"Even Sin Has Become Fashionable," said the Saint

Freedom Under Grace by Pope Leo XIV

About the book: In his first book of original, never-before-seen writings, Pope Leo XIV offers readers around the world a window into the spiritual foundation that would lead him to the papacy - in his own words before his election.

Before becoming Pope Leo XIV, Robert Francis Prevost had never published a book. But shortly after his election to the papacy, Leo chose these previously unpublished texts to become his first published collection of writings: Freedom Under Grace: Reflections On The Spiritual Tradition That Formed Me. This wide-ranging book captures the heart of his spirituality, forged by the conviction that “man is not defined by what he possesses or what he knows, but rather by what he loves.”

This collection comes from Prevost’s time overseeing the Order of Saint Augustine, distilling his understanding of the Christian life today for individuals, local communities and churches, and the whole Catholic Church. 

Drawing on the rich tradition of Saint Augustine, Prevost advances an inspiring vision rooted in community and solidarity, commitment to social justice for the poor and marginalized, and the confidence that the gospel of Jesus Christ is what the world most desperately needs to face today’s challenges.

For anyone looking to Pope Leo for wisdom and pastoral guidance, Freedom Under Grace: Reflections On The Spiritual Tradition That Formed Me (2026) is essential reading, delivering profound spiritual depth, penetrating theological insight, and unwavering moral courage.

About the author: Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, was born on the South Side of Chicago in 1955, the son of a school superintendent and a librarian. After studying mathematics at Villanova University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Prevost made solemn vows in the Order of Saint Augustine and was ordained as a priest in Rome in 1982. He became a missionary in Peru in 1985. Prevost served as Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine from 2001 to 2013, was consecrated bishop in 2014, and made a cardinal in 2023. On May 8, 2025, he was elected to the papacy, becoming the first-ever American pope.

What's A Snow Leopard To You? by Chen-Fu Hsu

About the book: What's A Snow Leopard To You? is a captivating fusion of travelogue, fiction, and cultural meditation that journeys deep into the heart of Tibet.

Chen-Fu Hsu’s debut novel begins with a young Taiwanese naturalist on an arduous quest for the elusive snow leopard, weaving in excerpts from translated entries from a left behind diary of a fictional Japanese monk, which bears witness to the seismic transformations of Tibet across the decades under Chinese rule.

Following his deeply spiritual connection to Tibet, the protagonist sets off on multiple journeys to the region, describing in brilliant detail the vast beauty of the Tibetan plateau and the wildlife that has existed since time immemorial. 

However, on his third visit to the region, he is harassed at every turn by the Chinese police who confiscate his belongings, including his books, eventually forcing him to leave for Taiwan. One book overlooked by the Chinese police is the long-lost diary of Udagawa Ekai, a Zen monk who traveled to Lhasa in the postwar years. The diary tells the monk's story up until his death as a recluse, and paints a picture of a Tibet that has a diverse and deeply religious culture that has fought against invaders on multiple fronts. 

Hsu laces excerpts from Ekai’s diary within his narrative, tracing the changes sparked from the horrors of the Chinese military annexation in the 1950s through the Cultural Revolution and into the contemporary age of forced economic development. 

Through encounters with the people of Tibet and their stories, What's a Snow Leopard to You? spans the divide between an intimate portrait of a land in flux and a philosophical inquiry into humanity’s fraught yet enduring bond with nature. This richly layered work braids history with myth, environmentalism with art, and creates a single story of change in one of the world’s most sparsely inhabited regions.

What's a Snow Leopard to You? is the winner of the 2021 Taiwan Literature Award and will be on released on 22 September 2026.

Chen-Fu Hsu will attend three events at the Taipei Cultural Center in New York including one with Brooklyn Book Festival where he will share his creative process and personal experiences. All three events are free but RSVP is required. Please check the prospective websites for more information. 

