“All We Can Do Is Wait”, Richard Lawson’s carefully wrought debut YA novel, follows five Boston teenagers brought together by tragedy. It’s an aching story about the possibility of youth and the losses that we all endure as we grow up. Specific, empathetic, with all the wistful feeling of a late summer twilight, “All We Can Do Is Wait” marks Lawson, who you may know as Vanity Fair's film critic, as an author to watch out for.
With her new novel "Circe", Madeline Miller gives us a vital retelling of the Greek witch-goddess’s life. Told lyrically with grace and passion, the novel traces the life of one of Greek myth’s most misunderstood figures as she shapes and discovers herself and her power. Miller, already an Orange Prize winner for her debut "Song of Achilles", is vibrant, thoughtful voice, and her stunning second novel confirms what a marvel she is. By the end of the book, you'll find yourself wishing that Miller could lend her talent as a storyteller to all of your favorite mythical figures.
“To Ivan there was something more stirring than their kisses in Evert’s eyes, which had looked at lovers long before he was born, and now looked at him...
So one beauty melted in another, surviving youth and exquisite decline.” The strength in Alan Hollinghurst's new novel comes from accumulation. It's a tender, delectable book with passages of stunning beauty. As he weaves through the lives of a group of gay men from WWII era London up to the present day, you begin to deeply appreciate the way that history shapes our lives and the hard-fought freedom that our day and age allows.