The sun is shining and the weather has warmed up — I love this time of year! Since our big holiday weekend hike, the Corgis have been passed out, draping themselves all over the furniture in a dramatic fashion, as only Corgis can. They wake up for bathroom breaks and dinner time. Corgis are herding dogs, and difficult to tire out, so I’d call our nature excursion a success!
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Bookish Goods
Read with Pride T-shirt by YA Novel Designs
It’s Pride Month! Let’s goooooo! To kick us off, here is a lovely “Read with pride” T-shirt! $18+
New Releases
Horse Barbie: A Memoir by Geena Rocero
Horse Barbie follows the life of Geena Rocero, a trans pageant queen from the Philippines. She finds a home in the U.S. where she’s able to change her gender markers and build a successful career as a model. But as her career took off, she felt like she was losing herself. This memoir is a chance for Rocero to tell her own story.
Genealogy of a Murder: Four Generations, Three Families, One Fateful Night by Lisa Belkin
In the summer of 1960, a young cop was murdered in Stamford, Connecticut. Lisa Belkin follows the complex story of three families over multiple generations, and how they were involved in the cop’s death.
For a more comprehensive list, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Tell Me Everything You Don’t Remember: The Stroke That Changed My Life by Christine Hyung-Oak Lee
When Christine Hyung-Oak Lee was in her early 30s, she experienced a stroke, which changed her life forever. For over a year, she had little to no short-term memory. She wrote details down in a notebook so her future self could reread the things that had happened earlier that day. She tried to take care of herself, making her own food and dressing herself, but she struggled to do everyday tasks. In her memoir, Lee describes herself as “Unstuck in Time,” referring to Kurt Vonnegut’s work, which she read and reread during this time. Lee’s memoir is such an important account of someone experiencing a brain-related illness.
The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang
Wang has lived most of her life with schizophrenia. As she’s moved through the world, she’s experienced a countless number of people who have made a lot of assumptions about her based purely on her diagnosis. But most people she’s encountered have little to no idea what living with schizophrenia is actually like. In her essay collection, Wang shares her experience with the condition, highlighting a lot of the lesser-known details of the disease. Her writing is stunning, with incredible prose and insightful observations. The Collected Schizophrenias is such a beautiful book that I love more every time I read it.
That’s it for this week! You can find me over on my substack Winchester Ave, over on Instagram @kdwinchester, or on my podcast Read Appalachia. As always, feel free to drop me a line at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For even MORE bookish content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.
Happy Reading, Friends!
~ Kendra