About the author: Chen-Fu Hsu ( 徐振輔) was born in Taipei in 1994. He holds a BS in Entomology and an MA in Geography from National Taiwan University. His works have been selected four times in the Chiu Ko Publishing Annual Prose Selection and won several awards such as Taipei Literature Annuity. While having no ambitions in photography, he dreams of photographing snow leopards, narwhals, birds of paradise, and other creatures that some believe are myths. Serving as a Canon lecturer, he has held a solo exhibition of Wildlife Photography titled “Wings over and over, and light covers light. ” What’s a Snow Leopard to You? is his debut novel that has already won many literary awards in Taiwan.

About the translators: Howard Goldblatt translates fiction from China and Taiwan, including novels by Nobel laureate Mo Yan, five of whose works are published by Arcade (The Garlic Ballads; The Republic of Wine; Big Breasts and Wide Hips; Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out; Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh). He has also translated works by Chiang-Sheng Kuo (The Piano Tuner) and Liu Zhenyun (I Did Not Kill My Husband; The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon; Remembering 1942, all with Sylvia Li-chun Lin and published by Arcade). 

Sylvia Li-chun Lin, a former teacher and scholar of modern and contemporary Chinese literature and culture, is a full-time translator and seasonal gardener. She and Howard Goldblatt live in Lafayette, Colorado, with their sometimes surprising cat, Domino.

Rating: 5/5

Justice For The Forgotten Families Of 9/11 by Tom McMillan

About the book: Twenty-five years after 9/11, the families of the victims are still waiting for justice.

The president of the United States said in a dramatic speech at the White House that the families of those killed on September 11, 2001, "should have to wait no longer" and that "we have a duty to bring those responsible for these crimes to justice." But that was not Joe Biden in 2022, or Donald Trump in 2017, or even Barack Obama in 2012 - it was George W Bush in 2006.

While most of America has moved on through four presidential administrations while images of those devastating attacks fade from memory, the families of 9/11 are still waiting for some kind of accountability.

Since that devastating day, there has not been one conviction of anyone involved in planning or facilitating the attacks. Five “high value detainees” with direct connections to the plot have been at Guantanamo for years, but all they’ve had are preliminary hearings and delays. Part of the challenge is that many of their confessions were obtained under torture at CIA “black sites” overseas between 2002–2006.

Moreover, there has been no true assessment of Saudi complicity, even though 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, and it is clear that several Saudi operatives in the US assisted some of the hijackers when they got here. Did they do so officially? Under orders? That is still undetermined, but there is a mountain of circumstantial evidence. The families are so exasperated that they have filed a lawsuit against the kingdom.

Justice for the Forgotten Families of 9/11 (2026) is about the quest for justice by the families of the victims a quarter-century after the worst terrorist attack in US history.

About the author: Tom McMillan, a retired sports PR executive and lifelong student of history, has served on the board of trustees of Pittsburgh’s Heinz History Center, the board of directors of Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial, the board of directors of the Antietam Institute, and the marketing committee of the Gettysburg Foundation. McMillan has written four books on U.S. history—ranging from the Battle of Gettysburg to September 11th to the Star-Spangled Banner - and regularly gives book talks throughout the Northeast and Midwest.

After graduating with a journalism degree from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA, McMillan worked for forty-three years in media and communications, including ten years as a sportswriter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and twenty-five years as VP/Communications for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (his name is on the 2009 Stanley Cup, and he has three championship rings). Tom and his wife, Colleen, reside in Pittsburgh and Gettysburg, PA. They also volunteer as ambassadors at Antietam National Battlefield.

I Will Follow You Anywhere by John Feal

About the book: Twenty-five years after the attacks that shook the nation, discover the untold story of an American hero who proved that one person can turn trauma into heroic action - from the wounded construction worker who became a relentless champion of the 9/11 responders.

On 11 September 2001, John Feal rushed to Ground Zero to assist with the recovery and cleanup in the aftermath of the terrorist attack. 96 hours later, his destiny was forged by steel when an 8,000-pound beam crushed his left foot. As he adjusted to a partial amputation and went broke paying medical bills, he watched his fellow responders suffer and die from cancer and other ailments caused by the dust in the air they were told was safe to breathe.

