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editors’ choice
7 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
This week’s recommended titles include a couple of series mysteries, three works of fantasy or speculative fiction, and two memoirs that draw on the authors’ personal experiences to reach larger political or social conclusions. Happy reading. — Gregory Cowles
MY DEATH
Lisa Tuttle
First published in Britain in 2004, Tuttle’s slim, marvelous novel is odd, eerie, frustrating and thought-provoking: Tuttle uses horror and speculative fiction to examine questions of gender and sexuality even as the book defies easy classification.
Credit...“Delicious and short, with not a word wasted. ... In the end, ‘My Death’ is not about death at all, but about life after catastrophe: how art revives us, and how writers live on in their readers.”
From Lauren Elkin’s review
New York Review Books | Paperback, $15.95
THE MYSTERY GUEST
Nita Prose
Prose’s latest builds upon the charms of her debut, “The Maid,” which introduced the delightful neurodivergent hotel housekeeper Molly Gray. Once again someone has died at the Regency Grand, and once again, Molly is a suspect. Prose’s intricate plotting is seamless, but it’s Molly’s character that sets this mystery apart, giving it real emotional heft.
Credit...“Prose peppers the mystery with sly jokes about the vagaries of crime writing, but Molly’s voice remains central and moving.”
From Sarah Weinman’s crime column
Ballantine | $29
MURDER CROSSED HER MIND
Stephen Spotswood
The latest installment of this delightful mystery series, set in post-World War II New York City, vaults the private investigator Lillian Pentecost and her plucky junior partner, Willowjean “Will” Parker, into a baffling predicament involving the disappearance of an older woman and her clandestine work hunting Nazi spies.
Credit...“Sometimes I feel — in these pages and in real life — like a broken record recommending these books. ... I swore I was going to let this new installment pass without comment, but when it’s just as good as the last three, how could I?”
From Sarah Weinman’s crime column
Doubleday | $27
THE RACE TO BE MYSELF:
A Memoir
Caster Semenya
In raw prose, the South African intersex runner — who was forced by the International Association of Athletics Federations to take hormone treatments to compete — breaks her long silence, asserting her right to be celebrated for her natural gifts rather than punished for them.
Credit...“Declares over and over again that she’s not just a woman, but human, with the same determination she showed when she was pounding around the oval.”
From Jen A. Miller’s review
Norton | $30
THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS
Vajra Chandrasekera
Trained to kill by his mother and able to see demons, the protagonist of Chandrasekera’s novel flees his destiny as an assassin and winds up in a politically volatile metropolis. He soon takes interest in the city’s many brightly colored doors, behind which lie troubling forces.
Credit...“The best book I’ve read all year. ... I can’t remember the last time a book made me so excited about its existence, its casual challenge to what a fantasy novel could be.”
From Amal El-Mohtar’s science-fiction and fantasy column
Tordotcom | $27.99
WE ARE THE CRISIS
Cadwell Turnbull
The second novel in a series that began with “No Gods, No Monsters” examines the political fallout of the emergence of monsters across the United States. Factions clash bitterly as police killings and disappearances of monsters rile up an interspecies public.
Credit...“Gives almost every scene the intimate gravity of a tête-à-tête. Turnbull particularly excels at writing realistic dialogue.”
From Amal El-Mohtar’s science-fiction and fantasy column
Blackstone | $26.99
TO FREE THE CAPTIVES:
A Plea for the American Soul
Tracy K. Smith
In her musical new memoir, the former poet laureate examines our country’s oldest wounds through the lens of her own experience as a Black American.
Credit...“Any story of generations of a Black family in America is a story of America itself. ... Smith tells the reader again and again that America is a soul-making enterprise.”
From Shane McCrae’s review
Knopf | $27
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