Happy Tuesday, book lovers! How is everyone today? I had a marvelous week. I spent a lot of time shopping in indie bookstores, which means I have a lot of titles to potentially talk about on future episodes of All the Backlist! And I participated in the 24-in-48 readathon! It really was the best week. I have a few fantastic titles to tell you about today, and as always, you can also hear about several more great books on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about a few amazing books we loved, such as Careers for Women, Hate to Want You, and Madame Zero.

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This week’s newsletter is sponsored by The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollack.

Two families collide in a bloody Southern Gothic outlaw tale. No good can come of it. Or can it? In 1917 the three Jewett brothers undertake a last-ditch effort to break free of their poverty by turning to a life of shooting and looting. Another farming family, the good-natured Fiddlers, have been swindled out of their land and fortune and are now smack in the middle of the now notorious Jewett Gang’s trajectory. When a crime spree sets the Jewetts on a collision course for the Fiddlers, an unlikely–and turbulent–relationship begins between the families.

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Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw

Dr. Greta Helsing has a family reputation to uphold. She spends her time administering care to the undead, a lucrative yet quiet life. Quiet, that is, until she uncovers a a group of murderous monks in London’s midst. Now Greta must use her unusual knowledge and profession to put an end to their deadly tirade, before she becomes the next victim. I always love a good twist on a classic character!

Backlist bump: The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr

Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh

Harper Raine has a bad feeling about her family’s new home the moment she steps inside. Then she hears the rumors about the house. And to top things off, her little brother begins acting strangely. Now Harper is spending seventh grade seeking answers to the spirits she senses and trying to figure out a way to save her brother before it’s too late. This is a fun debut to a new middle grade series!

Backlist bump: The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston

The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín

Imagine you’re sitting in class, listening to the teacher talk when suddenly: WHOOSH. Now in a forest, naked as a jaybird, running  for your life from blood-thirsty faeries! That’s The Call, a three-minute challenge that happens to all teens. And no one knows when it’s going to happen. If you survive the test, you’re transported back to your world. Sometimes even the ones who don’t survive are returned… Nessa is determined to survive the trial, but she’s going to have to survive her horrible classmates while she waits. This one is out in paperback today and WOOOO IT’S A DOOZY.

Backlist bump: Tithe by Holly Black

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’!

Stay rad,

Liberty

I thought I would do something a little different today, and instead of talking about new books, I thought, “It’s summer – why not talk about what’s new in paperback for a change?” And it’s also my birthday today and I do what I want. (After I receive permission.)

So, don’t want to get beach sand in your $30 hardcover? Don’t want to ruin your new hardback when you drop it in the lake? Here are a bunch of great books that have recently come out in paperback! (I’m not suggesting you should ruin these, either, but at least it won’t cost as much if you do.)

You can hear also about several great new titles on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about amazing books we loved, including Less, Nuclear Family, and The Stars in Our Eyes.

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This week’s newsletter is sponsored by The Devil’s Muse by Bill Loehfelm.

Mardi Gras may be fun for the revelers but it’s hell for the NOPD. Maureen Coughlin’s night starts with a bang when a man in pink zebra-print tights runs past and throws himself onto the hood of a moving car. It only gets worse when she hears gunshots over the noise of the crowd. In the midst of the revelry, Maureen and her fellow cops must stabilize the shooting victims and hunt down the shooter, all while grappling with massive crowds, a camera crew intent on capturing the investigation for their YouTube channel, an incompetent on-duty detective, and race relations in a city more likely to mistrust cops than ever. With The Devil’s Muse, Bill Loehfelm returns with another gripping installment in his “edgy, dangerous, but pulsing with life” (Booklist) Maureen Coughlin series.

 

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Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn: “(A) cast of unforgettable women battle for independence while a maelstrom of change threatens their Jamaican village.”

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley: “Amid trauma and chaos, the fragile relationship between Scott and the young boy grows and glows at the heart of this stunning novel, raising questions of fate, morality, and the inextricable ties that bind us together.”

Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam: “With impeccable style, biting humor, and a keen sense of detail, Rumaan Alam deftly explores how the attachments we form in childhood shift as we adapt to our adult lives—and how the bonds of friendship endure, even when our paths diverge.”

