The plan was to read a few pages, maybe the first chapter, and then put “The House Hunt” down and read an earlier book by its author, British crime and mystery writer C.M. Ewan (also know as Chris Ewan, creator of the “Good Thief” series).

Turns out Ewan’s latest thriller didn’t want to be put down.

If I’d been wearing something with lapels, the book would have grabbed me by them and not let go. It might even have shook me a little. It begged to be finished in one sitting, but I wasn’t able to oblige it. It took me a couple of days — which is even better. Is there anything quite like a lapel-grabbing book, waiting to be read?

Anybody who has put their house on the market will relate to “House Hunt,” especially the anxiety that accompanies the process, and more especially if you’re a Londoner named Lucy who has finished renovating a house your boyfriend Sam inherited. The two did most of the work themselves, skimping on nothing. Despite all the sweat equity, they are selling because they’ve decided to leave London for good: “A clean slate. Starting again.”

From the first sentence, you know something’s not right, that the anxiety surrounding this real estate transaction is in a class by itself: “Paranoia stalks me when I’m vacuuming the house and Sam is out.” Lucy is readying the house for a viewing but she is also readying herself. Her attack of nerves seems to be connected with her mysterious references to “what happened to me.”

Lucy doesn’t like being alone; she likes being with strangers even less. Her plan was to go to a nearby cafe while her estate agent, Bethany, showed the potential buyer around the house. Then Bethany calls. Leaves a voicemail. She’s running late. The viewing is in 15 minutes.

Lucy supposes she could cancel, but their “debts were spiraling” and she and Sam need this potential buyer to make an offer. She’ll just have to deal, although it won’t be easy. Lucy does what she has hoped never to have to do: She lets a stranger into her house.

Ewan is adept at building the trust necessary to prolong suspense, among characters and the reader. Lucy is suspicious and fearful right out of the gate, so Ewan must provide a path for her — and us — to move forward. (The sane thing to do, after all, is for her to reschedule the viewing.) He does this by alternating Lucy’s first-person chapters with third-person chapters involving Sam, a psychological and behavioral science lecturer at the London School of Economics.

As Lucy shows Donovan the house, Sam carefully leads a group of five people confronting their phobias. The juxtaposition grounds the action even while Ewan keeps the tension thrumming, the sense of unease never letting up.

Even though the plot occasionally strains credulity, the short chapters — I do love a short chapter — kept pushing me forward, egging me on to read just one more. And so I did, collecting a bit of real estate wisdom along the way: If you’re selling your house and the person looking at it never takes their gloves off, be very afraid.

The House Hunt

By: C.M. Ewan.

Publisher: Grand Central, 423 pages, $30.

©2024 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

An asterisk (*) indicates that a book’s sales were barely distinguishable from those of the book above. A (b) indicates that some bookstores reported receiving bulk orders. 

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FICTION

1. BY ANY OTHER NAME, by Jodi Picoult. (Ballantine) A young woman’s play about her ancestor Emilia Bassano, who wrote Shakespeare’s works, is submitted to a festival under a male pseudonym.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

2. THE WOMEN, by Kristin Hannah. (St. Martin’s) In 1965, a nursing student follows her brother to serve during the Vietnam War and returns to a divided America.

LAST WEEK: 1

WEEKS ON LIST: 29

3. SPIRIT CROSSING, by William Kent Krueger. (Atria) The 20th book in the Cork O’Connor mystery series. A local politician’s teenage daughter goes missing and the shallow grave of a young Ojibwe woman is discovered.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

4. FOURTH WING, by Rebecca Yarros. (Red Tower) Violet Sorrengail is urged by the commanding general, who also is her mother, to become a candidate for the elite dragon riders.

LAST WEEK: 6

WEEKS ON LIST: 68

5. IRON FLAME, by Rebecca Yarros. (Red Tower) The second book in the Empyrean series. Violet Sorrengail’s next round of training might require her to betray the man she loves.

LAST WEEK: 7

WEEKS ON LIST: 42

6. THE GOD OF THE WOODS, by Liz Moore. (Riverhead) When a 13-year-old girl disappears from an Adirondack summer camp in 1975, secrets kept by the Van Laar family emerge.

LAST WEEK: 8

WEEKS ON LIST: 8

7. THE WEDDING PEOPLE, by Alison Espach. (Holt) A woman who is down on her luck forms an unexpected bond with the bride at a wedding in Rhode Island.

LAST WEEK: 5

WEEKS ON LIST: 4

8. THIS IS WHY WE LIED, by Karin Slaughter. (Morrow) The 12th book in the Will Trent series. Will and Sarah’s honeymoon is interrupted by the murder of the manager of the lodge where they are staying.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

9. ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, by Chris Whitaker. (Crown) Questions arise when a boy saves the daughter of a wealthy family amid a string of disappearances in a Missouri town in 1975.

LAST WEEK: 11

WEEKS ON LIST: 9

10. TOM CLANCY: SHADOW STATE, by M.P. Woodward. (Putnam) The 12th book in the Jack Ryan Jr. series. Jack uncovers dangers in Vietnam.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

11. THE COVEN, by Harper L. Woods. (Bramble) At Hollow’s Grove University, a school for magic that suffered a bloody massacre decades ago, 13 gifted students confront ghosts from the school’s past.

LAST WEEK: 10

WEEKS ON LIST: 3

12. JAMES, by Percival Everett. (Doubleday) A reimagining of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” shines a different light on Mark Twain’s classic, revealing new facets of Jim.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 13

13. REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES, by Shelby Van Pelt. (Ecco) A widow working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium is aided in solving a mystery by a giant Pacific octopus living there.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 55

14. THE SPELLSHOP, by Sarah Beth Durst. (Bramble) When the Great Library of Alyssium is set aflame, Kiela and Caz take the spellbooks and bring magic to Kiela’s childhood home.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 5

15. JOY, by Danielle Steel. (Delacorte) A book editor recognizes the trauma incurred by her partner during his military deployments and seeks to restore her sense of self.

LAST WEEK: 4

WEEKS ON LIST: 2

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NONFICTION

1. IMMINENT, by Luis Elizondo. (Morrow) The former head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program shares insights on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UFOs).

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

2. THE ANXIOUS GENERATION, by Jonathan Haidt. (Penguin Press) A co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” looks at the effects of a phone-based life on children’s mental health.

LAST WEEK: 4

WEEKS ON LIST: 22

3. WHAT’S NEXT, by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack. (Dutton) Two cast members of “The West Wing” share insights into the creation and legacy of the series.

LAST WEEK: 6

WEEKS ON LIST: 2

4. THE ART OF POWER, by Nancy Pelosi. (Simon & Schuster) The representative from California chronicles her journey in politics, including her time as the first woman to serve as speaker of the House.

LAST WEEK: 3

WEEKS ON LIST: 3

5. OUT OF THE DARKNESS, by Ian O’Connor. (Mariner) A portrait of the NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers detailing his life on and off the field.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

6. SHAMELESS, by Brian Tyler Cohen. (Harper) The YouTube host and podcaster gives his take on the current state of the Republican Party.

