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!)
NEW PODCAST EPISODE: This week, on episode 124 of Books Are My People: a podcast for book lovers, collage artist and printmaker Sarah Z. Short and I discuss how being a reader and English teacher inspired her integration of letters and words in her amazing collages. Click here to listen. And follow Sarah on instagram @sarah_z_short and visit her website here.
New Art for Sale:
As featured in The Kitchen Table Quarterly, there are some prints and original works of art for sale in my Etsy store.
INSTAGRAM LIVE: Did you catch my live with Annie from SoThis? If not, here you go! We each share two fantasy books. Look at me, getting out of my reading comfort zone!
GIVEAWAY: I am giving away one copy of The Women by Kristin Hannah, an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided. Click here to be taken to may Instagram post where you can read the rules and enter. This giveaway will close on May 9th. Open to U.S. Mailing addresses only.
Our next Read With Me selection paying subscribers for the month of May will be:
Read more about how you can join in the fun in a previous newsletter.
Let Me Help You Discover Books You Might Not Otherwise Read!
Out Today:
The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl
When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading "Go to Paris." Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a traumatic childhood has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. But when her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother's last wishes.
key words: 1980’s, Paris, inheritance, food
David Crader is a has-been. A former child actor from the hit teen drama Rev Beach, he now rotates between his new roles as deadbeat dad, recovering alcoholic, and occasional videogame voice actor. But when David is summoned to Los Angeles by Grace, his ex-wife and former co-star, he suddenly sees an opportunity for a reboot--not just of the show that made him famous, but also of his listless existence.
Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other by Danielle Dutton
My new favorite cover of 2024, "Prairie" is a cycle of surreal stories set in the quickly disappearing prairieland of the American Midwest. "Dresses" offers a surprisingly moving portrait of literary fashions. "Art" turns to essay, examining how works of visual art and fiction might relate to one another, a question central to the whole book; while the final section, "Other," includes pieces of irregular ("other") forms, stories-as-essays or essays-as-stories that defy category and are hilarious and heartbreaking by turns.
key words: beauty, landscape, fear, non-traditional form
The Whole Staggering Mystery by Sylvia Brownrigg
When Sylvia Brownrigg received a package addressed to her father that had been lost for over fifty years, she wanted to deliver it to him before it was too late. She did not expect that her father, Nick, would choose not to open it. A few years later, she and her brother finally did.
key words: siblings, London, Pasadena, 1930’s, parent-child relationships, family secrets
Before Jodie Rattler became a star, she was a girl growing up in St. Louis. One day in 1955, when she was just six years old, her uncle Drew took her to the racetrack, where she got lucky--and that roll of two-dollar bills she won has never since left her side. Jodie thrived in the warmth of her extended family, and then--through a combination of hard work and serendipity--she started a singing career, but is this what she’s really looking for?
key words: longing, rock and roll, mystery, historical
I Just Keep Talking by Nell Irvin Painter
Painter asks readers to reconsider ideas of race, politics, and identity. I Just Keep Talking assembles her writing for the first time into a single volume, displaying the breadth and depth of Painter's decades-long historical inquiry and the evolution of Black political thought.
key words: cultural critique, essays
Paperback Releases:
*The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor
In the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, a loose circle of lovers and friends encounter, confront, and provoke one another in a volatile year of self-discovery. Among them are Seamus, a frustrated young poet; Ivan, a dancer turned aspiring banker who dabbles in amateur pornography; Fatima, whose independence and work ethic complicate her relationships with friends and a trusted mentor; and Noah, who "didn't seek sex out so much as it came up to him like an anxious dog in need of affection."
Recent Art:
I’m currently on an art retreat in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Here are a few teeny tiny thumbnail watercolors from yesterday’s session. The whited out area are just some of my scribbled notes. Everywhere I look, there’s something interesting to paint here!
What are you excited to read?
Skipping the art events this week because I’m out of town! Sorry!
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
(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! 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.
And, I’m excited to see your work from your retreat!!!!!
I’m looking forward to reading The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichel. I love her writing.