Marrow Island by Alexis M. Smith: “It has been twenty years since Lucie Bowen left the islands—when the May Day Quake shattered thousands of lives; when Lucie’s father disappeared in an explosion at the Marrow Island oil refinery, a tragedy that destroyed the island’s ecosystem; and when Lucie and her best friend, Katie, were just Puget Sound children hoping to survive.”

The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang: ““Highly entertaining” (BuzzFeed), this “fresh Little Miss Sunshine” (Vanity Fair) is a “compassionate and bright-eyed novel” (New York Times Book Review), an epic family saga, and a new look at what it means to belong in America.”

 

Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst: “Told from the alternating perspectives of both Alexandra and her younger daughter Iris (the book’s Nick Carraway), this is a unputdownable story about the strength of love, the bonds of family, and how you survive the unthinkable.”

Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty by Ramona Ausubel: “From the award-winning author of No One Is Here Except All of Us, an imaginative novel about a wealthy New England family in the 1960s and ’70s that suddenly loses its fortune—and its bearings.”

Smoke by Dan Vyleta: “Readers of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Arcadia by Iain Pears are sure to be mesmerized by Dan Vyleta’s thrilling blend of Dickensian historical fiction and fantasy, as three young friends scratch the surface of the grown-up world to discover startling wonders—and dangerous secrets.”

 Darktown by Thomas Mullen: “Award-winning author Thomas Mullen is a “wonderful architect of intersecting plotlines and unexpected answers”(The Washington Post) in this timely and provocative mystery and brilliant exploration of race, law enforcement, and justice in 1940s Atlanta.”

On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor: “From a debut talent who’s been compared to Annie Dillard, Edward Abbey, David Quammen, and Jared Diamond, On Trails is a wondrous exploration of how trails help us understand the world—from invisible ant trails to hiking paths that span continents, from interstate highways to the Internet.”

Around the Way Girl by Taraji P. Henson: “From Taraji P. Henson, Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe winner, and star of the award-winning film Hidden Figures, comes an inspiring and funny memoir—“a bona fide hit” (Essence)—about family, friends, the hustle required to make it in Hollywood, and the joy of living your own truth.”

The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks by Terry Tempest Williams: “(t)he New York Times bestselling author of the environmental classic Refuge and the beloved memoir When Women Were Birds, returns with The Hour of Land, a literary celebration of our national parks and an exploration of what they mean to us and what we mean to them.”

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue: “A compulsively readable debut novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream—the unforgettable story of a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York just as the Great Recession upends the economy.”

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix: “Like an unholy hybrid of Beaches and The Exorcist, My Best Friend’s Exorcism blends teen angst, adolescent drama, unspeakable horrors, and a mix of ’80s pop songs into a pulse-pounding supernatural thriller.”

The Killing Lessons by Saul Black: “In this extraordinary, pulse-pounding debut, Saul Black takes us deep into the mind of a psychopath, and into the troubled heart of the woman determined to stop him.”

You’ll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein: “Klein offers – through an incisive collection of real-life stories – a relentlessly funny yet poignant take on a variety of topics she has experienced along her strange journey to womanhood and beyond.”

The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing: “A dazzling work of biography, memoir, and cultural criticism on the subject of loneliness, told through the lives of iconic artists, by the acclaimed author of The Trip to Echo Spring.”

Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood: “Margaret Atwood’s novel take on Shakespeare’s play of enchantment, retribution, and second chances leads us on an interactive, illusion-ridden journey filled with new surprises and wonders of its own.”

We Could Be Beautiful by Swan Huntley: “Catherine West has spent her entire life surrounded by beautiful things. And yet, despite all this, she still feels empty. After two broken engagements and boyfriends who wanted only her money, she is worried that she’ll never have a family of her own.”

American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White: “Based on seven years of research with primary documents—some of them never examined by previous Grant scholars—this is destined to become the Grant biography of our time.”

The Wicked Boy: An Infamous Murder in Victorian London by Kate Summerscale: “From the internationally bestselling author, a deeply researched and atmospheric murder mystery of late Victorian-era London.”

