@bookstodon New and notable books in the U.S. for December 5, 2023.
Dazzling, Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ. [West African mythology collides with modern Nigeria, in this tale centered on two girls who struggle to bend magic to their wills.]
After World, Debbie Urbanski. [AI, one last human on Earth, the recovery of the climate, and the surprising connections that arise.]
A River of Golden Bones, A.K. Mulford. [Sleeping Beauty retelling with queer rep AND Werewolves.]
Five Bad Deeds, Caz Frear. [Perhaps we are all badly-behaved, esp. society's privileged suburban set. This story is suspenseful, vengeful, and super twisty.]
Orbital, Samantha Harvey. [A thoughtful look at ourselves. If we could observe our planet from great remove, how would it change our perspective, our focus, even our priorities?]
Airplane Mode, Shanaz Habib. [Through the lens of travel, the author has a lot to say about our history of racism and ethnocentrism, and about our post-colonial world. Witty, funny, and incisive. Long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medals of Excellence.]
The End of The World is a Cul-de-sac, Louise Kennedy. [Smartly written short stories. Crisp, wry, clarion, and contemporary.]
The Folly, Gemma Amor. [Give me your secluded creepy Gothic mystery!]
Yours For The Taking, Gabrielle Korn. [Climate fiction future. Progress has a dark side.]
@bookstodon Notable new book releases in the U.S. for November 28, 2023:
The Story Collector (originally titled The Voice Collector),Iris Costello. [Dual Timeline WWII and present day. Historical fiction from three POV. Tenderly written, about the secrets we protect and keep for the sake of others.]
Secret Sparrow, Jackie French. [Based on true events, this is the story of a woman who played a vital technical role in WWI and got no credit for it.]
Godly Heathens, H.E. Edgmon.[Contemporary YA fantasy starring an Indigenous enby and a trans friend, who both discover that they're so much more powerful than they thought.]
The Old Gays Guide to The Good Life, Mick Peterson, Bill Myers, et al. [Charming and funny, instructive and celebratory, these stories capture a mood, a time, and a culture.]
The Kingdom of Sweets, Erika Johansen. [Dark and twisted retelling of The Nutcracker. A fresh take in this popular genre.]
We Must Not Think of Ourselves, Lauren Goldstein. [Based on the actual archives on the Warsaw Ghetto, this is a novel of resilience, fortitude, sacrifice, and most of all: defiant determination not to be erased from history. We need their stories.]
Today at QSF it's a special edition of Me Me - Me Me Black Friday. Readers, see what's on sale; Writers, tell us about your best Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals!
@bookstodon Notable* new fiction and nonfiction book releases in the U.S. for November 21, 2023:
Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games, Carmen Maria Machado, ed. [Anthology of essays on this popular tech, and its specific effects on gamer culture, particularly for gamers who are also writers.]
Sailing the Graveyard Sea, Richard Snow. [The only mutiny in the history of the U.S. Navy, a story with plenty of surprises.]
Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South, Elizabeth Varon. [When you can't make up your mind, everyone pegs you as a traitor.]
The Ghosts of Beatrice Bird, Louisa Morgan. [When you get tired of ghosts, the thing to do is find an island of nuns and cows, and maybe a solitary soul who needs your help.]
Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration, Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggets. [I am told that these stories of deep testimony will make you weep.]
A Long Day in a Short Life, Albert Maltz. [Perfect timing for this re-release about incarceration, injustice, racism, classism, and most of all, what we need to do to have a stronger more equitable democracy.]
(Technically published on November 16th) A Thousand Golden Cities: 2500 Years of Writing From Afghanistan and its People, Justin Marozzi. [A veritable encyclopedia of Afghan literature at a hefty 836 pages, full of undiscovered treasures, esp. for Western readers.]
A True Account, Katherine Howe. [Dual timeline narrative of a woman who breaks free by becoming a pirate, and the researcher two centuries later who would also like to escape her confined role in society.]
Saevus Corax Captures the Castle, K.J. Parker. [Book Two of the Corax trilogy. Plucky, unconventional leader of a salvage team needs to save his crew.]
*There are also boatloads of new manga and quite a few book series releases.
