conversational, making it easy to connect. Whether she's discussing waste removal processes, introducing new urbane habits to Bucknoll (she jokingly refers to herself as “the Baroness of Bucknoll Yoga”), considering the challenges of naming a cottage, or exploring the local games and traditions, her sharp eye and winning comic timing always shine through. She wonders if one succeeds at a “Mensa Select” board game like Blokus, “might one bypass the tedious Mensa Admission Test and gain entry into this club to which you might or might not want to be a member?”

It's worth noting that this book may be most appealing to those specifically interested in cottage living or looking to gain insights into the unique challenges and joys of life in a place like Bucknoll, which enjoys just three seasons: Winter, Mud, and Summer. For those in the target audience, The Bucknoll Cottage Chronicles is a big-hearted yet sharp-witted companion to navigate the world of cottage living.

Takeaway: Sharp-witted look at a New York writer’s Pennsylvania cottage life.

Comparable Titles: Chris Stewart’s Driving over Lemons, Christopher Ingraham’s If You Lived Here You'd Be Home By Now.

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

Click here for more about The Bucknoll Cottage Chronicles

Family team David Pridham, Emberli Pridham, and Brooke Pridham take readers on a vibrant journey through the New York City fashion scene in this appealing story, the sixth in their If Not You, Then Who? series (after It’s a Very Merry Christmas). Young protagonist Brooke is elated to be visiting her cousin Delfi, an up-and-coming fashion designer, in New York City for a tour of all things couture. And Delfi has a fun-filled trip planned, complete with tours of designer stores, insider tips on the latest trends, and even front row seats to her latest design competition. Amongst all the glamor, the authors sprinkle real-life fashion stories and educational tidbits.

Adult readers, too, will find much to appreciate here. Fashion’s history is explored, as is the background of United States patents, including several noteworthy patents obtained over the years. Of particular note are the authors’ vignettes on different fashion-related items and their transformations over time: sunglasses have been around since prehistoric days, when the Inuits of Canada utilized them to protect their eyes from the sun’s glare; women’s nylons skyrocketed in popularity during the 1939 World’s Fair; and neckties have been transformed from their role in Croatian military uniforms to their eventual white-collar job usage around the turn of the 20th century. Ronquillo’s graphics are as colorful and dynamic as the book’s fashion choices.

Brooke and her family, of course, get to learn fashion’s secrets firsthand—and share in Delfi’s excitement when she wins runner up in her competition. When Brooke shares her admiration for Delfi’s success, her mom wisely advises her to follow her own dreams much like her cousin has: “No dream is too big, no dreamer too small. Everyone starts somewhere.” To build on that theme, the authors include a link to their Young Inventor’s Club with monthly STEAM activities.

Takeaway: A chic journey through the history and present of the fashion world.

Comparable Titles: Dana Thomas’s Fashionopolis, Katey Howes’s Be a Maker.

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

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The second in Marie’s Nature’s Li’l Samaritans series (after The Carpenter Bee) is inspired by the author’s experience rescuing an injured hummingbird. The story begins with a rainbow collage of hummingbird facts, shared in first-person perspective by the book’s hummingbird narrator—a real Anna’s hummingbird that was saved by the author and her wife, after being found weak and hungry on the pavement. As the narrator invites readers to “soar with me into the sky and see things as I do,” readers are treated to an insider’s glimpse of a day in the life of hummingbirds, complete with fun facts (did you know that hummingbirds can dive at speeds up to 60 mph?) and gorgeous scenery.

Marie’s love for these small but powerful birds is evident throughout as she brings their fiercely fragile existence to life. Readers will learn about the birds’ appetites, the half-dollar sized nests they build, and their fondness for baths, among other fascinating facts, all set against the backdrop of kaleidoscopic nature shots of vivid parks, flower gardens, and more. The book’s central hummingbird speaks in reverent tones of being saved by Marie—“swaddled in warmth, a tiny, healing cup”—and shares the lifesaving measures that restored its health, including special dropper feedings. That spirit of kindness flits across every page, as the narrator shares several ways readers can help hummingbirds—and other important creatures—to not only survive, but thrive.

Despite some minor structural issues, the book is as charming and vibrant as the birds it features, and Marie includes a glossary and traceable outlines of common hummingbird types at the end for readers to color: whether it’s Rivoli’s brilliantly hued hummingbird or the jeweled Mexican Violetear, young fans will relish the chance to get up close and personal with these tiny legends—a gentle reminder that, in the end, “we matter one and all.”

Takeaway: Kaleidoscopic exploration of the gentle power of hummingbirds.

Comparable Titles: Patricia A. Thorpe’s Harry the Hummingbird, Robert Burleigh’s Tiny Bird.

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

Click here for more about Rhyme of the Aged Hummingbird

As the title suggests, Rose’s second novel (after The Sorting Room) takes on the theme of photography, especially the lively intelligence that goes into selecting and capturing a fixed moment in time. The story centers on the remarkable Coty Fine, introduced as a young woman and photographer “in the damp hotbox” of Vietnam in 1954, and follows her until after her death decades later. Encouraged by her wealthy grandfather Sheldon Fine, her benefactor “in the pursuit of art,” Coty has cultivated an eye for “the unusual in any setting.” In Southeast Asia, the unusual is the French priest Laurent Sabatier, with whom she enjoys a surprising connection and soon falls in love. Against her parents’ disapproval, bold Coty returns home to San Francisco to deliver and raise twin girls, Odette (Jette) and wild, artistic Noémie.

