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Sex and Rage
256 pages; Counterpoint

Amid the glitz of 1960s and '70s Hollywood, Jacaranda goes from beach bum to Champagne-swilling It girl—until one night, after downing 14 white ladies, the spell wears off. In language that coils and surprises (a man named Etienne is "built like a lizard or a saluki"), this reissued fiction classic shimmers like a Santa Monica sunset.

— Leigh Haber, Taylor Lannamann and Joelle Milman