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A blend of memoir, history and biography, Wilbert L. Cooper’s The Black Shield: An American Memoir of Family and Power is an exploration of paradox. Cooper’s parents were Black police officers who used their guns and power “as symbols of our freedom in a country that will not stop killing or incarcerating Black folks.” As a child, he didn’t question the contradiction, but becoming an adult “in the America [he] inherited” made understanding that dissonance critical.

K.S. Shay’s Portrait of a Witch Undone is an unforgettable fantasy set in the marshes of the North Shore of Massachusetts, following the adventures of coven outcast Maeve Ryan. Ever since a spell went wildly wrong for Maeve and her best friend and ritual partner, Ash, their coven has been plagued by visits from the Lady of the Fens, a dangerous revenant whose appearances are usually accompanied by tragedy.

Young scholar Edmund is done with his life in service to the Many-Armed God. While he loves his studies and the time he’s allowed to research and write, he can no longer ignore his temple’s darker side, especially its discrimination against women. Tasked with transporting an ancient sword and some books to the city of Archon’s Glory, he decides to carry out his mission and then quietly leave temple life for good. He’s barely outside the city limits when he’s attacked by bandits.

In her thoughtful and deeply unsettling The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore (We the People) examines our headlong race toward a technology-driven form of governance that she argues is rapidly supplanting liberal democracy, and that may, in its full flowering, deprive us of our very humanity.

Ah, the park on a sunny day, where one encounters an embarrassment of riches: fresh air, beautiful trees, colorful flowers, chirpy birds and wild animals. Also enjoying the scenery are other people, sometimes too many, who might speak too loudly, speed-skate on the walking paths or have barking dogs that scare away birds. How can every person and creature coexist while ensuring everyone’s happy and having fun?

Readers looking for a whimsical love story will be delighted by Sylvie Cathrall’s The Art of Charming a Changeling, which is full of both bashful yearning and nerdy fairy art history. It’s a gauzy, moss-covered romantic fantasy for anyone who ever had a Kinuko Y. Craft poster on their wall as a kid. IYKYK. Perhaps one of the worst things to happen on your first day at a new job as an art conservator for a prince would be to discover that his very favorite painting is, in fact, a fake.

In Adrienne Thurman and Mags DeRoma’s The Brunch Shift, it’s early Saturday morning, and a sleepy-eyed young narrator and her mother wait at the bus stop as the rising sun casts the city in a golden glow. There’s no sleeping in for this mother and daughter: “Our Saturdays are for the egg-crackin’, pancake-flippin’, orange-juicin’ brunch shift. A shift Mama can’t afford to miss.” But this girl’s creative Mama uses every opportunity to inject a little magic into their weekend routine.

Two months into sixth grade, Gustavo Santos Costa has to move from Puerto Rico with his mom and older sister to Gardiner, Montana, where his mother has taken a new job as an accountant at Yellowstone National Park. Gustavo calls the move “pretty much one of the worst things [he] can imagine happening to [him].” What’s more, his parents are on a “break,” and Gustavo is convinced an argument about him caused their rift.

In Homesick, young Poppy can hardly wait for her very first sleepover at her Mimi and G-Pa’s house. Seasoned authors Liz Garton Scanlon and Audrey Vernick’s story glows with the little girl’s enthusiasm. Having had her bag packed for eight days, Poppy is “popping with excitement” and has “braided her hair and dressed in finery.” Throughout, their brief text is filled with warmth and understanding. Poppy’s “Home,” however, dreads her departure in a clever use of personification.

[S] Don’t Upstage the Body The fourth novel from Naomi Stephens, Don’t Upstage the Body is a witty Christian mystery that follows the Halfpennys, a family of actors who make their living as professional mourners. Their gig at reclusive Lord Basil Montfort’s service takes an especially dramatic turn when Hippolyta Halfpenny discovers another body than that of the deceased. Hippolyta joins forces with the lord’s son, Crispin, to uncover the killer hiding among them.