Author: Liberty Hardy

Because of the way the holidays fall this December, this the second-to-last newsletter of 2018. Let’s talk upcoming releases! While 2018 was probably the most amazing year of reading I’ve ever had – SO MANY GOOD BOOKS – I am wildly excited about a zillion of the titles coming out in 2019. I could easily list 700 here, but for starters, I thought I’d tell you about 21 books coming in the first half of the year that I think are worth putting on your calendar now. (21 titles because making the proofreader go through 700 titles might be frowned upon.)

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Sponsored by Book Riot’s 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2018 Giveaway

We’re giving away ten of our favorite works of nonfiction of the year! Click here to enter.

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Also, on All the Books! this week, Rebecca and I discussed several of our favorite 2018 titles, including American Marriage, Air Traffic, and The Parking Lot Attendant.

Mouthful of Birds: Stories by Samanta Schweblin: Schweblin’s slim, disturbing novel, Fever Dream, was my 2016 obsession. These stories are equally as distressing and amazing. (January 8)

An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma: The follow-up to his wonderful novel, The Fishermen, this is about a poor chicken farmer who works to win the hand of the daughter of a wealthy family.(January 8)

The Dreamers: A Novel by Karen Thompson Walker: It has been a long time since The Age of Miracles, but Walker has delivered a new novel worth the wait. It’s about a small college town that falls under a sleeping sickness. (January 15)

We Cast a Shadow: A Novel by Maurice Carlos Ruffin: A profound satire about racism and survival in America, about a near-future America where a father tries a radical surgery to keep his son from becoming black. (January 29)

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esmé Weijun Wang: Powerful essays surrounding Wang’s diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, the medical community’s disagreements over mental illness labels and diagnoses, and the complexities of the illness. (February 5)

Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken: McCracken’s first novel in over a dozen years is a winner, about a stranger who turns up in a New England graveyard, and goes on to establish roots in the town and open a candlepin bowling alley. (February 5)

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James: How exciting is this?! It’s the first book in a trilogy, about a tracker who is hired to find a missing girl. This is being pitched as “Game of Thrones in Africa,” which is all I needed to hear to pick it up. Jk, I’d read a phone book if you told me Marlon James wrote it. (February 5)

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli: A ferociously dark and smart road-trip novel about a family unraveling as they travel to the US-Mexican border. (February 12)

Bangkok Wakes to Rain: A Novel by Pitchaya Sudbanthad: Several stories set in Thailand converge to form a gorgeous novel about home and longing. (February 19)

Days by Moonlight by André Alexis: The author of such amazing books as Fifteen Dogs returns with the tale of a botanist, who goes on a road trip with a professor to learn the truth about a mysterious poet. (February 19)

Daisy Jones & The Six: A Novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid: The new novel from The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, about an iconic 1970s rock band and the mystery behind their break-up. (Related: Doesn’t that cover look like Exile in Guyville???) (March 5)

Gingerbread: A Novel by Helen Oyeyemi: Another fairytale kinda-retelling from Oyeyemi, this time about a young woman’s family and their gingerbread empire, and her mother’s mysterious old friend named – wait for it – Gretel. (March 5)

The Other Americans by Laila Lalami: Lalami knocked it out of the park with The Moor’s Account, and this one is equally splendid, a rich, enthralling saga of the suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant. (March 26)

Women Talking by Miriam Toews: Toews is a legend in Canada, but still hasn’t quite made it really big in the States. I’m hoping that will all change with this gorgeous, brutal novel about a group of Mennonite women who attempt to escape the abuse they suffer at the hands of the men in their community. (April 2)

Trust Exercise: A Novel by Susan Choi: It’s almost difficult to explain this wildly complex and brilliant novel without giving it away. Or even knowing where to start. I can tell you it’s about what happens to two students, David and Sarah, and that what you think happens to them does and doesn’t happen. You’ll have to read it to find out what I mean. (April 2)

Miracle Creek: A Novel by Angie Kim: A couple find themselves embroiled in a murder trial after their experimental medical treatment device kills two people. This is being compared to Everything I Never Told You and Defending Jacob! YES PLEASE. (April 16)

