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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13962599\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 830px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13962599\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-12-at-4.11.41%E2%80%AFPM.png\" alt=\"A neon green book cover with a straight white line running diagonally across it.\" width=\"830\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-12-at-4.11.41 PM.png 830w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-12-at-4.11.41 PM-800x1168.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-12-at-4.11.41 PM-160x234.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-12-at-4.11.41 PM-768x1121.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything’ by Nate Silver. \u003ccite>(Penguin Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By the time you finish Nate Silver’s new book, you’ll probably want to do something risky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not for the sake of adrenaline or to the point of being reckless, but because you might be convinced that the occasional gamble — more than most people are comfortable with — is worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13962315']In \u003cem>On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything\u003c/em>, Silver compellingly theorizes that humans are in general too risk averse, and that those who can discerningly fight that impulse often benefit greatly in life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to his day job — which made him a recognizable name — as a forecaster, statistician and writer, Silver is an accomplished poker player. He fittingly, then, begins his analysis of those with high tolerances for risk through a detailed look at the game and those who play it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It turns out, Silver argues, poker players, astronauts and hedge fund managers have more in common than people may assume, even on a physiological level. “The biggest risk is not taking any risk,” Mark Zuckerberg famously said — a widely-held sentiment in Silicon Valley which Silver explores at length in this book.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given his knowledge of and affinity for poker, Silver tends to belabor that lens through which he looks — perhaps to a fault. Those uninterested in stats or strategies may have a hard time getting through this book. But if you don’t mind or are intrigued by the game, Silver eventually broadens his cohort, notably in what might be his most interesting chapter discussing the “habits of highly successful risk-takers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although Silver admittedly spends a lot of time talking about poker, \u003cem>On the Edge\u003c/em> is a thought-provoking interdisciplinary book which covers a host of timely topics from artificial intelligence, political theory and what happens when risk takers go too far.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything’ is out on Aug. 13, 2024, via Penguin Press.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Dolnick transports readers to the early 1800s as discoveries of dinosaur fossils transformed science and the world’s understanding of prehistoric life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was, as Dolnick describes in the book’s opening pages, akin to people today never dreaming of life anywhere beyond Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And then picture that one night a spaceship materialized a few dozen feet above Fifth Avenue and proceeded to make a slow and stately tour of Manhattan,” he writes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13962333\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 832px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13962333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-2.27.29%E2%80%AFPM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring an illustration of a large dinosaur fossil standing atop a formal dinner table. A Victorian man and woman watch on. \" width=\"832\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-2.27.29 PM.png 832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-2.27.29 PM-800x1167.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-2.27.29 PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-2.27.29 PM-768x1121.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party: How An Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures and Accidentally Upended the World’ by Edward Dolnick. \u003ccite>(Scribner)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With a brisk writing style, Dolnick offers an at-times dizzying tour of the discoveries that blindsided the world and the key players in those finds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Harold and the Purple Crayon\u003c/em>, the famed 1955 children’s picture book, is getting the three-dimensional treatment nearly 70 years after its release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The picture book, written and illustrated by Crockett Johnson, follows Harold, a child who can create whatever he can imagine, so long as he draws it with his magic purple crayon. The film adaptation opens with a short animated sequence that gives life to the book’s famous illustrations. But how far can a children’s picture book stretch across an hour and a half-long movie? Not very.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13940133']After the film gets through the book’s story in about a minute, the narrator says that the book’s ending was not the close of Harold’s story. Cut to an animated adult Harold, all grown up but still in a onesie, with his purple sketched friends, Moose and Porcupine, as they venture around their two-dimensional existence and wonder what goes on in “the real world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After some brief exposition and short narration by Alfred Molina, Harold (Zachary Levi) draws a door labeled “Real World” and walks through it. He’s then miraculously spit out in Providence, Rhode Island, as a “real” person. Moose and Porcupine, played by Lil Rel Howery and Tanya Reynolds, respectively, follow through the magical door shortly after. Together, they embark on a mission to find the book’s narrator and author — the “old man,” as they call him — to ask him why he created them and their story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What we get from there is something that feels like a hybrid of characters played by Amy Adams in \u003cem>Enchanted\u003c/em> and Will Ferrell in \u003cem>Elf\u003c/em>: an adult person who left their animated or fantasy world and is incredibly unfamiliar with reality. It’s an entertaining idea to see someone so naive navigating everyday life, but it feels rather derivative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WojIv-PVYm8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much like her character in \u003cem>Elf\u003c/em>, Zooey Deschanel plays Terry, a “real world” woman who is unenthused by our other-worldly protagonist’s antics for the better part of the movie. As the mother of the young and creative Mel (Benjamin Bottani), Terry hits Harold and Moose with her car, and eventually lets them stay at her house after some convincing from her son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Predictably, shenanigans ensue as Harold lacks understanding of how to behave as the adult everyone sees him as (and wreaks havoc with his magic crayon). Levi is terribly earnest as Harold, making his hijinks more endearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13956578']Director Carlos Saldanha, an animation veteran who helmed the \u003cem>Ice Age\u003c/em> franchise and the \u003cem>Rio\u003c/em> movies, keeps the story moving with light humor and fun visuals sprinkled throughout. The imaginative animation over the live-action shots is the movie’s highlight, as Harold can still create anything with his purple crayon in the real world. With more colors and dimensions to play with now, he draws everything from a plane they fly over Rhode Island to Mel’s imaginary pet, which is some sort of dragon-lizard hybrid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plot, again, feels familiar when we meet the villain, librarian Gary, who wants to wield the powers of the crayon to feed his self-serving interests. Gary (Jemaine Clement) uses the crayon to make the fantasy world of his failing book come to life so he can get “revenge” on the publishers who turned it down. As far as conflict goes, it falls a little flat, but it does result in a sweet lesson of empathy; Gary says he just wanted to be in a place where he can fit in and Harold, using the crayon for good, creates that world for him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While much of the movie may feel well-worn, I’d wager many copies of \u003cem>Harold and the Purple Crayon\u003c/em> have seen better days. It’s the kind of children’s book that’s stayed on shelves through multiple generations. Even if the book’s story has been told and the movie’s format has been done before, a movie that reminds us to be imaginative — and that delivers some imaginative visuals to boot — can’t really get old.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ is released nationwide on Aug. 2, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>After the film gets through the book’s story in about a minute, the narrator says that the book’s ending was not the close of Harold’s story. Cut to an animated adult Harold, all grown up but still in a onesie, with his purple sketched friends, Moose and Porcupine, as they venture around their two-dimensional existence and wonder what goes on in “the real world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After some brief exposition and short narration by Alfred Molina, Harold (Zachary Levi) draws a door labeled “Real World” and walks through it. He’s then miraculously spit out in Providence, Rhode Island, as a “real” person. Moose and Porcupine, played by Lil Rel Howery and Tanya Reynolds, respectively, follow through the magical door shortly after. Together, they embark on a mission to find the book’s narrator and author — the “old man,” as they call him — to ask him why he created them and their story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What we get from there is something that feels like a hybrid of characters played by Amy Adams in \u003cem>Enchanted\u003c/em> and Will Ferrell in \u003cem>Elf\u003c/em>: an adult person who left their animated or fantasy world and is incredibly unfamiliar with reality. It’s an entertaining idea to see someone so naive navigating everyday life, but it feels rather derivative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Director Carlos Saldanha, an animation veteran who helmed the \u003cem>Ice Age\u003c/em> franchise and the \u003cem>Rio\u003c/em> movies, keeps the story moving with light humor and fun visuals sprinkled throughout. The imaginative animation over the live-action shots is the movie’s highlight, as Harold can still create anything with his purple crayon in the real world. With more colors and dimensions to play with now, he draws everything from a plane they fly over Rhode Island to Mel’s imaginary pet, which is some sort of dragon-lizard hybrid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plot, again, feels familiar when we meet the villain, librarian Gary, who wants to wield the powers of the crayon to feed his self-serving interests. Gary (Jemaine Clement) uses the crayon to make the fantasy world of his failing book come to life so he can get “revenge” on the publishers who turned it down. As far as conflict goes, it falls a little flat, but it does result in a sweet lesson of empathy; Gary says he just wanted to be in a place where he can fit in and Harold, using the crayon for good, creates that world for him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While much of the movie may feel well-worn, I’d wager many copies of \u003cem>Harold and the Purple Crayon\u003c/em> have seen better days. It’s the kind of children’s book that’s stayed on shelves through multiple generations. Even if the book’s story has been told and the movie’s format has been done before, a movie that reminds us to be imaginative — and that delivers some imaginative visuals to boot — can’t really get old.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ is released nationwide on Aug. 2, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/james-baldwin\">James Baldwin\u003c/a> — a friend of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X — is widely celebrated as a civil rights activist, a writer of forceful essays and an eloquent speaker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But his passion was for storytelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13953475']He wrote seven novels, two plays, several short stories and screenplays. He was arguably the most evocative Black writer of his generation and among the most powerful champions of marginalized characters in the 20th century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, if you know him from film, it is for just \u003cem>one\u003c/em> movie, released in 2018, more than 30 years after his death: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13844783/barry-jenkins-enjoys-doing-laundry-talks-beale-street\">\u003cem>If Beale Street Could Talk\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adapted by \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/12/06/673880336/director-barry-jenkins-talks-on-behalf-of-beale-street\">Barry Jenkins\u003c/a> from Baldwin’s 1974 novel — as a follow-up to Jenkins’ Oscar-winning Best Picture \u003cem>Moonlight — Beale Street \u003c/em>is a swoon-worthy romance about a young woman who seeks to prove the innocence of her wrongly jailed lover before the birth of their child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQXSforT_qQ\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The fire … next time?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The $20 million that \u003cem>Beale Street\u003c/em> earned at the box office suggests that Baldwin’s other novels and plays might also have worked on the big screen. Among them:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cem>Go Tell It on the Mountain\u003c/em>: Baldwin’s 1953 semi-autobiographical novel with a brutal father modeled on his stepfather, who despised white society and took his anger out on his family. (Just before Baldwin died, it was finally adapted for television starring Paul Winfield.)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cem>Giovanni’s Room\u003c/em>: a 1956 novel about a conflicted young American living in Paris who struggles with his feelings for an Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cem>Blues for Mister Charlie\u003c/em>: a 1964 play about the murder of a young Black man in Mississippi in 1955 (the year Emmett Till was lynched). Baldwin dedicated the play to civil rights activist Medgar Evers, who had been slain months before the show opened on Broadway.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cem>Another Country\u003c/em>: a 1962 bestseller set in Harlem, Greenwich Village and France and dealing with interracial, bisexual and extramarital hookups (all taboo at the time), as well as a self-destructive hero.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>But you see the problem: Baldwin was writing in the 1950s and ’60s, when subject matter that was racial, interracial, homosexual or even just extramarital was expressly forbidden by the morality-policing \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2008/08/08/93301189/remembering-hollywoods-hays-code-40-years-on\">Hays Code\u003c/a> that preceded the movie-rating system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That Baldwin was himself Black, gay and outspoken made producing his work all the tougher. Still, he kept trying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961749\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1290px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961749\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-30-at-8.05.53%E2%80%AFAM.png\" alt=\"A young Black woman and young Black man sit close together, their foreheads touching.\" width=\"1290\" height=\"860\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-30-at-8.05.53 AM.png 1290w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-30-at-8.05.53 AM-800x533.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-30-at-8.05.53 AM-1020x680.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-30-at-8.05.53 AM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-30-at-8.05.53 AM-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1290px) 100vw, 1290px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tish (KiKi Layne) and Fonny (Stephan James) in ‘If Beale Street Could Talk.’ \u003ccite>(Tatum Mangus/Annapurna Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>What happens to a dream deferred?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>While interviewing Ingmar Bergman for \u003cem>Esquire \u003c/em>magazine in 1960, Baldwin proposed a century-spanning slavery drama (a project he later pitched to directors Gordon Parks and François Truffaut).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1968, he was working on a screenplay for Alex Haley’s \u003cem>The Autobiography of Malcolm X\u003c/em> but withdrew his script when the studio started talking about casting Charlton Heston as the Black revolutionary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13960144']He came up with a treatment in the 1970s for \u003cem>Giovanni’s Room\u003c/em> that reportedly intrigued both Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sadly, none of those drafts got traction. But he did write a book-length essay on Hollywood, \u003cem>The Devil Finds Work\u003c/em>, which \u003cem>The Atlantic\u003c/em> has called “the most powerful piece of film criticism ever written.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s part memoir, part reflection on dozens of films, from a Joan Crawford/Clark Gable thriller that his mother took him to when he was 7 to the Sidney Poitier-shackled-to-Tony Curtis chain gang drama \u003cem>The Defiant Ones\u003c/em>, which he noted had a self-sacrificing ending that played very differently in Harlem than in white neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baldwin was in many senses ahead of his time, but time has a way of catching up. It says something about his impact that what struck uptight studio heads as problematic when he was alive — that he so loved all his characters, be they Black, white, gay, straight, promiscuous, misguided, whatever — would today be counted as a strength.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, he was confrontational, but to a purpose: As he put it in a phrase that sounds a lot like the ultimate Hollywood ending, “I really do believe that we can all become better than we are.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He wrote seven novels, two plays, several short stories and screenplays. He was arguably the most evocative Black writer of his generation and among the most powerful champions of marginalized characters in the 20th century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, if you know him from film, it is for just \u003cem>one\u003c/em> movie, released in 2018, more than 30 years after his death: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13844783/barry-jenkins-enjoys-doing-laundry-talks-beale-street\">\u003cem>If Beale Street Could Talk\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adapted by \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/12/06/673880336/director-barry-jenkins-talks-on-behalf-of-beale-street\">Barry Jenkins\u003c/a> from Baldwin’s 1974 novel — as a follow-up to Jenkins’ Oscar-winning Best Picture \u003cem>Moonlight — Beale Street \u003c/em>is a swoon-worthy romance about a young woman who seeks to prove the innocence of her wrongly jailed lover before the birth of their child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/CQXSforT_qQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/CQXSforT_qQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003ch3>The fire … next time?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The $20 million that \u003cem>Beale Street\u003c/em> earned at the box office suggests that Baldwin’s other novels and plays might also have worked on the big screen. Among them:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cem>Go Tell It on the Mountain\u003c/em>: Baldwin’s 1953 semi-autobiographical novel with a brutal father modeled on his stepfather, who despised white society and took his anger out on his family. (Just before Baldwin died, it was finally adapted for television starring Paul Winfield.)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cem>Giovanni’s Room\u003c/em>: a 1956 novel about a conflicted young American living in Paris who struggles with his feelings for an Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cem>Blues for Mister Charlie\u003c/em>: a 1964 play about the murder of a young Black man in Mississippi in 1955 (the year Emmett Till was lynched). Baldwin dedicated the play to civil rights activist Medgar Evers, who had been slain months before the show opened on Broadway.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cem>Another Country\u003c/em>: a 1962 bestseller set in Harlem, Greenwich Village and France and dealing with interracial, bisexual and extramarital hookups (all taboo at the time), as well as a self-destructive hero.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>But you see the problem: Baldwin was writing in the 1950s and ’60s, when subject matter that was racial, interracial, homosexual or even just extramarital was expressly forbidden by the morality-policing \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2008/08/08/93301189/remembering-hollywoods-hays-code-40-years-on\">Hays Code\u003c/a> that preceded the movie-rating system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That Baldwin was himself Black, gay and outspoken made producing his work all the tougher. Still, he kept trying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961749\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1290px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961749\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-30-at-8.05.53%E2%80%AFAM.png\" alt=\"A young Black woman and young Black man sit close together, their foreheads touching.\" width=\"1290\" height=\"860\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-30-at-8.05.53 AM.png 1290w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-30-at-8.05.53 AM-800x533.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-30-at-8.05.53 AM-1020x680.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-30-at-8.05.53 AM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-30-at-8.05.53 AM-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1290px) 100vw, 1290px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tish (KiKi Layne) and Fonny (Stephan James) in ‘If Beale Street Could Talk.’ \u003ccite>(Tatum Mangus/Annapurna Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>What happens to a dream deferred?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>While interviewing Ingmar Bergman for \u003cem>Esquire \u003c/em>magazine in 1960, Baldwin proposed a century-spanning slavery drama (a project he later pitched to directors Gordon Parks and François Truffaut).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1968, he was working on a screenplay for Alex Haley’s \u003cem>The Autobiography of Malcolm X\u003c/em> but withdrew his script when the studio started talking about casting Charlton Heston as the Black revolutionary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He came up with a treatment in the 1970s for \u003cem>Giovanni’s Room\u003c/em> that reportedly intrigued both Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sadly, none of those drafts got traction. But he did write a book-length essay on Hollywood, \u003cem>The Devil Finds Work\u003c/em>, which \u003cem>The Atlantic\u003c/em> has called “the most powerful piece of film criticism ever written.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s part memoir, part reflection on dozens of films, from a Joan Crawford/Clark Gable thriller that his mother took him to when he was 7 to the Sidney Poitier-shackled-to-Tony Curtis chain gang drama \u003cem>The Defiant Ones\u003c/em>, which he noted had a self-sacrificing ending that played very differently in Harlem than in white neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baldwin was in many senses ahead of his time, but time has a way of catching up. It says something about his impact that what struck uptight studio heads as problematic when he was alive — that he so loved all his characters, be they Black, white, gay, straight, promiscuous, misguided, whatever — would today be counted as a strength.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, he was confrontational, but to a purpose: As he put it in a phrase that sounds a lot like the ultimate Hollywood ending, “I really do believe that we can all become better than we are.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The United States and other major democracies face the most challenging geopolitical landscape in decades. The crises include a bloody battle for land in Eastern Europe that challenges the principle of territorial sovereignty, the risk of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan in the coming years and a brutal war in Gaza that could still spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are in a new era, but how do we define it, and what is the fundamental threat?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13961565']Several recent books tackle this crucial question\u003cem>. New York Times\u003c/em> White House and National Security correspondent David Sanger calls this historical moment “New Cold Wars.” He sees the U.S. defending the West against a rising China and resurgent Russia. \u003cem>CNN\u003c/em> anchor and Chief National Security analyst Jim Sciutto calls it “The Return of Great Powers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her new book, the \u003cem>Atlantic\u003c/em>’s Anne Applebaum takes a different, more sweeping view. We are not in Cold War 2.0, she argues, but a battle for the future world order against what she calls \u003cem>Autocracy, Inc., The Dictators Who Want to Rule the World.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Autocracy, Inc., is not a club. There are no meetings like SPECTRE in a James Bond movie, where villains give progress reports on their kleptocratic gains and attacks on democracy. Instead, Applebaum writes, it is a very loosely knit mix of regimes, ranging from theocracies to monarchies, that operate more like companies. What unites these dictators isn’t an ideology, but something simpler and more prosaic: a laser-focus on preserving their wealth, repressing their people and maintaining power at all costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These regimes can help each other in ways large and small, Applebaum writes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Countries such as Zimbabwe, Belarus and Cuba voted in favor of Russia’s annexation of Crimea at the United Nations in 2014. Russia gave loans to Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro, while Venezuelan police use Chinese-made water cannons, tear gas and surveillance equipment to attack and track street protesters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, U.S. companies have also supplied authoritarian regimes. When covering the crushing of the democracy movement in Bahrain during the Arab Spring, I rummaged through bins of empty rubber bullet canisters made by a company in Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13961341']More recently and more alarming, though, have been China’s tacit support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin’s June visit to North Korea, which the U.S. accuses of supplying weapons to Russia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003cem>Autocracy Inc.\u003c/em>, uses more than conventional arms to attack democracies. In order to retain power and build more wealth, autocrats also undermine the idea of democracy as a viable choice for their own people. Fearful of its former Soviet republics drifting further West — see Ukraine — Russia and its three main TV channels broadcast negative news about Europe an average of 18 times a day during one three-year stretch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1007x1500+0+0/resize/1200/quality/75/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F38%2Fbe%2Fbd0f3cb94471acaab464120f3edb%2Fautocracy.jpg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Doubleday)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>China extends its message through local media and helps other dictatorships. After satellite networks dropped Russia Today — RT — following the invasion of Ukraine, China’s StarTimes satellite picked up RT and put it back into African households, where it could spread Moscow’s anti-Western, anti-LGBTQ message, which resonates in many African nations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13960317']The goal is not to persuade people that autocracy is the answer, but to encourage cynicism about the alternative. Applebaum says the message is this: \u003cem>You may not like our society, but at least we are strong and the democratic world is weak, degenerate, divided and dying. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How did the world end up here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Applebaum is strong on how Western misjudgment and greed enabled and empowered autocrats over the decades. A working theory in Washington and Berlin was that greater economic integration and dependency between the West and China and Russia would serve as a glue and deterrent, making conflict too costly. But Europe’s dependence on Russian gas predictably backfired. Moscow used it as a source of blackmail following the invasion of Ukraine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, corporate America’s heavy investment in China helped fuel the country’s extraordinary economic rise, but didn’t lead to the desired political results. Instead of becoming a more liberal, Western-friendly regime, the Communist Party became a more powerful rival. Among other things, Beijing used its new wealth to build islands in the South China Sea and a blue-water navy to challenge America’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At just over two hundred pages, Applebaum’s book is slender. She might have done more to detail the boomerang effect of globalization. When American companies exported jobs to China, they cut labor costs, boosted profits and lowered prices for consumers. Those business decisions devastated communities built on everything from auto plants to furniture factories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That sowed the seeds for the populist backlash in 2016 that continues to roil the country to the benefit of America’s authoritarian opponents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is to be done? First, make life harder for dictators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Applebaum says democratic nations have to make it more difficult for kleptocrats to stash their money overseas. She suggests an international coalition of treasury and finance ministry officials across Europe, Asia and North America work to strengthen transparency and tighten laws together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13959414']This will be tough. Kleptocrats make lucrative clients for lawyers, financiers and real estate agents. One of London’s unofficial industries is money-laundering. And, in a complex political landscape, it can be useful for democracies to work with corrupt regimes to achieve bigger goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another way to combat dictatorship is for democracies to deliver at home, as Charles Dunst argues in \u003cem>Defeating the Dictators: How Democracy Can Prevail in the Age of the Strongman\u003c/em>. Political grid-lock, income inequality, stagnant wages and rising crime can provide fertile ground for populists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anti-incumbency and accountability have stood out as themes during this epic year of elections as voters punished long-serving parties, such as the Conservatives in the UK and the African National Congress in South Africa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More broadly, Applebaum says, democratic countries need to reduce their economic dependence on authoritarian rivals. Europe’s reliance on Russian gas was an embarrassing and costly lesson. Minerals could prove another one for the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the U.S. only produces 4% of the world’s lithium and 13% of its cobalt, while China processes more than 80% of all critical minerals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the world’s next geopolitical fault-line perhaps lying in the waters around the Taiwan Strait or the South China Sea, this kind of math just doesn’t figure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Frank Langfitt is NPR’s Global Democracy correspondent. Previously, he spent nearly two decades reporting overseas, based in Beijing, Nairobi, Shanghai and London. In February 2022, he covered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Autocracy, Inc.’ is out now via Doubleday.