Forgotten by a broken healthcare system and lawmakers who had promised to #NeverForget, Feal knew it was time to fight.

Now, in I Will Follow You Anywhere: The True Story of the 9/11 Responders Who Took On Congress (2026), he shares his “recipe” for getting things done. Accompanied by stories from his fellow responders in their own words, Feal lays out his rogue approach to the ground game of representative government, empowering readers in all walks of life to take on the system and win.

While working to get the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund and healthcare bill passed, Feal caught the attention of comedian Jon Stewart, who joined the cause and became a valuable ally and dear friend. In 2019, Stewart’s testimony before Congress went viral, placing a much-needed spotlight on the frustration and grief of those long abandoned by their government - and the bill was finally signed into law. In the years since, Feal, Stewart, and his team have championed the PACT Act for veterans exposed to burn pits and lent their expertise to other worthy causes.

John is now a “hired gun” for activists fighting to get legislation passed. With I Will Follow You Anywhere: The True Story of the 9/11 Responders Who Took On Congress, he shares his hard-won wisdom and expert strategies that will enable underdogs everywhere to stand up against a mighty system.

About the author: John Feal is a native New Yorker and Army veteran who worked as a demolition supervisor at Ground Zero until a disabling injury five days into the cleanup. He lobbied Congress to pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, which he fought to defend and expand in 2015 and 2019 with the help of dozens of his fellow 9/11 responders, post-9/11 illness survivors, and comedian Jon Stewart. He has since gone on to pass 19 pieces of legislation and is working on number 20.

Through the FealGood Foundation, he continues to advocate for the health needs of first responders nationwide. His appearance on Fox News with Jon Stewart has gone viral. John has spoken at the 9/11 Memorial Museum, Princeton University, and Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. His story has been covered by Vanity Fair, NPR, The Daily Beast, The Wall Street Journal, and all major news networks, and in two documentaries.

John is a Pat Tilman Foundation honoree, a recipient of the New York State Liberty Award and the New York State Medal of Honor for Civilians, the founder and chairman of the 9/11 Responders Remembered Park, and a kidney donor.

About the contributor: Charles Daly is the coauthor of Make Peace or Die: A Life of Service, Leadership, and Nightmares, which has been featured on Jocko Podcast. He has worked as a developmental editor on bestselling military memoirs, including From Lawyer to Warrior and Civil: Life After the Foreign Legion. His work has appeared in The Boston Globe, We Are the Mighty, Kokatat, and Thought Catalog. Charlie lives in a cottage on the west coast of Ireland with his wife, a Swiss crime novelist; their baby boy; and a black cat. He serves as a maritime first responder on his local lifeboat.

Saint Elizabeth of The Trinity: The Complete Works, Volume 3

About the book: Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity (1880–1906) became a Discalced Carmelite nun in Dijon, France, at the age of twenty-one and died five years later. Her spirituality is marked by attentiveness to the indwelling Trinity and her call to become a “praise of glory” for God. The writings gathered in this final volume reflect the mature Carmelite spirit found in the first two volumes while introducing us to the young Elizabeth as that maturity takes shape.

This third and final volume of Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity: The Complete Works brings together, for the first time in English, four collections of the saint’s writings:

The Diary, written when Elizabeth was eighteen and nineteen, records her prayer, sacrifices, vocational struggles, apostolic desires, and reflections on sermons and spiritual counsel with candour and immediacy;

The Intimate Notes, dating from before and after her entrance to Carmel, open into the inmost depths of her prayer and include such treasured writings as “To be a bride” and “O my God, Trinity whom I adore,” the latter included in the Catechism of the Catholic Church;

The Letters of Her Youth offer vivid snapshots of daily life, revealing Elizabeth’s warmth, humour, gift for friendship, delight in music, travel, and nature, and unwavering response to God’s call;

The Poems, composed from 1894 to 1906, serve as Elizabeth’s spiritual diary in verse: expressions of longing, suffering, joy, gratitude, and an ever-deepening desire for union with the Trinity.

