A field guide to the readers you’ll see in public this spring.

By James Folta

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April 30, 2025, 2:30pm

Spring is springing, and that means our public spaces will soon be teeming with all kinds of readers. As the air starts to warm, readers will begin to emerge from their hibernations, bleary eyed and untanned, to alight on benches, picnic blankets, and bar stools.

There are many different varieties of reader you’ll come across, so here’s a short field guide to some of the more common varieties you might encounter in the wild.

The First Pager
Starting a book in public attracts a lot of negative scrutiny online, but we all have to start somewhere. A reader with a new book is a sign of a healthy reading ecosystem, where new books are being introduced.

The First Pager is commonly confused with The Performative Reader, a similar variety of reader. There is a noted difference in the books they read (T.P.R.s are most often seen with The Body Keeps The Score, for example) and they tend to frequent different locations: T.P.R.s are found in bars where they might score a date or sidewalks where influencers might interview them for viral videos.

The Stacker
Often found on a park bench or at a two-top in a bar or cafe, this reader has a tidy stack of books they tote around with them. This is a serious reader, someone who expects to get through more than one book in an outing, or who needs to cross reference information across multiple texts. This is a wise reader who you can approach like King Solomon of old, to ask for solutions to your problems or judgements on your disputes.

The Unwrapped Hardcover-er
Sometimes you don’t want everyone to see what you’re reading. These shy and evasive readers slip off their slipcovers and into analogue incognito mode. Whether it’s a new release they’re embarrassed about or a problematic older title they’ve rescued from pulping, these slightly anonymized books are meant to be seen but not scrutinized. If you recognize the book even though it’s been disrobed, a polite nod to this reader will win their affection.

A not that this variety is very similar to The Book Untoucher, a kind of reader who isn’t embarrassed about their book, but is extremely fastidious, and has removed their slipcover so it won’t be damaged.

The Glancer
Could be a spy, could be a people watcher, either way they’re not getting a lot of reading done. But they are very aware of their surroundings, and can be helpful if you ever find yourself in a confusing, Benny Hill-style chase.

The Print Outer
An extremely mysterious reader, out in the world with a sheaf of printed pages. What could these loose papers be? An essay they’re reading or grading for school? A work in progress they’re sweating over? A twisted manifesto or searing underground political tract? This reader is extremely skittish, and is often spotted alone: approach with care.

Note that the number of pages has to be more than a dozen, any fewer and this is probably not a reader, but rather someone reading a contract, an actor preparing for an audition, or someone who still prints out directions (see The Last MapQuest User; The Vacation Dad; etc.).

The Flock
If you see a group of readers: approach carefully, as a book club could break out at any time. If this happens, make yourself look large by opening your jacket or spreading out your arms.

The Picnic Spreader
This reader is most common in cafes or parks, and have constructed a nest around them of literary objects, like handsome notebooks, pens (fountain or, in case of emergency, ballpoint) and of course books. This is a reader that is working on something and could possibly be a writer. You can ask them what they’re working on, but make sure you have a place to sit and are hydrated, as the answer can be long.

The New Yorker-er
This reader is usually busy and on the go, since they have a lot of magazine to get through before the next issue arrives. This reader is often holding a folded or rolled magazine and some kind of caffeinated beverage. They tend to be slightly more stressed than other readers because they are engaged with the world, and also because they are constantly aware of the passage of time, due to the metronomic rhythm of a new magazine hitting their mailbox every week.

The Emoter
This is a reader who visibly reacts to everything that they’re reading, allowing others to follow along with their book beat by emotional beat. This reader is similar to The Yelper and The Cackler, who react to their reading with loud calls and cries. Unlike The Emoter, both of these readers are considered to be pests.

The Teens
It’s always nice to see kids reading, but trend lightly around teen readers, since they might turn you into a meme like “corny literary blogger wanders around the park taking notes.”

Kevin Kwan! Questlove! Hungry ghosts! 25 books out in paperback this May.

By Gabrielle Bellot

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April 30, 2025, 4:27am

May is here, and, with it, a bevy of new books to be excited about (and, difficult as it can be not to succumb to the Sisyphean rhythm of doomscrolling, new books are usually better places to turn our attention, if we can). Today, I’m focusing on exciting new paperbacks; if you missed them in hardcover, you’ve got another chance to enjoy them in these fresh editions. I’ve selected twenty-five to consider in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, all coming out over the course of this month, spanning a remarkable range of themes, topics, and sub-genres.

