Author: Liberty Hardy

It’s always time for scary books, but it’s especially time right now, with Halloween only four-ish weeks away. This is a fantastic queer Southern Gothic about young man who travels to Nashville to find out why his best friend and soon-to-be roommate, Eddie, died by suicide. Andrew was supposed to join Eddie, but now he’s in a house with roommates he doesn’t know in an unfamiliar town. And worse, there are some scary secrets coming to light, and possibly something horrible haunting the house. Is Andrew now forever haunted? This one is going to slowly creep you out. (CW for racism and homophobia, trauma, grief, and suicide.)

Backlist bump: Ghost Summer: Stories by Tananarive Due

I don’t know about you, but I cannot get enough of the YA fantasy novels of the last few years. They are out of this world! This is another excellent one to add to the list. It’s about the Night Zoo, a place populated by magical creatures. Sixteen-year-old Koffi works at the Zoo as an indentured servant to pay her family’s debts, but when her family is threatened by the Zoo’s horrid boss, she accidentally conjures a power she didn’t know she had. Koffi is destined to cross paths with a young warrior, Ekon, and the two of them must team up to make sure their futures are safe. But their paths are fraught with danger and—wait for it—beasts of prey. (CW for kidnapping, enslavement, violence and gore, death, chemical use, mental illness, physical and verbal abuse, sexism, and murder.)

Backlist bump: A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

Okay, I know this is going to sound bananas, but this was my first Kate DiCamillo! I am familiar with all her backlist, but somehow have never read any of them. So I have to say, this is a great place to start because it’s a wonderful book! It’s about a young girl who mysteriously appears at the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing monastery. It turns out her name is Beatryce, and she holds many stories within her, and is sought by the King, because of a prophecy. Beatryce knows that her existence at the monastery puts everyone in danger, so she must figure out how to stop the King. It has amazing stories-within-stories, lots of action and adventure, and one great goat named Answelica. And it includes lovely illustrations by Sophie Blackall.

Backlist bump: The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz and Hatem Aly

THIS NOVEL. It will destroy you, so get ready for that. This is one of the best debut novels I have read in a long, long time, but please be ready, because it is filled with hard, heartbreaking subject matter.

The focus of the novel is three generations of Black women in a Southern family. Told over seventy years, it’s about these strong women, with Joan at the center of the narration. A young girl when her mother flees Joan’s abusive father with her younger sister, they wind up back at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis, living with her aunt and cousin. Each of them has a trauma they are dealing with, and they learn to trust and depend on each other and the other women in their neighborhood to help them heal, including a neighbor with a gift for curses.

Told back in forth in time, we also learn about Joan’s ancestors and their hopes and hardships. It’s set against the backdrop of history from the segregated South, to the assassination of Martin Luther King, to 9/11. It is an astounding gut-punch of a book, and all of the characters are so real and the story unfolds perfectly. They have hopes and dreams in the face of impossibilities, and make mistakes and try again, and you can’t help but cheer them on. I am not doing this novel justice, so you’re just going to have to trust me that it is amazing.

(CW for mentions of racism and racialized violence and murder, partner abuse, sexual assault of a child and an adult, war violence, terrorist violence, illness, death, loss of a parent, loss of a spouse, and police violence.)

Humans have been around for a lonnnnnnnng time, but we’re only been making major medical progress for a fraction of that. One of the major parts of the body we continue to tinker with is the heart. Schutt is a natural when it comes to writing about science and history, and this is another fascinating book about a part that everyone has, and everyone needs, but few of us understand. I was so pumped to read it. (Sorry, not sorry.)

Backlist bump: Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt (Related: did you see my cannibalism piece?)

And here’s a new addition for the fantastic middle grade category! For Héctor Muñoz, being gay at his school in San Francisco didn’t mean he was made to feel different. But at his new school in Orangevale, he is being bullied, and feels alone and helpless. Then one day, while trying to hide, he discovers a room at the back of the janitor’s closet. The room is magic, and brings him to other kids in other parts of the country who also don’t feel like they fit in. Time never moves inside the room, so they can hang out as much as they want, and the kids help each other come up with solutions to their problems. It’s an excellent story about friendship and fitting in. (CW for bullying, racism, gaslighting, and homophobia.)

