Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and it’s time for a double dose of new releases for your summer reading pile. It was a cool and rainy weekend here in Denver, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This is my favorite time of year — it’s so green outside, which will not be the case once the summer heat really gets going. But right now, perfect for sitting under a tree and reading a book while catching some fresh air. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Friday!
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Bookish Goods
UFO Bookmark by LittleBlackBats
There’s a fun-looking UFO book in this week’s new releases, and this bookmark is perfect for it. The bookmark is light, ink printed of “clear paper” and if you’d like to be abducted into a story with a different colored light beam, you can request it! $8
New Releases
Owlish by Dorothy Tse
Nevers is a mysterious city bound by mountains, and in its lives a literature professor known as “Q.” He’s uninterested in his own marriage, nearly as uninterested in his own career, and his only joy is his collection of antique dolls. One day, he receives the crowning glory of that collection: a music box ballerina doll named Aliss, who is alive in her own way. Q soon finds the passion he has lacked elsewhere in his life by embarking on an affair with Aliss.
On Earth as It Is on Television by Emily Jane
One day, quite without warning, massive UFOs show up in the skies above Earth, hovering undeniably and visible for all to see. Then they depart, as abruptly as they showed up, and without a word as to why they were here or what they might want. As first contacts go, it’s not the most earth-shattering, but it still throws humanity into disarray with the knowledge that we are not alone in the universe…and this novel follows the lives of a few such humans trying to grapple with a sudden reorientation of their place while still dealing with the weirdness of modern life.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
As is becoming my habit (and I hope you don’t mind!) I wanted to sneak in an extra round of new releases this beautiful Tuesday morning. There are just so many good books, and I can’t choose just a few!
Where Rivers Go to Die by Dilman Dila
Dilman Dila is a Ugandan Africanfuturist writer, and this new collection of eight short stories from him showcases both his talent and his delightful constructions with language, all with tales seated in Uganda’s myth, culture…and future. In these pages, British colonizers find Martians in Africa, a detective tries to stop a vengeful spirit from killing grooms before they can get married, and a warrior faces down both ancient horrors and his own elders to secure paradise for all his people.
Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara
Psyche is prophesied to defeat a monster even the gods fear; she decides to approach this by training with bow and blade, the traditions of society be damned. When she offends Aphrodite, the goddess sends her son Eros to teach her a lesson, though there’s nothing the young god wants less than to be involved in humanity’s affairs. But when he pricks his finger with one of his own arrows, he falls indelibly in love with Psyche. Fate brings them together as the Trojan War begins, and it’s for them to decide if they will allow war and the rest of the gods to tear them back apart.
See you, space pirates. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.