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Happy Tuesday, book dragons! I hope you are all reading something good these days. I certainly have some great suggestions for you below. Every week is a plethora of excellent new releases! This week, I have an exciting post-apocalyptic novel, a queer tale of the Ming Dynasty, and a story about motherhood that will have you wagging your tail.
I am—as always—excited to get my hands on a lot of today’s releases. At the top of my to-buy list are What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad, Virtue by Hermione Hoby, and The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente. And speaking of today’s great books, for this week’s episode of All the Books! Tirzah and I discussed some of the wonderful books that we’ve read, such as For Your Own Good, Intimacies, In the Same Boat, and more.
And now, it’s time for everyone’s favorite gameshow: AHHHHHH MY TBR! Here are today’s contestants:
Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North
If you’ve been reading this newsletter or listening to All the Books! for any amount of time, you know how I love a post-apocalyptic story or a great SFF novel involving religious orders. (Most recently Star Eater and We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep.) So of course I was delighted to get my hands on this novel! It’s about a former holy man named Ven who worked with religious texts from the Burning Age, the apocalyptic climate disaster years of the planet that are kept a secret now to avoid a repeat of the events. Ven guards over this information, but when he is approached by a new order that wants him to interpret new texts that change the way he understands the world, his life is thrown into chaos. It’s the story of a man who must face the unknown and disregard his beliefs—and maybe give up his life—for the sake of the world.
Backlist bump: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
This is a freaking amazing queer reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. In 1345, China, the poor peasants of the Central Plains suffer under Mongol rule. Two children, a brother and a sister, are told their fortunes. For him, greatness. For her, nothingness. But when the family is attacked, the son dies, and his sister assumes his name—Zhu Chongba—and with it, his fortune. Zhu uses her brother’s identity to join a monastery as a young male novice, where she learns the skills to survive and pushes herself to live up to her brother’s foretold greatness. As Zhu grows stronger, she will fight battles, find love, and continue to strive for power and esteem. This book is so fun and action-packed! It’s definitely one of the best fantasy novels of 2021.
Backlist bump: The Black Tides of Heaven (The Tensorate Series) by Neon Yang
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
I will admit that as a vegan, I was not super-excited about the cover, lol. But luckily I spent 99.9% of the time with the inside of the book! This is a wild tale about a woman who thinks she is turning into a dog. The narrator gives up her career to stay at home when she has a baby, but it’s not the fulfilling experience she expected it to be. After two years, she has a husband who is largely absent for work, a toddler to chase around the house, and a large patch of hair growing on her neck. Wait—what? Alarmed, she starts to look for answers to her new features and senses, which grow to include sharp teeth and the start of a tail. As Nightbitch (as she refers to herself) tries to hide the fact that she’s turning into a dog from those around her, she struggles to decide which role is her preferred one—woman or canine. This is a weird, biting (ha) take on motherhood and the expectations placed on new moms.
Backlist bump: The Need by Helen Phillips
Say it with me now: YAY BOOKS. Thank you, as always, for joining me each week as I rave about books! I am wishing the best for all of you in whatever situation you find yourself in now. – XO, Liberty