Stay safe, Dear Readers, and let these delightful new paperbacks be your literary companions this month.

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Thomas Grattan, In Tongues
(Picador)

“In Tongues contains one of my favorite kinds of plots; the interlude that changed me forever. Thomas Grattan masterfully elucidates the life of an elegant hero—shattering friendships, sudden lovers, surprising moments of grace. Reading In Tongues felt like a deliciously banal and dangerous afternoon I never wanted to end. I love this beautiful, horny, honest, glamorous novel.”
–Marie-Helene Bertino

Zach Williams, Beautiful Days
(Vintage)

“Beautiful Days is one of the year’s best debuts…a glorious creepfest reminiscent of speculative collections by Carmen Maria Machado, Mariana Enríquez and other children of Lovecraft….Williams sees beyond newspaper headlines to a world cleaved apart by forces we’ve unleashed, blinkered by arrogance and greed….Beautiful Days is the spear tip of his potential. This writer’s got talent to burn.”
–Hamilton Cain

Yukiko Tominaga, See: Loss. See Also: Love.
(Scribner)

“Modulating warm, lucid, and subtle prose, Tominaga deftly holds the tension between exploring the complicated realities of grief and the possibilities that come from still being alive after loss. The story nimbly moves forward with the qualities of an emotional mystery, while sly humor and radiant prose shed light on grasshoppers, mothers and sons, surfing, and sex…an exquisite and poignant novel.”
–Marie Mutsuki Mockett

Carvell Wallace, Another Word for Love: A Memoir
(Picador)

“Carvell Wallace’s devastating book vibrates with a rare power—the kind of power that will help save lives. Because not only is it a brilliant evocation of the effects of marginalization on generation after generation, it is the story of how hope persists, and nourishes, despite what has come before. An unforgettable treatise on pain—and love. This book is a gift.”
–Hilton Als

Lawrence Ingrassia, A Fatal Inheritance: How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Deadly Medical Mystery
(Holt)

“When two young doctors came across a family riddled with cancer for generations, they wondered why and began a decades long search for the answer. In A Fatal Inheritance, a riveting narrative of their quest, Lawrence Ingrassia intertwines a deeply personal and tearful story of unbearable family loss with an inspiring story of scientific discovery that revolutionized the understanding and treatment of cancer.”
–Walter Isaacson

Tessa Hulls, Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir
(Picador)

“Revelatory….[Hulls’] graphic memoir traces, with devastating emotional acuity, the line between the history of China under Mao Zedong—a stretch of nearly unfathomable death and political upheaval—and the ghosts of her family’s past that she eventually unearthed….a breathtaking portrait of this lineage of trauma. Enlivened by her hauntingly vivid drawings, in which the past is often a surrealist, spectral presence constantly intruding upon the present.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

Spencer Reece, Acts: Poems
(FSG)

“Spencer Reece writes poems of deep searching—haunted, haunting meditations on what it feels like to be in and out of place. In this book absence and presence are never quite opposites, and a quest for the meanings of home nurtures a lyricism of rare and beautiful combinations: perplexity and wisdom, desirousness and patience, risk and restraint. Acts is–in the full sense of the word—a blessing.”
–Matthew Bevis

Gabriella Burnham, Wait
(One World)

“Wait is beautiful, heartfelt, and transcendent—a carefully crafted portrayal of motherhood, sisterhood, and friendship put to the ultimate test. I found myself caring deeply about these characters and wanting to know desperately what was going to happen to them next. Wait is also the best account of year-round Nantucket Island that I’ve ever read.”
–Nathaniel Philbrick

Édouard Louis, Change
(Picador)

“Change is a brilliant novel that, like its narrator, engages in the impossible task of trying to be two things at once—it even opens with two prologues. Though a work of fiction, Louis hand-stitches created scenes with memoiristic passages, even including actual photographs, all while reminding the reader that the author is revising his own past.”
–Stephen Patrick Bell

Renée Watson, Skin & Bones
(Little Brown)

“A compelling portrait of personal struggles, self-love, and the journey of healing; an indelible testament to the power of family, friendship, and community; a touching love letter to and trenchant critique of one of the whitest cities in America. It’s a dexterous and evocative gift of a novel.”
–Mitchell S. Jackson

Madeline Pendleton, I Survived Capitalism and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt: A Memoir
(Vintage)

