Manuscripts

Colleen Cambridge’s Mastering the Art of French Murder is a delightful cozy mystery set in post-World War II Paris with a cast of American expats, including Julia Child. Tabitha Knight is settling into life in Paris, living with her grandfather and Oncle Rafe. Tabitha spends her days exploring the City of Light, tutoring her fellow

Independent Bookstore Day is this Saturday Apr 29, 2023 and bookstores around the country are gearing up for the celebration. More good news: Libro.fm, the audiobook platform that allows you to support the independent bookstore of your choice with each purchase, is getting in on the fun too. They are offering over 1,000 audiobooks on

In Happy Place, New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry returns with a tender contemporary romance full of vulnerability, growth and love. Every year for the last decade, college sweethearts-turned-engaged couple Harriet and Wyn have joined their friends at a cottage in Maine for a weeklong getaway. It’s something they’ve always looked forward to—but not

Carter Higgins has worked in school libraries, visual effects and motion graphics—and all that experience shows in Some of These Are Snails. This ingenious concept picture book with bold and vibrant artwork that expands on the approach Higgins took in her 2021 book, Circle Under Berry, which asked readers to consider shapes, colors and prepositions

Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood are best friends and sixth-formers at the English public school Preshute College, an Eton-like boarding school. It’s 1914, and the Great War has begun killing their schoolmates. The school newspaper, The Preshutian, lists the names of dead and wounded older friends. Meanwhile, outside of school, young women hand white feathers

Vashti Harrison, creator of Little Leaders, the bestselling illustrated nonfiction series, makes her fiction debut with Big, a simple yet immensely significant picture book. Harrison marshals her considerable talents for a story that celebrates a young Black girl’s aspirations and highlights how words have the ability to empower or to cause suffering. The book opens

Blood Will Tell by Heather Chavez zeroes in on the complicated relationship between Frankie Barrera and her younger sister, Izzy. Frankie always stands by her sister, even when Izzy makes questionable decisions, but things change when Frankie is wrongfully implicated in a child abduction case—a crime that may involve Izzy. When a dark incident from

Have you ever known it was going to be a bad day from the moment you woke up? Crusty eyes, soggy cereal, itchy tags in your clothes—everything seems to go wrong. And that’s all before you even get to school! A line cutter in class! A missing pudding at lunch! A terrible case of the

From the author of The Dutch Wife comes a riveting novel set during World War II about a woman who offers shelter to a Jewish baby, and her sister, who must choose between family loyalty and her own safety. Amsterdam, 1941. When the Nazis invade Amsterdam, singer Johanna Vos watches in horror as the vibrant music scene

Barbara Chase-Riboud’s The Great Mrs. Elias is based on the life of Hannah Elias, a Black woman who made a name for herself in early 20th-century New York City real estate, accruing enormous wealth along the way. But in 1903, a murder takes place at Hannah’s opulent home, and her carefully constructed existence changes forever.

For centuries, farmers have been consulting celestial cycles, such as the zodiac and the phases of the moon, to time their planting, with a number of calendars and almanacs printed every year to help them do just that. There’s scant scientific research on this type of zodiac-based cultivation, but as associate professor of agriculture and

Angeline Boulley burst onto the YA scene with her bestselling, Michael L. Printz Award-winning debut, Firekeeper’s Daughter. Now the author returns to Sugar Island, Michigan, with Warrior Girl Unearthed. In this riveting companion thriller, Boulley places the niece of the protagonist of Firekeeper’s Daughter at center stage. Sixteen-year-old Perry Firekeeper-Birch has really been looking forward

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” as the saying goes. This expression celebrates acceptance, affirming that the appearance of a person or object doesn’t have to align with beauty norms to be lovely. It’s a refreshing theme that runs throughout The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Essays on Desire and Consumption by art,

The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyers will be adapted for television by Lionsgate Television. The new Twilight show comes years after the film adaptation of the bestselling book series earned more than $3.4 billion internationally. Though the production is still in its earliest stages, what is known so far is that Sinead Daly (The Walking

I like a book with an absolutely wild plot as much as the next person. That’s one of the great things about books, right? They let us experience some truly unbelievable things, like falling in love on Jupiter or exploring a network of ancient sea caves with a snarky robot sidekick. But sometimes it’s nice