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Several recent books tackle this crucial question\u003cem>. New York Times\u003c/em> White House and National Security correspondent David Sanger calls this historical moment “New Cold Wars.” He sees the U.S. defending the West against a rising China and resurgent Russia. \u003cem>CNN\u003c/em> anchor and Chief National Security analyst Jim Sciutto calls it “The Return of Great Powers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her new book, the \u003cem>Atlantic\u003c/em>’s Anne Applebaum takes a different, more sweeping view. We are not in Cold War 2.0, she argues, but a battle for the future world order against what she calls \u003cem>Autocracy, Inc., The Dictators Who Want to Rule the World.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Autocracy, Inc., is not a club. There are no meetings like SPECTRE in a James Bond movie, where villains give progress reports on their kleptocratic gains and attacks on democracy. Instead, Applebaum writes, it is a very loosely knit mix of regimes, ranging from theocracies to monarchies, that operate more like companies. What unites these dictators isn’t an ideology, but something simpler and more prosaic: a laser-focus on preserving their wealth, repressing their people and maintaining power at all costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These regimes can help each other in ways large and small, Applebaum writes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Countries such as Zimbabwe, Belarus and Cuba voted in favor of Russia’s annexation of Crimea at the United Nations in 2014. Russia gave loans to Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro, while Venezuelan police use Chinese-made water cannons, tear gas and surveillance equipment to attack and track street protesters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, U.S. companies have also supplied authoritarian regimes. When covering the crushing of the democracy movement in Bahrain during the Arab Spring, I rummaged through bins of empty rubber bullet canisters made by a company in Pennsylvania.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>More recently and more alarming, though, have been China’s tacit support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin’s June visit to North Korea, which the U.S. accuses of supplying weapons to Russia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003cem>Autocracy Inc.\u003c/em>, uses more than conventional arms to attack democracies. In order to retain power and build more wealth, autocrats also undermine the idea of democracy as a viable choice for their own people. Fearful of its former Soviet republics drifting further West — see Ukraine — Russia and its three main TV channels broadcast negative news about Europe an average of 18 times a day during one three-year stretch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1007x1500+0+0/resize/1200/quality/75/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F38%2Fbe%2Fbd0f3cb94471acaab464120f3edb%2Fautocracy.jpg\">\u003cfigcaption>\u003ccite> (Doubleday)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>China extends its message through local media and helps other dictatorships. After satellite networks dropped Russia Today — RT — following the invasion of Ukraine, China’s StarTimes satellite picked up RT and put it back into African households, where it could spread Moscow’s anti-Western, anti-LGBTQ message, which resonates in many African nations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The goal is not to persuade people that autocracy is the answer, but to encourage cynicism about the alternative. Applebaum says the message is this: \u003cem>You may not like our society, but at least we are strong and the democratic world is weak, degenerate, divided and dying. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How did the world end up here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Applebaum is strong on how Western misjudgment and greed enabled and empowered autocrats over the decades. A working theory in Washington and Berlin was that greater economic integration and dependency between the West and China and Russia would serve as a glue and deterrent, making conflict too costly. But Europe’s dependence on Russian gas predictably backfired. Moscow used it as a source of blackmail following the invasion of Ukraine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, corporate America’s heavy investment in China helped fuel the country’s extraordinary economic rise, but didn’t lead to the desired political results. Instead of becoming a more liberal, Western-friendly regime, the Communist Party became a more powerful rival. Among other things, Beijing used its new wealth to build islands in the South China Sea and a blue-water navy to challenge America’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At just over two hundred pages, Applebaum’s book is slender. She might have done more to detail the boomerang effect of globalization. When American companies exported jobs to China, they cut labor costs, boosted profits and lowered prices for consumers. Those business decisions devastated communities built on everything from auto plants to furniture factories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That sowed the seeds for the populist backlash in 2016 that continues to roil the country to the benefit of America’s authoritarian opponents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is to be done? First, make life harder for dictators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Applebaum says democratic nations have to make it more difficult for kleptocrats to stash their money overseas. She suggests an international coalition of treasury and finance ministry officials across Europe, Asia and North America work to strengthen transparency and tighten laws together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This will be tough. Kleptocrats make lucrative clients for lawyers, financiers and real estate agents. One of London’s unofficial industries is money-laundering. And, in a complex political landscape, it can be useful for democracies to work with corrupt regimes to achieve bigger goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another way to combat dictatorship is for democracies to deliver at home, as Charles Dunst argues in \u003cem>Defeating the Dictators: How Democracy Can Prevail in the Age of the Strongman\u003c/em>. Political grid-lock, income inequality, stagnant wages and rising crime can provide fertile ground for populists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anti-incumbency and accountability have stood out as themes during this epic year of elections as voters punished long-serving parties, such as the Conservatives in the UK and the African National Congress in South Africa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More broadly, Applebaum says, democratic countries need to reduce their economic dependence on authoritarian rivals. Europe’s reliance on Russian gas was an embarrassing and costly lesson. Minerals could prove another one for the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the U.S. only produces 4% of the world’s lithium and 13% of its cobalt, while China processes more than 80% of all critical minerals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the world’s next geopolitical fault-line perhaps lying in the waters around the Taiwan Strait or the South China Sea, this kind of math just doesn’t figure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Frank Langfitt is NPR’s Global Democracy correspondent. Previously, he spent nearly two decades reporting overseas, based in Beijing, Nairobi, Shanghai and London. In February 2022, he covered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Autocracy, Inc.’ is out now via Doubleday.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "R.O. Kwon Screens a Favorite Kinky Film at ‘Zyzzyva’ Movie Night",
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"content": "\u003cp>We love a recommendation from a respected source. And when an artist working in one medium recommends an artwork in another, it’s an extra treat. Here is another avenue into that person’s practice, a way to better understand their interests and creative inspirations. Also, talented people tend to like cool stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a sense of this alternate entry point, combined with a desire to celebrate, as \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.zyzzyva.org/\">Zyzzyva\u003c/a>\u003c/em> Editor Oscar Villalon says, “the simple act of hanging out” that brought about San Francisco’s latest cross-disciplinary event, \u003cem>Zyzzyva\u003c/em> Movie Night at the Roxie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the things that we talked about was how we really longed for a place and a time for the literary community to come together,” says author \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13915986/ingrid-rojas-contreras-man-who-could-move-clouds-penguin\">Ingrid Rojas Contreras\u003c/a>, who’s co-hosting the series with Villalon. Specifically, she says, they were interested in “places that were outside of the traditional book releases and readings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With a bit more brainstorming, \u003cem>Zyzzyva\u003c/em> Movie Night was born as a new, quarterly film series that answers the question, “What are your favorite writers watching?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13956967']First up on Tuesday, July 30 is a pick from local author R.O. Kwon: the deliciously kinky 2002 movie \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/zzyva-movie-night-secretary/\">Secretary\u003c/a>\u003c/i>. Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader, the film is loosely adapted from a Mary Gaitskill short story, and dives into BDSM, office power dynamics and the erotic possibilities of “dull work.” It’s a logical, delightful selection from Kwon, whose most recent novel, \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13956967/r-o-kwon-exhibit-new-novel-ingrid-rojas-contreras-book-launch\">Exhibit\u003c/a>\u003c/i>, centers on a sadomasochistic affair between a photographer and a ballerina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contreras says \u003ci>Secretary\u003c/i> is an important first pick for other, more ideological reasons. “So much of what’s happening politically is trying to kill the art in us or the soft parts of us,” she says. “I think it’s so important to insist that our mental landscapes bend toward wanting art, toward desire and toward humanity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the spirit of tangible, in-person revelry, the movie night is also a collaboration with Dog Eared Books, who will be set up in the Roxie’s lobby with copies of \u003ci>Exhibit\u003c/i> and Kwon’s on-theme “\u003ca href=\"https://dog-eared-valencia.square.site/\">recommended reading\u003c/a>”: Torrey Peters’ \u003ci>Detransition, Baby\u003c/i>; Audre Lorde’s \u003ci>Sister Outsider\u003c/i>; and Raven Leilani’s \u003ci>Luster\u003c/i>. Kwon will linger after the screening for a short conversation about the movie and what it means to truly pursue desire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Villalon’s dreams for \u003cem>Zyzzyva\u003c/em> Movie Night is to create a literary event that people would be excited to bring their less bookish friend to. “Maybe this sounds a little silly, but I don’t think it is — something like an opportunity for an affordable first date,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Warning to those considering \u003ci>Secretary\u003c/i> as first date fodder: be prepared to possibly cover a lot of ground about one’s specific — ahem — likes and dislikes during that post-movie tête-à-tête.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contreras and Villalon envision the series as a quarterly endeavor. The next \u003cem>Zyzzyva\u003c/em> Movie Night will feature novelist and poet Kaveh Akbar (author of the much-celebrated \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/01/29/1227116232/book-review-martyr-by-kaveh-akbar\">Martyr!\u003c/a>\u003c/i>) on Oct. 13, in collaboration with Litquake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Villalon, who came on as the literary journal’s third editor a little over a year ago, this is a natural extension of \u003cem>Zyzzyva\u003c/em>’s previous decades of programming, and an example of the direction he wants the journal to take moving forward. \u003cem>Zyzzyva\u003c/em> will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really want to ingrain ourselves further in the city and in the Bay Area in general,” he says, “and be a facilitator for the community to come out and have a good time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/zzyva-movie-night-secretary/\">Zyzzyva Movie Night: Secretary\u003c/a>’ takes place Tuesday, July 30, 2024 with doors opening at 5:30 p.m., movie starting at 6 p.m.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>We love a recommendation from a respected source. And when an artist working in one medium recommends an artwork in another, it’s an extra treat. Here is another avenue into that person’s practice, a way to better understand their interests and creative inspirations. Also, talented people tend to like cool stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a sense of this alternate entry point, combined with a desire to celebrate, as \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.zyzzyva.org/\">Zyzzyva\u003c/a>\u003c/em> Editor Oscar Villalon says, “the simple act of hanging out” that brought about San Francisco’s latest cross-disciplinary event, \u003cem>Zyzzyva\u003c/em> Movie Night at the Roxie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the things that we talked about was how we really longed for a place and a time for the literary community to come together,” says author \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13915986/ingrid-rojas-contreras-man-who-could-move-clouds-penguin\">Ingrid Rojas Contreras\u003c/a>, who’s co-hosting the series with Villalon. Specifically, she says, they were interested in “places that were outside of the traditional book releases and readings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With a bit more brainstorming, \u003cem>Zyzzyva\u003c/em> Movie Night was born as a new, quarterly film series that answers the question, “What are your favorite writers watching?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>First up on Tuesday, July 30 is a pick from local author R.O. Kwon: the deliciously kinky 2002 movie \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/zzyva-movie-night-secretary/\">Secretary\u003c/a>\u003c/i>. Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader, the film is loosely adapted from a Mary Gaitskill short story, and dives into BDSM, office power dynamics and the erotic possibilities of “dull work.” It’s a logical, delightful selection from Kwon, whose most recent novel, \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13956967/r-o-kwon-exhibit-new-novel-ingrid-rojas-contreras-book-launch\">Exhibit\u003c/a>\u003c/i>, centers on a sadomasochistic affair between a photographer and a ballerina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contreras says \u003ci>Secretary\u003c/i> is an important first pick for other, more ideological reasons. “So much of what’s happening politically is trying to kill the art in us or the soft parts of us,” she says. “I think it’s so important to insist that our mental landscapes bend toward wanting art, toward desire and toward humanity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the spirit of tangible, in-person revelry, the movie night is also a collaboration with Dog Eared Books, who will be set up in the Roxie’s lobby with copies of \u003ci>Exhibit\u003c/i> and Kwon’s on-theme “\u003ca href=\"https://dog-eared-valencia.square.site/\">recommended reading\u003c/a>”: Torrey Peters’ \u003ci>Detransition, Baby\u003c/i>; Audre Lorde’s \u003ci>Sister Outsider\u003c/i>; and Raven Leilani’s \u003ci>Luster\u003c/i>. Kwon will linger after the screening for a short conversation about the movie and what it means to truly pursue desire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Villalon’s dreams for \u003cem>Zyzzyva\u003c/em> Movie Night is to create a literary event that people would be excited to bring their less bookish friend to. “Maybe this sounds a little silly, but I don’t think it is — something like an opportunity for an affordable first date,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Warning to those considering \u003ci>Secretary\u003c/i> as first date fodder: be prepared to possibly cover a lot of ground about one’s specific — ahem — likes and dislikes during that post-movie tête-à-tête.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contreras and Villalon envision the series as a quarterly endeavor. The next \u003cem>Zyzzyva\u003c/em> Movie Night will feature novelist and poet Kaveh Akbar (author of the much-celebrated \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/01/29/1227116232/book-review-martyr-by-kaveh-akbar\">Martyr!\u003c/a>\u003c/i>) on Oct. 13, in collaboration with Litquake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Villalon, who came on as the literary journal’s third editor a little over a year ago, this is a natural extension of \u003cem>Zyzzyva\u003c/em>’s previous decades of programming, and an example of the direction he wants the journal to take moving forward. \u003cem>Zyzzyva\u003c/em> will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really want to ingrain ourselves further in the city and in the Bay Area in general,” he says, “and be a facilitator for the community to come out and have a good time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/zzyva-movie-night-secretary/\">Zyzzyva Movie Night: Secretary\u003c/a>’ takes place Tuesday, July 30, 2024 with doors opening at 5:30 p.m., movie starting at 6 p.m.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "sf-art-book-fair-zines-underground-small-press-review",
"title": "8 of the Coolest Things We Saw at the SF Art Book Fair",
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"content": "\u003cp>Books! Zines! Hordes of people! Thursday night saw the opening of the \u003ca href=\"https://sfartbookfair.com/\">SF Art Book Fair\u003c/a>, as much a delight to small-press aficionados as a nightmare for claustrophobics. I can confirm: it was shoulder-to-shoulder \u003cem>packed\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its seventh year, the fair held at the Minnesota Street Art Project in San Francisco’s Dogpatch district is more popular than ever, underscored by the addition of a second exhibition building (the former McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, up the street). The expansion didn’t alleviate the congestion. It did provide for plenty of exhibitors, however — a total of 145, hawking limited-run books, zines and prints of all styles and subject matter to the beanie-and-tight-jean set.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I spent a few hours at the fair, looking for the coolest, weirdest, most intriguing printed matter on offer. Here are eight things that caught my eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961365\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8219.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961365\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8219.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8219-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8219-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8219-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8219-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8219-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Mission District,’ published by StreetSalad. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘The Mission District’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(StreetSalad, $40)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1980, out of his shop on 23rd Street in San Francisco, comics legend \u003ca href=\"https://larryrippeeandmollyreaart.blogspot.com/2014/01/gary-arlington.html\">Gary Arlington\u003c/a> began paying neighborhood teenagers to make one-page illustrations. Eventually, he compiled them into a periodical titled \u003cem>The Mission District\u003c/em>, filled with pencil drawings and Chicano-style lettering. Now, StreetSalad’s Tron Martínez has reprinted them, along with the more scrapbook-like \u003cem>Cholo\u003c/em>, out of San José, both perfectly capturing the \u003cem>Teen Angels\u003c/em>-type aesthetic of the cholo and lowrider scenes. As for Gary’s shop, “underground comic book culture really permeated out of there,” said Martínez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961366\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961366\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8225.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8225-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8225-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8225-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8225-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8225-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Emeryville Cool Fun Booklet,’ by Jessalyn Aaland. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘Emeryville Cool Fun Booklet’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jessalyn Aaland (Current Editions, $15)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, four years after moving to Emeryville from Oakland and in the throes of COVID lockdown, Jessalyn Aaland decided to learn more about the history of her new city. Each new rabbit hole resulted in an issue of \u003cem>Emeryville C☺☺L Fun Facts\u003c/em>, a monthly one-page newsletter covering Emeryville’s canneries, labor strikes, 1980s punk scene, public art, streetcar lines and more. With a Risograph printer at home and a pandemic yearning to return to more human ways of connecting, she stapled her insightful, chatty and often hilarious newsletters to poles all around town, adding a phone number at the bottom. \u003cem>Emeryville Cool Fun Booklet\u003c/em> compiles all nine issues, along with responses from readers who called the number. (“An older woman was like, ‘I live alone,’ and told me stories about her landlord,” Aaland said.) I brought it home and devoured it in one sitting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961364\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8218.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961364\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8218.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8218-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8218-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8218-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8218-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8218-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Invisible,’ by Barbara Stauffacher Solomon. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘The Invisible’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Barbara Stauffacher Solomon (Colpa Press, $40)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Colpa Press’ Luca Antonucci first met \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13957530/barbara-stauffacher-solomon-supergraphics-obituary\">supergraphics pioneer\u003c/a> Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, she was making her own books at Kinko’s in San Francisco. Now, two months after \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/arts/design/barbara-stauffacher-solomon-dead.html\">Solomon’s death at age 95\u003c/a>, he’s printed their fifth and final book together, spiral-bound in an edition of 200. Made of collages that Stauffacher Solomon cut and pasted directly to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.peopleofprint.com/exhibition/the-swiss-grid/\">Swiss Grid\u003c/a>, \u003cem>The Invisible\u003c/em> was turned in by Stauffacher Solomon just two weeks before her death in May — along with attached instructional notes, handwritten, which Antonucci opted to include. “Scanning them was super emotional,” he said, “almost as if she was talking to me from beyond the grave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961371\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8258.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961371\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8258.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8258-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8258-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8258-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8258-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8258-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘You’re Gonna Miss Me / For Your Love,’ by the Tymes 5. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘You’re Gonna Miss Me / For Your Love’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(The Tymes 5 feat. Michael Jang, $16)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Visitors to this year’s fair may notice a large wheatpaste nearby at 23rd and Tennessee, the handiwork of the dizzingly prolific \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13958762/who-is-michael-jang-documentary-michael-jacobs-sf-docfest\">Michael Jang\u003c/a>. A San Francisco photographer, street artist and subtle prankster, Jang once also… \u003cem>played in a 1960s garage band\u003c/em>?! Here’s the proof: a 7″ of The Tymes 5, for which Jang played guitar, recorded in 1965. Covering songs by the 13th Floor Elevators and the Zombies, the band is out of tune, the vocals are overblown, the tempo-challenged drums sound like cardboard boxes. It’s great! “They’ve been selling like crazy — more than we expected,” said Park Life’s Saffron Munkres. The huge wheatpasted advertisement down the street probably doesn’t hurt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961362\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8209.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961362\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8209.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8209-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8209-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8209-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8209-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8209-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Bodega Rider,’ by Martha Naranjo Sandoval. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘Bodega Rider’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Martha Naranjo Sandoval (Matarile Ediciones, $14)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everything at the SF Art Book Fair is local. Distributed by Brooklyn’s Seaton Street Press, this photo zine contains the artist’s self-portraits on coin-operated sidewalk rides outside bodegas in New York City. What captivated me were the range of emotions on Naranjo Sandoval’s face while revisiting these childhood sources of joy: excitement at seeing them, nostalgia for what they once provided, sadness at their decreasing prominence, frustration at aging out of simple pleasures. “She’s publishing for immigrants, specifically, in the diaspora,” said Seaton Street’s Lindsay Buchman, but anyone who spent 90 seconds and 50¢ on a bucking horse stationed outside a storefront will relate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961368\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8235.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961368\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8235.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8235-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8235-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8235-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8235-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8235-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘How to Art Book Fair,’ by Paul Shortt \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘How to Art Book Fair’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Paul Shortt (Shortt Editions, $10)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Talk about meta! This guide to art book fairs was being sold at the art book fair by Paul Shortt, who’d woken up Thursday morning at 3:30 a.m. in Florida before flying to San Francisco. “There’s a lot of books that teach you how to make books,” he said, “and not a lot of books that teach you how to \u003cem>sell\u003c/em> books.” (He should know; he’s been to over 50 art book fairs in the past decade.) I’d assumed this zine would be a snarky troll on art book fairs, but no — it’s a practical guide to their ins and outs, drawn from Shortt’s experiences as a vendor (“I’m very clear in the book about my own failures,” he quipped), and input from other veterans of the scene. Most of the advice is uber-specific, while some is refreshingly simple, like “don’t be a jerk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961369\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8238.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961369\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8238.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8238-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8238-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8238-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8238-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8238-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘If You Listen, Music Will Find You: 35mm Photographs of the Bay Area Underground,’ by Ezra Gonzalez. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘If You Listen, Music Will Find You: 35mm Photographs of the Bay Area Underground’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ezra Gonzalez (Nematode, $30 each)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a guarantee that your older punk friends have complained that music sucks now, or that the scene is dead. To which I always say: go to more shows! Now, there’s a tangible document to rebut those beardy, complainy denim-vest dudes: under the namesake \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nematodeworld/\">Nematode\u003c/a>, Bay Area photographer Ezra Gonzalez has published two volumes documenting the local underground music scene. Spanning 2018–2020 and 2021–2023, the photos contain a few recognizable spots (Eli’s Mile High Club, the Rickshaw Stop), but most come from shows at basements, sidewalks and house parties. “It’s been really fun since we got them,” says Matt Brownell, co-owner of \u003ca href=\"https://coneshapetop.com/\">Cone Shape Top\u003c/a> in Oakland. “People pick up the book and say ‘I was at this show!'” Here’s to more photo books documenting the Bay Area’s rich DIY punk scene. (Please do it, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/robcoonsphotography/?hl=en\">Rob Coons\u003c/a>!)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961370\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8244.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961370\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8244.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8244-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8244-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8244-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8244-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8244-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Advertising Shits in Your Head: Strategies for Resistance,’ by Vyvian Raoul and Matt Bonner. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘Advertising Shits in Your Head: Strategies for Resistance’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Vyvian Raoul and Matt Bonner (PM Press, $15.95)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While wandering around the Art Book Fair, it’s easy to be seduced by eye-catching book titles (\u003cem>What Is Post-Branding?\u003c/em>, \u003cem>8-Bit Porn Video Games\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Uncreative Writing\u003c/em> by Taylor Swift). Some of these clever titles deliver on their promises, while many do not. This is, in effect, a microcosm of the advertising world! So I was glad to discover that \u003cem>Advertising Shits in Your Head\u003c/em> is backed up by substance as well as humor. Along with a primer on how advertising intrudes on our daily mental lives, the book focuses on “subvertising” — the art of altering, remixing or defacing billboard and poster ads. “A lot of these things, like bus kiosks, are easy to get into. And if it looks like it belongs there, it’ll stay there for a while,” says Dan from Oakland’s PM Press. “It’s a public space! Use it for your own means!”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The SF Art Book Fair continues daily through Sunday, July 21 at the Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco. Admission is free. \u003ca href=\"https://sfartbookfair.com/\">Details here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Books! Zines! Hordes of people! Thursday night saw the opening of the \u003ca href=\"https://sfartbookfair.com/\">SF Art Book Fair\u003c/a>, as much a delight to small-press aficionados as a nightmare for claustrophobics. I can confirm: it was shoulder-to-shoulder \u003cem>packed\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its seventh year, the fair held at the Minnesota Street Art Project in San Francisco’s Dogpatch district is more popular than ever, underscored by the addition of a second exhibition building (the former McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, up the street). The expansion didn’t alleviate the congestion. It did provide for plenty of exhibitors, however — a total of 145, hawking limited-run books, zines and prints of all styles and subject matter to the beanie-and-tight-jean set.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I spent a few hours at the fair, looking for the coolest, weirdest, most intriguing printed matter on offer. Here are eight things that caught my eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961365\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8219.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961365\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8219.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8219-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8219-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8219-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8219-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8219-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Mission District,’ published by StreetSalad. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘The Mission District’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(StreetSalad, $40)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1980, out of his shop on 23rd Street in San Francisco, comics legend \u003ca href=\"https://larryrippeeandmollyreaart.blogspot.com/2014/01/gary-arlington.html\">Gary Arlington\u003c/a> began paying neighborhood teenagers to make one-page illustrations. Eventually, he compiled them into a periodical titled \u003cem>The Mission District\u003c/em>, filled with pencil drawings and Chicano-style lettering. Now, StreetSalad’s Tron Martínez has reprinted them, along with the more scrapbook-like \u003cem>Cholo\u003c/em>, out of San José, both perfectly capturing the \u003cem>Teen Angels\u003c/em>-type aesthetic of the cholo and lowrider scenes. As for Gary’s shop, “underground comic book culture really permeated out of there,” said Martínez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961366\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961366\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8225.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8225-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8225-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8225-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8225-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8225-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Emeryville Cool Fun Booklet,’ by Jessalyn Aaland. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘Emeryville Cool Fun Booklet’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jessalyn Aaland (Current Editions, $15)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, four years after moving to Emeryville from Oakland and in the throes of COVID lockdown, Jessalyn Aaland decided to learn more about the history of her new city. Each new rabbit hole resulted in an issue of \u003cem>Emeryville C☺☺L Fun Facts\u003c/em>, a monthly one-page newsletter covering Emeryville’s canneries, labor strikes, 1980s punk scene, public art, streetcar lines and more. With a Risograph printer at home and a pandemic yearning to return to more human ways of connecting, she stapled her insightful, chatty and often hilarious newsletters to poles all around town, adding a phone number at the bottom. \u003cem>Emeryville Cool Fun Booklet\u003c/em> compiles all nine issues, along with responses from readers who called the number. (“An older woman was like, ‘I live alone,’ and told me stories about her landlord,” Aaland said.) I brought it home and devoured it in one sitting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961364\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8218.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961364\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8218.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8218-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8218-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8218-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8218-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8218-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Invisible,’ by Barbara Stauffacher Solomon. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘The Invisible’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Barbara Stauffacher Solomon (Colpa Press, $40)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Colpa Press’ Luca Antonucci first met \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13957530/barbara-stauffacher-solomon-supergraphics-obituary\">supergraphics pioneer\u003c/a> Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, she was making her own books at Kinko’s in San Francisco. Now, two months after \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/arts/design/barbara-stauffacher-solomon-dead.html\">Solomon’s death at age 95\u003c/a>, he’s printed their fifth and final book together, spiral-bound in an edition of 200. Made of collages that Stauffacher Solomon cut and pasted directly to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.peopleofprint.com/exhibition/the-swiss-grid/\">Swiss Grid\u003c/a>, \u003cem>The Invisible\u003c/em> was turned in by Stauffacher Solomon just two weeks before her death in May — along with attached instructional notes, handwritten, which Antonucci opted to include. “Scanning them was super emotional,” he said, “almost as if she was talking to me from beyond the grave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961371\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8258.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961371\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8258.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8258-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8258-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8258-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8258-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8258-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘You’re Gonna Miss Me / For Your Love,’ by the Tymes 5. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘You’re Gonna Miss Me / For Your Love’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(The Tymes 5 feat. Michael Jang, $16)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Visitors to this year’s fair may notice a large wheatpaste nearby at 23rd and Tennessee, the handiwork of the dizzingly prolific \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13958762/who-is-michael-jang-documentary-michael-jacobs-sf-docfest\">Michael Jang\u003c/a>. A San Francisco photographer, street artist and subtle prankster, Jang once also… \u003cem>played in a 1960s garage band\u003c/em>?! Here’s the proof: a 7″ of The Tymes 5, for which Jang played guitar, recorded in 1965. Covering songs by the 13th Floor Elevators and the Zombies, the band is out of tune, the vocals are overblown, the tempo-challenged drums sound like cardboard boxes. It’s great! “They’ve been selling like crazy — more than we expected,” said Park Life’s Saffron Munkres. The huge wheatpasted advertisement down the street probably doesn’t hurt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961362\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8209.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961362\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8209.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8209-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8209-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8209-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8209-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8209-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Bodega Rider,’ by Martha Naranjo Sandoval. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘Bodega Rider’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Martha Naranjo Sandoval (Matarile Ediciones, $14)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everything at the SF Art Book Fair is local. Distributed by Brooklyn’s Seaton Street Press, this photo zine contains the artist’s self-portraits on coin-operated sidewalk rides outside bodegas in New York City. What captivated me were the range of emotions on Naranjo Sandoval’s face while revisiting these childhood sources of joy: excitement at seeing them, nostalgia for what they once provided, sadness at their decreasing prominence, frustration at aging out of simple pleasures. “She’s publishing for immigrants, specifically, in the diaspora,” said Seaton Street’s Lindsay Buchman, but anyone who spent 90 seconds and 50¢ on a bucking horse stationed outside a storefront will relate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961368\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8235.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961368\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8235.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8235-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8235-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8235-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8235-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8235-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘How to Art Book Fair,’ by Paul Shortt \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘How to Art Book Fair’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Paul Shortt (Shortt Editions, $10)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Talk about meta! This guide to art book fairs was being sold at the art book fair by Paul Shortt, who’d woken up Thursday morning at 3:30 a.m. in Florida before flying to San Francisco. “There’s a lot of books that teach you how to make books,” he said, “and not a lot of books that teach you how to \u003cem>sell\u003c/em> books.” (He should know; he’s been to over 50 art book fairs in the past decade.) I’d assumed this zine would be a snarky troll on art book fairs, but no — it’s a practical guide to their ins and outs, drawn from Shortt’s experiences as a vendor (“I’m very clear in the book about my own failures,” he quipped), and input from other veterans of the scene. Most of the advice is uber-specific, while some is refreshingly simple, like “don’t be a jerk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961369\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8238.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961369\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8238.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8238-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8238-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8238-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8238-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8238-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘If You Listen, Music Will Find You: 35mm Photographs of the Bay Area Underground,’ by Ezra Gonzalez. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘If You Listen, Music Will Find You: 35mm Photographs of the Bay Area Underground’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ezra Gonzalez (Nematode, $30 each)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a guarantee that your older punk friends have complained that music sucks now, or that the scene is dead. To which I always say: go to more shows! Now, there’s a tangible document to rebut those beardy, complainy denim-vest dudes: under the namesake \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/nematodeworld/\">Nematode\u003c/a>, Bay Area photographer Ezra Gonzalez has published two volumes documenting the local underground music scene. Spanning 2018–2020 and 2021–2023, the photos contain a few recognizable spots (Eli’s Mile High Club, the Rickshaw Stop), but most come from shows at basements, sidewalks and house parties. “It’s been really fun since we got them,” says Matt Brownell, co-owner of \u003ca href=\"https://coneshapetop.com/\">Cone Shape Top\u003c/a> in Oakland. “People pick up the book and say ‘I was at this show!'” Here’s to more photo books documenting the Bay Area’s rich DIY punk scene. (Please do it, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/robcoonsphotography/?hl=en\">Rob Coons\u003c/a>!)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13961370\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8244.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13961370\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8244.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8244-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8244-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8244-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8244-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/IMG_8244-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Advertising Shits in Your Head: Strategies for Resistance,’ by Vyvian Raoul and Matt Bonner. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘Advertising Shits in Your Head: Strategies for Resistance’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Vyvian Raoul and Matt Bonner (PM Press, $15.95)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While wandering around the Art Book Fair, it’s easy to be seduced by eye-catching book titles (\u003cem>What Is Post-Branding?\u003c/em>, \u003cem>8-Bit Porn Video Games\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Uncreative Writing\u003c/em> by Taylor Swift). Some of these clever titles deliver on their promises, while many do not. This is, in effect, a microcosm of the advertising world! So I was glad to discover that \u003cem>Advertising Shits in Your Head\u003c/em> is backed up by substance as well as humor. Along with a primer on how advertising intrudes on our daily mental lives, the book focuses on “subvertising” — the art of altering, remixing or defacing billboard and poster ads. “A lot of these things, like bus kiosks, are easy to get into. And if it looks like it belongs there, it’ll stay there for a while,” says Dan from Oakland’s PM Press. “It’s a public space! Use it for your own means!”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The SF Art Book Fair continues daily through Sunday, July 21 at the Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco. Admission is free. \u003ca href=\"https://sfartbookfair.com/\">Details here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960704\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 840px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960704\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screen-Shot-2024-07-08-at-11.35.53-AM.png\" alt=\"A book cover with a key hole on it.\" width=\"840\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screen-Shot-2024-07-08-at-11.35.53-AM.png 840w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screen-Shot-2024-07-08-at-11.35.53-AM-800x1154.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screen-Shot-2024-07-08-at-11.35.53-AM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/Screen-Shot-2024-07-08-at-11.35.53-AM-768x1108.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Briar Club’ by Kate Quinn. \u003ccite>(William Morrow)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If you’ve never read a Kate Quinn novel, there’s no time like the present. Or like the 1950s in Washington, D.C. That’s the setting for Quinn’s \u003cem>The Briar Club\u003c/em>, which is a murder mystery wrapped up in the stories of multiple women who rent rooms at a boarding house during the height of Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s Red Scare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The characters are all interesting, but too numerous to sketch in this short review. Each gives Quinn an opportunity to comment on some aspect of the decade — from the development of the birth control pill, to organized crime corrupting the D.C. police force, to the demise of a professional women’s softball league after World War II. All the women’s stories serve the novel’s greater plot, which opens with a murder in the house on Thanksgiving Day in 1954. It then flips backward and forward in time, crashing the characters together and creating plenty of suspects before ending with a delightful twist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13960473']At the center of the plot is Grace March, who moves into the third-floor attic of the Briarwood boarding house and, over the objections of the stern landlady, Mrs. Nilsson, begins to make the place a real home. She paints flowers and vines on her ceiling that eventually creep down the staircase and are a metaphor for the role Grace plays in the boarders’ lives. She starts a Thursday night Supper Club, inviting everyone to bring a dish to warm up on her hot plate and share.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quinn tosses in a couple cute wrinkles that make the book even more fun. One is the inclusion of actual recipes for the dishes and drinks the women bring to supper club. In promotional interviews in advance of the novel’s release, Quinn admitted that her husband actually prepared all the food and drink for her to taste prior to publication. Also unique to the novel — short chapters written from the point of view of the house itself. As a detective moves to split up the the women for interrogation following the Thanksgiving day murder, Quinn writes: “He moves into the kitchen, at once the object of all eyes, and just to be spiteful the house rucks the edge of the carpet so he trips.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It all makes for a delightful read. Quinn creates characters readers will care about and root for, while also managing to keep them guessing until the very end about who murdered whom in Briarwood House.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘The Briar Club’ by Kate Quinn is out on July 9, 2024, via William Morrow.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At the center of the plot is Grace March, who moves into the third-floor attic of the Briarwood boarding house and, over the objections of the stern landlady, Mrs. Nilsson, begins to make the place a real home. She paints flowers and vines on her ceiling that eventually creep down the staircase and are a metaphor for the role Grace plays in the boarders’ lives. She starts a Thursday night Supper Club, inviting everyone to bring a dish to warm up on her hot plate and share.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quinn tosses in a couple cute wrinkles that make the book even more fun. One is the inclusion of actual recipes for the dishes and drinks the women bring to supper club. In promotional interviews in advance of the novel’s release, Quinn admitted that her husband actually prepared all the food and drink for her to taste prior to publication. Also unique to the novel — short chapters written from the point of view of the house itself. As a detective moves to split up the the women for interrogation following the Thanksgiving day murder, Quinn writes: “He moves into the kitchen, at once the object of all eyes, and just to be spiteful the house rucks the edge of the carpet so he trips.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It all makes for a delightful read. Quinn creates characters readers will care about and root for, while also managing to keep them guessing until the very end about who murdered whom in Briarwood House.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘The Briar Club’ by Kate Quinn is out on July 9, 2024, via William Morrow.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Even hardworking news journalists by day need a break from reality in their off hours. In the newsroom at NPR, there are some omnivorous fiction readers. There are fans of romance, historical fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and more. We asked our colleagues what they’ve enjoyed reading most this year — and here are the titles they shared. (And, OK, yes, we read \u003cem>plenty\u003c/em> of nonfiction, too, because NPR gonna NPR. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13959945/best-nonfiction-books-2024-npr-staff-picks\">You can see that list here\u003c/a>. )\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch2>Realistic Fiction\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960567\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 838px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960567\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.29.32-PM.png\" alt=\"A painting of a cliff edge at sunrise with large trees at its base.\" width=\"838\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.29.32-PM.png 838w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.29.32-PM-800x1155.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.29.32-PM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.29.32-PM-768x1109.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘All Fours: A Novel’ by Miranda July. \u003ccite>(Riverhead Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘All Fours: A Novel’ by Miranda July\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>All Fours\u003c/em> is a coming-of-age novel for perimenopause. The story follows an unnamed narrator as she begins a cross-country road trip away from her husband and child, but she pulls over to stay in a motel 30 minutes from her house instead. This “trip” still changes her life — through an infatuation with a younger guy who works at a car rental place, she begins a new intimacy with herself, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve read all of Miranda July’s books, and she’s always doing weird and imaginative things with her characters. This story has all of July’s usual eccentricity, but it also brims with the excitement and fear and possibility that comes with entering the unknown of life’s latter half, especially for women. It felt singularly fresh, and perfectly enjoyable. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/959668312/liam-mcbain\">Liam McBain,\u003c/a> associate producer,\u003c/em> \u003cem>‘It’s Been a Minute’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960566\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 860px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960566\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.27.54-PM.png\" alt=\"A gas station sign, a neon sign and a sign with sliding letters.\" width=\"860\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.27.54-PM.png 860w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.27.54-PM-800x1127.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.27.54-PM-160x225.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.27.54-PM-768x1082.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 860px) 100vw, 860px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘American Spirits’ by Russell Banks. \u003ccite>(Knopf)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘American Spirits’ by Russell Banks\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The three stories in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/10/1237083926/russell-banks-posthumous-novel-american-spirits\">this collection\u003c/a> are set in a fictional town, but seem so familiar: a local guy who got in a dangerous beef with an out-of-towner that bought up his family’s property and then refused to let him hunt on it; a family that adopts several children then purposely crashes their van off the highway; grandparents who are scammed by people claiming to have kidnapped their grandson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The late Russell Banks’ final writings are a masterful exploration of these kinds of tales, looking at the motivations of ordinary people in a world that’s become increasingly polarized and deeply troubled. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/474954558/melissa-gray\">Melissa Gray,\u003c/a> senior producer, ‘Weekend Edition’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960564\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 818px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960564\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.26.13-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover with a red house on it. It has oversized flowers illustrated as coming out of its roof. \" width=\"818\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.26.13-PM.png 818w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.26.13-PM-800x1183.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.26.13-PM-160x237.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.26.13-PM-768x1136.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Behind You Is the Sea’ by Susan Muaddi Darraj. \u003ccite>(HarperVia)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Behind You Is the Sea’ by Susan Muaddi Darraj\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you want to know the challenges that Palestinian Americans face in the U.S., you must read this book. It follows several families in Baltimore as they wrestle with poverty, religion, living in between two cultures and their pursuit of the American Dream. There is Marcus, a cop who stands up for his Arab sister who is dating a Black man; Samira, who is shamed for being a childless divorcee (despite that, she is a successful lawyer); Layla, a high school student who pushes back against the drama club’s production of \u003cem>Aladdin\u003c/em>, which she says perpetuates racist stereotypes about Arabs. How their lives intersect will leave you at the edge of your seat. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/469106148/malaka-gharib\">Malaka Gharib,\u003c/a> digital editor, ‘Life Kit’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960562\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 832px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960562\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.24.40-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover with an illustration of a young pig on it.\" width=\"832\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.24.40-PM.png 832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.24.40-PM-800x1165.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.24.40-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.24.40-PM-768x1119.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Come & Get It’ by Kiley Reid. \u003ccite>(G.P. Putnam’s Sons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Come & Get It’ by Kiley Reid\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Told through multiple perspectives, I could not put this snappy page-turner down even though I had no idea where it was going until its jaw-dropping crescendo. Set at the University of Arkansas, this story follows several college students and a writing professor over the course of a year, largely through the lens of their relationship with money — how it motivates them, how it gets them into and (for some) out of situations — as well as race, sexuality, power and social status. As a southerner and the graduate of a southern university, I found myself nodding along excitedly to Reid’s apt depictions of contemporary southern culture. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/637150103/becky-harlan\">Beck Harlan,\u003c/a> visuals editor, ‘Life Kit’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960560\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 822px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960560\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.23.03-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover with cartoonish font and a photo of two palm trees.\" width=\"822\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.23.03-PM.png 822w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.23.03-PM-800x1178.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.23.03-PM-160x236.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.23.03-PM-768x1131.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 822px) 100vw, 822px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Dead in Long Beach, California: A Novel’ by Venita Blackburn. \u003ccite>(MCD)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Dead in Long Beach, California: A Novel’ by Venita Blackburn\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A woman named Coral finds the body of her brother after his suicide, but she doesn’t tell anyone right away. Instead, she begins to inhabit his life through his phone, as if she can keep him alive by answering his texts. But what makes the book even odder, even more ambitious, is that it is narrated in the detached voices of automated beings from the future who are all that’s left after humanity has wiped itself out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This combination of almost unbearable intimacy and arm’s-length anthropology has an explanation of sorts. But more importantly, it serves both to add considerable humor to the text (what would a robot think of human frailty, after all?) and to render Coral’s situation more confusing, more disorienting. It’s a sad story, but it’s also a ride, and that’s a tough combination. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/93702353/linda-holmes\">Linda Holmes,\u003c/a> host, ‘Pop Culture Happy Hour’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960558\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 834px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960558\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.21.29-PM.png\" alt=\"Side profile of a woman wearing an elaborate red sari. \" width=\"834\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.21.29-PM.png 834w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.21.29-PM-800x1161.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.21.29-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.21.29-PM-768x1114.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years: A Novel’ by Shubnum Khan. \u003ccite>(Viking)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years: A Novel’ by Shubnum Khan\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The djinn of the title — I pictured a depressed Grinch — haunts this comforting dose of tropes: A girl with a deceased mom moves into an old, possibly magic house with an inaccessible area. Blocked-off rooms being irresistible to teenage main characters, Sana Malek digs her way in, uncovering a tragic family secret or two. The twists and revelations that follow aren’t exactly jaw-dropping, but are emotionally wrenching enough to clear out the old tear ducts without leaving a grief hangover. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1173760481/holly-j-morris\">Holly J. Morris,\u003c/a> digital trainer\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960556\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 824px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960556\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.19.57-PM.png\" alt=\"Colorful illustration of an exotic forest.