“With punk optimism, cinematic storytelling, and a moral center undeterred by what ‘everyone else does,’ this book presents the life and death money scenarios real people face. Madeline covers class, college recruiting, home ownership, and workplace rights with a brilliant sense of community and warmth.”
–Gabe Dunn

Marina Gibson, Cast, Catch, Release: Finding Serenity and Purpose Through Fly Fishing
(Scribner)

“A well-wrought story of love, self-love, and fly fishing. Marina Gibson’s book illuminates the healing power of practicing something complicated while immersed, literally, in the natural world. A book for lovers of memoir and anyone who thrills to the catch.”
–Kristin Kimball

Questlove, Ben Greenman, Hip-Hop Is History
(Picador)

“Chronicles the first fifty years of hip-hop through insightful and passionate analysis that celebrates the big-named artists who popularized the style, as well as those lesser-known creatives who quietly influenced rap’s rise. Along the way, he offers personal recollections about how the relatively young music style has shaped his identity. A must-read for old school hip-hop heads and burgeoning fans alike.”
–Shannon Carlin

J. Nicole Jones, The Witches of Bellinas
(Catapult)

“The Witches of Bellinas is like the eerie technicolor lovechild of Midsommar and Rebecca. I loved being inside Tansy’s mind as she learns to decode the sun-soaked, menacing world of Bellinas—and as she learns to decode herself, too. Myth and magic, gender and power, desire and death all swirl together in this novel to make a heady brew
–Clare Beams

Kevin Kwan, Lies and Weddings
(Vintage)

“If you loved Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan’s latest won’t disappoint….Alliances are made and unmade. Fortunes are won and lost. Rich people, trying to get richer, outwit themselves. Poor girls, armed with only their stubborn integrity, stake a claim on happiness. And the laugh lines arrive punctually….Kwan has a gimlet eye.”
–The Washington Post

Eve J. Chung, Daughters of Shandong
(Berkley)

“One of those rare works of fiction that entertains, educates, and inspires. Harrowing, heartbreaking, and brilliantly paced, Daughters of Shandong is impossible to put down.”
–Jamie Ford

Francis S. Barry, Back Roads and Better Angels: A Journey into the Heart of American Democracy
(Steerforth)

“In the traditions of Blue Highways and Confederates in the Attic, Back Roads and Better Angels—by turns elegiac and hopeful—is required reading in a season when the clouds still have yet to lift from over our democracy.”
–Kevin Baker

Paige McClanahan, The New Tourist: Waking Up to the Power and Perils of Travel
(Scribner)

“In this lively and rewarding book, Paige McClanahan wrestles with the complexities of twenty-first century tourism, deftly exploring the joys and the real-world consequences of world travel. I highly recommend The New Tourist.”
–Elizabeth Becker

John Kaag, American Bloods: The Untamed Dynasty That Shaped a Nation
(Picador)

“The adventuresome philosopher John Kaag…uncover[s] yet another hidden tale central to the history of American life and thought….In a taut and spell-binding narrative, Kaag traces the Blood family’s influence through generations by singling out individuals—revolutionary, ascetic, polygamist, mystic—and finding these ‘borderers’ always in close connection with the central thinkers and doers of their day: Emerson, Thoreau, Cornelius Vanderbilt, William James.”
–Megan Marshall

Abby Geni, The Body Farm: Stories
(Counterpoint)

“The characters in this collection—from a girl who believes her older sister is a selkie, to a woman who was bitten by a tiger shark and dares to dive again, to a family of women who worry the men who cross their paths are cursed by death, to a planetary geologist who understands the movements of the solar system better than the actions of her alcoholic husband—contend with both the vulnerability and the resiliency of the human body…an extraordinary collection.”
–Karin Lin-Greenberg

Kat Tang, Five-Star Stranger
(Scribner)

“A sly, sophisticated, and compulsively readable debut about a person who is paid to be invisible, to be anyone to everyone, and yet inadvertently finds himself.  Five-Star Stranger is a satirical comedy that grapples with the modern-day anxieties of the online persona and gig economy, masterfully blended with a poignant, heartwarming story about human connection.”
–Weike Wang

Tessa Fontaine, The Red Grove
(Picador)

“This gorgeous, frightening novel maps the hidden roots that link mother to daughter, and sibling to sibling, and utopia to fear. A deft and enrapturing novel full of underground secrets, ready to spring.”
–Clare Beams

