Books Are My People Weekly Newsletter
out today, paperback releases and more!
A warm welcome to any new subscribers! You can learn more about me by visiting my introductory post here. The best gift you can give me is a 5-star rating for my podcast. It helps others learn about and listen to my show!
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!)
And, if you haven't yet, the greatest gift would be to rate my show, wherever you listen!
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 went live with Amy from the podcast The Perks of Being a Book Lover. Catch the replay here. And I will be going live on Instagram with Annie from the online book club So This on Friday, February 9th at 9 am.
Episode #118 of Books Are My People is out. Click here to listen to me recommend 5 great reads!
The results are in from the poll I sent out last week about how you consume your books:
Traditional book was definitely the winner, followed by a combination of traditional, audio and e-books! I was surprised that e-book and audio received equal votes. I would have guessed that more people read e-books than listen to audiobooks. I’ve mentioned this before, but I typically have three books going at once: a traditional book, an e-book (which is usually an advanced review copy) and an audiobook (which is usually memoir or some type of non-fiction because it’s become very clear that I cannot consume fiction over audiobook, for whatever reason. I totally tune out and get distracted.)
As I mentioned last week, a few book to TV / Film Adaptations slipped through the cracks, so I will be adding them to the newsletter.
First is The Taste of Things based on the novel The Passionate Epicure by Marcel Rouff
This is out in theaters, I believe, February 9th.
Out on February 8th on Netflix is One Day based on the novel by David Nicholls.
Click below to read about other upcoming book adaptations:
My collage is still available!
Happening this week:
Please note: Because my Read with Me series is happening in February, there will be no Thursday posts this month. Thursday posts will resume in March!
Yesterday, the first video for my Read With Me series dropped! It’s not too late to join in the fun. You can just signup for the month of February to read Land of Milk and Honey with us.
Virtual Book and Art Events this week:
Wednesday, February 7th Virtual Book Events with Amanda Peters, author of The Berry Pickers (I so want to read this, but haven’t found the time.) Click here to learn more and sign up.
Wednesday, February 7th Virtual Write-In with Bess Carnan on YouTube. 5pmPT Click here.
Thursday, February 8th Art Hang Party on Youtube. I attended this live drawing session last week and it was AWESOME. Join me!
Beth Spencer from Introvert Drawing Club has some awesome art sessions this week. Click here to learn more!
Now, what you’re really here for.
Out Today:
Greta + Valdin by Rececca K. Reilly
For fans of Schitt's Creek and Sally Rooney's Normal People, an irresistible and bighearted international bestseller that follows a brother and sister as they navigate queerness, multiracial identity, and the dramas big and small of their entangled, unconventional family, all while flailing their way to love.
key words: family life, siblings, LGBTQ+
A Love Song For Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
A free-spirited florist and an enigmatic musician are irreversibly linked through the history, art, and magic of Harlem.
key words: NYC, Harlem, romance
Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
When a 10-year-old child is suspected of a violent crime, her family must face the truth about their past in this haunting, propulsive, psychologically keen story about class, trauma, and family secrets.
key words: 1990, London, Irish immigrants, tabloid drama
Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander
After an event known as “Scarlet Christmas” Charlie fled. But when a buzzy film made by one of Charlie's former classmates threatens to shatter everything she's worked for, Charlie realizes how much she's changed in nine years.
key words: suspense, thriller
Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart by Gennarose Nethercott
A collection of dark fairytales and fractured folklore exploring how our passions can save us--or go monstrously wrong.
key words: fantasy, fairy tales, short stories
Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti
Heti loaded all 500,000 words of her journals into Microsoft Excel, to order the sentences alphabetically and seek out patterns and repetitions. With the sentences untethered from the narrative of her diaries, she started to see herself--and the Self--in a new way: as something quite solid, anchored by shockingly few characteristic preoccupations. Returning to the project over the years, something more universal and novelistic emerged.
key words: literary, biographical, memories, languge
Corey Fah Does Social Mobility by Isabel Waidner
This is the story of Corey Fah, a writer who has hit the literary jackpot: their novel has just won the prize for the Fictionalization of Social Evils. But the actual trophy, and with it the funds, hovers peskily out of reach.
key words: literary, science fiction, satire
Fourteen Days: A Collaborative Novel by Margaret Atwood et al.
Set in a Lower East Side tenement in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Fourteen Days is an irresistibly propulsive collaborative novel from the Authors Guild, with an unusual twist: each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of New York neighbors has been secretly written by a different, major literary voice--from Margaret Atwood and Celeste Ng to Tommy Orange and John Grisham.
A set of historical decrees originally passed in 1685 by King Louis XIV of France defined the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire. The original Code had fifty-nine articles; Code Noir has fifty-nine linked fictions--vivid, unforgettable, multi-layered fragments filled with globe-wise characters who desire to live beyond the ruins of the past.
key words: saga, literary, colonialism
Paperback Releases:
When Maddie’s mum returns from her latest trip to Ghana, she seizes the chance to move out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she's ready to experience some important "firsts". She finds a flat share, says yes to after-work drinks, pushes for more recognition in her career, and throws herself into the bewildering world of internet dating. But when tragedy strikes, Maddie is forced to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils--and rewards--of putting her heart on the line.
I completed this very large art piece with two friends that I’ve been painting with fora couple of years. Each year, we get together and complete one large-scale piece that sums up the year. Check my Instagram post for my process video and follow the three of us on Instagram @3friendspaint.
Like what you read? You can buy me a coffee!
This post contains affiliate links to my Bookshop.org shop which not only supports me, but independent bookstores as well. Please consider purchasing books through these links as a way of supporting Books Are My People.