Rough Magic: Riding the World’s Loneliest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Palmer: Palmer’s memoir about riding in the Mongol Derby, known as the world’s toughest race. This is coming up very soon in my TBR, because everyone I know who has read this has lost their minds over how good it is.  (May 7)

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep: The true story of the serial killer who To Kill a Mockingbird author Lee spent years researching, and the book she had planned to write about him.  (May 7)

You Will Be Safe Here by Damian Barr: A powerful novel about two South African stories related to camps, one during the Boer War and one in present day. Based on true events. (May 14)

Patsy: A Novel by Nicole Dennis-Benn: The author of Here Comes the Sun is back with a new novel, about a Jamaican woman who abandons her daughter when she decides to travel to the United States with no plans of returning. (June 4)

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel by Ocean Vuong: The debut novel of the incredible poet Vuong, written as a letter from a son to his mother, about her life in Vietnam before his birth, and their difficult lives together later on.  (June 4)

That’s it for me today! If you want to learn more about books new and old, or tell me about books you’re reading, or books you think I should read (I HEART RECOMMENDATIONS!), you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!

Stay rad,

Liberty

Happy Tuesday, book lovers! I’m happy to be back again with more great new books! The year is winding down, but there are still amazing books coming down the pike. I’m going to share a few of today’s great books below, and you can hear about some of our anticipated reads of 2019 on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked talked about The Nickel Boys, An Orchestra of Minorities, Southern Lady Code, and more great books. (We also talked about her new puppy because PUPPY.)

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Today’s newsletter is sponsored by our $250 All the Books Barnes and Noble gift card giveaway!

Enter to win a $250 gift card to Barnes and Noble in support of our All the Books! podcast. Click here for more info.

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How Long ’til Black Future Month?: Stories by N. K. Jemisin

I was not lucky enough to get my hands on this speculative fiction collection before it came out, but I had to bring it to your attention, because it’s freaking N.K. JEMISIN, winner of three Hugo awards THREE years in a row! It’s at the top of my to-buy list for sure.

Backlist bump: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

The Razor by J. Barton Mitchell

An action-packed science fiction adventure about an inmate on a hard labor prison planet, who must rely on some of the galaxy’s most dangerous criminals after the prisoners are abandoned by their guards and left to die. Think The Martian meets The Shawshank Redemption.

Backlist bump: Lightless by C.A. Higgins

The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose

Based around a real exhibit by performance artist Marina Abramović, this thought-provoking novel is about a fictional character named Arky. Down on his luck and aimless in his life, things change when Arky encounters Abramović’s performance art at the museum and realizes what he need to do with his own life.

Backlist bump: The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even by Chris F. Westbury

That’s it for me today – time to get back to reading! If you want to learn more about books new and old (and see lots of pictures of my cats, Millay and Steinbeck), or tell me about books you’re reading, or books you think I should read (I HEART RECOMMENDATIONS!), you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!

Thanks so much for visiting me here each week! Y’all are the best.

xoxo,

Liberty

Hey, guess what day it is? That’s right, it’s Thursday! What’s that? Oh, right! I meant TUESDAY. Things get a little mixed up in publishing the last six weeks of the year. There’s not a whole lot coming out in comparison to the rest of the year, because of the holidays. So I’m doing something a little different today and talking about 25 great 2018 titles that I am thankful to have read.

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Sponsored by Dynamite Entertainment

For over FORTY YEARS, Troma Studios has blazed its own bloody, slime-covered trail, making movies their own damn way! From The Toxic Avenger to The Class Of Nuke ‘Em High to Poultrygeist to Tromeo And Juliet, Lloyd Kaufman never compromised, waving his independent freak-flag freely, and helped jumpstart the careers of luminaries such as James Gunn, Eli Roth, and countless others! How, you might ask, did a couple of rebels with almost no cash manage to make a library of a THOUSAND films? You’ll have to pick up this incredible collection to find out!

