Books Are My People Weekly Newsletter
out today, paperback releases and more!
Welcome to my weekly book recommendation newsletter. You can learn more about me by visiting my introductory post here. Please consider purchasing recommended books through my Bookshop.org affiliate links. It’s a great way to support the show and an ethical way to support your local bookstore. (You can even buy books I don’t link in my shop!)
Today at 12:pm PT Paying Subsribers are invited to a discussion on Zoom where we will be talking about the novel, The Expatriates, and the TV show, the Expats. There will also be a bookish giveaway. All attendees are eligible for the giveaway. You must register using the link above to join!
We had a fun time talking book covers and drawing our own. Watch the replay below! I’ll definitely be doing something like this again.
I’m giving away a copy of Monsters We Have Made by Lindsay Starck to two lucky winners! Click here to learn how to enter this giveaway on my Instagram. This giveaway will close on April 17th. Open to U.S. Mailing addresses only. Thank you to Vintage Books for sponsoring this giveaway.
A poignant and evocative novel that explores the bounds of familial love, the high stakes of parenthood, and the tenuous divide between fiction and reality.
The votes are in! Our next Read With Me selection for May will be:
Read more about how you can join in the fun in last week’s newsletter.
I’ve launched a new Spring Line of homemade journals from upcycled book covers. All journals are 25% off through April 10th. Free shipping over $35 in the U.S. Click on the photos and videos to see what is inside each individual journal. I put a lot of love into each and every one! Click here to peruse the collection!
Let Me Help You Discover Books You Might Not Otherwise Read!
Out Today:
*The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There's only one problem--she's not married. She soon realizes that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands. This read was such an unexpected delight!
key words: marriage, connection, sliding doors
While We Were Burning by Sara Koffi
Parasite meets Such a Fun Age in a scorching debut that is as heartbreaking as it is thrilling, examining the intersection of race, class, and female friendship, and the devastating consequences of everyday actions.
key words: psychological thriller, friendship
Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne
A fascinating, revelatory memoir revealing the author's struggle to come to terms with her own sociopathy and shed light on the often maligned and misunderstood mental disorder.
key words: memoir, psychopathology
Village Weavers by Myriam J.A. Chancy
A story of two families--forever joined by country, and by long-held secrets. Two girls in 1940s' Port-au-Prince, become fast childhood friends, despite being on opposite ends of the social and economic ladder - until a deathbed revelation ripples through their families and tears them apart. This story follows them decades later as secrets are revealed.
key words: Port-au-Prince, friendship, race, class, nationality
The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez
When Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, she creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her. But they have other ideas and soon begin to defy their author.
key words: literary, Dominican Republic, storytelling
I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
A bereaved and pursued musician embarks under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife.
key words: Gulliver-like travels, sea, poetic, journey
A momentous, raucous collection of essays drawn from twenty years of Maggie Nelson's brilliant work. Arranged chronologically, the range of subjects is wide--from Prince to Carolee Schneemann to Matthew Barney to Lhasa de Sela to Kara Walker.
key words: essays, music, motherhood, queerness, culture
We Loved it All: A Memory of a Life by Lydia Millet
From the author of A Children’s Bible, We Loved it All marries scenes from Millet’s life with moments of nearness to "the others"-- the animals and plants with whom we share the earth. Accounts of fears and failures, jobs and friendships, childhood and motherhood are interspersed with exquisite accounts of nonhumans and arresting meditations on the power of story to shape the future.
key words: Non-fiction, genre-defying, nature
A Good Happy Girl by Marissa Higgins
A poignant, surprising, and immersive read about a young professional woman pursuing an emotionally intense relationship with a married lesbian couple.
key words: relationships, childhood trauma, LGBTQ+
*The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza
When Sara’s great-aunt Rosie passes away, she leaves her a deed to a possibly valuable plot of land, and a bombshell family secret. Rosie believes Sara's great-grandmother Serafina, the family matriarch who was left behind while her husband worked in America, didn't die of illness as family lore has it . . . she was murdered. Lots of twisty turns in this fun read that made me want to eat all the Italian food!
key words: dual narration, mystery, Italy, historical
She’s Not Sorry by Mary Kubica
While on duty at the hospital one day, Meghan, a nurse, cares for a patient named Caitlin who arrives in a coma with a traumatic brain injury, having jumped from a bridge and plunging over twenty feet to the train tracks below. But is there more to what happened?
key words: thriller, twists, unreliable characters
Family Reservations by Liza Palmer
A powerful mother. Three daughters. And a fast-paced, cutthroat culinary legacy up for grabs in a darkly witty novel about a family on the edge described as Sweetbitter meets The Bear.
key words: literary, culinary, satire, family, food
Paperback Releases:
The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
When a woman discovers a rare book with connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood in the English countryside during World War II are revealed.
The Half-Moon by Mary Beth Keane
A novel about a couple in a small town navigating the complexities of marriage, family, and longing.
Online Writing, Reading and Art Events This Week (three things I love!)
Writing Events:
Tuesday, April 2nd and 3rd: Gothem Writer’s Open House: Free classes FREE
Thursday, April 4th at 4PM PT Timed writing Sprints FREE
Reading Events:
Friday, April 5th 9 - 10 am PT: Strong Women Strange Worlds – a reading 6 authors read for 8 minutes FREE
Art Events:
My favorite art instructor
is bursting with ridiculously affordable spring classes. Check them out here!
Thursday, April 4th at 4pm PT Art Hang Party Live on YouTube. This week,
will be drawing movie posters with dog’s inserted. What could be more fun? Click here to join!
Here’s a very little painting I did from my recent trip to San Francisco. My friend lives right next to Sutra Forest. Here’s the image I painted from. I didn’t take many art supplies with me. Just a few colored pencils, neocolors and a paintbrush.
I hope you all have a wonderfully bookish week! Any new releases out today that you’re excited to share? Leave me a comment!
Like what you read? You can buy me a coffee!
Books Are My People: A Podcast Companion Newsletter
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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! 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.
Thanks so much for the shoutout! I’m looking forward to today’s Acrylic Still Life workshop!
Your forest painting is lovely! 🤗💖✨ see you Thursday for movie posters with dogs week!