\" width=\"824\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.19.57-PM.png 824w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.19.57-PM-800x1177.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.19.57-PM-160x235.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.19.57-PM-768x1130.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 824px) 100vw, 824px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Extinction of Irena Rey’ by Jennifer Croft. \u003ccite>(Bloomsbury Publishing)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Extinction of Irena Rey’ by Jennifer Croft\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This book has so many layers! Let’s start with the premise. Eight translators meet up at the home of a famous Polish novelist to translate her latest work — which is apparently so brilliant it could change the world! — into their respective home languages. But their beloved author goes missing, setting off their search for her in the nearby Białowieża forest — filled with so many layers of wilderness! The narrator is the Spanish translator, but we’re reading the story in English — it’s been translated by the English translator. Those two don’t get along. More layers! If you like language, literature — and fungi — this wild ride of a very esoteric mystery is for you. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/378865949/elissa-nadworny\">Elissa Nadworny,\u003c/a> correspondent\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960551\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 848px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960551\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.18.25-PM.png\" alt=\"A Black man relaxes on the edge of a boat, overlooking choppy waves.\" width=\"848\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.18.25-PM.png 848w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.18.25-PM-800x1143.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.18.25-PM-160x229.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.18.25-PM-768x1098.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 848px) 100vw, 848px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Great Expectations’ by Vinson Cunningham. \u003ccite>(Hogarth)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Great Expectations’ by Vinson Cunningham\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Vinson Cunningham worked on the 2008 Obama campaign, so it’s no surprise that this coming-of-age story follows a young man working on a thinly (very thinly) veiled version of that very undertaking. It would be easy to make a story like this either a cynical and cutting takedown of politics or a starry-eyed and idealistic discovery of meaning. It’s neither. It presents this campaign as a formative stage in the life of a young person who sees what goes into the successful gathering of power, ugly and impressive as it can be. Full of sharp observations about our precarious system of government, it’s also insightful about race and wealth and the relationship between the two. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/93702353/linda-holmes\">Linda Holmes,\u003c/a> host, ‘Pop Culture Happy Hour’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960549\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 826px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960549\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.16.46-PM.png\" alt=\"Illustration of stairs, boxes and plant life.\" width=\"826\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.16.46-PM.png 826w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.16.46-PM-800x1174.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.16.46-PM-160x235.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.16.46-PM-768x1127.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 826px) 100vw, 826px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Greta & Valdin’ by Rebecca K. Reilly. \u003ccite>(Victoria University Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Greta & Valdin’ by Rebecca K. Reilly\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The loving family at the heart of this very funny and moving novel about a brother and sister is so complex that I drew a diagram — no fooling — halfway through, the better to solidify in my mind ideas like, “Valdin recently broke up with his older boyfriend, who is also his uncle’s husband’s brother.” But despite the messy structure of things, every bond in the book is written to be precious and specific.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Greta & Valdin\u003c/em> is the rare story to live up to its fearless promotional copy, which calls it a cross between \u003cem>Schitt’s Creek\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Normal People.\u003c/em> Perhaps that sounds impossible; that’s what makes it so good. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/93702353/linda-holmes\">Linda Holmes,\u003c/a> host, ‘Pop Culture Happy Hour’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960548\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 828px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960548\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.15.04-PM.png\" alt=\"An illustration of a woman wearing boxing gloves and helmet, throwing a punch.\" width=\"828\" height=\"1208\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.15.04-PM.png 828w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.15.04-PM-800x1167.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.15.04-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.15.04-PM-768x1120.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Headshot: A Novel’ by Rita Bullwinkel. \u003ccite>(Viking)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Headshot: A Novel’ by Rita Bullwinkel\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Headshot \u003c/em>is a real one-two punch of a novel. Eight teenage girl boxers have come to Bob’s Boxing Palace in Reno, Nevada, for the 12th annual Women’s 18 & Under Daughters of America Cup. As each fight plays out in the ring — sometimes brutally, ferociously — Rita Bullwinkel brings to life the internal monologues of the girls. They recite the digits of pi, think about their pasts, their futures, their dreams of being the best in the world — and also of making their opponents chomp on a mouthful of pennies until their teeth break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bullwinkel’s dynamic writing — moving back and forth in time, in and out of the boxing gym — and short, punchy sentences are a perfect mirror of the girls’ jabs in the ring. It’s a knockout. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/712227784/samantha-balaban\">Samantha Balaban,\u003c/a> producer, ‘Weekend Edition’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960547\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 840px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960547\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.12.49-PM.png\" alt=\"A painting of a man's face, split into two.\" width=\"840\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.12.49-PM.png 840w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.12.49-PM-800x1154.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.12.49-PM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.12.49-PM-768x1108.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Henry Henry: A Novel’ by Allen Bratton. \u003ccite>(The Unnamed Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Henry Henry’ by Allen Bratton\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Hal is a profane mess, kind of like Shakespeare’s Prince Hal, on whom he’s based: The 20-something is careening through life fueled by drugs, booze, cigarettes, and loveless sex. He both flaunts and loathes his class status, his family’s fortune, and his future as Duke of Lancaster, along with a flat-out-refusal to live up to his father’s expectations. Hal is so wholly unsympathetic that if not for the brilliant writing, you might just give up before discovering the shocking violation at the root of his self-destruction. How can he finally become his own person? This isn’t an easy read. It’s at times dark and highly upsetting, but the author makes you stick with it in hopes of seeing Hal finally grow up. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/474954558/melissa-gray\">Melissa Gray,\u003c/a> senior producer, ‘Weekend Edition’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960546\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 846px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960546\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.11.15-PM.png\" alt=\"Illustrations of colorful houses, nestled in trees.\" width=\"846\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.11.15-PM.png 846w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.11.15-PM-800x1146.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.11.15-PM-160x229.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.11.15-PM-768x1100.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 846px) 100vw, 846px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Same As It Ever Was’ by Claire Lombardo. \u003ccite>(Doubleday)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Same As It Ever Was’ by Claire Lombardo\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This is one of those beautifully written, keenly observed novels where not that much happens — other than, you know, life itself — but also so much happens. Julia Ames is experiencing a midlife plateau when an announcement from her son sets her reeling, and reflecting on all the relationships — past and present, familial, intergenerational, romantic — that have shaped her life including: Mark, her near-perfect husband; Anita, her near-imperfect mother; and Helen, the older woman who saves Julia in the early days of motherhood. Though the dynamic between Julia and her “spiky” teenage daughter is my personal favorite, Claire Lombardo has written a whole cast of characters so detailed, so specifically themselves, that you almost feel you could reach out and touch them. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/712227784/samantha-balaban\">Samantha Balaban,\u003c/a> producer, ‘Weekend Edition’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960545\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 838px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960545\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.09.44-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover showing a row of falling dominoes.\" width=\"838\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.09.44-PM.png 838w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.09.44-PM-800x1155.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.09.44-PM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.09.44-PM-768x1109.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Victim: A Novel’ by Andrew Boryga. \u003ccite>(Doubleday)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Victim: A Novel’ by Andrew Boryga\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Lying is kind of funny. The stress of someone jumping through increasingly wild hoops to avoid getting caught in a lie is hilarious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Victim\u003c/em> is about Javi, a writer from a marginalized community, who fudges his way into the kinds of rooms where people say “marginalized” and “community” a lot. The book is a charming critique of the publishing industry and its surface-level attempts at righting societal ills (which, kind of bold for a debut author), while also staying empathetic towards the well-meaning individuals who give Javi a shot. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348740829/andrew-limbong\">Andrew Limbong,\u003c/a> correspondent, Culture Desk, and host, NPR’s ‘Book of the Day’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch2>Romance & Relationships\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960544\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 812px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960544\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.07.57-PM.png\" alt=\"An illustration of three women positioned around a large martini glass.\" width=\"812\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.07.57-PM.png 812w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.07.57-PM-800x1192.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.07.57-PM-160x238.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.07.57-PM-768x1144.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 812px) 100vw, 812px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet’ by Molly Morris. \u003ccite>(Wednesday Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet’ by Molly Morris\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>What happens when your former best friend comes back from the dead, but only for 30 days? That’s what Wilson needs to figure out when her friend Annie is brought back as part of a local custom in her small California town. To complicate things more, their friend, Ryan apparently hates them both. Wilson is determined to fix things before Annie returns to — well, being dead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is a beautifully poetic YA work about female friendships, with a touch of magical realism and laugh out loud humor. The dynamic between the trio is filled with teenage angst, love and forgiveness. It considers a common dilemma: How do you accept change when it means giving up what you love? \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/836937515/hafsa-fathima\">Hafsa Fathima,\u003c/a> production assistant, ‘Pop Culture Happy Hour’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960543\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 810px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960543\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.06.09-PM.png\" alt=\"An illustration of a woman looking through binoculars. In one lens, we see a bird. In the other, a man. \" width=\"810\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.06.09-PM.png 810w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.06.09-PM-800x1199.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.06.09-PM-160x240.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.06.09-PM-768x1151.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Birding with Benefits’ by Sarah T. Dubb. \u003ccite>(Gallery Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Birding with Benefits’ by Sarah T. Dubb\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This sweet, fake-relationship romance follows the recently divorced empty-nester Celeste as she navigates life as a single woman, once again. This time around, she’s saying yes to life and shaking things up. She didn’t expect the shaking to bring in the sensitive, gentle giant that is John. Or his deep love of birds. Come for the romance but, beware, you might find yourself falling in love with John’s quiet, colorful world of birding yourself!\u003cem> — \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/580312943/christina-cala\">Christina Cala,\u003c/a> senior producer, ‘Code Switch’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960542\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 838px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960542\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.03.47-PM.png\" alt=\"An illustration of a modern young woman walking through a city under an umbrella and reading a book.\" width=\"838\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.03.47-PM.png 838w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.03.47-PM-800x1155.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.03.47-PM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.03.47-PM-768x1109.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Girl Abroad’ by Elle Kennedy. \u003ccite>(Bloom Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Girl Abroad’ by Elle Kennedy\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Girl Abroad \u003c/em>starts with Abbey Bly, 19 years old, ready to step away from her adoring, yet overprotective, father when she is given the chance to study abroad in London. There’s just one hitch: Abbey believes she’ll be living with girls there — but arrives to find out all her flatmates are boys. She decides to step into her new-found independence (and hide this fact from her father). Elle Kennedy has written an enjoyable coming-of-age story filled with humor, drama, romance, and a found family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Readers will enjoy the way Kennedy deviates from her usual steamy-angst-centric stories for one with deeper emphasis on self growth, relationship dynamics and figuring out not only who you are, but what you want. \u003cem>— Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez, audio engineer\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960541\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 836px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960541\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.01.55-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring illustrations of a woman and man surrounded by palm trees.\" width=\"836\" height=\"1208\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.01.55-PM.png 836w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.01.55-PM-800x1156.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.01.55-PM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.01.55-PM-768x1110.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 836px) 100vw, 836px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘How to End a Love Story’ by Yulin Kuang. \u003ccite>(Avon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘How to End a Love Story’ by Yulin Kuang\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If a ’90s rom-com grew up and went to therapy, this sparkling book would be the result. After penning a popular YA book series, Helen Zhang gets a seat in the writers’ room where it’s being adapted into a TV show. Unfortunately, Grant Shepard is also one of the writers in that room. Grant was the charming homecoming king at their high school whereas Helen was awkward and introverted. He’s also the reason Helen’s sister is dead — kind of. It’s been years since the accident, but the writers’ room reopens old wounds and forces Helen and Grant to be vulnerable with each other. Even as Helen wrestles with their past, the two begin a present-day romance that is sexy and tender. This book is a raised glass to second chances and late bloomers. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348774853/lauren-migaki\">Lauren Migaki,\u003c/a> senior producer, Education\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960540\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 836px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960540\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.00.10-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring bright illustrations of flowers, a woman and man, and a diamond ring.\" width=\"836\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.00.10-PM.png 836w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.00.10-PM-800x1158.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.00.10-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.00.10-PM-768x1112.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 836px) 100vw, 836px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Say You’ll Be Mine: A Novel’ by Naina Kumar. \u003ccite>(Dell)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Say You’ll Be Mine: A Novel’ by Naina Kumar\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s a familiar South Asian story: Two people finally relent to their parents’ wishes of meeting a potential marriage partner. But \u003cem>Say You’ll Be Mine \u003c/em>is so much more than that. Meghna is in love with her best friend, who is engaged to someone else. Karthik is an engineer who doesn’t really want to get married. But as the two discover, a fake engagement between them may be the answer to their problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naina Kumar writes a funny, heartwarming tale, filled with sizzling chemistry. It’s hard to not root for them from page one, as they slowly fall in love. It’s an incredible book that tackles the merits and shortcomings of culture, finding an identity and of course, true love. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/836937515/hafsa-fathima\">Hafsa Fathima,\u003c/a> production assistant, ‘Pop Culture Happy Hour’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960538\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 820px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960538\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.58.26-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring illustrations of a young woman and man surrounded by autumn leaves.\" width=\"820\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.58.26-PM.png 820w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.58.26-PM-800x1184.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.58.26-PM-160x237.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.58.26-PM-768x1137.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Sex, Lies and Sensibility’ by Nikki Payne. \u003ccite>(Berkley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Sex, Lies and Sensibility’ by Nikki Payne\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Set in the heart of vacationland, Nora Dash and Ennis “Bear” Freeman are both fighting uphill battles. After her dad dies, Nora inherits some serious family drama — and a rundown cottage in Maine. Now, Nora and her sister have just months to turn the place into a successful resort. Meanwhile, Bear’s struggling with his own business of guiding visitors through his native Abenaki land. The tours take him through Nora’s backyard and the two team up. Their chemistry is off the charts as they spend hours working and finding stress relief in long runs through the Maine woods. But both are keeping secrets, and have let shame work its way through their lives like an invasive species. The two have to figure out how to move forward once those secrets spill out. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348774853/lauren-migaki\">Lauren Migaki,\u003c/a> senior producer, Education\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch2>Historical Fiction\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960537\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 830px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960537\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.56.35-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a close up photo of a man's hands playing the piano.\" width=\"830\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.56.35-PM.png 830w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.56.35-PM-800x1166.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.56.35-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.56.35-PM-768x1120.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Cahokia Jazz: A Novel’ by Francis Spufford. \u003ccite>(Scribner)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Cahokia Jazz: A Novel’ by Francis Spufford\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s 1922 and, in this alternate-history detective story, Cahokia isn’t a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Illinois. It’s a thriving Indigenous-owned and operated city and state with a strong Catholic presence, plus Klansmen, bootleggers and other undesirables. If you try to skim, you’ll get lost in the how-deep-does-this-go corruption, careful world-building and sprawling cast. The naive main character, jazz-playing police detective Joe Barrow, shoves his way through exposition, fight scenes, maybe-occult doings, local royalty and personal angst, all backgrounded by a Roaring Twenties aesthetic portrayed in loving detail. Maps and excerpts from (made-up) primary sources will guide you through — if you pay attention. If you’re me, you’ll take notes. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1173760481/holly-j-morris\">Holly J. Morris,\u003c/a> digital trainer\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960536\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 816px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960536\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.54.34-PM.png\" alt=\"Waves crash onto a rocky beach. In the center of the water floats a tea pot.\" width=\"816\" height=\"1206\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.54.34-PM.png 816w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.54.34-PM-800x1182.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.54.34-PM-160x236.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.54.34-PM-768x1135.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 816px) 100vw, 816px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Clear: A Novel’ by Carys Davies. \u003ccite>(Scribner)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Clear: A Novel’ by Carys Davies\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s the 1840s, the last and most brutal years of The Clearances, when Scottish landowners began replacing unprofitable tenants with sheep. Based on that real history, \u003cem>Clear\u003c/em> is a novel about a minister, John, who has been dispatched to clear a remote island of its last remaining inhabitant, Ivar. Except just after he arrives, John slips and falls off a cliff. Ivar finds John, nurses him back to health, and invites him into his life; Ivar begins to teach John the many words that all mean some variation of “rough seas” in Norn (a real language), and the pair learn to communicate roughly, but with an unexpected depth. What follows is perhaps the most tender, beautiful story about the connection between two people and what they must overcome to find each other — in every sense of the word. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/712227784/samantha-balaban\">Samantha Balaban,\u003c/a> producer, ‘Weekend Edition’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960535\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 834px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960535\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.52.49-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring constellations.\" width=\"834\" height=\"1208\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.52.49-PM.png 834w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.52.49-PM-800x1159.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.52.49-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.52.49-PM-768x1112.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Enlightenment’ by Sarah Perry. \u003ccite>(Mariner Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Enlightenment’ by Sarah Perry\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>You know that feeling — when you are fascinated by someone all the more because you don’t fully understand them? That’s how I feel in English author Sarah Perry’s “presence.” \u003cem>Enlightenment \u003c/em>is a tale of two friends, different generations but hailing from the same small Essex town and even smaller congregation. There’s a mystery involving a woman astronomer — but mainly there’s empathy for the complexities of people’s identities and belief systems, a sense of home, and loads of gorgeous writing. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/349278028/shannon-rhoades\">Shannon Rhoades,\u003c/a> senior editor, ‘Weekend Edition’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960534\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 830px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960534\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.50.50-PM.png\" alt=\"An illustration of an Asian woman, traditionally dressed, walking through snow. Her reflection in the water next to her is a white fox.\" width=\"830\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.50.50-PM.png 830w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.50.50-PM-800x1168.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.50.50-PM-160x234.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.50.50-PM-768x1121.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Fox Wife: A Novel’ by Yangsze Choo. \u003ccite>(Henry Holt and Co.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Fox Wife: A Novel’ by Yangsze Choo\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There’s a little bit of mystery and mysticism on every page of this book. Set in China in the early 1900s, the book centers around two characters in separate, but connecting narratives. A fox masquerading as a young woman that’s set out to avenge her daughter’s death and a detective with an affinity for foxes who is working a murder case. It’s clever and observant, with twists and turns and just the perfect amount of folklore to keep you asking: What is real and what is imagined? \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/378865949/elissa-nadworny\">Elissa Nadworny,\u003c/a> correspondent\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960531\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 836px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960531\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.48.43-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring an exotic small town on a hillside at dusk.\" width=\"836\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.48.43-PM.png 836w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.48.43-PM-800x1162.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.48.43-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.48.43-PM-768x1115.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 836px) 100vw, 836px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Hard by a Great Forest’ by Leo Vardiashvili. \u003ccite>(Riverhead Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Hard by a Great Forest’ by Leo Vardiashvili\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Hard by a Great Forest\u003c/em> has all the ingredients of a dark and twisty fairy tale: A mysterious disappearance, a post-war city teeming with danger, a scavenger hunt, riddles, a road trip, escaped zoo animals, an orphan, and a title echoing the first line of Hansel and Gretel. It’s loosely based on author Leo Vardiashvili’s life — he lived through Georgia’s civil war and immigrated to the UK as a refugee in the mid ’90s. It’s two decades later in the novel when Saba’s father is pulled back to their homeland in search of something — before promptly disappearing. His last message to his son: Do not follow me. But Saba (of course) follows his breadcrumb trail of clues and, along the way, is forced to confront the question: Can you ever really go home again? \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/712227784/samantha-balaban\">Samantha Balaban,\u003c/a> producer, ‘Weekend Edition’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960530\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 834px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960530\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.47.01-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a tiny illustration of a traveling man.\" width=\"834\" height=\"1208\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.47.01-PM.png 834w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.47.01-PM-800x1159.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.47.01-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.47.01-PM-768x1112.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘James: A Novel’ by Percival Everett. \u003ccite>(Doubleday)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘James: A Novel’ by Percival Everett\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The jokes in \u003cem>James\u003c/em> range from chin scratchers to knee slappers to gut busters. Although I’m not sure Percival Everett would even classify them as “jokes.” In his re-imagining of the Huckleberry Finn story, Everett mines language, history and irony to showcase brutal truths about America. And yes, it’s often funny. But, like the original source material, things can quickly turn deadly serious depending on how the river flows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The novel is thrilling, hilarious, heartbreaking, and a strong argument for Everett as one of the best doing it right now. \u003cem>— \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348740829/andrew-limbong\">Andrew Limbong,\u003c/a>\u003cem> correspondent, Culture Desk, and host, NPR’s ‘Book of the Day’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960528\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 836px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960528\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.45.30-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting a person on a bicycle riding through purple flames.