These new tales offer up eerie magics, mysterious buildings, tentative friendships, and a whole lot of excellent excuses for why someone's homework didn't get done.

Though inscrutabilities persist in the plot of Emily Carroll's new adult horror graphic novel, the chilling ambiance makes this book one worth visiting.

Andrea Lankford delves deep into the cases of three men who vanished while hiking, but also explores the history of the PCT and the rich, nuanced subculture, practices and literature that surround it.

Kyo Maclear presents a unique take on the paternity mystery memoir, one that eschews a predetermined narrative arc for a wide-ranging exploration of what it means to be a family.

Itamar Vieira Junior's Crooked Plow, Miroslav Krleža's On the Edge of Reason, and Maru Ayase's The Forest Brims Over all emerge from acts of rebellion.

In many ways — setting, historical elements, the mix of romance and horror, the use of Spanish — Vampires of El Norte is the spiritual sister of The Hacienda, and a perfect example of genre mixing.

Marjane Satrapi's memoir has a history of garnering controversy — it's been on the ALA's list of most challenged books and continues to be the subject of debate about inclusion in school curriculums.

In Naomi Hirahara's mystery novel, a Japanese American family interned during the war returns home to a changed city. They're still settling in when their daughter is caught up in a murder.

Set in a neighborhood where Blacks and immigrant Jews have lived next to each other for decades, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is one of the best novels critic Maureen Corrigan has read this year.

Rickly's first book is a solid and promising literary debut. He's a natural, albeit a germinal one. He is best known as a singer and songwriter of the rock band Thursday.

Lindsay Lynch's luscious debut, Do Tell, is set in Hollywood's Golden Age. Dwyer Murphy's The Stolen Coast is a moody tale of a lawyer who makes his money ferrying people on the run into new lives.

Set in Mexico City in 1993, Silvia Moreno-Garcia's latest novel is steeped in cinematic history and lore, as well an eerie well of myth that recalls H.P. Lovecraft, albeit in a more progressive form.

The playful second book in the author's Harlem Trilogy shows Ray Carney scheming how to get his teenage daughter into the concert of her dreams. Alarming capers ensue.

A few weeks ago we asked NPR staffers to share their favorite summer reads. Old, new, fiction, nonfiction — as long as it was great for hot and hazy hammock reading, it was fair game.

Nothing goes right for American Wren Wheeler during a trip to London. And that's before the overthinking 18-year-old meets a prince — and they both learn a comet is hurtling toward Earth.