Taken together, these texts form a portrait of an exuberant young woman as her loves are gradually gathered into a wholehearted love of Christ. Each collection is introduced and critically annotated by Elizabeth’s biographer and editor, Father Conrad De Meester, OCD. Based on the expanded and revised 2023 French critical edition, this volume includes three texts discovered after the earlier French editions, as well as five indexes covering all three volumes of the Complete Works. Read alongside the first two volumes - or encountered on its own - this concluding volume allows readers to follow the formation of a saint from within, as the spirited “Sabeth” Catez becomes Elizabeth of the Trinity.

Saint Elizabeth of The Trinity: The Complete Works, Volume 3: Diary – Intimate Notes – Letters of Her Youth – Poems is translated from the French by Gillian Leslie, OCD.

Saint Elizabeth of The Trinity: The Complete Works, Volume 3: Diary – Intimate Notes – Letters of Her Youth – Poems is now available for preorder only. Preorders are expected to ship by 12 October 2026.

Early Mornings At The Laksa Cafe by Janet Tay

About the book: Early Mornings at the Laksa Cafe is a mouthwatering and uplifting story about honouring tradition and finding your own way in life, set in family-run restaurants between Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Every morning before sunrise, Lim Ah Hock opens the shutters of his small kitchen on Carpenter Street, lights an incense stick and prepares the best laksa soup in all of Kuching. 

According to Lim family legend, the laksa’s secret ingredient – their ancestral broth – was gifted to them by a deity, who promised the family prosperity as long as the broth is passed down through the generations.

But Ah Hock is aging, and the broth’s quality is fading. His only son, Wei Ming, has no interest in the family business, having spent eight years in Hong Kong trying to prove himself as a chef. 

Now, he is struggling with gambling debts, embroiled in a love triangle, and the restaurant he has been left to run has lost its Global Restaurants Guild star.

Invited home to Malaysia for his father's 60th birthday, Wei Ming sees a chance to escape his troubles. But when old conflicts resurface and a local businessman threatens to destroy the family legacy, father and son are forced to ask themselves what truly matters.

Early Mornings at the Laksa Cafe (2026) is a Straits Times bestseller.

About the author: Janet Tay is a Tin House Winter Workshop alum whose short stories have appeared in various journals and collections including New Writing Dundee 4, Short Story America Anthology, Vol 1 and Black and Whites and Other New Stories from Malaysia. She has also written journalistic pieces on literature, food and parenting for various magazines and websites. The first act of her full-length play, Reunion, was longlisted for The Windsor Fringe Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing. She lives in Kuala Lumpur with her husband and son.

Rating: 4/5

Café. Waiting. Love. by Giddens Ko

About the book: Bestselling translator Shanna Tan teams up with renowned Taiwanese author and filmmaker Giddens Ko to bring readers a nostalgic 2000s classic about coming of age and finding love, for the first time in the English language.

'Dreams that are laughable when said aloud are often the ones most worth pursuing. Even if you fall . . .'

In a small café in Hsinchu, Taiwan, everyone is waiting for something. Whether it is love, a second chance or a sign of something greater. More than just an ordinary coffee shop; this is a place for serendipitous encounters.

Si-ying, a young woman working at the café, harbours a secret crush on the handsome Tse-yu, who regularly visits with a new girlfriend in tow. However, her life takes a turn when she befriends the quirky and earnest Ah Tuo. He takes her on adventures and introduces her to an eclectic mix of people who are not what they seem to be - a triad boss who is a cinephile and a laundrette owner who whips up exquisite dishes worthy of Michelin stars (but only on a Sunday!).

Feelings are complicated, Si-ying learns.

Within the café's walls, moments of reflection reveal profound truths. Amidst the wait for someone else, Si-ying makes her most significant journey: the one to discovering herself.