\" width=\"836\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.45.30-PM.png 836w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.45.30-PM-800x1158.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.45.30-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.45.30-PM-768x1112.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 836px) 100vw, 836px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Memory Piece: A Novel’ by Lisa Ko. \u003ccite>(Riverhead Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Memory Piece: A Novel’ by Lisa Ko\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This is a coming of age story about three friends growing up in and around New York City in the 1990s. Their friendship evolves over the decades as they experiment with, and push the boundaries of, art, performance and technology. I loved that the book makes art feel real and weird and kind of gross — not glamorous and sugarcoated. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/378865949/elissa-nadworny\">Elissa Nadworny,\u003c/a> correspondent\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960527\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 834px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960527\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.43.47-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring an illustration of a woman lying with her arms over her head.\" width=\"834\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.43.47-PM.png 834w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.43.47-PM-800x1165.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.43.47-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.43.47-PM-768x1118.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Swift River’ by Essie Chambers. \u003ccite>(Simon & Schuster)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Swift River’ by Essie Chambers\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After her beloved father mysteriously disappears, Diamond and her mom find themselves living hand to mouth in a faded New England mill town where Diamond is the lone Black resident. Why did a previous generation of Black families abandon it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This propulsive and poetic first novel, by an accomplished documentary film producer, grounds a tender coming-of-age narrative in a history of migration, marginalization and imagination. Threaded through every step of Diamond’s journey is her deadpan wit; of one ramshackle dwelling, she observes, “the whole house looks like it’s having a cigarette.” And she reflects, when a heartbreaking legal issue is finally resolved, “That was the thing about a racist town. It got to decide when it would be kind.” \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/3850482/neda-ulaby\">Neda Ulaby,\u003c/a> correspondent, Culture Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960526\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 834px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960526\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.42.07-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting a woman and man sitting at a restaurant table.\" width=\"834\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.42.07-PM.png 834w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.42.07-PM-800x1161.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.42.07-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.42.07-PM-768x1114.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Table for Two: Fictions’ by Amor Towles. \u003ccite>(Viking)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Table for Two: Fictions’ by Amor Towles\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The first half of this jaunty short-story collection takes place in New York. Among the memorable characters are a Russian immigrant whose chief role in life is to stand in lines; a young antiquarian bookstore employee who gets more than he bargains for in his desire for life experience; and a seemingly straight-laced family man with a big Wall Street job, whose secret pastime, once discovered, upends his and his loved ones’ lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second half, devoted entirely to the novella “Eve in Hollywood,” is set in Los Angeles during Tinseltown’s Golden Age. The pithy, film noir-ish thriller picks up where the author’s 2011 novel \u003cem>Rules of Civility\u003c/em> left off — with the plucky, scar-faced adventuress, Evelyn Ross, deftly saving the honor of a host of Hollywood starlets. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1113762078/chloe-veltman\">Chloe Veltman,\u003c/a> correspondent, Culture Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 842px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960525\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.40.35-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting a helicopter flying over trees.\" width=\"842\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.40.35-PM.png 842w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.40.35-PM-800x1152.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.40.35-PM-160x230.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.40.35-PM-768x1105.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 842px) 100vw, 842px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Women’ by Kristin Hannah. \u003ccite>(St. Martin's Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Women’ by Kristin Hannah\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“You’re only going to be a nurse until you get married,” her mother said. But Frankie McGrath had other ideas, ones that would lead her away from her wealthy family’s conservative outlook on how daughters should behave. Kristin Hannah’s \u003cem>The Women \u003c/em>follows young Frankie’s transformation, when after working as a nurse in California and tending to a wounded soldier, and missing her soldier brother, she joins the Army as a nurse. That takes her from a comfortable life of known expectations, to one of the chaos and danger of war, new career opportunities and love. Tangled love.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Frankie returns home, she finds her country still protesting the war, and those who served. \u003cem>The Women \u003c/em>shines a light on a then little-known aspect of the war: the women who also served in Vietnam, as nurses. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1053920456/jeanine-herbst\">Jeanine Herbst,\u003c/a> news anchor\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960523\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 836px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960523\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.38.10-PM.png\" alt=\"The front half of a horse visible as it sleeps into a spiraling vortex.\" width=\"836\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.38.10-PM.png 836w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.38.10-PM-800x1160.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.38.10-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.38.10-PM-768x1113.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 836px) 100vw, 836px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘You Dreamed of Empires: A Novel’ by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer. \u003ccite>(Riverhead Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘You Dreamed of Empires: A Novel’ by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This salty and dark historical fantasia feistily explodes well-worn textbook narratives about the meeting of the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his captains with the Aztec emperor Moctezuma and his entourage in Tenoxtitlan — now Mexico City — in 1519.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Álvaro Enrigue’s depiction of the stressed out, clumsy Cortés and the drugged out, mercurial Moctezuma sets these near-mythical figures into earthy relief. But it’s mostly the intrigues and machinations of these leaders’ canny consorts — the Aztec princess Atotoxtli and the conquistadors’ translator Malinalli — that power the plot. Natasha Wimmer’s English translation sharply delivers the novel’s poetic and witty qualities while at the same time reveling in its core theme: the fundamental untranslatability of human experience. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1113762078/chloe-veltman\">Chloe Veltman,\u003c/a> correspondent, Culture Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch2>Mysteries & Thrillers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960522\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 838px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960522\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.36.14-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a partial close-up of a woman's face and the exterior of a house in the snow.\" width=\"838\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.36.14-PM.png 838w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.36.14-PM-800x1155.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.36.14-PM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.36.14-PM-768x1109.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Nightwatching’ by Tracy Sierra. \u003ccite>(Pamela Dorman Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Nightwatching’ by Tracy Sierra\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Nightwatching \u003c/em>begins with a scene straight out of a nightmare: A woman is at home with two sleeping children when she hears the footsteps of an intruder on the stairs. The story that follows is by turns suspenseful, uncomfortable and enraging. Tracy Sierra skillfully uses the home invasion to explore the terrifying responsibility of motherhood and to expose the pure horror of being a woman in a society that does not always choose to believe women. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1227635672/julie-rogers\">Julie Rogers,\u003c/a> historian and curator, NPR Research, Archives & Data strategy\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960518\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 830px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960518\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.33.24-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a white house on a red horizon.\" width=\"830\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.33.24-PM.png 830w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.33.24-PM-800x1166.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.33.24-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.33.24-PM-768x1120.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Hunter’ by Tana French. \u003ccite>(Viking)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Hunter’ by Tana French\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Set in the hills of Western Ireland, this novel picks up the story of characters introduced in 2020’s \u003cem>The Searcher\u003c/em> — retired American detective Cal Hooper and Trey, a teen girl he’s taken under his wing. As French revisits the seemingly bucolic landscape where trouble roils just under the surface, her writing continues to shift from mystery to meditation. While there’s still a knot of questions about crimes — including both fraud and murder — to be untangled, this novel is ultimately about belonging; the ways in which families do, and don’t, owe each other debts; the communities we resist, alienate, or become a welcome part of. Morally shaded and complex, it will leave you thinking about who’s right — and what’s wrong — long after you turn the last page. —\u003cem> Tayla Burney, director, Network Programming & Production\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch2>Sci Fi, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction & Horror\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960517\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 744px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960517\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.31.42-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a bird's nest with broken eggs and one that is still intact.\" width=\"744\" height=\"1106\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.31.42-PM.png 744w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.31.42-PM-160x238.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 744px) 100vw, 744px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Cuckoo’ by Gretchen Felker-Martin. \u003ccite>(Tor Nightfire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Cuckoo’ by Gretchen Felker-Martin\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cuckoo \u003c/em>is an ingeniously scary novel about a group of kids sent to a conversion camp in the ’90s. There’s the terror of the socially accepted abuse the kids face (both at the camp and at home) because they are queer, but there’s yet another horrifying entity preying on them, and trying to make them — different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Felker-Martin’s sharp novel takes on the particular vulnerability of queer kids and the body-snatching that is conversion therapy, and she does it with equal measures of tenderness and grotesquery. As harrowing and disgusting as it is, I also found it quite insightful and beautiful — and for that reason, \u003cem>Cuckoo \u003c/em>is a great work of horror. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/959668312/liam-mcbain\">Liam McBain,\u003c/a> associate producer, ‘It’s Been a Minute’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960516\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 874px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960516\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.29.35-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring an illustration of a hand holding a gold chain.\" width=\"874\" height=\"1108\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.29.35-PM.png 874w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.29.35-PM-800x1014.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.29.35-PM-160x203.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.29.35-PM-768x974.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 874px) 100vw, 874px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Familiar’ by Leigh Bardugo. \u003ccite>(Flatiron Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Familiar’ by Leigh Bardugo\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It is the Spanish Golden Age, and kitchen maid Luzia has secrets to hide: her skill at magic and her Jewish heritage. When her employer discovers her spells, Luzia is entered into a tournament to find King Philip, who hopes to increase his military standing, a champion. She is trained by the strange creature Santángel, an immortal with a mysterious past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/04/11/1244125050/leigh-bardugo-the-familiar-book-review\">gorgeously lush, vividly written book\u003c/a> that shines with its strong cast of characters. Luzia is a hero you’ll find yourself rooting for right from the start, and the magic system in this world is a breath of fresh air. Once again, Leigh Bardugo proves she never misses the mark when it comes to intricately building fantastical worlds — leaving you thinking about them long after the last page is turned. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/836937515/hafsa-fathima\">Hafsa Fathima,\u003c/a> production assistant, ‘Pop Culture Happy Hour’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960514\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 830px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960514\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.26.32-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting the word 'Husbands' climbing up a ladder.\" width=\"830\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.26.32-PM.png 830w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.26.32-PM-800x1168.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.26.32-PM-160x234.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.26.32-PM-768x1121.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Husbands: A Novel’ by Holly Gramazio. \u003ccite>(Doubleday)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Husbands: A Novel’ by Holly Gramazio\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Lauren leaves her London flat for a bachelorette party one night only to discover a husband at home awaiting her return. Not only was she not married when she left for the night, she doesn’t recognize this man. Slowly she works out that he’s not a threat — and that all evidence on her phone, in conversations with friends and neighbors, and in their apartments points to him being fully integrated into her life. And there he is until he goes into the attic and a different husband emerges, slightly — or drastically — altering Lauren’s life. The pattern continues as Lauren searches for metaphysical clues to what’s going on and wrestles with how to know, if she can ever know, which life is right for her. A rare combination of the truly hilarious and profound. \u003cem>— Tayla Burney, director, Network Programming & Production\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960513\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 762px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960513\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.24.33-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting block letters floating in space.\" width=\"762\" height=\"1110\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.24.33-PM.png 762w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.24.33-PM-160x233.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 762px) 100vw, 762px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Ministry of Time: A Novel’ by Kaliane Bradley. \u003ccite>(Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Ministry of Time: A Novel’ by Kaliane Bradley\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>You’d think a novel about the bureaucracy of a time-travel government agency might be kinda boring. But from the moment you meet the book’s enigmatic protagonist — as she starts a new job in the UK’s top secret new time travel agency — to the introduction of the dashing Graham Gore, an 1847 arctic explorer plucked through time, you’ll be hooked. Come for the romance, stay for the unraveling of a mystery, the nuanced, genre-bending treatises on race and identity, and the long-lingering ideas on colonialism, empires and the mutability of history. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/580312943/christina-cala\">Christina Cala,\u003c/a> senior producer, ‘Code Switch’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960509\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 828px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960509\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.21.52-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover with small illustrations including the Paris city skyline, the ocean and various plants and flowers.\" width=\"828\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.21.52-PM.png 828w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.21.52-PM-800x1171.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.21.52-PM-160x234.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.21.52-PM-768x1124.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘A Short Walk Through a Wide World: A Novel’ by Douglas Westerbeke. \u003ccite>(Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘A Short Walk Through a Wide World: A Novel’ by Douglas Westerbeke\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the year 1885, in Paris, when 9-year-old Aubry Tourvel encounters a mysterious, wooden, puzzle ball: It may be a blessing or a curse, but it most definitely changes her life. Now she needs to keep moving forever; too long in any one town and she will bleed to death. So her life is all travel and adventure, and through her we wonder at the richness of the globe’s markets, towns, forests and deserts. Over many decades, she meets all types of kind and curious people — as well as cruel and uncaring ones. Sometimes Aubry enjoys quick communion with strangers. Other times, she is surrounded but desperately lonely. This is a ravishing, deeply human book that’s in love with the world, with people, with the new — and yet is infused with a deep, futile longing for home.\u003cem> — \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1091803881/jennifer-vanasco\">\u003cem>Jennifer Vanasco\u003c/em>,\u003c/a>\u003cem> editor and reporter, Culture Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Even hardworking news journalists by day need a break from reality in their off hours. In the newsroom at NPR, there are some omnivorous fiction readers. There are fans of romance, historical fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and more. We asked our colleagues what they’ve enjoyed reading most this year — and here are the titles they shared. (And, OK, yes, we read \u003cem>plenty\u003c/em> of nonfiction, too, because NPR gonna NPR. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13959945/best-nonfiction-books-2024-npr-staff-picks\">You can see that list here\u003c/a>. )\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch2>Realistic Fiction\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960567\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 838px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960567\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.29.32-PM.png\" alt=\"A painting of a cliff edge at sunrise with large trees at its base.\" width=\"838\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.29.32-PM.png 838w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.29.32-PM-800x1155.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.29.32-PM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.29.32-PM-768x1109.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘All Fours: A Novel’ by Miranda July. \u003ccite>(Riverhead Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘All Fours: A Novel’ by Miranda July\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>All Fours\u003c/em> is a coming-of-age novel for perimenopause. The story follows an unnamed narrator as she begins a cross-country road trip away from her husband and child, but she pulls over to stay in a motel 30 minutes from her house instead. This “trip” still changes her life — through an infatuation with a younger guy who works at a car rental place, she begins a new intimacy with herself, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve read all of Miranda July’s books, and she’s always doing weird and imaginative things with her characters. This story has all of July’s usual eccentricity, but it also brims with the excitement and fear and possibility that comes with entering the unknown of life’s latter half, especially for women. It felt singularly fresh, and perfectly enjoyable. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/959668312/liam-mcbain\">Liam McBain,\u003c/a> associate producer,\u003c/em> \u003cem>‘It’s Been a Minute’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960566\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 860px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960566\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.27.54-PM.png\" alt=\"A gas station sign, a neon sign and a sign with sliding letters.\" width=\"860\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.27.54-PM.png 860w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.27.54-PM-800x1127.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.27.54-PM-160x225.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.27.54-PM-768x1082.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 860px) 100vw, 860px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘American Spirits’ by Russell Banks. \u003ccite>(Knopf)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘American Spirits’ by Russell Banks\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The three stories in \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/03/10/1237083926/russell-banks-posthumous-novel-american-spirits\">this collection\u003c/a> are set in a fictional town, but seem so familiar: a local guy who got in a dangerous beef with an out-of-towner that bought up his family’s property and then refused to let him hunt on it; a family that adopts several children then purposely crashes their van off the highway; grandparents who are scammed by people claiming to have kidnapped their grandson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The late Russell Banks’ final writings are a masterful exploration of these kinds of tales, looking at the motivations of ordinary people in a world that’s become increasingly polarized and deeply troubled. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/474954558/melissa-gray\">Melissa Gray,\u003c/a> senior producer, ‘Weekend Edition’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960564\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 818px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960564\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.26.13-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover with a red house on it. It has oversized flowers illustrated as coming out of its roof. \" width=\"818\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.26.13-PM.png 818w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.26.13-PM-800x1183.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.26.13-PM-160x237.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.26.13-PM-768x1136.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Behind You Is the Sea’ by Susan Muaddi Darraj. \u003ccite>(HarperVia)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Behind You Is the Sea’ by Susan Muaddi Darraj\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you want to know the challenges that Palestinian Americans face in the U.S., you must read this book. It follows several families in Baltimore as they wrestle with poverty, religion, living in between two cultures and their pursuit of the American Dream. There is Marcus, a cop who stands up for his Arab sister who is dating a Black man; Samira, who is shamed for being a childless divorcee (despite that, she is a successful lawyer); Layla, a high school student who pushes back against the drama club’s production of \u003cem>Aladdin\u003c/em>, which she says perpetuates racist stereotypes about Arabs. How their lives intersect will leave you at the edge of your seat. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/469106148/malaka-gharib\">Malaka Gharib,\u003c/a> digital editor, ‘Life Kit’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960562\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 832px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960562\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.24.40-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover with an illustration of a young pig on it.\" width=\"832\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.24.40-PM.png 832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.24.40-PM-800x1165.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.24.40-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.24.40-PM-768x1119.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Come & Get It’ by Kiley Reid. \u003ccite>(G.P. Putnam’s Sons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Come & Get It’ by Kiley Reid\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Told through multiple perspectives, I could not put this snappy page-turner down even though I had no idea where it was going until its jaw-dropping crescendo. Set at the University of Arkansas, this story follows several college students and a writing professor over the course of a year, largely through the lens of their relationship with money — how it motivates them, how it gets them into and (for some) out of situations — as well as race, sexuality, power and social status. As a southerner and the graduate of a southern university, I found myself nodding along excitedly to Reid’s apt depictions of contemporary southern culture. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/637150103/becky-harlan\">Beck Harlan,\u003c/a> visuals editor, ‘Life Kit’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960560\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 822px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960560\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.23.03-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover with cartoonish font and a photo of two palm trees.\" width=\"822\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.23.03-PM.png 822w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.23.03-PM-800x1178.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.23.03-PM-160x236.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.23.03-PM-768x1131.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 822px) 100vw, 822px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Dead in Long Beach, California: A Novel’ by Venita Blackburn. \u003ccite>(MCD)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Dead in Long Beach, California: A Novel’ by Venita Blackburn\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A woman named Coral finds the body of her brother after his suicide, but she doesn’t tell anyone right away. Instead, she begins to inhabit his life through his phone, as if she can keep him alive by answering his texts. But what makes the book even odder, even more ambitious, is that it is narrated in the detached voices of automated beings from the future who are all that’s left after humanity has wiped itself out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This combination of almost unbearable intimacy and arm’s-length anthropology has an explanation of sorts. But more importantly, it serves both to add considerable humor to the text (what would a robot think of human frailty, after all?) and to render Coral’s situation more confusing, more disorienting. It’s a sad story, but it’s also a ride, and that’s a tough combination. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/93702353/linda-holmes\">Linda Holmes,\u003c/a> host, ‘Pop Culture Happy Hour’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960558\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 834px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960558\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.21.29-PM.png\" alt=\"Side profile of a woman wearing an elaborate red sari. \" width=\"834\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.21.29-PM.png 834w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.21.29-PM-800x1161.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.21.29-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.21.29-PM-768x1114.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years: A Novel’ by Shubnum Khan. \u003ccite>(Viking)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years: A Novel’ by Shubnum Khan\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The djinn of the title — I pictured a depressed Grinch — haunts this comforting dose of tropes: A girl with a deceased mom moves into an old, possibly magic house with an inaccessible area. Blocked-off rooms being irresistible to teenage main characters, Sana Malek digs her way in, uncovering a tragic family secret or two. The twists and revelations that follow aren’t exactly jaw-dropping, but are emotionally wrenching enough to clear out the old tear ducts without leaving a grief hangover. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1173760481/holly-j-morris\">Holly J. Morris,\u003c/a> digital trainer\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960556\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 824px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960556\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.19.57-PM.png\" alt=\"Colorful illustration of an exotic forest.\" width=\"824\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.19.57-PM.png 824w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.19.57-PM-800x1177.