Chances are you’ve seen the dark academia aesthetic by now: tweed, cardigans, piles of worn books, skulls next to dying candles — all with that dirty brown filter that we used to apply on all of our Instagram photos. Think of schools like Oxford and Cambridge, more often boarding schools. Given the current fascination, especially

A did a funny thing a few months ago. I went to a local tattoo shop to get some new ink. That isn’t the funny part. Since I knew I was going to be there for at least a few hours, I brought reading material. Specifically, I brought three poetry books with me. I didn’t

Many of us first met Frog and Toad in childhood classrooms. I had a teacher who would read to us from a lovely, glossy compendium version that I deeply envied. They were silly, cute tales of friendship that we could answer easy reading comprehension questions about. It took adulthood and the internet to bring Frog

Parenting can be a deeply fulfilling and exciting experience, but it can also be stressful or even scary — especially if you’re at the beginning of your parenting journey. Parenting and pregnancy books can help with navigating uncertainties but often, they don’t reflect the questions and experiences that are unique to queer families. Nothing compares

With human activities directly and indirectly leading to the decimation of the diversity of animals on the planet, scientific study of animals, in order to understand how best we can protect them, is more important than ever. At a time when human lives are becoming more and more isolated, both from nature and from meaningful

Remember that survey of literary agents put together a month ago to see what the reality is in publishing right now related to book bans? It was widely shared across social media, as well as through several other online literary outlets. Today, let’s look at what was said. . . . . Today In Books

Historical fiction is the star of our April issue (11 of our favorites!), but we’ve also got the first memoir from Big Fish author Daniel Wallace, Victor LaValle’s highly anticipated new horror novel and exceptional Earth Day books for kids. Upcoming issues of BookPage will bring special books for Mother’s Day and new releases from Hector Tobar,

Cooking for the Culture is the first book from Toya Boudy, a spirited celebrity chef whose New Orleanian heritage shines through in everything she does. I sheepishly admit that I’d never heard of Boudy before her cookbook landed on my desk—I’m not fluent in TV, see—but her keep-it-real approach and candid family stories sucked me

Leta McCollough Seletzky, author of The Kneeling Man Counterpoint | April 4 In the famous photograph of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., one man is kneeling down beside King on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, trying to staunch the blood from the fatal head wound. This kneeling man, Leta McCollough Seletzky’s father,

Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, the controversial first lady of 28th president Woodrow Wilson, had some impressive predecessors. There was women’s rights advocate Abigail Adams, wife of second president John Adams and mother of sixth president John Quincy Adams. During the War of 1812, Dolley Madison, wife of fourth president James Madison, rescued the nation’s treasured

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you know there’s been a flood of anti-trans legislation, bans of trans books, and a disturbing increase in anti-trans rhetoric recently. In response, Sim Kern, author of Depart, Depart! and Seeds for the Swarm, is hosting a Trans Rights Readathon next week!  This is a decentralized fundraiser, which means you can

In A Tempest at Sea, a twisty and turbulent installment of Sherry Thomas’ perennially entertaining Lady Sherlock mystery series, a glamorous Christie-esque cast sails into danger on the open seas. A Tempest at Sea is the seventh adventure of Charlotte Holmes, a brilliant detective who solves mysteries while pretending to be the assistant of her

by Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris So, you’re Black and find yourself in a horror movie. Our condolences. We hope you have your affairs in order. But maybe, just maybe, you can make it through unscathed if you take precautions to minimize your exposure to potential harm. The horror gods may be

Jessica George’s debut novel, Maame (10 hours), explores the complexities of immigrant families through the story of Maddie, who lives in London with her Ghanaian family and seeks to balance responsibility and self-discovery. Maddie is her father’s primary caretaker while her mother spends most of the year in Ghana. At work, Maddie deals with an

The Nobel Prize-winning author Kenzaburō Ōe passed away March 3rd of old age. His work has repeatedly been compared to William Faulkner, and Kazuo Ishiguro described him as “genuinely decent, modest, surprisingly open and honest, and very unconcerned about fame.” Kenzaburō Ōe was a Japanese novelist known for his fiction addressing social and political issues,