One Day a Taniwha

Tihema Baker

As the pressure of fatherhood tightens its grip, sleepless nights and rising tensions begin to erode Hepa's sense of control. When the line between fear and reality begins to blur, can he be trusted with his own son? Hepa hasn't slept properly in four months. His newborn son, Wī, cries through the night. The bills keep coming. The pressure to hold everything together is closing in. Hepa tells himself to harden up. Be the pillar his family needs. The only place he feels in control is in his dreams. Since childhood he's been able to shape them, to bend the dream world to his will. Until something begins watching back. A presence with pāua-shell eyes starts appearing in his dreams, and then in waking life. In the shadows. In strangers' faces. Whispering to Hepa while he rocks Wī to sleep. It feels like living with a taniwha on his shoulder. Hepa can't tell where the nightmares end and the real world begins—and he's terrified of what he might do...

set status

Saha

Cho Nam-Joo

In a country called Town, a doctor named Su is found dead in an abandoned car. There is only one place the police intend to look for her suspected killer: the Saha Estates. Controlled by a secretive organization of ministers, Town is the safest, richest nation in the world. But it is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots, and those who have the very least—who aren’t even considered citizens—live on the Saha Estates. Residents of Saha must squat in moldy units without plumbing or electricity and can only find work doing harsh labor. For many, the apartment complex is a bleak haven for escaping even bleaker pasts—as it was for Jin-kyung and her brother, Do-Kyung, who showed up one day sopping wet and shivering. No one is shocked when a lowlife like Do-Kyung becomes the main suspect in Su’s—a citizen’s—murder. But then Do-Kyung disappears. Isolated in a barren Saha unit, Jin-Kyung makes a choice: she will finally confront a system hellbent on erasing her brother’s existence. To find him, she must rely on her tightlipped neighbors, from the mysterious janitor known as “Old Man,” to Granny Konnim, the community gardener and reluctant midwife, to Woomi, an unwitting test subject at the local clinic. On her quest for the truth, Jin-kyung will uncover a reality far darker than she could have imagined.

set status

Wolf-Speaker (Immortals, #2)

Tamora Pierce

When humans start cutting down trees and digging holes in peaceful Dunlath Valley, the wolves know that something is wrong. They send a messenger to the only human who will listen -- Daine, a fourteen-year-old girl with the unpredictable power of wild magic. Daine and her closest companions heed the wolves' cry for help. But the challenge they are about to face in the valley is greater than they can possibly imagine...

set status

A Trade of Blood

Robert Jackson Bennett

An Ana and Din Mystery Brilliant detective Ana Dolabra must prove a man's innocence to stop a civil war in the third book of the series that began with The Tainted Cup, named an Edgar, Hugo, and World Fantasy Award Finalist and one of the best books of the year (New York Times Book Review, NPR, Elle)—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy. In the canton of Sapirdad, two of the Empire’s most powerful families are moments away from going to war with each other, their hundreds of retainers gathered with swords drawn. If blood is spilt, the whole of the empire may be plunged into starvation and chaos. To de-escalate matters, someone must do the impossible: prove that one family’s eldest son is innocent of a gruesome and unforgivable murder, despite the incontrovertible evidence against him. It is with this undertaking that the great detective Ana Dolabra is tasked, her assistant Din at her side—and the two find themselves racing with great speed and little dignity to the scene. As ever, the impossible proves little obstacle for the deadly combination of Ana’s intellect and Din’s keen eye, and mere hours after riding into the dusty town, Ana glimpses the greater pattern behind the crime. A deeper, subtler web of death is being woven in plain sight, by a mastermind with an ancient magical technology at his disposal. But even Ana's uncanny insight is of little use when each new suspect she uncovers ends up dead--with each new killing calculated to bring tensions between the two rival clans past the boiling point. And as Din pursues their adversary through the canton's wild ranges, sprawling ranches, and reeking slaughterhouses, he finds his loyalties divided in unexpected ways.

set status

The Farthest Shore (Earthsea Cycle, #3)