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.19.57-PM-160x235.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.19.57-PM-768x1130.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 824px) 100vw, 824px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Extinction of Irena Rey’ by Jennifer Croft. \u003ccite>(Bloomsbury Publishing)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Extinction of Irena Rey’ by Jennifer Croft\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This book has so many layers! Let’s start with the premise. Eight translators meet up at the home of a famous Polish novelist to translate her latest work — which is apparently so brilliant it could change the world! — into their respective home languages. But their beloved author goes missing, setting off their search for her in the nearby Białowieża forest — filled with so many layers of wilderness! The narrator is the Spanish translator, but we’re reading the story in English — it’s been translated by the English translator. Those two don’t get along. More layers! If you like language, literature — and fungi — this wild ride of a very esoteric mystery is for you. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/378865949/elissa-nadworny\">Elissa Nadworny,\u003c/a> correspondent\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960551\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 848px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960551\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.18.25-PM.png\" alt=\"A Black man relaxes on the edge of a boat, overlooking choppy waves.\" width=\"848\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.18.25-PM.png 848w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.18.25-PM-800x1143.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.18.25-PM-160x229.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.18.25-PM-768x1098.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 848px) 100vw, 848px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Great Expectations’ by Vinson Cunningham. \u003ccite>(Hogarth)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Great Expectations’ by Vinson Cunningham\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Vinson Cunningham worked on the 2008 Obama campaign, so it’s no surprise that this coming-of-age story follows a young man working on a thinly (very thinly) veiled version of that very undertaking. It would be easy to make a story like this either a cynical and cutting takedown of politics or a starry-eyed and idealistic discovery of meaning. It’s neither. It presents this campaign as a formative stage in the life of a young person who sees what goes into the successful gathering of power, ugly and impressive as it can be. Full of sharp observations about our precarious system of government, it’s also insightful about race and wealth and the relationship between the two. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/93702353/linda-holmes\">Linda Holmes,\u003c/a> host, ‘Pop Culture Happy Hour’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960549\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 826px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960549\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.16.46-PM.png\" alt=\"Illustration of stairs, boxes and plant life.\" width=\"826\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.16.46-PM.png 826w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.16.46-PM-800x1174.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.16.46-PM-160x235.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.16.46-PM-768x1127.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 826px) 100vw, 826px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Greta & Valdin’ by Rebecca K. Reilly. \u003ccite>(Victoria University Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Greta & Valdin’ by Rebecca K. Reilly\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The loving family at the heart of this very funny and moving novel about a brother and sister is so complex that I drew a diagram — no fooling — halfway through, the better to solidify in my mind ideas like, “Valdin recently broke up with his older boyfriend, who is also his uncle’s husband’s brother.” But despite the messy structure of things, every bond in the book is written to be precious and specific.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Greta & Valdin\u003c/em> is the rare story to live up to its fearless promotional copy, which calls it a cross between \u003cem>Schitt’s Creek\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Normal People.\u003c/em> Perhaps that sounds impossible; that’s what makes it so good. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/93702353/linda-holmes\">Linda Holmes,\u003c/a> host, ‘Pop Culture Happy Hour’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960548\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 828px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960548\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.15.04-PM.png\" alt=\"An illustration of a woman wearing boxing gloves and helmet, throwing a punch.\" width=\"828\" height=\"1208\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.15.04-PM.png 828w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.15.04-PM-800x1167.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.15.04-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.15.04-PM-768x1120.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Headshot: A Novel’ by Rita Bullwinkel. \u003ccite>(Viking)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Headshot: A Novel’ by Rita Bullwinkel\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Headshot \u003c/em>is a real one-two punch of a novel. Eight teenage girl boxers have come to Bob’s Boxing Palace in Reno, Nevada, for the 12th annual Women’s 18 & Under Daughters of America Cup. As each fight plays out in the ring — sometimes brutally, ferociously — Rita Bullwinkel brings to life the internal monologues of the girls. They recite the digits of pi, think about their pasts, their futures, their dreams of being the best in the world — and also of making their opponents chomp on a mouthful of pennies until their teeth break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bullwinkel’s dynamic writing — moving back and forth in time, in and out of the boxing gym — and short, punchy sentences are a perfect mirror of the girls’ jabs in the ring. It’s a knockout. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/712227784/samantha-balaban\">Samantha Balaban,\u003c/a> producer, ‘Weekend Edition’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960547\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 840px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960547\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.12.49-PM.png\" alt=\"A painting of a man's face, split into two.\" width=\"840\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.12.49-PM.png 840w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.12.49-PM-800x1154.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.12.49-PM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.12.49-PM-768x1108.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Henry Henry: A Novel’ by Allen Bratton. \u003ccite>(The Unnamed Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Henry Henry’ by Allen Bratton\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Hal is a profane mess, kind of like Shakespeare’s Prince Hal, on whom he’s based: The 20-something is careening through life fueled by drugs, booze, cigarettes, and loveless sex. He both flaunts and loathes his class status, his family’s fortune, and his future as Duke of Lancaster, along with a flat-out-refusal to live up to his father’s expectations. Hal is so wholly unsympathetic that if not for the brilliant writing, you might just give up before discovering the shocking violation at the root of his self-destruction. How can he finally become his own person? This isn’t an easy read. It’s at times dark and highly upsetting, but the author makes you stick with it in hopes of seeing Hal finally grow up. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/474954558/melissa-gray\">Melissa Gray,\u003c/a> senior producer, ‘Weekend Edition’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960546\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 846px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960546\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.11.15-PM.png\" alt=\"Illustrations of colorful houses, nestled in trees.\" width=\"846\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.11.15-PM.png 846w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.11.15-PM-800x1146.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.11.15-PM-160x229.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.11.15-PM-768x1100.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 846px) 100vw, 846px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Same As It Ever Was’ by Claire Lombardo. \u003ccite>(Doubleday)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Same As It Ever Was’ by Claire Lombardo\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This is one of those beautifully written, keenly observed novels where not that much happens — other than, you know, life itself — but also so much happens. Julia Ames is experiencing a midlife plateau when an announcement from her son sets her reeling, and reflecting on all the relationships — past and present, familial, intergenerational, romantic — that have shaped her life including: Mark, her near-perfect husband; Anita, her near-imperfect mother; and Helen, the older woman who saves Julia in the early days of motherhood. Though the dynamic between Julia and her “spiky” teenage daughter is my personal favorite, Claire Lombardo has written a whole cast of characters so detailed, so specifically themselves, that you almost feel you could reach out and touch them. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/712227784/samantha-balaban\">Samantha Balaban,\u003c/a> producer, ‘Weekend Edition’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960545\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 838px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960545\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.09.44-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover showing a row of falling dominoes.\" width=\"838\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.09.44-PM.png 838w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.09.44-PM-800x1155.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.09.44-PM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.09.44-PM-768x1109.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Victim: A Novel’ by Andrew Boryga. \u003ccite>(Doubleday)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Victim: A Novel’ by Andrew Boryga\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Lying is kind of funny. The stress of someone jumping through increasingly wild hoops to avoid getting caught in a lie is hilarious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Victim\u003c/em> is about Javi, a writer from a marginalized community, who fudges his way into the kinds of rooms where people say “marginalized” and “community” a lot. The book is a charming critique of the publishing industry and its surface-level attempts at righting societal ills (which, kind of bold for a debut author), while also staying empathetic towards the well-meaning individuals who give Javi a shot. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348740829/andrew-limbong\">Andrew Limbong,\u003c/a> correspondent, Culture Desk, and host, NPR’s ‘Book of the Day’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch2>Romance & Relationships\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960544\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 812px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960544\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.07.57-PM.png\" alt=\"An illustration of three women positioned around a large martini glass.\" width=\"812\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.07.57-PM.png 812w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.07.57-PM-800x1192.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.07.57-PM-160x238.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.07.57-PM-768x1144.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 812px) 100vw, 812px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet’ by Molly Morris. \u003ccite>(Wednesday Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet’ by Molly Morris\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>What happens when your former best friend comes back from the dead, but only for 30 days? That’s what Wilson needs to figure out when her friend Annie is brought back as part of a local custom in her small California town. To complicate things more, their friend, Ryan apparently hates them both. Wilson is determined to fix things before Annie returns to — well, being dead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is a beautifully poetic YA work about female friendships, with a touch of magical realism and laugh out loud humor. The dynamic between the trio is filled with teenage angst, love and forgiveness. It considers a common dilemma: How do you accept change when it means giving up what you love? \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/836937515/hafsa-fathima\">Hafsa Fathima,\u003c/a> production assistant, ‘Pop Culture Happy Hour’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960543\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 810px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960543\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.06.09-PM.png\" alt=\"An illustration of a woman looking through binoculars. In one lens, we see a bird. In the other, a man. \" width=\"810\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.06.09-PM.png 810w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.06.09-PM-800x1199.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.06.09-PM-160x240.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.06.09-PM-768x1151.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Birding with Benefits’ by Sarah T. Dubb. \u003ccite>(Gallery Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Birding with Benefits’ by Sarah T. Dubb\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This sweet, fake-relationship romance follows the recently divorced empty-nester Celeste as she navigates life as a single woman, once again. This time around, she’s saying yes to life and shaking things up. She didn’t expect the shaking to bring in the sensitive, gentle giant that is John. Or his deep love of birds. Come for the romance but, beware, you might find yourself falling in love with John’s quiet, colorful world of birding yourself!\u003cem> — \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/580312943/christina-cala\">Christina Cala,\u003c/a> senior producer, ‘Code Switch’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960542\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 838px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960542\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.03.47-PM.png\" alt=\"An illustration of a modern young woman walking through a city under an umbrella and reading a book.\" width=\"838\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.03.47-PM.png 838w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.03.47-PM-800x1155.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.03.47-PM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.03.47-PM-768x1109.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Girl Abroad’ by Elle Kennedy. \u003ccite>(Bloom Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Girl Abroad’ by Elle Kennedy\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Girl Abroad \u003c/em>starts with Abbey Bly, 19 years old, ready to step away from her adoring, yet overprotective, father when she is given the chance to study abroad in London. There’s just one hitch: Abbey believes she’ll be living with girls there — but arrives to find out all her flatmates are boys. She decides to step into her new-found independence (and hide this fact from her father). Elle Kennedy has written an enjoyable coming-of-age story filled with humor, drama, romance, and a found family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Readers will enjoy the way Kennedy deviates from her usual steamy-angst-centric stories for one with deeper emphasis on self growth, relationship dynamics and figuring out not only who you are, but what you want. \u003cem>— Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez, audio engineer\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960541\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 836px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960541\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.01.55-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring illustrations of a woman and man surrounded by palm trees.\" width=\"836\" height=\"1208\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.01.55-PM.png 836w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.01.55-PM-800x1156.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.01.55-PM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.01.55-PM-768x1110.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 836px) 100vw, 836px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘How to End a Love Story’ by Yulin Kuang. \u003ccite>(Avon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘How to End a Love Story’ by Yulin Kuang\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If a ’90s rom-com grew up and went to therapy, this sparkling book would be the result. After penning a popular YA book series, Helen Zhang gets a seat in the writers’ room where it’s being adapted into a TV show. Unfortunately, Grant Shepard is also one of the writers in that room. Grant was the charming homecoming king at their high school whereas Helen was awkward and introverted. He’s also the reason Helen’s sister is dead — kind of. It’s been years since the accident, but the writers’ room reopens old wounds and forces Helen and Grant to be vulnerable with each other. Even as Helen wrestles with their past, the two begin a present-day romance that is sexy and tender. This book is a raised glass to second chances and late bloomers. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348774853/lauren-migaki\">Lauren Migaki,\u003c/a> senior producer, Education\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960540\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 836px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960540\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.00.10-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring bright illustrations of flowers, a woman and man, and a diamond ring.\" width=\"836\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.00.10-PM.png 836w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.00.10-PM-800x1158.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.00.10-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-2.00.10-PM-768x1112.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 836px) 100vw, 836px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Say You’ll Be Mine: A Novel’ by Naina Kumar. \u003ccite>(Dell)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Say You’ll Be Mine: A Novel’ by Naina Kumar\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s a familiar South Asian story: Two people finally relent to their parents’ wishes of meeting a potential marriage partner. But \u003cem>Say You’ll Be Mine \u003c/em>is so much more than that. Meghna is in love with her best friend, who is engaged to someone else. Karthik is an engineer who doesn’t really want to get married. But as the two discover, a fake engagement between them may be the answer to their problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naina Kumar writes a funny, heartwarming tale, filled with sizzling chemistry. It’s hard to not root for them from page one, as they slowly fall in love. It’s an incredible book that tackles the merits and shortcomings of culture, finding an identity and of course, true love. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/836937515/hafsa-fathima\">Hafsa Fathima,\u003c/a> production assistant, ‘Pop Culture Happy Hour’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960538\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 820px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960538\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.58.26-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring illustrations of a young woman and man surrounded by autumn leaves.\" width=\"820\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.58.26-PM.png 820w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.58.26-PM-800x1184.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.58.26-PM-160x237.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.58.26-PM-768x1137.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Sex, Lies and Sensibility’ by Nikki Payne. \u003ccite>(Berkley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Sex, Lies and Sensibility’ by Nikki Payne\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Set in the heart of vacationland, Nora Dash and Ennis “Bear” Freeman are both fighting uphill battles. After her dad dies, Nora inherits some serious family drama — and a rundown cottage in Maine. Now, Nora and her sister have just months to turn the place into a successful resort. Meanwhile, Bear’s struggling with his own business of guiding visitors through his native Abenaki land. The tours take him through Nora’s backyard and the two team up. Their chemistry is off the charts as they spend hours working and finding stress relief in long runs through the Maine woods. But both are keeping secrets, and have let shame work its way through their lives like an invasive species. The two have to figure out how to move forward once those secrets spill out. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348774853/lauren-migaki\">Lauren Migaki,\u003c/a> senior producer, Education\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch2>Historical Fiction\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960537\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 830px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960537\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.56.35-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a close up photo of a man's hands playing the piano.\" width=\"830\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.56.35-PM.png 830w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.56.35-PM-800x1166.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.56.35-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.56.35-PM-768x1120.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Cahokia Jazz: A Novel’ by Francis Spufford. \u003ccite>(Scribner)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Cahokia Jazz: A Novel’ by Francis Spufford\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s 1922 and, in this alternate-history detective story, Cahokia isn’t a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Illinois. It’s a thriving Indigenous-owned and operated city and state with a strong Catholic presence, plus Klansmen, bootleggers and other undesirables. If you try to skim, you’ll get lost in the how-deep-does-this-go corruption, careful world-building and sprawling cast. The naive main character, jazz-playing police detective Joe Barrow, shoves his way through exposition, fight scenes, maybe-occult doings, local royalty and personal angst, all backgrounded by a Roaring Twenties aesthetic portrayed in loving detail. Maps and excerpts from (made-up) primary sources will guide you through — if you pay attention. If you’re me, you’ll take notes. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1173760481/holly-j-morris\">Holly J. Morris,\u003c/a> digital trainer\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960536\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 816px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960536\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.54.34-PM.png\" alt=\"Waves crash onto a rocky beach. In the center of the water floats a tea pot.\" width=\"816\" height=\"1206\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.54.34-PM.png 816w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.54.34-PM-800x1182.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.54.34-PM-160x236.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.54.34-PM-768x1135.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 816px) 100vw, 816px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Clear: A Novel’ by Carys Davies. \u003ccite>(Scribner)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Clear: A Novel’ by Carys Davies\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s the 1840s, the last and most brutal years of The Clearances, when Scottish landowners began replacing unprofitable tenants with sheep. Based on that real history, \u003cem>Clear\u003c/em> is a novel about a minister, John, who has been dispatched to clear a remote island of its last remaining inhabitant, Ivar. Except just after he arrives, John slips and falls off a cliff. Ivar finds John, nurses him back to health, and invites him into his life; Ivar begins to teach John the many words that all mean some variation of “rough seas” in Norn (a real language), and the pair learn to communicate roughly, but with an unexpected depth. What follows is perhaps the most tender, beautiful story about the connection between two people and what they must overcome to find each other — in every sense of the word. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/712227784/samantha-balaban\">Samantha Balaban,\u003c/a> producer, ‘Weekend Edition’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960535\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 834px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960535\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.52.49-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring constellations.\" width=\"834\" height=\"1208\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.52.49-PM.png 834w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.52.49-PM-800x1159.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.52.49-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.52.49-PM-768x1112.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Enlightenment’ by Sarah Perry. \u003ccite>(Mariner Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Enlightenment’ by Sarah Perry\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>You know that feeling — when you are fascinated by someone all the more because you don’t fully understand them? That’s how I feel in English author Sarah Perry’s “presence.” \u003cem>Enlightenment \u003c/em>is a tale of two friends, different generations but hailing from the same small Essex town and even smaller congregation. There’s a mystery involving a woman astronomer — but mainly there’s empathy for the complexities of people’s identities and belief systems, a sense of home, and loads of gorgeous writing. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/349278028/shannon-rhoades\">Shannon Rhoades,\u003c/a> senior editor, ‘Weekend Edition’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960534\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 830px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960534\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.50.50-PM.png\" alt=\"An illustration of an Asian woman, traditionally dressed, walking through snow. Her reflection in the water next to her is a white fox.\" width=\"830\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.50.50-PM.png 830w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.50.50-PM-800x1168.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.50.50-PM-160x234.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.50.50-PM-768x1121.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Fox Wife: A Novel’ by Yangsze Choo. \u003ccite>(Henry Holt and Co.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Fox Wife: A Novel’ by Yangsze Choo\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There’s a little bit of mystery and mysticism on every page of this book. Set in China in the early 1900s, the book centers around two characters in separate, but connecting narratives. A fox masquerading as a young woman that’s set out to avenge her daughter’s death and a detective with an affinity for foxes who is working a murder case. It’s clever and observant, with twists and turns and just the perfect amount of folklore to keep you asking: What is real and what is imagined? \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/378865949/elissa-nadworny\">Elissa Nadworny,\u003c/a> correspondent\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960531\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 836px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960531\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.48.43-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring an exotic small town on a hillside at dusk.\" width=\"836\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.48.43-PM.png 836w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.48.43-PM-800x1162.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.48.43-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.48.43-PM-768x1115.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 836px) 100vw, 836px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Hard by a Great Forest’ by Leo Vardiashvili. \u003ccite>(Riverhead Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Hard by a Great Forest’ by Leo Vardiashvili\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Hard by a Great Forest\u003c/em> has all the ingredients of a dark and twisty fairy tale: A mysterious disappearance, a post-war city teeming with danger, a scavenger hunt, riddles, a road trip, escaped zoo animals, an orphan, and a title echoing the first line of Hansel and Gretel. It’s loosely based on author Leo Vardiashvili’s life — he lived through Georgia’s civil war and immigrated to the UK as a refugee in the mid ’90s. It’s two decades later in the novel when Saba’s father is pulled back to their homeland in search of something — before promptly disappearing. His last message to his son: Do not follow me. But Saba (of course) follows his breadcrumb trail of clues and, along the way, is forced to confront the question: Can you ever really go home again? \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/712227784/samantha-balaban\">Samantha Balaban,\u003c/a> producer, ‘Weekend Edition’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960530\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 834px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960530\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.47.01-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a tiny illustration of a traveling man.\" width=\"834\" height=\"1208\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.47.01-PM.png 834w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.47.01-PM-800x1159.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.47.01-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.47.01-PM-768x1112.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘James: A Novel’ by Percival Everett. \u003ccite>(Doubleday)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘James: A Novel’ by Percival Everett\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The jokes in \u003cem>James\u003c/em> range from chin scratchers to knee slappers to gut busters. Although I’m not sure Percival Everett would even classify them as “jokes.” In his re-imagining of the Huckleberry Finn story, Everett mines language, history and irony to showcase brutal truths about America. And yes, it’s often funny. But, like the original source material, things can quickly turn deadly serious depending on how the river flows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The novel is thrilling, hilarious, heartbreaking, and a strong argument for Everett as one of the best doing it right now. \u003cem>— \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/348740829/andrew-limbong\">Andrew Limbong,\u003c/a>\u003cem> correspondent, Culture Desk, and host, NPR’s ‘Book of the Day’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960528\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 836px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960528\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.45.30-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting a person on a bicycle riding through purple flames.