LAST WEEK: 1

WEEKS ON LIST: 2

7. ON THE EDGE, by Nate Silver. (Penguin Press) The founder of FiveThirtyEight and author of “The Signal and the Noise” profiles professional risk-takers.

LAST WEEK: 5

WEEKS ON LIST: 2

8. THE DEMON OF UNREST, by Erik Larson. (Crown) The author of “The Splendid and the Vile” portrays the months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War.

LAST WEEK: 7

WEEKS ON LIST: 17

9. THE DEVIL AT HIS ELBOW, by Valerie Bauerlein. (Ballantine) An account of the downfall of the South Carolina personal injury attorney Alex Murdaugh, who was found guilty of murdering his wife and son.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

10. OUTLIVE, by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford. (Harmony) A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.

LAST WEEK: 10

WEEKS ON LIST: 74

11. OBITCHUARY, by Spencer Henry and Madison Reyes with Allie Kingsley Baker. (Plume) An overview of the physical, cultural and potentially taboo aspects of death.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

12. OVER RULED, by Neil Gorsuch and Janie Nitze. (Harper) An associate justice of the United States Supreme Court questions the number and complexity of laws in America.

LAST WEEK: 8

WEEKS ON LIST: 3

13. MINISTRY OF TRUTH, by Steve Benen. (Mariner) A producer on “The Rachel Maddow Show” looks at how the Republican Party seeks to rewrite recent history.

LAST WEEK: 9

WEEKS ON LIST: 2

14. LOVE TRIANGLE, by Matt Parker. (Riverhead) The YouTube host explains the importance of trigonometry and how triangles might impact various situations.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

15. NUCLEAR WAR, by Annie Jacobsen. (Dutton) The author of “Operation Paperclip” portrays possible outcomes in the minutes following a nuclear missile launch.

LAST WEEK: 15

WEEKS ON LIST: 13

___

The New York Times bestsellers are compiled and archived by the bestseller lists desk of the New York Times news department and are separate from the culture, advertising and business sides of The New York Times Co. More information on rankings and methodology: nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/methodology.

An asterisk (*) indicates that a book’s sales were barely distinguishable from those of the book above. A (b) indicates that some bookstores reported receiving bulk orders.

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PICTURE

1. DRAGONS LOVE TACOS, by Adam Rubin. Illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. (Dial) What to serve your dragon-guests. (Ages 3 to 5)

WEEKS ON LIST: 456

2. THE CRAYONS GO BACK TO SCHOOL, by Drew Daywalt. Illustrated by Oliver Jeffers. (Philomel) The crayons go back to school and can’t wait for art class. (Ages 4 to 8)

WEEKS ON LIST: 18

3. TIME FOR SCHOOL, LITTLE BLUE TRUCK, by Alice Schertle. Illustrated by Jill McElmurry. (Clarion) Blue gives a friend a ride to school. (Ages 4 to 7)

WEEKS ON LIST: 41

4. THE PIGEON HAS TO GO TO SCHOOL!, by Mo Willems. (Hyperion) Pigeon deals with the anxieties of going to school for the first time. (Ages 3 to 5)

WEEKS ON LIST: 61

5. THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT, by Drew Daywalt. Illustrated by Oliver Jeffers. (Philomel) Problems arise when Duncan’s crayons revolt. (Ages 3 to 7)

WEEKS ON LIST: 396

6. BLUEY: SLEEPYTIME, by Joe Brumm. (Penguin) Bingo wants to do a big girl sleep and wake up in her own bed. (Ages 4 to 8)

WEEKS ON LIST: 31

7. WE DON’T EAT OUR CLASSMATES!, by Ryan T. Higgins. (Disney-Hyperion) Penelope Rex must control her urge to eat the children in her class. (Ages 3 to 5)

WEEKS ON LIST: 52

8. THE MAGICAL YET, by Angela DiTerlizzi. Illustrated by Lorena Alvarez Gómez. (Little, Brown) A being known as the Magical Yet helps children to realize their potential. (Ages 4 to 8)

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

9. THE WONDERFUL THINGS YOU WILL BE, by Emily Winfield Martin. (Random House) A celebration of possibilities. (Ages 3 to 7)

WEEKS ON LIST: 407

10. BE YOU!, by Peter H. Reynolds. (Orchard) A celebration of individuality. (Ages 4 to 8)

WEEKS ON LIST: 12

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MIDDLE GRADE HARDCOVER

1. WONDER, by R.J. Palacio. (Knopf) A boy with a facial deformity starts school. (Ages 8 to 12)

WEEKS ON LIST: 457

2. REFUGEE, by Alan Gratz. (Scholastic) Three children in three conflicts look for safe haven. (Ages 9 to 12)

WEEKS ON LIST: 271

3. THE SWIFTS: A GALLERY OF ROGUES, by Beth Lincoln. Illustrated by Claire Powell. (Dutton) Shenanigan Swift heads to Paris in pursuit of art thieves. (Ages 8 to 12)

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

4. ODDER, by Katherine Applegate. Illustrated by Charles Santoso. (Feiwel & Friends) After a shark attack, Odder recuperates at the aquarium with the scientists who raised her. (Ages 8 to 12)

WEEKS ON LIST: 88

5. HEROES, by Alan Gratz. (Scholastic) The friends Frank and Stanley give a vivid account of the Pearl Harbor attack. (Ages 8 to 12)

WEEKS ON LIST: 29

6. THE SUN AND THE STAR, by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro. (Disney Hyperion) The demigods Will and Nico embark on a dangerous journey to the Underworld to rescue an old friend. (Ages 10 to 14)

WEEKS ON LIST: 69

7. WINGS OF FIRE: A GUIDE TO THE DRAGON WORLD, by Tui T. Sutherland. Illustrated by Joy Ang. (Scholastic) A deeper dive into the legends of the 10 dragon tribes. (Ages 8 to 12)

WEEKS ON LIST: 45

8. THE MISFITS: A ROYAL CONUNDRUM, by Lisa Yee. Illustrated by Dan Santat. (Random House) Olive is sent to Reforming Arts School and teams up with a group of crime-fighting outcasts. (Ages 8 to 12)

WEEKS ON LIST: 20

9. THEY CALL ME NO SAM!, by Drew Daywalt. Illustrated by Mike Lowery. (Clarion) A pug named Sam protects his family. (Ages 8 to 12)

WEEKS ON LIST: 12

10. THE COMPLETE COOKBOOK FOR YOUNG CHEFS, by America’s Test Kitchen Kids. (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky) More than 100 kid-tested recipes from America’s Test Kitchen. (Ages 8 and up)

WEEKS ON LIST: 213

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YOUNG ADULT HARDCOVER

1. THE GRANDEST GAME, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. (Little, Brown) A prize worth millions is up for grabs for seven players sequestered on a private island. (Ages 12 to 18)

WEEKS ON LIST: 4

2. THE REAPPEARANCE OF RACHEL PRICE, by Holly Jackson. (Delacorte) Annabel Price’s mother is presumed dead, until she reappears during the filming of a documentary about her disappearance. (Ages 14 to 17)