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I skipped some of the huge books that we will be sure to discuss on the All the Books! year-end show (Florida! There There! Educated!) to make space for a few more books that perhaps you haven’t heard as much about. And though I could have easily picked 300 titles, I went with the first 25 that popped into my head. (If you’d like to learn about more 2018 titles, I do a wrap-up of my 150 favorites on Twitter at the end of the year. It may have to be 200 this year.)

You can hear about a few new reads on this week’s episode of the All the Books! María Cristina and I talked talked about Watersnakes, My Sister, the Serial Killer, Newcomer, and more great books.

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

These short stories knocked the top of my head off and poured gasoline on my brain.

Pulp by Robin Talley

YA novel about a lesbian pulp fiction writer in the 1950s and a present-day high schooler studying her work.

Little by Edward Carey

Highly inventive historical fiction novel about wax museum icon Madame Tousaud when she was…well…little.

All the Names They Used for God: Stories by Anjali Sachdeva

These short stories are still swimming in my brain like little inky fishes. Possibly my favorite book of 2018. (Shhh, don’t tell the other books.)

Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman

A scifi, bendy, settling of Australia story, but not really, but 100% genius debut from Claire G. Coleman.

Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon

This memoir about Laymon’s relationship with food and childhood abuse will break your heart into a thousand pieces.

Severance by Ling Ma

A razor-sharp satire about dystopias, about attitudes toward millennials, about New York City, about a million things. I loved it with the heat of a thousand suns.

American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts by Chris McGreal

A tremendously important book about the history of America’s worst drug epidemic, and the apathy, greed, and lack of intervention that allowed it to grow.

The Parking Lot Attendant by Nafkote Tamirat

A Boston teen befriends the leader of her Ethiopian community, a parking lot attendant, despite her father’s orders to stay away from him. I have read this five times now. I can’t get enough of it.

America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo

A beautiful family saga about the so-called American dream, with a heartbreaking narrative that slips back and forth from the Philippines to America.

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays by Alexander Chee

Fantastic, wicked smart essays from the always-wonderful Chee about being a Korean American, being a gay man, his time as an activist, his father’s death, and more.

Ambiguity Machines: and Other Stories by Vandana Singh

Singh’s scientific background is weaved throughout these thoughtful, charming SFF stories.

The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco

I loved this historical novel so much. It’s like queer Deadwood, full of violence, sex, Pinkertons, and ruthlessness.

Air Traffic: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America by Gregory Pardlo

This was an excellent memoir from Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Pardlo. It is heartbreakingly honest, genuinely interesting, and beautifully written.

A Lucky Man: Stories by Jamal Brinkley

This was nominated for the National Book Award, but I still feel like more people need to hear about this fantastic story collection.

Front Desk by Kelly Yang

I adored this book to bits! Mia is a 10-year-old girl who works the front desk at a motel where she also lives. It’s a charming novel, but also an important one, about immigration and the American dream.

Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) by L. C. Rosen

A sex-positive, queer-positive novel aimed at teens? MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE AND THANK YOU. This book is so great!

Small Country by Gaël Faye

A beautiful, heartbreaking coming-of-age novel about a boy and his family trying to stay together and live their lives at the start of the Rwandan genocide in 1993.

Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor) by Jessica Townsend

I want to shout about this series from the rooftops! This is the second book of a middle grade fantasy series that I am certain is going to blow up really, really soon. IT’S SO GOOD.

Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love

An absolutely gorgeous picture book about a young boy who wants to be a mermaid, and his grandmother, who takes him to meet mermaids in their town.

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

A wonderful dystopian novel about a sickness that steals people’s shadows and then their memories, and a husband who must find his missing wife in the middle of the chaos.

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

A Muslim girl must deal with prejudice and stupidity in a new school shortly after 9/11. She and her brother start a breakdancing club to keep busy, and she falls for her lab partner.

All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung

As a newborn, Chung was given up for adoption by her Korean parents and adopted by a white family. She discusses what she discovered and how she felt as she began investigating her birth parents.