\" width=\"836\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.45.30-PM.png 836w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.45.30-PM-800x1158.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.45.30-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.45.30-PM-768x1112.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 836px) 100vw, 836px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Memory Piece: A Novel’ by Lisa Ko. \u003ccite>(Riverhead Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Memory Piece: A Novel’ by Lisa Ko\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This is a coming of age story about three friends growing up in and around New York City in the 1990s. Their friendship evolves over the decades as they experiment with, and push the boundaries of, art, performance and technology. I loved that the book makes art feel real and weird and kind of gross — not glamorous and sugarcoated. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/378865949/elissa-nadworny\">Elissa Nadworny,\u003c/a> correspondent\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960527\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 834px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960527\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.43.47-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring an illustration of a woman lying with her arms over her head.\" width=\"834\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.43.47-PM.png 834w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.43.47-PM-800x1165.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.43.47-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.43.47-PM-768x1118.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Swift River’ by Essie Chambers. \u003ccite>(Simon & Schuster)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Swift River’ by Essie Chambers\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After her beloved father mysteriously disappears, Diamond and her mom find themselves living hand to mouth in a faded New England mill town where Diamond is the lone Black resident. Why did a previous generation of Black families abandon it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This propulsive and poetic first novel, by an accomplished documentary film producer, grounds a tender coming-of-age narrative in a history of migration, marginalization and imagination. Threaded through every step of Diamond’s journey is her deadpan wit; of one ramshackle dwelling, she observes, “the whole house looks like it’s having a cigarette.” And she reflects, when a heartbreaking legal issue is finally resolved, “That was the thing about a racist town. It got to decide when it would be kind.” \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/3850482/neda-ulaby\">Neda Ulaby,\u003c/a> correspondent, Culture Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960526\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 834px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960526\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.42.07-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting a woman and man sitting at a restaurant table.\" width=\"834\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.42.07-PM.png 834w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.42.07-PM-800x1161.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.42.07-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.42.07-PM-768x1114.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Table for Two: Fictions’ by Amor Towles. \u003ccite>(Viking)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Table for Two: Fictions’ by Amor Towles\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The first half of this jaunty short-story collection takes place in New York. Among the memorable characters are a Russian immigrant whose chief role in life is to stand in lines; a young antiquarian bookstore employee who gets more than he bargains for in his desire for life experience; and a seemingly straight-laced family man with a big Wall Street job, whose secret pastime, once discovered, upends his and his loved ones’ lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second half, devoted entirely to the novella “Eve in Hollywood,” is set in Los Angeles during Tinseltown’s Golden Age. The pithy, film noir-ish thriller picks up where the author’s 2011 novel \u003cem>Rules of Civility\u003c/em> left off — with the plucky, scar-faced adventuress, Evelyn Ross, deftly saving the honor of a host of Hollywood starlets. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1113762078/chloe-veltman\">Chloe Veltman,\u003c/a> correspondent, Culture Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 842px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960525\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.40.35-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting a helicopter flying over trees.\" width=\"842\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.40.35-PM.png 842w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.40.35-PM-800x1152.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.40.35-PM-160x230.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.40.35-PM-768x1105.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 842px) 100vw, 842px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Women’ by Kristin Hannah. \u003ccite>(St. Martin's Press)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Women’ by Kristin Hannah\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“You’re only going to be a nurse until you get married,” her mother said. But Frankie McGrath had other ideas, ones that would lead her away from her wealthy family’s conservative outlook on how daughters should behave. Kristin Hannah’s \u003cem>The Women \u003c/em>follows young Frankie’s transformation, when after working as a nurse in California and tending to a wounded soldier, and missing her soldier brother, she joins the Army as a nurse. That takes her from a comfortable life of known expectations, to one of the chaos and danger of war, new career opportunities and love. Tangled love.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Frankie returns home, she finds her country still protesting the war, and those who served. \u003cem>The Women \u003c/em>shines a light on a then little-known aspect of the war: the women who also served in Vietnam, as nurses. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1053920456/jeanine-herbst\">Jeanine Herbst,\u003c/a> news anchor\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960523\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 836px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960523\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.38.10-PM.png\" alt=\"The front half of a horse visible as it sleeps into a spiraling vortex.\" width=\"836\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.38.10-PM.png 836w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.38.10-PM-800x1160.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.38.10-PM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.38.10-PM-768x1113.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 836px) 100vw, 836px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘You Dreamed of Empires: A Novel’ by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer. \u003ccite>(Riverhead Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘You Dreamed of Empires: A Novel’ by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This salty and dark historical fantasia feistily explodes well-worn textbook narratives about the meeting of the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his captains with the Aztec emperor Moctezuma and his entourage in Tenoxtitlan — now Mexico City — in 1519.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Álvaro Enrigue’s depiction of the stressed out, clumsy Cortés and the drugged out, mercurial Moctezuma sets these near-mythical figures into earthy relief. But it’s mostly the intrigues and machinations of these leaders’ canny consorts — the Aztec princess Atotoxtli and the conquistadors’ translator Malinalli — that power the plot. Natasha Wimmer’s English translation sharply delivers the novel’s poetic and witty qualities while at the same time reveling in its core theme: the fundamental untranslatability of human experience. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1113762078/chloe-veltman\">Chloe Veltman,\u003c/a> correspondent, Culture Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch2>Mysteries & Thrillers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960522\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 838px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960522\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.36.14-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a partial close-up of a woman's face and the exterior of a house in the snow.\" width=\"838\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.36.14-PM.png 838w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.36.14-PM-800x1155.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.36.14-PM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.36.14-PM-768x1109.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Nightwatching’ by Tracy Sierra. \u003ccite>(Pamela Dorman Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Nightwatching’ by Tracy Sierra\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Nightwatching \u003c/em>begins with a scene straight out of a nightmare: A woman is at home with two sleeping children when she hears the footsteps of an intruder on the stairs. The story that follows is by turns suspenseful, uncomfortable and enraging. Tracy Sierra skillfully uses the home invasion to explore the terrifying responsibility of motherhood and to expose the pure horror of being a woman in a society that does not always choose to believe women. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1227635672/julie-rogers\">Julie Rogers,\u003c/a> historian and curator, NPR Research, Archives & Data strategy\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960518\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 830px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960518\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.33.24-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a white house on a red horizon.\" width=\"830\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.33.24-PM.png 830w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.33.24-PM-800x1166.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.33.24-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.33.24-PM-768x1120.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Hunter’ by Tana French. \u003ccite>(Viking)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Hunter’ by Tana French\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Set in the hills of Western Ireland, this novel picks up the story of characters introduced in 2020’s \u003cem>The Searcher\u003c/em> — retired American detective Cal Hooper and Trey, a teen girl he’s taken under his wing. As French revisits the seemingly bucolic landscape where trouble roils just under the surface, her writing continues to shift from mystery to meditation. While there’s still a knot of questions about crimes — including both fraud and murder — to be untangled, this novel is ultimately about belonging; the ways in which families do, and don’t, owe each other debts; the communities we resist, alienate, or become a welcome part of. Morally shaded and complex, it will leave you thinking about who’s right — and what’s wrong — long after you turn the last page. —\u003cem> Tayla Burney, director, Network Programming & Production\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003ch2>Sci Fi, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction & Horror\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960517\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 744px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960517\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.31.42-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a bird's nest with broken eggs and one that is still intact.\" width=\"744\" height=\"1106\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.31.42-PM.png 744w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.31.42-PM-160x238.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 744px) 100vw, 744px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Cuckoo’ by Gretchen Felker-Martin. \u003ccite>(Tor Nightfire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Cuckoo’ by Gretchen Felker-Martin\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cuckoo \u003c/em>is an ingeniously scary novel about a group of kids sent to a conversion camp in the ’90s. There’s the terror of the socially accepted abuse the kids face (both at the camp and at home) because they are queer, but there’s yet another horrifying entity preying on them, and trying to make them — different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Felker-Martin’s sharp novel takes on the particular vulnerability of queer kids and the body-snatching that is conversion therapy, and she does it with equal measures of tenderness and grotesquery. As harrowing and disgusting as it is, I also found it quite insightful and beautiful — and for that reason, \u003cem>Cuckoo \u003c/em>is a great work of horror. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/959668312/liam-mcbain\">Liam McBain,\u003c/a> associate producer, ‘It’s Been a Minute’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960516\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 874px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960516\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.29.35-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring an illustration of a hand holding a gold chain.\" width=\"874\" height=\"1108\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.29.35-PM.png 874w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.29.35-PM-800x1014.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.29.35-PM-160x203.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.29.35-PM-768x974.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 874px) 100vw, 874px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Familiar’ by Leigh Bardugo. \u003ccite>(Flatiron Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Familiar’ by Leigh Bardugo\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It is the Spanish Golden Age, and kitchen maid Luzia has secrets to hide: her skill at magic and her Jewish heritage. When her employer discovers her spells, Luzia is entered into a tournament to find King Philip, who hopes to increase his military standing, a champion. She is trained by the strange creature Santángel, an immortal with a mysterious past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/04/11/1244125050/leigh-bardugo-the-familiar-book-review\">gorgeously lush, vividly written book\u003c/a> that shines with its strong cast of characters. Luzia is a hero you’ll find yourself rooting for right from the start, and the magic system in this world is a breath of fresh air. Once again, Leigh Bardugo proves she never misses the mark when it comes to intricately building fantastical worlds — leaving you thinking about them long after the last page is turned. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/836937515/hafsa-fathima\">Hafsa Fathima,\u003c/a> production assistant, ‘Pop Culture Happy Hour’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960514\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 830px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960514\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.26.32-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting the word 'Husbands' climbing up a ladder.\" width=\"830\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.26.32-PM.png 830w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.26.32-PM-800x1168.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.26.32-PM-160x234.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.26.32-PM-768x1121.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Husbands: A Novel’ by Holly Gramazio. \u003ccite>(Doubleday)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Husbands: A Novel’ by Holly Gramazio\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Lauren leaves her London flat for a bachelorette party one night only to discover a husband at home awaiting her return. Not only was she not married when she left for the night, she doesn’t recognize this man. Slowly she works out that he’s not a threat — and that all evidence on her phone, in conversations with friends and neighbors, and in their apartments points to him being fully integrated into her life. And there he is until he goes into the attic and a different husband emerges, slightly — or drastically — altering Lauren’s life. The pattern continues as Lauren searches for metaphysical clues to what’s going on and wrestles with how to know, if she can ever know, which life is right for her. A rare combination of the truly hilarious and profound. \u003cem>— Tayla Burney, director, Network Programming & Production\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960513\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 762px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960513\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.24.33-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting block letters floating in space.\" width=\"762\" height=\"1110\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.24.33-PM.png 762w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.24.33-PM-160x233.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 762px) 100vw, 762px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Ministry of Time: A Novel’ by Kaliane Bradley. \u003ccite>(Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Ministry of Time: A Novel’ by Kaliane Bradley\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>You’d think a novel about the bureaucracy of a time-travel government agency might be kinda boring. But from the moment you meet the book’s enigmatic protagonist — as she starts a new job in the UK’s top secret new time travel agency — to the introduction of the dashing Graham Gore, an 1847 arctic explorer plucked through time, you’ll be hooked. Come for the romance, stay for the unraveling of a mystery, the nuanced, genre-bending treatises on race and identity, and the long-lingering ideas on colonialism, empires and the mutability of history. \u003cem>— \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/580312943/christina-cala\">Christina Cala,\u003c/a> senior producer, ‘Code Switch’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960509\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 828px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960509\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.21.52-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover with small illustrations including the Paris city skyline, the ocean and various plants and flowers.\" width=\"828\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.21.52-PM.png 828w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.21.52-PM-800x1171.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.21.52-PM-160x234.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-28-at-1.21.52-PM-768x1124.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘A Short Walk Through a Wide World: A Novel’ by Douglas Westerbeke. \u003ccite>(Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘A Short Walk Through a Wide World: A Novel’ by Douglas Westerbeke\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the year 1885, in Paris, when 9-year-old Aubry Tourvel encounters a mysterious, wooden, puzzle ball: It may be a blessing or a curse, but it most definitely changes her life. Now she needs to keep moving forever; too long in any one town and she will bleed to death. So her life is all travel and adventure, and through her we wonder at the richness of the globe’s markets, towns, forests and deserts. Over many decades, she meets all types of kind and curious people — as well as cruel and uncaring ones. Sometimes Aubry enjoys quick communion with strangers. Other times, she is surrounded but desperately lonely. This is a ravishing, deeply human book that’s in love with the world, with people, with the new — and yet is infused with a deep, futile longing for home.\u003cem> — \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/people/1091803881/jennifer-vanasco\">\u003cem>Jennifer Vanasco\u003c/em>,\u003c/a>\u003cem> editor and reporter, Culture Desk\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960318\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 810px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960318\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74.jpeg\" alt=\"A book cover showing a family gathered around a pool being filmed by TV cameras. \" width=\"810\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74.jpeg 810w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74-768x1024.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV’ by Emily Nussbaum. \u003ccite>(Random House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pulitzer Prize-winning \u003cem>New Yorker\u003c/em> critic Emily Nussbaum first conceived her sweeping chronicle of the rise of reality TV in 2003 — shortly after the debut of \u003cem>The Bachelor \u003c/em>and three years into \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em>. But back then the reception from fellow writers was as icy as public attitudes towards the genre. “You better write that one fast,” she recalls a friend warning her. “Reality television was a fad … a bubble that would pop before I could get anything on the page.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twenty years later, Nussbaum’s \u003cem>Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV\u003c/em> is a near definitive history of the genre that forever changed American entertainment. The book’s 20-year journey to publication is a tiny mirror of its subject’s rise to the center of American culture. As Nussbaum shows, “Critics had written off reality programming as a fad back in the 1940s, when mouthy civilians first shook up the economics of radio; and in the 1970s, during the flareups over \u003cem>An American Family \u003c/em>and \u003cem>The Gong Show\u003c/em>; and then again in the 1990s, when Fox and MTV set out to disrupt the major networks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13960267']The dismissive pattern continued for decades — and critics were wrong every time. The much maligned reality genre has “always been a trap” for someone in Nussbaum’s profession — as a critic you would either “clutch your pearls,” failing to “see the fun in it” or succumb to the temptation to “treat reality too lightly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across 14 chapters, Nussbaum successfully walks a tightrope. Avoiding censure and trivialization, her narrative keenly captures the reality genre “through the voices of the people who built it” — “step by step, experiment by experiment” in riveting, energetic detail. Determined to see it as the makers and audiences did, and to translate the genre’s diversity, appeal and significance to the page, Nussbaum conducted interviews with a staggering 300 people who worked in every conceivable capacity — from network executives to show creators to crafts people and cast members — on some of the most important reality shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From these interviews, Nussbaum fashions a compelling oral history, transforming the scattered highs, lows, and tipping points of a genre constantly in flux into a cohesive exploration of the invention, evolution and importance of the modern reality show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As juicy and provocative as it is analytical, \u003cem>Cue the Sun!\u003c/em> exposes the seamy underbelly of reality TV where that’s needed but also corrects unduly negative, and unfounded, assumptions. For example, on the motivations of the people who become the casts of these shows, Nussbaum concludes: “For many people, doing this kind of television wasn’t a naïve misstep at all — it was a conscious choice to participate in an extreme sport, one whose risks they embraced.” This insight emerges as a common theme across most of these chapters in the voices of wildly diverse on-screen participants — across programs as disparate as the 1970s \u003cem>An American Family\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire\u003c/em>, and \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many critics have painted reality TV in broad strokes, Nussbaum captures fascinating complexity and nuance. Perhaps the most poignant chapter focuses on PBS’s pioneering precursor to modern reality programming. The tip of the spear in an emerging genre dubbed the “dirty documentary,” in a single season \u003cem>An American Family\u003c/em> exploded the traditional nuclear ideal through California’s prosperous Loud family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13959693']Putting a microscope to five teenage kids and two parents at odds, for seven months, the show delivered a microcosm of America’s rapid cultural shifts as the Louds navigated infidelity, a son’s sexuality, and divorce. While the filmmakers played it straight, according to Nussbaum, the Louds felt stung by the 24/7 cameras and scathing public reaction. It was a startling precursor of what was to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades later, with the possible exception of a \u003cem>Dating Game\u003c/em> contestant who turned out to be a serial killer, perhaps no episode is as jaw-dropping as the story of \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em>. Nussbaum’s storytelling reaches the height of its powers in a blow by blow of \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em> season one that will give you the creepy crawlies: fleas under the skin, snakes on the belly, parasites in the intestines. But it’s hard to figure what’s more treacherous, the wildlife or the humans committed to making compelling TV at any cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the book’s strengths, at crucial times the accounts of insiders prove insufficient; context and a critical counterpoint are needed. But in its commitment to handing the mic to the makers, the book eschews outside perspectives. There are exceptions: With \u003cem>An American Family,\u003c/em> we gain insight into the challenge of being gay man on TV in the ’70s through snippets of contemporaneous media and viewer letters. The book also nods to criticism of \u003cem>Queer Eye for the Straight Guy \u003c/em>from the gay community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when it comes to the situation with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/02/20/1232527337/tv-critics-association-bachelor\">race on \u003cem>The Bachelor\u003c/em> franchise\u003c/a>, \u003cem>Cue The Sun!\u003c/em> is noticeably quiet. It acknowledges that creator Mike Fleiss stepped down after an internal investigation into allegations of racial discrimination led to a “racial reckoning.” And Nussbaum spoke to one of the two Black contestants from \u003cem>The Bachelor\u003c/em>‘s first season, LaNease Adams. Following her stint on\u003cem> The Bachelor,\u003c/em> Adams buckled under relentless public scrutiny and racist online attacks, with mental health concerns \u003ca href=\"https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a33075184/bachelor-alex-michel-lanease-adams-depression/\">eventually sending her to the hospital\u003c/a>. Still, she blames herself for being “naive about racism” and defends the show’s treatment and handling of race. Adams’ comments are fascinating, but not exactly illuminating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13959550']Nussbaum declines to explore the perspectives of Black critics and viewers. Given that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/02/21/969943721/in-a-season-highlighting-diversity-the-bachelor-lands-in-controversy-around-race\">\u003cem>The Bachelor’\u003c/em>s racial conflicts were legion\u003c/a>, and Black women are both a vibrant part of the audience and of the critical community, that seems an odd choice. In a complex chapter with plenty of controversy about gender, ethics, and exploitation, maybe there wasn’t room, but it still reads like something is missing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite that blind spot, overall \u003cem>Cue the Sun!\u003c/em> is both entertaining and enlightening — full of eye-popping insight and rollicking prose. An enthusiast herself, Nussbaum makes even a reality-show-skeptic understand the appeal. She describes \u003cem>The Bachelor\u003c/em> as “a schmaltzy, sexist carnival that doubled, for viewers, as a swoony stunt, the Evel Knievel canyon leap of matrimony.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she writes just as vividly about how \u003cem>Queer Eye\u003c/em> led to the reinvention and precipitous rise of the Bravo network as executive Lauren Zalaznick “gentrified the sketchy neighborhood of reality programming, with all those basic bachelorettes and bug-eating contests,” transforming it into a “glimmering Tribeca of the mind.” There are dueling interpretations of how this new Bravo emerged from the invention of \u003cem>Queer Eye. \u003c/em>But the brilliance of the show, as Nussbaum smartly highlights, is that it was — in the words of \u003cem>Queer Eye \u003c/em>Director of Photography Michael Pearlman — “a pleasant change of pace: a reality show that was all about empowerment, rather than humiliation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bravo’s successes might be the ultimate symbol of a sunnier story about the genre that upended television. But Nussbaum ends in a darker place, explaining how the genre remade American politics by reinventing Donald Trump on \u003cem>The Apprentice\u003c/em>. Love it or hate it, that titillating and consequential tale is the writer’s mic drop to a virtuoso performance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A slow runner and fast reader, Carole V. Bell is a cultural critic and communication scholar focusing on media, politics and identity. You can find her on Twitter \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/bellcv\">@BellCV\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960318\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 810px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960318\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74.jpeg\" alt=\"A book cover showing a family gathered around a pool being filmed by TV cameras. \" width=\"810\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74.jpeg 810w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/untitled-design-74-768x1024.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV’ by Emily Nussbaum. \u003ccite>(Random House)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pulitzer Prize-winning \u003cem>New Yorker\u003c/em> critic Emily Nussbaum first conceived her sweeping chronicle of the rise of reality TV in 2003 — shortly after the debut of \u003cem>The Bachelor \u003c/em>and three years into \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em>. But back then the reception from fellow writers was as icy as public attitudes towards the genre. “You better write that one fast,” she recalls a friend warning her. “Reality television was a fad … a bubble that would pop before I could get anything on the page.