Hooray, It’s Time for New Books!

It has been increasingly harder for me to concentrate lately, which makes it hard to read sometimes. My go-to recently have been middle grade mystery novels, but I also have been dipping into this collection of flash fiction. They are perfect bite-sized stories that you can read in a few minutes, from many of today’s most talented writers, including some of my favorite writers, such as Aimee Bender, Bryan Washington, and Luis Alberto Urrea. Picking one to read is like eating a piece from a box of chocolates without looking at the legend inside the lid. They’re each different, exciting, heartbreaking, and so satisfying. And the foreword is by the amazing Danielle Evans, who also wrote the foreword to a collection of stories I loved recently, A New Race of Men from Heaven by Chaitali Sen, which is a delightful coincidence. I cannot recommend Danielle Evans enough. In fact…

Backlist bump: …I will recommend one of her collections right now: The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella and Stories by Danielle Evans

And this is the first of the two books on heartbreak I wanted to talk about. Felix is a National Book award-nominated poet and former political speech writer. This is her memoir about a breakup that completely blew up her life. She reflects on the period of grief and healing she went through as she recovered in a hospital, while also examining earlier experiences in her life, such as childhood trauma. And Felix uses her dyscalculia, a condition that makes it hard for a person to comprehend math and numbered learning, to explain her decisions when it comes to love and relationships. It’s a unique and interesting way to look at heartbreak. (CW for mention of sexual assault.)

Backlist bump: Build Yourself a Boat by Camonghne Felix

And out in paperback today from one of my favorite science writers comes a look at heartbreak and how it can literally affect your body. After 25 years of marriage, Williams and her spouse split, and it was shortly after that she began to feel unwell physically. Her weight, her sleep, and her health were all affected, prompting her to investigate what it is about breakups that, despite the fact that your heart doesn’t actually “break”, can actually induce real symptoms in us. Williams undergoes a series of tests surrounding her own breakup and shares her results about heartbreak and grief with humor and candor.

Backlist bump: Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History by Florence Williams

This week, I am reading Never Too Old to Save the World: A Midlife Calling Anthology edited by Alana Joli Abbott and Addie J. King and Fever House by Keith Rosson. Outside of books, I have been rewatching The New Adventures of Old Christine and NewsRadio, because I live in the past. (I make my cats watch Family Ties when I leave the house.) The song stuck in my head is “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1” by The Flaming Lips because, again, I live in the past. And here is your weekly cat picture: Here’s Zevon, making his “I am an angel, you can’t stay mad at me” face, which works every time.