Hello and welcome to another trip around the bookstore shelves. Let's get rolling, shall we?
 

First up is Fevered Star, Rebecca Roanhorse's follow-up to last year's explosive Black Sun. This one picks up shortly after the events in Black Sun. Things have gone badly for our characters, and things will go worse before the end. Fevered Star is one of those middle books that handily picks up the gauntlet from the first, sustains our interest, and sets us up for a really earth-shaking resolution in the upcoming final book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy. 

You could wait for the third book, but come on. Don't you want to have something to obsess over for the next year? Will Serapio learn to trust again? Will Xiala find an ally in unfamiliar lands? Will the sun ever come out again? You know you want to know. 
 

Meanwhile, Janelle Monáe returns to the dystopian cyberpunk world of her Dirty Computer album with The Memory Librarian, a collection of five long stories that further the narrative set forth in the album. While the New Dawn is intent on standardizing and homogenizing the future, a band of gender-nonconforming rebels persist in retaining, remembering, and celebrating the stories of who they were, who they are, and who they potentially become. The Memory Librarian will surely bring new readers (listeners?) to her record, and the book is a delightful addition to existing fans. Recommended. 
 

And here is Abby Jimenez's Part of Your World which starts with a raccoon and a grilled cheese sandwich, carries you through the middle with some blazing sexual chemistry, and wraps up with an emotionally enriching resolution. This is exactly what you're looking for when you come in and say, "You know, I need something with delightful characters, a bit of a hot sandwich in the middle—if you know what I mean—and doesn't require me to think too much about geological epochs, the evolutionary drift in flightless birds, and the rising cost of plastic parts." 
 

And while we're spinning the rack in the store, here is Jessica Clare's Go Hex Yourself, another delightful rom-com about unbelievers, Roman gods, curses, and what happens at the bottom of a well.

This is one of those awkward moments where you try to tell Lassie that yes, you have fallen in a well, but really—no, no, it's okay—don't be in a rush to fetch help because, you know . . .
 

Anyway, *ahem* over here is Samantha Jayne Allen's debut novel, Pay Dirt Road, which is both a coming of age novel and a dusty detective novel. Annie McIntyre is adrift in Garnett, Texas, where most of her excitement stems from waitresses at a local café. She wanders into some work for her grandfather, who's an old-timey PI, and as the story progresses, Annie discovers that she's got a nose for being nosy. Allen deftly lets us watch Annie find herself in her first case, and her evocative writing brings the landscape alive. Winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize for best debut novel. 
 

Ooh! Look at this! Laurel Snyder and Dan Santat (who recently wrote and illustrated The Aquanaut) team up for Endlessly Ever After: Pick Your Path to Countless Fairy Tale Endings! Can you narratively navigate through the dark wood and avoid the hungry wolf? Can you find the golden goose? Watch out for the angry pig! Oh my! You've just been decapitated by the woodsman! You'd better try again. So much fun. 
 

And speaking of fun, Nicola Griffith returns with a queer recasting of Arthurian legend with Spear, the story of a young woman, a Grail quest, and love. Many know Griffith from her fabulous Hild, the story of the seventh-century saint, and while Spear travels some of that same landscape, it is definitely flush with magic and dragons. Marvelous stuff!
 

And speaking of history and magic, John Crowley is back this week with Flint and Mirror, a story set in the 17th century. It tells the tale of Hugh O'Neill, an Irishman torn between flint-bearing Irish dead and Queen Elizabeth and her mesmerizing mirror. Crowley, much like Griffith, is a master of language, and Flint and Mirror evokes such deep world-building and character that this history is the true history. Recommended. 
 

Meanwhile, the Darlington siblings who wrote Booze & Vinyl are back with—wait for it—Booze & Vinyl 2. 140 more cocktails to sip while listening to classic records. We know what we're doing for the next sixty dozen weekends. 
 

And we'd be remiss if we didn't have a food pairing recommendation to go with all this cocktailing. Here is Jef Aldrich and Jon Taylor's The Düngeonmeister Cookbook: 75 RPG-inspired Recipes to Level Up Your Game Night. Goblintzes! Picked Pocket hamburger rolls! Hex-Grid cookies! Healing Words (aka Lavender Cupcakes with Honey Frosting)! 

Come on. You know an evening spent delving dungeons and dipping Cheesy Kobold Toes into a Cauldron of Everything Good while sipping an Electric Funeral and cranking Sabbath's Paranoid on the platter is the very definition of "Bestest Night Ever!"