Welcome back, book fans! I SURVIVED BOOK EXPO AMERICA. I had a blast, and was so excited to see all the new books. You can bet I will be telling you about them over the next several months. Now, let’s talk books out today. I’m excited to buy The Fat Artist and Other Stories by Benjamin Hale and Company Town by Madeline Ashby. I’ve been looking forward to reading them! And on this week’s episode of the All the Books! we talked about some great new releases, such as The Fireman, Shrill, and Girls on Fire. I have a few more great titles for you below, and as always, you can find a big list in the All the Books! show notes.
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North.
The new thriller from the acclaimed author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.
My name is Hope Arden, and you won’t know who I am. But we’ve met before — a thousand times.
It started when I was sixteen years old. A father forgetting to drive me to school. A mother setting the table for three, not four. A friend who looks at me and sees a stranger.
No matter what I do, the words I say, the crimes I commit, you will never remember who I am.
That makes my life difficult. It also makes me dangerous.
Joe Gould’s Teeth by Jill Lepore
The story of Joe Gould is wildly interesting. He was an eccentric man, friends with famous artists, including Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams. He believed himself to be the most brilliant historian of his time, and he claimed to write down everything that was ever said to him, and boasted of having written a nine million word manuscript. Reporter Joseph Mitchell later claimed in a New Yorker article that the manuscript to be a figment of a madman’s imagination. Joe Gould’s Teeth is a fascinating story of historian Lepore’s own search for the missing – possibly imaginary – Gould manuscript.
Backlist bump: Joe Gould’s Secret by Joseph Mitchell
One Hundred Twenty-One Days by Michèle Audin (Author), Christiana Hills (Translator)
This dazzling work tells the story of French mathematicians during World Wars I and II, with the writing style varying from chapter to chapter. It is told in diary form, in novel form, as historical research, and more. This is an inventive novel from Audin, a mathematician and Oulipo member. This is a little gem of a book – expect to see it on lots of lists at the end of the year
Backlist bump: Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
Nitro Mountain by Lee Clay Johnson
Set in a grim mining town in Virginia, Nitro Mountain is a dark, intense story of a group of friends bound together for better or worse – but it’s almost always worse. Fueled by alcohol, drugs, and crime, they navigate their bleak lives, where the lines between doing what’s right and doing what they need to survive are often blurred. It’s a great debut and perfect for fans of Frank Bill and Donald Ray Pollock.
Backlist bump: The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock
Silence is Goldfish by Annabel Pitcher
When Tess Turner learns that the man she thought was her dad isn’t her birth father, she’s shocked into silence. Literally. As she looks into her past, the truth about her real dad may uncover a lot of painful secrets. But when you aren’t talking, it’s easier to keep them. This is a fantastic contemporary coming-of-age novel about the definition of family and identity.
Backlist bump: My Sister Lives On the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher
YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me. If you want to learn more about books (and see lots of pictures of my cats), or tell me about books you’re reading, you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’! (OMG I am OBSESSED with Litsy.)
Stay rad!
Liberty