WEEKS ON LIST: 21

3. DIVINE RIVALS, by Rebecca Ross. (Wednesday) Two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection. (Ages 13 to 18)

WEEKS ON LIST: 62

4. NIGHTBANE, by Alex Aster. (Amulet) In this sequel to “Lightlark,” Isla must choose between her two powerful lovers. (Ages 13 and up)

WEEKS ON LIST: 42

5. THE DARKNESS WITHIN US, by Tricia Levenseller. (Feiwel & Friends) When Chrysantha’s husband, the Duke of Pholios, dies, she believes she’s the sole heir to his fortune. Until Eryx Demos arrives and claims to be the duke’s estranged grandson. (Ages 13 to 18)

WEEKS ON LIST: 7

6. THE SHADOWS BETWEEN US, by Tricia Levenseller. (Feiwel & Friends) Alessandra plots to kill the Shadow King and take his kingdom for herself. (Ages 13 to 18)

WEEKS ON LIST: 11

7. SUCH CHARMING LIARS, by Karen M. McManus. (Delacorte) Two former stepsiblings unwillingly reunite and must solve a murder at a billionaire’s birthday party. (Ages 14 to 17)

WEEKS ON LIST: 4

8. RUTHLESS VOWS, by Rebecca Ross. (Wednesday) In the sequel to “Divine Rivals,” Roman and Iris will risk their hearts and futures to change the tides of the war. (Ages 13 to 18)

WEEKS ON LIST: 34

9. MURTAGH, by Christopher Paolini. (Knopf) Murtagh and his dragon, Thorn, must find and outwit a mysterious witch. (Ages 12 to 15)

WEEKS ON LIST: 41

10. HEARTLESS HUNTER, by Kristen Ciccarelli. (Wednesday) Rune, a witch, and Gideon, a witch-hunter, fall in love. (Ages 13 to 18)

WEEKS ON LIST: 17

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SERIES

 1. BELLADONNA, by Adalyn Grace. (Little, Brown) Signa forms an alliance with Death himself in order to solve a murder mystery. (Ages 14 to 18)

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

2. THE POWERLESS TRILOGY, by Lauren Roberts. (Simon and Schuster) A story of forbidden love between Paedyn, an Ordinary, and Kai, an Elite, in the kingdom of Ilya. (Ages 14 and up)

WEEKS ON LIST: 8

3. A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER, by Holly Jackson. (Delacorte) Pippa Fitz-Amobi solves murderous crimes. (Ages 14 and up)

WEEKS ON LIST: 152

4. THE WILD ROBOT, by Peter Brown. (Little, Brown) Roz the robot adapts to her surroundings on a remote, wild island. (Ages 7 to 12)

WEEKS ON LIST: 31

5. PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS, by Rick Riordan. (Disney-Hyperion) A boy battles mythological monsters. (Ages 9 to 12)

WEEKS ON LIST: 739

6. DIARY OF A WIMPY KID, written and illustrated by Jeff Kinney. (Amulet) The travails and challenges of adolescence. (Ages 9 to 12)

WEEKS ON LIST: 806

7. HARRY POTTER, by J.K. Rowling. (Scholastic) A wizard hones his conjuring skills in the service of fighting evil. (Ages 10 and up)

WEEKS ON LIST: 805

8. GRAVITY FALLS, by Alex Hirsch and various illustrators. (Disney) The adventures of twins Dipper and Mabel Pines. (Ages 8 to 12)

WEEKS ON LIST: 6

9. WHO WAS/IS . . . ?, by Jim Gigliotti and others; various illustrators. (Penguin Workshop) Biographies unlock legendary lives. (Ages 8 to 11)

WEEKS ON LIST: 168

10. THE HUNGER GAMES, by Suzanne Collins. (Scholastic) In a dystopia, a girl fights on live TV to survive. (Ages 12 and up)

WEEKS ON LIST: 339

___

The New York Times bestsellers are compiled and archived by the bestseller lists desk of the New York Times news department and are separate from the culture, advertising and business sides of The New York Times Co. More information on rankings and methodology: nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/methodology.

He has published two novels, “Strange Victims” and “Ramifications,” but coming out Aug. 20 from Catapult is the English language translation of his first essay collection, “Planes Flying Over a Monster.” Through 10 personal essays, Saldaña París takes readers through Havana, Montreal, Madrid and other cities, reflecting not only on the character of each place but also on the memories we form and how writing and reading in the process can transform our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. He talked to SCNG Premium through an email correspondence about his reflections on travel:

Do different places allow us to discover, or rediscover, parts of ourselves that would remain dormant if we stayed in familiar locales?

Yes, absolutely. Visiting a new city, a new culture, opens up a whole new set of possibilities for oneself. There’s an alertness in traveling that sharpens the senses, forcing us to pay attention to details that we would otherwise overlook. Even if we carry our own memories, our personal history, the novelty of a different city creates a break in the routine.

Cities across the world of course all have their different characters, but what for you makes a city great, someplace worth returning to?

I like to think of cities as palimpsests: layers upon layers of history, individual stories, and meanings assigned by the fictional representations of that city (movies, books) as well as by its inhabitants. For me, a great city is one in which all those layers are more or less legible or apparent to an attentive visitor. A city that, instead of imposing a monolithic image of itself, invites you to create a personal relationship with it. Thus, a great city, to me, doesn’t hide its contradictions, no matter how uncomfortable these may be.

What is a hack you have learned for navigating a strange place?

Even if I’m in a place for only a few days, I like finding a place to return to — a café, a park, an intersection. Humans also find meaning in repetition, and sometimes it’s worth going back a few times to the same space to create a meaningful relationship with it instead of running around trying to see as much as possible. I also practice walking a block or two at an unusually slow speed, paying attention to the signs offered by the city: its stores, graffiti, architecture and even its trash. I love getting a sense of a place by overhearing conversations and writing them down in my notebook.

“If, as Plato believed, knowing is remembering, then I’ve been remembering Cuba forever…” you write in a memorable essay on visiting Havana. That city is central to your own origin story, and yet you’d never been there, at least as an adult. Is it fair to say that the places we traveled to become part of our personal mythology?

Some of them do, and sometimes it’s hard to say why. I spent 10 days in Port of Spain, Trinidad, some 15 years ago, and I still think of that trip as a defining one for no particular reason. I also think that literature enhances the experience of visiting a place: if you have read books by local authors, you perceive a different, deeper reality, more nuanced. I will always choose literature in translation over tourism.

What are some travel writings that have influenced your own, and that you think any traveler must know?

I love the diaries of filmmaker Jonas Mekas, his sense of place and intimacy. I love the journalistic work of Jon Lee Anderson, the way he can talk to anybody and get something important out of the conversation. I also recommend the travel writings of Belgian explorer Alexandra David-Néel. “Stranger on a Train,” by Jenny Diski, is another favorite of mine.

Do we have to leave home to fall in love with it again?