The Which Way Tree by Elizabeth Crook

Ohhhhhhh, I loved this book so much. It’s a Western set in post-Civil War Texas about a teenage boy and his young sister that leave their home to hunt the panther that killed their mother.

Insurrecto by Gina Apostol

I love novels that teach me about real history I hadn’t learned in school. This one deals with a movie being made about the massacre that took place during the Philippine-American war. The novel’s structure is fascinating. I lurved it.

That’s it for me today – time to get back to reading! If you want to learn more about books new and old (and see lots of pictures of my cats, Millay and Steinbeck), or tell me about books you’re reading, or books you think I should read (I HEART RECOMMENDATIONS!), you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!

Thanks so much for visiting me here each week! Y’all are the best.

xoxo,

Liberty

Happy Tuesday, book lovers! It’s an amazing day if you love books (which I’m assuming you do, since you’re reading this.) Michele Obama’s memoir is out today, as is the fancy edition of Bingo Love, a new George Saunders story, Jeff Tweedy’s memoir, and much, much more. There’s even a new Jonathan Franzen, if he’s your jam. I’m going to share a few of my favorites below, and you can hear about more exciting new reads on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked talked about Crave, A Ladder to the Sky, Insurrecto, and more great books.

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Sponsored by Waterhouse Press

The second I spared Isabel’s life, everything changed. I used to deal in death wishes. Now the instinct to protect her charts the course. Because every time I turn away from her, something turns me back. Isabel’s learning to hold her own, but nothing can prepare her for the life I’m being called back into. With a long road ahead of us, I won’t make promises I can’t keep. She can barely accept the dark deeds of my past―a bloody history spelled out in a ledger she’s more preoccupied with than I’d like. When an old associate sets a dangerous plan in motion, I can’t hide who I really am. And there’s no turning back…

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Empire of Sand (The Books of Ambha) by Tasha Suri

This was the escapism I was so desperately craving, a wildly imaginative fantasy novel about a young woman who doesn’t really fit in anywhere as the illegitimate daughter of a governor and an outcast. She is forbidden to practice the magic of her nomadic people, and must hide her attempts to teach it to her sister, lest she draw the emperor’s attention. The world-building in this book is outstanding! I loved this novel of magic and rebellion.

Backlist bump: The City of Brass: A Novel (The Daevabad Trilogy) by S. A Chakraborty

Pulp by Robin Talley

Ohhhhhhhh and how I adored this one! It’s two time lines: one follows a young woman in 1955 who secretly writes lesbian pulp novels as a way to deal with her love for another woman. The other follows a high school student in 2017, who is writing her big senior project about lesbian pulp novels, and is searching out the identity of an author. Can you guess who that author is? Yep. This is an effortlessly charming and fantastic book.

Backlist bump: Echo After Echo by Amy Rose Capetta

Seventeen: A Novel by Hideo Yokoyama, Louise Heal Kawai (Translator)

Another engaging crime novel from Yokoyama! This one is about an air disaster in 1985, and a man who holds the key to a mystery surrounding the tragedy seventeen years later. I would not call Yokoyama’s page-turners, but not in a bad way. Not at all! His writing is thorough and suspenseful, and his novels slowly build to remarkable conclusions.

Backlist bump: Six Four: A Novel by Hideo Yokoyama, Jonathan Lloyd-Davies (Translator)

That’s it for me today – time to get back to reading! If you want to learn more about books new and old (and see lots of pictures of my cats, Millay and Steinbeck), or tell me about books you’re reading, or books you think I should read (I HEART RECOMMENDATIONS!), you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!

Thanks so much for visiting me here each week! Y’all are the best.

xoxo,

Liberty

It’s time for another round of “HOLY CATS! THERE ARE SO MANY BOOKS.” It’s another fabulous first Tuesday megalist, and there are sooooo many great books on here. You can hear about several of today’s new books on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Jenn and I talked about a few amazing books we loved, including The Best Bad Things, Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix, Born To Be Posthumous, and more.

(And like with each megalist, I’m putting a  next to the books that I have read and loved. But there are soooo many more on this list that I can’t wait to read!)