@bookstodon New and notable book releases in the U.S. for November 7, 2023:
We Are The Crisis, Cadwell Turnbull (Convergence Saga Book II). [Def read or re-read the first book in the trilogy. A fantastical thrilling story where actual monsters aren't the real monsters, and a battle for power behind the scenes has broken through the veil between worlds. Deftly written socio-political allegory.] ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Future, Naomi Alderman. [The author who gave us The Power has tackled the Climate Crisis, Cults, and the Culpable.] ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Same Bed, Different Dreams, Ed Park. [With Korea at the center, this is a complex story written in circles from the outside in. It's like trying to unlock a puzzle box from the inside. Fascinating, intelligent, and it drove me crazy at times.] ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Vulnerable, Sigrid Nunez. [A Pandemic novel with tenderness, humor, and a nudge towards caring for each other.]
Girl Among Crows, Brendon Vayo. [A slow-burn dual timeline horror/mystery where the search for answers takes us to a very dark place. This is one of those stories where you don't know where it's going, and you may be frustrated at first, but you're glad you read through to the end.]
Hot Springs Drive, Lindsay Hunter. [What happens when a woman allows her long unfulfilled desires to lead the direction of her life.]
Above The Salt, Katherine Vaz. [Story of the European persecution of Protestants, the escape to America, the trading of a religious conflict for the Civil War, and the theme of always choosing between staying or going, including in relationships.]
Calico, Lee Goldberg. [It's all about second chances in this desert detective thriller.]
A Grandmother Begins The Story, Michelle Porter. [Generations of Métis women with a sacred connection to the bison, tell stories which infuse hope into their lives.]
My Pancreas Broke, But my Life Got Better (Manga Diary Nonfiction), Nagata Kabi. [Fascinating autobiographical experience of trying to get healthier during the pandemic. Author of My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness and My Wandering Warrior Existence.]
A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith. [Humorous examination of popular science.]
To Free The Captives: A Plea for the American Soul, Tracy K. Smith (Nonfiction). [We cannot move into the future together, until we have a reckoning with our shared past.]
Upcountry, Chin-Sun Lee. [Three very different women in the Catskills have to navigate the fractures in their lives. Literary fiction.]
@bookstodon Notable book releases in the U.S. for October 31, 2023. 🎃👻📚
Nestlings, Nat Cassidy. [So many horror tropes rolled into one. Multiple evils, including maybe the baby? Amazing how many signs of creeping horror one overlooks just to accept a great apartment in Manhattan.]
The Reformatory, Tananarive Due [Reminiscent of The Nickel Boys. This protagonist can see dead people from the past, but the greater horror might be the race-driven violence of the present.]
Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust, Neal Shusterman. [Graphic novel illustrated by Andrés Vera Martínez, depicting Jewish folklore, cultural traditions, and spirit of resilience under unspeakable horrors.]
A Season of Monstrous Conceptions, Lina Rather. [What if you took Eldritch horror, threw in historical mistrust of midwives along with the usual quest for magic, power, and cosmological destruction?]
The Paleontologist. Luke Dumas. [A Gothic Mystery set in a Museum of Natural History? Yes, please!]
The Totally True Story of Gracie Byrne, Shannon Takaoka. [A heartwarming story with a sensitive take on the "What if you could write a new reality for yourself?" question. Examination of memory, experience, and the responsibility we have for each other's stories.]
Blood Sisters, Vanessa Lillie. [Haunting story about the horrors of both past and present missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The investigation led by a Cherokee archaeologist.]
What The River Knows, Isabel Ibanez. [This novel contains several genres: historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, seasoned with Egyptology and ancient magic.]
The Berry Pickers, Amanda Peters. [An emotional exploration of family, secrets, loss, and grief.]
Good Comics for Bad People: An Extra Fabulous Collection, Vol 1, Zach M. Stafford. [Nathan Pyle, of Strange Planet fame, says that this is very funny, weird, and expressive.]
The Glutton, A.K. Blakemore. [Lightly based on the historical figure "The Great Tarare," this is a wild card on the list: a disturbing tale of appetites of all kinds, circa the French Revolution. I'm told that the writing, particularly in the setting of scenes, is exceptional.]
White Holes, Carlo Rovelli (Nonfiction). [Theoretical physics is my jam. You can't get out of a Black Hole, and you can't get into a White Hole (though matter can escape), but both might have played a role in providing everything that eventually became you.]
There was one book out today about which I could find no reviews or ratings, so who knows? I Call Myself Iris, Frank Paolino, Jr. [YA Sci-fi Fantasy about an AI helper bot who goes a little too far in trying to be of assistance.]
Also, I couldn't find much on The Buffalo Butcher by Robert Brighton (modern-day Jack the Ripper story), or The Oracle Chronicles Midlife Olympians Boxset: Books 1-3 (modern day dude gets summoned by the Greek gods) , by T.J. Deschamps. I'm leaning toward the second one, but that's just a guess.