I often have the feeling that there is no such thing as returning: the person that leaves is never exactly the same as the one that comes back, and the place we come back to has often changed as well. Yet, the distance allows us to look at our home with fresh eyes, to rediscover details of it that we take for granted. We find the exotic in the domestic and vice versa. Love can definitely grow out of that estrangement.

Her first book, “Falling,” which famously was partially written on cocktail napkins while working long-haul flights, is the story of a pilot faced with an impossible choice from terrorists: Either crash the jet or the pilot’s family will be murdered.

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Her third thriller, “Worst Case Scenario,” which is out this month, was inspired by a pilot who told her his biggest fear was a commercial jet crashing into a nuclear power plant.

“It planted the seed,” Newman says from her Phoenix home as she packed for the red-eye flight that would launch her 17-day book tour. “I kind of tucked that away as a note to self: Circle back to that later.

“When I was thinking about what I wanted to write my third book about, I remember that interaction,” she says. “I started just Googling, doing some preliminary research just to see if there was anything there, if there was any validity to his fears.

“And it did not take long for me to realize there was a lot of validity to his fears,” Newman says. “The research terrified me, and it became very quickly apparent that what became the premise of the book is completely plausible.”

In “Worst Case Scenario,” a jumbo jet crashes into a nuclear plant near the small town of Waketa, Minnesota. It’s bad – all of nearly 300 people on board die on impact – but the reactors aren’t breeched so initially the plant seems to have survived the worst of it.

Then cracks and leaks are spotted in the pool where spent fuel rods are stored, and suddenly the entire Mississippi Valley faces a nuclear threat that could render it unlivable for generations to come.

With her second book, “Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421,” Newman struggled to figure out the circumstances under which a flight might land on open water, ultimately sink with passengers and crew still alive, and then be rescued.

“It wasn’t as difficult this time,” she says. “There are a lot of vulnerabilities in a nuclear power plant that I just wasn’t aware of, and it really shocked me.”

In an interview edited for length and clarity, Newman talked about why she worried about taking the action out of the plane and onto land in this book, how adapting her debut “Falling” as a screenplay helped her write “Worst Case Scenario,” and why she sometimes cries as she’s writing her books.

Q: Are there any nuclear reactors near you in Arizona?

A: Yeah, the largest power plant in the whole country is less than an hour from my front door. Which is real reassuring when I realized, as I was doing all this research, it’s practically in my backyard. They’re in all our backyards. I think there are 94 in the country and if something happens at one of them I don’t think the average person would know what they’re supposed to do.

Q: I always assumed they’re so encased in concrete and steel that it would all be kept inside. You show something else here.

A: That’s exactly what I thought, too. I thought, ‘Well, come on, we all have studied the prior accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima. We know that the containment is 10-foot-wide concrete walls. But what I did not know, and I don’t think most people know, is that some of the most dangerous materials are stored outside of containment in really not fortified structures.

Q: Your first two books take place almost entirely inside planes. Here, the plane crashes and it’s done. What was it like moving onto land this time?

A: It was intimidating, to tell you the truth, for two reasons. One, my first two books take place either entirely on a plane or over the course of one flight. This, it’s no spoiler to say, by the end of the fifth page the plane has crashed and the rest of the time we’re in this small town. As a writer, it was daunting. Like, can I do this? If I expand it out bigger than just one set of passengers and one crew, can I still do this?

And two, it was nerve-wracking because I wondered if the readers would go along for the ride or am I just, you know, known as the flight attendant who writes aviation thrillers. What if I step outside of that? Will the readers want to go with me?

So far the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, and it seems like the readers are along for the ride. It was interesting, too. When I started writing this small town, I realized it feels like a crew and still feels like the passengers on the plane, in that they’re an isolated community themselves. They’re under-resourced, out-manned. Help isn’t coming. It was up to them to solve the problems.

Q: Was there a moment in the writing where you thought, OK, this is going to work?

A: Do other writers have that confidence in the writing process? That sounds pretty foreign to me. I feel like that point didn’t come until the book was printed. The first couple of readers came back and said, ‘Hey, this is a book!’ Like, that’s when I think I accepted, ‘All right, maybe this is working.’

Q: Are there things you learned writing your first two books that helped you here?

A: I feel like every day I sit down to write a new story is reinventing myself. And the education from the first book to the second book to the third book has been nothing short of total. I’m adapting the screenplay for ‘Falling’ and that process really, really changed, in a positive way, my novel writing. That education of taking a story that I thought I knew backwards, that took me nearly 40 drafts to get to the final product.

I thought I knew every way that you could tell that story, and to realize that there’s so much more there, and the task of taking a 300-page book and compressing it into a 100-page script? It forces you to have this relentless editor on your shoulder that’s just honing the focus constantly. And it changed the way I wrote ‘Worst Case Scenario.’ It is lean. I trimmed as much fat as I possibly could off of that and I think that is a result of adapting ‘Falling.’

Q: I want to ask you about building characters, because in addition to the action, you’ve created people who we care about here.

A: I’m thrilled to hear you did care what happened with the characters. That’s always the challenge with writing stories like I write. They’re action thrillers, but explosions and car chases and plane crashes, that’s not going to sustain a reader for 300 pages. It has to be about something more. It has to be about heart, it has to be about the people.

I find that I typically start with plot before character. I start with what is happening in this story, and once I know what’s going to happen I can sort of reverse engineer. Who would be the person you would want in that position? Or who would be the worst person to have in that position?

Q: In your genre, you have to kill off some people. Is that purely a writing thing for you or do you feel bad killing off people that you’ve gotten to know over the drafts of writing?

A: I wish you knew how many boxes of Kleenex I go through when I write, especially with this one. This one put me through the wringer. This was emotionally the hardest book for me to write. And, no spoilers, but I’m not always happy with how things end up for characters. It breaks my heart. I grieve, I mourn them.

But what does the story need? It’s not about what I want or it’s not even about what the reader wants. It’s what the story needs, and that is what determines who makes it or not.

Q: What’s the status of the first two books in development in Hollywood?

A: ‘Falling’ is with Universal Pictures, ‘Drowning’ is with with Warner Brothers. Like we said, I’m doing the adaptation for ‘Falling, which is just wild and such a rare privilege for an author to be able to adapt their own work. ‘Drowning,’ the update there is Paul Greengrass is directing ‘Drowning.’ He did ‘Captain Phillips,’ ‘United 93,’ ‘Bourne Supremacy.’

Steve Kloves, who is most know for ‘Harry Potter’ (is adapting). Which, having a man who took one of the most globally cherished franchises of all-time and adapted those books into a set of movies that are loved worldwide, I feel like my book couldn’t be in better hands.

Q: You’re going to fly a lot on this book tour. As a former flight attendant, do you have a preferred place to sit on a plane?

A: The hardest thing is to not want to get up and work. It’s still weird to me. When the cart goes by, I feel like I should be up, prepping in the back and running orders. I’m like, ‘Should I do a trash run?’ It’s weird to me still to be just sitting and being served a drink instead of serving them.

But you know, I’m a window-seat girl. I’ll always take the window. I like the view and like to daydream and come up with good stories.

But once he was a teenager, his sparkle started to fade.