Shefali Luthra, Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America
(Vintage)

“Indispensable….An impeccably researched, clearheaded and frankly terrifying assessment of just how grave the situation in post-Roe America is….Whatever your gender, race, religious background or political preferences, Luthra’s Undue Burden should be on your required reading list.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

Vincent Deary, How We Break: Navigating the Wear and Tear of Living
(Picador)

“Deary’s exhilarating new book mixes science, philosophy and memoir to argue that self-acceptance is our best defense against the stress of living….Deary’s writing is wise and compassionate, sometimes florid and always interesting—few writers could jump so nimbly between Proust and RuPaul, neuroscience and the occult….Deary’s is the rare book that helps you see the world a little differently.”
–Sophie McBain

Adrian Goldsworthy, Rome and Persia: The Seven Hundred Year Rivalry
(Basic Books)

“Epic history as it’s means to be written! A splendid book that tells the story of the great imperial riva’lry of the ancient world with narrative elan, scholarly authority, and a cast of extraordinary characters.”
–Simon Sebag Montefiore

Lucas Rijneveld, My Heavenly Favorite (trans. Michele Hutchison)
(Graywolf)

“Daring, immediate, and insistent, My Heavenly Favorite summons a profound imagining of abuse and its ramifications. This is fiction that balances darkness and purity, deceit and reality, depravity and lyricism. Rijneveld’s control of his vision is startling. A quaking, visceral novel that demands the reader look wickedness in the eye—not for shock alone, but to provoke a genuine examination of what it is to harm and transgress.”
–Rebecca Watson

Pullman hive, attention! We’re getting one last Dark Material.

By Brittany Allen

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April 29, 2025, 3:19pm

This fall, Phillip Pullman—the man behind the His Dark Materials trilogy—will publish a final dispatch from his much-beloved multiverse. The Rose Field will cap the adventures of Lyra Silvertongue, the flinty, brilliant heroine who makes the mother of dragons look meek.

This new novel will conclude Pullman’s Book of Dust trilogy, a series that expands on a world first glimpsed in 1995’s The Golden Compass. (Or Northern Lights, to our readers across the pond).

The Golden Compass introduced a frosty parallel universe wherein Oxford College is managed by a dark religious theocracy, human souls exist as external animal companions, and a mysterious subatomic particle governs all the magic in the universe. In its pages, we met Lyra as a plucky twelve year old in thrall to a prophecy.

Five books, several novellas, a marathon play, a television series, and three blockbusters later, Lyra’s now a wind-whipped adult, having faced down destiny and survived several cosmic battles.

The Book of Dust series begins with a prequel to His Dark Materials (La Belle Sauvage). Its second installment fasts quite a bit forward to continue the story after the events in The Amber Spyglass. The new book will resume that timeline, picking up with Lyra as an Oxford undergraduate. Per the end of The Secret Commonwealth, she starts her final quest in mortal (and spiritual) danger.

Pullman’s world is unusually heady for a children’s series. His many referents and inspirations include Dante’s Inferno, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and this Heinrich von Kleist essay “On Marionette Theatre.” But for certain kinds of precocious kiddos who, I dunno, built rich fantasy lives pretending to be sainted orphans in their attic bedrooms, that intellectual foundation was catnip. As one such, I can report that revisiting these books in adulthood is extra satisfying. Especially now that I know who Beelzebub is.

In The Guardian, Pullman described his alleged final novel “as partly a thriller and partly a bildungsroman: a story of psychological, moral and emotional growth. But it’s also a vision. Lyra’s world is changing, just as ours is. The power over people’s lives once held by old institutions and governments is seeping away and reappearing in another form: that of money, capital, development, commerce, exchange.”

The dust, it’s evergreen.

Image via

Sophie Gilbert! Craig Thompson! Crazy Rich Ghanaians! 24 new books out today.

By Gabrielle Bellot

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April 29, 2025, 4:55am

It’s the final Tuesday of April, a month characterized by chaos and Eliotesque cruelties alike, but there is more brightness in the (literal) skies, if nothing else, and to accompany this much-needed sun in a time of strangedark, I come bearing tidings of new books to read. Below, you’ll find twenty-four new offerings in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, with a bevy of beloved names and promising debuts alike.