Rose’s prose is evocative and captures the beauty of rural Vietnam, tropical Africa, and urban and temperate San Francisco with grace and precision. It also portrays all-too-human dilemmas and confusions with clarity as the novel surveys Coty’s passage through bumptious years, as dark rooms give way to computer manipulation of images, and as tragedy comes to her family. Coty is a remarkable character, her personality, hopes, concerns, and art will grip the interest of readers fascinated by the lives of trailblazing women. The supporting cast, too, is varied and engaging, especially Madeleine, Coty’s crossword solving friend, NaaNaa Joshi, the master carpenter, and Matheo Aubert, another French-speaking priest and a compelling love interest for Evelyn.

Split into four parts, the novel’s form is as bold as its protagonist, leaping over decades, at times giving just a page or two to devastating developments but investing great imaginative energy into the everyday textures of life, such as how a character holds a newspaper or uses a phone. This richness of detail suggests Coty’s way of seeing the world: one crucial image at a time, each suggesting the complex context of a moment, era, or life.

Takeaway: Vivid, formally inventive story of a photographer and her family, over decades.

Comparable Titles: Mira Jacob’s The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing, Chloe Benjamin’s The Immortalists.

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

Click here for more about Beyond a Thousand Words

In his ambitious survey, Varner compares the three great monotheistic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in their rules for behavior, giving history and a typology. He views these rules in four categories: Moral Rules, General Admonitions, Organizational Rules and Religious Rules. Moral rules cover basic principles of living together, such as admonitions against murder or lying, while general admonitions are principles without specifics. These two categories of rules are often shared across religious traditions and can be derived by reason. Organizational rules determine how societies govern themselves, and they are rare in religious texts themselves. Varner focuses on religious rules, the specific details revealed to prophets, of how to be holy.

Perhaps since Varner anticipates his readers to be less familiar with the Qur’an and Hadith than other religious texts, he spends more pages discussing Islam’s relationship with religious rules than Christianity and Judaism, taking care to show the broad scope of legal and faith traditions within Islam and including a helpful appendix with extensive quotes from the Qur’an and Hadith, plus extensive bibliographic notes. He also touches on Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism but doesn’t deal with those traditions in as much depth as the monotheistic traditions.

A History of Religious Rules is well researched and respectful of all the different traditions it discusses, even in its occasional tangents—in a discussion of the “'Woke’ narrative” debated in contemporary U.S. politics, he strives to present complex positions and contested history evenhandedly. Varner is well aware of diversity within and between religions and sketches them out clearly for an educated lay audience. Throughout, Varner endeavors to spread tolerance by making it easier for people to communicate about where they disagree. His typology provides a valuable tool for that communication. Readers of any faith will appreciate Varner’s care as he lays out different types of rules within religions and how they serve our societies or sow dissent.

Takeaway: Illuminating survey of the typology of religious rules across the great faiths.

Comparable Titles: Gil Barrett’s A History of World Religions, John Bowker’s World Religions.

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

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Reese and Dean Walters are back and ready to save the Erutuf National Park from pirates in this second entry in the Erutuf National Park series, following Turtle Tube. Cherry conjures the magic of nature for middle schoolers, as her young sibling heroes fall into unfamiliar territory on the (charmingly fictional) island constituting the Erutuf Park—the vast middle valley, where the kids chat and joke with a bison named Lamar, who roams the land with his herd. Lamar entrusts them with an urgent mission: they must save the park by finding the island’s hidden map and then secreting it in a new spot before the pirates (who look nothing like your average-joe pirates) manage to steal it.

This short chapter book (and series) is perfect for any middle schooler who enjoys adventure stories, the great outdoors, and silly chatter like this: “Want to hear a joke about paper? Never mind, it’s tear-able!” Action-packed and surveying a grandly conceived national park world that bursts with magic and surprises, Bison Blog also offers an engaging educational experience, as the characters reveal facts about the animals, environment, and the planet, while keeping the story lively and fun. Despite the chatty bison and some fanciful touches, like the role of an elixir that’s crucial to keeping the park going, Cherry transports children into a convincing milieu of valley flora, fauna, and terrain that stirs excitement about real-world natural wonders, inspiring curiosity to explore actual national parks.

The child heroes are drawn with personality and spirit—Dean and a friend are excited at the possibility of recreating the park in Minecraft. That spirit of imaginative mapping extends to the plot itself and also to the actual map, at the book’s start, that surveys the island park, displaying the various types of terrains that the Walters siblings will no doubt explore in future books. It's enticing, something for green-minded, future park lovers to pore over.

Takeaway: Playful adventure in a magic national park, perfect for young nature lovers.

Comparable Titles: Nathan W. Landrum’s Treasure off the Coast, Katherine Rundell’s The Explorer.

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

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