“I just sort of lost my way,” he said. “I could remember all the lyrics to songs — Tupac, Biggie, Big L — but I couldn’t remember basic facts for science.”

Bored and discouraged, Mitchell talked back to teachers. He landed in detention and stopped caring about his studies. He said, “I just felt, at one point, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’”

At 16, he dropped out of school and went to work for his father’s party business, then at a hardware store. He was writing his own music, mostly rap, but felt as if all the promise had drained out of his life.

“I was one of those guys who got a job they didn’t want to do,” he said. “I felt like no one could understand how I was feeling.”

A silver lining of this yearlong “lull,” as he called it: Mitchell discovered self-help books. Eventually he returned to school, older, wiser and better acquainted with his own strengths. He gave up on silent memorization and instead wrote raps — about media, sociology, criminology — mastering them with the same zeal he’d brought to the music by his favorite artists. His grades soared. So did his confidence.

Mitchell went to university, graduated with honors, became a teacher and decided to share his unorthodox approach with struggling students.

Now, under the name of his alter ego, MC Grammar, Mitchell has become a wildly popular performer whose rhymes have made reading and grammar all the rage among young people across Britain.

This might be hard to fathom, but consider the numbers: MC Grammar’s YouTube channel has 48,800 subscribers, and he has 212,000 followers on Instagram. He filled theaters during a solo national tour and electrified arenas as one of the headliners for a 30-city tour focused on performances for children. He has two television shows, “Wonder Raps” and “Rap Tales.”

And next spring, Simon & Schuster UK will publish “The Adventures of Rap Kid,” the first of three books Mitchell described as “similar to ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ but slightly more street.”

___

So how does a former troublemaker make his way from High Barnet, a quiet bedroom community of attached houses, to center stage at England’s biggest venues?

In 2019, Rebecca Mottershead hired Mitchell for his first full-time position at Church Hill School, not far from where he grew up. He immediately became part of the fabric of the school. “At lunchtime, he’d be playing football with the kids,” she said. “He was running stuff after school. Teaching was a way of life for Jacob.”

Five years into his tenure at Church Hill, Mottershead put Mitchell in charge of a class of 10- and 11-year-olds who needed to be prepared for a new standardized test. The name alone had spinach vibes: SpaG, for spelling, punctuation and grammar. The students were not enthused.

Mitchell said: “I was like, you know what, I’m not going to waste any time on teaching this rote examination just for the sake of it. I don’t want kids to be looking at their writing and squeezing in an adverbial phrase.”

He wrote a four-minute song encompassing the material and set it to a catchy beat.

Within days, young people who had resisted prepositional phrases were rapping about them. When Mitchell called, “Hit me with the rhyme, guys!” his students snapped into action, chanting the words. They made their own music video. They were singing in the hallways.

Mottershead said, “Jacob took the boring stuff and he made it so exciting that everybody wanted to be part of it.”

She recalled a student who’d had an air of “I can’t do it. I’m no good.” One day she spotted him in Mitchell’s classroom, absorbed in a book. “I remember thinking, this is what he’s needed,” she said. “The conventional classroom just does not work for this child.”

Mitchell wrote more songs about commas, clauses and adjectives. He ordered an MC Hammer costume and, as an intro to new lessons, announced, “Stop, it’s grammar time.”

His students were too young to get the reference, but their test results reflected their enthusiasm.

By 2015, Mitchell’s sixth year teaching, Church Hill’s scores for reading and writing had improved dramatically, landing it among the top 50 primary schools in England.

“It became apparent that Jacob’s approach wasn’t just something that was just going to work in our school,” Mottershead said. “This was something bigger.”

Mitchell traveled to other schools, training teachers around London. There was some resistance — rap isn’t everyone’s cup of tea — but there was no denying the excitement of the younger generation. Then he did a few live shows, rapping about adverbs and conjunctions. Nobody was more surprised by his popularity than he was.

“I’m like, are you serious? This is just a jesty way I engage with the kids,” he said. “And then we’re branching out. We’re going to Liverpool. We’re going to Manchester. We’re going to Birmingham. Scotland. Italy. It keeps growing and growing and growing. And then they’re like, ‘Have you got anything for reading?’”

So Mitchell applied his technique to a few picture books — mainly classics like “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and “Guess How Much I Love You.” He introduced his own rhymes but he made sure the original messages were, as he put it, “very, very clear.”

In 2019, Mitchell’s wife made a video of him rapping “The Gruffalo” for their daughter, Ellie. She posted it to Facebook. “The next day we woke up and it had a quarter of a million views,” Mitchell said. “And then it went up to a million. Five million. Ten million.

“That’s when Ellen called.” Ellen, as in Ellen DeGeneres, flew the Mitchell family to Los Angeles, where MC Grammar serenaded both of his daughters with a rendition of “Green Eggs and Ham” on her show.

Suddenly the floodgates opened. Mitchell was inundated with requests for appearances, interviews and his agent’s name. “My agent?” he said. “I’ve got a head teacher! That’s all I’ve got right now!”

___

Two years ago, Mitchell left teaching to dedicate himself to a “global classroom,” as he called it. Some of his most ardent fans have autism; others are reluctant readers. He is sometimes able to reach students who haven’t responded in a traditional classroom.

“We had a situation where, by the end of the show, a teacher is in tears,” Mitchell said. “She goes, ‘That kid there, who got onstage and rapped your whole song, hasn’t said a word this whole academic year.’ And they’re speaking with tone, intonation. Swagger. They’re dancing.”

Shevonne Waines’ son, Henry, met Mitchell last December, at a holiday party at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, where he spent the first 15 months of his life.

Henry, then 6, had never seen or heard about MC Grammar, but he immediately hit the dance floor and raised his hand when Mitchell requested volunteers. He then joined Mitchell onstage, Waines wrote in an email, “with tubing hanging from his neck and an adult attached at the other end with his breathing machine.”

The pair sang “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Waines said: “It was this miracle moment. MC Grammar creates this safe, energetic world where you can do anything.”

Henry is now a devotee. He attended a second performance in April and enjoys Mitchell’s raps on Instagram and YouTube.

The fact that many young people discover his work onscreen doesn’t faze Mitchell. “Your kid’s there already,” he said. “At the end of every book rap, I say, ‘You’ve had a look, now go and read the book.’ I put affiliate links. You as a parent can go and buy it if you want. You can go to a library.”

And unlike an iPad, Mitchell added, books never become obsolete. “The older they get, the better they get.”

___

“Partly Cloudy” by Deborah Freedman. (Ages 4-8. Viking. $18.99.)

Deborah Freedman’s soft-edged illustrations of two curious bunnies marveling at the clouds in the sky will make young readers want to reach out and pat them — as they marvel at the many forms clouds take (and even learn a bit about them).

Where one rabbit sees cotton candy, a cozy blanket or Rapunzel’s flowing hair, another sees cumulus, stratus and cirrus clouds. The two eventually decide that “we’re both right,” as they settle in to enjoy the show.

With the tale over, cloud-gazers get more information at the end of the book about the water cycle and cloud formation.