I hope you’ll find companionship, comfort, and curiosity in these as we enter a new month in a year that has felt remarkably slow and hectic all at once. Read on, especially if you feel the urge to doomscroll again. Doomscrolling, like all things, can have its place in the murk of life. But there are often better things to do for our own wellbeing, and I can’t recommend the delightful offerings below in place of that more strongly.

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A.E. Osworth, Awakened
(Grand Central Publishing)

“This bold, explosive novel is unapologetically and vividly queer, showing the romantic, sexual, and inner and outer lives of trans people, all while painting an intriguing and suspenseful world that brings together sf and fantasy. Fans of Juno Dawson will enjoy this rich story about finding yourself and about what’s truly the divide between real and artificial.”
–Booklist

Annie Hartnett, The Road to Tender Hearts
(Ballantine Books)

“A long-suffering family finds joy. A clairvoyant cat has premonitions of death and other supernatural talents. Vultures are hoping two orphaned children will stay alive. A dead daughter’s hat talks to her father. A miraculous novel—an actual and spiritual road trip you won’t forget.”
–John Irving

Guadalupe Nettel, The Accidentals: Stories
(Bloomsbury)

“Things are never what they seem in Guadalupe Nettel’s excitingly unsettling new collection. Written in spare, understated prose (Rosalind Harvey’s translation is excellent), each haunting story in The Accidentals opens into something immense and Nettel’s ability to convey both situational and existential dread is breathtaking. Like the colossal monkey puzzle tree that stands near its center, The Accidentals is strange, beautiful and terrifying all at once.”
–Laird Hunt

Sophie Gilbert, Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Girls Against Themselves
(Penguin Press)

“Reading Girl on Girl feels like revisiting your memories with your brilliant protective older sister making sense of them for you. Her cultural criticism is as coolly sophisticated as it is deeply personal, making you feel like she’s reading your mind. It’s alarming to see so clearly how cruel the aughts were to young women. But the great payoff is, finally, self-awareness.”
–Hanna Rosin

Craig Thompson, Ginseng Roots: A Memoir
(Pantheon)

“Craig Thompson’s sometimes aching reflection on his roots in the soil and culture of rural Wisconsin is also a tender love letter to ginseng and to the diverse, compelling, and often quirky people who struggle to make it grow. A sweeping story, gorgeously drawn and beautifully told—this is Craig Thompson’s masterpiece.”
–Joe Sacco

Courtney Gustafson, Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats
(Crown)

“[P]oignant, beautifully written…will change the way readers think about feline and human nature alike….What makes Poets Square stand out among other animal welfare stories is Gustafson’s insistence that the suffering of domestic animals often mirrors the suffering of the people who care for them….A necessary read for those who work and volunteer in animal welfare…[and] a loving tribute to the way animals can provide ‘bright thriving spots of hope in the world.”
–BookPage

Cathy Linh Che, Becoming Ghost: Poems
(Washington Square Press)

“Cathy Linh Che’s Becoming Ghost is a new masterpiece of American love lyric, in the vein of Rita Dove’s timeless Thomas and Beulah or Ilya Kaminsky’s Deaf Republic….Che is a mighty poet, nimble across a variety of forms and voices, with a dazzling instinct for how one image, line, photograph, might illuminate the next. Becoming Ghost is an indelible reminder of all the people, known and unknown, who loved us enough to survive.”
–Kaveh Akbar

Jzl Jmz, Local Woman
(Nightboat Books)

“In a world ravaged by a hostile political landscape and the relentless drones of white supremacy, Local Woman vigilantly pushes back against the idea that hardening one’s self is our only path of resistance. Here, Jmz’s poems assert power by donning the silken garments of vulnerability—prayers eager to confess the human desire to be held, needed and believed. Local Woman is an elegant throne where a knife sleeps beneath its velvet exterior. What a blessing.”
–Rachel McKibbens

Alina Stefanescu, My Heresies: Poems
(Sarabande Books)

“The lyrical sweep and abandon of these poems is stunning. The tonal variation here, too, is so special. This is a poet who can be direct, metaphysical, compelling, humorous, intimate, playful—the list goes on. Truly, here is enough fire in these pages for seven poets. What a spellbinding book.”
–Ilya Kaminsky

Milo Todd, The Lilac People
(Counterpoint)

