Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

2022

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

Short, stark, and compelling, this little book was originally published in French in 1995, and the first English translation published in 1997. It barely made a blip on the literature world, and then Vintage published it in2019 and Transit republished it in 2022. 

I found myself captivated by this matter of fact recitation of life on a distant place, a distant land, possibly a distant planet. The group of women, and the decisions made along the way, each reflect the idea of society and the weight that we give them (rightly or wrongly, as you may choose). There is no proselytizing, here, just the journey of one step after another to discover life and what makes it livable. 

By the end, I had come to love the narrator and cheer for her. 

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

Published in 2025 by Tor.

The River Has Roots is immersive, lyrical, and mystical. It’s a fairy tale for grown-ups, and I loved everything about it. The interior illustrations by Kathleen Neeley only make the experience richer. 

I fell in love with El-Motar’s collaboration with Max Gladstone, This is How You Lose the Time War, and couldn’t put my hands on this standalone debut fast enough. It didn’t disappoint. 

Warning: Reading this raised the bar for all the books that I would read after it.

Reading this was like getting a gift.