There are an unusual number of books which almost made the list this week.
@bookstodon Notable new book releases in the US for October 24, 2023, (including an unusual number of anthologies).
Organ Meats, K-Ming Chang. [Incredibly imaginative and intense mythological allegory. Like Bestiary, it's very visceral.]
Julia, Sandra Newman. [Amazing feminist retelling of 1984, told from the perspective of Julia, with the full support of the Orwell estate.]
America Fantastica, Tim O'Brien. [Completely bonkers satirical look at America's obsession with lies and liars.]
Let Us Descend, Jesmyn Ward. [The inner spiritual strength that sustains souls trapped in a descent into the horrors of slavery, and their refusal to lose their inner worth.]
I Died, Too, But They Haven't Buried me Yet, Ross Jeffrey. [This is Grief Horror, described as beautifully and utterly heartbreaking.]
What Wild Women Do, Karma Brown. [Intriguing dual timeline mystery connecting a 1970s feminist activist and a modern day screenwriter.]
The Privilege of the Happy Ending: S/M/L Stories, Kij Johnson. [How 'bout a little experimental speculative fic along with an examination of the nature of stories themselves?]
Jewel Box, E. Lily Yu. [Short stories mostly about how we navigate and think about this one weird, crazy, confounding life, and where our imagination can take us.]
When We Become Ours: a YA Adoptee Anthology. [Powerful adoptee short stories written by actual adoptees.]
Christmas and Other Horrors: an Anthology of Solstice Horror, Ellen Datlow, ed. [Winter Solstice horror shorts from around the world, with contributions from Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu, Tananarive Due, and more.]
Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction and Deliverance, Kaveh Akbar, ed. [Contributions from Jo Harjo, Bernard Wade, et al.]
Aster of Ceremonies: Poems, JJJJJerome Ellis. [Neurodivergent poet Ellis advocates for the marginalized, and also imagines what reclamation of our past, and healing for our future, might look like.]
Homeland of my Body: New and Selected Poems, Richard Blanco. [National Humanities medal winner Blanco explores home, identity, and Cuban-American culture in this collection.]
@bookstodon Notable new book releases in the U.S. for October 17, 2023:
Straw Dogs of the Universe, Ye Chun. [19th century Odyssey from China to CA, highlighting the brutality endured by Chinese immigrant railroad workers.]
If You'll Have Me, Eunnie. [Very sweet New Adult sapphic romance graphic novel.]
House Gone Quiet, Kelsey Norris. [Dark short story collection about connections, community, and what it means to feel you belong somewhere.]
The Goth House Experiment, S.J. Sindu. [Departure from her earlier work. These are stories designed to elicit a reaction, to make you think. Sly and razor-sharp.]
These Burning Stars, Bethany Jacobs. [Layered, complex, and twisty Space Opera.]
The Unmaking of June Farrow, Adrienne Young. [A curse, a mystery, and an unexpected romance.]
Let the Dead Bury the Dead, Allison Epstein. [How 'bout a little alt-history of early 19th century Russia, accented with magic, folklore, and social conscience?]
Generation Ship, Michael Mammay. [We can just start over on another Earth-like planet without bringing along any of the problems that plagued us originally, right, Guys? Um . . . Guys?]
Distant Sons, Tim Johnston. [Crime thriller which examines the tiny little events which make a dramatic event possible.]
The House of Doors, Tan Twan Eng. [Surreptitious alliances, intelligent but isolated characters, and the upheaval of both imperialism and revolution, all provide the cracks and fractures in this novel which encourages a close reading.]
Our Divine Mischief, Hanna Howard. [Celtic legends, Scottish folklore, even a talking dog? Sign me up for this YA fantasy!]
@bookstodon It's time for notable new book releases in the U.S. for October 10, 2023:
A Stroke of The Pen, Terry Pratchett. [Unpublished stories recently unearthed and brought to light for our enjoyment ]
A Light Most Hateful, Hailey Piper. [Friends say that this is THE book: strange, eerie, twisty, mind-bending. What lengths would you go to, in order to protect the people you love from a slippery, evil, controlling force that threatens everything you know?]
Blackouts, Justin Torres. [Everybody says that this is a gorgeous, philosophical book about the life we inherit, what we do with it, and what we leave behind.]
Wrath Becomes Her, Aden Polydoros. [About the ethics and responsibilities of great power wielded as vengeance.]