Ursula K. Le Guin

Book Three of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle. Darkness threatens to overtake Earthsea: the world and its wizards are losing their magic. Despite being wearied with age, Ged Sparrowhawk - powerful Archmage, wizard, and dragonlord - embarks on a daring, treacherous journey, accompanied by Enlad's young Prince Arren, to discover the reasons behind this devastating pattern of loss. Together they will sail to the farthest reaches of their world -- even beyond the realm of death -- as they seek to restore magic to a land desperately thirsty for it.

set status

Mana

Tāme Iti

Iconic Māori activist, artist, and performer Tāme Iti shares his extraordinary life, defined by resistance, resilience, and rangatiratanga.Mana. It's a big word. But what is it? Are you born with it, can you earn it, can it be taken away?For more than five decades, Tāme Iti has stood at the heart of Aotearoa's struggle for indigenous rights. From land marches to performance art, police raids to prison cells, his voice has challenged New Zealand to reckon with its colonial legacy. Once branded as a dangerous and extreme activist, now hailed as a national treasure, Tāme has lived the contradictions and realities of standing with mana motuhake in a modern world.After being silenced from speaking te reo Māori as a child, Tāme went on to champion its revitalisation. He discovered the power of protest and what it means to live with mana in a world that often tries to strip it away.This is his kōrero of the road he walked and the people who joined him. The comrades, the supporters, and the ones who tried to take him out.Mana is the story of a man who has never stopped challenging the status quo. It cements Tāme's place as one of Aotearoa's most iconic figures.

set status

This Compulsion In Us

Tina Makereti

It's not beautiful, not at all, when it's there in front of you, but writing transforms. In her first book of nonfiction, prizewinning author Tina Makereti writes from inside her many intersecting lives as a wahine Maori – teacher, daughter, traveller, parent – and into a past that is as alive and changeful as the present moment. Makereti stands at the foot of her mounga and pays careful attention to tohu. With her tupuna at her elbow she casts around for home, meets taonga in museums, and writes her way towards her father. She walks through the darkness with others, in awe of Te Kore, Te Po and Te Ao Marama—a universe of potential being, dark and light. These are some of the kaupapa that underpin her work and her way of moving through the world, both enlivened and haunted by a compulsion to write. Included here are frank and moving essays about the wahine who have shown her many ways of being a Maori woman, the pain and dark humour of living with an alcoholic, a blue boob from breast cancer treatment, and the potential of art to return power to survivors of colonialism. What if we could transform the events that made us who we are? What if there were a way back to the beginning?

set status

Wild Magic (Immortals, #1)

Tamora Pierce

Young Daine's knack with horses gets her a job helping the royal horsemistress drive a herd of ponies to Tortall. Soon it becomes clear that Daine's talent, as much as she struggles to hide it, is downright magical. Horses and other animals not only obey, but listen to her words. Daine, though, will have to learn to trust humans before she can come to terms with her powers, her past, and herself.

set status

The Seoul Letter Shop

Baek Seungyeon

A moving story of loss and connection, The Seoul Letter Shop is a poignant exploration of the distance that separates us—and the words that just might bring us home. At twenty-eight, Woo Hyo-young has mastered the art of silence—especially when it comes to her sister, Hyo-min. After years of shouldering the burden left behind by Hyo-min’s betrayal, and sacrificing her own dream of becoming a film director, Hyo-young is worn thin. When letters of apology from her estranged sister begin to arrive, each one a reminder of everything she’s lost, Hyo-young does the only thing she can: she runs. Landing in Seoul with nowhere to go, Hyo-young accepts a quiet position at Geulwol, a tucked-away letter shop run by her former classmate, Seon-ho. Surrounded by the quiet rustle of paper and the comfort of handwritten notes, Hyo-young begins to witness the power of letters to bridge distances, mend wounds, and reveal hidden truths. Then she meets Yeonggwang, a warm yet guarded webtoon artist and regular customer at the shop. Through their growing bond—and the stories of strangers who bravely write what they cannot say aloud—Hyo-young begins to confront her own past. As the seasons pass, Geulwol letter shop becomes more than a refuge; it becomes a mirror. One that reflects Hyo-young’s unspoken pain, the beauty of forgiveness, and the tender courage it takes to pick up a pen and finally speak up.

set status

Vicious

Victoria Schwab

A masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers. Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end? In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn't automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.

set status