Fledgling, Octavia Butler's new novel after a seven-year break, is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly inhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire.

Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted—and still wants—to destroy her and those she cares for, and how she can save herself.

Fledgling is a captivating novel that tests the limits of "otherness" and questions what it means to be truly human.

When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl.

George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part . . . because she's a boy.

With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte -- but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.

Princess and heir to the throne of Thorvaldor, Nalia has led a privileged life at court. But everything changes when she learns, just after her sixteenth birthday, that she is a false princess, a stand-in for the real Nalia, who has been hidden away for her protection.

Cast out with little more than the clothes on her back, the girl now called Sinda must leave behind the city of Vivaskari, her best friend, Keirnan, and the only life she's ever known. Sinda is sent to live with her only surviving relative, an aunt who is a cold, scornful woman with little patience for her newfound niece. Sinda proves inept at even the simplest tasks.

But when Sinda discovers that magic runs through her veins—long-suppressed, dangerous magic that she must learn to control—she realizes that she can never learn to be a simple village girl.

Returning to Vivaskari for answers, Sinda finds her purpose as a wizard scribe, rediscovers the boy who saw her all along, and uncovers a secret that could change the course of Thorvaldor's history forever.

In 1942, eleven-year-old Milada is taken from her home in Lidice, Czechoslovakia, along with other blond, blue-eyed children, to a Lebensborn center in Poland. There, she is trained to be a "proper German" for adoption by a German family. All the while, she struggles to remember her true identity and her real name.

This poignant story reveals the harrowing experiences of young Milada as she navigates the challenges of maintaining her identity amidst the chaos of World War II. Her journey is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the enduring power of memory and self-discovery.

In Theatre, W. Somerset Maugham—the author of the classic novels Of Human Bondage and Up at the Villa—introduces us to Julia Lambert, a woman of breathtaking poise and talent whose looks have stood by her forty-six years. She is a star stage actress in England—so good, in fact, that perhaps she never stops acting.

It seems that nothing can ruffle her satin feathers, until a quiet stranger challenges Julia's very sense of self. As a result, she will endure rejection for the first time, her capacity as a mother will be affronted, and her ability to put on whatever face she desires for her public will prove limited.

In Theatre, Maugham subtly exposes the tensions and triumphs that occur when acting and reality blend together, and—for Julia—ultimately reverse.