“This beautifully wrought historical novel about a trans man’s resilient survival through the promising Weimar Republic to Nazi Germany to the still-oppressive Allied occupation is a poignant reminder that history may not repeat itself, but it surely rhymes….Milo Todd paints a rich portrait of this often-overlooked period of queer history with protagonists who might be fictional, but represent the tenacity and hope of queer individuals past and present.”
–Katherine Ouellette

Liann Zhang, Julie Chan Is Dead
(Atria Books)

“As mesmerizing as it is grotesque, Julie Chan is Dead exposes the rotten insides of the influencer industry with sharp insight and dark humor. It perfectly captures the absurdity of our permanently online modern age.”
–Sophie Wan

Hon Lai Chu, Mending Bodies (trans. Jacqueline Leung)
(Two Lines Press)

“An unsettling fable about an extreme form of cohabitation….Hon’s turns of phrase are consistently arresting (‘The self proliferates as incessantly as mold’). This intelligent speculative work is eerily transfixing.”
–Publishers Weekly

Anthony Passeron, Sleeping Children (trans. Frank Wynne)
(FSG)

“In brief chapters and straightforward prose, Passeron patiently unfolds the harrowing family drama and medical mystery. It’s a searing testament to how the dead live on in their loved ones’ memory.”
–Publishers Weekly

Sarah Manguso, Questions Without Answers (illustrated by Liana Finck)
(Hogarth)

“Sweet, smart, and shockingly insightful, this collection of questions asked by kids will leave you smiling and stumped. It reminds you of what it’s like to be curious about everything, and it shows, conclusively, that kids are first-rate philosophers who can reshape the way we see the world.”
–Scott Hershovitz

Murray Kempton, Andrew Holter (editor), Darryl Pinckney (foreword), Going Around: Selected Journalism
(Seven Stories Press)

“When and if the dust finally settles on the American Century, Murray Kempton will prove to have been one of its greatest writers: almost miraculously immersed in every region, profession, political movement, and social class, he leaves behind a body of work whose range (seven decades!) and moral ambition seem nothing short of majestic. This new anthology rescues him from a pile of clippings and lets his voice ring out even more clearly than it did during his life.”
–Benjamin Moser

Michael Luo, Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America
(Doubleday)

“This book is an astonishing feat of urgent history. Michael Luo has unearthed a buried chapter of America’s rise, in which Chinese immigrants fought their way through violence and scapegoating to build the nation’s future….Strangers in the Land reimagines how the idea of Asia reverberates in American culture today, pulled between belonging, rejection, success, and suspicion. A powerful new entry in the canon on American identity.”
–Evan Osnos

Lauren Haddad, Fireweed
(Astra House)

“Haddad dissects the missing girl trope and opens it wide open. Her taut writing and pace magnificently gives readers a claustrophobic experience that is rarely felt on the page.”
–

Nana Malone, Gold Coast Dilemma
(Gallery Books)

“I couldn’t put Gold Coast Dilemma down—it’s Crazy Rich Asians meets Ghanaian high society, packed with breathtaking traditions, scandalous secrets and unapologetic opulence. Nana Malone has been a favorite of mine for years, and this new book weaves a story so vivid and glamorous, it feels like you’re right there in the heart of it all!”
–Kennedy Ryan

Amy S. Kaufman, The Traitor of Sherwood Forest
(Penguin Books)

“Peasant girl Jane Crowe enters the dappled glades of Sherwood Forest seeking safety and freedom. Instead she stumbles upon a darkly woven web of danger, deceit, and violence with none other than Robin Hood at its center. Kaufman paints fresh shadows upon an ancient tale, entwining new characters with old history for a satisfying and compelling read.”
–Liz Michalski

Suzanne Cope, Women of War: The Italian Assassins, Spies, and Couriers Who Fought the Nazis
(Dutton)

“Suzanne Cope has uncovered the gripping accounts of brave female partisans whose efforts in Italy during the Second World War made a crucial difference between victory and defeat. Whether hiding bombs beneath dresses, dodging bullets while swimming among the waves, or falling in love and forming friendships, these women’s stories are a much needed addition to the war narrative, and through her dogged research, Suzanne has brought them vividly to life.”
–Julie Satow

Charlotte Beradt, The Third Reich of Dreams: The Nightmares of a Nation (trans. Damion Searls)
(Princeton University Press)

“Haunting….An astonishing historical analysis, The Third Reich of Dreams speaks to the dreams of those who lived under Hitler to capture the twisted realities of Nazi rule..”
–Foreword Reviews

