It’s Tuesday! Happy new release day to all who celebrate. We’re past the halfway point of the year now, but the amazing releases show no signs of slowing down. (Claps loudly.) At the very top of my list of new releases for this week to acquire are a couple sequels —This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart) by Kalynn Bayron, and Speaking Bones (The Dandelion Dynasty Book 4) by Ken Liu — and a few other things that interest me, including The Catch by Alison Fairbrother and Fake It Till You Bake It by Jamie Wesley.
And on this week’s episode of All the Books! Tirzah and I discussed the best books we read for this week and more, including The Ballad of Perilous Graves, Vera Kelly: Lost and Found, and The Tree Thieves. And now, it’s time for everyone’s favorite game show: AHHHHHH MY TBR! Here are today’s contestants.
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
It seems almost impossible to me that it has already been six years since Yong’s wonderful book I Contain Multitudes was released. (Or that All the Books! is old enough for us to have discussed it on the show!) This time, instead of a book about living things inside of us, it’s a great book about living things besides us. Which is great because it’s always humans, humans, humans these days. This is a fascinating look at amazing things the natural world can do, whether it’s plants sensing bugs nearby, the sensitivity of crocodiles, or what dogs are smelling around them. It’s a great book for people who love to learn things. (CW for animal harm and death.)
Backlist bump: I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong
Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid
And hold onto your butts, because this is a fantastic dark fantasy by the author of The Wolf and the Woodsman. NGL, when I received a copy, I assumed it was YA because of the illustrated cover. HOLY CATS WAS I WRONG. It’s really dark and not for everyone. But if you like grim (ha) fairy tales, keep reading! This is a dark retelling of The Juniper Tree, about a witch and her sisters seeking to get away from their abusive wizard father. Marlinchen, her two sisters, and their father, are the last vestiges of magic in a growing city. But as the business of magic dries up, their father starts to spin out of control. Can they escape the confines of the prison he has built for them for good? (This one comes with a LOT of content warnings, pretty much every warning I normally take into account, so read with caution if you are sensitive to certain content.)
Backlist bump: The Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns
On Rotation by Shirlene Obuobi
And now for something completely different! If you listen to All the Books! this week, you will hear me mention how I want to read this. Well, ta-da! We recorded on Friday, and then I read it over the weekend, and it’s a delight. It’s about a Ghanaian American medical school student, Angela Appiah, who think she is following the path of the “perfect immigrant daughter” to please her parents. But when everything in her life feels like it’s falling apart at the same time, she realizes she needs to examine her priorities — and maybe take up with a handsome man who is everything she thinks she doesn’t want. (CW for infidelity, illness, loss of a loved one, chemical use and abuse, sexism and racism.)
Backlist bump: Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
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This week: I am reading The Force of Such Beauty by Barbara Bourland and The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern by Rita Zoey Chin. Outside of books, I watched Hustle a couple of times, because I already miss the NBA. The song stuck in my head is Jupiter and Teardrop by Grant Lee Buffalo, because my brain starts singing it every time I look at the Juniper & Thorn book. And here is your weekly cat picture: This one is of Farrokh laughing at the birds outside. Or he’s in mid-yawn. One of these things is true.
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. And yay, books! – XO, Liberty ❤️