Viewing movements toward women’s equality through the lens of riding horses, Eliza McGraw’s "Astride" is a charming history book. At the turn of the twentieth century, just as horse-riding began to go out of fashion for society men,... Read More

An unflappable AI takes control of the future for humanity’s own good in Deni Ellis Béchard’s extraordinary speculative novel "We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine". Billions wake alone in rooms emanating blue light—spaces... Read More

A kindred relationship is severed by a winter storm in Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s novel "Heaven and Hell", about grave losses and lucent beginnings. In a place “built of cod bones,” Bárður and an orphaned boy are outliers among... Read More

In Nanae Aoyama’s droll novella "A Perfect Day to Be Alone", an indecisive girl cohabitates with a woman who challenges her preconceptions and directionlessness. Twenty-year-old Chizu is ill-employed and hard to impress. She wants to... Read More

Steve Stern’s "A Fool’s Kabbalah" is a crushing, startling novel about intellectual and spiritual defiance in the face of unbearable cruelties. On a scholarly scavenging expedition through Europe, famed kabbalist Gershom Scholem... Read More

A tantalizing smorgasbord of culinary memories, Karolina Ramqvist’s memoir discusses family and community love in terms of shared dishes. Ramqvist’s earliest recollections speak to her enduring love of food: “when I ate something... Read More

Archaeology department graduate students encounter more than mere relics on an expedition gone wrong in Ella Alexander’s wry novel "The Sleeping Land". Kit, Val, and Mark exist in uneasy alliance under their department head, George, a... Read More

A favored son longs to be accepted by his resentful brothers in "Seventeen Spoons", the moving second novel of Esther Goldenberg’s epic biblical trilogy. Joseph, longed for for ages, receives special treatment from his parents, earning... Read More