Hatchet Girls, Diana Rodriguez Wallach. [Are axe murders cyclical? The author combines several horror genres, while linking a modern day fictional crime to the past, and back to Lizzie Borden.]
The Blood Years, Elana K. Arnold. [We rarely see stories about the Romani Holocaust. Based on the real-life experiences of the author's grandmother.]
Songs of Irie, Asha Ashanti Bromfield. [The restlessness of coming of age, in a time of unrest in Jamaica.]
Bittersweet in the Hollow, Kate Pearsall. [Solid writer pens dark YA fantasy thriller about four sisters with unique powers who team up to find out what evil is causing local disappearances.]
Charming Young Man, Eliot Schrefer. [New Adult Bildungsroman/Queer Historical Fantasy about a gifted pianist who explores his place in the world, as well as his identity.]
The Leftover Woman, Jean Kwok. [Two very different (culturally, economically) women's lives fall into deep crisis, which causes them to collide each other. Both are forced to examine their identity as mothers. My most trusted reader friends say that this is evocative storytelling at its finest.]
Run and Hide, Don Brown. [Nonfiction graphic work depicting the ways in which Jewish children evaded the Nazis.]
Queen Hereafter, Isabelle Schuler. [Historical fiction centered on Lady Macbeth. I'm specifically including this, because the response/reviews/ratings have been all over the place, and I'm curious to see where you all land.]
Wearing my Mother's Heart, Sophia Thakur. [Poetry which explores women's identity and voice.]
The Pale House Devil, Richard Kadrey. [What if you need to banish a supernatural trespasser from your family estate? You may as well hire a living investigator as well as a ghost detective. Cover all your bases, and hope that they don't uncover too much of the truth.]
Stars in Your Eyes, Kacen Callender. [Author of Felix Ever After returns with a tender, fierce novel about coping with past trauma and allowing someone to lead you to healing.]
Brainwyrms, Alison Rumfit. [ From the title alone, you know if you're up to this. Think TERFs as the purveyors of horror, and you'll know what to expect. This author does not hold back in shocking the reader in every way, but also has a lot to say through a transgressive horror lens. I'm getting real Gretchen Felker-Martin vibes, just with more body horror, if that helps.]
The #SpookySeason has finally arrived! This month is gracing us with the thrills and chills that are perfect for the #HalloweenSeason. Not in the mood to read anything scary? No worries! October brings readers fantastic new releases love and inspiration.
US Releases: https://bit.ly/3PIfffX
UK and Irish Releases: https://bit.ly/3ry5MQp
@bookstodon Notable new book releases in the U.S. for October 3, 2023, many of which are horror titles:
Death Valley, Melissa Broder. [One woman's quest to process loss, leads her to a desert odyssey. You wouldn't think this would be as funny as it is.]
Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, Jordan Peele, ed.
The Quiet Room, Terry Miles. [No one told me that there was a sequel to Rabbits?!? Also, you should totally read Rabbits. It's amazing.]
Beholder, Ryan La Sala. [Horror which plays into all the fears we have about the reflection in the mirror.]
Edenville, Sam Rebelein. [This equal parts humor and horror story, taps into our tendency to see what we want, instead of what's there.]
Starling House, Alix E. Harrow. [Small town Southern Gothic by a wicked good storyteller.]
Before the Devil Knows You're Here, Autumn Krause. [Forest folk tale (Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed) horror, a Faustian bargain, and a Mexican-American poet with a missing brother. This sounds amazing!]
Knock Knock, Open Wide, Neil Sharpson. [Horror blended with Celtic folklore. Very frightening.]
Gone Wolf, Amber McBride. [Too powerful to be just for younger readers. What it means to be Black and young in America.]
Monica, Daniel Clowes. [Superb graphic novel offers a multilayered deep dive into a complex life.]
Brooklyn Crime Novel, Jonathan Lethem. [In one neighborhood, over time, the good guys and the bad guys are hard to tell apart.]
The House on Sun Street, Mojgan Ghazirad. [The 1979 Iran revolution, as seen by a young girl.]
Company: Stories, Shannon Sanders. [Intriguing interconnected stories, each connected by family, and by a guest who enters each story, examining different meanings of company. ]
One Puzzling Afternoon, Emily Critchley. [What if you kept a secret so long, you can't remember what it was, and it involves a long ago missing girl?]
After The Forest, Kell Woods. [Think you know your Fairy Tales? Clever reimagining of several tales at once.]