Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’m here to welcome you to the second glorious week of October with a couple of new releases, and a couple of awesome books about witches! The leaves are starting to turn on the tree outside my window (they go bright yellow) and we’re in the finals for Fat Bear Week. Truly, we are in the midst of autumn! My advice is: have something delightful and warm to drink, considering who your favorite of the fat bears is, and kick back with a good book. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Friday!
Autumn is here, which means it’s time to curl up with a great read and get cozy — whatever your version of cozy looks like. Whether it’s romance, creepy reads, modern classics, or escapist reads you crave, TBR can help you find the perfect books for your fall reading, with options curated to your specific reading tastes.
Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here are two places to start: Maui Aloha: The People’s Response, which sends support to those affected by the wildfires on Maui, particularly first responders; and Entertainment Community Fund, which supports entertainment workers who are striking for living wages and a future where humans can continue to create art for each other.
Bookish Goods
Baba Yaga Book Bag by HallowedMountain
I can never get enough of a nice canvas tote bag — good for groceries and for books. The design on this one is lovely, a take on Baba Yaga flying in her mortar. $18.56
New Releases
Touched by Walter Mosley
Martin Just is an ordinary man, patriarch of the only Black family in his Hollywood Hills neighborhood — until he wakes up one morning, feeling as if he’s slept for centuries, knowing two things with perfect clarity: Humanity is a virus that will destroy everything, and he is the Cure. It is for him to defend his family against pure evil with this knowledge, and the strange new physical strengths he possesses.
A Light Most Hateful by Hailey Piper
Olivia ran away from home three years ago with big dreams, but now she’s stuck in a dead-end job in Chapel Hill, PA, and the only thing she’s got going for her is her best friend, Sunflower. But when a horrific storm hits the town, followed by a monster, Olivia has new impetus to escape Chapel Hill as well — if she can dodge the residents enslaved by the storm’s mystical influence and find Sunflower first.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Now that we’ve survived the new release tsunami of the first week in October, I want to get back to more themed recommendations to go with the season! And to start with, a couple of books about witches:
The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings
Fourteen years ago, Josephine’s mother disappeared with no explanation and only speculation left behind. The most worrying theory is that she was a witch, because witches are real — and a Black woman particularly can be accused of witchcraft and put on trial all too easily. At 28 years old, Jo is also staring down state-required marriage unless she wants to put herself on a government registry for monitoring, and neither choice is good. When she’s given a chance to follow one last request made in her mother’s will, she leaps at it.
Bindle Punk Bruja by Desideria Mesa
Luna — also known as Rose, depending on which crowd she’s with — is the only white-passing child of a Mexican immigrant mother, and it’s an advantage in 1920s Kansas City she’s used without hesitation in pursuit of owning an illegal jazz club. But her race is not the only part of her heritage she’s hiding; she’s also a bruja with ever-growing magical abilities, and soon she’ll find that she’ll need to stop keeping both identities in check if she’s to save her friends and family.
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.