Kirsten King’s debut, A Good Person (Putnam 2026), opens with a bang: When I was ten years old, I nearly pushed a girl into a gorilla pen at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, Massachusetts. What follows is an unhinged first-person narration by a woman who, after being spurned by the man she was tryingContinue reading “A GOOD PERSON – Kirsten King”
Author Archives: Tommi Powell
SON OF NOBODY – Yann Martel
“You liked animals, too, Helen. They are dreams made of flesh.” I loved Yann Martel’s Life of Pi. I read it while traveling to Cambodia back in 2003, and that paperback remains one of my most prized possessions. When I run my thumb over the red-dirt stained edges, I’m immediately transported back to when IContinue reading “SON OF NOBODY – Yann Martel”
ORANGE WINE – Esperanza Hope Synder
“Oranges can be sweet or sour,” I answered. “Like love.” Country: ColumbiaTitle: Orange WineAuthor: Esperanza Hope SynderLanguage: EnglishTranslator: N/APublisher: Mareas Books 2025 Esperanza Hope Snyder’s Orange Wine was a bit of a disappointment. It opens with a bang – “While I was giving birth to Lucy, my husband, Alessandro, was lying in bed with my sister Isabel”Continue reading “ORANGE WINE – Esperanza Hope Synder”
TAILBONE – Che Yeun
“The redness in her eyes reminded me of the lipstick she hadn’t worn in a while. I wanted to ask her out to the street vendors again, to eat skewers together, to become two jobless mindless dipshit girls wandering the city together. To feel how surely she took each footstep, how her heels smacked theContinue reading “TAILBONE – Che Yeun”
PYTHON’S KISS – Louise Erdrich
“Flesh would become stone and stone become flesh, and someday they would meet in the mouth of a bird.” Louise Erdrich’s Python’s Kiss (Harper 2026) is a collection of short stories written over the last 20 years, with a number having appeared previously, in slightly different form, in numerous publications. The thirteen stories each haveContinue reading “PYTHON’S KISS – Louise Erdrich”
YESTERYEAR – Caro Claire Burke
“This is the last day of the life I imagined for myself.” Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear (Knopf 2026) is certainly one of the buzziest books of the year. Buzzy books can be hit or miss for me, so I was already approaching it from the standpoint that it probably wouldn’t live up to the hype.Continue reading “YESTERYEAR – Caro Claire Burke”
THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF DUPREE – Nikesha Elise Williams
“Everything don’t need to be voiced. Everything don’t need to grow wings, ride the air, and visit folk you don’t know with stories they got no stake it.” “She knew some deceptions deserved the dirt.” In the vein of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois comes Nikesha Elise Williams’s The Seven Daughters of DupreeContinue reading “THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF DUPREE – Nikesha Elise Williams”
THE FOUNTAIN – Casey Scieszka
“She touches the barrel to her chin, to her temple, back to her chin. She braces herself for the shock of it. She hopes for the thousandth time, millionth time, for some relief.” Emma Straub called Casey Scieszka’s debut novel, The Fountain (Harper 2026), “like Tuck Everlasting for grown-ups,” and that perfectly sums up thisContinue reading “THE FOUNTAIN – Casey Scieszka”
PARADISO 17 – Hannah Lillith Assadi
“Sufien had always been afflicted with this desire – no, it was a call, a call to fly, a call to fall.” Recently longlisted for the Women’s Prize, Hannah Lillith Assadi’s Paradiso 17 (Knopf 2026) is a beautiful portrayal home, family, and exile. While the second half seems a bit more rushed and distant thanContinue reading “PARADISO 17 – Hannah Lillith Assadi”
NONESUCH – Francis Spufford
“Tell me where all past years are…” Francis Spufford’s Nonesuch (Scribner 2026) was one of my anticipated releases of 2026. I really enjoyed Light Perpetual (a novel that rewrote history, allowing five children killed in the 1944 London Woolworths bombing to survive and live through the 20th century), and I was looking forward to anotherContinue reading “NONESUCH – Francis Spufford”
A Girl Named Tommi 