Backlist bump: Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega

And I love these fantasy novellas so much, I needed to shout them out again, now that they’re available in one super edition! They have been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus, and Lambda Literary Awards. There are sibling heirs to an empire raised by monks, flying monsters, battles, scary monsters, and more. Staged in unique settings, the novellas in this collection are wildly imaginative and beautifully realized. The first two reminded me a bit of the land of Monstress, which I also highly recommend. (CW for physical violence and abuse, illness, war, animal death, death of a loved one, and death of a child.)

Backlist bump: The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

Have you been dying to read a new John Irving novel? Have you been looking for something like Nothing Here to See Here by Kevin Wilson? Then get ready, because this fantastic novel is the perfect book for you!

The main character is Emma, a young woman born in a small New Hampshire town with the ability to heal people with a touch of her hands. However, her parents don’t want her to become a sideshow act, so they forbid her from using it. But they still want her to heal people in other ways, so they encourage her to go to school to become a doctor, even though Emma herself isn’t sure that’s what she wants.

At the start of the novel, Emma gets a call that her father, Clive, is dying from a brain disease. The doctors aren’t sure what it is, but he’s been losing his memory, he hallucinates animals, and he talks to the ghost of a New Hampshire naturalist who died a century earlier. Emma thinks her mother asked her to come home so she can heal Clive with her hands, but it has been so long since she tried to use her gift, she’s not even sure if it will still work. But between looking after Clive, who is getting harder to manage, and Emma’s younger brother, who is home from his most recent rehab stay, her mother could use the help.

But this is just a tiny fraction of the plot of Unlikely Animals. There’s also a storyline about Emma’s missing childhood friend (who the police have written off because of her drug use), a private plot of land used for hunting by millionaires, an expensive fox, a classroom of earnest middle grade students, an amateur theater production, and much more. Plus, the narrators of the novel stole my heart. But they’re not mentioned in the book’s description, so I won’t spoil them for you.

This book is sweet and sad, but also so, so funny. I desperately want to see these characters brought to life on a screen in some capacity. Or even have a sequel, if such a thing could happen. 10/10, would read again!

(CW for mentions of chemical use and abuse, animal death, illness and death of a loved one, violence and bodily harm, mental illness, and infidelity.)

It has been a while since we’ve heard from Mary Roach, but she is back with her wry writing and humorous observations. This time, she investigates the consequences that befall animals and nature that behaves badly. She travels around the world and interviews several experts in human-animal conflict. What happens to the animals who attack? Who polices them? And are animals really the problem, or are humans at fault most of the time? (Spoiler: It’s the humans.) This book is fascinating and I enjoyed reading Roach’s writing as always, but there are two things I do want to mention. 1) The UK title of this book is Animal, Vegetable, Criminal, which is a much more awesome title and 2) a heads-up that although some of the nature mishaps are humorous, there are serious and sometimes fatal consequences for a lot of the creatures in this book, and as someone who is sensitive to animal death, it was hard to read about.

Backlist bump: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

This slim, powerful debut is narrated by an unnamed Black woman, facing a health crisis, who is getting ready to attend a lavish garden party at her white boyfriend’s family estate in the English countryside. But this might just be the day she takes a stand against the barrage of tokenism, misogyny, micro-aggressions, sexism, and racism she has had to deal with on a daily basis, in her work at an investment firm, out in public, and in her personal life. She will decide what is worth keeping and how to put her own needs first in this sharp, explosive punch of a novella.

Backlist bump: Luster by Raven Leilani

So yes, Vanessa talked about this one on the podcast, but I wanted to also mention it here. Because I cannot stress enough how you should get this now if you want it for yourself or to give as a gift, because it’s going to be impossible to find around the holidays. It’s a delightfully macabre little book, taking all the tropes of quaint English villages in cozy murder mysteries, and explaining them like a guide book. You’ll learn all the places, people, and objects to avoid if you want to keep from getting murdered. (Spoiler: it’s all of them.) And Cooper deftly illustrates NYT bestselling author Johnson’s hilarious text.

Backlist bump: The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey

I talked about this one several months ago in the Book Radar, but I thought it was worth revisiting since we’re only two weeks away from the pub date and I just heart it so freaking hard.

This delightful romantic comedy of errors is about a Jewish woman who is a successful author—not that anyone else knows that besides her agent and her publisher. See, Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt really, really loves Christmas. Like, has a whole room in her house dedicated to Christmas decorations year-round. But she’s also the daughter of one of New York’s most respected rabbis, and she doesn’t think her parents would be happy to know their daughter writes bestselling Christmas romance novels, so they are published under a pseudonym.

