Archives de catégorie : Nos incontournables

THE CALCULATION OF YOU AND ME de Serena Kaylor

A calculus nerd enlists her surly classmate’s help to win back her ex-boyfriend, but when sparks start to fly, she realizes there’s no algorithm for falling in love.

THE CALCULATION OF YOU AND ME
by Serena Kaylor
Wednesday Books, June 2024
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)

Marlowe Thompson understands a lot of things. She understands that calculus isn’t overwhelmingly beautiful to everyone, and that it typically kills the mood when you try to talk Python coding over beer pong. She understands people were surprised when golden boy Josh asked her out and she went from weird, math-obsessed Marlowe to half of their school’s couple goals. Unfortunately, Marlowe was surprised when Josh dumped her because he’d prefer a girlfriend who was more romantic. One with emotional depth.

But Marlowe has never failed anything in her life, and she isn’t about to start now. When she’s paired with Ashton Hayes for an English project, his black clothing and moody eyeliner cause a bit of a systems overload, and the dissonant sounds of his rock band make her brain itch. But when she discovers Ash’s notebook of love songs, Marlowe makes a desperate deal to unleash her inner romantic heroine: if Ash will agree to ghostwrite some love letters, she’ll calculate the perfect data analytics formula to make Ash’s band go viral.

As the semester heats up with yearning love notes and late nights spent with a boy who escapes any box her brain tries to put him in, Marlowe starts to question if there’s really a set solution to love. Could a girl who has never met a problem she couldn’t solve have gotten the math so massively wrong?

“A delightful, richly characterized slow-burn romance about figuring out what you want.” –Kirkus, starred review

“A celebration of embracing differences, trusting the process, and demanding better for oneself, Kaylor’s sophomore novel shines as a delightfully fun romance filled with an abundance of humor and hope…A one-sit read rom-com with lots of heart and plenty of sarcasm, perfect for Jenny Han or Emma Lord aficionados.” –School Library Journal

Serena Kaylor is a neurodiverse, romcom super-fan, who is always moments away from cornering you and outlining all her favorite ships. Her books are stuffed with awkward moments, angsty kisses, and jokes that at least she finds funny. She is the author of Long Story Short.

LEGENDS OF LOTUS ISLAND SERIES de Christina Soontornvat

From three-time Newbery Honor-winning author Christina Soontornvat comes a compelling and immersive young middle grade fantasy series for readers who love stories about animals, magic, and kids like them embracing their power to change the world!

LEGENDS OF LOTUS ISLAND SERIES
(Books 1 to 4)
by Christina Soontornvat
illustrated by Kevin Hong
Scholastic, 2023 – 2024
(via Writers House)

In Book 1, THE GUARDIAN TEST, young Plum is shocked to discover that she’s been accepted to the Guardian Academy on Lotus Island, an elite school where kids learn how to transform into Guardians, magical creatures who are sworn to protect the natural world. The Guardian masters teach Plum and her friends how to communicate with animals and how to use meditation to strengthen their minds and bodies. All the kids also learn to fight, so they can protect the defenseless if needed.

To her dismay, Plum struggles at school. While her classmates begin to transform into amazing creatures, Plum can’t even seem to magic up a single feather! If she can’t embrace her inner animal form soon, she’ll have to leave school ― and lose the first group of real friends she’s ever known.

Good Housekeeping 2023 Kids’ Book Award

“Deftly combines a Thai-inspired setting, familiar fantasy tropes, and themes of nature conservation to craft a mystical series kickoff.” —Publishers Weekly

“A promising beginning to a series ready to introduce readers to both the fantasy genre and a beautiful and mysterious new world. . . Themes of friendship and environmentalism combine in this magical school story.” —Kirkus

Christina Soontornvat is the award-winning author of over twenty books for children. She has received the Newbery Honor award three separate times, for The Last Mapmaker, A Wish in the Dark, and All Thirteen, and she is the only author to be awarded Newbery Honors for both fiction and nonfiction in the same year.

IT’S HARD TO BE AN ANIMAL de Robert Isaacs

A hilarious and clever upmarket love story and cozy mystery with a strong thread of magical realism, for readers of Carl Hiaasen’s Squeeze Me looking for a bit more tenderness, or of Shelby Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures.

IT’S HARD TO BE AN ANIMAL
by Robert Isaacs
Grand Central, summer 2026
(via Frances Goldin Literary Agency)

Henry Parsons is walking through Central Park on a date with Molly Bent, the quirky, sweet, and endlessly interesting woman that his colleague set him up with. After a long spell of loneliness, he is feeling hopeful for the first time in years when a sweet little warbler tells him to f*** off.

A gentle soul already troubled by the rancor and insensitivity of humans in the city, Henry tries to brush it off as a hallucination. But suddenly he can hear the voices everywhere: dogs mocking their owners, sparrows fat-shaming each other, snakes pontificating about misogyny and gender politics, police horses profiling attendees of a street fair: the man who never speaks up for himself is suddenly surrounded by animals who do.

It’s all fun and games until he overhears three rats discussing a corpse in the New York subway. Unsure what to do, he lets it slip to Molly. She’s keen to investigate, and Henry is desperate for another date. Together they descend into an abandoned tunnel under the West Fourth Street station where they find a body… and the murderers find them.

For the first time in Henry’s careful life there’s no way to duck confrontation: he’s being hunted, and must find the courage to face the Scottish gangsters stalking him across the city. Of course, that same assertiveness might transform his chances with Molly too. Inspiration arrives, unexpectedly, from his roommate’s pair of feuding beta fish on an enemies-to-lovers arc, and the neighbor’s yapping Pomeranian whose wisdom changes Henry forever.