Cafe. Waiting. Love. is translated from the Mandarin Chinese by Shanna Tan. 

The book will be released on 20 May 2027.

About the author: Giddens Ko is an award-winning and highly popular Taiwanese writer and filmmaker. He writes under the pseudonym JIUBADAO 'Nine Knives' and has authored more than sixty books, primarily novels spanning a diverse range of blended genres including thriller, speculative fiction, horror, fantasy, romance and more. At his peak, he published one book per month for more than a year. Since 2009, he has also become a well-known figure in the film industry, having directed, produced and wrote several blockbuster Taiwanese films, including adaptations of his novels. You Are the Apple of My Eye, a 2011 Taiwanese coming-of-age romance film based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Ko, was a box office hit, winning several awards, and inspiring several film and drama remakes in Thailand and South Korea.

About the translator: Shanna Tan is a Singaporean literary translator working from Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Thai into English. Among her translations are a number of heartwarming cosy novels, which include the bestselling Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum and Soyangri Book Kitchen by Kim Jee Hye.

The Prince And The Nanny by Odell M Bjerkness

About the book: The Prince and the Nanny (2009) chronicles the life of Prince Harald, now the late King Harald V (1937-2026), as told in historical context and through the journal of his Nurse, Inga Berg. 

The Norwegian Royal Family has remained very close to the hearts of Norwegians for over a century. Inga Berg's well-written journal chronicles in great detail the early life of Prince Harald. The author has translated the document into English with commentary and built a case for the monarchy's close relationship to the people. 

While Nurse Inga Berg was living in the royal household, she was in a unique position to observe and take part in the life of the Royal Family. She recorded in her diary the young Prince's development. She also described her everyday experiences with the royal family, providing a rare glimpse into the private lives of Crown Prince Olav, Crown Princess Martha, King Haakon, Queen Maud, Princesses Astrid and Ragnhild, and young Prince Harald. 

It also gives a portrait of Inga herself, an extraordinary woman who was raised in humble surroundings, overcame adversity, studied to become a nurse, and eventually came to serve in the most prestigious house in Norway to help raise the first prince to be born on Norwegian soil in almost 600 years. 

The Prince and the Nanny (2009) is a fascinating story illustrated with hundreds of photographs throughout.

Cash Cow by Alev Scott

About the book: Cash Cow: How the maternal body became a global commodity – and the hidden costs for women (2026) is a thought-provoking deep dive into the global fertility industry and the commodification of the maternal body.

Should surrogacy be a paid service, an altruistic act – or even legal at all?

Is it right that you can pay more for ‘VIP’ egg donors – and to view their photos?

How much, if anything, should breastmilk cost – and who should be allowed to buy it?

The global fertility industry is rapidly growing, hugely profitable and morally complex. This an industry where one person’s biological bad luck can be another person’s financial gain. From egg freezing to black-market breastmilk, the maternal body has never been more commodified, yet the ethical, emotional and economic implications are rarely considered.

Through a combination of undercover reporting and detailed first-hand accounts – including a surrogate of 12 children, an international embryo courier and a man who buys breastmilk for his IBS – Alev Scott exposes how the IVF, surrogacy and milk industries operate around the world and who is profiting. 

In doing so, she considers the blurred line between exploitation and empowerment. Who should make money from the maternal body: only the women themselves, anyone or no one?

Timely, thought-provoking and compelling, Cash Cow: How the maternal body became a global commodity – and the hidden costs for women is an unmissable investigation into how desire, desperation and commerce intersect, and the impact the fertility industry has on individuals.

About the author: Alev Scott was born in London in 1987 to a Turkish mother and a British father. She studied Classics at Oxford before working in London as an assistant director in theatre and opera. In 2011, she moved to Istanbul, where she taught Latin at the Bosphorus University. Her first book, Turkish Awakening, was shortlisted for the Paddy Power Political Book Awards, Debut Political Book of the Year in 2015. Her second book, Ottoman Odyssey, was shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award in 2019. Her third book was Power & the People, written with Andronike Makres.