Rachel’s secret life as an author has been treating her really well for years now. She makes enough money to have a fabulous Manhattan apartment, and she is able to work from home, which is helpful, because Rachel has a chronic illness that often makes it hard for her to go out. (She has myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome as it is commonly known, as does the author Meltzer, who offers more information about it in the afterword.) But then Rachel’s publisher blindsides her: they don’t want anymore Christmas romances—they want her to write a Hanukkah romance novel instead.

Rachel is distressed—what is romantic and magical about Hanukkah, she cries? But then she learns about The Matzah Ball, a swanky charity event held on the last night of Hanukkah. Maybe that’s where she’ll get her inspiration! But there’s a catch (there’s always a catch). Jacob Greenberg, who broke Rachel’s heart at summer camp many years ago, is the brains behind The Matzah Ball.

But Rachel really needs inspiration if she’s going to continue writing books for her publisher, so she swallows her pride and asks Jacob for a ticket. Unfortunately, there’s a problem: the event is sold out. But he tells her she can attend if she first agrees to volunteer to help set up the event. So she does, and as she spends more time with Jacob, old feelings return. But so do misunderstandings and hijinks (that will make you actually LOL.) Is Rachel’s humiliation and heartbreak worth the material for a book? Or will Rachel end up with a real-life holiday romance?

As I said, this book is so delightful! Rachel is awesome. She’s smart, funny, and takes no guff. I liked that the conflict between Rachel and Jacob when they were young felt real, not just an excuse to break them apart. I think it’s hard sometimes with HEAs to come up with a good reason to split characters up. It’s also a really, really funny book! If you love charming romance novels, or just like fun, this is a wonderful book for readers year-round.

(CW for mentions of chronic illness, cancer, and loss of a parent.)

This is a wildly imaginative Asian-inspired novella set in the future. In the city of Ora, the citizens are watched over by a complex living network called the Gleaming and cloistered extrasensory humans. When a stranger comes to Ora, Anima, one of those extrasensory humans, discovers there’s a whole wide world of wonders outside of Ora. Is the city keeping its citizens safe by hiding things from them? What is the point of the Gleaming, if it hinders as much as it helps?

CW for on-page suicide and self-harm.

Backlist bump: The Tensorate Series by Neon Yang

The third book in the Kiss Quotient series is finally here! After violinist Anna Sun’s longterm boyfriend tells her he wants an open relationship, she decides she’s going to pursue other partners as well. Anna is already stressed from new-found fame, and she thinks maybe a series of one-night stands might be just what she needs to let off some steam. When she decides tattooed bad boy Quan Diep will be perfect for the job, their attempts at casual sex keep failing, possibly because they subconsciously realize they both deserve more. And when tragedy strikes in Anna’s life, she’ll learn who really has her back. This is a heavier book than the first two in the series, but it’s still full of heart, charm, and emotional depth, and—of course—sexy times. And like most romance series, you don’t have to have read previous books to enjoy this one.

CW for illness, loss of a loved one, bullying, suicidal ideation, and emotional abuse.

Backlist bump: The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

A shy librarian is forced to find her voice when the library where she works is threatened with closure. June Jones has been happily hiding behind the stacks in the library in the small English village where she grew up. And she’s sure this is where she’ll always stay, having taken the role after the loss of the town’s previous librarian, June’s mother. But when it looks like the library might be shut down, June realizes she’s going to have to fight to keep the library open. Helping June is her old school friend, Alex, who is now a lawyer, and is happy to help June fight the closure. Especially since he’s soooooo into her. This is a charming ode to books and book lovers, as well as a sweet story with some good chuckles about standing up for what you believe in.

CW for illness and loss of a loved one.

Backlist bump: The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan

This is going to be one of the big book club books of 2022. I cannot stress enough how bewitching I found this brilliantly plotted novel about au pairs in Paris. If you enjoyed Big Little Lies, you will doubly love this novel! At the beginning of the book, we learn that a child has died and his au pair has been arrested. But what really happened? The story then goes back in time with several different characters over the course of a few months, as well as diving deep into their pasts. And as we hear from one character after another, we get a sense of events from several perspectives.

This isn’t a thriller, or even really a mystery novel. It is an intricate tale of six women searching for happiness and love, and working hard for their families and to achieve their dreams. Some are running from their past, some are trying to find their way, and some are stuck in the present. We hear from three au pairs, as well as the mother of the child who died, his older sister, and the woman who teaches French to the au pairs. It’s an absolutely stunning debut novel about class and identity, and so expertly executed. It’s devastating and captivating.