The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee: “From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies—a fascinating history of the gene and “a magisterial account of how human minds have laboriously, ingeniously picked apart what makes us tick” (Elle).”

Losing It by Emma Rathbone: “For readers of Rainbow Rowell and Maria Semple, and filled with offbeat characters and subtle, wry humor, Losing It is about the primal fear that you just. might. never. meet. anyone.”

Siracusa by Delia Ephron: “With her inimitable psychological astuteness and uncanny understanding of the human heart, Ephron delivers a powerful meditation on marriage, friendship, and the meaning of travel. Set on the sun-drenched coast of the Ionian Sea, Siracusa unfolds with the pacing of a psychological thriller and delivers an unexpected final act that none will see coming.”

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’!

Stay rad,

Liberty

Gimme a B! Gimme an OOOOOOOOOOO! Gimme a K! Gimme an S! What’s that spell? That’s right: NEW RELEASE DAY!

Unlike most months, TODAY is the biggest day of the month for new releases (probably because the first Tuesday of this month was a holiday.) And let me tell you, I have read over thirty of the books out today, and loved so many of them. It is a GREAT day for books! You can hear about several of these great titles on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about amazing books we loved, including American Fire, Meddling Kids, and What We Lose.

I’m trying something new today: I’m putting a  next to the books that I have read and loved. There are soooo many more I can’t wait to read. (Hello, Monstress sequel!)

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This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong.

Told in captivating glimpses and drawn from a deep well of insight, humor, and unexpected tenderness, Goodbye, Vitamin pilots through the loss, love, and absurdity of finding one’s footing in this life.

 

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Refuge by Dina Nayeri  

A Life of Adventure and Delight by Akhil Sharma

Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8: A Young Man’s Voice from the Silence of Autism by Naoki Higashida and KA Yoshida

Bring Her Home by David Bell

What to Say Next by Julie Buxbaum 

Love and Other Alien Experiences by Kerry Winfrey

The Savage Dawn (The Girl at Midnight) by Melissa Grey

Hum If You Don’t Know the Words by Bianca Marais

Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment by Angela J. Davis

Domina by L.S. Hilton

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero  

Tornado Weather by Deborah E. Kennedy

The Dragons of Nova (Loom Saga) by Elise Kova

The Secrets She Keeps by Michael Robotham

A Catalog of Birds by Laura Harrington  

Reckless Years: A Diary of Love and Madness by Heather Chaplin

Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship by Michelle Kuo

The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller  

Fitness Junkie by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza

A Beautiful, Terrible Thing: A Memoir of Marriage and Betrayal by Jen Waite

The Sarah Book by Scott McClanahan  

Ash and Quill (The Great Library) by Rachel Caine

Afterlife by Marcus Sakey

Sex and Rage: A Novel by Eve Babitz  

House of Spies: A Novel (Gabriel Allon) by Daniel Silva

Telling the Map: Stories by Christopher Rowe  

Secrets of the Tulip Sisters by Susan Mallery

Fucking Innocent: The Early Films of Wes Anderson by John Andrew Fredrick

The Red: An Erotic Fantasy by Tiffany Reisz

Tropic of Kansas by Christopher Brown  

Dichronauts by Greg Egan

Found Audio by N.J. Campbell

Who’s That Girl by Blair Thornburgh  

Monstress Volume 2: The Blood by Marjorie Liu (Author), Sana Takeda (Artist)

The End by Fernanda Torres (Author), Alison Entrekin (Translator)  

Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World by Billy Bragg

The Veneration of Monsters by Suzanne Burns

Bannerless by Carrie Vaughan  

The Sound of the World by Heart by Giacomo Bevilacqua

Lessons on Expulsion: Poems by Erika L. Sánchez

Bed-Stuy Is Burning by Brian Platzer

My Sister’s Bones by Nuala Ellwood

Hello, Sunshine by Laura Dave  

A Talent for Murder by Andrew Wilson

When the English Fall by David Williams  

Moskva by Jack Grimwood

The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson

The Forensic Records Society by Magnus Mills  

Infinite Summer by Edoardo Nesi (Author), Alice Kilgarriff (Translator)

A Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause by Shawn Wen  

Dirt Road by James Kelman

The Velveteen Daughter by Laurel Davis Huber

Revenge of the Nerd: Or . . . The Singular Adventures of the Man Who Would Be Booger by Curtis Armstrong  

The Bookshop at Water’s End by Patti Callahan Henry

Hannibal by Patrick N. Hunt

Moving Kings by Joshua Cohen

Knots: Stories by Gunnhild Øyehaug  (Author), Kari Dickson (Translator)

Uncle Brucker the Rat Killer by Leslie Peter Wulff

First Watch by Dale Lucas

What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons  

Wendigo: A Thriller by Vaughn C. Hardacker

My Heart Hemmed In by Marie NDiaye (Author), Jordan Stump (Translator)

The Delirium Brief: A Laundry Files Novel by Charles Stross

At the Table of Wolves by Kay Kenyon

Gork, the Teenage Dragon by Gabe Hudson  

Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown

Once Upon a Time in Shaolin: The Untold Story of Wu-Tang Clan’s Million-Dollar Secret Album, the Devaluation of Music, and America’s New Public Enemy No. 1 by Cyrus Bozorgmehr

Hollow by Owen Egerton  

Live from Cairo by Ian Bassingthwaighte

American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse  

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Final Girls by Riley Sager  

The Rift by Nina Allan

Night Class: A Downtown Memoir by Victor Corona

The Witches of New York by Ami McKay

The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story by Edwidge Danticat  

I Hear Your Voice by Young-ha Kim (Author), Krys Lee (Translator)

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix (paperback)  

The Monster’s Daughter by Michelle Pretorius (paperback)

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor (paperback) 

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’!

Stay rad,

Liberty

YAY, NEW BOOK DAY! It’s the first Tuesday of the month – how is it already July?!? – which means there’s a bunch of new titles out today. I’ve got a big list for you below, and you can hear about a few of these books on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about amazing books we loved, such as Made for Love, In the Days of Rain, and Thank You for Arguing.

Before we get started, I have to ask: have you heard about Book Riot’s new podcast Annotated, a documentary series about books, reading, and language? IT’S SO GOOD. It’s like This American Life but with books! The next five episodes in the series will come out every other week, and you can subscribe to Annotated in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or in your podcast player of choice. DOOOOOOOO IT!

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This week’s newsletter is sponsored by The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee.

In this hilarious 18th-century romp, bisexual lord Henry “Monty” Montague’s roguish passions are far from suitable for a gentleman. But as Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his vice-filled days are ending. His father expects him to take over the family’s estate, and Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend, Percy. So Monty vows to make this trip one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But a reckless decision turns their journey into a harrowing manhunt and calls everything into question, including Monty’s relationship with the boy he adores.

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Out in the Open by Jesús Carrasco

Made for Love by Alissa Nutting

The Architecture of Loss by Z. P. Dala

An Oath of Dogs by Wendy Wagner

Thank You for Arguing, Third Edition: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion by Jay Heinrichs

In the Days of Rain: A Daughter, a Father, a Cult by Rebecca Stott

Draw Your Weapons by Sarah Sentilles

Chasing Down a Dream by Beverly Jenkins

Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook by Christina Henry

The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing by Margot Livesey

The Reason You’re Alive by Matthew Quick

Don’t Close Your Eyes by Holly Seddon

The Graybar Hotel: Stories by Curtis Dawkins

Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner

Heroine Worship by Sarah Kuhn

The Disappearances by Emily Bain Murphy

This Is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake by Garbage

Queen of Bebop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan by Elaine M. Hayes

The Tower of the Antilles by Achy Obejas

Local Girl Missing by Claire Douglas

Who is Rich? By Matthew Klam

Sungrazer by Jay Posey

We Shall Not All Sleep by Estep Nagy

Devastation Road by Jason Hewitt

South Pole Station by Ashley Shelby

The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo by Ian Stansel

Thousand Star Hotel by Bao Phi

The Reluctant Queen: Book Two of The Queens of Renthia by Sarah Beth Durst

Woolly: The True Story of the De-Extinction of One of History’s Most Iconic Creatures by Ben Mezrich

Scandalous Ever After (Romance of the Turf) by Theresa Romain

All We Shall Know by Donal Ryan

A Stone of Hope: A Memoir by Jim St. Germain, with Jon Sternfeld

The Man of Legends by Kenneth Johnson

Words on the Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton

The Little Book of Big History: The Story of the Universe, Human Civilization, and Everything in Between by Ian Crofton and Jeremy Black 

Around the Way Girl: A Memoir by Taraji P. Henson (paperback)

The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks by Terry Tempest Williams (paperback)

On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor (paperback)

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’!

