@kimlockhartga@bookstodon
Favorite 2023 Releases:
HOUSE OF ODYSSEUS by Claire North
THE MIMICKING OF KNOWN SUCCESSES by Malka Older
SILVER NITRATE by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
TRANSLATION STATE by Ann Leckie
I'm putting together my Christmas list for family. It's that time of year again. So... Send me some reading recommendations! Give me links to YOUR books, guys. I'm going to bookmark this and save it for later, so I can purchase stuff throughout the year as well. I want to support everyone.
I hope everyone will check out the comments, too. Let's all support and love one another and help each other when and where we can.
@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.]
@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.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Dark and insightful, just like The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Hyde, Steven brings a compelling retelling that is perfect and relevant for the 21st century. Steven has created a haunting, dark academia that is a great page-turner. You have everything you need for this to be a wonderful read: paranormal events, suspenseful mystery and a lovely LGBTQ romance.
@bookstodon New and notable book releases in the U.S. for November 14, 2023
So Late in The Day, Claire Keegan. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ [Three short, but impactful, stories about relationships between men and women, particularly focusing on agency and autonomy. Strong voice and sense of place.]
The Book of Ayn, Lexi Freiman. [Razor-sharp satire targeting contemporary politics and culture, and the people who think they're above it all.]
Good Girls Don't Die, Christina Henry. [What if you woke up trapped inside your favorite book genre trope, and your familiarity with that type of story is the only way you'll get out alive?]
Other Minds and Other Stories, Bennett Sims. [Strange, eerie, weird, sometimes humorous, but also edging toward horror. Clever stories that slip into that liminal space between fear and anxiety.]
Pritty, Keith F. Miller, Jr. [Family loyalties, gay identity, and an unsolved murder, are all points of tension affecting the relationship between two young Black men in the entrenched culture of Savannah.]
Kinfolk, Sean Dietrich. [Feelgood story of found family and second chances in the Deep South.]
The Great Gimmelmans, David Matthew Goldberg. [Hilarious adventure-chase story of a family on the run in an RV. They must face more than the Feds as they tackle greed, family loyalty, religious traditions, and what it takes to create close bonds.]
A New Race of Men From Heaven, Chaitali Sen. [These short stories feature those who are searching, the wanderers, those who migrate in both a literal and a figurative sense.]
Blood Orange, Yaffa. [Reflective, sensory, liberation poetry, written by a Trans, Muslim, Palestinian author, a myriad self to excavate and transcend.]
Leizar, David Gelernter. November 15th. [The harrowing experiences of generations of a Polish Jewish family who survive in spite of pogroms and every kind of antisemitism.]
Sad Happens: A Celebration of Tears, Brandon Stosuy and Rose Lazar. Graphic Nonfiction. [When we don't try to repress our tears, we find ourselves healthier and, perhaps counterintuitively, happier. Various perspectives on the cleansing power of crying.]
The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are, Tariq Trotter. Nonfiction [Beautifully and poetically examination of how we develop not just our art, but also a deep sense of self.]
Sleep is Now a Foreign Country: Encounters With the Uncanny, Mike Barnes. Nonfiction [Mesmerizing fever dream memoir of madness.]
@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 I just reviewed Cadwell Turnbull's sequel to NO GODS, NO MONSTERS, which is titled WE ARE THE CRISIS. It's not a standalone, so you will need to read NGNM first. For those of you who have read the first book, since it's been a while, I recommend re-reading it. It turns out to be a very smooth transition. Now that you know all the characters, the second book is much easier to follow. This is fantasy horror at its best.
A town laden with mystery
and cursed by dark history
appears peaceful by day
until the cursed ones play
with the inhabitants' lives
like bears attacking bee hives.
@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.
Creatives: Would you like to better understand why writers & authors (+ musicians and artists) are being squeezed? The impact Amazon has had on the publishing industry, the chequered history of DRM, the dirt on copyright? How about 'how news got broken', 'why streaming doesn't pay' & what people in the creative industries can actually do about the current state of affairs? Highly recommend Choke Point Capitalism (by Rebecca Giblin & Cory Doctorow) as a read. Please ask your local library to get it in too so more people can have access.