After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart by Megan Marshall (Mariner Books). Reviewed by Kitty Kelley. “Each of the essays in this miniature memoir explores portals to the past with lessons on pursuing the future, and the most significant lesson is to never stop searching, never stop asking questions, which Marshall does throughout her pages. ‘Do the objects that survive from our childhoods…bear witness to our ongoing lives?’ Yes, she says. ‘As T.S. Eliot understood, things are what make fiction, poetry, drama, and the emotions they stir, feel real, true.’”

The Hounding: A Novel by Xenobe Purvis (Henry Holt and Co.). Reviewed by Marilyn Oser. “In this tightly plotted narrative, nothing is extraneous, nothing wasted. Everything said early in the story has its echo later on. One character, for example, who believes that he’s beheld an angel as a sign of divine choice, later dies with blood pooling around him ironically like wings. The prose is clean and spare, without modernisms or gratuitous archaisms. Dialogue demonstrates relationships among the characters while simultaneously moving the plot along and creating tension over what’s to come.”

The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America by David Baron (Liveright). Reviewed by Bob Duffy. “For all its fascinations among the literate but often unsophisticated, the Martian fixation crashed and burned surprisingly suddenly, as the author tells, in the face of more sober scientific scrutiny supported by advances in telescopy and more favorable observatory locations and climatic conditions. Still, the saga of its three-decade hold on the collective imagination is an intriguing one, and it’s especially vivid and colorful in Baron’s hands; his storytelling skills and astute research instincts drive the tale relentlessly.”

The Macabre: A Novel by Kosoko Jackson (Harper Voyager). Reviewed by Philip Zozzaro. “The shock hasn’t even begun to wear off when Evangeline asks him to analyze the painting. Lewis’ examination proves erudite, but when he leans closer to the piece and touches it, he briefly disappears into it. While inside, he meets the vengeful Edgar Dumont, the creator of the duplicate painting. Upon exiting the artwork, Lewis learns from Evangeline that Dumont is a ‘node,’ a magician whose power is deployed via his art. His works, collectively known as ‘The Macabre,’ are capable of causing untold death and destruction. Lewis is asked to travel the globe — and back in time — to help locate and destroy the remaining pieces in Dumont’s collection.”

Launching Liberty: The Epic Race to Build the Ships That Took America to War by Doug Most (Simon & Schuster). Reviewed by Peggy Kurkowski. “Between 1941 and 1945, the country’s workforce came together, writes Most, ‘in the greatest emergency shipbuilding program the world had ever seen,’ a race against time to assemble massive steel freighters the length of a football field whose gargantuan holds would deliver Roosevelt’s ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ to the front lines. These were the Liberty ships, and their production was a story of American fortitude and innovation.”

Don’t miss another excellent book review, author interview, or feature! Subscribe to our free newsletter and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Bluesky, and LinkedIn. Advertise with us here.