Book Smarts: November 2024

“The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts”

By Louis Bayard
Workman Publishing, 296 pages, $29 (hardcover)

Compulsively readable and deliciously witty, “The Wildes “tells the story of writer Oscar Wilde’s family during and after his affair, trial and imprisonment for homosexuality in the mid-1890s.

“The Mighty Red”

By Louise Erdrich
Harper, 372 pages, $32 (hardcover)

“The Mighty Red” is set during the financial crash of 2008 and opens with a teenage boy preparing to propose to his bookish girlfriend. He’s white, and his parents run a large agri-business; she’s Ojibwe and her mother works the land. She’s also in love with another man.

“The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World”

By Christine Rosen
Norton, 258 pages, $29.99 (hardcover)

A thoughtful investigation of how our understanding of existence is being shaped by an increasingly digital world.

“The World in Books: 52 Works of Great Short Nonfiction”

By Kenneth C. Davis
Scribner, 431 pages, $30.99 (hardcover)

With an introduction that centers this project in the current era of renewed attempts at book banning, this anthology offers a sampling of seminal work that both implicitly and explicitly assert the power of books as “weapons in the war of ideas.”

“The Curse of Madame Petrova”

By Marjolijn Hof
Levine Querido, 265 pages, $18.99
Middle grade, ages 8 – 12 (hardcover)

This atmospheric novel translated from the Dutch blends history and fantasy, evoking European fairy tales of old. The engine of this story is a prophesy made at the birth of twins — Silke and Janis — that they would cause each other’s deaths.

“Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World”

By Roma Agrawal
Laurence King, 63 pages, $19.99
Picture Book, ages 5 – 9 (hardcover)

A celebration of human ingenuity, this book celebrates transformative inventions such as the wheel, the lens, string! Beautifully designed, the book provides small and fascinating doses of history, science and biography.