Alev writes for numerous publications, including the Financial Times, Guardian, Newsweek, Harper’s Magazine, Politico Europe, New Statesman, Prospect, the BBC, Huffington Post, The Times, Sunday Times, New Humanist, the Los Angeles Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement. 

Profession Of Catholic Faith of The Society of Saint Pius X

About the booklet: The Society of Saint Pius X published the following “Profession of Catholic Faith: To Enlighten Souls in the Face of Modern Errors” on 24 June 2026, the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. 

Addressed amid renewed tensions between the SSPX and the Holy See, the statement sets out the Society’s doctrinal position on divine revelation, the Church, the papacy, the liturgy, the sacraments, ecumenism, religious liberty and what it describes as modern errors affecting Catholic life. 

The original statement can be read on the SSPX website (Source: The Catholic Herald, 25 June 2026).

About the author: The Society of Saint Pius X is an international priestly society of common life without vows, whose purpose is the priesthood and all that pertains to it. Since its foundation by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970, the Society has formed priests according to the immemorial teachings of the Catholic Church.

By teaching the traditional doctrine of the Church, by organising apostolates throughout the world, and by sanctifying souls with the traditional Latin rite of mass and the traditional Sacraments, the Society's priests continue the apostolic work of two millennia for the glory of God and for the salvation of souls. Deo gratias.

Portraits In White by Kaori Lai

About the book: After the Chinese Civil War, the Kuomintang imposed authoritarian rule on Taiwan in the name of anticommunism. 

The White Terror, as martial law and state repression were known, would last for decades, casting a pall of uncertainty and fear over Taiwanese society - and its legacies still haunt Taiwan today. 

The book is composed of three novellas, each telling the story of an ordinary person. Mr Ch’ing-chih, a schoolteacher, keeps his head down and avoids harming others despite pressure to do intelligence work. Ms Wen-hui, an old woman who had served as a housekeeper for elites of different backgrounds since the Japanese occupation, faces death alone in the digital age. Ms Casey, discriminated against for not being of mainlander descent, moves to Europe and must navigate the politics of diaspora. 

Even if only alluded to obliquely, the White Terror always hovers in the background, shaping the characters’ experiences and inner worlds. 

Elegantly written and keenly observed, Kaori Lai's Portraits in White provides a panoramic view of the ways authoritarianism seeps into daily life and explores everyday life under the White Terror, illuminating how the violence of martial law pervades even the most mundane moments.

Portraits in White is translated from the Mandarin by Sylvia Li-chun Lin and Howard Goldblatt.

About the author: Kaori Lai is an acclaimed Taiwanese writer, now based in Berlin, who has received numerous honours including the Taiwan Literature Award and the Taipei International Book Exhibition Prize. Her previous works include the novel Afterwards, the short story collection Island, and essays on Taiwanese history and culture.

About the translators: Sylvia Li-chun Lin is a former professor at the University of Notre Dame and the author of Representing Atrocity in Taiwan: The 2/28 Incident and White Terror in Fiction and Film (Columbia, 2007).

Howard Goldblatt is the translator of more than sixty works in Chinese, including the novels of Nobel laureate Mo Yan, for which he received a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Lin and Goldblatt have collaboratively translated nearly two dozen books by writers from China and Taiwan, including Notes of a Desolate Man by Chu T’ien-wen (Columbia, 1999).

Rating: 5/5

Homeseeking by Karissa Chen

About the book: Homeseeking is an epic and intimate tale of one couple across sixty years (from WWII to 2008) as world events pull them together and apart, illuminating the Chinese diaspora and exploring what it means to find home far from your homeland.

A single choice can define an entire life.

Haiwen is buying bananas at a 99 Ranch Market in Los Angeles when he looks up and sees Suchi, his Suchi, for the first time in sixty years. To recently widowed Haiwen, it feels like a second chance, but Suchi has only survived by refusing to look back.