CW for chemical use and abuse, illness, loss of a loved one, infidelity, partner abuse, terrorist violence, vehicular accident and injuries, suicidal thoughts, child endangerment and death.

It’s finally available on this side of the pond. If you love Derry Girls, the show about five Catholic high school students and their families set amid the political conflict of Northern Ireland in the 1990s, then you will definitely love this book! It is jammed packed with images of the show, with hilarious diary entires from Erin, written by the show’s creator, plus Erin’s doodles and poetry and illustrations. It will help get you through the long wait for season 3 of Derry Girls, which isn’t expected until at least 2022. Another way to occupy the time is to look up the actual ages of the actors playing teenagers (WOW), watch Nicola Coughlan in Bridgerton, and check out Siobhan McSweeney on the most recent season of The Great Pottery Throw Down.

Backlist bump: The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley

This is an amazing, sprawling epic, following generations of a Black family from the early 1700s to present day. It is a strong novel about the women of this family and the trauma and hardships they endure. The main focus of the book is Ailey Garfield, a young Black woman who grows up in the northern part of the country with her parents and two sisters. This novel is a powerful look at racism, slavery, trauma, family, friendship, and more. The book is so big, I feel it difficult to write more about the plot succinctly, but please don’t let my failings—or the book’s 800 pages!—dissuade you from picking it up. It’s full of history and mentions of important works, and is sure to be on a lot of 2021’s best books of the year lists!

(CW for racism and racialized violence, sexism, violence, sexual violence, death, and more.)

Backlist bump: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

And perennial Book Riot favorite Sarah MacLean is back with the first in a fabulous, feminist series of romance and intrigue. I can’t say too much about it without spoiling it, so you’re going to have to trust me. I can tell you it’s about a young woman named Lady Sesily Talbot, who uses her scandalous reputation to her advantage to do…not what you would expect. And there’s Caleb Calhoun, a young man who has tried to resist his attraction for her, but is failing. It’s saucy and super smart, with hot sexy times on the page! You can always count on MacLean for a great read. Bring on the next book, please!

Backlist bump: Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean.

Okay, I am going to start out this recommendation by saying something that always surprises people, but it is what it is: I don’t find The Great Gatsby interesting. And that’s okay! Not every book is for every person. I do, however, like Jillian Cantor, so I went ahead and read this novel anyway…and I think it’s excellent! She has taken the women of The Great Gatsby, maybe changed the end of Fitzgerald’s classic, and made an excellent historical mystery!

First you need to remember spoilers for a century-old classic: At the end of The Great Gatsby, George Wilson kills Jay Gatsby and then himself. But in Beautiful Little Fools, a detective finds a diamond pin in the bushes by the pool, and has a strong suspicion that the shootings didn’t go down the way they first appear to have happened. His suspects: Daisy Buchanan, known love of Jay Gatsby; her best friend, the golf pro Jordan Baker; and Catherine McCoy, suffragette and sister-in-law of the deceased Tom Wilson.

Told in alternating chapters between the three women and the investigating detective, this is a Jazz Age mystery of romance and betrayal that looks at Jay and Daisy’s early romance, Jordan’s time on the golf circuit, and Catherine’s fights for women’s freedom and independence. And it teases the question: what really happened at Gatsby’s pool? I really dug it. I thought Cantor did an excellent job staying true to these characters while giving the story an updated feel, and I found the story compelling and believable.

(CW for mentions of sexism, homophobia, chemical use and abuse, abuse by a partner, war, sexual assault, car accident violence, and murder.)

I was really interested to read this memoir, mostly because I really knew nothing about Billie Jean King (probably because when I was little, the Billie Jean I was into was the 1985 Legend of Billie Jean movie). This is King’s story of her life as a groundbreaking, world class athlete, and champion not only of tennis but many important causes, such as civil rights, feminism, and LGBTQ rights. She discusses her many public moments, such as her “Battle of the Sexes” match with Bobby Riggs, her eating disorder, the nonstop sexism on the circuit, and coming out at age fifty-one. It’s a fascinating look into the life of a legend.

