Variously hilarious and despairing, Komail Aijazuddin’s memoir covers his struggles for self-acceptance. As a child, Aijazuddin knew that he was different from other children and that he would suffer because of it. “Gay boys who are... Read More

In Yasmin Zaher’s novel "The Coin", an immigrant navigates a bizarre sociopolitical web of glamour, obsession, filth, and tragedy. After both her parents are killed in a quotidian accident, a wealthy woman leaves Palestine and fitfully... Read More

The rhyming lines and twilight-toned watercolors of this perfect bedtime story about the magic of nighttime will lull any child to sleep. When the climbing jasmine vine outside her window calls to her, Jasmine rises from her sleep and... Read More

An indefinable connection grows between a reluctant bodyguard and a yakuza’s daughter in Akira Otani’s novel "The Night of Baba Yaga". Shindo’s life is far from perfect, but when she is pressed into service as a chauffeur and... Read More

A softened primary palette reflects the gentle nature of this picture book about two brothers facing and overcoming back-to-school anxieties. Pip is starting first grade; he’s worried that his little brother, Archie, won’t need him... Read More

Alisa Alering’s alluring novel "Smothermoss" enters the bloodstream of Appalachian storytelling like a fevered dream, unraveling the intergenerational tales of women living on the edge. Half-sisters born five years apart, Sheila and... Read More

A botany-themed meditation on memory, absence, and loss, "Ephemera" is a beautiful graphic memoir. Returning to her childhood home, Briana Loewinsohn seeks to restore the gardens and plants that had dried up and became overgrown. Through... Read More

“Extraordinary people doing a most ordinary thing” is how rock journalist Michael Azerrad sums up the images in Guzman’s "Family Values". Drawn from a fall 1992 photo session for Spin magazine, this collection captures grunge rock... Read More