MacMillan

Fairytales are ripe for the retelling. This reworked version of the Goose Girl is a fun Ocean’s Eleven Four!—style story about a girl named Vanja, who assumes one girl's life to save her own. If your reading wheelhouse includes dangerous grifting, street-smart girls, retellings, unlikely friendships, and high fantasy, this book from the author of the Merciful Crow duology is for you. Six of Crows fans are sure to enjoy this one.—MJ

In this very entertaining anthology, 50 writers describe their relationship with the album that has most influenced their life. The great diversity among those included—Marlon James, Rachel Kushner, David Mitchell, Esi Edugyan, George Saunders, etc.—yields an equally diverse collection of albums. Rachmaninov, Miles Davis, the Beatles, Warren G, Kraftwerk, and Lizzo are all represented. As fun as it is to follow along as your favorite author geeks out on their favorite band or musician, the book offers surprising insights on the ways artists from one genre take inspiration from artists of another.—Rico

I cannot think of a better idea in this era of great uncertainty and anxiety than to learn to meditate. And I can think of no better universal teacher than Pema Chödrön. I have long enjoyed her books and teachings. She is ever-accessible both for beginners to meditation and to seasoned practitioners. This would be a wonderful gift for anyone in your life who needs to feel more peace.—Jason

Intimate, uplifting conversations with a beloved icon. Local writer Doug Abrams (cowriter of The Book of Joy with the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu) has written yet another book with a living legend. In The Book of Hope, he spends time with naturalist and wise elder Jane Goodall. Together they ask: What is hope? How can we find it in these dark days? I cannot think of a better book to lift all of our spirits right now.—Jason

Michael Tubbs’s memoir is absolutely engrossing and inspiring. From an intelligent, capable, but frequently underestimated Black child, to Stanford and international experiences, to being elected Stockton’s first Black mayor (and youngest ever mayor of a city with a population over 100,000) in 2016, Tubbs’ thoughtful reflection ties his life into our systemic patterns and problems, while proving there is action and hope for even the darkest moments. I closed this galvanized, knowing I, too, can do more in and for the world around me.—Jocelyn

From one of the founding members of the Occupy movement and author of the critically acclaimed Debt comes a posthumous epic that will change the way you see the past. It fundamentally questions major epochs (like the hunter-gatherer era) asking what really happened. It analyzes old structures and offers new paradigms from which to organize society. Readers of Guns, Germs, and Steel and Sapiens will be riveted by this well-researched and important new masterpiece of anthropology.—Jason

Do you dream of the easy, literary life of a bookseller? Want to own your own shop where you can loll around at the register, dispensing wisdom and raking in the cash? Prepare to be disabused of your conceptions. Nadia Wassef gives us a taste of the hectic, inspiring, and sometimes heartbreaking life of a Cairo bookseller. She contends with the usual bookseller challenges and also with a deeply misogynist society, bureaucrats, censors, corruption, and large-scale larceny. Not to mention corrupt larcenous censorial misogynistic bureaucrats. —Dave

When control-freak account executive Wallace Price dies suddenly of a heart attack, he has difficulty accepting the reality of his mortality. Thrust into an afterlife unlike anything he could have imagined, Wallace is led by his Reaper, Mei, to a topsy-turvy tea shop that serves as a form of purgatory. There, he bides his time until he must cross over to the other side. It’s during this period of suspension that Wallace does all the things he never did in life: reflect on his actions, accept his flaws, indulge his humanity, and fall in love. A delightful queer love story and a reminder that it’s never too late to change our mind, Klune’s sophomore adult novel is full of the charm, wit, and quirky characters that so many readers were enamored with in The House in the Cerulean Sea. —Jade

A violin teacher who has sold her soul to the devil, a transgender girl on the run from her abusive family, and an alien refugee of an intergalactic war who has recently purchased a donut shop––Light from Uncommon Stars begins with distant threads and weaves them delightfully together into a tale of found family and the power of music to heal and bring us together. This book left me feeling that the world was a slightly stranger and brighter place than I thought, and really craving a donut.—Zoe

A Marvellous Light is a marvellous treat. Edwardian England’s manner and decorum are upended by magic, suffragists, and devious plots. Sprinkled in with the twisting turns of the magical mystery and duties of family are decidedly saucy tidbits between our two male leads as they learn to open themselves up to the magic of love. —Jae