Stay rad,

Liberty

Happy last June Tuesday! (How is that already possible??!) It’s another stellar day for new releases. At the top of my shopping list is Before Everything by Victoria Redel. I have heard wonderful things, so I must see for myself. And for all you Fiona Barton fans, she has a new one out today called The Child. I also have a few more fantastic titles to tell you about today, and as always, you can also hear about several more great books on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about a few amazing books we loved, such as The Windfall, My Glory Was I Had Such Friends, and The Sisters Chase.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by The Sisters Chase by Sarah Healy.

A gripping novel about two sisters who are left homeless by their mother’s death and the lengths the fierce older sister will go to protect her beloved young charge.

“A deliciously compulsive read. . . . It lingers like a summer dream after the last page is turned.” —Amy Gentry, author of Good as Gone

“Part mystery, part road novel, part family saga, The Sisters Chase had me riveted from the first secret to the last revelation.” —Lisa Lutz, author of The Passenger and How to Start a Fire

“Captivating . . . a fierce and unstoppable force of nature.” —Publishers Weekly

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

A bisexual British lord heads out on a wild journey with his best friend/secret crush in this fun 18th-century romp! Monty has reached an age when he is expected to finally settle down and act like a gentleman. But before he does, he takes his BFF Percy on one last adventure around the globe, which quickly turns dangerous – both romantically and to their actual lives! This is fun with a capital “YES.”

Backlist bump: Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy by L. A. Meyer 

Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory

Once upon a time, the Telemachuses were famous. With a telekinetic, a psychic, and a human lie detector in the family, they were a wonder to citizens and secret agents everywhere. But twenty years later, the family is disgraced and in shambles, trying desperately to make ends meet. A visit from an old friend at the CIA checking to see if they have any remaining powers seems to be a waste of time, but what the family doesn’t know is that one of the children has just discovered he has the ability to leave his body. This is a funny, heartfelt dysfunctional family comedy with a supernatural twist.

Backlist bump: The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

The Girl of the Lake: Stories by Bill Roorbach

I know I have raved about him before, but I’m going to do it again, because Bill Roorbach is a national treasure. And I’m not just saying that because he’s a Mainer like me. These nine stories are funny and emotional slices of life, with unforgettable characters and so much heart. Roorbach has been called “a kinder, gentler John Irving,” and I think that is the perfect description. I never miss a chance to see him speak, and I’m wildly envious of his students.

Backlist bump: Big Bend: Stories by Bill Roorbach

Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too: A Book by Jomny Sun

This is one of the sweetest and strangest books I’ve seen lately. Based on Jomny Sun’s popular Twitter account, it’s the story of a lonely alien sent to observe Earth, where he meets all kinds of other creatures and learns that it’s okay to be different. The “dawwwww” factor is strong in this one.

Backlist bump: Heart and Brain: An Awkward Yeti Collection by The Awkward Yeti 

The Fourth Monkey by J. D. Barker

For years, the Fourth Monkey Killer has been plaguing the city of Chicago. But then the police catch a lucky break: he’s struck and killed by a bus on his way to mail another gruesome package. The good news is that he’s dead. The bad news is that he still has a kidnap victim out there somewhere. If the police want to save her, they’ll have to read through the diary they found in his pocket to learn who he is and just what they’re up against. It turns out, the 4MK’s origin story is as upsetting as his new persona.  If you like fast-paced, disturbing thrillers, this is the summer read for you! (The galley for this book arrived in my mailbox with a gummy eyeball, and I immediately thought, “You have my attention.”)

Backlist bump: The Poet by Michael Connolly

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’!

Stay rad,

Liberty