___

“All the Rocks We Love” by Lisa Varchol Perron and Taylor Perron, illustrated by David Scheirer. (Ages 3-6. Rise x Penguin Workshop. $18.99.)

In this poetic exploration of the magic of rocks, there’s nothing wrong with looking down, because “a world of possibilities is waiting on the ground.” From stacking them to banging them, examining them and giving them away, these “countless treasures” are all around us.

At the end of the book, the shiny, sparkly, layered and fossil-filled rocks depicted in the illustrations get a closer look, with a guide to several types of rocks and how they are formed.

___

“The Wonderful Wisdom of Ants” by Philip Bunting. (Ages 4-8. Crown Books for Young Readers. $17.99.)

They’re small, hungry and everywhere, and author-illustrator Philip Bunting sees plenty of lessons for humans in the lives of the planet’s 10 quadrillion ants. He’s not a scientist (as he reminds readers in his dedication), just a superfan who “believes that the answers to many of life’s questions can be found in your own backyard.”

Filled with easy-to-understand information about ants — and crawling with pictures of them — this colorful ode to the ubiquitous insects reminds readers that they could take a lesson from ants, who love “Family. Micronaps. Recycling. Helping others.” And, of course, “being caught on camera carrying stuff way bigger than they are.”

___

“Thank You” by Jarvis. (Ages 3-7. Candlewick Press. $17.99.)

There’s so much to say thank you for that author-illustrator Jarvis’ red-hatted little boy could do it all day long — and then start all over again.

Filled with thank-yous that are sometimes sweet, sometimes silly and always heartfelt, this sublimely illustrated book doesn’t leave out dinosaurs, geese, hats, puddles or people: “I thank myself for being me. ‘Thank me very much,’ I say.”

Caroline Luzzatto has taught preschool and fourth grade. Reach her at luzzatto.bookworms@gmail.com. 

“If you have a really cool idea that goes against something in the first book,” author TJ Klune says with a laugh, ”you can’t do it because people will call you out for it!”  

In 2020, Klune’s queer contemporary fantasy novel, “The House in the Cerulean Sea” arrived in bookstores to critical and popular acclaim, including landing on multiple bestseller lists, getting award recognition and building a community of fans on social media creating art, fan-fiction and love letters to the characters.

“House” centers around the lonely, uptight Linus Baker and his path to becoming a beloved member of a found family – a long way from his origins as a caseworker monitoring state-run orphanages for the Department In Charge Of Magical Youth (DICOMY). This branch of government, which underpins a system responsible for breaking apart families and sowing distance between magical people and humans, comes to the forefront in Klune’s sequel, “Somewhere Beyond the Sea,” out Sept. 10 from Tor.

“Somewhere” continues the story of the magical orphans on Marsyas Island – this time not from Linus’s point of view, but from that of the man he has found love with: Arthur Parnassus, orphanage manager and de facto father to six lovable, complicated children cast out by society. And while Arthur and Linus won the initial battle against DICOMY, the real war to tear down the system endangering their kids has only just begun.

In “Somewhere Beyond the Sea,” Klune revisits and expands the “Cerulean Sea” universe to explore resistance, solidarity and liberation. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. Were you always planning to write a sequel to “The House in the Cerulean Sea?”

This is going to sound kind of weird coming from me, but sequels suck to write. When you create a world in a book, you can make up any rule you want – but by the time you get to a sequel, you’re bound by the rules that you made in the first book. So I don’t really like writing them. I wasn’t planning on going back.

As you know, in the last few years we’ve seen the rising anti-LGBTQ movement – particularly the anti-trans movement – that is occurring across the United States and in the UK. It’s the same kind of morality panic that we saw in the ‘80s with the Satanic Panic, just dressed differently. So I decided that I needed to write a book – the sequel to “The House in the Cerulean Sea.” I wrote “Somewhere Beyond the Sea” as a celebration for trans people, for the queer community, for anybody who has ever felt like they’re not good enough, or has been told they’re not good enough.

Q. In “Somewhere Beyond the Sea,” resistance is a major theme, such as when Arthur testifies about his own past at a government hearing. Can you talk a bit about that?

In “The House in the Cerulean Sea,” an outsider comes in and realizes that he’s a cog in an uncaring machine. At the end of the day, Linus is an ally. He loves and wants to protect his family as much as possible, but he hasn’t had to walk a mile in their shoes. 

“Somewhere Beyond the Sea” is about the machine itself, and what happens when you find your voice and start to push back against it. So it puts us into the shoes of Arthur, who has been othered his entire life and who has been beaten down because of who he is. 

I was one of many who watched when transgender people, parents and guardians of transgender youth and doctors who provide medical and gender-affirming care were invited to testify in front of the government. During these testimonials, they were essentially ambushed by politicians who sat there and questioned their minds, their bodies and their right to exist. It was horrific, and it blew my mind that that is how we function these days. 

I talked to some of the people who were involved in testifying, and asked them a bunch of different questions. One question that I made sure to ask throughout was: If you had to do this all over again, knowing the reception you were going to receive, would you do it? Every single one of them unequivocally said yes, because they got to speak their truth regardless of how it was received or regardless of the way that they were attacked. That is extraordinary.

Q. Was there a new character who was harder to write than you thought?

Yes – David the Yeti (a magical child whose parents were killed by hunters). Going into this book, I knew David would have to be as big a character as the other kids were. When you’re writing a story about kids going through trauma, you have to make sure that they still read and sound like a child and not a 40-year-old man. So I went back to one of my favorite characters in the entire world: Calvin from ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ by Bill Watterson. 

Calvin has a very active imagination, and he plays different roles; one of those roles is a noir detective named Tracer Bullet. When Arthur and Linus meet him for the first time, David, who wants to be an actor, puts on a performance as a noir detective. He is, in essence, my version of Calvin.

As an author, I’ve been invited to speak to kids in classrooms around the world. People don’t realize that kids today are smarter than we ever were at their age. They see what’s happening, and they’re pissed off. One day soon, they’re going to be the ones making change. If we’re deciding who they can be, what they can read, who they can talk to – why is nobody asking them what they think about all this?

Q. What would you like readers to come away with?

After people read this book, I hope that they’ll be kinder to each other. We seem to live in an age where everybody’s outraged about everything. It’s not that hard to be kind to each other, and I think that we should all attempt to do that a lot more. In the book, Sal (one of the kids) very rightly calls out Arthur for putting himself in an echo chamber, for surrounding himself with people that only think like he does. I think about that a lot.

I think we can be better, and we can fix things that are broken. It’s going to take a hell of a lot of work, but we can do it – because there are so many things that make us more alike than there are that set us apart. 

But August is also Women in Translation Month, a yearly celebration of books by women written in languages other than English. And any celebration that involves the reading of books is one I engage with – possibly while enjoying a cool drink and a warm panino after the kids head off to school.

To talk more about it, I reached out to Jennifer Croft, the award-winning author and translator of writers such as Nobel Prize-winning Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk, with whom she shared the 2018 Man Booker International Prize. Croft has translated works from Polish, Ukrainian and Argentine Spanish.