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Sponsored by Waterhouse Press.

Zandy Lynch is determined not to be a virgin when she heads off to grad school, and she’s got one night in London to lose her V-card before spending the summer as a research assistant to an ancient professor in the English countryside. Oliver Graeme is not looking forward to having some American co-ed hovering around while he’s trying to work, but he needs the help. While visiting London, he winds up having the sexiest night of his life with a stranger who vanishes in the morning without a trace. When Zandy and Oliver next cross paths, to their shock, it’s as professor and research assistant. Aloof professor by day and a generous, rough lover by night, Oliver is like nothing Zandy’s ever imagined. Does she stand a chance at not falling for both versions of him?

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Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan 

The Arrival of Missives by Aliya Whiteley

The Feral Detective: A Novel by Jonathan Lethem 

Why Religion?: A Personal Story by Elaine Pagels

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen 

Static Ruin (The Voidwitch Saga) by Corey White

The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco 

Evening in Paradise: More Stories by Lucia Berlin

Welcome Home: A Memoir with Selected Photographs and Letters by Lucia Berlin

Winter Loon by Susan Bernhard

Beyoncé in Formation: Remixing Black Feminism by Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley

Past Tense: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child

No Quarter: A Novel (The Tildon Chronicles) by John Jantunen

Those Who Knew by Idra Novey

Solace Island by Meg Tilly

Breach by W.L. Goodwater

Now You See the Sky by Catharine H. Murray

Nighttown (A Junior Bender Mystery) by Timothy Hallinan

Someone Like Me by M.R. Carey

The Subjugate by Amanda Bridgeman

Wolves of Eden by Kevin McCarthy

Blame This on the Boogie by Rina Ayuyang 

How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don’t by Lane Moore

Congratulations, Who Are You Again?: A Memoir by Harrison Scott Key

The Kinship of Secrets by Eugenia Kim 

Angel and Bavar by Amy Wilson

Vancouver Noir (Akashic Noir Series) by Sam Wiebe

Northwood: A Novella by Maryse Meijer 

Kingdom of The Blazing Phoenix (Rise of the Empress) by Julie C. Dao

Nothing to Devour (Motherless Children Trilogy) by Glen Hirshberg

The William H. Gass Reader by William H. Gass

The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family by Lindsay Wong

The Splendor Before the Dark: A Novel of the Emperor Nero by Margaret George

Monument: Poems New and Selected by Natasha Trethewey 

Archenemies by Marissa Meyer

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

The New Order: Stories by Karen E. Bender

An Unexplained Death: The True Story of a Body at the Belvedere by Mikita Brottman 

Hannah Green and Her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence by Michael Marshall Smith

We Begin in Gladness: How Poets Progress by Craig Morgan Teicher

Half-Hazard: Poems by Kristen Tracy

The Lonesome Bodybuilder: Stories by Yukiko Motoya and Asa Yoneda

The Valley at the Centre of the World by Malachy Tallack

Speechless by Adam P. Schmitt

Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St.Vincent 

Counting Sheep by Axel Lindén

The Latecomers by Helen Klein Ross

Mephisto’s Waltz: Selected Short Stories by Sergio Pitol, George Henson (translator)

In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum 

Bittersweet Brooklyn: A Novel by Thelma Adams

City of Ash and Red: A Novel by Hye-young Pyun and Sora Kim-Russell 

Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean

Inkling by Kenneth Oppel

Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery 

A Dangerous Duet: A Novel by Karen Odden

Since When by Bill Berkson

The Story of Greece and Rome by Tony Spawforth

The Son of Black Thursday by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Megan McDowell

A Thousand Doors: An Anthology of Many Lives by J.T. Ellison

The Life of Saul Bellow: Love and Strife, 1965-2005 by Zachary Leader

That’s it for me today! If you want to learn more about books new and old (and see lots of pictures of my cats, Millay and Steinbeck), or tell me about books you’re reading, or books you think I should read (I HEART RECOMMENDATIONS!), you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!

Thanks so much for reading!

Liberty