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twenty years later, Nussbaum’s \u003cem>Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV\u003c/em> is a near definitive history of the genre that forever changed American entertainment. The book’s 20-year journey to publication is a tiny mirror of its subject’s rise to the center of American culture. As Nussbaum shows, “Critics had written off reality programming as a fad back in the 1940s, when mouthy civilians first shook up the economics of radio; and in the 1970s, during the flareups over \u003cem>An American Family \u003c/em>and \u003cem>The Gong Show\u003c/em>; and then again in the 1990s, when Fox and MTV set out to disrupt the major networks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The dismissive pattern continued for decades — and critics were wrong every time. The much maligned reality genre has “always been a trap” for someone in Nussbaum’s profession — as a critic you would either “clutch your pearls,” failing to “see the fun in it” or succumb to the temptation to “treat reality too lightly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across 14 chapters, Nussbaum successfully walks a tightrope. Avoiding censure and trivialization, her narrative keenly captures the reality genre “through the voices of the people who built it” — “step by step, experiment by experiment” in riveting, energetic detail. Determined to see it as the makers and audiences did, and to translate the genre’s diversity, appeal and significance to the page, Nussbaum conducted interviews with a staggering 300 people who worked in every conceivable capacity — from network executives to show creators to crafts people and cast members — on some of the most important reality shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From these interviews, Nussbaum fashions a compelling oral history, transforming the scattered highs, lows, and tipping points of a genre constantly in flux into a cohesive exploration of the invention, evolution and importance of the modern reality show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As juicy and provocative as it is analytical, \u003cem>Cue the Sun!\u003c/em> exposes the seamy underbelly of reality TV where that’s needed but also corrects unduly negative, and unfounded, assumptions. For example, on the motivations of the people who become the casts of these shows, Nussbaum concludes: “For many people, doing this kind of television wasn’t a naïve misstep at all — it was a conscious choice to participate in an extreme sport, one whose risks they embraced.” This insight emerges as a common theme across most of these chapters in the voices of wildly diverse on-screen participants — across programs as disparate as the 1970s \u003cem>An American Family\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire\u003c/em>, and \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many critics have painted reality TV in broad strokes, Nussbaum captures fascinating complexity and nuance. Perhaps the most poignant chapter focuses on PBS’s pioneering precursor to modern reality programming. The tip of the spear in an emerging genre dubbed the “dirty documentary,” in a single season \u003cem>An American Family\u003c/em> exploded the traditional nuclear ideal through California’s prosperous Loud family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Putting a microscope to five teenage kids and two parents at odds, for seven months, the show delivered a microcosm of America’s rapid cultural shifts as the Louds navigated infidelity, a son’s sexuality, and divorce. While the filmmakers played it straight, according to Nussbaum, the Louds felt stung by the 24/7 cameras and scathing public reaction. It was a startling precursor of what was to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades later, with the possible exception of a \u003cem>Dating Game\u003c/em> contestant who turned out to be a serial killer, perhaps no episode is as jaw-dropping as the story of \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em>. Nussbaum’s storytelling reaches the height of its powers in a blow by blow of \u003cem>Survivor\u003c/em> season one that will give you the creepy crawlies: fleas under the skin, snakes on the belly, parasites in the intestines. But it’s hard to figure what’s more treacherous, the wildlife or the humans committed to making compelling TV at any cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the book’s strengths, at crucial times the accounts of insiders prove insufficient; context and a critical counterpoint are needed. But in its commitment to handing the mic to the makers, the book eschews outside perspectives. There are exceptions: With \u003cem>An American Family,\u003c/em> we gain insight into the challenge of being gay man on TV in the ’70s through snippets of contemporaneous media and viewer letters. The book also nods to criticism of \u003cem>Queer Eye for the Straight Guy \u003c/em>from the gay community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when it comes to the situation with \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/02/20/1232527337/tv-critics-association-bachelor\">race on \u003cem>The Bachelor\u003c/em> franchise\u003c/a>, \u003cem>Cue The Sun!\u003c/em> is noticeably quiet. It acknowledges that creator Mike Fleiss stepped down after an internal investigation into allegations of racial discrimination led to a “racial reckoning.” And Nussbaum spoke to one of the two Black contestants from \u003cem>The Bachelor\u003c/em>‘s first season, LaNease Adams. Following her stint on\u003cem> The Bachelor,\u003c/em> Adams buckled under relentless public scrutiny and racist online attacks, with mental health concerns \u003ca href=\"https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a33075184/bachelor-alex-michel-lanease-adams-depression/\">eventually sending her to the hospital\u003c/a>. Still, she blames herself for being “naive about racism” and defends the show’s treatment and handling of race. Adams’ comments are fascinating, but not exactly illuminating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Nussbaum declines to explore the perspectives of Black critics and viewers. Given that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/02/21/969943721/in-a-season-highlighting-diversity-the-bachelor-lands-in-controversy-around-race\">\u003cem>The Bachelor’\u003c/em>s racial conflicts were legion\u003c/a>, and Black women are both a vibrant part of the audience and of the critical community, that seems an odd choice. In a complex chapter with plenty of controversy about gender, ethics, and exploitation, maybe there wasn’t room, but it still reads like something is missing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite that blind spot, overall \u003cem>Cue the Sun!\u003c/em> is both entertaining and enlightening — full of eye-popping insight and rollicking prose. An enthusiast herself, Nussbaum makes even a reality-show-skeptic understand the appeal. She describes \u003cem>The Bachelor\u003c/em> as “a schmaltzy, sexist carnival that doubled, for viewers, as a swoony stunt, the Evel Knievel canyon leap of matrimony.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she writes just as vividly about how \u003cem>Queer Eye\u003c/em> led to the reinvention and precipitous rise of the Bravo network as executive Lauren Zalaznick “gentrified the sketchy neighborhood of reality programming, with all those basic bachelorettes and bug-eating contests,” transforming it into a “glimmering Tribeca of the mind.” There are dueling interpretations of how this new Bravo emerged from the invention of \u003cem>Queer Eye. \u003c/em>But the brilliance of the show, as Nussbaum smartly highlights, is that it was — in the words of \u003cem>Queer Eye \u003c/em>Director of Photography Michael Pearlman — “a pleasant change of pace: a reality show that was all about empowerment, rather than humiliation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bravo’s successes might be the ultimate symbol of a sunnier story about the genre that upended television. But Nussbaum ends in a darker place, explaining how the genre remade American politics by reinventing Donald Trump on \u003cem>The Apprentice\u003c/em>. Love it or hate it, that titillating and consequential tale is the writer’s mic drop to a virtuoso performance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A slow runner and fast reader, Carole V. Bell is a cultural critic and communication scholar focusing on media, politics and identity. You can find her on Twitter \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/bellcv\">@BellCV\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "4 Crime and Suspense Novels That Make for Hot Summer Reading",
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"content": "\u003cp>There’s something about the shadowy moral recesses of crime and suspense fiction that makes those genres especially appealing as temperatures soar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960275\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 842px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960275\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.22.35-AM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a burning street with a police officer raising a club over a Black man's head.\" width=\"842\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.22.35-AM.png 842w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.22.35-AM-800x1152.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.22.35-AM-160x230.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.22.35-AM-768x1105.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 842px) 100vw, 842px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Ash Dark as Night,’ by Gary Phillips. \u003ccite>(Soho Crime)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>‘Ash Dark as Night’ by Gary Phillips\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>I’m beginning my recommendations with two distinctive novels that appeared this spring. Gary Phillips introduced the character of LA crime photographer and occasional private eye Harry Ingram in the 2022 novel, \u003cem>One-Shot Harry\u003c/em>. The second novel of this evocative historical series is called \u003cem>Ash Dark as Night \u003c/em>and it opens in August 1965 during the Watts riots. Harry, who’s one of two African American freelancers covering the riots, has looped his trademark Speed Graphic camera around his neck and headed into the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13959945']We’re told that Harry’s situation is, of course, riskier than that of his white counterparts: “[M]aybe one of these fellas might well get a brick upside their head from a participant, but were less likely to be jacked-up by the law. Ingram realized either side might turn on him.” Indeed, when Harry captures the death of an unarmed Black activist at the hands of the LAPD, the photo makes him famous, as well as a target.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This novel is steeped in period details like snap-brim hats and ragtop Chevy Bel Air convertibles, along with walk-ons by real life figures like pioneering African American TV journalist Louis E. Lomax. But it’s Harry’s clear-eyed take on the fallen world around him that makes this series so powerful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960276\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 832px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960276\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.25.15-AM.png\" alt=\"A book cover illustrated to look like a nun holding a polaroid camera in the style of stained glass.\" width=\"832\" height=\"1206\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.25.15-AM.png 832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.25.15-AM-800x1160.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.25.15-AM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.25.15-AM-768x1113.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Blessed Water,’ by Margot Douaihy. \u003ccite>(Zando – Gillian Flynn Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>‘Blessed Water’ by Margot Douaihy\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>You might think a mystery about an inked-up lesbian punk musician-turned-nun is a little far-fetched; but New Orleans, the setting of the Sister Holiday series, is the city of far-fetched phenomenon, both sacred and profane. Margot Douaihy’s second book in this queer cozy series is called \u003cem>Blessed Water \u003c/em>and it finds the 34-year-old Sister Holiday up to her neck in murky flood waters and priests with secrets. Douaihy’s writing style — pure hard-boiled \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2010/01/19/122722618/just-kids-punk-icon-patti-smith-looks-back\" target=\"122722618\" rel=\"noopener\">Patti Smith\u003c/a> — contains all the contradictions that torment Sister Holiday in her bumpy journey of faith. Here she is in the Prologue recalling how she survived swallowing a glass rosary bead:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cp>After my prayers for clarity, for forgiveness, for a cigarette, … deep inside the wet cave of my body was an unmistakable tickle. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bead fought my stomach acid for hours, leaching its blessing or poison or unmet wish. Anything hidden always finds a way to escape, no matter its careful sealing.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Amen to that, Sister Holiday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960277\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960277\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.28.12-AM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a young Asian man wearing a suit.\" width=\"700\" height=\"1064\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.28.12-AM.png 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.28.12-AM-160x243.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Expat’ by Hansen Shi. \u003ccite>(Pegasus Crime)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘The Expat’ by Hansen Shi\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The main character in Hansen Shi’s excellent debut spy novel is an alienated young man named Michael Wang. He’s a first generation Chinese American a few years out of Princeton who’s hit the bamboo ceiling at General Motors in San Francisco, where he’s been working on technology for self-driving cars. Enter a femme fatale named Vivian who flatters Michael into believing that his brilliance will be recognized by her enigmatic boss in China. Once Michael settles into life in Beijing, however, he realizes he’s been tapped, not as a prodigy, but a patsy. \u003cem>The Expat \u003c/em>wraps up too abruptly, but it’s also true that I wanted this moody espionage tale to go on longer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960278\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 830px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960278\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.30.33-AM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a wooded area.\" width=\"830\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.30.33-AM.png 830w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.30.33-AM-800x1166.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.30.33-AM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.30.33-AM-768x1120.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The God of the Woods’ by Liz Moore. \u003ccite>(Riverhead Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>‘The God of the Woods’ by Liz Moore\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Liz Moore’s extraordinary new literary suspense novel reminds me of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2002/11/05/832803/donna-tartt\" target=\"832803\" rel=\"noopener\">Donna Tartt\u003c/a>’s 1992 debut, \u003cem>The Secret History. \u003c/em>There are superficial similarities: Both are thick intricate novels featuring young people isolated in enclosed worlds — in Tartt’s story, a Vermont college campus; in Moore’s, a summer camp in New York’s Adirondack mountains. But, the vital connection for me was a reading experience where I was so thoroughly submerged in a rich fictional world, that for hours I barely came up for air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a touch of Gothic excess about \u003cem>The God of the Woods, \u003c/em>beginning with the premise that not one, but two children from the wealthy Van Laar family disappear from Camp Emerson in the Adirondacks 14 years apart. Moore’s story jumps around in time, chiefly from the 1950s into the ’70s and features a host of characters from different social classes — campers, counselors, townspeople and local police — and the Van Laars themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13960178']The precision of Moore’s writing never flags. Consider this reflection by Tracy, a 12-year-old camper who recalls that: “Her father once told her casually that she was built like a plum on toothpicks, and the phrase was at once so cruel and so poetic that it clicked into place around her like a harness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moore’s previous book, \u003cem>Long Bright River\u003c/em>, was a superb social novel about the opioid crisis in Philadelphia; \u003cem>The God of the Woods\u003c/em> is something weirder and stranger and unforgettable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Happy summer reading wherever your tastes take you.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There’s something about the shadowy moral recesses of crime and suspense fiction that makes those genres especially appealing as temperatures soar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960275\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 842px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960275\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.22.35-AM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a burning street with a police officer raising a club over a Black man's head.\" width=\"842\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.22.35-AM.png 842w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.22.35-AM-800x1152.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.22.35-AM-160x230.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.22.35-AM-768x1105.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 842px) 100vw, 842px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Ash Dark as Night,’ by Gary Phillips. \u003ccite>(Soho Crime)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>‘Ash Dark as Night’ by Gary Phillips\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>I’m beginning my recommendations with two distinctive novels that appeared this spring. Gary Phillips introduced the character of LA crime photographer and occasional private eye Harry Ingram in the 2022 novel, \u003cem>One-Shot Harry\u003c/em>. The second novel of this evocative historical series is called \u003cem>Ash Dark as Night \u003c/em>and it opens in August 1965 during the Watts riots. Harry, who’s one of two African American freelancers covering the riots, has looped his trademark Speed Graphic camera around his neck and headed into the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>We’re told that Harry’s situation is, of course, riskier than that of his white counterparts: “[M]aybe one of these fellas might well get a brick upside their head from a participant, but were less likely to be jacked-up by the law. Ingram realized either side might turn on him.” Indeed, when Harry captures the death of an unarmed Black activist at the hands of the LAPD, the photo makes him famous, as well as a target.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This novel is steeped in period details like snap-brim hats and ragtop Chevy Bel Air convertibles, along with walk-ons by real life figures like pioneering African American TV journalist Louis E. Lomax. But it’s Harry’s clear-eyed take on the fallen world around him that makes this series so powerful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960276\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 832px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960276\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.25.15-AM.png\" alt=\"A book cover illustrated to look like a nun holding a polaroid camera in the style of stained glass.\" width=\"832\" height=\"1206\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.25.15-AM.png 832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.25.15-AM-800x1160.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.25.15-AM-160x232.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.25.15-AM-768x1113.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Blessed Water,’ by Margot Douaihy. \u003ccite>(Zando – Gillian Flynn Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>‘Blessed Water’ by Margot Douaihy\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>You might think a mystery about an inked-up lesbian punk musician-turned-nun is a little far-fetched; but New Orleans, the setting of the Sister Holiday series, is the city of far-fetched phenomenon, both sacred and profane. Margot Douaihy’s second book in this queer cozy series is called \u003cem>Blessed Water \u003c/em>and it finds the 34-year-old Sister Holiday up to her neck in murky flood waters and priests with secrets. Douaihy’s writing style — pure hard-boiled \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2010/01/19/122722618/just-kids-punk-icon-patti-smith-looks-back\" target=\"122722618\" rel=\"noopener\">Patti Smith\u003c/a> — contains all the contradictions that torment Sister Holiday in her bumpy journey of faith. Here she is in the Prologue recalling how she survived swallowing a glass rosary bead:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cp>After my prayers for clarity, for forgiveness, for a cigarette, … deep inside the wet cave of my body was an unmistakable tickle. …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bead fought my stomach acid for hours, leaching its blessing or poison or unmet wish. Anything hidden always finds a way to escape, no matter its careful sealing.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Amen to that, Sister Holiday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960277\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960277\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.28.12-AM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a young Asian man wearing a suit.\" width=\"700\" height=\"1064\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.28.12-AM.png 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.28.12-AM-160x243.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Expat’ by Hansen Shi. \u003ccite>(Pegasus Crime)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘The Expat’ by Hansen Shi\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The main character in Hansen Shi’s excellent debut spy novel is an alienated young man named Michael Wang. He’s a first generation Chinese American a few years out of Princeton who’s hit the bamboo ceiling at General Motors in San Francisco, where he’s been working on technology for self-driving cars. Enter a femme fatale named Vivian who flatters Michael into believing that his brilliance will be recognized by her enigmatic boss in China. Once Michael settles into life in Beijing, however, he realizes he’s been tapped, not as a prodigy, but a patsy. \u003cem>The Expat \u003c/em>wraps up too abruptly, but it’s also true that I wanted this moody espionage tale to go on longer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960278\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 830px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960278\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.30.33-AM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a wooded area.\" width=\"830\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.30.33-AM.png 830w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.30.33-AM-800x1166.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.30.33-AM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-25-at-11.30.33-AM-768x1120.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The God of the Woods’ by Liz Moore. \u003ccite>(Riverhead Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>‘The God of the Woods’ by Liz Moore\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Liz Moore’s extraordinary new literary suspense novel reminds me of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2002/11/05/832803/donna-tartt\" target=\"832803\" rel=\"noopener\">Donna Tartt\u003c/a>’s 1992 debut, \u003cem>The Secret History. \u003c/em>There are superficial similarities: Both are thick intricate novels featuring young people isolated in enclosed worlds — in Tartt’s story, a Vermont college campus; in Moore’s, a summer camp in New York’s Adirondack mountains. But, the vital connection for me was a reading experience where I was so thoroughly submerged in a rich fictional world, that for hours I barely came up for air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a touch of Gothic excess about \u003cem>The God of the Woods, \u003c/em>beginning with the premise that not one, but two children from the wealthy Van Laar family disappear from Camp Emerson in the Adirondacks 14 years apart. Moore’s story jumps around in time, chiefly from the 1950s into the ’70s and features a host of characters from different social classes — campers, counselors, townspeople and local police — and the Van Laars themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The precision of Moore’s writing never flags. Consider this reflection by Tracy, a 12-year-old camper who recalls that: “Her father once told her casually that she was built like a plum on toothpicks, and the phrase was at once so cruel and so poetic that it clicked into place around her like a harness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moore’s previous book, \u003cem>Long Bright River\u003c/em>, was a superb social novel about the opioid crisis in Philadelphia; \u003cem>The God of the Woods\u003c/em> is something weirder and stranger and unforgettable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Happy summer reading wherever your tastes take you.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13960179\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 890px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13960179\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-24-at-10.21.03-AM.png\" alt=\"A book cover with an illustrated split drawn down the center with a Black person's teary eye peering through.\" width=\"890\" height=\"1348\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-24-at-10.21.03-AM.png 890w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-24-at-10.21.03-AM-800x1212.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-24-at-10.21.03-AM-160x242.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Screen-Shot-2024-06-24-at-10.21.03-AM-768x1163.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 890px) 100vw, 890px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Lion’s Den’ by Iris Mwanza. \u003ccite>(Graydon House Books via AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Grace Zulu clawed her way out of her village and into college to study law in the Zambian capital Lusaka. Now, at the end of 1990 and with AIDS running rampant, her first big case will test her personally and professionally: She must defend dancer Willbess “Bessy” Mulenga, who is accused of “committing acts against the order of nature.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Iris Mwanza’s debut novel, \u003cem>The Lion’s Den\u003c/em>, is as zealous, smart and fresh as its main character.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13959945']But, while Grace is a talented and hardworking lawyer, she’s also hot-headed and naive. She can’t see the forest for the trees beyond her own righteousness, and wouldn’t know diplomacy if it smacked her in the face — something that makes the character and the novel verge into frustrating and tiresome.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, we have characters like Grace’s wise and eclectic landlady, Ms. Njavwa, who was a freedom fighter in Zambia’s struggle for independence. Ms. Njavwa and Grace’s discussions over dinner are punctuated by interruptions from her aptly named dogs David and Goliath, who eat better than Grace did in her home village growing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Food becomes a refrain in the novel, one of the many ways we see disparity in Zambia and between the characters, whether because they’re rural, gay, female, foreign, poor or some other “other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet the heavy topics come with bits of levity, which are sorely needed, especially when everything seems to be going wrong for Grace. Sometimes she only has herself to blame, but there’s no denying the odds are severely stacked against her in conservative Christian, early-1990s Zambia, when political unrest and government corruption festered after nearly 30 years of increasing authoritarianism under the country’s first President, Kenneth Kaunda. Grace must learn to work with people and navigate the system that has become riddled with bribes and favors if she has any hope of helping Bessy and holding police to account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alongside the history and politics embedded throughout the novel, religion also plays a huge role in the story, as the title implies. \u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>Lion’s Den\u003c/em> opens with the Biblical passage in which Daniel notes that he hasn’t done God nor the king any wrongs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13959775']Grace’s ally and mentor, Father Sebastian, provides one type of religious view of the issues. The Christian colonialism dictating the law and societal opinions of LGBTQ+ people and women provide another. And Grace challenges all of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, in the final stretch, we finally get into courtroom drama mode; the culmination of Grace’s efforts that could have far-reaching effects beyond Bessy and his family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On her website, Mwanza — who herself has worked as a lawyer in Zambia — says her goal was “to write a page-turner that doesn’t shy away from big societal issues.” She’s off to a great start. Her writing is well-versed and skilled beyond what you’d expect in a debut. While the pacing didn’t hit quite right for me, the characters and subject matter are compelling enough to push through any snags. Particularly with the novel’s timely release as Pride month comes to a close, \u003cem>The Lion’s Den\u003c/em> is an important story told with nuance that makes it excellent for book clubs and sparking thoughtful discussion.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘The Lion’s Den’ by Iris Mwanza is out now via Graydon House Books.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet the heavy topics come with bits of levity, which are sorely needed, especially when everything seems to be going wrong for Grace. Sometimes she only has herself to blame, but there’s no denying the odds are severely stacked against her in conservative Christian, early-1990s Zambia, when political unrest and government corruption festered after nearly 30 years of increasing authoritarianism under the country’s first President, Kenneth Kaunda. Grace must learn to work with people and navigate the system that has become riddled with bribes and favors if she has any hope of helping Bessy and holding police to account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alongside the history and politics embedded throughout the novel, religion also plays a huge role in the story, as the title implies. \u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>Lion’s Den\u003c/em> opens with the Biblical passage in which Daniel notes that he hasn’t done God nor the king any wrongs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Grace’s ally and mentor, Father Sebastian, provides one type of religious view of the issues. The Christian colonialism dictating the law and societal opinions of LGBTQ+ people and women provide another. And Grace challenges all of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, in the final stretch, we finally get into courtroom drama mode; the culmination of Grace’s efforts that could have far-reaching effects beyond Bessy and his family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On her website, Mwanza — who herself has worked as a lawyer in Zambia — says her goal was “to write a page-turner that doesn’t shy away from big societal issues.” She’s off to a great start. Her writing is well-versed and skilled beyond what you’d expect in a debut. While the pacing didn’t hit quite right for me, the characters and subject matter are compelling enough to push through any snags. Particularly with the novel’s timely release as Pride month comes to a close, \u003cem>The Lion’s Den\u003c/em> is an important story told with nuance that makes it excellent for book clubs and sparking thoughtful discussion.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘The Lion’s Den’ by Iris Mwanza is out now via Graydon House Books.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
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"soldout": {
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