Croft is also the author of the memoir “Homesick” and the novel “The Extinction of Irena Rey,” which was published earlier this year, and she spoke by phone from her home in Oklahoma where she is the Presidential Professor of English & Creative Writing at the University of Tulsa. (Croft, by the way, first enrolled as a student at the university when she was 15.)

Croft said Women in Translation Month has been a good thing.

“For me, it has been very helpful as a translator. Initially, when I was starting out, my project was specifically to advocate for and translate contemporary women,” says Croft, who focuses on works by Russian, Polish and Argentine writers including Federico Falco’s “A Perfect Cemetery,” Romina Paula’s “August”  and Tokarczuk’s 912-page “The Books of Jacob.”

When society has blinders on about the work of women, Croft says, that affects which books we read and which get chosen for awards.

“I definitely do still think there’s a value in spotlighting women’s work, because, of course, there are still these sexist tendencies in our society,” says Croft.

Not only are translators often overlooked — something that Croft has advocated to change — but the work can seem a bit mysterious as well. For many, translation sounds like a simple process of switching one set of words for another, but it’s obviously far more complex and can be performed in a variety of ways.

“It’s not the same for everybody, and that was one of the reasons why I also wanted to mention some women translators as well as women writers who are being translated, not necessarily by women,” says Croft, who says these days she works with writers of all genders.

“I really think of the translator as the co-author of the translated book. People don’t realize how much power is in every single choice that we make as we’re translating. And translating is always rewriting, and every translator has a different opinion about to what extent that is true for them, but I just don’t see a way that we as human beings can avoid including our own subjectivities in our translation so it becomes a collaboration,” she says. “And I think that’s a good reason to look at the work of women translators.”

It’s fascinating to hear Croft talk about translation, and I’ll be sharing more of our discussion in the near future following the announcement of the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature longlist. (Croft is one of the judges in a group that includes chair Jhumpa Lahiri, and, no, she wouldn’t tell me anything about who’s on the list.)

But to celebrate the work of women writers and translators, Croft was kind enough to compile a list of book suggestions for readers interested to know more. I’ve already started seeking them out. Read on for her suggestions:

“Strange Beasts of China” by Yan Ge, translated by Jeremy Tiang is a wonderfully fun and endlessly intriguing compendium of urban human-beast encounters that troubles the line between the imaginary and the possible.

“Your Utopia” by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur, is such a fun collection of short stories infused with speculative tendencies, Slavic literary traditions, and extremely relatable pandemic-era fears.

“Emily Forever” by Maria Navarro Skaranger, translated by Martin Aitken, is a beautiful and particular coming-of-age novel about a pregnant young woman who lives in a world of her own.

Then there’s my eternal favorite, “Vernon Subutex 1,” by Virginie Despentes and translated by Frank Wynne, a perfect marriage of translator and author and one of the most brilliant books I’ve ever read.

I would also recommend seeking out the work of women translators like Emma Ramadan (French), Saskia Vogel (Swedish), Mui Poopoksakul (Thai), Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Polish), Tiffany Tsao (Indonesian), Tess Lewis (French and German), Susan Bernofsky (German), Esther Allen (Spanish)—each of these translators also has amazing taste, so anything they choose to work on is probably an excellent choice.

And, too, I’d suggest people check out trans writers like International Booker Prize winner Lucas Rijneveld and stories featuring nonbinary characters such as Pajtim Statovci’s excellent and complex novel “Crossing.”

Laura Marris discusses her essay collection, a book she loves and waffles

Author and translator Laura Marris has just published her debut essay collection, “The Age of Loneliness.” Marris teaches creative writing at University of Buffalo.

Q. Would you tell readers about “The Age of Loneliness,” please?

“The Age of Loneliness” is a book of linked essays blending personal and ecological history. I wanted to break through the separation of person and place and write about landscapes in a way that would cultivate layers of closeness, intimacy, locality. The book begins with more alienated sites (like a fake city built to test self-driving cars) and ends with the woods of my earliest childhood, where I first began to understand the depth and complexity of the more-than-human world.

Q. What led you to the essay form? Are there particular essays or essayists that you return to?

I first fell in love with the essay form because it has a way of merging argument with more poetic work. Because part of my background is in poetry, I often think about the paragraph or section breaks like I might think of the stanza breaks in a poem. Beautiful, imaginative leaps can happen in the space between sections of a braided essay—what the writer and translator Rosmarie Waldrop calls “gap gardening.” But I’m also drawn to essays because they allow more room for all the wild stories that surface when you begin to examine the eco/historical context of a place. Toni Morrison’s essay “The Site of Memory” is a classic that I return to over and over. I’ve also loved recent pieces by Carina del Valle Schorske and Erica Berry.

Q. You are also a translator. Can you talk a little about that work (especially as it’s Women In Translation Month)?

There’s no question that translation has shaped both my way of writing and my relationship to language. When you translate another writer, you step inside their memory, their politics, their vision of the world, and the translation you make is built out of your immersion in that space of mutual creativity and collaboration. Translation helped me see my language as a whole ecosystem of voices that I’ve internalized, and in a way, writing is like wayfinding within that ecosystem.

Q. In “The Age of Loneliness” you include lists of birds. Can you talk about those?

I first learned about birds from my father. He was a birdwatcher who participated in community science projects like the Christmas Bird Count. After he died when I was 19, I found a few of his bird lists in the back of a folder, and they surprised me, because some of the species he was seeing had become harder to find, just over the course of my lifetime. And it made me realize the importance of community science projects, where people go out and count birds, or bats, or horseshoe crabs, or plants. These volunteers check on the health of their local ecosystems in vital ways, and many find lifelong human friendships, too. With the bird lists, I wanted to honor their work, as well as my father’s.

Q. Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?

I always recommend Anne Boyer’s “The Undying”—a masterclass in fiercely braided prose.

Q. What are you reading now?

Right now I’m reading shorter things, because my book is launching, and I’m about to go on tour. I’ve been so impressed by Taylor Johnson’s poems in “Inheritance,” a book that listens so deeply to human and more-than-human voices. And Claire Keegan’s novella “Foster” is so good I read it twice.

Q. What’s a memorable book experience – good or bad – you’re willing to share? 

When I was in college, I had a summer internship at New Directions Publishing, and as interns, we were allowed to take books home when we left the office. I’m pretty sure I maxed out that policy! But they were generous enough not to mind. That summer, I read W.G. Sebald for the first time, and I discovered Susan Howe’s essays in “The Quarry.” Safe to say, I was never the same.

Q. Do you have a favorite bookstore or bookstore experience?

Here in Buffalo, I love to visit Fitz Books & Waffles. You can get a coffee, a waffle, browse the huge selection of new and used books, or just read on their back deck. Plus, they are a great third space for local events.

Q. What’s something about your book that no one knows?

I had to be so patient with some of these essays, to let them find their ultimate forms. And I was quite impatient with that emergence! But I have learned to be gentler with the intuitive part of writing—you can’t rush it.

