SPACEFARING POLICE PROCEDURAL has an exciting denouement, rich worldbuilding, but a sluggish first act. SOLID B

ELYSIUM FIRE
Orbit
2018

A SKEWED TAKE ON NOIR set in a punch-drunk 1947 San Francisco, complete with the era’s sometimes-disrespectful slang. B PLUS

NOIR (HARDCOVER)
William Morrow
2018

A MEMOIR OF ILLNESS AND LOSS also celebrates love, friendship, and healing in warmly open-hearted prose. B PLUS

GUTS
Vine Leaves Press
2018

AN EXTRAVAGANT RIFF ON WILDE, where the demons are real, the drawing-rooms dangerous, and the loves among all genders. B PLUS

CREATURES OF WILL AND TEMPER (THE DIABOLIST’S LIBRARY) (PAPERBACK)
John Joseph Adams/Mariner Books
2017

A WILDLY DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY, half Brideshead Revisited and half The Great Santini, inspires a candid, thoughtful memoir. B PLUS

HIDING OUT : A MEMOIR OF DRUGS, DECEPTION, AND DOUBLE LIVES
Dey Street Books
2018

FAST-PACED ADVENTURE WITH a time-travel twist and a marvelously sullen slacker heroine. B PLUS

ANACHRONISM
Kristell Ink, Grimbold Books
2018

THE SECRET HISTORY OF FOCUS GROUPS, and a thoughtful, lively, thoroughly researched look at how they’ve changed institutions. B PLUS

DIVINING DESIRE: FOCUS GROUPS AND THE CULTURE OF CONSULTATION|HARDCOVER
OR Books
2018

THE GREAT KENYAN WRITER Ng?g? wa Thiong’o’s memoir of political prison: a matter-of-fact yet deeply moving story of surviving, connecting, and creating while incarcerated. A MINUS

WRESTLING WITH THE DEVIL (HARDCOVER)
New Press
2018

AN ALIEN AND A HUMAN band together to to fight for Earth’s future. SF with a military thriller feel, lots of excitement. B PLUS

THE FERMI PARADOX
Brandon Overall
2018

LINKING DIGESTION AND MOOD, current research demonstrates powerful, previously unexplored connections between microbiota and the brain. B PLUS

THE PSYCHOBIOTIC REVOLUTION : MOOD, FOOD, AND THE NEW SCIENCE OF THE GUT-BRAIN CONNECTION
National Geographic Society
2017