Books Are My People
out today, paperback releases and more!
I went live last week with Amy from the podcast The Perks of Being A Book Lover. We've titled this segment Something Old Something New. She picks a back list and I select a frontlist book.
It’s short and sweet! Have a look!
And no, I didn’t chop off all my hair! (I had so many friends text.) It’s just up in a bun, my go-to when it hasn’t been loved!)
Books Are My People: A Podcast Companion Newsletter
(click here to listen to the most recent episode of my book recommendation podcast.)
The best way you can support this show is to click on the books below and purchase them through my Bookshop.org affiliate store. A portion of your spending goes to independent bookstores! A win-win-win! (You win, I win, indie bookstores win!)
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I'm Jennifer Caloyeras and I love books. And I love sharing books! I even love writing books. And making books! And teaching people how to write books!
I will be going live with Annie Sullivan of the fantastic online bookclub SoThis today at 10 AM PT on instagram here @ jennifercaloyeras . We will each be sharing two backlist books. You can definitely request a recommendaiton on the live and we will help you out! Can’t make it? No worries, it will be recorded and I’ll post it on my Instagram account and perhaps here in Notes, if I can figure out how to do that.
We have SO been enjoying fostering, especially the Blue Pittie. We took her to the rink for the first time to see if she could be a rink dog, considering how much time we spend at hockey rinks and…..it was a success! She was so curious about everything and everyone. She gave big bear hugs and even stood on her hind legs to watch my older son’s practice. (This is my husband on the left and a referee on the right who came over to say hello.)
Out Today!
A pandemic novel of love and loss from the author of The Hours that takes place in New York City and explores family dynamics and generational trauma.
Avishay is up for the Nobel Prize for Economics. There's just one problem--he's dead. His four closest friends agree that the well-earned prize must stay within his grasp, and so conspire to conceal Avishay's corpse until the committee's announcement. The potential of a glorious legacy for their late friend - and by extension, for them all - is only a mere eight days away. What could go wrong?
An introspective young boy, Joseph Coppock is trying to make sense of the world. Living alone in an old house, he spends his time reading comic books, collecting birds' eggs, and playing with marbles. When one day a rag-and-bone man called Treacle Walker appears on a horse and cart, offering a cure-all medicine, a mysterious friendship develops and the young boy is introduced to a world beyond his wildest imagination.
Good Girls Don’t Die by Christina Henry
A sharp-edged, supremely twisty thriller about three women who find themselves trapped inside stories they know aren't their own, from the author of Alice and Near the Bone.
So Late in the Day : Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan
I keeping hearing Claire Keegan’s name everywhere. I have yet to read anything by her, but I believe this will be her eighth book?
From one of the finest writers working today, Keegan's new story asks if a lack of generosity might ruin what could be between men and women. Is it possible to love without sharing?
Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art by Lauren Elkin
Claire Dederer’s Monsters is still on my to-read list. Once I finish that, this will be my next Monster read. (I realize the two have nothing to do with one another except for the fact that they both have “Monster” in their titles and explore art in very different ways.)
An erudite, potent examination of beauty and excess, sentiment and touch, the personal and the political, the ambiguous and the opaque, Art Monsters is a radical intervention that forces us to consider how the idea of the art monster might transform the way we imagine--and enact--our lives.
The Upcycled Self: A memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are by Tariq Trotter
In The Upcycled Self, Trotter doesn't only narrate a riveting and moving portrait of the artist as a young man, he gives readers a courageous model of what it means to live an examined life. In vivid vignettes, he tells the dramatic stories of the four powerful relationships that shaped him--with community, friends, art, and family--each a complex weave of love, discovery, trauma, and loss.
Someone in my family who follows me on Substack, please correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve been told that I am tangentially related to Geddy Lee through my late uncle’s wife. Is this actually true or family lore? No idea.
The long-awaited memoir, generously illustrated with never-before-seen photos, from the iconic Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Rush bassist, and bestselling author of Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass.
The Professor by Lauren Nossett
For fans of Tana French, The Professor investigates the darkest corners of academic life: ambition, lies, and obsession by a disgraced detective.
Cacophony of Bone: The Circle of a Year by Kerri Ni Dochartaigh
Cacophony of Bone is an ode to a year, a place, and a love that transformed a life. When the pandemic came, time seemed to shapeshift; in Kerri's elegant prose, we can trace its quickening, its slowing. A lyrical memoir of a specific moment in time.
Happy: a Novel by Celina Baljeet Basra
For fans of Vikas Swarup and Charles Yu, the story of a starry-eyed cinephile who leaves his rural village in Punjab to pursue his dreams--a formally daring debut novel set against the global migration crisis.
The Book of Ayn by Lexi Freiman
This sounds like such a great read for artists and writers.
An original and hilarious satire of both our political culture and those who rage against it, The Book of Ayn follows a writer from New York to Los Angeles to Lesbos as she searches for artistic and spiritual fulfillment in radical selfishness, altruism, and ego-death.
After Eden: A Short History of the World by John Charles Chasten
After Eden presents a down-to earth, fast-paced narrative of world history, animated by stories of people from all walks of life and enriched by insightful analysis and the author's extensive world travel.
paperback releases:
Musical Tables: Poems by Billy Collins
The cover alone would make me pick up this book. This sounds like it’s the poetic version of flash fiction exploring themes of animals and nature.
The Twist of A Knife by Anthony Horowitz
Horowitz becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation--and only one man can prove his innocence: his newly estranged partner in solving crime, Detective Hawthorne.
I’ve been taking a fun art class where we make our own books and draw in them and our last assignment was to collage one of our drawings. What you see below is my original drawing and then the collaged image. Hockey water bottles lined up at the rink. It reminded me of a version of a still life with vases.
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You’ll notice I left out “Key Words” in this edition. Tell me your thoughts: do you miss it? Should I add it back in? Just felt like one less thing I needed to do that wouldn’t really impact the newsletter, but if you feel otherwise, please let me know!
I love keywords! Bring them back!