Backlist bump: Seeing Serena by Gerald Marzorati

Yes, this is a sequel, but the first book, Raybearer, is so freaking good that I had to draw your attention to it again. I mean, this one is also fantastic, but let me tell you about Raybearer, in case you haven’t read it yet. Tarisai was raised in isolation from a young age, kept away from other people and her town, and looked after by servants. She occasionally sees her mother, a distant and cold woman called The Lady, who is waiting for Tarisari to be old enough so she can send her to be one of the Crown Prince’s Council of 11. Once this happens, The Lady can start dismantling their rule from the inside, or so she thinks. She wants Tarisari to kill the Crown Prince. But when the time comes to move to the kingdom and put her mother’s plan in motion, Tarisari discovers she likes her time at the palace, and the people around her. Will she follow her mother’s orders, or learn to stand on her own?

Backlist bump: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

And last, but not least, here is a delightful—and scary!—book about a young girl whose family moves to a new home, and she discovers there is something terrible in the basement. Noe isn’t thrilled about having to change homes or schools, but it might help her to put a terrible slumber party incident behind her. On her first day at her new home, the neighborhood children warn her not to go in the basement, but Noe is a sleepwalker, and awakens mid-stroll to find herself down there anyway. And what she sees is the stuff of nightmares! (I don’t want to tell you what it is because I thought the monster was SO creepy and effective!) It’s up to Noe and the other neighborhood kids to figure out a way to rid their cul-de-sac of evil once and for all. But can they do it? This is a fun Stranger Things-esque scary middle grade story. I am not usually a fan of parents not believing children when they tell them something is wrong, but the point of this monster is that only children can see it, so it adds an extra scary layer to the story!

Backlist bump: Small Spaces by Katherine Arden

If you want something funny, smart, and wonderful to read, then January can’t come soon enough for you! This is a delightful Bridget Jones-ish story about Yinka, an Oxford-educated British Nigerian woman who believes in true love, even if it means waiting a long time to find it. Unfortunately, her meddling mother and aunties don’t think it’s happening fast enough. Yinka’s sister is having a baby and her cousin just got engaged, and it has really turned the heat up on Yinka, whose family literally prays that she finds a husband. Her family makes Yinka feel bad about herself, and it frustrates her.

Yinka is happy to have her career and her freedom, but does think that finding someone to love would be nice. She recently got out of a relationship, and her heart is still bruised. She’s not thrilled with her family trying to set her up with strangers, but she’d really like a date to her cousin’s upcoming wedding—especially since she found out her ex is going to be there. So she decides she’s going to go about finding a boyfriend the smart way: with a spreadsheet. But life has a way of surprising you, even when you think you have it all planned out.

This is an utterly charming novel full of heart. I loved the witty banter, especially with her would-be suitors, and I loved Yinka’s best friend Nana. The book is peppered with text messages and actual spreadsheets. And like Bridget Jones, there are a lot of funny, awkward mishaps, but there’s also an important message about societal and cultural pressures and independence. Hooray for Yinka!

(CW for mentions of infidelity, racism, death of a family member, body shaming, and disordered eating.)

I am a big fan of Henderson’s novels, so I was excited to read this memoir. It’s about her marriage and her husband’s chronic illness. It’s a beautiful, heart-rending story of young love, a long marriage, and the usual bumps in the road in any relationship. But Henderson’s husband got sick, alarmingly ill, and for years it baffled doctors and sent him into a dark place. Henderson writes eloquently and honestly about how hard love can be at times, how hardship takes its toll on a relationship, and what is worth fighting for.

Backlist bump: Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson

I don’t know what has shifted, but I am super into ghosts lately. Not like real ghosts, please don’t send any to my house, but ghost stories. This is a great middle grade debut about a young girl named Zee Puckett (what a name!) who becomes the object of ridicule and nicknamed ‘Ghost Girl’ after she tells her classmates she thinks she saw a ghost after a storm strikes their town. Her classmates can mock her all they want, the truth is that strange things are happening, people are missing, and Zee and her friends Elijah and Nellie are going to get to the bottom of it, with or without any help.

Backlist bump: Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega

And this one came out last week, but I thought it was worth mentioning! It’s a fabulous debut novel about three generations of a Muslim Indian family. Seema was exiled from her family by her father after telling them she was a lesbian. She has been living a mostly successful life in California without them, but when she finds herself nine months pregnant and alone, she reaches out to the people she loves: her mother and sister. The women travel to be with her, but family is complicated, and the weeks leading up to the baby’s birth will be filled with secrets, misunderstandings, and heartbreak. It’s a powerful story about love and forgiveness, told from the point of view of Seema’s baby.

Backlist bump: Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sindu