Author: Natalia Heroux

Sponsored by Algonquin Books.

Lil and Frank married young, after bonding over how they both lost a parent when they were children. Now that they are retired, Lil is determined to leave a history for their own kids. She sifts through letters and diary entries, uncovering old stories—and revealing more secrets than Frank wants their children to know. Empathetic and profound, this novel from master storyteller Jill McCorkle deconstructs and reconstructs what it means to be a father or a mother, and to be a child trying to know your parents, trying to make sense of the hieroglyphics of history and memory.

Sponsored by FSG / MCD

Vern—seven months pregnant and desperate to escape the religious compound where she was raised—flees for the shelter of the woods to raise her twins far from outside influence.

But even in the woods, Vern is still forced to fight back against the community that refuses to let her go, as her body wracked by inexplicable changes.

To understand her metamorphosis and to protect her small family, Vern has to face the past, and more troublingly, the future. Finding the truth will mean uncovering the secrets of the compound she fled but also the violent history in America that produced it.

Sponsored by Flatiron Books, publisher of Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

Hypnotic, propulsive, and utterly transporting, Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne forges a new epic, one that puts the forgotten women of Greek mythology back at the heart of the story, as they strive for a better world.

Sponsored by Best Nerds Forever, published by Jimmy Patterson Books

Being “nerdy” in middle school isn’t a bad thing–I should know! Me and my friends are nerds. Some of us are geeky, but we’re also really funny and never boring. One of my friends is even a jock but not a jerk. We don’t quite fit. But we’re fun. We’re a riot. We’re total chaos. And we own it–until one of us is targeted by a truck driving maniac. It will take all of our nerdiest skills to Sherlock Holmes our way out of one dangerous mess. Never be afraid to unleash your inner nerd!

Sponsored by Amazon Publishing

It’s 1979. Olivia Murray, a secretary at a Los Angeles newspaper, is determined to become a photojournalist. When an opportunity arises to accompany her Kurdish boyfriend, Delan, to northern Iraq, she hopes to better understand Delan and capture an image that will land her a photographer job. Yet when she arrives in Delan’s hometown, Olivia is confronted with the reality of a town under constant threat. Then, when Olivia captures a shattering, tragic moment on film, it upends all their lives and proves that true bravery begins with an open heart. Read Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar.