Books Are My People Weekly Newsletter
out today, paperback releases and more!
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Don’t Pity the Desperate by Anna B. Moore.
Don't Pity the Desperate tells the story of Myra, a self-aware teenage girl who perseveres when her father admits her to an inpatient treatment center against her will. As her peers—an ensemble of abused, neglected, and sometimes unrestrained addicts—grow to rely on the solutions offered at Our Primary Purpose, Myra decides to follow the rules....until her counselor betrays her, her boyfriend rejects her (doesn't he?), and God remains indifferent despite her prayers and devotion, and Myra must twist her narrative to move forward. Her quest for love and acceptance is a dark anthem of Gen-X pop culture and an affirmation of the suffering of growing up.
Dear Reader,
IT STARTS TODAY!! Looking to join a book club, but short on time? Join us for our two-month Read With Me Series starting today! I’ll be releasing an educational video every two weeks during these two months on a different aspect of the novel and there will be four opportunities for online discussions every two weeks with a culminating meetup over zoom to discuss takeaways from the novel.
Become a subscriber to join in the fun!
CLOSING SOON - Book Giveaway Alert! I am giving away one copy of Xochitl Gonzalez’s Anita de Monte Laughs Last. In 1998, Raquel, a third-year art history student working on her thesis discovers the art of Anita de Monte, a forgotten artist from the 1980’s. Their trajectories overlap to an extent – both outsiders, but then diverge as Raquel fights to bring to light what really happened to Anita. Art enthusiasts, fans of books that take place in New York and books with dual timelines and multiple points of views will love this novel!
To Enter: Simply leave a comment on this Instagram Post. Earn extra entries by tagging a friend in the comments and sharing this giveaway in your stories. This giveaway will close on Thursday, September 5th and I will contact the winner on September 6th. Open to U.S. mailing addresses only. If you don’t live in the U.S. you can enter and have it sent to an American Reading Buddy!
Let Me Help You Discover Books You Might Not Otherwise Read! You can learn more about me by visiting my introductory post here.
The best way you can support this newsletter 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!)
Out Today (I’ve starred the ones I’ve read)
Colored Television by Danzy Senna
I get a lot of advanced review copies, but I could not get my hands on this one! Jane and her family are house-sitting in the hills above Los Angeles which coincides with Jane's sabbatical, giving her the time and space she needs to finish her second novel-But things don't work out quite as hoped. Desperate for a plan B, like countless writers before her Jane turns her gaze to Hollywood.
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
The newest installment of the bestselling series, sleuth Jackson Brodie is back and what starts as a slew of stolen art soon turns into a visit to an estate hosting Murder Mystery Weekends. For fans of Agatha Christie and Only Murders in the Building.
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
I just chose this book as my Book of the Month bookclub pick. Estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death.
*Where the Forest Meets the River by Shannon Bowring
A poignant return to the small town of Dalton, whose inhabitants continue to startle and humble.
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
From the author of The Midnight Library, when retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan, searching for answers about her friend's life, and how it ended.
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
A new novel about a seductive and cunning American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France--a propulsive page-turner of glittering insights and dark humor.
Under the Eye of Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami
This speculative fiction novel envisions an Earth where humans are nearing extinction, and rewrites our understanding of reproduction, ecology, evolution, artificial intelligence, communal life, creation, love, and the future of humanity.
Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker
When Clove, a mother and wife, receives a letter from a women's prison in California, her past comes screeching into the present, entangling her in a dangerous game with memory and the people she thought she had outrun.
*The English Chemist by Jessica Mills
The controversial story of one of the twentieth century's most famed scientists, Rosalind Franklin, who discovered the two-chain helical structure of DNA in 1952--but was then cheated out of the Nobel Prize.
Small Rain by Garth Greenwell
A poet's life is turned inside out by a sudden, wrenching pain. The pain brings him to his knees, and eventually to the ICU. Confined to bed, plunged into the dysfunctional American healthcare system, he struggles to understand what is happening to his body, as someone who has lived for many years in his mind.
Paperback Releases:
*The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
My favorite read from 2023, an irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart.
*Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon
Think: Gilmore Girls, but with murder.
*Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
A haunting masterpiece about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War.
*The Fraud by Zadie Smith
A kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who gets to tell their story--and who gets to be believed?
*Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood
Grace Adams gave birth, blinked, and now suddenly she is forty-five, perimenopausal and stalled--the unhappiest age you can be, according to the Guardian. And today she's really losing it. Stuck in traffic, she finally has had enough. To the astonishment of everyone, Grace gets out of her car and simply walks away., setting off across London, armed with a £200 cake, to win back her estranged teenage daughter on her sixteenth birthday.
Paid Subscriber Corner:
August: Independent reading month. We’re meeting Wednesday, September 4th at 11 am to discuss the books we read and loved this summer. Members can sign up for the zoom link by registering in the lu.ma link in the members only post below:
I’ve also pinned the reading schedule to my Substack homepage for easy access.
Read With Me Series: Starting today, we will be reading Caoilinn Hughes’s The Alternatives in September / October. I can’t wait to read this smart, witty, romp about four Irish sisters.
November: Book to Film Series: Poor Things by Alasdair Gray. Read the book, watch the movie, or both!
December: Independent reading month. We’ll meet up at the start of the new year when the craziness of December is over.
I hope you all have a wonderfully bookish week! Share what you’ve been reading below!
Books Are My People: A Podcast Companion Newsletter
(click here to listen to the most recent episode of my book recommendation podcast.)
And, if you haven't yet, the greatest gift would be to rate my show, wherever you listen!