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.
Books Are My People: A Podcast Companion Newsletter
(click here to listen to the most recent episode of my book recommendation podcast.)
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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!
Episode #118 of Books Are My People is out. Click here to listen to me recommend 5 great reads! It’s a bonus episode because there’s an extra Monday in January.
I mentioned on the show that I would be conducting a poll on how readers consume their books. I’ll report on my findings in next week’s newsletter.
I love writing my Book to Film Adaptation articles, but I’ve noticed there are a few new book to TV adaptations happening January - March that did not make my original list, so I will be doling them out in the newsletter. First up: Capote Vs The Swans based on Laurence Leamer’s book Capote’s Women.
I have to say, I’m pretty excited about this one. Looks like over-the-top, dramatic, escapist TV. I’m in!
Click below to read more adaptations coming soon:
I recently had a collage of mine featured in the literary magazine, Beyond Words, with an overlay by the writer, Sebastian Ellios. This piece titled, Shark Heart, and named after the novel by Emily Habeck, where some of these pages hailed from, is part of a collection of four unique collages. all are for sale as originals or prints, here. You can choose framed or unframed for the prints, with three different framing options.
If you’re interested in purchasing all four originals as a set, please email me at booksaremypeople@gmail.com and I will give you a great deal!
Happening this week:
Well, my flu turned into a secondary infection, but Peniclilin has me on the mend. Feel free to share what supplements you turn to if you have to be on antibiotics. My husband is allergic to Penicillin, which seems awful.
Wednesday 1/31 Virtual Author Event:
What’s new in historical fiction? Click here to register.
Thursday 2/1 Virtual Art Event
I’ve been having fun attending some of these previously recorded Art Hang Parties with Melissa Martin. There is a live one on Thursday. If I’m free, I’ll be there! Who doesn’t want to draw Shetland, Scotland?
ART HANG PARTY! with Melissa Martin 4 pm PST onYouTube
Sunday 2/4 Virtual Author Event:
10 AM PT Comfort Reads Virtual event with KJ Charles T. Kingfisher, Malka Older, Martha Wells. Click here to register.
4-6 PM PT The Back Room Virtual Author Event: discussion with Rachel Howell Hall, Laurie King, Ruth Mukerji and Jonathan Santlofer. This event is free. RSVP here.
I just found out about this Expedition L.A. program hosted by the Los Angeles Public Library. Perhaps your local Library offers something similar? This is a free program that hosts outdoor activities likes hikes, plant identification and free passes to National Parks! Just when I thought I couldn’t love the library any more. Click here to learn more.
It’s happening in less than a week! Have you started reading yet? Don’t forget to stop after chapter three. The first video drops Monday for paying subscribers.
“But I don’t want to pay!”
Well, refer three friends who sign up to my Substack and you get a free month!
“I don’t want to pay for a full year.”
That’s okay! You can just pay $8 for February. But you do save when you sign up for the whole year. And I am offering a sale for two more days for a 20% off discount for the year.
Let’s move on to the books!
Out Today:
I may have been overzealous when I posted this last week. Wishful thinking. It comes out today, for real. I’m probably on my way to pick up my pre-ordered copy as you read this. I loved Reid’s debut novel, Such A Fun Age. Come & Get It is a provocative story about a residential assistant and her messy entanglement with a professor and three unruly students.
key words: academia, consumption, desire
How We Named The Stars by Andres N. Ordorica
A Mexican-American scholarship student attends an elite East-Coast University and everything changes when he meets his roommate.
key words: love, heartache, redemption, family
Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin
A funny novel about anyone who ever thought they might be a terrible person. I absolutely adored Austin’s previously novel, Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead.
key words: humor, space, dating
Swanna in Love by Jennifer Belle
It’s the 80’s and Swanna is fourteen-years-old. Her mom is the last one to pick her up at summer camp and when she does arrive, it’s with her new Russian lover. Instead of taking her home, they head to an artist’s colony where kids sleep in the back of a truck. But then she meets a married someone who changes everything.
key words: complicated relationships, love, coming-of-age, Vermont
p.s. Jennifer Belle provided the guest author recommendation on episode #118 of Books Are My People!
Hard By A Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili
Amid rubble and rebuilding in a former Soviet land, one family must rescue one another and put the past to rest: a stirring novel about what happens after the fighting is over. Saba is just a child when he flees the fighting in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia with his older brother, Sandro, and father, Irakli, for asylum in England. Two decades later, all three men are struggling to make peace with the past, haunted by the places and people they left behind
key words: historical fiction, literary, Soviet Republic of Georgia, missing father
Midnight on Beacon Street by Emily Ruth Verona
A short (208-page) horror novella about a babysitting gig gone wrong.
key words: horror, babysitting, novella
Your Utopia: Stories by Bora Chung translated by Anton Hur
This collection shares tales of loss and discovery, idealism and dystopia, death and immortality. From the author of Cursed Bunny, which I loved, because I gravitate towards the weird dark books sometimes.
key words: short fiction, haunting, Korean author
The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden
In order to revitalize his small Italian town, the mayor announces that anyone can purchase a house there for one euro. (I remember something similar in the news.) But the buyers have to promise to live there for at least five years. Americans, Tommy and Kate, jump at the opportunity and soon learn that the home was owned by the church and contains lots of secrets.
key words: high-concept, horror, Italy, secrets
Paperback Releases:
Night Wherever We Go by Tracey Rose Peyton
A gripping, radically intimate debut novel about a group of enslaved women staging a covert rebellion against their owners.
Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
An addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage.
You’ll Be The Death Of Me by Karen M. McManus
It's Ferris Bueller's Day Off with murder when three old friends relive an epic ditch day, and it goes horribly--and fatally--wrong. I loved the first book in the Series, One of Us is Lying.
A little preview of a series of paintings I completed from images of Greece in
‘s Virtual Art Retreat class!
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.
Love your newsletters and really appreciate you taking my classes!