Suchi was seven when she first met Haiwen in their Shanghai neighbourhood, drawn by the sound of his violin. Their childhood friendship blossomed into soul-deep love, but when Haiwen secretly enlisted in the Nationalist army in 1947 to save his brother from the draft, she was left with just his violin and a note: Forgive me.

Homeseeking (2025) follows the separated lovers through six decades of tumultuous Chinese history as war, famine, and opportunity take them separately to the song halls of Hong Kong, the military encampments of Taiwan, the bustling streets of New York, and sunny California, telling Haiwen’s story from the present to the past while tracing Suchi’s from her childhood to the present, meeting in the crucible of their lives. Throughout, Haiwen holds his memories close while Suchi forces herself to look only forward, neither losing sight of the home they hold in their hearts.

At once epic and intimate, Homeseeking is a story of family, sacrifice, and loyalty, and of the power of love to endure beyond distance, beyond time.

Homecoming is a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, a Book of the Month December Pick, a Good Housekeeping Book Club Pick, a Roxane Gay Book Club Pick, an Amazon Editor's Pick and an Apple Books Best of the Month. It is recommended by New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Pittsburg Post-Gazette, People, Vogue, Oprah Daily, Harper's Bazaar, Today.com, LA Times, Book Riot, LitHub, Bookbub, Debutiful, Kirkus Reviews, Readers Digest, Goodreads, Bookshop, Electric Lit, theSkimm, Chicago Review of Books and more.

About the author: Karissa Chen is a Fulbright fellow, Kundiman Fiction fellow, and a VONA/Voices fellow whose fiction and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Eater, The Cut, NBC News THINK!, Longreads, PEN America, Catapult, Gulf Coast, and Guernica, among others. She was awarded an artist fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts as well as multiple writing residencies including at Millay Arts, where she was a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellow and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, among others. She was formerly a senior fiction editor at The Rumpus and currently serves as the editor-in-chief at Hyphen magazine. She received an MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College and splits her time between New Jersey and Taipei, Taiwan.

Rating: 5/5

How Can My Manager Be So Stupid by Kazumasa Hayami

About the book: Kyoko Tanihara still loves books. Just about.

But life at the Musashino Bookstore is starting to get her down. Instead of promoting her favourite stories, she finds herself distracted, tearing her hair out at the mere sight of her infuriating manager, who cannot seem to do anything but get in her way of success.

From his obsession with self-help books to his "inspirational" speeches at staff meetings, everything about Takeru Yamamoto seems designed to set her teeth on edge. As the store lurches from crisis to crisis, facing criticism from customers and authors alike, only the prospect of changing a life by handing over the perfect book keeps her going.

Until one day she is handed a book that speaks to all her frustrations, and opens her eyes to an alarming possibility. What if there's actually more to Yamamoto's obnoxious antics than meets the eye? What if, just maybe, her manager is not so stupid after all?

How Can My Manager Be So Stupid (2026) is the perfect read for anyone who has felt that they cannot even . . . with the idiots that walk among us.

How Can My Manager Be So Stupid is translated from the Japanese by Haydn Trowell.

About the author: Kazumasa Hayami is a writer and screenwriter, born in 1977 in Kanagawa Prefecture. His debut novel, 108, was a bestseller and later made into a manga and a film. He won the Japan Mystery Writers Association Award for his novel Innocent Days, and the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize for The Royal Family. His novels are almost all adapted for screen.

About the translator: Haydn Trowell is an Australian translator of Japanese literature whose work has appeared in Granta, Electric Literature, and Words Without Borders. He has translated fiction by major prize-winning authors such as Yasunari Kawabata, Maki Kashimada, and Rie Qudan, and he has worked extensively with publishers in Australia, Japan, the UK, and the US. Haydn holds a PhD in translation studies from Monash University and has a background in both translation and creative writing.

Rating: 5/5