Artem Chapeye, Ordinary People Don’t Carry Machine Guns: Thoughts on War (trans. Zenia Tompkins)
(Seven Stories Press)

“A leftist urban professional and theoretical pacifist, [Chapeye] had planned to run and hide from war when it came, but he realized he would be unable to respect himself unless he joined the fight for his country. Chapeye’s musings on life as an enlistee after the Russian invasion reveal his philosopher’s heart as he poses questions without answers and examines his own biases against those who chose not to enlist.”
–The Washington Post

Thomas Levenson, So Very Small: How Humans Discovered the Microcosmos, Defeated Germs—and May Still Lose the War Against Infectious Disease
(Random House)

“So Very Small is the wonderfully intimate and intertwined story of how humans discovered microbes and learned to tame them. Levenson is a master storyteller, and his latest book reads like an epic novel, spanning centuries, continents, and microbial calamities. It offers a compelling story of how microbes have influenced society, seamlessly intertwined with fascinating historical events, while vividly bringing the characters and scientific discoveries to life.”
–Alanna Collen

Rick Atkinson, The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780
(Crown)

“From chaotic bloodshed emerges a coherent struggle for freedom in this sweeping second volume of Pulitzer winner Atkinson’s Revolution Trilogy (after The British Are Coming)….Epic in scale but rich in detail, this captures the drama and world-historical significance of the revolution.”
–Publishers Weekly

The new Conduit Books plans to focus on male authors as a “corrective” to the literary landscape.

By James Folta

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April 28, 2025, 2:00pm

A new press will be “focusing initially” on publishing male writers, reported The Bookseller today. Finally, a space for guys to be guys.

The press is called Conduit Books, and will be run by novelist and critic Jude Cook. There’s not a lot of information on their website—they’re still looking for submissions for their first books, apparently—but their “About” page features the definition of “conduit,” kind of like a best man’s speech that opens with “Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘good dude’ as…”

Cook spoke with The Bookseller about the project, and was very careful in his wording about their focus. He stressed that the indie press “doesn’t seek an adversarial stance” but wants to add “a space for male authors to flourish.”

His read on the publishing climate is that the male voice is perceived as “problematic” and is “often overlooked.” Cook concedes that there existed an “occasionally toxic male-dominated literary scene of the ’80s, ’90s and noughties,” but that since then literary fiction by women has dominated, and Conduit’s entry into the market as a champion of men is “only right as a timely corrective.”

It’s hard to quantify the toxicity of previous literary scenes relative to today—J.K. Rowling being the richest author in the world and using that wealth to attack the vulnerable doesn’t give me much hope that we’ve learned much. But there is some data on the gender breakdown of authors. The National Bureau of Economic Research published a study two years ago and found that “the share of published books by female authors and the share of book spending on female-authored books have risen in tandem.” According to Goodreads, Bookstat, and copyright data, NBEC found that female-authored books have risen from around 20% of publications in 1960 to around 50% by 2020.

And analysis of the New York Times best seller data on The Pudding came to about the same conclusion in beautiful charts: authors hitting the best seller list are approaching gender equality for the first time. Their researchers connect the rise of women authors to shifts in genre and the composition of MFA programs, which is interesting.

So the data seems to back up Cook—female authorship is on the rise, especially recently. But to conclude that men therefore need an urgent champion seems naive and near-sighted. To look at this trend or, perhaps more accurately, to feel the vibes and conclude that male authors are in danger is pushing it. Male authors going from 80% to 50% of the market is far from a crisis in need of a “timely corrective.”

I want to imagine that Conduit is acting in good faith, and wanting to publish the books you want to read is the prerogative of any publisher. But to frame their project as a corrective makes this whole thing seem downstream of a particular political agenda or media diet. We’re all smart people here, and I think that Cook has to have a sense of how an announcement of “male books are back!” is going to be read by the wider public. Even with the best of intentions, you have know who is going to be cheer a project like that. And to still be so explicit about this being guys only (just for now, I know), makes me think you’ve got a political agenda or a fetish for being quote-tweeted.

I know it’s hard to feel like something has been taken away from you, or that you can’t do the work you want to do. But part of being creative is being sensitive to the world around you, and to the audiences you’re creating for. And if you’re a publisher who is unable to take a longer view of publishing trends, and unable to guess why the percentage of women authors is rising in the last 15 years, then I don’t trust your taste.