Robert Isaacs’ writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Salon.com, Hindsight and The First Line.  He earned his MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia University with a dual thesis in fiction and nonfiction. In his checkered past he’s also worked as a musician (Grammy nominated singer, conducted at Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, etc.) and street-performer (juggling, unicycling, plate-spinning, and so on.).  

THE WHARTON PLOT de Mariah Fredericks

Mariah Fredericks’ mesmerizing novel follows renowned novelist Edith Wharton in the twilight years of the Gilded Age in New York as she tracks a killer.

THE WHARTON PLOT
by Mariah Fredericks
Minotaur Books, January 2024
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan)

New York City, 1911. Edith Wharton, almost equally famed for her novels and her sharp tongue, is bone-tired of Manhattan. Finding herself at a crossroads with both her marriage and her writing, she makes the decision to leave America, her publisher, and her loveless marriage.

And then, dashing novelist David Graham Phillips―a writer with often notorious ideas about society and women’s place in it―is shot to death outside the Princeton Club. Edith herself met the man only once, when the two formed a mutual distaste over tea in the Palm Court of the Belmont hotel. When Phillips is killed, Edith’s life takes another turn. His sister is convinced Graham was killed by someone determined to stop the publication of his next book, which promised to uncover secrets that powerful people would rather stayed hidden. Though unconvinced, Edith is curious. What kind of book could push someone to kill?

Inspired by a true story, THE WHARTON PLOT follows Edith Wharton through the fading years of the Gilded Age in a city she once loved so well, telling a taut tale of fame, love, and murder, as she becomes obsessed with solving a crime.

“Superb . . . Thanks to a literary plot laced with arch wit and precise put-downs, appearances by Wharton’s famous friends (including Henry James and the Vanderbilts), and an eclectic assortment of the upper crust in the waning days of a varnished era, Fredericks hits this one out of the park.”―Library Journal (Starred Review)

“THE WHARTON PLOT a vivid, fascinating, entertaining mystery. Readers looking for a bit of history with their suspense will be gripped.”―Publishers Weekly

« Fredericks’ elegantly written narrative gives a lively look at an author way ahead of her time. »―Kirkus Reviews

« Written with grace and wit, THE WHARTON PLOT is a pleasure to read. »―Wall Street Journal

« Based on the real murder of Phillips, Fredericks’ latest will especially appeal to bibliophiles, who will enjoy reading tidbits about the real-life authors who appear. »―Booklist

Mariah Fredericks was born, raised, and still lives in New York City. She graduated from Vassar College with a degree in history. She is the author of the Jane Prescott mystery series, which has twice been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, as well as several YA novels.

THE OTHER SIDE OF NOW de Paige Harbison

For fans of Rebecca Serle and Taylor Jenkins Reid, this is a hilarious and heartfelt novel about past dreams, “what-ifs,” and how loves and lives are never truly lost.

THE OTHER SIDE OF NOW
by Paige Harbison
St. Martin’s Press, June 2025

Lana Lord has everything she ever wanted: a leading role on a hit TV show, a gorgeous house in L.A., and a relationship with Hollywood’s latest heartthrob. But not everything is as it seems: her perfect relationship is maybe (definitely) a PR stunt, and underneath the layers of makeup and hairspray, her happiness is as fake as her stage name—her real name is Meg Bryan, but obviously she couldn’t use that in auditions. Following a breakdown at her thirtieth birthday party, she books an impromptu trip where she knows the grass is greener: Ireland. Specifically, the quaint little village where she and her best friend Aimee always dreamt of moving—a dream that fell apart when an accident claimed Aimee’s life a decade ago.

When Meg arrives, the cozy Irish cottage she Airbnb’d couldn’t be more perfect if she decorated it herself. And the people in town are so nice, treating her not as a stranger, but a friend. Except for the (extremely handsome) bartender giving her the cold shoulder. Meg writes it all off as déjà vu until she looks in the mirror. Her hair is no longer bleached within an inch of its life, her skin has a few natural fine lines, and her nose looks like… well, her old nose. Her real nose.

As Meg scrambles to figure out whether she’s dreaming or losing it completely, her phone reveals hundreds of pictures of her life in this little town: with an adorable dog she doesn’t know; with the bartender who might be her (ex?) boyfriend; and at a retail job unrelated to acting. Piecing together this life that is clearly hers but completely unfamiliar, Meg’s best guess is that she somehow made a quantum slide into an alternate version of her life. But the most shocking realization of all? In this life, her best friend Aimee is alive, well, and living nearby…but wants nothing to do with Meg.

Despite her bewilderment, Meg is clear-eyed about one thing: this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reconnect with her friend and repair what she broke, and she finagles an opportunity to act in the play Aimee is writing and directing. The script has uncanny parallels to the life they shared as pure-hearted theater kids with big dreams. As the project unfolds, Meg realizes that events as she remembers them may not be the only truth, and that an impossible choice looms before her.

With a great commercial hook, themes of friendship, grief, and deciding what you really want out of life, THE OTHER SIDE OF NOW will have a wide appeal.

Paige Harbison is the author of three YA novels, the first of which was published in 2011 when she was just nineteen years old. More recently, she’s worked on several celebrity projects as ghostwriter. THE OTHER SIDE OF NOW is her adult debut. A woman of many talents, she’s also a beautiful artist (check out the pet portraits on her website) and has a very funny, clever social media presence (a few of her TikToks have gone viral). She lives in L.A. with her boyfriend and their dog Tarot.