American history
‘The Church Committee Report,’ edited by Matthew Guariglia and Brian Hochman
In 1975, a congressional committee led by Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) began investigating possible illegal activity at the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and other governmental agencies that were operating in great secrecy. Its findings, published in 1976, stunned many Americans and led to lasting reforms. As Beverly Gage writes in a foreword to this newly edited version of the report, “No investigation before or since has yielded quite the same shock effect or level of detail.”
‘The Containment’ by Michelle Adams
Sociology
‘The Sirens’ Call’ by Chris Hayes
Mysteries and thrillers
‘Saint of the Narrows Street’ by William Boyle
‘The Jackal’s Mistress’ by Chris Bohjalian
Bohjalian’s latest, inspired by true events, creates a moving tale about the difficult choices people must make in dangerous circumstances. Since her husband, Peter, was captured by the Union army, Libby Steadman has kept the family’s gristmill running on their Virginia farm with the support of a freedman and his wife. As battles rage ever closer to their Shenandoah Valley property, Libby discovers a gravely injured Union soldier. She vows to keep the man alive, just as she hopes a Yankee woman might do for Peter, but hiding him as he recovers proves treacherous.
‘Heartwood’ by Amity Gaige
Gaige’s fifth novel follows a nurse who takes a leave of absence to recover from the stress of the covid pandemic by hiking the Appalachian Trail. When she disappears somewhere in the wilds of Maine, an engaging cast of characters, including a dogged game warden and a salty retiree, race to piece together what happened to her and why. In Book World, Ron Charles called it “a terrifically moving and tense thriller.”
Literary history
‘Jane Austen’s Bookshelf’ by Rebecca Romney
Fiction
‘Dream State’ by Eric Puchner
‘Reboot’ by Justin Taylor
Taylor’s second novel is a very serious story about the perniciousness of conspiracy thinking, wrapped in a very funny yarn about the shallowness of celebrity culture. The humor comes in the form of a TV-world satire, revolving around the relaunch of a beloved teen drama in the vein of “The O.C.” Taylor is putting a present-day spin on the kinds of concerns that Don DeLillo stuffed his novels with in the ’70s and ’80s, and he seems inspired by his predecessor’s paranoia — by the idea that living in a mediated reality is messing with our heads.
‘Tartufo’ by Kira Jane Buxton
‘How to Sleep at Night’ by Elizabeth Harris
Harris’s first novel is about Ethan and Gabe, a married couple whose lives are upended when Ethan, a lawyer who many years earlier was a staffer in the office of the New York attorney general, decides to reenter politics and run for an open congressional seat. The book is full of warmth, depth and engrossing storylines.
‘Too Soon’ by Betty Shamieh
Shamieh’s debut novel emerges from a robust theater career: She is a Guggenheim fellow, playwright, actor and artistic director. “Too Soon” grafts elements of theater and novels to give us intergenerational romantic quests, feuds and betrayals on a Shakespearean scale, filtered through the present-day story of a struggling mid-career director who reluctantly agrees to stage an Arabic translation of “Hamlet” in the West Bank.
‘Witchcraft for Wayward Girls’ by Grady Hendrix
Hendrix’s best-selling books take classic horror tropes and twist them, daring readers to accept new forms. His latest follows a teenage girl in 1970 who is sent to a maternity home in St. Augustine, Florida, after becoming pregnant. It does include witchcraft, but it also explores the found families people in difficult situations acquire, coven or not.
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