Santa cruz noir pdf download

Jess Walter magnificently draws upon history to create an epic tale of two day laborer orphan brothers and the union organizers, tycoons, police officers, burlesque performers and private eyes that cross their path during the turn of the century in Spokane, WA. The outcome is a cinematic and entertaining tale, filled with unforgettable characters and a still relevant story about the ongoing progressive fight around income inequality. It is the most fun you’ll have reading a novel all year. —Casey

Regina Porter’s novel moves through time and characters with such agility and craft that it’s deliciously hard to believe it’s a debut. Playful in form and inspiration, at its center is the compelling narrative of two interweaving families, from the 1950s to the first year of Obama’s presidency, whose story also tells the greater American experience with an exacting, compassionate touch. —Melinda

Make no mistake: Carolina de Robertis has written an epic to stand in the annals of the Western canon. Set in Uruguay, with five protagonists. Women protagonists. Queer women protagonists. Building love, family, and future amidst a violent dictatorship and cultural oppression that would deny them themselves. This novel sings through decades and heartbreak to be vibrantly, fiercely alive and free, as the stories of these five cantoras unfold with vivid, sometimes aching, truth of nation and humanity. —Jocelyn

Thirty years ago, Walter Mosley busted open the LA noir crime novel, taking us to the backroom gin joints that Chandler never could. His laid-off worker turned detective, Easy Rawlins, has to navigate the racist seamier underside of the seamy underside of Los Angeles that most fictional gumshoes tread. It's a smoke-filled, bourbon-soaked, jazz-fueled and intensely atmospheric trek through the Harlem of the West Coast, expanding the idea of what LA noir could mean. Still one of the best detective novels I’ve read. — Dave

This collaboration between Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar(!) is what dreams are made of. In addition to all the slick, sci-fi cat-and-mouse games you could ask for, the emotional payoff is achingly devastating. Two android agents on opposite sides of a time war jump through strands of reality in this highly poetic epistolary novel. —Clara

Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Hawk, delivers a profoundly moving collection of nature essays that weaves unexpected and exciting connections between the natural world and our own. This is nature writing at its finest—steeped in enticing details, openly personal and emotional, unafraid to explore tough themes. Macdonald herself perfectly describes the collection as a Cabinet of Curiosities, and I look forward to going back through each drawer. Vesper Flights is a book to be savored. —Tori

In 2017, Hurricane Maria tore through the United States territory of Puerto Rico, destroying homes, power and water, ultimately causing 2,975 deaths. Chef Jose Andres vividly brings the disaster to life, depicting weeks of building a network of private chefs and restaurants that ultimately fed thousands a day, as the US government failed. Part memoir, part manifesto, reading this re-ignites outrage, but also provides guidance for a better way to help the survivors of future disasters. —Jocelyn