Books: 793

“Pain Before the Rainbow: A Biomythographical Anthology”
Jack Cooper
Two Sisters Writing and Publishing
$24.99

“Biomythography,” the author’s descriptor for his “Pain Before the Rainbow,”was first coined by Audre Lorde in her 1982 “Zami: A New Spelling of My Name,” used to describe a text composed of mixed genres, allowing the author to meld fact and fiction, reaching beyond a single individual, even to the point of interweaving mythological (hence universal) sources. These tactics intensify the author’s narrative, while making the whole more accessible to readers of varied backgrounds, time frames and experience. The anchor of “Pain” is the novella, “Anthony’s Sin,” that focuses on the love and affection between two young near-adults, one of whom cannot break through the barriers of their era’s religious strictures and family expectations. The shorter sections highlight other human-generated pain, completing a moving anthology.

“Jackson Bright in the Spotlight”
Eureka O’Hara and Dan Poblocki
Amulet/Abrams
$18.99

Last day of school! Students dress as they wish! Jackson Bright dons a fancy polka-dot shirt and pants, but a soda spill ruins the ensemble. He borrows some polka dots from friend Eva’s sister’s closet, arriving at school in a flouncy, polka-dotted … dress. Sitting well with neither scholars nor faculty (“Dress like a boy!”), he’s sent home, setting up the plot. With bestie Eva (non-binary), they plot his entrance in the town’s Little Miss pageant — in drag — highlighting his fabulosity and to support other non-binaries. Avoiding Jackson’s ailing dad and overworked mom, they collude with visiting uncle Aaron, himself a keeper of secrets and talents. “Spotlight” covers many of today’s gender issues in a non-didactic, humorous — yet deep — fashion to a climax both satisfying and realistic.

“The Art Spy”
Michelle Young
Harper Collins
$27.99

A lively biography of “Art Spy” Rose Valland, whose bravery, attention to detail and (unsuspected) German fluency were vital to the rescue and restoration of France’s artistic patrimony. An unpaid secretary at Paris’s Jeu de Paume museum, she was ordered to remain after the Germans invaded Paris. Fiercely protective, Valland detailed all art shuttled through the museum as Nazis shipped trainloads of spoils into Germany. Unobtrusive, the “token French caretaker,” Valland noted everything: art, phone calls, gossip, passing it to the resistance. Young gives the reader a vivid account of the mental and physical trials Valland suffered, and her protection of lifelong partner, Joyce Heer — a relationship not countenanced by either her countrymen or the enemy. Read also Valland’s own recently translated 1961 “The Art Front.”

“The Black Wolf”
Louise Penny
Minotaur Books
$30

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, home recuperating from injuries incurred aborting a domestic terrorist attack (“The Grey Wolf”), realizes a fatal oversight, that there’s more — worse — yet to come. Sequestering with trusted agents Beauvoir and Lacoste, he describes the recent attack as a run-up. But to what? A mistake to ignore the murdered Grey Wolf’s repeated scribbling, “In a dry and parched land, where there is no water.” Far from local, even domestic, the perpetrators’ tentacles already infiltrate into the law, halls of government, industry — even into Canada’s burgeoning organized crime groups. Danger, to what end? The deceased’s notebooks and a map are all they have, and time is running out. As always, Louise Penny’s proof that the “I couldn’t put it down” encomium isn’t hype.