Many in the media and politics keep trying to figure out why our new President attracts so many Rust Belt and Appalachian voters. This memoir of a young man’s coming of age in both regions may offer some insight.

At only thirty-one, J.D. Vance admits he's way too young to have penned a memoir. He hasn’t done anything extraordinary (though he did graduate from Yale Law School, a major accomplishment for a kid from a single-parent home in a working-class town in Ohio, where many did not finish high school).

Vance writes most vividly of Jackson, his dirt-poor but beautiful ancestral home in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. He also describes his people: a great-grandmother who once killed someone, and his own Mamaw who often threatens to do the same to her husband when he comes home drunk. In fact, J.D. relates, one night he saves his Pawpaw after Mamaw poured gasoline over him and lights a match. Read more about Hillbilly Elegy

An ancient god of war out for vengeance, a lonely bartender, and an angry fire demon all walk into a bar. Sounds like the start of a joke, right? Well, that's almost correct.

What Color of Darkness imagines a world where ancient gods and monsters feud over thousands of years to decide the fate of humanity. Humans have a mighty champion in the war god Rathraq, who fights to make sure humankind can flourish in safety—but he's betrayed and imprisoned for thousands of years. Now Rathraq's soul has been released and forced to inhabit a scarecrow, but this won't stop his quest for revenge. Aided by the bartender Bobby, who's just trying to get by in life, Rathraq hunts for the monster queen who stole his body, clashes with an outsized fire demon, and confronts a world starkly different than the one he remembers. Read more about Rumble, Vol. 1: What Color of Darkness by John Arcudi

Wires and Nerve picks up after the events of Winter (and Cinder, Scarlett, and Cress) so STOP RIGHT NOW if you haven't read those books. Actually, what's wrong with you? Go read those! They're so good! Start with Cinder, you're welcome.

Iko, the android who loves pretty clothes and shoes is also a butt kicking secret agent. She's been sent to Earth to round up the remaining rogue mutant soldiers from Luna and send them home to face justice, but every once in awhile one of them will slip away from her. Cinder tells her not to worry, but Iko can't help but feel like she's failing by not getting every single soldier safely away from Earth. Now it seems like she might be right, these soldiers are coming together in a way that threatens everyone Iko loves. Read more about Wires and Nerve Vol. 1 by Marissa Meyer

Solvitur Ambulande, solved by walking, could be the motto of this novel. And if you, like me, process the world while strolling through town or the woods, you’ll love this book.

Two alternating stories thread through it. In one, it’s the 1980s, and New York City still has a crime problem, so people fear walking at night.  Most, that is, except for Lillian Boxfish, an octogenarian advertising maven (retired) and a poet. It’s New Year’s 1985, and a ten-mile, round trip walk from upper Manhattan to the Bowery and the Village is no big deal for her.

The second story first-time novelist Kathleen Rooney weaves tells Lillian’s history in the Big Apple. After moving to New York from D.C. in the roaring twenties, Lillian immediately felt at home. She began living in Manhattan in a sheltered rooming house with strict curfews and rules against male visitors.  Lillian and her childhood girlfriend got around these rules by organizing Shakespearean theater pieces to which they invited eligible bachelors.  Later, they’d head out on the town with them, and coming back hours after curvew, they’d tip the front desk person, and steal back to their rooms. Read more about Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk