Category: New Books

Happy Tuesday! Today I am breaking with form, and doing another big round-up of books, because I read SO MANY books out today that I wanted to share with you, I really could not whittle it down to a few. So here’s a bunch more! And on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about some more great new releases out today, such as The Devourers, Heartbreaker, and Siracusa.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman, Fábio Moon, and Gabriel Bá.

Two teenage boys are in for a tremendous shock when they crash a party where the girls are far more than they appear!

From Neil Gaiman—one of the most celebrated authors of our time—and award-winning artists Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá, this sumptuous graphic novel is not to be missed!

“Gentle, strange, and full of perfectly good advice (‘You just have to talk to them!’), How to Talk to Girls at Parties is wise and odd. Neil Gaiman’s writing is sweetly complemented by Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá’s art. It’s a quirky delight.”—Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife)

Ninety-Nine Stories of God by Joy Williams

You’ll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein

All the Time in the World by Caroline Angell

Mickey by Chelsea Martin

The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown

The Party Wall by Catherine Leroux (Author), Lazer Lederhendler (Translator)

The Year 200 by Agustín de Rojas (Author), Nicholas Caistor (Translator)

Not Pretty Enough: The Unlikely Triumph of Helen Gurley Brown by Gerri Hirshey

Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett

The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg

 

Necessity by Jo Walton

Miss Jane by Brad Watson

The Kingdom by Fuminori Nakamura (Author), Kalau Almony (Translator)

A Natural History of Hell: Stories by Jeffrey Ford

Stranger, Father, Beloved by Taylor Larsen

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon

Cream of the Crop by Alice Clayton

Break in Case of Emergency by Jessica Winter

The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer by Kate Summerscale

Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

The Death of Rex Nhongo by C.B. George

Champion of the World by Chad Dundas

Sarong Party Girls by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

The House at the Edge of Night by Catherine Banner

How to Be a Person in the World: Ask Polly’s Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life by Heather Havrilesky

 

YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me. If you want to learn more about books (and see lots of pictures of my cats), or tell me about books you’re reading, you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!

Stay rad!

Liberty

Happy Tuesday! As usual, the first Tuesday of the month has an amazing number of new books out today, so I’ve made a special newsletter because YAY, BOOKS! And on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about some more great new releases out today, such as The Wolf Road, Here Comes the Sun, and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

As always, you can find a big list in the All the Books! show notes. And below I have made you a big list of notable releases – there are sooooo many! SO MUCH TO CHECK OUT.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner.

A page-turning literary mystery that brings to life the complex and wholly relatable Detective Manon Bradshaw, a devoted member of the Cambridgeshire police—though she loves her job, she longs for a personal life. Edith Hind—a beautiful graduate student who seems to have it all—has been missing for nearly twenty-four hours. With no clear leads, Manon summons every last bit of her skill and intuition to close the case, and what she discovers will have shocking consequences not just for Edith’s family but for Manon herself.

Absalom’s Daughters by Suzanne Feldman

Ithaca: A Novel of Homer’s Odyssey by Patrick Dillon

Cyberspies: The Secret History of Surveillance, Hacking, and Digital Espionage by Gordon Corera

The Unknown Universe: A New Exploration of Time, Space, and Modern Cosmology by Stuart Clark

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

Another One Goes Tonight (A Detective Peter Diamond Mystery) by Peter Lovesey

In the Shadow of Frankenstein: Tales of the Modern Prometheus edited by Stephen Jones

You Are Having a Good Time: Stories by Amie Barrodale

How to Set a Fire and Why by Jesse Ball

The Harrows of Spring: A World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler

Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong

The Drone Eats with Me: A Gaza Diary by Atef Abu Saif

The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone

Night of the Animals by Bill Broun

An Innocent Fashion by RJ Hernandez

Accidence Will Happen: A Reformed Pedant’s Guide to English Language and Style by Oliver Kamm

Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North by Blair Braverman

The Last Adventure of Constance Verity by A. Lee Martinez

A People’s History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence by Ray Raphael

Julian Fellowes’s Belgravia by Julian Fellowes

The Storyteller: Tales out of Loneliness by Walter Benjamin

Underground Airlines by Ben Winter

The Trap by Melanie Raabe

I Am No One by Patrick Flanery

The Games: A Global History of the Olympics by David Goldblatt

The Prisoner of Hell Gate by Dana I. Wolff

Brightfellow by Rikki Ducornet

Critics, Monsters, Fanatics, and Other Literary Essays by Cynthia Ozick

YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me. If you want to learn more about books (and see lots of pictures of my cats), or tell me about books you’re reading, you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!

Stay rad!

Liberty

It’s that time again: Fresh! Hot! Books! Tuesdays are my favorite days. I’ve highlighted a few of the week’s best below, and on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about more great books, such as Chronicle of a Last Summer, All the Missing Girls, and We Could Be Beautiful.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Fight Club 2 by Chuck Palahniuk and Cameron Stewart.

Some imaginary friends never go away . . .

Ten years after starting Project Mayhem, he lives a mundane life. A kid, a wife. Pills to keep his destiny at bay. But it won’t last long—the wife has seen to that. He’s back where he started, but this go-round he’s got more at stake than his own life. The time has arrived . . . Collects issues #1–#10 of the series.

“Cameron Stewart and Chuck Palahniuk are working some twisted magic.”—SCOTT SNYDER

“The book is fantastic, my highest recommendation.”—BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS

On Bowie by Rob Sheffield

There was no way I wasn’t going to read this book! The death of David Bowie shocked and saddened the world, but his legacy will love on long after we’re gone. Sheffield, one of the most respected music critics of our time, examines Bowie’s catalog of work in a series of essays written in Sheffield’s characteristic cultural astuteness. He explains why Bowie was so important to the world and his influences on music and culture, and why it’s okay to be sad that he’s gone. Because we sure are sad.

Backlist bump: Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man’s Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut by Rob Sheffield

The Bones of Grace by Tahmima Anam

Zubaida is a student in Cambridge when she falls for Elijah, but the stars are not aligned for the star-crossed lovers, and she returns to her country to follow her family’s plans for her future. Disheartened and stifled by her decision, she moves to the beaches of Chittagong to work on a documentary and seek the remains of “the walking whale.” The Bones of Grace is a deeply moving novel of love, immigration, and loss, moving from Boston to India and back again, that will sweep you away with its beautiful language and sad, lovely story.

Backlist bump: A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam

Tracer by Rob Boffard

It’s the future, and what is left of the now-uninhabitable Earth is orbiting the planet inside a rundown space station. If mankind doesn’t find a new place to live soon, it’s lacy, gently wafting curtains for everyone. And as if the pressure of extinction isn’t enough, there’s also a villain aboard the space station with destruction on his mind. It’s up to Riley Hale to stop the chaos on the ship before it’s too late! I love this books tagline: “In space, every second counts. Who said nobody could hear you scream?”

Backlist bump: Lightless by C.A. Higgins (out in paperback July 26, but sooooooo worth it in hardcover.)

YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me. If you want to learn more about books (and see lots of pictures of my cats), or tell me about books you’re reading, you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!

Stay rad!

Liberty

 

New book time, ring-ring! It is absolutely gorgeous here in the 207, and I hope you’re enjoying some lovely early summer reading weather as well. BECAUSE WHOOOOOO NEW BOOKS! I’ve highlighted a few of the week’s best below, and on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about our favorite books of 2016 (so far), such as Queen of the Night and Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist. 

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by the Fiona Fitzgerald Mystery Series by Warren Adler.

The Fiona Fitzgerald Mystery Series follows Detective Fiona Fitzgerald, an unlikely force for justice in Washington, D.C.’s predominantly male police force. As a Senator’s daughter and top investigator in the homicide division of the Metropolitan Police Department, Fiona maneuvers between two vastly different worlds, moving quickly from opulent State galas to gritty crime scenes. Born into the elite social circles of the nation’s capitol, and armed with intimate knowledge of the true face of the political establishment, Fiona is determined to expose the chicanery concealed within the highest echelons of the American political aristocracy.

The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047 by Lionel Shriver

Shriver (We Need to Talk About Kevin) is back with a fantastic near-future novel about the effects of an economic collapse on four generations of a once-prosperous family. The Mandibles have always relied on the sizable family fortune, but when the U.S. engages in a bloodless war that wipes out the nation’s finances, they must scramble to make ends meet, igniting old rivalries and jealousies.

Backlist bump: The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

Hogarth’s Shakespeare series continues with Tyler’s reboot of The Taming of the Shrew: Dr. Battista’s assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported, so the doctor comes up with a hairbrained scheme to keep him in the country. But that scheme involve’s Kate, the doctor’s stubborn, antisocial daughter. Kate feels she already has her hands full running the doctor’s household and playing second fiddle to her younger, prettier sister, Bunny. Will the doctor’s plan to bring love and work together succeed? I love Tyler soooo much, and was dismayed when Tyler announced she was done writing fiction after her last novel, but then she turned around and wrote this, which is so exciting! YOU’RE PLAYING WITH MY HEART, ANNE.

Backlist bump: The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

“Waste people.” “Offals.” “Rubbish.” “Lazy lubbers.” “Crackers.” These are some of the names given to the poor in America spanning from colonial times to the present day, where the term “white trash” has taken over. Isenberg offers a fascinating, detailed examination of class system in America, and how class issues involving poor people have played a part in shaping America and historical events for the past four hundred years, from the earliest British colonial settlement to Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty.

Backlist bump: Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr by Nancy Isenberg

YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me. If you want to learn more about books (and see lots of pictures of my cats), or tell me about books you’re reading, you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’! (OMG I am OBSESSED with Litsy.)

Stay rad!

Liberty

Happy Tuesday! We are well on our way to summer now, and there are tons of amazing new books to bring with us! I’ve highlighted a few of the week’s best below, and on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about some great new releases, such as Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty and Grace. 

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by The Girls by Emma Cline.

The Girls is the story of Evie, a woman who is haunted by the summer of 1969, when she was a lonely fourteen-year-old growing up in Northern California. One day she sees a girl at a park, a girl with a gang of other girls who seem free and alive. She is mesmerized by them, Suzanne in particular. She is quickly drawn into their soon-to-be infamous cult and meets the man who is its charismatic leader. As her obsession with Suzanne intensifies, Evie does not realize she is coming closer to unthinkable violence, and to that moment in a girl’s life when everything can go wrong.

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

Barkskins is a glorious, epic, 700+ page story spanning three hundred years, that follows two immigrants in “New France” and their descendants as they travel the world and make use (and steal and ruin) each country’s resources. This is a brutal, often darkly comic, environmental saga by a master writer, and I loved it. (I will admit that being an established Proulx fan may have increased my enjoyment of this novel. Because 700+ PAGES WHUT. But it is her first in over a decade, and so I was wildly excited to read it!)

Backlist bump: The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

The first in an exciting new trilogy! Captain Kel Cheris, a disgraced captain, has a chance to redeem herself by recapturing a star fortress taken by heretics. Her best hope of winning is the undead tactician Shuos Jedao, who has never lost a battle. But sometimes he loses his mind, like in his last life, when he killed his own army. Cheris must figure out how much she can trust Jedao before the whole siege – and her life – is lost. YAY SPACE OPERA!

Backlist bump: Central Station by Lavie Tidhar

Death and Mr. Pickwick by Stephen Jarvis

I think any book that you read on the beach qualifies as a beach read, so why not an 800-page Dickensian novel about Dickens? (Wait is that meta?) Based on the story of The Pickwick Papers and the beginning of the career of Charles Dickens, this is a delightful novel, full of history and fun – and it’s now in paperback! It will charm your pants off.

Backlist bump: Drood by Dan Simmons

YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me. If you want to learn more about books (and see lots of pictures of my cats), or tell me about books you’re reading, you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’! (OMG I am OBSESSED with Litsy.)

Stay rad!

Liberty

 

Happy Tuesday! As usual, the first Tuesday of the month has a ridiculously amazing list of new books out today, so I’ve made a special newsletter. And on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about some great new releases, such as Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge, Homegoing, and Marrow Island.

As always, you can find a big list in the All the Books! show notes. And below I have made you a big list of notable releases – there are sooooo many! SO MUCH TO CHECK OUT.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by The Fireman by Joe Hill.

Dragonscale, a terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one. Highly contagious, the deadly spore marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies—before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected; blazes erupt everywhere. There is no antidote.

Harper Grayson, a compassionate nurse, treated hundreds of infected patients before her hospital burned to the ground. Now she’s discovered the telltale gold-flecked marks on her skin, but Harper wants to live—at least until the fetus she is carrying comes to term. Convinced that his do-gooding wife has made him sick, Harper’s husband abandons her as their placid New England community collapses in terror.

Super Extra Grande by Yoss (Author), David Frye (Translator)

Magruder’s Curiosity Cabinet by H.P. Wood

I Like You Just Fine When You’re Not Around by Ann Garvin

What We Become by Arturo Perez-Reverte

But What If We’re Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past by Chuck Klosterman

Monsters: A Love Story by Liz Kay

Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner?: A Story of Women and Economics by Katrine Marcal

A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin

Ink and Bone by Lisa Unger

The Many Selves of Katherine North by Emma Geen

Faerie by Eisha Marjara

The Edge of the Fall by Kate Williams

The Suicide Motor Club by Christopher Buehlman

Autumn Princess, Dragon Child: Book 2 in the Tale of Shikanoko by Lian Hearn

You Know Me Well by David Levithan and Nina LaCour

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand and Brodi Ashton

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer by Arthur Lubow

Everybody Behaves Badly: The True Story Behind Hemingway’s Masterpiece The Sun Also Rises by Lesley Blume

Melville in Love: The Secret Life of Herman Melville and the Muse of Moby-Dick by Michael Shelden

Everything Explained That Is Explainable : On the Creation of the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s Celebrated Eleventh Edition, 1910-1911 by Denis Boyles

The Good Lieutenant by Whitney Terrell

American Girls by Alison Umminger

Never a Dull Moment: 1971–The Year That Rock Exploded by David Hepworth

The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan by Laurence Leamer

End of Watch by Stephen King

Hogs Wild: Selected Reporting Pieces by Ian Frazier

Clinch by Martin Holmén and Henning Koch

They May Not Mean To, But They Do by Cathleen Schine

Among Strange Victims by Daniel Saldaña París (Author), Christina MacSweeney (Translator)

The Maximum Security Book Club: Reading Literature in a Men’s Prison by Mikita Brottman

I Almost Forgot About You by Terry McMillan

Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings

Baba Dunja’s Last Love by Alina Bronsky (Author), Tim Mohr (Translator)

Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley

This Is Not My Beautiful Life by Victoria Fedden

Security by Gina Wohlsdorf

The Hatred of Poetry by Ben Lerner

The Girls in the Garden by Lisa Jewell

NOW IN PAPERBACK:
The Seven Good Years: A Memoir by Etgar Keret

Just One Damned Thing After Another: The Chronicles of St. Mary’s by Jodi Taylor

The Clasp by Sloane Crosley

Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writings by Shirley Jackson

Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving

Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh

The Daughters by Adrienne Celt

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal

YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me. If you want to learn more about books (and see lots of pictures of my cats), or tell me about books you’re reading, you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’! (OMG I am OBSESSED with Litsy.)

Stay rad!

Liberty

The long weekend is over – luckily there are lots of wonderful books out today to help you cope. On this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about some great new releases, such as The Hour of Land, Before the Fall, and Modern Lovers. I have a few more great titles for you below, and as always, you can find a big list in the All the Books! show notes. Okay – let’s do this!

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Penguin Random House and Room & Board, who have partnered to offer one lucky book lover the prize of their dreams: modern furniture to create a reading nook and a library of books in their favorite genres to stock it!

We’re All Damaged by Matthew Norman

I am so excited for this book, because I am a HUGE fan of Domestic Violets, and I think Matthew Norman is one of the funniest writers out there. His new novel is the story of a man named Andy, who is flailing around in his life after his wife leaves him, he loses his job, and he relocates to NYC, where he leads a sad, drunken existence. A trip back home to visit his dying grandfather in Omaha puts a new path in front of him – but can Andy pull himself together enough to follow it? A funny and touching story about family and hopes and dreams.

Backlist bump: Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman

Hot Little Hands by Abigail Ulman

I love this collection! Nine connected stories comprise this smart, darkly funny book about contemporary young women. A Russian teen gymnast travels to America; two high schoolers go back to sleepaway camp; a young woman moves from London to San Francisco to start what she thinks will be her adult life; and more. Each story is about the impatient wish of these young women for their grown lives to start and the struggles they have dealing with that responsibility. Ulman’s writing is concise and heartbreaking.

Backlist bump: Blueprints for Building Better Girls by Elissa Schappell

June by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

Secrets and murder and blackmail, oh my! Young Cassie Danvers is mourning the loss of her grandmother, June, when she learns she is heir to the vast fortune of a film star. How did her grandmother cross paths with the famous actor? And why did he leave Cassie all his money? When Jack’s daughters come looking for answers, together with Cassie, they’ll slowly uncover what happened on a fateful day sixty years before. June is a perfect blend of mystery and family drama.

Backlist bump: Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me. If you want to learn more about books (and see lots of pictures of my cats), or tell me about books you’re reading, you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’! (OMG I am OBSESSED with Litsy.)

Stay rad!

Liberty

Happy Tuesday! Hope you enjoyed your spring – how did it go by so fast??? I can’t believe it’s almost over. At least there were lots of great books to read. And more to come! On this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about some great new releases, such as Sweetbitter, How to Make White People Laugh, and The Queue. I have a few more great titles for you below, and as always, you can find a big list in the All the Books! show notes.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Penguin Random House and Room & Board, who have partnered to offer one lucky book lover the prize of their dreams: modern furniture to create a reading nook and a library of books in their favorite genres to stock it!

The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin

THE END OF THE END TIMES IS HERE! That’s right, it’s the final book in The Passage trilogy. I don’t usually recommend sequels, just because there are so many other books to talk about, but this is too exciting to pass up. BECAUSE IT’S FINALLY REAL. And epic. And crazy, thrilling, scary, sweet, and a bunch more adjectives I could list but I’m going to stop and let you get right to it because it’s also (of course) REALLY LONG! I am kinda sad that it’s over. Which means I should read them all again.

Backlist bump: The Passage by Justin Cronin

Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee

It’s 1908, and Mercy Wong is a 15-year-old girl in San Francisco who is trying to escape the poverty of Chinatown by attending a prestigious school for girls. She is desperate to prove herself through an education, but when a historic earthquake rocks the city, destroying Mercy’s school and home, she refuses to sit by in the temporary shelter, and instead decides to prove herself by helping rebuild her city. I loved Under a Painted Sky, Lee’s last book, and she has once again mastered the perfect balance of history and storytelling with her latest.

Backlist bump: Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger

Junger, author of A Perfect Storm and War, does a deep dive into the culture of belonging. What drives humans to seek out other people like them? What does it mean to belong? Using history, psychology, and anthropology, Junger explores how people have almost always sought out like-minded people and groups, and how it has been essential to our survival. Fascinating stuff.

Backlist bump: War by Sebastian Junger

YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me. If you want to learn more about books (and see lots of pictures of my cats), or tell me about books you’re reading, you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’! (OMG I am OBSESSED with Litsy.)

Stay rad!

Liberty

Hey, readers! I know it’s only Thursday, but I couldn’t wait to tell you about a few books I saw at Book Expo America 2016! Because despite a bus trip that I was sure would be the end of me, I survived to tell the tales.

If you’re not familiar with BEA, it is North America’s largest book convention. This year it was in Chicago at McCormick Place. I had never been to Chicago before – what a beautiful city! In addition to BEA, I visited the Art Institute of Chicago to see a Francis Bacon painting (I LOVE HIM), went to a party at the top of the Hancock Center, bought tons of books at Unabridged Bookstore, and ate basically every meal at an adorable place next to my hotel called Sunny Side Up.

Now, about the books. SO MANY AMAZING BOOKS! At BEA publishers pitch their upcoming titles and recent releases. Here are several of the books I picked up that I am the most excited about.

This special edition newsletter is sponsored by The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald.

Broken Wheel, Iowa has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her book-loving pen pal. When she arrives, however, she finds Amy’s funeral guests just leaving. The residents of Broken Wheel are happy to look after their bewildered visitor—not much else to do in a small town that’s almost beyond repair. They just never imagined that she’d start a bookstore. Or that books could bring them together—and change everything.

The Mothers by Brit Bennett: This was THE buzz book at BEA, a debut about a young woman who, reeling from her mother’s suicide, has a teen romance with a former high school football star, becomes pregnant, and must deal with the resulting consequences.

Reel by Tobias Carroll: There are few people I know who champion indie press books more than Carroll, so I am delighted to see him getting his turn! And his publisher is Rare Bird Books, a new indie press I am hella-excited about. (You want to read Vow of Celibacy when it comes out.)

An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden: NYRB Classics just released a new edition of this children’s classic from prolific author Godden, about the mystery surrounding dirt disappearing from the garden.

Umami by Laia Jufresa (Author), Sophie Hughes (Translator): This blurb was all I needed to pick this up: “Ms. Jufresa: Where the f*#! did you learn to tell a story so well?” — Álvaro Enrigue, award-winning author of Sudden Death

The Island by Olivia Levez: A troubled young girl on her way to an Outward Bound-style program as part of her juvenile detention sentence finds herself stranded in the Indian Ocean when the plane crashes. I hear it’s brutal, but worth it.

The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride: This is McBride’s follow-up to her jaw-dropping debut, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, about a teen who travels from London to Ireland to study drama and her relationship with an older actor.

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai: I am not going to remember this verbatim, but it was pitched to me as something like a time-travel novel that resulted from a conversation between Jonathan Tropper and Kurt Vonnegut in heaven. I couldn’t grab it fast enough!

Sirens by Joshua Mohr: I am a huge fan of Mohr’s books, most recently his last novel, All This Life (which just won the Northern California Book Award in Fiction). This is his memoir, out in the beginning of 2017 from the awesome Two Dollar Radio.

The Unseen World by Liz Moore: Moore’s novel Heft is uh-may-zing (SERIOUSLY, READ IT), so I was eager to get my hands on her new one! It’s about a young child prodigy who struggles to discover what her scientist father was working on before his mind failed.

Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy: Longlisted for the Man Book International prize, it’s about a seaside town in India where the citizens find their lives disrupted by the appearance of a young female documentary filmmaker.

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders: Saunders has taken the structure of the novel as it is known, completely destroyed it, and rebuilt it to suit his brilliant beautiful mind. I am obsessed with this book – his first novel! – and will be talking about it a lot more in the months to come.

Vampire in Love by Enrique Vila-Matas (Author), Margaret Jull Costa (Translator): Collected for the first time in English, these are stories by the author called “arguably Spain’s most significant contemporary literary figure.” (Joanna Kavenna, The New Yorker). (Also, A++++ cover!)

Children of the New World: Stories by Alexander Weinstein: These stories, about living in an age of devices, were written by Weinstein after his students told him they would rather interact with people online than have face-to-face conversations.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead: You’ve heard me mention this a million times already, and I will mention it a million more, because this astounding novel of a slave’s desperate escape should be required reading for everyone. I can’t stop thinking about it.

Phew! I feel much better now that I’ve shared some of my incredible BEA finds. BOOKS ARE THE BEST. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have reading to do. I’ll see you all next Tuesday (or sooner on Twitter or Litsy!) Happy reading!

Liberty

Welcome back, book fans! I SURVIVED BOOK EXPO AMERICA. I had a blast, and was so excited to see all the new books. You can bet I will be telling you about them over the next several months. Now, let’s talk books out today. I’m excited to buy The Fat Artist and Other Stories by Benjamin Hale and Company Town by Madeline Ashby. I’ve been looking forward to reading them! And on this week’s episode of the All the Books! we talked about some great new releases, such as The Fireman, Shrill, and Girls on Fire. I have a few more great titles for you below, and as always, you can find a big list in the All the Books! show notes.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North.

The new thriller from the acclaimed author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.

My name is Hope Arden, and you won’t know who I am. But we’ve met before — a thousand times.

It started when I was sixteen years old. A father forgetting to drive me to school. A mother setting the table for three, not four. A friend who looks at me and sees a stranger.

No matter what I do, the words I say, the crimes I commit, you will never remember who I am.

That makes my life difficult. It also makes me dangerous.

Joe Gould’s Teeth by Jill Lepore

The story of Joe Gould is wildly interesting. He was an eccentric man, friends with famous artists, including Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams. He believed himself to be the most brilliant historian of his time, and he claimed to write down everything that was ever said to him, and boasted of having written a nine million word manuscript. Reporter Joseph Mitchell later claimed in a New Yorker article that the manuscript to be a figment of a madman’s imagination. Joe Gould’s Teeth is a fascinating story of historian Lepore’s own search for the missing – possibly imaginary – Gould manuscript.

Backlist bump: Joe Gould’s Secret by Joseph Mitchell

One Hundred Twenty-One Days by Michèle Audin (Author), Christiana Hills (Translator)

This dazzling work tells the story of French mathematicians during World Wars I and II, with the writing style varying from chapter to chapter. It is told in diary form, in novel form, as historical research, and more. This is an inventive novel from Audin, a mathematician and Oulipo member. This is a little gem of a book – expect to see it on lots of lists at the end of the year

Backlist bump: Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman

Nitro Mountain by Lee Clay Johnson

Set in a grim mining town in Virginia, Nitro Mountain is a dark, intense story of a group of friends bound together for better or worse – but it’s almost always worse. Fueled by alcohol, drugs, and crime, they navigate their bleak lives, where the lines between doing what’s right and doing what they need to survive are often blurred. It’s a great debut and perfect for fans of Frank Bill and Donald Ray Pollock.

Backlist bump: The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock

Silence is Goldfish by Annabel Pitcher

When Tess Turner learns that the man she thought was her dad isn’t her birth father, she’s shocked into silence. Literally. As she looks into her past, the truth about her real dad may uncover a lot of painful secrets. But when you aren’t talking, it’s easier to keep them. This is a fantastic contemporary coming-of-age novel about the definition of family and identity.

Backlist bump: My Sister Lives On the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher

 

YAY, BOOKS! That’s it for me. If you want to learn more about books (and see lots of pictures of my cats), or tell me about books you’re reading, you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’! (OMG I am OBSESSED with Litsy.)

Stay rad!

Liberty