Q. If you could ask your readers something, what would it be?

I hope that readers will find resonances with the landscapes of their own lives, and that the book will allow them to spend time with all the stories of people, animals, and other living beings that are entangled with their places. I would love to hear some of those stories.

For more about the author, go to lauramarris.com

More bestsellers, authors and books

The week’s bestsellers

The top-selling books at your local independent bookstores. READ MORE

• • •

Bookstore survival

How Southern California’s bookstores find new ways to keep going. READ MORE

• • •

Into the future

“This Great Hemisphere” propels “Black Buck” author Mateo Askaripour into the future. READ MORE

An asterisk (*) indicates that a book’s sales were barely distinguishable from those of the book above. A (b) indicates that some bookstores reported receiving bulk orders.

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FICTION

1. THE WOMEN, by Kristin Hannah. (St. Martin’s) In 1965, a nursing student follows her brother to serve during the Vietnam War and returns to a divided America.

LAST WEEK: 1

WEEKS ON LIST: 28

2. BORN OF BLOOD AND ASH, by Jennifer L. Armentrout. (Blue Box) The fourth book in the Flesh and Fire series. Sera and Nyktos must prevent Kolis from destroying the realms.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

3. ANGEL OF VENGEANCE, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. (Grand Central) The 22nd book in the Agent Pendergast series. A serial killer in Manhattan seems poised to outmaneuver Pendergast and Greene.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

4. JOY, by Danielle Steel. (Delacorte) A book editor recognizes the trauma incurred by her partner during his military deployments and seeks to restore her sense of self.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

5. THE WEDDING PEOPLE, by Alison Espach. (Holt) A woman who is down on her luck forms an unexpected bond with the bride at a wedding in Rhode Island.

LAST WEEK: 6

WEEKS ON LIST: 3

6. FOURTH WING, by Rebecca Yarros. (Red Tower) Violet Sorrengail is urged by the commanding general, who also is her mother, to become a candidate for the elite dragon riders.

LAST WEEK: 4

WEEKS ON LIST: 67

7. IRON FLAME, by Rebecca Yarros. (Red Tower) The second book in the Empyrean series. Violet Sorrengail’s next round of training might require her to betray the man she loves.

LAST WEEK: 7

WEEKS ON LIST: 41

8. THE GOD OF THE WOODS, by Liz Moore. (Riverhead) When a 13-year-old girl disappears from an Adirondack summer camp in 1975, secrets kept by the Van Laar family emerge.

LAST WEEK: 8

WEEKS ON LIST: 7

9. OFFER FROM A GENTLEMAN AND ROMANCING MR. BRIDGERTON, by Julia Quinn. (Avon) The second book in the Bridgerton Collector’s Edition series.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

10. THE COVEN, by Harper L. Woods. (Bramble) At Hollow’s Grove University, a school for magic that suffered a bloody massacre decades ago, 13 gifted students confront ghosts from the school’s past.

LAST WEEK: 2

WEEKS ON LIST: 2

11. ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, by Chris Whitaker. (Crown) Questions arise when a boy saves the daughter of a wealthy family amid a string of disappearances in a Missouri town in 1975.

LAST WEEK: 10

WEEKS ON LIST: 8

12. SHADOW OF DOUBT, by Brad Thor. (Atria/Emily Bestler) The 23rd book in the Scot Harvath series. A mess of trouble involving double agents, international intrigue and a potential global firestorm forces Harvath to choose between his country and his conscience.

LAST WEEK: 3

WEEKS ON LIST: 2

13. WORST CASE SCENARIO, by T.J. Newman. (Little, Brown) When a commercial airliner crashes into a nuclear power plant, firefighters, plant employees and nearby citizens go into action.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

14. LADY MACBETH, by Ava Reid. (Del Rey) A reimagining of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” that centers the story on Lady Macbeth.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

15. HARD TO KILL, by James Patterson and Mike Lupica. (Little, Brown) The second book in the Jane Smith series. A double triple homicide complicates matters for Smith.

LAST WEEK: 5

WEEKS ON LIST: 3

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NONFICTION

1. SHAMELESS, by Brian Tyler Cohen. (Harper) The YouTube host and podcaster gives his take on the current state of the Republican Party.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

2. MEN HAVE CALLED HER CRAZY, by Anna Marie Tendler. (Simon & Schuster) Tendler recounts events around and during her time in a psychiatric hospital.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

3. THE ART OF POWER, by Nancy Pelosi. (Simon & Schuster) The representative from California chronicles her journey in politics, including her time as the first woman to be speaker of the House.

LAST WEEK: 1

WEEKS ON LIST: 2

4. THE ANXIOUS GENERATION, by Jonathan Haidt. (Penguin Press) A co-author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” looks at the effects of a phone-based life on children’s mental health.

LAST WEEK: 2

WEEKS ON LIST: 21

5. ON THE EDGE, by Nate Silver. (Penguin Press) The founder of FiveThirtyEight and author of “The Signal and the Noise” profiles professional risk-takers.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

6. WHAT’S NEXT, by Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack. (Dutton) Two cast members of “The West Wing” share insights into the creation and legacy of the series.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

7. THE DEMON OF UNREST, by Erik Larson. (Crown) The author of “The Splendid and the Vile” portrays the months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War.

LAST WEEK: 5

WEEKS ON LIST: 16

8. OVER RULED, by Neil Gorsuch and Janie Nitze. (Harper) An associate justice of the United States Supreme Court questions the number and complexity of laws in America.

LAST WEEK: 3

WEEKS ON LIST: 2

9. MINISTRY OF TRUTH, by Steve Benen. (Mariner) A producer on “The Rachel Maddow Show” looks at how the Republican Party seeks to rewrite recent history.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

10. OUTLIVE, by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford. (Harmony) A look at recent scientific research on aging and longevity.

LAST WEEK: 7

WEEKS ON LIST: 73

11. ASK NOT, by Maureen Callahan. (Little, Brown) The author of “American Predator” puts forward a history of the Kennedy family that describes the abuse of women in its orbit.

LAST WEEK: 4

WEEKS ON LIST: 7

12. AUTOCRACY, INC., by Anne Applebaum. (Doubleday) The Pulitzer Prize-winning author elucidates the structures and technologies that bolster autocracies in the 21st century.

LAST WEEK: 8

WEEKS ON LIST: 4

13. GRAND PRIX, by Will Buxton. Illustrated by Davi Augusto. (Ten Speed) An illustrated history of Formula 1 racing. (b)

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 1

14. TRUE GRETCH, by Gretchen Whitmer with Lisa Dickey. (Simon & Schuster) The governor of Michigan recounts defining moments from her life and time in office.

LAST WEEK: —

WEEKS ON LIST: 4

15. NUCLEAR WAR, by Annie Jacobsen. (Dutton) The author of “Operation Paperclip” portrays possible outcomes in the minutes following a nuclear missile launch.

LAST WEEK: 10

WEEKS ON LIST: 12

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The New York Times bestsellers are compiled and archived by the bestseller lists desk of the New York Times news department and are separate from the culture, advertising and business sides of The New York Times Co. More information on rankings and methodology: nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/methodology.