The bestselling author of The Library Book brings us the story of a life full of writing. Orlean has covered everything from the inner workings of a 10-year-old boy to a woman who owned 27 tigers. Anyone interested in creativity will find a lot in this latest memoir.

Listen to Liberty talk about this title on today’s episode of All The Books!

This National Book Award long-listed book is set in a near-future dystopian Kolkata, India, where food is scarce and climate change has wreaked havoc. Ma is this close to escaping the constant floods and lack of food by taking her aging father and her two-year-old daughter with her to become reunited with her husband in the United States. But then her painstakingly attained immigration documents are stolen, and her family’s future suddenly doesn’t feel so secure. Over a week, she sets out to find the thief and recover her things—but we find out the thief is Boomba, who is desperate to save his family, too. His crimes have been escalating, all in the name of love and survival. Both families want to survive in a world they didn’t create, that doesn’t seem to have enough for them.

Booker Prize finalist Taylor’s latest follows a queer Black artist from the South who is struggling a bit to find his place in the Manhattan art scene. Wyeth is navigating bad art shows, pretension, and even backstabbing as he tries to settle into a new art ecosystem. Then he meets Keating, who left the priesthood, and he begins to question the way Blackness fits into white art spaces…or rather, how it doesn’t.

“Mateo Borrero has 99 problems—and all of them hinge on his missing bruja mother and the demon she trapped inside his body.” What an opener! This queer romantic fantasy has a witchy pretender, a nepo baby with a curse that keeps killing people around him, a deadly magical conspiracy, and the aforementioned demon. I need this yesterday. — Vanessa Diaz

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This was mentioned in the monthly new releases round-up. Here’s what Jamie Canaves had to say about it:

After Michah “Lyriq” Johanssen’s former partner and dancer at Boom Town disappeared, another dancer, Damaris “Charm” Wilburn, didn’t show up for her shift. Lyriq finds no help in finding the women and is plunged into the underworld of Atlanta as she narrows in on a wealthy man with an obsession.

This was mentioned in the monthly new releases round-up. Here’s what Nikki DeMarco had to say about it:

Equal parts satirical, steamy, and swoony, Female Fantasy is a romance novel tailor-made for book lovers who can’t resist a meta twist. Joonie, a copywriter by day and fanfic writer by night, knows no real guy can measure up to her ultimate book boyfriend—a merman hero named Ryke. But when she learns Ryke is based on a real person, she sets off to track him down, dragging along her brother’s infuriating best friend as an unwilling road-trip companion. What follows is a hilariously chaotic, self-aware journey through romance tropes that doubles as a genuine story about finding love where you least expect it. This is a joyful reminder of why readers fall in love with the genre in the first place.